John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
DL | |
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Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth | |
In office 25 July 1865 – 1866 Serving with John Pritchard | |
Preceded by | Henry Whitmore |
Succeeded by | Henry Whitmore |
Member of Parliament for Carlow | |
In office 19 May 1859 – 25 July 1865 | |
Preceded by | John Alexander |
Succeeded by | Thomas Stock |
Personal details | |
Born | John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton 10 January 1834 Naples, Two Sicilies |
Died | 19 June 1902 Tegernsee, Bavaria German Empire | (aged 68)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse |
Countess Marie von Arco auf Valley
(m. 1865) |
Children | 6 |
Parent |
|
Alma mater | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
Occupation | Historian; politician |
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli,
Early life and background
The only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet,[2] and grandson of the Neapolitan admiral and prime minister Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet[3] (who succeeded to the baronetcy and estates held by another branch of the Acton family in Shropshire in 1791), Acton was known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet, from 1837 to 1869. His grandfather was part of a younger line of the family that had moved to France and Italy, but after the extinction of the elder branch he became the patriarch.[3]
Acton's father, known as Richard, married Marie Louise Pelline, the only daughter of
He was raised as a
He was a master of the principal foreign languages, and began at an early age to collect a magnificent historical library, which he intended to use to compose a "History of Liberty". In politics, he was always an ardent
Career
This article is part of a series on |
Liberalism in the United Kingdom |
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During his extensive travels, Acton spent much time in the chief intellectual centres of Europe, reading the correspondence of historical personalities.
Politics
In 1859, Acton settled in England, at his country house,
Acton took a great interest in the United States, considering its
In 1869,
Religion and writings
Meanwhile, Acton became the editor of the Roman Catholic monthly paper,
In the March 1862 Rambler, Acton wrote:
The Celts are not among the progressive, initiative races, but among those which supply the materials rather than the impulse of history, and are either stationary or retrogressive. The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons are the only makers of history, the only authors of advancement. Other races possessing a highly developed language, a speculative religion, enjoying luxury and art, attain to a certain pitch of cultivation which they are unable to either communicate or to increase. They are a negative element in the world.
And: "Subjection to a people of a higher capacity for government is of itself no misfortune; and it is to most countries the condition of their political advancement."[14]
In 1870, along with his mentor
But if we might discuss this point until we found that we nearly agreed, and if we do agree thoroughly about the impropriety of
Elizabeth asked the gaoler to murder Mary, and William III of England ordered his Scots minister to extirpate a clan. Here are the greatest names coupled with the greatest crimes; you would spare those criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice, still more, still higher for the sake of historical science.[1]
Thenceforth he steered clear of theological
In 1874, when Gladstone published his pamphlet on
Personal life
On 1 August 1865, Acton married Countess Marie Anna Ludomilla Euphrosina von Arco auf Valley (1841–1923), daughter of the Bavarian Count Maximilian von Arco auf Valley, with whom he had six children:[citation needed]
- Mary Elizabeth Anne Dalberg-Acton (1866–1951), married Lt-Col. Edward Bleiddian Herbert and had children.
- Annie Mary Catherine Dalberg-Acton (1868–1917)
- Richard Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton (1870–1924)
- John Dalberg Dalberg-Acton (1872–1873)
- Elizabeth Mary Dalberg-Acton (1874–1881)
- Jeanne Marie Dalberg-Acton (1876–1919)
His nephew was Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley (1897–1945), a German count and political activist, and assassin of socialist Bavarian minister-president Kurt Eisner in 1919.
When his cousin Maria, Duchess of Galliera died in 1888, Acton inherited the dormant title of Marquess of Groppoli.
Professor at Cambridge
Acton's reputation for learning spread gradually abroad, largely through Gladstone's influence. Gladstone found him a valuable political adviser, and in 1892, when the Liberal government came in, Lord Acton was made a lord-in-waiting. Finally, in 1895, on the death of Sir
Death and legacy
After his health began to fail in 1901, Acton died on 19 June 1902 at his wife's family home in the
Lord Acton has left too little completed original work to rank among the great historians; his very learning seems to have stood in his way; he knew too much and his literary conscience was too acute for him to write easily, and his copiousness of information overloads his literary style. But he was one of the most deeply learned men of his time, and he will certainly be remembered for his influence on others.[6]
The Acton School of Business, established in 2002 in Austin, Texas, was named in his honor.
Ancestry
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Notable quotations
- Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.[1]
- Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority.[1]
- There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.[1]
- History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.[19]
- Universal History is ... not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.[20]
- There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success. [said of Oliver Cromwell][21]
- The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.[22][23]
- The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.[24]
- Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.[25]
- Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.[26]
- The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.[27]
Works
- The Civil War in America: Its Place in History (lecture; 1866).
