The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood (page 6)

BARTHOLOMEW, ST., an apostle of Christ, and martyr; represented in art with a knife in one hand and his skin in the other; sometimes been painted as being flayed alive, also as headless. Festival, Aug. 24.

BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, an annual market held at Smithfield, London, and instituted in 1133 by Henry I., to be kept on the saint’s day, but abolished in 1853, when it ceased to be a market and became an occasion for mere dissipation and riot.

BARTHOLOMEW HOSPITAL, an hospital in Smithfield, London, founded in 1123; has a medical school attached to it, with which the names of a number of eminent physicians are associated.

BARTHOLOMEW’S DAY, ST., 24th August, day in 1572 memorable for the wholesale massacre of the Protestants in France at the instance of Catharine de Medici, then regent of the kingdom for her son, Charles IX., an event, cruelly gloried in by the Pope and the Spanish Court, which kindled a fire in the nation that was not quenched, although it extinguished Protestantism proper in France, till Charles was coerced to grant liberty of conscience throughout the realm.

BARTIZAN, an overhanging wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of ancient fortifications.

BARTLETT, JOHN H., an American ethnologist and philologist, born at Rhode Island, U.S.; author of “Dictionary of Americanisms,” among other works particularly on ethnology (1805-1886).

BARTOLI, DANIELE, a learned Italian Jesuit, born at Ferrara (1635-1685).

BARTOLI, PIETRO, Italian engraver, engraved a great number of ancient works of art (1635-1700).

BARTOLINI, LORENZO, a Florentine sculptor, patronised by Napoleon; produced a great number of busts (1777-1850).

BARTOLOMME`O, FRA, a celebrated Florentine painter of sacred subjects, born at Florence; an adherent of Savonarola, friend of Raphael; “St. Mark” and “St. Sebastian” among his best productions (1469-1517).

BARTOLOZ`ZI, FRANCESCO, an eminent engraver, born at Florence; wrought at his art both in England and in Portugal, where he died; his chief works, “Clytie,” after Annibale Caracci, the “Prometheus,” after Michael Angelo, and “Virgin and Child,” after Carlo Dolci; he was the father of Madame Vestris (1725-1815).

BARTON, BERNARD, the “Quaker poet,” born in London; a clerk nearly all his days in a bank; his poems, mostly on homely subjects, but instinct with poetic feeling and fancy, gained him the friendship of Southey and Charles Lamb, as well as more substantial patronage in the shape of a government pension (1784-1849).

BARTON, ELIZABETH, “the Maid of Kent,” a poor country servant-girl, born in Kent, subject from nervous debility to trances, in which she gave utterances ascribed by Archbishop Warham to divine inspiration, till her communications were taken advantage of by designing people, and she was led by them to pronounce sentence against the divorce of Catharine of Aragon, which involved her and her abettors in a charge of treason, for which they were all executed at Tyburn (1506-1534).

BARUCH, (1) the friend of the prophet Jeremiah, and his scribe, who was cast with him into prison, and accompanied him into Egypt; (2) a book in the Apocrypha, instinct with the spirit of Hebrew prophecy, ascribed to him; (3) also a book entitled the Apocalypse of Baruch, affecting to predict the fall of Jerusalem, but obviously written after the event.

BARYE, a French sculptor, distinguished for his groups of statues of wild animals (1795-1875).

BASAITI, a Venetian painter of the 15th and 16th centuries, a rival of Bellini; his best works, “Christ in the Garden” and the “Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew.”

BASEDOW, JOHANN BERNARD, a zealous educational reformer, born at Hamburg; his method modelled according to the principles of Rousseau; established a normal school on this method at Dessau, which, however, failed from his irritability of temper, which led to a rupture with his colleagues (1723-1790).

BASEL (74), in the NW. of Switzerland, on the Rhine, just before it enters Germany; has a cathedral, university, library, and museum; was a centre of influence in Reformation times, and the home for several years of Erasmus; it is now a great money market, and has manufactures of silks and chemicals; the people are Protestant and German-speaking.

BASEL, COUNCIL OF, met in 1431, and laboured for 12 years to effect the reformation of the Church from within. It effected some compromise with the Hussites, but was hampered at every step by the opposition of Pope Eugenius IV. Asserting the authority of a general council over the Pope himself, it cited him on two occasions to appear at its bar, on his refusal declared him contumacious, and ultimately endeavoured to suspend him. Failing to effect its purpose, owing to the secession of his supporters, it elected a rival pope, Felix V., who was, however, but scantily recognised. The Emperor Frederick III. supported Eugenius, and the council gradually melted away. At length, in 1449, the pope died, Felix resigned, and Nicholas V. was recognised by the whole Church. The decrees of the council were directed against the immorality of the clergy, the indecorousness of certain festivals, the papal prerogatives and exactions, and dealt with the election of popes and the procedure of the College of Cardinals. They were all confirmed by Nicholas V., but are not recognised by modern Roman canonists.

BA`SHAN, a fertile and pastoral district in NE. Palestine of considerable extent, and at one time densely peopled; the men of it were remarkable for their stature.

BASHAHR, a native hill state in the Punjab, traversed by the Sutlej; tributary to the British Government.

BASHI-BAZOUKS`, irregular, undisciplined troops in the pay of the Sultan; rendered themselves odious by their brutality in the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876, as well as, more or less, in the time of the Crimean war.

BASHKIRS, originally a Finnish nomad race (and still so to some extent) of E. Russia, professing Mohammedanism; they number some 500,000.

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE, a precocious Russian young lady of good family, but of delicate constitution, who travelled a good deal with her mother, noted her impressions, and left a journal of her life, which created, when published after her death, an immense sensation from the confessions it contains (1860-1884).

BASIL, ST., THE GREAT, bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, his birthplace; studied at Athens; had Julian the Apostate for a fellow-student; the lifelong friend of Gregory Nazianzen; founded a monastic body, whose rules are followed by different monastic communities; a conspicuous opponent of the Arian heresy, and defender of the Nicene Creed; tried in vain to unite the Churches of the East and West; is represented in Christian art in Greek pontificals, bareheaded, and with an emaciated appearance (326-380). There were several Basils of eminence in the history of the Church: Basil, bishop of Ancyra, who flourished in the 4th century; Basil, the mystic, and Basil, the friend of St. Ambrose.

BASIL I., the Macedonian, emperor of the East; though he had raised himself to the throne by a succession of crimes, governed wisely; compiled, along with his son Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, a code of laws that were in force till the fall of the empire; fought successfully against the Saracens; _d_. 886.

BASILICA, the code of laws, in 60 books, compiled by Basil I., and Leo, his son and successor, first published in 887, and named after the former.

BASILICA, a spacious hall, twice as long as broad, for public business and the administration of justice, originally open to the sky, but eventually covered in, and with the judge’s bench at the end opposite the entrance, in a circular apse added to it. They were first erected by the Romans, 180 B.C.; afterwards, on the adoption of Christianity, they were converted into churches, the altar being in the apse.

BASILICON DORON (i. e. Royal Gift), a work written by James I. in 1599, before the union of the crowns, for the instruction of his son, Prince Henry, containing a defence of the royal prerogative.

BASILI`DES, a Gnostic of Alexandria, flourished at the commencement of the 2nd century; appears to have taught the Oriental theory of emanations, to have construed the universe as made up of a series of worlds, some 365 it is alleged, each a degree lower than the preceding, till we come to our own world, the lowest and farthest off from the parent source of the series, of which the God of the Jews was the ruler, and to have regarded Jesus as sent into it direct from the parent source to redeem it from the materialism to which the God of the Jews, as Creator and Lord of the material universe, had subjected it; which teaching a sect called after his name accepted and propagated in both the East and the West for more than two centuries afterwards.

BAS`ILISK, an animal fabled to have been hatched by a toad from the egg of an old cock, before whose breath every living thing withered and died, and the glance of whose eye so bewitched one to his ruin that the bravest could confront and overcome it only by looking at the reflection of it in a mirror, as PERSEUS (q. v.) was advised to do, and did, when he cut off the head of the Medusa; seeing itself in a mirror, it burst, it as said, at the sight.

BASKERVILLE, JOHN, a printer and typefounder, originally a writing-master in Birmingham; native of Sion Hill, Worcestershire; produced editions of classical works prized for their pre-eminent beauty by connoisseurs in the art of the printer, and all the more for their rarity (1706-1756).

BASNAGES, JACQUES, a celebrated Protestant divine, born at Rouen; distinguished as a linguist and man of affairs; wrote a “History of the Reformed Churches” and on “Jewish Antiquities” (1653-1723).

BASOCHE, a corporation of lawyers’ clerks in Paris. See BAZOCHE.

BASQUE PROVINCES, a fertile and mineral district in N. of Spain, embracing the three provinces of Biscaya, Guipuzcoa, and Alava, of which the chief towns are respectively Bilbao, St. Sebastian, and Vittoria; the natives differ considerably from the rest of the Spaniards in race, language, and customs. See BASQUES.

BASQUE ROADS, an anchorage between the Isle of Oleron and the mainland; famous for a naval victory gained in 1809 over a French fleet under Vice-Admiral Allemand.

BASQUES, a people of the Western Pyrenees, partly in France and partly in Spain; distinguished from their neighbours only by their speech, which is non-Aryan; a superstitious people, conservative, irascible, ardent, proud, serious in their religious convictions, and pure in their moral conduct.

BAS-RELIEF (i. e. low relief) a term applied to figures very slightly projected from the ground.

BASS ROCK, a steep basaltic rock at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 350 ft. high, tenanted by solan geese; once used as a prison, specially in Covenanting times.

BASS STRAIT, strait between Australia and Tasmania, about 150 m. broad.

BASSANIO, the lover of Portia in the “Merchant of Venice.”

