92 



BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS. 



regard to conflicts of maritime law it was rec- 

 ommended that the law of the flag should rule, 

 rather than the territorial law or the law of 

 the country where the contract was made. A 

 report was adopted suggesting that every gov- 

 ernment should publish promptly treaties made 

 with other powers. A conference upon com- 

 mercial law was held later in Antwerp. 



BENEDICT, Sir JULIUS, a musician and com- 

 poser, born in Stuttgart, Nov. 27, 1804; died 

 in London, June 5, 1885. He exhibited musi- 

 cal talent at a very early age, and studied un- 

 der Hummel at Weimar. At the age of sixteen 

 he made the acquaintance of Weber, who was 

 so pleased with his musical promise that he set 



SIB JULIUS BENEDICT. 



aside his rule not to take pupils, and for four 

 years taught him and treated him as a son. In 

 1823 Benedict became the leader of the Vienna 

 Opera; afterward he conducted the orches- 

 tra in the San Carlo at Naples; in 1835 he 

 went to Paris, where he won the friendship of 

 Meyerbeer, Rossini, Auber, Donizetti, Berlioz, 

 and Malibran ; and a year later he settled in 

 London. He was at first connected with the 

 Lyceum Theatre, and afterward was musical 

 director at Drury Lane. The musical festivals 

 at Norwich and the London Monday concerts 

 and Liverpool Harmonic were for many years 

 led by him. He became known to Americans 

 when he accompanied Jenny Lind to this coun- 

 try in 1850 as conductor and pianist. On re- 

 turning to England, he formed a choral society 



BIBLE, REVISION OF THE. 



and conducted Italian opera in London. His 

 most noted operas are " The Gypsy's Warning," 

 "The Brides of Venice," "The Crusaders," 

 and " The Lily of Killarney." The libretto of 

 the last named was written by Dion Bouci- 

 cault and John Oxenford ; it was brought out 

 in 1862, and became popular in Germany as 

 well as in Great Britain. His other works in- 

 clude the cantatas, "Richard Coeur de Lion," 

 " Undine," k% St. Cecilia," and "Graziella," and 

 the operettas " Un Anno ed un Giorno " and 

 " The Bride of Song," and the oratorio of " St. 

 Peter." In 1860 he wrote the recitatives for 

 Weber's " Oberon." He also wrote a large 

 amount of miscellaneous music, and mono- 

 graphs on Weber and Mendelssohn. 

 He was active almost to the time of 

 his death, and was to have conducted 

 his fifty-first annual concert on the 

 17th of June. He was knighted in 

 1871, and received numerous decora- 

 tions from Continental sovereigns. 



BIBLE, REVISION OF THE ENG- 

 LISH VERSION OF. Among the sig- 

 nal events of our time is the re- 

 vision, just finished, of the authorized 

 version of the English Scriptures. 

 It was a work which, however de- 

 sirable it might be deemed by indi- 

 viduals, seemed, until very recently, 

 not likely to be speedily accom- 

 plished. So widely spread and deep- 

 ly rooted was the reverence for our 

 recognized version, so transcendent 

 were its acknowledged merits, that 

 even the partial disturbance of time- 

 hallowed associations, which would 

 be involved in the most conservative 

 revision, seemed likely to be resisted 

 by an overwhelming public senti- 

 ment. We shall trace briefly the 

 steps by which a movement so un- 

 looked-for and so important has been 

 brought about, and the earnest desire 

 of many become an accomplished 

 fact. 



The first translation of the Script- 

 ures into English was made by John 

 Wycliffe, the English martyr, and 

 was finished about the year 1380. It was made, 

 not from the original tongues, but from the 

 Latin Vulgate, whose errors, therefore, it must, 

 necessarily perpetuate. Wycliffe was assisted 

 in his work by Nicolas of Hereford, a pious and 

 learned monk, and to these two men is due the 

 inestimable service of putting an English Bible 

 into the hands of an English-speaking people. 



About a century later, in 1480, William Tyn- 

 dale began the translation of the New Testa- 

 ment jnto English from the original Greek. 

 His open hostility to Rome drew on him per- 

 secution, which compelled him to carry on his 

 work out of England. The first edition of his 

 New Testament was printed in 1525, probably 

 at Cologne. He had translated also, from the 

 Old Testament, the Pentateuch and the book 



