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diff --git a/34533.txt b/34533.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..759a9c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/34533.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18338 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, +Volume 3, Slice 5, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 5 + "Bedlam" to "Benson, George" + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 1, 2010 [EBook #34533] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + +(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally + printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an + underscore, like C_n. + +(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript. + +(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective + paragraphs. + +(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not + inserted. + +(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek + letters. + +(6) The following typographical error has been corrected: + + ARTICLE BENGALI: "The sound of such a final a is in all three + languages the same as that of the second o in 'promote'; thus, the + Bg. bara is pronounced boro." 'second' amended from 'seccond'. + + + + + ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA + + A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE + AND GENERAL INFORMATION + + ELEVENTH EDITION + + + VOLUME III, SLICE V + + Bedlam to Benson, George + + + + +ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE: + + + BEDLAM BELLENDEN, JOHN + BEDLINGTON BELLENDEN, WILLIAM + BEDLOE, WILLIAM BELLEROPHON + BEDMAR, ALPHONSO BELLA CUEVA BELLES-LETTRES + BED-MOULD BELLEVILLE (Ontario, Canada) + BEDOUINS BELLEVILLE (Illinois, U.S.A.) + BEDSORE BELLEY + BEDWORTH BELLI, GIUSEPPE GIOACHINO + BEE BELLIGERENCY + BEECH BELLINGHAM, SIR EDWARD + BEECHER, CHARLES EMERSON BELLINGHAM + BEECHER, HENRY WARD BELLINI + BEECHER, LYMAN BELLINI, LORENZO + BEECHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM BELLINI, VINCENZO + BEECHEY, SIR WILLIAM BELLINZONA + BEECHING, HENRY CHARLES BELLMAN, KARL MIKAEL + BEECHWORTH BELLO, ANDRES + BEEF BELLO-HORIZONTE + BEEFSTEAK CLUB BELLONA + BEELZEBUB BELLOT, JOSEPH RENE + BEER BELLOWS, ALBERT F. + BEERSHEBA BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY + BEESLY, EDWARD SPENCER BELLOWS and BLOWING MACHINES + BEET BELLOY, DORMONT DE + BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN BELL or INCHCAPE ROCK + BEETLE BELLUNO + BEETS, NIKOLAAS BELMONT, AUGUST + BEFANA BELOIT + BEFFROY DE REIGNY, LOUIS ABEL BELOMANCY + BEGAS, KARL BELON, PIERRE + BEGAS, REINHOLD BELPER + BEGGAR BELSHAM, THOMAS + BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR BELSHAZZAR + BEGONIA BELT, THOMAS + BEGUINES BELT + BEHAIM, MARTIN BELTANE + BEHAR BELUGA + BEHA UD-DIN BELVEDERE (architectural structure) + BEHA UD-DIN ZUHAIR BELVIDERE (Illinois, U.S.A.) + BEHBAHAN BELZONI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA + BEHEADING BEM, JOSEF + BEHEMOTH BEMA + BEHISTUN BEMBERG, HERMAN + BEHN, APHRA BEMBO, PIETRO + BEHR, WILLIAM JOSEPH BEMBRIDGE BEDS + BEIRA (seaport of East Africa) BEMIS, EDWARD WEBSTER + BEIRA (province of Portugal) BEMONT, CHARLES + BEIRUT BEN + BEIT, ALFRED BENARES + BEJA (tribe) BENBOW, JOHN + BEJA (city) BENCE-JONES, HENRY + BEJAN BENCH + BEJART BENCH-MARK + BEK, ANTONY BENCH TABLE + BEKE, CHARLES TILSTONE BEND + BESKESCSABA BENDA + BEKKER, AUGUST IMMANUEL BENDER + BEKKER, BALTHASAR BENDIGO + BEKKER, ELIZABETH BENDL, KAREL + BEL BENEDEK, LUDWIG + BELA III. BENEDETTI, VINCENT + BELA IV. BENEDICT + BELA (capital of Las Bela) BENEDICT OF ALIGNAN + BELA (town of India) BENEDICT OF NURSIA, SAINT + BELAY BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS + BELCHER, SIR EDWARD BENEDICT BISCOP + BELDAM BENEDICTINE + BELESME, ROBERT OF BENEDICTINES + BELFAST (Ireland) BENEDICTION + BELFAST (Maine, U.S.A.) BENEDICTUS + BELFORT (division of France) BENEDICTUS ABBAS + BELFORT (town of France) BENEDIX, JULIUS RODERICH + BELFRY BENEFICE + BELGAE BENEFICIARY + BELGARD BENEKE, FRIEDRICH EDUARD + BELGAUM BENETT, ETHELDRED + BELGIAN CONGO BENEVENTO + BELGIUM BENEVOLENCE + BELGRADE BENFEY, THEODOR + BELHAVEN AND STENTON, JOHN BENGAL + BELISARIUS BENGAL, BAY OF + BELIT BENGALI + BELIZE BENGAZI + BELJAME, ALEXANDRE BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT + BELKNAP, JEREMY BENGUELLA + BELKNAP, WILLIAM WORTH BENI (river of Bolivia) + BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM BENI (department of Bolivia) + BELL, ALEXANDER MELVILLE BENI-AMER + BELL, ANDREW BENI-ISRAEL + BELL, SIR CHARLES BENIN + BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH BENITOITE + BELL, HENRY BENJAMIN + BELL, HENRY GLASSFORD BENJAMIN OF TUDELA + BELL, JACOB BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP + BELL, JOHN (Scottish traveller) BEN LEDI + BELL, JOHN (Scottish anatomist) BENLLIURE Y GIL, JOSE + BELL, JOHN (American politician) BEN LOMOND + BELL, ROBERT BENLOWES, EDWARD + BELL BEN MACDHUI + BELLABELLA BENNETT, CHARLES EDWIN + BELLACOOLA BENNETT, JAMES GORDON + BELLADONNA BENNETT, JOHN + BELLAGIO BENNETT, JOHN HUGHES + BELLAIRE BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE + BELLAMY, EDWARD BEN NEVIS + BELLAMY, GEORGE ANNE BENNIGSEN, LEVIN AUGUST + BELLAMY, JOSEPH BENNIGSEN, RUDOLF VON + BELLARMINE, ROBERTO ROMOLO BENNINGTON + BELLARY BENNO + BELL-COT BENOIT, PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD + BELLEAU, REMY BENOIT DE SAINTE-MORE + BELLECOUR BENSERADE, ISAAC DE + BELLEFONTAINE BENSLEY, ROBERT + BELLEGARDE BENSON, EDWARD WHITE + BELLEGARDE, HEINRICH JOHANNES BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT + BELLE-ILE-EN-MER BENSON, FRANK WESTON + BELLE-ISLE, CHARLES FOUQUET BENSON, GEORGE + BELLE ISLE, STRAIT OF + + + + +BEDLAM, or BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL, the first English lunatic asylum, +originally founded by Simon FitzMary, sheriff of London, in 1247, as a +priory for the sisters and brethren of the order of the Star of +Bethlehem. It had as one of its special objects the housing and +entertainment of the bishop and canons of St Mary of Bethlehem, the +mother-church, on their visits to England. Its first site was in +Bishopsgate Street. It is not certain when lunatics were first received +in Bedlam, but it is mentioned as a hospital in 1330 and some were there +in 1403. In 1547 it was handed over by Henry VIII. with all its revenues +to the city of London as a hospital for lunatics. With the exception of +one such asylum in Granada, Spain, the Bethlehem Hospital was the first +in Europe. It became famous and afterwards infamous for the brutal +ill-treatment meted out to the insane (see INSANITY: _Hospital +Treatment_). In 1675 it was removed to new buildings in Moorfields and +finally to its present site in St George's Fields, Lambeth. The word +"Bedlam" has long been used generically for all lunatic asylums. + + + + +BEDLINGTON, an urban district of Northumberland, England, within the +parliamentary borough of Morpeth, 5 m. S.E. of that town on a branch of +the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 18,766. It lies on high ground +above the river Blyth, 2-1/2 m. above its mouth. The church of St +Cuthbert shows good transitional Norman details. Its dedication recalls +the transportation of the body of the saintly bishop of Lindisfarne from +its shrine at Durham by the monks of that foundation to Lindisfarne, +when in fear of attack from William the Conqueror. They rested here with +the coffin. The modern growth of the town is attributable to the +valuable collieries of the neighbourhood, and to manufactures of nails +and chains. It is one of the most populous mining centres in the county. +On the south bank of the river is the township and urban district of +Cowpen (pop. 17,879), with collieries and glass works; coal is shipped +from this point by river. + +Bedlington (Betlingtun) and the hamlets belonging to it were bought by +Cutheard, bishop of Durham, between 900 and 915, and although locally +situated in the county of Northumberland became part of the county +palatine of Durham over which Bishop Walcher was granted royal rights by +William the Conqueror. When these rights were taken from Cuthbert +Tunstall, bishop of Durham, in 1536, Bedlington among his other property +lost its special privileges, but was confirmed to him in 1541 with the +other property of his predecessors. Together with the other lands of the +see of Durham, Bedlington was made over to the ecclesiastical +commissioners in 1866. Bedlingtonshire was made part of Northumberland +for civil purposes by acts of parliament in 1832 and 1844. + + + + +BEDLOE, WILLIAM (1650-1680), English informer, was born at Chepstow on +the 20th of April 1650. He appears to have been well educated; he was +certainly clever, and after coming to London in 1670 he became +acquainted with some Jesuits and was occasionally employed by them. +Calling himself now Captain Williams, now Lord Gerard or Lord Newport or +Lord Cornwallis, he travelled from one part of Europe to another; he +underwent imprisonments for crime, and became an expert in all kinds of +duplicity. Then in 1678, following the lead of Titus Gates, he gave an +account of a supposed popish plot to the English government, and his +version of the details of the murder of Sir E.B. Godfrey was rewarded +with L500. Emboldened by his success he denounced various Roman +Catholics, married an Irish lady, and having become very popular lived +in luxurious fashion. Afterwards his fortunes waned, and he died at +Bristol on the 20th of August 1680. His dying depositions, which were +taken by Sir Francis North, chief justice of the common pleas, revealed +nothing of importance. Bedloe wrote a _Narrative and impartial discovery +of the horrid Popish Plot_ (1679), but all his statements are extremely +untrustworthy. + + See J. Pollock, _The Popish Plot_ (1903). + + + + +BEDMAR, ALPHONSO BELLA CUEVA, MARQUIS OF (1572-1655), Spanish +diplomatist, became ambassador to the republic of Venice in 1667. This +was a very important position owing to the amount of information +concerning European affairs which passed through the hands of the +representative of Spain. When Bedmar took up this appointment, Venice +had just concluded an alliance with France, Switzerland and the +Netherlands, to counterbalance the power of Spain, and the ambassador +was instructed to destroy this league. Assisted by the duke of Ossuna, +viceroy of Naples, he formed a plan to bring the city into the power of +Spain, and the scheme was to be carried out on Ascension Day 1618. The +plot was, however, discovered; and Bedmar, protected by his position +from arrest, left Venice and went to Flanders as president of the +council. In 1622 he was made a cardinal, and soon afterwards became +bishop of Oviedo, a position which he retained until his death, which +occurred at Oviedo on the 2nd of August 1655. The authorship of an +anonymous work, _Squitinio della liberta Veneta_, published at Mirandola +in 1612, has been attributed to him. + +Some controversy has arisen over the Spanish plot of 1618, and some +historians have suggested that it only existed in the minds of the +Venetian senators, and was a ruse for forcing Bedmar to leave Venice. +From what is known, however, of the policy of Spain at this time, it is +by no means unlikely that such a scheme was planned. + + See C.V. de Saint-Real, _OEuvres_, tome iv. (Paris, 1745); P.J. + Grosley, _Discussion historique et critique sur la conjuration de + Venise_ (Paris, 1756); P.A.N.B. Daru, _Histoire de la republique de + Venise_ (Paris, 1853); A. Baschet, _Histoire de la chancellerie + secrete a Venise_ (Paris, 1870). + + + + +BED-MOULD, in architecture, the congeries of mouldings which is under +the projecting part of almost every cornice, of which, indeed, it is a +part. + + + + +BEDOUINS (_Ahl Bedu_, "dwellers in the open land," or _Ahl el beit_, +"people of the tent," as they call themselves), the name given to the +most important, as it is the best known, division of the Arab race. The +Bedouins are the descendants of the Arabs of North Arabia whose +traditions claim Ishmael as their ancestor (see ARABS). The deserts of +North Arabia seem to have been their earliest home, but even in ancient +times they had migrated to the lowlands of Egypt and Syria. The Arab +conquest of northern Africa in the 7th century A.D. caused a wide +dispersion, so that to-day the Arab element is strongly represented in +the Nile Valley, Saharan, and Nubian peoples. Among the Hamitic-Negroid +races the Bedouins have largely lost their nomadic character; but in the +deserts of the Nile lands they remain much what their ancestors were. +Thus the name has suffered much ethnic confusion, and is often +incorrectly reserved to describe such pastoral peoples as the Bisharin, +the Hadendoa and the Ababda. This article treats solely of the Arabian +Bedouin, as affording the purest type of the people. They are shepherds +and herdsmen, reduced to an open-air, roving life, partly by the nature +of their occupations, partly by the special characteristics of the +countries in which they dwell. For, while land, unsuited to all purposes +except pasture, forms an unusually large proportion of the surface in +the Arabian territory, the prolonged droughts of summer render +considerable portions of it unfit even for that, and thus continually +oblige the herdsmen to migrate from one spot to another in search of +sufficient herbage and water for their beasts. The same causes also +involve the Bedouins in frequent quarrels with each other regarding the +use of some particular well or pasture-ground, besides reducing them not +unfrequently to extreme want, and thus making them plunderers of others +in self-support. Professionally, the Bedouins are shepherds and +herdsmen; their raids on each other or their robbery of travellers and +caravans are but occasional exceptions to the common routine. Their +intertribal wars (they very rarely venture on a conflict with the +better-armed and better-organized sedentary population) are rarely +bloody; cattle-lifting being the usual object. Private feuds exist, but +are usually limited to two or three individuals at most, one of whom has +perhaps been ridiculed in satirical verse, to which they are very +sensitive, or had a relation killed in some previous fray. But bloodshed +is expensive, as it must be paid for either by more bloodshed or by +blood-money--the _diya_, which varies, according to the importance of +the person killed, from ten to fifty camels, or even more. Previous to +Mahomet's time it was optional for the injured tribe either to accept +this compensation or to insist on blood for blood; but the Prophet, +though by his own account despairing of ever reducing the nomad portion +of his countrymen to law and order, succeeded in establishing among them +the rule, that a fair _diya_ if offered must be accepted. Instances are, +however, not wanting in Arab history of fiercer and more general Bedouin +conflicts, in which the destruction, or at least the complete +subjugation, of one tribe has been aimed at by another, and when great +slaughter has taken place. Such were the wars of Pekr and Thagleb in the +6th century, of Kelb and Howazin in the 8th, of Harb and Ateba in the +18th. + +The Bedouins regard the plundering of caravans or travellers as in lieu +of the custom dues exacted elsewhere. The land is theirs, they argue, +and trespassers on it must pay the forfeit. Hence whoever can show +anything equivalent to a permission of entrance into their territory +has, in the regular course of things, nothing to fear. This permission +is obtained by securing the protection of the nearest Bedouin sheik, +who, for a politely-worded request and a small sum of money, will +readily grant the pass, in the shape of one or two or more men of his +tribe, who accompany the wayfarers as far as the next encampment on +their road, where they hand their charge over to fresh guides, equally +bound to afford the desired safeguard. In the interior of Arabia the +passport is given in writing by one of the town governors, and is +respected by the Bedouins of the district; for, however impudent and +unamenable to law these nomads may be on the frontiers of the impotent +Ottoman government in Syria or the Hejaz, they are submissive enough in +other and Arab-governed regions. But the traveller who ventures on the +desert strip without such precautions will be robbed and perhaps killed. + +Ignorant of writing and unacquainted with books, the Bedouins trust to +their memory for everything; where memory fails, they readily eke it out +with imagination. Hence their own assertions regarding the antiquity, +numbers, strength, &c., of their clans are of little worth; even their +genealogies, in which they pretend to be eminently versed, are not to be +much depended on; the more so that their own family names hardly ever +exceed the limits of a patronymic, whilst the constantly renewed +subdivisions of a tribe, and the temporary increase of one branch and +decrease of another, tend to efface the original name of the clan. Few +tribes now preserve their ancient, or at least their historical titles; +and the mass of the Bedouin multitude resembles in this respect a +troubled sea, of which the substance is indeed always the same, but the +surface is continually shifting and changing. As, however, no social +basis or ties are acknowledged among them except those of blood and +race, certain broad divisions are tolerably accurately kept up, the +wider and more important of which may here be noted. First, the Aneza +clan, who extend from Syria southward to the limits of Jebel Shammar. It +is numerous, and, for a Bedouin tribe, well armed. Two-thirds of the +Arab horse trade, besides a large traffic in sheep, camels, wool, and +similar articles, are in their hands. Their principal subdivisions are +the Sebaa on the north, the Walid Ali on the west, and the Ruala on the +south; these are generally on bad terms with each other. If united, they +could muster, it is supposed, about 30,000 lances. They claim descent +from Rabi'a. Second, the Shammar Bedouins, whose pasturages lie +conterminous to those of the Aneza on the east. Their numbers are about +the same. Thirdly, in the northern desert, the Huwetat and Sherarat, +comparatively small and savage tribes. There is also the Solibi clan, +which, however, is disowned by the Arabs, and seems to be of gipsy +origin. Next follow, in the western desert, the Beni-Harb, a powerful +tribe, supposed to muster about 20,000 fighting men. They are often +troublesome to the Meccan pilgrims. In the eastern desert are the Muter, +the Beni-Khalid, and the Ajmans, all numerous clans, often at war with +each other. To the south, in Nejd itself or on its frontiers, are the +Hodeil, Ateba, and others. These all belong to the "Mustareb," or +northern Arabs. + +The Bedouins of southern or "pure Arab" origin are comparatively few in +number, and are, with few exceptions, even poorer and more savage than +their northern brethren. Al-Morrah, on the confines of Oman, Al-Yam and +Kahtan, near Yemen, and Beni-Yas, between Harik and the Persian Gulf, +are the best known. The total number of the Bedouin or pastoral +population throughout Arabia, including men, women, and children, +appears not to exceed a million and a half, or about one fifth of the +total population. The only tribal authority is the "elder," or "sheik," +a title not necessarily implying advanced age, but given to any one who, +on account of birth, courage, wealth, liberality or some other quality, +has been chosen to the leadership. Descent has something to do with +rank, but not much, as every individual of the tribe considers himself +equal to the others; nor are the distinctions of relative riches and +poverty greatly taken into account. To the "sheik" all disputes are +referred; he is consulted, though not necessarily obeyed, on every +question which regards the general affairs of the tribe, whether in +peace or war; there is no other magistrate, and no law except what he +and the other chief men may consider proper. But in fact, for most +personal and private affairs, every man does pretty much what is right +in his own eyes. + +All the Bedouins, with the exception of certain tribes in Syria, are +nominally Mahommedans, but most pay but slight attention to the +ceremonial precepts of the Koran; the five daily prayers and the annual +fast of Ramadan are not much in favour among them; and however near a +tribe may be to Mecca, few of them visit it as pilgrims. The militant +Wahhabi have, however, from time to time enforced some degree of +Islamitic observance among the Bedouins of Nejd and the adjoining +districts: elsewhere Mahommedanism is practically confined to the +profession of the Divine Unity; among the remoter and wilder tribes +sun-worship, tree-worship, and no worship at all, are not uncommon. Some +clans even omit the rite of circumcision altogether; others, like the +tribe of Hodeil, south of Mecca, perform it after a fashion peculiar to +themselves. + +Though polygamy is not common among Bedouins, marriages are contracted +without any legal intervention or guarantee; the consent of the parties, +and the oral testimony of a couple of witnesses, should such be at hand, +are all that are required; and divorce is equally easy. Nor is mutual +constancy much expected or observed either by men or women; and the +husband is rarely strict in exacting from the wife a fidelity that he +himself has no idea of observing. Jealousy may indeed occasionally bring +about tragic results, but this rarely occurs except where publicity, to +which the Bedouins, like all other Arabs, are very sensitive, is +involved. Burckhardt writes: "The Bedouins are jealous of their women, +but do not prevent them from laughing and talking with strangers. It +seldom happens that a Bedouin strikes his wife; if he does so she calls +loudly on her _wasy_ or protector, who pacifies the husband and makes +him listen to reason .... The wife and daughters perform all domestic +business. They grind the wheat in the handmill or pound it in the +mortar; they prepare the breakfast and dinner; knead and bake the bread; +make butter, fetch water, work at the loom, mend the tent-covering ... +while the husband or brother sits before the tent smoking his pipe." A +maiden's honour is, on the other hand, severely guarded; and even too +openly avowed a courtship, though with the most honourable intentions, +is ill looked on. But marriage, if indeed so slight and temporary a +connexion as it is among Bedouins deserves the name, is often merely a +passport for mutual licence. In other respects Bedouin morality, like +that of most half-savage races, depends on custom and public feeling +rather than on any fixed code or trained conscience, and hence admits of +the strangest contradictions. Not only are lying and exaggeration no +reproach in ordinary discourse, but even deliberate perjury and +violation of the most solemn engagements are frequent occurrences. Not +less frequent, however, are instances of prolonged fidelity and +observance of promise carried to the limits of romance. "The wind," "the +wood," and "the honour of the Arabs" are the most ordinary oaths in +serious matters; but even these do not give absolute security, while a +simple verbal engagement will at other times prove an inviolable +guarantee. Thus, too, the extreme abstemiousness of a Bedouin alternates +with excessive gorgings; and, while the name and deeds of "robber" are +hardly a reproach, those of "thief" are marked by abhorrence and +contempt. In patience, or rather endurance, both physical and moral, few +Bedouins are deficient; wariness is another quality universally +developed by their mode of life. And in spite of an excessive coarseness +of language, and often of action, gross vice, at least of the more +debasing sorts that dishonour the East, is rare. + +Most Bedouins, men and women, are rather undersized; their complexion, +especially in the south, is dark; their hair coarse, thick and black; +their eyes dark and oval; the nose is generally aquiline, and the +features well formed; the beard and moustache are usually scanty. The +men are active, but not strong; the women are generally plain. The dress +of the men consists of a long cotton shirt, open at the breast, often +girt with a leathern girdle; a black or striped cloak of hair is +sometimes thrown over the shoulders; a handkerchief, folded once, black, +or striped yellow and red, covers the head, round which it is kept in +its place by a piece of twine or a twisted hairband. To this costume a +pair of open sandals is sometimes added. Under the shirt, round the +naked waist, a thin strip of leather plait is wound several times, not +for any special object, but merely out of custom. In his hand a Bedouin +almost always carries a slight crooked wand, commonly of almond-wood. +Among the Bedouins of the south a light wrapper takes the place of the +handkerchief on the head, and a loin-cloth that of the shirt. The women +usually wear wide loose drawers, a long shirt, and over it a wide piece +of dark blue cloth enveloping the whole figure and head, and trailing on +the ground behind. Very rarely does a Bedouin woman wear a veil, or even +cover her face with her overcloak, contenting herself with narrowing the +folds of the latter over her head on the approach of a stranger. Her +wrists and ankles are generally adorned with bracelets and rings of blue +glass or copper or iron, very rarely of silver; her neck with glass +beads; ear-rings are rare, and nose-rings rarer. Boys, till near +puberty, usually go stark naked; girls also wear no clothes up to the +age of six or seven. + +On a journey a Bedouin invariably carries with him a light, +sharp-pointed lance, the stem of which is made of Persian or African +cane; the manner in which this is carried or trailed often indicates the +tribe of the owner. The lance is the favourite and characteristic weapon +of the Arab nomad, and the one in the use of which he shows the greatest +skill. An antiquated sword, an out-of-date musket, an ornamented dagger +or knife, a coat of mail, the manufacture of Yemen or Bagdad, and a +helmet, a mere iron head-piece, without visor or crest, complete his +military outfit. + +A Bedouin's tent consists of a few coverings of the coarsest goat-hair, +dyed black, and spread over two or more small poles, in height from 8 to +9 ft., gipsy fashion. If it be the tent of a sheik, its total length may +be from 30 to 40 ft.; if of an ordinary person, less than 20 ft. +Sometimes a partition separates the quarters of the women and children; +sometimes they are housed under a lower and narrower covering. A rough +carpet or mat is spread on the ground; while camel-saddles, ropes, +halters, two or three cooking pots, one or two platters, a wooden +drinking bowl, the master's arms at one side of the tent, and his spear +stuck in the ground at the door, complete the list of household +valuables. On striking camp all these are fastened on the backs of +camels; the men mount their saddles, the women their litters; and in an +hour the blackened stones that served for a cooking hearth are the only +sign of the encampment. For food the Bedouin relies on his herds, but +rice, vegetables, honey, locusts and even lizards are at times eaten. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and + Wahabis_ (1831); Karstens Niebuhr, _Travels through Arabia_ (orig. + Germ. edit. 1772), translated into English by Robert Heron (2 vols., + Edinburgh, 1792); H.H. Tessup, _Women of the Arabs_ (New York, 1874); + W.S. Blunt, _Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates_ (1879); Lady Anne Blunt, + _Pilgrimage to Neid_ (1881); Desmoulins, _Les Francais d'aujourd'hui_ + (Paris, 1898); C.M. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_ (2 vols., 1888); E. + Reclus, _Les Arabes_ (Brussels, 1898); Rev. S.M. Zwemer, _Arabia, the + Cradle of Islam_ (1900); W. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in + Early Arabia_ (Cambridge, 1885); H.C. Trumbull, _The Blood Covenant_ + (Philadelphia, 1891). + + + + +BEDSORE, a form of ulceration or sloughing, occasioned in people who, +through sickness or old age, are confined to bed, resulting from +pressure or the irritation of sweat and dirt. Bedsores usually occur +when there is a low condition of nutrition of the tissues. The more +helpless the patient the more liable he is to bedsores, and especially +when he is paralysed, delirious or insane, or when suffering from one of +the acute specific fevers. They may occur wherever there is a pressure, +more especially when any moisture is allowed to remain on the bedding; +and thus lack of cleanliness is an important factor in the production of +this condition. In large hospitals a bedsore is now a great rarity, and +this, considering the helplessness of many of the patients treated, +shows what good nursing can do. The bed must be made with a firm smooth +mattress; the undersheet and blanket must be changed whenever they +become soiled; the drawsheet is spread without creases, and changed the +moment it becomes soiled. Preventive treatment must be followed from the +first day of the illness. This consists in the most minute attention to +cleanliness, and constant variation in the position of the patient. All +parts subjected to pressure or friction must be frequently washed with +soap and hot water, then thoroughly dried with a warm soft towel. The +part should next be bathed in a solution of corrosive sublimate in +spirits of wine, and finally dusted with an oxide of zinc and starch +powder. This routine should be gone through not less than four times in +the twenty-four hours in any case of prolonged illness. The pressure may +be relieved over bony prominences by a water-pillow or by a piece of +thick felt cut into a ring. Signs of impending bedsores must constantly +be watched for. Where one threatens, the skin loses its proper colour, +becoming either a deadly white or a dusky red, and the redness does not +disappear on pressure. The surrounding tissues become oedematous, and +pain is often severe, except in a case of paralysis. As the condition +progresses further the pain ceases. The epidermis now becomes raised as +in a blister, and finally becomes detached, forming an excoriation and +exposing the papillae. Even at this late stage an actual ulceration can +still be prevented if proper care is taken; but failing this, the skin +sloughs and an ulcer forms. In treating this, the position of the +patient must be such that no pressure is ever allowed on the sloughing +tissue. A hot boracic pad under oil-silk should be applied, the affected +part being first dusted with iodoform. If, however, the slough is very +large, it is safer to avoid wet applications, and the parts should be +dusted with animal charcoal and iodoform, and protected with a dry +dressing. When the slough has separated and the sore is clean, friar's +balsam will hasten the healing process. In any serious illness the +formation of a bedsore makes the prognosis far more grave, and may even +bring about a fatal issue, either directly or indirectly. + + + + +BEDWORTH, a manufacturing town in the Nuneaton parliamentary division of +Warwickshire, England; on the Nuneaton-Coventry branch of the London & +North Western railway, 100 m. north-west from London. Pop. (1900) 7169. +A tramway connects with Coventry, and the Coventry canal passes through. +Coal and ironstone are mined; there are iron-works, and bricks, hats, +ribbons and tape and silk are made. Similar industries are pursued in +the populous district (including the villages of Exhall and Foleshill) +which extends southward towards Coventry. + + + + +BEE (Sanskrit _bha_, A S. _beo_, Lat. _apis_), a large and natural +family of the zoological order _Hymenoptera_, characterized by the +plumose form of many of their hairs, by the large size of the basal +segment of the foot, which is always elongate and in the hindmost limb +sometimes as broad as the shin, and by the development of a "tongue" for +sucking liquid food; this organ has been variously interpreted as the +true insectan tongue (hypo-pharynx) or as a ligula formed by fused +portions of the second maxillae (probably the latter). + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Honeybee (_Apis mellifica_). a, male (drone); b, +queen, c, worker. + +(After Benton, _Bull._ 1 (n.s.) _Div. Ent._, U.S. Dept. Agr.).] + +Bees are specialized in correspondence with the flowers from which they +draw the bulk of their food supply, the flexible tongue being used for +sucking nectar, the plumed hairs and the modified legs (fig. 7) for +gathering pollen. These floral products which form the food of bees and +of their larvae, are in most cases collected and stored by the +industrious insects; but some genera of bees act as inquilines or +"cuckoo-parasites," laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, so +that their larvae may feed at the expense of the rightful owners of the +nest. In a few cases, the parasitic bee-grub devours not only the +food-supply, but also the larva of its host. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Head and Appendages of Honey-bee (Apis), + + a, Antenna or feeler. + g, Epipharynx. + mxp, Maxillary palp. + pg, Opposite to galeae of 2nd maxillae (labium). + mx, 1st maxilla. + lp, Labial palp. + l, Ligula or "tongue." + b, Bouton or spoon of the ligula. + +(From Frank R. Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.) ] + +_Solitary and Social Bees._--Many genera of bees are represented, like +most other insects, by ordinary males and females, each female +constructing a nest formed of several chambers ("cells") and storing in +each chamber a supply of food for the grub to be hatched from the egg +that she lays therein. Such bees, although a number of individuals often +make their nests close together, are termed "solitary," their +communities differing in nature from those of the "social" bees, among +which there are two kinds of females--the normal fertile females or +"queens," and those specially modified females with undeveloped ovaries +(see fig. 6) that are called "workers" (fig. 1). The workers are the +earliest developed offspring of the queen, and it is their associated +work which renders possible the rise of an insect state--a state which +evidently has its origin in the family. It is interesting to trace +various stages in the elaboration of the bee-society. Among the +humble-bees (_Bombus_) the workers help the queen, who takes her share +in the duties of the nest; the distinction between queen and workers is +therefore less absolute than in the hive-bees (_Apis_), whose queen, +relieved of all nursing and building cares by the workers, devotes her +whole energies to egg-laying. The division of labour among the two +castes of female becomes therefore most complete in the most highly +organized society. + +_Structure._--Details of the structure of bees are given in the article +HYMENOPTERA. The feelers (fig. 2, a) are divided into "scape" and +"flagellum" as in the ants, and the mandibles vary greatly in size and +sharpness in different genera. The proboscis or "tongue" (fig. 2, l) +is a hollow organ enclosing an outgrowth of the body-cavity which is +filled with fluid, and with its flexible under-surface capable of +invagination or protrusion. Along this surface stretches a groove which +is surrounded by thickened cuticle and practically formed into a tube by +numerous fine hairs. Along this channel the nectar is drawn into the +pharynx and passes, mixed with saliva, into the crop or "honey-bag"; the +action of the saliva changes the saccharose into dextrose and levulose, +and the nectar becomes honey, which the bee regurgitates for storage in +the cells or for the feeding of the grubs. The sting (fig. 6, pg, st.) +of female bees is usually highly specialized, but in a few genera it is +reduced and useless. + +Many modifications in details of structure may be observed within the +family. The tongue is bifid at the tip in a few genera; usually it is +pointed and varies greatly in length, being comparatively short in +_Andrena_, long in the humble-bees (_Bombus_), and longest in +_Euglossa_, a tropical American genus of solitary bees. The legs, which +are so highly modified as pollen-carriers in the higher bees, are +comparatively simple in certain primitive genera. The hairy covering, so +notable in the hive-bee and especially in humble-bees, is greatly +reduced among bees that follow a parasitic mode of life. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Larva and Pupa of Apis. + + SL, Spinning larva. + N, Pupa. + FL, Feeding larva. + co, Cocoon. + sp, Spiracles. + t, "Tongue." + m, Mandible. + an, Antenna + w, Wing. + ce, Compound Eye. + e, Excrement. + ex, Exuvium. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)] + +_Early stages._--As is usual where an abundant food supply is provided +for the young insects, the larvae of bees (fig. 3, SL.) are degraded +maggots; they have no legs, but possess fairly well-developed heads. The +successive cuticles that are cast as growth proceeds are delicate in +texture and sometimes separate from the underlying cuticle without being +stripped off. The maggots may pass no excrement from the intestine until +they have eaten all their store of food. When fully grown the final +larval cuticle is shed, and the "free" pupa (fig. 3, N) revealed. The +larvae of some bees spin cocoons (fig. 3, _co_) before pupation. + +_Nests of Solitary Bees._--Bees of different genera vary considerably in +the site and arrangement of their nests. Many--like the common +"solitary" bees _Halictus_ and _Andrena_--burrow in the ground; the +holes of species of _Andrena_ are commonly seen in springtime opening on +sandy banks, grassy lawns or gravel paths. Our knowledge of such bees is +due to the observations of F. Smith, H. Friese, C. Verhoeff and others. +The nest may be simple, or, more frequently, a complex excavation, cells +opening off from the entrance or from a main passage. Sometimes the +passage is the conjoint work of many bees whose cells are grouped along +it at convenient distances apart. Other bees, the species of _Osmia_ for +example, choose the hollow stem of a bramble or other shrub, the female +forming a linear series of cells in each of which an egg is laid and a +supply of food stored up. J.H. Fabre has found that in the nests of some +species of _Osmia_ the young bee developed in the first-formed cell, if +(as often happens) she emerges from her cocoon before the inmates of the +later cells, will try to work her way round these or to bite a lateral +hole through the bramble shoot; should she fail to do this, she will +wait for the emergence of her sisters and not make her escape at the +price of injury to them. But when Fabre substituted dead individuals of +her own species or live larvae of another genus, the _Osmia_ had no +scruple in destroying them, so as to bite her way out to air and +liberty. + +The leaf-cutter bees (_Megachile_)--which differ from _Andrena_ and +_Halictus_ and agree with _Osmia_, _Apis_ and _Bombus_ in having +elongate tongues--cut neat circular disks from leaves, using them for +lining the cells of their underground nests. The carpenter-bees +(_Xylocopa_ and allied genera), unrepresented in the British Islands, +though widely distributed in warmer countries, make their nests in dry +wood. The habits of _X. violacea_, the commonest European species, were +minutely described in the 18th century in one of R.A.F. de Reaumur's +memoirs. This bee excavates several parallel galleries to which access +is gained by a cylindrical hole. In the galleries are situated the +cells, separated from one another by transverse partitions, which are +formed of chips of wood, cemented by the saliva of the bee. + +Among the solitary bees none has more remarkable nesting habits than the +mason bee (_Chalicodoma_) represented in the south of France and +described at length by Fabre. The female constructs on a stone a series +of cells, built of cement, which she compounds of particles of earth, +minute stones and her own saliva. Each cell is provided with a store of +honey and pollen beside which an egg is laid; and after eight or nine +cells have been successively built and stored, the whole is covered by a +dome-like mass of cement. Fabre found that a _Chalicodoma_ removed to a +distance of 4 kilometres from the nest that she was building, found her +way back without difficulty to the exact spot. But if the nest were +removed but a few yards from its former position, the bee seemed no +longer able to recognize it, sometimes passing over it, or even into the +unfinished cell, and then leaving it to visit again uselessly the place +whence it had been moved. She would accept willingly, however, another +nest placed in the exact spot where her own had been. If the unfinished +cell in the old nest had been only just begun, while that in the +substituted nest were nearly completed, the bee would add so much +material as to make the cell much larger than the normal size, her +instinct evidently being to do a certain amount of building work before +filling the cell with food. The food, too, is always placed in the cell +after a fixed routine--first honey disgorged from the mouth, then pollen +brushed off the hairs beneath the body (fig. 7, c) after which the two +substances are mixed into a paste. + +_Inquilines and Parasites._--The working bees, such as have been +mentioned, are victimized by bees of other genera, which throw upon the +industrious the task of providing for the young of the idle. The nests +of _Andrena_, for example, are haunted by the black and yellow species +of _Nomada_, whose females lay their eggs in the food provided for the +larva of the _Andrena_. According to H. Friese, the relations between +the host and the inquiline are quite friendly, and the insects if they +meet in the nest-galleries courteously get out of each other's way. D. +Sharp, in commenting on this strange behaviour, points out that the host +can have no idea why the inquiline haunts her nest. "Why then should the +_Andrena_ feel alarm? If the species of _Nomada_ attack the species of +_Andrena_ too much, it brings about the destruction of its own species +more certainly than that of the _Andrena_." + +More violent in its methods is the larva of a _Stelis_, whose operations +in the nest of _Osmia leucomelana_ have been studied by Verhoeff. The +female _Stelis_ lays her eggs earlier than the _Osmia_, and towards the +bottom of the food-mass; the egg of the _Osmia_ is laid later, and on +the surface of the food. Hence the two eggs are at opposite ends of the +food, and both larvae feed for a time without conflict, but the +_Stelis_, being the older, is the larger of the two. Finally the +parasitic larva attacks the _Osmia_, and digging its mandibles into its +victim's head kills and eats it, taking from one to two days for the +completion of the repast. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Under Side of Worker, carrying Wax Scales. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)] + +_Social Bees._--The bees hitherto described are "solitary," all the +individuals being either males or unmodified females. The most highly +developed of the long-tongued bees are "social" species, in which the +females are differentiated into egg-laying queens and (usually) +infertile "workers" (fig. 6). Verhoeff has discussed the rise of the +"social" from the "solitary" condition, and points out that for the +formation of an insect community three conditions are necessary--a nest +large enough for a number of individuals, a close grouping of the cells, +and an association between mother and daughters in the winged state. For +the fulfilment of this last condition, the older insects of the new +generation must emerge from the cells while the mother is still occupied +with the younger eggs or larvae. One species of _Halictus_ nearly +reaches the desired stage; but the first young bees to appear in the +perfect state are males, and when the females emerge the mother dies. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.-Abdominal Plate (worker of _Apis_), under side, +third segment. W, wax-yielding surface, covering true gland; s, septem, +or carina; wh, webbed hairs. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)] + +Among the social bees the mother and daughter-insects co-operate, and +they differ from the "solitary" groups in the nature of their nest, the +cells (fig. 25) of which are formed of wax secreted by special glands +(fig. 5) in the bee's abdomen, the wax being pressed out between the +segmental sclerites in the form of plates (fig. 4), which are worked by +the legs (fig. 7) and jaws into the requisite shape. In our well-known +hive-bee (_Apis_) and humble-bees (_Bombus_) the wax glands are ventral +in position, but in the "stingless" bees of the tropics (_Trigona_ and +_Melipona_) they are dorsal. A colony of humble-bees is started in +spring by a female "queen" which has survived the winter. She starts her +nest underground or in a surface depression, forming a number of waxen +cells, roughly globular in shape and arranged irregularly. The young +females ("workers") that develop from the eggs laid in these early cells +assist the queen by building fresh cells and gathering food for storage +therein. The queen may be altogether relieved of the work of the nest as +the season advances, so that she can devote all her energies to +egg-laying, and the colony grows rapidly. The distinction between queen +and worker is not always clear among humble-bees, the female insects +varying in size and in the development of their ovaries. If any mishap +befall the queen, the workers can sometimes keep the community from +dying out. In autumn males are produced, as well as young queens. The +community is broken up on the approach of winter, the males and workers +perish, and the young queens after hibernation start fresh nests in the +succeeding year. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Ovaries of Queen and Workers (_Apis_). + + A, Abdomen of queen, under side. + P, Petiole. + o, o, Ovaries. + hs, Position filled by honey-sack. + ds, Position through which digestive system passes. + od, Oviduct. + co.d, Vagina. + E, Egg-passing oviduct. + s, Spermatheca. + i. Intestine. + pb, Poison bag. + pg, Poison gland. + st, Sting. + p, "Palps" or "feelers" of sting. + B, Rudimentary ovaries of ordinary worker. + sp, Rudimentary spermatheca. + C, Partially developed ovaries of fertile worker. + sp, Rudimentary spermatheca. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_.)] + +The appearance of the heavy-bodied hairy _Bombi_ is well known. They are +closely "mimicked" by bees of the genus _Psithyrus_, which often share +their nests. These _Psithyri_ have no pollen-carrying structures on the +legs and their grubs are dependent for their food-supply on the labours +of the _Bombi_, though, according to E. Hoffer's observations, it seems +that the female _Psithyrus_ builds her own cells. The colonies of +_Bombus_ illustrate the rise of the inquiline habit. Many of the species +are very variable and have been differentiated into races or varieties. +F.W.L. Sladen states that a queen belonging to the _virginalis_ form of +_Bombus terrestris_ often invades a nest belonging to the _lucorum_ +form, kills the rightful queen, and takes possession of the nest, +getting the _lucorum_ workers to rear her young. In the nests of _Bombi_ +are found various beetle larvae that live as inquilines or parasites, +and also maggots of drone-flies (_Volucella_), which act as scavengers; +the Volucella-fly is usually a "mimic" of the _Bombus_, whose nest she +invades. + +The "stingless" bees (_Trigona_) of the tropics have the parts of the +sting reduced and useless for piercing. As though to compensate for the +loss of this means of defence, the mandibles are very powerful, and some +of the bees construct tubular entrances to the nest with a series of +constrictions easy to hold against an enemy. The habits of the Brazilian +species of these bees have been described in detail by H. von Jhering, +who points out that their wax glands are dorsal in position, not ventral +as in _Bombus_ and _Apis_. + +With _Apis_, the genus of the hive-bee, we come to the most +highly-specialized members of the family--better known, perhaps than any +other insects, on account of the long domestication of many of the +species or races. In _Apis_ the workers differ structurally from the +queen, who neither builds cells, gathers food, nor tends brood, and is +therefore without the special organs adapted for those functions which +are possessed in perfection by the workers. The differentiation of queen +and workers is correlated with the habit of storing food supplies, and +the consequent permanence of the community, which finds relief for its +surplus population by sending off a swarm, consisting of a queen and a +number of workers, so that the new community is already specialized both +for reproduction and for labour. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Modifications in the Legs of Bees. + + A. a-d, Hive-bee (_Apis_). + B. f-g, Stingless bee (_Melipona_). + C. h-i, Humble-bee (_Bombus_). + a, f, h, Outer view of hind-leg. + b, g, i, Inner view. + d, Fore-leg of _Apis_ showing notch in tarsal segment for cleaning + feeler. + e, Tip of intermediate shin with spur. + c, Feathered hairs with pollen grains, magnified. + +(After Riley, _Insect Life_ (U.S. Dept. Agr.), vol. 6.)] + +The workers of _Apis_ may be capable (fig. 6, C) of laying +eggs--necessarily unfertilized--which always give rise to males +("drones"), and, since the researches of J. Dzierzon (1811-1906) in +1848, it has been believed that the queen bee lays fertilized eggs in +cells appropriate for the rearing of queens or workers, and unfertilized +eggs in "drone-cells," virgin reproduction or parthenogenesis being +therefore a normal factor in the life of these insects. F. Dickel and +others have lately claimed that fertilized eggs can give rise to either +queens, workers or males, according to the food supplied to the larvae +and the influence of supposed "sex-producing glands" possessed by the +nurse-workers. Dickel states that a German male bee mated with a female +of the Italian race transmits distinct paternal characters to hybrid +male offspring. A. Weismann, however, doubts these conclusions, and +having found a spermaster in every one of the eggs that he examined from +worker-cells, and in only one out of 272 eggs taken from drone-cells, he +supports Dzierzon's view, explaining the single exception mentioned +above as a mistake of the queen, she having laid inadvertently this +single fertilized egg in a drone instead of in a worker cell. + +The cells of the honeycomb of _Apis_ are usually hexagonal in form, and +arranged in two series back to back (figs. 3, 25). Some of these cells +are used for storage, others for the rearing of brood. The cells in +which workers are reared are smaller than those appropriate for the +rearing of drones, while the "royal cells," in which the young queens +are developed, are large in size and of an irregular oval in form (fig. +25). It is believed that from the nature of the cell in which she is +ovipositing, the queen derives a reflex impulse to lay the appropriate +egg--fertilized in the queen or worker cell, unfertilized in the drone +cell, as previously mentioned. Whether the fertilized egg shall develop +into a queen or a worker depends upon the nature of the food. All young +grubs are at first fed with a specially nutritious food, discharged from +the worker's stomach, to which is added a digestive secretion derived +from special salivary glands in the worker's head. If this "royal jelly" +continue to be given to the grub throughout its life, it will grow into +a queen; if the ordinary mixture of honey and digested pollen be +substituted, as is usually the case from the fourth day, the grub will +become a worker. The workers, who control the polity of the hive (the +"queen" being exceedingly "limited" in her monarchy), arrange if +possible that young queens shall develop only when the population of the +hive has become so congested that it is desirable to send off a swarm. +When a young queen has emerged, she stings her royal sisters (still in +the pupal stage) to death. Previous to the emergence of the young queen, +the old queen, prevented by the workers from attacking her daughters, +has led off a swarm to find a new home elsewhere. The young queen, left +in the old home, mounts high into the air for her nuptial flight, and +then returns to the hive and her duties of egg-laying. The number of +workers increases largely during the summer, and so hard do the insects +work that the life of an individual may last only a few weeks. On the +approach of winter the males, having no further function to perform for +the community, are refused food-supplies by the workers, and are either +excluded or banished from the hive to perish. Such ruthless habits of +the bee-commonwealth, no less than the altruistic labours of the +workers, are adapted for the survival and dominance of the species. The +struggle for life may deal hardly with the individual, but it +results--to quote Darwin's well-known title--in "the preservation of +favoured races." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--More has been written on bees, and especially on the + genus _Apis_, than on any other group of insects. The classical + observations of Reaumur _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire des + insectes_, vols. v., vi. (Paris, 1740-1742) and F. Huber's _Nouvelles + observations sur les abeilles_ (Geneve, 1792) will never be forgotten; + they have been matched in recent times by J.H. Fabre's _Souvenirs + entomologiques_ (Paris, 1879-1891); and M. Maeterlinck's poetic yet + scientific _La vie des abeilles_ (Paris, 1901). Among writers on the + solitary and parasitic species may be specially mentioned F. Smith, + _Hymenoptera in the British Museum_ (London, 1853-1859); H. Friese, + _Zool. Jahrb. Syst._, iv. (1891) J. Perez, _Actes Soc. Bordeaux_, + xlviii. (1895); and C. Verhoeff, _Zool. Jahrb. Syst._, vi. (1892). For + the social species we have valuable papers by E. Hoffer, _Mitt. + Naturwissen. Ver. Steiermark_, xxxi. (1881); H. von Jhering, _Zool. + Jahrb. Syst._, xix. (1903); and others. For recent controversy on + parthenogenesis in the hive bee, see J. Perez, _Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool._ + (6), vii. (1878); F. Dickel, _Zool. Anz._, xxv. (1901), and _Anatom. + Anzeiger_, xix. (1902); A. Petrunkevich, _Zoolog. Jahrb. Anat._, xiv. + (1901); and A. Weismann, _Anatom. Anzeiger_, xviii. (1901). F.R. + Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping_ (London, 1885-1888), and T.W. + Cowan's _Honey Bee_ (2nd ed., 1904), are invaluable to the naturalist, + and contain extensive bibliographies of _Apis_. D. Sharp's summary in + the _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vi., should be consulted for + further information on bees generally. British bees are described in + the catalogues of Smith, mentioned above, and by E. Saunders, _The + Hymenoptera of the British Islands_ (London, 1896). (G. H. C.) + + +BEE-KEEPING + +Bee-keeping, or the cultivation of the honey-bee as a source of income +to those who practise it, is known to have existed from the most ancient +times. Poets, philosophers, historians and naturalists (among whom may +be mentioned Virgil, Aristotle, Cicero and Pliny) have eulogized the bee +as unique among insects, endowed by nature with wondrous gifts +beneficial to mankind in a greater degree than any other creature of +the insect world. We are told that some of these ancient scientists +passed years of their lives studying the wonders of bee-life, and left +accurate records of their observations, which on many points agree with +the investigations of later observers. As a forcible illustration of the +manner in which a colony of bees was recognized as the embodiment of +government by a chief or ruler, in the earliest times of which there is +any existing record, it may be mentioned that on the sarcophagus +containing the mummified remains of Mykerinos (now in the British Museum +and dating back 3633 years B.C.) will be found a hieroglyphic bee,(fig. +8) representing the king of Lower Egypt. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Sign of the king of Lower Egypt; from the coffin +of Mykerinos, 3633 B.C. (British Museum).] + + + Queen-rearing. + +In dealing with the practical side of bee-keeping as now understood, it +may be said that, compared with the methods in vogue during the first +decade of the 19th century, or even within the memory of men still +living at the beginning of the 20th, it is as the modern locomotive to +the stagecoach of a previous generation. Almost everything connected +with bee-craft has been revolutionized, and apiculture, instead of being +classed with such homely rural occupations as that of the country +housewife who carries a few eggs weekly to the market-town in her +basket, is to-day regarded in many countries as a pursuit of +considerable importance. Remarkable progress has also been made in the +art of queen-rearing, and in improving the common or native bee by +judicious crossing with the best foreign races, selected mainly for +hardiness, working qualities and the prolific capacity of their queens. +American bee-breeders are conspicuous in this respect, extensive +apiaries being exclusively devoted to the business of rearing queens by +the thousand for sale and export. + +On the European continent queen-rearing apiaries are plentiful, but less +attention is paid there to hybridizing than to keeping the respective +races pure. In England also, some bee-keepers include queen-rearing as +part of their business, while one large apiary on the south coast is +exclusively devoted to the rearing of queen bees on the latest +scientific system, and to breeding by selection from such races as are +most suited to the exceptional climatic conditions of the country. + + + Honey as food. + +Extensive apiaries have been established on the American continent, some +containing from 2000 to 3500 colonies of bees, and in these honey is +harvested in hundreds of tons yearly. The magnitude of the bee industry +in the United States may be judged from the fact of a single bee-farmer +located in California having harvested from 150,000 lb. of honey in one +year from 2000 stocks of bees, and, as an instance of the enormous +weight of honey obtainable from good hives in that favoured region, the +same farmer secured 60,000 lb. of comb-honey in one season from his best +300 colonies. This is probably the maximum, and the hives were +necessarily located in separate apiaries some few miles apart in order +to avoid the evils of overstocking, but all in the midst of thousands of +acres of honey-yielding flowers. Results like the above compared with +those of the skeppist bee-keeper of former days, who was well pleased +with an average of 20 to 25 lb. per hive, may be regarded as wonderful, +but they are matters of fact. The consumption of honey as an article of +food has also largely increased of late years; a recent computation +shows that from 100 to 125 million lb. of honey, representing a money +value of from eight to ten million dollars, is consumed annually in the +United States alone. Many of the larger bee-farmers of the United States +of America and Canada harvest from 50,000 to 60,000 lb. of honey in a +single season, and some of them sell the whole crop direct to consumers. + + + State aid for bee-keeping. + +It is a notable fact that in the United States, Canada, Australia, New +Zealand, and indeed all English-speaking countries outside the United +Kingdom, honey is far more extensively used than it is there as an +article of daily food. The natural result of this is that the trade in +honey is conducted, in those countries, on entirely different lines from +those followed in the British Isles, where honey production as an +occupation has, until quite recent years, been regarded as too +insignificant for official notice in any form. The value of the bee +industry is now recognized, however, by the British government as worthy +of state aid, in the promotion of technical instruction connected with +agriculture. On the American continent apiculture is officially +recognized by the respective states' governments; and by the federal +government at Washington it is taken into account as a section of the +Agricultural Department, with fully equipped experimental apiaries and +qualified professors engaged therein for educational work. In several +Canadian provinces also, the public funds are used in promoting the bee +industry in various ways, mainly in combating the bee-disease known as +"foul brood." In New Zealand the government of the colony has displayed +the most praiseworthy earnestness and vigour in promoting apiculture. +State-aided apiaries have been established under the supervision of a +skilled bee-keeper, who travels over the colony giving instruction in +practical bee-work at the public schools, and forming classes at various +centres where pupils are taught bee-keeping in all its branches. + + + Value of bees as fertilizers. + +In Europe similar progress is observable; technical schools, with +well-equipped apiaries attached, are supported by the state, and in them +the science and practice of modern bee-keeping is taught free by +scientists and practical experts. Institutions of this kind have been +established in Germany, Russia, Switzerland and elsewhere, all tending +in the same direction, viz. the cultivation of the honey-bee as an +appreciable source of income to the farmer, the peasant cultivator, and +dwellers in districts where bee-forage is abundant and, if unvisited by +the bee, lies wasting its sweetness on the desert air. It may be safely +said that the value of the bee to the fruit-grower and the +market-gardener has been proved beyond dispute; and the technical +instruction now afforded by county councils in the rural districts of +England has an appreciable effect. In proof thereof, we may quote the +case of an extensive grower in the midland counties--sending fruit to +the London market in tons--whose crop of gooseberries increased nearly +fourfold after establishing a number of stocks of bees in close +proximity to the gooseberry bushes. The fruit orchards and raspberry +fields of Kent are also known to be greatly benefited by the numerous +colonies of bees owned by more than 3000 bee-keepers in the county. The +important part played by the bee in the economy of nature as a +fertilizer is shown in fig. 9. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A, Raspberry (_Rubus idaeus_, order _Rosaceae_), +being fertilized. B, Cross section. + + A, Flower. + p, p, Petals. + a, a, Anthers. + s, Stigma. + no, Nectary openings. + nc, Nectar cells. + D, Drupels. + B, Section through core, or torus (C) and drupels (D). + ud, Unfertilized drupel. + ws, Withered stigma. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + + + Bee-keepers' associations. + + Bee and honey shows. + + Honey labels. + +In the United Kingdom the prevailing conditions, climatic and otherwise, +with regard to apiculture--as well as the lack of sufficient natural +bee-forage for large apiaries--are such as to preclude the possibility +of establishing apiaries on a scale comparable with those located in +less confined lands. On the other hand, even in England the value of +bee-keeping is worthy of recognition as a minor industry connected with +such items of agriculture as fruit-growing, market-gardening or +poultry-raising. The fact that British honey is second to none for +quality, and that the British market is eagerly sought by the +bee-keepers of other nationalities, has of late impressed itself on the +minds of thinking men. Moreover, their views are confirmed by the +constant references to bees and the profits obtainable from bee-keeping +in the leading papers on all sides. This newly-aroused interest in the +subject is no doubt to a large extent fostered by the grants in aid of +technical instruction afforded by county councils in rural districts. +The British Bee-keepers' Association (instituted in 1874) has been +untiring in its efforts to raise the standard of efficiency among those +who are desirous of qualifying as experts and teachers of bee-keeping on +modern methods. This body had for its first president the distinguished +naturalist Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). Subsequently the baroness +Burdett-Coutts accepted the office in the year 1878, and was re-elected +annually until her death in 1906. During this time she presided at its +meetings and took an active part in its work, until advancing years +prevented her attendance, but her interest in the welfare of the +association was maintained to the last. Branch societies of bee-keepers +were established throughout the English counties, mainly by the efforts +of the parent body in London, with the object of securing co-operation +in promoting the sale of honey, and showing the most modern methods of +producing it in its most attractive form at exhibitions held for the +purpose. Nearly the whole of these county societies affiliated with the +central association, paying an affiliation fee yearly, and receiving in +return the silver medal, bronze medal and certificate of the +association, to be offered as prizes for competition at the annual +county shows. Other advantages are given in connexion with the +qualifying of experts, &c., while nearly all the county associations in +the United Kingdom employ qualified men who visit members in spring and +autumn for the purpose of examining hives and giving advice on bee +management to those needing it. Another advantage of membership is the +use of a "county label" for affixing to each section of honey in comb, +or jar of extracted honey, offered for sale by members. These labels are +numbered consecutively, and thus afford a guarantee of the genuineness +and quality of the honey, the label enabling purchasers to trace the +producer if needed. The British Bee-keepers' Association is an entirely +philanthropic body, the only object of its members being to promote all +that is good in British bee-keeping, and to "teach humanity to that +industrious little labourer, the honey-bee." Bee-appliance manufacturers +are not eligible for membership of its council, nor are those who make +bee-keeping their main business; thus no professional jealousies can +possibly arise. In this respect the association appears to stand alone +among the bee-keepers' societies of the world. There are many equally +beneficial societies, framed on different lines, existing in Germany, +France, Russia and Switzerland, but they are mainly co-operative bodies +instituted for the general benefit of members, who are without exception +either bee-keepers on a more or less extensive scale, or scientists +interested in the study of insect life. + +The bee-keepers' associations of the United States, Canada and most of +the British colonies, are--like those last mentioned above--formed for +the sole and laudable purpose of promoting the business interests of +their members, the latter being either bee-farmers or bee-appliance +manufacturers. Thus they make no pretension of any but business +discussions at their conferences, and much benefit to all concerned +follows as a matter of course. In fact, we find enthusiastic bee-men and +women travelling several hundreds of miles and devoting time, money and +labour in attending conferences of bee-keepers in America, while the +proceedings usually last for several days and are largely attended. The +extent of the industry compared with that of Great Britain is so great +that it fully accounts for the difference in procedure of the respective +associations. + +[Illustration: FIG 10.--"1-lb. section" wooden box for holding +Comb-honey. + +(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root +Co. Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.) ] + + + The bee-appliance trade. + +As a natural consequence of this activity, the trade in bee-appliance +making has assumed enormous proportions in the United States, where +extensive factories have been established; one firm--employing over 500 +hands, and using electric-power machinery of the most modern type--being +devoted entirely to the manufacture of bee-goods and apiarian +requisites. From this establishment alone the yearly output is about +25,000 bee-hives, and upwards of 100 millions of the small wooden boxes +used for holding comb-honey. The most generally approved form of this +box is known as the "1-lb. section," made from a strip of wood 1/2 in. +thick, 2 in. wide, and of such length that when folded by joining the +morticed and tenoned ends A B (fig. 10) it forms the section of box C, +measuring 4-1/4" X 4-1/2" X 2" when complete, and holds about 1 lb. of +comb-honey when filled by the bees and ready for table use. The V-shaped +groove D (cut across and partly through the wood) shows the joint when +in the flat, and E the same joint when closed for use. All the section +boxes used in the United Kingdom are made in the U.S.A or in Canada from +the timber known as basswood, no native wood being suitable for the +purpose. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.-Straw skep in section, showing arrangement of +Combs + + A, Vertical section. + fb, Floor board. + e, Entrance. + br, Brood + p, Pollen. + h, Honey. + fh, Feeding hole. + bs, bs, Bee spaces. + B, Horizontal section. + sk, Skep-side. + c, c, Combs. + sc, sc, Store combs. + bs, bs, Bee spaces. + +(from Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + + + The straw skep. + + The movable-frame hive. + + Huber's observatory hive. + +_Development of the Movable-frame Hive_--The dome-shaped straw skep of +our forefathers may be regarded as the typical bee-hive of all time and +of all civilized countries; indeed, it may with truth be said that as a +healthy and convenient home for the honey-bee it has no equal. A swarm +of bees hived in a straw skep, the picturesque little domicile known the +world over as the personification of industry, will furnish their home +with waxen combs in form and shape so admirably adapted to their +requirements as to need no improvement by man. Why the circular form was +chosen for the skep need not be inquired into, beyond saying that its +shape conforms to that of a swarm, as the bees usually hang clustered on +the branch of a neighbouring tree or bush after issuing from the parent +hive. Fig 11 shows a straw skep in section, and explains itself as +illustrating the admirable way in which the bees furnish their dwelling. +The vertical section (A) shows the lower portion of the combs devoted to +brood-rearing, the higher and thicker combs being reserved for honey, +and midway between the brood and food is stored the pollen required for +mixing with honey in feeding the larvae. It will be seen how well the +upper part of the combs are fitted for bearing the weight of stores they +contain, and how the lower portion allows the bees to cluster around +the tender larvae and thus maintain the warmth necessary during its +metamorphosis from the egg to the perfect insect. The horizontal section +(B) with equal clearness demonstrates the bee's ingenuity in economizing +space, showing how the outer combs are used exclusively for stores, and, +as such, may be built of varying thickness as more or less storage room +is required. The straw skep has, however, the irredeemable fault of +fixed combs, and the gradual development of the movable-frame hive of +today may be said to have first appeared in 1789 with the leaf-hive of +Huber, so called from its opening like the leaves of a book. Prior to +that date wooden box-hives of various shapes had been adopted by +advanced bee-masters anxious to increase their output of honey, and by +enthusiastic naturalists desirous of studying and investigating the +wonders of bee-life apart from the utilitarian standpoint. Foremost +among the latter was the distinguished Swiss naturalist and bee-keeper, +Francois Huber, who was led to construct the leaf-hive bearing his name +after experimenting with a single comb observatory hive recommended by +Reaumur. Huber found that although he could induce swarms to occupy the +glass-sided single frame advised by Reaumur, if the frame was fitted +with ready-built pieces of comb patched together before hiving the +swarm, the experiment was successful, while if left to themselves the +bees built small combs across the space between the sheets of glass, and +the desired inspection from the outside was thus rendered impossible. He +also gathered that the abnormal conditions forced upon the bees by a +ready-built single comb might so turn aside their natural instincts as +to render his investigations less trustworthy than if conducted under +perfectly natural conditions; so, in order to remove all doubt, he +decided to have a series of wooden frames made, measuring 12 in. sq., +each of rather more than the ordinary width allowed for brood-combs. +These frames were numbered consecutively 1 to 12, and hinged together as +shown in fig. 12 (h, A). In this way the frames of comb could be opened +for inspection like a book, while when closed the bees clustered +together as in an ordinary hive. Ten of these frames had a small piece +of comb fixed to the top-bar in each, supported (temporarily) by a thin +lath wedged up with pegs at side, the latter being removed when the comb +had been made secure by the bees. When closed, the ten frames, together +with the two outside ones (fitted with squares of glass for inspection), +which represent the covers of the book, were tied together with a couple +of stout strings. In a subsequent form of the same hive Huber was +enabled--with the help of very long thumb-screws at each side (fig. +13)--to raise up any frame between two sheets of glass which confined +the bees and allowed him to study the process of comb-building better +than any hive we know of today. By means of the leaf-hive and using the +entrances (fig. 12, e, e, A) Huber made artificial swarms by dividing +and the use of division-boards, though not in quite the same fashion as +is practised at the present day. On the other hand, it must be admitted +that Huber's hive was defective in many respects; the parting of each +frame, thus letting loose the whole colony, caused much trouble at +times, but it remained the only movable-comb hive till 1838, when Dr +Dzierzon--whose theory of parthenogenesis has made his name +famous--devised a box-hive with a loose top-bar on which the bees built +their combs and a movable side or door, by means of which the frames +could be lifted out for inspection. This improvement was at once +appreciated, and in the year 1852 Baron Berlepsch added side-bars and a +bottom-bar, thus completing the movable frame. + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Huber's book or leaf hive. + + A, Book hive. + e, e, Entrances. + s, s, Side leaves. + h, Hinges. + B, Side view of frame or leaf. + tb, Top-bar + c, Comb. + p, p, Pegs. + C, Part of bin, cross section, lettering as before. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.-Huber's bar-hive, showing how comb is built, cb, +Comb bar; g, g, glass sheets; s, s, screws; e, entrance + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.) ] + + + Laagstroth's hive. + +About the same time the Rev. L.L. Langstroth was experimenting on the +same lines in America, and in 1852 his important invention was made +known, giving to the world of bee-keepers a movable frame which in its +most important details will never be excelled. We refer to the respective +distances left between the side-bars and hive walls on each side, and +between the lower edge of the bottom-bars and the floor-board. +Langstroth, in his measurements, hit upon the happy mean which keeps bees +from propolizing or fastening the frames to the hive body, as they +assuredly would do if sufficient space had not been allowed for free +passage round the side-bars; it is equally certain that if too much space +had been provided, they would fill it with comb and thus render the frame +immovable. In addition to these benefits, Langstroth's frame and hive +possessed the enormous advantage over Dzierzon's of being manipulated +from above, so that any single frame could be raised for inspection +without disturbing the others. Langstroth's space-measurements have +remained practically unaltered notwithstanding the many improvements in +hive-making, and in the various sizes of movable frames, since introduced +and used in different parts of the world. + + + Size of frames in the U.S.A. + +In the United States of America Langstroth's frame and hive are the +acknowledged "standards" among the great body of bee-keepers, although +about a dozen different frames, varying more or less in size, have their +adherents. Among these may be named the American, Adair, Danzenbaker, +Gallup, Heddon, Langstroth and Quinby. Three of these, the American, +Adair and Gallup, may be termed square frames, the others being oblong, +but the latter shape appears to possess the most all-round advantages to +the modern bee-keeper. Amid the different climatic conditions of so vast +a continent as America, variation in size, and in the capacity of frames +used, is in some measure accounted for. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Standard Frame.] + + + British "Standard" frame. + +In the British Isles, though the conditions are variable enough, they +are less extreme, and, fortunately for those engaged in the pursuit, +only one size of frame is acknowledged by the great majority of +bee-keepers, viz. the British Bee-keepers' Association "Standard" (fig. +14). This frame, the outside measurement of which is 14 by 8-1/2 in., +was the outcome of deliberations extending over a considerable time on +the part of a committee of well-known bee-keepers, specially appointed +in 1882 to consider the matter. In this way, whatever type or form of +hive is used, the frames are interchangeable. Differences in view may, +and do, exist regarding the thickness of the wood used in frame-making, +but the _outside_ measurement never varies. Notwithstanding this fact, +the advancement of apiculture and the continuous development of the +modern frame-hive and methods of working have proceeded with such +rapidity, both in England and in America, that hives and appliances used +prior to 1885 are now obsolete. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Langstroth Hive. + +(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee-Culture_, published by the A. I. Root +Co., Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)] + + + Winter cellars for bees. + +It may, therefore, be useful to compare the progress made in the United +States of America and in Great Britain in order to show that, while the +industry is incomparably larger and of more importance in America and +Canada than in Great Britain, British bee-keepers have been abreast of +the times in all things apicultural. The original Langstroth hive was +single-walled, held ten frames (size 17-3/4 by 9 in.), and had a deep +roof, made to cover a case of small honey boxes like the sections now in +use; but the cumbersome projecting porch and sides, made to support the +roof, are now dispensed with, and the number of frames reduced to eight. +Although various modifications have since been made in minor +details--all tending to improvement--its main features are unaltered. +The typical hive of America is the _improved_ Langstroth (fig. 15), +which has no other covering for the frame tops but a flat roof-board +allowing 1/4 in. space between the roof and top-bars for bees to pass +from frame to frame. Consequently, on the roof being raised the bees can +take wing if not prevented from doing so. This feature finds no favour +with British bee-keepers, nevertheless the "improved Langstroth" is a +useful and simple hive, moderate in price, and no doubt efficient, but +not suitable for bees wintered on their summer stands, as nearly all +hives are in Great Britain. American bee-keepers, therefore, find it +necessary to provide underground cellars, into which the bees are +carried in the fall of each year, remaining there till work begins in +the following spring. Those among them who cannot, for various reasons, +adopt the cellar-wintering plan are obliged to provide what are termed +"chaff-covers" for protecting their bees in winter. Of late years they +have also introduced, as an improvement, the plan long followed in +England of using double-walled chaff-packed hives. The difference here +is that packing is now dispensed with, it being found that bees winter +equally well with an outer case giving 1-1/2 in. of free space on all +sides of the hive proper, but with no packing in between. Thus no change +is needed in winter or summer, the air-space protecting the bees from +cold in winter and heat in summer. Another point of difference between +the English and American hive is the roof, which being gable-shaped in +the former allows warm packing to be placed directly on the frame tops, +so that the bees are covered in when the roof is removed and may be +examined or fed with very little disturbance. Again, the American hive +is, as a general rule, set close down on the ground, while stands or +short legs are invariably used in Great Britain. One of the best-known +hives in England is that known as the W.B.C. hive, devised in 1890 by W. +Broughton Carr. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Exterior, W.B.C. Hive.] + +Figs. 16 and 17 explain its construction and, as will be seen, it is +equally suitable when working for comb or for extracted honey. + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Interior, W.B.C. Hive.] + + + Honey extractors. + +Various causes have contributed to the development of the modern hive, +the most important of which are the improvements in methods of +extracting honey from combs, and in the manufacture of comb-foundation. +Regarding the first of these, it cannot be said that the honey +extractor, even in its latest form, differs very much from the original +machine (fig. 18) invented by Major Hruschka, an officer in the Italian +army, who in later life became an enthusiastic apiculturist. Hruschka's +extractor, first brought to public notice in 1865, may be said to have +revolutionized the bee-industry as a business. It enabled the honey +producer to increase his output considerably by extracting honey from +the cells in most cleanly fashion without damaging the combs, and in a +fraction of the time previously occupied in the draining, heating and +squeezing process. At the same time the combs were preserved for +refilling by the bees, in lieu of melting them down for wax. The +principle of the honey extractor (throwing the liquid honey out of the +cells by centrifugal force) was discovered quite by accident. Major +Hruschka's little son chanced to have in his hand a bit of unsealed +comb-honey in a basket to which was attached a piece of string, and, as +the boy playfully whirled the basket round in the air, his father +noticed a few drops of honey, thrown out of the comb by the centrifugal +force employed to keep the basket suspended. The value of the idea at +once struck him, he set to work on utilizing the principle involved, and +ere long had constructed a machine admirably adapted to serve its +purpose. Since that time changes, of more or less value, have been +introduced to meet present-day requirements. One of the first to take +advantage of Hruschka's invention was Mr A. I. Root, who in 1869 +perfected a machine on similar lines to the Hruschka one but embodying +various improvements. This appliance, known as the "Novice Honey +Extractor," became very popular in the United States of America, but it +had the fault of wasting time in removing the combs for reversing after +one side had been emptied of its contents. A simple form of machine for +extracting honey by centrifugal force was brought to notice in England +in 1875, and was soon improved upon, as will be seen in fig. 19, which +shows a section of one of the best English machines at that time. +Various plans were tried in America to improve on the "Novice" machine, +and Mr T.W. Cowan, who was experimenting in the same direction in +England, invented in the year 1875 a machine called the "Rapid," in +which, the combs were reversed without removal of the cages (fig. 20). +The frame-cases--wired on both sides--are hung at the angles of a +revolving ring of iron, and the reversing process is so simple and +effective that the "Cowan" reversible frame has been adopted in all the +best machines both in Great Britain and in America. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Hruschka Extractor. (Redrawn from _The A B C of +Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root Co, Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Diagram of the Raynor Extractor. + + A, Section of extractor. + fr, Fixing rail + ffr, Frame for cage. + wb, Metal webbing. + wn, Wire netting. + co, Comb + w, Wire bottom. + p, Pivot. + c, Stiffening cone. + cb, Coned bottom. + gt, Gutter. + st, Syrup tap. + C, Perpendicular section of side of cage enlarged. + oc, Outer casing + wb, Metal webbing + wn, Wire netting + + (From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical._) + +The latest form of honey extractor used in America is that known as the +"Four-frame Cowan." Fig. 21 shows the working part or inside of the +appliance. In this, and indeed in all extractors used in large apiaries, +the "Cowan" or reversible frame principle is used. Each of the four +cages in which the combs are placed is swung on a pivot attached to the +side, and when the outer faces of the combs are emptied the cages are +reversed without removal from the machine for emptying the opposite +sides of combs. The further development of the honey extractor has of +late been limited to an increase in the size of machine used, in order +to save time and manual labour, and thus meet the requirements of the +largest honey producers, who extract honey by the car load. Some of the +largest machines--propelled by motor power--are capable of taking eight +or more frames at one time. It may also be claimed for the honey +extractor that it does away with the objection entertained by many +persons to the use of honey, by enabling the apiarist to remove his +produce from the honey-combs in its purest form untainted by crushed +brood and untouched by hand. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Cowan's rapid Extractor.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Cowan's four-frame Extractor; interior. + +(Redrawn from _The A B C of Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root +Co, Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)] + + + Comb foundation. + +Next in importance, to bee-keepers, is the enormous advance made in late +years through the invention of a machine for manufacturing the impressed +wax sheets known as "comb foundation," aptly so named, because upon it +the bees build the cells wherein they store their food. We need not +dwell upon the evolution from the crude idea, which first took form in +the endeavour to compel bees to build straight combs in a given +direction by offering them a guiding line of wax along the under side of +each top-bar of the frame in which the combs were built; but we may +glance at the more important improvements which gradually developed as +time went on. In 1843 a German bee-keeper, Krechner by name, conceived +the idea of first dipping fine linen into molten wax, then pressing the +sheets so made between rollers, and thus forming a waxen midrib on which +the bees would build their combs. This experiment was partially +successful, but the instinctive dislike of bees to anything of a fibrous +nature caused them completely to spoil their work of comb-building in +the endeavour to tear or gnaw away the linen threads whenever they got +in touch with them. In 1857 Mehring (also a German) made a further +advance by the use of wooden moulds for casting sheets of wax impressed +with the hexagonal form of the bee-cell. These sheets were readily +accepted by the bees, and afterwards plates cast from metal were +employed, with so good a result as to give to the bees as perfect a +midrib as that of natural comb with the deep cell walls cut away. Fig. +22 shows a portion of one of these metal plates with worker-cells of +natural size, i.e. five cells to the inch. Thus Mehring is justly +claimed as the originator of comb-foundation, though the value of his +invention was less eagerly taken advantage of even in Germany than its +merits deserved. Probably it was ahead of the times, for not until +nearly twenty years later was any prominence given to it, when Samuel +Wagner, founder and editor of the _American Bee Journal_, became +impressed with Mehring's invention and warmly advocated it in his paper. +Mr Wagner first conceived the idea of adding slightly raised side walls +to the hexagonal outlines of the cells, by means of which the bees are +supplied with the material for building out one-half or more of the +complete cell walls or sides. The manifest advantage of this was at once +realized by practical American apiarists as saving labour to the bees +and money to the bee-keeper. One of the first to recognize its value was +Mr A I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, who suggested the substitution of +embossed rollers in lieu of flat plates, in order to increase the output +of foundation and lessen its cost to the bee-keeper. He lost no time in +giving practical shape to his views, and mainly through the inventive +genius of a skilled machinist (Mr A. Washburn) the A. I. Root Co. +constructed a roller press (fig 23) for producing foundation in sheets. +This form of machine came into extensive use in the United States of +America and afterwards in Great Britain. The first roller press was made +by the A.I. Root Co. and imported by Mr William Raitt, a Scottish +bee-keeper of repute in Perthshire, N.B. In all roller machines used at +that time the plain sheets of wax were first made by the "dipping" +process, i.e. by repeated dippings of damped boards in molten wax (kept +in liquid condition in tanks immersed in hot water) until the sheet was +of suitable thickness for the purpose. The prepared sheets were then +passed through the rollers, and after being cut out and trimmed were +ready for use. + +[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Portion of a type-metal plate--i.e. form of +Comb Midrib (five cells to the inch). (From Cheshire's _Bees and +Bee-keeping Scientific and Practical_.)] + +Owing to the enormous demand for comb-foundation at that time various +devices were tried with the view of securing (1) more rapid production, +and (2) a foundation thin enough to be used in surplus chambers when +working for comb-honey intended for table use. Foremost among the able +men who experimented in this latter direction was Mr F.B. Weed, a +skilful American machinist, who, after some years of strenuous effort, +succeeded in devising and perfecting special rollers and dies, by the +use of which foundation was produced with a midrib so thin as to compare +favourably with natural comb built by the bees. "Dipping," however, +proved not only a stumbling-block to speed but to the production of +continuous sheets of wax; and in the end Mr Weed, acting in concert with +Mr A.I. Root (who placed the resources of his enormous factory at his +disposal), devised and perfected machinery--driven by motor power--for +manufacturing foundation by what is known as the "Weed" process. By this +process "dipping" is abolished, and in its latest form sheets of wax of +any length are produced, passed between engraved rollers 6 in in +diameter, cut to given lengths, trimmed, counted and paper-tissued ready +for packing, at a rate of speed previously undreamt of. + +[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Foundation Machine. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + +_Practical Management of Bees._--Among the world of insects the +honey-bee stands pre-eminent as the most serviceable to mankind; from +the day on which the little labourer leaves its home for the first time +in search of food, its mission is undoubtedly useful. Launched upon an +unknown world, and guided by unerring instinct to the very flowers it +seeks, the bee fertilizes fruit and flowers while winging its happy +flight among the blossoms, gathering pollen for the nurslings of its own +home and honey for the use of man. Nothing seems to be lost, nor can any +part of the bee's work be accounted labour in vain; the very wax from +which the insect builds the store-combs for its food and the cells in +which its young are hatched and reared is valuable to mankind in many +ways, and is regarded today no less than in the past ages as an +important commercial product. The hive bee is, moreover, the only insect +known to be capable of domestication, so far as labouring under the +direct control of the bee-master is concerned, its habits being +admirably adapted for embodying human methods of working for profit in +our present-day life. + +In dealing with the practical side of apiculture it will not be +necessary to do more than mention the salient points to be considered by +those desirous of acquiring more complete knowledge of the subject. +Authoritative text-books specially written for the guidance of +bee-keepers are numerous and cheap, and on no account should any one +engage in an attempt to manage bees on modern lines without a careful +perusal of one or more of these. Bearing this in mind the reader will +understand that so much of the natural history of the honey-bee as is +necessary for elucidating the practical part of our subject may be +comprised in (1) the life of the insect, (2) its mission in life, and +(3) utilizing to the utmost the brief period during which it can labour +before being worn out with toil. + +[Illustration: FIG. 24.-Hive bee (_Apis mellafica_). a, Worker; b, +queen; c, drone. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + + + Sex of bees. + + Loss of queens. + +A prosperous bee-colony managed on modern lines will in the height of +summer consist of three kinds of bees: a queen or mother-bee, a certain +number of drones, and from 80,000 to 100,000 workers. With regard to +sex, the queen is a fully-developed female, the drones are males and the +workers may be termed neuters or partially developed females. These last +possess ovaries like the queen, but shrunken and aborted so as to render +the insect normally incapable of egg-production. The relative importance +of the three kinds of bees, differs greatly in a degree and in somewhat +curious fashion. For instance, the queen (or "king" of the hives as it +was termed by our forefathers) is of paramount importance at certain +seasons, her death or disablement during the period when the male +element is absent meaning extinction of the whole colony. Fecundation +would under such conditions be impossible, and without this the eggs of +a resultant queen will produce nothing but drones. During the summer +season, however (from May to July), when drones are abundant, the loss +of a queen is of comparatively little moment, as the workers can +transform eggs (or young larvae not more than three days old), which +would in the ordinary course produce worker bees, into fully-developed +queens, capable of fulfilling all the maternal duties of a mother-bee. +The value of this wonderful provision of nature to the bee-keeper of +today may be estimated from the fact that bees managed according to +modern methods are necessarily subject to so much manipulating or +handling, that fatal accidents are as likely to happen in bee life as +among human beings. + +Authorities differ with regard to the age during which the queen bee is +useful to the bee-keeper who works for profit. Under normal conditions +the insect will live for three, four or sometimes five years, but the +stimulation given together with the high-pressure system followed in +modern bee-management, exhausts the period of her greatest fecundity in +two years, so that queens are usually superseded after their second +season has expired and egg-production gradually decreases. This can +hardly cause wonder if it is borne in mind that for many weeks during +the height of the season a prolific queen will deposit eggs at the rate +of from two to three thousand every twenty-four hours. + + + The drone. + +Drones (or male bees) are more or less numerous in hives according to +the skill of the bee-keeper in limiting their production. It is admitted +by those best able to judge that the proportion of about a hundred +drones in each hive is conducive to the prosperity of the colony, but +beyond that number they are worse than useless, being non-producers and +heavy consumers. Thus in times of scarcity, which are not infrequent +during the early part of the season, they become a heavy tax upon the +food-supply of the colony at the critical period when brood-rearing is +accelerated by an abundance of stores, while shortness of food means a +falling-off in egg-production. The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows +just so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a sufficient number +of drones to ensure queen-mating, while affording to the bees the +satisfaction of dwelling in a home equipped according to natural +conditions, and containing all the elements necessary to bee-life. The +action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for when the +season of mating is past the drone is no longer needed, the providing of +winter stores taking first place in the economy of the hive. So long as +honey is being gathered in plenty drones are tolerated, but no sooner +does the honey harvest show signs of being over than they are +mercilessly killed and cast out of the hive by the workers, after a +brief idle life of about four months' duration. Thus the "lazy yawning +drone," as Shakespeare puts it, has a short shrift when his usefulness +to the community is ended. + + + The worker-bee. + + Longevity in bees. + +Finally we have the aptly named worker-bee, on whom devolves the entire +labour of the colony. The worker-bee is incapable of egg-production and +can therefore take no part in the perpetuation of its species, so that +individually its value to the community is infinitesimal. Yet it forms +an item in a commonwealth, the members of which are in all respects +equally well endowed. They are in turn skilled scientists, architects, +builders, artisans, labourers and even scavengers; but collectively they +are the rulers on whom the colony depends for the wonderful condition of +law and order which has made the bee-community a model of good +government for all mankind. Then so far as regards longevity, the period +of a worker-bee's existence is not measured by numbering its days but +simply by wear and tear, the marvellous intricacy and wonderful +perfection of its framework being so delicate in construction that after +six or seven weeks of strenuous toil, such as the bee undergoes in +summer time, the little creature's labour is ended by a natural death. +On the other hand, worker-bees hatched in the autumn will seven months +later be strong with the vigour of lusty youth, able to take their full +share in the labour of the hive for six weeks or more in the early +spring, which is the most critical period in the colony's existence; +hence the value to the apiarist of bees hatched in the autumn. + +The mission of the worker-bee is _work_; not so much for itself as for +the younger members of the community to which it belongs. We cannot +claim for it the virtue of strict honesty with regard to the stranger, +but for its own "kith and kin" it is a model of socialism in an ideal +form, possessing nothing of its own yet toiling unceasingly for the good +of all. The increasing warmth of each recurring spring finds the bee +awake, and full of eagerness to be up and doing; its sole mission being +apparently to accomplish as much work as possible while life lasts. The +earliest pollen is sought out from far and near, and has its immediate +effect upon the mother bee of the colony. If healthy and young she +begins egg-laying at once, and brood-rearing proceeds at an +ever-increasing rate as each week passes, until the hive is brimming +over with bees in time for the first honey flow. Then comes the almost +human foresight with which the bee prevents the inevitable chaos created +by an overcrowded home. There is no cell-room either for storing the +abundant supply of food constantly being brought in, or for the +thousands of eggs which a prolific queen will produce daily as a +consequence of general prosperity; therefore unless help comes from +without an exodus is prepared for, and what is known as "swarming" takes +place. + + + Swarming. + + Hiving swarms. + +It would be difficult to imagine anything more exhilarating to a +beginner in bee-keeping than the sight of his first hive in the act of +swarming. The little creatures are seen rushing in frantic haste from +the hive like a living stream, filling the air with ever-increasing +thousands of bees on the wing. The incoming workers returning +pollen-laden from the fields, carried away by the prevailing excitement, +do not stop to unload their burdens in the old home, but join the +enthusiastic emigrants, tumbling over each other pell-mell in the +outrush; among them the queen of the colony will in due course have +taken her place, bound like her children for a new home. It soon becomes +apparent to the onlooker when the queen has joined the flying multitude +of bees in the air, for they are seen to be closing up their ranks, and +in a few moments begin to form a solid cluster, usually on the branch of +a small tree or bush close to the ground. When this stage of swarming is +reached the bee-keeper has but to take his hiving skep, hold it under +the swarm, and shake the bees into it, preparatory to transferring them +into a frame-hive already prepared for their reception. The process of +hiving a swarm is very simple and need not occupy many moments of time +under ordinary conditions, but so many unlooked-for contingencies may +arise that the apiarist would do well to prepare himself beforehand by +carefully reading the directions in his text-book. + +[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Honeycomb, Metamorphoses of the Honey Bee. + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)] + +The illustration given in fig. 25 will serve more readily than words to +enlighten the would-be bee-keeper. It shows a portion of honeycomb +(natural size) not precisely as it appears when the frame containing it +is lifted out of the hive, but as would be seen on two or more combs in +the same hive, namely, the various cells built for--and occupied +by--queens, drones and workers; also the larvae or grubs in the various +stages of transformation from egg to perfect insect, with the latter +biting their way out of sealed cells. It also shows sealed honey and +pollen in cells, &c. To familiarize himself with the various objects +depicted, all of which are drawn from nature, will not only help the +reader to understand the different phases of bee-life during the +swarming season, but tend to increase the interest of beginners in the +pursuit. "Early drones, early swarms" was the ancient bee-man's +favourite adage, and the skilled apiarist of to-day experiences the +same pleasurable thrill as did the skeppist of old at the sight of the +first drone of the year, which betokens an early swarm. As the drones +increase in number queen-cells are formed, unless steps be taken to turn +aside the swarming impulse by affording additional room beforehand in +the hive. The above brief outline of the guiding principles of natural +swarming is merely intended as introductory to the fuller information +given in a good text-book. + + + Bee-forage in U.S.A. + +_Management of an Apiary._--The main consideration in establishing an +apiary is to secure a favourable location, which means a place where +honey of good marketable quality may be gathered from the bee-forage +growing around without any planting on the part of the bee-keeper +himself. It is impossible to deal here with the varying conditions under +which apiculture is carried on in all parts of the world, but, as a +rule, the same principle applies everywhere. The bee industry prospers +greatly in America, where amid the vast stretches of mountain and canyon +in California the bee-forage extends for miles without a break, and the +climatic conditions are so generally favourable as to reduce to a +minimum the chances of the honey crop failing through adverse weather. + +The bee-keeper's object is to utilize to the utmost the brief space of a +worker-bee's life in summer, by adopting the best methods in vogue for +building up stocks to full strength before the honey-gathering time +begins, and preparing for it by the exercise of skill and intelligence +in carrying out this work. + + + Value of pollen. + + The queen of bee-plants. + +In the United Kingdom there is a difference of several weeks in the +honey season between north and south. Swarming usually begins in May in +the south of England, and in mid-July in the north of Scotland, the +issue of swarms coinciding with the early part of the main honey flow. +The weather is naturally more precarious in autumn than earlier in the +year, and chances of success proportionately smaller for northern +bee-men, but the disadvantage to the latter is more than compensated for +by the heather season, which extends well into September. With regard to +the British bee-keeper located in the south, the early fruit crop is +what concerns him most, and where pollen (the fertilizing dust of +flowers) is plentiful his bees will make steady progress. If pollen is +scarce, a substitute in the form of either pea-meal or wheaten flour +must be supplied to the bees, as brood-rearing cannot make headway +without the nitrogenous element indispensable in the food on which the +young are reared. But the main honey-crop of both north and south is +gathered from the various trifoliums, among which the white Dutch or +common clover (_Trifolium repens_) is acknowledged to be the most +important honey-producing plant wherever it grows. In the United States, +Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in many other parts of the world +honey of the finest quality is obtained from this "queen of bee-plants," +and in lesser degree from other clovers such as sainfoin, alsike (a +hybrid clover), trefoil, &c. + + + British and American methods. + +Before undertaking the management of a modern apiary, the bee-keeper +should possess a certain amount of aptitude for the pursuit, without +which it is hardly possible to succeed. He must also acquire the ability +to handle bees judiciously and well under all imaginable conditions. In +doing this it is needful to remember that bees resent outside +interference with either their work or their hives, and will resolutely +defend themselves when aroused even at the cost of life itself. +Experience has also proved that, when alarmed, bees instinctively begin +to fill their honey-sacs with food from the nearest store-cells as a +safeguard against contingencies, and when so provided they are more +amenable to interference. The bee-keeper, therefore, by the judicious +application of a little smoke from smouldering fuel, blown into the hive +by means of an appliance known as a bee-smoker, alarms the bees and is +thus able to manipulate the frames of comb with ease and almost no +disturbance. The smoker (fig. 26) devised by T.F. Bingham of Farwell, +Michigan, U.S.A., is the one most used in America and in the United +Kingdom. No other protection is needed beyond a bee-veil of fine black +net, which slipped over a wide-brimmed straw hat protects the face from +stings when working among bees; as experience is gained the veil is not +always used. The man who is hasty and nervous in temperament, who fears +an occasional sting, and resents the same by viciously killing the bee +that inflicts it will rarely make a good apiarist. The methods of +handling bees vary in different countries, this being in a great measure +accounted for by the number of hives kept. Very few apiaries in the +United Kingdom contain more than a hundred hives; consequently the +British bee-keeper has no need for employing the forceful or "hustling" +methods found necessary in America, where the honey-crop is gathered in +car-loads and the hives numbered by thousands. It naturally follows that +bee-life is there regarded very slightly by comparison, and the +bee-garden in England becomes the "bee-yard" in America, where the +apiarist when at work must thoroughly protect himself from being stung, +and, safe in his immunity from damage, cares little for bee-life in +getting through his task, the loss of a few hundred bees being +considered of no account. There are, however, other reasons, apart from +humanity, to account for the difference in handling bees as advocated in +the United Kingdom. The great majority of apiaries owned by British +bee-keepers are located in close proximity to neighbours; consequently a +serious upset among the bees would in many cases involve an amount of +trouble which should if possible be avoided; therefore quietness and the +exercise of care when manipulating are always recommended by teachers, +and practised by those who wisely take their lessons to heart. + +[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Bee-Smoker. + +(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee-Culture_, published by the A.I. Root Co, +Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.) + + + Chosing a location. + + Bee-keeping for profit. + +Having made himself proficient in practical bee-work and chosen a +suitable location for his apiary, the bee-keeper should carefully select +the particular type of hive most suited to his means and requirements. +This point settled, uniformity is secured, and all loose parts of the +hives being interchangeable time will be saved during the busy season +when time means money. Beginning with not too many stocks he can test +the capabilities of his location before investing much capital in the +undertaking, so that by utilizing the information already given and +adopting the wise adage "make haste slowly" he will realize in good time +whether it will pay best to work for honey in comb or extracted honey in +bulk; not only so, but the knowledge gained will enable him to select +such appliances as are suited to his needs. As a rule, it may be said +that the man content to start with an apiary of moderate size--say fifty +stocks--may realize a fair profit from comb-honey only; but so limited a +venture would need to be supplemented by some other means before an +adequate income could be secured. On the other hand, the owner of one or +two hundred colonies would find it more lucrative to work for extracted +honey and send it out to wholesale buyers in that form. By so doing a +far greater weight of surplus per hive may be secured, and extracted +honey will keep in good condition for years, while comb-honey must be +sold before granulation sets in. At the same time it is but fair to say +that bee-culture in the United Kingdom, if limited to honey-production +alone, is not sufficiently safe for entire reliance to be placed on it +for obtaining a livelihood. The uncertain climate renders it necessary +to include either other branches of the craft less dependent on warmth +and sunshine, or to combine it with fruit-growing, poultry-rearing, &c. +Under such conditions the bees will usually occupy a good position in +the balance-sheet. + + + Need of forethought. + +Another indispensable feature of good bee-management is "forethought," +coupled with order and neatness; the rule of "a place for everything +and everything in its place" prepares the bee-keeper for any emergency; +constant watchfulness is also necessary, not only to guard against +disease in his hives, but to overlook nothing that tends to be of +advantage to the bees at all seasons. Among the many ways of saving time +nothing is more useful than a carefully-kept note-book, wherein are +recorded brief memoranda regarding such items as condition of each stock +when packed for winter, amount of stores, age and prolific capacity of +queen, strength of colony, healthiness or otherwise, &c., all of which +particulars should be noted and the hives to which they refer plainly +numbered. It also enables the bee-keeper to arrange his day's work +indoors while avoiding disturbance to such colonies as do not need +interference. In the early spring stores must be seen to and replenished +where required; breeding stimulated when pollen begins to be gathered, +and appliances cleaned and prepared for use during the busy season. + + + Length of bee season. + + Swarm prevention. + +The main honey-gathering time (lasting about six or seven weeks) is so +brief that in no pursuit is it more important to "make hay while the sun +shines," and if the bee-keeper needs a reminder of this truism he surely +has it in the example set by his bees. As the season advances and the +flowers yield nectar more freely, visible signs of comb-building will be +observed in the whitened edges of empty cells in the brood-chambers; the +thoughtful workers are lengthening out the cells for honey-storing, and +the bee-master takes the hint by giving room in advance, thus lessening +the chance of undesired swarms. In other words, order and method, +combined with the habit of taking time by the forelock, are absolutely +necessary to the bee-keeper, seeing that the enormous army of workers +under his control is multiplying daily by scores of thousands. As spring +merges into summer, sunny days become more frequent; the ever-increasing +breadth of bee-forage yields still more abundantly, and the excitement +among the labourers crowding the hives increases, rendering room in +advance, shade and ventilation, a _sine qua non_. It requires a level +head to keep cool amongst a couple of hundred strong stocks of bees on a +hot summer's day in a good honey season. Moreover, it will be too late +to think of giving ventilation at noontide, when the temperature has +risen to 80 deg. F. in the shade; the necessary precautions for swarm +prevention must therefore be taken in advance, for when what is known as +the "swarming fever" once starts it is most difficult to overcome. + +The well-read and intelligent bee-keeper, content to work on orthodox +lines, will be able to manage an apiary--large or small--by guiding and +controlling the countless army he commands in a way that will yield him +both pleasure and profit. All he needs is good bee weather and an apiary +free from disease to make him appreciate bee-craft as one of the most +remunerative of rural industries; affording a wholesome open-air life +conducive to good health and yielding an abundance of contentment. + +_Diseases of Bees._--It is quite natural that bees living in colonies +should be subject to diseases, and only since the introduction of +movable-comb hives has it been possible to learn something about these +ailments. The most serious disease with which the bee-keeper has to +contend is that commonly known as "bee-pest" or "foul brood," so called +because of the young brood dying and rotting in the cells. This disease +has been known from the earliest ages, and is probably the same as that +designated by Pliny as _blapsigonia (Natural History_, bk. xi. ch. xx.). +Coming to later times, Della Rocca minutely describes a disease to which +bees were subject in the island of Syra, between the years 1777 and +1780, and through which nearly every colony in the island perished. From +the description given it was undoubtedly foul brood, and the bee-keepers +of the island became convinced, after bitter experience, that it was +extremely contagious. Schirach also mentioned and described the disease +in 1769, and was the first to give it the name of "foul brood." Still +later, in 1874, Dr Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and +bacteriological research, realized that the disease was caused by a +bacillus, and--nine years later--the name _Bacillus alvei_ was given to +it by Cheyne and Cheshire, whose views were in agreement with those of +Dr Cohn. + +The illustration (fig. 27) shows a portion of comb affected with foul +brood in its worst form. The sealed cells are dark-coloured and sunken, +pierced with irregular holes, and the larvae in all stages from the +crescent-shaped healthy condition to that in which the dead larvae are +seen lying at the bottom of the cells, flaccid and shapeless. The +remains then change to buff colour, afterwards turning brown, when +decomposition sets in, and as the bacilli present in the dead larvae +increase and the nutrient matter is consumed, the mass in some cases +becomes sticky and ropy in character, making its removal impossible by +the bees. In course of time it dries up, leaving nothing but a brown +scale adhering to the bottom or side of the cell. In the worst cases the +larvae even die after the cells are sealed over; a strong characteristic +and offensive odour being developed in some phases of the disease, +noticeable at times some distance away from the hive. + +[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Foul Brood (_Bacillus alvei_). + +(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical._)] + +Two forms of foul brood have been long known, one foul smelling, the +other odourless; and investigations made during 1906 and 1907 showed that +the etiology of the disease is not by any means simple, but that it is +produced by different microbes, two others in addition to _Bacillus +alvei_ playing an important part. These are _Bacillus brandenburgiensis_, +Maassen (syn. _B. burri_, Burri: _B. larvae_, white), and _Streptococcus +apis_, Maassen (syn. _B. Guntheri_, Burri). The first two are found in +both forms of foul brood, whereas the last is only present with _B. +alvei_ in the strong-smelling form of the disease, in which the larvae +are attacked prior to the cells being sealed over. + +The brood of bees, when healthy, lies in the combs in compact masses, +the larvae being plump and of a pearly whiteness, and when quite young +curled up on their sides at the base of the cells. When attacked by the +disease, the larva moves uneasily, stretches itself out lengthwise in +the cell, and finally becomes loose and flabby, an appearance which +plainly indicates death. + +When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over +_Bacillus alvei_ is present, usually associated with _Streptococcus +apis_, which latter imparts a sour smell to the dead brood. In cases +where the disease is odourless the larvae are attacked after the cells +are sealed over, and just before they change to pupae, when they become +slimy, sputum-like masses, difficult to remove from the cells. Under +these conditions _Bacillus brandenburgiensis_ is found, although +_Bacillus alvei_ may also be present. The two bacilli are antagonistic, +each striving for supremacy, first one then the other predominating. +Various other microbes are also present in large numbers, but are not +believed to be pathogenic or disease-producing in character. + +It is, therefore, seen that at least three different microbes play an +important part in the same disease. The danger of contagion lies in the +wonderful vitality of the spores, and their great resistance to heat and +cold. Dr Maassen records a case where he had no difficulty in obtaining +cultures from spores removed from combs after being kept dry for twenty +years. It should be borne in mind that the disease is much easier to +cure in the earlier stages while the bacilli are still rod-shaped than +when the rods have turned to spores. + +Since the bacterial origin of foul brood has been established, the +efforts of some bacteriologists have been employed in finding a simple +remedy by means of which the disease may be checked in its earliest +stages, and in this an appreciable amount of success has been attained. +Nor has foul brood in its more advanced forms been neglected, all +directions for treatment being found in text-books written by +distinguished writers on apiculture in the United Kingdom, America and +throughout the European continent. + +The only other disease to which reference need be made here is +dysentery, which sometimes breaks out after the long confinement bees +are compelled to undergo during severe winters. This trouble may be +guarded against by feeding the bees in the early autumn with good food +made from cane sugar, and housing them in well-ventilated hives kept +warm and dry by suitable coverings. When bees are wintered on thin, +watery food not sealed over, and are unable for months to take cleansing +flights, they become weak and involuntarily discharge their excrement +over the combs and hive, a state of things never seen in a healthy +colony under normal conditions. The stocks of bee-keepers who attend to +the instructions given in text-books are rarely visited by this disease. + +The above embraces all that is necessary to be said in relation to +diseases, though bees have been subject to other ailments such as +paralysis, constipation, &c. + +In the Isle of Wight a serious epidemic broke out in 1906 which caused +great destruction to bee-life in the following year. The malady was of +an obscure character, but its cause has been under investigation by the +British Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and by European +bacteriologists in 1908. + + AUTHORITIES.--Though in modern times a great deal has appeared in the + daily newspapers on the subject, it is a notable fact that not a tithe + of the wonderful things published in such articles about bees and + bee-keeping is worthy of credence or possesses any real value. Indeed, + a pressman possessing any technical knowledge of the subject--beyond + that obtainable from books--would be a _rara avis_. The account given + above is the result of forty years' practical experience with bees in + England, the writer having for a great portion of the time been + connected editorially with the only two papers in that country + entirely devoted to bees and bee-keeping, _The British Bee Journal_ + (weekly, founded 1873), and _Bee-keepers' Record_ (monthly, founded + 1882), the former being the only weekly journal in the world. The + following books on the subject may be consulted for further + details:--Francois Huber, _New Observations on the Natural History of + Bees_; T.W. Cowan, _British Bee-keepers' Guide-Book, The Honey Bee, + its Natural History, Anatomy and Physiology; Langstroth on the Honey + Bee_, revised by C. Dadant & Son; A.I. Root, _A B C and X Y Z of + Bee-culture_; F.R. Cheshire, _Bees and Bee-keeping_; Dr Dzierzon, + _Rational Bee-keeping_; E. Bertrand, _Conduite du rucher_; A.J. Cook, + _Manual of the Apiary_; Dr C.C. Miller, _Forty Years among the Bees_; + F.W.L. Sladen, _Queen-rearing in England_; S. Simmins, _A Modern Bee + Farm_. (W. B. Ca.) + + + + +BEECH, a well-known tree, _Fagus sylvatica_, a member of the order +Fagaceae to which belong the sweet-chestnut (_Castanea_) and oak. The +name beech is from the Anglo-Saxon _boc, bece_ or _beoce_ (Ger. _Buche_, +Swedish, _bok_), words meaning at once a book and a beech-tree. The +connexion of the beech with the graphic arts is supposed to have +originated in the fact that the ancient Runic tablets were formed of +thin boards of beech-wood. "The origin of the word," says Prior +(_Popular Names of British Plants_), "is identical with that of the +Sanskrit _boko_, letter, _bokos_, writings; and this correspondence of +the Indian and our own is interesting as evidence of two things, viz. +that the Brahmins had the art of writing before they detached themselves +from the common stock of the Indo-European race in Upper Asia, and that +we and other Germans have received alphabetic signs from the East by a +northern route and not by the Mediterranean." Beech-mast, the fruit of +the beech-tree, was formerly known in England as buck; and the county of +Buckingham is so named from its fame as a beech-growing country. +Buckwheat (_Bucheweizen_) derives its name from the similarity of its +angular seeds to beech-mast. The generic name Fagus is derived from +[Greek: phagein] to eat; but the [Greek: phaegos] of Theophrastus was +probably the sweet chestnut (_Aesculus_) of the Romans. Beech-mast has +been used as food in times of distress and famine; and in autumn it +yields an abundant supply of food to park-deer and other game, and to +pigs, which are turned into beech-woods in order to utilize the fallen +mast. In France it is used for feeding pheasants and domestic poultry. +Well-ripened beech-mast yields from 17 to 20% of non-drying oil, +suitable for illumination, and said to be used in some parts of France +and other European countries in cooking, and as a substitute for butter. + +The beech is one of the largest British trees, particularly on chalky or +sandy soils, native in England from Yorkshire southwards, and planted in +Scotland and Ireland. It is one of the common forest trees of temperate +Europe, spreading from southern Norway and Sweden to the Mediterranean. +It is found on the Swiss Alps to about 5000 ft. above sea-level, and in +southern Europe is usually confined to high mountain slopes; it is +plentiful in southern Russia, and is widely distributed in Asia Minor +and the northern provinces of Persia. + +It is characterized by its sturdy pillar-like stem, often from 15 to 20 +ft. in girth, and smooth olive-grey bark. The main branches rise +vertically, while the subsidiary branches spread outwards and give the +whole tree a rounded outline. The slender brown pointed buds give place +in April to clear green leaves fringed with delicate silky hairs. The +flowers which appear in May are inconspicuous and, as usual with our +forest trees, of two kinds; the male, in long-stalked globular clusters, +hang from the axils of the lower leaves of a shoot, while the female, +each of two or three flowers in a tiny cup (cupule of bracts), stand +erect nearer the top of the shoot. In the ripe fruit or mast the +four-sided cupule, which has become much enlarged, brown and tough, +encloses two or three three-sided rich chestnut-brown fruits, each +containing a single seed. It is readily propagated by its seeds. It is a +handsome tree in every stage of its growth, but is more injurious to +plants under its drip than other trees, so that shade-bearing trees, as +holly, yew and thuja, suffer. Its leaves, however, enrich the soil. The +beech has a remarkable power of holding the ground where the soil is +congenial, and the deep shade prevents the growth of other trees. It is +often and most usefully mixed with oak and Scotch fir. The timber is not +remarkable for either strength or durability. It was formerly much used +in mill-work and turnery; but its principal use at present is in the +manufacture of chairs, bedsteads and a variety of minor articles. It +makes excellent fuel and charcoal. The copper-beech is a variety with +copper-coloured leaves, due to the presence of a red colouring-matter in +the sap. There is also a weeping or pendulous-branched variety; and +several varieties with more or less cut leaves, are known in +cultivation. + +The genus _Fagus_ is widely spread in temperate regions, and contains in +addition to our native beech, about 15 other species. A variety (_F. +sylvatica_ var. _Sieboldi_) is a native of Japan, where it is one of the +finest and most abundant of the deciduous-leaved forest trees. _Fagus +americana_ is one of the most beautiful and widely-distributed trees of +the forests of eastern North America. It was confounded by early +European travellers with _F. sylvatica_, from which it is distinguished +by its paler bark and lighter green, more sharply-toothed leaves. +Several species are found in Australia and New Zealand, and in the +forests of southern Chile and Patagonia. The dense forests which cover +the shore of the Straits of Magellan and the mountain-slopes of Tierra +del Fuego consist largely of two beeches--one evergreen, _Fagus +betuloides_, and one with deciduous leaves, _F. antarctica_. + + + + +BEECHER, CHARLES EMERSON (1856-1904), American palaeontologist, was born +at Dunkirk, New York, on the 9th of October 1856. He graduated at the +university of Michigan in 1878, and then became assistant to James Hall +in the state museum at Albany. Ten years later he was appointed to the +charge of the invertebrate fossils in the Peabody Museum, New Haven, +under O.C. Marsh, whom he succeeded in 1899 as curator. Meanwhile in +1889 he received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale University for his memoir +on the _Brachiospongidae_, a remarkable group of Silurian sponges; +later on he did good work among the fossil corals, and other groups, +being ultimately regarded as a leading authority on fossil crustacea and +brachiopoda; his researches on the development of the brachiopoda, and +on the Trilobites _Triarthrus_ and _Trinudeus_, were especially +noteworthy. In 1892 he was appointed professor of palaeontology in Yale +University. He died on the 14th of February 1904. + + Memoir by C. Schuchert in _Amer. Journ. Science_, vol. xvii., June + 1904 (with portrait and bibliography). + + + + +BEECHER, HENRY WARD (1813-1887), American preacher and reformer, was +born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of June 1813. He was the +eighth child of Lyman and Roxana Foote Beecher, and brother of Harriet +Beecher Stowe. Entering Amherst College in 1830, and graduating four +years later, he gave more attention to his own courses of reading than +to college studies, and was more popular with his fellows than with the +faculty. With a patience foreign to his impulsive nature, he submitted +to minute drill in elocution, and became a fluent extemporaneous +speaker. Reared in a Puritan atmosphere, he has graphically described +the mystical experience which, coming to him in his early youth, changed +his whole conception of theology and determined his choice of the +ministry. "I think," he says, "that when I stand in Zion and before God, +the highest thing that I shall look back upon will be that blessed +morning of May when it pleased God to reveal to my wondering soul the +idea that it was His nature to love a man in his sins for the sake of +helping him out of them." In 1837 he graduated from Lane Theological +Seminary in Ohio, of which his father was president, and entered upon +his work as pastor of a missionary Presbyterian church at Lawrenceburg, +Indiana, a village on the Ohio, about 20 m. below Cincinnati. The +membership numbered nineteen women and one man. Beecher was sexton as +well as preacher. Two years later he accepted a call to Indianapolis. +His unconventional preaching shocked the more staid members of the +flock, but filled the church to overflowing with people unaccustomed to +churchgoing. He studied men rather than books; became acquainted with +the vices in what was then a pioneer town; and in his _Seven Lectures to +Young Men_ (1844) treated these with genuine power of realistic +description and with youthful and exuberant rhetoric. Eight years later +(1847) he accepted a call to the pastorate of Plymouth Church +(Congregational), then newly organized in Brooklyn, New York. The +situation of the church, within five minutes' walk of the chief ferry to +New York, the stalwart character of the man who had organized it, and +the peculiar eloquence of Beecher, combined to make the pulpit a +national platform. The audience-room of the church, capable of seating +2000 or 2500 people, frequently contained 500 or 1000 more. + +Beecher at once became a recognized leader. On the all-absorbing +question of slavery he took a middle ground between the pro-slavery or +peace party, and abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell +Phillips, believing, with such statesmen as W.H. Seward, Salmon P. +Chase, and Abraham Lincoln, that slavery was to be overthrown under the +constitution and in the Union, by forbidding its growth and trusting to +an awakened conscience, enforced by an enlightened self-interest. He was +always an anti-slavery man, but never technically an abolitionist, and +he joined the Republican party soon after its organization. In the +earlier days of the agitation, he challenged the hostility which often +mobbed the anti-slavery gatherings; in the later days he consulted with +the political leaders, inspiring the patriotism of the North, and +sedulously setting himself to create a public opinion which should +confirm and ratify the emancipation proclamation whenever the president +should issue it. When danger of foreign intervention cast its +threatening shadow across the national path, he went to England, and by +his famous addresses did what probably no other American could have done +to strengthen the spirit in England favourable to the United States, and +to convert that which was doubtful and hostile. In 1861-1863 he was the +editor-in-chief of the _Independent_, then a Congregational journal; and +in his editorials, copied far and wide, produced a profound impression +on the public mind by clarifying and defining the issue. Later (in +1870), he founded and became editor-in-chief of the _Christian Union_, +afterwards the _Outlook_, a religious undenominational weekly. His +lectures and addresses had the spirit if not the form of his sermons, +just as his sermons were singularly free from the homiletical tone. Yet +his work as a reformer was subsidiary to his work as a preacher. He was +not indeed a parish pastor; he inspired church activities which grew to +large proportions, but trusted the organization of them to laymen of +organizing abilities in the church; and for acquaintance with his people +he depended on such social occasions as were furnished in the free +atmosphere of this essentially New England church at the close of every +service. But during his pastorate the church grew to be probably the +largest in membership in the United States. + +It was in the pulpit that Beecher was seen at his best. His mastery of +the English tongue, his dramatic power, his instinctive art of +impersonation, which had become a second nature, his vivid imagination, +his breadth of intellectual view, the catholicity of his sympathies, his +passionate enthusiasm, which made for the moment his immediate theme +seem to him the one theme of transcendent importance, his quaint humour +alternating with genuine pathos, and above all his simple and singularly +unaffected devotional nature, made him as a preacher without a peer in +his own time and country. His favourite theme was love: love to man was +to him the fulfilment of all law; love of God was the essence of all +Christianity. Retaining to the day of his death the forms and phrases of +the New England theology in which he had been reared, he poured into +them a new meaning and gave to them a new significance. He probably did +more than any other man in America to lead the Puritan churches from a +faith which regarded God as a moral governor, the Bible as a book of +laws, and religion as obedience to a conscience to a faith which regards +God as a father, the Bible as a book of counsels, and religion as a life +of liberty in love. The later years of his life were darkened by a +scandal which Beecher's personal, political and theological enemies used +for a time effectively to shadow a reputation previously above reproach, +he being charged by Theodore Tilton, whom he had befriended, with having +had improper relations with his (Tilton's) wife. But in the midst of +these accusations (February 1876), the largest and most representative +Congregational council ever held in the United States gave expression to +a vote of confidence in him, which time has absolutely justified. Not a +student of books nor a technical scholar in any department, Beecher's +knowledge was as wide as his interests were varied. He was early +familiar with the works of Matthew Arnold, Charles Darwin and Herbert +Spencer; he preached his _Bible Studies_ sermons in 1878, when the +higher criticism was wholly unknown to most evangelical ministers or +known only to be dreaded; and his sermons on _Evolution and Religion_ in +1885, when many of the ministry were denouncing evolution as atheistic. +He was stricken with apoplexy while still active in the ministry, and +died at Brooklyn on the 8th of March 1887, in the seventy-fourth year of +his age. + + The principal books by Beecher, besides his published sermons, are: + _Seven Lectures to Young Men_ (1844); _Plymouth Collection of Hymns + and Tunes_ (1855); _Star Papers, Experiences of Art and Nature_ + (1855); _Life Thoughts_ (1858); _New Star Papers; or Views and + Experiences of Religious Subjects_ (1859); _Plain and Pleasant Talks + about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming_ (1859); _American Rebellion, + Report of Speeches delivered in England at Public Meetings in + Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London_ (1864); + _Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit_ (1867); _Norwood: A Tale of Village + Life in New England_ (1867); _The Life of Jesus the Christ_ (1871), + completed in 2 vols. by his sons (1891); and _Yale Lectures on + Preaching_ (3 vols., 1872-1874). + + The prinipal lives are: Noyes L. Thompson, _The History of Plymouth + Church_ (1847-1872); Thomas W. Knox, _The Life and Work of Henry Ward + Beecher_ (Hartford, Conn., 1887); Frank S. Child, _The Boyhood of + Henry Ward Beecher_ (Pamphlet, New Creston, Conn., 1887); Joseph + Howard, Jr., _Life of Henry Ward Beecher_ (Philadelphia, 1887); T.W. + Hanford, _Beecher: Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and + Philanthropist_ (Chicago, 1887); Lyman Abbott and S.B. Halliday, + _Henry Ward Beecher: A Sketch of his Career_ (New York, 1887); William + C. Beecher, Rev. Samuel Scoville and Mrs. H.W. Beecher, _A Biography + of Henry Ward Beecher_ (New York, 1888); John R. Howard, _Henry Ward + Beecher: A Study_ (1891); John Henry Barrows, _Henry Ward Beecher_ + (New York, 1893); and Lyman Abbott, _Henry Ward Beecher_ (Boston, + 1903). (L. A.) + + + + +BEECHER, LYMAN (1775-1863), American clergyman, was born at New Haven, +Connecticut, on the 12th of October 1775. He was a descendant of one of +the founders of the New Haven colony, worked as a boy in an uncle's +blacksmith shop and on his farm, and in 1797 graduated from Yale, having +studied theology under Timothy Dwight. He preached in the Presbyterian +church at East Hampton, Long Island (1798-1810, being ordained in 1799); +in the Congregational church at Litchfield, Connecticut (1810-1826), in +the Hanover Street church of Boston (1826-1832), and in the Second +Presbyterian church of Cincinnati, Ohio (1833-1843); was president of +the newly established Lane Theological Seminary at Walnut Hills, +Cincinnati, and was professor of didactic and polemic theology there +(1832-1850), being professor emeritus until his death. At Litchfield and +in Boston he was a prominent opponent of the growing "heresy" of +Unitarianism, though as early as 1836 he was accused of being a +"moderate Calvinist" and was tried for heresy, but was acquitted. Upon +his resignation from Lane Theological Seminary he lived in Boston for a +short time, devoting himself to literature; but he broke down, and the +last ten years of his life were spent at the home of his son, Henry Ward +Beecher, in Brooklyn, New York, where he died on the both of January +1863. Magnetic in personality, incisive and powerful in manner of +expression, he was in his prime one of the most eloquent of American +pulpit orators. In 1806 he preached a widely circulated sermon on +duelling, and about 1814 a series of six sermons on intemperance, which +were reprinted frequently and greatly aided temperance reform. Thrice +married, he had a large family, his seven sons becoming Congregational +clergymen, and his daughters, Harriet Beecher Stowe (q.v.) and Catherine +Esther Beecher, attaining literary distinction. + + Lyman Beecher's published works include: _A Plea for the West_ (1835), + _Views in Theology_ (1836), and various sermons; his _Collected Works_ + were published at Boston in 1852 in 3 vols. Consult his _Autobiography + and Correspondence_ (2 vols., New York, 1863-1864), edited by his son + Charles; D.H. Alien, _Life and Services of Lyman Beecher_ (Cincinnati, + 1863); and James C. White, _Personal Reminiscences of Lyman Beecher_ + (New York, 1882). + +His daughter, CATHERINE ESTHER (1800-1878), was born at East Hampton, +Long Island, on the 6th of September 1800. She was educated at +Litchfield Seminary, and from 1822 to 1832 conducted a school for girls +at Hartford, Connecticut, with her sister Harriet's assistance, and from +1832 to 1834 conducted a similar school in Cincinnati. She wrote and +lectured on women's education and in behalf of better primary schools, +and radically opposed woman suffrage and college education for women, +holding woman's sphere to be domestic. The National Board of Popular +Education, a charitable society which she founded, sent hundreds of +women as teachers into the South and West. She died on the 12th of May +1878 in Elmira, New York. She published _An Essay on Slavery and +Abolition with Reference to the Duty of American Females_ (1837), _A +Treatise on Domestic Economy_ (1842), _The True Remedy for the Wrongs of +Women_ (1851), _Letters to the People on Health and Happiness_ (1855), +_The Religious Training of Children_ (1864), and _Woman's Profession as +Mother and Educator_ (1871). + +His son, EDWARD BEECHER (1803-1895), was born at East Hampton, Long +Island, on the 27th of August 1803, graduated at Yale in 1822, studied +theology at Andover, and in 1826 became pastor of the Park Street church +in Boston. From 1830 to 1844 he was president of Illinois College, +Jacksonville, Illinois, and subsequently filled pastorates at the Salem +Street church, Boston (1844-1855), and the Congregational church at +Galesburg, Illinois (1855-1871). He was senior editor of the +_Congregationalist_ (1849-1855), and an associate editor of the +_Christian Union_ from 1870. In 1872 he settled in Brooklyn, New York, +where in 1885-1889 he was pastor of the Parkville church and where he +died on the 28th of July 1895. He wrote _Addresses on the Kingdom of +God_ (1827), _History of the Alton Riots_ (1837), _Statement of +Anti-Slavery Principles_ (1837), _Baptism, its Import and Modes_ (1850), +_The Conflict of Ages_ (1853), _The Papal Conspiracy Exposed_ (1855), +_The Concord of Ages_ (1860), and _History of Opinions on the Scriptural +Doctrine of Future Retribution_ (1878). + +CHARLES BEECHER (1815-1900), another of Lyman's sons, was born at +Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 7th of October 1815. He graduated at +Bowdoin College in 1834, and subsequently held pastorates at Newark, New +Jersey (1851-1857), and Georgetown, Massachusetts; and from 1870 to 1877 +lived in Florida, where he was state superintendent of public +instruction in 1871-1873. He died at Georgetown, Massachusetts, on the +21st of April 1900. He was an accomplished musician, and assisted in the +selection and arrangement of music in the _Plymouth Collection of Hymns +and Tunes_. He wrote _David and His Throne_ (1855), _Pen Pictures of the +Bible_ (1855), _Redeemer and Redeemed_ (1864), and _Spiritual +Manifestations_ (1879). + +THOMAS KINNICUTT BEECHER (1824-1900), another son, born at Litchfield, +Connecticut, on the 10th of February 1824, was pastor of the Independent +Congregational church (now the Park church), at Elmira, New York, one of +the first institutional churches in the country, from 1854 until his +death at Elmira on the 14th of March 1900. He wrote Our _Seven Churches_ +(1870). + + + + +BEECHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1796-1856), English naval officer and +geographer, son of Sir William Beechey, R.A., was born in London on the +17th of February 1796. In 1806 he entered the navy, and saw active +service during the wars with France and America. In 1818 he served under +Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) John Franklin in Buchan's Arctic expedition, +of which at a later period he published a narrative; and in the +following year he accompanied Lieutenant W.E. Parry in the "Hecla." In +1821 he took part in the survey of the Mediterranean coast of Africa +under the direction of Captain, afterwards Admiral, William Henry Smyth. +He and his brother Henry William Beechey, made an overland survey of +this coast, and published a full account of their work in 1828 under the +title of _Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore the Northern Coast of +Africa from Tripoly Eastward in 1821-1822_. In 1825 Beechey was +appointed to command the "Blossom," which was intended to explore Bering +Strait, in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. He +passed the strait and penetrated as far as 71 deg. 23' 31" N., and 156 +deg. 21' 30" W., reaching a point only 146 m. west of that reached by +Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie river. The whole voyage lasted +more than three years; and in the course of it Beechey discovered +several islands in the Pacific, and an excellent harbour near Cape +Prince of Wales. In 1831 there appeared his _Narrative of a Voyage to +the Pacific and Bering's Strait to Co-operate with the Polar +Expeditions, 1825-1828_. In 1835 and the following year Captain Beechey +was employed on the coast survey of South America, and from 1837 to 1847 +carried on the same work along the Irish coasts. He was appointed in +1850 to preside over the Marine Department of the Board of Trade. In +1854 he was made rear-admiral, and in the following year was elected +president of the Royal Geographical Society. He died on the 29th of +November 1856. + + + + +BEECHEY, SIR WILLIAM (1753-1839), English portrait-painter, was born at +Burford. He was originally meant for a conveyancer, but a strong love +for painting induced him to become a pupil at the Royal Academy in 1772. +Some of his smaller portraits gained him considerable reputation; he +began to be employed by the nobility, and in 1793 became associate of +the Academy. In the same year he was made portrait-painter to Queen +Charlotte. He painted the portraits of the members of the royal family, +and of nearly all the most famous or fashionable persons of the time. +What is considered his finest production is a review of cavalry, a large +composition, in the foreground of which he introduced portraits of +George III., the prince of Wales and the duke of York, surrounded by a +brilliant staff on horseback. It was painted in 1798, and obtained for +the artist the honour of knighthood, and his election as R.A. + + + + +BEECHING, HENRY CHARLES (1859- ), English clergyman and author, was +born on the 15th of May 1859, and educated at the City of London school +and at Balliol College, Oxford. He took holy orders in 1882, and after +three years in a Liverpool curacy he was for fifteen years rector of +Yattendon, Berkshire. From 1900 to 1903 he lectured on pastoral and +liturgical theology at King's College, London, and was chaplain of +Lincoln's Inn, where he became preacher in 1903. He became a canon of +Westminster in 1902, and examining chaplain to the bishop of Carlisle in +1905. As a poet he is best known by his share in two volumes--_Love in +Idleness_ (1883) and _Love's Looking Glass_ (1891)--which contained also +poems by J.W. Mackail and J. Bowyer Nichols. He was a sympathetic editor +and critic of the works of many 16th and 17th century poets, of Richard +Crashaw (1905), of Herrick (1907), of John Milton (1900), of Henry +Vaughan (1896). Under the pseudonym of "Urbanus Sylvan" he published two +successful volumes of essays, _Pages from a Private Diary_ (1898) and +_Provincial Letters and other Papers_ (1906). His works also include +numerous volumes of sermons and essays on theological subjects. + + + + +BEECHWORTH, a town of Bogong county, Victoria, Australia, 172 m. by rail +N.E. