See also Macaulay (disambiguation page)

Thomas Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay at the age of forty-nine — after an engraving by W. Holl, from a drawing by George Richmond

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a nineteenth-century English poet, historian and Whig politician and Member of Parliament for Edinburgh. George Richmond ( March 28, 1809 &ndash March 19, 1896) was an English painter. Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Year -of the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar until Friday, but 12 days ahead since Saturday. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Year 1859 ( MDCCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. The history of the British Isles has witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain,

Life

The son and eldest child of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish Highlander who became a colonial governor and abolitionist, Thomas was born in Leicestershire, England, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Zachary Macaulay ( 2 May 1768 &ndash 13 May 1838) was a colonial governor Slavery Abolitionist and campaigner The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. The Scottish Highlands ( Scottish Gaelic: A' Ghàidhealtachd, Scots: Hielans) include the rugged and Mountainous A governor is a governing official usually the executive (at least nominally to different degrees also politically and administratively of a non-sovereign level of government Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies Leicestershire (ˈlɛstəʃə(r or ˈlɛstəʃɪə(r abbreviation Leics England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Macaulay was noted as a child prodigy. As a toddler, gazing out the window from his cot at the chimneys of a local factory, he is reputed to have put the question to his mother: "Does the smoke from those chimneys come from the fires of hell?" Whilst at Cambridge he wrote much poetry and won several prizes, including the Chancellor's Gold Medal in June 1821. The Chancellor's Gold Medal is a prestigious annual award at Cambridge University for poetry paralleling Oxford University's Newdigate prize. ^[1] In 1825 he published a prominent essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review. Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802 was one of the most influential British Magazines of the 19th century In 1826 he was called to the bar but showed more interest in a political than a legal career. He never married and had no children.

Macaulay as a politician

In 1830 he became a Member of Parliament for the pocket borough of Calne. For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. The term "rotten" or "decayed" borough referred to a parliamentary borough or Constituency in Great Britain and Ireland Calne is a Town in central Wiltshire, England. It is situated at the southern extreme of the county's North Wiltshire * local government district He made his name with a series of speeches in favour of parliamentary reform, attacking such inequalities as the exclusion of Jews. ^[1] After the Great Reform Act was passed, he became MP for Leeds. The Representation of the People Act 1832, commonly known as the Reform Act 1832, was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system Leeds was a Borough constituency which elected two Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 and three Members from 1868 until the Parliamentary ^[1]

India

Macaulay was Secretary to the Board of Control from 1832 until 1833. The Secretary to the Board of Control was a British government office in the late 18th and early 19th century supporting the President of the Board of Control, who was responsible After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833, he was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Council. The Council of India was the advisory council to the Governor-General of India during the years of British administration He went to India in 1834. Serving on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838 he was instrumental in creating the foundations of bilingual colonial India, by convincing the Governor-General to adopt English as the medium of instruction in higher education, from the sixth year of schooling onwards, rather than Sanskrit or Arabic then used in the institutions supported by the East India Company. The colonial era in India began in 1502 when the Portuguese established the first European trading center at Kollam English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The Honourable East India Company ( HEIC) referred to most commonly as the East India Company, also historically and colloquially as John Company, or

In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Macaulay's criminal law system was enacted. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of Sepoys of British East India Company 's army on the 10th of May 1857 in the town of Meerut, The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential It included the three major codes - The Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1872 and the Civil Procedure Code, 1909. Indian Penal Code (IPC Hindi: भारतीय दण्ड संहिता provides a Penal code for all of India including Jammu and Kashmir The Indian Penal Code was later reproduced in most other British colonies – and to date many of these laws are still in effect in places as far apart as Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Indian Penal Code (IPC Hindi: भारतीय दण्ड संहिता provides a Penal code for all of India including Jammu and Kashmir The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. Singapore Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal Constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election

The term Macaulay's Children is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt Western culture as a lifestyle, or display attitudes influenced by colonisers. Western culture (sometimes equated with Western Civilization) are terms which are used to refer to Cultures of European origin Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to Colonialism, relative to the The term is usually used in a derogatory fashion, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage. This frame of mind or attitude is also referred to as Macaulayism

The passage to which the term refers is from his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in 1835. Macaulayism, is a term often used to represent the Westernization of Upper Class Indians using Educational Reforms It reads,

Later career

Returning to Britain in 1838, he became MP for Edinburgh. Edinburgh was a Constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United He was made Secretary at War in 1839. The Secretary at War was a political position in the British government with some responsibility over the administration and organization of the British army, but After the fall of Lord Melbourne's government Macaulay devoted more time to literary work, but returned to office as Paymaster General in Lord John Russell's administration. Viscount Melbourne, of Kilmore in the County of Cavan, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the Lamb family HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom. John Russell 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC (18 August 1792 &ndash 28 May 1878 known as Lord John Russell before 1861 was an English

