Lord Acton may be regarded as the leader of the self-styled "Liberal Catholics," who are more or less out of accord with the traditions of the Holy See. He was the editor of the Home and Foreign Review, a trimestral periodical, commenced in 1862, and carried on till 1864, when it ceased to appear, owing to its having been condemned by the English Catholic hierarchy. At a later date he edited the Chronicle, a weekly newspaper, which had a brief existence, for want of adequate support; and still more recently he conducted the North British Review, formerly an organ of the Congregationalists, which expired under his management. His lordship also published, in September, 1870, "A Letter to a German Bishop present at the Vatican Council" (Sendschreiben an einen Deutschen Bischof des Vaticanischen Concils, Nördlingen, September, 1870). This elicited from Bishop Ketteler, of Mayence, a spirited reply, which has been translated into English. His lordship zealously advocated the cause of Dr. Döllinger, his former preceptor, and of the "Old Catholic" party; and, consequently, upon the occasion of the Jubilee of the University of Munich, in August, 1872, the Philosophical Faculty conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor. In 1874 he rendered himself conspicuous by the prominent part he took in the controversy which was raised by the publication of Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet on the Vatican Decrees. His lordship did not hesitate, in a series of letters to the Times, to bring grave charges against several of the Popes, although he took care to state that there was nothing in life which he valued more than communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Lord Acton is the author of the article on "Wolsey and the Divorce of Henry VIII." in the Quarterly Review for Jan. 1877. A French translation of Lord Acton's two letters on Liberty was published with a preface by M. de Laveleye, under the title of "Histoire de la Liberté dans l'Antiquité et le Christianisme," 1878.
ADAMS, Charles Francis, LL.D., grandson of John Adams, second President, and son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, was born at Boston, August 18, 1807. His father holding diplomatic positions in Europe, he spent most of his first ten years abroad, returning to America in 1817, when he entered Harvard College, graduating in 1825. He was admitted to the bar in 1838, but never engaged in practice, having previously married the daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy merchant of Boston. Previous to 1848 he had served as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature for five years. In 1848 he was nominated by the newly organized "Free Soil" party for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. This party, composed mainly of Democrats who were opposed to the extension of slavery, cast but few votes; but its members finally coalescing with most of the Northern members of the Whig party formed the Republican party, which came into power in 1860. Meanwhile, in 1858, Mr. Adams was elected a member of Congress. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Great Britain, a post which he retained until 1868, when he was recalled at his own request. In 1871–72 he acted as arbitrator for the United States in the Commission to settle the respective claims of Great Britain and the United States growing out of the civil war. He was one of the originators of the "Liberal Republican" movement in 1872, but was defeated by Mr. Greeley in securing the presidential nomination. He subsequently joined the Democratic party, by whom he was nominated for Governor of Massachusetts in 1876. He
