was increased by the discussion which followed a paper on 'Some supposed Differences in the Minds of Men and Women with regard to Educational Necessities,' which she contributed to the British Association at Norwich in 1868. In March 1870 the 'Women's Suffrage Journal' was started, and Miss Becker acted as its editor and chief contributor to the end of her life. She published in 1872 an important pamphlet on the 'Political Disabilities of Women,' first printed in the 'Westminster Review,' and in 1873 another pamphlet entitled 'Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity : a Reply to Mr. Fitzjames Stephen's Strictures on the Subjection of Women.' Her labours for the society were incessant. She directed its policy and organised the movement as a whole. There was hardly an important women's suffrage meeting or conference held in any part of the kingdom in which she did not take part. Her public speaking was marked not only by extreme clearness of utterance, but by its lucid statement of fact, its grasp of subject, and logical force. She naturally came to be a familiar figure in the parliamentary lobbies, where her political capacity was fully recognised.
At the election of the first Manchester school board in 1870, she was a successful candidate for a seat, and she was re-elected at the seven subsequent elections, always as an independent or unsectarian member. She kept special watch over the interests of the female teachers and scholars, and in the general work of the board she bore an active and influential part.
For many years she never missed the annual meetings of the British Association, and often took part in the discussions. When she attended the meeting in Canada in 1884, she wrote some descriptive letters to the 'Manchester Examiner and Times.' She died at Geneva on 18 July 1890, and was buried there in the cemetery of St. George.
A portrait of Miss Becker, painted by Miss S. L. Dacre, hangs at the office of the central committee of the Women's Suffrage Society, Westminster, pending the time when it can be offered to the National Portrait Gallery.
[Memorial number of the Women's Suffrage Journal, August 1890; Manchester Examiner and Times, 21 July 1890; Britten and Boulger's English Botanists, 1893, p. 13; Royal Soc. Cat. of Scientific Papers, vii. 118; Shaw's Old and New Manchester, ii. 75 (with portrait); communications from Wilfred Becker, esq., Manchester, also from Miss Helen Blackburn, Westminster, who is engaged on a life of Miss Becker.]
BECKETT, GILBERT ARTHUR À. (1837–1891), humorist. [See À Beckett.]
BECKMAN, Sir MARTIN (d. 1702), colonel, chief engineer and master gunner of England, was a Swedish captain of artillery. His brother, a military engineer in the service of Charles I during the civil war, was taken prisoner by the parliament forces in 1644, but soon after escaped. In 1653 he joined the royalist exiles at Middelburg, the bearer of important information from England, and died before the Restoration. Martin Beckman in 1060 petitioned Charles II for the place of royal engineer, formerly enjoyed by his brother, and mentioned that he 'was ruined and severely injured by an accident at an explosion in the preparation of fireworks to be shown on the water in the king's honour.' He was accordingly employed as an engineer, and his skill in laboratory work led to his appointment on 6 June 1661 to the expedition under Lord Sandwich as 'firemaster with and in his majesty's fleete.'
He sailed from Deptford with the fleet on 13 June in the ship Augustine, and, after a short time at Alicante, proceeded against the pirates of Algiers; but, the enterprise failing, the fleet bore away for Tangiers, of which possession was taken as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza [q. v.] on 30 Jan. 1662. Here Beckman made plans of the place and of such fortifications as he considered necessary, estimated to cost 200,000l. A governor and garrison were left there, and the fleet proceeded to Lisbon to escort Queen Catherine to England. Beckman arrived with the fleet at Portsmouth on 14 May. Plans of the actions at Algiers were made by him and engraved.
A plan of Tangiers was sent home before the fleet returned, and Pepys mentions in his 'Diary' under date 28 Feb. 1662, that he presented to the Duke of York from Lord Sandwich 'a fine map of Tangiers, done by one Captain Martin Beckman, a Swede, that is with my lord. We stayed looking over it a great while with the duke.' This map is in the collection of George III in the British Museum,
In 1663 Beckman was committed a prisoner to the Tower of London. He stated, in a petition to the king and council for a trial, that he had been half a year a close prisoner through the malice of one person for discovering the designs of the Spaniards and others against his majesty. He thereupon left England. After the raid up the Medway by the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter in 1667, he wrote on 24 June to the king
