metallic chemical elements, included in the same sub-group of the
periodic classification as magnesium. It was prepared in the form of its
oxide in 1798 by L.N. Vauquelin (_Ann. de chimie_, 1798, xxvi. p. 155)
from the mineral beryl, and though somewhat rare, is found in many
minerals. It was first obtained, in an impure condition, in 1828 by
A.A.B. Bussy (1794-1882) and F. Wohler by the reduction of the chloride
with potassium, and in 1855 H.J. Debray prepared it, in a compact state,
by reducing the volatilized chloride with melted sodium, in an
atmosphere of hydrogen. L.F. Nilson and O. Pettersson (_Wied. Ann._
1878, iv. p. 554) have also prepared the metal by heating beryllium
potassium fluoride with sodium; P.M. Lebeau (_Comptes rendus_,
1895-1898, vols. 120-127) has obtained it in lustrous hexagonal crystals
by electrolysing the double fluoride of beryllium and sodium or
potassium with an excess of beryllium fluoride. It is a malleable
metal, of specific gravity 1.64 (Nilson and Pettersson) and a specific
heat of 0.4079. Its melting-point is below that of silver. In a fine
state of division it takes fire on heating in air, but is permanent at
ordinary temperatures in oxygen or air; it is readily attacked by
hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but scarcely acted on by nitric acid.
It is also soluble in solutions of the caustic alkalis, with evolution
of hydrogen a behaviour similar to that shown by aluminium. It combines
readily with fluorine, chlorine and bromine, and also with sulphur,
selenium, phosphorus, &c.
Considerable discussion has taken place at different times as to the
position which beryllium should occupy in the periodic classification of
the elements, and as to whether its atomic weight should be 9.1 or
13.65, but the weight of evidence undoubtedly favours its position in
Group II., with an atomic weight 9.1 (O=16) (see Nilson and Pettersson,
_Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1451; 1884, 17, p. 987; B. Brauner, _Berichte_,
1881, 14, p. 53; T. Carnelley, _Journ. of Chem. Soc._, 1879, xxxv. p.
563; 1880, xxxvii., p. 125, and W.N. Hartley, _Journ. of Chem. Soc._,
1883, xliii. p. 316). The specific heat of beryllium has been calculated
by L. Meyer (_Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1780) from the data of L.F. Nilson
and O. Pettersson, and appears to increase rapidly with increasing
temperature, the values obtained being 0.3973 at 20.2 deg. C., 0.4481 at
73.2 deg. C. and 0.5819 at 256.8 deg. C.
Beryllium compounds are almost wholly prepared from beryl. The mineral
is fused with potassium carbonate, and, on cooling, the product is
treated with sulphuric acid, the excess of which is removed by
evaporation; water is then added and the silica is filtered off. On
concentration of the solution, the major portion of the aluminium
present separates as alum, and the mother liquor remaining contains
beryllium and iron sulphates together with a little alum. This is now
treated for some days with a hot concentrated solution of ammonium
carbonate, which precipitates the iron and aluminium but keeps the
beryllium in solution. The iron and aluminium precipitates are
filtered off, and the filtrate boiled, when a basic beryllium
hydroxide containing a little ferric oxide is precipitated. To remove
the iron, the precipitate is again dissolved in ammonium carbonate and
steam is blown through the liquid, when beryllium oxide is
precipitated. This process is repeated several times, and the final
precipitate is dissolved in hydrochloric acid and precipitated by
ammonia, washed and dried. It has also been obtained by J. Gibson
(_Journ. of Chem. Soc._, 1893, lxiii. p. 909) from beryl by conversion
of the beryllium into its fluoride.
Beryllium oxide, beryllia or glucina, BeO, is a very hard white powder
which can be melted and distilled in the electric furnace, when it
condenses in the form of minute hexagonal crystals. After ignition it
dissolves with difficulty in acids. The hydroxide Be(OH)2 separates as
a white bulky precipitate on adding a solution of an alkaline
hydroxide to a soluble beryllium salt; and like those of aluminium and
zinc, this hydroxide is soluble in excess of the alkaline hydroxide,
but is reprecipitated on prolonged boiling. Beryllium chloride BeCl2,
like aluminium chloride, may be prepared by heating a mixture of the
oxide and sugar charcoal in a current of dry chlorine. It is
deliquescent, and readily soluble in water, from which it separates on
concentration in crystals of composition BeCl2.4H2O. Its vapour
density has been determined by Nilson and Pettersson, and corresponds
to the molecular formula BeCl2. The sulphate is obtained by dissolving
the oxide in sulphuric acid; if the solution be not acid, it separates
in pyramidal crystals of composition BeSO4.4H2O, while from an acid
solution of this salt, crystals of composition BeSO4.7H2O are
obtained. Double sulphates of beryllium and the alkali metals are
known, e.g. BeSO4.K2SO4.3H2O as are also many basic sulphates. The
nitrate Be(NO3)2.3H2O is prepared by adding barium nitrate to
beryllium sulphate solution; it crystallizes with difficulty and is
very deliquescent. It readily yields basic salts.
The carbide BeC2 is formed when beryllia and sugar charcoal are heated
together in the electric furnace. Like aluminium carbide it is slowly
decomposed by water with the production of methane. Several basic
carbonates are known, being formed by the addition of beryllium salts
to solutions of the alkaline carbonates; the normal carbonate is
prepared by passing a current of carbon dioxide through water
containing the basic carbonate in suspension, the solution being
filtered and concentrated over sulphuric acid in an atmosphere of
carbon dioxide. The crystals so obtained are very unstable and
decompose rapidly with evolution of carbon dioxide.
Beryllium salts are easily soluble and mostly have a sweetish taste
(hence the name Glucinum (q.v.), from [Greek: glukus], sweet); they
are readily precipitated by alkaline sulphides with formation of the
white hydroxide, and may be distinguished from salts of all other
metals by the solubility of the oxide in ammonium carbonate. Beryllium
is estimated quantitatively by precipitation with ammonia, and
ignition to oxide. Its atomic weight has been determined by L.F.
Nilson and O. Pettersson (_Berichte_, 1880, 13, p. 1451) by analysis
of the sulphate, from which they found the value 9.08, and by G. Kruss
and H. Moraht (_Berichte_, 1890, 23, p. 2556) from the conversion of
the sulphate BeSO4.4H2O into the oxide, from which they obtained the
value 9.05. C.L. Parsons (_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._, 1904, xxvi. p.
721) obtained the values 9.113 from analyses of beryllium
acetonyl-acetate and beryllium basic acetate.
For a bibliography see C.L. Parsons, _The Chemistry and Literature of
Beryllium_ (1909).
BERYLLONITE, a mineral phosphate of beryllium and sodium, NaBePO4, found
as highly complex orthorhombic crystals and as broken fragments in the
disintegrated material of a granitic vein at Stoneham, Maine, where it
is associated with felspar, smoky quartz, beryl and columbite. It was
discovered by Prof. E.S. Dana in 1888, and named beryllonite because it
contains beryllium in large amount. The crystals vary from colourless to
white or pale yellowish, and are transparent with a vitreous lustre;
there is a perfect cleavage in one direction. Hardness 5-1/2-6; specific
gravity 2.845. A few crystals have been cut and faceted, but, as the
refractive index is no higher than that of quartz, they do not make very
brilliant gem-stones.
