The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 61

BEACHES, RAISED, elevated lands, formerly sea beaches, the result of upheaval, or left high by the recession of the sea, evidenced to be such by the sh.e.l.ls found in them and the nature of the debris.

BEACHY HEAD, a chalk cliff in Suss.e.x, 575 ft. high, projecting into the English Channel; famous for a naval engagement between the allied English and Dutch fleets and those of France, in which the latter were successful.

BEACONSFIELD, capital of the gold-mining district in Tasmania; also a town in Buckinghams.h.i.+re, 10 m. N. of Windsor, from which Benjamin Disraeli took his t.i.tle on his elevation to the peerage.

BEACONSFIELD, BENJAMIN DISRAELI, EARL OF, English novelist and politician, born in London; son of Isaac D'Israeli, litterateur, and thus of Jewish parentage; was baptized at the age of 12; educated under a Unitarian minister; studied law, but did not qualify for practice. His first novel, "Vivian Grey," appeared in 1826, and thereafter, whenever the business of politics left him leisure, he devoted it to fiction.

"Contarini Fleming," "Coningsby," "Tancred," "Lothair," and "Endymion"

are the most important of a brilliant and witty series, in which many prominent personages are represented and satirised under thin disguises.

His endeavours to enter Parliament as a Radical failed twice in 1832; in 1835 he was unsuccessful again as a Tory. His first seat was for Maidstone in 1837; thereafter he represented Shrewsbury and Buckinghams.h.i.+re. For 9 years he was a free-lance in the House, hating the Whigs, and after 1842 leading the Young England party; his onslaught on the Corn Law repeal policy of 1846 made him leader of the Tory Protectionists. He was for a short time Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Derby in 1852, and coolly abandoned Protection. Returning to power with his chief six years later, he introduced a Franchise Bill, the defeat of which threw out the Government. In office a third time in 1866, he carried a democratic Reform Bill, giving household suffrage in boroughs and extending the county franchise. Succeeding Lord Derby in 1868, he was forced to resign soon afterwards. In 1874 he entered his second premiers.h.i.+p. Two years were devoted to home measures, among which were Plimsoll's s.h.i.+pping Act and the abolition of Scottish Church patronage. Then followed a showy foreign policy. The securing of the half of the Suez Ca.n.a.l shares for Britain; the proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India; the support of Constantinople against Russia, afterwards stultified by the Berlin Congress, which he himself attended; the annexation of Cyprus; the Afghan and Zulu wars, were its salient features. Defeated at the polls in 1880 he resigned, and died next year.

A master of epigram and a brilliant debater, he really led his party. He was the opposite in all respects of his protagonist, Mr. Gladstone.

Lacking in zeal, he was yet loyal to England, and a warm personal friend of the Queen (1804-1881).

BEAR, name given in the Stock Exchange to one who contracts to deliver stock at a fixed price on a certain day, in contradistinction from the _bull_, or he who contracts to take it, the interest of the former being that, in the intervening time, the stocks should fall, and that of the latter that they should rise.

BEAR, GREAT. See URSA MAJOR.

BEAM, an ancient prov. of France, fell to the crown with the accession of Henry IV. in 1589; formed a great part of the dep. of Ba.s.ses-Pyrenees, capital Pau.

BEATIFICATION, religious honour allowed by the pope to certain who are not so eminent in sainthood as to ent.i.tle them to canonisation.

BEATON, or BETHUNE, DAVID, cardinal, archbishop of St. Andrews, and primate of the kingdom, born in Fife; an adviser of James V., twice over amba.s.sador to France; on the death of James secured to himself the chief power in Church and State as Lord High Chancellor and Papal Legate; opposed alliance with England; persecuted the Reformers; condemned George Wishart to the stake, witnessed his sufferings from a window of his castle in St. Andrews, and was a.s.sa.s.sinated within its walls shortly after; with his death ecclesiastical tyranny of that type came to an end in Scotland (1494-1546).

BEATON, JAMES, archbishop of Glasgow and St. Andrews, uncle of the preceding, a prominent figure in the reign of James V.; was partial to affiliation with France, and a persecutor of the Reformers; _d_. 1539.

BEATTIE, JAMES, a poet and essayist, born at Laurencekirk; became professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen; wrote an "Essay on Truth" against Hume; his most admired poem, "The Minstrel," a didactic piece, traces the progress of poetic genius, admitted him to the Johnsonian circle in London, obtained for him the degree of LL.D. from Oxford, and brought him a pension of 200 per annum from the king; died at Aberdeen (1735-1803).

BEATRICE, a beautiful Florentine maiden, Portinari, her family name, for whom Dante conceived an undying affection, and whose image abode with him to the end of his days. She is his guide through Paradise.

BEAU NASH, a swell notability at Bath; died in beggary (1674-1761).

BEAU TIBBS, a character in Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," noted for his finery, vanity, and poverty.

BEAUCAIRE (8), a French town near Avignon, on the Rhone, which it spans with a magnificent bridge; once a great centre of trade, and famous, as it still is, for its annual fair, frequented by merchants from all parts of Europe.

