vention, the contracting powers express their "regrets that their majesties, the emperor of Austria, the king of Prussia, and the emperor of all the Russias, are not prepared to concur in active measures to carry the treaty into effect." The ordinary session of the Belgian chambers was opened on the 14th November. The following is an extract from the king's speech on the occasion: “After long delays, less injurious, however, to the interests of the country than might be apprehended, the moment is at last arrived when I can comply with the wishes of the chambers and the nation, by leading the powers who were guarantees of the treaty of the 15th November [1831], to insure its execution. Those powers, having acquired the certainty that, in longer abstaining from adopting measures, they would place Belgium in the absolute necessity of doing herself justice, were unwilling to incur the risk of a general war. United by a formal convention, two of them have engaged to begin the execution of the treaty by the immediate evacuation of our territory. The fleets of France and England will fetter the commerce of Holland; and, if these means of coercion are not sufficient, in two days a French army will advance, without troubling the peace of Europe, to prove that the guarantees given are not vain words." In fact, a British order in council of the 6th had already laid an embargo on Dutch vessels in the ports of Great Britain, and, on the 10th and 11th, several divisions of the combined English and French fleet had sailed to begin the blockade of the Dutch coasts. Finally, on the 15th, marshal Gérard entered Belgium at the head of a French army, and directed his march towards Antwerp. Thus the war of the revolutions of 1830 has already begun: its issue we will not pretend to prophesy. We have merely to add that the citadel of Antwerp has a garrison of about 8000 men, is well supplied with provisions and warlike stores, and that most of the works are bomb-proof. BELLADONNA. (See Nightshade.) BELLIARD, Augustin Daniel, count de, lieutenant-general, peer of France, and lately French minister in Brussels, distinguished as a general and diplomatist, was born in 1773, at Fontenay-le-Comte, in the Vendée, and entered the military service very early. Dumouriez soon after made him an officer of his staff. He fought at Jemappes, and was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general after the battle of Neerwinden. After Dumouriez had betrayed the convention and fled, Bel liard was carried as a prisoner to Paris, and dismissed from the service; but he soon entered the army again as a volunteer, and was again made lieutenant-general, went, in 1796, with Bonaparte, to Italy, fought at Arcole, and was made general of brigade on the field of battle. After the occupation of Civita-Vecchia, he was sent, by Bonaparte, as minister to Naples, in order to begin negotiations. Belliard then accompanied his general to Egypt, where he distinguished himself in the battle of Alexandria, and that of the pyramids. In Upper Egypt, he went beyond the limits of the ancient Roman empire, and penetrated as far as Assyria, in a continual contest with the mamelukes and Arabs. In the battle of Heliopolis, he essentially contributed to the victory. He then attacked, with 1200 men, the Turkish forces in Damietta, which he retook. Whilst he was in Upper Egypt, he warmly aided the men of letters, who accompanied the expedition, in their scientific labors; and without his assistance the antiquities from Denderah to Philæ might have remained undiscovered. When commandant in Cairo, he was besieged by the Turks and English, and obtained a favorable capitulation by his firmness and prudence. In Egypt, he was made general of division, and, in 1801, commander of the division which had its head-quarters at Brussels. In the campaign of 1805, he participated in the victories at Ulm and Austerlitz, and fought in all the great battles in the war with Prussia. After the occupation of Madrid, he was made commandant of the city, where he suppressed the insurrection which broke out in consequence of the battle of Talavera. In 1812, he left Spain to go to Russia, and distinguished himself, particularly in the battle on the Moskwa. After the retreat, he received orders to reorganize the cavalry. At Leipsic, a cannon-ball carried away his arm. After the battle at Craone (1814), Napoleon made him commander of his cavalry and guards. After the abdication of the emperor, he received the order of St. Louis from Louis XVIII, and was made a peer and major-general of the French army, under the command of the duke de Berri. Napoleon returned from Elba, and gave him orders to hasten to king Joachim, in order to direct the operations of the Neapolitan army. The vessel which was to carry