BELT-BELTEIN. BELT (signifying Girdle), the name given to thing. J. Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, i. 208, 581) two straits, the GREAT and the LITTLE B., which, with the Sound, connect the Baltic with the Catte- | gat. The GREAT B., about 70 miles in length, and varying in breadth from 4 to more than 20 miles, divides the Danish islands, Seeland and Laaland, from Fünen and Langeland. The LITTLE B. divides the island of Fünen from Jütland. It is equal in length to the Great B., but much narrower. Its greatest breadth is about 10 miles, but it gradually narrows towards the north, until at the fort of Frederica it is less than a mile wide; thus the passage from the Cattegat into the Baltic is here easily commanded. Both the Belts are dangerous to navigation, on account of numerous sandbanks and strong currents; and therefore, for large vessels, the passage by the Sound (q. v.) is preferred. BELTEIN, BE'LTANE, BEI'LTINE, or BEA'LTAINN, the name of a heathen festival once common to all the Celtic nations, and traces of which have survived to the present day. The name is derived from tin or teine, fire, and Beal or Beil, the Celtic god of light or Sun-god, a deity mentioned by Ausonius (309–392 A.D.) and Tertullian (who flourished during the first half of the 3d c.), as well as on several ancient inscriptions, as Belenus or Belinus. B. thus means 'Beal's fire,' and belongs to that sun and fire worship which has always been one of the most prominent forms of polytheism. The great festival of this worship among the Celtic nations was held in the beginning of May, but there seems to have been a somewhat similar observance in the beginning of November (the beginning, and the end of summer). On such occasions, all the fires in the district were extinguished (while the system was in full force, even death was the penalty of neglect); the needfire (q. v.) was then kindled with great solemnity, and sacrifices were offered-latterly, perhaps, of animals, but originally, there can be little doubt, of human beings. From this sacrificial fire the domestic hearths were rekindled. The earliest mention of B. is found by Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel in the beginning of the 10th c. A relic of this festival, as practised in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland about the beginning of the 19th c., is thus described: The young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors on the 1st of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly black. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person, who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in rendering the year productive. The devoted person is compelled to leap three times over the flames.' The leaping three times through the fire is clearly a symbolical sacrifice, and there was doubtless a time when the victim was bound on the pile, and burned. See SACRIFICE. It has been usual to identify the worship of the Celtic Beal with that of the Baal (q. v.) or Bel of the Phoenicians and other Semitic nations. It is unnecessary, however, to go beyond the family of nations to which the Celts belong (see ARYANS), in order to find analogies either for the name or the identifies the Celtic Beal not only with the Slavonic Belbog or Bjelbog (in which name the syllable bel or bjel means white, and bog, god), but also with the Scandinavian and Teutonic Balder (q. v.) or Paltar, whose name appears under the form of Baldag (the white or bright day), and who appears to have been also extensively worshipped under the name of Phol or Pol. The universality all over Europe in heathen times of the worship of these personifications of the sun and of light through the kindling of fires and other rites, is testified by the yet surviving practice of periodically lighting bonfires (q. v.). The more marked turning-points of the seasons would naturally determine the times of these festivals. The two solstices at midwinter (see YULE) and midsummer, and the beginning and end of summer, would be among the chief seasons. The periods of observance, which varied, no doubt, originally, more or less in different places, were still further disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. Unable to extirpate these rites, the church sought to Christianise them by associating them with rites of her own, and for this purpose either appointed a church-festival at the time of the heathen one, or endeavoured to shift the time of the heathen observance to that of an already fixed churchfestival. All over the south of Germany, the great bonfire celebration was held at midsummer (Johannisfeuer), [see JOHN'S (ST) EVE]-a relic, probably, of the sun-festival of the summer solstice: throughout the north of Germany, it was held at Easter. It is probable that this fire-festival (Osterfeuer) of Ostara-a principal deity among the Saxons and Angles-had been originally held on the 1st of May, and was shifted so as to coincide with the church-festival now known as Easter (q. v.; see also WALPURGIS-NACHT). The seriousness and enthusiasm with which these observances continued to be celebrated in the 16th and 17th centuries, began afterwards to decline, and the kindling of bonfires