Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/114

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BELCREDI—BELL.
97

years, but in Jan., 1876, he was elected a Senator for the Department of the Gironde as a professed Bonapartist.


BELCREDI, Count Richard, Austrian statesman, of an ancient noble family, was born Feb. 12, 1823. In March, 1861, he was appointed to an important political position in Silesia, and in 1862 was promoted to the post of governmental chief in that province. In May, 1863, he was Vice-President of the Bohemian Government, and an imperial decree of May 27, 1864, appointed him Viceroy of Bohemia, conferring upon him the dignity of a Privy Councillor. In all these capacities Count Belcredi showed himself to be possessed of considerable administrative talent and great powers of work, and it is generally admitted that during his administration in Bohemia he was upon the best possible terms with both Germans and Czechs. Count Belcredi, appointed Minister of State for Austria, and President of the Council of Ministers at Vienna, July 27, 1865, resigned in Feb. 1867.


BELGIANS, King of the. (See Leopold II.)


BELL, Isaac Lowthian, F.R.S., D.C.L., son of the late Thomas Bell, was born in 1816. After completing his studies of physical science at Edinburgh University, and the Sorbonne at Paris, he entered the chemical and iron works at Walker. These, under his subsequent management, were extended. In 1850 he became connected with the chemical works at Washington, in the county of Durham, then in the hands of his father-in-law, the late H. L. Pattinson, F.R.S. Under his direction they were greatly enlarged, and an extensive establishment was constructed for the manufacture of oxychloride of lead, a pigment discovered by Mr. Pattinson. In 1873 he ceased to be a partner in these works, which are now carried on by Mr. Pattinson's other sons-in-law. Mr. Bell, in connection with his brothers, Messrs. Thomas and John Bell, founded, in 1852, the Clarence Works on the Tees, one of the earliest, and now one of the largest iron-smelting concerns on that river, which these gentlemen carry on in connection with extensive collieries and ironstone mines. At present arrangements are in progress for obtaining salt from a bed of the mineral, found at a depth of 1200 feet at Port Clarence. Mr. Bell has been a frequent contributor to various learned societies on subjects connected with the metallurgy of iron, and has recently completed a very elaborate experimental research on the chemical phenomena of the blast furnace. In recognition of his services as Juror at the International Exhibitions at Philadelphia in 1876, and at Paris in 1878, he was elected an honorary member of the American Philosophical Institution, and an Officer of the Legion of Honour. He has filled the office of Sheriff, and was twice elected Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the last time in order to receive the members of the British Association at their meeting in the year 1863. Mr. Bell was a candidate for the representation of North Durham in Parliament at the general election of Dec. 1868, but was unsuccessful. At the general election of Feb. 1874, however, he was elected by that constituency in the Liberal interest, but on petition was unseated. He again contested the seat at the election consequent on the petition, but was unsuccessful. He was elected M.P. for Hartlepool in July, 1875, but ceased to represent that borough in 1880.


BELL, John, sculptor, born in Norfolk, in 1811, exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1832, a religious group, followed by "Psyche feeding a Swan," and other poetic works. In 1837 he exhibited the model of his "Eagle-slayer," a composition which was exhibited in Westminster Hall in 1844, and again at the In-