on 7 Jan. 1876. He was a preaclier and public man of strong powers, correct attainment, and cultivated taste; formal and urbane in manner. Among unitarians he represented that conservative school which aims to carry out the principles of Locke's 'Reasonableness of Christianity,' regarding Jesus Christ as the miraculously attested exponent of a pure morality and a simple theology, and the revealer, by his resurrection, of an eternal life.
On 23 May 1866 he proposed the embodiment in the constitution of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association of a 'recognition of the special divine mission and authority, as a religious teacher, of Jesus Christ,' which was met by carrying the previous question. A list of twenty-two of his publications (1833-70) is given by J. Gordon, including 'Harmony of Science and Revelation,' 1839; 'Funeral Sermon for J. Kentish,' 1853; 'Exposition of Unitarian Views of Christianity,' 1854; 'Miracles the Credentials of the Christ,' 1863.
[Roll of Students Man. New Coll. 1868; Birm. Daily Gazette, 13 Jan. 1876; Funeral Sermon by John Gordon, 1876; Unitarian Chronicle, 1832; Report of E. and F. Unit. Ass. 1866; Beale's Memorials of Old Meeting Ho. Birm. 1882.]
BACHE, SARAH (1771?–1844), hymn
writer, was born at Bromsgrove, but brought
up at Worcester by relatives named Laugher,
members of the Rev. T. Belsham s congregation.
Rev. Timothy Laugher, of Hackney
(d. 1769), was her uncle, and she was a
cousin of Joshua Tilt Bache. She removed
to Birmingham (before 1791, for she had attended the ministry of Dr. Priestley), and
for many years kept the Islington School, in
conjunction with a half-sister, Miss Penn. Another half-sister, Anna Penn, married the
Rev. Lant Carpenter, LL.D. She was the
author of the hymn 'See how he loved, which first appeared in the Exeter collection in 1812, compiled by Dr. Carpenter. She died
at Birmingham on 23 July 1844, at. 74.
[Chn. Reformer, 1844, obituary by N. (Rev. John Kentish); Birm. Daily Gazette, 13 Jan. 1876.]
BACHHOFFNER, GEORGE HENRY (1810–1879), one of the founders of the London Polytechnic Institution, and in his day a well-known and popular lecturer on scientific subjects, was a native of London. It
was in 1837 that he, in conjunction with a few others, established the Polytechnic, which was intended for a place of popular instruction, and, indeed, while it was under Bachhoffner's control, sufficiently fulfilled that intention. Here he held the position of principal of the department of natural and
experimental philosophy till 1855. Afterwards
he became lessee and manager of the Coliseum in the Regent's Park, and there gave lectures similar to the courses he had established at the Polytechnic. In the later
part of his life he held a post as registrar of
births and deaths in Marvlebone. Bachhoffner
was an inventor, and took out several patents for inventions connected with the electric telegraph, gas stoves, oil lamps, &c.
[The above details were communicated by some of Dr. Bachhoffner's relatives.]
BACK, Sir GEORGE (1796–1878), admiral and Arctic navigator, was born at
Stockport, in Cheshire, and entered the navy
as midshipman of the Arethusa in 1808. He
was present at the destruction of the batteries
at Lequeitio, in the north of Spain, and
after being repeatedly under fire was, in
1809, taken prisoner by the French at Deba,
while on a cutting-out expedition with the
Arethusa's boats. The prisoners were sent
to St. Sebastian, and Back was small enough
to be carried in one of the panniers of a
sumpter mule across the Pyrenees. While
a prisoner at Verdun, he occupied himself
in the study of mathematics, French, and
drawing. In the winter of 1813-14 he travelled
on foot through a large part of France,
and on reaching England was appointed midshipman
to the Akbar, and in her served
against the French on the North American
station. The Akbar was dismasted in a hurricane
off Cape Hatteras, and nearly foundered.
In 1816 she was paid off, and in
1817 Back was appointed admiralty mate of
the Bulwark. Next year he volunteered for
service in the Trent, under Franklin, who
was then entering on the first modern voyage
of discovery in the Spitzbergen seas. Of that
voyage his friend — afterwards Admiral —
Beechey is the graphic historian. On his
return he rejoined the Bulwark, but in the
very next year set out with Franklin on his
expedition by land to the Coppermine river,
the object of which was to determine the
latitude and longitude of the northern coast
of North America, and the trend of the coast
east of the Coppermine. In that terrible expedition
it was to Back's dauntless determination
that the safety of the survivors was
to a great extent due. At Fort Enterprise
Franklin sent him back to Fort Providence,
and he was in imminent danger of starvation
on the way. In five months he travelled
1,204 miles on snow shoes, with no
other covering at night in the woods but
a blanket and a deerskin, when the ther-
