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cromby, who was created Lord Glasford by James II.
was born at Forfar in 1656 apparently of a Roman Catholic
family. Intending to become a doctor of medicine he entered
the university of St Andrews, where he took his degree of M.D.
in 1685, but apparently he spent most of his youthful years
abroad. It has been stated that he attended the university of
Paris. The Discourse of Wit (1685), sometimes assigned to
him, belongs to Dr David Abercromby (q.v.). On his return to
Scotland, he is found practising as a physician in Edinburgh,
where, besides his professional duties, he gave himself with
characteristic zeal to the study of antiquities. He was appointed
physician to James II. in 1685, but the revolution deprived
him of the post. Living during the agitations for the union
of England and Scotland, he took part in the war of pamphlets
inaugurated and sustained by prominent men on both sides
of the Border, and he crossed swords with no less redoubtable
a foe than Daniel Defoe in his Advantages of the Act of Security
compared with those of the intended Union (Edinburgh, 1707),
and A Vindication of the Same against Mr De Foe (ibid.). A
minor literary work of Abercromby's was a translation of
Jean de Beaugué's Histoire de la guerre d'Écosse (1556) which
appeared in 1707. But the work with which his name is perma-
nently associated is his Martial Atchievements of the Scots Nation,
issued in two large folios, vol. i. 1711, vol. ii. 1716. In the
title-page and preface to vol. i. he disclaims the ambition of
being an historian, but in vol. ii., in title-page and preface
alike, he is no longer a simple biographer, but an historian.
Even though, read in the light of later researches, much of the
first volume must necessarily be relegated to the region of the
mythical, none the less was the historian a laborious and accom-
plished reader and investigator of all available authorities, as
well manuscript as printed; while the roll of names of those
who aided him includes every man of note in Scotland at the
time, from Sir Thomas Craig and Sir George Mackenzie to
Alexander Nisbet and Thomas Ruddiman. The date of Aber-
cromby's death is uncertain. It has been variously assigned to
1715, 1716, 1720, and 1726, and it is usually added that he left
a widow in great poverty. The Memoirs of the Abercrombys,
commonly attributed to him, do not appear to have been pub-
lished.

He | York, for service in Holland. He commanded the advanced guard in the action at Le Cateau, and was wounded at Nijmwegen. The duty fell to him of protecting the British army in its disastrous retreat out of Holland, in the winter of 1794-1795. In 1795 he received the honour of a knighthood of the Bath, in acknowledgment of his services. The same year he was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Grey, as commander-in-chief of the British forces in the West Indies. In 1796 Grenada was suddenly attacked and taken by a detachment of the army under his orders. He afterwards obtained possession of the settlements of Demerara and Essequibo, in South America, and of the islands of St Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad. He returned in 1797 to Europe, and, in reward for his important services, was appointed colonel of the regiment of Scots Greys, entrusted with the governments of the Isle of Wight, Fort-George and Fort-Augustus, and raised to the rank of lieutenant-general. He held, in 1797-1798, the chief command of the forces in Ireland. There he laboured to maintain the discipline of the army, to suppress the rising rebellion, and to protect the people from military oppression, with a care worthy alike of a great general and an enlightened and beneficent statesman. When he was appointed to the command in Ireland, an invasion of that country by the French was confidently anticipated by the English government. He used his utmost efforts to restore the discipline of an army that was utterly disorganized; and, as a first step, he anxiously endeavoured to protect the people by re-establishing the supremacy of the civil power, and not allowing the military to be called out, except when it was indispensably necessary for the enforcement of the law and the maintenance of order. Finding that he received no adequate support from the head of the Irish government, and that all his efforts were opposed and thwarted by those who presided in the councils of Ireland, he resigned the command. His departure from Ireland was deeply lamented by the reflecting portion of the people, and was speedily followed by those disastrous results which he had anticipated, and which he so ardently desired and had so wisely endeavoured to prevent. After holding for a short period the office of commander-in-chief in Scotland, Sir Ralph, when the enterprise against Holland was resolved upon in 1799, was again called to command under the duke of York. The campaign of 1799 ended in disaster, but friend and foe alike confessed that the most decisive victory could not have more conspicuously proved the talents of this distinguished officer. His country applauded the

See Robert Chambers, Eminent Scotsmen, s.v.; William Anderson, Scottish Nation, s.v.; Alexander Chalmers, Biog. Dict., s.v.; George Chalmers, Life of Ruddiman; William Lee, Defoe.

