See also Prescott's Hist. of the Conquest of Mexico, 23d ed., Bost., 1855., ii. 340, n.; Scrymgeour's Poetry and Poets of Britain, Edin., 1850, 490; Lond. Quar. Rev., lxxi. 453; Westm. Rev., xxxix. 105, and for Jan. 1855; Brit. and For. Rev., xv. 479; Eclec. Rev., 4th ser., xiii. 303; Black w. Mag., lii. 802, and vol. lxxix., art "Modern Light Literature: Poetry; Fraser's Mag., xxvii. 59; South. Quar. Rev., iv. 76; Democrat. Rev., xxvi. 209; N. Y. Eclec. Mus., i. 204.

Lord Brougham is so well pleased with the fruits gathered by Mr. Macaulay in his classical excursions that he would fain have him renew his researches:

"The learned and ingenious work of Mr. Macaulay, 'Lays of Ancient Rome,' well deserves to be consulted by the reader of the early Roman history. Mr. M. might render much service by undertaking a Roman history, still a great desideratum.” — Polit. Philos., Pt. 2, Lon., 1843, 100, n.

We trust that Mr. Macaulay will remember the hint when he shall have finished the History of England on which he is at present engaged.

MACAULAY AS AN ESSAYIST.

A number of papers of unusual excellence, published by Mr. Macaulay in Knight's Quarterly Magazine, preceded the celebrated essay on Milton, which was first enjoyed by the fastidious readers of the Edinburgh Review. This brilliant yet profound disquisition appeared in the number for August, 1825, and at once excited the interest and admiration of the public in no ordinary degree. It was eagerly devoured by readers of all shades of political opinion and all grades of mental culture, -from Sir James Mackintosh, who declared it to be worthy of the Edinburgh's best days, to the ambitious school-boy, who immediately adopted it for his next annual recitation; from the uncompromising Tory, who praised every thing but its republican logic, to the exulting Whig, who found in it for a second time the death-warrant

was

of the first Charles. The paper on Milton was succeeded in the Review by articles from the same able pen, many of them of equal, and some of superior, merit to that famous production. The last essay- that on the Earl of Chatham appeared in the number for October, 1844,-nearly twenty years from the date of the first of the series. A collective edition of these reviews. all that had then appeared published at Philadelphia, by Messrs. Carey & Hart, in 5 vols. 12mo, and also in 1 vol. 8vo. They were eagerly purchased, and within five years sixty thousand volumes had left the publishers' shelves. As these volumes were imported into England in large quantities, the author felt it a duty to authorize the owners of the Review to issue an impression for the protection of their own rights; and accordingly, in 1843, an edition of the Essays, revised by the author, was issued in three volumes. Though published in an expensive form, the demand in Great Britain was so great that within the last few months (we write in 1857) the eighth edition has been put to press, 3 vols. 8vo. 36s. Pocket edition, 3 vols. fp. 8vo. 21s. A number of the articles have also been issued separately. The London edition contains the following articles (we quote from the issue of 1854, 3 vols. fp. 8vo.) Vol. I. I. Milton, (August, 1825.) II. Machiavelli, (March, 1827.) III. Hallam's Constitutional History, (September, 1828.) IV. Southey's Colloquies on Society, (January, 1830.) V. Mr. Robert Montgomery's Poems, (April, 1830.) VI. Southey's edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, (December, 1830) VII. Civil Disabilities of the Jews, (January, 1831.) VIII. Moore's Life of Lord Byron, (June, 1831.) IX. Croker's edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, (September, 1831.) X. Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, (December, 1831.) XI. Burleigh and his Times, (April, 1832.) XII. War of the Succession in Spain, (January, 1833.) XIII. Horace Walpole, (October, 1833.) Vol. II.: XIV. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, (January, 1834.) XV. Sir James Mackintosh, (July, 1835.) XVI. Lord Bacon, (July, 1837.) XVII. Sir William

Temple, (October, 1838.) and State, (April, 1839.) XIX. Lord Clive, (January, 1840.) XX. Von Ranke, (October, 1840.) Vol. III. XXI. Leigh Hunt, (January, 1841.) XXII. Lord Holland, (July, 1841.) XXIII. Warren Hastings, (October, 1841.) XXIV. Frederick the Great, (April, 1842.) XXV. Madame D'Arblay, (January, 1843.) XXVI. Life and Writings of Addison, (July, 1843.) XXVII. The Earl of Chatham, (October, 1844.) The Philadelphia edition (we quote from that of 1849, r. 8vo) contains all the preceding, and the following additional papers: I. On Dryden, (E. R., 1828.) II. History, (E. R., 1828.) III. Dumont's Recollections of Mirabeau, (E. R., 1832.) IV. Cowley and Milton. V. On Mitford's History of Greece. VI. On the Athenian Orators. VII. Barère's Memoirs, (E. R., April, 1844.) VIII. Mill's Essay on Government, (E. R., March, 1829.) IX. Bentham's Defence of Mill, (June, 1829.) X. Utilitarian Theory of Government, (E. R., October, 1829.) XI. Charles Churchill. The last named paper was written by John Forster, and republished by him in his Historical and Biographical Essays, 1858, two volumes. The volume from which this list is taken contains also The

XVIII. Gladstone on Church

Lays of Ancient Rome. An edition of the Essays was published in New York, 1854, 5 vols. 12mo; and in Boston, 1854, 1 vol. 8vo. We have referred to the admiration expressed by Sir James Mackintosh of the paper on Milton. this eminent critic did not scruple, at a later day, to eulogize the author in the most flattering terms:

"The admirable writer whose language has occasioned this illustration, who at an early age has mastered every species of composition, will doubtless hold fast to simplicity, which survives all the fashions of deviation from it, and which a man of a genius so fertile has few temptations to forsake.” — Prelim. Dissert. Encyc. Brit., Note W.

