he graduated in high mathematical honours. He was intended for the Church, and obtained several theological prizes, but abandoned this career. Then he was appointed Senior Professor in the Royal College of Mauritius, but was compelled by ill health to resign, and returned to England, where he has since resided. In 1868 he produced his first work, "Studies in Early French Poetry." In 1873 he brought out "The French Humourists;" in 1877, "Rabelais," for the "Ancient and Foreign Classics;" in 1879, "Coligny;" and in 1881, "Whittington," for the "New Plutarch" series, of which he is one of the editors. Mr. Besant has acted for many years as secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund, in which capacity he wrote in 1871 a "History of Jerusalem," with the late Professor Palmer; and he is now editor of the great work entitled "The Survey of Western Palestine." He has contributed to most of the magazines. In 1871 he entered into the partnership with the late Mr. James Rice, which produced the series of novels that bear their joint name. Mr. Besant has also written, under his own name, "The Revolt of Man," and "All Sorts and Conditions of Men: an impossible story," 1882. He also, with Mr. Rice, put on the stage two plays, one performed at the Royal Court, a dramatic version of "Ready Money Mortiboy;" and the other, "Such a Good Man," the play from which their story bearing the same title was written. Mr. Besant's most recent literary productions are a biography of the late Professor Palmer (1883); and "The Captain's Room," a novel (1883).
BESCHERELLE, Louis Nicolas, was born at Paris, June 10, 1802, studied at the Bourbon College, and became librarian of the Louvre in 1828. He devoted his attention to a critical study of the French language. He published three very able works, in which he showed that general usage and the authority of standard writers were at variance with the arbitrary rules laid down by modern theorists. The titles of these works are, "Le Participe Passé ramené à sa véritable Origine" (1820); "Revue Grammaticale, ou Réfutation des principales Erreurs des Grammairiens" (1829); and "Refutation Complète de la Grammaire de MM. Nöel et Chapsal" (1838). M. Bescherelle is also the author of a number of grammars and dictionaries for use in schools. The best known of these are:—"Grammaire Nationale" (2 vols., 1834–38, 5th edit. 1852); "Dictionnaire Usuel de tous les Verbes Français" (2 vols., 1842–43); "Dictionnaire National, ou Grand Dictionnaire Critique de la Langue Française" (2 vols., 1843–46); "Grand Dictionnaire de Géographie Universelle" (4 vols., 1856–58, new edit. 1865, compiled in collaboration with M. Devars); "Petit Dictionnaire National" (1857); and "Grammaire pour Tous" (1865).
BESSEMER, Sir Henry, F.R.S., civil engineer and inventor, whose name is inseparably associated with the development of the steel industry of England and other countries, is a son of the late Mr. Anthony Bessemer, of Old Broad Street, London, and subsequently of Charlton, Hertfordshire, where the subject of this notice was born, Jan. 19, 1813. He was, to a very great extent, self-taught, and at 20 years of age he exhibited a design at the Royal Academy, then located at Somerset House. He first attracted the attention of Lord Althorp, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, by an ingenious contrivance which he made for preventing frauds which were perpetrated on a large scale by the transfer of stamps from old documents to new ones; but, though the saving to the public purse was estimated at nearly £400,000 a year, he never received any remuneration for his ingenuity. In 1856 he read