- The Rise and Fall of the Mexican Empire (lecture; 1868).
- Letters from Rome on the Council (1870).
- The War of 1870 (lecture; 1871).
- The History of Freedom in Antiquity (address; 1877).
- The History of Freedom in Christianity (address; 1877).
- Introductory note to L.A. Burd's edition of Machiavelli's Il Principe (1891).
- A Lecture on the Study of History (1895).
- Introductory note to G.P. Gooch's Annals of Politics and Culture (1901).
Posthumous
- Letters of Lord Acton to Mary, Daughter of the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone (1904).
- Lectures on Modern History (1906).[28]
- The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907).
- Historical Essays and Studies (1907).
- Lectures on the French Revolution (1910).
- Selections from the Correspondence of the First Lord Acton (1917).
Articles
- "Mill on Liberty," Part II, The Rambler (1859–60).
- "The Roman Question," The Rambler (1860).
- "The State of the Church," The Rambler (1860).
- "Hefele's 'Life of Ximenes'," The Rambler (1860).
- "The Political System of the Popes," Part II, Part III, The Rambler (1860–61).
- "Döllinger's 'History of Christianity'," The Rambler (1861).
- "Notes on the Present State of Austria," The Rambler (1861).
- "Political Causes of the American Revolution," The Rambler (1861).
- "Cavour," The Rambler (1861).
- "The Catholic Academy," The Rambler (1861).
- "Döllinger on the Temporal Power," The Rambler (1861).
- "Mr. Goldwin Smith's Irish History," The Rambler (1862).
- "The Protestant Theory of Persecution," The Rambler (1862).
- "Nationality," Home and Foreign Review (1862).
- "Secret History of Charles II," Home and Foreign Review (1862).
- "Confessions of Frederick the Great," Home and Foreign Review (1863).
- "The Waldensian Forgeries," Home and Foreign Review (1863).
- "Ultramontanism," Home and Foreign Review (1863).
- "Mediæval Fables of the Popes," Home and Foreign Review (1863).
- "The Munich Congress," Home and Foreign Review (1864).
- "Conflicts with Rome," Home and Foreign Review (1864).
- "Material Resources of the Papacy," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Fra Paolo Sarpi," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Case of Monte Cassino," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Döllinger on Universities," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Ministerial Changes in Italy," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Secret History of the Italian Crisis," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Secret Bull," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Reminiscences of Massimo d'Azeglio," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Next General Council," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Ranke," The Chronicle (1867).
- "M. Littré on the Middle Ages," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Mr. Goldwin Smith on the Political History of England," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Nicholas of Cusa," The Chronicle (1867).
- "Maurice of Saxony," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Acta Sanctorum," The Chronicle (1867).
- "The Queen's Journal," The Chronicle (1868).
- "Ozanam on the Fifth Century," The Chronicle (1868).
- "The Massacre of St. Bartholomew," The North British Review (1868).
- "The Pope and the Council," The North British Review (1869).
- "The Vatican Council," The North British Review (1870).
- "The Borgias and their Latest Historian," The North British Review (1871).
- "Wolsey and the Divorce of Henry VIII," Quarterly Review (1877).
- "Sir Erskine May's 'Democracy in Europe'," Quarterly Review (1878).
- "George Eliot's Life," The Nineteenth Century (1885).
- "German Schools of History," English Historical Review (1886).
- "Wilhelm von Giesebretch," English Historical Review (1890).
- "Döllinger's Historical Work," English Historical Review (1890).
See also
- Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887 Transcript of, published in Historical Essays and Studies, edited by J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907).
- ^ a b c Dod, Robert P. (1860). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Whitaker and Co. p. 83.
- ^ ISBN 0-550-16010-8, p. 6
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911, p. 159.
- ^ OCLC 750831024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chisholm 1911, p. 160.
- ^ 4 Nov 1866, letter to Robert E. Lee, The Acton-Lee Correspondence Archived 18 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine at lewrockwell.com, accessed 21 February 2011.
- ^ a b McGreevy, John T. (2003). Catholicism and American Freedom: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 79.
- ISBN 0-631-14708-X.
- ^ "No. 26871". The London Gazette. 9 July 1897. p. 3819.
- ^ "No. 10900". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 July 1897. p. 673.
- ISBN 978-0313304224.
- ^ MacDougall, Hugh A. (1962). The Acton/Newman Relations: The Dilemma of Christian Liberalism. Fordham University Press.
- ^ Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (15 February 2010). The History of Freedom, and Other Essays – via Project Gutenberg.
