On the day after the condemnation, Mr. Orby Hunter notified to the House of Commons the sentence pronounced against one of its members. The speaker produced a multitude of precedents for "expelling an admiral before execution," lest his disgrace should reflect on the house. This occasioned a debate, in which it was strongly recommended that an application should be made to the throne for mercy. Mr. Pitt was in favour of that measure. Mr. Fox, as one of the old ministry, took a less amiable part. Capt. Keppel, in his place, applied to the house, in behalf of himself and some other members of the court-martial, to be released from the oath of secrecy which they had taken, representing that the sentence of death laid heavily on their consciences. On the 26th, Pitt waited on the king, who sent down a message to the Commons, to say that his majesty had respited the sentence until he should be informed what it was that the member had declared he had of weight to urge, and which it was proper his majesty should know. After much debating, a bill was brought in to release the members of the court-martial from their oaths, which was carried by 153 against 23. On the 1st of March it was sent to the "upper house." The lords commenced by a resolution to examine the members of the court-martial, by putting certain questions to each separately, the purport of which was, "whether they knew any matter, previous to the sentence, which would show it to be unjust, or procured by any unlawful means?" (what quibbling!) " and whether they thought themselves restrained by their oath from disclosing such matter?" Not one of the members of the court*By 19 Geo. III.

After such a termination, the friends of Byng could no longer hope for pardon. The strange conduct of the members of the court-martial seemed only to strengthen the validity of their sentence, to nullify their earnest recommendation for mercy, and to exclude all further solicitation to the king on that score. The 14th March was the day appointed for execution; and when the fatal morning arrived, it was met by the admiral with more of cheerfulness than reluctance. For more than seven months he had suffered all manner of indignities, close imprisonment, protracted anxiety, and the doubtful issue of life or death. His sentence was carried into execution on board the Monarch, in Portsmouth habour, on the 14th of March. About noon, having taken leave of a clergyman and two friends who attended him, the admiral walked out of the great cabin to the quarter-deck, where two files of marines were ready to execute the sentence. He advanced with a firm deliberate step, a composed and resolute countenance, and resolved to suffer with his face uncovered, until his friends represented that his looks might probably intimidate the marines from taking a proper aim, when he submitted to have a handkerchief tied over his eyes, and kneeling down on a cushion, dropped another as a signal for the marines to fire. This they did, and fired so decisive a volley, that five balls passed through his body, and he dropped down dead in an instant. The time consumed in bringing this tragedy to a conclusion, that is, from the admiral's walking out of the cabin till his remains were deposited in the coffin, did not exceed three minutes. Immediately before his death he delivered the following paper to the marshal of the Admiralty, to be made public:

"A few moments will now deliver me

from the virulent persecution, and frustrate the farther malice of my enemies; nor need I envy them a life which will be subject to the sensations of my injuries, and the injustice they have done

me, persuaded as I am that justice will be done to my reputation hereafter; the manner and cause of keeping up the popular clamour and prejudice against me will be seen through; I shall be considered (as I now perceive myself) a victim destined to divert the indignation and resentment of an injured and deluded people from the proper objects; my enemies themselves must now think me innocent. Happy for me, at this my last moment, that I know my own innocence, and am conscious that no part of my country's misfortune can be owing to myself. I heartily wish the shedding of my blood may contribute to the happiness and service of my country, but cannot resign my just claim to a faithful discharge of my duty, according to the best of my judgment, and the utmost exertion of my ability for his majesty's honour and my country's service. I am sorry my endeavours were not attended with more success, and that the armament under my command proved too weak to succeed in an expedition of such moment.

"Truth has prevailed over calumny and falsehood; and justice has wiped off the ignominious stain of my supposed want of personal courage, and the charge of disaffection. My heart acquits me of these crimes; but who can be presumptuously sure of his own judgment? If my crime be an error in judgment, or differing in opinion from my judges, and if that error in judgment should be on their side, God forgive them as I do, and may the distress of their minds, and the uneasiness of their consciences, which, in justice to me, they have represented, be believed and subside, as my resentment has done. The supreme Judge sees all hearts and motives; and to him I submit the justice of my cause.

"J. BYNG."

"On board H.M.S. Monarch, in Portsmouth Harbour, March 14, 1757."