ABERCROMBY, SIR RALPH (1734-1801), British lieutenant-choice when, in 1801, he was sent with an army to dispossess the general, was the eldest son of George Abercromby of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, and was born in October 1734. Educated at Rugby and Edinburgh University, in 1754 he was sent to Leipzig to study civil law, with a view to his proceeding to the Scotch bar. On returning from the continent he expressed a strong preference for the military profession, and a cornet's commission was accordingly obtained for him (March 1756) in the 3rd Dragoon Guards. He served with his regiment in the Seven Years' war, and the opportunity thus afforded him of studying the methods of the great Frederick moulded his military character and formed his tactical ideas. He rose through the intermediate grades to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the regiment (1773) and brevet colonel in 1780, and in 1781 he became colonel of the King's Irish infantry. When that regiment was disbanded in 1783 he retired upon half-pay. That up to this time he had scarcely been engaged in active service was owing mainly to his disapproval of the policy of the government, and especially to his sympathies with the American colonists in their struggles for independence; and his retirement is no doubt to be ascribed to similar feelings. On leaving the army he for a time took up political life as member of Parliament for Clackmannanshire. This, however, proved uncongenial, and, retiring in favour of his brother, he settled at Edinburgh and devoted himself to the education of his children. But on France declaring war against England in 1793, he hastened to resume his professional duties; and, being esteemed one of the ablest and most intrepid officers in the whole British forces, he was appointed to the command of a brigade under the duke of

French of Egypt. His experience in Holland and the West
Indies particularly fitted him for this new command, as was
proved by his carrying his army in health, in spirits and with
the requisite supplies, in spite of very great difficulties, to the
destined scene of action. The debarkation of the troops at
Aboukir, in the face of strenuous opposition, is justly ranked
among the most daring and brilliant exploits of the English
army. A battle in the neighbourhood of Alexandria (March 21,
1801) was the sequel of this successful landing, and it was
Abercromby's fate to fall in the moment of victory. He was
struck by a spent ball, which could not be extracted, and died
seven days after the battle. His old friend and commander the
duke of York paid a just tribute to the great soldier's memory
in general orders: "His steady observance of discipline, his
ever-watchful attention to the health and wants of his troops,
the persevering and unconquerable spirit which marked his
military career, the splendour of his actions in the field and the
heroism of his death, are worthy the imitation of all who desire,
like him, a life of heroism and a death of glory." By a vote of
the House of Commons, a monument was erected in his honour
in St Paul's cathedral. His widow was created Baroness Aber-
cromby of Tullibody and Aboukir Bay, and a pension of £2000
a year was settled on her and her two successors in the title.
A memoir of the later years of his life (1793-1801) by his third
son, James (who was Speaker of the House of Commons, 1835-1839,
and became Lord Dunfermline), was published in 1861. For a
shorter account of Sir Ralph Abercromby see Wilkinson, Twelve
British Soldiers (London, 1899).

ABERDARE, HENRY AUSTIN BRUCE, IST BARON (1815

1895), English statesman, was born at Duffryn, Aberdare, considerable public improvements were effected in the town, Glamorganshire, on the 16th of April 1815, the son of John making it, despite its neighbouring collieries, an agreeable place Bruce, a Glamorganshire landowner. John Bruce's original of residence. Its institutions included a post-graduate theofamily name was Knight, but on coming of age in 1805 he logical college (opened in connexion with the Church of England assumed the name of Bruce, his mother, through whom he in- in 1892, until 1907, when it was removed to Llandaff). There is herited the Duffryn estate, having been the daughter of William a public park of fifty acres with two small lakes. Aberdare, Bruce, high sheriff of Glamorganshire. Henry Austin Bruce with the ecclesiastical parishes of St Fagan's (Trecynon) and was educated at Swansea grammar school, and in 1837 was Aberaman carved out of the ancient parish, has some twelve called to the bar. Shortly after he had begun to practise, the Anglican churches, one Roman Catholic church (built in 1866 in discovery of coal beneath the Duffryn and other Aberdare Monk Street near the site of a cell attached to Penrhys Abbey) Valley estates brought the family great wealth. From 1847 to and over fifty Nonconformist chapels. The services in the 1852 he was stipendiary magistrate for Merthyr Tydvil and majority of the chapels are in Welsh. The whole parish falls Aberdare, resigning the position in the latter year, when he within the parliamentary borough of Merthyr Tydvil. The entered parliament as Liberal member for Merthyr Tydvil. urban district includes what were once the separate villages of In 1862 he became under-secretary for the home department, Aberaman, Abernant, Cwmbach, Cwmaman, Cwmdare, Llwydand in 1869, after losing his seat at Merthyr Tydvil, but being coed and Trecynon. There are several cairns and the remains re-elected for Renfrewshire, he was made home secretary by of a circular British encampment on the mountain between W. E. Gladstone. His tenure of this office was conspicuous for Aberdare and Merthyr. Hirwaun moor, 4 m. to the N.W. of a reform of the licensing laws, and he was responsible for the Aberdare, was according to tradition the scene of a battle at Licensing Act of 1872, which constituted the magistrates the which Rhys ap Jewdwr, prince of Dyfed, was defeated by the licensing authority, increased the penalties for misconduct in allied forces of the Norman Robert Fitzhamon and Iestyn ab public-houses and shortened the number of hours for the sale Gwrgan, the last prince of Glamorgan. of drink. In 1873 he relinquished the home secretaryship, at Gladstone's request, to become lord president of the council, and was almost simultaneously raised to the peerage as Baron Aberdare. The defeat of the Liberal government in the following year terminated Lord Aberdare's official political life, and he subsequently devoted himself to social, educational and economic questions. In 1876 he was elected F.R.S.; from 1878 to 1892 he was president of the Royal Historical Society; and in 1881 he became president of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1882 he began a connexion with West Africa which lasted the rest of his life, by accepting the chairmanship of the National African Company, formed by Sir George Taubman Goldie, which in 1886 received a charter under the title of the Royal Niger Company and in 1899 was taken over by the British government, its territories being constituted the protectorate of Nigeria. West African affairs, however, by no means exhausted Lord Aberdare's energies, and it was principally through his efforts that a charter was in 1894 obtained for the university of Wales at Cardiff. Lord Aberdare, who in 1885 was made a G.C.B., presided over several Royal Commissions at different times. He died in London on the 25th of February 1895. His second wife was the daughter of Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular war, whose Life he edited.

