JAMES

See also:

• JAMES SPEDDING (18o8–1881)

SPEDDING (18o8–1881)  , English author, editor of the works of Bacon, was born on the 26th of June 18o8, in Cumber-land, the younger son of a country squire . He was educated at Bury St Edmunds and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a second class in the classical tripos, and was junior optime in mathematics in 1831 . In 1835 he entered the colonial office, but he resigned this post in 1841 . In 1842 he was secretary to Lord Ashburton on his American mission, and in 1855 he became secretary to the Civil Service Commission; but from 1841 on-wards he was constantly occupied in his researches into Bacon's life and philosophy . On the 1st of March 1881 he was knocked down by a cab in London, and on the 9th he died of erysipelas . His great edition of Bacon was begun in 1847 in collaboration with R . E . Ellis and D . D . Heath . In 1853 Ellis had to leave the work to Spedding, with the occasional assistance of Heath, who edited most of the legal writings . The Works were published in 1857–1859 in seven volumes, followed by the Life and Letters (1861–1874) .

Taken together these works contain practically all the material which exists in connexion with the subject, collected and weighed with the utmost care and impartiality . Spedding humorously emphasized his devotion to Bacon in the

title of one of his non-Baconian works, Reviews and Discussions, Literary, Political and Historical, not relating to Bacon (1879); and his literary remains outside that one field are no longer of interest . But as a Baconian scholar he is not likely soon to be superseded .