BASSANO, a town in Italy, on the Brenta, 30 m. NW. of Padua; printing the chief industry.

BASSANO, DUC DE, an intriguing French diplomatist in the interest of Bonaparte, and his steadfast auxiliary to the last (1763-1839).

BASSANO, JACOPO DA PONTE, an eminent Italian painter, chiefly of country scenes, though the “Nativity” at his native town, Bassano, shows his ability in the treatment of higher themes (1510-1592).

BASSOMPIERRE, FRANCOIS DE, a marshal of France, born in Lorraine; entered military life under Henry IV., was a gallant soldier, and one of the most brilliant wits of his time; took part in the siege of Rochelle; incurred the displeasure of Richelieu; was imprisoned by his order twelve years in the Bastille; wrote his Memoirs there; was liberated on the death of Richelieu; his Memoirs contain a lively description of his contemporaries, the manners of the time, his own intrigues, no less than those of his friends and enemies (1579-1646).

BASSORAH (40), a port in Asiatic Turkey, on the Shatt-el-Arab; a place of great commercial importance when Bagdad was the seat of the caliphate; for a time sank into insignificance, but has of late revived.

BASTI`A (22), a town in NE. Corsica, the most commercial in the island, and once the capital; was founded by the Genoese in 1383, and taken by the French in 1553; exports wine, oil, fruits, &c.

BASTIAN, ADOLF, an eminent ethnologist, born at Bremen; travelled over and surveyed, in the interest of his science, all quarters of the globe, and recorded the fruits of his survey in his numerous works, no fewer than thirty in number, beginning with “Der Mensch in der Geschichte,” in three vols.; conducts, along with Virchow and R. Hartman, the _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_; _b_. 1826.

BASTIAN, DR. H. C., a physiologist, born at Truro; a materialist in his theory of life; a zealous advocate of the doctrine of spontaneous generation; _b_. 1837.

BASTIAT, FREDERIC, an eminent political economist, born at Bayonne; a disciple of Cobden’s; a great advocate of Free Trade; wrote on behalf of it and against Protection, “Sophismes Economiques”; a zealous Anti-Socialist, and wrote against Socialism (1801-1850).

BASTIDE, JULES, French Radical writer, born in Paris; took part in the Revolution of 1848, and became Minister of Foreign Affairs (1800-1879).

BASTILLE (lit. the Building), a State prison in Paris, built originally as a fortress of defence to the city, by order of Charles V., between 1369 and 1382, but used as a place of imprisonment from the first; a square structure, with towers and dungeons for the incarceration of the prisoners, the whole surrounded by a moat, and accessible only by drawbridges; “tyranny’s stronghold”; attacked by a mob on 14th July 1789; taken chiefly by noise; overturned, as “the city of Jericho, by miraculous sound”; demolished, and the key of it sent to Washington; the taking of it was the first event in the Revolution. See Carlyle’s “French Revolution” for the description of the fall of it.

BASUTOLAND (250), a fertile, healthy, grain-growing territory in S. Africa, SE. of the Orange Free State, under protection of the British crown, of the size of Belgium; yields large quantities of maize; the natives keep large herds of cattle.

BASUTOS, a S. African race of the same stock as the Kaffirs, but superior to them in intelligence and industry.

BATANGAS, a port in the island of Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands, which has a considerable trade.

BATAVIA (105), the capital of Java, on the N. coast, and of the Dutch possessions in the Eastern Archipelago; the emporium, with a large trade, of the Far East; with a very mixed population. Also the ancient name of Holland; _insula Batavorum_ it was called–that is, island of the Batavi, the name of the native tribes inhabiting it.

BATES, HENRY WALTER, a naturalist and traveller, born at Leicester; friend of, and a fellow-labourer with, Alfred R. Wallace; author of “The Naturalist on the Amazons”; an advocate of the Darwinian theory, and author of contributions in defence of it (1825-1892).

BATH (54), the largest town in Somerset, on the Avon; a cathedral city; a place of fashionable resort from the time of the Romans, on account of its hot baths and mineral waters, of which there are six springs; it was from 1704 to 1750 the scene of Beau Nash’s triumphs; has a number of educational and other institutions, and a fine public park.

BATH, MAJOR, a gentleman in Fielding’s “Amelia,” who stoops from his dignity to the most menial duties when affection prompts him.

BATH, ORDER OF THE, an English order of knighthood, traceable to the reign of Henry IV., consisting of three classes: the first, Knights Grand Cross; the second, Knights Commanders, and the third, Knights Companions, abbreviated respectively into G.C.B., K.C.B., and C.B.; initiation into the order originally preceded by immersion in a bath, whence the name, in token of the purity required of the members by the laws of chivalry. It was originally a military order, and it is only since 1847 that civil Knights, Knights Commanders, and Companions have been admitted as Knights. The first class, exclusive of royal personages and foreigners, is limited to 102 military and 28 civil; the second, to 102 military and 50 civil; and the third, to 525 military and 200 civil. The motto of the order is _Tria juncta in uno_ (Three united in one); and Henry VI.’s chapel at Westminster is the chapel of the order, with the plates of the Knights on their stalls, and their banners suspended over them.

BATHGATE (5), largest town in Linlithgowshire; a mining centre; the birthplace of Sir J. Simpson, who was the son of a baker in the place.

BATHILDA, ST., queen of France, wife of Clovis II., who governed France during the minority of her sons, Clovis III., Childeric II., and Thierry; died 680, in the monastery of Chelles.

BATH`ORI, ELIZABETH, a Polish princess, a woman of infamous memory, caused some 650 young girls to be put to death, in order, by bathing in their blood, to renew her beauty; immersed in a fortress for life on the discovery of the crime, while her accomplices were burnt alive; _d_. 1614.

BATHOS, an anti-climax, being a sudden descent from the sublime to the commonplace.

BATH`URST (8), the capital of British Gambia, at the mouth of the river Gambia, in Western Africa; inhabited chiefly by negroes; exports palm-oil, ivory, gold dust, &c.

BATHURST (10), the principal town on the western slopes of New South Wales, second to Sydney, with gold mines in the neighbourhood, and in a fertile wheat-growing district.

BATHURST, a district in Upper Canada, on the Ottawa, a thriving place and an agricultural centre.

BATHYB`IUS, (i. e. living matter in the deep), substance of a slimy nature found at great sea depth, over-hastily presumed to be organic, proved by recent investigation to be inorganic, and of no avail to the evolutionist.

BATLEY (28), a manufacturing town in the W. Riding of Yorkshire, 8 m. SW. of Leeds; a busy place.

BATN-EL-HAJAR, a stony tract in the Nubian Desert, near the third cataract of the Nile.

BATON-ROUGE (10), a city on the E. bank of the Mississippi, 130 m. above New Orleans, and capital of the state of Louisiana; originally a French settlement.

BATON-SINISTER, a bend-sinister like a marshal’s baton, an indication of illegitimacy.

BATOUM` (10), a town in Transcaucasia, on the E. of the Black Sea; a place of some antiquity; recently ceded by Turkey to Russia, but only as a mere trading port; has an excellent harbour, and has improved under Russian rule.

BATRACHOMYOMACHIA, a mock-heroic poem, “The Battle of the Frogs and Mice,” falsely ascribed to Homer.

BATTAS, a Malay race, native to Sumatra, now much reduced in numbers, and driven into the interior.

BATTERSEA, a suburb of London, on the Surrey side of the Thames, opposite Chelsea, and connected with it by a bridge; with a park 185 acres in extent; of plain and recent growth; till lately a quite rural spot.

BATTHYA`NI, COUNT, an Hungarian patriot, who fought hard to see his country reinstated in its ancient administrative independence, but failed in his efforts; was arrested, tried for high treason by court-martial, and sentenced to be shot, to the horror, at the time, of the civilised world (1809-1849).

BATTLE, a market-town in Sussex, near Hastings, so called from the battle of Senlac, in which William the Conqueror defeated Harold in 1066.

BATTLE OF THE SPURS, (_a_) an engagement at Courtrai in 1302 where the burghers of the town beat the knighthood of France, and the spurs of 4000 knights were collected after the battle; (_b_) an engagement at Guinegate, 1513, in which Henry VIII. made the French forces take to their spurs; OF THE BARRIERS (see BARRIERS); OF THE BOOKS, a satire by Swift on a literary controversy of the time; OF THE STANDARD, a battle in 1138, in which the English, with a high-mounted crucifix for a standard, beat the Scots at Northallerton.

BATTUE, method of killing game after crowding them by cries and beating them towards the sportsmen.

BAUCIS. See PHILEMON.

BAUDELAIRE, CHARLES, French poet of the romantic school, born in Paris; distinguished among his contemporaries for his originality, and his influence on others of his class; was a charming writer of prose as well as verse, as his “Petits Poemes” in prose bear witness. Victor Hugo once congratulated him on having “created a new shudder”; and as has been said, “this side of his genius attracted most popular attention, which, however, is but one side, and not really the most remarkable, of a singular combination of morbid but delicate analysis and reproduction of the remotest phases and moods of human thought and passion” (1821-1867).

BAUDRICOURT, a French courtier whom Joan of Arc pressed to conduct her into the presence of Charles VII.

BAUDRY, PAUL, French painter, decorated the _foyer_ of the Grand Opera in Paris; is best known as the author of the “Punishment of a Vestal Virgin” and the “Assassination of Marat” (1828-1886).

BAUER, BRUNO, a daring Biblical critic, and violent polemic on political as well as theological subjects; born at Saxe-Altenburg; regarded the Christian religion as overlaid and obscured by accretions foreign to it; denied the historical truth of the Gospels, and, like a true disciple of Hegel, ascribed the troubles of the 19th century to the overmastering influence of the “ENLIGHTENMENT” or the “AUFKLAeRUNG” (q. v.) that characterised the 18th. His last work was entitled “Disraeli’s Romantic and Bismarck’s Socialistic Imperialism” (1809-1882).

