Extended excerpt: [Letter to friend & fellow historian Mandell Creighton]

“Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word. History is better written from letters than from histories; let a man criminate himself.” (p. 506)

Source note: The Lord Acton & Bishop Creighton letters were donated by Creighton’s wife and added to the appendix of Acton’s Historical Essays & Studies following the author’s death in 1902. Mandell Creighton (1843-1901) was a fellow historian, Cambridge University professor, education advocate, and bishop in the Church of England.

Source link: John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, Historical Essays and Studies (1907 Macmillan & Co. edition) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a544621300actouoft#page/n521/mode/2up

Extended excerpt: [Letter to Richard Simpson. ‘Every thing’ is two words in Acton’s original text] “[I]t must be established that all questions of this kind, not exclusively ecclesiastical, but social and interesting to all alike, require ventilation (1) for the enlightenment of those whose business practically it is to decide about them; (2) for the satisfaction of others and for inspiring them with confidence, giving security, etc.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. The Church especially has been in the habit of appealing to the sense of the masses, to public opinion, as she is founded on conscience.”

Source context note: Richard Simpson was an editor and Acton a writer for The Rambler, a Catholic magazine. When the Rambler closed shop, the two founded Home and Foreign Review. The new magazine had a Catholic foundation but focused on broader content in economics, law, philosophy and science.

Source link: Lord Acton and His Circle (Acton’s Letter 23 Jan. 1861 | Text 1906) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=kTc_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=Lord+Acton+and+His+Circle+%2B+Everything+secret+degenerates,+even+the+administration

Extended excerpt: [Speech/essay] “Liberty, next to religion, has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, two thousand four hundred and sixty years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race.” (p. 1)

Source link: The History of Freedom and Other Essays (Acton speech 26 February 1877 |volume 1907 ) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=F38MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=The+history+of+freedom+and+other+essays+%2B+berty,+next+to+religion,+has+been+the+motive+of+good+deeds

Misquote note: Some sources requote Acton but leave out the key word “tends”:

Acton said: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Acton did not say: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In Acton’s writing, he favorably credited politicians like George Washington who thoughtfully abided by the legal and ethical limitations to their positions of power. By leaving out the word “tends” when Acton is quoted, people change the meaning & intent of his sentence by making the statement an absolute.

Extended excerpt: [Letter to friend & fellow historian Mandell Creighton]

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favoured presumption, it is the other way, against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (p. 372)

Source note: The Lord Acton & Bishop Creighton letters donated by Creighton’s wife and added to the appendix of Acton’s Historical Essays & Studies following the author’s death in 1902. Mandell Creighton (1843-1901) was a fellow historian, Cambridge University professor, education advocate, and bishop in the Church of England.

Source link: Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=QH8_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA372&dq=Life+and+Letters+of+Mandell+Creighton+%2B+Power+tends+to+corrupt+and+absolute+power

Extended excerpt: [Essay] “Where there is an aristocracy it has generally more sympathy and connection with foreign aristocracies than with the rest of the nation. The bonds of class are stronger than those of nationality. A democracy, in abolishing classes, renders national unity imperative.” (p. 224)

Source link: Essays on Freedom and Power (1948|November 1960 Meridian edition) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/essaysonfreedomp00acto#page/224/mode/2up/search/bonds+of+class

Extended excerpt: [Letter to Mary Gladstone. Spelling as it appears in cited source.]

“The fact is that education, intelligence, wealth are a security against certain faults of conduct, no against errors of policy. There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, &c. The result would be an Encyclopædia of Error. They would assert Slavery, Socialism, Persecution, Divine Right, military despotism, the reign of force, the supremacy of the executive over legislation and justice, purchase of the magistracy, the abolition of credit, the limitation of laws to nineteen years, &c. If you were to read Walter Scott’s pamphlets, Southey’s Colloquies, Ellenborough’s Diary,Wellington’s Despatches – distrust of the select few, of the chosen leaders of the community, would displace the dread of the masses. The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.” (p. 93)

Source link: Letters to Lord Acton to Mary, Daughter of the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone (1904) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=dHErAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA93&dq=There+is+no+error+so+monstrous+that+it+fails+to+find+defenders+among+the+ablest+men

Extended excerpt: [Lecture delivered at the Bridgnorth Institute]

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. Liberty, by this definition, is the essential condition and guardian of religion; and it is in the history of the Chosen People, accordingly, that the first illustrations of my subject are obtained.” (p. 224)

Source link: Essays on Freedom and Power (1948|November 1960 Meridian edition) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/essaysonfreedomp00acto#page/56/mode/2up/search/most+certain+test

Extended excerpt: [Letter to Richard Simpson]

“Newman never said a truer word than when he said that if we carefully define our views, controversy will generally become hopeless and superfluous. There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion. I cannot see that Ward’s view is susceptible of discussion, or that his argument is fit to be seriously treated in the Rambler. (pp. 168-169)

Source context note: Richard Simpson was an editor and Acton a writer for The Rambler, a Catholic magazine. When the Rambler closed shop, the two founded Home and Foreign Review. The new magazine had a Catholic foundation but focused on broader content in economics, law, philosophy and science.

Source link: Lord Acton and His Circle (Acton’s Letter 23 Jan. 1861 | Text 1906) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=kTc_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=Lord+Acton+and+His+Circle+%2B+Everything+secret+degenerates,+even+the+administration+of+justice

Extended excerpt: [Letter to Mary Gladstone]

“The fact is that education, intelligence, wealth are a security against certain faults of conduct, no against errors of policy. There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, &c. The result would be an Encyclopædia of Error. They would assert Slavery, Socialism, Persecution, Divine Right, military despotism, the reign of force, the supremacy of the executive over legislation and justice, purchase of the magistracy, the abolition of credit, the limitation of laws to nineteen years, &c. If you were to read Walter Scott’s pamphlets, Southey’s Colloquies, Ellenborough’s Diary, Wellington’s Despatches – distrust of the select few, of the chosen leaders of the community, would displace the dread of the masses. The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.” (p. 93)

Source link: Letters to Lord Acton to Mary, Daughter of the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone (1904) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=dHErAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA93&dq=There+is+no+error+so+monstrous+that+it+fails+to+find+defenders+among+the+ablest+men

Extended excerpt: [Final lines of essay. In this excerpt, Acton is referring to Johann Adam Möhler, a German Catholic professor and theologian who was a popular lecturer in his time. Acton’s essay begins on page 16 of the October 1869 issue.]

“Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year, he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinl, bishop, or priest, shared in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King’s life was saved. Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.” (pp. 37-38)

Source link: The North British Review October 1869-1870, Volumes 50-51 (1869 & 1870, Leonard Scott U.S. edition) online via HathiTrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081666137;view=1up;seq=376