IN MACAULAY’S DAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18822, 10 March 1931, Page 4

IN MACAULAY’S DAY.

To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir, —I compliment your correspondent "Historian” on his—shall we call it —courage in the choice of that nom-de-plume, which leads one to think he must be a very young man. As I am an old one, perhaps he will not take it amiss if I remind him that Thomas Macaulay did not commence to labour on his celebrated History of England until late in 1841. although he was bom in October 1800. The fifth and last volume was published after his death. Macaulay took his M.A. degree at Cambridge in 1825. Called to the Bar in 1826, Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1928. Entered Parliament in 1830. He supported Lord John Russell’s Bill for Parliamentary Reform in 1831. At the conclusion of his address the Speaker called Macaulay to his desk, and told him that he had never known a speech to excite the House to an equal degree, and Sir Robert Peel said, that "the speech was as beautiful as anything I ever heard or read.” The reputation thus established, Macaulay upheld throughout his long parliamentary career. Macaulay was from the first one of the chief supporters of the Reform Bill. In 1832 he was elected for Leeds and was appointed secretary of the Board of Control. On December 4, 1833, he was by a vote of 19 directors to 3, elected to membership on the Supreme Council for India. He then devoted himself to the betterment of the conditions of life there, and gave attention to the matter of education amongst the nations. He became president of the Committee of Public Insruction, so that whatever is modern and progressive in Indian education

owes its origin to his efforts. He declined many honours as he felt that it would have taken so much of his time as to interfere seriously with his w’ork on the History of England. All nations showered honours on him. Oxford gave him the degree of Civil Law in 1853.

The utter absurdity of your correspondent's statement thfit Macaulay “opposed the voice of civilisation against inhumanities” must be manifest to all readers of his works. His private letters show' his personal characteristics —his devotion to his family —his domestic tastes, and we have it on record that he was very charitably disposed to the poor and distressed. The last time he signed his name was to a letter enclosing £25 to a poor man. Macaulay’s History of England has been translated into almost every language that learned men read. According to his own judgment and of posterity he succeeded best in subjects dealing with history, politics, morals and the science of government. He had been all his life identified with English politics. He had been a member of Parliament, and by no means the least important man in that body. Macaulay’s time w'as a time of great happening in England—of great changes, so great indeed, that w'e may almost say that human values were being entirely altered. Civil and religious freedom were slow’ly being gained. Sir Henry Lytton Bulw r er (Lord Dalling* remarks in his “Historical Characters that at the time of the King’s Speech (November 2nd, 1830). Mr Macaulay was then only beginning to deliver his marvellous orations. And this in the day of O’Connell, Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel, and the summaries of Macaulay were discussed, weighed in the balance, and accepted by these great men as of the best model of authority, and to-day after nearly a century of progress Macaulay s Essays are looked upon as classical, that is to say. they are pure, uncorrupt, correct and refined, and your correspondent’s remarks to the contrary he will find (if he studies a little> to be absurd. Class legislation —the pampering of one class at the expense of another as we have it here. Macaulay w'ould never have agreed to, for that is what Government intermeddling really means. I am pleased to notice, however, that there is no inclination towards bickering or abuse in your correspondent’s letter. I think we are all honestly trying to find the cause and remedy for the present depression, and it wrill not be an idle discussion if that is done— I am, etc.,. POUND STERLING.