FINLAY, George (1799-1875), the historian of Greece “from its conquest by the Romans to the present time,” was born of Scottish parents at Faversham, Kent, on the 21st of December 1799. His father, Major John Finlay, RE, F.R.S., who had held for some time the post of inspector of the Government powder-mills at Faversham and Waltham Abbey, died when George was still very young (1802); but the boy has left on record how his interest in historical studies was awakened at a very early age by the manner in which his mother used to explain the history of England. On the second marriage of his mother, he was sent to a boarding-school near Liverpool, where he spent three years,—not very profitably, according to his own account. Afterwards his education was continued in more favourable circumstances under a private tutor in the house of his uncle, Mr Kirkman Finlay, who at that time sat as member of parliament for the Glasgow district of burghs. While making good progress in his literary education, he at the same time laid up pleasant and life-long memories of the boating, fishing, and pedestrian excursions for which the picturesque shores of the Firth of Clyde offer so many delightful facilities. At one time he had entertained thoughts of entering the army; but having been dissuaded from this by his friends, he ultimately, at the close of his university curriculum in arts, made choice of the legal profession. He received his preliminary technical training in a writer’s office in Glasgow, and, when little over twenty years of age, went to Göttingen to complete his studies in Roman law. But before this time he had begun to feel a deep interest in the contemporary affairs of Greece, and ct the Hanoverian university he was wholly unable to withdraw his attention frorii the ...