ABERDARE, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, situated (as the name implies) at the confluence of the Dâr and Cynon, the latter being a tributary of the Taff. Pop. of urban district (1901), 43,365. It is 4 m. S. W. of Merthyr Tydvil, 24 from Cardiff and 160 from London by rail. It has a station on the Pontypool and Swansea section of the Great Western railway, and is also served by the Llwydcoed and Abernant stations which are on a branch line to Merthyr. The Taff Vale line (opened 1846) has a terminus in the town. The Glamorgan canal has also a branch (made in 1811) running from Abercynon to Aberdare. From being, at the beginning of the 19th century, a mere village in an agricultural district, the place grew rapidly in population owing to the abundance of its coal and iron ore, and the population of the whole parish (which was only 1486 in 1801) increased tenfold during the first half of the century. Ironworks were established at Llwydcoed and Abernant in 1799 and 1800 respectively, followed by others at Gadlys and Aberaman in 1827 and 1847. These have not been worked since about 1875, and the only metal industries remaining in the town are an iron foundry or two and a small tinplate works at Gadlys (established in 1868). Previous to 1836, most of the coal worked in the parish was consumed locally, chiefly in the ironworks, but in that year the working of steam coal for export was begun, pits were sunk in rapid succession, and the coal trade, which at least since 1875 has been the chief support of the town, soon reached huge dimensions. There are also several brickworks and breweries. During the latter half of the 19th century,

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ABERDEEN, GEORGE GORDON, IST Earl of (1637-1720), lord chancellor of Scotland, son of Sir John Gordon, 1st baronet of Haddo, Aberdeenshire, executed by the Presbyterians in 1644, was born on the 3rd of October 1637. He graduated M.A., and was chosen professor at King's College, Aberdeen, in 1658. Subsequently he travelled and studied civil law abroad. At the Restoration the sequestration of his father's lands was annulled, and in 1665 he succeeded by the death of his elder brother to the baronetcy and estates. He returned home in 1667, was admitted advocate in 1668 and gained a high legal reputation. He represented Aberdeenshire in the Scottish parliament of 1669 and in the following assemblies, during his first session strongly opposing the projected union of the two legislatures. In November 1678 he was made a privy councillor for Scotland, and in 1680 was raised to the bench as Lord Haddo. He was a leading member of the duke of York's administration, was created a lord of session in June and in November 1681 president of the court. The same year he is reported as moving in the council for the torture of witnesses.1 In 1682 he was made lord chancellor of Scotland, and was created, on the 13th of November, earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Formartine, and Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves and Kellie, in the Scottish peerage, being appointed also sheriff principal of Aberdeenshire and Midlothian. Burnet reflects unfavourably upon him, calls him a proud and covetous man," and declares "the new chancellor exceeded all that had gone before him." He executed the laws enforcing religious conformity with severity, and filled the parish churches, but resisted the excessive measures of tyranny prescribed by the English government; and in consequence of an intrigue of the duke of Queensberry and Lord Perth, who gained the duchess of Portsmouth with a present of £27,000, he was dismissed in 1684. After his fall he was subjected to various petty prosecutions by his victorious rivals with the view of discovering some act of maladministration on which to found a charge against him, but the investigations only served to strengthen his credit. He took an active part in parliament in 1685 and 1686, but remained a non-juror during the whole of William's reign, being frequently fined for his non-attendance, and took the oaths for the first time after Anne's accession, on the 11th of May 1703. In the great affair of the Union in 1707, while protesting against the completion of the treaty till the act declaring the Scots aliens should be repealed, he refused to support the opposition to the measure itself and refrained from attending parliament when the treaty was settled. He died on the 20th of April 1720, after having amassed a large fortune. He is described by John Mackay as "very knowing in the laws and constitution of his country and is believed to be the solidest statesman in Scotland, a fine orator, speaks slow but sure." 1 Sir J. Lauder's Hist. Notices (Bannatyne Club, 1848), p. 297. 2 Hist. of his own Times, i. 523.

