fter it became settled.
See W. Cramond, _Annals of Banff_ (New Spalding Club) (Aberdeen, 1891); Dr
Gordon, _Chronicles of Keith, Grange, &c._ (Glasgow, 1880); _Banffshire
Year-Book_ (Banff); Professor Dickie, _Botanist's Guide to Aberdeen, Banff,
&c._ (Aberdeen, 1860); _Inventory of Charters of Cullen_ (Banff, 1887); and
_Inventory of Charters of Banff_ (Banff); Robertson's _Collections for a
History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff_ (Spalding Club); W. Watt,
_Aberdeenshire and Banff_ (Edinburgh, 1900).
[v.03 p.0314] BANFFY, DEZSO [DESIDERIUS], BARON (1843- ), Hungarian
statesman, the son of Baron Daniel Banffy and Anna Gyarfas, was born at
Klausenburg on the 28th of October 1843, and educated at the Berlin and
Leipzig universities. As lord lieutenant of the county of Belso-Szolnok,
chief captain of Kovar and curator of the Calvinistic church of
Transylvania, Banffy exercised considerable political influence outside
parliament from 1875 onwards, but his public career may be said to have
begun in 1892, when he became speaker of the house of deputies. As speaker
he continued, however, to be a party-man (he had always been a member of
the left-centre or government party) and materially assisted the government
by his rulings. He was a stringent adversary of the radicals, and caused
some sensation by absenting himself from the capital on the occasion of
Kossuth's funeral on the 1st of April 1894. On the 14th of January 1895,
the king, after the fall of the Szell ministry, entrusted him with the
formation of a cabinet. His programme, in brief, was the carrying through
of the church reform laws with all due regard to clerical susceptibilities,
and the maintenance of the Composition of 1867, whilst fully guaranteeing
the predominance of Hungary. He succeeded in carrying the remaining
ecclesiastical bills through the Upper House, despite the vehement
opposition of the papal nuncio Agliardi, a triumph which brought about the
fall of Kalnoky, the minister for foreign affairs, but greatly strengthened
the ministry in Hungary. In the ensuing elections of 1896 the government
won a gigantic majority. The drastic electoral methods of Banffy had,
however, contributed somewhat to this result, and the corrupt practices
were the pretext for the fierce opposition in the House which he henceforth
had to encounter, though the measures which he now introduced (the Honved
Officers' Schools Bill) would, in normal circumstances, have been rec
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