SIMON, SIR JOHN ALLSEBROOK ), Brit ish politician and lawyer, the son of a Congregational minister, born Feb. 28, 1873, at Manchester, educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and Wadham C011ege, Oxford, where he was a scholar. He became president of the Union in 1896, and was subsequently elected fellow of All Souls. He went to the Bar, became Barstow Law scholar in 1898, and was called in 1899. His manifest abilities and the persuasiveness of his advocacy soon brought him to notice; he was chosen one of the counsel for the British Govt. in the arbitration on the Alaska Boundary in 1903 ; and he rapidly attained so considerable a practice that he was able to take silk in 1908. He had gone into politics, and was elected Liberal mem ber for Walthamstow at the general election of 1906. At first, probably owing to his absorption in his legal work, he did not command nearly so much attention in Parliament as his Wadham contemporary and fellow-lawyer, F. E. Smith (afterwards Lord Birkenhead). But he gradually made his way, and was appointed by Asquith Solicitor-General in 1910, was knighted the same year, and became Attorney-General with a seat in the Cabinet in 1913. On the outbreak of the war in 1914, his resignation, along with those of Lord Morley and Burns, was expected; but he finally decided to remain with his chief and the bulk of his colleagues. When the first war Coalition Government was formed, in May 1915, he was offered the lord chancellorship, but he declined the greatest prize of his profession as he preferred a political career in the Commons. Accordingly he accepted the home secre taryship, and gave up his legal practice. Early, however, in the following year, owing to his inability to accept the Government bill for compulsory military service, he resigned his office and led a fruitless opposition to the measure in the House; and then went out to the front in France as a major in the R.A.F. He sub sequently resumed practice as a barrister, and immediately re gained his position in the front rank of his profession. On the break between Asquith and Lloyd George in 1916, John Simon adhered to the former. He lost his seat in Parliament at the gen eral election in Dec. 1918, but was returned for Spen Valley in 1922. In May 1926 he made a deep impression by arguing in Par liament that the general strike was not covered by the Trades Dis putes Act. In January 1928 he was appointed chairman of the
Indian Statutory Commission. He received the G.C.S.I., 1930, and G.C.V.O., 1937. He was foreign secretary (1931-35), home secre tary (1935-37), and chancellor of the exchequer (1937- ). SIMON, JULES FRANcOIS (1814-1896), French states man and philosopher, was born at Lorient on Dec. 27, 1814. His father was a linen-draper from Lorraine, who abjured Protes tantism before his second marriage (of which Jules Simon was the son) with a Catholic Breton. The family name was Suisse, which Simon dropped in favour of his third prenomen. At the Ecole Normale in Paris he came in contact with Victor Cousin, who sent him to Caen and then to Versailles to teach philosophy. He helped Cousin, without receiving any recognition, in his trans lations from Plato, and in 1839 became his deputy in the chair of philosophy at the Sorbonne, with the meagre salary of 83 francs per month. He also lectured on the history of philosophy at the Ecole Normale. At this period he edited the works of Male branche (2 vols., 1842), of Descartes (1842), Bossuet (1842) and of Arnauld (1843), and in 1844-1845 appeared the two volumes of his Histoire de l'ecole d'Alexandrie. He became a regular contributor to the Revue des deux mondes, and in with Amedee Jacques and Emile Saisset, founded the Liberte de penser, with the intention of throwing off the yoke of Cousin, but he retired when Jacques allowed the insertion of an article advocating the principles of collectivism. In 1848 he represented the Cotes-du-Nord in the National Assembly, and in 1849 entered the Council of State, but was retired on account of his repub lican opinions. After the coup d'etat, which was followed by his dismissal from his professorship, he used his leisure in writ ing Le Devoir (1853), which was translated into modern Greek and Swedish, La Religion naturelle (1856, Eng. trans., 1887), La Liberte de conscience (1857), La Liberte politique (1859), La Liberte civile (1859), L'Ouvriere (1861), L'Ecole (1864), Le Travail (1866), L'Ouvrier de huit ans (1867) and others. In 1863 he was returned to the Corps Legislatif for the 8th circonscription of the Seine, and supported "les Cinq" in their opposition to the government.