by 33 Geo. III., c. 13, that every act of parliament to be passed after April 8, 1793, shall commnence from the date of the indorsement by the clerk of parliament stating the day, month, and year when the act was passed and received the royal assent, unless the commencement shall in the act itself be otherwise provided for.
Acts of parliament are referred to by the year of the sovereign's reign, and the chapter of the statutes for that year. They were first printed in the reign of Richard III., originally in Latin, but since the fourth year of Henry VII, in English. The collective body of such acts constitute the Statutes of the Realm. See Statute; Parliament, and the authorities there referred to.
ACT OF SET'TLEMENT. The second chapter of Statute 12 and 13, William III. of Great Britain (1701), which provided that the crown, in default of issue to Anne Stuart. William's presumptive successor, should descend to the House of Hanover, and which excluded Roman Catholics from the throne. See Elizabeth Stuart (Queen of Bohemia).
ACT OF UNIFOR'MITY. The English statute of 13 and 14 Car. II., c. 4, 1662, which provides that the Hook of Common Prayer, as then recently revised, should be used in every parish church and other place of public worship in England, and that every school-master and person instructing youth should subscribe a declaration of conformity to the liturgy, and also to the effect of the oath and declaration mentioned in the act of 13 Car. II., st. 2, c. 1. It further enacted that no person should thenceforth be capable of holding any ecclesiastical promotion or dignity, or of consecrating or administering the sacrament, till he should be ordained priest according to Episcopal ordination, and with respect to all ministers who then enjoyed any ecclesiastical benefice it directed that they should, within a certain period, openly read morning and evening service according to the Book of Common Prayer, and declare before the congregation their unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things therein contained. upon the pain of being deprived of their spiritual promotions. Two thousand of the clergy who refused to comply were deprived of their preferments. Acts to secure uniformity were passed under Edward VI. (1549) and Elizabeth (1559).
ACTON, ak'ton. A suburb of London, Eng-
land. During the Civil Wars it was one of the
strongholds of Puritanism, and has been at vari-
ous times the place of residence of many famous
personages, such as the great jurist Sir Matthew
Hale, the novelist Henry Fielding, and the ac-
tress Mrs. Barry. Pop., 1891, 24,200; 1901,
37,700.
ACTON, John Emerich Edward Dalberg, first baron (1834-1902). An English historian, born at Naples. He studied under Dr. (afterward Cardinal) Wiseman at St. Mary's Oscott, but received his education chiefly from Dr. Döllinger. whose "Old Catholic" views he adopted, and zealously opposed the dogma of papal infallibility. He was regarded as the leader of the "Liberal Roman Catholics" in England. As Sir John Acton, he was a member of Parliament for Carlow (1859-65). In 1869 he was raised to the peerage. He edited and contributed articles to magazines, and won a high reputation both for learning and for vigor of expression. He received the degrees of LL.D. and D.C.L., and in 1895 he was appointed regius professor of modern history at Cambridge. His inaugural address was published under the title, Lecture on the Study of History (1895).
ACTON, Sir John Francis Edward (1737-1811). Prime minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV. He was born at Besançon, France, the son of an English physician. He served in the Tuscan navy, commanding a frigate in the expedition against Algiers in 1775. He showed such ability that he was invited to reorganize the Neapolitan navy, and soon became commander-in-chief of the sea and land forces, then minister of finance, and finally prime minister. His measures were intolerant, and ultimately caused a reaction against the royal family of Naples and in favor of the French party and the Carbonari. When the French entered Naples in 1806 he fled to Sicily, where he died.
ACTON, Thomas Coxon (1823-98). An American financier and administrator. He was born in New York City, and served as assistant deputy county clerk (1850-53) and as deputy register. He was a police commissioner of the New York metropolitan police in 1860-69, and during the last seven years was president of the board. His most valuable service while in that office was during the draft riots in 1863, when for a week he personally commanded the entire police force of the city.
ACTS, Spurious or Apochryphal. See Apochrypha, section on New Testament.
ACTS OF HOSTILITY. Acts which may involve nations in war. The tremendous cost of modern war, both in blood and treasure, is now so keenly felt that war is rarely resorted to except as the court of last resort. The growing and widespread demand for universal arbitration is also tending to limit the causes which may produce war, and the strength of this tendency was evidenced by the call of the Czar of Russia for an international conference, which was held in 1899, and is known in history as the Hague Peace Conference. Acts of hostility may be of a diplomatic, commercial, civil, or military character. The angry nature of the French ambassador's (Count Benedetti, q.v.) interview with the King of Prussia at Ems in 1870 is an example of a hostile diplomatic act. The French embargo on British ships after the peace of Amiens (q.v.) is an example of the commercial phase; the firing at an armed vessel of a friendly nation, or the invasion of territory, is a military example; and the detention of non-belligerents, citizens of a friendly nation, as in the case of France and England (1803), is an example of a civil act of hostility.
ACTS OF PI′LATE. See Apochrypha.
ACTS OF THE APOS′TLES (Gk. Πράξεις τῶν Ἀποστόλων, Praxeis tōn Apostolōn). The fifth book of the New Testament, the composition of which is ascribed by tradition and by the general consent of critics to the same author as that of the Third Gospel, to which book it forms a sequel. As the Gospel was written after the
destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), the date of Acts is still later, being not before 75 A.D., and not after 95 A.D., most likely about 80 A.D. Its place of composition is not possible to determine. Its purpose is apparent from the plan on which its material is selected and arranged, when compared with the declared purpose and evident