BERZELIUS, JONS JAKOB (1779-1848), Swedish chemist, was born at
Vafversunda Sorgard, near Linkoping, Sweden, on the 20th (or 29th) of
August 1779. After attending the gymnasium school at Linkoping he went
to Upsala University, where he studied chemistry and medicine, and
graduated as M.D. in 1802. Appointed assistant professor of botany and
pharmacy at Stockholm in the same year, he became full professor in
1807, and from 1815 to 1832 was professor of chemistry in the Caroline
medico-chirurgical institution of that city. The Stockholm Academy of
Sciences elected him a member in 1808, and in 1818 he became its
perpetual secretary. The same year he was ennobled by Charles XIV., who
in 1835 further made him a baron. His death occurred at Stockholm on the
7th of August 1848. During the first few years of his scientific career
Berzelius was mainly engaged on questions of physiological chemistry,
but about 1807 he began to devote himself to what he made the chief
object of his life--the elucidation of the composition of chemical
compounds through study of the law of multiple proportions and the
atomic theory. Perceiving the exact determination of atomic and
molecular weights to be of fundamental importance, he spent ten years in
ascertaining that constant for some two thousand simple and compound
bodies, and the results he published in 1818 attained a remarkable
standard of accuracy, which was still further improved in a second table
that appeared in 1826. He used oxygen--in his view the pivot round which
the whole of chemistry revolves--as the basis of reference for the
atomic weights of other substances, and the data on which he chiefly
relied were the proportions of oxygen in oxygen compounds, the doctrines
of isomorphism, and Gay Lussac's law of volumes. When Volta's discovery
of the electric cell became known, Berzelius, with W. Hisinger
(1766-1852), began experiments on the electrolysis of salt solutions,
ammonia, sulphuric acid, &c., and later this work led him to his
electrochemical theory, a full exposition of which he gave in his memoir
on the _Theory of Chemical Proportions and the Chemical Action of
Electricity_ (1814). This theory was founded on the supposition that the
atoms of the elements are electrically polarized, the positive charge
predominating in some and the negative in others, and from it followed
his dualistic hypothesis, according to which compounds are made up of
two electrically different components. At first this hypothesis was
confined to inorganic chemistry, but subsequently he extended it to
organic compounds, which he saw might similarly be regarded as
containing a group or groups of atoms--a compound radicle--in place of
simple elements. Although his conception of the nature of compound
radicles did not long retain general favour--indeed he himself changed
it more than once--he is entitled to rank as one of the chief founders
of the radicle theory. Another service of the utmost importance which he
rendered to the study of chemistry was in continuing and extending the
efforts of Lavoisier and his associates to establish a convenient system
of chemical nomenclature. By using the initial letters of the Latin
(occasionally Greek) names of the elements as symbols for them, and
adding a small numeral subscript, to show the number of atoms of each
present in a compound, he introduced the present system of chemical
formulation (see CHEMISTRY). Mention should also be made of the numerous
improvements he effected in analytical methods and the technique of the
blowpipe (_Uber die Anwendung des Lothrohrs_, 1820), of his
classification of minerals on a chemical basis, and of many individual
researches such as those on tellurium, selenium, silicon, thorium,
titanium, zirconium and molybdenum, most of which he isolated for the
first time. Apart from his original memoirs, of which he published over
250, mostly in Swedish in the _Transactions_ of the Stockholm Academy,
his remarkable literary activity is attested by his _Lehrbuch der
Chemie_, which went through five editions (first 1803-1818, fifth
1843-1848) and by his _Jahresbericht_ or annual report on the progress
of physics and chemistry, prepared at the instance of the Stockholm
Academy, of which he published 27 vols. (1821-1848).
BES, or BESAS (Egyp. _Bes_ or _Besa_), the Egyptian god of recreation,
represented as a dwarf with large head, goggle eyes, protruding tongue,
shaggy beard, a bushy tail seen between his bow legs hanging down behind
(sometimes clearly as part of a skin girdle) and usually a large crown
of feathers on his head. A Bes-like mask was found by Petrie amongst
remains of the twelfth dynasty, but the earliest occurrence of the god
is in the temple of the queen Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri (c. 1500
B.C.), where he is figured along with the hippopotamus goddess as
present at the queen's birth. His figure is that of a grotesque
mountebank, intended to inspire joy or drive away pain and sorrow, his
hideousness being perhaps supposed actually to scare away the evil
spirits. In his joyous aspect Bes plays the harp or flute, dances, &c.
He is figured on mirrors, ointment vases and other articles of the
toilet. Amulets and ornaments in the form of the figure or mask of Bes
are common after the New Kingdom; he is often associated with children
and with childbirth and is figured in the "birth-houses" devoted to the
cult of the child-god. Perhaps the earliest known instance of his
prominent appearance of large size in the sculptures of the temples is
under Tahraka, at Jebel Barkal, Nubia, at the beginning of the 7th
century B.C. As the protector of children and others he is the enemy of
noxious beasts, such as lions, crocodiles, serpents and scorpions. Large
wooden figures of Bes are generally found to contain the remains of a
human foetus. In the first centuries of our era an oracle of Besas was
consulted at Abydos, where A.H. Sayce has found graffiti concerning him,
and prescriptions exist for consulting Besas in dreams. It has been held
that Bes was of non-Egyptian origin, African, as Wiedemann, or Arabian
or even Babylonian, as W. Max Muller contends; he is sometimes entitled
"coming from the Divine Land" (i.e. the East or Arabia), or "Lord of
Puoni" (Punt), i.e. the African coast of the Red Sea; his effigy occurs
also on Greek coins of Arabia. It is remarkable also that, contrary to
the usual rule, he is commonly represented in Egyptian sculptures and
paintings full faced instead of in profile. But the connexion of the god
with Puoni may have grown out of the fact that dwarf dancers were
especially brought to Egypt from Ethiopia and Puoni.
See K. Sethe in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie, s.v._; A. Wiedemann,
_Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1897), p. 159; E.A.W.
Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. p. 284 (London); W. Max Muller,
_Asien u. Europa_ (Leipzig, 1893), p. 310. (F. Ll. G.)
BESANCON, a city of eastern France, capital of the department of Doubs,
76 m. E. of Dijon by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) town, 41,760;
commune, 56,168. It is situated on the left bank of the river Doubs, 820
ft. above sea-level at the foot of the western Jura, and is enclosed by
hills in every direction. The Doubs almost surrounds the city proper
forming a peninsula, the neck of which is occupied by a height crowned
by the citadel; on the right bank lie populous industrial suburbs. The
river is bordered by fine quays, and in places by the shady promenades
which are a feature of Besancon. On the right bank there is a fine
bathing establishment in the Mouillere quarter, supplied by the saline
springs of Miserey. The cathedral of St Jean, the chief of the numerous
churches of the town, was founded in the 4th century but has often
undergone reconstruction and restoration; it resembles the Rhenish
churches of Germany in the possession of apses at each of its
extremities. Several styles are represented in its architecture which
for the most part is the work of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries; the
eastern apse and the tower date from the reign of Louis XV. In the
interior there are a "Madonna and Child" of Fra Bartolommeo and a number
of other paintings and works of art. The archiepiscopal palace adjoining
the cathedral is a building of the 18th century. The church of Ste.
Madeleine belongs to the 18th and 19th centuries. The Palais de
Granvelle, in the heart of the town, was built from 1534 to 1540 by
Nicolas Perrenot de Granvella, chancellor of Charles V., and is the most
interesting of the secular buildings. It is built round a square
interior court surrounded by arcades, and is occupied by learned
societies. The hotel de ville dates from the 16th century, to which
period many of the old mansions of Besancon also belong. The law-court,
rebuilt in recent times, preserves a Renaissance facade and a fine
audience-hall of the 18th century. Some relics of old military
architecture survive, among them a cylindrical tower of the 15th century
near the Porte Notre-Dame, the southern gate of the city, and the Porte
Rivotte, a gate of the 16th century, flanked by two round towers. The
Roman remains at Besancon are of great archaeological value. Close to
the cathedral there is a triumphal arch decorated with bas-reliefs known
as the Porte Noire, which is generally considered to have been built in
commemoration of the victories of Marcus Aurelius over the Germans in
167. It is in poor preservation and was partly rebuilt in 1820. Remains
of a Roman theatre, of an amphitheatre, of an aqueduct which entered the
town by the Porte Taillee, a gate cut in the rock below the citadel, and
an arch of a former Roman bridge, forming part of the modern bridge, are
also to be seen. Besancon has statues of Victor Hugo and of the Marquis
de Jouffroy d'Abbans (b. 1751), inventor of steam-navigation.
