PHILLIPS, SAMUEL, an industrious and successful litterateur, was the son of a Jewish tradesman in Regent Street, London, and was born in 1815. A somewhat precocious talent for mimicry and recitation had disposed his parents to train him for the stage; but they were afterwards induced, through the advice of the Duke of Sussex, to send the lad to the London University. After remaining a year at that institution, Phillips proceeded to the university of Göttingen. Having renounced the Jewish faith, he returned shortly afterwards to England, and entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, with the design of taking orders. His father's death, however, altered his plans; and after an unsuccessful attempt, in conjunction with his brother, to carry on his father's business, he, in 1841, took to literature as a profession. His first work, the novel of Caleb Stukely, appeared originally in the pages of Blackwood's Magazine; and he subsequently contributed other anonymous tales to that and to other periodicals. In 1845 he began, through the interest of Lord Stanley, to write political leaders for the Morning Herald; and about the same time he obtained an appointment on the staff of the Times as literary critic for that journal. In the following year he purchased the John Bull newspaper, which he edited for a year; but finding his strength, which was slowly wasting under the influence of confirmed consumption, quite unequal to such laborious work, he was constrained to abandon the undertaking. From that period till his death Phillips worked cheerfully and courageously as literary critic for the Times, and also wrote an occasional review for the Literary Gazette. Two anonymous volumes of Essays from the Times were published by him in 1852 and 1854. They are written in a light, dashing, picturesque style, sometimes eloquent, frequently bitter, and with a tolerable show of fairness. Phillips took an active part in the formation of the Crystal Palace Company. He was appointed their literary director; he wrote their Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park, and the Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace. In 1852 the university of Göttingen conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. But while success attended his industry, and honours came thick upon him, the fell disease with which he had long struggled at length brought his career to a close. He died at Brighton on the 14th October 1854, leaving behind him a widow and five children, for whom he had made a comfortable provision.