it is almost impossible either to arbitrate
conclusively between the parties or to convey an adequate idea of their
respective positions. Mr. Macaulay's fashion of writing, too, makes
sadly against any minute or critical investigation of his resources or
his deductions. His habit is to throw off a single complete sketch of a
character or a transaction, and at the foot of it to quote altogether
the various authorities, from certain passages of which he derived the
warrant for his own several touches. By this means we are incapacitated
from closely following his observations, and we can only infer, with
greater or less probability, what particular portion of a particular
authority served for the foundation of any particular statement. To some
extent this method of proceeding is inseparable from Mr. Macaulay's
style, and its obvious disadvantage must be set off against that
brilliancy and effect of the general picture which commands such
universal admiration. Mr. Macaulay writes as it were from impressions.
He consults and peruses the original records of the times he is
describing, and out of the general deductions thus instinctively drawn
his conception is formed. We believe this to be the best way of arriving
at general truths, but it is a practice which greatly limits the
application of ordinary tests of accuracy. Indeed, in many portions of
Mr. Macaulay's history, a reader can do little more than compare his own
previous impressions of the facts and scenes described with the
impression of the writer who is describing them. Many of his
descriptions are compounded of such numerous and minute ingredients,
picked here and there from such a variety of quarters, that they can
only be verified by a similar process to that in which they originated.
A signal exemplification of our meaning will be found in his delineation
of the character and position of the English clergy before the
Revolution. We not only believe ourselves that this sketch is
substantially correct, but we would even venture to say that the
impressions of well-informed and unprejudiced minds as to the general
truth would, in a majority of cases, coincide with our own. Yet of this
we are perfectly certain--that it would not only be possible but easy to
collect so many particular examples of a contrary tendency as would
wholly bewilder the judgment of an ordinary reader. Mr. Macaulay, in
fact, can too frequently only be judged by those who have followed, at
howev