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His person was said to be deformed, and his "want of mine or deportment was alleged as a disqualification for the office of lord chancellor. He married Anne, daughter and sole heiress of George Lockhart of Torbrecks, by whom he had six children, his only surviving son, William, succeeding him as 2nd earl of Aberdeen.

See Letters to George, earl of Aberdeen (with memoir: Spalding Club, 1851); Hist. Account of the Senators of the College of Justice, by G. Brunton and D. Haig (1832), p. 408; G. Crawfurd's Lives of the Officers of State (1726), p. 226; Memoirs of Affairs in Scotland, by Sir G. Mackenzie (1821), p. 148; Sir J. Lauder's (Lord Fountainhall) Journals (Scottish Hist. Society, vol. xxxvi., 1900); J. Mackay's Memoirs (1733), p. 215; A. Lang's Hist. of Scotland, iii. 369, 376. (P. C. Y.)

ABERDEEN, GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, 4TH EARL OF (1784-1860), English statesman, was the eldest son of George Gordon, Lord Haddo, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of William Baird of Newbyth, Haddingtonshire, and grandson of George, 3rd earl of Aberdeen. Born in Edinburgh on the 28th of January 1784, he lost his father in 1791 and his mother in 1795; and as his grandfather regarded him with indifference, he went to reside with Henry Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville. At the age of fourteen he was permitted by Scotch law to name his own curators, or guardians, and selecting William Pitt and Dundas for this office he spent much of his time at their houses, thus meeting many of the leading politicians of the day. He was educated at Harrow, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated as a nobleman in 1804. Before this time, however, he had become earl of Aberdeen on his grandfather's death in 1801, and had travelled over a large part of the continent of Europe, meeting on his journeys Napoleon Bonaparte and other persons of distinction. He also spent some time in Greece, and on his return to England founded the Athenian Society, membership of which was confined to those who had travelled in that country. Moreover, he wrote an article in the Edinburgh Review of July 1805 criticizing Sir William Gill's Topography of Troy, and these circumstances led Lord Byron to refer to him in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers as the travell'd thane, Athenian Aberdeen." Having attained his majority in 1805, he married on the 28th of July Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of John James, 1st marquess of Abercorn. In December 1806 he was elected a representative peer for Scotland, and took his seat as a Tory in the House of Lords, but for some years he took only a slight part in public business. However, by his birth, his abilities and his connexions alike he was marked out for a high position, and after the death of his wife in February 1812 he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Vienna, where he signed the treaty of Töplitz between Great Britain and Austria in October 1813; and accompanying the emperor Francis I. through the subsequent campaign against France, he was present at the battle of Leipzig. He was one of the British representatives at the congress of Châtillon in February 1814, and in the same capacity was present during the negotiations which led to the treaty of Paris in the following May. Returning home he was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen (1814), and made a member of the privy council. On the 15th of July 1815 he married Harriet, daughter of the Hon. John Douglas, and widow of James, Viscount Hamilton, and thus became doubly connected with the family of the marquess of Abercorn. During the ensuing thirteen years Aberdeen took a less prominent part in public affairs, although he succeeded in passing the Entail (Scotland) Act of 1825. He kept in touch, however, with foreign politics, and having refused to join the ministry of George Canning in 1827, became a member of the cabinet of the duke of Wellington as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in January 1828. In the following June he was transferred to the office of secretary of state for foreign affairs, and having acquitted himself with credit with regard to the war between Russia and Turkey, and to affairs in Greece, Portugal and France, he resigned with Wellington in November 1830, and shared his leader's attitude towards the Reform Bill of 1832. As a Scotsman, Aberdeen was interested in the ecclesiastical controversy which culminated

