BENTHAMIA-BENTINCK. codification and reconstruction of the laws; and insisted, among other changes, on those which came at a later day to be popularly demanded as the points of the Charter'-viz., universal suffrage, annual par liaments, vote by ballot, and paid representatives. However impossible some of these schemes were, it cannot be denied that B. did more to rouse the spirit of modern reform and improvement in laws and politics, than any other writer of his day. Many of his schemes have been, and many more are, in the course of being slowly realised; the end and object of them all was the general welfare, and his chiet error changes which he proposed-lay in conceiving that organic changes are possible through any other process than that of growth and modification of the popular wants and sentiments. It was this error that led the philosopher, in his closet in London, to devise codes of laws for Russia (through which country he made a tour in 1785) and America, the adoption of which would have been equivalent to revolutions in these countries, and then bitterly to bewail the folly of mankind when his schemes were rejected. In ethics, as in politics, he pressed his doctrines to extremes. It has been said that his doctrine of utility was so extended that it would have been practically dangerous, but for the incapacity of the bulk of mankind for acting on a speculative theory Lord Lansdowne, in whose society at Bowood he afterwards passed perhaps the most agreeable hours of his life. It was in the Bowood society that he conceived an attachment to Miss Caroline Fox (Lord Holland's sister), who was still a young lady, when B., in the 54th year of his age, offered her his heart and hand, and was rejected with all respect.' In 1778, he published a pamphlet on The Hard Labour Bill, recommending an improvement in the mode of criminal punishment; which he followed in 1811 by A Theory of Punishments and Rewards. In these two works, B. did more than any other writer of his time to rationalise the theory of punish--apart from his over-estimate of the value of some ments by consideration of their various kinds and effects, their true objects, and the conditions of their efficiency. He published in 1787 Letters on Usury; in 1789, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; in 1802, Discourses on Civil and Penal Legislation; in 1813, A Treatise on Judicial Evidence; in 1817, Paper Relative to Codification and Public Instruction; in 1824, The Book of Fallacies. These were followed by other works, of less consequence. His whole productions have been collected and edited by Dr. Bowring and Mr. John Hill Burton, and published in eleven volumes. It is well, however, for B.'s reputation, that it does not rest wholly on his collected works; and that he found in M. Dumont, Mr. James Mill, and Sir Samuel Romilly, generous disciples to diffuse his principles and promote his fame. In his early works, his style was clear, free, spirited, and often eloquent; but in his later works, it became repulsive, through being overloaded and darkened with technical terms. It is in regard to these more especially that M. Dumont has most materially served his master by arranging and translating them into French, through the medium of which language B.'s doctrines were propagated throughout Europe, till they became more popular abroad than at home. Mr. James Mill, himself an independent thinker, did much in his writings to extend the application in new directions of B.'s principles, a work in which, BENTHA'MIA, a genus of plants of the natural apart from his original efforts, he has achieved a lasting monument of his own subtilty and vigour of order Cornaceae (q. v.), consisting of Asiatic trees or mind. Criticisms of B's writings will be found in shrubs, of which the fruit is formed of many small B. frugifera, a native of in the Ethical Dissertation, in the Encyclopædia reddish fruit, not unlike a mulberry, but larger; not the Edinburgh Review, by Sir Samuel Romilly; and drupes grown together. Nepaul, is a small tree, with lanceolate leaves, and a Britannica, by Sir James Mackintosh. But the most valuable contribution in English to his reputa- south of England, and will probably be found to unpleasant to the taste. It has ripened fruit in the tion is unquestionably Benthamiana, by Mr. John Hill Burton, advocate, containing a memoir, selec-succeed in the open air, wherever the winters are so tions of all the leading and important passages from mild that fuchsias are not cut down by frost. flowers are fragrant. his various writings, and an appendix embracing an essay on his system, and a brief clear view of all his leading doctrines. In all B.'s ethical and political writings, the doctrine of utility is the leading and pervading principle; and his favourite vehicle for its expression is the phrase, the greatest happiness of the greatest number,' which was first coined by Priestley, though its prominence in politics has been owing to Bentham. 