olitical progress was rapid,
and was due not to favoritism or intrigue, but to his ability, his hard
work, and his sterling character. He was several times elected to
Parliament, was legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India, was a member
of the cabinet, and declined many offices for which other men labor a
lifetime. In 1857 his great ability and services to his country were
recognized by his being raised to the peerage with the title of Baron
Macaulay of Rothley.

Macaulay's literary work began in college with the contribution of various
ballads and essays to the magazines. In his later life practical affairs
claimed the greater part of his time, and his brilliant essays were written
in the early morning or late at night. His famous _Essay on Milton_
appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1825. It created a sensation, and
Macaulay, having gained the ear of the public, never once lost it during
the twenty years in which he was a contributor to the magazines. His _Lays
of Ancient Rome_ appeared in 1842, and in the following year three volumes
of his collected _Essays_. In 1847 he lost his seat in Parliament,
temporarily, through his zealous efforts in behalf of religious toleration;
and the loss was most fortunate, since it gave him opportunity to begin his
_History of England_,--a monumental work which he had been planning for
many years. The first two volumes appeared in 1848, and their success can
be compared only to that of the most popular novels. The third and fourth
volumes of the _History_ (1855) were even more successful, and Macaulay was
hard at work on the remaining volumes when he died, quite suddenly, in
1859. He was buried, near Addison, in the Poets' Corner of Westminster
Abbey. A paragraph from one of his letters, written at the height of his
fame and influence, may give us an insight into his life and work:

I can truly say that I have not, for many years, been so happy as I am at
present.... I am free. I am independent. I am in Parliament, as honorably
seated as man can be. My family is comfortably off. I have leisure for
literature, yet I am not reduced to the necessity of writing for money. If
I had to choose a lot from all that there are in human life, I am not sure
that I should prefer any to that which has fallen to me. I am sincerely and
thoroughly contented.

WORKS OF MACAULAY. Macaulay is famous in literature for his essays, for his
martial ballads, and for his _History of England_. His firs