ing was formerly accustomed to sit in person, and on that account was moved with the ing's household. This was originally the only court in Westminster-hall, and from this it is thought that the courts of common-pleas and exchequer were derived. As the king in person is still presumed in law to sit in this court, though only represented by his judges, it is said to have supreme authority; and the proceedings in it are supposed to be coram ocis, that is, before the king. This court consists of a lord chief justice and three other justices or judges, who are invested with a sovereign jurisdiction over all matters whether of a criminal or public nature. The chief justice has a salary of 55001. a year, and the other judges 24007. each.

All crimes against the public good, though they do not injure any particular person, are under the coguizance of this court; and no private subject can suffer any unlawful violence or injury against his person, liberty, or possessous, but a proper remedy is afforded him here; not only for satisfaction of damages sustuned, but for the punishment of the offender; and wherever this court meets with an offence contrary to the first principles of justice, it asy punish it. It frequently proceeds on indictments found before other courts, and removed by certiorari into this. Persons illegally committed to prison, though by the king and council, or either of the houses of parliament, may be bailed in it; and in some cases even apon legal commitments. Writs of mandamus are issued by this court, for the restoring of officers in corporations, &c. unjustly turned out, and freemen wrongfully disfranchised. The court of king's bench is now divided into a crown side and plea side; the one determining criminal and the other civil causes.

To BENCH. v. a. (from the noun.) 1. To furnish with benches (Dryden). 2. To seat upon a bench (Shakspeare).

BENCHERS, in the inns of court, the senior members of the society, who are invested with the government of the whole.

BENCOOLEN, a fort and town of the island of Sumatra, in the East Indies, whence large quantities of pepper, the produce of the Beighbouring country, are jumported into Europe. The natives are courteous and desirous of trade; but, when offended, are treacherous and revengeful. The air is unwholesome, and the mountains are continually covered with thick heavy clouds, that produce thunder, Ightning, and rain. The fort belongs to the English.

Lat. 3. 49 S. Lon. 102. 5 E. To BEND. v. a. pret and part, pass. bended or leni. (bendan, Saxon.) 1. To make crooked; to crook (Dryden). 2. To direct to a certain point (Fairfax). 3. To apply to a certain purpose (Hooker). 4. To put any thing in order for use (L'Estrange). 5. To incline (Pope). 6. To subdue; to make submissive. 7. To bend the brow. To knit the brow (Camden).

To BEND. v. n.

1. To be incurvated. 2. To lean or jut over (Shakspeare). 3. To re

4. To be

solve; to determine (Addison). submissive; to bow (Isaiah). BEND. s. (from the verb.) 1. Flexure; incurvation (Shakspeare). 2. The crooked timbers which make the ribs or sides of a ship (Skinner).

BEND, in heraldry, one of the nine honourable ordinaries, containing a third part of the field when charged, and a fifth when plain. It is sometimes, like other ordinaries, indented, ingrailed, &c., and is either dexter or sinister.

BEND DEXTER is formed by two lines. drawn from the upper part of the shield on the right, to the lower part of the left, diagonally. It is supposed to represent a shoulder belt, or a scarf, when worn over the shoulder.

BEND SINISTER is that which comes from the left side of the shield to the right; this the French heralds call a barre.

BE'NDABLE. a. (from bend.) That may be incurvated; that may be inclined.

BEʼNDER. s. (from to bend.) 1. The person who bends. 2. The instrument with which any thing is bent (Wilkins).

BENDER, a town of Bessarabia, in European Turkey. To this place Charles XII. king of Sweden retreated, after his defeat by the Russians at Pultowa, in 1709. Here the Turks maintained him for several years, till, refusing to quit their territories, they attacked him, took him prisoner, and removed him to the neighbourhood of Adrianople, where he remained another year, and then returned to his own dominions. Lat. 45. 58 N. Lon. 29. 0 E.

BENDERMASSEN, the capital of a kingdom of the same name in the island of Borneo, in the East Indies. Lat. 2. 40 S. Lon. 113. 50 E.

