918
REDESDALE.
after publishing an eloquent appeal to his countrymen in favour of con- ciliation^ flung in his lot with the Commune, and was taken prisoner by the Versailles troops as early as April 6, while making a reconnais- sance near Ohatillon. At his trial evidence was given in his favour by M. E. Charton, a deputy in the National Assembly, and the editor of several works on geography. M. Nadar^ the well-known aeronaut, under whom the prisoner had served dtiring the siege of Paris, also spoke to his high character and great scientific attainments. But M. Be- clus was nevertheless sentenced to transportation for life (Nov., 1871). His sentence was, however, com- muted into one of banishment in Feb., 1862. He subsequently re- sided at Lugano, in Switzerland. He was admitted to the benefit of the amnesty in March, 1879. In 1882 he gained fresh notoriety as the practical initiator of the Anti- Marriage Movement J and two of his own daughters were actually "married" in his own fashion without any religious or civil cere- mony. The third volume of his " Geographic Universelle " was publi5ied in 1877.
REDESDALE (Eabl op). The Bight Hon. John Thohas Free- man MiTPOBD, son of John Mitford, first Lord Bedesdale, by Lady Frances Percival, sixth daughter of John, second Earl of Egmont, was bom in Ireland. Sept. 9, 1805. His father was a distinguished lawyer, who, after having filled the offices of Solicitor and Attorney-General, and Speaker of the House of Commons in England, was, in 1802, appointed Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, and raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Bedesdale, of Bedesdale in Northumberland, The first peer, who was younger brother to William Mitford, the historian of Greece, assumed the surname and arms of Freeman in 1809. His son, the present Earl of Bedesdale, received
his education at Eton and at New College, Oxford (B.A., 1825; M.A., 1828; hon. D.C.L., 1853). On the death of his father, Jan. 16, 1830, he succeeded him as Baron Bedesdale. At the commencement of the sessiim of 1851 he was elected Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords in the room of the late Earl of Shaftesbmy, who had a short time previously re- signed. Sinoe that period he has exercised great influence over the Private Bill legislation of the XTppor House. One of his duties is to preside at the sittings of the Peers when Bills are passing through Committee of the whole House, and since 1851 he has rarely been absent from his place at the table. He was advanced to an earldom in Dec., 1876. His lordship has always taken a deep interest in religious questions. As a member of the Boyal Commission on the Law of Divorce, he found himself unable to sign the report, having come to the conclusion that divorces d vinculo matrimonii are not allowed by the Divine law under any circum- stances. This view of the subject he vindicated in a pamphlet enti&ed "The Law of Scripture against Divorce," 1856. Previously to this he had published " Beflections on the Doctrine of Begeneration, and its connection wWi both Sacra- mente," 2nd edit. 1849 ; and "Ob- servations on the Judgment in the Gorham Case and 3ie Way to Unity," 1850. In 1874 he published "Beasoning^ on some Disputed Points of Doctrine," and in 1875 he entered into a controversy with Cardinal Manning, in the columns of a daily newspaper, on Conunu- i nion in both kinds. His lordship ^ strenuously opposed the disestab- lishment and disendowment of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Ireland, mainly on the ground that the consent of the Queen could not be given to such a measure, inas- mu<3i as she had taken at her coro- nation an oath to maintain and
