4* 



BEN 



461 



BEN 



Bentley, 

 Benyow- 



sky. 



* 



the bishop of Ely or the crown ? After a long law- 

 suit, it was determined in favour of the crown ; and 

 though, in the present case, interference was decli- 

 ned, Dr Benti>-y was left in possession of his office. 

 He again, however, excited a clamour against him- 

 self, for which there seems to have been more plau- 

 sible grounds. Upon the creation, by royal man- 

 date, of some doctors in divinity, he demanded from 

 each a fee of four guineas, in addition to the custo- 

 mary perquisite. Here, as on every occasion, Dr' 

 Middleton was his most strenuous opponent ; and al- 

 though the graduates at first acquiesced in the de- 

 mand, a decree was afterwards obtained for the re- 

 payment of the money ; Bentley was arrested, and 

 appeared by his proctor before the court of the vice- 

 chancellor. It was declared by the beadle, on oath, 

 that Dr Bentley had said, he would not be conclu- 

 ded by what the vice-chancellor and two or three of 

 his friends should determine over a bottle ; for which 

 expression he was suspended by the vice-chancellor, 

 without a hearing, from all his degrees ; and after- 

 wards, by a vote of the body, deprived of all his pri- 

 vileges, honours, and degrees in the university. In 

 this perplexity he appealed to the king ; and at 

 length, after several references to the Council and tlie 

 Court of King's Bench, and many delays, a manda- 

 mus was sent to the university, reversing all their 

 proceedings, and directing, that Dr Bentley should 

 be restored to all the degrees, honours, and privi- 

 leges of which he had been deprived. Of these he 

 continued in quiet possession for twenty-four years 

 after this decision ; and died, on the 14th of July 

 1742, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was 

 buried in Trinity College chapel, by the side of the 

 altar table, " where a square black stone records his 

 name, and nothing more." 



Detraction, we are told, is the tax which merit 

 pays to envy ; and never was that tax more heavily 

 imposed than In the case of Dr Bentley. Superior in 

 learning to all his cotemporaries, and scarcely inferior 

 to any of them in acuteness and ingenuity, few could 

 stand before him in the fair and open field of contro- 

 versy. His antagonists, therefore, endeavoured to 

 break the force of his attacks, by degrading his cha- 

 racter, decrying his erudition as scholastic lumber, 

 and charging him with the arrogance of a bashaw, 

 and the ferocity of a savage, because he despised 

 their blunders and their ignorance, and unsparingly 

 detected and censured their absurdities. Hence he 

 has generally been regarded as a man of an irritable 

 and overbearing temper ; bvit if we may credit the tes- 

 timony of one who had the best access to know him, 

 the aftections of his heart were no less gentle and ami- 

 able, than his talents were extraordinary and com- 

 manding. See Cumberland's Memoirs, ad indium; 

 Biographiu Britannica, Sec. () 



BENYOWSKY, Coirjrr, the name of a Hunga- 

 rian adventurer, who has been more praised than he 

 deserves. The early part of his life was occupied in 

 plots, conspiracies, and escapes, and in his better days, 

 we find him in the service of France forming a settle- 

 ment in Madagascar, and afterwards offering his aid, 

 or rather his treachery, to several of the sovereigns of 

 Europe. We are concerned to find that the life and 

 history of such a man has been thought worthy of 



preservation. His abilities may have been brilliant, 

 and his bravery undaunted; but he who was an outlaw 

 from his native country, who could shine only in in- 

 trigues and conspiracies, and "who could offer the 

 power of his sword to the highest bidder, is a man 

 whom posterity is under no obligations to remember. 

 A soldier who fights for his native country, even in 

 the worst cause, is a character which every person 

 must revere. But the renegadoe, who wanders about 

 in search of employment for his sword, and is willing 

 to draw it against any foe, is a murderer by profes- 

 sion, who plunders without an object, and slays with- 

 out a provocation. Such a man was Benyowsky, and 

 such a man it is impossible to admire. 



Those who wish to know more of him, may con-' 

 suit " The Memoirs and Travels of Count Ben- 

 yowsky, written by himself, 2 vols. 4to, 1790. (/3) 



BENZOIN. See Chemistry and Materia Me- 

 dic a. 



BERAR, a soubah or kingdom of Hindostan, 

 which now forms the eastern division of the Mah- 

 ratta empire. It is bounded on the north by Alla- 

 habad and Maliva, on the east by Orissa, on the 

 south by Golconda, and on the west by Dowlatabad 

 and Candish. Part of this province belongs to Nizam 

 Ali, Soubah of the Decan. Wheat, rice, poppies, &c- 

 are produced here in great abundance ; and in the 

 south of Berar are found the deer that yield the 

 bezoar stone. Berar is divided into thirteen circars, 

 and forty-two pergunnahs, and Nagpour is the capi- 

 tal. Its annual revenue, in the time of Aureng-zebe, 

 was fifty-five krores of dams, or 1,718,750 ster- 

 ling. See Fraser's History of Nadir Shah, p. 26. 



BERBERIS, a genus of plants of the class Hex- 

 andria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, (te) 



BERBICE, the name of a river of South Ameri- 

 ca, in the province of Guiana, which runs from south 

 to north, and discharges itself into the Atlantic 

 Ocean. It is chiefly remarkable for an extensive set- 

 tlement formed upon its banks, in the beginning o 

 the seventeenth century, by a Dutch colony. 



The river itself is about a mile and a half broad at 

 its mouth, where it is divided into two channels by an 

 island, called Crab Island, about two miles in circum- 

 ference. Owing to a bar of sand about five miles 

 from its mouth, and stretching from east to west, the 

 navigation is both difficult and dangerous. On this 

 account, all vessels drawing more than four feet of 

 water, are obliged to anchor at the port of Demera- 

 ry, from which their cargo is carried to Berbice in 

 coljny schooners, that are again'employed in convey- 

 ing to Demerary the produce of the settlement. The 

 colony of Berbice was founded in the year 1626, by 

 Van Peer of Flushing, who sent out several ships to 

 trade with the Indians. The colony had flourished 

 to such a degree, that the French, who made a de- 

 scent upon the coast, were able to extort a contribu- 

 tion of 20,000 florins. In 1678, the settlement was 

 granted, as an hereditary fief, to the family of Van 

 Peer. In consequence of another attack made upon 

 the colony by a flotilla of French privateers, a con- 

 tribution of 300,000 florins was paid for the safety 

 of the settlement. This sum was discharged by the 

 house of Van Hoorn and Company, who received in 



