BIDDER-BIGSBY. on Confirmation," ""An Address from the Pastor to his Flock on Confirmation," &c., &c. BIDDER, GEORGE PARKES, Civil Engineer, is the son of a working man, and was born about the year 1800. He is an instance of what may be effected in the way of "self-help" by one of the humbler classes. Early in life he showed a great bent for calculating, and so great were his feats in this direction that he exhibited his powers in several places as the "Calculating Boy." He gained the acquaintance and confidence of George Stephenson, whom he materially assisted in getting several railway bills passed through the Houses of Parliament. He was one of the engineers of the Blackwall Railway, and has been extensively employed in the construction of other lines. Mr. Bidder was one of the chief promoters of the Electric Telegraph Company from its establishment to a recent date; he was, moreover, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1860–61. BIESENTHAL, DR. JOHANNES HEINRICH, Hebrew Philologist, was born in the Duchy of Posen, about the beginning of this century, of Jewish parents. His early life was devoted to the study of the various departments of the literature of his nation, in all of which he became a great proficient. His profound knowledge of the Talmud impressed him early in life with the conviction that Christianity must be the true faith. Young Biesenthal accordingly embraced that religion, and consecrated his talents and subsequent studies and energies to the promotion of the principles of his adopted creed. He was an intimate friend of the late Dr. Augustus Neander. Dr. Biesenthal published a very valuable Lexicon, in Latin, of the Hebrew language, at Berlin in In 1851 he published, in German, the history of the Christian Church during the first three centuries, after Talmudical sources. Neander, who saw the MS. before it was sent to the press, pronounced the perform 1840. 75 ance one of the most important contributions to ecclesiastical history. In the same year Dr. Biesenthal partly edited, and partly finished, a commentary in Talmudical Hebrew on St. Luke, commenced by Dr. I. Frommann, of Halle, early in the last century. The work enlisted the good opinion of every Hebrew scholar who perused it. Three editions were soon disposed of. The favour which the Gospel met with induced Dr. Biesenthal to try his hand at some of the Epistles ; he accordingly published his "Epistola Pauli ad Romanos, cum Rabbinico Commentario," in 1853; and in 1857, his "Epistola Pauli ad Hebræos cum Rabbinico Commentario." Dr. Biesenthal was employed for some time by the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, to assist the Rev. J. C. Reichardt in the revision of the Hebrew version of the New Testament. holds the post of Missionary to the Jews at Berlin-in which city he settled soon after he joined the Christian Church-under the auspices of the above-named society. He now BIGSBY, ROBERT, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., the only son of the late Robert Bigsby, Esq., registrar of the archdeaconry of Nottingham, was born at his father's residence in Castle Gate, Nottingham, in 1806. He was educated at Repton School, then under the Rev. W. B. Sleath, D.D. Disappointed in the legal prospects with which he had been brought up, he turned to the study of antiquities, and began to collect materials for a history of Repton, which he published in 1854, under the title of "An Historical and Topographical Description of Repton," 4to. He had already published a volume of " Miscellaneous Poems and Essays" (1842); and another work in 3 vols., under the title of "Visions of the times of Old, or the Antiquarian Enthusiast" (1818); in both of which he treated of the historical associations of that ancient town. He is also the author of a dramatic romance, in 12 acts, entitled "Ombo" (1853); with an 76 BILLING-BINNEY. historical introduction and notes; a piece treating of the period of the slave conspiracy at Malta, in the time of the Knights of St. John, as also of "Boldon Delaval," 66 My Cousin's Story," "The Delaval Correspondence," "Scraps from my Note Book," "Remarks on the Expediency of a National Order of Merit," "Observations on the Expediency of Founding a National Institution in Honour of Literature," &c. In 1831 Dr. Bigsby presented to William IV. the astrolabe of Sir Francis Drake, the famous circumnavigator, by whose command it was placed in Greenwich Hospital, and he has since presented other relics of Drake to the British Museum. He is LL.D. of Glasgow (the diploma having been conferred on him in recognition of his literary merit), and enjoys a literary pension on the Civil List of £100 a year. He is also an honorary and corresponding member of several foreign literary societies, and Secretary and Registrar of the English "Langue" of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. BILLING, ARCHIBALD, M.D., M.A., F.R.S., &c., is a native of Ireland, and was born in 1791. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated, and also subsequently at Oxford. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1818, and has passed through the offices of censor and member of coun cil. He was for some years Physician of the London Hospital, where he had been Professor of the Medical School (where he instituted clinical lectures) from 1817 until 1836, when, upon the creation of the New University of London by the Government, he was invited to become a Fellow; since which period he has been a Member of the Senate and Examiner for Degrees in Medicine. Dr. Billing is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and has been President of the Hunterian Society, and Vice-President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society; he is one of the original Members of the Microscopical Society, a Fellow of the Geological Society, and Corresponding Member of the Medical Societies of Dresden, Florence, Brussels, and New York. He has been an extensive contributor to the Lancet, Medical Gazette, and other periodicals, on various subjects of diseases and phy siology, such as fever, cholera, anen. rism, his original discovery of the "Cause of the Sounds of the Heart," &c. He is well known as the author of" First Principles of Medicine," a text-book in the medical world, which has gone through several editions, has been translated and published in France and Germany, and republished in America; and also of "Practical Observations on Diseases of the Lungs and Heart." BINNEY, THE REV. THOMAS, was born in the year 1798, or 1799, at Newcastle-on-Tyne; he was educated at Wymondley College, an institution founded by Mr. Coward, of Waltham stow, a munificent Nonconformist of the last century, and first presided over by the celebrated Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Binney was first settled as min. ister of an Independent chapel at Newport, Isle of Wight, whence he removed, in 1829, to London, to accept the pastorate of the congrega tion assembling in a place of worship known as the " King's Weigh-House Chapel," then in Eastcheap. In 186 he published the "Life of the Rev. Stephen Morell," and in 1827, a discourse preached before the Congrega. tional ministers of Hampshire, "On the Ultimate Design of the Christian Ministry," which attracted consider. able attention. After his settlement in London, he issued, under the sig nature of "Fiat Justitia," " several pamphlets, treating with great freedom many topics then agitating the religious world, which soon became very popular, and were at length attributed to Mr. Binney. In 183, he delivered an address on laying the first stone of the new King's WeighHouse Chapel on Fish-street Hi which created considerable discussion. He subsequently published not Schism," "The Ultimate Object of the Evangelical Dissenter Dissent The Christian Ministry not a Priesthood," | Australia, Mr. Binney published a "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation," work on the "Bishop of Adelaide's "An Imaginary Conversation," ap- Idea of the Church of the Future," pended to a work of Mr. Baird's in which has since been issued in London, which he discusses the question, "Are with additional matter, under the Dissenters to have a Liturgy?" He is somewhat quaint title of "Lights and the author of a series of papers on Shadows of Church Life in Australia; "The Great Gorham Case,” which he including Thoughts on Some Things contributed to the Christian Times, at Home." Mr. Binney received some and of "An Argument on the Levitical years ago from the University of Law touching the Marriage of a Aberdeen the degree of LL.D., which, Deceased Wife's Sister," which on its however, he seldom or never uses. appearance passed rapidly through BIRCH, THE REV. HENRY MILseveral editions. His "Conscientious DRED, eldest son of the Rev. Harry Clerical Nonconformity," in which he Rous Birch, of Southwold, Suffolk, justifies a refusal of subscription to the was born about the year 1820, and Prayer-book, is thought, by his co- was educated on the foundation at religionists, to be a defence of their Eton. He proceeded in due course position which it is difficult to refute. to King's College, Cambridge, where Mr. Binney was the first to introduce he succeeded to a Fellowship, and chanting into the service of Indepen-graduated B.A. in 1843, having obdent congregations; and gave a great tained the Craven Scholarship, and impulse to congregational psalmody several university distinctions. He by his "Service of Song in the House afterwards went to Eton as one of of the Lord." In a previous work, the assistant masters, and whilst there "The Closet and the Church," he had was selected as tutor to his Royal enforced the necessity of ministerial Highness the Prince of Wales. Hav. devotion. The best known of his ing