BELLIGERENCY, the state of carrying on war (Lat. bellum, war, and gerere, to wage) in accordance with the law of nations. Insurgents are not as such excluded from recognition as belligerents, and, even where not recognized as belligerents by the government against which they have rebelled, they may be so recognized by a neutral state, as in the case of the American Civil War, when the Southern states were recognized as belligerents by Great Britain, though regarded as rebels by the Northern states. The recognition by a neutral state of belligerency does not, however, imply recognition of independent political existence. The regulations annexed to the Hague Convention, relating to the laws and customs of war (29th of July 1899), contain a section entitled “Belligerents” which is divided into three chapters, dealing respectively with (i.) The Qualifications of Belligerents; (ii.) Prisoners of War; (iii.) The Sick and Wounded. To entitle troops to the special privileges attaching to belligerency, chapter i. provides that all regular, militia or volunteer forces shall alike be commanded by persons responsible for the acts of their men, that all such shall carry distinctive emblems, recognizable at a distance, that arms shall be carried openly and operations conducted in accordance with the usages of war observed among civilized mankind. It provides, nevertheless, for the emergency of the population of a territory, which has not already been occupied by the invader, spontaneously taking up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to comply with the above requirements; they, too, are to be treated as belligerents “if they respect the laws and customs of war.” In naval war, privateering having been finally abolished as among the parties to it by the declaration of Paris, a privateer is not entitled, as between such parties, to the rights of belligerency. As between states, one of whom is not a party to the Declaration, the right to grant letters of marque would remain intact for both parties, and the privateer, as between them, would be a belligerent; as regards neutrals, the situation would be complicated (see [Privateer]). On prisoners of war and sick and wounded, see [War].
(T. Ba.)
BELLINGHAM, SIR EDWARD (d. 1549), lord deputy of Ireland, was a son of Edward Bellingham of Erringham, Sussex, his mother being a member of the Shelley family. As a soldier he fought in France and elsewhere, then became an English member of parliament and a member of the privy council, and in 1547 took part in some military operations in Ireland. In May 1548 he was sent to that country as lord deputy. Ireland was then in a very disturbed condition, but the new governor crushed a rebellion of the O’Connors in Leinster, freed the Pale from rebels, built forts, and made the English power respected in Münster and Connaught. Bellingham, however, was a headstrong man and was constantly quarrelling with his council; but one of his opponents admitted that he was “the best man of war that ever he had seen in Ireland.” His short but successful term of office was ended by his recall in 1549.
See R. Bagwell, Ireland Under the Tudors, vol. i. (1885).
BELLINGHAM, a city of Whatcom county, Washington, U.S.A., on the E. side of Bellingham Bay, 96 m. N. of Seattle. Pop. (1900) 11,062; (1905, state est.) 26,000; (1910, U.S. census) 24,298. Area about 23 sq. m. It is served by the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian Pacific, and the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia railways—being a terminus of the last named, which operates only 62 m. of line and connects with the Mt. Baker goldfields and the Nooksack valley farm and orchard region. A suburban electric line was projected in 1907. About 2½ m. south-east of the city is the main body of Lake Whatcom, 13 m. long, 1¼ m. wide, and 318 ft. higher than the city and the source of its water-supply, a gravity system which cost $1,000,000, being owned by the city. Bellingham has two Carnegie libraries. Among the principal buildings are the county court-house, the city hall, the Young Men’s Christian Association building, and Beck’s theatre, with a seating capacity of 2200. The largest of the state’s normal colleges is situated here; in 1907 it had a faculty of 25 and 350 students; there are two high schools, two business colleges, and one industrial school also in the city. The excellent harbour, and the fact that Bellingham is nearer to the great markets of Alaska than any other city in the states, make the port an important shipping centre. In the value of manufactured product the city was fourth in the state in 1905 (being passed only by Tacoma, Seattle and Spokane), with a value of $3,293,988; according to a census taken by the local chamber of commerce the value of the product in 1906 was $7,751,464. The principal industrial establishments are shingle (especially cedar) and saw-mills, salmon canneries and factories for the manufacture of tin cans, and machinery used in the canning of salmon. Motive and electric lighting power is brought 52 m. from the falls of the north fork of the Nooksack river, where there is a power plant which furnishes 3500 horsepower. There are deposits of clay and limestone in the surrounding country, and cement is manufactured in the vicinity of the city. The blue-grey Chuckanut sandstone is quarried on the shore of Chuckanut Bay, south of Bellingham; and a coarse, dark-brown sandstone is quarried on Sucia Island, west of the city. There are quarries also on Waldron Island. Bellingham was formed in 1903 by the consolidation of the cities of New Whatcom (pop. in 1900, 6834) and Fairhaven (pop. in 1900, 4228), and was chartered as a city of the first class in 1904; it is named from Bellingham Bay, which Vancouver is supposed to have named, in 1792, in honour of Sir Henry Bellingham.
BELLINI, the name of a family of craftsmen in Venice, three members of which fill a great place in the history of the Venetian school of painting in the 15th century and the first years of the 16th.