in the disruption of 1843. In 1840 he introduced a bill to settle the vexed question of patronage; but disliked by a majority in the general assembly of the Scotch church, and unsupported by the government, it failed to become law, and some opprobrium was cast upon its author. In 1843 he brought forward a similar measure" to remove doubts respecting the admission of ministers to benefices." This Admission to Benefices Act, as it was called, passed into law, but did not reconcile the opposing parties. During the short administration of Sir Robert Peel in 1834 and 1835, Aberdeca had filled the office of secretary for the colonies, and in September 1841 he took office again under Peel, on this occasion as foreign secretary; the five years during which he held this position were the most fruitful and successful of his public life. He owed his success to the confidence placed in him by Queen Victoria, to his wide knowledge of European politics, to his intimate friendship with Guizot, and not least to his own conciliatory disposition. Largely owing to his efforts, causes of quarrel between Great Britain and France in Tahiti, over the marriage of Isabella II. of Spain, and in other direc→ tions, were removed. More important still were his services in settling the question of the boundary between the United States and British North America at a time when a single injudicious word would probably have provoked a war. In 1845 he supported Peel when in a divided cabinet he proposed to suspend the duty on foreign corn, and left office with that minister in July 1846. After Peel's death in 1850 he became the recognized leader of the Peelites, although since his resignation his share in public business had been confined to a few speeches on foreign affairs. His dislike of the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill, the rejection of which he failed to secure in 1851, prevented him from joining the government of Lord John Russell, or from forming an administration himself in this year. In December 1852, however, be became first lord of the treasury and head of a coalition ministry of Whigs and Peelites. Although united on free trade and in general on questions of domestic reform, a cabinet which contained Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, in addition to Aberdeen, was certain to differ on questions of foreign policy. The strong and masterful character of these and other colleagues made the task of the prime minister one of unusual difficulty, a fact which was recognized by contemporaries. Charles Greville in his Memoirs says, "In the present cabinet are five or six first-rate men of equal, or nearly equal, pretensions, none of them likely to acknowledge the superiority or defer to the opinions of any other, and every one of these five or six considering himself abler and more important than their premier "; and Sir James Graham wrote, "It is a powerful team, but it will require good driving." The first year of office passed off successfully, and it was owing to the steady support of the prime minister that Gladstone's great budget of 1853 was accepted by the cabinet. This was followed by the outbreak of the dispute between France and Turkey over the guardianship of the holy places at Jerusalem, which, after the original cause of quarrel had been forgotten, developed into the Crimean war. The tortuous negotiations which preceded the struggle need not be discussed here, but in defence of Aberdeen it may be said that he hoped and strove for peace to the last. Rightly or wrongly, however, he held that Russell was indispensable to the cabinet, and that a resignation would precipitate war. His outlook, usually so clear, was blurred by these considerations, and he lacked the strength to force the suggestions which he made in the autumn of 1853 upon his imperious colleagues. Palmerston, supported by Russell and well served by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, British ambassador at Constantinople, favoured a more aggressive policy, and Aberdeen, unable to control Palmerston, and unwilling to let Russell go, cannot be exonerated from blame. When the war began he wished to prosecute it vigorously; but the stories of misery and mismanagement from the seat of war deprived the ministry of public favour. Russell resigned; and on the 29th of January 1855 a motion by J. A. Roebuck, for the appointment of a select committee to enquire into the conduct of the war, was carried in the House of Commons by a

having been incorporated in 1891. The city comprises eleven wards and eighteen ecclesiastical parishes, and is under the jurisdiction of a council with lord provost, bailies, treasurer and dean of guild. The corporation owns the water (derived from the Dee at, a spot 21 m. W.S.W. of the city) and gas supplies, electric lighting and tramways. Since 1885 the city has returned two members to Parliament. Aberdeen is served by the Caledonian, Great North of Scotland and North British railways (occupying a commodious joint railway station), and there is regular communication by sea with London and the chief ports on the eastern coast of Great Britain and the northern shores of the Continent. The mean temperature of the city for the year is 45.8° F., for summer 56° F., and for winter 37.3° F. The average yearly rainfall is 30.57 inches. The city is one of the healthiest in Scotland.

large majority. Treating this as a vote of want of confidence | in the constituency of Kincardineshire) to the south of the Dee, Aberdeen at once resigned office, and the queen bestowed upon him the order of the Garter. He smoothed the way for Palmerston to succeed him, and while the earl of Clarendon remained at the foreign office he aided him with advice and was consulted on matters of moment. He died in London on the 14th of December 1860, and was buried in the family vault at Stanmore. By his first wife he had one son and three daughters, all of whom predeceased their father. By his second wife, who died in August 1833, he left four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, George John James, succeeded as 5th earl; his second son was General Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon, K.C.B.; his third son was the Reverend Douglas Hamilton-Gordon; and his youngest son Arthur Hamilton, after holding various high offices under the crown, was created Baron Stanmore in 1893. Among the public offices held by the earl were those of lordlieutenant of Aberdeenshire, president of the society of Antiquaries from 1812 to 1846 and fellow of the Royal Society.