has been mostly put down by the governments; the earlier interdicts alleging the unchristian nature of the rites; the later, the danger occasioned to the forests. In Great Britain, St John's Eve was celebrated with bonfires; and Easter had its fire-rites, which, although incorporated in the service of the Roman Catholic Church, were clearly of heathen origin. But the great day for bonfires in the British islands was the 1st of November. Fewer traces of this are found in other countries, and therefore we must look upon it as more peculiarly Celtic. While the May festival of B. was in honour of the sungod, in his character of god of war-who had just put to flight the forces of cold and darkness-the November festival was to celebrate his beneficent influence in producing the fruits which had just been gathered in. Hence it was called Samhtheine (peace-fire). If we may judge from the traces that still remain or have been recorded, the November observances were more of a private nature, every house having its bonfire and its offerings, probably of fruits, concluding with a domestic feast. The B. festival, again, was public, and attended by bloody sacrifices. Although the November bonfires, like B., were probably of Celtic origin, they seem to have been adopted by the inhabitants of the British islands generally. About the end of last century they were still kindled in various parts of England, and to this day (1860), over whole districts of Aberdeenshire, every rural dwelling has its Hallowe'en bonfire lighted at nightfall in an adjoining stubble-field. The Anglo-Saxon population of England had their own characteristic May-day rites; but there 21 BELUGA-BELZONI. exist traces also of the observance among them on that day of rites similar to the Celtic Beltane. An Old Holne Curate,' writing to Notes and Queries in 1853, says: At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the Ploy (play) Field. In the centre of this stands a granite pillar (Menhir) 6 or 7 feet high. On May morning, before daybreak, the young men of the village assemble there, and then proceed to the moor, where they select a ram lamb (doubtless with the consent of the owner), and after running it down, bring it in triumph to the Ploy Field, fasten it to the pillar, cut its throat, and then roast it whole, skin, wool, &c. At midday, a struggle takes place, at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry, in high esteem among the females, the young men sometimes fight their way through the crowd to get a slice for their chosen among the young women, all of whom, in their best dresses, attend the Ram Feast, as it is called. Dancing, wrestling, and other games, assisted by copious libations of cider during the afternoon, prolong the festivity till midnight. The time, the place (looking east), the mystic pillar, and the ram, surely bear some evidence in favour of the Ram Feast being a sacrifice to Baal.' Additional notices of this sun and fire_worship will be found under YULE, CANDLEMAS, LAMMAS, and the other heads referred to in this article. BELU'GA, a genus of Cetacea (q. v.), of the family of Delphinide or Dolphins (q. v.), differing from the rest of that family in the blunt and broad head, which has no produced snout; the smaller number of teeth, the greater part of which often fall out before the animal is far advanced in age; and Beluga. the want of a dorsal fin. The only species found in the northern parts of the world is B. arctica (for which name there are unhappily many synonyms, as B. leucas, &c.), the White Whale and White Fish of whalers, often called by English writers the B., and the Round-headed Cachalot. The form of the B. is remarkably characterised by the softness of all its curves, and adapts it for rapid and graceful movements; its skin is usually of a clear white colour, and not very strong, so that it often fails to retain a harpoon. The B. attains a length of more than thirteen feet. The female brings forth two young ones at a birth, and displays the greatest solicitude for them. The food of the B. consists of fish, in pursuit of which it often ascends rivers to some distance. It is gregarious, and may be seen in herds of forty or fifty, which often gambol around boats; it abounds in most parts of the arctic seas, and sometimes, but not very frequently, visits the British shores. One was killed in the Firth of Forth in 1815, and one in the Medway in 1846. The Greenlanders take the B. with harpoons or with strong nets. Its flesh affords them a valuable supply of food, and is eaten by most of the inhabitants of arctic coasts; it affords also a considerable quantity of the very finest oil, and the skin is made into leather. Some of the internal membranes 22 BELVEDERE (Kochia scoparia, Chenopodium scoparium, or Salsola scoparia), an annual plant of the natural order Chenopodiacea (q. v.), a native of the middle and south of Europe, and of great part of Asia, which has long been very familiar in British gardens as an ornamental annual, not upon account of its flowers, which have no beauty, but of its close, pyramidal, rigid form, and numerous narrow leaves, which make it appear like a miniature It is sometimes called SUMMER cypress-tree. CYPRESS. BELVI'SIA (also called NAPOLEO'NA), a genus of exogenous plants, the type of the natural order Belvisiacea, of which order only a very few species have yet been discovered, natives of the tropical parts of Africa. They are large shrubs, with smooth, simple, leathery leaves. The flowers grow in threes, sessile in the axils of the leaves, and are beautiful and extremely curious. The calyx is a thick, leathery cup, divided into five ovate segments. The corolla consists of three distinct rings; the outer one 5-lobed, and furnished with ribs, by means of which it is strongly plaited, turning back over and hiding the calyx when full blown; the second, a narrow membrane, divided into numerous regular segments like a fringe; the third, an erect cupshaped membrane. The stamens are erect like another cup; the ovary 5-celled, with two ovules in each cell; the style short, thick, and 5-angled, with a broad, flat, 5-angled stigma. The fruit is a soft berry, crowned with the calyx, with large kidneyshaped seeds. The wood is soft, and contains numerous dotted vessels.-The pulp of the fruit of the best known species is mucilaginous and eatable, the rind very full of tannin; the fruit is as large as a pomegranate, and the seeds 1 inch long.-The position of this remarkable order in the botanical system is not yet well determined. Lindley regards it as most nearly allied to Rhizophoracea (Mangroves, q. v.). It is supposed by some that the two inner rings of the corolla should be regarded as sterile stamens, and the place of the order is thus fixed near Barringtoniaceæ (q. v.). BELZO'NI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, the son of a poor barber, was born at Padua in 1778, and was educated at Rome, for the priesthood, but soon displayed a preference for mechanical science, especially hydrau lics; and when the French republican troops took possession of the pontifical city, he quitted his religious studies altogether. About the year 1800, he visited Holland, and in 1803 came to England. For a time he gained a living by exhibiting feats of strength in the theatres. At Astley's, he played the part of Hercules, but he also continued his mechanical studies, and even gave numerous hydraulic representations in the most populous towns of the kingdom. After a sojourn of nine years in England, he went to Spain and Portugal, in his capacity of theatrical athlete. From the peninsula, he passed to Malta, and thence to Egypt in 1815, on the invitation of Mehemet Ali, who wished him to construct a hydraulic machine. After succeeding in BEM-BEMBRIDGE BEDS. BEMBATOO'KA, BAY OF, a safe and commodious bay on the north-west coast of Madagascar, in lat. 16° S., and long. 46° E. Prime bullocks are sold here for less than 10s. each, and are bought extensively by agents of the French government, who have them driven to Fort Dauphin, on Antongil Bay, on the opposite side of the island, where they are killed and cured for the use of the French navy, and for colonial consumption. Rice is also sold very cheap at Bembatooka. Majunga, on the north side of the bay, is an important town, Bembatooka being but a village. this undertaking, he was induced, by the travellers and then made his escape into Turkey, where he Burckhardt and Salt, to direct his attention to embraced, from political motives, the profession of the exploration of Egyptian antiquities. He threw Islam, was raised to the dignity of a pasha, and himself with ardour into his new vocation. He obtained a command in the Turkish army. In removed the colossal bust of the so-called 'Young February 1850, he was sent to Aleppo, where, after Memnon' from the neighbourhood of Thebes to suppressing the sanguinary insurrection of the Arabs Alexandria, and was the first who opened the temple against the Christian population, he died of fever, of Ipsambul. In the valley of the royal graves' December 10, 1850. B. was in private life char-Biban-el-Moluk-near Thebes, he discovered acterised by the benevolence of his disposition, and, several important catacombs containing mummies, as a military leader, was distinguished by courage, and among others, opened, in 1817, the celebrated presence of mind when in extreme danger, and tomb of Psammetichus, from which he removed the remarkable rapidity of movement. splendid sarcophagus, now, along with the 'Young Memnon,' and other results of B.'s labours, in the British Museum. But B.'s greatest undertaking was his opening of the pyramid of Cephren. An attempt made on his life caused his departure from Egypt, but previously he made a journey along the coast of the Red Sea, and another to the Oasis of Siwah, hoping there to find ruins of the temple of Jupiter-Ammon. In the course of his explorations, he discovered the emerald mines of Zubara and the ruins of Berenice, the ancient commercial entrepôt between Europe and India. In September 1819, he returned to Europe, visited his native town, Padua, and enriched it with two Egyptian statues of granite. He also published in London his Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea in search of the ancient Berenice, and another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon (1821, with an atlas of 44 coloured engravings). In 1821, he