RICE, Allen Thorndike, editor, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 18 , June, 1853. At the age of nine years he was taken abroad, and for five years he lived in Europe. In 1867 he returned to the United States, and remained here until 1871, when he went to England and was graduated at Oxford in 1875. On his return to the United States he entered as a student at Columbia law-school. In 1876 he bought the "North American Review," of which he has since been the editor, He organized in 1879 and subsequently directed what is popularly known as the Charnay expedition, which was despatched under the joint auspices of the United States and France, to investigate systematically the remains of ancient civilization in Central America and Mexico. In 1884 he bought a controlling interest in " Le Matin," one of the chief papers of Paris, in which he is still (1888) a proprietor. He is actively interested in politics, and in 1886 received a Republican nomination for congress, but was defeated by the local political leaders. A controversy succeeded, which resulted in the expulsion of Mr. Rice's opponents from the Republican organization. This event turned his attention to the Australian system of voting, which he was the first to recommend for adoption in the United States, and mainly owing to his advocacy a demand for ballot-reform was incorporated in the platforms of the Republican and United Labor parties in 1887. He has edited " Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" (New York, 1886), and contributed to " Ancient Cities of the New World" (1887).