"[T]here is no denying that Macaulay's historical sympathies were strongly enlisted in support of limited and constitutional government, parliamentary and cabinet government, the extension of civil liberties, the expansion of religious toleration, the broadening of intellectual freedom, the curbing of mercantilistic restrictions, the elimination of trading barriers, the widening of free trade. Since the rising middle class was an exponent of many of these policies, Macaulay in a sense may be said to be an apologist of that class. And since the Whig party was frequently an advocate of many of these policies, Macaulay, in his role of historian, often appears friendly to that party. But this is about as far as Macaulay went in writing from the Whig point of view."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William G. Carleton, 'Macaulay and the Trimmers', The American Scholar, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 1949–50), pp. 74-75
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Babington_Macaulay
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a nineteenth century British poet, historian and Whig politician.
208 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay →
Related Quotes
"But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will flu…"
"It is our deliberate opinion that the French Revolution, in spite of all its crimes and follies, was a great blessing…"
"He William Temple] was merely a man of lively parts and quick observation,—a man of the world amongst men of letters,…"
"The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to …"
"'It is scarcely possible to calculate the benefits which we might derive from the diffusion of European civilisation …"
"It may be that the public mind of India may expand under our system till it has outgrown that system; that by good go…"
"An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia. The smallest actual good is better than the most magnif…"
"To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. The aim of th…"
"A life of action, if it is to be useful, must be a life of compromise. But speculation admits of no compromise. A pub…"
"Such night in England ne'er had been, nor ne'er again shall be."