<p>Thomas Babington Macaulay was a child prodigy who, by the age of 8, had written a history of the world and a poem in three cantos modeled after the poetry of Sir Walter Scott. He studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, but drew great attention for several literary essays he contributed to the Edinburgh Review. In 1849, he published the first two volumes of «The History of England, From the Accession of James II», which were immediately well-received. As a Whig, with little tolerance for To...