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Bache on 7 Jan. 1876. He was a preaclier and public man of strong powers, correct attainment, and cultivated taste; formal and urbane in manner. Among unitarians he represented that conservative school which aims to carry out the principles of Locke's 'Reasonableness of Christianity,' regarding Jesus Christ as the miraculously attested exponent of a pure morality and a simple theology, and the revealer, by his resurrection, of an eternal life. On 23 May 1866 he proposed the embodiment in the constitution of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association of a 'recognition of the special divine mission and authority, as a religious teacher, of Jesus Christ,' which was met by carrying the previous question. A list of twenty-two of his publications (1833-70) is given by J. Gordon, including 'Harmony of Science and Revelation,' 1839; 'Funeral Sermon for J. Kentish,' 1853; 'Exposition of Unitarian Views of Christianity,' 1854; 'Miracles the Credentials of the Christ,' 1863.

[Roll of Students Man. New Coll. 1868; Birm. Daily Gazette, 13 Jan. 1876; Funeral Sermon by John Gordon, 1876; Unitarian Chronicle, 1832; Report of E. and F. Unit. Ass. 1866; Beale's Memorials of Old Meeting Ho. Birm. 1882.]

 BACHE, SARAH (1771?–1844), hymn writer, was born at Bromsgrove, but brought up at Worcester by relatives named Laugher, members of the Rev. T. Belsham s congregation. Rev. Timothy Laugher, of Hackney (d. 1769), was her uncle, and she was a cousin of Joshua Tilt Bache. She removed to Birmingham (before 1791, for she had attended the ministry of Dr. Priestley), and for many years kept the Islington School, in conjunction with a half-sister, Miss Penn. Another half-sister, Anna Penn, married the Rev. Lant Carpenter, LL.D. She was the author of the hymn 'See how he loved, which first appeared in the Exeter collection in 1812, compiled by Dr. Carpenter. She died at Birmingham on 23 July 1844, at. 74.

[Chn. Reformer, 1844, obituary by N. (Rev. John Kentish); Birm. Daily Gazette, 13 Jan. 1876.]

 BACHHOFFNER, GEORGE HENRY (1810–1879), one of the founders of the London Polytechnic Institution, and in his day a well-known and popular lecturer on scientific subjects, was a native of London. It was in 1837 that he, in conjunction with a few others, established the Polytechnic, which was intended for a place of popular instruction, and, indeed, while it was under Bachhoffner's control, sufficiently fulfilled that intention. Here he held the position of principal of the department of natural and experimental philosophy till 1855. Afterwards he became lessee and manager of the Coliseum in the Regent's Park, and there gave lectures similar to the courses he had established at the Polytechnic. In the later part of his life he held a post as registrar of births and deaths in Marvlebone. Bachhoffner was an inventor, and took out several patents for inventions connected with the electric telegraph, gas stoves, oil lamps, &c.

[The above details were communicated by some of Dr. Bachhoffner's relatives.]

 BACK, GEORGE (1796–1878), admiral and Arctic navigator, was born at Stockport, in Cheshire, and entered the navy as midshipman of the Arethusa in 1808. He was present at the destruction of the batteries at Lequeitio, in the north of Spain, and after being repeatedly under fire was, in 1809, taken prisoner by the French at Deba, while on a cutting-out expedition with the Arethusa's boats. The prisoners were sent to St. Sebastian, and Back was small enough to be carried in one of the panniers of a sumpter mule across the Pyrenees. While a prisoner at Verdun, he occupied himself in the study of mathematics, French, and drawing. In the winter of 1813-14 he travelled on foot through a large part of France, and on reaching England was appointed midshipman to the Akbar, and in her served against the French on the North American station. The Akbar was dismasted in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras, and nearly foundered. In 1816 she was paid off, and in 1817 Back was appointed admiralty mate of the Bulwark. Next year he volunteered for service in the Trent, under Franklin, who was then entering on the first modern voyage of discovery in the Spitzbergen seas. Of that voyage his friend — afterwards Admiral — Beechey is the graphic historian. On his return he rejoined the Bulwark, but in the very next year set out with Franklin on his expedition by land to the Coppermine river, the object of which was to determine the latitude and longitude of the northern coast of North America, and the trend of the coast east of the Coppermine. In that terrible expedition it was to Back's dauntless determination that the safety of the survivors was to a great extent due. At Fort Enterprise Franklin sent him back to Fort Providence, and he was in imminent danger of starvation on the way. In five months he travelled 1,204 miles on snow shoes, with no other covering at night in the woods but a blanket and a deerskin, when the ther-