Chapter VIII: JACQUES BERNOULLI (1759-1789), younger brother of the preceding, (2)
BERTHIER, LOUIS ALEXANDRE, prince of Neuchatel (1753-1815), marshal of France and chief of the staff under Napoleon I., was born at Versailles on the 20th of February 1753. As a boy he was instructed in the military art by his father, an officer of the _Corps de genie_, and at the age of seventeen he entered the army, serving successively in the staff, the engineers and the prince de Lambesq's dragoons. In 1780 he went to North America with Rochambeau, and on his return, having attained the rank of colonel, he was employed in various staff posts and in a military mission to Prussia. During the Revolution, as chief of staff of the Versailles national guard, he protected the aunts of Louis XVI. from popular violence, and aided their escape (1791). In the war of 1792 he was at once made chief of staff to Marshal Luckner, and he bore a distinguished part in the Argonne campaign of Dumouriez and Kellermann. He served with great credit in the Vendean War of 1793-95, and was in the next year made a general of division and chief of staff (_Major-General_) to the army of Italy, which Bonaparte had recently been appointed to command. His power of work, accuracy and quick comprehension, combined with his long and varied experience and his complete mastery of detail, made him the ideal chief of staff to a great soldier; and in this capacity he was Napoleon's most valued assistant for the rest of his career. He accompanied Napoleon throughout the brilliant campaign of 1796, and was left in charge of the army after the peace of Campo Formio. In this post he organized the Roman republic (1798), after which he joined his chief in Egypt, serving there until Napoleon's return. He assisted in the _coup d'etat_ of 18th Brumaire, afterwards becoming minister of war for a time. In the campaign of Marengo he was the nominal head of the Army of Reserve, but the first consul accompanied the army and Berthier acted in reality, as always, as chief of staff to Napoleon. At the close of the campaign he was employed in civil and diplomatic business. When Napoleon became emperor, Berthier was at once made a marshal of the empire. He took part in the campaigns of Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland, and was created duke of Valengin in 1806, sovereign prince of Neuchatel in the same year and vice-constable of the empire in 1807. In 1808 he served in the Peninsula, and in 1809 in the Austrian War, after which he was given the title of prince of Wagram. Berthier married a niece of the king of Bavaria. He was with Napoleon in Russia in 1812, Germany in 1813, and France in 1814, fulfilling, till the fall of the empire, the functions of "major-general" of the _Grande Armee_. He abandoned Napoleon to make his peace with Louis XVIII. in 1814, and accompanied the king in his solemn entry into Paris. During Napoleon's captivity in Elba, Berthier, whom he informed of his projects, was much perplexed as to his future course, and, being unwilling to commit himself, fell under the suspicion both of his old leader and of Louis XVIII. On Napoleon's return he withdrew to Bamberg, where he died on the 1st of June 1815. The manner of his death is uncertain; according to some accounts he was assassinated by members of a secret society, others say that, maddened by the sight of Russian troops marching to invade France, he threw himself from his window and was killed. Berthier was not a great commander. When he was in temporary command in 1809 the French army in Bavaria underwent a series of reverses. Whatever merit as a general he may have possessed was completely overshadowed by the genius of his master. But his title to fame is that he understood and carried out that master's directions to the minutest detail.
BERTHOLLET, CLAUDE LOUIS (1748-1822), French chemist, was born at Talloire, near Annecy in Savoy, on the 9th of December 1748. He studied first at Chambery and afterwards at Turin, where he graduated in medicine. Settling in Paris in 1772, he became the private physician of Philip, duke of Orleans, and by his chemical work soon gained so high a reputation that in 1780 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences. In 1785 he declared himself an adherent of the Lavoisierian school, though he did not accept Lavoisier's view of oxygen as the only and universal acidifying principle, and he took part in the reform in chemical nomenclature carried out by Lavoisier and his associates in 1787. Among the substances of which he investigated the composition were ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen and prussic acid, and his experiments on chlorine, which he regarded, not as an element, but as oxygenated muriatic (oxymuriatic) acid, led him to propose it as a bleaching agent in 1785. He also prepared potassium chlorate and attempted to use it in the manufacture of gunpowder as a substitute for saltpetre. When, at the beginning of the French Revolution, the deficiency in the supply of saltpetre became a serious matter, he was placed at the head of the commission entrusted with the development of its production in French territory, and another commission on which he served had for its object the improvement of the methods of iron manufacture. He was also a member in 1794 of the committee on agriculture and the arts, and technical science was further indebted to him for a systematic exposition of the principles of dyeing--_Elemens de l'art de la teinture_, 1791, of which he published a second edition in 1809, in association with his son, A.B. Berthollet (1783-1811). After 1794 he was teacher of chemistry in the polytechnic and normal schools of Paris, and in 1795 he took an active part in remodelling the Academy as the Institut National. In the following year he and Gaspard Monge were chosen chiefs of a commission charged with the task of selecting in Italy the choicest specimens of ancient and modern art for the national galleries of Paris; and in 1798 he was one of the band of scientific men who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, there forming themselves into the Institute of Egypt on the plan of the Institut National. On the fall of the Directory he was made a senator and grand officer of the Legion of Honour; under the empire he became a count; and after the restoration of the Bourbons he took his seat as a peer. In the later years of his life he had at Arcueil, where he died on the 6th of November 1822, a well-equipped laboratory, which became a centre frequented by some of the most distinguished scientific men of the time, their proceedings being published in three volumes, between 1807 and 1817, as the _Memoires de la societe d'Arcueil_. Berthollet's most remarkable contribution to chemistry was his _Essai de statique chimique_ (1803), the first systematic attempt to grapple with the problems of chemical physics. His doctrines did not meet with general approval among his contemporaries, partly perhaps because he pushed them too far, as for instance in holding that two elements might combine in constantly varying proportions, a view which gave rise to a long dispute with L.J. Proust; but his speculations, in particular his insistence on the influence of the relative masses of the acting substances in chemical reactions, have exercised a dominating influence on the modern developments of the theory of chemical affinity, of which, far more than T.O. Bergman, whom he controverted, he must be regarded as the founder.
