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THE 



Home Encyclopedia 



COMPILED AND REVISED TO DATE FROM 
THE LEADING ENCYCLOPAEDIAS 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



VOLUME THREE 



CHICAGO 

Educational Publishing Co. 

1895. 



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Copyright 

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THE 

HOME ENCYCLOPEDIA. 



VOLUME III. 



AUS 



AUSONIUS, Decimus Magnus, a Roman poet of the 
fourth century, was the son of an eminent physician, 
and bom at Burdigala (Bordeaux) about 310 A.D. He 
was appointed consul by the emperor Gratian in the 
year 379, after having filled other important offices; for 
besides the dignity of quaestor, to which he had been 
nominated by Valentinian, he was made prsefect of 
Latiura, of Libya, and of Gaul, after that prince's death. 
The time of his death is uncertain, but he was alive in 
388, and probably survived till about 394. 

AUSPICIA. See Augurs. 

AUSSIG, AussYENAD, or Labem, a town of Austria, 
in Bohemia, s'tuated in a mountainous district, at the 
confluence of the Bila and the Elbe. It carries on a 
large manufacture of woolen wares, linen, paper, etc. 

AUSTEN, Jane, one of the most distinguished mod- 
cm British novelists, was born December 16, 1775, at 
the parsonage of Steventon, in Hampshire, of which 
place her father was for many years rector. Her life 
was singularly tranquil and void of incident, so th^t but 
few facts are known concerning her from which an idea 
of her character can be formed. She was tall and 
attractive in person, and of an extremely kind and gentle 
disposition. Under her father's care, she received a 
sound education, though she had few of the modern 
accomplishments. She had a fair acquaintance with 
Englisn literature, her favorite authors being Richard- 
son, Johnson, Cowper, and Crabbe; she knew French 
well and Italian sligntly, had some taste for music, and 
was noted for her skill in needlework. In 1796 her 
first large work, Pride and Prejudice^ was begun and 
completed in about ^en months; Sense and Sensibility 
and N'orthanger Abbey were written soon after, during 
1797 and 1798. Miss Austen died July i8, 1817. 

AUSTERLITZ, a small town of Moravia, twelve 
miles east-southeast of Briinn, containing a magnificent 
palace belonging to the prince of Kaunit2-Rietberg,and 
a beautiful church. 1 1 has been rendered memorable by 
the great victory obtained in its vicinity, on December 2, 
1805, ^y ^^^ French under Napoleon, over the united 
forces of Austria and Russia under their empesors. 
Population, 3,450. 

AUSTIN, John, one of the ablest English writers 
on jurisprudence, was bom on March 3, 179a Austin 
wrote one or two pamphlets, but the chief work he pub- 



lished was his Province of Jurisprudence Determined 
(1832). 

AUSTIN, Sarah Taylor, translator and miscella- 
neous writer, was born in 1793. ^^® ^^* ®^* of the 
Taylor family of Norwich, several of whose members 
had distinguished themselves in the fields of literature 
and science. She was the youngest child of her family, 
received a liberal and solid education at home, chiefly 
from her mother, and had the advantage, too, of enjoy- 
ing in her father's house much intellectual society. She 
grew up a beautiful and cultivated woman, and in 1S20 
became the wife of John Austin, noticed above. Mrs. 
Austin is best known as a singularly skillful translator 
of German and French works. She died at Wey bridge 
in Surrey, August 8, 1S67. 

AUSTIN, the state capital of Texas, situated in 
Travis county, on the left bank of the Colorado river. 
A new State capitol has recently been erected here — 
one of the finest public buildings in the Union. The 
city takes its name from ex-Govemor Austm, of that 
State. Population (1889), 15,324. 

AUSTRALASIA, one of the six great geographical 
divisions of the globe, is situated, as its name indicates^ 
south of Asia. It comprises the island-continents of Ne«v 
Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and the 
conterminous archipelagoes of New Britannia, Solomon 
Islands, New Hebrides, Loyalty islands, and New Cale- 
donia, which will be treated of under special headings. 

AUSTRALIA or New Holland, the largest island- 
continent of Australasia, measures 2,500 miles in length 
from west to east, by 1,950 miles in breadth from north 
to south, and contains an area of about 3,000,000 
square miles — nearly the same as that of the United 
States of America, exclusive of Alaska. It is sur- 
rounded on the west by the Indian Ocean, and on the 
east by the South Pacific. In the north it is separated 
from New Guinea by Torres Strait, which is 80 miles 
broad, and from the Eastern Archipelago by Arafura 
Sea; while on the south Bass Stra-t, 140 miles wide, 
separates it from Tasmania. The neighboring colony 
of New Zealand lies 1,200 miles opposite its southeast 
coast. 

Owing to its position at the antipodes of the civil- 
ized world, Australia has been longer a terra incog- 
nita than any other region of the same extent. Its 



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first discovery i* involv#v1 jn considerable doubt, from 
confusion of the names which were applied by the 
earlier navigators and geographers to the Australasian 
coasts. 

The ancients were somehow impressed with the idea 
of a Terra Australis which was one day to be revealed. 
The Phoenician mariners had pushed through the outiet 
of the Red Sea to Eastern Africa, the Persian Gulf, and 
the coasts of India and Sumatra. But the geographer 
Ptolemy, in the 2d century, still conceived the Indian 
Ocean to be an inland sea, bounded on the south by an 
unknown land, which connected the Chersonesus A urea 
(Malay Peninsula) with the promontory of Prasum in 
eastern Africa. This erroneous notion prevailed in 
mediaeval Europe, although some travellers like Marco 
Polo heard rumors in China of large insular countries to 
*be south-east. 

The investigations of Mr. R. H. Major make it 
appear probable that the Australian mainland was 
known as " Great Java " to the Portuguese early in the 
i6th century; and the following passage in the Descrip- 
tionis Ptolemaicte Augmentum of Cornelius Wj^tfliet, 
printed at Lou vain in 1598, is j^erhaps the first distinct 
account that occurs of the country : — "The Australis 
Terra is the most southern of all lands, and is separated 
from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are 
hitherto but little known, since, after one voyage and 
another, that route h^s been deserted, and seldom is 
the country visited, unless when sailors are driven there 
by storms. The Australis Terra begins at one or two 
"degrees from the equator, and is ascertained by some to 
be of so great an extent, that if it were thoroughly 
explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of the 
world." 

It was in 1606 that Torres, with a ship commissioned 
by the Spanish Government of Peru, parted from his 
jmpanion Quiros (after their discovery of Espiritu 
Santo and the New Hebrides), and sailea from east to 
west through the strait which bears his name ; while in 
the same year the peninsula of Cape York was touched 
at by a vessel called the " Duyfhen" or " Dove'* from 
the Dutch colony of Bantam in Java, but this was 
understood at the time to form a part of the neigh- 
'yjring island of New Guinea. The Dutch continued 
their attempts to explore the unknown land, sending out 
in 1616 the ship " Endraghi,*' commanded by Dirk 
Hartog, which sailed along the west coast of Australia 
from lat. 26° 30' to 23° S. This expedition left on an 
islet near Shark's Bay a record of its visit engraved on 
a tin plate, which was found there in 1801. The 
"Pera" and ** Arnhem,*' Dutch vessels from Amboyna, 
in i6i8 explored the Gulf of Carpentaria, giving to its 
westward peninsula, on the side opposite to Cape York, 
the name of Arnhem Land. The name of Carpentaria 
was also bestowed on this vast gulf in compliment to 
Peter Carpenter, then governor of the Dutch East 
India Company. In 1627 the "Guldene Zeepard," 
carrying Peter Nuyts to the embassy in Japan, sailed 
along the south coast from Cape Leeuwin, and sighted 
the whole shore of the Great Bight. But alike on the 
northern and southern sea-board, the aspect of New 
Holland, as it was then called, presented an uninviting 
appearance. 

An important era of discovery began with Tasman's 
voyage of 1642. He, too, sailed from Batavia; but, 
first crossing the Indian Ocean to the Mauritus, he de- 
scended to the 44th parallel ofS. lat., recrossing that 
ocean to the east. By taking this latter course he 
reached the island which now bears his name, but which 
he called Van Diemen's Land, after the Dutch governor 
of Batavia. In i644Tasman made another attempt, when 
he cyplor**^ ihe northwest coast of Australia, from Am- 



J 



hem Land to the 22d degree of latitude, approaching 
locality of Dirk Hartog^s discoveries of 1616. He scctm 
to have landed at Cape Ford, near Victoria River, al*3 
in Roebuck Bay, and again near Dampier's ArchipelagoJ 
But the hostile attitude of the natives, whom ne de- 
nounced as a malicious and miserable race of savages, prej 
vented his seeing much of the new country ; and for naJi; 
a century after this no fresh discoveries were made. 

The English made their first appearance on the Aus- 
tralian coast in 1688, when the north-western shores 
were visited by the famous buccaneer Captain William , 
Dampier, who spent five weeks ashore near Roebuck 
Bay. A few jears later (1697) the Dutch organised an- 
other expedition under Vlamingh, who, first touching at , 
Swan River on the west coast, sailed northward to 
Shark's Bay, where Hartog hadbeen in 1616. Dampier, 
two years later, visited the same place, not now as a rov- 
ing adventurer, but with a commission from the Eng- 
lish Admiralty to pursue his Australian researches. 
This enterprising navigator, in the narrative of his voy- 
ages, gives an account of the trees, birds, and reptiles he 
observed, and of his encounters with the natives. But 
he found nothing to invite a long stay. There was yet 
another Dutch exploring squadron on that coast in 1705, 
but the results were of httle importance. 

It was Captain Cook, in his voyages from 1769 to 
1 777, who communicated the most important discoveries, 
and first opened to European enterprise and settlement 
the Australian coasts. In command of the bark 
" Endeavour," 370 tons burden, and carrying 85 persons, 
amongst whom were Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solan- 
der, returning from the Royal Society's expedition to 
observe the transit of Venus, Cook visited both New 
Zealand and New South Wales. He came upon the 
Australian mainland in April 1770, at a point named 
after 'Lieutenant Hicks, who first sighted it, on the 
shore of Gipps' Land, Victoria, S. lat 38^, E, long. 
148** 53'. From this point, in a coasting voyage not 
without peril when entangled in the barrier reefs of 
coral, the little vessel made its way up the whole length 
of the eastern side of Australia, rounding Cape York, 
and crossing Torres Strait to New Guinea. In his sec- 
ond expedition of Australasian discovery, which was 
sent out in 1773, Cook's ship, the "Resolute," started 
in company with the " Adventure," commanded by Cap- 
tain Fumeaux. The two vessels separated, and Cook 
went to New Zealand, while Furneaux examined some 
parts of Tasmania and Bass Strait. The third voyage 
of Cook brought him, in 1777, both to Tasmania and 
to New Zealand* 

Next to Cook, twenty or thirty years after his time, 
the names of Bass and Flinders are justly honored for 
continuing the work of maritime discovery he had so 
well begun. To their courageous and persevering ef-' 
forts, begun at their private risk, is due the correct de-. 
termination of the shape both of Tasmania and thei 
neighboring continent. The French admiral Entrecas*; 
teaux, in 1792, had made a careful examination of the! 
inlets at the south of Tasmania, and in his opinion the 
opening between Tasmania and Australia was only a 
deep bay. It was Bass who discovered it to be a broad 
strait, with numerous small islands. Captain Flinders 
survived his friend Bass, having been associated with 
him in 1798 in this and other useful adventures. Flin- 
ders afterwards made a complete survey in detail of alli 
the Australian coasts, except the west and northwest. 
He was captured, however, by the French during the! 
war, and detained a prisoner in Mauritius for seven' 
years. 

The shores of what is now the province of Victoria 

were explored in 1800 by Captain Grant, and in 1802 by 

Lieutenant Murray, when the spa<;ious land-locked bajr^ 

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A U S 657 

•f Port PWllip was discovered. N ew South Wales had 1 of Sydney, the other lo**. to choosatha 



wammwimammenL in im JLiatceiiifit uxKy proceeded 1 ardnons enterpr^e of penetrating from the Darling 
to Morton Bay and Port Curtis, the first place 7^ north | northward to the very centre of the continent. This 



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AUS 



657 



f^ «f Port PWllip was discovered. New South Wales had 
already been colonised, and the town of Sydney founded 
at Port Jackson in 17S8. West Australia had long re- 
mained neglected, but in 1837, after the settlement at 
Swan River, a series of coast surveys was commenced 
in H.M.S. "Beagle." These were continued from 
1839 to 1843 by Mr. Stokes, and furnished an exact 
knowledge of the western, north-western, and northern 
shores, including four large rivers. 

Inland Exploration. — The geographical position of 
the Australian continent had now been sufficiently de- 
termined, and what remained for discovery was sought, 
not as hitherto by coasting along its shores and bays, 
but by striking into the vast tract of terra incognita 
that occupied the interior. The colony of New South 
Wales had been founded in 1788, but for twenty-five 
years its settlers were acquainted only with a strip of 
country 50 miles wide, between the Blue Mountains 
and the sea-coast, for they scarcely ever ventured far 
inland from the inlets of Port Jackson and Botany Bay. 
Mr. Bass, indeed, once while waiting for his vessel, 
made an attempt to cross the Blue Mountains, and suc- 
ceeded in discovering the River Grove, a tributary of 
the Hawkesbury, but did not proceed further. An ex- 
pedition was also conducted by Governor Hunter along 
the Nepean River west of the settlement, while Lieu- 
tenant Bareiller, in 1802, and Mr. Caley, a year or two 
later, failed in their endeavor to surmount the Blue 
Mountain range. This formidable ridge attains a height 
of 3400 feet, and being intersected with precipitous ra- 
vines 1500 feet deep, presented a bar to tnese explorers' 
passage inland. At last, in 1813, when a summer of 
severe drought had made it of vital importance to find 
new ^tures, three of the colonists, Messrs. Went worth 
and Blaxland and Lieutenant Lawson, crossing the 
Nepean at Emu Plains, gained sight of an entrance, and 
ascending the summit of a dividing ridge, obtained a 
view of the grassy valley of the Fish River. This stream 
runs westward mto the Macquarie, which was dis- 
covered a few months afterwards by Mr. Evans, who 
followed its course across the fertile plains of Bathurst. 
In 1816 Lieutenant Oxley, R.N., accompanied by 
Mr. Evans and Mr. Cunningham, the botanist, con- 
ducted an expedition of great interest down the Lach- 
lan River, 390 miles to the north-west, reaching a point 
34° S. lat., and \^ 30' E. long. On his return 
journey Oxley s^n struck the Macquarie River at a 

{>lace he called Wellington, and from this place in the fol- 
owing year he or^^anised a second exf>edition in hopes 
of discovering an mland sea. He was, however, disap- 
pointed in this, as after descending the course of the 
Macauarie below Mount Harris, he found that the river 
ended in an immense swamp overgrown with reeds. 
Oxley now turned aside — led by Mr. Evans* report of 
the country eastward — crossed the Arbuthnot range, 
and traversing the Liverpool Plains, and ascending the 
Peel and Cockburn Rivers to the Blue Mountains, 
gained si^ht of the open sea, which he reached at Port 
Macquarie. A valuable extension of geographical 
knowledge had been gained by this circuitous journey of 
more than 800 miles. Yet its result was a disappoint- 
ment to those who had looked for means of inland navi- 
gation by the Macquarie River, and by its supposed 
issue in a Mediterranean sea. 

During the next two or three years public attention 
was occupied with Captain King's maritime explorations 
of the north-west coast in three successive voyages, and 
by explorations of West Australia in 1821. These steps 
were followed bv the foundation of a settlement on Mel- 
ville Island, in the extreme north, which, however, was 
soon abandoned. In 1823 Lieutenant Oxley proceeded 
' to Mortem Bay and Port Curtis, the first place 7^ north 



of Sydney, the other 10^, to choose the sight of a new 
poial establishment. From a shipwrecked English 
sailor he met with, who had lived with the sava^s, he 
heard of the river Brisbane. About the same time, in 
the opposite direction, south-west of Sydney, a large 
extent of the interior was revealed. The River Mur- 
rumbidgee — which unites with the Lachlan to join the 
great River Murray — was traced by Mr. Hamilton 
Hume and Mr. Hovell into the country lying north of 
the province of Victoria, through which they made their 
way to Port Phillip. In 1827 and the two following 
years, Mr. Cunningham prosecuted his instructive ex- 
plorations on both sides of the Liverpool range, between 
the upper waters of the Hunter and those of the Peel 
and other tributaries of the Brisbane north of New 
South Wales. Some of his discoveries, including those 
of Pandora's Pass and the Darling Downs, were of great 
practical utility. 

By this time much had thus been done to obtain an 
acquaintance with the eastern parts of the Australian 
continent, although the problem of what could become 
of the large rivers flowmg north-west and south-west 
into the interior was still unsolved. With a view to 
determine this question. Governor Sir Ralph Darling, in 
the year 1828, sent out the expedition under Captain 
Charles Sturt, who proceeding rirst to the marshes at 
the end of the Macquarie River, found his progress 
checked by the dense mass of reeds in that quarter. 
He therefore turned westward, and struck a large river, 
with many affluents, to which he gave the name of the 
Darling. This river, flowing from north-east to south- 
west, drains the marshes in which the Macauarie and 
other streams from the south appeared to be lost. The 
course of the Murrumbidgee, a deep and rapid river, 
was followed by the same eminent explorer in his sec- 
ond expedition in 1831 with a more satisfactory result 
He tralvelled on this occasion nearly 2000 miles, and dis- 
covered that both the Murrumbidgee, carrying with it 
the waters of the Lachlan morass, and likewise the 
Darling, from a more northerly region, finally joined 
another and larger river. This stream, the Murray, in 
the upper part of its course, runs in a north-westerly 
direction, but afterwards turning southwards, almost at 
a right angle, expands into Lake Alexandrina on the 
south coast, about 60 miles S. E. of the town of Ade- 
laide, and finally enters the sea at Encounter Bay in E. 
long. 1390. 

After gaining a practical solution of the problem of 
the destination of the westward-flowing rivers. Sir 
Thomas Mitchell, in 1835, led an expedition northward 
to the upper branches of the Darling; but the party 
meeting with a sad disaster in the death of Mr. Cunning- 
ham, the eminent botanist, who was murdered by the 
natives on the Bogan River, further exploration of that 
region was left to be undertaken bjr Dr. Leichardt, nine 
years later, and bv the son of Sir Thomas Mitchell 
Meantime, from the new colony of Adelaide, South 
Australia, on the shores of Gulf St. Vmcent, a series of 
adventurous joumejrs to the north and to the west was 
commenced by Mr. Eyre, who explored a country much 
more difiicult of access, and more forbidding in aspect, 
than the ** Riverina ** of the eastern provinces. He per- 
formed in 184D a feat of extraordinary personal danng, 
travelling all the way along the barren sea-coast of the 
Great Australian Bight, from Spencer Gulf to King 
George's Sound. Mr. Eyre also explored the interior 
north of the head of Spencer Gulf, where he was mis- 
led, however, by appearances to form an erroneous 
theory about the water-surfaces named Lake Torrens. 
It was left to the veteran explorer, Sturt, to achieve the 
arduous enterprise of penetrating from the Darling 
northward to the very centre of the continent. Thi« 



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was in 1S45, tihe rovte Ifing for the moit part over a 
gtony desert, where the heat (reaching 131^ rahr.)» with 
scorching winds, caused mnch suffering to the party. 
The most northerly point reached by Sturt on this occa- 
sion was about S. lat 24^ 2$'. His unfortunate succes- 
sors, Burke and Wills, traveUed through the same 
district sixteen years later; and other expeditions were 
org^anised, both from the north and from the south, 
which aimed at learning the fate of these travellers, as 
weU as that of Dr. Leichardt These efforts completed 
our knowledge of different routes across the entire 
breadth of Australia, in the longitude of the Gulf of 
Carpentaria, while the enterprising journeys of Mac- 
Douall Stuart, a companion of Sturt, obtained in 1862 a 
direct passage from South Australia northward to the 
shores of the Malajran Sea. This route has been util- 
ised by the construction of an overland telegraph from 
Adehude to the northern coast. 

A military station having been fixed by the British 
Government at Port Victoria^ on the coast of Amhem 
Land, for the protection of shipwrecked mariners on the 
north coast, it was thought desirable to find an overland 
route between this settlement and Moreton Bay, 
in what then was the northern portion of New 
South Wales, now called Queenslana. This was the 
object of Dr. Leichardt 's expedition in 1S44, which pro- 
ceeded first along the banks of the Dawson and the 
Mackenzie, tributaries of the Fitzroy River in Queens- 
land. It thence passed farther north to the Burdeldn, 
ascending to the source of that river, and turned west- 
ward across a table-land, from which there was an easy 
descent to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Skirting the low 
shores of this gulf all the way round its upper half to 
the Roper, Lekhardt cross«l Amhem Land to the 
Alligator River, which he descended to the western 
shore of the peninsula, and arrived at Port Victoria, 
otherwise Port Essington, after a journey of 3000 miles, 
performed within a year and three months. In 1S47 
Leichardt undertook a much more formidable task, that 
of crossing the entire continent from east to west His 
starting point was on the Fitzroy Downs, north of the 
River Condamine, in Queensland, between the :»6th and 
27th degrees of S. latitude. But this eminent explorer 
bad not proceeded far into the interior before he met his 
death, his last despatch dating from the Cogoon, Apdl 3, 
1S4S. In the same region from 184c to 1847, Sir 
Thomas Mitchell and Mr. E. B. Kennedy explored the 
northern tributaries of the Darling, and a river in S. lat. 
24^, named the Barcoo or Vktoria, which flows to the 
south-west. This river was more thoroughly examined 
by Mr. A. C. Gregory in 1858. Mr. Kennedy lost hb 
life in 1848, being killed by the natives while attempting 
to explore the peninsula of Cape York, from Rocking- 
ham Bay to We3rmouth Bay. 

Among the performances of less renown, but of much 
practical utility in surveying and opening new paths 
through the country, we may mention that of Captain 
Banister, showing the way across the southern part of 
West Australia, from Swan River to King George's 
Sound, and that of Messrs. Robinson and G. H. Haydon 
in 1844, makinj^ good the route from Port Phillip to 
Gipps' Land with loaded drays, through a dense tangled 
scruD, which had been described by Strzelecki as his 
worst obstacle. Again, in West Australia there were 
the explorations of the Arrowsmith, the Murchison, the 
Gascoyne, and the Ashburton Rivers, by Captain Grey, 
Mr. Roe, Governor Fitzgerald, Mr. R. Austm, and the 
brothers Gregory, whose discoveries have great impor- 
tance from a geographical point of view. 

These local researches, and the more comprehensive 
attempts of Leichardt and Mitchell to sohre the chief 
proUemi of Australian geography, must yieU in impor- 



tance to the grandracfaievement of Mr. Stuart in 
The first of fus tours iiKiependently performed, in 185S 
and 1850, were around the South Australian lakes, 
namely. Lake Torrens, Lake Eyre, and Lake Gairdner. 
These waters had been erroneously taken for parts of 
one vast horseshoe or sickle-shaped lake, only some 
twenty miles broad, believed to encircle a large portion 
of the inland country, with draina^ at one end by m 
marsh into Spencer Gulf. The mistake, shown in mfl 
the old maps of Australia, had originated in a curioos 
optical illusion. When Mr. Eyre viewed the country 
from Mount Deception in 1840, looking be tw een Lake 
Torrens and the lake whk:h now bears his own name, 
the refraction of light from the ^ttering crust of salt 
that covers a large space of stony or sandy ground pro- 
duced an appearance of water. The error was discov- 
ered, after eighteen years, by the explorations of Mr. 
Babbage and Major Warburton in 1858, while Mr. 
Stuart, about the same time, gained a more complet e 
knowledge of the same district 

A reward of jf 10,000 having been offered hf the 
Legislature of South Australia to the first man wiio 
should traverse the whole continent from south to north, 
starting from the city of Adelaide, Mr. Stuart resohed 
to make the attempt He started in March i860, pass- 
ing La^e Torrens and Lake Eyre, beyond whicA he 
found a pleasant, fertile country till he crossed the 
M'Donnell range of mountains, just under the line ef the 
tropic of Capricorn. On the 23a of April he reached the 
mountain'in S. lat. nearhr 22^, and E. long, nearly tM^9 
which b the most central marked point of the Australian 
continent, and has been named Central Mount Stuart 
Mr. Stuart did not finish his task on this occasion, on 
account of indisposition and other causes. But the i8th 
degree of latitude had been reached, where the water- 
shed divided the rivers of the Gulf of Carpentaria from 
the Victoria River, flowing towards the north-west coast. 
He had also proved that the interior of Australia was 
not a stony desert, like the region visited by Stuart in 
1845. On the first day of the next year, 1861, Mr. 
Stuart again started for a second attempt to cross the 
continent, which occupied him eight months. He 
failed, however, to advance further than one geograph- 
ical de^^ north of the point reached in i860, his prog- 
ress being arrested by dense scrubs and the want of 
water. 

Meanwhile, in the province of Victoria, by means of 
a fund subscribed among the colonists and a grant by 
the Lemslature, the ill-fated expedition of Messrs. Burke 
and Wills was started. It made for the Barcoo, with a 
view to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria by a northerly 
course midway between Stuart's track to the west and 
Leichardt*s to the east The leading men of the party 
were Mr. Robert O'Hara Burke, an officer of police, 
and Mr. William'John Wills, of Melbourne observatory. 
Messrs. Burke and Wills, with two men named Gray 
and King, left the others behind at the Barcoo on 16th 
December i860, and proceeded, with a horse and six 
camels, over the desert traversed by Stuart fifteen years 
before. They got on in spite of great difficulties, past 
the M'Kinlay range of mountains, & lat 21° and 22^, 
and then reached the Flinders River, which ftews into 
the head of the Gulf Carpentaria. Here, without actu- 
ally standing on the sea-oeach of the northern shore, 
they met the tidal waters of the sea. On February 2j, 
1 80 1, they commenced the return journey, havinff m 
effect accomplished the feat of crossing the Australian 
continent. Unhappily, three of the par^ perished on 
the road home. Uray, who had fallen ill, died on the 
i6th of April. Five days later, Burke, Wills, and King 
had repassed the desert to the place on Cooper Cre^ 
(the Barcoo, S. lat 27^ 40', £. long. i40<> 30')» wherf 



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they had left the depot, with the rest of the expedition. 
Here they experienced a cruel disappointment The 
depot was abandoned ; the men in charge had quitted 
the place the same day, believine that Burke and those 
with him were lost. The main body of the expedition, 
which should have been led up by a Mr. Wright, from 
Menindie, on the Darling, was misconducted and fatally 
delayed. Burke, Wills, and King, when they found 
themselves so fearfully left alone and unprovided in the 
wilderness, wandered about in that district till near the 
end of June. They subsisted miserably on the bounty 
of some natives, and partly by feeding on the seeds of a 
plant called nardoo. At last both Wills and Burke died 
of starvation. King, the sole survivor, was saved by 
meeting the friend^ blacks, and was found alive in 
Septeini)er by Mr. A. W. Howitt*s party, sent on pur- 
pose to find and relieve that of Burke. 

Four other parties, besides Howitt's, were sent out 
that year from different Australian provinces. Three of 
them, respectively commanded by Mr. Walker, Mr. 
Landsborough, and Mr. Norman, sailed to the north, 
where the latter two landed on tne shores of the Guif 
of Carpentaria, while Mr. Walker marched inland from 
Rockhampton. The fourth party, under Mr. J. 
M*Kinlay, from Adelaide, made for the Barcoo by way 
of Lake Torrens. By these means, the unknown region 
of Mid Australia was simultaneously entered from the 
norths south, east, and west, and important additions 
were made to geographical knowledge. Landsborough 
crossed the entire continent from north to south, be- 
tween February and June 1862; and M'Kinlay, from 
south to north, before the end of August in that year. 
The interior of New South Wales and Queensland, all 
that lies east of the 140th degree of longitude, was ex- 
amined. The Barcoo and its tributary streams were 
traced from the Queensland mountains, tiokiing a south- 
westerly course to Lake Eyre in Soudi Australia; the 
Flinders, the Gilbert, the Gregory, and other northern 
rivers watering the country towards the Gulf of Car- 
pentaria were also explored. These valuable additions 
to Australian geography were gained through humane 
efforts to relieve the lost explorers. The bodies of 
Burke and Wills were recovered and brought to Mel- 
bourne for a solemn public ftmeral, and a noble monu- 
ment has been erectea to their honor. 

Mr. Stuart, in 1862, made his third and final attempt 
to traverse the continent from Adelaide along a central 
line, whidi, inclining a little westward, reaches the 
north coast of Amhem Land, opposite Melville Island. 
He started in January, and on April 7 reached the 
farthest northern point, near S. lat 17?, where he had 
turned back in May of the preceding year. He then 
pushed on, through alvery thick forest, with scarcely any 
water, till he came to the streams which supply the 
Roper, a river flowing into the western part of tne Gulf 
of Carpentaria. Having crossed a table-land of sand- 
stone which divides these streams frtnn those running to 
the western shores of Amhem Land, Mr. Stuart, in 
the month of July, passed down what is called the 
Adelaide River of North Australia. Thus he came at 
length to stand on the verge of the Indian Ocean; 
** gazing upon it," a writer has said, ** with as much de- 
light as Balboa, when he had crossed the Isthmus of 
jSknexi from the Atlantic to the Pacific." The line 
crossing Australia which was thus explored has since 
been occupied by the electric telegraph connecting 
Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and otner Australian 
cities vrith London. 

A third part, at least, of the interior of the whole 
continent, between the central line of Stuart and the 
known parts of West Australia, from about 120^ to 
134O £. long., an extent of half a million square 



miles, still remained a blank in the map. But the two 
expeditions of 1873, conducted by Mr. Gosse and Col- 
onel Egerton Warburton, have made a beginning in 
the exploration of this terra incognita west of the cen- 
tral telegraph route. That line of more than 1800 
miles, having its southern extremity at the head of 
Spencer Gulf its northern at Port Darwin, in Arnhem 
Land, passes Central Mount Stuart, in the middle of 
the continent S. lat 22^, E. long. 134°. Mr. Gosse, 
with men and horses provided by the South Australian 
Government, started on April 21 from the telegraph 
station fifty miles south of Central Mount Stuart, to 
strike into West Australia. He passed the Reynolds 
range and Lake Amadeus in that direction, but was 
compelled to turn south, where he found a tract of 
well- watered grassy land. A singular rock of conglom- 
erate, 2 miles long, I mile wide, and iioo feet nigh, 
with a spring of water in its centre, struck Ins atten- 
tion. The country was mostly poor and barren, sandy 
hillocks, with scanty growth of spinifex. Mr. Gosse, 
having travelled about 600 miles, and getting to 26^ 32' 
S. lat. and 127^ K. long., two degrees within Ithe West 
Australian boundary, was forced to return. Meanwhile 
a more successfiil attempt to reach the western coast 
from the centre of Australia has been made by Colonel 
Warburton, with thirty camels, provided by Mr. T. 
Elder, M.L.C, of South Australia. Leaving the tde- 

rph line at Alice Springs (23^ 40' S. lat, 133^ 14' 
long.), 1 120 miles north of Adelaide City, War- 
burton succeeded in making his way to the De Grey 
River, West Australia. Overland routes have now 
been found possible, though scarcely convenient for 
tnifiic, between all the widely separated Australian 
provinces. In Northern Queensland, also, there have 
oeen several recent explorations, with results of some 
interest That p^ormed by Mr. W. Hann, with 
Messrs. Warner, Tate, and Taylor, hi 1873, rehited to 
the countiy north of Uie Kirchmer range, watered by 
the Lynd, the Mitchell, the Walsh, and the Palmer 
Rivers, on the east side of the Gt^ of Carpentaria. 
The coasting expedition of Mr. G. Elphinstone Dal- 
rymple, with Messrs. Hill and Johnstone, finishing in 
December 1873, efiected a valuable survey of the inlets 
and navigable rivers in the Cane York peninsula. The 
Endeavor River in S. lat 10?, which was visited by 
Captain Cook a hundred years afo, seems capable of 
being used for commnmcation wim the country inland. 
A newly discovered river, the Johnstone or Gladys, is 
said to flow through a very nch land, producinjg the 
finest cedars, with eroves of bananas, nutmeg, ginger, 
and other tropical mants. The colonial geologists pre- 
dict that the nortn-east comer of Australia will be 
found to possess great mineral treasures. At the oppo- 
site extremity of the continent, its south-west comer, 
a tour lately made by Mr. A. Forrest, Government 
surveyor, firom the Swan River eastward, and thence 
down to the south coast, has shown the poorness of 
that recion. Tlie vast superiority of eastem Australia 
to all the rest is the most important practical lesson 
taught by the land-exploring labors of the last half 
century. 

Physical Description. — The continent of Australia, 
with a circumference of nearly 8000 miles, presents a 
contour wonderfully devoid of inlets from the sea, 
except upon its northem shores, where the coast line is 
largely indented. The Gulf of Carpentaria, situated in 
the north, is enclosed on the east oy the projection ol 
Cape York, and on the west by Amhem Land, and 
forms the principal bay on the whole coast, measuring 
about 6^ of long, by 6^ of lat Further to the west. 
Van Diemen's Gulf, though much smaller, forms a 
better protected bay, having Melville Island between it 



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and tbe ooetn; while bejond this Qneen'f Chimnel tnd 
Cambridge Gulf form inlets about S. lat. 14*" 50'. On tbe 
north-west of the continent the coast line is much 
broken, the chief indentations being Admiralty Gulf, 
Collier Bay, and King Sound, on the shores of Tasman 
Land. Western Australia, again, is not favored with 
many inlets, — Exmonth Gulf and Shark Bay being the 
only bm of any size. The same remark may be 
made of the rest of the sea-board ; for, with the excep- 
tion of Spencer GuM; the Gulf of St. Vincent, and 
Port Philip, on the south, and Moreton Bay, Hervey 
Bay, and Broad Sound, in the east, the coast line is 
sii^ularly uniform. 

The conformation of the interior of Australia is very 
peculiar, and may perhaps be explained by the theory of 
the land having been, at a comparatively recent period, 
the bed of an ocean. The mountain ranges parallel to 
the east and west coasts would then have existed as the 
diib and uplands of many groups of islands, in widely 
scattered archipelagoes resemblmg those in the Pacific 
The singular positions and courses of some of the nvers 
lend force to this supposition. The Murray and its 
tributaries, the Murrurobidgee, the Lachlan, and the 
Darling, rising from the mountains on the east coast, 
flow inwards so far that they were at one time sui^x>sed 
to issue in a central sea. They do, in fact, spend their 
waters in a shallow lake; but this is not far from the 
south coast, and is provided with an outlet to the ocean. 
The Macquarie and the Lachlan merge in extensive 
swamps, and their beds in the dry season become a 
mere chain of pcmds. This agrees with the klea that 
the whole country was a sea-bottom, which has scarcely 
yet assumed the character of permanent dry land, while 
another proof consists in the thinness and sterility of 
the soil in the low lands. 

Along the entire line of the east coast there extends a 
succession of mountain ranges from Portland, in Vic- 
toria to Cape York in the extreme north, called in dif- 
ferent parts the Australian Grampians, the Australian 
Alps, the Blue Mountains, the Liverpool Range, and 
other names. These constitute, like the Andes of 
South America, a regular Cordillera, stretching from 
north to south 1700 miles in length, with an average 
height of 1500 feet above the sea. The rivers flowing 
down the eastern slope, having but short courses before 
they reach the sea, are of a more determined character 
than those which take a westerly and inland direction. 
They cut their way through the sandstone rocks in deep 
ravines; but from their tortuous and violent course, 
and from the insufficient volume of water, they are unfit 
for navigation. 

Minerals, — The useful and precious metals exist in 
considerable Quantities in each of the five provinces of 
Australia. New South Wales has abundance of cold, 
copper, iron, and coal, as well as silver, lead, and tin. 
The mineral riches of Victoria, thoue;h almost confined 
to gold, have been the main cause of her rapid progress. 
South Australia possesses the most valuable copper 
mines. Queensland ranks next to the last-named 

Province for copper, and excels her neighbors in the pro- 
uction of tin, while gold, iron, and coal are ^so found 
in considerable quantities. In Western Australia mines 
of lead, silver, and copper have been opened; and there 
is much ironstone. 

The discovery of goU in New South Wales and Vic- 
toria took place in 185 1, and during the next twenty 
years Victoria exported 40,7^0,000 oz. of the precious 
metal, while New South Wales, from 1851 to 1871, ex- 
ported nearly 10,000,000 ounces. The (^eensland ^oUL 
mines, since i860, have displayed increasing promise ; 
up to the end of 1872 they had yielded rather less than 
1,000,000 ounces; but much was expected, at a more 



recent date, from the Palmer River and other diitricts 
of the north. The yearly value of the affmgate S'old 
exports of Australia, on the average ornfteen y^mra, 
has been ;f 10,000,000. Victoria alone has produced 
sold to the value of ;(^i 70,000,000. Tbe allavial gold- 
ftekls, in which the early diners, with the «t*«plr^ 
tools, obtained for a short time Urge onantitlet of the 
coveted ore, seem now to be mostly exhausted. It is ia 
the quarts formations of the mountain ranges, or in those 
at a great depth underground, reached by the sinking of 
shafts and regular mining operations, tnat AustrmOan 
goki is henceforth to be chiefly procured. There aire 
mines in Victoria 1000 feet deep, as at Clnnes, and 
manT others from 300 to 600 feet de^ 

The copper mines of Burra Burra, in South Anstrmlin, 
proved very profitable some twenty-five years a^o, 
yiekling in a twelvemonth ore to the value of £,VfyjOQfy^ 
and the Moonu mines, in 1872, were scarcely le» pro- 
ductive. The province of South Australia, in that year, 
exported copper to the amount of ;^8oo,ooo. Qaeens- 
land, in 1873, produced one-fourth that (quantity. Tin, 
an article of great mercantile interest, is divided between 
Queensland and New South Wales in a frontier district, 
two-thirds of the extent of which belong to the Darling 
Downs, within the last-mentioned province. There is a 
little tin, also, in some parts of Victoria. Lead, silver, 
and cinnabar have been obtained not only in New Sooth 
Wales, but likewise in Western Australia. 

The abundance of eood iron ore, in convenient 
vicinity to thick beds of excellent coal, ensures a future 
career ot manufacturing prosperity to New South Wales, 
and not less to Queensland. The country north and 
south of Sydney, and west of that city 100 miles inland 
to the dividing range of mountains, is all of Carbonifer- 
ous formation. At the mouth of the Hunter River, 
from the port and town of Newcastle, coal was ex- 
ported in 1873 to the value of ;f 1,000,000 sterling. The 
collieries there taken up have an extent of 35»ooo acres, 
but the area of the coal-field is officially estimated at 
10,000,000 acres, and the seams are ^ feet to 11 feet 
thick. The quality of this coal is said to be equal to 
that of Great Britain for most furnace purpoaes, and 
it is generally used by steamships in the Pacific and 
Chinese navigation. Next in importance are the Wol- 
longong collieries, south of Sydney, and those of 
Hartley, Maitland, and Berrima, now connected by 
railway with the capitaL 

In each of the places above named there is iron of a 
superior quality, the working of which to advanta^ 
cannot be long delayed. On the Illawarra coast it is 
found close to the nnest bituminous coal, and to lime- 
stone. The iron of New South Wales is mostly haema- 
tite, and the ironstone contains from 60 to 70 per cent, 
of ore. 

Among other mineral products of the same rmon 
are cannel coal and shale yielding kerosene oiL This 
is a recognised article of export from New South Wales 
to the other colonies. It is hardly worth while to 
speak of diamonds, opals, and precious stones, but th^ 
are often picked up, though of small size, along the 
Mud^ and Abercrombie Rivers, and at Beechworth 
and Daylesford, in Victoria. 

Climate, — The Australian continent, extending over 
28° of latitude, mijght be expected to show a consider- 
able diversity of climate* In reality, however, it exper- 
iences fewer climatic variations than the other great con- 
tinents, owine to its distance (28^) from the Antarctic 
circle and \i^ from the equator. There is, besides, a 
powerful determining cause in the uniform character 
and undivided extent of its dry interior plain. 

With r^ard to the temperature, the northern r^ons 
of the continent being ntuated within the tropic of Qipri- 



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eonkt resemble the parts of South America and South 
Aftica, that are situated in the corresponding latitudes. 
The seaward districts of New South Wales seem in this 
respect to be like Southern Europe. The mean annual 
temperature of Sydney is 62^ 4' Fahr., almost equal to 
that of Lisbon in Portugal 

In winter, in New South Wales, the prevalent winds 
Uow from the west, with occasional storms of M-ind and 
rain from the eastward, while the autumn months have 
much cloudy weather, not accompanied by rain. Janu- 
ary and February »e the hottest months of sunmier, and 
Jmy the coldest month of winter. 

The amount of humidity in the air is liable to great 
and rapid variations in the summer months. It is some- 
times reduced as much as 60 per cent, within a few 
hours, by the effect of hot dry wmds. But this is com- 
pensated by an access of moisture upon a change of wind. 
The annual average rainfall at Melbourne, which for 
thirty years is stat^ at 2^.66 inches, does not seem less 
than that of places in similar latitudes in other parts of 
the world. Vet it proves inadequate, because of the 
ereat amount of evaporation, estimated by Professor 
rf eumayer at 42 inches. 

The spring season in Victoria, consisting of the months 
of September, October, and November, is genial and 
pleasant, with some rain. The summer — December, 
Januar3r, and February — is generally hot and dry, 
though its first month is sometimes broken by storms of 
cold wind and heavy rain. In February the north 
winds assume the character of siroccos, and bush-fires 
often devastate the grassy plains and forests of the 
mland country. The autumn months — March, April, 
and May — are, in goieral, the most agreeable ; and at 
this season vegetable life is refreshed, and puts forth a 
fiTowth eaual to that of the spring. The winter is June, 
July, ana August, with strong, dry, cold winds from 
the north, alternating with frequent rain firom the oppo- 
site quarter; there is little ice or snow, except in the 
mountain districts. 

Botany, — A probable computation of the whole num- 
ber of (ustinct vegetable species indigenous to Australia 
and Tasmania has been made by Bsux>n Ferdinand von 
M filler, the Government botanist at Melbourne. He 
believes that, omitting the minute fungi, there wfll 
not be found above 10,000 species of Australian 
plants. 

The eastern parts of this continent. New South 
Wales and Queensland, are very much richer, both in 
their botany and their zoology, than any oUier parts of 
Australia. Much was done nere for the former science, 
half a century ago, by Mr. Allan Cunningham, whose 
monumental obeli^ fitly stands in the Botanic Garden 
at Sydnev. In general the growth of trees on the north 
and north-west coasts is wanting in size and regularity, 
compared with their growth in eastern Australia. 

From the extreme aridity of the climate in most parts 
of northern Australia, there is a singular absence of 
mosses and lichens. North-west Australia possesses, in 
the Adansonia Gregorii^ or eounr-stem tree, a counter- 
part of the West African oaobab, or monkey-bread 
tree. It is worthy of remark that, with but few excep- 
tions, the Australian trees are evergreens. They also 
show a peculiar reverted position of their leaves, which 
hang vertically, turning their edges instead of their sides 
towards the sun ; and the eucalypti have the peculiarity 
of shedding their bark annually instead of their leaves. 
In Australia the native species of lily, tulip, and honey- 
suckle appear as standard trees ot considerable size. 
The native grasses do not form a continuous and even 
greensward, as in Europe, but grow in detached clumps 
or tufts. None of the cereal plants are indigenous, and 
rery few of the fruits or roots that supply human food; 



but many Australkn plants are likely to be valuable for 
medicinal or chemical manufactures. 

This continent, as might be expected* has some of the 
same botanical families that occupy South Africa, Poly- 
nesia, and South America. 

Animals. — The zoology of Australia and Tasmania 
presents a vary conspicuous point of difference from that 
of other regions of the globe, in the prevalence of non- 
placental mammalia. The vast majority of the mam- 
malia are provided with an organ in the uterus, by which, 
before the birth of their young, a vascular connection is 
maintained between the embryo and the parent animal. 
There are two orders, the Marsupialia and the Mono* 
tremata, which do not possess this organ. Both these 
are found in Australia, to which region indeed they are 
not absolutely confined ; but the marsupials alone con- 
stitute two-thirds of all the Australian species of mam- 
mals. It is the well-known peculiarity of this order 
that the female has a pouch or fold of skin upon her 
abdomen, in which she can place the young for suck- 
ling within reach of her teats. The opossum of Amer- 
ica is the only species out of Australasia which is thus 
provided. Australia is inhabited \sj at least no (fifTer- 
ent species of marsupials, which have been arranged in 
five tribes, according to the food they eat, vix. , the root- 
eaters (wombats), the fruit-eaters (phalangers), the 
grass-eaters (kangaroos), the insect-eaters (bandicoots), 
and the flesh-eaters (native cats and rats). 

The kangaroo ^Macropus) and most of its congeners 
show an extraordinary disposition of the hind ' limbs to 
the fore part of the body. The rock wallabies again 
have short tarsi of the hind legs, with a long pliable tail 
for climbing, like that of the tree kangaroo of New 
Guinea, or that of the jerboa. Of the larger kangaroos, 
which attain a weight of 200 lb. and more, eight species 
are named, only one of which is found in West Aus- 
tralia. There are some twenhr smaller species in Aus- 
tralia and Tasmania, besides tne rock wallabies and the 
hare kan^^aroos ; these last are wonderfulhr swift, mak- 
ing clear jumps eight or ten feet high- To this agilitjr 
they owe their preservation firom the prairie fires, which 
are so destructive in their interior during seasons of 
drought In the rat kangaroo there is not the same 
disproportion of the limbs ; it approaches more nearly 
to the bandicoot, of which seven species exist, from the 
size of a rat to that of a rabbit. The carnivorous tribe 
of marsupials, the larger species at any rate, belong 
more to Tasmania, which has its ** tiger *» and its " devil *• 
But the native cat, or dasyurus, is common to every 
part of Australia. Several different species of pouched 
rats and mice, one or two living in trees, are reckoned 
among the flesh-eaters. Fossil bones of extinct kan- 
garoo species are met with, which must have been of 
enormous size, twice or thrice that of any ^>ecies now 
living. 

We pass on to the other curious order of non-pla* 
cental mammals, that of the Monotremata, so called 
from the structure of their organs of evacuation with a 
single orifice, as in birds. Their abdominal bones are 
like those of the marsupials ; and they are fiirnished 
with pouches for their young, but have no teats, the 
milk being distilled into their pouches from the mam- 
mary glands. Australia and Tasmania possess two 
animals of this order, — the echidna, or spmy ant-eater 
(hairy in Tasmania), and the Platypus anatinus^ the 
duck-billed water-mole, otherwise named the Ornitk^f- 
rkvnchus paradoxus. This odd animal is provided with 
a bill or beak, which b not, like that of a bird, affixed 
to the skeleton, but is merely attached to the skin and 
muscles. 

Australia has no apes, monkeys, or baboons, and no 
ruminant boists. llie comparatively few indigenous 



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placental mammals, besides the dingo, or wild dof — 
which, however, maj have come from the islands north 
of this continent — are of the bat tribe and of the rodent 
or rat tribe. There are four species of large fruit -eating 
bats, caDed flyine foxes, twentv of insect -eating bats, 
above twenty of land-rats, and five of water-raU. The 
sea produces three different seals, which often ascend 
rivers from the coast, and can live in lagoons of fresh 
water ; many cetaceans, besides the •* right whale " and 
sperm whale ; and the dugong, found on the northern 
snores, which yields a valuable medicinal oil 

The birds of Australia in their number and variety of 
spcat$ (reckoned at 960) may be deemed some compen- 
sation for its poverty of mamnuds ; yet it will not stand 
comparison in thb respect with regions of Africa and 
South America in the same latitudes. The black swan 
of West Australia was thought remarkable when dis- 
covered as bel3ring an old Latm proverb. There is also 
a white eagle. Tne vulture is wanting. Sixty species 
Jr. parrots, some of them very handsome, are found in 
Australia. The emu, a laige bird of the order Cursores, 
or runners, corresponds with the African and Arabian 
ostrich, the rhea of South America, and the cassowary 
of the Moluccas and New Guinea. 

The ornithology of New South Wales and Queens- 
land is more varied and interesting than that of the 
other provinces. 

As for reptiles, Australia has a few tortoises, all of 
one family and not of great sise. The ** leathery tur- 
tle," whidi is herbivorous, and yiekb abundance of oil, 
has been caught at sea off the Illawarra coast so large 
as 9 feet in length. The saurians or lissrds are numer- 
ous, chiefly on dry sandy or rocky cround in the tropi- 
cal region. The great crocodile of Queensland is 30 
feet long ; there is a smaller one, 6 feet lone, to be met 
with in shallow lagoons of the interior. The monitor, 
or fork-tongued usard, which burrows in the earth, 
climbs, and swims, is saiid to grow to a length of 8 or 9 
feet This species, and many others do not extend to 
Tasmania. 

The snakes are reckoned at sixty-three species, of 
which forty-two are venomous, but on^y five dangerous. 
Nerth Queensland has many harmless p3rthons. There 
ara forty or fifty different sorts of frogs; the com- 
monest is distinguished by its blue legs and bronze or 
cold back ; the Ur^t is bririit green ; whOe the tree- 
trog has a loud shrill voice, always heard during rain. 

The Australian seas and rivers are inhabited by many 
fishes of the same genera as exist in the southern parts 
of Asia and Africa. Of those peculiar to Australian 
Waters mavbe mentioned the arripis, represented bv 
what is called among the colonists a salmon trout A 
very fine fresh-water fish is Murray cod, which some- 
times weighs 100 lb.; and the golden perch, found in 
the same river, has rare beauty of color. Among the 
sea fish, the snapper is of great value as an article of food, 
and its weight comes up to 50 lb. Thb is the Pagrus 
unicolor^ of the family of Sparidae, which includes also 
the bream. Its colors are beautiful, pink and red with 
a silverv gloss ; but the male as it grows older takes on 
a singular deformity of the head, with a swelling in the 
shape of a monstrous human-like nose. 

Aborigines, — The Papuan, Melanesian, or Australa- 
sian aborip;ines exhibit certain peculiarities which are 
not found m the African negro, to which they otherwise 
present some similarity. In the Australasian the fore- 
head b higher, the under jaw less projecting, the nose, 
though flat and extended compared with that of the 
European, b less depressed than in the African. Hb 
lips are thick, but not protuberant ; and the eyes are 
sunken, large, and black. The color of his skin is 
lighter — ofadnskjhae — than that of the Negro. In 



stature he equals the average Ewopean, bat tall ssmb arc 
rare, except in North Queensland ; hk ho&f and fimbs 
are well snaped, strongly jointed, and highff moscaku:. 
The hind parts are not, as in the African, excessively 
raised ; and while the calf of the leg u deficteot, tiK 
heel is straight The natives of Papua lucre woolly 
spirally-twbted hair. Hiose of Tasmania, now exter- 
minated, had the same peculiarity. But the nali y es of 
the Australian continent have straight or curly blady 
hair. The men wear short beards and whiskers. 

Their mental faculties, though probably inferior to 
those of the Polynesian copper-colored race, mi^ not 
contemptible. They have much acuteness of percep ci oa 
for the relations of mdividual objects, but little power 
of generalisation. No word exbts «n their langoage for 
the general terms tree, bird, or fish ; jret they have in- 
vented a name for every species of vegetable and animal 
they know. The grammatical structure of some North 
Australian languages has a considerable degree of 
refinement The verb presents a varietv of conjuga- 
tions, expressing nearly all the moods and tenses of the 
Greek. There is a dual, as well as a plural form in the 
declension of verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. 
The distinction of genders b not marked, except in 
proper names of men and women. All parts of speech, 
except adverbs, are declined by terminational inflections. 
There are words for the elementary numbers, one, two, 
three ; but •* four *• is usually expressed by •* two-two ; * 
then ** five " by •* two-three, *» and so on. They have ne 
idea of dedmus. The number and diversity of soiarate 
languages, not mere dialecte, b truly Dewildering. 
Tribes of a few hundred people, livins; within a fi^ 
miles of each other, have often scarcely a phrase in 
common. This is more especially observed in New 
South Wales, a country much intersected by dividing 
mountain ranges. But one language b spoken all along 
the Rivers Murray and Darling, while tne next neigh- 
bors of the Murray tribes, on both sides, are unable to 
converse with them. 

It is, nevertheless, tolerably certain that all the natives 
of Australia belone to one stock. There appears reason 
to believe that their progenitors originally linded on 
the north-west coast, that of Cambridge Gulf or Amhem 
Land, in canoes drifting from the blind of Tinnor. 
They seem then to have advanced over the continent ii^ 
three separate directions. From a comparison of thcdr 
hunguaces, the diversities of which have been already 
referred to, it appears that little aid b to be expected 
from them in ethnological grouping. 

The natives of the north-eastern quarter — a tropical 
region of diversified surface, with many rivers and tnick 
forests, as well as open highlands — are far superior in 
body, mind and social hi3>its to those of the rest of 
Australia. They bear, in fact, most resemblance to 
their neighbors and kindred in the bland of New 
Guinea, but are still below these in many important 
respects. 

If a general view be taken of the tribes of Australia, 
and the sute in which they exbted independently of 
recent European intercourse, two or three extraorduiai^ 
defects exhibit themselves. They never, in any situation^ 
cultivated the soil for any kind of food-crop. Thc^y 
never reared any kind of cattle, or kept any domesti- 
cated animal except the dog, which probably came over 
with them in their canoes. They have nowhere built 
permanent dwellings, but contented themselves with 
mere hoveb for temporary shelter. They have neither 
manufactured nor possessed any chatteb beyond sodi 
articles of clothing, weapons, ornaments, and utensib 
as they might carry on tneir persons, or in the family 
store-bag tor daily use. Their want of ingenuity and 
contrivance has, nowerer, undoubtedly been promoted 



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by the natural poverty of die land in which the race 
lettled. 

The sole dren of both sexes in their aborighml sute 
is a cloak of skin or matting, fastened with a skewer, 
bnt opened on the right hand side. No headeear is 
worn, except sometimes a net to confine the nair, a 
bunch of feathers, or the taik of small animals. The 
bosom or back is usually tattoed, or rather scored with 
rows of hideous raised scars, produced by deep gashes 
at the age when youth comes to manhood or woman- 
hood. Their dwellings, for the most part, are either 
bowers, formed of the branches of trees, or hovels of 
pfled logs, looisdy covered with grass or bark, which 
they can erect in an hour, wherever they encamp. But 
some huts of a more conunodious and substantial form 
were seen by Flinders on the south-east coast in 1790, 
and by Captain Kine and Sir J. Mitchell on the north- 
east, where they no longer appear. The ingenuity of 
the race is mostly to be recognised in the manufacture 
of weapons of war&re and uie chase. While the use 
of the tx>w and arrow does not seem to have occurred 
to them the spear and axe are in general use, commonly 
made of hara-wood ; the hatchets of stone, and the 
javelins pointed with stone or bone. The peculiar 
weapon of the Australian is the boomerang, a curved 
blade of wood, of such remarkable construction, that it 
swerves from its direct course, sometimes returning so 
as to hit an object behind the thrower. Their nets, 
made by women, either of die tendons of animak or 
the fibres of plants, will catch and hold the strong 
kangaroo or the emu, or the very large fish of Aus- 
tralian rivers. Canoes of bent bark, for the inland 
waters, are hastily prepared at need ; but the inlets 
and straits of the north-eastern sea-coast are navigated 
by larger canoes and rafts of a better construction. 

The numbers of the native Australians are steadily 
diminishing. A remnant of the race exists in each of 
the provinces, while a few tribes sdll wander over the 
interior. Altogether it is computed that not more than 
about 80,000 aborigines remain on the continent. 

Colonial Historv. — Of the five Australian provinces, 
that of New South Wales may be reckoned Uie oldest. 
It was in 1788, eighteen years after Captain Cook 
explored the east coast, that Port Jackson was founded 
as a penal station for criminals from England; and the 
setdement retained that character, more or less, during 
the subsequent fifty years, transporution bein^ virtually 
suspended in 1839. The colony, however, from i^i 
had made a fair start in free industrial progress. 

By this time, too, several of the other provinces had 
come into existence. Van Diemen's Land, now called 
Tasmania, had been occupied as early as 1801. It was 
an auxiliary penal stadon under New South Wales, dll 
in 1825 it oecame a separate province. From this 
island, ten years later, pardes crossed Bass's Straits to 
Port Phillip, where a new settlement was shortly 
esublished, forming till 185 1 a part of New Soutn 
Wales, but now the richer and more populous colony 
of Victoria. In 1827 and 1829, an English company 
endeavored toplant a setdement at the Swan River, and 
this, added to a small convict stadon established in 
1825 at King George^s Sound, constituted Western 
Australia. On the shores of the Gulf St Vincent, 
again, from 1835 to 1837, South Australia was created 
by another joint-stock company, as an experiment in 
the Wakefield scheme of colonisation. 

Such were the political component parts of British 
Australia np to 1839. ^ The earlier history, therefore, 
of New South Wales is peculiar to itself. Unlike the 
other mainland provinces, it was at first held and used 
duefly for the reception of British convicts. When 
that system was fboUshedi the spdal cpndidoi^ of 



New Sondi Wales, THctoria, and South Anstralia 
became more equal. Previous to the gold discoveries 
of 185 1 they may be included, from 1839^ in a general 
summary view. 

The first British governors at Sydney, firom 1788, 
ruled with despotic power. They were naval or mili- 
tary officers in command of the garrison, the convicts, 
and the few free settlers. The duty was porformed by 
such men as Captain Arthur Phillip, Captain Hunter, 
and others. In the twelve years' ru^ of General Ma> 
quarie, closing with 1821, tne colony made a substantial 
advance. By means of convict labor roads and brid^ 
were constructed, and a route opened into the interior 
beyond the Blue Mountains. A population of 30,000^ 
three-fourths of them convicts, formed the infant com- 
monwealth, whose attention was soon directed to the 
profitable trade of rearing fine wool sheep, first com- 
menced by Mr. John M*^hur in 1803. 

During the next ten yp"^ 1821-31, Sir Thomas 
Brisbane and Sir Ralph Darling, two seneials of the 
army, being successively governors, the cmony increased, 
and eventually succeeded in obtaining the advanta^ 
of a representative institution, by means of a lenslative 
council. Then came General Sir Richard Bourke, 
whose wise and liberal administration proved most 
benefidal. New South Wales became prosperous and 
attractive to emigrants with capital, its enterprising 
ambition was encouraged by taking fresh country north 
and south. In the latter direction, explored by Mitchell 
in 1814 and 1836, lay Australia Fehx, now Victoria, 
including the well-watered, thickly-wooded country of 
Gipps' Land. 

This district, then called Port PhiDip, in die time of 
Governor Sir George Gipps, 1838 to 1846^ was grow- 
ing fast into a position claiming independence. Mel- 
bourne, which began with a few huts on the banks of 
the Varra-Yarra in 1835, was in 1840 a busv town of 
6000 inhabitants, the population of the whole district, 
with the towns of Ueelong and Portland, reaching 
i2,8$o ; while its import trrae amounted to ;f 204,000, 
and Its exports to /138,00a Such was the growth of 
infant Victoria in five years ; that of Adelaide or South 
Australia, in the same period, was nearly equal to it. 
At Melbourne there was a deputy governor, Mr. 
Latrobe, under Sir George Gipps at Sydney. Adielaide 
had its own governors, nrst i^ptaiu Hindmarsh, next 
Colonel Gai;^, and then Captam George Grey. 
Western Australia progressed but slowly, with k»s 
than 4000 inhalHtants altogether, under Governors 
Stirling and Hutt 

The general advancement of Anstralis^ to the era of 
the gold-mining, had been satis&ctory, in spite of a 
severe commercUd crisis, from 18^1 to 1843, caused by 
extravagant land speculations and inflated prices. Vic- 
toria produced already more wool than New South 
Wales, the aggregate produce of Australia in 1852 being 
45,000,000 lb. ; and South Australia, between 1842 and 
this date, had opened^ most valuable mines of copper. 
The population of New South Wales in 185 1 was 190,- 
000; that of Victoria, 77,000; and that of South Aus- 
tralia about the sama. 

At Summerhill Creek, 20 miles north of Bathnrst, in 
the Macquarie plains, gold was discovered, in Februaiy 
1 85 1, by Mr. E. Haigraves, a gold-miner from Cah- 
fomia. The intelligence was made known in April or 
May; and then began a rush of thousands, — men leav- 
ing dieir former employments in the bush or in the 
towns to search for the ore so greatly coveted in aU 
ages. In August it was found at Anderson's Creek, 
near Melbourne; a few weeks later the great BaUarat 
gold-field, 80 miles west of that dty, was opened; and 
after that, Bendigo, ngw sailed 3aPwlH^ to (jte iiortb 



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Not only m tHese locky prormces. New South Wales 
and Victoria, where the auriferous deposits were re- 
vealed, but in every British colony of Australasia, all 
ordinary industry was left for the one exciting pursuit 
The copper mines of South Australia were for the time 
desrrtea, while Tasmania and New Zealand lost many 
inhabitants, who emigrated to the nK>re promising coun- 
try. The disturbance of social, industrial, and commer- 
cial ai&irs, during the first two or three years of the 
gold era, was very great. Immigrants from Europe, 
and to some extent from North America and China, 
poured into Melbourne, where the arrivals in 1852 
averaged 2000 persons in a week. The population of 
Victoria was doubled in the first twelvemonth of the 
gold fever, and the value of imports and exports was 
multiplied tenfold between 1851 and 1853. 

The colony of Victoria was constituted a separate 
province in tuly l8u, Mr. Latrobe being appointed 
ffovemor, followed by Sir Charles Hotham and Sir 
Henry Barklj in succession! The more rapid increase 
of Victoria smce that time, in wealth and number of in- 
habitants, has gained it a pre-eminence in the esteem of 
emigrants; but the varicSd resources of New South 
Wales, and its greater extent of territory, may in some 
degree tend to redress the balance, if not to restore the 
duu-acter of superior importance to the older colony. 

The separation of the northern part of eastern Aus- 
tralia, under the name of Queensland, from the original 
province of New South Wales, took place in 1859. At 
that time the district contained about 25,000 inhab- 

'-its ; and in the first six years (as Sir George Bowen, 
. J first governor, observed in 1865) its population was 
quadrupled and its trade trebled. 

It appears, from a general view of Australian proc- 
ess in the last twenty vears, that the provinces less ridi 

gold than Victoria have been enabled to advance in 

Xrity by other means. Wool continues the great 
of Australia. But New South Wales, possess- 
ing both coal and iron, is becoming a seat of manu- 
factures ; while Queensland is also favored with much 
mineral wealth, including tin. The semi-tropical cli- 
mate of the latter colony is suitable for the culture of 
particular crops, needing onW a supply of other than 
European labor. Meantmie South Australia, besides its 
production of copper and a fair share of wool, has become 
the great wheat-growing province of the continent. 

AUSTRIA, or more strictly Austria-Hungary 
(Ger. Oesterreich and OesterreUh- Ungarn), is an ex- 
tensive country in the southern portion of Central 
Europe. It extends through 17 degrees of longitude 
and 9 degrees of latitude, and has an area of about 
240,000 English square miles. With the exception of 
the islands in the Adriatic, and the narrow projecting 
tract of Dalmatia, it forms a compact region of country, 
but of an irregular shape. It is surrounded on all 
^ides by other countries, except where it borders upon 
ie Adriatic, which is about one-fifth of the entire 
xtent of its boundaries. Of the rest, about one-third 
jn. the W. and N. is formed by the German empire 
(Bavaria, Saxony, and Prussia), a third on the S. and 
E. by the Turkish empire and the Danubian Princi- 
palities, and the remaining third by Russia on theN.E. 
and Switzerland and Italy on the S.W. The bound- 
aries are formed in some parts by river courses, in 
others by mountain ranges, and sometimes they extend 
through an open country. As compared with France, 
Austria has a form nearlv as compact, but its frontiers 
are by no means so well defined or so strongly pro- 
tected by natural barriers. It ranks third in extent 
unong the countries of Europe (after Russia and 
iweden), and fourth in point of population (after 
iUssia, the German empire and France). 



Austria u, after Switierland, the most moantainoQS 
country of Europe, and about four-fifths of its entire 
area is more than 600 feet above the level dT the sea. 
The mountains are frequently covered with v^etatian 
to a great elevation. At the base are found vmes and 
maize; on the lower slopes are green pastures, or 
wheat, ba*ley, and other kinds of com; above are often 
forests of oak, ash, elm, ftc ; and still higher the yew 
and the fir may be seen braving the fury of the tempest. 
Com erows to between 5400 and 4500 feet above the 
level of the sea, the forests extend to c6oo or 6400 feet, 
and the Une of perpetual snow is from 7800 to 8aoo 
feet In some parts, however, particnlarly in TynA^ 
Styria, Carinthia, and Camiola, me mountains ^pear 
in wild confusion, with ra^^ged peaks and bare precipi. 
tons sides, forcibly reminding the traveller of Switzer- 
land. Tyrol in (>articular uis, like that country, its 
cascades, its glaciers, its perpetual snows, and its 
avalanches. 

The Alps occupy the soath-west portion of the conntryy 
and form its highest lands. They are distinguished hy 
various names, as the Rhsetian, Noric, Carmc, Talian, 
and Dinaric Alps. The Rhsetian or Tyrolese Xlpa en- 
ter Tyrol from the Swiss canton of the Grisons, and are 
the loftiest range in the country, a number of the sum- 
mits rising to the height of 12,000 feet, and the highest, 
the Orteler Spitze, attaininjg; a height of 12,814 ^^^ 
above the level of the sea. They divide mto three prin- 
dpal chains, the most southern of which occupies the 
southern portion of Tyrol, and contains the Orteler 
Spitze, and others of the loftiest points in the country. 
The middle or principal chain extends in an easterly di- 
rection to the borders of Salzburg and Carinthia, and 
has many of its peaks covered with perpetual snow. The 
northem chain is inferior in elevation to the others, and 
few of its most elevated points reach the snow line. The 
Noric Alps are a continuation of the Khsetian eastward, 
passing tnrougfa Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia north of 
the Drave, I^wer and Upper Austria, to Hungary, 
where they gradually sink into the plains. They com- 
prise three diains, a main chain and two lesser chains 
proceeding northward — the one the SaUburg, the other 
the Styria-Austrian Alps. The main chain, the Noric 
Alps in a stricter sense, traverses Sakbur^, Carinthia, 
and Styria, and has a length of about 170 miles, some of 
its peaks risinjg; to the height of 12,000 feet. The 
Caraic or Cannthian Alps are also an ofi&hoot of the 
Rhsetian Alps eastward, occupying the south-east of 
Tyrol, Carinthia, and the north of Camiola. They 
form several branches, and some of the summits are 
over 9,000 feet high. The Julian or Camiolan Alps ex- 
tend in a south-easterly direction through Camiola and 
Croatia. They present little of an Alpine character, 
and with one or two exceptions nowhere rise to the 
height of 5000 feet. They are for the most part bare 
and ruggod. The Dinanc Alps are a continuation of 
the preceding, extending through Croatia and Dalmatia^ 
and resemble them in character. The highest point. 
Mount Dinara, from which they take their name, is 
5956 feet above the level of the sea. 

After the Alps, the most important mountain system 
of Austria is the Carpathians, which occupy its eastern 
and north-eastern portions, and stretch in the form of 
an arch through Silesia, Moravia, Galicia, Hungary, and 
Transylvania. They have an extent of about 6co miles, 
and are divided into three principal groups — the Hun- 

firian Carpathians, the , Carpathian Waldgebirge or 
orest Mountains, and the Transylvanian Highlands. 
I'he Hungarian Carpathians stretcn from west to east, 
through Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Galicia for 
about 200 miles, and comprise various smaUer groups, 
among which are the Beskides, th^Little Carpathiauh 



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and the Central Carpathians or the Tttra Mountains. 
This last group constitutes the highest portion of the 
Carpathians, having an avera£;e elevation of over 6000 
feet, and its two principal summits, the Eisthaler 
Thurm and the Lomnitzer Spitze, having a height of 
8378 and S222 feet respectively. In character it resem- 
bles the Alps more than the Carpathians, having rugged 
precipitous sides, deep chasms, snows, glaciers, cas- 
cades, &c. The Waldgebirge, or Forest -Mountains, are 
a series of moderate elevations, for the most part 
wooded, and stretching for about 160 miles through 
Hungry, Galicia, ancT Buckowina, with an average 
breadth of about 45 miles. They are in general from 
3000 to 6000 feet in elevadon, the highest point, Pie- 
trozza, rising to 7086 feet. The Transylvanian High- 
lands extend over Transylvania, a part of Hungary, 
and the Military Frontier, into Moldavia and Wallachia. 
They have a length of about 3J0 miles, and breadth of 
from 30 to 90. Several of the summits rise to the 
height of 8000 feet The sides of the Carpathian mount- 
ains are generally covered with forests to a consider- 
able height. 

The Hercvnian mountain system spreads itself over 
Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, and the middle and north- 
em portions of Upper and Lower Austria. It includes 
the lesser systems of the Bohemian Forest, the Engee- 
birge, the Kiesengebii]ge, and the Sudetes. The Bo- 
hemian Forest is a series of wooded heights on the con- 
fines of Bohemia and Bavaria, and extending south from 
the Eger to the Danube. Its highest point is 4610 feet 
above the sea. The Erzgebiree, or Ore Mountains, 
commence on the left bank of the Elbe, run eastward 
between Bohemia and Saxony, and terminate near the 
sources of the White Ebter. None of the summits rise 
to the height of 4000 feet. The Risengebirge or Giant 
Mountains^ are on the confines of ^hemia towards 
Prussian Silesia, and have their highest point, Schnee- 
koppe or Riesenkoppe, 5330 feet above the sea. The 
Sudetes is a name sometimes given to all the mountains 
of Northern Bohemia, but it more properly belongs to 
that ranee which runs between Moravia and Prussian 
Silesia, from the March to the Oder. The highest 
summit, the Spieglitzer Schneeberg, b 4774 feet high. 

As the highlands of Austria form part of the great 
water-shed of Eurooe which divides the waters flowing 
northward into the North Sea or the Baltic, from those 
flowing southward or eastward into the Mediterranean 
or the Black Sea, its rivers flow in three different 
directions — northward, southward, and eastward. 
With the exception of the small streams belonging to it 
which fall into the Adriatic, all its rivers have their 
mouths in other countries, and its principal river, the 
Danube, has also its source in another country. This, 
which after the Vol|;a is the largest river in Europe, 
rises in the grand ducny of Baden, flows through WUr- 
temberg and Bavaria, and is already navigable when it 
enters Austria, on the borders of which it receives the 
Inn, a river which has as large a body of water as itself. 
It has a course of about 820 miles within the country, 
which is about 48 per cent, of its entire length. Where 
it enters it is 89i8 feet above the level of the sea, and 
where it leaves only 132 feet It has thus a fall within 
the country of 766 feet, and is at first a very rapid 
stream, but Utterly a very slow one. Its affluents, after 
the Inn, are at first generally small, the principal being 
the Traun, the Enns, and the March. In Hungary it 
receives from the Carpathians the Waag, Neutra, Gran, 
and Eipel; and from the Alps the Drave, the Mur, 
and the Save. But the principal affluent of the Danube 
is the Theiss, which rises in tne Carpathians, and drains 
nearly the whole of the eastern half of Hungary. The 
country drained by the Danube is formed into several 



basins b^ the mountains approaching its banks on either 
side. The principal of these are the Lins and Krems 
basins, the Vienna basin, and the little and great Hun- 
garian basins. Between this last and the plains of 
Wallachia, it passes through the narrow rocky chan- 
nels of Islach, Kasan, and the Iron Door, where the 
fall is about 41 feet in less than half a mile. The 
Dniester, which, like the Danube, flows into the Black 
Sea, has its source in the Carpathians in Eastern 
Galida, and pursues a very winding course towards the 
south-east It receives its princiiml affluents from the 
Carpathians, and drains in Austria a territory of up- 



wards of 12,000 English square miles. It is navieable 
for about lOO miles. The Vistula and the Oder ooth 
fall into the Baltic. The former rises in Moravia, flows 
first north throueh Austrian Silesia, then takes an east- 
erly direction along the borders of Prussian Silesia, 
and afterwards a north-easterly, sep>arating Galicia from 
Russian Poland, and leaving Austria not far from San- 
domir. Its course in Austria is 240 miles, draining an 
area of 15*500 square miles. It is navigable for nearly 
200 miles, and its principal affluents are the Save and the 
Bug. The Oder has also its source in Moravia, flows 
first east, and then north-east through Austrian Silesia 
into Prussia. Its length within the Austrian territory 
is only about 55 miles, no part of which is navigable. 
The only river of this country which flows into the 
North Sea is the Elbe. It has its source in the Riesen- 
gebirge, not far from the Schneekoppe, flows first south, 
then east, and afterwards north-east through Bohemia, 
and then enters Saxony. Its principal affluents are the 
Adler, Iser, and Eger, and, most important of all, the 
Moldau. The last, from the length ot its course, and the 
quantity of water which it brings down, is entitled to be 
considered the main stream. It has a course of 260 
miles, and is navigable for 100. The Elbe itself has a 
course within the Austrian dominions of 185 miles, for 
about 65 of which it is navigable. It drains an area of 
upwards of 21,000 square miles. The Rhine, thoiL^h 
scarcely to be reckoned a river of the country, flows for 
about 25 miles of its course between it and Svntzerland. 
The principal river of Austria which falls into the Adri- 
atic is the Adige. It rises in the mountains of Tyrol, 
flows south, then east, and afterwards south, into the 
plains of Lombardy. Its principal affluent is the Eisack. 
Of the streams which have their course entirely within 
the country, and which fall into the Adriatic, the princi- 
pal is the Isonzo, 75 miles in length, but navigable only 
for a short distance from its mouth. 

The lakes and marshes of Austria are verv numerous, 
and some of them are of great extent. Tne lakes lie 
principally in the valleys among the Alps, and the 
marshes are frequent along the courses of the rivers. 
The largest lake of Austria is the Balaton, in Hungary, 
which is about 46 miles in length by 18 in breadth, and, 
including the swamps in connection with it, covers an 
area of 500 square miles. The Neusiedler, also in 
Hungary, is 18 miles in length, by from 4 to 7 in 
breadth, and covers an area of 106 scjuare nules. 
Among the many smaller ones the prinapal are the 
Traunsee, Attersee, Worthersee, Mondsee, Ac No 
other European country equals Austria in the number 
and value of its mineral springs. No fewer than 1500 
of these are reckoned, and they occur principally in 
Bohemia and Hungary. In the former are Karlsoad, 
Marienbad, Franzenbad, Tepliu, Piillna, and Seidlitz. 

The climate of Austria, in consequence of its great 
extent, and the great differences in the elevation of its 
surface, is very various. It is usual to divide it into 
three distinct zones. The most southern extends to 46° 
N. lat, and includes Dahnatia and the country alone 
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sad Ctrinthky Crofttit. Skyonia, and the mott toathern 
put of Hungary. Heie the seasons arc mild and 
equable, the winters are short (snow seldom falling), 
and the summers last for fire months. The vine and 
maize are everywhere cultivated, as well as olives and 
other southern products. In the south of Dalmatia 
tropical plants flourish in open air. The central zone 
lies between ^6^ and 49^ N. lat. , and includes Lower and 
Upper Austria, Salzmirg, Stjrria, Carinthia, Camiola, 
Central and Northern Tyrol, Southern Moravia, a part of 
Bohemia, the main portion of Hungary, and Transyl- 
vania. The seasons are more marked here than in the 
preceding. The winters are longer and more severe, 
and the sunmiers are hotter. The vine and maize are 
cultivated in favorable situations, and wheat and other 
kinds of grain are generally grown. The northern 
cone embraces the territory lying north of 49^ N. lat, 
comprising Bohemia, Northern Moravia, Selesia, and 
Galioa. The winters are here lone and cold ; the vine 
and maize are no longer cultivated, the principal crop 
being wheat, barley, oats, rye, hemp, and flax. The 
mean annual temperature ranges from about 59^ in the 
south to 48^ in the north. In some parts of the 
country, however, it is as low as 46^ 40' and even 36*^. 
In Vienna the average annual temperature is 50^, the 
highest temperature being 94^, the lowest 2^ Fanr. In 
general the eastern part 01 the countiy receives less 
rain than the western. In the south the rains prevail 
chiefly in spring and autumn, and in the nortn and 
central parts during smnmer. Storms are frequent in 
the region of the South Alps and along the coast. In 
some parts in the vicinity of the Alps the rainfidl is 
excessive, sometimes exceeding 60 inches. It is less 
amon^ the Carpathians, where it usually varies from 30 
to 40 inches. In other parts the rainfall usually aver- 
ages from 20 to 24 inches, but in the plains of Hungary 
it is as low as 26. 

From the varied character of its climate and soil the 
vegetable productions of Austria are very various. It 
has floras of the plains, the hills, and the mountains; 
an alpine flora, and an arctic flora; a flora of marshes, 
and a flora of steppes; floras peculiar to the day, the 
chalk, the sandstone, and the slate formations. The 
number of diflerent species is estimated at 12,000, of 
which one-third are phanerogamous, or flowering plants, 
and two-thirds czyptogamous, or flowerless. The 
crown-land of Lower Austria far surpasses in this re- 
spect the other divisions of the country, having about 
four-ninths of the whole, and not less than 1700 species 
of flowering plants. Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and 
Galidaare tne principal com-growine reigons of the 
country; and Tyrol, Salzburg, and Upper Styria are 
theprindpal pastoral regions. 

Tne ammal kingdom embraces, besides the usual 
domestic animals (as horses, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, 
asses, &c.), wild boars, deer, wild goats, hares, &c.; 
also bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, wild cats, jackals, 
otters, beavers, polecats, martins, weasles, and the like. 
Eagl^ and hawks are common, and manjr kinds of 
singing birds. The rivers and lakes abound m diflerent 
kinds offish, which are also plentiful on the sea-coast 
Among insects the bee uid the silkworm are the 
most useful. The leech forms an artide of trade. In 
all there are 90 diflerent spedes of mammals, 248 spe- 
des of birds, 377 of fishes, and more than 13,000 of 
insects. 

Austria comprises five countries, each bearing the 
name of kingdom — ^viz., Hungary, Bohemia, Giuida. 
lUrpria, and Dalmatia; one archduchy, Austria; one prind- 
pahtv, Transylvania; one dudiy, Styria; one margravi- 
ate, Moravia; and one countr, TyroL These are now 
divided into provinoeS| whitli are called crawn^lands, 



and of which tt present there are iS, 14 being in 
Austria Proper, ana 4 in Hungary. These various coun- 
tries, while under the rule of one sovereign, have nothing 
else in common, and their union is only a political one; 
and it is not too much to say that nationalism, in its ordi- 
nary sense, does not exist. This will be evident when 
we consider the various races induded. 

The population of Austria is made up of a number of 
distinct races, diflerin^ from each other in manners, 
customs, language and rdigion, and united together 
only by living under the same government The most 
numerous race is the German, amounting to 9,000,000, 
and forming 25 per cent, of the entire popuh^on. 
They are found more or less in all the crown-lands, but 
are most numerous in Lower and Upper Austria, Salz- 
burg, Styria, Carinthia, and Northern TyroL The 
diflin'ent Slavonic races number together 16,540,000, or 
46 per cent The prindpal Slavomc races are, — in the 
noith, the Czechs and Moravians (4,480,000), who, 
together with the Slovacks in the Western Carpathians 
(1,040,000), form 18 per cent, of the entire population, 
and the Poles (2,370,000) and the Ruthens (3,360,000), 
occupying Galida; and in the south, the Slovens (1,220- 
000), the Croats (i,520,ooo),and the Serbians (1,651,000). 
The Northern Slavonians are found chiefly in Bohemia, 
Moravia, Galida, and the north of Hungary ; the south- 
ern in Carniola, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, and the 
Military Frontier. The Maygars or Hungarians occupy 
chiefly Hungary and Transvlvania, and number 5f59p^- 
000, or 16 per cent, of tne whole population. The 
RumSUii or Wallachians number 2,940,000, or over 8 

fer cent; the Jews, 1,105,000, or 3 per cent; the 
talians, 515,000, or 1.4 per cent; and the gipsies, 
140.00a The rest consists of Armenians, Bulgarians^ 
Albanians, Greeks, ftc 

Austria has always remained strongly attached to the 
Roman Catholic Church. Her sovereigns, however, 
have in general resisted the temporal pretensions of d^ 
pK>pes, and reserved to themselves certain important 
rignts, such as the imposing of taxes on churdi property 
the nomination of bishops and archbishops, ana the op- 
tion of restricting, or even prohibiting, the drculation 
of Papal buUs. About two-thirds of the people, or 
nearly 24,000,000, profess the Roman Cathouc religion. 
If, however, we deduct the kingdom of Hungary and 
Galida, where less than one-h& of the people are 
Roman Catholics, the proportion in the rest of the 
country is much increaseo. In some parts the propor- 
tion to the entire population is as high as 90 to 98 per 
cent. The Greek Catholics number m Austria Proper 
2,142,168 (almost all in Galicia), and in Hungary 1,599,- 
628. The Eastern Greek Church numbers 461,511 ad- 
herents in Austria, and 2,589,319 in Hungary. Of the 
Protestant denominations, the Lutherans are more 
numerous in the western Inlf of the empire, the Calvin- 
ists in the eastern. The numbers are — in Austria Proper, 
Lutherans, 252,327, and Calvmists, 111,935; in Hun- 
gary, Lutherans, 1,365,835, Calvinists, 2,143,178. The 
prindpal other reli^ons are the Jewish, 1,375,801 (nearly 
*''**'* 'Jnitarian, 

Catholic 



half of them in Galicia); Armenian, 10,1^; Unitarian, 
55»o79 (nearly all in Transylvania). Tne Catholic 
Cluirch (including the Greek and Armenian Catholics) 



has 1 1 archbishops, 24 suflrapan bishops, 2 vicariate 
bishops, and i military bishop, m Austria Proper, and 5 
archbishops and 23 bishops in Hungary. Altogether 
there are about 34,000 ecclesiastics, imd 950 convents, 
with 8500 monks and 5700 nuns. The Oriental Gredc 
Church has, in Austria Proper, 3 bishops (i in Bucko- 
wina and 2 in Dalmatia), and in Hungary, the patriardi 
of Karlowitz, the archbishop of Hemnannstadt, and 8 
bishops, with, in $30, 4000pnettS| aod^o compents, wtt 
joomonks. 

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AUS 



Qs^ 



Prerious to 1848 Austria was very far belund in the 
matter of edacation; but since that time great improve- 
ments have been effected, and an entire change has taken 
place. This subject now receives the greatest attention; 
schools of all kinds have been established throughout 
♦he country, impoved systems of teaching have been 
introduced, and mstruction is open to all without regard 
to class or creed at a very small cost, or even gratuitously. 
It still continues, however, to be in great measure under 
the control of the priests, and many of the teachers are 
ecclesiastics. The Roman Catholic religion forms *an 
essential part of the instruction in all schools, except 
those for special subjects. The Oriental Gredc and 
Protestant Churches have, as a rule, their own common 
schools, and where this is not t^c case, they have to 
send their chiMren to the Catholic schools. The Jews 
also, in places where they have no special schools, are 
obliged to sen I their children to Christian schools. 

The majority of the people of Austria are engaged in 
agrricuUural pursuits or in connection with the forests, 
the pro{>ortion varying in different parts from 50 to 80 
per cent, of the entire population. 

Austria is distinguished for the number and superiority 
of its horses, for the improvement of which numerous 
studs exist over the country. The breeding of horses is 
more or less extensively carried on in all the crown- 
lands, but more especially in Hungary, Transylvania, 
Buckowina, Galicia, Styria, Bohemia, Moravia, and 
Upper and Lower Austria. 

Austria cannot be said to be remarkable as a cattle- 
rearine country. Indeed, except in certain districts, 
particularly amotig the Alps, it must be considered to 
De much behind in this branch of industry. The finest 
cattle are to be found in the Alpine regions ; in other 
parts the breeds are generally very inferior. The Hun|[a- 
. rian crown-lands, however, have of late years been im- 
proving in this respect. 

Bees are extensively kept, particularly in the crown- 
lands of Lower Austria, Hungary, Galicia, and Tran- 
sylvania. 

In the extent and variety of its mineral resources 
Austria ranks among the nrst countries of Europe. 
Besides the noble metals, gold and silver, it abounds in 
ores of more or less richness of iron, copper, lead, and 
tin ; while in less abundance are found zinc, antimony, 
arsenic, cobalt, nickel, manganese, bisiputh, chromium, 
uranium, tellurium, sulphtir, graphite, asphalt, rock- 
salt, coal, and petroleum. 

