Grote, GEORGE, historian and politician, was born at Clay Hill, Beckenham, Kent, November 17, 1794. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and in 1810 became a clerk in the bank founded by his grandfather (a native of Bremen), Mr George Prescott, in Threadneedle Street. He remained in the bank for thirty-two years, devoting all his leisure to literature and political studies. He was an advanced Liberal in politics, and his first literary production was a reply to an article by Sir James Mackintosh in The Edinburgh Review on parliamentary reform. This was succeeded by a small work on The Essentials of Parliamentary Reform. Becoming acquainted with James Mill, Grote ultimately accepted his views on democratic government and church establishments; and many years before the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 he laboured with a band of other ardent reformers in promulgating the views of Mill and Bentham and opposing both the Whigs and Tories. He further studied James Mill's system of political economy, and was not a little influenced in philosophy by the views of Comte. In 1820 he married Harriet, daughter of Thomas Lewin, of Bexley, a lady of considerable literary gifts, and their house in Threadneedle Street became a distinguished centre of political and philosophical thought. Encouraged by his friends the two Mills, John Austin, and Charles Buller, and strongly urged also by his wife, he conceived in 1823 the idea for his History of Greece. Mitford's history he mercilessly dissected at this time in the Westminster Review. Grote became head of the bank in 1830, and his position in the city, combined with his well-known talents, naturally pointed him out as a fitting representative of the Metropolis in parliament. In the election of 1832, consequent upon the passing of the Reform Bill, he stood for the City, and was returned at the head of the poll. During his first session in parliament he brought forward a motion for the adoption of the vote by ballot, his speech being remarkably able and incisive. The motion was lost by 211 to 106 votes, but Grote renewed it in the following session, and continued to advocate the measure until his abandonment of parlia- mentary life in 1841. He sat for the City of London in three successive parliaments, but on each occasion by a diminished majority; and when he relinquished his seat the party of Philosophical Radicals with which he was associated had lost much of its influence.
Grote retired from the banking-house in 1843, and now devoted himself exclusively to literature, the History of Greece becoming the main object of his life. The first two volumes of the work appeared in 1846, and met with the general favour of all parties. The twelfth volume was issued in 1856, bringing down the subject to the end of the generation contemporary with Alexander, the period originally designed by the author. The history was translated into German and French, and was confessively deserving of the high position to which it attained in literature. While it throws new light upon Greek history, and lucidly traces the progress of Hellenic thought, its martial passages are notable for their vigour, and its geographical details for their accuracy. Grote was appointed a trustee of the British Museum, and in 1864 foreign associate of the French Academy. He was elected president of University College, and vice-chancellor of London University, which offices he held until his death. In the latter capacity he rendered signal services to the university. In 1865 he concluded an elaborate work on Plato and the other Companions of Socrates, which, with his Aristotle, was supplementary to the History of Greece. The latter work, notwithstanding its lack of imagination, still remains unsuperseded for its graver qualities and for its completeness as an historical picture. In dealing with Plato he was less successful, failing to grasp the lofty idealism of the Greek philosopher; and his study of Aristotle, which gave promise of a closer appreciation, unfortunately remains unfinished. A sketch of Swiss history during the war of the Sonderbund possesses special interest from its comparisons between the small republics of Switzerland and the city states of ancient Hellas. Grote, who declined a peerage offered him by Mr Gladstone, died June 18, 1871, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a bust by Bacon commemorates him. His minor works were published by Professor Bain in 1873, with critical remarks on his intellectual character, writings, and speeches; and Fragments on Ethical Subjects, being a selection from his posthumous papers, in 1876. —Mrs Grote (1792-1878) was the authoress of a Memoir of Ary Scheffer (1860), Collected Papers in Prose and Verse (1862), and The Personal Life of George Grote (1873). See, too, Mrs Grote: a Sketch, by Lady Eastlake (1880).