BANCROFT, GEORGE. 



a letter of the same burden as his other utter- 

 ances since the union of 1867, declaring that 

 Franz Josef had no right to wear the crown of 

 St. Stephen and that all the acts of the Hunga- 

 rian Parliament were void. After that the whole 

 Cabinet agreed that it would be unadvisable to 

 pass a special act declaring Kossuth to be a citi- 

 zen, and Tisza, on March 7, expressed his deter- 

 mination to resign since the Cabinet opposed his 

 proposition of a general law, and thus put it out 

 of his power to redeem his pledge to Parliament. 

 The King, when he found that no agreement was 

 possible, commissioned Count Julius Szapary, the 

 Minister of Agriculture, to form a new Cabinet. 

 Tisza remained minister in name till the House 

 of Lords passed the budget. The ground on 

 which he retired was understood to be only a 

 convenient pretext. Anxiety was felt as to his 

 future course. The conditions ordinarily govern- 

 ing Parliament would have required not him, 

 who possessed the confidence and adhesion of 

 the majority, but the dissentient ministers to 

 retire. He resigned the presidency of the Libe- 

 ral party, lest it should suffer from a divided 

 leadership, as in the time of Francis Deak, while 

 retaining his seat in Parliament in order to sus- 

 tain the new ministry with his influence. 

 The new Prime Minister in his declaration to 



Parliament said that the Cabinet would endeavor 

 to solidify the condition of financial equilibrium 

 that had been re-established, to follow a rational 

 economical policy, to reorganize the Hungarian 

 administration, and to maintain the legal rela- 

 tions of Hungary toward Croatia. He disclaimed 

 any intention of offering an amendment to the 

 naturalization laws, and declared that the Gov- 

 ernment would continue a Liberal policy, rely- 

 ing on the support of the existing majority. 



Count Julius Szapary, the new Prime Minister, 

 was" born Nov. 1, 1832. He entered the Hun- 

 garian civil service, in which his father was 

 employed in high posts, first took his seat as a 

 deputy in 1861, became Minister of the Interior 

 in 1873, accepted the portfolio of Finance when 

 Tisza reconstructed his Cabinet in 1878, and held 

 it till February, 1887, when he resigned on ac- 

 count of the demands of his colleagues for money 

 to build schools, promote industries, and extend 

 communications. Tisza took charge of the minis- 

 try after him, and succeeded in bringing about an 

 equilibrium. Count Szapary, who is connected 

 with the territorial aristocracy and is an heredi- 

 tary member of the House of Magnates, returned 

 to the Cabinet when Tisza altered its composition 

 in 1889, succeeding Count Szechenyi as Minister 

 of Agriculture. 



B 



BANCROFT, GEORGE, an American histo- 

 rian, born in Worcester, Mass., Oct. 3, 1800 ; died 

 in Washington, D. C., Jan. 17, 1891. He inherited 

 an honorable but not a famous name. The fami- 

 ly has been long in America, for his ancestor, 

 John Bancroft, arrived on June 12, 1632, and set- 

 tled in Reading (now Lynn), Massachusetts. 

 Several of the descendants were men of local repu- 

 tation during that and the next century. Samuel 

 Bancroft, the grandsire of the historian, was a 

 public man holding offices of importance, and 

 renowned for his piety and orthodoxy. Savage 

 says he possessed ''the gift of utterance in an 

 eminent degree." It was he who, probably for 

 that reason, was chosen by Jonathan Edwards 

 as his umpire in the unhappy dispute with the 

 Northampton congregation. The Rev. Aaron 

 Bancroft, father of George, was, however, no 

 Calvinist, and his son was accustomed laugh- 

 ingly to remark that his own orthodoxy, for he 

 was a pronounced Calvinist both in politics and 

 religion, was a case of atavism. But there were 

 two things which the son had direct from his 

 father, who was no common man his literary 

 impulse and a vigorous constitution. The sire 

 was born in 1755, fought at Lexington and 

 Bunker Hill, and was graduated at Harvard 

 College in 1778. During his life of over eighty 

 years he died in 1839 he was influential in 

 many directions. Honest in purpose and pure 

 in life, he was for more than half a century an 

 honored citizen in the heart of the most en- 

 lightened community then in America, setting an 

 example of activity in spiritual and intellectual 

 interests to all about. The scanty income of his 

 pastorate was supplemented in part by farm life 

 and in part by literature. He published occa- 

 sional discourses, a volume of sermons, and in 



1807 a " Life of Washington." His fame as an 

 author rested on this book, which was marked by 

 accuracy of statement and an agreeable literary 

 quality. It was reprinted in England, and was 

 scarcely second in circulation to the contempora- 

 neous work of Marshall. The esteem in which 

 the elder Bancroft was held is shown by the fact 

 that he was a member of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences and in later years president 

 of the American Unitarian Association. There 

 were thirteen children in the family, and the 

 frugal expenditure and simple tastes, which were 

 in part compulsory, in part a matter of principle, 

 combined in one of the most valuable elements 

 that entered into their early training. 



George Bancroft was born with the century, on 

 Oct. 3, 1800. His education began under such 

 difficulties as to give him almost from infancy a 

 due appreciation of its value. The only school 

 for a boy desiring a liberal education was two 

 miles from home, and thither the child trudged 

 in all weathers to his daily task. The instruc- 

 tion that he got with such effort was unsatisfac- 

 tory, and to the kindly assistance of a family 

 friend he owed the acquaintance with Ca?sar 

 that enabled him to enter Phillips Academy, 

 Exeter, at the age of eleven. He was a member 

 of that famous institution for two years, during 

 which time he was deeply influenced in the di- 

 rection of a serious life by two men Abbott, 

 the distinguished principal, and Nathan Parker, 

 the minister at Portsmouth with whom he spent 

 his holidays. Young Bancroft went up to Har- 

 vard at the age of thirteen. The years of his 

 college life were profitable in the highest degree. 

 President Kirkland gave him the most tender 

 and fatherly counsel and attention. But his 

 most powerful guide was the study of philosophy. 



