tangible result, and the historic rapprochement between Great Britain, France and Russia took its course. Benckendorff in London was excellently placed to keep up and to develop this policy. Liberal, courteous, a shrewd observer, loyal and watch- ful in the cause of Russia, he maintained the best possible re- lations with Lord Lansdowne and Sir Edward Grey, and became a favourite at Court and in London society. He was peculiarly adapted for the wise and skilful treatment of difficult problems in the spirit of an international set, playing the great game of diplo- macy with grace and honour. He had to face the dominant fact of the situation the aggressive pressure of Germany at a time when Russia was drifting into an internal crisis of the first magni- tude and was unable to concentrate the material and moral forces required in the coming conflict. Unpleasant retreats had to be effected twice, before the Kaiser "in shining armour": the first time after Aehrenthal's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the second after the blocking of the Serbian advance towards the Adriatic. Benckendorff was one of those who knew how to abide his time, and he did not lose heart. There were greater trials in store when the World War broke out at last. His younger son fell in one of the first battles on the East Prussian front, and he lived to see the collapse of the corrupt military organization of Russia in the campaign of 1915. Fortunately for him, he did not live to see the debacle of Russian society in 1917. He died Jan. n 1917- (P.Vi.)
BENEDICT XV. (GIACOMO DELLA CHIESA), Pope (1854- ), was born at Genoa on Nov. 21 1854. In contrast to his immedi-
ate predecessor Pius X., who was of humble origin, and whose
ministerial experience was mainly pastoral, Benedict XV. was
descended from one of the most ancient of the noble families of
Italy, >and his work and training had been chiefly in the official
or diplomatic service of the Holy See. His ancestors in the Middle
Ages were enrolled in the patricians of Genoa, while other branches
of his family followed the popes to Avignon in the I4th century,
and eventually their sons took service in the army of the king of
France, under the name of d'Eglise. His brother served as rear-
admiral in the Italian navy. .
Giacomo della Chiesa was educated in the seminary and at the university of Genoa, where he took his degree as Doctor of Law in 1875. Afterwards he went to Rome and studied for the priest- hood in the Collegio Capranica from which he passed to the Accademia dei nobili Ecclesiastici, the usual training school for those who devote themselves to the " camera " or diplomatic service of the Vatican. Here he became the friend and favourite of Cardinal Rampolla who, on being sent in 1883 as papal nuncio to Madrid, took Mgr. della Chiesa with him as his private secretary. He remained in Spain four years, and in 1887, when Leo XIII. recalled Cardinal Rampolla to make him his secretary of state, Mgr. della Chiesa returned to Rome in the suite of his patron, and was given the post of minutante in his department. In this, his work was the summarizing and inditing of the official letters and dispatches of the Holy See, combined with the func- tions of confidential secretary. As he discharged these duties for 13 years, he had a full opportunity of acquiring a unique knowl- edge of the international relations of the Church throughout the world. In 1903, when Cardinal Merry del Val succeeded Cardinal Rampolla as secretary of state, Mgr. della Chiesa was retained in his post. On Dec. 16 1907, Pius X. appointed him Archbishop of Bologna, and on May 25 1914 raised him to the dignity of cardinal. The outbreak of the World War in Aug. of that year, and the death of Pius X. a few weeks later, found him in the midst of the pastoral duties of his great diocese. At this time, as Cardinal-Archbishop of Bologna, he delivered a remarkable address on the attitude and duty of the Church during the war, and strongly emphasized the paramount importance of the Holy See observing strict neutrality, not of indifference, but of impartiality, while leaving nothing undone to restore peace and good-will and to mitigate suffering. The address caused a deep impression, and it was no doubt much in the minds of the car- dinals when they assembled in conclave for the election of a new pope on the last day of Aug. 1914. On Sept. 3, after 10 scru- tinies or votings, Cardinal della Chiesa was elected by a large majority, and was proclaimed from the balcony of St. Peter's as Benedict XV.
BENNETT, CHARLES EDWIN (1858-1921), American classical scholar (see 3.740), died May 2 1921 at Ithaca, N.Y. His later
publications include Syntax of Early Latin (two vols., 1910, 1914) ;
New Latin Composition (1912) and Horace's Odes and Epodes
(1914, in the Loeb Classical Library).
BENNETT, [ENOCH] ARNOLD (1867- ), English novelist and playwright, was born in the Potteries district, Staffs., May
27 1867. Educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme, he was in-
tended for the law, but abandoned it in 1893 for journalism.
He was assistant-editor and then editor of the periodical
Woman, but in 1900 gave up journalism and became a prolific
writer of books, especially novels illustrating the life of his
native district, early examples of which were Anna of the Five
Towns (1902) and The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907).
In 1908 he established his reputation as a novelist with The
Old Wives' Tale, followed by the series Clayhanger (1910); Hilda
Lessways (1911) and, much later, The Roll Call (1919). But he
also adventured into other genres of fiction, sensational, humor-
ous and ironical, of which The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902);
Sacred and Profane Love (1905, dramatized 1919); Buried Alive
(1908); The Card (1911); The Regent (1913); The Lion's
Share (1916) and The Pretty Lady (1918) are examples. His
plays, especially The Great Adventure (dramatized in 1913 from
the novel Buried Alive); What the Public Wants (1909); The
Honeymoon (1911); Milestones (with Edward Knoblock, 1912)
and The Title (1918) showed him a master of modern comedy;
and he also produced in Judith (1919), a modernized version of
the biblical story. In 1920 he published Our Women, a series of
essays on modern feminine types and feminist problems.
BENNETT, JAMES GORDON (1841-1918), American news-paper proprietor (see 3.741), died May 14 1918, in Paris,
whence he had long directed the policies of the New York
Herald. In his will he provided for the establishment of " The
James Gordon Bennett Memorial Home for New York Journalists " in memory of his father, the founder of the New York Herald.
BENSON, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER (1862- ), English
man of letters (see 3.745), was in 1915 elected master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Among his recent books are Ruskin: a Study in Personality (1911) and biographies of his brother
Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother (1915) and of his sister Life and Letters of Maggie Benson (1917), besides various volumes of essays and prose sketches.
His younger brother, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (1867- ), published after 1910 a large number of novels, amongst which may be mentioned Thorley Weir (1913); Dodo the Second (1914); David Blaize (1916); Mr. Teddy (1917); The Countess of Lowndes Square (1920). He also wrote a one-act comedy, Dinner for Eight, which was successfully produced at the Ambassadors' theatre, London, in March 1915.
The youngest brother, ROBERT HUGH BENSON (1871-1914), died at Salford Oct. 19 1914. In 1911 he was appointed private chamberlain to Pope Pius X. His later books include The Dawn of All (1911), a curious forecast of England under Catholic government; Come Rack! Come Rope! (1912); An Average Man (1913) and Initiation (1914).
BENSON, SIR FRANCIS ROBERT (1858- ), English actor, (see 3.745), was knighted in 1916. During the World War he served for over two years as an orderly in a canteen managed by Lady Benson, first near Belfort and later at St. Just and near
Senlis. In 1918 he was attached as an ambulance driver to various French regiments engaged in the Somme and Aisne campaign, and he received the Croix de Guerre on the battlefield near Oudenarde.
BENSON, WILLIAM SHEPHERD (1855- ), American naval officer, was born at Macon, Ga., Sept. 25 1855. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1877, and after various promotions became captain in 1909 and rear-admiral in 1915. He had been commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard two years when, in 1915, he was appointed chief of naval