BERTHON, EDWARD LYON (1813-1899), English inventor, was born in London, on the 20th of February 1813, the son of an army contractor and descendant of an old Huguenot family. He studied for the medical profession in Liverpool and at Dublin, but after his marriage in 1834 he gave up his intention of becoming a doctor, and travelled for about six years on the continent. Keenly interested from boyhood in mechanical science, he made experiments in the application of the screw propeller for boats. But his model, with a two-bladed propeller, was only ridiculed when it was placed before the British admiralty. Berthon therefore did not complete the patent and the idea was left for Francis Smith to bring out more successfully in 1838. In 1841 he entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in order to study for the Church. There he produced what is usually known as "Berthon's log," in which the suction produced by the water streaming past the end of a pipe projected below a ship is registered on a mercury column above. In 1845 he was ordained, and after holding a curacy at Lymington was given a living at Fareham. Here he was able to carry on experiments with his log, which was tested on the Southampton to Jersey steamboats; but the British admiralty gave him no encouragement, and it remained uncompleted. He next designed some instruments to indicate the trim and rolling of boats at sea; but the idea for which he is chiefly remembered was that of the "Berthon Folding Boat" in 1849. This invention was again adversely reported on by the admiralty. Berthon resigned his living at Fareham, and subsequently accepted the living of Romsey. In 1873, encouraged by Samuel Plimsoll, he again applied himself to perfecting his collapsible boat. Success was at last achieved, and in less than a year he had received orders from the admiralty for boats to the amount of L15,000. Some were taken by Sir George Nares to the Arctic, others were sent to General Gordon at Khartum, and others again were taken to the Zambezi by F.C. Selous. Berthon died on the 27th of October 1899.
BERTHOUD, FERDINAND (1727-1807), Swiss chronometer-maker, was born at Plancemont, Neuchatel, in 1727, and settling in Paris in 1745 gained a great reputation for the excellence and accuracy of his chronometers. He was a member of the Institute and a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and among other works wrote _Essais sur l'horlogerie_ (1763). He died in 1807 at Montmorency, Seine et Oise. He was succeeded in business by his nephew, Louis Berthoud (1759-1813).
BERTILLON, LOUIS ADOLPHE (1821-1883), French statistician, was born in Paris on the 1st of April 1821. Entering the medical profession, he practised as a doctor for a number of years. After the revolution of 1870, he was appointed inspector-general of benevolent institutions. He was one of the founders of the school of anthropology of Paris, and was appointed a professor there in 1876. His _Demographie figuree de la France_ (1874) is an able statistical study of the population of France. He died at Neuilly on the 28th of February 1883.
His son ALPHONSE BERTILLON, the anthropometrist, was born in Paris in 1853. He published in 1883 a work _Ethnographie moderne des races sauvages_, but his chief claim to distinction lies in the system invented by him for the identification of criminals, which is described by him in his _Photographie judiciaire_, Paris, 1890 (see ANTHROPOMETRY). He was officially appointed in 1894 to report on the handwriting of the _bordereau_ in the Dreyfus case, and was a witness for the prosecution before the cour de cassation on the 18th of January 1899.
BERTIN, a family of distinction in the history of French journalism. The most important member of the family, generally regarded as the father of modern French journalism, LOUIS FRANCOIS BERTIN (1766-1841), known as Bertin _aine_, was born in Paris on the 14th of December 1766. He began his journalistic career by writing for the _Journal Francais_ and other papers during the French Revolution. After the 18th Brumaire he founded the paper, with which the name of his family has chiefly been connected, the _Journal des Debats_. He was suspected of royalist tendencies by the consulate and was exiled in 1801. He returned to Paris in 1804 and resumed the management of the paper, the title of which had been changed by order of Napoleon to that of _Journal de l'Empire_. Bertin had to submit to a rigorous censorship, and in 1811 the conduct, together with the profits, was taken over entirely by the government. In 1814 he regained possession and restored the old title and continued his support of the royalist cause--during the Hundred Days; he directed the _Moniteur de Gand_--till 1823, when the _Journal des Debats_ became the recognized organ of the constitutional opposition. Bertin's support was, however, given to the July monarchy after 1830. He died on the 13th of September 1841. LOUIS FRANCOIS BERTIN DE VAUX (1771-1842), the younger brother of Bertin _aine_, took a leading part in the conduct of the _Journal des Debats_, to the success of which his powers of writing greatly contributed. He entered the chamber of deputies in 1815, was made councillor of state in 1827, and a peer of France in 1830. The two sons of Bertin _aine_, EDOUARD FRANCOIS (1797-1871) and LOUIS MARIE FRANCOIS (1801-1854), were directors in succession of the _Journal des Debats_. Edouard Bertin was also a painter of some distinction.
BERTINORO, OBADIAH, Jewish commentator of the Mishnah, died in Jerusalem about 1500. Bertinoro much improved the status of the Jews in the Holy Land; before his migration thither the Jews of Palestine were in a miserable condition of poverty and persecution. His commentary on the Mishnah is the most useful of all helps to the understanding of that work. It is printed in most Hebrew editions of the Mishnah. Surenhusius, in his Latin edition of the last-named code (Amsterdam 1698-1703), translated Bertinoro's commentary.
