BECQUEREL, ANTOINE CAESAR, a French physicist; served as engineer in the French army in 1808-14, but retired in 1815, devoting himself to science, and obtained high distinction in electro-chemistry, working with Ampere, Biot, and other eminent scientists (1788-1878).

BED OF JUSTICE, a formal session of the Parlement of Paris, under the presidency of the king, for the compulsory registration of the royal edicts, the last session being in 1787, under Louis XVI., at Versailles, whither the whole body, now “refractory, rolled out, in wheeled vehicles, to receive the order of the king.”

BEDCHAMBER, LORDS or LADIES OF, officers or ladies of the royal household whose duty it is to wait upon the sovereign—­the chief of the former called Groom of the Stole, and of the latter, Mistress of the Robes.

BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL, born at Clifton, son of Thomas Beddoes; an enthusiastic student of science; a dramatic poet, author of “Bride’s Tragedy”; got into trouble for his Radical opinions; his principal work, “Death’s Jest-Book, or the Fool’s Tragedy,” highly esteemed by Barry Cornwall (1803-1849).

BEDE, or BEDA, surnamed “The Venerable,” an English monk and ecclesiastical historian, born at Monkwearmouth, in the abbey of which, together with that of Jarrow, he spent his life, devoted to quiet study and learning; his writings numerous, in the shape of commentaries, biographies, and philosophical treatises; his most important work, the “Ecclesiastical History” of England, written in Latin, and translated by Alfred the Great; completed a translation of John’s Gospel the day he died.  An old monk, it is said, wrote this epitaph over his grave, Hac sunt in fossa Bedae ... ossa, “In this pit are the bones ... of Beda,” and then fell asleep; but when he awoke he found some invisible hand had inserted venerabilis in the blank which he had failed to fill up, whence Bede’s epinomen it is alleged.

BEDELL, bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, born in Essex; studied at Cambridge; superintended the translation of the Old Testament into Irish; though his virtues saved him and his family for a time from outrage by the rebels in 1641, he was imprisoned at the age of 70, and though released, died soon after (1571-1642).

BEDFORD (160), a midland agricultural county of England, generally level, with some flat fen-land; also the county town (28), on the Great Ouse, clean and well paved, with excellent educational institutions, famous in connection with the life of John Bunyan, where relics of him are preserved, and where a bronze statue of him by Boehm has been erected to his memory by the Duke of Bedford in 1871; manufactures agricultural implements, lace, and straw plaiting; Elstow, Bunyan’s birthplace, is not far off.

BEDFORD, JOHN, DUKE OF, brother of Henry V., protector of the kingdom and regent of France during the minority of Henry VI., whom, on the death of the French king, he proclaimed King of France, taking up arms thereafter and fighting for a time victoriously on his behalf, till the enthusiasm created by Joan of Arc turned the tide against him and hastened his death, previous to which, however, though he prevailed over the dauphin, and burnt Joan at the stake, his power had gone (1389-1435).