BAUMGARTEN, ALEXANDER GOTTLIEB, professor of Philosophy at Frankfort-on-the-Oder; disciple of Wolf; born at Berlin; the founder of AEsthetics as a department of philosophy, and inventor of the name (1714-1762).

BAUMGARTEN-CRUSIUS, a German theologian of the school of Schleiermacher; professor of Theology at Jena; born at Merseburg; an authority on the history of dogma, on which he wrote (1788-1843).

BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN, head of the Tuebingen school of rationalist divines, born near Stuttgart; distinguished by his scholarship and his labours in Biblical criticism and dogmatic theology; his dogmatic treatises were on the Christian Gnosis, the Atonement, the Trinity, and the Incarnation, while his Biblical were on certain epistles of Paul and the canonical Gospels, which he regarded as the product of the 2nd century; regarded Christianity of the Church as Judaic in its origin, and Paul as distinctively the first apostle of pure Christianity (1792-1861).

BAUSSET, cardinal, born at Pondicherry, who wrote the Lives of Bossuet and Fenelon (1748-1824).

BAUTZEN, a town of Saxony, an old town on the Spree, where Napoleon defeated the Prussians and Russians in 1813; manufactures cotton, linen, wool, tobacco, paper, etc.

BAVARIA (5,590), next to Prussia the largest of the German States, about the size of Scotland; is separated by mountain ranges from Bohemia on the E. and the Tyrol on the S.; Wuertemburg lies on the W., Prussia, Meiningen, and Saxony on the N. The country is a tableland crossed by mountains and lies chiefly in the basin of the Danube. It is a busy agricultural state: half the soil is tilled; the other half is under grass, planted with vineyards and forests. Salt, coal, and iron are widely distributed and wrought. The chief manufactures are of beer, coarse linen, and woollen fabrics. There are universities at Muenich, Wuerzburg, and Erlangen. Muenich, on the Isar, is the capital; Nueremberg, where watches were invented, and Angsburg, a banking centre, the other chief towns. Formerly a dukedom, the palatinate, on the banks of the Rhine, was added to it in 1216. Napoleon I. raised the duke to the title of king in 1805. Bavaria fought on the side of Austria in 1866, but joined Prussia in 1870-71.

BAVIE`CA, the famous steed of the Cid, held sacred after the hero’s death.

BAVOU, ST., a soldier monk, the patron saint of Ghent.

BAXTER, RICHARD, an eminent Nonconformist divine, native of Shropshire, at first a conformist, and parish minister of Kidderminster for 19 years; sympathised with the Puritans, yet stopped short of going the full length with them; acted as chaplain to one of their regiments, and returned to Kidderminster; became, at the Restoration one of the king’s chaplains; driven out of the Church by the Act of Uniformity, was thrown into prison at 70, let out, spent the rest of his days in peace; his popular works, “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” and his “Call to the Unconverted” (1615-1691).

BAY CITY (27), place of trade, and of importance as a great railway centre in Michigan, U.S.; the third city in it.

BAYADERE, a dancing-girl in India, dressed in loose Eastern costume.

BAYARD, a horse of remarkable swiftness belonging to the four sons of Aymon, and which they sometimes rode all at once; also a horse of Amadis de Gaul.

BAYARD, CHEVALIER DE, an illustrious French knight, born in the Chateau Bayard, near Grenoble; covered himself with glory in the wars of Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I.; his bravery and generosity commanded the admiration of his enemies, and procured for him the thrice-honourable cognomen of “The Knight _sans peur et sans reproche_”; one of his most brilliant feats was his defence, single-handed, of the bridge over the Garigliano, in the face of a large body of Spaniards; was mortally wounded defending a pass at Abblategrasso; fell with his face to the foe, who carried off his body, but restored it straightway afterwards for due burial by his friends (1476-1524).

BAYEUX (7), an ancient Norman city in the dep. of Calvados, France; manufactures lace, hosiery, &c.; is a bishop’s seat; has a very old Gothic cathedral.

BAYEUX TAPESTRY, representations in tapestry of events connected with the Norman invasion of England, commencing with Harold’s visit to the Norman court, and ending with his death at the battle of Hastings; still preserved in the public library of Bayeux; is so called because originally found there; it is 214 ft. long by 20 in. wide, divided into 72 scenes, and contains a variety of figures. It is a question whose work it was.

BAYLE, PIERRE, a native of Languedoc; first Protestant (as the son of a Calvinist minister), then Catholic, then sceptic; Professor of Philosophy at Padua, then at Rotterdam, and finally retired to the Boompjes in the latter city; known chiefly as the author of the famous _Dictionnaire Historique et Critique_, to the composition of which he consecrated his energies with a zeal worthy of a religious devotee, and which became the fountain-head of the sceptical philosophy that flooded France on the eve of the Revolution; pronounced by a competent judge in these matters, a mere “imbroglio of historical, philosophical, and anti-theological marine stores” (1647-1700).

BAYLEN, a town in the province of Jaen, Spain, where General Castanos defeated Dupont, and compelled him to sign a capitulation, in 1808.

BAYLEY, SIR JOHN, a learned English judge; author of a standard work “On the Law of Bills of Exchange”; _d_. 1841.

BAYONNE (24), a fortified French town, trading and manufacturing, in the dep. of Basses-Pyrenees, at the confluence of the Adour and Nive, 4 m. from the Bay of Biscay; noted for its strong citadel, constructed by Vauban, and one of his _chef-d’oeuvres_, and its 12th-century cathedral church; it belonged to the English from 1152 to 1451.

BAZAINE, FRANCOIS ACHILLE, a marshal of France, born at Versailles; distinguished himself in Algiers, the Crimea, and Mexico; did good service, as commander of the army of the Rhine, in the Franco-German war, but after the surrender at Sedan was shut up in Metz, surrounded by the Germans, and obliged to surrender, with all his generals, officers, and men; was tried by court-martial, and condemned to death, but was imprisoned instead; made good his escape one evening to Madrid, where he lived to write a justification of his conduct, the sale of the book being prohibited in France (1811-1888).

BAZARD, SAINT-AMAND, a French socialist, founder of the _Charbonnerie Francaise_; a zealous but unsuccessful propagator of St. Simonianism, in association with ENFANTIN (q. v.), from whom he at last separated (1791-1832).

BAZOCHE, a guild of clerks of the parliament of Paris, under a mock king, with the privilege of performing religious plays, which they abused.

BEACHES, RAISED, elevated lands, formerly sea beaches, the result of upheaval, or left high by the recession of the sea, evidenced to be such by the shells found in them and the nature of the debris.

BEACHY HEAD, a chalk cliff in Sussex, 575 ft. high, projecting into the English Channel; famous for a naval engagement between the allied English and Dutch fleets and those of France, in which the latter were successful.

BEACONSFIELD, capital of the gold-mining district in Tasmania; also a town in Buckinghamshire, 10 m. N. of Windsor, from which Benjamin Disraeli took his title on his elevation to the peerage.

BEACONSFIELD, BENJAMIN DISRAELI, EARL OF, English novelist and politician, born in London; son of Isaac D’Israeli, litterateur, and thus of Jewish parentage; was baptized at the age of 12; educated under a Unitarian minister; studied law, but did not qualify for practice. His first novel, “Vivian Grey,” appeared in 1826, and thereafter, whenever the business of politics left him leisure, he devoted it to fiction. “Contarini Fleming,” “Coningsby,” “Tancred,” “Lothair,” and “Endymion” are the most important of a brilliant and witty series, in which many prominent personages are represented and satirised under thin disguises. His endeavours to enter Parliament as a Radical failed twice in 1832; in 1835 he was unsuccessful again as a Tory. His first seat was for Maidstone in 1837; thereafter he represented Shrewsbury and Buckinghamshire. For 9 years he was a free-lance in the House, hating the Whigs, and after 1842 leading the Young England party; his onslaught on the Corn Law repeal policy of 1846 made him leader of the Tory Protectionists. He was for a short time Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Derby in 1852, and coolly abandoned Protection. Returning to power with his chief six years later, he introduced a Franchise Bill, the defeat of which threw out the Government. In office a third time in 1866, he carried a democratic Reform Bill, giving household suffrage in boroughs and extending the county franchise. Succeeding Lord Derby in 1868, he was forced to resign soon afterwards. In 1874 he entered his second premiership. Two years were devoted to home measures, among which were Plimsoll’s Shipping Act and the abolition of Scottish Church patronage. Then followed a showy foreign policy. The securing of the half of the Suez Canal shares for Britain; the proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India; the support of Constantinople against Russia, afterwards stultified by the Berlin Congress, which he himself attended; the annexation of Cyprus; the Afghan and Zulu wars, were its salient features. Defeated at the polls in 1880 he resigned, and died next year. A master of epigram and a brilliant debater, he really led his party. He was the opposite in all respects of his protagonist, Mr. Gladstone. Lacking in zeal, he was yet loyal to England, and a warm personal friend of the Queen (1804-1881).

BEAR, name given in the Stock Exchange to one who contracts to deliver stock at a fixed price on a certain day, in contradistinction from the _bull_, or he who contracts to take it, the interest of the former being that, in the intervening time, the stocks should fall, and that of the latter that they should rise.

BEAR, GREAT. See URSA MAJOR.

BEAM, an ancient prov. of France, fell to the crown with the accession of Henry IV. in 1589; formed a great part of the dep. of Basses-Pyrenees, capital Pau.

BEATIFICATION, religious honour allowed by the pope to certain who are not so eminent in sainthood as to entitle them to canonisation.