Byng was anything but a popular officer, or at all held in estimation in the service. He was something of a martinet, and cold and haughty in his manner; but as the son of a gallant sire, no one ever accused him of being deficient in personal spirit; still he had never signalized himself in battle. Moreover, he was opinionated and self-willed. Had he listened to the tactical, sensible, and seaman-like suggestions of his captain, the gallant Gardner, he would have brought the enemy to action in a manner which in all probability would have brought about a very different result:

and his seeking shelter under the decision of a council-of-war, partly composed of land officers, was not an act calculated to win for him professional favour. Still "the judicial inurder" of Byng will ever remain a reproach upon the two administrations who demanded his sacrifice. He was persecuted and denounced as a coward and a traitor under the administration of the duke of Newcastle and lord Anson, (see ANSON ;) and their successors in office, the duke of Devonshire, and earl Temple, as first lord of the Admiralty, gave their sanction to his death. The tribunal before which he was tried acquitted him expressly of cowardice and treachery, and complained of the strictness and severity of the law which awarded the punishment of death upon a secondary charge. The court, as has been shown, earnestly recommended him to mercy in justice to himself, and as a relief to their own consciences; and yet an inexorable government refused to mitigate the penalty.

On a monumental tablet over the vault belonging to the Torrington family in the church of Lanthill, in Bedfordshire, is the following inscription :

"TO THE PERPETUAL DISGRACE
OF PUBLIC JUSTICE,
THE HON. JOHN BYNG,
ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE,

FELL A MARTYR TO POLITICAL PERSE-
CUTION,

MARCH 14, IN THE YEAR 1757,

AT A TIME

WHEN BRAVERY AND LOYALTY WERE
INSUFFICIENT SECURITIES FOR

THE LIFE AND HONOUR OF A NAVAL OFFICER." BYNKERSHOEK, (Cornelius van,) an eminent Dutch jurist, born at Middleburg, in Zealand, in 1673. His father, who was a merchant, carefully superintended his earlier education, and sent him, when seventeen years of age, to the university of Franeker, where, after passing two years in close application to his academical pursuits, he commenced that assiduous study of jurisprudence which was never suspended during the remainder of his laborious life. Before taking his doctor's degree, in 1694, he wrote three disputations, which displayed considerable learning and judgment, and gave early promise of that distinguished ability which has since made him one of the most celebrated of the publicists of Europe. On leaving the university he went to practise as an advocate at the Hague, the seat of the supreme court of justice for

the provinces of Holland, Zealand, and West Friesland. Of that court he was, in 1703, elected a member by the statesgeneral; and, in 1724, he was raised to the office of president. At an early stage of his official life he saw the necessity of giving more than ordinary attention to the Roman law; for the common law of his country, which he was called upon to administer, was so defective and perplexing, that his colleagues, seeking, in despair of a better plan, to regulate their decisions by the light of natural equity, soon lost themselves in a maze of uncertainty. Bynkershoek perceived the difficulty, and suggested the remedy. He saw that it was necessary to have some fixed standard to appeal to; and showed that the Roman law, which he had long admired for its dignified simplicity, furnished principles of legal decision at once stable and authoritative. With a view to facilitate its application, he published, in 1710, his first important work, entitled, Observationes Juris Romani, in which he investigates the origin, traces the progress, and marks the character of the Roman law; the work, however, is not very systematical, but consists chiefly of detached dissertations and criticisms. In 1719 he published his Opuscula varii Argumenti, which contains a treatise that he had previously published in 1695, and in which he had incorporated the substance of his three academical disputations already noticed. In 1730 he published his Opera Minora; all of which had previously appeared at various times between 1697 and 1721. In 1733 he published four books of Observationes Juris Romani, written in continuation of the former work under the same title, which he had brought out in 1710. He now retired from public life, but with no remission of his studious habits. "Having now," said he, "more leisure than ever, I will do my best to render a good account of it to the world." But his labours henceforward took a new direction. He gave up the study of Roman law, and devoted himself to the task of giving to the public the fruits of his long observation and experience on constitutional law, and the law of his own country. His treatise, De Dominio Maris, is an able discussion of a difficult and still disputed question; and his De Foro Legatorum competenti, which was first published in 1721, was soon afterwards translated into French by Barbeyrac. In 1737 he published his valuable treatise, entitled, Questiones Juris Publici. His last work,

which he did not live to finish, was his Quæstiones Juris Privati. As much of this as was prepared for publication at the time of his death appeared soon afterwards, superintended in its course through the press by an anonymous editor, supposed to be his son-in-law, W. Pauw. Besides his published works, Bynkershoek had employed himself during the whole of his professional life in the execution of two very laborious undertakings. One of these, which he called Observationes Tumultuariæ, consisted of notes which he had taken of the decisions and proceedings of the supreme court. The other, a work of still greater interest and importance, was a collection of all the scattered laws of his own country, whether existing in the enactments of the several legislative powers which had successively prevailed there; in the decisions of the courts, the practice of the bar, or the customs and statutes of particular cities and districts. This immense mass he had digested, so as to form a complete Corpus Juris Hollandici et Zelandici. These two collections were intended solely for his own use; and he gave express orders in his will that they should never be published. Bynkershoek had long suffered from asthma; to this, at last, was added dropsy on the chest, of which he died on the 16th of April, 1743. A complete edition of his works was published at Geneva, in 1761, fol. by Vicat, professor of law at Lausanne; and another, in two volumes fol. at Leyden, in 1766.

