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CHARLES HENRY PEARSON (1830-1894)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 29 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES See also:HENRY See also:PEARSON (1830-1894)  , See also:British historian and colonial statesman, was See also:born in See also:London on the 7th of See also:September 1830 . After receiving his See also:early See also:education at See also:Rugby and See also:King's See also:College, London, he went up to See also:Oxford, where he was generally regarded as the most brilliant of an exceptionally able set, and in 1854 obtained a fellowship at See also:Oriel College . His constitutional weakness and See also:bad eyesight forced him to abandon See also:medicine, which he had adopted as a career, and in 1855 he returned to King's College as lecturer in See also:English See also:language and literature, a See also:post which he almost immediately quitted for the professorship of See also:modern See also:history . He made numerous journeys abroad, the most important being his visit to See also:Russia in 1858, his See also:account of which was published anonymously in 1859 under the See also:title of Russia, by a See also:Recent Traveller; an adventurous See also:journey through See also:Poland during the insurrection of 1863, of which he gave a sympathetic and much praised account in the Spectator; and a visit to the See also:United States in 1868, where he gathered materials for his subsequent discussion of the See also:negro problem in his See also:National See also:Life and See also:Character . In the meantime, besides contributing regularly, first to the Saturday See also:Review and then to the Spectator, and editing the National Review, he wrote the first See also:volume of The Early and See also:Middle Ages of See also:England (1861) . The See also:work was bitterly attacked by See also:Freeman, whose " extravagant Saxonism " See also:Pearson had been unable to adopt . It appeared in 1868 in a revised See also:form with the title of History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, accompanied by a second volume which met with See also:general recognition . Still better was the reception of his admirable Maps of England in the First Thirteen Centuries (187o) . But as the result of these labours he was threatened with See also:total See also:blindness; and, disappointed of receiving a professorship at Oxford, in 1871 he emigrated to See also:Australia . Here he married and settled down to the life of a See also:sheep-See also:farmer; but finding his See also:health and eyesight greatly improved, he came to See also:Melbourne as lecturer on history at the university . Soon afterwards he became See also:head See also:master of the Presbyterian Ladies' College, and in this position practically organized the whole See also:system of higher education for See also:women in See also:Victoria . On his See also:election in 1878 to the Legislative See also:Assembly he definitely adopted politics as his career .

His views on the See also:

land question and See also:secular education aroused the See also:bitter hostility of the See also:rich squatters and the See also:clergy; but his singular See also:nobility of character, no less than his See also:powers of mind, made him one of the most influential men in the Assembly . He was See also:minister without See also:portfolio in the See also:Berry See also:cabinet (188o-1881), and as minister of education in the See also:coalition See also:government of 1886 to 1890 he was able to pass into See also:law many of the recommendations of his See also:report . His reforms entirely remodelled See also:state education in Victoria . In 1892 a fresh attack of illness decided him to return to England . Here he published in 1893 the best known of his See also:works, National Life and Character . It is an See also:attempt to show that the See also:white See also:man can flourish only in the temperate zones, that the yellow and See also:black races must increase out of all proportion to the white, and must in See also:time crush out his See also:civilization . He died in London on the 29th of May 1894 . A volume of his Reviews and See also:Critical Essays was published in 1896, and was followed in 1900 by his autobiography, a work of See also:great See also:interest .

End of Article: CHARLES HENRY PEARSON (1830-1894)
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