The manufactures of Austria have made great progress 
during the last twenty years, and now wome of tnem are 
extensively carried on. They include cotton, flax, hem p, 
woollen and silk stuffs ; gold, silver, iron, lead, copper, 
tin, and zinc articles ; leather, paper, beer, brandy, and 
supar; porcelain and earthenware; chemical stuffs; 
scientific and musical instruments, &c. The manu- 
Bsurtures are principally carried on in the western crown- 
lands, and more particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, 
Silesia, and Lower Austria. 

The cotton manufacture has made very rapid progress, 
and is now one of the most extensive ana flourishing 
in the country. 

'Wtitflcuc and hemp manufacture is one of the oldest 
in the country, and was long the most important. In 
consequence, however, o. the rapid advancement of the 
cotton manufacture it is no lon|^r of the same impor- 
tance as formerly ; yet it still affords employment to a 
great number ot persons, and is very generally extended 
over the country. 

The woollen manufacture is also an old established 
Branch of industry, and is actively carried on. 

The iron and steel manufactures form one of the most 
iEa|»ortant branches of industry, and afford employment 



to a great number of persons. They are mo^e or less 
extensively carried on in all the crown-lands, except in 
the Maritime District, Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia ; 
but thdr prmdpd seats are in Lower and Upper Austria, 
Bohemii^, Moravia, Styria, and Carinthia. 

The principal ct^^-worla are at Brixlegg and 
other places in Tyrol, and in Galida, Buckowina, and 
Hungary. 

The manufacture of mathematical, optical,^ and sur- 
gk:al instruments, and of physical and chemical appara- 
tus, has of late years risen rapidly into importance, 
particularly in Vienna and Prague, and now these are 
to be found amon^ the exports to other countries, 
Austria is also distinguished for the manufacture of 
musical instruments, particularly pianos and organs, 
but also for other stringed and wind instruments. Clock 
or watdi making is not very extensively carried on. 

Austria is noted for its ^eer, particularly that of 
Vienna and Bohemia. 

The manufacture of su^rar from beet-root is in a 
very flourishing state, and is rapidly extending. 

The manufacture as well as the growth of tobacco is a 
government monopoly. There are 22 establishments 
for the manufiurture of tobacco and cigars, employing 
about 20,000 work people. 

Austria is not favorably situated for commerce on ac- 
count of its inhmd position, its small extent of sea-coast, 
and the mountainous character of much of its surface. 
Its trade was also formerly very much hampered by 
high duties, and restrictions of various kinds. These, 
however, have now been very much modified or re- 
moved, and its trade has in consequence rapidly im- 
proved. Much has been done, too, in the way of 
making and improving the roads, opening mountain 
passes, cons-tructing railways, and establishing lines of 
steamers. 

The principal seaports of Austria are Trieste, and 
Fiume, at the head of the Adriatic, the former in the 
Maritime crown-land, the latter in that of Croatia. 

The head of the Austro- Hungarian monarchy is the 
emperor and king, who is also the head of the army and 
of the executive. The succession is hereditary, in the 
order of primogeniture, in the male line of the house of 
Hapsburg-Lothringen, or Lorraine ; and failing this, in 
the female line. "Hie monarchy comprises two distmct 
states — a German or Cisleithan, commonly called Aus- 
tria, and a Maejrar or Transleithan, usually termed Hun- 
gary. Each ^ these has its own parliament, ministers, 
andf government ; while the army and navy and foreign 
relations are common. These are under the direction 
of a controllin)^ body known as the Delegations, consist- 
ing of sixty members for each state, two-thirds being 
elected by the Lower House, and one-third by the Upper 
House of each of the parliamentary bodies. They usu- 
ally sit and vote in two chambers — one for Austria, the 
other for Hungary ; but in the event of disagreement on 
any question, Uiey meet together, and without further 
deliberation give their finalvote, and the decision thus 
arrived at is binding on the whole empire. Their reso- 
lutions require neitner the approval nor the confirmation 
of the representative assemblies by which they are 
chosen, but only imperial assent. The executive is 
vested in three departments — (i), A ministry of foreign 
afiairs; (2), a ministry of war ; and (^), a ministry of 
finance. These are responsible to the Delegations. 
The Reicfasrath, or Parliament of Austria, consists of an 
Upper and a Lower House. The former, the House of 
Lords is composed — ( i ), of princes of the imperial house 
who are of age (14 in 1874) ; (2), of the heads of noble 
houses of hi^ rank, in whom the dignity is hereditary 
(^6) ; (t), of the archbishops (10) ana of bishops witn 
tne rank of princes (7) ; ana (4), of Hfe members nomin- 



668 



AUS 



ated hf the emperor on account of distinguished services 
Jioa). The Lower House, or House of Representatives, 
IS composed of 153 members, elected to represent the 
diflerent crown-lands by all citizens who are of age and 
posKSsed of a small property qualification. The empe- 
ror annually convokes the Reichsrath, and nominates the 
presidents and vice-presidents of each division out of the 
members. The business of the Reichsrath embraces 
all matters of legislation relating to laws, duties, and 
interest, except such as are specially excluded as belong- 
ing to other departments. It also takes up matters 
connected with triftle, commerce, and finance, the post- 
office, railway!^ telegraphs, customs, the mint, raising 
of new loans, imposing of new taxes, budgets, matters 
relatins to military service, ftc The members of either 
House nave the right to propose new laws on matters 
within their province ; but the consent of both Houses, 
as well as the sanction of the emperor, is required to 
render them valid. The executive is vested in the presi- 
dent and ministries of the interior, religion and educa- 
tion, finance, commerce, agriculture, national defence, 
and justice. The ministers form also the Ministerial 
Council, which is presided over by the emperor or a min- 
ister-president. 

^ In addition to the Reichsrath, there are seventeen pro- 
vincial diets established in different districts of the coun- 
try for tne direction and regulation of local matters, 
taxation, education, religion, public works., charitable 
institutions, industry, trade, &c Each diet is composed 
of the archbishops and bishops of the Roman Catholic 
and Greek Catholic Churches, of the rectors of the uni- 
versities, and of representatives of the great landed 
estates, of the towns, of chambers of industry and com- 
merce, and of rural communes. The number of mem- 
bers varies according to the size and importance of the 
districts — from 20 or 30 up to 100 for Moravia, 151 for 
Galicia, and 241 for Bohemia. 

The Hungarian Parliament or Reichstag consists of 
an Upper am a Lower House, — the former known as 
the House of Magnates, the latter as the House of 
Representatives. The Upper House, in 1873, consisted 
of 3 princes of the reie^nmg house, havine estates in 
the kingdom, 31 archbishops and bishops of the Roman 
Catholic and Greek Churches, and 381 nigh officials and 
peeps of the kingdom. The Lower House is composed 
of representatives elected for three years by citizens of 
age who pay a certain amount of^ direct taxes. The 
number of^ representatives, in 187^, was 444, of whom 
3x4 represented the counties, rural districts, and towns 
of Hungary; 75 represented Transylvania; and 35 
Croatia and Slavonia. The president and vice-president 
of the House of Magnates are nominated by the king 
from among the members; and the president and two 
vice-presidents of the House of Representatives are 
elected by the members. The sovcreira, though em- 
peror of Austria, is styled ** king ** in aU public docu- 
ments. The executive is vest^ in a president and 
ministries of national defence, the court, finance, inte* 
rior, relidon and education, justice, public works, agri- 
culture udustry and commerce, and for Croatia and 
SlavoQia. 

The revenue and expenditure are presented in three 
distinct budgets: — (i). That of the Delegations for the 
whole empire; (2), that of the Austrian Reichsrath for 
Austria ; and (3), that of the Hungarian Reichstag for 
Hungary. By an arrangement of 1868 Austria pays 70 
per cent, and Hungary 30 per cent, towards the com- 
mon expenditure of the empire. 

The present empire of Austria took its rise in a mar- 
graviate founded oy Charlemagne, toward the close of 
the 8th century, in that fertile tract of country lying 
iJong the aouthem bank of the Danube to the east of 



the River Enns, now incloded in Lower Austria. H 
was called OstreicA of Oesterrewk, the eastern coantrr, 
from its position relative to the rest of Germany. It 
continued to be ruled by margraves (Ger. Marifraf^ 
lord of the marches) for several centuries, down tt> »e 
year 1 156, when the territory west of the Enns was 
added to it, and it was raisea to a duchy. It subse- 
quently received further accessions of territory, and in 
1453 was made an archduchy. 

The country of the present archduchy of Austria was 
in-early times inhabited by the Taurisd, a Celtic race, 
who were afterwards better known as the Norid. Thef 
were conquered by the Romans in 14 B.C. ; and there- 
after a portion of what is now Lower Austria and Styria, 
together with the municipal city of ViMdo6<ma^ now 
Vienna, and even then a place of considerable impor- 
tance, was ^formed into the province of Pannonia ; and 
the rest of 'Lower Australia and Styria, together with 
Carinthia and a part of Camiola, into that m Noricum. 
TjToX was included in Rhaetia, while north of the 
Danube, and extending to the borders of Bohemia and 
Moravia, were the territories of the Marcomanni and 
the Quadi. These were not unfrequently troublesome 
to the Romans; and during the greater part of the 
reign of Marcus Aurelius, from 169 to 180 A.D.9 thej 
maintained with varying success a harassing war against 
them. In 1 74 the Roman army was so nearly cut off by 
the Quadi that its safety was attributed to a miracle. 
The emperor died at Vindobona when on an expedition 
against those troublesome neighbors, and his successor, 
Cfommodus, was glad to make peace with them. On the 
decline of the imperial power these Roman provinces 
became a prey to the incursions of barbaric tribes. 
During the 5th and 6th centuries the country was 
successively occupied by the Bon, Vandals, Heruli, 
Rugii, Goths, Huns, Lombards, and AvarL About 
568, after the Lombards had settled in Upper Italy, the 
River Enns became the boundary between the Baju- 
varii, a people of German orisin, and the Avari, who 
had come from the east In 758 the Avari crossed the 
Enns and attacked Bavari, but were subsequendy driven 
back by Charlemagne, and forced to retreat as far as 
the Raab, their country from the Enns to that river be- 
ing then made a part of Germany. It was taken by the 
Hungarians in 900, but was agam annexed to Germany 
in 95c by Otho I. In 983 the emperor appointed Leo- 
polct I., of Babenbere or Bamberg, margrave of Austria, 
and his dynasty ruled the country for 263 years- He 
died in 994, and was succeeded oy his son, Henry L, 
who governed till 1018. In 1 156 Austria received an 
accession of territory west of the Enns, and was raised 
to a duchy by the Emperor Frederick I. The first duke 
was Henry fasomirgott, who took part in the second 
crusade. He removed the ducaT residence to Vienna, 
and began the buildine of St Stephen's cathedral His 
successor, Leopoki VT, in 1 192, obtained Smia as an 
addition to his territoT), and Frederick II. received 
possession of Camiola. Frederick, in the latter years 
of his life, contemplated the erection of Austria into a 
kingdom, but his sudden death in a battle against the 
Magyars, in 1246, put an end to the project, and with 
him the line became extinct. 

The Emperor Frederick II. now declared Austria and 
Styria to have lapsed to the imperial crown, and ap- 
pointed a lieutenant to govern them on the part of the 
empire. But claims to the succession were brought for- 
ward by descendants of the female branch of the Ba* 
benburg line ; and after various contests Ottocar, son of 
the king of Bohemia, gained possession about 125a of 
the duoiies of Austria and Styria. In 1269 he sue* 
ceeded to Carinthia, a part of Camiola and Friuli ; but 
he lost all by refusing to acknowledge the En^>eror Rn> 

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669 



dolph of Hapsbnrg, and eventually fell in battle in an 
attempt to recover them in 1278. 

The emperor now took possession of the country, and 
afnx>inted his eldest son governor; but subsequently, in 
1282, having obtained the sanction of the electors of the 
empire to act, he conferred the duchies of Austria and 
Styria, with the province of Carinthia, on his sons Al- 
bert and Rudolph, and thus introduced the Hapsburg 
dynasty. The brothers transferred Carinthia to Mein- 
hard, count of Tyrol ; and in 1283 Albert became sole 
possessor of Austria, Styria, and Camiola. He in- 
creased his ]x>sse8sion considerablv by wars with his 
neighbors, but was murdered at Rheinfelden in 1308, 
when on an expedition against the Swiss, by his 
nephew, John of Swabia, whom he had deprived of his 
hereditary possessions. He was succeeded by his five 
sons, Frederick, Leopold, Henry, Albert, and Otto. In 

1 314 Frederick, the eldest, was set up by a par^ as em- 
peror in opposition to Louis, duke of Bavaria, but was 
defeated and taken prisoner by his rival in 1322. In 

131 5 Duke Leopold was defeated in an attempt to re- 
cover the forest towns of Switzerland which had revolted 
from his father. Leopold died in 1326, Henry in 1327, 
and Frederidc in 133a The two surviving brothers then 
made peace with the Emperor Louis, and in 1335 they 
acquired Carinthia by inheritance. On the death of 
Otto in 1330 Albert became sole ruler. He died in 1358. 
His son smid successor, Rudolph II., finished the church 
of St. Stephen's and founded the university of Vienna, 
dyine chilnless in 1365. He was succeeded by his two 
brothers, Albert III. and Leopold III., who in 1379 
divided their possessions between them, the former tak- 
ing the duchy of Austria, the latter Stvria and other 
psuts. Leopold fell at Sempach in 1386, but his de- 
scendants continued to rule in Styria. Albert acquired 
Tyrol and some other districts, and died in 1395. He 
was succeeded by his son, Albert IV., who was poisoned 
at Znaim in 1404, when on an expedition agauist Pro- 
copius, count of Moravia. Albert V. succe^ed his fa- 
ther, and having married the daughter of the Emperor 
Sigismund,he obtained the thrones of Hungary and Bo- 
hemia, and became emperor (Albert II. ) in 14^8. He 
died the following vear, and was succeeded by his pos- 
thumous son LadisLaus, who died without issue in 1457. 
The Austrian branch of the family thus became extinct, 
and was succeeded by that of Styria. The crowns of 
Hungary and Bohemia passed for a time into other 
hands. 

The possession of Austria, which in 1453 had been 
raised to an archduchy, was for some years a subject of 
dispute between the Emperor Frederick III. and his 
brothers, but at length, on the death of Albert in 1463, 
the emperor obtained sole possession. His son Maxi- 
milian, by manying the daughter of Charles the Bold, 
acquired the Netl^rlands in 1477, but on the death of 
his father in 1493 he succeeded him as emperor, and 
transferred the government of the Netherlands to his 
son Philip. He added Tyrol and some parts of Bavaria 
to his paternal possessions, and made some advances 
towards the recovery of Hun^aiy and Bohemia. His 
son Philip, by his marriage with Johanna, daughter of 
Fer(finand and Isabella^ acquired a right to the crown of 
Spain, but died in 1500. Maximilian died in 15 19, and 
was succeeded by his grandson Charles (son of Philip), 
who two years before had obtained the Spanish crow n, 
and was now made emperor under the title of Charles 
V. By treaties dated 1521 and 1524, Charles resigned 
all his hereditarv possesuons in Germany, except the 
Netherlands, to nis brother Ferdinand. The latter, by 
his marria^ with Anna, sister of the king of Hungary, 
acquired nght to the km^oms of Hungary and Bohc 
mia, together with Moravia, Silesia and Lausatia. His 



right to Hungary, however, was contested by John 
2^polya, waywode of Transylvania, who was elected by 
a party of the nobles, and was crowned king in 1527. 
Being unable to cope single-handed with I^rdinand, 
John sought the aid of the sultan, Soliman II., who in 
1529 advanced with a large army to the very gates of 
Vienna ; but after several ineffectual attempts to take the 
city he raised the siege and returned to Buda. At 
lei^h, in 1535 an agreement was come to, in terms of 
which John was allovred to retain the title of king, to- 
gether with half of Hungary, but his descendants were 
to be entitled to Transylvania only. John died in i J40, 
but the people of Lower Hungary were opposed to 
Ferdinana, and set up the son of their late king a^inst 
him. In the stru^le which ensued the aid of the Turks 
was again invokra, and the result was that Ferdinand 
had to agree to pay an annual sum of 30,000 ducats to 
the sultan for this part of Hungary. Ferdinand was 
also under the necessity of surrendering Wiirtemberg 
to Duke Ulrich, on condition of its remaining a 
fief of Austria and reverting to that country on 
the extinction of the male line. Notwithstanding 
this, the possessions of the German line of the house 
of Austria at this time are estimated at 114,000 square 
miles. On the abdication of Charles V. in 1556, 
Ferdinand succeeded to the imperial throne. He died 
in 1564, leaving directions for tne division of his posses- 
sions among his three sons. The eldest, MaximilianJII., 
received the imperial crown, together with Austria, Hun- 
0iry, and Bohemia; the second, Ferdinand, obtained 
Tjrrol and Lower Austria ; and the third, Charles, was 
made master of Styria, Carinthia, Camolia, and Gdrtz. 
In 1556 the sultan Soliman again inarched at the head 
of a great army into Hungary, but met with a very de- 
termined resistance at Szigeth, before which town he 
was suddenly cut off by apoplexy. Peace was concluded 
with his successor, and in 1572 Maximilian caused nis 
eldest son Rudolph to be crowned kin^ of Hungary. 
He wasafterwards crowned king of Bohemia, and was also 
elected king of the Romans. Maximilian died in 1576, 
and was succeeded by Rudolph on the imperial throne. 
This monarch was little fitted to rule, and left the man- 
agement of affairs very much to others. He was entirely 
under the power of the Jesuits, set at nought the ancient 
laws of the country, and persecuted the Protestants. 
The latter, under Bocskay, revolted in 1604, and having 
secured the aid of the sultan, gained repeated victories 
over the imperial troops, compelling Rudolph to give 
them terms of peace in 1606. During this reign the pos- 
sessions of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol reverted to 
the two other lines ; while in 1608 Rudolph was com- 
pelled to cede Hungary, and in 161 1 Bohemia and Aus- 
tria, to his brother Matthias, who on the death of Ru- 
dolph in 16 1 2 was crowned emperor. His reign was full 
of promise, but unfortunately it was only of snort dura- 
tion. Being an old ^nan and childless, ne chose as his 
successor his cousin Ferdinand, archduke of Styria, 
whom he caused to be crowned kingof Bohemia in 1616, 
and of Hungary in 1618. He died the following year, 
when Ferdinand beoune emperor. 

Before the death of Matthias, the memorable straggle 
between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, known 
as the TAirty Yean^ War (1618 to 1648), had com- 
menced. It originated in an insurrection of the Prot- 
estants of Bohemia, who renounced their aUegiance to 
Ferdinand and chose for their Idng the elector palatine 
Frederick V. Frederick was supported by all the Prot- 
estant princes except the elector of Siuony, while 
Ferdinand was assisted bv the king of Spain and the 
other Catholic princes. At first success attended the 
arms of the insurgents, who repeatedly routed the im- 
perial troops, and even laid sie^B--to Vienna But the 
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6fp 



AUb 



Duke Maximilian of Bartria, coining to the assistance 
of the imperialists at the head of a well-appointed anny, 
totally defeated Frederick at the White Hill near 
Prague (8th November i6ao). The following day 
Prsigne opened its gates to the conqueror, and in a short 
time the whole country was reduced to subjection, and 
the territories of the elector palatine divided among the 
allies. The war might have ended here had Ferdinand 
adopted a conciliatory policy, but impelled by revenge 
and fianatical zeal he aaoptcd an opposite course, and 
instituted against the Protestants a severe persecution. 
They were thus aeain compelled to take up arms, and 
in 102 J Christian Iv., king of Denmark, supported by 
subsidies from England, put himself at their nead. He 
was subsequently jomed by Count Mansfield and Chris- 
tian of Brunswick, while opposed to him were Wallen- 
stein and Tilly at the head of two powerful armies. In 
April 1626 Mansfield was defeated by Wallenstein at 
Dessau, and a few months later Tilly vanquished the 
Danish king at Lutter. The rictorious armies after- 
wards marched into Denmark, and the king was com- 
pelled to conclude a humiliating peace at Liibeck in 
1629. The Protestants were now awed into submission, 
and Ferdinand was emboldened to carry out to still 
greater lengths, his policy of suppression. Aiming at 
the total extirpation of Protestant doctrines throughout 
his dominions, he revoked all the privileges that had 
formerly been granted, even such as had previously 
received his approvaL By the so-called £Mci of Resti- 
tution^ dated 6th March 1629, he enjoined the restitu- 
tion of all ecclesiastical prop)erty secularised since the 
peace of Passau, and ordered the Protestants to re- 
linquish to the Catholics all benefices which they had 
appropriated contrary to the peace of Passau axkl the 
£<xlesiastical Reservation. 

The Catholic princes themselves were now becoming 
alarmed at the enormous power which they had con- 
tributed to place in the hands of the emperor. They 
therefore demanded a reduction of the army and the dis- 
missal of Wallenstein, and with these demands the 
emperor felt himself obliged to comply. But a new 
duonpion of the Protestant cause now appeared in the 
north, in the person of Gustavus Adolphus, king of 
Sweden. This valiant prince, having received promises of 
aid from France as well as fi-om England and the United 
Provinces, suddenly landed an army of 15,000 men at 
Usedom in June 1630. Pomerania and Mecklenburg 
were soon conquered bv him and a great part of Bran- 
denburg was overrun by his army. He was unable, 
however, to relieve the town of Magdebure, which was 
besieged by Tillv and taken by assault 20m May 163 1, 
when the most barbarous atrocities were perpetrated 
upon the unfortunate inhabitants. The elector of 
Brandenburg and afterwards the elector of Saxony 
joined Gustavus, and the combined army met the im- 

Serialists under Tilly at Breitenfeld, near Leipsic, and 
efeated them with great slaughter (7th September 
1631). The victor now rapidly regained all that had 
been lost Again Tilly was beaten at the passage of 
the River Lech on 5 th April 1632, and the following 
day he died of his wounds. Wallenstein was now 
readied and placed at the head of the imperial troops. 
His name inspired fresh ardor among the soldiery, men 
flocked to his standard, and he sp^ily found himself 
at the head of a very large army. He drove the Saxons 
out of Bohemia, and tmerwards marched to Nurem- 
berg, where Gustavus was entrenched in a strong pocd- 
tion. The two armies watched each other for eidit 
weeks, when the king directed an attack against the 
imperialists, but after a fierce struggle was repulsed. A 
fortnight later Gustavus moved m the direction of 
Bftvsnay bot Wallenstem, instead of foUowing him. 



marched into Saxony, and thus obliged him to suspend 
his operations in Bavaria and to set out in pursuit of his 
opponent The two armies met at Liiuen, where a bat- 
tle took place on i6th November 1632. The greatest 
skill and bravery were displayed on both sides, and the 
issue was long doubtful, but at length victoiy dedared 
in favor of the Swedes, though d«uiy purdused with 
the loss of their brave commander, who fell mortally 
wounded. 

The death of Gustavus was an irreparable loss to the 
Protestants in Germany. Wallenstein, however, made 
but little use of the advantages he now possessed, and has 
even been accused of treacherous designs against the 
empire. Be this as it may, his enemies at court and in 
the army were numerous and powerful, and he was at 
length assassinated by some of his own officers, 25th 
Februar)r 1614. The Protestant cause met with another 
disaster in the defeat of Bernard of Weimar at Nord- 
lingen on 6th September. On 30th Mav 1635 Saxony 
concluded at Prague a treaty of peace with the emperor, 
in terms of which the Lutherans were freed from the 
operation of the Edict of Restitution. The other Luth- 
eran princes soon after accepted the like terms ; but the 
Calvinists, who were disliked by both parties, were left 
to their fate. 

Sweden, no longer able to carry on the war as she had 
done, entered into a treaty with France, resigning the 
direction of operations to that power, a position of 
which Richelieu gladly availed himself, as according 
with his ambitious designs. The war now assumed a 
new phase, France and Sweden beine allied against the 
empire and the Lutheran states of Germany, aided by 
Spain. Richelieu's efforts were in great measure 
du-ected to humbling the latter power. He sent an 
army into Spain, and entered into leagues with the 
dukes of Savoy and Parma and the United Provinces 
for attacking the Spanish power in Ital^r and the Neth- 
erlands. These projects did not meet with success, and 
the war was for a tmie carried into the French territo- 
ries. In the meantime the Swedes, under General Baner, 
gained a brilliant rictory over the Saxons and imperial- 
ists at Wittstock (4th October 1636). The emperor 
died on the 15 th February 1637, and was succeeded by 
his son Ferdinand III. The war was carried on for 
eleven years longer, and the success which at first was with 
the imperialists, after a time came round to their ad- 
versaries, till at length the emperor, pressed on all skies 
and deserted by his allies, was glad to agree to terms of 
peace. By the peace of Westphalia, signed 24th Octo- 
ber 1648, France acquired Alsace ; Sweden got Upper 
Pomerania, the Isle of Rugen,and some other territory; 
the soverei^ty and independence of the different states 
was recognised ; the Calvmists were placed on the same 
footing as the Lutherans ; and the independence of the 
United Provinces and the Swiss Confederation was 
acknowledged. 

Ferdinami III. died in 1657, and was succeeded by his 
son LeopoM I. This prince, by his harsh treatment of 
the Hungarians, drove that people into revolt ; and they, 



being unable to cope with the power of the empire single- 
led, called in the aid of the Turks, who, under luura 



handoi 



Mustapha in 1683, besieged Vienna, which was only saved 
by an army of Poles ana Germans under John Sobieski. 
The imperial army then reduced the whole of Hungary 
into subjection, and united to it Transylvania, which bad 
bemhitnerto governed by its own princes, and the whole 
was declared to be a hereditaiy kingdom. In 1699 
Turkey, after bemg defeated m several sanguinary en- 
gagements by the celebrated general Prince Eugene, was 
compelled by the peace of Carlowitz to cede to Hungary 
the country lying between the Danube and the Thdss. 
Previous to his troubles with Hungary and Tnrkeyt 



AUS 



«7i 



Leopold had lent his aid in 1672 to the Dntch in their 
stniffile against the ambitions aesigns of France. This 
was Drought to a close by the peace of Nimeguen in 
1678 ; but the conflict broke out afresh the following 
year, when the English also came forward and contributed 
largely both in troops and maaey. The chief scenes of 
warfare were the Netherlands and the banks of the 
Rhine. At last, in 1697, came the peace of Ryswick, 
whkh left the contendung parties in nearly the same 
relative positions as at the bep;inning of the contest. 
The allies had, however, the satisfaction of having com- 
pelled the French king to stop short in his schemes of 
aggrandisement 

The deadi of Charles II. of Spain in 1700, without 
leaving issue, led to what is known as 'the IVar of the 
Succession, Louis XIV. had married the eldest sister of 
the late king, but she had by solemn covenant renounced 
her right to the Spanish crown. The second sister had 
marrira the Emperor Leopold, and she had made no such 
renunciation, but her daughter had, who was married to 
the elector of Bavaria. Leopold had two sons by a 
second marriage, and now claimed the crown for the 
younger of these, on the ground of his mother being an 
aunt of the deceased king. Intrigues had been carried 
on bv the several parties concerned for some time before 
the king^s death, and he had been induced to make a 
secret will, in which he named Philip, duke of Anjou, 
grandson of Louis XI V. , as his successor. Leopold, how- 
ever, was by no means inclined to depart from what he 
considered his rights, and the other states of Europe 
looked on with jealousy on the prospect of a union of 
France and Spain under a Bourbon dynasty. An alliance 
was accordingly formed by Austria with England and 
Holland against France, with which power on the other 
hand Bavaria allied herself. The emperor dispatched 
an army into Italy under Prince Eugene, to take posses- 
sion of the Spanish territories in that country; while 
the English and Dutch united their forces under 
Marlborough. The former experienced a good deal of 
hard fighting, but effected little of consequence, while 
the latter busied himself in taking one after another 
of the French strongholds in the Netherlands. 
At length the two generals combined their forces 
and met the united army of the enemies at Blenheim. 
The latter numbered about 56,000 men and occupied a 
strong position, while the number of the former was 
about 52,000. The fight commenced by Marlborou||h 
leading the right wing against the French, whne 
Eugene vrith the left wing advanced against the Bava- 
rians. The batde was K>ng and fierce, the assailants 
being repeatedlv driven back by a most terrible fire 
from the enemy's artillerr. At length victory declared 
for the allied English and Austrian armies (13th August 
1704). About 10,000 of the French and Bavarians fell 
on the field, and nearly 13,000 were made prisoners, 
among whom was the commander of the French army, 
Mars&l Tallard. The elector of Bavaria was com- 
pelled to cross the Rhine with the French, and his ter- 
ritory was occupied by the imperalists. The following 
year the emperor died, and was succeeded by his eldest 
son, Joseph. The war was continued with vigor, but 
for a time nothing of importance was anywhere 
effected. France now directed her chief attention to the 
conquest of the Netherlands, and sent into that countnr 
a magnificent army under the command of Marshal Vil- 
leroL But this general was no match for Marlborough; 
and in the battle of Ramillies (23d May 1706) he was 
totally defeated with a loss of about 13,000 men. 
Prince Eugene's efforts in Italy were also this year 
crowned with much success. After a memorable 
march of more than too miles, he suddenly appeared 
before Turin, which was then closely besieged by the 



enemy. Having effected a junction with the duke of 
Savoy, he attacked the French lines f7th September), 
and though repeatedly driven back, at length succeeded 
in totally routing the enemy. The French general. 
Count Marson, was wounded, taken prisoner, and died 
the following day. The French power in Northern 
Italy was thus shattered, and soon after both French 
and Spaniards were driven out of the country. The 
like success attended the efforts of Marlborough in the 
Netherlands, where he took possession of every place of 
note. After Eu^e had settled affairs in Italy, he 
again formed a junction >vith Marlborough in the 
Netherlands, and on nth June 1708 they attacked and 
routed the French under Vena6me at Oudenarde. 
France now made overtures for peace ; but these being 
rejected, she sent a new army into the field, under the 
command of Marshal Villars. He was attacked by the 
two victorious generals in his entrenchments at 
Malplaques {nth September 1709) and totaUy defeated. 
France a^m made proposals for peace, but these 
meeting with no better success, the war was continued. 
The emperor died on 17th April 171 1, and his successor 
being his brother, the Archduke Charles, who laid 
claim to the Spanish crown, this event contributed 
not a litde to restore peace. The prospect of the union 
on one head of the crowns of Austria and Spain did not 
accord with the views of those who had been hitherto 
supporting the claims of Austria, and the transfer of 
Spain to a grandson of Louis XIV. appeared to them 
the less dangerous alternative of the two. This, joined 
to the change of ministry in England, and the removal 
of Marlborough from the command altogether, with the 
impatience of the Dutch under so long and so burden- 
some a war, led to the peace of Utrecht, which was signed 
nth April 1 713. Austria continued the war for some 
time longer, but the next year agreed to substantially 
the same terms at Baden. By tms treaty France en- 
gaged that the crowns of France and Spain shoukl never 
be united, and that no part of the Spanish Netherlands 
should ever be transferred to her ; she also ceded to 
England Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, 
and St. Kitt*s, and agreed to destroy the fortifications 
of Dunkirk; Spain ^ve up her possessions in the Neth- 
erlands and in Italy to Austria (who, on her part, 
renounced her claim to the Spanish succession) and 
ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to England; the Dutch 
received a small accession of territory ; and the duke of 
Savoy obtained Sicily, with the title of king — after- 
wards ( 1 720) exchanged for the island of Sardinia. The 
Austrian monarchy now embraced about 100,000 square 
miles of territory, with nearly 29,000,000 of inhabitants. 
Its annual revenue was between 13,000,000 and 14,000,- 
000 florins, and its arm^ consisted of 130,000 men. 

Austria next became mvolved in a war with the Turks, 
and in 1716 Prince Eugene set out at the head of an 
army agsunst them. The result was a series of splendid 
successes, which led to a peace signed at Passarowitz 
(1718), by which Austria received a considerable acces- 
sion of territory. Disaffection still continued to subsist 
between Spain and Austria, which led to repeated nego- 
tiations on the part of the other powers to preserve peace. 
Charles being without heirs-male, was desirous of secur- 
ing the succession to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, 
and with this view he framed the celebrated Pragmatic 
Sanction, and it became his great object to get the assent 
of the other powers to this arrangement. England and 
almost all the other powers, except France, Spain, and 
Sardinia, acceded to it in 1731. In 1733 the emperor 
became involved in a war with France on behalf of 
Augustus III. of Saxony, who had been elected king 
of Poland. France supported the claims of Stanislaus 
Leszczinski, and received the aid of Spain and Sardinia. 



672 



AUS 



The war wat carried on pHncipfllly in Italy, where Aus- 
tria wa» driven out of most of her possessions, and was 
clad to sne for peace. By this treaty Augustus was con- 
firmed on the throne of Poland ; but Austria was 
obliged to cede to Stanislaus the duchies of Lorraine 
and Bar, to be afterwards transferred to France ; Don 
Carlos was placed on the throne of the Two Sicilies, 
and the grand dnchv of Tuscany was bestowed on the 
duke of Lorraine, tne emperor receiving as compensa- 
tion Parma and Placentia ; and France, and afterwards 
Sjixiin and Sardinia, acceded to the Pragmatic Sanction. 
War again broke out with the Turks, aiS Prince Eugene 
behig now no more, the Austrians were repeatedly 
beaten and expelled from one stronghold after another, 
till, by the peace of Belgrade (1739), the emperor was 
compelled to yield up almost all that the arms of Eugene 
had formerly gained for him. The emperor died on the 
20th October 1740, and his ekiest daughter, Maria 
Theresa, who was married to the duke ot Lorraine or 
Lothringen (afterwards archduke of Tuscany), assumed 
the government. Immediately counter-claims were ad- 
van^ on all sides. The elector of Bavaria claimed to 
be rightful heir to the kinedom of Bohemia ; the elec- 
tor oT Saxony and king of Poland, and also the king 
of Spain, claimed the entire succession ; the kine 
of Sardinia laid claim to the duchy of Milan, and 
Frederick II. of Prussia to the province of Silesia. 
France espoused the cause of Bavaria, while Eng- 
land alone came forward to the assistance of the 
queen, and the Hungarians, now united and loyal, 
willingly recruited her armies. Aided by France and 
Saxony, the elector of Bavaria, took possession of 
Bohemia, and was proclaimed king in 1 74 1, and the fol- 
lowing year he was elected emperor under the title of 
Charles VII. The king of Prussia marched suddenly 
into Silesia and took possession of that country. The 
elector of Bavaria, aiaed by French troops, next invaded 
Austria, and even threatened Vienna. The oueen fled 
to Presburg and convoked the Hungarian diet. She 
appeared in the midst of the assembly with her infant 
son Joseph in her arms, and appealed to them for pro- 
tection and help. A burst of enthusiasm followed, and 
a powerful Hungarian army was speedily at her service. 
Tne French and Bavarians were soon driven out of the 
archduchy. A battle was fought between the Austrians 
under the prince of Lorraine and the Prussians under 
Frederick, at Csaslau (17th May 1742), in which the for- 
mer were defeated, and this was followed by the peace of 
Breslau (nth June), by which Prussia ao^uired posses- 
sion of Upper and Lower Silesia (excepting the towns 
of Troppau and Jagemdorf, and the mountains of Sile- 
sia) ana the county of Glatz. Austria now turned her 
arms against the French and Bavarians, the former of 
whom were driven out of the country. In 1744 the 
king of Prussia, jealous of the success attending the 
Austrians, again took the field against them in support 
of the emperor. He marched into Bohemia and took 
Prague, but subsequently was forced to retreat ; and the 
death of the emperor Charles on 20th January 1745 
changed the aspect of afibirs. Maria Theresa's husband 
was m September elected emperor under the title of 
Francis L, and after some more fighting, a peace was 
concluded with Prussia at Dresden, l5[ which the king was 
confirmed in the possession of Silesia. The war with 
France was prosecuted for some time longer in the Neth- 
erlands and m Italy, vrith varying success, but ultimately 
peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, in October 
1748. Austria eave up the duchies of Parma, Placen- 
tia, and Guastiula to Don Philip, son of the king of 
Spain, and several districts of Milan to Sardinia ; Prus- 
sia was confirmed in the possession of Silesia and Gletz; 
while Maria Theresa was recognised as rightful monarch 



of Austria. After having acquired peace, and been thus 
confirmed in her possessions, her great desire was to 
iccover Silesia from Frederick, whose conduct towards 
her had sunk deep into her heart. She directed her at- 
tention to strengtliening and improving her army, and to 
forming alliances with the other states against the Prus- 
sian king, (>articularly with Russia and Saxony. In 
1755 war broke out in North America between France 
and England, and in view of its becoming more general 
Englana solicited the aid of Austria, but without suc- 
cess. This naturally led to a union between England 
and Prussia, while France allied herself with Austria 
and Russia. 

In July 1756, Frederick despatched a messengn* to 
Vienna to ascertain the meaning of the large forces 
assembled in Bohemia and Moravia. Receiving an 
evasive answer, he at once marched an army of 60,000 
men into Saxony, took Dresden, and made himself 
master of the country, the Saxon army of only about 
1 7,000 men being shut up in a strong position, but ill 
provisioned, between Pima and Konigstein. An Aus- 
trian army, under the command of Mar^U Browne, 
advanced from Bohemia to the relief of Saxony, but 
was met by Frederick. A battle took place at Lowo- 
sitz (I St October), which, though not decisive, ended 
in the retreat of the Austrians; and the famished Saxon 
army, after an ineffectual attempt to efTect a retreat to 
Bohemia, laid down their arms. This ended the first 
campaign, and both sides did their utmost toprepare for 
renewing hostilities the following year. Tne empress 
strengthened her forces in Bohemia, and the imperial 
diet conceded an army of 60,000 men to assist her. 
France engaged to send an army of 80,000 or 100,000 
men into Germany, and Russia set in motion an army 
of 100,000 men against Prussia. In all, the allies were 
estimated to muster about 500,000 men, while Fredrick 
could scarcely raise 200,000 of his own, his auxiliaries 
(English, Hanoverians, &c) probably amounting to 
about 40,000 more. Frederick renewed the war by 
marching an army into Bohemia, where, on 6th May, 
he gainra a victory over the Austrians, under Prince 
Charles of Lorraine, in the neighborhood of Prague, 
and then Uud siege to that city. General Daun, at the 
head of an Austrian army, advanced to the relief of the 
city, and the king set out to meet him. The encounter 
took place at Kofin ( i8th June), and the Prussians, being 
much inferior in numbers, were beaten with great slaugh- 
ter. Frederick was compelled at once to raise the seige 
and to evacuate Bohemia. In honor of this victory the 
empress instituted the militar^r order of Maria Theresa. 
It nad also the effect of inspiring the allies with fresh 
courage. The Russians invaded the kingdom of Prussia; 
the Swedes entered Pomerania; and two French armies 
crossed the Rhine in order to attack Hesse and Hanover 
and then march into Prussia. One of these armies under 
the command of Prince Sou bise, advanced towards Thur- 
ingia, in order to form a Junction with the imperial forces 
under the prince of Hildburghausen, while Marshal d'Es- 
tr^s, who commanded the larger French army, entered 
Hanover, and through the incapacity of his opponent, 
gained an easy victory over the Anglo-Germamc army, 
under the duke of Cumberland, near Hastenback, on the 
Weser (26th July), ^/he duke afterwards completed his 
disgrace by agreeing to disband his troops and give up 
Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, and the whole country 
between the Weser and the Rhine, to the French. The 
other French army effected a union with the im|>ertal 
troops of Thuringia, and made preparations for driving 
the Prussians out of Saxony. Frederick, however, de- 
termined to meet them, and after a series of marches and 
countermarches the two armies came together near 
Rossbach. The Prussian army amounted to about 



AUS 



673 



92,000 men, while that of the French and Anstrians 
numbered nearly 60,00a Frederick's troops were en- 
camped apon a height, and the allies, when they advan- 
ced to the attack, were suddenly met by such a tremen- 
dous fire that they were thrown into confusion and 
unable to recover themselves. In less than half an hour 
the day was decided (5th November 1757). The allies 
had 1200 killed and more than 7000 taken prisoners, 
while the loss of the Prussians scarcely exceeded 500 in 
killed and wounded. At this time the imperialists had 
entered Silesia and there gained several advantages over 
the Prussians, who were at length driven to the walls of 
Breslau. Here a battle was fought (22d November) in 
which the Austrians were victorious, and the city itself 
soon after surrendered to the conquerors. Frederick 
now made what haste he coukl to retrieve his fortunes 
in this quarter, and met the Austrian army, under Prince 
Charles of Lorraine, in a plain near the village of Leu- 
then. The Austrians numbered about 80,000 men, 
while the Prussians did not exceed 30,000, yet by the 
skilful disposal of his troops and the celerity of his 
movements Frederick again gained a complete victory 
(5th December). The field was covered with slain, and 
it is estimated that about 20,000 surrendered themselves 
prisoners. Breslau was speedily retaken, and the Aus- 
trians driven out of Silesia. 

The English were very indignant at the treaty entered 
into by the duke of Cumberland, and another army 
was speedily raised and placed under the command of 
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, who commenced the 
campai^ of 1758 by suddenly attacking the French in 
their winter quarters. In a few weeks he succeeded in 
driving them out of the country, pursued them across 
the Rhine, and attacked them furiously at Crefeld, where 
they were completely routed. 

While Fiela-Marshal Daun, who had received the 
command of the Austrian army, was waiting the attack 
of Frederick in Bohemia, the latter, by forced marches, 
entered Moravia and laid siege to Olmiitz. The town, 
however, defended itself with the greatest braveiy, and 
the Prussians were compelled to raise the seige. By 
this time, Daun having blocked up Frederick's retreat 
into Silesia, the Prussian army was marched suddenly 
northward into Bohemia, and attacked (he Russians 
who bad invaded Brandenbui|;. After a desperate bat- 
tle the latter were defeated with great slaughter at 
Zoradorf (26th August), and compelled to retreat into 
Poland. Fredenck now entered Saxony, where his 
brother Prince Henry was hard pressed by the Aus- 
trians. Thereupon Daun retired to a strong position in 
Lusatia, and Frederick took up a position near him, 
little thinking that Daun would attack him. Early in the 
morning of the 14th of October, however, the Aus- 
trians suddenly fell upon him at the village of Hoch- 
kirchen, and in the confusion and darkness the slaughter 
was terrible. Frederick lost several of his best gen- 
erals, including Prince Francis of Brunswick, Prince 
Maurice of Dessau, and Field-Marshal Keith, with 
about 9000 of his soldiers. His camp, baggage, and 
ammunition also fell into the hands of the Austrians. 
The victory, however, was productive of little 
material results ; Frederick retreated into Silesia, while 
the Austrians, after ineffectual attempts on Leipsic, 
Torgau, and Dresden, retired to Bohemia for'the winter. 
The Austrian army was again largely reinforced, and 
every preparation made for renewing hostilities with 
vigor. The following year (1759) Duke Ferdinand 
found himself hard prised by two French armies under 
the Duke de Broglie and the Marshal de Contades. He 
sustained a defeat at Bergen (12th April), but after- 
wards gained a signal victory at Minden (ist August), 
and compelled tl^ French to retreat. Daun, waiting 



the approach of the Russians, did not take the field till 
the beginning of May, when, on their advance towards 
the Oder, he moved into Lusatia. In June, Dohna, 
who was sent to check the advance of the Russians, 
was forced to retreat, and, on the 23d July, Wedel, who 
succeeded him in the command, was totally routed near 
Ziillichau. The Russians then marched on to Frank- 
fort-on-the-Oder, where they were joined by 18,000 
Austrians under Marshal Loudon. Frederick hastened 
with what troops he could collect to give battle to the 
combined army. The latter took up a strong position 
on the heights near Kunersdorf, and there they 
were attacked early on the 12th of August by the 
king. The Prussians numbered about 50,000, while the 
Russians and Austrians amounted to 90,000. The 
battle raged lone and furiously, and the issue was long 
doubtful, but at length the Russians were givine way on 
all sides, and victory was about to be dedared for the 
Prussians, when unexpectedly the Austrians made a 
ftuious attack upon them, threw them into confusion, 
and in a short time drove them from the held. Fred- 
erick lost in this action 20,000 of his bravest troops, 
and the loss on the side of the allies was not less than 
24,000 men killed and wounded. In the meantime the 
Austrians overran Saxony, took Torgau, Wittenberg, 
and Leipsic, and invested Dresden, which, after a 
spirited defence, surrendered when an army of relief 
was close at hand. But Frederick was speraily in the 
field again at the head of a new army, and, by dint of 
skilful manoeuvring and cutting off supplies, he suc- 
ceeded in harassing the two armies, ana compelled the 
Russians again to retire into Poland. An army of 11,- 
000 men, under General Fink, attacked the rear of the 
Austrian army near Maxen, but after a brief but san- 

Siinary conflict they were defeated and taken prisoners, 
aun took up his winter quarters in Saxony, notwith- 
standing every effort of Frederick to dispossess him. 

The imperial troops had been very successful during 
the last campaign, and were in good condition to renew 
the fig^t, while the Prussians had sustained great losses, 
were dispirited, and could only muster about 80,000 
fighting men, and these no longer veterans, but in 
great measure raw recruits. In the campaign of 1760 
Frederick was himself to conduct the war in Saxony, 
Prince Henry was to protect the marches against the 
Russians, and General Fouquet was to defend Silesa 
against the Austrians under Loudon. On 25d June, 
8000 Prussians, under Fouquet, were surrounded and 
attacked on all sides by 30,000 Austrians at Landshut, 
and, after defending themselves long with great bravery, 
were obliged to yield. The king, after an ineffectual 
attack upon Dresden, marched into Silesia followed by 
the Austrians. At Liegnitz he found himself between 
three armies, under Generals Daun, Lacy, and Loudon, 
numbering about 90,000 men, while his own army 
amounted to only about 30,00a On the night preced- 
ing the I ah of August, Frederick took up a position on 
the neighboring heights of Pfaffendorf. Scarcely had 
he done so when the Austrian army, under Loudon, 
made its appearance, it having also intended to occupy 
the same position, and then fall upon the Prussians. 
The Austnanswere greatly astonished to find the enemy 
before them ; neverUieless, they fought for three hours 
with great bravery, returning again and again to the 
attack, but were at length compelled to retreat with a 
loss of 4000 killed and 6000 wounded. Daun after- 
wards came up and made an attack upon the Prussians, 
but, learning what had happened to Loudon, he with- 
drew. Frederick now directed his march on Breslau ; 
and meanwhile the Russians effected a junction with the 
Austrians, and marched on Berlin, which surrendered to 
them (^d October). A week later^ hearing that tl)9 
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king wu adTuicing agtinst them, they left the city and 
retired into Saxony. Dman had likewise arrived in 
Saxony, and taken np a very strong position near Tor- 
gan. Here the Prussians attacked him with great fary 
on jd November. The battle lasted till night without 
being decisive, and the carnage on both sic^ was fear- 
ful. The Prussians prepared to renew the attack next 
day, bat the Austnans retreated during the night 
They lost about i3,ooo men killed and wounded, and 
8000 prisoners. By this battle Frederick reconquered 
the greater p>art of Saxony, and accordingly he fixed his 
winter quarters there, establishing his headquarters at 
Leipsic In 1761 Frederic employed every stratagem 
to prevent the junction of the Russian army under Butur- 
lin with the Austrian under Loudon. The two armies, 
however, at length came together in the environs of 
Strigau (12th August), the combined force announting 
to 130,000 men, while the Prussians numbered only 
about 50,000. The leaders, however, could not agree 
to a conmion course of proceeding, and the two armies 
separated without affecting anjrthing of consequence. 
The Austrians surprised and took Schweidnitz (ist 
October), and the Prussians, after a four month's siege, 
took possession of Colberg (13th December). In Sax- 
ony Prince Henry had to retreat before Dann ; but the 
latter gained no great advantages, and Frederic settled 
in Breslau for the winter. It seemed as if Prussia must 
at last yield to her assailants, but this was as far as ever 
from the king's mind. To add to his difficulties, the 
subsidies from England were stopped by the earl of Bute 
after the death of George II. But by the death of the 
Cearina Elizabeth (5th fanuarv 1762) ne was freed from 
one of the most powerful of his enemies ; and her suc- 
cessor, Peter III., not only recalled the army, but 
delivered up all the Prussian prisoners, and even entered 
into an alliance with the king. Sweden also retired 
from the contest, and entered into terms of peace. 
Frederick was therefore in a better condition to carry on 
the war vigorouslv against Austria, and the seventh 
campaign was marked by a series of disasters to that 
power. He attacked and overthrew Daun's right wing 
at Burkersdorf (21st July), gained a victory at Keichen- 
bach (i6th August), and took Schweidnitz after a very 
gallant defence (9th October). Prince Henry was also 
victorious at Freiberg (29th October). In the mean- 
time Duke Ferdinand had been during the last three 
years successfully maintaining the war with the French. 
Fresh reinforcements and new generals were brought 
against him, but he could not be crushed; and, by the 
victories of Wilhelmsthal (24th Tune) and Luttemburg 
(23d July), France was brougnt to agree to peace. 
Thus Austria and Prussia were left to carry on the war 
alone; and the former, though amply provided with 
troops, was without money to fumisn the necessary 
supplies, while Frederick was ever ready to come to 
terms on having the possession of Silesia secured to 
him. Austria found herself obliged to yield this 
point, and peace was at last agreed to. The treaty was 
signed at the castle of Hubertsburg, in Saxony, 15th 
February 1763, and thus ended the Seven Years^ War, 
— a war disasterous to all concerned, and which is 
estimated to have cost in actual fighting men 853,000. 
It effected no territorial change in any of the coun- 
tries, but through it Prussia rose to be one of the great 
powers of Europe. Austria, on her part, had carried 
on the conflict with remarkable vigor and determination ; 
her soldiers had displayed great bravery, and some of 
her generals had shown a military genius not greatly in- 
ferior to that of Frederick himself. 

Maria Theresa now zealously devoted herself to im- 
proving the condition of her people and country. She 
^|abU8he4 schools, remove4ieuaal hardships, improved 



the condition of the lerfs, reformed ecderiastical abntes, 
and fostered industry and commerce. The Emperor 
Francis died 1 8th August 1765, and was succeeded by 
his son, Joseph II., who the previous year had been 
elected kme of the Romans. He also became joint- 
regent with nis mother of the hereditary states. Maria 
establi^ed two collateral branches of her house in the 
persons of her two younger sons, the Ardiduke Leopokl 
m Tuscany, and the Archduke Ferdinand, who married 
the heiress of Este, in Modena. By the first partition 
of Poland (1772) Austria acquired Gahda ana Lodo- 
meria, and in 1777 Buckowina was ceded by the Porte. 
On the death of the elector of Bavaria without iwie, the 
Emperor Joseph laid claim to his dominions. To this 
Frederick was opposed, and again took the field against 
Austria. The dispute, however, was settled without 
war (1779), Austria being content with the cession by 
Bavaria of the frontier district called the quarter of the 
Inn, and one or two others. The empress died 29th 
November 1780, in the sixty-fourth year of her age 
and the forty flrst of her reign. She was a woman ol 
many and great virtues, with few weaknesses, and effected 
more for Austria than any of her predecessofS. Mr. 
Carlyle savs that she was ** most brave, high and pioos 
minded; beautiful, too, and radiant with good nature, 
though of a temper that will easily catch fire; there is, 
perhaps, no nobler woman then hving." At her death 
the monarchy comprised 234,500 square miles, with a 
population estimated at 24,000,000, and a public debt of 
160,000,000 florins, or /i6,ooo,ooo. 

The Emperor Joseph II., whose zeal for reform had 
in great measure been kept in check during the lifetime 
of his mother, now felt himself at liberty to give it fall 
scope. He attempted a number of changes, of which 
several were praiseworthy in their objecte, but abrupt 
and premature in their operation, so that in the end they 
were poductive of evil consequences. He sought to 
establish a system of central government and uniformity 
of legislation throughout his dominions ; enioined the 
exclusive use of the German language in all schools, 
courts of justice, &c.; granted free and unreserved toler- 
ation to all sects of Christians ; abolished numerous con- 
vents and monasteries; dismantled various fortresses; 
and did away with primogeniture and feudal vassalage. 
Had his people been ripe for these changes he would 
probably have been hailed as a reformer of abuses ; but 
the Austrians were attached to their old usages, and 
were little inclined for change, while the arbitrary man- 
ner in which the improvements were mtroduced coul4 
not fail to provoke discontent. General uneasiness, 
therefore, began to prevail, which in the Netherlands 
broke out into open revolt in 1780. This, together with 
an unsuccessful war in which he had engaged with Rus- 
sia against Turkey, is understood to have preyed upon 
his over-sensitive mind, and caused his death on aoth 
February 1790. He was, says Mr. Carlyle, **a man of 
very high qualities, and much too conscious of them ; a 
man of amoition without bounds; one of those fiital men 
—fatal to themselves first of all— who mistake half 
genius for whole ; and rush on the second step without 
having made the first" 

He was succeeded by his brother Leopold, grand 
duke of Tuscany, who by his moderation and firmness 
was successful in restoring peace to the country, and in 
quelling the insurrection in the Netherlands. He also 
made peace with the Porte. The misfortunes of his sis- 
ter Maria Antoinette and her husband^ Louis XVI., of 
France, led him to enter into an alliance with Prussia 
against the Revolutionists, but he died before the war 
broke out (ist March 1792). He was succeeded by his 
son, Francis II., who had hardly ascended the throne 
when he found himself wvolv^ In 5^-JfW witl^ FfaQp^ 
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<575 



Hostilities commenced on 28th April with an attempted 
invasion of Flanders by the French, but their unoUci- 
plined troops were speedily routed and put to flight A 
combined armv of 50,000 Prussians, under the command 
of the duke of Brunswick, and 15,000 Austrians under 
General Clairfait, besides about 20,000 French, soon 
after crossed the French frontier, took Longwy and 
Verdun, and marched on Paris. In the meantime 
Dumouriez was actively engaged in collecting an army, 
and soon found himself m a condition to meet them. 
A series of engagements took place without any decided 
result, beyond checking the advance of the allied troops, 
who were now also suffering very severely from sickness 
and famine. It was therefore deemed prudent to retire, 
and Verdun and Lonewy were soon after retaken. 
Dumouriez next invaded the Netherlands with an army 
of 100,000 men, to oppose which the Austrian army only 
amounted to 40,000. A battle took place at Jemappes 
on the 6th of November, in which the Austrians fouc^ht 
with heroic bravery, and the contest was long doubtful, 
but the superior numbers of the French earned the day. 
The loss on both sides was very great ; and soon after 
the whole of the Austrian Nemerlands, with the ex- 
ception of Luxemburg, was in the hands of the French. 
The commencement of the campaign of 179;^ was dis- 
tinguished by a series of brilliant victories gamed by the 
allies in the Netherlands. Dumouriez was defeated at 
Aldenhoven, and again in a great battle at Neerwinden 
(1 8th March). Soon after, afraid of falling into the 
hands of the Jacobians in Paris, he passed oyer to the 
allies. His successor. General Dampierre, was defeated 
and slain on the plains of Famars, and the allies became 
masters of Valenciennes and Cond^. Towards the end 
of the campaign, however, the republican troops were 
successfpl in a number of engagements. At the com- 
mencement of the year 1794, the Austrians, Dutch, 
English, and Hanoverians united their forces in the 
Netherlands under the command of the prince of Coburg, 
and the Emperor Francis himself joined the camp> m 
order by his presence to encourage the troops. In 
April the allies were successful at Cateau and at Lan- 
drecies, and took that town ; but their good fortune 
then forsook them. Clairfait was attacked singly at 
Kortryk by Pichegru, and forced to yield to superior 
numbers ; and the allies under the prince of Coburg 
•were attacked by him at Tpurnay (220 May), when an 
extremely long and bloody, but undecisive, battle was 
foaght. The Austrian troops were now greatly dis- 

Eirited; and, on the 26th June they were defeated. by 
reneral Jourdan at Fleurus. This was followed by 
other disasters, so that all Flanders was soon in the 
hands of the French. Pichegru, pursuing his victori- 
ous career, next invaded Holland, which, before the end 
of the year, was transformed into a republic In the be- 
ginning of 1 795 Prussia abandoned the cause of the allies, 
and concluded a treaty of peace with the French re- 
public at Basle (5th April), and was joined therein by 
Hanover and Hesse Cassel, so that Austria and England 
were left alone to prosecute the war. For some months 
a cessation of hostilities took place between the con- 
tending parties; but on the 6th of September the 
French army under Jourdan suddenly crossed the 
Rhine near Diisseldorf, invested that town, and drove 
the Austrians before it over the Maine. Clairfait, how- 
ever, reassembled his troops behind the latter river, and 
attacked the French at Hochst near Frankfort, and 
completely defeated them (iith October), so that they 
were obliged to recross the Rhine. In the meantime 
Pichegru had crossed the river with another army, near 
Manimeim, and took possession of that town. Wurm- 
ser, who was sent for its relief, arrived too late for that 
purpose, bnt attacked the Fr^ch arm^ near it, pnt 



them to flight, and compelled them to recross the 
Rhine, leaving a garrison of 8000 men to defend the 
town, which, after a vigorous siege, surrended to the 
Austrians. The French, undismaved by these failures, 
were only stimulated to greater efforts ; and the follow- 
ing year they sent out three armies against Aus- 
tria, one under Jourdan towards the Lower Rhine, 
another under Moreau towards the Upper Rhine, and a 
third into Italy. In the end of May tne French army 
under Jourdan crossed the Lower Khine, and gained 
some successes, but was afterwards attacked by the 
Archduke Charles (i6th June), and forced to recross 
the river. Moreau soon after effected his passage over 
the Upper Rhine at Strasburg, defeated tne Austrians 
in several partial engagements, and reduced the circle 
of Swabia to subjection . Jourdan again pushed forward 
his troops, and took Frankfort by bombardment, but 
was defeated with great loss by the archduke at Amberg 
(24th August), and again at Wurzburg (3d September). 
Moreau had in the meantime continu^his advance into 
Bavaria, but was ultimately obliged to effect a retreat, 
which he carried out with great skill, suffering compara- 
tively little loss, and recrossing the Rhine on 20th Octo- 
ber. But a different fate was attending the army in Italy, 
under the command of a youn^ officer, who afterwards 
became world-famous for his generalship, namely, 
Bonaparte. By the promptitude of his movements, 
and tne suddenness of^his attacks, he completely over- 
came and separated the army of the Sardinians from 
that of the Austrians, and forced the Sardinian king to 
sign a treaty of peace. He then turned his arms against 
the Austrians, defeated them in several engagements 
and made himself master of the whole of Lombardy, 
except Mantua. Wurmser was now summoned from 
Germany with an army of 30,000 men, which raised the 
Austrian force to about 60,000 ; while opposed to them 
were about 55,000 French. Instead, however, of ad- 
vancing in one body, the Austrians were divkled into 
two columns, which advanced by different routes, a mis- 
take of which Bonaparte dkl not fail to take advantage. 
One division of 20,000 men was attacked and compelled 
to retreat towards the mountains, while Wurmser with 
the other division entered Mantua. Leaving that city 
he sustained a double defeat at Lonato and Castiglione 
(3d August); and, being again severely beaten at Me- 
dola (5th August), he was forced to seek shelter in the 
mountains of T3rrol. Having received reinforcements, 
however, he again advanced in divided columns, one of 
which was defeated at Roveredo, the other, under him- 
self, near Bassano. He took the road to Mantua with 
the remains of his armv, and reached that town after a 
brilliant victory over a body of French troops that had 
been sent tointercept him. Meanwhile the Austrians col- 
lected another army of 40,000 men under Alvinzi, who 
after a series of successes, gained a decided victory over 
Bonaparte at Caldiero (nth November). Four days 
later the Austrians were again attacked by the French 
near the village of Areola, and after three days' des- 
perate fighting on both sides the Austrians at length 
retreated. Alvinzi received reinforcements, and again 
set out to attack the French, but suffered a severe defeat 
at Rivoli on 14th January 1797. A fortnight later Man- 
tua capitulated, and the French became undisputed mas- 
ters of the country. Speaking of the perseverance 
and patriotic spirit of the Austrians in this struggle in 
Italy, Sir A. Alison says, ** It is impossible to contem- 
plate without admiration the vast armies which they 
successively sent into the field and the unconquerable 
courage with which these "returned to a contest where 
so manv thousands of their countrymen had perished 
before tnem. Had they been guided by greater or 
opposed by less ability they lUMjoestionably would hi^ye 

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been taccestfal, tnd eren against the soldiert of the 
army of Italy and the genius of Napoleon, the scales of 
fortune reoeatedly hung equal." — {History of Europt,) 
The Archduke Charles was now recalled from the Rhine 
to oppose Bonaparte. The latter set out on ha jour- 
ney northward on the loth of March, with the view of 
crossing the Alps and so reaching Vienna. The 
Austrians attempted to oppose his progress at the river 
Tagliamento, but without success; and a desperate 
struggle took place for the possession of the Col de 
Tarvis, which ended in favor of Napoleon, so that in 
twenty days after the campaign opened the army of the 
archduke was driven over the Julian Alps, and the vic- 
torious French army of 45,000 strong was on the north- 
em declivity of the Alps, within 60 leagues of Vienna. 
Napoleon, still pressing on, took possession of Klagen* 
furt, and advanced as Tar as Judenburg on the River 
Mur; but finding his {xeition very insecure, and dan- 
eers thickening upon him, he despaired of carrying out 
his intention of dictating peace under the walls of 
Vienna. He therefore offered terms of accommoda- 
tion to the Austrians, which they deemed it prudent to 
accept. Preliminaries were agreed to at Leoben (i8th 
of April), and a formal treaty of peace was signed at 
Campo Formio, 17th October 1797. By this treaty 
Austria ceded to France Flanders and her Italian pos- 
sessions, and received in return Venice and its depend- 
ent provinces. It, however, contained certain secret 
articles, by one of which Austria consented to surrender 
the whole of the left bank of the Rhine to France ; and 
a convention was appointed to meet at Rastadt to pro- 
vide equivalents on the right bank for the princes dispos- 
sessed on the left, and otherwise to settle the affairs ot the 
empire. The terms were not particularljr hard as 
ft-egards Austria. The ceded territories contained about 
3,500,000 souls, and those acquired about 3,400,00a 
But the taking away of the independence A Venice, 
which had been maintained for 1400 years, w >s an act 
of rapacity whkh excited the indignation of Europe, 
and Austria's share in it must ever remain a siain on 
her annals. 

This peace was not of long duration. As the business 
of a convention which met at Rastadt advanced, and 
the bearing of the secret articles became known, a great 
sensation was created in Germany. The high-handed 
manner in which the French conducted their negotia- 
tions, and the insolence and contempt with which they 
treated the empire, led to the recall of the Austrian 
ambassador from the convention in the beginning of 
1799, ^^ ^^ ^^c 13^^ of March France again deckured 
war against Austria. In the meantime the latter power 
had entered into an alliance with England and Russia 
against the former. In Germany the Archduke Charles 
defeated Jourdan at Stockach (26th March), and in sev- 
eral other encounters, and drove him out of the country ; 
and he afterwards reconquered the whole of the western 
portion of Switzerland to berond Zurich from Massena. 
In Italy Scherer was defeated by the Austrian general 
Kray at Verona and at Magnano, and then resigned the 
command into the hands of Moreau. The Russian 
army, under SuwarofT. now formed a junction with the 
Austrian, and the French were again oeaten near Cas- 
sano (27th April). This was followed by other successes, 
so that in less than three months the French standards 
were driven back to the summit of the Alps, and the 
whole plain of Lorabardy, with the exception of a few 
of its strongest fortresses, was recovered. After this the 
Russian general marched against Macdonald, who was 
advancing with a French army from Naples. A desperate 
conflict took place on the banks of the Trebbia, which 
was maintained with consummate bravery and skill for 
three days (17-19 June), until victory declared for the 



Russians. Out of ^,000 men in the fieU the Freodi 
lost above 12,000 in killed and wounded, and the allies 
nearly as many. One place after another now fdl into 
the hands of the allies ; but mutual jealousies and divis- 
ions breaking out among them, the Russian and Austrian 
forces were eventually separated. Tliit led to the moat 
disastrous results. l*he Russians were to prosecute the 
war in Switzerland, while the Austrians remained to carry 
it on in 1 taly. I n the meantime another French army had 
been collected under General Joubert ; and, on the 15th of 
August he was attacked by the allies at NovL The 
battle was long and obstinate, but at length the allies 
were victorious. The French lost their general, who 
fell mortally wounded, besides about 1500 killed, 5 coo 
wounded, and 1000 prisoners. The loss of the allies 
was 1800 killeo, 5200 wounded, and 1200 prisoners. 
The Russian general now directed his march towards 
the Alps, forced the St. Gotthard, and descended into 
the vallev of the Urseren, driving the French before 
him witn great slaughter. With great difficulty and 
loss he effected a passage through the horrible defile of 
the Shilchenthal, oetween Altdorf and Mntten ; but, at 
the latter place, instead of meeting the allied troops, 
as he had expected, he found himself in the nudst of 
the enem^. Before this time Massena had so beset 
the Russian general Korsakoff at Ziirich, that he was 
compelled to fight, and with difficulty made his escape 
with the remains of his army, while the Austrian forces 
under Houe had also been beaten by Soult Nothing 
remained for Suwaroff but retreat, a course which he 
adopted with extreme reluctance, making his way with 
incredible resolution and perseverance over the rugged 
Alps into Glarus and the orisons, and at length reach- 
ing the valley of the Rhine (loth Oaobcr). Disagree- 
ments having taken place between the Austrian and 
Russian generals regarding their future proceedings, 
the latter withdrew to winter quarters in Bavaria; and 
soon after this the capricious czar of Russia, Paul, 
withdrew from the alliance and recalled his troops. 

Bonaparte, who had now returned from his Egyptian 
campaign, made proposab for peace, which were re- 
jected, and both sides prepared to renew the contest in 
1 80a A numerous and well appointed French army 
was collected at Dijon, at the head of which the first 
consul suddenly put himself, and set out for Italy across 
the Great St. Bernard. The passage was effected with 
great skill and determination m spite of every obstacle, 
and he arrived in Lombardy before Melas, the Austrian 
general there, had been informed of the expedition. On 
the 14th of June a great batde took place near the vil- 
lage of Marengo, the most obstinate and sanguinary 
that had up to this time been fought The Austrian 
army numbered at least 21,000 foot and Ifioo horse, while 
opposed to them was an army of 22,000 men. The 
battle was maintained with great spirit and obstinacy on 
both sides ; but at length, after repeated charges, the 
French were compelled to give way, and the retreat be- 
came general At this moment, however, a fresh body 
of French troops under Desaix arriving on the field the 
contest was renewed, and after a final struggle the 
Austrians were compelled to yield. They lost about 
7000 men in killed and wounded, and 3000 prisoners ; 
while the French lost about the same number in killed 
and wounded, and 1000 prisoners, taken in the early 
part of the day. Their retreat being cut off, the Aus- 
trians capitulated to the conqueror, who thus again 
acquired possession of the whcoe of Italy. In the mean- 
time Moreau had invaded Germany and defeated Kray 
in several engagements, particularly at Stockah and 
Moskirch, and acain at Bibcrach and Hochstadt ; he 
also took Munich, and laid Bavaria and Swabia under 
I contributioQ. Aq armwtipe was now agreed to (Pari* 

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(>n 



dorf, 15th Jaly), and overtures were made for peace, 
but withoat success. Hostilities were resumed m the 
end of November, and at first the Austrians gained 
some advantages, but on the 3d of December they sus- 
tained a crusning defeat at Hohenlinden. The fight 
was long and obstinate ; the French lost on that and 
the preceding days 9000 men, while the loss of the 
Austrians was nearly twice as great. The moral effects 
of the defeat were most disastrous. Moreau now ad- 
vanced by hasty marches, crossed the Inn, took Salz- 
burg and pressed on towards Vienna. But an armistice 
was agreed to on 25th December. In Italy the Aus- 
trian forces sustained a severe defeat at the passage of 
the Mincio (26th December). Suffering under these 
disasters Austria was glad to aeree to terms, which 
were concluded at Luneville, 9th February 1801. 

By this treaty the whole of the left bank of the Rhine 
was again ceded to France, and the Adige was declared 
to be the boundarv of Austria in Italy; the ^and duke 
of Tuscany, on the promise of an indemnity in Ger- 
many, renounced his dukedom in favor of the infant 
duke of Parma, created king of Etruria; the duke of 
Modena received the margraviate of Breisgau in ex- 
change for his territory; and the independence of the 
Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics 
was recognised and guaranteed. A convention was to 
be again summoned for the regulation and adjustment 
of the rights of all concerned. In order to provide indem- 
nities for the despoiled princes, a large proportion of 
the ecclesiastical sovereignties of the empire was secu- 
larised ^ or, in other words, confiscated; and all the free 
imperial cities were deprived of their privileges with 
the exception of six. To the share of Prussia fell the 
bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderbom, the city of 
Munster, and other cities and abbacies, to the amount 
of more than four times what she had lost on the left 
bank of the Rhine. Thus was she rewarded for her 
discreditable neutrality and impolitic desertion of the 
European alliance, though she subsequently suffered for 
this at Jena and by the treaty of Tilsit. The grand 
duke of Tuscanv received the archbishopric of Salzburg, 
the Bishopric of Eichstadt, and part of that of Passau, 
in exchan^ for his hereditary possessions. Austria 
received the Tyrolese archbi^oprics of Trent and 
Brixen. She Kad also received, in 1795, ^^^^"^ 
Galicia as her share in the third division of Poland, so 
that now her territory comprised over 254,000 square 
miles, her public debt amounting to 1,220,000,000 florins, 
or ;£* 1 22,000,000. 

Austria now enjoyed a short period of peace, and 
employed it in silendy repairing the breaches in her 
army and finances which had been produced by the late 
wars. After Napoleon had assumed the title of emperor 
of the French, tne Emperor Francis took for himself 
and his successors that of emperor of Austria (nth 
August 1804). On nth April 1805, an alliance was 
formed betweon England and Russia for resisting the 
encroachments of France, and some months later Austria 
and Sweden likewise joined it. Prussia held aloof, in 
the hope of receiving Hanover as a reward for her neu- 
trality ; while Baden, WUrtembcrg, and Bavaria sided 
with France, Deceived by the efforts that Napoleon 
was ostensibly making for the invasion of England, the 
Austrians (9th September) crossed the Inn, invaded 
Bavaria, anid took up a position in the Black Forest 
Meanwhile the French troops were in full march from 
the shores of the Channel to the banks of the Rhine ; 
and the force in Hanover, under Bemadotte, was ordered 
to cross the Prussian territorv without asking permis- 
sion, and form a junction witn the Bavarians in the rear 
of the Austrians, while other corps were at the same 
time directed by circuitous routes upon their flanks. The 



Austrian general, Mock, on the first intelligence of the 
approach of the French, had concentrated his forces at 
Ulm, Memmingen, and Stockach, contemplating an 
attack only in front. Great was his consternation, 
therefore, when he found that there was also an army 
on his rear. After several partial engagements, in 
which the Austrians were defeated, the Archduke Fer- 
dinand, at the head of a body of cavalry, succeeded in 
making his wa^ through the enemy, and in reaching 
Bohemia ; while Mack, with the rest of the army, shut 
himself up in Ulm, which, with 30,000 men, he was 
forced to surrender (20th October). After this, Napol- 
eon, with hts usual rapidity, marched with the main 
body of his troops upon Vienna, and on ^ the 5th of 
November estabbshed his headquarters at Linz, the cap- 
ital of Upper Austria. The Russian and Austrian 
troops maae various attempts to obstruct his 
farther progress (particularly at Diirrenstein, where a 
deM)erate engagement took place), but without success ; 
and, ou tfe 13th November, Vienna was in the 
hands of the conqueror, who made his headauarters at 
Schonbnmn. In the meantime the Archduke Charles 
was with the army in Italy, where, on 20th October, he 
was attacked with great fury on the heights of Caldiero, 
by the French under Massena. A terrible conflict 
ensued, and continued till night parted the combat* 
ants. It was renewed the following day, when at leneth 
victory declared for the Austrians. The archduke, 
however, was unable to avail himself of his success, for, 
hearing of the unfortunate state of matters in Germany, 
he set out with his army for the defence of the capital, 
and conducted it with great skill over the mountains, so 
that it suffered no serious loss. Marshal Ney, who had 
been sent with a bodj^ of troops into Tyrol, succeeded 
in taking the mountain barrier of Scharnitz by storm, 
and in making himself master of Innsbruck. Two 
bodies of Austrian troops had been so hard pressed that 
they were obliged to capitulate — one under General 
Jellachich at Feldkirch, and another under the Prince 
de Rohan at Castel-Franco in Italy. 

After the loss* of Vienna the dlied forces collected 
themselves in Moravia, whither they were followed by 
Napoleon. At length the two armies came in sight of 
eacn other at Austerlitz, and both sides prepared for 
battle, which it was felt must be a most momentous one, 
and was to be witnessed by three emperors (those of 
France, Austria, and Russia). The alued forces num- 
bered fully 80,000 men, of whom 15,000 were cavidry, 
while the French had 90,000 men in the field. The 
army of the allies was not well generaled, while on the 
side of the French were Soult, Bemadotte, Davoust, 
Murat, Lannes, Oudinot, Bessi^res, &c The battle 
commenced on the morning of the 2d December, and 
continued till night. Both sides displayed the greatest 
skill and bravery ; at one part of the field the allies 
would be victorious, at another the French ; at one time 
victory would incline to the French, and again to the 
allies. At length, however, towards evening, the allies 
came to be beaten at all points, and the route soon be- 
came general. Numbers sought to save themselves by 
crossing the firozen lake of Satschan ; but shots from 
the French batteries on the heights above broke the ice 
in all directions, and about 2000 men perished. The 
allies lost about ^,000 men, killed, wounded, or made 
prisoners, while the French lost about 12,000 in killed 
and wounded. This was the most glorious of all Napo- 
leon's victories ; but he was still m a very dangerous 
position. The archduke Charles, with an army of 80,000 
men, was now approaching Vienna ; Hungary was rising 
en masse against nim ; Russian reserves were advancing ; 
and Prussia was at length preparing to declare war, on 
account of the unauthorised passage of French troops 



678 



AUS 



through her territoriei. From these difficnltiet, how- 
ever he was freed by the desire of the Emperor Francis 
for peace. An armistice was agreed to, and finally a 
treaty of peace was drawn up and signed at Presburg 
(25th December 1805) By this treaty Austria ceded to 
Bavaria, now erected into a kingdom, the whole of the 
Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Lindau, Burgau, Passau, Eichstadt, 
Trent, and Brixen, besides several petty lordships ; to 
Wiirtemberg, now also become a kingdom, the bordering 
Austrian dominions in Swabia ; and to Bsiden the Breis- 
gau, the Ortenau, and the town of Constance. She also 
yielded up her Venetian possessions, and aereed to pay a 
war contribution of j^i, 600,00a In excnange for all 
these sacrifices she merely received the small electorate 
of Salzburg, and the possessions of the Teutonic Order. 
In all, Austria lost aoout 28,000 square miles of terri- 
tory, with a population of 2,700,000^ and a revenue of 
14,175,000 florins. It was evidently not the intention 
of Napoleon to overthrow the Austrian monarchy, but 
rather to throw its stren^ to the eastward, and to im- 
pose a barrier of subordmate kingdoms between it and 
France, so as to prevent its mterference with his 
schemes of aggrandisement in Germany and Italy. 

A blow was inflicted upon the constitution of the 
German empire by Napoleon, in the formation of the 
Confederation of the Rhine. Representatives of the 
different powers concerned assembled at Paris in the 
beginning of July 1806; and, on the 12th of that month, 
an Act was signed whereby the kings of Bavaria and 
Wfirtembere, the elector of Baden, and thirteen other 
priaces of Western Germany, separated themselves 
from the German empire, and formed a confederation 
under the protection of the emperor of the French. 
16,000,000 men were thus, by a single stroke, trans- 
ferred from the empire to a foreign alliance. Wisely 
yielding to what he could not prevent, the Emperor 
Francis, by solemn deed, renounced the title of emperor 
of the Romans, and declared himself the first of the em- 
perors of Austria. 

The peace of Presburg was quickly followed by the 
war between France and Prussia, in which the latter 
Buffered terrible retribution for her selfish policy in leav- 
ing Austria to struggle unaided against the common foe 
of Europe. Great efforts were made to induce Austria 
to take part in this war, but she prudently remained 
neutral, contenting herself with making every effort to 
strengthen and improve her army, and mcrease her war- 
like resources. During the whole of 1806 and 1807 the 
efforts of the war department, under the guidance of the 
Archduke Charles, were incessant to restore the losses 
that had been sustained in the late war. The army 
was also remodelled upon the system adopted by Napo- 
leon. ^ The transfer of a large portion of the French 
army in Germany to the Peninsula on the breidcing out 
of war there, emooldened the Austrian Government to 
issue a decree (gth June 1808), instituting a landwehr 
or militia to be raised by conscription, which soon 
amounted to 300,000 men, in addition to a regular 
standing army of 350,000. On hearing of this. Napo- 
leon addressed strong remonstrances to the court at 
Vienna, which made loud professions of pacific inten- 
tions, but dul not cease its warlike preparations. In the 
spring of 1809 the armies on both sides took the field, 
and, on 8th April, Austrian troops crossed the frontiers 
at once in Bohemia, on the Inn, in the Tyrol, and in 
Italy. In the meantime France was bringing together 
her forces from all quarters towards the valley of the 
Danube, where at length she had an armv, including 
the troops of the German Confederation, of about 200,000 
men, and Berthier was despatched to take the command 
till the arrival of the emperor. The Archduke Charles 
had crossed the Ion with upwards of 120,000 men, and 



on the i6th they had adnnced as fiu* at the Tsar, whidi 
they crossed. Berthier, instead of concentrating his 
troops, was separating them, so that they were in the 
utmost danger, when the arriral of Napoleon at once 
changed the amct of affairs. On the 19th an action 
took place at Thann, between a body of about 20,000 
French and a like number of Austrians, without any 
decisive result ; and the following day the main body of 
the Austrians, over 50,000 strong, was suddenly attacked 
and defeated after a feeble resistance at Abensberg, by 
a French army of 65,000 men. The same d^ the Aus- 
trians attacked and took Ratisbon, and secured the 
bridge over the Danube there. Both sides now pre- 
pared for a general engagement, which took place at 
Eckmiihl on the 22d of April The battle was bravely 
contested; but at length the French were victorious, 
the loss to the Austrians beine 5000 killed and wounded, 
and 7000 prisoners. The archduke retir^ during the 
night to recruit his army in Bohemia, and Ratisbon was 
taken by storm. In otner parti, particularly in Italy, 
success was attending the Austrian arms. 

Napoleon now lost no rime in again marching on to 
Vienna, and no great attempt was made to impede his 
progress except at Ebersberg, where Hiller witn about 
10,000 Austrians took his stand to defend the wooden 
bridge over the Traun. He was galUntly attacked by 
a body of French troops under Massena, and a fearful 
struggle took place ; but at length the French prevailed, 
and Hiller witndrew his troops. Each side lost about 
6000 men on this occasion. On the loth of May the 
French eagles appeared before the walls of Vienna, and, 
after an ineffectual attempt at defence, the city surren- 
dered on the 13th. The Archduke Charles vras hasten- 
ing to the relief of the town, but arrived too late. The 
two armies therefore prepared for battle, the one on the 
north bank of the Danube, the other on the south. On 
the night of the 19th the French prepared to cross the 
river at the island of Lobau, and by daybreak on the 21st 
they had 40,000 men landed on che northern side. 
The Austrians now resolved upon an attack, and by 
two o'clock, when the fight began, the French force 
amounted to about 50,000 men, while the Austrians had 
80,000 to oppose them. The scene of action was near 
the villages of Aspem and Essling, and the struggle was 
maintained with the most desperate courage on both 
sides till ni?ht parted the combatants. The Austrians 
had everywhere the advantage, but both sides prepared 
to renew the contest the next day. During the night, and 
early in the morning, French troops were still passing 
over, so that, notwithstanding his losses. Napoleon had 
fully 70,000 men to renew the fight. It commenced 
early in the morning, and continued the greater part of 
the day ; but at length the French were beaten cm all 
sides, and compelled to retreat to the island of Lobau. 
In these two days they lost upwards ofio,ooo men, and 
the Austrians not less than 20,000. The victory pro- 
duced a great impression on the mind of Europe, and 
dissipated in a great degree the charm of Napoleon's 
invincibility. 

He, however, made every preparation for renewing 
the contest. He summoned troops from different parts, 
and fortified his position on the island of Lobau, con- 
necting it also by several bridges with the south bank of 
the river. On me evening of the 4th July he assembled 
his troops on the island, amounting to 150,000 infantry 
and 30,000 cavalry, with 750 pieces of cannon. During 
the night several bridges, which had been secretly pre- 
pared, were thrown over to the northern bank at a 
point where they were not looked for, and by six 
o'clock the following morning the whole body had 
passed over. In the afternoon the French miade a 
vehement attack upon the Austrians, hut were. repoUed 



AUS 



679 



with great slaagbter. Early on the morning of the 6th 
the Aastrians began the attack. There numbers were 
then about 115,000 infantry and 25,000 cavalry ; but 
they were in hourly expectation of the arrival of an ad- 
ditional body of 30,000 under the Archduke John, 
which was known to be not £u' off. The battle was con- 
tested with the utmost determination and bravery on 
both skies. The Austrian right wing succeeded in over- 
throwing and putting to flight the left wing of the enemv. 
On the other wing the contest was lon£ and doubtful ; 
but two divisions of troops having at length succeeded 
in turning the extreme flank of the Austrians, the latter, 
after a gallant defence, were ^ compelled to abandon 
their position. In these circumstances, Napoleon 
collected all his disposable forces and brought them to 
bear upon the centre of the Austrians, whidi was their 
weak point, the ardiduke having thrown his strength 
chiefly into the two wings. Alter repeated charges, 
whidi were repulsed with great bravery, the French 
succeeded in forcing their line, and the archduke, des- 
pairing of maintaining his position, ordered a retreat, 
which was effected in good order and with little loss. 
The French were so exhausted that they displayed little 
vigor in the pursuit, and neither guns nor prisoners 
were taken. The Archduke John came up in the after- 
noon, but too late to be of any service. Had he made 
his appearance sooner there can be no doubt that the 
result would have been different. As it was, the 
Austrians succeeded in making a most gallant stand 
against a greater number of the best troops of 
France, led £▼ Napoleon and some of his greatest 
generals. This battle of Wagram was one of 
ue greatest and most obstinately contested fights 
in the whole war, and is perhaps the most glonous 
in the annals of Austria. The loss on both sides was 
immense, amounting to about 2C,ooo on each, including 
kilfed and wounded. The Archduke Charles retreated 
towards Bohemia without any serious molestation from 
the enemy. A battle was fought at Znaim (nth July) 
between the Austrians and a French army under 
Massena which was following them, but before it was 
decided news of an armistice arrived. This was followed 
by the peace of Vienna (14th October). *• The campaign 
of Aspem and Wagram," says Sir A. Alison, ** is the 
most glorious in the Austrian annals, — one of the most 
memorable example of patriotic resistance recorded in 
the history of the world. . . . Other empires have 
afanost invariably succumbed upon the capture of the 
capital • . . Austria is the only state recorded in 
history which (without the aid of a rigorous climate like 
Moscow) fought two desperate battles in defence of its 
independence after its capital had fallen. ** — {History of 
Eurofe). By the peace of Vienna Austria was com- 
peUea to cede Salzburg, Berchtenraden, the Innviertel, 
and the Hausruckviertel, to &ivaria; portions of 
Galicia to Russia and the grand duke of Warsaw ; and 
Carniola, Trieste, the greater part of Croatia, Istria, the 
circle of VUlach, &c, to Italy, In all she lost about 
42,000 square miles of territory and 3,500,000 inhabi- 
tants, together with more than 11,000,000 florins of 
revenue. The emperor also agreed to reduce his army 
to not more than 150,000 men ; and a war contribution 
of ;£'3,400,ooo was imposed on the provinces occupied 
by the French troops. Before leaving the Austrian 
capital Napoleon ca^ised the fortifications to be blown 
up. 

