fought with heroic valour, but they were eventually obliged to yield to superior numbers, and after the fall of Plevna the Porte sued for peace, and an armistice was accordingly signed in Feb. 1878. A Treaty of Peace was soon afterwards signed at San Stefano (March 3), but its provisions were considerably modified by the representatives of the great Powers assembled in Congress at Berlin. On July 8, 1878, the British Ministry announced that five weeks before they had concluded a defensive Treaty with the Porte, by which England agreed to guarantee the Asiatic dominions of the Sultan, who in turn engaged to introduce "necessary reforms," and to cede the island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by Great Britain.
ABDY, John Thomas, LL.D., son of Lieut.-Colonel James Nicholas Abdy, was born July 5, 1822, and educated at the Proprietary School, Kensington, whence he proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated as Senior in the Civil Law in 1844. In 1847 he took the degree of LL.B., and was created LL.D. in 1852. In 1850 he was elected a fellow of his college, and in January of that year was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. For a short time he went the Home circuit, but subsequently chose the Norfolk circuit. In 1854 he was appointed Regius Professor of the Civil Law in the University of Cambridge, and he held that office till the close of the year 1873. He is Lecturer on Law at Gresham College, London, and a magistrate for Hertfordshire and for the borough of Cambridge. In 1870 he was appointed Recorder of Bedford, and in the following year was promoted to be County Court Judge of Circuit No. 88. Dr. Abdy has published "A Historical Sketch of Civil Procedure among the Romans," 1857; and an edition of "Kent's Commentary on International Law," 1866. In collaboration with Mr. Bryan Walker, M.A., he edited, translated, and annotated "The Commentaries of Gaius," 1870.
À BECKETT, Arthur William, youngest surviving son of the late Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, the well-known metropolitan police magistrate and author, was born at Hammersmith, Oct. 25, 1844, and educated at Kensington, at Honiton, and lastly at Felstead School. At 17 he entered the War Office, but he left the Civil Service after three years' experience of it, and at the age of 20 he was editor of the Glow-worm, a London evening paper. During the next ten years he edited with much success several comic periodicals and monthly magazines. In 1870–71 he was special correspondent to the Standard and Globe during the Franco-German war. For the next two years he was private secretary to the Duke of Norfolk, an appointment he relinquished to give his uninterrupted attention to other work. Since 1874 he has been on the staff of Punch, Mr. à Beckett is author of "Fallen among Thieves," a novel, 1870; "Our Holiday in the Scottish Highlands," (illustrated by Mr. Linley Sambourne); "The Modern Arabian Nights" (with the same illustrator) 1876; "The Ghost of Greystone Grange," 1877; and "The Mystery of Mostyn Manor," 1878. In conjunction with Mr. F. C. Burnand he wrote "The Doom of St. Querec," 1875; and "The Shadow Witness," 1876. He is also author of two three-act comedies, "L.S.D." (Royalty Theatre, 1872), and "About Town" (which was produced at the Court Theatre in 1873, and ran for over 150 nights); a domestic drama in one act, "On Strike" (Court Theatre, 1873); "Faded Flowers," produced at the Haymarket; and "Long Ago" (Royalty, 1882). He has also dramatised (in conjunction with Mr. J. Palgrave Simpson) his novel "Fallen among Thieves," under the title of "From Father to Son," 3 acts, (Liverpool 1881). He is a captain in the Cheshire
