resided in the house of Dr. Dollinger, the great scholar and subsequent
leader of the Old Catholic party, by whom he was profoundly influenced.
While at Edinburgh he endeavoured to procure admission to Cambridge, but
without success, his religion being at that time a bar. He early devoted
himself to the study of history, and is said to have been on terms of
intimacy with every contemporary historian of distinction, with the
exception of Guizot. He sat in the House of Commons 1859-65, but made no
great mark, and in 1869 was raised to the peerage as Lord Acton of
Aldenham. For a time he edited _The Rambler_, a Roman Catholic
periodical, which afterwards became the _Home and Foreign Review_, and
which, under his care, became one of the most learned publications of the
day. The liberal character of A.'s views, however, led to its stoppage in
deference to the authorities of the Church. He, however, maintained a
lifelong opposition to the Ultramontane party in the Church, and in 1874
controverted their position in four letters to _The Times_ which were
described as the most crushing argument against them which ever appeared
in so condensed a form. A.'s contributions to literature were few, and,
in comparison with his extraordinary learning, comparatively unimportant.
He wrote upon _Cardinal Wolsey_ (1877) and _German Schools of History_
(1886). He was extremely modest, and the loftiness of his ideals of
accuracy and completeness of treatment led him to shrink from tasks which
men of far slighter equipment might have carried out with success. His
learning and his position as a universally acknowledged master in his
subject were recognised by his appointment in 1895 as Professor of Modern
History at Cambridge. Perhaps his most valuable services to historical
literature were his laying down the lines of the great _Cambridge Modern
History_, and his collection of a library of 60,000 vols., which after
his death was purchased by an American millionaire and presented to Lord
Morley of Blackburn, who placed it in the University of Cambridge.