1859.1

RIOTS AGAINST RITUALISM.

147

improbable contingency of an invasion should occur. These corps have survived the alarms that gave birth to them; and by allowing the reduction in the number of our regular army they have enabled the government to reduce our military expenditure more than the opinion of the public and the legislature would otherwise have permitted.

During the vacation the government first adopted the plan of publishing diplomatic documents in the Gazette, without waiting for the authority of parliament. By this means the desire naturally felt by the people to be made acquainted with the progress of foreign affairs was gratified during the recess, as well as during the session of parlia

ment.

Throughout the autumn of this year the church of St. George's-in-the-East was the scene of a series of disgraceful riots, originating in the introduction of vestments, and other changes in the mode of conducting the service, which had given great offence to some of the congregation, as well as to many more who never attended the church. These riots, however, were carried on by persons destitute of every kind of religious principle, who made the obnoxious rites a pretext for the indulgence of their brutal profanity, shouting, whistling, introducing dogs into the church, hustling and insulting the clergy, and those who assisted them in the performance of the service. These riots rose to such a height of violence, and were continued so long, that the bishop of London, assuming an authority that did not belong to him, ordered the church to be closed for a time, in the hope of thus putting an end to the unseemly brawling of which it had been the scene. In this expectation he was disappointed; for on the re-opening of the church the disturbances were renewed with greater violence and more shocking profanity than ever; and though the vestments and ceremonies which had been the original cause of them were discarded, they continued to be carried on till the Rev. Bryan King exchanged to another parish.

The war against Austria had so greatly aggrandised the king of Sardinia, who had now assumed the title of King of Italy, that the French emperor began to fear he had raised up a power which might at some future time prove a formidable rival. The consequence was, that when peace

was concluded, France, which had lavished so much blood and treasure in the cause of Italian independence, was regarded by the Italians with feelings of jealousy and suspicion; while England, who had given nothing but her good wishes, was looked to with respect and gratitude; a result which may serve as a warning to other nations than the French, that are disposed to interfere in quarrels in which they have only an indirect, perhaps only an imaginary, interest.

The year 1859 came to a close amidst unmistakable tokens of reviving prosperity. The customs, the excise, the assessed taxes, and the post-office, yielded a revenue which surpassed that of any previous year by 2,023,0001. The imports and exports were greatly in excess of those of any former year. Trade and commerce were flourishing in all their branches; pauperism was much diminished; employment was plentiful, and wages high; the funds high and steady; the rate of discount low, and money abundant. A shadow of gloom was cast on all this prosperity by the sudden death of our wonderfully accomplished historian Lord Macaulay, leaving his chef-d'œuvre still uncompleted. As long as the English language shall be spoken, the works of Macaulay, and especially his History of England, will be read with delight, and all that relates to their author will be regarded with interest. Like most of our other great writers, the groundwork of his excellence was laid in the careful and continual perusal of our beautiful translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, with which in his earlier years his mind was saturated through the care of his father, a man of a deeply religious character. To this was superadded a diligent study of the writers of antiquity, and particularly of the great Greek dramatists, Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides: but with these studies he also joined that of the writings of the Christian Fathers-writings which, at that period at least, were seldom read except by the professional students of theology. His university career at Cambridge was one of great and remarkable distinction. He does not, indeed, appear to have given much attention to those mathematical studies which at that time, even more than at present, formed the peculiar boast of the university to which he belonged; but he twice won the Chancellor's medal, he

1859.]

DEATH OF MACAULAY.

149

was bracketed with two others for the Craven scholarship, and was elected a fellow of Trinity College. It is evident, however, that his attention was not wholly engrossed by his academic studies. He was a frequent speaker at the university debating club; and his after-career shows that he must have been a very general and discursive reader. His father's wealth rendered it unnecessary that he should devote himself to any profession; and though he was called to the bar in 1826, he does not appear to have ever intended to follow the law as a profession, though it is probable that, had he done so, he would have risen, by the force of his genius and talents, to the highest honours that it holds out to its most successful votaries. At this time he formed a connection with the Edinburgh Review-then in the zenith of its reputation-which continued throughout the greater part of the remainder of his life, and which no doubt contributed in no small degree to give that direction to his mind which led to the production of those works which must immortalise the name of Thomas Babington Macaulay. By degrees everything connected with the history of England riveted his attention, and at length caused him to undertake that extraordinary work, in which the most profound thoughts and the highest philosophy are conveyed with a beauty of style and a luxury of adornment that render it more fascinating than the most powerful romance. The most extraordinary feature in this great man's mind was the immense power of memory with which he was gifted, and which enabled him to retain, ready for production whenever they might be required, all those vast stores of information which he had amassed in the course of a life principally devoted to reading of all kinds. It is often found that men who are gifted with strongly-retentive and ready memories are deficient in vigorous and philosophic thought or in imaginative power; but in both these respects Macaulay was preeminently great. What, however, was still more extraordinary was, that he combined with the highest philosophical and poetic genius the plodding industry and the careful accuracy of the antiquarian. If he was distinguished as a man of genius, he was no less remarkable for the careful manner in which he unfolded and scrutinised the dusty worm-eaten records of parliament, or the stained and tattered ballads of a distant

