The Lord Acton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament forBridgnorth | |
| In office 25 July 1865 – 1866 Serving with John Pritchard | |
| Preceded by | Henry Whitmore |
| Succeeded by | Henry Whitmore |
| Member of Parliament forCarlow | |
| 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 |
| Died | 19 June 1902(1902-06-19) (aged 68) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent | |
| Relatives | Alex Callinicos (grandson) |
| Education | Oscott College |
| Alma mater | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
| Occupation | Historian; politician |
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli,KCVO, DL (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), better known asLord Acton, was an EnglishCatholic historian,Liberal politician, and writer. A strong advocate forindividual liberty, Acton is best known for his timeless observation on the dangers ofconcentrated authority. In an 1887 letter to an Anglican bishop, he famously wrote, 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely',[1] underscoring his belief that unchecked power poses the greatest threat tohuman freedom. His works consistently emphasised the importance oflimiting governmental and institutional power in favour of individual rights and personal liberty.[2][3][4]
The only son ofSir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet,[5] and grandson of theNeapolitan admiral and prime ministerSir John Acton, 6th Baronet[6] (who succeeded to the baronetcy and estates held by another branch of the Acton family inShropshire 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 toFrance andItaly, but after the extinction of the elder branch he became the patriarch.[6]
Acton's father, known as Richard, married Marie Louise Pelline, the only daughter ofEmmerich Joseph, 1st Duc de Dalberg, a naturalised French noble of ancient German lineage who had entered the French service underNapoleon and representedLouis XVIII at theCongress of Vienna in 1814. After Sir Richard Acton's death in 1837, she became the wife of the2nd Earl Granville (1840).[7][5] Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg was heiress ofHerrnsheim in Germany. She became the mother of John Dalberg-Acton who was born inNaples.[6][7]
He was raised as aRoman Catholic, and was educated atOscott College, under the future-CardinalNicholas Wiseman, until 1848. He then studied privately atEdinburgh. He was denied entry to theUniversity of Cambridge because he was a Catholic,[7] and subsequently went toMunich where he studied at theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich and resided in the house ofJohann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, the theologian and forerunner of theOld Catholic Church, with whom he became lifelong friends.[8] Döllinger inspired in him a deep love of historical research and a profound conception of its functions as a critical instrument in the study of sociopolitical liberty.[8]
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 ardentLiberal.[7]
During his extensive travels, Acton spent much time in the chief intellectual centres of Europe, reading the correspondence of historical personalities.[8] Among his friends wereMontalembert,Tocqueville,Fustel de Coulanges,Bluntschli,von Sybel andRanke. In 1855, he was appointeddeputy lieutenant of Shropshire.[5] A year later, he was attached toLord Granville's mission to Moscow as British representative at the coronation ofAlexander II of Russia.[7]
In 1859, Acton settled in England, at his country house,Aldenham, inShropshire. He was returned to theHouse of Commons that same year as member for the Irish borough ofCarlow and became a devoted admirer and adherent of Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone. However, Acton was not an active MP, and his parliamentary career came to an end after thegeneral election of 1865, when he headed the Liberal ballot forBridgnorth near his Shropshire home. Acton nearly defeated Conservative leaderHenry Whitmore, but Whitmore successfullypetitioned for a scrutiny of the ballots, and thus retained his seat. After theReform Act 1867, Acton again contested Bridgnorth, this time reduced to a single seat, in1868 but to no avail.[9]
Acton took a great interest in the United States, considering itsfederal structure an ideal guarantor of individual liberties. During theAmerican Civil War, his sympathies lay entirely with theConfederacy, for their defence ofStates' Rights against a centralised government that he believed would inevitably turn tyrannical. His notes to Gladstone on the subject helped sway many in the British government to sympathise with theSouth. After the South's surrender, he wrote toRobert E. Lee that "I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo," adding that he "deemed that you were fighting battles for our liberty, our progress, and our civilization."[10] Acton's stance on the Confederacy was shared by most English Catholics at the time, both liberal andUltramontane.[11] The editors of the UltramontaneTablet denouncedAbraham Lincoln as a dangerous radical, andJohn Henry Newman, when asked for his opinion on the matter, stated that slavery was not "intrinsically evil" and that the issue had to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.[11]
In 1869,Queen Victoria raised Acton to thepeerage asBaron Acton, of Aldenham in the County of Shropshire. His elevation came primarily through the intercession of Gladstone.[12] The two were intimate friends and frequent correspondents. Gladstone was particularly concerned to elevate Acton's standing as he headed out to Rome to resist the Pope's plan to have Papal Infallibility confirmed at the Vatican Council. Both Acton and Gladstone opposed this scheme and it was thought that, if Acton were a British Peer, it would strengthen his position in Rome.Matthew Arnold said: "Gladstone influences all round him but Acton; it is Acton who influences Gladstone."[9] Acton was appointed to theRoyal Victorian Order as a Knight Commander (KCVO) in the 1897 Birthday Honours.[13][14] He was also a strong supporter ofIrish Home Rule.[15]
