(q.v.) was one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, the others being the common pleas and the exchequer. Under the Judicature Act 1873, the court of king’s bench became the king’s bench division of the High Court of Justice. The court of common pleas was sometimes called the common bench.
Sittings in bane were formerly the sittings of one of the superior courts of Westminster for the hearing of motions, special cases, &c., as opposed to the nisi prius sittings for trial of facts, where usually only a single judge presided. By the Judicature Act 1873 the business of courts sitting in bane was transferred to divisional courts.
BENCH-MARK, a surveyor’s mark cut in stone or some durable material, to indicate a point in a line of levels for the determination of altitudes over a given district. The name is taken from the “angle-iron” which is inserted in the horizontal incision as a “bench” or support for the levelling staff. The mark of the “broad-arrow” is generally incised with the bench-mark so that the horizontal bar passes through its apex.
BENCH TABLE (Fr. banc; Ital. sedile; Ger. Bank), the stone seat which runs round the walls of large churches, and sometimes round the piers; it very generally is placed in the porches.
BEND, (1) (From Old Eng. bendan), a bending or curvature, as in “the bend of a river,” or technically the ribs or “wales” of a ship. (2) (From Old Eng. bindan, to bind), a nautical term for a knot, the “cable bend,” the “fisherman’s bend.” (3) (From the Old Fr. bende, a ribbon), a term of heraldry, signifying a diagonal band or stripe across a shield from the dexter chief to the sinister base; also in tanning, the half of a hide from which the thinner parts have been trimmed away, “bend-leather” being the thickest and best sole-leather.
BENDA, the name of a family of German musicians, of whom the most important is Georg (d. 1795), who was a pupil of his elder brother Franz (1709–1786), Concertmeister in Berlin. Georg Benda was a famous clavier player and oboist, but his chief interest for modern musical history lies in his melodramas. Being a far more solid musician than Rousseau he earns the title of the musical pioneer of that art-form (i.e. the accompaniment of spoken words by illustrative music) in a sense which cannot be claimed for Rousseau’s earlier Pygmalion. Benda’s first melodrama, Ariadne auf Naxos, was written in 1774 after his return from a visit to Italy. He was a voluminous composer, whose works (instrumental and dramatic) were enthusiastically taken up by the aristocracy in the time of Mozart. Mozart’s imagination was much fired by Benda’s new vehicle for dramatic expression, and in 1778 he wrote to his father with the greatest enthusiasm about a project for composing a duodrama on the model of Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea, both of which he considered excellent and always carried about with him. He concluded at the time that that was the way the problems of operatic recitative should be solved, or rather shelved, but the only specimen he has himself produced is the wonderful melodrama in his unfinished operetta, Zäide, written in 1780.
BENDER (more correctly Bendery), a town of Russia, in the government of Bessarabia, on the right bank of the Dniester, 37 m. by rail S.E. of Kishinev. It possesses a tobacco factory, candle-works and brick-kilns, and is an important river port, vessels discharging here their cargoes of corn, wine, wool, cattle, flour and tallow, to be conveyed by land to Odessa and to Yassy in Rumania. Timber also is floated down the Dniester. The citadel was dismantled in 1897. The town had in 1867 a population of 24,443, and in 1900 of 33,741, the greater proportion being Jews. As early as the 12th century the Genoese had a settlement on the site of Bender. In 1709 Charles XII., after the defeat of Poltava, collected his forces here in a camp which they called New Stockholm, and continued there till 1713. Bender was taken by the Russians in 1770, in 1789 and in 1806, but it was not held permanently by Russia till 1812.
BENDIGO (formerly Sandhurst), a city of Bendigo county, Victoria, Australia, 101 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 31,020. It is the centre of a large gold-field consisting of quartz ranges, with some alluvial deposits, and many of the mines are deep-level workings. The discovery of alluvial gold in 1851 brought many immigrants to the district; but the opening up of the quartz reefs in 1872 was the principal factor in the importance of Bendigo. It became a municipality in 1855 and a city in 1871. It is the seat of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops. Besides mining, the local industries are the manufacture of Epsom pottery, bricks and tiles, iron-founding, stone-cutting, brewing, tanning and coach-building. The surrounding district produces quantities of wheat and fruits for export, and much excellent wine is made.
BENDL, KAREL or Karl (1838–1897), Bohemian composer, was born on the 16th of April 1838 at Prague. He studied at the organ school, and in 1858 had already composed a number of small choral works. In 1861 his Poletuje holubice won a prize and at once became a favourite with the local choral societies. In 1864 Bendl went to Brussels, where for a short time he held the post of second conductor of the opera. After visiting Amsterdam and Paris he returned to Prague. Here in 1865 he was appointed conductor of the choral society known as Hlahoe, and he held the post until 1879, when Baron Dervies engaged his services for his private band. Bendl’s first opera Lejla was successfully produced in 1868. It was followed by Bretislav a Jitka (1870), Stary Zenich, a comic opera (1883), Karel Skreta (1883), Dite Tabera, a prize opera (1892), and Matki Mila (1891). Other operas by Bendl are Indicka princezna, Cernohorci, a prize opera, and the two operas Carovny Kvet and Gina. His ballad Svanda dudak acquired much popularity; he published a mass in D minor for male voices and another mass for a mixed choir; two songs to Ave Maria; a violin sonata and a string quartet in F; and a quantity of songs and choruses, many of which have come to be regarded as national possessions of Bohemia. Bendl died on the 20th of September 1897 at Prague.
BENEDEK, LUDWIG, Ritter von (1804–1881), Austrian general, was born at Ödenburg in Hungary on the 14th of July 1804, his father being a doctor. He received his commission in the Austrian army as ensign in 1822, becoming lieutenant in 1825, first lieutenant in 1831 and captain in 1835. He was employed for a considerable time in the general staff, and had risen to the rank of colonel, when he won his first laurels in the suppression of the rising of 1846 in Galicia (see Austria: History). In this campaign his bold leadership in the field and his capacity for organization were so far conspicuous that he was made a Ritter (knight) of the Leopold order by his sovereign, and a freeman (Ehrenbürger) by the city of Lemberg. In 1847 he commanded a regiment in Italy, and on the outbreak of war with Sardinia he was placed in command of a mixed brigade, at the head of which he displayed against regular troops the same qualities of unhesitating bravery and resolution which had given him the victory in many actions with the Galician rebels. His conduct at Curtatone won for him the commandership of the Leopold order, and shortly afterwards the knighthood of the Maria Theresa order. At the action of Mortara his tactical skill and bravery were again conspicuous, and Radetzky particularly distinguished him in despatches. The archduke Albert, with whom he served, is said to have given him the sword of his father, the great archduke Charles. He was promoted major-general soon afterwards over the heads of several colonels senior to him, and was sent as a brigade commander to Hungary. Again he was distinguished as a fighting general at Raab, Komorn, Szegedin and many other actions, and was three times wounded. Benedek then received the cross for military merit, and soon afterwards was posted to the staff of the army in Italy. In 1852 he was made lieutenant field marshal, and in 1857 commander successively of the II., the IV. and the VIII. corps, and also a Geheimrath. In the political crisis of 1854 he had command of a corps in the army of observation under Hess on the Turkish frontier. In the war of 1859 in Italy, Benedek commanded the VIII. corps, and at the battle of Solferino was in command of the right of the Austrian position. That portion of the struggle which was fought out between Benedek and the Piedmontese army is sometimes called
