Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/556

BER of the king of Hanover, the late chancellor, in 1851, he was elevated to that high office. In the discharge of his duties as the head of the Irish branch of the Anglican church, he was distinguished for his gentle, yet firm maintenance of its rights, for the purity and impartiality with which he administered the trust reposed in him, for his munificence in public and private charities, and for the piety and meekness of his deportment. He spent vast sums of money out of his private fortune, as well as his ecclesiastical revenues, in supporting the various institutions of the established church in the country—in particular, in restoring and beautifying the ancient cathedral of Armagh; and, in the year 1854, he gave the sum of £12,000 for the erection of the beautiful bell-tower of the university of Dublin, the first stone of which he laid on the 1st of December in that year. He also did much for the support of the admirable observatory of Armagh, so long under the management of Dr. Robinson, one of the best practical astronomers of our time.—J. F. W.  BERESFORD,, Viscount Beresford, field-marshal in the British army, was a natural son of George, first marquis of Waterford. He was born October 2, 1768, and entered the army in 1785 as ensign in the sixth foot. Having served for a short time in Nova Scotia, he was sent to the Mediterranean in 1793. Here he was present at the capture of Toulon, at the siege of Caloi, at Bastia, and St. Fiorenza. Having rapidly risen to the rank of colonel in 1795, he served in the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby, and commanded a brigade in Sir D. Baird's army in Egypt in 1799. His next scene of active service was the Cape of Good Hope, in the reconquest of which colony he bore a distinguished part. From thence he was sent as brigadier-general to Buenos Ayres, but was taken prisoner. In 1807 he effected his escape and returned to England, and in the same year assisted Admiral Hood in his descent upon Madeira, of which island he was made governor and commander-in-chief. In 1808 he was called to join the British army in Portugal, and, proceeding with Sir John Moore's army to Spain, was present at Corunna, where he was able to cover the embarkation of the troops. Returning to England, he received the rank of major-general, and was sent back to Portugal, with the local rank of lieutenant-general, to take the command of the Portuguese army. At the head of 12,000 men he drove back the French from the north of Portugal, and crossing the upper Douro and joining his troops with those of Sir A. Wellesley, pursued the French army till it was entirely disorganized. When General Beresford first undertook the command of the Portuguese army, he found it a weak and disorderly rabble; he soon stamped his impress upon it and made it a powerful and well-ordered army, as was proved by their conduct at the battle of Busaco. For his eminent services in this engagement General Beresford was made a knight of the bath. He had next an opportunity of displaying his prowess on the sanguinary field of Albuera, for which battle he received the thanks of parliament, and the poetical congratulations of Sir Walter Scott. He was subsequently present at Badajos, Salamanca (where he was severely wounded), at Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle (where he led the right of the centre), at Nive, and at Orthes. It was also his good fortune to be in command of the British forces which took possession of Bordeaux, and he subsequently bore a distinguished part in the battle of Toulouse. During his absence in the peninsula, he was elected M.P. for the county of Waterford in 1811, and again at the general election of 1812, but he never came to England to take his seat in the House of Commons. In May, 1814, he was elevated to the peerage, as Lord Beresford, and was advanced to the viscounty in 1823. After the close of the Peninsular war, he received the orders of many foreign states, and was appointed governor of Jersey. In the meantime, he had so far gained the confidence of the Portuguese government, that he was sent by them to Rio Janeiro for the purpose of suppressing a revolt, which at one time appeared formidable. In 1822 he was appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance, and became a general in 1825. On the accession of the duke of Wellington to office in 1828, he appointed Lord Beresford master-general of the ordnance, but this office he resigned on the duke's retirement in 1830. From this date he took no interest in public affairs, but lived for the most part in retirement at his seat in Kent. In 1832 he married his cousin, a daughter of Archbishop Beresford of Tuam, and widow of Mr. Thomas Hope of Deepdene, Surrey, the author of Anastasius, &c. (See .) He died at Bedgebury park, near Goudhurst, Kent, January 8, 1854. Besides his other honours. Lord Beresford was a field-marshal in the Portuguese army, duke of Elvas, and marquis of Campo Major in Spain, count of Conde de Francesco in Portugal, and a knight of the orders of the Tower and Sword, San Fernando, St. Ferdinand, and Merit, and of the Hanoverian Guelphic order.