BERTINORO, a town and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Forli, 8 m. S.E. direct of Forli and 5-1/2 m. N. of the station of Forlimpopoli, and 800 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) town, 3753; commune, 7786. The town commands a fine view to the north over the plain of Emilia and the lower course of the Po, itself lying on the foothills of the Apennines. It appears to have been first fortified by Frederick Barbarossa, and its castle stood frequent sieges in the middle ages. Polenta, 2-1/2 m. to the south of it, was the birthplace of Francesca da Rimini. The castle is almost entirely ruined, but the church of S. Donato, of the Lombard period, with Byzantine capitals, is interesting; Giosue Carducci has written a fine ode on the subject (_La Chiesa di Polenta_, Bologna, 1897).
See C. Ricci, "Della Chiesa e castello di Polenta" in _Atti e Memorie
della Deputazione di Storia patria per le prooniae di Romagna_, ser.
iii. vol. ix. (Bologna, 1891), 1 seq. (T. As.)
BERTOLD (1442-1504), elector and archbishop of Mainz, son of George, count of Henneberg, entered the ecclesiastical profession, and after passing through its lower stages, was made archbishop of Mainz in 1484. He appears to have been a firm supporter of law and order, an enemy of clerical abuses and a careful administrator of his diocese. Immediately after his election as archbishop he began to take a leading part in the business of the Empire, and in 1486 was very active in securing the election of Maximilian as Roman king. His chief work, however, was done as an advocate of administrative reform in Germany. During the reign of the emperor Frederick III. he had brought this question before the diet, and after Frederick's death, when he had become imperial chancellor, he was the leader of the party which pressed the necessity for reform upon Maximilian at the diet of Worms in 1495. His proposals came to nothing, but he continued the struggle at a series of diets, and urged the Germans to emulate the courage and union of the Swiss cantons. He gained a temporary victory when the diet of Augsburg in 1500 established a council of regency (_Reichsregiment_), and in 1502 persuaded the electors to form a union to uphold the reforms of 1495 and 1500. The elector died on the 21st of December 1504. Bertold was a man of great ability and resourcefulness, and as a statesman who strove for an ordered and united Germany was far in advance of his age.
See J. Weiss, _Berthold von Henneberg, Erzbischof von Mainz_
(Freiburg, 1889).
BERTOLD VON REGENSBURG (c. 1220-1272), the greatest German preacher of the later middle ages, was a native of Regensburg, and entered the Franciscan monastery there. From about 1250 onwards his fame as a preacher spread over all the German-speaking parts of the continent of Europe. He wandered from village to village and town to town, preaching to enormous audiences, always in the open air; the earnestness and straightforward eloquence with which he insisted that true repentance came from the heart, that pious pilgrimages and the absolution of the Church were mere outward symbols, appealed to all classes. He died in Regensburg on the 13th of December 1272. His German sermons, of which seventy-one have been preserved, are among the most powerful in the language, and form the chief monuments of Middle High German prose. His style is clear, direct and remarkably free from cumbrous Latin constructions; he employed, whenever he could, the pithy and homely sayings of the peasants, and is not reluctant to point his moral with a rough humour. As a thinker, he shows little sympathy with that strain of medieval mysticism which is to be observed in all the poetry of his contemporaries.
The best edition of Bertold's German sermons is that by F. Pfeiffer
and J. Strobl (2 vols., 1862-1880; reprinted, 1906); there is also a
modern German version by F. Gobel (4th ed., 1906). The Latin sermons
were edited by G. Jakob (1880). See C.W. Stromberger, _Bertold von
Regensburg, der grosste Volksredner des deutschen Mittelalters_
(1877), K. Unkel, _Bertold von Regensburg_ (1882), and E. Bernhardt,
_Bruder Bertold von Regensburg_ (1905); A.E. Schonbach, _Studien zur
Geschichte der altdeutschen Predigt_ (_Publications of the Vienna
Academy_, 1906).
BERTRAM, CHARLES (1723-1765), English literary impostor, was born in London, the son of a silk dyer. In 1747, being then teacher of English at the school for Danish naval cadets at Copenhagen, he wrote to Dr William Stukeley, the English antiquarian, that he had discovered a manuscript written by a monk named Richard of Westminster, which corrected and supplemented the _Itinerary_ of Antoninus in Britain. He subsequently sent to Stukeley a copy of various parts of the work and a facsimile of a few lines of the manuscript. These were so cleverly executed that they quite deceived the English palaeographers of the period. Stukeley, finding that a chronicler of the fourteenth century, Richard of Cirencester, had also been an inmate of Westminster Abbey, identified him with Bertram's Richard of Westminster, and, in 1756, read an analysis of the "discovery" before the Society of Antiquaries, which was published with a copy of Richard's map. In 1757 Bertram published at Copenhagen a volume entitled _Britannicarum Gentium Historiae Antiquae Scriptores Tres_. This contained the works of Gildas and Nennius and the full text of Bertram's forgery, and though Bertram's map did not correspond with that of Richard, Stukeley discarded the latter and adopted Bertram's concoction in his _Itinerarium Curiosum_ published in 1776. Although Thomas Reynolds in his _Iter Britanniarum_ (1799), an edition of the British portion of Antoninus' _Itinerary_, was distinctly sceptical as to the value of Bertram's manuscript, its authenticity was generally accepted until the middle of the 19th century. No original of the manuscript could then be found at Copenhagen, and B.B. Woodward, librarian of Windsor Castle, proved conclusively, by a series of articles in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1866 and 1867, that the supposed facsimile of calligraphy produced by Bertram was a blend of the style of various periods, while the greater portion of the idiomatic Latin in the book was a mere translation of 18th century English phraseology. Nevertheless, as late as 1872, a translation of Bertram's forgery was included in Bohn's Antiquarian Library as one of the _Six English Chronicles_, and there is no doubt that the work had a wide and misleading influence upon many antiquarian writers. Bertram died in 1765.
