BLOW, JOHH. 



BLUMKNBACH, JOHAKN FRIKDRICH. 



m 



1 to his trade of ladies' shoemaker, to which, being an amateur 

 ia moaic, he added the employment of making yEolian harps. The 

 Duke of GraAon allowed him a pension of a shilling n day, but the 

 maintenance of hia family, and of some other of his relatives, involved 

 him in difficulties; and, being habitually in bad health, he retired to 

 Sbeflbrd in Bedfordshire, where, after much bodily and mental suffering 

 he died, August 19th, 1823, at the age of 57 years. He left a widow 

 and fear children, and debto to the amount of 2uol., which sum was 

 raised by subscription among hie benevolent friends and admirers. 



The works of Bloomneld have been published in a collected form ; 

 and his Farmer's Boy ' has been frequently reprinted. The author's 

 amiable disposition and benevolence pervade the whole of his compo- 

 (Jtsoasx There is an artlees simplicity, a virtuous rectitude of sentiment, 

 aa exquisite sensibility to the beautiful, which cannot fail to gratify 

 every one who respects moral excellence, and can enjoy simple descrip- 

 tive poetry illustrative of English country life. 



BLOW, JOHN, Mus. Doc., was born at North Collingham, Notting- 

 hamshire, in 1048, and educated in the Cbapel-lioyal, where he very 

 early distinguished himself by his industry and enterprise, for it 

 appears, from Clifford's ' Collection,' that while one of the ' children ' 

 of that royal establishment, he composed several anthems, which had 

 the honour to be performed before the king. His advancement was 

 rapid : be was successively appointed to the offices of Gentleman of 

 the Chapels-Royal and Master of the Children ; one of the King's 

 Private Musicians ; Composer to the King ; Almoner and Master of 

 the Choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and Organist of Westminster 

 Abbey. He died in 1708, and waa interred in the north aisle of West- 

 minster Abbey, where a monument is erected to his memory, on which 

 is engraved his famous ' Gloria Patri,' a canon, together with a long 

 inscription, wherein it is stated, and to his honour, that he was " master 

 to the famous Mr. H. PurcelL" The compositions of Dr. Blow are 

 numerous, but more the offspring of study and patient labour than of 

 genius. Two of his anthems however prove that he was sometimes 

 inspired by tho muse presiding over his art ; and a few of the many 

 seniilsr compositions in his ' Amphion Auglicus ' a volume of songs, 

 to. were deservedly popular. 



BLtfCHER, LEBRECHT VON, Prince of Wahlstadt, field-marshal 

 of Prussia, was born December 16th, 1742, at Rostock, a town near 

 the shore of the Baltic, in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His 

 father was a captain of cavalry in the service of Hcsse-Cassel. At an 

 early age he manifested a strong predilection for the military pro- 

 fession ; and in opposition to the advice of his relatives, entered in his 

 fourteenth year a regiment of Swedish hussars as ensign. In a cam- 

 paign against the Prussians, at the commencement of the Seven 

 Years' War, in which the Swedes were allied with Russia and Austria 

 against Frederic the Great, he was taken prisoner in Pomorania by 

 the same regiment of Prussian hussars in which he afterwards became 

 so distinguished. The colonel of the regiment, Von Belling, being 

 favourably impressed with his frank and gallant character, persuaded 

 him to join the Prussian army, and contrived to give in exchange for 

 him another Swedish officer. In the service of Frederic he rose from 

 a lieutenant to senior captain, when his pride being ruffled by the 

 promotion of a person of higher birth than himself to the vacant post 

 of major, and finding no use in remonstrance, he caused a request for 

 permission to resign to be delivered to his royal master. That singu- 

 lar personage, to whom in stoical endurance of hardships and energy 

 of character he was so remarkably similar, gave him in a very blunt 

 manner the permission he requested. He then retired to the duchy 

 of Silesia, became a farmer, and by persevering assiduity acquired 

 poseraeion of a considerable estate. He remained thus employed for 

 fifteen years, until the accession in 1786 of Frederic William II., by 

 whom he was courteously recalled, and again introduced in the rank 

 of major to bis old regiment of black hussars, which he commanded 

 with honourable distinction in several campaigns against the French. 



