their native shore. The first business which awaited the returning legislator was a literary quarrel, that threatened to end in a duel. Lord Brougham had assumed towards Macaulay an attitude which boded no good. And, above all, the prospects of the political party with which Macaulay was so closely connected by principle and by regard were extremely depressing. We have read with curiosity and interest the remarks of Mr. Trevelyan on the causes which led to the fall of Lord Melbourne's government, differing as they do very widely from the impressions we ourselves retain of that event. But whatever those causes were, the fact is certain that a reaction had quickly succeeded to the violent emotions of the Reform agitation; that the party and the Parliament which had carried so many great measures, was soon broken up, partly by the secession of its more conservative members, but much more by the imprudent pressure of its radical adherents. At the moment of King William's death the cabinet was on the verge of defeat. It was rescued for a time by the popularity and Whig proclivities of the young queen. But we regard it as a misfortune to the Whig party that the existence of the ministry was prolonged after it had lost its power; and certainly there never was a moment less calculated to encourage a Whig statesman to resume his connection with public affairs.
Macaulay proceeded to make a tour of Italy in the autumn following his return. He visited that country, as his nephew justly remarks, with the eyes of an historian, but he had a faint appreciation of the beauties of natural scenery and still less of the great works of mediæval art. The charm of those portions of his Italian journals which are given to the reader consists in the vast array of historical associations which those spots, consecrated by the heroism of ages, awakened in his memory. And it is probable that he here first conceived the idea of those Roman ballads which he afterwards executed with such singular felicity.[1] A proposal from Lord Melbourne to take the office of judge advocate followed him to Florence in November 1838, but the offer "did not strike him as even tempting," and was declined.
In Rome Macaulay had met Mr. Gladstone, then the rising hope of the Tory party. Oddly enough his first task on returning to London was to read and review Mr. Gladstone's "Essay on Church and State," which he did with the exclamation, "The Lord hath delivered him into our hand;" and certainly never was a crude theory more mercilessly demolished. Mr. Gladstone acted on the principle that a soft answer turneth away wrath, for he addressed his critic in the following terms:—
"I have been favoured with a copy of the forthcoming number of the Edinburgh Review; and I perhaps too much presume upon the bare acquaintance with you, of which alone I can boast, in thus unceremoniously assuming you to be the author of the article entitled 'Church and State,' and in offering you my very warm and cordial thanks for the manner in which you have treated both the work, and the author on whom you deigned to bestow your attention. In whatever you write you can hardly hope for the privilege of most anonymous productions, a real concealment; but, if it had been possible not to recognize you, I should have questioned your authorship in this particular case, because the candour and singlemindedness which it exhibits are, in one who has long been connected in the most distinguished manner with political party, so rare as to be almost incredible. . . . In these lacerating times one clings to everything of personal kindness in the past, to husband it for the future; and, if you will allow me, I shall earnestly desire to carry with me such a recollection of your mode of dealing with a subject upon which the attainment of truth, we shall agree, so materially depends upon the temper in which the search for it is instituted and conducted."
How much this letter pleased Macaulay is indicated by the fact of his having kept it unburned; a compliment which, except in this single instance, he never paid to any of his correspondents.
The elevation of Mr. Abercromby, the speaker, to the peerage, in May 1838, left a seat for Edinburgh vacant, and the Liberal constituency of our ancient city willingly accepted Macaulay as their candidate. He conciliated the Radicals by adopting the ballot, but in all other respects his political creed consisted in an emphatic renewal of his devoted attachment
- ↑ Some of these "Lays" must already have been composed in his mind, for he says; "I then went towards the river, to the spot where the old Pons Sublicius stood and looked about to see how my Horatius agreed with the topography. Pretty well; but his house must be on Mount Palatinus, for he never could see Mount Cælius from the spot where he fought." This evidently refers to the passage,—
But he saw on Palatinus
The white porch of his home,
And he spake to the noble river
That rolls by the walls of Rome.Yet his brother Charles seems to have supposed that the "Lays" were composed after his return to England.