Sir Archibald Alison, after a review of the literary characteristics of Lord Jeffrey, Sir James Mackintosh, and Sydney Smith, continues:

"Much as these very eminent men differ from each other, Mr. Macaulay is, perhaps, still more clearly distinguished from either. Both his turn of mind and style of writing are peculiar, and exhibit a combination rarely if ever before witnessed in English or even in modern literature. Unlike Lord Jeffrey, he is deeply learned in ancient and modern lore; his mind is richly stored with the poetry and history both of classical and Continental literature. Unlike Mackintosh, he is eminently dramatic and pictorial; he alternately speaks poetry to the soul and pictures to the eye. Unlike Sydney Smith, he has omitted subjects of party contention and passing interest, and grappled with the great questions, the immortal names, which will forever attract the interest and command the attention of man. Milton, Bacon, Machiavelli, first awakened his discriminating and critical taste; Clive, Warren Hastings, Frederick the Great, called forth his dramatic and historic powers. He has treated of the Reformation and the Catholic reaction in his review of Ranke; of the splendid despotism of the Popedom in that of Hildebrand; of the French Revolution in that of Barère. There is no danger of his essays being forgotten, like many of those of Addison; nor of pompous uniformity of style being complained of, as in most of those of Johnson. His learning is prodigious; and perhaps the chief defects of his composition arise from the exuberant riches of the stores from which they are drawn. When warmed in his subject, he is thoroughly in earnest, and his language, in consequence, goes direct to the heart. In many of his writings and especially the first volume of his history, and his essay on the Reformation there are reflections, equally just and original, which never were surpassed in the philosophy of history. That he is imbued with the soul of poetry need be told to none who have read his Battle of the Lake Regillus; that he is a great biographer will be disputed by none who are acquainted with the splendid biographies of Clive and Hastings, by much the finest productions of the kind in the English language.

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Macaulay's style, like other original things, has already produced a school of imitators. Its influence may distinctly be traced both in the periodical and daily literature of the day. Its great characteristic is the shortness of the sentences, - - which often equals that of Tacitus himself,—and the rapidity with which new and distinct ideas or facts succeed each other in his richly-stored pages. He is the Pope of English prose: he often gives two sen

timents or facts in a single line. No preceding writer in prose, in any modern language with which we are acquainted, has carried this art of abbreviation, or rather cramming of ideas, to such a length; and to its felicitous use much of the celebrity which he has acquired is to be ascribed. There is no doubt that it is a most powerful engine for the stirring of the mind, and, when not repeated too often or carried too far, has a surprising effect. Its introduction forms an era in our historical composition. It reminds us of Sallust and Tacitus." - Essays, 1850, iii. 635-637; originally published in Blackw. Mag., April, 1849.

See also Alison's Hist. of Europe, 1815-1852, chap. v.; his Essays, 1850, ii. 420, iii. 118.

"[Lord John Russell] praised Macaulay's late articles in the 'Edinburgh,' and agreed with me in lamenting that his great powers should not be concentrated upon one great work, instead of being scattered thus in Sibyls' leaves, — inspired indeed, but still only leaves. I did not express the thought quite in this way; but such was my meaning”— Moore's Diary, June, 1839; Memoirs, &c., Lond., 1856, vii. 258.

"Rogers directed my attention to the passage in his last Edinburgh article, where he describes Warren Hastings's trial and the remarkable assemblage of persons and circumstances which it brought together. Agreed perfectly with R. as to the over-gorgeousness of this part of the article. But the whole produces great effect, and is everywhere the subject of conversation.”—Ibid. Dec., 1841; Memoirs, &c., 304-305. See also vol. vi., Pref., xv.

"His critical essays exhibit a wide variety of knowledge, with a great fertility of illustration, and enough of the salt of pleasantry and sarcasm to flavor, and in some degree disguise, a somewhat declamatory and pretentious dogmatism.”—J. WILSON Croker: Lond. Quar. Rev., lxxxiv. 549.

"These essays are remarkable for their brilliant rhetorical power, their splendid tone of coloring, and their affluence of illustration. With a wide range of reading, and the most docile and retentive memory, he pours over his theme all the treasures of a nchly-stored mind, and sheds light upon it from all quarters. He excels in the delineation of historical characters, and in the art of carrying his reader into a distant period and reproducing the past with the distinctness of the present. He is also an admirable literary critic, though sometimes his praise and censure might be