In 178 be obtained the Order of Merit; and subsequently in 1793- 

 M. aa colonel and major-general, at tho battles of Unities, Luxem- 

 burg, Frankenstein, Oppenheim, Kirohweiller, and Edesheiin in the 

 palatinate, he acquired reputation as a soldier by bis vigilance, promp- 

 titude, and astonishing energy. In the name of tho king of Prussia 

 he took r"ss Melon in 1802 of Erfurt and Muhlbausen. In the same 

 year, afUr the victory gained by the French at Jena, having, with a 

 remnant of 10,000 or 12,000 Prussians, become separated from the 

 rest, he socoeeded without disorder in forcing hia retreat westward as 

 far a* Lubeck, and, though harassed by the forces of the marshals 

 Soult, Marat, and Btrnadotte, he resisted to the last, and finally 

 accepted a capitulation only on condition that the cause of surrender 

 should in wriUng be stated to be " want of ammunition and provi- 

 fas.*." Having bean exchanged for General Victor, he waa sent into 

 Pnsasrsnis to assist the Swedes. He was afterward, employed in the 

 war department at Konlgsberg and Berlin; and when in 1813 his 

 country rose in opposition to France, be was appointed to take the 

 ""od of a numerous army of Prussians and Russians combined. 

 The order of St. George was bestowed upon him by the emperor 

 Alexander in acknowledgment of bis conduct at the battle of Lutzen ; 

 at Uuee also of IleuUen and Haynau he was no less conspicuous. In 



to it Dsfttstlet fotifht Atiffiiat 2t*tH 1 Ml 51 * *l I sV> f ll ' 



- Uegniu in Sileaia, called tho Katxbsch, BluoherflrstTeM "ndT 

 ~ ; and with 00,000 men, the greater number of whom 



were but raw militia, defeated the French marshals Maodonald, Ney, 

 Uiuriston, andSebantiani, and inflicted on them a terrible loss. Mirch- 

 ing with amazing rapidity to the Elbe, he crossed that river by means 

 of pontoons, and pushed on to the important battle of Leipzig, ' thu 

 victorious results of which his services greatly contributod. With bis 

 Russo-Prussian troops lie now formed the left wing of the great army 

 of the allies in their pursuit of Napoleon I. retreating towards France. 

 Having passed over the Rhine at Kaub and Coblentz, he took posses- 

 sion of Nancy in January 1814. At Brieune he received a fierce 

 attack from Napoleon : but, though repulsed with great loss, returned 

 to the combat, as usual, on the following day, and succeeded in getting 

 some advantage. The rash and reckless rapidity of bis movements at 

 this time having obliged him to make a retreat, and exposed his army 

 to disasters which prudence might have avoided, an alarm began to 

 arise in England about the final result of the contest ; when, after 

 various battles lost and won on the way to Paris, he finally entered 

 that metropolis March 31, 1814; and, but for the intervention of the 

 other commanders, it would by him have been made a scene of revenge- 

 ful retribution. Among bis less extravagant demands, he firmly in- 

 sisted upon the restitution of every picture and work of art which li id 

 been plundered from Prussia to adorn the Louvre. As field-marshal and 

 prince of Wahlstadt he accompanied the allied sovereign! to England, 

 where his personal appearance excited great curiosity. All the moat 

 illustrious military orders of Europe having been conferred upon him, 

 the king of Prussia created for him a new one, with the badge of a cross 

 of iron, in compliment to his invincible courage. The Prince Regent of 

 England gave him his portrait ; and the University of Oxford, not to be 

 deficient in proof of admiration, bestowed upon the veteran warrior the 

 academical degree of LL.D. In possession of these honours he retired 

 to his Silesian estate, residing there until the return of Napoleon 

 from Elba in 1815, when he again returned to the great theatre of 

 war, and assume 1 the command of the Prussian army in l><-!gium. 

