ABSTRACT
One of the merits of Macaulay is that he treats the Revolution broadly and comprehensively, connects throughout the history of England with that of Ireland and Scotland, and shows how the change of government in one country affected the fortunes of the other two. It was a more difficult task than his readers realise, for there was at that time no good history of either Ireland or Scotland in existence, nor were there available many of those monographs on particular subjects which help to replace consecutive narratives. Take, for instance, Scotland. Malcolm Laing's verbose and obsolete History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms was the best available account. Tytler's excellent history stopped short in 1603 ; Hill Burton's was not yet published. However, the first instalment of Burton's book, which covered the period from 1689 to 1745, appeared in 1853, and was much used by Macaulay in his account of William Ill's reign. At present a historian of the period has at his service, Hill Burton's revised and completed history, the books of Professor Hume Brown, Mr. Andrew Lang, and Mr. W. L. Mathieson, besides a number of biographies of particular persons or treatises on particular subjects. Take into account also the new evidence made accessible during the last sixty years, the documentary publications of the government, the reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, the volumes issued by the Scottish History Society and other societies, and the matter contained in the Scottish Historical Review. 1 With little assistance from previous writers, and from imperfect materials, Macaulay put together his vigorous and vivid narrative of events in Scotland from 1685 to 1701. It contains many errors, and there are some serious omissions, but he deserves the credit which belongs to a pioneer, and should for that reason be more leniently judged. Perhaps the fact that this portion of the History has been more minutely scrutinised than the rest makes it seem comparatively more inaccurate. 2
