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. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. Image File history File links Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13103. ... Image File history File links Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13103. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 459 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (536 × 700 pixel, file size: 105 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Thomas Babington Macaulay - Project Gutenberg eText 19222 From Project Gutenbergs Modern English Books of Power, by George Hamlin Fitch http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 459 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (536 × 700 pixel, file size: 105 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Thomas Babington Macaulay - Project Gutenberg eText 19222 From Project Gutenbergs Modern English Books of Power, by George Hamlin Fitch http://www. ... George Richmond (1809 - 1896) was an English painter. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // ON MAY 5 1853 MR.FADER HAD SEX WITH A MAN NAME MR WIEN THEN THEY HAD SON NAMEDMRS COTURE AND MR MANOOGIAN WENT INTO MRS HASKELLS OFFICE NAKED AND DANCED AROUND AND MASTERBATED ON HER CHEST AND SHE LICKED IT OFF THEN THEY HAD ORAL SEEX WITH NAPLOEAN OF... is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1859 (MDCCCLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... 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 the mid 19th centuries. ...

Life

The son 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. 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. In 1825 he published a prominent essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review. In 1826 he was called to the bar but showed more interest in a political than a legal career. Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838) was a British colonial governor, influential 18th century philanthropist, a man of evangelical piety and a supporter of William Wilberforce. ... This article is about the Scottish as an ethnic group. ... Lowland-Highland divide Highland Sign with welcome in English and Gaelic The Scottish Highlands (A Ghàidhealtachd in Gaelic) include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault. ... For other uses, see Governor (disambiguation). ... This article is about the abolition of slavery. ... Leicestershire ( IPA: (RP), IPA: (locally)), abbreviation Leics. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names King’s Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... Year 1825 (MDCCCXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Edinburgh Review was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. ...

Macaulay as a politician

In 1830 he became a Member of Parliament for the pocket borough of Calne. He made his name with a series of speeches in favour of parliamentary reform, attacking such inequalities as the exclusion of Jews. ^{[citation needed]} After the Great Reform Act was passed, he became MP for Leeds. Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 (MDCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... The term rotten borough referred to a parliamentary borough or constituency in Great Britain and Ireland which, due to size and population, was controlled and used by a patron to exercise undue and unrepresentative influence within parliament. ... , Calne is a town located in central Wiltshire, in the South West England region of the United Kingdom. ... The British Reform Act of 1832 (2 & 3 Will. ... For other uses, see Leeds (disambiguation). ...

India

Macaulay was Secretary to the Board of Control from 1832 until 1833. After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833, he was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Council. 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 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 for overseeing the British East India Company and generally serving as the chief official in London responsible for Indian... The Council of India was the advisory council to the Governor-General of India during the years of British administration. ... It has been suggested that European colonies in India be merged into this article or section. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... “Arabic” redirects here. ... The companys flag initially had the flag of England, the St Georges Cross, in the canton The Honourable East India Company (HEIC), often colloquially referred to as John Company, was the first joint-stock company (the Dutch East India Company was the first to issue public stock). ...

In the aftermath of the 1857 Great Mutiny, Macaulay's criminal law system was enacted. Thise code stood for two centuries- in spite of the advances in technology no "new" categories of crime have come into existence. It included the three major codes - The Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1872 and the Civil Procedure Code, 1909. The Indian Penal Code was later reproduced in most other British colonies – and to date many of these laws are still in places as far apart as Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Combatants Indian Freedom Fighters, Indian Patriots, Rebellious East India Company Sepoys, 7 Indian princely states, deposed rulers of Oudh and Jhansi, Indian civilians in some areas. ... 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 for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply. ... Indian Penal Code (IPC, Hindi: भारतीय दण्ड संहिता, Urdu-in-devanagari: ताज़ीरात-ए-हिन्द ) provides a penal code for all of India including Jammu and Kashmir, where it was renamed the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). ... Indian Penal Code (IPC, Hindi: भारतीय दण्ड संहिता, Urdu-in-devanagari: ताज़ीरात-ए-हिन्द ) provides a penal code for all of India including Jammu and Kashmir, where it was renamed the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

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. The term is usually used in a derogatory fashion, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage. For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture. ... Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. ...

The passage to which the term refers is from his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in 1835. It reads,

Later career

Returning to Britain in 1838, he became MP for Edinburgh. He was made Secretary at War in 1839. 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. The Secretary at War was a position with some responsibility over the administration of the British military. ... Viscount Melbourne was a title created for Peniston Lamb in 1781 in the peerage of Ireland. ... Paymaster-General is a ministerial position in the UK. The portfolio consists of the workings of HM Revenue and Customs, formerly HM Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise, and reports to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. ... John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. ...