'In this phrase,' he says, 'I saw delineated for the first time a plain as well as a true standard for whatever is right or wrong, useful, useless, or mischievous, in human conduct, whether in the field of morals or politics.' It need scarcely be remarked, that the phrase affords no guidance as to how the benevolent end pointed at is to be attained; and is no more than a quasi-concrete expression of the objects of true benevolence. In considering how to compass these objects, B. arrived at various conclusions, which he advocated irrespective of the conditions of society in his day, and of the laws of social growth which, indeed, neither he nor his contemporaries understood. He demanded nothing less than the immediate remodelling of the government, and the By the death of his father in 1792, B. succeeded to property in London, and to farms in Essex, yielding from £500 to £600 a year. He lived frugally, but with elegance, in one of his London houses (Queen Square, Westminster); and employing young men as secretaries, corresponded and wrote daily. By a life of temperance and industry, with gre self-complacency, in the society of a few devoted friends (who, says Sir James Mackintosh, more resembled the hearers of an Athenian philosopher than the proselytes of a modern writer), the eccentric savant attained to the age of eighty-four. The BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM GEORGE FREDE RICK CAVENDISH, commonly called Lord George B., at one time the leader of the agricultural Protection party, third son of the fourth Duke of Portland, was born 27th February 1802, and entering the army when young, eventually attained the rank of major. He subsequently became private secretary to his uncle, the Right Hon. George Canning. Elected in 1826 M. P. for Lynn-Regis, he sat for that borough till his death. At first, attached to no party, he voted for Catholic Emancipation and for the principle of the Reform Bill, but against several of its most import ant details, and in favour of the celebrated Chandos Clause (q. v.). On the formation of Sir Robert Peel's ministry in December 1834, he and his friend Lord Stanley, terwards Earl of Derby, with adherents, formed a separate section in the House of Commons. On the resignation of Sir Robert Peel in April following, Lord George openly joined the great Conservative party, which acknowledged that statesman as its head, and adhered to it for nearly eleven years. On Peel's return to power in 1841, Lord George received an offer of office, which he some BENTINCK-BENUE. declined, being at that time deeply interested in the sports of the field and the race-course. When Peel introduced his free-trade measures in 1845, a large portion of his supporters joined the Protection party then formed, of which Lord George became the head, and a leading speaker in the debates. His speeches in the session of 1845-1846 were most damaging to the government of Sir Robert Peel, and contributed in no small degree to hasten its downfall in July of the latter year. Lord George supported the bill for the removal of the Jewish disabilities, and recommended the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy by the landowners of Ireland. In the sporting world he is understood to have realised very considerable gains, and he shewed the utmost zeal at all times to suppress the dishonest practices of the turf. He died suddenly of a spasm of the heart, 21st September 1848, while crossing his father's park at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire. BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, a general officer and statesman, uncle of the preceding, and second son of the third Duke of Portland, was born 14th September 1774, and became an ensign in the Coldstream Guards in 1791. Having served with distinction in Flanders, Italy, and Egypt, he was in 1803 appointed governor of Madras, where he advocated several useful reforms; but his proscription of beards and the wearing of turbans and earrings by the sepoys when on duty, led to the mutiny and massacre of Vellore, and his own immediate recall. In August 1808, he was placed on the staff of the army in Portugal under Sir Harry Burrard. Subsequently selected to proceed on an important mission to the supreme Junta of Spain, he accompanied the army under Sir John Moore