- JSTOR 2708113.
- ^ Thurston, Herbert (1907). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ 'Lord Acton', by Roland Hill (Pub. Yale University Press, 2000)
- OCLC 74823252.
- ^ "Whig History at Eighty | Wilfred M. McClay". First Things. March 2011.
- ^ Lectures on Modern History (1895) Appendix I. at Project Gutenberg.
- ^ Lectures on Modern History (1895) Lecture XI, The Puritan Revolution. at Project Gutenberg.
- ^ Lectures on the French Revolution (1910) Macmillan, p. 92, at Project Gutenberg.
- ^ quoted in Forbidden Knowledge (1996) by Roger Shattuck, p. 236
- ^ A Lecture on the Study of History, 1895 Macmillan (1911), p. 3, at Project Gutenberg.
- ^ John Acton Quotes from brainyquote.com Accessed 21 February 2011.
- ^ as quoted in The American Political Science Review vol. 56, 1963 from The Rambler Volume 2 (1860) p. 146.
- ^ "Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs". bu.edu.
- .
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton), 1st Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). pp. 159–160. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
This 'further reading' section may need cleanup. (March 2024) |
- Lang, Timothy (2002). "Lord Acton and 'The Insanity of Nationality'". Journal of the History of Ideas. 63 (1): 129–149. JSTOR 3654261.
- Pezzimenti, Rocco (2001). The Political Thought of Lord Acton: The English Catholics in the Nineteenth Century. Leominster: Gracewing.
- Hill, Roland (2000). Lord Acton. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press.
- Boyd, Kelly, ed. Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writers (Rutledge, 1999) 1:1–2
- Kirk, Russell (1994). Lord Acton on Revolution. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Acton Institute.
- Chadwick, Owen (1998). Acton and History. Cambridge University Press.
- Tulloch, Hugh (1988). Acton. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Nurser, John (1987). The Reign of Conscience: Individual, Church, and State in Lord Acton's History of Liberty. London: Taylor & Francis.
- Murphy, Terrence (1984). "Lord Acton and the Question of Moral Judgments in History: The Development of His Position". The Catholic Historical Review. 70 (2): 225–250.
- Chadwick, Owen (1976). Acton and Gladstone. London: Athlone Press.
- Schuettinger, Robert Lindsay (1976). Lord Acton: Historian of Liberty. Open Court Publishing Company.
- Deane, Seamus F (1972). "Lord Acton and Edmund Burke". Journal of the History of Ideas. 33 (2): 325–335. JSTOR 2708878.
- Massey, Hector J (1969). "Lord Acton's Theory of Nationality". The Review of Politics. 31 (4): 495–508. S2CID 143980116.
- Mathew, David (1968). Lord Acton and His Times. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
- Watt, E.D. (1966). "Rome and Lord Acton: A Reinterpretation". The Review of Politics. 28 (4): 493–507. S2CID 145598255.
- Weaver, Richard M. (1961). "Lord Acton: The Historian as Thinker". Modern Age. V (1): 13–22.
- JSTOR 25293642.
- Fasnacht, George Eugene (1952). Acton's Political Philosophy: An Analysis. London: Hollis.
- Himmelfarb, Gertrude (1952). Lord Action: A Study in Conscience and Politics. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
- Hill, Roland (1952). Lord Acton. History Today (1952) 2#8 pp. 551–557 online
- Engel-Janosi, Friedrich (1941). "Reflections of Lord Acton on Historical Principles". The Catholic Historical Review. 27 (2): 166–185.
- Mathew, David (1946). Acton: The Formative Years. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
- Drew, Mary Gladstone (1924). "Acton and Gladstone." In: Acton, Gladstone, and Others. London, Nisbet & Co., ltd., pp. 1–31.
- S2CID 162646791.
- Laski, Harold J. (1918). "Lord Acton: Idealist," The Dial, Vol. LXV, pp. 59–61.
- Lilly, W.S. (1911). "Lord Acton and the French Revolution," The Dublin Review, Vol. CXLVIII, pp. 213–229.
- Gasquet, Abbot (1906). Lord Acton and His Circle. London: Burn & Oates.
- Thurston, Herbert (1906). "The Late Lord Acton," The Catholic World, Vol. LXXXIV, pp. 357–372.
- Lyttelton, Maud (1904). "Mr. Gladstone's Friendship with Lord Acton," Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. LXXIV, pp. 610–616.
- .
External links
- Making History biography
- Works by John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton at Project Gutenberg
- Works by John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton at Internet Archive
- Acton Institute: Research on Lord Acton sources from the Acton Institute
- "Archival material relating to John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton". UK National Archives. UK National Archives