to a variety of nationalities and aristocracies, he was as far
removed as possible from the insularity and even provincial-
ism that seemed to be settling over England by the middle
of the nineteenth century.

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton was born in Naples
in 1834. His paternal ancestors are recorded as having occu-
pied the family estate of Aldenham in Shropshire as far back
as the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the eighteenth
century an adventurous junior branch of the family had trans-
ferred its allegiance to France and then to Italy. Acton's
grandfather, Sir John Acton, having won the affections of the
Queen of Naples, converted the role of adventurer into that
of prime minister of Naples. With the extinction of the older
branch of the family in 1791, Sir John succeeded to the
baronetcy and estate. His grandson, born forty-three years
later, disapproved of the unconventional life and career of
his grandfather (which included a period as head of a reign
of terror in Palermo), and refused to accept money due him
from the Italian fortune.

His maternal ancestors were more respectable and more
congenial to Acton's temperament. The Dalbergs had been
the first nobles under the emperor in the Holy Roman Em-
pire, and claimed the further and less verifiable distinction
of descent from a relative of Jesus Christ himself. (The story
of the relationship to Jesus is no doubt apocryphal, but if it
does not establish glorious antiquity, it does suggest religious
piety.) Like the Actons, the Dalbergs were nationally up-
rooted and shared the uncertain fate of the Empire. It has
been said that a treatise on the law of nationality and
domicile could be based on the frequent migrations and
changes of position of the dukes of Dalberg who finally threw
in their lot with France during the Restoration and were
created peers. The family estate continued to be maintained
at Herrnsheim on the Rhine.

Acton's father, Sir Richard, died prematurely, and in his
stepfather the family circle acquired yet another illustrious
name, that of Lord Leveson, later the second Earl Granville.
The Leveson-Gowers had long been prominent in the Whig

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