BENDING, in a general sense, the reducing a straight body into a curve, or giving it a crooked form. The bending of timber-boards, &c. is effected by means of heat, steam, &c., whereby their fibres are so relaxed that they may be bent into any shape that may be required.

BENDING, in the sea-language, the tying two ropes or cables together thus they say, bend the cable, that is, make it fast to the ring of the anchor; bend the saii, make it fast to the yard.

BENDS, in a ship, the same with what are called wails or wales, the outmost timbers of a ship's side, on which the men set their feet in climbing up. They are reckoned from the water, and are called the first, second, or third bend. They are the chief strength of a ship's sides; and have the beams, knees, and foothooks bolted to them.

BENDY, in heraldry, is the field divided into four, six, or more parts, diagonally, and varying in metal and colour.-The general custom of England is to make an even number; but in other countries they regard it not, whether even or odd.

BENE PLACITO. (at pleasure.) A musical expression signifying that the performer is at liberty to exercise his own taste in orna

menting and varying the movement over which it is written.

LENEAPED, among sailors. A ship is said to be beneaped when the water does not flow high enough to bring her off the ground, out of the dock, or over the bar.

1.

BENEATH prep. (benec, Saxon.) Under; lower in place (Prior). 2. Under, as overborn or overwhelmed by some pressure (Dryden). 3. Lower in rank, excellence, or dignity (Locke). 4. Unworthy of; unbeseeming (Atterbury).

BENEATH. ad. 1. In a lower place; under (Amos). 2. Below, as opposed to heaven (Exodus).

BENEDICITE is a name given to the hynn, or song of the three children in the fiery furnace; by reason of its beginning with the words benedicite omnia opera Dominum. BENEDICT (St.), founder of a religious order called by his name. He was born in Italy, about 480, and when very young embraced an ascetic life. Some monks discovered him in his solitary retirement, and chose him for their abbot; but their manners not suiting his notions, he left them, and was followed by a number of persons to whom he gave rules, and in a short time he had twelve monasteries under his direction. About 528 he retired to Mount Cassino, where he founded a monastery, and established an order which has been illustrious for ages. He died between 540 and 550. His Regula Monachorum has been printed several times.

BENEDICTINES, in church history, an order of monks who profess to follow the rules of St. Benedict. In the canon law, they are styled black-friars, from the colour of their habit. The rules of St. Benedict, as observed by the English monks before the dissolution of the monasteries, were as follow: They were obliged to perform their devotions seven times in twenty four hours, the whole circle of which devotions had a respect to the passion and death of Christ; they were obliged always to go two and two together. Every day in Lent they were obliged to fast till six in the evening, and abated of their usual time of sleeping and eating; but they were not allowed to practise any voluntary austerity without leave of their superior: they never conversed in their refectory at meals, but were obliged to attend to the reading of the scriptures: they also slept in the same dormitory, but not two in a bed; they lay in their cloths; for sinall faults they were shut out from meals; for greater, they were debarred religious commerce, and excluded from the chapel; and as to incorrigible offenders, they were excluded from the monasteries. Every monk had two coats, two cowls, a table-book, a knife, a needle, and a handkerchief; and the furniture of their bed was a mat, a blanket, a rug, and a pillow.

There are nuns likewise who follow the rule of St. Benedict; among whom those who call themselves mitigated, cat flesh three times a-week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: the others observe the rule of St. Beue

dict in its rigour, and eat no flesh unless they are out of health.

BENEDICTION, in a general sense, the act of blessing, or giving praise to God, or returning thanks for his favours. Hence also benediction is still applied to the act of saying grace before or after meals. Neither the ancient Jews nor Christians ever ate without a short prayer. The Jews are obliged to rehearse one hundred benedictions per day; of which eighty are to be spoken in the morning. The first treatise of the first order in the Talmud, entitled, Seraim, contains the form and order of the daily benedictions. It was usual to give benediction to travellers on their taking leave; a practice which is still preserved among the monks. Benedictions were likewise given among the ancient Jews as well as Christians, by imposition of hands. And when at length the primitive simplicity of the Christian worship began to give way to ceremony, they added the sign of the cross, which was made with the same hand as before, only elevated, or extended. Hence benediction, in the modern Romish church, is used, in a more particular manner, to denote the sign of the cross made by a bishop, or prelate, as conferring some grace on the people. The custom of receiving benediction, by bowing the head before the bishops, is very ancient; and was so universal, that emperors themselves did not decline this mark of submission.