BERTRAND, HENRI GRATIEN, COMTE (1773-1844), French general, was born at Chateauroux. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he had just finished his studies, and he entered the army as a volunteer. During the expedition to Egypt, Napoleon named him colonel (1798), then brigadier-general, and after Austerlitz his aide-de-camp. His life was henceforth closely bound up with that of Napoleon, who had the fullest confidence in him, honouring him in 1813 with the title of grand marshal of the court. It was Bertrand who in 1809 directed the building of the bridges by which the French army crossed the Danube at Wagram. In 1813, after the battle of Leipzig, it was due to his initiative that the French army was not totally destroyed. He accompanied Napoleon to Elba in 1814, returned with him in 1815, held a command in the Waterloo campaign, and then, after the defeat, accompanied Napoleon to St Helena. He did not return to France until after Napoleon's death, and then Louis XVIII. allowed him to retain his rank, and he was elected deputy in 1830. In 1840 he was chosen to go to bring Napoleon's remains to France. He died at Chateauroux on the 31st of January 1844. His touching fidelity has made his name very popular in France.
BERTRICH, a village and watering place of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, in a narrow valley running down to the Mosel near Cochem. Its waters are efficacious in cases of gout, rheumatism and biliary affections. Pop. 500.
BERULLE, PIERRE DE (1575-1629), French cardinal and statesman, was born at Serilly, near Troyes, on the 4th of February 1575. He was educated by the Jesuits and at the university of Paris. Soon after his ordination in 1599, he assisted Cardinal Duperron in his controversy with the Protestant Philippe de Mornay, and made numerous converts. He founded the Congregation of the French Oratory in 1611 and introduced the Carmelite nuns into France, notwithstanding the opposition of the friars of that order, who were jealous of his ascendancy. Berulle also played an important part as a statesman. He obtained the necessary dispensations from Rome for Henrietta Maria's marriage to Charles I., and acted as her chaplain during the first year of her stay in England. In 1626, as French ambassador to Spain, he concluded the treaty of Monzon. After the reconciliation of Louis XIII. with his mother, Marie de' Medici, through his agency, he was appointed a councillor of state, but had to resign this office, owing to his Austrian policy, which was opposed by Richelieu. Berulle encouraged Descartes' philosophical studies, and it was through him that the Samaritan Pentateuch, recently brought over from Constantinople, was inserted in Lejay's _Polyglot Bible_. His treatise, _Des Grandeurs de Jesus_, was a favourite book with the Jansenists. He died on the 2nd of October 1629. His works, edited by P. Bourgoing (2 vols., 1644) were reprinted, by Migne in 1857.
See _M. de Berulle et les Carmelites; Le Pere de Berulle et l'oratoire
de Jesus; Le Cardinal de Berulle et Richelieu_ (3 vols., 1872-1876),
by the Abbe M. Houssaye; and H. Sidney Lear's _Priestly Life in France
in the Seventeenth Century_ (London, 1873).
BERVIE, or INVERBERVIE, a royal and police burgh of Kincardineshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1207. It is situated at the mouth of Bervie Water and is the terminus of the North British railway's branch line from Montrose, which lies 14 m. S.W. The leading industries include manufactures of woollens, flax and chemicals, and there is also a brisk trade in live-stock. Bervie unites with Arbroath, Brechin, Forfar and Montrose in returning one member (for the "Montrose burghs") to parliament. David II., driven by stress of weather, landed here with his queen Joanna in 1341, and, out of gratitude for the hospitality of the townsfolk, granted them a charter, which James VI. confirmed. Hallgreen Castle, a stronghold of the 14th century, is maintained in repair. About one m. south is the fishing village of Gourdon (pop. 1197), where boat-building is carried on. There is a small but steady export business from the harbour, which has a pier and breakwater. St Ternan's, the Romanesque parish church of Arbuthnott, 2-1/2 m. north-west, stands on the banks of the Bervie. In the chapel dedicated to St Mary, which was afterwards added to it, is the burial-place of the Arbuthnotts, who took their title from the estate in 1644. John Arbuthnot, Queen Anne's physician and the friend of Swift and Pope, was a native of the parish. Kinneff, 2 m. north, on the coast, is of interest as the place where the Scottish regalia were concealed during the siege of Dunottar Castle.
