Macaulay’s New Zealander

Abstract

Examines the concept of the New Zealander as used by Macaulay to suggest a traveler observing the ruins of Britain. Notes the pervasiveness of concern about mutability, ruin, and decay in works of others, especially Romantics such as Shelley and Victorians such as Trollope and Ruskin. Speculates on reasons why Macaulay chose the New Zealander for his image, noting the association of New Zealand with savagery by the historian’s contemporaries, thereby heightening the irony.