The years between the publication of the first two and the second two volumes of Macaulay's History exhibit a mingled pattern of light and shade. While the public man was showered with national and international honors, the private person found his once robust health beginning to give way until, midway in the period covered in this volume, it broke, never to be fully restored. Macaulay bore the irony of his situation with determined good spirits, but he could hardly help seeing his triumphs under the shadow of mortality.

Later in the year he was to receive an honorary D.C.L. from Oxford. He was already a Trustee of the British Museum, the (honorary) Professor of Ancient Literature of the Royal Academy, a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and a Senator of the University of London. The profits from his books grew with every year. In England, the first installment of the History of England had reached an eleventh edition – a total of 35,000 copies in the expensive library format – before the second installment appeared to set off a wave of even greater sales.