Meanwhile, Acton became the editor of the Roman Catholic monthly paper,The Rambler, in 1859, uponJohn Henry (later Cardinal) Newman's retirement from the editorship.[16] In 1862, he merged this periodical into theHome and Foreign Review. Though a sincere Roman Catholic, his spirit as a historian was hostile to ultramontane pretensions, and his independence of thought and liberalism soon brought him into conflict with the church hierarchy. As early as August 1862, CardinalWiseman publicly censured theReview; and when in 1864, afterDöllinger's appeal at the Munich Congress for a less hostile attitude towards historical criticism, the pope issued a declaration that the opinions of Catholic writers were subject to the authority of the Roman congregations, Acton felt that there was only one way of reconciling his literary conscience with his ecclesiastical loyalty, and he stopped the publication of his monthly periodical. He continued, however, to contribute articles to theNorth British Review, which, previously a ScottishFree Church organ, had been acquired by friends in sympathy with him, and which for some years (until 1872, when it ceased publication) promoted the interests of a high-class Liberalism in both temporal and ecclesiastical matters. Acton also did a good deal of lecturing on historical subjects.[9]
In the March 1862Rambler, 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 theTeutons 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."[17]
In 1870, along with his mentorDöllinger, Acton opposed the moves to promulgate thedoctrine ofpapal infallibility in theFirst Vatican Council, travelling to Rome to lobby against it, ultimately unsuccessfully.[18] Acton did not become anOld Catholic, and continued attending Mass regularly; he received thelast rites on his deathbed.[19] The Catholic Church did not try to force his hand. It was in this context that, in a letter he wrote to scholar and ecclesiasticMandell Creighton, dated April 1887, Acton made his most famous pronouncement:
But if we might discuss this point until we found that we nearly agreed, and if we do agree thoroughly about the impropriety ofCarlylese denunciations andPharisaism in history, I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility.Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. You would hang a man of no position likeRavaillac; but if what one hears is true, thenElizabeth asked the gaoler to murderMary, andWilliam III of England ordered his Scots minister toextirpate 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 thanHaman, for reasons of quite obvious justice, still more, still higher for the sake of historical science.[1]
Thenceforth he steered clear of theologicalpolemics. He devoted himself to reading, study and congenial society. With all his capacity for study, he was a man of the world and a man of affairs, not a bookworm.[9] His only notable publications were a masterly essay in theQuarterly Review of January 1878 on "Democracy in Europe;" two lectures delivered at Bridgnorth in 1877 on "The History of Freedom in Antiquity" and "The History of Freedom in Christianity"—these last the only tangible portions put together by him of his long-projected "History of Liberty;" and an essay on modern German historians in the first number of theEnglish Historical Review, which he helped to found (1886). After 1879 he divided his time between London,Cannes, andTegernsee in Bavaria, enjoying and reciprocating the society of his friends. In 1872 he had been given the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by theUniversity of Munich; in 1888 Cambridge gave him the honorary degree ofDoctor of Laws, and in 1889 Oxford theDoctor of Civil Law; and in 1890 he received the high academic accolade of being made a fellow ofAll Souls College, Oxford.[9]
In 1874, when Gladstone published his pamphlet onThe Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance, Lord Acton wrote during November and December a series of remarkable letters toThe Times, illustrating Gladstone's main theme by numerous historical examples of papal inconsistency, in a way which must have been bitter enough to the ultramontane party, but ultimately disagreeing with Gladstone's conclusion and insisting that the Church itself was better than its premises implied. Acton's letters led to another storm in the English Roman Catholic world, but once more it was considered prudent by theHoly See to leave him alone. In spite of his reservations, he regarded "communion with Rome as dearer than life".[9]
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]
His nephew wasAnton Graf von Arco auf Valley (1897–1945), a German count and political activist, and assassin of socialist Bavarian minister-presidentKurt Eisner in 1919.
When his cousinMaria, Duchess of Galliera died in 1888, Acton inherited the dormant title ofMarquess of Groppoli.
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 SirJohn Seeley, LordRosebery appointed him to theRegius Professorship of Modern History atCambridge.[8] He delivered two courses of lectures on theFrench Revolution and on Modern History, along with private tutoring. TheCambridge Modern History, though he did not live to see it, was planned under his editorship.[9]
After his health began to fail in 1901, Acton died on 19 June 1902 at his wife's family home in thespa town ofTegernsee,Bavaria,Germany. He was buried in a small communal graveyard byLake Tegernsee, a grave which today lies unmarked, having lost its headstone in the latter half of the 20th century.[20] He was succeeded in the title by his son,Richard Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton. His 60,000-volume library, with books full of his own annotations, was purchased prior to his death byAndrew Carnegie in secret, in order to secure the library for Acton's use during his lifetime. Upon Lord Acton's death, it was presented toJohn Morley, who donated it to the University of Cambridge.[9][21]According toHugh Chisholm, author of the article in the 1911Encyclopædia Britannica:
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.[9]
TheActon School of Business, established in 2002 in Austin, Texas, was named in his honor.
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Posthumous
Articles
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton), 1st Baron". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 159–160. | This "further reading" sectionmay need cleanup. Please read theediting guide and help improve the section.(March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
UK National Archives| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCarlow 1859–1865 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBridgnorth 1865–1866 With:John Pritchard | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Acton 1869–1902 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of England | ||
| Preceded by | Baronet (of Aldenham) 1837–1902 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Regius Professor of Modern History at theUniversity of Cambridge 1895–1902 | Succeeded by |
