CRITICAL

AND

HISTORICAL ESSAYS,

CONTRIBUTED TO

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

BY

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

SECOND EDITION.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS

CONTRIBUTED TO

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

;

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. (OCTOBER, 1838.)

Memoirs of the Life, Works, and Correspondence of Sir
William Temple. By the Right Hon. THOMAS PEREGRINE
COURTENAY. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1836.

MR. COURTENAY has long been well known to politi-
cians as an industrious and useful official man, and
as an upright and consistent member of Parliament.
He has been one of the most moderate, and, at the
same time, one of the least pliant members of the
Conservative party. His conduct has, indeed, on
some questions, been so Whiggish, that both those
who applauded and those who condemned it have
questioned his claim to be considered as a Tory. But
his Toryism, such as it is, he has held fast through
all changes of fortune and fashion; and he has at last
retired from public life, leaving behind him, to the
best of our belief, no personal enemy, and carrying
with him the respect and good will of many who
strongly dissent from his opinions.

This book, the fruit of Mr. Courtenay's leisure, is introduced by a preface in which he informs us that the assistance furnished to him from various quarters "has taught him the superiority of literature to