important
town in the NW. Provinces; is on the Ganges, 420 m. by rail NW. of
Calcutta. It presents an amazing array of 1700 temples and mosques with
towers and domes and minarets innumerable. The bank of the river is laid
with continuous flights of steps whence the pilgrims bathe; but the city
itself is narrow, crocked, crowded, and dirty. Many thousand pilgrims
visit it annually. It is a seat of Hindu learning; there is also a
government college. The river is spanned here by a magnificent railway
bridge. There is a large trade in country produce, English goods,
jewellery, and gems; while its brass-work, "Benares ware," is famous.

BENBOW, JOHN, admiral, born at Shrewsbury; distinguished himself in
an action with a Barbary pirate; rose rapidly to the highest post in the
navy; distinguished himself well in an engagement with a French fleet in
the W. Indies; he lost a leg, and at this crisis some of his captains
proved refractory, so that the enemy escaped, were tried by
court-martial, and two of them shot; the wound he received and his
vexation caused his death. He was a British tar to the backbone, and of a
class extinct now (1653-1702).

BENCOOLEN, a town and a Dutch residency in SW. of Sumatra; exports
pepper and camphor.

BENDER, a town in Bessarabia, remarkable for the siege which Charles
XII. of Sweden sustained there after his defeat at Pultowa.

BENEDEK, LUDWIG VON, an Austrian general, born in Hungary;
distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1848-1849; was defeated by the
Prussians at Sadowa; superseded and tried, but got off; retired to Graetz,
where he died (1804-1871).

BENEDETTI, COUNT VINCENT, French diplomatist, born at Bastia, in
Corsica; is remembered for his draft of a treaty between France and
Prussia, published in 1870, and for his repudiation of all responsibility
for the Franco-German war; _b_. 1817.

BENEDICT, the name of fourteen popes: B. I., from 574 to 575;
B. II., from 684 to 685; B. III., from 855 to 858; B. IV.,
from 900 to 907; B. V., FROM 964 TO 965; B. VI., from 972 to
974; B. VII., from 975 to 984; B. VIII., from 1012 to 1024;
extended the territory of the Church by conquest, and effected certain
clerical reforms; B. IX., from 1033 to 1048, a licentious man, and
deposed; B. X., from 1058 to 1059; B. XI., from 1303 to 1304;
B. XII., from 1334 to 1342; B. XIII., from 1724 to 1730;
B. XIV., from 1740 to 1758. Of all the popes of this name it would
seem there is only o