Hallam, HENRY (1777-1859), historian, son of John Hallam, Canon of Windsor and Dean of Bristol, was born at the former town, 9th July 1777. He studied at Eton College with zeal and success (his Latin verses in the Musæ Etonenses were esteemed by competent judges among the best in the collection). He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 20th April 1795, and proceeded B.A. 1799, M.A. 1832. The modern system of prizes was not yet in existence, and if he did nothing tangible at the university, it was because there was nothing to be done. Certainly all through he worked strenuously. He next read law in chambers in Lincoln's Inn, was admitted a member of the Middle Temple, and called to the bar by that society in 1802. His inn elected him a bencher in 1841, a somewhat rare honour for a non-practising barrister, as Hallam from the first gave himself entirely to literary pursuits. He had a small but sufficient fortune of his own, whilst his Whig friends in due time gave him various appointments—a commissionership of stamps among the rest. In 1805 he was engaged to write for the Edinburgh Review (Byron's famous satire alludes to him as 'classic Hallam, much renowned for Greek'), but it was not till he was over forty that he published his first great work. This was his View of Europe during the Middle Ages. It at once gave him a foremost place among English historians. He received in full measure such honours as fall to the lot of successful scholars. He was created a D.C.L., and elected a Fellow of the Royal, the Antiquarian, and many other learned societies at home and abroad. He was also a trustee of the British Museum, in which institution he took a great interest.
His life was almost without external incident. Its course was narrow and retired, yet within it he was both singularly fortunate and unfortunate. He had no money cares, he chose his own path in literature, and its very drudgery was delightful to him. He was fond of travel and of the society of cultivated men, and he enjoyed both. He was universally respected and admired. He had married a daughter of Sir Abraham Elton of Clevedon Court, Somersetshire, and the marriage was a happy one. He was devotedly attached to his wife and children; but there was some strain of physical weakness in the family. Of many children, only four survived early life. One of them died suddenly at Vienna. He was the Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-33) of In Memoriam. That work, rather than the fragments he left, full of promise as these were, will preserve his name. Hallam felt the loss keenly. He spoke of himself as one 'whose hopes on this side the tomb are broken down for ever;' but fate had not exhausted its inalice. His wife died in 1840. The younger son, Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam (1824-50), was struck down abroad like his brother. A sister had predeceased him. The father lived on for yet nine years. In the shadowy joys of literature he found some consolation for those deep pangs which learned and unlearned feel with equal anguish. One daughter, wife to Colonel Cator of Pickhurst, in Kent, remained to soothe with pious care his last years. He lived with her till his death, 21st January 1859. He was buried with his wife and children in Clevedon Church, 'in a still and sequestered situation on a bare hill that overhangs the Bristol Channel.' A statue by M. Theed was erected to him in St Paul's Cathedral in 1862.
Hallam's position as an historian rests upon three great works. (1) View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages (2 vols. 1818), the object of which is 'to exhibit in a series of historical dissertations a comprehensive survey of the chief circumstances that can interest a philosophical inquirer during the period usually denominated the middle ages.' Special attention is accordingly given to the modes of government and constitutional laws. (2) The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. (2 vols. 1827). The starting-point is so fixed, because Hallam had already discussed the antecedent portion in the eighth chapter of his View of the State of Europe. He did not go further, 'being influenced by unwillingness to excite the prejudices of modern politics.' This did not save him from a savage attack by Southey in the Quarterly Review. Macaulay made the book the subject of a brilliant panegyric in his well-known Essay. The work has survived both praise and blame. It is still the standard authority for the period over which it extends; the preceding period was treated by Stubbs; the subsequent, by Sir T. E. May. (3) Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (4 vols. 1837-39). This exhibits an even greater range of information than Hallam's other works; but its extent prevented it from being so thorough as they are. The sources are not so original, and it is not of such permanent value as the Constitutional History. Neither extracts nor biographical details are given, but full analyses of the works discussed.
Hallam's scholarship is accurate, his learning is both wide and deep. He is perfectly honest and perfectly disinterested. He is very anxious to find out the truth and impart it to the reader; and his style is clear and correct. He had some defects. He was a Whig of the old school (he was keenly opposed to the first Reform Bill), and disposed to look at everything from a somewhat narrow party point of view. There is a want of colour and animation about his style, and there is little human interest in his work; he dissects the past, but he does not make it live again for his readers. He is an author 'rather praised than read,' or at least his works are rather consulted by the student than popular with the general reader. Possibly this is the fate he would himself have wished for them.
There is oddly enough no complete Life of Hallam. The best accounts are the obituary and funeral notices in the Times, 24th and 31st January 1859, and in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (vol. x. p. 12, 1859-60). See also Harriet Martineau's Biographical Sketches. The Remains of Arthur Henry Hallam, with a memoir by his father, appeared in 1834, and a brief notice of Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam was printed soon after his death. Editions, translations, and abridgments of Hallam's works are numerous.