A noted English writer, born at Newcastle; was educated for the bar, but took to journalism, and soon made his mark as a political writer in the Examiner; he subsequently edited the Foreign Quarterly Review , the Daily News (succeeding Dickens), and the Examiner (1847-56); he was the author of several historical sketches, but his best-known works are the admirable biographies of Goldsmith, Landor, and Dickens (1812-1876).