t the haunts of those whom Pope and
his contemporaries used to term "the great," to seek the cheerful and
cultured simplicity of his home, or the conversation of that one friend
who had a share in the familiar confidence which Macaulay otherwise
reserved for his nearest relatives. This was Mr. Thomas Flower Ellis,
whose reports of the proceedings in King's Bench, extending over a whole
generation, have established and perpetuated his name as that of an
acute and industrious lawyer. He was older than Macaulay by four years.
Though both Fellows of the same college, they missed each other at the
university, and it was not until 1827, on the Northern circuit, that
their acquaintance began. "Macaulay has joined," writes Mr. Ellis; "an
amusing person; somewhat boyish in his manner, but very original." The
young barristers had in common an insatiable love of the classics;
and similarity of character, not very perceptible on the surface, soon
brought about an intimacy which ripened into an attachment as important
to the happiness of both concerned as ever united two men through every
stage of life and vicissitude of fortune. Mr. Ellis had married early;
but in 1839 he lost his wife, and Macaulay's helpful and heartfelt
participation in his great sorrow riveted the links of a chain that was
already indissoluble.

The letters contained in this volume will tell, better than the words
of any third person, what were the points of sympathy between the two
companions, and in what manner they lived together till the end came.
Mr. Ellis survived his friend little more than a year; not complaining
or lamenting but going about his work like a man from whose day the
light has departed.

Brief and rare were the vacations of the most hard-worked Parliament
that had sat since the times of Pym and Hampden. In the late autumn of
1831, the defeat of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords delivered
over the country to agitation, resentment, and alarm; and gave a short
holiday to public men who were not Ministers, magistrates, or officers
in the yeomanry. Hannah and Margaret Macaulay accompanied their brother
on a visit to Cambridge, where they met with the welcome which young
Masters of Arts delight in providing for the sisters of a comrade of
whom they are fond and proud.

"On the evening that we arrived," says Lady Trevelyan, "we met at dinner
Whewell, Sedgwick, Airy, and Thirlwail and how pleasant they were,
and how much they made of us two