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CROSS— CEOSSLET.

187 i. In Jan. 1883, he succeeded Lord Enfield as Under-Secretary of State for India. CROSS, The Right Hon. Sm

RiOHABD ASSHBTON, G.C.B., M.P.,

was born at Red Scar, near Preston, May 30, 1823, being the third son of the late William Cross, Esq., by Ellen, daughter of the late Edward Chaffers, Esq, He was educated at Rugby School and at Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1846. In 1849 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and for several years he went the Northern Circuit. In 1862 he married Georgiana, daughter of the late Thomas Lyon, Esq., of Appleton Hall, Warrington. He was elected M.P. for Preston in the Conservative interest in March, 1857, and continued to represent that borough till March, 1862. At the genend election of Dec., 1868, he came forward as a Conservative candidate for South- West Lanca- shire, in opposition to Mr. Glad- stone, who had appealed to that constituency, and who had in seve- ral powerful speeches, addressed to lai^e multitudes of the electors, endeavoured to ffain their support to the cause on T^ch he had staked the issue, vi»., the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. The election, which was attended with much ex- citement, and was watched with extraordinary interest throughout the kingdom, terminated as fol- lows:— For Mr. Cross (C.) 7,729 j for Mr. Turner (C.) 7,676 ; for Mr. Gladstone (L.) 7,415 ; for Mr. Gren- fell (L.) 6,939. At the general election of 1874, Mr. Cross was re- turned without opposition. On the formation of Mr. Disraeli's adminis- tration, Mr. Cross was appointed Secretary of State for the Home Department, Feb. 21, 1874, on which day he was sworn of the Privy Council. He was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1876, and the University of Cambridge con- ferred on him the honorary degnree of LL.D., Oct. 24, 1878. He re-

signed the seals of the Home De- partment when ih» Conservatives went out of office in April, 1880. At that period he was created a G.C.B. Sir R. Cross is a member of the Council on Education, and an Ecclesiastical Commissioner for Ei^land; a magistrate for Cheshire and Lancashire, a Deputy-Lieu- tenant for the latter county, and Chairman of the Lancashire Quarter Sessions. He is the compiler of two legal works:— "The Acts relating to the Settlement and Removal of the Poor, with notices of cases, in- dices and forms," 1853 ; and " The G^eneral and Quarter Sessions of the Peace: their iurisdiction andi>rao- tice in other uian criminal matters " (written in conjunction with Mr. H. Leeming), 1858, 2nd edition, 1876. CROSSLEY, Jambs, F.S.A., son of a merchant at Halifax, York- shire, born at the Mount there in 1800, was educated for the law, and practised as a solicitor at Manches- ter till 1860, when he retired from the profession. He was a frequent conMbutor to the earlier volumes of Blackwood's Magcunne, one of the writers in the first Betrotpeetive Review, and occasionaUy ass i sted J. G. Lockhart in biographical articles in the QuarUriy Revimo. The peculiar department to wMch he has devoted himself is criticism and antiquarian and literary research. He is one of the few surviving friends of Charles Lamb. Mr. Crossley has been a member of the Philobiblon Society since its commencement. He was appointed president dP the Chetham Society in 1848, which office he still holds, and he is also president of the more recently formed Record Society. He is the editor of " Pott's Discovery of Witches," " The Diary and Cor- respondence of Dr. John Worthing- ton," 2 vols., and " Heywood's Ob- servations in verse " in tiie Chetham series. Of the Spenser Society, which has produced a valuable series of volumes, he has been the President since its commencement.