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 to the speaker (John Evelyn Denison) of the House of Commons from February 1863 until his preferment in November 1869 to the deanery of Ely. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1862, was reappointed select preacher at Whitehall in 1864, and in that and the following year delivered the Boyle lectures. In 1862 and 1871 he examined for the Indian civil service. In 1806 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford.

Merivale made no figure in convocation, and after allowing himself to be added to the committee for the revision of the authorised version of the New Testament in February 1871, withdrew from it in the following October. He identified himself with no ecclesiastical party, abhorred polemics, and as a preacher was solid and judicious rather than eloquent. Though inclined to comprehension as the only means of averting the disruption of the church, he approved the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874. His later years were spent in almost entire seclusion at Ely, where he enlarged the school and partially restored the cathedral. He also organised the commemoration in 1873 of the foundation of Ely Minster, of which he published an account, entitled 'St. Etheldreda Festival: Summary of Proceedings, with Sermons and Addresses at the Bissextenary Festival of St. Etheldreda at Ely, October 1873,' Ely, 1874, 4to. On 17 Feb. 1892 he had a slight attack of paralysis ; a second, towards the close of November 1893, was followed by his death on 27 Dec. His remains were interred in Ely cemetery, his monument with epitaph by Dr. Butler, master of Trinity, was placed in Ely Cathedral. He married, on 2 July 1850, Judith Mary Sophia, youngest daughter of George Frere of Lincoln's Inn and Twy ford House, Bishop's Stortford, by whom he left issue.

Merivale contributed the version of 'Der Kampf mit dem Drachen' to his father's translation of the minor poems of Schiller (1844) ; but thenceforth his German studies were subordinate to his historical work. He was collaborating on a 'History of Rome,' projected by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, when the fortunate failure of the enterprise set him free to recast and continue the work independently and with other publishers. Such was the origin of his 'History of the Romans under the Empire,' London, 1850-64, 7 vols. 8vo ; new edit. 1865, 8 vols. The sterling merits of this work, which embraces the period from the rise of the Gracchi to the death of Marcus Aurelius, thus forming a prelude to Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' are uncontested, while its recognised blemish, neglect of epigraphical sources, was hardly to be avoided in the circumstances in which it was written. The vogue of the first three volumes was such as to induce him to issue a popular epitome of them in one volume, entitled ' The Fall of the Roman Republic : a short History of the last Century of the Commonwealth,' London, 1853, 8vo; 5th edit. 1863. He also edited as parerga 'C. Sallustii Crispi Catilina et Jugurtha,' London, 1852, 8vo, and 'An Account of the Life and Letters of Cicero, translated from the German of Bernhard Rudolf Abeken,' London, 1854, 12mo, and in 1857 contributed the article on Niebuhr to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica.' About the same time he formed a connection with the 'Saturday Review,' which lasted for some years. His 'Boyle Lectures' 1. 'The Conversion of the Roman Empire,' and 2. 'The Conversion of the Northern Nations' appeared in 1864 and 1866 respectively (London, 8vo). More definitely apologetic was his lecture for the Christian Evidence Society, entitled ' The Contrast between Pagan and Christian Society,' London, 1872, 8vo. His 'General History of Rome from the Foundation of the City to the Fall of Augustulus,' London, 1875, 8vo, is a convenient epitome of a vast subject : an abridgment by C. Puller appeared in 1877. 'The Roman Triumvirates' (Epochs of Ancient History Ser.), London, 1876, 8vo ; 'St. Paul at Rome' (S.P.C.K.), London, 1877, 8vo; 'The Conversion of the Continental Teutons' (S. P. C. K.), London, 1878, 8vo ; and 'Four Lectures on some Epochs of Early Church History delivered in Ely Cathedral,' London, 1879, 8vo, complete the tale of his historical and apologetic writings.

Merivale's prize poems are printed in 'Prolusiones Academicæ,' Cambridge, 1828, iii. 27, 35. His 'Keatsii Hyperionis Libri Tres, Latine reddidit C. Merivale,' London, 1863, 8vo; 2nd edit., with a collection of minor pieces from 'Arundines Cami' in 1882, evinces the assiduity with which in after life he cultivated his unusual gift for Latin verse. His 'Homer's Iliad in English Rhymed Verse,' London, 1869, 8vo, did not add to his reputation. His university sermons, 'The Church of England a faithful Witness of Christ, not destroying the Law, but fulfilling it,' appeared at Cambridge in 1839, 8vo, and were followed by 'Sermons preached in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall,' Cambridge, 1841, 8vo. He also published three separate discourses, besides a pamphlet entitled 'Open Fellowships ; a Plea for submitting College Fellowships to University Competition ;' and a memoir of his brother, Herman Merivale,