sold in the space of twenty-five years. He also founded and edited several popular periodicals, as the Deutsche Zeitung, the Reichsanzeiger, which, after the dissolution of the German empire, was continued until 1850 under the title Allgemeiner Anzeiger der Deutschen; and the Nationalzeitung der Deutschen. From November, 1811, till April, 1813, he was kept a prisoner by the French in the fortress of Magdeburg.—K. E.
BECKER, Nicolaus, was born at Geilenkirchen, near Aachen, 1816, and died 28th August, 1845. Living in obscurity as private secretary to an advocate in his native town, he obtained, in 1840, a sudden celebrity by his "Rheinlied" (Sie sollen ihn nicht haben, &c.), in which he happily expressed the general feeling of the German people, in answer to the warlike preparations and hankerings of the French. Upwards of 70 compositions of it appeared in the short space of a few weeks; but none of them powerful enough to be universally adopted. In almost every town the "Rheinlied" was sung by large crowds that night after night assembled in the streets. The kings of Prussia and Bavaria, perhaps more from political than literary motives, liberally rewarded and patronized the unpretending young poet, and Alfred de Musset sent him a reply in his song—"Nous l'avons eu votre Rhin Allemand." In the following year Becker published a volume of lyrics, which, however, proved their author to be possessed of a very indifferent poetic faculty, and, like himself, soon sank into oblivion.—K. E.
BECKER, Wilhelm Gottlieb, a German miscellaneous writer and antiquarian, was born at Oberkallenberg in Saxony, 4th November, 1753, and died at Dresden, 3rd June, 1813. In 1795 he was appointed keeper of the antiquities and coins, and, in 1805, of the Gröne Gewülbe at Dresden. For twenty-one years he was editor of the Taschenbuch zum Geselligen Vergnügen, and of the Erholungen, a well conducted and highly popular quarterly. His principal work, however, is the "Augusteum," in 2 vols., an excellent description of the Dresden antiquities, with 162 plates.—K. E.
BECKER, Wilhelm Adolf, son of the former, a distinguished archæologist, was born at Dresden in 1796, and died at Meissen, 30th September, 1846. Since 1842 he filled the chair of archæology in the university of Leipzig. His principal works, "Gallus, oder Römische Scenen aus der Zeit Augusts," "Charikles, oder Bilder griechischer Sitte," and his "Handbook of Roman Antiquities" (continued after his death by Professor Marquardt), have been translated into English.—K. E.
BECKERATH, Hermann de, a Prussian statesman and financier, born at Crefeld in December, 1801. In 1843 he was elected to represent in the diet the province of the Rhine. At the diet of 1845 he was appointed to draw up the address of the states to the king, on the important subject of the general representation of the country. He occupied an equally prominent position in the first general diet of 1847. After the events of March, 1848, he was intrusted with the portfolio of finance in the ministry of the empire. After the imperial election in the month of April, 1849, he was sent to Berlin to ascertain the opinion of the Prussian government on the position of affairs at that juncture. He soon after separated from his political friends, who were inclined to the adoption of measures which he deemed revolutionary, and resigned his office as minister of finance. As a statesman, he has been compared to Casmir Perier. He was, what would be called in Britain, a liberal conservative.—G. M.
BECKET, Isaac, a mezzotint engraver, born in Kent in 1653. He was a calico-printer, who was taken with a passion for the new art, and associated himself with a man who had learned the secret, but could not make use of it. He afterwards leagued himself with Lutterel, and married a woman of fortune. Lutterel drew, and he finished. One of Becket's best prints, Walpole says, is one of a Lady Williams. He engraved likenesses of Charles II., and many of his duchesses.—W. T.