in its retreat, and at Corunna commanded a brigade. He next commanded a division of Lord Wellington's army, and shortly after was sent as British minister to the court of Sicily, and commander-in-chief of the British forces in that island. At the head of an expedition, he landed at Catalonia in July 1813, penetrated to Valencia, and afterwards laid siege to Tarragona, but was repulsed at Villa Franca. Early in 1814, quitting Sicily, he repaired to Tuscany, published at Florence a proclamation inviting the Italians to shake off the French yoke, and after Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion. He entered the church, and owed to the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester various good ecclesiastical appointments, and through the same influence became librarian of the King's Library at St. James's. In 1690, he published his Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, which established his reputation "throughout Europe, and may be said to have commenced a new era in scholarship. The principles of historical criticism were then unknown, and their first application to establish that the socalled Epistles of Phalaris, which professed to have been written in the 6th c. F. C., were the forgery of a period some eight centuries later, filled the learned world with astonishment. In 1700, B. was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; and in the following year, he married Mrs. Joanna Bernard, the daughter of a Huntingdonshire knight. The history of B.'s broken series of quarrels and litigations, provoked Mastership of Trinity is the narrative of an unby his arrogance and rapacity, for which, it must be confessed, he was fully as well known during his lifetime as for his learning. He contrived, nevertheless, to get himself appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, and, by his boldness and perseverance, managed to pass scathless through all his controof Ely, the visitor of Trinity, pronounced sentence versies. Notwithstanding that at one time the Bishop depriving him of his mastership, and that at another the senate of the university pronounced a similar sentence of his academic honours, he remained in full possession of both the former and the latter till the day of his death. This stormy life did not impair his literary activity. He edited various classicsamong others, the works of Horace-upon which he bestowed vast labour. He is, however, more celebrated for what he proposed than for what edition of the Greek New Testament, in which the he actually performed. The proposal to print an received text should be corrected by a careful comparison with all the existing MSS., was then singu larly bold, and evoked violent opposition. failed in carrying out his proposal: but the prin ciples of criticism which he maintained have since been triumphantly established, and have led to important results in other hands. He is to be criticism of which Porson afterwards exhibited the regarded as the founder of that sehool of classical chief excellences as well as the chief defects; and which, though it was itself prevented by too strict attention to minute verbal detail from ever achiev He wards made himself master of Genoa. Between 1796 and 1826, he held a seat in parliament as member for Camelford, Nottinghamshire, and Ash: burton. In 1827, he was appointed governor-general of India, and sworn as privy-councillor. His policy in India was pacific and popular, and his viceroy-ing much, yet diligently collected many of the ship was marked by the abolition of Sutti (q. v.), and by the opening up of the internal communication, as well as the establishment of the overland route. After his return in 1835, he was elected M. P. for Glasgow. He died at Paris, June 17, 1839. BENTLEY, RICHARD, a distinguished classical scholar, was born at Oulton, in Yorkshire, January 27, 1662. In 1676, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in the humble capacity of subsizar. Little is known of his university career, except that he shewed early a strong taste for the cultivation of ancient learning. At the usual time, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts; and on leaving the university, he was appointed head-master of the grammar-school of Spalding, Lincolnshire. About a year afterwards, he resigned this situation to become tutor to the son of Dr. Stillingfleet, then Dean of St. Paul's, and subsequently Bishop of Worcester. B. accompanied his pupil to Oxford, where he had full scope for the cultivation of classical studies; and, that he succeeded in acquiring there some local reputation, is evinced by his having been twice appointed to