2.

BENEFACTION. s. (from benefacio, Latin.) 1. The act of couferring a benefit. The benefit conferred (Atterbury).

BENEFACTOR. s. (from benefacio, Lat.) He that confers a benefit (Milton). BENEFACTRESS. s. (from benefactor.) A woman who confers a benefit.

BENEFICE, in middle-age writers, is used for a fee, or an estate in land at first granted for life only: the holders of them swore fcalty to the lord, and served him in the wars.

BENEFICE, in an ecclesiastical sense, a church endowed with a revenue for the performance of divine service; or the revenue itself assigned to an ecclesiastical person, by way of stipend, for the service he is to do that church. All church preferments, except bishoprics, are called benefices; and all bene fices are, by the canonists, sometimes styled dignities; but we now ordinarily distinguish between benefice and dignity; applying dignity to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebendaries; and benefice to parsonages, vicarages, and donatives. Benefices are divided by the canonists into simple and sacerdotal. In the first there is no obligation but to read prayers, sing, &c., such are canonries, chaplainships, chantries, &c. The second are charged with the cure of souls, or the direction and guidance of consciences; such as vicarages, rectories, &c.

Three modes of vacating a benefice are described by the canonists; viz. 1. De jure, when the person enjoying it is guilty of certain crimes expressed in those laws, as heresy, simony, &c. 2. De facto, as well as de jure,

by the natural death or the resignation of the incumbent, which resignation may be either express or tacit, as when he engages in a state, &c. inconsistent with it, as, among the Romanists, by marrying, entering into a religious order, or the like. 3. By the sentence of a judge, by way of punishment for certain crimes, as perjury, concubinage, &c.

Benefices began about 500. The following account of those in England is given as the fact by Dr. Burn, viz. that there are 1071 livings not exceeding 101. per annum; 1407 livings above 107. and not exceeding 20l. per annum; 1126 livings above 201. and not exceeding 30l. per annum; 1049 livings above 301, and not exceeding 401. per annum; 884 livings above 401. and not exceed ing 501. per annum ;-5597 livings under 501. per annum. It must be 500 years before every living can be raised to 601. a-year by queen Anne's bounty, and 339 years before any of them can exceed 501. a year. On the whole, there are above 11,000 church preferments in England, exclusive of bishoprics, deaneries, canonries, prebendaries, priest-vicars, lay-vicars, secondaries, &c. belonging to cathedrals, or choristers, or even curates to well-beneficed clergymen.

BENEFICE IN COMMENDAM is that, the direction and management of which, upon a vacancy, is given or recommended to an ecclesiastic, for a certain time, till he may be conveniently provided for.

BENEFICED. a. (from benefice.) Possessed of a benefice (Ayliffe).

BENEFICENCE. s. (from beneficent.) Active goodness (Dryden).

BENEFICENT. a. (from beneficus, Lat.) Kind; doing good (Hale).

BENEFICIAL. a. (from beneficium, Lat.) 1. Advantageous; conferring benefits; profitable; useful (Tillotson). 2. Helpful; medicinal (Arbuthnot).

BENEFICIALLY. ad. (from beneficial.) Advantageously; helpfully.

BENEFICIALNESS. s. (from beneficial.) Usefulness; profit (Hale).

BENEFICIARII, in Roman antiquity, denote soldiers who attended the chief officers of the army, being exempted from other duty. Beneficiarii were also soldiers discharged froin the military service or duty, and provided with beneficia to subsist on. The word was likewise used to signify those raised to a higher rank by the favour of the magistrates. And again, in middle-age writers, for vassals. BENEFICIARY. a. (from benefice.) Holding something in subordination to another (Bacon).

BENEFICIARY. S. He that is in possession of a benefice (Ayliffe).