BYNS, (Anne,) a poetess, born at Antwerp, towards the close of the fifteenth century. Her compositions had much currency in their day. This Flemish Sappho, whose chief design seems to have been to denounce the person and tenets of Luther, is now known only to those who have a taste for scarce publications.

BYRAM KHAN, a celebrated general and minister under the Mogul emperors of India. He was a Turkoman by birth, and had received from Humayoon the government of Guzerat, on the temporary conquest of that province in 1534, (see BAHADUR SHAH); but on the expulsion of Humayoon from India, in 1542, by his rebellious brothers, and the Affghan chiefs, he accompanied his unfortunate sovereign in his flight, remained constantly faithful to him during his thirteen years' exile, and commanded the army which effected his re-establishment in 1555. On the death of Humayoon in the following year, Byram became regent and guardian to his youthful son,

afterwards the illustrious Akbar, who owed the preservation of his throne, at the outset of his reign, to his determination, which overruled the desire of the other chiefs to give up India to the insurgents, and retire with the king to Cabul. The great victory of Delhi, gained by Byram, Nov. 5, 1566, over the united forces of the Affghans, Hindoos, and Dekkanis, established the Mogul dynasty as sovereigns of Hindostan; but these eminent services were repaid with ingratitude by Akbar, and in 1559, his great minister was stripped of his offices, and exiled to Mecca. Byram, however, attempted to evade this command, and flying into the Punjab, collected troops for resistance, but he was overpowered and sent prisoner to court, where Akbar, affecting to pardon him, dismissed him, with orders to proceed to his previouslyappointed place of exile; but he was assassinated in Guzerat, on his way to Mecca, Jan. 1561, probably by the contrivance of his ungrateful master. His son, Mirza Khan, was subsequently distinguished as a general in the service of Akbar. (Ferishta, &c.)

BYRDE, (John,) successively bishop of Bangor (1539) and of Chester (1541), in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and known for the zeal with which he denounced the pope's supremacy. He was born at Coventry, and educated at Oxford, and died in 1556. He was deprived of his bishopric by queen Mary, for being married, and was then appointed suffragan to bishop Bonner, and vicar of Dunmow, in Essex. Strype, in his Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, says that he laboured earnestly to dissuade Bilney, the martyr, from embracing the principles of the Reformation. He wrote, Lectures on the Epistles of St. Paul; a treatise, De Fide Justificante; and several homilies.

BYRGE, (Justus,) a Swiss astronomer and mechanician, born at Lichtenstein, in 1551. He was invited by William IV. landgrave of Hesse, to settle at Cassel, where he lived for several years. He died in 1632. Byrge is highly commended by Kepler. He is one of those to whom the invention of logarithms has been groundlessly ascribed. He was, however, a very ingenious man; and various interesting particulars respecting him are to be found in Strieder's Account of the learned men of Hesse.

BYRNE, (William,) an English engraver, born in London in 1743. He was at first a pupil of his uncle, an artist of little note. In 1770 he went to Paris,

and studied under J. Aliamet and Wille. Byrne may certainly be ranked among the most eminent landscape engravers of England. He died in London, in 1805.

BYROM, (John,) was born at Kersall, near Manchester, in 1691; and after receiving his education at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, went to Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1711. At the early age of twenty-three, appeared his pastoral of Colin and Phoebe, in the Spectator, No. 603,where, by the Nymph, was intended (it was said) Joanna the daughter of Bentley, the master of the college; who was so pleased with it, as to use his interest for obtaining for the author a fellowship. The calumny is, however, satisfactorily disproved by Byrom's anonymous biographer, and the editor of the Leeds edition of his poems. Declining to take orders, he subsequently vacated his fellowship, and went to Montpellier, in France, for the recovery of his health. Here he became an admirer of the philosophy of Malebranche, and of the divinity of Fenelon; but not so devoted to the former as to despise human learning, in which he made no inconsiderable progress, and cultivated with a keen relish to the last hour of his life. During his residence abroad, he paid some attention to medicine, intending, on his return, to settle in London as a physician; and though he never obtained a diploma, he used to be called doctor by his friends; but the design was given up on his marriage with his cousin, an union which so displeased both his father and uncle, that they refused the young couple all means of support. In this dilemma, Byrom had recourse to teaching stenography, upon an improved principle; but though it was said by his rival teachers to be so complex, that few would have the talent or patience to learn it, yet it was adopted by some persons of note, and amongst them, by Taylor, the editor of Demosthenes, many of whose MS. notes, at present in the public library at Cambridge, are written in short hand, to be deciphered only by those who may make themselves masters of Byrom's system, as developed in the Encyclopædias of Rees and Nicholson; for though he never published any explanation himself of his principle of stenography, and took great care to preserve it secret, yet it seems to have transpired after his death, by some of those who frequented his lectures, which were extremely amusing, and interspersed with sallies of wit similar to