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 7359. The town is the centre of the Ovens +goldfields, and the district is mainly devoted to mining with both +alluvial and reef working, but much of the land is under cultivation, +yielding grain and fruit. The water supply is derived from Lake Kerferd +in the vicinity, which is a favourite resort of visitors; the scenery +near the town, which lies at an elevation of 1805 ft. among the May Day +Hills, being singularly beautiful. The industries of Beechworth include +tanning, ironfounding and coach-building. + + + + +BEEF (through O. Fr. _boef_, mod. _boeuf_, from Lat. _bos, bovis_, ox, +Gr. [Greek: bous], which show the ultimate connexion with the Sanskrit +_go, gaus_, ox, and thus with "cow"), the flesh of the ox, cow or bull, +as used for food. The use of the French word for the meat, while the +Saxon name was retained for the animal, has been often noticed, and +paralleled with the use of veal, mutton and pork. "Beef" is also used, +especially in the plural "beeves," for the ox itself, but usually in an +archaic way. "Corned" or "corn" beef is the flesh cured by salting, i.e. +sprinkling with "corns" or granulated particles of salt. "Collared" beef +is so called from the roll or collar into which the meat is pressed, +after extracting the bones. "Jerked" beef, i.e. meat cut into long thin +slices and dried in the sun, like "biltong" (q.v.), comes through the +Spanish-American _charque_, from _echarqui_, the Peruvian word for this +species of preserved meat. For "Beefeater" see YEOMEN OF THE GUARD. + + + + +BEEFSTEAK CLUB, the name of several clubs formed in London during the +18th and 19th centuries. The first seems to have been that founded in +1709 with Richard Estcourt, the actor, as steward. Of this the chief +wits and great men of the nation were members and its badge was a +gridiron. Its fame was, however, entirely eclipsed in 1735 when "The +Sublime Society of Steaks" was established by John Rich at Covent Garden +theatre, of which he was then manager. It is said that Lord Peterborough +supping one night with Rich in his private room, was so delighted with +the steak the latter grilled him that he suggested a repetition of the +meal the next week. From this started the Club, the members of which +delighted to call themselves "The Steaks." Among them were Hogarth, +Garrick, Wilkes, Bubb Doddington and many other celebrities. The +rendezvous was the theatre till the fire in 1808, when the club moved +first to the Bedford Coffee House, and the next year to the Old Lyceum. +In 1785 the prince of Wales joined, and later his brothers the dukes of +Clarence and Sussex became members. On the burning of the Lyceum, "The +Steaks" met again in the Bedford Coffee House till 1838, when the New +Lyceum was opened, and a large room there was allotted the club. These +meetings were held till the club ceased to exist in 1867. Thomas +Sheridan founded a Beefsteak Club in Dublin at the Theatre Royal in +1749, and of this Peg Woffington was president. The modern Beefsteak +Club was founded by J.L. Toole, the actor, in 1876. + + See J. Timbs, _Clubs and Club Life in London_ (1873); Walter Arnold, + _Life and Death of the Sublime Society of Steaks_ (1871). + + + + +BEELZEBUB, BEELZEBUL, BAALZEBUB. In 2 Kings i. we read that Ahaziah ben +Ahab, king of Israel, fell sick, and sent to inquire of Baalzebub, the +god of the Philistine city Ekron, whether he should recover. There is no +other mention of this god in the Old Testament. _Baal_, "lord," is the +ordinary title or word for a deity, especially a local deity, cf. such +place names as Baal Hazor (2 Sam. xiii. 23), Baal Hermon (Judges iii. +3), which are probably contractions of fuller forms, like Beth Baal Meon +(Josh. xiii. 17), the House or Temple of the Baal of Meon. According to +these analogies we should expect _Zebub_ to be a place. No place +_Zebub_, however, is known; and it has been objected that the Baal of +some other place would hardly be the god of Ekron. These objections are +hardly conclusive. + +Usually _Zebub_ is identified with a Hebrew common noun _zebub_ = +flies,[1] occurring twice in the Old Testament,[2] so that Baalzebub "is +the Baal to whom flies belong or are holy. As children of the summer +they are symbols of the warmth of the sun, to which ... Baal stands in +close relation. Divination by means of flies was known at Babylon."[3] +There are other cases of names compounded of Baal and an element +equivalent to a descriptive epithet, e.g. Baalgad, the Baal of +Fortune.[4] For the "Fly-god," sometimes interpreted as the "averter of +insects," cf [Greek: Zeus apomouios, muiagros], and the Hercules [Greek: +muiagros]. Clemens Alexander speaks of a Hercules [Greek: apomuios] as +worshipped at Rome. It has been suggested that Baalzebub was the +dung-beetle, _Scarabaeus pillularius_, worshipped in Egypt. + +A name of a deity on an Assyrian inscription of the 12th century B.C. +has been read as _Baal-zabubi_, but this reading has now been abandoned +in favour of _Baal-sapunu_ (Baal-Zephon).[5] Cheyne considers that +Baalzebub is a "contemptuous uneuphonic Jewish modification of the true +name Baalzebul."[6] + +In the New Testament we meet with Beelzebul,[7] which some of the +versions, especially the Vulgate and Syriac, followed by the Authorized +Version, have changed to Beelzebub, under the influence of 2 Kings. In +Matt. x. 25, Christ speaks of men calling the master of the house, i.e. +Himself, Beelzebul.[8] In Mark iii 22-27,[9] the scribes explain that +Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul[10] and is thus enabled to cast out +devils. The passage speaks of Beelzebul as Satan and as the prince of +the demons. + +The origin of the name Beelzebul is variously explained. (a) It is "a +phonetic corruption, perhaps a softening of the original word"; as +Bab-el-mandel is a corruption of Bab-el-mandeb. (b) _Zebul_ is from +_zebel_, a word found in the Targums in the sense of "dung," so that +Beelzebul would mean "Lord of Dung," a term of contempt. The further +suggestion has been made that _zebul_ itself in the sense of "dung" is a +term for a heathen deity, cf. the Old Testament use of "abomination" &c. +for heathen deities, so that Beelzebul would mean "Chief of false gods," +and so arch-fiend. (c) _Zebul_ is found in 1 Kings viii. 13 in the sense +of "height," _beth-sebul_--lofty house, and in Rabbinical writings in +the sense of "house" or "temple," or "the fourth heaven";[11] and +Beelzebul may equal "Lord of the High House" or "Lord of Heaven." This +view is perhaps favoured by Matt. x. 25, "if they have called the lord +of the house Beelzebul." It appears, however, that Rabbinical writings +use _yom_ (day-of) _zebul_ for the festival of a heathen deity; and +Jastrow connects this usage with the meaning "house" or "temple," so +that the meaning "Lord of the False Gods" might be arrived at in a +different way. + +The names _Zebulun, 'Izebel_ (Jezebel), suggest that _Zebul_ may be an +ancient name of a deity; cf. the names [Hebrew: baal ezebel] (B'L 'ZBL), +[Hebrew: shemzebel] (ShMZBL) in Punic and Phoenician inscriptions.[12] +The substitution of Beelzebub for Beelzebul by the Syriac, Vulgate and +other versions implies the identification of the New Testament +arch-fiend with the god of Ekron; this substitution, however, may be due +to the influence of the Aramaic _B'el-debaba_, "adversary," sometimes +held to be the original of these names. + +There is no trace of Beelzebul or Beelzebub outside of the Biblical +passages mentioned, and the literature dependent on them. If we assume a +connexion between the two names, there is nothing to show how the god +became in later times the devil. + +In _Paradise Lost_, Book ii., Beelzebub appears as second only to Satan +himself. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Lightfoot, _Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae_, Works, vol. + ii. pp. 188 f., 429, ed. Strype (1684); Baethgen, _Beitrage zur + semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, pp. 25, 65, 261. Commentaries on the + Biblical passages especially Burney and Skinner on _Kings_, Meyer and + A.B. Bruce on the _Synoptic Gospels_, and Swete on _Mark_. Articles on + "Baal," "Baalzebub," "Beelzebub," "Beelzebul," in Hastings' _Bible + Dict._, Black and Cheyne's _Encycl. Bibl._, and Hauck's + _Realencyklopadie_; on [Hebrew: baal zebub] in Clarendon Press _Hebr. + Lex._; and on [Hebrew: zebel] and [Hebrew: zebul] in Jastrow's _Dict. + of the Targumim, &c._ (W. H. Be.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] So Clarendon Press, _Hebrew Lexicon_, p. 127, with LXX. + + [2] Eccl. x. 1; Isaiah vii. 18. + + [3] Baethgen, _Beitrage zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, p. 25, + cf. pp. 65, 261. + + [4] Josh, xii. 7. + + [5] Art. "Baalzebub," Black and Cheyne's _Ency. Bibl._ + + [6] With various spellings (e.g. Belzebul, and in XB, Beezebul), all + variants of Beelzebul. Cf. Deissmann, _Bible Studies_, 332. + + [7] There is a variation of reading, which has been held to support + the view that the passage means that men reproached Jesus with His + supposed connexion with Beelzebul; cf. A.B. Bruce, _in loco_. + + [8] And in the parallel passages, Matt. xii. 22-29; Luke xi. 14-22. + + [9] Cf. John vii. 20, viii. 48, 52, x. 20. + + [10] Swete, _in loco_. + + [11] Jastrow, _Dict. of the Targumim._ &c., sub voce. + + [12] Lidzbarski, _Handbuch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik_, i. pp. + 240, 377. + + + + +BEER, a beverage obtained by a process of alcoholic fermentation mainly +from cereals (chiefly malted barley), hops and water. The history of +beer extends over several thousand years. According to Dr Bush, a beer +made from malt or red barley is mentioned in Egyptian writings as early +as the fourth dynasty. It was called [Hieroglyph] or _heqa_. Papyri of +the time of Seti I. (1300 B.C.) allude to a person inebriated from +over-indulgence in beer. In the second book (c. 77) of Herodotus (450 +B.C.) we are told that the Egyptians, being without vines, made wine +from barley (cf. Aesch. _Suppl._ 954); but as the grape is mentioned so +frequently in Scripture and elsewhere as being most abundant there, and +no record exists of the vine being destroyed, we must conclude that the +historian was only partially acquainted with the productions of that +most fertile country. Pliny (_Natural History_, xxii. 82) informs us +that the Egyptians made wine from corn, and gives it the name of +_sythum_, which, in the Greek, means drink from barley. The Greeks +obtained their knowledge of the art of preparing beer from the +Egyptians. The writings of Archilochus, the Parian poet and satirist who +flourished about 650 B.C., contain evidence that the Greeks of his day +were acquainted with the process of brewing. There is, in fact, little +doubt that the discovery of beer and its use as an exhilarating beverage +were nearly as early as those of the grape itself, though both the +Greeks and the Romans despised it as a barbarian drink. Dioscorides +mentions two kinds of beer, namely [Greek: zythos] and [Greek: kourmi], +but he does not describe them sufficiently to enable us to distinguish +them. Sophocles and other Greek writers, again, styled it [Greek: +bryton]. In the time of Tacitus (1st century after Christ), according to +him, beer was the usual drink of the Germans, and there can be little +doubt that the method of malting barley was then known to them. Pliny +(_Nat. Hist._ xxii. 82) mentions the use of beer in Spain under the name +of _celia_ and _ceria_ and in Gaul under that of _cerevisia_; and +elsewhere (xiv. 29) he says:--"The natives who inhabit the west of +Europe have a liquid with which they intoxicate themselves, made from +corn and water. The manner of making this liquid is somewhat different +in Gaul, Spain and other countries, and it is called by different names, +but its nature and properties are everywhere the same. The people in +Spain in particular brew this liquid so well that it will keep good a +long time. So exquisite is the cunning of mankind in gratifying their +vicious appetites that they have thus invented a method to make water +itself produce intoxication." + +The knowledge of the preparation of a fermented beverage from cereals in +early times was not confined to Europe. Thus, according to Dr H.H. Mann, +the Kaffir races of South Africa have made for ages--and still make--a +kind of beer from millet, and similarly the natives of Nubia, Abyssinia +and other parts of Africa prepare an intoxicating beverage, generally +called _bousa_, from a variety of cereal grains. The Russian _quass_, +made from barley and rye, the Chinese _samshu_, made from rice, and the +Japanese _sake_ (q.v.) are all of ancient origin. Roman historians +mention the fact that the Britons in the south of England at the time of +the Roman invasion brewed a species of ale from barley and wheat. The +Romans much improved the methods of brewing in vogue among the Britons, +and the Saxons--among whom ale had long been a common beverage--in their +turn profited much by the instruction given to the original inhabitants +of Great Britain by the Romans. We are informed by William of Malmesbury +that in the reign of Henry II. the English were greatly addicted to +drinking, and by that time the monasteries were already famous, both in +England and on the continent, for the excellence of their ales. The +waters of Burton-on-Trent began to be famous in the 13th century. The +secret of their being so especially adapted for brewing was first +discovered by some monks, who held land in the adjacent neighbourhood of +Wetmore. There is a document dated 1295 in which it is stated that +Matilda, daughter of Nicholas de Shoben, had re-leased to the abbot and +convent of Burton-on-Trent certain tenements within and without the +town; for which re-lease they granted her, daily for life, two white +loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer, and one +penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men. The abbots of Burton +apparently made their own malt, for it was a common covenant in leases +of mills belonging to the abbey that the malt of the lords of the manor, +both spiritual and temporal, should be ground free of charge. Robert +Plot, in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_ (1686), refers to the +peculiar properties of the Burton waters, from which, he says, "by an +art well known in this country good ale is made, in the management of +which they have a knack of fining it in three days to that degree that +it shall not only be potable, but is clear and palatable as we could +desire any drink of this kind to be." In 1630 Burton beer began to be +known in London, being sold at "Ye Peacocke" in Gray's Inn Lane, and +according to the _Spectator_ was in great demand amongst the visitors in +Vauxhall. Until tea and coffee were introduced, beer and ale (see ALE) +were, practically speaking, the only popular beverages accessible to the +general body of consumers. Since the advent of tea, coffee, cocoa and +mineral waters, the character of British beers has undergone a gradual +modification, the strongly alcoholic, heavily hopped liquids consumed by +the previous generation slowly giving place to the lighter beverages in +vogue at the present time. The old "stock bitter" has given way to the +"light dinner ale," and "porter" (so called from the fact that it was +the popular drink amongst the market porters of the 18th century) has +been largely replaced by "mild ale." A certain quantity of strong +beer--such as heavy stouts and "stock" and "Scotch" ales--is still +brewed nowadays, but it is not an increasing one. The demand is almost +entirely for medium beers such as mild ale, light stout, and the better +class of "bitter" beers, and light beers such as the light "family +ales," "dinner ales" and lager. + +The general run of beers contain from 3 to 6% of alcohol and 4 to 7% of +solids, the remainder being water and certain flavouring and +preservative matters derived from the malt, hops and other materials +employed in their manufacture. The solid, i.e. non-volatile, matter +contained in solution in beer consists mainly of maltose or malt sugar, +of several varieties of dextrin (see BREWING), of substances which stand +in an intermediate position between the sugars and the dextrins proper, +and of a number of bodies containing nitrogen, such as the +non-coagulable proteids, peptones, &c. In addition there is an +appreciable quantity of mineral matter, chiefly phosphates and potash. +Dietetically regarded, therefore, beer possesses considerable food +value, and, moreover, the nutritious matter in beer is present in a +readily assimilable form. + +It is probable that the average adult member of the British working +classes consumes not less than two pints of beer daily. A reasonable +calculation places the total proteids and carbohydrates consumed by the +average worker at 140 and 400 grammes respectively. Taking the proteid +content of the average beer at 0.4% and the carbohydrate content at 4%, +a simple calculation shows that about 3% of the total proteid and 11% of +the total carbohydrate food of the average worker will be consumed in +the shape of beer. + +The chemical composition of beers of different types will be gathered +from the following tables. + + +A. ENGLISH BEERS. + + (Analyses by J.L. Baker, Hulton & P. Schidrowitz.) + + I. _Mild Ales._ + + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | Number.| Original Gravity.| Alcohol %.| Extractives (Solids) %.| + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | 1.[1] | 1055.13 | 4.17 | 6.1 | + | 2.[1] | 1055.64 | 4.47 | 5.7 | + | 3.[2] | 1071.78 | 5.57 | 7.3 | + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + + II. _Light Bitters and Ales._ + + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | Number.| Original Gravity.| Alcohol %.| Extractives (Solids) %.| + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | 1. | 1046.81 | 4.15 | 4.0 | + | 2. | 1047.69 | 4.23 | 4.1 | + | 3. | 1047.79 | 4.61 | 3.2 | + | 4. | 1050.30 | 4.53 | 4.2 | + | 5. | 1038.31 | 3.81 | 3.5 | + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + + III. _Pale and Stock Ales._ + + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | Number.| Original Gravity.| Alcohol %.| Extractives (Solids) %.| + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | 1.[3] | 1059.01 | 4.77 | 5.8 | + | 2.[4] | 1068.58 | 5.48 | 7.1 | + | 3.[4] | 1076.80 | 6.68 | 5.9 | + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + + IV. _Stouts and Porter._ + + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | Number.| Original Gravity.| Alcohol %.| Extractives (Solids) %.| + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + | 1.[5] | 1072.92 | 6.14 | 6.3 | + | 2.[6] | 1054.26 | 4.73 | 4.5 | + | 3.[6] | 1081.62 | 6.02 | 8.8 | + | 4.[7] | 1054.11 | 3.90 | 6.5 | + +---------+------------------+-----------+------------------------+ + +The figures in the above tables are very fairly representative of +different classes of British and Irish beers. It will be noticed that +the _Mild Ales_ are of medium original gravity[8] and alcoholic +strength, but contain a relatively large proportion of solid matter. The +_Light Bitters and Ales_ are of a low original gravity, but compared +with the Mild Ales the proportion of alcohol to solids is higher. The +_Pale and Stock Ales_, which represent the more expensive bottle beers, +are analytically of much the same character as the Light Bitters, except +that the figures all round are much higher. The _Stouts_, as a rule, are +characterized by a high gravity, and contain relatively more solids (as +compared with alcohol) than do the heavy beers of light colour. With +regard to the proportions of the various matters constituting the +extractives (solids) in English beers, roughly 20-30% consists of +maltose and 20-50% of dextrinous matter. In mild ales the proportion of +maltose to dextrin is high (roughly 1:1), thus accounting for the full +sweet taste of these beers. Pale and stock ales, on the other hand, +which are of a "dry" character, contain relatively more dextrin, the +general ratio being about 1:1-1/2 or 1:2. The mineral matter ("ash") of +beers is generally in the neighbourhood of 0.2 to 0.3%, of which about +one-fourth is phosphoric acid. The proteid ("nitrogenous matters") +content of beers varies very widely according to character and strength, +the usual limits being 0.3 to 0.8%, with an average of roughly 0.4%. + + +B. CONTINENTAL BEERS. + + (Analyses by A. Doemens.) + + +----------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + | | Original | | Extractives | + | Description. | Gravity. | Alcohol %. | (Solids) %. | + +----------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + | Munich Draught Dark | 1056.4 | 3.76 | 6.58 | + | " " " | 1052.6 | 3.38 | 6.45 | + | " " Light | 1048.0 | 3.18 | 5.55 | + | " " " | 1048.1 | 4.05 | 3.92 | + | " Export | 1054.3 | 3.68 | 6.32 | + | " " | 1059.5 | 4.15 | 7.48 | + | " Bock Beer[9] | 1076.6 | 4.53 | 10.05 | + | Pilsener Bottle | 1047.7 | 3.47 | 4.90 | + | " Draught | 1044.3 | 3.25 | 4.58 | + | Berlin Dark | 1055.2 | 3.82 | 6.17 | + | " Light | 1056.5 | 4.36 | 5.46 | + | " Weissbier | 1033.1 | 2.644 | 3.01 | + +----------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + +It will be seen that, broadly speaking, the original gravity of German +and Austrian beers is lower than that of English beers, and this also +applies to the alcohol. On the other hand, the foreign beers are +relatively very rich in solids, and the extractives: alcohol ratio is +high. (See BREWING.) + + +C. AMERICAN BEERS AND ALES. + + (Analyses by M. Wallerstein.) + + +------------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + | | Original | | Extractives | + | Description. | Gravity. | Alcohol %. | (Solids) %. | + +------------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + | Bottom \ 1. | 1046.7 | 3.48 | 5.08 | + | Fermentation | 2. | 1055.6 | 3.56 | 6.50 | + | Beers | 3. | 1063.4 | 4.12 | 7.43 | + | (Lager Type). / 4. | 1046.0 | 2.68 | 5.96 | + | 5. | 1051.7 | 3.42 | 5.86 | + +------------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + | Top Fermentation \ 1. | 1084.2 | 5.89 | 8.60 | + | Ales | 2. | 1073.5 | 6.46 | 5.69 | + | (British Type) / 3. | 1068.0 | 5.50 | 5.53 | + +------------------------+----------+------------+-------------+ + +It will be noted that the American _beers_ (i.e. bottom fermentation +products of the lager type) are very similar in composition to the +German beers, but that the ales are very much heavier than the general +run of the corresponding British products. + +_Production and Consumption._--(For manufacture of beer, see BREWING.) +Germany is the greatest beer-producing nation, if liquid bulk be taken +as a criterion; the United States comes next, and the United Kingdom +occupies the third place in this regard. The consumption per head, +however, is slightly greater in the United Kingdom than in Germany, and +very much greater than is the case in the United States. The 1905 +figures with regard to the total production and consumption of the three +great beer-producing countries, together with those for 1885, are as +under:-- + + +----------------+--------------------------------+---------------------+ + | | | Consumption per | + | Country. | Total Production (Gallons). | Head of Population | + | | | (Gallons) | + +----------------+------------------+-------------+----------+----------+ + | | 1905. | 1885. | 1905. | 1885 | + | +------------------+-------------+----------+----------+ + | German Empire | 1,538,240,000 | 932,228,000 | 23.3 | 19.8 | + | United States | 1,434,114,180 | 494,854,000 | 19.9 | 8.8 | + | United Kingdom | 1,227,933,468[10]| 993,759,000 | 27.90[10]| 27.1 | + +----------------+------------------+-------------+----------+----------+ + +The chief point of interest in the preceding table is the enormous +increase in the United States. In considering the figures, the character +of the beer produced must be taken into consideration. Thus, although +Germany produces roughly 25% more beer in liquid measurement than the +United Kingdom, the latter actually uses about 50% more malt than is the +case in the German breweries. According to a Viennese technical journal, +the quantities of malt employed for the production of one hectolitre (22 +gallons) of beer in the respective countries is 0.40 cwt. in the German +empire, 0.72 cwt. in the United States, and 0.81 cwt. in the United +Kingdom. In a sense, therefore, England may still claim pre-eminence as +a beer-producing nation. Large as the _per capita_ consumption in the +United Kingdom may seem, it is considerably less than is the case in +Bavaria, which stands at the head of the list with over 50 gallons, and +in Belgium, which comes second with 47.7 gallons. In the city of Munich +the consumption is actually over 70 gallons, that is to say, about 1-1/2 +pints a day for every man, woman and child. It is curious to note that +in Germany, which is usually regarded as a beer-drinking country _par +excellence_, the consumption per head of this article is slightly less +than in England, and that inversely the average German consumes more +alcohol in the shape of spirits than does the inhabitant of the British +Islands (consumption of spirits per head: Germany, 1.76 gallons; United +Kingdom, 0.99 gallons). This is accounted for by the fact that the +peasantry of the northern and eastern portions of the German empire +consume spirits almost exclusively. In the British colonies beer is +generally one of the staple drinks, but if we except Western Australia, +where about 25 gallons per head of population are consumed, the demand +is much smaller than in the United Kingdom. In Australia generally, the +_per capita_ consumption amounts to about 12 gallons, in New Zealand to +10 gallons, and in Canada to 5 gallons. (P. S.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] London Ales. + + [2] Strong Burton Mild Ale. + + [3] Fairly representative of "Pale Ales." + + [4] Heavy Stock Ales. + + [5] Irish Stout. + + [6] Nos. 2 and 3 are respectively "single" and "double" London Stouts + from the same brewery. + + [7] London Porter or Cooper. + + [8] The specific gravity, or "gravity" as it is always termed in the + industry, of the brewer is 1000 times the specific gravity of the + physicist. This is purely a matter of convention and convenience. + Thus when a brewer speaks of a wort of a "gravity" of 1045 + (ten-forty-five) he means a wort having a specific gravity of 1.045. + Each unit in the brewer's scale of specific gravity is termed a + "degree of gravity." The wort referred to above, therefore, possesses + forty-five _degrees_ of gravity. The "original gravity," it may here + be mentioned, represents the specific gravity of the wort (see + BREWING) before fermentation. The solids in the original wort may be + ascertained by dividing the excess of the gravity over 1000 by 3.86. + Thus in the case of Mild Ale No. 1 the excess of the original gravity + over 1000 is 1055.13 - 1000 = 55.13. Dividing this by 3.86 we get + 14.28, which indicates that the wort from which the beer was + manufactured contained 14.28% of solids. In the trade the gravity of + a beer (or rather of the wort from which it is derived) is generally + expressed in pounds per barrel. This means the excess in weight of a + barrel of the wort over the weight of a barrel of water. The weight + of a barrel (36 gallons) of water is 360 lb.; in the above example + the weight of a barrel of the beer wort is 360 X 1.05513 = 379.8. The + gravity of the wort in lb. is therefore 379.8 - 360 = 19.8. The beer + which is made from this wort would also be called a 19.8 lb. beer, + the reference in all cases being to the original wort. + + [9] A particularly heavy beer, only brewed at certain times in the + year. + + [10] The maxima of production and consumption were reached in + 1899/1900, when the production amounted to 1,337,509,116 gallons (at + the standard gravity) and consumption to 32.28 gallons per head. + + + + +BEERSHEBA, a place midway between Gaza and Hebron (28 m. from each), +frequently referred to in the Bible as the southern limit of Palestine +("Dan to Beersheba," Judg. xx. i, &c.) Its foundation is variously +ascribed to Abraham and Isaac, and different etymologies for its name +are suggested, in the fundamental documents of Genesis (xxi. 22, xxvi. +26). It was an important holy place, where Abraham planted a sacred tree +(Gen. xxi. 23), and where divine manifestations were vouchsafed to Hagar +(Gen. xxi. 17), Isaac (xxvi. 24), Jacob (xlvi. 2) and Elijah (1 Kings +xix. 5). Amos mentions it in connexion with the shrines of Bethel and +Gilgal (Amos v. 5) and denounces oaths by its _numen_ (viii. 14). The +most probable meaning of the name is "seven wells," despite the +non-Semitic construction involved in this interpretation. Seven ancient +wells still exist here, though two are stopped up. Eusebius and Jerome +mention the place in the 4th century as a large village and the seat of +a Roman garrison. Extensive remains of this village exist, though they +are being rapidly quarried away for building; some inscriptions of great +importance have been found here. Later it appears to have been the site +of a bishopric; remains of its churches were still standing in the 14th +century. Some fine mosaics have been here unearthed and immediately +destroyed, in sheer wantonness, by the natives quarrying building-stone. +The Biblical Beersheba probably exists at Bir es-Seba', 2 m. distant. + + + + +BEESLY, EDWARD SPENCER (1831- ), English historian and positivist, son +of the Rev. James Beesly, was born at Feckenham, Worcestershire, on the +23rd of January 1831. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, which +may be regarded as the original centre of the English positivist +movement. Richard Congreve (q.v.) was tutor at Wadham from 1849 to 1854, +and three men of that time, Frederic Harrison (q.v.), Beesly and John +Henry Bridges (1832-1906), became the leaders of Comtism in England. +Beesly left Oxford in 1854 to become assistant-master at Marlborough +College. In 1859 he was appointed professor of history at University +College, London, and of Latin at Bedford College, London, in 1860. He +resigned these appointments in 1893 and 1889, and in 1893 became the +editor of the newly-established _Positivist Review_. He collaborated in +the translation of Comte's system of _Positive Polity_ (4 vols., +1875-1879), translated his _Discourse on the Positive Spirit_ (1903), +and wrote a biography of Comte for a translation of the first two +chapters of his _Cours de philosophie positive_, entitled _Fundamental +Principles of Positive Philosophy_ (1905). Professor Beesly stood +unsuccessfully as Liberal candidate for Westminster in 1885 and for +Marylebone in 1886, and is the author of numerous review articles on +social and political topics, treated from the positivist standpoint, +especially on the Irish question. His works also include a series of +lectures on Roman history, entitled _Catiline, Clodius, Tiberius_ +(1878), in which he rehabilitates in some degree the character of each +of his subjects, and _Queen Elizabeth_ (1892), in the "Twelve English +Statesmen" series. + + + + +BEET, a cultivated form of the plant _Beta vulgaris_ (natural order +Chenopodiaceae), which grows wild on the coasts of Europe, North Africa +and Asia as far as India. It is a biennial, producing, like the carrot, +a thick, fleshy tap-root during the first year and a branched, leafy, +flowering stem in the following season. The small, green flowers are +borne in clusters. A considerable number of varieties are cultivated for +use on account of their large fleshy roots, under the names of +mangel-wurzel or mangold, field-beet and garden-beet. The cultivation of +beet in relation to the production of sugar, for which purpose certain +varieties of beet stand next in importance to the sugar cane, is dealt +with under SUGAR. The garden-beet has been cultivated from very remote +times as a salad plant, and for general use as a table vegetable. The +variety most generally grown has long, tapering, carrot-shaped roots, +the "flesh" of which is of a uniform deep red colour throughout, and the +leaves brownish red. It is boiled and cut into slices for being eaten +cold; and it is also prepared as a pickle, as well as in various other +forms. Beet is in much more common use on the continent of Europe as a +culinary vegetable than in Great Britain, where it has, however, been +cultivated for upwards of two centuries. The white beet, _Beta cicla_, +is cultivated for the leaves, which are used as spinach. The midribs and +stalks of the leaves are also stewed and eaten as sea-kale, under the +name of Swiss chard. _B. cicla_ is also largely used as a decorative +plant for its large, handsome leaves, blood red or variegated in colour. + +The beet prospers in a rich deep soil, well pulverized by the spade. If +manure is required, it should be deposited at the bottom of the trench +in preparing the ground. The seeds should be sown in drills 15 ins. +asunder, in April or early in May, and the plants are afterwards to be +thinned to about 8 in. apart in the lines, but not more, as +moderate-sized roots are preferable. The plants should grow on till the +end of October or later, when a portion should be taken up for use, and +the rest laid in in a sheltered corner, and covered up from frost. The +roots must not be bruised and the leaves must be twisted off--not +closely cut, as they are then liable to bleed. In the north the crop may +be wholly taken up in autumn, and stored in a pit or cellar, beyond +reach of frost. If it is desired to have fresh roots early, the seeds +should be sown at the end of February or beginning of March; and if a +succession is required, a few more may be sown by the end of March. + + + + +BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN (1770-1827), German musical composer, was baptized +(probably, as was usual, the day after birth) on the 17th of December +1770 at Bonn. His family is traceable to a village near Louvain, in +Belgium, in the 17th century. In 1650 a lineal ancestor of the composer +settled in Antwerp. Beethoven's grandfather, Louis, quarrelled with his +family, came to Bonn in 1732, and became one of the court musicians of +the archbishop-elector of Cologne. He was a genial man of estimable +character, and though Ludwig van Beethoven was only four years old when +his grandfather died, he never forgot him, but cherished his portrait to +the end of his life. Beethoven's father, a tenor singer at the +archbishop-elector's court, was of a rough and violent temper, not +improved by his passion for drink, nor by the dire poverty under which +the family laboured. He married Magdelina Leim or Laym, the widow of a +_valet-de-chambre_ of the elector of Trier and daughter of the chief +cook at Ehrenbreitstein. Beethoven's father wished to profit as early as +possible by his son's talent, and accordingly began to give him a +severe musical training, especially on the violin, when he was only five +years old, at about which time they left the house in which he was born +(515 Bonngasse, now preserved as a Beethoven museum, with a magnificent +collection of manuscripts and relics). By the time Beethoven was nine +his father had no more to teach him, and he entered upon a perhaps +healthier course of clavier lessons under a singer named Pfeiffer. A +little general education was also edged in by a certain Zambona. Van den +Eeden, the court organist, and an old friend of his grandfather, taught +him the organ and the pianoforte, and so rapid was Beethoven's progress +that when C.G. Neefe succeeded to Van den Eeden's post in 1781, he was +soon able to allow the boy to act as his deputy. With his permission +Beethoven published in 1783 his earliest extant composition, a set of +variations on a march by Dressler. The title-page states that they were +written in 1780 _"par un jeune amateur Louis van Beethoven age de dix +ans_." Beethoven's father was very clumsy in his unnecessary attempts to +make an infant prodigy of his son; for the ante-dating of this +composition, implying the correct date of birth, contradicts the +post-dating of the date of birth by which he tried to make out that the +three sonatas Beethoven wrote in the same year were by a boy of eleven. +(Beethoven for a long time believed that he was born in 1772, and the +certificate of his baptism hardly convinced him, because he knew that he +had an elder brother named Ludwig who died in infancy.) In the same +year, 1783, Beethoven was given the post of cembalist in the Bonn +theatre, and in 1784 his position of assistant to Neefe became official. +In a _catalogue raisonne_ of the new archbishop Max Franz's court +musicians we find "No. 14, Ludwig Beethoven" described "as of good +capacity, still young, of good, quiet behaviour and poor," while his +father (No. 8) "has a completely worn-out voice, has long been in +service, is very poor, of fairly good behaviour, and married." + +In the spring of 1787 Beethoven paid a short visit to Vienna, where he +astonished Mozart by his extemporizations and had a few lessons from +him. How he was enabled to afford this visit is not clear. After three +months the illness of his mother, to whom he was devoted, brought him +back. She died in July, leaving a baby girl, one year old, who died in +November. For five more years Beethoven remained at Bonn supporting his +family, of which he had been since the age of fifteen practically the +head, as his father's bad habits steadily increased until in 1789 Ludwig +was officially entrusted with his father's salary. He had already made +several lifelong friends at Bonn, of whom the chief were Count Waldstein +and Stephan Breuning; and his prospects brightened as the +archbishop-elector, in imitation of his brother the emperor Joseph II., +enlarged the scale of his artistic munificence. By 1792 the +archbishop-elector's attention was thoroughly aroused to Beethoven's +power, and he provided for Beethoven's second visit to Vienna. The +introductions he and Count Waldstein gave to Beethoven, the prefix "van" +in Beethoven's name (which looked well though it was not really a title +of nobility), and above all the unequalled impressiveness of his playing +and extemporization, quickly secured his footing with the exceptionally +intelligent and musical aristocracy of Vienna, who to the end of his +life treated him with genuine affection and respect, bearing with all +the roughness of his manners and temper, not as with the eccentricities +of a fashionable genius, but as with signs of the sufferings of a +passionate and noble nature. + +Beethoven's life, though outwardly uneventful, was one of the most +pathetic of tragedies. His character has had the same fascination for +his biographers as it had for his friends, and there is probably hardly +any great man in history of whom more is known and of whom so much of +what is known is interesting. Yet it is all too much a matter of detail +and anecdote to admit of chronological summarizing here, and for the +disentangling of its actual incidents we must refer the reader to Sir +George Grove's long and graphic article, "Beethoven," in the _Dictionary +of Music and Musicians_, and to the monumental biography of Thayer, who +devoted his whole life to collecting materials. These two biographical +works, read in the spirit in which their authors conceived them, will +reveal, beneath a mass of distressing, grotesque and sometimes sordid +detail, a nobility of character and unswerving devotion to the highest +moral ideas throughout every distress and temptation to which a +passionate and totally unpractical temper and the growing shadow of a +terrible misfortune could expose a man. + +The man is surpassed only by his works, for in them he had that mastery +which was denied to him in what he himself calls his attempt to "grapple +with fate." Such of his difficulties as lay in his own character already +showed themselves in his studies with Haydn. Haydn, who seems to have +heard of him on his first visit to Vienna in 1787, passed through Bonn +in July 1792, and was so much struck by Beethoven that it was very +likely at his instigation that the archbishop sent Beethoven to Vienna +to study under him. But Beethoven did not get on well with him, and +found him perfunctory in correcting his exercises. Haydn appreciated +neither his manners nor the audacity of his free compositions, and +abandoned whatever intentions he may have had of taking Beethoven with +him to England in 1794. Beethoven could do without sympathy, but a +grounding in strict counterpoint he felt to be a dire necessity, so he +continued his studies with Albrechtsberger, a mere grammarian who had +the poorest opinion of him, but who could, at all events, be depended on +to attend to his work. Almost every comment has been made upon the +relations between Haydn and Beethoven, except the perfectly obvious one +that Mozart died at the age of thirty-six, just at the time Beethoven +came to Vienna, and that Haydn, as is perfectly well known, was +profoundly shocked by the untimely loss of the greatest musician he had +ever known. At such a time the undeniable clumsiness of Beethoven's +efforts at academic exercises would combine with his general +tactlessness to confirm Haydn in the belief that the sun had set for +ever in the musical world, and would incline him to view with disfavour +those bold features of style and form which the whole of his own +artistic development should naturally have predisposed him to welcome. +It is at least significant that those early works of Beethoven in which +Mozart's influence is most evident, such as the Septet, aroused Haydn's +open admiration, whereas he hardly approved of the compositions like the +sonatas, _op._ 2 (dedicated to him), in which his own influence is +stronger. Neither he nor Beethoven was skilful in expressing himself +except in music, and it is impossible to tell what Haydn meant, or what +Beethoven thought he meant, in advising him not to publish the last and +finest of the three trios, _op._ 1. But even if he did not mean that it +was too daring for the public, it can hardly be expected that he never +contrasted the meteoric career of Mozart, who after a miraculous boyhood +had produced at the age of twenty-five some of the greatest music Haydn +had ever seen, with the slow and painful development of his uncouth +pupil, who at the same age had hardly a dozen presentable works to his +credit. It is not clear that Haydn ever came to understand Beethoven, +and many years passed before Beethoven realized the greatness of the +master whose teaching had so disappointed him. + +From the time Beethoven settled permanently in Vienna, which he was soon +induced to do by the kindness of his aristocratic friends, the only +noteworthy external features of his career are the productions of his +compositions. In spite of the usual hostile criticism for obscurity, +exaggeration and unpopularity, his reputation became world-wide and by +degrees actually popular; nor did it ever decline, for as his later +works became notorious for their extravagance and unintelligibility his +earlier works became better understood. He was no man of business, but, +in a thoroughly unpractical way, he was suspicious and exacting in money +matters, which in his later years frequently turned up in his +conversation as a grievance, and at times, especially during the +depreciation of the Austrian currency between 1808 and 1815, were a real +anxiety to him. Nevertheless, with a little more skill his external +prosperity would have been great. He was always a personage of +importance, as is testified by more than one amusing anecdote, like +those of his walks with Goethe and his half-ironical comments on the +hats which flew off more for him than for Goethe; and in 1815 it seemed +as if the summit of his fame was reached when his 7th symphony was +performed, together with a hastily-written cantata, _Der glorreiche +Augenblick_ and the blazing piece of descriptive fireworks entitled +_Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria_, once popular in +England as the _Battle Symphony_. The occasion for this performance was +the congress of Vienna; and the government placed the two halls of the +Redouten-Saal at his disposal for two nights, while he himself was +allowed to invite all the sovereigns of Europe. In the same year he +received the freedom of the city, an honour much valued by him. After +that time his immediate popularity, as far as new works were concerned, +became less eminent, as that of his more easy-going contemporaries began +to increase. Yet there was, not only in the emotional power of his +earlier works, but also in the known cause of his increasing inability +to appear in public, something that awakened the best popular +sensibilities; and when his two greatest and most difficult works, the +9th symphony and parts of the _Missa Solemnis_, were produced at a +memorable concert in 1824, the storm of applause was overwhelming, and +the composer, who was on the platform in order to give the time to the +conductor, had to be turned round by one of the singers in order to +_see_ it. + +Signs of deafness had given him grave anxiety as early as 1708. For a +long time he successfully concealed it from all but his most intimate +friends, while he consulted physicians and quacks with eagerness; but +neither quackery nor the best skill of his time availed him, and it has +been pointed out that the root of the evil lay deeper than could have +been supposed during his lifetime. Although his constitution was +magnificently strong and his health was preserved by his passion for +outdoor life, a post-mortem examination revealed a very complicated +state of disorder, evidently dating almost from childhood (if not +inherited) and aggravated by lack of care and good food. The touching +document addressed to his brothers in 1802, and known as his "will," +should be read in its entirety, as given by Thayer (iv. 4). No verbal +quotation short of the whole will do justice to the overpowering +outburst which runs almost in one long unpunctuated sentence through the +whole tragedy of Beethoven's life, as he knew it then and foresaw it. He +reproaches men for their injustice in thinking and calling him +pugnacious, stubborn and misanthropical when they do not know that for +six years he has suffered from an incurable condition, aggravated by +incompetent doctors. He dwells upon his delight in human society, from +which he has had so early to isolate himself, but the thought of which +now fills him with dread as it makes him realize his loss, not only in +music but in all finer interchange of ideas, and terrifies him lest the +cause of his distress should appear. He declares that, when those near +him had heard a flute or a singing shepherd while he heard nothing, he +was only prevented from taking his life by the thought of his art, but +it seemed impossible for him to leave the world until he had brought out +all that he felt to be in his power. He requests that after his death +his present doctor, if surviving, shall be asked to describe his illness +and to append it to this document in order that at least then the world +may be as far as possible reconciled with him. He leaves his brothers +his property, such as it is, and in terms not less touching, if more +conventional than the rest of the document, he declares that his +experience shows that only virtue has preserved his life and his courage +through all his misery. + +And, indeed, his art and his courage rose far above any level attainable +by those artists who are slaves to the "personal note," for his chief +occupation at the time of this document was his 2nd symphony, the most +brilliant and triumphant piece that had ever been written up to that +time. On a smaller scale, in which mastery was the more easily +attainable as experiment was more readily tested, Beethoven was sooner +able to strike a tragic note, and hence the process of growth in his +style is more readily traceable in the pianoforte works than in the +larger compositions which naturally represent a series of crowning +results. Only in his last period does the pianoforte cease to be +Beethoven's normal means of expression. Accordingly, if in the +discussion of Beethoven's works, with which we close this article, we +dwell rather more on the pianoforte sonatas than on his greater works, +it is not only because they are more easily referred to by the general +reader, but because they are actually a key to his intellectual +development, such as is afforded neither by his life nor by the great +works which are themselves the crowning mystery and wonder of musical +art. + +Deafness causes inconvenience in conversation long before it is +noticeable in music, and in 1806 Beethoven could still conduct his opera +_Fidelio_ and be much annoyed at the inattention to his nuances; and his +last appearance as a player was not until 1814, when he made a great +impression with his B flat trio, _op._ 97. At the end of November 1822 +an attempt to conduct proved disastrous. The touching incident in 1824 +has been described, but up to the last Beethoven seems to have found or +imagined that ear-trumpets (of which a collection is now preserved at +Bonn) were of use to him in playing to himself, though his friends were +often pained when the pianoforte was badly out of tune, and were +overcome when Beethoven in soft passages did not make the notes sound at +all. The instrument sent him by Broadwood in 1817-1818 gave him great +pleasure and he answered it with a characteristically cordial and quaint +letter in the best of bad French. His fame in England was often a source +of great comfort to him, especially in his last illness, when the London +Philharmonic Society, for which the 9th symphony was written and a 10th +symphony projected, sent him L100 in advance of the proceeds of a +benefit concert which he had begged them to give, being in very +straitened circumstances, as he would make no use of the money he had +deposited in the bank for his nephew. + +This nephew was the cause of most of his anxiety and distress in the +last twelve years of his life. His brother, Kaspar Karl, had often given +him trouble; for example, by obtaining and publishing some of +Beethoven's early indiscretions, such as the trio-variations, _op._ 44, +the sonatas, _op._ 49, and other trifles, of which the late _opus_ +number is thus explained. In 1815, after Beethoven had quarrelled with +his oldest friend, Stephan Breuning, for warning him against trusting +his brother in money matters, Kaspar died, leaving a widow of whom +Beethoven strongly disapproved, and a son, nine years old, for the +guardianship of whom Beethoven fought the widow through all the law +courts. The boy turned out utterly unworthy of his uncle's persistent +devotion, and gave him every cause for anxiety. He failed in all his +examinations, including an attempt to learn some trade in the +polytechnic school, whereupon he fell into the hands of the police for +attempting suicide, and, after being expelled from Vienna, joined the +army. Beethoven's utterly simple nature could neither educate nor +understand a human being who was not possessed by the wish to do his +best. His nature was passionately affectionate, and he had suffered all +his life from the want of a natural outlet for it. He had often been +deeply in love and made no secret of it; but Robert Browning had not a +more intense dislike of "the artistic temperament" in morals, and though +Beethoven's attachments were almost all hopelessly above him in rank, +there is not one that was not honourable and respected by society as +showing the truthfulness and self-control of a great man. Beethoven's +orthodoxy in such matters has provoked the smiles of Philistines, +especially when it showed itself in his objections to Mozart's _Don +Giovanni_, and his grounds for selecting the subject of _Fidelio_ for +his own opera. The last thing that Philistines will ever understand is +that genius is far too independent of convention to abuse it; and +Beethoven's life, with all its mistakes, its grotesqueness and its +pathos, is as far beyond the shafts of Philistine wit as his art. + +At the beginning of 1827 Beethoven had projects for a 10th symphony, +music to Goethe's _Faust_, and (under the stimulus of his newly acquired +collection of Handel's works) any amount of choral music, compared to +which all his previous compositions would have seemed but a prelude. But +he was in bad health; his brother Johann, with whom he had been staying, +had not allowed him a fire in his bedroom, and had sent him back to +Vienna in an open chaise in vile weather; and the chill which resulted +ended in a fatal illness. Within a week of his death Beethoven was +still full of his projects. Three days before the end he added a codicil +to his will, and saw Schubert, whose music had aroused his keen +interest, but was not able to speak to him, though he afterwards spoke +of the Philharmonic Society and the English, almost his last words being +"God bless them." On the 26th of March 1827, during a fierce +thunderstorm, he died. + +_Beethoven's Music._--The division of Beethoven's work into three styles +has become proverbial, and is based on obvious facts. The styles, +however, are not rigidly separated, either in themselves or in +chronology. Nor can the popular description of Beethoven's first manner +as "Mozartesque" be accepted as doing justice to a style which differs +more radically from Mozart's than Mozart's differs from Haydn's. The +style of Beethoven's third period is no longer regarded as "showing an +obscurity traceable to his deafness," but we have, perhaps, only +recently outgrown the belief that his later treatment of form is +revolutionary. The peculiar interest and difficulty in tracing +Beethoven's artistic development is that the changes in the materials +and range of his art were as great as those in the form, so that he +appears in the light of a pioneer, while the art with which he started +was nevertheless already a perfectly mature and highly organized thing. +And he is perhaps unique among artists in this, that his power of +constructing perfect works of art never deserted him while he +revolutionized his means of expression. No doubt this is in a measure +true of all the greatest artists, but it is seldom obvious. In mature +art vital differences in works of similar form are generally more likely +to be overlooked than to force themselves on the critic's attention. And +when they become so great as to make a new epoch it is generally at the +cost of a period of experiment too heterogeneous and insecure for works +of art to attain great permanent value. But in Beethoven's case, as we +have said, the process of development is so smooth that it is impossible +to separate the periods clearly, although the ground covered is, as +regards emotional range, at least as great as that between Bach and +Mozart. No artist has ever left more authoritative documentary evidence +as to the steps of his development than Beethoven. In boyhood he seems +to have acquired the habit of noting down all his musical ideas exactly +as they first struck him. It is easy to see why in later years he +referred to this as a "bad habit," for it must often take longer to jot +down a crude idea than to reject it; and by the time the habit was +formed Beethoven's powers of self-criticism were unparalleled, and he +must often have felt hampered by the habit of writing down what he knew +to be too crude to be even an aid to memory. Such first intuitions, if +not written down, would no doubt be forgotten; but the poetic mood, the +_Stimmung_, they attempt to indicate, would remain until a better +expression was forthcoming. Beethoven had acquired the habit of +recording them, and thereby he has, perhaps, misled some critics into +over-emphasizing the contrast between his "tentative" self-critical +methods and the quasi-extempore outpourings of Mozart. This contrast is +probably not very radical; indeed, we may doubt whether in every +thoughtful mind any apparently sudden inspiration is not preceded by +some anticipatory mood in which the idea was sought and its first faint +indications tested and rejected so instantaneously as to leave no +impression on the memory. + +The number and triviality of Beethoven's preliminary sketches should +not, then, be taken as evidence of a timid or vacillating spirit. But if +we regard his sketches as his diary their significance becomes +inestimable. They cover every period of Beethoven's career, and +represent every stage of nearly all his important works, as well as of +innumerable trifles, including ideas that did not survive to be worked +out. And the type of self-criticism is the same from beginning to end. +There is no tendency in the middle or last period, any more than in the +first, to "subordinate form to expression," nor do the sketches of the +first period show any lack of attention to elements that seem more +characteristic of the third. The difference between Beethoven's three +styles appears first in its full proportions when we realize this +complete continuity of his method and art. We have ventured to cast +doubts upon the Mozartesque character of his early style, because that +is chiefly a question of perspective. While he was handling a range of +ideas not, in a modern view, glaringly different from Mozart's, he had +no reason to use a glaringly different language. His contemporaries, +however, found it more difficult to see the resemblance; and, though +their criticism was often violently hostile, they saw with prejudice a +daring originality which we may as well learn to appreciate with study. +Beethoven himself in later years partly affected and partly felt a lack +of sympathy with his own early style. But he had other things to do than +to criticize it. Modern prejudice has not his excuse, and the neglect of +Beethoven's early works is no less than the neglect of the key to the +understanding of his later. It is also the neglect of a mass of mature +art that already places Beethoven on the same plane as Mozart, and +contains perhaps the only traces in all his work of a real struggle +between the forces of progress and those of construction. We will +therefore give special attention to this subject here. + +The truth is that there are several styles in Beethoven's first period, +in the centre of which, "proving all things," is the true and mature +Beethoven, however wider may be the scope of his later maturity. And he +did not, as is often alleged, fail to show early promise. The pianoforte +quartets he wrote at the age of fifteen are, no doubt, clumsy and +childish in execution to a degree that contrasts remarkably with the +works of Mozart's, Mendelssohn's or Schubert's boyhood; yet they contain +material actually used in the sonatas, _op._ 2, No. 1, and _op._ 2, No. +3. And the passage in _op._ 2, No. 3, is that immediately after the +first subject, where, as Beethoven then states it, it embodies one of +his most epoch-making discoveries, namely, the art of organizing a long +series of apparently free modulations by means of a systematic +progression in the bass. In the childish quartet the principle is only +dimly felt, but it is nevertheless there as a subconscious source of +inspiration; and it afterwards gives inevitable dramatic truth to such +passages as the climax of the development in the sonata, _op._ 57 +(commonly called _Appassionata_), and throughout the chaos of the +mysterious introduction to the C major string-quartet, _op._ 59, No. 3, +prepares us for the world of loveliness that arises from it. + +Although with Beethoven the desire to express new thoughts was thus +invariably both stimulated and satisfied by the discovery of the +necessary new means of expression, he felt deeply the danger of spoiling +great ideas by inadequate execution; and his first work in a new form or +medium is, even if as late as the Mass in C, _op._ 89, almost always +unambitious. His teachers had found him sceptical of authority, and +never convinced of the practical convenience of a rule until he had too +successfully courted disaster. But he appreciated the experience, though +he may have found it expensive, and traces of crudeness in such early +works as he did not disown are as rare as plagiarisms. The first three +pianoforte sonatas, _op._ 2. show the different elements in Beethoven's +early style as clearly as possible. Sir Hubert Parry has aptly compared +the opening of the sonata, _op._ 2, No. 1, with that of the finale of +Mozart's G minor symphony, to show how much closer Beethoven's texture +is. The slow movement well illustrates the rare cases in which Beethoven +imitates Mozart to the detriment of his own proper richness of tone and +thought, while the finale in its central episode brings a misapplied and +somewhat diffuse structure in Mozart's style into direct conflict with +themes as "Beethovenish" in their terseness as in their sombre passion. +The second sonata is flawless in execution, and entirely beyond the +range of Haydn and Mozart in harmonic and dramatic thought, except in +the finale. And it is just in the adoption of the luxurious Mozartesque +rondo form as the crown of this work that Beethoven shows his true +independence. He adopts the form, not because it is Mozart's, but +because it is right and because he can master it. The opening of the +second subject in the first movement is a wonderful application of the +harmonic principle already mentioned in connexion with the early piano +quartets. In all music nothing equally dramatic can be found before the +D minor sonata, _op._ 31, No. 2, which is rightly regarded as marking +the beginning of Beethoven's second period. The slow movement, like +those of _op._ 7 and a few other early works, shows a thrilling +solemnity that immediately proves the identity of the pupil of Haydn +with the creator of the 9th symphony. The little _scherzo_ no less +clearly foreshadows the new era in music by the fact that in so small +and light a movement a modulation from A to G sharp minor can occur too +naturally to excite surprise. If the later work of Beethoven were +unknown there would be very little evidence that this sonata was by a +young man, except, perhaps, in the remarkable abruptness of style in the +first movement, an abruptness which is characteristic, not of +immaturity, but of art in which problems are successfully solved for the +first time. This abruptness is, however, in a few of Beethoven's early +works carried appreciably too far. In the sonata in C minor, _op._ 10, +No. 1, for example, the more vigorous parts of the first movement lose +in breadth from it, while the finale is almost stunted. + +But Beethoven was not content to express his individuality only in an +abrupt epigrammatic style. From the outset breadth was also his aim, and +while he occasionally attempted to attain a greater breadth than his +resources would properly allow (as in the first movement of the sonata, +_op._ 2, No. 3, and that of the violoncello sonata, _op._ 5, No. 1, in +both of which cases a kind of extempore outburst in the coda conceals +the collapse of his peroration), there are many early works in which he +shows neither abruptness of style nor any tendency to confine himself +within the limits of previous art. The C minor trio, _op._ 1, No. 3, is +not more remarkable for the boldness of thought that made Haydn doubtful +as to the advisability of publishing it, than for the perfect smoothness +and spaciousness of its style. These qualities Beethoven at first +naturally found easier to retain with less dramatic material, as in the +other trios in the same _opus_, but the C minor trio does not stand +alone. It represents, perhaps, the most numerous, as certainly the +noblest, class of Beethoven's early works. Certainly the smallest class +is that in which there is unmistakable imitation of Mozart, and it is +significant that almost all examples of this class are works for wind +instruments, where the technical limitations narrowly determine the +style and discourage the composer from taking things seriously. Such +works are the beautiful and popular septet, the quintet for pianoforte +and wind instruments (modelled superficially, yet closely and with a +kind of modest ambition, on Mozart's wonderful work for the same +combination) and, on a somewhat higher level, the trio for pianoforte, +clarinet and violoncello, _op._ 11. + +It is futile to discuss the point at which Beethoven's second manner may +be said to begin, but he has himself given us excellent evidence as to +when and how his first manner (as far as that is a single thing) became +impossible to him. Through quite a large number of works, beginning +perhaps with the great string quintet, _op._ 29, new types of harmonic +and emotional expression had been assimilated into a style at least +intelligible from Mozart's point of view. Indeed, Beethoven's favourite +way of enlarging his range of expression often seems to consist in +allowing the Titanic force of his new inventions and the formal beauty +of the old art to indicate by their contrast a new world grander and +lovelier than either. Sometimes, as in the C major quintet, the new +elements are too perfectly assimilated for the contrast to appear. The +range of key and depth of thought is beyond that of Beethoven's first +manner, but the smoothness is that of Mozart. In the three pianoforte +sonatas, _op._ 31, the struggle of the transition is as manifest as its +accomplishment is triumphant. The first movement of the first sonata (in +G major) deals with widely separated keys on new principles. These are +embodied in a style which for abruptness and jocular paradox is hardly +surpassed by Beethoven's most nervous early works. The exceptionally +ornate and dilatory slow movement reads almost like a protest; while the +finale begins as if to show that humour should be beautiful, and ends by +making fun of the beauty. The second sonata (in D minor) is the greatest +work Beethoven had as yet written. Its first movement, already cited +above in connexion with the dramatic sequences in _op._ 2, No. 2, is, +like that of the _Sonata Appassionata_, a _locus classicus_ for such +powerful means of expression. And it is worth noting that the only +sketch known of this movement is a sketch in which nothing but its +sequential plan is indicated. In the third sonata Beethoven enjoys on a +higher plane an experience he had often indulged in before, the +attainment of smoothness and breadth by means of a delicately humorous +calm which gives scope to the finer subtleties of his new thoughts. + +Beethoven himself wrote to his publisher that these three sonatas +represented a new phase in his style; but when we realize his artistic +conscientiousness it is not surprising that they should be contemporary +with larger works like the 2nd symphony, which are far more +characteristic of his first manner. His whole development is entirely +ruled by his determination to let nothing pass until it has been +completely mastered, and long before this his sketch-books show that he +had many ambitious ideas for a 1st symphony, and that it was a +deliberate process that made his ambitions dwindle into something that +could be safely realized in the masterly little comedy with which he +began his orchestral career. The easy breadth and power of the 2nd +symphony represents an amply sufficient advance, and leaves his forces +free to develop in less expensive forms those vast energies for which +afterwards the orchestra and the string-quartet were to become the +natural field. + +In the "Waldstein" sonata, _op._ 53, we see Beethoven's second manner +literally displacing his first; that is to say, we reach a state of +things at which the two can no longer form an artistic contrast. The +work, as we know it, is not only perfect, but has all the qualities of +art in which the newest elements have long been familiar. The opening is +on the same harmonic train of thought as that of the sonata, _op._ 31, +No. 1, but there is no longer the slightest need for a paradoxical or +jocular manner. On the contrary, the harmonies are held together by an +orderly sequence in the bass, and the onrush is that of some calm +diurnal energy of nature. The short introduction to the finale is +harmonically and emotionally the most profound thing in the sonata, +while the finale itself uses every new resource in the triumphant +attainment of a leisure more splendid than any conceivable in the most +spacious of Mozart's rondos. Yet it is well known that Beethoven +originally intended the beautiful _andante_ in F, afterwards published +separately, to be the slow movement of this sonata. That andante is, +like the finale, a spacious and gorgeous rondo, which probably Beethoven +himself could not have written at an earlier period. The modulation to D +flat in its principal theme, and that to G flat near the end, are its +chief harmonic effects and stand out in beautiful relief within its +limits. After the first movement of the Waldstein sonata they would be +flat and colourless. The sketch-books show that Beethoven, when he first +planned the sonata, was by no means inattentive to the balance of +harmonic colour in the whole scheme, but that at first he did not +realize how far that scheme was going to carry him. He originally +thought of the slow movement as in E major, a remote key to which, +however, he soon assigned the more intimate position of complementary +key in the first movement. He then worked at the slow movement in F with +such zest that he did not discover until the whole sonata was finished +that he had raised the first and last movements to an altogether higher +plane of thought, though the redundancy of the two rondos in +juxtaposition and the unusual length of the sonata were so obvious that +his friends ventured to point them out. Beethoven's revision of his +earliest works is now known to have been extensive and drastic; but this +is the first instance, and _Fidelio_ and the quartet in B flat, _op._ +131, are the only other instances, of any later work needing important +alteration after it was completely executed. From this point up to _op._ +101 we may study Beethoven's second manner entirely free from any +survivals of his first, even as a legitimate contrast; though it is as +impossible to fix a point before which his third manner cannot be traced +as it is to ignore the premonitions of his second manner in his early +works. The distinguishing features in Beethoven's second style are the +result of a condition of art in which enormous new possibilities have +become so well known that there is no need for stating them abruptly, +paradoxically or emphatically, but also no need for working them out to +remote conclusions. Hence these works have become for most people the +best-known and best-loved type of classical music. In their perfect +fusion of untranslatable dramatic emotion with every beauty of musical +design and tone they have never been equalled, nor is it probable that +any other art can show a wider range of thought embodied in a more +perfect form. In music itself there is nothing else of so wide a range +without grave artistic defects from which Beethoven is entirely free. +Wagnerian opera aims at an ideal as truly artistic, and in so far of +wider range than Beethoven's that it passes beyond the bounds of pure +music altogether. Within those bounds Beethoven remained, and even the +apparent exceptions (such as _Fidelio_ and his two great examples of +"programme music," the _Pastoral Symphony_ and the sonata, _Les Adieux_) +only show how universal his conception of pure music is. Extraneous +ideas had here struck him as magnificent material for instrumental +music, and he never troubled to argue whether instrumental music is the +better or worse for expressing extraneous ideas. To describe the works +of Beethoven's second period here would be to describe a library of +well-known classics, and we must refer the reader for further details to +the articles on SONATA FORMS, CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS, HARMONY and +INSTRUMENTATION. It remains for us to attempt to indicate the essential +features of his third style, and to conclude with a survey of his +influence on the history of music. + +Beethoven's third style arose imperceptibly from his second. His +deafness had very little to do with it, for all his epoch-making +discoveries in orchestral effect date from the time when he was already +far too much inconvenienced to test them in a way which would satisfy +any one who depended more upon his ear than upon his imagination. It is +indeed highly probable that there are no important features in +Beethoven's latest style that may not be paralleled by the tendencies of +all great artists who have handled their material until it contains +nothing that has not been long familiar with them. Such tendencies lead +to an extreme simplicity of form, underlying an elaboration of detail +which may at first seem bewildering until we realize that it is purely +the working out to its logical conclusions of some idea as simple and +natural as the form itself. The form, however, will be not merely +simple, but individual. Different works will show such striking external +differences of form that a criticism which applies merely _a priori_ or +historic standards will be tempted by the fallacy that there is less +form in a number of such markedly different works than in a number of +works that have one scheme in common. All this is eminently the case +with Beethoven's last works. The extreme simplicity of the themes of the +first two movements of the quartet in B flat, _op._ 131, and the +tremendous complexity of the texture into which they are woven, at first +impress us as something mysterious and intangible rather than +astonishing. The boldness with which the slow introduction is blended in +broad statement and counter-statement with the _allegro_, is directly +impressive, as is also the entry of the second subject with its dark +harmony and tone, but the work needs long familiarity before its vast +mass of thought reveals itself to us in its true lucidity. Such works +are "dark with excessive bright." When we enter into them they are +transparent as far as our vision extends, and their darkness is that of +a depth that shines as we penetrate it. In all probability only a veil +of familiarity prevents our finding the same kind of difficulty in +Beethoven's earlier works. What is undoubtedly newest in the last works +is the enormous development of those polyphonic elements which are +always essential to the life of a composition, but which have very +different functions and degrees of prominence in different forms and +stages of the art. Polyphony inevitably draws attention to detail, and +thus Beethoven in his middle period found its more obvious +manifestations but little conducive to the breadth of designs which were +not as yet sufficiently familiar to take any but the foremost place. +Hence, among other interesting features of that second period, his +marked preference for themes founded on rhythmic figures of one note, +e.g. the famous "four taps" in the C minor symphony; an identical rhythm +in a melodious theme of very different character in the G major +concerto; a similar figure in the _Sonata Appassionata_; the first theme +of the _scherzo_ of the F major quartet, _op._ 59, No. 1, and the +drum-beats in the violin concerto. Such rhythms give thematic life to an +inner part without causing it to assume such melodic interest as might +distract the attention from the flow of the surface. But in proportion +as polyphony loses its danger so does the prominence of such rhythmic +figures decrease, until in Beethoven's last works they are no more +noticeable than other kinds of simplicity. The impression of crowded +detail is naturally more prominent the smaller the means with which +Beethoven works and the less outwardly dramatic his thought. Thus those +most gigantic of all musical designs, the 9th symphony, and the Mass in +D, are, but for the mechanical difficulties of the choral writing, +almost like works of the second period as far as direct impressiveness +is concerned; and in the same way the enormous pianoforte sonata, _op._ +106, is in its first three movements easier to follow than the extremely +terse and subtle works on a smaller scale that preceded it (sonata in A +major, 101, and the two sonatas for violoncello, _op._ 102). + +His enormous development of polyphonic interest soon led Beethoven to +employ the fugue, not only, as in previous works, by way of episodic +contrast to passages and designs in which the form and not the texture +is the main object of interest, but as the culminating expression of a +condition or art in which the unity of form and texture is so perfect +that the mind is free to concentrate itself on the texture alone. This +union was not effected without a struggle, the traces of which present a +close parallel to that abrupt emphasis which we noticed in some of +Beethoven's early works. In his fugue-writing the notion that the chief +interest lies in the texture is as yet so difficult to hold together +with the perception that these fugues are based on a modern firmness and +range of form, that the texture is forced upon the listener's attention +by a continual series of ruthlessly logical bold strokes of harmony. +From this and from the notorious violence of Beethoven's choral writing, +and also from his well-known technical struggles in his years of +pupilage, the easy inference has been drawn that Beethoven never was a +great master of counterpoint, an inference that is absolutely +irreconcilable with such plain facts as, to take but one early example, +the brilliant piece of triple counterpoint in the _andante_ of the +string quartet in C minor, _op._ 18, No. 4, and the complete absence of +anything like crudeness in his handling of harmonics, basses or inner +parts at any period of his career. Beethoven may have mastered some +things with difficulty, but he mastered nothing incompletely; and where +he is not orthodox it is safest to conclude that orthodoxy is wrong. Had +he lived for another ten years he would certainly have produced an +immense amount of choral work, and with it many other great instrumental +works in which this last remaining element of conflict between texture +and form would have dwindled away. But while this would doubtless result +in such work being easier to follow and might even have given us a +version of the great fugue, _op._ 133 (discarded from the +string-quartet, _op._ 131), that did not surpass the bounds of practical +performance, it would yet be no sound criterion by which to stigmatize +as an immaturity the roughness of the polyphonic works that we know. +That roughness is, like the abrupt epigrammatic manner of some of his +early works, the necessary condition in which such material realizes +mature expression. Without it that material could receive but the +academic handling of a dead language. And by it was created that +permanent reconciliation of polyphony and form from which has arisen +almost all that is true in "Romantic" music, all that is peculiar to the +thematic technique of Wagnerian opera, and all the perfect smoothness of +Brahms's polyphony. + +The incalculable depth of thought and closeness of texture in +Beethoven's later works are, of course, the embodiment of a no less +incalculable emotional power. If we at times feel that the last quartets +are more introspective than dramatic, that is only because Beethoven's +dramatic sense is higher than we can realize. The subject is too large +and too subtle for dogmatism to be profitable; and we cannot in +Beethoven's case, as we can in Bach's, cite a complete series of +illustrations of his musical ideas from his treatment in choral music +of words which themselves interpret the intention of the composer. There +is so little but the music itself by which one can express Beethoven's +thought, that the utmost we can do here is to refer the reader, as +before, to the articles on SONATA FORMS, HARMONY, INSTRUMENTATION, OPERA +and MUSIC, where he will find further attempts to indicate in what sense +pure music can be described as dramatic and expressive of emotion. + +As our range of investigation widens, and thoroughness of analysis and +study increases, so we shall surely find in ourselves an ever-deepening +conviction that Beethoven, whether in range, depth and truth of thought, +perfect sense of beauty, or absolute conscientiousness of execution, is +the greatest musician, perhaps the greatest artist, that ever lived. +There is no means of measuring Beethoven's influence upon subsequent +music. Every composer of every school claims it. The immense changes he +brought about in the range of music have their most obvious effect in +the possibilities of emotional expression; and so any outbreak of +vulgarity or sentimentality can with impunity claim descent from +Beethoven, though its ancestry may be no higher than Meyerbeer. Again, +we have already referred to that confusion of thought which regards a +series of works markedly different in form as containing less form than +any number of works cast in one mould. Hence the works of Beethoven's +third period have been cited in defence of more than one "revolution," +attempted in a form which never existed in any true classic, for the +purpose of setting up something the revolutionist has not yet succeeded +in inventing. To measure Beethoven's influence is like measuring +Shakespeare's. It is an influence either too vaguely universal to name +or too profoundly artistic to analyse. Perhaps the truest account of it +would be that which ignored its presence in the works of ill-balanced +artists, or even in the works of those who profited merely by an +increase of technical and harmonic resource which, though effected by +Beethoven, would, after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, +almost certainly have to some extent arisen from sheer necessity of +finding expression for the new experience of humanity, if Beethoven had +never existed. Setting aside, then, all instances of mere domination, +and of a permanently established new world of musical thought, and +omitting Schubert and Weber as contemporaries, the one attracted and the +other partly repelled, we may, perhaps, take three later composers, +Schumann, Wagner and Brahms, as the leading examples of the way in which +Beethoven's influence is definitely traceable as a creative force. The +depth and solemnity of Beethoven's melody and later polyphonic richness +is a leading source of Schumann's inspiration, though Schumann's +artistic schemes exclude any high degree of formal organization on a +large scale. Beethoven's late polyphony is carried on by Brahms to the +point at which perfect smoothness of style is once more possible, and +there is no aspect of his form which Brahms neglects or fails to realize +with that complete originality which has nothing to fear from its +ancestry. Wagner does not handle the same art-forms; his task is +different, but Beethoven was the inspiring source, not only of his +purely musical sense, but also of his whole sense of dramatic contrast +and fitness. When he had shaken off the influence of Meyerbeer, which +has so often been confused with that of Beethoven, there remained to +him, pre-eminently in his music and more imperfectly realized in his +drama, a power of combining contrasted emotions such as is the privilege +of only the very greatest dramatic artists. Bach and Beethoven are the +sources of the polyphonic means of expression by which he attains this. +Beethoven alone is the extraneous source of his knowledge that it was +possible. And it is as certain as anything in the history of art that +there will never be a time when Beethoven's work does not occupy the +central place in a sound musical mind. + + +ANNOTATED LIST OF BEETHOVEN'S WORKS + + Up to 1823 we give in most cases the dates of publication, the date of + composition being generally from one to three years earlier. Beethoven + seldom had less than a dozen projects in hand at once, and their + immediate chronology is inextricable; whereas publication generally + means final revision. This list is purposely incomplete in order that + unimportant works may not distract attention, even when they are late + and on a large scale. + + Sonata = Pianoforte sonata. + Violin or violoncello sonata = for pianoforte, V. or Vc. + Pianoforte trio = Pfte., V., Vc. + Pianoforte quartet = Pfte., V., viola and Vc. + String trio = V., Va., Vc. + String quartet = VV., Va. and Vc. + Pianoforte or violin concerto = Concerto with orchestra. + + 1785. 3 pfte. quartets, of which the third contains important + material for the sonatas, _op._ 2, Nos. 1 and 3. (Thayer's attribution + of the masterly bagatelles, _op._ 33, published 1803, to this period + can only be rationalized by some similar rough first idea.) + + 1790. 24 variations on an air by Righini (published 1801). A very + remarkable work, anticipating Schumann's _Papillons_ in its humorous + close. It was Beethoven's chief early _tour-de-force_ in pianoforte + playing. + + 1795. 3 pfte. trios, _op._ 1 (E-flat, G, C minor). + + 1796. 3 pfte. sonatas, _op._ 2 (F minor, A and C, dedicated to Haydn). + + 1797. String trio, _op._ 3, 2 violoncello sonatas, _op._ 5, F and G + mi., sonata, _op._ 7, E-flat. + + 1798. 3 string trios, _op._ 9; G, D, C mi., 3 sonatas, _op._ 10 (C mi., + F, D). Trio for pfte., clarinet and violoncello in B-flat, _op._ 11. + + 1799. 3 violin sonatas (D, A, E-flat), _op._ 12. Pfte. sonata + (_Pathetique_ not Beethoven's title) C mi., _op._ 13, 2 pfte. + sonatas, _op._ 14, E, G (the first arranged by the composer as a + string quartet in F). + + 1801. Pianoforte concertos, _op._ 15 in C, _op._ 19 in B-flat (the + latter composed first). Quintet for pianoforte and wind instruments, + _op._ 16 (also arranged, with new details, as quartet for pianoforte + and strings), composed 1797. 6 string quartets, _op._ 18 (F, G, D, C + mi., A, B-flat). 1st symphony (C), _op._ 21. 2 violin sonatas, A mi., + _op._ 23; F ma., _op._ 24 (made into two opus-numbers by an accident + in the _format_ of the volumes). + + 1802. Pianoforte score of the _Prometheus_ ballet, _op._ 24 (ousted + by the F ma. violin sonata, and reissued as _op._ 43). Sonata in + B-flat, _op._ 22. Sonata in A-flat, _op._ 26 (with the funeral march). + 2 sonatas ("quasi fantasia"), _op._ 27, E-flat, C-sharp mi. Sonata in + D, _op._ 28 (_Pastorale_ not Beethoven's title). String quintet in C, + _op._ 29. + + 1803. 3 violin sonatas, _op._ 30 (A, C mi., G). 3 sonatas, _op._ 31, + G, D mi., E-flat (the last appearing in 1804). Variations, _op._ 34. + 15 variations and fugue on theme from _Prometheus_, _op._ 35. + + 1804. 2nd symphony (D), _op._ 36 (1802). 3rd pfte. concerto (C mi.), + _op._ 37 (1800). + + 1805. The "Kreutzer" sonata, _op._ 47, for pfte. and violin (A) (finale + at first intended for _op._ 30, No. 1). "Waldstein" sonata for pfte., + _op._ 53 (C). First version of opera _Leonore_ in three acts (with + overture "No. 2"). + + 1806. Sonata in F, _op._ 54. _Eroica Symphony_, No. 3, _op._ 55 + (E-flat), written in 1804 in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. It was + just finished when news arrived that Napoleon had made himself + emperor, and Beethoven was with difficulty restrained from destroying + the score. It is still the longest extant perfect design in + instrumental music. The finale glorifies the material (and much of + the form) of the variations, _op._ 35. The _scherzo_ is the first + full-sized example of Beethoven's special type. _Leonore_ reproduced + in two acts with overture No. 3. 32 variations in C mi. (no + opus-number, but a very important work on the lines of a modernized + _chaconne_). + + 1807. Triple concerto (pfte., V. and Vc.), _op._ 56, chiefly + interesting as a study for the true concerto-form which had given + Beethoven difficulty. Sonata, _op._ 57 (F mi., _Appassionata_, not + Beethoven's title). New overture, _Leonore_, "No. 1," composed for + projected performance of the opera at Prague (posthumously published + as _op._ 138). + + 1808. 4th pfte. concerto, _op._ 58 (G). 3 string quartets, _op._ 59, + F, E mi., C (dedicated to Count Rasoumovsky, in compliment to whom + Russian tunes appear in the finale of No. 1 and the _scherzo_ of No. + 2). Overture to _Coriolanus_, _op._ 62. + + 1809. 4th symphony, _op._ 60 (B-flat). Violin concerto (D), _op._ 61 + (also arranged by the composer for pianoforte). 5th symphony, _op._ + 67 (C mi.) (1806), the first in which trombones appear. 6th symphony + (Pastorale), _op._ 68; violoncello sonata, _op._ 69 (A). 2 pianoforte + trios, _op._ 70 (D, E-flat). + + 1810. Pianoforte score of _Leonore_ (2nd version) published. String + quartet, _op._ 74 (E-flat, called "Harp" because of _pizzicato_ + passages in first movement). Fantasia, _op._ 77, interesting as + consisting of a long and capricious series of dramatic beginnings and + breakings off of themes, as if in search for a firm idea, which is at + last found and developed as a set of variations. This scheme thus + foreshadows the choral finale of the 9th symphony even more + significantly than the Choral Fantasia. + + Sonata, _op._ 78, F-sharp (extremely terse and subtle, and a great + favourite with Beethoven, who preferred it to the C-sharp mi.). + + 1811. 5th pfte. concerto, _op._ 73, E-flat (_The Emperor_ not + Beethoven's title). Fantasia for pfte., orchestra and chorus, _op._ + 80. Sonata, _op._ 81a (_Les Adieux, l'absence, et le retour_), first + movement written when the archduke Rudolph had to leave Vienna (4th + May 1809), and the rest on his return on the 30th of January 1810. It + was an anxious time both for Beethoven and his excellent royal + friend, for whom he had great affection. (Battle of Wagram, 6th July + 1809.) (We may here note that _op._ 81b is an unimportant and very + early sextet.) The overture to _Egmont_, _op._ 84; _Christus am + Oelberge_ (the Mount of Olives), _op._ 85, oratorio (probably + composed between 1800 and its first performance in 1803). + + 1812. The rest of the _Egmont_ music, _op._ 84. 1st mass, _op._ 87 (C) + (first performance, 1807). + + 1814. Final version of _Leonore_, performed as _Fidelio_ with great + alterations, skilful revision of the libretto, very important new + material in the music and a new overture. + + 1815. Sonata, _op._ 90 (E mi.). + + 1816. 7th symphony, _op._ 92 (A); 8th symphony, _op._ 93 (F) + (Beethoven was planning a group of three of which the last was to be + in D mi., which we shall find significant). String quartet, _op._ 95 + (F mi.). Violin sonata, _op._ 96 (G). Pianoforte trio, _op._ 97 + (B-flat); _Liederkreis_, _op._ 98. + + 1817. Sonata, _op._ 101 (the first indisputably in Beethoven's "third + manner"). 2 violoncello sonatas, _op._ 102 (C, D, the second + containing Beethoven's first modern instrumental strict fugue). + + 1819. Arrangement for string quintet, _op._ 104, of C mi. trio, _op._ + 1, No. 3 (a wonderful study in translation, comparable only to Bach's + arrangements and very unlike Beethoven's former essays of the kind). + Sonata, _op._ 106 (B-flat), the largest and most symphonic pianoforte + work extant, surpassed in length only by Bach's _Goldberg_ variations + and Beethoven's 33 variations on Diabelli's waltz. + + 1821. 25 Scotch songs accompanied by pfte., V. and Vc., _op._ 108 + (the first set of a large and much neglected collection, mostly + posthumous, many of great interest and beauty and very Beethovenish, + which has shocked persons who expect sympathetic insight into + folk-music to prevail over Beethoven's artistic impulse). Sonata, + _op._ 109 (E). + + 1822. Sonata, _op._ 110 (A-flat). Overture, _Die Weihe des Hauses_, + _op._ 124 (C), a magnificent essay in orchestral free fugue, + published 1825. + + 1823. Sonata, _op._ 111 (C mi., the last pianoforte sonata). 33 + variations on a waltz by Diabelli, who sent his waltz round to + fifty-one musicians in Austria asking each to contribute a variation; + the whole to be published for the benefit of the widows and orphans + left by the war. Beethoven answered with the greatest set ever + written, and it was published in a separate volume. Among the other + fifty composers were Schubert and an infant prodigy of eleven, Franz + Liszt! The mass in D (_Missa Solemnis_), _op._ 123, begun in 1818 for + the installation of the archduke Rudolph as archbishop of Olmutz, was + not finished until 1826, two years after the installation. The 9th + symphony, _op._ 125 D mi. (see note on 7th and 8th symphonies); + sketches begun 1817; project of setting Schiller's _Freude_ already + in Beethoven's mind before he left Bonn. 6 bagatelles, _op._ 126, + Beethoven's last pianoforte work a very remarkable and unaccountably + neglected group of carefully contrasted lyric pieces. + + 1824. String quartet, _op._ 127 (E-flat, published 1826). + + 1825. String quartet, _op._ 130 (B-flat), with finale, _op._ 133 + (grand fugue); string quartet, _op._ 132 (A mi., with slow movement + in Lydian mode, a _Heiliger Dankgesang_ on recovery from illness. + Theme of finale first thought of as for instrumental finale to 9th + symphony). + + 1826. String quartet, _op._ 131 (C-sharp, mi.). String quartet, op. + 135 (F). New finale to _op._ 130, Beethoven's last composition. + (D. F. T.) + + AUTHORITIES.--A.W. Thayer, _Beethovens Leben_ (1866-1879); L. Nohl, + _Life of Beethoven_ (Eng. trans., 1884), and _Letters_ (Eng. trans., + 1866); Sir G. Grove, _Beethoven and his Symphonies_ (1896), and in + Grove's _Dictionary of Music_. + + + + +BEETLE (O. Eng. _bityl_; connected with "bite"), a name commonly applied +to those insects which possess horny wing-cases; it is used to denote +the cockroaches (q.v.) (black beetles), as well as the true beetles or +_Coleoptera_ (q.v.), the two belonging to different orders of _Insecta_. + +The adjective "beetle-browed," and similarly "beetling" (of a cliff), +are derived from the name of the insect. From another word (O. Eng. +_betel_, connected with "beat") comes "beetle" in the sense of a mallet, +and the "beetling-machine," which subjects fabrics to a hammering +process. + + + + +BEETS, NIKOLAAS (1814-1903), Dutch poet, was born at Haarlem on the 13th +of September 1814; constant references in his poems and sketches show +how deeply the beauty of that town and its neighbourhood impressed his +imagination. He studied theology in Leiden, but gave himself early to +the cultivation of poetry. In his youth Beets was entirely carried away +on the tide of Byronism which was then sweeping over Europe, and his +early works--_Jose_ (1834), _Kuser_ (1835) and _Guy de Vlaming_ +(1837)--are gloomy romances of the most impassioned type. But at the +very same time he was beginning in prose the composite work of humour +and observation which has made him famous, and which certainly had +nothing that was in the least Byronic about it. This was the celebrated +_Camera Obscura_ (1839), the most successful imaginative work which any +Dutchman of the 18th century produced. This work, published under the +pseudonym of "Hildebrand," goes back in its earliest inception to the +year 1835, when Beets was only twenty-one. It consists of complete short +stories, descriptive sketches, studies of peasant life--all instinct +with humour and pathos, and written in a style of great charm; it has +been reprinted in countless editions. Beets became a professor at the +university of Leiden, and the pastor of a congregation in that city. In +middle life he published further collections of verse--_Cornflowers_ +(1853) and _New Poems_ (1857)--in which the romantic melancholy was +found to have disappeared, and to have left in its place a gentle +sentiment and a depth of religious feeling. In 1873-1875 Beets collected +his works in three volumes. In April 1883 the honorary degree of LL.D. +Edin. was conferred upon him. He died at Utrecht on the 13th of March +1903. + + + + +BEFANA (Ital., corrupted from _Epifania_, Epiphany), the Italian female +counterpart of Santa Claus, the Christmas benefactor (St Nicholas). On +Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, she plays the fairy godmother to the +children, filling their stockings with presents. Tradition relates that +she was too busy with house duties to come to the window to see the +Three Wise Men of the East pass on their journey to pay adoration to the +Saviour, excusing herself on the ground that she could see them on their +return. They went back another way, and Befana is alleged to have been +punished by being obliged to look for them for ever. Her legends seem to +be rather mixed, for in spite of her Santa Claus character, her name is +used by Italian mothers as a bogey to frighten the babies. It was the +custom to carry her effigy through Italian towns on the eve of the +Epiphany. + + + + +BEFFROY DE REIGNY, LOUIS ABEL (1757-1811), French dramatist and man of +letters, was born at Laon on the 6th of November 1757. Under the name of +"Cousin Jacques" he founded a periodical called _Les Lunes_ (1785-1787). +The _Courrier des planetes ou Correspondance du Cousin Jacques avec le +firmament_ (1788-1792) followed. _Nicodeme dans la lune, ou la +revolution pacifique_ (1790) a three-act farce, is said to have had more +than four hundred representations. In spite of his protests against the +evils of the Revolution he escaped interference through the influence of +his brother, Louis Etienne Beffroy, who was a member of the Convention. +Of _La Petite Nanette_ (1795) and several other operas he wrote both the +words and the music. His _Dictionnaire neologique_ (3 vols., 1795-1800) +of the chief actors and events in the Revolution was interdicted by the +police and remained incomplete. Beffroy spent his last years in +retirement, dying in Paris on the 17th of December 1811. + + + + +BEGAS, KARL (1794-1854), German historical painter, was born at +Heinsberg near Aix-la-Chapelle. His father, a retired judge, destined +him for the legal profession, but the boy's tastes pointed definitely in +another direction. Even at school he was remarked for his wonderful +skill in drawing and painting, and in 1812 he was permitted to visit +Paris in order to perfect himself in his art. He studied for eighteen +months in the atelier of Gros and then began to work independently. In +1814 his copy of the Madonna della Sedia was bought by the king of +Prussia, who was attracted by the young artist and did much to advance +him. He was engaged to paint several large Biblical pictures, and in +1825, after his return from Italy, continued to produce paintings which +were placed in the churches of Berlin and Potsdam. Some of these were +historical pieces, but the majority were representations of Scriptural +incidents. Begas was also celebrated as a portrait-painter, and supplied +to the royal gallery a long series of portraits of eminent Prussian men +of letters. At his death he held the post of court painter at Berlin. +His son OSKAR (1828-1883) was also a painter and professor of painting +at Berlin. REINHOLD, the sculptor, is noticed below. + + + + +BEGAS, REINHOLD (1831- ), German sculptor, younger son of Karl Begas, +the painter, was born at Berlin on the 15th of July 1831. He received +his early education (1846-1851) in the ateliers of C.D. Rauch and L. +Wichmann. During a period of study in Italy, from 1856 to 1858, he was +influenced by Bocklin and Lenbach in the direction of a naturalistic +style in sculpture. This tendency was marked in the group "Borussia," +executed for the facade of the exchange in Berlin, which first brought +him into general notice. In 1861 he was appointed professor at the art +school at Weimar, but retained the appointment only a few months. That +he was chosen, after competition, to execute the statue of Schiller for +the Gendarmen Markt in Berlin, was a high tribute to the fame he had +already acquired; and the result, one of the finest statues in the +German metropolis, entirely justified his selection. Since the year +1870, Begas has entirely dominated the plastic art in Prussia, but +especially in Berlin. Among his chief works during this period are the +colossal statue of Borussia for the Hall of Glory; the Neptune fountain +in bronze on the Schlossplatz; the statue of Alexander von Humboldt, all +in Berlin; the sarcophagus of the emperor Frederick III. in the +mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam; and, lastly, the national +monument to the emperor William (see BERLIN), the statue of Bismarck +before the Reichstag building, and several of the statues in the +Siegesallee. He was also entrusted with the execution of the sarcophagus +of the empress Frederick. + + See A.G. Meyer, "Reinhold Begas" in _Kunstler-Monographien_, ed. H. + Knackfuss, Heft xx. (Bielefeld, 1897; new ed., 1901). + + + + +BEGGAR, one who begs, particularly one who gains his living by asking +the charitable contributions of others. The word, with the verbal form +"to beg," in Middle English _beggen_, is of obscure history. The words +appear first in English in the 13th century, and were early connected +with "bag," with reference to the receptacle for alms carried by the +beggars. The most probable derivation of the word, and that now +generally accepted, is that it is a corruption of the name of the lay +communities known as Beguines and Beghards, which, shortly after their +establishment, followed the friars in the practice of mendicancy (see +BEGUINES). It has been suggested, however, that the origin of "beg" and +"beggars" is to be found in a rare Old English word, _bedecian_, of the +same meaning, which is apparently connected with the Gothic _bidjan_, +cf. German _betteln_; but between the occurrence of _bedecian_ at the +end of the 9th century and the appearance of "beggar" and "beg" in the +13th, there is a blank, and no explanation can be given of the great +change in form. For the English law relating to begging and its history, +see CHARITY, POOR LAW and VAGRANCY. + + + + +BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR, a simple card-game. An ordinary pack is divided +equally between two players, and the cards are held with the backs +upwards. The first player lays down his top card face up, and the +opponent plays his top card on it, and this goes on alternately as long +as no court-card appears; but if either player turns up a court-card, +his opponent has to play four ordinary cards to an ace, three to a king, +two to a queen, one to a knave, and when he has done so the other player +takes all the cards on the table and places them under his pack; if, +however, in the course of this playing to a court-card, another +court-card turns up, the adversary has in turn to play to this, and as +long as neither has played a full number of ordinary cards to any +court-card the trick continues. The player who gets all the cards into +his hand is the winner. + + + + +BEGONIA (named from M. Begon, a French patron of botany), a large genus +(natural order, Begoniaceae) of succulent herbs or undershrubs, with +about three hundred and fifty species in tropical moist climates, +especially South America and India. About one hundred and fifty species +are known in cultivation, and innumerable varieties and hybrid forms. +Many are tuberous. The flowers are usually showy and large, white, rose, +scarlet or yellow in colour; they are unisexual, the male containing +numerous stamens, the female having a large inferior ovary and two to +four branched or twisted stigmas. The fruit is a winged capsule +containing numerous minute seeds. The leaves, which are often large and +variegated, are unequal-sided. + +Cuttings from flowering begonias root freely in sandy soil, if placed in +heat at any season when moderately firm; as soon as rooted, they should +be potted singly into 3-in. pots, in sandy loam mixed with leaf-mould +and sand. They should be stopped to keep them bushy, placed in a light +situation, and thinly shaded in the middle of very bright days. In a few +weeks they will require another shift. They should not be overpotted, +but instead assisted by manure water. The pots should be placed in a +light pit near the roof glass. The summer-flowering kinds will soon +begin blooming, but the autumn and winter flowering sorts should be kept +growing on in a temperature of from 55 deg. to 60 deg. by night, with a +few degrees more in the day. The tuberous-rooted sorts require to be +kept at rest in winter, in a medium temperature, almost but not quite +dry. In February they should be potted in a compost of sandy loam and +leaf-mould, and placed in a temperate pit until May or June, when they +may be moved to the greenhouse for flowering. If they afterwards get at +all pot-bound, weak manure should be applied. After blooming, the supply +of water must be again slackened; in winter the plants should be stored +in a dry place secure from frost; they are increased by late summer and +autumn cuttings, after being partially cut down. + + + + +BEGUINES (Fr. _beguine_, Med. Lat. _beguina, begina, beghina_), at the +present time the name of the members of certain lay sisterhoods +established in the Netherlands and Germany, the enclosed district within +which they live being known as a beguinage (Lat. _beginagium_). The +equivalent male communities, called also Beguines (Fr. _beguins_, Lat. +_beguini_), but more usually Beghards (Lat. _baghardi, beggardi, +begehardi_, &c., O. Fr. _begard-i_, Flem. _beggaert_), have long ceased +to exist. The origin of the names Beguine and Beghard has been the +subject of much controversy. In the 15th century a legend arose that +both name and organization were traceable to St Begga, daughter of +Pippin of Landen, who consequently in 1630 was chosen by the Beguines as +the patron saint of their association. In 1630 a professor of Louvain, +Erycius Puteanus (van Putte), published a treatise, _De Begginarum apud +Belgas instituto et nomine suffragium_, in which he produced three +documents purporting to date from the 11th and 12th centuries, which +seemed conclusively to prove that the Beguines existed long before +Lambert le Begue. For two centuries these were accepted as genuine and +are admitted as such even in the monumental work of Mosheim. In 1843, +however, they were conclusively proved by the German scholar Hallmann, +from internal evidence, to be forgeries of the 14th and 15th centuries. +It is now universally admitted that both the institution and the name of +the Beguines are derived from Lambert le Begue, who died about the year +1187. The confusion caused by the spurious documents of Puteanus, +however, led, even when the legend of St Begga was rejected, to other +suggestions for the derivation of the name, e.g. from an imaginary old +Saxon word _beggen_, "to beg" or "pray," an explanation adopted even by +Mosheim, or from _begue_, "stammering," a French word of unknown origin, +which only brings us back to Lambert again, whose name of Le Begue, as +the chronicler Aegidius, a monk of Orval (Aureae Vallis), tells us, +simply means "the stammerer," _quia balbus erat_ (_Gesta pontificum +Leodiensium, c_. A.D. 1251). Doubtless this coincidence gave a ready +handle to the scoffing wits of the time, and among the numerous popular +names given to the Beghards--_bons garcons, boni pueri, boni valeti_ and +the like--we find also that of Lollards (from Flemish _lollen_, "to +stammer"). + +About the year 1170 Lambert le Begue, a priest of Liege, who had devoted +his fortune to founding the hospital and church of St Christopher for +the widows and children of crusaders, conceived the idea of establishing +an association of women, who, without taking the monastic vows, should +devote themselves to a life of religion. The effect of his preaching was +immense, and large numbers of women, many of them left desolate by the +loss of their husbands on crusade, came under the influence of a +movement which was attended with all the manifestations of what is now +called a "revival." About the year 1180 Lambert gathered some of these +women, who had been ironically styled "Beguines" by his opponents, into +a semi-conventual community, which he established in a quarter of the +city belonging to him around his church of St Christopher. The district +was surrounded by a wall within which the Beguines lived in separate +small houses, subject to no rule save the obligation of good works, and +of chastity so long as they remained members of the community. After +Lambert's death (c. 1187?) the movement rapidly spread, first in the +Netherlands and afterwards in France--where it was encouraged by the +saintly Louis IX.--Germany, Switzerland and the countries beyond. +Everywhere the community was modelled on the type established at Liege. +It constituted a little city within the city, with separate houses, and +usually a church, hospital and guest-house, the whole being under the +government of a mistress (_magistra_). Women of all classes were +admitted; and, though there was no rule of poverty, many wealthy women +devoted their riches to the common cause. The Beguines did not beg; and, +when the endowments of the community were not sufficient, the poorer +members had to support themselves by manual work, sick-nursing and the +like. + +The Beguine communities were fruitful soil for the missionary enterprise +of the friars, and in the course of the 13th century the communities in +France, Germany and upper Italy had fallen under the influence of the +Dominicans and Franciscans to such an extent that in the Latin-speaking +countries the tertiaries of these orders were commonly called _beguini_ +and _beguinae_. The very looseness of their organization, indeed, made +it inevitable that the Beguine associations should follow very diverse +developments. Some of them retained their original character; others +fell completely under the dominion of the friars, and were ultimately +converted into houses of Dominican, Franciscan or Augustinian +tertiaries; others again fell under the influence of the mystic +movements of the 13th century, turned in increasing numbers from work to +mendicancy (as being nearer the Christ-life), practised the most cruel +self-tortures, and lapsed into extravagant heresies that called down +upon them the condemnation of popes and councils.[1] All this tended to +lower the reputation of the Beguines. During the 14th century, indeed, +numerous new beguinages were established; but ladies of rank and wealth +ceased to enter them, and they tended to become more and more mere +almshouses for poor women. By the 15th century in many cases they had +utterly sunk in reputation, their obligation to nurse the sick was quite +neglected, and they had, rightly or wrongly, acquired the reputation of +being mere nests of beggars and women of ill fame. At the Reformation +the communities were suppressed in Protestant countries, but in some +Catholic countries they still survive. The beguinages found here and +there in Germany are now simply almshouses for poor spinsters, those in +Holland (e.g. at Amsterdam and Breda) and Belgium preserve more +faithfully the characteristics of earlier days. The beguinage of St +Elizabeth at Ghent has some thousand sisters, and occupies quite a +distinct quarter of the city, being surrounded by a wall and moat. The +Beguines wear the old Flemish head-dress and a dark costume, and are +conspicuous for their kindness among the poor and their sick nursing. + +It is uncertain whether the parallel communities of men originated also +with Lambert le Begue. The first records are of communities at Louvain +in 1220 and at Antwerp in 1228. The history of the male communities is +to a certain extent parallel with the female, but they were never so +numerous and their degeneration was far more rapid. The earliest Flemish +Beghard communities were associations mainly of artisans who earned +their living by weaving and the like, and appear to have been in +intimate connexion with the craft-gilds; but under the influence of the +mendicant movement of the 13th century these tended to break up, and, +though certain of the male beguinages survived or were incorporated as +tertiaries in the orders of friars, the name of Beghard became +associated with groups of wandering mendicants who made religion a cloak +for living on charity; _beguigner_ becoming in the French language of +the time synonymous with "to beg," and _beghard_ with "beggar," a word +which, according to the latest authorities, was probably imported into +England in the 13th century from this source (see BEGGAR). More serious +still, from the point of view of the Church, was the association of +these wandering mendicants with the mystic heresies of the Fraticelli, +the Apostolici and the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit. The +situation was embittered by the hatred of the secular clergy for the +friars, with whom the Beguines were associated. Restrictions were placed +upon them by the synod of Fritzlar (1269), by that of Mainz (1281) and +Eichstatt (1281). and by the synod of Beziers (1299) they were +absolutely forbidden. They were again condemned by a synod held at +Cologne in 1306; and at the synod of Trier in 1310 a decree was passed +against those "who under a pretext of feigned religion call themselves +Beghards ... and, hating manual labour, go about begging, holding +conventicles and posing among simple people as interpreters of the +Scriptures." Matters came to a climax at the council of Vienne in 1311 +under Pope Clement V., where the "sect of Beguines and Beghards" were +accused of being the main instruments of the spread of heresy, and +decrees were passed suppressing their organization and demanding their +severe punishment. The decrees were put into execution by Pope John +XXII., and a persecution raged in which, though the pope expressly +protected the female Beguine communities of the Netherlands, there was +little discrimination between the orthodox and unorthodox Beguines. This +led to the utmost confusion, the laity in many cases taking the part of +the Beguine communities, and the Church being thus brought into conflict +with the secular authorities. In these circumstances the persecution +died down; it was, however, again resumed between 1366 and 1378 by Popes +Urban V. and Gregory XI., and the Beguines were not formally reinstated +until the pontificate of Eugenius IV. (1431-1447). The male communities +did not survive the 14th century, even in the Netherlands, where they +had maintained their original character least impaired. + + See J.L. von Mosheirn, _De beghardis et beguinabus commentarius_ + (Leipzig, 1790); E. Hallmann, _Die Geschichte des Ursprungs der + belgischen Beghinen_ (Berlin, 1843); J.C.L. Giesclcr, _Eccles. Hist._ + (vol. iii., Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1853), with useful excerpts from + documents; Du Cange, _Glossarium_; Herzog-Haurk, _Realencyklopadie_ + (3rd ed., 1897) s. "Beginen," by Herman Haupt, where numerous further + authorities are cited. (W. A. P.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] In the year 1287 the council of Liege decreed that "all Beguinae + desiring to enjoy the Beguine privileges shall enter a Beguinage, and + we order that all who remain outside the Beguinage shall wear a dress + to distinguish them from the Beguinae." + + + + +BEHAIM (or BEHEM), MARTIN (1436?-1507), a navigator and geographer of +great pretensions, was born at Nuremberg, according to one tradition, +about 1436; according to Ghillany, as late as 1459. He was drawn to +Portugal by participation in Flanders trade, and acquired a scientific +reputation at the court of John II. As a pupil, real or supposed, of the +astronomer "Regiomontanus" (i.e. Johann Muller of Konigsberg in +Franconia) he became (c. 1480) a member of a council appointed by King +John for the furtherance of navigation. His alleged introduction of the +cross-staff into Portugal (an invention described by the Spanish Jew, +Levi ben Gerson, in the 14th century) is a matter of controversy; his +improvements in the astrolabe were perhaps limited to the introduction +of handy brass instruments in place of cumbrous wooden ones; it seems +likely that he helped to prepare better navigation tables than had yet +been known in the Peninsula. In 1484-1485 he claimed to have accompanied +Diogo Cao in his second expedition to West Africa, really undertaken in +1485-86, reaching Cabo Negro in 15 deg. 40' S. and Cabo Ledo still +farther on. It is now disputed whether Behaim's pretensions here deserve +any belief; and it is suggested that instead of sharing in this great +voyage of discovery, the Nuremberger only sailed to the nearer coasts of +Guinea, perhaps as far as the Bight of Benin, and possibly with Jose +Visinho the astronomer and with Joao Affonso d'Aveiro, in 1484-86. +Martin's later history, as traditionally recorded, was as follows. On +his return from his West African exploration to Lisbon he was knighted +by King John, who afterwards employed him in various capacities; but, +from the time of his marriage in 1486, he usually resided at Fayal in +the Azores, where his father-in-law, Jobst van Huerter, was governor of +a Flemish colony. On a visit to his native city in 1492, he constructed +his famous terrestrial globe, still preserved in Nuremberg, and often +reproduced, in which the influence of Ptolemy is strongly apparent, but +wherein some attempt is also made to incorporate the discoveries of the +later middle ages (Marco Polo, &c.). The antiquity of this globe and the +year of its execution, on the eve of the discovery of America, are +noteworthy; but as a scientific work it is unimportant, ranking far +below the _portolani_ charts of the 14th century. Its West Africa is +marvellously incorrect; the Cape Verde archipelago lies hundreds of +miles out of its proper place; and the Atlantic is filled with fabulous +islands. Blunders of 16 deg. are found in the localization of places the +author claims to have visited: contemporary maps, at least in regard to +continental features, seldom went wrong beyond 1 deg. It is generally +agreed that Behaim had no share in Transatlantic discovery; and though +Columbus and he were apparently in Portugal at the same time, no +connexion between the two has been established. He died at Lisbon in +1507. + + See C.G. von Murr, _Diplomatische Geschichte des beruhmten Ritters + Behaim_ (1778); A. von Humboldt, _Kritische Untersuchungen_ (1836); + F.W. Ghillany, _Geschichte des Seefahrers Martin Behaim_ (1853); O. + Peschel, _Geschichte der Erdkunde_, 214-215, 226, 251, and _Zeitalter + der Entdeckungen_, esp. p. 90; Breusing, _Zur Geschichte der + Geographie_ (1869); Eugen Gelcich in the _Mittheilungen_ of the Vienna + Geographical Society, vol. xxxvi. pp. 100, &c.; E.G. Ravenstein, + _Martin de Bohemia_, (Lisbon, 1900), _Martin Behaim, His Life and His + Globe_ (London, 1909), and _Voyages of Diogo Cao and Bartholomeu + Dias_, 1482-1488, in _Geographical Journal_, Dec. 1900; see also + _Geog. Journal_, Aug. 1893, p. 175, Nov. 1901, p. 509; Jules Mees in + _Bull. Soc. Geog._, Antwerp, 1902, pp. 182-204; A. Ferreira de Serpa + in _Bull. Soc. Geog._, Lisbon, 1904, pp. 297-307. (C. R. B.) + + + + +BEHAR, or BIHAR, a town of British India, in the Patna district of +Bengal, which gives its name to an old province, situated on the right +bank of the river Panchana. Pop. (1901) 45,063. There are still some +manufactures of silk and muslin, but trade has deserted Behar in favour +of Patna and other places more favourably situated on the river Ganges +and the railway, while the indigo industry has been ruined by the +synthetic products of the German chemist, and the English colony of +indigo planters has been scattered abroad. + +The old province, stretching widely across the valley of the Ganges from +the frontier of Nepal to the hills of Chota Nagpur, corresponds to the +two administrative divisions of Patna and Bhagalpur, with a total area +of 44,197 sq. m. and a population of 24,241,305. It is the most densely +populated tract in India, and therefore always liable to famine; but it +is now well protected almost everywhere by railways. It is a country of +large landholders and formerly of indigo planters. The vernacular +language is not Bengali, but a dialect of Hindu; and the people likewise +resemble those of Upper India. The general aspect of the country is +flat, except in the district of Monghyr, where detached hills occur, and +in the south-east of the province, where the Rajmahal and Santal ranges +abut upon the plains. + +Behar abounds in great rivers, such as the Ganges, with its tributaries, +the Ghagra, Gandak, Kusi, Mahananda and Sone. The Ganges enters the +province near the town of Buxar, flows eastward and, passing the towns +of Dinajpur, Patna, Monghyr and Colgong, leaves the province at +Rajmahal. It divides the province into two almost equal portions; north +of the river lie the districts of Saran, Champaran, Tirhoot, Purnea, and +part of Monghyr and Bhagalpur, and south of it are Shahabad, Patna, +Gaya, the Santal parganas, and the rest of Monghyr and Bhagalpur. The +Ganges and its northern tributaries are navigable by country boats of +large burden all the year round. The cultivation of opium is a +government monopoly, and no person is allowed to grow the poppy except +on account of government. The Behar Opium Agency has its headquarters at +the town of Patna. Annual engagements are entered into by the +cultivators, under a system of pecuniary advances, to sow a certain +quantity of land with poppy, and the whole produce in the form of opium +is delivered to government at a fixed rate. + +Saltpetre is largely refined in Tirhoot, Saran and Champaran, and is +exported both by rail and river to Calcutta. The manufactures of less +importance are tussore-silk, paper, blankets, brass utensils, firearms, +carpets, coarse cutlery and hardware, leather, ornaments of gold and +silver, &c. Of minerals--lead, silver and copper exist in the Bhagalpur +division, but the mines are not worked. One coal-mine is worked in the +parganas. Before the construction of railways in India, the Ganges and +the Grand Trunk road afforded the sole means of communication from +Calcutta to the North-Western Provinces. But now the railroad is the +great highway which connects Upper India with Lower Bengal. The East +Indian railway runs throughout the length of the province. The climate +of Behar is very hot from the middle of March to the end of June, when +the rains set in, which continue till the end of September. The cold +season, from October to the first half of March, is the pleasantest time +of the year. + +_History._--The province of Behar corresponds to the ancient kingdom of +Magadha, which comprised the country now included in the districts of +Patna, Gaya and Shahabad, south of the Ganges. The origin of this +kingdom, famous alike in the political and religious history of India, +is lost in the mists of antiquity; and though the Brahmanical _Puranas_ +give lists of its rulers extending back to remote ages before the +Christian era, the first authentic dynasty is that of the Saisunaga, +founded by Sisunaga (c. 600 B.C.), whose capital was at Rajagaha +(Rajgir) in the hills near Gaya; and the first king of this dynasty of +whom anything is known was Bimbisara (c. 528 B.C.), who by conquests and +matrimonial alliances laid the foundations of the greatness of the +kingdom. It was in the reign of Bimbisara that Vardhamana Mahavira, the +founder of Jainism, and Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, preached in +Magadha, and Buddhist missionaries issued thence to the conversion of +China, Ceylon, Tibet and Tatary. Even to this day Behar, where there are +extensive remains of Buddhist buildings, remains a sacred spot in the +eyes of the Chinese and other Buddhist nations. + +Bimbisara was murdered by his son Ajatasatru, who succeeded him, and +whose bloodthirsty policy reduced the whole country between the +Himalayas and the Ganges under the suzerainty of Magadha. According to +tradition, it was his grandson, Udaya, who founded the city of +Pataliputra (Patna) on the Ganges, which under the Maurya dynasty became +the capital not only of Magadha but of India. The remaining history of +the dynasty is obscure; according to Mr Vincent Smith, its last +representative was Mahanandin (417 B.C.), after whose death the throne +was usurped, under obscure circumstances, by Mahapadma Nanda, a man of +low caste (_Early Hist. of India_, p. 36). It was a son of this usurper +who was reigning at the time of the invasion of Alexander the Great; and +the conqueror, when his advance was arrested at the Hyphasis (326 B.C.), +meditating an attack on Pataliputra (the Palimbothra of the Greeks), was +informed that the king of Magadha could oppose him with a force of +20,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 2000 chariots, and 3000 or 4000 +elephants. The Nanda dynasty seems to have survived only for two +generations, when (321 B.C.) Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the +great Maurya dynasty, seized the throne. This dynasty, of which the +history belongs to that of India (q.v.), occupied the throne for 137 +years. After the death of the great Buddhist king, Asoka (c. 231), the +Maurya empire began to break up, and it was finally destroyed about +fifty years later when Pushyamitra Sunga murdered the Maurya king +Brihadratha and founded the Sunga dynasty. Descendants of Asoka +continued, however, to subsist in Magadha as subordinate rajas for many +centuries; and as late as the 8th century A.D. petty Maurya dynasties +are mentioned as ruling in Konkan. The reign of Pushyamitra, who held +his own against Menander and succeeded in establishing his claim to be +lord paramount of northern India, is mainly remarkable as marking the +beginning of the Brahmanical reaction and the decline of Buddhism; +according to certain Buddhist writers the king, besides reviving Hindu +rites, indulged in a savage persecution of the monks. The Sunga dynasty, +which lasted 112 years, was succeeded by the Kanva dynasty, which after +45 years was overthrown (c. 27 B.C.) by the Andhras or Satavahanas. In +A.D. 236 the Andhras were overthrown, and, after a confused and obscure +period of about a century, Chandragupta I. established his power at +Pataliputra (A.D. 320) and founded the famous Gupta empire (see GUPTA), +which survived till it was overthrown by the Ephthalites (q.v.), or +White Huns, at the close of the 5th century. In Magadha itself the +Guptas continued to rule as tributary princes for some centuries longer. +About the middle of the 8th century Magadha was conquered by Gopala, who +had made himself master in Bengal, and founded the imperial dynasty +known as the Palas of Bengal. They were zealous Buddhists, and under +their rule Magadha became once more an active centre of Buddhist +influence. Gopala himself built a great monastery at Udandapura, or +Otantapuri, which has been identified by Sir Alexander Cunningham with +the city of Behar, where the later Pala kings established their capital. +Under Mahipala (c. 1026), the ninth of his line, and his successor +Nayapala, missionaries from Magadha succeeded in firmly re-establishing +Buddhism in Tibet. + +In the 11th century the Pala empire, which, according to the Tibetan +historian Taranath, extended in the 9th century from the Bay of Bengal +to Delhi and Jalandhar (Jullundur) in the north and the Vindhyan range +in the south, was partly dismembered by the rise of the "Sena" dynasty +in Bengal; and at the close of the 12th century both Palas and Senas +were swept away by the Mahommedan conquerors, the city of Behar itself +being captured by the Turki free-lance Mahommed-i-Bakhtyar Khilji in +1193, by surprise, with a party of 200 horsemen. "It was discovered," +says a contemporary Arab historian, "that the whole of that fortress and +city was a college, and in the Hindi tongue they call a college Bihar." +Most of the monks were massacred in the first heat of the assault; those +who survived fled to Tibet, Nepal and the south. Buddhism in Magadha +never recovered from this blow; it lingered in obscurity for a while and +then vanished. + +Behar now came under the rule of the Mahommedan governors of Bengal. +About 1330 the southern part was annexed to Delhi, while north Behar +remained for some time longer subject to Bengal. In 1397 the whole of +Behar became part of the kingdom of Jaunpur; but a hundred years later +it was annexed by the Delhi emperors, by whom--save for a short +period--it continued to be held. The capital of the province was +established under the Moguls at the city of Behar, which gave its name +to the province. From the middle of the 14th to the middle of the 16th +century a large part of Behar was ruled by a line of Brahman tributary +kings; and in the 15th century another Hindu dynasty ruled in Champaran +and Gorakhpur. Behar came into the possession of the East India Company +with the acquisition of the Diwani in 1765, when the province was united +with Bengal. In 1857 two zemindars, Umar Singh and Kumar Singh, rebelled +against the British government, and for some months held the ruinous +fort of Rohtas against the British. + + See _Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (Oxford, 1908), _s.v._ "Bihar" and + "Bengal"; V.A. Smith, _Early History of India_ (2nd ed., Oxford, + 1908). + + + + +BEHA UD-DIN [ABU-L-MAHASIN YUSUF IBN RAFI' IBN SHADDAD BEHA UD DIN] +(1145-1234), Arabian writer and statesman, was born in Mosul and early +became famous for his knowledge of the Koran and of jurisprudence. +Before the age of thirty he became teacher in the great college at +Bagdad known as the Nizamiyya, and soon after became professor at Mosul. +In 1187, after making the pilgrimage to Mecca, he visited Damascus. +Saladin, who was at the time besieging Kaukab (a few miles south of +Tiberias), sent for him and became his friend. Beha ud-Din observed that +the whole soul of the monarch was engrossed by the war which he was then +engaged in waging against the enemies of the faith, and saw that the +only mode of acquiring his favour was by urging him to its vigorous +prosecution. With this view he composed a treatise on _The Laws and +Discipline of Sacred War_, which he presented to Saladin, who received +it with peculiar favour. From this time he remained constantly attached +to the person of the sultan, and was employed on various embassies and +in departments of the civil government. He was appointed judge of the +army and judge of Jerusalem. After Saladin's death Beha-ud-Din remained +the friend of his son Malik uz-Zahir, who appointed him judge of Aleppo. +Here he employed some of his wealth in the foundation of colleges. When +Malik uz-Zahir died, his son Malik ul-'Aziz was a minor, and Beha ud-Din +had the chief power in the regency. This power he used largely for the +patronage of learning. After the abdication of Malik ul-'Aziz, he fell +from favour and lived in retirement until his death in 1234. Beha +ud-Din's chief work is his _Life of Saladin_ (published at Leiden with +Latin translation by A. Schultens in 1732 and 1755). An English +translation was published by the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, +London, 1897. + + For list of other extant works see C. Brockelmann, _Geschichte der + arabischen Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 316 f. + (G. W. T.) + + + + +BEHA UD-DIN ZUHAIR (ABU-L FADL ZUHAIR IBN MAHOMMED AL-MUHALLABI) +(1186-1258), Arabian poet, was born at or near Mecca, and became +celebrated as the best writer of prose and verse and the best +calligraphist of his time. He entered the service of Malik us-Salih Najm +ud-Din in Mesopotamia, and was with him at Damascus until he was +betrayed and imprisoned. Beha ud-Din then retired to Nablus (Shechem) +where he remained until Najm ud-Din escaped and obtained possession of +Egypt, whither he accompanied him in 1240. There he remained as the +sultan's confidential secretary until his death, due to an epidemic, in +1258. His poetry consists mostly of panegyric and brilliant occasional +verse distinguished for its elegance. It has been published with English +metrical translation by E.H. Palmer (2 vols., Cambridge, 1877). + + His life was written by his contemporary Ibn Khallikan (see M'G. de + Slane's trans. of his _Biographical Dictionary_, vol. i. pp. 542-545). + (G. W. T.) + + + + +BEHBAHAN, a walled town of Persia in the province of Fars, pleasantly +situated in the midst of a highly cultivated plain, 128 m. W.N.W. of +Shiraz and 3 m. from the left bank of the river Tab, here called +Kurdistan river. It is the capital of the Kuhgilu-Behbahan sub-province +of Fars and has a population of about 10,000. The walls are about 3 m. +in circumference and a Narinj Kalah (citadel) stands in the south-east +corner. At a short distance north-west of the city are the ruins of +Arrajan, the old capital of the province. + + + + +BEHEADING, a mode of executing capital punishment (q.v.). It was in use +among the Greeks and Romans, and the former, as Xenophon says at the end +of the second book of the _Anabasis_, regarded it as a most honourable +form of death. So did the Romans, by whom it was known as _decollatio_ +or _capitis amputatio_. The head was laid on a block placed in a pit dug +for the purpose,--in the case of a military offender, outside the +intrenchments, in civil cases outside the city walls, near the _porta +decumana_. Before execution the criminal was tied to a stake and whipped +with rods. In earlier years an axe was used; afterwards a sword, which +was considered a more honourable instrument of death, and was used in +the case of citizens (_Dig._ 48, 19, 28). It was with a sword that +Cicero's head was struck off by a common soldier. The beheading of John +the Baptist proves that the tetrarch Herod had adopted from his suzerain +the Roman mode of execution. Suetonius (_Calig. c_. 32) states that +Caligula kept a soldier, an artist in beheading, who in his presence +decapitated prisoners fetched indiscriminately for that purpose from the +gaols. + +Beheading is said to have been introduced into England from Normandy by +William the Conqueror. The first person to suffer was Waltheof, earl of +Northumberland, in 1076. An ancient MS. relating to the earls of Chester +states that the serjeants or bailiffs of the earls had power to behead +any malefactor or thief, and gives an account of the presenting of +several heads of felons at the castle of Chester by the earl's +serjeant. It appears that the custom also attached to the barony of +Malpas. In a roll of 3 Edward II., beheading is called the "custom of +Cheshire" (Lysons' _Cheshire_, p. 299, from Harl. MS. 2009 fol. 34b). +The liberty of Hardwick, in Yorkshire, was granted the privilege of +beheading thieves. (See GUILLOTINE.) + +But with the exceptions above stated beheading was usually reserved as +the mode of executing offenders of high rank. From the 15th century +onward the victims of the axe include some of the highest personages in +the kingdom: Archbishop Scrope (1405); duke of Buckingham (1483); +Catherine Howard (1542); earl of Surrey (1547); duke of Somerset (1552); +duke of Northumberland (1553); Lady Jane Grey (1554), Lord Guildford +Dudley (1554); Mary queen of Scots (1587); earl of Essex (1601); Sir +Walter Raleigh (1618); earl of Strafford (1641); Charles I. (1649); Lord +William Russell (1683); duke of Monmouth (1685); earl of Derwentwater +(1716); earl of Kenmure (1716); earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino +(1746); and the list closes with Simon, Lord Lovat, who (9th of April +1747) was the last person beheaded in England. The execution of Anne +Boleyn was carried out not with the axe, but with a sword, and by a +French headsman specially brought over from Calais. In 1644 Archbishop +Laud was condemned to be hanged, and the only favour granted him, and +that reluctantly, was that his sentence should be changed to beheading. +In the case of the 4th Earl Ferrers (1760) his petition to be beheaded +was refused and he was hanged. + +Executions by beheading usually took place on Tower Hill, London, where +the scaffold stood permanently during the 15th and 16th centuries. In +the case of certain state prisoners, e.g. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane +Grey, the sentence was carried out within the Tower on the green by St +Peter's chapel. + +Beheading was only a part of the common-law method of punishing male +traitors, which was ferocious in the extreme. According to Walcot's case +(1696), 1 _Eng. Rep._ 89, the proper sentence was "quod ... ibidem super +bigam (herdillum) ponatur et abinde usque ad furcas de [Tyburn] +trahatur, et ibidem per collum suspendatur et vivus ad terram +prosternatur et quod secreta membra ejus amputentur, et interiora sua +intra ventrem suum capiantur et in ignem ponantur et ibidem _ipso +vivente_ comburantur, et quod caput ejus amputetur, quodque corpus ejus +in quatuor partes dividatur et illo ponantur ubi dominus rex eas +assignare voluit." There is a tradition that Harrison the regicide after +being disembowelled rose and boxed the ears of the executioner. + +In Townley's case (18 Howell, _State Trials_, 350, 351) there is a +ghastly account of the mode of executing the sentence; and in that case +the executioner cut the traitor's throat. In the case of the Cato Street +conspiracy (1820, 33 Howell, _State Trials_, 1566), after the traitors +had been hanged as directed by the act of 1814, their heads were cut off +by a man in a mask whose dexterity led to the belief that he was a +surgeon. + +Female traitors were until 1790 liable to be drawn to execution and +burnt alive. In that year hanging was substituted for burning. + +In 1814 so much of the sentence as related to disembowelling and burning +the bowels was abolished and the king was empowered by royal warrant to +substitute decapitation for hanging, which was made by that act the +ordinary mode of executing traitors. But it was not till 1870 that the +portions of the sentence as to drawing and quartering were abolished +(Forfeiture Act 1870). + +The more barbarous features of the execution were remitted in the case +of traitors of high rank, and the offender was simply decapitated. + +The block usually employed is believed to have been a low one such as +would be used for beheading a corpse. C.H. Firth and S.R. Gardiner +incline to the view that such a block was the one used at Charles I.'s +execution. The more general custom, however, seems to have been to have +a high block over which the victim knelt. Such is the form of that +preserved in the armoury of the Tower of London. This is undoubtedly the +block upon which Lord Lovat suffered, but, in spite of several axe-cuts +on it, probably not one in early use. The axe which stands beside it was +used to behead him and the other Jacobite lords, but no certainty exists +as to its having been previously employed. On the ground floor of the +King's House, at the Tower, is preserved the processional axe which +figured in the journeys of state prisoners to and from their trials, the +edge turned from them as they went, but almost invariably turned towards +them as they returned to the Tower. The axe's head is peculiar in form, +1 ft. 8 in. high by 10 in. wide, and is fastened into a wooden handle 5 +ft. 4 in. long. The handle is ornamented by four rows of burnished brass +nails. + +In Scotland they did not behead with the axe, nor with the sword, as +under the Roman law, and formerly in Holland and France, but with the +maiden (q.v.). + +Capital punishment is executed by beheading in France, and in Belgium by +means of the guillotine. + +In Germany the instrument used varies in different states: in the old +provinces of Prussia the axe, in Saxony and Rhenish Prussia the +guillotine. Until 1851 executions were public. They now take place +within a prison in the presence of certain specified officials. + +Beheading is also the mode of executing capital punishment in Denmark +and Sweden. The axe is used. In Sweden the execution takes place on the +order of the king within a prison in the presence of certain specified +officials and, if desired, of twelve representatives of the commune +within which the prison is situate (Code 1864, s. 2, Royal Ordinance +1877). + +In the Chinese empire decapitation is the usual mode of execution. By an +imperial edict (24th of April 1905) certain attendant barbarities have +been suppressed: viz. slicing, cutting up the body, and exhibiting the +head to public view (32 Clunet, 1175). + + + + +BEHEMOTH (the intensive plural of the Hebrew _b'hemah_, a beast), the +animal mentioned in the book of Job (ch. xl. 15), probably the +hippopotamus, which in ancient times was found in Egypt below the +cataracts of Syene. The word may be used in Job as typical of the +primeval king of land animals, as leviathan of the water animals. The +modern use expresses the idea of a very large and strong animal. + + + + +BEHISTUN, or BISITUN, now pronounced _Bisutum_, a little village at the +foot of a precipitous rock, 1700 ft. high, in the centre of the Zagros +range in Persia on the right bank of the Samas-Ab, the principal +tributary of the Kerkha (Choaspes). The original form of the name, +Bagistana, "place of the gods" or "of God" has been preserved by the +Greek authors Stephanus of Byzantium, and Diodorus (ii. 13), the latter +of whom says that the place was sacred to Zeus, i.e. Ahuramazda +(Ormuzd). At its foot passes the great road which leads from Babylonia +(Bagdad) to the highlands of Media (Ecbatana, Hamadan). On the steep +face of the rock, some 500 ft. above the plain, Darius I., king of +Persia, had engraved a great cuneiform inscription (11 or 12 ft. high), +which recounts the way in which, after the death of Cambyses, he killed +the usurper Gaumata (in Justin Gometes, the pseudo-Smerdis), defeated +the numerous rebels, and restored the kingdom of the Achaemenidae. Above +the inscription the picture of the king himself is graven, with a bow in +his hand, putting his left foot on the body of Gaumata. Nine rebel +chiefs are led before him, their hands bound behind them, and a rope +round their necks: the ninth is Skunka, the chief of the Scythians +(Sacae) whom he defeated. Behind the king stand his bow-bearer and his +lance-bearer; in the air appears the figure of the great god Ahuramazda, +whose protection led him to victory.[1] The inscriptions are composed in +the three languages which are written with cuneiform signs, and were +used in all official inscriptions of the Achaemenian kings: the chief +place is of course given to the Persian language (in four columns); the +three Susian (Elamitic) columns lie to the left, and the Babylonian text +is on a slanting boulder above them; a part of the Babylonian has been +destroyed by a torrent, which has made its way over it. In former times +the second language has often been called Scythian, Turanian or Median; +but we now know from numerous inscriptions of Susa that it is the +language of Elam which was spoken in Susa, the capital of the Persian +empire. + +In 1835 the difficult and almost inaccessible cliff was first climbed by +Sir Henry Rawlinson, who copied and deciphered the inscriptions +(1835-1845), and thus completed the reading of the old cuneiform text +and laid the foundation of the science of Assyriology. Diodorus ii. 13 +(cf. xvii. 110), probably following a later author who wrote the history +of Alexander's campaigns, mentions the sculptures and inscriptions, but +attributes them to Semiramis. At the foot of the rock are the remainders +of some other sculptures (quite destroyed), the fragments of a Greek +inscription of the Parthian prince Gotarzes (A.D. 40; text in +Dittenberger, _Orientis graeci inscr. selectae_, no. 431), and of an +Arabic inscription. + + See Sir Henry Rawlinson in the _Journ. R. Geog. Soc._ ix., 1839; _J.R. + Asiatic Soc._ x. 1866, xiv., 1853, xv., 1855; _Archaeologia_, xxxiv., + 1852; Sir R. Ker Porter, _Travels_, ii. 149 ff.; Flandin and Coste, + _Voyage en Perse_, i. pl. 16; and the modern editions of the + inscriptions, the best of which, up to the end of the 19th century, + were: Weissbach and Bang, _Die altpersischen Keilinschriften_ (1893); + Weissbach, _Die Achaemenideninschriften zweiter Art_ (1890); Bezold, + _Die (babylonischen) Achaemenideninschriften_ (1882). A description of + the locality, with comments on the present state of the inscriptions + and doubtful passages of the Persian text, was given by Dr A.V. + Williams Jackson in the _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, + xxiv., 1903, and in his _Persia, Past and Present_ (1906). Dr Jackson + in 1903 climbed to the ledge of the rock and was able to collate the + lower part of the four large Persian columns; he thus convinced + himself that Foy's conjecture of _arstam_ ("righteousness") for + Rawlinson's _abistam_ or _abastam_ was correct. A later investigation + was carried out in 1904 on the instructions of the British Museum + Trustees by Messrs. L.W. King and R.C. Thompson, who published their + results in 1907 under the title, _The Inscription of Darius the Great + at Behistun_, including a full illustrated account of the sculptures + and the inscription, and a complete collation of the text. + (Ed. M.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] A passage in the inscription runs:--"Thus saith Darius the king: + That which I have done I have done altogether by the grace of + Ahuramazda. Ahuramazda, and the other gods that be, brought aid to + me. For this reason did Ahuramazda, and the other gods that be, bring + aid to me, because I was not hostile, nor a liar, nor a wrongdoer, + neither I nor my family, but according to Rectitude (_arstam_) have I + ruled." (A.V. Williams Jackson, _Persia, Past and Present_) + + + + +BEHN, APHRA (otherwise AFRA, APHARA or AYFARA) (1640-1689), British +dramatist and novelist, was baptized at Wye, Kent, in 1640. Her father, +John Johnson, was a barber. While still a child she was taken out to +Surinam, then an English possession, from which she returned to England +in 1658, when it was handed over to the Dutch. In Surinam Aphra learned +the history, and acquired a personal knowledge of the African prince +Oroonoko and his beloved Imoinda, whose adventures she has related in +her novel, _Oroonoko_. On her return she married Mr Behn, a London +merchant of Dutch extraction. The wit and abilities of Mrs Behn brought +her into high estimation at court, and--her husband having died by this +time--Charles II. employed her on secret service in the Netherlands +during the Dutch war. At Antwerp she successfully accomplished the +objects of her mission; and in the latter end of 1666 she wormed out of +one Van der Aalbert the design formed by De Ruyter, in conjunction with +the DeWitts, of sailing up the Thames and burning the English ships in +their harbours. This she communicated to the English court, but although +the event proved her intelligence to have been well founded, it was at +the time disregarded. Disgusted with political service, she returned to +England, and from this period she appears to have supported herself by +her writings. Among her numerous plays are _The Forced Marriage, or the +Jealous Bridegroom_ (1671); _The Amorous Prince_ (1671); _The Town Fop_ +(1677); and _The Rover, or the Banished Cavalier_ (in two parts, 1677 +and 1681); and _The Roundheads_ (1682). The coarseness that disfigures +her plays was the fault of her time; she possessed great ingenuity, and +showed an admirable comprehension of stage business, while her wit and +vivacity were unfailing. Of her short tales, or novelettes, the best is +the story of _Oroonoko_, which was made the basis of Thomas Southerne's +popular tragedy. Mrs Behn died on the 16th of April 1689, and was buried +in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. + + See _Plays written by the Late Ingenious Mrs Behn_ (1702; reprinted, + 1871); also "Aphra Behn's Gedichte und Prosawerke," by P. Siegel in + _Anglia_ (Halle, vol. xxv., 1902, pp. 86-128,329-385); and A.C. + Swinburne's essay on "Social Verse" in _Studies in Prose and Poetry_ + (1894). + + + + +BEHR, WILLIAM JOSEPH (1775-1851), German publicist and writer, was born +at Salzheim on the 26th of August 1775. He studied law at Wurzburg and +Gottingen, became professor of public law in the university of Wurzburg +in 1799, and in 1819 was sent as a deputy to the _Landtag_ of Bavaria. +Having associated himself with the party of reform, he was regarded with +suspicion by the Bavarian king Maximilian I. and the court party, +although favoured for a time by Maximilian's son, the future King Louis +I. In 1821 he was compelled to give up his professorship, but he +continued to agitate for reform, and in 1831 the king refused to +recognize his election to the _Landtag_. A speech delivered by Behr in +1832 was regarded as seditious, and he was arrested. In spite of his +assertion of loyalty to the principle of monarchy he was detained in +custody, and in 1836 was found guilty of seeking to injure the king. He +then admitted his offence; but he was not released from prison until +1839, and the next nine years of his life were passed under police +supervision at Passau and Regensburg. In 1848 he obtained a free pardon +and a sum of money as compensation, and was sent to the German national +assembly which met at Frankfort in May of that year. He passed his +remaining days at Bamberg, where he died on the 1st of August 1851. +Behr's chief writings are: _Darstellung der Bedurfnisse, Wunsche und +Hoffnungen deutscher Nation_ (Aschaffenburg, 1816); _Die Verfassung und +Verwaltung des Staates_ (Nuremberg, 1811-1812); _Von den rechtlichen +Grenzen der Einwirkung des Deutschen Bundes auf die Verfassung, +Gesetzgebung, und Rechtspflege seiner Gliederstaaten_ (Stuttgart, 1820). + + + + +BEIRA, a seaport of Portuguese East Africa, at the mouth of the Pungwe +river, in 19 deg. 50' S., 34 deg. 50' E., 488 m. N. of Delagoa Bay, in +communication by railway with Cape Town via Umtali, Salisbury and +Bulawayo. Pop. about 4000, of whom a third are Europeans, and some 300 +Indians. The town is built on a tongue of sand extending into the river, +and is comparatively healthy. The sea front is protected by a masonry +wall, and there are over 13,000 ft. of wharfage. Vessels drawing 24 ft. +can enter the port at high tide. Between the customs house and the +railway terminus is the mouth of a small river, the Chiveve, crossed by +a steel bridge, the centre span revolving and giving two passages each +of 40 ft. The town is without any architectural pretensions, but +possesses fine public gardens. It is the headquarters of the Companhai +de Mocambique, which administers the Beira district under charter from +the Portuguese crown. The business community is largely British. + +Beira occupies the site of a forgotten Arab settlement. The present port +sprang into being as the result of a clause in the Anglo-Portuguese +agreement of 1891 providing for the construction of a railway between +Rhodesia and the navigable waters of the Pungwe. The railway at first +began at Fontesvilla, about 50 m. by river above Beira, but was +subsequently brought down to Beira. The completion in 1902 of the line +connecting Salisbury with Cape Town adversely affected the port of +Beira, the long railway route from the Cape being increasingly employed +by travellers to and from Mashonaland. Moreover, the high freights on +goods by the Beira route enabled Port Elizabeth to compete successfully +for the trade of Rhodesia. In October 1905 a considerable reduction was +made in railway rates and in port dues and customs, with the object of +re-attracting to the port the transit trade of the interior, and in 1907 +a branch of the Rhodesian customs was opened in the town. In that year +goods valued at L647,000 passed through the port to Rhodesia. Efforts +were also made to develop the agricultural and mineral resources of the +Beira district itself. The principal exports are rubber, sugar, +ground-nuts and oil seeds, beeswax, chromite (from Rhodesia), and gold +(from Manica). The imports are chiefly rice (from India) and cotton +goods for local use, and food stuffs, machinery, hardware and +manufactured goods for Rhodesia. For the three years, 1905-1907, the +average annual value of the imports and exports, excluding the transit +trade with Rhodesia, was, imports L200,000, exports L90,000. Direct +steamship communication with Europe is maintained by German and British +lines. + + See PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA; also the reports issued yearly by the + British Foreign Office on the trade of Beira. + + + + +BEIRA, an ancient principality and province of northern and central +Portugal; bounded on the N. by Entre Minho e Douro and by Traz os +Montes, E. by the Spanish provinces of Leon and Estremadura, S. by +Alemtejo and Portuguese Estremadura, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. +(1900) 1,515,834; area, 9208 sq. m. Beira is administratively divided +into the districts of Aveiro, Coimbra, Vizeu, Guarda and Castello +Branco, while it is popularly regarded as consisting of the three +sections--Beira Alta or Upper Beira (Vizeu), north and west of the Serra +da Estrella; Beira Baixa or Lower Beira (Guarda and Castello Branco), +south and east of that range; and Beira Mar or Maritime Beira (Aveiro +and Coimbra), coinciding with the former coastal province of Douro. The +coast line, about 72 m. long, is uniformly flat, with long stretches of +sandy pine forest, heath or marshland bordered by a wide and fertile +plain. Its most conspicuous features are the lagoon of Aveiro (q.v.) and +the bold headland of Cape Mondego; in the south Aveiro, Murtosa, Ovar +and Figueira da Foz are small seaports. Except along the coast, the +surface is for the most part mountainous,--the highest point in the +Serra da Estrella, which extends from north-east to south-west through +the centre of the province, being 6532 ft. The northern and +south-eastern frontiers are respectively marked by the two great rivers +Douro and Tagus, which rise in Spain and flow to the Atlantic. The +Agueda and Coa, tributaries of the Douro, drain the eastern plateaus of +Beira; the Vouga rises in the Serra da Lapa, and forms the lagoon of +Aveiro at its mouth; the Mondego springs from the Serra da Estrella, +passes through Coimbra, and enters the sea at Figueira da Foz; and the +Zezere, a tributary of the Tagus, rises north-north-east of Covilha and +flows south-west and south. + +Beira has a warm and equable climate, except in the mountains, where the +snowfall is often heavy. The soil, except in the valleys, is dry and +rocky, and large stretches are covered with heath. The principal +agricultural products are maize, wheat, garden vegetables and fruit. The +olive is largely cultivated, the oil forming one of the chief articles +of export; good wine is also produced. In the flat country between +Coimbra and Aveiro the marshy land is laid out in rice-fields or in +pastures for herds of cattle and horses. Sheep farming is an important +industry in the highlands of Upper Beira; while near Lamego swine are +reared in considerable numbers, and furnish the well-known Lisbon hams. +Iron, lead, copper, coal and marble are worked to a small extent, and +millstones are quarried in some places. Salt is obtained in considerable +quantities from the lagoons along the coast. There are few manufactures +except the production of woollen cloth, which occupies a large part of +the population in the district of Castello Branco. Three important lines +of railway, the Salamanca-Oporto, Salamanca-Lisbon and Lisbon-Oporto, +traverse parts of Beira; the two last named are also connected by the +Guarda-Figueira da Foz railway, which has a short branch line going +northwards to Vizeu. The chief towns, Aveiro (pop. 1900, 9979), Castello +Branco (7288), Coimbra (18,144), Covilha (15,469), Figueira da Foz +(6221), Guarda (6124), Ilhavo (12,617), Lamego (9471), Murtosa (9737), +Ovar (10,462) and Vizeu (8057), with the frontier fortress of Almeida +(2330), are described in separate articles. There is a striking +difference of character between the inhabitants of the highlands, who +are grave and reserved, hardy and industrious, and those of the +lowlands, who are more sociable and courteous, but less energetic. The +heir-apparent to the throne of Portugal has the title of prince of +Beira. + + + + +BEIRUT or BEYROUT. (1) A vilayet of Syria, constituted as recently as +1888, which stretches along the sea-coast from Jebel el-Akra, south of +the Orontes, to the Nahr Zerka, south of Mount Carmel, and towards the +south extends from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. It includes five +_sanjaks_, Latakia, Tripoli, Beirut, Acre and Buka'a. (2) The chief town +of the vilayet (anc. _Berytus_), the most important seaport town in +Syria, situated on the south side of St George's Bay, on rising ground +at the foot of Lebanon. Pop. 120,000 (Moslems, 36,000; Christians, +77,000; Jews, 2500; Druses, 400; foreigners, 4100). Berytus, whether it +is to be identified with Hebrew _Berothai_ or not (2 Sam. viii. 8; Ezek. +xlvii. 16), was one of the most ancient settlements on the Phoenician +coast; but nothing more than the name is known of it till B.C. 140, when +the town was taken and destroyed by Tryphon in his contest with +Antiochus VII. for the throne of the Seleucids. It duly passed under +Rome, was much favoured by the Herods and became a _colonia_. It was +famous for its schools, especially that of law, from the 4th century +A.D. onwards. Justinian recognized it as one of the three official law +schools of the empire (A.D. 533), but within a few years, as the result +of a disastrous earthquake (551), the students were transferred to +Sidon. In the following century it passed to the Arabs (635), and was +not again a Christian city till 1111, when Baldwin captured it. Saladin +retook it in 1187, and thenceforward, for six centuries and a half, +whoever its nominal lords may have been, Saracen, Crusader, Mameluke or +(from the 16th century) Turk, the Druse emirs of Lebanon dominated it +(see DRUSES). One of these, Fakr ed-Din Maan II., fortified it early in +the 17th century; but the Turks asserted themselves in 1763 and occupied +the place. During the succeeding epoch of rebellion at Acre under Jezzar +and Abdullah pashas, Beirut declined to a small town of about 10,000 +souls, in dispute between the Druses, the Turks and the pashas,--a state +of things which lasted till Ibrahim Pasha captured Acre in 1832. When +the powers moved against the Egyptians in 1840, Beirut had recently been +occupied in force by Ibrahim as a menace to the Druses; but he was +easily driven out after a destructive bombardment by Admiral Sir Robert +Stopford (1768-1847). Since the pacification of the Lebanon after the +massacre of the Christians in 1860 (for later history, see LEBANON), +Beirut has greatly increased in extent, and has become the centre of the +transit trade for all southern Syria. In 1894 a harbour, constructed by +a French company, was opened, but the insecurity of the outer roadstead +militates against its success. Nevertheless trade is on the increase. In +1895 a French company completed a railway across the Lebanon to +Damascus, and connected it with Mezerib in the Hauran, whence now starts +the line to the Hejaz. Since 1907 it has also had railway communication +with Aleppo; and a narrow-gauge line runs up the coast to Tripoli. The +steepness of the Lebanon railway, and the break of gauge at Rayak, the +junction for Aleppo, have prevented the diversion of much of the trade +of North Syria to Beirut. The town has been supplied with water, since +1875, by an English company, and with gas, since 1888, by a French +company. There are many American and European institutions in the city: +the American Presbyterian mission, with a girls' school and a printing +office, which published the Arabic translation of the Bible, and now +issues a weekly paper and standard works in Arabic; the Syrian +Protestant college with its theological seminary, medical faculty, +training college and astronomical observatory; the Scottish mission, and +St George's institute for Moslem and Druse girls; the British Syrian +mission schools; the German hospital, orphanage and boarding school; the +French hospital and schools, and the Jesuit "Universite de St Joseph" +with a printing office. In summer most of the richer residents reside on +the Lebanon, and in winter the governor of the Lebanon and many Lebanon +notables inhabit houses in Beirut. The town has many fine houses, but +the streets are unpaved and the bazaars mean. The Moslem inhabitants, +being in a minority, have often shown themselves fanatical and +turbulent. There are several fairly good hotels for tourists. + (C. W. W.; D. G. H.) + + + + +BEIT, ALFRED (1853-1906), British South African financier, was the son +of a well-to-do merchant of Hamburg, Germany, and in 1875, after a +commercial education at home, was sent out to Kimberley, South Africa, +to investigate the diamond prospects. He had relatives, the Lipperts, +out there in business, and in conjunction with Mr (afterwards Sir) +Julius Wernher (b. 1850) he rapidly acquired a leading position on the +diamond fields, and became closely allied with the ideals of Cecil +Rhodes (q.v.). In 1889 Rhodes and Beit effected the amalgamation of +various interests in the De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. It was +largely owing to the capital and enterprise of Beit that the deep-level +mining in the Witwatersrand district of the Transvaal was started, and +he had a large share in the principal company, the Rand Mines Limited. +The firm of Wernher, Beit & Co. gradually transferred the centre of +their financial operations to London, where they became the leading +house in the dealings in South African mines. The rapid progress made in +developing the diamond and gold output made Beit a man of enormous +wealth, and he utilized it lavishly in pursuit of Rhodes's South African +policy. He was one of the original directors of the British South Africa +company, and was included with Rhodes in the censure passed by the House +of Commons Commission of Inquiry on the Jameson Raid (1896). He was +subsequently one of Rhodes's trustees. Personally of a modest, gentle, +generous and retiring disposition, and strongly imbued with Rhodes's +ideas of British imperialism, he was one of the South African +millionaires of German birth against whom the anti-imperialist section +in England were never tired of employing their sarcastic invective. But +though shrinking from ostentation in any form, his purse was continually +opened for public objects, notably his support of the Imperial Light +Horse and Imperial Yeomanry in the South African War of 1899-1902, and +his endowment of the professorship of colonial history at Oxford (1905). +He gave L100,000 to establish a university in his native city of Hamburg +and L200,000 for a university in Johannesburg. He built a fine house in +Park Lane, London, but was never prominent in social life. He died, +unmarried, on the 16th of July 1906. + + + + +BEJA (or BIJA), the name under which is comprised a widespread family of +tribes, usually classed as Hamitic. They may, however, represent very +early Semitic immigrants (see HAMITIC RACES). When first recorded the +Beja occupied the whole region between the Nile and the Red Sea from the +border of Upper Egypt to the foot of the Abyssinian plateau. They were +known to the ancient Egyptians, upon whose monuments they are +represented. They are the Blemmyes of Strabo (xvii. 53), and have also +been identified with the Macrobii of Herodotus, "tallest and finest of +men" (iii. 17). It has been suggested, though on insufficient grounds, +that the Beja, rather than the Abyssinians, are the "Ethiopians" of +Herodotus, the civilized people who built the city of Meroe and its +pyramids. During the Roman period the Beja were much what they are +to-day, nomadic and aggressive, and were constantly at war. In 216 A.H. +(A.D. 832) the Moslem governor of Assuan made a treaty with the Beja +chief, by which the latter undertook to guard the road to Aidhab and pay +an annual tribute of one hundred camels. This is the earliest record of +a government engagement with the northern section of the Beja, now the +Ababda. Ibn Batuta, early in the 14th century, mentions a king of Beja, +El Hadrabi, who received two-thirds of the revenue of Aidhab, the other +third going to the king of Egypt. The Beja territory contained gold and +emerald mines. The tribesmen were the usual escort for pilgrims to Mecca +from Kus to Aidhab. According to Leo Africanus, at the close of the 14th +or very early in the 15th century their rich town of Zibid (Aidhab?) on +the Red Sea was destroyed. This seems to have broken up the tribal +cohesion. Leo Africanus describes the Beja as "most base, miserable and +living only on milk and camels' flesh." In the middle ages the Beja, +partially at any rate, were Christians. The kingdom of Meroo was +succeeded by that of "Aloa," the capital of which, Soba, was on the Blue +Nile, about 13 m. above Khartum. The country was conquered by the Funj +(q.v.), a negroid people who subsequently became Mahommedan and +compelled the Beja to adopt that religion. Until the invasion of the +Egyptians, under Ismail, son of Mehemet Ali (1820), the Funj remained in +possession. + +All the Beja are now Mahommedans, but generally only so in name, though +some of the tribes enthusiastically fought for Mahdiism (1883-99). As a +race the Beja are remarkable for physical beauty, with a colour more red +than black, and of a distinctly Caucasic type of face. The chiefs are, +as a rule, of much fairer complexion than the tribesmen. In spite of +their claim to Arab origin, the tribes have preserved many negro customs +in the matter of costume and scarring the body. Their hair-dressing is +very characteristic. The hair, worn thick as a protection against the +sun, is parted in a circle round the head on a level with the eyes, +above which the hair, saturated with mutton fat or butter, is trained +straight up like a mop, with separate tufts at sides and back. Most of +the tribes are nomadic shepherds, driving their cattle from pasture to +pasture; some few are occupied in agriculture. + +They are polygynous, but, unlike the Arabs, great independence is +granted their women. Among most of the Beja peoples the wife can return +to her mother's tent whenever she likes, and after a birth of a child +she can repudiate the husband, who must make a present to be +re-accepted. Cases are said to have occurred where the woman has thus +obtained all her husband's possessions. The whole social position of the +Beja women points, indeed, to an earlier matriarchal system. Among some +of the tribes the custom of the "fourth day free" is observed, by which +the women are only considered married for so many days a week, forming +what liaisons they please on the odd day. The chief Beja tribes are the +Ababda, Bisharin, Hadendoa, Beni-Amer, Amarar, Shukuria, Hallenga and +Hamran. + + + + +BEJA (probably the ancient _Pax Julia_), the capital of an +administrative district formerly included in the province of Alemtejo, +Portugal; situated 95 m. S.S.E. of Lisbon by the Lisbon-Faro railway, +and at the head of a branch line to Pias e Orada (3855), 26 m. E. Pop. +(1900) 8885. Beja is an episcopal city, built on an isolated hill, and +partly enclosed by walls of Roman origin; on the south it has a fine +Roman gateway. Its cathedral is modern, but the citadel, with its +beautiful Gothic tower of white marble, was founded by King Diniz +(1279-1325). The city is surrounded by far-reaching plains, known as the +Campo de Beja, and devoted partly to the cultivation of grain and fruit, +partly to the breeding of cattle and pigs; copper, iron and manganese +are also mined to a small extent, and Beja is the central market for all +these products. Cloth, pottery and olive oil are manufactured in the +city. + +The administrative district of Beja, the largest and most +thinly-populated district in Portugal, coincides with the southern part +of Alemtejo (q.v.); pop. (1900) 163,612; area, 3958 sq. m.; 41.3 +inhabitants per sq. m. + + + + +BEJAN (Fr. _bejaune_, from _bec jaune_, "yellow beak," in allusion to +unfledged birds; the equivalent to Ger. _Gelbschnabel_, Fr. _blanc-bec_, +a greenhorn), a term for freshmen, or undergraduates of the first year, +in the Scottish universities. The phrase was introduced from the French +universities, where the levying of _bejaunium_ "footing-money" had been +prohibited by the statutes of the university of Orleans in 1365 and by +those of Toulouse in 1401. In 1493 the election of an _Abbas +Bejanorum_ (Abbot of the Freshmen) was forbidden in the university of +Paris. In the German and Austrian universities the freshman was called +_beanus_. In Germany the freshman was anciently called a _Pennal_ (from +Med. Lat. _pennale_, a box for pens), in allusion to the fact that the +newly-arrived student had to carry such for the older pupils. Afterwards +_Fuchs_ (fox) was substituted for _Pennal_, and then _Goldfuchs_ because +he is supposed still to have a few gold coins from home. + + + + +BEJART, the name of several French actors, children of Marie Herve and +Joseph Bejart (d. 1643), the holder of a small government post. The +family--there were eleven children--was very poor and lived in the +Marais, then the theatrical quarter of Paris. One of the sons, JOSEPH +BEJART (c. 1617-1659), was a strolling player and later a member of +Moliere's first company (l'Illustre Theatre), accompanied him in his +theatrical wanderings, and was with him when he returned permanently to +Paris, dying soon after. He created the parts of Lelie in _L'Etourdie_, +and Eraste in _Le Depit amoureux_. His brother Louis BEJART (c. +1630-1678) was also in Moliere's company during the last years of its +travels. He created many parts in his brother-in-law's plays--Valere in +_Le Depit amoureux_, Dubois in _Le Misanthrope_, Alcantor in _Le Mariage +force_, and Don Luis in _Le Festin de Pierre_--and was an actor of +varied talents. In consequence of a wound received when interfering in a +street brawl, he became lame and retired with a pension--the first ever +granted by the company to a comedian--in 1670. + +The more famous members of the family were two sisters. + +MADELEINE BEJART (1618-1672) was at the head of the travelling company +to which her sister Genevieve (1631-1675)--who played as Mlle Herve--and +her brothers belonged, before they joined Moliere in forming l'Illustre +Theatre (1643). With Moliere she remained until her death on the 17th of +February 1672. She had had an illegitimate daughter (1638) by an Italian +count, and her conduct on her early travels had not been exemplary, but +whatever her private relations with Moliere may have been, however +acrimonious and violent her temper, she and her family remained faithful +to his fortunes. She was a tall, handsome blonde, and an excellent +actress, particularly in soubrette parts, a number of which Moliere +wrote for her. Among her creations were Marotte in _Les Precieuses +ridicules_, Lisette in _L'Ecole des maris_, Dorine in _Tartuffe_. + +Her sister, ARMANDE GRESINDE CLAIRE ELIZABETH BEJART (1645-1700), seems +first to have joined the company at Lyons in 1653. Moliere directed her +education and she grew up under his eye. In 1662, he being then forty +and she seventeen, they were married. Neither was happy; the wife was a +flirt, the husband jealous. On the strength of a scurrilous anonymous +pamphlet, _La Fameuse Comedienne, ou histoire de la Guerin_ (1688), her +character has been held perhaps unduly low. She was certainly guilty of +indifference and ingratitude, possibly of infidelity; they separated +after the birth of a daughter in 1665 and met only at the theatre until +1671. But the charm and grace which fascinated others, Moliere too could +not resist, and they were reconciled. Her portrait is given in a +well-known scene (Act iii., sc. 9) in _Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_. Mme +Moliere's first appearance on the stage was in 1663, as Elise in the +_Critique de l'ecole des femmes_. She was out of the cast for a short +time in 1664, when she bore Moliere a son--Louis XIV. and Henrietta of +England standing sponsors. But in the spring, beginning with the fetes +given at Versailles by the king to Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa, +she started her long list of important roles. She was at her best as +Celimene--really her own highly-finished portrait--in _Le Misanthrope_, +and hardly less admirable as Angelique in _Le Malade imaginaire_. She +was the Elmire at the first performance of _Tartuffe_, and the Lucile of +_Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_. All these parts were written by her husband +to display her talents to the best advantage and she made the most of +her opportunities. The death of Moliere, the secession of Baron and +several other actors, the rivalry of the Hotel de Bourgogne and the +development of the Palais Royal, by royal patent, into the home of +French opera, brought matters to a crisis with the _comediens du roi_. +Well advised by La Grange (Charles Varlet, 1639-1692), Armande leased +the Theatre Guenegaud, and by royal ordinance the residue of her company +were combined with the players from the Theatre du Marais, the fortunes +of which were at low ebb. The combination, known as the _troupe du roi_, +at first was unfortunate, but in 1679 they secured Mlle du Champmesle, +later absorbed the company of the Hotel de Bourgogne, and in 1680 the +Comedie Francaise was born. Mme Moliere in 1677 had married Eustache +Francois Guerin (1636-1728), an actor, and by him she had one son +(1678-1708). She continued her successes at the theatre until she +retired in 1694, and she died on the 30th of November 1700. + + + + +BEK, ANTONY (d. 1311), bishop of Durham, belonged to a Lincolnshire +family, and, having entered the church, received several benefices and +soon attracted the attention of Edward I., who secured his election as +bishop of Durham in 1283. When, after the death of King Alexander III. +in 1285, Edward interfered in the affairs of Scotland, he employed Bek +on this business, and in 1294 he sent him on a diplomatic errand to the +German king, Adolph of Nassau. Taking part in Edward's campaigns in +Scotland, the bishop received the surrender of John de Baliol at Brechin +in 1296, and led one division of the English army at the battle of +Falkirk in 1298. Soon after his return to England he became involved in +a quarrel with Richard de Hoton, prior of Durham. Deposed and +excommunicated by Bek, the prior secured the king's support; but the +bishop, against whom other complaints were preferred, refused to give +way, and by his obstinacy incurred the lasting enmity of Edward. In +1302, in obedience to the command of Pope Boniface VIII., he visited +Rome on this matter, and during his absence the king seized and +administered his lands, which, however, he recovered when he returned +and submitted to Edward. He continued, however, to pursue Richard with +unrelenting hostility, and was in his turn seriously harassed by the +king. Having been restored to the royal favour by Edward II. who made +him lord of the Isle of Man, the bishop died at Eltham on the 3rd of +March 1311. A man of great courage and energy, chaste and generous, Bek +was remarkable for his haughtiness and ostentation. Both as a bishop and +as a private individual he was very wealthy, and his household and +retinue were among the most magnificent in the land. He was a soldier +and a hunter rather than a bishop, and built castles at Eltham and +elsewhere. + +Bek's elder brother, THOMAS BEK (d. 1293), bishop of St David's, was a +trusted servant of Edward I. He obtained many important and wealthy +ecclesiastical positions, was made treasurer of England in 1279, and +became bishop of St David's in 1280. He was a benefactor to his diocese +and died on the 12th of May 1293. + +Another THOMAS BEK (1282-1347), who was bishop of Lincoln from 1341 +until his death on the 2nd of February 1347, was a member of the same +family. + +Antony Bek must not be confused with his kinsman and namesake, ANTONY +BEK (1279-1343), who was chancellor and dean of Lincoln cathedral, and +became bishop of Norwich after a disputed election in 1337. He was a +quarrelsome man, and after a stormy episcopate, died on the 19th of +December 1343. + + See Robert of Graystanes, _Historia de statu ecclesiae Dunelmensis_, + edited by J. Raine in his _Historiae Dunelmensis scriptores_ (London, + 1839); W. Hutchinson, _History of Durham_ (Newcastle, 1785-1794); J.L. + Low, _Diocesan History of Durham_ (London, 1881); and M. Creighton in + the _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. iv. (London, 1885). + + + + +BEKE, CHARLES TILSTONE (1800-1874), English traveller, geographer and +Biblical critic, was born in Stepney, Middlesex, on the 10th of October +1800. His father was a merchant in London, and Beke engaged for a few +years in mercantile pursuits. He afterwards studied law at Lincoln's +Inn, and for a time practised at the bar, but finally devoted himself to +the study of historical, geographical and ethnographical subjects. The +first-fruits of his researches appeared in his work entitled _Origines +Biblicae, or Researches in Primeval History_, published in 1834. An +attempt to reconstruct the early history of the human race from +geological data, it raised a storm of opposition on the part of +defenders of the traditional readings of the book of Genesis; but in +recognition of the value of the work the university of Tubingen +conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. For about two years (1837-1838) +Beke held the post of acting British consul in Saxony. From that time +till his death his attention was largely given to geographical studies, +chiefly of the Nile valley. Aided by private friends, he visited +Abyssinia in connexion with the mission to Shoa sent by the Indian +government under the leadership of Major (afterwards Sir) William +Cornwallis Harris, and explored Gojam and more southern regions up to +that time unknown to Europeans. Among other achievements, Beke was the +first to determine, with any approach to scientific accuracy, the course +of the Abai (Blue Nile). The valuable results of this journey, which +occupied him from 1840 to 1843, he gave to the world in a number of +papers in scientific publications, chiefly in the _Journal_ of the Royal +Geographical Society. On his return to London, Beke re-engaged in +commerce, but devoted all his leisure to geographical and kindred +studies. In 1848 he planned an expedition from the mainland opposite +Zanzibar to discover the sources of the Nile. A start was made, but the +expedition accomplished little. Beke's belief that the White Nile was +the main stream was, however, shown to be accurate by subsequent +exploration. In 1856 he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to establish +commercial relations with Abyssinia through Massawa. In 1861-1862 he and +his wife travelled in Syria and Palestine, and went to Egypt with the +object of promoting trade with Central Africa and the growth of cotton +in the Sudan. In 1865 he again went to Abyssinia, for the purpose of +obtaining from King Theodore the release of the British captives. On +learning that the captives had been released, Beke turned back, but +Theodore afterwards re-arrested the party. To the military expedition +sent to effect their release Beke furnished much valuable information, +and his various services to the government and to geographical research +were acknowledged by the award of L500 in 1868 by the secretary for +India, and by the grant of a civil list pension of L100 in 1870. In his +seventy-fourth year he undertook a journey to Egypt for the purpose of +determining the real position of Mount Sinai. He conceived that it was +on the eastern side of the Gulf of Akaba, and his journey convinced him +that his view was right. It has not, however, commended itself to +general acceptance. Beke died at Bromley, in Kent, on the 31st of July +1874. + +Beke's writings are very numerous. Among the more important, besides +those already named, are: _An Essay on the Nile and its Tributaries_ +(1847), _The Sources of the Nile_ (1860), and _The British Captives in +Abyssinia_ (1865). He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, +and for his contributions to the knowledge of Abyssinia received its +gold medal, and also that of the Geographical Society of France. As a +result of a controversy over the statements of another Abyssinian +explorer, Antoine Abbadie, Beke returned the medal awarded him by the +French Society. + + See _Summary of the late Dr Beke's published works and ... public + services_, by his widow (Tunbridge Wells, 1876). + + + + +BESKESCSABA, a market-town of Hungary, 123 m. S.E. of Budapest by rail. +Pop. (1900) 37,108, mostly Slovaks and Lutherans, who form the largest +Lutheran community in Hungary. The town is situated near the White +Koros, with which it is connected by a canal, and is an important +railway-junction in central Hungary. Bekescsaba possesses several large +milling establishments, while the weaving of hemp and the production of +hemp-linen is largely pursued as a home industry. The town carries on an +active trade in cereals, wines and cattle. + + + + +BEKKER, AUGUST IMMANUEL (1785-1871), German philologist and critic, was +born on the 21st of May 1785. He completed his classical education at +the university of Halle under F.A. Wolf, who considered him as his most +promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed professor of philosophy in the +university of Berlin. For several years, between 1810 and 1821, he +travelled in France, Italy, England and parts of Germany, examining +classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial +labours. He died at Berlin on the 7th of June 1871. Some detached fruits +of his researches were given in the _Anecdota Graeca_, 1814-1821; but +the full result of his unwearied industry and ability is to be found in +the enormous array of classical authors edited by him. Anything like a +complete list of his works would occupy too much space, but it may be +said that his industry extended to nearly the whole of Greek literature +with the exception of the tragedians and lyric poets. His best known +editions are: Plato (1816-1823), Oratores Attici (1823-1824), Aristotle +(1831-1836), Aristophanes (1829), and twenty-five volumes of the Corpus +Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. The only Latin authors edited by him +were Livy (1829-1830) and Tacitus (1831). Bekker confined himself +entirely to textual recension and criticism, in which he relied solely +upon the MSS., and contributed little to the extension of general +scholarship. + + See Sauppe, _Zur Erinnerung an Meineke und Bekker_ (1872); Haupt, + "Gedachtnisrede auf Meineke und Bekker," in his _Opuscula_, iii.; E.I. + Bekker, "Zur Erinnerung an meinen Vater," in the _Preussisches + Jahrbuch_, xxix. + + + + +BEKKER, BALTHASAR (1634-1698), Dutch divine, was born in Friesland in +1634, and educated at Groningen, under Jacob Alting, and at Franeker. He +was pastor at Franeker, and from 1679, at Amsterdam. An enthusiastic +disciple of Descartes, he wrote several works in philosophy and +theology, which by their freedom of thought aroused considerable +hostility. His best known work _Die Betooverde Wereld_ (1691), or _The +World Bewitched_ (1695; one volume of an English translation from a +French copy), in which he examined critically the phenomena generally +ascribed to spiritual agency, and attacked the belief in sorcery and +"possession" by the devil, whose very existence he questioned. The book +is interesting as an early study in comparative religion, but its +publication in 1692 led to Bekker's deposition from the ministry. He +died at Amsterdam. + + + + +BEKKER (or WOLFF), ELIZABETH (1738-1804), Dutch novelist, was married to +Adrian Wolff, a Reformed clergyman, but is always known under her maiden +name. After the death of her husband in 1777, she resided for some time +in France, with her close friend, Agatha Deken. She was exposed to some +of the dangers of the French Revolution, and, it is said, escaped the +guillotine only by her great presence of mind. In 1795 she returned to +Holland, and resided at the Hague till her death. Her novels were +written in conjunction with Agatha Deken, and it is somewhat difficult +to determine the exact qualities contributed by each. The _Historie van +William Levend_ (1785), _Historie van Sara Burgerhart_ (1790), _Abraham +Blankaart_ (1787), _Cornelie Wildschut_ (1793-1796), were extremely +popular. + + + + +BEL, the name of a chief deity in Babylonian religion, the counterpart +of the Phoenician Baal (q.v.) ideographically written as En-lil. Since +Bel signifies the "lord" or "master" _par excellence_, it is, therefore, +a title rather than a genuine name, and must have been given to a deity +who had acquired a position at the head of a pantheon. The real name is +accordingly to be sought in En-lil, of which the first element again has +the force of "lord" and the second presumably "might," "power," and the +like, though this cannot be regarded as certain. En-lil is associated +with the ancient city of Nippur, and since En-lil with the determinative +for "land" or "district" is a common method of writing the name of the +city, it follows, apart from other evidence, that En-lil was originally +the patron deity of Nippur. At a very early period--prior to 3000 +B.C.--Nippur had become the centre of a political district of +considerable extent, and it is to this early period that the designation +of En-lil as Bel or "the lord" reverts. Inscriptions found at Nippur, +where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888-1900 by Messrs +Peters and Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, +show that Bel of Nippur was in fact regarded as the head of an extensive +pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are "king of lands," "king of +heaven and earth" and "father of the gods." His chief temple at Nippur +was known as E-Kur, signifying "mountain house," and such was the +sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, +down to the latest days, vied with one another in embellishing and +restoring Bel's seat of worship, and the name itself became the +designation of a temple in general. Grouped around the main sanctuary +there arose temples and chapels to the gods and goddesses who formed his +court, so that E-Kur became the name for an entire sacred precinct in +the city of Nippur. The name "mountain house" suggests a lofty structure +and was perhaps the designation originally of the staged tower at +Nippur, built in imitation of a mountain, with the sacred shrine of the +god on the top. The tower, however, also had its special designation of +"Im-Khar-sag," the elements of which, signifying "storm" and "mountain," +confirm the conclusion drawn from other evidence that En-lil was +originally a storm-god having his seat on the top of a mountain. Since +the Euphrates valley has no mountains, En-lil would appear to be a god +whose worship was carried into Babylonia by a wave of migration from a +mountainous country--in all probability from Elam to the east. + +When, with the political rise of Babylon as the centre of a great +empire, Nippur yielded its prerogatives to the city over which Marduk +presided, the attributes and the titles of En-lil were transferred to +Marduk, who becomes the "lord" or Bel of later days. The older Bel did +not, however, entirely lose his standing. Nippur continued to be a +sacred city after it ceased to have any considerable political +importance, while in addition the rise of the doctrine of a triad of +gods symbolizing the three divisions--heavens, earth and water--assured +to Bel, to whom the earth was assigned as his province, his place in the +religious system. The disassociation from his local origin involved in +this doctrine of the triad gave to Bel a rank independent of political +changes, and we, accordingly, find Bel as a factor in the religion of +Babylonia and Assyria to the latest days. It was no doubt owing to his +position as the second figure of the triad that enabled him to survive +the political eclipse of Nippur and made his sanctuary a place of +pilgrimage to which Assyrian kings down to the days of Assur-baui-pal +paid their homage equally with Babylonian rulers. + + See also BELIT and BAAL. For the apocryphal book of the Bible, _Bel + and the Dragon_, see DANIEL: _Additions to Daniel_. (M. Ja.) + + + + +BELA III. (d. 1196), king of Hungary, was the second son of King Geza +II. Educated at the Byzantine court, where he had been compelled to seek +refuge, he was fortunate enough to win the friendship of the brilliant +emperor Manuel who, before the birth of his own son Alexius, intended to +make Bela his successor and betrothed him to his daughter. Subsequently, +however, he married the handsome and promising youth to Agnes of +Chatilion, duchess of Antioch, and in 1173 placed him, by force of arms, +on the Hungarian throne, first expelling Bela's younger brother Geza, +who was supported by the Catholic party. Initiated from childhood in all +the arts of diplomacy at what was then the focus of civilization, and as +much a warrior by nature as his imperial kinsman Manuel, Bela showed +himself from the first fully equal to all the difficulties of his +peculiar position. He began by adopting Catholicism and boldly seeking +the assistance of Rome. He then made what had hitherto been an elective +a hereditary throne by crowning his infant son Emerich his successor. In +the beginning of his reign he adopted a prudent policy of amity with his +two most powerful neighbours, the emperors of the East and West, but the +death of Manuel in 1180 gave Hungary once more a free hand in the +affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, her natural sphere of influence. The +attempt to recover Dalmatia, which involved Bela in two bloody wars with +Venice (1181-88 and 1190-91), was only partially successful. But he +assisted the Rascians or Serbs (see HUNGARY: _History_) to throw off the +Greek yoke and establish a native dynasty, and attempted to made Galicia +an appanage of his younger son Andrew. It was in Bela's reign that the +emperor Frederick I., in the spring of 1189, traversed Hungary with +100,000 crusaders, on which occasion the country was so well policed +that no harm was done to it and the inhabitants profited largely from +their commerce with the German host. In his last years Bela assisted the +Greek emperor Isaac II. Angelus against the Bulgarians. His first wife +bore Bela two sons, Emerich and Andrew. On her death he married Margaret +of France, sister of King Philip Augustus. Bela was in every sense of +the word a great statesman, and his court was accounted one of the most +brilliant in Europe. + + For an account of his internal reforms see HUNGARY. Though the poet + Ede Szigligeti has immortalized his memory in the play _Bela III_., we + have no historical monograph of him, but in Ignacz Acsady, _History of + the Hungarian Realm_ (Hung.), i. 2 (Budapest, 1903), there is an + excellent account of his reign. (R. N. B.) + + + + +BELA IV. (1206-1270), king of Hungary, was the son of Andrew II., whom +he succeeded in 1235. During his father's lifetime he had greatly +distinguished himself by his administration of Transylvania, then a +wilderness, which, with incredible patience and energy, he colonized and +christianized. He repaired as far as possible the ruinous effects of his +father's wastefulness, but on his accession found everything in the +utmost confusion, "the great lords," to cite the old chronicler Rogerius +(c. 1223-1266), "having so greatly enriched themselves that the king was +brought to naught." The whole land was full of violence, the very +bishops storming rich monasteries at the head of armed retainers. Bela +resolutely put down all disorder. He increased the dignity of the crown +by introducing a stricter court etiquette, and its wealth by recovering +those of the royal domains which the magnates had appropriated during +the troubles of the last reign. The pope, naturally on the side of +order, staunchly supported this regenerator of the realm, and in his own +brother Coloman, who administered the district of the Drave, Bela also +found a loyal and intelligent co-operator. He also largely employed Jews +and Ishmaelites,[1] the financial specialists of the day, whom he +rewarded with lands and titles. The salient event of Bela's reign was +the terrible Tatar invasion which reduced three-quarters of Hungary to +ashes. The terror of their name had long preceded them, and Bela, in +1235 or 1236, sent the Dominican monk Julian, by way of Constantinople, +to Russia, to collect information about them from the "ancient Magyars" +settled there, possibly the Volgan Bulgarians. He returned to Hungary +with the tidings that the Tatars contemplated the immediate conquest of +Europe. Bela did his utmost to place his kingdom in a state of defence, +and appealed betimes to the pope, the duke of Austria and the emperor +for assistance; but in February and March 1241 the Tatars burst through +the Carpathian passes; in April Bela himself, after a gallant stand, was +routed on the banks of the Sajo and fled to the islands of Dalmatia; and +for the next twelve months the kingdom of Hungary was merely a +geographical expression. The last twenty-eight years of Bela's reign +were mainly devoted to the reconstruction of his realm, which he +accomplished with a single-minded thoroughness which has covered his +name with glory. (See HUNGARY: _History_.) + +Perhaps the most difficult part of his task was the recovery of the +western portions of the kingdom (which had suffered least) from the +hands of Frederick of Austria, who had seized them as the price of +assistance which had been promised but never given. First Bela solicited +the aid of the pope, but was compelled finally to resort to arms, and +crossing the Leitha on the 15th of June 1246, routed Frederick, who was +seriously wounded and trampled to death by his own horsemen. With him +was extinguished the male line of the house of Babenberg. In the south +Bela was less successful. In 1243 he was obliged to cede to Venice, +Zara, a perpetual apple of discord between the two states; but he kept +his hold upon Spalato and his other Dalmatian possessions, and his wise +policy of religious tolerance in Bosnia enabled Hungary to rule that +province peaceably for many years. The new Servian kingdom of the +Nemanides, on the other hand, gave him much trouble and was the occasion +of many bloody wars. In 1261 the Tatars under Nogai Khan invaded Hungary +for the second time, but were defeated by Bela and lost 50,000 men. Bela +reached the apogee of his political greatness in 1264 when, shortly +after his crushing defeat of the Servian king, Stephen Urosh, he +entertained at his court, at Kalocsa, the ambassadors of the newly +restored Greek emperor, of the kings of France, Bulgaria and Bohemia and +three Tatar _mirzas_. For a time Bela was equally fortunate in the +north-west, where the ambitious and enterprising Poemyslidae had erected +a new Bohemian empire which absorbed the territories of the old +Babenbergers and was very menacing to Hungary. With Ottakar II. in +particular, Bela was almost constantly at war for the possession of +Styria, which ultimately fell to the Bohemians. The last years of Bela's +life were embittered by the ingratitude of his son Stephen, who rebelled +continuously against his father and ultimately compelled him to divide +the kingdom with him, the younger prince setting up a capital of his own +at Sarospatak, and following a foreign policy directly contrary to that +of his father. Bela died on the 3rd of May 1270 in his sixty-fourth +year. With the people at large he was popular to the last; his services +to his country had been inestimable. He married, while still +crown-prince, Maria, daughter of the Nicaean emperor, Theodore Lascaris, +whom his own father brought home with him from his crusade. She bore +him, besides his two sons Stephen and Bela, seven daughters, of whom St +Margaret was the most famous. + + No special monograph for the whole reign exists. For the Tatar + invasion see the contemporary Rogerius, _Epistolae super destructione + Regni Hungarias per Tartaros facta_ (Budapest, 1885). A vivid but + somewhat chauvinistic history of Bela's reign will be found in + Acsady's _History of the Hungarian Realm_ (Hung.), i. 2 (Budapest, + 1903). (R. N. B.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] Mahommedan itinerant chapmen, from the Volga. + + + + +BELA, LAS BELA, or LUS BEYLA, situated in 26 deg. 27' 30" N. lat. and 66 +deg. 45' 0" E. long., 350 ft. above sea level, capital of the small +independent state of Las Bela to the south of Kalat (Baluchistan), ruled +by the Jam (or Cham), who occupies the position of a protected chief +under the British Raj. To the east lies Sind, and to the west Makran, +and from time immemorial the great trading route between Sind and Persia +has passed through Las Bela. The area of Las Bela is 6357 sq. m., and +its population in 1901 was 56,109, of which 54,040 were Mussulmans. The +low-lying, alluvial, hot and malarial plains of Las Bela, occupying +about 6000 sq. m. on the north-east corner of the Arabian Sea, are +highly irrigated and fertile--two rivers from the north, the Purali and +the Kud, uniting to provide a plentiful water supply. The bay of +Sonmiani once extended over most of these plains, where the Purali delta +is now growing with measurable strides. The hill ranges to the east, +parting the plains from Sind (generally known locally as the Mor and the +Kirthar), between which lies the long narrow line of the Hab valley, +strike nearly north and south, diminishing in height as they approach +the sea and allowing of a route skirting the coast between Karachi and +Bela. To the west they are broken into an infinity of minor ridges +massing themselves in parallel formation with a strike which curves from +south to west till they form the coast barrier of Makran. The Persian +route from India, curving somewhat to the north, traverses this waste of +barren ridges almost at right angles, but on dropping into the Kolwah +valley its difficulty ceases. It then becomes an open road to Kej and +Persia, with an easy gradient. This was undoubtedly one of the greatest +trade routes of the medieval days of Arab ascendancy in Sind, and it is +to this route that Bela owes a place in history which its modern +appearance and dimensions hardly seem to justify. Bela is itself rather +prettily situated on a rocky site above the banks of the Purali. About +four miles to the south are the well-kept gardens which surround the +tomb of Sir Robert Sandeman; which is probably destined to become a +"ziarat," or place of pilgrimage, of even greater sanctity than that of +General Jacob at Jacobabad. The population of the town numbers about +5000. The Jam's retinue consists of about 300 infantry, 50 cavalry, and +4 guns. Liability to assist on active service is the only acknowledgment +of the suzerainty which is paid by the Jam to the Khan of Kalat. The +Jam, Mir Kamal Khan, succeeded his father, Sir Mir Khan, in 1895, and +was formally invested with powers in 1902. + +From very early times this remote corner of Baluchistan has held a +distinct place in history. There are traces of ancient Arab (possibly +Himyaritic) occupation to be found in certain stone ruins at Gondakeha +on the Kud river, 10 m. to the north-west of Bela, whilst the Greek name +"Arabis" for the Purali is itself indicative of an early prehistoric +connexion with races of Asiatic Ethiopians referred to by Herodotus. On +the coast, near the village of Sonmiani (a station of the Indo-Persian +telegraph line) may be traced the indentation which once formed the bay +of Morontobara, noted in the voyage of Nearchus; and it was on the +borders of Makran that the Turanian town of Rhambakia was situated, +which was once the centre of the trade in "bdellium." In the 7th century +A.D. Las Bela was governed by a Buddhist priest, at which time all the +province of Gandava was Buddhist, and Sind was ruled by the Brahman, +Chach. Buddhist caves are to be found excavated in the conglomerate +cliffs near Gondakeha, at a place called Gondrani, or Shahr-i-Rogan. +With the influx of Arabs into Makran, Bela, under the name of Armel (or +Armabel), rose to importance as a link in the great chain of trading +towns between Persia and Sind; and then there existed in the delta such +places as Yusli (near the modern Uthal) and Kambali (which may possibly +be recognized in the ruins at Khairokot), and many smaller towns, each +of which possessed its citadel, its caravanserai and bazaar, which are +not only recorded but actually mapped by one of the medieval Arab +geographers, Ibn Haukal. It is probable that Karia Pir, 1-1/2 m. to the +east of the modern city, represents the site of the Armabel which was +destroyed by Mahommed Kasim in his victorious march to Sind in 710. +There is another old site 5 m. to the west of the modern town. The ruins +at Karia Pir, like those of Tijarra Pir and Khairokot, contain Arab +pottery, seals, and other medieval relics. The Lumris, or Lasis, who +originate the name Las as a prefix to that of Bela, are the dominant +tribe in the province. They are comparatively recent arrivals who +displaced the earlier Tajik and Brahui occupants. It is probable that +this influx of Rajput population was coincident with the displacement of +the Arab dynasties in Sind by the Mahommedan Rajputs in the 11th century +A.D. Some authorities connect the Lumris with the Sumras. + + There are no published accounts of Bela, excepting those of the Indian + government reports and gazetteers. This article is compiled from + unpublished notes by the author and by Mr Wainwright, of the Indian + Survey department. (T. H. H.*) + + + + +BELA, a town of British India, administrative headquarters of the +Partabgarh district of the United Provinces, with a railway station 80 +m. from Benares. Pop. (1901) 8041. It adjoins the village of Partabgarh +proper, and the civil station sometimes known as Andrewganj. Bela, which +was founded in 1802 as a cantonment, became a district headquarters +after the mutiny. It has trade in agricultural produce. There is a +well-known hospital for women here. + + + + +BELAY (from the same O. Eng. origin as "lay"; cf. Dutch _beleggen_), a +nautical term for making ropes fast round a pin. In earlier days the +word was synonymous with "waylay" or "surround." + + + + +BELCHER, SIR EDWARD (1799-1877), British naval officer, entered the navy +in 1812. In 1825 he accompanied Frederick William Beechey's expedition +to the Pacific and Bering Strait, as a surveyor. He subsequently +commanded a surveying ship on the north and west coasts of Africa and in +the British seas, and in 1836 took up the work which Beechey left +unfinished on the Pacific coast of South America. This was on board the +"Sulphur," which was ordered to return to England in 1839 by the +Trans-Pacific route. Belcher made various observations at a number of +islands which he visited, was delayed by being despatched to take part +in the war in China in 1840-1841, and reached home only in 1842. In 1843 +he was knighted, and was now engaged in the "Samarang," in surveying +work in the East Indies, the Philippines, &c., until 1847. In 1852 he +was given command of the government Arctic expedition in search of Sir +John Franklin. This was unsuccessful; Belcher's inability to render +himself popular with his subordinates was peculiarly unfortunate in an +Arctic voyage, and he was not wholly suited to command vessels among +ice. This was his last active service, but he became K.C.B. in 1867 and +an admiral in 1872. He published a _Treatise on Nautical Surveying_ +(1835), _Narrative of a Voyage round the World performed in H.M.S. +"Sulphur," 1836-1842_ (1843), _Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. +"Samarang" during 1843-1846_ (1848; the _Zoology of the Voyage_ was +separately dealt with by some of his colleagues, 1850), and _The Last of +the Arctic Voyages_ (1855); besides minor works, including a novel, +_Horatio Howard Brenton_ (1856), a story of the navy. He died in London +on the 18th of March 1877. + + + + +BELDAM (like "belsire," grandfather, from the Fr. _bel_, good, +expressing relationship; cf. the Fr. _belle-mere_, mother-in-law, and +_dame_, in Eng. form "dam," mother), strictly a grandmother or remote +ancestress, and so an old woman; generally used contemptuously as +meaning an old hag. + + + + +BELESME, ROBERT OF (fl. 1100), earl of Shrewsbury. From his mother Mabel +Talvas he inherited the fief of Belesme, and from his father, the +Conqueror's companion, that of Shrewsbury. Both were march-fiefs, the +one guarding Normandy from Maine, and the other England from the Welsh; +consequently their lord was peculiarly powerful and independent. Robert +is the typical feudal noble of the time, circumspect and politic, +persuasive and eloquent, impetuous and daring in battle, and an able +military engineer; in person, tall and strong; greedy for land, an +oppressor of the weak, a systematic rebel and traitor, and savagely +cruel. He first appears as a supporter of Robert's rebellion against the +Conqueror (1077); then as an accomplice in the English conspiracy of +1088 against Rufus. Later he served Rufus in Normandy, and was allowed +to succeed his brother Hugh in the earldom of Shrewsbury (1098). But at +the height of his power, he revolted against Henry I (1102). He was +banished and deprived of his English estate; for sometime after he +remained at large in Normandy, defying the authority of Robert and Henry +alike. He betrayed Robert's cause at Tinchebrai; but in 1112 was +imprisoned for life by Henry I. + + See E.A. Freeman's _William Rufus_ and his _Norman Conquest_, vol. + iv.; and J.M. Lappenberg's _History of England under the Norman + Kings_, trans. B. Thorpe (1857). + + + + +BELFAST, a city, county and parliamentary borough, the capital of the +province of Ulster, and county town of county Antrim, Ireland. Pop. +(1901) 349,180. It is a seaport of the first rank, situated at the +entrance of the river Lagan into Belfast Lough, 112-3/4 m. north of +Dublin by rail, on the north-east coast of the island. It is an +important railway centre, with terminal stations of the Great Northern, +Northern Counties (Midland of England), and Belfast & County Down +railways, and has regular passenger communication by sea with Liverpool, +Fleetwood, Heysham, Glasgow, and other ports of Great Britain. It is +built on alluvial deposit and reclaimed land, mostly not exceeding 6 ft. +above high water mark, and was thus for a long period subject to +inundation and epidemics, and only careful drainage rendered the site +healthy. The appearance of the city plainly demonstrates the modern +growth of its importance, and evidence is not wanting that for a +considerable period architectural improvement was unable to keep pace +with commercial development. Many squalid districts, however, have been +improved away to make room for new thoroughfares and handsome buildings. +One thoroughfare thus constructed at the close of the 19th century is +the finest in Belfast--Royal Avenue. It contains, among several notable +buildings, the post office, and the free public library, opened in 1888 +and comprising a collection of over 40,000 volumes, as well as an art +gallery and a museum of antiquities especially rich in remains of the +Neolithic period. The architect was Mr W.H. Lynn. The magnificent city +hall, from designs of Mr (afterwards Sir) Brumwell Thomas, was opened in +1906. The principal streets, such as York Street, Donegall Street, North +Street, High Street, are traversed by tramways. Four bridges cross the +Lagan; the Queen's Bridge (1844, widened in 1886) is the finest, while +the Albert Bridge (1889) replaces a former one which collapsed. Other +principal public buildings, nearly all to be included in modern schemes +of development, are the city hall, occupying the site of the old Linen +Hall, in Donegall Square, estimated to cost L300,000; the commercial +buildings (1820) in Waring Street, the customhouse and inland revenue +office on Donegall Quay, the architect of which, as of the court house, +was Sir Charles Lanyon, and some of the numerous banks, especially the +Ulster Bank. The Campbell College in the suburb of Belmont was founded +in 1892 in accordance with the will of Mr W.J. Campbell, a Belfast +merchant, who left L200,000 for the building and endowment of a public +school. Other educational establishments are Queen's University, +replacing the old Queen's College (1849) under the Irish Universities +Act 1908; the Presbyterian and the Methodist Colleges, occupying +neighbouring sites close to the extensive botanical gardens, the Royal +Academical Institution, and the Municipal Technical Institute. In 1897 +the sum of L100,000 was subscribed by citizens to found a hospital +(1903) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and named +after her. It took the place of an institution which, under various +names, had existed since 1797. Public monuments are few, but include a +statue of Queen Victoria (1903) and a South African War memorial (1905) +in front of the city hall; the Albert Memorial (1870), in the form of a +clock-tower, in Queen Street; a monument to the same prince in High +Street; and a statue in Wellington Place to Dr Henry Cooke, a prominent +Presbyterian minister who died in 1868. The corporation controls the gas +and electric and similar undertakings. The water supply, under the +control of the City and District Water Commissioners (incorporated +1840), has its sources in the Mourne Mountains, Co. Down, 40 m. distant, +with a service reservoir at Knockbreckan; also in the hilly district +near Carrickfergus. There are several public parks, of which the +principal are the Ormeau Park (1870), the Victoria, Alexandra, and Falls +Road parks. There is a Theatre Royal in Arthur Square. There are also +several excellent clubs and societies, social, political, scientific, +and sporting; including among the last the famous Royal Ulster Yacht +Club. + +In 1899 was laid the foundation stone of the Protestant cathedral in +Donegall Street, designed by Sir Thomas Drew and Mr W.H. Lynn to seat +3000 worshippers, occupying the site of the old St Anne's parish church, +part of the fabric of which the new building incorporates. The diocese +is that of Down, Connor, and Dromore. The first portion (the nave) was +consecrated on the 2nd of June 1904. The plan is a Latin cross, the west +front rising to a height of 105 ft., while the central tower is 175 ft. +The pulpit was formerly used in the nave of Westminster Abbey, being +presented to Belfast cathedral by the dean and chapter of that +foundation. + +Most of the older churches are classical in design, and the most notable +are St George's, in High Street, and the Memorial church of Dr Cooke in +May Street. For the more modern churches the Gothic style has frequently +been used. Amongst these are St James, Antrim Road; St Peter's Roman +Catholic chapel, with its Florentine spire; Presbyterian churches in +Fitzroy Avenue, and Elmwood Avenue, and the Methodist chapel, Carlisle +Circus. The Presbyterians and Protestant Episcopalians each outnumber +the Roman Catholics in Belfast, and these three are the chief religious +divisions. + +_Environs._--The country surrounding Belfast is agreeable and +picturesque, whether along the shores of the Lough or towards the girdle +of hills to the west; and is well wooded and studded with country seats +and villas. In the immediate vicinity of the city are several points of +historic interest and natural beauty. The Cave Hill, though exceeded in +height by Mount Divis, Squire's Hill, and other summits, is of greatest +interest for its caves, in the chalk, from which early weapons and other +objects have been recovered. The battle in 1408, which was fought along +the base of the cliffs here between the Savages of the Ards and the +Irish, is described in Sir Samuel Ferguson's "Hibernian Nights +Entertainment." Here also are McArt's Fort and other earthworks, and +from here the importance of the physical position of Belfast may be +appreciated to the full. At Newtonbreda, overlooking the Lagan, was the +palace of Con O'Neill, whose sept was exterminated by Deputy Mountjoy in +the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Belfast Lough is of great though quiet +beauty; and the city itself is seen at its best from its seaward +approach, with its girdle of hills in the background. On the shores of +the lough several villages have grown into residential towns for the +wealthier classes, whose work lies in the city. Of these Whitehouse and +White Abbey are the principal on the western shore, and on the eastern, +Holywood, which ranks practically as a suburb of Belfast, and, at the +entrance to the lough, Bangor. + +_Harbour and Trade._--The harbour and docks of Belfast are managed by a +board of harbour commissioners, elected by the ratepayers and the +shipowners. The outer harbour is one of the safest in the kingdom. By +the Belfast Harbour Acts the commissioners were empowered to borrow more +than L2,500,000 in order to carry out several new works and improvements +in the port. Under the powers of these acts a new channel, called the +Victoria Channel, several miles in length, was cut about 1840 leading in +a direct line from the quays to the sea. This channel affords 20 ft. of +water at low tide, and 28 ft. at full tide, the width of the channel +being 300 ft. The Alexandra Dock, which is 852 ft. long and 31 ft. deep, +was opened in 1889, and the extensive improvements (including the York +Dock, where vessels carrying 10,000 tons can discharge in four to six +days) have been effected from time to time, making the harbour one of +the most commodious in the United Kingdom. The provision of a new +graving dock adjoining the Alexandra was delayed in October 1905 by a +subsidence of the ground during its construction. Parliamentary powers +were obtained to construct a graving dock capable of accommodating the +largest class of warships. The growth and development of the +shipbuilding industry has been immense, the firm of Harland & Wolff +being amongst the first in the trade, and some of the largest vessels in +the world come from their yards. The vast increase of the foreign trade +of Belfast marks its development, like Liverpool, as a great +distributing port. The chief exports are linen, whisky, aerated waters, +iron ore and cattle. + +Belfast is the centre of the Irish linen industry, machinery for which +was introduced by T. & A. Mulholland in 1830, a rapid extension of the +industry at once resulting. It is also the headquarters and business +centre for the entire flax-spinning and weaving industry of the country. +Distilling is extensively carried on. Several firms are engaged in the +manufacture of mineral waters, for which the water of the Cromac Springs +is peculiarly adapted. Belfast also has some of the largest tobacco +works and rope works in the world. + +_Administration._--In conformity with the passing of the Municipal +Corporations Act of 1840 the constitution of the corporation was made to +consist of ten aldermen and thirty councillors, under the style and +title of "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Belfast." +In 1888 the rank of a city was conferred by royal charter upon Belfast, +with the incidental rank, liberties, privileges, and immunities. In 1892 +Queen Victoria conferred upon the mayor of the city the title of lord +mayor, and upon the corporation the name and description of "The Lord +Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of the city of Belfast." By the passing of +the Belfast Corporation Act of 1896, the boundary of the city was +extended, and the corporation made to consist of fifteen aldermen and +forty-five councillors, and the number of wards was increased from five +to fifteen. By virtue of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, +Belfast became a county borough on the 1st of April 1899. By the Local +Government (Ireland) Act 1898, Belfast became for assize purposes "the +county of the city of Belfast," with a high sheriff. It is divided into +four parliamentary divisions north, south, east and west, each returning +one member. The total area is 16,594 acres. + +_History._--The etymology of the name (for which several derivations +have been proposed) and the origin of the town are equally uncertain, +and there is not a single monument of antiquarian interest upon which to +found a conjecture. About 1177 a castle is said to have been built by +John de Courcy, to be destroyed by Edward Bruce in 1316. It may be noted +here that Belfast Castle was finally burnt in 1708; but a modern +mansion, on Cave Hill, outside the city, bears that name. About the +beginning of the 16th century, Belfast is described as a town and +fortress, but it was in reality a mere fishing village in the hands of +the house of O'Neill. In the course of the wars of Gerald Fitzgerald, +8th earl of Kildare, Belfast was twice attacked by him, in 1503 and +1512. The O'Neills, always opposed to the English, had forfeited every +baronial right; but in 1552 Hugh O'Neill of Clandeboye promised +allegiance to the reigning monarch, and obtained the castle of +Carrickfergus, the town and fortress of Belfast, and all the surrounding +lands. Belfast was then restored from the half ruined state into which +it had fallen, and the castle was garrisoned. The turbulent successors +of O'Neill having been routed by the English, the town and fortress were +obtained by grant dated the 16th of November 1571 by Sir Thomas Smith, a +favourite of Queen Elizabeth, but were afterwards forfeited by him to +the lord deputy Sir Arthur Chichester, who, in 1612, was created Baron +Chichester of Belfast. At this time the town consisted of about 120 +houses, mostly built of mud and covered with thatch, while the castle, a +two-storeyed building, was roofed with shingles. A charter was now +granted to the town by James I. (April 27, 1613) constituting it a +corporation with a chief magistrate and 12 burgesses and commonalty, +with the right of sending two members to parliament. In 1632 Thomas +Wentworth, Earl Strafford, was appointed first lord deputy of Ireland, +and Belfast soon shared largely in the benefits of his enlightened +policy, receiving, among other favours, certain fiscal rights which his +lordship had purchased from the corporation of Carrickfergus. Two years +after the rebellion of 1641 a rampart was raised round the town, pierced +by four gates on the land side. In 1662, as appears by a map still +extant, there were 150 houses within the wall, forming five streets and +as many lanes; and the upland districts around were one dense forest of +giant oaks and sycamores, yielding an unfailing supply of timber to the +woodmen of Carrickfergus. + +Throughout the succeeding fifty years the progress of Belfast surpassed +that of most other towns in Ireland. Its merchants in 1686 owned forty +ships, of a total carrying power of 3300 tons, and the customs collected +were close upon L20,000. The old charter was annulled by James II. and a +new one issued in 1688, but the old was restored in 1690 by William III. +When the king arrived at Belfast in that year there were only two places +of worship in the town, the old corporation church in the High Street, +and the Presbyterian meeting-house in Rosemary Lane, the Roman Catholics +not being permitted to build their chapels within the walls of corporate +towns. + +At the beginning of the 18th century Belfast had become known as a place +of considerable trade, and was then thought a handsome, thriving and +well-peopled town, with many new houses and good shops. During the civil +commotions which so long afflicted the country, it suffered less than +most other places; and it soon afterwards attained the rank of the +richest commercial town in the north of Ireland. James Blow and Co. +introduced letterpress printing in 1696, and in 1704 issued the first +copy of the Bible produced in the island. In September 1737, Henry and +Robert Joy started the _Belfast News Letter_. Twenty years afterwards +the town contained 1800 houses and 8549 inhabitants, 556 of whom were +members of the Church of Rome. It was not, however, till 1789 that +Belfast obtained the regular communication, which towns of less +importance already enjoyed, with Dublin by stage coach, a fact which is +to be explained by the badness of the roads and the steepness of the +hills between Newry and Belfast. + +The increased freedom of trade with which Ireland was favoured, the +introduction of the cotton manufacture by Robert Joy and Thomas M'Cabe +in 1777, the establishment in 1791 of shipbuilding on an extensive scale +by William Ritchie, an energetic Scotsman, combined with the rope and +canvas manufacture already existing, supplied the inhabitants with +employments and increased the demand for skilled labour. The population +now made rapid strides as well by ordinary extension as by immigration +from the rural districts. Owing to the close proximity of powerful +opposed religious sects, the modern history of the city is not without +its record of riot and bloodshed, as in 1880 and 1886, and in August +1907 serious rioting followed upon a strike of carters; but the +prosperity of the city has been happily unaffected. + + See George Benn, _History of Belfast_ (Belfast, 1877); Robert M. + Young, _Historical Notices of Old Belfast_ (Belfast, 1896). + + + + +BELFAST, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of Waldo county, +Maine, U.S.A., on Belfast Bay (an arm of the Penobscot), and about 32 m. +south-south-west of Bangor. Pop. (1890) 5294; (1910) 4618. It is served +by the Belfast branch of the Maine Central railway (connecting with the +main line at Burnham Junction, 33 m. distant), and by the coasting +steamers (from Boston) of the Eastern Steamship Co. The city, a summer +resort, lies on an undulating hillside, which rises from the water's +edge to a height of more than 150 ft., and commands extensive views of +the picturesque islands, headlands, and mountains of the Maine coast. It +has a public library. Among the industries of Belfast are trade with the +surrounding country, the manufacture of shoes, leather boards, axes, and +sashes, doors and blinds, and the building and repairing of boats. Its +exports in 1908 were valued at $285,913 and its imports at $10,313. +Belfast was first settled (by Scottish-Irish) in 1769, and in 1773 was +incorporated as a town under its present name (from Belfast, Ireland). +The town was almost completely destroyed by the British in 1779, but its +rebuilding was begun in the next year. It was held by a British force +for five days in September 1814. Belfast was chartered as a city in +1850. + + + + +BELFORT, TERRITORY OF, administrative division of eastern France, formed +from the southern portion of the department of Haut-Rhin, the rest of +which was ceded to Germany by the treaty of Frankfort (1871). It is +bounded on the N.E. and E. by German Alsace, on the S.E. and S. by +Switzerland, on the S.W. by the department of Doubs, on the W. by that +of Haute-Saone, on the N. by that of Vosges. Pop. (1906), 95,421. + +With an area of only 235 sq. m., it is, next to that of Seine, the +smallest department of France. The northern part is occupied by the +southern offshoots of the Vosges, the southern part by the northern +outposts of the Jura. Between these two highlands stretches the Trouee +(depression) de Belfort, 18-1/2 m. broad, joining the basins of the +Rhine and the Rhone, traversed by the canal from the Rhone to the Rhine +and by several railways. A part of the natural highway open from +Frankfort to the Mediterranean, the Trouee has from earliest times +provided the route for the migration from north to south, and is still +of great commercial and strategical value. The northern part, occupied +by the Vosges, rises to 4126 ft. in the Ballon d'Alsace, the northern +termination and the culminating point of the department; to 3773 ft. in +the Planche des Belles-Filles; to 3579 ft. in the Signal des Plaines; to +3534 ft. in the Barenkopf; and to numerous other lesser heights. South +of the Trouee de Belfort, there rise near Delle limestone hills, in part +wooded, on the frontiers of France, Alsace, and Switzerland, attaining +1680 ft. in the Foret de Florimont. The territory between +Lachapelle-sous-Rougemont (in the north-east), Belfort and Delle does +not rise above 1300 ft. The line of lowest altitude follows the river St +Nicolas and the Rhone-Rhine canal. The chief rivers are the Savoureuse, +24 m. long, running straight south from the Ballon d'Alsace, and +emptying into the Allaine; the Allaine, from Switzerland, entering the +territory a little to the south of Delle, and leaving it a little to the +west of Morvillars; the St Nicolas, 24 m. long, from the Barenkopf, +running southwards and then south-west into the Allaine. The climate to +the north of the town of Belfort is marked by long and rigorous winters, +sudden changes of temperature, and an annual rainfall of 31 in. to 39 +in. retained by an impervious subsoil; farther south it is milder and +more equable with a rainfall of 23 in. to 31 in., quickly absorbed by +the soil or evaporated by the sun. About one-third of the total area is +arable land; wheat, oats and rye are the chief cereals; potatoes come +next in importance. Forest covers another third of the surface; the +chief trees are firs, pines, oak and beech; cherries are largely grown +for the distillation of kirsch. Pasture and forage crops cover the +remaining third of the Territory; only horned cattle are raised to any +extent. There is an unworked concession of copper, silver and lead at +Giromagny; and there are also quarries of stone. The Territory is an +active industrial region. The two main branches of manufacture are the +spinning and weaving of cotton and wool, and the production of iron and +iron-goods (wire, railings, nails, files, &c.) and machinery. Belfort +has important locomotive and engineering works. Hoisery is manufactured +at Delle, watches, clocks, agricultural machinery, petrol motors, +ironware and electrical apparatus at the flourishing centre of +Beaucourt, and there are numerous saw-mills, tile and brick works and +breweries. Imports consist of raw materials for the industries, +dyestuffs, coal, wine, &c., and the exports of manufactured goods. + +Belfort is the capital of the Territory, which comprises one +arrondissement, 6 cantons and 106 communes, and falls within the +circumscriptions of the archbishopric, the court of appeal and the +academie (educational division) of Besancon. It forms the 7th +subdivision of the VII. army corps. Both the Eastern and the +Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee railways traverse the Territory, and the canal +from the Rhone to the Rhine accompanies the river St Nicolas for about 6 +m. + + + + +BELFORT, a town of eastern France, capital of the Territory of Belfort, +275 m. E.S.E. of Paris, on the main line of the Eastern railway. Pop. +(1906), town, 27,805; commune, 34,649. It is situated among wooded hills +on the Savoureuse at the intersection of the roads and railway lines +from Paris to Basel and from Lyons to Mulhausen and Strassburg, by which +it maintains considerable trade with Germany and Switzerland. The town +is divided by the Savoureuse into a new quarter, in which is the railway +station on the right bank, and the old fortified quarter, with the +castle, the public buildings and monuments, on the left bank. The church +of St Denis, a building in the classical style, erected from 1727 to +1750, and the hotel de ville (1721-1724) both stand in the Place d'Armes +opposite the castle. The two chief monuments commemorate the defence of +Belfort in the war of 1870-1871. "The Lion of Belfort," a colossal +figure 78 ft. long and 52 ft. high, the work of F.A. Bartholdi, stands +in front of the castle; and in the Place d'Armes is the bronze group +"Quand Meme" by Antonin Mercie, in memory of Thiers and of Colonel +Pierre Marie Aristide Denfert-Rochereau (1823-1878), commandant of the +place during the siege. Other objects of interest are the Tour de la +Miotte, of unknown origin and date, which stands on the hill of La +Miotte to the N.E. of Belfort, and the Port de Brisach, a gateway built +by Vauban in 1687. Belfort is the seat of a prefect; its public +institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a +chamber of commerce, a lycee, a training-college and a branch of the +Bank of France. The construction of locomotives and machinery, carried +on by the Societe Alsacienne, wire-drawing, and the spinning and weaving +of cotton are included among its industries, which together with the +population increased greatly owing to the Alsacian immigration after +1871. Its trade is in the wines of Alsace, brandy and cereals. The town +derives its chief importance from its value as a military position. + +After the war of 1870-1871, Belfort, which after a diplomatic struggle +remained in French hands, became a frontier fortress of the greatest +value, and the old works which underwent the siege of 1870-1871 (see +below) were promptly increased and re-modelled. In front of the Perches +redoubts, the Bosmont, whence the Prussian engineers began their attack, +is now heavily fortified with continuous lines called the _Organisation +defensive de Bosmont_. The old Bellevue redoubt (now Fort +Denfert-Rochereau) is covered by a new work situated likewise on the +ground occupied by the siege trenches in the war. Perouse, hastily +entrenched in 1870, now possesses a permanent fort. The old entrenched +camp enclosed by the castle, Fort La Miotte, and Fort Justice, is still +maintained, and part even of the enceinte built by Vauban is used for +defensive purposes. Outside this improved inner line, which includes the +whole area of the attack and defence of 1870, lies a complete circle of +detached forts and batteries of modern construction. To the north, Forts +Salbert and Roppe form the salients of a long defensive line on high +ground, at the centre of which, where the Savoureuse river divides it, a +new work was added later. Two works near Giromagny, about 8 m. from +Belfort itself, connect the fortress with the right of the defensive +line of the Moselle (Fort Ballon d'Alsace). In the eastern sector of the +defences (from Roppe to the Savoureuse below Belfort) the forts are +about 3 m. from the centre, the works near the Belfort-Mulhausen railway +being somewhat more advanced, and in the western (from Salbert to Fort +Bois d'Oye on the lower Savoureuse) they are advanced to about the same +distance. The fort of Mont Vaudois, the westernmost, overlooks Hericourt +and the battlefield of the Lisaine: farther to the south Montbeliard is +also fortified. The perimeter of the Belfort defences is nearly 25 m. + +_History._--Gallo-Roman remains have been discovered in the vicinity of +Belfort, but the place is first heard of in the early part of the 13th +century, when it was in the possession of the counts of Montbeliard. +From them it passed by marriage to the counts of Ferrette and afterwards +to the archdukes of Austria. By the treaty of Westphalia (1648) the town +was ceded to Louis XIV. who gave it to Cardinal Mazarin. + +In the Thirty Years' War Belfort was twice besieged, 1633 and 1634, and +in 1635 there was a battle here between the duke of Lorraine and the +allied French and Swedes under Marshal de la Force. The fortifications +of Vauban were begun in 1686. Belfort was besieged in 1814 by the troops +of the allies and in 1815 by the Austrians. + +The most famous episode of the town's history is its gallant and +successful defence in the war of 1870-1871. + +The events which led up to the siege are described under FRANCO-GERMAN +WAR. Even before the investment Belfort was cut off from the interior of +France, and the German corps of von Werder was, throughout the siege, +between the fortress and the forces which might attempt its relief. The +siege corps was commanded by General von Tresckow and numbered at first +10,000 men with twenty-four field guns--a force which appeared adequate +for the reduction of the antiquated works of Vaubau. Colonel +Denfert-Rochereau was, however, a scientific engineer of advanced ideas +as well as a veteran soldier of the Crimea and Algeria, and he had been +stationed at Belfort for six years. He was therefore eminently fitted +for the command of the fortress. He had as a nucleus but few regular +troops, but the energy of the military and civil authorities enabled his +force to be augmented by national guards, &c., to 17,600 men. The +artillery was very numerous, but skilled gunners were not available in +any great strength and ammunition was scarce. Perhaps the most +favourable circumstance from a technical point of view was the +bomb-proof accommodation of the enceinte. + +[Illustration: Siege of BELFORT 1870-71.] + +The old fortress consisted of the town enceinte, the castle (situated on +high ground and fortified by several concentric envelopes), and the +entrenched camp, a hollow enclosed by continuous lines, the salients of +which were the castle, Fort La Justice and Fort La Miotte. These were +planned in the days of short-range guns, and were therefore in 1870 open +to an overwhelming bombardment by the rifled cannon of the attack. +Denfert-Rochereau, however, understood better than other engineers of +the day the power of modern artillery, and his plan was to utilize the +old works as a keep and an artillery position. The Perches ridge, whence +the town and suburbs could be bombarded, he fortified with all possible +speed. On the right bank of the Savoureuse he constructed two new forts, +Bellevue in the south-west and Des Barres to the west, and, further, he +prepared the suburb on this side for a hand-to-hand defence. His general +plan was to maintain as advanced a line as possible, to manoeuvre +against the investing troops, and to support his own by the long range +fire of his rifled guns. With this object he fortified the outlying +villages, and when the Germans (chiefly Landwehr) began the investment +on the 3rd of November 1870, they encountered everywhere a most +strenuous resistance. Throughout the month the garrison made repeated +sorties, and the Germans were on several occasions forced by the long +range fire of the fortress to evacuate villages which they had taken. +Under these circumstances, and also because of their numerical weakness +and the rigour of the weather, the Germans advanced but slowly. On the +2nd of December, when at last von Tresckow broke ground for the +construction of his batteries, the French still held Danjoutin, Bosmont, +Perouse and the adjacent woods, and, to the northward (on this side the +siege was not pressed) La Forge. Thus the first attack of the siege +artillery was confined to the western side of the river between Essert +and Bavillers. From this position the bombardment opened on the 3rd of +December. Some damage was done to the houses of Belfort, but the +garrison was not intimidated, and their artillery replied with such +spirit that after some days the German commander gave up the +bombardment. On this occasion the distant forts La Miotte and La Justice +fired with effect at a range of 4700 yds., affording a conspicuous +illustration of the changed conditions of siege-craft. The German +batteries, as more guns arrived, were extended from left to right, and +on the 13th of December the Bosmont was captured, ground being also +gained in front of Bellevue. The difficulties under which the siege +corps laboured were very great, and it was not until the 7th of January +1871 that the rightmost battery opened fire. The formal siege of the +Perches redoubts had now been decided upon, and as an essential +preliminary to further operations, Danjoutin, now isolated, was stormed +by the Landwehr on the night of the 7th-8th January. In the meanwhile +typhus and smallpox had broken out amongst the French, many of the +national guards were impatient of control, and the German trenches, in +spite of difficulties of ground and weather, made steady progress +towards the Perches. A week after the fall of Danjoutin the victory of +von Werder and the XIV. army corps at the Lisaine, in which a part of +the siege corps bore a share, put an end to the attempt to relieve +Belfort, and the siege corps was promptly increased to a strength of +17,600 infantry, 4700 artillery and 1100 engineers, with thirty-four +field-guns besides the guns and howitzers of the siege train. The +investment was now more strictly maintained even on the north side. On +the night of the 20th of January the French lines about Perouse were +carried by assault, and, both flanks being now cleared, the formal siege +of the Perches forts was opened, the first parallel extending from +Danjoutin to Haut Taillis. In the early morning of the 27th a determined +but premature attempt was made to storm the Perches redoubts, which cost +the besiegers nearly 500 men. After this failure Tresckow once more +resorted to the regular method of siege approaches, and on the 2nd of +February the second parallel was thrown up. La Justice was now bombarded +by two new batteries near Perouse, the Perches were of course subjected +to an "artillery attack," and henceforward the besiegers fired 1500 +shells a day into the works of the French. But the besiegers were still +weak in numbers and their labours were very exhausting. Bellevue and Des +Barres became very active in hindering the advance of the siege works, +and the German battalions were so far depleted by losses and sickness +that they could often muster but 300 men for duty. Still, the guns of +the attack were now steadily gaining the upper hand, and at last on the +8th of February the Germans entered the two Perches redoubts. This +success, and the arrival of German reinforcements, decided the siege. +The Perches ridge was crowned with a parallel and numerous batteries, +which in the end mounted ninety-seven guns. The attack on the castle now +opened, but operations were soon afterwards suspended by the news that +Belfort was now included in the general armistice (February 15th). A +little later Denfert-Rochereau received a direct order from his own +government to surrender the fortress, and the garrison, being granted +free withdrawal, marched out with its arms and trains. "The town had +suffered terribly ... nearly all the buildings were damaged ... the guns +in the upper batteries could only be reached by ladders. The garrison, +of its original strength of 17,700 officers and men, had lost 4750, +besides 336 citizens. The place was no longer tenable" (Moltke, +_Franco-German War_). Nevertheless, "the defence was by no means at its +last stage" at the time of the formal surrender (British _Text-Book of +Fortification_, 1893). The total loss of the besiegers was about 2000 +men. + + See J. Liblin, _Belfort et son territoire_ (Mulhausen, 1887). + + + + +BELFRY (Mid. Eng. _berfrey_, through Med. Lat. _berefredus_, from Teut. +_bergfrid_ or _bercvrit_, which, according to the _New Eng. Dict._, is a +combination of _bergen_, to protect, and _frida_, safety or peace; the +word thus meaning a shelter; the change from r to l,--cf. _almery_ for +_armarium_,--wrongly associated the origin of the word with "bell," and +aided the restriction in meaning), a word in medieval siege-craft for a +movable wooden tower of several stages, protected with raw hides, used +for purposes of attack; also a watch-tower, particularly one with an +alarm bell; hence any detached tower or campanile containing bells, as +at Evesham, but more generally the ringing room or loft of the tower of +a church (see TOWER). + + + + +BELGAE, a Celtic people first mentioned by Caesar, who states that they +formed the third part of Gaul, and were separated from the Celtae by the +Sequana (Seine) and Matrona (Marne). On the east and north their +boundary was the lower Rhine, on the west the ocean. Whether Caesar +means to include the Leuci, Treviri and Mediomatrici among the Belgian +tribes is uncertain. According to the statement of the deputation from +the Remi to Caesar (_Bell. Gall._ ii. 4), the Belgae were a people of +German origin, who had crossed the Rhine in early times and driven out +the Galli. But Caesar's own statement (_B.G._ i. 1) that the Belgae +differed from the Celtae in language, institutions and laws, is too +sweeping (see Strabo iv. p. 176), at least as regards language, for many +words and names are common to both. In any case, only the eastern +districts would have been affected by invaders from over the Rhine, the +chief seat of the Belgae proper being in the west, the country occupied +by the Bellovaci, Ambiani and Atrebates, to which it is probable +(although the reading is uncertain) that Caesar gives the distinctive +name Belgium (corresponding to the old provinces of Picardy and Artois). +The question is fully discussed by T.R. Holmes (_Caesar's Conquest of +Gaul_, 1899), who comes to the conclusion that "when the Reman delegates +told Caesar that the Belgae were descended from the Germans, they +probably only meant that the ancestors of the Belgic conquerors had +formerly dwelt in Germany, and this is equally true of the ancestors of +the Gauls who gave their name to the Celtae; but, on the other hand, it +is quite possible that in the veins of some of the Belgae flowed the +blood of genuine German forefathers." W. Ridgeway (_Early Age of Greece, +1901_) considers that the Belgic tribes were Cimbri, "who had moved +directly across the Rhine into north-eastern Gaul." No definite number +of Belgian tribes is given by Caesar; according to Strabo (iv. p. 196) +they were fifteen in all. The Belgae had also made their way over to +Britain in Caesar's time (_B.G._ ii. 4, v. 12), and settled in some of +the southern counties (Wilts, Hants and Somerset). Among their towns +were _Magnus Portus_ (Portsmouth) and _Venta Belgarum_ (Winchester). + +In 57 B.C., after the defeat of Ariovistus, the Belgae formed a +coalition against Caesar, and in 52 took part in the general rising +under Vercingetorix. After their final subjugation, Caesar combined the +territory of the Belgae, Celtae and Aquitani into a single province +(Gallia Comata). Augustus, however, finding it too unwieldy, again +divided it into three provinces, one of which was Belgica, bounded on +the west by the Seine and the Arar (Saone); on the north by the North +Sea; on the east by the Rhine from its mouth to the Lacus Brigantinus +(Lake Constance). Its southernmost district embraced the west of +Switzerland. The capital and residence of the governor of the province +was Durocortorum Remorum (Reims). Under Diocletian, Belgica Prima +(capital, Augusta Trevirorum, Trier) and Secunda (capital, Reims) formed +part of the "diocese" of Gaul. + + See A.G.B. Schayes, _La Belgique et les Pays-Bas avant et pendant la + domination romaine_ (2nd ed., Brussels, 1877); H.G. Moke, _La Belgique + ancienne_ (Ghent, 1855); A. Desjardins, _Geographie historique de la + Gaule_, ii. (1878); T.R. Holmes, _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_ (1899); + M. Ihm in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, iii. pt. 1 (1897); J. + Jung, "Geographie von Italien und dem Orbis romanus" (2nd ed., 1897) + in I. Muller's _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_. + + + + +BELGARD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, at +the junction of the rivers Leitznitz and Persante, 22 m. S.E. of Kolberg +by rail. Pop. (1900) 8047. Its industries consist of iron founding and +cloth weaving, and there are considerable horse and cattle markets. + + + + +BELGAUM, a town and district of British India, in the southern division +of Bombay. The town is situated nearly 2500 ft. above sea-level; it has +a station on the Southern Mahratta railway, 245 m. S. of Poona. It has +an ancient fortress, dating apparently from 1519, covering about 100 +acres, and surrounded by a ditch; within it are two interesting Jain +temples. Belgaum contains a cantonment which is the headquarters of a +brigade in the 6th division of the western army corps. It is also a +considerable centre of trade and of cotton weaving. There are cotton +mills. Pop. (1901) 36,878. + +The district of Belgaum has an area of 4649 sq. m. To the north and east +the country is open and well cultivated, but to the south it is +intersected by spurs of the Sahyadri range, thickly covered in some +places with forest. In 1901 the population was 993,976, showing a +decrease of 2% compared with an increase of 17% in the preceding decade. +The principal crops are millet, rice, wheat, other food-grains, pulse, +oil-seeds, cotton, sugar-cane, spices and tobacco. There are +considerable manufactures of cotton-cloth. The town of Gokak is known +for its dyes, its paper and its wooden and earthenware toys. The West +Deccan line of the Southern Mahratta railway runs through the district +from north to south. Two high schools at Belgaum town are maintained by +government and by the London Mission. The Kurirs, a wandering and +thieving tribe, the Kamais, professional burglars, and the Baruds, +cattle-stealers and highwaymen, are notorious among the criminal +classes. + +_History._--The ancient name of the town of Belgaum was Venugrama, which +is said to be derived from the bamboos that are characteristic of its +neighbourhood. The most ancient place in the district is Halsi; and +this, according to inscriptions on copper plates discovered in its +neighbourhood, was once the capital of a dynasty of nine Kadamba kings. +It appears that from the middle of the 6th century A.D. to about 760 the +country was held by the Chalukyas, who were succeeded by the +Rashtrakutas. After the break-up of the Rashtrakuta power a portion of +it survived in the Rattas (875-1250), who from 1210 onward made +Venugrama their capital. Inscriptions give evidence of a long struggle +between the Rattas and the Kadambas of Goa, who succeeded in the latter +years of the 12th century in acquiring and holding part of the district. +By 1208, however, the Kadambas had been overthrown by the Rattas, who in +their turn succumbed to the Yadavas of Devagiri in 1250. After the +overthrow of the Yadavas by the Delhi emperor (1320), Belgaum was for a +short time under the rule of the latter; but only a few years later the +part south of the Ghatprabha was subject to the Hindu rajas of +Vijayanagar. In 1347 the northern part was conquered by the Bahmani +dynasty, which in 1473 took the town of Belgaum and conquered the +southern part also. When Aurungzeb overthrew the Bijapur sultans in +1686, Belgaum passed to the Moguls. In 1776 the country was overrun by +Hyder Ali, but was retaken by the Peshwa with British assistance. In +1818 it was handed over to the East India Company and was made part of +the district of Dharwar. In 1836 this was divided into two parts, the +southern district continuing to be known as Dharwar, the northern as +Belgaum. + + See _Imp. Gazetteer of India_ (Oxford, ed. 1908), s.v. + + + + +BELGIAN CONGO, a Belgian colony in Equatorial Africa occupying the +greater part of the basin of the Congo river. Formerly the Independent +State of the Congo, it was annexed to Belgium in 1908. (See CONGO FREE +STATE.) + + + + +BELGIUM (Fr. _Belgique_; Flem. _Belgie_), an independent, constitutional +and neutral state occupying an important position in north-west Europe. +It was formerly part of the Low Countries or Netherlands (q.v.). +Although the name Belgium only came into general use with the foundation +of the modern kingdom in 1830, its derivation from ancient times is +clear and incontrovertible. Beginning with the Belgae and the Gallia +Belgica of the Romans, the use of the adjective to distinguish the +inhabitants of the south Netherlands can be traced through all stages of +subsequent history. During the Crusades, and in the middle ages, the +term _Belgicae principes_ is of frequent occurrence, and when in 1790 +the Walloons rose against Austria during what was called the Brabant +revolution, their leaders proposed to give the country the name of +Belgique. Again in 1814, on the expulsion of the French, when there was +much talk of founding an independent state, the same name was suggested +for it. It was not till sixteen years later, on the collapse of the +united kingdom of the Netherlands, that the occasion presented itself +for giving effect to this proposal. For the explanation of the English +form of the name it may be mentioned that Belgium was a canton of what +had been the Nervian country in the time of the Roman occupation. + +[Illustration: Map of Belgium and Luxemburg.] + +_Topography, &c._--Belgium lies between 49 deg. 30' and 51 deg. 30' N., +and 2 deg. 32' and 6 deg. 7' E., and on the land side is bounded by +Holland on the N. and N.E., by Prussia and the grand duchy of Luxemburg +on the E. and S.E., and by France on the S. Its land frontiers measure +793 m., divided as follows:--with Holland 269 m., with Prussia 60 m., +with the grand duchy 80 m. and with France 384 m. In addition it has a +sea-coast of 42 m. The western portion of Belgium, consisting of the two +Flanders, Antwerp and parts of Brabant and Hainaut, is flat, being +little above the level of the sea; and indeed at one point near Furnes +it is 7 ft. below it. The same description applies more or less to the +north-east, but in the south of Hainaut and the greater part of Brabant +the general level of the country is about 300 ft. above the sea, with +altitudes rising to more than 600 ft. South of the Meuse, and in the +district distinguished by the appellation "Between Sambre and Meuse," +the level is still greater, and the whole of the province of Luxemburg +is above 500 ft., with altitudes up to 1650 ft. In the south-eastern +part of the province of Liege there are several points exceeding 2000 +ft. The highest of these is the Baraque de Michel close to the Prussian +frontier, with an altitude of 2190 ft. The Baraque de Fraiture, +north-east of La Roche, is over 2000 ft. While the greater part of +western and northern Belgium is devoid of the picturesque, the Ardennes +and the Fagnes districts of "Between Sambre and Meuse" and Liege contain +much pleasant and some romantic scenery. The principal charm of this +region is derived from its fine and extensive woods, of which that +called St Hubert is the best known. There are no lakes in Belgium, but +otherwise it is exceedingly well watered, being traversed by the Meuse +for the greater part of its course, as well as by the Scheldt and the +Sambre. The numerous affluents of these rivers, such as the Lys, Dyle, +Dender, Ourthe, Ambleve, Vesdre, Lesse and Semois, provide a system of +waterways almost unique in Europe. The canals of Belgium are scarcely +less numerous or important than those of Holland, especially in +Flanders, where they give a distinctive character to the country. But +the most striking feature in Belgium, where so much is modern, +utilitarian and ugly, is found in the older cities with their relics of +medieval greatness, and their record of ancient fame. These, in their +order of interest, are Bruges, Antwerp, Louvain, Brussels, Ghent, Ypres, +Courtrai, Tournai, Furnes, Oudenarde and Liege. It is to them rather +than to the sylvan scenes of the Ardennes that travellers and tourists +flock. + +The climate may be described as temperate and approximating to that of +southern England, but it is somewhat hotter in summer and a little +colder in winter. In the Ardennes, owing to the greater elevation, the +winters are more severe. + +_Geology._--Belgium lies upon the northern side of an ancient mountain +chain which has long been worn down to a low level and the remnants of +which rise to the surface in the Ardennes, and extend eastward into +Germany, forming the Eifel and Westerwald, the Hunsruck and the Taunus. +Westward the chain lies buried beneath the Mesozoic and Tertiary beds of +Belgium and the north of France, but it reappears in the west of England +and Ireland. It is the "Hercynian chain" of Marcel Bertrand, and is +composed entirely of Palaeozoic rocks. Upon its northern margin lie the +nearly undisturbed Cretaceous and Tertiary beds which cover the greater +part of Belgium. The latest beds which are involved in the folds of this +mountain range belong to the Coal Measures, and the final elevation must +have taken place towards the close of the Carboniferous period. The fact +that in Belgium Jurassic beds are found upon the southern and not upon +the northern margin indicates that in this region the chain was still a +ridge in Jurassic times. In the Ardennes the rocks which constitute the +ancient mountain chain belong chiefly to the Devonian System, but +Cambrian beds rise through the Devonian strata, forming the masses of +Rocroi, Stavelot, &c., which appear to have been islands in the Devonian +sea. The Ordovician and Silurian are absent here, and the Devonian rests +unconformably upon the Cambrian; but along the northern margin of the +Palaeozoic area, Ordovician and Silurian rocks appear, and beds of +similar age are also exposed farther north where the rivers have cut +through the overlying Tertiary deposits. Carboniferous beds occur in the +north of the Palaeozoic area. Near Dinant they are folded amongst the +Devonian beds, but the most important band runs along the northern +border of the Ardennes. In this band lie the coalfields of Liege, and of +Mons and Charleroi. It is a long and narrow trough, which is separated +from the older rocks of the Ardennes by a great reversed fault, the +_faille du midi_. In the southern half of the trough the folding of the +Coal Measures is intense; in the northern half it is much less violent. +The structure is complicated by a thrust-plane which brings a mass of +older beds upon the Coal Measures in the middle of the trough. Except +along the southern border of the Ardennes, and at one or two points in +the middle of the Palaeozoic massif, Triassic and Jurassic beds are +unknown in Belgium, and the Palaeozoic rocks are directly and +unconformably overlaid by Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits. The +Cretaceous beds are not extensive, but the Wealden deposits of +Bernissart, with their numerous remains of Iguanodon, and the chalk of +the district about the Dutch frontier near Maastricht, with its very +late Cretaceous fauna, are of special interest. + +Exclusive of the Ardennes the greater part of Belgium is covered by +Tertiary deposits. The Eocene, consisting chiefly of sands and marls, +occupies the whole of the west of the country. The Oligocene forms a +band stretching from Antwerp to Maastricht, and this is followed towards +the north by a discontinuous strip of Miocene and a fairly extensive +area of Pliocene. The Tertiary deposits are similar in general character +to those of the north of France and the south of England. Coal and iron +are by far the most important mineral productions of Belgium. Zinc, lead +and copper are also extensively worked in the Palaeozoic rocks of the +Ardennes. + +_Area and Population._--The area comprises 2,945,503 hectares, or about +11,373 English sq. m., and the total population in December 1904 was +7,074,910, giving an average of 600 per sq. m. + + + +-------------+----------------+---------------+----------------+ + | The Nine | Area in | Population at | Population per | + | Provinces. | English sq. m. | end of 1904. | sq. m. 1904. | + +-------------+----------------+---------------+----------------+ + | Antwerp | 1093 | 888,980 | 813.3 | + | Brabant | 1268 | 1,366,389 | 1077.59 | + | Flanders E. | 1158 | 1,078,507 | 931.35 | + | Flanders W. | 1249 | 845,732 | 677.8 | + | Hainaut | 1437 | 1,192,967 | 830.18 | + | Liege | 1117 | 863,254 | 772.8 | + | Limburg | 931 | 255,359 | 274.28 | + | Luxemburg | 1706 | 225,963 | 132.45 | + | Namur | 1414 | 357,759 | 253 | + +-------------+----------------+---------------+----------------+ + | Total | 11,373 | 7,074,910 | 622 | + +-------------+----------------+---------------+----------------+ + +The population was made up of 3,514,491 males and 3,560,419 females. The +rate at which the population has increased is shown as follows:--From +1880 to 1890 the increase was at the rate annually of 54,931, from 1890 +to 1900 at the rate of 62,421, and for the five years from 1900 to 1904 +at the rate of 66,200. In 1831 the population of Belgium was 3,785,814, +so that in 75 years it had not quite doubled. The following table gives +the total births and deaths in certain years since 1880:-- + + + +-------+---------------+---------------+-------------------+ + | Year. | Total births. | Total deaths. | Excess of births. | + +-------+---------------+---------------+-------------------+ + | 1880 | 171,864 | 123,323 | 48,541 | + | 1895 | 183,015 | 125,148 | 57,867 | + | 1900 | 193,789 | 129,046 | 64,743 | + | 1904 | 191,721 | 119,506 | 72,215 | + +-------+---------------+---------------+-------------------+ + +These figures show that the births were 23,674 more in 1904 than in +1880, while the deaths were nearly 4000 fewer, with a population that +had increased from 5-1/2 to 7 millions. Of 191,721 births in 1904, +12,887 or 6.7% were illegitimate. Statistics of recent years show a +slight increase in legitimate and a slight decrease in illegitimate +births. + +The emigration of Belgians from their country is small and reveals +little variation. In 1900, 13,492 emigrated, and in 1904 the total rose +only to 14,752. Of Belgians living abroad it is estimated that 400,000 +reside in France, 15,000 in Holland, 12,000 in Germany and 4600 in Great +Britain. The number of Belgians in the Congo State in 1904 was 1505. The +number of foreigners resident in Belgium in 1900 with their +nationalities were Germans, 42,079; English, 5096; French, 85,735; +Dutch, 54,491; Luxemburgers, 9762; and all other nationalities, 14,411. + +With regard to the languages spoken by the people of Belgium the +following comparative table gives the return for the three censuses of +1880, 1890 and 1900:-- + + + +---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | | 1880. | 1890. | 1900. | + +---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + | French only | 2,230,316 | 2,485,072 | 2,574,805 | + | Flemish only | 2,485,384 | 2,744,271 | 2,822,005 | + | German only | 39,550 | 32,206 | 28,314 | + | French and Flemish | 423,752 | 700,997 | 801,587 | + | French and German | 35,250 | 58,590 | 66,447 | + | Flemish and German | 2,956 | 7,028 | 7,238 | + | The three languages | 13,331 | 13,185 | 42,885 | + +---------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ + +_Constitution and Government._--The Belgian constitution, drafted by the +national assembly in 1830-1831 after the provisional government had +announced that "the Belgian provinces detached by force from Holland +shall form an