Besancon is important as the seat of an archbishopric, a court of appeal
and a court of assizes, as centre of an _academie_ (educational
division), as seat of a prefect and as headquarters of the VIIth army
corps. It also has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a
chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, an exchange and a
branch of the Bank of France. Its educational establishments include the
university with its faculties of science and letters and a preparatory
school of medicine and pharmacy, an artillery school, the lycee Victor
Hugo for boys, a lycee for girls, an ecclesiastical seminary, training
colleges for teachers, and schools of watch-making, art, music and
dairy-work. The library contains over 130,000 volumes, and the city has
good collections of pictures, antiquities and natural history. The chief
industry of Besancon is watch- and clock-making, introduced from the
district of Neuchatel at the end of the 18th century. It employs about
12,000 workpeople, and produces about three-fourths of the watches sold
in France. Subsidiary industries, such as enamelling, are also
important. The metallurgical works of the _Societe de la Franche-Comte_
are established in the city and there are saw-mills, printing-works,
paper-factories, distilleries, and manufactories of boots and shoes,
machinery, hosiery, leather, elastic fabric, confectionery and
artificial silk. There is trade in agricultural produce, wine, metals,
&c. The canal from the Rhone to the Rhine passes under the citadel by
way of a tunnel, and the port of Besancon has considerable trade in
coal, sand, &c.
As a fortress Besancon forms one of a group which includes Dijon,
Langres and Belfort; these are designed to secure Franche Comte and to
cover a field army operating on the left flank of a German army of
invasion. The citadel occupies the neck of the peninsula upon which the
town stands; along the river bank in a semicircle is the town
_enceinte_, and the suburb of Battant on the right bank of the Doubs is
also "regularly" fortified as a bridge-head. These works, and Forts
Chaudanne and Bregille overlooking the Doubs at the bend, were
constructed prior to 1870. The newer works enclose an area more suited
to the needs of modern warfare: the chain of detached forts along the
ridges of the left bank has a total length of 7-1/2 m., and the centre
of this chain is supported by numerous forts and batteries lying between
it and the citadel. On the other bank Fort Chaudanne is now the
innermost of several forts facing towards the south-west, and the
foremost of these works connects the fortifications of the left bank
with another chain of detached forts on the right bank. The latter
completely encloses a large area of ground in a semicircle of which
Besancon itself is the centre, and the whole of the newer works taken
together form an irregular ellipse of which the major axis, lying
north-east by south-west, is formed by the Doubs.
Besancon is a place of great antiquity. Under the name of Vesontio it
was, in the time of Julius Caesar, the chief town of the Sequani, and in
58 B.C. was occupied by that general. It was a rich and prosperous place
under the Roman emperors, and Marcus Aurelius promoted it to the rank of
a _colonia_ as _Colonia Victrix Sequanorum_. During the succeeding
centuries it was several times destroyed and rebuilt. The archbishopric
dates from the close of the 2nd century, and the archbishops gradually
acquired considerable temporal power. As the capital of the free county
of Burgundy, or Franche-Comte, it was united with the German kingdom
when Frederick I. married Beatrix, daughter of Renaud III., count of
Upper Burgundy. In 1184 Frederick made it a free imperial city, and
about the same time the archbishop obtained the dignity of a prince of
the Empire. It afterwards became detached from the German kingdom, and
during the 14th century came into the possession of the dukes of
Burgundy, from whom it passed to the emperor Maximilian I., and his
grandson Charles V. Cardinal Granvella, who was a native of the city,
became archbishop in 1584, and founded a university which existed until
the French Revolution. After the abdication of Charles V. it came into
the possession of Spain, although it remained formally a portion of the
Empire until its cession at the peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the
17th century it was attacked several times by the French, to whom it was
definitely ceded by the peace of Nijmwegen in 1678. It was then
fortified by the engineer Vauban. Until 1789 it was the seat of a
_parlement_. In 1814 it was invested and bombarded by the Austrians, and
was an important position during the Franco-German War of 1870-71.
See A. Castan, _Besancon et ses environs_ (Besancon, 1887); A.
Guenard, _Besancon, description historique_ (Besancon, 1860).
BESANT, SIR WALTER (1836-1901), English author, was born at Portsmouth,
on the 14th of August 1836, third son of William Besant of that town. He
was educated at King's College, London, and Christ's College, Cambridge,
of which he was a scholar. He graduated in 1859 as 18th wrangler, and
from 1861 to 1867 was senior professor of the Royal College, Mauritius.
From 1868 to 1885 he acted as secretary to the Palestine Exploration
Fund. In 1884 he was mainly instrumental in establishing the Society of
Authors, a trade-union of writers designed for the protection of
literary property, which has rendered great assistance to inexperienced
authors by explaining the principles of literary profit. Of this society
he was chairman from its foundation in 1884 till 1892. He married Mary,
daughter of Mr Eustace Foster-Barham of Bridgwater, and was knighted in
1895. He died at Hampstead, on the 9th of June 1901. Sir Walter Besant
practised many branches of literary art with success, but he is most
widely known for his long succession of novels, many of which have
enjoyed remarkable popularity. His first stories were written in
collaboration with James Rice (q.v.). Two at least of these, _The Golden
Butterfly_ (1876) and _Ready-Money Mortiboy_ (1872), are among the most
vigorous and most characteristic of his works. Though not without
exaggeration and eccentricity, attributable to the influence of Dickens,
they are full of rich humour, shrewd observation and sound common-sense,
and contain characters which have taken their place in the long gallery
of British fiction. After Rice's death, Sir Walter Besant wrote alone,
and in _All Sorts and Conditions of Men_ (1882) produced a stirring
story of East End life in London, which set on foot the movement that
culminated in the establishment of the People's Palace in the Mile End
Road. Though not himself a pioneer in the effort made by Canon Barnett
and others to alleviate the social evils of the East End by the personal
contact of educated men and women of a superior social class, his books
rendered immense service to the movement by popularizing it. His
sympathy with the poor was shown in another attempt to stir public
opinion, this time against the evils of the sweating system, in _The
Children of Gibeon_ (1886).
Other popular novels by him were _Dorothy Forster_ (1884), _Armorel of
Lyonesse_ (1890), and _Beyond the Dreams of Avarice_ (1895). He also
wrote critical and biographical works, including _The French Humorists_
(1873), _Rabelais_ (1879), and lives of Coligny, Whittington, Captain
Cook and Richard Jefferies. Besant undertook a series of important
historical and archaeological volumes, dealing with the associations and
development of the various districts of London--of which the most
important was _A Survey of London_, unfortunately left unfinished, which
was intended to do for modern London what Stow did for the Elizabethan
city. Other books on _London_ (1892), _Westminster_ (1895) and _South
London_ (1899) showed that his mind was full of his subject. No man of
his time evinced a keener interest in the professional side of literary
work, and the improved conditions of the literary career in England were
largely due to his energetic and capable exposition of the commercial
value of authorship and to the unselfish efforts which Sir Walter
constantly made on behalf of his fellow-workers in the field of letters.
See also _Autobiography of Sir Walter Besant_ (1902), with a prefatory
note by S.S. Sprigge; the preface to the library edition (1887) of
_Ready-Money Mortiboy_ contains a history of the literary partnership
of Besant and Rice.
BESENVAL DE BRONSTATT, PIERRE VICTOR, BARON DE (1722-1794), French
soldier, was born at Soleure. He was the son of Jean Victor Besenval,
colonel of the regiment of Swiss guards in the pay of France, who was
charged in 1707 by Louis XIV. with a mission to Sweden, to reconcile
Charles XII. with the tsar Peter the Great, and to unite them in
alliance with France against England. Pierre Victor served at first as
aide-de-camp to Marshal Broglie during the campaign of 1748 in Bohemia,
then as aide-de-camp to the duke of Orleans during the Seven Years' War.
He then became commander of the Swiss Guards. When the Revolution began
Besenval remained firmly attached to the court, and he was given command
of the troops which the king had concentrated on Paris in July 1789--a
movement which led to the taking of the Bastille on the 14th of July.
Besenval showed incompetence in the crisis, and attempted to flee. He
was arrested, tried by the tribunal of the Chatelet, but acquitted. He
then fell into obscurity and died in Paris in 1794. Besenval de
Bronstatt is principally known as the author of _Memoires_, which were
published in 1805-1807 by the vicomte T.A. de Segur, in which are
reported many scandalous tales, true or false, of the court of Louis
XVI. and Marie Antoinette. The authenticity of these memoirs is not
absolutely established.
