BEL 



443 



BEL 



Bell Rock, tive consideration, however, of the form of the rock 

 rf""' under water, an;' of the ground which surrounds it, 

 together with the nature of the stone, and the pro- 

 bable effects of the continued wash of the sea violent- 

 ly agitated ; it does not seem an overstrained hypo- 

 thesis to imagine, that this rock, at a remote period, 

 was of much greater extent, and perhaps considerably 

 aboTe the level of the highest tide. 

 Dangerous From the position of this rock with regard to the 

 suuatioa of much frequented firths of Forth and Tay, lying about 

 tfii rock, j i m iles f r om the nearest land, a distance too great 

 for the mariner to be benefited by land-marks on the 

 shore ; while the rock itself is only visible about two 

 hours before low water of spring-tides, even to vessels 

 near it, and is scarcely seen at all in neap-tides. The 

 Edystone rocks off Plymouth are at the same distance 

 from land as the Bell Rock ; but previous to the erec- 

 tion of the Edystone lighthouse, the highest, or 

 .house rock, was always seen above the surface of the 

 water, and to a certain extent formed a beacon of it- 

 self in the day-time, which was not the case at the 

 Bell Rock. Under these circumstances, the Bell Rock 

 has been justly considered the most dangerous reef of 

 rocks upon the whole coast of Great Britain ; and 

 must have proved fatal to many missing ships, whose 

 fate must for ever remain unknown. 



The baneful effects of such an obstruction to na- 

 vigation had been long and severely felt, not only by 

 the commercial interest of these firths, but in a great- 

 er or less degree by all vessels navigating the North 

 Sea and the German Ocean. Not merely were ves- 

 sels lost upon the rock itself, but far greater num- 

 bers were cast away upon the neighbouring shores in 

 endeavouring to avoid it, or foundered at sea in con- 

 sequence of keeping out too long, from the terror of 

 approaching the coast where such a sunk rock lay in 

 their course. 



The three great inlets for shipping in storms upon 

 the east coast of Great Britain are, the Thames, the 

 Firth of Forth, and the Murray Firth. To these 

 vessels resort, in storms, from the north, east, and 

 south-east ; and in 6uch cases the Firth of Forth lies 

 open in a peculiar manner as a place of safety. Of 

 this the dreadful and continued gale from south-east, 

 which occurred in the month of December 1799, af- 

 fords a memorable and striking instance, when the 

 ships in Yarmouth Roads were driven from their 

 moorings, and all vessels in the German Ocean drift- 

 ed upon the coast of Scotland, a very great number 

 found shelter in this Firth. Many, however, were 

 wrecked in endeavouring to seek safety in higher la- 

 titudes ; and it has been reckoned that seventy ves- 

 sels were Upon this occasion lost, with most of the 

 crews, upon the east coast of Scotland ; many of 

 which might have been saved had not the fear of the 

 Bell Rock in a great measure induced them to avoid 

 entering the Firth of Forth. 



It is no wonder that the erection of a lighthouse 

 upon the Bell Rock should have so much interested 

 the public mind, not as a local improvement only, 

 but as one essentially calculated to improve the navi- 

 gation ot the whole north seas, by opening the Firth 

 of Forth as a general rendezvous for shipping in 

 easterly storms. By such an erection, seen as a bea- 

 con by day, and exhibiting a light under night, this 

 most dangerous rock is rendered at once the place of 



Advanta- 

 ges of a 



lighthouse, 



departure which ships will hail from, and for which Bellarmin. 

 they will steer in making the coast. " ' 



On the completion of a work of so much enter- By whom 

 prise and difficulty as the Bell Rock lighthouse, we brougiu 

 most heartily congratulate the public, and willingly about, 

 contribute our mite of praise to that Honourable 

 Board the Commissioners for erecting lighthouses on 

 the northern parts of Great Britain, whose improve- 

 ments pervade the whole coast of Scotland. By 

 them this measure was taken up and brought before 

 Parliament in the year 1807. The foundation stone 

 was laid on Sunday the 10th of July 1808, and the 

 whole was finished within the year 1810. See the 

 article Lighthouse, (s) 



BELLARMIN, Robert, an Italian Jesuit, and 

 the ablest of all the Roman Catholic controversialists, 

 was born at Monte Pulciano, a town in Tuscany, in 

 the year 154>2. At the age of eighteen he entered 

 into the order of the Jesuits ; he was ordained priest 

 at Ghent in 1569 ; and as he was nephew to Pope 

 Marcellus II. he had the fairest prospects of eccle- 

 siastical preferment. His talents, however, were a 

 still stronger recommendation. In 1570, he was ap- 

 pointed professor of divinity in Louvain, where he 

 acquired a very high degree of celebrity. After re- 

 siding seven years in the Low Countries, he returned 

 to Italy, and began to lecture on controversies in 

 Rome. His lectures displayed such uncommon acutc- 

 ness and ingenuity, that when Pope Sextus V. sent 

 a legate to France, in 1590, he appointed Bellarmin 

 to attend him, as the person best qualified to resolve 

 any difficulties which might occur in the course of his 

 mission. After an absence of ten months, he return- 

 ed to Rome, and received from the friendship of three 

 successive popes, various important commissions, till 

 at length, in the year 1599, he was raised to the dig- 

 nity of cardinal. Nothing could be more honourable 

 to Bellarmin, than the manner in which this dignity 

 was conferred. " We chose him," said his Holiness, 

 (Clement VIII.) " because the church of God does 

 not possess his equal for learning ;" yet he felt or 

 affected such reluctance to accept of it, that Clement 

 was obliged to frighten him into compliance by the 

 terror of an anathema. Three years after, he was 

 elected archbishop of Capua ; and had he not be- 

 longed to the order of Jesuits, he would probably 

 have been exalted to St Peter's chair. But that in- 

 triguing set of men were already so powerful, and so 

 eager for the monopoly of ecclesiastical dignities, that 

 it had long been a maxim at the court of Rome, that 

 no Jesuit should ever be made pope, lest every other 

 order should be excluded from the hope of the papal 

 dignity, and the power of the Jesuits should become 

 altogether boundless. Bellarmin, if we may believe 

 his own confession, was by no means ambitious of 

 that exalted honour. For in a solemn vow made in 

 the prospect of being advanced to the see of Rome, 

 he expressly says, that he does not at all desire it, 

 and prays to God that it may never happen. He re- 

 signed the archbishopric of Capua at the request of 

 Paul V., who wished to have him near himself; and 

 continued for sixteen years actively engaged in the 

 business of the court of Rome. He left the Vatican 

 in lri21, and "retired to a house of his own order, 

 where he died the same year on the 7th of September, 

 at the age of 79. He was visited in his last illness 



