Green plaque nominee was reforming politician
COULD I remind Echo readers that one of the 12 nominees for a Leicestershire Green Plaque (closing date July 31) is Lord (Tom) Macaulay?
This eminent 19th Century historian, writer and reforming politician was born in 1800 in Rothley Temple (now Rothley Court Hotel).
As a child he often came back to Rothley, enjoying the surrounding countryside.
Macaulay entered parliament in 1830 as a reforming Whig. He favoured the ending of civil disabilities for Jews, and spoke up for parliamentary reform.
When he went to India as a member of the Governor’s council he wrote a famous – or notorious – ‘Minute on Education’.
Its main proposal - to make English the main language of Indian education – was based on a dismissive attitude to Indian cultures. By contrast he thought European classical literature the pinnacle of human achievement.
This attitude, though widely held in Britain at the time, has understandably led Macaulay to be widely criticised (although he also has some Indian defenders, who have praised his criticism of the caste system).
Back in Britain Macaulay became famous as a poet on classical themes (How Horatius kept the bridge).
He wrote a multivolume history of the 1688 (‘glorious’) revolution, which portrayed it as the victory of parliament and liberty over royal despotism. He was also an advocate of the National Portrait Gallery and became a founding trustee. Shortly before his death in 1859 he was made the first Baron Macaulay of Rothley. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Even though many of Macaulay’s views clearly now seem outdated, narrow-minded and controversial he was undoubtedly an major figure and his birthplace at Rothley surely deserves a Green Plaque.
Anyone who agrees, please go to the county council website https:// www. leicestershire. gov. uk/leisure-and-community/history-and-heritage/green-plaqueawards-scheme and cast your vote.