deliver the Boyle Lectures on the facts which men of wider views are now grouping together, to form the modern science of comparative philology. B. died in 1742, leaving behind him one son, Richard, who inherited much of his father's taste with none of his energy, and several daughters, one of whom, Joanna, married, and was the mother of Richard Cumberland the dramatist. Monk's life of Richard Bentley, 1830. BÉNUÉ, or BINUE, or, as Dr. Barth prefers to spell it, BE'NUWÉ, called also Chadda and Tchadda; an important river of Central Africa, forming the eastern branch of the Quorra or Niger, which it joins about 230 miles above the mouth of that river in the Gulf of Guinea. At its junction with the Faro, in lat. about 9°33′ N., long. 12° 40' E., the point where Dr. Barth crossed, he describes the B. as being 800 yards across, with a general depth in its channel of 11 feet, and a liability to rise under ordinary circumstances at least 30 feet, or even at times 50 feet higher.' In 1854, an expedition under the command of Dr. Baikie explored the B. as far as Dulti, a place about 350 miles above its confluence with the Niger, and BENYOWSKY-BENZOIN. some 80 or 100 miles from where Dr. Barth crossed. | Palus and Sisara Palus, two lakes within the Dr. Barth regards this river as offering the best dominions of Tuuis, from which town they are about channel for the introduction of civilization into the 30 miles distant, in a north-west direction. They heart of Central Africa. If not actually connected are each about 94 miles long, and the larger one, in some way with the Shari (q. v.), and consequently which is clear and salt, is about 5 miles broad; the with Lake Tsad, 'the breadth of the water-parting smaller, which is turbid and fresh, 34. They are between these two basins [the Niger and the Tsad], about two miles apart, but united by a channel with at the utmost, cannot exceed 20 miles, consisting a general depth of 6 feet and breadth of 75. Tunis of an entirely level flat, and probably of alluvial is supplied with fish mainly from these lakes. So soil. . . . The level of the Tsad, and that of the valuable is the fishing, that a wealthy Arab rents it river B. near Gewe, where it is joined by the Mayo from the Bey of Tunis for £4000 per annum. Kebbi, seem to be almost the same; at least, according to all appearance, the B., at the place mentioned, is not more than 850 or 900 feet above the level of the sea.' A second expedition to explore the B. was undertaken by Dr. Baikie in 1861. BENYOWSKY, MAURICE AUGUSTUS, COUNT DE, a man of remarkable character and extraordinary fortunes, was born at Verbowa, in Hungary, 1741. He served in the Seven Years' War, and during his youth displayed that restless love of adventure which marked his subsequent career. He went to Dantzic for the purpose of studying navigation, and from thence made several voyages to Hamburg and Plymouth. When about to start for the East Indies in 1767, he received a pressing invitation to join the Polish Confederation, with which he complied, and shared most of the dangers and glories of the campaign against the Russians until he was taken prisoner in May 1769. After being transferred from one Russian prison to another, he was, in December 1769, banished to Siberia, and from thence, in a few months, to Kamtchatka. During the voyage, his exertions and skill saved the vessel that carried him. This recommended the prisoner to the governor, Nilov, who was further pleased by B.'s skill as a chess-player, and made him tutor in his family. In this capacity he gained the affections of Aphanasia, daughter of the governor, by whom he was assisted in his plans for escape; which, however, was not effected without a struggle, in which the governor was killed. E., with ninety-six companions, in a ship well armed and provisioned, and with a considerable amount of treasure, set sail from Kamtchatka in May 1771. Having visited some of the islands of Japan and Formosa, B. arrived at Macao on the 22d of September, where he remained until the 14th January, and then sailed for France. He had not been here long when the French government proposed that he should found a colony at Madagascar, and he at once acquiesced. B. arrived on the island in February 1774, and was made king in 1776 by the chiefs in conclave, he adopting the native costume. Returning to Europe with a view to establish commercial relations between France and Madagascar, B. met with a very cold reception from the French government, and returned to the service of Austria, in the hope that the emperor would assist him in his schemes-a hope not fulfilled. He next made unsuccessful overtures to the British government, but at length receiving assistance from private persons in England and America, departed again for Madagascar, where he arrived in 1785; and, involving himself in contention with the French government of the Isle of France, was killed in battle, May 23, 1786. B. was a man of remarkable resources, great decision of character, courage, and sagacity. He was particularly well versed in human nature, a knowledge which proved of essential service to him during his brief but most remarkable career.