Identifier: homeschoolofamer00bird (find matches)
Title: Home school of American literature:
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Birdsall, William Wilfred, 1854-1909, (from old catalog) comp. and ed Jones, Rufus Matthew, 1863- (from old catalog) joint comp. and ed
Subjects: American literature English literature
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa., Elliott publishing co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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825, and continued to write for itfor nearly twenty years. These essays were collected and edited by himself,and published in three volumes, which contain much of the finest prose in thelanguage. He wrote a number of articles for the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, notable amongwhich were those upon Bunyan, Goldsmith, Johnson, and Pitt. He entered politicallife in 1830, when he was elected to Parliament, and took at once an importantpart in public affairs. His father having become financially embarrassed, Macaulaywas from this time burdened with the care of his brother and sisters. He was for-tunate in obtaining government posts, and in 1834 was sent to India as a memberof the Supreme Council, his special charge being to draw up a new Penal Code forIndia. This work occupied him four years, and from it he returned to England witha fair competence. He was Secretary of War in 1839, and in 1845 was made Pay-master-General. He had, however, incurred great hostility by his favorable trf^at- 656 I
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THOMAS BABINGTON MifCAULAY. 657 ment of the Roman Catholics, and in 1847 he failed to be re-elected to Parliament.He now devoted himself to his History of England from the Accession of James II,at which he labored until his death. He completed four volumes, bringing thestory down to the death of Queen Mary in 1695, and had prepared notes for thefifth, which was afterward published in this incomplete form by his sister, LadyTrevelyan. He was again elected to Parliament, and was raised to the peerage in1857; but he took no further part in public affairs. Macaulays poems, while they were formerly much read, and compare favor-ably with the work of many famous writers of verse, are so far outshone by hisprose that they have dropped out of public attention. No other book of the centurywas received with enthusiasm equal to that which greeted the History. Within ageneration after its appearance more than a hundred and forty thousand copiesof the History have been sold in the United Kingdom al

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