BEATON, or BETHUNE, DAVID, cardinal, archbishop of St. Andrews, and primate of the kingdom, born in Fife; an adviser of James V., twice over ambassador to France; on the death of James secured to himself the chief power in Church and State as Lord High Chancellor and Papal Legate; opposed alliance with England; persecuted the Reformers; condemned George Wishart to the stake, witnessed his sufferings from a window of his castle in St. Andrews, and was assassinated within its walls shortly after; with his death ecclesiastical tyranny of that type came to an end in Scotland (1494-1546).

BEATON, JAMES, archbishop of Glasgow and St. Andrews, uncle of the preceding, a prominent figure in the reign of James V.; was partial to affiliation with France, and a persecutor of the Reformers; _d_. 1539.

BEATTIE, JAMES, a poet and essayist, born at Laurencekirk; became professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen; wrote an “Essay on Truth” against Hume; his most admired poem, “The Minstrel,” a didactic piece, traces the progress of poetic genius, admitted him to the Johnsonian circle in London, obtained for him the degree of LL.D. from Oxford, and brought him a pension of L200 per annum from the king; died at Aberdeen (1735-1803).

BEATRICE, a beautiful Florentine maiden, Portinari, her family name, for whom Dante conceived an undying affection, and whose image abode with him to the end of his days. She is his guide through Paradise.

BEAU NASH, a swell notability at Bath; died in beggary (1674-1761).

BEAU TIBBS, a character in Goldsmith’s “Citizen of the World,” noted for his finery, vanity, and poverty.

BEAUCAIRE (8), a French town near Avignon, on the Rhone, which it spans with a magnificent bridge; once a great centre of trade, and famous, as it still is, for its annual fair, frequented by merchants from all parts of Europe.

BEAUCHAMP, ALPHONSE DE, a historian, born at Monaco; wrote the “Conquest of Peru,” “History of Brazil,” &c. (1769-1832).

BEAUCLERK, Henry I. of England, so called from his superior learning.

BEAUCLERK, TOPHAM, a young English nobleman, the only son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, a special favourite of Johnson’s, who, when he died, lamented over him, as one whose like the world might seldom see again (1759-1780).

BEAUFORT, DUKE OF, grandson of Henry IV. of France; one of the chiefs of the Fronde; was surnamed Roi des Halles (King of the Market-folk); appointed admiral of France; did good execution against the pirates; passed into the service of Venice; was killed at the siege of Candia in 1669.

BEAUFORT, HENRY, cardinal, bishop of Winchester, son of John of Gaunt, learned in canon law, was several times chancellor; took a prominent part in all the political movements of the time, exerted an influence for good on the nation, lent immense sums to Henry V. and Henry VI., also left bequests for charitable uses, and founded the hospital of St. Cross at Winchester (1377-1447).

BEAUHAR`NAIS, ALEXANDRE, VICOMTE DE, born at Martinique, where he married a lady who, afterwards as wife of Napoleon, became the Empress Josephine; accepted and took part in the Revolution; was secretary of the National Assembly; coolly remarked, on the news of the flight of the king, “The king’s gone off; let us pass to the next business of the House”; was convicted of treachery to the cause of the Revolution and put to death; as the father of Hortense, who married Louis, Napoleon’s brother, he became grandfather of Napoleon III. (1760-1794).

BEAUHARNAIS, EUGENE DE, son of the preceding and of Josephine, born at Paris, step-son of Napoleon, therefore was made viceroy of Italy; took an active part in the wars of the empire; died at Muenich, whither he retired after the fall of Napoleon (1781-1824).

BEAUHARNAIS, HORTENSE EUGENIE, sister of the preceding, ex-queen of Holland; wife of Louis Bonaparte, an ill-starred union; mother of Napoleon III., the youngest of three sons (1783-1837).

BEAUMAR`CHAIS, PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE, a dramatist and pleader of the most versatile, brilliant gifts, and French to the core, born in Paris, son of a watchmaker at Caen; ranks as a comic dramatist next to Moliere; author of “Le Barbier de Seville” (1775), and “Le Mariage de Figaro” (1784), his masterpiece; astonished the world by his conduct of a lawsuit he had, for which “he fought against reporters, parliaments, and principalities, with light banter, clear logic, adroitly, with an inexhaustible toughness of resource, like the skilfullest fencer.” He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution, and made sacrifices on its behalf, but narrowly escaped the guillotine; died in distress and poverty. Of the two plays he wrote, Saintsbury says, “The wit is indisputable, but his chansons contain as much wit as the Figaro plays.” He made a fortune by speculations in the American war, and lost by others, one of them being the preparation of a sumptuous edition of Voltaire. For the culmination and decline, as well as appreciation, of him, see the “French Revolution,” by Carlyle (1732-1799).

BAUMA`RIS, principal town in Anglesea, Wales, on the Menai Strait, near Bangor, a favourite watering-place, with remains of a castle erected by Edward I.

BEAUMONT, CHRISTOPHE DE, archbishop of Paris, born at Perigord, “spent his life in persecuting hysterical Jansenists and incredulous non-confessors”; but scrupled to grant, though he fain would have granted, absolution on his deathbed to the dissolute monarch of France, Louis XV.; issued a charge condemnatory of Rousseau’s “Emile,” which provoked a celebrated letter from Rousseau in reply (1703-1781).

BEAUMONT, FRANCIS, dramatic poet, born in Leicestershire, of a family of good standing; bred for the bar, but devoted to literature; was a friend of Ben Jonson; in conjunction with his friend Fletcher, the composer of a number of plays, about the separate authorship of which there has been much discussion, the dramatic power of which comes far short of that so conspicuous in the plays of their great contemporary Shakespeare, though it is said contemporary criticism gave them the preference (1585-1615).

BEAUMONT, JEAN BAPTISTE ELIE DE, French geologist, born in Calvados; became secretary to the Academy of Sciences; was joint-editor of a geological map of France. He had a theory of his own of the formation of the crust of the earth (1798-1874).

BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT, American Confederate general, born at New Orleans; adopted the cause of the South, and fought in its behalf (1818-1893).

BEAUREPAIRE, a French officer, noted for his noble defence of Verdun against the Prussians; preferred death by suicide to the dishonour of surrender (1748-1792).

BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC, a Huguenot divine, born at Poitou; fled to Holland on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Berlin, and became a notability in high quarters there; attracted the notice of the young Frederick, the Great that was to be, who sought introduction to him, and the young Frederick “got good conversation out of him”; author of a “History of Manichaeism,” praised by Gibbon, and of other books famous in their day, a translation of the New Testament for one (1659-1738).

BEAUTIFUL PARRICIDE, BEATRICE CENCI (q. v.).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the hero and heroine of a famous fairy tale. Beauty falls in love with a being like a monster, who has, however, the heart of a man, and she marries him, upon which he is instantly transformed into a prince of handsome presence and noble mien.

BEAUVAIS (19), capital of the dep. of Oise, in France, 34 in. SW. of Amiens, an ancient town, noted for its cathedral, its tapestry weaving, and the feat of Jeanne-Hachette and her female following when the town was besieged by Charles the Bold.

BEAUVAIS, a French prelate, born at Cherbourg, Bishop of Senez, celebrated as a pulpit orator (1731-1790).

BEAUVILLIER, a statesman, patron of letters, to whom Louis XIV. committed the governorship of his sons; died of a broken heart due to the shock the death of the dauphin gave him (1607-1687).

BEBEK BAY, a fashionable resort on the Bosphorus, near Constantinople, and with a palace of the sultan.

BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO, one of the best painters of the Sienese school, distinguished also as a sculptor and a worker in mosaic (1486-1550).

BECCA`RIA, CAESARE BONESANA, MARQUIS OF, an Italian publicist, author of a celebrated “Treatise on Crimes and Punishments,” which has been widely translated, and contributed much to lessen the severity of sentences in criminal cases. He was a utilitarian in philosophy and a disciple of Rousseau in politics.

BECHE-DE-MER, a slug, called also the trepang, procured on the coral reefs of the Pacific, which is dried and eaten as a dainty by the Chinese.

BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM, chemist, born at Spires; distinguished as a pioneer in the scientific study of chemistry (1635-1682).

BECHSTEIN, a German naturalist, wrote “Natural History of Cage Birds” (1757-1822).

BECHUANA-LAND, an inland tract in S. Africa, extends from the Orange River to the Zambesi; has German territory on the W., the Transvaal and Matabele-land on the E. The whole country is under British protection; that part which is S. of the river Molopo was made a crown colony in 1885. On a plateau 4000 ft. above sea-level, the climate is suited for British emigrants. The soil is fertile; extensive tracts are suitable for corn; sheep and cattle thrive; rains fall in summer; in winter there are frosts, sometimes snow. The Kalahari Desert in the W. will be habitable when sufficient wells are dug. Gold is found near Sitlagoli, and diamonds at Vryburg. The Bechuanas are the most advanced of the black races of S. Africa.

BECHUA`NAS, a wide-spread S. African race, totemists, rearers of cattle, and growers of maize; are among the most intelligent of the Bantu peoples, and show considerable capacity for self-government.

BECKER, KARL, German philologist; bred to medicine; author of a German grammar (1775-1842).

BECKER, NICOLAUS, author of the “Wacht am Rhein,” was an obscure lawyer’s clerk, and unnoted for anything else (1810-1845).

BECKER, WILLIAM ADOLPHE, an archaeologist, born at Dresden; was professor at Leipzig; wrote books in reproductive representation of ancient Greek and Roman life; author of “Manual of Roman Antiquities” (1796-1846).