Streets and Buildings.-Roughly, the extended city runs north and south. From the new bridge of Don to the “auld brig " of Dee there is tramway communication via King Street, Union Street and Holburn Road-a distance of over five miles. Union Street is one of the most imposing thoroughfares in the British Isles. From Castle Street it runs W. S. W. for nearly a mile, is 70 ft. wide, and contains the principal shops and most of the modern public buildings, all of granite. Part of the street crosses the Denburn ravine (utilized for the line of the Great North of Scotland railway) by a fine granite arch of 132 ft. span, portions of the older town still fringing the gorge, fifty feet below the level of Union Street. Amongst the more conspicuous secular buildings in the street may be mentioned the Town and County Bank, the Music Hall, with sitting accommodation for! 2000 persons, the Trinity Hall of the incorporated trades (originating in various years between 1398 and 1527, and having charit

Aberdeen was a distinguished scholar with a retentive memory and a wide knowledge of literature and art. His private life was exemplary, and he impressed his contemporaries with the loftiness of his character. His manner was reserved, and as a speaker he was weighty rather than eloquent. In public life he was remarkable for his generosity to his political opponents, and for his sense of justice and honesty. He did not, however, possess the qualities which impress the populace, and he iacked the strength which is one of the essential gifts of a statesman. His character is perhaps best described by a writer who says "his strength was not equal to his goodness." His foreign policy was essentially one of peace and non-intervention, and in pursuing it he was accused of favouring the despotisms of Europe. Aberdeen was a model landlord. By draining the land, by planting millions of trees and by erecting numerous build-able funds for poor members, widows and orphans), containing ings, he greatly improved the condition of his Aberdeenshire estates, and studied continually the welfare of his dependants. A bust of him by Matthew Noble is in Westminster Abbey, and his portrait was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. He wrote An Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture (London, 1822), and the Correspondence of the Earl of Aberdeen has been printed privately under the direction of his son, Lord Stanmore.

The 6th earl, George (1841-1870), son of the 5th earl, was drowned at sea, and was succeeded by his brother John Campbell Gordon, 7th earl of Aberdeen (b. 1847), a prominent Liberal politician, who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1886, governorgeneral of Canada 1893-1898, and again the lord-lieutenant of Ireland when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman formed his ministry at the close of 1905.

See Lord Stanmore, The Earl of Aberdeen (London, 1893); C. C. F. Greville, Memoirs, edited by H. Reeve (London, 1888); Spencer Walpole, History of England (London, 1878-1886), and Life of Lord John Russell (London, 1889); A. W. Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea (London, 1877-1888); Sir T. Martin, Life of the Prince Consort (London, 1875-1880); J. Morley, Life of Gladstone (London, 1903). (A. W. H.*)

ABERDEEN, a royal burgh, city and county of a city, capital of Aberdeenshire, and chief seaport in the north of Scotland. It is the fourth Scottish town in population, industry and wealth, and stands on a bay of the North Sea, between the mouths of the Don and Dee, 130 m. N. E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway. Though Old Aberdeen, extending from the city suburbs to the southern banks of the Don, has a separate charter, privileges and history, the distinction between it and New Aberdeen can no longer be said to exist; and for parliamentary, municipal and other purposes, the two towns now form practically one community. Aberdeen's popular name of the Granite City" is justified by the fact that the bulk of the town is built of granite, but to appreciate its more poetical designation of the " Silver City by the Sea," it should be seen after a heavy rainfall when its stately structures and countless houses gleam pure and white under the brilliant sunshine. The area of the city extends to 6602 acres, the burghs of Old Aberdeen and Woodside, and the district of Torry (for parliamentary purposes

