Lord Macaulay and Marlborough; Duke of Marlborough [pp. 241-248]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART.
RICHMOND, OCTOBER, 1859.
LORD MACAULAY AND MARLBOROUGH.
Politics. It is more than probable, that
no man has lived since the Refor matio n,
who has bee n ab le entirely to divest himself of partiality and prejudice on these
two impo rta nt ques tions of nat ional or
domestic policy, either a s a writer o f Fiction or of History.
Prone as we are to yield to passions and
prejudices; or rather, impossible as it is,
to prevent our passions and prejudices
from biassing our judgment; it becomes
us to judge leniently of men, who are
subject to like frailties as ourselves, but
whose probity and honour are undoubted,
when they draw different conclusions
from ourselves and especially when they
could have no motive in giving a defective colouring to events of the past.
We have had these remarks suggested
to us, by the perusal of a most acrimonious and unscrupulous attack upon Lord
Macaulay, in the June No. of Blackwood.
It is difficult to conceive what motive of
malevolence could have prompted such
an attack; and it would be equally difficult to concur in the views of the writer
of that article, even if we sympathized
in his antipathy to the distinguished author of the History of England. The
author in all probability has been bought
up by the Tories connected with Blackwood —a periodical of violent Tory principles and always inimical to Lord Macaulay-for the purpose of vilifying the His-'
tory of England, and doubtless be has been
particularly impressed in this instance by
the descendants of the Churchills with a
"douceur" of substantial consideration.
It is a matter of little moment however
To write History is the most difficult
task that any author-no matter what his
abilities-has ever undertaken. To write
a History that is as accurate perhaps, as
it is possible to make History, has been
accomplished by several distinguished authors; but to write a History that shall
give universal satisfaction, is impossible.
The excellencies as well as the defects
of History, arise from so many causes,
that it is difficult, if not impossible, to
trace them to their proper sources. It is
absolutely essential that an Historian,
should in a measure identify himself with
the past, and live among those whose actions and characters he portrays; but it
is no less essential that he should be to
some extent a mere "looker on in Venice," who is able to depict without partiality, scenes and events as they pass in
review before him. He must understand
the hidden springs of human action,
without becoming a slave himself to human passions.
He must seek information among archives covered with the accumulated dust
of ages; he must judge between conflicting testimony, he must balance the mighty book of the past, and strike a proofsheet in which no error can be detected;
in a word, hlie must become the great arbiter and umpire of bygone ages, and
render a judgment at once profound, accurate and impartial.
To accomplish such a task, it will readily be admitted is impossible; and more
especially is it impossible to write impartially on two subjects that give the deepest colour to all History, viz. Religion and
VOL. XXIX-16
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