Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/20

BETTS. BETTS, Samvel Rossitek (1787-1868). An American jurist. He was born in Xew Haven, Conn., ami giaihiated at Williams CoUi>{,'c in 1806. After serving in the War of 1812, he was appointed judge-advocate by Governor Tompkins, of Xew York, and this position brought him prominently before the public. In 1815 he was elected a member of Congress, repre- senting the district comprising Orange and Sulli- van counties, and afterward served for several years as district attorney of Orange County. He was judge of the I'nited (States District Court from ISl'S to 18G7. In this capacity he codified the maritime laws of the United States, giving due consideration to salvage, freighting, wages of seamen, charters, insurance, general average, and to every other important branch of the subject. Scarcely less noteworthy was his influ- ence on the formulation of the neutrality and patent laws. Notwithstanding the enormous volume of business constantly brought to his attention, his decisions during the first twenty j-ears of his term of office were uniformly up- lield. -Viuong the distinguished lawyers who conducted cases before him were HofTmann, Van Buren, Webster. Hall, Emmet, and Choate. His princijjal publication is a treatise on Admiralty Practice (1828).

BET'TY, William Henry West (1791-1874). An English actor, frequently called 'the Young Roscius.' In his boyliooil he obtained an ex- traordinary reputation, but failed completely to maintain it as he grew up. He was born near Shrewsliury. but passed most of his childliood in the north of Ireland, where, at Belfast, he ap- peared upon the stage as Osman in Znru before he was twelve years old. A few weeks later he played in Dublin as Young Xorval. He is said to have committed to memory the long rOle of Hamlet in three hours, and popular admi- ration of his precocious acting was so unbounded that he was thought an easj- rival of the greatest tragedians. When he appeared in London, in December, 1S04, at both Covent Garden and Drurj- Lane theatres, he drew immense crowds, and had for some time a salary of £100 a night. His social success was equally remark- able. Parliament was once adjourned expressly to see him act Hamlet at Drury Lane, and George III. himself presented him to the Queen and princesses. His vogue gradually subsided, however, and in 1808 he left the stage to enter Christ's College, Cambridge. Four years later, at Bath, he resumed his career, which thereafter proved to be quite undistinguished, and in Au- gust, 1824, he retired. The rest of his life was passed uneventfully with the fortune he had acquired in his youth. Consult; Hutton, in Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States. Vol. II. (New York, 1880) ; Rus- sell, Representative Actors (London, 1872?) ; Do- ran, "About Master Betty," In and About Drury Lane and (Jtltcr I'apers ( London, 1881 ) . BET'ULA. See Biiicii.

BET'WA. An unnavigable tributary of the .lumna River, in Central India. It rises in the Vindhya Mountains, Mows past the towns of lihilsa and .Ihansi. and after a northeastern eipur.se of 340 miles, joins the Jumna on the right, about 30 miles to the east-southeast of Kalpi.

BETWEEN' WIND AND WA'TER. That portion of the side of a ship which is in the immediate vicinity of the water-line, and is sometimes above and sometimes below it as the ship rolls. A shotholc in this locality is dan- gerous, as it may admit so much water as to cause the lo.ss of the ship; but the close sub- division of the hulls of modern shii)s near the water-line has much minimized the danger.

BETZ, Franz (183.5-1900). A German oper- atic barytone. He was born at ilainz. and from 1855 to 1859 sang at Hanover and at various other cities of Germany. From his first appear- ance in Berlin, in 1859, in the role of Don Car- los in Verdi's FJrnani. until 1897, he was a mem- ber of the Royal Ojiera House, where, prior to Jlay 1, 1870, he had already sung about 850 times. He was selected by Wagner to sing the part of Wotan at Bayreuth in 1876, and there- after became prominently identified with Wag- nerian roles.

BEULAH, bu'la. A land, in Bunyan's Pil- ririm's Prorp-rxs, wherein nothing offensive is, and where the wears' sleepers soon awake to hear the pleasant sounds of bells and trumpets. BETJLE, be'hV. Charles Ernest (1826-74). A French archa>ologist and politician, bom at Saunuir. In 1849 he was sent to Athens as one of the professors of the school of arclueology es- tablished there, and discovered the propyltea of (he Acropolis. After his icturn to Paris he became professor of archa-ology at the Biblioth&que Xa- tionale in 1854, and soon won great reputation by his writings. In 1858-59 he made excava- tions on the site of Carthage at his own ex- jiense. His later years were devoted to politics. In 1871 he was elected to the National Assembly, where he upheld the Orleanist cause. Under Macilahon he was for .a short time ^Minister of the Interior (1873). Among his works are: L'acropole d'Athines (2 vols.. 1854) ; Etudes stir Ic Peloponnise (1855); Les mon- naies d'Athenes (1858) ; Phidias, drame an- tique (1863) ; and Histoire de I'art grec avant Pericles (1868).

BEURMANN, boir'man. Karl Moritz von (1835-03 1. . tJernuin African explorer. He was born at Potsdam, and studied at the Engi- neering School, Berlin. In 18(i0 he made a sci- entific journey to the Nile, the Nubian Desert, and the Bogos region. He undertook in 1862 an expedition to the African interior, to obtain in- formal i<in about Eduard Vogel (q.v.), an ex- plorer, murdered — as Nachtigal definitely learned (1873)— in 1856, by order of the Sultan of Wadai. He endeavored to reach Wadai by way of Kanem, but was compelled to turn back. He proceeded to Kuka, capital of Boriui, and thence southwest to Yakoba, capital of Bautshi. In December he once more set out for Wadai, but, robbed and deserted by his servants, had again to return to Kuka. During the following Janu- ary he started again: but in February was nun- dered at Mao, on the border between Wadai and Kanem. His fltossar dcr Tifircsprache was pub- lished bv Jlerx in German (Lieipzig, 1868) and English "(Halle, 1868).

BEURNONVILLE, ber'nON'viM', Pierre Riel, Marquis de (17521821). A French soldier, born at Champignoles (Burgundy). During the Revolution he fought in the Republican Army