BECKET, THOMAS A, archbishop of Canterbury, born in London, of Norman parentage; studied at Oxford and Bologna; entered the Church; was made Lord Chancellor; had a large and splendid retinue, but on becoming archbishop, cast all pomp aside and became an ascetic, and devoted himself to the vigorous discharge of the duties of his high office; declared for the independence of the Church, and refused to sign the CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON (q. v.); King Henry II. grew restive under his assumption of authority, and got rid of him by the hands of four knights who, to please the king, shed his blood on the steps of the altar of Canterbury Cathedral, for which outrage the king did penance four years afterwards at his tomb. The struggle was one affecting the relative rights of Church and king, and the chief combatants in the fray were both high-minded men, each inflexible in the assertion of his claims (1119-1170).

BECKFORD, WILLIAM, author of “Vathek,” son of a rich alderman of London, who bequeathed him property to the value of L100,000 per annum; kept spending his fortune on extravagancies and vagaries; wrote “Vathek,” an Arabian tale, when a youth of twenty-two, at a sitting of three days and two nights, a work which established his reputation as one of the first of the imaginative writers of his country. He wrote two volumes of travels in Italy, but his fame rests on his “Vathek” alone (1759-1844).

BECKMANN, a professor at Goettingen; wrote “History of Discoveries and Inventions” (1738-1811).

BECKX, PETER JOHN, general of the Jesuits, born in Belgium (1790-1887).

BECQUEREL, ANTOINE CAESAR, a French physicist; served as engineer in the French army in 1808-14, but retired in 1815, devoting himself to science, and obtained high distinction in electro-chemistry, working with Ampere, Biot, and other eminent scientists (1788-1878).

BED OF JUSTICE, a formal session of the Parlement of Paris, under the presidency of the king, for the compulsory registration of the royal edicts, the last session being in 1787, under Louis XVI., at Versailles, whither the whole body, now “refractory, rolled out, in wheeled vehicles, to receive the order of the king.”

BEDCHAMBER, LORDS or LADIES OF, officers or ladies of the royal household whose duty it is to wait upon the sovereign–the chief of the former called Groom of the Stole, and of the latter, Mistress of the Robes.

BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL, born at Clifton, son of Thomas Beddoes; an enthusiastic student of science; a dramatic poet, author of “Bride’s Tragedy”; got into trouble for his Radical opinions; his principal work, “Death’s Jest-Book, or the Fool’s Tragedy,” highly esteemed by Barry Cornwall (1803-1849).

BEDE, or BEDA, surnamed “The Venerable,” an English monk and ecclesiastical historian, born at Monkwearmouth, in the abbey of which, together with that of Jarrow, he spent his life, devoted to quiet study and learning; his writings numerous, in the shape of commentaries, biographies, and philosophical treatises; his most important work, the “Ecclesiastical History” of England, written in Latin, and translated by Alfred the Great; completed a translation of John’s Gospel the day he died. An old monk, it is said, wrote this epitaph over his grave, _Hac sunt in fossa Bedae … ossa_, “In this pit are the bones … of Beda,” and then fell asleep; but when he awoke he found some invisible hand had inserted _venerabilis_ in the blank which he had failed to fill up, whence Bede’s epinomen it is alleged.

BEDELL, bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, born in Essex; studied at Cambridge; superintended the translation of the Old Testament into Irish; though his virtues saved him and his family for a time from outrage by the rebels in 1641, he was imprisoned at the age of 70, and though released, died soon after (1571-1642).

BEDFORD (160), a midland agricultural county of England, generally level, with some flat fen-land; also the county town (28), on the Great Ouse, clean and well paved, with excellent educational institutions, famous in connection with the life of John Bunyan, where relics of him are preserved, and where a bronze statue of him by Boehm has been erected to his memory by the Duke of Bedford in 1871; manufactures agricultural implements, lace, and straw plaiting; Elstow, Bunyan’s birthplace, is not far off.

BEDFORD, JOHN, DUKE OF, brother of Henry V., protector of the kingdom and regent of France during the minority of Henry VI., whom, on the death of the French king, he proclaimed King of France, taking up arms thereafter and fighting for a time victoriously on his behalf, till the enthusiasm created by Joan of Arc turned the tide against him and hastened his death, previous to which, however, though he prevailed over the dauphin, and burnt Joan at the stake, his power had gone (1389-1435).

BEDFORD LEVEL, a flat marshy district, comprising part of six counties, to the S. and W. of the Wash, about 40 m. in extent each way, caused originally by incursions of the sea and the overflowing of rivers; received its name from the Earl of Bedford, who, in the 17th century, undertook to drain it.

BEDLAM, originally a lunatic asylum in London, so named from the priory “Bethlehem” in Bishopsgate, first appropriated to the purpose, Bedlam being a corruption of the name Bethlehem.

BEDMAR, MARQUIS DE, cardinal and bishop of Oviedo, and a Spanish diplomatist, notorious for a part he played in a daring conspiracy in 1618 aimed at the destruction of Venice, but which, being betrayed, was defeated, for concern in which several people were executed, though the arch-delinquent got off; he is the subject of Otway’s “Venice Preserved”; it was after this he was made cardinal, and governor of the Netherlands, where he was detested and obliged to retire (1572-1655).

BEDOUINS, Arabs who lead a nomadic life in the desert and subsist by the pasture of cattle and the rearing of horses, the one element that binds them into a unity being community of language, the Arabic namely, which they all speak with great purity and without variation of dialect; they are generally of small stature, of wiry constitution, and dark complexion, and are divided into tribes, each under an independent chief.

BEE, THE, a periodical started by Goldsmith, in which some of his best essays appeared, and his “Citizen of the World.”

BEECHER, HENRY WARD, a celebrated American preacher, born at Litchfield, Connecticut; pastor of a large Congregational church, Brooklyn; a vigorous thinker and eloquent orator, a liberal man both in theology and politics; wrote “Life Thoughts”; denied the eternity of punishment, considered a great heresy by some then, and which led to his secession from the Congregational body (1813-1887).

BEECHER-STOWE, HARRIET ELIZABETH, sister of the above, authoress of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” of which probably over a million copies have been sold. Born at Litchfield, Connecticut, U.S.A., in 1812; _d_. 1896.

BEECHY, REAR-ADMIRAL, born in London, son of the following; accompanied Franklin in 1818 and Parry in 1819 to the Arctic regions; commanded the _Blossom_ in the third expedition of 1825-1828 to the same regions; published “Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole” (1796-1856).

BEECHY, SIR WILLIAM, portrait-painter, born in Oxfordshire; among his portraits were those of Lord Nelson, John Kemble, and Mrs. Siddons (1753-1839).

BEEF-EATERS, yeomen of the royal guard, whose institution dates from the reign of Henry VII., and whose office it is to wait upon royalty on high occasions; the name is also given to the warders of the Tower, though they are a separate body and of more recent origin; the name simply means (royal) dependant, a corruption of the French word _buffetier_, one who attends the sideboard.

BEEHIVE HOUSES, small stone structures, of ancient date, remains of which are found (sometimes in clusters) in Ireland and the W. of Scotland, with a conical roof formed of stones overlapping one another, undressed and without mortar; some of them appear to have been monks’ cells.

BEEL`ZEBUB, the god of flies, protector against them, worshipped by the Phoenicians; as being a heathen deity, transformed by the Jews into a chief of the devils; sometimes identified with Satan, and sometimes his aide-de-camp.

BEERBOHM TREE, HERBERT, actor, born in London, son of a grain merchant; his first appearance was as the timid curate in the “Private Secretary,” and then as the spy Macari in “Called Back”; is lessee of the Haymarket Theatre, London, and has had many notable successes; he is accompanied by his wife, who is a refined actress; _b_. 1852.

BEER`SHEBA, a village in the S. of Canaan, and the most southerly, 27 m. from Hebron; associated with Dan, in the N., to denote the limit of the land and what lies between; lies in a pastoral country abounding in wells, and is frequently mentioned in patriarchal history; means “the Well of the Oath.”

BEESWING, a gauze-like film which forms on the sides of a bottle of good port.

BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VON, one of the greatest musical composers, born in Bonn, of Dutch extraction; the author of symphonies and sonatas that are known over all the world; showed early a most precocious genius for music, commenced his education at five as a musician; trained at first by a companion named Pfeiffer, to whom he confessed he owed more than all his teachers; trained at length under the tuition of the most illustrious of his predecessors, Bach and Haendel; revealed the most wonderful musical talent; quitted Bonn and settled in Vienna; attracted the attention of Mozart; at the age of 40 was attacked with deafness that became total and lasted for life; continued to compose all the same, to the admiration of thousands; during his last days was a prey to melancholy; during a thunderstorm he died. Goethe pronounced him at his best “an utterly untamed character, not indeed wrong in finding the world detestable, though his finding it so did not,” he added, “make it more enjoyable to himself or to others” (1770-1827).

BEETS, NICOLAS, a Dutch theologian and poet, born at Haarlem; came, as a poet, under the influence of Byronism; _b_. 1814.

BEFA`NA, an Italian female Santa Claus, who on Twelfth Night fills the stockings of good children with good things, and those of bad with ashes.

BEGG, JAMES, Scotch ecclesiastic, born at New Monkland, Lanark; was a stalwart champion of old Scottish orthodoxy, and the last (1808-1883).

BEGHARDS, a religious order that arose in Belgium in the 13th century, connected with the Beguins, a mystic and socialistic sect.

BEGUINS, a sisterhood confined now to France and Germany, who, without taking any monastic vow, devote themselves to works of piety and benevolence.

BEGUM, name given in the E. Indies to a princess, mother, sister, or wife of a native ruler.

BEHAIM, MARTIN, a geographer and chartographer, born in Nueremberg; accompanied Diego Cam on a voyage of discovery along W. coast of Africa; constructed and left behind him a famous terrestrial globe; some would make him out to be the discoverer of America (1459-1507).

BEHAR (24,393), a province of Bengal, in the valley of the Ganges, which divides it into two; densely peopled; cradle of Buddhism.

BEHE`MOTH, a large animal mentioned in Job, understood to be the hippopotamus.