BENEFIT. s. (beneficium, Lat.) 1. A kindness; a favour conferred (Milton). 2. Adsantage; profit; use (Wisdom). 3. [In law.] Benefit of clergy is, that a man being found guilty of such felony as this benefit is granted for, is burnt in the hand, and set free, if the

ordinary's commissioner, standing by, do say, Legit ut clericus (Cowell).

To BENEFIT. v. a. (from the noun.) To do good to; to advantage (Arbuthnot). To BENEFIT. v. n. To gain advantage (Milton).

BENE/MPT.a. Named; marked out (Sp.). BENENAIM, or BENETNASCH, in astronomy, a star of the second magnitude, marked in Ursa major.

To BENET. v. a. (from net.) To ensnare (Shakspeare).

BENEVENTO, (Beneventum,) a large and rich city of Naples, in Italy. It is subject to the pope. In the year 1688, it was almost destroyed by an earthquake, when the archbishop, afterwards pope Benedict XIII. was dug out of the ruins alive. He rebuilt the place. Lat. 41. 6 N. Lon. 14. 57 E.

The arch of Trajan, now called the Porta Aurea, forms one of the entrances to the city. This arch, though it appears to great disadvantage from the walls and houses that hem it in on both sides, is in tolerable preservation, and one of the most magnificent remains of Roman grandeur to be met with out of Rome. The architecture and sculpture are both singularly beautiful. This elegant monument was erected in the year of Christ 114, about the commencement of the Parthian war, and after the submission of Decebalus had intitled Trajan to the surname of Dacicus. The order is composite; the materials, white marble; the height, 60 palms; length, 37 and a half; and depth 24. It consists of a single arch, the span of which is 20 palms, the height 35. On each side of it, two fluted columns, upon a joint pedestal, support an entablement and an attic. The intercolumniations and frize are covered with basso relievos, representing the battles and triumph of the Dacian war. In the attic is the inscription. As the sixth year of Trajan's consulate, marked on this arch, is also to be seen on all the milliary columns he erected along his new road to Brundusium, it is probable that the arch was built to commemorate so beneficial an undertaking. Except the old metropolis of the world, no city in Italy can boast of so many remains of ancient sculpture as are to be found in Benevento. Scarce a wall is built of any thing but altars, tombs, columns, and remains of entablatures that have been discovered.

BENEVOLENCE. s.(benevolentia, Latin.) 1. Disposition to do good; kindness (Pope). 2. The good done; the charity given.

:

BENEVOLENCE is used, both in our statutes and chronicles, for a voluntary gratuity given by the subjects to their sovereign, to which each person contributes in proportion to his estate and as benevolences had been extorted under many succeeding princes, without a real and voluntary consent, it was made an article in the petition of right, 3 Car. I., that no man shall be compelled to yield any gift, loan, or benevolence, &c. without common consent by act of parliament.

BENEVOLENCE (Universal), in ethics, denotes a hearty desire of the good of mankind, evidencing itself, as ability and opportunity offer, in the cheerful and diligent practice of whatever may promote the well-being of all. Some philosophists of the present age have disseminated notions on this subject, which appear not only absurd, but dangerous in the extreme: we therefore think it consistent with our duty to the public to lay before them a passage from a very able and eloquent writer, who has combated these pernicious opinions with much success.

"In order to render men benevolent, they must first be made tender: for benevolent affections are not the offspring of reasoning; they result from that culture of the heart, from those early impressions of tenderness, gratitude, and sympathy, which the endearments of domestic life are sure to supply, and for the formation of which it is the best possible school.

"The advocates of infidelity invert this eternal order of nature. Instead of inculcating the private affections as a discipline by which the inind is prepared for those of a more public nature, they set them in direct opposition to each other; they propose to build general benevolence on the destruction of individual tenderness, and to make us love the whole species more, by loving every particular part of it less. In pursuit of this chimerical project, gratitude, humility, conjugal, parental, and filial affection, together with every other social disposition, are reprobated; virtue is limited to a passionate attachment to the general good. Is it not natural to ask, when all the tenderness of life is extinguished, and all the bands of society are untwisted, from whence this ardent affection for the general good is to spring?

