Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/624

BIN  his colours in the very brunt of the battle. He married a grandniece of Patrick Sarsfield (general in the Irish army of James), and great-granddaughter of Charles II., through his illegitimate daughter, the sister of Monmouth.—E. W.  BINGHAM,, was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, September, 1668, and entered at University college, Oxford, 1683, of which college he was elected fellow in 1689. He had a great reputation at the university for patristic learning, to which he had devoted himself with great zeal, and on which his reputation is based. During his residence at Oxford, however, he was accused of unsound teaching as to the theological sense of the word "Person," for which he was censured by the authorities, and party spirit ran so high, that he was forced to resign his fellowship and leave the university. He was then presented by Dr. Radcliffe to the rectory of Headbourn Worthy, near Winchester, where he began his celebrated "Origines Ecclesiasticæ, or Antiquities of the Christian Church." His first volume was published in 1708, and the tenth and last in 1722, a year before he died. In 1712 Bishop Trelawney presented Bingham to the living of Havant, near Portsmouth, which had the effect of improving his circumstances; but all his gains and savings were lost in the great South Sea bubble of 1720. Besides his great work, he wrote "The French Church's Apology for the Church of England;" "A History of Lay Baptism;" and "A Discourse concerning the Mercy of God." His fame, however, rests upon his "Origines," a masterly synopsis of the discipline, rites, and ceremonies of ancient christianity. Bingham experienced the fate of many who have done good service, having received but little acknowledgment of his labours from the authorities of his own communion. He died in 1723, leaving a widow and two sons and four daughters.—J. B., O.  BINGHAM,, great-granduncle of Sir John, a younger son of Robert Bingham, Esq. of Melcombe, county Dorset, was born in the reign of Henry VIII. Adopting the military profession, he became not only the most eminent member of his family, but one of the most distinguished captains of the age in which he lived. At the time of the invasion of the Spanish armada, he was one of Queen Elizabeth's military council. He was instrumental in putting down the insurrections in Ireland in 1586, 1590, and 1593, and was eventually constituted by her majesty marshal of that kingdom and general of Leinster. He died at Dublin soon after attaining these honours. His family is now represented by the earl of Lucan.—E. W.  BINGHAM,, a wealthy American merchant, and a senator of the United States, was born in 1752, and graduated at the college in Philadelphia in 1768. He engaged in trade, in which he was very successful. Among his other mercantile speculations he bought in 1793 about two millions of acres of land, in what is now the state of Maine; but though the price was very low, this did not turn out a profitable transaction. His wife was a Miss Willing of Philadelphia, whom he married in 1780. One of his daughters was married to Alexander Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton. He published two or three pamphlets, one of which contained some strictures on Lord Shelburne's commercial policy, and another gave an account of the great tract of land which he had bought in Maine. He died in Bath, England, February 6, 1804, in his fifty-second year, leaving an immense property to his heirs.—F. B.  BINGLEY,, an English naturalist, a native of Yorkshire, died at Bloomsbury in 1823. Contrary to the wishes of his friends, who urged him to adopt the profession of law, he took orders after graduating at Cambridge. His principal works are—"Animal Biography, or Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy of the Animal Creation," 1802; "Memoirs of British Quadrupeds;" and "Biographical Dictionary of Musical Composers," 1813.—J. S., G.  BINI,, a Tuscan writer, born at Leghorn in 1806. His parents were very poor, and Bini was obliged to work hard for his own and their support; but under every possible disadvantage he succeeded in educating himself and becoming an esteemed and elegant writer. He was well acquainted with the best English classics, and he had commenced a spirited translation of the writings of Sterne, of whom he was a great admirer, and whose style his own prose much resembles. Like all the intellectual youth of Italy at that day, however, Bini was an enthusiastic patriot, and literature was regarded by him only as a means of furthering the great work of Italian emancipation. In 1829 Bini, together with Mazzini and Guerazzi, founded a journal called the Indicatore, which was suppressed by the government on account of its liberal tendencies. In 1830 Bini