BEAUCHAMP, ALPHONSE DE, a historian, born at Monaco; wrote the "Conquest of Peru," "History of Brazil," &c. (1769-1832).

BEAUCLERK, Henry I. of England, so called from his superior learning.

BEAUCLERK, TOPHAM, a young English n.o.bleman, the only son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, a special favourite of Johnson's, who, when he died, lamented over him, as one whose like the world might seldom see again (1759-1780).

BEAUFORT, DUKE OF, grandson of Henry IV. of France; one of the chiefs of the Fronde; was surnamed Roi des Halles (King of the Market-folk); appointed admiral of France; did good execution against the pirates; pa.s.sed into the service of Venice; was killed at the siege of Candia in 1669.

BEAUFORT, HENRY, cardinal, bishop of Winchester, son of John of Gaunt, learned in canon law, was several times chancellor; took a prominent part in all the political movements of the time, exerted an influence for good on the nation, lent immense sums to Henry V. and Henry VI., also left bequests for charitable uses, and founded the hospital of St. Cross at Winchester (1377-1447).

BEAUHAR'NAIS, ALEXANDRE, VICOMTE DE, born at Martinique, where he married a lady who, afterwards as wife of Napoleon, became the Empress Josephine; accepted and took part in the Revolution; was secretary of the National a.s.sembly; coolly remarked, on the news of the flight of the king, "The king's gone off; let us pa.s.s to the next business of the House"; was convicted of treachery to the cause of the Revolution and put to death; as the father of Hortense, who married Louis, Napoleon's brother, he became grandfather of Napoleon III. (1760-1794).

BEAUHARNAIS, EUGENE DE, son of the preceding and of Josephine, born at Paris, step-son of Napoleon, therefore was made viceroy of Italy; took an active part in the wars of the empire; died at Munich, whither he retired after the fall of Napoleon (1781-1824).

BEAUHARNAIS, HORTENSE EUGENIE, sister of the preceding, ex-queen of Holland; wife of Louis Bonaparte, an ill-starred union; mother of Napoleon III., the youngest of three sons (1783-1837).

BEAUMAR'CHAIS, PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE, a dramatist and pleader of the most versatile, brilliant gifts, and French to the core, born in Paris, son of a watchmaker at Caen; ranks as a comic dramatist next to Moliere; author of "Le Barbier de Seville" (1775), and "Le Mariage de Figaro" (1784), his masterpiece; astonished the world by his conduct of a lawsuit he had, for which "he fought against reporters, parliaments, and princ.i.p.alities, with light banter, clear logic, adroitly, with an inexhaustible toughness of resource, like the skilfullest fencer." He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution, and made sacrifices on its behalf, but narrowly escaped the guillotine; died in distress and poverty. Of the two plays he wrote, Saintsbury says, "The wit is indisputable, but his chansons contain as much wit as the Figaro plays." He made a fortune by speculations in the American war, and lost by others, one of them being the preparation of a sumptuous edition of Voltaire. For the culmination and decline, as well as appreciation, of him, see the "French Revolution," by Carlyle (1732-1799).

BAUMA'RIS, princ.i.p.al town in Anglesea, Wales, on the Menai Strait, near Bangor, a favourite watering-place, with remains of a castle erected by Edward I.

BEAUMONT, CHRISTOPHE DE, archbishop of Paris, born at Perigord, "spent his life in persecuting hysterical Jansenists and incredulous non-confessors"; but scrupled to grant, though he fain would have granted, absolution on his deathbed to the dissolute monarch of France, Louis XV.; issued a charge condemnatory of Rousseau's "emile," which provoked a celebrated letter from Rousseau in reply (1703-1781).

BEAUMONT, FRANCIS, dramatic poet, born in Leicesters.h.i.+re, of a family of good standing; bred for the bar, but devoted to literature; was a friend of Ben Jonson; in conjunction with his friend Fletcher, the composer of a number of plays, about the separate authors.h.i.+p of which there has been much discussion, the dramatic power of which comes far short of that so conspicuous in the plays of their great contemporary Shakespeare, though it is said contemporary criticism gave them the preference (1585-1615).

BEAUMONT, JEAN BAPTISTE eLIE DE, French geologist, born in Calvados; became secretary to the Academy of Sciences; was joint-editor of a geological map of France. He had a theory of his own of the formation of the crust of the earth (1798-1874).

BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT, American Confederate general, born at New Orleans; adopted the cause of the South, and fought in its behalf (1818-1893).

BEAUREPAIRE, a French officer, noted for his n.o.ble defence of Verdun against the Prussians; preferred death by suicide to the dishonour of surrender (1748-1792).

BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC, a Huguenot divine, born at Poitou; fled to Holland on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Berlin, and became a notability in high quarters there; attracted the notice of the young Frederick, the Great that was to be, who sought introduction to him, and the young Frederick "got good conversation out of him"; author of a "History of Manichaeism," praised by Gibbon, and of other books famous in their day, a translation of the New Testament for one (1659-1738).

BEAUTIFUL PARRICIDE, BEATRICE CENCI (q. v.).