Greg

Greg, WILLIAM RATHBONE, author of several works in literature and politics, was born in Manchester in 1809, became a Commissioner of Customs in 1856, and acted as Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office from 1864 to 1877, when he resigned. He died November 15, 1881. He was a man of profoundly earnest character, had a conspicuous power of incisive writing, and was interested in many philanthropic measures. In his Rocks Ahead he took a highly pessimistic view of the future of England, and regarded some present tendencies as pregnant with danger, anticipating with foreboding the political supremacy of the lower classes, the approaching industrial decline of England, and the divorce of the intelligence of the country from its religion. His works include The Creed of Christendom (1851); Essays on Political and Social Science (1854); Literary and Social Judgments (1869); Political Problems (1870); Enigmas of Life (1872; 18th ed. with memoir by his widow, 1891); Rocks Ahead, or the Warnings of Cassandra (1874); Mistaken Aims (1876); Miscellaneous Essays (2d series, 1884).