Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/479

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GRESHAM 407 GBEY table bequests. He died in London, Eng- land, Nov. 21, 1579. GRESHAM, WALTER QUINTON, an American jurist; bom near Lanesville, Harrison co., Ind., March 17, 1832. He became a member of the Indiana State Legislature in 1861; served in the Civil War, rising to Brigadier-General of vol- unteers ; at its close resumed the practice of law, and in 1869 was appointed by- President Grant United States District Judge for Indiana ; in 1883 was appoint- ed Postmaster-General by President Ar- thur; in 1884 became Secretary of the Treasury, and later was appointed one of the judges of the United States Cir- cuit Court. He died in Washington, D. C, May 28, 1895. GRETNA, a city of Louisiana, the parish-seat of Jefferson parish. It is on Morgan's Louisiana and Texas, the Texas and Pacific, and the New Orleans, Southern and Grand Isle railroads. The industries include manufactures of cot- ton seed oil, barrels, lard and soap, fertilizers, etc. The city is the seat of a Catholic college. Its notable buildings include a fine court house. It was in- corporated in 1913. Pop. (1920) 7,197. GRETNA GREEN, a village in Dum- friesshire, Scotland; near the head of the Solway Firth; 10 miles N. N. W. of Carlisle. After the abolition of Fleet marriages by Lord Hardwicke's Act (1754), English persons wishing to marry clandestinely had to get out of England, to which alone that act had reference. Thus the practice arose of crossing the border into Scotland, where Gretna Green, or Springfield, as the first village, had by 1771 become, a goal for runaway lovers. At the toll house nearly 200 couples were sometimes united in a year. (5ne of the earliest Scottish run- away matches on record is Richard Lovell Edgeworth's (1763) ; among his successors were Lords Brougham, Dun- donald, Eldon, and Erskine, besides nu- merous scions of the noble families of Villiers, Fane, Beauclerc, etc. In 1856 all irregular marriages were rendei'ed invalid unless one of the parties had been residing in Scotland for three weeks previously; this proviso observed, a Gretna Green marriage is still possible. GREVY, FRANCOIS PAUL JULES (gra-ve'), a French statesman; born in Mont-sous-Vaudry, in the Jura, France, Aug. 15, 1813. He attended school and college near his native place. When not yet 20 he began to study law in Paris, and, becoming interested in politics, took part in the revolution of 1830, which drove Charles X. from the French throne Possessing fine oratorical talents, he ap- plied them to the defense of such radical republicans as were brought to trial for their share in this political outbreak. In this way he gained a reputation as an able republican orator, and when, in 1848, Louis Philippe was dethroned, and a republican government set up, Grevy became prominent. He was deputy to the Constituent Assembly in 1848, where he took a prominent part in the organiza- tion of the government. Being opposed to Louis Napoleon he was obliged to kv.ep out of public affairs from 1852 to 1869, devoting these years to his profession. In 1869 the Jura again sent him to the national legislature. Napoleon's down- fall revived republican activity. Grevy was chosen president of the National Assembly which met in 1871. In 1873, when the young republic seemed to be headed toward another monarchy, he ad- vocated democracy as the only hope of France. In 1876, 1877, and 1879 he again represented the Jura in the French Parliament, and in the latter year he was chosen president of the republic by an enormous majority. In 1886 he was re-elected, but on account of a scandal in which his son-in-law was implicated was forced to resign Dec. 2, 1887. He died in Mont-sous-Vaudry, Sept. 9, 1891. GREY, CHARLES, 2D EARL, an English statesman; born in Falladon, near Alnwick, Northumberland, England, March 13, 1764. He became in 1786 a mem- ber of Parliament, and in 1792 was one of the founders and most active members of the "Society of the Friends of the People." In 1797 he brought forward a motion for parliamentary reform, for which he continued to labor strenuously, though he was for many years unsuc- cessful in carrying the object of his wishes. When Lord Grenville, in 1806, came into office. Grey, as Lord Howick, became First Lord of the Admiralty, and, as one of the leaders of the House of Commons, carried the act for the aboli- tion of the slave trade. In the following year the cabinet was broken up, and he, in the same year, succeeded to the title by the death of his father. In the House of Lords he became one of the leaders of the opposition. For many years he re- mained out of office; but in 1830 he was called on by William IV. to form a new cabinet. He accordingly became prime minister, and announced "peace, re- trenchment, and reform" as the objects of his policy. In 1831 the Reform Bill was introduced by Lord John Russell into the House of Commons; but in the following year the ministers resigned, on account of a motion of Lord Lyndhurst. They were restored to power, however,