English author, born at Maidstone on the 28th of May 1833. In 1863 he was appointed assistant commissioner under the Public Works Act, and resided in Lancashire till the end of the cotton famine in 1866. He subsequently spent two years in traveling in southeastern Europe and Africa, and on his return to England in 1868, published a description of his tour under the title From the Levant. For this work the king of Greece bestowed upon him the cross of the Order of the Redeemer. He has been very successful as editor of The Echo, a Liberal journal. In 1880 he was elected member of Parliament from Salford. Among his earlier works are two novels, Ralph, or St. Sepulchre’s and St. Stephen’s, and Hever Court. He published Social Politics in 1878, and Free Land in 1880. He was elected chairman of the London county council in 1895, and was knighted in June of that year.