him to Naples was chased by a British ship, and obliged to return to France. The Bourbons, after their return, imprisoned him, and placed him under the surveillance of the police, but only for a short time, for, in 1816, he was again a peer. Hardly had Louis Philip ascended the throne, when he sent Belliard to Berlin, to treat respecting the acknowledgment of the new dynasty. This mission was soon successful; for, immediately after the king of the Netherlands, England, and the emperor of Austria, had, in fact, acknowledged the king of the French, the king of Prussia did the same. During his embassy in Brussels, Belliard displayed uncommon activity he contributed more than any other diplomatist to the foundation of the new Belgian government, and to the preservation of the city of Antwerp, when the Dutch general Chassé threatened to lay it in ruins; and, in December, 1830, he was, likewise, very active. In consequence of an order of the French government, communicated by telegraphs, he left Brussels on Tuesday, arrived in Paris on Thursday, hastened to the Tuileries, left Paris the same night, arrived on Sunday in Brussels, had an audience of king Leopold, returned to Paris, where the peers were voting on the subject of the hereditary peerage, and, at the very moment when the secretary called out his name, opened the door in great haste, voted against the hereditary peerage, amid the laughter of his colleagues, and hastened back to Brussels. He died Jan. 27, 1832. The Belgians intend to erect him a monument. BELLINI, Vincenzo, chapel-master at Venice, born in 1808, at Palermo, has already acquired a wide reputation. His first opera which attracted attention was Il Pirata, first represented at Milan (probably during the carnival in 1828). It pleased so much that it was soon heard in all the cities of Italy, and found its way into Germany and other countries. In December, 1832, it was represented in New York with great applause. In this work, Bellini has chiefly imitated Rossini, yet with the independence of native genius. He treats the vocal parts according to the taste of the present Italian public, and gives, therefore, a number of colorature, fioriture, &c. ; but his vocal pieces, especially those for several voices, are composed much more judiciously than those of Rossini. Though inferior in genius to the latter, he is, also, less hasty and negligent. Besides the Pirata, he has written the following operas, which have been performed in many Italian theatres, some of them also in France and Germany :-Bianca e Ferrando; La Straniera; Gli Capuleti e Montecchi (Romeo and Juliet). In December, 1831, his latest opera, Norma (text from a French tragedy of Soumet), was performed in the Scala at Milan, but with only partial success, which, however, determines nothing respecting its merit, because in Italy, more than in any other country, secondary circumstances decide the fate of an opera. BENGALEE YEAR. (See Epoch.) BENTHAM, Jeremy, died in London, June 6, 1832. BENTINCK. (See Portland.) BERENGER, French deputy, the accuser of Polignac and his colleagues before the peers, is the son of a member of the constituent assembly. He held several inferior offices in Grenoble, and, in 1815, was elected deputy of the department of Drome. June 9, he voted against the hereditary peerage. June 22, 1815, he signed the protest, on the day when Louis XVIII entered Paris. After the dissolution of the chamber, he laid down his office of attorney-general. In 1807, he had published, in Metz, a French translation of Justinian's Novels. He now wrote, in Valence, his work De la Justice criminelle en France d'après les Lois permanents, les Lois d'Exception, et les Doctrines des Tribunaur, which was published in Paris in 1818, and is much esteemed. It displays a philosophical spirit, and a great knowledge of the subject. In 1827, he was elected deputy by the inhabitants of Valence. He was one of the commissioners appointed to conduct the impeachment of the ministers of Charles X, on which occasion he displayed, perhaps purposely, more moderation than talent. During Périer's administration, he was one of the centre between the premier and the opposition. BERGAMOT. (See Orange.) BICHAT, Marie François Xavier, a celebrated French physician, who, during a short career, gave an impulse to the science which he cultivated that has not yet ceased to be felt, was born at Thoirette, in the department of the Ain, Nov. 11, 1771. His father, a physician, early initiated him into the study of medicine, which the young Bichat prosecuted at Lyons and Paris, to which latter city he withdrew from the storm which agitated the former in 1793. At Paris, he studied under the direction of Desault, who treated him as a son. On the death of that distinguished surgeon (see Desault), Bichat superintended the publication of his surgical works, and, in 1797, began to lecture upon anatomy, in connexion with experimental physiology and surgery. From this period, amidst the pressing calls of an extensive practice, he employed himself in preparing those works which have spread his reputation through Europe and America, and which have had the most beneficial influence upon the whole medical science. In the year 1800 appeared his Traité des Membranes, which passed through numerous editions, and, immediately after its publication, was translated into almost all the languages of Europe. In the same year was published his celebrated work Recherches sur la Vie et la Mort, which was followed the next year (1801) by his Anatomie Générale (4 vols., 8vo.), a complete code of modern anatomy, physiology and medicine. In the twenty-eighth year of his age, Bichat was appointed (1800) physician of the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris, and, with the ener gy characteristic of true genius, began his labors in pathological anatomy. In a single winter, he opened no less than 600 bodies. He had, likewise, conceived the plan of a great work upon pathology and therapeutics; and, with this view, immediately upon commencing his duties, as physician to the Hôtel-Dieu, had begun his researches in therapeutics by experiments upon the effect of simple medicines. In the midst of this activity and usefulness, he was cut off, July 22, 1802, by a malignant putrid fever, probably the consequence of his numerous dissections. His friend and physician, Corvisart, wrote to Napoleon in these words: "Bichat has just fallen upon a field of battle which counts more than one victim: no one has done so much, or done it so well, in so short a time." Bichat is the founder of the medical theory at present received. He is the creator of general anatomy, or of the doctrine of the identity of the texture of the different organs, which is the fundamental principle of modern medicine. His Anatomie Générale has been translated into English by doctor G. Hayward (3 vols., 8vo., Boston, 1822). BILDERDYK died in December, 1831. BINDING-BEAN-TREE. (See Acacia.) BLACK VOMIT. (See Yellow Fever.) BLACKMAIL. (See Highlands.) BLEEDING. (See Phlebotomy.) BLOMFIELD, Charles James, was, in 1824, made bishop of Chester, and, in 1828, bishop of London. BLOOD-LETTING. (See Phlebotomy.) BLUE VITRIOL. (See Copper.) BOAR. (See Mascaret.) BOBBINET. (See Lace.) BOB-O-LINK. (See Rice-Bunting.) BODE. This celebrated astronomer died in 1826. BOIGNE, count, was born at Chambery, in 1751. In 1768, when seventeen years old, he left his country, and entered the French army, in which he served for five years, then went into the Russian service, was taken prisoner, at the siege of Tenedos, by the Turks, and, after his release, left the Russian army. From 1778 to 1782, he served in the forces of the East India company, and fought against Hyder Ali. Being neglected as a foreigner, he took service with the rajah of Jaypur. He led, in 1784, to Mahajee Scindiah, the celebrated prince of the Mahrattas, two battalions, disciplined in the European manner, and was of the greatest service to this prince during his campaigns against the Mongols and Rajpoots. From 1788 to 1790, he was engaged in commerce at Lucknow; but, at the invitation of Scindiah, he put himself again at the head of an army of that prince, and routed his enemies entirely. The prince heaped honors and riches on him. For the support of the army organized by him, he had the government of the country between Muttra and Delhi, which yielded an annual revenue of five millions and a half rupees (two millions and a half dollars), of which he was allowed to retain two per cent., besides his salary, which amounted to 6000 rupees a month. The army organized by him, consisted, in 1793, of 22,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. After the death of Scindiah, in 1794, Boigne also served his grand-nephew; but, in 1795, the state of his health obliged him to leave India. He went to England, whither he had remitted his fortune, and thence to his own country. He settled, in 1799, at Chambery, where he did much good in a variety of ways, spending three millions and a half for charitable or benevolent purposes, as the founding of hospitals for the aged and sick, and for travellers, the construction of roads, streets, &c., also for scientific and ornamental purposes. The king of Sardinia made him count; the king of France gave him the cross of the legion of honor. He died June 21, 1830, leaving between fifteen and eighteen millions of francs to his son, and above three millions in benefactions of various sorts. The story, that Tippoo Saib was given up by him is utterly false, because he had been already for three years in Europe, when this prince perished in his capital.