BERWICK, JAMES FITZJAMES, DUKE OF (1670-1734), marshal of France, was the natural son of James, duke of York, afterwards James II. of England, by Arabella Churchill (1648-1730), sister of the great duke of Marlborough. He was born at Moulins (Bourbonnais) on the 21st of August 1670. He received his education in France at the hands of the Jesuits, and at the age of fifteen, his father having succeeded to the throne, he was sent to learn the business of a soldier under the famous general of the empire, Charles of Lorraine. He served his first campaign in Hungary, and was present at the siege of Buda. He then returned to England, was made a colonel of the 8th Foot, and in 1687 created duke of Berwick, earl of Teignmouth and Baron Bosworth. He then went out afresh to Hungary and was present at the battle of Mohacz. On his return to England he was made K.G., colonel of the 3rd troop of horse guards (Royal Horse Guards Blue) and governor of Portsmouth, but soon afterwards the revolution forced him to flee to France. He served under James II. in the campaign in Ireland, and was present at the battle of the Boyne. For a short time he was left in Ireland as commander-in-chief, but his youth and inexperience unfitted him for the post, and he was a mere puppet in stronger hands. He then took service in the French army, fought under Marshal Luxembourg in Flanders, and took part in the battles of Steinkirk and Neerwinden, at the latter of which he was taken prisoner. He was, however, immediately exchanged for the duke of Ormond, and afterwards he served under Villeroi. In 1695 he married the widow of Patrick Sarsfield, who died in 1698. His second marriage, with Anne Bulkeley, took place in 1700. As a lieutenant-general he served in the campaign of 1702, after which he became naturalized as a French subject in order to be eligible for the marshalate. In 1704, he first took command of the French army in Spain. So highly was he now esteemed for his courage, abilities and integrity, that all parties were anxious to have him on their side (_Eloge_, by Montesquieu). His tenure of the command was, however, very short, and after one campaign he was replaced by the Marshal de Tesse. In 1705 he commanded against the Camisards in Languedoc, and when on this expedition he is said to have carried out his orders with remorseless rigour. His successful expedition against Nice in 1706 caused him to be made marshal of France, and in the same year he returned to Spain as commander-in-chief of the Franco-Spanish armies. On the 25th of April 1707, the duke won the great and decisive victory of Almanza, where an Englishman at the head of a French army defeated Ruvigny, earl of Galway, a Frenchman at the head of an English army. The victory established Philip V. on the throne of Spain. Berwick was made a peer of France by Louis XIV., and duke of Liria and of Xereca and lieutenant of Aragon by Philip. Thenceforward Berwick was recognized as one of the greatest generals of his time, and successively commanded in nearly all the theatres of war. From 1709 to 1712 he defended the south-east frontier of France in a series of campaigns which, unmarked by any decisive battle, were yet models of the art of war as practised at the time. The last great event of the War of the Spanish Succession was the storming of Barcelona by Berwick, after a long siege, on the 11th of September 1714. Three years later he was appointed military governor of the province of Guienne, in which post he became intimate with Montesquieu. In 1718 he found himself under the necessity of once more entering Spain with an army; and this time he had to fight against Philip V., the king who owed chiefly to Berwick's courage and skill the safety of his throne. One of the marshal's sons, known as the duke of Liria, was settled in Spain, and was counselled by his father not to shrink from doing his duty and fighting for his sovereign. Many years of peace followed this campaign, and Marshal Berwick was not again called to serve in the field till 1733. He advised and conducted the siege of Philipsburg, and while the siege was going on was killed by a cannon-shot on the 12th of June 1734. Cool, self-possessed and cautious as a general, Marshal Berwick was at the same time not wanting in audacity and swiftness of action. He was a true general of the 18th century, not less in his care for the lives of his men than in his punctiliousness and rigidity in matters of discipline.
The _Memoires_ of Marshal Berwick, revised, annotated and continued by
the Abbe Hooke, were published by the marshal's grandson in 1778.
Montesquieu made many contributions to this.
BERWICKSHIRE, a county of Scotland, forming its south-eastern extremity, bounded N. by Haddingtonshire and the North Sea; E. by the North Sea; S.E. by the county of the borough and town of Berwick; S. by the Tweed and Roxburghshire, and W. by Mid-Lothian. Its area is 292,577 acres or 457 sq. m., and it has a coast-line of 21 m. The county is naturally divided into three districts: Lauderdale, or the valley of the Leader, in the W.; Lammermuir, the upland district occupied by the hills of that name in the N.; and the Merse (the March or Borderland, giving a title to the earls of Wemyss), the largest district, occupying the S.E. The Lammermuirs are a range of round-backed hills, whose average height is about 1000 ft., while the highest summit, Says Law, reaches 1749 ft. From these hills the Merse stretches to the S. and E., and is a comparatively level tract of country. The coast is lofty, rocky and precipitous, broken by ravines and not accessible, except at Eyemouth Harbour, for small vessels, and at Coldingham and Burnmouth for fishing boats. St Abb's Head, a promontory with a lighthouse upon it, rises to 310 ft. The Eye is the only river of any size which falls directly into the sea. The others--the Leader, the Eden, the Leet and the Whiteadder with its tributaries, the Blackadder and the Dye--all flow into the Tweed. Of these the largest and most important is the Whiteadder, which has its source in the parish of Whittingehame on the East Lothian side of the Lammermuirs, and, following a sinuous course of 35 m., joins the Tweed within the bounds or liberties of Berwick. There are small lochs at Coldingham, Legerwood, Spottiswoode, the Hirsel, near Coldstream, Hule Moss on Greenlaw Moor, and tiny sheets of water near Duns and Mersington.
_Geology._--The north portion of the county embraces that part of the Silurian tableland of the south of Scotland which stretches from the Lammermuir Hills east to St Abb's Head. The strata consist mainly of grits, greywackes, flags and shales, repeated by innumerable folds, trending north-east and south-west, which are laid bare in the great cliff section between Fast Castle and St Abb's Head. This section of the tableland includes sediments, chiefly of Tarannon age, which form a belt 10 m. across from the crest of the Lammermuir Hills to a point near Westruther and Longformacus. In the Earnscleuch Burn north-east of Lauder representatives of Llandovery, Caradoc and Llandeilo rocks, together with the Arenig cherts, appear along an anticlinal fold in the midst of the younger strata. Again in the extreme north-west of the county near Channelkirk and to the north of the Tarannon belt radiolarian cherts and black shales with graptolites of Upper Llandeilo and Caradoc age are met with. The Lower Old Red Sandstone rocks, which rest unconformably on the folded and denuded Silurian strata, appear at Eyemouth and Reston Junction, and at St Abb's Head are associated with contemporaneous volcanic rocks which are evidently on the same horizon as the interbedded lavas of Lower Old Red age in the Cheviots. The intrusive igneous materials of this period are represented by the granitic mass of Cockburn Law and the porphyrites of the Dirrington Laws. The Upper Old Red Sandstone, consisting of conglomerates and sandstones, rest unconformably alike on the Silurian platform as at Siccar Point and on the lower division of that system. The age of these beds has been determined by the occurrence of remains of _Holoptychius nobilissimus_ in the sandstones at Earlston and in the Whiteadder north of Duns. On the Black Hill of Earlston these strata are traversed by a sheet of trachyte resembling the type of rock capping the Eildon Hills (see ROXBURGHSHIRE: _Geology_). Overlying the strata just described there is a succession of volcanic rocks extending from Greenlaw southwards by Stichil and Kelso to Carham, which, at several localities, are followed by a band of cornstone resembling that near the top of the Upper Old Red Sandstone in the midland valley of Scotland. Next in order comes a great development of the Cementstone group of the Carboniferous system which spreads over nearly the whole of the low ground of the Merse and attains a great thickness. At Marshall Meadows north of Berwick-on-Tweed, thin bands of marine limestone occur, which probably represent some of the calcareous beds above the Fell sandstones south of Spittal.
