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Search - Critical And Miscellaneous Essays - Vol III

Critical And Miscellaneous Essays Vol III
Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay

IN 1688 Edinburgh Review. IT is with unfeigned diffidence that we venture to give our opinion of the last work of Sir James Mackintosh. We have in vain tried to perform what ought to be to a critic an easy and habitual act. We have in vain tried to separate the book from the writer, and to judge of it as if it bore some unknown name. But it is t... more »o no purpose. All the lines of that venerable countenance are before us. All the little peculiar cadences of that voice, from which scholars and statesmen loved to receive the lessons of a serene and benevolent wisdom, are in our ears. We will attempt to preserve strict impartiality. But we are not ashamed to own, that we approach this relic of a virtuous and most accomplished man with feelings of respect and gratitude which may possibly pervert our judgment. It is hardly possible to avoid instituting a comparison between this work and another celebrated Fragment. Our readers will easily guess thatwe allude to Mr. Foxs History of James II. The two books are written on the same subject. Both were posthumously published. Neither had received the last corrections. The authors belonged to the History of the Revolution in England, in 1688. Comprising a view of the Reign of James the Second, from his Accession, to the Enterprise of the Prince of Orange, by the late Right Honourable Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH and completed to the Settlement of the Crown, by the Editor. To which is prefixed a Notice of the Life, Writings, and Speeches of Sir James Mackintosh. 4to. London, 1834. VOL. in. 2 13 14 MACAULAYS MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. same political party, and held the same opinions concerning the merits and defects of the English constitution, and con cerning most of the prominent characters and events in English history. They had thought much on the principles of government but they were not mere speculators. They had ransacked the archives of rival kingdoms, and pored on folios which had mouldered for ages in deserted libraries but they were not mere antiquaries. They had one eminent qualification for writing history they had spoken history, acted history, lived history. The turns of political fortune, the ebb and flow of popular feeling, the hidden mechanism by which parties are moved, all these things were the subjects of their constant thought and of their most familiar conversation. Gibbon has remarked, that his history is much the better for his having been an officer in the militia and a member of the House of Commons. The remark is most just. We have not the smallest doubt that his campaign, though he never saw an enemy, and his parliamentary attendance, though he never made a speech, were of far more use to him than years of retirement and study would have been. If the time that he Spent on parade and atmess in Hampshire, or on the Treasury-bench and at Brookess during the storms which overthrew Lord North and Lord Shelburne had been passed in the Bodleian Library, he might have avoided some inaccuracies j he might have enriched his notes with a greater number of references but he never would have produced so lively a picture of the court, the camp, and the senate-house. In this respect Mr. Fox and Sir James Mackintosh had great advantages over almost every English historian who has written since the time of Burnet...

ISBN-13: 9781406783230
ISBN-10: 1406783234
Publication Date: 10/9/2007
Pages: 412
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Fitts Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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Search - Critical And Miscellaneous Essays - Vol III

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