Soon after this Napoleon obtained a divorce from his 
wife Josephine, and offered his hand to Maria Louisa, 
daughter of the emperor of Austria, and was accepted. 
The marriage was celebrated with Jfreat pomp at 
Vienna on the nth March 18 10. In 181 2 Austria was 
obliged to enter into an alliance with France against 



Russia, and to furnish an anxifiary force of 30,000 men 
for the invasion of the latter country. The disastrous 
result of that expedition to the invaders showed Ger- 
many that the fortunate moment had now arrived for 
regaming her independence. Prussia was the first to 
form an alliance with Russia, and declared war against 
France (17th March 1813). Great efforts were made to 
induce Austria to join this alliance, but without success. 
She directed her attention to raisingher military strength, 
and making other preparations to enable her to take ^n 
important part in the coming struggle, on the one side or the 
other. After the defeat of the allies at Lutzen and 
Bautzen, and the conclusion of an armistice at Pleswitz* 
Austria, came forward as a mediator, with a view of 
affecting a peace between the parties, and not without 
the view, also, of paining some material advanta^ for 
herself. In fact, she now held in her hand the bsUance 
between the contending parties. Her army of 150,000 
or 200,000, which she mul collected in Bonemia, would 
bring victory to whatever skle she joined. Mettemich, 
who at that period had the direction of the cabinet of 
Vienna, was too clear-headed not to perceive the ad- 
vantages of the position, and he determined to avail 
himself of them, in order if possible to restore to 
Austria her lost possessions. He had openly avowed, 
that if Napoleon would accede to the terms which he 
proposed Austria would throw her whole 200,000 men 
into the scale in his favor. At first it seemed doubtful 
to which side she would attach herself ; but it would 
appear that the allies had reason to believe that she was 
favorable to them, and that Napoleon had also reason 
for suspecting the strength of ner attachment to him. 
It is evident that she would have more to expect from 
the allies than firom Napoleon, but at the same time it 
was doubtful how far she would be influenced by the 
existing matrimonial alliance. While things were in 
this doubtful 'state news arrived of the battle of Vi- 
toria, by which the death-blow was given to the power 
of France in the Peninsula, and after this there was 
little hope of peace on either side. Austria, whatever 
her previous intentions, doubtless now felt that there 
was little to be gained from attaching herself to a sink- 
ing empire and a falling cause, and she agreed, in tha 
event of Napoleon not accepting the terms proposed* 
to join the allies. They could have had little hope 
that the terms would be accepted; they included the 
cession to Austria of all the Illyrian provinces, with 
Trieste, the reinstatement of Prussia m her ancient 
possessions, with a frontier on the Elbe, and the dissolu- 
tion of the grand duchy of Warsaw, to be divided be- 
tween Russia, Austria, and Prussia. These terms not 
being acceded to, both parties prepared for war, 
Austria agreed to furnish 200,000 to the allied forces, 
stipulating in return that she should be restored to the 
condition in which she was in 1803, or, at any rate, at 
the peace of Presburg. 

By gigantic efforts Napoleon was able to raise his 
army to 400,000 men, of whom nearly 350,000 were 
effective and he resolved to make Dresden the pivot on 
which all his operations should turn. To oppose him 
the allies mustered about 400,000 men, so that the two 
forces were pretty nearly equal. Of the latter, aerand 
army of 220,000 men, chiefly Austrians, under Prince 
Schwarzenberg, was stationed in Bohemia; Blttcher, 
with 95,000 men, was to protect Silesia ; while Bema* 
dotte, the crown prince of Sweden, who had joined the 
allies with 28,000 troops, was to protect Berlin and 
Brandenburg with an army of 90,000. Napoleon re- 
solved to march with the main body of his troops into 
Silesia against Bliicher, having despatched an army of 
80,000 men under Oudinot against Berlin, and sending 
a force of 30,000 to keep the passes from Bohemia to 



68o 



AUS 



Dresden. BHicher iadScionsIr retretted before the 
French troops, and wnile Napoleon was following him, 
the allied army in Bohemia came down upon Dresden. 
In place, however, of at once beginning the attack, it 
was delayed till Bonaparte, who had been informed of 
their movements, had time to arrive. The attack was 
conmienced on 28th August, and kept up with great 
funr daring the day; but in the evening a series of 
sallies were made from the town, which took the besieg- 
ers completely by surprise, and compelled them to with- 
draw. Napoleon haa now received sufficient reinforce- 
ments to enable him to give battle, which he did the 
next dav. He was then able to muster 150,000 men, 
while tne allies numbered about 160,000. The fight 
was maintained for some time with great bravery on 
both sides, but at length a body of French troops under 
Murat succeeded in turning the flank of the allied left 
wing, and then attacking them suddenly on flank and 
rear; they were thus thrown into connision, and the 
great body of them killed or made prisoners. The 
allies lost on this occasion about 26,000 men, of whom 
about 13,000 were prisoners. A French force under 
Vandamme had been sent to cut off the retreat of the 
allies, but this was engaged near Culm (29th August) by 
a body of Russians under Osterman, and a desperate 
struggle took place, which was renewed the next day, 
and only ended by the appearance in the rear of the 
French of a larp body of Prussians, when the leader 
and most of his troo[>s were made prisoners. The 
French lost in the two dajrs 18000 men, of whom 7000 
were prisoners. 

Napoleon, on quitting Silesia, had left Macdonald 
with an army of 80,000 men to oppose Bliicher. The 
latter suddenly attacked them witn great fniy on the 
Katxbach (26tn August), and defeated them with great 
slaughter. The fight was several times renewed during 
the three following days when the allies were in pursuit, 
and in all the French lost about 7000 men in killed and 
wounded, and 18,000 prisoners. Nor was the French 
army under Oudinot more successful, for it sustained ^ 
severe defeat at Gross Beeren (23d August), and in that 
and subseouent engagements lost about 4000 in killed 
and wounded, and an equal number of prisoners. 
Napoleon was strongly affected by these reverses, the 
more so that they were <juiie unexpected. He eave 
the command of the army in the north to Ney, and set 
out himself against Bliicher.* Ney engaged the allied 
army at Dennewits, and a desperate battle was fought 
(6th September), in which the French were at length 
beaten and put to flight with a loss of 13,000 men, of 
whom one-half were prisoners. The army in Bohemia 
now again resumed the offensive, and was preparing to 
(all upon Dresden, when Napoleon suddenly returned 
and drove them back. He again marched against 
Bliicher, but returned to Dresden without effecting any- 
thing. He then resolved to enter Prussia and take 
Berlin, but was obliged to give up this project on learn- 
ing that Bavaria had joined the allies (8th October). 
Now fearing that his retreat might be cut off, he directed 
his march toward the Rhine, and reached Leipsic on 
the 15th of October. Here the combined allied armies 
under Schwarzenberg, Bliicher, and Bernadotte assem- 
bled, and on the i6th an indecisive battle was fought, 
which to the French was equivalent to a defeat, and 
the same evening Napoleon made proposals for peace, 
but no answer was returned. The battle was renewed 
on the 18th. The French army numbered about 175,- 
000 men, while the allied forces amounted to about 
290,000. The French strength was also weakened by 
two Saxon brigades of foot and one of cavalry passing 
over to the enemy during the engagement. Notwith- 
standing these disadvantages the French fou^t with 



great bravery and determination, but were it IcngiA 
beaten on every side. Next day they were in full retreat, 
and Leipsic was taken by the allies after a gallant de< 
fence. I'he total loss of the French during these four days 
exceeded 60,000 men. The emperor reached Erfurt on 
the 23d October, and there collected the scattered re- 
mains of his army. The Bavarians, under Wrede, at- 
tempted to intercept his retreat at Hanao, bnt thoogfa 
aided by some of the allied troops, theywere defeated 
with great slaughter (30th October). The Rhine was 
crossra on ist November, and on the oth Napoleon 
arrived in Paris. Thus Gerroanv regained its independ- 
ence, and the Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved 
Austria, as we have seen, had a principal share in broig- 
ing this about ; but the Emperor Francis was oppc^cd 
to the adoption of extreme measures against Napoleon, 
being desvious that the sceptre of France should con- 
tinue in the hands of his daufi^hter and her descendanls. 
Other views, however, prevuied. The war was carri^J 
into the enemy's country, and at length, not without m 
good deal of fighting, the allies entmd Paris on 319^ 
March 1814. On iith April Napoleon resigned the 
imperial crown. 

in the end of September following a congress was 
assembled at Vienna to adjust the claims and the mntnal 
relations of the several states. This, however, was 
found to be a matter of no small difficnl^. Russia de- 
manded the whole of Poland, and Prussia laid claim to 
Saxony. Austria, France, and England were opposed 
to these claims, and determined to resist them, so that 
at one time it appeared as if war was again to break 
out; but more peaceful views began to prevail, and 
when the news arrived that Napoleon had secretly 
quitted Elba, all minor flifferences were forgotten in the 
presence of this pressing danger. They at once de- 
clared him an enemy and a disturber of the peace of the 
world, and prepared to brine against him an army of 
upwards of^half a million of men. But before tnese 
had all been collected, Wellington and Bliicher had 
brought the millitary career of Bonaparte to a close on 
the field of Waterloa In the new partition of Europe, 
which was fixed by the Congress of Vienna (181^), 
Austria received Lombardv and Venice, the Illvnan 
provinces, Dalmatia, the Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Salzbarg, 
the Innviertel, and Hansruckviertel, together with the 
part of Galida formerly ceded by her, making in all 
about 3,200 square miles of territory. 

The emperors of Austria and Russia and the king of 
Prussia also entered into a ** Holy Alliance," by which 
they bound themselves to remain united in the bands of 
true and brotherly love, to mutually help and assist each 
other, to govern their people like fathers of families, 
and to maintain reli^on, peace, and justice in their 
dominions. This alliance, beautiful in theoiy, was 
made, in fact, the means of maintaining absolute power 
in the hands of the rulers, and of suppressing free insti- 
tutions and almost every form of liberty among the 
people. This was particularly the case in Austria, 
under the direction of Metternich, who did everything 
in his power to carry out these principles. A strict 
censorship of the press was established, not only to 
overlook the home press, but also to superintend the 
introduction of foreign publications. A system of 
secret police was also oresmised to observe and report 
what was said and done by the people in private. Be- 
sides this, Austria was ever ready to aid in the suppres- 
sion of revolutionary movements in other states. In 
the construction of tne German Confederation she used 
her influence to suppress the popular voice in all mat- 
ters of government; her armies were emploved in 
quelling we popular insurrections in Naples ana Pied- 
mont in 1822 ; and by diplomacy she aided in the sap* 



AUS 



68 1 



nessioa of the popnlar movement in Spain in 1823. 
During the insurrection in Greece the influence of Aus- 
tria was exerted against it; and when Greece was 
established as a kingdom (1827), under the protection 
of England, France, and Russia, she kept aloof. When, 
however, Russia invaded Turkey in 1828, Austria 
joined with England in interfering to prevent the fall of 
Constantinople, and in bringing about peace. 

The commotions that followed the French revolution 
of July 1850 in different parts of Europe considerably 
affected Austria. This manifested itself chiefly in Lom- 
bardy, where the pnresence of 30,000 troops was required 
to maintain the imperial authority. In Parma and 
Modena the people suddenly rose m insurrection and 
expelled their rulers, and Austrian troops were employed 
to restore them. An insurrection also broke out in the 
Papal States, and the Pope invoked the aid of Austria, 
whose troops entered Bologna and established them- 
selves there (January 1832). Upon this the French sent 
a force to occupy Ancona, and at one time it seemed as 
if France and Austria were again to cross swords on 
Italian soil, but this danger was at length averted. In 
the minor states of Germany the cry for popular institu- 
tions was raised, and in many cases the rulers were 
obliged for a time to comply with them, but after the 
danger appeared to pass away, Austria, acting in concert 
with Prussia, succetded in bringing back the old state of 
things in the confederation. The Poles, tired of Russian 
rule, and hoping to be supported by France, took up 
arms to regain their independence (1831). Although 
Austria pro&scd a strict neutrality in the struggle, a 
Polish corps that was driven into her territories was dis- 
armed and detained, while a body of Russian troops 
under the same circumstances was allowed to continue 
its operations against Poland. During the remainder 
of the reign of Francis I. no public event of importance 
roccurred. He died on the 2d of March 183J, in the 
sixty-seventh year of his age and the forty-third of his 
reign. He was one of those well-meaning but weak- 
minded men, who unfortunately adopt the wrong means 
for effecting the good which they intend. He wished to 
make his people contented and happy, but he sought to 
do so by rq>ressing all independence in thou^t or 
action, and keeping them in most abject subjection. He 
earnestly strove for their advancement, but it was by 
strenuously endeavoring to keep things as they were, and 
opposing every form of change. The transition from an 
OKI to a new state of things was in his mind always asso- 
ciated with the utmost danger, and to be bv all means 
avoided. He did much in the way of estaolishing ele- 
mentary schools throughout the country, but said that 
he wished to have no learned men, only good loyal citi- 
zens. He was thoroughly conscientious and correct in 
his conduct, but at the same time narrow-minded, sus- 
picious, and bigoted. He was most assiduous in his 
attention to the business of the state, but occupied him- 
self chiefly with small matters and minor details, while 
more important concerns were entirely overlooked and 
neglecteo. His good qualities, however, commended 
him to the affections of his people, and this doubtless 
did much to repress among nis subjects the insurrection- 
ary spirit which subseouently manifested itself. 

He was succeeded oy his eldest son, Ferdinand I., 
an amiable but weak-minded prince, who left the gov- 
ernment very much in the hands of his prime minister, 
Mettemich- The various signs of discontent which had 
been manifested during the former reign soon became 
stronger and more marked. Baron Fillersdorf, the 
successor of Metternich, speaking of this period, says, 
** Circumstances permitted an uninterrupted enjoyment 
of peace, but the necessity for internal ameliorations 
became by so long a delay more urgent, the demand for 



them more sensible, whilst, owing to the procrastina- 
tions of the Government, faith and confidence were 
diminished. It is true that the prosperity of the prov- 
inces generally did not decline; on the contrary, manj 
branches of commerce manifested an increase in their 
development; but in spite of this the situation of the 
whole empire inspired in different respects serious ap- 
prehensions arising from the disordered state of the 
economy of finance, the yearly augmentation of the 
public debt, the inefficiency of the measures adopted, 
and still more from the oppressed disposition of mind 
of the clear-sighted and intelligent classes of the popu- 
lation." — ( T& Political Movement in Austria during 
1848-49.) The people saw growing up in«the nations 
around them freer institutions and more liberal modes 
of government, and they could not help contrasting 
those with their own system. Austria, too, was made 
up of a number of different nationalities, and the Gov- 
ernment attempted to strengthen its position by work- 
ing upon their national prejudices ana antipathies, set- 
ting race against race, and creed against creed. In 
particular, the German element was fovored at the ex- 
pense of the nationalities; and the Germanising measures 
of the Government excited great discontent among the 
other races. It has been remarked that the aversion 
of Austria to the development of the Slavonic element 
in her population was greatly owine to jealousy of Rus 
sia, which power she regarded as desirous of attachim. 
all the Slavonic races to itself. Hence Austria has aC 
ways been opposed to the encroachments of Russia ii| 
Turkey, and in fovor of nutintaining the integrity of th^ 
latter, so that, when war broke out in 1839 between the 
Sublime Porte and the Pasha of Egypt, she readil> 
joined England in support of the former. 

The court of Vienna was first frightened from its senstt 
of security by an insurrection in C^cia in 1846. This 
havinfi" been suppressed, Austria, in coniunction with 
the otner two powers which had dismembered Poland, 
determined to fay hold on Cracow, and thus extinguish 
the last remnant of Polish independence. This step 
being contrary to the treaty of Vienna, was strongly 
remonstrated against both by England and France; but 
these remonstrances were unhe^ed, and the republic 
was incorporated in the Austrian empire. The Frendi 
revolution of 1848, which convulsed almost the whole 
of continental Europe, caused the Austrian empire to 
totter to its foundations. Scarcely had the news of the 
fall of Louis Philippe reached Vienna when the whole 
city was in a state of^ open rebellion ( Mth March). The 
populace, headed by the students, and forcing tne mag- 
istracy along with them, made their way into the im- 
perial palace, and loudly demanded from the emperor 
the dismissal of his old counsellors, and the immediate 
grant of a new constitution. Alarmed at these demon- 
strations Prince Metternich resigned, and was soon 
after on his way to London ; and an imp>erial proclama- 
tion was issued, declaring the abolidon of the censor- 
ship of the press, the establishment of a national guard, 
and the convocation of a national assembly. These 
measures, however, as well as the nomination of a new 
ministry, were far from sufficing to arrest the popular 
movement, encouraged and led on by the students and 
other members of me university. The national guard 
just called into being, along with the academic l4;ion, 
formed themselves into a permanent committee, and 
dictated laws to the Government. On the 17th of May, 
Ferdinand, accompanied by the empress and the mem- 
bers of his family, secretly quitted the palace, and fled 
to Innsbruck. An attempt to dissolve the academic 
legion caused an outbreak on the 25th, and the streets 
were barricaded; but no fighting took place, for the 
ministers yielded to the demimds of the rioters, and gave 



6S» 



AUS 



■p their dctlfiL AcOBttMttccof citiiCTt|PitiopilgiiMqi» 
and itodnits, which was formed for the preservation of 
peace and order, was kealUed bj the prime minister, and 
awnnfd the aotnority of the Government Inthemean- 
time the revolationary spirit was manifesting itself in 
other parts of the empire. In Italj the inhabitants of 
Mikn and Venice rose against their mlers, and ex- 
pelled the Aastrian troops. This was followed by a 
general rising thronghont Lombardv and Venice. The 
msnrgents found an ally in Charles Albert, king of 
Sardinia, who came with an armjr to their assistance, 
and declared war against the em|nre. At first he suc- 
ceeded in driving tne Aastrians back to the northern 
frontier of* Italy; bat General Radetxkj, having re> 
odved reinforcements, vac^nished him m several en* 
gigements, and compelled him to flee to his own domin- 
ions, and conclude a trace with the victors. This was 
followed by the reconquest of Milan and the whole of 
Lombardy. Venice withstood the besieging army of 
the Aostrians for some months, bat was at length 
obliged to sonrender. In Bohemia the Csechs or 
Slavonic party determined to obtain redress against the 
Germanising measures of the Government, and for- 
warded a petition to the emperor, demanding a united 
and independent national assembly for Bohemia and 
Moravia, independent mui^dpal institutions, and an 
equal share in public offices with the German part of the 
population. An evasive answer was returned, 
and the citizens of the capital rose in in- 
surrection. A national assembly of delegates of 
the Slavonians in all parts of the empire was 
sammoned to meet at Prague. Three hundred 
made their appearance, and the assembly was opened in 
the be^nning of June. The efforts of the military to 
maintain peace excited the enmity of the citizens, and 
they petitioned for the removal of the commander, 
Prince Windischgr^ta. Meanwhile a collision took 
place between the Slavonic militia and the regular 
troops. The Germans joined with the militaiy, and the 
insurrection raged for five days; the town was bom- 
barded and taken, and the leaders dispersed or taken 
prisoners. 

In Hungary the National Diet had passed measures 
hi favor ofa responsible ministry, a perfect equality of 
dvil rights, reli^ous toleration, the formation of a na- 
tional guard, and the abolition of the censorship of the 
press. The emperor gave his consent to these meas- 
ures ; but a strong Austrian party in the country, chiefly 
Slavonians, was opposed to them, and, instigated and 
supported by the Austrian Government, they broke out 
in open revolt. Jellachich, the ban or governor of 
Croatia, was the leader of the insurgents, and collecting 
an army of 65,000 men, he marched on towards Pesth. 
An army was speedily raised by the Hun^rians to meet 
him, and a battle was fought within %$ miles of the cap- 
ital on 29th September, in which JelliMihich was beaten. 
The emperor now openly declared s^inst the Hungari- 
ans, annulled the decrees of the Diet, suspended the 
dvil authorities, and appointed Jellachich commander 
of the army. The Diet, denying the authority of the 
emperor, organised a committee of safety, and elected 
Kossuth president. This was equivalent to a declara- 
tion of war, and an Austrian army was ordered out 
against them. The people of Vienna, sympathising 
with the Hungarians, rose in arms, when the garrison ^ 
that dty departed for Hungary (6th October). A dep- 
utation waited on the minister of war, Latour, demand- 
ing their recall, and on his refusal they took the arsenal 
by storm and murdered him. The National Diet, which 
had met on the 22d of July, now declared its sittings 
permanent, and elected a committee of puUk safe^. 
It sent an addreu to the emperor asking for a now min- 



istiy. the revocitkm of the edictagiiDst theHnngmoi, 
the ainnissal of Jdkchich, and an amnesty for the riotCA 



The emperor, who had returned from Inndxvdc to Vi- 
enna in June, returned an evasive answer, and fled to 
Olmiits. llie people in the capital armed themsehes 
under the leadership of General Bern, andpiepared to 
resist the impending attadt of the army. TDegarrisoi 



after having retired outside the limits of the dtj, 
joined hj Jellachich's horde of Croattans sod by 



the 



army of Wmdischgrits. On 23d October, an army of 
loo^ooo men appeared before Vienna, and the dty was 
sammoned to surrender. This the P^opk refosed to do^ 
and the attack was commenced on tne2oth,whenthecity 
wasseton fire in many places. The next day a partof tM 
suburbs was taken, ana the leaders began to think of 
surrendering when the news of a Hungarian army hast- 
ening to their relief inspired them with fresh coarac«. 
This force, however, was attacked and pat to flifht by 
Jellachich (30th October), and the next dar the aty was 
taken bv storm, after a desperate struggle, which was 
attendeawith immense slaughter. On 2jd November 
a new ministij was formed, of whidi| Prince Schwaiien- 
berg was president ; and on 2d December the Emperor 
Ferdinand was induced to abdicate the throne. Hii 
brother. Frauds Charles, who was his leg^ saccessor, 
likewise renounced his right in favor of his son, Francis 
Joseph, who was proclaimed emperor under the title of 
Francis Joseph I. 

The war in Hungary was renewed by Windisdigriits, 
who crossed the Leitha, and after several succeufol 
engagements entered the capital of that country (Ju^U' 
ary 1849), ^^ Hungarian Government and one division 
of^the armv having departed eastward to Debrecziiis 
while the other under Gorgd retired northward toward 
Waitzen. The Austrian general, instead of parsaine 
them, remained inactive for seven weeks at Pesth, ana 
thus afforded them time to organise. In TransylvanU 
General Bcm gained a dedsive victory over the Austri- 
ans in that territory, and also defeated and put to flight 
a Rusnan force that had come to their assistance. At 
length Windischgnltz moved forward towards Dcbrec- 
zin, and met the Hungarins at Kapobia, where an obsd- 
nate and bloody but mdedsive battle was fought (26th 
February). Next day the Aastrians, bavins received 
rdnforcements, renewed the fight, and the Hungarisn* 
were obliged to retire. The latter having recruited tl^ 
forces, another obstinate batUe was fougnt near Godow 
(cth April), in which the Austrians were defeated, «• 
they were in several subsequent engagements, so that 
they were compelled to abandon the capital and recrc^ 
the Danube, leaving a small earrison at Buda, wbioi 
afterwards surrendered. Had the victorious army n<^ 
inarched on to Vienna they would doubtless have suc- 
ceeded in bringing the Austrians to terms ; butdispates 
among the rulers and dissensions among the 8^°^^ 
prevented such a course. In June Prince Paskewitcft 
crossed the Galidan frontier at the head of a Russiaa 
army of 150,000 men ; and General Haynau, .'•'J^^Jf?^ 
had the command of the Austrian troops, was joined bjr 
a Russian corps under General Palutin. The Hongs'^ 
ans were unable to contend against these forces, sw 
had again to leave their capital, the seat of the Govein- 
ment being transferred to Ss^jiedin. Driven fr^* Jjj? 
place, the army made a stand; at Tcmesvar, but were 
defeated with great slaughter (9th August), and Bg^ 
two dajrs later, at Arad. On 13th August the H«o* 
garian eeneral, Gdrgei, who had been named dictatoTf 
surrendered to the Russians. Hungary was now trett*^ 
as a conquered country, and the greatest crueltirtJ^^L 
practised sgunst the people by the Austrisn 8^*|^S 
Haynau. The military and parliamentary leaders w^ 
shot or hangedy and the prisons filled with onhippT ^^ 



AUS 



683 



dms. In the meantime the wtr in Italy was renewed 
by the king; of Sardinia. He was, however, defeated 
at Mortara (21st March) by the Austrian general, 
Radetdcy, and again at Novara (23d March), when he 
abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmannel, with 
whom a peace was concluded. Venice held oat against 
the Austrians till 23d August, when it was forced to 
surrender. 

The congress which, since the final struggle in 
Vienna, had been adjourned to Kremsier, was dissolved 
(March 4, 1840), and a constitution promulgated by the 
free will of the emperor. At this time efforts were 
made in the German National Assembly at Frankfort to 
form Germany into one integral empire, excluding 
Austria, the imperial crown being offered to the king of 
Prussia. This was violentlv ooposed by the Austrian 
Government, and though tne tcmg of Prussia did not 
venture in the face of this opposition to accept the 
imperial crown, he concluded a treaty with the kings of 
Saxony and Hanover (Mav 1S49), with the view of 
forming a strict union witn the difierent states of the 
German confederacy to the exclusion of Austria. To 
tliis treaty the majority of the lesser states afterwards 
acceded, and a diet was convened at Erfurt (May 
1852), under the presidency of Prussia, for the reorgan- 
isation of Germany. Austria, to counteract the efforts 
of her rival, invited the different states to send their 
representatives to Frankfort, where she assumed the lead. 
Tne Iqg^ity of the assembly was at once acknowledged 
by Bavaria, and Saxony and Hanover were subsequently 
gained over to it. While matters were in this state dis- 
turbances arose in Hesse-CasseL The margrave invoked 
the assistance of Austria, while the people looked for 
aid to Prussia. Having received the authority of the 
diet at Frankfort, Austria sent an army into Hesse, 
where they were confronted by another army from Prus- 
sia, and an immediate commencement of hostilities was 
looked for, but this was averted by a conference held at 
OlmUtZy when Prussia acknowledged the right of Aus- 
tria to enter Hesse. Soon after this Austria and Prus- 
sia convoked a congress of all the states at Dresden, 
wlua« it was agreed that the final settlement of the 
afiJBUis of the confederacy should be submitted to the 
decision of the diet at Frankfort. Austria now pro- 
posed to the diet that all her provinces, including Hun- 
sniry and Lombardo-Venetia, should be indnded in the 
&ennan confederacy, but this bokl proposal failed of 
acceptance. 

} Austria now made strenuous efforts to develop the re- 
sources of the monarchy bv encouraging agriculture, in- 
dtistry, and commerce. Tne land was freed from the 
burdens of feudalism, taxes were removed, new roads 
were formed, and railways were constructed. A new 
tariff was adopted (Julv 185 1), and negotiations were 
entered into with the other German states for a complete 
customs' union with the Zollverein, but this was strongly 
opposed by Prussia and several of the other states in tne 
onion. A commercial treaty, however, was, after con- 
siderable negotiation, concluded between Austria and 
the Zollverein (19th February 1853). The liberal con- 
cessions that had been made by the Government were 
rapidly disappearing, a rigorous military system of rule 
was beins introduced, and centralisation was taking the 
place of ue old provincial system. On the 1st of Janu- 
ary 1852 it was announced that the constitution and 
fondamental rights were abolished, the ministers were 
declared responsible only to the emperor, trial by jury 
was set aside, tiie censorship of the press was agam in 
operation. The influence of the Roman Catholic clergy 
and the Jesuits was also re-established. A ponular out- 
bresJc occurred in Milan (6th February 1853), when a 
number of Uie militaiy were killed, but it was speedily 



suppressed. An attempt was made to assassinate the 
emperor in Vienna by a young Hungarian (i8th Fd>ni- 
ary). In the quarrel between the Montenegrins and the 
Porte, Austria sided with the former, and Count Leinin- 
gen was sent to Constantinople (February 1853) ^ ^ 
mand the redress of their grimnces, whidi was granted. 
About this time Russia demanded the protectorate of the 
Greek Christians in Turkey, and this being denied, her 
troops crossed the Pruth and occupied the principalities 
of Moklavia and Wallachia (July 1853). Austria took 
a leading part, along with France and England, in con- 
demning these Droceedings and in endeavoring to brmg 
about peace. She also gave the Western powers to be- 
lieve that she would actively co-operate witn them in the 
defence of Turkey, but afterwards fell back upon vague 
promises, and on April 20, 1854, entered into an alliance 
with Prussia, by which the two powers c^uaranteed each 
other's dominions from attack, and pledged themselves 
only to take an active part in the war whcm the interests 
of Germany appeared to be endangered. On June 14^1 
Austria a^^eed with Turkey to occupy the Danul^ 
principalities with an armed force, and b^ the end o^ 
August she had a large army there, which virtually 
brought the war on the Danube to an end. Austria stiu 
continued to use her exertions to bring about peace, and 
with this view a conference vras opened at Vienna in 
March 1855, but the representatives of the several pow- 
ers were unable to a^iee upon a basis. After the fall 
of Sebastapol she agam renewed her efforts, and having 
ascertained the terms on which the Western powers 
woukl be prepared to treat, she sent Count Esterhazy 
to St. Petersburg to lav them before the czar, by ^om 
they were accepted, and a treaty of peace was signed at 
Paris, 31st March 1856b 

In August 1855 the emperor signed a concordat with 
the Pope, giving the churoi greater power in the country 
than it had ever possessed Wore. The clergy were to 
have unlimited control over all ecclesiastical matters and 
matters connected with education, and were to enjoy 
free communication with Rome without the intervention 
of the civil power. The Government now seemed desir- 
ous of relaxing somewhat their restrictions, and of 
making the people forget the troubles of 1848 and 1849. 
The military rule was made less strict, and a general 
ainnesty was proclaimed for political offences (12th July 
1856). The emperor visited Italy in the end of i8<^ "^ ' 
Hungary in May 1857, ^^^ *^^ remembrai.-v.'Ol'^bast 
wrongs was still alive m the minds of the people, and he 
was everywhere received with the greatest coolness. 
Austria was opposed to the union of the Danubian prin- 
cipalities, and for some time refused to evacuate them, 
but at length (March 1857) her troops were recalled. 

Sardinia had frequently remonstrated with Austria con- 
cerning her policy m Italy, while Austria, on the other 
hand, complained of the attacks made upon her by the 
Sardinian press. A growing coolness had also sprung 
up between Austria and France on this subject, which 
reached its climax when the French emperor said to the 
Austrian minister, M. Hubner, at the levee on the ist 
of January 1859, ** ^ regret that our relations with your 
G<^emment are not so good as they were ; but I request 
vou to tell the emperor that my personal feelings for 
dim have not changed." Thepre|Murationsfor war were 
carried on with the greatest activity by Austria, France, 
and Sardinia Engumd sent Lord Cowley to Vienna to 
endeavor to arrange differences, but without success. 
Russia proposed a congress of the five sjeat powers, and 
this was ^ireed to, but Austria demanded the disarma- 
ment of Su'dinia previous to the congress, whidi the 
latter declined to agree to, and both sides prepared for 
war. Austrian troops poured into Italy, France was 
concentrating her forces at Toulon^^ana Garibaldi was 

Digitized by V^jOC 



684 



AU S 



opginisinfi; a corps of Italian voknteers. The Anstrians 
croised tne Ticino (April 26), and the French troops 
were marched into luly. Napoleon left Paris on the 
lOth of May, and reached Genoa on the 12th, where 
he was the next day joined by Victor Emmannel. The 
first serious encounter took place at Montebello (May 
30), when a strong body of Austrians was, after a des- 
pmtte resistance, defeated and put to flight by a body 
of French troops. The Anstrians ag^in suffered a severe 
defeat at Pakstro (May 31.) On 4th June the battle of 
Magenta was fought, u which the Austrians were, 
after a long and desperate conflict, defeated and 
put to flight by the combined army of the French 
and Sordmians, under the command of the Emp- 
eror Napoleon in person. The Anstrians fougnt 
with great bravery and determination, but were not 
weU officered, and the arrival of General M*Mahon with 
his troops at an opportune moment decided the battle 
against them. Tney had about 75,000 men in the field, 
v^e the allies numbered about 55,000. The latter 
lost about 4000 men in killed and wounded, the former 
about 10,000, besides 7000 prisoners. Next day the 
inhabitants of Milan rose in insurrection, and the 
garrison fled. Pavia was evacuated on the 7th, and on 
tne 8th the fortified position of Meleenano was taken 
after three hours' hard fighting. The same day the 
allied monarchs made their triumphal entry into Milan. 
One stronghold after another now fell into the hands 
of the conquerers. The defeated army retreated to 
the further Dank of the Mincio, where it was reorgan- 
ised, and the emperor himself assumed the command. 
It then recrossed the Mincio, and took up a position 
near the village of Solferino. Here the allies came up 
to it, and both sides prepared for battle. The Austrian 
army numbered about 170,000 men, while the dlied 
troops were not less than 150,000. The battle com- 
menced earlv in the morning of the 24th June, and 
continued till late in the afternoon. The Austrian line 
extended for nearly 12 miles. The right and left wings 
of the Austrians were for some time successful, whfle 
Napoleon was using every effort to break their centre. 
In this he was at length successftil, and the wings were 
then obliged to retire in order that they might not be 
overflanked. The French lost in killed and wounded 
12,000 men, the Sardinians 5000, and the Austrians 
besides 7000 prisoners. The Austrians now 
;:^^he line of the Mincio, and fell back upon 
Verona. The allies crossed the Mincio, Peschiera was 
invested, and great preparations were made on both 
sides for renewmg the contest. While all Europe was 
in the expectation of another great battle, news arrived 
that an armistice for five weeks had been agreed to ; 
and on iith July the two emperors met at Vulafiranca, 
and agreed to terms of peace. A conference was 
afterwards held at Ziirich, and a treaty drawn up and 
signed (loth November 1859). By it Austria gave 
up Lombardy, with the exception of the fortresses of 
Mantua and Peschiera, to Napoleon, who was to hand 
it over to the king of Sardinia; Italy was to be formed 
into a confederation under the presidency of the Pope, 
and Austria was to be a member on account of Venetia; 
and the princes of Tuscany and Modena were to have 
their possessions restored to them. 

In March i860 the emperor, by patent, enlarged the 
number and powers of the Reichsrath or councu of the 
empire, and on 21st October promulgated a new consti- 
tution, in which he declared tne right to issue, alter, and 
abolish laws, to be exercised by him and his successors 
only with the co-operation of the lawfully assembled 
diets and of the Reichsrath. The things to be settled 
with the co-operation of the Reichsrath were all legisla- 
tive matters relating to the rights, duties, and interests 



of the leveral kingdoms and countries, sadi as the laws 
connected with me coinage, cnrren^, public credit, 
customs, and commercial matteia. Tnk was folk>wed 
by proposals of similar changes for Hungary; and. 00 
27th February following, it was decreed that Uieir 
former constitutions should be restored to Hungary, 
Croatia, Salvonia, and Transylvania. At last-mentioiied 
date a fundamental law was also promulgated for the 
representation of the empire by a Reichsrath, composed 
of^two bodies, a house of peers and a house of depu- 
ties, and declaring the constitution and ftmctions of 
each. It was declared to be the earnest wish of the 
Government that hjrper-centralisation dionld be avoided. 
On ist May the new Reichsrath was formally opened 
by tbs emperor at Vienna, when he declared his convic- 
tion ^ that liberal institutions, with the conscientious 
introflhction and maintenance of the principles of equal 
rights of all the nationalities of his empbe, of the equal- 
ity of all his subjects in the tye of the law, and of the 
participation of the representatives of the people in the 
legislation, would lead to a salutary transformation of 
the whole monarchv." Hungary, Croatia, Slavonian 
and Transylvania declined to send representatives, 
claiming to have constitutions and ris^ts distinct from 
the empire. The Reichsrath sat till the dose of 1862, 
occupying itself chiefly with ecclesiastical affiurs, the 
state of education, personal liberty, and the laws relat- 
ing to the press, commerce, feudal tenures, &a In 1863 
the emperor of Austria invited the different potentates 
of Germany to meet him at Frankfort^ in oroer to de- 
termine npon a scheme of reform for their conmion 
country. They almost all responded to the invitation 
except the king of Prussia, and the congress was opened 
(August 16) by a speech firom the emperor. The pro- 
ceedings, however, did not result in any important 
diange, owing «a great measure to the want of sympathy 
from Prussia. 

The death of Ferdinand Vn., king of Denmark (icth 
November 186^), gave rise to a general ferment in (Ger- 
many on the subject of the duchies Sdileswig, Holstein, 
and Lauenburg. To the Germans a united fatherland 
had long been a favorite klea, and they now saw a step 
towards its accomplishment Notwithstanding the trea^ 
of London (8th May 1852), which fixed the succession 
to the Danish crown, and was signed by Austrm and 
Prussia, they denied the right of the new king, Chris- 
tian IX., to the duchies, and laid claim to them as part 
of Germanv. To enforce their daim the diet determmed 
that they snould be occupied by an armed force, sud 
Saxony and Hanover were directed to enter and takej 
pooession of Holstein. This was done without their 
coming into hostile collision with the Danish troops, wfoci 
retired to Schleswig (December 1863). Soon after this,! 
however, Austria and Prussia gave notice that they, sd 
the chief powers in Germanv, intended to take upon 
themselves the canying on of the war. HostiliticacoTr 
menced (ist February 1864) when Austrian and Prussian 
troops crossed the Schlesvag frontier. Denmark had 
trusted to England and France coming forward to main- 
Uin the conditions of the treaty of 1852 ; but these powcn 
remained passive, and the Danes, after a short but hetck 
stand, were forced to succumb. An armistice was con* 
duded (ist August), and a treaty of peace was eventual^ 
signed at Vienna (30th October), by which Denmaii 
made over Schleswig, Hoklein,, and Lauenburg to Am- 
tria and Prussia. 

But Austria speedily suffered terrible retribution for 
the part she had taken in this affieur. By indaciaf 
Austria to with join her, Prussia succeeded in reaioviB| 
part of the odium of the proceeding from hersell', aal 
she also succeeded in obtaining the aid of a rival powtf 
to secure territories which she had pcevious^ doteBBund 

Digitized "by V^" " " 



AUS 



68; 



fo •.ppropriate as her own. The acquired territory 
naturally lay very convenient for Prussia, and Austria 
would have willingly enough given up her claim on it if 
Prussia, had agreea to grant her a territorial equivalent 
in sonoe other quarter of her dominions. This the latter 
jx>wcr declined to do, but would readily have consented 
to a pecuniary compensation. A convention was there- 
fore held at Gastein (August 1865), which brought 
about a temporary understanding. Prussia was to re- 
ceive Lauenburg on payment of a stmi of 1,500,000 
t thalers, while Austria was to have the administration of 
affairs in Holstein, and Prussia in Schleswig. Austria, 
however, was desirous of the formation of the duchies 
into a separate state, and supported the claims of the 
: duke of Augustenburg to them. This was strenuously 
L opposed by Prussia, who regarded the public meetings 
r that were permitted to be held in Holstein in support 
t of this as a breach of agreement. Austria referrea the 
t question to the Frankfort diet, which decided in favor 
. of the duke. Matters were- now approaching a crisis. 
* Prussia had long looked with jealousy upon the power 
& of Austria, and considered a war with that country for 
^ the'supremacy of Germany as sooner or later a neces- 
<: sity. The German people had for some time felt that 
:. there was not room for two great powers, — each too 
[I great to submit to the other, — one or other must eive 
!\' way before the country could obtain its proper place 
: ana influence in Europe. While both powers were 
- professing the utmost desire for peace, each was actively 
^ pra>aring for war. Prussia entered into an alliance 
C' with Victor Emanuel (27th March 1866), the latter 
f> undertaking to declare war against Austria as soon as 
1: Prussia commenced hostilities, while the former engaged 
r^ to secure Venetia for her Italian ally. In the beginnmg 
ipfi?. of May orders were issued by the emperor of Austria 
• for putting the whole army upon a war looting, and for 
(ir concentratmg a portion of it upon the Bohemian and 
D v^ Silesiam frontiers ; and about the same time the Prussian 
lis* cabinet issued orders to fill up to the war strength the 
icf> diflFerent branches of the service. On 7th June the 
i^ Prussian troops entered Holstein, and compelled the 
'.t^ Austrians to retire, which they did without bloodshed. 
cesfj Austria was in an unprepared state when the war 
ra * actually broke out, but the Prussian forces, on the other 
(M hand, were thoroughly equipped. The Austrian army 
tsf^ in the north amounted to 247,000 men, besides the 
0P Saxon armv at Dresden of 24,000, in all 271,00a The 
%^ Prussian force consisted of three armies: the first, 
i ^ under the command of Prince Frederick Charles, con- 
i tfi ^ed of 93,000 men and was destined for Saxony and 
**^ ^Bohemia; and second, under the crown prince, num- 
fii^'bercd 115,000 men, and was to operate in Silesia; 
^, »*.-«rhilc the third, or army of the Elbe, under General 
ttp* Herwarth, consisting of 46,000 men, vtras to march on 
^^ ^fe^ right flank of the first army, nmking in all 254,000 
>T4*^ "men, besides reserve corps of 24,300 men stationed at 
arkl^'B^lin. General Benedek was appointed commcnder- 
tois* in-chief of the Austrian army, ana his forces were dis- 
^pc* tributed alone; the frontier that separates Moravia from 
fliitfi Saxony and Silesia. On the i6th of June the Prus- 
^ t sians entered Saxony, and marched upon Dresden, the 
^. Saxon army retiring to join the Austrians. On the i8th 
pd^ the Austrians entered Silesia, and the same day the 
^tJ* Prussians took possession of Dresden- The three 
; Prussian armies now advanced into Bohemia, and 
endeavored to concentrate in the direction of Gitschin. 
On June 26th an engagement took place between some 
companies of the first army and a bixly of Austrians at 
Podol, in which the latter were defeated, while, at 
•^^ Hiihnerwasser, the advanced guard of the Elbe army 
^{^ attacked some Austrian troops and drove them back 
, towards Miinchengr^tz. Here, on the 28th, a severe 

L *^ 



^ 
'^ 

^ 



Struggle took place between the Prussians and the 
Austrians, supported bjr the Saxons, but the latter were 
ultimately driven back in the direction of Gitschin. In 
the meantime the second army, under the crown prince, 
had to march through the long and narrow passes of 
the mountains lying between Silesia and Bohemia. On 
the 27th one of the corps of this army, under General 
Steinmetz, engaged an Austrian force und^r General 
Ramming, and after a severe contest began to give way, 
but the crown prince coming up, the Austrians were 
driven back. The same day another corps of this army 
took possession of Trautenau, but were attacked by 
the Austrians under General Gablenz, and sustained a 
repulse. Both sides having received reinforcements, 
the action was renewed next day at Soor, when victory 
ultimately declared for the Prussians. At Skalitz, on 
the 28th, the Prussians, under Steinmetz, were attacked 
by the Austrians under Archduke Leopold, but the latter 
were defeated, and the town taken by storm. It is said 
that on this occasion the archduke had disobeyed positive 
orders, which were on no account to make an attack. 
On the 29th, two divisions of the first army, under 
Generals Tiimpling and Werder defeated tne Aus- 
trians under Count Clam Gallas, at Gitschin, and 
took the town. The count, who occupied a strong 
position here, had orders not to attack the enemy, but 
these he had disobeyed, and the consequence was that 
Benedek, who had taken up a strong position at Dube- 
nets to oppose the army of the crown prince, found him- 
self at once in a most dangerous situation, and was 
obliged to retreat towards Koniggratz. On the same 
day bodies of Austrians were def&ited at Koniginhof 
and Schweinschadel. In these various engagements the 
Austrians lost in all from 30,000 to 40,000 men. ^ Both 
sides now concentrated their forces in the direction of 
Koniggrsltz, and prepared for a general engagement. 
On Tune jo the king of Prussia joined the army, and the 
battle of K5nigcratz, or Sadowa, was fought on the 3d 
of July, The Austrians numbered about 220,000, and 
the Prussians probably about 240,000. The battle was 
long and well contested, both sides fighting with the 
greatest determination and bravery ; but at length the 
Austrians were broken, and obliged to retire. The 
Prussians lost 359 officers and 8794 men, while the 
Austrians and Siaxons lost in all about 44,200 men, of 
whom 19,800 were prisoners. This terminated what 
has been sometimes called the S^tn Days* PVar, The 
Austrians retreated to Zwittau and afterwards to 
Olmiitz. A portion of the Prussians went in pursuit, 
but the kin^, with an army of upwards of 100,000 men, 
marched on towards Vienna, and reached Nikulsburg, 
July 18. After the battle of Koniggratz, the emperor, 
seems the disastrous state of his aflairs, resoWed to 
cede venetia to the Emperor Napoleon, so as to be able 
to bring his army in Italy against the Prussians, and he 
also expressed his willingness to accept the mediation 
of the latter to bring aM>ut a peace. The Archduke 
Albert, who had the command of the army in Italy, 
with which he had inflicted a severe defeat on the Ital- 
ians at Custozza, was recalled to take the chief command 
in place of Benedek. An armistice, however, was agreed 
upon through the mediation of France (22d July). The 

?reliminaries of peace were signed at Nikoisbure (26th 
uly), and negotiations were afterwards carried on at 
*rague, where a treaty was signed (23d August). By 
this treaty Austria gave up to the kingdom of Italy 
Venetia and the fortresses of the quadrilateral, namely, 
Pesdiiera, Mantua, Verona, and Legnano; recognised 
the dissolution of the late German Confederation, 
and consented to a new formation of Germany, in which 
she should have no part ; gave up all chiim to th^ 
duchies of Holstein and Sdileswig ; and agreed to pay s 



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war indemnity of 40,000,000 thalers, less 20,000,000 
allmed her on account of the duchies. 

Slaving thus obtained peace, the emperor now turned 
his attention to home afrairs. Hungary was still in a 
vt*ry troubled and dissatisfic-*! state. We liave seen that 
slicdeclinetl to send representatives to the Rcichsrath, 
in.si ting on her right to self-government, and refusing 
to have anything else. The plan of opposition she 
adopted was that of passive resistance, by the nonpay- 
ment of taxes. At length, at the opening of the 
Hungarian diet at Pesth by the emperor in person, on 
Dec-ember 14, 1865, he recognised tne necessity of self- 
government for Hungary so far as it did not affect the 
unity of the empire and the position of AxLstrIa as a great 
European power. He also recognised the Prajgniatic 
Sanction as the basis on which a settlement of their diffi- 
culties was to be sought. At the opening of the diet on 
I9ih November 1866, an imperial rescript, signed by the 
emperor, was read, in which he promised, by the 
appointment of a responsible ministry and the restora- 
tion of municipal self-government, to do justice to the 
constitutional demands of the Hungarians. In the end 
of 1866, Baron Beust, who had previously been prime 
minister of Saxony, and was not only a foreigner but a 
Protestant, was made foreign minister. He subsequently 
became prune minister and chancellor of the empire. 
In the spring of 1867 the emperor summoned the 
Keichsrath to assemble at Vienna to deliberate upon 
various important measures, — the proposed amendments 
in the Hungarian constitution, the question of ministerial 
responsibility, the sending of delegates to assemblies, 
the extension of the constitutional self-government 
of the different provinces, the reorganisation of the 
army, the improvement of the administration of justice, 
and the promotion of the economical interests of the 
country. It was opened by the emperor in person on 
May 22, and in his speech on the occasion he earnestly 
recommended to their attention these subjects. " To- 
day,** he said, ** we are about to establisn a work of 
peace and concord. Let us throw a veil of forgetfulness 
over the immediate past, which has inflicted deep 
wounds upon the empire. Let us lay to heart the 
lessons which it leaves behind, but let us derive with 
unshaken coiirage new strength, and the resolve to 
secure to the empire peace ana power.** On 8th June 
the emperor and empress were crowned king and queen 
of Hungary at Pestn amid great public rejoicings, on 
which occasion full pardon was given for all past politi- 
cal oflbnces, and full liberty to all offenders residing in 
foreign countries to return. Many important and liberal 
measures were discussed and carried in the Reichsrath ; 
in particular, marriage was made a civU contract, and 
iheperfect equality of believers of diflerent creeds was 
recc^ised. On 25lh May 1868, the civil marriage bill 
received imperial assent, and on 30th July 1870 the 
concordat with Rome was declared to be suspended in 
consequence of the promulgation of the doctrine of 
Papal infallibility. This last measure introduced a 
very beneficial change in the relations between Austria 
an(i the kingdom of Italy, and has brought about more 
sympathy and cordiality between these two states than 
formerly existed. 

P'or some years the Government had much difficulty 
in settling the law of elections so as to secure the due 
representation of the different races and classes of the 
people in the Reichsrath. On 6th March 1873 a reform 
bill was passed by the lower house, taking the election 
of members of the Reichsrath out of the hands of the 
provincial diets and transferring it to the body of the 
electors in the several provinces, thus substituting direct 
for indirect election. In April it passed the upper 
house and received the imperial assent. This measure 



was hailed with great satisfaction, and has established 
the government upon a much broader and more secure 
basis. The session of the new Reichsrath was opened 
by the emperor in person on November 5. In the same 
year a great exhibition of the indu:»trics of all nations 
was held at Vienna. It was opened on May i by the 
emperor, and attracted to the capital, among others, 
the prince of Wales, the czar of Russia, the emperor 
and empress of Germany, the king of Italy, and the 
shah of Persia. On 2d December the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the emperor's accession to the throne 
was celebrated amid great rejoicing in Vienna, having 
been celebrated three days before m Pesth. The em- 
peror and empress were present on both occasions^ and 
everywhere met with an enthusiastic reception. In the 
spring of 1874 a bill for the abolition of the concordat 
was introduced by the Government, and measures for 
restricting the powers of the clergy passed both hooses. 
In his speech at the opening of the Reichsrath on 5th 
November of that year, the emperor said that by 
the system of direct popular elections the empire hatl 
obtained real indepenaence, and exhorted the member^ to 
work with united energy at the solution of the greatest 
of their tasks, the uniting of the people of Austria, $0 
that she might become a powerful state, strong in ideas 
of justice and liberty. 

AUTOCHTHONES, in Greek Mythology, the first 
human beings who appeared in the world, and wITo, as 
their name implies, were believed to have sprung from 
the earth itselt Instead of one pair as the first parents 
of the whole race, each district of Greece^ had its own 
autochthones, who, according to the prominent physical 
features of the neighborhood, were supposed to have 
been produced from trees, rocks, or marshy places, the 
most peculiar, and apparently the most widely-spread 
belief being that which traced the origin of mankind to 
the otherwise unproductive rocks. 

AUTO-DA-FE {Act of Faith), a public solemnity of 
the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, at which the 
sentences of the court were read ; those who were de- 
clared innocent were formally absolved, and the con- 
denmed were handed over to the secubr power for pun- 
i^ment The day chosen was usually some Sunday 
between Trinity and Advent. The first auto-da-fe was 
held by Torquemada at Seville in 1481 ; the last was 
probably that mentioned by Llorente, the historian of 
the Inquisition, as having been solemnised in Mexko in 
1815. See Inquisition. 

AUTOGRAPH, that which is written with a person's 
own hand, an original nuuiuscript as opposed to an 
apograph or copy, is used to designate either at whole 
(document [c-g-^ a letter) or a signature only. 

AUTOLVCUS of PiTANB, in ./4£olis, was one of the 
earliest Greek writers on mathematics and astronomy. 
As he is said to have given instruction to Arcesilaus, he 
probably flourished about the middle of the 4di cen- 
tury B.C. 

AUTOMATON (from self, and to seize),a self-mov- 
ing machine, or one in which the principle of motion is 
contained within the mechanism itself. According to 
this description, clocks, watches, and all machines of a 
similar kind, are automata, but the word is generally 
applied to contrivances which simulate for a time the 
motions of animal life. If the human figure and actions 
be represented, the automaton has sometimes been 
called specially an androides. We have very eaihr 
notices of the construction of automata e.g., the tripocb 
of Vulcan, and the moving figures of Daedalus. 400, 
years B.c, Archytas of Tarentum is said to have madea' 
wooden pigeon that could flv ; and during the Mi' ** 
Ages niunerous instances of the construction of ~ 
mata are recorded. K^omontanus is sakl to 



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AUT— A VE 



687 



made an iron fly, which would flutter round the room 
and return to his hand, and also an eagle, which flew 
before the Emperor Maximilian when he was entering 
Nuremberg. Roger Bacon is said to have forged a 
brazen head which spoke, and Albertus Magnus to have 
had an androides, which acted as doorkeeper, and was 
broken to pieces by Aauinas. Of these, as of some 
later instances, ^.^. , the ngure constructed by Descartes 
and the automata exhibitSl by Dr. Camus, not much is 
accurately known. But in tne i8th century, Vaucan- 
son, the celebrated mechanician, exhibited three admira- 
ble figures, — the flute-player, the tambourine-player, 
and the duck, which was capable of eating, drmkmg, 
and imitating exactly the natural voice of that fowl. 
No notice of automata can be complete without at least 
a reference to Kempelen's famous chess player, which 
for many years astonished and puzzled Europe. This 
figure, however, was no true automaton, although the 
mechanical contrivances for concealing the re^ per- 
former and giving eflect to his desired movements were 
exceedingly mgenious. 

AUTuN, the capital of an arrondissement of the 
same name in the department of Sadne and Loire, in 
France, is picturesquely situated on the declivity of a 
hill, at the foot of which flows the Arroux. It is one 
of the most ancient towns of France; and when Caesar 
invaded Gaul it was the most important of the >Edui. 
Its name was then Bibracte, but being afterwards much 
improved and embellished by Augustus it took that of 
Augustodunum. Population ii,6S4. 

AUVERGNE, a district, and formerly a province, of 
France, corresponding to the departments of Cantaland 
Puy-de-D6me, with the arrondissement of Brioude in 
Haute-Loire. It is divided into Lower and Upper by 
the River Rue; the distinction between the two portions 
being well marked by their physical features. 

AUXENTIUS of Cappadocia was an Arian theo- 
logian of some eminence. When Constantine deposed 
the orthodox bishops who resisted, Auxentius was in- 
stalled into the seat of Dionysius, bishop of Milan, and 
came to be regarded as the great opponent of the Nicene 
doctrine in the West. 

AUXERRE (the ancient Au/isstcdurum), a town of 
France, in the department of Ygnne, situated on the 
banks of the Yonne, m a wine-produdng district, and 
built in an antique fashion. 

AUXONNE (formerly Assonium, i.e.y ad Sonam^ 
from its position on the Sa6nc), a city of France, in the 
arrondissement of Dijon and department of C6te d'Or. 
It is strongly fortified, and possesses an old castle, an 
arsenal, and a school of artillery. 

AVA, the former capital of the Burman empire, is 
situated on the Irawadi, which is here 3282 feet broad, 
and which, making a bend out of its ordinary course, 
flows past the city on the north. On the east it has 
the river Myt-nge, a rapid stream 450 feet broad, 
which flows^ into the Irawadi close under its walls. 
P>om this river a canal has been dug, through which 
its waters flow on the south-east angle of the city, 
and are again brought into the same river. On tne 
south flows the deep and rapid torrent of the Myt-tha, 
an ofi*shoot of the Myt-nge, which, falling into the Ira- 
wadi, forms the defence of both the south and of the 
west face of the town. It is divided into the upper and 
lower, or the lesser and the larger town, both of which 
are fortified. 

This former capital of the Burman dominions com- 
prehends, according to the political divisions of that 
empire, the town of Sagaing, on the opposite shore of 
the Irawadi, and the town of Amarapura, 4 miles to the 
east. The town of Sagaing extends along the Irawadi 
for more than a mile and a naif, but is of inconsiderable 



breadth. It consists of mean houses thinly scattered 
among gardens and orchards, the principal trees in the 
latter consisting of fine old tamarinds. Over the site of 
the town and its environs are scattered innumerable 
temples, some of them old and ruinous, others modem. 
On the river face it has a brick wall about 10 feet iii) 
height, with parapet and embrasures like that of Ava,* 
and extending for above half a mile along the river./ 
Amarapura is a large place, afTd was formerly the capital; 
but Ava, which was twice before the capit^ was again 
made so in 1822. It continued to be so till 1853, vvhen 
the present king, on his accession, transferred the 
capital to MandaJay. To each of the towns of Ava, 
Sagaing, and Amarapura, are attached districts, the 
two former of which extend 12 miles along the river, 
and are of ec^ual breadth. The district of Amarapura 
is of equal size, so that Ava must be considered as 
not only the name of the former capital, but of a large 
district, which includes an area of 288 miles, containing^ 
according to the most accurate estimate, 354,200 iihabi- 
tants ; but the city of Ava is not supposed to contain 
more than 50,000 inhabitants, and, according to Mr. 
Crawford, half that number would be nearer the truth. 
The place, taken altogether, aflbrds few indications of 
industry or commerciS enterprise. 

A VALLONf a town of France, in the department of 
Yonne, finely situated on a granite rock, at the foot of 
which flows the river Voisin or Cousin. 

AVATCH A, one of the numerous volcanoes of Kam- 
chatka. It rises to a height of nearly ^000 feet (Mr. 
Kennan says 11,000), and has an extensive crater at the 
summit and another on the side. It was in active 
eruption in 1827, 1837, and 1855. 

AVEBURY, a village of England, in the county of 
Wilts, 6 miles W. of Marlborough. It occupies the site 
of one of the most remarkable megalithic structures in 
England. This consisted of a large outer circle formed 
of 100 stones of from 15 to 17 feet in height, and about 
40 feet in circumference, enclosing an area of about 
1000 feet in diameter. This circle was surrounded by a 
broad ditdi and lofty rampart. Within its area were 
two smaller circles, ^50 and 32J feet in diameter respec- 
tively, each consisting of a double concentric row of 
stones, — a stone pillar or maenhir, 20 feet high, occupy- 
ing the centre of the one, and a cromlech or dolmen 
that of the other. A long aventie of approach, now 
known as the Kennet Avenue, consistmg of a double 
row of stones, branches off from this structure towards 
the S.E. for a disUnce jof 1430 yards. Few traces of 
this immense erection now remain — the stones having 
been broken down and used in the construction of the 
houses of the village and for other purposes. 

AVERIO, a town in Portugal, province of Beira, the 
seat of a bishropic and college. 

AVELLA, a town of Italy, in the province of Princi- 
pato Ulteriore, a fine situation, and commanding most 
extensive prospects. It is distant about ?.o miles from 
Naples, and contains 3714 inhabitants. Near it are the 
remains of ancient Abella. 

AVELLINO, a fortified city of Italy, in the province 
of Principato Ulteriore, at the foot of Mount Vergine, 
and 28 miles E. of Naples. 

AVE M PACE. Abu Bekr Mohammed Ibn Tahya, 
sumamed Ibn Badja or Ibn Sayeg (t,e, son of the gold- 
smith), whose name has been corrupted by the latins 
into Avempace, Avenpace, or Aben Pace, was the ear- 
liest and one of the most distmguished of the Arab 
philosophers in Spain. Almost nothing is known of 
the events m his life ; he was bom, probably at Sara- 
gossa, towards the close of the nth century, and died 
at Fez in 1 148 at a not very advanced age. Like most 
of the Arab philosophers, he was a physician by pro- 



688 



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fcssioti, and he Is also said to have been a man of wide 
general culture. He was a skilled musician, mathema- 
tician, astroaomer, and poet, and though he is not 
known only through his metaphysical speculations, these 
do not seem to have been his favorite studies. 

AVENBRUGGER, or Auenbrugger, Leopold, 
a physician of Vienna, the discoverer of the important 
mode of investigating diseases of the chest ana alxlo* 
men by auscultation. His method was to apply the 
car to the chest, and to note the sounds it afforded on 
percussion by the hand, or what is called immediate aus- 
€U I tat ion. 

AVENTINUS [JohannThurmayr], author of the 
Annals of Bavaria^ was born in the year 1466 at 
Abensberg. 

AVENZOAR [Abu Merwan Abdamalec ibn 
Zohr], an eminent Arabian physician, who flourished 
about the end of the nth or beginning of the 12th cen- 
tury, was bom at Seville, where he exercised his profes- 
sion with great reputation. His ancestors had been 
celebrated as physicians for several generations, and his 
son was afterwards held by the Arabians to be even more 
eminent in his profession than Avenzoar himself. He 
was contemporary with Averroes, who, according to Leo 
Africanus, heard his lectures and learned physic of him. 
This seems probable, because Averroes more than once 
gives Avenzoar very high and partly deserved praise, 
calling him admirable, glorious, the treasure of all 
knowledge, and the most supreme in physic from the 
time of Galen to his own. He wrote a book entitled 
The Method of Preparing Medicines and Diet^ which 
was translated into Hebrew in the year 1280, and thence 
into Latin by Paravicius, whose version, first printed at 
Venice 1490, has passed through several editions. 

AVERAGE, a term used in maritime commerce to 
signify damages or expenses resulting from the accidents 
01 navigation. Average is either general or particular. 
Generalaverage arises when sacrifices have oeen made, 
or expenditures incurred, for the preservation of the 
ship, cargo, and freight, from some peril of the sea, or 
from its effects. It implies a subseauent contribution, 
from all the parties concerned, rateably to the values of 
their respective interests, to make good the loss thus 
occasioned. Particular average signifies the damage or 
partial loss happening to the ship, goods, or freight by 
some fortuitous or unavoidable accident. It is borne by 
the parties to whose property the misfortune happens, 
or by their insurers. 

Although nothing can be more simple than the funda- 
mental prmciple of general average, that a loss incurred 
for the advantage of all the coadventurers should be 
made good by them all in equitable proportion to their 
stakes in the adventure, the application of this principle 
to the varied and complicated cases which occur in the 
course of maritime commerce has given rise to many 
diversities of usage at different periods and in different 
countries. It is soon discoverea that the principle can- 
not be applied in any settled or consistent manner unless 
by the aid of rules of a technical and sometimes of a 
seemingly arbitrary character. The distinctions on 
which these rules turn are often verv refined indeed. 
This is the chief reason why no real progress has yet 
been made towards an international system of genera 
average, notwithstanding repeated conferences and 
other efforts by most competent representatives from 
different countries, seeking to arrive at a common 
understanding as a preliminary basis for such a system. 

The subject of general average is only incidentally 
connected with that of marine insurance, being itself a 
distinct branch of maritime law. But the subject of 
particular average arises directly out of the contract of 



Insurance, and will therefore be best coosidereci in coa- 
nection with it. (.Sec l.NSf range.) 

AVEKNUS, a lake of Campania in Italy, near Baiz 
occupying the crater of an extinct volcano, and abooi 1 
mile and a half in circumference. From the gloon*} 
horror of its surroundings, and the mephitic charftct<r 
of its exhalations, it was regarded by ancient supersr. 
tion as an entrance to the infernal regions. Ii w2.= 
esj^ecially dedicated to Proserpine, and an oracle wzj 
maintained on the spot. Originally there seems to haTr 
been no outlet to the lake, but Agrippa opened a pass 
age to the Lucrine, and turned this " mouth of bell * 
into a harbor for ships. The channel, however, SLppcMr^ 
to have become obstructed at a later period. The JLag. 
d*Avemo is now greatly frequented by foreign tourists, 
who are shown what pass for the Sibyl's Grotto, iht 
Sibyl's Bath, and the entrance to the infernal regions. 
as well as the tunnel from Comx, and ruins various!} 
identified as belonging to a temple or a bathing>placc 

AVERROES, Known among his own people k 
Ab&l-Walid Mohammed Ibn-.Ahmed Ibn-Mohammed 
Ibn-Roshd, the k&di, was bom as Cordova in 1126. 
and died at Marocco in 1 198. His early life was occa- 
pied in mastering the curriculum of theology, jurispru- 
dence, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy, under 
the approved teachers of the tinte. 1 he years of his 
prime were a disastrous era for Mahometan Spain, 
where almost every city had its own petty king, whilst 
the Christian princes swept the land in constant inroads. 
But with the advent of the Almohades, the enthusiasn? 
which the desert tribes had awakened, whilst it revived 
religious life and intensified the observance of the holy 
law within the realm, served at the same time to reoniic 
the forces of Andalusia, and inflicted decisive defeats on 
the chiefs of the Christian North. For the last tin* 
before its final extinction the Mosiem caliphate in Spain 
displayed a splendor which seemed to rival the andeni 
glories of the Ommiade court. Great mosques aroce; 
schools and colleges were founded ; hospitals, and other 
useful and beneficent constructions, proceeded from the 
public zeal of the sovereign ; and under the patronage 
of two liberal rulers, Jusuf and Jakfib, science and phil- 
osophy flourished apace. It was Ibn-Tofail (Abubacer^ 
the philosophic vizier of Jusuf, who introduced Aver- 
roes to that prince, and Avenzoar (Ibn-Zohr), the great- 
est of Moslem physicians, was his friend. Averroes, 
who was versed in the Malekite system of law, was 
made kadi of Seville (1169), and in similar appoint- 
ments the next twenty-five years of his life were passed. 
We find him at different periods in Seville, Cordova, and 
Marocco, probably following the court of Jusuf Alman- 
sur, who took pleasure in engaging him in discussions 
on the theories of philosophy and their bearings on the 
faith of Islam. But science and free thought then, as 
now, in Islam, depended almost solely on the tastes of 
the wealthy and the favor of the monarch. The ignorant 
fanaticism of the multitude viewed speculative studies 
with deep dislike and distrust, and deemed any one a 
Zendik (infidel) who did not rest content 
ural science of the Koran. These smoul< 
burst into open flame about the year 1 19 
as one story ran, he had failed in conver 
his writings to pay the customary deferen< 
or a court intrigue had changed the polic 
ment, at any event Averroes was accusei 
opinions and pursuits, stripped of his hoi 
isned to a place near Cordova, where his 
closely watched. Tales have been "told < 
he had to suffer from a bigoted populace, 
time efforts were made to stamp out all ] 
in Andalusia, so far as it went beyond t 
cine, arithmetic, and astronomy required 



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life. Bni the storm soon passed, when the transient 
passion of the people had been satisfied, and Averroes 
for a brief period survived his restoration to honor. He 
died in the year before his patron Almansur, with whom 
(in 1 199) the political power of the Moslems came to an 
end, as did the culture of liberal science with Averroes. 

For Aristotle the reverence of Averroes was un- 
bounded, and to expound him was his chosen task. The 
uncritical receptivity of his age, the defects of the 
Arabic versions, the emphatic theism of his creed, and 
the rationalising mysticism of some Oriental thought, 
may have sometimes led him astray, and given promi- 
nence to the less obvious features of Aristotelianism. 
But in his conception of the relation between philoso- 
phy and religion, Averroes had a light which the Latins 
were without Averroes maintains that a return must 
be made to the words and teaching of the prophet; that 
science must not expend itself in dogmatising on the 
metaphysical consequences of fragments of doctrine for 
popular acceptance, but must proceed to reflect upon 
and examine the existing things of the world. Averroes, 
at the same time, condemns the attempts of those who 
tried to give demonstrative science where the mind was 
not capable of more than rhetoric ; they harm religion 
by their mere negations, destroying an old sensuous 
creed, but cannot build up a higher and intellectual 
faith. 

Averroes, rejected by his Moslem countrymen, found 
a hearing among the Jews, to whom Maimonides had 
shown the free paths of Greek speculation. In the cities 
of Languedoc and Provence, to which they had been 
driven by Spanish fanaticism, the Jews no longer used 
the learned Arabic, and translations of the works of 
Averroes became necessary. His writings became the 
text-book of Levi ben Gerson at Perpignan, and of 
Moses of Narbonne. Meanwhile, before 1250, Averroes 
became accessible to the Latin Schoolmen by means of 
versions, accredited by the names of Michael Scot and 
others. William of Auvergne is the first Schoolman 
who criticises the doctrines of Averroes, not, however, 
by name. Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas devoted 
special treatises to an examination of the Averroist 
theory of the unity of intellect, which they labor to 
confute in order to establish tlie othodoxy of Aristotle. 
But as early as iEgidius Romanus (1247-1316), Averroes 
had been .-stamped as the patron of indifference to theo- 
logical dogmas and credited with the emancipation which 
was equally due to wider experience and the lessons of 
the Crusades. There had never been an absence of 
protest against the hierarchical doctrine. Berengar had 
struggled in the interest, and with Abelard, in the 12th 
century, the revolt against authoriiv in belief grew loud. 
The dialogue between a Christian, a Jew, and a 
philosopher suggested a comparative estimate of religions, 
and placed the natural religion of the moral law above 
all positive revelations. Nihilists and naturalists, who 
defied logic and science at the expense of faith, were not 
unknown at Paris in the days of John of Salisbury. In 
such a critical generation the words of Averroism found 
willing ears, and pupils who outran their teacher. Paris 
became the^ centre of a sceptical society, which the 
decrees of bishops and counois, and the enthusiasm of 
the orthodox doctors and knight-errants of Catholicism, 
were powerless to extinguish. At Oxford Averroes told 
more as the great commentator. In the days of Ro^er 
Bacon he had become an authority. Baxron, placmg 
him beside Aristotle and Avicenna, recommends the 
study of Arabic as the only way of getting the know- 
ledge which bad versions made almost nopeless ; and the 
student of the present day might echo his remark. 

Meanwhile Averroism had, in the eye of the great 
Dominican school, come to be regarded as the arch- 



enemy of the truth. When Frederick 11. consulted a 
Moslem free-thinker on the mysteries of the faith, when 
the phrase or legend of the " Three Imposters " presented 
in its most offensive form the scientific survey of the 
three laws of Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, and when 
characteristic doctrines of Averroes were misunderstood, 
it soon followed that his name became the bodge of the 
scoffer and the sceptic. 

It was in the universities of North Italy that Averro- 
ism finally settled, and there for three centuries it con- 
tinued as a stronghold of Scholasticism to resist the 
efforts of revived antiquity and of advanced science. 
Padua became the seat of Averroist Aristotelianism ; 
and, when Padua was conquered by Venice in 140J, the 
printers of the republic spread abroad the teachmg of 
the professors in the university. As early as 1300 at 
Padua, Petrus Aponesis, a notable expositor of medical 
theories, had betrayed a heterodoxy m faith; and John 
of Jandun, one of the pamphleteers on the side of Louis 
of Bavaria, was a keen follower of Averroes, whom he 
styles a "perfect and most glorious phycicist." 

With Pomponatius, in 1495, a brilliant epoch began 
for the school of Padua. Questions of permanent and 
present interest took the place of outwom scholastic 
problems. The disputants ranged themselves under the 
rival commentators, Alexander and Averroes ; and the 
immortality of the soul became the battle-ground of the 
two parties. Pomponatius defended the Alexandrist 
doctrine of the utter mortality of the soul, whilst 
Augustinus Niphus, the Averroist, was entrusted by 
Leo X. with the task of defending the Catholic doctrine. 

Meantime, in 1497, Aristotle was for the first time 
expounded in Greek at Padua. Plato had long been 
the favorite study at Florence ; and Humanists, like 
Erasmus, Ludovicus Vives, and Nizolius, enamored of 
the popular philosophy of Cicero and Quint ilian, 
poured out the vials of their contempt on scholastic 
barbarism with its " impious and thrice-accursed Aver- 
roes." The editors of Averroes complain that the pop- 
ular taste had forsaken them for the Greek. Neverthe- 
less, while Fallopius, Vesalius, and Galileo were claim- 
ing attention to their discoveries, the Professors Zaba- 
reUa, Piccolomini, Pendasio and Cremonini continued tftie 
traditions of Averroism, not without changes and addi- 
tions. Cremonini, the last of them, died m 1631, after 
lecturing twelve years at Ferrara, and forty at Padua. 
The legend which tells that he laid aside his telescope 
rather than see Jupiter's moons, which Galileo had dis- 
covered, is a parable of the fall of scholastic Averroism. 
Medievalism, with its misconstruction of Averroes, 
perished because it would not see that the interpreta- 
tion of the past calls for the ripest knowledge of all dis- 
coveries in the present. 

A VERS A, a town of Italy, province of Terra di 
Lavoro, situated in a beautiful plain covered with 
orange-groves and vine)rards, about midway between 
Naples and Capua. It is the seat of a wealthy bish- 
opric, and its foundling hospital and lunatic asylum, 
the latter founded by Murat, are very celebrated. 
Aversa owed its origin to the Normans, and dates from 
1030, the people of the ancient city of Atella being 
transported thither. Population, 21,176. 

AVESNES, a town of France, in the department of 
Nord, situated in a fertile district on the Greater Helpe. 

AVEVRON, a department in the S. of France, 
bounded on the N. by Cantal, E. by Loz^re, S. H^rault 
and Tarn, and W. by Tara-et- Garonne and Lot, con- 
taining an area of x^ig square miles. It corresponds 
to a large portion of the ancient district of Rouergue 
in Guienne, which formerly gave its name to a family 
of counts. Its earliest inhabitants known to us were 
the Rutheni, whose capital was Segodunum, identified 



690 



A V E — A V I 



with the modem Rodcz. The department is rich in 
prehistoric antiquities, such as the dolmens at Taurines, 
l^umi^res, (irailhe, &c. 

AVKZZANO, a town of Italy, in Abruzzo Ulteriore 
II., containing a castle, which was built in 1499 by 
Virgilio Orsini, afterwards belonged to the family of 
the Colonnas, and is now in the possession of the Bar- 
berinis. Population about 5900. 

AVICEBKON. The writer referred to by the 
Scholastics of the 13th century under this name was 
supposed bv them to be an Arabian philosopher, and 
was accordingly classed along with Avempacc, Abu- 
bacer, and others. Recent researches have shown that 
this is an error, and that this author, about whom so 
little was known, is identical with Salomon ben Gebirol, 
a Jewish writer, several of whose religious poems are 
still celebrated among the Jews. Few details are known 
regardin|^ the life of Gebirol. He was bom at Malaga, 
ai^ received his education at Saragossa, where, in 1045, 
he wrote a small treatise on morals, which has bcJen 
several times reprinted. His death is said to have taken 
place in 1070 at Valencia. 

AVICENNA <in Arabic, Abft AH el-Hosein Ibn- 
Abdallah Ibn-Sina) was bom about the vear 980 A.D. 
at Afshena, one of the many hamlets in tne district of 
Bokhara. His mother was a native of the place; his 
father, a Persian from Balkh, filled the post of tax-col- 
lector in the neighboring town of Harmailin, under 
Nflh ibn Mansir, the Samanide emir of Bokhara. On 
the birth of Avicenna*s younger brother the family 
migrated to the capital, then one of the chief cities of 
the Moslem world, and famous for a culture which was 
older than its conquest by the Saracens. Avicenna was 
put in charge of a tutor, and his precocity soon made 
nim the marvel of his neighbors, — as a boy of ten who 
knew by rote the Koran and much Arabic poetry 
beskles. From a greengrocer he learnt arithmetic ; and 
higher branches were begun under one of those wander- 
ing scholars, who gained a livelihood by cures for the 
sick and lessons for the voung. Under him Avicenna 
read the Isagoge of Porpnyry, and the first proposition 
of Euclkl. But the pupil soon found his teacher to be 
but a charlatan, and betook himself, aided by commen- 
taries, to master logic, geometry, and the Almagest. 
Before he was sixteen he not merely knew medical 
theory, but by gratuitous attendance on the sick had, 
according to nis own account, discovered new methods 
of treatment. For the next year and a half he worked 
at the higher philosophy, in which he encountered 

freater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry 
e would leave his books, perform the requisite ablu- 
tions, then hie to the mosque, and continue in prayer 
till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night 
he would continue his studies, stimulating his senses by 
occasional cups of wine, and even in his dreams prob- 
lems would pursue him and work out their solution. 
Forty times, it is said, he read through the metaphysics 
of Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his 
memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, 
until one day they found illumination from the little 
commentary by Alfarabius, which he bought at a book- 
stall for the small sum of three drachmae. So great was 
his joy at the discovery, thus made by help of a work 
from which he expected only mystery, that he hastened 
to return thanks to God, and bestowed an alms upon 
the poor. Thus, by the end of his seventeenth year, he 
had gone the round of the learning of his time ; his 
apprenticeship of study was concluded, and he went 
forth a master to find a nuurket for his accomplish- 
ments. 

His first appointment was that of physician to the 
emify whom the fame of the youthful prodigy had 



reached, and who owed him his recovery from a dangr:- 
ous illness. Avicenna's chief reward for this scrvivf 
was access to the royal library, contained in scvrr.: 
rooms, each with its chests of manuscripts in son.- 
branch of learning. The Samanides were well-knoun 
patrons of scholarship and scholars, and stood conspicQ' 
ous amid the fashion of the period, which made a libnuy 
and a learned retinue an indispensable accompanimer; 
of an emir, even in the days of campaign. In such - 
library Avicenna could insi>ect works of great rarity, 
and study the progress of science. When the libran* 
was destroyed by fire not long thereafter, the cncmit- 
of Avicenna accused him of buming it, in order for e\ li 
to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Mean-while. 
he assisted his father in his financial labors, but sr: 1 
found time to write some of his earliest works for Im > 
wealthy patrons, whose absolute property they becaxnc 
Among them was the ColUctio, one of those short srr. 
opses of knowledge which an author threw off for differ- 
ent patrons.* 

At the a^e of twenty-two Avicenna lost his ikther. 
The Samanide dynasty, which for ten years had been 
hard pressed between the Turkish Kluin of Kash^r 
on the north and the rulers of Ghazni^ on the south, 
came to its end in December 1004. Avicenna seems \> 
have declined the offers of Mahmud the Ghaznevidi* 
(who, like his compeers, was rapidly gathering a briUiant 
cortege of savants, including the astronomer Albimni \ 
and proceeded westwards to the city of Urdjensh in the 
modern district of Khiva, where the vizier, regarded zs 
a friend of scholars, ga\'e him a small monthly stipend. 
But the pay was small, and Avicenna wandered from 
place to place through the districts of Nishapur and 
Merv to tne borders of Khorasan, seeking an opening 
for his talents. In the restless change which threw the 
several cities of Iran from hand to hand amone tho^? 
feudal emirs of the Buide family, who disputed the frag- 
ments of the caliphate, the interests of letters andsdence 
were not likely to be regarded. Shems al-Ma&li KabO^ 
the generous ruler of Deilem, himself a poet and a 
scholar, with whom he had expected to find an asylum, 
was about that date (1013) starved to death bv his o^i-n 
revolted soldiery. Avicenna himself was at this season 
stricken down by a severe ilhiess. Finally at Torjan. 
near the Caspian, he met with a friend, who bought 
near his own nouse a dwelling in which Avicenna lect- 
ured on logic and astronomy. For this patron several 
of his treatises were written ; and the comipencemeni of 
his Canon 0/ Medicine dXso dates from his stay in Hyr- 
cania. 

He subsequently settled at Rai, in the vicinity of the 
modem Teheran, where a son of the last emir, Mcdj 
Addaula, was nominal ruler, under the regency of hi< 
mother. At Rai about thirty of his shorter works are 
said to have been composed. But the constant feQd> 
which raged •>etween tne regent and her second son, 
Shems Addaula, compelled the scholar to quit the place, 
and after a brief sojourn at Kaswfn, he puassed south- 
wards to Hamadan, where that prince had establishetl 
himself. At first he entered into the service of a high- 
born lady; but ere long the emir, hearing of his arrival, 
called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back 
with presents to his dwelling. Avicenna was even 
raised to the office of vizier, but the turbulent soklienr* 
composed of Koords and Turks, mutinied against thwr 
nominal sovereign, and demanded that the new vkier 
should be put to death. Shems Addaula consented te( 
he should be banished from the country. Aviceoim 
however, remained hidden for forty days in a shdWl 
house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the esdr 1ft 
restore him to his post. Even during this p 
time he prosecuted his studies and teaching. 



.r|p 



A VI 



691 



evening extracts from his great works, the Canon and 
the SanatiOy were dictated and explained to his pupils; 
among whom, when the lesson was over, he spent the 
rest of the night in festive enjoyment with a band of 
singers and players. On the death of the emir Avicenna 
ceased to be vizier, and hid himself in the house of an 
apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued 
the composition of his works. Meanwhile, he had 
written to Abu Jaafar, the prefect of Ispahan, offering 
his services; but the new emir of HamadlUi getting to 
hear of this correspondence, and discovering the p>lace 
of Avicenna*s concealment, incarcerated him in a for- 
tress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of 
Ispahan and Hamadan; in 1024 the former captured 
Hamadan and its towns, and expelled the Turkish mer- 
cenaries. When the storm haul passed Avicenna re- 
turned with the emir to Hamad&n, and carried on his 
literary labors; but at length, accompanied by his 
brother, a favorite pupil, ana two slaves, made his es- 
cape out of the city m the dress of a Sufite ascetic. 
Alter a perilous journey they reached Ispahan, and 
received an honorable welcome from the prince. The 
remaining ten or twelve years of Avicenna's life were 
spent in the service of Abu Jaafar Ala Addaula, whom 
he accompanied as physician and general literary and 
scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns. 
During these jrears he began to study literary matters 
and philology, instigated, it is asserted, by criticisms on 
his style. But amid his restless study Avicenna never 
forgot his love of enjoymenL Unusual bodily vigor 
enabled him to combme severe devotion to work with 
facile indulgence in sensual pleasures. His passion for 
wine and women was almost as well known as his learn- 
ing. With much gaiety of heart, and great powers of 
understanding, he showed at the same time the spirit of 
an Aristippus more than that of an Aristotle at the 
courts of the wealthy. Versatile, light-hearted, boast- 
ful, and pleasure-loving, he contrasts with the nobler 
and more intellectual character of Averrocs. His bouts 
of pleasure gradually weakened his constitution; a severe 
colic, which seized him on the march of the army against 
Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that 
Avicenna could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion 
the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamadan, 
where, finding the disease gainuig grovnd, he refused to 
keep up the r^men imposed, and resigned himself to 
his fate. On his deatnbed remorse seized him; he 
bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, 
freed his slaves, and every third day till his death list- 
ened to the reading of the Koran. He died in June 
1037, in his 58th year, and was buried among the palm- 
trees by the Kiblah of Hamadan. 

The rank of Avicenna in the mediaeval world as a 
philosopher was far beneath his fame as a physician. 
Still, the logic of Albertus Magnus and succeeding doc- 
tors was largely indebted to him for its formulae. 

The place of Avicenna amongst Moslem philosophers 
is seen in the fact that Shahrastani takes him as the 
tpye of all, and that Alg^azali's attack against philosophy 
is in reality almost entirely directed against Avicenna. 
His svstem is in the main a codification of Aristotle 
modified by fundamental views of Nco-Platonist origin, 
and it tends to be a compromise with theology. In 
order, for example, to maintain the necessity of creation, 
he taught that all things except God were admissible or 
[wssible in their own nature, but that certain of them 
were rendered necessary by the act of the creative first 
agent, — in other words, that the possible could be 
transformed into the necessary. Avicenna's theory of 
the process of knowledge is an interesting part of'^his 
doctrine. Man has a rational soul, one face of which is 
turned towards the body, and, by the help of the higher 



aspect, acts as practical understanding ; the other face 
lies open to the reception and acquisition of the intel- 
ligible forms, and its aim is to become a reasonable 
world, reproducing the forms of the universe and their 
intelligible order. In man there is only the susceptibil- 
ity to reason, which is sustained and helped by the light 
of the active intellect. Man may prepare himself hr 
this influx by removing the obstacles which prevent the 
union of the intellect with the human vessel destined for 
its reception. 

Upwards of 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. 
Some of them are tracts of a fe>r pages, others are works 
extending through several volumes. The best -known 
amongst them, and that to which Avicenna owed his 
European reputation, is the Canon of Medicine; an 
Arabic edition of it appeared at Rome 1593, and a He- 
brew version at Naples in 149 1. 

AVI EN US, RuFUS Festus, a Latin poet, who ap- 
pears to have flourished in the latter half of the 4th cen- 
turv. 

AVIGLIANO, a town of Italy, in the province o{ 
Basilicata, 1 1 miles N. N. W. of Potenza. A peculiar 
kind of pottery produced here towards the end of the 
i8th century is still sought after by collectors. TJie 
surrounding country is said to produce the finest cattle 
in the kingdom. 

AVIGNON, the chief town of the department of 
Vaucluse in France, situated in a beautiful plain, on the 
left bank of the Rhone, not far from the entrance of 
the Durance. It is surrounded by its ancient crenel- 
lated walls, which are in a state of remarkable preserva- 
tion, and, on the outside, by a line of pleasant boule- 
vards planted with trees. A precipitous rock rises from 
the river's edge ; and from its summit the cathedral of 
Ndtre Dame des Domes, a building of the 12th century, 
looks down on the city, but is almost thrown into insig- 
nificance by the Palace of the Popes, which rises by its 
side, and stretches in sombre grandeur along the south- 
ern slope. This building, or congeries of buildings, was 
commenced by Benedict XII. in 13^6, and continued by 
successive popes for sixty years. It covei^ an area of 
rather more tnan i^ acres. The paintings with which 
it was profusely adorned are in a great measure de- 
stroyed, and even the grandeur of its dismantled interi- 
ors was for a long time broken in upon by the carpentry 
and plaster-work of French barracks. A'restoratiot 
has, nowever, been for some time in progress ; and the 
building will again be appropriated for ecclesiastical and 
civic purposes. The churches of St. Agricol, St. Didier, 
and St. Pierre maybe mentioned as of some im]>ortance ; 
also the papal mint, now known as a music academy ; 
the town-hall, built in 1862 ; the Calvet museum, ricli 
in Roman remains; the Requien museum of natural 
history; and the Hdtel des Invalides. From 1309, 
when Clement V. took up his abode in the city, to 
1377, when Gregory XI. returned to Rome, Avignon 
was the seat of tne papal court, and it continued from* 
1378 to 1418 to be the seat of French anti-popes. In 
1148 it was purchased bv Pope Clement VI. from Joanna 
01 Sicily for the sum of^ 80,000 florins, and it remained 
in possession of the popes till the French Revolution. 
Population, 38,196. 

