ABSTRACT
State papers, memoirs, and the correspondence of kings and ministers are not the only materials which a modern historian requires. They must be supplemented by unofficial documents of various kinds, but above all by the mass of printed matter, in prose and verse, in which the common ideas and the daily life of a nation find expression, and where small as well as great events are recorded. No one realised this better than Macaulay ; he had the great advantage of dealing with a period for which materials of this kind were abundant and easily accessible, without being absolutely overwhelming in their bulk.