opened in London an exhibition of his Egyptian antiquities, but soon afterwards undertook a journey to Timbuktu, in Central Africa. At Benin, he was attacked by dysentery, which compelled him to return to Gato, where he died, December 3, 1823. His original drawings of the royal tombs he had opened in Egypt were published by his widow (London, 1829). BEM, JOSEPH, commander of the army in Transylvania during the Hungarian revolution, 1848-9, was born at Tarnov, in Galicia, 1795. After a course of military adventure in Poland, he went to France, where he resided for a considerable time, earning a livelihood by teaching mechanics and mnemonics. In 1848, after failing in an attempt to organise an insurrection in Vienna, he joined the Hungarians, and was intrusted with the command of the army of Transylvania, amounting to 8000-10,000 men. He at first experienced some checks from the Austrian army, but afterwards defeated them at Hermannstadt and the bridge of Piski; and finally succeeded, in March 1849, in driving both them and their allies, the Russians, back into Wallachia. Having thus made himself master of Transylvania, he proposed, by amnesties and general mild rule, to gain the adherence of the German and Slavonian population, especially in Wallachia; but his propositions were not entertained by Kossuth and the Hungarian commissariat. After expelling the troops under Puchner from the Banat, B. returned into Transylvania, where the Russians had defeated the Hungarians. Here he reorganised his forces, and did all that was possible in his circumstances to prevent the union of the Russians with the Austrians, but his efforts were unsuccessful. After failing in an attempt to excite an insurrection in Moldavia, he was defeated in a battle near Schäszburg, where he was opposed to three times the number of his own troops. At Kossuth's request, he now hastened into Hungary, where he took part in the unfortunate battle near Temesvar. Retreating into Transylvania, he here defended himself for some days against a vastly superior force, BEMBE CIDÆ, a family of Hymenopterous insects of the division in which the females are furnished with stings. Along with Sphegida (q. v.), and other nearly allied families, they receive the popular name of Sand-wasps. They very much resemble bees or wasps in general appearance. They of them are remarkable for the odour of roses which are natives of the warmer parts of the world. Some they emit. The females make burrows in sandy banks, in each of which they deposit an egg, and along with it the bodies of a few flies as food for the larva. The B. fly very rapidly, and with a loud buzzing noise. Bembex rostrata is common in the south of Europe. BEMBO, PIETRO, one of the most celebrated Italian scholars of the 16th c., was born in Venice, May 20, 1470; having studied at Padua and Ferrara, he early devoted himself to polite literature. He edited the Italian poems of Petrarch, printed by Aldus, in 1501, and the Terzerime of Dante, 1502. In 1506, he proceeded to the court of Urbino, where he resided until 1512, when he went to Rome, where he was made secretary to Pope Leo X. On the death of that pope, B. returned to Padua, where he became a liberal patron of literature and the arts, as well as a fertile writer himself. In 1529, he accepted the office of historiographer to the republic of Venice, and was also appointed keeper of St Mark's Library. In 1539, B., who had only taken the minor ecclesiastical orders, was unexpectedly presented with a cardinal's hat by Pope Paul III., who afterwards appointed him to the dioceses of Gubbio and Bergamo. He died January 18, 1547. B. united in his character all that is amiable. He was the restorer of good style in both Latin and Italian literature. His taste is said to have been so fastidious with regard to style, that he subjected each of his own writings to forty revisions previous to publication. Some of his writings are marred by the licentiousness of the time. Among his works may be mentioned the Rerum Veneticarum Libri XII. (Venice, 1551), of which he published an Italian edition (Venice, 1552); his Prose, dialogues in which are given the rules of the Tuscan dialect; Gli Asolani, a series of disputations on love, &c.; Rime, a collection of sonnets and canzonets; his Letters, Italian and Latin; and the work, De Virgilii Culice et Terentii Fabulis. His collected works were published at Venice, in 4 vols., 1729. BE'MBRIDGE BEDS are a division of the Upper BEN-BENARES. Eocene strata, resting on the St Helen's, and capped 50 and 92 feet in depth, and in width between 600 by the Hempstead series. They are principally yards and a little more than half a mile. It is in developed in the Isle of Wight. Ed. Forbes, who carefully examined them there, has arranged them in four subdivisions: 1. The upper marls and laminated gray clays, which form the basement bed of the 'black band,' the lowest member of the Hempstead series. They are distinguished by the abundance of Melania turretissima. 2. Unfossiliferous mottled clays, alternating with fossiliferous marls and clays, whose characteristic organisms are Cerithium mutabile and Cyrena pulchra. 