AVI LA, a province of Spain, one of the modern 
divisions of the kingdom of Old Castile. It is bounded 
on the N. by Valladolid, E. by Segovia and Madrid, S. 
by Toledo and Caceres, and W. by Salamanca The 
area is 2570 square miles; population, 176,769. It 
naturally divi/ieu itself into two sections, differing com- 
pletely m soil, climate, productions,'and social economy. 
The northern portion is generally level ; the soil is of 
indifferent quality, strong and marly in a few places, 
but rocky in all the valleys of the Sierra de Avila; and 



692 



A VI — AX I 



the climate alternates from severe cold in winter to ex- 
treme heat in summer. The population of this part is 
agricultural. The southern division is one mass of 
rugged granitic surras^ inters|>ersed, however, with 
shelter^ and well- watered valleys, abounding with rich 
vegetation. The winter here, especially in the elevated 
region of the Paramera and the waste lands of Avila, is 
long and severe, but the climate is not unhealthy. The 
inhabitants are occupied in the rearing of cattle. The 
province has declined in wealth and population during 
the last two centuries, a result due less to the want of 
activity on the ^rt of the inhabitants than to the op- 
pressive manorial and feudal rights and the strict laws 
of entail and mortniain, which Imve acted as barriers to 
improvement. 

Aviuk (the ancient Abula), a city of Spain, the capi- 
tal of the above province, is situat^ on the rig^t bank 
of the Adaja, about 3000 feet above the sea-level, at the 
termination of the Guadarrama Mountains. 

AVILA, Gil Gonzalez d*, a Spanish biographer 
and antiquary, was bom at Avila about the year I577» 
and died there in 1658. 

AViLA Y ZUNIGA, Luis d% author of a Spanish 
history of the wars of Charles V. Nothing is known 
as to the place or date either of his birtn or of his 
death. He was probably of low origin, but married a 
wealthy heiress of the house of Zuniga, whose name 
he added to his own. He rose rapidly in the favor 
of the Emperor Charles V., served in the army and as 
ambassador to Rome, and was present at the funeral of 
Charles in 1558. 

AVILES,San Nicolas de (the Latin Flavionavia), 
a town of Spain, in the province of Oviedo, about a 
league from the sea-coast. It has considerable trade bv 
means of its port, which affords good anchorage for all 
classes of vessels. Population 3299. 

AVLONA, or Valona, a town and seaport of Al- 
bania, in the eyalet of Yanina. It stands on an emi- 
nence near the Gulf of Avlona, an inlet of the Adriatic, 
almost surrounded by mountains. In 1464 it was taken 
by the Ottomans; and after being in Venetian posses- 
sion in 1690, was restored to them in 1691. In 1851 
it suflfered severely from an earthquake. 

AVOIRDUPOIS, or Averdupois, the name of a 
system of weights, commonly supposed to be derived 
from the Frenah, a;voir du pots to have weight. The 
suggested derivation from averer^ to verify, seems, how- 
ever, more probable, averdupois being the earlier form 
of the woro. Avoirdupois weight is used for all com- 
modities except the precious metals, |ems, and medi- 
cines. The pNOund avoirdupois, which is eaual to 7000 
grains troy, or 453.54 grammes, is divided into 16 
ounces, and the ounce into 16 drams. See Weights 
AND Measures. 

AVOLA, a city on the coast of Sicily, in the province 
of Svracu^, with 11,912 inhabitants. 

AVONJ the name of several river* in England, Scot- 
land and France. The word is Celtic, appearing in 
Welsh as afon^ in Manx as aon^ and in Gaelic as 
abhuinn (pronounced avain), and is radically identical 
with the Sanskrit ap, water, and the Latin a^ua and 
amnis. Of the principal English rivers of this name in 
its lull form three belong to the basin of the Severn. 
The Upper or Shakespearean Avon, rising in North- 
amptonshire, near the battlefield of Naseby, flows 
through Warwickshire, Worcester, and Gloucester, past 
Rugby, Warwick, Stratford, and Evesham, and joins 
thelarger river at Tewkesbury ; while the Lower Avon 
has its sources on the borders of Wiltshire, and enters 
the estuary of the Severn at King*s Roads, after passing 
Malmesbury, Bath, and Bristol. 

AVRANCHES (ancient Abrincata, or Ingena) a 



town of France, in the department of Mandie. It wa< 
an important military station of the Romans, and hms m 
more modern times sustained several sieges, tbe Rio>t 
noticeable of which was the result of its opposttKHi t- 
Henry I V. Avranches was formerly a bishop's sec ; an. 
its cathedral, destroyed as insecure in the time €ii tbc 
first French Revolution, was the finest in NomutodT. 
Its site is now occupied by an open piate^ caJJed mius 
the celebrated Huet, biskop of Avranches ; aiod one 
stone remains with an inscription marking it out aa the 
spot where Henry II. received absolution for the nmnier 
of A Becket. 

AXHOLM, or Axelholm, an tsbmd in the I^.W. 
part of Lincolnshire, England, fonned by the rivers 
Trent, Idle, and Don. 

AXIOM is a word of great import both in general 
philosophy and in special science; it also has passed into 
the languaee of common life, being applieci to any as- 
sertion of Uie truth of which the speaker happens to 
have a strong conviction, or which is put forward as 
beyond question. The scientific use of the word is most 
familiar in mathematics, where it is customary to lay 
down, under the name of axioms, a number of proposi- 
tions of which no proof is given or considered necessauy, 
though the reason for such procedure may not be the 
same in every case, and in the same case may be vari- 
ously understood by different minds. Thus scientific 
axioms, mathematiod or other, are sometimes held to 
carry with them an inherent authority or to be self- 
evkient, wherein it is, strictly speaking, implied that 
they cannot be made the subject of formal proof; some- 
times the^ are held to admit of proof, but not within 
the particular science in which thev are advanced as 
principles; while, again, sometimes tne name of axiom 
IS given to propositions that admit of proof within the 
science, but so evidently that they may be straightway 
assumed. Axioms are general principles, though raised 
above discussion within the science, are not therefore 
raised above discussion altogether. From the time of 
Arbtotle it has been claimed for general or first philos- 
ophy to deal with the principles of special science, and 
hence have arisen the questions concerning the nature 
and origin of axioms so much debated among the philo- 
soohic schools. Besides, the general philosopher him- 
self, having to treat of human knowledge and its condi- 
tions as his particular subject-nuitter, is called to deter- 
mine the principles of certitude, which, as there can be 
none higher, must have in a peculiar sense that charac- 
ter of ultimate authority (however explicable) that is 
ascribed to axioms; and oy this name, accordingly, 
such highest principles of knowledge have long l^n 
called. 

It is maintamed, on the one hand, that axioms, like 
other general propositions, result from an elaboration of 
particular experience, and that, if they possess an excep- 
tional certainty, the ground of this b to besought in the 
character of the experiences, as that they are exception- 
ally simple, frequent, and uniform. On the other hand, 
it is held that the special certainty, amounting, as it 
does, to positive necessity, is what no experience, under 
any circumstances, can explain, but is conditioned by 
the nature of human reason. More it is hardly possible 
to assert generallv concerning the position of tne rival 
schools of thought, for on each skie the representative 
thinkers differ greatly in the details of their explanation, 
and there is, moreover, on both sides much difference of 
opinion as to the scope of the question.. Thus Kant 
would limit the application of the nan)e axiom to priB* 
ciples of mathematical science, denying that in phuoaft- 
phy (whether metaphysical or natural), which workswKb 
discursive concepts, not with intuitions, there can bew 
principles immeaiately certain ; and, as a matter of JK , 



AXM— A YR 



<593 



it is to mathematical principles only that the name is 
universally accorded in the language of special science — 
not generally, in spile of Newton's lead, to the laws of 
motion, and hardly ever to scientific principles of more 
special range like the atomic theory. Otner thinkers, 
however, notably Leibnitz, lay stress on the ultimate 
principles of all thinking as the only true axioms, and 
would contend for the possibility of reducing to these 
(with the help of definitions) the special principles of 
mathematics, commonly allowed to pass ana do duty as 
axiomatic Still others apply the name equally and in 
the same sense to the general principles of thought and 
to some principles of special science. In view of such 
differences of opinion as to the actual matter in ques- 
tion, it is not to be expected that there should be agree- 
ment as to the marks characteristic of axioms, nor sur- 
prising that agreement, where it appears to exist, should 
often DC only verbal 

The name axiom is left undeniably eauivocal, and it 
clearly behooves those who employ it, whether in phil- 
osophy or science, always to make plain in what sense it 
is meant to be taken. 

AXMINSTER, a market-town of England, in the 
county of Devon, 147 miles from London, and 24 from 
Exeter. It takes its name from the River Axe, on 
which it stands, 

AXUM, an ancient dty of Abyssinia, 85 miles N.W. 
of Antalo, still remarkable for its ruins. It was for a 
long time the capital of a great Shemitic people, who 
extended their sway over a large part of Abyssinia; and 
the language spoken there at the time of the introduc- 
tion of Christianity has continued to be the ecclesiastical 
language ever since. The chronicles of Ab3rssinia were 
preserved in the church, and are frequently referred to 
as the Books of Axum. The most interesting of the 
monuments still extant are the obelisk and the so-called 
coronation -room, both constructed of granite, and the 
latter containing some valuable bilingual inscriptions. 

AYAMONTE, a fortified city of Spain, in the prov- 
ince of Huelva, on the left bank of the Guadiana, about 
2 miles from its mouth. 

AYLESBURY, a market-town, parliamentary bor- 
ough, and railway junction, in the county of Bucking- 
ham, 39 miles N.W. of London. Fopolation of 
parliamentary borough, 28,76a 

AYLESFORD, a village of England, in the county 
of Kent, y^ miles from Maidstone, and 32 from Lon- 
don. Population of parish in 1871, 210a 

AYLMER, John, Bishop of London in the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth, was bom in the year 1521 at Aylmer- 
hall, in the parish of Tilney, in the county of Norfolk. 
He seems to have been a man of harsh and violent tern- 
per, coarse, and avaricious, and with few redeeming 
qualities. He is said to have been an able scholar, but 
he has left nothing which could prove this. He died in 
1594* 

AYR, County of, or Ayrshire, a Scottish county, 
lK>unded by Wigtownshire and the stewartry of Kirk- 
cudbright on the S.; by Kirkcudbright, Dumfries, and 
Lanark •n the E.; and by Renfrewshire on the N. On 
the W. it has a coast line extendingto 70 miles on the 
Irish Sea and the Firth of Clyde. The county contains 
!I4<9 square miles, or 735,262 acres. The middle part, 
whkh IS the broadest, is about 26 miles across. There 
are six rivers of some note in Ayrshire -^Stinchar, Gir- 
van, Doon, Ayr, Irvine, and Gamock. Of these the 
Ayr, from which the county and county town take their 
name, is the lai^est It rises at Glenbuok, on the bor- 
der of Lanarkshire, and, after a course of 33 miles, falls 
into the Firth of Clyde at the county town. The scen- 
ery along its banks firom Som downwards — passing 
Catrine, Ballochmyle, Barskimming, Snndrum, Auchen- 
4-C 



cruive, and Craigie — is varied anS beautiful TTie 
lesser streams are numerous ; and there are many fresh- 
water lochs, the largest of which is Loch Doon, the 
source of the river Doon. The southern and eastern 
parts of the county are hilly, but none of the peaks 
reaches a height of 2000 feet. 

The manufactures of Ayrshire have attained consid« 
erable importance. The cotton works at Catrine are 
extensive, and have been a long time established. The 
site was chosen with the view of utilizing the water 
power of the river Ayr, and steam is still merely an auxil- 
iary. At Kilmarnock and Ayr there are extensive en- 
gineering establishments, and large carpet works ; and 
other fabrics are manufactured in those towns and at 
Dairy, Kilbimie, Beith, and Siewarton. 

The iron trade at Ayrshire has risen to great import- 
ance. The manufacture has long been carried on at 
Muirkirk, although the iron had to be carted long dis- 
tances to Ayr and Glasgow before the introduction of 
railways. Immense fields of ironstone have been opened 
up within the last quarter of a century; and there are 
now 33 furnaces in blast within the coiifi^y, producing 
about 330,000 tons per annum. The works are all con- 
nected with the Glasgow and South- Western Railway. 
The. whole manufacture of iron in Ayrshire is in the 
hands of three great companies, namely, William Baird 
& Com[>any, the Dalmellington Iron Company, and 
Merry & Cunningham. Haematite of good quality is 
raisea in Som and Muirkirk, and discoveries of it have 
been made in Carrick. The coal-fiekls are of great ex- 
tent, and limestone exists in large quantities. A valu- 
able whetstone quarry is worked at Bridge of Stair on 
the Ayr. 

The Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr Railway was 
partiall)^ opened in 1840, and soon after completed. A 
connection was made a few years later from the Ayr line 
at Kilwinning to Ardrossan, and an extension from Kil- 
marnock to Cumnock, with a branch to Muirkirk. Ex- 
tensions followed from Cumnock to Dumfries and 
Carlisle, and from Ayr to Dalmellinpton, and to May- 
bole and Girvan; and the Troon Railway was acquired 
from the duke of Portland, as a connecting link of what 
is now the Glasgow and South- Western Railway system. 
Other important branches have been made, and a trunk 
line is now in the course of formation between Girvan 
and Stranraer, which will give a connection between 
Glasgow and Ayrshire and the north of Ireland by the 
shortest sea passage. Ayrshire is thus well supplied 
with railways. 

The rural population of Ayrshire is decreasing, but 
the mining population has increased, and the towns are 
growing. 

Ayr, the capital of the above county, is situated at 
the mouth of tne river of the same name, and about 40 
miles S.S.W. from Glasgow. The spot has probably 
been inhabited from a remote antiquity. Nothing, how- 
ever, is known of its history till the close of the 13th 
century, when it was made a royal residence, and soon 
afterwards a royal burgh, by William the Lion. The 
charter conferring upon it the latter privilege has been 
preserved, of which a fac-simile will oe foiuid in vol. i. 
of the National Manuscripts of Scotland. During the 
wars of Scottish independence thepossession of Ayr and 
its castle was, accordmg to tradition, an object of im- 
portance to both the contending parties. In Blind 
HarrVs Life of Wallace th^ are frequently mentioned, 
and the scene is laid there of one of the patriots great- 
est exploits ; but the authenticity of many of the min- 
strel-historian's statements is more than doubtful. On 
better authority, the records of the burgh, it is knovm 
that early in the i6th century Ayr was a place of con- 
siderable influence and trade. The liberality of Will- 



694 



A YR— AZE 



iam the Lion had be«towed npon the corporation an 
extensive grant of hmds ; while in addition to the well- 
endowed cnurch of St. John's, it hati two monasteries, 
each possessed of a fair revenae. When Scotland was 
overrun by Oliver Cromwell, Ayr was selected as the 
^iie of one of those forts which he buik to command the 
country. This fortification, termed the citadel, enclosed 
mH area of ten or twelve acres, and included within its 
limits the church of St. John's, in which the Scottish 
} arliament on one occasion met, and conhrmed the title 
if Robert Bruce to the throne. The church was con- 
\ trted into a storehouse, the Protector partly indemni- 
fying the inhabitants for this seizure by liberally con- 
tributing towards the erection of a new place of worship, 
now known as the Old Church. Ayr proper lies on the 
south bank of the river, and is connecietl with Newton 
and Wallacetown on the north by two bridges, the Old 
and the New, the " twa Brigs** of Burns. Of late years 
the town has extended greatlv on the Ayr side of the 
Stream. Nearly the whole of*^ Cromwell s Fort is now 
covered with houses, and to the south, in the direction 
of the race-course, numerous fine villas have been 
erected. Ayr possesses several good streets and a num- 
ber of ele|;ant public and other «lifices. 

AYRER, Jacob, one of the earliest dramatists of 
Germany, was born in 1560, probably at Nuremberg, 
— at least he resided there when a mere boy. His first 
occupation was keeping an iron-store, which he did with 
c< Hi)siderable success. After studying law for some time 
at Bamberg, where he attained a good position as a law- 
yer, he returned to Nuremberg, and continued to prac- 
tice there» acquiring the freedom of the city in 1594, and 
i.liimately becoming an imperial notary. He died 26th 
March 1605. 

AYTON, Sir Robert (1570-1638), a Scottish lyfical 
poet, the second son of Andrew Ay ton of Kinaldie in 
Fifeshire, was edvcated at the University of St. Andrews, 
and seems afterwards to have resided for several ^ears m 
France, where he gained considerable reputation as a 
poet and scholar. On the accession of James VI. in 
1603, Ay ton published a very elegant Latm panegyric, 
which at once brought him into notice and favor at court. 

AYTOUN, William Edmonstoune, a Scottish poet, 
humorist, and miscellaneous writer, was bom at Edin- 
burgh, 2ist June 181 J. He was the only son of Roger 
Aytoun, a writer to the Signet, and the family was of 
the same stock as Sir Robert Ayton noticed above. In 
1S36 he made his earliest contributions to Blackwood ^s 
Magazine^ in translations from Uhland ; and from 1839 
till nis death he remained on the ^X2Si oi Blackwood's, 
.About 1841 he became acquainted with Mr. Theodore 
Martin, and in association with him wrote a series of 
light humorous papers on the tastes and follies of the 
day, in which were interspersed the verses which after- 
wards became poDular as the Bon Gualtier Ballads. 
The work on which his reputation as a poet chiefly rests 
is the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers. The first ot these 
appeared in Blackwood's Magazine in April 1843, and 
the whole were publi^ed in a collected eaition in 1848. 
They became very popular, and have passed through 
nineteen editions, tne last of which has spirited and 
beautiful illustrations by Sir J. Noel Pat on and W. H. 
Paton. In i860 Aytoun was elected honorary president 
of the Associated Soaeties of Edinburgh University. 
The death of his mother took place in November 1861, 
and his own health was failiag. In December 1863 
he married Miss Kinnear, and health and happiness for 
a lime revived ; but his malady recurred, and fee died at 
Blackhills, near Elgin, 4th August i86s. 

AZAIS, Pierre Hyaci.nthe, a brilliant French 
writer on pWlosophy, was born at Sorr^ze in 1 766, and 
died at Paris in 1845. ^^ ^^ educated at the college 



in his native town ; and at the age of 17 j(»ned a relig- 
ious body with the view of imerwaras entering the 
church. He remained only a year in this society, and 
then accepted an appointment as teacher in the college 
at Tarbes. The duties of this office proved most oncoo- 
eenial to him, and he gladly enterea the service of the 
bishop of Ol^ron, to whom he acted as s ecr eta r>-. 
With this, too, he quickly became dissatisfied* either on 
account of the bishop's reiterated desire that be sfaoaU 
take orders, or from the many petty annoyances inci- 
dent to his post. He withdrew to the little village of ViJ- 
lemagne, near Beziers, where be supported himself by 
performing the duties of organist in the charcli. He 
afterwards acted as tutor to the Count de Bosc^s sods, 
with whom he remained till the outbreak of the Rerolu- 
tion. Azais, at first an ardent admirer of that ^^reai 
movement, was struck with dismay at the atroctdes 
that were perpetrated, and publishra a vehement pam- 
phlet on the subject He was denounced, and had to &eek 
safety in fli^t. For eighteen months he found refoge 
in the hospital of the Sisters of Charity at Tarbes ; 
and it was not till 1806 that he was able to settle at 
Paris. There, three years later, he published his 
treatise Des Compensations dans les Destines Hm 
maineSf in which he sought to show that happiness and 
misery were fairly balanced in this worki, ana that con- 
sequently it was the duty of citizens to submit quiedy 
to a fixed government. This doctrine was not dis- 
pleasing to Napoleon, who made its author professor at 
St. Cyr. After the removal of that college, be obtained, 
jn 181 1, the post of inspector of the public library ax 
Avienon, and from 1812 to 1815 he held a similar office 
at Nancy. His preference for the Bonaparte dynasty 
naturally operated in his disfavor at the Restoration'; 
but after suffering considerable privation for some 
vears, he obtained a government pulsion, which pkced 
nim beyond the reach of want. He employed the 
remaining years of his life in oral and published exposi- 
tions of his system of philosophy. 

AZARA, Don Felix de, a Spanish naturalist, was 
born i8th May 1746, and died m 1811. He studied 
first at the university of Huesca, and afterwards at the 
military academy of*^ Barcelona. In 1764 he entered the 
army as a cadet, and in 1 767 obtained an ensigncy in 
the engineer cori>s. In 1781 he was appointed, yn\h 
the raiuc of lieutenant-colonel of engineers and captau 
in the navy, on a commission to lay down the line of 
demarcation between the Spanish and Portuguese ter- 
ritories in South America. There he spent many years, 
observing and collecting specimens of the various inter- 
esting objects of natural nistory that abound in those 
wide and little-known regions. 

AZARA, Don Jose Nicholas d*, the elderTjrother 
of the naturalist, bom in 1731, was appointed in 1765 
Spanish agent and procurator-general, and in 1785, 
ambassador at Rome. Diu'ing his long residence there 
he distinguished himself as a collector of Italian an- 
tiquities and as a patron of art 

AZEGLIO, Massimo Taparelli, Marquis d', an 
eminent Italian author and statesman, was born in 
October 1798, at Turin. He was descended from an 
ancient ana noble family of Piedmont, and was the son 
of a militarr officer, who, when the subject of this notice 
was in his fifteenth year, was appointed amba^ador to 
Rome. The boy went with him, and, being thus intro- 
duced to the^ magnificent works of art for which tlic 
Eternal City is famous, contracted a love for paintii^, 
as well as for music He desired to become a painter, 
and, although his studies were for a time interrupted 1^ 
his receiving a commission in a Piedmontese cavaliy 
regiment, and by a subsecjuent illness, brought on bydw 
severity of his scientific investigatioQ| and resolti^ii; 

Digitized by VjOC 



AZE — AZI 



695 



Viis quitting tb« service, he eventually returned to Rome, 
and, with some difficulty, obtained his father's permis- 
sion to devote himself to art. He remained at the 
l^apal capital eight years, and acquired great skill and 
some fame as a bndscape-painter. At the close of that 
pc;riod events directed his mind into other channels. 
I-lis father died in 1830, and the younger Azeglio then 
removed to Milan, where he became acquainted with 
A.lessandro Manzoni, the poet and novelist, whose 
daughter he married. In this wajr his thoughts were 
turned towards literature and politics. At that time, 
Italy was profoundly agitated by the views of the 
national and liberal party. The country was divided 
into several distinct states, of which the greater number, 
even of those that were nominally independent, were 
under the influence of Austria. Lombardy and Venetia 
formed jjarts of the Austrian dominions. The petty 
monarchies of the north were little better than vassals 
to the house of Hapsburg; the Papacy, in the centre, 
Avas opposed to all national aspirations; and the king- 
dom of the Two Sicilies, in the south, was a despotism, 
which for cruelty and mental darkness could not have 
l:)een exceeded in Asia itself. The French revolution 
of July 1830 gave additional force to the movements of 
the Italian liberal party, and the young men of the day 
threw themselves with fervor into the crusade against 
old abuses and foreign domination. Mazzini was just 
beginning his career as ?in agitator, and the whole air 
was surcharged with revolutionary enthusiasm. This 
was especiaUy the case in the north of Italy, whe'^e 
Massimo d' Azeglio was now settled. Art was aband- 
oned by him for literature, and literature was practised 
with a view to stimulating the sense of national inde- 
pendence and unity. In 1833, M. d' Azeglio published 
a novel called EUore Fieramosca^ which was followed in 
1841 by another, entitled Niccolo di Lapi. Both had a 
political tendency, and between the two dates at which 
they appeared, M. d' Azeglio visited various parts of 
Italy, aiffusing those liberal principles which he saw were 
the only hope of the future. His views, however, were 
very different from those of the republican party. He was 
a constitutional monarchist, and strongly opposed to 
the insurrections and secret conspiracies which Mazzini 
and others so frequently fostered at that time, and 
which always resulted in failure and renewed oppression. 
His treatise Degli UUimi Cast di Romagna (Of the 
Last Events in the Romagna), published in 1846, before 
the death of Pope Gregory XVl., was at once a satire 
on the Papal Government, a denunciation of the repub- 
lican attempts at insurrection, and an exhortation to 
the Italian princes to* adopt a national policy. M. 
d'.\zeglio returned to Rome in 1846, after the death of 
Pope Gregory, in June, and, it is thought, had consid- 
erable influence in persuading the new Pope (Pius IX.) 
to conduct his government m accordance with liberal 
principles. He supported measures relating to the 
freedom of the press, the reform of the Papacy, and 
the emancipation of the Jews. In 1848 he accompanied 
the Papal army of observation sent from Rome to 
watch tne insurgent forces in Lombardy and Venetia, 
which had temporarily discomfited the Austrians, and 
were being supported by Charles Albert, king of Sar- 
dinia. General Duranao, who had the command of 
the Papal army, actively assisted the rebels, in defiance, 
it is said, of his instructions ; and Azeglio was severely 
wounded in the leg at the battle of vicenza, where he 
commanded a legion. In the same year (1848) he pub- 
lished a work on the Austrian Assassinations in Lont- 
bardy ; and on the opening of the first Sardinian par- 
liament he was chosen a member of the chamber of 
deputies. After the crushing defeat of the Sardinians 
at Novara, March 23, 1849,— a defeat which brought 



the second of the two brief wars with Austria to a dis- 
astrous close, — D' Azeglio was made president of the 
cabinet by Victor Emmanuel, in whose favor his father, 
Charles Albert, had just resigned. In this position the 
marquis used his high powers with great advantage to 
the progress and consolidation of the Sardinian king- 
dom. His occupation of the office lasted from the nth 
of May 1840 to the aoth of October 1852, when he was 
replaced by Count Cavour. At the termination of the 
war of 1859, when a large portion of the States of the 
Church shook off the dominion of the Pope, and de- 
clared for annexation to the kingdom of Northern 
Italy, Azeglio was appointed general and commissioner- 
extraordinary, purely military, for the Roman States — 
a tempKjrary office, which he administered in a concilia- 
tory and sa^cious spirit. He died on the iith of 
January i860, leaving a reputation for probity and wis- 
dom, which his countrymen will not forget to cherisli. 
His writings, chiefly of a polemical character were 
numerous. In addition to those already mentioned, 
the most noteworthy was a work on The Court of Rome 
and the Gospels^ of which an English translation, with 
a preface by Dr. Lajrard appeared in •1859. A volume 
of^ personal recollections was issued, in 1867, after M. 
d'Azeglio's death. 

AZERPJJAN (so called, according to Sir William 
Ouseley, from a tire-temple, a province of Persia, cor- 
responding to the ancient Atropatene. It is separated 
from a division of the Russian Empire on the N« by the 
River Araxes, and from Irak on the S. ^ the Kizil- 
Uzen, or Golden Stream, while it has the Caspian Sea 
and Ghilan on the E. , and Asiatic Turkey on the W. 
Its area is estimated at 25,280 square miles. The 
country is superior in fertility to the southern provinces 
of Persia. It differs entirely from the provinces of Fars 
and Irak, as it consists of a regular succession of un- 
dulating eminences, partly cultivated, and opening into 
extensive plains such as Anjan, Tabreez, ana Urumiyah 
or Van. Near the centre of the province the mount- 
ains of Sahend or Serhund rise in an accumulated mass 
to the height of 9000 feet above the sea. The highest 
point, Mount Sevellan, towards its eastern frontier, at- 
tains a height 'of about 12,000 feet, according to some 
authorities, but according to Khanikoff, it is 15,400; 
and the Talish Mountains, which run from N. to S. 
parallel to, and at no great distance from, the Caspian, 
have an altitude of 7000 feet. Except the boundary 
rivers already mentioned, there are none of any great 
extent ; but these both receive a number of tributaries 
from the province, and several streams of considerable 
volume, such as the Jughutu, the Agi, and the Shar, 
belong to the basin of the Lake Urumiyah. This lake 
is alx)ut 300 miles in circumference, and 4200 feet 
above the sea. Its waters are more intensely salt than 
the sea, and it is "supi>osed to contain no living 
creature except a kind of^pol)rpe;*' but it is the resort of 
great flocks of the flamingo. The country to the N. 
and W., namely, the districts of Urumiyah andSelmart, 
is the most picturesque and prosperous part of Azer- 
bijan ; yet even here the traveller from tne more civil- 
ised regions of Europe laments the want of enterprise 
among the inhabitants. Azerbijan is on the wnole, 
however, reckoned one of the most productive provinces 
of Persia, anc* the villages have a more pleasing ap- 
pearance than those of Irak. The Persian army is 
largely composed of natives of Azerbijan, who make ex- 
cellent soldiers ; they are subject to compulsory enlist- 
ment. The province is under the government of the 
heir-apparent to the Persian throne. 

AZIMGARH, a district and city in the Benares divis- 
ion of British India, and under tne jurisdiction of the 
Lieutenant-Governor of the North- Western ProvinceSr 



696 



AZO 



It is bounded on the N. by the river Ghagrd, separating 
it from Gorakhpur district ; on the E. by Ghdzfpur dis- 
trict and the river Ganges; on the S. by the districts of 
Jaunpur and Gh&zfpur ; and on the W. by Jaunpur and 
the Oudh district or FaizibM. Its area in 1872 was 
returned at 2494 stjuare miles, of which 1268 square 
miles are under cultivation, 344 square miles are culti- 
vable waste, and the remaining 882 square miles arc 
barren and oncultivable. The |X)pulation of the district 
in 1865 was 1,385,872 souls, of whom 1,184,689 were 
Hindus, and 201,183 Mahometans. The pressure of 
the population on the soil averaged 555 per square 
mile The soil is fertile and very highly cultivated, 
bearmg magnificent crops of rice, sugar-cane, and indigo. 
The principal industries of the district are cotton and 
silk manufactures, the total value of which in 1872 
amounted to ;f 109,081. 

AziMGARH City, the principal place in the district 
of the same name, is situated on the river Tons. The 
citv is said to have been founded about 1620 by a pow- 
erful landholder named Azfm Kh^, who owned large 
estates in this part of the country. 

AZO, a distinguished professor of civil law in the 
university of Bologna, ana a native of that city. He 
was the pupil of Joannes Bassianus, who taught at 
Bolofi[na towards the end of the 12th century, and who 
was tne author of the famous Arbor Actionum, Azo, 
whose name is sometimes written Azzo and Azzolenus, 
and who is sometimes described as Azo Soldanus from 
the surname of his father, occupied a very important 
position amongst the gloss-writers, and his Readings 
\Lectura) on the Code^ which were collected by his 

Supil, Alexander de Sancto yEgidio, are considered by 
avigny, a most competent judge, to be the most valua- 
ble of the works of tnat school which have come down 
to us. 

AZOFF, or Asov (in Turkish, Asak)^ a town on the 
left bank of the southern arm of the Don, about 20 
miles from its mouth. Peter the Great obtained pos- 
session of it after a protracted siege in 1696, and did a 
great deal for the security and prosperity of the town. 
At the peace of 1711, however, he had to restore it to 
the Turks ; and it was not till 1 774 that it was finally 
united to the Russian empire. 

AZOFF, The Ska of, an inland sea of Southern 
Europe, communicating with the Black Sea by the 
Strait of Yenikale, the ancient Bosphorus Cimmerius, 
To the Romans it was known as the Palus Maotis^ 
from the name of the neighboring people, who called it 
in their native language Temarenda^ or Mother of 
Waters. Possibly to account for the outward current 
into the Black Scs^ it was long supposed to possess 
direct communication with the Northern Ocean, and, 
when it was discovered that there was no visible chan- 
nel, recourse was had to a " secret sluice ; ** there being, 
it was thought, but a comparatively narrow isthmus to 
be crossed. In some prehistoric time, according to 
Pallas and Murchison, a connection with the Caspian 
Sea seems to have existed; but no great change has 
taken place in regard to the character or relations of the 
Sea of Azoff since our earliest records. 

AZORES, The, or Western Islands, are situated 
in the Atlantic Ocean, and extend in an obliaue line 
from N. W. to S. E. They are generally considered as 
pertaining to Europe, though separated by a distance of 
800 miles from the coast of Portugal They are divided 
into three distinct groups ; the south-eastern consisting 
of Sa5 Miguel, or St. Michael's, and Sta. Maria *, the 
central and largest, of Fayal, Pico, Sa6 Jorge, Terccira, 
and Graciosa; and the north-western, olFlores and 
Corvo. 

It does not appear that the ancient Greeks and 



Romans had anv knowledge of the Azores, but from the 
number of Carthaginian coins discovered at Corvo it has 
been supposed that the islands must have been visited by 
that adventurous people. The Arabian geographers, 
Edrisi in the 12th century, and Ibn-al Wardi m the 
14th, describe, after the Canaries, nine other islands in 
the Western Ocean, which are in all probability the 
Azores. This ident ification is supported by various con- 
siderations. The number of islands is the same ; the 
climate under which they are placed by the Arabians 
makes them north of the Canaries ; and special mention 
is made of the hawks or buzzards, which were sufficiently 
numerous at a later period to give rise to the present 
name (Port. A^or^ anawk.) The Arabian writers rep- 
resent them as having been populous, and as having con- 
tained cities of some magnitude ; but thejr state that the 
inhabitants had been greatly reduced by intestine war- 
fare. The Azores are first found distinctly marked in a 
map of 135 1 » the southern group being named the Goat 
Islands (Cabreras) ; the middle^oup, the Wind or Dove 
Islands; and the western, the Brazil Island {De Brasi) 
— the word Brazil at that time being employed for any 
red dye-stuff. It has been conjectured tnat the discov- 
erers were Genoese, but of this there is not sufficient 
evidence. It is plain, however, that the so-called 
Flemishdiscovery by Van der Berg is only worthy of 
the name in a very secondary sense; According to the 
usual account, he was driven on the islands in I432, and 
the news excited considerable interest at the court of 
Lisbon. The navigator, Gonialo Velho Cabral — not 
to be confoimded with his greater namesake, Pedro 
Alvarez Cabral — was sent to prosecute the discovery. 
Another version relates that Don Henry of Portugal had 
in his possession a map in which the islands were laid 
down, and that he sent out Cabral through confidence 
in its accuracy. The map had been presented to him by 
his brother, Don Pedro, who had travelled as far as 
Babylon. Be this as it ma]r, Cabral reached the island, 
which he named Santa Maria, in 1432, and in 1444 took 
possession of St. Michael's. The other islands were all 
discovered by 1457. Colonisation had meanwhile been 
going on prosperously ; and in 1466 the Azores were 
presented by Alphonso V. to his aunt, Isabella, the 
duchess of Burgundy. An influx of Flemish settlers fol- 
lowed, and the islands became known for a time as the 
Flemish Islands. From 1580 to 1640 they were subject 
to Spain like the rest of the Portuguese kingdom, of 
whicn they now form a province. At that time the 
Azores were the grand rendezvous for the fleets on their 
voyage home from the Indies ; and hence they became a 
theatre of that maritime warfare which was carried on 
by the English under Queen Elizabeth against the Pen- 
insular powers. The connection with England has long 
since been of a more peaceful description ; no other 
country affording such a ready market for Azorean pro- 
ductions. 

The islands are now divided into three administrative 
districts, which take their names from the chief towns 
of Angra in Terceira, Horta in Fayal, and Ponta-Del- 
gada in St. Michael's— the first of the three bein^ also 
the capital of the islands. The most of the inhabitants 
are of^ Portuguese origin, but there is a mixture not 
only of Flemish but Moorish blood. Negroes, Mulat- 
toes, English, Scotch, and Irish immigrants are present 
in considerable numbers, especially in San Miguel and 
Fayal. Education is in a very backward state, the 
great proportion of the lower classes being unable to 
read or write. Progress, however, is being made in 
this as well as other respects. 

Under the active administration of Pombal, consider- 
able efforts were made for the improvement of the 
Azores, but the stupid and bigoted Uovernment which 



AZO 



697 



'^w^cd rather tended to destroy tbese benefits, and to 
te SL retrograde course. Towards the beginning of 
present century, the possession of the islands was 
L^st.e<i by the clainiants for the crown of Portugal. 
t a.dli.erents of the constitution, who supported 
irkst^ ^4ig;uel the rights of Maria da Gloria, obtained 
session of Terceira in 1829, where they succeeded in 
intsdixing themselves, and after various struggles, 
e«r& ^daria's authority was established over all the 
cTvcLs. She resided at Angra from 1830 to 1833. 
File aspect of all the islands is very similar in general 
i.ract eristics, presenting an elevated and undulating 
^\ine, with little or no table-land, and rising into 
elIcs, of which the lowest (that of Sta. Maria) is 1889 
et, a.nd the highest (that of Pico) 7613 feet above the 
•^el of the sea. Their lines of sea-coast are, with few 
Lceptions, high and precipitous, with bases of accumu- 
.tecL masses of fallen rock, in which open bays, or 
:a.rcely more enclosed inlets, form the harbors of the 
fading towns. The volcanic character of the whole 
rcliipelago is very obvious, and has been abundantly 
onfirmed by the numerous earthquakes and eruptions 
vhicli have taken place since its discovery. Hitherto 
he -western group of Flores and Corvo has been quite 
exempt, Graciosa has been equally undisturbed, and 
Fayal has only suffered from one eruption, in 1672. 
The centre of activity has for the most part been St. 
Michael's, while the neighboring island of Santa Maria 
has altogether escaped. In 1444-4J there was a great 
eruption at St. Michael's, of which, however, the ac- 
counts that have been preserved exaggerate the impor- 
tance. In 1^22 the town of Villa Franca, at that time 
the capital of the island, was buried, with all its 6000 
inhabitants, during a violent convulsion. In 1572 an 
eruption took place in the island of Pico ; in 1580 St. 
George was the scene of numerous outbursts ; and in 
1614 a little town in Terceira was destroyed. In 1630, 
16^2, i6j6, 1755, 1852, &c., St. Michael's has bm 
visited with successive eruptions and earthquakes, sev- 
eral of them of great violence. On various occasions, 
as in 1638, 1720, 181 1, and 1867, subterranean erup- 
tions have taken place, which have sometimes been ac- 
companied by the appearance of temporary islands. Of 
these the most remarkable was thrown up in June 181 x, 
about half a league from the western extremity of St. 
Michael's. It was called Sabrina by the comnuinder of 
the British man-of-war of that name, who witnessed the 
phenomenon. Details will be found in a valuable chap- 
ter of Hartung*s Die Ataren^ p. 99, and in the 23d voL 
of the Pkilosophual Transactions, 

The climate is particularly temperate and equable, 
the extremes of sensible heat and cold being, however, 
increased by the humklity of the atmosphere. This is 
so Kreat thpt paper-hangmgs will not adhere to the walls, 
and the veneering of furniture strips off. The range of 
the thennometer is from 45^ Fahr,. the lowest known 
extreme, or 48^, the ordinary lowest extreme of Janu- 
uary, to 82°, the ordhiary, or 86*^, the highest known 
extreme of July, near the level of the sea. Between 
diese two points (both taken in the shade) there is from 
month to month a pretty regular gradation of increase 
or decrease, amounting to somewhat less than 
four degrees ( Geografhical Journal^ voL XV.) In 
winter the prevailing wmds are from the north-west, 
west, and south ; while in summer the most frequent are 
the north, north-east, and east. The weather is often 
extremely stormy, and the winds from the west and 
8oath-west render the navigation of the coasts very dan- 
gerous. 

The general character of the flora is decidedly Euro- 
pean, no fewer than 400 out of the 478 species gener- 
ally considered as indigenook belonging likewise to that 



continent, while only four are found in America, and 
forty are peculiar to the archipelago. Vegetation in 
most of the islands is remarkaoly rich, especially in 
grasses, mosses, and ferns, heath, juniper, ana a variety 
of shrubs. 

The mammalia of the Azores are limited to the rabbit, 
weasel, ferret, rat (brown and black), mouse, and bat, in 
addition to domestic animals. Among the fish caught ' 
off the coast may be mentioned the mimet, the tunny, the 
bonito. The numbers of birds are so remarkable that 
in St. Michael's, where a reward is given for the distrac- 
tion of the blackbird, the bullfinch, the redbreast, the 
chaffinch, and the canary, the sum paid annually repre- 
sents a deathlist of 420,000. The game includes the 
woodcock, red partridge (introduced in the i6th century), 
quail and snipe. 

St Michael's the largest and most populous of the 
islands, has an area of 224 square miles, and 105,404 
inhabitants. The east end rises from a bluff diflf, from 
1200 to 1400 feet high, to a lofty inland peak, whence a 
central range, varying in height from 2000 to 2500 feet/ 
runs to the westward, terminating in the Serra de Agoa 
de Pad, J060 feet above the sea. The sea-coast gradually 
declines m approaching the last point, where it is not 
more than about 100 feet high. The middle part of the 
island is lower, and more undulating; its western 
extremity being marked by the conspicuous Serra Gorda, 
1574 feet above the sea; its shores on both sides are 
low, broken, and rocky. The aspect of the western 
portion of the island is that of a vast truncated cone, 
irregularly cut off at an elevation of about 800 feet, and 
falling on the N., S., and W. sides to a perpendicular 
coast of between 300 and 800 feet high. In the higher 
fNirts an undergrowth of shrubs gives the mountains a 
rich and wooded appearance. Like all volcanic countries, 
the face of the isuuid is • uneven and irreeular, beine 
deeply excavated by numerous ravine^ ana roughened 
by streams of semi-vitrified and scoriaceous lava, that 
resist all atmospheric influences and repel vi^;etation. 
Heavy rains fallmg on the mountains afford a constant 
supply of water to four lakes at the bottom of extinct 
craters, and a number of minor reservoirs, and through 
them to small streams riuming rapidly down on all sides 
into the sea {Geographical Journal, vol. XV.) 

Hot sprines abound in manj parts of ^ the island, 
and from almost every crevice vapor is seen issu- 
ing. But the most remarkable phenomena are the 
Caldeiras or boiling fountains, which rise chiefly from a 
valley called the Furnas, near the western extremit]^ of 
the island. The water ascends in columns to the height 
of 12 feet, afterwhich.it dissolves in clouds of vapor. 
The ground in the immediate vicinity is entirely covered 
with native sulphur, like hoar frost. 

The plains are fertile, producing wheat, barle3r, and 
Indian corn; whilst vines and oranges grow luxuriantly 
on the sides of the mountains, llie plants are made 
to spring even from the interstices of the velcanic 
rocks, which are sometimes blasted to receive them. 
Raised in this manner, these fruits are said to be of 
superior quality ; but the expense of such a mode of cul- 
tivation necessarily restricts it. The western part of 
the island yields hemp, which might be raised to a con- 
siderable extent. Tne exports consist of wine,^ fruit, 
and provisions, the most important trade being in 
oranges. Foreign intercourse was at one time connned 
rigorously to Lisbon ; but the inhabitants now trade di- 
rectly witn Engknd, America, and other countries. The 
exports during 1872 at the port of St. Mkhael's were 
of^the value of ;^5,279, and the imports amounted to 

The principal town m the island is Ponta-Delgada, 
which contains 15,520 inhabitants. e^ 



698 



AZO—AZU 



1 



St. Maiy is a small island immedUtelv adjacent to St 
Michaers, through the medium of which its trade is 
conducted, as it nas no good harbors of its own. It 
has an area of 36 s<]uare miles, and produces wheat 
in abundance, of which a considerable quantity is ex- 
ported. 

Terceira (so called as being the third in order of dis- 
covery) is smaller than St. Michael's, but being placed in 
a more central position with respect to the other islands, 
has been chosen as the seat of government. The port 
of Angra, protected by Ml. Braxil, is also superior to any 
of those in St. Michael's. 

Fayal (so called from the extreme abundance of the 
fava^ an indigenous shrub) is the most frequented of 
all the Azores, after St Michael's, as it has one of the 
best harbors in the islands, and lies directly in the track 
of vessels that are crossing the Atlantic in any direction. 
Its principal town is Villa de Horta. Population 
26,264. 

A considerable quantity of wine nsed to be exported 
*from Fayal under the name of Fayal wine, whicn was 
really the produce of Pico, one of the most remarkable 
of the Azores. This island is composed of an immense 
conical mountain, rising to the height of 7613 feet, and 
bearing every trace of volcanic formation. The soil 
consists entirely of pulverised lava. All the lower parts 
of the mountain used to be in the highest state of 
cultivation, and covered with vine and orange planta- 
tions. But in 1852 the vines were attacked by the 
Oidium fungus arid completely destroyed, while the 
orange-trees suffered almost as much from the Coccus 
Hesperidum. The people were consequently reduced to 
want, and forced to emigrate in great numbers. The 
planting of fig-trees and apricots tuleviated the evil, and 
after a time many of the emigrants returned. Pico 
also produces a valuable species of wood resembling, 
and equal in quality to, mahogany. Population, 24,000. 

Graciosa and St. George are two small islands, situ- 
ated between Fayal and Terceira. The chief town of 
St. George is Velas, and the population 18,000. 

The two small islands of Corvo and Flores seem but 
imperfectly to belong to the group. They lie also out 
of the usual track of naviptors; but to those who, 
missing their course, are led thither, Flores affords 
good shelter in its numerous bays. Its poultry is excel- 
lent; and the cattle are numerous, but small. It 
derives its name for the abundance of the flowers that find 
shelter in its deep ravines. Population of Corvo, 1000 
and of Flores, 10,508. 

AZOTUS, the name given by Greek and Roman 
writers to Ashdod, or Esndod, an ancient cAy of Pal- 
estine, now represented by a few remains in the little 
village of Esdud, in the pashalik of Acre. It was sit- 
uated a short distance inland from the Mediterranean, 
on the usual military route between Syria and Egypt, 
about 18 geographical miles N.E, of Gaza. As one of 
the five cKef cities of the Philistines, and the seat of 
the worship of Dagon, it maintained, down even to the 
days of the Maccabees, a vigorous, though somewhat 
intermittent independence against the power of the Is- 
raelites, by whom it was nominally assigned to the ter- 



ritory of Judah. In spite of its being disuiantled by 
Uzziah, and somewhat later, in 731 B.C., captured by 
the As>yrians, it was strong enough in the next century 
to resist the assaults of Psammetichus for twenty-nin? 
years. Restored by the Roman Gabinius from the 
ruins in which it had been left by the Jewish wars, it 
was presented by Augustus to Salome, the sister c»t 
Herod. It became the seat of a bishop early in the 
Christian era, but seems never to have attained any im- 
portance as a town. 

AZPEITIA, a town of Spain, in the province of 
Guipuzcoa, on the left bank of the Urola, 15 miles S. 
W. of San Sebastian. The neighboring country i^ 
fertile, and quarries of marble are wrought m the moun- 
tains. During the Carlist movement in 1870-74, Az 
peitia was the seat of the Guipuzcoan Diputacion^ or 
court for the management of the war ; and gunpowder, 
cartridges, and cannon were manufactured in the town. 
The famous monastery of San Ignacio, dedicated to 
Loyola, about a mile distant, was also appropriated for 
military purposes. Population stated at 2335. 

AZTECS, the native name of one of the tribes that 
occupied the table-land of Mexico on the arrival of the 
Spaniards in America. It has been very frequently em- 
ployed as equivalent to the collective national title of 
Nanuatlecas, or Mexicans. The Aztecs came, according 
to native tradition, from a country to which they gave 
the name of Aztlan, usually supposed to lie towards the 
N.W., but the satisfactory localisation of it is one of the 
greatest difficulties in Mexican history. The date of the 
exodus from Aztlan is equally imdetermined, being fixe<i 
by various authorities in the nth and by others in the 
I2th century. One Mexican manuscript gives a date 
equivalent to 1 164 A.D. They gradually increased their 
influence among other tribes, until, by union with the 
Toltecs, who occupied the table-land before them, they 
extended their empire to an area of from 18,000 to 20,000 
square leagues. The researches of Humbold't gave the 
first clear insight into the early periods of their history. 
See Mexico. 

AZUNI, DoMENico Alberto, a distinguished jurist 
and writer on international law, was bom at Sassari; in 
Sardinia, in 1749. He studied law at Sassari and Tu- 
rin, and in 1782 was made judge of the consulate at 
Nice. In 1756-88 he published his Dizionario Univer- 
sale Ragionato della Gitirisprnden%a Mercantile, In 
1795 appeared his systematic work on the maritime law 
of Europe, Sistema Universale dei Principii del Dir it to 
Maritimo delP Europa^ of which a second edition was 
demanded in the following year. A French translation 
by Digeon was published m 1798, and in 1805 Azuni re- 
cast the work, and translated it into French. In 1806 
he was appointed one of the French commission engaged 
in drawing up a general code of commercial law, and in 
the following year he proceeded to Genoa as president 
of the court of appeal After the fall of N«x)leon in 
18 14, Azuni lived for a time in retirement at Genoa, till 
he wa5 invited to Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel I., and 
appointed judge of the consulate at Cagliari, and director 
of the university library. He resided at Cagliari till his 
death in 1827. 



Digitized by 



Google 



B. 



B Is (he second symbol of all Europem alphabets, 
except those derived from the C)rrillic original (see Al- 
phabet), snch as the Russian. In these a modified 
form, in which only the top of the upper loop appears, 
stands as the second letter, with the value of the originl 
sound b; whilst the old symbol B comes third with the 
phonetic value v or w. In Egypt this letter was orig- 
inally a hieroglyph for a crane, and afterwards repre- 
sented also the sound b. The symbol and its phonetic 
value were borrowed by the Phoenicians, but not its 
name, as we infer from finding it called in Hebrew 
bfih^ i. /., a house. In its oldest known Phoenician 
form the upper loop only exists in a more or less rounded 
shape. In different alphabets even the upper loop was 
gradually opened, so that in the square Hebrew the 
original form can no longer be detected. The Greeks, 
when they borrowed it from the Phoenicians, closed up 
the lower loop, as well as the upper, for convenience of 
writing. Sometimes -the loops were angular, but more 
generdly they were rounded. There is little variation 
of the form, except m the oUi alphabets of Corinth and 
Corcyra, where the original is harldly recognisable. In 
old Latin both the rounded and the pointed loops 
appear. 

The origmal sotmd which this symbol represented, 
and which it still represents in most European lan- 
guages, is a closed labial, /.<•., one in which perfect 
closure of the lips is necessary, the sound being heard 
as the lips open. 

In the earliest stage to which we can trace back the 
Ian|;uage spoken by the forefathers of the Indo-European 
nations, it cannot be certainly proved that the sotuid b 
was ever heard at the beginning of a word. Perhaps in 
this Dosition it may have been sounded indistinctly as a 
labial v, 

BAADER, Franz Xavkr von, an eminent German 
philosopher and theologian, bom 27th March 1765 at 
Munich, was the third son of F. P. Baader, court physi- 
cian to the elector of Bavaria. His two elder brothers 
were both 'distinguished, the eldest, Clemens, as an 
author, the second, Joseph, as an engineer. Franz 
when young was extremely delicate, and from his seventh 
to his eleventh year was afflicted with a species of men- 
tal weakness, which singularly enough disappeared 
entirely when he was intrcxluced for the first time to the 
mathematical diagrams of Euclid. His progress thence- 
forth was very rapid. At the age of sixteen he entered 
the qniversity of Ingolstadt, where he studied medicine, 
and graduated in 1 782. He then spent two years at 
Vienna, and returning home, for a snort time assisted 
his father in his extensive practice. This life he soon 
found unsuited for him, and he decided on becoming a 
mining engineer. He studied under Werner at Fne- 
burgf travded throngh several of the mining districts in 



North Germany, and for four years, 1792-1706, resided 
in England. There he became acquainted with the 
works of Jakob B6hme, and at the same time was 
brought into contact with the rationalistic 18th-century 
ideas of Hume, Hartley, and Godwin, which were ex- 
tremely distasteful to him. For Baader throughout his 
whole life had the deepest sense of ther^^i/z/yofreligious 
truths, and could find no satisfaction m mere reason or 
philosophy. " God is my witness," he writes in his 
journal 01*^1786, "how heartily and how often I say with 
Pascal, that with all our speculation and demonstrati< n 
we remain without God in the world.** Modem philo- 
sophy he thought essentially atheistic in its tendencies, 
and he soon grew to be dissatisfied with the Kantian 
system, by which he had been at first attracted. Par- 
ticularly displeasing to him was the ethical autonomy, 
or the position that man had in himself a rule of action, 
that duty contained no necessary reference to God. This 
Baader called " a morality for devils," and passionately 
declared that if Satan could again come upon earth, he 
would assume the garb of a professor of^ moral philo. 
sophy. The mystical, but profoundly religious, specu- 
lations of Eckhart, St. Martin, and above all of Bonmc, 
were more in harmony with his mode of thought, and 
to them he devoted himself. In 1706 he returned from 
England, and in his passage through Hamburg became 
acquainted with Jacobi, the Faith philosopher, with 
whom he was for many years on terms of close friend- 
ship. He now for the first lime learned something of 
Schelling, and the works he published during this period 
were manifestly influenced by that philosopher. Yet 
Baader is no disciple of ScheUing, and probably, in the 
way of affecting the future course of Schelling's thought, 
gave out more than he received. Their personal friend- 
ship continued till about the year 1822, when Baader'^ 
vehement denunciation of modem philosophy in his let- 
ter to the Czar of Russia entirely alienated Schelling. 

While prosecuting his philosophical researches, 
Baader haa continu^ to apply himself diligently to 
his profession of engineer. He gained a prize of 12,000 
gulden (about £iQOo) for his new method of employ- 
ing Glauber's salts instead of potash in the making of 
glass. From 181 7 to 1820 he held the post of superin- 
tendent of mines, and was raised to the rank of nobility 
for his services. He retired from business in 1820, and 
soon after published one of the best of his works, 
Fermenta Lognitionis^ 6 pts., 1822-25, in which he 
combats modem philosopny, and recommends the 
study of J. Bohme. In 1826, when the new univer- 
sity was opened at Munich, he was appointed professor 
of philosophy and speculative theology. Some of the 
lectures delivered there he published under the title, 
Spekulative Dogmatiky 4 pts., 1827-1836. In 1838 he 
opposed the interference in civil^matters of the Roman 

^ Digitized by Google 



700 



BAA 



Catholic Church, to which he belonged, and in conse- 
quence was, during the last three years of his life, in- 
terdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of religion. 
He died 23d May 1841. 

Baader is, without doubt, the greatest speculative 
theologian of modei-n Catholicism, and his influence has 
extended itself even beyond the precincts of his own 
church. 

BAAL is a Semitic word, which primarily signifies 
hrd or (TWfur^ and then, in accordance with the Semitic 
way of looking at family and religious relations is 
specially appropriated to express the relation of a hus- 
band to his wife, and of the deity to his worshipper. In 
the latter usage, which does not occur among the 
Arabian Semites, the word Baal seems at first to have 
been a mere title of deity and not a proper name. In 
the Old Testament- i^ is regularly wntten with the 
article* — *" the Baal; ** and the Baals of different tribes 
or sanctuaries were not necessarily conceived as identi- 
^, so that we find frequent mention qf Baalim, or 
lather " the Baalim," in the plural. There is even 
reason to believe that at an early date the Israelites ap- 
plied the title of Baal to Jehovah himself, for one of 
Saul's sons is named Esh-baal, while everything we 
know of Saul makes it most unlikely that he was ever an 
idolater. Afterwards, when the name Baal was exclu- 
sively appropriated to idolatrous worship, abhorence lor 
the unholy word was marked by writing Bosketh (shame- 
ful thing) for Baal in compound proper names, and thus 
we get the usual forms Ishboshetn, Mephibosheth. 

The great difficulty which has been felt by investiga- 
tors in determining the character and attributes of the 
pxl Baal mainly arises from the originally appellative 
sense of the word, and many obscure points become 
dear if we remember that when the title became a 
|»roper name it might be appropriated by different na- 
tions to quite distinct deities, while traces of the wider 
«se of the word as a title for any god, might very well 
sarvive even after one £od had come to l^ known as 
Baal par excellence. That Baal is not always one and 
the same god was known even to the ancient mythol- 
op;ists, who were very much disposed to fuse together 
distinct deities; for they distinguish an ''old'* Baal 
or Belitan (Bel ^than) from a younger Baal, who is 
sometimes viewed as the son of tne other. The " old" 
Baal has sometimes been identified with the planet 
Saturn, but it is more likely that he is the Baal (in As- 
syrian pronunciation Bil) of the first triad of the Babv- 
lonian Pantheon, that is the Bel. as distinct from the 
Baal, of the Old Testament. This Assyrian and Baby- 
k>iiian Bel is no mere solar or planetary god, but is rep- 
resented in Chaldean cosmogony as the shaper of 
heaven and earth, the creator of men and beasts, and of 
the luminaries of heaven. At the same time, we find 
that the inscriptions ^ive the title of Bel to other and 
inferior gods, especially to Merodach or the planet 
Jupiter. This planet was, we know, the Baal (BM, 
Bel) of the heatnen Mesopotamians (Sabians) of later 
times, and of the Babylonian Mendeans. 

The Baal of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and heathen 
Hebrews is a much less elevated concep^on thaa the 
Babylonian Bel. He is properly the sun-god, Baal 
Shamem, Baal (lord) of the heavens, the highest of the 
beavenly bodies, but still a mere power of nature, bom 
Eke the other luminaries from the primitive chaos. As 
the sun -god he is conceived as the male principle of life 
and reproduction in nature, and thus in some forms of 
his worship is the patron of the grossest sensuality, and 
even of systematic prostitution. An example of this is 
found in the worship of Baal-Peor, and in general in 
the Canaanitish high places, where Baal, the male prin- 
cipte, was worshipped in assodatioa with the unchaste 



goddess Ashera, the female principle of nature. The 
frequent references to this form of^ religion in the Old 
Testament are obscured in the English version by the 
rendering " grove " for the word Ashera, which some- 
times denotes the goddess, sometimes the tree or post 
which was her symbol Baal himself was represented 
on the high places not by an image, but by ooelisks or 
pillars sometimes called sun-pillars, a name which is to 
oe compared with the title Baal-chamman, frequently 
given to the god on Phoenician inscriptions. Th^e is 
reason to believe that these symbols, in their earliest 
form of the sacred tree and the sacred stone, were not 
specially appropriated to Baal worship, but were the 
mark of any sanctuarv, memorials of a place where the 
worshipper had found God, while the stone pillar was 
also a primitive altar. Gradually, however, tney came 
to be looked upon as phallic symbols, appropriate only 
to sensual nature worship, and as such were attacked by 
the prophets, and destroyed by such orthodox kings as 
Josiah. The worship of Baal among the Hebrews has 
two distinct periods — one before the time of Samuel, 
and a second from the introduction of the Tyrian worship 
of Baal by Ahab, who married a Phoenician princess. 
The ritual of this new Baal, with his long train of 
priests and prophets, his temple and sacred vestments, 
was plainly much more splenaid than the older Canaan- 
itish worship. Of the worship of the Tyrian Baal, who 
is also called Melkart (king of the city), and is often 
identified with the Greek Heracles, but sometimes with 
the Olympian Zeus, we may have many accounts in 
ancient writers, from Herodotus downwards. He*had 
a magnificent temple in insular Tyre, founded by Hiram, 
to which gifts streamed from all countries, especially at 
the great feasts. The solar character of this deity 
apf>ears especially in the annual feast of his awakening 
shortly after the winter solstice (Joseph., Ant^ viil 5). 
At Tjfre, as amonj; the Hebrews, Baal had his symbol- 
ical pillars, one of gold and one of smaragdus, which, 
transported by phantay to the Farthest West, are stiU 
familiar to us as the pillars of Hercules. The worship 
of the Tyrian Baal was carried to all the Phoenician 
colonies. His name occurs as an element in Cartha- 
ginian proper names fHanni^to/, Asdru^/, &c.), and a 
tablet found at Marseilles still remains to inform us of 
the charges made by the priests of the temple of Baal 
for offering sacrifices. 

FinaUy, we may mention as a special form of Baal the 
Philistine Baal-zebub, or ** Baal of flies," a conception 
which has more than one analogy in Greek religion. 
The use of the word Beelzebub, or rather, with a slight 
change, Beelzebul, by the 'ater Jews, to denote the 
prince of the devils, is easily understood on the princi- 
ple laid down in I Cor. x. 2a . . 

BAALBEC, or Ba'albak, an ancient city of Syria, 
celebrated for the magnificence of its ruins, which, with 
the exception of those at Palmyra, are the most exten- 
sive in that region. 

The origin of Baalbec is lost in remote antiquity, and 
the historical notices of it are verv scanty. The silence 
of the classical writers respecting it would seem to imply 
that previously it had existed under another name, and 
various attempts have been made to identify it with cer- 
tain places mentioned in the Bible. In the absence of 
more positive information, we can only conjecture that 
its situation on the high road of commerce between 
Tyre and Palmyra and the farther East rendered it at 
an early period a seat of wealth and splendor. 

From the accounts of Orienul writers, Baalbec seems 
to have continued a place of importance down to the 
time of the Moslem invasion of S3rria. They describe 
it as one of the most splendid of Sjrrian cities, enriched 
with stately palaces, adorned with monuments of aadent 



BAB 



701 



times, and abounding with trees, fountains, and what- 
ever contributes to luxurious enjoyment. After the 
capture of Damascus it was regularly invested by the 
Moslems, and after a courageous defence, at length 
capitulated. The ransom es^icted by the conquerors was 
20cx> ounces of gold, 4000 ounces of silver, 2000 silk 
vests, and 1000 swords, together with the arms of the 
g^arrison. The city afterwards became the mart for the 
rich pillage of Syria; but its prosperity soon received a 
fatal blow from me caliph of Damascus, by whom it was 
sacked and dismantled, and the principal inhabitants put 
to the sword (748 A. D.) It continued, however, to be 
a place of military importance, and was frequently an 
object of contest between the caliphs of Egypt and the 
various Syrian dynasties. In 1090 it pa^ed mto the 
hands of the SeQuk princes of Aleppo and Damascus, 
who in 1 1 34 were disputing its possession among them- 
selves, and had to jrield in i iw to the power of Genghis 
Khan. He held the ciiy till 1 145, when it reverted to 
Damascus, and continued mostly, from that time, to 
follow the fortunes of that city. During the course of 
the century it suffered severely from one or more of the 
earthauakes that visited the district in 1139, 1 157, 1 1 70. 
In 1200 it was taken by the forces of Hulagu, who des- 
troyed the fortifications ; but, in the 14th century, it is 
agam described by Abulfeda as enclosed by a wall with 
a large and strong fortress. Whether it was Baalbec, 
or, as others say, Cairo, that was, in 1367, the birth- 
place of Takkieddin Ahmed, the Arabic historian, he 
appears to have derived the name by which he is best 
known, El-Makrizi, from one of the quarters of the 
city. In 1400 it was pillaged by Timur in his progress 
to Damascus ; and afterwards it fell into the hands of 
the Metaweli, a barbarous predatory tribe, who were 
nearly exterminated when Djezzar Pacha permanently 
subjected the whole district to Turkish supremacy. 

The ancient walls of the city are about 4 miles in 
Cx>mpQS8 , but the present town is, with the exception of 
!>ome portions of its Saracenic fortifications and its two 
mosques, a cluster of mean-looking buiklings, which 
serve only to brin|; out into ^eater prominence the 
grandeur of the neighboring rums. Inese consist of 
three temples, usually known as the Great Temple (and 
it well deserves the name), the Temple of Jupiter, 
Apollo, or the Sun, and the Circular Temple. 

The ruins of Baalbec have awakened the admiration 
of European travellers from the i6th century down to 
the present day. Banmgarten visited them in 1507, 
Belon in 154S, Thevet in 1550, Melchior von Seydlitz in 
I5S7» Radzivil in i583,Quaresmiusin 1620, Monconys in 
1647, De la Roque in 1088, and Maundrell in 1699. In 
the i8th century Pococke gave a sketch of the ruins, 
which was followed by the magnificent work of Wood 
and Dawkins ri75i), to this day one of our pnncipl 
authorities, and Volney, in 1784, suppli^ a graphic 
description. During the present century the number of 
(i-avelJers who have visited Baalbec has enormously in- 
creased ; it may be sufficient to mention Richardson, 
Addison, Lindsay, Wilson, the Duke of Ragusa, Lamar- 
tine, De Saul^, Chesney, and Robinson. 

BABATACf, or Babadag, a city of Turkey in 
Europe, in the government of Bulgaria and sanjak of 
Silistria. It stands on the lake or estuary Rasein, whidi 
communicates with the Black Sea, and is surrotmded by 
mountains covered with woods. It used to be the 
winter headquarters of the Turkish army during their 
wars with Russia ; and, in 1854,11 was bombarded by 
the Russians. Thepopulation of 10,000 includes many 
lews Armenians, Tatars, and Greeks. Babatag was 
founded by Bajaizet. 

BABBAGE, Charles, a distinguished English mathe- 
matician and mechanician, was Docn, 20th December 



1792, at Teignmouth in Devonshire. He was educated 
at a private school, and afterwards entered Trinity 
College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 18 14. 
Though he did not compete in the mathematical tripos, 
he acquired a great reputation at th? university. In the 
year after his graduation he contributed a paper on the 
** Calculus of Functions ** to the Philosophical Trans- 
actions^ and in 1816 was made a fellow of the Royal 
Society. Along with Hcrschel and Peacock he labored 
to raise the standard of mathematical instruction in 
England, and specially endeavored to supersede the 
Newtonian by the Leibnitzian notation in the Calculus. 
With this object the three friends translated, in 1816, 
Lacroix*s Treatise on the Differential and Integral 
Calculus^ and added, in 1820, two volumes of examples. 
During the later years of his life he resided in London, 
and surrounded by his workshops, still continued to 
devote himself to the construction of machines capable of 
performing arithmetical and even algebraical calculations. 
He died at London, 20th October 187 1. 

BABEL was the native name of the city called Baby- 
Ion by the Greeks. It means " gjate of god," or ** gate 
of the gods, "and was the Semitic translation of the 
original Accadian designation Ca-dimirra. According 
to Gen. xl 1-9, mankind, after the delude, travelled 
from the mountain of the East (or Elwand), where the 
ark had rested, and settled in Shinar,(Siunir, or the 
north-west of Chaldea.) Here they attempted to build 
a city and a tower whose top might reach unto 
heaven, but were miraculously preventSi by their lan- 
guage being confounded. In this way the diversity of 
human speech was accounted for ; and an etymology was 
found for the name of Babylon in the Hebrew verb Jto/^/, 
"to confound." Accorcung to Alexander Polyhistor 
and Abydenus, the tower was overthrown by the 
winds. The native version of the story has recently 
been discovered among the cuneiform ublets in the 
British Museum. It is fuller and more complete than 
the account in Genesis, and formed part of a collection 
of Babylonian legends okler, probably, than 2000 B.C. 
We learn from it that the tower was erected under the 
supervision of a semi-divine being called Etamuu The 
tower has been identified with the temple or tomb of 
Belus, which Strabo stated with some exaggeration to 
have been a stade (606 feet) high, but without sufficient 
reason. It is most probably represented by the modem 
Birs Nimrudy the ruined remains of the ** Temple of 
the Seven Lights of the Earth," at Borsippa, a suburb 
of Babylon, which was dedicated to Nebo. The temple 
had been begun by " a former king," and built to the 
height of 42 cubits, but it lay an uncompleted ruin for 
many centuries, and was not finished till the reign of 
Nebuchadnezzar. Dr. Schrader believes that the state of 
wreck in which it so long remained caused " the legend 
of the confusion of tongues" to be attached to it 

BAB-EL-MANDEB, that is, the Gate of Tears, is 
the strait between Arabia and Abjrssinia which connects 
the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. It derives its 
name from the dangers attending its navigation, or, ac- 
cording to an Arabic legend, from the numbets who 
were drowned by the earthquake which separated Asia 
and Africa. The distance across is about 20 miles, 
from Ras Menheli on the Arabian coast to Ras Seyan 
on the African. In the end of the i8th ccntunr (1799) 
the island of Perim was taken possession of^ by the 
British ajnd held as a military outpost, so to speak, of 
the Indian empire. They again asserted their right to 
it in 1857, ana in 1861 a lighthouse was built at Straits 
Point, at the eastern extremity of the island. The har- 
bor is accessible and commodious and the position gives 
complete command of the Red Sea. 

BABER. Zbhir-ed-d1n Mahomet, samamed Ba» 



702 



BAB 



n 



ber, or the Tiger, the (mmoas conquer or of India and 
founder of the so-called Moehol dynasty, was bom on 
the 14th Fcbnianr 1483. He was a descendant of 
Genghis Khan and Timur, and his father, Omar Sheikh, 
was King of Farghana, a district of Transoxiana, lying 
east of Samarcand. Omar died in 1495. and Baber, 
though only twelve years of a^, succeeded to the 
throne. An attempt made by ms uncles to dislodge 
him proved unsuccessful, and no sooner was the young 
sovereign firmly settled than he began to meditate an 
extension of his own dominions. In 1497 he attacked 
and gained possession of Samarcand, to which he 
always seems to have thought he had a natural and 
hereditary right A rebellion among his nobles robbed 
him of nis native kingdom, and while marching to 
recover it, his troops deserted him, and he lost Samar- 
cand alsa After some reverses he regained both these 
places, but in 1501 his most formidable enemy, Schai- 
bani Khan, ruler of the Usbeks, defeated him in a 
great engagement, and drove him from Samarcand. 
For three years he wandered about trying in vain to 
recover his lost possessions ; at last, in 1504, he gathered 
some troops, and crossing the snowy Hundu Kush, 
besieged and captured the strong city of Cabul. By 
this dexterous stroke he gained a new and wealthy 
kingdom, and completely re-established his fortunes. 
In the following year he united with Ilussian Mirza of 
Herat against Schaibani. The death of Hussian put a 
stop to this expedition, but Baber spent a year at Herat, 
enjoying the pleasures of that capital. He returned to 
Cabul in time to quell a formidable rebellion, but two 
years later a revolt among some of the leading Moghuls 
drove him from his city. He was compelled to take to 
flight, with very few companions, but his great personal 
courage and daring struck the army of his opponents 
with such dismay that they again returned to their 
allegiance, and Baber regained his kingdom. Once 
again, in 15 10, after the death of Schaibani, he endeav- 
ored to obtain possession of his native country. He 
received considerable aid from Shah Ismael of Persia, 
and in 1511 made a triumphal entry into Samarcand. 
But in 15 14 he was utterly defeated by the Usbeks, and 
with difficulty reached Cabul. He seems now to have 
resigned all hopes of recovering Farghana, and as he at 
the same time dreaded an invasion of the Usbeks from 
the west, his attention was more and more drawn 
towards India. Several preliminary incursions had 
been already made, when in 152 1 an opportunity pre- 
sented itself for a more extended expedition. Ibrahim, 
emperor of Delhi, had made himself detested, even by 
his Afghan nobles, several of whom called upon Baber 
for assistance. Heat once assembled his forces, 12,000 
strong, with some pieces of artillery, and marched into 
India. Ibrahim, with 100,000 soldiers and numerous 
elephants, advanced against him. The great battle was 
fought at Paniput, 21st April 1526, when Ibrahim was 
slain and his army routed. Baber at once took posses- 
sion of Arga. A still more formidable enemy awaited 
him; the Rana Sanga of Mewar collected the enormous 
force of 210,000 men, with which he moved against the 
invaders. On all sides there was danger and revolt, 
even Baber's own soldiers, worn out with the heat of 
this new climate, longed for CabuL By vigorous meas- 
ures and inspiriting speeches he restored their courage, 
though his own heart was nearly failing him, and in his 
distress he abjured the use of wine, to which he had been 
addicted. At Kanweh, on the loth March 1527, he won 
a great victory, and made himself absolute master of 
India. The remaining years of his life he spent in 
arranging the affairs and revenues of his new empire and 
in improving his capital, Agra. He died 26th Decem- 
ber 1530, in his forty-eighth year. Baber was above the 



middle height, of great strength, and an admirable 
archer and swordsman. His mmd was as well cultivated 
as his bodily powers ; he wrote well, and his observa- 
tions are generally acute and accurate; he was brave, 
kindly and generous. 

BABEUt, FRAN901S.N0EL, sumamed by himself 
Gracchus Babeuf, the earliest of the French socialists, 
was bom in 1762, in the department of Aisne. From 
his father, a major in the Austrian army, he received 
special instruction in mathematics, but was deprived of 
hun by death at the age of sixteen. Established as a 
land-surveyor at Roye, in theSomme department, he 
became a fervid advocate of the Revolution, and wrote 
articles in the Correspcmdant Picctrd^ for which he was 
prosecuted in 1790. He was acquitted on that occasion, 
and was afterwards elected an administrator of the deiari- 
ment ; but a charge of forgery being brought against 
him, he was condemned by the Somme tribunal to 
twenty years* imprisonment in 1793. Escaping to Paris, 
he Ixiame secretary to the Relief Conmiittee of the 
Commune, and joined Garin in his denunciation of the 
Committee of Public Safety. This led to his incarcera- 
tion, ostensibly under the former sentence. This was, 
however, annulled by the Court of Cassation ; and he 
was also discharged by the Aisne tribunal (i8th July 
1794), to which he had been remitted. Returning to 
Paris, he entered on a violent crusade against the remains 
of the Robespierre party, and started the Journal de la 
Libcrti de la Presse to maintain his views. In the fol- 
lowing year (1795) the Girondists acquired supremacy in 
the Convention ; Babeuf *s journal was suspended, and 
himself imprisoned — first in Paris and then at Arras, 
Thrown into the society of certain partisans of Robes- 
pierre, he was won over by them, and was ready, on his 
release, to become the incliscriminating defender of the 
very men whom he had previously attacked (No. 34 of 
the Tribun^ as he now called his journal). In April 
1796 Babeuf, Lepelletier, and others constituted them- 
selves a " Secret Directory of Public Safety," and took 
the title of the "Equals ; ** while another association of 
self-styled " Conventionals " and ** Patriots " met at the 
house of Amar. The latter party aimed at the re-estab- 
lishment of the revolutionary government, while Babeuf 
and his friends wanted besides to realise their schemes 
for the organisation of common happiness. Disputes 
naturally arose ; and to reconcile the Eouals and the 
Patriots, it was agreed, first, to re-establish the consti- 
tution of 1793 ; and secondly, to prepare for the adoption 
of true equality by the destruction of the Government. 
Everything was ready by the beginning of May 1796, 
and the number of adnerents in Paris was reckoned at 
17,000; but on the loth the Government succeeded iii 
arresting the main leaders of the plot The army pro- 
tected the Government, and the people of Paris looked 
on. The trial was o|>ened at Vend6ine on Feb. 2, 1 797, 
and lasted three months. Babeuf and Darth^ were sen- 
tenced to death ; Germain, Buonarroti, and five others, 
to transportation ; Amar Vadier, Duplay, and the re- 
maining fifty-three, were acquitted. On the announce- 
ment of the sentence, Babeuf and Darth^ stabbed them- 
selves, but the wounds were not mortal. They passed 
a firightful night, and next morning were borne bleeding 
to the scaffold. Ardent and generous, heroic and self- 
sacrificing, Babeuf had neither solid knowledge nor 
steadiness of judgment. " The aim of society is happi- 
ness, and happiness consists inequality," is the centre of 
his doctrine. 

BABI, or BAby, the appellation of a remarkable 
modem sect in Persia, is derived from the title {bdb^ i, e.^ 
gate) assumed by its founder, Seyed Mohammed AH, 
bom at Shiraz about 1824, according to Count Gobi- 
neau, but ten years earlier according to Kasem Beg», 



BAB 



703 



Persia, as is well known, is the least strictly Mahometan 
of all Mahometan countries, the prophet himseif occu- 
pjring an almost secondary place in the popular esti- 
mation to his successor Ali, and the latter's sons, Hassan 
and Hosein. The cause of this heterodoxy is, no doubt, 
to be sought in ethnological distinctions, the Aryan 
Persians never having been able to thoroughly accommo- 
date themselves to the creed of their Semitic conquerors. 
Their dbsatisfaclton has found ven\ partly in the uni- 
versal homage paid to Ali, and the rejection of the Sunna 
orgeat mass of orthodox Mahometan tradition, partly 
in violent occasional outbreaks, most characteristically 
of all in the mystical philosophy and poetry of the SuBs, 
which, under the guise of a profound respect for the 
externals of Mahometanism, dissolves its rigid Mono- 
theism into Pantheism. B4bism is essentially one of 
the innumerable schools of SuBsm, directed into a more 
practical channel by its founder's keen perception of 
the evils of his times. The doctrines ot Bibism are 
contained in an Arabic treatise, entitled Biyan (the 
Exposition), written by the Bab himself. It is essen- 
tially a system of Pantheism, vrith additions from 
Gnostic, CfabbaUstic, and even Buddhistic sources. The 
prophetic character of Moses, Christ, and Mahomet is 
acknowledged, but they are considered as mere precur- 
sors of the nab. The morality of the sect is pure and 
cheerful, and it manifests an important advance upon all 
previous Oriental systems in its treatment of woman. 
Polygamy and concubinage are forbidden, the veil is 
disused, and the equality of the sexes so thoroughly 
recognised that one at least of the nineteen soverei|^ 
prophets must always be a female. The other chief 
precepts of Babism inculcate hospitality, charity, and 
generous living, tempered by abstinence from intoxicat- 
ing liquors and drugs. Asceticism is entirely dis- 
countenanced, and mendicancy, being regarded as a 
form of it, is strictly prohibited. 

BABOON, the popular name of I4>es belonging to 
the genus Cynocephalus of the family Simiada, See 
Ape. 

BABRIUS, or Babrias, or Gabrias (the original 
name being possibly Oriental), a Greek fabulist, who 
wrote, accordmg to Sir G. C. Lewis, snortly before the 
Aug^tan age, though dates have been assigned to him 
from 250 B.C. to 250 A, D. 

BABYLON (the modem ffillah) is the Greek form 
of Babel or Bab-ili, " the gate of god " (or, as it is 
sometimes written, " of the gods "). which, again, is the 
Semitic rendering of Ca'dimirra^ the ancient name of 
the city in the Turanian language of the primitive Ac- 
cadian population of the countrv. It is doubtful 
whether the god meant was Merodach or Anu, Mero- 
dach being the patron divinity of Babylon in the Semi- 
tic period, and Su-Anna, " the valley of Anu " (Anam- 
melech), being one of its oldest names. Another 
synonym of the place was E-ci^ ** the hollow,** in refer- 
ence to its situation, and it was also known, down to 
the latest times, as Din-Tir, ** the house of the jungle,** 
though this seems properly to have been the designa- 
tion of the town on the left bank of the Euphrates. 
Under the Cassite dynasty of Khammuragas, it received 
the title of Gan-Duniyas or Gun-Duni, "the Fortress 
of Dunijras," which was afterwards made to include the 
neighboring territorv, so that the whole of Babylonia 
came to be called thin name. Sir H. Rawlinson has 
suggested that it was the origin of the Biblical Gan 
Eden, or ** Garden of Eden,** to which a popular etmol- 
ogy has given a Hebrew form. However this may be, 
Babylon %ures in the antediluvian history of Berosus, 
the^ first of his mythical monarchs, Alorus, being a 
native of it The national epic of the Babylonians, 
which grouped various old myths round the adrentures 



of a solar hero, knows of four cities only ^Babylon, 
Erech, Nipur {Niffer) or Calneh, and Surippac or Lar- 
aukha, and, according to Genesis x., Baoylon was a 
member of the tetrapolis of Shinar or Sumir, where the 
Semite invaders of the Accadians first obtained perma- 
nent settlement and power. It seems, however, to have 
ranked below its three sister-cities, among which Erech 
took the lead until conquered by the Accadian sover- 
eigns of Ur. It was not until the concjuest of Kham- 
muragas that Babylon became a capital, a position, 
however, which it never afterwards lost, except during 
the Assyrian supremacy. But it suffered severely at 
the hands of its northern neighbors. Tiglath-Adar 
drove the Cassi firom it, and established an Assyrian 
dynasty in their place; and after being captured by 
Tiglath-Pileser I. (ii30B.C.)andShalmaneser(85i B.C.) 
it became a dependency of the Assyrian empire in the 
reign of the son of the latter. The decline of the first 
Assyrian empire restored Babylon to independence; but 
it had soon afterwards to submit to theCaldai, and from 
the reign of Tiglath-Pileser 11. to the death of Assur- 
banipa^ it was a mere provincial town of Assyria, 
brealcing now and then into fierce revolt under the lead- 
ership of the Caldai, and repeatedly taken and plundered 
bySargon, Sennacherib, and Assur-bani-pal. Sennach^ 
erib, indeed, razed the city to its foundations. After 
the defeat of Suzub (690 B.c.4, he tells us that he 
" pulled down, dug up, and burned with fire the town 
and the palaces, root and branch, destroyed the fortress 
and the double wall, the temples of the gods and the 
towers of brick, and threw the rubbish into the Araxcs,** 
the river of Babylon. After this destruction it is not 
likely that much will ever be discovejred on the site r)f 
Babylon older than the buildings of Essar-haddon and 
Nebuchadnezzar. It was under the latter monarch 
and his successors that Babylon became the huge metrop- 
olis ^hose ruins still astonish the traveller, and w hich 
was described by Greek writers. Of the older city we 
can know but little. The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar 
and his father, Nabopolassar, must have suffered when 
taken by Cyrus; but two sieges in the reign of Darius 
Hystaspcs, and one in the reign of Xerxes, brought 
about the destruction of the defences, while the mono- 
theistic rule of Persia allowed the temples to fall into 
decay. Alexander found the great temple of Bel a 
shapeless ruin, and the rise of Seleucia in its neighbor- 
hood drew away its ]>opalation and completed its mate- 
rial decay. Tne buildings became a quarry, first for 
Seleucia and then for Ctesiphon, Al Modain, Baghdad, 
Kufa, Kerbelah, Hillah, and other towns, and our only 
cause for wonder is that the remains of the great capitm 
of Babylon are still so extensive. 