age. Nothing was too high for his genius, nothing too difficult for his industry, nothing too low and humble for his investigation. A great poet, a great philosopher, a great historian, and a great antiquary, he possessed excellence in each of these walks sufficient to make a lasting reputation; but he possessed all these in combination, and united with them a splendour of genius quite peculiar to himself.

His literary character was undoubtedly his chief glory, and that by which he will always be chiefly remembered; but he was great also as a politician and a debater. His published speeches, though inferior to his written works, and especially to his History, have an excellence which has very rarely been surpassed, even in the annals of British oloquence. But from the first he appears to have felt that the House of Commons was not the place in which his genius could shine with all its brilliancy, and that he could do higher and better work with his pen than with his tongue. In the year 1857 he was raised to the peerage, on which the lustre of his genius conferred much more distinction than he could receive from it; but he never enjoyed an opportunity of addressing the senate into whose ranks he was admitted, and his death followed two years after, at the age of fifty-nine.

Lord Macaulay was strongly attached to Whig principles and to his political friends; and if there is any blemish in his History, it has arisen from this feeling. He idealised the principles of the Whigs, and though, taken as a whole, his work is as remarkable for its accuracy and impartiality as it is for the genius that irradiates it; yet his political bias has perhaps sometimes led him to do more than justice to those whose political conduct he approved, and less than justice to those whose opinions were adverse to the party to which he belonged. But if he were thus biassed, it was quite unconsciously to himself, and in spite of his own. earnest endeavour to state truly the motives and the characters of the men whose lives and actions he desired to narrate with conscientious fidelity. That he never wilfully misstated any fact or misrepresented any character, no one who has read his work with attention will for a moment doubt.

Those who knew him best were the most enthusiastic in

1859.]

DEATH OF HALLAM.

151

their admiration of his private character. A friend who was himself a writer of no mean power thus speaks of him:

The brilliant efforts of accomplished rhetoric, the graphic scenes traced by a vivid imagination, the energetic defence of political principles would, however, fail to secure to Lord Macaulay that place which he deserves in the memory of his countrymen, if his prodigious intellectual powers had not been allied to a still nobler temperament. It has been said by some, who must indeed have known him imperfectly and judged him very unwisely, that he lacked the warmer qualities of the heart. Is it credible that without the highest qualities of the heart a man could live the enthusiastic admirer of all that was generous, disinterested, genial, and good; could die without one single action to be recorded of him which does not do honour to his name? No one, indeed, who has lived in or heard of the society of London in our time, could be ignorant of the animation and brilliancy of his conversation-of the fascinating influence which drew the hearers round his chair-of the varied and abundant stores of past knowledge and sudden inspiration by which he was wont to illuminate his path through life with a preternatural radiance. But it requires a more intimate acquaintance with the unobtrusive tenor of his private life to know with what sympathy and munificence he was ever ready to assist with his counsel and fortune those who were struggling in the humbler walks of literary toil; and if we were at liberty to follow him into the narrower circle which bounded his domestic ties, it would be seen that no man ever lived of a more tender and affectionate nature. Many are they who at this hour feel as we do, that they have lost one of the kindest as well as one of the greatest of their friends; and although the applause and veneration of the world does in one sense perpetuate the existence of so illustrious a writer, we cannot forget that the virtues and the graces we loved in his life and conversation have vanished for ever.'

The same year that witnessed the death of Macaulay also witnessed that of another historian, less eminent, indeed, but still of a very high and extraordinary merit. But Mr. Hallam had survived for some time his powerful intellect, while that of Macaulay appeared to be unimpaired almost to the last moment of his brilliant career.