_Climate and Agriculture._--Owing to the maritime position, the winter is seldom severe in the lowland districts, but spring is a trying season on account of the east winds, which often last into summer. The mean annual rainfall is 30-1/2 in. and the average temperature for the year is 47 deg. F., for January 37 deg. F., and for July 58.5 deg. F. The climate is excellent as regards both the health of the inhabitants and the growth of vegetation. The soils vary, sometimes even on the same farm. Along the rivers is a deep rich loam, resting on gravel or clay, chiefly the former. The less valuable clay soil of the Merse has been much improved by drainage. The more sandy and gravelly soils are suitable for turnips, of which great quantities are grown. Oats and barley are the principal grain crops, but wheat also is raised. The flocks of sheep are heavy, and cattle are pastured in considerable numbers. Large holdings predominate--indeed, the average size is the highest in Scotland--and scientific farming is the rule. The labourers, who are physically well developed, are as a whole frugal, industrious and intelligent, but somewhat migratory in their habits. This feature in their character, which they may have by inheritance as Borderers, has admirably fitted them for colonial life, to which the scarcity of industrial occupation has largely driven the surplus population.
_Other Industries._--Next to agriculture the fisheries are the most important industry. The Tweed salmon fisheries are famous, and the lesser rivers of the Merse are held in high esteem by anglers. Eyemouth, Burnmouth, Coldingham and Cove are engaged in the sea fisheries. Cod, haddock, herring, ling, lobsters and crabs are principally taken. The season for herring is from May to the middle of September and for white fish from October to the end of May. Coal, copper ore and ironstone exist in too small quantities to work, and the limestone is so far from a coal district as to be of little economic value. Earlston sends out ginghams and woollen cloths. At Cumledge on the Whiteadder, blankets and plaids are manufactured, and paper is made at Chirnside. The other manufactures are all connected with agriculture, such as distilleries, breweries, tanneries, &c. The trade is also mainly agricultural. Fairs are held at Duns, Lauder, Coldstream and Greenlaw; but the sales of cattle and sheep mostly take place at the auction marts at Reston, Duns and Earlston. There are grain markets at Duns and Earlston. Berwick, from which the county derives its name, is still its chief market. There is, however, no legal or fiscal connexion between the county and the borough.
The North British railway monopolizes the communications of the county. The system serves the coast districts from Berwick to Cockburnspath, and there is a branch from Reston to St Boswells.
_Population and Government._--The population of Berwickshire was 32,290 in 1891 and 30,824 in 1901, in which year the number of persons speaking Gaelic and English was 74, and one person spoke Gaelic only. The only considerable towns are Eyemouth (pop. in 1901, 2436) and Duns (2206). The county returns one member to parliament. Lauder is the only royal burgh, and Duns the county town, a status, however, which was held by Greenlaw from 1696 to 1853, after which date it was shared by both towns until conferred on Duns alone. Berwickshire forms a sheriffdom with Roxburgh and Selkirk shires, and there is a resident sheriff-substitute at Duns, who sits also at Greenlaw, Coldstream, Ayton and Lauder. In addition to board and voluntary schools throughout the county, there is a high school, which is also a technical school, at Duns, and Coldstream and Lauder public schools have secondary departments. Duns school is subsidized by the county council, which pays the expenses of students attending it from a distance.
_History._--Traces of Roman occupation and of ancient British settlement exist in various parts of the Merse. Edin's or Etin's Hall, on Cockburn Law, 4 m. north of Duns, is still called the Pech's or Pict's House, and is one of the very few brochs found in the Lowlands. After the Romans withdrew (409) the country formed part of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, and the inhabitants were converted to Christianity through the missionary efforts of Modan in the 6th, and Oswald, Aidan and Cuthbert (traditionally believed to have been born in the vale of the Leader) in the 7th centuries. The Northmen invaded the seaboard, but the rugged coast proved an effectual barrier. The Danes, however, landed in 886, and destroyed the nunnery at Coldingham, founded about 650 by Ebba, daughter of Aethelfrith, king of Northumbria, after whom the adjoining promontory of St Abb's Head was named. After the battle of Carham (1018) the district, which then constituted part of the division of Lothian, was annexed to Scotland. Birgham (pron. Birjam), 3-1/2 m. west of Coldstream, was the scene of the conference in 1188 between William the Lion and the bishop of Durham, which discussed the attempt of the English church to assert supremacy over the Scottish. Here also met in 1289 a convention of the Scots estates to consider the projected marriage of Prince Edward of England to the Maid of Norway; and here was signed in 1290 the treaty of Birgham, assuring the independence of Scotland. During the long period of international strife the shire was repeatedly overrun by armies of the English and Scots kings, who were constantly fighting for the ancient frontier town of Berwick. It was finally ceded to England in 1482, and the people afterwards gradually settled down to peaceful pursuits. The ford at the confluence of the Leet and Tweed near Coldstream gave access to south-eastern Scotland. Edward I. crossed it with his army in 1296, encamping at Hutton the day before the siege of Berwick, and it was similarly employed as late as 1640, when the marquess of Montrose led the Covenanters on their march to Newcastle, although James VI. had already caused a bridge to be constructed from Berwick to Tweedmouth. There are several places of historic interest in the county. Upon the site of the nunnery at Coldingham King Edgar in 1098 founded a Benedictine priory, which was one of the oldest monastic institutions in Scotland and grew so wealthy that James III. annexed its revenues to defray his extravagance, a step that precipitated the revolt of the nobles (1488). The priory was