The principal of thes^ lie on the left bank of the 
Euphrates, and consist of three vast mounds — the 
Babil or Mujellib, the Kasr^ and the Amrdm^ which 
run from north to south ; two parallel lines of rampart 
east and west of them; and an isolated mass, to- 
gether with a series of elevations separated by the river 
westward of the JCasr^ — the whole being surrounded 
by a triangulur rampart. Our two chief authorities for 
the ancient topography of the city are Herodotus and 
Ctesias; and thougn both were eye-witnesses, their 
statements differ considerably. The city was built, we 
are told, on both sides of the river, in the form of a 
square, and enclosed within a double row of high walls. 
Ctesias adds a third wall, but the inscriptions refer only 
to two, the inner enceinte, called Imgur-Bel, and its 
salkhu or outwork, called Nimitti-Bel. Ctesias makes 
the outermost wall 360 stades (42 miles) in circumference, 
while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades 
(56 wiles), whidi would include an area of about 200 
square imles ! Pliny follows Herodotus in his figures, 



704 



BAB 



but Strabo vlth his 385 ttades, Qo. Curtioft with his 
368 stades and Clitarchus with 365 stades agree sufficiently 
closely with Cteidas. Even the estimate of Ctesias, 
however, would make Babylon cover a space of about 
100 square miles, nearly five times the size of London. 
Such an area could not have been occupied by houses, 
especially as thete were three or four stones high. 
Irdeed p. Curtius asserts that even in the most flour- 
ishing times, nine-tenths of it consisted of gardens, 
parks, fields, and orchards. According to Herodotus,, 
the height of the walls was about 33c feet, and their 
width 85 feet; while Ctesias makes the height about 
yxy feet Later writers give smaller dimensions, but it 
IS clear that they have merely tried to soften down the 
estimates of Herodotus (and Ctesias); and we seem 
bound, therefore, to accept the statements of the two 
oldest eye-witnesses, astonishing as it is. But we may 
remember that the ruined wall of Nineveh was 150 feet 
high, even in Xenophon's time, while the spaces be- 
tween the 2JJO towers irregularly disposed along 
the wall of Babylon were broad enough to allow 
a four-horse chariot to turn. The clay dug from 
the moat had served for the bricks of the wall, 
which was pierced with 100 gates, all of brass, with 
brazen lintels and posts. The two inner enclosures were 
faced with colored brick, and represented hunting- 
scenes. Two other walls ran along the banks of the 
Euphrates and the quays with which it was lined, each 
containing 25 gates which answered to the number of 
the streets they led into. Ferry-boats plied between the 
landing-places of the gates ; and a movable drawbridge 
(30 feet broad), supported on stone piers, joined the two 
parts of the city t(^ther. At eacn end of the bridge 
was a palace ; the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar on 
the eastern skie (the modem A'asr), which Herodotus 
incorrectly transfers to the western bank, being the 
more magnificent of the two. It was surrounded, accor- 
ding to Diodorus, by three walls, the outermost being 
60 stades (7 miles) in circuit. The inner walls were 
decorated with hunting-scenes painted on brick, frag- 
ments of which have been discovered by modem explor- 
ers. Two of its gates were of brass, and had to be open- 
ed and shut by machine ; and Mr. Smith has found traces 
of two libraries among iis mins. The palace, called 
** the Admiration of Mankind " by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
commenced by Nabopolassar, overlooked the Ai-ipur- 
sabu, the great reservoir of Babylon, and stretched from 
this to the Euphrates on the one side, and from the 
Imgur-Bel, or inner wall, to the Libil, or eastem canal, 
on the other. ^ Within its precincts rose the Hanging 
Gardens, consisting of a eaixlen of trees and flowers on 
the topmost of a series of arches at least 75 feet hi^h, 
and built in the form of a square, each side measunng 
400 Greek feet. Water was raised from the Euphrates 
by means, it is said, of a screw. Some of the materials 
for the construction of this building may have been obtained 
from the old ruined palace of the early kings, now rep- 
resented by the adjoining Amrdm mound. The lesser 
palace in me western division of the city belonged to 
Neriglissar, and contained a niunber of bronze statues. 
The most remarkable edifice in Babylon was the 
temple of Bel, now marked by the Bad//, on the north- 
east. It was a pyramid of eight square stages, the base- 
ment stage being over 200 yards each way. A winding 
ascent led to the summit and the shrine, m which stood 
a polden image of Bel 40 feet high, two other statues of 
gold, a eolden table 40 feet long and 15 feet broad, and 
many other colossal objects of me same precious mate- 
rial. At the base of the tower was a second shrine, 
with a table and two images of solid gold. Two altars 
were placed outside the chapel, the smaller one being 
of the same metaL A similar temple, represented by 



the modem Birs Nimrud, stood at Bonippa, the suburb 
of Babylon. It consisted of seven stages, each orna- 
mented with one of the seven planatoij colors, the 
azure tint of the sixth, the sphere of Mercury, being 
produced by the viirifaction of the bricks after the stage 
nad been completed. The lowest stage was a square, 
272 feet each way, its four comers exactly corre^ood- 
ing to the four cardinal points, as in all other Chaldean 
temples, and each of the square stages raised upon it 
being placed nearer the south-western than the north- 
eastem edge of the underljring one. It had been partly 
built by an ancient monarch, but, after lyingunfinished 
for many years, like the Biblical tower of Babel, was 
finally completed by Nebuchadnezzar. 

The amount of labor bestowed upon these brick edi- 
fices must have been enormous, and gives some idea of 
the human force at the disposal of the monarch. If 
any further illustration of this fact were needed, it would 
be found in the statement made by Nebuchadnezzar in 
one of his inscriptions (and quoted also from Berosus), 
that he had finisned the Imgur-Bel in fifteen days. The 
same monarch also continued the embankment of the 
Euphrates for a considerable distance beyond the limits 
of Babylon, and cut some canals to carry off the over- 
flow of that river into the Tigris. The great reservoir, 
40 mile« square, on the west of Borsippa, which had 
been excavated to receive the waters of^ the Euphrates 
while the bed of its channel was being lined with brick, 
was also used for a similar purpose. The reservoir 
seems to have been entered by the Arakhtu or Araxes, 
"the river of Babylon," which flowed through a deep 
wady into the heart of Northern Arabia. Various 
nomad tribes, such as the Nabathsans or the Pekod, 
pitched their tents on its banks; but, althoneh it is not 
unfrequently mentioned in early Babylonian history, we 
hear no more of it after the time of Nebuchadnezzar. 
It is possible, therefore, that it was drained by the 
westem reservoir. 

BABYLONIA and ASSYRIA. Geographically, as 
well asethnologicallyand historically, the whole district 
enclosed between the two great rivers of Westem Asia, 
the Tigris and Euphrates, forms but one country. The 
writers of antiquity clearly recognized this fact, speak- 
ing of the whole under the general name of As8]rria, 
though Babylon, as will be seen, would have been a 
more accurate designation. It naturally falls into two 
divisions, the northern being more or 1^ mountainous, 
while the southern is flat and marshy ; and the near ap- 
proach of the two rivers to one anotner, at a spot where 
the undulating! plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the 
Babylonian alluvium, tends still more completely to sep- 
arate them. In the earliest times of which we have any 
record, the northern portion was comprehended under 
the vague tiUe of Gutium (the Goyim of Gen. xiv. i), 
which stretched from the Euphrates on the west to the 
mountains of Media on the east; but it was definitely 
marked off as Assyria after the rise of that monarchy in 
the i6th century B.C. Aram Naharaim, or Mesopo- 
tamia, however, though claimed by the Assyrian kings, 
and from time to time overrun by them, did not form 
an integral part of the kingdom until the 9th century 
B.C, while tne region on the left bank of the Tigris, be- 
tween that river and the Greater 2^, was not only in- 
cluded in Assyria, but contained the chief capitals of the 
empire. In this respect the monarchy of the Tigris re- 
sembled Chaldea, where some of the most important 
cities were situated on the Arabian side of the Eunhrates. 
The reason of this preference for the eastem Dank of 
the Tigris was due to its abundant supply of water, 
whereas the great Mesopotamian plam on the 
western skie had to depend upon the streams 
which flowed into the Euphrates. This vast 



BAB 



705 



flat, the modem El-Jezireh, is abont 250 miles 
in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range, 
rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching ofT from 
the ^gros mountains under the names ofSarazur, Ham- 
rin, and Sinfar. The numerous remains of old habi- 
tations show how thickly this level tract must once have 
been peopled, though now for the most part a wilder- 
ness. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and 
undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges 
of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered 
with dwarf-oak, and often shutting in, between their 
northern and north-eastern flank and the main mount- 
ain-line from which they detach themselves, rich plains 
and fertile valleys. Behind them tower the massive 
ridges of the Niphates and Gargos ranges, "wdiere the 
Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off 
Assyria from Armenia and Kurdistan. The name 
As^rria itself originally denoted the small territory im- 
mediately surrounding the primitive capital " the city of 
Asur" (ai Asur, the Ellasar of Genesis), which was 
built, like the other chief cities of the country, by Tu- 
ranian tribes, in whose language the word signified 
"water meadow.** It stood on the right bank of the 
Tigris, midway between the Greater and the Lesser 
Zab, and is represented by the modepi Kalah Shergkat, 
It remained the capital long after the Assyrians had be- 
come the dominant power in Western Asia, but was 
finally supplanted by Calah (A7«ri/</), Nineveh {Nebi 
Vunus and Kouyunjik\ and Dur-Sargina {Khorsa- 
bad\ some 60 miles further north. See Nineveh. 

In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, 
stretch^ the rich alluml plain of Chaldea, formed by 
the deposits of the two great rivers b^ which it was 
encloses. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed 
with an industrious population. Eastward rose the 
mountains of Elam, southward were the sea- marshes 
and the ancient kingdom of Nituk or Dilvun ^the 
modem Bender- Dilvun), while on the west the civihsa- 
tion of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the 
Euphrates, iipon the territory of the Semitic nomades 
(or Suti). Here stood Ur (now Mugheir)^ the earliest 
capital of the country ; and Babylon, with its suburb, 
Borsippa {^Birs Nimriid)^ as well as the two Sipparas 
(the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now Mosaib), occupied 
both the Arabian and Chaldean side of the river. (See 
Babylon.) The Araxes, or " River of Babylon," was 
conducted through a deep valley into the heart of 
Arabia, irrigating the land through which it passed ; 
and to the south of it lay the great inland fresn-water 
sea of Nedjt/f surrounded by tne red sandstone cliffs 
of considerable height, 40 miles in length and 35 in 
breadth in the widest part. Above and below this sea, 
from Borsippa to Kufa, extend the famous Chaldean 
marshes, where Alexander was nearly lost ; but these 
depend upon the state of the Hindiyah canal, disap- 
pearing altogether when it is closed. Between the sea 
of Ne^ef and Ur, but on the left side of the Euphrates, 
was Erech (now Warka)y which with Nipur or Calneh 
(now Niffer)^ Surippac (Senktreh ?) , and Babylon (now 
Hiikik), formed the tetrapolis of Sumis and Shinar. 
This north-western part of ChaWea was also called 
Gan-duniyas or Gtm-duni after the accession of the 
Cassite djmasty. South-eastern Chaldea, on the other 
hand, was termed Accad, though the name came also to 
be applied to the whole of Babylonia. The Caldai, or 
ChaUeans, are first met with in the 9th century B.c. as 
a small tribe on the Persian Gulf, whence they slowly 
moved northwards, until under Merodach-Baladan th^ 
made themselves masters of Babylon, and hencefortn 
formed so important an element in the population of the 
country, as in later days to give their name to the whole 
of it. In the inscriptions, however, Chaldea represents 



the marshes of the sea-coast, and Teredoti was one of 
their ports. The whole territory was thickly studded 
with towns ; but among all this " vast number of great 
cities,*' to use the words of Herodotus, Cuthah, or 
Tiggaba (now Ibrahim)^ Chilmad {JCalwadah)^ Is 
(/rZr), and Dur-aba {Akkerkuf) alone need be men- 
tioned. The cultivation of the country was regulated . 
by canals, the three chief of which carried off the ' 
waters of the Euphrates towards the Tigris above 
Babylon, — the ** Royal River," or Ar-Malcha, entering 
the Tigris a little below Baghdad, the Nahr-Malcha 
running across to the site of^Seleucia, and the Nahr- 
Kutha passing through Ibrahim. The Pallacopas, on 
the other side of the Euphrates, supplied an immense 
lake in the neighborhood of Borsippa. So great was the 
fertility of the soil that, according to Herodotus, grain 
commonly retumed two hundrecUold to the sower, and 
occasionally three hundredfold. Pliny, too {If. N., 
xviii. 1 7), says that wheat was cut twice, and afterwards 
was good keep for sheep ; and Berosus remarked that 
wheat, barley, sesame, ochrys, palms, apples, and many 
kinds of shelled fruit grew wild, as wheat still does in 
the neighborhood of Anah. A Persian poem celebrated 
the 360 uses of the palm, and Ammianus Marcellinus 
states that from the point reached by Julian*s army to 
the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous forest 
of verdure. 

Such a countiT was well fitted to be one of the 
primeval seats of civilisation. Where brick lay ready 
to hand, and climate and soil needed only settled life and 
moderate labor to produce all that man reauircd, it was 
natural that the great civilising power of Western Asia 
should take its rise. The history of the origin and de- 
velopment of this civilisation, interesting and important 
as it is, has but recently been made known to us by the 
decipherment of the native monuments. The scanty 
notices and conflicting statements of classical writers 
have been replaced by the evidence of contemporaneous 
documents ; and though the materials are still out a tithe 
of what we may hope hereafter to obtain, we can sketch 
the outlines of the history, the art, and the science of the 
powerful nations of the Tigris and Euphrates. Before 
doing so, however, it would be well to say a few words 
in regard to our classical sources of information, the 
only ones hitherto available. The principal of these is 
Berosus, the Manetho of Babylonia, who flourished at 
the time of Alexander's conquests. He was priest of Bel, 
and translated the records and astronomy of his nation 
into Greek. His works have unfortunately perished, but 
the second and third hand quotations from them, which 
we have in Eusebius ana other writers, have been 
strikingly verified by inscriptions so far as regards their 
main facts. The story of the flood, taken from Berosus, 
for instance, is almost identical with the one preserved 
on the cuneiform tablets. Numerical figures, nowever, 
as might be expected, are untrustworthy. According to 
Berosus, ten kings reigned before the Deluge for 120 
saroiy or 432,000 yeare, beginning with Alorus of Babylon, 
and ending with Otiartes (Opartes) of Larankha, and 
his son Sisuthrus, the hero of the flood. Then came 
eight dynasties, which are given as follows : — 

(I.) 86 Chaldean kings .34,080 years, 

(2.) 8 Median " 224 " 

(3.) II (Chaldean)" • 

(4.) 49 Chaldean " 458 " 



(c.) 9 Arabian 
(0.) 45 Assyrian 
(7.) * (Assyrian) 



) 6 Chaldean « 87 

Ptolemy*s canon (in the Almagest) gives the seventh 
dynasty in full — ^-^ | 

(I.) Nabonassar(74j[ti?eg.Jy^^OOgl^4 years. 



7o6 



BAB 



(2.) Ntdios 2 years. 

(3.) Khinziroi and Poros (Pul) 5 " 

(4.) llvLxos 5 « 

<5.) Mardokeinpados(Merodach-Baladan)i2 ** 

(6.) Arkeanos (Sargon) 5 ** 

(7.) Interregnum 2 •* 

(8.) Hafisa i month. 

(9.) Belibos (702 B.C.) 3 years. 

(la) Assaranadios (As8ur-nadin-sum) 6 ** 

(n.) R^gebelos I « 

(12.) Mn^simordakoa 4 " 

(13.) Interregnum 8 ** 

(14.) Asaridinos (Elssar-haddon) 13 ** 

(15.) Saosdukhinos (Savul-sum-yucin) 20 " 

(16.) Sin^iadanos (Assur-bani-plal) 22 ** 

Next to Berosus, the authority of Herodotus ranks 
highest. His information, however, is scanty, and he 
hZl to trust to the doubtful statements of cicervni. 
Herodotus was controverted by Ctesias of Cnidus, the 
physician of Artaxerxes Mnemon. But Ctesias mis- 
took mythology for history, and the Ninus and Semir- 
amis, the Ninyas and Sardanapalus, of Greek romance 
were in great measure his creations. We may yet con- 
struct an Assyrian epopee, like the Shahnameh of 
Firdusi, out of his pa^es, but we must not look to them 
for history. Other Tiistori<^ notices of Assyria and 
Babylonia, of more or less questionable value, are to be 
gathered from Diodorus axKi one or two more writers, 
but beyond Berosus and, to a limited extent, llerodo- 
tus, our only ancient authority of much value upon 
this subject is the Old Testament. 

Ethnology and History, — The primitive population 
of Babylonia, the builders of its cities, the originators 
of its culture, and the inventors of the cuneiform sys- 
tem of writing, or rather of the hieroglyphics out of 
which it gradually developed, belonged to the Turanian 
or Ural-Altaic famil)r. Their language was highly ag- 
glutinative, approaching the modern Mongolian idioms 
in the simplicity of its grammatical machinery, but 
otherwise more nearly related to the Ugro-Bulgaric 
division of the Finnic group; and its speakers were 
mentally in no way inferior to the Hungarians and 
Turks of the present day. The country was divided 
into two halves, the Sumir (Sungir, or Shinar) in the 
north-west, and the Accad in tne south-east, corre- 
sf)onding most remarkably to the Suomi and Akkara-k, 
into which the Finnic race believed itself to have been 
separated in its first mountain home. Like Suomi, 
Sumir signified " (the people) of the rivers," and just as 
Finnic tradition makes Kemi a dbtnct of the Suomi, 
so Came was another name of the Babylonian Sumir. 
The Accadai, or Accad, were ^ the highlanders" who 
had descended from the mountainous region of Elam on 
the east, and it was to them that the A^yrians ascribed 
the origin of Chaldean civilisation and writing. They 
were, at all events, the dominant people in Babylonia at 
the time to which our earliest contemporaneous records 
reach back, although the Sumir, or "the people of the 
home langua^,'* as they are sometimes termed, were 
named first m the royal titles out of respect to their 

Erior settlement in the country. A survey of the sylla- 
ary has led to the conclusion that the first attempts at 
writing were made before the Accad had descendea into 
the plains and exchanged papyrus as a writing material 
for clay; other considerations, however, go to show that 
although the system of writing may have been invented 
before they had entered Babylonia, it was not completed 
until after they had done so. In harmony with this, we 
find Berosus ascribing the culture of ** the mixed popu- 
lation of Chaldea" to Oannes and other similar crea- 
tures from the Persian Gulf. So far as we can judge, 
the civilisation of £Iam is at least coeval with that of 



Babylonia, and the capture of Babylon by the Medes, 
with whom the historical dynasties of Berosus are com- 
monly supposed to begin, must be explained by an 
Elamite conquest. Mraia was the Accadian Mada^ 
"the land" par excellence; and Accadian tradition 
looked back upon the mountainous district to tlie south- 
west of the Caspian as the cradle of their race. Among 
these ** mountains of the east," and in the land of Nisir 
Jthe furthermost division of Gutium beyond the Lesser 
Zab), rose ** the mountain of the worki," the Turanian 
Olympus, on which the ark of the Chsddean Noah was 
believed to have rested. From this centre Turanian 
tribes spread in all directions, meeting Alarodians on the 
north, and the Semites on the south-west. The Aryans 
had not yet penetrated across the great Sagartian desert. 
The numerous tribes of Susiana, both civilised and un- 
ciNHlised, spoke lan^ages more closely Ugrian than even 
that of the Accadians; the oWest towns of Northern 
Syria, where the Semite afterwards reigned supreme, 
bdre Accadian names, and as in the case of Haran, were 
mythologically connected with Babylon ; while the chxf 
cities of Assyria were founded by Accadians, were 
denoted by Accadian symbols, and were ruled by Acca- 
dian princes, in strict accordance with the statement of 
Genesis that out of Babylonia ** went forth Ashur. *• An 
Elamite conqueror of Chaldea, like Chedorlaomer (Gen. 
xiv. i), imposed his authority, not onlyover Shinar, but 
over Assyria and Gutium as well. The earliest geo- 
graphical lists know only of Nuwa, or Elam, on the 
east, the Khani on the west, Martu, the land of " the 
path of the setting sun," Subarti, or Syria, with its four 
races, and Gutium, which stretched across Mesopotamia 
from the Euphrates on the one side to the mountains of 
Media on the other. To these must be added Anzan, 
or southern Elam, with its capital Susa, Dilvun, or 
Nituk, on the Persian Gulf, and, at a considerably later 
date, the Hittites, with their chief city Carchemish. 

The first monarchs whose monumental records we 
possess had their seats at Ur, on the right bank of the 
Euphrates. Ur, in Accadian, signified "the city"/ar 
excellence^ and so bore testimony to the supremacy 
claimed by its rulers over the rest of Babylonia. The 
great temple of the Moon-god there was one of the 
oldest buildings in the country, and its erection was due 
to a prince who claimed sovereignty over the whole of 
Babylonia, and adorned Erech, Nipur, l.arsa, and other 
cities with temples of vast size, dedicated to the sun, to 
Istar, and to Bel. He seems to have been the first great 
Babylonian builder ; and this would imply that it was under 
him that Ur rose to its prominent lisition, and united 
the numerous principalities of Chaldea under one head. 
The enormous brick structures were cemented with bitu- 
men in the place of lime mortar ; but the use of the but- 
tress, of drains, and of external ornamentation, shows 
that architectural knowledge was already advanced. 
The cuneiform system of writing had attained its full 
development, signet stones were carved with artistic 
skill, and the amount of human force at the disposal of 
the monarch may be estimated from the fact that the 
Bowariyeh mound at Warka, on the site of the temple 
of the Sun-god, is 2CX> feet square and 100 feet high, so 
that above 30,000,000 bricks must have been em^oyed 
upon its construction. The vicinity of Ur to the Semitic 
tribes of Arabia implies that the Accadian sovereigns 
head been turning their attention in that direction, and 
we find nothing surprising therefore in the Scriptural 
account of Abranam*s migration from this place, or the 
Phoenician tradition of the original home of the Canaan- 
itish race on the shores of the Persian Gulf (Strab. i. 2, 
35, xvi. 3, 4, 27 ; Justin, xviil 3, 2 ; Pliny, N. H., iv. 
36). Indeed, we have clear evidence that Semitic was 
spoken in Ur itself at this remote epoch. Although the 



BAB 



707 



ruling caste were Accadian, and generally wrote their 
inscnptions in that language, Dungi, one of their earliest 
monarchs, in spite of his Turanian name, has left us a 
short legend in Semitic ; and it is more than probable 
that the imperial title of " Sumir and Accad " was soon 
to be assumed to mark a linguistic as well as a geograph- 
ical distinction. The brick legends of the various vice- 
roys who governed the cities of Chaldea under this dy- 
nasty are all, however in Accadian, 

The supremacy of Ur had been disputed by its more 
ancient rival Erech, but had finally to give way before 
the rise of Nisin or Karrak, a city whose site is uncer- 
tain, and Karrak in its turn was succeeded by Larsa. 
Klamite conquest seems to have something to do with 
these transferences of the seat of power. In 2280 B.C. 

— the date is fixed by an inscription of Assur-bani-pal's 

— Cudur-nankhundi, the Elamite, conquered Chaldea at 
a time when princes with Semitic names appear to have 
been already reigning there, and Cudur-mabug not only 
overran ** the west," or Palestine, but established a line 
of monarchs in Babylonia. His son and successor took 
an Accadian name, and extended his sway over the 
whole country. Twice did the Elamite uibe of Cassi 
or Kossxans furnish Chaldea with a succession of kings. 
At a very early period we find one of these Kossaean 
dynasties claimmg homage from Syria, Gutium, and 
>* orthern Arabia, and rededicating the images of native 
Babylonian gods, which had been carried away in war, 
with g^t splendor and expense. The other Cassite 
dynasty was founded by Khammuragas, who established 
his capital at Babylon, which henceforth continued to 
be the seat of empire in the south. The dynasty is 
probably to be identified with that called Arabian by 
IJerosus, and it was during its domination that Se- 
mitic came gradually to supersede Accadian as the 
language of the country. Khammuragas himself as- 
sumed a Semitic name, and a Semitic inscription of his 
is now in the Louvre. A large number of canals were 
constructed during his reign, more especially the famous 
Nahr-Malcha, ana an embankment built along the banks 
of the Tigris. The king's attention seems to have been 
turned to the subject of irrigation bv a flood which over- 
whelmed the important city of Muliias. His first con- 
quests were in the north of Babylonia, and from this 
base of operations he succeeded in overthrowing Naram- 
Sin (or Kim-Acu?) in the south and making himself 
master of the whole of Chaldea. Naram-Sm and a 
queen had been the last representatives of a dynasty 
which had attained a high degree of glory both in arms 
and in literature. Naram-Sm and his father Sargon 
had not only subdued the rival princes of Babylonia, 
but had successfully invaded Syria, Palestine, and even, 
as it would seem, Egypt. At Agane, a suburb of Sip- 
para, Sargon had founded a library, especially famous 
for its works on astrology and astronomy, copies of 
which were made in later times for the libraries of 
Assyria. Indeed, so prominent a place did Sargon take 
in the early history of^ Babylonia, tnat his person became 
surrounded with an atmosphere of myth. Not only 
was he regarded as a sort of epon}'mous hero of litera- 
ture, a Babylonian Solomon, whose title was " the de- 
viser of law and prosperity," popular legends told of 
his mysterious birth, how, like Romulus and Arthur, he 
knew no father, but was bom in secrecy, and placed by 
his mother in an ark of reeds and bitumen, and left to 
the care of the river ; how, moreover, this second 
Moses was carried bv the stream to the dwelling of a 
ferryman, who reared him as his own son, until at last 
the time came that his rank shou|d be discovered, and 
Sargon, ** the constituted king," for such is the meaning 
of his name, took his seat upon the throne of his an- 
cestors. It was while the Cassite sovereigns were 



reigning in the south, and probably in consequence of 
reverses that they suffered at the hands of the Egyptians, 
who, under the monarchs of the i8th dynasty, were 
pushing eastward, that the kingdom of Assyria took its 
rise. Its princes soon began to treat with their south- 
ern neighbors on equal terms ; the boundaries of the 
two kingdoms were settled, and ir i<r-marriages between 
the royal families took place, which led more than once 
to an interference on the part of the Assyrians in the 
affairs of Babylonia. Finally, in the 14th century B.C., 
Tiglath-Adar of Assyria captured Babylon, and estab- 
lished a Semitic line of sovereigns there, which con- 
tinued until the days of the later Assyrian empire. 
From this time down to the destruction of Nineveh, 
Assyria remained the leading power of Western Asia. 
Occasionally, it is true, c king of Babylon succeeded in 
defeating his aggressive rival and invading Assyria; but 
the contrary was more usually the case, and the Assyri- 
ans grew more and more powerful at the expense of the 
weaker state, until at last Babylonia was reduced to a 
mere apanage of Assyria. 

We possess an ahnost continuous list of Assyrian 
kings ; and, as from the beginning of the 9th century 
downwards there exists a native canon, in which eacn 
year is dated by the limmu or archon eponymousy whose 
name it bears, as well as a portion of a larger canon 
which records the chief events of each eponymy, it is 
evident that our chronology of the later period of Assy- 
rian history is at once full and trustworthy. Similar 
chronological lists once existed for the earlier period 
also, since an inscription of a king of the 14th century 
B.C. is dated by one of these eponymies ; and the piecise 
dates given in the inscriptions for occurrences whicn took 
place m the reigns of older monarchs cannot otherwise 
DC accounted for. How far back an accurate chrono- 
logical record extended it is impossible to say ; but 
astronomical observations were made in Babvlonia from 
a remote period, and the era of Cudur-nankhundi was 
known, as we have seen, more than 1600 years after- 
ward ; while in Assyria not only can Sennacherib state 
at Bavian that Tiglath-Pileser I. was defeated by the 
Babylonians 418 years before his own invasion of that 
country, but the same Tiglath-Pileser can fix 701 years 
as the exact interval between his restoration of the 
temple of Anu and Rimmon at Kalah Sherghat and its 
foundation by the dependent viceroys of the city of 
Assiur. 

This Tiglath-Pileser, in spite of his subs^ijuent defeat 
by the Babylonians, was one of the most eminent of the 
sovereigns of the first Assyrian empire. He carried his 
arms far and wide, sul^ugating the Moschians, Coma- 
genians, Trumians, and other tribes of the north, the 
Syrians and Hittites in the west, and the Babylonians 
(including their capital) in the south. His empire, 
accordingly, stretched from the Mediterranean on the 
one skie to the Caspian and the Persian Gulf on the 
other; but, founded as it was on conauest, and cen- 
tralised in the person of a single individual, it fell to 
pieces at the least touch. With the death of Tiglath- 
Pileser, Assjrria seems to have been reduced to com- 
parative powerlessness, and when next its claims to 
empire are realised, it is under Assur-natsir-pal, whose 
reign lasted from 883 to 858 B.C. The boundaries of 
his empire exceeded those of his predecessor, and the 
splendid palaces, temples, and other buildings raised by 
him, with their elaborate sculptures and rich painting, 
bear witness to a high development of wealth and art 
and luxunr. Calah, which had been founded by Shal- 
maneser I. some four or five centuries previously, but 
had fallen into decay, became his favorite residence, and 
was raised to the rank of a capital. His son Shalma- 
neser had a long reign of 35 years, during which he 



7o8 



BAB 



largely extended the empire he had received from his 
father. Armenia and the Parthians paid him tribute ; 
and under the pretext of restoring the legitimate monarch 
he entered Babylon, and reduced the country to a state 
of vassalage. It is at this time that we 6rst hear of 
the Caldai or Chaldeans, — carehiUy to be distinguished 
from the Casdim or Semitic "conquerors" bf Script- 
ure, — who formed a small but independent principality 
on the sea-coast. In the west Shalmaneser succeeded 
in defeating hi 854 ac. a daneerous confederacy, 
headed by Rimmon-idri or Ben-hadad of Damascus and 
including Ahab of Israel and several Phoenician kings. 
I^ter on in his reign he again annihilated the forces of 
Ilazael, Ben-hadad's successor, and extorted tribute 
from the princes of Palestine, among others from Jehu 
of Samana, whose servants are depicted on the black 
obelisk. The last few years of his life, however, were 
troubled by the rebellion of his eldast son, which well- 
nieh proved fatal to the old king. Assur, Arbela, and 
other places joined the pretender, and the revolt was 
with aiihculty put down by Shalmaneser*s second son, 
Sanuis-Rimmon, who shortly after succeeded him. 
Samas-Rimmon (824-811) and Rimmon-nirari (811- 
782) preserved the empire of Assyria undiminished; but 
th^ principal exploits were in Babylonia, which they 
wasted witn hre and sword, and converted into an 
As^rian province. 

The first Assvrian empire came to an end in 744, 
when the old aynasty was overthrown by a usurper, 
Tiglath-Pileser, after a struggle of three or four years. 
Once settled on the throne, however, Tiglath-Pileser 
proceeded to restore and reorganbe the empire. Baby- 
•^*onia was first attacked; the Assyrian monarch offered 
Isacrifices and set up his court in its chief cities ; and 
the multitudinous Arab tribes who encamped along the 
banks of the Euphrates were reduced to subjection. 
The Caldai in the soutli alone held out, and to them 
belonged the first four kings given in Ptolemy's canon. 
Indeed, it may be said that from the invasion of Tiglath- 
Pileser to the revolt of Nabopolassar, Babylonia ceased 
to have any separate existence. It was governed by 
Assyrian kmgs or the viceroys they appointed, and the 
only attempts to recover ^-dependence were made under 
the leadership of the "Caldean** chiefs. It becomes 
nothing more than an important province of Assyria. 

The second Assyrian empire differed from the first in 
its greater consolidation. The conquered provinces 
were no longer loosely attached to the central power by 
the payment of tribute, anc ready to refuse it as soon 
as the Assyrian armies were out of sight ; they were 
changed into satrapies, each with its fixed taxes and 
military contingent. Assyrian viceroys were nominated 
wherever possible, and a turbulent population was 
deported to some distant locality. Tnis will explain 
the condition in which Babvlonia found itself, as well 
as the special attention which was paid to the countries 
on the Mediterranean coast. The possession of the 
barbarous and half-deserted districts on the east was of 
little profit; the inhabitants were hardy mountaineers, 
difficult to subdue, and without wealth; and although 
Tiglath Pileser penetrated into Sagartia, Ariana, and 
Aracosia, and even to the confines of India, the expedi- 
tion was little more than a display of power. The 
rich and civilised regions of the west, on the contrary, 
offered attractions which the politicians of Nineveh 
were keen to discover. Tiglatn- Pileser overthrew the 
ancient kingdoms of Damascus and Ilamath, with its 
nineteen districts, and after receiving tribute from 
Menahem (which a false reading in the Old Testament 
ascribes to a non-existent Pul) in 740, placed his vassal 
Hoshea on the throne of Samaria in 730 in the room 
of Pekah. Hamath had been aided by Uzziah of 



Tudah ; and, on the overthrow of the Syrian dty, Judah 
had to become the tributary of Assyria. Tiglath- 
Pileser seems to have met with a usurper's fate, and 
to have fallen in a struggle with another claimant of 
the throne, Shalmaneser. The chief event of Shal- 
maneser's reign (727-722) was the campaign against 
Samaria. The capture of that aty, however, was re- 
served for his successor, Sargon, in 720, who succeeded 
in founding a new djmasty. Sargon's reign of seven- 
teen years Torms an era in later Assyrian history. At 
the very conmiencement of it he met and defeated the 
forces of Elam, and so prepared the way for the future 
conquest of that once predominant monarchy. He 
came into conflict, also, with the kingdoms of Ararat 
and Van in the north ; and the policy of the countries 
beyond the Zagros was henceforth influenced by the 
wishes of the Assyrian court. But it was in the west 
that the power of Nineveh was chiefly felt Syria and 
Palestine were reduced to a condition of vassalage, 
Hamath was depopulated, and Egypt, then g;ovemed hy 
Ethiopian princes, first came into collision with Assyria. 
The battle of Raphia in 719, in which the Egyptians and 
their Phihstine aUies were defeated, was an omen of the 
future ; and fi'om this time onward the destinies of civil- 
ised Asia were fought out between the two great powers 
of the ancient world. As the one rose the other fell ; 
and just as the climax of Assyrian glory is marked by 
the complete subjugation of Egypt, so the revolt of 
Egypt was the first signal of the decline of Aswria. 
The struggle between the representative states of the 
East led, as was natural, to the appearance of the Greek 
upon the stage of history. Sargon claims the conquest 
of Cyprus as well as Phoenicia, and his effigy, found at 
Idalium, remains to this day a witness of the fact. 
Babylonia, however, was the point of weakness in the 
empire. It was too like, and yet too unlike, Assyria to 
be otherwise than a dangerous dependency ; and its in- 
habitants could never forget that tneyhad once been the 
dominant nation. New blood had been infused into 
them by the arrival of the Caldai, whose leader, Mero- 
dach-Baladan, the son of Yacin, called Mardokempados 
in Ptolemy's canon, had taken advantage of the troubles 
which closed the life of Tiglath-Pileser to possess himself 
of Babylonia ; and for twelve years he con tmued master of 
the country, until in 710 Sargon drove him from the prov- 
ince, and crowned himself king of Babylon. Merodach- 
Baladan had foreseen the attack, and tndeavored to meet 
it by forming alliances with Egypt and the principalities 
of Palestine. The confederacy, however, was i3roken 
up in a single campaign bv the Assyrian monarch ; Judca 
was overrun, and Ashdod razed to the ground. Sargon, 
who now styled himself km^ of Assyria and Babylon, 
of Sumir and Accad, like Tiglath-Pileser before him, 
spent the latter part of his reign in internal reforms and 
extensive building. A new town, called after his name, 
was founded to the north of Nineveh (at the modem 
Kouyunjik), and a magnificent palace was erected there. 
The library of Calah was restored and enlarged, in im- 
itation of nis semi-mythical namesake of Agane, whose 
astrological works were re-edited, while special atten- 
tion was given to legislation. In the midst of these 
labors Sargon was murdered, and hb son, Sennacherib, 
ascended the throne on the 12th of Ab 705 B.C. Sen- 
nacherib is a typical representative of the great warriors 
and builders of the second Assyrian empire, and is 
familiar to the readers of the Old Testament from his 
invasion of Judah, which the native monuments assign 
to the year 701. The check he received at Eltakcn, 
where he was met by the forces of Egypt and Ethiopia, 
saved the Jewish king, not. however, oeforc his tovms 
had been ravaged, a heavy tribute laid upon the capital, 
and his allies m Ascalon and Akron severely pamshed. 



B A& 



709 



At the conunencemait of this campaign Sennacherib 
had reduced T)rre and Sidon, and the overthrow of these 
centres of commerce, caused a transfer of trade to Car- 
chemish. Babylonia had shaken off the yoke of Assyria 
at the death of Sargon under Merodach-Baladan, who 
had escaped from his captivity at Nmeveh, but was soon 
reduced to obedience again, and placed under the gov- 
ernment of the Assyrian viceroy Belibus. In 700, 
however, the year after the Judsean war, Babylon re- 
belled once more under the indomitable Merodach- 
Baladan, and Suzub, another Chaldean. Sennacherib 
was occupied with a naval war — the first ever engaged 
in by the Assyrians — against a body of Chaldeans who 
had taken refuge in Susiana, and the revolt in his rear 
was stirred up by the Si!sianian king. But the uisur- 
gents were totally defeated; Assur-nadin-sum, Senna- 
cherib's eldest son, was appointed viceroy of the south- 
em kingdom; and the Ass3rrian monarch felt himself 
strong enough to carry the war into the heart of Elam, 
wasting the country with fire and sword. A last 
attempt, made by the Susianians and the Chaldeans of 
Babylonia, to oppose the power of Assyria was i;hat- 
tered in the haraly-contested battle of Khaluli. The 
interregnum, however, which marks the last eight years 
of Sennacherib's rule in Ptolemy*s canon, shows that 
Chaldea still continued to give trouble and resist the 
Assyrian yoke. 

Meanwhile Sennacherib had been constructing canals 
and aqueducts, embanking the Tigris, and building 
himself a palace at Nineveh on a grander scale than 
had ever been attempted before. His works were in- 
terrupted by his murder, in 681, by his two sons, who, 
however, soon found themselves confronted by the 
veteran army of Essar-haddon, their father's younger 
and favorite son. Essar-haddon had been engaged in 
Armenia; but in January 680 he defeated them at 
Khanirabbat, and was proclaimed king. Soon after- 
wards he established his court at Babylon, where he 
governed in person during the whole of his rei^. 
After settling the affairs of Chaldea his first campaign 
was directed against Syria, where Sidon was destroyed 
and its inhabitants removed to Assyria, an event which 
exercised a profound influence upon Asiatic trade. The 
most remarlcable expedition of his reign was into the 
heart of Arabia, to the kingdoms of Huz and Buz, 980 
miles distant from Nineveh, 280 miles of the march 
being through arki desert. The Assyrian army accom- 
plished a feat never since exceeded. In the north, also, 
11 penetrated equally far, subju^ting the tribes of the 
Caucasus, receiving the submission of Teispes the Cim- 
merian, and taking possession of the copper-mines on 
tlie most remote frontiers of Media. All this part of the 
country was now in the hands of Arjran settlers, and 
each small town had its independent chief, like the 
states of Greece. In fact, on two sides, on both north 
and west, the Assyrian empire was in contact with an 
Aryan population, and among the twenty-two kings who 
sent materiab for Essar-haddon's palace at Nineveh were 
Cyprian princes with Greek names. But the most im- 
portant work of Essar-haddon 's reign was the conquest 
of E^3rpt, which left the ancient world under the rule 
of a single power for some twenty years, and by fusing 
the nations of Western Asia together, broke down their 
differences, spread an equalised civilisation, and first 
struck out the idea of universal empire. In 672 B.C. the 
land of the Pharaohs was invaded, Tirhakah, the Ethi- 
opian, driven beyond its borders, and the country 
divided into twenty governments. Vam efforts to shake 
off the Assyrian supremacy were made from time to time; 
but just as Babylon had to look to the foreign Caldai for 
the championship of its independence, so Egypt found 
its leaders in Ethiopian princes. In 669 Essar-haddon 



fell ill, and on the 13th day of lyyar in the following 
year hs associated his son, Assur-bani-pal, with him in 
the kingdom. On his death at Babylon in 667, Assur- 
bani-pal was left sole king. One of his first acts was to 
appoint his brother Savul-sum-yucin (Sammughes) gov- 
ernor of Babylonia. 

Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, was 
the " grand monarque ** of ancient Assyria. The empire 
on his accession was at the height of its glory and mag- 
nitude ; the treasures and products of the work! flowwi 
into Nineveh, and its name was feared from the front- 
iers of India to the shores of the JEgean, Constant 
wars asserted the superiority of the Assjrrian troops, 
though they drained the empire of money and men ; and 
the luxury, which had come in like a Hood, was sapping 
the foundations of the national strength. Assur-oani- 
pal, in spite of his victories, his buildings, and his patron- 
age of literature, left a diminished inheritance to his 
son ; and the military expeditions, formerly conducted 
by the king in person, were now entrusted to his gene- 
rals. H is first work was to check the southward advance 
of the Cimmerians, who were thus driven upon Asia 
Minor, and to quell a revolt that had broken out in 
Egypt. Two campaigns were requisite to effect this, 
and meanwhile Gyges U Lydia had sent tribute to the 
formidable Assyrian monarch. War had also broken out 
with Elam, which ended, after a long and hard struggle, 
with the complete conquest of the country. It was 
divided into two states, each ruled by Assyrian vassals. 
But soon after, this (in 652) the first blow was struck 
which eventually led to the downfall of the empire. A 
general insurrection suddenly look place, headed by Assur- 
bani-pal's own brother, the viceroy of Babylonia. Elam, 
Arabia, Egypt, and Palcstme made common cause 
against the oppressor. Egypt alone, however, under 
the guidance of Psammiticnus, and with the help of 
Gyges, succeeded in recovering her independence; the 
wandering tribes of Northern Arabia, Kedar, Zobah, 
Nabatluea, Czc. , were chastised, z'-ad summary vengeance 
taken on Babylonia and Elam. Babylon and Cuthah 
v/ere rc-Juced by famine (649), Sammughes was captured 
and burnt to death, and 5re and sword were carried 
through EInm. After a protracted war, in which Assur- 
bani-pal v/as aided by internal dissensions, Shushan was 
plundered and razed, and the whole of Susiana reduced 
to a wildemc •:. This happened in 64 j. 

Assur-bani-pal*C5 buildings were unrivalled for size and 
grandeur. Assyrian culture reached its culminating 
point in his reign, and his palaces glittered with the pre- 
cious metals, and were adorned with the richest sculpt- 
ure. The library which he formed at Nineveh far sur- 
passed any that had ever existed before ; literary works 
were collected from all sides; the study of the dead lan- 
guage of Accad was encouraged, grammars and dictiona- 
ries wcrecompiled,andleame5 men of all nations were at- 
tracted to the court. Patron of the arts as he was, 
however, Assur-banf-pal's character was stained by 
cruelty and sensuality. Under his second name of Sin- 
inadina-pal, he appears as king of Babylon in Ptolemy's 
list; ana the complete amalgamation of Assyria and 
Babylonia in the later years of his rule is shown by the 
appearance of a prefect of Babylon among the Assyrian 
eponyms. He was succeeded in 625 by his son Assur- 
eDil-ilL His death was the signal for a general revolt. 
Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylonia, made himself 
independent ; and Assyria, shorn of its empire, was left 
to struggle for bare existence, until, under Saracus its 
last monarch, Nineveh was taken and burnt by the 
Babylonians and Medes. 

Tne seat of empire was now transferred to the south- 
ern kingdom. Nabopolassar was followed in 604 by 
his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose long reign of forty-three 



7IO 



BAB 



years made Babylon the mistress of the world. The 
whole East was overrun by the armies of C'haUlea, 
Kgypt was invaded, and the city of the Euphrates left 
witnout a rival. L'ntil systematic exnlorations are car- 
ried on in Babylonia, however, our knowledge of the 
history of Nebuchadnezzar's empire must be confined 
to the notices of ancient writers, although we po>sess 
numerous inscriptions which record the restoration or 
construction of temples, palaces, and other public build- 
ings during its contmuance. One of these bears out the 
boast of Nebuchadnezzar, mentioned by Berosus, that 
he had built the wall of Babylon in fifteen days. Evil- 
Merodach succeeded his father in 561, but he was mur- 
dered two vears after, and the crown seized by his broth- 
er-in-law, Nergal-sharazer, who calls himself son of Bel- 
sumaiscun, " king of Babylon. *• Nergal-sharezer reigned 
four 3rears, and was succeeded by hb son, a mere boy, who 
was put to death after nine months of sovereignty (555 
B.C.). The power now passed from the house of Nabo- 
polassar, Nabu-nahid, who was raised to the throne, 
neing of another family. Nebuchadnezzar's empire al- 
ready began to show signs of decay, and a new enemy 
threatened it in the person of Cyrus the Persian. The 
Lydian monarchy, which had extended its sway over 
Asia Minor and tne Greek islands, had some time before 
come into hostile collision with the Babylonians, but 
the famous eclipse foretold by Thales hsud parted the 
combatants and brought about peace. Croesus of I.ydia 
and Nabu-nahid of Babylonia now formed an alliance 
a^iDst the common fc>e, who had subjected Media to 
his rule, and preparations were made for checking the 
Persian advance. The rashness of Croesus, however, in 
xtnieeiing Cyrus befor** his allies had joined him, brou^t 
'about his overthrow; Sardis was taken, and the Persian 
leader occupied the next fourteen years in consolidating 
his power in the north. This respite was employed by 
Nabu-nahid in fortifying Babylon, and in constructing 
those wonderful walls and hydraulic works which Her- 
odotus ascril>es to Queen Nitocris. At last, however, the 
attack was made; and after spending a winter in drain- 
ing the Gyndes, Cjrrus appeared in the neighborhood of 
Babylon. Belshazzar, Nabu-nahid's eldest son, as we 
learn from an inscription, was left in charge of the city, 
while his father took the field sigainst the invader. But 
the Jews, who saw in the Persians monotheists and de- 
liverers, formed a considerable element of the popula- 
tion and army; and Nabu-nahid found himself oefeated 
and compelled to take refuge in Borsippa. By divert- 
ing the channel of the Euphrates the Persians contrived 
to march along the dry river-bed, and enter the city 
through an unguarded gate. Babylon was taken, and 
Nabu-nahid shortly afterwards submitted to the con- 
queror, receiving in return pardon and a residence in 
Carmania. He probably died before the end of Cyrus's 
reign; at all events, when Babylon tried to recover its 
independence during the troubles that followed thedtiath 
of Cambyses, it was under impostors who claimed to be 
** Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabu-nahkL** 

Art, Scieruct and Literature. — Although in art, as 
in other things, Assyria was but the pupil and imitator 
of Babylonia, there was yet a marked difference between 
its development in the two countries, due partly to nat- 
ural causes. While the Assyrians had stone in abund- 
ance, the Babylonians were obliged to import it from a 
distance. Brick-clay, on the contrary, lay ready at hand, 
and architecture among them, consequently, took the 
forms imposed upon it by the use of bricks instead of 
stone. Where tne Assyrians employed sculptured ala- 
baster to ornament their buildings, the Babylonians con 
tented themselves with enamelled bricks and painted 
plaster. It is a curious proof of the servile dependence 
of the northern upon the southern kingdom in artistic 



matters, that the Assyrians continued to make large use 
of brick up to the downfall of the empire, in spite of the 
accessibilitv of stone and the rapid decay of their pal- 
aces caused by the employment of the more fragile ma- 
terial. Still, though Assyrian art climg thus unaccount- 
ably to the building materials of another country, it did 
not dispense with its native stone altogether; and speak- 
ing broadly, we may say that the architecture of Nine- 
veh is characterised by the use of stone in contradistinc- 
tion to the brickwork of Babylonia. Sculpture was nat- 
urally developed by the one, just as painting was b^- the 
other ; and tWe ornamentation which could be lavished 
on the exterior in Assyria had to be confined to the in- 
terior in Chaldea. 

Another distinction between the art of the two mon- 
archies arose from the character of their respective pop- 
ulations. Babylonia was essentially a religious country, 
and its art, therefore, was primarily religious. Nearly 
all the great edifices, whose ruins still attract the travel- 
ler, were temples, and the inscriptions we possess of the 
Babylonian princes relate almost wholly to the worship 
of the gods. In Assyria, on the other hand, the temple 
was but an appendage of the palace, the king among 
" these Romans of Asia," as Prof. Rawlinson calls them, 
being the central object of reverence. While the Chal- 
dean temple, with its huge masses of brickwork, rose 
stage upon stage, each tier smaller than the lower, dif- 
ferently colored^ and surmounted at the top by a cham- 
l>er which served at once as a shrine and an observatory, 
the Assyrian palace was erected upon a mound of rub- 
ble, witn open courts and imposing entrances, though 
never more than one or two stories high. 

Closely connected with this difference in the religious 
feelings of the two nations was the greater care and at- 
tention paid to burial in Babylonia. As yet not a single 
tomb had been found in Assyria, while sepulchral remains 
abound in Chaldea. The vast necropolis of Erech as- 
tonishes us by the number of its graves, and the potters 
of Babylonia were largely employed in making clay cof- 
fins. The character of the Assyrian art being thus 
secular, and that of Babylonia sacred and sepulchral, 
necessarily led to a different application and develop- 
ment of it in the two countries. 

We must regard Assyrian art as parallel with later 
Babylonian, both having branched on from Accadian. 
In Assyrian we may trace two or even three periods of 
development ; but our want of materials maJces it im- 
possible to do this in the case of later Babylonian. 
Among neither people, however, did art altogether es- 
cape from the swatliing-bands of its nursery, although it 
was never crystallised as in ancient Egypt. The oldest 
monuments o( Accad already display it in all its forms, 
rude and rudimentary though they may be. The 
terraced temples of Ur, Erech, and other places, mount 
back to theearUest times ofChaWean history, and we find 
them already adorned with enamelled bricks, which 
were first colored, then glazed, and finally baked in the 
fire. Terra-cotta cones of various hues, embedded in 
plaster, were used for external ornamentation, and at 
Warka (Erech) colored half-columns are employed for 
the same purpose, — an ornamentation which recurs in 
Sargon*s palace at Khorsabad, and was the germ of the 
many kinos of pillars met with in Assyria. The inter- 
nal walls of the shrine were bright witn paint and bronze 
and gilding ; but the brilliant coloring of the Chaldeans 
was not reproduced in the northern monarchy where 
more sombre tints were preferred. The huge structures 
themselves, of burnt ana unbumt brick, were supported 
by buttresses, and the rain was carried off by elaborately- 
constructed drains, some of which afford us the earliest 
examples of the arch. A leaded pipe for the same object 
was found by Mr. Loftns at Mug^eir (Ur). 



BAB 



711 



Stone, on acconnt of its scarcity, was highly prized, 
and used only for sculpture and carving. Fragments of 
the statue of an Accaaian king have been brought from 
Hammdm, and a portrait of Merodach-iddin-akhi, the 
successful opponent of Tiglath-Pileser I. (1120 B.C.), is 
cut in low relief on a stone now in the British Museunr. 
Like all other Babvlonian stone relics, they are of small 
size, and of hard black eranite, and the royal portrait is 
interesting not only as being one of the few specimens 
we possess of Babylonian sculpture, but as showing the 
marked contrast of the Babylonian face to the typically 
Jewish features of the Assyrians. If larger stones were 
rare, however, the same cannot be saidof the smaller 
ones, which were used as signets and talismans. These 
were always incised, and though the figures are fre- 
quently rude, and still more often grotesaue, they are 
always clearly cut and vigorous. Indeea, it is clear 
that emery must have been used for the purpose, while 
manv of the carvings are so minute as to suggest the 
employment of a magnif3nng glass. This, however, 
seems to be out of the question at so early a date as 
that to which many of the gems belong, although a 
crystal lens was discovered by Mr. Layard at Nimrud. 
The design on the signet -cylinder of the earliest king of 
Ur of whom we have any knowledge is of a high onier 
of merit. 

Next to gem-cutting, pottery was carried to a consid- 
erable perfection by the Accadians. Some of their vases 
and lamps exhibit great beauty of form, and bear evi- 
dence of the potter's wheel; though the large majority 
are made by the hand, and extremely rude. Spirited 
bas-reliefs in terra-cotta, however, have been exnumed 
at Senkereh, and some small terra-cotta figures may also 
be assigned to this early period. Metallurgy was more 
backward. Stone implements were still in use, although 
weapons and ornaments of bronze and copper are met 
with in abundance; and even iron was not unknown. 
Bronze bowls occur in almost every tomb, sometimes 
wrought with considerable skill. Metallurgic art, how- 
ever, attained its highest point in the manufacture of 
gold objects like ear-rings and fillets. The latter may 
be compared with the gold head-dresses found by Dr. 
Schliemann in the Troad. This backward state of met- 
allurgy is somewhat remarkable when we consider the 
skill displayed in the making of textile fabrics. The 
oldest gems portray the most richly embrokiered robes, 
and it is probable that the muslins and carpets for which 
Babylonia was afterwards so famous were already a 
branch of industry. 

Art in Assyria developed chiefly, as has been said, on 
the skie of architecture and sculpture. Its first period 
is best represented bv the reign of Assur-natsir-pal, in 
whose palaces we obtain excellent illustrations of its 
excellencies and defects. The period is characterised by 
a simplicity and vigor which shows itself in the bas-re- 
liefs, where the ngures, more especially the animal 
forms, are spirited and natural beyond anything that we 
meet with at a later time. Nothing, for instance, can 
be bolder and more life-like than the lion-hunt depicted 
on the slabs of Assumatsir-pal. There is a freedom in 
the attitude of the animals which evkiences a remark- 
able grandeur of conception. On the other hand, the 
execution is somewhat neavy, the perspective is'worse 
even than in later works, and the outlines are repro- 
duced with too servile an exactitude. A background, 
again, is entirely wanting, the attention of the artist 
being concentrated upon the principal group. In the 
second period, which extends from tne banning of the 
second empire to the reign of Essarhaddon, the fresh- 
ness and boldness of the preceding stage have passed 
MwtLy. The care once exdusively oestowed upon the 
/ief figures is now shared with an elaborate back- 



ground, and a pre-Raffaellite minuteness prevails 
throughout the whole. This, added to a total want of 
perspective, causes too obtrusive a realism. Still, what 
IS lost in vigor is gained in delicacy and finish, and the 
general effect of such rich and intricate grouping could 
not but have been effective. The reign of Assur-bani-pal 
marks the third and last period of Assyrian an. 
Drawing has made a rapid advance, and the sculptures 
furnish several instances of successful foreshortening. 
The art of this period is distinguished by great softness; 
and chasteness; vegetable forms are represented with 
admirable skill, and the overcrowding of the preceding 
stage is avoided by recurring to the plain backgrounds 
of the first period, or introducing merely the main out- 
hnes of a landscape. At the same time, it is clear that 
Assyrian art is oeginning to decline; the freedom 
and boldness that once marked it tend to disappear, 
and it is prevaded by a spirit of effeminacy which is 
well exemplified by the subjects portrayed. For the 
first time scenes are taken from the harem; the king 
lies, with his wife seated beside him, banqueting under 
the shade o( the vine; and the lions that Assur-natsir- 
pal hunted in the open field at the risk of life are now 
tame creatures, kept in cages, and let out for a royal 
battutt where they nave to be whipped into activity. 

The effect of uiis Assyrian bas-relief sculpture was 
heightened by judicious coloring. Red, blue, black, 
and white — none of them, however, of very great 
brilliancy — were laid upon certain parts of the picture, 
such as the eyes, hair, and fringes of the garments. This 
partial coloring was also adopted by the Greeks, and it 
IS extremely probable that they borrowed it from 
Assyria. Tne beginning of Greek art coincides with 
the decadence of Assyrian ; and the objects found by 
M. Cesnola and others in Cyprus show us the transition 
of the one into the other. While the remains found 
by Dr. Schlieman in the Troad do not exhibit any Assy- 
rian influence, the oldest works of art in Greece itself 
are thoroughly Assyrian in character. Indeed, we can 
trace the lion-sculpture at Mycenae through the similar 
rock-carving at Kumbet, in Phrygia, back to the artists 
of Nineveh. The lions themselves are Assyrian in all 
their details, and the pillar against which they rest reap- 
pears in the monuments of Assur-bani-pal. Columnar 
architecture, in fact, obtained a more extensive develop- 
ment in the empire of the Tigris than has ever been the 
case elsewhere. The half columns of ancient Chaldea 
l^rminated into a wonderful variety of elaborate forms. 
The most peculiar are those which rest with circular 

destals upon the backs of lions, dogs, and winged 
Is. The chasteness of H ellenic taste preserved it from 
this Eastern fantasticness, but the Done and Ionic pil- 
lars had their first home on the banks of the Tigris. 
There was something in the round firm column which 
was congenial to the mind of the Assyrian. 

Indceo, it may be said that solklity and realism under- 
lie all Assyrian art. Muscular strength and power of an 
intensely earthly and human nature is expressed in their 
bas-reliefs and tne colossal bulls that guarded the palace 
from the entrance of evil spirits. Nowhere else in the 
world can we find such an embodiment of brute force and 
unimaginative energy. Not only is Assyrian art valu- 
able as disclosing the genesis of Hellenic, but yet more 
so as filling up a vacant chapter in the history of 
aesthetics. The divine calm and mysterious immensity 
of Egyptian sculpture was not more foreign to the 
Greek tnan the stiff unspirituality and coarse vigor cf 
the Assyrians, which found in the lion an appropriate 
S3mibol. But the Assyrian artists did not confine them- 
selves to architecture and bas- reliefs. Gem-cutting was 
carried to hi^h perfection, and even sitting statues of 
"the great king** were attempted. These, however. 



712 



BAB 



were not so successful as the terra' cotta models, some of 
which are of gr«it beauty. Indeed, the potters' work of 
Nineveh can quite vie with that of ar.cient Greece, and 
their lamps seem to be prototypes of those which we 
find in the tombs of Athens or Syracuse. Besides por- 
' cclain, glass was also manufactured, and though trans- 
parent glass does not appear to have been known before 
the reign of Sargon, colored glass, with all the tints that 
we admire in Venetian ware, nad long been an article of 
trade. Metallur^, again, was a branch of industry in 
which the Assyrmns particularly excelled. Their gokl 
ear-rings and bracelets are admirable both in design and 
workmanship ; their bronie casts are free from the nar- 
rowness of their sculptures in stone ; and so weU were 
they acquainted with the art of inlaying one metal with 
another, that our modem artists have been content to 
learn from them the method of covering iron with 
bronze. Household furniture, too, gives us a high idea 
of Assyrian skill. Like gem-cutting, it brought out the 
Chinese minuteness and accuracy of the people, and the 
profuse, though tasteful ornamentation of the seats is 
especially to be noticed. 

It is unfortunate that our knowledge of the develop- 
ment of art in the sister kin^om is still so imperfect. 
As has been said, however, it is characterised by paint- 
ing rather than sculpture, and the use of brick instead 
of stone. The few bas-reliefs that exist are small and 
inferior in execution; but brilliant coloring and a lavish 
use of the metals made up for this want. The walls 
were covered with the most costly materials, and 
•'images portrayed with vermilion " excited the admir- 
ation of the stranger. The love of bright colors, in 
contrast with the sober hues of the Assyrian palaces, 
led also to the cultivation of gardens, and the nanging 
gardens of Babylon, raised upon tiers of arches, were 
one of the wonders of the world. The Babylonian had, 
too, a strong sense of humor. In the engraved gems 
and metal work of the southern empire, we miss the 
finish and minute care of the sister-kmgdom, but they 
are replaced by a spirit of grotesqueness and serio-com- 
edy. In pottery and the manufacture of textile fabrics 
the Babylonians particularly excelled; their carpets and 
variegated dresses were highly prized, while their fond- 
ness lor music was much celebrated. The history of 
the latter art, however, both in Babylonia and Assyria, 
has; yet to be traced. 

The science of Assyria, like most things else, was 
derived from Accad. A larce number of its technical 
terms were borr6wed from the Turanian, and continued 
to the last an enduring monument of the debt owed by 
the Semite to his predecessor. At the same time, he 
did not remain a mere imitator; science received a 
development in his hands, which might have been looked 
for in vain from a Turanian race. First and foremost 
comes the astronomy, for which Babylonia was so 
famous in the ancient world. Its beginning goes back 
to the time when the Accadai had not yet descended 
from their mountain fastnesses. The zenith was fixed 
above Elam, and not above Babylonia, and " the moun- 
tain of the East," the primitive home of the race, was 
supposed to support the firmament. The shrines on 
the topmost terraces of the temples were used also as 
observatories. Ur had its royal observatory, and so 
probably had the other cities of Chaldea ; m Assyria 
they existed at Assur, Nineveh, and Arbela, and the 
astronomers-royal had to send in their reports to the 
king twice a month. At an early date the stars were 
numbered and named; but the most important astro- 
nomical work of the Accadiaiis was the formation of a 
calendar. This came after the division of the heavens 
into degrees, since the twelve months (of 30 days each) 
were named after the zodiacal signs, and would seem to 



belong to about 2200 B.C. Somewhat strangely, the 
Accadian calendar appears to have passed to tm Assyr- 
ians (and through them to the Jews) through the med- 
ium of the Aramaeans. The year being nxighlv made 
to consist of 360 days, intercalary months had to be 
atkled, one of them being regularly inserted every six 
years, and two others bemg counted in by the priests 
when necessary. The soss of 60 years, the ner ot 600, 
and the sar of 3600, were merely cycles dependent 
upon the general mathematical system of the 
Babylonians, which made 60 the unit, and then 
multiplied it by the factors of itself. Th< 
week of 7 days was in use from an early period ; indeed, 
the names which we still give to the dats can be traced 
to ancient Babylonia ; and the seventh day was one o( 
su/um or " rest. " The night was divided into three 
watches ; but this was afterward superseded by the more 
accurate division of the day into 12 casdu (of 2 hours 
each), corresponding to the divisions of the equator, each 
cas^ being further subdivided into 60 minutes, and 
these again into 60 seconds. The sections of the equa- 
tor contained 30 degrees each — a degree being 60 susses 
or minutes ; but since an astrolabe, now in the Museum, 
divides each of the 12 sections in the outer circle into 
20 degrees, and those in the inner circle into 10 degrees, 
it is plain that a different S3rstem was adopted for ast ro- 
logical purposes. Eclipses were carefully recorded from 
a very remote epoch, and since some of these are said to 
have happened ** according to calcidation," and others 
"contrary to calculation," their recurrence after a cycle 
of eighteen years must have been roughly determined. 
One of the Assyrian reports states that a watch was 
kept for an eclipse of the sun on the three last days of 
the month, but that, contrary to expectation, the eclipse 
dki not take place, and we possess notices of eclipses 
which have been verified by modern astronomers, though 
antecedent to the era of Nabonassar, with whom, so far 
as Ptolemy knew, the first record of them b^n. The 
chief work on astronomy was one compiled lor the li- 
brary of Sargon of Agane in seventy tablets or books, 
which went through many editions, one of the latest 
being now in the British Museum. It was called " The 
Illumination •of Bel," and was translated into Greek by 
Berosus. The catalogue of its contents includes obser- 
vations on comets, on the pole star, the conjunction of 
the sun and moon, and the motions of Venus and Mars. 
The main purpose, however, of all these Babylonian as- 
tronomical observations was an astrological one ; to cast 
a horoscope, or predict the weather, was the chief busi- 
ness of the Chaldean astronomer. Indeed, the patient 
minuteness of the meteorological observations is most 
curious, and it was believed that the same weather re- 
curred after a definite number of years. In the later 
Assyrian period the study became more scientific, and 
the observatory reports have something of the precision 
of modem times. But from a much earlier era we ob- 
tain interesting tables of lunar longitudes and numerical 
equivalents of the daily increase and decrease of the 
moon. As is implied by the attention given to astron- 
omy, mathematics was fairly advanced. The unit was 
60, a very convenient number, especially when used as 
the denominator of a fraction. A tablet found at 
Senkereh gives a table of squares and cubes, correctly 
calculated, from i to 60; and a people who were ac- 
ouainted with the sun dial, the clepsydra ; the lever, and 
the pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of me- 
chanics. The lens, too, discovered at Ninev^, explains 
the minuteness of the cuneform writing on so many of 
the tablets, and suggests the possibility of artificial aids 
to the observation of the heavens. 

Assyria possessed but little native literature. It was 
essentially a land of soldiers, and the inpr^ peacefulnur- 

Digitized by LjOOQIC 



BAB 



713 



suits had their home in Babylonia, where the oniversities 
of Erech and Borsippa were renowned down to classical 
times. It was not until the reign of Assur-bani-pal that 
any attempt was made to rival Babylon in learnings 
then for the first time original compositions came from 
the pens of Assyrian scholars, and works were even 
written in the dead language of Accad. Syllabaries, 
together with grammars, dictionaries, and reacling- books 
of Assyrian and Accadian, were drawn up, besides lists 
of Semitic synonyms. In these grammars and vocabu- 
laries lay the germ of comparative philology, and they 
are otherwise valuable as affording us the earliest native 
analysis of Semitic speech. But before this closing 
period of the empire, the Assyrians had been chiefly 
content to translate the ancient Accadian literature, or 
re-edit the contents of Babylonian libraries; and the 
cramping influence of a dead Jan^age, in which all the 

{)recedents of law and the first j>rmciples of science were 
ocked up, couM not but make itself felt. Every great 
clt^ of Chaldea had at least one library, and it was in 
inutation of this that the royal libraries at Calah, Nine- 
veh, Assur, and elsewhere, were founded. The larger 
part of the literature was in clay, stamped in minute 
characters upon baked bricks, laterculcecoctiUs as Pliny 
calls them ; out j>apyrus was also used, though none of 
this fragile material has been preserved to our day. In 
fact, the use of papyrus seems to have preceded that of 
day, which was not employed until after the settlement 
of the Accadians in the plains. The clay tablets or 
books were arranged in order ; and we learn from the 
catalogue of Sargon*s library at Agane (about 2000 B.C. ) 
that each was numbered, so that the student had only to 
write down the number of the tablet he wanted and the 
librarian thereupon handed it to him. The subjects of 
Accadian literary composition were multifarious. 
Among the most mterestmg are the hymns to the gods, 
some of which strikingly resemble the Hebrew psalms 
in substance as well as in form. Indeed, the parallel- 
ism of Hebrew and Assyrian poetry seems to have been 
borrowed from the Accadians. But the similarity of ex- 
pression and feeling is no less remarkable. Thus we 
read in one — (1.) "May god, my creator, take mine 
hands. (2.) Guide thoa the breath of my mouth : 
guide thou mine hands ; (3. ) O lord of light 1 ** 
and in another — \i.) •• In heaven who is high ? Thou 
alone, thou art hi^h. (2.) In earth who is high ? Thou 
alone, thou art high. (3.) As for thee, thy word in 
heaven is dechired: the ffods bow their faces to the 
ground. (4.) As for thee, tny word in earth is declared : 
Die spirits of earth kiss the ground ; " or in a third — 
(I.) •* O Lord, my transgressions are many : great are 
my sins. (2.) The Lord jn the anger of his heart : has 
confounded me. (3.) God in the strength of his heart 
set himself against me. " A collection was afterwards 
made of these hymns, which was used for ritualistic pur- 
poses, and regarded as an inspired volume, and has 
Deen aptly compared by M. Lenormant with the Rig- 
Veda of the Hindus. Of an older date is the collec- 
tion of magic formulae and charms, chiefly intended to 
counteract the effects of sorcery and demoniac possess- 
ion, which go back to the Shamanistic period of Acca- 
dian religion. Later than the hymns, but still prior to 
the second millennium B.C. and the formation of 
the calendar, are the mythological poems which 
grew out of the development of a solar worship 
and the personification of the attributes of the gods. 
Two of tnese ix>ems we possess intact, — on the Deluge 
and the descent of Istar into Hades, — and part of a 
third which describes the war of the seven evil spirits 
against the moon. The first two form the sixth and 
eleventh books of a very remarkable epic which cen- 
tred round the adventures of a solar hero, older and 



originally independent lays being woven into it as epi- 
sodes. The epic was divided into twelve books, each 
book dealing with a legend appropriate to the name of 
the corresponding zodiacal sign. This astronomical 
basis of the national epic shows how thoroughly the 
study had penetrated the mind of the people ; and the 
clearness with which we can trace the growth and for- 
mation of the whole work throws great light on the 
history of epic Uterature generally, and adcE one more 
confirmation to the theory of Wolf. The Ass3rrians 
also had their epic, in imitation of the Accadians, and 
M. Lenormant nas pointed out that the Semiramis and 
Nannarus of the Greeks and the other personages of 
Ctesias were really figures of this mythical epopee. The 
historical and chronological works that have oeen pre- 
served are of purely Assyrian origin, though there is 
every reason to suppose that when the libraries of 
Accad come to be excavated similar compositions will 
be found in them. The legal literature of the Accadi- 
ans was certainly very extensive, and a collection of 
fables, one a dialogue between the ox and the horse, 
and another between the eagle and the sun has been 
met with. 

Language and Trade, — As above stated, the language 
of the primitive Sumirian and Accadian population of 
Assyria and Babylonia belonged to the Turanian or 
Urad-Altaic family of speech. The Semitic tribes, who 
first possessed themselves of the tetrapolis of Sumir or 
Shinar, and then gradually spread over the whole of 
Assyria and Babylonia, borrowed many words from 
their more civilised predecessors, and lent them a few 
others in return. The so-called Assyrian language is 
sub-divided into the two dialects of Assyria and Babylo. 
nia, the latter dialect being characterised by a preference 
for the softer sounds, and a fuller use of the vowels. 
Literature and the influence of a dead language stereo- 
typed it to' such an extent that it underwent compara- 
tively little change during the 1500 years during which 
we can watch its career ; at least this is the case with 
the literary dialect. •The closest affinities are with 
Hebrew and Phoenician ; it shares their peculiarities in 
phonology, grammar, and vocabulary ; and some obscure 
points in Hebrew etymology have already been cleared 
up by its help. Next to Hebrew, it shows perhaf« the 
greatest resemblance to Arabic ; differing most widely, 
on the other hand, from Aramaic. Aramaic, however, 
from becoming the lingua franca of trade and diplo- 
ma<y after the fall of Tyre and Sidon, ended (like 
Araoic in later times) in superseding its sister idioms;, 
but in Babylonia this did not happen until after the 
Persian conquest 

The earliest Semitic settlements in Babylonia seem to 
have been mainly for commercial purposes, and their 
career there may he compared with that of the English 
in India. In the 12th century b.c the trading spirit 
had so thoroughly pervaded them that not only were 
objects of utility and art a marketable commodity, but 
we find Tiglath-Pilescr I. bringing trees from the 
countries he had overrun, and acchmatising them in 
Assyria. The fullest development of business and 
commerce, however, does not show iiself until the 8th 
and 7th centuries B.C., when Nineveh was a busy centre- 
of trade. Sidon and Tyre had been ruined by the 
Assyrian kings — indeed, it is very possible that the 
obstinate wars with the Phoenician cities had their 
origin in commercial jealousy, and trade had accord- 
ingly transferred itself to Carchemish, which was con- 
veniently situated on Ae Euphrates. The maneh of 
Carchemish became the standard of weight, and 
Aramaic the common language of trade. The interest 
upon money was usually at 4 per cent.; but sometimes,, 
more especially when objects like iron were borrowed, at 



714 



BAB 



3 per cent. Ptymcnt might stilfbe made in kind ; but 
more ordinarily in bars of the three chief metals, which 
were weighed, though mention of coined money aUo 
occurs. Houses could be lei on lease, and the deeds 
which conveyed them give a careful »jiventory of the 
property and its appurtenances. Commercial relations 
extended from India on the one side, whence came 
ivory and the teak fowid at Mugheir, which Sen- 
nacherib probably means bT ** wood of Sinda," to the 
tin islands of Cornwall on the other. 

Religion and Mythology. — The earliest reli^on of 
Accad was a Shamanism resembling that of the Siberian 
or Samoyw? tribes of to-day. Every object had its spirit, 
good or bad ; and the i>ower of controlling these spirits 
was in the hands of priests and sorcerers. The world 
swarmed with them, especially with the demons and 
there was scarcely an action whkh did not risk demo- 
niac possession. Diseases were regarded as caused in 
this way, and the cherubs, bulls, and other composite 
creatures which guarded the entrance to a house, were 
believed to protect it from mischief. In course of time 
certain spirits (or rather deified powers of nature) were 
elevated above the rest into the position of gods ; and at 
the head of all stood the Triad of Na or Anna, ** the 
sky," Ea, "the earth," and Mulge, « the lord of the 
underworld." The old Shamanism gradually became 
transformed into a religion with a host of subordinate 
semi-divine beings; but so strong a hold had it upon 
the niind, that the new gods were still addressed by 
their spirits;. The religion now entered upon a new 
phase ; the various epithets apj^lied to the same deity 
were crystallised into fresh divmities, and the sun-god 
under a multitude of forms became the central object of 
worship. This inevitably led to a mythology, the num- 
erous personified attributes passing mto demi-gods and 
heroes. A large part of the Accadian mythology was 
solar, and the transparency of its proper names which, 
as in other sigglutinative languages, never disguise their 
primitive meaning, makes it valuable in verifying the 
so-called " solar tfeory ** of compaartive mythology. At 
this stage of development, nowever, an impo*rtant 
change passed over the old faith. The Semitic settlers 
in Sumir had adopted the Accadian pantheon and belief, 
andailer a conflict between the discordant religious 
lonceptions of the two races, a great sacerdotal ** re- 
form * took place analogous to that of Brahmanism, 
and the official religion fused them into one whole. The 
magicians were taken into the priestly body, and the 
hierachy of divine beings was determined. The old 
triad of Na, Ea, and Mulge became the trinity of Anu, 
Ea, and Bel the Demiurge, all children of Zicu or Zi- 
cara, " the sky " Ea, " the god of life and knowledge," 
** the lord of the abyss," ** the king of rivers and the 
garden," the husband of Bahu (the Bohu of Gen. i. 2), 
whose %yix\\ pervades the universe, being made the 
father of^ Bel-Merodach, the tutelary divinity of Baby- 
lon. In accordance with the genius of the sex-denoting 
Semitic idioms, each deity was furnished with a female 
principle, and " The god " in Babylonia, and the person- 
ified city of Assur, with his wife Seru^ in Assyria, were 
placed at the head of the Pantheon. Below tnese four 
supreme divinities came a second trinity of the Moon- 
god, Sun -god, and Air-god, and the seven together 
formed " the seven magnificent deities. " After these 
were arranged " the fifty great gods," and then the 300 
spirits of heaven, and the 600 spirits of earth, among 
whom was found a place for the primeval divinities of 
Accad as well as for the manj; local deities of Chakiea. 
The most dreaded of " the spirits of earth " were " the 
seven spirits " who were born ** without father and 
mother" in the encircling abvss of ocean, and carried 
plague and evil over the earth. An old myth told of 



their war against the moon, which was deputed to 
watch over the interests of mankind. 

Along with the establishment of the Bab3rk>niaii 
official religion, an astro- theology was created by the 
introduction of astronomy into the religions sphere. 
The " spirits " of the various stars were identified with 
the gods of the new creed, Merodach, for instance, 
properly one of the forms of the sun-god, being identi- 
fied with the planet Tupiter, and the five planetary dei- 
ties were added to tne seven magnificent gods making 
up altogether "the twelve chiefs of the gods." The 
elaboration of this astro- theology was also accompanied 
by the formation of a cosmogony. The details of the 
latter are to be found in the fragments of Berosus and 
Nicolaus Damascenus, whose statement^ are confirmed 
by the inscriptions, and they show a remarkable resemb- 
lance to tne cosmogonies of Genesis and Phomidans. 
It must be remembered that both Phcenidans and 
Hebrews profess to have migrated from Chaldea. 

The resemblance is still more striking when we 
examine the Babylonian mythology. The sacred tree of 
Babylonia, with its guardian ** cherubs " — a word, by 
the way, which seems of Accadian origin — as well as 
the fUuning sword or thunderbolt of fifty points and 
seven hea£, recall Biblical analogies, while the Noa- 
chian deluge diflers but slightly from the Chaldean one. 
Indeed, the Jehovistic iFersion of the flood story in 
Genesis agrees not only in details, but even in phraseol- 
ogy with tnat which forms the eleventh lay of the great 
^bylonian epic The hero of the latter is Tam-ai 01 
Tammuz, " the snn of life," the son of Ubaratutu, * tht 

flow of sunset," and denotes the revivifying luminary ot 
ay, who saiU upon his ^'ark" behind the clouds ol 
winter to reappear when the rainy season is past. He 
is called Sisuthrus by Berosus, that is, Susm *the 
founder," a synonym of Na " the sky. " The mountain 
on which his ark rested was placed; as already 
noticed, in Nisir, south-west of^ Lake Urumiyeh. 
Its peak, whereon the first altar was built after 
the deluge, was the legendary model after whkh 
the tigurats or towers of the Babylonian temples 
were erected. Besides the account of^the flood, frag- 
ments have been met with of stories resembling those 
of the tower of Babel or Babylon, of the creation, of 
the fall, and of the sacrifice of Isaac,— the latter by the 
way, forming probably the first lay of the great epic 
The sixth lay we possess in full. It describes the 
descent of Istar into Hades in pursuit of her dead hus- 
band Du-ri, ** the of&pring," tne Babylonian Adonis. 
Du-zi is but another form of Tam-zi, and denotes the 
sun when obscured by night and winter. At each of 
the seven gates of Hades the goddess left some portion 
of her apparel, until she at last reached the abode of the 
dead, dark and ioyless, where dust alone is the food of 
the unhappy snades. In the midst rose the golden 
throne of the soirits of earth, beneath which welled 
" the waters of life, " and here, too, was the seat of 
Bs^u. Bahu, as queen of the underworld, smote Istar 
with many diseases, and confined her in Hades until her 
brother tne Sun-god complained to the Moon-god and 
Ea, who sent a sphinx to pour the waters of life upon 
the imprisoned goddess and restore her to the light of 
day. This myth gives a good idea of the Chtddean 
conception of the next world. Certain favored indi- 
vidual, however, might look forward to a happier state 
of existence. A psalm which invokes blessings upon 
the king wrishes him everlasting life in ** the land of the 
silver sky," where the gods feast and know no eviL It 
will be observed that the Babylonian Hades (like the 
Hebrew Sheol) is not very dissimilar to the Homeric 
one ; and the possibility of^borrowing on the part ol the 
Greeks is suggested by the fact, that the seven-headed 



B AC 



715 



serpent of Hindu leeend is of foreign origin, being 
taken from the seven-neaded serpent of the Accadians, 
** which lashes the waves of the sea," while the story of 
Andromeda came through Phoenician hands from a 
Chaldean myth which forms the subject of one of the 
lays of the great epic. So, too, the Oceanus of Homer 
finds its prototype in the encircling abvsmal ' waters of 
Accadian geography, smd the fravcuhis and milhras 
of Mazdaism were introduced by the Magian (or 
Turanian) population found in Media by the Arvan in- 
vaders. 

But t)- e old Shamanistic ideas survived also in Assyria 
and Babylonia, and so were handed on to the Jews. 
An elaborate system of augury flourished down to the 
last days of the empire, and omens were drawn from 
every event that could possibly happen. Magic formulae 
for warding off the attacks of demons were extensively 
used, and the bronze bowls found by Mr. Layard, as well 
as the part played by charms and demons in the Talmud, 
show how strongly the belief had seized upon the Jewish 
mind. Through the Jews and the various Gnostic 
systems of early Christianity, the primitive doctrines of 
Accad found their way into the mediaeval church, and 
the features of the meciiaeval devil may be traced in an 
Assyrian bas-relief, where a demon with horns, claws, 
tail, and wings, is being pursued by the god Adar. 
Even the phylacteries of the Jews go back to the same 
origin. Accadian magic ordered the sorcerer to bind 
the charm, twice knotted with seven knots, round the 
limbs of the sick man, and this, with the further appli- 
cation of holy water, would, it was believed, infalnoly 
produce a cure, while the same result might be brought 
about by fixing ** a sentence out of a good book on the 
sufferer's head as he lay in bed. ** Similar superstitions 
mav yet be detected in the comers of our own land, and 
still more on the Continent, where the break with the 
traditions of the past has been less strongly felt. They 
form an important element in the history of the human 
intelligence, and the light thrown upon their origin and 
early fortunes by the revelations of cuneiform discovery 
has opened a new chapter in the science of religion. 

BACCARAT, a town of France, in the department 
of Meurthe and arrondissement of Lun^ville. 

BACCHIGLIONE, a river of north-eastern Italy, 
which, rising in the mountains eastward of Trent, passes 
by Vicenza, and Padua, and, after a course of 90 miles, 
falls into the lagune of Venice, south of Chiogeia. 

BACCHUS, the Latin name of Dionysus, the god of 
wine. See Dionysus. 

BACCHYLIDES, a famous Greek lyric poet, bom 
at lulis in Ceos, was the nephew of Simonides, and 
flourished about 470 years before Christ. 

BACCIO DELLA PORTA, called Fra Bartolom- 
MEO Dl S. Marco, a celebrated historical and portrait 
painter, was bom at Savignano, near Florence, m 1469, 
and died in 1517. 

BACH, Johann-Sebastian, was bornat Eisenach in 
Thuringia, on March 21, 1685, the same year which 
-jave bu-th to his great contemporary Handel. His 
ather held a musical appointment from the town coun- 
cil, being himself descended from a musician. The fam- 
ily of the Bachs, like those of some of the great Italian 
painters, may be cited as one of the most striking in- 
stances of hereditary artistic genius. Through four con- 
secutive generations they followed the same calling, 
counting among their number no less than fifty mus- 
icians of more or less remarkable gifts. Johann- 
Sebastian's parents died before he had reached his tenth 
year, and he was left to the care of his elder brother, an 
organist at Ohrdruf, from whom he received his rudi- 
riientary musical education. In 1698 his brother died, 
and Bach, at the age of fourteen, saw himself thrown on 



I 



his own resources for his further means of support. 
He went to Liineburg, where his beautiful soprano 
voice obtained him an appointment as chorister at 
the school of St. Michael. In this manner he became 
practically acquainted with the principal works of vocal 
music, continuing at the same time his practice on the 
organ and pianaforte. A special teacher of any of these 
instruments, or, indeed, of the theory of music. Bach 
seems never to have had, at least not to our knowledge, 
and his style shows litde affinity to the modes of expres- 
sion in use before him. 

At the age of eighteen Bach returned to Thuringia, 
where his executive skill on the organ and pianoforte 
attracted universal attention, and even obtained hun 
various musical appointments, of which we mention as 
the most important that of court organist to the duke 
of Weimar. One, and not the least welcome, of his 
official duties was the composition of sacred music 
One of his most beautiful sacred cantatas, Ich hatte viel 
Bekiimmerniss^ was composed during his stay at 
Weimar. In 1723 he removed to Leipsic, where the 
position of canto)- at the celebrated " Thomasschule,** 
combined with that of organist at the two prmcipal 
churches of Leipsic, was onered to him. It was here 
that the greater part of his works were composed, 
mostly for the immediate reouirements of the moment. 
Several of them he engraved himself, with the assistance 
of his favorite son, Fnedemann. The further course of 
his life ran smoothly, only occasionally ruffled by his 
altercations with his employers, the town-councilors of 
Leipsic, who, it is said, were shocked by the " unclerical 
style of Bach's compositions, and by his independent 
bearing generally. He was married twice, and nad by 
his two wives a family of eleven sons and nine daughters. 
In 1747 Bach made a journey to Potsdam by the invi- 
tation of Frederick the Great, who, himself a musical 
amateur, received the master with distinguished marks 
of regard. He had to play on the numerous piano- 
fortes of the king, and also to try the organs of the 
churches of PotscUm. Two years after this event his 
sight began to fail, and before long he beoime perfectly 
blmd, a circumstance which ag^in couicides with the 
fate of his great contemporary, Handel. Bach died of 
apoplexy on the 28th July 175a His loss was deplored 
as tnat of one of the greatest organists and pianoforte 
plaj^ers of his time. Particularly his powers of improv- 
isation are described as unrivalled by any of his con- 
temporaries. Of his compositions comparatively little 
was known. His MS. works were at his death divided 
amongst his sons, and many of them have been lost in 
the course of time ; only about one-half of his greater 
works were recovered, when, after the lapse of nearly a 
century, the verdict of his neglectful contemporaries 
was reversed by an admiring posterity. 

The history of this Bach revival is closely connected 
with the name of Mendelssohn, who was amongst the 
first to proclaim by word and deed the powers of a 
genius almost too gigantic to be grasped by the 
receptivity of one generation. By the enthusiastic 
endeavours of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and others, 
the circle of Bach's worshippers has increased 
rapidly. In 1850, a century after his death, a society 
was started for the correct publication of all of Bach's 
remaining works, to which music owes the rescue from 
oblivion of some of its sublimest emanations. Amongst 
tbo3e who have vastly contributed to establish the rapport 
between our master's genius and modem lovers ot^ art, 
we also mention Dr Robert Franz, himself one 
of Germany's greatest lyrical composers, who has 
edited and adapted to the resources of the modern 
orchestra several of Bach's most beautiful works. It 
remains to add a few words about Bach's position in the 



7i6 



B AC 



history of musical development. By Marx, a well- 
known critical writer, he has been called the " Founder 
and Father of German Music ; " and it cannot be denied 
that no other German composer before him had attained 
a specifically national type of musical utterance as dis- 
tinguished from that of other nations. This applies 
bom to nutter and manner. Bach has frequently 
founded his grandest conceptions on the simplest tune 
of old chorales, that is, of purely popular effusions of pious 
fervor, such as had survived in the living memory of the 
nation from the time of Luther and his great revival of 
religious feeling. Sometimes these tunes were adapted 
for religious purposes from still older songs of a secular 
character, being thus thoroughly interwoven with the in- 
most feeling of the German people. In raising these 
simple creations of popular erowth to the higher sphere 
of art, Bach has established his claim to the name of the 
creator of the Germanic as opposed to the Romance 
phase of musical art. This spirit of German, or to 
speak more accurately, North German nationality, 
tnoughtfiil yet naive^ earnest yet tender, has also reacted 
on the form of Bach's creations. Bach's counterpoint, 
compared with the pol^phonous splendour of Palestrina 
or Orlando di Lasso, is as it were, of i more intense, 
more immediately personal kind. In his sacred cantatas 
the alternate exclamations of the voices sometimes rise 
to an almost passionate fervor of devotion, such as is 
known only to the more mdividualised conception of 
human relations to the Deity peculiar to Protestant 
worship, — applying that term in a purely emotional, 
that is, entirely unsectarian sense. It is thus that Bach 
has vivified the rigid forms of the fugue with the fire of 
individual passion. About the peculiarities of his 
style, from a technical point of view, we can speak no 
further. How his style and his genius, neglected by 
his contemporaries, and obscured by other masters, like 
Ilayden and Mozart, starting from a different basis and 
imbued with a different spirit, have ultimately been 
destined to exercise a potent spell on modem art, we 
have indicated already. 

