Life

Spiers, was born at Gosport

Gosport

Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 in 1807. He studied in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and graduated doctor of philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

. Acting under the advice of Andrieux

François Andrieux

François Guillaume Jean Stanislaus Andrieux was a French man of letters and playwright.Born and educated at Strasbourg, Andrieux proceeded to Paris to study law. There he became a close friend of Collin d'Harleville...

, a well-known poet, he settled in Paris as a professor of English, and found employment at L'École de Commerce, at L'École des Ponts et Chaussées

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées

Founded in 1747, the École nationale des ponts et chaussées , often referred to as les Ponts, is the world's oldest civil engineering school...

, at L'École des Mines

École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris

The École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris was created in 1783 by King Louis XVI in order to train intelligent directors of mines. It is one of the most prominent French engineering schoolsThe École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (also known as Mines ParisTech, École des Mines de...

, and at the Lycée Bonaparte.

Spiers was nominated an Agrégé

Agrégation

In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...

 de l'Université (roughly, a professorship), an Officier de l'Instruction Publique (officer of the Education Minister), Examinateur à la Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

, and Inspecteur Général de l'Université. He received the cross of the Legion of Honour

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 from Napoleon III

Napoleon III of France

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

.

He married in 1853 Victoire Dawes Newman, by whom he left five sons. He died at Passy

Passy

Passy is an area of Paris, France, located in the XVIe arrondissement, on the Right Bank. It is traditionally home to many of the city's wealthiest residents.Passy was formerly a commune...

, near Paris, on 26 Aug. 1869.

English-French dictionary

For fourteen years he devoted himself largely to compiling a new English-French and French-English dictionary

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

. It appeared in 1846 as General English and French Dictionary, newly composed from the English dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Richardson, &c., and from the French dictionaries of the French Academy, of Laveaux, Boiste, (London, 1846). It proved superior to anything which had preceded it, and was at once ‘autorisé par le conseil de l'instruction publique’, 3 July 1846. The twenty-ninth edition, in two volumes, appeared in 1884 (remodelled by H. Witcomb, Spiers's successor at the École des Ponts et Chaussées), and it remained for a long time a standard dictionary. An abridgment, under the title of Dictionnaire abrégé Anglais-Français et Français-Anglais, abrégé du Dictionnaire Général de M. Spiers, was brought out in 1851 and supplied to almost every school and lycée in France.

In November 1857 he brought an action against Léon Contanseau and his publishers, Longmans & Co.

Longman

Longman was a publishing company founded in London, England in 1724. It is now an imprint of Pearson Education.-Beginnings:The Longman company was founded by Thomas Longman , the son of Ezekiel Longman , a gentleman of Bristol. Thomas was apprenticed in 1716 to John Osborn, a London bookseller, and...

, for pirating his dictionaries in a work entitled A Practical Dictionary of the French and English Languages’ but Vice-chancellor Sir William Page Wood

William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley

William Page Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley PC, QC was a British lawyer and statesman who served as a Liberal Lord Chancellor between 1868 and 1872 in William Ewart Gladstone's first ministry.-Background and education:...

 (afterwards Lord Hatherley), in his decision on 25 February 1858, said that, although great use of Spiers's books had been made without due acknowledgement, yet in regard to such publications, which were not entirely original, a charge of piracy could not be sustained.

Major General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet

Louis Spears

Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet, KBE, CB, MC was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament noted for his role as a liaison officer between British and French forces in two world wars....

 (1886–1974) was his grandson, who had changed his name from Spiers to Spears.

Works

Besides his Dictionary, Spiers's chief publications were:

1. Manual of Commercial Terms in English and French, 1846.

2. Study of the English Prose Writers, Sacred and Profane, 1852.

3. Treatise on English Versification, 1852.

4. The English Letter-Writer, 1853.

5. Study of English Poetry, a choice collection of the finest pieces of the poets of Great Britain, 1855.

All these works were issued in both English and French editions in London, Paris, and America (New York or Philadelphia). Spiers also printed and edited for French students Sheridan's

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...

 The School for Scandal

The School for Scandal

The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...

and The Essays of F. Bacon, Viscount St. Albans (1851).