and Macaulay had to depend partly upon his sons, Thomas Babington and Henry, the last of whom had been appointed to a position at Sierra Leone. His eyesight and his health failed, and he had to give up active work at the Anti-Slavery Society. He visited France, where he was made honorary president of the French Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and contributed to its publications some papers upon Hayti and the French colonies. In the winter of 1836 he returned to England, and never afterwards left his house and scarcely his couch. He died 13 May 1838, and was buried in the now disused ground at Mecklenburg Square. At a meeting held on 30 July 1838, with Sir T. F. Buxton in the chair, it was agreed to erect a memorial to him in Westminster Abbey. A bust was accordingly erected and an inscription written by (Sir) James Stephen (1789–1859) [q. v.], which commemorates his share in the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade, and adds that ‘he meekly endured the toil, the privation, and the reproach, resigning to others the praise and the reward.’ For obvious reasons another inscription was substituted in the abbey.
Macaulay's services towards abolishing the greatest wrong existing in his time can hardly be over-praised. Few men have devoted themselves so entirely and unselfishly to a noble cause. He found time, however, to be ardent in many others of the benevolent movements of the day. He was an active member of the British and Foreign Bible Society, of the Church Missionary Society, and of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. He promoted Sunday and infant schools, took an interest in the educational movements both of Bell and Lancaster, and was one of the principal founders of the London University. Although strongly in favour of religious education, he thought that the university would provide secular education for sons of dissenters and others, while their religious wants could be otherwise supplied. In spite of a defective education, he had read much general literature, and he was acquainted not only with the politicians of his day, such as Brougham and Horner, but with such distinguished foreigners as Chateaubriand, Sismondi, Madame de Staël, and Dumont. He was a fellow of the Royal Society.
Although his character had a certain austerity, he was on the most affectionate terms with his children, and did not object to their reading novels or taking Sunday walks, recreations which were not to his own taste. He was repaid by their veneration and confidence.
His works were anonymous, as he thought that the publication of his name would be injurious rather than beneficial to his cause, and consist chiefly of papers issued by the societies to which he belonged.
Macaulay left nine children: (1) Thomas Babington [q. v.]; (2) Selina, b. 27 Feb 1802, d. Aug. 1858; (3) Jean, b. 15 June 1804, d. 1830, unmarried; (4) John, b. 19 Aug. 1805, d. 16 April 1874, rector of Bovey Tracey and Aldingham; (5) Henry William, b. 3 Dec. 1806, held a position at Sierra Leone, married in 1841 a daughter of Lord Denman, and died at Bon Vista in 1846; (6) Frances, b. 25 May 1808, d. 16 Nov. 1888, unmarried; (7) Hannah More, b. 1 Jan 1810, d. 5 Aug. 1873 (Lady Trevelyan); (8) Margaret, b. 31 Jan. 1812, d July 1833 (Mrs. Cropper); (9) Charles Zachary, b. 15 Oct. 1813, educated as a surgeon, assistant to Sir B. Brodie, became his brother's private secretary in 1839, and was afterwards a commissioner of audit. He died 7 Aug. 1886.
[Christian Observer for 1839, pp. 756–68, 796–817, giving the substance of a life in the appendix to a Review of the Principal Proceedings of the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society subsequent to the passing of the Abolition Act in 1833 (1839); Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay; Sir James Stephen's Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography—essay on the ‘Clapham Sect,’ where there is an admirable sketch from personal knowledge; information from Lady Knutsford and Sir G. Trevelyan.]
McAULEY, CATHERINE (1787–1841), foundress of the Order of Mercy, born at Stormanstown House, in the neighbourhood of Dublin, on 29 Sept. 1787, was the daughter of James and Eleanor McAuley, who were descended from ancient catholic families. Losing her parents in her childhood, she was educated in the household of Surgeon Conway, a rigid protestant, and ‘grew up without fixed religious principles,’ though she stubbornly refused to join in protestant worship. At the age of eighteen she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Callahan of Coolock House and demesne, a few miles north of Dublin. She converted them both to the Roman catholic religion, and Callahan, on his death in 1822, left her his immense wealth. Resolving to establish some permanent institution for the relief of the destitute poor, she purchased a site in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, and there erected the ‘House of our Blessed Lady of Mercy,’ which was completed in 1827. Miss McAuley and two companions entered the Presentation convent of George's Hill, Dublin, and received the religious dress in December 1829. They returned to Baggot Street in December