-Memoirs and Travels of Count de Benyousky, Written by Himself, and Edited by W. Nicholson (2 vols. 4to. London, 1796). BENZE'RTA, LAKES OF, the ancient Hipponitis BE'NZILE, BE'NZOILE, or BENZOYLE, is the radicle or root of the group of substances which comprehends as members the hydride of benzoyle (oil of bitter almonds), benzoic acid, benzoin, and benzole. It is prepared by passing a stream of chlorine gas through fused benzoin, or by heating one part of benzoin with two parts of concentrated nitric acid. B. floats to the upper part of the liquid mixture as a liquid oil, which solidifies on cooling. B. is a tasteless solid, insoluble in water, but readily dissolved by ether and alcohol, and on concentration of the ethereal or alcohol solution, the B. crystallises in regular six-sided prisms, of a yellow colour. When heated to 194° to 198°, it fuses. Its composition is expressed by the chemical formula C28H1004, and many chemists name the substance possessing this formula benzile, reserving the title benzoile, or benzoyle, for a substance polymeric (see POLYMERISM) with benzile, which has not yet been isolated, but which may be represented by CH502. B. A. BENZOIC ACID, or the Flowers of Benzoin and Benjamin, occurs naturally in many balsamiferous plants, and especially in Benzoin (q. v.), from which it may be readily obtained by several processes, which it is not necessary here to describe. is always in the form of snow-white, glistening, feathery crystals, with a fairy aspect of lightness. It has a very fragrant and pleasant aromatic odour, due to the presence of a trace of an essential oil, and a hot bitter taste. It is readily dissolved by alcohol and ether, but sparingly soluble in water. B. A. is one of the materials present in Tinctura Camphora Composita, and has been administered in chronic bronchial affections; but the benefit derivable from its use in such cases is questionable. B. A. taken into the stomach, increases within 3 or 4 hours the quantity of hippuric acid in the urine. It forms a numerous class of compounds with the oxides of the metals, lime, &c., called benzoates. The chemical formula for crystallised B. A. is HO,C,H2Oз. BENZOIN, BENJAMIN, or BENZO'IC GUM, a fragrant resinous substance, formed by the drying of the milky juice of the Benzoin or Benjamin Tree (Styrax, or Lithocarpus Benzoin), a tree of the natural order Styracaceae, and a congener of that which produces STORAX (q. v.), a native of Siam, and of Sumatra and other islands of the Indian Archipelago. The tree grows to nearly two feet in diame ter; the smaller branches are covered with a whitish rusty down; the leaves are oblong, acuminate, and entire, downy and white beneath; the flowers are in compound racemes. B. comes to us in reddishyellow transparent pieces. Different varieties, said to depend upon the age of the trees, are of very different price; the whitest, said to be the produce of the youngest trees, being the best. There is a variety known in commerce as Amygdaloidal Benzoin, which contains whitish almond-like tears diffused through its substance, and is said to be the produce of the younger trees. B. is obtained by making longitudinal or oblique incisions in the stem of the tree; the liquid which exudes soon hardens by BENZOLE-BEOWULF. exposure to the sun and air. B. contains about 10 great power it possesses of dissolving caoutchouc, -14 per cent. of Benzoic Acid (q. v.); the remainder gutta-percha, wax, camphor, and fatty substances. of it is resin. B. is used in perfumery, in pastilles, It is thus of service in removing grease-stains from &c., being very fragrant and aromatic, and yielding woollen or silken articles of clothing. When heated, a pleasant odour when burned. It is therefore it also dissolves sulphur, phosphorus, and iodine. much used as incense in the Greek and Roman B., when acted upon by chlorine, nitric acid, &c., Catholic Churches. Its tincture is prepared by gives rise to a very numerous class of compounds. macerating B. in rectified spirit for seven to fourteen days, and subsequent straining, when the BENZOYLE, HYDRIDE OF, is the volatile or Compound Tincture