 His characteristic over-confidence and precipitancy occasioned his 

 defeat at the battle of Ligny, June 16th. It was at the close of this 

 desperate engagement, in which the fighting continued uutil ten at 

 night, that his horse was shot dead, and fell upon him, so that he lay 

 in that position unable to move, whilst several regiments of French 

 cuirassiers passed over him in charging his troops. A report of hia 

 death was soon in circulation ; and Napoleon, who commonly named 

 him Me vieux diabU ' (the old devil), made the most of it in cheering 

 the hopes of his soldiers in the struggle at Waterloo on the ISth. 

 But Lite in the evening of that memorable day, before victory was 

 quite assured, Prince Blucher, who on the night of his accident had, 

 owing to the darkness, escaped unhurt, appeared suddenly emerging 

 from the forest of Frichemont at the head of a great portion of his 

 Prussian army. At first Napoleon took it for the French division of 

 Marshal Grouchy arriving from Wavra ; that illusion however was 

 quickly dispelled, and a general attack, ordered by the Duke of 

 Wellington, completed the victory. Blucher, although his troops had 

 been marching all day, immediately gave orders to pursue the flying 

 enemy. The moon being bright, a fierce and hot pursuit by sixteen 

 regiments of Prussians was kept up the whole night, uutil the roads 

 were choked with the dying and the dead. Having arrived with hi* 

 army at Paris, and assisted in the reinstatement of the Bourbon 

 dynasty, he remained there several months, very frequently attending 

 the tables for rouge-et-noir. When the Prussians returned to Ger- 

 many, Blucher, on the anniversary of tho battle of Katzbach, paid a 

 visit to Rostock, his native place, where the inhabitants united to raise 

 a public monument to his fame. His health now beginning to decline, 

 ho finally retired to his chateau of Kriblowitz in Silesia, where tho 

 king of Prussia visited and took leave of him in his latest moments. 

 " I know I shall die," said the old general ; " I am not sorry for it ; 

 because I can be no longer of any use." Having requested that he 

 might be buried without any parade, in a neighbouring field by the 

 roadside, under three linden trees, he died on the l'2th of September 

 1819, aged seventy-seven. The whole Prussian army went into mourn- 

 ing for eight days. He had been in the service of Prussia during 

 forty-five years, and at the battle of Waterloo was seventy-throe years 

 of age. In the year 1826 his statue in bronze, twelve feet in h ight, 

 modelled by the sculptor Ranch, was erected in Ilerlin. The merit of 

 Blucher lay nearly altogether in his fearlens courage and his personal 

 advantages : as a prudent, scientific general he has no claims at all 

 to diitinction. With a piercing eye, n loud and sonorous voice, a bold 

 outline of figure, accoutred and armed aa a cossack, and a masterly 

 style of manoeuvring his horse, his presence, at he rode in front of 

 hU men, never failed to inspire them with hope of success in follow- 

 ing a captain so daring and full of energy. The astonishing celerity 

 of Inn movements got him the appellation of Marshal Forwards, by 

 which he was generally known in Germany and Russia ; but equally 

 well known was the fact, that to the able plans of General Qneiienau, 

 one of his officers, he owed almost all his success. 



BLUMENBACH, JOUANN FRIEDRICH, wai born at Gotha on 

 the llth of May 1752. He studied medicine successively in the uni- 

 versities of Jena and Gottingen, and took his degree at the latter place 

 in 177.".. He chose for the subject of his inaugural dissertation the 

 varieties of the human race. It was published at Gottingen with the 

 title 'De Generis Human! Variolate Nativa,' 4to, 1775; and several 

 now editions appeared during the next twenty years. This essay 



