74 BEMAN, NATHANIEL S. S. 



BENEDICT, GEOEGE W. 



try of the six Malons," which remained in office 

 until August, 1847. His appointment of pres- 

 ident of the ministry in December, 1871, is 

 believed to have been chiefly intended as a 

 mark of respect, as M. Malon will be the act- 

 ual leader of the ministry. 



In October, contracts were entered into in 

 England for the construction of several steam- 

 ships, destined for service in a line which it is 

 proposed to run frequently between Antwerp 

 and New York, touching at Dover. 



BEMAN, Rev. NATHANIEL S. S., D. D., an 

 eminent Presbyterian clergyman, pulpit orator, 

 and author, born in New Lebanon, Columbia 

 County, New York, in November, 1785 ; died 

 in Carbondale, Illinois, August 8, 1871. He 

 graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, 

 in 1807, studied theology, and was first or- 

 dained pastor of a Congregational Church, in 

 Portland, Maine, about 1810, but, two or three 

 years later, he went as a missionary to Geor- 

 gia, where he was very successful in building 

 up the waste places and establishing schools 

 of high grade. In 1822 he accepted the call 

 of the First (then the only) Presbyterian 

 Church, in Troy, New York, to become their 

 pastor, and held the pastorate of that church 

 for more than forty years. Eloquent beyond 

 almost any man in his Church, possessed of 

 vast and varied learning, and with a heart 

 warm for all reformatory measures, he was for 

 many years the leader in what afterward 

 became the New School branch of the Pres- 

 byterian Church. He took strong ground 

 from the first in favor of temperance, moral 

 reform, the revival measures of Messrs. Fin- 

 ney, Nettleton, and others ; showed an early 

 sympathy with the antislavery movement ; 

 was a moderator of the Presbyterian General 

 Assembly in 1831 ; and, in the division of the 

 Church in 1837, he was the champion and 

 leader of the New School party, and won the 

 respect of the Old School by his lofty bearing 

 and his manly reasoning, while his fiery elo- 

 quence produced a powerful influence on the 

 Assembly. He wielded for the next twenty- 

 five years a greater power for good than any 

 other man in Troy or its vicinity. In 1863, 

 feeling the infirmities of age coming upon 

 him, he resigned his pastorate, and resided 

 ft part of the time in Troy and a part with 

 his daughter at Carbondale, 111., where he 

 died. Notwithstanding his remarkable abili- 

 ties, Dr. Beman published but little. Aside 

 from numerous sermons, occasional essays and 

 addresses, we remember but one considerable 

 volume "Four Sermons on the Atonement." 

 BENEDEK, Field-Marshal LTJDWIG TON, an 

 Austrian general, born at Edenburg, Hungary, 

 in 1804 ; died in Vienna, October 26, 1871. His 

 father was a physician, but, as he manifested a 

 fondness for military life, he received his mili- 

 tary education at the Academy of Neustadt, 

 and entered the Austrian army as cornet in his 

 eighteenth year. He received comparatively 

 rapid promotion, and in 1843 had attained the 



rank of colonel. In 1845 he rendered such aid 

 to the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este, during the 

 insurrection in Galicia, as to receive the dec- 

 oration of the Order of Leopold. In 1847 

 his regiment, the finest in the army, was in- 

 corporated in the Army of Italy, and the two 

 following years he took an active part in the 

 Italian campaigns, and for his admirable con- 

 duct at Curtatone received, at Marshal Eadetz- 

 ky's request, the Order of Maria Theresa. He 

 was promoted to the rank of brigadier- and 

 major-general in the first corps de reserve of 

 the Army of the Danube, April 13, 1849, ant 1 

 during the remainder of that year took an 

 active part in the Hungarian War, where he 

 was twice wounded. After the pacification 

 of Hungary, he was transferred as chief of staff 

 of the Second Corps of the Army of Italy, 

 but saw no more active service till 1859, when, 

 amid the numerous disasters which befell the 

 Austrians in that short campaign, his brilliant 

 management of the right wing of the Austrian 

 army at Solferino was the only, even tempo- 

 rary, success. lie was now a field-marshal, and 

 in that capacity military governor of Venetia. 

 His administration there, if not satisfactory to 

 the Venetians, was at least successful in har- 

 monizing the wishes and feelings of the differ- 

 ent nationalities composing the army. In 

 1866, when the Seven Weeks' War burst like 

 a bomb-shell upon astonished Europe, Field- 

 Marshal Benedek was called at once to the com- 

 mand of the Austrian armies, and there were 

 great expectations entertained from his known 

 ability and military skill. But he evidently un- 

 derrated his enemy's abilities and tactics, and 

 had no conception of the advantages which the 

 needle-gun gave them. He attempted the 

 Fabian policy of retreat, hoping to draw them 

 into difficult ground, with their forces so far 

 separated that he could beat them in detail ; 

 but Moltke's admirable plans, and the rapid 

 marches and brilliant movements of Prince 

 Frederick Charles and Steinmetz, resulted in 

 his overwhelming defeat at Sadowa. Morti- 

 fied at his overthrow, Marshal Benedek re- 

 signed his command, and was put on the 

 retired list in October, 1866, and remained in 

 retirement till his death. 



BENEDICT, GEORGE WTLLTS, LL.D., a 

 distinguished scholar, professor, telegraph- 

 constructor, and journalist, of Vermont, born 

 in North Stamford, Conn., January 11, 1796; 

 died in Burlington, Vt., September 23, 1871. 

 At the age of nineteen, he entered the sopho- 

 more class of Williams College, September, 

 1815, and graduated in 1818 with the highest 

 honors. After graduating he became principal 

 of the academy in Westfield, Mass., but was 

 soon after, in 1819, appointed tutor in Wil- 

 liams College, which position he held for 

 three years, when he accepted the charge of 

 the Academy in Newburg, N. Y. While 

 there he was elected Professor of Mathematics 

 and Natural Philosophy in the University of 

 Vermont. He accepted the position in Jan- 





