Page 4 - Whig Interpretation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Lord Acton: Libertarian Hero
[Originally published April 4, 2006, at LewRockwell.com]
“You would spare these criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice; still more, still higher, for the sake of historical science.”1
Thus ends a long passage of a letter from John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, First Lord Acton (1834–1902) in which appears his famous aphorism regarding power’s tendency to corrupt its possessor. In a few words to a fellow historian, who regarded his critic as the “most learned Englishman now alive,” his vast historical knowledge, passion for justice, and love for his Church are fused and brought to a fine point.2 ....

United Kingdom , New York , United States , University Of Chicago , City Of , John Acton , Leonard Liggio , Murray Rothbard , Murrayn Rothbard , Roland Hill , John Henry Cardinal Newman , J Rufus Fears , Henry Edward Cardinal Manning , Gary Galles , Cardinal Newman , John Cardinal Newman , William Ewart Gladstone , Roberte Lee , Richard John Neuhaus , Williamh Mcneill , Andrew Carnegie , Allgemeine Zeitung , Mandell Creighton , Gertrude Himmelfarb , Herbert Butterfield , Yale University Press ,