ruption of the Scotch Church was effected, and
in the bitterness engendered by that movement Macaulay lost his
popularity with his Edinburgh constituents. He seemed indifferent to
their affairs; he answered their letters irregularly and with almost
contemptuous brevity. He had no sympathy with the radicals who at that
time controlled a large number of votes, and he refused to contribute
towards electioneering expenses. Above all, he was absorbed in his
History, and had lost much of his interest in politics. In consequence
he failed to be re-elected, and not unwillingly retired to private life.

Macaulay now concentrated all his energies on the History, which
occupied his thoughts, his studies, and his pen for the most part during
the remainder of his life. The first two volumes were published in the
latter part of 1848; and the sale was immense, surpassing that of any
historical work in the history of literature, and coming near to the
sale of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The popularity of the work was
not confined to scholars and statesmen and critics, but it was equally
admired by ordinary readers; and not in England and Scotland alone, but
in the United States, in France, in Holland, in Germany, and other
countries.

The labor expended on these books was prodigious. The author visited in
person nearly all the localities in England and Ireland where the events
he narrated took place. He ransacked the archives of most of the
governments of Europe, and all the libraries to which he could gain
access, public and private. He worked twelve hours a day, and yet
produced on an average only two printed pages daily,--so careful was he
in verifying his facts and in arranging his materials, writing and
rewriting until no further improvement could be made.

This book was not merely the result of his researches for the last
fifteen years of his life, but of his general reading for nearly fifty
years, when everything he read he remembered. Says Thackeray, "He reads
twenty books to write a sentence; he travels one hundred miles to make a
line of description." The extent and exactness of his knowledge were not
only marvellous, but almost incredible. Mr. Buckle declared that
Macaulay was perfectly accurate in all the facts which Buckle had
himself investigated to write his "History of Civilization;" and so
particular was he in the selection of words that he never allowed a
sentence to pass muster until it was as good as he could