brunt of the fighting fell, and at Koniggratz it decided the
fortunes of the day. Blumenthal's own part in these battles and in the
campaign generally was most conspicuous. On the field of Koniggratz the
crown prince said to his chief of staff, "I know to whom I owe the
conduct of my army," and Blumenthal soon received promotion to
lieutenant-general and the oak-leaf of the order _pour le merite_. He
was also made a knight of the Hohenzollern Order. From 1866 to 1870 he
commanded the 14th division at Dusseldorf. In the Franco-German War of
1870-71 he was chief of staff of the 3rd army under the crown prince.
Blumenthal's soldierly qualities and talent were never more conspicuous
than in the critical days preceding the battle of Sedan, and his
services in the war have been considered as scarcely less valuable and
important than those of Moltke himself. In 1871 Blumenthal represented
Germany at the British manoeuvres at Chobham, and was given the command
of the IV. army corps at Magdeburg. In 1873 he became a general of
infantry, and ten years later he was made a count. In 1888 he was made a
general field marshal, after which he was in command of the 4th and 3rd
army inspections. He retired in 1896, and died at Quellendorf near
Kothen on the 21st of December 1900.

Blumenthal's diary of 1866 and 1870-1871 has been edited by his son,
Count Albrecht von Blumenthal (_Tagebuch des G.F.M. von Blumenthal_),
1902; an English translation (_Journals of Count von Blumenthal_) was
published in 1903.

BLUNDERBUSS (a corruption of the Dutch _donder_, thunder, and the Dutch
_bus_; cf. Ger. _Buchse_, a box or tube, hence a thunder-box or gun), an
obsolete muzzle-loading firearm with a bell-shaped muzzle. Its calibre
was large so that it could contain many balls or slugs, and it was
intended to be fired at a short range, so that some of the charge was
sure to take effect. The word is also used by analogy to describe a
blundering and random person or talker.

BLUNT, JOHN HENRY (1823-1884), English divine, was born at Chelsea in
1823, and before going to the university of Durham in 1850 was for some
years engaged in business as a manufacturing chemist. He was ordained in
1852 and took his M.A. degree in 1855, publishing in the same year a
work on _The Atonement_. He held in succession several preferments,
among them the vicarage of Kennington near Oxford (1868), which he
vacated in 1873 for the crown living of Beverst