Death of Historian Bancroft.

Hon. George Bancroft, the historian, died at Washington last Saturday afternoon, in the ninety-first year of his age.

Mr. Bancroft was born in Worcester, Mass., in the fall of 1800, and entered Phillips Exeter Academy at ten, graduating from there in the class of 1813; that same fall he became a member of Harvard College and graduated with distinction in the class of 1817. He was the only surviving member of these two classes, and he was the senior alumnus of both the academy and the college.

The two years succeeding his graduation Mr. Bancroft spent in Germany, at the University of Gottingen, where, in 1820, he received the degree of Ph. D. He then repaired to the University of Berlin, in order to prosecute various other courses of study. He made a specialty of history, although preparing for the ministry. After an extended tour of Europe the young traveller returned to America and soon abandoned the idea of following his father's profession. It was then that he first thought of writing a history of the United States.

In 1822 Mr. Bancroft was appointed tutor of Greek in Harvard College. He held the position for a year and abandoned it to establish the famous Round Hill school at Northampton, Mass. Meanwhile he published a book of poems and wrote several magazine articles. He took an active part in politics and was elected to several offices in the State of Massachusetts.

After nine years of preparation, Mr. Bancroft published in 1834 the first volume of his "History of the United State." Six years later appeared the second volume. The next decade the historian passed in politics, holding the offices of collector of the port of Boston, envoy to Great Britain, and secretary of the navy. He signalized his administration of this latter position by the foundation of the naval academy at Annapolis and the astronomical observatory at Washington.

In 1849 he received from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of D. C. L. Immediately after this, several more volumes of his history appeared together with revised editions of the first two.

Again Mr. Bancroft was to represent his native country abroad and in 1867 became minister to Prussia. Seven years later he returned to Washington, where he has since resided. He then issued the tenth volume of his history and revised the whole work in 1876. He spent the next four years on a history of the government of the United States from 1783 to 1789. Mr. Bancroft's library, consisting of 12,000 volumes, is one of the finest collections in the country.

By the death of Mr. Bancroft, Rev. Dr. Frederick Augustus Farley of the class of 1818, becomes the senior alumnus of the college.