independent state," was published on the 7th of February +1831, and the modifications introduced into it subsequently, apart from +the composition of the electorate, have been few and unimportant. The +constitution originally contained one hundred and thirty-nine articles, +and decreed in the first place that the government was to be "a +constitutional, representative and hereditary monarchy." Having decided +in favour of a monarchy, the provisional government first offered the +throne to the due de Nemours, son of Louis-Philippe, but this offer was +promptly withdrawn on the discovery that Europe would not endorse it. It +was then offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, widower of the +princess Charlotte of England, and accepted by him. The prince was +proclaimed on the 4th of June 1831 as Leopold I., king of the Belgians, +and on the 21st of July 1831 he was solemnly inaugurated in Brussels. +The succession is vested in the heirs male of Leopold I., and should +they ever make complete default the throne will be declared vacant, and +a national assembly composed of the two chambers elected in double +strength will make a fresh nomination. In 1894 a new article numbered 61 +was inserted in the constitution providing that "in default of male +heirs the king can nominate his successor with the assent of the two +chambers, and if no such nomination has been made the throne shall be +vacant," when the original procedure of the constitution would be +followed. The Belgian national assembly assumed that its constitution +would extend over the whole of the Belgic or south Netherlands, but the +powers decreed otherwise. The limits of Belgium are fixed by the London +protocol of the 15th of October 1831--also called the twenty-four +articles--which cut off what is now termed the grand duchy of Luxemburg, +and also a good portion of the duchy of Limburg. These losses of +territory held by a brother people are still felt as a grievance by many +Belgians. The Belgian constitution stipulates for "freedom of +conscience, of education, of the press and also of the right of +meeting," but the sovereign must be a member of the Church of Rome. The +government was to consist of the king, the senate and the chamber of +representatives. The functions of the king are those that appertain +everywhere to the sovereign of a constitutional state. He is the head of +the army and has the exclusive right of dissolving the chambers as +preliminary to an appeal to the country. + +The senate is composed of seventy-six elected members and twenty-six +members nominated by the provincial councils. A senator sits for eight +years unless a dissolution is ordered, and no one is eligible until he +is forty years of age. Half the seventy-six elected senators retire for +re-election every four years. There is no payment or other privilege, +except a pass on the state railways, attached to the rank of senator. +The chamber of representatives contained one hundred and fifty-two +members until 1899, when the number was increased to one hundred and +sixty-six. Deputies are elected for four years, but half the house is +re-elected every two years. A deputy must be twenty-five years of age, +and the members of both houses must be of Belgian nationality, born or +naturalized. A deputy receives an annual honorarium of 4000 francs and a +railway pass. Down to 1893 the electorate was exceedingly small. +Property and other qualifications kept the voting power in the hands of +a limited class. This may be judged from the fact that in the year named +there were only 137,772 voters out of a population of 65 millions. In +April 1894 the new electoral law altered the whole system. The property +qualification was removed and every Belgian was given one vote on +attaining twenty-five years of age and after one year's residence in his +commune. At the same time the principle of multiple votes for certain +qualifications was introduced. The Belgian citizen on reaching the age +of thirty-five, providing he is married or is a widower with legitimate +offspring and pays five francs of direct taxes, gets a second vote. Two +extra votes are given for qualifications of property, official status or +university diplomas. The maximum voting power of any individual is three +votes. In 1904 there were 1,581,649 voters, possessing 2,467,966 votes. +This system of plural voting has proved a success. It does not, however, +satisfy the Socialists, whose formula is one man, one vote. The final +change in the system of parliamentary elections was made in 1899-1900, +when proportional representation was introduced. Proportional +representation aims at the protection of minorities, and its working out +is a little intricate, or at all events difficult to describe. The +following has been accepted as a clear definition of what proportional +representation is:--electoral district has the number of its members +apportioned in accordance with the total strength of each party or +political programme in that district. As a rule there are only the three +chief parties, viz. Catholic, Liberal and Socialist, but the presence of +Catholic-Democrats or some other new faction may increase the total to +four or even five. The number of seats to be filled is divided by the +number of parties or candidates, and then they are distributed in the +proportion of the total followers or voters of each. The smallest +minority is thus sure of one seat." An illustration may make this +clearer. In an electoral district with 32,000 votes which returns eight +deputies, four parties send up candidates, let us say, eight Catholics, +eight Liberals, eight Socialists and one Catholic-Democrat. The result +of the voting is, 16,000 Catholic votes, 9000 Liberal, 4500 Socialist, +and 2500 Catholic-Democrat. The seats would, therefore, be apportioned +as follows: four Catholic, two Liberal, one Socialist and one +Catholic-Democrat. + + + Administration. + +The king has one right which other constitutional rulers do not possess. +He can initiate proposals for new laws (_projets de loi_). He is also +charged with the executive power which he delegates to a cabinet +composed of ministers chosen from the party representing the majority in +the chamber. Down to 1884 the Liberal party had held power with very few +intervals since 1840. The Catholic party succeeded to office in 1884. +The ministers represent departments for finance, foreign affairs, +colonies, justice, the interior, science and arts, war, railways, posts +and telegraphs, agriculture, public works, and industry and labour. The +minister for war is generally a soldier, the others are civilians. +Ministers may be members of either chamber and enjoy the privilege of +being allowed to speak in both. Sometimes one minister will hold several +portfolios at the same time, but such cases are rare. + + + Provinces and communes. + +The kingdom is divided into nine provinces which are subdivided into 342 +cantons and 2623 communes. The provinces are governed by a governor +nominated by the king, the canton is a judicial division for marking the +limit of the jurisdiction of each _juge de paix_, and the commune is the +administrative unit, possessing self-government in all local matters. +For each commune of 5000 inhabitants or over, a burgomaster is appointed +by the communal council which is chosen by the electors of the commune. +As three years' residence is required these electors are fewer in number +than those for the legislature. In 1902 there were 1,146,482 voters with +2,007,704 votes, the principles of multiple votes, with, however, a +maximum of four votes and proportional representation, being in force +for communal as for legislative elections. + +_Religion._--The constitution provides for absolute liberty of +conscience and there is no state religion, but the people are almost to +a man Roman Catholics. It is computed that there are 10,000 Protestants +(half English) and 5000 Jews, and that all the rest are Catholics. The +government in 1904 voted nearly 7,000,000 francs in aid of the religious +establishments of, and the benevolent institutions kept up by, the Roman +Church. The grant to other cults amounted to 118,000 francs, but small +as this sum may appear it is in due proportion to the relative numbers +of each creed. The hierarchy of the Church of Rome in Belgium is +composed of the archbishop of Malines, and the bishops of Liege, Ghent, +Bruges, Tournai and Namur. The archbishop receives L800, and the bishops +L600 apiece from the state yearly. The pay of the village _cure_ +averages L80 a year and a house. Besides the regular clergy there are +the members of the numerous monastic and conventual houses established +in Belgium. They are engaged principally in educational and eleemosynary +work, and the development in such institutions is considerable. + +_Education._--Education, though not obligatory, is free for those who +cannot pay for it. In the primary schools instruction in reading, +writing, arithmetic, history and geography is obligatory. In 1904 there +were 7092 primary schools with 859,436 pupils of both sexes. Of these +807,383 did not pay. Primary education is supposed to continue till the +age of fourteen, but in practice it stops at twelve for all who do not +intend to pass through the middle schools, which is essential for all +persons seeking state employment of any kind. The middle schools have +one privilege. They can give a certificate qualifying scholars for a +mastership in the primary schools, which are under the full control of +the communes. These appointments are always bestowed on local +favourites. The pay of a schoolmaster in a small commune is only L48, +and in a large town L96, with a maximum ranging from L80 to L152 after +twenty-four years' service. It is therefore clear that no very high +qualifications could be expected from such a staff. The control of the +state comes in to the extent of providing district inspectors who visit +the schools once a year, and hold a meeting of the teachers in their +district once a quarter. In each province there is a chief inspector who +is bound to visit each school once in two years, and reports direct to +the minister of public instruction. With regard to the middle schools, +the government has reserved the right to appoint the teaching staff, and +to prescribe the books that are to be used. The results of the middle +schools are fairly satisfactory. Still better are the Athenees Royaux, +twenty in number, which are quite independent of the commune and subject +to official control under the superior direction of the king. +Mathematics and classics are taught in them and the masters are allowed +to take boarders. The expenditure of the state on education amounts to +about a million sterling. In 1860 the grants were only for little over +one-eighth of the total in 1903. In 1900 31.94% of the toal population +was illiterate. Considerable progress in the education of the people is +made visible by a comparison of the figures of three decennial censuses. +In 1880 the illiterate were 42.25% and in 1890 37.63, so that there was +a further marked improvement by 1900. Among the provinces Walloon +Belgium is better instructed than Flemish, Luxemburg coming first, +followed by Namur, Liege and Brabant in their order. + +Higher instruction is given at the universities and in the schools +attached thereto. Those at Ghent and Liege are state universities; the +two others at Brussels and Louvain are free. At Louvain alone is there a +faculty of theology. The number of students inscribed for the academical +year 1904-1905 at each university was Ghent 899, Liege 1983, Brussels +1082, and Louvain 2134, or a grand total of 6098. Liege is specially +famed for the technical schools attached to it. There are also a large +number of state-aided schools for special purposes; (1) for military +instruction, there are the _Ecole Militaire_ at Brussels, the school of +cadets at Namur, and army schools at different stations, e.g. Bouillon, +&c. For officers in the army, there are the _Ecole de Guerre_ or staff +college at Brussels with an average attendance of twenty, a riding +school at Ypres where a course is obligatory for the cavalry and horse +artillery, and for soldiers in the army there are regimental schools and +evening classes for illiterate soldiers. (2) For education in the arts, +there is the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Antwerp, and besides this +famous school of painting there are eighty-four academies for teaching +drawing throughout the kingdom. In music, there are royal conservatoires +at Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Liege. Besides these there are +sixty-nine minor conservatoires. (3) For commercial and professional +education, there are 181 schools. The Commercial Institute of Antwerp +deserves special notice as an excellent school for clerks. (4) Among +special schools may be named the three schools of navigation at Antwerp, +Ostend and Nieuport. Since the wreck of the training-ship "Comte de Smet +de Naeyer" in 1906, it has been decided that a stationary training-ship +shall be placed in the Scheldt like the "Worcester" on the Thames. Among +the numerous learned societies may be mentioned the Belgian Royal +Academy founded in 1769 and revived in 1818. For the encouragement of +research and literary style the government awards periodical prizes +which are very keenly contested. + +_Justice._--The administration of justice is very fully organized, and +in the Code Belge, which was carefully compiled between 1831 and 1836 +from the old laws of the nine provinces leavened by the Code Napoleon +and modern exigencies, the Belgians claim that they possess an almost +perfect statute-book. The courts of law in their order are _Cour de +Cassation_, _Cour d'Appel_, _Cour de Premiere Instance_, and the _Juge +de Paix_ courts, one for each of the 342 cantons. The _Cour de +Cassation_ has a peculiar judicial sphere. It works automatically, +examining every judgment to see if it is in strict accord with the code, +and where it is not the decision or verdict is simply annulled. There is +only one judge in this court, but he has the assistance of a large staff +of revisers. The _Cour de Cassation_ never tries a case itself except +when a minister of state is the accused. The president of this tribunal +is the highest legal functionary in Belgium. There are three courts of +appeal, viz. at Brussels, Ghent and Liege. At Brussels there are four +separate chambers or tribunals in the appeal court. Judges of appeal are +appointed by the king for life from lists of eligible barristers +prepared by the senate and the courts. Judges can only be removed by the +unanimous vote of their brother judges. There are twenty-six courts of +first instance distributed among the principal towns of the kingdom, and +in Antwerp, Ghent and Liege there are besides special tribunals for the +settlement of commercial cases. Of course there is the right of appeal +from the decisions of these tribunals as well as of the regular courts. +Finally the 342 _Juge de Paix_ courts resemble British county courts. +Criminal cases are tried by (1) the _Tribunaux de Police_, (2) +_Tribunaux Correctionnels_, (3) and the _Cours d'Assises_. The last are +held as the length of the calendar requires. Capital punishment is +retained on the statute, but is never enforced, the prisoner on whom +sentence of death is passed in due form in open court being relegated to +imprisonment for life in solitary confinement and perpetual silence. The +chief prisons are at Louvain, Ghent and St Gilles (Brussels), and the +last named serves as a house of detention. At Merxplas, near the Dutch +frontier, is the agricultural criminal colony at which an average number +of two thousand prisoners are kept employed in comparative liberty +within the radius of the convict settlement. + +_Pauperism._--For the relief of pauperism there are a limited number of +houses of mendicity, in which inmates are received, and houses of +refuge for night shelter. At the _beguinages_ of Ghent and Bruges women +and girls able to contribute a specified sum towards their support are +given a home. + +_National Finance._--The budget is submitted to the chambers by the +minister of finance and passed by them. The revenue and expenditure were +in the years stated as follows:-- + + + +-------+----------------------+---------------------+ + | Year. | Revenue. | Expenditure. | + +-------+----------------------+---------------------+ + | 1880 | 394,215,932 francs | 382,908,429 francs | + | 1895 | 395,730,445 " | 410,383,402 " | + | 1903 | 632,416,810 " | 627,975,568 " | + +-------+----------------------+---------------------+ + +The revenue is made up from taxes, including customs, tolls, including +returns from railway traffic, &c., and the balance comes from various +revenues, return of capital, loans, &c. The following are the principal +items of expenditure (1903):-- + + Service of debt 143,065,352 francs + Sovereign, senate, chamber, &c. 5,289,087 " + Departments, foreign office 3,751,636 " + " agriculture 12,253,957 " + " railways 165,086,019 " + " finance 34,479,674 " + " industry 19,905,589 " + " war 63,972,473 " + " public instruction 31,799,105 " + " justice 27,168,032 " + Minor items 4,179,046 " + ----------- + Total 510,949,970 " + =========== + +The difference is made up of "special expenditure." The total debt in +English money may be put at 126 millions sterling, which requires for +interest, sinking fund and service about 5-3/4 millions sterling +annually. The rate of interest on all the loans extant is 3%, except on +one loan of 219,959,632 francs, which pays only 2-1/2%. + +_Army and National Defence._--The army is divided into the regular army, +the gendarmerie, and the _garde civique_. The Belgian regular army is +thus composed: infantry, one regiment of carabiniers, one of grenadiers, +three of _chasseurs a pied_, and fourteen of the line, all these +regiments having 3 or 4 active and 3 or 4 reserve battalions apiece; +cavalry, two regiments of guides, two of _chasseurs a cheval_, and four +of lancers, all light cavalry; artillery, four horse, thirty field, and +seventy siege batteries on active service; engineers, 140 officers and +2000 men. The train or commissariat has only 30 officers and 600 men on +the permanent establishment. Belgium retains the older form of +conscription, and has not adopted the system of "universal service." The +annual levy is small and substitution is permitted. In 1904 the number +inscribed for service was 64,042. Of these only 12,525 were enrolled in +the army, and of that number 1421 were volunteers, who took an +engagement on receipt of a premium. The effective strength of the army +in 1904 with the colours was 3406 officers and 40,382 men. To this total +has to be added the men on the active list, but either absent on leave +or allowed to return to civil life, numbering 70,043. It is assumed that +on mobilization these men are immediately available. The reserve +consists of 181 officers and 58,014 men, so that the total strength of +the Belgian army is 3587 officers and 168,439 men. The field force in +war is organized in four infantry and two cavalry divisions, the total +strength being about 100,000. The peace effective has not varied much +since 1870, but the total paper strength is 75,000 more than in that +year. In the years 1900-1904 it increased by 8000 men. The gendarmerie +is a mounted force composed of men picked for their physique and divided +into three divisions. It numbers 67 officers and 3079 men, but has no +reserve. It is in every sense a _corps d'elite_, and may be classed as +first-rate heavy cavalry. The total strength of the _garde civique_ in +1905 was 35,102, to which have to be added 8532 volunteers belonging to +the corps of older formation, service in which counts on a par with the +_garde civique_. Some of the latter regiments, especially the artillery, +would rank with British volunteers, but the mass of the _garde civique_ +does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against +sedition and socialism. The defence of Belgium depends on five fortified +positions. The fortified position and camp of Antwerp represents the +true base of the national defence. Its detached forts shelter the city +from bombardment, and so long as sea communication is open with England, +Antwerp would be practically impregnable. Liege with twelve forts and +Namur with nine forts are the fortified _tetes de pont_ protecting the +two most important passages of the Meuse. The forts are constructed in +concrete with armoured cupolas. Termonde on the Scheldt and Diest on the +Dender are retained as nominally fortified positions, but neither, could +resist a regular bombardment for more than a few hours, as their +casemates are not bomb-proof. + +The training camp of the Belgian army is at Beverloo in the province of +Limburg, and at Braschaet not far from Antwerp are ranges for artillery +as well as rifle practice. The Belgian officer is technically as well +trained and educated as any in Europe, but he lacks practical experience +in military service. + +_Mines and Industry._--The principal mineral produced in Belgium is +coal. This is found in the Borinage district near Mons and in the +neighbourhood of Liege, but the working of an entirely new coal-field, +which promises to attain vast dimensions, was commenced in 1906 in the +Campine district of the province of Limburg. The coal mines of Belgium +give employment to nearly 150,000 persons, and for some years the +average output has exceeded 22,000,000 tons. Other minerals are iron, +manganese, lead and zinc. The iron mines produce much less than +formerly, and the want of iron is a grave defect in Belgian prosperity, +as about L5,000,000 sterling worth of iron has to be imported annually, +chiefly from French Lorraine. The chief metal industry of the country is +represented by the iron and steel works of Charleroi and Liege. Belgium +is particularly rich in quarries of marble, granite and slate. Ghent is +the capital of the textile industry, and all the towns of Flanders are +actively engaged in producing woollen and cotton materials and in lace +manufacture. The bulk of the population is, however, engaged in +agriculture, and the extent of land under cultivation of all kinds is +about 6-1/2 million acres. + +_Commerce._--The trade returns for 1904 were as follows:-- + + _Imports--_ + General Commerce 4,426,400,000 francs + Special Commerce (included in General Commerce) 2,782,200,000 " + + _Exports--_ + General Commerce 3,849,100,000 " + Special Commerce (included in General Commerce) 2,183,300,000 " + +The general commerce includes goods in transit across Belgium, the +special commerce takes into account only the produce and the consumption +of Belgium itself. The trade of Belgium has more than trebled as regards +both imports and exports since 1870. The following table shows the +amount of exports and imports between Belgium and the more important +foreign states:-- + + + +---------------+--------------------+--------------------+ + | | Imports. | Exports. | + +---------------+--------------------+--------------------+ + | France | 465,684,000 francs | 346,670,000 francs | + | Germany | 351,025,000 " | 505,473,000 " | + | England | 335,404,000 " | 392,324,000 " | + | Holland | 240,873,000 " | 268,781,000 " | + | United States | 222,301,000 " | 86,324,000 " | + | Russia | 212,119,000 " | 26,671,000 " | + | Argentina | 198,913,000 " | 41,508,000 " | + | British India | 141,669,000 " | 25,860,000 " | + | Rumania | 102,174,000 " | 3,949,000 " | + | Australia | 58,190,000 " | 12,087,000 " | + | Congo State | 53,100,000 " | 14,049,000 " | + | China | 8,770,000 " | 25,546,000 " | + +---------------+--------------------+--------------------+ + +In the relative magnitude of the annual value of its commerce, excluding +that in transit, Belgium stands sixth among the nations of the world, +following Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Holland. +The principal imports are food supplies and raw material such as cotton, +wool, silk, flax, hemp and jute. Among minerals, iron ore, sulphur, +copper, coal, tin, lead and diamonds are the most imported. The exports +of greatest value are textiles, lace, coal, coke, briquettes, glass, +machinery, railway material and fire arms. + +_Shipping and Navigation._--Belgium has no state navy, although various +proposals have been made from time to time to establish an armed +flotilla in connexion with the defence of Antwerp. The state, however, +possesses a certain number of steamers. In 1904 they numbered sixty-five +of 99,893 tons. These steamers are chiefly employed on the passenger +route between Ostend and Dover. The total number of vessels entering the +only two ports of Belgium which carry on ocean commerce, namely Antwerp +and Ostend, in 1904 was 7650 of a tonnage of 10,330,127. Among inland +ports that of Ghent is the most important, 1127 ships of a tonnage of +786,362 having entered the port in 1904. The corresponding figures for +ships sailing from the two ports first named were in the same year 7642 +and tonnage 10,298,405. The figures from Ghent were 1128 and 787,173 +tons. Whereas the lines of steamers from Ostend are chiefly with Dover +and London, those from Antwerp proceed to all parts of the world. A +steam service was established in 1906 from Hull to Bruges by Zeebrugge +and the ship canal. + +_Internal Communications._--The internal communications of Belgium of +every kind are excellent. The roads outside the province of Luxemburg +and Namur are generally paved. In the provinces named, or in other +words, in the region south of the Meuse, the roads are macadamized. The +total length of roads is about 6000 m. When Belgium became a separate +state in 1830 they were less than one-third of this total. There are +about 2900 m. of railways, of which upwards of 2500 m. are state +railways. It is of interest to note that the state railways derived a +revenue of 249,355 francs (or nearly L10,000) from the penny tickets for +the admission of non-travellers to railway stations. Besides the main +railways there are numerous light railways (_chemins de fer vicinaux_), +of a total length approaching 2500 m. There are also electric and steam +tramways in all the principal cities. The total of navigable waterways +is given as 1360 m. Posts, telegraphs and telephones are exclusively +under state management and form a government department. + +_Banks and Money._--The principal banking institution is the Banque +Nationale which issues the bank-notes in current use. In 1904 the +average value of notes in circulation was 645,989,100 francs. The rate +of discount was 3% throughout the whole of the year. + +The mintage of Belgian money is carried out by a _directeur de la +fabrication_ who is nominated by and responsible to the government. The +gold coins are for 10 and 20 francs, silver for half francs, francs, 2 +francs and 5 francs. Nickel money is for 5, 10 and 20 centimes, and the +copper coinage has been withdrawn from circulation. + + AUTHORITIES.--_Annuaire statistique de la Belgique_ (1905); Beltjens + and Godenne, _La Constitution belge_ (Brussels, 1880); _La Belgique + illustree_ (Brussels, 1878-1882); _Les Pandectes belges_ (Brussels, + 1898); _Annales du parlement belge_ for each year; _Belgian Life in + Town and Country_, "Our Neighbours" Series (London, 1904). For geology + see C. Dewalque, _Prodrome d'une description geologique de la + Belgique_ (Brussels, 1880); M. Mourlon, _Geologie de la Belgique_ + (Brussels, 1880-1881); F.L. Cornet and A. Briart, "Sur le relief du + sol en Belgique apres les temps paleozoques," _Ann. Soc. Geol. Belg._ + vol. iv., 1877, pp. 71-115, pls. v.-xi. (see also other papers by the + same authors in the same journal); J. Gosselet, _L'Ardenne_ (Paris, + 1888); M. Bertrand, "Etudes sur le bassin houiller du nord et sur le + Boulonnais," _Ann. des mines_, ser. ix. vol. vi. (Mem.), pp. 569-635, + 1894; C. Malaise, "Etat actuel de nos connaissances sur le silurien de + la Belgique," _Ann. Soc. Geol. Belg._ vol. xxv, 1900-1901, pp. + 179-221; H. Forir, "Bibliographie des etages laekenien, ledien, + wemmelien, asschien, tongrien, rupelien et bolderien et des depets + tertiaires de la haute et moyenne Belgique," _ibid._ pp. 223 seq. + (D. C. B.) + + +HISTORY[1] + + Final separation of the northern and southern Netherlands. + + Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, governor-general. + + Successes of Parma. + + Albert and Isabel, sovereigns of the Netherlands. + + The twelve years' truce. + + The rule of the archdukes. + + Reversion of the southern Netherlands to Spain, 1633. + +The political severance of the northern and southern Netherlands may be +conveniently dated from the opening of the year 1579. By the signing of +the league of Arras (5th of January) the Walloon "Malcontents" declared +their adherence to the cause of Catholicism and their loyalty to the +Spanish king, and broke away definitely from the northern provinces, who +bound themselves by the union of Utrecht (29th of January) to defend +their rights and liberties, political and religious, against all foreign +potentates. Brabant and Flanders were still indeed under the control of +the prince of Orange and through his influence accepted in 1582 the duke +of Anjou as their sovereign. The French prince was actually inaugurated +duke of Brabant at Antwerp (February 1582) and count of Flanders at +Bruges (July), but his misconduct speedily led to his withdrawal from +the Netherlands, and even before the assassination of Orange (July 1584) +the authority of Philip had been practically restored throughout the two +provinces. This had been achieved by the military skill and +statesmanlike abilities of Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, appointed +governor-general on the death of Don John of Austria, on the 1st of +October 1578. Farnese first won by promises and blandishments the +confidence of the Walloons, always jealous of the predominance of the +"Flemish" provinces, and then proceeded to make himself master of +Brabant and Flanders by force of arms. In succession Ypres, Mechlin, +Ghent, Brussels, and finally Antwerp (17th of August 1585) fell into his +hands. Philip had in the southern Netherlands attained his object, and +Belgium was henceforth Catholic and Spanish, but at the expense of its +progress and prosperity. Thousands of its inhabitants, and those the +most enterprising and intelligent, fled from the Inquisition, and made +their homes in the Dutch republic or in England. All commerce and +industry was at a standstill; grass grew in the streets of Bruges and +Ghent; and the trade of Antwerp was transferred to Amsterdam. On Parma's +death (3rd of December 1592) the archduke Ernest of Austria was +appointed governor-general, but he died after a short tenure of office +(20th of February 1595) and was at the beginning of 1596 succeeded by +his younger brother the cardinal archduke Albert. Philip was now nearing +his end, and in 1598 he gave his eldest daughter Isabel in marriage to +her cousin the archduke Albert, and erected the Netherlands into a +sovereign state under their joint rule. The advent of the new +sovereigns, officially known as "the archdukes," though greeted with +enthusiasm in the Belgic provinces, was looked upon with suspicion by +the Dutch, who were as firmly resolved as ever to uphold their +independence. The chief military event of the early years of their reign +was the battle of Nieuport (2nd of July 1600), in which Maurice of +Nassau defeated the archduke Albert, and the siege of Ostend, which +after a three years' heroic defence was surrendered (20th of September +1604) to the archduke's general, Spinola. The Dutch, however, being +masters of the sea, kept the coast closely blockaded, and through sheer +exhaustion the king of Spain and the archdukes were compelled to agree +to a truce for twelve years (9th of April 1609) with the United +Provinces "in the capacity of free states over which Albert and Isabel +made no pretensions." During the period of the truce the archdukes, who +were wise and statesmanlike rulers, did their utmost to restore +prosperity to their country and to improve its internal condition. +Unfortunately they were childless, and the instrument of cession of 1598 +provided that in case they should die without issue, the Netherlands +should revert to the crown of Spain. This reversion actually took place. +Albert died in 1621, just before the renewal of the war with the Dutch, +and Isabel in 1633. The Belgic provinces therefore passed under the rule +of Philip IV., and were henceforth known as the Spanish Netherlands. + + + Peace of Munster. + + Ruinous consequences of the closing of the Scheldt. + + Successive cession of Belgian territory to France. + +This connexion with the declining fortunes of Spain was disastrous to +the well-being of the Belgian people, for during many years a close +alliance bound together France and the United Provinces, and the +Southern Netherlands were exposed to attack from both sides, and +constantly suffered from the ravages of hostile armies. The cardinal +archduke Ferdinand, governor-general from 1634-1641, was a capable +ruler, and by his military skill prevented in a succession of campaigns +the forces of the enemy from overrunning the country. On the 30th of +January 1648, Spain concluded a separate peace at Munster with the +Dutch, by which Philip IV. finally renounced all his claims and rights +over the United Provinces, and made many concessions to them. Among +these was the closing of the Scheldt to all ships, a clause which was +ruinous to the commerce of the Belgic provinces, by cutting them off +from their only access to the ocean. Thus they remained for a long +course of years without a sea-port, and in the many wars that broke out +between Spain and France were constantly exposed, as an outlying Spanish +dependency, to the first attack, and peace when it came was usually +purchased at the cost of some part of Belgian territory. By the treaty +of the Pyrenees (1659) Artois (except St Omer and Aire) and a number of +towns in Flanders, Hainaut, and Luxemburg were ceded to France. +Subsequent French conquests, confirmed by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle +(1668), took away Lille, Douai, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Coutrai and +Tournai. These were, indeed, partly restored to Belgium by the peace of +Nijmwegen (1679); but on the other hand it lost Valenciennes, Nieuport, +St Omer, Ypres and Charlemont, which were only in part recovered by the +peace of Ryswick (1697). + + + Efforts of the elector of Bavaria to promote trade. + + The Spanish succession. + + The Grand Alliance. + +The internal history of the Belgic provinces has little to record during +this long period in which the ambition of Louis XIV. to possess himself +of the Netherlands, in right of his wife the infanta Maria Theresa (see +SPANISH SUCCESSION), led to a series of invasions and desolating wars. +The French king managed to incorporate a large slice of territory upon +his northern frontier, but his main object was baffled by the steady +resistance and able statesmanship of William III. of England and +Holland. Meanwhile from 1692 onwards brighter prospects were opened out +to the unfortunate Belgians by the nomination by the Spanish king of +Maximilian Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, to be governor-general with +well-nigh sovereign powers. The elector had himself a claim to the +inheritance as the husband of an Austrian archduchess, whose mother, the +infanta Margaret, was the younger sister of the French queen. Maximilian +Emanuel was an able man, who did his utmost to improve the condition of +the country. He attempted to promote trade and restore prosperity to the +impoverished land by the introduction of new customs laws and other +measures, and particularly by the construction of canals to counteract +the damage done to Belgian commerce by the closing of the Scheldt. The +position of the elector was greatly strengthened by the partition treaty +of the 19th of August 1698. Under this instrument the signatory +powers--England, France and Holland--agreed that on the demise of +Charles II. the crown prince of Bavaria under his father's guardianship +should be sovereign of Spain, Belgium and Spanish America. Charles II. +himself shortly afterwards by will appointed the Bavarian prince heir to +all his dominions. The death of the infant heir a few months later (6th +of February 1699) unfortunately destroyed any prospects of a peaceable +settlement of the Spanish Succession. Charles II. was persuaded to name +as his sole successor, Philip duke of Anjou, the second son of the +dauphin, and on his death (on the 1st November 1700) Louis XIV. took +immediate steps to support his grandson's claims, in spite of his formal +renunciation of such claims under the treaty of the Pyrenees. England +and Holland were determined to prevent, however, at all costs the +acquisition of Belgium by a French prince, and a coalition, known as the +Grand Alliance, was formed between these two powers and the empire to +uphold the claims of the archduke Charles, second son of the emperor. + + + Marlborough's successes. + + Peace of Utrecht. + + The Austrian Netherlands. + + Marquis de Prie in Belgium. + + Execution of Francis Anneesens. + + Chartered Company of Ostend. + +One of the first steps of Louis was to take possession of the +Netherlands. The hereditary feud between the houses of Austria and +Bavaria induced the elector to take the side of France, and he was +nominated by Philip V. vicar-general of the Netherlands. The unhappy +Belgic provinces were again doomed for a number of years to be the +battle-ground of the contending forces, and it was on Belgic soil that +Marlborough won the great victories of Ramillies (1706) and of Oudenarde +(1708), by which he was enabled to drive the French armies out of the +Netherlands and to carry the war into French territory. At the general +peace concluded at Utrecht (11th of April 1713) the long connexion +between Belgium and Spain was severed, and this portion of the +Burgundian inheritance of Charles V. placed under the sovereignty of the +Habsburg claimant, who had, by the death of his brother, become the +emperor Charles VI. The Belgic provinces now came for a full century to +be known as the Austrian Netherlands. Yet such was the dread of France +and the enfeebled state of the country that Holland retained the +privilege, which had been conceded to her during the war, of garrisoning +the principal fortresses or Barrier towns, on the French frontier, and +her right to close the navigation on the Scheldt was again ratified by a +European treaty. The beginnings of Austrian sovereignty were marked by +many collisions between the representatives of the new rulers and the +States General, and provincial "states." Despite their troubled history +and long subjection, the Belgic provinces still retained to an unusual +degree their local liberties and privileges, and more especially the +right of not being taxed, except by the express consent of the states. +The marquis de Prie, who (as deputy for Prince Eugene) was the imperial +governor from 1719 to 1726, encountered on the part of local authorities +and town gilds vigorous resistance to his attempt to rule the +Netherlands as an Austrian dependency, and he was driven to take strong +measures to assert his authority. He selected as his victim a powerful +popular leader at Brussels, Francis Anneesens, syndic of the gild of St +Nicholas, who was beheaded on the 19th of September 1719. His name is +remembered in Belgian annals as a patriot martyr to the cause of +liberty. The administration of de Prie was not, however, without its +redeeming features. He endeavoured to create at Ostend a seaport, +capable in some measure to take the place of Antwerp, and in 1722 a +Chartered Company of Ostend was erected for the purpose of trading in +the East and West Indies (see OSTEND). The determined hostility of the +Dutch rendered the promising scheme futile, and after a precarious +struggle for existence, Charles VI., in order to gain the assent of the +United Provinces and Great Britain to the Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.), +suppressed the Company in 1731. + + + Archduchess Mary Elizabeth. + + Charles of Lorraine. + +For sixteen years (1725-1741) the archduchess Mary Elizabeth, sister of +the emperor, filled the post of governor-general. Her rule was marked by +the restoration of the old form of administration under the three +councils, and was a period of general tranquillity. She died (1741) in +the Netherlands, and the empress-queen, Maria Theresa, who had succeeded +under the Pragmatic Sanction to the Burgundian domains of her father +about a year before, appointed her brother-in-law, Charles of Lorraine, +to be governor-general in her aunt's place, and he retained that post, +to the great advantage of Belgium, for nearly forty years. He was +deservedly known as the "Good Governor." The first years of his +administration were stormy. During the Austrian War of Succession the +country was conquered by the French, and for two years Marshal Saxe bore +the title of governor-general, but it was restored to Austria by the +peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Belgium was undisturbed by the Seven +Years' War (1756-1763), and during the long peace which followed enjoyed +considerable prosperity. Charles of Lorraine thoroughly identified +himself with the best interests of the country, and was the champion of +its liberties, and though he had at times to make a stand against the +imperialistic tendencies of the chancellor Kaunitz, he was able to rely +on the steady support of the empress, who appreciated the wise and +liberal policy of her brother-in-law. Although the Scheldt was still +closed, Charles endeavoured by a large extension of the canal system to +facilitate commercial intercourse, he encouraged agriculture, and was +successful in restoring the prosperity of the country. He also did much +for the advancement of learning, founding, among other institutions, +the Academy of Science, and he consistently restrained the undue +intervention of the church in secular affairs, and placed restrictions +upon the accumulation of property in the hands of religious bodies. + + + Reforming zeal of Joseph II. + + The Brabancon revolt. + +The death of Charles of Lorraine preceded only by a few months that of +Maria Theresa, whose son Joseph II. not only appointed his sister, the +archduchess Maria Christine, governor-general, but visited Belgium in +person and showed a great and active interest in its affairs. Here as +elsewhere in his dominions his intentions were excellent, but his +reforming zeal outran discretion, and his hasty and self-opinionated +interferences with treaty rights and traditional privileges ended in +provoking opposition and disaster. Finding the United Provinces hampered +by a war with England, he seized the opportunity to try to get rid of +the impediments placed upon Belgian development by the Barrier and other +treaties with Holland. He was able to compel the Dutch to withdraw their +garrisons from the Barrier towns, but was wholly unsuccessful in his +high-handed attempt to free the navigation of the Scheldt. These efforts +to coerce the Dutch, though marred by partial failure, were, however, +calculated to win for Joseph II. popularity with his Belgian subjects; +but it was far otherwise with his policy of internal reform. He offended +the states by seeking to sweep away many of their inherited privileges +and to change the time-honoured, if somewhat obsolete, system of civil +government. He further excited the religious feelings of the people +against him, by his edict of Tolerance (1780), and his later attempts at +the reform of clerical abuses, which were pronounced to be an infraction +of the Joyous Entry (see JOYEUSE ENTREE). Fierce opposition was aroused. +Numbers of malcontents left the country and organized themselves as a +military force in Holland. As the discontent became more general, the +insurgents returned, took several forts, defeated the Austrians at +Turnhout, and overran the country. On the 11th of December 1789, the +people of Brussels rose against the Austrian garrison, and compelled it +to capitulate, and, on the 27th, the states of Brabant declared their +independence. The other provinces followed and, on the 11th of January +1790, the whole formed themselves into an independent state, under the +name of the "Belgian United States." A few weeks later, on the 20th of +February, Joseph II. died, his end hastened by chagrin at the utter +failure of his well-meant efforts, and was succeeded by Leopold II. + + + Leopold II. pacifies the country. + + Conquest of Belgium by the French. + + Union of Holland and Belgium under William I. + +The new emperor at once took steps to re-assert, if possible, his +authority in Belgium without having recourse to armed force. He offered +the states, if the people would return to their allegiance, the +restoration of their ancient constitution and a general amnesty. This, +however, did not suit views of the popular party, who, under the +leadership of an advocate named Van der Noot, had possession of the +reins of power, and were uplifted by their success. The terms offered in +an imperial proclamation were rejected, and preparations were made to +resist coercion by the _levee en masse_ of a national army. When, +however, in November 1790, a powerful Austrian force entered the +country, there was practically little opposition to its advance. The +popular leaders fled, the form of government, as it existed at the end +of the reign of Maria Theresa, and an amnesty for past offences was +proclaimed; a superficial pacification of the revolted provinces was +effected, and Austrian rule re-established. It was destined to be +short-lived. In 1792 the armies of revolutionary France assailed Austria +at her weakest point by an invasion of Belgium. The battle of Jemappes +(7th of November) made the French masters of the southern portion of the +Austrian Netherlands; the battle of Fleurus (26th of June 1794) put an +end to the rule of the Habsburgs over the Belgic provinces. The treaty +of Campo Formio (1797) and the subsequent treaty of Luneville (1801) +confirmed the conquerors in the possession of the country, and Belgium +became an integral part of France, being governed on the same footing, +receiving the _Code Napoleon_, and sharing in the fortunes of the +Republic and the Empire. After the fall of Napoleon and the conclusion +of the first peace of Paris (30th of May 1814) Belgium was indeed for +some months placed under the administration of an Austrian +governor-general, but it was shortly afterwards united with Holland to +form the kingdom of the Netherlands. The sovereignty of the newly formed +state was given to the prince of Orange, who mounted the throne (23rd of +March 1815) under the title of William I. The congress of Vienna (31st +of May 1815) determined the relations and fixed the boundaries of the +kingdom; and the new constitution was promulgated on the 24th of August +following, the king taking the oath at Brussels on the 27th of +September. + + + 1814-1830. + + Causes of disagreement between Holland and Belgium. + + Attitude of the king. + + Language question. + + Belgian prosperity during the union. + +From this date until the Belgian revolt of 1830, the history of Holland +and Belgium is that of two portions of one political entity, but in the +relations of those two portions were to be found from the very outset +fundamental causes tending to disagreement and separation. The Dutch and +Belgian provinces of the Netherlands had for one hundred and thirty +years passed through totally different experiences, and had drifted +farther and farther apart from one another in character, in habits, in +ideas and above all in religion. In the south the policy of Alva and +Philip II. had been wholly successful, and the Belgian people, Flemings +and Walloons alike, were perhaps more devoted to the Catholic faith than +any other in Europe. On the other hand the incorporation of the country +for two decades in the French republic and empire had left deep traces +on a considerable section of the population, the French language was +commonly spoken and was exclusively used in the law courts and in all +public proceedings, and French political theories had made many +converts. The Fundamental Law promulgated by William I. aroused strong +opposition among both the Catholic and Liberal parties in Belgium. The +large powers granted to the king under the new constitution displeased +the Liberals, who saw in its provision only a disguised form of personal +government. The principle of liberty of worship and of the press, which +it laid down, was so offensive to the Catholics that the bishops +condemned it publicly, and in the Doctrinal Judgment actually forbade +their flocks to take the oath. The "close and complete union," which was +stipulated under the treaty of 1814, began under unfavourable auspices. +Nevertheless the difficulties might have been smoothed away in the +course of time, had the Belgians felt that the Dutch were treating them +in a fair and conciliatory spirit. This, despite the undoubtedly good +intentions of the king, was far from being the case. Belgium was +regarded too much in the light of an annexed territory, handed over to +Holland as compensation for the losses sustained by the Dutch in the +revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The idea that Holland was the +predominant partner in the kingdom of the Netherlands was firmly rooted +in the north and naturally provoked in the south the feeling that +Belgium was being exploited for the benefit of the Dutch. The grievances +of the Belgians were indeed very substantial. The seat of government was +in Holland, the king was a Dutchman by birth and training, and a +Calvinistic protestant by religion. Though the population of Belgium was +3,400,000 and that of Holland only a little more than 2,000,000 the two +countries had equal representation in the second chamber of the +states-general. Practically in all important legislative measures +affecting the interests of the two countries the Dutch government were +able to command a small but permanent majority. The use of the term "the +Dutch Government" is strictly accurate, for the great majority of the +public offices were filled by northerners. In 1830, of the seven members +of the ministry only one was a Belgian; in the home department out of +117 officials 11 only were Belgians; in the ministry of war 3 were +Belgians out of 102; of the officers of the army 288 out of 1967. All +the public establishments, the Bank, the military schools, were Dutch. +That such was the case must not be entirely charged to partiality, still +less to deliberate unfairness on the part of William I. The conduct of +the king proves that he had a most sincere regard for the welfare of his +Belgian subjects, and in his choice of measures and men his aim was to +secure the prosperity of his new kingdom by a policy of unification. +This was the object he had in view in his attempt to make Dutch, except +in the Walloon districts, the official language for all public and +judicial acts, and a knowledge of Dutch a necessary qualification for +every person entering the public service. That the fierce opposition +which this attempt aroused in the Flemish-speaking provinces was +ill-considered and unwise, is shown by the fact that in recent years +there has been a patriotic movement in these same provinces which has +been successful in forcing the Belgian government to adopt Flemish (i.e. +Dutch) as well as French for official usage. This Flemish movement is +all in favour of establishing close relations with the sister people of +the north. Moreover it cannot be gainsaid that Belgium during her union +with Holland enjoyed a degree of prosperity that was quite remarkable. +The mineral wealth of the country was largely developed, the iron +manufactures of Liege made rapid advance, the woollen manufactures of +Verviers received a similar impulse, and many large establishments were +formed at Ghent and other places, where cotton goods were produced which +rivalled those of England and surpassed those of France. The extensive +colonial and foreign trade of the Dutch furnished them with markets, +while the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt raised Antwerp once +more to a place of high commercial importance. The government also did +much in the way of improving the internal communications of the country, +in repairing the roads and canals, in forming new ones, in deepening and +widening rivers, and the like. Nor was the social and intellectual +improvement of the people by any means neglected. A new university was +formed at Liege, normal schools for the instruction of teachers were +instituted, and numerous elementary schools and schools for higher +instruction were established over the country. These measures for the +furthering of education among the people on the part of a government +mainly composed of Protestants were received with suspicion and +disfavour by the priests, and still more the attempts subsequently made +to regulate the education of the priests themselves. The establishment +under the auspices of the king in 1825 of the Philosophical College at +Louvain, and the requirement that every priest before ordination should +spend two years in study there, gave great offence to the clerical +party, and some of the bishops were prosecuted for the violence of their +denunciations at this intrusion of the secular arm into the religious +domain. With the view of terminating these differences the king in 1827 +entered into a _concordat_ with the pope, and an agreement was reached +with regard to nominations to bishoprics, clerical education and other +questions, which should have satisfied all reasonable men. But in 1828 +the two extreme parties, the Catholic Ultramontanes and the +revolutionary Liberals, in their common hatred to the Dutch regime, +formed an alliance, the _union_, for the overthrow of the government. +Petitions were sent in setting forth the Belgian grievances, demanding a +separate administration for Belgium and a full concession of the +liberties guaranteed by the constitution. + + + Brussels outbreak of 1830. + +Matters were in this state when the news of the success of the July +revolution of 1830 at Paris reached Brussels, at this time a city of +refuge for the intriguing and discontented of almost every country of +Europe. The first outbreak took place on the 25th of August, the +anniversary of the king's accession. An opera called _La Muette_, which +abounds in appeals to liberty, was played, and the audience were so +excited that they rushed out into the street crying, "Imitons les +Parisiens!" A mob speedily gathered together, who proceeded to destroy +or damage a number of public buildings and the private residences of +unpopular officials. The troops were few in number and offered no +opposition to the mob, but a burgher guard was enrolled among the +influential and middle-class citizens for the protection of life and +property. The intelligence of these events in the capital soon spread +through the provinces; and in most of the large towns similar scenes +were enacted, beginning with plunderings and outrages, followed by the +institution of burgher guards for the maintenance of peace. The leading +men of Brussels were most anxious not to push matters to extremities. +They demanded the dismissal of the specially obnoxious minister, Van +Maanen, and a separate administration for Belgium. The government, +however, could not make up their minds what course to pursue, and by +allowing things to drift ended by converting a popular riot into a +national revolt. The heir apparent, the prince of Orange (see WILLIAM +II. of the Netherlands), was sent on a peaceful mission to Brussels, but +furnished with such limited powers, as under the circumstances were +utterly inadequate. He did his best to get at the real facts, and after +a number of conferences with the leaders became so convinced that +nothing but a separate administration of the two countries would restore +tranquillity that he promised to use his influence with his father to +bring about that object--on receiving assurances that the personal union +under the house of Orange would be maintained. The king summoned an +extraordinary session of the states-general, which met at the Hague on +the 13th of September and was opened by a speech from the throne, which +was firm and temperate, but by no means definite. The proceedings were +dilatory, and the attitude of the Dutch deputies exceedingly +exasperating. The result was that the moderate party in Belgium quickly +lost their influence, and those in favour of violent measures prevailed. +Meanwhile although the states were still sitting at the Hague, an army +of 14,000 troops under the command of Prince Frederick, second son of +the king, was gradually approaching Brussels. It was hoped that the +inhabitants would welcome the prince and that a display of armed force +would speedily restore order. After much unnecessary delay, at a time +when prompt action was required, the prince on the 23rd of September +entered Brussels and, with little opposition, occupied the upper or +court portion of it, but when they attempted to advance into the lower +town the troops found the streets barricaded and defended by citizens in +arms. Desultory fighting between the soldiers and the insurgents +continued for three days until, finding that he was making no headway, +the prince ordered a retreat. The news spread like wildfire through the +country, and the principal towns declared for separation. A provisional +government was formed at Brussels, which declared Belgium to be an +independent state, and summoned a national congress to establish a +system of government. King William now did his utmost to avoid a +rupture, and sent the prince of Orange to Antwerp to promise that +Belgium should have a separate administration; but it was too late. +Antwerp was the only important place that remained in the hands of the +Dutch, and the army on retreating from Brussels had fallen back on this +town. At the end of October an insurgent army had arrived before the +gates, which were opened by the populace to receive them, and the +troops, under General Chasse, retired within the citadel. The general +ordered a bombardment of the town for two days, destroying a number of +houses and large quantities of merchandize. This act served still +further to inflame the minds of the Belgians against the Dutch. + + + Meeting of the National Congress. + + The new constitution. + + Leopold I., king of the Belgians. + +A convention of the representatives of the five great powers met in +London in the beginning of November, at the request of the king of the +Netherlands, and both sides were brought to consent to a cessation of +hostilities. On the 10th of November the National Congress, consisting +of 200 deputies, met at Brussels and came to three important decisions: +(1) the independence of the country--carried unanimously; (2) a +constitutional hereditary monarchy--174 votes against 13; (3) the +perpetual exclusion of the Orange-Nassau family--161 votes against 28. +On the 20th of December the conference of London proclaimed the +dissolution of the kingdom of the Netherlands, but claimed the right of +regulating the conditions under which it should take place. On the 28th +of January 1831, the congress proceeded to the election of a king, and +out of a number of candidates the choice fell on the duke of Nemours, +second son of Louis Philippe, but he declined the office. The congress +then elected Baron Surlet de Chokier to the temporary post of regent, +and proceeded to draw up a constitution on the British parliamentary +pattern. The constitution expressly declared that the king has no powers +except those formally assigned to him. Ministers were to be appointed by +him, but be responsible to the chambers. The legislature was composed of +two chambers--the senate and the chamber of deputies. Both chambers were +elected by the same voters, but senators required a property +qualification,--the payment of at least 2000 florins in taxes. Senators +and deputies received salaries. The franchise was for that time a low +one--every one who paid at least 20 florins in taxes had a vote. The +choice of a king was more difficult than that of drawing up a +constitution. It was desirable that the new sovereign should be able to +count upon the friendly support of the great powers, and yet not be +actually a member of their reigning dynasties. It was from fear of +arousing the susceptibilities of neighbouring states, especially Great +Britain, that Louis Philippe had refused to sanction the election of his +son. It was for this reason that the name of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the +widower of Princess Charlotte of England, had not been placed among the +candidates in January. Overtures were, however, made to him, as soon as +it was understood that, as the result of private negotiations at the +London conference, the selection of this prince would be favourably +received both by Great Britain and France. Leopold signified his +readiness to accept the crown after having first ascertained that he +would have the support of the great powers in bringing about a +satisfactory settlement with Holland on those points which he considered +essential to the security and welfare of the new kingdom. The election +took place on the 4th of June, when 152 votes out of 196, four being +absent, determined that Leopold should be proclaimed king of the +Belgians, under the express condition that he "would accept the +constitution and swear to maintain the national independence and +territorial integrity." Leopold made his public entry into Brussels, on +the 21st, and subsequently visited other parts of the kingdom, and was +everywhere received with demonstrations of loyalty and respect. + +At this juncture news suddenly arrived that the Dutch were preparing to +invade the country with a large army. It comprised 45,000 infantry and +6000 cavalry with 72 pieces of artillery, while Leopold could scarcely +bring forward 25,000 men to oppose it. On the 2nd of August the whole of +the Dutch army had crossed the frontier; Leopold collected his forces, +such as they were, near Louvain in order to cover his capital. The two +armies met on the 9th of August. The undisciplined Belgians, despite the +personal efforts of their king, were speedily routed, and Leopold and +his staff narrowly escaped capture. He, however, made good his retreat +to the capital, and, on the advance of a French army, the prince of +Orange did not deem it prudent to push on farther. A convention was +concluded between him and the French general, in consequence of which he +returned to Holland and the French likewise recrossed the frontier. +Leopold now proceeded with vigour to strengthen his position and to +restore order and confidence. French officers were selected for the +training and disciplining of the army, the civil list was arranged with +economy and order, and reforms were introduced into the public service +and system of administration. He kept on the best of terms, though a +Protestant, with the Roman Catholic clergy and nobility, and his +subsequent marriage with the daughter of the French king (9th of August +1832), and the contract that the children of the marriage should be +brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, did much to inspire confidence +in his good intentions. + + + The treaty of separation. + +Meanwhile the conference in London had drawn up the project of a treaty +for the separation of Holland and Belgium, which was declared "to be +final and irrevocable." The conditions were far less favourable to +Belgium than had been hoped, and it was not without much heart-burning +and considerable opposition, that the senate and chamber of deputies +gave their assent to them. The treaty, which contained 24 articles, was +signed on the 15th of November 1831. By these articles the grand-duchy +of Luxemburg was divided, but the king of Holland retained possession of +the fortress of Luxemburg, and also received a portion of Limburg to +compensate him for the part of Luxemburg assigned to Belgium. The +district of Maestricht was likewise partitioned, but the fortress +remained Dutch. The Scheldt was declared open to the commerce of both +countries. The national debt was divided. The powers recognized the +independence of Belgium, "as a neutral state." + + + The French besiege Antwerp. + + The Luxemburg question. + + Final settlement between Holland and Belgium. + +This agreement was ratified by the Belgian and French sovereigns on the +20th and 24th of November, by the British on the 6th of December, but +the Austrian and Prussian and Russian governments, whose sympathies were +with the "legitimate" King William rather than with a prince who owed +his crown to a revolution, did not give their ratification till some +five months later. Even then King William remained obdurate, refused to +sign and continued to keep possession of Antwerp. After fruitless +efforts on the part of the great powers to obtain his acquiescence, +France and Great Britain resolved to have recourse to force. On the 5th +of November their combined fleets sailed for the coast of Holland, and, +on the 18th, a French army of 60,000 men, under the command of Marshal +Gerard, crossed the Belgian frontier to besiege Antwerp. The Dutch +garrison capitulated on the 23rd of December, and on the 31st the town +was handed over to the Belgians, and the French troops withdrew across +the frontier. The Dutch, however, still held two forts, which enabled +them to command the navigation of the Scheldt, and these they stubbornly +refused to yield. Belgium therefore kept possession of Limburg and +Luxemburg, except the fortress of Luxemburg, which as a fortress of the +German confederation was, under the terms of the treaty of Vienna, +garrisoned by Prussian troops. These territories were treated in every +way as a part of Belgium, and sent representatives to the chambers. +Great indignation was therefore felt at the idea of giving them up, when +Holland (14th of March 1838) signified its readiness to accept the +conditions of the treaty. The chambers argued that Belgium had been +induced to agree to the twenty-four articles in 1832 in the hope of +thereby at once terminating all harassing disputes, but as Holland +refused then to accept them, the conditions were no longer binding and +the circumstances were now quite changed. They urged that Luxemburg in +fact formed an integral part of Belgium and that the people were totally +opposed to a union with Holland. They offered to pay for the territory +in dispute, but the treaty gave them no right of purchase, and the +proposal was not entertained. Addresses were unanimously voted urging +the king to resist separation, great excitement was aroused throughout +the country and preparations were made for war. But the firmness of the +allied powers and their determination to uphold the condtions of the +treaty compelled the king most reluctantly to submit to the inevitable. +The treaty was signed in London on the 19th of April 1839. It saddled +Belgium with a portion of Holland's debt, and a severe financial crisis +followed. + + + Struggle between the Catholics and Liberals. + + Electoral reform. + +The Belgian revolution owed its success to the union of the Catholic and +Liberal parties; and the king had been very careful to maintain the +alliance between them. This continued to be the character of the +government till 1840, but by degrees it had been growing more and more +conservative, and was giving rise to dissatisfaction. A ministry was +formed on more liberal principles, but it clashed with the Catholic +aristocracy, who had the majority in the senate. A neutral ministry +under M. Charles Nothomb was then formed. In 1842 it carried a new law +of primary instruction, which aroused the dislike of the anti-clerical +Liberals. The Nothomb ministry retired in 1845. In March 1846 the king +formed a purely Catholic ministry, but it was fiercely attacked by the +Liberals, who had for several years been steadily organizing. A congress +was summoned to meet at Brussels (14th of June 1846) composed of +delegates from the different Liberal associations throughout the +country. Three hundred and twenty delegates met and drew up an Act of +Federation and a programme of reforms. The election of 1847 gave a +majority to the Liberals and a purely Liberal ministry was formed, and +from this date onwards it has been the constitutional practice in +Belgium to choose a homogeneous ministry from the party which possesses +a working majority in the chamber. In 1848 a new electoral law was +passed, which lowered the franchise to 20 florins' worth of property and +doubled the number of electors. Hence it came to pass that Belgium +passed safely through the crisis of the French revolution of 1848. The +extreme democratic and socialistic party made with French aid some +spasmodic efforts to stir up a revolutionary movement, but they met with +no popular sympathy; the throne of Leopold stood firmly based upon the +trust and respect of the Belgian nation for the wisdom and moderation of +their king. + +The attention of the government was now largely directed to the +stimulating of private industry and the carrying out of public works of +great practical utility, such as the extension of railways and the +opening up of other internal means of communication. Commercial treaties +were also entered into with various countries with the view of providing +additional outlets for industrial products. The king also sought as much +as possible to remove from the domain of politics every irritating +question, believing that a union of the different parties was most for +the advantage of the state. In 1850 the question of middle-class +education was settled. In 1852 the Liberal cabinet was overthrown and a +ministry of conciliation was formed. A bill was passed authorizing the +army to be raised to 100,000 men including reserve. The elections of +1854 modified the parliamentary situation by increasing the strength of +the Conservatives; the ministry resigned and a new one was formed, under +Pierre de Decker, of moderate Catholics and Progressives. In 1857 the +government of M. de Decker brought in a bill to establish "the liberty +of charity," but in reality to place the administration of charities in +the hands of the priesthood. This led to a violent agitation throughout +the kingdom and the military had to be called out. Eventually the bill +was withdrawn, the ministers resigned and a Liberal ministry was formed +under M. Charles Rogier. In 1860 the communal _octrois_ or duties on +articles of food brought into the towns was abolished; in 1863 the +navigation of the Scheldt was made free, and a treaty of commerce +established with England. The elections of July 1864 gave a majority to +the Liberals, and M. Rogier continued in office. + + + Accession of Leopold II. + +On the 10th of December 1865, King Leopold died, after a reign of +thirty-four years. He was greatly beloved by his people, and to him +Belgium owed much, for in difficult circumstances and critical times he +had managed its affairs with great tact and judgment. He was succeeded +by his eldest son Leopold II., who was immediately proclaimed king and +took the oath to the constitution on the 17th of December. On the +outbreak of war between France and Germany in 1870, Belgium saw the +difficulty and danger of her position, and lost no time in providing for +contingencies. A large war credit was voted, the strength of the army +was raised and strong bodies of troops were moved to the frontier. The +feeling of danger to Belgium also caused great excitement in England. +The British government declared its intention to maintain the integrity +of Belgium in accordance with the treaty of 1839, and it induced the two +belligerent powers to agree not to violate the neutrality of Belgian +territory. A considerable portion of the French army routed at Sedan did +indeed seek refuge across the frontier; but they laid down their arms +according to convention, and were duly "interned." + + + The Flemish Movement. + +In 1870 the Liberal party, which had been in power for thirteen years, +was overthrown by a union of the Catholics with a number of Liberal +dissentients to whom the policy of the government had given offence, and +a Catholic cabinet, at the head of which was Baron Jules Joseph +d'Anethan, took office. At the election of August 1870, the Catholics +obtained a majority in both chambers. They increased their power +considerably by reducing the voting qualification for electors to +provincial councils to 20 frs., and to communal councils to 10 frs., and +also by recognizing the importance of what was styled "the Flemish +Movement." Hitherto French had been the official language of the states. +The use of Flemish in public documents, in judicial procedure and in +official correspondence was hereafter required in the Flemish provinces, +and Belgium became officially bi-lingual. It was, as has been already +pointed out, a reversion to the policy of the Dutch king, which in 1830 +had been so strongly denounced by the leaders of the Belgian revolution, +and its object was the same, i.e. to prevent _frenchification_ of a +population that was Teutonic by race and speech. In 1871 M. Malou had +become the head of a cabinet of moderate Catholics, and he retained +office till 1878. This was the period of the struggle between the pope +and the Italian government, and the German _Kulturkampf_. The Belgian +Ultramontanes agitated strongly in favour of the re-establishment of the +temporal power and against the policy of Bismarck. Though +discountenanced by the ministry, the violence of the Ultra-clericals +compassed its downfall. They passed a law adopting the ballot in 1877, +but at the election of the following year a Liberal majority was +returned. + + + School law of 1879. + +The new cabinet, under M. Frere-Orban, devoted itself solely to the +settlement of the educational system. Hitherto since 1842 in all primary +schools instruction by the clergy in the Catholic faith was obligatory, +children belonging to other persuasions being dispensed from attendance. +In 1879 a bill was passed for the secularization of primary education; +but an attempt was made to conciliate the clergy by Art. 4, which +enacted--"religious instruction is relegated to the care of families and +the clergy of the various creeds. A place in the school may be put at +their disposal where the children may receive religious instruction," at +hours other than those set apart for regular education. The bill +likewise provided for a rigorous inspection of the communal schools. The +passing of this law was met by the clergy by uncompromising resistance. +The bishops ordered that absolution be refused to teachers in the +schools "sans Dieu," and to the parents who sent their children to them, +and urged the establishment of private Catholic schools. All over +Belgium the agitation spread, and the clergy, who were practically +independent of state control, gained the victory. In November 1879 it +was calculated that there were but 240,000 scholars in the secularized +schools against 370,000 in the Catholic schools. In Flanders over 80% of +the children attended the Catholic schools. The government appealed to +the pope, but the Holy See declined to take any action, and so great was +the embitterment that the Belgian minister at the Vatican and the papal +nuncio at Brussels were recalled, and in 1880 the clergy refused to +associate themselves with the fetes of the national jubilee. In order to +emerge victorious in such a struggle the Liberal party had need of all +their strength, but a split took place between the sections known as the +_doctrinaires_ and the _progressists_, on the question of an extension +of the franchise, and at the election of 1884 the Catholics carried all +before them at the polls. From 1884 up to the present time the clerical +party have maintained their supremacy. + + + Social outbreak in 1886. + + Agitation for a revision of the constitution. + + The Nyssens compromise. + +A Catholic administration under M. Malou at once took in hand the +schools question. A law was passed, despite violent protests from the +Liberals, which enacted that the communes might maintain the private +Catholic schools established since 1879 and suppress unsectarian schools +at their pleasure. They might retain at least one unsectarian or adopt +one Catholic school, where 25 heads of families demanded it. The state +subsidized all the communal schools, Catholic and unsectarian alike. +Under this law in all districts under clerical control the unsectarian +schools were abolished. In October 1884, M. Beernaert replaced M. Malou +as prime minister, and retained that post for the following ten years. +He had in 1886 a troublous and dangerous situation to deal with. +Socialism had become a political force in the land. Socialism of a +German type had taken deep root among the working men of the Flemish +towns, especially at Ghent and Brussels; socialism of a French +revolutionary type among the Walloon miners and factory hands. On the +18th of March 1886, a socialist rising suddenly burst out at Liege, on +the occasion of the anniversary of the Paris Commune, and rapidly +spread in other industrial centres of the Walloon districts. Thousands +of workmen went on strike, demanding better wages and the suffrage. The +ministry acted promptly and with vigour, the outbreak was suppressed by +the employment of the military and order was restored. But as soon as +this was accomplished the government opened a comprehensive enquiry into +the causes of dissatisfaction, which served as the basis of numerous +social laws, and led eventually to the establishment of universal +suffrage and the substitution in Belgium of a democratic for a +middle-class regime. It was not effected till several years had been +spent in long parliamentary discussions, by demonstrations on the part +of the supporters of franchise revision and by strikes of a political +tendency. At last the senate and chamber declared, May 1892, that the +time for a revision of certain articles of the constitution had come. As +prescribed by the constitution, a dissolution took place and two new +chambers were elected. The Catholics had a majority in both, but not +enough to enable them to dispense with the assistance of the Liberals, +the constitution requiring for every revision a two-thirds majority. The +bills proposed for extending the franchise were all rejected (April 11th +and 12th). Thereupon the council of the Labour party proclaimed a +general strike. Fifty thousand workmen struck, in Brussels there were +violent demonstrations, and the agitation assumed generally a dangerous +aspect. Both the government and the opposition in the chambers saw that +delay vas impossible, and that revision must be carried out. Agreement +was reached by the acceptance of a compromise proposed by M. Albert +Nyssens, Catholic deputy and professor of penal procedure and commercial +law at the university of Louvain, and on the 18th of April the chamber +adopted an electoral system until then unknown--_le suffrage universel +plural_. The citizen in order to possess a vote for the election of +representatives to the chambers was to be of a _minimum_ age of +twenty-five years, and of thirty years for the election of senators and +provincial and communal councillors. For the four categories of +elections a supplementary vote was given to (a) citizens who having +attained the age of thirty-five years, and being married or widowers +with children, paid at least 5 f. income tax, and (b) to citizens of the +age of twenty-five years possessing real estate to the value of 2000 f. +or Belgian state securities yielding an income of at least 100 f. Two +supplementary votes were bestowed upon citizens having certain +educational certificates, or discharging functions or following +professions implying their possession. This elaborate system was only +carried into law after considerable and violent opposition in the +sessions of 1894 and 1895. It was chiefly the work of the ministry of M. +de Burlet, who succeeded to the place of M. Beernaert in March 1894. + + + Catholic majority of 1894. + + Proportional representation. + +The composition of the elected bodies for the years 1894-1895 was:--for +the chamber of representatives 1,354,891 electors with 2,085,605 votes, +for the senate and provincial councils 1,148,433 electors with 1,856,838 +votes. The result of the first election in October 1894 was to give the +Catholic party an overwhelming majority. The old Liberal party almost +disappeared, while the Walloon provinces returned a number of +Socialists. In February 1896 M. de Burlet, being in bad health, +transferred the direction of the government to M. Smet de Naeyer. The +election of 1894 had given the Liberals a much smaller number of seats +than they ought to have had according to the number of votes they +polled, and a cry arose for the establishment of proportional +representation. Both sides felt that reform was again necessary, but the +Catholic majority disagreed among themselves as to the form it should +take. In 1899 M. Smet de Naeyer gave place as head of the ministry to M. +van den Peereboom. But the proposals of the latter met with organized +obstruction on the part of the Socialist deputies, and after a few +months' tenure of office he gave way to M. Smet de Naeyer once more. The +new cabinet at once (August 1899) introduced a bill giving complete +proportional representation in parliamentary elections to all the +arrondissements, and it was passed despite the defection of a number of +Catholic deputies led by M. Woeste. The election in May 1900 resulted in +the return of a substantial (though reduced) Catholic majority in both +chambers. + + + Social legislation. + +During this period of Catholic ascendancy social legislation was not +neglected. Among the enactments the following are the most +important:--the institution of industrial and labour councils, composed +of employers and employes, and of a superior council, formed of +officials, workmen and employers (1887); laws assisting the erection of +workmen's dwellings and supervising the labour of women and children +(1889); laws for ameliorating the system of Friendly Societies (1890); +laws regulating workshops (1896); conferring corporate rights on trades' +unions (1898); guaranteeing the security and health of working men +during hours of labour (1899). In 1900 laws were passed regulating the +contract of labour, placing the workman on a footing of perfect equality +with his employer, assuring the married woman free control of her +savings, and organizing a system of old-age pensions. Primary education +was dealt with in 1895 by a law, which made religious instruction +obligatory, and extended state support to all schools that satisfied +certain conditions. In 1899 there were in Belgium 6674 subsidized +schools, having 775,000 scholars out of a total of 950,000 children of +school age. Only 68,000 did not receive religious instruction. The +Catholic party also strove to mitigate the principle of obligatory +military service by encouraging the system of volunteering and by a +reduction of the time of active service and of the number with the +colours. + + + Politics in 1905. + +In 1905 the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence was celebrated, and +there was a great manifestation of loyalty to King Leopold II. for the +wisdom and prudence shown by him during his long reign. Owing to +dissensions among the Catholic and Conservative party on the subject of +military service and the fortification of Antwerp, their majority in the +chamber in 1904 fell from 26 to 20, that in the senate from 16 to 12. +The partial election in 1906 reduced the majority in the chamber to 12, +while the partial election in 1908 brought the majority down to 8. The +Smet de Naeyer ministry which had held office since 1900 was defeated in +April 1907 in a debate on the mining law over the proposal concerning +the length of the working day. A new cabinet was formed on the 2nd of +May following under the presidency of M. de Trooz, who had been minister +of the interior under M. Smet de Naeyer, and who retained that portfolio +in conjunction with the premiership. M. de Trooz died on the 31st of +December 1907, and was succeeded by M. Schollaert, president of the +chamber. The count of Flanders, brother of the king, died on the 17th of +November 1905, leaving his son Albert heir to the throne. + + + Belgium and the Congo. + +The Congo question had meanwhile become an acute one in Belgium. The +personal interest taken by Leopold II. in the exploration and commercial +development of the equatorial regions of Africa had led, in the creation +of the Congo Free State, to results which had originally not been +anticipated. The _Comite des Etudes du Haut Congo_, formed in 1878 at +the instance of the king and mainly financed by him had developed into +the International Association of the Congo, of which a Belgian officer, +Colonel M. Strauch, was president. Through the efforts in Africa of H.M. +Stanley a rudimentary state was created, and through the efforts of King +Leopold in Europe the International Association was recognized during +1884-1885 by the powers as an independent state. Declarations to this +effect were exchanged between the Belgian government and the Association +on the 23rd of February 1885. In April of the same year the Belgian +chambers authorized the king to be the chief of the state founded by the +Association, which had already taken the name of _Etat Independent du +Congo_. The union between Belgium and the new state was declared to be +purely personal, but its European headquarters were in Brussels, its +officials, in the course of time, became almost exclusively Belgian, and +financially and commercially the connexion between the two countries +became increasingly close. In 1889 King Leopold announced that he had +by his will bequeathed the Congo state to Belgium, and in 1890 the +Belgian government, in return for financial help, acquired the right of +annexing the country under certain conditions. At later dates definite +proposals for immediate annexation were considered but not adopted, the +king showing a strong disinclination to cede the state, while among the +mass of the Belgians the disinclination to annex was equally strong. It +was not until terrible reports as to the misgovernment of the Congo +created a strong agitation for reform in Great Britain, America and +other countries responsible for having aided in the creation of the +state, that public opinion in Belgium seriously concerned itself with +the subject. The result was that in November 1907 a new treaty of +cession was presented to the Belgian chambers, while in March 1908 an +additional act modified one of the most objectionable features of the +treaty--a clause by which the king retained control of the revenue of a +vast territory within the Congo which he had declared to be his private +property. A colonial law, also submitted to the chambers, secured for +Belgium in case of annexation complete parliamentary control over the +Congo state, and the bill for annexation was finally passed in September +1908. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Th. Juste, _Histoire de la Belgique_ (2 vols., 1853); + _La Revolution belge de 1830_ (2 vols., 1872); _Congres national de + Belgique_ (2 vols., 1880); _Memoirs of Leopold I._ (2 vols., 1868); De + Gerlache, _Histoire du royaume des Pays-Bas_ (3 vols., 1859); D.C. + Boulger, _The History of Belgium_, part i. (1900); C. White, _The + Belgic Revolution of 1830_ (2 vols., 1835); Moke and Hubert, _Histoire + de Belgique_ (_jusque 1885_) (1892); L. Hymans, _Histoire + parlementaire de la Belgique_ (1830-1899); _Cinquante ans de liberte_ + (4 vols., 1881); J.J. Thonissen _La Belgique sous le regne de Leopold + I^{er}_ (4 vols., 1855-1858); De Laveleye, _Le Parti clerical en + Belgique_ (1874); Vandervelde and Destree, _Le Socialisme belge_ + (1898); C. Woeste, _Vingt ans de polemique_ (1890); Hamelius, _Le + Mouvement flamand_ (1894). (G. E.) + + +LITERATURE + +Belgian literature, taken in the widest sense of the term, falls into +three groups, consisting of works written respectively in Flemish, +Walloon and French. The earlier Flemish authors are treated under DUTCH +LITERATURE; the revival of Flemish Literature (q.v.) since the +separation of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1830, and Walloon +Literature (q.v.), are each separately noticed. The earlier French +writers born on what is now Belgian territory--e.g. Adenes le Rois, Jean +Froissart, Jean Lemaire des Belges and others--are included in the +general history of French Literature (q.v.). It remains to consider the +literature written by Belgians in French during the 19th century, and +its rapid development since the revolution of 1831. + +Belgian writers were commonly charged with provincialism, but the +prejudice against them has been destroyed by the brilliant writers of +1870-1880. It was also asserted that Belgian French literature lacked a +national basis, and was merely a reflection of Parisian models. The most +important section of it, however, has a distinctive quality of its own. +Many of its most distinguished exponents are Flemings by birth, and +their writings reflect the characteristic Flemish scenery; they have the +sensuousness, the colour and the realism of Flemish art; and on the +other hand the tendency to mysticism, to abstraction, is far removed +from the lucidity and definiteness associated with French literature +properly so-called. This profoundly national character disengaged itself +gradually, and has been more strikingly evident since 1870. The earlier +writers of the century were content to follow French tradition. + +The events of 1830-1831 gave a great stimulus to Belgian letters, but +the country possessed writers of considerable merit before that date. +Adolphe Mathieu (1802-1876) belongs to the earlier half of the century, +although the tenth and last volume of his _Oeuvres en vers_ was only +printed in 1870. His later works show the influence of the Romantic +revival. Auguste Clavareau (1787-1864), a mediocre poet, an imitator of +the French and Dutch, produced some successful comedies, but he ceased +to write plays before 1830. Edouard Smits (1789-1852) showed romantic +tendencies in his tragedies of _Marie de Bourgogne_ (1823), _Elfrida_ +(1825), and _Jeanne de Flandre_ (1828). The first of these had a great +success, partly no doubt because of its patriotic subject. For four +years before 1830 Andre van Hasselt (q.v.) had been publishing his +verses in the _Sentinelle des Pays-Bas_, and from 1829 onwards he was an +ardent romanticist. A burst of literary and artistic activity followed +the Revolution; and van Hasselt's house became a centre of poets, +artists and musicians of the romantic school. The best work of the +Belgian romanticists is in the rich and picturesque prose of the 16th +century romance of Charles de Coster (see DE COSTER), and in the +melancholy and semi-philosophical writings of the moralist Octave Pirmez +(q.v.). The _Poesies_ (1841) and the _Chansons_ (1866) of Antoine Clesse +(1816-1889), have been compared with the work of Beranger; and the +Catholic party found a champion against the liberals and revolutionists +in the satirical poet, Benoit Quinet (b. 1819). Among the famous +dramatic pieces of this epoch was the _Andre Chenier_ (1843) of Edouard +Wacken (1819-1861), who was a lyric rather than a dramatic poet; also +the comedies of Louis Labarre (1810-1892) and of Henri Delmotte +(1822-1884). Charles Potvin (1818-1902), a poet and a dramatist, is best +known by a patriotic _Histoire des lettres en Belgique_, forming vol. +iv. of the Belgian compilation, _Cinquante ans de liberte_ (1882), and +by his essays in literary history. Eugene van Bemmel (1824-1880) +established an excellent historical tradition in his _Histoire de la +Belgique_ (1880), reproducing textually the original authorities, and +also edited a Belgian Encyclopaedia (1873-1875), the _Patria Belgica_. +Baron E.C. de Gerlache (1785-1871) wrote the history of the Netherlands +from the ultramontane standpoint. The romanticists were attacked in an +amusing satire, _Les Voyages et aventures de M. Alfred Nicolas_ (1835), +by Francois Grandgagnage (1797-1877), who was a nationalist in the +narrowest sense, and regarded the movement as an indefensible invasion +of foreign ideas. The best of the novelists of this period, excluding +Charles de Coster, was perhaps Estelle Ruelens (_nee_ Crevecoeur; +1821-1878); she wrote under the pseudonym of "Caroline Graviere." Her +tales were collected by the bibliophile "P.L. Jacob" (Paris, 1873-1874). + +The whole of this literature derived more or less from foreign sources, +and, with the exception of Charles de Coster and Octave Pirmez, produced +no striking figures. De Coster died in 1879, and Pirmez in 1883, and the +new movement in Belgian literature dates from the banquet given in the +latter year to Camille Lemonnier (q.v.) whose powerful personality did +much to turn "Young Belgium" into a national channel. Lemonnier himself +cannot be exclusively claimed by any of the conflicting schools of young +writers. He was by turns naturalist, lyrist and symbolist; and it has +been claimed that the germs of all the later developments in Belgian +letters may be traced in his work. The quinquennial prize of literature +had been refused to his _Un male_, and the younger generation of artists +and men of letters gave him a banquet which was recognized as a protest +against the official literature, represented by Louis Hymans +(1829-1884), Gustave Frederix (b. 1834), the literary critic of +_L'Independance belge_, and others. The centres around which the young +writers were grouped were two reviews, _L'Art moderne_ and _La Jeune +Belgique_. _L'Art moderne_ was founded in 1882 by Edmond Picard, who had +as his chief supporters Victor Arnould and Octave Maus. The first editor +of _La Jeune Belgique_ was M. Warlomont (1860-1889), known under the +pen-name of "Max Waller." This review, which owed much of its success to +Waller's energy, defended the intense preoccupation of the new writers +with questions of style, and became the depository of the Parnassian +tradition in Belgium. It had among its early contributors Georges +Eekhoud, Albert Giraud, Iwan Gilkin and Georges Rodenbach. Edmond Picard +(b. 1836) was one of the foremost in the battle. He was well known as an +advocate in Brussels, and made a considerable contribution to +jurisprudence as the chief writer of the _Pandectes belges_ (1886-1890). +His _Pro arte_ (1886) was a kind of literary code for the young Belgian +writers. His novels, of which _La Forge Roussel_ (1881) is a good +example, were succeeded in 1902-1903 by two plays, _Jericho_ and +_Fatigue de vivre_. + +Georges Eekhoud, born at Antwerp on the 27th of May 1854, was in some +ways the most passionately Flemish of the whole group. He described the +life of the peasants of his native Flanders with a bold realism, making +himself the apologist of the vagabond and the outcast in a series of +tragic stories:--_Kees Doorik_ (1883), _Kermesses_ (1883), _Nouvelles +Kermesses_ (1887), _Le Cycle patibulaire_ (1892), _Mes Communions_ +(1895), _Escal Vigor_ (1899) and _La Faneuse d'amour_ (1900), &c. +_Nouvelle Carthage_ (1888) deals with modern Antwerp. In 1892 he +produced a striking book on English literature entitled _Au siecle de +Shakespeare_, and has written French versions of Beaumont and Fletcher's +_Philaster_ (1895) and of Marlow's _Edward II._ (1896). + +The earlier work of "Young Belgium" in poetry was experimental in +character, and was marked by extravagances of style and a general +exuberance which provoked much hostile criticism. The young writers of +1870 to 1880 had not long to wait, however, for recognition both at home +and in Paris, where many of them found hospitality in the pages of the +_Mercure de France_ from 1890 onwards. They divided their allegiance +between the leaders of the French Parnassus and the Symbolists. + +The most powerful of the Belgian poets, Emile Verhaeren (q.v.), is the +most daring in his technical methods of expressing bizarre sensation, +and has been called the "poet of paroxysm." His reputation extends far +beyond the limits of his own country. + +Many of the Belgian poets adhere to the classical form. Albert Giraud +(born at Louvain in 1860) was faithful to the Parnassian tradition in +his _Pierrot lunaire_ (1884), _Pierrot narcisse_ (1891) and _Hors du +siecle_ (1886). In the earlier works of Iwan Gilkin (born at Brussels in +1858) the influence of Charles Baudelaire is predominant. He wrote +_Damnation de l'artiste_ (1890), _Tenebres_ (1892), _Stances dorees_ +(1893), _La Nuit_ (1897) and _Promethee_ (1899). The poems of Valere +Gille (born at Brussels in 1867), whose _Cithare_ was crowned by the +French Academy in 1898, belong to the same group. Emile van Arenberghe +(born at Louvain in 1854) is the author of some exquisite sonnets. +Fernand Severin (b. 1867) in his _Poemes ingenus_ (1900) aims at +simplicity of form, and seems to have learnt the art of his musical +verse direct from Racine. With Severin is closely associated Georges +Marlow (b. 1872), author of _L'Ame en exil_ (1895). + +Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898) spent most of his life in Paris and was an +intimate of Edmond de Goncourt. He produced some Parisian and purely +imitative work; but the best part of his production is the outcome of a +passionate idealism of the quiet Flemish towns in which he had passed +his childhood and early youth. In his best known work, _Bruges la Morte_ +(1892), he explains that his aim is to evoke the town as a living being, +associated with the moods of the spirit, counselling, dissuading from +and prompting action. + +The most famous of all modern Belgian writers, Maurice Maeterlinck +(q.v.), made his debut in a Parisian journal, the _Pleiade_, in 1886. He +succeeded more nearly than any of his predecessors in expressing or +suggesting ideas and emotions which might have been supposed to be +capable of translation only in terms of music. "The unconscious self, or +rather the sub-conscious self," says Emile Verhaeren, "recognized in the +verse and prose of Maeterlinck its language or rather its stammering +attempt at language." Maeterlinck was a native of Ghent, and the first +poems of two of his fellow-townsmen also appeared in the _Pleiade_. +These were Gregoire le Roy (b. 1862), author of _La Chanson d'un soir_ +(1886), and _Mon Coeur pleure d'autrefois_ (1889); and Charles van +Lerberghe (b. 1861), author of a play, _Les Flaireurs_ (1890) and a +collection of _Poemes_ (1897). + +Max Elskamp (born at Antwerp in 1862) is the author of some volumes of +religious poetry--_Dominical_ (1892), _Salutations, dont d'angeliques_ +(1893), _En symbole vers l'apostolat_ (1895)--for which he has devised +as background an imaginary city. Eugene Demolder (b.1862) also created a +mythical city as a setting for his prose _contes_ in the _Legende +d'Yperdamme_ (1897). + +Belgian literary activity extends also to historical research. Baron +Kervyn de Lettenhove (1817-1891) wrote a _Histoire de Flandre_ (7 vols., +1847-1855), and a number of monographs on separate points in Flemish and +English history. Though an accurate historian, he allowed himself lo be +prejudiced by his extreme Catholic views. He was a vehement defender of +Mary Stuart. Louis Gachard (1800-1885) wrote many valuable works on 16th +century history; Mgr. Nameche (1810-1893) completed the 29th volume of +his _Cours d'histoire nationale_ before his death; Charles Piot (b. +1812) edited the correspondence of Cardinal de Granvelle; Alphonse +Wauters (1818-1898), archivist of Brussels, published many +archaeological works; and Charles Rahlenbeck (1823-1903) wrote +enthusiastically of the history of Protestantism in Belgium. One of the +most masterly writers of French in Belgium was the economist Emile de +Laveleye (q.v.). In aesthetics should be noted the historian of music, +Francois Joseph Fetis (1784-1871); F.A. Gevaert (1828-1908), author of +_Histoire et theorie de la musique d'antiquite_ (2 vols., 1875-1881); +and Victor Mahillon (b. 1841) for his work in acoustics and his +descriptive catalogue (1893-1900) of the museum of musical instruments +belonging to the Brussels conservatoire. In psychology Joseph Delboeuf +(1831-1896) enjoyed a great reputation outside Belgium; Elisee Reclus +(b. 1830), though a Frenchman by birth, completed his _Geographie +universelle_ (1875-1894) in exile at Brussels; and Ernest Nys has +written many standard works on international law. In the history of +literature an important work is compiled by Ferdinand van der Haeghen +and others in the _Bibliotheca Belgica_ (1880, &c.), comprising a +description of all the books printed in the Netherlands in the 15th and +16th centuries. The vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul (1836-1907) was +well known in France as the author of _Sainte-Beuve inconnu_ (1901), _La +Genese d'un roman de Balzac_ (1901), _Une Page perdue de H. de Balzac_ +(1903), and of numerous bibliographical works. + + See F.V. Goethals, _Histoire des lettres, des sciences et des arts en + Belgique_ (4 vols., 1840-1844); Fr. Masoin, _Histoire de la + litterature francaise en Belgique de 1815 a 1830_ (1903); F. Nautet, + _Histoire des lettres belges d'expression francaise_ (3 vols., 1892 et + seq.), written from the point of view of young Belgium, and by no + means impartial; A. de Koninck, _Bibliographie nationale_ brought down + to 1880; _Biographie nationale de Belgique_ (1866, &c.) in progress; + see also articles by Emile Verhaeren in the _Revue des revues_ (15th + June 1896), by Albert Mockel in the _Revue encyclopedique_ (24th July + 1897); a collection of criticisms chiefly on Belgian writers by Eugene + Gilbert, _France et Belgique; etudes litteraires_ (1905); Frederic + Faber, _Histoire du theatre francais en Belgique_ (5 vols., + 1878-1880). An excellent anthology of Belgian poets was published by + K. Pol de Mont with the title of _Modernites_ (1898). (E. G.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] See for earlier history NETHERLANDS, FLANDERS, BRABANT, LIEGE, &c. + + + + +BELGRADE (Servian, _Biograd_ or _Beograd_, i.e. "White Castle"), the +capital of Servia. Pop. (1900) 69,097. Belgrade occupies a triangular +ridge or foreland, washed on the north-west by the Save, and on the +north-east by the Danube; these rivers flowing respectively from the +south-west and north-west. The sides of the triangle slope down abruptly +towards the west, more gradually towards the east; at the base stands +the cone of Avala Hill, the last outpost of the Rudnik Mountains, which +extend far away to the south; and, at the apex, a cliff of Tertiary +chalk, 200 ft. high, overlooks the confluence of the two rivers, the +large, flat island of Veliki Voyn and several smaller islets. This cliff +is crowned by the walls and towers of the citadel, once white, but now +maroon with age, and, though useful as a prison and barracks, no longer +of any military value. Behind the citadel, and along its _glacis_ on the +southern side, are the gardens of Kalemegdan, commanding a famous view +across the river; behind Kalemegdan comes Belgrade itself, a city of +white houses, among which a few great public buildings, like the high +school, national bank, national theatre and the so-called New Palace, +stand forth prominently. The town was formerly divided into three parts, +namely, the Old town, the Russian town (_Sava-Makhala_ or Save +district), and the Turkish town (_Dorcol_, or Cross-road). A great +change, however, took place in the course of the 19th century, and the +old divisions are only partially applicable, while there has to be added +the Tirazia, an important suburban extension along the line of the +aqueduct or _Tirazi_. A few old Turkish houses, built of plaster, with +red-tiled roofs, are left among the ill-paved and insanitary districts +bordering upon the rivers, but as the royal residence, the seat of +government, and the centre of the import trade, Belgrade was, after +1869, rapidly transformed into a modern European town, with wide +streets, electric tramways and electric lighting. Only the multitude of +small gardens, planted with limes, acacias and lilacs, and the bright +costumes of the Servian or Hungarian peasants, remain to distinguish it +from a western capital. For a town of such importance, which is also the +seat of the metropolitan of Servia, Belgrade has very few churches, and +these are of a somewhat modest type. There were, in 1900, four Servian +Orthodox churches, including the cathedral, one Roman Catholic chapel, +one Evangelical chapel (German), two synagogues and one mosque. This +last is kept up entirely at the expense of the Servian government. + +The highest educational establishments are to be found in Belgrade: the +_Velika Shkola_ (a small university with three faculties), the military +academy, the theological seminary, the high school for girls, a +commercial academy, and several schools for secondary education on +German models. A commercial tribunal, a court of appeal and the court of +cassation are also in Belgrade. There is a fine monument to Prince +Michael (1860-1868) who succeeded in removing the Turkish garrison from +the Belgrade citadel and obtaining other Turkish fortresses in Servia by +skilful diplomacy. There are also an interesting national museum, with +Roman antiquities and numismatic collections, a national library with a +wealth of old Servian MSS. among its 40,000 volumes, and a botanical +garden, rich in specimens of the Balkan flora. To promote commerce there +are a stock and produce exchange (_Berza_), a national bank, privileged +to issue notes, and several other banking establishments. The insurance +work is done by foreign companies. + +The bulk of the foreign trade of Servia passes through Belgrade, but the +industrial output of the city itself is not large, owing to the scarcity +both of labour and capital. The principal industries are brewing, +iron-founding and the manufacture of cloth, boots, leather, cigarettes, +matches, pottery, preserved meat and confectionery. The railway from +Budapest to Constantinople crosses the Save by a fine bridge on the +south-west, above the landing-place for steamers. Farther south is the +park of _Topchider_, with an old Turkish kiosk built for Prince Milosh +(1818-1839) in the beautifully laid-out grounds. In the adjoining forest +of lime-trees, called _Koshutnyak_ or the "deer-park," Prince Michael +was assassinated in 1868. Just opposite the citadel, in a north-westerly +direction, half-an-hour by steamer across the Danube, lies the Hungarian +town of Semlin. For administrative purposes, Belgrade forms a separate +department of the kingdom. + +The first fortification of the rock, at the confluence of the Save and +the Danube, was made by the Celts in the 3rd century B.C. They gave it +the name of _Singidunum_, by which Belgrade was known until the 7th +century A.D. The Romans took it from the Celts, and replaced their fort +by a regular Roman _castrum_, placing in it a strong garrison. Roman +bricks, dug up in the fortress, bear the inscription, _Legio IV. Flavia +Felix_. From the 4th to the beginning of the 6th century A.D. it often +changed its masters (Huns, Sarmatians, Goths, Gepids); then the emperor +Justinian brought it once more under Roman rule and fortified and +embellished it. Towards the end of the 8th century it was taken by the +Franks of Charlemagne. In the 9th century it was captured by the +Bulgarians, and held by them until the beginning of the 11th century, +when the Byzantine emperor Basil II. reconquered it for the Greek +empire. The Hungarians, under king Stephen, took it from the Greeks in +1124. From that time it was constantly changing hands--Greeks, +Bulgarians, Hungarians, replacing each other in turn. The city was +considered to be the key of Hungary, and its possession was believed to +secure possession of Servia, besides giving command of the traffic +between the Upper and the Lower Danube. It has, in consequence, seen +more battles under its walls than most fortresses in Europe. The Turks +used to call it _Darol-i-Jehad_, "the home of wars for faith." During +the 14th century it was in the hands of the Servian kings. The Servian +prince George Brankovich ceded it to the Hungarians in 1427. The Turkish +forces unsuccessfully besieged the city in 1444 and 1456, on which last +occasion a glorious victory was obtained by the Christian garrison, led +by the famous John Hunyady and the enthusiastic monk John Capistran. In +1521 Sultan Suleiman took it from the Hungarians, and from that year it +remained in Turkish possession until 1688, when the Austrians captured +it, only to lose it again in 1690. In 1717 Prince Eugene of Savoy +conquered it for Austria, which kept it until 1739, improving the +fortifications and giving great impulse to the commercial development of +the town. From 1739 to 1789 the Turks were again its masters, when, in +that last year, the Austrians under General Laudon carried it by +assault, only to lose it again in 1792. In 1807 the Servians, having +risen for their independence, forced the Turkish garrison to capitulate, +and became masters of Belgrade, which they kept until the end of +September 1813, when they abandoned it to the Turks. Up to the year 1862 +not only was the fortress of Belgrade garrisoned by Turkish troops, but +the Danubian slope of the town was inhabited by Turks, living under a +special Turkish administration, while the modern part of the town (the +plateau of the ridge and the western slope) was inhabited by Servians +living under their own authorities. This dual government was a constant +cause of friction between the Servians and the Turks, and on the +occasion of one conflict between the two parties the Turkish commander +of the fortress bombarded the Servian part of the town (June 1862). The +indirect consequence of this incident was that in 1866, on the categoric +demand of Prince Michael of Servia, and under the diplomatic pressure of +the great powers, the sultan withdrew the Turkish garrison from the +citadel and delivered it to the Servians. (C. Mi.) + + + + +BELHAVEN AND STENTON, JOHN HAMILTON, 2ND BARON (1656-1708), was the +eldest son of Robert Hamilton, Lord Presmennan (d. 1696), and was born +on the 5th of July 1656. Having married Margaret, granddaughter of John +Hamilton, 1st Baron Belhaven and Stenton, who had been made a peer by +Charles I. in 1647, he succeeded to this title in 1679. In 1681 he was +imprisoned for opposing the government and for speaking slightingly of +James, duke of York, afterwards James II., in parliament, and in 1689 he +was among those who asked William of Orange to undertake the government +of Scotland. Belhaven was at the battle of Killiecrankie; he was a +member of the Scottish privy council, and he was a director of the +Scottish Trading Company, which was formed in 1695 and was responsible +for the Darien expedition. He favoured the agitation for securing +greater liberty for his country, an agitation which culminated in the +passing of the Act of Security in 1705, and he greatly disliked the +union of the parliaments, a speech which he delivered against this +proposal in November 1706 attracting much notice and a certain amount of +ridicule. Later he was imprisoned, ostensibly for favouring a projected +French invasion, and he died in London on the 21st of June 1708. +Belhaven is chiefly famous as an orator, and two of his speeches, one of +them the famous one of November 1706, were printed by D. Defoe in an +appendix to his _History of the Union_ (1786). + +Belhaven's son, John, who fought on the English side at Sheriffmuir, +became the 3rd baron on his father's death. He was drowned in November +1721, whilst proceeding to take up his duties as governor of Barbados, +and was succeeded by his son John (d. 1764). After the death of John's +brother James in 1777 the title was for a time dormant; then in 1799 the +House of Lords declared that William Hamilton (1765-1814), a descendant +of John Hamilton, the paternal great-grandfather of the 2nd baron, was +entitled to the dignity. William, who became the 7th baron, was +succeeded by his son Robert (1793-1868), who was created a peer of the +United Kingdom as Baron Hamilton of Wishaw in 1831. He died without +issue in December 1868, when the barony of Hamilton became extinct; in +1875 the House of Lords declared that his cousin, James Hamilton +(1822-1893) was rightfully Baron Belhaven and Stenton, and the title +descended to his kinsman, Alexander Charles (b. 1840), the 10th baron. + + + + +BELISARIUS (c. 505-565), one of the most famous generals of the later +Roman empire, was born about A.D. 505, in "Germania," a district on the +borders of Thrace and Macedonia. His name is supposed to be Slavonic. As +a youth he served in the bodyguard of Justinian, who appointed him +commander of the Eastern army. He won a signal victory over the Persians +in 530, and successfully conducted a campaign against them, until +forced, by the rashness of his soldiers, to join battle and suffer +defeat in the following year. Recalled to Constantinople, he married +Antonina, a clever, intriguing woman, and a favourite of the empress +Theodora. During the sedition of the "green" and "blue" parties of the +circus (known as the Nika sedition, 532) he did Justinian good service, +effectually crushing the rebels who had proclaimed Hypatius emperor. In +533 the command of the expedition against the Vandal kingdom in Africa, +a perilous office, which the rest of the imperial generals shunned, was +conferred on Belisarius. With 15,000 mercenaries, whom he had to train +into Roman discipline, he took Carthage, defeated Gelimer the Vandal +king, and carried him captive, in 534, to grace the first triumph +witnessed in Constantinople. In reward for these services Belisarius was +invested with the consular dignity, and medals were struck in his +honour. At this time the Ostrogothic kingdom, founded in Italy by +Theodoric the Great, was shaken by internal dissensions, of which +Justinian resolved to avail himself. Accordingly, Belisarius invaded +Sicily; and, after storming Naples and defending Rome for a year against +almost the entire strength of the Goths in Italy, he concluded the war +by the capture of Ravenna, and with it of the Gothic king Vitiges. So +conspicuous were Belisarius's heroism and military skill that the +Ostrogoths offered to acknowledge him emperor of the West. But his +loyalty did not waver; he rejected the proposal and returned to +Constantinople in 540. Next year he was sent to check the Persian king +Chosroes (Anushirvan); but, thwarted by the turbulence of his troops, he +achieved no decisive result. On his return to Constantinople he lived +under a cloud for some time, but was pardoned through the influence Of +Antonina with the empress. The Goths having meanwhile reconquered Italy, +Belisarius was despatched with utterly inadequate forces to oppose them. +Nevertheless, during five campaigns he held his enemies at bay, until he +was removed from the command, and the conclusion of the war was +entrusted to the eunuch Narses. Belisarius remained at Constantinople in +tranquil retirement until 559, when an incursion of Bulgarian savages +spread a panic through the metropolis, and men's eyes were once more +turned towards the neglected veteran, who placed himself at the head of +a mixed multitude of peasants and soldiers, and repelled the barbarians +with his wonted courage and adroitness. But this, like his former +victories, stimulated Justinian's envy. The saviour of his country was +coldly received and left unrewarded by his suspicious sovereign. Shortly +afterwards Belisarius was accused of complicity in a conspiracy against +the emperor (562); his fortune was confiscated, and he was confined as a +prisoner in his palace. He was liberated and restored to favour in 563, +and died in 565. + +The fiction of Belisarius wandering as a blind beggar through the +streets of Constantinople, which has been adopted by Marmontel in his +_Belisaire_, and by various painters and poets, is first heard of in the +10th century. Gibbon justly calls Belisarius the Africanus of New Rome. +He was merciful as a conqueror, stern as a disciplinarian, enterprising +and wary as a general; while his courage, loyalty and forbearance seem +to have been almost unsullied. He was the idol of his soldiers, a good +tactician, but not a great strategist. + + AUTHORITIES.--Procopius, _De Bellis_ and _Historia Arcana_ (best + edition by J. Haury, 1905, 1907); see Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_ (ed. + Bury, vol. 4); T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (vol. 4); J.B. + Bury, _Later Roman Empire_, vol. i.; Diehl, _Justinien_ (Paris, 1901). + (J. B. B.) + + + + +BELIT (signifying the "lady," _par excellence_), in the Babylonian +religion, the designation of the consort of Bel (q.v.). Her real name +was Nin-lil, i.e. the "lady of power," if the explanation suggested in +BEL for the second element is correct. She is also designated as +Nin-Khar-sag, "Lady of the mountain," which name stands in some +relationship to Im-Khar-sag, "storm mountain"--the name of the staged +tower or sacred edifice to Bel at Nippur. As the consort of En-lil, the +goddess Nin-lil or Belit belongs to Nippur and her titles as "ruler of +heaven and earth," and "mother of the gods" are all due to her position +as the wife of Bel. While recognized by a temple of her own in Nippur +and honoured by rulers at various times by having votive offerings made +in her honour and fortresses dedicated in her name, she, as all other +goddesses in Babylonia and Assyria with the single exception of Ishtar, +is overshadowed by her male consort. The title Belit was naturally +transferred to the great mother-goddess Ishtar after the decline of the +cult at Nippur, and we also find the consort of Marduk, known as +Sarpanit, designated as Belit, for the sufficient reason that Marduk, +after the rise of the city of Babylon as the seat of his cult, becomes +the Bel or "lord" of later days. (M. Ja.) + + + + +BELIZE, or BALIZE, the capital and principal seaport of British +Honduras, on the Caribbean Sea, in 17 deg. 29' N. and 88 deg. 11' W. +Pop. (1904) 9969. Belize occupies both banks of the river Belize, at its +mouth. Its houses are generally built of wood, with high roofs and wide +verandahs shaded by cocoanut or cabbage palms. The principal buildings +are the court house, in the centre of the town, government house, at the +southern end, Fort George, towards the north, the British bank of +Honduras, the hospital, the Roman Catholic convent, and the Wesleyan +church, which is the largest and handsomest of all. Mangrove swamps +surround the town and epidemics of cholera, yellow fever and other +tropical diseases have been frequent; but the unhealthiness of the +climate is mitigated to some extent by the high tides which cover the +marshes, and the invigorating breezes which blow in from the sea. Belize +is connected by telegraph and telephone with the other chief towns of +British Honduras, but there is no railway, and communication even by +road is defective. The exports are mahogany, rosewood, cedar, logwood +and other cabinet-woods and dye-woods, with cocoanuts, sugar, +sarsaparilla, tortoiseshell, deerskins, turtles and fruit, especially +bananas. Breadstuffs, cotton fabrics and hardware are imported. + +Belize probably derives its name from the French _balise_, "a beacon," +as no doubt some signal or light was raised here for the guidance of the +buccaneers who once infested this region. Local tradition connects the +name with that of Wallis or Wallace, a Scottish buccaneer, who, in 1638, +settled, with a party of logwood cutters, on St George's Cay, a small +island off the town. In the 18th century the names Wallis and Belize +were used interchangeably for the town, the river and the whole country. +The history of Belize is inextricably bound up with that of the rest of +British Honduras (q.v.). + + + + +BELJAME, ALEXANDRE (1842-1906), French writer, was born at +Villiers-le-Bel, Seine-et-Oise, on the 26th of November 1842. He spent +part of his childhood in England and was a frequent visitor in London. +His lectures on English literature at the Sorbonne, where a chair was +created expressly for him, did much to promote the study of English in +France. In 1905-1906 he was Clark lecturer on English literature at +Trinity College, Cambridge. He died at Domont (Seine-et-Oise) on the +19th of September 1906. His best known book was a masterly study of the +conditions of literary life in England in the 18th century illustrated +by the lives of Dryden, Addison and Pope. This book, _Le Public et les +hommes de lettres en Angleterre au XVIII^e siecle_ (1881), was crowned +by the French Academy on the appearance of the second edition in 1897. +He was a good Shakespearian scholar, and his editions of Macbeth, +Othello and Julius Caesar also received an academic prize in 1902. + + + + +BELKNAP, JEREMY (1744-1798), American author and clergyman, was born at +Boston on the 4th of June 1744, and was educated at Harvard College, +where he graduated in 1762. In 1767 he became minister of a +Congregational church at Dover, New Hampshire, remaining there until +1787, when he removed to Federal Street church, Boston. He is recognized +as the founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and in 1792 +became an overseer of Harvard. He died at Boston on the 20th of June +1798. Belknap's chief works are: _History of New Hampshire_ (1784-1792); +_An Historical Account of those persons who have been distinguished in +America_, generally known as _American Biography_ (1792-1794); _The +Foresters_ (1792), &c. + + + + +BELKNAP, WILLIAM WORTH (1820-1890), American soldier and politician, was +born at Newburgh, N.Y., on the 22nd of September 1829. Entering the +Union army in 1861, he took part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and +Vicksburg, as major of the 15th Iowa volunteers. In the Atlanta campaign +under Sherman he gained considerable distinction, rising successively to +the rank of brigadier-general in 1864 and major-general in 1865. During +the four years that followed he was collector of internal revenue for +Iowa, leaving that post in 1869 to become secretary of war. In 1876, in +consequence of unproved accusations of corruption, he resigned. He died +at Washington, D.C., on the 13th of October 1890. + + + + +BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM (1847- ), American inventor and physicist, son +of Alexander Melville Bell, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 3rd +of March 1847. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh and the +university of London, and removed with his father to Canada in 1870. In +1872 he became professor of vocal physiology in Boston University. In +1876 he exhibited an apparatus embodying the results of his studies in +the transmission of sound by electricity, and this invention, with +improvements and modifications, constitutes the modern commercial +telephone. He was the inventor also of the photophone, an instrument for +transmitting sound by variations in a beam of light, and of phonographic +apparatus. Later, he interested himself in the problem of mechanical +flight. He published many scientific monographs, including a memoir on +the formation of a deaf variety in the human race. + + + + +BELL, ALEXANDER MELVILLE (1819-1905), American educationalist, was born +at Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st of March 1819. He studied under and +became the principal assistant of his father, Alexander Bell, an +authority on phonetics and defective speech. From 1843 to 1865 he +lectured on elocution at the university of Edinburgh, and from 1865 to +1870 at the university of London. In 1868, and again in 1870 and 1871, +he lectured in the Lowell Institute course in Boston. In 1870 he became +a lecturer on philology at Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario; and in +1881 he removed to Washington, D.C., where he devoted himself to the +education of deaf mutes by the "visible speech" method of orthoepy, in +which the alphabetical characters of his own invention were graphic +diagrams of positions and motions of the organs of speech. He held high +rank as an authority on physiological phonetics (q.v.) and was the +author of numerous works on orthoepy, elocution and education, including +_Steno-Phonography_ (1852); _Letters and Sounds_ (1858); _The Standard +Elocutionist_ (1860); _Principles of Speech and Dictionary of Sounds_ +(1863); _Visible Speech: The Science of Universal Alphabetics_ (1867); +_Sounds and their Relations_ (1881); _Lectures on Phonetics_ (1885); _A +Popular Manual of Visible Speech and Vocal Physiology_ (1889); _World +English: the Universal Language_ (1888); _The Science of Speech_ (1897); +_The Fundamentals of Elocution_ (1899). + + See John Hitz, _Alexander Melville Bell_ (Washington, 1906). + + + + +BELL, ANDREW (1753-1832), British divine and educationalist, was born at +St Andrews on the 27th of March 1753. He graduated at the university +there, and afterwards spent some years as a tutor in Virginia, U.S.A. On +his return he took orders, and in 1787 sailed for India, where he held +eight army chaplaincies at the same time. In 1789 he became +superintendent of the male orphan asylum at Madras, and having been +obliged from scarcity of teachers to introduce the system of mutual +tuition by the pupils, found the scheme answer so well that he became +convinced of its universal applicability. In 1797, after his return to +London, he published a small pamphlet explaining his views on education. +Little public attention was drawn towards the "monitorial" plan till +Joseph Lancaster (q.v.), the Quaker, opened a school in Southwark, +conducting it in accordance with Bell's principles, and improving on his +system. The success of the method, and the strong support given to +Lancaster by the whole body of Nonconformists gave immense impetus to +the movement. Similar schools were established in great numbers; and the +members of the Church of England, becoming alarmed at the patronage of +such schools resting entirely in the hands of dissenters, resolved to +set up similar institutions in which their own principles should be +inculcated. In 1807 Bell was called from his rectory of Swanage in +Dorset to organize a system of schools in accordance with these views, +and in 1811 became superintendent of the newly formed "National Society +for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the +Established Church." For his valuable services he was in some degree +recompensed by his preferment to a prebend of Westminster, and to the +mastership of Sherburn hospital, Durham. He tried, but without success, +to plant his system in Scotland and on the continent. He died on the +27th of January 1832, at Cheltenham, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey. His great fortune was bequeathed almost entirely for educational +purposes. Of the L120,000 given in trust to the provost of St Andrews, +two city ministers and the professor of Greek in the university, half +was devoted to the founding of the important school, called the Madras +College, at St Andrews; L10,000 was left to each of the large cities, +Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leith, Inverness and Aberdeen, for school purposes; +and L10,000 was also given to the Royal Naval School. + + Southey's _Life of Dr Bell_ (3 vols.) is very tedious; J.D. + Meiklejohn's _An Old Educational Reformer_ is concise and accurate. + + + + +BELL, SIR CHARLES (1774-1842), Scottish anatomist, was born at Edinburgh +in November 1774, the youngest son of the Rev. William Bell, a clergyman +of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; among his brothers were the +anatomist, John Bell, and the jurist, G.J. Bell. After attending the +high school and the university of Edinburgh, he embraced the profession +of medicine, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of anatomy, under +the direction of his brother John. His first work, entitled _A System of +Dissections, explaining the anatomy of the human body, the manner of +displaying the parts, and their varieties in disease_, was published in +Edinburgh in 1798, while he was still a pupil, and for many years was +considered to be a valuable guide to the student of practical anatomy. +In 1802 he published a series of engravings of original drawings, +showing the anatomy of the brain and nervous system. These drawings, +which are remarkable for artistic skill and finish, were taken from +dissections made by Bell for the lectures or demonstrations he gave on +the nervous system as part of the course of anatomical instruction of +his brother. In 1804 he wrote the third volume, containing the anatomy +of the nervous system and of the organs of special sense, of _The +Anatomy of the Human Body_, by John and Charles Bell. In November of the +same year he migrated to London, and from that date, for nearly forty +years, he kept up a regular correspondence with his brother George, much +of which was published in the _Letters of Sir Charles Bell_, &c., 1870. +The earlier letters of this correspondence show how rapidly he rose to +distinction in a field where success was difficult, as it was already +occupied by such men as John Abernethy, Sir Astley Cooper and Henry +Cline. Before leaving Edinburgh, he had written his work on the _Anatomy +of Expression_, which was published in London soon after his arrival and +at once attracted attention. His practical knowledge of anatomy and his +skill as an artist qualified him in an exceptional manner for such a +work. The object of this treatise was to describe the arrangements by +which the influence of the mind is propagated to the muscular frame, and +to give a rational explanation of the muscular movements which usually +accompany the various emotions and passions. One special feature was the +importance attributed to the respiratory arrangements as a source of +expression, and it was shown how the physician and surgeon might derive +information regarding the nature and extent of important diseases by +observing the expression of bodily suffering. This work, apart from its +value to artists and psychologists, is of interest historically, as +there is no doubt the investigations of the author into the nervous +supply of the muscles of expression induced him to prosecute inquiries +which led to his great discoveries in the physiology of the nervous +system. + +In 1811 Bell published his _New Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain_, in +which he announced the discovery of the different functions of the +nerves corresponding with their relations to different parts of the +brain; his latest researches were described in _The Nervous System of +the Human Body_ (1830), a collection of papers read by him before the +Royal Society. He discovered that in the nervous trunks there are +special sensory filaments, the office of which is to transmit +impressions from the periphery of the body to the sensorium, and special +motor filaments which convey motor impressions from the brain or other +nerve centre to the muscles. He also showed that some nerves consist +entirely of sensory filaments and are therefore sensory nerves, that +others are composed of motor filaments and are therefore motor nerves, +whilst a third variety contains both kinds of filaments and are +therefore to be regarded as sensory-motor. Furthermore, he indicated +that the brain and spinal cord may be divided into separate parts, each +part having a special function--one part ministering to motion, the +other to sensation, and that the origin of the nerves from one or other +or both of those sources endows them with the peculiar property of the +division whence they spring. He also demonstrated that no motor nerve +ever passes through a ganglion. Lastly, he showed, both from theoretical +considerations and from the result of actual experiment on the living +animal, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are _motor_, while +the posterior are _sensory_. These discoveries as a whole must be +regarded as the greatest in physiology since that of the circulation of +the blood by William Harvey. They were not only a distinct and definite +advance in scientific knowledge, but from them flowed many practical +results of much importance in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. It +is not surprising that Bell should have viewed his results with +exultation. On the 26th of November 1807, he wrote to his brother +George:--"I have done a more interesting _nova anatomia cerebri humani_ +than it is possible to conceive. I lectured it yesterday. I prosecuted +it last night till one o'clock; and I am sure it will be well received." +On the 31st of the same month he wrote:--"I really think this new +anatomy of the brain will strike more than the discovery of the +lymphatics being absorbents." + +In 1807 he produced a _System of Comparative Surgery_, in which surgery +is regarded almost wholly from an anatomical and operative point of +view, and there is little or no mention of the use of medicinal +substances. It placed him, however, in the highest rank of English +writers on surgery. In 1809 he relinquished his professional work in +London, and rendered meritorious services to the wounded from Coruna, +who were brought to the Haslar hospital at Portsmouth. In 1810 he +published a series of _Letters concerning the Diseases of the Urethra_, +in which he treated of stricture from an anatomical and pathological +point of view. In 1812 he was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex +hospital, a post he retained for twenty-four years. He was also +professor of anatomy, physiology and surgery to the College of Surgeons +of London, and for many years teacher of anatomy in the school which +used to exist in Great Windmill Street. In 1815 he went to Brussels to +treat the wounded of the battle of Waterloo. In 1816, 1817 and 1818, he +published a series of _Quarterly Reports of Cases in Surgery_; in 1821 a +volume of coloured plates with descriptive letterpress, entitled +_Illustrations of the great operations of Surgery, Trepan, Hernia, +Amputation and Lithotomy_, and in 1824 _Observations on Injuries of the +Spine and of the Thigh Bone_. On the formation of University College, +Gower Street, he was for a short time head of the medical department. In +1832 he wrote a paper for the Royal Society of London on the "Organs of +the Human Voice," in which he gave many illustrations of the +physiological action of these parts, and in 1833 a Bridgewater treatise, +_The Hand: its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing Design_. Along +with Lord Brougham he annotated and illustrated an edition of Paley's +_Natural Theology_, published in 1836. The Royal Society of London +awarded to him in 1829 the first annual medal of that year given by +George IV. for discoveries in science; and when William IV. ascended the +throne, Charles Bell received the honour of knighthood along with a few +other men distinguished in science and literature. + +In 1836 the chair of surgery in the university of Edinburgh was offered +to him. He was then one of the foremost scientific men in London, and he +had a large surgical practice. But his opinion was "London is a place to +live in, but not to die in"; and he accepted the appointment. In +Edinburgh he did not earn great local professional success; and, it must +be confessed, he was not appreciated as he deserved. But honours came +thick upon him. On the continent of Europe he was spoken of as greater +than Harvey. It is narrated that one day P.J. Roux, a celebrated French +physiologist, dismissed his class without a lecture, saying "_C'est +assez, messieurs, vous avez vu Charles Bell._" During his professorship +he published the _Institutes of Surgery, arranged in the order of the +lectures delivered in the university of Edinburgh_ (1838); and in 1841 +he wrote a volume of _Practical Essays_, two of which, "On Squinting," +and "On the action of purgatives," are of great value. He died at Hallow +Park near Worcester on the 28th of April 1842. + + + + +BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH (1770-1843), Scottish jurist, was born at Edinburgh +on the 20th of March 1770. He was an elder brother of Sir Charles Bell. +At the age of eight he entered the high school, but he received no +university education further than attending the lectures of A.F. Tytler, +Dugald Stewart and Hume. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates +in 1791, and was one of the earliest and most attached friends of +Francis Jeffrey. In 1804 he published a _Treatise on the Law of +Bankruptcy_ in Scotland, which he subsequently enlarged and published in +1826 under the title of _Commentaries on the Law of Scotland and on the +principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence--_ an institutional work of the +very highest excellence, which has had its value acknowledged by such +eminent jurists as Joseph Story and James Kent. In 1821 Bell was elected +professor of the law of Scotland in the university of Edinburgh; and in +1831 he was appointed to one of the principal clerkships in the supreme +court. He was placed at the head of a commission in 1833 to inquire into +the Scottish bankruptcy law; and in consequence of the reports of the +commissioners, chiefly drawn up by himself, many beneficial alterations +were made. He died on the 23rd of September 1843. Bell's smaller +treatise, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_, became a standard +text-book for law students. The _Illustrations of the Principles_ is +also a work of high value. + + + + +BELL, HENRY (1767-1830), Scottish engineer, was born at Torphichen, +Linlithgowshire, in 1767. Having received the ordinary education of a +parish school, he was apprenticed to his uncle, a millwright, and, after +qualifying himself as a ship-modeller at Bo'ness, went to London, where +he found employment under John Rennie, the celebrated engineer. +Returning to Scotland in 1790, he first settled as a carpenter at +Glasgow and afterwards removed to Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde +where he pursued his mechanical projects, and also found occasional +employment as an engineer. In January 1812 he placed on the Clyde a +steamboat (which he named the "Comet") of about 25 tons, propelled by an +engine of three horse power, at a speed of 7 m. an hour. Although the +honour of priority is admitted to belong to the American engineer Robert +Fulton, there appears to be no doubt that Fulton had received very +material assistance in the construction of his vessel from Bell and +others in Great Britain. A handsome sum was raised for Bell by +subscription among the citizens of Glasgow; and he also received from +the trustees of the river Clyde a pension of L100 a year. He died at +Helensburgh on the 14th of November 1830. A monument to his memory +stands on the banks of the Clyde, at Dunglass, near Bowling. + + + + +BELL, HENRY GLASSFORD (1803-1874), a Scottish lawyer and man of letters, +was born at Glasgow on the 8th of November 1803. He received his +education at the Glasgow high school and at Edinburgh University. He +became intimate with "Delta" Moir, James Hogg, John Wilson (Christopher +North), and others of the brilliant staff of _Blackwood's Magazine_, to +which he was drawn by his political sympathies. In 1828 he became editor +of the _Edinburgh Literary Journal_, which was eventually incorporated +in the _Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle_. He was admitted to the bar in +1832. In 1839 he was appointed sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire, and in +1867 he succeeded Sir Archibald Alison in the post of sheriff-principal +of the county, an office which he filled with distinguished success. In +1831 he published _Summer and Winter Hours_, a volume of poems, of which +the best known is that on Mary, queen of Scots. He further defended the +cause of the unfortunate queen in a prose _Life_ (2 vols., 1828-1831). +Among his other works may be mentioned a preface which he wrote to Bell +and Bains's edition (1865) of the works of Shakespeare, and _Romances +and Minor Poems_ (1866). He figures in the society of the _Noctes +Ambrosianae_ as "Tallboys." He died on the 7th of January 1874. + + + + +BELL, JACOB (1810-1859), British pharmaceutical chemist, was born in +London on the 5th of March 1810. On the completion of his education, he +joined his father in business as a chemist in Oxford Street, and at the +same time attended the chemistry lectures at the Royal Institution, and +those on medicine at King's College. Always keenly alive to the +interests of chemists in general, Bell conceived the idea of a society +which should at once protect the interests of the trade, and improve its +status, and at a public meeting held on the 15th of April 1841, it was +resolved to found the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Bell +carried his scheme through in the face of many difficulties, and further +advanced the cause of pharmacy by establishing the _Pharmaceutical +Journal_, and superintending its publication for eighteen years. The +Pharmaceutical Society was incorporated by royal charter in 1843. One of +the first abuses to engage the attention of the new body was the +practice of pharmacy by unqualified persons, and in 1845 Bell drew up +the draft of a bill to deal with the matter, one of the provisions of +which was the recognition of the Pharmaceutical Society as the governing +body in all questions connected with pharmacy. For some time after this +the question of pharmaceutical legislation was widely discussed. In 1850 +Bell successfully contested the borough of St Albans in order that he +might be able to advocate his proposals for reform more effectually in +parliament. In 1851 he brought forward a bill embodying these proposals. +It passed its second reading, but was considerably whittled down in +committee, and when eventually it became law it only partially +represented its sponsor's intentions. Bell was the author of an +_Historical Sketch of the Progress of Pharmacy in Great Britain_. He +died on the 12th of June 1859. + + + + +BELL, JOHN (1691-1780), Scottish traveller, was born at Antermony in +Scotland in 1691, and educated for the medical profession, in which he +took the degree of M.D. In 1714 he set out for St Petersburg, where, +through the introduction of a countryman, he was nominated medical +attendant to Valensky, recently appointed to the Persian embassy, with +whom he travelled from 1715 to 1718. The next four years he spent in an +embassy to China, passing through Siberia and the great Tatar deserts. +He had scarcely rested from this last journey when he was summoned to +attend Peter the Great in his perilous expedition to Derbend and the +Caspian Gates. The narrative of this journey he enriched with +interesting particulars of the public and private life of that +remarkable prince. In 1738 he was sent by the Russian government on a +mission to Constantinople, to which, accompanied by a single attendant +who spoke Turkish, he proceeded in the midst of winter and all the +horrors of war, returning in May to St Petersburg. It appears that after +this he was for several years established as a merchant at +Constantinople, where he married in 1746. In the following year he +retired to his estate of Antermony, where he spent the remainder of his +life. He died in 1780. His travels, published at Glasgow in 1763, were +speedily translated into French, and widely circulated in Europe. + + + + +BELL, JOHN (1763-1820), Scottish anatomist and surgeon, an elder brother +of Sir Charles Bell, was born at Edinburgh on the 12th of May 1763. +After completing his professional education at Edinburgh, he carried on +from 1790 in Surgeons' Square an anatomical lecture-theatre, where, in +spite of much opposition, due partly to the unconservative character of +his teaching, he attracted large audiences by his lectures, in which he +was for a time assisted by his younger brother Charles. In 1793-1795 he +published _Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds_, and in 1800 he +became involved in an unfortunate controversy with James Gregory +(1753-1821), the professor of medicine at Edinburgh. Gregory in 1800 +attacked the system whereby the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons +of Edinburgh acted in rotation as surgeons at the Royal Infirmary, with +the result that the younger fellows were excluded. Bell, who was among +the number, composed an _Answer for the Junior Members_ (1800), and ten +years later published a collection of _Letters on Professional Character +and Manners_, which he had addressed to Gregory. After his exclusion +from the infirmary he ceased to lecture and devoted himself to study and +practice. In 1816 he was injured by a fall from his horse and in the +following year went to Italy for the benefit of his health. He died at +Rome on the 15th of April 1820. His works also included _Principles of +Surgery_ (1801), _Anatomy of the Human Body_, which went through several +editions and was translated into German, and _Observations on Italy_, +published by his widow in 1825. + + + + +BELL, JOHN (1797-1869), American political leader, was born near +Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th of February 1797. He graduated at the +university of Nashville in 1814, and in 1817 was elected to the state +senate, but retiring after one term, he devoted himself for ten years to +the study and the practice of the law. From 1827 until 1841 he was a +member of the national House of Representatives, of which from June 1834 +to March 1835 he was the speaker, and in which he was conspicuous as a +debater and a conservative leader. Though he entered political life as a +Democrat, he became estranged from his party's leader, President +Jackson, also a Tennessean, and after 1835 was one of the leaders of the +Whig party in the South. In March 1841 he became the secretary of war in +President Harrison's cabinet, but in September, after the death of +Harrison and the rupture between the Whig leaders and President Tyler, +he resigned this position. From 1847 until 1859 he was a member of the +United States Senate, and attracted attention by his ability in debate +and his political independence, being one of two Southern senators to +vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 and against the admission +of Kansas with the Lecompton or pro-slavery constitution in 1858. +Strongly conservative by temperament and devoted to the Union, he +ardently desired to prevent the threatened secession of the Southern +states in 1860, and was the candidate, for the presidency, of the +Constitutional Union Party, often called from the names of its +candidates for the presidency and the vice-presidency (Edward Everett) +the "Bell and Everett Party," which was made up largely of former Whigs +and Southern "Know-Nothings," opposed sectionalism, and strove to +prevent the disruption of the union. The party adopted no platform, and +discarding all other issues, resolved that "it is both the part of +patriotism and of duty to recognize no political principle other than +the constitution of the country, the union of the states, and the +enforcement of the laws." Bell was defeated, but received a popular vote +of 587,830 (mostly cast in the Southern states), and obtained the +electoral votes of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee--39 altogether, out +of a total of 303. Bell tried earnestly to prevent the secession of his +own state, but after the issue of President Lincoln's proclamation of +the 15th of April 1861 calling on the various states for volunteers, his +efforts were unavailing, and when Tennessee joined the Confederacy Bell +"went with his state." He took no part in the Civil War, and died on the +10th of September 1869. + + + + +BELL, ROBERT (1800-1867), Irish man of letters, was born at Cork on the +16th of January 1800. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where +he was one of the founders of the Dublin Historical Society. In 1828 he +settled in London, where he edited a weekly paper, the _Atlas_, and +until 1841 was engaged in journalism; and afterwards in miscellaneous +literary work. He died on the 12th of April 1867. His most important +work is his annotated edition of the _English Poets_ (24 vols., +1854-1857; new ed., 29 vols., 1866), the works of each poet being +prefaced by a memoir. For Lardner's _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_ he wrote: +_History of Russia_ (3 vols., 1836-1838); _Lives of English Poets_ (2 +vols., 1839); a continuation, with W. Wallace, of Sir James +Mackintosh's _History of England_ (vols. iv.-x., 1830-1840); and the +fifth volume (1840) of the _Lives of the British Admirals_, begun by R. +Southey. He was a director of the Royal Literary Fund, and well known +for his open-hearted generosity to fellow men of letters. + + + + +BELL a hollow metallic vessel used for making a more or less loud noise +(A.S. _bellan_, to bellow; Mid. Eng. "to bell"; cf. "As loud as belleth, +winde in helle," in Chaucer, _House of Fame_, iii. 713). Bells are +usually cup-like in shape, and are constructed so as to give one +fundamental note when struck. The term does not strictly include gongs, +cymbals, metal plates, resonant bars of metal or wood, or tinkling +ornaments, such as e.g. the "bells" upon the Jewish high priest's dress +(Exodus xxviii. 32); nor is it necessary here to deal with the common +useful varieties of sheep or cow bells, or bells on sledges or harness. +For house bells see the end of this article. A "diving-bell" (see +DIVERS) is only so called from the analogy of its shape. + +The main interest of bells and bell-ringing has reference to church or +tower bells, their history, construction and uses. + +_Early Bells._--Of bells before the Christian era there is no +trustworthy evidence. The instruments which summoned the Romans to +public baths or processions, or that which Lucian (A.D. 180) describes +as set in motion by a water-clock (_clepsydra_) to measure time, were +probably cymbals or resonant plates of metal, like the timbrels +(_corybantia aera_, Virg. _Aen._ iii. 111) used in the worship of +Cybele, or the Egyptian _sistrum_, which seems to have been a sort of +rattle. The earliest Latin word for a bell (_campana_) is late Latin of +the 4th or 5th century A.D.; and the first application of bells to +churches has been ascribed to Paulinus, bishop of Nola in Campania about +A.D. 400. There is, however, no confirmation of this story, which may +have arisen from the words _campana_ and _nola_ (a small bell); and in a +letter from Paulinus to the emperor Severus, describing very fully the +decoration of his church, the bishop makes no mention of bells. It has +been maintained with somewhat more reason that Pope Sabinianus (604) +first used church bells; but it seems clear that they were introduced +into France as early as 550. In the 7th century Bede mentions a bell +brought from Italy by Benedict Biscop for his abbey at Wearmouth, and +speaks of the sound of a bell being well known at Whitby Abbey at the +time of St Hilda's death (680). St Dunstan hung many in the 10th +century; and in the 11th they were not uncommon in Switzerland and +Germany. It is said that the Greek Christians were unacquainted with +bells till the 9th century; but it is known that for political reasons, +after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, their use was +forbidden lest they should provide a popular signal for revolt. + +Several old bells are extant in Scotland, Ireland and Wales; the oldest +are often quadrangular, made of thin iron plates hammered and riveted +together. A well-known specimen is St Patrick's bell preserved at +Belfast, called _Clog an eadhachta Phatraic_, "the bell of St Patrick's +will." It is 6 in. high, 5 broad, 4 deep, adorned with gems and gold and +silver filigree-work; it is inscribed 1091 and 1105, but it is probably +alluded to in Ulster annals in 552. (For Scottish bells, see +_Illustrated Catalogue of Archaeological Museum_, Edinburgh, for 1856.) + +The four-sided bell of the Irish missionary St Gall (646) is preserved +at the monastery of St Gall, Switzerland. In these early times bells +were usually small; even in the 11th century a bell presented to the +church at Orleans weighing 2600 lb. was thought large. In the 13th +century larger bells were cast. The bell Jacqueline of Paris, cast in +1400, weighed 15,000 lb.; another Paris bell of 1472, 25,000 lb.; and +the famous Amboise bell at Rouen (1501) 36,364 lb. + +To these scanty records of the early history of bells may be added the +enumeration of different kinds of bells by Hieronymus Magius, in his +work _De Tintinnabulis:--1. Tintinnabulum_, a little bell, otherwise +called _tinniolum_, for refectory or dormitory, according to Joannes +Belethus, but Guillaume Durand names _squilla_ for the refectory; 2. +_Petasius_, or larger "broad-brimmed hat" bell; 3. _Codon_, orifice of +trumpet, a Greek hand-bell; 4. _Nola_, a very small bell, used in the +choir, according to Durand; 5. _Campana_, a large bell, first used in +the Latin churches in the steeple (Durand), in the tower (Belethus); 6. +_Squilla_, a shrill little bell. We read of _cymbalum_ for the cloister +(Durand) or _campanella_ for the cloister (Belethus); _nolula_ or +_dupla_ in the clock; _signum_ in the tower (e.g. in the _Excerptions_ +of St Egbert, 750); the Portuguese still call a bell _sino._ + +_Bell-founding._--The earliest bells were probably not cast, but made of +plates riveted together, like the bells of St Gall or Belfast above +mentioned. The bell-founder's art, originally practised in the +monasteries, passed gradually into the hands of a professional class, by +whom, in England and the Low Countries especially, were gradually worked +out the principles of construction, mixture of metals, lines and +proportions, now generally accepted as necessary for a good bell. In +England some of the early founders were peripatetic artificers, who +travelled about the country, setting up a temporary foundry to cast +bells wherever they were wanted. Miles Graye (c. 1650), a celebrated +East Anglian founder, carried on his work in this fashion, and in old +churchwardens' accounts are sometimes found notices of payment for the +casting of bells at places where no regular foundry is known to have +existed. The chief centres of the art in medieval times were London, +York, Gloucester and Nottingham; and bells by e.g. "John of York" (14th +century), Samuel Smith, father and son, of York (1680-1730), Abraham +Rudhall and his descendants of Gloucester (1684-1774), Mot (16th +century), Lester and Pack (1750), Christopher Hodson of London (who cast +"Great Tom" of Oxford, 1681) and Richard Phelps (1716) are still in high +repute. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry (now Mears and Stainbank), +established by Robert Mot in 1570, incorporated the business of the +Rudhalls, Lester and Pack, Phelps, Briant and others, and is now one of +the leading firms of bell-founders; others being Warner and Sons of +Spitalfields and Taylor & Co., Loughborough, the founders of "Great +Paul" for St Paul's cathedral (1881). Of Dutch and Flemish founders the +firms of van den Gheyn (1550), Hemony (1650), Aerschodt & Wagheven at +Louvain and others have a great reputation in the Low Countries, +especially for "carillons," such as those at Antwerp or Bruges, a form +of bell-music which has not taken much root in England, despite the +advocacy of the Rev. H.R. Haweis, who proclaimed its superiority to +English change-ringing. + +Bell-metal is a mixture of copper and tin in the proportion of 4 to 1. +In Henry III.'s reign it was 2 to 1. In Layard's Nineveh bronze bells, +it was 10 to 1. Zinc and lead are used in small bells. The thickness of +the bell's edge is about one-tenth of its diameter, and its height is +twelve times its thickness. + +Bells, like viols, have been made of every conceivable shape within +certain limits. The long narrow bell, the quadrangular, and the +mitre-shaped in Europe at least indicate antiquity, and the graceful +curved-inwardly-midway and full trumpet-mouthed bell indicates an age +not earlier than the 16th century. + +The bell is first designed on paper according to the scale of +measurement. Then the crook is made, which is a kind of double wooden +compass, the legs of which are respectively curved to the shape of the +inner and outer sides of the bell, a space of the exact form and +thickness of the bell being left betwixt them. The compass is pivoted on +a stake driven into the bottom of the casting-pit. A stuffing of +brickwork is built round the stake, leaving room for a fire to be +lighted inside it. The outside of this stuffing is then padded with fine +soft clay, well mixed and bound together with calves' hair, and the +inner leg of the compass run round it, bringing it to the exact shape of +the inside of the bell. Upon this _core_, well smeared with grease, is +fashioned the false clay bell, the outside of which is defined by the +outer leg of the compass. Inscriptions are now moulded in wax on the +outside of the clay-bell; these are carefully smeared with grease, then +lightly covered with the finest clay, and then with coarser clay, until +a solid mantle is thickened over the outside of the clay bell. A fire is +now lighted, and the whole baked hard; the grease and wax inscriptions +steam out through holes at the top, leaving the sham clay bell baked +hard and tolerably loose, between the _core_ and the _cope_ or +_mantle_. The cope is then lifted, the clay bell broken up, the _cope_ +let down again, enclosing now between itself and the _core_ the exact +shape of the bell. The metal is then boiled and run molten into the +mould. A large bell will take several weeks to cool. When extricated it +ought to be scarcely touched and should hardly require tuning. This is +called its maiden state, and it used to be so sought after that many +bells were left rough and out of tune in order to claim it. + +_Bell Tones and Tuning._--A good bell, fairly struck, should give out +three distinct notes--a "fundamental" note or "tonic"; the octave above, +or "nominal"; and the octave below, or "hum-note." (It also gives out +the "third" and "fifth" above the fundamental; but of these it is less +necessary to take notice.) Very few bells, however, have any two of +these notes, and hardly any all three, in unison--the "hum-notes" being +generally a little sharper, and the "fundamentals" a little flatter, +than their respective "nominals." In tuning a "ring" or series of bells, +the practice of founders has hitherto been to take one set of notes (in +England usually the nominals, on the continent the fundamentals) and put +these into tune, leaving the other tones to take care of themselves. But +in different circumstances different tones assert themselves. Thus, when +bells are struck at considerable intervals, the fundamental notes being +fuller and more persistent are more prominent; but when struck in rapid +succession (as in English change-ringing or with the higher bells of a +Belgian "carillon," which take the "air") the higher tone of the +"nominal" is more perceptible. The inharmonious character of many +Belgian carillons, and of certain Belgian and French rings in England, +is ascribed by Canon A.B. Simpson (in his pamphlet, _Why Bells sound out +of Tune_, 1897) to neglect of the "nominals," the fundamentals only +being tuned to each other. To tune a series of bells properly, the +fundamental tone of each bell must be brought into true octave with its +nominal, and the whole series of bells, thus rectified, put into tune +with each other. The "hum-note" of each, which is the tone of the whole +mass of metal, should also be in tune with the others. If flatter than +the nominal, it cannot be sharpened; but if sharper (as is more usual), +it may be flattened by thinning the metal near the crown of the bell. +The great bell ("Great Paul") cast by Messrs Taylor for St Paul's +cathedral, London, has all its tones in true harmony, except that the +tone next above the fundamental (E-flat) is a "fourth" (A-flat) instead +of a "third" (G or G-flat). The great bell cast by the same founders for +Beverley Minster is in perfect tune; and with the improved machinery now +in use, there is no reason why this should not henceforth be the case +with all church bells. + +The quality of a bell depends not only on the casting and the fineness +and mixture of metals, but upon the due proportion of metal to the +calibre of the bell. The larger the bell the lower the tone; but if we +try to make a large E bell with metal only enough for a smaller F bell, +the E bell will be puny and poor. It has been calculated that for a peal +of bells to give the pure chord of the ground tone or key-note, third, +fifth and octave, the diameters are required to be as thirty, +twenty-four, twenty, fifteen, and the weights as eighty, forty-one, +twenty-four and ten. + +_History and Uses of Bells._--The history of bells is full of romantic +interest. In civilized times they have been intimately associated, not +only with all kinds of religious and social uses, but with almost every +important historical event. Their influence upon architecture is not +less remarkable, for to them indirectly we probably owe most of the +famous towers in the world. Church towers at first, perhaps, scarcely +rose above the roof, being intended as lanterns for the admission of +light, and addition to their height was in all likelihood suggested by +the more common use of bells. + +Bells early summoned soldiers to arms, as well as Christians to church. +They sounded the alarm in fire or tumult; and the rights of the burghers +in their bells were jealously guarded. Thus the chief bell in the +cathedral often belonged to the town, not to the cathedral chapter. The +curfew, the Carolus and St Mary's bell in the Antwerp tower all belong +to the town; the rest are the property of the chapter. He who commanded +the bell commanded the town; for by that sound, at a moment's notice, he +could rally and concentrate his adherents. Hence a conqueror commonly +acknowledged the political importance of bells by melting them down; and +the cannon of the conquered was in turn melted up to supply the garrison +with bells to be used in the suppression of revolts. Many a bloody +chapter in history has been rung in and out by bells. + +On the third day of Easter 1282, at the ringing of the Sicilian vespers +(which have given their name to the affair), 8000 French were massacred +in cold blood by John of Procida, who had thus planned to free Sicily +from Charles of Anjou. On the 24th of August, St Bartholomew's day, +1571, bells ushered in the massacre of the Huguenots in France, to the +number, it is said, of 100,000. Bells have rung alike over slaughtered +and ransomed cities; and far and wide throughout Europe in the hour of +victory or irreparable loss. At the news of Nelson's triumph and death +at Trafalgar, the bells of Chester rang a merry peal alternated with one +deep toll, and similar incidents could be multiplied. + +There are many old customs connected with the use of church bells, some +of which have died out, while others remain here and there. The best +known and perhaps oldest of these is the "Curfew" (_couvre-feu_), first +enforced (though not perhaps introduced) by William the Conqueror in +England as a signal for all lights and fires to be extinguished at 8 +P.M.--probably to prevent nocturnal gatherings of disaffected subjects. +In many towns it survived into the 19th century as a signal for closing +shops at 8 or 9; and it is still kept up in various places as an old +custom; thus at Oxford the familiar boom of "Tom's" 101 strokes is still +the signal for closing college gates at 9. The largest and heaviest +bells were used for the Curfew, to carry the sound as far as possible, +as it did to Milton's ear, suggesting the descriptive lines in _Il +Penseroso_ (74-75):-- + + "Oft, on a plot of rising ground, + I hear the far-off curfew sound + Over some wide-watered shore, + Swinging slow with sullen roar." + +Gray's allusion in the _Elegy_ is well known; as also are those of +Shakespeare to the elves "that rejoice to hear the solemn curfew" +(_Tempest_), or the fiend that "begins at curfew and walks till the +first cock" (_King Lear_); or Milton's in _Comus_ to the ghost "that +breaks his magic chains at curfew time." + +Among secular uses connected with church bells are the "Mote" or +"Common" bell, summoning to municipal or other meetings, as e.g. the 7th +at St Mary's, Stamford, tolled for quarter sessions, or the bell at St +Mary's, Oxford, for meetings of Convocation. In some places one of the +bells is known as the "Vestry Bell." The "Pancake Bell," still rung here +and there on Shrove Tuesday, was originally a summons to confession +before Lent; the "Harvest Bell" and "Seeding Bell" called labourers to +their work; while the "Gleaning Bell" fixed the hours for beginning or +leaving off gleaning, so that everyone might start fair and have an even +chance. The "Oven Bell" gave notice when the lord of the manor's oven +was ready for his tenants to bake their bread; the "Market Bell" was a +signal for selling to begin; and in some country districts a church bell +is still rung at dinner time. The general diffusion of clocks and +watches has rendered bells less necessary for marking the events of +daily life; and most of these old customs have either disappeared or are +fast disappearing. At Strassburg a large bell of eight tons weight, +known as the "Holy Ghost Bell," is only rung when two fires are seen in +the town at once; a "storm-bell" warns travellers in the plain of storms +approaching from the mountains, and the "Thor Glocke" (gate bell) gives +the signal for opening or shutting the city gates. On the European +continent, especially in countries which, like Belgium and Holland, were +distracted by constant war, bells acquired great public importance. They +were formally baptized with religious ceremonies (as also in England in +pre-Reformation days), the notabilities of a town or church standing as +sponsors; and they were very generally supposed to have the power of +scaring away evil spirits. + +Other old customs are naturally connected with the ecclesiastical uses +of bells. The "Passing Bell," rung for the dying, is now generally rung +after death; the ancient mode of indicating the sex of the deceased, +viz. two pulls for a woman and three for a man being still very common, +with many varying customs as regards the interval after death or the +bell to be used, e.g. smaller bells for children and females, and larger +ones for aged men; the tenor bell being sometimes reserved for the death +of the incumbent, or of a bishop or member of the royal family. "Burial +Peals," once common at or after funerals to scare away the evil spirits +from the soul of the departed, though discouraged by bishops as early as +the 14th century, were kept alive by popular superstition, and only +finally checked in Puritan times; but they have been revived, since the +spread of change-ringing, in the "muffled peals" now frequently rung as +a mark of respect to deceased persons of public or local importance, or +the short "touches" on hand-bells sometimes rung at the grave by the +comrades of a deceased ringer. The "Sermon-Bell," rung in +pre-Reformation times to give notice that a sermon was to be preached +(cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV._, Pt. II. iv. 2. 4-7), survives in some +places in a custom of ringing the tenor bell before a service with a +sermon; and a similar custom before a celebration of the Holy Communion +preserves the memory of the "Sacrament Bell." The ancient "Sanctus" or +"Sance" bell, hung on the rood-screen or in a small bell cot on the +chancel gable, and sounded three times when the priest said the +_Tersanctus_ (Holy, Holy, Holy) in the office of mass, was specially +obnoxious to Puritan zeal, and few of them survived the Reformation. An +early morning bell, rung in many places for no apparent reason, is +probably a relic of the _Ave Maria_ or _Angelus_ bell. The inscription +on some old bells, _Lectum fuge, discute somnum_ ("Away from bed, shake +off sleep"), points to this use, as also does the name "Gabriel" applied +to the bell used for ringing the Angelus. In old times bells were +generally named at their baptism, after the Virgin Mary or saints, or +their donors; thus the bells at Oseney Abbey in the 13th century were +called Hautclere, Doucement, Austyn, Marie, Gabriel and John; sometimes +they were known by mere nicknames, such as "Great (or "Mighty") Tom" at +Oxford, or "Big Ben," "Great Paul," &c., in recent times. + +_Bell Inscriptions._--The names of bells were often stamped upon them in +the casting; whence arose inscriptions upon church bells, giving in +monkish Latin the name of some saint, a prayer to the Virgin, or for the +soul of the donor, or a distich upon the function of the bell itself; +e.g.-- + + "Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango, + Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos." + (I mourn for death, I break the lightning, I fix the Sabbath, I rouse + the lazy, I scatter the winds, I appease the cruel.) + +The character of the lettering and the foundry marks upon old bells, are +of great assistance in determining their date. Sometimes a set of bells +has each a separate verse, e.g. on a ring of five in Bedfordshire:-- + + 1st. "Hoc signum Petri pulsatum nomine Christi." + (This emblem of Peter is struck in the name of Christ.) + + 2nd. "Nomen Magdalene campana sonat melode." + (This bell named Magdalen sounds melodiously.) + + 3rd. "Sit nomen Domini benedictum semper in eum." + (May the name of the Lord always be blessed upon him, i.e. on + the bell when struck.) + + 4th. "Musa Raphaelis sonat auribus Immanuelis." + (The music of Raphael sounds in the ear of Immanuel.) + + 5th. "Sum Rosa pulsata mundique Maria vocata." + (I, Maria, am struck and called the Rose of the world.) + +The names of these five bells were thus:--Peter, Magdalen, (?) Jesus, +Raphael and Mary. + +Other inscriptions take the form of an invocation or prayer for the bell +itself, its donor or those who hear it, e.g.-- + + "Augustine tuam campanam protege sanam." + (Augustine, protect thy bell and keep it sound.) + + "Sancte Johannes, ora pro animabus Johannis Pudsey, militis, et Mariae, + consortae suae." + (St John, pray for the souls of John Pudsey, knight, and Mary his + wife.) + + "Protege pura via quos convoco virgo Maria." + (Guard in the way those whom I pure Virgin Mary call.) + +The "Mittags Glocke" (mid-day bell) at Strassburg, taken down at the +time of the French Revolution, bore the legend: + + "Vox ego sum vitae; voco vos; orate venite." + (I am the voice of life: I call you: come and pray.) + +A bell in Rouen cathedral, melted down in 1793, was inscribed: + + "Je suis George d'Ambois, + Qui trente cinque mille pois; + Mais lui qui me pesera + Trente six mille me trouvera." + (I am George d'Ambois, weighing 35,000 lb.; but he who weighs me + will find me 36,000.) + +A similar inscription is said to have been cast on the largest of the +bells placed by Edward III. in a "clocher" or bell hut in the Little +Cloisters at Westminster: + + "King Edward made mee thirty thousand weight and three, + Take mee down and wey mee and more you shall find mee." + +On the "Thor Glocke" at Strassburg above mentioned are the words:-- + + "Dieses Thor Glocke das erst mal schallt + Als man 1618 sahlt + Dass Mgte jahr regnet man + Nach doctor Luther Jubal jahr + Das Bos hinaus das Gut hinein + Zu lauten soll igr arbeit seyn." + +The reference is to the year 1517, when Luther began his crusade, and +the verse may be Englished as follows:-- + + When first ringeth this Gate Bell + 1618 years we tell. + We reckon this a year to be + From Dr Luther's jubilee. + To ring out ill, the good ring in, + Its daily task shall now begin. + +_Large Bells._--There are a few bells of world-wide renown, and several +others more or less celebrated. The great bell at Moscow, "Tsar +Kolokol," which, according to the inscription, was cast in 1733, was in +the earth 103 years and was raised by the emperor Nicholas in 1836. The +present bell seems never to have been actually hung or rung, having been +cracked in the furnace; and it now stands on a raised platform in the +middle of a square. It is used as a chapel. It weighs about 180 tons, +height 19 ft. 3 in., circumference 60 ft. 9 in., thickness 2 ft., weight +of broken piece 11 tons. The second Moscow bell, the largest in the +world in actual use, weighs 128 tons. In a pagoda in Upper Burma hangs a +bell 16 ft. in diameter, weighing about 80 tons. The great bell at +Peking weighs 53 tons; Nanking, 22 tons; Olmutz, 17 tons; Vienna (1711), +17 tons; Notre Dame (1680), 17 tons; Erfurt, 13 tons; Great Peter, York +Minster, recast in 1845, 12-1/2 tons; Great Paul, at St Paul's +cathedral, 16-3/4 tons; Great Tom at Oxford, 7-1/2 tons; Great Tom at +Lincoln, 5-1/2 tons. Big Ben of the Westminster Clock Tower weighs +13-1/2 tons; it was cast by George Mears under the direction of the +first Lord Grimthorpe (E. Beckett Denison) in 1858. Its four quarters +were cast by Warner in 1856. The "Kaiserglocke" of Cologne cathedral, +recast in 1875, with metal from French cannon captured in 1870-1871, +weighs 27-1/2 tons. + +These large bells are either not moved at all, or only slightly swung to +enable the clapper to touch their side; in some cases they are struck by +a hammer or beam from outside. The heaviest _ringing_ peals in England +are those at Exeter and St Paul's cathedrals, tenors 72 cwt. and 62 cwt. +respectively. + +_Bell-ringing._--The science and art of bell-ringing, as practised upon +church and tower bells, falls under two main heads:--(1) Mechanical +ringing, in connexion with the machinery of a clock or "carillon"; (2) +Ringing by hand, by means of ropes attached to the fittings of the +bells, whereby the bell itself is either moved as it hangs mouth +downwards sufficiently for the clapper just to touch its side (called +technically "chiming"); or is swung round nearly full circle with its +mouth uppermost (technically "ringing"), in which case the impact of +the clapper is much heavier, and the sound produced is consequently +louder and more far-reaching. Mechanical ringing is more common on the +continent of Europe, especially in Belgium and Flanders; ringing by hand +is more common in England, where the development of change-ringing (see +below) has brought it into prominence. + +(1) Mechanical ringing is effected by a system of wires connected with +small hammers striking the bells, usually on their outside, and worked +either by connexion with the machinery of a clock, so as to play tunes +or artificially arranged chimes at definite intervals; or with a +key-board resembling that of an organ. The first of these methods is +familiar in the chimes (Cambridge, Westminster, &c.) heard from many +towers at the striking of the hours and quarters; or in hymn tunes +played at intervals (e.g. of three hours) upon the church bells. The +second method is peculiar to the "carillon" (q.v.), as found everywhere +in Belgium, where with a set of from 20 or 30 to 60 or 70 bells a much +wider scope for tunes and harmonies is provided than in English +belfries, few of which have more than one octave of bells in one key +only and none more than 12 bells. The carillons at Louvain and Bruges +contain 40 bells, and that of Mechlin 44, while in the tower of Antwerp +cathedral there are upwards of 90 bells, for the largest of which, cast +in 1507, Charles V. stood sponsor at its consecration. + +(2) _Ringing by Hand._--Church bells may be "chimed" or "rung" (see +above). One man can, as a rule, chime three bells, with a rope in each +hand and one foot in the loop of another; but by the use of an +"Ellacombe" or other chiming apparatus one man can work six, eight or +ten bells. Some prefer the quieter sound of chiming as an introduction +to divine service, but where a band of ringers is available and +change-ringing is practised the bells as a rule are rung. The practice +of "clocking" a bell, in which the clapper, by means of a cord attached +to it and pulled from below, is allowed to swing against the bell at +rest, is often employed to save trouble; but the jar is very likely to +crack the bell. In ringing, or in true chiming, the bell is in motion +when struck. + +For ringing, a bell is pulled up and "set" mouth uppermost. She (to +ringers a bell is feminine) is then pulled off, first at "handstroke" +(i.e. with the hands on the "sally" or tufted portion of the rope, a few +feet from its lower end) and then at "back-stroke" in the reverse +direction (with the hands nearer the lower end, the rope having at the +previous pull coiled round three-quarters of the wheel's circumference), +describing at each pull almost a full circle till she comes back to the +upright position. At each revolution the swing is chiefly done by the +weight of the bell, the ringer giving a pull of just sufficient strength +to bring the bell back into the upright position; otherwise its swing +would become gradually shorter till it remained at rest mouth downwards. + +_Change-ringing._--When a given number of bells are rung over and over +again in the same order, from the highest note, or "treble," to the +lowest, or "tenor"--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--they are said to be rung in +"rounds." "Changes" are variations of this order--e.g. 2 1 3 5 4 7 6, 2 +3 1 4 5 6 7; and "change-ringing" is the art of ringing bells in +"changes," so that a different "change" or rearrangement of order is +produced at each pull of the bell-ropes, until, without any repetition +of the same change, the bells come back into "rounds." The general +principle of all methods of change-ringing is that each bell, after +striking in the first place or "lead," works gradually "up" to the last +place or "behind," and "down" again to the first, and that no bell ever +shifts more than one place in each change. Thus the ringer of any bell +knows that whatever his position in one change, his place in the next +will be either the same, or the place before or the place after. He does +not have to learn by heart the different changes or variations of order; +nor need he, unless he is the "conductor," know the exact order of any +one change. He has to bear in mind, first, which way his bell is +working, viz. whether "up" from first to last place, or "down" from last +to first; secondly, in what place his bell is striking; thirdly, what +bell or bells are striking immediately before or after him--this being +ascertained chiefly by "rope-sight," i.e. the knack, acquired by +practice, of seeing which rope is being pulled immediately before and +after his own. He must also remember and apply the rules of the +particular "method" which is being rung. The following table +representing the first twenty changes of a "plain course" of "Grandsire +Triples" (for these terms, see below) illustrates the subject-matter of +this section:-- + + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Rounds." 7 5 6 1 4 2 3 (10th change.) + 2 1 3 5 4 7 6 (1st change.) 5 7 1 6 2 4 3 + 2 3 1 4 5 6 7 5 1 7 2 6 3 4 + 3 2 4 1 6 5 7 1 5 2 7 3 6 4 + 3 4 2 6 1 7 5 1 2 5 3 7 4 6 + 4 3 6 2 7 1 5 (5th change.) 2 1 5 7 3 6 4 (15th change.) + 4 6 3 7 2 5 1 2 5 1 3 7 4 6 + 6 4 7 3 5 2 1 5 2 3 1 4 7 6 + 6 7 4 5 3 1 2 5 3 2 4 1 6 7 + 7 6 5 4 1 3 2 3 5 4 2 6 1 7 + 3 4 5 6 2 7 1 (20th change.) + +It will be observed that at the 1st change the third bell and at the +15th the fifth bell, according to the rule of this "method," strikes a +second blow in the third place ("makes third's place"). This stops the +regular work of the bells which at the previous change were in the 4th, +5th, 6th and 7th places ("in 4, 5, 6, 7"), causing them to take a step +backwards in their course "up" or "down," or as it is technically +called, to "dodge." Were it not for this, the bells would come back into +"rounds" at the 14th change. It is by the use of "place-making" and +"dodging," according to the rules of various "methods," that the +required number of changes, upon any number of bells, can be produced. +But in order that this may be done, without the bells coming back into +"rounds" (as, e.g. in the "plain course" of Grandsire Triples, above +given, they will do in seventy changes), further modifications of the +"coursing order," called technically "Bobs" and "Singles," must be +introduced. In ringing, notice of these alterations as they occur is +given by one of the ringers, who acts as "conductor," calling out "Bob" +or "Single" at the right moment to warn the ringers of certain bells to +make the requisite alteration in the regular work of their bells. +(Hence, in ringing language, to "call" a peal or touch = to conduct it.) +Particulars of these, as of other details of change-ringing, may be +gathered from books dealing with the technique of the art; but they are +best mastered in actual practice. The term "single," applied to +five-bell ringing meant that, as the first three bells remained +unchanged, only a single pair of bells changed places, e.g. 1 5 4 3 2, 1 +5 4 2 3. On larger numbers of bells it loses this meaning; but the +effect of this "call" is that the "coursing order" of a single pair of +bells is inverted. The origin of "Bob" is unknown. As a "call" it was +perhaps adopted as a short, sharp sound, easily uttered and easily heard +by the ringers. As applied to a "method" or system of ringing it may +refer to the evolution of "dodging," e.g. in "Treble Bob" to the zigzag +"dodging" path of the treble bell; but none of the old writers attempts +to explain it. + +The number of _possible_ "changes" on any given series of bells may be +ascertained, according to the mathematical formula of "permutations," by +multiplying the number of the bells together. Thus on three bells, only +6 changes or variations of order (1 X 2 X 3) can be produced; on four +bells, 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 = 24; on five, 24 X 5 = 120; on six, 120 X 6 = 720; +on seven, 720 X 7 = 5040. A "peal" on any such number of bells is in +ordinary language the ringing of all the possible changes. But +technically, only the full extent of changes upon seven bells, usually +rung with a "tenor behind," is called a "peal"; a shorter performance +upon seven or more bells, or the full extent upon less than seven, +being, in ringing parlance, a "touch." On six bells the full extent of +changes must be repeated continuously seven times (720 X 7 = 5040), and +on five bells forty-two times (l20 X 42 = 5040) to rank as a "peal." On +eight or more bells 5000 changes in round numbers is accepted as the +_minimum_ standard for a peal; and on such numbers of bells up to twelve +(the largest number used in change-ringing), peals are so arranged that +the bells come into rounds at, or at some point beyond, 5000 changes. +As many as 16,000 changes, occupying from nine to ten hours, have been +rung upon church bells. But the great physical strain upon the +ringers--to say nothing of the effect upon those who are within +hearing--makes such performances exceptional. The word "peal" is often, +though incorrectly, used (1) for a set of church bells ("a peal of six," +"a peal of eight"), for which the correct term is "a ring" of bells; (2) +for any shorter performance than a full peal (e.g. "wedding-peal," +"muffled peal," &c.), called in ringing language a "touch." Its use as +equivalent for "method," found in old campanological works, is now +obsolete. + +Change-ringing upon five bells is called "Doubles," upon seven bells +"Triples," upon nine "Caters" (Fr. _quatre_), and upon eleven "Cinques," +from the fact that at each change two, three, four or five pairs of +bells change places with each other. "Doubles" can be and are rung when +there are only five bells; but as a rule these "odd-bell" systems are +rung with a "tenor behind," i.e. struck at the end of each change; the +number of bells in a tower being usually an even number--six, eight, ten +or twelve. In "even-bell" systems the tenor is "rung in" or "turned in," +i.e. changes with the other bells, and a different terminology is +employed; change-ringing on six bells being called "Minor"; on eight +bells, "Major"; on ten bells, "Royal"; and on twelve, "Maximus." The +principal "methods" of change-ringing, each of which has its special +rules, are--(1) "Grandsire"; (2) "Plain Bob"; (3) "Treble Bob"; (4) +"Stedman," from the name of its inventor, Fabian Stedman, about 1670. In +"Grandsire" the treble and one other bell, in "Plain Bob" the treble +alone, has a "plain hunt," i.e. works from the first place, or "lead," +to the last place, or "behind," and back again, without any dodging; in +"Treble Bob" the treble has a uniform but zigzag course, dodging in each +place on its way up and down. This is called a "Treble Bob hunt"; and +under these two heads, according to the work of the treble, are +classified a variety of "plain methods" and "Treble Bob methods," among +the latter being the so-called "Surprise" methods, the most complicated +and difficult of all. "Stedman's principle," which is _sui generis_, +consists in the three front bells ringing their six possible changes, +while the remaining pair or pairs of bells dodge. It is thus an +"odd-bell" method adapted to five, seven, nine or eleven bells; as also +is "Grandsire," though occasionally rung on even numbers of bells. +"Treble Bob" is always, and "Plain Bob" generally, rung on even +numbers--six, eight, ten or twelve. In ringing, whenever the treble has +a uniform course, unaffected by "Bobs" or "Singles," it serves as a +guide to the other changing bells, according to the place in which they +meet and cross its path from "behind" to the "lead." The order in which +the different dodges occur, and the "course bell," i.e. the bell which +he follows from behind to lead, are also useful, and on large numbers of +bells indispensable, guides to the ringer. + +Quite distinct from the art of change-ringing is the science of +"composing," i.e. arranging and uniting by the proper "calls," subject +to certain fixed laws and conditions, a number of groups of changes, so +that no one change, or series of changes represented in those groups, +shall be repeated. A composition, long or short, is said to be "true" if +it is free from, "false" if it involves, such repetition; and the body +of ascertained laws and conditions governing true composition in any +method constitutes the test or "proof" to be applied to a composition in +that method to demonstrate its truth or falseness. Many practical +ringers know little or nothing of the principles of composition, and are +content with performing compositions received from composers, or +published in ringing books and periodicals. An elaborate statement of +the principles of composition in the "Grandsire" method may be found in +an appendix to Snowdon's _Grandsire_ (1888), by the Rev. C.D.P. Davies. +Those which apply to "Treble Bob" are explained in Snowdon's _Treatise +on Treble Bob_, Part I. But, so far as can be ascertained, there is no +treatise dealing with the science of composition as a whole; nor is it +possible here to attempt a popular exposition of its principles. + +One of the objects kept in view by composers is musical effect. Certain +sequences or contrasts of notes strike the ear as more musical than +others; and an arrangement which brings up the more musical changes in +quicker succession improves the musical effect of the "peal" or "touch." +On seven bells all the possible changes must be inserted in a true peal; +but on larger numbers of bells, where the choice is from an immense +number of possible changes, the composer is free to select those which +are most musical. Unless, however, the bells of any given "ring" are in +perfect tune and harmony with each other, their musical effect must be +impaired, however well they are rung. This gives importance to the +science and art of bell-tuning, in which great progress has been made +(see above). + +The art of scientific change-ringing, peculiar to England, does not seem +to have been evolved before the middle of the 17th century. Societies or +gilds of ringers, however, existed much earlier. A patent roll of 39 +Henry III. (1255) confirms the "Brethren of the Guild of Westminster, +who are appointed to ring the great bells there," in the enjoyment of +the "privileges and free customs which they have enjoyed from the time +of Edward the Confessor." In 1602 (as appears from a MS. in the library +of All Souls' College, Oxford) was founded a society called the +"Scholars of Cheapside." In 1637 began the "Ancient Society of College +Youths," so called from their meeting to practise on the six bells at St +Martin's, College Hill, a church destroyed in the Great Fire of London, +1666. At first only "rounds" and "call-changes" were rung, till about +1642, when 120 "Bob Doubles" were achieved; but slow progress was made +till 1677, when Fabian Stedman of Cambridge published his +_Campanologia_, dedicating it to this society, his method being first +rung about this time by some of its members. Before the end of the 17th +century was founded the "Society of London Scholars," the name of which +was changed in 1746 to "Cumberland Youths" in compliment to the victor +of Culloden. These two metropolitan societies still exist, and include +in their membership most of the leading change-ringers of England: one +of the oldest provincial societies being that of Saffron Walden in +Essex, founded in 1623, and still holding an annual ringing festival. In +the latter half of the 18th and first half of the 19th century +change-ringing, which at first seems to have been an aristocratic +pastime, degenerated in social repute. Church bells and their ringers, +neglected by church authorities, became associated with the lower and +least reputable phases of parochial life; and belfries were too often an +adjunct to the pothouse. In the last half of the 19th century there was +a great revival of change-ringing, leading to improvements in belfries +and in ringers, and to their gradual recognition as church workers. +Diocesan or county associations for the promotion of change-ringing and +of belfry reform spread knowledge of the art and aroused church +officials to greater interest in and care for their bells. A Central +Council of Church Bell Ringers, consisting of delegates from these +various societies, meets annually in London or at some provincial centre +to discuss ringing matters, and to collect and formulate useful +knowledge upon practical questions--e.g. the proper care of bells and +the means of preventing annoyance from their use in the neighbourhood of +houses, rules for the conduct of belfries, &c. It is now less likely +than ever that the Belgian carillons will be preferred in England to the +peculiarly English system of ringing bells in peal; by which, whatever +its difficulties, the musical sound of bells is most fully brought out, +and their scientific construction best stimulated. + + AUTHORITIES.--The literature of bell-lore (or campanology) consists + chiefly of scattered treatises or pamphlets upon the technique of + different methods of change-ringing, or upon the bells of particular + counties or districts. The earliest that deal with the science and art + of change-ringing are _Campanologia or the Art of Ringing Improved_ + (1677), and a chapter of "Advice to a Ringer" in the _School of + Recreations, or Gentleman's Tutor_ (1684), showing that in its early + days bell-ringing was a fashionable pastime. Then follow + _Campanologia, or the Art of Ringing made Easy_ (1766), _Clavis + Campanologia, a Key to Ringing_ (1788), and Shipway's _Campanologia_ + (1816). The revival of change-ringing in recent years has produced + many manuals: e.g. Snowdon's _Rope-Sight_ (explaining the "Plain Bob" + method), _Grandsire, Treatise on Treble Bob, Double Norwich Court Bob + Major_, and _Standard Methods_ (with a book of diagrams); Troyte on + _Change-Ringing; The Duffield Method_, by Sir A.P. Heywood, Bart., its + inventor. Somewhat prior to these are various works by the Rev. H.T. + Ellacombe, inventor of a chiming apparatus which bears his name, and a + pioneer in belfry reform. Among these are accounts of the church bells + of Devon, Somerset and Gloucester, and pamphlets on _Belfries and + Ringers, Chiming, &c._; much of their contents being summarized in + _The Ringer's Guide to the Church Bells of Devon_, by C. Pearson + (1888). A _Glossary of Technical Terms_ used in connexion with church + bells and change-ringing was published (1901) under the auspices of + the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. On the history of church + bells and customs connected with them much curious information is + given in North's _English Bells and Bell Lore_ (1888). By the same + author are monographs on the church bells of Leicestershire, + Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire. There are similar + works on the church bells of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, by Dr Raven; + of Huntingdonshire, by the Rev. T.M.N. Owen; and on the church bells + of Essex, by the Rev. C. Deedes. A compilation and summary of many + data of bell-lore will be found in _A Book about Bells_, by the Rev. + G.S. Tyack; and in a volume by Dr Raven in the "Antiquary's Books" + series (Methuen, 1906), entitled _The Bells of England_, which deals + with the antiquarian side of bell-lore. See also _Quarterly Review_, + No. cxc. (September 1854); _Windsor Magazine_ (December 1896); Lord + Rayleigh's paper "On the Tones of Bells" in the _Phil. Mag._ for + January 1890; and a series of articles from the _Guardian_, reprinted + as a pamphlet under the title, _Church Bells and Bell-ringing_. + (T. L. P.) + +_House Bells._--Buildings are commonly provided with bells, conveniently +arranged so as to enable attendants to be summoned to the different +rooms. In the old system, which has been largely superseded by pneumatic +and still more by electric bells, the bells themselves are of the +ordinary conical shape and are provided with clappers hung loosely +inside them. Being supported on springs they continue to swing, and +therefore to give out sound as the clapper knocks against the sides, for +some time after they have been set in motion by means of the strings or +wires by which each is connected to a bell-pull in the rooms. These +wires are generally placed out of sight inside the walls, and +bell-cranks are employed to take them round corners and to change the +direction of motion as required. A lightly poised pendulum is often +attached to each bell, to show by its motion when it has been rung. In +pneumatic bells the wires are replaced by pipes of narrow bore, and the +current of air which is caused to flow along these by the pressing of a +push-button actuates a small hammer which impinges rapidly against a +bell or gong. An electric bell consists of a small electro-magnet acting +on a soft iron armature which is supported in such a way that normally +it stands away from the magnet. When the latter is energized by the +passage of an electric current, the armature is attracted towards it, +and a small hammer attached to it strikes a blow on the bell or gong. +This "single stroke" type of bell is largely used in railway signalling +instruments. For domestic purposes, however, the bells are arranged so +that the hammer strikes a series of strokes, continuing so long as the +push-button which closes the electric circuit is pressed. A light spring +is provided against which the armature rests when it is not attracted by +the electro-magnet, and the current is arranged to pass through this +spring and the armature on its way to the magnet. When the armature is +attracted by the magnet it breaks contact with this spring, the current +is interrupted, and the magnet being no longer energized allows the +armature to fall back on the spring and thus restore the circuit. In +this way a rapid to and fro motion is imparted to the hammer. The +electric current is supplied by a battery, usually either of Leclanche +or of dry cells. One bell will serve for all the rooms of a house, an +"indicator" being provided to show from which it has been rung. Such +indicators are of two main types: the current either sets in motion a +pendulum, or causes a disk bearing the name or number of the room +concerned to come into view. Each push must have one wire appropriated +to itself leading from the battery through the indicator to the bell, +but the return wire from the bell to the battery may be common to all +the pushes. Bells of this kind cease to ring whenever the electrical +continuity of any of these wires is interrupted, but in some cases, as +in connexion with burglar-alarms, it is desirable that the bell, once +set in action, shall continue to ring even though the wires are cut. For +this purpose, in "continuous ringing" bells, the current, started by the +push or alarm apparatus, instead of working the bell, is made to operate +a relay-switch and thus to bring into circuit a second battery which +continues to ring the bell, no matter what happens to the first circuit. + (H. M. R.) + + + + +BELLABELLA, the common name (popularized from the Indian corruption of +Milbank) for a tribe of Kwakiutl Indians at Milbank, British Columbia, +including the subtribes Kokaitk, Oetlitk and Ocalitk. They were +converted to Christianity by Protestant missionaries, and number about +300. + + + + +BELLACOOLA or BILQULA, a tribe of North American Indians of Salishan +stock, inhabiting the coast of British Columbia. They number some 300. + + + + +BELLADONNA (from the Ital. _bella donna_, "beautiful lady," the berries +having been used as a cosmetic), the roots and leaves of _Atropa +belladonna_, or deadly nightshade (q.v.), widely used in medicine on +account of the alkaloids which they contain. Of these the more important +are atropine (or atropia), hyoscyamine, hyoscine and belladonine; +atropine is the most important, occurring as the malate to the extent of +about 0.47% in the leaves, and from 0.6 to 0.25% in the roots. + +Atropine, C17H23NO3, was discovered in 1833 by P.L. Geiger and Hesse and +by Mein in the tissues of _Atropa belladonna_, from which it may be +extracted by means of chloroform. By crystallization from alcohol it is +obtained as colourless needles, melting at 115 deg. Hydrolysis with +hydrochloric acid or baryta water gives tropic acid and tropine; on the +other hand, by boiling equimolecular quantities of these substances with +dilute hydrochloric acid, atropine is reformed. Since both these +substances have been synthesized (see TROPINE), the artificial formation +of atropine is accomplished. Atropine is optically inactive; +hyoscyamine, possibly a physical isomer, which yields atropine when +heated to 108.6 deg., is laevorotatory. + +_Medicine._--The official doses of atropine are from 1/200 to 1/100 +grain, and the sulphate, which is in general use in medicine, has a +similar dose. It is highly important to observe that the official doses +of the various pharmacopoeias may with safety be greatly exceeded in +practice. They are based on the experimental _toxic_, as distinguished +from _lethal_ dose. A toxic dose causes unpleasant symptoms, but in +certain cases, such as this, it may require very many times a toxic dose +to produce the lethal effect. In other words, whilst one-fiftieth of a +grain may cause unpleasant symptoms, it may need more than a grain to +kill. So valuable are certain of the properties of atropine that it is +often desirable to give doses of one-twentieth or one-tenth of a grain; +but these will never be ventured upon by the practitioner who is +ignorant of the great interval between the minimum toxic and the minimum +lethal dose. It actually needs twenty to thirty grains of atropine to +kill a rabbit: the animal is, however, somewhat exceptional in this +regard. The most valuable preparations of this potent drug are the +_liquor atropinae sulphatis_, which is a 1% solution, and the +_lamella_--for insertion within the conjunctival sac--which contains one +five-thousandth part of a grain of the alkaloid. + +_Pharmacology._--When rubbed into the skin with such substances as +alcohol or glycerine, which are absorbed, atropine is carried through +the epidermis with them, and in this manner--or when simply applied to a +raw surface--it paralyses the terminals of the pain-conducting sensory +nerves. It acts similarly, though less markedly, upon the nerves which +determine the secretion of the perspiration, and is therefore a local +anaesthetic or anodyne and an anhidrotic. Being rapidly absorbed into +the blood, it exercises a long and highly important series of actions on +nearly every part and function of the nervous system. Perhaps its most +remarkable action is that upon the terminals of nearly all the secretory +nerves in the body. This causes the entire skin to become dry--as in the +case of the local action above mentioned; and it arrests the secretion +of saliva and mucus in the mouth and throat, causing these parts to +become very dry and to feel very uncomfortable. This latter result is +due to paralysis of the _chorda tympani_ nerve, which is mainly +responsible for the salivary secretion. Certain nerve fibres from the +sympathetic nervous system, which can also cause the secretion of a +(specially viscous) saliva, are entirely unaffected by atropine. A +curious parallel to this occurs in its action on the eye. There is much +uncertainty as to the influence of atropine on the secretions of the +stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas and kidneys, and it is not possible +to make any definite statement, save that in all probability the +activities of the nerves innervating the gland-cells in these organs are +reduced, though they are certainly not arrested, as in the other cases. +The secretion of mucus by the bronchi and trachea is greatly reduced and +their muscular tissue is paralysed--a fact of which much use is made in +practical medicine. The secretion of milk, if occurring in the mammary +gland, is much diminished or entirely arrested. Given internally, +atropine does not exert any appreciable sedative action upon the nerves +of pain. + +The action of atropine on the motor nerves is equally important. Those +that go to the voluntary muscles are depressed only by very large and +dangerous doses. The drug appears to have no influence upon the +contractile cells that constitute muscle-fibre, any more than it has +directly upon the secretory cells that constitute any gland. But +moderate doses of atropine markedly paralyse the terminals of the nerves +that go to involuntary muscles, whether the action of those nerves be +motor or inhibitory. In the intestine, for instance, are layers of +muscle-fibre which are constantly being inhibited or kept under check by +the splanchnic nerves. These are paralysed by atropine, and intestinal +peristalsis is consequently made more active, the muscles being released +from nervous control. The motor nerves of the arteries, of the bladder +and rectal sphincters, and also of the bronchi, are paralysed by +atropine, but the nervous arrangements of those organs are highly +complex and until they are further unravelled by physiologists, +pharmacology will be unable to give much information which might be of +great value in the employment of atropine. The action upon the +vaso-motor system is, however, fairly clear. Whether effected entirely +by action on the nerve terminals, or by an additional influence upon the +vaso-motor centre in the medulla oblongata, atropine certainly causes +extreme dilatation of the blood-vessels, so much so that the skin +becomes flushed and there may appear, after large doses, an erythematous +rash, which must be carefully distinguished, in cases of supposed +belladonna poisoning, from that of scarlet fever: more especially as the +temperature may be elevated and the pulse is very rapid in both +conditions. But whilst the characteristic action of atropine is to +dilate the blood-vessels, its first action is to stimulate the +vaso-motor centre--thereby causing temporary contraction of the +vessels--and to increase the rapidity of the heart's action, so that the +blood-pressure rapidly rises. Though transient, this action is so +certain, marked and rapid, as to make the subcutaneous injection of +atropine invaluable in certain conditions. The respiratory centre is +similarly stimulated, so that atropine must be regarded as a temporary +but efficient respiratory and cardiac stimulant. + +Toxic doses of atropine--and therefore of belladonna--raise the +temperature several degrees. The action is probably nervous, but in the +present state of our knowledge regarding the control of the temperature +by the nervous system, it cannot be further defined. In small +therapeutic and in small toxic doses atropine stimulates the motor +apparatus of the spinal cord, just as it stimulates the centres in the +medulla oblongata. This is indeed, as Sir Thomas Fraser has pointed out, +"a strychnine action." In large toxic and in lethal doses the activity +of the spinal cord is lowered. + +No less important than any of the above is the action of atropine on the +cerebrum. This has long been a debated matter, but it may now be stated, +with considerable certainty, that the higher centres are incoordinately +stimulated, a state closely resembling that of delirium tremens being +induced. In cases of poisoning the delirium may last for many hours or +even days. Thereafter a more or less sleepy state supervenes, but it is +not the case that atropine ever causes genuine coma. The stuporose +condition is the result of exhaustion after the long period of cerebral +excitement. It is to be noted that children, who are particularly +susceptible to the influence of certain of the other potent alkaloids, +such as morphine and strychnine, will take relatively large doses of +atropine without ill-effect. + +The action of atropine on the eye is of high theoretical and practical +importance. The drug affects only the involuntary muscles of the eye, +just as it affects only the involuntary or non-striated portion of the +oesophagus. The result of its instillation into the eye--and the same +occurs when the atropine has been absorbed elsewhere--is rapidly to +cause wide dilatation of the pupil. This can be experimentally shown--by +the method of exclusion--to be caused by a paralysis of the terminals of +the third cranial nerve in the _sphincter pupillae_ of the iris. The +action of atropine in dilating the pupil is also aided by a stimulation +of the fibres from the sympathetic nervous system, which innervate the +remaining muscle of the iris--the _dilator pupillae_. As a result of the +extreme pupillary dilatation, the tension of the eyeball is greatly +raised. The sight of many an eye has been destroyed by the use of +atropine--in ignorance of this action on the intra-ocular tension--in +cases of incipient glaucoma. The use of atropine is absolutely +contra-indicated in any case where the intra-ocular tension already is, +or threatens to become, unduly high. This warning applies notably to +those--usually women--who are accustomed indiscriminately to use +belladonna or atropine in order to give greater brilliancy to their +eyes. The fourth ocular result of administering atropine is the +production of a slight but definite degree of local anaesthesia of the +eyeball. It follows from the above that a patient who is definitely +under the influence of atropine will display rapid pulse, dilated +pupils, a dry skin and a sense of discomfort, due to dryness of the +mouth and throat. + +_Therapeutics._--The external uses of the drug are mainly analgesic. The +liniment or plaster of belladonna will relieve many forms of local pain. +Generally speaking, it may be laid down that atropine is more likely +than iodine to relieve a pain of quite superficial origin; and +conversely. Totally to be reprobated is the use, in order to relieve +pain, of belladonna or any other application which affects the skin, in +cases where the surgeon may later be required to operate. In such cases, +it is necessary to use such anodyne measures as will not interfere with +the subsequent demands that may be made of the skin, i.e. that it be +aseptic and in a condition so sound that it is able to undertake the +process of healing itself after the operation has been performed. +Atropine is universally and constantly used in ophthalmic practice in +order to dilate the pupil for examination of the retina by the +ophthalmoscope, or in cases where the inflamed iris threatens to form +adhesions to neighbouring parts. The drug is often replaced in +ophthalmology by homatropine--an alkaloid prepared from tropine--which +acts similarly to atropine but has the advantage of allowing the ocular +changes to pass away in a much shorter time. The anhidrotic action of +atropine is largely employed in controlling the night-sweats so +characteristic of pulmonary tuberculosis, small doses of the solution of +the sulphate being given at night. + +The uses of atropine in cardiac affections are still obscure and +dubious. It can only be laid down that the drug is a valuable though +temporary stimulant in emergencies, and that its use as a plaster or +internally often relieves cardiac pain. Recollection of the +extraordinary complexity of the problems which are involved in the whole +question of pain of cardiac origin will emphasize the extreme vagueness +of the above assertion. Professor Schafer recommended the use of +atropine prior to the administration of a general anaesthetic, in cases +where the action of the vagus nerve upon the heart is to be dreaded; and +there is little doubt of the value of this precaution, which has no +attendant disadvantages, in all such cases. Atropine is often of value +as an antidote, as in poisoning by pilocarpine, muscarine (mushroom +poisoning), prussic acid, &c. + +Omitting numerous minor applications of this drug, we may pass to two +therapeutic uses which are of unquestionable utility. In cases of +whooping-cough or any other condition in which there is spasmodic action +of the muscular fibre in the bronchi--a definition which includes nearly +every form of asthma and many cases of bronchitis--atropine is an almost +invaluable drug. Not only does it relieve the spasm, but it lessens the +amount of secretion--often dangerously excessive--which is often +associated with it. The relief of symptoms in whooping-cough is sharply +to be distinguished from any influence on the course of the disease, +since the drug does not abbreviate its duration by a single day. In +treating an actual and present attack of asthma, it is advisable to give +the standardized tincture of belladonna--unless expense is no +consideration, in which case atropine may itself be used--in doses of +twenty minims every quarter of an hour as long as no evil effects +appear. Relief is thereby constantly obtained. Smaller doses of the drug +should be given three times a day between the attacks. + +The nocturnal enuresis or urinary incontinence of children and of adults +is frequently relieved by this drug. The excellent toleration of +atropine displayed by children must be remembered, and if its use is +"pushed" a cure may almost always be expected. + +_Toxicology._--The symptoms of poisoning by belladonna or atropine are +dealt with above. The essential point here to be added is that death +takes place from combined cardiac and respiratory failure. This fact is, +of course, the key to treatment. This consists in the use of emetics or +the stomach-pump, with lime-water, which decomposes the alkaloid. These +measures are, however, usually rendered nugatory by the very rapid +absorption of the alkaloid. Death is to be averted by such measures as +will keep the heart and lungs in action until the drug has been excreted +by the kidneys. Inject stimulants subcutaneously; give coffee--hot and +strong--by the mouth and rectum, or use large doses of caffeine citrate; +and employ artificial respiration. Do not employ such physiological +antagonists as pilocarpine or morphine, for the lethal actions of all +these drugs exhibit not mutual antagonism but coincidence. + + + + +BELLAGIO, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Como, about 15 +m. N.N.E. by steamer from the town of Como, situated on the promontory +which divides the two southern arms of the Lake of Como. Pop. (1901) +3536. It is chiefly remarkable for the beauty of its scenery, and is a +very favourite resort in the spring and autumn. Some of the gardens of +its villas are remarkably fine. The manufacture of silks and carving in +olive wood are carried on. + + + + +BELLAIRE, a city of Belmont county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, 5 +m. S. of Wheeling, West Virginia. Pop. (1890) 9934; (1900) 9912 (1159 +foreign-born); (1910) 12,946. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the +Pennsylvania, and the Ohio River & Western railways. Bellaire is the +shipping centre of the Belmont county coalfield which in 1907 produced +19.3% of the total output of coal for the state. Iron, limestone and +fireclay are found in the vicinity; among the manufactures are iron and +steel, glass, galvanized and enamelled ware, agricultural implements and +stoves. The value of the city's factory products increased from +$8,837,646 in 1900 to $10,712,438 in 1905, or 21.2%. Bellaire was +settled about 1795, was laid out in 1836, was incorporated as a village +in 1858, and was chartered as a city in 1874. + + + + +BELLAMY, EDWARD (1850-1898), American author and social reformer, was +born at Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, on the 25th of March 1850. He +studied for a time at Union College, Schenectady, New York, and in +Germany; was admitted to the bar in 1871; but soon engaged in newspaper +work, first as an associate editor of the _Springfield Union_, Mass., +and then as an editorial writer for the _New York Evening Post_. After +publishing three novelettes (_Six to One, Dr Heidenhoff's Process_ and +_Miss Ludington's Sister_), pleasantly written and showing some +inventiveness in situation, but attracting no special notice, in 1888 he +caught the public attention with _Looking Backward, 2000-1887_. in which +he set forth ideas of co-operative or semi-socialistic life in village +or city communities. The book was widely circulated in America and +Europe, and was translated into several foreign languages. It was at +first judged merely as a romance, but was soon accepted as a statement +of the deliberate wishes and methods of its author, who devoted the +remainder of his life as editor, author, lecturer and politician, to the +promotion of the communistic theories of _Looking Backward_, which he +called "nationalism"; a Nationalist party (the main points of whose +immediate programme, according to Bellamy, were embodied in the platform +of the People's party of 1892) was organized, but obtained no political +hold. In 1897 Bellamy published _Equality_, a sequel to _Looking +Backward_. He died at Chicopee Falls on the 22nd of May 1898. + + + + +BELLAMY, GEORGE ANNE (1727-1788), English actress, born at Fingal, +Ireland, by her own account, on the 23rd of April 1733, but more +probably in 1727, was the illegitimate daughter of Lord Tyrawley, +British ambassador at Lisbon. Her mother married there a Captain +Bellamy, and the child received the name George Anne, by mistake for +Georgiana. Lord Tyrawley acknowledged the child, had her educated in a +convent in Boulogne, and through him she came to know a number of +notable people in London. On his appointment as ambassador to Russia, +she went to live with her mother in London, made the acquaintance of Mrs +Woffington and Garrick, and adopted the theatrical profession. Her first +engagement was at Covent Garden as Monimia in the _Orphan_ in 1744. +Owing to her personal charms and the social patronage extended to her, +her success was immediate, and till 1770 she acted in London, Edinburgh +and Dublin, in all the principal tragic roles. She played Juliet to +Garrick's Romeo at Drury Lane at the time that Spranger Barry (q.v.) was +giving the rival performances at Covent Garden, and was considered the +better of the Juliets. Her last years were unhappy, and passed in +poverty and ill-health. She died on the 16th of February 1788. + + Her _Apology_ (6 vols., 1785) gives an account of her long career and + of her private life, the extravagance and licence of which were + notorious. + + + + +BELLAMY, JOSEPH (1719-1790), American theologian, was born in Cheshire, +Connecticut, on the 20th of February 1719. He graduated from Yale in +1735, studied theology for a time under Jonathan Edwards, was licensed +to preach when scarcely eighteen years old, and from 1740 until his +death, on the 6th of March 1790, was pastor of the Congregational church +at Bethlehem, Connecticut. The publication of his best-known work, _True +Religion Delineated_ (1750), won for him a high reputation as a +theologian, and the book was several times reprinted both in England and +in America. Despite the fact that with the exception of the period of +the "Great Awakening" (1740-1742), when he preached as an itinerant in +several neighbouring colonies, his active labours were confined to his +own parish, his influence on the religious thought of his time in +America was probably surpassed only by that of his old friend and +teacher Jonathan Edwards. This influence was due not only to his +publications, but also to the "school" or classes for the training of +clergymen which he conducted for many years at his home and from which +went forth scores of preachers to every part of New England and the +middle colonies (states). Bellamy's "system" of divinity was in general +similar to that of Edwards. During the War of Independence he was loyal +to the American cause. The university of Aberdeen conferred upon him the +honorary degree of D.D. in 1768. He was a powerful and dramatic +preacher. His published works, in addition to that above mentioned, +include _The Wisdom of God in the Permission of Sin_ (1758), his most +characteristic work; _Theron, Paulinus and Aspasio; or Letters and +Dialogues upon the Nature of Love to God, Faith in Christ, and Assurance +of a Title to Eternal Life_ (1759); _The Nature and Glory of the Gospel_ +(1762); _A Blow at the Root of Antinomianism_ (1763); _There is but One +Covenant_ (1769); _Four Dialogues on the Half-Way Covenant_ (1769); and +_A Careful and Strict Examination of the External Covenant_ (1769). + + His collected _Works_ were published in 3 vols. (New York, 1811-1812), + and were republished with a _Memoir_ by Rev. Tryon Edwards (2 vols., + Boston, 1850). + + + + +BELLARMINE (Ital. _Bellarmino_), ROBERTO FRANCESCO ROMOLO (1542-1621), +Italian cardinal and theologian, was born at Monte Pulciano, in Tuscany, +on the 4th of October 1542. He was destined by his father to a political +career, but feeling a call to the priesthood he entered the Society of +Jesus in 1560 After spending three years at Rome, he was sent to the +Jesuit settlement at Mondovi in Piedmont, where he studied and at the +same time taught Greek, and, though not yet in orders, gained some +reputation as a preacher. In 1567 and 1568 he was at Padua, studying +theology under a master who belonged to the school of St Thomas Aquinas. +In 1569 he was sent by the general of his order to Louvain, and in 1570, +after being ordained priest, began to lecture on theology at the +university. His seven years' residence in the Low Countries brought him +into close relations with modes of thought differing essentially from +his own; and, though he was neither by temperament nor training inclined +to be affected by the prevailing Augustinian doctrines of grace and +free-will, the controversy into which he fell on these questions +compelled him to define his theological principles more clearly. On his +return to Rome in 1576 he was chosen by Gregory XIII. to lecture on +controversial theology in the newly-founded Roman College. The result of +these labours appeared some years afterwards in the far-famed +_Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus +temporis Haereticos_ (3 vols., 1581, 1582, 1593). These volumes, which +called forth a multitude of answers on the Protestant side, exhaust the +controversy as it was carried on in those days, and contain a lucid and +uncompromising statement of Roman Catholic doctrine. For many years +afterwards, Bellarmine was held by Protestant advocates as the champion +of the papacy, and a vindication of Protestantism generally took the +form of an answer to his works. In 1589 he was selected by Sixtus V. to +accompany, in the capacity of theologian, the papal legation sent to +France soon after the murder of Henry III. He was created cardinal in +1599 by Clement VIII., and two years later was made archbishop of Capua. +His efforts on behalf of the clergy were untiring, and his ideal of the +bishop's office may be read in his address to his nephew, Angelo della +Ciaia, who had been raised to the episcopate (_Admonitio ad episcopum +Theanensem, nepotem suum_, Rome, 1612). Being detained in Rome by the +desire of the newly-elected pope, Paul V., he resigned his archbishopric +in 1605. He supported the church in its conflicts with the civil powers +in Venice, France and England, and sharply criticized James I. for the +severe legislation against the Roman Catholics that followed the +discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. When health failed him, he retired to +Monte Pulciano, where from 1607 to 1611 he acted as bishop. In 1610 he +published his _De Potestate summi Pontificis in rebus temporalibus_ +directed against the posthumous work of William Barclay of Aberdeen, +which denied the temporal power of the pope. Bellarmine trod here on +difficult ground, for, although maintaining that the pope had the +indirect right to depose unworthy rulers, he gave offence to Paul V. in +not asserting more strongly the direct papal claim, whilst many French +theologians, and especially Bossuet, condemned him for his defence of +ultramontanism. As a _consultor_ of the Sacred Office, Bellarmine took a +prominent part in the first examination of Galileo's writings. His +conduct in this matter has been constantly misrepresented. He had +followed with interest Galileo's scientific discoveries and a respectful +admiration grew up between them. Bellarmine did not proscribe the +Copernican system, as has been maintained by Reusch (_Der Process +Galilei's und die Jesuiten_, Bonn, 1879, p. 125); all he claimed was +that it should be presented as an hypothesis until it should receive +scientific demonstration. When Galileo visited Rome in December 1615 he +was warmly received by Bellarmine, and the high regard in which he was +held is clearly testified in Bellarmine's letters and in Galileo's +dedication to the cardinal of his discourse on "flying bodies." The last +years of Bellarmine's life were mainly devoted to the composition of +devotional works and to securing the papal approbation of the new order +of the Visitation, founded by his friend St Francis de Sales, and the +beatification of St Philip Neri. He died in Rome on the 17th of +September 1621. Bellarmine, whose life was a model of Christian virtue, +is the greatest of modern Roman Catholic controversialists, but the +value of his theological works is seriously impaired by a very defective +exegesis and a too frequent use of "forced" conclusions. His devotional +treatises were very popular among English Roman Catholics in the penal +days. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Of the older editions of Bellarmine's complete works + the best is that in 7 vols. published at Cologne (1617-1620); modern + editions appeared in 8 vols. at Naples (1856-1862, reprinted 1872), + and in 12 vols. at Paris (1870-1874). For complete bibliography of all + works of Bellarmine, of translations and controversial writings + against him, see C. Sommervogel, _Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de + Jesus_ (Brussels and Paris, 1890 et seq.), vol. i. cols. 1151-1254; + _id., Addenda_, pp. x.-xi. vol. viii., cols. 1797-1807. The main + source for the life of Bellarmine is his Latin _Autobiography_ (Rome, + 1675; Louvain, 1753), which was reprinted with original text and + German translation in the work of Dollinger and Reusch entitled _Die + Selbst-biographie des Cardinals Bellarmin_ (Bonn, 1887). The + _Epistolae Familiares_, a very incomplete collection of letters, was + published by J. Fuligatti (Rome, 1650), who is also the author of + _Vita del cardinale Bellarmino della Compagnia di Giesu_ (Rome, 1624). + Cf. D. Bartoli, _Della vita di Roberto cardinal Bellarmino_ (Rome, + 1678), and M. Cervin, _Imago virtutum Roberti card. Bellarmini + Politiani_ (Siena, 1622), All these are panegyrics of small historical + value. The best modern studies are J.B. Couderc's _Le Venerable + Cardinal Bellarmin_ (2 vols., Paris, 1893), and X. le Bachelet's + article in A. Vacant's _Dict. de theol, cat._ cols. 560-599, with + exhaustive bibliography. + + + + +BELLARY, or BALLARI, a city and district of British India, in the Madras +presidency. The city is 305 m. by rail from Madras. Pop. (1901) 58,247. +The fort rises from a huge mass of granite rock, which with a +circumference of nearly 2 m., juts up abruptly to a height of 450 ft. +above the plain. The length of this rock from north-east to south-west +is about 1150 ft. To the E. and S. lies an irregular heap of boulders, +but to the W. is an unbroken precipice, and the N. is walled by bare +rugged ridges. It is defended by two distinct lines of works. The upper +fort is a quadrangular building on the summit, with only one approach, +and was deemed impregnable by the Mysore princes. But as it has no +accommodation for a garrison, it is now only occupied by a small guard +of British troops in charge of prisoners. The ex-nawab of Kurnool was +confined in it for forty years for the murder of his wife. It contains +several cisterns, excavated in the rock. Outside the turreted rampart +are a ditch and covered way. The lower fort lies at the eastern base of +the rock and measures about half a mile in diameter. It contains the +barracks and the commissariat stores, the Protestant church, orphanage, +Masonic lodge, post-office and numerous private dwellings. The fort of +Bellary was originally built by Hanumapa, in the 16th century. It was +first dependent on the kingdom of Vijayanagar, afterwards on Bijapur, +and subsequently subject to the nizam and Hyder Ali. The latter erected +the present fortifications according to tradition with the assistance of +a French engineer in his service, whom he afterwards hanged for not +building the fort on a higher rock adjacent to it. Bellary is an +important cantonment and the headquarters of a military division. There +is a considerable trade in cotton, in connexion with which there are +large steam presses, and some manufacture of cotton cloth. There is a +cotton spinning mill. In 1901 Bellary was chosen as one of the places of +detention in India for Boer prisoners of war. + +The district of BELLARY has an area of 5714 sq. m. It consists chiefly +of an extensive plateau between the Eastern and Western Ghats, of a +height varying from 800 to 1000 ft. above the sea. The most elevated +tracts are on the west, where the surface rises towards the culminating +range of hills, and on the south, where it rises to the elevated +tableland of Mysore. Towards the centre the almost treeless plain +presents a monotonous aspect, broken only by a few rocky elevations that +rise abruptly from the black soil. The hill ranges in Bellary are those +of Sandur and Kampli to the west, the Lanka Malla to the east and the +Copper Mountain (3148 ft.) to the south-west. The district is watered by +five rivers: the Tungabhadra, formed by the junction of two streams, +Tunga and Bhadra, the Haggari, Hindri, Chitravati and Pennar, the last +considered sacred by the natives. None of the rivers is navigable and +all are fordable during the dry season. The climate of Bellary is +characterized by extreme dryness, due to the passing of the air over a +great extent of heated plains, and it has a smaller rainfall than any +other district in south India. The average daily variation of the +thermometer is from 67 deg. to 83 deg. F. The prevailing diseases are +cholera, fever, small-pox, ophthalmia, dysentery and those of the skin +among the lower classes. Bellary is subject to disastrous storms and +hurricanes, and to famines arising from a series of bad seasons. There +were memorable famines in 1751, 1793, 1803, 1833, 1854, 1866, 1877 and +1896. + +In 1901 the population was 947,214, showing an increase of 8% in the +decade. The principal crops are millet, other food-grains, pulse, +oil-seeds and cotton. There are considerable manufactures of cotton and +woollen goods, and cotton is largely exported. The district is traversed +by the Madras and Southern Mahratta railways, meeting on the eastern +border at Guntakal junction, where another line branches off to Bezwada. + +Little is known of the early history of the district. It contains the +ruined capital of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, and on the +overthrow of that state by the Mahommedans, in 1564, the tract now +forming the district of Bellary was split up into a number of military +holdings, held by chiefs called poligars. In 1635 the Carnatic was +annexed to the Bijapur dominions, from which again it was wrested in +1680 by Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta power. It was then included +in the dominions of Nizam-ul-mulk, the nominal viceroy of the great +Mogul in the Deccan, from whom again it was subsequently conquered by +Hyder Ali of Mysore. At the close of the war with Tippoo Sultan in 1792, +these territories fell to the share of the nizam of Hyderabad, by whom +they were ceded to the British in 1800, in return for protection by a +force of British troops to be stationed at his capital. In 1808 the +"Ceded Districts," as they were called, were split into two districts, +Cuddapah and Bellary. In 1882 the district of Anantapur, which had +hitherto formed part of Bellary, was formed into a separate +collectorate. + + See _Bellary Gazetteer_, 1904. + + + + +BELL-COT, BELL-GABLE, or BELL-TURRET, the place where one or more bells +are hung in chapels or small churches which have no towers. Bell-cots +are sometimes double, as at Northborough and Coxwell; a very common form +in France and Switzerland admits of three bells. In these countries also +they are frequently of wood and attached to the ridge. In later times +bell-turrets were much ornamented; on the continent of Europe they run +up into a sort of small, slender spire, called _fleche_ in France, and +_guglio_ in Italy. A bell-cot, gable or turret often holds the +"Sanctus-bell," rung at the saying of the "Sanctus" at the beginning of +the canon of the Mass, and at the consecration and elevation of the +Elements in the Roman Church. This differs but little from the common +bell-cot, except that it is generally on the top of the arch dividing +the nave from the chancel. At Cleeve, however, the bell seems to have +been placed in a cot outside the wall. Sanctus-bells have also been +placed over the gables of porches. + + + + +BELLEAU, REMY (c. 1527-1577), French poet, and member of the Pleiade +(see DAURAT), was born at Nogent-le-Rotrou about 1527. He studied with +Ronsard and others under Jean Daurat at the College de Coqueret. He was +attached to Rene de Lorraine, marquis d'Elboeuf, in the expedition +against Naples in 1557, where he did good military service. On his +return he was made tutor to the young Charles, marquis d'Elboeuf, who, +under Belleau's training became a great patron of the muses. Belleau was +an enthusiast for the new learning and joined the group of young poets +with ardour. In 1556 he published the first translation of Anacreon +which had appeared in French. In the next year he published his first +collection of poems, the _Petites inventions_, in which he describes +stones, insects and flowers. The _Amours et nouveaux echanges des +pierres precieuses_ ... (1576) contains perhaps his most characteristic +work. Its title is quoted in the lines of Ronsard's epitaph on his +tomb:-- + + "Luy mesme a basti son tombeau + Dedans ses Pierres Precieuses." + +He wrote commentaries to Ronsard's _Amours_ in 1560, notes which evinced +delicate taste and prodigious learning. Like Ronsard and Joachim Du +Bellay, he was extremely deaf. His days passed peacefully in the midst +of his books and friends, and he died on the 6th of March 1577. He was +buried in the nave of the Grands Augustins at Paris, and was borne to +the tomb on the pious shoulders of four poets, Ronsard, J.A. de Baif, +Philippe Desportes and Amadis Jamyn. His most considerable work is _La +Bergerie_ (1565-1572), a pastoral in prose and verse, written in +imitation of Sannazaro. The lines on April in the _Bergerie_ are well +known to all readers of French poetry. Belleau was the French Herrick, +full of picturesqueness, warmth and colour. His skies drop flowers and +all his air is perfumed, and this voluptuous sweetness degenerates +sometimes into licence. Extremely popular in his own age, he shared the +fate of his friends, and was undeservedly forgotten in the next. Regnier +said: "Belleau ne parle pas comme on parle a la ville"; and his lyrical +beauty was lost on the trim 17th century. His complete works were +collected in 1578, and contain, besides the works already mentioned, a +comedy entitled _La Reconnue_, in short rhymed lines, which is not +without humour and life, and a comic masterpiece, a macaronic poem on +the religious wars, _Dictamen metrificum de bello huguenotico et +reistrorum[1] piglamine ad sodales_ (Paris, no date). + + The _Oeuvres completes_ (3 vols., 1867) of Remy Belleau were edited by + A. Gouverneui; and his _OEuvres poetiques_ (2 vols., 1879) by M. Ch. + Marty-Laveaux in his _Pleiade francaise_; see also C.A. Sainte-Beuve, + _Tableau historique et critique de la poesie francaise au XVI^e + siecle_ (ed. 1876), i. pp. 155-160, and ii. pp. 296 seq. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] _reitres_, German soldiers of fortune. + + + + +BELLECOUR (1725-1778), French actor, whose real name was JEAN CLAUDE +GILLES COLSON, was born on the 16th of January 1725, the son of a +portrait-painter. He showed decided artistic talent, but soon deserted +the brush for the stage under the name of Bellecour. After playing in +the provinces he was called to the Comedie Francaise, but his _debut_, +on the 21st of December 1750, as Achilles in _Iphigenie_ was not a great +success. He soon turned to more congenial comedy roles, which for thirty +years he filled with great credit. He was a very natural player, and his +willingness to give others on the stage an opportunity to show their +talents made him extremely popular. He wrote a successful play, _Fausses +apparences_ (1761), and was very useful to the Comedie Francaise in +editing and adapting the plays of others. He died on the 19th of +November 1778. + +His wife, ROSE PERRINE LE ROY DE LA CORBINAYE, was born at Lamballe on +the 20th of December 1730, the daughter of an artillery officer. Under +the stage name of Beaumenard she made her first Paris appearance in 1743 +as Gogo in Favart's _Le Coq du village_. After a year at the Opera +Comique she played in several companies, including that of Marshal Saxe, +who is said to have been not insensible to her charms. In 1749 she made +her _debut_ at the Comedie Francaise as Dorine in _Tartuffe_, and her +success was immediate. She retired in 1756, but after an absence of five +years, during which she married, she reappeared as Madame Bellecour, and +continued her successes in soubrette parts in the plays of Moliere and +de Regnard. She retired finally at the age of sixty, but troublous times +had put an end to the pension which she received from Louis XVI. and +from the theatre, and she died in abject poverty on the 5th of August +1799. There is a charming portrait of her owned by the Theatre Francais. + + + + +BELLEFONTAINE, a city and the county-seat of Logan county, Ohio, U.S.A., +about 45 m. N.W. of Columbus. Pop. (1890) 4245; (1900) 6649 (267 +foreign-born); (1910) 8238. It is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, +Chicago & St Louis (which has large shops here) and the Ohio Central +railways; also by the Dayton, Springfield & Urbana electric railway. It +is built on the south-west slope of a hill having an elevation of about +1500 ft. above sea-level and at the foot of which are several springs of +clear water which suggested the city's name. Among the city's +manufactures are iron bridges, carriage-bodies, flour and cement. The +municipality owns and operates its water-works system and its gas and +electric-lighting plants. Bellefontaine was first settled about 1818, +was laid out as a town and made the county-seat in 1820 and was +incorporated in 1835. + + + + +BELLEGARDE, the name of an important French family. Roger de Saint-Lary, +baron of Bellegarde, served with distinction in the wars against the +French Protestants. He showed much devotion to Henry III., who loaded +him with favours and made him marshal of France. He eventually fell into +disgrace, however, and died by poisoning in 1579. His nephew, Roger de +Saint-Lary de Termes, a favourite with Henry III., Henry IV. and Louis +XIII., was royal master of the horse and governor of Burgundy. His +estate of Seurre in Burgundy was created a duchy in the peerage of +France (_duche-pairie_) in his favour under the name of Bellegarde, in +1619. In 1645 the title of this duchy was transferred to the estate of +Choisy-aux-Loges in Gatinais, and was borne later by the family of +Pardaillan de Gondrin, heirs of the house of Saint-Lary-Bellegarde. When +Seurre passed into the possession of the princes of Conde they in the +same way acquired the title of dukes of Bellegarde. (M. P.*) + + + + +BELLEGARDE, HEINRICH JOSEPH JOHANNES, COUNT VON (1756-1845), Austrian +soldier and statesman, was born at Dresden on the 29th of August 1756, +and for a short time served in the Saxon army. Transferring his services +to Austria in 1771 he distinguished himself greatly as colonel of +dragoons in the Turkish War of 1788-1789, and served as a major-general +in the Netherlands campaigns of 1793-1794. In the campaign of 1796 in +Germany, as a lieutenant field marshal, he served on the staff of the +archduke Charles, whom he accompanied to Italy in the following year. He +was also employed in the congress of Rastatt. In 1799 he commanded a +corps in eastern Switzerland, connecting the armies of the archduke and +Suvarov, and finally joined the latter in north Italy. He conducted the +siege of the citadel of Alessandria, and was present at the decisive +battle of Novi. He served again in the latter part of the Marengo +campaign of 1800 in the rank of general of cavalry. In 1805, when the +archduke Charles left to take command in Italy, Bellegarde became +president _ad interim_ of the council of war. He was, however, soon +employed in the field, and at the sanguinary battle of Caldiero he +commanded the Austrian right. In the war of 1809 he commanded the +extreme right wing of the main army (see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). Cut off +from Charles as the result of the battle of Eckmuhl, he retreated into +Bohemia, but managed to rejoin before the great battles near Vienna +(Aspern and Wagram). From 1809 to 1813 Bellegarde, now field marshal, +was governor-general of Galicia, but was often called to preside over +the meetings of the Aulic Council, especially in 1810 in connexion with +the reorganization of the Austrian army. In 1813, 1814 and 1815 he led +the Austrian armies in Italy. His successes in these campaigns were +diplomatic as well as military, and he ended them by crushing the last +attempt of Murat in 1815. From 1816 to 1825 (when he had to retire owing +to failing eyesight) he held various distinguished civil and military +posts. He died in 1845. + + See Smola, _Das Leben des F.M. van Bellegarde_ (Vienna, 1847). + + + + +BELLE-ILE-EN-MER, an island off the W. coast of France, forming a canton +of the department of Morbihan, 8 m. S. by W. of the peninsula of +Quiberon. Pop. (1906) 9703. Area, 33 sq. m. The island is divided into +the four communes of Le Palais, Bangor, Sauzon and Locmaria. It forms a +treeless plateau with an average height of 130 ft. above sea-level, +largely covered with moors and bordered by a rugged and broken coast. +The climate is mild, the fig-tree and myrtle growing in sheltered spots +and the soil, where cultivated, is productive. The inhabitants are +principally engaged in agriculture and the fisheries, and in the +preservation of sardines, anchovies, &c. The breed of draught horses in +the island is highly prized. The chief town, Le Palais (pop. 2637), has +an old citadel and fortifications, and possesses a port which is +accessible to vessels drawing 13 ft. of water. Belle-Ile must have been +inhabited from a very early period, as it possesses several stone +monuments of the class usually called Druidic. + +The Roman name of the island seems to have been _Vindilis_, which in the +middle ages became corrupted to Guedel. In 1572 the monks of the abbey +of Ste Croix at Quimperle ceded the island to the Retz family, in whose +favour it was raised to a marquisate in the following year. It +subsequently came into the hands of the family of Fouquet, and was ceded +by the latter to the crown in 1718. It was held by English troops from +1761 to 1763 when the French got it in exchange for Nova Scotia. A few +of the inhabitants of the latter territory migrated to Belle-Ile, which +is partly peopled by their descendants. In the state prison of Nouvelle +Force at Le Palais political prisoners have at various times been +confined. + + + + +BELLE-ISLE, CHARLES LOUIS AUGUSTE FOUQUET, COMTE, and later DUC, DE +(1684-1761), French soldier and statesman, was the grandson of Nicholas +Fouquet, superintendent of finances under Louis XIV., and was born at +Villefranche de Rouergue. Although his family was in disgrace, he +entered the army at an early age and was made proprietary colonel of a +dragoon regiment in 1708. He rose during the War of the Spanish +Succession to the rank of brigadier, and in March 1718 to that of +_marechal de camp_. In the Spanish War of 1718-1719 he was present at +the capture of Fontarabia in 1718 and at that of St Sebastian in 1719. +When the duke of Bourbon became prime minister, Belle-Isle was +imprisoned in the Bastille, and then relegated to his estates, but with +the advent of Cardinal Fleury to power he regained some measure of +favour and was made a lieutenant-general. In the War of the Polish +Succession he commanded a corps under the orders of Marshal Berwick, +captured Trier and Trarbach and took part in the siege of Philippsburg +(1734). When peace was made in 1736 the king, in recognition both of his +military services and of the part he had taken in the negotiations for +the cession of Lorraine, gave him the government of the three important +fortresses of Metz, Toul and Verdun--an office which he kept till his +death. His military and political reputation was now at its height, and +he was one of the principal advisers of the government in military and +diplomatic affairs. In 1741 he was sent to Germany as French +plenipotentiary to carry out, in the interests of France, a grand scheme +of political reorganization in the moribund empire, and especially to +obtain the election of Charles, elector of Bavaria, as emperor. His +diplomacy was thus the mainspring of the War of the Austrian Succession +(q.v.), and his military command in south Germany was full of incidents +and vicissitudes. He had been named marshal of France in 1741, and +received a large army, with which it is said that he promised to make +peace in three months under the walls of Vienna. The truth of this story +is open to question, for no one knew better than Belle-Isle the +limitations imposed upon commanders by the military and political +circumstances of the times. These circumstances in fact rendered his +efforts, both as a general and as a statesman, unavailing, and the one +redeeming feature in the general failure was his heroic retreat from +Prague. In ten days he led 14,000 men into and across the Bohemian +Forest, suffering great privations and harassed by the enemy, but never +allowing himself to be cut off, and his subordinate Chevert defended +Prague so well that the Austrians were glad to allow him to rejoin his +chief. The campaign, however, had discredited Belle-Isle; he was +ridiculed at Paris by the wits and the populace, even Fleury is said to +have turned against him, and, to complete his misfortunes, he was taken +prisoner by the English in going from Cassel to Berlin through Hanover. +He remained a year in England, in spite of the demands of Louis XV. and +of the emperor Charles VII. During the campaign of 1746 he was in +command of the "Army of Piedmont" on the Alpine frontier, and although +he began his work with a demoralized and inferior army, he managed not +only to repel the invasion of the Spanish and Italian forces but also to +carry the war back into the plain of Lombardy. At the peace, having thus +retrieved his military reputation, he was created duke and peer of +France (1748). In 1757 his credit at court was considerable, and the +king named him secretary for war. During his three years' ministry he +undertook many reforms, such as the development of the military school +for officers, and the suppression of the proprietary colonelcies of +nobles who were too young to command; and he instituted the Order of +Merit. But the Seven Years' War was by that time in progress and his +efforts had no immediate effect. He died at Versailles on the 26th of +January 1761. Belle-Isle interested himself in literature; was elected a +member of the French Academy in 1740, and founded the Academy of Metz in +1760. The dukedom ended with his death, his only son having been killed +in 1758 at the battle of Crefeld. + +His brother, LOUIS CHARLES ARMAND FOUQUET, known as the Chevalier de +Belle-Isle (1693-1746), was also a soldier and a diplomatist. He served +as a junior officer in the War of the Spanish Succession and as +brigadier in the campaign of 1734 on the Rhine and Moselle, where he won +the grade of _marechal de camp_. He was employed under his brother in +political missions in Bavaria and in Swabia in 1741-1742, became a +lieutenant-general, fought in Bohemia, Bavaria and the Rhine countries +in 1742-1743, and was arrested and sent to England with the marshal in +1744. On his release he was given a command in the Army of Piedmont. He +fell a victim to his romantic bravery at the action of Exilles (Col de +l'Assiette) on the 19th of July 1746. + + See Jean de Maugre, _Oraison funebre du marechal de Belleisle_ + (Montmedy, 1762); R.P. de Neuville, _Memoires du marechal duc de + Belleisle_ (Paris, 1761); D.C. (Chevrier), _La Vie politigue et + militaire du marechal duc de Belleisle_ (London, 1760), and _Testament + politique du marechal duc de Belleisle_ (Hague, 1762); _Le Codicille + et l'esprit ou commentaire des maximes du marechal duc de Belleisle_ + (Amsterdam, 1761); F.M. Chayert, _Notice sur le marechal de Belleisle_ + (Metz, 1856); L. Leclerc, _Eloge du marechal de Belleisle_ (Metz, + 1862); E. Michel, _Eloge du marechal de Belleisle_ (Paris, 1862); and + Jobez, _La France sous Louis XV_ (6 vols., Paris, 1868-1874). + + + + +BELLE ISLE, STRAIT OF, the more northern of the two channels connecting +the Gulf of St Lawrence with the Atlantic Ocean. It separates northern +Newfoundland from Labrador, and extends N.E. and S.W. for 35 m., with a +breadth of 10 to 15 m. It derives its name from a precipitous granite +island, 700 ft. in height, at its Atlantic entrance. On this lighthouses +are maintained by the government of Canada and constant communication +with the mainland is kept up by wireless telegraphy. The strait is in +the most direct route from Europe to the St Lawrence, but is open only +from June till the end of November, and even during this period +navigation is often rendered dangerous by floating ice and fogs. Through +it Jacques Cartier sailed in 1534. The southern or Cabot Strait, between +Cape Ray in Newfoundland and Cape North in Cape Breton, was discovered +later, and the expansion below Belle Isle was long known as _La Grande +Baie_. Cabot Strait is open all the year, save for occasional +inconvenience from drift ice. + + + + +BELLENDEN (BALLANTYNE or BANNATYNE), JOHN (fl. 1533-1587), Scottish +writer, was born about the end of the 15th century, in the south-east of +Scotland, perhaps in East Lothian. He appears to have been educated, +first at the university of St Andrews and then at that of Paris, where +he took, the degree of doctor. From his own statement, in one of his +poems, we learn that he had been in the service of James V. from the +king's earliest years, and that the post he held was clerk of accounts. +At the request of James he undertook translations of Boece's _Historia +Scotorum_, which had appeared at Paris in 1527, and the first five books +of Livy. As a reward for his versions, which he finished in 1533, he was +appointed archdeacon of Moray and a canon of Ross. He was a strenuous +opponent of the Reformation and was compelled to go into exile. He is +said by some authorities to have died at Rome in 1550; by others to have +been still living in 1587. His translation of Boece, entitled _The +History and Chronicles of Scotland_, is a remarkable specimen of +Scottish prose, distinguished by its freedom and vigour of expression. +It was published in 1536; and was reprinted in 2 vols., edited by +Maitland, in 1821. The translation of Livy was not printed till 1822 +(also in 2 vols.). Two MSS. of the latter are extant, one, the older, in +the Advocates' library, Edinburgh (which was the basis of the normalized +text of 1822), the other (c. 1550) in the possession of Mr Ogilvie +Forbes of Boyndlie. An edition of the work was edited for the Scottish +Text Society by Mr W.A. Craigie (2 vols. 1901, 1903). The second volume +of this edition contains also a complete reprint of the portions of the +holograph first draft which were discovered in the British Museum in +1902. Two poems by Bellenden--_The Proheme to the Cosmographe_ and the +_Proheme of the History_--appeared in the 1536 edition of the _History +of Scotland_. Others, bearing his name in the well-known Bannatyne MS. +collection, made by his namesake George Bannatyne (q.v.), may or may not +be his. Sir David Lyndsay, in his prologue to the _Papyngo_, speaks +vaguely of: + + "Ane cunnyng Clark quhilk wrythith craftelie + Ane plant of poetis callit Ballendyne, + Quhose ornat workis my wit can nocht defyne." + + The chief sources of information regarding Belleriden's life are the + _Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland_, his own works and + the ecclesiastical records. + + + + +BELLENDEN, WILLIAM, Scottish classical scholar. Hardly anything is known +of him. He lived in the reign of James I. (VI. of Scotland), who +appointed him _magister libellorum supplicum_ or master of requests. +King James is also said to have provided Bellenden with the means of +living independently at Paris, where he became professor at the +university, and advocate in the parliament. The date of his birth cannot +be fixed, and it can only be said that he died later than 1625. The +first of the works by which he is known was published anonymously in +1608, with the title _Ciceronis Princeps_, a laborious compilation of +all Cicero's remarks on the origin and principles of regal government, +digested and systematically arranged. In 1612 there appeared a similar +work, devoted to the consideration of consular authority and the Roman +senate, _Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Senatusque Romanus_. His third work, +_De Statu Prisci Orbls_, 1615, is a good outline of general history. All +three works were combined in a single large volume, entitled _De Statu +Libri Tres_, 1615, which was first brought into due notice by Dr Samuel +Parr, who, in 1787, published an edition with a preface, famous for the +elegance of its Latinity, in which he eulogized Burke, Fox and Lord +North as the "three English luminaries." The greatest of Bellenden's +works is the extensive treatise _De Tribus Luminibus Romanorum_, printed +and published posthumously at Paris in 1633. The book is unfinished, and +treats only of the first luminary, Cicero; the others intended were +apparently Seneca and Pliny. It contains a most elaborate history of +Rome and its institutions, drawn from Cicero, and thus forms a +storehouse of all the historical notices contained in that voluminous +author. It is said that nearly all the copies were lost on the passage +to England. One of the few that survived was placed in the university +library at Cambridge, and freely drawn upon by Conyers Middieton, the +librarian, in his _History of the Life of Cicero_. Both Joseph Warton +and Dr Parr accused Middleton of deliberate plagiarism, which was the +more likely to have escaped detection owing to the small number of +existing copies of Bellenden's work. + + + + +BELLEROPHON, or BELLEROPHONTES, in Greek legend, son of Glaucus or +Poseidon, grandson of Sisyphus and local hero of Corinth. Having slain +by accident the Corinthian hero Bellerus (or, according to others, his +own brother) he fled to Tiryns, where his kinsman Proetus, king of +Argos, received him hospitably and purged him of his guilt. But Anteia +(or Stheneboea), wife of Proetus, became enamoured of Bellerophon, and, +when he refused her advances, charged him with an attempt upon her +virtue. Proetus thereupon sent him to Iobates, his wife's father, king +of Lycia, with a letter or sealed tablet, in which were instructions, +apparently given by means of signs, to take the life of the bearer. +Arriving in Lycia, he was received as a guest and entertained for nine +days. On the tenth, being asked the object of his visit, he handed the +letter to the king, whose first plan for complying with it was to send +him to slay the Chimaera, a monster which was devastating the country. +Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus (q.v.), kept up in the air out of the +way of the Chimaera, but yet near enough to kill it with his spear, or, +as he is at other times represented, with his sword or with a bow. He +was next ordered out against the Solymi, a hostile tribe, and afterwards +against the Amazons, from both of which expeditions he not only returned +victorious, but also on his way back slew an ambush of chosen warriors +whom Iobates had placed to intercept him. His divine origin was now +proved; the king gave him his daughter in marriage; and the Lycians +presented him with a large and fertile estate on which he lived +(Apollodorus, ii. 3; Homer, _Iliad_, vi. 155). Bellerophon is said to +have returned to Tiryns and avenged himself on Anteia: he persuaded her +to fly with him on his winged horse, and then flung her into the sea +near the island of Melos (Schol. Aristoph., _Pax_, 140). His ambitious +attempt to ascend to the heavens on Pegasus brought upon him the wrath +of the gods. His son was smitten by Ares in battle; his daughter +Laodameia was slain by Artemis; he himself, flung from his horse, lamed +or blinded, became a wanderer over the face of the earth until his death +(Pindar, _Isthmia_, vi. [vii.], 44; Horace, _Odes_, iv. 11, 26). +Bellerophon was honoured as a hero at Corinth and in Lycia. His story +formed the subject of the _Debates_ of Sophocles, and of the +_Bellerophontes_ and _Stheneboea_ of Euripides. It has been suggested +that Perseus, the local hero of Argos, and Bellerophon were originally +one and the same, the difference in their exploits being the result of +the rivalry of Argos and Corinth. Both are connected with the sun-god +Helios and with the sea-god Poseidon, the symbol of the union being the +winged horse Pegasus. Bellerophon has been explained as a hero of the +storm, of which his conflict with the Chimaera is symbolical. The most +frequent representations of Bellerophon in ancient art are (1) slaying +the Chimaera, (2) departing from Argos with the letter, (3) leading +Pegasus to drink. Among the first is to be noted a terra-cotta relief +from Melos in the British Museum, where also, on a vase of black ware, +is what seems to be a representation of his escape from Stheneboea. + + See H.A. Fischer, _Bellerophon_ (1851); R. Engelmann, _Annali_ of the + Archaeological Institute at Rome (1874); O. Treuber, _Gechichte der + Lykier_ (1887); articles in Pauly-Wissowa's _Real-Encyclopadie_, W.H. + Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_, Daremberg and Saglio's + _Dictionnaire des antiquites_; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_. + + + + +BELLES-LETTRES (Fr. for "fine literature"), a term used to designate the +more artistic and imaginative forms of literature, as poetry or romance, +as opposed to more pedestrian and exact studies. The term appears to +have been first used in English by Swift (1710). + + + + +BELLEVILLE, a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, and capital of +Hastings county, 106 m. E.N.E. of Toronto, on Bay of Quinte and the +Grand Trunk railway. Pop. (1901) 9117. Communication is maintained with +Lake Ontario and St Lawrence ports by several lines of steamers. It is +the commercial centre of a fine agricultural district, and has a large +export trade in cheese and farm produce. The principal industries are +planing mills and cement works, cheese factories and distilleries. There +are several educational institutions, including a business college, a +convent, and a government institute for the deaf and dumb. Albert +College, under the control of the Methodist church, was formerly a +university, but now confines itself to secondary education. + + + + +BELLEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of St Clair county, Illinois, +U.S.A., in the S.W. part of the state 14 m. S.E. of St Louis, Missouri. +Pop. (1890) 15,361; (1900) 17,484, of whom 2750 were foreign-born; +(1910) 21,122. Belleville is served by the Illinois Central, the +Louisville & Nashville, and the Southern railways, also by extensive +interurban electric systems; and a belt line to O'Fallon, Illinois, +connects Belleville with the Baltimore & Ohio South Western railway. A +large element of the population is of German descent or German birth, +and two newspapers are published in German, besides three dailies, three +weeklies and a semi-weekly in English. Among the industrial +establishments of the city are stove and range factories, flour mills, +rolling mills, distilleries, breweries, shoe factories, copper refining +works, nail and tack factories, glass works and agricultural implement +factories. The value of the city's factory products increased from +$2,873,334 in 1900 to $4,356,615 in 1905 or 51.6%. Belleville is in a +rich agricultural region, and in the vicinity there are valuable coal +mines, the first of which was sunk in 1852; from this dates the +industrial development of the city. Belleville was first settled in +1813, was incorporated as a city in 1850, and was re-incorporated in +1876. + + + + +BELLEY, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the +department of Ain, 52 m. S.E. of Bourg by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. +(1906), town, 3709; commune, 5707. It is situated on vine-covered hills +at the southern extremity of the Jura, 3 m. from the right bank of the +Rhone. Apart from the cathedral of St Jean, which, with the exception of +the choir of 1413, is a modern building, there is little of +architectural interest in the town. Belley is the seat of a bishopric +and a prefect, and has a tribunal of first instance. The manufacture of +morocco leather goods and the quarrying of the lithographic stone of the +vicinity are carried on, and there is trade in cattle, grain, wine, +truffles and dressed pork. Belley is of Roman origin, and in the 5th +century became an episcopal see. It was the capital of the province of +Bugey, which was a dependency of Savoy till 1601, when it was ceded to +France. In 1385 the town was almost entirely destroyed by an act of +incendiarism, but was subsequently rebuilt by the dukes of Savoy, who +surrounded it with ramparts of which little is left. + + + + +BELLI, GIUSEPPE GIOACHINO (1791-1863), Italian poet, was born at Rome, +and after a period of literary employment in poor circumstances was +enabled by marriage with a lady of means to follow his own special bent. +He is remembered for his vivid popular poetry in the Roman dialect, a +number of satirical sonnets which in their own way are unique. + + See Morandi's edition, _I sonetti romaneschi_ (1886-1889). + + + + +BELLIGERENCY, the state of carrying on war (Lat. _bellum_, war, and +_gerere_, to wage) in accordance with the law of nations. Insurgents are +not as such excluded from recognition as belligerents, and, even where +not recognized as belligerents by the government against which they have +rebelled, they may be so recognized by a neutral state, as in the case +of the American Civil War, when the Southern states were recognized as +belligerents by Great Britain, though regarded as rebels by the Northern +states. The recognition by a neutral state of belligerency does not, +however, imply recognition of independent political existence. The +regulations annexed to the Hague Convention, relating to the laws and +customs of war (29th of July 1899), contain a section entitled +"Belligerents" which is divided into three chapters, dealing +respectively with (i.) The Qualifications of Belligerents; (ii.) +Prisoners of War; (iii.) The Sick and Wounded. To entitle troops to the +special privileges attaching to belligerency, chapter i. provides that +all regular, militia or volunteer forces shall alike be commanded by +persons responsible for the acts of their men, that all such shall carry +distinctive emblems, recognizable at a distance, that arms shall be +carried openly and operations conducted in accordance with the usages of +war observed among civilized mankind. It provides, nevertheless, for the +emergency of the population of a territory, which has not already been +occupied by the invader, spontaneously taking up arms to resist the +invading forces, without having had time to comply with the above +requirements; they, too, are to be treated as belligerents "if they +respect the laws and customs of war." In naval war, privateering having +been finally abolished as among the parties to it by the declaration of +Paris, a privateer is not entitled, as between such parties, to the +rights of belligerency. As between states, one of whom is not a party to +the Declaration, the right to grant letters of marque would remain +intact for both parties, and the privateer, _as between them_, would be +a belligerent; as regards neutrals, the situation would be complicated +(see PRIVATEER). On prisoners of war and sick and wounded, see WAR. + (T. Ba.) + + + + +BELLINGHAM, SIR EDWARD (d. 1549), lord deputy of Ireland, was a son of +Edward Bellingham of Erringham, Sussex, his mother being a member of the +Shelley family. As a soldier he fought in France and elsewhere, then +became an English member of parliament and a member of the privy +council, and in 1547 took part in some military operations in Ireland. +In May 1548 he was sent to that country as lord deputy. Ireland was then +in a very disturbed condition, but the new governor crushed a rebellion +of the O'Connors in Leinster, freed the Pale from rebels, built forts, +and made the English power respected in Munster and Connaught. +Bellingham, however, was a headstrong man and was constantly quarrelling +with his council; but one of his opponents admitted that he was "the +best man of war that ever he had seen in Ireland." His short but +successful term of office was ended by his recall in 1549. + + See R. Bagwell, _Ireland Under the Tudors_, vol. i. (1885). + + + + +BELLINGHAM, a city of Whatcom county, Washington, U.S.A., on the E. side +of Bellingham Bay, 96 m. N. of Seattle. Pop. (1900) 11,062; (1905, state +est.) 26,000; (1910, U.S. census) 24,298. Area about 23 sq. m. It is +served by the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian +Pacific, and the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia railways--being a +terminus of the last named, which operates only 62 m. of line and +connects with the Mt. Baker goldfields and the Nooksack valley farm and +orchard region. A suburban electric line was projected in 1907. About +2-1/2 m. south-east of the city is the main body of Lake Whatcom, 13 m. +long, 1-1/4 m. wide, and 318 ft. higher than the city and the source of +its water-supply, a gravity system which cost $1,000,000, being owned by +the city. Bellingham has two Carnegie libraries. Among the principal +buildings are the county court-house, the city hall, the Young Men's +Christian Association building, and Beck's theatre, with a seating +capacity of 2200. The largest of the state's normal colleges is situated +here; in 1907 it had a faculty of 25 and 350 students; there are two +high schools, two business colleges, and one industrial school also in +the city. The excellent harbour, and the fact that Bellingham is nearer +to the great markets of Alaska than any other city in the states, make +the port an important shipping centre. In the value of manufactured +product the city was fourth in the state in 1905 (being passed only by +Tacoma, Seattle and Spokane), with a value of $3,293,988; according to a +census taken by the local chamber of commerce the value of the product +in 1906 was $7,751,464. The principal industrial establishments are +shingle (especially cedar) and saw-mills, salmon canneries and factories +for the manufacture of tin cans, and machinery used in the canning of +salmon. Motive and electric lighting power is brought 52 m. from the +falls of the north fork of the Nooksack river, where there is a power +plant which furnishes 3500 horsepower. There are deposits of clay and +limestone in the surrounding country, and cement is manufactured in the +vicinity of the city. The blue-grey Chuckanut sandstone is quarried on +the shore of Chuckanut Bay, south of Bellingham; and a coarse, +dark-brown sandstone is quarried on Sucia Island, west of the city. +There are quarries also on Waldron Island. Bellingham was formed in 1903 +by the consolidation of the cities of New Whatcom (pop. in 1900, 6834) +and Fairhaven (pop. in 1900, 4228), and was chartered as a city of the +first class in 1904; it is named from Bellingham Bay, which Vancouver is +supposed to have named, in 1792, in honour of Sir Henry Bellingham. + + + + +BELLINI, the name of a family of craftsmen in Venice, three members of +which fill a great place in the history of the Venetian school of +painting in the 15th century and the first years of the 16th. + +I. JACOPO BELLINI (c. 1400-1470-71) was the son of a tinsmith or +pewterer, Nicoletto Bellini, by his wife Franceschina. When the +accomplished Umbrian master Gentile da Fabriano came to practise at +Venice, where art was backward, several young men of the city took +service under him as pupils. Among these were Giovanni and Antonio of +Murano and Jacopo Bellini. Gentile da Fabriano left Venice for Florence +in 1422, and the two brothers of Murano stayed at home and presently +founded a school of their own (see VIVARINI). But Jacopo Bellini +followed his teacher to Florence, where the vast progress lately made, +alike in truth to natural fact and in sense of classic grace and style, +by masters like Donatello and Ghiberti, Masaccio and Paolo Uccello, +offered him better instruction than he could obtain even from his +Umbrian teacher. But his position as assistant to Gentile brought him +into trouble. As a stranger coming to practise in Florence, Gentile was +jealously looked on. One day some young Florentines threw stones into +his shop, and the Venetian pupil ran out and drove them off with his +fists. Thinking this might be turned against him, he went and took +service on board the galleys of the Florentine state; but returning +after a year, found he had in his absence been condemned and fined for +assault. He was arrested and imprisoned, but the matter was soon +compromised, Jacopo submitting to a public act of penance and his +adversary renouncing further proceedings. Whether Jacopo accompanied his +master to Rome in 1426 we cannot tell; but by 1429 we find him settled +at Venice and married to a wife from Pesaro named Anna (family name +uncertain), who in that year made a will in favour of her first child +then expected. She survived, however, and bore her husband two sons, +Gentile and Giovanni (though some evidences have been thought to point +rather to Giovanni having been his son by another mother), and a +daughter Nicolosia. In 1436 Jacopo was at Verona, painting a Crucifixion +in fresco for the chapel of S. Nicholas in the cathedral (destroyed by +order of the archbishop in 1750, but the composition, a vast one of many +figures, has been preserved in an old engraving). Documents ranging from +1437 to 1465 show him to have been a member of the Scuola or mutual aid +society of St John the Evangelist at Venice, for which he painted at an +uncertain date a series of eighteen subjects of the Life of the Virgin, +fully described by Ridolfi but now destroyed or dispersed. In 1439 we +find him buying a panel of tarsia work at the sale of the effects of the +deceased painter Jacobello del Fiore, and in 1440 entering into a +business partnership with another painter of the city called Donato. +About this time he must have paid a visit to the court of Ferrara, where +there prevailed a spirit of free culture and humanism most congenial to +his tastes. Pisanello, the first great naturalist artist of north Italy, +whose influence on Jacopo at the outset of his career had been only +second to that of Gentile da Fabriano, had been some time engaged on a +portrait of Leonello d'Este, the elder son of the reigning marquis +Niccolo III. Jacopo (according to an almost contemporary sonneteer) +competed with a rival portrait, which was declared by the father to be +the better of the two. In the next year, the last of the marquis +Niccolo's life, we find him making the successful painter a present of +two bushels of wheat. The relations thus begun with the house of Este +seem to have been kept up, and among Jacopo's extant drawings are +several that seem to belong to the scheme of a monument erected to the +memory of the marquis Niccolo ten years later. He was also esteemed and +employed by Sigismondo Malatesta at the court of Rimini. In 1443 Jacopo +took as an articled