Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/116

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BELMORE—BELT.
99

education. She has made the writings of Miss Edgeworth, the "Vicar of Wakefield," &c., popular in France, and has translated Moore's "Life of Byron" into French. Madame Belloe is best known for her labours in the cause of female education in France. Assisted by Mdlle. Montgolfier, she organized a select circulating library, designed to supplant in some measure those reading-rooms which introduced the most dangerous works to the public. The two ladies combined in editing a monthly journal for the use of families, and in the preparation of books, some of which received the honours of the Académie, intended for the young.


BELMORE, The Right Hon. Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, Fourth Earl of, son of the third Earl, whom he succeeded in 1845, was born in London in 1835, and educated at Cambridge. He was elected a representative peer for Ireland in 1857; was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in Lord Derby's third administration, from July, 1866, to July, 1867; and was Governor of New South Wales from Jan., 1868, to Feb., 1872.


BELOT, Adolphe, was born at Pointe-à-Pitre, in the island of Guadeloupe, Nov. 6, 1829, and while yet very young travelled extensively in the United States, Brazil, and other parts of North and South America. He studied law at Paris, and became an advocate at the bar of Nancy in 1854. His first attempt in literature was "Châtiment" (Paris, 1855), a novel, which failed to attract attention. Two years later be brought out "À la Campagne," a one-act comedy, which gave no indication of the immense and lasting success of his second dramatic composition, "Le Testament de César Girodot," a comedy in three acts, written in conjunction with M. Charles Edmond Villetard, and first performed at the Odéon Theatre, Paris, Sept. 30, 1859. This play still holds possession of the French stage. M. Belot has written a large number of other dramatic pieces, including "Fromont jeune et Risler aîné," founded on the celebrated novel of M. Alphonse Daudet. He is also the author of numerous novels, some of which have passed through as many as forty editions. The most celebrated of these is "Mademoiselle Giraud, ma femme" (1870), a work distinguished rather by its immoral audacity than by its literary merit. His later works are "Le Parricide" (1873), in conjunction with M. J. Dautin; "Dacolard et Lubin," a sequel to the preceding (1874); "Mémoires d'un Caissier;" "Hélène et Mathilde;" "La Femme de Feu;" "Deux Femmes;" "Folies de Jeunesse;" "La Sultane Parisienne," an English translation of which appeared in 1879; and an elaborate romance in four volumes (1875–6), entitled respectively,—"Les Mystères Mondains;" "Les Baigneuses de Trouville;" "Madame Vitel et Mademoiselle Lelièvre;" and "Une Maison centrale de Femmes." His drama, "Les Étrangleurs de Paris," was acted for the first time at the Porte Saint-Martin Theatre, March 17, 1880. M. Belot was nominated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1867.


BELT, Richard, sculptor, born in 1851, in Smith Square, Westminster, was educated at Baroness Burdett Coutts' School, Westminster. He left school at the age of nine, was admitted into Mr. Foley's studio in 1869, and became a student of the Royal Academy in 1871. He exhibited his first work in 1873, and up to the present time has every year exhibited several sculptures. Mr. Belt is a member of the Royal Institution, and on the Council of the Society of Fine Arts. He has executed several public works, amongst them the Memorial in Stafford Church to Izaak Walton,