Q: Source of a quotation

[Garson O'Toole]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Ken Hirsch  wrote:
> 1871
> http://books.google.com/books?id=igmgAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA373&dq=%22i%20wish%20i%20knew%20anything%22
>
> "I wish I knew anything," said Lord Melbourne, "as positively as Macaulay
> knows everything;"
>
> 1884
> http://books.google.com/books?id=p_QAAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22i%20wish%20I%20knew%20anything%22%20macaulay%20everything&pg=PR98
>
> On reading Macaulay's "History of England," Sydney Smith remarked : " I wish
> I knew anything as well as Macaulay thinks he knows everything."
>
>
> 1885
> http://books.google.com/books?id=qJAAAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22I+wish+I+knew%22
>
> This led a witty fellow to say, "I wish I knew as much of any thing as Tom
> Macaulay does of every thing."
>

Great cites! Here is a version from 1860, but maybe the 1889 version
in YBQ takes precedence because it is from Lord Melbourne's Papers?

Lord Melbourne once said of him - "I wish," remarked the Prime
Minister, "that I was as sure of any one thing, as Tom Macaulay is
sure of everything."

"Macaulay; The Historian Statesman and Essayist. Anecdotes of His Life
and Literary Labours With Some Account of His Early and Unknown
Writings", John Camden Hotten Piccadilly, London, 1860.

http://books.google.com/books?id=lhE6AAAAcAAJ&q=%22Tom+Macaulay+is+sure%22#v=snippet&q=%22Tom%20Macaulay%20is%20sure%22&f=false

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