public life, and by favour of Lord
Lansdowne sat in the House of Commons for his family borough of Calne.
Entering the House in 1830 in the thick of the Reform struggle, M. at
once leaped into a foremost place as a debater, and after the passage of
the Reform Bill sat as one of the two members for the new borough of
Leeds, and held office as Sec. to the Board of Control. The acquaintance
with Indian affairs which he thus gained led to his appointment as a
member of the Supreme Council of India, whither he went in 1834. Here his
chief work was the codification of the criminal law, which he carried out
with great ability, and by which he wrote his name on the history of the
empire. By the regard for the rights of the natives which he showed, he
incurred much ill-will in interested quarters. For this he consoled
himself with the pleasures of literature, which gradually assumed the
preponderance in his mind over political ambitions. In 1838 he returned
to England. The next year he began _The History of England_, but for some
time to come his energies were still divided between this task, the
demands of the _Edinburgh Review_, and politics. He was elected for
Edin., for which he sat until 1847, when he was thrown out on the
Maynooth question, and from 1839-41 was Sec. for War. The _Lays of
Ancient Rome_ were _pub._ in 1842, and a collection of his essays in _The
Edinburgh_ the following year. In 1846 he joined the government of Lord
John Russell as Paymaster-General, an office with light duties, his
retirement from which, however, followed the loss of his seat in the next
year. He was now finally set free for his great work, which became
thenceforth the leading interest of his life. The first and second vols.
appeared in 1848, and were received with extraordinary applause. In 1852
he was offered, but declined, a seat in the coalition government of Lord
Aberdeen, accepting, however, the seat in Parliament which Edin., now
repentant, gave him unsolicited. His health began about this time to
show symptoms of failure, and he spoke in the House only once or twice.
In 1855 the third and fourth vols. of the _History_ came out, and meeting
with a success both at home and in America unprecedented in the case of
an historical work, were translated into various foreign languages. In
1857 M. was raised to the Peerage, a distinction which he appreciated and
enjoyed. His last years were spent at Holly Lodge, Kensington, in
comparative reti