BEHIS`TUN, a mountain in Irak-Ajemi, a prov. of Persia, on which there are rocks covered with inscriptions, the principal relating to Darius Hystaspes, of date about 515 B.C., bearing on his genealogy, domains, and victories.

BEHM, ERNST, a German geographer, born in Gotha (1830-1884).

BEHN, AFRA, a licentious writer, born in Kent, for whom, for her free and easy ways, Charles II. took a liking; sent by him as a spy to Holland, and through her discovered the intention of the Dutch to burn the shipping in the Thames. She wrote plays and novels (1640-1689).

BEHRING STRAIT, a strait about 50 m. wide between Asia and N. America, which connects the Arctic Ocean with the Pacific; discovered by the Danish navigator Vitus Behring in 1728, sent out on a voyage of discovery by Peter the Great.

BEIRA (1,377), a central province of Portugal, mountainous and pastoral; gives title to the heir-apparent to the Portuguese throne.

BEKE, DR., traveller, born in London; travelled in Abyssinia and Palestine; author of “Origines Biblicae,” or researches into primeval history as shown not to be in keeping with the orthodox belief.

BEKKER, IMMANUEL, philologist, born in Berlin, and professor in Halle; classical textual critic; issued recensions of the Greek and Latin classics (1780-1871).

BEL AND THE DRAGON, HISTORY OF, one of the books of the Apocrypha, a spurious addition to the book of Daniel, relates how Daniel persuaded Cyrus of the vanity of idol-worship, and is intended to show its absurdity.

BELA I., king of Hungary from 1061 to 1063; an able ruler; introduced a great many measures for the permanent benefit of the country, affecting both religion and social organisation.

BELA IV., king of Hungary, son of Andreas II., who had in 1222 been compelled to sign the Golden Bull, the _Magna Charta_ of Hungarian liberty; faithfully respected the provisions of this charter, and incurred the enmity of the nobles by his strenuous efforts to subdue them to the royal power.

BELCH, SIR TOBY, a reckless, jolly, swaggering character in “Twelfth Night.”

BELCHER, SIR EDWARD, admiral, was engaged in several exploring and surveying expeditions; sailed round the world, and took part in the operations in China (1812-1877).

BELFAST (256), county town of Antrim, and largest and most flourishing city in the N. of Ireland; stands on the Lagan, at the head of Belfast Lough, 100 m. N. of Dublin; is a bright and pleasant city, with some fine streets and handsome buildings, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Methodist colleges. It is the centre of the Irish linen and cotton manufactures, the most important shipbuilding centre, and has also rope-making, whisky, and aerated-water industries. Its foreign trade is larger than even Dublin’s. It is the capital of Ulster, and head-quarters of Presbyterianism in Ireland.

BELFORT (83), a fortified town in dep. of Haut-Rhin, and is its capital, 35 m. W. by N. of Basel; capitulated to the Germans in 1870; restored to France; its fortifications now greatly strengthened. The citadel was by Vauban.

BELGAE, Caesar’s name for the tribes of the Celtic family in Gaul N. of the Seine and Marne; mistakenly rated as Germans by Caesar.

BELGIUM (6,136), a small European State bordering on the North Sea, with Holland to the N., France to the S., and Rhenish Prussia and Luxemburg on the E.; is less than a third the size of Ireland, but it is the most densely populated country on the Continent. The people are of mixed stock, comprising Flemings, of Teutonic origin; Walloons, of Celtic origin; Germans, Dutch, and French. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion. Education is excellent; there are universities at Ghent, Liege, Brussels, and Louvain. French is the language of educated circles and of the State; but the prevalence of dialects hinders the growth of a national literature. The land is low and level and fertile in the N. and W., undulating in the middle, rocky and hilly in the S. and E. The Meuse and Scheldt are the chief rivers, the basin of the latter embracing most of the country. Climate is similar to the English, with greater extremes. Rye, wheat, oats, beet, and flax are the principal crops. Agriculture is the most painstaking and productive of the world. The hilly country is rich in coal, iron, zinc, and lead. After mining, the chief industries are textile manufactures and making of machinery: the former at Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, and Liege; the latter at Liege, Mons, and Charleroi. The trade is enormous; France, Germany, and Britain are the best customers. Exports are coal to France; farm products, eggs, &c., to England; and raw material imported from across seas, to France and the basin of the Rhine. It is a small country of large cities. The capital is Brussels (480), in the centre of the kingdom, but communicating with the ocean by a ship canal. The railways, canals, and river navigation are very highly developed. The government is a limited monarchy; the king, senate, and house of representatives form the constitution. There is a conscript army of 50,000 men, but no navy. Transferred from Spain to Austria in 1713. Belgium was under French sway from 1794 till 1814, when it was united with Holland, but established its independence in 1830.

BELGRADE (54), the capital of Servia, on the confluence of the Save and Danube; a fortified city in an important strategical position, and the centre of many conflicts; a commercial centre; once Turkish in appearance, now European more and more.

BELGRA`VIA, a fashionable quarter in the southern part of the West End of London.

BELIAL, properly a good-for-nothing, a child of worthlessness; an incarnation of iniquity and son of perdition, and the name in the Bible for the children of such.

BELIEF, a word of various application, but properly definable as that which lies at the heart of a man or a nation’s convictions, or is the heart and soul of all their thoughts and actions, “the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain concerning his vital relations to this mysterious universe, and his duty and destiny there.”

BELINDA, ARABELLA FERMOR, the heroine in Pope’s “Rape of the Lock.”

BELISA`RIUS, a general under the Emperor Justinian, born in Illyria; defeated the Persians, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths; was falsely accused of conspiracy, but acquitted, and restored to his dignities by the emperor; though another tradition, now discredited, alleges that for the crimes charged against him he had his eyes put out, and was reduced to beggary (505-565).

BELIZE, British Honduras, a fertile district, and its capital (6); exports mahogany, rosewood, sugar, india-rubber, &c.

BELL, ACTON. See BRONTE.

BELL, ANDREW, LL.D., educationist, born at St. Andrews; founder of the Monitorial system of education, which he had adopted, for want of qualified assistants, when in India as superintendent of an orphanage in Madras, so that his system was called “the Madras system”; returned from India with a large fortune, added to it by lucrative preferments, and bequeathed a large portion of it, some L120,000, for the endowment of education in Scotland, and the establishment of schools, such as the Madras College in his native city (1753-1832).

BELL, BESSY, and MARY GRAY, the “twa bonnie lassies” of a Scotch ballad, daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower in a spot retired from a plague then raging; supplied with food by a lad in love with both of them, who caught the plague and gave it to them, of which they all sickened and died.

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, a ceremony at one time attending the greater excommunication in the Romish Church, when after sentence was read from the “book,” a “bell” was rung, and the “candle” extinguished.

BELL, CURRER. See BRONTE.

BELL, ELLIS. See BRONTE.

BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH, a brother of Sir Charles, distinguished in law; author of “Principles of the Law of Scotland” (1770-1843).

BELL, HENRY, bred a millwright, born in Linlithgowshire; the first who applied steam to navigation in Europe, applying it in a small steamboat called the _Comet_, driven by a three horse-power engine (1767-1830).

BELL, HENRY GLASSFORD, born in Glasgow, a lawyer and literary man, sheriff of Lanarkshire; wrote a vindication of Mary, Queen of Scots, and some volumes of poetry (1803-1874).

BELL, JOHN, of Antermony, a physician, born at Campsie; accompanied Russian embassies to Persia and China; wrote “Travels in Asia,” which were much appreciated for their excellency of style (1690-1780).

BELL, PETER, Wordsworth’s simple rustic, to whom the primrose was but a yellow flower and nothing more.

BELL, ROBERT, journalist and miscellaneous writer, born at Cork; edited “British Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper,” his best-known work, which he annotated, and accompanied with careful memoirs of each (1800-1867).

BELL, SIR CHARLES, an eminent surgeon and anatomist, born in Edinburgh, where he became professor of Surgery; distinguished chiefly for his discoveries in connection with the nervous system, which he published in his “Anatomy of the Brain” and his “Nervous System,” and which gained him European fame; edited, along with Lord Brougham, Paley’s “Evidences of Natural Religion” (1774-1842).

BELL, THOMAS, a naturalist, born at Poole; professor of Zoology in King’s College, London; author of “British Quadrupeds” and “British Reptiles,” “British Stalk-eyed Crustacea,” and editor of “White’s Natural History of Selborne” (1792-1880).

BELL ROCK, or INCHCAPE ROCK, a dangerous reef of sandstone rocks in the German Ocean, 12 m. SE. of Arbroath, on which a lighthouse 120 ft. high was erected in 1807-10; so called from a bell rung by the sway of the waves, which the abbot of Arbroath erected on it at one time as a warning to seamen.

BELL-THE-CAT, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Arran, so called from his offer to dispose by main force of an obnoxious favourite of the king, James III.

BELLA, STEPHANO DELLA, a Florentine engraver of great merit, engraved over 1000 plates; was patronised by Richelieu in France, and the Medici in Florence (1610-1664).

BELL`AMY, JACOB, a Dutch poet, born at Flushing; his poems highly esteemed by his countrymen (1752-1821).

BELLANGE, a celebrated painter of battle-pieces, born at Paris (1800-1866).

BELLAR`MINE, ROBERT, cardinal, born in Tuscany; a learned Jesuit, controversial theologian, and in his writings, which are numerous, a valiant defender at all points of Roman Catholic dogma; the greatest champion of the Church in his time, and regarded as such by the Protestant theologians; he was at once a learned man and a doughty polemic (1542-1621).

BELLAY, JOACHIM DU, French poet; author of sonnets entitled “Regrets,” full of vigour and poetry; wrote the “Antiquites de Rome”; was called the Apollo of the Pleiade, the best poet and the best prose-writer among them (1524-1560).

