Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/156

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BLOEMFONTEIN—BLUMENTHAL.
139

his wife, who has made many sacrifices for the popular cause and also undergone imprisonment. New persecutions induced him to come with his family to England: Louis Napoleon refusing to let him pass through France into Italy. He has carried on, from here, a Democratic and National German Propaganda. After an amnesty, in 1862, the House of Deputies at Stuttgart gave him a banquet. He was the speaker of the London Germans at Garibaldi's entry. He promoted the Schleswig-Holstein movement in connection with leaders of the Schleswig Diet, whose confidential communications he transmitted to the English Foreign Office, and was at the head of the London Committee during the war of 1863–64. He likewise exerted himself to influence public opinion in favour of German freedom and union, of Italian and Polish independence, and of the American Union, by speeches and pamphlets in England and Scotland. At Berlin, his stepson met with a tragic death in the attempt of May 7, 1866. During the war of 1870–71, Karl Blind supported his country's cause. Many political writings, and essays on history, mythology, and Germanic literature, published in Germany, England, America, and Spain, have proceeded from his pen. He has exerted himself to bring about the National Testimonial for the philosopher Feuerbach, and has worked abroad for a proper commemoration of the great master-singer Hans Sachs. In 1875, an assault, well-nigh endangering his life, was made upon him in the streets of London by an over-excited political adversary, who, found guilty and fined before a police-court, was expelled from the "German Athenæum." Among Karl Blind's recent writings are:—Biographies of Ledru Rollin, Francis Deak, and Freiligrath; "Fire-Burial among our Germanic Forefathers: a Record of the Poetry and History of Teutonic Cremation;" "Yggdrasil; or, the Teutonic Tree of Existence;" "An Old German Poem and a Vedic Hymn;" "Scottish, Shetlandic, and Germanic Water-Tales;" "New Finds in Shetlandic and Welsh Folk-lore;" "The Siegfried Tale;" disquisitions on Khazar and Russian history, urging resistance to the further extension of the power of the Czar; and "The New Conflict in Germany."


BLOEMFONTEIN, Bishop of. (See Webb.)


BLOMFIELD, The Right Rev. Alfred, D.D., Bishop of Colchester, is the youngest son of the late Dr. Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, and was born at Fulham, Aug. 31, 1833. From Harrow school he proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class in classical moderations in 1853, and in Literæ Humaniores in 1854. In the latter year he gained the Chancellor's Prize for Latin verse. He was elected to a Fellowship at All Souls' College, and took the degree of B.A. in 1855 and M.A. in 1857. He was ordained priest in 1858; was curate of Kidderminster 1857–60; perpetual curate of St. Philip's, Stepney, 1862–65; vicar of St. Matthew's, City Road, 1865–71; and vicar of Barking, Essex, 1871–82. In 1869 he was chosen as a Select Preacher at Oxford. He was appointed Archdeacon of Essex in 1878, and Archdeacon of Colchester in 1882. In the latter year he was also appointed Bishop of Colchester, as suffragan to the Bishop of St. Alban's, and he was consecrated in St. Alban's Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury (June 24). A few days before he had been created D.D., honoris causâ, by the University of Oxford. He is the author of Memoirs of his father, Bishop Blomfield, 2 vols., 1863; and "Sermons in Town and Country," 1871.


BLUMENTHAL, Lieutenant-General Leonard von, Chief of