of the Academies of Utrecht, Munich, and Turin.. The King of Prussia named him a Knight of the Order of Merit, on the presentation of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin; and his nomination was communicated to him in a letter from the Baron Von Humboldt, the Chancellor of the Order.1 Guizot wrote to inform him that he had himself proposed him for the Institute of France. On one and the same day of February 1853 the official announcement of his election came from Paris, and his badge of the Order of Merit from Berlin.

In the following June Macaulay was presented to the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford; where he was welcomed enthusiastically by the crowd in the body of the theatre, and not unkindly even by the undergraduates, who almost forgot to enter a protest against the compliment that their University had thought fit to bestow on the great Whig writer.2 1 The Prussian Order of the Ordre pour le Mérite. Merit is, to other honours, what its founder Frederic the Great was to other kings. The following paragraph appeared lately in the "Academy":

"It has excited some surprise that Mr. Carlyle should have declined the Grand Cross of the Bath, after having accepted the Ordre pour le Mérite. There is, however, a great difference between the two. The Ordre pour le Mérite is not given by the Sovereign or the Minister, but by the Knights themselves.

Moltke was elected simply as the best representative of military science, nor does he rank higher as a Knight of that Order than Bunsen, the representative of physical science, or Ranke the historian."

2 The batch of new Doctors included Mr. Grote, Mr. Disraeli, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, and the present Lord Derby. "I congratulated Grote with special warmth," says Macaulay, "for, with all his faults of style, he has really * * The King only done wonders. confirms their choice. The number of the Knights of the Ordre pour le Mérite is strictly limited, (there are no more than thirty German and thirty foreign Knights,) - so that every knight knows who will be his peers. In Germany, not even Bismarck is a Knight of

* I was pleased with Lord Derby's reception of his son. • Fili mi dilectissime,' he called him. When I entered somebody called out "History of England!' Then came a great tumult of applause and hissing; but the applause greatly predominated."

In 1854 he was chosen President of the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, to the duties of which post he could give little of his time, though the Institution owes to his judgment and liberality some important additions to its stock of curious and valuable books. He showed himself, however, most assiduous in his attendance at the British Museum, both as a Trustee and as a student. His habit was to work in the King's Library; partly for quiet, and partly in order to have George the Third's wonderful collection of pamphlets within an easy walk of his chair. He did his writing at one of the oak tables which stand in the centre of the room, sitting away from the outer wall, for the sake of the light. He availed himself of his official authority to search the shelves at pleasure without the intervention of a librarian; and, (says the attendant,)" when he had taken down a volume, he generally looked as if he had found something in it." A manuscript page of his History, thickly scored with dashes and erasures,— it is the passage in the twenty-fifth Chapter where Sir Hans Sloane is mentioned as "the founder of the magnificent museum which is one of the glories of our country,"-is preserved at that museum in a cabinet, which may truly be called the place of honour; within whose narrow limits are gathered together a rare collection of objects such as Englishmen of all classes and parties regard with a common reverence and pride. There may be seen Nelson's hasty sketch of the line of battle at the Nile; and the sheet of paper on which Wellington computed the strength of the cavalry regiments that were to fight at Waterloo; and the note-book of Locke; and the autographs of Samuel Johnson's Irene, and Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens; and the rough copy of the translation of the Iliad, written, as Pope loved to write, on the margin of frayed letters and the backs of tattered envelopes. It is pleasant to

think what Macaulay's feelings would have been, if, when he was rhyming and castle-building among the summer-houses at Barley Wood, or the laurel-walks at Aspenden, or under the limes and horse-chesnuts in the Cambridge Gardens, he could have been assured that the day would come when he should be invited to take his place in such a noble company.

CHAPTER XIV.

1856-1858.

Macaulay resigns his seat for Edinburgh-He settles himself at Holly Lodge-His house and garden-His notions of hospitality-L'Almanach des Gourmands-Country visits-Continental tours - Chateaubriand Macaulay as a man of business-His generosity in money matters -His kindness to his relations and towards children-Picture galleriesMacaulay as an instructor --He pays a compliment to Lord Palmerston-Macaulay is made a Peer-His attachment to his old University-He is elected Lord High Steward of the Borough of Cambridge-Macaulay in the House of LordsFrench politics-The Indian Mutiny-The National Fastday - The capture of Delhi, and relief of Lucknow--Professor Owen, and the British Museum-Literary ease-The Fifth Volume of the History-Macaulay's contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica-His habit of learning by heart-Foreign languages--Macaulay's modes of amusing himself-The consequences of celebrity-Extracts from Macaulay's journal-His literary Conservatism-His love for Theology and Church History-His devotion to literature.

MACAULAY's first care in the year 1856 was to make his arrangements for retiring from Parliament. He bade farewell to the electors of Edinburgh in a letter which, as we are told by his successor in the representation of the city, was received by them with "unfeigned sorrow." "The experience," he writes, "of the last two years has convinced me that I cannot reasonably expect to be ever again capable of performing, even in an imperfect manner, those duties which the public has a right to expect from every Member of the House of Commons. You meanwhile have borne with me in a manner which

entitles you to my warmest gratitude. Had even a small number of my constituents hinted to me a wish that I would vacate my seat, I should have thought it my duty to comply with that wish. But from not one single elector have I ever received a line of reproach or complaint." This letter was despatched on the 19th of January; on the 21st he applied for the Chiltern Hundreds; and on the 2nd of February he notes in his journal: "I received a letter from the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, enclosing an Address from the electors unanimously voted in a great meeting. I was really touched."

And now Macaulay, yielding a tardy obedience to the advice of every one who had an interest in his welfare, began to enjoy the ease which he had so laboriously earned. He had more than once talked of shifting his quarters to some residence less unsuited to his state of health than a set of chambers on a second floor between Vigo Street and Piccadilly. At one time he amused himself with the idea of renting one of the new villas on Weybridge Common; and at another he was sorely tempted to become the purchaser of a large mansion and grounds at "dear old Clapham." But in January 1856 Dean Milman wrote to inform him that the lease of a very agreeable house and garden at Kensington was in the market. The immediate effect of this letter was to suggest to Macaulay the propriety of giving his old friend's book another reading. "I began," he says, "Milman's Latin Christianity, and was more impressed than ever by the contrast between the substance and the style. The substance is excellent. The style very much otherwise." On the morrow he heard from the Duchess of Argyll, who, knowing the place in question as only a next-door neighbour

A few months after this Macaulay writes: "I was glad to hear that a new edition of

1

Milman's History is called for. It is creditable to the age. I began to read it again."