Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, vol 1 | Page 6

gave scandal to some of
his disciples, (who by that time were one and all sworn abolitionists,)
by his supposed reluctance to see that there could be no fellowship
between light and such darkness.
But Zachary Macaulay had eyes of his own to look about him, a clear
head for forming a judgment on what he saw, and a conscience which
would not permit him to live otherwise than in obedience to its
mandates. The young Scotchman's innate respect for his fellows, and
his appreciation of all that instruction and religion can do for men, was
shocked at the sight of a population deliberately kept ignorant and
heathen. His kind heart was wounded by cruelties practised at the will
and pleasure of a thousand petty despots. He had read his Bible too
literally to acquiesce easily in a state of matters under which human
beings were bred and raised like a stock of cattle, while outraged
morality was revenged on the governing race by the shameless
licentiousness which is the inevitable accompaniment of slavery. He
was well aware that these evils, so far from being superficial or
remediable, were essential to the very existence of a social fabric
constituted like that within which he lived. It was not for nothing that
he had been behind the scenes in that tragedy of crime and misery. His
philanthropy was not learned by the royal road of tracts, and platform
speeches, and monthly magazines. What he knew he had spelt out for
himself with no teacher except the aspect of human suffering, and
degradation, and sin.
He was not one of those to whom conviction comes in a day; and, when
convinced, he did nothing sudden. Little more than a boy in age,
singularly modest, and constitutionally averse to any course that
appeared pretentious or theatrical, he began by a sincere attempt to
make the best of his calling. For some years he contented himself with
doing what he could, (so he writes to a friend,) "to alleviate the

hardships of a considerable number of my fellow-creatures, and to
render the bitter cup of servitude as palatable as possible." But by the
time he was four-and-twenty he became tired of trying to find a
compromise between right and wrong, and, refusing really great offers
from the people with whom he was connected, he threw up his position,
and returned to his native country. This step was taken against the
wishes of his father, who was not prepared for the construction which
his son put upon the paternal precept that a man should make his
practice square with his professions.
But Zachary Macaulay soon had more congenial work to do. The
young West Indian overseer was not alone in his scruples. Already for
some time past a conviction had been abroad that individual citizens
could not divest themselves of their share in the responsibility in which
the nation was involved by the existence of slavery in our colonies.
Already there had been formed the nucleus of the most disinterested,
and perhaps the most successful, popular movement which history
records. The question of the slave trade was well before Parliament and
the country. Ten years had passed since the freedom of all whose feet
touched the soil of our island had been vindicated before the courts at
Westminster, and not a few negroes had become their own masters as a
consequence of that memorable decision. The patrons of the race were
somewhat embarrassed by having these expatriated freedmen on their
hands; an opinion prevailed that the traffic in human lives could never
be efficiently checked until Africa had obtained the rudiments of
civilisation; and, after long discussion, a scheme was matured for the
colonisation of Sierra Leone by liberated slaves. A company was
organised, with a charter from the Crown, and a board which included
the names of Granville Sharpe and Wilberforce. A large capital was
speedily subscribed, and the Chair was accepted by Mr. Henry
Thornton, a leading City banker and a member of Parliament, whose
determined opposition to cruelty and oppression in every form was
such as might be expected in one who had inherited from his father the
friendship of the poet Cowper. Mr. Thornton heard Macaulay's story
from Thomas Babington, with whom he lived on terms of close
intimacy and political alliance. The Board, by the advice of its
Chairman, passed a resolution appointing the young man Second

Member in the Sierra Leone Council, and early in the year 1793 he
sailed for Africa, where soon after his arrival he succeeded to the
position and duties of Governor.
The Directors had done well to secure a tried man. The colony was at
once exposed to the implacable enmity of merchants whose market the
agents of the new company spoiled in their capacity of