STERLING - STEUBEN. 



commission to inquire into Uie provisions of a draft 

 code relating to indictable offences. In 1879 be was ! 

 appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice. Ho 

 has been an active writer mi legal subjects, liis prin- 

 cipal works being Emuiys by <i liarrixter (1862) ; 

 Genertil Pin IT of the Criminal /xnr (1863); Liberty, 

 Equality, ami Fraternity (1873) ; Digest o/ the IAIIC 'of 

 Kriiifiice, and Digest if the Criminal Isitr (1877), tlio 

 latter works forming the basis of a bill on indictable 

 offences ; and Hiftury uf the Criminal L<iic uf Enij- 

 la,,,l (3 vols., is 



His brother, LKSLIB STEPHEN, noted as an author, 

 was born in London, Nov. 28, 1832. He was edu- 

 cated at Eton ; King's College, London ; and Trinity I 

 Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated I>. A. in 1 

 and M. A. in 1357. He was a fellow and tutor in 

 Trinity Hall forsovcr.il yours, but loft Cambridge in 

 IHtU and entered actively into literary pursuits in 

 London. He married H.irriet M. Thackeray, daugh- 

 ter of the novelist, and in 1N71 became editor of the | 

 Cornhill Magazine, and continued in charge of it till 

 1882, when he resigned for the purpose of taking np 

 the extensive work upon which he has been since 

 engaged, the JHftinnan/ of Mational Ilii>r/rj>/ii/. 

 lu May, 1883, Mr. Stephen was elected to tlio lect- 

 ureship of English literature at Cambridge. In 

 addition to his editorial and professional work Mr. 

 Stephen has been an active writer, and has contrib- 

 uted largely to the literature of Alpine travel, which 

 lie has treated in The Playground of Europe (1871). 

 In addition, his works include /.',.<. iyx ,,n Free Tltiiik- 

 lay am I Plain .s'/.''</A-i/i<y (1873) ; Hour* in a I.il , 

 (3 series, 1874-79), a collection of acute literary 

 criticisms ; 11 Mm- if of English Thought in tlie F, 

 teenth Century (1876) ; Tlte .s l-.'tltics (l, 1 -- 



and Lives of Johnson, Pope, and Swift in the " Eng- 

 lish Men of Letters" series. He edited Fielding's 

 \\'"i-kt in 10 volumes, with a biographical essay, in 

 1882, and lias contributed numerous articles to the 

 Satartiay Rniem and the Pall Mall Gazette. The, 

 Dictionary of National Biography in which he is as- | 

 sisted by many distinguished writers, is the most 

 complete and accurate work in its special field. 



SI I.U.I NO, a city of Illinois, in Whiteside ' 

 county, is on the N. bank of Hook river, 109 miles 

 W. of Chicago. It is on the Chicago and North- 

 western Railroad, and on a branch of the Chicago, j 

 Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Hook river is here 

 crossed by two bridges, one being of iron, 1100 feet 

 long, and costing $40.000. There is a largo dam 

 which furnishes water-power to nearly all the fac- 

 tories, 44 in number. They produce agricultural 

 implements, wagons, carriages, barbed wire, paper, 

 pumps, windmills, and other articles. There are five 

 iron foundries. Sterling has a city hall, 2 hotels, 

 theatre, 3 fine public school buildings, 15 churches, 

 a free public library. It was settled in l<s:!4, and 

 incorporated in 1858. Its property is valued at 

 f7,000,000. It is surrounded by a rich agricultural 

 district, inhabited by a highly moral community. 

 The population of Sterling in 1880 was 5087. 



