MEN OF THE TIME: A Biographical Dictionary OF EMINENT LIVING CHARACTERS OF BOTH SEXES. A NEW EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED, AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL; NEW YORK: 129, GRAND STREET. PREFACE. THE scope and object of this work are so clearly indicated on its title-page, that it is scarcely necessary to dwell upon them at any length. It was originally undertaken to fill a place till then unoc cupied by any of the multifarious books of reference which the industry and enterprise of the age have provided for almost every class of the community. We have records of the aristocracy of birth and wealth in the form of Peerages and Histories of the Landed Gentry of the United Kingdom; we have Court Calendars and Parliamentary Guides, which leave no official dignity, no part of the Civil Service unchronicled; we have Post-Office Directories for the registration of commercial and industrial occupations of every kind; we have lists also of military and naval officers, and of the clergy, which set forth the rank and services of the members of those professions; lawyers and politicians have also their respective muster-rolls; but the aristocracy of intellect had been left, until this work first appeared, without any special record of its deserts. The aim of the present volume, then, is to furnish, in as compact a form as possible, a series of biographical sketches of eminent living persons, of both sexes, in all parts of the civilized world. The work, limited to no particular class, addresses itself to all, thus presenting the largest body of contemporary biography which has yet appeared in this country. The present edition of "MEN OF THE TIME" will, it is hoped, be regarded as an earnest of the desire of the Publishers to respond adequately to the favour with which its predecessors were received, in spite of the omissions and imperfections inseparable from the first appearance of so comprehensive a work. Some hundreds of additional memoirs have been prepared expressly for its pages, while of those which were included in former editions, |