In 1841 Macaulay addressed the issue of copyright law. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for Macaulay's position, slightly modified, became the basis of copyright law in the English-speaking world for many decades. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for Macaulay argued that copyright is a monopoly and as such has generally negative effects on society. In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient ^[3]

In the election of 1847 he lost his seat in Edinburgh. He attributed the loss to the anger of religious zealots over his speech in favor of expanding the annual grant to Maynooth College in Ireland, which trained young men for the Catholic priesthood; some observers also attributed his loss to his neglect of local issues. In 1849 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, a position with no administrative duties, often awarded by the students to men of political or literary fame; he also received the freedom of the city. The position of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow is elected every three years by the students at the University of Glasgow. In 1852, the voters of Edinburgh offered to re-elect him to Parliament. He accepted on the express condition that he need not campaign and would not pledge himself to a position on any political issue. Remarkably, he was elected on those terms. However, he seldom attended the House, due to ill health; indeed his weakness after suffering a heart attack caused him to postpone for several months making his speech of thanks to the Edinburgh voters. He resigned his seat in January, 1856.

Macaulay sat on the committee to decide on subjects from British history to be painted in the new Palace of Westminster. The need to collect reliable portraits of noted figures in British history for this project led to the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery, which was formally established on 2 December 1856. Macaulay was amongst its founder trustees and is honoured as one of only three busts above the main entrance.

He was raised to the Peerage in 1857 as Baron Macaulay, of Rothley in the County of Leicester but seldom attended the House of Lords. The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. Click here for Indian Rebellion of 1857 Year 1857 ( MDCCCLVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the Leicestershire (ˈlɛstəʃə(r or ˈlɛstəʃɪə(r abbreviation Leics The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" His health made work increasingly difficult for him. He died in 1859, leaving his major work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second incomplete. The History of England from the Accession of James the Second is the full title of the multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay more generally known as " The History He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a large mainly Gothic church

Macaulay's political writings are famous for their brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive model of British history, according to which the country threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression. This model of human progress has been called the Whig interpretation of history. Whig history or Whiggish historiography presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment culminating in modern forms of liberal This philosophy appears most clearly in the essays Macaulay wrote for the Edinburgh Review. But it is also reflected in the History; the most stirring passages in the work are those that describe the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. Macaulay's approach has been criticised by later historians for its one-sidedness and its complacency. His tendency to see history as a drama led him to treat figures whose views he opposed as if they were villains, while characters he approved of were presented as heroes. Macaulay goes to considerable length, for example, to absolve his main hero William III of any responsibility for the Glencoe massacre. The Massacre of Glencoe occurred in Glen Coe, Scotland, in the early morning of 13 February 1692, during the era of the "Glorious

Macaulay's nephew, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, wrote a best-selling "Life and Letters" of his famous uncle, which is still the best complete life of Macaulay. His great-nephew was the Cambridge historian G. M. Trevelyan. George Macaulay Trevelyan CBE OM ( February 16, 1876 Welcombe House, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Literary works

Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881 edition

During his first period out of office he composed Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history. The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history The most famous of them, Horatius, concerns the heroism of Horatius Cocles. In the historical legends of Ancient Rome, Horatius Cocles, Latin for "Horatius the one-eyed" (Cocles itself a shortening of the Greek word 'Cyclops' It contains the oft-quoted lines:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, "The History of England from the Accession of James the Second", publishing the first two volumes in 1848, the next two volumes appearing in 1855. Events and trends Technology First use of General anesthesia in an operation by Crawford Long. The History of England from the Accession of James the Second is the full title of the multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay more generally known as " The History Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Year 1855 ( MDCCCLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. However, at his death in 1859, he had finished only one further volume. A sixth, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was completed by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.

Quotations

• "We are free, we are civilised, to little purpose, if we grudge to any portion of the human race an equal measure of freedom and civilisation. " [1]

• "His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar. " On John Dryden. John Dryden (– was an influential English poet Literary critic, Translator and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England 1828.

• "I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of the Orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. "

• "Thus then stands the case: it is good that authors should be remunerated and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly, yet monopoly is an evil for the sake of the good. We must submit to the evil, but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good. "

• "Nine-tenths the calamities of the human race are due to the union of high intelligence with low desires. " "Lord Bacon," (1837) in Essays 2:183.