In 1841 Macaulay addressed the issue of copyright law. Macaulay's position, slightly modified, became the basis of copyright law in the English-speaking world for many decades. Macaulay argued that copyright is a monopoly and as such has generally negative effects on society.^[2] Not to be confused with copywriting. ... The copyright symbol is used to give notice that a work is covered by copyright. ... This article is about the economics of markets dominated by a single seller. ...

In the election of 1847 he lost his seat in Edinburgh because of his neglect of local issues. In 1849 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow and he also received the freedom of the city. In 1852 his party returned to office. He was offered a seat but suffered a heart attack which seriously weakened him. The position of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow is elected every three years by the students at the University of Glasgow. ...

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. “Houses of Parliament” redirects here. ... The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in central London which was opened in 1856. ...

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. 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. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Rothley (pronounced Row-thley) is a village in Leicestershire. ... Leicestershire ( IPA: (RP), IPA: (locally)), abbreviation Leics. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... 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 of England. The history is famous for its brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

The History is famous for its 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. 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. Whig history is a pejorative name given to a view of history that is shared by a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century British writers on historical subjects. ... The Massacre of Glencoe was an incident at the village of Glencoe, Glen Coe, Scotland early in the morning on February 13, 1692, during the era of the Glorious Revolution and the Jacobite Risings. ...

Macaulay's great-nephew was the historian G. M. Trevelyan. George Macaulay Trevelyan (February 16, 1876 – July 21, 1962), was an English historian, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan and great-nephew of Thomas Macaulay. ...

Literary works

Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881

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 most famous of them, Horatius, concerns the heroism of Horatius Cocles. It contains the oft-quoted lines: Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 465 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2023 × 2607 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 465 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2023 × 2607 pixel, file size: 2. ... Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881 edition ( ISBN 0898759366 ) The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history. ... Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881 edition ( ISBN 0898759366 ) The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history. ... Horatius Cocles, by Hendrick Goltzius In the historical legends of ancient Rome, Horatius Cocles, Latin for Horatius the one-eyed, was a hero who, on his own, defended the Pons Sublicius, the bridge that led across the Tiber to Rome, against the Etruscans. ...

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. He is said to have completed the final volumes of the history at Greenwood Lodge, Ditton Marsh, Thames Ditton, which he rented in 1854. At his death, he had only got as far as the reign of King William III. // First use of general anesthesia in an operation, by Crawford Long The first electrical telegraph sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844 from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.. First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi, Northland New Zealand. ... The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, is the full title of the volume of books more generally known as The History of England written by Lord Macaulay (Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay ). Category: ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1855 (MDCCCLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... William III of England (The Hague, 14 November 1650 – Kensington Palace, 8 March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William III of Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and a Protestant Prince of Orange from his birth, Stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic from 28...

Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

• "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. 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."

• (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."

• "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. 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."

• "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."

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 19 {August 9 O.S.}, 1631 - May 12 {May 1 O.S.}, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles... The Edinburgh Review was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. ... The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative institution in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories (it alone has parliamentary sovereignty). ... Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery More well known than The South Sea Company is perhaps the South Sea Bubble (1711 - September 1720) which is the name given to the economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares during 1720. ... This article is about the capital of England and 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 Ireland) that was responsible for the management and collection of revenues. ... Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. ... York shown within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state Constituent country Region Yorkshire and the Humber Ceremonial county North Yorkshire Admin HQ York City Centre Founded 71 City Status 71 Government  - Type Unitary Authority, City  - Governing body City of York Council  - Leadership: Leader & Executive  - Executive: Liberal Democrat  - MPs: Hugh Bayley (L) John... First Edition of Gullivers Travels Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Vol. ... William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 1520 – 4 August 1598), was an English politician, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign (17 November 1558–24 March 1603), and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. ... Edward Nares (1762-1841) was an English academic and theologian, and general writer. ... The Edinburgh Review was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. ...

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. (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

1881 Young Persons Cyclopedia of Persons and Places This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... 1881 Young Persons Cyclopedia of Persons and Places This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ... 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 of England. The history is famous for its brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive...

See also

• Whig history Further explains the Whig interpretation of history that Macaulay espoused.
• Thomas Sturge was an intimate friend of Lord Macaulay.

Whig history is a pejorative name given to a view of history that is shared by a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century British writers on historical subjects. ... // Ancestry and Early Life Alfred Sturge was born in London in 1816. ...

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

• Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes at Liberty-Tree.ca
• Short biography on Spartacus UK
• Macaulay on Copyright
• Minute on Indian Education
• Lord Macaulay's Habit of Exaggeration
• Macaulay on copyright law
• The Merits of Lord Macaulay - an essay by Koenraad Elst
• Macaulay's Minute revisited: An article in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper