printed, even in part, never was
present to his mind; and I should not feel myself justified in laying
them before the public if it were not that their unlaboured and
spontaneous character adds to their biographical value all, and perhaps
more than all, that it detracts from their literary merit.

To the heirs and relations of Mr. Thomas Flower Ellis and Mr. Adam
Black, to the Marquis of Lansdowne, to Mr. Macvey Napier, and to the
executors of Dr. Whewell, my thanks are due for the courtesy with which
they have placed the different portions of my Uncle's correspondence at
my disposal. Lady Caroline Lascelles has most kindly permitted me to
use as much of Lord Carlisle's journal as relates to the subject of this
work; and Mr. Charles Cowan, my Uncle's old opponent at Edinburgh, has
sent me a considerable mass of printed matter bearing upon the elections
of 1847 and 1852. The late Sir Edward Ryan, and Mr. Fitzjames Stephen,
spared no pains to inform me with regard to Lord MACAULAY'S work at
Calcutta. His early letters, with much that relates to the whole
course of his life, have been preserved, studied, and arranged, by the
affectionate industry of his sister, Miss Macaulay; and material of high
interest has been entrusted to my hands by Mr. and the Hon. Mrs. Edward
Cropper. I have been assisted throughout the book by the sympathy, and
the recollections, of my sister Lady Holland, the niece to whose custody
Lord MACAULAY'S papers by inheritance descend.

G.O.T.

March 1876.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF LORD MACAULAY

By

Sir George Otto Trevelyan

CHAPTER I. 1800-1818.

Plan and scope of the work--History of the Macaulay family--
Aulay--Kenneth--Johnson and Boswell--John Macaulay and his
children--Zachary Macaulay--His career in the West Indies
and in Africa--His character--Visit of the French squadron
to Sierra Leone--Zachary Macaulay's marriage--Birth of his
eldest son--Lord Macaulay's early years--His childish
productions--Mrs. Hannah More--General Macaulay--Choice of a
school--Shelford--Dean Milner--Macaulay's early letters--
Aspenden hall--The boy's habits and mental endowments--His
home--The Clapham set--The boy's relations with his father--
The political ideas amongst which he was brought up, and
their influence on the work of his life.

HE who undertakes to publish the memoirs of a distinguished man may find
a ready apology in the cust