BACH, Karl Philipp Emmanuel, second son of 
the above, was born at Weimar on the 14th March 1 7 14, 
and died at Hamburg on the 14th September 1788. He 
was perhaps the most highly gifted musician of the eleven 
brothers, and his influence on the development of cer- 
tain musical forms gives him a prominent place in the 
history of the art. He studied at the Thomasschule 
and afterwards at the university of Leipsic, devoting 
himself, like several of his brothers, to jurisprudence. 
In 1738 he took up his residence in Berlin, where he 
was soon afterwards appointed chamber musician to 
Frederick the Great. In 1767 he was allowed, after 
considerable negotiation, to relinquish his situation at 
court in order to accept the post of kapellmeister at 
Hamburg, where he passed tne last twenty-one years 
of his life. 

BACHE, Alexander Dallas, a distinguished 
American physicist, who has gained a wide reputation 
as superintendent of the great American Coast Survey, 
was a great -grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and was 
born at Philadelphia, 19th July 1806. In 182 1 he 
entered the military academy at West Point, and grad- 
uated there with the highest honors in 1825. For some 
time he acted as assistant professor in the academy, 
holding at the same time a commission as lieutenant of 
engineers, in which capacity he was engaged for a year 
or two in the erection of coast fortifications. He oc- 
cupied the post of professor of mathematics in the uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania from 1827 to 1836, and was then 
made president of the newly-instituted Girard College. 
In this capacity he undertook a journey through some 
of the principal countries of Europe, in order to examine 



their systems of education, and on his return published 
a very valuable report. In 1843, 6n the death of Pro- 
fessor Hassler, he was appointed by Government to die 
office of superintendent 01 the coast survey. He suc- 
ceeded in impressing Congress with a sense of the great 
value of this work, and by means of the libend aid it 
granted, he carried out a singularhr comprehensive plan 
with great ability and most satismctory results. 6y a 
skillful division of labor, and by the erection of nume- 
rous observing stations, the mapping out of the whole 
coast proceeded simultaneously under the eye of the 
general director. Nor were the observations confined 
to mere description of the coast-line; the several sta- 
tions were well supplied with instruments, and a vast 
mass of magnetic and meteorological observations was 
collected, such as must infallibly prove of infinite service 
in the future progress of phy^cai science. The annual 
reports issued by the superintendent were admirable 
specimens of sucn summaries, and secured for him a 
high reputation among European savants. Professor 
Bache contributed numerous papers to scientific journals 
and transactions, and labored earnestly to raise the posi- 
tion of physical science in America. For some months 
before nis death, which took place at Newport, 17th 
February 1867, he was afHictea with softening of the 
brain, caused, perhaps, by intense and long-continued 
mental exertion. 

BACHELOR, a word of various meaning, and of ex- 
ceedingly obscure origin. In modem times the most 
common significations of it are — (i), an tmmarried per- 
son ; (2), one who has taken the lowest degree in any 
of the faculties at a university. At various times, how* 
ever, it has signified either a young man in genera], from 
whidi the first of the modem meanings was easily devel- 
oped ; or a knight who was unable to lead a body of 
retainers in the field, i.e.t to use the technical phrase, 
was not able lever bannih^e; or, finally, an ecclesiastic 
at the lowest stage of his course of training. It has also 
been pointed out that bacheleria, which meant the body 
of aspirants to knighthood, came to be used as synony- 
mous with gentry. 

Bachelors, or unmarried persons have in many conn- 
tries been subjected to penal laws. The best-known 
examples of such legislation are those of Sparta and 
Rome. At Sparta, citizens who remained unmarried 
after a certain age were subjected to a species of drt/iia. 
They were not allowed to witness the gvmnastic exer- 
cise of the maidens ; and during winter they were com- 
pelled to march naked round the market piace, singing 
a song composed against themselves, and expressing the 
justice of their punishment The usual respect of the 
young to the ola was not paid to bachelors. 

BACH IAN, one of the East Indian islands belonging 
to the group of the northem Moluccas, situated imme- 
diately soutn of the equator. It is of an irregular form, 
consisting of two distinct mountainous parts, united by 
a low istmnus, which a slight subsidence would submerge. 
The area is estimated at 600 geographical square miles. 

BACKGAMMON, a game played with dice, said to 
have been invented about the lotn century. 

Backgammon is played by two persons, having be- 
tween them a backgammon board. The board is divided 
into tables^ each table being marked with six points^ 
colored alternately white and black. The inner and 
outer tables are separated from each other by a project- 
ingbar. 

Two dice boxes are required, one for each player, and 
a pair of dice, which are used by both players. The 
dice are marked with numbers on each face from one to 
six, number one being called ar^/ two, deuce; three, trois 
(pronounced threy); four, quatre (l^re); five, cinfue'^ 
and six. «> (size). ^.^.^.^^^ ^^ GoOgl 



BAG 



717 



The board bdng arranged, each player throws one 
die; the one who throws the higher number has the 
right of playing first ; and he may either adopt the 
throw originally made by the two players, each throw- 
ing one die ; or he majr throw again, using^ both dice. 

£ach player moves his ovm men from pomt to point, 
the moves being determined by throws of the dice made 
by the players alternately. A player may move any of 
his men a number of points corresponding to the num- 
bers thrown by him, provided the board is not blocked by 
two or more of his adversary's men occupying the point 
to which he wishes to move. Thus, suppose white 
throws cinque, six, he may move one of his men from 
the left-hand corner of the black's inner table to the 
left-hand comer of black's outer table for six ; he may, 
again, move the same man five points further on, viz., 
to the right-hand point of the same table for five, when 
his move is completed ; or he may leave the man first 
moved six, ^ and move any other man five points, where 
the board is open. But white cannot move a man for 
five from the ace point in black's inner table, because the 
six point in that table (/.^., the fifth pomt from where 
white moves) is blocked by the black men. Any part of 
the throw which cannot be moved is of no effect ; but it 
is compulsory for a player to move the whole throw if 
be can. Thus, if the men were differently placed, and 
white could move a six, and havmg done so could not 
move a five, his move is complete. If, however, by 
moving the five first, he can afterwsuds move a six, he 
may be required to make the move in that manner. All 
white's moves must be in the direction indicated, vit, 
from black's inner table to black's outer, and from this 
to white's outer table, and so on to white's inner table ; 
and all black's moves must be in the contrary direction. 
Of course, where men are originally placed part of the 
way home, they only have to traverse the remainder of 
the distance. 

A player !n moving must not skip a point which is 
blocked by his adversary's men. Thus, suppose white's 
first throw is fives, he cannot move a man from the ace 
point of black's inner table to thecinoue point of black's 
outer, although that is free ; because m moving the first 
cinque ho comes to a point which is occupied hy black. 
When two similar numbers are thrown (called doub- 
lets)^ the player has a double move. Thus, if he throws 
aces he has to move four aces instead of two, and so on 
for the other numbers. 

When a player moves his men so as to occupy a point 
with two men, it is called making a point. Thus, if 
ace, trois are thrown and white moves one man from 
the three in his outer table to the cinque point in his 
inner table, for trois, and then moves a man from the 
six point to the cinque point of his inner t^le, for ace, 
he makes a point there. 

If a player leaves only a single man on a point, 
or places a single man on an unoccupied point ,it is 
called leaving a blot. Thus, if the first throw is six, 
cinque, and white carries a man from black's inner tid)le 
as far as he will %o^ white leaves a blot on the ace point 
of his opponent's home table. 

When a blot is left the man may be taken up, or the 
blot may be hit^ if, while it remains, the adversary 
throws a number which will enable him to place a man 
on that point. For example, if a blot is left on black's 
ace point, as in the case previously supposed, and black 
throws a five, or numbers that make up five, he can hit 
the blot from his six point ; or similarly, if he throws 
^en, or numbers that make up seven, he can hit the 
blot from the three men posted in his outer table. The 
.Tian hit is placed on the oar, and has to enter black's 
umer table again at white's next throw. 
It will be^9]>served that black in taking up white 



leaves a blot himself, which subjects him to be taken up 
if white enters with an ace. If this should occur, 
black's man is placed on the bar, and has at his next 
throw to enter white's inner table, whence he has to 
start his journey home. Suppose white to have a blot 
as before on black's ace point, and black to throw sixes, 
black could then move two men from white's outer 
table to his own bar point (so called because it is dose 
to the bar), and thence again to his own ace point, 
when he would hit white without leaving a blot. 

The point in which a man is entered must not be 
blocked by two or more men belonging to the adver- 
sary. Thus, to carry on the illustration, if white now 
throws aces, or sixes, or six ace, he cannot enter at alL 
He is not allowed to move any man while he has one to 
enter; consequently his throw is null and vokl, and black 
throws again. It sometimes happens that one pla3rer 
has a man up, and that his adversary occupies all the 
points on his own home table with two or more men 
(called having his table made up). In this case, the 
player with a man up caimot enter ; and as it is useless 
for him to throw, his adversary continues throwing untU 
he is oblieed to open a point on his inner table. 

Two blots may be taken up at once if the adverury 
throws numbers that will hit them both. It is possible 
with doublets to take up four blots at once, but this 
could scarcely happen in a game between pla3rers of any 
proficiency. 

The game proceeds by moving the men round towards 
home, or by hitting blots and sending them back, until 
one of the players gets all his men into his inner table or 
home. As soon as this stage is reached, the player who 
has accomplished it begins to take his men off the board 
or to bear them. Thus, suppose he has several men on 
every point of his table, and throws six, quatre ; he 
bears one man from his six point, and one from his 
quatre point. If his six point is unoccupied, he can bear 
a six from his cinque point, or from the highest point 
which b occupied, ana so on with smaller numoers, 
provided the numbers thrown are higher than the points 
occupied ; if lower, the throw must tc moved. A player 
has tne option of moving a man when he can, instead of 
bearing it Thus, in the case originally given the six 
must l^ borne, because a six cannot be moved ; but the 

?iuatre may be moved if preferred, by moving a man 
rom the six point to the deuce point, or from cinque 
point to the ace point Doublets entitled to bear or 
move four men in accordance with the previous rules. 
The adversary similarly bears his men as soon as he gets 
them all home. If, after a player has commenced bear- 
ing his men, he should be hit on a blot, he must enter 
on his adversary's inner table, and must bring the 
man taken up into his own inner table before he can 
bear any more. 

Whoever first bears all hb men wins the game : — a 
single game or hit if hb adversary has borne any of hb 
men ; a double game or gammon if the adversary has 
not borne a man ; and a triple game or backgammon, if, 
at the time the winner bears his last man, his advemry, 
not having home a man, has one in the winner's inner 
table. 

When a series of |^es b played, the winner of a hit 
has the first throw in the succeeding game; but if a 

fammon b won, the players each throw a single die to 
etermine the first move of the next game. 
BACON, Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount 
St. Alban, was born at York House in the Strand, 
London, on the 22d January 1561. He was the young- 
est son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, the celebrated lawyer 
and statesman, who for twenty years of Elizabeth's 
reign heW the seals as lord keeper. His mother, the 
second wife of Sir Nicholas, was a daufhter of Sil 



7i8 



B AC 



Anthony Cooke, formerly ttrtorto Edward VT. She 
was a woman of considerable culture, well skilled in the 
classical studies of the penod, and a warm adherent of 
the Reformed or Puritan Church. In April 1573 he 
was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, where for 
three years he resided with his brother Anthony. Our 
information with regard to these important years is 
singularly scanty. \V e know only that Bacon at Cam- 
bridge, like Descartes at La FlAche, applied himself dili- 
gently to the several sciences as then taught, and came 
to the conclusion that the methods employed and the 
results attained were alike worthless ana erroneous. 
Although he preserved a reverence for Aristotle fof 
whom, however, he seems to have known but little), ne 
learned to despise the Aristotelian philosophy. It 
3rielded no fruit, was serviceable only for disputation, 
and the end it proposed to itself was a mistaken one. 
Philosophy must be taught its true business, and to at- 
tain its new aim a new method most be devised. With 
the first germs of this ^eat conception in his mind. 
Bacon left the university m 1576. 

In the same year he and ms brother Anthony were 
entered de socUtate magistrorum at Gray's Inn, and a 
few months later he was sent abroad with Sir Amjras 
Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris. He spent 
some time in that city, and travelled through several of 
the French provinces. The disturbed state of govern- 
ment and society in France at that time must have af- 
forded him much valuable political instruction ; and it 
has been commonly supposed that ceruin Notes on the 
Slate of Christendom^ usually printed in his works, con- 
tain the results of his observations. But Mr. Spcdding 
has shown that there is no reason for ascribing these 
•• Notes" to him, and that they may be attributed with 
more probability to one of his brother Anthony's corre- 
spondents. , 

The sudden death of his father in February 1579 
necessitated Bacon's return to England, and exercised a 
very serious influence on his fortunes. A considerable 
sum of money had been laid up by Sir Nicholas in order 
to purchase an estate for his youngest son, the only one 
otherwise unprovided for. Owing to his sudden aeath, 
this intention was not carried out, and but a fifth part 
of the money descended to Francis, who thus began his 
career in comparative poverty. It was one of the grav- 
est misfortunes of his life; he started with insufficient 
means, acquired a habit of borrowing, and was never 
afterwards out of debt. As it had Income absolutely 
necessary that he should adopt some profession by 
which an adequate income would be yielded, he selected 
that of law, and took up his resklence at Gray's Inn in 
1579. 

Nothmg throws so clear a light on the career of any 
great man as a knowledge of his character and aims 
when he made the first step into the world. We learn 
from this how he .himself desired to shape his course, and 
at every point can see how far his actions correspond to 
the end he had placed before him. His grand and com- 
prehensive aim, the production of good to the human 
race through the discovery of truth, was combined in 
him with the more practical desire to be of service to his 
country, service for which he felt himself by birth and 
education eminently fitted. He purposed, therefore, to 
obtain, if possible, some honorable post in the state 
which would give him the means of realising, so far as 
in him lay, these two great projects, and would at the 
same time enable him to do somewhat for the churdi, 
the third of the objects whose good he had at heart. 
The constant striving after these three ends is the key to 
Paeon's life. His qualifications for accomplishing the 
task he thus set before him were not small His intel- 
lect was far-seeing and dcute, quick and yet cautious. 



meditative, methodical, and free from prejiriice. If v« 
add to this account what Bacon himself does not tell us 
— that he seems to have been of an unusually sweet 
temper and amiable disposition — we shall have a fairly 
complete picture of his mental character at the critical 
period of nis entry into the world. 

In 1580 he appears to have taken the first step in las 
projected career by applying, through his uncle. Burgh- 
ley, for some post at court. His suit, though well re- 
ceived by the queen and the lord treasurer, was unsuc- 
cessful : the particulars of it are totally unknown. For 
two years after this disappointment he worked quietly at 
Gray's Inn, and in 1582 was admitted an outer barrister. 
In 1584 he took his seat in Parliament for Melcombe in 
Dorsetshire, but the notes for the session do not dis- 
close what part he took or what reputation he gained. 
About the same time he made another application to 
Burghley, apparently with a view to expeditmg his pro- 

Eress at the bar. His uncle, who appears to have " tji- 
en his zeal for ambition," wrote him a severe letter, 
taking him to task for arrogance and pride, qualities 
which Bacon vehemently disclaimed. It is uncertain 
what success attended this suit ; but as his advancen>ent 
at the bar was unusually rapid, his uncle's influence may 
not improbably have been exerted in his behalf. Some 
years later, in 158^, he received the first substantial 
piece of patronage from his powerful kinsman, the re- 
version of the clerkship of the Star Chamber being 
granted to him. The office was valuable, worth about 
2*1600 a year ; but it did not become vacant for nearly 
twenty years, and was thus, as Bacon used to say, ** like 
another man's ground buttailing upon his house, which 
might mend his prospect, but did not fill his bam.** A 
considerable period of his life had thus slipped away, 
and his affairs had not prospered. He had written on 
the condition of parties in the church ; he had set down 
his thoughts on philosophical reform in the lost tract, 
Temporus Partus Maximus; but he had failed in ol>- 
taining the ]x>sition which he looked upon as an indis- 
pensable condition of success. A long and eloquent 
letter to Burghley, written under these circumstances, 
gjives a vivid picture of his mental state, throws addi- 
tional light upon his character and aims, and at the 
same time gives a slight hint as to the cause of his un- 
cle's slackness in promoting him. 

Some time before this, perhaps as early as 1588, 
Bacon appears to have become acquainted with Essex, 
the impetuous and headstrong favorite of Elizabeth's 
later years. At the dose of 1^91 he was acting as the 
earFs confidential adviser, and in the following year 
Anthony Bacon, returning from the Continent, was also 
introduced to the young nobleman, and the two brothers 
exerted themselves dih^ently in his service. In Feb. 
1593 Parliament was csuled, and Bacon took his seat as 
member for Middlesex. The special occasion for which 
the House had been summoned was the discovery of one 
of the numerous Popish plots that distracted Elizabeth's 
reign. The conspiracy seemed to be formidable, and 
Government felt the necessity for increased supplies. 
As Bacon's conduct in this emei^ency seriously aflected 
his fortunes, and has been much misunderstood, it is 
necessary to state, as briefly as possible, the whole facts 
of the case. The House having been duly informed of 
the state necessities, assented to a double subsidy, and 
appointed a committee to draw up the requisite articles. 
Before this was completed, a message arrived from the 
House of Lords requesting a conference, which was 
granted. The committee of the Commons were then 
informed that the crisis demanded a triple subsidy to 
be collected in a shorter time than usual, that the Lords 
could not assent to less than ^is, and that they desired 
to confer on the matter. This prociQsal of the Lofdi 



BAC 



719 



to discuss supply infringed upon the privQ^es of the 
Commons; accordingly, when the report of committee 
"wais read to the lower House, Bacon stood up and spoke 
against the proposed conference, pointing out at the 
same time that a communication from the Lords might 
be received, but that the actual deliberadon on it must 
be taken by themselves alone. His motion, after some 
delay, was carried, and the conference was rejected. 
The Lords upon this lowered their demands, and desired 
merely to make a communication, which, being legiti- 
mate, was at once assented to. The House had then 
before them the proposal for a triple subsidy, to be col- 
lected in three, or, as the motion ultimately was shaped, 
in four years, instead of in six, as the ordinary custom 
would have been. Bacon, who approved of the in- 
creased subsidy, was opposed to the short period in 
which it was proposed to be raised. He suggested that 
it wouki be difficult or impc^ible for the people to meet 
such heavy demands, that discontent and trouble wouki 
arise, and that the better method of procedure was to 
raise money by levy or imposition. His motion appears 
to have received no support, and the four years' subsidy 
was passed unanimously- Bacon, as it turned out, had 
been mistaken in thinking that the country would be 
unable to meet the increased taxation, and his conduct, 
though prompted by a pure desire to be of service to the 

?ueen, gave deep and well-nigh ineradicable offence, 
le was accused of seeking popularity, and was for a 
time excluded from the court His letter to Burgh- 
ley, who had told him of the queen's displeasure 
with his speech, offers no apology for what he had 
said, but expresses regret that liis motives should have 
been misunderstood, and that any offence should have 
been taken. He soon felt that the queen's anger was 
not to be appeased by such a justification. The attorney- 
generalship nad fallen vacant, and Bacon became a can- 
didate for the office, his most formidable rival being his 
life-long antagonist. Coke, who was then solicitor. 
Essex warmly espoused Bacon's cause, and earnestly 
pressed his claims upon the queen ; but his impetuous, 
pettish pleading tended rather to retard than advance 
the cause. Burghley, on the other hand, in no way pro- 
moted his nephew's interest ; he would recommend him 
for the solicit orship, but not for the attorney-general- 
ship ; and it is not improbable that Sir Robert Cecil 
secretly used his influence against his cousin. The 
queen delayed the appointment, and Bacon's for times, as 
they then stood, could ill brook delay. He was harassed 
with debt, and at times so disheartened that he contem- 
plated retirement from public life and devotion to ab- 
stract studies. In March 1594 it was at last understood 
that Coke was to be attorney-general. Essex though 
bitterly mortified, at once threw all his energies into the 
endeavor to procure for Bacon the solicitorship ; but in 
this case also, his method of dealing, whkh was wholly 
opposed to Bacon's advice, seemed to irritate, instead of 
conciliating the queen. The old offence was not yet for- 
given, and after a tedious delay, the office was given, in 
Oct. 1595, to Sergeant Fleming. Burghley and Pucker- 
ing seem to have assisted Bacon honestly, if not over- 
warmly, in this second application ; but the conduct of 
Cecil had roused suspicions which were not perhaps with- 
out foundation. Essex, to compensate in some degree 
for Bacon's disappointment, insisted upon presenting 
him with a piece of land, worth about /iSoo, and situated 
probably near Twickenham Park. Nor did his kind- 
ness cease there ; before sailing on the expedition to 
Cadiz, in the beginning of 1596, he addressed letters to 
Buckhurst, Fortescue, and Egerton, earnestly request- 
ing them to use their influence toward procuring for 
Bacon the vacant office of master of the rolls. Before 
aDTthing came of this application, the Cadiz expedition 



had resulted in a brilliant success, and Essex became the 
idol of the army and the people. Bacon saw clearly 
that such a reputation would assuredly alienate the 
affections of the queen, who loved not to have a subject 
too powerful or too popular. He therefore addressed 
an eloquent and imploring letter to the earl, pointing 
out the dangers of nis position, and urging upon him 
what he judged to be the only safe course of action, to 
seek and secure the favor of the queen alone ; above all 
things dissuading him from the appearance of military 
popularity. His advice, however, was unpalatable and 
proved ineffectual The earl still continued his usual 
course of dealing with the aueen, depending solely upon 
her supposed af^tion for nim, and insanely jealous of 
any other whom she might seem to favor. His unskil- 
ful and unlucky management of the sea expedition to 
Ferrol and the Azores m no way lowered his popularity 
with the people, but undoubtedly weakened his influence 
with the queen. 

Bacon's affairs in the meantime had not been prosper- 
ing. He had increased his reputation by the pubHca- 
tion, in 1597, of his Essays^ along with which were the 
Colors of Good and Evil and the Meditationes Sacra ; 
but his private fortunes were in a bad condition. No 
public office apparently couM be found for him; he 
failed in the endeavor to retrieve his position by mar- 
riage with the wealthy widow. Lady Hatton, and in 
1598 he was arrested for debt. He seems, however, to 
have been growing in favor with the queen. Some 
years previously (perhaps about 1594), he had begun to 
be employed by her in crown affairs, and he gradually 
acquired the standing of one of the learned counsel, 
though he held no commission or warrant, and received 
no salary. At the same time he was no longer on the 
former friendly terms with Essex, a certain estrange- 
ment having sprung up between them, caused no doubt 
by the earl finding his friend's advice distasteful. The 
earl's affairs were then at a somewhat critical stage, and 
as our jud2;ment upon a most important episode in Ba- 
con's life depends upon our knowledge of the events of 
the ensuing year, it will be requisite to enter more 
minutely than would otherwise be necessary into pro- 
ceedings with which Bacon himself had nothing to do. 

Ireland was then in a rebellious and discontented con- 
dition, and it was somewhat difficult for the English 
Government to decide either on a definite course of 
policy with regard to it, or on a leader by whom that 
policy might be carried out. Upon this subject a vio^ 
lent quarrel took place between the queen and Essex, 
who for some months retired from court, and refused to 
be reconciled. At last he came forth from his seclu- 
sion, and it was soon understood that he was in person 
to undertake the subjugation of the rebels in Ireland, 
with a larger force than had ever before been sent into 
that country. Into the obscure details of this unhappy 
campaign it is unnecessary to enter ; one fact stands out 
clearly, that Essex endeavored to carry out a treason- 
able design. Hisiealousy and ill temper had been so 
roused that the only course open to him seemed to be 
the obtaining a powerful military force, the possession 
of which would compel the queen to reinstate him in 
her favor. Whether or not this plan was in contempla^ 
tion before he undertook the Irisn expedition is not evi» 
dent, though even outsiders at that time entertained 
some suspicions, but there can be no doubt of the trea» 
sonable character of the negotiations carried on in Ire* 
land. His plans, probably not very definite, were dis. 
turbed by an imperative message from the queen, order, 
ing him not to return to EngUind without her permis« 
sion. He at once set off, and, trusting apparently to 
her affection for him, presented himself suddenly before 
her. He was, for the moment, received kindly, but ^ 



720 



BAC 



was soon afterwards ordered to keep his chamber, and 
was then given into the custody of the lord keeper at 
York House, where he remained till March i6oa His 
great popularity, and the general ignorance of the rea- 
sons for his imprisonment, stirred up a strong feeling 
against the queen, who was reported to be influenced by 
Bacon, and such indignation was raised i^ainst the lat- 
ter, that his friends feared his life would be in danger. 
The groundless character of this accusation shows how 
little confidence should be reposed in popular versions 
of obscure occurrences. It was at last felt necessary 
that the queen should in some way vindicate her proceed- 
ings, and this she at first did, contrary to Bacon's ad- 
vice, by a declaration from the Star Chamber. This, 
however, gave little or no satisfaction, and it was found 
expedient to do what Bacon had always recommended, 
to have a fair trial, yet not one in which the sentence 
must needs be damaging to the earL The trial accord- 
ingly took place before a body of her majesty's coun- 
cilors, and Bacon had a subordinate and unimportant 
part in the accusation. Essex does not seem to have been 
at all hurt by his action in this matter, and shortly after 
his release they were again on friendly terms, Bacon 
drawing up letters as if to or from the earl with the de- 
sign olhaving them brought before the oueen. But 
Bacon did not know the true character of the transac- 
tions in which Essex had been engaged. The latter 
had been released from all custody in August, but in 
the meantime he had been busily engaged in trea- 
sonable correspondence with James of Scotland, 
and was counting on the Irish army under his ally, 
Mont joy, the new deputy. But Mont joy had ap- 
parcntlv come to see how useless the attempt would 
be to force upon the queen a settlement of^ the suc- 
cession, and declined to go further in the matter. 
Essex was thus thrown upon his own resources, and his 
anger against the queen being aroused afresh by the re- 
fusal to renew his monopoly of sweet wines, he formed 
the desperate project of seizing her person and compell- 
ing her to dismiss from her council his enemies Raleigh, 
Cobham, and CeciL As some pretext, he intended to 
affirm that his life was in danger from these men, who 
were in league with the Spaniards. The plot was 
forced on prematurely by the suspicions excited at 
court, and the rash attempt to rouse tne dty of London 
(8th February i6oi) proved a complete /iasto. The 
leaders were arrested that night and thrown into 
prison. Although the actual rising might have appeared 
a mere outburst of frantic passion, the private examina- 
tions of the most prominent conspirators disclosed to 
the Government a plot so widely spread, and involving 
so many of the hignest in the land, that it would have 
been perilous to luive pressed home accusations against 
all who might be implicated. Essex was tried along 
with the young earl of Southampton, and Bacon, as 
one of her majesty's counsel, was present on the occa- 
sion. Coke, who was principal spokesman, managed 
the case with great want of skill, incessantly allowing 
the thread of the evidence to escape, and giving the 
prisoners opportunity to indulge in irrelevant justifica- 
tions and protestations which were not ineffectual in 
distracting attention from the real question at issue. 
On the first opportunity Bacon rose and briefly pointed 
out that the earl's plea of having done nothing save 
what was absolutely necessary to defend his life from 
the machinations of his enemies was weak and worthless, 
inasmuch as these enemies were purely imaginary ; and 
he compared his case to that of Pisistratus, who had made 
use of a somewhat similar stratagem to cloak his real de 
signs upon the city of Athens. He was thereupon in- 
terrupted by the earl, who proceeded to defend himself, 
by declaring that in one of the letters drawn up by 



Bacon, and purporting to be from the earl to Anthony 
Bacon the existence of these rumors, and the dangers to 
be apprehended from them, had been admitted ; and he 
continued, ** If these reasons were then jnst and true, 
not counterfeit, how can it be that now my pretences 
are false and injurious ? ** To this Bacon repned^ thmt 
" the letters, if they were there, would not blush to be 
seen for anything contained in them, and that he had 
sp)ent more time in vain in studying how to make the 
earl a good servant to the queen than be had done ia 
anything else.** It seems to be forgotten in the 
general accounts of this matter, not only that 
Bacon's letters bear out what he said, but that 
the earl's excuses were false. A second time Bacon was 
compelled to interfere in the course of the trial, and to 
recall to the minds of those present the real question at 
issue. He animadverted strongly upon the puerile nature 
of the defence, and in answer to a remark by Essex, that 
if he had wished to stir up a rebellion he would have had 
a larger company with him, pointed out that his depend- 
ence was upon the people ot London, and compared his 
attempt to that of the duke of Guise at Paris. To this 
the earl made little or no reply. Bacon's use of this illus- 
tration, and of the former one of Pisistatns, has been 
much commented on, and in general it seems to have 
been thought that had it not Men for his speeches Essex 
might have escaped, or, at all events, have been after- 
wards pardoned. But this view of the matter depends 
on the supposition that Essex was guilty only of a rash 
outbreak. That this was not the case wzs well known 
to the queen and her council. Unfortunately, pruden- 
tial motives landered the publication of the whole evi- 
dence ; the people, consequently, were still ignorant of 
the magnitude of the crime, and, till recently, biograph- 
ers of Bacon have been in like ignorance. Tte earl 
himself, before execution, confessed his guilt and the 
thorough justice of his sentence, while, with singular 
lack of magnanimity, he incriminated several against 
whom accusations had not been brought, among others 
his sister Lady Rich. After his execution it was thought 
necessary that some account of the facts should be drawn 
up and circulated, in order to remove the prejudice 
against the queen's action in the matter. This was in- 
trusted to Bacon, who drew up a Declaration of the 
Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by 
Robert, late Earl of Essex, his first draft being exten- 
sively altered and corrected by the oueen and council 
Notning is known with certainty of the reception given 
to this official explanation, but the ill feehng against 
Bacon was not wholly removed, and some years later, in 
1604, he published, in the form of a letter to Montjoy, 
an Apology for his action in the case. This Apobgy 
gives' a most fair and temperate history of the relations 
between Bacon and Essex, shows liow the prudent coun- 
sel of the one had been rejected by the other, and brings 
out very clearly what we conceive to be the true ex- 
planation of the matter. Everything that Bacon could 
do was done by him, until the real nature of Essex's de- 
sign was made apparent, and then, as he had repeatedly 
told the earl, his devotion and respect were for the queen 
and state, not for any subject ; friendship could never 
take rank above loyalty. Those who blame Bacon must 
acquit Essex of all wrong-doing. 

Bacon's private fortunes, during the period after the 
death of Essex, were not in a flourishing condition. 
He had obtained a grant of ;£i200 from the fines im- 
posed on Catesby, one of the conspirators, but his 
debts were sufficient to swallow up this and much more. 
And, though he was trusted by Elizabeth, and on good 
terms with her, he seems to have seen that he had no 
chance of advancement. But her death in 1603, fol- 
lowed by the undisputed succession of James, gave him 



BAC 



72 1 



new bopes • to use his own expression, he found him- 
self •* as one awaked out of sleep. " It appeared to him 
that at length the abilities he was conscious of possess- 
ing would obtain recognition ; he thought that " the 
canvassing world" had gone, and the " deserving world" 
had come. He used every means in his power to bring 
himself under James* notice, writing to all his friends 
at the Scottish court and to the king himself. He 
managed to obtain a personal interview with the king 
but does not seem to have been much satisfied with it. 
In fact, while the king confirmed in iheir situations, 
those who had held crown offices under Elizabeth, Ba- 
con, not holding his post by warrant, was practically 
omitted. He was, however, continued, by special 
order of the king, as learned counsel extraordinary, but 
little or no law business appears to have been intrusted 
to him. He procured, through his cousin Cecil, the 
dignity of knighthood, which, contrary to his inclina- 
tion, he receival along with about 300 others, on the 
23d July 1603. Between this time and the oi^ning of 
James* first Parliament he was engaged in literary work, 
and sent to the king two pamphlets — one on the 
Union, the other on measures for the pacification of 
the church. What opinion was form«? of them by 
James is unknown. Shortly after he published his 
Apology ; the reception it met with is equally uncertain. 
In March 1604 Parliament met, and during their short 
session Bacon's hands seem to have been fu!l of work. 
It was a busy and stirring time, and events occurred dur- 
ing it which carried within them the seeds of much 
future dissension. Prerogative and privilege came more 
than once into collision, the abuses of purveyance and 
wardship were made matters of conference, though the 
thorougn discussion of them was deferred to a succeed- 
ing session ; while James* temp)er was irritated by the 
objections brought against his favorite scheme of the 
Union, and by the attitude taken up by the House with 
regard to religious afiairs. The records are barely full 
enough to enable us to judge very accurately of the 
share taken by Bacon in these discussions ; his name 
generally appears as the reporter of the committees on 
special subjects. We can occasionally, however, dis- 
cern traces of his tact and remarkable prudence ; and, 
on the whole, his attitude, particularly with regard to 
the Union quesdon, recommended him to James. He 
was shortly afterwards formally installed as learned 
counsel, receiving the salary of /40, and at the same 
time a pension of ^(30 yearly, lie was also appointed 
one of the commission to treat of the conditions nec- 
essarv for the Union ; and the admirable manner in 
which the duties of that body were discharged must be 
attributed mainly to his influence and his complete 
mastery* of the subject. During the recess he pub- 
lished his Advancement of Learnings dedicated to the 
king. 

He was now fairly brought into relations with James, 
and his prospects began to look a little brighter. It is 
important for us to know what were his ideas upon 
government, upon parliaments, prerogative, and so 
forth, since a knowledge of this will clear up much that 
would seem inexplicable in his life. It seems quite 
evident that Bacon, from position, early training, and, 
one might almost think, natural inclination, held as 
his ided^of government the Elizabethan system. The 
kin^ was the supreme power, the centre of law and 
justice, and his prerogative must not be infrmged. 
Parliament was merely a body called to consult with 
the king on emergencies {circa ardua regni) and to 
grant supplies. King and parliament together make up 
the state, but the former is first in nature and impor- 
tance. The duty of a statesman was, therefore, to 
carry out the royal will in as prudent a manner as pos- 



sible; he was the servant of the king, and stood or fell 
according to his pleasure. It is hard to put ourselves 
at this point of view, and we can with difficulty under- 
stand how such a man as Bacon held a theory which 
seems now so inadequate. But he was not singular in 
his opinions, and he was undoubtedly sincere; and it is 
onlv by keeping them constantly in mind that we can 
unaerstand nis after relations with the king. 

In the second Parliament there was not so much scope 
for the exercise of his powers. The Gunpowder Plot 
had aroused in the Commons warmer feelings towards 
the king; they passed severe laws against recusants, and 
granted a triple subsidy. At the same time they con- 
tinued the collection of*^ the grievances concerning which 
they were to move. In the course of this session Bacon 
married Alice Bamham, ** the alderman's daughter, an 
handsome maiden, to my liking,** of whom he had 
written some years before to his cousin Cecil. Little or 
nothing is known of their married Ufe. 

The third Parliament was chiefly occupied with the 
commercial and legal questions rising out of the proposed 
Union, in particular, with the dispute as to the natural- 
isation of the Post Nati, Bacon ar^edably in favor of 
this measure, but the general feeling was against it. 
The House would only pass a bill abohshing hostile 
laws between the kingdoms ; but the case of the Post 
Nati^ being brought before the law courts, was settled 
as the king wished. Bacon*s services were rewarded in 
June 1607 by the office of solicitor ; he had at last gamed 
a step upon the ladder of advancement. His promotion, 
however, was not rapid; several years passed before 
he gained another step. Meantime, though circum- 
stances had thrown him too much into active life, he 
had not forgotten his cherished project of reorganising 
science. A survey of the ground Had been made in the 
Advancement y anid some short pieces not published at 
the time were probably written in the subsequent two 
or three years. Towards the close of 1607 he sent to 
his friends a small tract, entitled Cogitata et Visa^ prob- 
ably the first draft of what we have under that title. In 
1609 he wrote the noble panegyric, Infelicem memoriam 
Elizabethce^ and the curiously learned and ingenious 
work De Sapientia Veterum ; and completed what 
seems to have been the Redargutio Philosophiarumt or 
treatise on the idols of the theatre. 

In 1610 the famous fourth Parliament of James met. 
It is not possible to enter minutely into the important 
occurrences of this short session. Prerogative, despite 
Bacon's advice and efforts, clashed more than once with 
liberty ; Salisbury's bold schemes for relieving the em- 
barrassment caused by the reckless extravagance of the 
king proved abortive, and the House was dissolved in 
February 161 1. Bacon took a conskierable share in the 
debates, consistently upheld the prerogative, and seemed 
yet to possess the confidence of the Commons. The 
death of Salisbury, occurring soon after, opened a posi- 
tion in which Bacon thought his great poliucal skill and 
sagacity might be made more immediately available for 
the king's service. How far he directly offered himself 
for the post of secretary is imcertain, but we know that 
his hopes were disappointed, the king himself undertak- 
ing the duties of the office. About the same time he 
made two ineffectual applications for the mastership of 
the wards ; the first, on Salisbury's death, when it was 
given to Sir George Carey ; the second, on the death of 
Carey. It is somewhat hard to understand why so 
little favor was shown by the king to one who had 
proved himself able and willing to do good service, and 
who, in spite of his disappointments, still continued zeal- 
ously to offer advice and assistance. At last, in 1 61 3, a fair 
opportunity for promotion occurred. The death of Sir 
Thomas Fleming made a vacancy in the chief-justice- 



722 



BAC 



ship of the King's Bench, and Bacon, after some delib- 
eration, propos«i to the King that Coke should be re- 
moved from his place in the Court of Common Pleas 
and transferred to the King's Bench. He gives several 
reasons for this in his letter to the kin^, but in all prob- 
ability his chief motive was that pomted out by Mr. 
Spading, that in the Court of King's Bench there 
would be less danger of Coke coming into collision with 
the king on questions of prerogative, m handling which 
Bacon was always very circumsjxjct and tender. The 
vacancy caused oy Coke's promotion was then filled up 
by Hobart, and Bacon, finally, stepped into the place of 
attorney- general. The fact of this advice being offered 
and followed in all essentials, illustrates very clearly the 
close relations between the king and Bacon, who had 
become a confidential adviser on most occasions of dif- 
ficulty. That his adherence to the royal partv was 
already noticed and commented on appears from the sig- 
nificant remark of Chamberlain, who, after mentioning 
the recent changes among the law officials, says, " There 
is a strong apprehension that little good is to be ex- 
pected by this cnange, and that Bacon may prove a dan- 
gerous instrument.** 

Further light is thrown upon Bacon*s relations with 
James, and upon his poHtical sympathies, by the letter 
to the king advocating the calling of a parliament, and 
by the two papers of notes on which his letter was 
founded. These documents, even after due weight is 
given to all considerations urged in their favor, seem to 
confirm the view already taken of Bacon's Uieory of 
government, and at the same time to show that his sym- 
pathies with the royal party tended to blind him to the 
true character of certain courses of action, which can 
only be justified by a straining of political ethics. The 
advice he offered, in all sincerity, was most prudent and 
sagacious, and might have been successfully carried out 
by a man of Bacon's tact and skill ; but it was intensely 
one-sided, and exhibited a curious want of appreciation 
of what was even then be^nning to be looked on as the 
true relation of king, parliament, and people. Unfortu- 
nately for James, he could neither adopt nor carry out 
Bacon's policy. The Parliament which met in April 
1614 and was dissolved in June, after a stormy session, 
was by no means in a frame of mind suitable for the 
king's purposes. The House was enraged at the sup- 
posed project (then much misunderstood) of the " Un- 
dertakers; " objection was taken to Bacon being elected 
or serving as a member while holding office as attorney- 
general; and, though an exception was made in his 
favor, it was resolved that no attorney-general should 
in the future be eligible for a seat in Parliament. No 
supply was granted, and the king's necessities were 
increased instead of diminished. The emergency sug- 
gested to some of the bishops the idea of a voluntary 
contribution, which was eagerly taken up by the noble- 
men and crown officials. The scheme was afterwards 
extended so as to take in the whole kingdom, but lost 
something of its voluntary character, and the means 
taken to raise the money, which were not what Bacon 
would have recommended, were calculated to stir up 
discontent. The general dissatisfaction received a some- 
what unguarded and intemperate expression in a letter 
sent to the justices of Marlborough by a gentleman of 
the neighborhood, named St. John, in which he denounced 
the attempt to raise funds in this way as contrary to 
law, reason, and religion, as constituting in the king 
personally an act of perjury, involving in the same 
crime those who contributed, and thereby suhnecting all 
parties to the curses levelled by the church at such 
offences. St John was summoned before the Star 
Chamber for slander and treasonable language, and 
Bacon, ex officio^ acted as public prosecutor. The 



sentence prononnoed (a fine of ;f5000 and impris- 
onment for life) was severe, but it was not actoaBy 
inflicted, and probably was not intended to be car- 
ried out, the success of the prosecution being all that 
was desired. St. John remained a short time m prison, 
and was then released, after making a full apology 
and submission. The fine was remitted. It seems in 
credible that Bacon's conduct on this occasion should 
have been censured by his biographers. The oflTence 
was clear ; the law was undoubted ; no particular sym- 
pathy was excited for the culprit ; the sentence was not 
carried out ; and Bacon did only what any one in his 
place would naturally and necessarily have done. The 
nature of his office involved him in several trials for 
treason occurring about the same time, and one of these 
is of interest sufficient to repay a somewhat longer ex- 
amination. Edmund Peacham, a clergyman in Somer- 
setshire, had been committed to costly for a libel on 
his superior, the bishop of Bath and Wells. In search- 
ing his house for certam papers, the officers came opon 
some loose sheets stitched together in the form of a ser- 
mon, the contents of which were of such a nature that 
it was judged right to lay them before the council As 
it was at first suspected that the writing of this book had 
been prompted oy some disaffected persons, Peacham 
was interrogated, and after be had declined to give any 
information, was subjected to torture. Bacon, as one 
of the learned counsel, was ordered by council to take 
part in this examination, which was undoubtedly war- 
ranted bv precedent, whatever may now be thought of 
it. Notning, however, was extracted from Peacham m 
this way, and it was resolved to proceed against him for 
treason. Now, in the excited state of popular feeling at 
that period, the failure of Government to substantiate 
an accusation of treason would have been a serious mat- 
ter. The king, with whom the council agreed, seems 
therefore to mive thought it desirable to obtain before- 
hand the opinions of the four chief judges as to whether 
the alleged offence amounted to treason. In this there 
was nothing unusual or ill^al, and no objection would 
at that time have been made to it, but James introduced 
a certain innovation ; he proposed that the opinions of 
the four judges should be given separately and in private. 
It may be reasonably inferred that his motive for this 
was the suspicion, or it may be the knowledge, that 
Coke did not consider the matter treasonable. At all 
events when Coke, who as a councillor already knew the 
facts of the case, was spoken with regarding the new 
proposal of the king, he at once objected to it, saying 
that *' this particular and auricular taking of opinions ** 
was ** new and dangerous,** and " not according to the 
custom of the realm.** He at last reluctantly assented, 
and proposed that Bacon should consult with niifi, while 
the other law officers addressed themselves to the three 
puisne judges. By Bacon's directwns, the proposal to 
the three ludges to give their opinions separately was 
made suddenly and confidently, and any scruples they 
might have felt were easily overcome. The first step 
was thus gained, and it was hoped that if ** infusion ** 
could be avoided, if the papers bearing on the case 
were presented to the judges quickly, and before 
their minds could be swayed by extraneous influence, 
their decision on the case would be the same as 
that of the king. It is clear that the extraneous influ- 
ence to be fear«i was Coke, who, on being addressed by 
Bacon, again objected to giving his opinion separately, 
and even seemed to hope that his brother judges after 
they had seen the papers would withdraw their asseqt to 
giving their decisions privately. Even after the discus- 
sion of the case with Bacon, he would not give his opin- 
ion until the others had handed in theirs. What the 
other judges thought is not definitely known, but Boooa 



B AC 



723 



Appears to liave been unable to put in operation the plan 
he had devised for swaying Coke's judgment, by putting 
him in some dark manner in doubt that he should be left 
alone ; or if he did attempt this, he was unsuccessful, for 
Coke finally gave an opinion consistent with what he 
seems to have held at first, that the book was not trea- 
sonable, as it dki not disable the king's title. Although 
the opinions of the judges were not made public, yet as 
we learn, not only from Bacon, but from a sentence in 
one of Carleton's letters, a rumor had got about that 
there was doubt as to the book being treasonable. Un- 
der these circumstances. Bacon, who feared that such a 
report might incite other people to attempt a similar 
offence, proposed to the king that a second rumor should 
be circulatea in order to destroy the impression caused 
by the first " I do not think it necessary,** he says, 
** that because we live in an age in which no counsel is kept, 
and that it is true there is some bruit abroad thai the 
judges of the King's Bench do doubt of the case that it 
should not he treason, that it be given out constantly, 
and yet as it were in secret, and so a fame to slide, 
that the doubt was only upon the publication, in that it 
was never published. For that (if your majesty marketh 
it) taketh away or at least qualifieth the danger of the 
example ; for that will be no man*s case. ** Bacon's con- 
duct m this matter has been curiously misrepresented. 
He has been accused of torturing the prisoner, and of 
tampering with the judges by consultingthem before the 
trial ; nay, he is even represented as selecting this poor 
clergyman to serve for an example to terrify the disaf- 
fected, as breaking into his study and finding there a 
sermon never intended to be preached, which merely en- 
couraged the people to resist tyranny. All this lavish 
condemnation is wide of the mark, and rests on a com- 
plete misconception of the case. If any blame attaches 
to him, it must arise either from his endeavor to force 
Coke to a favorable decision, in which he was in all 
probability prompted by a feeling, not uncommon with 
nim, that a matter of state policy was in danger of being 
sacrificed to some senseless legal quibble or precedent, 
or from his advice to the king that a rumor should be 
set afloat which was not strictly true. We do not im- 
agine that in any other politician either of these actions 
would meet with very severe condemnation. 

Meanwhile, his great rival Coke, whose constant ten- 
dency to limit the prerogative by law and precedent had 
made him an object of particular dislike to James, had 
on two points come into open collision with the king's 
rights. The first case was an action of prctmunire 
against the Court of Chancery, evidently instigated by 
him, but brought at the instance of certain parties 
whose adversaries had obtained redress in the chancel- 
lor's court after the cause had been tried in the Court of 
King's Bench. With all his learning and ingenuity. 
Coke failed in inducing or even forcing the jury to bring 
in a bill against the C'ourt of Chancery, and it seems 
fairly certain that on the technical point of law involved 
he was wrong. Although his motive was, in great 
measure, a feeling of personal dislike toward EUesmere, 
yet it is not improbable that he was influenced by the 
desire to restrict in every possible way the jurisdiction 
of a court which was the direct exponent of the king's 
wishes. The other case, that oi commendamus^ was 
more important in itself and in the circumstances con- 
nected with it. The general question involved in a 
special instance was whether or not the king's preroga- 
tive included the right of granting at pleasure livings in 
commendam^ i. ^., to be enjoyed by one who was not 
the incumbent. Bacon, as attorney-general, delivered a 
speech, which has not been reported, but the king was 
mformed that the arguments on the other side had not 
been limited to the special case, but had directly im- 



pugned the general prerogative right of granting livings. 
It was necessary for James, as a party interested, at 
once to take measures to see that the decision of the 
judges should not be given on the general question with- 
out due consulution. He accordingly wrote to Bacon, 
directing him to intimate to the judges his pleasure that 
they should delay judgment until after discussion of 
the matter with himself. Bacon communicated first 
with Coke, who in reply desired that similar notice 
should be given the other judges. This was done by 
Bacon, though he seems to hint that in so doing he was 
going a little beyond his mstructions. The iudges 
took no notice of the intimation, proceeded at 
once to give judgment, and sent a let- 
ter in their united names to the king, announcing 
what they had done, and declaring that it was contrary 
to law and to their oath for them to pay any attention 
to a request that their decision should be delajred. 
The king was indignant at this encroachment, and acting 
partly on the advice of Bacon, held a council on the 6th 
June i6i6, at which the judges attended. James then 
entered at great length into the case, censuring the 
iudges for the offensive form of their letter, and for not 
having delayed judgment upon his demand, which had 
been made solely because he was himself a party con- 
cerned. The judges, at the conclusion of his speech, 
fell on their knees, and implored pardon for the manner 
of their letter ; but Coke attempted to justify the matter 
contained in it, saying that the delay requirea by his 
majestv was contrary to law. The point of law was 
arguea by Bacon, and decided by tne chancellor in 
favor of the king, who put the question to the judges 
individually, " Whether, if at any time, in a case 
depending before the judges, which his majesty con- 
ceived to concern him either in power or profit, and 
thereupon required to consult with them, and that they 
should stay proceedings in the meantime, they ought 
not to 'stay accordingly?** To this all gave assent 
except Coke, who said that ** when the case should be, 
he would do that should be fit for a judge to do." No 
notice was taken by the king of this famous, though 
somewhat evasive, reply, but the judges were again 
asked what course thev would take in the special case 
now before them. They ail declared that they would 
not decide the matter upon general grounds affecting 
the prerogative, but upon special circumstances incident 
to the case ; and with this answer they were dismissed. 
Bacon*s conduct throughout the affair has been bfamed, 
but apparently on wrong grounds. As attorney he was 
merely fulfilling his duty in obeying the command of the 
king; and in lajnng down the law on the disputed point, 
he was, we may be sure, speaking his own convictions. 
Censure might more reasonably be bestowed on him, 
because he deliberately advised a course of action than 
which nothing can he conceived better calculated to 
strengthen the hands of an absolute monarch. This 
appeared to Bacon justifiable and right, because the pre- 
rogative would be defended and preserved intact. Coke 
certainly stands out in better light, not so much for his 
answer, which was rather indefinite, and the force of 
which is much weakened by his assent to the second 
question of the king, but for the general spirit of resis- 
tance to encroachment exhibited by him. He was 
undeniably troublesome to the king, and it is no matter 
for wonder that James resolved to remove him from a 
position where he could do so much harm. On the 26th 
June he was called before the council to answer certain 
charges, one of which was his conduct in \}xt pramunire 
question. He acknowledged his error on that head, 
and made little defence. On the 30th he was suspended 
from council and bench, and ordered to employ his 
leisure in revising certain obnoxious opinions in his 



724 



B AC 



reports. He 4i<l not perform the task to the lung's 
satisfaoCion, and a f^ months later he was dismism 
from office. 

Bacon's services to the king's canse had been most 
important; and as he had, at the same time, accjuired 
£reat favor with Villiera, his prospects looked brighter 
tnan before. According to nis custom, he strove ear- 
nestly to guide by his advice the conduct of the jroung 
iavorite. His letters, in ^f^ch he analvses the various 
relations in which sudi a man must stand, and prescribes 
the course of action suitable for each, are valuable and 
deserving of attention. Very striking, in view of future 
events, are the words in which he gives him counsel as 
to his dealing with judges : ** By no means be you per- 
suaded to interpose yourself by word or letter in any 
cause depending, or like to be depending, in any court 
of justice, nor suffer any man to do it where you can 
hmder it; and by all means dissuade the king himself 
Jirom it, upon the importunitv of any, either for their 
friends or themselves. It it should prevail, it perverts 
justice; but if the judge be so just, and of so undaunted 
a courage (as he ought to be) as not to be inclined thereby, 
Vet it alwsn^ leaves a taint of suspicions and prejudice be- 
nind it ** It is probable that Villiers at this time had reallv 
a sense of the duties attaching to his position, and was will- 
ing to be guided by a man of approved wisdom. 1 1 was not 
long before an opportunity occurred for showinghis grati- 
tude and favor. EUesmere resigned the chancellorship 
on the 5th March 1617, and on the 7th the great seal 
was bestowed upon Bacon, with the title of Lord 
Keeper. Two months later he took his seat with great 
pomp in the Qiancery Court, and delivered a weighty 
and impressive opening discourse. He entered with 
great vigor on his new labors, and in less than a month 
he was able to report to Buckingham that he had cleared 
off all outstanding Chancery cases. He seemed now to 
have reached the height of his ambitiom ; he was the 
first law ofhcer in the kincdom, the accredited minister 
of his sovereign, and on me best terms with the king 
and his favorite. His course seemed perfectly prosperous 
and secure, when a slight storm arismg opened his eyes 
to the frailty of the tenure by which beheld his position. 

Coke was in disgrace but not in despair ; there seemed 
to be a way whereby he could reconcile himself to Buck- 
ingham, through the marriage of his dauc^hter, who had 
an ample fortune, to Sir John Villiers, orother of the 
marquis, who was penniless or nearly so. The match 
was distasteful to Ladv Hatton and to her daughter ; 
a violent ouarrel was the consequence, and Bacon, who 
thought tne proposed marriage most unsuitable, took 
Lady Hatton s part. His reasons for disapproval he ex- 
plained to the king and Buckingham, but found to his 
surprise that their indignation was strongly roused against 
him. He received from both bitter letters of reproof; 
it was rtimored that he would be disgraced, and Buck- 
ingham was said to have compared his present conduct 
to his previous unfaithfulness to Essex. Bacon, who 
seems to have acted from a simple desire to do the best 
for Buckingham's own interests, at once changed his 
course, advanced the match by every means in his power, 
and by a humble apology appeased the indignation that 
had been excited against him. It had been a sharp les- 
son, but things seemed to go on smoothly after it, and 
Bacon's affairs prospered. In January 1 01 8 he received 
the higher title Lord Chancellor ; in July of the same 
year he was made Baron Verulam ; and in January 162 1 
he was created Viscount St Alban. His fame, too, 
had been increased by the publication in 1620 of his 
most celebrated work, the Novum Organum. He 
seemed at length to have made satisfactory progress 
towards the realisation of his cherished aims ; the method 
essential for his Instauration was partially completed ; 



and he had attained as high a rank in the state ss lie 
had ever contemplated. But history too dearly teH us 
that his actions in that position were not calcuLatcd to 
promote the good of his country. 

Connected with the yean during which he held of&ce 
is one of the weightiest charges against his charmcter. 
Buckingham, notwithstanding the advice he had received 
from Bacon himself, was in the habit of addressing let- 
ters to him recommending the causes of suitors. In 
many cases these seem nothing more than letters of 
courtesy, and from the general tone, it might fisurly be 
concluded that there was no intention to sway the opin- 
ion of the iudge illegally, and that Bacon did not under- 
stand the letters in that sense. This view is supported 
by consideration of the few answers to them which sue 
extant One outstanding case, however, that of Eh*. 
Steward, casts some suspicion on all the others. The 
terms of Buckingham's note concerning it might easily 
have aroused doubts; and we find that the further 
course of the action was to all appearances exactly ac- 
commodated to Dr. Stewart, who nad been so strongly 
recommended. It is, of course, dangerous to form an 
extreme judgment on an isolated and partially under* 
stood case^ of which also we have no explanation from 
Bacon himself, but if the interpretation given by Mr. 
Heath be the true one, Bacon certainly suffered his 
first, and so far as we can see, just judgment on the case 
to be set aside, and the whole matter to be reopened in 
obedience to a request from Buckingham. 

It is somewhat hard to understand Bacon's position 
with regard to the king during these years. He was 
the first officer of the crown, the most able man in the 
kingdom, prudent, sagacious, and devoted to the rc^ral 
party. Yet his advice was followed only when it 
chimed m with James's own will ; his influence was of a 
merely secondary kind ; and his great practical skill was 
emploj^ simply in carrying out the measures of the 
king in the best mode possible. We know indeed that 
he sympathised cordially with the home policy of the 
Government ; he had no objection to such monopolies 
or patents as seemed advantageous to the country, and 
for this he is certainly not to be blamed. The opinion 
was common at the time, and the error was merely 
ignorance of the true principles of political economy. 
But we know also that the patents were so numerous as 
to be oppressive, and we can scarcely avoid inferring 
that Bacon more readily saw the advantages to the 
Government than the disadvantages to the people. In 
November, 1620, when a new parUament was summoned 
to meet on January following, he earnestly pressed that 
the most obnoxious patents, those of alehouses and inns* 
and the monopoly of gold and silver thread, should be 
given up, and wrote^ to Buckingham, whose brothers 
were interested, advising him to withdraw them firom 
the impending storm. This prudent advice was unfor- 
tunately rejected. But while he went cordially with the 
kinc; in domestic affairs, he was not quite in harmony 
with him on questions of foreign policy. Not only was 
he personally in favor 01 a war with Spain for tne re- 
covery of the' Palatinate, but he foresaw m such a course 
of action the means of drawing together more closely 
the kine and his Parliament. He believed that the 
royal difficulties would be removed if a policy 
were adopted with which the people could 
heartily sympathise, and if the king placed him- 
self at the head of his Parliament and led them on. 
But his advice was neglected by the vacillating and 
peace-loving monarch, his proffered proclamation was put 
aside, and a weak, featureless production substitutedT in 
its place. Nevertheless the new Parliament seemed at 
first more responsive than might have been looked for. 
A double subsidy was granted, which was express^ 



B AC 



725 



stated to be " not on any consideration or condition for, 
or concerning the Palatinate.** The session, however, 
was not far advanced when the question of patents was 
brought up ; a determined attack was made upon the 
very ones of which Bacon had been in dread, and it was 
even proposed to proceed against the referees (Bacon 
and Monta^) who had certified that there was no ob- 
jection to them in point of law. This proposal, though 
pressed by Coke, was allowed to drop; while the king 
and Buclungham, acting under the advice of Williams, 
afterwards lord keeper, agreed to give up the monop>o> 
lies. It was evident, however, that a determined attack 
was about to be made upon Bacon, and that the pro- 
ceeding a^inst the referees was realljr directed 
against hini. It is probable that this charge 
was dropped because a more powerful weapon 
had in tne meantime been placed in his en- 
emies* hands. This was the accusation of bribery 
and corrupt dealings in Chancery suits, an accusation 
apparently wholly unexpected by bacon, and the possi- 
bility of which he seems never to have contemplated 
until it was actually brought a^mst him. At the be- 
ginning of the session a committee had been appointed 
tor inquiring into abuses in the courts of justice. Some 
illegal practices of certain Chancery officials had been 
detected and punished by the court itself, and generally 
there was a disposition to overhaul its affairs, while 
Coke and Cranfield directly attacked some parts of the 
chancellor's administration. But on March 14th one 
Aubrey appeared at the bar of the House, and charged 
Bacon with having received from lum a sum of money 
while his suit was going on, and with having afterwards 
decided against him. Bacon's letter on this occasion is 
worthy of serious attention ; he evidendy thought the 
charge was but part of the deliberate scheme to ruin 
him which had already been in progress. A second 
accusation (Egerton's case) followea immediately after, 
and was investigated by the House, who, satisfied that 
they had just matter for reprehension, appointed the 
19th for a conference with the Lords. On that day 
Biacon, as he had feared, was too ill to attend. He 
wrote to the Lords excusing bis absence, requesting 
them to appoint a convenient time for his defense and 
cross-exanunation of witnesses, and imploring them not 
to allow their minds to be prejudiced against nim, at the 
same time declaring that he would not *' trick up an inno- 
cency with cavilations, but plainly and ingenuously de- 
clare what he knew or remembered.** The charges 
rapidly accumulated, but Bacon still looked upon them 
as party moves, and was in hopes of defending himself. 
Nor did beseem to have lost his courage, if we are to 
believe the common reports of the day, thou^ certainly 
they do not appear worthy of very much credit. 

The notes bearing upon the interview which he 
obtained with the king, snow that he had bep;un to see 
more clearly the nature and extent of the offences with 
which be was charged, that he now felt it impossible 
altogether to exculpate himself, and that his hopes were 
directed towards ootaining some mitigation of his sen- 
tence. The long roll of charges made upon the 19th 
April finally decided him ; he gave up all iaeaof defence, 
and wrote to the king begging him to show him favor 
in this emergency. The next day he sent in a general 
confcssioh to the Lords, trusting that this would be con- 
sidered satisfactory. The Lords, however, decided that 
it was not sufficient as a ground for their censure, and 
demanded a detailed and particular confession. A list 
of twenty-eight charges was then sent him, to which 
an answer by letter was required. ^ On the 30th April 
his *' confession and humble submission " was handed in. 
In it, after going over the several instances, he sajrs, "I 
do again ccmtess, that on the points charged upon me, 



although they should be talcen as myself have declared 
them, there is a great deal of corruption and neglect ; 
for which I am heartily and penitently sorry, and sub* 
mit m)rself to the jud^ent, grace, and mercy of the 
court " On the %d May after consklerable discussion, 
the Lords decided upon the sentence, which was, That 
he should undergo fine and ransom of ^40,000 ; that 
he should be imprisoned in the tower during the king's 
pleasure ; that he should be for ever incapable of any 
office, place, or employment in the state or common- 
wealth; that he should never sit in parliament; or come 
within the verge of the court. This heavy sentence 
was only partially executed. The fine was in effect 
remitted by the king; imprisonment in the tower lasted 
for about four days; a general pardon (not of course 
covering the parliamentary censure) was made out, and 
though delayed at the seal for a time by Lord Keeper 
Williams, was passed probably in November 162 1. 
The cause of the delay seems to have lain with Buck- 
ingham, whose frien<iship had cooled, and who had 
taken offence at the fallen chancellor's unwillingness to 
part with York House. This difference was finally 
smoothed over, and it was pro)yibly through his 
influence that Bacon*received the much-desired permb- 
sion to come within the verge of the court He never 
again set in parliament 

So ends tnis painfiil episode, which has given rise to 
the most severe condemnadon of Bacon, and which still 
presents great and perhaps insuperable difficulties. On 
the whole, the tendency of the most recent and thorough 
researches has been towards the opinion that Bacon's 
own account of the matter (from which, indeed, our 
knowledge of it is chiefly drawn) is substantially cor- 
rect He distinguishes three ways in which bribes may 
be given, and ingenuously confesses that his own acts 
amounted to corruption and were worthy of condemna- 
tion. Now, corruption strictly interpreted would imply 
the deliberate sale of justice, and this Bacon explicitly 
denies, affirming that he never " had bribe or reward in 
his eye or thou^t when he pronounced any sentence or 
order. ** When we analyse the specific charges against 
him, with his answers to them, we find many that are 
really of litUe weight. The twenty-eighth and last, 
that of negligence in looking after his servants, though 
it did him much harm, may fairly be said to imply no 
moral blame. The majority of the others are instances 
of gratuities given after the decision, and it is to be 
regretted that the judgment of the peers gives us no 
means of determining how such gifts were looked upon, 
whether or not the acceptance of them was regarded as 
a " corrupt ** practice. In four cases specifically, and in 
some others by implication, Bacon confesses that he 
had received bribes from suitors pendente lite. Yet he 
affirms, as we said before, that ms intention was never 
swayed by a bribe; and so far as any of these cases can 
be traced, his decisions, often given in conjunction with 
some other official, are to all appearance thoroughly 
just In several cases his judgment appears to have 
been given against the party bestowing tne bribe, and 
in at least one instance, that of Lady Wharton, it seems 
impossible to doubt that he must have known when 
accepting the present that his opinion would be adverse 
to her cause. Although, then, ne felt that these' prac- 
tices were really corrupt, and even rejoiced that his own 
fall would tena to purify the courts from them, he did 
not feel that he was guilty of perverting justice for the 
sake of reward. How far, then, is such defence or 
explanation admissible . and satisfactory? It is clear 
that two things are to be considered: the one the guilt 
of taking bribes or presents on any consideration, the 
other the moral guilt dependixig-npon thciwilful per- 
^ version of justice. Digitized by VjOOQI^ 



726 



BAC 



The attempt has sometimes been made to defend the 
whole of Bacon's conduct on the ground that he did 
nothing that was not done by nuuiy of his contempora- 
ries. £acon himself disclaims a defence of this nature, 
and we really have no direct evidence which shows to 
what extent the offering and receiving of such bribes 
then prevailed. That the practice was comnnon is in- 
deed implied by the terms in which Bacon speaks of it, 
and it is not improbable that the fact of these gifts be- 
ing taken by officials was a thing fairly well known, al- 
though all were aware of their Ulegal character, and it 
was plain that any public exposure of such dealings 
would be fatal to the individual against whom the 
charge was made out. Bacon knew all this; he was well 
aware that the practice was in itself indefensible, and 
that his conduct was tlierefore corrupt and deserving of 
censure. So far, then, as the mere taking of brib^ is 
concerned, he woukl permit no defence, and his own 
confession and judgment on his actions contain as severe 
a condemnation as has ever been passed upon him. Yet 
in the face of this he does not hesitate to call himself 
** the justest chancellor that hath been in the five changes 
since Sir Nicholas Bacon's time"; and this on the plea 
that his intention Aad always been pure, and had never 
been affected by the presents he received. His justifica- 
tion has been set askie by modem critics, not on the 
ground that the evidence demonstrates its falsity, but 
because it is inconceivable or unnatural that any man 
should receive a present from another, and not suffer his 
judgment to be swayed thereby. It need hardly be said 
that such an a priori conviction is not a sufficient basis 
on which to found a sweeping condemnation of Bacon's 
integrity as an administrator of justice. On the other 
hand, even if it be admitted to be possible and conceiv- 
able that a present should be given by a suitor simply 
as seeking favorable consideration of his cause, and not 
as desirous of obtaining an unjust decree, and should 
be accepted by the iudge on the same understanding, 
this would not entitle one absolutely to accept Bacon s 
statement. Further evidence is necessary in order to 
give foundation to a definite judgment either way; and 
It is extremely improbable, nay, almost impossible, that 
such can ever be produced. In these circumstances, 
due weight should be given to Bacon's own assertions 
of his perfect innocence and purity of intention; they 
ought not to be put out of court unless found in actual 
contradiction to the facts; and the reverse of this is the 
case, so far as has yet appeared. 

The remainder of his life, though still harassed by 
want of means, for James was not liberal, wis spent in 
work far more valuable to the world than anything he 
had accomplished in his high office. In March 1622 he 
presented to Prince Charles his History of Henry VII,; 
and immediately, with unwearied industry, set to work 
to complete some portions of his great work. In No- 
vember 1622 appeared the Historia Ventorum; in 
January 1623, the Historia Vitaa et Mortis; and in 
October of the same year, the De Augment is Scientiar- 
um, a Latin translation, with many additions of the 
Advancement. Finally, in December 1624, he pub- 
lished his Apophthegms^ and Translations of some of 
the Psalms; and, in 1625, ^ ^^''^^ ^^^^ enlarged edition 
of the Essays. 

Busily occupied by these labors, his life now drew 
rapidly to a close. In March 1626 he came to London, 
and when driving one day near Highgate, was taken 
with a desire to discover whether snow would act as an 
antiseptic He stopped his carriage, got out at a 
cottage, purchased a fowl, and with his own hands as- 
sisted to stuff it with snow. He was seized with a 
sudden chill, and became so seriously unwell that he had 
to be conveyed to Lord Arupd^'s house, whiqh was near 



at hand. Here his illness increased, the cold and r**tl1 
brought on bronchitis and he died, after a few days' 
suffering, on the 9th April 1626. 

Bacon's Works and Philosophy. 

A complete survey of Bacon's works and an estimate 
of his place in literature and philosophy are matters for 
a volume. 

An attempt has been made to substantiate the opinion 
hold by some that Bacon was the author of the works 
ascribed to Shakespeare. The strongest writer on the 
subject, Ignatius Donnelly (Minnesota) claims to have 
discovered a cypher running through the poems which 
prove their Baconian origin. Mr. Donnelly is certainly 
ingenious and daring in his conception and argument. 

Putting aside the letters and occasional writings, we 
may conveniently distribute the other works into three 
classes. Professional^ Literary^ PktlosopkicaL Of the 
Professional works, which include the Reading on the 
Statute of Uses, the Maxims of Law^ and the treatise 
(possibly spurious) on the Use of the Law^ only experts 
can speak with confidence; and their opinion, so (ar as 
it has yet been given, coincides to some extent with 
Bacon's own estimate of his powers as a lawyer. **■ I am 
in good hope," he says, " that when Sir Edward Coke's 
reports ami my rules and decisions shall come to pos- 
terity, there will be (whatsoever is now thought) question 
who w:is the greater lawyer." If Coke's reports show 
completer mastery of technical details, greater knowl- 
edge of precedent, and more of the dogged grasp of 
the letter than do Bacon's le^l writings, there can be 
no dispute that the latter exhibit an infinitely more 
comprehensive intelligence of the abstract principles of 
jurisprudence, with a richness and ethical fulness that 
more than compensate for their lack of dry legal detail. 
Bacon seems indeed to have been a lawyer of the first 
order, with a keen scientific insight into the bearings of 
isolated facts, and a power of generalisation which 
admirably fitted him for the self-imposed task, unfor- 
tunately never completed, of digesting or codifying the 
chaotic mass of English law. 

Among the literary works are included all that he 
himself designated moral and historical pieces, and to 
these may be added some theological and minor writings, 
such as the Apophthegms, Of Uie moral works the most 
valuable are the Essays. It is impossible to praise too 
highly writings which have been so widely read and 
universally adimired. The matter is of the familiar prac- 
tical kind, that ** comes home to men's bosoms. ** The 
thoughts are weighty, and even when not original, have 
acquired a peculiar and unique tone or cast Dy passing 
through the crucible of Bacon's mind. A sentence from 
the Essays can ''arely be mistaken for the producdon of 
any other writer. The short, pithy sayings: 

"Jewels, five word* long. 
That on the stretched forefinger of all time. 
Sparkle for ever," 

have I>ecome popular mottoes and household words. 
The style is quaint, original, abounding in allusions and 
witicisms, and rich, even to gorgeousness, with piled- ap 
analogies and metaphors. The first edition contained 
only ten essays, but the number was increased in i6i2 
to thirty-eight, and in 1625 to fifty-eight The short 
tract. Colors of Good and Evil^ which with the Medita- 
tiones Saer<e originally accompanied the Essays^ was 
afterwards incorporated with the De Augmentis, 
Along with these works may be classed the curiously 
learned piece, De Sapientia Veterum^ in which he 
works out a favorite idea, that the mythological fables 
of the Greeks were allegorical and concealed the dee{)est 
truths of their philosophy. As a scientific explanation 



B AC 



727 



of the myths the theory is of no value, but it affords fine 
scope for the exercise of Bacon's unrivalled power of de- 
tecting analogies in things apparently most dissimilar. 
The Apophthegms^ though hardly deserving Macaulay's 
praise of being the best collection of jests m ihe world, 
contain a number of those significant anecdotes which 
Bacon used with such effect in his other writhigs. Of 
the historical works, besides a few fragments of the pro- 
jected history of Britain, there remains the History of 
Henry VII. , a valuable work, giving a clear and ani- 
mated narrative of the reign, and characterising Henry 
with great skill. The style is in harmony with the mat- 
ter, vigorous and flowing, but naturally with less of the 
quaintness and richness suitable to more thoughtful and 
original writings. The series of the literary works is 
completed by the minor treatises on theological or eccle- 
siastical questions. Some of the latter, included among 
the occasional works, are admirably sagacious and pru- 
dent, and deserve carefiil study. Of the former, the 
principal specimens are the Meditationes Sacra and the 
Confession of Faith. The Paradoxes (Characters of a 
believing Christian in paradoxes, and seeming contra- 
dictions), which was often and justly suspected, has 
been conclusively proved by Mr. Grosart not to be the 
work of Bacon. 

Philosophical Works. — The great mass of Bacon's 
writings consists of treatises or fragments, which either 
formed integral parts of his grand comprehensive 
scheme, or were closely connected with it. More 
exactly they may be classified, as is done by the most 
recent editors, under three heads: — A. Writings which 
actually formed part of the InstaurcUio Magna ; B. 
Writings originally intended to form parts of the 
Instauratioy but which were afterwards superseded or 
thrown aside 5 C. Works connected with the Instau- 
ratio, but not directly included in its plan. 

To begin with the second of these classes, we hare 
under it some important tracts,- which certainly contain 
little, if anything, that is not afterwards taken up and 
expanded in the more elaborate works, but which are 
not undeserving of attention, from the difference in the 
point of view and method of treatment. The most 
valuable of them are: — (i.) The Advancement of 
Learning y of which no account need be given, as it is 
completely worked up into the De Augmcntis, and 
takes its place at the first part of the Instauratio. (2. ) 
Valerius Terminus^ a very remarkable piece, composed 

Erobabl)r about 1603, though perhaps retouched at a 
iter period. It contains a brief and somewhat obscure 
outline of the first two parts in the Instauratio, and 
is of importance as affording us some insight into the 
gradual development of the system in Bacon's own 
mind (3.) 7>/w^/7x /'ar/ttjJ/krrtt/«j, another curious 
fragment, remarkable not only from its contents, but 
fi-om its style, which is arrogant and offensive, in this 
respect unlike any other writings of Bacon's. The 
adjective masculus points to the power of bringing 
forth fruit possessed by the new pnilosophy, and per- 
haps indicates that all previous births of time were to 
be looked upon as feminine or imperfect ; it is used in 
a somewhat similar sense in Letters and Life, vi. 183, 
** In verbis masculis, no flourishing or painted words, 
but such words as are fit to go before deeds." (4.) 
Redargutio Philosophiarum^ a highly finished piece in 
the form of an oration, composed probably about 1608 
or 1609, containing in pretty full detail much of what 
afterwards appears in connection with the Idola 
Thcatri in book i. of the Novum Organum. (5.) 
Cogitata et Visa, perhaps the most important of the 
minor philosophical writings, dating fi-om 1607 (though 
possibly the tract in its present form may have been to 
some extent altered), and containing in weighty and 



sonorotis Latin the substance of the first book of the 
Organum. (6.) The Descriptio Globi Intellectualis, 
which is to some extent intermediate between' the 
Advancement and the De Augmentis, goes over in 
detail the general classification of the sciences, and 
enters particularly some points of minor interest. (7. ) 
The brief tract De Inter pretatione Natures Senientia 
Duodecim is evidently a first sketch of part of the Novum 
Ofganum, and in phraseology is almost identical with 
it. (8.) A few smaller pieces, such as the Inquisitio de 
AfotUy the Calor et Frigus, the Historia Soni et A uditus, 
and the Phenomena Universij are early specimens of 
his Natural History, and exhibit the first tentative 
applications of the new method. 

The third great division of the philosophical works 
consists of treatises of subjects connected with the 
Instauratio, but not forming part of it It is not neces- 
sary to characterise these at any length. The most 
interesting, and in many respects the most remarkable, 
is the philosophic romance, tne New Atlantis, a descri|> 
tion of an ideal state in which the principles of the new 
philosophy are carried out by political machinery, and 
under state guidance, and where many of the results 
contemplated by Bacon are in imagination attained. 
The work was to have been complet«i by the addition 
of a second part, treating of the laws of a model 
commonwealth, which was never written. Another 
important tract is the De Principiis atque Originibus 
secundum Fabulas Cupidinis et Cceli, where, under the 
disguise of two old mythological stories, he (in the 
manner of the Sapientia Veterum) finds the deepest 
truths concealed. The tract is unusuall]^ interesting, 
for in it he discusses at some length the limits of science, 
the origin of things, and the nature of primitive matter, 
giving at the same time full notices of Democritus 
among the ancient philosophers and' of Telesius among 
the modem. Deserving of^attention are also the Cogi- 
tatimes de NcUura Rerum, probably written early, 
perhaps in 1605, and the treatise on the theory of the 
tides, De Fluxu -?.< Refluxu Maris, written probably 
about 1616. 

The philosophical works which form part of the 
Instauratio must of course be classed according to the 
positions which they respectively hold in that scheme 
of the sciences. Before entering on an account of 
Bacon's object and method, it is necessary to give the 
general outline of his arrangement. 

The great work, the reorganisation of the sciences, 
and the restoration of man to that command over na- 
ture which he had lost by the fall, consisted in its final 
form of six divisions. 

I. Partitiones Scientiarum, a survey of the sciences, 
either suBh as then existed or such as required to be 
constructed afresh — in fact, an inventory of all the 
possessions of the human mind. The famous classifica- 
tion on which this survey proceeds is based upon an 
analysis of the faculties and objects of human knowl- 
edge. This division is represented by De Augmcntis 
Scientiarum. 

II. Interpretatio Natures. — After the survey of all 
that has yet been done in the way of discovery or inven- 
tion, comes the new method, by which the mind of man 
is to be trained and directed in its progress towards the 
renovation of science. This division is represented, 
though only imperfectly, by the Novum Organum, par- 
ticularly book ii. 

III. Historia Naturalis et Experimen talis. — The 
new method is valueless, because inapplicable, unless it 
be supplied with materials duly collected and presented 
— in fact, unless there be formed a competent natural 
history of the Phanomena Universi, A short intro- 
ductory sketch Qf the re(^uisite$ qi such f natur^U hi^ 



728 



B AC 



toiy, which, accordiog to Bacon, is essentially necessary, 
the basis tofius negotiiy is given in the tract Parasceve^ 
appended to the Novum Or^anum, The principal 
works intended to form portions of the history, and 
cither published by himself or left in manuscript, are 
Historia Ventorum^ Historia Vitaa et Mortis^ liistoria 
Densi et Rari^ and the extensive collection of facts and 
observations entitled Sylva Sylvarum. 

IV. Scala InUlUctus, — It mieht have been supposed 
that the new philosophy could now be inaugurated. 
Materials had been supplied, along with a new method 
by which they were to be treatwl, and naturally the 
next step would be the finished result. But for practical 
purposes Bacon interposed two divisions between the 
preliminaries and the philosophy itself. The first was 
mtended to consis^ of types or examples of investigations 
conducted by the new method, serviceable for keeping 
the whole process vividly before the mind, or as the title 
indicates, such that the mind could run rapidly up and 
down the several stq^s or grades in the process. Of 
this division there seems to be only one small fragment, 
the Filum Labyrinthi^ consisting of but two or three 
pages. 

V. Prodromiy forerunners of the new ph'losophv. 
This part, strictly speaking, is quite extraneous to the 
general design. According to the Distributio Operis, it 
was to contain certain speculations of Bacon's own, not 
formed by the new method, but by the unassisted use of 
his understanding. These, therefore, form temporary 
or uncertain anticipations of the new philosophv. 
There is extant a short preface to this division of tne 
work, and according to Mr. Spedding, some of the mis- 
cellaneous treatises, such as JJg Principiis^ De Fluxu et 
Reflux u^ Co^itationes de Natura Rerum, may probablv 
have been mtended to be included under this heacl. 
This supposition »eceives some support from the manner 
in which the fifth part is spoken of in the Novum 
Organumy i. 1 16. 

VI. The new philosophy, which is the work of future 
ages, and the result of the new method. 

BACON, John, who may be considered the founder 
of the British school of sculpture, was born Nov. 24, 
1 740. He was the son of Thomas Bacon, cloth-worker 
in Southwark, whose forefathers possessed a considera- 
ble estate in Somersetshire. At tne age of fourteen he 
was bound apprentice in Mr. Crispe*s manufactory of 
porcelain at Lambeth, where he was at first employed 
m painting the small ornamental pieces of china, out by 
his ^eat skill in moulding he soon attained the dis- 
tinction of being modeller to the work. The produce 
of his labor he devoted to the support of his parents, 
then in somewhat straitened circumstances. While 
engaged in the porcelain works he had an opportunity 
of seeing the models executed by different sculptors of 
eminence, which were sent to be burned at an adjoining 
pottery. ^ An observation of these productions appears 
to have immediately determined tne direction of his 
genius; he devoted himself to the imitation of them 
with so much success, that in 1758 a small figure sent 
by him to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts 
received a prize, and the highest premiums given by that 
society were adjudged to nim nine times oetween the 
years 1763 and 1776. During his apprenticeship he 
also improved the method of working statues in artificial 
stone, an art which he afterwards carried to perfection. 
Bacon first attempted working in marble about the year 
1763, and, during the course of his early efforts in this 
art, was led to improve the method of transferring the 
form of the model to the marble (technically odled 
getting out the points)^ by the invention of a more per- 
fect instrument for the purpose, which has since been 
adopted by many sculptors both i|) this and other 



countries. This instniment possesses many adrantages 
above those formerly employ^ ; it b more ncact^ takes 
a correct measurement in every direction, is contaix>ed 
in a small compass, and can be used apon either the 
model or the marble. In the year 1769 he was adjudged 
the first gold medal given by the Ro^ Academy, and 
in 1770 was made an associate ot that body. He 
shortly afterwards exhibited a figure of Mars, which 
gained him conskierable reputation, and he was then 
engaged to execute a bust of George III., intended for 
Christ Church College. He secured the king's fevor, 
and retained it throughout life. His great celebrity 
now procured him numerous commissions, and it is 
saki, that of sixteen different competitions in which be 
was engaged with other artists, he was unsuccessful in 
one case only. Considerable jealousy was entertained 
against him by other sculptors, and he was commonly 
charged with ignorance of classic style. This charge he 
repelled by the execution of a noble head of Jupiter 
Tonans, and many of his emblematical figures are in 
perfect classical taste. On the 4th of August 1799 he 
was suddenly attacked with inflammation, which occa- 
sioned his death in little more than two days, in the 
59th year of his age. He left a widow, his second wife, 
and a family of six sons and three daughters. On his 
merit as a sculptor, the universal reputation of his 
works affords decisive proof, and his various productions 
which adorn St. Paul's Cathedral, Lonaon, Christ 
Church and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford, the Abbey 
Church, Bath, and Bristol Cathedral, give ample testi- 
mony to his powers. Perhaps his best works are to be 
found among the monuments in Westminster Abbey. 
(See Memoir of the late John Bacon^ R,A.t by tne 
Rev. Richard Cecil: London, 1811.) 

BACON, Sir Nicholas, lord keeper of the great 
seal in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was bom atChisle- 
hurst in Kent in 15 10, and educated at the university of 
Cambridge, after which he traveled in France, and made 
some stay at Paris. Very early in the reign of Elizabeth 
he was knighted ; and in 1558 he succeed Nicholas 
Heath, archbishop of York, as keeper of the great seal 
of Eneland ; he was at the same time made one of the 
queen^ privy council. As a statesman, he was remark- 
able for the clearness of his views and the wisdom of 
his counsels, and he had a considerable share in the 
settling of ecclesiastical questions. That he was not 
unduly elated by his preferments, appears from the 
answer he gave to Queen Elizabeth wnen she told him 
his house at Redgrave .was too little for him, ** Not so, 
madam," returned he, ** but your majesty has made me 
too great for my house." He died on the 26th of 
February 1579, having held the great seal more than 
twenty years, and was buried in St. PauPs, London, 
where a monument, destroyed by the great fire off 
London in 1666, was erected to his memory. 

BACON, Roger. The nth century, an age pecul- 
iarly rich in great men, produced few, if any, who can 
take higher rank than Roger Bacon. He is in every 
way worthy to be placSi beskie such thinkers as 
Albert us Magnus, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas. 
These had an infinite wider renown in their day, while 
he was ignored by his contemporaries and neglected by 
his successors ; but modern criticism has restored the 
balance in his favor, and is even in danger of going 
equally far in the opposite direction. Bacon, it is now 
said, was not appreciated by his age because he was 
so completely in advance of it ; he is a i6th or 17th 
century philosopher, whose lot has been by some 
accident cast in the 13th century ; he b no schoolman, 
but modem thinker, whose conceptions of science are 
more just and clear than are even those of his more 
celebrated namesake In thjs Yi&fK thei^e iS|Certainfy « 
DigrtPzed by VjOOQL 



BAC 



729 



eonsiderftble share of trntli, but it is much exaggerated. 
As a general rule, no man can be completely dissevered 
from his national antecedents and surroundings, and 
Bacon is not an exception. Those who take up such an 
extreme position regarding his merits have known too 
little of the state of contemporary science, and have 
limited their comparison to tne works of the scholastic 
theologians. We never find in Bacon himself any con- 
sciousness of orijg[inality ; he has no fresh creative 
thought or methoa to introduce whereby the face of 
science may be changed ; he is rather a keen and syste- 
matic thinker, who is working in a well-beaten track, 
from which his contemporaries were being drawn by the 
superior attractions of theology and metaphysics. 

Koger Bacon was born in 1 2 14, near Ilchester, in 
Somersetshire. His family appears to have been in good 
circumstances, for he speaJcs of his brother as wetuthy, 
and he himself expended considerable sums on books 
and instruments ; but in the stormy reign of Henry III. 
they suffered severely, their property was despoiled, and 
several members of the family were driven into exile. 
Roger completed his studies at Oxford, though not, as 
current traditions assert, at Morton or at Brazenose, 
neither of these colleges having then been founded. His 
great abilities were speedily recognised by his contem- 
poraries, and he came to be on terms of close intimacy 
with some of the most independent thinkers of the time. 
Of these the most prominent were Adam de Marisco 
and Robert Grosseteste {Cufito)^ afterwards bishop of 
Uncoln, a man of liberal mmd and wide attainments, 
who had especially devoted himself to mathematics and 
experimental science. 