-See Memoire sur la Carrière Militaire et Pacifique de M. le Général Comte de Boigne (Chambery, 1829), a work of much interest in respect to the history of the Mahrattas during the last half of the last century, for which Boigne's son furnished the materials to the author. BOLIDES. (See Fire, Falling Stars, and Meteor.) BOLIVAR. The account of this distinguished individual was brought down to the close of the year 1828, and has been in some measure continued under the heads of Colombia, Paez, and Santander. Having been left, by the defeat of the conspiracy against him, without a rival, in full possession of the civil and military power, Bolivar continued to exercise the chief authority until May, 1830, when, dissatisfied with the aspect of internal affairs, he resigned the presidency, and expressed a determination to leave the country. Venezuela, under Paez, immediately declared herself independent of the central government; and the same spirit of disaffection was manifested by the other provinces. Bolivar, living in retirement at his country seat, refused to take any part in public events, until, after six months of confusion, he was pressed to resume the government, by those who had succeeded him in the administration. He had finally yielded to this urgency, and consented to take the chief command, until the new elections should be completed, declaring it to be his firm resolution then to retire to private life, when he died, at Carthagena, on the 17th of December, 1830. He met death with calmness and resignation, performing, on the 11th, the last act of his public life, by dictating and signing an address to the Colombian nation. From that time, he continued delirious, with occasional lucid intervals, till the day of his death, expressing no other anxiety than for his country. "Union! union!" was his most frequent exclamation. We extract the following summary of his character from the American Annual Register for 1831:-"As a general, Bolivar was distinguished, accomplishing great ends with inadequate means, and confounding his opponents by the rapidity of his move ments, and the vehemence of his attacks. Repeatedly defeated, his forces scattered, himself escaping in a remarkable manner, when others despaired, he continued to act, and, with energies irrepressible by adversity, fought on in the great cause he had espoused, until he had expelled the Spanish armies from the American continent, and liberated the new world from the dominion of Spain. As a statesman, he was not so eminent. His views were liberal, but they were often too enlarged for the sphere in which he moved. Seeing his country distracted by domestic dissensions, he deemed it necessary to repress them by a strong executive; and he did not properly rate the danger of subjecting the other branches of the government to the will of an individual. He was, however, the true friend of the independence of his country, and her liberator from foreign domination. With a noble disregard of money, he expended a large fortune in the public service. His disapprobation of slavery was evinced in the emancipation of nearly 1000 slaves belonging to his patrimonial estate; and his refusal of a crown, when tendered by general Paez, demonstrated that, in his aspirations after power, he did not seek to gratify his ambition through a monarchical form of government." General Bolivar was forty-seven years of age at the time of his death. BOLTING. (See Mill.) BONPLAND was allowed to depart from Paraguay in February, 1831. BORING FOR WATER. The practice of boring for water, and the frequent success that has lately attended the operation, in producing a great supply without the actual sinking of a well, render the subject one of great importance: we conceive, therefore, that our readers will be gratified with the following description of the process. The situation of the intended well being determined on, a circular hole is generally dug in the ground, about six or eight feet deep, and five or six feet wide. In the centre of this hole the boring is carried on by two workmen, assisted by a laborer above. The handle, having a female screw in the bottom of its iron shank, a wooden bar, or rail passing through the socket of the shank, and a ring at top, is the general agent to which all the boring implements are to be attached. A chisel is first employed, and connected to this handle by its screw at top. If the ground is tolerably soft, the weight of the two workmen bearing upon the cross-bar, and occasion ally forcing it round, will soon cause the chisel to penetrate; but if the ground is hard or strong, the workmen strike the chisel down with repeated blows, so as to peck their way, often changing