Edward Spencer Beesly
From Philosopedia
Beesly, Edward Spencer (23 January 1831 - 1915)
An English positivist, Beesly was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where Richard Congreve was his tutor from 1849 to 1854. Three others at Wadham - Frederic Harrison, John Henry Bridges, and Beesly became the leaders of Comtism in England.
He taught history in 1860 at University College in London, and he was chairman at the meeting in St. Martin’s Hall, London (28 September 1864) at which the International Workingmen’s Association was founded.
In March 1867 he published an article in the Fortnightly Review supporting the activities of the "new model" trade unions. Karl Marx] corresponded with him, as did Ivan Turgenev.
In 1893 Beesly became the editor of the newly-established Positivist Review. He collaborated in the translation of Comte's system of Positive Polity (4 vols, 1875-1879), translated his Discourse on the Positive Spirit (1903), and wrote a biography of Comte for a translation of the first two chapters of his Cours de philosophie positive, entitled Fundamental Principles of Positive Philosophy (1905).
Beesly stood unsuccessfully as Liberal candidate for Westminster and in 1886 for Marylebone. He wrote numerous review articles on social and political topics, treated from the positivist standpoint, especially on the Irish question.
His works also include a series of lectures on Roman history, entitled Catiline, Clodius, Tiberius (1878), in which he rehabilitates in some degree the character of each of his subjects, and Queen Elizabeth (1892), in the "Twelve English Statesmen" series.