resigned his post and taken orders, other works is a volume of discourses he was appointed, in 1852, rector of on the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, Prestwich, near Manchester. He is entitled, "The Practical Power of also chaplain to the Queen and the Faith," published in 1830. He also Prince of Wales, and honorary Canon edited a volume, entitled, "Tower of Manchester Cathedral. Sermons," preached at Tower Church, Erith, to which he contributed two discourses. Two of his "Lectures to Young Men" grew under his hand into small volumes, one on Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and the other entitled, “Is it Possible to make the Best of Both Worlds?" In 1845, he paid a visit to America and the Canadas. In 1857 he set out on a tour through the Australian colonies, where he preached and lectured to large audiences. His correspondence with the bishop of Adelaide, which his lordship himself initiated, excited much attention when it appeared in the English and Australian journals. Mr. Binney continued his labours in Australia about two years, after which he returned to England and resumed his duties as pastor of the Weigh House Chapel. During his stay in * BIRCH, SAMUEL, eldest son of the late Rev. Samuel Birch, D.D., rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, and vicar of Little Marlow, Bucks, and grandson of Alderman Birch, was born in London, Nov. 3, 1813, and was educated at private schools at Greenwich and Blackheath, and afterwards at Merchant Taylors' School, which he left in 1831. He was employed under the Commissioners of Public Records in 1834, and in 1836 was appointed assistant in the department of Antiquities of the British Museum. He rose to be assistant-keeper in 1844, on the retirement of Mr. Barnewell, and on the new organization of the department in 1861, was appointed keeper of the Oriental, Medieval, and British Antiquities and Ethnographical Collections. In 1846, he visited Italy by order of the trustees to exa- of mine the Anastasi collection Egyptian antiquities at that time lying at Leghorn, and to see the collections of Rome and other cities. In 1856, he was again sent to Rome by the late Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, to examine and value, in conjunction with Mr. Newton, the Campana collection which had been offered to the British Government for purchase. In 1863, the description which he drew up of a papyrus belonging to the Prince of Wales was printed for private circulation by his Royal Highness. In 1839, he was elected corresponding member of the Archæological Institute of Rome; in 1851, of the Academy of Berlin; in 1852, of that of Herculaneum; and in 1861, of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres of the French Institute; and the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of St. Andrews in 1862: besides which, he is an honorary member of the Royal Society of Literature, the Society of Antiquaries and Oriental Society of France, and the Ethnological Society of America. He is also one of the direction of the Archæological Institute of Rome. At an early period of his career he paid particular attention to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and his researches attracted the notice and secured him the lasting friendship of the late Baron Bunsen, with whose labours he was associated in his work on Egypt, Mr. Birch having contributed the philological portions relating to the hieroglyphics. One of the last requests of Bunsen was that he should undertake the revision of any future editions of this work. His labours extend over most branches of antiquities, having, besides his rerearches in hieroglyphics, published memoirs and dissertations on Greek, Roman, and British antiquities, numismatics, and ethnography, and assisted in the editing of cuneiform inscriptions. In addition to these subjects he has also published in the Asiatic Journal translations from the Chinese. Several of his papers will be found in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature," the Archeologia, the Revue Archéologique, the Archäologische Zeitung, and the works of various societies. He has also contributed many articles to the English Encyclopædia." The late King of Prussia presented him with a copy of the great work of Lepsius, the "Denkmäler," for his Egyptian researches. Mr. Birch's principal pub lications are-the "Gallery of Antiquities," 1842; the text of Owen i Jones's "Views on the Nile," 1843; "Catalogue of Greek Vases" (with Mr. Newton), 1851; "Introduction to the Study of the Hieroglyphics," 1857; & "History of Ancient Pottery," 1858; and the "Papyrus of Naskhem," 1863. Hora BIRKS, THE REV. THOMAS RAWSON, M.A., was born September, 1810, and graduated at Trinity College, Cam bridge as Second Wrangler and Second Smith's Prizeman in 1834. In the same year he became Fellow of his college, and was Seatonian