Bell (Thomas Evans), Major in Madras Army, which he entered in 1842. He was employed in the suppression of Thugee. He wrote the Task of To-Day, 1852, and assisted the Reasoner, both with pen and purse, writing over the signature "Undecimus." He contemplated selling his commission to devote himself to Freethought propaganda, but by the advice of his friends was deterred. He returned to India at the Mutiny. In January, 1861, he became Deputy-Commissioner of Police at Madras. He retired in July, 1865, and has written many works on Indian affairs. Died 12 Sept. 1887. Bell (William S.), b. in Allegheny city, Pennsylvania, 10 Feb. 1832. Brought up as a Methodist minister, was denounced for mixing politics with religion, and for his anti-slavery views. In 1873 he preached in the Universalist Church of New Bedford, but in Dec. '74, renounced Christianity and has since been a Freethought lecturer. He has published a little book on the French Revolution, and some pamphlets. Bender (Wilhelm), German Rationalist, professor of theology at Bonn, b. 15 Jan. 1845, who created a sensation at the Luther centenary, 1883, by declaring that the work of the Reformation was incompleted and must be carried on by the Rationalists. Bennett (De Robigne Mortimer), founder and editor of the New York Truthseeker, b. of poor parents, Springfield (N.Y.), 23 Dec. 1818. At the age of fifteen he joined the Shaker Society in New Lebanon. Here he stayed thirteen years and then married. Having lost faith in the Shaker creed, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he started a drug store. The perusal of Paine, Volney, and similar works made him a Freethinker. In 1873, his letters to a local journal in answer to some ministers having been refused, he resolved to start a paper of his own. The result was the Truthseeker, which in January, 1876 became a weekly, and has since become one of the principal Freethought organs in America. In 1879 he was sentenced to thirteen months' imprisonment for sending through the post a pamphlet by Ezra H. Heywood on the marriage question. A tract, entitled An Open Letter to Jesus Christ, was read in court to bias the jury. A petition bearing 200,000 names was presented to President Hayes asking his release, but was not acceded to. Upon his release his admirers sent him for a voyage round the world. He wrote A Truthseeker's Voyage Round the World, Letters from Albany Penitentiary, Answers to Christian Questions and Arguments, two large volumes on The Gods, another on the World's Sages, Infidels and Thinkers, and published his discussions with Humphrey, Mair, and Teed, and numerous tracts. He died 6 Dec. 1882.