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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
Volume 3, Slice 5, by Various

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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 5
       "Bedlam" to "Benson, George"

Author: Various

Release Date: December 1, 2010 [EBook #34533]

Language: English

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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.







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