of Benjamin, Wound Balsam, essential oil belonging to the benzoic series. It is Friar's Balsam, Balsam for Cuts, the Com-represented by the formula CH.02,H, and has mander's Balsam, or Jesuit's Drops, is obtained. been already considered under ALMONDS, VOLATILE It is frequently applied to wounds directly; or still OIL, or ESSENTIAL OIL of (q. v.). better, when the edges of the wound are brought together, and bound with lint or plaster, the tinc ture of B. may be used as an exterior varnish. In the preparation of Court-plaster, sarcenet (generally coloured black) is brushed over with a solution of isinglass, then a coating of the alcoholic solution of benzoin. The tincture is likewise employed in making up a cosmetic styled Virgin's Milk, in the proportion of two drachms of the tincture to one pint of rose-water; and otherwise it is used in the preparation of soaps and washes, to the latter of which it imparts a milk-white colour, and a smell resembling that of vanilla. B. possesses stimulant properties, and is sometimes used in medicine, particularly in chronic pulmonary affections. It may be partaken of most pleasantly when beaten up with mucilage and sugar or yolk of egg. The name Asa dulcis (q. v.) has sometimes been given to it, although it is not the substance to which that name seems properly to have belonged.-The milky juice of Terminalia Benzoin, a tree of the natural order Combretacea, becomes, on drying, a fragrant resinous substance resembling B., which is used as incense in the churches of the Mauritius. It was at one time erroneously supposed that B. was the produce of Benzoin odoriferum, formerly Laurus Benzoin, a deciduous shrub, of the natural order Lauracea, a native of Virginia, about 10-12 feet high, with large, somewhat wedge-shaped, entire leaves, which still bears in America the name of Benzoin, or Benjamin Tree, and is also called SpiceFood or Fever-bush. It has a highly aromatic bark, which is stimulant and tonic, and which is much used in North America in intermittent fevers. The berries are also aromatic and stimulant, and are said to have been used in the United States during the war with Britain as a substitute for pimento or allspice. An infusion of the twigs acts as a vermifuge. BEOWULF, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, which is one of the greatest literary and philological curiosities, and one of the most remarkable historical monuments in existence. The date of the events described is probably about the middle of the 5th c.; and as the legends refer to the Teutonic races which afterwards peopled England, it is believed that the poem, in its original shape, was brought by the Anglo-Saxons from their original seats on the continent. Only one MS. of the poem is known to exist; that, namely, in the Cottonian Library, which was seriously injured by the fire of 1731. This MS. consists of two portions, written at different times and by different hands, and is manifestly a copy, executed perhaps about the beginning of the 8th c., from an older and far completer version of the poem. But, even in the form in which it came from the hands of its last recaster, B. is the oldest monument of considerable size of German national poetry, and notwithstanding the Christian allusions which fix the exising text at a period subsequent to 597 A.D., a general heathen character pervades it, which leaves little doubt as to the authentic nature of the pictures which it presents of Teutonic life in ante-Christian times. Much learned labour has been bestowed on this strange relic, chiefly by Mr. Kemble, of whose beautiful edition, published by Pickering in 1833, and dedicated to James Grimm, the celebrated Teutonic scholar, as also of his subsequent translation and second preface, we shall avail ourselves in the following sketch. At first Mr. Kemble was disposed to regard B. as an historical epic, but his view of it latterly came to be, that though to some extent historical, it must be regarded, in so far as the legends are concerned, as mainly mythological; and this remark he conceived to apply to the hero not less than to the incidents related. But Beowulf, the god, if such he was, BE'NZOLE, BENZINE, or PHENE, is a com- occupies only a small space in the poem, and seems pound of carbon and hydrogen (C12H.), formed to be introduced chiefly for the purpose of conduring the destructive distillation of coal (see necting Hrothgar, king of Denmark, whom Beowulf, COAL-GAS), and found dissolved in the naphtha the hero, comes to deliver from the attacks of the which is condensed from the vapours evolved from monster Grendel, with Seef or Sceaf, one of the the gas retort. It may be prepared from coal-tar ancestors of Woden, and the common father of the naphtha by subjecting the tar to a temperature whole mythical gods and heroes of the north. Sceaf of 32° F., when the B. solidifies, while the other is traditionally reported to have been set afloat as a naphtha constituents remain liquid. Two gallons of child on the waters, in a small boat or ark, having the naphtha yield a pint of pure rectified benzole. a sheaf (Ang.