Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

THURSTON AND TORRY, PRINTERS.

INTRODUCTION.

MR. MACAULAY is one of the few men of letters, who succeed in all they attempt. He became first known to the public as the writer of the most brilliant series of papers which have ever appeared in the Edinburgh Review. He was brought into the House of Commons, and there became conspicuous for the eloquence of his speeches, and the copious erudition with which he illustrated every subject on which he spoke. His ballads of Ivry and the Armada, showed poetical ability, and a great command of the characteristic rhythms of the

English language.

The Lays of Ancient Rome, founded upon an exact appreciation of the historical researches of Niebuhr, exhibit also a keen perception of the true character of ancient ballad poetry, and a