pupil a nephew whom he had brought up from charity; +in 1452 he painted a banner for the Scuola of St Mary of Charity at +Venice, and the next year received a grant from the confraternity for +the marriage of his daughter Nicolosia with Andrea Mantegna, a marriage +which had the effect of transferring the gifted young Paduan master +definitively from the following of Squarcione to that of Bellini. In +1456 he painted a figure of Lorenzo Giustiniani, first patriarch of +Venice, for his monument in San Pietro de Castello, and in 1457, with a +son for salaried assistant, three figures of saints in the great hall of +the patriarch. For some time about these years Jacopo and his family +would seem to have resided at, or at least to have paid frequent visits +to Padua, where he is reported to have carried out works now lost, +including an altar-piece painted with the assistance of his sons in +1459-1460 for the Gattamelata chapel in the Santo, and several portraits +which are described by 16th-century witnesses but have disappeared. At +Venice he painted a Calvary for the Scuola of St Mark (1466). His +activity can be traced in documents down to August 1470, but in November +1471 his wife Anna describes herself as his relict, so that he must have +died some time in the interval. + +The above are all the facts concerning the life of Jacopo Bellini which +can be gathered from printed and documentary records. The materials +which have reached posterity for a critical judgment on his work consist +of four or five pictures only, together with two important and +invaluable books of drawings. These prove him to have been a worthy +third, following the Umbrian Gentile da Fabriano and the Veronese +Pisanello, in that trio of remarkable artists who in the first half of +the 15th century carried towards maturity the art of painting in Venice +and the neighbouring cities. Of his pictures, an important signed +example is a life-size Christ Crucified in the archbishop's palace at +Verona. The rest are almost all Madonnas: two signed, one in the Tadini +gallery at Lovere, another in the Venice academy; a third, unsigned and +long ascribed in error to Gentile da Fabriano, in the Louvre, with the +portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta as donor; a fourth, richest of all in +colour and ornamental detail, recently acquired from private hands for +the Uffizi at Florence. Plausibly, though less certainly, ascribed to +him are a fifth Madonna at Bergamo, a warrior-saint on horseback (San +Crisogono) in the church of San Trovaso at Venice, a Crucifixion in the +Museo Correr, and an Adoration of the Magi in private possession at +Ferrara. Against this scanty tale of paintings we have to set an +abundance of drawings and studies preserved in two precious albums in +the British Museum and the Louvre. The former, which is the earlier in +date, belonged to the painter's elder son Gentile and was by him +bequeathed to his brother Giovanni. It consists of ninety-nine paper +pages, all drawn on both back and front with a lead point, an instrument +unusual at this date. Two or three of the drawings have been worked over +in pen; of the remainder many have become dim from time and rubbing. The +album at the Louvre, discovered in 1883 in the loft of a country-house +in Guienne, is equally rich and better preserved, the drawings being all +highly finished in pen, probably over effaced preliminary sketches in +chalk or lead. The range of subjects is much the same in both +collections, and in both extremely varied, proving Jacopo to have been a +craftsman of many-sided curiosity and invention. He passes +indiscriminately from such usual Scripture scenes as the Adoration of +the Magi, the Agony in the Garden, and the Crucifixion, to designs from +classic fable, copies from ancient bas-reliefs, stories of the saints, +especially St Christopher and St George, the latter many times repeated +(he was the patron saint of the house of Este), fanciful allegories of +which the meaning has now become obscure, scenes of daily life, studies +for monuments, and studies of animals, especially of eagles (the emblem +of the house of Este), horses and lions. He loves to marshal his figures +in vast open spaces, whether of architecture or mountainous landscape. +In designing such spaces and in peopling them with figures of relatively +small scale, we see him eagerly and continually putting to the test the +principles of the new science of perspective. His castellated and +pinnacled architecture, in a mixed medieval and classical spirit, is +elaborately thought out, and scarcely less so his groups and ranges of +barren hills, broken in clefts or ascending in spiral terraces. With a +predilection for tall and slender proportions, he draws the human figure +with a flowing generalized grace and no small freedom of movement; but +he does not approach either in mastery of line or in vehemence of action +a Florentine draughtsman such as Antonio Pollaiuolo. Jacopo's influence +on the development of Venetian art was very great, not only directly +through his two sons and his son-in-law Mantegna, but through other and +independent contemporary workshops of the city, in none of which did it +remain unfelt. + +II. GENTILE BELLINI (1429-1430-1507), the elder son of Jacopo, first +appears independently as the painter of a Madonna, much in his father's +manner, dated 1460, and now in the Berlin museum. We have seen how in +the previous year he and his brother assisted their father in the +execution of an altar-piece for the Santo at Padua. In July 1466 we find +him contracting with the officers of the Scuola of St Mark as an +independent artist to decorate the doors of their organ. These paintings +still exist in a blackened condition. They represent four saints, +colossal in size, and designed with much of the harsh and searching +austerity which characterized the Paduan school under Squarcione. In +December of the same year Gentile bound himself to execute for the great +hall of the same company two subjects of the Exodus, to be done better +than, or at least as well as, his father's work in the same place. These +paintings have perished. For the next eight years the history of +Gentile's life and work remains obscure. But he must have risen steadily +in the esteem of his fellow-citizens, since in 1474 we find him +commissioned by the senate to restore, renew, and when necessary +replace, the series of paintings, the work of an earlier generation of +artists, which were perishing from damp on the walls of the Hall of the +Great Council in the ducal palace. This was evidently intended to be a +permanent employment, and in payment the painter was to receive the +reversion of a broker's stall in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi; a lucrative +form of sinecure frequently allotted to artists engaged for tasks of +long duration. In continuation of this work Gentile undertook a series +of independent paintings on subjects of Venetian history for the same +hall, but had apparently only finished one, representing the delivery of +the consecrated candle by the pope to the doge, when his labours were +interrupted by a mission to the East. The sultan Mahommed II. had +despatched a friendly embassy to Venice, inviting the doge to visit him +at Constantinople and at the same time requesting the despatch of an +excellent painter to work at his court. The former part of the sultan's +proposal the senate declined, with the latter they complied; and Gentile +Bellini with two assistants was selected for the mission, his brother +Giovanni being at the same time appointed to fill his place on the works +for the Hall of the Great Council. Gentile gave great satisfaction to +the sultan, and returned after about a year with a knighthood, some fine +clothes, a gold chain and a pension. The surviving fruits of his labours +at Constantinople consist of a large painting representing the reception +of an ambassador in that city, now in the Louvre; a highly finished +portrait of the sultan himself, now one of the treasures, despite its +damaged condition, of the collection of the late Sir Henry Layard; an +exquisitely wrought small portrait in water-colour of a scribe, found in +1905 by a private collector in the bazaar at Constantinople and now in +the collection of Mrs Gardner at Boston; and two pen-and-ink drawings of +Turkish types, now in the British Museum. Early copies of two or three +other similar drawings are preserved in the Stadel Institute at +Frankfurt; such copies may have been made for the use of Gentile's +Umbrian contemporary, Pinturicchio, who introduced figures borrowed from +them into some of his decorative frescoes in the Appartamento Borgia at +Rome. + +A place had been left open for Gentile to continue working beside his +brother Giovanni (with whom he lived always on terms of the closest +amity) in the ducal palace; and soon after 1480 he began to carry out +his share in the great series of frescoes, unfortunately destroyed by +fire in 1577, illustrating the part played by Venice in the struggles +between the papacy and the emperor Barbarossa. These works were executed +not on the wall itself but on canvas (the climate of Venice having so +many times proved fatal to wall paintings), and probably in oil, a +method which all the artists of Venice, following the example set by +Antonello da Messina, had by this time learnt or were learning to +practise. The subjects allotted to Gentile, in addition to the +above-mentioned presentation of the consecrated candle, were as follows: +the departure of the Venetian ambassadors to the court of Barbarossa, +Barbarossa receiving the ambassadors, the pope inciting the doge and +senate to war, the pope bestowing a sword and his blessing on the doge +and his army (a drawing in the British Museum purports to be the +artist's original sketch for this composition), and according to some +authorities also the gift of the symbolic ring by the pope to the +victorious doge on his return. These works received the highest praise +both from contemporary and from later Venetian critics, but no fragment +of them survived the fire of 1577. Their character can to some extent be +judged by a certain number of kindred historical and processional works +by the same hand which have been preserved. Of such the Academy at +Venice has three which were painted between 1490 and 1500 for the Scuola +of St John the Evangelist, and represent certain events connected with a +famous relic belonging to the Scuola, namely, a supposed fragment of the +true cross. All have been, much injured and re-painted; nevertheless one +at least, showing the procession of the relic through St Mark's Place +and the thanksgiving of a father who owed to it the miraculous cure of +his son, still gives a good idea of the painter's powers and style. +Great accuracy and firmness of individual portraiture, a strong gift, +derived no doubt from his father's example, for grouping and marshalling +a crowd of personages in spaces of fine architectural perspective, the +severity and dryness of the Paduan manner much mitigated by the dawning +splendour of true Venetian colour--these are the qualities that no +injury has been able to deface. They are again manifest in an +interesting Adoration of the Magi in the Layard collection; and reappear +still more forcibly in the last work undertaken by the artist, the great +picture now at the Brera in Milan of St Mark preaching at Alexandria; +this was commissioned by the Scuola of St Mark in March 1505, and left +by the artist in his will, dated 18th of February 1507, to be finished +by his brother Giovanni. Of single portraits by this artist, who was +almost as famous for them as for processional groups, there survive one +of a doge at the Museo Correr in Venice, one of Catarina Cornaro at +Budapest, one of a mathematician at the National Gallery, another of a +monk in the same gallery, signed wrongly to all appearance with the name +of Giovanni Bellini, besides one or two others in private hands. The +features of Gentile himself are known from a portrait medallion by +Camelio, and can be recognized in two extant drawings, one at Berlin +supposed to be by the painter's own hand, and another, much larger and +more finished, at Christ Church, Oxford, which is variously attributed +to Bonsignori and A. Vivarini. + +III. GIOVANNI BELLINI (1430-1431-1516) is generally assumed to have been +the second son of Jacopo by his wife Anna; though the fact that she does +not mention him in her will with her other sons has thrown some slight +doubt upon the matter. At any rate he was brought up in his father's +house, and always lived and worked in the closest fraternal relation +with Gentile. Up till the age of nearly thirty we find documentary +evidence of the two sons having served as their father's assistants in +works both at Venice and Padua. In Giovanni's earliest independent works +we find him more strongly influenced by the harsh and searching manner +of the Paduan school, and especially of his own brother-in-law Mantegna, +than by the more graceful and facile style of Jacopo. This influence +seems to have lasted at full strength until after the departure of his +brother-in-law Mantegna for the court of Mantua in 1460. The earliest of +Giovanni's independent works no doubt date from before this period. +Three of these exist at the Correr museum in Venice: a Crucifixion, a +Transfiguration, and a Dead Christ supported by Angels. Two Madonnas of +the same or even earlier date are in private collections in America, a +third in that of Signor Frizzoni at Milan; while two beautiful works in +the National Gallery of London seem to bring the period to a close. One +of these is of a rare subject, the Blood of the Redeemer; the other is +the fine picture of Christ's Agony in the Garden, formerly in the +Northbrook collection. The last-named piece was evidently executed in +friendly rivalry with Mantegna, whose version of the subject hangs near +by; the main idea of the composition in both cases being taken from a +drawing by Jacopo Bellini in the British Museum sketch-book. In all +these pictures Giovanni combines with the Paduan severity of drawing and +complex rigidity of drapery a depth of religious feeling and human +pathos which is his own. They are all executed in the old tempera +method; and in the last named the tragedy of the scene is softened by a +new and beautiful effect of romantic sunrise colour. In a somewhat +changed and more personal manner, with less harshness of contour and a +broader treatment of forms and draperies, but not less force of +religious feeling, are the two pictures of the Dead Christ supported by +Angels, in these days one of the master's most frequent themes, at +Rimini and at Berlin. Chronologically to be placed with these are two +Madonnas, one at the church of the Madonna del Orto at Venice and one in +the Lochis collection at Bergamo; devout intensity of feeling and rich +solemnity of colour being in the case of all these early Madonnas +combined with a singularly direct rendering of the natural movements and +attitudes of children. + +The above-named works, all still executed in tempera, are no doubt +earlier than the date of Giovanni's first appointment to work along with +his brother and other artists in the Scuola di San Marco, where among +other subjects he was commissioned in 1470 to paint a Deluge with Noah's +Ark. None of the master's works of this kind, whether painted for the +various schools or confraternities or for the ducal palace, have +survived. To the decade following 1470 must probably be assigned a +Transfiguration now in the Naples museum, repeating with greatly ripened +powers and in a much serener spirit the subject of his early effort at +Venice; and also the great altar-piece of the Coronation of the Virgin +at Pesaro, which would seem to be his earliest effort in a form of art +previously almost monopolized in Venice by the rival school of the +Vivarini. Probably not much later was the still more famous altar-piece +painted in tempera for a chapel in the church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, +where it perished along with Titian's Peter Martyr and Tintoretto's +Crucifixion in the disastrous fire of 1867. After 1479-1480 very much of +Giovanni's time and energy must have been taken up by his duties as +conservator of the paintings in the great hall of the ducal palace, in +payment for which he was awarded, first the reversion of a broker's +place in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, and afterwards, as a substitute, a +fixed annual pension of eighty ducats. Besides repairing and renewing +the works of his predecessors he was commissioned to paint a number of +new subjects, six or seven in all, in further illustration of the part +played by Venice in the wars of Barbarossa and the pope. These works, +executed with much interruption and delay, were the object of universal +admiration while they lasted, but not a trace of them survived the fire +of 1577; neither have any other examples of his historical and +processional compositions come down, enabling us to compare his manner +in such subjects with that of his brother Gentile. Of the other, the +religious class of his work, including both altar-pieces with many +figures and simple Madonnas, a considerable number have fortunately been +preserved. They show him gradually throwing off the last restraints of +the 15th-century manner; gradually acquiring a complete mastery of the +new oil medium introduced in Venice by Antonello da Messina about 1473, +and mastering with its help all, or nearly all, the secrets of the +perfect fusion of colours and atmospheric gradation of tones. The old +intensity of pathetic and devout feeling gradually fades away and gives +place to a noble, if more worldly, serenity and charm. The enthroned +Virgin and Child become tranquil and commanding in their sweetness; the +personages of the attendant saints gain in power, presence and +individuality; enchanting groups of singing and viol-playing angels +symbolize and complete the harmony of the scene. The full splendour of +Venetian colour invests alike the figures, their architectural +framework, the landscape and the sky. The altar-piece of the Frari at +Venice, the altar-piece of San Giobbe, now at the academy, the Virgin +between SS. Paul and George, also at the academy, and the altar-piece +with the kneeling doge Barbarigo at Murano, are among the most +conspicuous examples. Simple Madonnas of the same period (about +1485-1490) are in the Venice academy, in the National Gallery, at Turin +and at Bergamo. An interval of some years, no doubt chiefly occupied +with work in the Hall of the Great Council, seems to separate the +last-named altar-pieces from that of the church of San Zaccaria at +Venice, which is perhaps the most beautiful and imposing of all, and is +dated 1505, the year following that of Giorgione's Madonna at +Castelfranco. Another great altar-piece with saints, that of the church +of San Francesco de la Vigna at Venice, belongs to 1507; that of La +Corona at Vicenza, a Baptism of Christ in a landscape, to 1510; to 1513 +that of San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice, where the aged saint Jerome, +seated on a hill, is raised high against a resplendent sunset +background, with SS. Christopher and Augustine standing facing each +other below him, in front. Of Giovanni's activity in the interval +between the altar-pieces of San Giobbe and of Murano and that of San +Zaccaria, there are a few minor evidences left, though the great mass of +its results perished with the fire of the ducal palace in 1577. The +examples that remain consist of one very interesting and beautiful +allegorical picture in the Uffizi at Florence, the subject of which had +remained a riddle until it was recently identified as an illustration of +a French medieval allegory, the _Pelerinage de l'ame_ by Guillaume de +Guilleville; with a set of five other allegories or moral emblems, on a +smaller scale and very romantically treated, in the academy at Venice. +To these should probably be added, as painted towards the year 1505, +the portrait of the doge Loredano in the National Gallery, the only +portrait by the master which has been preserved, and in its own manner +one of the most masterly in the whole range of painting. + +The last ten or twelve years of the master's life saw him besieged with +more commissions than he could well complete. Already in the years +1501-1504 the marchioness Isabella Gonzaga of Mantua had had great +difficulty in obtaining delivery from him of a picture of the "Madonna +and Saints" (now lost) for which part payment had been made in advance. +In 1505 she endeavoured through Cardinal Bembo to obtain from him +another picture, this time of a secular or mythological character. What +the subject of this piece was, or whether it was actually delivered, we +do not know. Albrecht Durer, visiting Venice for a second time in 1506, +reports of Giovanni Bellini as still the best painter in the city, and +as full of all courtesy and generosity towards foreign brethren of the +brush. In 1507 Gentile Bellini died, and Giovanni completed the picture +of the "Preaching of St Mark" which he had left unfinished; a task on +the fulfilment of which the bequest by the elder brother to the younger +of their father's sketch-book had been made conditional. In 1513 +Giovanni's position as sole master (since the death of his brother and +of Alvise Vivarini) in charge of the paintings in the Hall of the Great +Council was threatened by an application on the part of his own former +pupil, Titian, for a joint-share in the same undertaking, to be paid for +on the same terms. Titian's application was first granted, then after a +year rescinded, and then after another year or two granted again; and +the aged master must no doubt have undergone some annoyance from his +sometime pupil's proceedings. In 1514 Giovanni undertook to paint a +Bacchanal for the duke Alfonso of Ferrara, but died in 1516; leaving it +to be finished by his pupils; this picture is now at Alnwick. + +Both in the artistic and in the worldly sense, the career of Giovanni +Bellini was upon the whole the most serenely and unbrokenly prosperous, +from youth to extreme old age, which fell to the lot of any artist of +the early Renaissance. He lived to see his own school far outshine that +of his rivals, the Vivarini of Murano; he embodied, with ever growing +and maturing power, all the devotional gravity and much also of the +worldly splendour of the Venice of his time; and he saw his influence +propagated by a host of pupils, two of whom at least, Giorgione and +Titian, surpassed their master. Giorgione he outlived by five years; +Titian, as we have seen, challenged an equal place beside his teacher. +Among the best known of his other pupils were, in his earlier time, +Andrea Previtali, Cima da Conegliano, Marco Basaiti, Niccolo Rondinelli, +Piermaria Pennacchi, Martino da Udine, Girolamo Mocetto; in later time, +Pierfrancesco Bissolo, Vincenzo Catena, Lorenzo Lotto and Sebastian del +Piombo. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. iii.; Ridolfi, _Le + Maraviglie_, &c., vol. i.; Francesco Sansovino, _Venezia Descritta_; + Morelli, _Notizia, &c., di un Assonimo_; Zanetti, _Pittura Veneziana_; + F. Aghietti, _Elagio Storico di Jacopo e Giovanni Bellini_; G. + Bernasconi, _Cenni intorna la vita e le opere di Jacopo Bellini_; + Moschini, _Giovanni Bellini e pittori contemporanei_; E. Galichon in + _Gazette des beaux-arts_ (1866); Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of + Painting in North Italy_, vol. i.; Hubert Janitschek, "Giovanni + Bellini" in Dohme's _Kunst und Kunstler_; Julius Meyer in Meyer's + _Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexikon_, vol. iii. (1885); Pompeo Molmenti, "I + pittori Bellini" in _Studi e ricerche di Storia d' Arte_; P. Paoletti, + _Raccolta di documenti inediti_, fasc. i.; Vasari, _Vite di Gentile da + Fabriano e Vittor Pisanello_, ed. Venturi; Corrado Ricci in _Rassegna + d' Arte_ (1901, 1903), and _Rivista d' Arte_ (1906); Roger Fry, + _Giovanni Bellini_ in "The Artist's Library"; Everard Meynell, + _Giovanni Bellini_ in Newnes's "Art Library" (useful for a nearly + complete set of reproductions of the known paintings); Corrado Ricci, + _Jacopo Bellini e i suoi Libri di Disegni_; Victor Goloubeff, _Les + Dessins de Jacopo Bellini_ (the two works last cited reproduce in + full, that of M. Goloubeff by far the most skilfully, the contents of + both the Paris and the London sketch-books). (S. C.) + + + + +BELLINI, LORENZO (1643-1704), Italian physician and anatomist, was born +at Florence on the 3rd of September 1643. At the age of twenty, when he +had already begun his researches on the structure of the kidneys and had +described the ducts known by his name (_Exercitatio anatomica de +structura et usu renum_, 1662), he was chosen professor of theoretical +medicine at Pisa, but soon after was transferred to the chair of +anatomy. After spending thirty years at Pisa, he was invited to Florence +and appointed physician to the grand duke Cosimo III., and was also made +senior consulting physician to Pope Clement XI. He died at Florence on +the 8th of January 1704. His works were published in a collected form at +Venice in 1708. + + + + +BELLINI, VINCENZO (1801-1835), operatic composer of the Italian school, +was born at Catania in Sicily, on the 1st of November 1801. He was +descended from a family of musicians, both his father and grandfather +having been composers of some reputation. After having received his +preparatory musical education at home, he entered the conservatoire of +Naples, where he studied singing and composition under Tritto and +Zingarelli. He soon began to write pieces for various instruments, as +well as a cantata and several masses and other sacred compositions. His +first opera, _Adelson e Savina_, was performed in 1825 at a small +theatre in Naples; his second dramatic work, _Bianca e Fernando_, was +produced next year at the San Carlo theatre of the same city, and made +his name known in Italy. His next work, _Il Pirata_ (1827), was written +for the Scala in Milan, to words by Felice Romano, with whom Bellini +formed a union of friendship to be severed only by his death. The +splendid rendering of the music by Tamburini, Rubini and other great +Italian singers contributed greatly to the success of the work, which at +once established the European reputation of its composer. In almost +every year of the short remainder of his life he produced a new operatic +work, which was received with rapture by the audiences of France, Italy, +Germany and England. The names and dates of four of Bellini's operas +familiar to most lovers of Italian music are: _I Montecchi e Capuleti_ +(1830), in which the part of Romeo became a favourite with all the great +contraltos; _La Sonnambula_ (1831); _Norma_, Bellini's best and most +popular creation (1831); and _I Puritani_ (1835), written for the +Italian opera in Paris, and to some extent under the influence of French +music. In 1833 Bellini had left his country to accompany to England the +singer Pasta, who had created the part of his _Sonnambula_. In 1834 he +accepted an invitation to write an opera for the national grand opera in +Paris. While he was carefully studying the French language and the +cadence of French verse for the purpose, he was seized with a sudden +illness and died at his villa in Puteaux near Paris on the 24th of +September 1835. His operatic creations are throughout replete with a +spirit of gentle melancholy, frequently monotonous and almost always +undramatic, but at the same time irresistibly sweet. To this spirit, +combined with a rich flow of _cantilena_, Bellini's operas owe their +popularity. "I shall never forget," wrote Wagner, "the impression made +upon me by an opera of Bellini at a period when I was completely +exhausted with the everlastingly abstract complication used in our +orchestras, when a simple and noble melody was revealed anew to me." + + See also G. Labat, _Bellini_ (Bordeaux, 1865); A. Pougin, _Bellini, sa + vie et ses oeuvres_ (Paris, 1868). + + + + +BELLINZONA (Ger. _Belienz_), the political capital of the Swiss canton +of Tessin or Ticino. It is 105 m. from Lucerne by the St Gotthard +railway, 19 m. from Lugano and 14 m. from Locarno at the head of the +Lago Maggiore, these two towns having been till 1881 capitals of the +canton jointly with Bellinzona. The old town is built on some hills, on +the left bank of the Tessin or Ticino river, and a little below the +junction of the main Ticino valley (the Val Leventina) with that of +Mesocco. It thus blocked the road from Germany to Italy, while a great +wall was built from the town to the river bank. Bellinzona still +possesses three picturesque castles (restored in modern times), dating +in their present form from the 15th century. They belonged for several +centuries to the three Swiss cantons which were masters of the town. The +most westerly, Castello Grande or of San Michele, belonged to Uri; the +central castle, that of Montebello, was the property of Schwyz; while +the most easterly castle, that of Sasso Corbaro, was in the hands of +Unterwalden. The 13th-century church of San Biagio (Blaise) has a +remarkable 14th-century fresco, while the collegiate church of San +Stefano dates from the 16th century. In 1900 the population of +Bellinzona was 4949, practically all Romanists and Italian-speaking. + +Possibly Bellinzona is of Roman origin, but it is first mentioned in +590. It played a considerable part in the early history of Lombardy, +being a key to several Alpine passes. In the 8th century it belonged to +the bishop of Como, while in the 13th and 14th centuries it was tossed +to and fro between the cities of Milan and Como. In 1402 it was taken +from Milan by Albert von Sax, lord of the Val Mesocco, who in 1419 sold +it to Uri and Obwalden, which, however, lost it to Milan in 1422 after +the battle of Arbedo. In 1499 (like the rest of the Milanese) it was +occupied by the French, but in 1500 it was taken by Uri. In 1503 the +French king ceded it to Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, which henceforth +ruled it very harshly through their bailiffs till 1798. At that date it +became the capital of the canton Bellinzona of the Helvetic republic, +but in 1803 it was united to the newly-formed canton of Tessin. + (W. A. B. C.) + + + + +BELLMAN, KARL MIKAEL (1740-1795), Swedish poet, son of a civil servant, +was born at Stockholm on the 4th of February 1740. When quite a child he +developed an extraordinary gift of improvising verse, during the +delirium of a severe illness, weaving wild thoughts together lyrically +and singing airs of his own composition. When he was nineteen he became +clerk in a bank and afterwards in the customs, but his habits were +irregular and he was frequently in great distress, particularly after +the death of his patron, GUSTAVUS III. As early as 1757 he published +_Evangeliska Dodstankar_, meditations on the Passion from the German of +David von Schweidnitz, and during the next few years wrote, besides +other translations, a great quantity of poems, imitative for the most +part of Dalin. In 1760 appeared his first characteristic work, _Manan_ +(The Moon), a satirical poem, which was revised and edited by Dalin. But +the great work of his life occupied him from 1765 to 1780, and consists +of the collections of dithyrambic odes known as _Fredmans Epistlar_ +(1790) and _Fredmans Sanger_ (1791). Fredman and his friends were +well-known characters in the Stockholm pot-houses, where Bellman had +studied them from the life. No poetry can possibly smell less of the +lamp than Bellman's. He was accustomed, when in the presence of none but +confidential friends, to announce that the god was about to visit him. +He would shut his eyes, take his zither, and begin apparently to +improvise the music and the words of a long Bacchic ode in praise of +love or wine. Most of his melodies are taken direct, or with slight +adaptations, from old Swedish ballads, and still retain their +popularity. _Fredman's Epistles_ bear the clear impress of individual +genius; his torrents of rhymes are not without their method; wild as +they seem, they all conform to the rules of style, and among those that +have been preserved there are few that are not perfect in form. A great +Swedish critic has remarked that the voluptuous joviality and the humour +of Bellman is, after all, only "sorrow clad in rose-colour," and this +underlying pathos gives his poems their undying charm. His later works, +_Bacchi Tempel_ (The Temple of Bacchus) (1783), eight numbers of a +journal called _Hvad behagas?_ (What you Will) (1781), in 1780 a +religious anthology entitled in a later edition (1787) _Zions Hogtid_ +(Zion's Holiday), and a translation of Gellert's _Fables_, are +comparatively unimportant. He died on the 11th of February 1795. Much of +Bellman's work was only printed after his death, _Bihang till Fredmans +Epistlar_ (Nykoping, 1809), _Fredmans Handskrifter_ (Upsala, 1813), +_Skaldestycken_ ("Poems," Stockholm, 1814) being among the most +important of these posthumous works. A colossal bronze bust of the poet +by Bystrom (erected by the Swedish Academy in 1829) adorns the public +gardens of Stockholm, and a statue by Alfred Nystrom is in the +Hasselbacken, Stockholm. Bellman had a grand manner, a fine voice and +great gifts of mimicry, and was a favourite companion of King Gustavus +III. + + The best edition of his works was published at Stockholm, edited by + J.G. Carlen, with biographical notes, illustrations and music (5 + vols., 1856-1861); see also monographs on Bellman by Nils Erdmann + (Stockholm, 1895) and by F. Niedner (Berlin, 1905). + + + + +BELLO, ANDRES (1781-1865), South American poet and scholar, was born at +Caracas (Venezuela) on the 29th of November 1781, and in early youth +held a minor post in the civil administration. He joined the colonial +revolutionary party, and in 1810 was sent on a political mission to +London, where he resided for nineteen years, acting as secretary to the +legations of Chile, Colombia and Venezuela, studying in the British +Museum, supplementing his small salary by giving private lessons in +Spanish, by journalistic work and by copying Jeremy Bentham's almost +indecipherable manuscripts. In 1829 he accepted a post in the Chilean +treasury, settled at Santiago and took a prominent part in founding the +national university (1843), of which he became rector. He was nominated +senator, and died at Santiago de Chile on the 15th of October 1865. +Bello was mainly responsible for the civil code promulgated on the 14th +of December 1855. His prose works deal with such various subjects as +law, philosophy, literary criticism and philology; of these the most +important is his _Gramatica castellana_ (1847), the leading authority on +the subject. But his position in literature proper is secured by his +_Silvas Americanas_, a poem written during his residence in England, +which conveys with extraordinary force the majestic impression of the +South American landscape. + + Bello's complete works were issued in fifteen volumes by the Chilean + government (Santiago de Chile, 1881-1893); he is the subject of an + excellent biography (Santiago de Chile, 1882) by Miguel Luis + Amunategui. (J. F.-K.) + + + + +BELLO-HORIZONTE, or MINAS, a city of Brazil, capital of the state of +Minas Geraes since 1898, about 50 m. N.W. of Ouro Preto, connected with +the Central of Brazil railway by a branch line 9 m. in length. Pop. +(estimated) in 1906, 25,000 to 30,000. The city was built by the state +on an open plateau, and provided with all necessary public buildings, +gas, water and tramway services before the seat of government was +transferred from Ouro Preto. The cost of transfer was about L1,000,000. +The city has grown rapidly, and is considered one of the most attractive +state capitals of Brazil. + + + + +BELLONA (originally DUELLONA), in Roman mythology, the goddess of war +(_bellum_, i.e. _duellum_), corresponding to the Greek Enyo. By later +mythologists she is called sometimes the sister, daughter or wife of +Mars, sometimes his charioteer or nurse. Her worship appears to have +been promoted in Rome chiefly by the family of the Claudii, whose Sabine +origin, together with their use of the name of "Nero," has suggested an +identification of Bellona with the Sabine war goddess Nerio, herself +identified, like Bellona, with Virtus. Her temple at Rome, dedicated by +Appius Claudius Caecus (296 B.C.) during a battle with the Samnites and +Etruscans (Ovid, _Fasti_ vi. 201), stood in the Campus Martius, near the +Flaminian Circus, and outside the gates of the city. It was there that +the senate met to discuss a general's claim to a triumph, and to receive +ambassadors from foreign states. In front of it was the _columna +bellica_, where the ceremony of declaring war by the fetialis was +performed. From this native Italian goddess is to be distinguished the +Asiatic Bellona, whose worship was introduced into Rome from Comana, in +Cappadocia, apparently by Sulla, to whom she had appeared, urging him to +march to Rome and bathe in the blood of his enemies (Plutarch, _Sulla_, +9). For her a new temple was built, and a college of priests +(_Bellonarii_) instituted to conduct her fanatical rites, the prominent +feature of which was to lacerate themselves and sprinkle the blood on +the spectators (Tibullus i. 6. 45-50). To make the scene more grim they +wore black dresses (Tertullian, _De Pallio_) from head to foot. The +festival of Bellona, which originally took place on the 3rd of June, was +altered to the 24th of March, after the confusion of the Roman Bellona +with her Asiatic namesake. + + See Tiesler, _De Bellonae Cultu_ (1842). + + + + +BELLOT, JOSEPH RENE (1826-1853), French Arctic explorer, was born at +Rochefort on the 18th of March 1826, the son of a farrier. With the aid +of the authorities of his native town he was enabled at the age of +fifteen to enter the naval school, in which he studied two years and +earned a high reputation. He then took part in the Anglo-French +expedition of 1845 to Madagascar, and received the cross of the Legion +of Honour for distinguished conduct. He afterwards took part in another +Anglo-French expedition, that of Parana, which opened the river La Plata +to commerce. In 1851 he joined the Arctic expedition under the command +of Captain Kennedy in search of Sir John Franklin, and discovered the +strait between Boothia Felix and Somerset Land which bears his name. +Early in 1852 he was promoted lieutenant, and in the same year +accompanied the Franklin search expedition under Captain Inglefield. As +on the previous occasion, his intelligence, devotion to duty and courage +won him the esteem and admiration of all with whom he was associated. +While making a perilous journey with two comrades for the purpose of +communicating with Sir Edward Belcher, he suddenly disappeared in an +opening between the broken masses of ice (August 1853). A pension was +granted to his family by the emperor Napoleon III., and an obelisk was +erected to his memory in front of Greenwich hospital. + + + + +BELLOWS, ALBERT F. (1829-1883), American landscape-painter, was born at +Milford, Massachusetts, on the 20th of November 1829. He first studied +architecture, then turned to painting, and worked in Paris and in the +Royal Academy at Antwerp. He painted much in England; was a member of +the National Academy of Design, and of the American Water Color Society, +New York; and an honorary member of the Royal Belgian Society of +Water-Colourists. His earlier work was _genre_, in oils; after 1865 he +used water-colours more and more exclusively and painted landscapes. +Among his water-colours are "Afternoon in Surrey" (1868); "Sunday in +Devonshire" (1876), exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposition; "New +England Village School" (1878); and "The Parsonage" (1879). He died in +Auburndale, Massachusetts, on the 24th of November 1883. + + + + +BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY (1814-1882), American clergyman, was born in +Boston, Massachusetts, on the 11th of June 1814. He graduated at Harvard +College in 1832, and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1837, held a +brief pastorate (1837-1838) at Mobile, Alabama, and in 1839 became +pastor of the First Congregational (Unitarian) church in New York City +(afterwards All Souls church), in charge of which he remained until his +death. Here Bellows acquired a high reputation as a pulpit orator and +lyceum lecturer, and was a recognized leader in the Unitarian Church in +America. For many years after 1846 he edited _The Christian Inquirer_, a +Unitarian weekly paper, and he was also for some time an editor of _The +Christian Examiner_. In 1857 he delivered a series of lectures in the +Lowell Institute course, on "The Treatment of Social Diseases." At the +outbreak of the Civil War he planned the United States Sanitary +Commission, of which he was the first and only president (1861 to 1878). +He was the first president of the first Civil Service Reform Association +organized in the United States (1877), was an organizer of the Union +League Club and of the Century Association in New York City, and planned +with his parishioner and friend, Peter Cooper, the establishment of +Cooper Union. In 1865 he proposed and organized the national conference +of Unitarian and other Christian churches, and from 1865 to 1880 was +chairman of its council. He died in New York City on the 30th of January +1882. A bronze memorial tablet by Augustus Saint Gaudens was unveiled in +All Souls church in 1886. His published writings include _Restatements +of Christian Doctrine in Twenty-Five Sermons_ (1860); _Unconditioned +Loyalty_ (1863), a strong pro-Union sermon, which was widely circulated +during the Civil War; _The Old World in its New Face: Impressions of +Europe in 1867-1868_ (2 vols., 1868-1869); _Historical Sketch of the +Union League Club_ (1879); and _Twenty-Four Sermons in All Souls Church, +New York, 1865-1881_ (1886). + + See Russell N. Bellows, _Henry Whitney Bellows_ (Keene, N.H., 1897), a + biographical sketch reprinted from T.B. Peck's _Bellows Family + Genealogy_; John White Chadwick, _Henry W. Bellows: His Life and + Character_ (New York, 1882), a memorial address; and Charles J Stille, + _History of the United States Sanitary Commission_ (Philadelphia, + 1866). + + + + +BELLOWS and BLOWING MACHINES, appliances used for producing currents of +air, or for moving volumes of air from one place to another. Formerly +all such artificially-produced currents of air were used to assist the +combustion of fires and furnaces, but now this purpose only forms a part +of the uses to which they are put. Blowing appliances, among which are +included bellows, rotary fans, blowing engines, rotary blowers and +steam-jet blowers, are now also employed for forcing pure air into +buildings and mines for purposes of ventilation, for withdrawing +vitiated air for the same reason, and for supplying the air or other gas +which is required in some chemical processes. Appliances of this kind +differ from _air compressors_ in that they are primarily intended for +the transfer of quantities of air at low pressures, very little above +that of the atmosphere, whereas the latter are used for supplying air +which has previously been raised to a pressure which may be many times +that of the atmosphere (see POWER TRANSMISSION: _Pneumatic_). + +Among the earliest contrivances employed for producing the movement of +air under a small pressure were those used in Egypt during the Greek +occupation. These depended upon the heating of the air, which, being +raised in pressure and bulk, was made to force water out of closed +vessels, the water being afterwards employed for moving some kind of +mechanism. In the process of iron smelting there is still used in some +parts of India an artificial blast, produced by a simple form of bellows +made from the skins of goats; bellows of this kind probably represent +one of the earliest contrivances used for producing currents of air. + +The _bellows_[1] now in use consists, in its simplest form, of two flat +boards, of rectangular, circular or pear shape, connected round their +edges by a wide band of leather so as to include an air chamber, which +can be increased or diminished in volume by separating the boards or +bringing them nearer together. The leather is kept from collapsing, on +the separation of the boards, by several rings of wire which act like +the ribs of animals. The lower board has a hole in the centre, covered +inside by a leather flap or valve which can only open inwards; there is +also an open outlet, generally in the form of a pipe or nozzle, whose +aperture is much smaller than that of the valve. When the upper board is +raised air rushes into the cavity through the valve to fill up the +partial vacuum produced; on again depressing the upper board the valve +is closed by the air attempting to rush out again, and this air is +discharged through the open nozzle with a velocity depending on the +pressure exerted. + +The current of air produced is evidently not continuous but intermittent +or in puffs, because an interval is needed to refill the cavity after +each discharge. In order to remedy this drawback the _double bellows_ +are used. To understand their action it is only necessary to conceive an +additional board with valve, like the lower board of the single bellows, +attached in the same way by leather below this lower board. Thus there +are three boards, forming two cavities, the two lower boards being +fitted with air-valves. The lowest board is held down by a weight and +another weight rests on the top board. In working these double bellows +the lowest board is raised, and drives the air from the lower cavity +into the upper. On lowering the bottom board again a fresh supply of air +is drawn in through the bottom valve, to be again discharged when the +board is raised. As the air passes from the lower to the upper cavity it +is prevented from returning by the valve in the middle board, and in +this way a quantity of air is sent into the upper cavity each time the +lowest board is raised. The weight on the top board provides the +necessary pressure for the blast, and at the same time causes the +current of air delivered to be fairly continuous. When the air is being +forced into the upper cavity the weight is being raised, and, during +the interval when the lowest board is descending, the weight is slowly +forcing the top board down and thus keeping up the flow of air. + +[Illustration: FIGS. 1 and 2.--Common Smiths' Bellows.] + +Hand-bellows for domestic use are generally shaped like a pear, with the +hinge at the narrow end. The same shape was adopted for the older forms +of smiths' bellows, with the difference that two bellows were used +superposed, in a manner similar to that just described, so as to provide +for a continuous blast. In the later form of smiths' bellows the same +principle is employed, but the boards are made circular in shape and are +always maintained roughly parallel to one another. These are shown on +figs. 1 and 2. Here A is the blast pipe, B the movable lowest board, C +the fixed middle board, close to which the pipe A is inserted, and D is +the movable uppermost board pressed upon by the weight shown. The board +B is raised by means of a hand lever L, through either a chain or a +connecting rod, and lowered by a weight. The size of the weight on D +depends on the air pressure required. For instance, if a blast pressure +of half a pound per square inch is wanted and the boards are 18 in. in +diameter, and therefore have an area of 254 sq. in., on each of the 254 +sq. in. there is to be a pressure of half a pound, so that the weight to +balance this must be half multiplied by 254, or 127 lb. The diameter of +the air-pipe can be varied to suit the required conditions. Instead of +bellows with flexible sides, a sliding arrangement is sometimes used; +this consists of what are really two boxes fitting into one another with +the open sides both facing inwards, as if one were acting as a lid to +the other. By having a valve and outlet pipe fitted as in the bellows +and sliding them alternately apart and together, an intermittent blast +is produced. The chief defect of this arrangement is the leakage of air +caused by the difficulty in making the joint a sufficiently good fit to +be air-tight. + +_Blowing Engines._--Where larger quantities of air at higher pressures +than can conveniently be supplied by bellows are required, as for blast +furnaces and the Bessemer process of steel-making, what are termed +"blowing engines" are used. The mode of action of a blowing engine is +simple. When a piston, accurately fitting a cylinder which has one end +closed, is forcibly moved towards the other end, a partial vacuum is +formed between the piston and the blank end, and if this space be +allowed to communicate with the outer atmosphere air will flow in to +fill the vacuum. When the piston has completed its movement or "stroke," +the cylinder will have been filled with air. On the return of the +piston, if the valve through which the air entered is now closed and a +second one communicating with a chamber or pipe is opened, the air in +the cylinder is expelled through this second valve. The action is +similar to that of the bellows, but is carried out in a machine which is +much better able to resist higher pressures and which is more convenient +for dealing with large quantities of air. The valves through which the +atmosphere or "free" air is admitted are called "admission" or "suction" +valves, and those through which the air is driven from the cylinder are +the "discharge" or "delivery" valves. Formerly one side only of the +blowing piston was used, the engine working "single-acting"; but now +both sides of the piston are utilized, so that when it is moving in +either direction suction will be taking place on one side and delivery +on the other. All processes in connexion with which blowing engines are +used require the air to be above the pressure of the outer atmosphere. +This means that the discharge valves do not open quite at the beginning +of the delivery stroke, but remain closed until the air in the cylinder +has been reduced in volume and so increased in pressure to that of the +air in the discharge chamber. + +The power used to actuate these blowing-engines is in most cases steam, +the steam cylinder being placed in line or "tandem" with the air +cylinder, so that the steam piston rod is continuous with or directly +joined to the piston rod of the air cylinder. This plan is always +adopted where the cylinders are placed horizontally, and often in the +case of vertical engines. The engines are generally built in pairs, with +two blowing cylinders and one high-pressure and one low-pressure steam +cylinder, the piston rods terminating in connecting rods which are +attached to the pins of the two cranks on the shaft. In the centre of +this shaft, midway between the two engines, there is usually placed a +heavy flywheel which helps to maintain a uniform speed of turning. Some +of the largest blowing engines built in Great Britain are arranged as +beam engines; that is to say, there is a heavy rocking beam of cast iron +which in its middle position is horizontal. One end of this beam is +linked by a short connecting rod to the end of the piston rod of the +blowing cylinder, while the other end is similarly linked to the top of +the steam piston rod, so that as the steam piston comes up the air +piston goes down and _vice versa_. At the steam end of the beam a third +connecting rod works the crank of a flywheel shaft. + +About the end of the 19th century an important development took place +which consisted in using the waste gas from blast furnaces to form with +air an explosive mixture, and employing this mixture to drive the piston +of the actuating cylinder in precisely the same manner as the explosive +mixture of coal gas and air is used in a gas engine. Since the majority +of blowing engines are used for providing the air required in iron blast +furnaces, considerable saving should be effected in this way, because +the gas which escapes from the top of the furnace is a waste product and +costs nothing to produce. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Section of Cylinder of Early Blowing Engine +(1851).] + +The general action of a blowing engine may be illustrated by the +sectional view shown on fig. 3, which represents the internal view of +one of the blowing cylinders of the engines erected at the Dowlais +Ironworks as far back as 1851. Many of the details are now obsolete, but +the general scheme is the same as in all blowing engines. Here A is the +air cylinder; in this is a piston whose rod is marked R; this piston is +usually made air-tight by some form of packing fitted into the groove +which runs round its edge. In this particular case the cylinder is +placed vertically and its piston rod is actuated from the end of a +rocking beam. The top and bottom ends are closed by covers and in these +are a number of openings controlled by valves opening inwards so that +air can flow freely in but cannot return. The piston is shown moving +downwards. Air is now being drawn into the space above the piston +through the valves v at the top, and the air in the space A below the +piston, drawn in during the previous up-stroke, is being expelled +through the valve v' into the discharge chamber B, thence passing to the +outlet pipe O. The action is reversed on the up-stroke. Thus it will be +seen that air is being delivered both during the up-stroke and the +down-stroke, and therefore flows almost continuously to the furnaces. +There must, however, be momentary pauses at the ends of the strokes when +the direction of movement is changed, and as the piston, though worked +from an evenly rotating crank shaft, moves more quickly at the middle +and slows down to no speed at the ends of its travel, there must be a +considerable variation in the speed of delivery of the air. The air is +therefore led from O into a large storage chamber or reservoir, whence +it is again taken to the furnace; if this reservoir is made sufficiently +large the elasticity of the air in it will serve to compensate for the +irregularities, and a nearly uniform stream of air will flow from it. +The valves used in this case and in most of the older blowing engines +consist of rectangular metal plates hinged at one of the longer edges; +these plates are faced with leather or india rubber so as to allow them +to come to rest quietly and without clatter and at the same time to make +them air-tight. It will be seen that some of these valves hang +vertically and others lie flat on the bottom of the cover. The Dowlais +cylinder is very large, having a diameter of 12 ft. and a piston stroke +of 12 ft., giving a discharge of 44,000 cub. ft. of air per minute, at a +pressure of 4-1/4 lb. to the square inch. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Vertical Section of Lackenby Blowing Engines +(1871).] + +A later design of blowing engine, built in 1871 for the Lackenby +iron-works, Middlesbrough, is shown in section in fig. 4, and is of a +type which is still the most common, especially in the north of England. +Here A, the high-pressure steam cylinder, and C, the low-pressure one, +are placed in tandem with the air cylinders B, B, whose pistons they +actuate. In these blowing cylinders the inlet valves in the bottom are +circular disk valves of leather, eighteen in number; the inlet valves T +on the top of the cylinder are arranged in ten rectangular boxes, having +openings in their vertical sides, inside which are hung leather flap +valves. The outlet valves O are ten in number at each end of the +cylinders, and are hung against flat gratings which are arranged round +the circumference. The blast is delivered into a wrought iron casing M +which surrounds the cylinder. The combined area of the inlet valves is +860 sq. in., or one-sixth the area of the piston. The speed is +twenty-four revolutions per minute and the air delivered at this speed +is 15,072 cubic ft. per minute, the horse-power in the air cylinders +being 258. The circulating pump E, air pump F, and feed pumps G, G, are +worked off the cross-head on the low-pressure side. + +A more modern form of blowing engine erected at the Dowlais works about +the end of the 19th century, may be taken as typical of the present +design of vertical blowing engine in use in Great Britain. The two air +cylinders are placed below and in tandem with the steam cylinders as in +the last case. The piston rods also terminate in connecting rods working +on to the crank shaft. The air cylinders are each 88 in. in diameter, +and the high and low pressure cylinders of the compound steam engine are +30 in. and 64 in. respectively, while the common stroke of all four is +60 in. The pressure of the air delivered varies from 4-1/2 to 10 lb. per +sq. in. and the quantity per minute is 25,000 cub. ft. Each engine +develops about 1200 horse-power. It is to be noted that flap valves such +as those used in the 1851 Dowlais engine have in most cases given place +to a larger number of circular steel disk valves, held to their seats by +springs. + +In a large blowing engine built in 1905 by Messrs Davy Bros. of +Sheffield for the North-Eastern Steel Company at Middlesbrough (see +_Engineering_, January 6, 1905) the same arrangement was adopted as in +that just described. The two air cylinders are each 90 in. diameter and +have a stroke of 72 in. The capacity of this engine is 52,000 cub. ft. +of air per minute, delivered at a pressure of from 12-1/2 to 15 lb. per +sq. in. when running at a speed of thirty-three revolutions per minute. +The air valves consist of a large number of steel disks resting on +circular seatings and held down by springs, which for the delivery +valves are so adjusted in strength that they lift and release the air +when the desired working pressure has been reached. It is worthy of note +that in this engine no attempt is made to make the air pistons air-tight +in the usual way by having packing rings set in grooves round the edge, +but the piston is made deeper than usual and turned so as to be a very +good fit in the cylinder and one or two small grooves are cut round the +edge to hold the lubricant. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Richardsons, Westgarth & Co.'s Blowing Engine.] + +To illustrate a blowing engine driven by a gas engine supplied with +blast furnace gas, fig. 5 gives a diagrammatic view of the blowing +cylinder of an engine built by Messrs Richardsons, Westgarth & Co. of +Middlesbrough about 1905. The gas cylinder is not shown. It will be seen +that the air cylinder is horizontal, and it is arranged to work in +tandem with the gas motor cylinder. The chief point of interest is to be +found in the arrangement of the details of the air cylinder. Its +diameter is 86-1/2 in. and the length of piston stroke 55 in. As to the +arrangement of the valves, if the piston be moving in the direction +shown, on the left side of the piston at A air is being discharged, and +follows the course indicated by the arrows, so as first to pass into the +annular chamber which forms a continuation of the space A, and thence, +through the spring-controlled steel disk valves v', into the discharge +chamber C, which ultimately leads to the blast pipe. It will be seen +that the valves v on the other side of the annular chamber are closed. +At the same time a partial vacuum is being formed in the space B, to be +filled by the inflow of air through the valves v which are now open, the +corresponding discharge valves v' being closed. These valves on the +inside and outside of the annular spaces referred to are arranged so as +to form a circle round the ends of the barrel of the cylinder. The free +air, instead of being drawn into the valves v direct from the air of the +engine house, is taken from an enclosed annular chamber E, which may be +in communication with the clean, cool air outside. It will be seen that +the piston is made deep so as to allow for a long bearing surface in the +cylinder. Two metal packing rings are provided to render the piston +air-tight. The horse-power of this engine, which is designed on the +Cockerell system, is 750. + +Air valves of other types than those which have been mentioned have been +tried, such as sliding grid valves, rotatory slide valves and piston +valves, but it has been found that either flap or disk lift valves are +more satisfactory for air on account of the grit which is liable to get +between slide valves and their seatings. In some of the blowing engines +made by Messrs Fraser & Chalmers (see _Engineer_, June 15, 1906), sheets +of flexible bronze act as flap valves both for admission and delivery, +the part which actually closes the opening being thickened for strength. + +The pressure of the air supplied by blowing engines depends upon the +purposes for which it is to be used. In charcoal furnaces the pressure +is very low, being less than 1 lb. per sq. in.; for blast furnaces using +coal an average value of 4 lb. is common; for American blast furnaces +using coke or anthracite coal the pressure is as high as 10 lb.; while +for the air required in the Bessemer process of steel-making pressures +up to 25 or 30 lb. per sq. in. are not uncommon. According to British +practice one large blowing engine is used to supply several blast +furnaces, while in America a number of smaller ones is used, one for +each furnace. + +_Rotary blowers_ occupy a position midway between blowing engines and +fan blowers, being used for purposes requiring the delivery of large +volumes of air at pressures lower than those of blowing engines, but +higher than those of fan blowers. The blowing engine draws in, +compresses and delivers its air by the direct action of air-tight +pistons; the same effect is aimed at in a rotary blower with the +difference that the piston revolves instead of moving up and down a +cylinder. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Thwaites' Improved Roots' Blower.] + +Two of the best-known machines of this kind are Roots' and Baker's, both +American devices. The mode of action of Roots' blower, as made by Messrs +Thwaites Bros. of Bradford, will be clear from the section shown on fig. +6. The moving parts work in a closed casing B, which consists of +half-cylindrical curved plates placed a little more than their own +radius apart, the ends being enclosed by two plates. Within the casing, +and barely touching the curved part of the casing and each other, +revolve two parts C, D, called "revolvers," the speed of rotation of +which is the same, but the direction opposite. They are compelled to +keep their proper relative positions by a pair of equal spur wheels +fixed on the ends of the shafts on which they run. The free air enters +the casing through a wire screen at A and passes into the space E. + +As the space E increases in volume owing to the movement of the +revolvers, air is drawn in; it is then imprisoned between D and the +casing, as shown at G, and is carried round until it is free to enter F, +from which it is in turn expelled by the lessening of this space as the +lower ends of the revolvers come together. In this way a series of +volumes of air is drawn in through A, to be afterwards expelled from H +in an almost perfectly continuous stream, this result being brought +about by the relative variation in volume of the spaces E, F and G. In +their most improved form the revolvers are made hollow, of cast iron, +and accurately machined to a form such that they always keep close to +one another and to the end casing without actually touching, there being +never more space for the escape of air than 1/32nd of an inch. Machines +after this design are made from the smallest size, delivering 25 cub. +ft., to the largest, with a capacity of 25,000 cub. ft. per minute +working up to a pressure of 3 lb. per sq. in. It is not found economical +to attempt to work at higher pressures, as the leakage between the +revolvers and the casing becomes too great; where a higher pressure is +desired two or more blowers can be worked in series, the air being +raised in pressure by steps. A blower using 1 H.P. will deliver 350 cub. +ft. of air per minute and one using 2-3/4 H.P. will deliver 800 cub. +ft., at a pressure suitable for smiths' fires. At the higher pressure +required for cupola work--somewhere about 3/4 lb. per sq. in.--6-1/2 +H.P. will deliver 1300, and 123 H.P. 25,000 cub. ft. per minute. In the +Baker blower three revolvers are used--a large one which acts as the +rotating piston and two smaller ones forming air locks or valves. + +_Rotary Fans._--Now that power for driving them is so generally +available, rotary blowing fans have for many purposes taken the place of +bellows. They are used for blowing smiths' fires, for supplying the +blast for iron melting cupolas and furnaces and the forced draught for +boiler fires, and for any other purpose requiring a strong blast of air. +Their construction will be clear from the two views (figs. 7 and 8) of +the form made by Messrs Gunther of Oldham, Lancashire. The fan consists +of a circular casing A having the general appearance of a snail shell. +Within this casing revolves a series of vanes B--in this case +five--curved as shown, and attached together so as to form a wheel whose +centre is a boss or hub. This boss is fixed to a shaft or spindle which +revolves in bearings supported on brackets outside the casing. As the +shaft is rotated, the vanes B are compelled to revolve in the direction +indicated by the arrow on fig. 7, and their rotation causes the air +within the casing to rotate also. Thus a centrifugal action is set up by +which there is a diminution of pressure at the centre of the fan and an +increase against the outer casing. In consequence air is sucked in, as +shown by the arrows on fig. 8, through the openings C, C, at the centre +of the casing around the spindle. At the same time the air which has +been forced towards the outside of the casing and given a rotary motion +is expelled from the opening at D (fig. 8). All blowing fans work on the +same principle, though differences in detail are adopted by different +makers to meet the variety of conditions under which they are to be +used. Where the fan is to be employed for producing a delivery or blast +of air the opening D is connected to an air pipe which serves to +transmit the current of air, and C is left open to the atmosphere; when, +however, the main object is suction, as in the case where the fan is +used for ventilation, the aperture C is connected through a suction pipe +with the space to be exhausted, D being usually left open. Gunther fans +range in size from those which have a diameter of fan disk of 8 in. and +make 5500 revolutions per minute, to those which have a diameter of 50 +in. and run at from 950 to 1200 revolutions per minute. For exhausting +the fans are run less quickly than for blowing, the speed for a fan of +10 in. diameter being 4800 revolutions for blowing and 3300-4000 for +exhausting, while the 50-in. fan only runs at 550-700 when exhausting. +These two exhausting fans remove 400-500 and 12,000-15,000 cub. ft. of +air per minute respectively. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Gunther's Blowing Fan.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Gunther's Blowing Fan.] + +The useful effect of rotary fans, that is to say the proportion of the +total power used to drive the fan which is actually utilized in +producing the current of air, is very low for the smaller sizes, but may +rise to 30-70% in sizes above 5 ft. in diameter. It has its maximum +value for any given fan at a certain definite speed. Fans are most +suitable in cases where it is required to move or deliver comparatively +large volumes of air at pressures which are little above that of the +atmosphere. Where the pressure of the current produced exceeds a quarter +of a pound on the square inch the waste of work becomes so great as to +preclude their use. The fan is not the most economical form of blower, +but it is simple and inexpensive, both in first cost and in maintenance. +The largest fans are used for ventilating purposes, chiefly in mines, +their diameters rising to 40 or even 50 ft. The useful effect of some of +these larger fans, as obtained from experiments, is as high as 75%. In +the case of the Capell fan, which differs from other forms in that it +has two series of blades, inner and outer, separated by a curved blank +piece between the inner wings, dipping into the fan inlet, and the outer +wings, very high efficiencies have been obtained, being as great as 90% +in some cases. Capell fans are used for ventilating mines, buildings, +and ships, and for providing induced currents for use in boiler +furnaces. In the larger fans the casing, instead of having a curved +section, is more often built of sheet steel and is given a rectangular +section at right angles to the periphery. The Sirocco blowing fan, of +Messrs Davidson of Belfast, has a larger number of blades, which are +relatively narrow as measured radially, but wide axially. It can be made +much smaller in diameter than fans of the older designs for the same +output of air--a great advantage for use in ships or in buildings where +space is limited--and its useful effect is also said to be superior. +(See also HYDRAULICS, S 213.) + +_Helical or screw blowers_, often called "air propellers," are used +where relatively large volumes of air have to be moved against hardly +any perceptible difference in pressure, chiefly for purposes of +ventilation and drying. Most often the propeller is used to move air +from one room or chamber to another adjoining, and is placed in a light +circular iron frame which is fixed in a hole in the wall through which +the air is to be passed. The propeller itself consists of a series of +vanes or wings arranged helically on a revolving shaft which is fixed in +the centre of the opening. The centre line of the shaft is perpendicular +to the plane of the opening so that when the vanes revolve the air is +drawn towards and through the opening and is propelled away from it as +it passes through. The action is similar to that of a steamship screw +propeller, air taking the place of water. Such blowers are often driven +by small electric motors working directly on the end of the shaft. For +moving large volumes of air against little pressure and suction they are +very suitable, being simpler than fans, cheaper both in first cost and +maintenance for the same volume of air delivered, and less likely to +fail or get out of order. To obtain the best effect for the power used a +certain maximum speed of rotation must not be exceeded; at higher speeds +a great deal of the power is wasted. For example, a propeller with a +vane diameter of 2-1/2 ft. was found to deliver a volume of air +approximately proportional to the speed up to about 700 revolutions per +minute, when 8000 cub. ft. per minute were passed through the machine; +but doubling this speed to 1400 revolutions per minute only increased +delivery by 1000 cub. ft. to 9000. At the lower of these speeds the +horse-power absorbed was 0.6 and at the higher one 1.6. + +_Other Appliances for producing Currents of Air._--In its primitive form +the "trompe" or water-blowing engine adopted in Savoy, Carniola, and +some parts of America, consists of a long vertical wooden pipe +terminating at its lower end in an air chest. Water is allowed to enter +the top of the pipe through a conical plug and, falling down in +streamlets, carries with it air which is drawn in through sloping holes +near the top of the pipe. In this way a quantity of air is delivered +into the chamber, its pressure depending on the height through which the +water falls. This simple arrangement has been developed for use in +compressing large volumes of air at high pressures to be used for +driving compressed air machinery. It is chiefly used in America, and +provides a simple and cheap means of obtaining compressed air where +there is an abundant natural supply of water falling through a +considerable height. The pressure obtained in the air vessel is somewhat +less than half a pound per square inch for every foot of fall. + +Natural sources of water are also used for compressing and discharging +air by letting the water under its natural pressure enter and leave +closed vessels, so alternately discharging and drawing in new supplies +of air. Here the action is the same as in a blowing engine, the water +taking the place of the piston. This method was first thoroughly +developed in connexion with the Mt. Cenis tunnel works, and its use has +since been extended. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Steam-jet Blower.] + +In the _jet blower_ (fig. 9) a jet of steam is used to induce a current +of air. Into one end of a trumpet-shaped pipe B projects a steam pipe A. +This steam pipe terminates in a small opening, say, one-eighth of an +inch, through which the steam is allowed to flow freely. The effect is +to cause a movement of the air in the pipe, with the result that a fresh +supply is drawn in through the annular opening at C, C, and a continuous +stream of air passes along the pipe. This is the form of blower made by +Messrs Meldrum Bros. of Manchester, and is largely used for delivering +air under the fire bars of boiler and other furnaces. In some cases the +jets of steam are allowed to enter a boiler furnace above the fire, thus +inducing a current of air which helps the chimney draught and is often +used to do away with the production of smoke; they are also used for +producing currents of air for purposes other than those of boiler fires, +and are very convenient where considerable quantities of air are wanted +at very low pressures and where the presence of the moisture of the +steam does not matter. + +Sometimes jets of high-pressure air flowing at great velocities are used +to induce more slowly-moving currents of larger volumes of air at low +pressures. (W. C. P.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] The Old English word for this appliance was _blastbaelig_, i.e. + "blow-bag," cf. German _Blasebalg_. By the 11th century the first + part of the word apparently dropped out of use, and _baelig, bylig_, + bag, is found in early glossaries as the equivalent of the Latin + _follis. Baelig_ became in Middle English _bely_, i.e. "belly," a + sack or bag, and so the general word for the lower part of the trunk + in man and animals, the stomach, and another form, probably northern + in origin, _belu, belw_, became the regular word for the appliance, + the plural "bellies" being still used till the 16th century, when + "bellows" appears, and the word in the singular ceases to be used. + The verb "to bellow" of the roar of a bull, or the low of a cow, is + from Old English _bellan_, to bell, roar. + + + + +BELLOY, DORMONT DE, the name assumed by PIERRE LAUREXT BUIREITE +(1727-1775), French dramatist, was born at Saint-Flour, in Auvergne, on +the 17th of November 1727. He was educated by his uncle, a distinguished +advocate in Paris, for the bar. To escape from a profession he disliked +he joined a troupe of comedians playing in the courts of the northern +sovereigns. In 1758 the performance of his _Titus_, which had already +been produced in St Petersburg, was postponed through his uncle's +exertions; and when it did appear, a hostile cabal procured its failure, +and it was not until after his guardian's death that de Belloy returned +to Paris with _Zelmire_ (1762), a fantastic drama which met with great +success. This was followed in 1765 by the patriotic play, _Le Siege de +Calais_. The moment was opportune. The humiliations undergone by France +in the Seven Years' War assured a good reception for a play in which the +devotion of Frenchmen redeemed disaster. The popular enthusiasm was +unaffected by the judgment of calmer critics such as Diderot and +Voltaire, who pointed out that the glorification of France was not best +effected by a picture of defeat. De Belloy was admitted to the Academy +in 1772. His attempt to introduce national subjects into French drama +deserves honour, but it must be confessed that his resources proved +unequal to the task. The _Siege de Calais_ was followed by _Gaston et +Bayard_ (1771), _Pedro le cruel_ (1772) and _Gabrielle de Vergy_ (1777). +None of these attained the success of the earlier play, and de Belloy's +death, which took place on the 5th of March 1775, is said to have been +hastened by disappointment. + + + + +BELL or INCHCAPE ROCK, a sandstone reef in the North Sea, 11 m. S.E. of +Arbroath, belonging to Forfarshire, Scotland. It measures 2000 ft. in +length, is under water at high tide, but at low tide is exposed for a +few feet, the sea for a distance of 100 yds. around being then only +three fathoms deep. Lying in the fairway of vessels making or leaving +the Tay and Forth, besides ports farther north, it was a constant menace +to navigation. In the great gale of 1799 seventy sail, including the +"York," 74 guns, were wrecked off the reef, and this disaster compelled +the authorities to take steps to protect shipping. Next year Robert +Stevenson modelled a tower and reported that its erection was feasible, +but it was only in 1806 that parliamentary powers were obtained, and +operations began in August 1807. Though John Rennie had meanwhile been +associated with Stevenson as consulting engineer, the structure in +design and details is wholly Stevenson's work. The tower is 100 ft. +high; its diameter at the base is 42 ft., decreasing to 15 ft. at the +top. It is solid for 30 ft. at which height the doorway is placed. The +interior is divided into six storeys. After five years the building was +finished at a cost of L61,300. Since the lighting no wrecks have +occurred on the reef. A bust of Stevenson by Samuel Joseph (d. 1850) was +placed in the tower. + +According to tradition an abbot of Aberbrothock (Arbroath) had ordered a +bell--whence the name of the rock--to be fastened to the reef in such a +way that it should respond to the movements of the waves, and thus +always ring out a warning to mariners. This signal was wantonly +destroyed by a pirate, whose ship was afterwards wrecked at this very +spot, the rover and his men being drowned. Southey made the incident the +subject of his ballad of "The Inchcape Rock." + + + + +BELLUNO (anc. _Bellunum_), a city and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, +the capital of the province of Belluno, N. of Treviso, 54 m. by rail and +28 m. direct. Pop. (1901) town, 6898; commune, 19,050. It is situated in +the valley of the Piave, at its confluence with the Ardo, 1285 ft. above +sea-level, among the lower Venetian Alps. It was a Roman _municipium_. +In the middle ages it went through various vicissitudes; it fell under +the dominion of Venice in 1511, and remained Venetian until 1797. Its +buildings present Venetian characteristics; it has some good palaces, +notably the fine early Lombard Renaissance Palazzo dei Rettori, now the +seat of the prefecture. The cathedral, erected after 1517 by Tullio +Lombardo, was much damaged by the earthquake of 1873, which destroyed a +considerable portion of the town, though the campanile, 217 ft. high, +erected in 1732-1743, stood firm. The facade was never finished. +Important remains of prehistoric settlements have been found in the +vicinity; cf. G. Ghirardini in _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1883, 27, on the +necropolis of Caverzano. (T. As.) + + + + +BELMONT, AUGUST (1816-1890), American banker and financier, was born at +Alzei, Rhenish Prussia, on the 8th of December 1816. He entered the +banking house of the Rothschilds at Frankfort at the age of fourteen, +acted as their agent for a time at Naples, and in 1837 settled in New +York as their American representative. He became an American citizen, +and married a daughter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry. He was the +consul-general of Austria at New York from 1844 to 1850, when he +resigned in protest against Austria's treatment of Hungary. In 1853-1855 +he was charge d'affaires for the United States at the Hague, and from +1855 to 1858 was the American minister resident there. In 1860 he was a +delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, South +Carolina, actively supporting Stephen A. Douglas for the presidential +nomination, and afterwards joining those who withdrew to the convention +at Baltimore, Maryland, where he was chosen chairman of the National +Democratic Committee. He energetically supported the Union cause during +the Civil War, and exerted a strong influence in favour of the North +upon the merchants and financiers of England and France. He remained at +the head of the Democratic organization until 1872. He died in New York +on the 24th of November 1890. + +His son, PERRY BELMONT (1851- ), was born in New York on the 28th of +December 1851, graduated at Harvard in 1872 and at the Columbia Law +School in 1876, and practised law in New York for five years. He was a +Democratic member of Congress from 1881 to 1889, serving in 1885-1887 as +chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. In 1889 he was United +States minister to Spain. + +Another son, AUGUST BELMONT (1853- ), was born in New York on the 18th +of February 1853 and graduated at Harvard in 1875. He succeeded his +father as head of the banking house and was prominent in railway +finance, and in financing and building the New York subway. In 1904 he +was one of the principal supporters of Alton B. Parker for the +Democratic presidential nomination, and served as chairman of the +finance committee of the Democratic National Committee. + + A volume entitled _Letters, Speeches and Addresses of August Belmont_ + (the elder) was published at New York in 1890. + + + + +BELOIT, a city of Rock county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., situated on the S. +boundary of the state, on Rock river, about 91 m. N.W. of Chicago and +about 85 m. S.W. of Milwaukee. Pop. (1890) 6315; (1900) 10,436, of whom +1468 were foreign-born; (1910) 15,125. It is served by the Chicago & +North-Western, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways, and by an +inter-urban electric railway to Janesville, Wisconsin and Rockford, +Illinois. Beloit is attractively situated on high bluffs on both sides +of the river. The city is the seat of Beloit College, a co-educational, +non-sectarian institution, founded under the auspices of the +Congregational and Presbyterian churches in 1847, and having, in +1907-1908, 36 instructors and 430 students. It has classical, +philosophical (1874) and scientific (1892) courses; women were first +admitted in 1895. The Greek department of the college has supervised +since 1895 the public presentation nearly every year of an English +version of a Greek play. The river furnishes good water-power, and among +the manufactures are wood-working machinery, ploughs, steam pumps, +windmills, gas engines, paper-mill machinery, cutlery, flour, ladies' +shoes, cyclometers and paper; the total value of the factory product in +1905 was $4,485,224, 60.2% more than in 1900. Beloit, founded by New +Englanders in 1838, was chartered as a city in 1856. + + + + +BELOMANCY (from [Greek: belos], a dart, and [Greek: manteia], prophecy +or divination), a form of divination (q.v.) by means of arrows, +practised by the Babylonians, Scythians and other ancient peoples. +Nebuchadrezzar (Ezek. xxi. 21) resorted to this practice "when he stood +in the parting of the way ... to use divination: he made his arrows +bright." + + + + +BELON, PIERRE (1517-1564), French naturalist, was born about 1517 near +Le Mans (Sarthe). He studied medicine at Paris, where he took the degree +of doctor, and then became a pupil of the botanist Valerius Cordus +(1515-1544) at Wittenberg, with whom he travelled in Germany. On his +return to France he was taken under the patronage of Cardinal de +Tournon, who furnished him with means for undertaking an extensive +scientific journey. Starting in 1546, he travelled through Greece, Asia +Minor, Egypt, Arabia and Palestine, and returned in 1549. A full account +of his travels, with illustrations, was published in 1553. Belon, who +was highly favoured both by Henry II. and by Charles IX., was +assassinated at Paris one evening in April 1564, when coming through the +Bois de Boulogne. Besides the narrative of his travels he wrote several +scientific works of considerable value, particularly the _Histoire +naturelle des estranges poissons_ (1551), _De aquatilibus_ (1553), and +_L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux_ (1555), which entitle him to be +regarded as one of the first workers in the science of comparative +anatomy. + + + + +BELPER, a market-town in the mid-parliamentary division of Derbyshire, +England, on the river Derwent, 7 m. N. of Derby on the Midland railway. +Pop. of urban district (1901), 10,934. The chapel of St John is said to +have been founded by Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III., about +the middle of the 13th century. There is an Anglican convent of the +Sisters of St Lawrence, with orphanage and school. For a considerable +period one of the most flourishing towns in the county, Belper owed its +prosperity to the establishment of cotton works in 1776 by Messrs +Strutt, the title of Baron Belper (cr. 1856), in the Strutt family, +being taken from the town. Belper also manufactures linen, hosiery, silk +and earthenware; and after the decline of nail-making, once an important +industry, engineering works and iron foundries were opened. The Derwent +provides water-power for the cotton-mills. John of Gaunt is said to have +been a great benefactor to Belper, and the foundations of a massive +building have been believed to mark the site of his residence. A chapel +which he founded is incorporated with a modern schoolhouse. The scenery +in the neighbourhood of Belper, especially to the west, is beautiful; +but there are collieries, lead-mines and quarries in the vicinity of the +town. + +Belper (Beaurepaire) until 1846 formed part of the parish of Duffield, +granted by William I. to Henry de Ferrers, earl of Derby. There is no +distinct mention of Belper till 1296, when the manor was held by Edmund +Crouchback, earl of Lancaster, who is said to have enclosed a park and +built a hunting seat, to which, from its situation, he gave the name +Beaurepaire. The manor thus became parcel of the duchy of Lancaster and +is said to have been the residence of John of Gaunt. It afterwards +passed with Duffield to the Jodrell family. In a great storm in 1545, 40 +houses were destroyed, and the place was scourged by the plague in 1609. + + See C. Willott, _Historical Records of Belper._ + + + + +BELSHAM, THOMAS (1750-1829), English Unitarian minister, was born at +Bedford on the 26th of April 1750. He was educated at the dissenting +academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor. +After three years spent in a charge at Worcester, he returned as head of +the Daventry academy, a post which he continued to hold till 1789, when, +having adopted Unitarian principles, he resigned. With Joseph Priestly +for colleague, he superintended during its brief existence a new college +at Hackney, and was, on Priestly's departure in 1794, also called to the +charge of the Gravel Pit congregation. In 1805 he accepted a call to the +Essex Street chapel, where in gradually failing health he remained till +his death in 1829. Belsham's first work of importance, _Review of Mr +Wilberforce's Treatise entitled Practical View_ (1798), was written +after his conversion to Unitarianism. His most popular work was the +_Evidences of Christianity;_ the most important was his translation and +exposition of the Epistles of St Paul (1822). He was also the author of +a work on philosophy, _Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind_ +(1801), which is entirely based on Hartley's psychology. Belsham is one +of the most vigorous and able writers of his church, and the _Quarterly +Review_ and _Gentleman's Magazine_ of the early years of the 19th +century abound in evidences that his abilities were recognized by his +opponents. + + + + +BELSHAZZAR (6th century B.C.), Babylonian general. Until the +decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, he was known only from the +book of Daniel (v. 2, 11, 13, 18) and its reproduction in Josephus, +where he is represented as the son of Nebuchadrezzar and the last king +of Babylon. As his name did not appear in the list of the successors of +Nebuchadrezzar handed down by the Greek writers, various suggestions +were put forward as to his identity. Niebuhr identified him with +Evil-Merodach, Ewald with Nabonidos, others again with Neriglissor. The +identification with Nabonidos, the last Babylonian king according to the +native historian Berossus, goes back to Josephus. The decipherment of +the cuneiform texts put an end to all such speculations. In 1854 Sir +H.C. Rawlinson discovered the name of Bel-sarra-uzur--"O Bel, defend the +king"--in an inscription belonging to the first year of Nabonidos which +had been discovered in the ruins of the temple of the Moon-god at +Muqayyar or Ur. Here Nabonidos calls him his "first-born son," and prays +that "he may not give way to sin," but that "the fear of the great +divinity" of the Moon-god may "dwell in his heart." In the contracts and +similar documents there are frequent references to Belshazzar, who is +sometimes entitled simply "the son of the king." + +He was never king himself, nor was he son of Nebuchadrezzar. Indeed his +father Nabonidos (Nabunaid), the son of Nabu-baladsu-iqbi, was not +related to the family of Nebuchadrezzar and owed his accession to the +throne to a palace revolution. Belshazzar, however, seems to have had +more political and military energy than his father, whose tastes were +antiquarian and religious; he took command of the army, living with it +in the camp near Sippara, and whatever measures of defence were +organized against the invasion of Cyrus appear to have been due to him. +Hence Jewish tradition substituted him for his less-known father, and +rightly concluded that his death marked the fall of the Babylonian +monarchy. We learn from the Babylonian Chronicle that from the 7th year +of Nabonidos (548 B.C.) onwards "the son of the king" was with the army +in Akkad, that is in the close neighbourhood of Sippara. This, as Dr Th. +G. Pinches has pointed out, doubtless accounts for the numerous gifts +bestowed by him on the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara. So late as the +5th of Ab in the 17th year of Nabonidos--that is to say, about three +weeks after the forces of Cyrus had entered Babylonia and only three +months before his death--we find him paying 47 shekels of silver to the +temple on behalf of his sister, this being the amount of "tithe" due +from her at the time. At an earlier period there is frequent mention of +his trading transactions which were carried out through his +house-steward or agent. Thus in 545 B.C. he lent 20 manehs of silver to +a private individual, a Persian by race, on the security of the property +of the latter, and a year later his house-steward negotiated a loan of +16 shekels, taking as security the produce of a field of corn. + +The legends of Belshazzar's feast and of the siege and capture of +Babylon by Cyrus which have come down to us from the book of Daniel and +the _Cyropaedia_ of Xenophon have been shown by the contemporaneous +inscriptions to have been a projection backwards of the re-conquest of +the city by Darius Hystaspis. The actual facts were very different. +Cyrus had invaded Babylonia from two directions, he himself marching +towards the confluence of the Tigris and Diyaleh, while Gobryas, the +satrap of Kurdistan, led another body of troops along the course of the +Adhem. The portion of the Babylonian army to which the protection of the +eastern frontier had been entrusted was defeated at Opis on the banks of +the Nizallat, and the invaders poured across the Tigris into Babylonia. +On the 14th of Tammuz (June), 538 B.C., Nabonidos fled from Sippara, +where he had taken his son's place in the camp, and the city surrendered +at once to the enemy. Meanwhile Gobryas had been despatched to Babylon, +which opened its gates to the invader on the 16th of the month "without +combat or battle," and a few days later Nabonidos was dragged from his +hiding-place and made a prisoner. According to Berossus he was +subsequently appointed governor of Karmania by his conqueror. +Belshazzar, however, still held out, and it was probably on this account +that Cyrus himself did not arrive at Babylon until nearly four months +later, on the 3rd of Marchesvan. On the 11th of that month Gobryas was +despatched to put an end to the last semblance of resistance in the +country "and the son (?) of the king died." In accordance with the +conciliatory policy of Cyrus, a general mourning was proclaimed on +account of his death, and this lasted for six days, from the 27th of +Adar to the 3rd of Nisan. Unfortunately the character representing the +word "son" is indistinct on the tablet which contains the annals of +Nabonidos, so that the reading is not absolutely certain. The only other +reading possible, however, is "and the king died," and this reading is +excluded partly by the fact that Nabonidos afterwards became a Persian +satrap, partly by the silence which would otherwise be maintained by the +"Annals" in regard to the fate of Belshazzar. Considering how important +Belshazzar was politically, and what a prominent place he occupied in +the history of the period, such a silence would be hard to explain. His +death subsequently to the surrender of Babylon and the capture of +Nabonidos, and with it the last native effort to resist the invader, +would account for the position he assumed in later tradition and the +substitution of his name for that of the actual king. + + See Th. G. Pinches, _P.S.B.A._, May 1884; H. Winckler, _Zetischrift + fur Assyriologie_, ii. 2, 3 (1887); _Records of the Past_, new series, + i. pp. 22-31 (1888); A.H. Sayce, _The Higher Criticism_, pp. 497-537 + (1893). (A. H. S.) + + + + +BELT, THOMAS (1832-1878), English geologist and naturalist, was born at +Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1832, and educated in that city. As a youth he +became actively interested in natural history through the Tyneside +Naturalists' Field Club. In 1852 he went to Australia and for about +eight years worked at the gold-diggings, where he acquired a practical +knowledge of ore-deposits. In 1860 he proceeded to Nova Scotia to take +charge of some gold-mines, and there met with a serious injury, which +led to his return to England. In 1861 he issued a separate work entitled +_Mineral Veins: an Enquiry into their Origin, founded on a Study of the +Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia_. Later on he was engaged for about +three years at Dolgelly, another though small gold-mining region, and +here he carefully investigated the rocks and fossils of the Lingula +Flags, his observations being published in an important and now classic +memoir in the _Geological Magazine_ for 1867. In the following year he +was appointed to take charge of some mines in Nicaragua, where he passed +four active and adventurous years--the results being given in his +_Naturalist in Nicaragua_ (1874), a work of high merit. In this volume +the author expressed his views on the former presence of glaciers in +that country. In subsequent papers he dealt boldly and suggestively with +the phenomena of the Glacial period in Britain and in various parts of +the world. After many further expeditions to Russia, Siberia and +Colorado, he died at Denver on the 21st of September 1878. + + + + +BELT (a word common to Teutonic languages, the Old Ger. form being +_balz_, from which the Lat. _balteus_ probably derived), a flat strap of +leather or other material used as a girdle (q.v.), especially the +_cinctura gladii_ or sword-belt, the chief "ornament of investiture" of +an earl or knight; in machinery, a flexible strap passing round from one +drum, pulley or wheel to another, for the purpose of power-transmission +(q.v.). The word is applied to any broad stripe, to the belts of the +planet Jupiter, to the armour-belt at the water-line of a warship, or to +a tract of country, narrow in proportion to its length, with special +distinguishing characteristics, such as the earthquake-belt across a +continent. + + + + +BELTANE, BELTENE, BELTINE, or BEAL-TENE (Scottish Gaelic, _bealltain_), +the Celtic name for May-day, on which also was held a festival called by +the same name, originally common to all the Celtic peoples, of which +traces still linger in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland and Brittany. +This festival, the most important ceremony of which in later centuries +was the lighting of the bonfires known as "beltane fires," is believed +to represent the Druidical worship of the sun-god. The fuel was piled on +a hill-top, and at the fire the beltane cake was cooked. This was +divided into pieces corresponding to the number of those present, and +one piece was blackened with charcoal. For these pieces lots were drawn, +and he who had the misfortune to get the black bit became _cailleach +bealtine_ (the beltane carline)--a term of great reproach. He was pelted +with egg-shells, and afterwards for some weeks was spoken of as dead. In +the north-east of Scotland beltane fires were still kindled in the +latter half of the 18th century. There were many superstitions +connecting them with the belief in witchcraft. According to Cormac, +archbishop of Cashel about the year 908, who furnishes in his glossary +the earliest notice of beltane, it was customary to light two fires +close together, and between these both men and cattle were driven, under +the belief that health was thereby promoted and disease warded off. (See +_Transactions of the Irish Academy_, xiv. pp. 100, 122, 123.) The +Highlanders have a proverb, "he is between two beltane fires." The +Strathspey Highlanders used to make a hoop of rowan wood through which +on beltane day they drove the sheep and lambs both at dawn and sunset. + +As to the derivation of the word beltane there is considerable +obscurity. Following Cormac, it has been usual to regard it as +representing a combination of the name of the god Bel or Baal or Bil +with the Celtic _teine_, fire. And on this etymology theories have been +erected of the connexion of the Semitic Baal with Celtic mythology, and +the identification of the beltane fires with the worship of this deity. +This etymology is now repudiated by scientific philologists, and the New +_English Dictionary_ accepts Dr Whitley Stokes's view that beltane in +its Gaelic form can have no connexion with _teine_, fire. Beltane, as +the 1st of May, was in ancient Scotland one of the four quarter days, +the others being Hallowmas, Candlemas, and Lammas. + + For a full description of the beltane celebration in the Highlands of + Scotland during the 18th century, see John Ramsay, _Scotland and + Scotsmen in the 18th Century_, from MSS. edited by A. Allardyce + (1888); and see further J. Robertson in Sinclair's _Statistical + Account of Scotland_, xi. 620; Thomas Pennant, _Tour in Scotland_ + (1769-1770); W. Gregor, "Notes on Beltane Cakes," _Folklore_, vi. + (1895), p. 2; and "Notes on the Folklore of the North-East of + Scotland," p. 167 (_Folklore Soc_. vii. 1881); A. Bertrand, _La + Religion des Gaulois_ (1897); Jamieson, _Scottish Dictionary_ (1808). + Cormac's _Glossary_ has been edited by O'Donovan and Stokes (1862). + + + + +BELUGA (_Delphinapterus leucas_), also called the "white whale," a +cetacean of the family _Delphinidae_, characterized by its rounded head +and uniformly light colour. A native of the Arctic seas, it extends in +the western Atlantic as far south as the river St Lawrence, which it +ascends for a considerable distance. In colour it is almost pure white; +the maximum length is about twelve feet; and the back-fin is replaced by +a low ridge. Examples have been taken on the British coasts; and +individuals have been kept for some time in captivity in America and in +London. See CETACEA. + + + + +BELVEDERE, or BELVIDERE (Ital. for "fair-view"), an architectural +structure built in the upper part of a building or in any elevated +position so as to command a fine view. The belvedere assumes various +forms, such as an angle turret, a cupola, a loggia or open gallery. The +name is also applied to the whole building, as the Belvedere gallery in +the Vatican at Rome. For Apollo Belvidere see GREEK ART, Plate II. fig. +55. + + + + +BELVIDERE, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Illinois, U.S.A., +in the N. part of the state, on the Kishwaukee river, about 78 m. N.W. +of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 3867; (1900) 6937 (1018 foreign-born); (1910) +7253. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western railway, and by an +extensive inter-urban electric system. Among its manufactures are sewing +machines, boilers, automobiles, bicycles, roller-skates, pianos, gloves +and mittens, corsets, flour and dairy products, Borden's condensed milk +factory being located there. Belvidere was settled in 1836, was +incorporated in 1852 and was re-incorporated in 1881. + + + + +BELZONI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1778-1823), Italian explorer of Egyptian +antiquities, was born at Padua in 1778. His family was from Rome, and in +that city he spent his youth. He intended taking monastic orders, but in +1798 the occupation of the city by the French troops drove him from Rome +and changed his proposed career. He went back to Padua, where he studied +hydraulics, removed in 1800 to Holland, and in 1803 went to England, +where he married an Englishwoman. He was 6 ft. 7 in. in height, broad in +proportion, and his wife was of equally generous build. They were for +some time compelled to find subsistence by exhibitions of feats of +strength and agility at fairs and on the streets of London. Through the +kindness of Henry Salt, the traveller and antiquarian, who was ever +afterwards his patron, he was engaged at Astley's amphitheatre, and his +circumstances soon began to improve. In 1812 he left England, and after +travelling in Spain and Portugal reached Egypt in 1815, where Salt was +then British consul-general. Belzoni was desirous of laying before +Mehemet Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the +waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was +successful, the design was abandoned by the pasha, and Belzoni resolved +to continue his travels. On the recommendation of the orientalist, J.L. +Burckhardt, he was sent at Salt's charges to Thebes, whence he removed +with great skill the colossal bust of Rameses II., commonly called Young +Memnon, which he shipped for England, where it is in the British Museum. +He also pushed his investigations into the great temple of Edfu, visited +Elephantine and Philae, cleared the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand +(1817), made excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulchre of Seti +I. ("Belzoni's Tomb"). He was the first to penetrate into the second +pyramid of Giza, and the first European in modern times to visit the +oasis of Baharia, which he supposed to be that of Siwa. He also +identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea. In 1819 he returned to +England, and published in the following year an account of his travels +and discoveries entitled _Narrative of the Operations and Recent +Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt +and Nubia, &c._ He also exhibited during 1820-1821 facsimiles of the +tomb of Seti I. The exhibition was held at the Egyptian Hall, +Piccadilly, London. In 1822 Belzoni showed his model in Paris. In 1823 +he set out for West Africa, intending to penetrate to Timbuktu. Having +been refused permission to pass through Morocco, he chose the Guinea +Coast route. He reached Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a +village called Gwato, and died there on the 3rd of December 1823. In +1829 his widow published his drawings of the royal tombs at Thebes. + + + + +BEM, JOSEF (1795-1850), Polish soldier, was born at Tarnow in Galicia, +and was educated at the military school at Warsaw, where he especially +distinguished himself in mathematics. Joining a Polish artillery +regiment in the French service, he took part in the Russian campaign of +1812, and subsequently so brilliantly distinguished himself in the +defence of Danzig (January-November 1813) that he won the cross of the +Legion of Honour. On returning to Poland he was for a time in the +Russian service, but lost his post, and his liberty as well for some +time, for his outspokenness. In 1825 he migrated to Lemberg, where he +taught the physical sciences. He was about to write a treatise on the +steam-engine, when the Polish War of Independence summoned him back to +Warsaw in November 1830. It was his skill as an artillery officer which +won for the Polish general Skrynecki the battle of Igany (March 8, +1831), and he distinguished himself at the indecisive battle of +Ostrolenka (May 26). He took part in the desperate defence of Warsaw +against Prince Paskievich (September 6-7, 1831). Then Bem escaped to +Paris, where he supported himself by teaching mathematics. In 1833 he +went to Portugal to assist the liberal Dom Pedro against the reactionary +Dom Miguel, but abandoned the idea when it was found that a Polish +legion could not be formed. A wider field for his activity presented +itself in 1848. First he attempted to hold Vienna against the imperial +troops, and, after the capitulation, hastened to Pressburg to offer his +services to Kossuth, first defending himself, in a long memorial, from +the accusations of treachery to the Polish cause and of aristocratic +tendencies which the more fanatical section of the Polish emigrant +Radicals repeatedly brought against him. He was entrusted with the +defence of Transylvania at the end of 1848, and in 1849, as the general +of the Szeklers (q.v.), he performed miracles with his little army, +notably at the bridge of Piski (February 9), where, after fighting all +day, he drove back an immense force of pursuers. After recovering +Transylvania he was sent to drive the Austrian general Puchner out of +the Banat of Temesvar. Bem defeated him at Orsova (May 16), but the +Russian invasion recalled him to Transylvania. From the 12th to 22nd of +July he was fighting continually, but finally, on the 31st of July, his +army was annihilated by overwhelming numbers near Segesvar (Schassburg), +Bem only escaping by feigning death. Yet he fought a fresh action at +Gross-Scheueren on the 6th of August, and contrived to bring off the +fragments of his host to Temesvar, to aid the hardly-pressed Dembinski. +Bem was in command and was seriously wounded in the last pitched battle +of the war, fought there on the 9th of August. On the collapse of the +rebellion he fled to Turkey, adopted Mahommedanism, and under the name +of Murad Pasha served as governor of Aleppo, at which place, at the risk +of his life, he saved the Christian population from being massacred by +the Moslems. Here he died on the 16th of September 1850. The tiny, +withered, sickly body of Bem was animated by an heroic temper. Few men +have been so courageous, and his influence was magnetic. Even the rough +Szeklers, though they did not understand the language of their "little +father," regarded him with superstitious reverence. A statue to his +honour has been erected at Maros-Vasarhely, but he lives still more +enduringly in the immortal verses of the patriot poet Sandor Petofi, who +fell in the fatal action of the 31st of July at Segesvar. As a soldier +Bem was remarkable for his excellent handling of artillery and the +rapidity of his marches. + + See Johann Czetz, _Memoiren uber Bems Feldzug_ (Hamburg, 1850); Kalman + Deresenyi, _General Bem's Winter Campaign in Transylvania, 1848-1849_ + (Hung.), (Budapest, 1896). (R. N. B.) + + + + +BEMA ([Greek: baema]), in ecclesiastical architecture, the semicircular +recess or exedra, in the basilica, where the judges sat, and where in +after times the altar was placed. It generally is roofed with a half +dome. The seats, [Greek: thronoi], of the priests were against the wall, +looking into the body of the church, that of the bishop being in the +centre. The bema is generally ascended by steps, and railed off. In +Greece the bema was the general name of any raised platform. Thus the +word was applied to the tribunal from which orators addressed assemblies +of the citizens at Athens. That in the Pnyx, where the Ecclesia often +met, was a stone platform from 10 to 11 ft. in height. Again in the +Athenian law court counsel addressed the court from such a platform: it +is not known whether each had a separate bema or whether there was only +one to which each counsel (? and the witnesses) in turn ascended (cf. W. +Wyse in his edition of Isaeus, p. 440). Another bema was the platform on +which stood the urns for the reception of the bronze disks ([Greek: +psiaephoi]) by means of which at the end of the 4th century the judges +recorded their decisions. + + + + +BEMBERG, HERMAN (1861- ), French musical composer, was born of French +parents at Buenos Aires, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire, under +Massenet, whose influence, with that of Gounod, is strongly marked in +his music. As a composer he is known by numerous songs and pieces for +the piano, as well as by his cantata _La Mort de Jeanne d'Arc_ (1886), +comic opera _Le Baiser de Suzon_ (1888) and grand opera _Elaine_ +(produced at Covent Garden in 1892). Among his songs the dramatic +recitative _Ballade du Desespere_ is well known. + + + + +BEMBO, PIETRO (1470-1547), Italian cardinal and scholar, was born at +Venice on the 20th of May 1470. While still a boy he accompanied his +father to Florence, and there acquired a love for that Tuscan form of +speech which he afterwards cultivated in preference to the dialect of +his native city. Having completed his studies, which included two years' +devotion to Greek under Lascaris at Messina, he chose the ecclesiastical +profession. After a considerable time spent in various cities and courts +of Italy, where his learning already made him welcome, he accompanied +Giulio de' Medici to Rome, where he was soon after appointed secretary +to Leo X. On the pontiff's death he retired, with impaired health, to +Padua, and there lived for a number of years engaged in literary labours +and amusements. In 1529 he accepted the office of historiographer to his +native city, and shortly afterwards was appointed librarian of St +Mark's. The offer of a cardinal's hat by Pope Paul III. took him in 1539 +again to Rome, where he renounced the study of classical literature and +devoted himself to theology and classical history, receiving before long +the reward of his conversion in the shape of the bishoprics of Gubbio +and Bergamo. He died on the 18th of January 1547. Bembo, as a writer, is +the _beau ideal_ of a purist. The exact imitation of the style of the +genuine classics was the highest perfection at which he aimed. This at +once prevented the graces of spontaneity and secured the beauties of +artistic elaboration. One cannot fail to be struck with the Ciceronian +cadence that guides the movement even of his Italian writings. + + His works (collected edition, Venice, 1729) include a _History of + Venice_ (1551) from 1487 to 1513, dialogues, poems, and what we would + now call essays. Perhaps the most famous are a little treatise on + Italian prose, and a dialogue entitled _Gli Asolani_, in which + Platonic affection is explained and recommended in a rather + long-winded fashion, to the amusement of the reader who remembers the + relations of the beautiful Morosina with the author. The edition of + Petrarch's _Italian Poems_, published by Aldus in 1501, and the + _Terzerime_, which issued from the same press in 1502, were edited by + Bembo, who was on intimate terms with the great typographer. See + _Opere de P. Bembo_ (Venice, 1729); Casa, _Vita di Bembo_, in 2nd vol. + of his works. + + + + +BEMBRIDGE BEDS, in geology, strata forming part of the fluvio-marine +series of deposits of Oligocene age, in the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, +England. They lie between the Hamstead beds above and the Osborne beds +below. The Bembridge marls, freshwater, estuarine and marine clays and +marls (70-120 ft.) rest upon the Bembridge limestone, a freshwater pool +deposit (15-25 ft.), with large land snails (_Amphidromus_ and +_Helices_), freshwater snails (_Planorbis, Limnaea_), and the fruits of +_Chara_. The marls contain, besides the freshwater _Limnaea_ and _Unio_, +such forms as _Meretrix, Ostrea_ and _Melanopsis_. A thin calcareous +sandy layer in this division has yielded the remains of many insects and +fossil leaves. + + See "Geology of the Isle of Wight," _Mem. Geol. Survey_, 2nd ed. 1889. + + + + +BEMIS, EDWARD WEBSTER (1860- ), American economist, was born at +Springfield, Massachusetts, on the 7th of April 1860. He was educated at +Amherst and Johns Hopkins University. He held the professorship of +history and political economy in Vanderbilt University from 1887 to +1892, was associate professor of political economy in the university of +Chicago from 1892 to 1895, and assistant statistician to the Illinois +bureau of labour statistics, 1896. In 1901 he became superintendent of +the Cleveland water works. He wrote much on municipal government, his +more important works being some chapters in _History of Co-operation in +the United States_ (1888); _Municipal Ownership of Gas in the U.S._ +(1891); _Municipal Monopolies_ (1899). + + + + +BEMONT, CHARLES (1848- ), French scholar, was born at Paris on the +16th of November 1848. In 1884 he graduated with two theses, _Simon de +Montfort_ and _La Condamnation de Jean Sansterre_ (_Revue historique_, +1886). His _Les Chartes des libertes anglaises_ (1892) has an +introduction upon the history of Magna Carta, &c., and his _History of +Europe from 395 to 1270_, in collaboration with G. Monod, was translated +into English. He was also responsible for the continuation of the +_Gascon Rolls_, the publication of which had been begun by Francisque +Michel in 1885 (supplement to vol. i., 1896; vol. ii., for the years +1273-1290, 1900; vol. iii., for the years 1290-1307, 1906). He received +the honorary degree of Litt. Doc. at Oxford in 1909. + + + + +BEN (from Old Eng. _bennan_, within), in the Scottish phrase "a but and +a ben," the inner room of a house in which there is only one outer door, +so that the entrance to the inner room is through the outer, the but +(Old Eng. _butan_, without). Hence "a but and a ben" meant originally a +living room and sleeping room, and so a dwelling or a cottage. + + + + +BENARES, the Holy City of the Hindus, which gives its name to a district +and division in the United Provinces of India. It is one of the most +ancient cities in the world. The derivation of its ancient name +_Varanasi_ is not known, nor is that of its alternative name _Kasi_, +which is still in common use among Hindus, and is popularly explained to +mean "bright." The original site of the city is supposed to have been at +Sarnath, 3-1/2 m. north of the present city, where ruins of brick and +stone buildings, with three lofty _stupas_ still standing, cover an area +about half a mile long by a quarter broad. Sakya Muni, the Buddha, came +here from Gaya in the 6th century B.C. (from which time some of the +remains may date), in order to establish his religion, which shows that +the place was even then a great centre. Hsuan Tsang, the celebrated +Chinese pilgrim, visited Benares in the 7th century A.D. and described +it as containing 30 Buddhist monasteries, with about 3000 monks, and +about 100 temples of Hindu gods. Hinduism has now supplanted Buddhism, +and the Brahman fills the place of the monk. The modern temples number +upwards of 1500. Even after the lapse of so great a time the city is +still in its glory, and as seen from the river it presents a scene of +great picturesqueness and grandeur. The Ganges here forms a fine sweep +of about 4 m. in length, the city being situated on the outside of the +curve, on the northern bank of the river, which is higher than the +other. Being thus elevated, and extending along the river for some 4 m., +the city forms a magnificent panorama of buildings in many varieties of +oriental architecture. The minarets of the mosque of Aurangzeb rise +above all. The bank of the river is entirely lined with stone, and there +are many very fine ghats or landing-places built by pious devotees, and +highly ornamented. These are generally crowded with bathers and +worshippers, who come to wash away their sins in the sacred river +Ganges. Near the Manikarnika ghat is the well held to have been dug by +Vishnu and filled with his sweat; great numbers of pilgrims bathe in its +venerated water. Shrines and temples line the bank of the river. But in +spite of its fine appearance from the river, the architecture of Benares +is not distinguished, nor are its buildings of high antiquity. Among the +most conspicuous of these are the mosque of Aurangzeb, built as an +intentional insult in the middle of the Hindu quarter; the Bisheshwar or +Golden Temple, important less through architectural beauty than through +its rank as the holiest spot in the holy city; and the Durga temple, +which, like most of the other principal temples, is a Mahratta building +of the 17th century. The temples are mostly small and are placed in the +angles of the streets, under the shadow of the lofty houses. Their forms +are not ungraceful, and many of them are covered over with beautiful and +elaborate carvings of flowers, animals and palm branches. The +observatory of Raja Jai Singh is a notable building of the year 1693. +The internal streets of the town are so winding and narrow that there is +not room for a carriage to pass, and it is difficult to penetrate them +even on horseback. The level of the roadway is considerably lower than +the ground-floors of the houses, which have generally arched rooms in +front, with little shops behind them; and above these they are richly +embellished with verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and +very broad overhanging eaves supported by carved brackets. The houses +are built of _chanar_ stone, and are lofty, none being less than two +storeys high, most of them three, and several of five or six storeys. +The Hindus are fond of painting the outside of their houses a deep red +colour, and of covering the most conspicuous parts with pictures of +flowers, men, women, bulls, elephants and gods and goddesses in all the +many forms known in Hindu mythology. + +Benares is bounded by a road which, though 50 m. in circuit, is never +distant from the city more than five kos (7-1/2 m.); hence its name, +Panch-kos road. All who die within this boundary, be they Brahman or low +caste, Moslem or Christian, are sure of admittance into Siva's heaven. +To tread the Panch-kos road is one of the great ambitions of a Hindu's +life. Even if he be an inhabitant of the sacred city he must traverse it +once in the year to free himself from the impurities and sins contracted +within the holy precincts. Thousands from all parts of India make the +pilgrimage every year. Benares, having from time immemorial been a holy +city, contains a vast number of Brahmans, who either subsist by +charitable contributions, or are supported by endowments in the numerous +religious institutions of the city. Hindu religious mendicants, with +every conceivable bodily deformity, line the principal streets on both +sides. Some have their legs or arms distorted by long continuance in one +position; others have kept their hands clenched until the finger nails +have pierced entirely through their hands. But besides an immense resort +to Benares of poor pilgrims from every part of India, as well as from +Tibet and Burma, numbers of rich Hindus in the decline of life go there +for religious salvation. These devotees lavish large sums in +indiscriminate charity, and it is the hope of sharing in such pious +distributions that brings together the concourse of religious mendicants +from all quarters of the country. + +The city of Benares had a population in 1901 of 209,331. The European +quarter lies to the west of the native town, on both sides of the river +Barna. Here is the cantonment of Sikraul, no longer of much military +importance, and the suburb of Sigra, the seat of the chief missionary +institutions. The principal modern buildings are the Mint, the Prince of +Wales' hospital (commemorating the visit of King Edward VII. to the city +in 1876) and the town hall. The Benares college, including a first-grade +and a Sanskrit college, was opened in 1791, but its fine buildings date +from 1852. The Central Hindu College was opened in 1898. Benares +conducts a flourishing trade by rail and river with the surrounding +country. It is the junction between the Oudh & Rohilkhand and East +Indian railways, the Ganges being crossed by a steel girder bridge of +seven spans, each 350 ft. long. The chief manufactures are silk +brocades, gold and silver thread, gold filigree work, German-silver +work, embossed brass vessels and lacquered toys; but the brasswork for +which Benares used to be famous has greatly degenerated. + +The Hindu kingdom of Benares is said to have been founded by one Kas +Raja about 1200 B.C. Subsequently it became part of the kingdom of +Kanauj, which in A.D. 1193 was conquered by Mahommed of Ghor. On the +downfall of the Pathan dynasty of Delhi, about A.D. 1599, it was +incorporated with the Mogul empire. On the dismemberment of the Delhi +empire, it was seized by Safdar Jang, the nawab wazir of Oudh, by whose +grandson it was ceded to the East India Company by the treaty of 1775. +The subsequent history of Benares contains two important events, the +rebellion of Chait Singh in 1781, occasioned by the demands of Warren +Hastings for money and troops to carry on the Mahratta War, and the +Mutiny of 1857, when the energy and coolness of the European officials, +chiefly of General Neill, carried the district successfully through the +storm. + +The DISTRICT OF BENARES extends over both sides of the Ganges and has an +area of 1008 sq. m. The surface of the country is remarkably level, with +numerous deep ravines in the calcareous conglomerate. The soil is a +clayey or a sandy loam, and very fertile except in the Usar tracts, +where there is a saline efflorescence. The principal rivers are the +Ganges, Karamnasa, Gumti and Barna. The principal crops are barley, +rice, wheat, other food-grains, pulse, sugar-cane and opium. The main +line of the East Indian railway runs through the southern portion of the +district, with a branch to Benares city; the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway +through the northern portion, starting from the city; and a branch of +the Bengal & North-Western railway also terminates at Benares. The +climate of Benares is cool in winter but very warm in the hot season. +The population in 1901 was 882,084, showing a decrease of 4% in the +decade due to the effects of famine. + +The DIVISION OF BENARES has an area of 10,431 sq. m., and comprises the +districts of Benares, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Ballia. In 1901 +the population was 5,069,020, showing a decrease of 6% in the decade. + + See E.B. Havell, _Benares_ (1906); M.A. Sherring, _The Sacred City of + the Hindus_ (1868). + + + + +BENBOW, JOHN (1653-1702), English admiral, the son of a tanner in +Shrewsbury, was born in 1653. He went to sea when very young, and served +in the navy as master's mate and master, from 1678 to 1681. When trading +to the Mediterranean in 1686 in a ship of his own he beat off a Salli +pirate. On the accession of William III. he re-entered the navy as a +lieutenant and was rapidly promoted. It is probable that he enjoyed the +protection of Arthur Herbert, earl of Torrington, under whom he had +already served in the Mediterranean. After taking part in the +bombardment of St Malo (1693), and superintending the blockade of +Dunkirk (1696), he sailed in 1698 for the West Indies, where he +compelled the Spaniards to restore two vessels belonging to the Scottish +colonists at Darien (see PATERSON, WILLIAM) which they had seized. On +his return he was appointed vice-admiral, and was frequently consulted +by the king. In 1701 he was sent again to the West Indies as +commander-in-chief. On the 19th of August 1702, when cruising with a +squadron of seven ships, he sighted, and chased, four French vessels +commanded by M. du Casse near Santa Marta. The engagement is the most +disgraceful episode in English naval history. Benbow's captains were +mutinous, and he was left unsupported in his flagship the "Breda." His +right leg was shattered by a chain-shot, despite which he remained on +the quarter-deck till morning, when the flagrant disobedience of the +captains under him, and the disabled condition of his ship, forced him +reluctantly to abandon the chase. After his return to Jamaica, where his +subordinates were tried by court-martial, he died of his wounds on the +4th of November 1702. A great deal of legendary matter has collected +round his name, and his life is really obscure. + + See Yonge's _Hist. of the British Navy_, vol. i.; Campbell's _British + Admirals_, vol. iii.; also Owen and Blakeway's _History of + Shrewsbury._ + + + + +BENCE-JONES, HENRY (1814-1873), English physician and chemist, was born +at Thorington Hall, Suffolk, in 1814, the son of an officer in the +dragoon guards. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, +Cambridge. Subsequently he studied medicine at St George's hospital, and +chemistry at University College, London. In 1841 he went to Giessen in +Germany to work at chemistry with Liebig. Besides becoming a fellow, and +afterwards senior censor, of the Royal College of Physicians, and a +fellow of the Royal Society, he held the post of secretary to the Royal +Institution for many years. In 1846 he was elected physician to St +George's hospital. He died in London on the 20th of April 1873. Dr +Bence-Jones was a recognized authority on diseases of the stomach and +kidneys. He wrote, in addition to several scientific books and a number +of papers in scientific periodicals, _The Life and Letters of Faraday_ +(1870). + + + + +BENCH (an O.E. and Eng. form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. +Ger. _Bank_, Dan. _baenk_ and the Eng. doublet "bank"), a long narrow +wooden seat for several persons, with or without a back. While the chair +was yet a seat of state or dignity the bench was ordinarily used by the +commonalty. It is still extensively employed for other than domestic +purposes, as in schools, churches and places of amusement. Bench or +Banc, in law, originally was the seat occupied by judges in court; hence +the term is used of a tribunal of justice itself, as the King's Bench, +the Common Bench, and is now applied to judges or magistrates +collectively as the "judicial bench," "bench of magistrates." The word +is also applied to any seat where a number of people sit in an official +capacity, or as equivalent to the dignity itself, as "the civic bench," +the "bench of aldermen," the "episcopal bench," the "front bench," i.e. +that reserved for the leaders of either party in the British House of +Commons. King's Bench (q.v.) was one of the three superior courts of +common law at Westminster, the others being the common pleas and the +exchequer. Under the Judicature Act 1873, the court of king's bench +became the king's bench division of the High Court of Justice. The court +of common pleas was sometimes called the common bench. + +Sittings in bane were formerly the sittings of one of the superior +courts of Westminster for the hearing of motions, special cases, &c., as +opposed to the _nisi prius_ sittings for trial of facts, where usually +only a single judge presided. By the Judicature Act 1873 the business of +courts sitting in bane was transferred to divisional courts. + + + + +BENCH-MARK, a surveyor's mark cut in stone or some durable material, to +indicate a point in a line of levels for the determination of altitudes +over a given district. The name is taken from the "angle-iron" which is +inserted in the horizontal incision as a "bench" or support for the +levelling staff. The mark of the "broad-arrow" is generally incised with +the bench-mark so that the horizontal bar passes through its apex. + + + + +BENCH TABLE (Fr. _banc_; Ital. _sedile_; Ger. _Bank_), the stone seat +which runs round the walls of large churches, and sometimes round the +piers; it very generally is placed in the porches. + + + + +BEND, (1) (From Old Eng. _bendan_), a bending or curvature, as in "the +bend of a river," or technically the ribs or "wales" of a ship. (2) +(From Old Eng. _bindan_, to bind), a nautical term for a knot, the +"cable bend," the "fisherman's bend." (3) (From the Old Fr. _bende_, a +ribbon), a term of heraldry, signifying a diagonal band or stripe across +a shield from the dexter chief to the sinister base; also in tanning, +the half of a hide from which the thinner parts have been trimmed away, +"bend-leather" being the thickest and best sole-leather. + + + + +BENDA, the name of a family of German musicians, of whom the most +important is Georg (d. 1795), who was a pupil of his elder brother Franz +(1709-1786), _Concertmeister_ in Berlin. Georg Benda was a famous +clavier player and oboist, but his chief interest for modern musical +history lies in his melodramas. Being a far more solid musician than +Rousseau he earns the title of the musical pioneer of that art-form +(i.e. the accompaniment of spoken words by illustrative music) in a +sense which cannot be claimed for Rousseau's earlier _Pygmalion_. +Benda's first melodrama, _Ariadne auf Naxos_, was written in 1774 after +his return from a visit to Italy. He was a voluminous composer, whose +works (instrumental and dramatic) were enthusiastically taken up by the +aristocracy in the time of Mozart. Mozart's imagination was much fired +by Benda's new vehicle for dramatic expression, and in 1778 he wrote to +his father with the greatest enthusiasm about a project for composing a +duodrama on the model of Benda's _Ariadne auf Naxos_ and _Medea_, both +of which he considered excellent and always carried about with him. He +concluded at the time that that was the way the problems of operatic +recitative should be solved, or rather shelved, but the only specimen he +has himself produced is the wonderful melodrama in his unfinished +operetta, _Zaide_, written in 1780. + + + + +BENDER (more correctly BENDERY), a town of Russia, in the government of +Bessarabia, on the right bank of the Dniester, 37 m. by rail S.E. of +Kishinev. It possesses a tobacco factory, candle-works and brick-kilns, +and is an important river port, vessels discharging here their cargoes +of corn, wine, wool, cattle, flour and tallow, to be conveyed by land to +Odessa and to Yassy in Rumania. Timber also is floated down the +Dniester. The citadel was dismantled in 1897. The town had in 1867 a +population of 24,443, and in 1900 of 33,741, the greater proportion +being Jews. As early as the 12th century the Genoese had a settlement on +the site of Bender. In 1709 Charles XII., after the defeat of Poltava, +collected his forces here in a camp which they called New Stockholm, and +continued there till 1713. Bender was taken by the Russians in 1770, in +1789 and in 1806, but it was not held permanently by Russia till 1812. + + + + +BENDIGO (formerly SANDHURST), a city of Bendigo county, Victoria, +Australia, 101 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 31,020. It is +the centre of a large gold-field consisting of quartz ranges, with some +alluvial deposits, and many of the mines are deep-level workings. The +discovery of alluvial gold in 1851 brought many immigrants to the +district; but the opening up of the quartz reefs in 1872 was the +principal factor in the importance of Bendigo. It became a municipality +in 1855 and a city in 1871. It is the seat of Anglican and Roman +Catholic bishops. Besides mining, the local industries are the +manufacture of Epsom pottery, bricks and tiles, iron-founding, +stone-cutting, brewing, tanning and coach-building. The surrounding +district produces quantities of wheat and fruits for export, and much +excellent wine is made. + + + + +BENDL, KAREL or KARL (1838-1897), Bohemian composer, was born on the +16th of April 1838 at Prague. He studied at the organ school, and in +1858 had already composed a number of small choral works. In 1861 his +_Poletuje holubice_ won a prize and at once became a favourite with the +local choral societies. In 1864 Bendl went to Brussels, where for a +short time he held the post of second conductor of the opera. After +visiting Amsterdam and Paris he returned to Prague. Here in 1865 he was +appointed conductor of the choral society known as _Hlahoe_, and he held +the post until 1879, when Baron Dervies engaged his services for his +private band. Bendl's first opera _Lejla_ was successfully produced in +1868. It was followed by _Bretislav a Jitka_ (1870), _Stary Zenich_, a +comic opera (1883), _Karel Skreta_ (1883), _Dite Tabera_, a prize opera +(1892), and _Matki Mila_ (1891). Other operas by Bendl are _Indicka +princezna, Cernohorci_, a prize opera, and the two operas _Carovny Kvet_ +and _Gina_. His ballad _Svanda dudak_ acquired much popularity; he +published a mass in D minor for male voices and another mass for a mixed +choir; two songs to _Ave Maria_; a violin sonata and a string quartet in +F; and a quantity of songs and choruses, many of which have come to be +regarded as national possessions of Bohemia. Bendl died on the 20th of +September 1897 at Prague. + + + + +BENEDEK, LUDWIG, RITTER VON (1804-1881), Austrian general, was born at +Odenburg in Hungary on the 14th of July 1804, his father being a doctor. +He received his commission in the Austrian army as ensign in 1822, +becoming lieutenant in 1825, first lieutenant in 1831 and captain in +1835. He was employed for a considerable time in the general staff, and +had risen to the rank of colonel, when he won his first laurels in the +suppression of the rising of 1846 in Galicia (see AUSTRIA: _History_). +In this campaign his bold leadership in the field and his capacity for +organization were so far conspicuous that he was made a _Ritter_ +(knight) of the Leopold order by his sovereign, and a freeman +(_Ehrenburger_) by the city of Lemberg. In 1847 he commanded a regiment +in Italy, and on the outbreak of war with Sardinia he was placed in +command of a mixed brigade, at the head of which he displayed against +regular troops the same qualities of unhesitating bravery and resolution +which had given him the victory in many actions with the Galician +rebels. His conduct at Curtatone won for him the commandership of the +Leopold order, and shortly afterwards the knighthood of the Maria +Theresa order. At the action of Mortara his tactical skill and bravery +were again conspicuous, and Radetzky particularly distinguished him in +despatches. The archduke Albert, with whom he served, is said to have +given him the sword of his father, the great archduke Charles. He was +promoted major-general soon afterwards over the heads of several +colonels senior to him, and was sent as a brigade commander to Hungary. +Again he was distinguished as a fighting general at Raab, Komorn, +Szegedin and many other actions, and was three times wounded. Benedek +then received the cross for military merit, and soon afterwards was +posted to the staff of the army in Italy. In 1852 he was made lieutenant +field marshal, and in 1857 commander successively of the II., the IV. +and the VIII. corps, and also a _Geheimrath_. In the political crisis of +1854 he had command of a corps in the army of observation under Hess on +the Turkish frontier. In the war of 1859 in Italy, Benedek commanded the +VIII. corps, and at the battle of Solferino was in command of the right +of the Austrian position. That portion of the struggle which was fought +out between Benedek and the Piedmontese army is sometimes called the +battle of San Martino. Benedek, with magnificent gallantry, held his own +all day, and in the end covered the retreat of the rest of the Austrian +army to the Mincio. His reward was the commandership of the order of +Maria Theresa, and Vienna and many other cities followed the example of +Lemberg in 1846. His reputation was now at its highest, and his great +popularity was enhanced, in the prevailing discontent with the +reactionary and clerical government of previous years, by the fact that +he was a Protestant and not of noble birth. He was promoted +_Feldzeugmeister_ and in 1860 appointed quartermaster-general to the +army, and soon afterwards governor-general and commander-in-chief in +Hungary, in succession to the archduke Albert. In 1861 he was made +commander-in-chief in Venetia and the adjoining provinces of the empire, +and in the following year he received the grand cross of the Leopold +order. In 1864 he resigned the quartermaster-generalship and devoted +himself exclusively to the command of the army in Italy. In 1861 he had +been made a life-member of the house of peers. In 1866 war with Prussia +and with Italy became imminent. Benedek was appointed to command the +Army of the North against the Prussians, the control of affairs in Italy +being taken over by the archduke Albert. For the story of the campaign +of Koniggratz, in which the Austrians under Benedek's command were +decisively defeated, see SEVEN WEEKS' WAR. Benedek took over his new +command as a stranger to the country and to the troops. Only the +personal command of the emperor and the requests of the archduke Albert +prevailed upon him to "sacrifice his honour," as he himself said, in a +task for which he felt himself ill prepared. When he took the field his +despondency was increased by the passive obstruction which he met with +amongst his own officers, many of whom resented being placed under a man +of the middle class instead of the archduke Albert, and by the general +state of unpreparedness which he found existing at the front. Further, +his own staff was self-willed to the verge of disloyalty, and his +assistants, Lieutenant Field Marshal von Henikstein, and Major-General +Krismanic in particular, endeavoured to control Benedek's operations in +the spirit of the 18th-century strategists. Under these circumstances, +and against the superior numbers, _moral_ and armament of the Prussians, +the Austrians were foredoomed to defeat. A series of partial actions +convinced Benedek that success was unattainable, and he telegraphed to +the emperor advising him to make peace; the emperor refused on the +ground that no decisive battle had been fought; Benedek, thereupon, +instead of retreating across the Elbe, determined to bring on a decisive +engagement, and took up a position with the whole of his forces near +Koniggratz with the Elbe in his rear. Here he was completely defeated by +the Prussians on the 3rd of July, but they could not prevent him from +making good his retreat over the river in magnificent order on the +evening of the battle. He conducted the operations of his army in +retreat up to the great concentration at Vienna under the archduke +Albert, and was then suspended from his command and a court-martial +ordered; the emperor, however, in December determined that the inquiry +should be stopped. Benedek from this time lived in absolute retirement, +and having given his word of honour to the archduke Albert that he would +not attempt to rehabilitate himself before the world, he published no +defence of his conduct, and even destroyed his papers relating to the +campaign of 1866. This attitude of self-sacrificing loyalty he +maintained even when on the 8th of November 1866 the official _Wiener +Zeitung_ published an article in which he was made responsible for all +the disasters of the war. The history of the campaign from the Austrian +point of view as at present known leaves much unexplained, and the +published material is primarily of a controversial character. The +official _Osterreichs Kampfe_ speaks of the unfortunate general in the +following terms: "A career full of achievements, distinction and fame +deserved a less tragic close. A dispassionate judgment will not forget +the ever fortunate and successful deeds which he accomplished earlier in +the service of the emperor, and will ensure for him, in spite of his +last heavy misfortune (_Last_), an honourable memory." Praise of his +earlier career could not well be denied, and the official history is +careful not to extend its eulogy to cover the events of 1866; the +recognition in these words cannot therefore be set against the general +opinion of subsequent critics that Benedek was the victim of political +necessities, perhaps of court intrigues. For the rest of his life +Benedek lived at Graz, where he died on the 27th of April 1881. + + See H. Friedjung, _Benedeks nachgelassene Papiere_ (Leipzig, 1901, 3rd + and enlarged ed., 1904), and _Der Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in + Deutschland 1859-1866_ (Stuttgart, 1897, 6th ed., 1904); v. + Schlichtling, _Moltke und Benedek_ (Berlin, 1900), also therewith A. + Krauss, _Moltke, Benedek und Napoleon_ (Vienna, 1901); and a _roman a + cle_ by Grafin Salburg, entitled _Konigsglaube_ (Dresden, 1906). The + brief memoir in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ represents the court + view of Benedek's case. + + + + +BENEDETTI, VINCENT, COUNT (1817-1900), French diplomatist, was born at +Bastia, in the island of Corsica, on the 29th of April 1817. In the year +1840 he entered the service of the French foreign office, and was +appointed to a post under the marquis de la Valette, who was +consul-general at Cairo. He spent eight years in Egypt, being appointed +consul in 1845; in 1848 he was made consul at Palermo, and in 1851 he +accompanied the marquis, who had been appointed ambassador at +Constantinople, as first secretary. For fifteen months during the +progress of the Crimean War he acted as charge d'affaires. In the second +volume of his essays he gives some recollections of his experiences in +the East, including an account of Mehemet Ali, and a (not very friendly) +sketch of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1855, after refusing the post +of minister at Teheran, he was employed in the foreign office at Paris, +and acted as secretary to the congress at Paris (1855-1856). During the +next few years he was chiefly occupied with Italian affairs, in which he +was much interested, and Cavour said of him he was an Italian at heart. +He was chosen in 1861 to be the first envoy of France to the king of +Italy, but he resigned his post next year on the retirement of E.A. +Thouvenel, who had been his patron, when the anti-Italian party began to +gain the ascendancy at Paris. In 1864 he was appointed ambassador at the +court of Prussia. + +Benedetti remained in Berlin till the outbreak of war in 1870, and +during these years he played an important part in the diplomatic history +of Europe. His position was a difficult one, for Napoleon did not keep +him fully informed as to the course of French policy. In 1866, during +the critical weeks which followed the attempt of Napoleon to intervene +between Prussia and Austria, he accompanied the Prussian headquarters in +the advance on Vienna, and during a visit to Vienna he helped to arrange +the preliminaries of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg. It was after +this that he was instructed to present to Bismarck French demands for +"compensation," and in August, after his return to Berlin, as a result +of his discussions with Bismarck a draft treaty was drawn up, in which +Prussia promised France her support in the annexation of Belgium. This +treaty was never concluded, but the draft, which was in Benedetti's +handwriting, was kept by Bismarck and, in 1870, a few days after the +outbreak of the war, was published by him in _The Times_. During 1867 +Benedetti was much occupied with the affair of Luxemburg. In July 1870, +when the candidature of the prince of Hohenzollern for the throne of +Spain became known, Benedetti was instructed by the duc de Gramont to +present to the king of Prussia, who was then at Ems, the French demands, +that the king should order the prince to withdraw, and afterwards that +the king should promise that the candidature would never be renewed. +This last demand Benedetti submitted to the king in an informal meeting +on the promenade at Ems, and the misleading reports of the conversation +which were circulated were the immediate cause of the war which +followed, for the Germans were led to believe that Benedetti had +insulted the king, and the French that the king had insulted the +ambassador. Benedetti was severely attacked in his own country for his +conduct as ambassador, and the duc de Gramont attempted to throw upon +him the blame for the failures of French diplomacy. He answered the +charges brought against him in a book, _Ma Mission en Prusse_ (Paris, +1871), which still remains one of the most valuable authorities for the +study of Bismarck's diplomacy. In this Benedetti successfully defends +himself, and shows that he had kept his government well informed; he had +even warned them a year before as to the proposed Hohenzollern +candidature. Even if he had been outwitted by Bismarck in the matter of +the treaty of 1866, the policy of the treaty was not his, but was that +of E. Drouyn de Lluys. The idea of the annexation of part of Belgium to +France had been suggested to him first by Bismarck; and the use to which +Bismarck put the draft was not one which he could be expected to +anticipate, for he had carried on the negotiations in good faith. After +the fall of the Empire he retired to Corsica. He lived to see his +defence confirmed by later publications, which threw more light on the +secret history of the times. He published in 1895 a volume of _Essais +diplomatiques_, containing a full account of his mission to Ems, written +in 1873; and in 1897 a second series dealing with the Eastern question. +He died on the 28th of March 1900, while on a visit to Paris. He +received the title of count from Napoleon. + + See Rothan, _La Politique Francaise en 1866_ (Paris, 1879); and + _L'Affaire de Luxemburg_ (Paris, 1881); Sorel, _Histoire diplomatique_ + (Paris, 1875); Sybel, Die Begrundung des deutschen Reiches (Munich, + 1889), &c. (J. W. He.) + + + + +BENEDICT (BENEDICTUS), the name taken by fourteen of the popes. + +BENEDICT I. was pope from 573 to 578. He succeeded John III., and +occupied the papal chair during the incursions of the Lombards, and +during the series of plagues and famines which followed these invasions. + +BENEDICT II. was pope from 684 to 685. He succeeded Leo II., but +although chosen in 683 he was not ordained till 684, because the leave +of the emperor Constantine was not obtained until some months after the +election. + +BENEDICT III. was pope from 855 to 858. He was chosen by the clergy and +people of Rome, but the election was not confirmed by the emperor, Louis +II., who appointed an anti-pope, Anastasius (the librarian). But the +candidature of this person, who had been deposed from the presbyterate +under Leo IV., was indefensible. The imperial government at length +recognized Benedict and discontinued its opposition, with the result +that he was at last successful. The mythical pope Joan is usually placed +between Benedict and his predecessor, Leo IV. + +BENEDICT IV. was pope from 900 to 903. + +BENEDICT V. was pope from 964 to 965. He was elected by the Romans on +the death of John XII. The emperor Otto I. did not approve of the +choice, and carried off the pope to Hamburg, where he died. + +BENEDICT VI. was pope from 972 to 974. He was chosen with great ceremony +and installed pope under the protection of the emperor, Otto the Great. +On the death of the emperor the turbulent citizens of Rome renewed their +outrages, and the pope himself was strangled by order of Crescentius, +the son of the notorious Theodora, who replaced him by a deacon called +Franco. This Franco took the name of Boniface VII. + +BENEDICT VII. was pope from 974 to 983. He was elected through the +intervention of a representative of the emperor, Count Sicco, who drove +out the intruded Franco (afterwards Pope Boniface VII.). Benedict +governed Rome quietly for nearly nine years, a somewhat rare thing in +those days. + +BENEDICT VIII., pope from 1012 to 1024, was called originally +Theophylactus. He was a member of the family of the count of Tusculum, +and was opposed by an anti-pope, Gregory, but defeated him with the aid +of King Henry II. of Saxony, whom he crowned emperor in 1014. In his +pontificate the Saracens began to attack the southern coasts of Europe, +and effected a settlement in Sardinia. The Normans also then began to +settle in Italy. In Italy Benedict supported the policy of the emperor, +Henry II., and at the council of Pavia (1022) exerted himself in favour +of ecclesiastical discipline, then in a state of great decadence. + +BENEDICT IX., pope from 1033 to 1056, son of Alberic, count of Tusculum, +and nephew of Benedict VIII., was also called Theophylactus. He was +installed pope at the age of twelve through the influence of his father. +The disorders of his conduct, though tolerated by the emperors, Conrad +II. and Henry III., who were then morally responsible for the +pontificate, at length disgusted the Romans, who drove him out in 1044 +and appointed Silvester III. his successor. Silvester remained in the +papal chair but a few weeks, as the people of Tusculum quickly recovered +their influence and reinstated their pope. Benedict, however, was +obliged to bow before the execration of the Romans. He sold his rights +to his godfather, the priest Johannes Gratianus, who was installed under +the name of Gregory VI. (1045). The following year Henry III. obtained +at the council of Sutri the deposition of the three competing popes, and +replaced them by Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who took the name of +Clement II. But before the close of 1047 Clement II. died, probably from +poison administered by Benedict, who was reinstalled for the third time. +At last, on the 17th of July 1048, the marquis of Tuscany drove him from +Rome, where he was never seen again. He lived several years after his +expulsion and appears to have died impenitent. + +BENEDICT X. (Johannes "Mincius," i.e. the lout or dolt, bishop of +Velletri) was pope from 1058 to 1059. He was elected on the death of +Stephen IX. through the influence of the Roman barons, who, however, had +pledged themselves to take no action without Hildebrand, who was then +absent from Rome. Hildebrand did not recognize him, and put forward an +opposition pope in the person of Gerard, bishop of Florence (pope as +Nicholas II.), whom he supported against the Roman aristocracy. With the +help of the Normans, Hildebrand seized the castle of Galeria, where +Benedict had taken refuge, and degraded him to the rank of a simple +priest. (L. D.*) + +BENEDICT XI. (Niccolo Boccasini), pope from 1303 to 1304, the son of a +notary, was born in 1240 at Treviso. Entering the Dominican order in +1254, he became lector, prior of the convent, provincial of his order in +Lombardy, and in 1296 its general. In 1298 he was created cardinal +priest of Santa Sabina, and in 1300 cardinal bishop of Ostia and +Velletri. In 1302 he was papal legate in Hungary. On the 22nd of October +1303 he was unanimously elected pope. He did much to conciliate the +enemies made by his predecessor Boniface VIII., notably France, the +Colonnas and King Frederick II. of Sicily; nevertheless on the 7th of +June 1304 he excommunicated William of Nogaret and all the Italians who +had captured Boniface in Anagni. Benedict died at Perugia on the 7th of +July 1304; if he was really poisoned, as report had it, suspicion would +fall primarily on Nogaret. His successor Clement V. transferred the +papal residence to Avignon. Among Benedict's works are commentaries on +part of the Psalms and on the Gospel of Matthew. His beatification took +place in 1733. + + See C. Grandjean, "Registres de Benoit XI." (Paris, 1883 ff.), + _Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome._ + +BENEDICT XII. (Jacques Fournier), pope from 1334 to 1342, the son of a +miller, was born at Saverdun on the Arriege. Entering the Cistercian +cloister Bolbonne, and graduating doctor of theology at Paris, he became +in 1311 abbot of Fontfroide, in 1317 bishop of Pamiers and in 1326 of +Mirepoix. Created cardinal priest of Santa Prisca in 1327 by his uncle +John XXII. he was elected his successor on the 20th of December 1334. +Benedict made appointments carefully, reformed monastic orders and +consistently opposed nepotism. Unable to remove his capital to Rome or +to Bologna, he began to erect a great palace at Avignon. In 1336 he +decided against a pet notion of John XXII. by saying that souls of +saints may attain the fulness of the beatific vision _before_ the last +judgment. In 1339 he entered upon fruitless negotiations looking toward +the reunion of the Greek and Roman churches. French influence made +futile his attempt to come to an understanding with the emperor Louis +the Bavarian. He died on the 25th of April 1342. + + See the source publications of G. Daumet (_Lettres closes, patentes et + curiales_, ... Paris, 1899 ff.), and J.-M. Vidal (_Lettres communes_, + ... Paris, 1903 ff.). (W. W. R.*) + +BENEDICT XIII. (Pedro de Luna), (c. 1328-1422 or 1423), anti-pope, +belonged to one of the most noble families in Aragon. His high birth, +his legal learning--he was for a long time professor of canon law at +Montpellier--and the irreproachable purity of his life, recommended him +to Pope Gregory XI, who created him cardinal in 1375. He was almost the +only one who succeeded in making a firm stand in the tumultuous +conclave of 1378; but the deliberation with which he made up his mind as +to the validity of the election of Urban VI. was equalled, when he took +the side of Clement VII., by the ardour and resourcefulness which he +displayed in defending the cause of the pope of Avignon; it was mainly +to him that the latter owed his recognition by Castile, Aragon and +Navarre. When elected pope, or rather anti-pope, by the cardinals of +Avignon, on the 28th of September 1394, it was he who by his astuteness, +his resolution, and, it may be added, by his unswerving faith in the +justice of his cause, was to succeed in prolonging the lamentable schism +of the West for thirty years. The hopes he had aroused that, by a +voluntary abdication, he would restore unity to the church, were vain; +though called upon by the princes of France to carry out his plan, +abandoned by his cardinals, besieged and finally kept under close +observation in the palace of the popes (1398-1403), he stood firm, and +tired out the fury of his opponents. Escaping from Avignon, he again won +obedience in France, and his one thought was how to triumph over his +Italian rival, if necessary, by force. He yielded, however, to the +instances of the government of Charles VI., and pretending that he +wished to have an interview with Gregory XII., with a view to their +simultaneous abdication, he advanced to Savona, and then to Porto +Venere. The failure of these negotiations, for which he was only in part +responsible, led to the universal movement of indignation and +impatience, which ended, in France, in the declaration of neutrality +(1408), and at Pisa, in the decree of deposition against the two +pontiffs (1409). Benedict XIII., who had on his part tried to call +together a council at Perpignan, was by this time recognized hardly +anywhere but in his native land, in Scotland, and in the estates of the +countship of Armagnac. He remained none the less full of energy and of +illusions, repulsed the overtures of Sigismund, king of the Romans, who +had come to Perpignan to persuade him to abdicate, and, abandoned by +nearly all his adherents, he took refuge in the impregnable castle of +Peniscola, on a rock dominating the Mediterranean (1415). The council of +Constance then deposed him, as a perjurer, an incurable schismatic and a +heretic (26th July 1417). After struggling with the popes of Rome, Urban +VI., Boniface IX., Innocent VII. and Gregory XII., and against the popes +of Pisa, Alexander V. and John XXIII., Pedro de Luna, clinging more than +ever to that apostolic seat which he still professed not to desire, +again took up the struggle against Martin V., although the latter was +recognized throughout almost all Christendom, and, before his death +(29th November 1422, or 23rd May 1423), he nominated four new cardinals +in order to carry the schism on even after him. + + See Fr. Ehrle, _Archiv fur Lit. und Kirchengesch._ vols. v., vi., + vii.; N. Valois, _La France et le grand schisme d'occident_ (4 vols., + Paris, 1896-1902); Fr. Ehrle, "Martin de Alpartils chronica + actitatorum temporibus domini Benedicti XIII." (_Quellen und + Forschungen aus dem Geb. der Gesch._, Gorres-Gesellschaft, Paderborn, + 1906). (N. V.) + +BENEDICT XIII. (Piero Francesco Orsini), pope from 1724 to 1730, at +first styled Benedict XIV., was born on the 2nd of February 1649, of the +ducal family of Orsini-Gravina. In 1667 he became a Dominican (as +Vincentius Maria), studied theology and philosophy, was made a cardinal +in 1672 and archbishop of Benevento in 1686. Elected pope on the 29th of +May 1724, he attempted to reform clerical morals; but neither the +decrees of the Latin council (1725) nor his personal precepts had much +effect. He confirmed the bull _Unigenitus_; but, despite the Jesuits, +allowed the Dominicans to preach the Augustinian doctrine of grace. +State affairs he left entirely to the unpopular Cardinal Nicolo Coscia. +He died on the 21st of February 1730. His works, were published in 3 +vols. at Ravenna in 1728. + +BENEDICT XIV. (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), pope from 1740 to 1758, was +born at Bologna on the 31st of March 1675. At the age of thirteen he +entered the Collegium Clementinum at Rome. He served the Curia in many +and important capacities, yet devoted his leisure time to theological +and canonistic study. Benedict XIII. made him archbishop of Theodosia +_in partibus_, then of Ancona (1727), and the next year created him +cardinal priest. In 1731 Clement XII. translated him to his native city +of Bologna, where as archbishop he was both efficient and popular. He +published valuable works, notably _De servorum Dei beatificatione et +canonizatione, De sacrificio missae_, as well as a treatise on the +feasts of Christ and the Virgin and of some saints honoured in Bologna. +In a conclave which had lasted for months he was elected on the 17th of +August 1740 the successor of Clement XII. Benedict XIV. was not merely +earnest and conscientious, but of incisive intellect, and unfailingly +cheerful and witty. In several respects he bettered the economic +conditions of the papal states, but was disinclined to undertake the +needed thorough-going reform of its administration. In foreign politics +he made important concessions to Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, Spain, and +was the first pope expressly to recognize the king of Prussia as such. +In 1741 he issued the bull _Immensa pastorum principis_, demanding more +humane treatment for the Indians of Brazil and Paraguay, and in the +bulls _Ex quo singulari_ (1742) and _Omnium sollicitudinum_ (1744) he +rebuked the missionary methods of the Jesuits in accommodating their +message to the heathen usages of the Chinese and of the natives of +Malabar. In accord with the spirit of the age he reduced the number of +holy days in several Catholic countries. To the end of his life he kept +up his studies and his intercourse with other scholars, and founded +several learned societies. His masterpiece, _Libri octo de synoda +diocesana_, begun in Bologna, appeared during his pontificate. He died +on the 3rd of May 1758. + + His works, published in twelve quarto volumes at Rome (1747-1751), + appeared in more nearly complete editions at Venice in 1767 and at + Prato, 1839-1846; also _Briefe Benedicts XIV._, ed. F.X. Kraus (2nd + ed., Freiburg, 1888); _Benedicti XIV. Papae opera inedita_, ed. F. + Heiner (Freiburg, 1904). See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, ii. 572 + ff.; Wetzer and Welter, _Kirchenlexikon_, ii. 317 ff. (W. W. R.*) + + + + +BENEDICT OF ALIGNAN (d. 1268), Benedictine abbot of Notre Dame de la +Grasse (1224) and bishop of Marseilles (1229), twice visited the Holy +Land (1239 and 1260), where he helped the Templars build the great +castle of Safet. He founded a short-lived order, the Brothers of the +Virgin, suppressed by the council of Lyons (1274), and died a +Franciscan. His writings include a letter to Innocent IV. and _De +constructione Castri Saphet_ (Baluze, _Miscellanea_, ii.). + + + + +BENEDICT OF NURSIA, SAINT (c. 480-c. 544), the patriarch of Western +monks. Our only authority for the facts of St Benedict's life is bk. ii +of St Gregory's _Dialogues_. St Gregory declares that he obtained his +information from four of St Benedict's disciples, whom he names; and +there can be no serious reason for doubting that it is possible to +reconstruct the outlines of St Benedict's career (see Hodgkin, _Italy +and her Invaders_, iv. 412). A precise chronology and a pedigree have +been supplied for Benedict, according to which he was born in 480, of +the great family of the Anicii; but all we know is what St Gregory tells +us, that he was born of good family in Nursia, near Spoleto in Umbria. +His birth must have occurred within a few years of the date assigned; +the only fixed chronological point is a visit of the Gothic king Totila +to him in 543, when Benedict was already established at Monte Cassino +and advanced in years (_Dial_. ii. 14, 15). He was sent by his parents +to frequent the Roman schools, but shocked by the prevailing +licentiousness he fled away. It has been usual to represent him as a +mere boy at this time, but of late years various considerations have +been pointed out which make it more likely that he was a young man. He +went to the mountainous districts of the Abruzzi, and at last came to +the ruins of Nero's palace and the artificial lake at Subiaco, 40 m. +from Rome. Among the rocks on the side of the valley opposite the palace +he found a cave in which he took up his abode, unknown to all except one +friend, Romanus, a monk of a neighbouring monastery, who clothed him in +the monastic habit and secretly supplied him with food. No one who has +seen the spot will doubt that the Sacro Speco is indeed the cave wherein +Benedict spent the three years of opening manhood in solitary prayer, +contemplation and austerity. After this period of formation his fame +began to spread abroad, and the monks of a neighbouring monastery +induced him to become their abbot; but their lives were irregular and +dissolute, and on his trying to put down abuses they attempted to +poison him. He returned to his cave, but disciples flocked to him, and +in time he formed twelve monasteries in the neighbourhood, placing +twelve monks in each, and himself retaining a general control over all. +In time patricians and senators from Rome entrusted their young sons to +his care, to be brought up as monks; in this manner came to him his two +best-known disciples, Maurus and Placidus. Driven from Subiaco by the +jealousy and molestations of a neighbouring priest, but leaving behind +him communities in his twelve monasteries, he himself, accompanied by a +small band of disciples, journeyed south until he came to Cassino, a +town halfway between Rome and Naples. Climbing the high mountain that +overhangs the town, he established on the summit the monastery with +which his name has ever since been associated, and which for centuries +was a chief centre of religious life for western Europe. He destroyed +the remnants of paganism that lingered on here, and by his preaching +gained the rustic population to Christianity. Few other facts of his +career are known: there is record of his founding a monastery at +Terracina; his death must have occurred soon after Totila's visit in +543. + +_Rule of St Benedict._--In order to understand St Benedict's character +and spirit, and to discover the secret of the success of his institute, +it is necessary, as St Gregory says, to turn to his Rule. St Gregory's +characterization of the Rule as "conspicuous for its discretion" touches +the most essential quality. The relation of St Benedict's Rule to +earlier monastic rules, and of his institute to the prevailing monachism +of his day, is explained in the article MONASTICISM. Here it is enough +to say that nowadays it is commonly recognized by students that the +manner of life instituted by St Benedict was not intended to be, and as +a matter of fact was not, one of any great austerity, when judged by the +standard of his own day (see E.C. Butler, _Lausiac History of +Palladius_, part i. pp. 251-256). His monks were allowed proper clothes, +sufficient food, ample sleep. The only bodily austerities were the +abstinence from flesh meat and the unbroken fast till mid-day or even 3 +P.M., but neither would appear so onerous in Italy even now, as to us in +northern climes. Midnight office was no part of St Benedict's Rule: the +time for rising for the night office varied from 1.30 to 3.0, according +to the season, and the monks had had unbroken sleep for 7-1/2 or even 8 +hours, except in the hot weather, when in compensation they were allowed +the traditional Italian summer siesta after the mid-day meal. The +canonical office was chanted throughout, but the directly religious +duties of the day can hardly have taken more than 4 or 5 hours--perhaps +8 on Sundays. The remaining hours of the day were divided between work +and reading, in the proportion (on the average of the whole year) of +about 6 and 4 hours respectively. The "reading" in St Benedict's time +was probably confined to the Bible and the Fathers. The "work" +contemplated by St Benedict was ordinarily field work, as was natural in +view of the conditions of the time and best suited to the majority of +the monks; but the principle laid down is that the monks should do +whatever work is most useful. There were from the beginning young boys +in the monastery, who were educated by the monks according to the ideas +of the time. We have seen St Benedict evangelizing the pagan population +round Monte Cassino; and a considerable time each day is assigned to the +reading of the Fathers. Thus the germs of all the chief works carried on +by his monks in later ages were to be found in his own monastery. + +The Rule consists of a prologue and 73 chapters. Though it has resisted +all attempts to reduce it to an ordered scheme, and probably was not +written on any set plan, still it is possible roughly to indicate its +contents: after the prologue and introductory chapter setting forth St +Benedict's intention, follow instructions to the abbot on the manner in +which he should govern his monastery (2,3); next comes the ascetical +portion of the Rule, on the chief monastic virtues (4-7); then the +regulations for the celebration of the canonical office, which St +Benedict calls "the Work of God" or "the divine work," his monks' first +duty, "of which nothing is to take precedence" (8-20); faults and +punishments (23-30); the cellarer and property of the monastery (31, +32); community of goods (33, 34); various officials and daily life (21, +22, 35-57); reception of monks (58-61); miscellaneous (62-73). + +The most remarkable chapters, in which St Benedict's wisdom stands out +most conspicuously, are those on the abbot (2,3, 27,64). The abbot is to +govern the monastery with full and unquestioned patriarchal authority; +on important matters he must consult the whole community and hear what +each one, even the youngest, thinks; on matters of less weight he should +consult a few of the elder monks; but in either case the decision rests +entirely with him, and all are to acquiesce. He must, however, bear in +mind that he will have to render an account of all his decisions and to +answer for the souls of all his monks before the judgment seat of God. +Moreover, he has to govern in accordance with the Rule, and must +endeavour, while enforcing discipline and implanting virtues, not to +sadden or "overdrive" his monks, or give them cause for "just +murmuring." In these chapters pre-eminently appears that element of +"discretion," as St Gregory calls it, or humanism as it would now be +termed, which without doubt has been a chief cause of the success of the +Rule. There is as yet no satisfactory text of the Rule, either critical +or manual; the best manual text is Schmidt's _editio minor_ (Regensburg, +1892). Of the many commentaries the most valuable are those of Paulus +Diaconus (the earliest, c. 800), of Calmet and of Martene (Migne, +_Patrol. Lat._ lxvi.). + + AUTHORITIES.--An old English translation of St Gregory's _Dialogues_ + is reprinted in the Quarterly Series (Burns & Oates). On St Benedict's + life and Rule see Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, bk. iv.; Abbate + L. Tosti, _S. Benedetto_ (translated 1896); also Indexes to standard + general histories of the period; Thomas Hodgkin's _Italy and Her + Invaders_ and Gregorovius' _History of the City of Rome_ may be + specially mentioned. But by far the best summaries in English are + those contained in the relevant portions of F.H. Dudden's _Gregory the + Great_ (1905), i. 107-115, ii. 160-169; on the recent criticism of the + text and contents of the Rule, see Otto Zockler, _Askese und Monchtum_ + (1897), 355-371; and E.C. Butler, articles in _Downside Review_, + December 1899, and _Journal of Theological Studies_, April 1902. + (E. C. B.) + + + + +BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS (1804-1885), musical composer, was born in +Stuttgart on the 27th of November 1804. He was the son of a Jewish +banker, and learnt composition from Hummel at Weimar and Weber at +Dresden; with the latter he enjoyed for three years an intimacy like +that of a son, and it was Weber who introduced him in Vienna to +Beethoven on the 5th of October 1823. In the same year he was appointed +Kapellmeister of the Karnthnerthor theatre at Vienna, and two years +later (in 1825) he became Kapellmeister of the San Carlo theatre at +Naples. Here his first opera, _Giacinta ed Ernesto_, was brought out in +1829, and another, written for his native city, _I Portoghesi in Goa_, +was given there in 1830; neither of these was a great success, and in +1834 he went to Paris, leaving it in 1835 at the suggestion of Malibran +for London, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1836 he was +given the conductorship of an operatic enterprise at the Lyceum Theatre, +and brought out a short opera, _Un anno ed un giorno_, previously given +in Naples. In 1838 he became conductor of the English opera at Drury +Lane during the period of Balfe's great popularity; his own operas +produced there were _The Gipsy's Warning_ (1838), _The Bride of Venice_ +(1843), and _The Crusaders_ (1846). In 1848 he conducted Mendelssohn's +_Elijah_ at Exeter Hall, for the first appearance of Jenny Lind in +oratorio, and in 1850 he went to America as the accompanist on that +singer's tour. On his return in 1852 he became musical conductor under +Mapleson's management at Her Majesty's theatre (and afterwards at Drury +Lane), and in the same year conductor of the Harmonic Union. Benedict +wrote recitatives for the production of an Italian version of Weber's +_Oberon_ in 1860. In the same year was produced his beautiful cantata +_Undine_ at the Norwich festival, in which Clara Novello appeared in +public for the last time. His best-known opera, _The Lily of Killarney_, +written on the subject of Dion Boucicault's play _Colleen Bawn_ to a +libretto by Oxenford, was produced at Covent Garden in 1862. His +operetta, _The Bride of Song_, was brought out there in 1864. _St +Cecilia_, an oratorio, was performed at the Norwich festival in 1886; +_St Peter_ at the Birmingham festival of 1870; _Graziella_, a cantata, +was given at the Birmingham festival of 1882, and in August 1883 was +produced in operatic form at the Crystal Palace. Here also a symphony by +him was given in 1873. Benedict conducted every Norwich festival from +1845 to 1878 inclusive, and the Liverpool Philharmonic Society's +concerts from 1876 to 1880. He was the regular accompanist at the Monday +Popular Concerts in London from their start, and with few exceptions +acted as conductor of these concerts. He contributed an interesting life +of Weber to the series of biographies of "Great Musicians." In 1871 he +was knighted, and in 1874 was made knight commander of the orders of +Franz Joseph (Austria) and Frederick (Wurttemberg). He died in London on +the 5th of June 1885. + + + + +BENEDICT BISCOP (628?-690), also known as BISCOP BADUCING, English +churchman, was born of a good Northumbrian family and was for a time a +thegn of King Oswiu. He then went abroad and after a second journey to +Rome (he made five altogether) lived as a monk at Lerins (665-667). It +was under his conduct that Theodore of Tarsus came from Rome to +Canterbury in 669, and in the same year Benedict was appointed abbot of +St Peter's, Canterbury. Five years later he built the monastery of St +Peter at Wearmouth, on land granted him by Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and +endowed it with an excellent library. A papal letter in 678 exempted the +monastery from external control, and in 682 Benedict erected a sister +foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. He died on the 12th of January 690, +leaving a high reputation for piety and culture. Saxon architecture owes +nearly everything to his initiative, and Bede was one of his pupils. + + + + +BENEDICTINE, a liqueur manufactured at Fecamp, France. The composition +is a trade secret, but, according to Konig, the following are among the +substances used in the manufacture of imitations of the genuine article: +fresh lemon peel, cardamoms, hyssop tops, angelica, peppermint, thyme, +cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves and arnica flowers. (See FECAMP.) + + + + +BENEDICTINES, or BLACK MONKS, monks living according to the Rule of St +Benedict (q.v.) of Nursia. Subiaco in the Abruzzi was the cradle of the +Benedictines, and in that neighbourhood St Benedict established twelve +monasteries. Afterwards giving up the direction of these, he migrated to +Monte Cassino and there established the monastery which became the +centre whence his Rule and institute spread. From Monte Cassino he +founded a monastery at Terracina. These fourteen are the only +monasteries of which we have any knowledge as being founded before St +Benedict's death; for the mission of St Placidus to Sicily must +certainly be regarded as mere romance, nor does there seem to be any +solid reason for viewing more favourably the mission of St Maurus to +Gaul. There is some ground for believing that it was the third abbot of +Monte Cassino who began to spread a knowledge of the Rule beyond the +circle of St Benedict's own foundations. About 580-590 Monte Cassino was +sacked by the Lombards, and the community came to Rome and was +established in a monastery attached to the Lateran Basilica, in the +centre of the ecclesiastical world. It is now commonly recognized by +scholars that when Gregory the Great became a monk and turned his palace +on the Caelian Hill into a monastery, the monastic life there carried +out was fundamentally based on the Benedictine Rule (see F.H. Dudden, +_Gregory the Great_, i. 108). From this monastery went forth St +Augustine and his companions on their mission to England in 596, +carrying their monachism with them; thus England was the first country +out of Italy in which Benedictine life was firmly planted. In the course +of the 7th century Benedictine life was gradually introduced in Gaul, +and in the 8th it was carried into the Germanic lands from England. It +is doubtful whether in Spain there were Benedictine monasteries, +properly so called, until a later period. In many parts the Benedictine +Rule met the much stricter Irish Rule of Columbanus, introduced by the +Irish missionaries on the continent, and after brief periods, first of +conflict and then of fusion, it gradually absorbed and supplanted it; +thus during the 8th century it became, out of Ireland and other purely +Celtic lands, the only rule and form of monastic life throughout western +Europe,--so completely that Charlemagne once asked if there ever had +been any other monastic rule. + +What may be called the inner side of Benedictine life and history is +treated in the article MONASTICISM; here it is possible to deal only +with the broad facts of the external history. The chief external works +achieved for western Europe by the Benedictines during the early middle +ages may be summed up under the following heads. + +1. _The Conversion of the Teutonic Races._--The tendency of modern +historical scholarship justifies the maintenance of the tradition that +St Augustine and his forty companions were the first great Benedictine +apostles and missioners. Through their efforts Christianity was firmly +planted in various parts of England; and after the conversion of the +country it was English Benedictines--Wilfrid, Willibrord, Swithbert, +Willehad--who evangelized Friesland and Holland; and another, Winfrid or +Boniface, who, with his fellow-monks Willibald and others, evangelized +the greater part of central Germany and founded and organized the German +church. It was Anschar, a monk of Corbie, who first preached to the +Scandinavians, and other Benedictines were apostles to Poles, Prussians +and other Slavonic peoples. The conversion of the Teutonic races may +properly be called the work of the Benedictines. + +2. _The Civilization of north-western Europe._--As the result of their +missionary enterprises the Benedictines penetrated into all these lands +and established monasteries, so that by the 10th or 11th century +Benedictine houses existed in great numbers throughout the whole of +Latin Christendom except Ireland. These monasteries became centres of +civilizing influences by the method of presenting object-lessons in +organized work, in agriculture, in farming, in the arts and trades, and +also in well-ordered life. The unconscious method by which such great +results were brought about has been well described by J.S. Brewer +(_Preface_ to Works of Giraldus Cambrensis, Rolls Series, iv.) and F.A. +Gasquet. + +3. _Education._--Boys were educated in Benedictine houses from the +beginning, but at first they were destined to be monks. The monasteries, +however, played a great part in the educational side of the Carolingian +revival; and certainly from that date schools for boys destined to live +and work in the world were commonly attached to Benedictine monasteries. +From that day to this education has been among the recognized and +principal works of Benedictines. + +4. _Letters and Learning._--This side of Benedictine life is most +typically represented by the Venerable Bede, the gentle and learned +scholar of the early middle ages. In those times the monasteries were +the only places of security and rest in western Europe, the only places +where letters could in any measure be cultivated. It was in the +monasteries that the writings of Latin antiquity, both classical and +ecclesiastical, were transcribed and preserved. + +In a gigantic system embracing hundreds of monasteries and thousands of +monks, and spread over all the countries of western Europe, without any +organic bond between the different houses, and exposed to all the +vicissitudes of the wars and conquests of those wild times, to say that +the monks often fell short of the ideal of their state, and sometimes +short of the Christian, and even the moral standard, is but to say that +monks are men. Failures there have been many, and scandals not a few in +Benedictine history; but it may be said with truth that there does not +appear to have been ever a period of widespread or universal corruption, +however much at times and in places primitive love may have waxed cold. +And when such declensions occurred, they soon called forth efforts at +reform and revival; indeed these constantly recurring reform-movements +are one of the most striking features of Benedictine history, and the +great proof of the vitality of the institute throughout the ages. + +The first of these movements arose during the Carolingian revival (c. +800), and is associated with the name of Benedict of Aniane. Under the +auspices of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious he initiated a scheme for +federating into one great order, with himself as abbot general, all the +monasteries of Charles's empire, and for enforcing throughout a rigid +uniformity in observance. For this purpose a synod of abbots was +assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle in 817, and a series of 80 _Capitula_ +passed, regulating the life of the monasteries. The scheme as a whole +was short-lived and did not survive its originator; but the _Capitula_ +were commonly recognized as supplying a useful and much-needed +supplement to St Benedict's Rule on points not sufficiently provided for +therein. Accordingly these _Capitula_ exercised a wide influence among +Benedictines even outside the empire. And Benedict of Aniane's ideas of +organization found embodiment a century later in the order of Cluny +(910), which for a time overshadowed the great body of mere Benedictines +(see CLUNY). Here it will suffice to say that the most distinctive +features of the Cluny system were (1) a notable increase and +prolongation of the church services, which came to take up the greater +part of the working day; (2) a strongly centralized government, whereby +the houses of the order in their hundreds were strictly subject to the +abbot of Cluny. + +Though forming a distinct and separate organism Cluny claimed to be, and +was recognized as, a body of Benedictine houses; but from that time +onwards arose a number of independent bodies, or "orders," which took +the Benedictine Rule as the basis of their life. The more important of +these were: in the 11th and 12th centuries, the orders of Camaldulians, +Vallombrosians, Fontevrault and the Cistercians, and in the 13th and +14th the Silvestrines, Celestines and Olivetans (see separate articles). +The general tendency of these Benedictine offshoots was in the direction +of greater austerity of life than was practised by the Black Monks or +contemplated by St Benedict's Rule--some of them were semi-eremitical; +the most important by far were the Cistercians, whose ground-idea was to +reproduce exactly the life of St Benedict's own monastery. These various +orders were also organized and governed according to the system of +centralized authority devised by St Pachomius (see MONASTICISM) and +brought into vogue by Cluny in the West. What has here to be traced is +the history of the great body of Benedictine monasteries that held aloof +from these separatist movements. + +For the first four or five centuries of Benedictine history there was no +organic bond between any of the monasteries; each house formed an +independent autonomous family, managing its own affairs and subject to +no external authority or control except that of the bishop of the +diocese. But the influence of Cluny, even on monasteries that did not +enter into its organism, was enormous; many adopted Cluny customs and +practices and moulded their life and spirit after the model it set; and +many such monasteries became in turn centres of revival and reform in +many lands, so that during the 10th and 11th centuries arose free unions +of monasteries based on a common observance derived from a central +abbey. Fleury and Hirsau are well-known examples. Basing themselves on +St Gregory's counsel to St Augustine, Dunstan, Aethelwold and Oswald +adopted from the observance of foreign monasteries, and notably Fleury +and Ghent, what was suitable for the restoration of English monachism, +and so produced the _Concordia Regularis_, interesting as the first +serious attempt to bring about uniformity of observance among the +monasteries of an entire nation. In the course of the 12th century +sporadic and limited unions of Black Monk monasteries arose in different +parts. But notwithstanding all these movements, the majority of the +great Black Monk abbeys continued to the end of the 12th century in +their primeval isolation. But in the year 1215, at the fourth Lateran +council, were made regulations destined profoundly to modify Benedictine +polity and history. It was decreed that the Benedictine houses of each +ecclesiastical province should henceforth be federated for the purposes +of mutual help and the maintenance of discipline, and that for these +ends the abbots should every third year meet in a provincial chapter (or +synod), in order to pass laws binding on all and to appoint visitors +who, in addition to the bishops, should canonically visit the +monasteries and report on their condition in spirituals and temporals to +the ensuing chapter. The English monks took the lead in carrying out +this legislation, and in 1218 the first chapter of the province of +Canterbury was held at Oxford, and up to the dissolution under Henry +VIII. the triennial chapters took place with wonderful regularity. +Fitful attempts were made elsewhere to carry out the decrees, and in +1336 Benedict XII. by the bull _Benedictina_ tried to give further +development to the system and to secure its general observance. The +organization of the Benedictine houses into provinces or chapters under +this legislation interfered in the least possible degree with the +Benedictine tradition of mutual independence of the houses; the +provinces were loose federations of autonomous houses, the legislative +power of the chapter and the canonical visitations being the only forms +of external interference. The English Benedictines never advanced +farther along the path of centralization; up to their destruction this +polity remained in operation among them, and proved itself by its +results to be well adapted to the conditions of the Benedictine Rule and +life. + +In other lands things did not on the whole go so well, and many causes +at work during the later middle ages tended to bring about relaxation in +the Benedictine houses; above all the vicious system of commendatory +abbots, rife everywhere except in England. And so in the period of the +reforming councils of Constance and Basel the state of the religious +orders was seriously taken in hand, and in response to the public demand +for reforming the Church, "in head and members," reform movements were +set on foot, as among others, so among the Benedictines of various parts +of Europe. These movements issued in the congregational system which is +the present polity among Benedictines. In the German lands, where the +most typical congregation was the Bursfeld Union (1446), which finally +embraced over 100 monasteries throughout Germany, the system was kept on +the lines of the Lateran decree and the bull _Benedictina_, and received +only some further developments in the direction of greater organization; +but in Italy the congregation of S. Justina at Padua (1421), afterwards +called the Cassinese, departed altogether from the old lines, setting up +a highly centralized government, after the model of the Italian +republics, whereby the autonomy of the monasteries was destroyed, and +they were subjected to the authority of a central governing board. With +various modifications or restrictions this latter system was imported +into all the Latin lands, into Spain and Portugal, and thence into +Brazil, and into Lorraine and France, where the celebrated congregation +of St Maur (see MAURISTS) was formed early in the 17th century. During +this century the Benedictine houses in many parts of Catholic Europe +united themselves into congregations, usually characterized by an +austerity that was due to the Tridentine reform movement. + +In England the Benedictines had, from every point of view, flourished +exceedingly. At the time of the Dissolution there were nearly 300 Black +Benedictine houses, great and small, men and women, including most of +the chief religious houses of the land (for lists see tables and maps in +Gasquet's _English Monastic Life_, and _Catholic Dictionary_, art. +"Benedictines"). It is now hardly necessary to say that the grave +charges brought against the monks are no longer credited by serious +historians (Gasquet, _Henry VIII. and the Monasteries_; J. Gairdner, +Prefaces to the relevant volumes of _Calendars of State Papers of Henry +VIII._). In Mary's reign some of the surviving monks were brought +together, and Westminster Abbey was restored. Of the monks professed +there during this momentary revival, one, Sigebert Buckley, lived on +into the reign of James I.; and being the only survivor of the +Benedictines of England, he in 1607 invested with the English habit and +affiliated to Westminster Abbey and to the English congregation two +English priests, already Benedictines in the Italian congregation. By +this act the old English Benedictine line was perpetuated; and in 1619 a +number of English monks professed in Spain were aggregated by pontifical +act to these representatives of the old English Benedictines, and thus +was constituted the present English Benedictine congregation. Three or +four monasteries of the revived English Benedictines were established on +the continent at the beginning of the 17th century, and remained there +till driven back to England by the French Revolution. + +The Reformation and the religious wars spread havoc among the +Benedictines in many parts of northern Europe; and as a consequence, in +part of the rule of Joseph II. of Austria, in part of the French +Revolution, nearly every Benedictine monastery in Europe was +suppressed--it is said that in the early years of the 19th century +scarcely thirty in all survived. But the latter half of the century +witnessed a series of remarkable revivals, and first in Bavaria, under +the influence of Louis I. The French congregation (which does not enjoy +continuity with the Maurists) was inaugurated by Dom Gueranger in 1833, +and the German congregation of Beuron in 1863. Two vigorous +congregations have arisen in the United States. These are all new +creations since 1830. In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Brazil only a few +monasteries survive the various revolutions, and in a crippled state; +but signs are not wanting of renewed life: St Benedict's own monasteries +of Subiaco and Monte Cassino are relatively flourishing. In Austria, +Hungary and Switzerland there are some thirty great abbeys, most of +which have had a continued existence since the middle ages. The English +congregation is composed of three large abbeys (Downside, Ampleforth and +Woolhampton), a cathedral priory (Hereford) and a nunnery (Stanbrook +Abbey, Worcester); there are besides in England three or four abbeys +belonging to foreign congregations, and several nunneries subject to the +bishops. Each congregation has its president, who is merely a president, +with limited powers, and not a general superior like the Provincials of +other orders; so that the primitive Benedictine principle of each +monastery being self-contained and autonomous is preserved. Similarly +each congregation is independent and self-governing, there being no +superior-general or central authority, as in other orders. Leo XIII. +established an international Benedictine College in Rome for theological +studies, and conferred on its abbot the title of "Abbot Primate," with +precedence among Black Monk abbots. He is only _primus inter pares_, and +exercises no kind of superiority over the other abbots or congregations. +Thus the Benedictine polity may be described as a number of autonomous +federations of autonomous monasteries. The individual monks, too, belong +not to the order or the congregation, but each to the monastery in which +he became a monk. The chief external work of the Benedictines at the +present day is secondary education; there are 114 secondary schools or +_gymnasia_ attached to the abbeys, wherein the monks teach over 12,000 +boys; and many of the nunneries have girls' schools. In certain +countries (among them England) where there is a dearth of secular +priests, Benedictines undertake parochial work. + +The statistics of the order (1905) show that of Black Benedictines there +are over 4000 choir-monks and nearly 2000 lay brothers--figures that +have more than doubled since 1880. If the Cistercians and lesser +offshoots of the order be added, the sum total of choir-monks and lay +brothers exceeds 11,000. + +In conclusion a word must be said on the Benedictine nuns. From the +beginning the number of women living the Benedictine life has not fallen +far short of that of the men. St Gregory describes St Benedict's sister +Scholastica as a nun (_sanctimonialis_), and she is looked upon as the +foundress of Benedictine nuns. As the institute spread to other lands +nunneries arose on all sides, and nowhere were the Benedictine nuns more +numerous or more remarkable than in England, from Saxon times to the +Reformation. A strong type of womanhood is revealed in the +correspondence of St Boniface with various Saxon Benedictine nuns, some +in England and some who accompanied him to the continent and there +established great convents. In the early times the Benedictine nuns were +not strictly enclosed, and could, when occasion called for it, freely go +out of their convent walls to perform any special work: on the other +hand, they did not resemble the modern active congregations of women, +whose ordinary work lies outside the convent. It has to be said that in +the course of the middle ages, especially the later middle ages, grave +disorders arose in many convents; and this doubtless led, in the reform +movements initiated by the councils of Constance and Basel, and later of +Trent, to the introduction of strict enclosure in Benedictine convents, +which now is the almost universal practice. At the present day there are +of Black Benedictine nuns 262 convents with 7000 nuns, the large +majority being directly subject to the diocesan bishops; if the +Cistercians and others be included, there are 387 convents with nearly +11,000 nuns. In England there are a dozen Benedictine nunneries. + + AUTHORITIES--The chief general authority for Benedictine history up to + the middle of the 12th century is Mabillon's _Annales_, in 6 vols. + folio; for the later period no such general work exists, but the + various countries, congregations or even abbeys have to be taken + separately. Montalembert's _Monks of the West_ gives the early history + very fully; the later history, to the beginning of the 18th century, + may be found in Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_, v. and vi. + (1792). A useful sketch, with references to the best literature, is in + Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. SS 17-28; see + also the article "Benedictinerorden" in Wetzer u. Welter, + _Kirchenlexicon_ (2nd ed.), and "Benedikt von Nursia und der + Benediktinerorden," in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (3rd ed.). For + England see Ethelred Taunton, _English Black Monks_ (1897); and for + the modern history (19th century) the series entitled "Succisa + Virescit" in the _Downside Review_, 1880 onwards, by J.G. Dolan. On + the inner spirit and working of the institute see F.A. Gasquet, + _Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History_ (being the preface to the + 2nd ed., 1895, of the trans. of Montalembert) and _English Monastic + Life_ (1904); and Newman's two essays on the Benedictines, among the + _Historical Sketches_. On Benedictine nuns much will be found in the + above-mentioned authorities, and also in Lina Eckenstein, _Woman in + Monasticism_ (1896). On Benedictines and the Arts see F.H. Kraus, + _Geschichte der christlichen Kunst_ (Freiburg-i-B., 1896-1897). + (E. C. B.) + + + + +BENEDICTION (Lat. _benedictio_, from _benedicere_, to bless), generally, +the utterance of a blessing or of a devout wish for the prosperity and +happiness of a person or enterprise. In the usage of the Catholic +Church, both East and West, though the benediction as defined above has +its place as between one Christian and another, it has also a special +place in the sacramental system in virtue of the special powers of +blessing vested in the priesthood. Sacerdotal benedictions are not +indeed sacraments--means of grace ordained by Christ himself,--but +sacramentals (_sacramenta minora_) ordained by the authority of the +Church and exercised by the priests, as the plenipotentiaries of God, in +virtue of the powers conferred on them at their ordination; "that +whatever they bless may be blessed, and whatever they consecrate may be +consecrated." The power to bless in this ecclesiastical sense is +reserved to priests alone; the blessing of the paschal candle on Holy +Saturday by the deacon being the one exception that proves the rule, for +he uses for the purpose grains of incense previously blessed by the +priest at the altar. But though by some the benediction has thus been +brought into connexion with the supreme means of grace, the sacrifice of +the Mass, the blessing does not in itself confer grace and does not act +on its recipients _ex opere operato_. It must not be supposed, however, +that the Catholic idea of a sacerdotal blessing has anything of the +vague character associated with a benediction by Protestants. Both by +Catholics and by Protestants blessings may be applied to things +inanimate as well as animate; but while in the reformed Churches this +involves no more than an appeal to God for a special blessing, or a +solemn "setting apart" of persons or objects for sacred purposes, in the +Catholic idea it implies a special power, conferred by God, of the +priests over the invisible forces of evil. It thus stands in the closest +relation to the rite of exorcism, of which it is the complement. + +According to Catholic doctrine, the Fall involved the subjection, not +only of man, but of all things animate and inanimate, to the influence +of evil spirits; in support of which St Paul's epistles to the Romans +(viii.) and to Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 4-5) are quoted. This belief is, of +course, not specifically Christian; it has been held at all times and +everywhere by men of the most various races and creeds; and, if there be +any validity in the contention that that is true which has been held +_semper, ubique, et ab omnibus_, no fact is better established. In +general it may be said, then, that whereas exorcism is practised in +order to cast out devils already in possession, benediction is the +formula by which they are prevented from entering in. Protestants have +condemned these formulae as so much magic, and in this modern science +tends to agree with them; but to orthodox Protestants at least Catholics +have a perfect right to reply that, in taking this line, they are but +repeating the accusation brought by the Pharisees against Christ, viz. +that he cast out devils "by Beelzebub, prince of the devils." + +Though, however, the discomfiture of malignant spirits still plays an +important part in the Catholic doctrine of benedictions, this has on the +whole tended to become subordinated to other benefits. This is but +natural; for, though the progress of knowledge has not disproved the +existence of devils, it has greatly limited the supposed range of their +activities. According to Father Patrick Morrisroe, dean and professor of +liturgy at Maynooth, the efficacy of benedictions is fourfold: (1) the +excitation of pious emotions and affections of the heart, and by their +means the remission of venial sins and of the temporal punishments due +for these; (2) freedom from the power of evil spirits; (3) preservation +and restoration of bodily health; (4) various other benefits, temporal +and spiritual. Benedictions, moreover, are twofold: (a) invocative, i.e. +those invoking the divine benignity for persons and things without +changing their condition, e.g. children or food; (b) constitutive, i.e. +those which give to persons or things an indelible religious character, +i.e. monks and nuns, or the furniture of the altar. The second of these +brings the act of benediction into contact with the principle of +consecration (q.v.); for by the formal blessing by the duly constituted +authority persons, places and things are consecrated, i.e. reserved to +sacred uses and preserved from the contaminating influence of evil +spirits. Thus graveyards are consecrated, i.e. solemnly blessed in order +that the powers of evil may not disturb the bodies of the faithful +departed; thus, too, the blessing of bells gives them a special power +against evil demons. + +Though the giving of blessings as a sacerdotal function is proper to the +whole order of priests, particular benedictions have, by ecclesiastical +authority, been reserved for the bishops, who may, however, delegate +some of them; i.e. the benediction of abbots, of priests at their +ordination, of virgins taking the veil, of churches, cemeteries, +oratories, and of all articles for use in connexion with the altar +(chalices, patens, vestments, &c.), of military colours, of soldiers and +of their arms. The holy oil is also blessed by bishops in the Roman +Catholic Church; in the Greek Church, on the other hand, the oil for the +chrism at baptism is blessed by the priest. To the pope alone is +reserved the blessing of the pallium, the golden rose, the "Agnus-Dei" +and royal swords; he alone, too, can issue blessings that involve some +days' indulgence. The ceremonies prescribed for the various benedictions +are set forth in the _Rituale Romanum_ (tit. viii.). In general it is +laid down (cap. i.) that the priest, in benedictions outside the Mass, +shall be vested in surplice and stole, and shall give the blessing +standing and bare-headed. Certain prayers are said before each +benediction, after which he sprinkles the person or thing to be blessed +with holy water and, where prescribed, censes them. He is attended by a +minister with a vase of holy water, an _aspergillum_ and a copy of the +_Rituale_ or missal. In all benedictions the sign of the cross is made. +In the blessing of the holy water (cap. ii.), the essential instrument +of all benedictions, the object is dearly to establish its potency +against evil spirits. First the "creature of salt" is exorcized, "that +... thou mayest be to all who take thee health of body and soul; that +wherever thou art sprinkled every phantasy and wickedness and wile of +diabolic deceit may flee and leave that place, and every unclean +spirit"; a prayer to God for the blessing of the salt follows; then the +"creature of water" is exorcized, "that thou mayest become exorcized +water for the purpose of putting to flight every power of the enemy, +that thou mayest avail to uproot and expel this enemy with all his +apostate angels, by the virtue of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, &c."; +and again a prayer to God follows that the water may "become a creature +in the service of His mysteries, for the driving out of demons, &c." In +the formulae of blessings that follow, the special efficacy against +devils is implied by the aspersion with holy water; the benedictions +themselves are usually merely invocative of the divine protection or +assistance, though, e.g., in the form for blessing sick animals the +priest prays that "all diabolic power in them may be destroyed, and that +they may be ill no longer." It is to be remarked that the "laying on of +hands," which in the Old and the New Testament alike is the usual "form" +of blessing, is not used in liturgical benedictions, the priest being +directed merely to extend his right hand towards the person to be +blessed. The appendix _de Benedictionibus_ to the _Rituale Romanum_ +contains formulae, often of much simple beauty, for blessing all manner +of persons and things, from the congregation as a whole and sick men and +women, to railways, ships, blast-furnaces, lime-kilns, articles of food, +medicine and medical bandages and all manner of domestic animals. + +The _Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament_, commonly called simply +"Benediction" (Fr. _salut_, Ger. _Segen_), is one of the most popular of +the services of the Roman Catholic Church. It is usually held in the +afternoon or evening, sometimes at the conclusion of Vespers, Compline +or the Stations of the Cross, and consists in the singing of certain +hymns and canticles, more particularly the _O salutaris hostia_ and the +_Tantum ergo_, before the host, which is exposed on the altar in a +monstrance and surrounded by not less than ten lighted candles. Often +litanies and hymns to the Virgin are added. At the conclusion the +priest, his shoulders wrapped in the humeral veil, takes the monstrance +and with it makes the sign of the cross over the kneeling congregation, +whence the name Benediction. The service, the details of which vary in +different countries, is of comparatively modern origin. Father Thurston +traces it to a combination in the 16th and 17th centuries of customs +that had their origin in the 13th, i.e. certain gild services in honour +of the Blessed Virgin, and the growing habit, resulting naturally from +the doctrine of transubstantiation, of ascribing a supreme virtue to the +act of looking on the Holy Sacrament. + +In the reformed Churches the word "benediction" is technically confined +to the blessing with which the priest or minister dismisses the +congregation at the close of the service. + + See the article "Benediktionen," by E.C. Achelis in Herzog-Hauck, + _Realencyklopadie_ (Leipzig, 1897); _The Catholic Encyclopaedia_ + (London and New York, 1908) s. "Blessing," by P. Morrisroe, and + "Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament," by Herbert Thurston, S.J.; in + all of which further authorities are cited. + + + + +BENEDICTUS, the hymn of Zacharias (Luke i. 68 sqq.), so called from the +opening word of the Latin version. The hymn has been used in Christian +worship since at least the 9th century, and was adopted into the +Anglican Order of Morning Prayer from the Roman service of matin-lauds. +In the Prayer-Book of 1549 there was no alternative to the _Benedictus_; +it was to be used "throughout the whole year." In 1552 the _Jubilate_ +was inserted without any restriction as to how often it should take the +place of the _Benedictus_. Such restriction is clearly implied in the +words "except when that (Benedictus) shall happen to be read in the +chapter for the day, or for the Gospel on Saint John Baptist's day," +which were inserted in 1662. The rubric of 1532 had this curious +wording: "And after the Second Lesson shall be used and said, Benedictus +in English, as followeth." + +The name is also given to a part of the Roman Catholic mass service +beginning _Benedictus qui venit_. + + + + +BENEDICTUS ABBAS (d. 1194), abbot of Peterborough, whose name is +accidentally connected with the _Gesta Henrici Regis Secundi_, one of +the most valuable of English 12th-century chronicles. He first makes his +appearance in 1174, as the chancellor of Archbishop Richard, the +successor of Becket in the primacy. In 1175 Benedictus became prior of +Holy Trinity, Canterbury; in 1177 he received from Henry II. the abbacy +of Peterborough, which he held until his death. As abbot he +distinguished himself by his activity in building, in administering the +finances of his house and in collecting a library. He is described in +the _Chronicon Petroburgense_ as "blessed both in name and deed." He +belonged to the circle of Becket's admirers, and wrote two works dealing +with the martyrdom and the miracles of his hero. Fragments of the former +work have come down to us in the compilation known as the _Quadrilogus_, +which is printed in the fourth volume of J.C. Robertson's _Materials for +the History of Thomas Becket_ (Rolls series); the miracles are extant +in their entirety, and are printed in the second volume of the same +collection. Benedictus has been credited with the authorship of the +_Gesta Henrici_ on the ground that his name appears in the title of the +oldest manuscript. We have, however, conclusive evidence that Benedictus +merely caused this work to be transcribed for the Peterborough library. +It is only through the force of custom that the work is still +occasionally cited under the name of Benedictus. The question of +authorship has been discussed by Sir T.D. Hardy, Bishop Stubbs and +Professor Liebermann; but the results of the discussion are negative. +Stubbs conjecturally identified the first part of the _Gesta_ +(1170-1177) with the _Liber Tricolumnis_, a register of contemporary +events kept by Richard Fitz Neal (q.v.), the treasurer of Henry II. and +author of the _Dialogus de Scaccario_; the latter part (1177-1192) was +by the same authority ascribed to Roger of Hoveden, who makes large use +of the _Gesta_ in his own chronicle, copying them with few alterations +beyond the addition of some documents. This theory, so far as concerns +the _Liber Tricolumnis_, is rejected by Liebermann and the most recent +editors of the _Dialogus_ (A. Hughes, C.G. Crump and C. Johnson, Oxford, +1902). We can only say that the _Gesta_ are the work of a well-informed +contemporary who appears to have been closely connected with the court +and is inclined on all occasions to take the side of Henry II. The +author confines himself to the external history of events, and his tone +is strictly impersonal. He incorporates some official documents, and in +many places obviously derives his information from others which he does +not quote. There is a break in his work at the year 1177, where the +earliest manuscript ends; but the reasons which have been given to prove +that the authorship changes at this point are inconclusive. The work +begins at Christmas 1169, and concludes in 1192; it is thus in form a +fragment, covering portions of the reign of Henry II. and Richard I. + + See W. Stubbs' _Gesta regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti abbatis_ (2 + vols., Rolls series, 1867), and particularly the preface to the first + volume; F. Liebermann in _Einleitung in den Dialogus de Scaccario_ + (Gottingen, 1875); in _Ostenglische Geschichtsquellen_ (Hanover, + 1892); and in Pertz's _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_, + vol. xxvii. pp. 82, 83; also the introduction to the _Dialogus de + Scaccario_ in the Oxford edition of 1902. (H. W. C. D.) + + + + +BENEDIX, JULIUS RODERICH (1811-1873), German dramatist and librettist, +was born at Leipzig on the 21st of January 1811, and was educated at the +Thomasschule at Leipzig. He joined the stage in 1831, his first +engagement being with the travelling company of H.E. Bethmann in Dessau, +Cothen, Bernburg and Meiningen. Subsequently he was tenor in several +theatres in Westphalia and on the Rhine, and became manager of the +theatre at Wesel, where he produced a comedy, _Das bemooste Haupt_ +(1841), which met with great success. After an engagement in Cologne, he +managed the new theatre at Elberfeld (1844-1845) and in 1849 was +appointed teacher on the staff of the Rhenish school of music in +Cologne. In 1855 he was appointed intendant of the municipal theatre in +Frankfort-On-Main, but retired in 1861, and died in Leipzig on the 26th +of September 1873. Benedix's comedies, the scenes of which are mostly +laid in upper middle-class life, still enjoy some popularity; the +best-known are: _Dr Wespe; Die Hochzeitsreise; Der Vetter; Das +Gefangnis; Das Lugen; Ein Lustspiel; Der Storenfried; Die Dienstboten; +Aschenbrodel; Die zartlichen Verwandten_. The chief characteristics of +his farces are a clear plot and bright, easy and natural dialogue. Among +his more serious works are: _Bilder aus dem Schauspielerleben_ (Leipzig, +1847); _Der mundliche Vortrag_ (Leipzig, 1859-1860); _Das Wesen des +deutschen Rhythmus_ (Leipzig, 1862) and, posthumously, _Die +Shakespearomanie_ (1873), in which he attacks the extreme adoration of +the British poet. + + Benedix's _Gesammelte dramatische Werke_ appeared in 27 vols. + (Leipzig, 1846-1875); a selection under the title _Volkstheater_ in 20 + vols. (Leipzig, 1882); and a collection of smaller comedies as + _Haustheater_ in 2 vols. (both ed., Leipzig, 1891); see Benedix's + autobiography in the _Gartenlaube_ for 1871. + + + + +BENEFICE (Lat. _beneficium_, benefit), a term first applied under the +Roman empire to portions of land, the usufruct of which was granted by +the emperors to their soldiers or others for life, as a reward or +_beneficium_ for past services, and as a retainer for future services. A +list of all such _beneficia_ was recorded in the _Book of Benefices +(Liber Beneficiorum_), which was kept by the principal registrar of +benefices (_Primiscrinius Beneficiorum_). In imitation of the practice +observed under the Roman empire, the term came to be applied under the +feudal system to portions of land granted by a lord to his vassal for +the maintenance of the latter on condition of his rendering military +service; and such grants were originally for life only, and the land +reverted to the lord on the death of the vassal. In a similar manner +grants of land, or of the profits of land, appear to have been made by +the bishops to their clergy for life, on the ground of some +extraordinary merit on the part of the grantee. The validity of such +grants was first formally recognized by the council of Orleans, A.D. +511, which forbade, however, under any circumstances, the alienation +from the bishoprics of any lands so granted. The next following council +of Orleans, 533, broke in upon this principle, by declaring that a +bishop could not reclaim from his clergy any grants made to them by his +predecessor, excepting in cases of misconduct. This innovation on the +ancient practice was confirmed by the subsequent council of Lyons, 566, +and from this period these grants ceased to be regarded as personal, and +their substance became annexed to the churches,--in other words, they +were henceforth enjoyed _jure tituli_, and no longer _jure personali_. +How and when the term _beneficia_ came to be applied to these episcopal +grants is uncertain, but they are designated by that term in a canon of +the council of Mainz, 813. + +The term benefice, according to the canon law, implies always an +ecclesiastical office, _propter quod beneficium datur_, but it does not +always imply a cure of souls. It has been defined to be the right which +a clerk has to enjoy certain ecclesiastical revenues on condition of +discharging certain services prescribed by the canons, or by usage, or +by the conditions under which his office has been founded. These +services might be those of a secular priest with cure of souls, or they +might be those of a regular priest, a member of a religious order, +without cure of souls; but in every case a benefice implied three +things: (1) An obligation to discharge the duties of an office, which is +altogether spiritual; (2) The right to enjoy the fruits attached to that +office, which is the benefice itself; (3) The fruits themselves, which +are the temporalities. By keeping these distinctions in view, the right +of patronage in the case of secular benefices becomes intelligible, +being in fact the right, which was originally vested in the donor of the +temporalities, to present to the bishop a clerk to be admitted, if found +fit by the bishop, to the office to which those temporalities are +annexed. Nomination or presentation on the part of the patron of the +benefice is thus the first requisite in order that a clerk should become +legally entitled to a benefice. The next requisite is that he should be +admitted by the bishop as a fit person for the spiritual office to which +the benefice is annexed, and the bishop is the judge of the sufficiency +of the clerk to be so admitted. By the early constitutions of the Church +of England a bishop was allowed a space of two months to inquire and +inform himself of the sufficiency of every presentee, but by the +ninety-fifth of the canons of 1604 that interval has been abridged to +twenty-eight days, within which the bishop must admit or reject the +clerk. If the bishop rejects the clerk within that time he is liable to +a _duplex querela_ in the ecclesiastical courts, or to a _quare impedit_ +in the common law courts, and the bishop must then certify the reasons +of his refusal. In cases where the patron is himself a clerk in orders, +and wishes to be admitted to the benefice, he must proceed by way of +petition instead of by deed of presentation, reciting that the benefice +is in his own patronage, and petitioning the bishop to examine him and +admit him. Upon the bishop having satisfied himself of the sufficiency +of the clerk, he proceeds to institute him to the spiritual office to +which the benefice is annexed, but, before such institution can take +place, the clerk is required to make a declaration of assent to the +Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and to the Book of Common Prayer +according to a form prescribed in the Clerical Subscription Act 1865, to +make a declaration against simony in accordance with that act, and to +take and subscribe the oath of allegiance according to the form in the +Promissory Oaths Act 1868. The bishop, by the act of institution, +commits to the clerk the cure of souls attached to the office to which +the benefice is annexed. In cases where the bishop himself is patron of +the benefice, no presentation or petition is required to be tendered by +the clerk, but the bishop having satisfied himself of the sufficiency of +the clerk, collates him to the benefice and office. It is not necessary +that the bishop himself should personally institute or collate a clerk; +he may issue a fiat to his vicar-general, or to a special commissary for +that purpose. After the bishop or his commissary has instituted the +presentee, he issues a mandate under seal, addressed to the archdeacon +or some other neighbouring clergyman, authorizing him to induct the +clerk into his benefice,--in other words, to put him into legal +possession of the temporalities, which is done by some outward form, and +for the most part by delivery of the bell-rope to the clerk, who +thereupon tolls the bell. This form of induction is required to give the +clerk a legal title to his _beneficium_, although his admission to the +office by institution is sufficient to vacate any other benefice which +he may already possess. + +By a decree of the Lateran council of 1215, which was enforced in +England, no clerk can hold two benefices with cure of souls, and if a +beneficed clerk shall take a second benefice with cure of souls, he +vacates _ipso facto_ his first benefice. Dispensations, however, could +be easily obtained from Rome, before the reformation of the Church of +England, to enable a clerk to hold several ecclesiastical dignities or +benefices at the same time, and by the Peterpence, Dispensations, &c. +Act 1534, the power to grant such dispensations, which had been +exercised previously by the court of Rome, was transferred to the +archbishop of Canterbury, certain ecclesiastical persons having been +declared by a previous statute (1529) to be entitled to such +dispensations. The system of pluralities carried with it, as a necessary +consequence, systematic non-residence on the part of many incumbents, +and delegation of their spiritual duties in respect of their cures of +souls to assistant curates. The evils attendant on this system were +found to be so great that the Pluralities Act 1838 was passed to abridge +the holding of benefices in plurality, and it was enacted that no person +should hold under any circumstances more than two benefices, and this +privilege was made subject to the restriction that his benefices were +within ten statute miles of each other. By the Pluralities Act 1850, the +restriction was further narrowed, so that no spiritual person could hold +two benefices except the churches of such benefices were within three +miles of each other by the nearest road, and the annual value of one of +such benefices did not exceed L100. By this statute the term benefice is +defined to mean benefice with cure of souls and no other, and therein to +comprehend all parishes, perpetual curacies, donatives, endowed public +chapels, parochial chapelries and chapelries or districts belonging or +reputed to belong, or annexed or reputed to be annexed, to any church or +chapel. The Pluralities Acts Amendment Act 1885, however, enacted that, +by dispensation from the archbishop, two benefices could be held +together, the churches of which are within four miles of each other, and +the annual value of one of which does not exceed L200. + +All benefices except those under the clear annual value of L50 pay their +first fruits (one year's profits) and tenths (of yearly profits) to +Queen Anne's Bounty for the augmentation of the maintenance of the +poorer clergy. Their profits during vacation belong to the next +incumbent. Tithe rent charge attached to a benefice is relieved from +payment of one-half of the agricultural rates assessed thereon. +Benefices may be exchanged by agreement between incumbents with the +consent of the ordinary, and they may, with the consent of the patron +and ordinary, be united or dissolved after being united. They may also +be charged with the repayment of money laid out for their permanent +advantage, and be augmented wholly by the medium of Queen Anne's Bounty. + +A benefice is avoided or vacated--(1) by death; (2) by resignation, if +the bishop is willing to accept the resignation: by the Incumbents' +Resignation Act 1871, Amendment Act 1887, any clergyman who has been an +incumbent of one benefice continuously for seven years, and is +incapacitated by permanent mental or bodily infirmities from fulfilling +his duties, may, if the bishop thinks fit, have a commission appointed +to consider the fitness of his resigning; and if the commission report +in favour of his resigning, he may, with the consent of the patron (or, +if that is refused, with the consent of the archbishop) resign the cure +of souls into the bishop's hands, and have assigned to him, out of the +benefice, a retiring-pension not exceeding one-third of its annual +value, which is recoverable as a debt from his successor; (3) by +cession, upon the clerk being instituted to another benefice or some +other preferment incompatible with it; (4) by deprivation and sentence +of an ecclesiastical court; under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892, an +incumbent who has been convicted of offences against the law of +bastardy, or against whom judgment has been given in a divorce or +matrimonial cause, is deprived, and on being found guilty in the +consistory court of immorality or ecclesiastical offences (not in +respect of doctrine or ritual), he may be deprived or suspended or +declared incapable of preferment; (5) by act of law in consequence of +simony; (6) by default of the clerk in neglecting to read publicly in +the church the Book of Common Prayer, and to declare his assent thereto +within two months after his induction, pursuant to an act of 1662. + + See also ADVOWSON; GLEBE; INCUMBENT; VICAR; also Phillimore, _Eccles. + Law_; Cripps, _Law of Church and Clergy_. + + + + +BENEFICIARY (from Lat. _beneficium_, a benefit), in law, one who holds a +benefice; one who is beneficially entitled to, or interested in, +property, i.e. entitled to it for his own benefit, and not merely +holding it for others, as does an executor or trustee. In this latter +sense it is nearly equivalent to _cestui que trust_, a term which it is +gradually superseding in modern law. + + + + +BENEKE, FRIEDRICH EDUARD (1798-1854), German psychologist, was born at +Berlin on the 17th of February 1798, studied at the universities of +Halle and Berlin, and served as a volunteer in the war of 1815. After +studying theology under Schleiermacher and De Wette, he turned to pure +philosophy, studying particularly English writers and the German +modifiers of Kantianism, such as Jacobi, Fries and Schopenhauer. In 1820 +he published his _Erkenntnisslehre_, his _Erfahrungsseelenlehre als +Grundlage alles Wissens_, and his inaugural dissertation _De Veris +Philosophiae Initiis_. His marked opposition to the philosophy of Hegel, +then dominant in Berlin, was shown more clearly in the short tract, +_Neue Grundlegung zur Metaphysik_ (1822), intended to be the programme +for his lectures as privat-docent, and in the able treatise, +_Grundlegung zur Physlk der Sitten_ (1822), written, in direct +antagonism to Kant's _Metaphysic of Ethics_, to deduce ethical +principles from a basis of empirical feeling. In 1822 his lectures were +prohibited at Berlin, according to his own belief through the influence +of Hegel with the Prussian authorities, who also prevented him from +obtaining a chair from the Saxon government. He retired to Gottingen, +lectured there for some years, and was then allowed to return to Berlin. +In 1832 he received an appointment as _professor extraordinarius_ in the +university, which he continued to hold till his death. On the 1st of +March 1854 he disappeared, and more than two years later his remains +were found in the canal near Charlottenburg. There was some suspicion +that he had committed suicide in a fit of mental depression. + +The distinctive peculiarity of Beneke's system consists, first, in the +firmness with which he maintained that in empirical psychology is to be +found the basis of all philosophy; and secondly, in his rigid treatment +of mental phenomena by the genetic method. According to him, the +perfected mind is a development from simple elements, and the first +problem of philosophy is the determination of these elements and of the +processes by which the development takes place. In his _Neue +Psychologie_, (essays iii., viii. and ix.), he defined his position with +regard to his predecessors and contemporaries, and both there and in the +introduction to his _Lehrbuch_ signalized as the two great stages in the +progress of psychology the negation of innate ideas by Locke, and of +faculties, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, by Herbart. The +next step was his own; he insisted that psychology must be treated as +one of the natural sciences. As is the case with them, its content is +given by experience alone, and differs from theirs only in being the +object of the internal as opposed to the external sense. But by this +Beneke in no wise meant a psychology founded on physiology. These two +sciences, in his opinion, had quite distinct provinces and gave no +mutual assistance. Just as little help is to be expected from the +science of the body as from mathematics and metaphysics, both of which +had been pressed by Herbart into the service of psychology. The true +method of study is that applied with so much success in the physical +sciences--critical examination of the given experience, and reference of +it to ultimate causes, which may not be themselves perceived, but are +nevertheless hypotheses necessary to account for the facts. (See on +method, _Neue Psych._, essay i.) + + Starting from the two assumptions that there is nothing, or at least + no formed product, innate in the mind, and that definite faculties do + not originally exist, and from the fact that our minds nevertheless + actually have a definite content and definite modes of action, Beneke + proceeds to state somewhat dogmatically his scientifically verifiable + hypotheses as to the primitive condition of the soul and the laws + according to which it develops. Originally the soul is possessed of or + is an immense variety of powers, faculties or forces (conceptions + which Beneke, in opposition to Herbart, holds to be metaphysically + justifiable), differing from one another only in tenacity, vivacity, + receptivity and grouping. These primitive immaterial forces, so + closely united as to form but one being (essence), acquire + definiteness or form through the action upon them of _stimuli_ or + excitants from the outer world. This action of external impressions + which are appropriated by the internal powers is the first fundamental + process in the genesis of the completed mind. If the union of + impression and faculty be sufficiently strong, consciousness (not + _self_-consciousness) arises, and definite sensations and perceptions + begin to be formed. These primitive sensations, however, are not to be + identified with the sensations of the special senses, for each of + these senses is a system of many powers which have grown into a + definite unity, have been educated by experience. From ordinary + experience it must be concluded that a second fundamental process is + incessantly going on, viz. the formation of new powers, which takes + place principally during sleep. The third and most important process + results from the fact that the combination between stimulus and power + may be weak or strong; if weak, then the two elements are said to be + movable, and they may flow over from one to another of the already + formed psychical products. Any formed faculty does not cease to exist + on the removal of its stimulus; in virtue of its fundamental property, + _tenacity_, it sinks back as a trace (_Spur_) into unconsciousness, + whence it may be recalled by the application to it of another + stimulus, or by the attraction towards it of some of the movable + elements or newly-formed original powers. These traces and the flowing + over of the movable elements are the most important conceptions in + Beneke's psychology; by means of them he gives a rationale of + reproduction and association, and strives to show that all the formed + faculties are simply developments from traces of earlier processes. + Lastly, similar forms, according to the degree of their similarity, + attract one another or tend to form closer combinations. + + All psychical phenomena are explicable by the relation of impression + and power, and by the flow of movable elements; the whole process of + mental development is nothing but the result of the action and + interaction of the above simple laws. In general this growth may be + said to take the direction of rendering more and more definite by + repetition and attraction of like to like the originally indefinite + activities of the primary faculties. Thus the sensations of the + special senses are gradually formed from the primary sensuous feelings + (_sinnliche Empfindungen_); concepts are formed from intuitions of + individuals by the attraction of the common elements, and the + consequent flow towards them of movable forms. Judgment is the + springing into consciousness of a concept alongside of an intuition, + or of a higher concept alongside of a lower. Reasoning is merely a + more complex judgment. Nor are there special faculties of judging or + reasoning. The understanding is simply the mass of concepts lying in + the background of unconsciousness, ready to be called up and to flow + with force towards anything closely connected with them. Even memory + is not a special faculty; it is simply the fundamental property of + tenacity possessed by the original faculties. The very distinction + between the great classes, Knowledge, Feeling and Will, may be + referred to elementary differences in the original relations of + faculty and impression. + + This is the groundwork of Beneke's philosophy. It should be carefully + compared with the association psychology of modern British thinkers, + most of whose results and processes will be found there worked into a + comprehensive system (see ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS). In logic, metaphysics + and ethics Beneke's speculations are naturally dependent on his + psychology. + + The special value of Beneke's works, as has been already said, + consists in the many specimens of acute psychological analysis + scattered throughout them. As a complete explanation of psychical + facts, the theory seems defective. The original hypotheses, peculiar + to Beneke, on which the whole depends, are hastily assumed and rest on + a clumsy mechanical metaphor. As is the case with all empirical + theories of mental development, the higher categories or notions, + which are apparently shown to result from the simple elements, are + really presupposed at every step. Particularly unsatisfactory is the + account of consciousness, which is said to arise from the union of + impression and faculty. The necessity of consciousness for any mental + action whatsoever is apparently granted, but the conditions involved + in it are never discussed or mentioned. The same defect appears in the + account of ethical judgment; no amount of empirical fact can ever + yield the notion of absolute duty. His results have found acceptance + mainly with practical teachers. Undoubtedly his minute analysis of + temperament and careful exposition of the means whereby the young, + unformed mind may be trained are of infinite value; but the truth of + many of his doctrines on these points lends no support to the + fundamental hypotheses, from which, indeed, they might be almost + entirely severed. + + Beneke was a most prolific writer, and besides the works mentioned + above, published large treatises in the several departments of + philosophy, both pure and as applied to education and ordinary life. A + complete list of his writings will be found in the appendix to + Dressler's edition of the _Lehrbuch der Psychologie als + Naturwissenschaft_ (1861). The chief are:--_Psychologische Skizzen_ + (1825, 1827); _Lehrbuch der Psychologie_ (1832); _Metaphysik und + Religionsphilosophie_ (1840); _Die neue Psychologie_ (1845); + _Pragmatische Psychologie oder Seelenlehre in der Anwendung auf das + Leben_ (1832). + + Among German writers, who, though not professed followers of Beneke, + have been largely influenced by him, may be mentioned Ueberweg and + Karl Fortlage (1806-1881). In England, perhaps, the only writer who + shows traces of acquaintance with his works is J.D. Morell (_Introd. + to Mental Philosophy_). The most eminent members of the school are + J.G. Dressler (whose _Beneke oder Seelenlehre als Naturwissenschaft_ + is an admirable exposition), Fried. Dittes and G. Raue. The compendium + by the last-named author passed through four editions in Germany, and + has been translated into French, Flemish and English. The English + translation, _Elements of Psychology_ (1871), gives a lucid and + succinct view of the whole system. + + Among more recent works on Beneke are O.E. Hummel, _Die + Unterrichtslehre Benekes_ (Leipzig, 1885); on his ethical theory, + C.H.Th. Kuhn, _Die Sittenlehre F.E. Benekes_ (1892); Joh. Friedrich, + _F.E. Beneke_ (Wiesbaden, 1898, with biography and list of works); + Otto Gramzow, _F.E. Benekes Leben und Philos._ (Bern, 1899, with full + bibliography); on his theory of knowledge, H. Renner, _Benekes + Erkenninistheorie_ (Halle, 1902); on his metaphysics, _Die Metaphysik + Benekes_, by A. Wandschneider (Berlin, 1903); Brandt, _Beneke, the Man + and His Philosophy_ (New York, 1895); Falckenberg, _Hist. of Phil._ + (Eng. trans., 1895); and H. Hoffding, _Hist. of Mod. Phil._ vol. ii. + (Eng. trans., 1900). (R. Ad.) + + + + +BENETT, ETHELDRED (1776-1845), one of the earliest of English women +geologists, the second daughter of Thomas Benett, of Pyt House near +Tisbury, was born in 1776. Later she resided at Norton House, near +Warminster, in Wiltshire, and for more than a quarter of a century +devoted herself to collecting and studying the fossils of her native +county. She contributed "A Catalogue of the Organic Remains of the +County of Wilts" to Sir R.C. Hoare's _County History_, and a limited +number of copies of this work were printed as a separate volume (1831) +and privately distributed. She died on the 11th of January 1845. + + + + +BENEVENTO, a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, capital of +the province of Benevento, 60 m. by rail and 32 m. direct N.E. of +Naples, situated on a hill 400 ft. above sea-level at the confluence of +the Calore and Sabbato. Pop. (1901) town, 17,227; commune, 24,137. It +occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or +Maluentum, supposed in the imperial period to have been founded by +Diomedes. It was the chief town of the Samnites, who took refuge here +after their defeat by the Romans in 314 B.C. It appears not to have +fallen into the hands of the latter until Pyrrhus's absence in Sicily, +but served them as a base of operations in the last campaign against him +in 275 B.C. A Latin colony was planted there in 268 B.C., and it was +then that the name was changed for the sake of the omen, and probably +then that the Via Appia was extended from Capua to Beneventum. It +remained in the hands of the Romans during both the Punic and the Social +Wars, and was a fortress of importance to them. The position is strong, +being protected by the two rivers mentioned, and the medieval +fortifications, which are nearly 2 m. in length, probably follow the +ancient line, which was razed to the ground by Totila in A.D. 542. +After the Social War it became a _municipium_ and under Augustus a +colony. Being a meeting point of six main roads,[1] it was much visited +by travellers. Its importance is vouched for by the many remains of +antiquity which it possesses, of which the most famous is the triumphal +arch erected in honour of Trajan by the senate and people of Rome in +A.D. 114, with important reliefs relating to its history (E. Petersen in +_Romische Mitteilungen_, 1892, 241; A. von Domaszewzki in _Jahreshefte +des Osterreich. archaologischen Instituts_, ii., 1899, 173). There are +also considerable remains of the ancient theatre, a large +_cryptoporticus_ 197 ft. long known as the ruins of Santi Quaranta, and +probably an emporium (according to Meomartini, the portion preserved is +only a fraction of the whole, which once measured 1791 ft. in length) +and an ancient brick arch (called the Arco del Sacramento), while below +the town is the Ponte Lebroso, a bridge of the Via Appia over the +Sabbato, and along the road to Avellino are remains of _thermae_. Many +inscriptions and ancient fragments may be seen built into the houses; in +front of the Madonna delle Grazie is a bull in red Egyptian granite, and +in the Piazza Papiniano the fragments of two Egyptian obelisks erected +in A.D. 88 in front of the temple of Isis in honour of Domitian. In 1903 +the foundations of this temple were discovered close to the Arch of +Trajan, and many fragments of fine sculptures in both the Egyptian and +the Greco-Roman style belonging to it were found. They had apparently +been used as the foundation of a portion of the city wall, reconstructed +in A.D. 663 under the fear of an attack by Constans, the Byzantine +emperor, the temple having been destroyed under the influence of the +bishop, St Barbatus, to provide the necessary material (A. Meomartini, +O. Marucchi and L. Savignoni in _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1904, 107 sqq.). +Not long after it had been sacked by Totila Benevento became the seat of +a powerful Lombard duchy and continued to be independent until 1053, +when the emperor Henry III. ceded it to Leo IX. in exchange for the +bishopric of Bamberg; and it continued to be a papal possession until +1806, when Napoleon granted it to Talleyrand with the title of prince. +In 1815 it returned to the papacy, but was united to Italy in 1860. +Manfred lost his life in 1266 in battle with Charles of Anjou not far +from the town. Much damage has been done by earthquakes from time to +time. The church of S. Sofia, a circular edifice of about 760, now +modernized, the roof of which is supported by six ancient columns, is a +relic of the Lombard period; it has a fine cloister of the 12th century +constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings; while the +cathedral with its fine arcaded facade and incomplete square campanile +(begun in 1279) dates from the 9th century and was rebuilt in 1114. The +bronze doors, adorned with bas-reliefs, are good; they may belong to the +beginning of the 13th century. The interior is in the form of a +basilica, the double aisles being borne by ancient columns, and contains +_ambones_ and a candelabrum of 1311, the former resting on columns +supported by lions, and decorated with reliefs and coloured marble +mosaic. The castle at the highest point of the town was erected in the +14th century. + +Benevento is a station on the railway from Naples to Foggia, and has +branch lines to Campobasso and to Avellino. + + See A. Meomartini, _Monumenti e opere d'Arte di Benevento_ (Benevento, + 1899); T. Ashby, _Melanges de l'ecole francaise_, 1903, 416. + (T. As.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] These were (1) the prolongation of the Via Appia from Capua, (2) + its continuation to Tarentum and Brundisium, of which there were two + different lines between Beneventum and Aquilonia at different dates + (see APPIA, VIA), (3) the Via Traiana to Brundisium by Herdoniae, (4) + the road to Telesia and Aesernia, (5) the road to Aesernia by + Bovianum, (6) the road to Abellinum and Salernum. + + + + +BENEVOLENCE (Lat. _bene_, well, and _volens_, wishing), a term for an +act of kindness, or a gift of money, or goods, but used in a special +sense to indicate sums of money, disguised as gifts, which were extorted +by various English kings from their subjects, without consent of +parliament. Among the numerous methods which have been adopted by +sovereigns everywhere to obtain support from their people, that of +demanding gifts has frequently found a place, and consequently it is the +word and not the method which is peculiar to English history. Edward II. +and Richard II. had obtained funds by resorting to forced loans, a +practice which was probably not unusual in earlier times. Edward IV., +however, discarded even the pretence of repayment, and in 1473 the word +_benevolence_ was first used with reference to a royal demand for a +gift. Edward was very successful in these efforts, and as they only +concerned a limited number of persons he did not incur serious +unpopularity. But when Richard III. sought to emulate his brother's +example, protests were made which led to the passing of an act of +parliament in 1484 abolishing benevolences as "new and unlawful +inventions." About the same time the Chronicle of Croyland referred to a +benevolence as a "nova et inaudita impositio muneris ut per +benevolentiam quilibet daret id quod vellet, immo verius quod nollet." +In spite of this act Richard demanded a further benevolence; but it was +Henry VII. who made the most extensive use of this system. In 1491 he +sent out commissioners to obtain gifts of money, and in 1496 an act of +parliament enforced payment of the sums promised on this occasion under +penalty of imprisonment. Henry's chancellor, Cardinal Morton, archbishop +of Canterbury, was the traditional author of a method of raising money +by benevolences known as "Morton's Fork." If a man lived economically, +it was reasoned he was saving money and could afford a present for the +king. If, on the contrary, he lived sumptuously, he was evidently +wealthy and could likewise afford a gift. Henry VII. obtained +considerable sums of money in this manner; and in 1545 Henry VIII. +demanded a "loving contribution" from all who possessed lands worth not +less than forty shillings a year, or chattels to the value of L15; and +those who refused to make payment were summoned before the privy council +and punished. Elizabeth took loans which were often repaid; and in 1614 +James I. ordered the sheriffs and magistrates in each county and borough +to collect a general benevolence from all persons of ability, and with +some difficulty about L40,000 was collected. Four counties had, however, +distinguished themselves by protests against this demand, and the act of +Richard III. had been cited by various objectors. Representatives from +the four counties were accordingly called before the privy council, +where Sir Edward Coke defended the action of the king, quoted the Tudor +precedents and urged that the act of 1484 was to prevent exactions, not +voluntary gifts such as James had requested. Subsequently Oliver St John +was fined and imprisoned for making a violent protest against the +benevolence, and on the occasion of his trial Sir Francis Bacon defended +the request for money as voluntary. In 1615 an attempt to exact a +benevolence in Ireland failed, and in 1620 it was decided to demand one +for the defence of the Palatinate. Circular letters were sent out, +punishments were inflicted, but many excuses were made and only about +L34,000 was contributed. In 1621 a further attempt was made, judges of +assize and others were ordered to press for contributions, and wealthy +men were called before the privy council and asked to name a sum at +which to be rated. About L88,000 was thus raised, and in 1622 William +Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, was imprisoned for six months for +protesting. This was the last time benevolences were actually collected, +although in 1622 and 1625 it was proposed to raise money in this manner. +In 1633 Charles I. consented to collect a benevolence for the recovery +of the Palatinate for Charles Louis, the son of his sister Elizabeth, +but no further steps were taken to carry out the project. + + See W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History of England_, vol. iii. (Oxford, + 1895); H. Hallam, _Constitutional History of England_, vol. i. + (London, 1855); T.P. Taswell-Langmead, _English Constitutional + History_ (London, 1896); S.R. Gardiner, _History of England, passim_ + (London, 1893). + + + + +BENFEY, THEODOR (1809-1881), German philologist, son of a Jewish trader +at Norten, near Gottingen, was born on the 28th of January 1809. +Although originally designed for the medical profession, his taste for +philology was awakened by a careful instruction in Hebrew which he +received from his father. After brilliant studies at Gottingen he spent +a year at Munich, where he was greatly impressed by the lectures of +Schelling and Thiersch, and afterwards settled as a teacher in +Frankfort. His pursuits were at first chiefly classical, and his +attention was diverted to Sanskrit by an accidental wager that he would +learn enough of the language in a few weeks to be able to review a new +book upon it. This feat he accomplished, and rivalled in later years +when he learned Russian in order to translate V.P. Vasilev's work on +Buddhism. For the time, however, his labours were chiefly in classical +and Semitic philology. At Gottingen, whither he had returned as +privat-docent, he wrote a little work on the names of the Hebrew months, +proving that they were derived from the Persian, prepared the great +article on India in Ersch and Gruber's _Encyclopaedia_, and published +from 1839 to 1842 the _Lexicon of Greek Roots_ which gained him the +Volney prize of the Institute of France. From this time his attention +was principally given to Sanskrit. He published in 1848 his edition of +the _Sama-veda_; in 1852-1854 his _Manual of Sanskrit_, comprising a +grammar and chrestomathy; in 1858 his practical Sanskrit grammar, +afterwards translated into English; and in 1859 his edition of the +_Pantscha Tantra_, with an extensive dissertation on the fables and +mythologies of primitive nations. All these works had been produced +under the pressure of poverty, the government, whether from parsimony or +from prejudice against a Jew, refusing to make any substantial addition +to his small salary as extra-professor at the university. At length, in +1862, the growing appreciation of foreign scholars shamed it into making +him an ordinary professor, and in 1866 Benfey published the laborious +work by which he is on the whole best known, his great _Sanskrit-English +Dictionary_. In 1869 he wrote a history of German philological research, +especially Oriental, during the 19th century. In 1878 his jubilee as +doctor was celebrated by the publication of a volume of philological +essays dedicated to him and written by the first scholars in Germany. He +had designed to close his literary labours by a grammar of Vedic +Sanskrit, and was actively preparing it when he was interrupted by +illness, which terminated in his death at Gottingen on the 26th of June +1881. + + A collection of his various writings was published in 1890, prefaced + by a memoir by his son. + + + + +BENGAL, a province of British India, bounded on the E. by the province +of Eastern Bengal and Assam, the boundary line being the Madhumati river +and the Ganges; on the S. by the Bay of Bengal and Madras; on the W. by +the Central Provinces and United Provinces; and on the N. by Nepal and +Sikkim. It has an area of 141,580 sq. m. and a population of 54,096,806. +It consists of the provinces of Behar, Orissa and Chota Nagpur, and the +western portion of the Ganges valley, but without the provinces of +Northern and Eastern Bengal; and is divided into the six British +divisions of the presidency, Bhagalpur, Patna, Burdwan, Chota Nagpur and +Orissa, and various native states. The province was reconstituted in +1905, when the Chittagong, Dacca and Rajshahi divisions, the district of +Malda and the state of Hill Tippera were transferred from Bengal to a +new province, Eastern Bengal and Assam; the five Hindi-speaking states +of Chota Nagpur, namely Chang Bhakar, Korea, Sirguja, Udaipur and +Jashpur, were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces; and +Sambalpur and the five Oriya states of Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonpur, Patna +and Kalahandi were transferred from the Central Provinces to Bengal. The +province of Bengal, therefore, now consists of the thirty-three British +districts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore, Hugli, Howrah, +Twenty-four Parganas, Calcutta, Nadia, Murshidabad, Jessore, Khulna, +Patna, Gaya, Shahabad, Saran, Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, +Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Santal Parganas, Cuttack, Balasore, Angul +and Khondmals, Puri, Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Palamau, Manbhum, Singhbum and +Sambalpur, and the native states of Sikkim and the tributary states of +Orissa and Chota Nagpur. + +The name Bengal is derived from Sanskrit geography, and applies strictly +to the country stretching southwards from Bhagalpur to the sea. The +ancient Banga formed one of the five outlying kingdoms of Aryan India, +and was practically conterminous with the delta of Bengal. It derived +its name, according to the etymology of the Pundits, from a prince of +the Mahabharata, to whose portion it fell on the primitive partition of +the country among the Lunar race of Delhi. But a city called Bangala, +near Chittagong, which, although now washed away, is supposed to have +existed in the Mahommedan period, appears to have given the name to the +European world. The word Bangala was first used by the Mussulmans; and +under their rule, like the Banga of old Sanskrit times, it applied +specifically to the Gangetic delta, although the later conquests to the +east of the Brahmaputra were eventually included within it. In their +distribution of the country for fiscal purposes, it formed the central +province of a governorship, with Behar on the north-west, and Orissa on +the south-west, jointly ruled by one deputy of the Delhi emperor. Under +the English the name has at different periods borne very different +significations. Francis Fernandez applies it to the country from the +extreme east of Chittagong to Point Palmyras in Orissa, with a coast +line which Purchas estimates at 600 m., running inland for the same +distance and watered by the Ganges. This territory would include the +Mahommedan province of Bengal, with parts of Behar and Orissa. The loose +idea thus derived from old voyagers became stereotyped in the archives +of the East India Company. All its north-eastern factories, from +Balasore, on the Orissa coast, to Patna, in the heart of Behar, belonged +to the "Bengal Establishment," and as British conquests crept higher up +the rivers, the term came to be applied to the whole of northern India. +The presidency of Bengal, in contradistinction to those of Madras and +Bombay, eventually included all the British territories north of the +Central Provinces, from the mouths of the Ganges and Brahmaputra to the +Himalayas and the Punjab. In 1831 the North-Western Provinces were +created, which are now included with Oudh in the United Provinces; and +the whole of northern India is now divided into the four +lieutenant-governorships of the Punjab, the United Provinces, Bengal, +and Eastern Bengal and Assam, and the North-West Frontier Province under +a commissioner. + +_Physical Geography._--Three sub-provinces of the present +lieutenant-governorship of Bengal--namely, Bengal proper, Behar and +Orissa--consist of great river valleys; the fourth, Chota Nagpur, is a +mountainous region which separates them from the central India plateau. +Orissa embraces the rich deltas of the Mahanadi and the neighbouring +rivers, bounded by the Bay of Bengal on the S.E., and walled in on the +N.W. by tributary hill states. Proceeding west, the sub-province of +Bengal proper stretches to the banks of the Ganges and inland from the +sea-board to the Himalayas. Its southern portion is formed by the delta +of the Ganges; its northern consists of the Ganges valley. Behar lies on +the north-west of Bengal proper, and comprises, the higher valley of the +Ganges from the spot where it issues from the United Provinces. Between +Behar and Orissa lies the province of Chota Nagpur, of which a portion +was given in 1905 to the Central Provinces. The valley of the Ganges, +which is now divided between Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam, is one +of the most fertile and densely-populated tracts of country in the +world. It teems with every product of nature. Tea, indigo, turmeric, +lac, waving white fields of the opium-poppy, wheat and innumerable +grains and pulses, pepper, ginger, betel-nut, quinine and many costly +spices and drugs, oil-seeds of sorts, cotton, the silk mulberry, +inexhaustible crops of jute and other fibres; timber, from the feathery +bamboo and coroneted palm to the iron-hearted _sal_ tree--in short, +every vegetable product which feeds and clothes a people, and enables it +to trade with foreign nations, abounds. Nor is the country destitute of +mineral wealth. The districts near the sea consist entirely of alluvial +formations; and, indeed, it is stated that no substance so coarse as +gravel occurs throughout the delta, or in the heart of the provinces +within 400 m. of the river mouths. + + + Climate. + +The climate varies from the snowy regions of the Himalayas to the +tropical vapour-bath of the delta and the burning winds of Behar. The +ordinary range of the thermometer, on the plains is from about 52 deg. +F. in the coldest month to 103 deg. in the shade in summer. A +temperature below 60 deg. is considered very cold, while with care the +temperature of well-built houses rarely exceeds 95 deg. in the hot +weather. The rainfall varies from 37 in. in Behar to about 65 in. in the +delta. + + + Rivers. + +Lower Bengal exhibits the two typical stages in the life of a great +river. In the northern districts the rivers run along the valleys, +receive the drainage from the country on either side, absorb broad +tributaries and rush forward with an ever-increasing volume. But near +the centre of the provinces the rivers enter upon a new stage of their +career. Their main channels bifurcate, and each new stream so created +throws off its own set of distributaries to right and left. The country +which they thus enclose and intersect forms the delta of Bengal. +Originally conquered by the fluvial deposits from the sea, it now +stretches out as a vast dead level, in which the rivers find their +velocity checked, and their current no longer able to carry along the +silt which they have brought down from northern India. The streams, +accordingly, deposit their alluvial burden in their channels and upon +their banks, so that by degrees their beds rise above the level of the +surrounding country. In this way the rivers in the delta slowly build +themselves up into canals, which every autumn break through or overflow +their margins, and leave their silt upon the adjacent flats. Thousands +of square miles in Lower Bengal annually receive a top-dressing of +virgin soil from the Himalayas,--a system of natural manuring which +renders elaborate tillage a waste of labour, and defies the utmost power +of over-cropping to exhaust its fertility. As the rivers creep farther +down the delta, they become more and more sluggish, and their +bifurcations and interfacings more complicated. The last scene of all is +a vast amphibious wilderness of swamp and forest, amid whose solitudes +their network of channels insensibly merges into the sea. The rivers, +finally checked by the sea, deposit their remaining silt, which emerges +as banks or blunted promontories, or, after a year's battling with the +tide, adds a few feet or it may be a few inches to the foreshore. + +The Ganges gives to the country its peculiar character and aspect. About +200 m. from its mouth it spreads out into numerous branches, forming a +large delta, composed, where it borders on the sea, of a labyrinth of +creeks and rivers, running through the dense forests of the Sundarbans, +and exhibiting during the annual inundation the appearance of an immense +sea. At this time the rice fields to the extent of many hundreds of +square miles are submerged. The scene presents to a European eye a +panorama of singular novelty and interest--rice fields covered with +water to a great depth; the ears of grain floating on the surface; the +stupendous embankments, which restrain without altogether preventing the +excesses of the inundations; and peasants going out to their daily work +with their cattle in canoes or on rafts. The navigable streams which +fall into the Ganges intersect the country in every direction and afford +great facilities for internal communication. In many parts boats can +approach by means of lakes, rivulets and water-courses to the door of +almost every cottage. The lower region of the Ganges is the richest and +most productive portion of Bengal, abounding in valuable produce. The +other principal rivers in Bengal are the Sone, Gogra, Gandak, Kusi, +Tista; the Hugli, formed by the junction of the Bhagirathi and Jalangi, +and farther to the west, the Damodar and Rupnarayan; and in the +south-west, the Mahanadi or great river of Orissa. In a level country +like Bengal, where the soil is composed of yielding and loose materials, +the courses of the rivers are continually shifting from the wearing away +of their different banks, or from the water being turned off by +obstacles in its course into a different channel. As this channel is +gradually widened the old bed of the river is left dry. The new channel +into which the river flows is of course so much land lost, while the old +bed constitutes an accession to the adjacent estates. Thus, one man's +property is diminished, while that of another is enlarged or improved; +and a distinct branch of jurisprudence has grown up, the particular +province of which is the definition and regulation of the alluvial +rights alike of private property and of the state. + +_Geology._--The greater part of Bengal is occupied by the alluvial +deposits of the Ganges, but in the south-west rises the plateau of Chota +Nagpur composed chiefly of gneissic rocks. The great thickness of the +Gangetic alluvium is shown by a borehole at Calcutta which was carried +to a depth of about 460 ft. below the present level of the sea without +entering any marine deposit. Over the surface of the gneissic rocks are +scattered numerous basins of Gondwana beds. Some of these are +undoubtedly faulted into their present positions, and to this they owe +their preservation. In the Rajmahal Hills basaltic lava flows are +interbedded with the Gondwana deposits, and in the Karharbari coalfield +the Gondwana beds are traversed by dikes of mica-peridotite and basalt, +which are supposed to be of the same age as the Rajmahal lavas. The +Gondwana series is economically of great importance. It includes +numerous seams of coal, many of which are worked on an extensive scale +(at Giridih, Raniganj, &c.). The quality of the coal is good, but +unfortunately it contains a large amount of ash, the average being as +high as 17%. + +_People._--In the sub-provinces under the lieutenant-governor of Bengal +dwell a great congeries of peoples, of widely diverse origin, speaking +different languages and representing far separated eras of civilization. +The province, in fact, became so unwieldy that this was the chief reason +for its partition in 1905. The people exhibit every stage of human +progress, and every type of human enlightenment and superstition from +the educated classes to primitive hill tribes. On the same bench of a +Calcutta college sit youths trained up in the strictest theism, others +indoctrinated in the mysteries of the Hindu trinity and pantheon, with +representatives of every link in the chain of superstition--from the +harmless offering of flowers before the family god to the cruel rites of +Kali, whose altars in the most civilized districts of Bengal, as lately +as the famine of 1866, were stained with human blood. Indeed, the very +word Hindu is one of absolutely indeterminate meaning. The census +officers employ it as a convenient generic to include 42 millions of the +population of Bengal, comprising elements of transparently distinct +ethnical origin, and separated from each other by their language, +customs and religious rites. But Hinduism, understood even in this wide +sense, represents only one of many creeds and races found within Bengal. +The other great historical cultus, which during the last twelve +centuries did for the Semitic peoples what Christianity accomplished +among the European Aryans, has won to itself one-fifth of the population +of Bengal. The Mahommedans number some 9,000,000 in Bengal, but the +great bulk of their numbers was transferred to Eastern Bengal and Assam. +They consist largely of the original inhabitants of the country, who +were proselytized by the successive Pathan and Mogul invasions. In the +face of great natural catastrophes, such as river inundations, famines, +tidal waves and cyclones of the lower provinces of Bengal, the religious +instinct works with a vitality unknown in European countries. Until the +British government stepped in with its police and canals and railroads, +between the people and what they were accustomed to consider the +dealings of Providence, scarcely a year passed without some terrible +manifestation of the power and the wrath of God. Mahratta invasions from +central India, piratical devastations on the sea-board, banditti who +marched about the interior in bodies of 50,000 men, floods which drowned +the harvests of whole districts, and droughts in which a third of the +population starved to death, kept alive a sense of human powerlessness +in the presence of an omnipotent fate. Under the Mahommedans a +pestilence turned the capital into a silent wilderness, never again to +be re-peopled. Under British rule it is estimated that 10 millions +perished within the Lower Provinces alone in the famine of 1769-1770; +and the first surveyor-general of Bengal entered on his maps a tract of +many hundreds of square miles as bare of villages and "depopulated by +the Maghs." But since the advent of British administration the history +of Bengal has substantially been a record of prosperity; the teeming +population of its river valleys is one of the densest in the world, and +the purely agricultural districts of Saran and Muzaffarpur in the Patna +division support over 900 persons to the square mile, a number hardly +surpassed elsewhere except in urban areas. + +_Language._--Excluding immigrants the languages spoken by the people of +Bengal belong to one or other of four linguistic families--Aryan, +Dravidian, Munda and Tibeto-Burman. Of these the languages of the Aryan +family are by far the most important, being spoken by no less than 95% +of the population according to the census of 1901. The Aryan languages +are spoken in the plains by almost the whole population; the Munda and +Dravidian in the Chota Nagpur plateau and adjoining tracts; and the +Tibeto-Burman in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Jalpaiguri. The most important +Aryan languages are Bengali (q.v.), Bihari, Eastern Hindi and Oriya. On +the average in the province, before partition, out of every 1000 persons +528 spoke Bengali, 341 Hindi and Bihari, and 79 Oriya. As a rule Bengali +is the language of Bengal proper, Hindi of Behar and Chota Nagpur, and +Oriya of Orissa. + +_Agriculture._--The staple crop of the province is rice, to which about +66% of the cropped area is devoted. There are three harvests in the +year--the _boro_, or spring rice; _aus_, or autumn rice; and _aman_, or +winter rice. Of these the last or winter rice is by far the most +extensively cultivated, and forms the great harvest of the year. The +_aman_ crop is grown on low land. In May, after the first fall of rain, +a nursery ground is ploughed three times, and the seed scattered +broadcast. When the seedlings make their appearance another field is +prepared for transplanting. By this time the rainy season has thoroughly +set in, and the field is dammed up so as to retain the water. It is then +repeatedly ploughed until the water becomes worked into the soil, and +the whole reduced to thick mud. The young rice is then taken from the +nursery, and transplanted in rows about 9 in. apart. _Aman_ rice is much +more extensively cultivated than _aus_, and in favourable years is the +most valuable crop, but being sown in low lands is liable to be +destroyed by excessive rainfall. Harvest takes place in December or +January. _Aus_ rice is generally sown on high ground. The field is +ploughed when the early rains set in, ten or twelve times over, till the +soil is reduced nearly to dust, the seed being sown broadcast in April +or May. As soon as the young plants reach 6 in. in height, the land is +harrowed for the purpose of thinning the crop and to clear it of weeds. +The crop is harvested in August or September. _Boro_, or spring rice, is +cultivated on low marshy land, being sown in a nursery in October, +transplanted a month later, and harvested in March and April. An +indigenous description of rice, called _uri_ or _jaradhan_, grows in +certain marshy tracts. The grain is very small, and is gathered for +consumption only by the poorest. Wheat forms an important food staple in +Behar, whence there is a considerable export to Calcutta. Oil-seeds are +very largely grown, particularly in Behar. The principal oil-seeds are +_sarisha_ (mustard), _til_ (sesamum) and _lisi_ or _masina_ (linseed). +Jute (_pat_ or _kosta_) forms a very important commercial staple of +Bengal. The cultivation of this crop has rapidly increased of late +years. Its principal seat of cultivation, however, is Eastern Bengal, +where the superior varieties are grown. The crop grows on either high or +low lands, is sown in April and cut in August. Apart from the quantity +exported and the quantity made up by hand, it supports a prosperous mill +industry, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Calcutta and Howrah. In 1905 +there were thirty-six jute mills in the province and 2-1/4 million acres +were cropped. The value of jute and of the goods manufactured from it +represents more than a third of the aggregate value of the trade of +Calcutta. Indigo used to be an important crop carried on with European +capital in Behar, but of late years the industry has almost been +destroyed by the invention of artificial indigo. Tea cultivation is the +other great industry carried on by European capital, but that is chiefly +confined to Assam, the industry in Darjeeling and the Dwars being on a +small scale. Opium is grown in Behar with its head station at Patna. The +cultivation of the cinchona plant in Bengal was introduced as an +experiment about 1862, and is grown on government plantations in +Darjeeling. + +_Mineral Products._--The chief mineral product in Bengal is coal, which +disputes with the gold of Mysore for the place of premier importance in +the mining industries of India. The most important mine in point of +area, accessibility and output is Raniganj, with an area of 500 sq. m. +Another of rising importance is that of Jherria, with an area of 200 sq. +m., which is situated only 16 m. to the west of Raniganj; while +Daltonganj also has an area of 200 sq. m. The small coalfield of +Karharbari with an area of only 11 sq. m. yields the best coal in +Bengal. Besides these four coalfields there are twenty-five others of +various sizes, which are only in the initial stages of development. + +_Commerce._--The sea-borne trade of Bengal is almost entirely +concentrated at Calcutta (q.v.), which also serves as the chief port for +Eastern Bengal and Assam, and for the United Provinces. The principal +imports are cotton piece goods, railway materials, metals and machinery, +oils, sugar, cotton, twist and salt; and the principal exports are jute, +tea, hides, opium, rice, oil-seeds, indigo and lac. The inter-provincial +trade is mostly carried on with Eastern Bengal and Assam, the United +Provinces and the Central Provinces. From the United Provinces come +opium, hides, raw cotton, wheat, shellac and oil-seeds; and from Assam, +tea, oil-seeds and jute. The frontier trade of Bengal is registered with +Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan, but except with Nepal the amount is +insignificant. + +_Railways._--Bengal is well supplied with railways, which naturally have +the seaport of Calcutta as the centre of the system. South of the +Ganges, the East Indian follows the river from the North-Western +Provinces, with its terminus at Howrah on the Hugli, opposite Calcutta. +A chord line passes by the coalfield of Raniganj, which enables this +great railway to be worked more economically than any other in India. +The Bengal-Nagpur, from the Central Provinces, also has its terminus at +Howrah, and the section of this railway through Midnapore carries the +East Coast line from Madras. North of the Ganges the Eastern Bengal runs +north to Darjeeling, and maintains a service of river steamers on the +Brahmaputra. The Bengal Central serves the lower Gangetic delta. Both of +these have their termini at Sealdah, an eastern suburb of Calcutta. +Northern Behar is traversed by the Bengal & North-Western, with an +extension eastwards through Tirhoot to join the Eastern Bengal. In +addition there are a few light lines and steam tramways. + +_Canals and Rivers._--Rivers and other waterways still carry a large +part of the traffic of Bengal, especially in the delta. The government +maintains