The State of Mississippi, U.S.A., is so called from the number of creeks or bayous along its shores. Bear State. Arkansas, U.S.A., is so called from the bears that in former days infested its forests. Béarnais, Le. Henri IV of France was so called from Béarn, his native province. Beau Sabreur, Le. The sobriquet of Joachim Murat, Napoleon’s best cavalry leader, created by him King of Naples. Beauclerc. The sobriquet of Henry I of England, in allusion to his scholarship, which was superior to that of most mediæval monarchs. Bec, Compromise of. An arrangement between Henry I and Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1106, by which the long standing dispute as to the King’s right of investiture was settled. By this arrangement the King retained the right of exacting from the Bishops the oath of fealty and homage, surrendering the purely formal right of bestowing the ring and crozier. Bedchamber Question. The difficulty that arose between Queen Victoria and Sir Robert Peel, on the resignation of the Melbourne Ministry in 1839. Through some misunderstanding the Queen thought that Peel wished her to change all the ladies holding Court appointments, a step she refused to take. It ended in Peel refusing to take office, and Lord Melbourne coming back. Bedford Protest. A protest signed by a hastily summoned meeting of the minority of the House of Lords in March, 1766, on the night that the repeal of the Stamp Act, imposing stamp duties on the American Colonies, passed that House. The signatories to the protest were headed by the Duke of Bedford. Beggars, The. _See_ Gueux. Beggars of the Sea. A company of Dutch privateersmen, commissioned by the Prince of Orange, circ. 1570, to prey upon Spanish commerce. Their chief was William de la Marck. Beggars, The Wild. A brotherhood of freebooters, who, under the guise of a revolutionary faction, infested the Netherlands about 1568. Behring Sea Fisheries. The question as to the right of Canadian sealers to capture seals in Behring Sea (known as Pelagic Sealing), after being long in dispute, was submitted to arbitration in 1892. The United States claimed to have acquired from Russia, by the purchase of Alaska, the exclusive right to the seal fisheries of the Behring Sea, alleging that this right had always been claimed by Russia, without protest from Great Britain, and that their interest in the seal herd justified them in putting a stop to pelagic sealing. In 1893 the arbitrators decided that the United States had not acquired any such exclusive right. Further, as authorized by the terms of the reference, they made the following regulations: all sealing within sixty maritime miles of the Probyloff Islands to be forbidden; a close time for seals to be established, and all sealing vessels to be licensed. Bekcagsog, Convention of.