BESKOW, BERNHARD VON, BARON (1796-1868), Swedish dramatist and
historian, son of a Stockholm merchant, was born on the 19th of April
1796. His vocation for literature was assisted by his tutor, the poet
Johan Magnus Stjernstolpe (1777-1831), whose works he edited. He entered
the civil service in 1814, was ennobled in 1826 and received the title
of baron in 1843. He held high appointments at court, and was, from 1834
onwards, perpetual secretary of the Swedish academy, using his great
influence with tact and generosity. His poetry is over-decorated, and
his plays are grandiose historical poems in dramatic form. Among them
are "Erik XIV." (2 parts, 1826); and four pieces collected (1836-1838)
as _Dramatiska Studier_, the most famous of which is the tragedy of
"Thorkel Knutsson." His works include many academical memoirs, volumes
of poems, philosophy and a valuable historical study, _Om Gustav den
Tredje sasom konung och menniska_ (5 vols. 1860-1869, "Gustavus III. as
king and man"), printed in the transactions of the Swedish Academy
(vols. 32, 34, 37, 42, 44). He died on the 17th of October 1868.
See also a notice by C. D. af Wirsen in his _Lefnadsteckningar_
(Stockholm, 1901).
BESNARD, PAUL ALBERT (1849- ), French painter, was born in Paris and
studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, winning the _Prix de Rome_ in 1874.
Until about 1880 he followed the academic tradition, but then broke away
completely, and devoted himself to the study of colour and light as
conceived by the impressionists. The realism of this group never
appealed to his bold imagination, but he applied their technical method
to ideological and decorative works on a large scale, such as his
frescoes at the Sorbonne, the Ecole de Pharmacie, the Salle des Sciences
at the hotel de ville, the mairie of the first arrondissement, and the
chapel of Berck hospital, for which he painted twelve "Stations of the
Cross" in an entirely modern spirit. A great virtuoso, he achieved
brilliant successes alike in water-colour, pastel, oil and etching, both
in portraiture, in landscape and in decoration. A good example of his
daring unconventionality is his portrait of Madame Rejane; and his close
analysis of light can be studied in his picture "Femme qui se chauffe"
at the Luxembourg in Paris.
BESOM (Old Eng. _besema_, a rod), originally a bundle of rods or twigs,
used for sweeping, &c.; a stiff broom.
BESSARABIA, a government of south-west Russia, separated on the W. and
S. from Moldavia and Walachia by the Pruth, and on the E. and N. from
the Russian governments of Podolia and Kherson by the Dniester; on the
S.E. it is washed by the Black Sea. Area, 17,614 sq. m. The northern
districts are invaded by offshoots of the Carpathians, which reach
altitudes of 800 to 1150 ft., and are cut up by numerous ravines and
river valleys. Here, however, agriculture is the prevailing occupation,
the soil being the fertile black earth. The crops principally raised are
wheat and maize, though here, as well as in other parts of the
government, barley, flax, tobacco, water-melons, gourds, fruit, wine,
saffron and madder are grown. The middle of the government is also hilly
(850-1000 ft.), and is heavily timbered, chiefly with beech, oak and
mountain-ash, and, though to a smaller extent, with birch. The districts
south of the old Roman earthworks which link the Dniester with the Pruth
along the line of the Botna, just south of Bender, consist of level
pasture-land known as the Budjak steppes. Here stock-breeding is the
predominant calling, the people owning large numbers of sheep, cattle
and horses, also goats, pigs and buffaloes. Lagoons fringe the lower
course of the Pruth and the coast of the Black Sea, and marshy ground
exists beside the Reuth and other tributaries of the Dniester. The
climate is rather subject to extremes, the mean temperature for the
year, at Kishinev, being 50 deg. Fahr., of January 27 deg., and of July
72 deg. The rainfall amounts to over 25 in. annually. Salt, saltpetre
and marble are the principal mineral products. Manufacturing industry is
only just beginning, wine-making (17,000,000 gallons annually),
cloth-mills, iron-works, soap-works and tanneries being the principal
branches. Both the Dniester and the Pruth are important waterways
commercially, the former being navigable up to Mogilev and the latter to
Leovo (46 deg. 30' N. lat.). Down the Dniester come timber and wooden
wares from Galicia, and grain and wool from Bessarabia itself. Three
branches of the railway from Odessa to Poland penetrate the government
and proceed towards the Carpathians. The population numbered 988,431 in
1860 and 1,938,326 in 1897, of whom only 302,852 were urban, while
942,179 were women. In 1906 it was estimated at 2,262,400. It consists
of various races, nearly one-half (920,919 in 1897) being Moldavians,
the others Little Russians, Jews (37% in the towns and 12% in the rural
districts), Bulgarians (103,225), Germans (60,206), with some Gypsies
(Zigani), Greeks, Armenians, Tatars and Albanians. The Germans, who form
some thirty prosperous colonies in the Budjak steppes west from
Akkerman, have been settled there since about 1814. The government is
divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which are Akkerman
(pop. 32,470 in 1900), Bender (33,741 in 1900), Byeltsi (18,526 in
1897), Izmail (33,607 in 1900), Khotin (18,126), Kishinev (125,787 in
1900), Orgeyev (13,356), and Soroki (25,523 in 1900). The capital is
Kishinev. Kagul, on the Pruth, and Reni on the Danube (the place to
which Alexander of Bulgaria was carried when kidnapped by the Russians
in 1886), are small, but lively, river-ports.
The original inhabitants were Cimmerians, and after them came Scythians.
During the early centuries of the Christian era Bessarabia, being the
key to one of the approaches towards the Byzantine empire, was invaded
by many successive races. In the 2nd century it was occupied by the
Getae, a Thracian tribe, whom the Roman emperor Trajan conquered in 106;
he then incorporated the region in the province of Dacia. In the
following century the Goths poured into this quarter of the empire, and
in the 5th century it was overrun one after the other by the Huns, the
Avars and the Bulgarians. Then followed in the 7th century the Bessi, a
Thracian tribe, who gave their name to the region, and in the 9th the
Ugrians, that is to say the ancestors of the present Magyars of Hungary,
the country being then known as Atel-kuzu. The Ugrians were forced
farther west by the Turkish tribe of the Petchenegs in the 10th century,
and these were succeeded in the 11th century by the Kumans (Comani) or
Polovtsians, a kindred Turkish stock or federation. In the 13th century
Bessarabia was overrun by the irresistible Mongols under the leadership
of Batu, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. In this century also the Genoese
founded trading factories on the banks of the Dniester. In 1367
Bessarabia was subdued and annexed by the ruling prince of Moldavia.
During the 16th century it was in the possession alternately of the
Turks and the Nogais or Crimean Tatars. From early in the 18th century
it was a bone of contention between the Ottoman Turks and the Russians,
the latter capturing it five times between 1711 and 1812. In the latter
year it was definitely annexed to Russia, and in 1829 its frontier was
pushed southwards so as to include the delta of the Danube. After the
Crimean War, however, Russia ceded to Moldavia not only this later
addition, but also certain districts in the south of the existing
government, amounting altogether to an area of 4250 sq. m. and a
population of 180,000. By the treaty of Berlin (1878) Russia recovered
of this 3580 sq. m., with a population of 127,000.
See Nakko, _History of Bessarabia_, in Russian (1873).
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
BESSARION, JOHANNES, or BASILIUS (c. 1395-1472), titular patriarch of
Constantinople, and one of the illustrious Greek scholars who
contributed to the great revival of letters in the 15th century, was
born at Trebizond, the year of his birth being variously given as 1389,
1395 or 1403. He was educated at Constantinople, and in 1423 went to the
Peloponnese to hear Gemistus Pletho expound the philosophy of Plato. On
entering the order of St Basil, he adopted the name of an old Egyptian
anchorite Bessarion, whose story he has related. In 1437 he was made
archbishop of Nicaea by John VII. Palacologus, whom he accompanied to
Italy in order to bring about a union between the Greek and Latin
churches with the object of obtaining help from the West against the
Turks. The Greeks had bitterly resented his attachment to the party
which saw no difficulty in a reconciliation of the two churches. At the
councils held in Ferrara and Florence Bessarion supported the Roman
church, and gained the favour of Pope Eugenius IV., who invested him
with the rank of cardinal. From that time he resided permanently in
Italy, doing much, by his patronage of learned men, by his collection of
books and manuscripts, and by his own writings, to spread abroad the new
learning. He held in succession the archbishopric of Siponto and the
bishoprics of Sabina and Frascati. In 1463 he received the title of
Latin patriarch of Constantinople; and it was only on account of his
Greek birth that he was not elevated to the papal chair. For five years
(1450-1455) he was legate at Bologna, and he was engaged on embassies to
many foreign princes, among others to Louis XI. of France in 1471.