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some portraits by George Jamesone, a noteworthy set of carved oak chairs, dating from 1574, and the shields of the crafts with quaint inscriptions; the office of the Aberdeen Free Press, one of the most influential papers in the north of Scotland; the Palace Hotel; the office of the Northern Assurance Company, and the National Bank of Scotland. In Castle Street, a continuation eastwards of Union Street, are situated the Municipal and County Buildings, one of the most splendid granite edifices in Scotland, in the Franco-Scottish Gothic style, built in 1867-1878.They are of four stories and contain the great hall with an open timber ceiling and oak-panelled walls; the Sheriff Court House; the Town Hall, with excellent portraits of Prince Albert (Prince Consort), the 4th earl of Aberdeen, the various lord provosts and other distinguished citizens. In the vestibule of the entrance corridor stands a suit of black armour believed to have been worn by Provost Sir Robert Davidson, who fell in the battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie, in 1411. From the south-western corner a grand tower rises to a height of 210 ft., commanding a' fine view of the city and surrounding country. Adjoining the municipal buildings is the North of Scotland Bank, of Greek design, with a portico of Corinthian columns, the capitals of which are exquisitely carved. On the opposite side of the street is the fine building of the Union Bank. At the upper end of Castle Street stands the Salvation Army Citadel, an effective castellated mansion, the most imposing "barracks" possessed anywhere by this organization. In front of it is the Market Cross, a beautiful, open-arched, hexagonal structure, 21 ft. in diameter and 18 ft. high. The original was designed in 1682 by John Montgomery, a native architect, but in 1842 it was removed hither from its old site and rebuilt in a better style. On the entablature surmounting the Ionic columns are panels containing medallions of Scots sovereigns from James I. to James VII. From the centre rises a shaft, 12 ft. high, with a Corinthian capital on which is the royal unicorn rampant. On an eminence east of Castle Street are the military barracks. In Market Street are the Mechanics' Institution, founded in 1824, with a good library; the Post and Telegraph offices; and the Market, where provisions of all kinds and general wares are sold. The Fish Market, on the Albert Basin, is a busy scene in the early morning.

The Art Gallery and Museum at Schoolhill, built in the Italian | building from the barons of the Mearns after they had robbed Renaissance style of red and brown granite, contains an excellent collection of pictures, the Macdonald Hall of portraits of contemporary artists by themselves being of altogether exceptional interest and unique of its kind in Great Britain. The public library, magnificently housed, contains more than 60,000 volumes. The theatre in Guild Street is the chief seat of dramatic, as the Palace Theatre in Bridge Place is of variety entertainment. The new buildings of Marischal College fronting Broad Street, opened by King Edward VII. in 1906, form one of the most splendid examples of modern architecture in Great Britain; the architect, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, a native of Aberdeen, having adapted his material, white granite, to the design of a noble building with the originality of genius.

Churches.-Like most Scottish towns, Aberdeen is well equipped with churches, most of them of good design, but few of special interest. The East and West churches of St Nichclas, their kirkyard separated from Union Street by an Ionic façade, 147 ft. long, built in 1830, form one continuous building, 220 ft. in length, including the Drum Aisle (the ancient burial-place of the Irvines of Drum) and the Collison Aisle, which divide them and which formed the transept of the 12th-century church of St Nicholas. The West Church was built in 1775, in the Italian style, the East originally in 1834 in the Gothic. In 1874 a fire destroyed the East Church and the old central tower with its fine peal of nine bells, one of which, Laurence or "Lowrie," was 4 ft. in diameter at the mouth, 3 ft. high and very thick. The church was rebuilt and a massive granite tower erected over the intervening aisles at the cost of the municipality, a new peal of 36 bells, cast in Holland, being installed to commemorate the Victorian jubilee of 1887. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Huntly Street, a Gothic building, was erected in 1859. The see of Aberdeen was first founded at Mortlach in Banffshire by Malcolm II. in 1004 to celebrate his victory there over the Danes, but in 1137 David I. transferred the bishopric to Old Aberdeen, and twenty years later the cathedral of St Machar, situated a few hundred yards from the Don, was begun. Save during the episcopate of William Elphinstone (1484-1511), the building progressed slowly. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, was enabled to complete the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept. The church suffered severely at the Reformation, but is still used as the parish church. It now consists of the nave and side aisles. It is chiefly built of outlayer granite, and, though the plainest cathedral in Scotland, its stately simplicity and severe symmetry lend it unique distinction. On the flat panelled ceiling of the nave are the heraldic shields of the princes, noblemen and bishops who shared in its erection, and the great west window contains modern painted glass of excellent colour and design. The cemeteries are St Peter's in Old Aberdeen, Trinity near the links, Nellfield at the junction of Great Western and Holburn Roads, and Allenvale, very tastefully laid out, adjoining Duthie Park.