BECKET, Thomas a', the great opponent of Henry II., in the struggle between the civil and ecclesiastical power, so famous in the annals of his reign. He was born in London in the year 1117, and was of Saxon lineage, the first, indeed, of the vanquished race who rose to any position of eminence in England under the Norman rulers. He received a liberal education at Oxford, and at several of the continental universities, being enabled to prosecute his studies abroad, through the kindness of his patron, Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who had secured to him several preferments and offices. On his return to England, he was raised by the primate to the archdeaconry of Canterbury, and was afterwards sent to Rome on some business connected with the see. The manner in which he conducted his negotiations there, gave proof of his great ability. He was successful in having the legatine power restored to Canterbury; and the fact that he procured from the pope the letters which defeated the project for the crowning of Eustace, Stephen's son, recommended him powerfully to Henry II., whose accession he thus assisted. That prince soon raised him to the dignity of lord high chancellor, and placed him in various positions, from which he derived great wealth. He gave him the rich baronies of Eye and Berkham, and intrusted him with the education of the young prince Henry, the heir-apparent to the throne. Nor was Becket's style of living unworthy of these high dignities; he had a retinue only second to that of his master, was distinguished for the sumptuousness of his furniture and the luxury of his table, at which the highest nobles of the land were proud to sit, and at which the royal Henry himself sometimes deigned to appear. Though a churchman in deacon's orders, he joined freely in the gay amusements and warlike occupations of the age, kept a magnificent stud for hunting, and on several occasions, at Toulouse and on the borders of Normandy, he distinguished himself in military action.
Meanwhile Theobald died, leaving the see of Canterbury vacant. It had been for a good while a principal object of Henry's policy to diminish and fix within reasonable bounds the power of the church, which had grown to such an alarming extent, and which now, throughout the countries of Europe, threatened the subversion of the royal power. As Becket had shown a willingness to aid in that design, and as every confidence could be placed in his high ability, the king immediately took measures to insure his election to the vacant office. No sooner, however, had he attained the archiepiscopal dignity, than his demeanour and mode of life became changed; the gay courtier sought to win a name for peculiar sanctity and humility. He seemed determined to devote all his energies to his new office, and at once, to the astonishment of the king, resigned his chancellorship. This sudden change has, as might have been expected, been variously interpreted. The charge of hypocrisy has, of course, been made, while the more charitable and not impossible explanation has been given, that his mind became so impressed with the sacred responsibilities of the office to which he had been raised, that he sought to render himself more worthy of it, and better fitted for the discharge of its duties. Be this as it may, it is certain that the sagacity of no monarch was ever more at fault than that of Henry, when he sought to aid his schemes for diminishing ecclesiastical power by the elevation of Thomas Becket to the primacy of England. The archbishop became the avowed champion of the church; nor did he wait to stand only on the defensive, but sought at once to overawe the king by the boldness of his measures. It seems not unlikely that the grand motive which led to his stern opposition to the royal power, was his feeling as a Saxon, He belonged to the conquered race. No one of that nation since Harold fell, had ever before attained a dignity which made opposition effective. But here, at the head of the church, clad in sacred vestments, with the thunders of ecclesiastical censure in his hand, stood the Saxon Becket. Surely now, if ever, is the time to humble the proud Norman king. His first step was to order the earl of Clare to resign the barony of Tunbridge, which, though it had been the property of his house ever since the Conquest, had formerly belonged to the see of Canterbury. He next passed sentence of excommunication on William de Eyneford, because he had expelled from a living of which he was patron, one Lawrence, whom Becket had placed there in defiance of Eyneford's right. Eyneford complained to the king, who ordered the archbishop to absolve him. He at first refused to acknowledge the royal authority in such matters, and not till after many remonstrances was he induced to comply.
Henry, though sadly disappointed in his schemes, was nothing daunted, but saw in the opposition of one so gifted as his former confidant, only another reason why the power of his order should be curbed. Amid many minor questions, the great point of dispute was, whether the clergy should be subject to the civil power in civil and criminal causes. Ecclesiastical councils had decreed that they should not, and in consequence the most flagrant crimes were committed by men in holy orders, who were not subject to punishment by the magistrate, but only to the censures of the church. Henry took his stand on