—E. W.  BERG,. The counts of this noble family in the Low Countries were well known in the wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1486 they were raised to the dignity of counts of the empire; but in 1712 the male line being extinct, the title passed, by one of the female branches, into the house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.—W. B.  BERG,, born at Wurtemburg in 1753; died in 1821; was professor of church history at Wurtzburg, and author of two philosophical works entitled "Sextus," and "Epicritique de la Philosophie." In the former he maintains scepticism in opposition to the early views of Schelling. In the latter he develops his views more fully, and professes to furnish an Organon by the aid of which philosophers may arrive at absolute truth. He bases his system on what he calls "logical will," or will applied to thought. The work was not marked either by originality or profundity, and attracted no attention.—J. D. E.  BERG,, a Norwegian lawyer and antiquarian, born 23rd September, 1775, at Drontheim, where his father, the actual counsellor of justice for Christiania, then resided. He received his education at the cathedral school of Christiania, and after 1792 at the university of Copenhagen. Being unsuccessful in his wish to obtain an appointment in the royal library, he devoted himself to jurisprudence, and in 1803 was chosen president of the court of justice in the district of Jarlsberg. He was member of the extraordinary storthing in the autumn of 1814, and devoted himself to the amendment of the laws. Hence, in November of the same year, he became justiciary or president of the supreme court of justice at Aggerhuus. Being, in July, 1835, elected by the storthing administrator of the Christiania branch of the Norwegian bank, he resigned his official posts, which he afterwards resumed on becoming states-commissioner in Christiania, where he resided. In all these posts he enjoyed the esteem of the nation, besides which he enjoyed a great reputation as a northern antiquarian. He was an able contributor to the periodical journals called the Saga and Budstikken, and still more valuable are his contributions to the Samlinger till der Norsk Sprog og Historie, a historical magazine which he edited for some time.—M. H.  BERG,, of Herrndorf in Silesia, a scholar and statesman in the sixteenth century, filled the office of ambassador to various countries of Europe, and devoted his property at his death to the education of the poor in his native land.—W. B.  BERG,, a German theologian and linguist, born at Breme in 1737; died at Duisburg in 1800. He enjoyed a reputation for immense scholarship, especially as an orientalist. His only publication of any importance is entitled "Specimen animad. philologicarum ad selecta Vet. Testamenti loca," 1761.  BERG,, a portrait and historical painter, born in Ypres in 1615. He was a disciple of Rubens, and thought to be of great promise; but he proved a mere clever copier of nature, and not a creator. He died poor; his pictures are scarce, but his copies of his master's are much valued. Date of death uncertain—1647 or 1687.—W. T. <section end="556H" /> <section begin="556I" />BERGAMO,, or , prior of the Augustine convent at Bergamo in Italy, which he repaired at a great expense—a man of good family—author of a "Chronicle (in Latin) from the Creation of the World to the year 1503," showing considerable literary skill, and a "Treatise of Illustrious Women," was born in 1434, became a monk in 1451, and died in 1518. <section end="556I" /> <section begin="556Zcontin" />BERGASSE,, born at Lyons in 1750; died there in 1832. Bergasse was an avocat of some celebrity, and published some tracts on animal magnetism. When the states-general were convoked, he was sent as deputy from Lyons; and he presented, as a thousand others did, a memorial to the king on the proper organization of the contemplated constitution. He preached, at the same time, a discourse on the relations to each other of the legislative and executive powers, and the fitting limits to each in a monarchy. The constituent assembly disregarded his speculations; but in some short time he was called upon by the king to draw up his plan of a constitution. The fate of the king involved that of Bergasse's new constitution; while it would be well for him had it passed unnoticed to that <section end="556Zcontin" />