pportunity.

Yours very faithfully

T. B. MACAULAY.

To Macvey Napier, Esq.

London: August 19, 1830.

My dear Sir,--The new number appeared this morning in the shop windows.
The article on Niebuhr contains much that is very sensible; but it is
not such an article as so noble a subject required. I am not like Ellis,
Niebuhr-mad; and I agree with many of the remarks which the reviewer
has made both on this work, and on the school of German critics and
historians. But surely the reviewer ought to have given an account of
the system of exposition which Niebuhr has adopted, and of the theory
which he advances respecting the Institutions of Rome. The appearance of
the book is really an era in the intellectual history of Europe, and I
think that the Edinburgh Review ought at least to have given a luminous
abstract of it. The very circumstance that Niebuhr's own arrangement and
style are obscure, and that his translators have need of translators to
make them intelligible to the multitude, rendered it more desirable that
a clear and neat statement of the points in controversy should be laid
before the public. But it is useless to talk of what cannot be mended.
The best editors cannot always have good writers, and the best writers
cannot always write their best.

I have no notion on what ground Brougham imagines that I am going to
review his speech. He never said a word to me on the subject. Nor did
I ever say either to him, or to anyone else, a single syllable to that
effect. At all events I shall not make Brougham's speech my text.
We have had quite enough of puffing and flattering each other in the
Review. It is a vile taste for men united in one literary undertaking to
exchange their favours.

I have a plan of which I wish to know your opinion. In ten days, or
thereabouts, I set off for France, where I hope to pass six weeks. I
shall be in the best society, that of the Duc de Broglie, Guizot, and
so on. I think of writing an article on the Politics of France since the
Restoration, with characters of the principal public men, and a parallel
between the present state of France and that of England. I think that
this might be made an article of extraordinary interest. I do not say
that I could make it so. It must, you will perceive, be a long paper,
however concise I may try to be; but as the subject is important, and
I am not generally diffuse, you must not stint me. If you like this
scheme, let me know as soon as po