ACTON, JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG ACTON, 1ST BARON (1834-1902), English historian, only son of Sir Richard Acton, 7th baronet, and grandson of the Neapolitan admiral, Sir J. F. E. Acton, 6th baronet (q.v.), was born at Naples on Jan. Io, 1834. Coming of a Roman Catholic family, young Acton was educated at Oscott till 1848, under Dr. (after wards Cardinal) Wiseman, and then at Edinburgh, and at Munich under Dellinger, whose lifelong friend he became. He had wished to go to Cambridge, but for a Roman Catholic this was then impossible. By Dellinger he was inspired with a deep love of historical research and a profound conception of its functions as a critical instrument. He began at an early age to collect a magnificent historical library, with the object, never In fact realized, of writing a great "History of Liberty." In politics he was always an ardent Liberal. He spent much time in the chief intellectual centres of Europe and in the United States, and numbered among his friends Montalembert, De Tocqueville, Fustel de Coulanges, Bluntschli, von Sybel and Ranke. In 1859 Sir John Acton was returned to the House of Commons for Carlow and became a devoted admirer and adherent of Mr. Glad stone ; but he was practically a silent member, and his parlia mentary career came to an end in 1865. Meanwhile he had be come editor of the Roman Catholic monthly paper, the Rambler, in 1859, on J. H. Newman's retirement from the editorship; and in 1862 he merged this periodical in the Home and Foreign Review.
Though a sincere Roman Catholic, his whole spirit as a his torian was hostile to ultramontane pretensions, and his independ ence of thought and liberalism of view brought him into conflict with the Roman Catholic hierarchy. As early as Aug. 1862 Car dinal Wisenian publicly censured the Review; and when in 1864, after Dollinger'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 stopped the publication of his monthly periodical. He continued, however, to contribute articles to the North British Review. In 1865 he married the Countess Marie, daughter of the Bavarian Count Arco-Valley, by whom he had one son and three daughters. In 1869 he was raised to the peerage by Gladstone as Baron Acton; he was an intimate friend and constant correspondent of the Liberal leader, and the two men had the very highest regard for each other. Matthew Arnold used to say that "Gladstone influences all round him but Acton ; it is Acton who influences Gladstone." In the great crisis in the Roman Catholic world in 1870, over the promulgation by Pius IX. of the dogma of papal infallibility, Lord Acton was in complete sympathy on this subject with Del linger (q.v.). Acton did not personally join the Old Catholic seceders. In 1874, when Gladstone published his pamphlet on The Vatican Decrees, Lord Acton wrote during Nov. and Dec. a series of letters to The Times, illustrating Gladstone's main theme by numerous historical examples of papal inconsistency, but de murring nevertheless to Gladstone's conclusion. In spite of his reservations, he regarded "communion with Rome as dearer than life." Thenceforth he devoted himself to persistent reading and study, combined with social life. Little indeed came from his pen, his only notable publication being a masterly essay in the Quarterly Review of Jan. 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 Christi anity"—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 the English Historical Review, which he helped to found (1886). After 1879 he divided his time between London, Cannes, and Tegernsee in Bavaria. 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 John Seeley, Lord Rosebery appointed him to the Regius Pro fessorship of Modern History at Cambridge. His inaugural lecture on "The Study of History," afterwards published with notes displaying a vast erudition, made a great impression in the uni versity, and the new professor's influence on historical study was felt in many important directions. He delivered two valuable courses of lectures, on the French Revolution and on Modern History; but it was in private that the effects of his teaching were most marked. The great Cambridge Modern History, though he did not live to see it, was planned under his editorship, and all who came in contact with him testified to his stimulating powers and his extraordinary range of knowledge. He died on June 19, 1902, being succeeded in the title by his son, Richard Maximilian Dalberg Acton, 2nd baron Acton (b. 1870).
Lord Acton left too little completed original work to rank among the great historians. But he was one of the most deeply learned men of his time, and he is remembered for his influence on others. His extensive library, composed largely of books full of his own annotations, was bought immediately after his death by Andrew Carnegie and presented to John Morley, by whom it was forthwith given to the University of Cambridge.