STEUBEN, FBIEDRICH WILHELM Acousr HETN- 

 KICH FEKDWAND VON, BAROH, a German soldier of 

 distinction in our war of the Revolution, was born, 

 Nov. 15, 1730, in the fortress of Magdeburg, Prussia, 

 where his father was a captain. After finishing his 

 education in a Jesuit college at Neisse and Broslau, 

 be entered the Prussian service in 1747 as cadet in 

 an infantry regiment, and was made ensign in 1749 

 and lieutenant in 1753. He served in the Seven 

 Years' war and was wounded at the battle of Prague. 

 and distinguished himself at Bosbach. In 1758 he 

 was made adjutant-general, and in 1759 took part in 

 the battles of Kay and of Knnersdorf, where he was 

 again wounded. He was aide to (ion. Knoblauch 

 in his brilliant march into Poland in 1761, and was 

 taken prisoner by the Russians, but was exchanged, 



and in 17G2 made aide to Frederick the Groat, in 

 which capacity lie was present at the siege of 

 Schwoidnitz, the closing scene in the Seven Years' 

 war. At the peace of ITB8 he withdrew from tho 

 army, and was presented by Frederick with a valu- 

 able lay benefice. He accompanied the I'rince of 

 Hohenzollern-Hechingen to several of the conns 

 of Europe, and was by him made grand marshal and 

 general of his guard, which posts ho filled for 10 

 years. In 1777, while on a visit to France, he was 

 indnced by Count St. Germain to offer his services 

 to the struggling American colonies, through tho 

 agency of Silas Deano. In December, 1777, lie 

 with several other officers from Marseilles, and after 

 a perilous passage anhed. in 55 days, at Ports- 

 mouth, N. H. Hence he wrote to Congress, offering 

 his service, and Raying that the sole motive that 

 brought him was to " serve a nation engaged in the 

 noble work of defending its rights and liberties." 

 Proceeding south he presented himself to Congress 

 at York, Pa., and proposed to enter the patriot 

 force as a volunteer, on tho conditions that if his 

 "services were not satisfactory, or if tho colonies 

 failed to establish their independence, he was to 

 receive nothing," but if they were mcressful "he 

 was to be refunded the income he had given up, and 

 be remunerated for his services." His offer was 

 accepted and he proceeded at once to Valley Forge, 

 where he was glatlly welcomed by Washington. On 

 looking at the wintry encampment and observing 

 the half-starved, half-clad, and poorly armed sol- 

 diers crawling out from their huts, he declined that 

 "no European army could be kept together a week 

 in such a state." He set to work at once, and from 

 that hour our military system assumed a new shape. 

 In May, 1778, Congress appointed him inspector- 

 general of the army, with the lank of major-gen- 

 eral, and he took part as a volunteer in the battle 

 of Monmonth in the following June. His sen ices 

 in drilling the officers and men of the army can 

 scarcely bo overrated. In 1779 he submitted to 

 Congress a manual of instruction, which, being ap- 

 proved, contributed to introduce a thorough system 

 of discipline. In 1780 lie sat as a member of tlio 

 court-martial that tried Major Andre", and in the 

 same year was placed in command of the troops in 

 Virginia, at the head of which he was busy in tho 

 beginning of 1781 in harassing tho British under 

 Gen. Arnold. At the siege of Yorktown Steiil en 

 took his place as a major-general of the line, and 

 was attached to Gen. Lafayette's division. Jle was 

 in tlio trenches when the proposition to sniTendor 

 arrived, and when Lafayette came to relieve him ho 

 refused to leave his post, declaring that the rules of 

 war required that the officer who received the first 

 overtures of surrender must keep Lis post till lei ins 

 were agreed on or hostilities resumed. Remaining as 

 a citizen of the I'nited Slates after the war, lie took 

 up his abode in New York City, where ho resided 

 for several years. It was only after 7 years' struggle. 

 that he succeeded in getting Congress to fulfil its 

 contract, which it did by granting him a pension of 

 82,400. Meantime several States had presented him 

 with grants of land. New York gave him a town- 

 ship (now called Steiibon) near V'tica, Oneida Co., 

 and here he built himself a log-cottage, in which he 

 spent the remainder of his days, in the company of 

 North, Popham, Walker, and other of his aides. His 

 lands covered 16,000 acres, but of these he gave away 

 large tracts in gifts to poor soldiers, passing the 

 evening of his life in tho healthful occupations of a 

 simple farmer. Ho died at his cottage, Nov. 'js, 

 IT'.U, and according to his own request was buried 

 near it with the star of honor that he always worn 

 on his breast. A life by Francis Bowen appeared in 

 Sparks' American l<i'ti-<if>/,i/, but a superior one was 

 published by Fried rich Kapp in 1866. (i. H.) 



