John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

The History of Freedom, and Other Essays . John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He was the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet, and a grandson of the Neapolitan admiral and prime minister Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. Between 1837 and 1869 he was known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet. He is perhaps best known for the remark, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...," which he made in a letter to an Anglican bishop. John Acton's grandfather succeeded to the baronetcy and family estates in Shropshire in 1791. The estates had previously been held by another English branch of the Acton family. John Acton's grandfather was a member of a younger line of the family which had transferred itself to France and, subsequently, to Italy, but, subsequent to the extinction of the elder branch, he became the patriarch of the family.