Vexation at an insult offered him by Louis is said to have hastened his
death, which took place on the 19th of November 1472, at Ravenna.
Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his
translations of Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ and Xenophon's _Memorabilia_,
his most important work is a treatise directed against George of
Trebizond, a violent Aristotelian, entitled _In Calumniatorem Platonis_.
Bessarion, though a Platonist, is not so thoroughgoing in his admiration
as Gemistus Pletho, and rather strives after a reconciliation of the two
philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations of Platonism to the
main questions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension of
speculative thought in the department of theology. His library, which
contained a very extensive collection of Greek MSS., was presented by
him to the senate of Venice, and formed the nucleus of the famous
library of St Mark.
See A.M. Bandini, _De Vita et Rebus Gestis Bessarionis_ (1777); H.
Vast, _Le Cardinal Bessarion_ (1878); E. Legrand, _Bibliographie
Hellenique_ (1885); G. Voigt, _Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen
Altertums_, ii. (1893); on Bessarion at the councils of Ferrara and
Florence, A. Sadov, _Bessarion de Nicee_ (1883); on his philosophy,
monograph by A. Kandelos (in Greek: Athens, 1888); most of his works
are in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, clxi.
BESSBOROUGH, EARLS OF. The Ponsonby family, who have contributed many
conspicuous men to Irish and English public life, trace their descent to
Sir John Ponsonby (d. 1678), of Cumberland, a Commonwealth soldier who
obtained land grants in Ireland. His son William (1657-1724) was created
Baron Bessborough (1721) and Viscount Duncannon (1723), and the latter's
son Brabazon was raised to the earldom of Bessborough in 1739. He was
the father not only of the 2nd earl (1704-1793), but of John Ponsonby
(q.v.), speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The 2nd earl was a
well-known Whig politician, who held various offices of state; and his
son the 3rd earl (1758-1844) was father of the 4th earl (1781-1847),
first commissioner of works in 1831-1834, lord privy seal from 1835 to
1839 and lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1846. He was succeeded by his
three sons, the 5th earl (d. 1880), 6th earl (1815-1895), a famous
cricketer and chairman of the Bessborough commission (1881) to inquire
into the Irish land system, and 7th earl (d. 1906), and the last named
by his son the 8th earl.
BESSEGES, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Gard, on
the Ceze, 20 m. north of Alais by rail. Pop. (1906) 7662. The town is
important for its coal-mines, blast-furnaces and iron-works.
BESSEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1784-1846), German astronomer, was born at
Minden on the 22nd of July 1784. Placed at the age of fifteen in a
counting-house at Bremen, he was impelled by his desire to obtain a
situation as supercargo on a foreign voyage to study navigation,
mathematics and finally astronomy. In 1804 he calculated the orbit of
Halley's comet from observations made in 1607 by Thomas Harriot, and
communicated his results to H.W.M. Olbers, who procured their
publication (_Monatliche Correspondenz_, x. 425), and recommended the
young aspirant in 1805 for the post of assistant in J.H. Schroter's
observatory at Lilienthal. A masterly investigation of the comet of 1807
(Konigsberg, 1810) enhanced his reputation, and the king of Prussia
summoned him, in 1810, to superintend the erection of a new observatory
at Konigsberg, of which he acted as director from its completion in 1813
until his death. In this capacity he inaugurated the modern era of
practical astronomy. For the purpose of improving knowledge of
star-places he reduced James Bradley's Greenwich observations, and
derived from them an invaluable catalogue of 3222 stars, published in
the volume rightly named _Fundamenta Astronomiae_ (1818). In _Tabulae
Regiomontanae_ (1830), he definitively established the uniform system of
reduction still in use. During the years 1821-1833, he observed all
stars to the ninth magnitude in zones extending from -15 deg. to +45
deg. dec., and thus raised the number of those accurately determined to
about 50,000. He corrected the length of the seconds' pendulum in 1826,
in a discussion re-published by H. Bruns in 1889; measured an arc of the
meridian in East Prussia in 1831-1832; and deduced for the earth in 1841
an ellipticity of 1/299. His ascertainment in 1838 (_Astr. Nach._, Nos.
365-366) of a parallax of 0".31 for 61 Cygni was the first authentic
result of the kind published. He announced in 1844 the binary character
of Sirius and Procyon from their disturbed proper motions; and was
preparing to attack the problem solved later by the discovery of
Neptune, when fatal illness intervened. He died at Konigsberg on the
17th of March 1846. Modern astronomy of precision is essentially
Bessel's creation. Apart from the large scope of his activity, he
introduced such important novelties as the effective use of the
heliometer, the correction for personal equation (in 1823), and the
systematic investigation of instrumental errors. He issued 21 volumes of
_Astronomische Beobachtungen auf der Sternwarte zu Konigsberg_
(1815-1844), and a list of his writings drawn up by A.L. Busch appeared
in vol. 24 of the same series. Especial attention should be directed to
his _Astronomische Untersuchungen_ (2 vols. 1841-1842), _Populare
Vorlesungen_ (1848), edited by H.C. Schumacher, and to the important
collection entitled _Abhandlungen_ (4 vols. 1875-1882), issued by R.
Engelmann at Leipzig. His minor treatises numbered over 350. In pure
mathematics he enlarged the resources of analysis by the invention of
Bessel's Functions. He made some preliminary use of these expressions in
1817, in a paper on Kepler's Problem (_Transactions Berlin Academy_,
1816-1817, p. 49), and fully developed them seven years later, for the
purposes of a research into planetary perturbations (_Ibid._ 1824, pp.
1-52).
See also H. Durege, _Bessels Leben und Wirken_ (Zurich, 1861); J.F.
Encke, _Gedachtnissrede auf Bessel_ (Berlin, 1846); C.T. Anger,
_Erinnerung an Bessels Leben und Wirken_ (Danzig, 1845);
_Astronomische Nachrichten_, xxiv. 49, 331 (1846); _Monthly Notices
Roy. Astr. Society_, vii. 199 (1847); _Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie_, ii. 558-567.
BESSEL FUNCTION, a certain mathematical relation between two variables.
The _Bessel function of order m_ satisfies the differential equation
d^2u 1 du / m^2 \
-------- + ----- ------ + ( 1 - ------- ) u = 0,
d[rho]^2 [rho] d[rho] \ [rho]^2 /
and may be expressed as the series
[rho]^m / [rho]^2 [rho]^4 \
------- ( 1 - -------- + ----------------- ... );
2^m.m! \ 2.2m + 2 2.4.2m + 2.2m + 4 /
the function of _zero order_ is deduced by making m=0, and is equivalent
to the series
[rho]^2 [rho]^4
1 - ------- + -------, &c.
2^2 2^2.4^2
O. Schlomilch defines these functions as the coefficients of the power
of t in the expansion of exp 1/2[rho](t - t^(-1)). The symbol generally
adopted to represent these functions is J_m([rho]) where m denotes the
order of the function. These functions are named after Friedrich Wilhelm
Bessel, who in 1817 introduced them in an investigation on Kepler's
Problem. He discussed their properties and constructed tables for their
evaluation. Although Bessel was the first to systematically treat of
these functions, it is to be noted that in 1732 Daniel Bernoulli
obtained the function of zero order as a solution to the problem of the
oscillations of a chain suspended at one end. This problem has been more
fully discussed by Sir A.G. Greenhill. In 1764 Leonhard Euler employed
the functions of both zero and integral orders in an analysis into the
vibrations of a stretched membrane; an investigation which has been
considerably developed by Lord Rayleigh, who has also shown (1878) that
Bessel's functions are particular cases of Laplace's functions. There is
hardly a branch of mathematical physics which is independent of these
functions. Of the many applications we may notice:--Joseph Fourier's
(1824) investigation of the motion of heat in a solid cylinder, a
problem which, with the related one of the flow of electricity, has been
developed by W.E. Weber, G.F. Riemann and S.D. Poisson; the flow of
electromagnetic waves along wires (Sir J.J. Thomson, H. Hertz, O.
