TO-DAY'S ANNIVERSARIES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14237, 28 December 1911, Page 6

TO-DAY'S ANNIVERSARIES.

_ __♦- >-—• DECEMBEB 23. Dedication of Wcetminstpr Abbey .. 1060 St Franci* do Sales died .. .. 1G22 Lord Mftwudny diod ' . •; ■ 185 D William Thompion, femou* Maon cliici, died • • • • • • • ■ X 6 CS Marshal Prim assassinated in Madrid 1870 Octave Feuillct, French dramatist and novelist, died ISM •Thomas Babington, Lord Marnulay. —From the first, Macaula.v displayed those brilliant qualities which were to earn fer him snob a host of admirers throughout tlw 'English-speaking world: From th* time ho catered Cambridge, it is rotated, his parents carefully preserved his ccrrespondenco, foreseeing his fu turn fame." Ho was born in J*oict\stershir«, the son of Zachary Macaulay, an African merchant, and a loading.mover in Uio agitation against tho slave trade. He was called to the Bar in his twentysixth year, but made no attempt- to soouro a practice, and four yoars later lie entered Parliament as member for Calne, which seat was afterwards «>xohanged for Leeds. Ho was a brilliant but hardly a successful debater, and eventually received Government posts— Secretary for War and Paymaster of the Forces. In his twenty-fifth year he had commenced his memorable connection with the "Edinburgh Review, ,, tho first number ho contributed to a being his famous essay on Milton. His essays were collected into a volume in his forty-third year. They, of course, need no comment, being probably the ■ most popular and widely-read of any such productions. .In. l*' s lorty-eighth year appeared the first two volumes, of his "History of England," which, though wanting sometimes in veracity and balance, and moro or less tinged by bias, is yot "as interesting as anovel." This work—which was left unnnihhed —was almost as popular on.tfee Continent as in England, and tho fortunate author received from his publishers —Messrs Longmans—the record price for a literary work of that time, .slacaulay also found time to writo, many articles for tho "Encyclopaedia Britannica," the most admired_. (if which are those on Goldsmith, Johnsop, and William Pitt. In hie thirty-fouxfh year Macaulay went to India as lertit adviser to tho Supreme Council uf India, and had a largo share, in draving up tho great Indian Penal Coio. It was characteristic of him tliat d iririg'his.leisure, time then* ho applied himself assiduously to renewing ks icquaintanco with his beloved clasaifrs. He returned in 1838, and in 1857 wu raised to tho peerage, but his health would not permit oi his taking any further interest in public affairs, alia he died two years later, in -. his. fiftyninth year, and was buried in the Abbey." His oxcelleut biography by his nephew, Bir C. Trcvelyan, gives us- , ' a picture of a life, every action of which was "as clear aud transparent as orte of his own sentences," and. of a nun most lovable aud amiable. Juan Prim.—This Spanish general will livo in the memory oi his countrymen as a most skilful loader in ths . civil wars of-Spain, and.au arden;: patriot as he understood patriotism Ho was from his earliest days inurecj to war's alarms, and he "roso rapidly to bo made general, marshal, ana. mnTquis. Ho was a Liberal, or what - is known as a Progressist, and fought against* the reactionary i>olicy of the Court, and tho corruption and inefu- ( oioncy under which Spain wa« groaning. Failing in an insurrectionary attempt in 18GG, he had to flee to England and Brussels, and there h^.guided; tho movement that in 1668 overthrow' Queen Isabella. - Ho then became virtu-;' ally dictator of Spain. Ho secured, the election of an Italian prinoe, ■ Amadep, and this is sajd to have led < to'his assassination just as too king) of his':choice was landing on. Spanish* soil. The Cortes passed a resolution? expressive of their abhorrence of tho ; crime, but it did not appear that any \ active steps we-ro taken, to discover ■■! the perpetrators. ' His protegee. ■ though a mild and benevolent prince, * was not acceptable to tho Spaiiiarda, and he was soon induced to abdicate.