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INTRODUCTION

I. LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MACAULAY

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, on the 25th of October, 1800. On his father's side, he came from a long line of Scotch Presbyterians, many of them ministers; while. his mother was of a good Quaker family. The moral character of his ancestral stock was thus of the highest and strictest, though by no means of the broadest and most unprejudiced; and this may account for many of the striking qualities of his work, brilliant and vivacious as it is in other respects.

Zachary Macaulay, his father, was a stern, taciturn man, having little outward resemblance to his vivacious son, but endowed with the same tireless capacity for work, and the same marvellous memory. He had made a moderate fortune in Jamaica and Sierra Leone; and, on his return to London in 1799, became one of the chief supporters of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. As the editor of the abolitionist organ, he was closely associated with such men as Henry

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INTRODUCTION

I. LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MACAULAY

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, on the 25th of October, 1800. On his father's side, he came from a long line of Scotch Presbyterians, many of them ministers; while his mother was of a good Quaker family. The moral character of his ancestral stock was thus of the highest and strictest, though by no means of the broadest and most unprejudiced; and this may account for many of the striking qualities of his work, brilliant and vivacious as it is in other respects.

Zachary Macaulay, his father, was a stern, taciturn man, having little outward resemblance to his vivacious son, but endowed with the same tireless capacity for work, and the same marvellous memory. He had made a moderate fortune in Jamaica and Sierra Leone; and, on his return to London in 1799, became one of the chief supporters of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. As the editor of the abolitionist organ, he was closely associated with such men as Henry

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