HORNER, FRANCIS British economist, born at Edinburgh on Aug. 12, 1778, was called to the Scottish bar in 180o. Horner removed to London in 5802, and occupied the interval that elapsed before his admission to the English bar in 1807 with researches in law, philosophy and political economy. In February 1806 he became one of the commissioners for adjust ing the claims against the nawab of Arcot, and in November entered parliament as member for St. Ives. Next year he sat for Wendover, and in 1812 for St. Mawes, in the patronage of the marquis of Buckingham. He died at Pisa, on Feb. 8, 1817. As chairman of the parliamentary committee for investigating the depreciation of bank-notes, for which he moved in 181o, he extended and confirmed his fame as a political economist by his share in the famous Bullion Report. It was chiefly through his efforts that the paper-issue of the English banks was checked, and gold and silver reinstated in their true position as circulating media. Horner was one of the promoters of the Edinburgh Review in 5802. His articles in the early numbers of that publication, chiefly on political economy, form his only literary legacy.
See Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, M.P., published by his brother in ..