Lecky

Lecky, William Edward, was born near Dublin in 1838, and graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1859. His first notable work was a series of sketches of Swift, Flood, Grattan, and O'Connell, as leaders of public opinion in Ireland (1861); but his reputation chiefly rests upon his History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe (1865), and his History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), with its excellent chapters on hospitals arid the position of women. In 1878-90 he produced a History of Enyland in the 18th Century.