Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/542

BEN popular style, and containing much interesting information upon the natural history of the animals mentioned, with pleasing anecdotes of their behaviour in confinement. He also prepared an edition of White's Natural History of Selborne, with numerous notes, which was published soon after his death.—W. S. D.  BENNETT or BENETT,, earl of Arlington, an eminent statesman of the reign of Charles II., was born in the year 1618, and distinguished himself at Christ church in the university of Oxford. When the civil war broke out, he was signalized in the royal cause as a wit, a soldier, and a statesman. During the troubles of the rebellion, he retired to France, and afterwards to Italy, while he was trusted by King Charles II., the duke of York, and the royal family, as a faithful servant and able minister. He next managed his master's affairs at the court of Madrid. Upon the restoration, he was created baron of Arlington, in the county of Middlesex, and looked upon as an influential minister of state. He is generally considered the head of the party against the great chancellor. Lord Clarendon; but that earl, who corrected his history when an exile at Rouen, speaks respectfully of him. Lord Arlington had a large share in the first Dutch war, and contributed not a little to the completion of what was called the triple alliance. In 1672 he was made a knight of the garter. He was perhaps foremost in the ministry of the cabal. The limits of this work do not allow us to follow him in all his offices, intrigues, and negotiations. He was never popular with King James II. He died July 28, 1685, aged 67, and was buried at Euston in Suffolk, in a vault under the church there which he had erected. Some affirm that on his death-bed he was perverted to the church of Rome; but it is more certain that he professed himself, and educated his only daughter, a protestant. He was an excellent courtier and an amiable man. His honours were many, and his opportunities of self-aggrandizement more, but he died possessed of only a moderate fortune.—T. J.  BENNET,, grandfather of the preceding, was j udge of the prerogative court of Canterbury and chancellor to the archbishop of York, under Elizabeth and her successor. Having been accused of bribery, he was degraded and heavily fined. He died in poverty in 1627.  BENNET, BENNETT, or BENET, (for his name is variously spelt), a celebrated musician of the Elizabethan era, chiefly known as a composer of madrigals. He published one set of madrigals in 1599, which he terms "his first works," dedicated to Ralph Assheton, Esq., "one of her majestie's justices of peace, &c.," whom we may infer was his patron. He contributed one madrigal to Thomas Morley's celebrated work, The Triumphs of Oriana, 1601; and five part songs to Ravenscroft's Brief Discourse," &c., 1614. In the latter work the editor calls him "a gentleman admirable for all kind of composures, either in art or ayre, simple or mixt, of what nature soever; in whose works the very life of that passion which the ditty sounded is so truly exprest, as if he had measured it alone by his own soul, and invented no other harmony than his own sensible feeling did afford him." Beyond this short eulogium we meet with no particulars respecting this great master of vocal harmony. The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown.—E. F. R.  * BENNET,, an eminent botanist connected with the botanical department of the British Museum, and secretary of the Linnæan Society. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a corresponding member of the Royal Botanical Society of Ratisbon. He has edited Horsfield's Plantæ Javanicæ Rariores, and has contributed many papers to scientific journals and societies.—J. H. B.  BENNET, , an English divine of considerable note, in his day as a controversial writer, but whose works have, from their very nature, been forgotten, was born at Salisbury in 1673. He was successively rector of St. James', Colchester, chaplain to Chelsea hospital, and vicar of St. Giles', Cripplegate. He dearly loved the Church of England, and set himself to write against all manner of heresy and schism, attacking in turn the dissenters in his "Answer to their Plea of Separation," the Roman catholics in his "Confutation of Popery," the Friends in his "Confutation of Quakerism,"—a reply to Barclay's Apology, the nonjurors whom he "Proved to be Schismatical on their own Principles," as well as the deniers of the doctrine of the Trinity in his "Examination" of Clarke. He also paraphrased and expounded the Prayer-book, wrote an "Essay on the Thirty-nine Articles," and vindicated "The Rights of the Clergy of the Christian Church." He was distinguished as a scholar, and published in 1726 a respectable Hebrew grammar. His innumerable battles came to a close in 1728, when he died of apoplexy.—J. B.  * BENNETT,, sometime incumbent of St. Paul's church, Knightsbridge, London, and one of the chief leaders of the tractarian party in the Established Church of England, was born about the year 1806. In 1823 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, of which he became a student. Having held the incumbency of Portman chapel for a few years, in 1843 he was appointed to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. Whilst there he erected in his district a second church, dedicated to St. Barnabas, in which the services, on its consecration in 1850, were conducted in a manner so nearly approximating to those of the church of Rome that a popular riot ensued, and the bishop of London was glad to accept Mr. Bennett's resignation of his benefice. He had taken a prominent part in the establishment of the London "Church Union" in 1848, and was one of those clergymen who most vehemently opposed the decision given by Lord Langdale and the privy council, in the celebrated case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. (See, Rev. G. C.) Within a few months, however, he accepted the vicarage of Frome Selwood, Somersetshire, into which he was inducted by the late Bishop Bagot—a proceeding which caused some severe strictures in the house of commons. Mr. Bennet is known as the author of a work "On the Book of Common Prayer" and another "On the Eucharist," and of several controversial pamphlets.—E. W.  * BENNETT,, Mus. Doc, was born at Sheffield, April 13, 1816, where his father, Robert Bennett, was organist. He is conspicuous in the musical history of the present period, as having, by his unswerving fidelity to the loftiest principles of his art, and still more by his natural and highly refined ability to embody these in his works, been effectively instrumental in raising the standard of music in this country, and in gaining consideration for the earnest pretensions of English music abroad. We may suppose that the occupation of his father tended to the immediate development of his organization; but, becoming an orphan at three years old, he derived nothing from his parent's musical pursuits, save the inestimable advantage of this early impression. At his father's death, he was removed to the care of his grandfather at Cambridge, where in 1824 he entered the choir of King's college chapel. Already he gave proof of an uncommon aptitude for music; so strong, that two years afterwards he was taken from this institution to be placed in the Royal academy of music in London. Passing through the classes of Mr. Lucas and Dr. Crotch for composition, and of Mr. W. H. Holmes for the pianoforte, he became the pupil of Mr. Potter in both these departments, whose entire merit it is to have fully developed the remarkable talent they had prepared for his care,—fully developed, because it was while yet under his direction, that Bennett produced some of the works which most honour his name, no less admirable for maturity of style than freshness of invention; and while yet under his direction, he attained the excellence as a pianist which won him the esteem he still maintains. Among his academical productions which have not appeared in print, an overture to the Tempest and two symphonies must be named as possessing great interest. Prior even to these he wrote his Concerto in D minor, in 1832, the rare merit of which attracted general attention to the young composer. He played it at the prize concert of the academy at midsummer, 1833, when Mendelssohn was present, who, quick to appreciate the indications in the music and its performance of approaching excellence, gave Bennett such warm encouragement as true genius only can extend. The academy committee paid the cost of publishing this first concerto for the author's advantage, and thus conferred an equal benefit on their institution in the credit the scholar reflected on the school. The Concerto in E flat, a production of the ensuing autumn, shows no longer the immediate effect upon the composer's mind of the classic masterpieces which, with him as with every genuine artist, were the seeds of his originality; but the decided style manifest in this work shows the now indirect influence of the great models, from a perfect knowledge of which alone can result a mastery of the principles of construction which have been unfolded through successive generations, and a freedom in the employment of resources, which, being accumulated from all, are common to all that have the power to appropriate them. His overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor, still unpublished, is a work of charming freshness, which preceded the composition in 1834 of that to Parisina; the depth of feeling, the flow of <section end="542Zcontin" />