Mr. Maeaulay's set farewell to public life, at Glasgow, reminds
tts of the strikingly- unliterary character of the English Parliament. The pro= feased authors in Parliament have been few ; they have not shone, an their tenure has been Precarious. Mr. Macaulay has been no exception. His spoken essays have deceived us all : extorting admirationfor their literary merits, they reflected credit on the party in whose behalf they were uttered; the Edinburgh Review was in presence, delivered orally, in sheets, pro re Bata; and the special publication made no small sensation in club and drawingroom. But how little weight it had ! how little it told upon the debate, the vote, the relations of parties, the pub- lic without! Because the effect of literature on the English mind is seldom direct, always cumulative ; and Mr. Macaulay's best effu- sions were always literature. Nay, it was breach of privilege for litera- ture to exceed its province and intrude into the Legislature. Dull vo- ting-machines resented the being outdone by a penman, and would fain have voted that the " stranger " be ordered to withdraw ; only that, in violation of the division of employments' he was both writer and senator. Ministries, no doubt, were hampered by the exigencies of a colleague who was bound, even in these degenerate days, "to profess the noblest sentiments, and act up to the sentiments he professes with some eye at least to keeping up appearances that would accord with the dignity of history. A perverse dislike to confess the influence of literature in the presence of its personages, has induced our Parliament to thwart its lite- rary Members. To be the titled author of a staid book on the shelves, is a grace allowed ; but to be a popular author read everywhere, is to be ostracized. What has Mr. Macaulay's presence in Parliament done to make the Commons literary ; what has it done to benefit literature ? Our country contrasts ill with others. We see the learned Welcker taking a lead in the practical statesmanship of his country without re- ]inquishing Oriental studies : we see in France a host of authors—so many that you cannot fix them to any one party. Statesmanship in France is literary, and the Parliament willingly accepts a literary influ- ence. Hence a striking munificence in poor and parsimonious France, to encourage arts, and promote learned expeditions into foreign countries ; 'while England, rich and munificent, crows immensely over a grant of 2001. to help Edward Lane in bringing forth a standard book, and grudges a paltry aid to Layard for excavating the history of an unknown ;era.. Driven from the Commons, Mr. Macaulay does not retreat, but emerges into the more splendid celebrity of his study ; and if he is de- barred from giving his vote for bills, decrees with his pen impressions and opinions—the masters of laws.
