SUPPLEMENTAEY LIST
BARNES, the Honourable J. Edmes-
tone, engineer. B. (British West Indies)
1857. Ed. Kingston University School
and Leipzig University. After qualifying
as a land surveyor and civil engineer, Mr.
Barnes entered the ministry of the African
Methodist Church. In a few years he
perceived the errors of Christian theology,
and returned to his profession, practising
in the British West Indies and South
America. After further study and practice
in Europe, he was appointed Surveyor
General to the Eepublic of Liberia. A
few years later he returned to Europe and
completed his training in Germany. He
travelled over the Continent, and was
entertained by the Mayor of Vienna and
other distinguished men. He then prac
tised as a civil engineer and metallurgist
in South Africa, and presently became
Director of Public Works in Liberia. He
afterwards spent some years in America,
agitating for the education of the Africans,
and he is now managing director of a
mining syndicate in Sierra Leone. Mr.
Barnes is one of the ablest representatives
of the African race he is widely known
in native Africa as " the great man " and
a man of considerable culture. He is an
accomplished linguist, and has written
The Economy of Life (in which his Ration
alist views are strongly expressed) and a
few other works. He is a member of the
Eationalist Press Association.
BETHELL, Richard, first Baron West- bury, Lord Chancellor. B. June 30, 1800. Ed. Corsharn School, Bristol, and Oxford (Wadham College). He matriculated at the age of fourteen, and graduated, with first-class honours in classics and second in mathematics, at the age of nineteen. 921
He was elected to a fellowship of Wadham
College. In 1823 he was called to the
Bar (Middle Temple), and he soon attained
a high reputation by practice in the Equity
Courts. He took silk in 1840, and it is
estimated that in 1841, when he was
leader of the Chancery Bar, his income
amounted to 20,000 a year. From 1851
to 1859 he was Member of Parliament for
Aylesbury, and in 1859 he was elected for
Wolverhampton. He strongly advocated
the abolition of Church rates and univer
sity tests, and pleaded for the admission
of Jews to Parliament. In 1851 he
became Vice-Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster, in 1852 Solicitor General, and
in 1856 Attorney General. In 1857 he
rendered great service by forcing through
the House, in spite of violent opposition,
the Divorce and Matrimonial Bill ; and he
made other great reforms in law. He was
appointed Lord Chancellor, with the title
of Baron Westbury, in 1861. Three years
later he was on the judicial committee of
the Privy Council which heard the appeal
on the Essays and Reviews case. His
legal biographer in the Dictionary of
National Biography says that he gave the
verdict against the orthodox " with keen
relish," and quotes the epitaph which was
humorously suggested for him : " He took
away from orthodox members of the
Church of England their last hope of ever
lasting damnation." In the House of
Lords he afterwards used scathing language
about the bishops for condemning the book
in Convocation, almost threatening them
with prosecution. He gave even greater
offence by describing a pronouncement of
a Church Synod as " a sentence so oily
and saponaceous that no one can grasp it."
He retired in 1865. Lord Westbury s
922
