Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/854

836 he became archdeacon of Colchester. Two years later he was raised to the bishopric of Chester, and in that position began his career of incessant labour for the advancement of the church. Many reforms were needed in. the diocese, and the new bishop s energy and ardour succeeded in effecting much, though not without stirring up enemies. In 1828 he was transferred to a wider sphere of activity, being raised to the bishopric of London. This important office he held for eight-and-twenty years, labouring inces santly in a field where unremitting exertion was absolutely necessary. He gave his whole heart to the endeavour to extend the influence and efficiency of the church, and his strenuous activity was not without result. In all political or social movements which concerned the church the bishop took a prominent part. He was noted as being one of the best debaters on the episcopal bench in the House of Lords; lie took a leading position in the action for church reform, which culminated in the Ecclesiastical Commission; and he did much for the extension of the colonial episcopate. His health gave way under his unceasing labours, and in 1856 he was permitted to resign his bishopric, retaining Fulham palace as his residence, along with a pension of XCOOO per annum. He died at Fulham on the 5th August 1857. In private life Elomficld was warm-hearted, genial, and kindly; he was fond of travelling and of intellectual society, in which h? was well qualified to shine. His published works, exclusive of those above mentioned, con- .-sist of charges, sermons, lectures, and pamphlets, and of a Manual of Private and Family Prayers. He was a frequent contributor to the quarterly reviews, chiefly on classical .subjects. An admirable memoir has been published by the bishop s son, Memoirs of Charles James Blomfield, D.D., Bishop of London, with /Selections from his Correspondence, edited by his son, Alfred Blomfield, M.A., (fee., 1863. See also Biber, Bishop Blomfield and his Times, 1857.  BLONDEL,, a Protestant clergyman, distin guished by his proficiency in ecclesiastical and civil history, was born at Chalons -sur-Marne in 1591, and died in 1665. In 1650 he succeeded G. J. Vossius in the professorship of history at Amsterdam. His works were very numerous, and were remarkable even at that period for obscurity of style. The most celebrated of them was the dissertation on Pope Joan, in which he came to the conclusion that the whole story was a mere myth. Considerable Protestant indignation was excited against him on account of this book.  BLOOD. See and.  BLOOD,, generally known by the appellation of Colonel Blood, was a disbanded officer of the Parliamentary army. Bearing a grudge against the duke of Ormond, who had defeated a conspiracy he engaged in to surprise the castle of Dublin, Blood seized the duke one night in his coach in St James s Street, and carried him off a considerable distance, resolving to hang him at Tyburn; but Ormond struggled for his liberty and was rescued by his servants. Soon after, in 1671, Blood formed the design of carrying off the crown and regalia from the Tower, an attempt which very nearly proved successful. He had bound and wounded Edwards, the keeper of the jewel-office, and had escaped out of the Tower with his prey; but he was overtaken and seized, together with some of his associates. One of these was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond, and Blood was immediately concluded to be the ringleader. When questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise, but refused to discover his accomplices. All these extraordinary circumstances induced Charles II. to seek an interview with him, which not only led to his pardon, but to the king s granting him an estate of &amp;lt;500 a year in Ireland, encouraging his attendance about his person, and showing him great favour. He died August 24, 1680.  BLOOMFIELD,, was born of very humble parents at the village of Honington in Suffolk, in 1766. Losing his father at the age of eleven, he was apprenticed to a farmer, and could only cultivate his literary tastes by perusing such books as he could borrow. Thomson seems to have been his favourite author, and The Seasons inspired him with the ambition of being a poet. He came to London, and composed The Farmer s Boy in a garret in Bell Alley. The manuscript fell into the hands of Capel Lofft, who encouraged him to print it, and it suc ceeded so well, that above 26,000 copies of it were sold. His reputation was increased by the appearance of his Rural Tales, Songs and Ballads, Neivs from the Farm, Wild Flowers, and The Banks of the Wye. These are of unequal merit; but all breathe a spirit of purity and enthusiasm for the beauties of nature, that place the name of Bloomfield among the most natural and amiable of our pastoral poets. The extensive sale of The Farmer s Boy and Wild Floivers seems to have done little for the benefit of the poet, who died in poverty at Shefford in Bedford shire in 1823. His Remains in Poetry and Verse, 2 vols., appeared in 1824, and another edition of his poems in 1866. A selection from his correspondence, edited by Hart, appeared in 1871.  BLOUNT,, younger son of Sir Henry Blount, was born at Upper Holloway, April 27, 1654, and died 1693. He gained considerable reputation as a politician and man of letters, but his abilities were not great, and his strength lay in scoffing infidelity. His Anima Mundi, or an Historical Narration of the Opinions of the Ancients con cerning Man s Soul after this Life, according to Unen lightened Nature, gave great offence; and his translation of Philostratus s Life of Apollonius Tyanceus was sup pressed for the flippancy and impertinence of its attacks on revealed religion. A similar work of his, called Great is Diana of the Ephesians, under colour of exposing super stition, struck at revelation. In 1684 he printed a kind of introduction to polite literature, under the title of Janua Scientiarum. His Just Vindication of Learning and of the Liberty of the Press (1 693) is a shameless plagiarism from the Areopagitica. The pamphlet which he sent anonymously to Bohun, the censor, entitled King William and Queen Mary Conquerors, set all London in a flame, and completely attained its object, the ruin of Bohun. Indirectly it had a good result in directing attention to the folly of the cen sorship. After the death of his wife, he proposed to marry her sister, and wrote a letter on that subject with great learning and address; but the archbishop of Canterbury and other divines decided against him, and the lady having therefore refused him, he is said to have shot himself, or, according to Pope s account, to have given himself a mortal wound in the arm. A collected edition of his works was published in 1695 by Gildon, with a life by the editor. See Macaulay, History, iv. 352, syy.; Lechler, Ges. d. Englisch. Deismus, 114-127.  BLOW,, an English musical composer, was born in 1648 at North Collingham in Nottinghamshire. He was educated at the chapel royal, and distinguished him self by his proficiency in music, having composed several anthems at an unusually early age. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the chapel royal, and in 1685 was named one of the private musicians of James II. In 1687 ho became master of the choir of St Paul s Church; in 1695 he was elected organist of St Margaret s, Westminster, and in 1699 composer to the chapel royal. In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of music for one, two, three, and four voices, with a figured-bass accom paniment. Doctor Burney says that in the Amphion 