New Letters by Macaulay.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 391, 7 August 1889, Page 3

New Letters by Macaulay.

Mr Fkaser Rae contributes to the June' number of ' Temple Bar ' an article on Lord Macaulay, in the course of which he prints for the first time some letters addressed by the historian to his younger brother Charles between 1836 and' 18$4. From theee we make the following extracts : Calcutta, December sth, 1836. —In another year my banishment will be over., and 1 shall- be packing up for my voyage. I already begin to feel the pleasure of returning from exile. That pleasure ought to be very great to compensate for the bitter pain of so long and so complete a separation from home. And it is very great ; for, though England is not all that itjOnce was to mo, yet 1 , have no hopes or wishes but what point to England, and I would rather go home with the. knowledge that I should die there next year than live here till seventy fn ,(>he midst of whatever splendour or comfort India affords. I quite understand how it was that neither goddesses nor enchanted palaces nor idyal matches nor immortality itself could bribe Ulysses to give up his rugged little Ithaca, and that he was willing to forego everything elso in order to see once more the smoke going up from the cottages of his dear Island. Few people, 1 believe, have this feeling so strongly as I have it. Indeed, the great majority of the members of the services here seem perfectly willing to pass their, lives m India, and those who pro home ,talk with very little pleasure of the prospect before them. This is not strange, for they generally come out at eighteen or nineteen. Their banishment is {heir emancipation. The separation trom home is no doubt at first disagreeable to them ; but the pain is compensated to a great extent by the pleasure ot independence — of findinsc themselves men, and, if they are in the Civil Service, of rinding themselves rich, Albany, London, Wovember 27, 1848. — I have been working intensely during some months on my history, rising at daybreak, and. sometimes sitting at my desk twelve hours at a^stretch This work is for the present over. On Friday next, the Ist of December, we publish. I hardly know what to anticipate. Everybody who has Beenthebook — that is to say, Lord Jeffrey, Ellis, Trevelyan, Hannah, and Longman — predict complete success, and say that it is as entertaining as a novel ; but the truth is that, in such a case, friends are not to be trusted, and booksellers, after they have struck a bargain, are even less to be trusted than friends. The partialities of an author for what he has written are nothing compared to the partialities of a publisher for what he has bought. However, a few weeks will show. You will probably see the book first in the Yankee edition. A New York house has given me two hundred pounds for early proof-sheets. Longman is to pay me five hundred a year for Jive years in consideration of the privilege of printing six thousand copies. This is a pleasant addition to my income ; and if the book succeeds I shall probably find literature not only a more pleasant but a more gainful pursuit than politics. Albany, London, March 3, 1849.— W0 A .are all well and prospering ; the sale of my book has been enormous, twelve thousand copies in three*months — none of Sir Walter's ' novels went faster ; the demand still keeps up at four hundred a week, and we are troing to stereotype. I expect to make some thousands pleasantly enough by this ' success. ]Y1 r Fraser Rae writes: — M. Tame, who is one of the greatest among living French critics, and who is an historian in the first rank, has estimated Macaulay more justly than many of Macaulay's own countrymen have done, Indeed, M. Taine's admiration for the English writer has increased since he first devoted a long chapter to him in his ' History of English Literature.' I know this from personal conversation with M. Tame ; but I can set it forth on the authority of his handwriting in the following ■ extract froni a note which I received :— ! * I read over again one or two of JMacaulay's volumes every' year. People now say in England that his talent is merely rhetorical, but that is not my opinion. To my mind he is, as ap historian, the greatest artist and the first writer of this century, being incomparable in explaining, setting forth, narrating, co-ordinating, passing from on© ' topic to another, and in varying his tone. I put 1 on one side his opinions, his partisanship, his conclusions, all of which are subjects of controversy, and are secondary ; but as regards his art he is in advance of everyone else.'

"A Twice Despairing New Zealancler," writing- on the exodus of population, says that he wa^ forced to leave Auckland 12 months ago in consequence of the dearth of employment, and did well in Australia,- but to his sorrow, in an evil hour he returned to New Zealand'^ only to leave it again. "This tinae," he -says, " perhaps it will bp for ever, as I must take ipy family with me. To go means to sacrifice the labour and savings of years, whilst to remain means to see them slowly fritter away, with the near prospect of seeing them all gone and myself brought to helpless want. lam myself frequently in contact with others similarly situated, and the general opinion is that 4 New Zealand is no longer worth living in,' and they are best off who leave it soonest It is indeed a cruel and bitter wrong that we are driven away from a land we love, so woll. You suggest in your article that an inquiry should at once be made into the cause of all this trouble and disaster with a view to find a remedy. Well, sir, I do not think we have very far to look for either if we only honestly look for them. The cause, beyond all doubt, is shameful, dishonest wasteand extravaganceon the part of our political leaders, the borrowing" of huge sums of money for the perpetration of political jobs, and the draining of the country for interest on the same. Now for the remedy — first and foremost, the turning out of the present administration, principally the Premier, who is per haps as responsible as any man for the present condition of the country. Second, an absolutely prohibitive tariff on all goods that could be manufactured in the colony, so as to give employment to our mechanics and to return our cash instead of sending it away in exchange for goods, Third, a land tax that would be sufficiently heavy to cause the breaking up of huge estates, thus giving access to lands that are tvorth cultivating ; and fourth, a thorough revision of our Civil Service, somewhat like that which Graham Berry did for Victoria some years ago, and which inaugurated for the Victorians a new era of prosperity. Let the people and the press insist on these or similar reforms, and not only will the exodus cease, but many of those, who have left us will be only too glad to return." Everybody has an I for business — They could not spell it correctly without. There are at present five widows of American Presidents living : — Mrs Polk, Mrs Lincoln, Mrs Grant, Mrs Garfield, and Mrs Tyler. You will find, my dear boy, that the dearly prized kiss. Which with rapjtvue you snatched from the hulf-willing miss, Is sweeter by far than the legalised kisses You give the same girl wheu you ye ro^de her your Mrs,