ment of the LTniversity of Guadalajara and urged the merchants of the latter city to open trade with Guatemala by the South sea. Padilla owes his celebrity specially to the work that, under the title of " Historia de la Nueva Galicia," he wrote by or- der of the king to celebrate the heroic feats of the conquerors, among whom were his ancestors. This work was finishedin 1742 and was sent to Spain, but, as it had not reached its destination, the king ordered in 1747 two more copies, which were made at the expense of Padilla ; but. notwithstanding all his efforts and expense, his work not only was left unprinted, but the copies never reached Spain. By order of the king, on 21 Feb., 1790, it was copied again and forms the fifth and sixth volumes of the collection of " Memorias historicas." In 1871 it was printed by the Mexican " Sociedad de Geogra- fia y Estadistica."
MOTLEY, John Lothrop, historian and diplo-
matist, b. in Dorchester, Mass. (now part of Bos-
ton), 15 April, 1814; d. near Dorchester, England,
29 May, 1877. His father was a merchant, a man
of wit and literary
tastes, and he in herited
through his mother
the blood of two
much-respected Bos-
ton clergymen, the
Rev. John Lothrop
and the ReVo Sam-
uel Checkley. John
Lothrop was a rather
delicate boy, but fond
of skating and swim-
ming, a great reader,
with much liking for
plays and declamation.
Among the compan-
ions of his boyhood
were A"endell Phillips
and Thomas G. Ap-
pleton. His mother
described him as sensitive, excitable, with a quick
sense of honor, and scrupulously truthful. He
went to school first to Mr. Green at Jamaica
Plain, and after that at Round Hill, under the
charge of Dr. Cogswell and ilr. Bancroft. At the
age of thirteen he entered tlie freshman class at
Harvard, where he took high rank at first, but
cared too much for general literature to devote
himself very closely to the regular studies of the
college course. He was an insatiable reader, espe-
cially of novels and poetry, and early began writ-
ing in prose and verse. He was a great favorite,
admired for his brilliancy, his great personal beauty,
and his generous, impulsive character. After gradu-
ation in 1831 he studied at the universities of Ber-
lin and Gottingen. At Gottingen he became inti-
mate with Bismarck, with whom his friendly rela-
tions were continued in after-life. The great chan-
cellor says of him : " The most striking feature of
his handsome and delicate appearance was uncom-
monly large and beautiful eyes. He never entered
a drawing-room without exciting the curiosity and
sympathy of the ladies." In 1837 Mr. Motley mar-
ried Mary Benjamin, sister of Park Benjamin, a lady
of great personal charm and beauty of character.
Three of their children, daughters, are living, all
well known and well connected in English society,
one being the accomplished wife of Sir William
Vernon Harcourt. Two years after his marriage
appeared his first published work, an historical
novel called " Morton's Hope" (1839). As a story
it was not a success, but it contained many eloquent
passages, and as a self-portraiture still possesses a
peculiar interest. In the autumn of .1841 Mr.
Motley was appointed secretary of the American
legation at Petersburg, but returned home after a
few months. A second novel, " Merry Mount, a
Romance of the Massachusetts Colony," had been
lying by him for some years when it was published
in 1849. This was recognized as a great advance
on his first effort, but it had become evident to his
friends and to himself that history rather than
imaginative story-telling was the literary pursuit
best fitted to his natural endowments. His stud-
ies had been long and laborious in that direc-
tion. Before committing himself to any of the
more considerable works he had in view, Mr. Mot-
ley tried his hand in an elaborate historical article
in the " North American Review " for October,
1845. This was a narrative and critical essay on
the life and character of Peter the Great of Rus-
sia. His friends found their predictions as to his
future success as a historian fully justified by this
brilliant paper. Some marks of his youthful, al-
most boyish, vivacity might perhaps be found in
this remarkable essay, but it was generally conceded
that the writer had in him the stuff for a powerful
historian. No man needed the encouragement of
criticism more than Motley. The limited success
of his first novel satisfied him that he must discon-
tinue invertebrate story-telling and deal with sub-
jects that had backbones of their own. The fas-
cination wlrieh the region of romance still had for
him is shown in his article on the novels of Balzac^
published in the " North American Review " for
July, 1847. Two years later, in the same review^
he published, in the form of a review of a work on
the colonization of New England, an essay on the
" Polity of the Puritans." AH his love of liberty,
all his thorough Americanism, show themselves un-
mistakably in this able essay. Two events in Mr»
Motley's personal history require special mention.
In 1847 he lost his most intimate friend, Mr. Joseph
Lewis Stackpole, killed by an accident on a rail-
road, and this loss was never made up to him. Mr.
Stackpole, older than Mr. Motley, a man of culti-
vation and high character, was more than a brother
to him, and exercised the best influence upon him,
being of a more equable and calmer temperament.
The other circumstance was his election as a mem-
ber of the Massachusetts house of representatives.
His political career in this capacity was brief and,
to himself at least, far from satisfactory. He was
made chairman of the committee on education.
He wrote a report which he thought was unan-
swerable, but a young man from the country, well
known since that time in the polities of the coun-
try, got up and, according to Motley's own account,
demolished it. He could not defend it against the
attack of his rural assailant. Mr. Boutwell says
that his failure was not due to his want of faculty,
or to the vigor of his opponent, but that he was on
the weak and unpopular side.
As early as 1846 Mr. Motley had been collecting materials'for a history of Holland. While matur- ing his plans he learned through his friend, Stack- pole, that Jlr. Prescott was at work on a history which would fully cover the same ground as that which he contemplated. Like a perfectly frank and generous-hearted man, as he was. Motley went directly to Prescott and told him of his project and his apprehensions that if it were carried out there might be an interference in their works. The story of Prescott's reception of his young rival, who was unavoidably approaching his own ground, would form an interesting chapter in a work on the friendships and enmities of authors. Pres- cott recognized the ability in Motley from what