the epitaph he wrote upon the eccentric chemist Byfield, the inventor of the sal volatile oleosum:

"Hic jacet Byfieldus olim volatilis, tandem fixus."

In 1723, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and wrote two papers in their Transactions, on the Stenography of Jeake and Lodwick; but coming into the family estate by the death of his elder brother, who died without issue, he gave up teaching, and passed the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family, and died at Manchester, Sept. 28, 1763. In early life he was a follower of Law, and then of Hervey, and at last of Behmen; and to enable him to read the mystic original, he was taught German by a Russian at Manchester; and when he was asked whether he understood his author, he replied, as Socrates did in the case of Herodotus, "What I do understand, I think admirable; and what I do not, I presume is equally so." A small impression of his miscellaneous poems was published after his death, at Manchester, in 2 vols, 8vo, 1773; from which no doubt not a little would have been rejected; at least, if any inference can be drawn from the fact, that just previous to his decease, he destroyed not a few of his juvenile and other productions. The collection was reprinted at Leeds in 1814, with his life, by an anonymous editor, who, alluding to the charge of his being a Mystic, observes, that the name is frequently bestowed upon those who are too pious for the age in which they live, and who view Christianity in a spiritual, more than a moral light; and that it is to Byrom Warburton alludes, when he speaks of a Behmenite being one of the persons who found fault with his Divine Legation. At present, he is chiefly known by his earliest poem; but there are things in the volume which will repay perusal, relating to some conjectural emendations of Horace, some of which are no less ingenious than true; and though his reasons are written in rhyme, they are not less cogent than if they were penned in prose. The second volume is devoted almost entirely to sacred subjects, where, as in every other question that arrested his attention, no matter whether connected with criticism or politics, he has selected verse as the vehicle of his thoughts, and exhibited a facility quite marvellous in the tagging together of couplets; and it is in the same manner he threw out, in his letter to lord Willoughby, then president of the Antiqua

rian Society, his theory, that St. George, the patron saint of England, was in fact Gregory the Great, who sent over St. Augustine to convert this country to Christianity; and though Pegge, in the Archæologia, vol. v. was thought to have settled the question against Byrom, yet the controversy was re-opened in 1795, when Milner stept forward to support the reality of the person of St. George against the assertion of Gibbon, who was probably a convert to the scepticism of Pettingal in that question. From the following epigram, it would seem that Byrom had been at one time a Jacobite :

"God bless the king-I mean the faith's defender; God bless-ro harm in blessing-the Pretender; But who pretender is, or who the kingGod bless us all-is quite another thing." BYRON, (John,) the first lord Byron, nephew of Sir Nicholas Byron, who distinguished himself at the battle of Edgehill. He was lieutenant of the Tower, and served Charles I. with tried fidelity, signalizing his military skill on every occasion, but particularly in the victory at Roundway Down, which was gained chiefly by lord Byron's bravery and good conduct. He afterwards showed equal valour and judgment at the siege of Chester, which he defended to the last extremity, and surrendered only on honourable terms. He died at Paris in 1652. The name of Byron has obtained the most honourable rank in history. Ernies de Buron is mentioned in Doomsday as possessor of very many lands in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The poet, who was also grandson of admiral Byron, was the sixth lord of that name.

BYRON, (Hon. John,) a celebrated British admiral and circumnavigator. He was the second son of William, fourth lord Byron, and Frances, his third wife, daughter of William lord Berkeley, of Stratton. He was born 8th of November, 1723, and, according to Charnock, entered the navy (or rather, as we suspect, had his name enrolled on the "ship's books,") when only eight years of age. He subsequently served in the Wager, one of the vessels of discovery attached to the squadron under commodore Anson. The sufferings and severe privations he underwent consequent upon the loss of that ill-fated ship, will be found recorded in our memoir of captain Cheap. Charnock, in his Biographic Sketch of Byron, "laments that his subject should, on many occasions, have rather harshly reflected on captain Cheap, particularly as he did not think proper to publish his