BY

THE RT. HON. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, M. P.

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES
""LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME," "ESSAYS FROM THE

THE SECOND,'

EDINBURGH REVIEW," ETC., ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

REDFIELD,

110 & 112 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.

1853.

PURC

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

J. S. REDFIELD,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

LENOX LIBRAR

NEW YORK

R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,

53 Vesey street, New York.

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

FRANCIS, the author of a collection of portraits of contemporary statesmen, entitled the Orators of the Age, has given in that work a sketch of the Parliamentary manner and successes of Macaulay. He claims for him the first rank of the speakers of the day-no less for the literary and historical illustrations of his speeches, than for their fidelity to the immediate interests of the discussion. In the union of these two qualities may be summed up Macaulay's characteristic merits. "He is a great reconciler of the new with the old. Although he may adorn a subject with the lights afforded by his rare genius, he never trifles with it. His historical research renders him a living link with the old and uncorrupted constitution of the country. * *There is no speaker now before the public who so readily and usefully, and with so little appearance of effort, infuses the results of very extensive reading and very deep research into the common, every-day business of Parliament. But his learning never tyrannizes over his common sense."*

Francis's Orators of the Age.

The