Prizeman in 1843 and 1844. In the latter year he be came rector of Kelshall, Herts. He is the author of "First Elements of Prophecy," "The Four Empires," "The Two Later Visions of Daniel," "Mo dern Astronomy," "Modern Rationalism," "The Christian State," Apostolicæ," a supplement to Paley's "Hora Paulinæ,' "Hora Evange lica," a work on the internal evidence of the Gospels; "Treasures of Wisdom," "Difficulties of Belief." "Outlines of Unfulfilled Prophecy,” "The Bible and Modern Thought," "Matter and Ether, or the Secret Laws of Physical Change," "The Exodus of Israel," and various pamph lets and lectures. He is the author of "Memoirs of the late Rev. E. Bickersteth, rector of Watton," whose daughter he married. He has been since 1850 one of the honorary Secre taries of the "Evangelical Alliance," and was for five years examining chaplain to Dr. Villiers, then bishop of Carlisle, and afterwards bishop of Durham. BISHOP, ANNA, LADY, is a daughter of the late Mr. Rivière, an artist, and BISMARK-SCHÖNHAUSEN-BLACK. 73 79 was born in London in 1814. In 1831 | -posts he still continues to hold she became the second wife of the (1864). This statesman rendered late Sir Henry R. Bishop, Professor himself very unpopular by his pertiof Music in the University of Oxford, nacity in carrying out the king's policy who died in 1855. In 1858 she re- during his first two years of office, married M. Schulz, Esq., of New York. especially by his defiant antagonism She received an excellent musical to the House of Representetives; but education, and made a successful the success of his measures in the debut as a singer in 1837. In 1838 difficult task of gaining over Austria she appeared with distinction at the to co-operate with the Prussian Ancient and Philharmonic Concerts, Government in the recent aggressive and at the great musical festivals war with Denmark seems to have given in the cathedral towns of Glou- qualified this feeling. cester, Worcester, York, and Hereford. In this early part of her career Madame Anna Bishop chiefly sang the classical music of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, having paid little or no attention to modern operatic music; and it was not until after she had achieved a distinguished position as a concert singer, that, by the advice of a celebrated musician, she seriously devoted herself to its study. Madame Bishop subsequently made a tour of the chief capitals of Europe, where, as also in America and Australia, she was most enthuFiastically received. She returned to England in 1858, and at the close of the London season of the following year set sail for America, but subsequently returned to London. Madame Bishop is a member of the Philharmonic Societies of Copenhagen, Florence, and Verona, and of the great musical societies of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Palermo; an associate of the Society of Santa Cecilia at Rome, &c. BLAAUW, WILLIAM HENRY, F.S.A., only son of the late William Blaauw, Esq., was born in 1793, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1813. He is a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Sussex, and has served as High Sheriff for that county. He is well known as an accomplished antiquary, and was one of the founders of the Sussex Archæological Society. He is the author of an interesting historical treatise, entitled "The Barons' War, including the Battles of Lewes and Evesham" (1844), and also of some smaller anonymous papers of an antiquarian character. BLACK, ADAM, Publisher, M.P. for Edinburgh, was born in the year 1784, and educated at the High School and University of his native city. The son of a builder who had raised himself to circumstances of affluence, Mr. Black, after serving his apprenticeship, went into business as a bookseller; and, amongst other important works, brought out the "EncycloBISMARK-SCHÖNHAUSEN,* pædia Britannica," to the recent ediOTHO, COUNT VON, a Prussian States- tions of which he has contributed man, was born at Brandenburg in several articles. From an early period 1813. After the usual gradations of of his career, Mr. Black took an active the diplomatic service, he was de-part in the politics of Edinburgh, and spatched, in 1851, to Frankfort, as in the former part of this century Prussian representative in the Diet. boldly sided with the little band of Subsequently he was charged with a Liberals who stood up for Burgh Respecial mission to Vienna. In 1862, form, as the initiative to the larger the present King of Prussia having measure of Parliamentary Reform, need in his disputes with his Parlia- which eventually crowned their perment of a minister possessing great severing labours. On the failure of energy of character, placed Count the well-known firm of Constable and Bismark at the head of his Cabinet, Co., the publication of the Edinburgh with the portfolio of Foreign Affairs Review passed into the hands of |