Heaviside); the diffraction of light (E. Lommel, Lord Rayleigh, Georg
Wilhelm Struve); the theory of elasticity (A.E. Love, H. Lamb, C. Chree,
Lord Rayleigh); and to hydrodynamics (Lord Kelvin, Sir G. Stokes).
The remarkable connexion between Bessel's functions and spherical
harmonics was established in 1868 by F.G. Mehler, who proved that a
simple relation existed between the function of zero order and the zonal
harmonic of order n. Heinrich Eduard Heine has shown that the functions
of higher orders may be considered as limiting values of the associated
functions; this relation was discussed independently, in 1878, by Lord
Rayleigh.
For the mathematical investigation see SPHERICAL HARMONICS and for
tables see TABLE, MATHEMATICAL.
See A. Gray and G.B. Matthews, _Treatise on Bessel's Functions_
(1895); _Encyclopadie der math. Wissenschaften_; F.W. Bessel,
_Untersuchung des Teils der planetarischen Storungen_ (1824).
BESSEMER, SIR HENRY (1813-1898), English engineer, was born on the 19th
of January 1813, at Charlton, in Hertfordshire. Throughout his life he
was a prolific inventor, but his name is chiefly known in connexion with
the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel, by which it has been
rendered famous throughout the civilized world. Though this process is
now largely supplemented, and even displaced, by various rivals, at the
time it was brought out it was of enormous industrial importance, since
it effected a great cheapening in the price of steel, and led to that
material being widely substituted for others which were inferior in
almost every respect but that of cost. Bessemer's attention was drawn to
the problem of steel manufacture in the course of an attempt to improve
the construction of guns. Coming to the conclusion that if any advance
was to be made in artillery better metal must be available, he
established a small iron-works in St Pancras, and began a series of
experiments. These he carried on for two years before he evolved the
essential idea of his process, which is the decarbonization of cast iron
by forcing a blast of air through the mass of metal when in the molten
condition. The first public announcement of the process was made at the
Cheltenham meeting of the British Association in 1856, and immediately
attracted considerable notice. Many metallurgists were sceptical on
theoretical grounds about his results, and only became convinced when
they saw that his process was really able to convert melted cast iron
into malleable iron in a perfectly fluid state. But though five firms
applied without delay for licences to work under his patents, success
did not at once attend his efforts; indeed, after several ironmasters
had put the process to practical trial and failed to get good results,
it was in danger of being thrust aside and entirely forgotten. Its
author, however, instead of being discouraged by this lack of success,
continued his experiments, and in two years was able to turn out a
product, the quality of which was not inferior to that yielded by the
older methods. But when he now tried to induce makers to take up his
improved system, he met with general rebuffs, and finally was driven to
undertake the exploitation of the process himself. To this end he
erected steelworks in Sheffield, on ground purchased with the help of
friends, and began to manufacture steel. At first the output was
insignificant, but gradually the magnitude of the operations was
enlarged until the competition became effective, and steel traders
generally became aware that the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was
underselling them to the extent of L20 a ton. This argument to the
pocket quickly had its effect, and licences were applied for in such
numbers that, in royalties for the use of his process, Bessemer received
a sum in all considerably exceeding a million sterling.
Of course, patents of such obvious value did not escape criticism, and
invalidity was freely urged against them on various grounds. But
Bessemer was fortunate enough to maintain them intact without
litigation, though he found it advisable to buy up the rights of one
patentee, while in another case he was freed from anxiety by the patent
being allowed to lapse in 1859 through non-payment of fees. At the
outset he had found great difficulty in making steel by his process--in
his first licences to the trade iron alone was mentioned. Experiments he
made with South Wales iron were failures because the product was devoid
of malleability; Mr Goransson, a Swedish ironmaster, using the purer
charcoal pig iron of that country, was the first to make good steel by
the process, and even he was successful only after many attempts. His
results prompted Bessemer to try the purer iron obtained from Cumberland
haematite, but even with this he did not meet with much success, until
Robert Mushet showed that the addition of a certain quantity of
spiegeleisen had the effect of removing the difficulties. Whether or not
Mushet's patents could have been sustained, the value of his procedure
was shown by its general adoption in conjunction with the Bessemer
method of conversion. At the same time it is only fair to say that
whatever may have been the conveniences of Mushet's plan, it was not
absolutely essential; this Bessemer proved in 1865, by exhibiting a
series of samples of steel made by his own process alone. The pecuniary
rewards of Bessemer's great invention came to him with comparative
quickness; but it was not till 1879 that the Royal Society admitted him
as a fellow and the government honoured him with a knighthood. Bessemer
died at Denmark Hill, London, on the 15th of March 1898.
Among Bessemer's numerous other inventions, not one of which attained a
tithe of the success or importance of the steel process, were movable
dies for embossed stamps, a gold paint, sugar machinery, and a ship
which was to save her passengers from the miseries of _mal de mer_. This
last had her saloon mounted in such a way as to be free to swing
relatively to the boat herself, and the idea was that this saloon should
always be maintained steady and level, no matter how rough the sea. For
this purpose hydraulic mechanism of Bessemer's design was arranged under
the control of an attendant, whose duty it was to keep watch on a
spirit-level, and counteract by proper manipulation of the apparatus any
deviation from the horizontal that might manifest itself on the floor of
the saloon owing to the rolling of the vessel. A boat, called the
"Bessemer," was built on this plan in 1875 and put on the cross-Channel
service to Calais, but the mechanism of the swinging saloon was not
found effective in practice and was ultimately removed.
An _Autobiography_ was published in 1905.
BESSEMER, a town of Jefferson county, Alabama, U.S.A., about 12 m. S.W.
of Birmingham, a little N. of the centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 4544;
(1900) 6538, including 3695 negroes; (1910) 10,864. The town is served
by the Alabama Great Southern (Queen & Crescent route), the Louisville &
Nashville, the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham (St Louis & San
Francisco system), the Birmingham Southern, and the Atlanta, Birmingham
& Atlantic railways. Bessemer is situated in the midst of the iron ore
and limestone district of Alabama, in the south part of Jones' Valley
(about 3 m. wide.); to the east is the Red Ore mountain range, rich in
red haematite; to the north-west are the Warrior coalfields; to the
south-west, south and south-east are immense fossiliferous iron ore
seams and the Cahaba coalfields; in the immediate vicinity of the city
are limestone quarries, and about 18 m. north-east are the limestone
kilns of Gate City. Mining, iron smelting and the manufacture of iron
and coke are the chief industries of Bessemer; truck farming is also an
important industry. In 1900 Bessemer was the eighth city of the state in
population, second in amount of capital invested in manufacturing, and
fourth in the value of its manufactured product for the year. Bessemer
was laid out in 1887, and was incorporated in 1889.
BESSIERES, JEAN BAPTISTE, duke of Istria (1768-1813), French marshal,
was born near Cahors in 1768. He served for a short time in the
"Constitutional Guard" of Louis XVI. and as a non-commissioned officer
took part in the war against Spain. In the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees
and in the Army of the Moselle he repeatedly distinguished himself for
valour, and in 1796, as captain, he served in Bonaparte's Italian
campaign. At Roveredo his conduct brought him to his chief's notice, and
after Rivoli he was sent to France to deliver the captured colours to
the Directory. Hastening back to the front, he accompanied Napoleon in
the invasion of Styria in command of the "Guides," who formed the
nucleus of the later Consular and Imperial Guard. As _chef de brigade_
he next served in the Egyptian expedition, and won further distinction
at Acre and Aboukir. Returning to Europe with Napoleon, he was present
at Marengo (1800) as second-in-command of the Consular Guard, and led a
brilliant and successful cavalry charge at the close of the day, though
its effect on the battle was not as decisive as Napoleon pretended.
