A New Light on Lord Macaulay. By Albert R. Hassaul.
(Toronto; Rockingham Press. 75e.)—Mr. Hassard is an enthu- siastic admirer of Macaulay, but he cannot be said to have thrown any new light on the historian. He points out that Lord Stanhope's History of England, in the chapters dealing with Clive, Hastings, and Chatham, and Macaulay's famous essays are so closely identical in arrangement and phrase that one writer must have borrowed from the other. He urges that as Macaulay denounced literary piracy and trounced one Vizetelly, who brought out an unauthorized edition of his speeches, be would not have remained silent if Lord Stanhope had plagiarized his essays. He suggests therefore that Macaulay himself borrowed freely from his friend Stanhope's manuscript history before it was published. The suggestion seems to us wildly incredible. Macaulay's sources of information are perfectly well known. He had no need to go to Stanhope for his Indian history. On the other hand, there were many reasons, both social and political, why he should not publicly attack Stanhope for borrowing front his essays. Plagiarism of this sort did Macaulay no harm.
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