3. The oysterbed, consisting of greenish marl, and containing immense quantities of a species of oyster (Ostrea Vectensis), accompanied with Cerithia, Mytili, and other marine mollusca. 4. The Bembridge limestone, generally a compact, pale-yellow, or creamcoloured limestone, but sometimes vesicular and concretionary, and containing occasionally siliceous or cherty bands. This is interstratified with shales and friable marls. All the beds are fossiliferous, containing numerous land and fresh-water shells. One bed is composed almost entirely of the remains of a little globular Paludina. Shells of Lymnea and Planorbis are abundant, and are accompanied with the spirally striated nucules of two species of Chara, water-plants which have been well preserved because of the large quantity of lime which enters into their composition. In this division have been found the mammalian remains of the species of Palæotherium (q. v.) and Anoplotherium (q. v.) which characterise the gypseous deposits of Montmartre; it is consequently considered the British equivalent of these Parisian beds. No marked line of distinction separates this series from the St Helen's beds on which it rests. The contained organisms indicate that both had the same fluvio-marine origin. The maximum thickness of the Bembridge series is 115 feet. BEN, a term of Gaelic origin, prefixed to the names of the principal mountains of Scotland-as Ben Ledi, Ben Lomond, Ben Nevis, &c. It is essentially the same word as the Welsh Pen, the primary signification of which is 'head,' and hence it may be considered as equivalent to mountain summit' or mountain head.' The term Pennine, applied to a division of the Alps, is doubtless derived from the Celtic Pen or Ben; and even the name Apennines is in all probability from the same root. BEN, a Hebrew word signifying 'son,' and forming the first syllable of many names ancient and modern-as Benhadad, Benjamin, Ben Israel, &c. The corresponding Arabic word, Ibn or Ebn, in like manner enters into the composition of a great number of names-as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibnal-Faradhi, Ibn-al-Khatib, &c. Ibn, in some of its construct forms, drops the initial vowel, thus nearly corresponding to the Hebrew-as Jusuf-benYakub (Joseph the son of Jacob). The plural (in the construct form), Beni, is found in the names of many Arab tribes both in Asia and Africa-as Beni Temeem (or Temîm), Beni Selim, Beni Sala, &c.; and sometimes it occurs in the names of places -as Beni Hassan. BEN, OIL OF, a fluid fixed oil, obtained from the seeds of a tree found in India and Arabia, and known as the HORSERADISH TREE (Moringa pterygosperma). The seeds are called BEN NUTS, and are roundish, with three membranous wings. The oil is used by watchmakers, because it does not readily freeze; also by perfumers, as the basis of various scents; and other oils are often adulterated with it. See HORSERADISH TREE. BENA'RES, a city on the left side of the Ganges, which here varies, according to the season, between lat. 25° 17′ N., and long. 83° 4′ E., being 421 miles BENA'RES, the district mentioned in the immediately preceding article. It is under the lieutenantgovernorship of the North-west Provinces, being bounded on the W. and N. by Jounpur; on the E. by Ghazeepore and Shahabad; and on the S. and W. BENATEK-BENCOOLEN. Indies, on the 19th August 1702, he came up with a superior French force under Admiral Dù Casse. For four days he kept up a running-fight with the enemy, almost deserted by the rest of his squadron. On the morning of the 24th, his right leg was smashed by a chain-shot. His officers condoled with him. I had rather have lost them both,' said the sturdy admiral, 'than have seen this dishonour brought upon the English nation. But, hark ye-if another shot should take me off, behave like men, and fight it out!' As soon as his wound was dressed, he was carried to the quarter-deck, and directed the fight while it lasted. The enemy sustained severe loss; but the infamous cowardice of the other captains, who actually refused to obey the admiral's signals, made the contest hopeless, and B. sailed away to Jamaica. He died of his wound on the 4th November. The recusant officers were tried by court-martial, and two captains were shot. B.'s employment of explosive vessels at St Malo, seems to have been an anticipation of Lord Dundonald's method at Basque Roads. by Mirzapore. It extends in N. lat. between 25° 7′ and 25° 32', and in E. long. between 82° 45′ and 83 38'; and thus measuring about 30 miles by about 55, it embraces an area of about 1000 square miles. In 1848, the census gave a population of 741,426, or about 750 to a square mile, the Hindus being 676,050, and all others, 65,376. The district is traversed by the Ganges in a north-east direction for about 45 miles. Besides other rivers, such as the Karamnosa, the Goomtee, and the Burna, and several inferior streams, lakes and tanks are numerous, but small, the largest not exceeding a mile in circuit. The annual rain-fall, though averaging less than in the lower parts of the Ganges, is still considerable, always exceeding 30 inches, and amount ing in 1823 to 89. Considering that the tract is barely beyond the tropics, and but little elevated above the sea, the range of the