Helps

Helps, Sir Arthur (1817-75), a popular essayist, was born at Streatham. After having been private secretary to Mr. Spring Rice and Lord Morpeth, he was in 1860 appointed clerk to the Privy Council. His Essays Written during the Intervals of Business appeared in 1841, and The Claims of Labour in 1844. The first series of

Friends in Council, a discussion of various social and literary subjects in the form of a dialogue, was published in 1847, and was succeeded in 1859 by a second series. This author also wrote The Spanish Conquest of America (1855-61), and biographical studies in similar subjects, some novels (Ivan de Biron, etcv), and some plays of inconsiderable merit. His last book, Social Pressure, was published in 1875.