BEN'TINCK, Lord WILLIAM CAVENDISH (1774-1830). A British army officer and Gover nor-General of India. He was born September 14. 1774, the second son of the third Duke of Portland, and became an ensign in the Cold stream Guards in 1791. Having served with dis tinction in Flanders. Italy, and Egypt, he was, in 1803, appointed Governor of Madras, where he advocated several useful reforms. His proscrip tion of beards and the wearing of turbans and earrings by the sepoys when on duty was said to have caused the mutiny and massacre at Vel lore, and he was recalled. In August, 1SOS, he was placed on the staff of the army in Portugal under Sir I-larry Burrard. Selected to proceed on an important mission to the supreme Junta of Spain, he accompanied the army under Sir John Moore in its retreat, and at commanded a brigade. He next commanded a division of Wellington's army, and shortly after was sent as British Minister to the Court of Sicily, and commander-in-chief of the British forces in that island. At the head of an expedition, he landed
in Catalonia in July, 1813, penetrated to Va lencia, and afterwards laid siege to Tarragona, but was repulsed at Villa Franca. Early in 1814. quitting Sicily, he repaired to Tuscany, published at Florence A proclamation inviting the Italians to shake off the French yoke, and afterwards made himself master of Genoa. At the end of the war he lived in retirement during thirteen years. In 1827 he was appointed Gov ernor-General of India, where, profiting by his prior experience, he pursued a peaceful and pop ular policy, his administration being espo•ially marked by the abolition of suttee (q.v.), and by the opening np of internal communications, as well as by the establishment of the overland route. After his return to England. in 1835. he was elected a member of Parliament for Glas gow. He died in Paris, June 17, 1839. Consult lioulger, Lord William earendish Bentinck (Ox ford, 1892).