own works, and republished them together. His pecuniary difficulties were, shortly before his death, so great, that some of his professional friends were endeavouring to compound with his creditors, and to raise money for his relief, when that event superseded the necessity for their exertions. When he died, a subscription was opened for a monument to him, which has been erected over his grave in Finchley cemetery.—G. A. M.
BISHOP, John, a cathedral musician of much eminence, was born in 1665. He was originally a lay-singer in King's college chapel, Cambridge, and in 1695 was appointed organist of Winchester college. In 1729 he succeeded Vaughan Richardson as organist of the cathedral. He wrote many excellent services and anthems, and published two works, "Harmonia Lenis," and "A Set of New Psalm Tunes, in four parts." He died in 1737; a monument on the western wall of the college cloister at Winchester records both his virtues and his abilities.—(Archives of Winchester, and original sources.)—E. F. R.
BISHOP, Samuel, an English divine and poet, reputed the author of the well-known farce, "High Life below Stairs," which Garrick brought out as his own, born in London in 1731. After holding for some years the mastership of Merchant Tailors' School, he was presented to the living of St. Martin Outwich, and to the rectory of Ditton in Kent. Died in 1795.
BISHOP, William, first Romish bishop in England after the Reformation, born at Brayles, Warwickshire, in 1553, was educated at Oxford. He left the university in 1573 or 1574, and after a short residence at Rheims, repaired to Rome, whence he was despatched as missionary to England. On landing at Dover he was imprisoned, but recovering his liberty in 1584 he went to Paris, took his degree of licentiate, and returned to England. In 1623 he was declared bishop-elect of Chalcedon, and empowered to exercise episcopal jurisdiction over the Romanists of England and Scotland. His character was universally admired, notwithstanding the unpopularity of his office.—J. S., G.
* BISMARCK, Otto Edwin Leopold Von, prime minister of Prussia, and chancellor of the new empire of Germany, belongs to an ancient family that derives its name from a frontier town built on the river Biese by a mediæval bishop, hence called Bishopsmark, and by local curtailment Bismarck. The family, in the course of centuries, furnished many valuable servants to the state, both civic and military. In the records of Stendal, from 1309 to 1338, occurs the name of Rudolf von Bismarck, a respected member of the guild of merchant tailors, a man of note in the town council, who did much for his native place, and especially encouraged education, by erecting schools in opposition to the narrow-minded clergy of his time. As the family increased in number and position, Claus von Bismarck is seen commandant of Magdeburg, under the Emperor Charles IV.; and in 1513 Ludolf von Bismarck, electoral sheriff of Boetzow, the present Oranienburg. The headquarters of the family were at the castle of Burgstall, where the margraves and electors of Brandenburg were frequent guests for the sake of sporting and hunting on the domain. In 1562 John George, electoral prince of Brandenburg, became anxious to possess the castle of Burgstall, and employed every art to obtain possession of it, which he managed at last by exchanging it for Crevesi and Schönhausen, the present seat of the family. One of the Schönhausen Bismarcks made some stir by his talents and good looks, in various European courts, whither he had to fly in consequence of having killed one of his servants in a fit of anger. He ultimately married the sister-in-law of Biron, the favourite of the Empress Ann of Russia, in whose service he became a general in the Ukraine, and died in 1750 at Poltava. A second Bismarck of Schönhausen visited Russia under special circumstances. He was general of cavalry to the king of Wurtemburg, and so high an authority in his profession that in 1835 he was summoned to Russia by the Emperor Nicolas to inspect his cavalry. Prince Bismarck is said to resemble in personal appearance his great-grandfather, a colonel of cavalry under the Great Frederick, who died the death of a soldier at the battle of Chotusitz, where Frederick beat the Austrians under Prince Karl of Lorraine. Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck of Schönhausen, and Louise Wilhelmina Menken, daughter of the celebrated minister, were the parents of the present chancellor of Germany, who first saw the light of day at Schönhausen, in 1815, on what might seem an unpropitious birthday, the first of April. He received his early education in Berlin, where he breathed an atmosphere charged with resentment against the foreigner, who had but recently subjected his country to the bitterest humiliation. He afterwards went to the university of Göttingen, returning to Berlin in 1833. Among the friends of his student life in Göttingen was Mr. J. Motley, author of the history of the Dutch Republic, and sometime United States ambassador at London. Bismarck entered the profession of the law; leaving it, however, ere long, to undertake the management of the family estates in Pomerania, where he also served his time in a landwehr regiment of uhlans. His life during early manhood was wild and irregular enough. Of his score and more duels he is said still to retain one monumental scar. His studies having been in the law, he was appointed in 1835, when just of age, to a subordinate office in a law court at Potsdam. The following anecdote is characteristic of the man at this period, showing both impetuosity and humour. The auscultator, as the young official was technically styled, was taking the deposition of a true Berliner, whose impudence was so. trying to Bismarck's patience that he jumped up and exclaimed, "Sir, behave better, or I'll have you kicked out." The magistrate present patted the zealous clerk in a friendly way upon the shoulder, and said quietly, "Herr Auscultator, the kicking out is my business." They proceeded with the evidence, but very soon Bismarck again sprang to his feet, thundering out, "Sir, behave yourself better, or the magistrate shall kick you out!" The face of the court may be imagined.
Generous as well as angry impulses were in the young man. In the summer of 1842 he was on duty as cavalry officer with the Stargard landwehr squadron of uhlans in exercise at Lippehne, in the Newmark. One afternoon he was standing with other officers on the bridge over the lake, when his groom Hildebrand, the son of the forester on his estate, rode a horse into the water for a bath, close by the bridge. Suddenly the horse lost footing, and as the terrified horseman clung tight to the bridle, it fell, and Hildebrand disappeared in the water. A loud cry of horror arose; Bismarck threw off his sword in an instant, tore off his uniform, and dashed headlong into the lake to save his servant. By great good fortune he seized him, but the man clung so fast in his death agony to his preserver, that the latter had to dive again and release himself. The crowd stood in horror on the shore; master and servant were both given up for lost—bubbles rose to the surface, but the powerful swimmer had succeeded in shaking off the deadly embrace of the drowning man, and emerged at length with his servant, whom he landed safely. The little town was in great commotion at this brave rescue, and their feelings were expressed by the superintendent meeting the noble rescuer in full official dress, and wishing him happiness and the blessing of the Almighty. He also obtained the simple medallion, "for rescuing from danger," the well-known Prussian safety medal, which may still often be seen amid the jewelled stars that sometimes cover his breast. Bismarck is proud of this mark of honour, and when on one occasion a noble diplomatist, perhaps not without a tinge of satire, asked him the meaning of this modest decoration, the only one he then wore, he replied, "I am in the habit sometimes of saving a man's life." The diplomatist looked rather abashed. In July, 1847, he married Johanna von Putkammer, with whom, for a while, he led a retired life on his estate of Schönhausen. He did not enter into political life until 1847, and two years after that date he occupied a position in the Diet as one of the chief leaders of the conservative party against democracy. Yet he stood forward as a liberal at first in the united Diet, which was summoned by a manifesto of the king to meet at the royal palace at Cöln on the Spree in 1847. Captain von Bismarck was selected as representative of the Knight's Estate of Jerichow in Saxony, and entered the White Saloon imbued with the prevailing ideas of liberty. These popular opinions, however, did not take deep root in his mind, and the more he studied the florid oratory of the liberals the less he felt inclined to adopt their views, feeling very doubtful of the effect these new principles of policy might have upon the monarchical constitution of Prussia. On the 17th of May the Deputy von Saucken, having, in an elaborate speech, declared that the Prussians had risen in 1813 for the sole end of obtaining a constitution, Deputy von Bismarck rose, and for the first time ascended the tribune, where his great stature, ruddy face, and shining eyes, commanded instant attention. He
