This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com LifeandlettersofZacharyMacaulay ZacharyMacalay LIFE AND LETTERS OF ZACHARY MACAULAY v - 1-' I ' W A 'C : ' A K '\ : - I r.:'i'Uhc'"f : ... <r.. J I: ?\"!\ 1 LIFE AND LETTERS OF ZACHARY MACAULAY BY HIS GRANDDAUGHTER VISCOUNTESS KNUTSFORD LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD Publie&cr to tbc J1rtiia 2Dfficr 1900 Edinburgh : T. and A. Constaele, Printers to Her Majesty CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. EARLY YEARS 1 II. NEW INFLUENCES 12 III. SIERRA LEONE 26 IV. INVASION BY THE FRENCH 58 V. VISIT TO ENGLAND AND ENGAGEMENT .... 90 VI. MISSIONARY DIFFICULTIES Il6 VII. WAR AND RUMOURS OF WAR . -174 VIII. RETURN TO ENGLAND AND MARRIAGE . 2l6 IX. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE 258 X. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 302 XI. REMOVAL TO LONDON 337 XII. BUSINESS EMBARRASSMENTS ...... 382 XIII. VISIT TO PARIS ......... 407 XIV. ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 428 XV. CLOSING YEARS AND DEATH 460 INDEX 490 PORTRAIT OF ZACHARY MACAULAY frontispiece From a drawing by Staler, 1831 CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS Zachary Macau lay, the third son of the Rev. John Macaulay and of his second wife, Margaret Campbell of Inverseger, was born at the manse of Inverary on the 2nd of May 1768. The clan MacAulay had long inhabited the western Highlands, and appears to have been considered a branch of the MacGregors. In a bond or deed of friendship1 between their chief, Aulay MacAulay of Ardincaple, and the chief of the MacGregors, which was executed in 1 591, MacAulay acknowledges to being a cadet of the clan MacGregor, and agrees to pay a tribute of cattle to his chief. But when the MacGregors fell under the ban of the law, Aulay MacAulay did not scruple to turn against them, and did his best to avert any suspicion of complicity in their rebellion from himself and his followers, by the hostility with which he pursued his former allies. The successors of this politic chieftain did not possess sufficient prudence to retain a grasp upon the property which his shrewdness had preserved for them. They gradually dissipated the family possessions by carelessness and extravagance, until the last chief, another Aulay MacAulay, overwhelmed with debt, was reduced to sell Ardin caple and the scanty remains of his patrimony to John, the fourth Duke of Argyll, in 1764. Some of the Macaulays had settled in the south-west part of the island of Lewis, and in the reign of James VI. of Scotland one of them was distinguished by the name of Donald Cam, to signify that he was blind of one eye. It may be mentioned that this defect was inherited by his great-great-grandson, Zachary Macaulay, and that it was a family tradition among Macaulay's children that their father did not discover the fact that he 1 In this deed the two contracting parties describe themselves as originally descended from the same stock — ' M'Alpins of auld.' A LIFE AND LETTERS OF could only see with one eye until after he had grown to man's estate. Donald Cam was noted for the courage and activity which he displayed in the feuds that were constantly taking place with neighbouring clans ; but he made himself specially conspicuous by the fierceness and frequency of his attacks upon the Fife- shire Colonists at Stornoway, and prided himself on taking the patriotic side in those troubles. His son, who was com monly called the Man of Brenish, had even a higher reputation than his father for feats of strength and daring ; but after him the Macaulays seem to have sought distinction in more peaceful fields, and it is a curious sign of the rapid changes which were taking place at this time in the habits and manners of the Scotch, that this pugnacious Highlander should have had a son, and five grandsons, Ministers of the Presbyterian Church. Aulay Macaulay, the son of the Man of Brenish, and the grandson of Donald Cam, may reasonably be credited with a considerable portion of hereditary spirit in adopting a profession so opposed to the tastes hitherto prevalent in his family. He was Minister of Harris. One of his sons, the Rev. Kenneth Macaulay, was sent as missionary to St. Kilda by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and published afterwards a History of St. Kilda, which attracted the attention of Dr. Johnson, and procured him the honour of that visit to his manse at Calder of which Boswell gives so amusing an account. The eldest son of Aulay, John Macaulay, the father of Zachary, was born at Harris in 1720. At the time of Dr. Johnson's tour