Promoted general of division in 1802 and marshal of France in 1804, he
made the most famous campaigns of the Grande Armee as colonel-general
of the Guard Cavalry (1805, 1806, 1807). In 1805 he had received the
Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour, and in 1800 was created duke of
Istria. With the outbreak of the Peninsular War, Marshal Bessieres had
his first opportunity of an independent command, and his crushing
victory over the Spaniards at Medina del Rio Seco (1808) justified
Napoleon's choice. When disaster in other parts of the theatre of war
called Napoleon himself to the Peninsula, Bessieres continued to give
the emperor the very greatest assistance in his campaign. In 1809 he was
again with the _Grande Armee_ in the Danube valley. At Essling his
repeated and desperate charges checked the Austrians in the full tide of
their success. At Wagram he had a horse killed under him. Replacing
Bernadotte in the command of the Army of the North, a little later in
the same year, the newly-created duke of Istria successfully opposed the
British Walcheren expedition, and in 1811 he was back again, in a still
more important command, in Spain. As Massena's second-in-command he was
present at the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, but Napoleon never detached
him for very long, and in 1812 he commanded the Guard Cavalry at
Borodino and in the retreat from Moscow. Wherever engaged he won further
distinction, and at the beginning of the 1813 campaign he was appointed
to the command of the whole of Napoleon's cavalry. Three days after the
opening of the campaign, while reconnoitring the defile of
Poserna-Rippach, Bessieres was killed by a musket-ball. Napoleon, who
deeply felt the loss of one of his truest friends and ablest commanders,
protected his children, and his eldest son was made a member of the
Chamber of Peers by Louis XVIII. As a commander, especially of cavalry,
Bessieres left a reputation excelled by very few of Napoleon's marshals,
and his dauntless courage and cool judgment made him a safe leader in
independent command. He was personally beloved to an extraordinary
extent amongst his soldiers, and (unlike most of the French generals of
the time) amongst his opponents. It is said that masses were performed
for his soul by the priests of insurgent Spain, and the king of Saxony
raised a monument to his memory.
His younger brother, BERTRAND, BARON BESSIERES (1773-1855), was a
distinguished divisional leader under Napoleon. After serving with a
good record in Italy, in Egypt and at Hohenlinden, he had a command in
the _Grande Armee_, and in 1808 was sent to Spain. He commanded a
division in Catalonia and played a notable part at the action of Molins
de Rey near Barcelona. Disagreements with his superior, General Duhesme,
led to his resignation, but he subsequently served with Napoleon in all
the later campaigns of the empire. Placed on the retired list by the
Bourbons, his last public act was his defence of the unfortunate Ney.
The rest of his long life was spent in retirement.
BESSUS, satrap of Bactria and Sogdiana under Darius III. In the battle
of Gaugamela (1st of October 331) he commanded the troops of his
satrapy. When Alexander pursued the Persian king on his flight to the
East (summer 330), Bessus with some of the other conspirators deposed
Darius and shortly afterwards killed him. He then tried to organize a
national resistance against the Macedonian conqueror in the eastern
provinces, proclaimed himself king and adopted the name Artaxerxes. But
he was taken prisoner by treachery in the summer of 329. Alexander sent
him to Ecbatana, where he was condemned to death. Before his execution
his nose and ears were cut off, according to the Persian custom; we
learn from the Behistun inscription that Darius I. punished the usurpers
in the same way.
BEST, WILLIAM THOMAS (1826-1897), English organist, the son of a
solicitor, was born at Carlisle on the 13th of August 1826. Having
decided upon a musical career, he received his first instruction from
the cathedral organist. He applied himself especially to Bach's music,
and became a player of great skill. His successive appointments were to
Pembroke chapel, Liverpool, 1840; to a church for the blind, 1847, and
the Liverpool Philharmonic Society, 1848. For a short time (1854-1855)
he was in London at the Panopticon in Leicester Square, the church of St
Martin-in-the-Fields, and Lincoln's Inn chapel. In 1855 he returned to
Liverpool as organist of St George's Hall, where his performances
rapidly became famous throughout England. Ill-health compelled him at
last to retire in 1894. He was engaged as solo organist at all the
Handel festivals at the Crystal Palace, and also as organist at the
Albert Hall, where he inaugurated the great organ in 1871. He had been
in the receipt of a civil list pension of L100 a year since 1880, and in
1890 went to Australia to give organ recitals in the town hall of
Sydney. Best died at Liverpool on the 10th of May 1897.
His command over all the resources of his own instrument was masterly;
his series of Saturday recitals at St George's Hall, carried on for many
years, included the whole field of organ music, and of music that could
be arranged for the organ, ancient and modern; and his performances of
Bach's organ works were particularly fine. His own compositions for the
organ, chiefly comprised in the publication entitled _Organ Pieces for
Church Use_, have a strong and marked individuality. Best, unlike many
soloists, was an all-round musician, and fully acquainted with every
branch of the art. His bust, by Conrad Dressler, has been placed on the
platform in front of the Liverpool organ, as a memorial of his long
series of performances there.
BESTIA, the name of a family in ancient Rome, of which the following
were the most distinguished.
1. LUCIUS CALPURNIUS BESTIA, Roman tribune of the people in 121 B.C.,
consul in 111. Having been appointed to the command of the operations
against Jugurtha, he at first carried on the campaign energetically, but
soon, having been heavily bribed, concluded a disgraceful peace. On his
return to Rome he was brought to trial for his conduct and condemned, in
spite of the efforts of Marcus Scaurus who, though formerly his legate
and equally guilty, was one of the judges. He is probably identical with
the Bestia who encouraged the Italians in their revolt, and went into
exile (90) to avoid punishment under the law of Q. Varius, whereby those
who had secretly or openly aided the Italian allies against Rome were to
be brought to trial (Appian, _Bell. Civ._ i. 37; Val. Max. viii. 6. 4).
Both Cicero and Sallust express a high opinion of Bestia's abilities,
but his love of money demoralized him. He is mentioned in a Carthaginian
inscription as one of a board of three, perhaps an agricultural
commission.
See Sallust, _Jugurtha_; Cicero, _Brutus_, xxxiv. 128; for the general
history, A.H.J. Greenidge, _Hist. of Rome_, vol. i. (1904), pp. 346
foll.
2. LUCIUS CALPURNIUS BESTIA, one of the Catilinarian conspirators,
possibly a grandson of the above. He was tribune elect in 63, and it had
been arranged that, after entering upon his office, he should publicly
accuse Cicero of responsibility for the impending war. This was to be
the signal for the outbreak of revolution. The conspiracy, however, was
put down and Bestia had to content himself with delivering a violent
attack upon the consul on the expiration of his office. This Bestia is
probably not the Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, aedile, and a candidate for
the praetorship in 57. He was accused of bribery during his candidature,
and, in spite of Cicero's defence, was condemned. In 43 he attached
himself to the party of Antony, apparently in the hope of obtaining the
consulship.
Sallust, _Catiline_, xvii. 43; Appian, _Bell. Civ._ ii. 3; Cicero, _Ad
Q. Fr._ ii. 3, 6.
BESTUZHEV-RYUMIN, ALEXIUS PETROVICH, COUNT (1693-1768), grand chancellor
of Russia, the second son of Count Peter Bestuzhev, the early favourite
of the empress Anne, was born at Moscow on the 1st of June 1693.
Educated abroad, with his elder brother Mikhail, at Copenhagen and
Berlin, he especially distinguished himself in languages and the applied
sciences. Peter the Great, in 1712, attached him to Prince Kurakin at
the Utrecht Congress that he might learn diplomacy, and for the same
reason permitted him in 1713 to enter the service of the elector of
Hanover. George I. took him to London in 1714, and sent him to St
Petersburg as his accredited minister with a notification of his
accession. Bestuzhev then returned to England, where he remained four
years. It was the necessary apprenticeship to his brilliant diplomatic
career. His passion for intrigue is curiously illustrated by his letter
to the tsarevich Alexius at Vienna, assuring his "future sovereign" of
his devotion, and representing his sojourn in England as a deliberate
seclusion of a zealous but powerless well-wisher. This extraordinary
indiscretion might well have cost him his life, but the tsarevich
fortunately destroyed the letter.[1] On his return to Russia he served
for two years without any salary as chief gentleman of the Bedchamber at
the court of Anne of Courland, and in 1721 succeeded Vasily Dolgoruki as
Russian minister at Copenhagen. Copenhagen was then a whirlpool of
diplomatic intrigue, for George I. was endeavouring to arm the northern
powers against Peter the Great, and this it was Bestuzhev's mission to
counteract. On the occasion of the peace of Nystad, which terminated the
21 years war between Russia and Sweden, Bestuzhev designed and struck a
commemorative medal with a panegyrical Latin inscription, which so
delighted Peter (then at Derbent) that he sent a letter of thanks
written with his own hand and his portrait set in brilliants. It was at
this time too that the many-sided Alexius invented his famous "drops,"
or _tinctura toniconervina Bestuscheffi_, the recipe of which was stolen
by the French brigadier Lamotte, who made his fortune by introducing it
at the French court, where it was known as _Elixir d'Or_.