seriously damaged in the earl of Hertford's inroad in 1545, and Cromwell blew up part of the church in 1650. The chancel (without aisles) was repaired and used as the parish church. The remains contain some fine architectural features, such as, on the outside, the Romanesque arcades surmounted by lancet windows at the east end, and, in the interior, the Early Pointed triforium. On the coast, about 4 m. north-west of Coldingham, are the ruins of Fast Castle--the "Wolf's Crag" of Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_--situated on a precipitous headland. From Sir Patrick Hume it passed to Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig, who is alleged to have been one of the Gowrie conspirators, and to have intended to imprison James VI. within its walls (1600). Four miles west is the Pease or Peaths bridge, built by Thomas Telford in 1786 across the deep pass which was of old one of the strongest natural defences of Scotland. The bridge is 123 ft. high, 300 ft. long and 16 ft. wide. Near it are the ruins of Cockburnspath Tower, once a strong fortress and supposed to be the "Ravens wood" of the _Bride of Lammermoor_. In the south-west of the shire besides Dryburgh Abbey (q.v.) there are, at Earlston, the remains of the castle that was traditionally the residence of Thomas the Rhymer. Hume Castle, the ancient seat of the Home family, a picturesque ruin about 3 m. south of Greenlaw, is so conspicuously situated as to be visible from nearly every part of the county. Coldstream and Lamberton, being close to the Border, were both resorted to (like Gretna Green in the west) by eloping couples for clandestine marriage. In Lamberton church was signed in 1502 the contract for the marriage of James IV. and Margaret Tudor, which led, a century later, to the union of the crowns of Scotland and England.
See W.S. Crockett, _Minstrelsy of the Merse_, (Paisley, 1893); _In
Praise of Tweed_ (Selkirk, 1889); _The Scott Country_ (London, 1902);
J. Robson, _The Churches and Churchyards of Berwickshire_ (Kelso,
1893); F.H. Groome, _A Short Border History_ (Kelso, 1887); J. Tait,
_Two Centuries of Border Church Life_ (Kelso, 1889); Margaret
Warrender, _Marchmont and the Humes of Polwarth_ (Edinburgh, 1894);
W.K. Hunter, _History of the Priory of Coldingham_ (Edinburgh, 1858).
BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, a market town, seaport, municipal borough and county in itself, of England, at the mouth of the Tweed on the north bank, 339 m. N. by W. from London. Pop. (1901) 13,437. For parliamentary purposes it is in the Berwick-upon-Tweed division of Northumberland. It is the junction on the East Coast route from London to Scotland between the North Eastern and North British railways, a branch of the company first named running up the Tweed valley by Coldstream and Kelso. The town lies in a bare district on the slope and flat summit of an abrupt elevation, higher ground rising to the north and south across the river. It has the rare feature of a complete series of ramparts surrounding it. Those to the north and east are formed of earth faced with stone, with bastions at intervals and a ditch now dry. They are of Elizabethan date, but there are also lines of much earlier date, the fortifications of Edward I. Much of these last has been destroyed, and threatened encroachment upon the remaining relics so far aroused public feeling that in 1905 it was decided that the Board of Works should take over these ruins, including the Bell Tower, from the town council, and enclose them as national relics. The Bell Tower, from which alarms were given when border raiders were observed, is in fair preservation. There are slight remains of the castle, which fell into disrepair after the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. There are no traces of the churches, monasteries or other principal buildings of the ancient town. The church of Holy Trinity is a plain building without steeple, of the time of Cromwell. Of modern places of worship, the most noteworthy is Wallace Green United Presbyterian church (1859). The chief public building is the town hall (1760), a stately classic building surmounted by a lofty spire. Educational institutions include an Elizabethan grammar school and a blue-coat school; and there is a local museum. Two bridges connect the town with the south side of the Tweed. The older, which is very substantial, was finished in 1634, having taken twenty-four years in building. It has fifteen arches, and is 924 ft. long, but only 17 ft. wide. A unique provision for its upkeep out of Imperial funds dates from the reign of Charles II. The other, the Royal Border Bridge, situated a quarter of a mile up the river, is a magnificent railway viaduct, 126 ft. high, with twenty-eight arches, which extends from the railway station, a castellated building on part of the site of the old castle, to a considerable distance beyond the river. This bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson and opened by Queen Victoria in 1850.
The reach of the river from the old bridge to the mouth forms the harbour. The entrance to the harbour is protected by a stone pier, which stretches half a mile south-east from the north bank of the river mouth. The depth of water at the bar is 17 ft. at ordinary tides, 22 ft. at spring tides, but the channel is narrow, a large rocky portion of the harbour on the north side being dry at low water. There is a wet dock of 3-1/2 acres. Principal exports are grain, coal and fish; imports are bones and bone-ash, manure stuffs, linseed, salt, timber and iron. The herring and other sea fisheries are of some value, and the salmon fishery, in the hands of a company, has long been famous. A fair is held annually at the end of May. There are iron-works and boat-building yards.
The custom of specially mentioning Berwick-upon-Tweed after Wales, though abandoned in acts of parliament, is retained in certain proclamations. The title of "county in itself" also helps to recall its ancient history. The liberties of the borough, commonly called Berwick Bounds, include the towns of Spittal, at the mouth, and Tweedmouth immediately above it, on the south bank of the river. The first is a watering-place (pop. 2074), with pleasant sands and a chalybeate spa; the second (pop. 3086) has iron foundries, engineering works and fish-curing establishments. Berwick-upon-Tweed is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 6396 acres.
