NORTH, Sir Dudley, styled by Macaulay "one of the ablest men of his time," was the third surviving son of Lord North, Baron of Kirtling, and was born on the 16th May 1641. He received at Bury and at a writing school in London an education which fitted him for a mercantile life. Being then bound to a Turkey merchant, he was soon afterwards sent out to Smyrna as a factor. The young trader began his career with a scantily-stocked warehouse, but with a determination to make a fortune which might enable him to close his days in ease and luxury at home. Though naturally fond of frolic and pleasure, he kept himself apart from profligate companions, lived with the most careful thrift, and turned all the faculties of his powerful mind upon the duties of his calling. But it was not until in course of time he had been engaged to take the management of an embarrassed factory at Constantinople that he obtained any prospect of success. After collecting the debts of his employer, he established himself in a factory of his own, and began to achieve success by an artful system of policy. He sought the acquaintance of the various foreign ambassadors at Constantinople; he did not hesitate to conciliate the Turks by accommodating his conduct to their superstitions; and he employed all the strategems of trade with an ability which the most wily Jew could not overreach. The result was, that in 1680 the great object of his life had been gained, and he was on his way home to England. Dudley North had not been long settled in London when his profound knowledge both of the theory and practice of commerce was the means of introducing him into public notice. He was advanced to the office of sheriff, and proved himself a most efficient and unscrupulous tool of the dominant Tory faction. His services were rewarded with a knighthood, an alderman's gown, and the post of a commissioner of the customs. Returned to Parliament for Banbury in 1685, he rendered himself unfavourably distinguished by proposing and carrying a tax on sugar and tobacco. But the most permanent cause of his reputation was the publication, in 1691, of his Discourses on Trade, a work which is said by Mr McCulloch to contain "a much more able statement of the true principles of commerce than any that had then appeared." The author died on the 31st December of the same year.