The sudden death of Peter the Great seriously injured Bestuzhev's
prospects. For more than ten years he remained at Copenhagen, looking
vainly towards Russia as a sort of promised land from which he was
excluded by enemies or rivals. He rendered some important services,
however, to the empress Anne, for which he was decorated and made a
privy councillor. He also won the favour of Biren, and on the tragic
fall of Artemy Voluinsky in 1739 was summoned home to take his place in
the council. He assisted Biren to obtain the regency in the last days of
the empress Anne, but when his patron fell three weeks later, his own
position became extremely precarious. His chance came when the empress
Elizabeth, immediately after her accession, summoned him back to court,
and appointed him vice-chancellor. For the next twenty years, during a
period of exceptional difficulty, he practically controlled the foreign
policy of Russia. Bestuzhev rightly recognized that, at this time,
France was the natural enemy of Russia. The interests of the two states
in Turkey, Poland and Sweden were diametrically opposed, and Russia
could never hope to be safe from the intrigues of France in these three
borderlands. All the enemies of France were thus necessarily the friends
of Russia, and her friends Russia's enemies. Consequently Great Britain,
and still more Austria, were Russia's natural allies, while the
aggressive and energetic king of Prussia was a danger to be guarded
against. It was, therefore, the policy of Bestuzhev to bring about a
quadruple alliance between Russia, Austria, Great Britain and Saxony, to
counterpoise the Franco-Prussian league. But he was on dangerous ground.
The empress herself was averse from an alliance with Great Britain and
Austria, whose representatives had striven to prevent her accession; and
many of her personal friends, in the pay of France and Prussia, took
part in innumerable conspiracies to overthrow Bestuzhev. Nevertheless,
step by step, Bestuzhev, aided by his elder brother Mikhail, carried out
his policy. On the 11th of December 1742, a defensive alliance was
concluded between Great Britain and Russia. Bestuzhev had previously
rejected with scorn the proposals of the French government to mediate
between Russia and Sweden on the basis of a territorial surrender on the
part of the former; and he conducted the war so vigorously that by the
end of 1742 Sweden lay at the mercy of the empress. At the peace
congress of Abo (January-August 1743) he insisted that the whole of
Finland should be ceded to Russia, by way of completing the testament of
Peter the Great. But the French party contrived to get better terms for
Sweden, by artfully appealing to the empress's fondness for the house of
Holstein. The Swedes, at the desire of Elizabeth, accepted Adolphus
Frederick, duke of Holstein, as their future king, and, in return,
received back Finland, with the exception of a small strip of land up to
the river Kymmene. Nor could Bestuzhev prevent the signing of a
Russo-Prussian defensive alliance (March 1743); but he deprived it of
all political significance by excluding from it the proposed guarantee
of Frederick's Silesian conquests. Moreover, through Bestuzhev's
efforts, the credit of the Prussian king (whom he rightly regarded as
more dangerous than France) at the Russian court fell steadily, and the
vice-chancellor prepared the way for an alliance with Austria by
acceding to the treaty of Breslau (1st of November 1743). A bogus
conspiracy, however, got up by the Holstein faction, aided by France and
Prussia, who persuaded Elizabeth that the Austrian ambassador was
intriguing to replace Ivan VI. on the throne, alienated the empress from
Austria for a time; and Bestuzhev's ruin was regarded as certain when,
in 1743, the French agent, the marquis de La Chetardie, arrived to
reinforce his other enemies. But he found a friend in need in M.L.
Vorontsov, the empress's confidant, who shared his political views.
Still his position was most delicate, especially when the betrothal
between the grand-duke Peter and Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst (afterwards
Catharine II.) was carried through against his will, and Elizabeth of
Holstein, the mother of the bride, arrived in the Prussian interests to
spy upon him. Frederick II., conscious of the instability of his French
ally, was now eager to contract an offensive alliance with Russia; and
the first step to its realization was the overthrow of Bestuzhev, "upon
whom," he wrote to his minister Axel von Mardefeld, "the fate of Prussia
and my own house depends." But Bestuzhev succeeded, at last, in
convincing the empress that Chetardie was an impudent intriguer, and on
the 6th of June 1744, that diplomatist was ordered to quit Russia within
twenty-four hours. Five weeks later Bestuzhev was made grand chancellor
(July 15th). Before the end of the year Elizabeth of Holstein was also
expelled from Russia, and Bestuzhev was supreme.
The attention of European diplomacy at this time was concentrated upon
the king of Prussia, whose insatiable acquisitiveness disturbed all his
neighbours. Bestuzhev's offer, communicated to the British government at
the end of 1745, to attack Prussia if Great Britain would guarantee
subsidies to the amount of some L6,000,000, was rejected as useless now
that Austria and Prussia were coming to terms. Then he turned to
Austria, and on the 22nd of May 1746, an offensive and defensive
alliance was concluded between the two powers manifestly directed
against Prussia. In 1747, alliances were also concluded with Denmark and
the Porte. At the same time Bestuzhev resisted any rapprochement with
France, and severely rebuked the court of Saxony for its intrigues with
that of Versailles. About this time he was hampered by the persistent
opposition of the vice-chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov, formerly his
friend, now his jealous rival, who was secretly supported by Frederick
the Great. In 1748, however, he got rid of him by proving to the empress
that Vorontsov was in the pay of Prussia. The hour of Bestuzhev's
triumph coincided with the peace congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, which
altered the whole situation of European politics and introduced fresh
combinations, the breaking away of Prussia from France and a
rapprochement between England and Prussia, with the inevitable corollary
of an alliance between France and the enemies of Prussia. Bestuzhev's
violent political prejudices at first prevented him from properly
recognizing this change. Passion had always been too large an ingredient
in his diplomacy. His Anglomania also misled him. His enemies, headed by
his elder brother Mikhail and the vice-chancellor Vorontsov, powerless
while his diplomacy was faultless, quickly took advantage of his
mistakes. When, on the 16th of January 1756, the Anglo-Prussian, and on
the 2nd of May the Franco-Austrian alliances were concluded, Vorontsov
advocated the accession of Russia to the latter league, whereas
Bestuzhev insisted on a subsidy treaty with Great Britain. But his
influence was now on the wane. The totally unexpected Anglo-Prussian
alliance had justified the arguments of his enemies that England was
impossible, while his hatred of France prevented him from adopting the
only alternative of an alliance with her. To prevent underground
intrigues, Bestuzhev now proposed the erection of a council of
ministers, to settle all important affairs, and at its first session
(14th-30th of March) an alliance with Austria, France and Poland against
Frederick II. was proposed, though Bestuzhev opposed any composition
with France. He endeavoured to support his failing credit by a secret
alliance with the grand-duchess Catherine, whom he proposed to raise to
the throne instead of her Holstein husband, Peter, from whom Bestuzhev
expected nothing good either for himself or for Russia. The negotiations
were conducted through the Pole Stanislaus Poniatowski. The accession of
Russia to the anti-Prussian coalition (1756) was made over his head, and
the cowardice and incapacity of Bestuzhev's friend, the Russian
commander-in-chief, Stephen Apraksin, after the battle of
Gross-Jagersdorf (1757), was made the pretext for overthrowing the
chancellor. His unwillingness to agree to the coalition was magnified
into a determination to defeat it, though it is quite obvious that he
could only gain by the humiliation of Frederick, and nothing was ever
proved against him. Nevertheless he was deprived of the chancellorship
and banished to his estate at Goretovo (April 1759), where he remained
till the accession of Catharine II., who recalled him to court and
created him a field marshal. But he took no leading part in affairs and
died on the 21st of April 1768, the last of his race.
See _The Sbornik of the Russian Historical Society_, vols. 1, 3, 5, 7,
12, 22, 26, 66, 79, 80, 81, 85-86, 91-92, 96, 99, 100, 103 (St
Petersburg, 1870, &c.); _Politische Correspondenz Friedrichs des
Grossen_, vols. 1-21 (Berlin, 1879-1904.); R. Nisbet Bain, _The
Daughter of Peter the Great_ (London, 1899). (R. N. B.)