360 GEORGE BANCROFT. 



Great Britain and the United States. He took great interest in 

 the debates in Parliament on the Navigation Laws, and exerted his 

 influence to secure a moditication of their rigor. 



When Bancroft went to London, he found that his History, three 

 volumes of which had then been published, had made him a famous 

 man. He was cordially welcomed in society, and was admitted to 

 the friendship of the prominent literary men and statesmen of the 

 day. '^1 met him everywhere," says Robert C. Winthrop, ''and 

 witnessed the high estimation in which he was held by literary 

 men like Rogers, and Hal lam, and Alison, and Milman, and Lord 

 Mahon, and by statesmen like Peel, Palmerston, and Russell." 



Under such circumstances the opportunity to consult original 

 documents bearing upon the topics of his History were exceptional, 

 and he availed himself of it to amass an amount of material such 

 as no man working in the same field had before that time had at 

 his command. While Minister to England, he received from the 

 University of Oxford the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. 



In 1849 he returned to the United States, and took up his abode 

 in New York, where he devoted himself to historical labors. His 

 life was one of great regularity. Each day had its aj)propriate 

 hours set apart for labor, for exercise and recreation, and for social 

 duties. He faithfully followed the allotted programme, thus secur- 

 ing the best results for mind and body. The fourth volume of the 

 history — the first of the Revolution — was published in 1852, the 

 fifth in 1853, the sixth in 1854, the seventh in 1858, the eighth 

 in 1860, and the ninth in 1866. Besides these, he published in 

 1855 a volume of ''Literary and Historical Miscellanies." In 

 February, 1866, he delivered before Congress an oration in memory 

 of Abraham Lincoln. 



In Ma^', 1867, he was appointed Minister to Prussia. He re- 

 mained at Berlin until 1874, representing our government at this 

 Court during its successive changes from the kingdom of Prussia 

 to the North German Confederation, and finally to the German 

 Empire. While Minister to the North German Confederation, he 

 concluded naturalization treaties which included in their scope 

 Prussia, Baden, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg. These treaties were 

 the first to recognize the right of a citizen to change his alle- 

 giance, and could only have been secured by a man of exceptional 

 influence. While at Berlin, he presented the American case in 

 the arbitration between Great Britain and the United States 

 concerning the title to the island of San Juan. This act was 