was already known in the ranks of Italian conspiracy. He was a warm personal friend and enthusiastic admirer of Joseph Mazzini, and an active member of the National Association founded by him, called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy). His extreme popularity among all classes in his native town, enabled him to enrol large numbers of his fellow-citizens as members of that association. In 1833 Bini was arrested as a conspirator, and imprisoned for many months; but on being set free, he continued the work of propagandism with unabated ardour and courage. He died of apoplexy in 1842. A single volume of his prose and poetical writings was collected after his death and published at Leghorn, with a preface addressed to the youth of Italy, by Joseph Mazzini. The book is full of beauty and promise, but Bini's incessant political activity and early death prevented him from doing full justice to his great powers.—E. A. H.  BINNEY,, a popular nonconformist minister of London. The date of Mr. Binney's birth we have been unable to ascertain, but he was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, educated at Coward college, and became minister of St. James' Street chapel, Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1829 he removed to London, and preached in a hall over the Weigh-house in Little Eastcheap. In 1833 the Weigh-house chapel near London Bridge was built for him, and his first address there attracted considerable attention, as he expressed a rather strong opinion that the influence of the church of England was calculated to be rather prejudicial to the future prospects of its members. Mr. Binney is the author of "How to make the best of both Worlds." As a preacher Mr. Binney is unquestionably a man of rare endowment, and in his most favourable times rises to a pitch of chastened energy that may be considered the perfection of pulpit oratory. Mr. Binney proceeded to Australia in 1858, and on his return published a work entitled "Lights and Shadows of Church Life in Australia."  BINNING,, a Scotch presbyterian minister, born in Ayrshire in 1627. Two events of his life are worthy of note: he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, when he had only attained his nineteenth year, and was one of the presbyterian ministers who were admitted to dispute with the independents in presence of Cromwell. On that occasion he had the honour of seriously disturbing, by some skilful thrusts, the equanimity of the great protector. He was latterly minister of Govan, where he died of consumption, induced by over-exertion in his calling, in 1654, at the age of twenty-seven years. His Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans and his theological tracts were collected and published in 4to, Edinburgh, 1735.—J. S., G. <section end="624H" /> <section begin="624I" />BINS,, a Flemish poetess, born at Antwerp; died 1540. She wrote a poem against heretics that has been translated into Latin; Antwerp, 1629. <section end="624I" /> <section begin="624J" />BINTERIM,, a Roman catholic priest and writer, was born at Düsseldorf, 19th September, 1779, and died in 1855. He was educated by the jesuits, studied at Duren and Aachen, entered the Franciscan order, and in 1805 was appointed pastor at Bilk, a suburb of Düsseldorf. His principal works are—"Pragmatische Geschichte der Deutschen National-Provinzial-und Diöcesansynoden," 7 vols.; "Sammlung der wichtigsten Schriften über Ehescheidung;" "Denkwürdigkeiten der Christlichen Kirche," 7 vols.; "Die alte und neue Erzdiöcese Köln," 4 vols.; "Zeugnisse für die Echtheit des h. Rockes zu Trier," 1845, &c.—K. E. <section end="624J" /> <section begin="624L" />BIŒRNER,, a Swedish antiquarian, born in 1696; died 1750. He travelled through the northern provinces of Sweden, and collected historical traditions previously little known. He devoted himself particularly to the study of Runic monuments, and has left several valuable works. <section end="624L" /> <section begin="624M" />BION, a tragic poet, lived probably in the first century before the christian era. Nothing more is known of him. <section end="624M" /> <section begin="624N" />BION, a Greek mathematician of the fourth or third century. Diogenes Laertius tells us that, first of all, Bion maintained that in certain regions of the earth the year is divided into one day and one night, each of six months' duration. <section end="624N" /> <section begin="624O" />BION. There were two Greek rhetoricians of this name: the one, a native of Syracuse, wrote a treatise on rhetoric; the other, author of a history named after the nine muses. <section end="624O" /> <section begin="624Zcontin" />BION was born in Phlossa, which was most probably a farm or small village in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, whence he is <section end="624Zcontin" />