The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 67

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, Indian statesman, governor of Madras in 1806, but recalled for an error which led to the mutiny at Vellore; but was in 1827 appointed governor-general of India, which he governed wisely, abolishing many evils, such as Thuggism and Suttee, and effecting many beneficent reforms. Macaulay held office under him. He returned to England in 1835, became member for Glasgow in 1837, and died before he made any mark on home politics (1774-1839).

BENTINCK, WILLIAM, a distinguished statesman, first Earl of Portland, born in Holland; a favourite, friend, and adviser of William III., whom he accompanied to England, and who bestowed on him for his services great honours and large domains, which provoked ill-will against him; retired to Holland, after the king died in his arms, but returned afterwards (1648-1709).

BENTIVOGLIO, an Italian family of princely rank, long supreme in Bologna; B., Guido, cardinal, though a disciple of Galileo, was one of the Inquisitors-General who signed his condemnation (1579-1641).

BENTLEY, RICHARD, scholar and philologist, born in Yorkshire; from the first devoted to ancient, especially cla.s.sical, learning; rose to eminence as an authority on literary criticism, his "Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris," which he proved to be a forgery, commending him to the regard and esteem of all the scholars of Europe, a work which may be said to have inaugurated a new era in literary historical criticism (1662-1742).

BENUe, an affluent of the Niger, 300 m. long, falling into it 230 m.

up, described by Dr. Barth and explored by Dr. Baikic, and offers great facilities for the prosecution of commerce.

BENVOLIO, a cantankerous, disputatious gentleman in "Romeo and Juliet."

BENYOW'SKY, COUNT, a Hungarian, fought with the Poles against Russia; taken prisoner; was exiled to Kamchatka; escaped with the governor's daughter; came to France; sent out to Madagascar; was elected king by the natives over them; fell in battle against the French (1741-1786).

BENZENE, a substance compounded of carbon and hydrogen, obtained by destructive distillation from coal-tar and other organic bodies, used as a subst.i.tute for turpentine and for dissolving grease.

BENZOIN, a fragrant concrete resinous juice flowing from a styrax-tree of Sumatra, used as a cosmetic, and burned as incense.

BEOWULF, a very old Anglo-Saxon romance consisting of 6356 short alliterative lines, and the oldest extant in the language, recording the exploits of a mythical hero of the name, who wrestled Hercules-wise, at the cost of his life, with first a formidable monster, and then a dragon that had to be exterminated or tamed into submission before the race he belonged to could live with safety on the soil.

BeRANGER, PIERRE JEAN DE, a celebrated French song-writer, born at Paris, of the lower section of the middle cla.s.s, and the first of his countrymen who in that department rose to the high level of a true lyric poet; his first struggles with fortune were a failure, but Lucien Bonaparte took him up, and under his patronage a career was opened up for him; in 1815 appeared as an author, and the sensation created was immense, for the songs were not mere personal effusions, but in stirring accord with, and contributed to influence, the great pa.s.sion of the nation at the time; was, as a Republican--which brought him into trouble with the Bourbons--a great admirer of Napoleon as an incarnation of the national spirit, and contributed not a little to the elevation of his nephew to the throne, though he declined all patronage at his hands, refusing all honours and appointments; has been compared to Burns, but he lacked both the fire and the humour of the Scottish poet. "His poetical works," says Professor Saintsbury, "consist entirely of chansons political, amatory, baccha.n.a.lian, satirical, philosophical after a fashion, and of almost every other complexion that the song can possibly take" (1780-1859).

BERAR' (896), one of the central provinces of India, E. of Bombay; it occupies a fertile, well-watered valley, and yields large quant.i.ties of grain, and especially cotton.

BERAT, FReDeRIC, a French poet and composer, author of a great number of popular songs (1800-1853).

BERBER, native language spoken in the mountainous parts of Barbary.

BERBER (8), a town in Nubia, on the Nile, occupied by the English; starting-point of caravans for the Red Sea; railway was begun to Suakim, but abandoned.

BER'BERAH, the seaport of Somaliland, under Britain, with an annual fair that brings together at times as many as 30,000 people.

BERBERS (3,000), a race aboriginal to Barbary and N. Africa, of a proud and unruly temper; though different from the Arab race, are of the same religion.

BERBICE, the eastern division of British Guiana; produces sugar, cocoa, and timber.