Sir John Francis Edward Acton, Neapolitan prime minister, born in 1736, died in Palermo, Aug. 12, 1811. He has been often erroneously called Joseph, the name of his brother. His immediate ancestors were London merchants, descendants of an English country gentleman, Edward Acton, who was created a baronet on account of his fidelity to Charles I. Sir John, who inherited the title in 1791, was in the naval service successively of France, Tuscany, and Naples, where he became a favorite of Queen Caroline, and rose rapidly to the post of premier of King Ferdinand. He had intimate relations with the English ambassador and his wife, Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and was an inveterate enemy of the French revolution. His administration was despotic and cruel. In 1798 he accompanied King Ferdinand in the expedition of the Austrian General Mack against the French. He lost his prestige after the disastrous result of the campaign, and was finally in 1806 ousted from power. - His second son, Chaeles Januarius Edward (1803-'47), became a cardinal in 1842. Sir John's brother, Joseph Edwaed, was a lieutenant general in the Neapolitan service, and became the progenitor of several distinguished naval officers; and the Italian minister of marine in 1869-'70, Rear Admiral George Acton, and several other officers of the present day, residents of Naples, are members of the same family.

Sir John Francis Edward Acton was succeeded as 7th baronet by his son Ferdinand Richard Edward (1801-'37), who married in Paris in 1832 the only child of the duke of Dalberg, and assumed the name of Dalberg-Acton. His widow became in 1840 the wife of the present Earl Granville, and died in 1860. - Sir John Eme-rio Edward Dalberg-Acton, born Jan. 10, 1834, studied from 1850 to 1854 at the university of Munich, made then with his stepfather Lord Granville a tour through the United States, and married in 1865 a daughter of Count Arco-Valley of Munich. He founded in 1861 the "Home and Foreign Review," an organ of the liberal Catholics, and edited in 1863 Matinees royales, a work ascribed to Frederick the Great, in regard to which there has been much controversy in Germany. In 1870 he took an active part in the Old Catholic movement, and has published in its support, in the German language, Zur Geschichte des vaticanischen Goncils (Munich, 1871). He was in 1860 elected member of parliament for Car-low, Ireland; and again, as candidate of the liberal party, in 1865 for Bridgnorth, England. In 1869 he was made a peer as Baron Acton.