CRITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS By Lord Macaulay With a Memoir and Index In Six Volumes Vol. VI. New York: Published by Sheldon and Company 1860 [Illustration: 0009] ESSAYS THE EARL OF CHATHAM. (1) (_Edinburgh Review_, October 1844.) More {1}than ten years ago we commenced a sketch of the political life of the great Lord Chatham. We then stopped at the death of George the Second, with the intention of speedily resuming our task. Circumstances, which it would be tedious to explain, long prevented us from carrying this intention into effect. Nor can we regret the delay. For the materials which were within our reach in 1834 were scanty and unsatisfactory, when compared with those which we at present possess. Even now, though we have had access to some valuable sources of information which have not yet been opened to the public, we cannot but feel that the history of the first ten years of the reign of George the Third is but imperfectly known to us. Nevertheless, we are inclined to think that we are in a condition to lay before our readers a narrative neither uninstructive nor uninteresting. We therefore return with pleasure to our long interrupted labour. We left Pitt in the zenith of prosperity and glory, (1) 1._Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham_. 4 vols. 8vo. London: 1840. 2. _Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Horace Mann_. 4 vols. 8vo. London: 1843-4. {2}the idol of England, the terror of France, the admiration of the whole civilised world. The wind, from whatever quarter it blew, carried to England tidings of battles won, fortresses taken, provinces added to the empire. At home, factions had sunk into a lethargy, such as had never been known since the great religious schism of the sixteenth century had roused the public mind from repose. In order that the events which we have to relate may be clearly understood, it may be desirable that we should advert to the causes which had for a time suspended the animation of both the great English parties.