In The Evening He Always
Receives His Friends Except Wednesdays And Thursdays, When He
Attends His Wife To The Opera And To The Academie.
LETTER: To Mr. and Mrs. I.P.D.
LONDON, January 28th, 1848
My dear Uncle and Aunt: . . . Last Monday I received [this] note
from George Sumner, which I thought might interest you: "My dear
Mrs. Bancroft: I hasten to congratulate you upon an event most
honorable to Mr. Bancroft and to our country. The highest honor
which can be bestowed in France upon a foreigner has just been
conferred on him. He was chosen this afternoon a Corresponding
Member of the Institute. Five names were presented for the vacant
chair of History. Every vote but one was in favor of Mr. Bancroft
(that one for Mr. Grote of London, author of the 'History of
Greece'). A gratifying fact in regard to this election is that it
comes without the knowledge of Mr. Bancroft, and without any of
those preliminary visits on his part, and those appeals to
academicians whose votes are desired, that are so common with
candidates for vacancies at the Institute. The honor acquires
double value for being unsought, and I have heard with no small
satisfaction several Members of the Academy contrast the modest
reserve of Mr. Bancroft with the restless manoeuvres to which they
have been accustomed. Prescott, you know, is already a member, and
I think America may be satisfied with two out of seven of a class of
History which is selected from the world."
LETTER:
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