BELLE FRANCE, (i. e. Beautiful France), a name of endearment applied to France, like that of “Merry” applied to England.

BELLE-ISLE (60), a fortified island on the W. coast of France, near which Sir Edward Hawke gained a brilliant naval victory over the French, under M. de Conflans, in 1759.

BELLEISLE, CHARLES LOUIS AUGUSTE FOUQUET, COUNT OF, marshal of France; distinguished in the war of the Spanish Succession; an ambitious man, mainly to blame for the Austrian Succession war; had grand schemes in his head, no less than the supremacy in Europe and the world of France, warranting the risk; expounded them to Frederick the Great; concluded a fast and loose treaty with him, which could bind no one; found himself blocked up in Prague with his forces; had to force his way out and retreat, but it was a retreat the French boast comparable only to the retreat of the Ten Thousand; was made War Minister after, and wrought important reforms in the army (1684-1761). See CARLYLE’S “FREDERICK” for a graphic account of him and his schemes, specially in Bk. xii. chap. ix.

BELLENDEN, JOHN, of Moray, a Scottish writer in the 16th century; translated, at the request of James V., Hector Boece’s “History of Scotland,” and the first five books of Livy, which remain the earliest extant specimens of Scottish prose, and remarkable specimens they are, for the execution of which he was well rewarded, being made archdeacon of Moray for one thing, though he died in exile; _d_. 1550.

BELLENDEN, WILLIAM, a Scottish writer, distinguished for diplomatic services to Queen Mary, and for the purity of his Latin composition; a professor of belles-lettres in Paris University (1550-1613).

BELLER`OPHON, a mythical hero, son of Glaucus and grandson of Sisyphus; having unwittingly caused the death of his brother, withdrew from his country and sought retreat with Proetus, king of Argos, who, becoming jealous of his guest, but not willing to violate the laws of hospitality, had him sent to Iobates, his son-in-law, king of Lycia, with instructions to put him to death. Iobates, in consequence, imposed upon him the task of slaying the Chimaera, persuaded that this monster would be the death of him. Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, the winged horse given him by Pallas, slew the monster, and on his return received the daughter of Iobates to wife.

BELLEROPHON, LETTERS OF, name given to letters fraught with mischief to the bearer. See SUPRA.

BELLES-LETTRES, that department of literature which implies literary culture and belongs to the domain of art, whatever the subject may be or the special form; it includes poetry, the drama, fiction, and criticism.

BELLEVILLE, a low suburb of Paris, included in it since 1860; the scene of one of the outrages of the Communists.

BELLIARD, COMTE DE, a French general and diplomatist; fought in most of the Napoleonic wars, but served under the Bourbons on Napoleon’s abdication; was serviceable to Louis Philippe in Belgium by his diplomacy (1769-1832).

BELLI`NI, the name of an illustrious family of Venetian painters.

BELLINI, GENTILE, the son of Jacopo Bellini, was distinguished as a portrait-painter; decorated along with his brother the council-chamber of the ducal palace; his finest picture the “Preaching of St. Mark” (1421-1508).

BELLINI, GIOVANNI, brother of the preceding, produced a great many works; the subjects religious, all nobly treated; had Giorgione and Titian for pupils; among his best works, the “Circumcision,” “Feast of the Gods,” “Blood of the Redeemer”; did much to promote painting in oil (1426-1516).

BELLINI, JACOPO, a painter from Florence who settled in Venice, the father and founder of the family; _d_. 1470.

BELLINI, VINCENZO, a musical composer, born at Catania, Sicily; his works operas, more distinguished for their melody than their dramatic power; the best are “Il Pirati,” “La Somnambula,” “Norma,” and “Il Puritani” (1802-1835).

BELLMANN, the poet of Sweden, a man of true genius, called the “Anacreon of Sweden,” patronised by Gustavus Adolphus (1741-1795).

BELLO`NA, the goddess of fury in war among the Romans, related by the poets to Mars as sister, wife, or daughter; inspirer of the war-spirit, and represented as armed with a bloody scourge in one hand and a torch in the other.

BELLOT, JOSEPH RENE, a naval officer, born in Paris, distinguished in the expedition of 1845 to Madagascar, and one of those who went in quest of Sir John Franklin; drowned while crossing the ice (1826-1853).

BELLOY, a French poet, born at St. Flour; author of “Le Siege du Calais” and numerous other dramatic works (1727-1775).

BELON, PIERRE, a French naturalist, one of the founders of natural history, and one of the precursors of Cuvier; wrote in different departments of natural history, the chief, “Natural History of Birds”; murdered by robbers while gathering plants in the Bois de Boulogne (1518-1564).

BEL`PHEGOR, a Moabite divinity.

BELPHOEBE (i. e. Beautiful Diana), a huntress in the “Faerie Queene,” the impersonation of Queen Elizabeth, conceived of, however, as a pure, high-spirited maiden, rather than a queen.

BELSHAM, THOMAS, a Unitarian divine, originally Calvinist, born at Bedford; successor to the celebrated Priestley at Hackney, London; wrote an elementary work on psychology (1750-1829).

BELSHAZZAR, the last Chaldean king of Babylon, slain, according to the Scripture account, at the capture of the city by Cyrus in 538 B.C.

BELT, GREAT and LITTLE, gateways of the Baltic: the Great between Zealand and Fuenen, 15 m. broad; the Little, between Fuenen and Jutland, half as broad; both 70 m. long, the former of great depth.

BELT OF CALMS, the region in the Atlantic and Pacific, 4 deg. or 5 deg. latitude broad, where the trade-winds meet and neutralise each other, in which, however, torrents of rain and thunder-storms occur almost daily.

BELTANE, or BELTEIN, an ancient Celtic festival connected with the sun-worship, observed about the 1st of May and the 1st of November, during which fires were kindled on the tops of hills, and various ceremonies gone through.

BELTED WILL, name given to Lord William Howard, warden in the 16th and 17th centuries of the Western Marches of England.

BELU`CHISTAN (200 to 400), a desert plateau lying between Persia and India, Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea; is crossed by many mountain ranges, the Suliman, in the N., rising to 12,000 ft. Rivers in the NE. are subject to great floods. The centre and W. is a sandy desert exposed to bitter winds in winter and sand-storms in summer. Fierce extremes of temperature prevail. There are few cattle, but sheep are numerous; the camel is the draught animal. Where there is water the soil is fertile, and crops of rice, cotton, indigo, sugar, and tobacco are raised; in the higher parts, wheat, maize, and pulse. Both precious and useful metals are found; petroleum wells were discovered in the N. in 1887. The population comprises Beluchis, robber nomads of Aryan stock, in the E. and W., and Mongolian Brahuis in the centre. All are Mohammedan. Kelat is the capital; its position commands all the caravan routes. Quetta, in the N., is a British stronghold and health resort. The Khan of Kelat is the ruler of the country and a vassal of the Queen.

BE`LUS, another name for BAAL (q. v.), or the legendary god of Assyria and Chaldea.

BEL`VEDERE, name given a gallery of the Vatican at Rome, especially that containing the famous statue of Apollo, and applied to picture-galleries elsewhere.

BELZO`NI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, a famous traveller and explorer in Egypt, born at Padua, of poor parents; a man of great stature; figured as an athlete in Astley’s Circus, London, and elsewhere, first of all in London streets; applied himself to the study of mechanics; visited Egypt as a mechanician and engineer at the instance of Mehemet Ali; commenced explorations among its antiquities, sent to the British Museum trophies of his achievements; published a narrative of his operations; opened an exhibition of his collection of antiquities in London and Paris; undertook a journey to Timbuctoo, was attacked with dysentery, and died at Gato (1778-1823).

BEM, JOSEPH, a Polish general, born in Galicia; served in the French army against Russia in 1812; took part in the insurrection of 1830; joined the Hungarians in 1848; gained several successes against Austria and Russia, but was defeated at Temesvar; turned Mussulman, and was made pasha; died at Aleppo, where he had gone to suppress an Arab insurrection; he was a good soldier and a brave man (1791-1850).

BEMBA, a lake in Africa, the highest feeder of the Congo, of an oval shape, 150 m. long and over 70 m. broad, 3000 ft. above the sea-level.

BEMBO, PIETRO, cardinal, an erudite man of letters and patron of literature and the arts, born at Venice; secretary to Pope Leo X.; historiographer of Venice, and librarian of St. Mark’s; made cardinal by Paul III., and bishop of Bergamo; a fastidious stylist and a stickler for purity in language (1470-1547).

BEN LAWERS, a mountain in Perthshire, 3984 ft. high, on the W. of Loch Tay.

BEN LEDI, a mountain in Perthshire, 2873 ft. high, 41/2 m. NW. of Callander.

BEN LOMOND, a mountain in Stirlingshire, 3192 ft. high, on the E. of Loch Lomond.

BEN NEVIS, the highest mountain in Great Britain, in SW. Inverness-shire, 4406 ft. high, and a sheer precipice on the NE. 1500 ft. high, and with an observatory on the summit supported by the Scottish Meteorological Society.

BEN RHYDDING, a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 15 m. NW. of Leeds, with a thoroughly equipped hydropathic establishment, much resorted to.

BENARES (219), the most sacred city of the Hindus, and an important town in the NW. Provinces; is on the Ganges, 420 m. by rail NW. of Calcutta. It presents an amazing array of 1700 temples and mosques with towers and domes and minarets innumerable. The bank of the river is laid with continuous flights of steps whence the pilgrims bathe; but the city itself is narrow, crocked, crowded, and dirty. Many thousand pilgrims visit it annually. It is a seat of Hindu learning; there is also a government college. The river is spanned here by a magnificent railway bridge. There is a large trade in country produce, English goods, jewellery, and gems; while its brass-work, “Benares ware,” is famous.