The scientific training which Bacon had received, 
partly by instruction, but more from the study of the 
Arab writers, made patent to his eyes the manifold 
defects in the imposing systems reared by these doc- 
tors. It disgusted him to hear from all around him that 
philosophy was now at length complete, that it had been 
redu»ea into compact order, and was being set forth by 
a certain professot at Paris. Even the great authority on 
which they reposed, Aristotle, was known but in part, and 
that part was rendered well-nigh unintelligible through 
the vileness of the translations; vet not one of those 
professors would learn Greek so tnat they might arrive 
at a real knowledge of their philosopher. The ^riptures, 
if read at all in the schools, were read in the erroneous 
versions ; but even these were being deserted for the Sen- 
tenets of Peter Lombard Physical science, if there 
was anything deserving that name, was cultivated, not by 
experiment m the true Aristotelian way, but by discus- 
sion and by arguments deduced from premises resting 
on authority or custom. Ever3rwhere tnere was a show 
of knowledge covering and concealing fundamental igno- 
rance. Bacon, accordingly, who knew what true science 
was, and who had glimpses of a scientific method, with- 
drew from the usual scholastic routine, and devoted him- 
self to languages and experimental researches. Among 
all the instructors with whom he came in contact in 
Paris, only one gained his esteem and respect ; this was 
an unknown individual, Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus, 
or of Picardy. The contrast between the obscurity of 
such a man and the fame enjoyed by the fluent young 
doctors of the schools seems to have roused Bacon's in- 
dignation. 

It is probable that Bacon, during his stay in Paris, ac- 

3uired considerable renown. He took the degree of 
octor of theology, and seems to have received from his 
contemporaries the complimentary title of doctor 
mirabilis. In 1250 he was again at Oxford, and prob- 
ably about this time, though the exact date cannot be 
6xra, he entered the Franciscan order. His fame spread 
Tcry npidly %\ Oxford, though it was minted with voLt- 



pfcions of his dealings in magic and the black arts, and 
with some doubts of his orthodoxy. About 1257, Bon- 
aventura, general of the order, interdicted his lectures at 
Oxford, and commanded him to leave that town and 
pleace himself under the superintendence of the body at 
Paris. Here for ten years he remained under constant 
supervision, suffering great privations, and strictly pro- 
hibited from writing anything which might be published. 
But during the time he had been at Oxford his fame had 
reached the ears of the Papal legate in Englsmd, Guy de 
Foulques, a man of culture and scientific tastes, who in 
1265 was raised to the papal chair as Clement IV. la 
the following year he wrote to Bacon, who had been 
already in communication with him, ordering him, not- 
withstanding anv injunctions from his superiors, to write 
out and send to him a treatise on the sciences which he 
had already asked of him when papal legate. Bacon, 
who in despair of being ever able to communicate his 
results to the world, had neglected to compose anything, 
and whose previous writings had been mostly scatter^ 
tracts, capitula quadam, took fresh courage from this 
command of the Pope. Relying on his powerful pro- 
tection, he sat at naught the many obstacles thrown in 
his way by the jealousy of his superiors and brother 
friars, and despite the want of funds, instruments, mate- 
rials for copying, and skilled copyists, completed in 
about eighteen months three large treatises, the Opus 
Majus, Opus MinuSf and Opus Tertium^ which, with 
some other tracts, were despatched to the Pope by the 
hands of one Joannes, a young man trained and educated 
with great care by Bacon himself. 

The composition of such extensive works in so short 
a time is a marvellous feat We do not know what 
opinion Clement formed of them, but before his death 
he seems to have bestirred himself on Bacon's behalf, 
for in 1268 the latter was released and permitted to re- 
turn to Oxford Here he continued his labors in ex- 
perimental science, and also in the composition of com- 
plete treatises. The works sent to Clement he regarded 
as mere preliminaries, laying down principles which 
were afterwards to be applied to the several sciences. 
The first part of an encyclopaedic work probably remains 
to us in the Compendium Studii Philosophiay belonging 
to the year 1 271 . In this work Bacon makes a vehement 
attack upon the ignorance and vices of the clergy and 
monks, and generjdly upon the insufficiency of the exist- 
ing studies. In 1278 he underwent the punishment 
which seems to have then been the natural consequence 
of outspoken opinions. His books were condemned by 
Jerome de Ascoli, general of the Franciscans, a gloomy 
bigot, who afterwards became Pope, and the unfortunate 
philosopher was thrown into prison, where he remained 
for fourteen years. During this time, it is said, he 
wrote the small tract De Retardandis Seneetutis Aeci- 
dentibusy but this is merely a tradition. In 1292, as ap- 
pears from what is probably his latest composition, the 
Compendium Studti Theologia^ he was again at liberty. 
The exact time of his death cannot be determined ; 1294 
is probably as accurate a date as can be fixed upon. 

Bacon's Works, — Leland has said that it is easier to 
collect the leaves of the Sibyl than the titles of the 
works written by Roger Bacon ; and though the laboi 
has been somewhat lightened by the publications of 
Brewer and Charles, referred to below, it is no easy 
matter even now to form an accurate idea of his actual 
productions. His writings, so far as known to us, may 
be divided into two classes, those yet in manuscript and 
those printed. An enormous number of MSS. are 
known to exist in British and French libraries, and 
probably all have not yet been discovered Many are 
transcripts of works or portions of works already pub- 
lished, and therefore require no notice. Of the otnerSi 



730 



BAC— BAD 



several are of first-rate value for the comprehension of 
Bacon's philosophy, and, though extracts from them 
have been given by Charles, it is clear that till they 
have found an editor, no representation of his philoso- 
phy can be complete. 

Bacon's fame in popular estimation has always rested 
on his mechanical <lis'- overies. Careful research has 
shown that very little in this department can with accu- 
racy be ascribed to him. He certainly describes a method 
of constructing a telescope, but not so as to lead one to 
conclude that ne was in possession of that instrument. 
Gunpowder, the invention of which has been claimed 
for him on Uie ground of a passage in his works, which 
fairly interpreted at once aisposes of any such claim, 
was already known to the Arabs. Burning-glasses 
were in common use, and spectacles it does not appear 
he made, although he was prolwiblyacquainteil with the 
principle of their construction. His wonderful predic- 
tions (in the De Secretis) must be taken cum grano 
salts ; and it is not to be forgotten that he believed in 
astrology, in the doctrine of signatures, and in the 
philosopher's stone, and knew that the circle had been 
stjuarecL 

BACONTHORPE, or Bacon, John, called The 
Resolute Doctor, a learned monk, bom towards the 
end of the 13th century, at Baconthorpe, a village in 
Norfolk. He died in London in 1346. 

BACSANYI, Janos, a Hungarian poet, was bom at 
Tapoleza, May 11, 1763, and died at Linz, May 12, 

1845. 

BACTRIA, orBACTRiANA, an ancient country of Cen- 
tral Asia, lying to the south of the River Oxus, and reach- 
ing to the western part of the Paropamisan range, or 
Hmdu Kush. It was sometimes regarded as including 
the district of Margiana, or Merv, which was more fre- 
quently considered as distinct. The character of the 
country is very various, and hxis been well described by 
Curt i us, whose account is confirmed by the few modem 
travelers who have passe<l through it. Some portions 
are remarkable for the lieauty of the scenery, or the fer- 
tility of the soil, evinced by a rich and varied vegeta- 
tion, while other parts are stretches of barren and drift- 
ing sands. In early history Bactria is connected 
with some of the most* important movements of the 
Indo-European races, and has no small claims to be re- 
garded as tne cradle of our present civilisation. 

BACUP, a town of England, in Lancashire, 20 miles 
N. from Manchester. It is situated in a beautiful val- 
ley on the River Speddon, and is a station on the East 
Lancashire railway. It is chiefly important for its fac- 
tories, foundries, and mills, as well as for the coal-mines 
in the neighborhood. 

BADAJOS, a province of Spain, forming, by the 
division of 1833, the southern half of the old province of 
Estremadura, or what is generally called Lower Estre- 
nadura. It is bounded on the N. by Caceres, E. by 
Ciudad Real, S. and S.E. by' Cordova, Seville, and 
Huelva, and W. by Portugal, embacing an area of 8687 
scjuare miles. See Estremadura. 

Badajos, the capital of the above province, is a forti- 
fied city, and the see of a bishop. It is situated about 
5 miles from the Portuguese frontier, on a slight eleva- 
tion near the left bank of the Guadiana, and is one of 
the prmcipal stations on the railway between Madrid 
and Lisbon. 

BADAKHSHAN, a country of Central Asia, situated 
in the upper valley of the Kokcha river, one of the prin- 
cipal heaa streams of the Oxus. Its extent from east to 
west is about 200 miles, and from north to south about 
150 miles. On the north it is bounded by Kulab and 
Darwaz; on the east by the lofty tableland of Pamir ; 
on the south by the Hinda Kttsh range ; and on the west 



by Kundoz. The Pamir land is die priodpal watershed 
of Asia, and Badakhshan forms part of the •western 
water slope constituting the basin of the Oxus. The 
country is for the most part mountainous, but there are 
numerous plains and fertile valleys. The general slope 
of the country is great, since Kundus is probably not 
more than 500 feet above the level of the sem, while 
Lake Victoria, close to the principal watershed, is esti- 
mated at 1^,600 feet. 

Badakhshan proper is peopled by Tajiks, Turks, and 
Arabs, who speak the Persian and Turki languages, and 
profess the orthodox doctrines of the Mahometan bw 
adopted by the Sunnite sect; while the moanuinous 
districts are inhabited by Tajiks, professing the Shia 
creed, and speaking distinct dialects m different districts. 

Badakhshan was visited by Hwen Thsang in 630 and 
644. The Arabian geographers of the loth century 
speak of its mines of ruby ami azure, and give notices f f 
tne flourishing commerce and large towns of Waksh and 
Khotl, regions which appear either to have in part cor- 
responded with or to have lain close to Badakhshan. 
In 1272-73 Marco Polo and his companions stayed for 
a time in Badakhshan. During this and the following 
centuries the country was governed by kings who claimed 
to be descendants of Alexander the Great. The last of 
these kings was Shah Mahomet, who died in the middle 
of the 15th century, leaving only his married daughters 
to represent the royal line. Early in the mkldle of the 
i6th century the Uzbeks obtained possession of Badakh- 
shan, but were soon expelled, and then the country was 
Generally governed by descendants of the old royal 
ynasty by the female line. About the middle of the 
loth century the present dynasty of Mirs established its 
footing in place of the old one which had become extinct. 
In 176c the country was invaded and ravaged by the 
ruler of Cabul. During the first three decades of the 
present century it was overrun and depKjnulated by 
Kokan Beg ana his son Murad Beg, chiefs of the Kata- 
^han Uzbeks of Kundus. The country was still sufTer- 
mg from the disasters when Wood visited it in 1837. 
When Murad Beg died, the power passed into the hands 
of another Uzbek, Mahomet Amir Khan. In 1859 the 
Kataghan Uzbeks were expelled; and Mfr Taminder 
Shah, the representative of the modem royal line, was 
reinstated at Faizdbdd under the supremacy of the 
Afghans. In 1867 he was expelled by the Afgnans and 
replaced by the present ruler, Mfr Mahomet Shah, and 
otner representatives of the same family. According to 
the latest accounts the country was reviving from its 
past misfortunes, and the towns were again rising. 

BADALOCCHIO, Sisto, sumamed Rosa, a painter 
and engraver, was bom at Paraia in 1 581, and died in 
1641 or 1647. 

BADEN, The Grand Duchy of, is situated in the 
S. W. of Germany. It is bounded on the N. by Bavaria 
and Hesse- Darmstadt ; W. by Rhenish Bavaria, Alsace, 
and Lorraine; S. by Switzerland; E. by Wiirtemberg 
and part of Bavaria. At the commencement of the 
present century Baden was only a margraviate, with an 
area little exceeding 1300 square miles, and a population 
of 210,000. Since then it has from time to time 
acquired additional territory, so that its area now 
amounts to upwards of 5800 square miles, and its popu- 
lation to a million and a half. 

It consists of a considerable portion of the eastern 
half of the fertile valley of the Rhine, and of the 
mountains which form its boundjiry. The mountainous 
part is by far the most extensive, forming, indeed, nearly 
80 per'cent of the whole area. From the Lake of Con- 
stance in the south to the River Neckar is a portion of 
the so-called Black Forest or Schwartmald^ which \m 
divided by the valley of the Kinzig into two diftricis qf 



BAD 



731 



dlf^Ssrent elevation. To the south of the Kinzig the 
mean height is 3100 feet, and the loftiest summit, the 
Feldberg, reaches about 4780 feet; while to the north 
the mean height is only 2100 feet, and the Belchen, the 
culminating point of the whole, does not exceed 4480. 
To the north of the Neckar is the Odenwald range, 
ivith a mean of 1440 feet, and, in the Kiitzenbuckel, an 
extreme of 1980. Lying between the Rhine and the 
I>reisam is the Kaiserstuhl, an independent volcanic 
group, nearly 10 miles in length and 5 in breadth, the 
highest point of which is 1760 leet. 

TThe greater part of Baden belongs to the basin of the 
Rhine, which receives upwards of twenty tributaries 
from tiie highlands of the duchy alone ; a portion of the 
territory is also watered by the Main and the Neckar. A 
part, however, of the eastern slope of the Black Forest 
Delongs to the basin of the Danube, which there takes 
its rise in a number of mountain streams. Among the 
numerous lakes which belong to the duchy are the 
Mummel, Wilder, J^onnenmattweiher, Titti, Eichener, 
Schluch, &c. , but none of them are of any size. The 
I^ke of Constance, or Boden See, belongs partly to 
Bavaria and Switzerland. 

From 1819 to 18^2 Baden was divided into six circles, 
which were reduced in the latter year to the four follow- 
ing: — The Lake Circle or Constance, the Upper Rhine 
or Freiburg, the Middle Rhine or Carlsruhe, and the 
Lower Rhine or Manheim. This division, though still 
employed, has been legally supplanted by one into the 
eleven circles of Constance, Villingen, WaWshut, Frei- 
burg, Lftrrach, Offenburg, Baden, Carlsruhe, Manheim, 
lleidell)erg, and Mosbach. The capital of the duchy is 
Carlsruhe, which in 1871 had a population of 36,582; 
the other principal towns are Manheim (39,614), Frei- 
burg (24,599), Heidelberg (19,988), Pforzheun (19,801), 
Rastadt (11,559), Baden (10,083), Constance (10,052), 
Bruchsal (9786), and Lahr (6710). The population is 
most thickly clustered in the north and in the neighbor- 
hood of the Swiss town of Basel. 

The inhabitants of Baden are of various origin, — 
those to the N. of the Murg being descended from the 
Alenjanni, and those to the S. from the Franks, while 
the Swabian plateau derives its name and its population 
from another race. This distinction is still marked in 
the manners, the language, and the dress of the different 
districts. The majority of the people are engaged in 
agricultural and pastoral pursuits, tor which much of 
the country is well adapted. In the valleys the soil is 
particulariy fertile, yielding luxuriant crops of wheat, 
mai^e, barley, spelt, beans, potatoes, flax, hemp, hops, 
beet-root, and tobacco; and even in the more mountain- 
ous parts rye, wheat, and oats are extensively cultivated. 
There is a considerable extent of pasture land, and the 
rearing of cattle, gheep, pigs, and goats is largely 
attended to. The culture of the vine has recently been 
increasing, and the wines, which are characterised by a 
mildness of flavor, are in good demand. The gardens 
and orchards supply abundance of fruits, especially 
almonds and walnuts ; and the keeping of bees is com- 
mon throughout the country. A greater proportion of 
Baden than of any other of the South German states is 
occupied by forests. In these the predominant species 
are the fir and pine, but many others, such as the chest- 
nut are well represented. A third, at least, of the annual 
supply of timber is exported, the chief consumer being 
Holland, though of late years Paris has derived a con- 
siderable supply from this source. 

The exports of Baden, which coincide largely with 
the industries just mentioned, are of considerable im- 
portance, but the bulk of its trade consists in the transit 
of pjo6». The ooimtry is wtU ftxmished with roads 
MM fiikrftysi the greater proportion of the latter bcuig 



in the hands of the state. A line runs the whole length 
of the land, for the most part parallel with the Rhine, 
while branches cross obliquely from east to west. 

The educational institutions of Baden are numerous 
and flourishing, and public instruction is largely subsi- 
dised by the Government. There are two universities, 
the Protestant one at Heidelberg, founded in 1386, and 
the Catholic one at Freiburg, founded in 1457. The 
library at Heidelberg numbers 150,000 volumes, and 
that at Freiburg 100,000, while there is another of 
almost equal size at Carlsruhe. There are also lyceums 
at Carlsruhe, Constance, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Man- 
heim, Rastadt. and Wertheim ; several gymnasiums ; 
normal schools at Carlsruhe, Etdingen, and Meersburg, 
besides upwards of 2000 common schools established 
throughout the country. There is an institution in 
Pforzheim for the deaf and dumb, and one in Freiburg 
for the blind. The pol3rtechnic school at Carlsruhe is 
among the most efficient institutions of the kind in 
Germany. The preparatory course extends over three 
years, and includes French, German, English, sjpecial 
history, mathematics, drawing, modelling, chemistry, 
mineralogy and geology, mechanics, &c. The special 
courses are engineering, architecture, forestry, chemis- 
try, mechanics, commerce, and post-office service, and 
extend over from one to four years. The ducal family 
of Baden belong to the Protestant section of the Church, 
but the majority of the population are Roman Catho- 
lics. The returns of the census of 1871 are as follows: 
— Catholics, 942,560; Protestants, 491,008 ; other sects, 
2265 ; and Jews, 25,703. The district where the Roman 
Catholic preponderance was greatest was Constance, 
while the Protestants were slightly more numerous in 
the district of Manheim. 

' The govemn^ent of Baden is an hereditary monarchy, 
with the executive power vested in the grand duke, and 
the legislative authority in a Parliament consisting of 
two Chambers. The upper Chamber is composed of all 
the princes of the reigning line who are of age, the 
chiefs of ten noble famuies, the possessors of hereditary 
landed estates worth ;f25,ooo, the Roman Catholic 
archbishop of Freiburg, the president of the Protestant 
Church, a deputy from each of the universities, and 
eight nominees of the duke. The lower Chamber con- 
sists of 63 representatives, of whom 22 are elected by 
the burgesses of certain towns, and 41 by the inhabi- 
tants of the bailiwicks. The parliamentary candidate 
must possess tax-paying property of the value of 10,000 
florins (^^833), or derive a salary of at least ;(f 125 from 
a public office. Every citizen, if neitner criminal nor 
pauper, has the right of voting, but only in the choice of 
deputy-electors, by whom the real election of the repre- 
sentatives is decided. The members of the lower 
House are elected for eight years, and meetings of Par- 
liament must take place ever)r two years. 

By the treaty of Lun^ville in 1801, Baden acquired a 
considerable addition of territory ; in 1803 the margrave 
receivwi the title of Elector ; and by the treaty of Pres- 
burg in 1805 his domains were still further increased by 
the accession of Breisgau. On the dissolution of the 
empire in 1806, the elector joined the Confederation of 
the Rhine, and received the title of Grand Duke, with 
1950 square miles of additional territory. In 182 1 the 
union of the two protestant churches in Baden was 
brought about. Other questions of importance, such 
as trial by jury, freedom of the press, abolition of tithes, 
and extension of education, became subjects of interest 
and debate; but unfortunately, the influence of the 
French revolution of 1830 led the democratic party to 
excesses, which the Government met with acts of ill- 
advised repression. Matters wen beginning to readjust 
themselyes when the RevtdntSon of ififB n^an aroused 



732 



BAD 



the opposing forces. In 1849 the duke was constrained 
to flee, and bretanOy the democratic leader, took pos- 
session of Carlsmhe in the name of the national com- 
mittee. By the 2^th of June, however, the Prussian 
forces, after several severe engagements with the revo- 
lutionists, effected the restoration of the duke, who re- 
turned to his capital on i8th August ; and it wasnot lone 
before the country began to recover from the effects of 
the outbreak. Not, mdeed, that it became cjuiescent ; 
for Baden has had its full share in the poUtical and 
ecclesiastical disputes that have been so rife throughout 
Germany during recent vears. The Roman Catholic 
clergy, with the oishop of Freiburg at their head, have 
maintained an obstinate strug^ with the Liberal party, 
which is now predominant. I'he separation of cnurch 
and state has been established; the Jews have been 
admitted to full civic rights ; freedom of trade has been 
promulgated, and a number of minor reforms successfully 
carried throu^. In the German war of 1866 Baden 
sided against Frussia; but in 1870 it joined in the form- 
ation of the new German empire, and its troops are 
incorporated in the 14th corps of the imperial army. 

BADEN (or Baden-Baden, to distmguish it from 
other places of the name), a town and celebrated water- 
ing-place of Germanv, in the grand duchy of Baden. It 
stands on the side of a hill, near the Oos or Oel, in a 
beautiful valley of the Black Forest, 18 miles S. W. of 
Carlsmhe ; and it is connected by a branch with the 
Manheim and Basel railway. The superiority of its situ- 
atk)n, its extensive pleasure-grounds, j^ardens, and 
promenades, and the brilliancy of the life that is led 
durlnc; the season, have for a long series of years con- 
tinued to attract crowds of visitors from all parts of the 
world. The resklent population amounts to about 10,- 
000, but that number is frequently augmented fourfold. 
The prevailing nationality is, or rather was, the French, 
but Americans, Russians, and English are all numer- 
ously represented. The hot springs, which are among 
the earhest attractions of the place, are twenty-nine in 
number, and vary in temperature from ^y^ to 54° R. , 
/.«?., from H50 to 1530 Fahr. They flow from thecastle 
rock at the rate of 90 gallons per ntinute, and the water 
is conveyed through the town in pipes to supply the 
different baths. Tne town proper is on the right oank 
of the Oos, but the principal resorts of the adventitious 
population are on the other side. A Conversationshaus 
and a Trm^Aa//^ or pump-room (1842), a theatre (1861), 
and a picture-gallery, are among the chief fashionable 
buildings, to which may be added the library and reading- 
room. The gaming-tables, which for so many years 
were a striking feature of Baden-Baden, are now abol- 
ished. The only building of much antiquarian interest, 
with the exception of the castles, is the parish church, 
which dates from the 15th century, and contains the 
tombs of several of the margraves. There is a Protest- 
ant church a short distance to the east of Lcopoldsplatz, 
and not far off a small Episcopalian church ; while on 
the Michaelsberg is the Greek chapel, with its gilded 
dome, which was erected over the tomb of the Rou- 
manian prince, Michael Stroudza, who died at Baden 
in 1863. 

BADEN, Switzerland, a small town in the canton of 
Aargau, on the limmat, 14 miles N. W. of Zurich. It is 
much frequented on account of its warm medicinal 
springs, which are about 20 in number, and vary in 
temperature from 98^ to 126° Fahr. About 15,000 
persons visit the place annually. Tacitus, in the first 
book of {his Histories incidentally speaks of it, and 
numerous remains of pillars and inscriptions, coins, and 
other antiouities confirm his description. 

BADEN, the chief town of a circle in Lower Austria, 
about 12 miles S. of Vienna on the railway to Gratz. It 



is beautifuUv sittiated at the mouth of the romantic 
HeUnenthaly near the banks of the Schwachat, a rapid 
stream with several waterfalls, and has become a favorite 
summer resort with the inhabitants of the neighboring 
capital. The warm baths, which give name to uie town, 
are thirteen in number, axid vary in temperature from 
72** to 97^ Fahr. 

BADGER {Meles\ a family of Plantigrade Camivora, 
possessing greatly elongated bodies and short limbs, 
each of the latter fumi^ied with five toes, provided at 
their extremities with long, powerful claws, by means of 
which they form deep burrows in the earth. The 
camassial tooth, which in the bears is wholly tuberculate. 
is in the badgers provided also with a cutting edge, 
their whole dentition being specially adapted to tne 
partly vegetable, partly animal diet on which they sub- 
sist. The badger ditters from all other mammals in 
having the lower jaw so articulated to the upper, by 
means of a transverse condyle firmly locked into a long 
cavity of the cranium, that dislocation of the jaw is afl 
but impossible, and this enables those creatures to main- 
tain their hold with the utmost tenacity. The European 
badger {Meles Taxus) may be taken as typical of the 
entire family. It is nownere abundant, but b found 
over the entire northern parts of Europe and Asia. It 
is a quiet, inoffensive animal, nocturnal and solitary in 
its habits, sleeping by day in its burrow, and issuing forth 
at night to feed on roots, beech-mast, fruits, the eggs 
of birds, some of the smaller quadrupeds, frogs, and 
insects. It is sakl also to dig up the nests of wasps in 
order to eat the larvae, as the ratel — a closely allied 
South African form — is said to rob the bees of their 
honey. The male and female are seldom seen together, 
and are supposed to trace each other by means of the 
odor of the secretion contained in a glanaular pouch be- 
neath the tail. Although the badger does not seek to at- 
tack, yet, when driven to hay, its great muscular piwer 
and tough hkie renders it a formkiable antagonist, as 
was often seen in the days, now happily gone by, when 
badger-baiting was a favorite amusement of the English 
peasantr3c 

BADIA Y LEBLICH, Domingo, a celebrated 
Spanish traveller, better known under his assumed name 
of Ali Bey, was bom in Biscay in the year 1766. Under 
the name of Ali Bey and in Mussulman costume, he 
visited Egypt, Marocco, Tripoli, Arabia, and Syria, and 
was received as a person of high rank wherever he ap- 
peared. On his return to Europe in 1807 he declared 
nimself a Bonapartist, and was made Intendant, first of 
Segovia, and afterwards of Cordova. When the French 
were driven from Spain, Badia was compelled to take 
refuge in France, and there, in 18 14, published an 
account of his travels. A few years later he set out 
again for Syria, under the assumed name of Ali Othman 
and, it is said, accredited as a political agent by the 
French Government He only reached Aleppo, and 
there died, 30th August 181 8, not without suspicion of 
having been poison^ 

BAD I US, JODOCUS or Josse, sometimes called Ba- 
Dius Ascensius, from the village of Asche, near Brus- 
sels, where he was born in 1462, was an eminent printer 
at Paris, whose establishment was celebrated under the 
name of Prelum Ascensianum. 

BADMINTON, a game of recent introduction. It 
may be played in or out of doors, by any number of 
persons from two to eight; two or four makes the best 
game. 

BADRINATH, a town and celebrated temple in 
Hindust^, in the British district of Garhwal, situate 
on the right bank of the Vishnugang&, a tributary of 
the Alaknandi River, in the middk of a valley nearly 4 
miles in length and i in breadth. The town is small. 



BAE— BAG 



733 



containing only twenty or thirty huts, in which reside 
the Brihmans and the attendants on die temple. The 
boilding, however, which is considered a place of high 
sanctity, by no means corresponds to its great celeb- 
rity. 

BAENA, a town of Spain, in the province of Cor- 
dova, 8 leagues S.E. of the city. It is picturesquely 
situated, near the River Marbello, on the slope of a hill 
crowned with a castle, which formerly belonged to Gon- 
salo de Cordova, and is now the property of the Alta- 
mira family, 

BAEZA (ancient Beatia), a dty of Spain, in the prov- 
ince of Jaen. It stands on a considerable elevation, 
about 3 miles from the right bank of the Guadalquivir. 

BAFFIN, William, an able and enterprising Eng- 
lish seaman, bom in 1584. Nothing is known of his 
early life, and his fame rests entirely on the voyages un- 
dertaken by him during the years 1612 to 1616. In 
161 2 he accompanied Captain James Hall on his fourth 
voyage in searcn of the north-west passage, and in 1613 
he commanded one of the English vessels engaged in the 
Greenland fisheries. In 1615 and 1616 Baffin made two 
voyages in the ** Discovery *• under Bylot, and on the 
second of them explored the large inlet, afterwards called 
Baffin's Bay. 

BAFFIN'S BAY, or Baffin's Sea, is properly 
neither a bay nor a sea, but part of the long strait or 
inlet which separates Greenland from the N.E. coast of 
America. 

BAGATELLE is an indoor game, probably derived 
from the old English shovel-board, described by Cotton 
in his Compleat Gamester (1674), though many consider 
that its invention is due to the French. Like billiards 
chess, and draughts, its origin is not certainly known ; 
but whatever its genesis, its name is undoubtedly 
French. Bagatelle ^ames are plaved on the oblong 
board, usually from six to ten feet m length, by a foot 
and a half to three feet in width. The bed of the table, 
which is ordinarihr of slate or mahogany, is covered 
with fine green cloth; and at the upper end, which 
is rounded, there are nine holes or cups, numbered from 
I to 9. 

Into these holes ivory balls iure driven by a cue in all 
respects similar to the instrument used in Billiards, 
which see. The sides and circular end of the table are 
furnished with elastic cushions ; and in some of the newer 
tables there is also a pocket on each side. Nine balls — 
eight white, and one red or black (sometimes four white, 
four red, and one black) — are used in the most popular 
of the several bagatelle ^mes. 

BAGGESEN, Jens Emmanuel, the most prominent 
literary figure in Denmark during the latter part of last 
century, was bom on the 15th of February 1765, at 
Korsor. His parents were verv poor, and before he 
was twelve he was sent to copy documents at the office 
of the clerk of the district. By dint of indomitable per- 
severance, he managed tojrain an education, and in 1782 
entered the university of Copenhagen. His success as a 
writer was coeval with his earliest publication; his 
Comical Tales in verse, poems that recall the Broad 
Grins that Colman the younger brought out a decade 
later, took the town by storm, and the struggling young 

K»et found himself a popular favorite at twenty-one. 
e then tried serious lyncal writing, and his tact, ele- 
flance of manner, and versatility, gained him a place in 
the best society. This sadden success received a blow 
in 1^88, when a very poor opera he had produced was 
received with mockerj, and a reaction against him set 
m. He left Denmark in a raee, and spent the next 
years in Germany, France, ana Switzerland. In the 
country last mentioned he married, beg^ to write in 
German, and pnbliBhed in that Ungnage his next poem, 



Alfenlied, In 1790 he returned to his mother-country, 
bringing with him as a peace-offering his fine descriptive 
poem, the Labyrinth^ in Danish, and was received with 
unbounded homage. The next twenty years were spent 
in incessant restless wanderings over the north of 
Europe, Paris latterly becoming his nominal home. He 
continued to publish volumes alternately in Danish and 
German. In x8ii he returned to Copenhagen to find 
the young Ohlenschlager installed as the ^eat poet of 
the day, and he himselfbeginning to lose his previously 
unbounded popularity. Until 1820 he resided m Copen- 
hagen, in almost unceasing literary feud with some one 
or other, abusing and being abused, the most important 
feature of the whole being Baggesen's determination 
not to allow Ohlenschlager to be considered a greater 
poet than himself. He then went back to his beloved 
Paris, where he lost his wife and youngest child, and 
fell at last into a state of hopeless melancholy madness. 
In 1826, having slightly recovered, he wished to see Den- 
mark once more, but died at Hamburg on his way, on 
the 3d of October, and was buried at Kiel 

BAGHDAD, a Turkish pashalic or government of 
Asia, computed to have an area of above ioo,ooosquare 
miles. It stretches in a N. W. direction, from the mouth 
of the Shatt-el-Arab at Bussorah, to Merdin, situated 
near the source of the Tigris ; and from the confines of 
Persia to the banks of the Khabour, which separates it 
from the pashalic of Diarbekir. Its general boundaries 
are the Euphrates and the Arabian desert of Nejd to the 
W. and S., Kusistan and Mount Zagros to the E., the 
pashalic of Diarbekir to the N.W., and Armenia with 
the territories of the Kurdish chief of Julamerick to the 
N. This great tract comprehends ancient Babylonia 
and the greatest part of Assyria proper. The first in- 
cludes the space enclosed by the Tigris and the Euphra- 
tes, which is also known under the general appellation 
of Mesopotamia ; and the second, that which is beyond 
the Tigris, commonly called Lower Kurdistan. This 
tract ofcountry is an extensive and very fertile plain, 
and is wateroi by the Tigris and Euphrates, which at 
Baghdad approach within 25 miles of each other, and 
afford an inexhaustible supply of the finest water. Only 
some parts of these fertile districts, however, are culti- 
vated, as the population consists in many places of wan- 
dering Arabs, wno are averse to agriculture, and who, 
in their vagrant life of idleness and rapine, neglect all 
the natural advantages of the country. The most pro- 
ductive portion of the pashalic is on the banks of the 
Shatt-el-Arab, in the neighborhood of Bussorah. This 
tract, for upward of 30 miles below that city, is well 
cultivated and yields vast quantities of dates, wheat, 
barley, and various kinds of fruits. The banks of the 
Euphrates produce abundant crops of dry grain. 
Higher up tne Euphrates, the country which is pos- 
sessed by the Arabs is a low marshy tract, formed by 
the expansion of the Euphrates, and b famed for plen- 
tiful crops of rice. Among the moimtainous districts of 
the Upper Euphrates the country is h^hly picturescjue 
and beautiful; it is watered by the River Mygdonius 
(the Gozan of Scripture), and is in a tolerable state of 
cultivation. It produces in abundance the finest fruits, 
such as grapes, olives, figs, jx>m^ranates, which are 
consider^ tne most delicious in the east; apples, pears, 
apricotsof an inferior quality; and the finest dates, on 
which the inhabitants, as in other parts of Asia, depend 
in many cases for subsistence. The domestic animals 
are, the horse, for which the country has long been 
famed, the ass, camel, dromedary, buffalo and mule. 
Of the wild animals, the lion, the hyena, the jackal, the 
wolf, and the wild boar, are common ; and antelopes 
are very numerous. Hares are plentiful, but foxes are 
seldom seen. AU sorts of j)0Qltry are tnred except the 



734 



BAG 



turkey. On the cultivated lands, and on the borders of 
the rivers, the black partridge is met with in great num- 
bers. Snipes and almost every species of wild fowl may 
be found in the marshes, and pelicans on the banks of 
the Euphrates and Tigris. In addition to these two rivers 
the country is watered by the Khabour or Chaboras, 
formed by the junction of several small streams about 
ten miles to the S. W. of Merdin, and by the Mygdon- 
ius, or Gozan, the Hermas of the Arabs, which used 
formerly to discharge a part of its waters into the Eu- 
phrates through the Khabour, and a part into the Tigris 
through the Thirthar, passing by Hatra, but which is 
now entirely lost in a salt marsh at the foot of the Singar 
hills. 

In ancient times the plain of Mesopotamia was oc- 
cupied by the great and wealthy cities of Nineveh, 
Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, &c., and was in a high 
state of cultivation. It was intersected by many well- 
constructed canals and other works, which, in dispersing 
over the country the superfluous waters of the Tigris 
and Euphrates, proved extremely useful to agriculture. 
These works are now all ruined, and not a vestige re- 
mains of manv of the canals, while the course of others 
can only be faintly traced in their imperfect remains. 
One canal, however, called El-Hye, stiil exists ; it con- 
nects the Euphrates and the Tigris exactly half-way be- 
tween Bussorah and Baghdad, and is navigable in spring 
for large boats. 

BAGHDAD, a city of Asia, formerly the capital of 
the empire of the caliph, and long renowned for its com- 
merce and its wealth, is situat^ on an extensive and 
desert plain, which has scarcely a tree or village through- 
out its whole extent ; and though it is intersected by the 
Tigris, it stands mostly on its eastern bank, close to the 
water's edge. The town has been built without the 
slightest regard to regularity. The streets are even more 
intricate and winding than those in most other Eastern 
towns ; and, with the exception of the bazaars and some 
open squares, the interior is little else than a labyrinth of 
alleys and passages. The streets are un paved, and in 
many places so narrow that two horsemen can scarcely 
pass each other ; and as it is seldom that the houses have 
windows facing the great public thoroughfares, and the 
doors are small and mean, they present on both sides the 
gloomy appearance of dead walls. All the buildings, 
both public and private, are constructed of furnace- burnt 
bricks, of a yellowish-red color, taken chiefly from the 
ruins of other edifices, as their rounded angles evidently 
show. 

The principal public buildings in Baghdad are the 
mosques, the khans or caravanserais, and the serai or 
palace of the pasha. The palace, which is situated in 
the north-western quarter of^ the town, not far from the 
Tigris, is distinguished rather for extent than grandeur. 
It IS a comparatively modem structure, built at differ- 
ent periods, and forming a large and confused pile, 
without proportion, beauty, or strength. There are no 
remains of the ancient palace of the caliphs. 

In all Mahometan cities the mosques are conspicuous 
objects. The number in Baghdad is above lOO ; but of 
these not more than thirty are distinguished by the 
characteristic minarets or steeples, the rest being merely 
chapels and venerated places of prayer. The most 
ancient of these mosques was erectea in the year of the 
Hegira 633, or 1235 ^^ ^^^ Giristian era, by the Caliph 
Mustansir. 

There are about thirty khans or caravanserais in 
Baghdad, all of the inferior construction to those in the 
other large towns of Turkev. The only remarkable 
building of this class is called JChan^el-Aourimehi and 
adjoins the Meijaneeah mosquei to which it formerly 
belonged. 



The only other Mahometan remains which tt is nee- 
essary to mention are — i. The Tekiyeh, or shrine of 
the Bektash dervishes, on the western link of the river. 
The shrine is in ruins, but it contains a fine Cufic in- 
scription now mutilated, which bears the date of 333 
A.H. (or 944 A.D.) 2. The tomb of the fomous 
Maaruf-el-Kerkhi, in the immediate vicinity, dating 
from 121 J A.D. 3. In Eastern or New Baghdad the 
college of Mustansir, near the bridge, now in ruins, but 
bearing a fine inscription dated 630 a.h. (or 1233 A.D.) 
4. The shrine of the famous Saint Abdel Kadir, which 
is visited by pilgrims from all parts of the Mahometan 
world. 

Baghdad has much declined from its ancient import- 
ance. It was formerly a great emporium of Eastern 
commerce; and it still receives, by way of Bussorah, 
from Bengal the manufactures and produce of India, 
which are distributed over Arabia, Syria, Kurdistan, 
Armenia, and Asia Minor. At the same time the inland 
trade from Persia and the East has fallen off. The 
productions and manufactures of Persia, which were 
mtended for the S3rrian, Armenian, and Turkish mar- 
kets, and were sent to Baghdad as a central dep6t, now 
reach Constantinople by the more direct route of Erze- 
roum and Tocat. Wealth, indeed, appears to be de- 
ficient among all classes, and Baghdad has many symp- 
toms of a decayed city. 

The population is a mixture of nations from various 
quarters of the East. The chief officers of Government, 
whether civil or military, are of the families of Constan- 
tinoplian Turks, though they are mostly natives of the 
city; the merchants and traders are almost all of Persian 
or Arabian descent ; while the lower classes consist of 
Turks, Arabs, Persians, and Indians. 

Baghdad is governed by a pasha, assisted by a coundL 
He was formeny^ chosen from the ranks of the Georgian 
Mamelukes, but is now always selected from among the 
highest officers of the Constantinople court, his term of 
ofnoe being usually for four or five years. He is also 
governor-general of Irak, and possesses supreme author- 
ity from Diarbekir to Bahrein, though he cloes not under 
ordinary circumstances interfere with the subordinate 
governments of Mosul and Kurdistan. 

The East India Company used to maintain a resident 
in Baghdad with a large establishment, and his post is 
now replaced by that of a consul-general and political 
agent. A French consul is also regularly appointed. 

Until recently Baghdad was supposed to be entirely a 
Mahometan city, dating from the time of Al Mansur ; 
but Sir H. Rawlinson discovered in 1848, during an 
unusually dry season, when the rivers had fallen six feet 
below the ordinary low-water mark, that the western 
bank of the Tigris was lined with an embankment of 
solid brick-work, dating from the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, as the bricks were each stamped with his name 
and titles ; and it has been since remarked that in the 
Ass^an geographi^l catalogues of the time of Sardan- 



apalus, one of t^e Babylonian cities bears the name of 
Bagdad^ and may thus very possibly represent the after 
site of the capital of the adiphs. . According to the 
Arabian writers, however, there were no traces of 
former habitation when Al Mansdr laid the foundation 
of the new dty. It was adorned with many noble and 
stately edifices by th# magnificence of the renowned^ 
Haroun al Raschid, who abo built on the eastern side 
of the river, connecting the two quarters of the town by 
a bridge of boats. Under the auspices of Zobeide, the 
wife of that prince, and Jaffer the Barmecide, his fovor- 
ite, the city may be said to hare attxuned its greatest 
splendor. It continued to flourish and increase, and to 
be die seat of elegance and learning, until the 6s6lh 
year of the Hegira (1277 a.d.)i when Hnlakn the Tat«» 



BAG— BAH 



735 



the grandson of Genghis Khan, took it by storm, and 
extinguished the dynasty of the Abassides. 

BAQHERMI, or Bagirmi, a district or kingdom of 
Central Africa, lying to the S. of Lake Chad and S. W. 
of Bomu. It extei^s about 240 miles from N. to S., 
and has a breadth of barely 150 miles. The surface is 
almost flat, with a slight inclination to the N., and the 
general elevation is about 950 feet above sea-level. 
The Shari, a large and always navigable river, forms the 
western bounda^, and throws out an imjportant effluent 
called the Bachilcam, which passes through the heart of 
the country. The soil consists partly of lime and partly 
of sand, and is by no means unfertile. In many parts 
not a stone is to be seen. Negra-miUet, sesamum, and 
sorghum are the principal grains in cultivation, but rice 
grows wild, and several lands of grass or poa are used 
as food by the natives. Cotton and indigo are grown to 
a considerable extent, especially by Bomu immigrants. 
Among the trees the most important are the tamarind, 
the deleb-palm, the dum-palm, the hajilij or Balanites 
{Bgypiiiua^ the sycamore, and the cornel. The country 
often suffers from drought, and is greatly placed with 
worms and insects, especially ants of all lands, red, 
black, and white. 

BAGHMATI, a river of Hindustan, which has its 
source in the hills to the north of Kdtmandu, the capital 
of Nepdl, whence it flows in a southerly direction 
through the district of Tirhut in the province of Behar, 
and, receivimgf the waters of the Buchid on its north 
bank, and of Burd Gandak on its south bank, joins the 
Ganges, after a course of 28^ miles. 

BAGLIVI, Giorgio, an iuustrious Italian physician, 
descended from a poor persecuted Armenian family, was 
bom at Ragusa in 1769, and assumed the name of his 
adoptive father, Pietro Angelo Baglivi, a wealthy phy- 
sician of Lecce. He studi^ successively at the univer- 
sities of Salerno, Padua, and Bologna ; and after trav- 
elling over Italy, he went in i6cS to Rome, where, 
through the influence of the celebrated Malpighi, he 
was elected professor of anatomy in the college of Sapi- 
enza. He died at Rome in 1707, at the early age of 
thirty-eight. 

BAGNACAVALLO, Bartolommeo, an Italian 
painter, who flourished about the beginning of the i6th 
century. 

BAGNfeRES-DE-BIGORRE (the Vicus Aquensis 
of the Romans), the capital of an arrondissement in 
the department of Hautes-Pyr^n^, is situated on the 
left bank of the Adour, 13 miles S.E. of Tarbes. It is 
one of the principal watering-prices in France, and is 
much admired for its picturesque situation and the beauty 
of its environs, particularly the valley of Campan, 
which abounds with beautiful gardens and handsome 
villas. 

BAGN6RES-DE-LUCH0N, a small well-built town 
of France, department of Haute-Garonne, pleasantly 
situated in the valley of the Luchon, at the Coot of the 
Pyrenees. It is celebrated for its sulphurous thermal 
springs, which vary in temperature from 88<^ to 180^ 
Fahr. 

BAGPIPER, a musical instrument of unknown antiq- 
uity which seems to have been at one time or other in 
common use among all the nations of Europe, and still 
retains its place in many Highland districts, such as 
Calabria, the Tyrol, and the Highlands of Scotland. 
The wind is generally supplied by a blowpipe, though in 
some cases bellows are used. These, and other slight 
variations, however, involve no essential difference in 
character or constmction, and a description of the great 
bagpipe of the Highlands of Scotland will serve to in- 
di^te the leading features of the instrument in all its 
forms. It consists of a large wind-bag made of greased 



leather covered with woolen cloth; a month-tube, 
valved, by which the bag is inflated with the player's 
breath; three reed drones; and a reed chanter with 
finger-holes, on which the tunes are played. Of the 
three drones, one is long and two are short. The long- 
est is tuned to A, an octave below the lowest A of the 
chanter, and the two shorter drones are tuned each an 
octave above the A of the longest drone ; or, in other 
words, in unison with the lowest A of the chanter. The 
scale of the chanter has a compass of nine notes, all 
natural, extending from G on the second line of the 
treble stave up to A in alt. 

BAGRATION, Peter, Prince, a distinguished 
Russian general, descended from the noble Georgian 
family of the Bagratides, was born in 1765. In 1782 he 
entered the Russian army and served for some years in 
the Caucasus. In 1788 he was engaged in the siege of 
Oczacow, and afterwards accompanied Suwaroff, by 
whom he was highly esteemed, through all his Italian 
and Swiss campaigns. He jmrticularly distinguished 
himself in 1799 hy the capture of the town of Brescia. 
He was mortally wounded in the bloody battle of Boro- 
dino, 7th Sept. 1812, and died one month later. 

BAHAMAS, or Lucayas, a very numerous group 
of islands, cays, rocks, and reefs, coniprising an area of 
3021 square miles, lying between 21*' 42' and 27^ 34' 
N. lat. and 72*^ 40' and 79® 5' W. long. They encircle 
and almost enclose the Gulf of Mexico, stretching more 
than 600 miles from the eastern coast of Florida to the 
northern coast of St. Domingo, and are traversed by 
only three navigable channels — 1st, the Florida Chan- 
nel to the N., which runs along the coast of the United 
States and lies to the westwaiS of the whole Bahama 
group ; 2d, the Providence Channels, passing through 
the group to the N., and separating the Great and Little 
Banks; and 3d, the old Bahama Channel, which passes 
to the S. of the Great Bahama Bank, between it and 
Cuba. The islands lie for the most part on the wind- 
ward edge of the Great and Little Banks, or of the 
ocean sounds or tongues which pierce them. The total 
number of islands is 29, while tne cays are reckoned at 
661, and the rocks at 2387. The principal islands are 
New Providence (which contains the capital Nassau), 
Abaco, Harbor Island, Eleuthera, Inagua, May^uana, 
St. Salvador, Andros Island, Great Bahama, Ragged 
Island, Rum Cay, Exuma, Long Island, Crooked Island, 
Acklin Island, Long Cay, Watling Island, the Berry 
Islands, and the Biminis. Turk's Island and the Caicos, 
which belong geographically to the Bahama group, were 
separated politically in 1848. The formation of all the 
islands is tne same, — calcareous rocks of coral and shell 
hardened into limestone, honeycombed and perforated 
with innumerable cavities, without a trace of primitive 
or volcanic rock; the surface is as hard as flint, but un- 
demeath it ^adually softens and furnishes an admirable 
stone for building, which can be sawn into blocks of any 
size, these hardening on exposure to the atmosphere. 
The shores are generally low, the highest hill in the 
whole range of the islands being only 230 feet high. 
The soil, although very thin, is very fertile. On Andros 
Island and on Abaco there is much large timber, includ- 
ing mahogany, mastic, lignum vitae, iron, and bullet 
woods, and many others. Unfortunately the want both 
of labor and of roads renders it impossible to turn this 
valuable timber to useful account. The fruits and spices 
of the Bahamas are very numerous, — the fruit etjualling 
any in the world. The produce of the islands includes 
tamarinds, olives, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, pome- 
granates, pine-apples, figs, sapodillas, bananas, sower- 
sops, melons, yams, potatoes, gourds, cucumbos, pep- 
per, cassava, prickly pears, sugar cane, gin^, coffee, 
mdigOy Guinea com and pease. Tobacco aim cascarilla 



736 



BAH 



bark also floarish; and cotton is indigenous, and was 
woven into cloth by the aborigines. 

It is a remarkable fact that except in the island of 
Andros, no streams of rannine water are to be found in 
the whole group. The inhabitants derive their water 
supply from wells, the rain-water in which appears to 
have some connection with the sea, as the contents of 
the wells rise and fall with the tide upon the neighboring 
shore. The Bahamas are far poorer in their fauna than 
in their flora. It is said that the aborigines had a breed 
of dogs which did not bark, and a small coney is also 
mentioned. The guana also is indi^;enous to the islands. 
Oxen, sheep, horses, and other hve stock introduced 
from Europe, thrive well, but of late years very little at- 
tention has been paid to stock rearing, and Nassau has 
been dependent upon Cuba for its beef, and on the 
United States or Nova Scotia for its mutton. There 
are many varieties of birds to be found in the woods of 
the Bahamas; they include flamingoes and the beautiful 
humming-bird, as weU as wikl geese, ducks, pigeons, 
hawks, green parrots, and doves. The waters of the 
Bahamas swarm with fish, and the turtle procured here 
is particularhr fine. In the southerly islaiids there are 
saUponds of great value. 

The story of the Bahamas is a singular one, and 
bears principally upon the fortunes of New Providence, 
which, from the fact that it alone possesses a perfectly 
safe .harbor for vessels drawing more than 9 feet, 
has alwavs been the seat of Government, when it 
was not the headquarters of lawless villainy. St. Sal- 
vador (Cat Island, or as some suppose, Watling 
Island), however, claims historical precedence as the 
landfall of Columbus on his memorable voyage. He 
passed through the islands, and in one of his letters to 
Ferdinand and Isabella he said, ** This country excels 
all others as far as the day surpasses the night m splen- 
dor ; the natives love their neighbors as Uiemselves ; 
their conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their 
faces always smiling ; and so gentle and so affectionate 
are they, that I swear to your highness there is not a 
better people in the world." But the natives, innocent 
as they appeared, were doomed to utter destruction. 
Ovando, tne governor of Hispaniola, who had ex- 
hausted the lat^r of that island, turned his thoughts to 
the Bahamas, and in 1500 Ferdinand authorised him to 
procure laborers from tnese islands. It is said that 
reverence and love for their departed relatives was a 
marked feature in the character of the aborigines, and 
that the Spaniards made use of this as a bait to trap the 
unhapp}r natives. They promised to convey the ignorant 
savages in their ships to the " heavenly snores," where 
their departed friends now dwelt, and about 40.000 were 
transported to Hispaniola to perish miserably in the 
mines. From that date until after colonisation of New 
Providence by the English, there is no record of a 
Spanish visit to the Bahamas, with the exception of the 
extraordinary cruise of Juan Ponce de Leon, the con- 
cjueror of Porto Rico, who passed months searching the 
blands for " Bimini," which was reported to contain the 
miraculous " Fountain of Youth." 

The deserted islands were first visited by the English 
in 1629, and a settlement formed in New Providence, 
which they held till 1641, when the Spaniards expelled 
them but made no attempt to settle tnere themselves. 
The English again took possession in 1667, and in 1680 
Charles II. made a grant of the islands to George, Duke 
of Albemarle; William, Lord Craven; Sir George Car- 
teret; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley: 
and Ser Peter Colleton. Governors were appointed oy 
the lords proprietors, and there are very copious records 
in the state papers of the attempts maoe to develop the 
retoorcef ofthe island; bat the repeated attacks of the 



Spaniards, and the tyranny and mismanagement of the 
governors, proved great obstacles to success. In July 
1703 the French and Spaniards made a descent on New 
Providence, blew up the fort, spiked the eons, burnt the 
church, and carried off the governor, witn the principal 
inhabitants, to the Havannah; and in October the 
Spaniards made a second descent, and completed the 
work of destruction. It is said that when the last of 
the governors appointed by the lords proprietors, in 
ignorance of the Spanish raid, arrived m New Provi- 
dence, he found the island without an inhabitant It 
soon, however, became the resort of pirates, and the 
names of many of the worst of these ruffians is associated 
with New Providence, the notorious Blackbeard being 
chief among the number. At last matters became so 
intolerable that the merchants of London and Bristol 
petitioned the Crown to take possession and restore or- 
der, and Captain Woods Rogers was sent out as the 
first Crown governor, and arrived at New Providence in 
1 7 18. Many families of good character now settled at 
the Bahamas, and some progress was made in develop- 
hig the resources of the colony, although this was inter- 
rupted by the tyrannical conduct of some of the gov- 
ernors wno succeeded Captain Woods Rogers. At this 
time the pine-apple was introduced as an article of cul- 
tivation at Eleuthera; and a few years subsequently, 
during the American war of independence, colonists 
arrived in ereat numbers, bringing with them wealth and 
also slave laboc Cotton cultivation was now attempted 
on a large scale! In 1783, at Long Island, 800 sbves 
were at work, and nearly 4000 acres of land under cul- 
tivation. But the usual bad luck of the Bahamas pre- 
vailed; the red bug destroyed the cotton crops in 1788, 
and again in 1794, and by the year 1800 cotton cultiva- 
tion was almost abandoned, There were also other 
causes that tended to retard the proeress of the colony. 
In 1776 Commodore Hopkins, of the American navy, 
took the island of New Providence ; he soon, however, 
abandoned it as untenable, but in 1782 it was retaken by 
the Spanish governor of Cuba. The Spaniards retained 
nominal possession of the Bahamas until 1 783, but be- 
fore peace was notified New Providence was recaptured 
bgr a loyalist. Colonel Devaux, of the South Carolina 
militia, in June 1783. In 1787, the descendants of the 
old lonis proprietors received each a grant of /2000 in 
satisfaction of their claims, and the islands were formally 
reconveyed to the Crown. The Bahamas began again 
to make a little progress, until the separation of Turks 
and Caicos Islands m 1848, which haa been hitherto the 
most productive of the salt-producing islands, unfavora- 
bly affected the finances. Probably the abolition of the 
slave trade in 1834 was not without its effect upon the 
fortunes of the landed proprietors. 

The next event of importance in the history of the 
Bahamas was the rise of the blockade-running trade, 
consequent on the closing of the southern ports of 
America by the federals in 1861. At the commence- 
ment of 1&5 this trade was at its highest point. In 
January and February i86j no less than 20 steamers 
arrived at Nassau, importmg 14,182 bales of cotton, 
valued at £SS4*^7S' The extraordhiary difference 
between the normal trade of the islands and that due to 
blockade-running, will be seen by comparing the imports 
and exports before the closing of the southern ports in 
i860 with those of 1864. In the former year the imports 
were ;f 234,029, and the exports j£"iS7,3Jo, while in the 
latter year the imports were ;£'S,34o,ii2, and the 
exports, ;f4,672,395. The excitement, extravagance, 
and waste existing at Nassau during the days of blockade- 
running exceed belief. Individuals mav have profited 
largely, but the Bahamas probably benefited little The 
Government managed to piy its debt amounting to 



BAH 



737 



;C43*7^ ^^ crime incretsed, and sickness became very 
prevalent The cessation of the trade was marked, 
however, by hardly any disturbance ; there were no local 
failures, and in a few months the steamers and their 
crews departed, and New Providence subsided into its 
nsnal state of quietude. This, however, was not fated 
to last long, for in October 1866 a most violent hurri- 
cane passed over the island, injuring the orchards, 
destroying the fruit-trees, and damaging the sponges, 
which had proved hitherto a source of profit. The 
hurricane, too, was followed by repeated drou|;hts, and 
the inhabitants of the out-islands were reduced to indi- 
gence and want. There was an increase, however, in 
the production of salt. The exports as a whole fell off. 
The rainfall is heavy from May to October. During 
the winter months it is small, and from the month of 
November up to April the climate of New Providence 
is most agreeable. Advantage has been taken of this 
for many years by the inhabitants of the mainland of 
America, who can escape by a four days' voyage from 
the icy winter of New York to the perpetual summer of 
the Bahamas. New Providence has gained a name as 
a resort for the consumptive, and perhaps jusdy so far 
as the Anglo-Saxon race is concerned, but the Africans 
and colorra races suffer greatly from diseases of the 
lungs, and the black troops stadoned at Nassau have 
always been notorious for the proportion of men 
invalided from consumptive disease. 

BAHIA, a province of the Brazilian empire, situated 
on the S.£. coast, and extending from the Rio Grande 
do Belmonte in the S. to the Rio Real in the N. It is 
bounded by Sergipeand Pernambuco on the N., by 
Piauhi on the N. W., by Go^az on the W., and on the S. 
by Minas Geraes and £spinto Santo. It has an area of 
202,272 square miles, and its population is stated at 
1,450,000. Bahia sends 14 deputies to the general 
assembly of the empire, and 7 senators to the upper 
house, while its own legislative assembly consists of^ 36 
members. Besides Bahia the capital, 01iven9a, Branca, 
Jacobina, and Toazeira arc important towns. A chain 
of mountains, broken into numerous sierras, runs from 
N. to S. through the province at the distance of 200 
miles from the coast, while the intermediate district 
gradually rises in successive terraces. The maritime 
region, the so-called Reconcavo, is remarkably fertile, and 
is studded with thriving towns and villages, but the in- 
terior is often very dry and barren, and is only thinly 
peopled in many places with wandering Botacudos. The 
main sources of v^alth of the province are cotton, coffee, 
sugar, and tobacco, all of which are cultivated with die 
greatest success. Mandioc, rice, beans, and maize are 
grown ; also jalap, ipecacuanha, and saffron, as well as 
oranges, mangoes, and various other fruits. A large por- 
tion IS still covered with primeval forest, but the woodman 
is rapidly diminishing the extent. The mineral wealth 
of the province is but partially explored and still more 
partially utilized. In 1S44 diamond mines were discov- 
ered to the N. of the River Peraguass, and, till the 
deposits near the Cape of Good Hope were brought to 
lignt, afforded employment to a large number oigarint' 
peiros ox "washers.'* The discovery of amethysts at 
Catit^ in 1872 attracted numerous searchers; and about 
the same time coal was found in the island of Itaparica. 
Gold is present in the alluvium of the River San Fran- 
cisca 

BAHIA, or, in full, San Salvador da Bahia de 
TODOS OS Santos, a large city, and, till 1763, the capital 
of Brazil, is situated on the S.E. coast on the Bav of 
All Saints, from which it takes its name, in 13^ S. lat., 
and 38^ 20' W. long. Built partly along the foot and 
partly on the top of a steep hill, it consists of an upper 
(Uid lower town, commimication between the (wo bemg 



effected by Urge flights of steps, and since 1873 by a 
powerful hydraulic elevator. The carrying of goods 
and passengers up and down these stairway-streets 
affords employment to a large number of negro porters 
and chairmen. The lower town, or Praya, consists 
mainly of one long and narrow street, with still narrower 
and more tortuous lanes. I'he houses are built of stone, 
and many of them are several stories high. This is the 
business part of the city, where are situated the qua3rs, 
docks, warehouses, custom-houses, exchange, and arsenal ; 
and here the sailors, porters, and lower classes eenerall^ 
reside. The church of Nostra Sefiora da Fraya is 
remarkable as having been built of stones that were 
hewn in Lisbon and shipped across the ocean. The 
upper city has wide and well-paved streets, open squares, 
and pleasant promenades, adorned with orange trees and 
bananas. The most important is the Passeio Publico ^ 
which was open in 1814, and overlooks the beautiful bay. 
There is no city in Brazil that can vie with Bahia in the 
number and splendor of its ecclesiastical buildings, among 
which the Jesuits' college, now used as a hospital, and 
the cathedral, which is built of marble, are pre-eminent. 
There are likewise numerous educational institutions, 
including a lyceum (in which Lat'i, Greek, French, and 
English^ mathematics, philosophy, &c., are taueht), a 
theological seminary, and a medical academy, wnich is 
supported by the imperial Government, and has about 
400 students. The museum and public library also 
deserve mention. Among the buildin£;s connected with 
the civic and commerciS activity of tho city are the 
government-house, the court-houce, f'le mint, and the 
town-house; also the Ai/andega, where all foreign 
impo«-tations have to be entered, and the ConsolaSoy 
where all native productions arc registered for exporta- 
tion. There are likewise a number of banks and com- 
mercial associations of various kinds. Bahia has long 
been a place of great traffic. 

Bahia was visited in 1503 by Amerigo Vespucci The 
first settlement was founded and called San Salvador 
by Diego Alvarez Correa, who had been shipwrecked 
on the coast ; but the Portuguese governor who gave 
formal existence to the city was Thomas de Souza, who 
landed in 1549. It owed its increase to the Jesuits, who 
defended itae;ainst the English in 1588. In 1623 it fell 
into the hands of the Dutch, who held it for two years. 
In 1823 it was surrended by the Portuguese to the Bra- 
zilian nationality. A revolution, which broke out in 
the city in 1837, was suppressed l^ the imperial govern- 
ment. The nrst printing-press was introduced in 1811, 
and the first sugar-mill in 1823. In 1858 railway com- 
munication was established to Joazeiro. 

BAHRDT, Karl Friedrich, a German theolo- 
gian, distinguished for his extreme rationalism and his 
erratic life, was bom in 174 1 at Bischofswerda, of which 
place his father, afterwards professor of theology at 
Leipsic, was for some time pastor. His numerous 
works, including a translation of the New Testament, 
are comparatively worthless, and are written in an offen- 
sive tone. He has been well called by Herzog a cari- 
cature of the rationalism of the i8th century. 

BAHREIN, the principal island of a cluster in the 
Persian Gulf, in an indentation of the Arabian coast. 
It is about 70 miles long and nearly 25 broad, and is 
very flat and low except towards the east, where a 
range of hills attain an elevation of Soo or 900 feet 
The climate is mild, but humid, and rather unhealthy. 
The soil is for the most part fertile, and produces rice, 
pot herbs, and fruits, of which the citrons are especially 

food. Water is abundant, but frequently brackish, 
ish of all kinds abound off the coast, and are very 
cheap in the markets. The inhabitants are a mixed 
race of Arab, Omanitei and IVrmn bbodf slender 



738 



BAI 



and smtn in their pli3rBica] appearance ; they pos- 
sess great activitj and intelli^ce, and are known 
in all the ports of the Persian Gulf for their commer- 
cial and industrial ability. 

BAIiE, an ancient town of Campania, Italy, situated 
between the promontory of Misenum and Puteoli, on 
the Sinas Baianus, and famous for its warm springs and 
baths, which served the wealthier Romans for the pur- 
poses both of health and pleasure. The variety of tnese 
oaths, the mildness of the climate, and the beauty of 
the landscape, captivated the minds of the opulent 
nobles. It flourisned till the days of Theodoric the 
Goth ; but its destruction followed quickly upon the 
irruption of the northern conquerors. When tne guar- 
dian hand of man was withdrawn, the sea reclaimed its 
old domain ; moles and buttresses were washed away ; 
and promontories, with the proud towers that once 
crowned their brows, were unaermined and tumbled into 
the deep. Innumerable ruins, heaps of marble, mosaics, 
and other relics of the past, attest the ancient splendor 
of the city. 

BAI BURT, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in.thepashalic 
of Erzeroum, and 65 miles W.N.W. from tnat city. 
Population of town about 6000. 

BAlF, Jean Antoine de, poet of the French Renais- 
sance and member of the Pleiad, was the natural son of 
Lazare de Balf and an Italian girL He was bom in 
1532 at Venice, where his father was residing as French 
ambassador. Thanks, perhaps, to the surroundings of 
hb childhood, he grew up a fanatic for the fine arts, and 
surpassed in zeal all the leaders of the Renaissance in 
France. Besides writing an immense number of short 
poems of an amorous or congpratulatory kind, he trans- 
lated or paraphrased various pieces fromBion, Mosclius, 
Theocritus, Anacreon, Catullus, and Martial He 
resided in Paris, enjoyed the continued favor of the 
court, and founded the Acad^mie Royale de Musiquc ; 
his house became famous for the charming concerts 
which he gave, entertainments at which Charfes IX. and 
Henry III. frequently flattered him with their presence. 
He was a dear friend of Ronsard and the other members 
of the Pleiad. 

BAIKAL (1.^., Baiakhal^ or Abundant Water), a 
great fresh-water lake of Siberia, in the government of 
Irkutsk, 397 miles in length from S.W. to N.E., and 
from 13 to 54 miles in breadth, with an area of about 
12,500 square miles. This vast reservoir is situated 
1360 feet above the level of the sea, in the midst of steep 
mountain ranges, that often rise sheer from the water's 
edge in lofty walls of syenite, gneiss, or conglomerate, 
while elsewhere their sloping flanks are thickly clad with 
dark forests of coniferous trees. The lake is fed by 
several rivers, — the Upper Angara, the Selenga, whicn 
descends from the basin of Lake Kossogol, the Bar- 
guzin, and others; while the only visible outlet is by the 
Lower Angara, a tributary ol the Yenisei. The water is 
excellent, and is extremely clear, so that the bottom can 
be seen at the depth of 8 fathoms. The depth of the 
lake varies from 22 to upwards of 300 fatnoms. It 
yields abundance of salmon, and there is a profitable 
fishery of seals on its shores during the whole summer. 
The climate is c:;tremely severe ; and the lake, which is 
frozen over fro::i November to May, is almost perpetu- 
ally swept by the wind. It facilitates, however, the 
Russian trade with China, and that between Irkutsk 
and Dauria. It is navigated by the Russians in summer, 
and in winter they cross it on the ice. 

BAIKIE, William Balfour, M.D., eldest son of 
Captain John Br.ikie, R.N., was bom at Kirkwall, 
Orkney, on the 21st Aujgust 1824. He studied at 
Edinburgh, and, on obtaining his degree, joined the 
royal navy. He early attract^ the notice ot Sir Rod- 



erick Morchison, through whom he was appointed 
surgeon and naturalist to the Niger Expedition of 1854, 
The death of the senior officer occurring at Fernando 
Po, Dr. Baikie succeeded to the command. The results 
of the voyage are given in his own and other narratives. 
Ascending the river about 250 miles beyond the point 
reached by former explorers, the little steamer Pleiad 
returned and reached the mouth after a voyage of 118 
days Mdthout the loss of a single man. The second ex- 
pedition started in March 1857. After two years passed 
m exploring, the navigating vessel was wrecked in pass- 
ing tnrough some of the rapids of the river, and Dr. 
Baikie was unable longer to keep his party together. 
All returned home but himself; no way oaunted, he 
determined single-handed to carry out the purposes of 
the expedition. Landing from a small boat with one or 
two native followers at the confluence of the Quorraand 
Benue, he here chose the old model farm ground as the 
base of his future operations — a spot memorable from 
the disasters of the exploring party of 1841. After 
purchasing the site, and concluaing a treaty with tlie 
native chief, he proceeded to clear the ground, build 
houses, form enclosures, and pave the way for a future 
city. Numbers flocked to him from all parts round, and 
in his settlement were representatives of almost all the 
tribes of Central Africa. To the motley commonwealth 
thus formed he acted rot merely as ruler, but also as 
physician, teacher and priest. Before five vears he had 
opened up the ns^vigation of the Niger, made roads, and 
established a market, to which the native produce was 
brought for sale and barter. He had also collected 
vocabularies of nearly fifty African dialects, and trans- 
lated portions of the Bible and prayer-book into Housa. 
Once only during his residence had he to employ armed 
force against the surrounding tribes. He diecx on his 
way home, at Sierra Leone, in November 1863, aged 
ihirty-nine years. An appropriate monument has been 
erected to his memory withm the nave of the ancient 
cathedral of St. Magnus. 

BAIL {Baiiium) is used in common law for the free- 
ing or setting at liberty of one arrested or imprisoned 
upon any action, either civil or criminal, on surety taken 
for his appearance on a certain day or place. 

BAILEN, a town of Spain, in the province of Jaen, 
24 miles N.N.W. of Taen. It seems to correspond to 
the ancient Bsccula, where Scipicx^ained signal victories 
over Hasbrubal, 209 B.C., and over Mago and Masi- 
nissa, 206 B.C. In the neighborhood also, in 121 2, was 
fought the great battle of Navas de Tolosa, where 
Ali^ionso VUI. is said to have left 200.000 Moors dead 
on the field, with the loss of only 25 Christians. Here 
again, on the 23d of July 1808, the French general Du- 
pont, after a bloody contest of several days, signed the 
capitulation of Bailen, by which 17,000 men were de- 
livered up to the Spaniards as prisoners of war. This 
disaster was the first great blow to the French arms in 
the Peninsula. 

BAILEY, or Baily, Nathanael or Nathan, an 
eminent English philologist and lexicographer, whose 
Etymological English Dictionary, published apparently 
in 1721, was a great improvement on all previous voca- 
bularies, and really formed the basis of Johnson's great 
work. 

BAILEY, Samuel, an able writer on philosophical 
and literary subjects, was bom at Sheffield in 1791. In 
1852 he published Discourses on various Subjects; and 
finaUy summed up his philosophk: views in the Letters 
on the Philosophy of iJte Hunmn Mind (three series, 
'855* 1858, 1863), which is at once the most considerable 
and the most v Suable of his contributions to mental 
science. 

The Letters contain, ia dear and lively knguage, a 



B AI 



739 



very fresh discnssion of many of the principal problems 
in philosophy, or rather in pycology. Bailey can hardly 
be classea as belonging either to the strictly empirical 
or to the idealist ^ool, but his general tendency is 
towards the former. 

BAILLET, Adrien, a French writer and critic, was 
bom in June 1649, at the village of Neuville, near 
Beauvais, in Picardy, and died in January 1 706. 

BAILLEOL, an ancient town of France, in the de- 
partment of Nord, near the Belgian frontier, situated on 
a rising ground to the north of the River Lys. It was 
formerly a place of ^eat strength, and is now a busv 
industrial town, with manufactures of lace, threacl, 
black soap, pottery, woollen stuffs and ribbons, brandy, 
leather, ami cheese. Population, 12,896. 

BAILLIE, Joanna, poet and dramatist, was bom at 
the manse of Bothwell, on the banks of the Clyde (Scot- 
land), in 1762. The two sisters were left a small com- 
petence by their uncle, Dr. William Hunter, and u*ok 
up their residence at Hampstead, on the outskirts of 
London, where they passed the remainder of their 
lives. Miss BaiUie died on the 23d Feb. 185 1, at the 
advanced age of 89, her faculties remaining unimpaired 
to the last. Her gentleness and sweetness of disposition 
made her a universal favorite, and her little cottage at 
Hampstead was the centre of a brilliant literary 
society. Miss Baillie had received an excellent educa- 
tion, anH probably cultivated very early her faculty of 
poetical composition, but it was not till 1798 that she 
published the first volume of her P/ays on the Passions, 
The success of the first volume was very considerable, 
and a second edition was soon called for. A second 
volume followed in 1802, a third in 1812, and three 
more in 1836. Some miscellaneous dramas were pub- 
lished in 1804, and the Family Legend appeared in 
1810. Miss Baillie herself intended her plajrs not for 
the closet but for the stage. The Family Legend, 
brought out at Edinburgh under the enthusiasuc pa- 
tronage of Sir Walter Scott, had a brief though bril- 
liant success ; De Monfort had a short run in London, 
mainly through the acting of Kemble and Mrs. Siddons; 
Henriquez and The Separation were coldly received. 
The popular verdict has thus been given against the 
dramas as good stage plays, and the almost universal 
decision of readers has confirmed this judgment. The 
best of the tragedies are undoubtedly Henriquez^ The 
Separation^ De Monfort^ and Count Easily the first of 
which might perhaps be made into a good acting play. 

BAILLIE, Dr. Matthew, anatomist and physician, 
was born in the manse of Shotts, Lanarkshire, in 1761. 
He came of a highly gifted family; his father, the Rev. 
James Baillie, was successively clergyman of the parishes 
of Shotts, Bothwell, and Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, and 
afterwards professor of divinity in the university of 
Glasgow ; his mother was Dorothea, sister of the cele- 
bratol William and John Hunter; and his sister Joanna 
was the poet. Dr. Bailie was for several years a student 
in the university of Glasgow, where he heard the lectures 
of Dr. Reki on moral philosophy. His professional ca- 
reer was determined by the advice of his uncle. Dr. 
William Hunter, who undertook to superintend his ed- 
ucation. On his father's death he obtained an exhibi- 
tion to Balliol College, Oxford, where he remained a 
year before removing to London. His studies were 
there carried on under the personal direction of his 
uncle, and after two years he began to be associated 
with Dr. Hunter in his anatomical lectures as an assistant 
and demonstrator, vi-iiting Oxford occasionally, so as to 
keep the terms necessary for the degree of bachelor of 
medicine. Dr. Hunter, at his death, bequeathed the use 
of his magnificent collections to his nephew, together 
with the lecture-rooms in Windmill Street, an annuity 



of jf 100 a year, and a small family estate in Scotland. 
In 1795 b^ published his Morbid Anatomy^ a work 
which was speedily translated into French, ftalian, and 
German, into the last by the anatomist Sommering. 

B A ILLI E, Robert, a prominent Scotch Presbyterian 
of the 17th century, was oom at Glasgow in 1602. He 
graduated in 1620 at the university of that town, and 
then applied himself to the study of divinity. In 1638 
he was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly, and 
soon after he accompanied Leslie and the Scotch army 
as chaplain or preacher. He continued to take an act- 
ive part in all the minor disputes of the church, and in 
1661, after the ejection of Gillespie, he was made prin- 
cipal of the Glasgow University. He died in August of 
the following year, — his death being probably hastened 
by his mortification at the apparently firm establishment 
of Episcopacy in Scotland. Baillie was a man of learn- 
ing and ability ; his views were not extreme, and he 
played but a secondary part in the stirring events of the 
time. 

BAILLY, Jean Sylvain, a French astronomer and 
orator, was born at Paris on the 15th September 1736. 
His acquaintance and friendship with the celebrated 
mathematician Lacaille, and perhaps the example of his 
brilliant young contemporary Clairaut, decided the di- 
rection of his studies, which were then entirely devoted 
to science and scientific investigation. The first of his 
labors was a calculation of the comet which appeared in 
the year 1759. ^'^}1^Z ^^ ^^s admitted a member of 
the Academy of Sciences ; and in the same year he pub- 
lished a reduction of the observations made by Lacaille 
in 1760 and 1761 on the zodiacal stars, a compilation of 
great labor and utility. In 1764 he competed for the 
prize offered by the Academy for a dissertation on 
the theory of Jupiter's satellites. Lagrange, who was 
a complete master of the most powerful analysis, was 
the successful competitor ; but Bailly's memoir, which 
was published in an expanded form in 1766, showed 
great ability, and at once established the author's repu- 
tation as a physical astronomer. He followed up his 
dissertation m 1771 with an able and important memoir 
on the Light of the Satellites^ in which he expounded 
some novel and elegant methods of observation. 

In the year 1 775 ne published the first volume of his 
most extensive work, J/istory of Astronomv, which con- 
tained the hbtory from its oririn down to tne foundation 
of ihe Alexandrian school. This was followed by three 
volumes on Modem Astronomy ^ published between 1776 
and 1783. 

The quiet course of Bailly's Ufe, hitherto devoted to 
literature and science, was now broken in upon by that 
great convulsion, the French Revolution, of which he 
was one ci the first and most zealous promoters. In 
the part which he acted, he has had the singular good 
fortune to be well spoken of by opposite factions, and 
has never been char^ either with want of integrity or 
with selfish designs. When the states-general of France 
were assembled in 1789, he was elected a deputy to the 
tiers'itat^ of which he was afterwards chosen president; 
and when the national assembly had been constituted, he 
continued in the chair, and officiated as president at the 
time the king's proclamation was issued ordering that 
body to disperse. During the struggle which took place 
between the national assembly and the court, Bailly was 
amongst the most forward in asserting those popular 
rights which were then new in France; and it was he who 
dictated the famous oath to the members of the tiers- 
^tat, hy which they pledged themselves " to resist tyrants 
and tyranny, and never to separate till they had obtained 
a free constitution." On the 14th of July following, 
the day on which the Bastille was stormed and taken by 
the people, he was by uoiversal consent appointed 



740 



BAI 



mayor of Paris. In thk high office be ft illowed to 
have acted with great inteerity, courage, and modera- 
tion, and to have dischargedits arduous and sometimes 
perilous duties in a highly honorable manner, and during 
Its course he was instrumental in promoting the various 
measures by which the popular party at length prevailed 
over that of the court ; for which, as well as for his 
conduct in other respects, he obtain«l a high decree of 
popularity. But the multitude, newly uns)uu:klcd from 
the fetters of despotism, greedy of novelty, fired with 
enthusiastic and unsettled notions of freedom, and daily 
panting for change, would brook no opposition to their 
twild schemes. Sailly, who probably saw too late the 
general disposition of the people to anarchy, still wished 
the laws to be respected, and hoped by the vigorous 
enforcement of them to restore and maintain tran- 
quility. He ordered some deputies from the 
military insurgents of Nancy to be arrested, 
and firmly opposed the rash proceedings of 
Murat and Hebert ; he ceased to be a member of the 
Jacobin club ; and he exerted himself strongly to per- 
suade the populace to permit the king and royal family 
to depart to St. Cloud. By these measures, which were 
very distasteful to the ficlcle and infuriated peopk, he 
lost their confidence and favor ; and his popularity was 
finally destroyed by his conduct on the occasion o« the 
tumultuous meeting of the populace on the 17th of 
July 1 791, to demand the abolition of monarchy; fw, 
when called on by the national assembly to disperse the 
mob, who had assaulted the soldiery, he ordered the 
latter to fire, by which means 40 persons were killed and 
above 100 wounded. Finding himself after this an ob- 
ject of hatred and suspicion to the people, whom he had 
faithfully served, he resigned his office at the dissolution 
of the constituent assembly in the end of the year 1791, 
and retired to Nantes. From there he wrote to Laplace, 
who was residing at Melun, and proposed, if it were 
safe, to join him. Laplace, finding that a detachment of 
revolutionary troupe had been ordered to Melun, ad- 
vised Bailly not to venture, but his advise was neg- 
lected. The ex-mayor was recognised by one of the 
soldiers, arrested, and thrown into prison. Arraigned 
on loth November 1793 before a sanguinary tribunal, 
he was on the nth condemned to death as a conspira- 
tor, and executed the day following, near the spot where 
he had given the order for the military to fire on the 
people. He met his death with the greatest calmness 
and courage. 

BAILy, Edward Hodges, a distinguished sculptor, 
was born at Bristol, loth March 1788, and died at Lon- 
don 22d May 1867. 

BAILY, Francis, an English astronomer, was bom 
in Berkshire in the year 1774, and for many years car- 
ried on business as a stockbroker in London. While 
amassing a large fortune by his business, he applied the 
profound mathematical knowledge for which he was dis- 
tinguished to the doctrine of probabilities, and published 
several interesting works on that subject. Baily was 
extremely patient and methodical, and these qualities 
enabled him to effect, in the last twenty years of his 
career, a greater number of researches than most other 

fhilosophers have accomplished during a whole lifetime, 
le died August 30, 1844. 

BAINBRIDGE, Dr. John, physician and astrono- 
mer, was bom at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, in Leicestershire, 
in the year 1582. He taught a grammar school for 
some years, and practised physic, employing his leisure 
hours in astronomy, which was his favorite study. After 
removing to London he was admitted a Fellow of the 
College of Physicians, and gained considerable reputa- 
tion mr his description of the comet in 16 18. The next 
y^ar Sir Henry SaviUe appointed Bainbridg^ his first 



pr of estor of astronomy at Oxford; and the masters and 
lellowa of Merton College made him first jmilor, aoi 
then superior reader of Linacre's lecture. He died 
in 1643. 

BAINES, Edward, for many years proprietor and 
editor of the Lenis Mercury^ and M. P. (or Leeds from 
1814 to 1841, was born in 1774 at Walton-le-Ddhe, a 
village distant a little way from Preston, in Lancashire. 
In iSoi the assistance of friends enabled him to pvchasc: 
the copyright of the Leeds Mercury, Provincial news- 
papers did not at that time possess moch influence; the 
editorial province was not extended to the composition 
of what are now called leading articles, and the system 
of reporting was defective. In both respects Baines 
made a complete change in the Mercury, Tlie abflitj 
of his political articles ^aduall]^ caused the paper to be 
looked upon as the organ of Laberal opinion m Leeds, 
and it contributed not a little to the spread of soond 
doctrines on practical Questions in the north of En^md. 
He strongly advocated the separation of char(£ and 
state, and oppoMKd Government interference in national 
education. His letters to Lord John Russell on the 
latter question (1846) had a powerful influence in deter- 
mining the action of the Government He died in 
1848. 

BAINES, Matthew Talbot, eldest son of the 
above, was bom in 1799, and died m i86a He was 
educated at Cambridge, and entered the bar. 

BAIN I, Giuseppe, a learned musical critic and com- 
poser of church music, was bom at Rome in 1775, auid 
died there in 1844. 

BAIRAM, a Turkish or Persian word meaning/Au/; 
is the name applied to the two great Mahometan festi- 
vals. The first of these, called generally, though, ac- 
cording to some authorities, incorrectly, the Greater 
Bairam, is the day following the Ramadan, or Month of 
fasting. 1 1 lasts strictly for only one day, though thecom- 
mon people generally extend it to three, and is a period 
of great animation and enjo3m[ient What iscallea com- 
monly the Lesser Bairam follows the first at an interval 
of sixty days. It is the feast of sacrifices, at which all 
Mahometans imitate the oflerings of animals which are 
then being made at Mecca to commemorate Abraham's 
offering of Isaac. It lasts for four days, and is not of 
so sacred a character as the first Bairam. 

BAIRD, General Sir David, Bart., was bom at 
Newbyth in Aberdeenshire, in December 1757. He en- 
tered the British army in 17739 and was sent to India 
with the 73d Highlanders in 1779. In the foUowinff 
year he had the misfortime to udl into the hands <n 
Hyder Ali, in the Mysore chief 's perfidious attack on a 
handful of British troops at Perambucum. The 
prisoners, were most barbarously treated. Baird sur- 
vived his captivity ; and on his release, visited his native 
country, but returned to India in 1 791 as a lieutenant- 
colonel. In 1804 he was knighted, and in the following 
year commanded the expedition against the Cape c7 
Good Hope, and capturctl Cape Town ; but here again 
his usual ill-luck attended him, for he was recalled b<?ore 
he had organised his conquest, for having sanctioned the 
expedition of Sir Home ropham a£|ainst Buenos A3rres. 
He served again in 1807 in tne expedition against Copen- 
hagen, and m the following year commanded the con- 
siderable force which was sent to Spain to co-operate 
with Sir John Moore. In the battle of Coralia, where, 
after the death of Moore, he held supreme command, a 
grape-shot shattered his left arm, so that it had to be 
amputated at the shoulder-joint He again obtamed 
the thanks of Parliament for his gallant services, and 
was rewarded with the decoration of the order of the 
Bath, and the rank of a baronet He died on the i8th 
August 1829. (See Hook's U/e of Sir David Saird.) 



BAI— BAK 



741 



BAIItEUTH, or BAVUBimf, the capital of the circle 
of iyt>per Franconia, in Bavaria, is pleasantly situated in 
a valley on the left bank of tfaie Red Maine, 40 miles 
N.N.E. of Nuremberg. It is well built, with broad, 
regular, and well-paved streets, and is partially sur- 
rounded by old walls. The river is crossed here by two 
bridges. Most of the buildings are of comparatively 
modem date, the dty having suffered severely from the 
Hussites in 1430^ and from a conflagration in 162 1. 
Baireuth has been chosen by Richara Wagner as the 
scene of his musical festivals, and a theatre has been 
erected for his special use. Population, 17,841. 

BAJA, a market-town of Hungarv, in the countr of 
Bacs, on the left bank of the Danube, 90 miles S. of 
Pesth. It was burned down in 1807, but has since been 
well built Population, 18,110. 

BAJAZET I., sultan of the Turks, commenced to 
reign m 1589, and died in 1403. The well-known story 
of uie iron cage, in which this monarch was sakl to have 
been aurried about by his conqueror Timur, has no au- 
thority, and probably originated in a mistake as to the 
word for a litter^ in which Bajazet was carried. 

BAJAZET II., son of Mahomet II., succeeded his 
lather as sultan in 1481, and died in 1512. Sec Con- 
STANTiNOPLB and Turkey. 

BAJUS, or D£ Bay, Micharl, a celebrated theolo- 
gian, was bom at Melin in Hainaut in 15 13. 

