Why did Thomas Babington Macaulay never speak in the House of Lords?

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Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, detail of an oil painting by J. Partridge, 1840; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Thomas Babington Macaulay was raised to the peerage in 1857, but he never spoke in the House of Lords primarily because his health was failing at that time. Following his return to Parliament in 1852, he had already developed heart disease, which significantly limited his participation in political life.1