Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German mathematician, philosopher, scientist, politician and diplomat who invented calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics and statistics. He has been called the "last universal genius" due to his knowledge and skills in different fields and because such people became less common during the Industrial Revolution and spread of specialized labor after his lifetime.
We propose to our readers today the essay Leibniz as a Politician, written by the English historian Sir Adolphus William Ward (1837-1924) and published in Manchester in 1911.
Ward was professor of History and English literature in Owens College, Manchester, from 1866 to 1897, and president of the Royal Historical Society from 1899 to 1901.