-Sax. sceaf) of corn under his head; It can also be obtained (1) by subjecting oil-gas whence his name. The child was carried to the to a pressure of 30 atmospheres; (2), by the dry dis- shore of Sleswig, and being regarded as a prodigy, tillation of kinic acid (q. v.); and (3) by cautiously was educated and brought up as king. Between heating a mixture of one part of benzoic acid and Sceaf and Beowulf, Seyld intervened, according to three parts of quick-lime, when the material which the opening canto of the poem but when compared distils over is impure benzole. At ordinary tem- with kindred traditions, the whole genealogy becomes peratures, B. is a thin, limpid, colourless liquid, involved in extreme obscurity, and Seyld seems evolving a characteristic and pleasant odour. At sometimes to be identified with Sceaf, and some$2 F., it crystallises in beautful fern-like forms, times with Woden. But the view of the connection which liquefy at 40°; and at 177°, it boils, evolv-between Beowulf and Sceaf is strengthened by ing a gas which is very inflammable, burning with the following considerations. The old Saxons, and a smoky flame. It readily dissolves in alcohol, most likely the other conterminal tribes, called their ether, turpentine, and wood-spirit, but is insoluble harvest month (probably part of August and Sepin water. It is valuable to the chemist from the tember) by the name Beo or Bewod, in all probability BEOWULF-BEQUEATH. their god of agriculture or fertility. Whether, permitted to dwell in tranquillity. The grim or to what extent, this divinity is identical with stranger Grendel, almighty haunter of the marshes, the mythical hero of the poem, Mr. Kemble does one that held the moors, fen and fastness, the dwellnot venture to determine, though he indicates a ings of the monster race,' and who seems to be a strong leaning to the affirmative; and the identity sort of combination of the man and the monster, of the hero of a later tradition with the divinity of whose cursed hide recketh not of weapons,' could an earlier one, as a subsequent translator (Wacker- not endure every day to hear joy loud in the hall.' barth) remarks, need not surprise us when we con-He the Grendel set off then, after night was come, sider, that it is the usual course, where one religion to visit the lofty house, to see how the Ring-Danes supersedes another, for the gods of the abandoned had ordered it, after the service of beer. He found system to descend gradually in that which follows, first, into demi-gods or supernatural heroes, and at last into mere traditionary heroes. But in so far as the main points of historical interest are concerned-viz., the date of the legions, and the race and regions to which they belong-the results of the historical and of the mythological view seem to be pretty nearly the same. The poem falls entirely out of the circle of the Northern Sagas, and probably belongs to Sleswig. All the proper names are Anglo-Saxon in form, but not the slightest mention is made of Britain, the Ongle mentioned being manifestly Angeln (see ANGLES), and not Anglia. From these and many other considerations, the learned editor infers that B. records the mythical beliefs of our forefathers; and in so far as it is historical, commemorates their exploits at a period not far removed in point of time from the coming of Hengest and Horsa, and that in all probability the poem was brought over by some of the AngloSaxons who accompanied Cerdic and Cyneric, 495 A. D. The poem opens with an incident which reminds us of one of the most beautiful of Mr. Tennyson's earlier poems, the Mort d' Arthur, and seems to show a similarity between British and Saxon traditions. We give it in the simple words of Mr. Kemble's prose translation. 