their situation by walking round, which breaks the stones, or other hard substances, that may happen to obstruct its progress. The labor is very considerably reduced by means of an elastic wooden pole, placed horizontally over the well, from which a chain is brought down and attached to the ring of the handle. This pole is usually made fast at one end as a fulcrum, by being set into a heap of heavy loose stones: at the other end the laborer gives it a slight up-and-down vibrating motion, corresponding to the beating motion of the workmen below, by which means the elasticity of the pole, in rising, lifts the handle and pecker, and thereby very considerably diminishes the labor of the workmen. When the hole has been thus opened by a chisel, as far as its length will permit, the chisel is withdrawn, and a sort of cylindrical auger attached to the handle, for the purpose of drawing up the dirt or broken stones which have been disturbed by the chisel. The auger being introduced into the hole, and turned round by the workmen, the dirt or broken stones will pass through the aperture at bottom, and fill the cylinder, which is then drawn up, and discharged at the top of the auger, the valve preventing its escape at bottom. In order to penetrate deeper into the ground, an iron rod is now to be attached to the chisel by screwing on to its upper end, and the rod is also fastened to the handle by screwing into its socket. The chisel having thus become lengthened, by the addition of the rod, it is again introduced into the hole, and the operation of pecking or forcing it down, is carried on by the workmen as before. When the ground has been thus perforated, as far as the chisel and its rod will reach, they must be withdrawn, in order again to introduce the auger, to collect and bring up the rubbish, which is done by attaching it to the iron rod, in place of the chisel. Thus, as the hole becomes deepened, other lengths of iron rods are added, by connecting them together. The necessity of frequently withdrawing the rods from the hole, in order to collect the mud, stones or rubbish, and the great friction produced by the rubbing of the tools against its sides, as well as the lengths of the rods augmented in the progress of the operation, sometimes to the extent of several hundred feet, render it extremely incon venient, if not impossible, to raise them by hand. A tripedal standard is therefore generally constructed, by three scaffolding poles tied together, over the hole, from the centre of which a wheel and axle, or a pair of pulley blocks, are suspended, for the purpose of hauling up the rods, and from which hangs the fork. This fork is to be brought down under the shoulder, near the top of each rod, and made fast to it by passing a pin through two little holes in the claws. The rods are thus drawn up, about seven feet at a time, which is the usual distance between each joint; and at every haul a fork is laid horizontally over the hole, with the shoulders of the lower rod resting between its claws; by which means the rods are prevented from sinking down into the bore again, while the upper length is unscrewed and removed. In attaching and detaching these lengths of rod, a wrench is employed, by which they are turned round, and the screws forced up to their firm bearing. The boring is sometimes performed, for the first sixty or a hundred feet, by a chisel of two and a half inches wide, and cleared out by a gouge of two and a quarter diameter, and then the hole is widened by a tool. This is merely a chisel, four inches wide, but with a guide put on at its lower part, for the purpose of keeping it in a perpendicular direction; the lower part is not intended to peck, but to pass down the hole previously made, while the sides of the chisel operate in enlarging the hole to four inches. The process, however, is generally performed at one operation, by a chisel of four inches wide, and a gouge of three inches and three quarters. It is obvious, that placing and displacing the lengths of rod, which is done every time that the auger is required to be introduced or withdrawn, must, of itself, be extremely troublesome, independent of the labor of boring; but yet the operation proceeds, when no unpropitious circumstances attend it, with a facility almost incredible. Sometimes, however, rocks intercept the way, which require great labor to penetrate; but this is always effected by pecking, which slowly pulverizes the stone. The most unpleasant circumstance attendant upon this business, is the occasional breaking of a rod into the hole, which sometimes creates a delay of many days, and an incalculable labor in drawing up the lower portion. When the water is obtained in such quantities and of such quality as may be required, the hole is dressed or |