BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF MACAULAY'S LIFE AS RELATED TO HIS PRINCIPAL LITERARY WORK. 1800 He was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, England. 25 Oct. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, his mother a Quaker. In early childhood he was an insatiable reader. After the year 1812 He began his formal education by attending a private academy. 1818 He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won distinction for brilliant work in all studies except mathematics. He was associated with the college for more than seven years (Craven University Scholar, 1821; B.A., 1822; Fellow, 1824). (Contributions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine, 1822; Essay on Milton, 1825.) Having determined to pursue the profession of law, in 1826 He was called to the bar, but devoted much of his time to literature, as his Essay on Milton, contributed to the Edinburgh Review, had gained him instant popularity. To that magazine he contributed regularly for several years. (Essays on Machiavelli, 1827; Dryden, January, 1828; History, May, 1828; Hallam's History, September, 1828, etc.) 1830 He entered Parliament as a Whig member for Calne, on the nomination of Lord Lansdowne. He immediately became an ardent advocate of political reforms, and added to his reputation as a writer that of an orator. His literary activity was not diminished by his new duties (Essays on Bunyan, December, 1830; Byron, June, 1831; Johnson, September, 1831; Mirabeau, July, 1832; Walpole, October, 1833, etc.), while his political services to the cause of reform won him the suffrages of the city of Leeds in the elections of 1832, and the gratitude of the Whig leaders. 1833 He was made Secretary of the Board of Control. In the same year his speech on a Bill for the Government of India proved his exhaustive acquaintance with the conditions and needs of that country. Accordingly he was appointed a member of the Supreme Council of India and its legal adviser, at a salary of £10,000 a year. 1834 He went to India in this capacity, and devoted his powers to solving administrative problems and to formulating a Code of Laws for India, his literary gifts meanwhile finding but little expression. (Essays on Mackintosh's History, 1835; Bacon, 1837.) Having saved from his ample income a sum sufficient to relieve him from anxiety for the future, in 1838 He returned to England, and was soon elected to Parliament as a member fer Edinburgh. 1839 He became Secretary of War in the ministry of Lord Melbourne. On the accession to power of the Tories in 1841 He became an active member of the Opposition to Peel. He resumed his frequent contributions to the Edinburgh Review. (Essays on Clive, 1840; Leigh Hunt, Lord Holland, Hastings, 1841; Frederick the Great, 1842; Madame D'Arblay, Addison, 1843, etc.) Meanwhile he tempted fortune in a new line of literary activity (Lays of Ancient Rome, 1842), and also prepared the first collected edition of his Essays (1843). 1846 He became Paymaster of the Forces in the new Whig ministry of Russell. In the election of the succeeding year, he was rejected by the voters of Edinburgh because of his independent attitude on religious and other questions. This defeat left him free to prosecute the work which he had long designed to make the crowning literary production of his life, the History of England from the Accession of James II. (Vols. I. and II., 1848). 1852 He was reëlected Member of Parliament for Edinburgh without any canvass on his own behalf, but resigned his seat four years later, as the completion of his History was still his foremost consideration (Vols. III. and IV., 1855), and his failing health warned him that he must set a limit to his activities. In recognition of his services to the state in so many fields of labor, in 66 1857 He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Macaulay of Rothley." Besides his labors upon the History, he now found time to contribute to the Encyclopædia Britannica a series of biographies of eminent men (Atterbury, 1853; Bunyan, 1854; Goldsmith, Johnson, 1856; William Pitt, 1859). His health, although failing, gave no serious cause of alarm until in 1859 He died of disease of the heart, and was buried in the Dec. 28 "Poet's Corner" in Westminster Abbey, at the foot of the monument to Addison. SKETCH OF ENGLISH HISTORY, 1575-1775, AS REFERRED TO IN THIS BIOGRAPHY. The reign of Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor monarchs of England, was one of the most glorious in its annals. Discoveries in the New World, victories over Spain on the seas, internal prosperity, and, above all, the sudden development of literature, — all lent lustre to the "Elizabethan Age." The English Drama, till then crude and scanty, became notable for both the quantity and the excellence of its productions. Between 1580 and 1596, Marlowe, Kyd, Chettle, Nash, Peele, and Greene all did excellent work, which, however, was somewhat obscured by the wonderful productions of the two master-dramatists, - Shakespeare and rare Ben Jonson." But an equally rapid decline set in, even during Jonson's life; so that the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger and Ford, Webster and Dekker, — all nearly contemporary with the two masters, failed to reach an equally high level. Shake speare and Ben Jon son. Church and State. Among the political changes brought about during Elizabeth's reign was the establishment of the Protestant Episcopal Church as the official religion of the nation. That is, its creed and organization were fixed by Parliament, its government centred in the monarch as its supreme head, its membership in theory included all the citizens of the State, and attendance upon its services was compulsory upon all. The actual work of government was intrusted to bishops ruling over dioceses, and special ecclesiastical courts existed in each diocese for the trial of cases affecting religion or ecclesiastics. In spite of this legal uniformity there was much difference of religious opinion in England. In particular, many of the clergymen of the Established Church believed that its ritual was too much like that of the Roman Catholic Church, which they de X nounced as "superstitious." These "Puritans," as they were govern Presbyterianism. "Divine right" of kings. In 1603 Elizabeth died and was succeeded by her cousin, James Stuart of Scotland. Thenceforth until 1707 the two kingdoms, although having separate constitutions and separate Parliaments, were ruled by the same monarchs. A peculiarity of these Stuart monarchs of England was their adherence to the doctrine of "the divine right of kings." This doctrine, in brief, was that an hereditary monarchy is a divinely instituted form of government; that a monarch is, therefore, responsible to God alone for the way in which he governs his realm; and that, while he should aim to rule solely for the good of his subjects, they have no right to bid defiance to his edicts or to reject him when his government becomes obnoxious to them. An amusing corollary to this theory was the ancient belief that in the touch of a divinely ordained ruler resided a miraculous healing power. centuries before the accession of James, English monarchs had pretended to cure various diseases, and especially scrofula (thence called the "King's Evil"), by the laying on of hands. (See Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. 2.) On the accession of James I. doubt was raised as to whether the power had been transmitted from the English to the Scotch royal line, but James asserted that it had been so transmitted, and the practice of touching for the "Evil" was continued by him and by the rest of the Stuart monarchs. For "The royal touch." Very early in his reign James I. showed his arbitrary temper by resisting the demands of the Presbyterians for moderate reforms, and by levying taxes without the authority of Parliament. Charles I. His son, Charles I. (1625-1649), doggedly insisted upon Tyranny of the same "divine right" to control religion and taxation, although the nation was bitterly resenting such control. Three successive Parliaments were dismissed for attempting to curtail his alleged rights, and for eleven years he ruled without recourse to |