ter with whom it is easier to find fault, or the limits of whose
power may be more distinctly defined; but within his own sphere he goes
forward, as he went through life, with a kind of grand confidence in
himself and his cause, which is attractive, and at times even
provocative of sympathetic enthusiasm.

Macaulay said, in his Diary, that he wrote his 'History' with an eye to
a remote past and a remote future. He meant to erect a monument more
enduring than brass, and the ambition at least stimulated him to
admirable thoroughness of workmanship. How far his aim was secured must
be left to the decision of a posterity which will not trouble itself
about the susceptibilities of candidates for its favour. In one sense,
however, Macaulay must be interesting so long as the type which he so
fully represents continues to exist. Whig has become an old-fashioned
phrase, and is repudiated by modern Liberals and Radicals, who think
themselves wiser than their fathers. The decay of the old name implies a
remarkable political change; but I doubt whether it implies more than a
very superficial change in the national character. New classes and new
ideas have come upon the stage; but they have a curious family likeness
to the old. The Whiggism whose peculiarities Macaulay reflected so
faithfully represents some of the most deeply-seated tendencies of the
national character. It has, therefore, both its ugly and its honourable
side. Its disregard, or rather its hatred, for pure reason, its
exaltation of expediency above truth and precedent above principle, its
instinctive dread of strong religious or political faiths, are of course
questionable qualities. Yet even they have their nobler side. There is
something almost sublime about the grand unreasonableness of the average
Englishman. His dogged contempt for all foreigners and philosophers,
his intense resolution to have his own way and use his own eyes, to see
nothing that does not come within his narrow sphere of vision, and to
see it quite clearly before he acts upon it, are of course abhorrent to
thinkers of a different order. But they are great qualities in the
struggle for existence which must determine the future of the world. The
Englishman, armed in his panoply of self-content, and grasping facts
with unequalled tenacity, goes on trampling upon acuter sensibilities,
but somehow shouldering his way successfully through the troubles of the
universe. Strength may be combined with st