• (From Edinburgh Review, 1830) "If any person had told the Parliament which met in terror and perplexity after the crash of 1720 that in 1830 the wealth of England would surpass all their wildest dreams, that the annual revenue would equal the principal of that debt which they considered an intolerable burden, that for one man of £10,000 then living there would be five men of £50,000, that London would be twice as large and twice as populous, and that nevertheless the rate of mortality would have diminished to one half of what it then was, that the post-office would bring more into the exchequer than the excise and customs had brought in together under Charles II, that stage coaches would run from London to York in 24 hours, that men would be in the habit of sailing without wind, and would be beginning to ride without horses, our ancestors would have given as much credit to the prediction as they gave to Gulliver's Travels. The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802 was one of the most influential British Magazines of the 19th century The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland For the Noel Coward play see South Sea Bubble (play. The South Sea Bubble of 1720 was an Economic bubble that occurred London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Exchequer was (and in some cases still is a part of the governments of England (latterly to include Wales) Scotland, and Northern Ireland Charles II (Charles Stuart 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685 was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. York ( is an historic Walled city sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. Gulliver's Travels (1726 amended 1735 officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World in Four Parts "

• "It would be, on the most selfish view of the case, far better for us that the people of India were well governed and independent of us, than ill governed and subject to us; that they were ruled by their own kings, but wearing our broadcloth, and working with our cutlery, than that they were performing their salams to English collectors and English magistrates, but were too ignorant to value, or too poor to buy, English manufactures. To trade with civilised men is infinitely more profitable than to govern savages. " [2]

• "Copyright is monopoly, and produces all the effects which the general voice of mankind attributes to monopoly. [. . . ] Monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good. "[3]

• (Review of a life of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley by Edward Nares, Edinburgh Review, 1832) "The work of Dr. Lord Burghley redirects here For other holders of the title see Baron Burghley William Cecil 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 1520 &ndash Edward Nares (1762-1841 was an English academic and theologian and general writer The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802 was one of the most influential British Magazines of the 19th century Nares has filled us with astonishment similar to that which Captain Lemuel Gulliver felt when first he landed in Brobdingnag, and saw corn as high as the oaks in the New Forest, thimbles as large as buckets, and wrens of the bulk of turkeys. The whole book, and every component part of it, is on a gigantic scale. The title is as long as an ordinary preface: the prefatory matter would furnish out an ordinary book; and the book contains as much reading as an ordinary library. We cannot sum up the merits of the stupendous mass of paper which lies before us better than by saying that it consists of about two thousand closely printed quarto pages, that it occupies fifteen hundred inches cubic measure, and that it weighs sixty pounds avoirdupois. Such a book might, before the deluge, have been considered as light reading by Hilpa and Shallum. But unhappily the life of man is now three-score years and ten; and we cannot but think it somewhat unfair in Dr. Nares to demand from us so large a portion of so short an existence. Compared with the labour of reading through these volumes, all other labour, the labour of thieves on the treadmill, of children in factories, of negroes in sugar plantations, is an agreeable recreation. "

• "To punish public outrages on morals and religion is unquestionably within the competence of rulers. But when a government, not content with requiring decency, requires sanctity, it oversteps the bounds which mark its proper functions. And it may be laid down as a universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less. " "Leigh Hunt" (1841), in Critical. . . Essays 2:509.

• "The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. "

• "There is not, and there never was on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilisation. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustin, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendency extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn, countries which a century hence, may not improbably contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult to show that all other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's. "

Notes

Works

Thomas Macaulay

• Works by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay at Project Gutenberg
  • Lays of Ancient Rome
  • The History of England from the Accession of James II, 5 vols. The Dictionary of National Biography ( DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history published from 1885 Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history The History of England from the Accession of James the Second is the full title of the multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay more generally known as " The History (1848) [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]
  • Critical and Historical Essays, 2 vols. , edited by Alexander James Grieve. [9],[10]
  • The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, 4 vols. [11], [12], [13], [14]
  • Machiavelli
  • The Letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 6 vols. , edited by Thomas Pinney.

See also

• Whig history Further explains the Whig interpretation of history that Macaulay espoused. Whig history or Whiggish historiography presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment culminating in modern forms of liberal

External links

• Thomas Macaulay, "Lord Clive," Edinburgh Review, January 1840.
• Thomas Macaulay, "Warren Hastings. " Edinburgh Review, October, 1841.
• Macaulay on Copyright
• Minute on Indian Education
• Lord Macaulay's Habit of Exaggeration
• Macaulay on copyright law
• Macaulay's Minute revisited: An article in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper