592 BESSEMER BESTUZHEFF-RIUMIN edited by his friend Schumacher, was pub- lished in Hamburg in 1848. BESSEMER, Henry, an English engineer, born in Hertfordshire in 1813. He early devoted himself to the improvement of machinery, and acquired celebrity about 20 years ago by his invention of a new practical process for the manufacture of steel (see STEEL), which has been extensively adopted in Europe and in the United States, and the product of which is known in trade as Bessemer steel. Until 1870 his annual income from his patent amounted to nearly 100,000 ; but his royalty, which until then was one shilling per quintal, has since been considerably reduced. The jury on steel manufactures, in the exposition of 1862, remarked that of 127 patents for improvements in that industry in England, there was only one which had brought about any striking change in the mode of producing steel, or which had been attended with any real or practical com- mercial result, and this was the process pat- ented by Mr. Bessemer. The report on the Paris universal exposition of 1867 states that " Mr. Bessemer was not the first to attempt the conversion of carburetted iron into steel, although he was the first to propose a prac- ticable process for accomplishing so desirable an object." BESSIERES, Jean Baptistf, duke of Istria, a French soldier, born at Praissac, Aug. 5, 1768, killed near Lutzen, May 1, 1813. He entered the service in 1790, and after the victory of Roveredo, Sept. 4, 1796, Bonaparte made him colonel. Commander of the guards of the gen- eral-in-chief in Italy and Egypt, he remained attached to that corps for the greater part of his life. In 1802 he became general of division, and in 1804 marshal. He fought in the battles of Rivoli, St. Jean d'Acre, Abonkir, Marengo (where he commanded the last decisive caval- ry charge), Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, and Fried- land. In 1808 he achieved a victory at Me- dina del Rio Seco in Spain. After the fail- ure of the English Walcheren expedition, Na- poleon substituted Bessieres for Bernadotte in command of the Belgian army. In the same year (1809) he was created duke of Istria. At the head of a cavalry division he routed the Austrian general Hohenzollern at the battle of Aspern and Essling. In the Russian expedition he acted as chief commander of the mounted guard, and on the opening of the German cam- paign of 1813 he was at the head of the French cavalry. He fell while attacking a defile on the Rippach in Saxony, on the eve of the battle of Lutzen. Napoleon, fearing to discourage his soldiers, with whom Bessieres was exceedingly popular, prevented for some time the announce- ment of his death. Greatly affected by his gallant end, and mourning him as one of his most skilful and devoted officers, he wrote a touching letter of condolence to the duchess of Istria, and bequeathed at St. Helena 100,000 francs to the son. A statue in honor of Bes- sieres has been erected in his native town, and his name was inscribed on the arch of triumph and on the bronze tablets at Versailles. BESTU/HEFF, Alexander, a Russian poet and ! patriot, born at his father's country seat in the j government of Voronezh in 1795, killed in bat- tle in the Caucasus in June, 1837. He was edu- cated in one of the imperial military establish- ments, and became aide-de-camp of Duke Alox- i ander of Wilrtemberg in 1825. He edited joint- i ly with Ryeleyeff, in 1823, the literary almanac j entitled the "Northern Star," and with him j became implicated in the conspiracy and insur- rection of 1825. For this he was degraded to the rank of a private without the privilege of promotion, and sent to Yakutsk in Siberia, to- gether with his equally implicated brothers Ni- cholas and Michael, Ryeleyeff being executed. Here, under the name of the Cossack Marlinsky, lie wrote small novels and sketches for the " Tel- egraph," a periodical of Moscow, and for some others. After two or three years, by a special order of the emperor Nicholas, he was transfer- red to the army of the Caucasus. There his ad- venturous and dangerous life had its effect on his style, and he now showed a great talent for description and for analysis of human character and passions. The more considerable of his writings during this period are two novels, Mullah Nur and Ammalat Beg. Toward the year 1836 Nicholas relented and permitted the advancement of BestuzhefF from the ranks; but shortly afterward he was killed, along with a considerable detachment of Russian soldiers, by the mountaineers, in an ambush near Yeka- terinodar. BKSTIZHKFF-RHMIN, a Russian family of English origin, originally named Best. On their settlement in Russia they took the name of Ruma, which was changed by Peter the Great to Riumin. PETER MIKHAILOVITCH was Russian minister at Hamburg, and received the rank of count from Peter. MIKHAIL, his son, born in 1686, was Russian ambassador at Stockholm, grand marshal under the empress Elizabeth, and from 1756 to 1760 ambassador at Paris. His wife, sister of Count Golovkin, entered into a conspiracy with Lapushin against Elizabeth, on the discovery of which she was knouted, had her tongue cut out, and was exiled to Siberia. ALEXEI, count, brother of Mikhail, born in Moscow in 1693, died in April, 1766. He was educated at Berlin and Hanover, where he was presented to George I. of England and entered his service. In 1718 he returned to Russia, and was sent by Peter the Great as ambassador to Copenhagen. Un- der Anna he was minister to Hamburg and Copenhagen, and afterward a cabinet minister. Under Elizabeth he was made grand chancel- lor of the empire. In 1745 he concluded a treaty of alliance with England, and in 1743 a treaty with Sweden by which the royal suc- cession in that country was regulated accord- ing to the wishes of Russia. In 1746 he formed a treaty of alliance with Austria against France and Prussia, and in 1748 sent an army into