Very little is known of the history of Berwick before the Conquest. It
was not until the Tweed became the boundary between England and
Scotland in the 12th century that Berwick as the chief town on that
boundary became really important. Until the beginning of the 14th
century Berwick was one of the four royal boroughs of Scotland, and
although it possesses no charter granted before that time, an
inquisition taken in Edward III.'s reign shows that it was governed by
a mayor and bailiffs in the reign of Alexander III., who granted the
town to the said mayor and the commonalty for an annual rent. After
Edward I. had conquered Berwick in 1302 he gave the burgesses another
charter, no longer existing but quoted in several confirmations, by
which the town was made a free borough with a gild merchant. The
burgesses were given the right to elect annually their mayor, who with
the commonalty should elect four bailiffs. They were also to have
freedom from toll, pontage, &c., two markets every week on Monday and
Friday, and a fair lasting from the feast of Holyrood to that of the
Nativity of St John the Baptist. Five years later, in 1307, the mayor
and burgesses received another charter, granting them their town with
all things that belonged to it in the time of Alexander III., for a
fee-farm rent of 500 marks, which was granted back to them in 1313 to
help towards enclosing their town with a wall. While the war with
Scotland dragged on through the early years of the reign of Edward
II., the fortification of Berwick was a matter of importance, and in
1317 the mayor and bailiffs undertook to defend it for the yearly sum
of 6000 marks; but in the following year, "owing to their default,"
the Scots entered and occupied it in spite of a truce between the two
kingdoms. After Edward III. had recovered Berwick the inhabitants
petitioned for the recovery of their prison called the Beffroi or
Bell-tower, the symbol of their independence, which their predecessors
had built before the time of Alexander III., and which had been
granted to William de Keythorpe when Edward I. took the town. Edward
III. in 1326 and 1356 confirmed the charter of Edward I., and in 1357,
evidently to encourage the growth of the borough, granted that all who
were willing to reside there and desirous of becoming burgesses should
be admitted as such on payment of a fine. These early charters were
confirmed by most of the succeeding kings, until James I. granted the
incorporation charter in 1604; but on his accession to the English
throne, Berwick of course lost its importance as a frontier town.
Berwick was at first represented in the court of the four boroughs and
in 1326 in Robert Bruce's parliament. After being taken by the English
it remained unrepresented until it was re-taken by the Scots, when it
sent two members to the parliament at Edinburgh from 1476 to 1479. In
1482 the burgesses were allowed to send two members to the English
parliament, and were represented there until 1885, when the town was
included in the Berwick-upon-Tweed division of the county of
Northumberland. No manufactures are mentioned as having been carried
on in Berwick, but its trade, chiefly in the produce of the
surrounding country, was important in the 12th century. It has been
noted for salmon fishery in the Tweed from very early times. There was
a bridge over the Tweed at Berwick in the time of Alexander and John,
kings of Scotland, but it was broken down in the time of the latter
and not rebuilt until the end of the 14th century.
See _Victoria County History, Northumberland_; John Fuller, _History
of Berwick-upon-Tweed_, &c. (1799); John Scott, _Berwick-upon-Tweed:
History of the Town and Guild_ (1888).
BERYL, a mineral containing beryllium and aluminium in the form of a silicate; its formula is Be3Al2Si6O18. The species includes the emerald (q.v.), the aquamarine (q.v.) and other transparent varieties known as "precious beryl," with certain coarse varieties unfit for use as gem-stones. The name comes from the Gr. [Greek: baeryllos], a word of uncertain etymology applied to the beryl and probably several other gems. It is notable that the relation of the emerald to the beryl, though proved only by chemical analysis, was conjectured at least as far back as the time of Pliny.
Beryl crystallizes in the hexagonal system, usually taking the form of long six-sided prisms, striated vertically and terminated with the basal plane, sometimes associated with various pyramidal faces (see fig.). It cleaves rather imperfectly parallel to the base. The colour of beryl may be blue, green, yellow, brown or rarely pink; while in some cases the mineral is colourless. The specific gravity is about 2.7, and the hardness 7.5 to 8, so that for a gem-stone beryl is comparatively soft. Whilst the gem-varieties are transparent, the coarse beryl may be opaque. The transparent crystals are pleochroic--a character well marked in emerald.
Beryl was much prized as a gem-stone by the ancients, and Greek intaglios of very fine workmanship are extant. The Roman jewellers, taking advantage of the columnar form of the natural crystal, worked it into long cylinders for ear-pendants. It was a favourite stone with the artists of the Renaissance, but in modern times has lost popularity, except in the form of emerald, which remains one of the most valued gem-stones. It is notable that English lapidaries of the 18th century often included the sard under the term beryl--a practice which has led to some confusion in the nomenclature of engraved gems.
Beryl occurs as an accessory constituent of many granitic rocks, especially in veins of pegmatite, whilst it is found also in gneiss and in mica-schist. Rolled pebbles of beryl occur, with topaz, in Brazil, especially in the province of Minas Geraes. Crystals are found in drusy cavities in granite in the Urals, notably near Mursinka; in the Altai Mountains, which have yielded very long prismatic crystals; and in the mining district of Nerchinsk in Siberia, principally in the Adun-Chalon range, where beryl occurs in veins of topaz-rock piercing granite. Among European localities may be mentioned Elba, good crystals being occasionally found in the tourmaline-granite of San Piero. In Ireland excellent crystals of beryl occur in druses of the granite of the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down, and others less fine are found in the highlands of Donegal, whilst the mineral is also known from the Leinster granite. It occurs likewise in the granite of the Grampians in Scotland, and is not unknown in Cornwall, specimens having been found, with topaz, apatite, &c., in joints of the granite of St Michael's Mount.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bent, James" to "Bibirine"Chapter VIII: JACQUES BERNOULLI (1759-1789), younger brother of the preceding, (2)
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