to the Hebrides in 1773 John Macaulay was Minister of Inverary, but the following year he was appointed to Cardross in Dumbartonshire, and removed there when his son Zachary was about six years old. John Macaulay's first wife had died a year after her marriage, leaving one child ; but by his second wife, Margaret Campbell, he had at the time of his removal a large family, which in the end numbered twelve children. With such rapidly increasing demands upon a small income, it was necessary that each son should in turn, as soon as he attained a suitable age, be put in the way of maintaining himself, and when only fourteen Zachary was placed in a merchant's office at Glasgow. ZACHARY MACAULAY 3 The history of his early years will be best related by himself in a short autobiographical memoir which he wrote at Sierra Leone in 1797. ' I can scarce ever think on my past life without adverting to those words of John Newton's : ' " Thou didst once a wretch behold In rebellion blindly bold Scorn Thy grace, Thy power defy That poor rebel, Lord, was I." ' I am indeed a signal monument of God's long-suffering and tender mercy. What shall I render to Him for all His benefits ? ' Soon after I reached the age of fourteen, I became in a great measure my own master, by being removed from the control of my father and mother, and placed in a merchant's counting- house in Glasgow. This was a line of life which I entered upon with great regret, for I had at that time a strong passion for literature; but I acquiesced readily in my father's determina tion, from perceiving that his stipend could not well afford the expense of a literary education. ' I felt the disappointment, however, very acutely, and thought I lost by this arrangement all my past labour to which I had been greatly stimulated by the hope of academical honours. I had already acquired a pretty general knowledge of the Latin language, and had also such a tincture of Grecian learning as enabled me to read Homer without much difficulty. I read French with tolerable ease, and had besides made considerable progress in mathematics. What made me prize all this the more was that it had been acquired mainly by my own exer tions, for I had the misfortune never to have been under any regular system of tuition. It was only at times that I had any other instructor besides my father, and his avocations were so numerous as to render it altogether impossible for him to pay me the requisite attention. Being the oldest son at home, the care of instructing the others devolved on me ; and though by this circumstance I was a good deal aided in my learning, yet I think I can trace to it the rise of several tempers which have caused me no small trouble in after life, particularly my im patience and self-confidence, my imposing tone, and dogmatical, magisterial style as well in writing as speaking. ' But my reading was by no means confined to the dead languages. My father had a large collection of books, and my appetite for them was quite insatiable. There were few of the English classics which I had not read. The great poets were quite familiar to me. I was, besides, an eager hunter after that LIFE AND LETTERS OF sort of anecdote wherewith ephemeral publications abound. What stimulated me to this, in addition to the pleasure they afforded myself, was, I remember, an eager desire of shining in conversation. I much affected the company of men ; and having a good memory, though very little judgment, and a great share of conceit and assumption, I was in the habit of obtruding my remarks whatever the subject of conversation was. I was much encouraged to this by the notice and ill-timed commendation which was occasionally bestowed upon me when I ought rather to have been repressed. It seems unnatural that the bent of my inclinations should have lain in this direction at so early an age, but it arose in a great measure from the necessity imposed upon me to seek amusement in some other way than boys generally do, by a serious accident that happened to my right arm when I was nine years old. It subjected me to several painful operations, and it was about five years before I recovered the proper use of it. ' I had at this time some religious impressions on my mind, the effect of education. I liked to hear sermons, I thought it wrong not to say my prayers, and I felt a salutary check of conscience when I perceived myself flying directly in the face of a divine mandate. Happy for me if I had never lost this feeling, but happier still if my conscience were now restored to its office of serving the living God, and acted faithfully as his Vicegerent.