[Beachy Head], a chalk cliff in Sussex, 575 ft. high, projecting into the English Channel; famous for a naval engagement between the allied English and Dutch fleets and those of France, in which the latter were successful.
[Beaconsfield], capital of the gold-mining district in Tasmania; also a town in Buckinghamshire, 10 m. N. of Windsor, from which Benjamin Disraeli took his title on his elevation to the peerage.
[Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of], English novelist and politician, born in London; son of Isaac D'Israeli, littérateur, and thus of Jewish parentage; was baptized at the age of 12; educated under a Unitarian minister; studied law, but did not qualify for practice. His first novel, "Vivian Grey," appeared in 1826, and thereafter, whenever the business of politics left him leisure, he devoted it to fiction. "Contarini Fleming," "Coningsby," "Tancred," "Lothair," and "Endymion" are the most important of a brilliant and witty series, in which many prominent personages are represented and satirised under thin disguises. His endeavours to enter Parliament as a Radical failed twice in 1832; in 1835 he was unsuccessful again as a Tory. His first seat was for Maidstone in 1837; thereafter he represented Shrewsbury and Buckinghamshire. For 9 years he was a free-lance in the House, hating the Whigs, and after 1842 leading the Young England party; his onslaught on the Corn Law repeal policy of 1846 made him leader of the Tory Protectionists. He was for a short time Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Derby in 1852, and coolly abandoned Protection. Returning to power with his chief six years later, he introduced a Franchise Bill, the defeat of which threw out the Government. In office a third time in 1866, he carried a democratic Reform Bill, giving household suffrage in boroughs and extending the county franchise. Succeeding Lord Derby in 1868, he was forced to resign soon afterwards. In 1874 he entered his second premiership. Two years were devoted to home measures, among which were Plimsoll's Shipping Act and the abolition of Scottish Church patronage. Then followed a showy foreign policy. The securing of the half of the Suez Canal shares for Britain; the proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India; the support of Constantinople against Russia, afterwards stultified by the Berlin Congress, which he himself attended; the annexation of Cyprus; the Afghan and Zulu wars, were its salient features. Defeated at the polls in 1880 he resigned, and died next year. A master of epigram and a brilliant debater, he really led his party. He was the opposite in all respects of his protagonist, Mr. Gladstone. Lacking in zeal, he was yet loyal to England, and a warm personal friend of the Queen (1804-1881).
[Bear], name given in the Stock Exchange to one who contracts to deliver stock at a fixed price on a certain day, in contradistinction from the bull, or he who contracts to take it, the interest of the former being that, in the intervening time, the stocks should fall, and that of the latter that they should rise.
[Bear, Great]. See [Ursa Major].
[Beam], an ancient prov. of France, fell to the crown with the accession of Henry IV. in 1589; formed a great part of the dep. of Basses-Pyrénées, capital Pau.
[Beatification], religious honour allowed by the pope to certain who are not so eminent in sainthood as to entitle them to canonisation.
[Beaton], or Bethune, David, cardinal, archbishop of St. Andrews, and primate of the kingdom, born in Fife; an adviser of James V., twice over ambassador to France; on the death of James secured to himself the chief power in Church and State as Lord High Chancellor and Papal Legate; opposed alliance with England; persecuted the Reformers; condemned George Wishart to the stake, witnessed his sufferings from a window of his castle in St. Andrews, and was assassinated within its walls shortly after; with his death ecclesiastical tyranny of that type came to an end in Scotland (1494-1546).
[Beaton, James], archbishop of Glasgow and St. Andrews, uncle of the preceding, a prominent figure in the reign of James V.; was partial to affiliation with France, and a persecutor of the Reformers; d. 1539.
[Beattie, James], a poet and essayist, born at Laurencekirk; became professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen; wrote an "Essay on Truth" against Hume; his most admired poem, "The Minstrel," a didactic piece, traces the progress of poetic genius, admitted him to the Johnsonian circle in London, obtained for him the degree of LL.D. from Oxford, and brought him a pension of £200 per annum from the king; died at Aberdeen (1735-1803).