two channels through the Sundarbans, known as the Calcutta and +Eastern canals, and likewise does its best to keep open the Nadiya +rivers, which form the communication between the main stream of the +Ganges and the Hugli. There is further a route by water between Calcutta +and Midnapore. The most important canals, those in Orissa (see MAHANADI) +and on the Sone river in southern Behar, have been constructed primarily +for irrigation, though they are also used for navigation. Except as a +protection against famine, expenditure on irrigation is not remunerative +in Bengal, on account of the abundance of rivers, and the general +dampness of the climate. + +_Administration._--The administration of Bengal is conducted by a +lieutenant-governor, with a chief secretary, two secretaries and three +under-secretaries. There is no executive council, as in Madras and +Bombay; but there is a board of revenue, consisting of two members. For +legislative purposes the lieutenant-governor has a council of twenty +members, of whom not more than ten may be officials. Of the remaining +members seven are nominated on the recommendation of the Calcutta +corporation, groups of municipalities, groups of district boards, +selected public associations and the senate of Calcutta university. The +number of divisions or commissionerships is 6, of which Chota Nagpur +ranks as "non-regulation." The number of districts is 33. + +_Army._--In Lord Kitchener's reconstitution of the Indian army in 1904 +the old Bengal command was abolished and its place taken by the Eastern +army corps, which includes all the troops from Meerut to Assam. The +boundaries of the 8th division include those of the former Oudh, +Allahabad, Assam and Presidency districts; and the troops now quartered +in Bengal only consist of the Presidency brigade with its headquarters +at Fort William. + +_History._--The history of so large a province as Bengal forms an +integral part of the general history of India. The northern part, Behar +(q.v.), constituted the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the nucleus of the +imperial power of the successive great dynasties of the Mauryas, +Andhras and Guptas; and its chief town, Patna, is the ancient +Pataliputra (the Palimbothra of the Greeks), once the capital of India. +The Delta or southern part of Bengal lay beyond the ancient Sanskrit +polity, and was governed by a number of local kings belonging to a +pre-Aryan stock. The Chinese travellers, Fa Hien in the 5th century, and +Hsuan Tsang in the 7th century, found the Buddhist religion prevailing +throughout Bengal, but already in a fierce struggle with Hinduism--a +struggle which ended about the 9th or 10th century in the general +establishment of the latter faith. Until the end of the 12th century +Hindu princes governed in a number of petty principalities, till, in +1199, Mahommed Bakhtiyar Khilji was appointed to lead the first +Mussulman invasion into Bengal. The Mahommedan conquest of Behar dates +from 1197 A.D., and the new power speedily spread southwards into the +delta. From about this date until 1340 Bengal was ruled by governors +appointed by the Mahommedan emperors in the north. From 1340 to 1539 its +governors asserted a precarious independence, and arrogated the position +of sovereigns on their own account. From 1540 to 1576 Bengal passed +under the rule of the Pathan or Afghan dynasty, which commonly bears the +name of Sher Shah. On the overthrow of this house by the powerful arms +of Akbar, Bengal was incorporated into the Mogul empire, and +administered by governors appointed by the Delhi emperor, until the +treaties of 1765, which placed Bengal, Behar and Orissa under the +administration of the East India Company. The Company formed its +earliest settlements in Bengal in the first half of the 17th century. +These settlements were of a purely commercial character. In 1620 one of +the Company's factors dates from Patna; in 1624-1636 the Company +established itself, by the favour of the emperor, on the ruins of the +ancient Portuguese settlement of Pippli, in the north of Orissa; in +1640-1642 an English surgeon, Gabriel Boughton, obtained establishments +at Balasore, also in Orissa, and at Hugli, some miles above Calcutta. +The vexations and extortions to which the Company's early agents were +subjected more than once almost induced them to abandon the trade, and +in 1677-1678 they threatened to withdraw from Bengal altogether. In +1685, the Bengal factors, driven to extremity by the oppression of the +Mogul governors, threw down the gauntlet; and after various successes +and hairbreadth escapes, purchased from the grandson of Aurangzeb, in +1696, the villages which have since grown up into Calcutta, the +metropolis of India. During the next fifty years the British had a long +and hazardous struggle alike with the Mogul governors of the province +and the Mahratta armies which invaded it. In 1756 this struggle +culminated in the great outrage known as the Black Hole of Calcutta, +followed by Clive's battle of Plassey and capture of Calcutta, which +avenged it. That battle, and the subsequent years of confused fighting, +established British military supremacy in Bengal, and procured the +treaties of 1765, by which the provinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa +passed under British administration. To Warren Hastings (1772-1785) +belongs the glory of consolidating the British power, and converting a +military occupation into a stable civil government. To another member of +the civil service, John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth (1786-1793), +is due the formation of a regular system of Anglo-Indian legislation. +Acting through Lord Cornwallis, then governor-general, he ascertained +and defined the rights of the landholders in the soil. These landholders +under the native system had started, for the most part, as collectors of +the revenues, and gradually acquired certain prescriptive rights as +quasi-proprietors of the estates entrusted to them by the government. In +1793 Lord Cornwallis declared their rights perpetual, and made over the +land of Bengal to the previous quasi-proprietors or _zamindars_, on +condition of the payment of a fixed land tax. This piece of legislation +is known as the Permanent Settlement of the Land Revenue. But the +Cornwallis code, while defining the rights of the proprietors, failed to +give adequate recognition to the rights of the undertenants and the +cultivators. His Regulations formally reserved the latter class of +rights, but did not legally define them, or enable the husbandmen to +enforce them in the courts. After half a century of rural disquiet, the +rights of the cultivators were at length carefully formulated by Act X. +of 1859. This measure, now known as the land law of Bengal, effected for +the rights of the under-holders and cultivators what the Cornwallis code +in 1793 had effected for those of the superior landholders. The status +of each class of persons interested in the soil, from the government as +suzerain, through the _zamindars_ or superior landholders, the +intermediate tenure-holders and the undertenants, down to the actual +cultivator, is now clearly defined. The act dates from the first year +after the transfer of India from the company to the crown; for the +mutiny burst out in 1857. The transactions of that revolt chiefly took +place in northern India, and are narrated in the article INDIAN MUTINY. +In Bengal the rising began at Barrackpore, was communicated to Dacca in +Eastern Bengal, and for a time raged in Behar, producing the memorable +defence of the billiard-room at Arrah by a handful of civilians and +Sikhs--one of the most splendid pieces of gallantry in the history of +the British arms. Since 1858, when the country passed to the crown, the +history of Bengal has been one of steady progress. Five great lines of +railway have been constructed. Trade has enormously expanded; new +centres of commerce have sprung up in spots which formerly were silent +jungles; new staples of trade, such as tea and jute, have rapidly +attained importance; and the coalfields and iron ores have opened up +prospects of a new and splendid era in the internal development of the +country. + +During the decade 1891-1901 Bengal was fortunate in escaping to a great +extent the two calamities of famine and plague which afflicted central +and western India. The drought of 1896-1897 did indeed extend to Bengal, +but not to such an extent as to cause actual famine. The distress was +most acute in the densely populated districts of northern Behar, and in +the remote hills of Chota Nagpur. Plague first appeared at Calcutta in a +sporadic form in April 1898, but down to April of the following year the +total number of deaths ascribed to plague throughout the province was +less than 1000, compared with 191,000 for Bombay. At the beginning of +1900, however, there was a serious recrudescence of plague at Calcutta, +and a malignant outbreak in the district of Patna, which caused 1000 +deaths a week. In the early months of 1901, plague again appeared in the +same regions. The number of deaths in 1904 was 75,436, the highest +recorded up to that date. + +The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897, which had its centre of +disturbance in Assam, was felt throughout eastern and northern Bengal. +In all the large towns the masonry buildings were severely damaged or +totally wrecked. The permanent way of the railways also suffered. The +total number of deaths returned was only 135. Far more destructive to +life was the cyclone and storm-wave that broke over Chittagong district +on the night of the 24th of October 1897. Apart from damage to shipping +and buildings, the low-lying lands along the coast were completely +submerged, and in many villages half the inhabitants were drowned. The +loss of human lives was reported to be about 14,000, and the number of +cattle drowned about 15,000. As usual in such cases, a severe outbreak +of cholera followed in the track of the storm-wave. Another natural +calamity on a large scale occurred at Darjeeling in October 1899. +Torrential rains caused a series of landslips, carrying away houses and +breaking up the hill railway. + +The most notable event, however, of recent times was the partition of +the province, which was decided upon by Lord Curzon, and carried into +execution in October 1905. Serious popular agitation followed this step, +on the ground (_inter alia_) that the Bengali population, the centre of +whose interests and prosperity was Calcutta, would now be divided under +two governments, instead of being concentrated and numerically dominant +under the one; while the bulk would be in the new division. In 1906-1909 +the unrest developed to a considerable extent, requiring special +attention from the Indian and home governments; but as part of the +general history of India the movement may be best discussed under that +heading (see INDIA: _History_). + + See Parliamentary Papers relating to the reconstitution of the + provinces of Bengal and Assam (Cd. 2658 and Cd. 2746, 1905); Colonel + E.T. Dalton, _The Ethnology of Bengal_ (1872); Sir W.W. Hunter, + _Annals of Rural Bengal_ (1868), and _Orissa_ (1872); Sir H.H. Risley, + _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_ (1891); C.E. Buckland, _Bengal under the + Lieutenant-Governors_ (1901); and Sir James Bourdillon, _The Partition + of Bengal_ (Society of Arts, 1905). + + + + +BENGAL, BAY OF, a portion of the Indian Ocean, resembling a triangle in +shape, lying between India and Burma. A zone 50 m. wide extending from +the island of Ceylon and the Coromandel coast to the head of the bay, +and thence southwards through a strip embracing the Andaman and Nicobar +islands, is bounded by the 100 fathom line of sea bottom; some 50 m. +beyond this lies the 500-fathom limit. Opposite the mouth of the Ganges, +however, the intervals between these depths are very much extended by +deltaic influence. The bay receives many large rivers, of which the most +important are the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the north, the Irrawaddy on +the east, and the Mahanadi, Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery on the west. On +the west coast it has no harbours, Madras having a mere open roadstead, +but on the east there are many good ports, such as Akyab, Moulmein, +Rangoon and Tavoy river. The islands in the bay are very numerous, +including the Andaman, Nicobar and Mergui groups. The group of islands, +Cheduba and others, in the north-east, off the Burmese coast, are +remarkable for a chain of mud volcanoes, which are occasionally active. +Thus in December 1906 a new island of mud was thrown up, and measured +307 by 217 yds. + + + + +BENGALI, with ORIYA and ASSAMESE, three of the four forms of speech +which compose the Eastern Group of the Indo-Aryan Languages (q.v.). This +group includes all the Aryan languages spoken in India east of the +longitude of Benares, and its members are the following:-- + + Number of speakers in + British India, 1901. + Bengali 44,624,048 + Oriya 9,687,429 + Assamese 1,350,846 + Bihari 34,579,844 + ---------- + Total 90,242,167 + +Of these Bihari is treated separately. In the present article we shall +devote ourselves to the examination of Bengali together with the two +other closely connected languages. The reader is throughout assumed to +be in possession of the facts described under the heads INDO-ARYAN +LANGUAGES and PRAKRIT. + + + Language. + +Bengali is spoken in the province of Bengal proper, i.e. in, and on both +sides of the delta of the Ganges, and also in the Eastern Bengal +portion of the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The name "Bengali" +is an English word, derived from the English word "Bengal." Natives call +the language _Banga-Bhasa_, or the language of Banga, i.e. "Bengal." +"Oriya" is the native name for the language of Odra or Orissa. Assamese, +again an English word, is spoken in the Assam Valley. Its native name is +_Asamiya_, pronounced _Ohamiya_. All these languages have alphabets +derived from early forms of the well-known Nagari character of northern +India. That of Bengali dates from about the 11th century A.D. It is a +cursive script which admits of considerable speed in writing. The +Assamese alphabet is the same as that of Bengali, but has one additional +character to represent the sound of _w_, which has to be expressed in +the former language in a very awkward fashion. In Orissa, till lately, +writing was done on a talipot palm-leaf, on which the letters were +scratched with an iron stylus. In such circumstances straight lines +would tend to split the leaf, and accordingly the alphabet received a +peculiar curved appearance typical of it and of one or two other South +Indian methods of writing. + +The three languages are all the immediate descendants of Magadhi Prakrit +(see PRAKRIT), the headquarters of which were in south Behar, near the +modern city of Patna. From here it spread in three lines--southwards, +where it developed into Oriya; south-eastwards into Bengal proper, where +it became Bengali; and eastwards, through Northern Bengal, into Assam, +where it became Assamese. It thus appears that the language of Northern +Bengal, though usually and conveniently treated as a dialect of Bengali, +is not so in reality, but is a connecting link between Assamese and +Bihari, the language of Behar. It is noteworthy that Northern Bengali +and Assamese often agree in their grammar with Oriya, as against +standard Bengali. + +Omitting border forms of speech, Bengali, as a vernacular, has two main +dialects, a western and an eastern, the former being the standard. The +boundary-line between the two may be roughly put at the 89th degree of +east longitude. The eastern dialect has many marked peculiarities, +amongst which we may mention a tendency to disaspiration, the +pronunciation of _c_ as _ts_, of _ch_ as _s_, and of _j_ as _z_. In the +northern part of the tract a medial _r_ is often elided, and in the +extreme east there is a broader pronunciation of the vowel _a_, like +that in the English word "ball," _k_ is sounded like the _ch_ in "loch," +and both _c_ and _ch_ are pronounced like _s_. The letter _p_ is often +sounded like _w_, and _s_ like _h_, which again, when initial, is +dropped. The distinction between cerebral and dental letters is lost, so +that the words _ath_ and _sat_ are both pronounced _'at_. In the +south-east, near Chittagong, corruption has gone even further, and the +local dialect, which is practically a new language, is unintelligible to +a man from Western Bengal. Throughout the eastern districts there is a +strong tendency to epenthesis, e.g. _kali_ is pronounced _kail_. A more +important dialectic difference in Bengali is that between the literary +speech and the vernacular. The literary vocabulary is highly +Sanskritized, so much so that it is not understood by any native of +Bengal who has not received special instruction in it. Its grammar +preserves numerous archaic or pseudo-archaic forms, which are invariably +contracted in the colloquial speech of even the most highly educated. +For instance, "I do" is expressed in the literary dialect by +_karitechi_, but in the vernacular by _korcci_ or _kocci_. Oriya and +Assamese may be said to have no dialects. There are a few local +variations, but the standard form of speech, as a whole, is used +everywhere in the respective tracts where the languages are spoken. + +The three languages, being all children of a common parent, present many +similar features. Oriya on the whole preserves the usual accentuation of +the Indo-Aryan Languages (q.v.), seldom having the stress syllable +farther back than the antepenultimate. Bengali, on the other hand, +throws the accent as far back as possible, and this produces the +contracted forms which we observe in the colloquial language, the first +syllable of a word being strongly accented, and the rest being hurried +over. Literary Bengali preserves the full form of the word, and in +reading aloud this full form is adhered to. Assamese follows Bengali in +its accentuation, but the language has never been the toy of euphuism. +In its literature colloquial words are employed, and are written as they +are pronounced colloquially. + + In the following account of the three languages, Bengali, literary and + colloquial, will be primarily dealt with, and then the points of + difference between it and the other two will be described. + Abbreviations used: A. = Assamese, Bg. = Bengali, O. = Oriya, Pr. = + Prakrit, Mg. Pr. = Magadhi Prakrit, Skr. = Sanskrit. + + _Vocabulary._--As already said, Literary Bengali abounds in + _tatsamas_, or words borrowed in modern times from Sanskrit (see + INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES), and these have also intruded themselves into + the speech of the educated. So much has the false taste for these + learned words obtained the mastery that, in the literary language, + when a genuine Bengali or _tadbhava_ word is used in literature it is + frequently not put into writing, but the corresponding learned + _tatsama_ is written in its place, although the _tadbhava_ is read. It + is as though a French writer wrote _sicca_ when he wished the word + _seche_ to be pronounced. Similarly, the Bengali word for the goddess + of Fortune is _Lakkhi_, but in books this is always written in the + Skr. form _Laksmi_, although no Bengali would dream of saying anything + but _Lakkhi_, even when reciting a purple passage _ore rotunda_. In + fact, the vocal organs of most Bengalis are incapable of uttering the + sound connoted by the letters _Laksmi_. The result is that the + spelling of a Bengali word rarely represents its pronunciation. Oriya + also borrows freely from Sanskrit, but there is no confusion between + _tatsamas_ and _tadbhavas_, as in Bengali. Assamese, on the other + hand, is remarkably free from these parasites, its vocabulary being + mainly _tadbhava_. In Eastern Bengal, where Mussulmans predominate, + there is a free use of words borrowed from Arabic and Persian. Owing + to geographical and historical circumstances, Oriya is to some extent + infected by Telugu and Marathi idioms, while the Tibeto-Burman + dialects and Ahom have left their marks upon Assamese. + + _Phonetics._--The three forms of speech agree in sounding the vowel + _a_ like the _o_ in "hot." When writing phonetically, this sound is + represented in the present article by _o_. The pronunciation of this + frequently recurring vowel gives a tone to the general sound of the + languages which at once strikes a foreigner. In Bg. and A. a final + vowel preceded by a single consonant is generally not pronounced. In + Bg. this is only true for nouns, a final _a_ being freely sounded in + adjectives and verbs. In O., on the other hand, a final _a_ is always + pronounced. The sound of such a final _a_ is in all three languages + the same as that of the second _o_ in "promote"; thus, the Bg. _bara_ + is pronounced _boro_. In Bg. a medial _a_ sometimes has the sound of + the first _o_ in "promote," as, for instance, in the word _ban_ + (_bon_), a forest. In A. and Eastern Bg. a medial _a_ is often sounded + like the _a_ in "ball," and is then transliterated _a_. _A_ has + preserved as a rule its proper sound of _a_ in "father." The + distinction between _i_ and _i_ and between _u_ and _u_ is everywhere + lost in pronunciation, although in _tatsama_ words the Sanskrit + spelling is followed in literature. Thus, in Bg., the Skr. _vyatita_ + is pronounced _betito_, with the accent on the first syllable. In A. + the distinction between these long and short vowels is obliterated + more than elsewhere, the reason being, as in Bg., the changes of + pronunciation due to the shifting back of the accent. In O., the Skr. + vowel _r_ is pronounced _ru_. Elsewhere it is _ri_. In O. the vowel + _e_ is always long, but in Bg. it may be long or short, and in A. it + is always short. The syllable _ya_ preceded by a consonant has in Bg. + the sound of a short _e_, so that _vyakti_ is pronounced _bekti_. + Moreover, in the same language the letter _e_ is often pronounced like + the _a_ in the German _Mann_, a sound here phonetically represented by + _a_; thus, _dekha_ is sometimes pronounced _dekho_, and sometimes + _dakho_ or even _dako_. The syllable _ya_, when following a consonant, + also has this _a_-sound, so that the English word "bank" is written + _byank_ in Bengali characters. _O_ in O. is always long. In Bg., when + it has not got the accent it is shortened to the sound of the first + _o_ in "promote," a sound which, as we have seen, is also sometimes + taken by a medial _a_. In A. _o_ approaches the sound of _u_, and it + actually becomes _u_ when followed by _i_ in the next syllable. The + diphthongs _ai_ (in _tatsamas_, i.e. the Skr. _ai_) and _ai_ (in + _tadbhavas_) are sounded like _oi_ in "oil" in Bg. and O., while in A. + they have the sound of _oi_ in "going." Similarly, in Bg. and O. the + diphthongs _au_ and _au_ are sounded like the _au_ in the German + _Haus_, but in A. like _au_ in the French _jaune_, or the second _o_ + in "promote." In colloquial Bg. the two syllables _ai_ often have the + sound of _e_, as in _khaite_ (_khete_), to eat. + + In Eastern Bengal _k_ has often the sound of _ch_ in "loch." In A. the + consonants _c_ and _ch_ are both pronounced like _s_, and _j_ and _jh_ + become _zh_ (i.e. the _s_ in "pleasure") or (when final) _z_. The same + tendency is observable in Bg., though it is usually considered vulgar. + In parts of Eastern Bengal _c_ is pronounced like _ts_. O. as a rule + has the proper sound of these letters, but towards the south _c_ and + _ch_ become _ts_ and _tsh_ when not followed by a palatal letter. The + letters _d_ and _dh_, when medial, are pronounced as a strongly burred + _r_, and are then transliterated _r_ and _rh_ respectively. In A. and + Eastern Bg. there is a strong tendency to pronounce both dentals and + cerebrals as semi-cerebrals, as is done by the neighbouring + Tibeto-Burmans. In A. _r_ and _rh_ become _r_ and _rh_ respectively. + In Bg. and A. _n_ has universally become _n_, but is properly + pronounced in O. _Y_ is usually pronounced as _j_, unless it is a + merely euphonic bridge to avoid a hiatus between two vowels, as in + _kariya_ for _kari-a_. In A. the resultant _j_ has the usual + _z_-sound. When _y_ is the final element of a conjunct consonant, in + Bg. (except in the south-east) it is very faintly pronounced. In + compensation the preceding member of the conjunct is doubled and the + preceding vowel is shortened if possible, thus _vakya_ becomes + _bakk^yo_. In A., while the _y_ is usually preserved, an _i_ is + inserted before the conjunct, so that we have _baikyo_. _M_ and _v_ + when similarly situated are altogether elided in Bg., and this is also + the case with _v_ in A., in which language _m_ under these + circumstances becomes _w_; thus, _smarana_ becomes Bg. _ssoron_, A. + _sworon_, and _dvara_ becomes Bg. and A. _ddara_. _R_ is generally + pronounced correctly, except that when a member of a compound it is + often not pronounced in colloquial Bg.; thus _karma_ (_kommo_). In + North-eastern Bengali and in A. a medial _r_ is commonly dropped; + thus, Bg. _karilam_ (_kailam_), A. _kari_ (_kai_).[1] The vulgar + commonly confound _n_ and _l_. O. has retained the old cerebral _l_ of + Pr., which has disappeared in Bg. and A. The semi-vowel _v_ (_w_) + becomes _b_ in Bg. and O., but retains its proper sound when medial in + A. When Bg. wishes to represent a _w_, it has to write _oya_; thus, + for _chawa_ it writes _chaoya_. Similarly _baro_, twelve, +_yari_, + friendship, when compounded together to mean "a collection of twelve + friends," is pronounced _barwari_. Bg. pronounces all uncompounded + sibilants as if they were _s_, like the English _sh_ in "shin." This + was already the case in Mg. Pr. (see PRAKRIT). O., on the contrary, + pronounces all three like the dental _s_ in "sin," while A. sounds + them like a rough _h_, almost like the _ch_ in "loch." In Eastern Bg. + _s_ becomes frankly _h_, and is then often dropped. The compound _ks_ + is everywhere treated as if it were _khy_, In colloquial Bg. there is + a tendency to disaspiration; thus _dekha_ is pronounced _dako_ and the + Pr. _hattha-_, a hand, becomes _hat_, not _hath_. In Eastern Bg. there + is a cockney tendency to drop _h_, so that we have _'at_, a hand, and + _kailam_ for _kahilam_, I said. + + The above remarks show that O. has, on the whole, preserved the + original sounds of the various letters better than Bg. or A. + + _Declension._--The distinction of gender has disappeared from all + three languages. Sex is distinguished either by the use of qualifying + terms, such as "male" or "female," or by the employment of different + words, as in the case of our "bull" and "cow." The plural number is + almost always denoted by the addition of some word meaning "many" or + "collection" to the singular, although we sometimes find a true plural + used in the case of nouns denoting human beings. Case was originally + indicated by postpositions (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES), but in many + instances these have been joined to the noun, so that they form one + word with it. The following is the full declension of the singular of + the word _ghora_, a horse, in the three languages:-- + + + +-----------+---------+-------------------+-----------+ + | | Oriya. | Bengali. | Assamese. | + +-----------+---------+-------------------+-----------+ + | Nom. | ghora | ghora | ghora | + | Acc.-Dat. | ghoraku | ghorake | ghorak | + | Instr. | ghorare | ghorate | ghorare | + | Abl. | ghoraru | ghora-haite | ghoraye | + | Gen. | ghorara | ghorar | ghorar | + | Loc. | ghorare | ghorate or ghoray | ghorat | + +-----------+---------+-------------------+-----------+ + + In Bg. and A. a noun often takes _e_ (_e_) in the nominative singular, + when it is the subject of a transitive verb; thus Bg. _bedee_ (from + _bed_) _bale_, the Veda says. In Bg. the nominative plural may, in the + case of human beings, be formed by adding _a_ to the genitive + singular; thus, _santan_, a son; gen. sing., _santaner_; nom. plur., + _santanera_. The same is the case with the pronouns; thus _amar_, of + me; _amara_, we; _tahar_, his; _tahara_, they. In Bihari (q.v.) the + pronouns follow the same rule, and, as is explained under that head, + the nominative plural is really an oblique form of the genitive. With + this exception, the plural in all our three languages is either the + same as the singular, or (when the idea of plurality has to be + emphasized) is formed by the addition of nouns of multitude, such as + _gan_ in Bg., _mana_ in O., or _bilak_ in A. + + We shall see that pronominal suffixes are freely used in all three + languages in the conjugation of verbs. In the Outer languages of the + north-west of India (for the list of these, see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES) + pronominal suffixes are also commonly added to nouns to signify + possession. In most of the languages of the Eastern Group such + pronominal suffixes added to nouns have fallen into disuse, but in A. + they are still commonly employed with nouns of relationship; thus, + _bap_, a father; _bopai_, my father; _baper_, your father; _bapek_, + his father. Their retention in A. is no doubt due to the example of + the neighbouring Tibeto-Burman languages, in which such pronominal + _prefixes_ are a common feature. + + In all three languages the adjective does not change for gender, for + number or for case. + + The personal pronouns have at the present day lost their old + nominatives, and have new nominatives formed from the oblique base. In + the first and second persons the singulars have fallen into disuse in + polite conversation, and the plurals are used honorifically for the + singular, as in the case of the English "you" for "thou." For the + plural, new plurals are formed from the new singular (old plural) + bases. In A., however, the old singular of the first person is + retained, and the old plural plays its proper function. The Bg. + pronouns are, _mui_ (old), I; _ami_ (modern), I; _tui_ (old), thou; + _tumi_ (modern), thou; _se_, _tini_, he; _e_, _ini_, this; _o_, _uni_, + that; _je_, _jini_, who; _ke_, who?; _ki_, what?; _kon_, what + (adjective)?; _keha_, anyone; _kichu_, anything; _kona_, any. Most of + the forms in the other languages closely follow these. The words in O. + for "I" and "thou" are _ambhe_ and _tumbhe_ respectively. All these + pronouns have plurals and oblique forms to which the case suffixes are + added. These must be learnt from the grammars. + + _Conjugation._--It is in the conjugation of the verb that colloquial + Bg. differs most from the literary dialect. There is no distinction in + any of the three languages between singular and plural. Most of the + old singular forms have survived in a non-honorific sense, but they + are rarely employed in polite language except in the third person. The + old plural forms are generally employed for the singular also. The + usual base for the verb substantive, when employed as an auxiliary, is + _ach_, be, derived from the Skr. _rcchati_. O., however, forms its + past from the base _tha_ (Skr. _sthita-_), and in South-western Bengal + the base _tha_, derived from the same original, is used for both + present and past time. Only two of the old Skr.-Pr. tenses have + survived in the finite verb, the simple present and the imperative. + Thus, Bg. _kari_, I do; _kar_, do thou. The past is formed by adding + pronominal suffixes to the old past participle in _il_ (Skr. _-illa-_, + a pleonastic suffix, see PRAKRIT), and the future by adding them to + the old future participle in _b_ (Skr. _-tavya-_, Pr. _-avva-_). Thus, + Bg. _karil-am_, done + by-me, I did; _karib-a_, it-is-to-be-done + + by-me, I shall do. In Bg. there are two modern participles, a present + (_kar-ite_) and a past (_kar-iya_), and from these there are formed + periphrastic tenses by suffixing auxiliary verbs. Thus, _karite-chi_ + (colloquial, _korci_ or _kocci_), I am doing; _karite-chilam_ (coll. + _korcilum_ or _koccilum_), I was doing; _kariya-chi_ (coll., _korsi_), + I have done; _kariya-chilam_ (coll., _korsilum_), I had done. A past + conditional is formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the present + participle; thus, _karitam_ (coll., _kortum_ or _kottum_), (if) I had + done. Similar tenses are formed in O. and A., but the periphrastic + tenses are formed with verbal nouns and not with participles. Thus, O. + _karu-achi_, A. _kari-cho_, I am a-doing, I am doing. O. and A. have + each a very complete series of gerunds or verbal nouns which are fully + declined. In Bg. only one gerund, that of the genitive, is in common + use. + + In order to illustrate the conjugation of the verb, we here give that + of the root _kar_, do, in its present, past and future tenses. + + + +----------------------------+---------+----------+----------------+----------+ + | | | Literary | Colloquial | | + | | Oriya. | Bengali. | Bengali. | Assamese.| + +----------------------------+---------+----------+----------------+----------+ + | I do | karn | kari | kori | karo | + | Thou doest | kara | kara | koro | kara | + | He (non-honorific) does | kare | kare | kore | kare | + | He (honorific) does | karanti | karen | koren | kare | + | I did | karilu | karilam | kollum, korlum | karilo | + | Thou didst | karila | karile | kolle, korle | karila | + | He (non-honorific) did | karila | karila | kollo, korlo | karile | + | He (honorific) did | karile | karilen | kollen, korlen | karile | + | I shall do | karibu | kariba | korbo | karim | + | Thou wilt do | kariba | karibe | korbe | kariba | + | He (non-honorific) will do | kariba | karibe | korbe | kariba | + | He (honorific) will do | karibe | kariben | korben | kariba | + +----------------------------+---------+----------+----------------+----------+ + + All the three languages have negative forms of the verb substantive, + and A. has a complete negative conjugation for all verbs, made by + prefixing the negative syllable _na_ under certain euphonic rules. + + +Literature. + +_Bengali Literature._--The oldest recognized writer in Bengali is the +Vaishnava poet Candi Das, who flourished about the end of the 14th or +the beginning of the 15th century. His language does not differ much +from the Bengali of to-day. He founded a school of poets who wrote hymns +in honour of Krishna, many of whom, in later times, became connected +with the religious revival instituted by Caitanya in the early part of +the 16th century. In the 15th century Kasi Ram translated the +_Mahabharata_, and Krttibas Ojha the _Ramayana_ into the vernacular. The +principal figure of the 17th century was Mukunda Ram who has left us two +really admirable poems entitled _Candi_ and _Srimanta Saudagar_. Parts +of the former have been translated by Professor Cowell into English +verse, and both well deserve putting into an English dress. With Bharat +Candra, whose much admired but artificial Bidya Sundar appeared in the +18th century, the list of old Bengali authors may be considered as +closed. They wrote in genuine nervous Bengali, and the conspicuous +success of many of them shows how baseless is the contention of some +native writers of the present day that modern literary Bengali needs the +help of its huge imported Sanskrit vocabulary to express anything but +the simplest ideas. This modern literary Bengali arose early in the 19th +century, as a child of the revival of Sanskrit learning in Calcutta, +under the influence of the college founded by the English in Fort +William. Each decade it has become more and more the slave of Sanskrit. +It has had some excellent writers, notably the late Bankim Candra, whose +novels have received the honour of being translated into several +languages, including English. Even he, however, sometimes laboured under +the fetters imposed upon him by a strange vocabulary, and all competent +European scholars are agreed that no work of first-class originality has +much chance of arising in Bengal till some great genius purges the +language of its pseudo-classical element. + +_Oriya Literature_ does not go back beyond the 16th century, though +examples of the language are found in inscriptions of the 13th century. +Nearly all the works are connected with the history of Krishna, and the +translation of the _Bhagavata Purana_ into Oriya in the first half of +the 16th century still exercises great influence on the masses. Dina +Krsna Das (17th century) was the author of another popular work entitled +_Rasa Kallola_, or "The Waves of Sentiment," which deals with the early +life of Krishna. Every verse in it begins with the letter k. It is not +always decent, but is immensely popular. Upendra Bhanja, Raja of Gumsur, +a petty hill state, is the most famous of Oriya poets, and was the most +prolific. His work is insipid to a European taste, and when not +unintelligible is often obscene. Oriya poetry, from first to last, has +been an artificial production, the work of _pandits_, who clung to the +rules of Sanskrit rhetoric, and loaded their verses with so many ideas +and words borrowed from that language that it is rarely understood, +except by the learned. The whole literature is, in fact, overshadowed by +the great temple of Jagannath (a name of Krishna) at Puri in Orissa. + +_Assamese Literature._--The Assamese are justly proud of their national +literature. It has an independent growth, and its strength lies in +history, a branch of letters in which other Indian languages are almost +entirely wanting. They have chronicles going back for the past 600 +years, and a knowledge of their contents is a necessary part of the +education of the upper classes of the country. In poetry, the Vaishnava +reformer, Sankar Deb, who flourished some 450 years ago, was a +voluminous writer. His best known work is a translation of the +_Bhagavata Purana_. About the same time Ananta Kandali translated the +_Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_ into his native tongue. Medicine was a +science much studied, and there are translations of all the principal +Sanskrit works on the subject. Forty or fifty dramatic works in the +vernacular are known and are still acted. Some of them date back to the +time of Sankar Deb. + + AUTHORITIES.--There is no work dealing with the three languages as a + group. Both the _Comparative Grammars_ of Beames and Hoernle (see + INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES) are silent about Assamese. The fullest details + concerning them all will be found in vol. v. of the _Linguistic Survey + of India_, parts i. and ii. (Calcutta, 1903). In this each dialect and + subdialect is treated with great minuteness and with copious examples. + + The first Bengali grammar and dictionary in a European language was + the _Vocabulario em Idioma Bengalla e Portuguez_ of Manoel da + Assumpcam (Lisbon, 1743). N.B. Halhed wrote the first Bengali grammar + in the English language (Hooghly, 1778), but the real father of + Bengali philology was the great missionary, William Carey (_Grammar_, + Serampore, 1801; _Dictionary, ib_., 1825). W. Yates's _Grammar_, as + edited and improved by T. Wenger (Calcutta, 1847) and others, is still + on sale. It is entirely confined to the literary Bengali of the + pandits. Its great rival has been Syama Caran Sarkar's _Grammar_ + (Calcutta, 1850), of which there have been numerous reprints. In 1894 + J. Beames published his _Grammar_ (Oxford), now the standard work on + the subject. It is largely based on Syama Caran's work, but with much + new material, especially that dealing with the colloquial side of the + language. G.F. Nicholl's _Grammar_ (London, 1885) is an independent + study of the language, in which the vernacular works of the best + native grammarians have been freely utilized. There is no good Bengali + dictionary. G.C. Haughton's _Dictionary_ (London, 1833) is perhaps + still the best, but J. Mendies' (Calcutta, about 1870) is also well + known, and is the parent of countless others which have issued from + the Calcutta presses. _A Small Dictionary of Colloquial Bengali + Words_, by J. M. C. and G. A. C. (Calcutta, 1904), may also be studied + with advantage. Cf. also Syama-caran Ganguli, _Bengali Spoken and + Written_ (Calcutta, 1906). For Bengali literature, see R.C. Dutt, _The + Literature of Bengal_ (Calcutta and London, 1895), and Hara Prasad + Sastri, _The Vernacular Literature of Bengal before the Introduction + of English Education_ (Calcutta, n.d.). The most complete work is + _Bangabhasa o Sahitya_ by Dines Candra Sen (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1901) + in the Bengali language. + + For Oriya there are E. Hallam's (Calcutta, 1874), T. Maltby's + (Calcutta, 1874) and J. Browne's (London, 1882) _Grammars_. The last + two are in the Roman character. They are all mere sketches of the + language. Sutton's (Cuttack, 1841) is still the only _Dictionary_ + which the present writer has found of any practical use. For Oriya + literature, see App. IX. of Hunter's _Orissa_ (London, 1872), and + Monmohan Chakravarti's "Notes on the Language and Literature of + Orissa" in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. lxvi. + (1897), part i. pp. 317 ff., and vol. lxvii. (1898), part i. pp. 332 + ff. + + The first Assamese _Grammar_ was Nathan Brown's (Sibsagar, 1848, 3rd + ed. 1893), and it is still the one usually studied. G.F. Nicholl gives + an Assamese grammar as a supplement to his Bengali _Grammar_ already + quoted. Like that work, it is quite independent, and is not a revised + edition of Brown. M. Bronson's _Dictionary_ (Sibsagar, 1867) was for + long the only vocabulary available, and a very useful and practical + work it was. It is now superseded by Hem Candra Barua's _Hema-kosa_ + (Shillong, 1900). For Assamese literature, see Ananda Ram Dhekial + Phukan's _A Few Remarks on the Assamese Language_ (Sibsagar, 1855), + partly reprinted in the _Indian Antiquary_, vol. xxv. (1896), pp. 57 + ff. (G. A. Gr.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] In Mg. Pr. every _r_ becomes _l_. For an explanation of the + apparent non-observance of this rule in languages of the Eastern + Group, see BIHARI. + + + + +BENGAZI (anc. _Hesperides-Berenice_), a seaport on the north coast of +Africa, capital of the sanjak of Bengazi or Barca, formerly in the +vilayet of Tripoli, but, since 1875, dependent directly on the ministry +of the interior at Constantinople. It is situated on a narrow strip of +land between the Gulf of Sidra and a salt marsh, in 30 deg. 7' N. lat. +and 20 deg. 3' E. long. Though for the most part poorly built, it has +one or two buildings of some pretension--an ancient castle, a mosque, a +Franciscan monastery, government buildings and barracks. Senussi +influence is strong and there is a large _zawia_ (convent). The harbour +is half silted up with sand and the ruins of fortifications and is +accessible only to vessels of light draught. A lighthouse has been +erected at the entrance, but reefs render approach difficult, and the +outer anchorage is fully exposed to west and north and not good holding. +The export trade is largely in barley, shipped to British and other +maltsters. The Sudan produce (ivory, ostrich feathers, &c.) formerly +brought to Bengazi by caravan, has now been almost wholly diverted to +Tripoli, the eastern tracks from Wadai and Borku by way of Kufra to +Aujila having become so unsafe that their natural difficulties are no +longer worth braving. Consular vigilance has also killed the once +considerable slave trade. Trade in other commodities, however, is on the +increase, exports now amounting to nearly half a million sterling and +imports to half that figure. The neighbouring coast is frequented by +Greek and Italian sponge-fishers, the industry being a valuable one. The +province of Bengazi, being still without telegraphs or roads, is one of +the most backward in the Ottoman empire. + +Founded by the Greeks of Cyrenaica under the name Hesperides, the town +received from Ptolemy III. the name of Berenice in compliment to his +wife. The ruins of the ancient town, which superseded Cyrene and Barca +as chief place in the province after the 3rd century A.D., are now +nearly buried in the sand. The modern town lies south-west of the +original site. Certain large natural pits which are found in the plain +behind, and have luxuriant gardens at the bottom, are supposed to have +originated the myth of the Gardens of the Hesperides. Ancient tombs are +found, which in 1882 yielded fine Greek vases to G. Dennis, then British +vice-consul. The present name is derived from that of a Moslem saint +whose tomb, near the sea-coast, is an object of veneration. The +population, amounting to about 25,000, is greatly mixed. Levantines, +Maltese, Greeks and Jews form the trading community, but since 1895, +when a branch of the Agenzia Italiana Commerciale was established at +Bengazi, Italians have exercised an increasing influence on Cyrenaic +commerce. Turks, Arabs and Berbers are the ruling castes, and negroes +act as labourers and domestics. Many of these found their way to Crete, +and becoming porters, &c. in Canea and Candia, were notorious for +turbulence and fanaticism. In 1897 and 1898 the European admirals +forcibly deported consignments of the worst characters back to Bengazi. +In 1858 and again in 1874 the town was devastated by plague (see also +TRIPOLI and CYRENAICA). (D. G. H.) + + + + +BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT (1687-1752), Lutheran divine and scholar, was +born at Winnenden in Wurttemberg, on the 24th of June 1687. His father +died in 1693, and Bengel was educated by a friend, who became a master +in the gymnasium at Stuttgart. In 1703 Bengel left Stuttgart and entered +the university of Tubingen, where, in his spare time, he devoted himself +specially to the works of Aristotle and Spinoza, and in theology to +those of Philipp Spener, Johann Arndt and August Franke. His knowledge +of the metaphysics of Spinoza was such that he was selected by one of +the professors to prepare materials for a treatise _De Spinosismo_, +which was afterwards published. After taking his degree, Bengel devoted +himself to theology. Even at this time he had religious doubts; it is +interesting in view of his later work that one cause of his perplexities +was the difficulty of ascertaining the true reading of certain passages +in the Greek New Testament. In 1707 Bengel entered the ministry and was +appointed to the parochial charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. In the +following year he was recalled to Tubingen to undertake the office of +_Repetent_ or theological tutor. Here he remained till 1713, when he was +appointed head of a seminary recently established at Denkendorf as a +preparatory school of theology. Before entering on his new duties he +travelled through the greater part of Germany, studying the systems of +education which were in use, and visiting the seminaries of the Jesuits +as well as those of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Among other +places he went to Heidelberg and Halle, and had his attention directed +at Heidelberg to the canons of scripture criticism published by Gerhard +von Mastricht, and at Halle to C. Vitringa's _Anacrisis ad Apocalypsin_. +The influence exerted by these upon his theological studies is manifest +in some of his works. For twenty-eight years--from 1713 to 1741--he was +master (_Klosterpraceptor_) of the _Klosterschule_ at Denkendorf, a +seminary for candidates for the ministry established in a former +monastery of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. To these years, the +period of his greatest intellectual activity, belong many of his chief +works. In 1741 he was appointed prelate (i.e. _General Superintendent_) +at Herbrechtingen, where he remained till 1749, when he was raised to +the dignity of consistorial counsellor and prelate of Alpirspach, with a +residence in Stuttgart. He now devoted himself to the discharge of his +duties as a member of the consistory. A question of considerable +difficulty was at that time occupying the attention of the church +courts, viz. the manner in which those who separated themselves from the +church were to be dealt with, and the amount of toleration which should +be accorded to meetings held in private houses for the purpose of +religious edification. The civil power (the duke of Wurttemberg was a +Roman Catholic) was disposed to have recourse to measures of repression, +while the members of the consistory, recognizing the good effects of +such meetings, were inclined to concede considerable liberty. Bengel +exerted himself on the side of the members of the consistory. In 1751 +the university of Tubingen conferred upon him the degree of doctor of +divinity. He died after a short illness, in 1752. + +The works on which Bengel's reputation rests as a Biblical scholar and +critic are his edition of the Greek New Testament, and his _Gnomon_ or +_Exegetical Commentary_ on the same. + +(A.) His edition of the Greek Testament was published at Tubingen in +1734, and at Stuttgart in the same year, but without the critical +apparatus. So early as 1725, in an addition to his edition of +Chrysostom's _De Sacerdotio_, he had given an account in his _Prodromus +Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandi_ of the principles on +which his intended edition was to be based. In preparation for his work +Bengel was able to avail himself of the collations of upwards of twenty +MSS., none of them, however, of great importance, twelve of which had +been collated by himself. In constituting the text, he imposed upon +himself the singular restriction of not inserting any various reading +which had not already been _printed_ in some preceding edition of the +Greek text. From this rule, however, he deviated in the case of the +Apocalypse, where, owing to the corrupt state of the text, he felt +himself at liberty to introduce certain readings on manuscript +authority. In the lower margin of the page he inserted a selection of +various readings, the relative importance of which he denoted by the +first five letters of the Greek alphabet in the following +manner:--[alpha] was employed to denote the reading which in his +judgment was the true one, although he did not venture to place it in +the text; [beta], a reading better than that in the text; [gamma], one +equal to the textual reading; [delta] and [epsilon], readings inferior +to those in the text. R. Etienne's division into verses was retained in +the inner margin, but the text was divided into paragraphs. The text was +followed by a critical apparatus, the first part of which consisted of +an introduction to the criticism of the New Testament, in the +thirty-fourth section of which he laid down and explained his celebrated +canon, _"Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua"_ ("The difficult reading is +to be preferred to that which is easy"), the soundness of which, as a +general principle, has been recognized by succeeding critics. The second +part of the critical apparatus was devoted to a consideration of the +various readings, and here Bengel adopted the plan of stating the +evidence both _against_ and _in favour_ of a particular reading, thus +placing before the reader the materials for forming a judgment. Bengel +was the first definitely to propound the theory of families or +recensions of MSS. His investigations had led him to see that a certain +affinity or resemblance existed amongst many of the authorities for the +Greek text--MSS., versions, and ecclesiastical writers; that if a +peculiar reading, e.g., was found in one of these, it was generally +found also in the other members of the same class; and this general +relationship seemed to point ultimately to a common origin for all the +authorities which presented such peculiarities. Although disposed at +first to divide the various documents into three classes, he finally +adopted a classification into two--the African or older family of +documents, and the Asiatic, or more recent class, to which he attached +only a subordinate value. The theory was afterwards adopted by J.S. +Semler and J.J. Griesbach, and worked up into an elaborate system by the +latter critic. Bengel's labours on the text of the Greek Testament were +received with great disfavour in many quarters. Like Brian Walton and +John Mill before him, he had to encounter the opposition of those who +believed that the certainty of the word of God was endangered by the +importance attached to the various readings. J.J. Wetstein, on the other +hand, accused him of excessive caution in not making freer use of his +critical materials. In answer to these strictures, Bengel published a +_Defence of the Greek Text of His New Testament_, which he prefixed to +his _Harmony of the Four Gospels_, published in 1736, and which +contained a sufficient answer to the complaints, especially of Wetstein, +which had been made against him from so many different quarters. The +text of Bengel long enjoyed a high reputation among scholars, and was +frequently reprinted. An enlarged edition of the critical apparatus was +published by Philip David Burk in 1763. + +(B.) The other great work of Bengel, and that on which his reputation as +an exegete is mainly based, is his _Gnomon Novi Testamenti, or +Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament_, published in 1742. It was +the fruit of twenty years' labour, and exhibits with a brevity of +expression, which, it has been said, "condenses more matter into a line +than can be extracted from pages of other writers," the results of his +study. He modestly entitled his work a _Gnomon_ or index, his object +being rather to guide the reader to ascertain the meaning for himself, +than to save him from the trouble of personal investigation. The +principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were, to import +nothing _into_ Scripture, but to draw _out of_ it everything that it +really contained, in conformity with grammatico-historical rules; not to +be hampered by dogmatical considerations; and not to be influenced by +the symbolical books. Bengel's hope that the _Gnomon_ would help to +rekindle a fresh interest in the study of the New Testament was fully +realized. It has passed through many editions, has been translated into +German and into English, and is still one of the books most valued by +expositors of the New Testament. John Wesley made great use of it in +compiling his _Expository Notes upon the New Testament_ (1755). + +Besides the two works already described, Bengel was the editor or author +of many others, classical, patristic, ecclesiastical and expository. The +more important are: _Ordo Temporum_, a treatise on the chronology of +Scripture, in which he enters upon speculations regarding the end of the +world, and an _Exposition of the Apocalypse_ which enjoyed for a time +great popularity in Germany, and was translated into several languages. + + AUTHORITIES.--For full details regarding Bengel the reader is referred + to Oskar Wachter's _J.A. Bengels Lebensabriss_ and to the _Memoir of + His Life and Writings_ (_J.A. Bengels Leben und Wirken_), by J.C.F. + Burk, translated into English by Rev. R.F. Walker (London, 1837); see + also Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, and E. Nestle, _Bengel als + Gelehrter_ (1893). + + + + +BENGUELLA (Sao Felipe de Benguella), a town of Portuguese West Africa, +capital of Benguella district, on a bay of the same name, in 12 deg. 33' +S., 13 deg. 25' E. Benguella was founded in 1617 by the Portuguese under +Manoel Cerveira Pereira. It was long the centre of an important trade, +especially in slaves to Brazil and Cuba, but has now greatly declined. +The anchorage, about a mile from the town, in 4 to 6 fathoms, is nothing +but an open roadstead. Besides the churches of S. Felipe and S. Antonio, +the hospital, and the fortress, there are only a few stone-built houses. +The white population numbers about 1500. A short way beyond Benguella is +Bahia Tarta, where salt is manufactured and sulphur excavated. + +About 20 m. north of Benguella is Lobito Bay, a natural harbour chosen +(1903) as the starting-point of a railway to Katanga. At Lobito steamers +can come close inshore and discharge cargo direct. Lobito is connected +with Benguella by a railway which passes about midway through +Katumbella, a town at the mouth of the river of the same name, and the +sea terminus of an ancient route from the heart of Central Africa +through Bihe. Old Benguella is a small town about 120 m. north of Lobito +Bay. + + + + +BENI, a river of Bolivia, a tributary of the Madeira, rising in the +elevated Cordilleras near the city of La Paz and at first known as the +Rio de La Paz, and flowing east, and north-east, to a junction with the +Mamore at 10 deg. 20' S. lat. to form the Madeira. Fully one-half of its +length is through the mountainous districts of central Bolivia, where it +is fed by a large number of rivers and streams from the snowclad peaks, +and may be described as a raging torrent. Below Reyes its course is +through the forest-covered hills and open plains of northern Bolivia, +where some of the old Indian missions were located. The lower river is +navigable for 217 m. from Reyes to the Esperanza rapids, 18 m. above its +confluence with the Mamore, where a fall of 20 ft. in a distance of 330 +yds. obstructs free navigation. Its principal affluent is the Madre de +Dios, or Mayu-tata, which rises in the eastern Cordilleras about 35 m. +east of Cuzco, and flows in an east and north-east direction through +northern Bolivia to a junction with the Beni 120 m. above its mouth. The +principal tributaries of the Madre de Dios are the Inambari and +Paucartambo, both large rivers, and the Chandless, Marcapata, and +Tambopata. In length and size of its tributaries the Madre de Dios is a +more important river than the Beni itself, and is navigable during the +wet season to the foot of the Andes, 180 m. from Cuzco. + + + + +BENI (EL BENI), a department of north-eastern Bolivia, bounded N. and E. +by Brazil, S. by the departments of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, and W. by +La Paz and the national territory contiguous to Peru and Brazil. Pop. +(est., 1900) 32,180, including 6000 wild Indians; area (est., probably +too high) 102,111 sq. m. The "Llanos de Mojos," famous for their +flourishing Jesuit mission settlements of the 17th and 18th centuries, +occupy the eastern part of this department and are still inhabited by an +industrious peaceful native population, devoted to cattle raising and +primitive methods of agriculture. Cattle and forest products, including +rubber and coca, are exported to a limited extent. The capital, Trinidad +(pop. 2556), is situated on the Mamore river in an open fertile country, +and was once a flourishing Jesuit mission. + + + + +BENI-AMER (AMIR), a tribe of African "Arabs" of Hamitic stock, +ethnologically intermediate between Abyssinians and Nubians. They are of +the Beja family, and occupy the coast of the Red Sea south of Suakin and +portions of the adjacent coast-country of Eritrea, north of Abyssinia. +They are of very mixed Beja and Abyssinian blood, and speak a dialect +half Beja and half Tigre, locally known as _Hassa_. They marry the women +of the Bogos and other mountain tribes; but are too proud to let their +daughters marry Abyssinians. + + See _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, ed. Count Gleichen (London, 1905); A.H. + Keane, _Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan_ (1884); G. Sergi, _Africa: + Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica_ (Turin, 1897). + + + + +BENI-ISRAEL ("Sons of Israel"), a colony of Jews settled on the Malabar +coast in Kolaba district, Bombay presidency, chiefly centring in the +native state of Janjira. With the Jews of Cochin, they represent a very +ancient Judaic invasion of India, and are to be entirely distinguished +from those Jews who have come to India in modern days for purposes of +trade. Some authorities believe that the Beni-Israel settled in Kolaba +in the 15th century, but they themselves have traditions which indicate +a far longer connexion with India (see JEWS: S 3). + + + + +BENIN, the name of a country, city and river of British West Africa, +west of the main channel of the Niger, forming part of the protectorate +of Southern Nigeria. The name was formerly applied to the coast from the +Volta, in 0 deg. 40' E., to the Rio del Rey, in 8 deg. 40' E., and +included the Slave Coast, the whole delta of the Niger and a small +portion of the country to the eastward. Some trace of this earlier +application remains in the name "Bight of Benin," still given to that +part of the sea which washes the Slave Coast, whilst up to 1894 "Benin" +was used to designate the French possessions on the coast now included +in Dahomey. + +In its restricted sense Benin is the country formerly ruled by the king +of Benin city. This area, at one time very extensive, gradually +contracted as subject tribes and towns acquired independence. It may be +described as bounded W. by Lagos, S. by the territory of the Jakri and +other tribes of the Niger delta, E. by the Niger river, and N. by +Yorubaland. The coast-line held by Benin had passed out of its +sovereignty by the middle of the 19th century. In physical +characteristics, climate, flora and fauna, Benin in no way differs from +the rest of the southern portion of Nigeria (q.v.). The coast is low, +intersected by creeks, and forms one huge mangrove swamp; on the rising +ground inland are dense forests in which the cotton and mahogany trees +are conspicuous. + +Benin river (known also as the Jakri outlet), though linked to the Niger +system by a network of creeks, is an independent stream. It is formed by +the junction of two rivers, the Ethiope and the Jamieson, which rise +(north of 6 deg. N,) on the western side of the hills which slope east +to the Niger river. They unite about 50 m. above the sea. The general +course of the Benin is westerly. It enters the Atlantic in about 5 deg. +46' N., 5 deg. 3' E., and at its mouth is 2 m. wide. It is here +obstructed by a sand-bar over which there is 12-14 ft. of water at high +tide. The river is navigable by small steamers up to Sapele, a town on +the south bank immediately below the junction of the head streams. The +Ologi and Gwato creeks enter the Benin on the right or north bank, and +on the same side (8 m. above the mouth of the river) a channel, the +Lagos creek, 170 m. long, branches off to the north-west, affording a +waterway to Lagos. From the south or left bank of the Benin the Forcados +mouth of the Niger can be reached by the Nana creek. + +The Beni are a pure negro tribe, speaking a distinct language, but +having many characteristics common to those of the Yoruba-and +Ewe-speaking tribes. Like the Ashanti and Dahomeyans the Beni had a +well-organized and powerful government and possessed a culture rare +among negro races (see below, _History_). + +Benin city is situated in a clearing of the forest, about 25 m. from the +river-port of Gwato, on Gwato creek. The principal building is the +British residency, which is constructed of brick and timber. A primary +school, supported by the native chiefs, was opened in 1901, and a +meteorological station was established in 1902. In 1904 the town was +placed in telegraphic communication with the rest of the protectorate +and with Europe. Of the ancient city, whose buildings excited the +admiration of travellers in the 17th and 18th centuries, scarcely a +trace remains. The houses are neatly built of clay, coloured with red +ochre, and frequently ornamented with rudely carved pillars. The port of +Gwato, which lies about 30 m. north-north-east of the mouth of the Benin +river, has a special interest as the place where Giovanni Belzoni, the +explorer of Egyptian antiquities, died in 1823 when starting on an +expedition to Timbuktu. No trace of his grave can now be found. Wari +(formerly known also as Owari, Oywhere, &c.) is a much-frequented port +on a branch of the Niger of the same name reached from the Forcados +mouth, and is 55 m. south of Benin city. + +Since the abolition of the slave trade the chief export of the country +is palm-oil. Other trade products were from time to time--with the +desire to preserve the isolation and independence of the country--placed +under fetish, i.e. their export was forbidden, so that in 1897 the only +article in which trade was allowed by the king was palm-oil. After the +British occupation, an extensive trade developed in oil, kernels, +timber, ivory, rubber, &c. In the rubber and timber industries great +strides have been made. The chiefs and people have shown considerable +aptitude in adapting themselves to the new order of things. Among the +articles prized by the Beni is coral, of which the chiefs wear great +quantities as ornaments. + +_History._--Benin was discovered by the Portuguese about the year 1485, +and they carried on a brisk trade in slaves, who were taken to Elmina +and sold to the natives of the Gold Coast. At that time and for more +than two centuries afterwards, Benin seems to have been one of the most +powerful states of West Africa. It was known to Europeans in the 17th +century as the Great Benin. The towns of Lagos and Badagry were both +founded by Benin colonists. Benin city was the seat of a theocracy of +priests, in whose hands the oba or king, nominally supreme, appears to +have often been a puppet. He was revered by his subjects as a species of +divinity, and seldom left the enclosure surrounding the royal palace. +The religion and mythology of the Beni, like those of the Yorubas, are +based on spirit- and ancestor-worship (see NEGRO and AFRICA: +_Ethnology_); the chief spirit or juju was worshipped with human +sacrifices to an appalling extent, the Benin fetish being considered the +most powerful in all West Africa. The usual form of sacrifice was +crucifixion. Many chiefs, in no way politically dependent on Benin, used +to send annual presents to the juju. The Benin people do not appear to +have indulged in wanton cruelty, and it is stated that they usually +stupefied the victims before putting them to death. The people were +skilled in brass work; their carving and design were alike excellent. +Carved ivory objects abound, and there are many evidences of the skill +attained by native artists, who perhaps owed something to their contact +with the Portuguese. The weaving of cloth was also carried on. The Beni +remained politically and socially almost unaffected by European +influence until the occupation of their country by the British in 1897, +their connexion with the white men having previously been almost +confined to matters of trade. The Portuguese withdrew from the coast in +the 18th century, but one of the most striking proofs of their +commercial influence is the fact that a corrupt Lusitanian dialect was +spoken by the older natives up to the last quarter of the 19th century. +The first English expedition to Benin was in 1553; after that time a +considerable trade grew up between England and that country, ivory, +palm-oil and pepper being the chief commodities exported from Benin. The +Dutch afterwards established factories and maintained them for a +considerable time, chiefly with a view to the slave trade. In 1788 +Captain Landolphe founded a factory called Barodo, near the native +village of Obobi for the French Compagnie d'Oywhere; and it lasted till +1792, when it was destroyed by the English. In 1863 Sir Richard Burton, +then British consul at Fernando Po, went to Benin to try and put a stop +to human sacrifices, an attempt in which he did not succeed. At that +time the decline in power of the kingdom of Benin was obvious, and the +city was in a decaying condition. In 1885 the coast-line of Benin was +placed under British protection, and steps were taken to enter into +friendly relations with the king. Consul G.F.N.B. Annesley[1] saw the +king in 1890, with the hope of making a treaty, but failed in his +object. In March 1892 Captain H.L. Gallwey, British vice-consul, +succeeded in concluding a treaty with the king Overami. The treaty, +however, proved of no avail, and the king kept as aloof as of old from +any outside interference. In January 1897 J.R. Phillips, acting +consul-general, and eight Europeans were brutally massacred on the road +from Gwato to Benin city, whilst on a mission to the king. Phillips had +persisted in starting for Benin despite the repeated request of the king +that he should delay his visit until he (the king) had finished the +celebration of the annual "customs." Two Europeans, Captain Alan +Boisragon and R.F. Locke, alone escaped. A punitive expedition was +organized under the command of Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, the success of +which was a remarkable example of good organization hastily improvised. +The news of the massacre of Phillips's party reached Rear-Admiral +Rawson, the commander-in-chief on the Cape station, on the 4th of +January 1897. The flagship was at Simons Town. The small craft were +dispersed. Two ships at Malta had been ordered to join the Cape command. +A transport was chartered in the Thames for the purposes of the +expedition. In twenty-nine days a force of 1200 men, coming from three +places between 3000 and 4500 m. from the Benin river, was landed, +organized, equipped and provided with transport. Five days later the +city of Benin was taken, and in twelve days more the men were +re-embarked, and the ships coaled and ready for any further service. On +the 17th of February Benin was occupied after considerable fighting. The +town, which was found to be reeking of human sacrifices, was partly +burned, and on the 22nd the expedition started on its return. The king +and chiefs responsible for the massacre were placed on their trial by +Sir Ralph Moor, high commissioner for Southern Nigeria; the king was +deposed and deported to Calabar, and the chiefs, six in all, were +executed. The chief offender was not brought to justice until a second +punitive expedition in 1899 completed the pacification of the country. +After the removal of the king in September 1897 a council of chiefs was +appointed. This council carries on the government of the whole Beni +country, and is presided over by a British resident. + + AUTHORITIES.--H.L. Roth, _Great Benin, its Customs, Art and Horrors_ + (Halifax, 1903), a comprehensive and profusely illustrated work, with + an annotated bibliography; C.H. Read and O.M. Dalton, _Antiquities + from Benin ... in the British Museum_ (1899); Pitt Rivers, _Works of + Art from Benin_ (1900); R.E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man's + Mind_ (London, 1906); Sir R. Burton, _Wanderings in West Africa_ + (London, 1863); H.L. Gallwey, "Journeys in the Benin Country," _Geog. + Jnl._, vol. i., London, 1893; A. Boisragon, _The Benin Massacre_ + (London, 1897); R.H. Bacon, _Benin, the City of Blood_ (London, 1898), + by a member of the punitive expedition of 1897; the annual _Reports on + Southern Nigeria_, issued by the Colonial Office, London. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] Mr Annesley (b. 1851), after having served in the Prussian army, + and in the Turkish army during the war of 1877, was in the British + consular service from 1879 to 1892. In 1888 he became consul to the + Congo Free State. + + + + +BENITOITE, a mineral discovered in 1907 near the headwaters of the San +Benito river, San Benito Co., California, and described by Prof. G.D. +Louderback. It is a titano-silicate of barium (BaTiSi3O9), crystallizing +in the hexagonal system, with a hardness of 6.5, and specific gravity +3.65. It may be colourless or blue, the colour varying sometimes in +different parts, and passing to a deep sapphire blue. The blue variety +is cut as a gem stone, and often resembles blue spinel, though its +softness distinguishes it from spinel and sapphire. It is a brilliant +stone, with high refractive index, and is strongly dichroic, being pale +when viewed parallel to the principal axis and dark when viewed +transversely. + + + + +BENJAMIN, a tribe of Israel, named after the youngest son of Jacob and +Rachel. As distinct from the others Benjamin was born not beyond the +Jordan but in Palestine, between Bethel and Ephrath. His mother, dying +in childbed, gave him the name Ben-oni, "Son of my sorrow," which was +changed by his father to Ben-jamin, meaning probably "Son of the right +hand" (i.e. "of prosperity," or, perhaps, "son of the south"; Gen. xxxv. +16-18). Of his personal history little is recorded. He was the favourite +of his father and brothers (with which contrast the spirit of the +stories in Judg. xix.-xxi.), and the reputation of fierceness ascribed +to him in the blessing of Jacob ("Benjamin is a wolf that teareth," Gen. +xlix. 27) agrees with what is told of the tribe's warriors (see EHUD, +SAUL, JONATHAN). It is a curious feature that its noted slingers were +said to be left-handed (Judg. xx. 16, cf. iii. 15) and even ambidextrous +(1 Chron. xii. 2). The late references to this tribe in the Israelite +wanderings in the wilderness are of little value. On entering Palestine +it is allotted a portion encompassed by the districts of Ephraim, Dan +and Judah. In the time of the "judges" the tribe of Benjamin was almost +exterminated (see JUDGES, BOOK OF), 600 men alone escaping (Judges xix. +sqq.). The tribe was built up again by the rape of the maidens of Shiloh +at one of their annual festivals (for which cf. Judges ix. 27), but a +later narrative gives currency to a tradition that 400 virgins were also +brought to Shiloh, the survivors of a massacre of the inhabitants of +Jabesh-Gilead. At all events, Benjamin claimed the honour of providing +the great king of Israel whose heroic deliverance of Jabesh-Gilead is +referred to elsewhere (see SAUL), and it is noteworthy that the tribe +only now attain historical importance. If the genealogies associated it +with Joseph the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, its fortunes were for a +time bound up with the northern kingdom (see DAVID). Although its +territory lies open on the west and east, its physical features unite it +to Judah, and what is known of its mixed population[1] makes it +difficult to determine how far the youngest of the tribes of Israel +enjoyed any independent position previous to the monarchy. Its neutral +position between Judah and Ephraim gave it an importance which was +religious as well as political. Anathoth the home of Abiathar and +Jeremiah, Gibeon the old Canaanite sanctuary, the royal sanctuary at +Bethel, its associations with Samuel and the prophetic gilds of the +times of Elijah and Elisha, and finally Jerusalem itself, the centre of +worship, give "the least of all the tribes" a unique value in the +history of Old Testament religion. + + See H.W. Hogg, _Ency. Bib._, col. 534 sqq. (S. A. C.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] Jerusalem and its district was Jebusite until its capture by + David (see 2 Sam. v.); for Beeroth and Gibeon, see 2 Sam. iv. 2 seq., + xxi. 2, and note the Benjamite and Judahite names which find + analogies in the Edomite genealogies. See, on these points, S.A. + Cook, _Jew. Quarterly Review_ (1906), pp. 528 sqq. + + + + +BENJAMIN OF TUDELA (in Navarre), a Jewish rabbi of the 12th century. He +visited Constantinople, Egypt, Assyria and Persia, and penetrated to the +frontiers of China. His journeys occupied him for about thirteen years. +He was credulous, but his _Itinerary_, or _Massa'oth_, contains some +curious notices of the countries he visited and of the condition of the +Jews. Thus his work is of much value for the Jewish history of the 12th +century. It is from Benjamin that we know that the Jews of Palestine and +other parts of the East were noted for the arts of dyeing and +glass-making. + + His _Itinerary_ was translated from the Hebrew into Latin by Arias + Montanus in 1575, and appeared in a French version by Baratier in + 1734. There have been various English translations. One was published + by Asher in 1840; another (with critical Hebrew text) by M.N. Adler + (_Jewish Quarterly Review_, vols. xvi.-xviii.; also reprinted as a + separate volume, 1907). + + + + +BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP (1811-1884), Anglo-American lawyer, of Jewish +descent, was born a British subject at St Thomas in the West Indies on +the 11th of August 1811, and was successively an American lawyer, a +leading Confederate politician and a distinguished English barrister. He +eventually died in Paris a domiciled Frenchman. After 1818 his parents +lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and he went to Yale in 1825 for his +education, but left without taking a degree, and entered an attorney's +office in New Orleans. He was admitted to the New Orleans bar in 1832. +He compiled with his friend John Slidell a valuable digest of decisions +of the superior courts of New Orleans and Louisiana; and as a partner in +the firm of Slidell, Benjamin & Conrad, he enjoyed a good practice. In +1848 he was admitted a councillor of the supreme court, and in 1852 he +was elected a senator for Louisiana, and thereafter he took an active +part in politics, declining to accept a judgeship of the supreme court. +In 1861 he withdrew from the Senate, left Washington and actively +espoused the Confederate cause. He joined Jefferson Davis's provisional +government as attorney-general, becoming afterwards his secretary for +war (1861-1862), and chief secretary of state (1862-1865). Although at +times subject to fierce criticism with regard to matters of +administration and finance, he was recognized as one of the ablest men +on the Confederate side, and he remained with Jefferson Davis to the +last, sharing his flight after the surrender at Appomattox, and only +leaving him shortly before his capture, because he found himself unable +to go farther on horseback. He escaped from the coast of Florida in an +open boat, and after many vicissitudes reached England, an exile. In +1866 his remaining property was lost in the banking failure of Overend & +Gurney. + +In London Benjamin was able to earn a little money by journalism, and on +the 13th of January 1866 he entered Lincoln's Inn. He received a +hospitable welcome from the legal profession. The influence of English +judges who knew his abilities and his circumstances enabled him to be +called to the bar on the 6th of June 1866, dispensing with the usual +three years as a student, and he acquired his first knowledge of the +practice and methods of English courts as the pupil of Mr C.E. +(afterwards Baron) Pollock. Pollock fully recognized his abilities and +they became and remained firm friends. Benjamin was naturally an apt and +useful pupil; for instance, an opinion of Mr Pollock, which for long +guided the London police in the exercise of their right to search +prisoners, is mentioned by him as having been really composed by +Benjamin while he was still his pupil. Benjamin joined the northern +circuit, and a large proportion of his early practice came from +solicitors at Liverpool who had correspondents in New Orleans. His +business gradually increased, and having received a patent of +precedence, he was on the 2nd of November 1872 called within the bar as +a queen's counsel. In addition to his knowledge of law and of commercial +matters he had considerable eloquence, and a power of marshalling facts +and arguments that rendered him extremely effective, particularly before +judges. He was less successful in addressing juries, and towards the +close of his career did not take _Nisi prius_ work, but in the court of +appeal and House of Lords and before the judicial committee of the privy +council he enjoyed a very large practice, making for some time fully +L15,000 a year. The question of raising him to the bench was seriously +considered by Lord Cairns, who, however, seems to have thought that the +ungrudging hospitality and goodwill with which Benjamin had been +received by the English legal profession had gone far enough. Towards +the close of his career he was in ill health, and he suffered from the +results of a fall from a tramcar. He retired in 1882 to a house in Paris +which he had built and where he had been in the habit of passing his +vacations with his wife, who was a Frenchwoman. He never returned to +practice, but came back to London to be entertained by the bench and bar +of England at a banquet in the Inner Temple Hall on the 30th of June +1883. He died at Paris on the 6th of May 1884. + +Benjamin was thick-set and stout, with an expression of great +shrewdness. An early portrait of him is to be found in Jefferson Davis's +_Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_. His political history may +be traced in that work, and in John W. Draper's _American Civil War_ and +von Holst's _Constitutional History of the United States_. Many +allusions to his English career will be found in works describing +English lawyers of his period, and there are some interesting +reminiscences of him by Baron Pollock in the _Fortnightly Review_ for +March 1898. His _Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property with +References to the American Decisions and to the French Code and Civil +Law_--a bulky volume known to practitioners as _Benjamin on Sales_--is +the principal text-book on its subject, and a fitting monument of the +author's career at the English bar, of his industry and learning. Many +of his American speeches have been published. + + See _Judah P. Benjamin_, by Pierce Butler (Philadelphia, 1907, with a + good bibliography). + + + + +BEN LEDI (Gaelic, "the hill of God"), a mountain of Perthshire, +Scotland, 2875 ft. high, 5 m. by road N.W. of Callander. It is situated +close to some of the most romantic scenery in the Highlands, and is +particularly well known through Scott's _Lady of the Lake_. Its name is +supposed to point to the time when Beltane rites were observed on its +summit. A cairn was built on the top in 1887 to commemorate Queen +Victoria's jubilee. On one of the sides of the mountain is a tarn which +bears the name of Lochan nan Corp, "the little loch of the dead," from +an accident to a funeral party by which 200 lives were lost. + + + + +BENLLIURE Y GIL, JOSE (1858-), Spanish painter, was born at Valencia, +studied painting under Domingo, and showed from the first such marked +talent that he was sent to the Spanish school in Rome. He was one of the +select circle pensioned by the Spanish government for residence in Italy +and executed several state orders for the decoration of public +buildings; but he owes his chief fame to his large historical paintings, +notably the "Vision in the Coliseum." He became the leader of the +Spanish art colony in Rome, where he practised as painter and sculptor. + + + + +BEN LOMOND, a mountain in the north-west of Stirlingshire, Scotland. It +is situated near the eastern bank of Loch Lomond, about 9 m. from the +head and about 15 from the foot. It is 3192 ft. high, and the prevailing +rocks are granite, mica schist, diorite, porphyry and quartzite, the +last, where it crops out on the surface, gleaming in the distance like +snow. Duchray Water, a head-stream of the Forth, rises in the north-east +shoulder. The hill, which is covered with grass to the top, is a +favourite climb, being ascended from Rowardennan (the easiest) or +Inversnaid on the lake, or Aberfoyle 10 m. inland due east. The view +from the summit extends northward as far as the Grampians, with +occasional glimpses of Ben Nevis; westward to Jura in the Atlantic; +south-westward to Arran in the Firth of Clyde; southward to Tinto Hill, +the Lowthers and Cairnsmore; and eastward to Edinburgh Castle and +Arthur's Seat. + + + + +BENLOWES, EDWARD (1603?-1676), English poet, son of Andrew Benlowes of +Brent Hall, Essex, was born about 1603. He matriculated at St John's +College, Cambridge, in 1620, and on leaving the university he made a +prolonged tour on the continent of Europe. He was a Roman Catholic in +middle life, but became a convert to Protestantism in his later years. +He dissipated his fortune by openhanded generosity to his friends and +relations, and possibly by serving in the Civil War; so that he was in +great poverty at the time of his death, which occurred on the 18th of +December 1676. The last eight years of his life were passed at Oxford. +Many of his writings are in Latin. His most important work is +_Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice, a Divine Poem_ (1652). The poem deals +with mystical religion, telling how the soul, represented by Theophila, +ascends by humility, zeal and contemplation, and triumphs over the sins +of the senses. It is written in a curious stanza of three lines of +unequal length rhyming together. Until recent times justice has hardly +been done to Benlowes' poetical merits and indisputable piety. Samuel +Butler, who satirized him in his "Character of a Small Poet," found +abundant matter for ridicule in his eccentricities; and Pope and +Warburton noted him as a patron of bad poets. + + His _Theophila_ was reprinted by S.W. Singer; and in _Minor Poets of + the Caroline Period_, vol. i. (1905), Mr Saintsbury reprints + _Theophila_ and two other poems by Benlowes, "The Summary of + Wisedome," and "A Poetic Descant upon a Private Music-Meeting." + + + + +BEN MACDHUI, more correctly BEN MUICHDHUI (Gaelic for "the mountain of +the black pig," in allusion to its shape), the second highest mountain +(4296 ft.) in Great Britain, one of the Cairngorm group, on the confines +of south-western Aberdeenshire and south-western Banffshire, not far +from the eastern boundary of Inverness-shire. It is about 11 m. from +Castleton of Braemar and about 10 from Aviemore. The ascent is usually +made from Castleton of Braemar, by way of the Linn of Dee, Glen Lui and +Glen Derry. From the head of Glen Derry, with its blasted trees, the +picture of desolation, it becomes more toilsome, but is partly repaid by +the view of the remarkable columnar cliffs of Corrie Etchachan. The +summit is flat and quite bare of vegetation, but the panorama in every +direction is extremely grand. At the foot of a vast gully, 2500 ft. +above the sea, lies Loch Avon (or A'an), a narrow lake about 1-1/2 m. +long, with water of the deepest blue and a margin of bright yellow sand. +At the western end of the lake is the Shelter Stone, an enormous block +of granite resting upon two other blocks, which can accommodate a dozen +persons. Beautiful rock crystals occur in veins in the corries. The +summit of Cairngorm, 3-1/2 m. north of that of Ben Macdhui, may be +reached from the latter with scarcely any descent, by following the +rugged ridge flanking the western side of Loch Avon. The other great +peaks of the group are Braeriach (4248 ft.) and Cairntoul (4241 ft.), +and 6 m. to the east are the twin masses of Ben a Bourd, the northern +top of which is 3924 ft. and the southern 3860 ft. high. Ben A'an, an +adjoining hill, is 3843 ft. high. + + + + +BENNETT, CHARLES EDWIN (1858- ), American classical scholar, was born +on the 6th of April 1858, in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from +Brown University in 1878 and also studied at Harvard (1881-1882) and in +Germany (1882-1884). He taught in secondary schools in Florida +(1878-1879), New York (1879-1881), and Nebraska (1885-1889), and became +professor of Latin in the University of Wisconsin in 1889, of classical +philology at Brown University in 1891, and of Latin at Cornell +University in 1892. His syntactical studies, notably various papers on +the subjunctive, are based on a statistical examination of Latin texts +and are marked by a fresh system of nomenclature; he ranks as one of the +leaders of the "New American School" of syntacticians, who insist on a +preliminary re-examination of all available data. Of great importance +are his advocacy of "quantitative" reading of Latin verse and his +_Critique of Some Recent Subjunctive Theories_ in vol. ix. (1898) of +_Cornell Studies in Classical Philology_, of which he was an editor. +Bennett's _Latin Grammar_ (1895) is the first successful attempt in +America to adopt the method of the brief, scholarly _Schulgrammatik_. +Besides the Latin classics commonly read in secondary courses and other +text-books in "Bennett's Latin Series," he edited Tacitus's _Dialogus de +Oratoribus_ (1894), and Cicero's _De Senectute_ (1897) and _De Amicitia_ +(1897). He wrote, with George P. Bristol, _The Teaching of Greek and +Latin in Secondary Schools_ (1900), and _The Latin Language_, (1907), +and with William Alexander Hammond translated _The Characters of +Theophrastus_ (1902). + + + + +BENNETT, JAMES GORDON (1794-1872), American journalist, founder and +editor of the New York Herald, was born at Newmills in Banffshire, +Scotland, in 1794 (not in 1800, as has been stated). He was educated for +the Roman Catholic priesthood in a seminary at Aberdeen, but in the +spring of 1819, giving up the career which had been chosen for him, he +emigrated to America. Landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he earned a poor +living there for a short time by giving lessons in French, Spanish and +bookkeeping; he passed next to Boston, where starvation threatened him +until he got employment in a printing-office; and in 1822 he went to New +York. An engagement as translator of Spanish for the _Courier_ of +Charleston, South Carolina, took him there for a few months in 1823. On +his return to New York he projected a school, gave lectures on political +economy and did subordinate work for the journals. During the next ten +years he was employed on various papers, was the Washington +correspondent first of the _New York Enquirer_, and later of the +_Courier and Enquirer_ in 1827-1832, his letters attracting much +attention; he founded the short-lived _Globe_ in New York in 1832; and +in 1833-1834 was the chief editor and one of the proprietors of the +_Pennsylvanian_ at Philadelphia. On the 6th of May 1835 he published the +first number of a small one-cent paper, bearing the title of _New York +Herald_, and issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor and editor +played also the part of salesman. "He started with a disclaimer of all +principle, as it is called, all party, all politics"; and to this he +consistently adhered. By his industry, sagacity and unscrupulousness, +and by the variety of his news, the "spicy" correspondence, and the +supply of personal gossip and scandal, he made the paper a great +commercial success. He devoted his attention particularly to the +gathering of news, and was the first to introduce many of the methods of +the modern American reporter. He published on the 13th of June 1835, the +first Wall Street financial article to appear in any American newspaper; +printed a vivid and detailed account of the great fire of December 1835, +in New York; was the first, in 1846, to obtain the report in full by +telegraph of a long political speech; and during the Civil War +maintained a staff of sixty-three war correspondents. Bennett continued +to edit the Herald almost till his death, at New York, on the 1st of +June 1872. + +His son, JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1841- ), took over the management of +the paper during the last year of its founder's life, and succeeded him +in its control. It was he who sent Henry M. Stanley on his mission to +find Livingstone in Central Africa, and he fitted out the "Jeannette" +Polar Expedition, and in 1883 established (with John W. Mackay) the +Commercial Cable Company. + + + + +BENNETT, JOHN, one of the finest English madrigalists, whose first set +of madrigals appeared in 1599. In 1614 Ravenscroft, in a collection +including five of his madrigals, writes a eulogy which reads like an +obituary notice. The first set of madrigals was reprinted in 1845 by the +Musical Antiquarian Society. Bennett's works consist of this set and +several contributions to such collections as the _Triumphs of Oriana_, +and to various collections of church music. + + + + +BENNETT, JOHN HUGHES (1812-1875), English physician and pathologist, was +born in London on the 31st of August 1812. He was educated at Exeter, +and being destined for the medical profession was articled to a surgeon +in Maidstone. In 1833 he began his studies at Edinburgh, and in 1837 +graduated with the highest honours. During the next four years he +studied in Paris and Germany, and on his return to Edinburgh in 1841 +published a _Treatise on Cod-liver Oil as a Therapeutic Agent_. In the +same year he began to lecture as an extra-academical teacher on +histology, drawing attention to the importance of the microscope in the +investigation of disease; and as physician to the Royal Dispensary he +instituted courses of "polyclinical medicine." In 1843 he was appointed +professor of the institutes of medicine at Edinburgh, and performed the +duties of that chair with great energy till incapacitated by failing +health. He resigned in 1874. In August 1875 he was able to be present at +the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, on which +occasion he received the degree of LL.D., but the fatigue he then +underwent brought on a relapse, and he was compelled to have the +operation of lithotomy performed. He sank rapidly and died on the 25th +of September at Norwich. His publications were very numerous including +_Lectures on Clinical Medicine_ (1850-1856), which in second and +subsequent editions were called _Clinical Lectures on the Principles and +Practice of Medicine_, and were translated into various languages, +including Russian and Hindu; _Leucocythaemia_ (1852), the first recorded +cure of which was published by him in 1845; _Outlines of Physiology_ +(1858), reprinted from the 8th edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica; +Pathology and Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis_ (1853); _Textbook of +Physiology_ (1871-1872). + + + + +BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE (1816-1875), English musical composer, +the son of Robert Bennett, an organist, was born at Sheffield on the +13th of April 1816. Having lost his father at an early age, he was +brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his +first musical education. He entered the choir of King's College chapel +in 1824. In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a +pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying pianoforte +under W.H. Holmes and Cipriani Potter, and composition under Lucas and +Dr Crotch. It was during this time that he wrote several of his most +appreciated works, in which may be traced influences of the contemporary +movement of music in Germany, which country he frequently visited during +the years 1836-1842. At one of the Rhenish musical festivals in +Dusseldorf he made the personal acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and soon +afterwards renewed it at Leipzig, where the talented young Englishman +was welcomed by the leading musicians of the rising generation. At one +of the celebrated Gewandhaus concerts he played his third pianoforte +concerto, which was received enthusiastically. An enthusiastic account +of the event was written by Robert Schumann, who pronounced Bennett to +be the most "_musikalisch_" of all Englishmen, and "an angel of a +musician" (copying Gregory's pun on _Angli_ and _Angeli_). But it was +Mendelssohn's influence that dominated Bennett's mode of utterance. A +good example of this may be studied in Bennett's _Capriccio in D minor_. +His great success on the continent established his position on his +return to England. In 1834 he was elected organist of St Anne's chapel +(now church), Wandsworth. In this year he composed his _Overture to +Parisina_, and his Concerto in C minor, modelled on Mozart. An +unpublished concerto in F minor, and the overture to the _Naiads_, +impressed the firm of Broadwood so favourably in 1836 that they offered +the composer a year in Leipzig, where the _Naiads_ overture was +performed at a Gewandhaus concert on the 13th of February 1837. Bennett +visited Leipzig a second time in 1840-1841, when he composed his +_Caprice in E_ for pianoforte and orchestra and his overture _The Wood +Nymphs_. He settled in London, devoting himself chiefly to practical +teaching. In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain James Wood, +R.N. He was made musical professor at Cambridge in 1856, the year in +which he was engaged as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society. +This latter post he held until 1866, when he became principal of the +Royal Academy of Music. Owing to his professional duties his latter +years were not fertile, and what he then wrote was scarcely equal to the +productions of his youth. The principal charm of Bennett's compositions +(not to mention his absolute mastery of the musical form) consists in +the tenderness of their conception, rising occasionally to sweetest +lyrical intensity. Except the opera, Bennett tried his hand at almost +all the different forms of vocal and instrumental writing. As his best +works in various branches of art, we may mention, for pianoforte solo, +and with accompaniment of the orchestra, his three sketches, _The Lake, +The Millstream_ and _The Fountain_, and his 3rd pianoforte concerto; for +the orchestra, his _Symphony in G minor_, and his overture _The Naiads_; +and for voices, his cantata _The May Queen_, written for the Leeds +Festival in 1858. For the jubilee of the Philharmonic Society he wrote +the overture _Paradise and the Peri_ in 1862. He also wrote a sacred +cantata, _The Woman of Samaria_, first performed at the Birmingham +Musical Festival in 1867. In 1870 the university of Oxford conferred +upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. A year later he was knighted, and +in 1872 he received a public testimonial before a large audience at St +James's Hall, the money subscribed being devoted to the foundation of a +scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Shortly before his death he +produced a sonata called the _Maid of Orleans_, an elaborate piece of +programme music based on Schiller's tragedy. He died at his house in St +John's Wood, London, on the 15th of February 1875. See the _Life_, by +his son (1908). + + + + +BEN NEVIS, the highest mountain in the British Isles, in +Inverness-shire, Scotland. It is 4406 ft. above the level of the sea, +and is situated 4-1/2 m. E.S.E. of Fort William, the meridian of 5 deg. +W passing through it. As viewed from Banavie on the Caledonian Canal, it +has the appearance of two great masses, one higher than the other, and +though its bulk is impressive, its outline is much less striking than +that of many other Highland hills. Its summit consists of a plateau 100 +acres in area, with a slight slope to the south, terminating on its +north-eastern side in a sheer fall of more than 1500 ft. Snow lies in +some of the gorges all the year round. The rocks of its lower half are +mainly granite and gneiss; its upper half is composed of porphyritic +greenstone, and a variety of minerals occur. Its circumference at the +base is about 30 m. It may be described as flanked on the west and south +by the Glen and Water of Nevis, on the east by the river and Glen of +Treig, and on the north by the river and Glen of Spean. From 1881 till +1904 meteorological observations were taken from the summit of Ben +Nevis, the observers at first making the ascent daily for the purpose. +In 1883, however, an observatory, equipped at a cost of L4000 (raised by +public subscription), was opened by Mrs Cameron Campbell of Monzie, who +provided the site. The observatory, which was connected by wire with the +post office at Fort William, was provisioned by the Scottish +Meteorological Society, to whom it belonged. The burden of maintaining +it, however, proving too great for the society's means, appeal was made +in vain to government for national support, and the station was closed +in 1904. The bridle road up the mountain leaves Glen Nevis at Achintee; +it has a gradient nowhere exceeding 1 in 5, and the ascent is commonly +effected in two to three hours. There is a small hotel on the summit for +the convenience of tourists, especially of those anxious to witness +sunrise. From the summit every considerable peak in Scotland is visible. +Observations conducted during several months have shown that, whilst the +mean temperature at Fort William was 57 deg. F., at the summit of Ben +Nevis it was 41 deg. F., and that though the rainfall at the fort +amounted to 24 in., it was as much as 43 in. on the top of the Ben. + + + + +BENNIGSEN, LEVIN AUGUST, COUNT VON (1745-1826), Russian general, of +Hanoverian family, was born on the 10th of February 1745 in Brunswick, +and served successively as a page at the Hanoverian court and as an +officer of foot-guards. He retired from the Hanoverian army in 1764, and +in 1773 entered the Russian service as a field officer. He fought +against the Turks in 1774 and in 1778, becoming lieutenant-colonel in +the latter year. In 1787 his conduct at the storming of Oczakov won him +promotion to the rank of brigadier, and he distinguished himself +repeatedly in the Polish War of 1793-1794 and in the Persian War of +1796. The part played by Bennigsen in the actual assassination of the +tsar Paul I. is not fully known, but he took a most active share in the +formation and conduct of the conspiracy. Alexander I. made him +governor-general of Lithuania in 1801, and in 1802 a general of cavalry. +In 1806 he was in command of one of the Russian armies operating against +Napoleon, when he fought the battle of Pultusk and met the emperor in +person in the sanguinary battle of Eylau (8th of February 1807). Here he +could claim to have inflicted the first reverse suffered by Napoleon, +but six months later Bennigsen met with the crushing defeat of Friedland +(14th of June 1807) the direct consequence of which was the treaty of +Tilsit. Bennigsen now retired for some years, but in the campaign of +1812 he reappeared in the army in various responsible positions. He was +present at Borodino, and defeated Murat in the engagement of Tarutino, +but on account of a quarrel with Marshal Kutusov, the Russian +commander-in-chief, he was compelled to retire from active military +employment. After the death of Kutusov he was recalled and placed at the +head of an army. Bennigsen led one of the columns which made the +decisive attack on the last day of the battle of Leipzig (16th-19th of +October 1813). On the same evening he was made a count by the emperor +Alexander I., and he afterwards commanded the forces which operated +against Marshal Davout in North Germany. After the general peace he held +a command from 1815 to 1818, when he retired from active service and +settled on his Hanoverian estate of Banteln near Hildesheim. Count +Bennigsen died on the 3rd of December 1826. His son, ALEXANDER LEVIN, +count von Bennigsen (1809-1893), was a distinguished Hanoverian +statesman. + + + + +BENNIGSEN, RUDOLF VON (1824-1902), German politician, was born at +Luneburg on the 10th of July 1824. He was descended from an old +Hanoverian family, his father, Karl von Bennigsen, being an officer in +the Hanoverian army, who rose to the rank of general and also held +diplomatic appointments. Bennigsen, having studied at the university of +Gottingen, entered the Hanoverian civil service. In 1855 he was elected +a member of the second chamber; and as the government refused to allow +him leave of absence from his official duties he resigned his post in +the public service. He at once became the recognized leader of the +Liberal opposition to the reactionary government, but must be +distinguished from Count Bennigsen, a member of the same family, and son +of the distinguished Russian general, who was also one of the +parliamentary leaders at the time. What gave Bennigsen his importance +not only in Hanover, but throughout the whole of Germany, was the +foundation of the National Verein, which was due to him, and of which he +was president. This society, which arose out of the public excitement +created by the war between France and Austria, had for its object the +formation of a national party which should strive for the unity and the +constitutional liberty of the whole Fatherland. It united the moderate +Liberals throughout Germany, and at once became a great political power, +notwithstanding all the efforts of the governments, and especially of +the king of Hanover to suppress it. In 1866 Bennigsen used all his +influence to keep Hanover neutral in the conflict between Prussia and +Austria, but in vain. He took no part in the war, but his brother, who +was an officer in the Prussian army, was killed in Bohemia. In May of +this year he had an important interview with Bismarck, who wished to +secure his support for the reform of the confederation, and after the +war was over at once accepted the position of a Prussian subject, and +took his seat in the diet of the North German Confederation and in the +Prussian parliament. He used his influence to procure as much autonomy +as possible for the province of Hanover, but was a strong opponent of +the Guelph party. He was one of the three Hanoverians, Windthorst and +Miquel being the other two, who at once won for the representatives of +the conquered province the lead in both the Prussian and German +parliaments. The National Verein, its work being done, was now +dissolved; but Bennigsen was chiefly instrumental in founding a new +political party--the National Liberals,--who, while they supported +Bismarck's national policy, hoped to secure the constitutional +development of the country. For the next thirty years he was president +of the party, and was the most influential of the parliamentary leaders. +It was chiefly owing to him that the building up of the internal +institutions of the empire was carried on without the open breach +between Bismarck and the parliament, which was often imminent. Many +amendments suggested by him were introduced in the debates on the +constitution; in 1870 he undertook a mission to South Germany to +strengthen the national party there, and was consulted by Bismarck while +at Versailles. It was he who brought about the compromise on the +military bill in 1874. In 1877 he was offered the post of +vice-chancellor with a seat in the Prussian ministry, but refused it +because Bismarck or the king would not agree to his conditions. From +this time his relations with the government were less friendly, and in +1878 he brought about the rejection of the first Socialist Bill. In 1883 +he resigned his seat in parliament owing to the reactionary measures of +the government, which made it impossible for him to continue his former +co-operation with Bismarck, but returned in 1887 to support the +coalition of national parties. One of the first acts of the emperor +William II. was to appoint him president of the province of Hanover. In +1897 he resigned this post and retired from public life. He died on the +7th of August 1902. + + See biographical notices by A. Kiepert (2nd ed., Hanover, 1902), and + E. Schreck (Hanover, 1894). + + + + +BENNINGTON, a village and one of the county-seats of Bennington county, +Vermont, U.S.A., situated in the S.W. part of the state, about 30 m. +E.N.E. of Troy, New York. Pop. (1890) 3971; (1900) 5656 (965 +foreign-born); (1910) 6211. The township of the same name, in which it +is situated, had in 1910 a population of 8698, living chiefly in the +villages of Bennington, North Bennington and Bennington Centre, the last +a summer resort. The village of Bennington is served by the Rutland +railway, and is connected by electric railway with North Adams and +Pittsfield, Mass., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y. It is picturesquely situated +at the foot of the Green Mountains, and the summit of the neighbouring +Mt. Anthony (2345 ft.) commands a magnificent view. The village has +woollen mills, knitting mills, stereoscope, box, and collar and cuff +factories and machine shops. There are white clay and yellow ochre works +in different parts of the township. Bennington is the seat of the +Vermont state soldiers' home. The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft +301 ft. high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world. It +commemorates the success gained on the 16th of August 1777 by a force of +nearly 2000 "Green Mountain Boys" and New Hampshire and Massachusetts +militia under General John Stark over two detachments of General +Burgoyne's army, totalling about 1200 men, under Col. Friedrich Baum and +Col. Breyman. These came up one after the other in search of provisions +and were practically annihilated, Col. Baum being mortally wounded and +700 men taken prisoners. The scene of the battle is about 5 m. from the +village. The victory had an important influence on Burgoyne's campaign +(see AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE), weakening Burgoyne and encouraging +the American militia to take the field against him. Bennington was +settled in 1761 and was named in honour of Governor Benning Wentworth of +New Hampshire. The township was organized in 1762. It was one of the +"New Hampshire Grant" towns, both New York and New Hampshire claiming +jurisdiction over it, and, being the home of Ethan Alien and Seth +Warner, it became the centre of activities of the "Green Mountain Boys," +of whom they were leaders. During the fifteen years in which Vermont was +an independent commonwealth, Bennington was the headquarters of the +council of safety. In 1828-1829 W.L. Garrison edited here a paper called +_The Journal of the Times_. The village of Bennington was incorporated +in 1849. + + See Merrill and Merrill, _Sketches of Historic Bennington_ (Cambridge, + Mass., 1898). + + + + +BENNO (1010-1106), bishop of Meissen, was the son of Werner, count of +Woldenburg, was educated at Gosslar, and in 1066 was nominated by the +emperor Henry IV. to the see of Meissen. In the troubles between empire +and papacy that followed Benno took part against the emperor. In 1085 he +was deposed by the synod of Mainz, but after the death of Pope Gregory +VII. he submitted, and on the recommendation of the imperialist Pope +Clement III. was restored to his see, which he held till his death. He +did much for his diocese, both by ecclesiastical reforms on the +Hildebrandine model and by material developments. He was long reverenced +in his own diocese as a saint before, in 1523, he was canonized by Pope +Adrian VI. His canonization drew from Luther a violent brochure "against +the new false god and old devil, who is to be lifted up at Meissen." + + For bibliography, see Ulysse Chevalier, _Repertoire des sources hist.: + Bio-bibliographie, s.v._ "Bennon." + + + + +BENOIT, PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD (1834-1901), Flemish composer, was born on +the 17th of August 1834 at Harlebeke in Flanders. His father and a local +village organist were his first teachers. In 1851 Benoit entered the +Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying chiefly +under F.J. Fetis. During this period he composed music to many +melodramas, and to an opera _Le Village dans les montagnes_ for the Park +theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor. He won a government prize +and a money grant in 1857 by his cantata _Le Meurtre d'Abel_, and this +enabled him to travel through Germany. In course of his journeyings he +found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay +_L'Ecole de musique flamande et son avenir_. Fetis loudly praised his +_Messe solennelle_, which Benoit produced at Brussels on his return from +Germany. In 1861 he visited Paris for the production of his opera _Le +Roi des Aulnes_ ("Erlkonig"), which, though accepted by the Theatre +Lyrique, was never mounted; while there he conducted at the +Bouffes-Parisiens. Again returning home, he astonished a section of the +musical world by the production at Antwerp of a sacred tetralogy, +consisting of his _Cantate de Noel_, the above-mentioned _Mass_, a _Te +Deum_ and a _Requiem_, in which were embodied to a large extent his +theories of Flemish music. It was in consequence of his passion for the +founding of an entirely separate Flemish school that Benoit changed his +name from Pierre to Peter. By prodigious efforts he succeeded in +gathering round him a small band of enthusiasts, who affected to see +with him possibilities in the foundation of a school whose music should +differ completely from that of the French and German schools. In its +main features this school failed, for its faith was pinned to Benoit's +music, which is hardly more Flemish than French or German. Benoit's more +important compositions include the Flemish oratorios _De Schelde_ and +_Lucifer_, the latter of which met with complete failure on its +production in London in 1888; the operas _Het Dorp int Gebirgte_ and +_Isa_, the _Drama Christi_; an enormous mass of songs, choruses, small +cantatas and motets. Benoit also wrote a great number of essays on +musical matters. He died at Antwerp on the 8th of March 1901. + + + + +BENOIT DE SAINTE-MORE, or SAINTE-MAURE, 12th century French _trouvere_, +is supposed to have been a native of Sainte-Maure in Touraine. Very +little is known of his personal history. The _maitre_ prefixed to his +name implies that he had graduated at the university, but there is +nothing to show whether he was a simple _trouvere_ by profession or +belonged to the clergy. He was a loyal subject of Henry II. of England, +to whose court he was attached, and when he speaks of the French, it is +as "they." Wace had begun a history of the dukes of Normandy in his +_Roman du Rou_. This he brought down to the reign of Henry I., but here +Henry II. seems to have withdrawn his patronage, and at the end of his +poem Wace refers to a _maistre Beneeit_ who had received a similar +commission. There is no other contemporary poem extant dealing with the +subject except the _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_, and it would seem +reasonable to assume the identity of Wace's rival with Benoit de +Sainte-More, whose authorship of the chronicle has, nevertheless, been +often disputed. But a comparison of the _Roman de Troie_, which is +certainly Benoit's work, with the _Chronique_, confirms the supposition +that they are by the same author. The poem contains over forty thousand +lines, and relates the history of the Norman dukes from Rollo to Henry +I., with a preliminary sketch of the Danish invasions and the adventures +of Hastings and his companions. It has no claims to be considered an +original authority. Benoit drew his information from the _De moribus et +actis primorum Normanniae ducum_ of Dudon de Saint Quentin as far as +1002, following his model very closely. From that time he avails himself +of the chronicle of William of Jumieges, also of Ordericus Vitalis and +others. The _Chronique_ probably dates from about 1172 to 1176. In the +_Roman de Troie_, written about 1160, Benoit expressly asserts his +authorship. He mentions "Omers" with great respect as _li clers +merveillos_, but his authority for the story is naturally not Homer, of +whom he could have no first-hand knowledge. He follows the apocryphal +_Historia de excidio Trojae_ of Dares the Phrygian and the _Ephemerides +belli Trojani_ of Dictys of Crete. The poem runs to about 30,000 lines. +The personages of the classical story are converted into heroes of +romance. They have their castles and their abbeys, and act in accordance +with feudal custom. The supernatural machinery of Homer is missing both +in Benoit's original and his own narrative. The story begins with the +capture of the Golden Fleece and comes down to the return of the Greek +princes after the fall of Troy. Benoit diverges very widely from the +classical tradition, and M. Leopold Constans sees reason to suppose that +the _trouvere_ founded his poem on an amplified version of the Dares +narrative that has not come down to us. In the _Roman de Troie_ first +appeared the episode of Troilus and Briseide, that was to be developed +later in the _Filostrato_ of Boccaccio, which in its turn formed the +basis of Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_. The Shakespearian play of +_Troilus and Cressida_ is also indirectly derived from Benoit's story. + +On the strength of a certain similarity of treatment Benoit has +sometimes been credited with the authorship of the anonymous _Roman +d'Eneas_ and of the _Roman de Thebes_, a romance derived indirectly from +the _Thebais_ of Statius. M. Constans is inclined to negative both these +attributions. It is not even certain that the Benoit who chronicled the +deeds of the Norman dukes for Henry II. between 1172 and 1176 was the +Benoit de Sainte-More of the _Roman de Troie_. + + The _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_ was edited by Francisque Michel + in 1836-1844; the _Roman de Troie_ by A. Joly in 1870-1871; the + _Eneas_, by J.J. Salverda de Grave in H. Suchier's _Bibliotheca + Normannica_ in 1891; the _Roman de Thebes_ for the _Societe des + anciens textes francais_, by M.L. Constans in 1890. See E.D. Grand in + _La Grande Encyclopedie_; L. Constans in Petit de Julleville's _Hist. + de la langue et de la litt, francaise_ (vol. i. pp. 171-225). where + the three romances are analysed at length. The prefaces to the + editions just mentioned discuss the authorship of the romances. + + + + +BENSERADE, ISAAC DE (1613-1691), French poet, was born in Paris, and +baptized on the 5th of November 1613. His family appears to have been +connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres. +He began his literary career with the tragedy of _Cleopatre_ (1635), +which was followed by four other indifferent pieces. On Richelieu's +death Benserade lost his pension, but became more and more a favourite +at court, especially with Anne of Austria. He provided the words for the +court ballets, and was, in 1674, admitted to the Academy, where he +wielded an influence quite out of proportion to the merit of his work. +In 1676 the failure of his _Metamorphoses d'Ovide_ in the form of +rondeaux gave a blow to his reputation, but by no means destroyed his +vogue with his contemporaries. Benserade would probably be forgotten but +for his sonnet on Job (1651). This sonnet, which he sent to a young lady +with his paraphrase on Job, having been placed in competition with the +_Urania_ of Voiture, a dispute on their relative merits long divided the +whole court and the wits into two parties, styled respectively the +_Jobelins_ and the _Uranists_. The partisans of Benserade were headed by +the prince de Conti and Mile de Scudery, while Mme de Montausier and +J.G. de Balzac took the side of Voiture. + +Some years before his death, on the 19th of October 1691, Benserade +retired to Chantilly, and devoted himself to a translation of the +Psalms, which he nearly completed. + + + + +BENSLEY, ROBERT, an 18th-century English actor, of whom Charles Lamb in +the _Essays of Elia_ speaks with special praise. His early life is +obscure, and he is said to have served in America as a lieutenant of +marines; but he appeared at Drury Lane in 1765, and at that house and at +Covent Garden, and later at the Haymarket, he played important parts up +to 1796, when he retired from the stage. He appears then to have been +given a small post under the government, a paymastership, which he +resigned in 1798. He is stated in various quarters to have died in 1817, +but Mr Joseph Knight shows in his article in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ that +this is due to a confusion with another man named William Bensley, who +possibly belonged to the family of printers of whom Thomas Bensley (d. +1833) was the chief representative. On the stage he was simply "Mr +Bensley," but though he is named William and even Richard in some +accounts, Mr Knight shows that his name was certainly Robert. The actual +date of his death is unknown, though it was probably later than 1809, +when he is said to have inherited a fortune. His great character was +Malvolio, but Charles Lamb's fervent admiration of his acting seems to +have outrun the general opinion. + + + + +BENSON, EDWARD WHITE (1829-1896), archbishop of Canterbury, was born on +the 14th of July 1829, at Birmingham. He came of a family of Yorkshire +dalesmen, his father, whose name was also Edward White Benson, being a +manufacturing chemist of some note. He was educated at King Edward VI.'s +school, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee, afterwards bishop of +Manchester, and amongst his school-fellows were B.F. Westcott and J.B. +Lightfoot, both of whom preceded him to Trinity College, Cambridge, +where he was elected a sub-sizar in 1848, becoming subsequently sizar +and scholar. The death of his widowed mother in 1850 left him almost +without resources, with a family of younger brothers and sisters +dependent upon him. Relations came to his aid, and presently his +anxieties were relieved by Francis Martin, bursar of Trinity, who gave +him liberal help. Benson took his degree in 1852 as a senior optime, +eighth classic and senior chancellor's medallist, and was elected fellow +of Trinity in the following year. He became a master at Rugby, first +under E.M. Goulburn, and then (1857) under Frederick Temple, who became +his lifelong friend; he was also ordained deacon in 1854 and priest in +1856. From Rugby he went to be first headmaster of Wellington College, +which was opened in January 1859; and in the course of the same year he +married his cousin, Mary Sidgwick. The school flourished under his +management and also developed his administrative abilities, but +gradually his thoughts began to turn towards other work. In 1868 he +became prebendary of Lincoln and examining chaplain to Bishop +Christopher Wordsworth, an office which he also held for a short time in +1870 for Dr Temple, just appointed to the see of Exeter. In 1872 his +acceptance of the chancellorship of Lincoln opened a new period of his +life. As chancellor, the statutes directed him to study theology, to +train others in that study and to oversee the educational work of the +diocese. To such work Benson at once devoted himself; and did more +perhaps than any other man to reinvigorate cathedral life in England. He +started a theological college (the _Scholae Cancellarii_), founded night +schools, delivered courses of lectures on church history, held Bible +classes, and was instrumental in founding a society of mission preachers +for the diocese, the "Novate Novale." Early in 1877 he was consecrated +first bishop of Truro, and threw himself with characteristic vigour into +the work of organizing the new diocese. His knowledge, his sympathy, his +enthusiasm soon made themselves felt everywhere; the ruridecanal +conferences of clergy became a real force, and the church in Cornwall +was inspired with a vitality that had never been possible when it was +part of the unwieldy diocese of Exeter. A chapter was constituted, the +bishop being dean; amongst its members was a canon missioner (the first +to be appointed in England), and the _Scholae Cancellarii_ were founded +after the Lincoln pattern. Moreover, the bishop at once set to work to +build a cathedral. The foundation-stone was laid on the 20th of May +1880, and on the 3rd of November 1887 the building, so far as then +completed, was consecrated. On the death of Dr Tait, Benson was +nominated to the see of Canterbury and was enthroned on the 29th of +March 1883. His primacy was one of almost unprecedented activity. + +Frequent communications passed between him and the heads of the Eastern +Churches. With their approval a bishop was again consecrated, after six +years' interval (1881-1887), for the Anglican congregations in Jerusalem +and the East; and the features which had made the plan objectionable to +many English churchmen were now abolished. In 1886, after much careful +investigation, he founded the "Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian +Christians," having for its object the instruction and the strengthening +from within of the "Nestorian" churches of the East (see NESTORIANS). An +interchange of courtesies with the Metropolitan of Kiev on the occasion +of the 900th anniversary of the conversion of Russia (1888), led to +further intercourse, which has tended to a friendlier feeling between +the English and Russian churches. On the other hand, with the efforts +towards a _rapprochement_ with the Church of Rome, to which the visit of +the French Abbe Portal in 1894 gave some stimulus, the archbishop would +have nothing to do. + +With the other churches of the Anglican Communion the archbishop's +relations were cordial in the extreme and grew closer as time went on. +Particular questions of importance, the Jerusalem bishopric, the healing +of the Colenso schism in the diocese of Natal, the organization of +native ministries and the like, occupied much of his time; and he did +all in his power to foster the growth of local churches. But it was the +work at home which occupied most of his energies. That he in no way +slighted diocesan work had been shown at Truro. He complained now that +the bishops were "bishops of their dioceses but not bishops of England," +and did all he could to make the Church a greater religious force in +English life. He sat on the ecclesiastical courts commission (1881-1883) +and the sweating commission (1888-1890). He brought bills into +parliament to reform Church patronage and Church discipline, and worked +unremittingly for years in their behalf. The latter became law in 1892, +and the former was merged in the Benefices Bill, which passed in 1898, +after his death. He wrote and spoke vigorously against Welsh +disestablishment (1893); and in the following year, under his guidance, +the existing agencies for Church defence were consolidated. He was +largely instrumental in the inauguration of the House of Laymen in the +province of Canterbury (1886); he made diligent inquiries as to the +internal order of the sisterhoods of which he was visitor; from 1884 +onwards he gave regular Bible readings for ladies in Lambeth Palace +chapel. But the most important ecclesiastical event of his primacy was +the judgment in the case of the bishop of Lincoln (see LINCOLN +JUDGMENT), in which the law of the prayer-book is investigated, as it +had never been before, from the standpoint of the whole history of the +English Church. In 1896 the archbishop went to Ireland to see the +working of the sister Church. He was received with enthusiasm, but the +work which his tour entailed over-fatigued him. On Sunday morning the +11th of October, just after his return, whilst on a visit to Mr +Gladstone, he died in Hawarden parish church of heart failure. + +Archbishop Benson left numerous writings, including a valuable essay on +_The Cathedral_ (London, 1878), and various charges and volumes of +sermons and addresses. But his two chief works, posthumously published, +are his _Cyprian_ (London, 1897), a work of great learning, which had +occupied him at intervals since early manhood; and _The Apocalypse, an +Introductory Study_ (London, 1900), interesting and beautiful, but +limited by the fact that the method of study is that of a Greek play, +not of a Hebrew apocalypse. The archbishop's knowledge of the past was +both wide and minute, but it was that of an antiquary rather than of a +historian. "I think," writes his son, "he was more interested in modern +movements for their resemblance to ancient than vice versa." His sermons +are very noble though written in a style which is over-compressed and +often obscure. He wrote some good hymns, including "O Throned, O +Crowned" and a beautiful version of _Urbs Beata_. His "grandeur in +social function" was unequalled and his interests were very wide. But +above all else he was a great ecclesiastic. He paid less attention to +secular politics than Archbishop Tait; but if a man is to be judged by +the effect of his work, it is Benson and not Tait who should be +described as a great statesman. His biography, by his son, reveals him +as a man of devout and holy life, impulsive indeed and masterful, but +one who learned self-restraint by strenuous endeavour. + +His eldest son, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON (b. 1862), was educated at +Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He became fellow of Magdalene +College, Cambridge, and was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903. +His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of his +_Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton_ (1886) under the pseudonym of "Christopher +Carr," and his _Poems_ (1893) and _Lyrics_ (1895) established his +reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works are _Fasti Etonenses_ +(1899); his father's _Life_ (1899); _The Schoolmaster_ (1902), a +commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a +public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887); monographs on D.G. +Rossetti (1904), Edward FitzGerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in +the "English Men of Letters" series; _Lord Vyet and other Poems_ (1897), +_Peace and other Poems_ (1905); _The Upton Letters (1905), From a +College Window_ (1906), _Beside Still Waters_ (1907). He also +collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the _Correspondence of Queen +Victoria_ (1907). + +The third son, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (b. 1867), was educated at +Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. He worked at Athens +for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and +subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society. In 1893 his society +novel, _Dodo_, brought him to the front among the writers of clever +fiction; and this was followed by other novels, notably _The Vintage_ +(1898) and _The Capsina_ (1899). + +The fourth son, ROBERT HUGH BENSON (b. 1871), was educated at Eton and +Trinity College, Cambridge. After reading with Dean Vaughan at Llandaff +he took orders, and in 1898 became a member of the Community of the +Resurrection at Mirfield. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic, was +ordained priest at Rome in the following year, and returned to Cambridge +as assistant priest of the Roman Catholic church there. Among his +numerous publications are _The Light Invisible, By What Authority?, The +King's Achievement, Richard Raynal, Solitary, The Queen's Tragedy, The +Sentimentalists, Lord of the World_. + + See A.C. Benson, _Life of Archbishop Benson_ (2 vols., London, 1899); + J.H. Bernard, _Archbishop Benson in Ireland_ (1897); Sir L.T. Dibdin + in _The Quarterly Review_, October 1897. + + + + +BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT (1858-), English actor, son of William Benson of +Alresford, Hants, was born at Tunbridge Wells on the 4th of November +1858. He came of a talented family, his elder brother, W.A.S. Benson (b. +1854), becoming well known in the world of art as one of the pioneers in +the revival of English industrial craftsmanship, especially in the field +of the metallic arts; and his younger brother, Godfrey Benson, being an +active Liberal politician. He was educated at Winchester and New +College, Oxford, and at the university was distinguished both as an +athlete (winning the Inter-university three miles) and as an amateur +actor. In the latter respect he was notable for producing at Oxford the +first performance of a Greek play, the _Agamemnon_, in which many Oxford +men who afterwards became famous in other fields took part. Mr Benson, +on leaving Oxford, took to the professional stage, and made his first +appearance at the Lyceum, under Irving, in _Romeo and Juliet_, as Paris, +in 1882. In the next year he went into managership with a company of his +own, taken over from Walter Bentley, and from this time he became +gradually more and more prominent, both as an actor of leading parts +himself and as the organizer of practically the only modern "stock +company" touring through the provinces. In 1886 he married Gertrude +Constance Cockburn (Featherstonhaugh), who acted in his company and +continued to play leading parts with him. Mr Benson's chief successes +were gained out of London for some years, but in 1890 he had a season in +London at the Globe and in 1900 at the Lyceum, and in later years he was +seen with his _repertoire_ at the Coronet. His company included from +time to time many actors and actresses who, having been trained under +him, became prominent on their own account, and both by his organization +of this regular company and by his foundation of a dramatic school of +acting in 1901, Mr Benson exercised a most important influence on the +contemporary stage. From the first he devoted himself largely to the +production of Shakespeare's plays, reviving many which had not been +acted for generations, and his services to the cause of Shakespeare can +hardly be overestimated. From 1888 onwards he managed the +Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearian Festival. His romantic and intellectual +powers as an actor, combined with his athletic and picturesque bearing +and fine elocution, were conspicuously shown in his own impersonations, +most remarkable among which were his Hamlet (in 1900 he produced this +play without cuts in London), his Coriolanus, his Richard II., his Lear +and his Petruchio. + + + + +BENSON, FRANK WESTON (1862- ), American painter, was born in Salem, +Massachusetts, on the 24th of March 1862. He was a pupil of Boulanger +and of Lefebvre in Paris; won many distinctions in American exhibitions, +and a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900; and became a member +of the "Ten Americans," and of the National Academy of Design, New +York. Besides portraits, he painted landscape and still life; and he was +one of the decorators of the Congressional library, Washington, D.C. + + + + +BENSON, GEORGE (1699-1762), English dissenting minister, was born at +Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, on the 1st of September 1699, of a family +which had distinguished itself in church and state. He studied at a +school at Whitehaven and later at the university of Glasgow. In 1722, on +Calamy's recommendation, he was chosen pastor of a congregation of +dissenters at Abingdon, in Berkshire, where he continued till 1729, +when, having embraced Arminian views, he became the choice of a +congregation in Southwark; and in 1740 he was appointed by the +congregation of Crutched Friars colleague to the learned Dr Nathaniel +Lardner, whom he succeeded in 1749. His _Defence of the Reasonableness +of Prayer_ appeared in 1731, and he afterwards published paraphrases and +notes on the epistles to the Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon, +adding dissertations on several important subjects, particularly (as an +appendix to 1 Timothy) on inspiration. In 1738 he published his _History +of the First Planting of the Christian Religion_, in 3 vols. 4to, a work +of great learning and ability. He also wrote the _Reasonableness of the +Christian Religion_ (1743), the _History of the Life of Jesus Christ_, +posthumously published in 1764, a paraphrase and notes on the seven +Catholic epistles, and several other works, which gained him great +reputation as a scholar and theologian even outside his own communion +and his own country. Owing to his undoubted Socinianism his works +suffered neglect after his death, which occurred on the 6th of April +1762. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th +Edition, Volume 3, Slice 5, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA *** + +***** This file should be named 34533.txt or 34533.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/3/34533/ + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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