Education.-Aberdeen University consists of King's College in Old Aberdeen, founded by Bishop Elphinstone in 1494, and Marischal College, in Broad Street, founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th earl Marischal, which were incorporated in 1860. Arts and divinity are taught at King's, law, medicine and science at Marischal. The number of students exceeds 800 yearly. The buildings of both colleges are the glories of Aberdeen. King's forms a quadrangle with interior court, two sides of which have been rebuilt, and a library wing has been added. The Crown Tower and the Chapel, the oldest parts, date from 1500. The former is surmounted by a structure about 40 ft. high, consisting of a six-sided lantern and royal crown, both sculptured, and resting on the intersections of two arched ornamental slips rising from the four corners of the top of the tower. The choir of the chapel still contains the original oak canopied stalls, miserere seats and lofty open screens in the French flamboyant style, and of unique beauty of design and execution. Their preservation was due to the enlightened energy of the principal at the time of the Reformation, who armed his folk to save the

St Machar's of its bells and lead. Marischal College is a stately modern building, having been rebuilt in 1836-1841, and greatly extended several years later at a cost of £100,000. The additions to the buildings opened by King Edward VII. in 1906 have been already mentioned. The beautiful Mitchell Tower is so named from the benefactor (Dr Charles Mitchell) who provided the splendid graduation hall. The opening of this tower in 1895 signalized the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the university. The University Library comprises nearly 100,000 books. A Botanic Garden was presented to the university in 1899. Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities combine to return one member to Parliament. The United Free Church Divinity Hall in Alford Place, in the Tudor Gothic style, dates from 1850. The Grammar School, founded in 1263, was removed in 1861-1863 from its old quarters in Schoolhill to a large new building, in the Scots Baronial style, off Skene Street. Robert Gordon's College in Schoolhill was founded in 1729 by Robert Gordon of Straloch and further endowed in 1816 by Alexander Simpson of Collyhill. Originally devoted (as Gordon's Hospital) to the instruction and maintenance of the sons of poor burgesses of guild and trade in the city, it was reorganized in 1881 as a day and night school for secondary and technical education, and has since been unusually successful. Besides a High School for Girls and numerous board schools, there are many private higher-class schools. Under the Endowments Act 1882 an educational trust was constituted which possesses a capital of £155,000. At Blairs, in Kincardineshire, five miles S.W. of Aberdeen, is St Mary's Roman Catholic College for the training of young men intended for the priesthood.

Charities. The Royal Infimary, in Woolmanhill, established in 1740, rebuilt in the Grecian style in 1833-1840, and largely extended after 1887 as a memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee; the Royal Asylum, opened in 1800; the Female Orphan Asylum, in Albyn Place, founded in 1840; the Blind Asylum, in Huntly Street, established in 1843; the Royal Hospital for Sick Children; the Maternity Hospital, founded in 1823; the City Hospital for Infectious Diseases; the Deaf and Dumb Institution; Mitchell's Hospital in Old Aberdeen; the East and West Poorhouses, with lunatic wards; and hospitals devoted to specialized diseases, are amongst the most notable of the charitable institutions. There are, besides, industrial schools for boys and girls and for Roman Catholic children, a Female School of Industry, the Seabank Rescue Home, Nazareth House and Orphanage, St Martha's Home for Girls, St Margaret's Convalescent Home and Sisterhood, House of Bethany, the Convent of the Sacred Heart and the Educational Trust School.

Parks and Open Spaces.-Duthie Park, of 50 acres, the gift of Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie of Ruthrieston, occupies an excellent site on the north bank of the Dee. Victoria Park (13 acres) and its extension Westburn Park (13 acres) are situated in the north-western area; farther north lies Stewart Park (11 acres), called after Sir D. Stewart, lord provost in 1893. The capacious links bordering the sea between the mouths of the two rivers are largely resorted to for open-air recreation; there is here a rifle range where a wapinschaw," or shooting tournament, is held annually. Part is laid out as an 18-hole golf course; a section is reserved for cricket and football; a portion has been railed off for a race-course, and a bathing-station has been erected. Union Terrace Gardens are a popular rendezvous in the heart of the city.

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Statues. In Union Terrace Gardens stands a colossal statue in bronze of Sir William Wallace, by W. G. Stevenson, R.S.A. (1888). In the same gardens are a bronze statue of Burns and Baron Marochetti's seated figure of Prince Albert. In front of Gordon's College is the bronze statue, by T. S. Burnett, A.R.S.A., of General Gordon (1888). At the east end of Union Street is the bronze statue of Queen Victoria, erected in 1893 by the royal tradesmen of the city. Near the Cross stands the granite statue of the 5th duke of Gordon (d. 1836). Here may also be mentioned the obelisk of Peterhead granite, 70 ft. high, erected in the square of Marischal College to the memory of Sir James

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