"When this savage philosophy has completed its work, when it has taught its disciple to look with perfect indifference on the offspring of his body and the wife of his bosom, to estrange himself from his friends, insult his benefactors, and silence the pleadings of gratitude and pity; will he, by thus divesting himself from all that is human, be better prepared for the disinterested love of his species? Will he become a philanthropist only because he has ceased to be a man? Rather, in this total exemption from all the feelings which humanize and soften, in this chilling frost of universal indifference, may we not be certain selfishness, unmingled and uncontroled, will assume the empire of his heart; and that, under pretence of advancing the general good, an object to which the fancy may give innumerable shapes, he will be prepared for the violation of every duty, and the perpetration of every crime? Extended benevolence is the last and most perfeet fruit of the private affections; so that to expect to reap the former from the extinction of the latter, is to oppose the means to the end; is as absurd as to attempt to reach the summit of the highest mountain, without passing through the intermediate spaces, or to

hope to attain the heights of science by forgetting the first elements of knowledge. These absurdities have sprung, however, in the advocates of infidelity, from an ignorance of human nature, suflicient to disgrace even those who did not style themselves philosophers. Presuming, contrary to the experience of every moment, that the affections are awakened by reasoning, and perceiving that the general good is an incomparably greater object in itself, than the happiness of any limited number of individuals, they inferred nothing more was necessary than to exhibit it in its just dimensions, to draw the affections towards it; as though the fact of the superior populousness of China to Great-Britain needed but to be known, to render us indifferent to our domestic concerns, and lead us to direct all our anxiety to the prosperity of that vast but remote empire.

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It is not the province of reason to awaken new passions, or open new sources of sensibility, but to direct us in the attainment of those objects which nature has already rendered pleasing, or to determine among the interfering inclinations and passions which sway the mind, which are the fittest to be preferred.

Is a regard to the general good then, yon will reply, to be excluded from the motives of action? Nothing is more remote from my intention: but as the nature of this motive has, in my opinion, been much misunderstood by some good men, and abused by others of a different description, to the worst of purposes, permit me to declare, in a few words, what appears to me to be the truth on this subject.

"The welfare of the whole system of being must be allowed to be, in itself, the object of all others the most worthy of being pursued; so that, could the mind distinctly embrace it, and discern at every step what action would infallibly promote it, we should be furnished with a sure criterion of right and wrong, an unerring guide which would supersede the use and necessity of all inferior rules, laws, and principles.

"But this being impossible, since the good of the whole is a motive so loose and indeter minate, and embraces such an infinity of relations, that before we could be certain what action is prescribed, the season of action would be past; to weak, short-sighted mortals, Providence bas assigned a sphere of agency, less grand and extensive indeed, but better suited to their limited powers, by implanting certain affections which it is their duty to cultivate, and suggesting particular rules to which they are bound to conform. By these provisions, the boundaries of virtue are easily ascertained, at the same time that its ultimate object, the good of the whole, is secured; for, since the happiness of the entire system results from the happiness of the several parts, the affections which confine the attention immediately to the latter, conspire in the end to the promotion of the former as the labourer whose industry is limited to the corner of a large building, performs his part towards rearing the structure

much more effectually than if he extended his care to the whole.

"As the interest, however, of any limited number of persons may not only not contribute, but may possibly be directly opposed to the general good; the interest of a family, for example, to that of a province, or, of a nation to that of the world; Providence has so ordered it, that in a well-regulated mind there springs up, as we have already seen, besides particular attachments, an extended regard to the species, whose office is twofold; not to destroy and extinguish the more private affections, which is mental parricide; but first, as far as is consistent with the claims of those who are immediately committed to our care, to do good to all men; secondly, to exercise a jurisdiction and controul over the private affections, so as to prohibit their indulgence, whenever it would be attended with manifest detriment to the whole. Thus every part of our nature is brought into action; all the practical principles of the human heart find an element to move in, each in its different sort and manner, conspiring, without mutual collisions, to maintain the harmony of the world, and the happiness of the universe." (Hall on Modern Infidelity). BENEVOLENT. a. (benevolens, Lat.) Kind; having good-will (Pope).