'At his appointed time then Scyld departed, very decrepit, to go into the peace of the Lord; they then, his dear comrades, bore him out to the shore of the sea, as he himself requested, and while that he, the friend of the Seyldings, the beloved chieftain, had power with his words; long he owned it! There upon the beach stood the ringed-prowed ship, the vehicle of the noble, shining like ice, and ready to set out. They then laid down the dear prince, the distributer of rings, in the bosom of the ship, the mighty one beside the mast; there was much of treasures, of ornaments, brought from afar. Never heard I of a comelier ship having been adorned with battle-weapons and with war-weeds, with bills and mailed coats. Upon his bosom lay a multitude of treasures which were to depart afar with him, into the possession of the flood. They furnished him not less with offerings, with mighty wealth, than those had done who in the beginning sent him forth in his wretchedness, alone over the waves. Moreover they set up for him a golden ensign, high over head; they let the deep-sea bear him; they gave him to the ocean. Sad was their spirit, mournful their mood. Men know not in sooth to say (men wise of counsel, or any men under the heavens) who received the freight.' The poem, still keeping to the royal house of Denmark, goes on to narrate that Scyld is succeeded by B. (the elder), who is followed by Healfdene and his four children, of whom the second, Hrothgar, becomes king. 'There was success in arms given to Hrothgar, the dignity of war; so that his dear relations gladly obeyed him, until the young people waxed a mighty kindred band.' Hrothgar builds a magnificent palace, called Heorot. Here 'he distributed rings, treasure at the feast; the hall rose aloft, high and curved with pinnacles it awaited the hostile waves of loathed fire.' But Hrothgar is not long then therein a troop of nobles, sleeping after the feast: they knew not sorrow, the wretchedness of men, the knew not aught of misfortune; the grim and greedy one was soon prepared, savage and fierce, and in their sleep he seized upon thirty of the thanes. Thence he again departed, exulting in his prey, to go home, with the carcasses of the slain, to visit his own dwellings.' Similar exploits are repeated, and Healfdene's son is continually seethed in the sorrow of the time;' nor might the prudent hero turn away the ruin, till Hygelac's thane, chief of the Geats, sends his retainers to his aid. The description of the expedition, and of many other parts of this remarkable poem, remind one strongly of Homer; and were we to describe it, we should do so by assigning it a place somewhere between the Iliad and Hiawatha. B. is the leader of this friendly band, and the chief incidents of the poem relate to his encounters, first with Grendel, and afterwards with a dragon. 666 The domestic arrangements which were made for the reception of B. and his companions present a striking, and probably genuine picture of the manners of our ancestors; and convey some information as to a liquor which has not ceased to find favour with their children. Sit now to the feast, and joyfully eat, exulting in victory among my war riors, as thy mind may excite thee." Then was for the sons of the Geats, altogether, a bench cleared in the beer-hall; there the bold of spirit, free from quarrel, went to sit; the thane observed his office, he that in his hand bare the twisted ale-cup; he poured the bright sweet liquor; meanwhile the poet sang serene in Heorot, there was joy of heroes, no little pomp of Danes and Westerns.' Further on there is an interesting description of the Danish queen: There was laughter of heroes, the noise was modulated, words were winsome; Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, went forth; mindful of their races, she, hung round with gold, greeted the men in the hall; and the freeborn lady gave the cup first to the prince of the East Danes; she bad him be blithe at the service of beer, dear to his people. He, the king proud of victory, joyfully received the feast and hall-cup. The lady of the Helmings then went round about every part of young and old; she gave treasure-vessels, until the opportunity occurred, that she, a queen hung round with rings, venerable of mood, bore forth the meadcup to Beowulf. Wise of words, she greeted the Geat, she thanked God because her will was accom❜j plished, that he believed in any earl, as a consolation against the crimes.' It seems strange that beer should be the only drink on so great an occasion, seeing that wine is continually mentioned, and the hall is usually called the Wine Hall. A spirited metrical translation of B., by A. D. Wackerbarth, was published in 1849 (Pickering). BEQUEATH, to leave personal property by will or testament to another. In the case of real estate, the proper term to employ is devise. But although it is usual and safe so to use these words, neither of them is essential to the validity of an English will, but other words, showing clearly the intention of the testator, will suffice. In the Scotch law, the term |