BENBOW, JOHN, admiral, born at Shrewsbury; distinguished himself in an action with a Barbary pirate; rose rapidly to the highest post in the navy; distinguished himself well in an engagement with a French fleet in the W. Indies; he lost a leg, and at this crisis some of his captains proved refractory, so that the enemy escaped, were tried by court-martial, and two of them shot; the wound he received and his vexation caused his death. He was a British tar to the backbone, and of a class extinct now (1653-1702).

BENCOOLEN, a town and a Dutch residency in SW. of Sumatra; exports pepper and camphor.

BENDER, a town in Bessarabia, remarkable for the siege which Charles XII. of Sweden sustained there after his defeat at Pultowa.

BENEDEK, LUDWIG VON, an Austrian general, born in Hungary; distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1848-1849; was defeated by the Prussians at Sadowa; superseded and tried, but got off; retired to Graetz, where he died (1804-1871).

BENEDETTI, COUNT VINCENT, French diplomatist, born at Bastia, in Corsica; is remembered for his draft of a treaty between France and Prussia, published in 1870, and for his repudiation of all responsibility for the Franco-German war; _b_. 1817.

BENEDICT, the name of fourteen popes: B. I., from 574 to 575; B. II., from 684 to 685; B. III., from 855 to 858; B. IV., from 900 to 907; B. V., FROM 964 TO 965; B. VI., from 972 to 974; B. VII., from 975 to 984; B. VIII., from 1012 to 1024; extended the territory of the Church by conquest, and effected certain clerical reforms; B. IX., from 1033 to 1048, a licentious man, and deposed; B. X., from 1058 to 1059; B. XI., from 1303 to 1304; B. XII., from 1334 to 1342; B. XIII., from 1724 to 1730; B. XIV., from 1740 to 1758. Of all the popes of this name it would seem there is only one worthy of special mention.

BENEDICT XIV., a native of Bologna, a man of marked scholarship and ability; a patron of science and literature, who did much to purify the morals and elevate the character of the clergy, and reform abuses in the Church.

BENEDICT, BISCOP, an Anglo-Saxon monk, born in Northumbria; made two pilgrimages to Rome; assumed the tonsure as a Benedictine monk in Provence; returned to England and founded two monasteries on the Tyne, one at Wearmouth and another at Jarrow, making them seats of learning; _b_. 628.

BENEDICT, ST., the founder of Western monachism, born near Spoleto; left home at 14; passed three years as a hermit, in a cavern near Subiaco, to prepare himself for God’s service; attracted many to his retreat; appointed to an abbey, but left it; founded 12 monasteries of his own; though possessed of no scholarship, composed his “Regula Monachorum,” which formed the rule of his order; represented in art as accompanied by a raven with sometimes a loaf in his bill, or surrounded by thorns or by howling demons (480-543). See BENEDICTINES.

BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS, musician and composer, native of Stuttgart; removed to London in 1835; author of, among other pieces, the “Gipsy’s Warning,” the “Brides of Venice,” and the “Crusaders”; conducted the performance of “Elijah” in which Jenny Lind made her first appearance before a London audience, and accompanied her as pianist to America in 1850 (1806-1885).

BENEDICTINES, the order of monks founded by St. Benedict and following his rule, the cradle of which was the celebrated monastery of Monte Casino, near Naples, an institution which reckoned among its members a large body of eminent men, who in their day rendered immense service to both literature and science, and were, in fact, the only learned class of the Middle Ages; spent their time in diligently transcribing manuscripts, and thus preserving for posterity the classic literature of Greece and Rome.

BENEDICTUS, part of the musical service at Mass in the Roman Catholic Church; has been introduced into the morning service of the English Church.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY, exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge.

BE`NEKE, FRIEDRICH EDUARD, a German philosopher and professor in Berlin of the so-called empirical school, that is, the Baconian; an opponent of the methods and systems of Kant and Hegel; confined his studies to psychology and the phenomena of consciousness; was more a British thinker than a German (1798-1854).

BENENGE`LI, an imaginary Moorish author, whom Cervantes credits with the story of “Don Quixote.”

BENETIER, the vessel for holding the holy water in Roman Catholic churches.

BENEVENTO (20), a town 33 m. NE. of Naples, built out of and amid the ruins of an ancient one; also the province, of which Talleyrand was made prince by Napoleon.

BENEVOLENCE, the name of a forced tax exacted from the people by certain kings of England, and which, under Charles I., became so obnoxious as to occasion the demand of the PETITION OF RIGHTS (q. v.), that no tax should be levied without consent of Parliament; first enforced in 1473, declared illegal in 1689.

BENFEY, THEODOR, Orientalist, born near Goettingen, of Jewish birth; a great Sanskrit scholar, and professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at his native place; author of “Lexicon of Greek Roots,” “Sanskrit Grammar,” &c. (1809-1881).

BENGAL (76,643), one of the three Indian presidencies, but more particularly a province lying in the plain of the Lower Ganges and the delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra, with the Himalayas on the N. At the base of the mountains are great forests; along the seaboard dense jungles. The climate is hot and humid, drier at Behar, and passing through every gradation up to the snow-line. The people are engaged in agriculture, raising indigo, jute, opium, rice, tea, cotton, sugar, &c. Coal, iron, and copper mines are worked in Burdwan. The manufactures are of cotton and jute. The population is mixed in blood and speech, but Hindus speaking Bengali predominate. Education is further advanced than elsewhere; there are fine colleges affiliated to Calcutta University, and many other scholastic institutions. The capital, Calcutta, is the capital of India; the next town in size is Patna (165).

BENGA`ZI (7), the capital of Barca, on the Gulf of Sidra, in N. Africa, and has a considerable trade.

BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT, a distinguished Biblical scholar and critic, born at Wuertemberg; best known by his “Gnomon Novi Testamenti,” being an invaluable body of short notes on the New Testament; devoted himself to the critical study of the text of the Greek Testament (1687-1752).

BENGUE`LA, a fertile Portuguese territory in W. Africa, S. of Angola, with considerable mineral wealth; has sunk in importance since the suppression of the slave-trade.

BENICIA, the former capital of California, 30 m. NE. of San Francisco; has a commodious harbour and a U.S. arsenal.

BENI-HASSAN, a village in Middle Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, above Minieh, with remarkable catacombs that have been excavated.

BENI-ISRAEL (i. e. Sons of Israel), a remarkable people, few in number, of Jewish type and customs, in the Bombay Presidency, and that have existed there quite isolatedly for at least 1000 years, with a language of their own, and even some literature; they do not mingle with the Jews, but they practise similar religious observances.

BENIN`, a densely populated and fertile country in W. Africa, between the Niger and Dahomey, with a city and river of the name; forms part of what was once a powerful kingdom; yields palm-oil, rice, maize, sugar, cotton, and tobacco.

BENI-SOUEF`, a town in Middle Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, 70 m. above Cairo; a centre of trade, with cotton-mills and quarries of alabaster.

BENJAMIN, Jacob’s youngest son, by Rachel, the head of one of the twelve tribes, who were settled in a small fertile territory between Ephraim and Judah; the tribe to which St. Paul belonged.

BENNETT, JAMES GORDON, an American journalist, born at Keith, Scotland; trained for the Catholic priesthood; emigrated, a poor lad of 19, to America, got employment in a printing-office in Boston as proof-reader; started the _New York Herald_ in 1835 at a low price as both proprietor and editor, an enterprise which brought him great wealth and the success he aimed at (1795-1872).

BENNETT, JAMES GORDON, son of preceding, conductor of the _Herald_; sent Stanley out to Africa, and supplied the funds.

BENNETT, SIR STERNDALE, an English musical composer and pianist, born at Sheffield, whose musical genius recommended him to Mendelssohn and Schumann; became professor of Music in Cambridge, and conductor of the Philharmonic Concerts; was president of the Royal Academy of Music (1816-1873).

BENNETT, WM., a High-Churchman, celebrated for having provoked the decision that the doctrine of the Real Presence is a dogma not inconsistent with the creed of the Church of England (1804-1886).

BEN`NINGSEN, COUNT, a Russian general, born at Brunswick; entered the Russian service under Catherine II.; was commander-in-chief at Eylau, fought at Borodino, and victoriously at Leipzig; he died at Hanover, whither he had retired on failure of his health (1745-1826).

BENTHAM, GEORGE, botanist, born near Plymouth, nephew of Jeremy and editor of his works, besides a writer on botany (1800-1884).

BENTHAM, JEREMY, a writer on jurisprudence and ethics, born in London; bred to the legal profession, but never practised it; spent his life in the study of the theory of law and government, his leading principle on both these subjects being utilitarianism, or what is called the greatest happiness principle, as the advocate of which he is chiefly remembered; a principle against which Carlyle never ceased to protest as a philosophy of man’s life, but which he hailed as a sign that the crisis which must precede the regeneration of the world was come; a lower estimate, he thought, man could not form of his soul than as “a dead balance for weighing hay and thistles, pains and pleasures, &c.,” an estimate of man’s soul which he thinks mankind will, when it wakes up again to a sense of itself, be sure to resent and repudiate (1748-1832).

BENTINCK, LORD GEORGE, statesman and sportsman, a member of the Portland family; entered Parliament as a Whig, turned Conservative on the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832; served under Sir Robert Peel; assumed the leadership of the party as a Protectionist when Sir Robert Peel became a Free-trader, towards whom he conceived a strong personal animosity; died suddenly; the memory of him owes something to the memoir of his life by Lord Beaconsfield (1802-1848).

BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, Indian statesman, governor of Madras in 1806, but recalled for an error which led to the mutiny at Vellore; but was in 1827 appointed governor-general of India, which he governed wisely, abolishing many evils, such as Thuggism and Suttee, and