BENEVOLENTLY. ad. After a benevolent manner.

BENE VOLENTNESS. s. Benevolence. BENEZET (Anthony), an American philanthropist. He was brought up to the business of a cooper, which he forsook, and followed the occupation of a school-master. In 1767 he wrote a Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the British dominions, 8vo. In 1772 he published Some historical accounts of Guinea; with an enquiry into the rise and progress of the slavetrade, its nature, and lamentable effects, 8vo. This amiable man seemed to have nothing at heart but the good of his fellow-creatures; and the last act of his life was taking from his desk six dollars for a poor widow. A fine eulogium was pronounced over his remains by an American officer. "I would rather," says he, "be Anthony Benezet in that coffin, than George Washington with all his fame."

BENFELD, a town of France, in the department of the Lower Rhine, and late province of Alsace. Its fortifications were destroved in consequence of the treaty of Westphalia. It is 12 miles S. W. of Strasburgh. Lat. 48. 24 N. Lon. 7. 45 E.

BENGAL, a country of India, and most easterly of Hindoostan, lying on each side of the Ganges, bounded on the north by the Country of Bootan, on the east by Assam and Meckley, on the south by the sea called the bay of Bengal, and on the west by Bahar and Orissa, extending from 86. to 92. 30 E. lon. and from 26. 40 to 30. N. latitude. Being about 400 miles in length and 300 in breadth. Bengal anciently formed a particular kingdom, aad was sometimes divided into several. It

was united to the Mogul empire by Humaion the third of the Tartar emperors, and afterwards by Eckar, one of his successors, who divided it into 22 districts. It is one of the richest countries of India; the land being wonderfully fertilized by abundant and periodi cal rains, by which the rivers, and especially the Ganges, overflow the country. Silk, cotton, rice, sugar, and pepper, are the principal productions. The English began the commerce in the reign of Elizabeth; but had no regular establishments. Afterwards the great mogul granted them a district of land, on which they erected a factory, buildings, and magazines, from whence they sent their merchandize, of which indigo was the chief, into the interior parts of Hindoostan. They now send cloths, and woollen stuffs, salt, copper, iron, lead, and other merchandizes, which they bring from Europe, and purchase thence Indian linen, silks, stuffs, dimities, raw silk, drugs, saltpetre, diamonds, and other articles, which load the vessels for the return. A principal article, also, in the Indian trade is opium. Cotton is brought from Bombay and Surat to Bengal; and pepper is carried from Bengal to China. The whole country now belongs to the English East India company, and together with the country of Bahar, produces a neat annual revenue of 1,290,000l. The English East-India company exercise the sovereignty, make laws, establish tribunals, and govern the whole with an unlimited authority. Calcutta is the capital. The principal rivers are the Ganges, Burrampooter, Dummooder, Coosy, and Sanpou or Teesta.

and

As this country lies near the torrid zone, in the middle of a very extensive continent, it is sometimes subject to such extremes of heat as render it very fatal to European constitutions. Dr. Lind is of opinion, that the climate of Bengal is the most dangerous in this respect of any of the English territories, excepting Bencoolen on the coast of Sumatra. Part of this unhealthiness arises from the mere circumstance of heat; for in all the southern parts of India, when the wind blows over land, it is so extremely hot and suffocating as scarcely to be borne. Here, when the air is clear, the sunbeams are much more powerful than in our climate, insomuch that the light at noon-day is too powerful for the eyes to bear; and the large stars, as Venus and Jupiter, shine with a surprising lustre. Thus the reflection of the sun-beams from the earth must necessarily occasion an extraordinary degree of heat in the atmosphere; so that from the winds abovementioned very great inconveniences sometimes arise, similar to those which are occasioned by the harmattan in Africa. Mr. Ives tells us, that it is affirmed they will snap glass if it be too much exposed to them; he has seen the veneering stripped off from a chest of drawers by their means; and they will certainly crack and chap almost every piece of wood that is not well seasoned. In certain places they are so loaded with sand, that the horizon appears quite hazy where they blow, and it is almost