Birmingham from 1858 to 1866, and then emigrated to New Zealand. Settling at Wanganui, he opened a shop and established the Wanganui Herald. He was elected to the House of Representatives, and became Minister of Education, then of Finance. In 1884 he was appointed Native Minister and Minister for Defence and Lands. In 1891 he was elected Prime Minister, and to him is largely due the repute of New Zealand for progressive legislation. Ballance was an outspoken Rationalist and a high-minded humanitarian. D. Apr. 27, 1893.
Balmaceda, José Manoel, President of the Republic of Chile. B. 1838. Ed. at the Jesuit Seminary, Santiago. Balmaceda early abandoned his creed, and was one of the founders of the anti-clerical Reform Club in 1868. In 1876 he entered Parliament and became the leader of the anti-clerical Liberals. As Minister of the Interior (from 1882) he passed the divorce law and other measures which the Church opposed. He was President of the Republic from 1886 to 1890, but his severe methods led to a civil war, and, being forced to fly, he ended his life Sep. 18, 1891.
Baltzer, Wilhelm Eduard, German reformer. B. Oct. 24, 1814. Ed. Leipzig and Halle Universities. He entered the Lutheran ministry, and was hospital-chaplain at Delitzsch. In 1848 his licence to preach was withdrawn on account of his Rationalism, and he founded a free community at Nordhausen. He was a Deputy to the Frankfort Parliament in 1848. Baltzer translated the life of Apollonius of Tyana and wrote several works on religion. D. June 24, 1887.
Balzac, Honoré de, French novelist. B. May 20, 1799. Ed. Vendome College (by the Oratorian priests) and Pension Lepitre, Paris. His parents made him a lawyer's clerk, and, when he took to letters against their will, they lodged him in an attic and reduced his allowance. For eleven years he worked, in great privation, producing unsuccessful novels which he has excluded from editions of his works. At last, in 1829, an historical novel, Les Chouans, won recognition for him. In the following year he conceived the vast scheme of his Comédie Humaine, of which he wrote forty-seven volumes, besides twenty-four separate novels. He often worked fifteen, and sometimes eighteen, hours a day. By his severe and intensely conscientious work he won a place which many regard as the highest in French fiction, and he had a deep and lasting influence on French literature. There were many admirers who called him " the Christ of modern art." His complete freedom from religion is seen in the whole of his work. In his youth he was a friend of Arago, and wrote a history of the Jesuits. D. Aug. 18, 1850.
Bancel, François Désiré, French politician and historian. B. Feb. 12, 1822. Ed. Tournon and Grenoble. Bancel was a lawyer, but in 1849 he entered the Legislative Assembly, and was one of the most fiery opponents of the clericals and royalists. Napoleon III expelled him in 1852, and he went to Brussels. He taught in the Free University, and gave great assistance in the Belgian Rationalist movement. He was a Deist, but drastically anti-clerical. After his return to France he was elected to the Legislative Body. D. Jan. 22, 1871.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, American historian. B. May 5, 1832. Bancroft was a bookseller in California, and he began at an early date to collect books and documents bearing on the history of the Pacific Coast. His library eventually amounted to 60,000 volumes. After retiring from business in 1868 he wrote a series of thirty-nine volumes on the history of Western America, and is the highest authority on it. His last work, Retrospection (1913), shows that he is a liberal Deist, with a great scorn of Churches and