thermometer is unusually great, being between 45° in January, and 111 in May. The mean temperature is stated at 77°, pretty nearly the middle point between the two extremes. The soil, though here and there sterile, is in general characterised by great fertility, more BENCH, a hall or court where justice is adminparticularly to the left of the Ganges. In the istered. In this sense, however, it has in modern growth of opium, indigo, and sugar-more especially times received a more limited acceptation, signiof the last the district surpasses nearly every other fying the dais or elevated part of a court-room or portion of British India. In fact, the state of agri- chamber where the judges sit to administer the culture is such as may be expected from the density laws. In English courts of justice, this seat is in of the population. The rich fields, the thriving form literally a bench or couch running along one villages, and the luxuriant groves, render the aspect end of the court-room, the number of judges and of the country very delightful; and perhaps the their places on this bench being marked by separate best proof of the presence of industry and civilisa- desks, one for each judge; but in Scotland and tion is the fact, that elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, Ireland, the arrangement is different, the judges in lions, and tigers, which were hunted in 1529, have these countries sitting on chairs placed at a long entirely disappeared. After a Hindu domination, and, as in Scotland, a semicircular, table, which is in according to popular faith, of 2400 years, the district a raised position. The term B. is also applied, by sank under the Mussulman yoke in 1193; and, in way of distinction, to the judges themselves as a the first half of the 16th c., it was annexed by class; thus, we speak of the B. and bar. It has Baber to the Mogul Empire. On the dismember-likewise, popularly and conventionally, an ecclement of that dominion, it fell to the share of the Nawab of Oude, whose grandson, in 1775, ceded it to the East India Company, about ten years after that body had acquired the sovereignty of Bengal. BENA'TEK, a small town of Bohemia, on the right bank of the Iser, a few miles distant from Prague. It is worthy of note as being for a long time the residence of the celebrated astronomer Tycho Brahé. BENBECU'LA, one of the Hebrides or Western Isles of Scotland, between North and South Uist, 20 miles west of Skye, and belonging to Invernessshire. It is 8 miles long, and 8 broad, low and flat, and consists chiefly of bog, sand, and lake, resting on a substratum of gneiss rock, with a very broken coast-line. Pop. 1718, consisting of fishermen and small farmers, who fertilise the soil with the seaweed which is cast ashore on the island. BENBOW, JOHN, a brave English admiral, was born in Shropshire in 1650. He first distinguished himself as captain of a merchantman, in a bloody action with Sallee pirates. He attracted the notice of James II., who gave him a commission in the navy. After the Revolution, he obtained the command of a large ship, and in the course of a few years was made rear-admiral. The high confidence reposed in him by King William is borne in memory by a very bad pun on his name, said to have been perpetrated by the taciturn monarch. Objecting to several names proposed for the command of an expedition, he said: 'No; these are all fresh-water benus, we need another kind of beau: we must send Benbow.' The most memorable of this gallant sailor's exploits was his last, where his stubborn valour contrasted nobly with the dastardly behaviour of his captains. Off St Martha, in the West siastical application, the bishops of the Church of England being, as a body, sometimes designated by it; hence the expression, 'B. of Bishops.' See BANC. BENCH, COMMON, COURT OF. This is a technical name sometimes given to the Court of Common Pleas. See COURTS OF COMMON LAW. BENCH, KING'S, or QUEEN'S, the supreme court of common law in the kingdom. See COURTS OF COMMON LAW. See of King's Bench in the time of Cromwell. BENCH, UPPER, the name given to the Court preceding notice, and CoURTS OF COMMON Law. BE'NCHERS. The governing bodies of the four great Law Societies in England, or Inns of CourtLincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple, and Gray's Inn-are so called. They are generally Queen's counsel or barristers of distinction; and is called, who takes the chair at their corporate they annually elect a president or treasurer, as he meetings, and speaks and acts in their name. See INNS OF COURT. BENCH-WARRANT, is a warrant signed by a superior judge or two justices of the peace, during the assizes or sessions, to apprehend a defendant, against whom a bill of indictment has been found. See WARRANT. BENCOO'LEN, a Dutch establishment on the south-west coast of Sumatra, near the outer entrance of the Strait of Sunda, being in lat. 3° 47′ S., and long. 102° 19′ E. It was founded by the English in 1685; but, in 1825, it was exchanged for the Dutch possessions in the peninsula of Malacca. Its popu lation is said to be about 13,000. Its principal export is pepper; and its external trade is carried on chiefly with Batavia, Bengal, and Holland. |