wealthy banker in
London, was _b._ at Beckenham, and _ed._ at Charterhouse School. In 1810
he entered the bank, of which he became head in 1830. In 1832 he was
elected one of the members of Parliament for the City of London. In 1841
he retired from Parliament, and in 1843 from the bank, thenceforth
devoting his whole time to literature, which, along with politics, had
been his chief interest from his youth. He early came under the influence
of Bentham and the two Mills, and was one of the leaders of the group of
theorists known as "philosophical Radicals." In 1820 he _m._ Miss Harriet
Lewin who, from her intellectual powers, was fitted to be his helper in
his literary and political interests. In 1826 he contributed to the
_Westminster Review_ a severe criticism of Mitford's _History of Greece_,
and in 1845 _pub._ the first 2 vols. of his own, the remaining 6 vols.
appearing at intervals up to 1856. G. belongs to the school of
philosophical historians, and his _History_, which begins with the
legends, ends with the fall of the country under the successors of
Alexander the Great. It is one of the standard works on the subject,
which his learning enabled him to treat in a full and thorough manner;
the style is clear and strong. It has been repeatedly re-issued, and has
been translated into French and German. G. also _pub._, in 1865, _Plato
and other Companions of Socrates_, and left unfinished a work on
_Aristotle_. In political life G. was, as might be expected, a consistent
and somewhat rigid Radical, and he was a strong advocate of the ballot.
He was one of the founders of the first London Univ., a Trustee of the
British Museum, D.C.L. of Oxf., LL.D. of Camb., and a Foreign Associate
of the Academie des Sciences. He was offered, but declined, a peerage in
1869, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

GRUB, GEORGE (1812-1892).--Historian, was _b._ in Old Aberdeen, and _ed._
at King's Coll. there. He studied law, and was admitted in 1836 to the
Society of Advocates, Aberdeen, of which he was librarian from 1841 until
his death. He was appointed Lecturer on Scots Law in Marischal Coll., and
was Prof. of Law in the Univ. (1881-91). He has a place in literature as
the author of an _Ecclesiastical History of Scotland_ (1861), written
from the standpoint of a Scottish Episcopalian, which, though dry, is
concise, clear, fair-minded, and trustworthy. G. also ed. (along with
Joseph Robertson) Gordon's _Scots Affairs_ for the Spaldi