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BAZALGETTE — BEACONSFIELD
returning to Africa as captain in 1839. During the succeeding decade he saw much active service in Africa, and rose to be a brigadier-general with the charge of the district of Tlemcen. In the Crimean war he commanded a brigade and maintained his reputation in the trenches before Sebastopol. On the capture of the south side he was appointed governor of the place, and was promoted general of division. He commanded the French forces in the expedition to Kinburn (commander, Legion of Honour). In Lombardy in 1859 he was wounded when in command of the third division of the first corps in the attack upon Melegnano, and took a conspicuous part in the battle of Solferino (grand cross, Legion of Honour). He commanded the first division under Marshal Forey in the Mexican expedition in 1862, succeeded him in supreme command in 1863, and became a marshal and senator of France in the following year. He at first pursued the war with great vigour and success, entering Mexico in 1863, and driving President Juarez to the frontier. He organized a system of guerilla warfare which was carried out with barbarity. He married a rich Mexican lady, whose family were supporters of Juarez, and it was alleged that he was not true to the Emperor Maximilian. At any rate there were grave differences, and finally the French forces were withdrawn. The retreat and embarkation at Vera Cruz were skilfully conducted by Bazaine in 1867. On his return to Paris he was appointed to the command of the third army corps at Nancy, and in 1869 commander-in-chief of the imperial guard at Paris. In the Franco-German war he commanded the army of the Rhine, and, after the sanguinary battles round Metz, was shut up in that fortress with an army of 170,000 men, which surrendered in October 1870. On his return to France he was tried by court-martial, found guilty of negotiating with and capitulating to the enemy before doing all that was prescribed by duty and honour, and sentenced to degradation and death, but recommended to mercy. His sentence was commuted to twenty years’ seclusion, and the humiliating ceremonies attending degradation were dispensed with. He was incarcerated in the lie Sainte Marguerite, whence he escaped in 1874 to Italy. He finally took up his abode in Madrid, where he died on the 23rd of September 1888. He published an account of his share in the war and a justification of his conduct. He also wrote L'Armee du Rhin, describing its operations to the date of the surrender of Metz. (r. h. v.) Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William (1819-1891), English engineer, was born at Enfield on 28th March 1819. At the age of seventeen he was articled as pupil to an engineer, and a few years later he began to practise successfully on his own account. His name is best known for the engineering works he carried out in London, especially for the construction of the main drainage system and the Thames embankment. In 1848 the control of London drainage, which had hitherto been divided among eight distinct municipal bodies, was consolidated under twelve commissioners, who were in 1849 superseded by a second commission. Under the latter Bazalgette accepted an appointment which he continued to hold under the three successive commissions which in the course of a year or two followed the second one, and when finally in 1855 these fleeting and ineffective bodies were replaced by the Metropolitan Board of Works, he was at once appointed its chief engineer. His plans were ready, but the work was delayed by official obstruction and formality until 1858. Once begun, however, it was vigorously pushed on, and in 1865 the Prince of Wales was able formally to open the system, which consisted of 83 miles of large intercepting sewers, draining more
than 100 square miles of buildings, and calculated to deal with 420 million gallons a day. The cost was £4,600,000. Almost simultaneously Bazalgette was engaged on the plans for the Thames embankment. The section between Westminster and Vauxhall on the Surrey side was built between 1860 and 1869, and the length between Westminster and Blackfriars was declared open by the Prince of Wales in 1870. The Chelsea embankment followed in 1871-74, and in 1876 Northumberland Avenue was formed. The total outlay on the scheme exceeded two millions sterling. Bazalgette was also responsible for various other engineering works in the metropolitan area, designing, for example, new bridges at Putney and Battersea and the steam ferry between North and South Woolwich. He also prepared plans for a bridge over the river near the Tower and for a tunnel under it at Blackwall, but did not live to see either of these projects carried out. He died on 15th March 1891 at Wimbledon. Bazeilles, a town in the arrondissement of Sedan, department of Ardennes, France, 2-1 miles S.E. of Sedan. The town was the scene of one of the earliest conflicts in the war of 1870. After a most sanguinary struggle during two days, Aug. 31-Sept. 1, it was taken by the Prussians and given up to the flames; it was subsequently rebuilt by national subscription. Population (1896), 1276 ; (1901), 1406. Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of (1804-1881), British statesman, second child and eldest son of Isaac Disraeli and Maria Basevi, who were married in 1802, was born at No. 6 John Street, Bedford Bow, on the 21st of December 1804. Of Isaac Disraeli’s other children, Sarah was born in 1802, Naphtali in 1807, Italph (Raphael) in 1809, and James (Jacob) in 1813. None of the family was akin to Benjamin for genius and character, except Sarah, to whom he was deeply indebted for a wise, unswerving, and sympathetic devotion, when, in his earlier days, he needed it most. All Isaac Disraeli’s children were born into the .Jewish communion, in which, however, they were not to grow up. It is a reasonable inference from Isaac’s temperament, character, and history, that he was never at ease in the ritual of Judaism. He was in troubled relations with his synagogue for some years before the death of his father, whom he was naturally unwilling to hurt or offend by declared secession. His father died in the winter of 1816. Soon afterwards Isaac formally withdrew with all his household from the Jewish church. His son Benjamin, who had been admitted to it ■with the usual rites eight days after his birth, was baptized at St Andrew’s Church in Holborn on the 31st of July 1817. One of Isaac Disraeli’s reasons for quitting the tents of his people was that rabbinical Judaism, with its unyielding laws and fettering ceremonies, “ cuts off the Jews from the great family of mankind.” Little did he know, when therefoi’e he cut off the Disraeli family from Judaism, what great things he was doing for one small member of it. The future prime minister was then short of thirteen years old, and there was yet time to provide the utmost freedom which his birth allowed for the faculties and ambitions he was born with. Taking the worldly view alone, of course, most fortunate for his aspirations in youth was his withdrawal from Judaism in childhood. That it was fully sanctioned by his intellect at maturity is evident; but the vindication of unbiassed choice would not have been readily accepted had Disraeli abandoned Judaism of his own will at the pushing Vivian Grey period or after. And though a mind like Disraeli’s might work to satisfaction with Christianity as “ completed Judaism,” it could but dwell on a breach of continuity which means so much to Jews and which he was never
