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 1843 from the ranks of the profession. He was Police-Magistrate of Merthyr-Tydvil and Aberdare, Glamorganshire, from 1847 till 1852, when he entered the House of Commons as member for Merthyr-Tydvil. That borough he represented in the Liberal interest till the general election of December, 1868, when he lost his seat; but in the following month he was returned for Renfrewshire. Mr. Bruce was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from Nov. 1862, to April, 1864; and Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education from the latter date to July, 1866. He was also in 1864 appointed a Charity Commissioner for England and Wales, and sworn a member of the Privy Council. From Nov. 1865, to Aug. 1866, he held the post of second Church Estates Commissioner. On the formation of Mr. Gladstone's cabinet, in Dec. 1868, he took office as Secretary of State for the Home Department, and the following year he was appointed an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. In Aug. 1873, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Aberdare, in order to enable him to hold the high post of Lord President of the Council, in the place of Lord Ripon, resigned. However, he was only destined to retain that exalted position a very short time, as he of course went out of office on the defeat of the Liberal party in Feb. 1874. He presided over the meeting of the Social Science Association held at Brighton in 1875. His Lordship edited the "Life of General Sir Wm. Napier, K.C.B., author of 'History of the Peninsular War,'" 2 vols., 1864; and has published "National Education: an Address delivered to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science," 1866; and his "Speech on the Second Reading of the Education of the Poor Bill," 1867. He has been twice married; firstly, in 1846, to Annabella, daughter of Mr. Richard Beadon (she died in 1852); and, secondly, in 1854, to Norah, daughter of the late Lieutenant-General Sir William P. Napier, K.C.B. His son and heir is Mr. Henry Campbell-Bruce, who was born in 1851.

 ABERDEEN ORKNEY, : See.

 ABNEY,, F.R.S., was born at Derby in 1843, and educated at Rossall, and privately, and at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was appointed lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1861, and captain in 1873. He was formerly Instructor in Chemistry to the Royal Engineers, Chatham, and is now Inspector for Science in the Science and Art Department. He was one of the scientific observers of the Transit of Venus in 1874. His works are:—"Instruction in Photography;" "Emulsion Photography;" and "Thebes and its Five Greater Temples." He is also the author of many papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society and the Philosophical Magazine. He obtained the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 1883, for his researches in photography and spectrum analysis. He served as a juror in the Electric Exhibition.

 ABOUT,, a French author, born at Dieuze (Meurthe), Feb. 14, 1828, pursued his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne, won the prize of honour in 1818, and passed in 1851 to the French School of Athens. In Greece he directed his attention to archæological studies, and made his first appearance as an author with "La Grèce Contemporaine" (1855), which was well received. In the Revue des Deux Mondes he published a kind of autobiographical novel, "Tolla," in 1855. This led to a charge of plagiarism being brought against M. About. In 1841, it was said, there was published at Paris a book founded on facts, 