BAJZA, Anton, a distinguished Hungarian poet and 
critic, was bom at Sziicsi in 1804. His earnest contri- 
butions were made to Kbfaludy's Aurora^ a literary 
paper of which he was editor from 1830 to 1837. He 
also wrote largely in the Kritische Bldtter^ the Athe- 
futum^ and the Figyelmeto^ or Observer, His criticisms 
on dramatic art were considered the best of these mis- 
cellaneous writing^ 

BAKARGANJ, a district of British India in the 
Dacca division, under the Lieutenant-Governor of Ben- 
gd, is bounded on the N. by the districts of Dacca and 
Faridpur, from which it is separated by the Padmd and 
Mainak&tflchdl ; on the £. by the Meglmd and Sh^b^- 
pur rivers, and by the Bay of Bengal, which separates it 
from No^h&li and Tipperah ; on the S. by the Bay of 
Bengal ; and on the W. by Jessor and Faridpur dis- 
tricts. Area, 4935 square miles ; population, 2,^7,433. 
The general aspect of the district is that of a flat even 
countiy, dottea with clusters of bamboos and betel-nut 
trees, and intersected by a perfect network of dark-col- 
ored and sluggish streams. There is not a hill or hillock 
in the wholedistrict, but it derives a certain picturesque 
beauty from its wide expanses of cultivation, and the 
greenness and freshness of the vegetation. This is es- 
pecially conspicuous in the rains, but at no time of the 
3rear does the district present a dried or bumt-up appear- 
ance. The villages, which are alwa3rs walled round by 
groves of bamboos and betel-nut palms, have oft en a very 
striking appearance ; and Bdkar^anj has many beauties 
of detiul wnich strike a traveller m passing through the 
country. The level of the country is low, forming as it 
does a part of the great Gangetic Delta; and the rivers, 
streams, and water-courses are so numerous that it is 
very difficult to travel except by boat at any season of 
the year. ^ Every natural hollow is full of water, around 
the margin of which long grasses, reeds, and other aquatic 

Slants grow in the greatest profusion, often makmg it 
ifficult to say where the land ends and where the water 
begins. Towards the north-west the country is very 
nsu^y, and nothing is to be seen for miles but tracts of 
imreclaimed swamps and rice lands, with a few huts scat- 
tered here and there, and raised on mounds of earth. In 
the south of the district, alone the sea face of the Bay of 
Bengal, lie the forest tracts of the Sundarbans, the habi« 
tatioa of tigers^ leopards, and other wikl beasts. 



Like all other districts of Bengal, B£karganj has 
steadily increased in prosperity since its administration 
passed into the hands of English oflicers, and especially 
of late years, since the country has been directly under 
the Crown. 

BAKER, Henry, a distinguished naturalist, was 
bom in Fleet Street, London, in 1698. 

BAKER, Sir Richard, author of the Chronicle of 
the Kings 0/ England ^ was bora at Sissinghurst, m 
Kent, alK)ut the year 1568. He was educate! at Ox- 
ford, took the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1603 re- 
ceived the honor of knighthood. In 1620 he was made 
high sherifl* of Oxfordshire; but having engaged to pay 
some debts of his wife's family, he was redu^ to rfov- 
erty, and obliged to betake himself for shelter to the Fleet 
prison, where he died, Febraary 18, 1645. During his 
confinement he composed numerous works, historical, 
poetical, and miscelmneous. 

BAKER, Thomas, a learned antiquary, descended 
from an ancient family distinguished by its loyalty, was 
bom at Crook in 1656. 

BAKEWELL, a market town in Derbyshire, on the 
River Wye, 152 miles from London. Its hne old church 
contains monuments of the families of Vemon and Man- 
ners. The inhabitants are supported by the working of 
the coal, lead, and zinc mines, and the stone and marble 
quarries in the neighborhood. 

BAKHCHISARAI (Turkish, the Garden Palace), a 
town of Russia in the government of Taurus, situated 
in a narrow gorge on the banks of a small stream called 
the Chirjruk-Su, about 10 miles S.S. W. of SimpheropoL 
Of unknown origin, it became towards the close of the 
15th century the residence of the Tatar khans; and its 
chief objects of interest are the remains of its splendor 
under the Tartar djmasty. The population still consists 
for the most part of Tatars, Catherine II. in 1783 hav- 
ing granted them the exclusive right of habitation m the 
city. The remainder consists of Russians, Greeks, Ar- 
menians, and Jews. 

BAKHMUT, a town of Russia in the government of 
Ekaterinoslav, near the river from which it derives its 
name. 

^BAKING. The art of baking consists in heating 
anything in an oven or fire so as to harden it, and in this 
sense the term is used when applied to the manufacture 
of bread, porcelain, pottery, and bricks. It is also 
applied to certain moaes of dressing or cooking animal 
food ; thus we speak of baked meats, pies, &c. In the 
present article the baking of flour or meal for use as 
human food will alone be treated of. 

The origin of bakine, as of most arts of primary 
importance, precedes the period of history, and is 
involved in the obscurity of the early ajges of the human 
race. Excavations conducted on the site of some of the 
numerous lake dwellings of Switzerland have resulted in 
the discovery of abundant evidence that the art of mak- 
ing bread was practised by our prehistoric ancestors as 
early as the Stone Period. Not only have stones for 
grindin|; meal and bakmg bread been discovered, but 
bread itself in large quantities has been disinterred, 
preserved by being carbonised in the fires which fre- 
quently destroyed the pile-dwellings of the primitive 
inhabitants of the world. At Robenhausen, Meissko- 
mer discovered 8 pounds of bread, a weight which would 
correspond with aoout 40 pounds of newly-bokcd bread. 
At Wangen there has b^ discovered " actual baked 
bread or cake made of the crushed com, precisely simi- 
lar to that found about the same time oy Mr. Meiss- 
komer at Robenhausen. Of course, it has been burned 
or charred, and thus these interesting specimens have 
been preserved to the present day. The form of these 
cakes is somewhat rouiid, and about an inch to an inch 



742 



BAK 



and a half in diameter. The dough did not consist of 
meal, but of grains of com more or less crushed. In 
some specimens the halves of grains of barlev are 
plainly discernible. The under side of these cakes is 
sometimes flat, sometimes concave, and there appears no 
doubt that the mass of dough was baked by oeing laid 
on hot stones and covered over with flowing ashes." 

The very early mention of bread m written history 
further bears out the great antiquity of the art of bak- 
ing. Bread is first specifically mentioned in Genesis 
xviii. 5, when Abraham, wishing to entertain the three 
angels on the plains of Mamre, offered to " fetch a mor- 
sel of bread ; ** and the operation of baking is immedi- 
ately thereafter alluded to in the instructions to Sarah 
to " make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, 
knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. *' At the 
same time, when, in the city of Sodom, Lot entertained 
two angels, " he made them a feast, and dkl bake un- 
leavened bread, and they did eat " (Genesis xix. 3). It 
may be inferred from the mention of unleavened bread 
that, in those patriarchal times, the two great classes of 
bread were known and used. At a period little later 
the art of baking was carried to a nigh perfection in 
Egypt, which then took the lead in the arts of civilised 
life. The Egyptians baked cakes and loaves of many 
varieties and snapes, in which they employed several 
kinds of tiour, and they flavored their bread with various 
aromatic ingredients. The chief baker of Pharaoh, who 
was in prison along with Joseph, doubtless pursued his 
craft in its essentialfeatures in the same way as bakers 
do at the present day. 

From ancient Egypt excellence in the art of baking 
travelled with the march of civilisation into Greece, and 
the allusion to bread in the works of classic authors are 
very numerous. In The Deipnosof>hists of Athenaeus 
mention is made of no less than sixty-two varieties of 
bread as known among the aiicient Greeks, and minute 
descriptions of many of t*iem are given. ^ We learn 
from Pliny {Nat. Hist.y xviii. 28) that professional bakers 
were first introduced into Rome at the close of the war 
with Perseus, king of Macedon. By the practical 
Romans the baking trade was formed into a kind of in- 
corporation or guild, with special privileges and immu- 
nities attached to the calling. Public oakeries were 
distributed throughout the city, to which slaves were 
assigned for performing the heavier and more disagree- 
able tasks connected with the occupation. Grain was 
delivered into public granaries by enrolled Saccarii^ and 
it was distributed to tne bakers oy a corporation called 
the CataboUnses, No separate mills for grinding com 
then existed, the grain being pounded ana sifted m the 
bakeries, and hence the Roman bakers were known as 
Pistores, A special magistrate was appointed to take 
cognisance of every matter connected with the manage- 
ment of public bakeries. 

The calling of the baker during the Middle Ages was 
considered to be one so closely affecting the interests of 
the public that it was put under strict regulation and 
supervision, and these special restrictions continued to 
affect the trade down to very recent times. In England, 
an Act of Parliament was passed in 1266 for regmating 
the price of bread by a public assize, and that S3rstem 
contmued in operation till 1822 in the case of the city 
of London, and till 1836 for the rest of the country. 
The price of bread was determined by adding a certam 
sum to the price of every quarter of flour, in the name 
of the baker's expenses and profit ; and for the sum so 
arrived at tradesmen were required to bake and sell 
eighty quartern loaves, or a litce proportion of other 
sizes, which it was reckoned each quarter or flour ought 
to yield. 

The arr of making bread made its way northwards 



very slowly ; and even at present, m the northern conn- 
tries of Europe and Asia, loaves of bread are sekiom 
used except by the higher classes of inhabitants. In 
Sweden, for example, rolls are frequently seen in the 
towns, but loaves rarely. Towards the end of 181 2 the 
captain of an English packet ordered a Gothenburg 
baJcer to bake for him a quantity of bread, to the value 
of j^i sterling. The baker was confounded at so large 
an order, and refused to comply till the captain gave 
him security that he would carry off and pay for the 
loaves, declaring that he could never dispose of so great 
a quantity of bread in Gothenburg if it were left upon 
his hands. In the country part of Sweden no breaa is 
made but rye-cakes, nearly as hard as flint, whidi are 
only baked twice a year. About a centuiy ago loaf- 
bread was almost as rare in the roral districts of Scot- 
land, barley bannocks and oaten cakes then constituting 
the universal substitutes anK>ng almost all ranks. In 
many parts of England it is the custom for private fam- 
ilies to bake their own bread. This is particularly the 
case in Kent, and in some parts of Lancashire. In the 
year 1804 ^^ town of Manchester, with a population 
of 90,000 persons, dkl not contain a single puolic baleer. 

As compared with wheat-flour all other materials used 
for making bread are of comparative insignificance. 
Oatcakes still form a staple artkle of food in many rural 
districts of Scotland, and are occasionally used in other 
countries. They are made by mixing up oatmeal, warm 
water, and salt, sometimes with the aadition of butter 
or fat, into a very stiff paste, and kneading this out into 
a thin cake, which is first fired on a hot plate or ** girdle,** 
and finished in front of an open fire. Scones of barley- 
flour, sweet and tough, were formerly largely used m 
Scotland, but have now given place to a similar prepara- 
tion of wheaten flour. Rye bread, both fermented and 
unfermented, is largely consumed by the inhabitants of 
the northern parts of Europe in the poor and backward 
districts Cakes of maize meal, baked like oat cakes, are 
consumed in many parts of the United States. The meal 
of various species of millet is used in Southern Europe to 
form bread; and in India and China, durra {Sorghum 
imigare) and other cereal grains are baked for food. 
Of non-cereal flours, the principal used for bread-making 
is buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum^ extensively em- 
ployed in Russia and Holland. The flour of pease, 
beans, and other leguminous seeds, are also baked into 
cakes; and cavassa cakes are made from the meal of the 
tapioca plant, Jatropha Manihot^ in South America. 
Excepting rye, none of these substances is used for 
making vesiculated or fermented bread. 

The r^rain of wheat consists of an outer husk or 
covering, an embryo or germ, and a central mass of 
farinaceous material The outer husk is composed of 
several distinct layers of ligjieous tissue, closely adhering 
to the seed, and very hard in texture. In grinding, this 
is detached in scales, and constitutes the chief propor- 
tion of the bran. The inner portion of the envelope is 
softer, and contains an active nitrogenous principle, 
termed cereah'n, and is besides rich m fat and salts. 
This portion goes with the pollard or parings in the 
dressmg of wheat flour. Towards the centre of the 
grain the substance becomes whiter in color and more 
friable in texture, so that, in grinding, the finest flour 
in consistence is always the whitest in appearance. By 
agriculturists several hundred varieties of wheat and a 
number of distinct species are recognised; but in com- 
merce the grain is distinguished as white and red, or as 
hard and soft wheats. There is a considerable range of 
difference in the proportions of their proximate constitu- 
ents, hard wheats as a rule being much more nitrogen- 
ous than the soft varieties; and similarly, wheats grown 
in hot climates are also usually richest in nitrogen* 



BAK 



743 



The following analyses of two typical varieties of wheat 
are taken from Payen's tables, water being neglected: — 

Hard Wheat Soft Wheat 

I'aganrog. Touzelle. 

Nitrogenous matter 2aoo 12.65 

Starch ^i'^ 74-5' 

Dextrin 8.00 6.05 

Cellulose 3.10 2.80 

Fatty matter 2.25 1.87 

Mineral matter 2.85 2.12 

When wheat is ground it is sifted or dressed into a 
series of mill products, ranging from fine flour to bran, 
according to the size of the ground particles. 

It is a disputed point whether dextrin or sugar exists 
in flour of tne best quality; but the action of heat and 
moisture in the baking process quickly transforms a por- 
tion of the starch into the soluble condition. In nour 
of inferior quality a large percentage of dextrin is usually 
found — a circumstance very detnmental to its bread- 
making qualities. A table of the percentage of gluten, 
obtained by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert from a large 
number of flours, shows a variation from 8.9 to 14.9 per 
cent. This gluten itself (the insoluble nitrogenous sub- 
stance in flour) is a compound body, compo^ of three 
or four distinct substances ; but its phjrsical conditions 
of elasticity, tenacity, and color are of much greater 
importance to the baker than either its chemiod consti- 
tution or its amount. 

The varieties of wheaten bread are divisible into two 
great cla.sses — Unvesiculated and VesictUattd Br^. 
Under the first head are included such products of the 
art as are fired or baked without first oeing raised or 
rendered spongy by the development of carbonic acid 
gas within the mass, either by fermentation or other- 
wise. Vesiculated bread is produced when carbonic 
acid is either developed in or introduced into the dough, 
so as to permeate the mass with an infinite number of 
minute cavities, which render the product Ught and 
spongiform. 

Unvesiculated Bread. — The simplest form of 
bread, and the rudest baking, are seen in the Australian 
** Damper," a cake made from dough composed of flour, 
salt, and water, baked in the dying embers of a wood 
fire. The doueh is laid on a flat stone, covered with a 
tin plate, and me hot ashes heaped around and over it, 
care being taken not to expose it to a heat of more than 
212° Fahr. Passover cakes, scones and "bannocks" 
are prepared from a similar dough, and fired on hot 
plates or in ovens, and form an agreeable and nutritious 
food. When such dough is exposed to a high heat, so 
that the resulting cake is hard, ary, and resonant, biscuits 
(bis cuit, twice baked) are formed. 

Biscuit Manufacture. — Biscuit making is a branch 
of trade distinct from ordinary baking, conducted under 
different conditions, and requiring machinery and pro- 
cesses peculiar to itself. Biscuits are made by a rapkl 
and continuous process; they can be preserved a long 
time, and in proportion to Uieir price they occupy little 
space, so that it is practicable to sell them in markets 
remote from the place of manufacture. The manufac- 
ture of biscuits is now conducted on a very large scale, 
ingenious and complicated machinery is employed in the 
Various processes, and a large export trade in biscuits 
has grown up. 

^ There is an endless variety in the form and composi- 
tion of plain and fancy biscuits. 

The richest class of biscuits, the dough for which is 
necessarily soft, are cut out by hand labor, and fired on 
trays iii common ovens. The dough for rout biscuits is 
placed in a stronj^ metal box or chamber in which a 
piston is tightly fitted. The piston is moved forw^ 
by a screw, and it pushes the dough through a series of 



holes or dies. The doc^h is received on a sliding board, 
and is cut into proper lengths by a knife. Cracknels 
are made without either milk or water being used tp 
mix the doug^h, eggs alone being employed for this pur- 
pose. Certain proportions of butter, sugar, and sesqui- 
carbonate of ammonia are added to the mixtiu-e of flour 
and eggs, and the dough is baked in the usual way. 
The cracknels, when cut out, are thrown into a boiler of 
boiling water, and in about two minutes they float to 
the top. They are then fished ouj and thrown into 
coki water, and then drained on clotlS, panned, and fired 
in an ordinary oven at a high heat. In the firing, the 
ammonia carbonate, being very volatile, is driven off, 
and the cracknell thus assumes its spongy structure. 
Many other varieties of biscuits are rendered light and 
spon^orm by the use of the sesqui-carbonate of am- 
monia, or of carbonate of soda, in conjunction with sour 
milk. In the firing of biscuits, not only the moisture of 
the dough is driven off, but a certain proportion of the 
water held by the flour in its apparently dry state, sq 
that from 10 lb of flour only about 9 lb pf water bi^ 
cuits are obtained. ' 

Vesiculated Bread. — Under this head is included 
such bread as is rendered spongiform in structure by the 
action of carbonic acid within the dough, and which is 
not baked hard and dry as in the case of biscuits. It 
includes ordinary loaf bread, pan loaves, French or 
Paris loaves, cottage loaves, bricks, rolls, buns, and 
many varieties of fancy bread distinguished by local 
names and minor differences of form and composition. 
Vesiculated bread is made in three different ways : — 

IJ/, By the development of carbonic acid within 
the dough through fermentation of the flour. This is 
the ordinary and principal method of bread-making. 

2</, By mixing the dough with water previously 
aerated with carbonic acid. The aerated bread made 
under the patent of the late Dr. Danglish is thus manu- 
factured. 

3^, By the disengagement of carbonic acid from 
chemical agents introduced in the dough. Dodson*s pat- 
ent unfermented bread comes under this head, and the 
" baking powders " and " yeast powders " extensively sold 
consist generally of carbonate of soda or ammonia and 
citric or tartaric acid, which evolve carbonic acid in 
presence of water. 

Fermented Breed. — Tlie manufacture of fermented 
or leavened bread is, 1.3 has already been hinted, of very 
great antiquity, and it ; i still by the fermentation pro- 
cess that bread is chiefly made. In ancient times leaven 
was employed to induce fermentation in dough (** a little 
leaven leaveneth the whole lump,"GaL v. 0), and to this 
day Parisian bakers, who excel all others m the quality 
of the bread they produce, chiefly use the same ferment. 
Leaven is simply a portion of dough, put aside from a 
previous baking, in which the fermentative action has 
reached an advanced stage of activity. • Yeast, however, 
has been used as a ferment firom an early period, and it 
appears that it was first so employed in France. Pliny 
saj^s (Nat, Hist.^ xviii. 12), **Gailise et Hispaniae fru- 
mento in potum resoluto, spuma ita concreta pro fer- 
mento utuntrr ; qua de causa levior illis quam caeteris 
panis est." The use of yeast appears to have died out 
in France, but was revived again towards the end of the 
17th century, when its rcintroduction was violently op- 
posed by the Faculty of medicine of Paris. Yeast is 
now used by Parisan bakers for fancy bread and pastry 
only. 

The baking of fermented bread involves three dis- 
tinct operations, which are technicallv denominated 
"setting the sponge," making the dough or kneading, 
and baking or firing. It will be convenient first to de- 
scribe these processes as they are conducted in a Lon- 



744 



BAK 



don bftkehopse. The first dat^ of the bftker is to mix a 
fennent, which consists of a mixture of p>otatoes, yeast, 
and flour. The potatoes, in the proportion of 6 lb to a 
sack of flour, are boiled and mashed m a tub, and water 
is stirred in, till the mixture a reduced to a temperature 
of from 70^ to 90° Fahr. About 2}^ pints of yeast 
and 12 lb of flour scalded in boiling water are then 
added, and the whole forming a thin uniform paste is 
set aside for several hours, during which it underg^oes an 
active fermentation. Setting the spon^ consists in 
mixing the ferment in a large trough with flour and 
water sufficient to make the whole into a rather stiff 
paste. The flour used at this stage, when ** full sponge ** 
IS made, should be about one-half the entire quantity 
intended to be used in the ** batch,** and the ingredients 
have to be thoroughly incorporated by the workman 
stirrin|[ them laboriously together with his arms. The 
operation occupies from twenty minutes to half an 
hour, and when ready the sponge is covered over and 
allowed to rest for several hours according to the temp- 
erature at which it is maintained. Generally in from 
four to five hours the sponge " rises ; ** fermentation has 
been going on, and carbonic acid steadily accumulating 
within the tenacious mass till it has assumed a puffed 
out appearance. By degrees the sponee gives off* the 
gas in puflk, and the mass begins to coUapse, till what 
was a swollen convex surface assumes a somewhat con- 
cave form, the centre being depressed while the sides ad- 
here to the edges of the trough. The workman judg^: 
by the amount of collapse the time the sp<»ige is reuiy 
to be taken in hand for kneading or making the dough. 

A loaf ready for going into the oven has about £df 
the bulk it attains during the process of firing. Batches 
of cottage and household loaves are packed close side by 
side on the sole of the oven, the sides of eadi loaf being 
rubbed with butter to. prevent them from adhering to 
each other, and thev are consequently crusted on the 
top and bottom only. Pan loaves are baked each in 
separate tinned pans of the form of the loaf, and Paris- 
ian loaves are baked end to end in long tinned pans. 
The firing of bread in the oven occupies from i to i^ 
hours, the temperature at the beginning of the process 
being 550^ to 600° Fahr. The baker can ascertain if 
the oven is at a proper temperature by throwing a little 
flour on the sole of the oven, which ought to turn to a 
h'ght brown color. Ovens in London are usually built 
of brick, with a sole only 2}^ inches thick ; in Scotland 
stone is used, the sole being from 10 to 12 inches thick, 
and the oven consequently retains heat much more 
effectually. 

Sound flour yields firom 90 to 94 4-lb loaves per bag 
of 280 lb, some " strong*' flours giving even a greater 
quantity of bread. 

The bakers* standard of excellence of flour, apart 
from the question of color, is the weijght of bread it 
will produce of a proper dryness ana texture. The 
** strength ** of flour in this respect appears to depend 
much more on its condition than on the absolute per- 
centage of its constituents. 

Panar^ Fermentation. — It would be altogether out 
of place m this paper to refer to the conflicting theories 
as to the cause of fermentation in organic substances. 
The so-called panary fermentation in bread-making is a 
true alcoholic fermentation, and whether induced by 
yeast or leaven the result is precisely the same. The 
gluten of the flour is the fermenting agent, and it is 
stirred into activity by contact with a glutinous body 
already in an active condition, which may be either 
yeast or leaven. In this condition it exerts a fermenta- 
tive influence over the sugar which may either have 
existed previously in flour, or which is at least imme- 
diately developed in it by the influence of moisture. 



The active gluten splits up each molecule of sugar tnttt 
two of alcohol, two of carbonic ackl, and one of water, 
and consequentlv an infinite number of minute air 
bubbles are developed throughout the fermenting mass. 

As the evolution of carbonic ackl and alcohol proceeds, 
the sponge gradually swells, the little bubbles coalesce 
and enlarge, rising ttirough the tenacious mass till the 
surface is reached, and then the carbonic add bursts 
out and the dough begins to fall This process woukl 
go on a considerable time, but the alcoholic fermen- 
tation would soon pass into an acetous fermentation, 
and the sponge would become sour. When acetous 
fermentation ensues, as not unfrequentlj happens in 
baking, it may be remedied to some extent by the addi- 
tion of bicarbonate of soda to the sponge. The late 
master of the mint, Dr. Thomas Graham, was the first 
to demonstrate the presence of alcohol in fermented 
doc^, and he thus describes his experiment. *<To 
avoid the use of yeast, which might introduce alcohol, a 
small quantity of^flour was kneaded and allowed to fer- 
ment in the usual way to serve as leaven. By means of 
the leaven a considerable (quantity of flour was fermented, 
and when the fermentation had arrived at the proper 
point, formed into a loaf. The loaf was carefuUy en- 
cloced in a distillatory apparatus, and subjected for a 
consklerable time to the baking temperature. Upon 
examining the distilled liqukl the taste and smeU of alco- 
hol were quite perceptible, and by repeatedly rectifying 
it, a small quantity of alcohol was obtained, of strength 
sufficient to btm and to ignite gunpowder by its com- 
bustion. The experiment was freauentlj[ repeated, and in 
diffierent bakings the amount of tne spirit obtained of the 
above strength was found to vary from 0.3 to i per cent, 
of the flour employed." Although the temperature of 
the oven drives off'^that amount of the spirit, fermented 
bread is yet found to retain a proportion of alcohol, as 
much as from 0.221 to 0.401 per cent, having been found 
in different specimens of biaked bread. Speaking in 
1858, Dr. Odling estimated the amount of al(x»hol 
thrown out into the atmosphere from the bread baked 
in London as equal to 300,000 gallons of spirits annu- 
ally. Many vcars ago a patent was secured by a Mr. 
Hicks for collecting and condensing the alcoholic fumes 
from bakers* ovens, and a company was formed for 
working the invention. After an expenditure of £20,- 
000 the attempt had to be abandoned, not from any 
failure to obtain the spirit, but because the bread baked 
in the process was dry, unpalatable and unsalable. 

When what is termed ** whole wheaten flour** — that is, 
the entire substance of the grain, excepting only the 
outer bran — is baked, it is icnown that the resulting 
loaf is of a dark brown color, sweetish in taste, and 
liable to be somewhat heavy and sodden. The brown 
color was at one time fupiK)sed to be due to the pres- 
ence of bran particles in the flour, and in 1846 an 
American, Mr. Bentz, invented a process for removing 
the outer cuticle of wheat before grinding, it being sup- 
posed that the flour so prepared would yield a loaf of 
white color, while utilising a larger proportion of the 
substance of the grain than b commonly used. To the 
astonishment of experimenters, however, the bread made 
from such flour was found to have the color and other 
chacteristics of whole wheaten bread. The subject was 
investigated by an eminent French chemist, M. Mige 
Mourils, who found that the peculiar action of whole 
wheaten flour was due to the presence in the outer part 
of the seed of a peculiar nitrogenous body, to wnich 
he gave the name cerealin, and which is closely allied in 
composition and action to the diastase of malt Cerea- 
lin exerts a peculiarly energetic influence on starch, 
tra^forming it into a brown adhedve mixture of dextrin 
and sugar. He showed that when the fermentative 



BAK 



74S 



action of gluten preponderates, the result is the forma- 
tion of the products desired by the baker — carbonic acid 
and alcohol; but when the influence of cerealin prevails, 
lactic fermentation ensues, and dextrin, sugar, and acid 
substances are formed, which it is the object of the baker 
to «?okL Several methods of avoiding thb deteriorat- 
ing influence of cerealin, and at the same time securing 
the use of the maximum of flour, have been put in opera- 
tion by M. M^ Mouri^ The process now in use at 
the Boulangerie Centrale de 1* Assistance Publique (the 
Scipion) in Paris, for the preparation of the flour and 
bakin|[ white bread with the whole of the mill producu 
exceptmg the bran, he thus describes: — ** The com is 
moistened with from 2 to 5 per cent, of water saturatol 
with sea-salt, and at the ena of some hours the exterior 
coverings only become moist and tender. The grain 
is then thrown between nearly closed millstones, and 70 
per cent, of flour is obtained without cerealin, plus 10 to 
14 per cent, of meal. This is bruised between light 
stones, and separated by winnowing from the greater 
part of the husk remnants. To prepare the bread, all 
the leaven is made with flour at 70 per cent, and the 
meal is added to the soft dough lost of all; as, in spite 
of the small amount of cerealin which it still contains, it 
will not produce brown bread, because at that time the 
length ot incubation is not sufficient to change it into a 
leaven. Thus white bread is produced containing all 
the farinaceous part of the wheat" 

It not unfrequently happens that flour of good color, 
and unexceptionable chemical composition, fails to yield 
a dough wnich will rise b^^ fermentation, and the loaf 
from which is sweet, solid, sodden, and adhesive. Wheat 
that has been badly harvested, or which in any way has 
been allowed to sprout, has part of the gluten changed 
into the form of diastase, which, like cerealin, changes 
starch into dextrin and sagai. The gluten of flour which 
has been dried at a too high temperature, and of flour 
which has been kept in a damp situation, is modified 
and acts in the same manner, if dough is made with 
an infusion of malt, it yields a result exactly the same as 
that above described. It is to guard the starch of in- 
ferior flour aj^nst this deteriorative influence that a 
proportion ofalum is used by many bakers of second- 
class bread. Alum has the power of preserving starch 
to a large extent from the xnetamorphic action of altered 
gluten, diastase, or cerealin, and of producing from an 
mferior flour a loaf of good texture and color. The use 
of alum is regarded as an adulteration, and heavy pen- 
alties have been imposed on its detection ; but its esti- 
mation in bread is a process of the greatest difficulty, 
and authorities are by no means agreed as to its dele- 
terious influence. Other mineral salts have a similar 
protective power on the starch of inferior wheat, and 
lime-water has been successfully employed in place of 
alum. To this also it is objected by some that the ad- 
dition of lime renders the valuable phosphatic salts of flour 
insoluble by transforming them into pnosphate of lime. 

Aerated Bread.—'Whcn carbonic acid, instead of be- 
ing generated by fermentation within dough, is sepa- 
ratefy prepared and incorporated with flour and water, 
aerated bread is produced. The system by which this 
is effected was invented by the late Dr. Dangli^, and 
aerated bread has been manufactured under his patent 
since March 1859. The system is now in operation in 
all the principal towns in the United Kingdom, and it 
appears to be steadily gaining in public favor. 

Unftrmenteif Breaa.—Vndtr this head is included 
such Dread as is vesiculated by means of carbonic acid 
evolved from chemical substances introduced in the 
making of the dough. About 1842 Mr. Heniy Dodson 
commenced to manufacture bresul on this system, and 
obtained a patent for his process. He used hydro- 



chloric acid and bicarbonate of soda in snch proportions 
that while, by their re-action, they liberated sufficient 
carbonic acid to aerate the doueh, th^ formed chloride 
of sodium or common salt enough for tne bread. Liebig, 
in his Familiar Litters^ says r^arding this system : — 
** Chemists, generally speaking, shouM never recom- 
mend the use of chemicals for culinary preparations, for 
chemicals are seldom met with in commerce in a state of 
purity. Thus, for example, the muriatic [hjrdrochloric] 
acid which it has been proposed to mix with carbonate 
of soda in bread is always very impure, and very often 
contains arsenic" The sesqui-carbonate of ammonia is 
also used as a source of carbonic acid in vesiculating 
bread, and it, on account of its highly volatile nature, is 
entirely driven off in the process of baking. A great 
amount of private or domestic baking is conducted on 
the same pnnciple, butter-milk and bicarbonate of soda 
beinjg used for mixing the dough in making "scones." 
In this case the lactic acki of the milk combines with 
the soda, liberating carbonic acid. The baking powders 
and yeast powders which are sold, and the so-called 
self-raising flour, all depend for their action on the 
mixture of Ucarbonate of soda with some organic acid, 
such as tartaric or citric acid. 

The art of baking, although it is the most important 
of all industries connected with the preparation of 
human food, is one which is still carried on in the most 
rude and primitive manner. While modem inventions 
and the progress of improvement have changed the con- 
ditions under which nearlv all arts and manufactures are 
conducted, the baking of^ bread is still conducted as it 
was during the palmy dajrs of ancient Greece. The 
nature of the processes necessary for the preparation of 
bread, the limited time it will keep, and the consequent 
impossibility of storing the product or sending it any 
considerable distance^ tend to keep the trade in tne posi- 
tion of a limited and local handicraft It is, therefore, 
not a pursuit which attracts capitalists, and master bakers 
are mostly in the position of small tradesmen, without 
either the inclination or ability to invest money in ex- 
pensive machinery and fittings. In the case of biscuit- 
oaking the conditions are quite different, and it, as has 
been seen, has developed into a great manufacture, with 
elaborate and complex machinery and the most perfect 
mechanical appliances. Many forms of machine have 
been proposed as substitutes for the rude and laborious 
manual labor — always imfavorable to health, and some- 
times not very clean — involved in baking. Many of 
these machines admittedly produce better bread than 
can be made by handwork, and that at no inconsiderable 
saving of materisd and time, but the necessity of either 
steam or water power for their eflective working greatly 
restricts their use. 

The two processes to which machinery has been suc- 
cessfully adapted, are the mixing of the sponge and the 
kneading of the dough. Attempts have been made to 
mould loaves by machinery, but these have hitherto 
failed; nor has tne endeavor to fire bread in traveling 
ovens yet been practically successful. A great variety of 
kneading machines have oeen suggested and used, since 
the first trial of such an implement in Paris upwards of 
a century ago. 

Much thought and skill have been expended in the 
endeavor to effect improvements in the ordinary form of 
a baker's oven, but hitherto no plan has been devised 
which produces bread of a quality superior to that fired 
in the oven which is commonly used. A baker's oven of 
the common description is alow, vaulted chamber, about 
10 feet long, by 8 leet wide, and 30 inches high. It is 
built and floored of stone or brick, and has a small 
door in front by which the moulded dough is put in and 
the loaves withdrawn. At one side of this door, in the 



r46 



BAK— BAL 



extreme corner, are placed the fiimace and fire-grate, 
opening into the oven, and at the opposite comer, the 
smoke flue by which smoke escapes from the interior. 
The heat is by this arrangement carried throughout the 
entire oven, and when the temperature is sumcient the 
fire is withdrawn, the flue shut, and the dough is quicklv 
introduced on a "peel," or long wooden snovel. 
Various efforts have been made to effect the heating of 
ovens by fire external to the chamber itself, but they 
fail to produce that radiation of heat which is found 
essential to good baking. Perkin's hot-water 
oven for some time met with favor in Great 
Britain, and a modification of it was employed in 
France. On this system the oven b heated by super- 
leated water, conveyed from a stove through 
closed pipes, which are coiled around the entire interior 
©f the oven. This oven has the recommendation of 
f>erfect cleanness, and the temperature in it is easily 
regulated ; but It is costlv in construction, and the 
method has not commended itself in practice. Amone 
ovens heated from the exterior, that of M. Rolland 
takes a high place for ingenuity and novelty of construc- 
tion. Its characteristic peculiaritv consists in the 
possession of a revolving sole, which not only allows 
the easy introduction and withdrawal of the bread, but 
the bringing of the different parts regularly and 
oniformly under the influence of the heat applied. The 
revolution of the sole is accomplished ov a handle 
worked froni the front of the oven; and besides this 
rotatory motion the sole can also be raised or lowered 
so as to bring either the upper or under side of the bread 
close to the heat as desirea. The heating of M. Hol- 
land's oven is effected by means of flues, which pass 
radially under and over the revolving sole. The cnief 
objection lurged against this form of oven is, that the air 
within it b^omes too dry, which detracts from the 
flavor of the loaves fired in it The use of the Vienna 
oven is general in Germany, and is extending in Paris 
for the baking of small or Vienna bread. It is egg- 
sliaped in form, with an inclined sole, a very small 
aperture, and a low roof. Its avera^ internal dimen- 
sions are 12 feet in depth, 10 feet wide, and 18 inches 
high. In the best of these ovens glazed tiles are used 
for the sole. The inclination of the sole facilitates the 
filling and emptying of the oven ; and the confined space 
of the interior retains a large proportion of moisture, 
which gives a fine color to me crust and flavor to the 
crumb of the bread. 

Qualities of Bread. — The process of baking changes 
the structure of the crust or outer part of a loaf, and, 
according to Reichenbach, developes in it a substance 
termed Assamar, which he says nas an influence in re- 
tarding the waste of tissue. It does not alter the starch 
of the crumb or internal part, but only swells the gran- 
ules, and by the induced sponginess of the mass renders 
it readily digestible. Well-lmked bread should have a 
yellowish-brown crust ; the crumb should be uniform in 
texture, permeated with minute cavities, and without 
" eyes" or large air-cells. The color of the crumb, un- 
less in the case of whole wheaten bread, should be white; 
it should be free from acidity and sourness. It should 
keep sweet and edible for several days; and when 
stale it will be found to become soft and pleasant by 
again heating it in an oven, after which, however, it 
rapidly changes. According to Dr. Frankland's determ- 
inations, " I lb of the crumb of bread, if digested and 
oxydised in the body, will produce an amount of force 
equal to 1333 tons raised I foot high. The maximum 
of work which it will enable a man to perform is 267 
tons raised i foot high, i lb of crumb of bread can pro- 
duce, at the maximum, i^q oz. of dry muscle or flesh." 

BAKU, or Badku, the chief town of the government 



of the same name, in the RiKsiaii province of Traii»- 
caacasia (Daghestan), situated m the peninsula of Ap- 
sheron, on the west coast of the Caspian, and possess- 
ing one of the most spacious and convenient ports in 
that sea. It is built in the form of an obtuse triangle, 
on the slope of an arkl hill, and is defended by a doiLole 
wall and ditch constructed during the reign of Peter the 
Great The general appearance of the town is decidedly 
Oriental, with its flat-roofed houses rising one behind 
the other, often in so close proximity that the top of the 
one forms the courtyard of the ne xt. The hill is crowned 
by a castle, which dates from the 15th century, and the 
mosque of Shah- Abbas, still in ^ood preservation. 
Captured by the Russians in 1723, it was restored to 
Persia in 1735, but after various vicissitudes it was finally 
incorporated with the Russian empire in 1806. 

BALA, a market-town of Wales, county of Merioneth, 
and hundred of Penllyn, at the northern extremity of 
the lake of the same name, 17 miles N.E. of Dolrelly. 

BALAAM, or rather Bileam, the son of fieor, 
belonging to Pethor, by the River Euphrates in Aram, 
is represented in Scripture as a seer who possessed the 
power of blessing and cursing effectually. According 
to the narrative in Numbers xxii.-xxiv., he was invited 
by Balak, king of Moab, to come and curse Israel, in 
order to ensure the latter's defeat Jehovah, however, 
forbade him to go as he was requested, and therefore he 
refused to accompany the deputation of elders, who had 
been sent to invite him, " with the rewards of divination 
in their hand." After the arrival of a second emba^ 
more imposing than the first^ he received divine permis- 
sion to go, but only on condition that he should adhere 
strictly to what Jehovah should tell him. He set out 
acconungty, and in his journey experienced the anger 
of the lx)rd, an angel being sent to stop his progress, 
who was perceived only by the ass on which the prophet 
was ridmg. After Balaam's eyes had been opened he 
saw the aneel, and declared his willingness to go back, 
but received permission to continue his journey on con- 
dition of saying nothing but what was suggested to him 
by God. His reception by Balak was honorable and 
imposing, yet he continued faithful to Jehovah, and told 
the king he would only announce what Jehovah revealed. 
Standing on the heignt of Baal-Bamoth, and surveying 
the tents of Israel, he declared his inability to curse a 
people so pecuUar and righteous. Brought next to the 
top of Pisgah, and beholding thence a part of the 
Israelite camp, he announced that Jehovah saw no 
iniquity or perverseness in Jacob; that He was with 
them ; that they were therefore strong and victorious. 
Conducted afterwards to the top of Peor, he surveyed 
the army of Israel, and predicted their future, their 
goodly dwellings in Canaan, and their successful wars 
against the nations down to Saul's time. Though Balak 
was angry and interrupted him, Balaam continued his 
prophecy, announcing Israel's valiant deeds, from 
David aown to Hezekiah. Upon this he returned to 
his home. 

Another account of Balaam appears in Numbers 
xxxL 8-16, Joshua xiii. 22, where we learn that he ad- 
vised the Midianite women to seduce the Israelites to 
the licentious worship of Baal, and that he was slain in 
a war with the Midianites. 

The character given to Balaam in the first account is 
a favorable one. He is a worshipper of Tehovah the 
true God, receives divine revelations, ana repeatedly 
declares that he will not go beyond or against them. 
Faithful to his calling, he steadfastly resists temptations 
sufficiently powerful, and therefore God communicates 
His Spirit to him, enabling him to predict the future of 
Israel. 

The second account is unfavorable. In it he appeais 



B AL 



747 



as a diviner, a heathen seer, who tempted the worship- 
pers of the true God to idolatry. Instead of being a 
prophet of Jehovah, receiving visions and revelations, a 
man to whom the Almighty came by night, giving him 
instructions what to do, he is an immoral soothsayer. 
Of the two accounts, the latter, brief as it is, seems 
entitled to greater consideration. The former is elabor- 
ate and artificial, the theme being the glorification of the 
chosen people by the mouth of one of their enemies. 
An inspired seer from the far distant land of Aram is 
called m to bless the Israelites. He does so reluctantly, 
but like a true prophet, announcing nothing but what 
came to pass. The way in which he is taught the high 
destiny of the chosen people is instructive. Ignorant 
at first of Israel's relation to the true God, and thinking 
they were like others, he was disposed to curse them, 
but is enlightened, and forcibly impelled to follow the 
divine revelations. From a heathen mantis he is con- 
verted into a true prophet by revelations and visions 
which he cannot resist The seer is taken to three 
places in succession, whence he surveys Israel, and 
utters oracular sayings concerning them. Three times 
the angel of the Lord stands in the way, and three times 
the ass is smitten by Balaam. There are four prophetic 
announcements — xxiii. 7-10, 18-24; xxiv. 3-9, 15-24, 
The first refers to the separate condition of fsrael, their 
numbers, and their worship of the true God amid the 
idolatry of the surrounding nations. The second 
declares that God blesses Israel because there is no 
iniquity or perverseness in them, that He dwells amone 
them, reveals himself to them, and makes them powerful 
and victorious. Both these refer to Mosaic times, or at 
least to times not later than Joshua. But the third 
announcement has the character of prediction, and refers 
to future events. Hence Balaam is introduced as a man 
whose eyes are opened, who hears the words of God, 
and sees visions of the Almighty. The condition of the 
people down to the time of Saul is glanced at, their 
secure settlement in Canaan, and victorious wars with 
the native races. The fourth prophecy apparendy 
carries down the history to the time of Hezekiah ; and 
a future ruler is distinguished as the star out of Jacob, 
the sceptre out of Israel, the conoueror of the Moabites 
and Edomites. The mention of the Kenites and Assyria 
in ver. 22, the former of whom were allies of Edom, 
shows, in the opinion of some recent critics, that the 
writer was acquainted with the Edomite wars under 
Amaziah and Uzziah, and hoped that the latter power 
would permanently subjugate the restless Edomites. 
This would bring the composition down to the first half 
of the 8th century. Verses 23 and 24 are obscure, but 

J)robably refer to no event later than Hezekiah. A fleet 
rom the Phoenician Cyprians seems to have attacked 
the Canaanitish and Phoenician coasts, threatening the 
Syrians farther north. 

The writer of Num. xxxi. 8, 16, Joshua xiii. 22, is the 
Elohist, whose account is very brief. Meagre, however, 
as it is, it is probably historical. A heathen soothsayer, 
connected with the Midianites, perished in one of their 
battles with Israel. The writer of Numbers xxii.-xxiv. 
is, in this view, the Jehovist, who, under the name of 
Balaam, c;ives expression to his ideas and hopes in the 
elevated diction of an inspired prophet As Jacob and 
Moses had pronounced olessings on Israel under the 
immediate inspiration of the Almighty, so Balaam is 
summoned from a distant land to eulogize the same 
people. 

Most of the Fathers, inclndinc; Augustine and Am- 
brose, judged him to be a soothsayer or ma^cian, a 
prophet inspired by the devil. A few, as TertuTlian and 
[erome, took a more favorable view of hfe character. 
iThe Mahometans have various fables concerning Ba- 



laam. They say that he was of the race of Anakim, or 
giants of Palestine, and that he read the books of Abra- 
ham, where he got the name Jehovah, by virtue of 
w^^ich he predictc3 the future, and got from God what- 
ever he asked. This procured him great renown. In 
consequence, however, of his prevarication, God was 
offended with him, and left him to himself, so that he 
fell into infidelity. 

Modem critics are divided in opinion respecting him. 
Three leading views embrace the varieties of belief as to 
his true position, viz., that he was an idolater and sooth- 
sayer, whose soul was uninfluenced by true religion — a 
sorcerer who had acquired reputation by his insight into 
the force of nature and his incantations; that he was a 
true prophet of God, a pious man who fell through cov- 
etousness ; and that he was a heathen soothsayer and 
a prophet of Jehovah at the same time, occupying an 
intermediate position, with an incipient knowledge and 
fear of Gotf, needing but to be developed, though 
checked by the love of gain. It appears impossible to 
arrive at a definite or comprehensive view of one who 
is described in different sources inconsistently. 

BALAGHAT, a British district in the Central Pro- 
vinces of India, situated between 21° and 23^ N. lat. 
and 80^ and 81° E. long.; bounded on the N. by the 
district of Mandld ; on the E. by the district of Cnhat- 
tisgarh ; on the S. by Chhattis^rh and Bhanddrd ; and 
on the W. by the district 01 Seoni. Baldgh&t forms 
the eastern portion of the central plateau which divides 
the province from east to west. 1 nese highlands, form- 
erly known as the Raigrh Bichhid tract, remained deso- 
late and neglected until 1866, when the district of 
Bdlaghdt was formed, and the country opened to the 
industrious and enterprising peasantry of tne Wainangd 
valley. Geographically the district is divided into three 
distinct parts : — ( i. ) The southern lowlands, a slightly 
undulating plain, comparatively well cultivated, and 
drained by the Waingangd, Bagh, Deo, Ghisrf , and Son 
rivers (2.) The long narrow valley, known as the 
Mau T^ukA, lyin^ between the hills and the Waingangd 
river, and comprising a long, narrow, irregular-shaped 
lowland tract, intersected by hill ranges and peaks 
covered with dense jungle, and running generally from 
north to south. (3.) The lofty plateau, in which is 
situated the Rdigarh Bichhid tract, comprising irregular 
ranges of hills, broken into numerous v£uleys, and 
generally running from east to west. 

Since 1867 considerable encouragement has been 
given to the cultivating tribes of Ponwdrs, Kunbis, 
Mardrs, &c., of the low country to immigrate, and 
take up lands in the upland tracts. By this means a 
large quantity of jungle land has lately come under 
cultivation. 

BALANCE. For the measurement of the " mass »» 
of ( /.^., of the quantity of matter contained in) a ^iven 
body we possess only one method, which, being mde- 
penaent of any supposition regarding the nature of the 
matter to be measured, is of perfectly general adaptabil- 
ity. The method — to give it at once in its customary 
form — consists in this, that after having fixed upon a 
unit masSf and procured a sufficiently complete set of 
bodies representing each a known number ot mass-units 
(a ** set of weights "), we determine the ratio of the 
weight of the body under examination to the weight of 
the unit piece of tne set, and identify this ratio with the 
ratio of tne masses. Machines constructed for this par- 
ticular modus of weighing are called balances. Evi- 
dently the weight of a body as determined by means of 
a balance — and it is in this sense that the term is always 
used in everyday life, and also in certain sdences, as, for 
instance, in chemistry — is independent of the magnitude 
of the force of gravity ; what the merchant (or chemist) 



748 



B AL 



calb, uff a " poond ** of gold is tbe same at the bottom 
as it is at the top of Mont Blanc, although its real 
weight, i,f., the force with which it tends to fall, is 
greater in the former than it is in the latter case. 

To any person accjuainted with the elements of me- 
chanics, nomeroos ideal contrivances for ascertaining 
which of two bodies is the heavier, and for even deter- 
mining the ratio of their weights, will readily suggest 
themselves ; but there would l^ no use in our noticing 
any of these many conceivable balances, except those 
which have been actually realised and successfully em- 
ployed. 

Spring Balances. — The general principle of this class 
of balances is that when an elastic body is acted upon 
by a weight suspended from it, it undergoes a change of 
form, which is the greater the greater the weight. The 
simplest form of the spring balance b a straight spiral 
of hard steel (or other kind of elastic) wire, suspended 
by its upper end from a fixed point, and having its lower 
end bent into a hook, from which, by means of another 
hook crossing the first, the body to be weighed is sus- 
pended, — matters being arranged so that even in the 
empty instrument the axis of the spiral is a plumb-line. 
Spring balances are very extensively used for the weigh- 
ing of the cheaper articles of commerce and other pur- 
poses, where a hi^h degree of precision is not required. 
In this class of mstruments, to combine compactness 
with relatively considerable range, the spring is generally 
made rather strong; and sometimes the exactitude of 
the reading is incre^ied by inserting, between the index 
and that point the displacement of which serves to meas- 
ure the weight, a S3rstem of levers or toothed wheels, 
constructed so as to magnify into convenient visibility 
the displacement corresponding to the least difference 
of weight to be determined. Attempts to convert the 
spring Ixdance into a precbion instrument have scarcely 
ever been made; the only case in point known to the 
writer is that of an elegant little instrument constructed 
by Professor Jolly, of Munich, for the determination 
of the specific gravity of solids by immersion, which 
consists of a long steel-wire spiral, suspended in front 
of a vertical strip of silvered glass beanng a millimetre 
scale. To read off the position of equilibrium of the 
index on the scale, the observing eye is placed in such a 
position that the eye, its image in the glass, and the 
mdex are in a line, and the point on the scale noted 
down with which the index apparently coincides. 

The Precision Balance being quite identical in prin- 
ciple with the ordinary ** pair of scales,** there is no 
slmrp line of demarcation between it and what is usually 
called ** a common balance,*' and it is equally impossible 
to name the inventor of the more perfect form of the 
instrument. But taking the precision balance in what is 
now considered its most perfected fomi,we may safely say 
that all which distinguishes it from the common balance 
Toper is, in the main, the invention of the late Mr. 
^oDin.son of London. In Robinson's, as in most mod- 
ern precision balances, the beam consists of a perforated 
flat rhombus or isosceles triangle, made in one piece out 
of gun-metal or hard-hammered brass. The substitu- 
tion for either of those materials of hard steel would 
greatly increase the relative inflexibility of the beam, 
but, unfortunately, steel is given to rusting, and, 
besides, is apt to become magnetic, and has therefore 
been almost entirely abandoned. The perforations in 
the beam are an important feature, as they considerably 
diminish its' weight (as compared with what that would 
be if the perforations were filled up) without to any 
great extent reducing its relative solidity. In fact, the 
loss of carrying power which a solid rhombus suffers in 
consec^uioj oi tne middle portions being cut out, is so 
^ght that a very insignificant increase in the size of the 



K 



minor diagonal is sufficient to compensate for it WT^ 
a balance beam should be made as light as possible is 
easily seen ; the object (and it is well here to say at once, 
the onlv object) b to diminish the influence of the oca. 
voidable imperfections of the central pivot To reduce 
these unperfections to a minimum, the beam in all iiKxi. 
ern balances b supported on a polished horizontal plane 
of aeate or hard steel fixed to tne stand, by means of a 
perfectly straight •* knife edge/* ground to a prism, of 
nard steel or agate, which b fimuy connected with the 
beam, so that the edge coincides with the intended axb 
of rotation. In the best instruments the bearing plane 
is continuous, and the edge rests on it along 
its entire length; in less expensive instruments the 
bearing consbts of two separate parts, of which the 
one supports the front end, the other the hind end of the 
edge. £very complete balance is provided with an 
** arrestment,^ one of the objects of which is, as the 
name indicates, to enable one to arrest the beam, and, 
if desired, to bring it back to its normal position; but 
the most important function of it b to secure to every 
point of the central edge a perfectly fixed position on its 
Dearing. In Robinson's, and in the best modem bal- 
ances, the beam b provided at its two extremities with 
two knife-edges similar to the central one (except that 
they are turned upwards), which, in intention at least, 
are parallel to, and in the same plane as the central 
edge ; on each knife-edge rests a plane agate or steel 
bearing, with which is firmly connected a bent wire or 
stirrup, provided at its lower end with a circular hook, 
the plane of which stands perpendicular to the corre- 
sponding knife-edge ;.and from this hook the pan b sus- 
pended by means of a second hook crossing the first, 
matters being arranged so that, supposing both end- 
bearings to be in their proper places and to lie hori- 
zon talfy, the working points of the two hook-and-eye 
arrangements are vertically below the intended point- 
pivots on the edges. In thb construction it is an im- 
portant function of the arrestment to assign to each of 
the two terminal bearings a /«/4f^//K ^ww/<i«/ position 
on its knife-edge. 

Compound Lever Balances. — Of these numerous in- 
ventions ~ in all of which a high degree of practical 
convenience is obtained at the expense of precision — 
we must content ourselves with noticing two which, on 
account of their extensive use, cannot be passed over. 
We here allude, in the first place, to that particular 
kind of equal-armed level balances, in which the pans 
are situated above the beam, and which are known as 
*• RobervaPs balances ; ** and secondly, to those peculiar 
complex steel-yards which are used for the weighing of 
heavy loads by means of comparatively small >veights. 

The ordinary Decimal Balance b a combination of 
levers purporting to weigh heavy masses with compar- 
atively lignt weights. 

Torsion Balances, — Of the several instruments bear- 
ing this name, the majority are no balances at all, but 
machines for measuring horizontal forces (electric, mag- 
netic, &c), by the extent to which they are able to 
dbtort an elastic wire vertically suspended and fixed at 
its upper end. In the torsion balances proper the wire 
is stretched out horizontally, and supports a beam so 
fixed to it that the wire passes through its centre of 
gravity. Hence the elasticity of the wire here plays 
the same part as the weight of the beam does in the 
common balance. An instrument of thb sort was in- 
vented by Ritchie for the measurement of very small 
weights, and for thb purpose it may offer certain ad- 
vantages ; but, clearly, if it were ever to be used for 
measuring larger weights, the beam would have to be 
supported by knife-ed^ and bearings, and in regard to 
,such application therefore (<.^., as a means for scrioos 



BAL 



749 



gravimetric work), it has no rais9H tPSire, See Elec- 
tricity and Magnetism. 

For Hydrostatic weighing machines see the article 

TY VT^BOMHTIf R 

BALANCE OF POWER. The theory of the Bal- 
ance of Power may be said to have exercised a prepon- 
derating influence over the policy of European states- 
men for more than two hundred years, that is, from the 
Treaty of Westphalia until the middle of the present 
century ; and to have been the principal element in the 
political combinations, negotiations, and wars which 
marked that long and eventful period of modem history. 
It deserves, therefore, the attentive conskieration of the 
historical student, and, indeed, the motive cause of many 
of the greatest occurrences would be unintelligible with- 
out a due estimate of its effects. Even down to our own 
times it has not been without an important influence ; 
for the Crimean War of 1854 was undertaken by Eng- 
land and France for no other object than to maintain the 
balance of power in Eastern Eiu-ope, and to prevent the 
aggrandisement of Russia by the oismemberment of the 
Ottoman empire and the conquest of Constantinople. 
Nevertheless there is, perhaps, no principle of political 
science, long and universally accepted by the wisest 
statesmen, on which modem opinion has, within the last 
twenty years, undergone a c^reater change; and this 
change of opinion is not merely speculative, it has regu- 
lated and controlled the policy of the most powerful 
states, and of none more tnan of Great Britain, in her 
dealings with the continent of Europe. 

The theory of the balance of power rested on several 
assumptions. It was held, more especially from the 
time of Grotius, in the early part of the 17th century, 
that the states of Europe formed one grand community 
or federal league, of which the fundamental principle 
and condition was the preservation of the balance of 
power ; that by this balance was to be understood such a 
disposition of things, as that no one potentate or state 
shall be able absolutely to predominate and prescribe 
laws to the others ; that all were equally interested in 
maintaining this common settlement, and that it was the 
interest, the right, and the duty of every power to inter- 
fere, even by force of arms, when any of^ the conditions 
of this settlement were infringed or assailed by any other 
member of the community. In this respect all neighbor- 
ing nations, trading with each other, form one great 
b<3y and a sort of community. Thus, Christendom is a 
kind of universal republic, which has its interests, its 
fears, and its precautions to be taken. All the members 
of this great body owe it to one another for the common 
good, and owe it to themselves for the security of their 
country, to prevent the progress of any other members 
who should seek to overthrow this balance, which would 
turn to the certain ruin of all the other members of the 
same body. Whatever changes or aflfects this general 
system of Europe is too dangerous, and draws after it 
infinite mischief. Whatever may be the value of these 
philanthropk principles, history reminds us that when 
they were most loudly professed they were most fre- 
quently violated, and tnat no cause of war seems to have 
been so frequent or so fatal as the spurious pretext of 
restoring peace and defending the general tranquillity of 
the world. Thus, it was to balance the power of the 
house of Austria that Cardinal Richelieu flung France 
into the quarrels of Germany in the Thirty Years' War, 
and even lent her aid to the Protestant cause. It was to 
balance the encroaching and aggressive power of Louid 
XIV. that numerous combinations were formed be- 
tween England, Austria, and Holland, which, after 
nearly half a century of almost uninterrupted contests 
and bloodshed, ended in the peace of Utrecht The 
pretext of Frederick II., when he was meditating some 
7-0 



act of rapine, generally was that he bdieved some hos- 
tile combination had been formed against him, which it 
was wise to anticipate. In short, no cause of war has 
been more frequently alleged and acted upon, than that 
a proper consideration for the balance of power rendered 
it necessary to take forcible measures to avert some re- 
mote or hypothetical danger. 

The ablest and most eloquent champion of the system 
of equipoise in the present century was the Chevalier 
vonG^tz, who published his Fragments upon the 
Balance of Power in Europe in 1806, under the in- 
fluence of the catastrophe which had subjugated the 
Continent, and who subsequently took an active part at 
the Congress of Vienna in the attempts to constitute a 
a new system of European policy. Gentz defines the 
balance of power as ** a constitution sub»sting between 
neighboring states more or less connected with one 
another, by virtue of which no one among them can 
injure the independence or essential rights of another, 
without meeting with effectual resistance on some skie, 
and consequently exposing itself to dan^r.** And he 
rests this constitution on four propositions: — (i.) 
That no state must ever become so powerful as to coerce 
all the rest ; (2.) That every state which infringes the 
conditions is liable to be coerced by others ; (3. ) That 
the fear of coercion should keep all within the bounds 
of moderation ; and (4.) That a state having attained a 
d^ree of power to defy the union should l^ treated as 
a common enemy. To determine the true character 
and limits of the balance of power, we must have 
recourse, not to vague general principles, but to positive 
law, framed in the sluipe of international contracts, 
which are termed treaties, and which have been 
sanctioned at different epochs of modem history by a 
con|;ress of states. This historical treatment of the 
subiect leads us to more tangible and solid ground ; 
and it will be seen that on these occasions moreespecially 
attempts have been made to establish a balance of 
power in Europe upon the basis of general treaties ; and 
that these attempts have been rewarded by considerable, 
though not by permanent, success in the 17th, i8th and 
19th centuries. 

The first idea of a general confess, to put an end to 
the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, ana to adjust the 
conflicting claims of rivid creeds and hostile princes, ap- 
pears to nave originated with the emperor of Gennany 
m 164a The attempt to restore peace by the authority 
of th# Germanic Diet had failed. It became necessary 
to have recourse to mediating powers, and after a pro- 
tracted preliminary negotiation, the Conmss of Miin- 
ster or Westphalia opened on the nth July 1643, — the 
Catholk: ana Protestant belligerents being represented 
on the one hand, and the mediating powers, France, 
Sweden, Venice, and the Pope, on the other. We do 
not propose in this place to follow the train of these 
complicated negotiations. It is enough for our present 
purpose to remark that the great treanr which resulted 
from them, and was signed on the 2dtn October 1648, 
became the basis of the public law ot Europe, and the 
first official recognition of the existence of a European 
balance of power. The conditions established in Ger- 
many left the Catholic, the Lutheran, and the Reformed 
Churches in possession of their respective indepoidence, 
whilst they relieved the minor princes from their strict 
dependence on the empire ; but, above all, they con- 
ferred on France and Sweden, as mediating powers, the 
right of intervention for the purpose of upholdinff the 
provisions of the treaty. In other words, the bfuance 
whidi had been established between the states of Central 
Europe was regulated by external weights, which could 
be brought to bestr upon it. The result of this combi- 
nation, due mainly to Cardinal Mazarian, was certainly 



750 



BAL 



injurious to the vsdtj and independenee of Germanj, and 
it tended to aid the aggressive and dictatorial power of 
Loais XIV. NererUieless, the fundamental principles 
of the Treaty of Westphalia were recognisea and re- 
newed as the conditions of the general peace of Europe 
down to the French Revolution ; they were not wholly 
absent from the minds of the negotiators at Vienna in 
1815 ; and they only received their death-blow from the 
hand of the Prussian Government in 1866 and 187a 
Whatever might be the meriU of the Treaty of West- 
phalia, it had not that of securing to Europe an unbroken 
or durable peace ; and even tM territorial relations of 
France and Germany were altered within thirty years of 
that time by the coniquest of Franche Comt^ arid Alsace. 
But the wars of Louis XIV. were not general wars, 
until he engaged in the fatal attempt to place his grand- 
son on the thront of Spain, and to unite the two crowns 
in the house of Bourbon. Efforts had been made, in view 
of the approaching extinction of the Spanish branch of 
the house of Austria, to preserve the balance of power by 
a timely partitionof the 1^ dominions of the Spanish em- 
pire — a remarkable example of an attempt to prevent a 
formidable catastrophe bv an equitable arrangement. But 
it may be doubted whether any arrangement in which so 
little account was taken of the wishes and traditions of 
nations could possibly have succeeded: and it unques- 
tionably failed, because Louis XIV. did not hesitate to 
repudiate the treaties he had signed, and to avail himseU* 
of the last will and testament of Charles II., which had 
been extorted from the Spanish court by his intrigues. 
That event raised again the whole question of the bal- 
ance of power in Europe. It was received as a doctrine 
of political iuith that the union of the French and 
Spanish crowns in one family must be fatal to the inde- 
pendence of all other states; that it woukl replace the 
Sti.arts upon the throne of England, and establish the 
ascendency of France and tne Catholic paity over 
Europe. 1 1 was therefore resbted by a coalition^ of whidi 
England, Austria, and Holland were the principal mem- 
bers. France was at length reduced to the lowest 
point of humiliation, and in 1709 peace might have 
been obtained on every point but one. Louis refused to 
turn his arms against his own grandson, and the war 
continued till 17 15. Philip V. retained the Spanish 
crown, and the relations of all the European states were 
once more adjusted with legal nicety at Utrecht. Great 
pains were takeii to proviote, by a sfystem of renuncia- 
tions, against the possibility of the union of the crowns 
of France and Spain on the same head, because it was 
held that such a contingency would be fatal to the bal- 
ance of power in Europe. But these precautions did 
not prevent the conclusion, at a later period, of the fam- 
ily compact between the two branches of the house of 
Bourbon, which was regarded as a lasdng danger to 
other countries, and was opposed by the whole strength 
of Britain and the genius of Chatham. I'he peace of 
Utrecht was denounced by Parliament and detested by 
the nations as an inglorious termination of a glorious 
war, and its authors were consigned to obloquy and exile; 
but it secured the peace of Europe for thirty years; it 
reduced the power of France; and had it not been for 
the German dominions of the house of Hanover, it 
might have been still longer before England was drawn 
into another war. 

Hitherto the political system of Europe had oompriMd 
little more than the states of France, Austria, Spain, 
Sweden, and Holland, with the occasional intervention 
of Great Britain, more for the defence of the interests of 
others than of her own. But the i8th century witnessed 
a total change in the politics of the world. A new em- 

fire, Russia, arose in the north, under the genius of 
*eter and of Catherine; the ambidon and military skill 



of Frederick II. nds«d Prussia from a 
ber of the German empire to a powerful and inci . 
ent kingdom; the colonial empires of Spain, France, 
and Britain had extended their territorial interests to the 
continents of Asia and America, and to the eastern and 
the western isles, insomuch that wars, begun in Europe, 
soon raged on the banks of the Ganges and the St Law- 
rence ; and the declaration of independence of the United 
States of America called into being a new and powerful 
people of the future. The partiuon of Poland, which 




powers, jealous of their respective strength, but in- 
difierent to the rights of an independent nadon and to 
the opinion of Europe. That lawless act was the pre- 
lude to more violent attacks on the sovereignty and 
nationality of many countries, for before the centuij 
closed the French Revolution, and the wars that followed 
it, crushed to atoms the ancient fabric of Europe. 
Whilst events of this magnitude were occurring in the 
world, it is obvious that the theorv of the baumce of 
power was entire^ displaced and dislocated. New ele- 
ments were at woric over a far wider area, new sources 
of power and influence were opened of far more impor- 
tance than those territorial and dynastic onestions wnidi 
ocaipied the statesmen of Miinster ana of Utrecht; 
ancient land-marks were swept away ; minor states were 
annihilated ; and the temporary domination of Napo- 
leon pver a great portion of the continent of Eurooe 
seemed to hare overthrown the balance of power tor 
ever. In those dark and evil days public writers like 
Gents and Mackintosh still maintained the principle that 
peace could only be restored by a due recognition of the 
rights and independence of eveiy nation, and En^and 
adhered inflexibly to the policy of combining the scattered 
elements of Europe against the common enemy. Half 
a dozen times over these coalitions failed ; but they suc- 
ceeded at last, and Endand had the glory of plajring no 
inconsiderable part in tne restoration of the uberties of 
all other nations against foreign aggression. 

Upon the fall of Napoleon m 1814 it became the com- 
mon interest, and the universal desire, of all the sov- 
ereigns and nations of Europe to restore peace upon a 
settled basis, to re-establish the authority of public law, 
to remstate the ri^tful owners in the possessions and 
dominions they had been fordbhr deprived of, to reduce 
the military establishments which weighed so heavily on 
the finances and on the population df Europe, and to 
create anew a balance of power between the states of 
Europe, by which the greatest of them might be re- 
strained and the least of them protected. A secret artkle 
had been annexed to the Treaty of Paris, declaring that 
** the allied powers had a^^reed among themselves on the 
bases which were to be given to the future system of 
equilibrium ; ** though what the nature of that agreement 
and of those bases was, has never been made dearly ap» 
parent. But the matter was unquestionabfy referred to 
the congress then about to open at Vienna, where the 
most powerful sovereigns and the most <^tinguished 
ministers of all the European s^tes met for the first 
time in council That congress was certain^ the most 
complete, and in its action the most important, assem- 
blage of independent political powers and their represent- 
atives whichever took place in the world. Its decis- 
ions were not all of them just, or wise, or disinterested. 
The broad seneral principles of pacification which had 
been laid down were more than once traversed and 
thwarted by particular interests and ambitions. The 
theory of tne rights of legitimate sovereigns over their 
subiects was carried to an extravagant point, pregnant 
with danger for the future. Gen0s>was transierred to 
Digitized by VjOi~ ' 



B AL 



751 



Sardinia, Venice to Austria, Norway to Sweden, Poland 
to Russia, part of Saxonv to Prussia, and the sacred 
hoi)es and pledges of freedom which had animated the 
natioDS in the contest were forgotten by the leading 
courts of Europe in the division of the spoil. But in 
spite of these snortcommgs and abuses, we cannot con- 
cur with writers who, like Hardenberg, denounce the 
Congress of Vienna as an auction of nations and an 
orgy of kings. It was said that every one withdrew 
from the Con&;ress of Vienna disappointed, no one 
having obtained as much as he expected ; but if so, that 
would suggest the inference that the general interest 
of Europe, prevailed over the pretensions of each par- 
ticular state. From the point of view we are now con- 
sidering, which is the restoration of the balance of 
power» it cannot be denied that the Treaties of Vienna 
secured forty years of peace to Europe. They stood 
the brunt of two fresh convulsions in France in 1830 
and 1S48, and their main provisions, though modified 
with respect to the Low Countries in 1832, and abro- 
gated in Italy by the campaip;n of 1859, were not se- 
riously impaired until the dissolution of the Germanic 
body m 1866, and the Franco-German War of 1870. 
Puring the whole of this period the warlike ambition of 
France, and the disposition of Russia to overawe Cen- 
tral Europe, were successfully held in check. At Vi- 
enna itseu, and during the congress, the struggle wn« 
dose and sometimes doubtfuL Russia was resolved to 
retain the whole of Poland, which she occupied with 
her armies, and Prussia claimed the whole of aaxony as 
a compensation for her share of the PoEsh provinces. 
To counteract this combination of Russia and Prussia, 
an alliance was signed on the jd January 181 5 between 
Austria, England, and France, wmch might Have led to 
hostilities between those powers and their recent allies. 
Perhaps it was fortunate that the return of Napoleon 
from Elba broke up the congress, and reminded all the 
powers that union and mutiml coucessions were the first 
duties of those who had devoted themselves to the cause 
of law, order, and peace. It wc2 a sign of the wisdom 
of the congress, and of its respect for sound principles, 
that although France was the vanquished power ana the 
author of me calamities ot Europe, she was treated at 
Vienna with as much consideration as any other state. 
Her ambassador, M. de Talleyrand, had his full weight 
in the congress ; and no attempt wo^ nuide in 1814 to 
curtail her ancient territorial possessions or to lower her 
rank in Europe. On the contrary, the just influence of 
France was recognised as an essential condition of the 
balance of power. 

For the first time, then, by this general act of the 
Congress of Vienna, the territorial possessions and 
frontiers of the Continental states were defined in one 
document, to which all the Governments of Europe 
were parties; the constitution of the Germanic body 
was incorporated in the same instniment, and the neu- 
trality ana independence of the smallest cities and com- 
monwealths were established and guaranteed. Every 
state in Europe had therefore an equal right and interest 
to invoke the authority of .the treaty, and to claim the 
execution of all its conditions. A complete fabric of 
European policy, such as had never existed before, was 
thus literally established by mutual contract; and 
every infraction of it might justly be brought under 
the consideration of the nigh contracting parties, or 
might even have been the ground of a declaration of 
war. In several instances this controlling power was 
wisely and beneficial^ exercised, and more than one 
burning question was adjusted by the conferences which 
met from time to time, always on the basis of the trea- 
ties of 181 5. This certainly was the nearest approach 
ever made to a practical balance of power; and we 



owe to it, as we have seen, a long period of mutual 
confidence, respect for public law, and peace, which 
contributed enormously to the progress, prosperity; and 
happiness of the world. 

But there are darker shades to the picture. The 
comprehensive interest which eveir state was thus held 
to have acquired in maintaining the general settlement 
might be held, and was held, to justify a dangerous and 
mischievous degree of intervention in the internal affairs 
of every other country, and this right was too often ex- 
ercised m a manner injurious to hberty and independ- 
ence. The northern powers, not content witn the 
terms of the general alliance and the Treaties of 
Vienna, proceeded to connect themselves more closely 
by the mystic ties of the Holy Alliance, which provided 
that they were to act together on all subjects, and to 
regard their interests as one and indivisible. The con- 
struction they put upon the sjrstem recently establLhed 
in Europe was that it gave the allied powers a right to 
interfere, not only for the prevention of quarrels, ag- 
gressions, and war, but in tne internal government of 
states, for the purpose of preventing changes which they 
chose to regard as injurious to their own security and 
eventually to the balance of power. At the congresses 
and conferences of Troppau, Carlsbad, Aix-la-Clmpelle, 
and Verona, these doctrines were avowed and acted 
upon to their furthest extent, and under pretence of 
maintaining and defending the common interests of Eu- 
rope, the popular movements and constitutional pro- 
gress of Italy were crushed, a French army entered 
Spain in 1823 to restore the authority of Ferdinand VII. 
against the Cortes, and even the independence of the 
South American colonies was represented as a blow to 
the peace and security of Europe. The British Gov- 
ernment had early perceived that the interpretation thus 
given to the theory of the balance of power, and to what 
was termed the federal S3rstem in Earope» was only an- 
other name for an intolerable oppression, and that the 
right of intervention in the internal affairs of other coun- 
tries was claimed and exercised under false and dangerous 
pretexts. The duke of Wellington, who roprccentcd 
Great Britain at the Congress of Verona, under inctruc- 
tions firamed by Lord Castlereagh, was the first to 
declare that En^and could be no party to such an 
application of the theory of the alliance, and that that 
country preferred isolation to any such system of com- 
bined policy. That was the germ of the modern 
doctrine of non-intervention. But as long as the 
Treaties of Vienna lasted, it was her duty and her right 
to endeavor to support their authority, and to vindicate 
the rights established by a compact to which thr.t 
country was a party. She dedined in 1853 to join with 
Prussia in enforcing the declaration made by the allied 
powers in 18 15, which excluded any member of the 
family of Bonaparte from the throne of France ; but she 
sought, in conjunction with France, to protest against 
the annihilation of the kingdom of Poland, the mcor- 
poration of Cracow, the admission of non-German 
provinces into the confederation, and the invasion of 
Schleswig ; and she opposed the annexation of Savoy 
and Nice to France, but alone without effect The 
compact of Vienna was gradually set aside and violated 
in tne course of years by those who were most 
interested in maintaining it ; and when the Emperor 
Napoleon III. proposed, in 1863, a new congress for 
the purpose of revising and re-establishing the balance 
of power in Europe, under the name of an Interna- 
tional Council, England refused to be a party to the 
negotiation, and rejected the scheme. Lord Russell 
replied, ** There being no supreme authority in such an 
assembly to enforce the decision of the majority, the 
congress would probably separate, leaving many of its 



752 



BAL 



mcmben on worte tenns with etch other than the? had 
been before. ** Thb was the last attempt made to brmg 
the authority of a congress, representing the collective 
authority ot Europe, to bear on questions afiecting the 
general peace. Wlmn this point was reached it was 
apparent that the whole tneory of the confederated 
system in Europe had become, for a time at least, 
obsolete; that the treaties and mutual guarantees on 
which that system rested had lost their power ; and that 
there was no controlling fcvce to resist the ambitious or 
warlike designs of any state capable of giving effect to 
them. The Italian campaign of 1859 had considerably 
altered the condition of Somhem Europe, and weakened 
Austria. Possibly, Prussia, in withholdmg her assist- 
ance at that time from her federal ally, foresaw in the 
defeat of Austria an event favorable to her own future 
pretensions. At any rate, for the first time, a war 
seriously affecting the balance of power was begun and 
ended by the two principal belligerents alone, and even 
the price paid by the house of Sardinia for the services 
of France — the cession of Savoy and Nice — was 
tacitly acquiesced in by Europe. Twenty years before, 
it would have been thought impossible that the doctrine 
of non-intervention should have acquired so great an 
ascendency. 

But the consequences of this novel state of affairs 
soon became manifest in the increasing disintegration of 
Europe. No state could have a greater cUim than 
Denmark to the protection of the principles of the bal- 
ance of power, for, as late as 1852, all the great powers 
bad pleoged themselves by treaty to maintain the integ- 
rity of her dominions, the unity of the monarchy, and 
the order of succession to the crown which was then 
established. Yet in 1864 the German poiK*ers proceeded 
to what was termed a Federal Execution against her ; 
Holstein, Lauenberg, and, eventually, Schleswig were 
torn from her b^ Prussia, Austria acting a subordinate 
part England in vain appealed by her diplomacy to 
the terms of the agreement of 1852, but France and 
Russia stood aloof, and the greatest injustice the world 
had witnessed since the partition of Poland was con- 
summated. As every event in political life is closely 
Connected, Prussia now proceeded to ally herself witn 
the crown of Italr against Austria, and to execute her 
grand design of tne overthrow of Uie Germanic Confed- 
eration and the expulsion of Austria from that body, 
which had been reg^ded as the centre of gravity of the 
European system. As lon^ as that body subsisted, 
war was impossible between its respective members, and 
France was incapable of attacking their united forces. 
The success of Prussia in the campaign of 1866 was 
rapid and complete, and Austria ceased to form part of 
the Germanic Confederation. The power of Prussia 
was further increased by the military conventions, which 
gave her the absolute command over the armies of the 
minor German states. This was undoubtedly the sever- 
est blow which had yet been inflicted on the balance of 
power in Europe; and the Emperor Napoleon III., 
who had recentV given vent to nis dissatisfaction with 
the treaties of 181 5, now found himself confronted by 
an enemy infinitely more powerful and dangerous. The 
results of Sadowa were as fatal to the influence and 
security of France as if she herself had lost a campaign. 
The French nation, however, failed to understand the 
magnitude of the danger, though they were irritated by 
the approach of it. War was, on more than one occa- 
sion, on the point of breaking out ; and atlengdi France 
plunged into it with a recklessness and incapacity only 
to be equalled by the tremendous calamities that war 
caused her to enaure. A^n, no third state was drawn 
by political considerations into the conflict. The terms 
of Deace were settled between the Tanquished and the 



conquerors without reference to die general iaterettB ol 
other nations ; and no attempt has been made t» place 
these arrangements under the sanction of the public 
law of Europe. Russia took advantage of the agitated 
condition of^ Western Europe to abrc^ate, by l£r own 
will and pleasure, an important stipulation of the 
Treaty of Peace of 1856, and Europe again submitted 
to this breach of covenant. 

The general resuh is that, at the present time, die 
military power of the German empire tar surpasses that 
of any other state, and coukl only be resistea by a gen- 
eral combination of all the rest. Where the reign of 
law ends, the reign of force b^ns, and we trace the 
inevitable consequence of this dissolution of lo^ inter- 
national des in the enormous augmentadon of military 
establishments, which is the curse and the disgrace of 
the present age. Every state impears to fed that its 
security depends on arming the whole virile popnlatiofi, 
and mainta^ing in what is called a state of peace all the 
burdens of a complete armament; indeed, in the most 
barbarous ages and the most sanguinary wars there 
were, doubtless, fewer men under arms, and less money 
was spent in arming them, than at the present day. 

BALASOR, a district of British India in the Orissa 
division, under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, is 
bounded on the N. by the district of Midnapur ; on the 
S. by Cattack district, from which it is separated by the 
Baiteranf river ; on the W. by the tributary states of 
Keunjhar, Nfgiri, and Morbhanj ; and on the E. by the 
Bay of Bengal. Balasor district forms a strip of alluvial 
land between the hills and sea, varying from about 9 to 
54 miles in breadth ; area, ao66 sq. miles. ^ The hiSL 
country rises from the western boundary line. The 
district naturally divides itself into three well-defined 
tracts— (I.) The Salt Tract, along the coast; (2.) 
The Arable Tract, or rice country; and (^.) The Sub- 
montane Tract, or jungle lands. The Salt Tract runs 
the whole way down the coast, and forms a desolate 
strip of a few miles broad. Towards the beach it rises 
into sandy ridges, from 50 to 80 feet high, sloping 
inland, and covered with a vegetation of low scrub 
iunele. Slu^sh brackish streams creep Along between 
banks of foetuT black mud. The sand hiUs on the Terge 
of the ocean are carpeted with creepers and the wud 
con volvulas. Inland, it spreads out into prairies of coarse 
long grass and scrub jungle, which harbor wild animals 
in plenty; but throughout this vast region diere is 
scarcely a hamlet, and only patches of rice cultivation at 
long intervals. From any part of the Salt Tract one 
may see the boundary of the inner arable part of the 
district, fringed with long lines of trees, from whidi 
every morning the villagers drive their cattle out into 
the saliferons plains to graze. The Salt Tract is purely 
alluvial, and appears to be of recent date. Towards 
the coast the sent has a distinctly saline taste. 

Salt is lamly manufactured m this tract by evi^xira- 
tion. The following is the process followed : — At the 
beginning of December the contractor selects his locality, 
about a ouarter to half a mile firom the sea, and en- 
gages a dass of men called ckuliydsy or heads of salt 
gangs. These men receive is. a cwt. for whatever 
amount of salt they turn out They, in their turn, en- 
gage working parties of melangis^ who are paid at the 
rate of 3d. to 5d. a day. The ground is first marked 
out by a shallow trench, and the grasses and bushes are 
carefully dug up and removed. A deep ditch is next 
dug from the sea, by means of which, twice a month, 
the spring tides overiSow the salt-field, and fiU a number 
of reservoirs, 4 feet in diameter, and 2 or 3 feet deep. 
A mound of earth is then pled up to the height of 2 
feet, and from 3 to 4 in diameter. It is next hoDowed 
out into the shape of a bowl, plastered inside with day* 



B AL 



753 



and furnished with a hole at the bottom, covered iivith a 
layer of grass 6 laches thick. The salt-makers fill this 
bowl with saline earth scraped off the adjacent land, and 
pour the sea-water on it from the top. By the end of 
six hours the water has drained through into a pit at 
the bottom, and runs down a thatched trench towards a 
reservoir, whence it is transferred to the evaporators. 
The latter consist of from 160 to 200 little unglaced 
earthemware pots, fastened together by stiff tenacious 
mud, and holding two quarts each. The neighboring 
plains supply grasses for the fueL Six hours' boiling 
completes the process. The brine, which consisted in 
the nrst place of sea- water charged to its maximum 
power of solution by percolating through the bowls of 
salt earth, subsides into dirty crystals at the bottom of 
the pots. It is then ladled out in spoons made of half 
cocoa-nuts. The whole process is as rude and careless 
as can well be imagined. The total cost of manufac- 
ture is estimated at 2s. id. a cwt, which with the Gov- 
ernment dutv of 8s. 8d., makes a total cost of los. od. 

The Arable Tract lies beyond the salt lands, and em- 
braces the chief part of the district. It is a long dead 
level of rich fields, with a soil lighter in color than that 
of Bengal or Behar; much more friable, and apt to split 
up into small cubes with a rectangular cleavage. A pe- 
culiar feature of the Arable Tract is the Mts^ literallythe 
Cups, or depressed liuids near the river banks. They 
were probably marshes that have partially silted up by 
the yearly overflow of the streams. These Cup-lands 
bear the finest crops. As a whole, the Arable Tract is a 
treeless region, except around the villages, which are 
encircled by fine mango, pipaly banyan, anid tamarind 
trees, and intersected with green shady lanes of bamboo. 
A few palmyras, date palms, and screw pines (a sort of 
aloe, whose leaves are armed with formidable triple rows 
of hook-shaped thorns) dot the expanse, or run in 
straight lines between the fields. The Submontane 
Tract is an undulating country with a red soil, much 
broken up into ravines along the foot of the hills. 
Masses oflaterite, buried in hau-d ferruginous cky, crop 
up as rocks or sUibs. At Kopdri, in Kila Ambohatd, 
about 2 square miles are almost paved with such slabs, 
dark red in color, perfectly flat, and polished like plates 
of iron. A thousand mountain torrents have scooped 
out for themselves picturesque ravines, clothed with an 
ever- fresh verdure of prickly thorns, stunted gnarled 
shrubs, and here and there a noble forest tree. Large 
tracts are covered with S41 jungle, which nowhere, how- 
ever, attains to anjr great height. 

Balasor, the principal town and administrative head- 
quarters of the above district, mtuated on the River Bu- 
ribalang, about 8 miles from the sea-coast as the crow 
flies, and 16 by the river. 

BALBI, Adrian, one of the most eminent geogra- 
phers of modem times, was bom at Venice in 1782. 

BALBO, Cesare, an important Itsdian writer and 
statesman, was bom at Turin, November 21, 1789. 

BALBOA, Vasco Nunez de, one of the bravest and 
most successful of the Spanish discoverers of America, 
was bom at Xeres de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, 
about the year 1475. He was by birth a hidalgo, or 

fentleman, but was in poor circumstances. Little is 
nown of his life till the year 1501, when he was one of 
the companv of adventurers who followed Roderigo de 
Bastkias in his voyage of discovery to the western seas. 
He appears to have settled in Hispaniola, and took to 
cultivating land in the neighborhood of Salvatierra, but 
with no great success, as his debts soon became op- 
pressive. In 1509 the famous Ojeda sailed from San 
Domingo with an expedition, and founded the settle- 
ment of San Sebastian. He had left orders with En- 
ciso, an adventurous lawyer of the town, to fit out two 



ship§ and convey provisions to the new settlement. En- 
dso'set sail in 1510, and Balb.ia, whose debts made the 
town unpleasant to him, managed to accompany him, 
by conceialing himself in a cask which was conveyed 
from his farm to the ship as if containing provisions. 
The expedition, after various adventures, reached San 
Sebastian to find Ojeda gone and the settlement in 
ruins. While Enclso was undeiided how to act, Vasco 
Nufiez proposed that they should sail for Darien, on the 
Gulf of Uraba, where he had touched when with Basti- 
das. His proposal was at once accepted and carried 
out The new town was named S^ Maria de la Anti- 
gua del Darien. Bitter ouarrels b 'oke out among the 
adventurers, caused chieny by Enviso prohibiting aU 
private interchange for gok! v/ith thv* iiativec Enciso 
was deposed from the olnce ofauthoiity which he had 
assumed, but it was found no easy nuiUer to elect a 
successor. Nicuesa, in whose province he^ were, was 
proposed bv several, and was brought froi.^ Nombre de 
Dios by a snip whicn had been sent out to Sring assist- 
ance to him. The inhabitants of Darien, however, 
would not receive him, and, in their wrath, seised him 
and { ^^ced him, v/ith seventeei\ companions, iii a crazy 
bark with which to find his way bad; to Hispaniola. The 
party ofVasco Niv'^z grew strong; Enciso was thrown into 
prison, and finally sent off to Spain along with A''asco*s 
ally, the alcalde Zamudio. Being thus left in aut)\ority, 
Balboa began to make excursions into the surrounding 
country, and by his bravery and conciliatory manners 
gained the frienaship of several native chicfj. On one 
of these excursiot.3 ne heard for the first time of the 
great ocean that lay on the other side of the mountains, 
and of the wondrous land of gokl, afterward caUed 
Peru. Soon after his return to Darien he received let- 
ters from Zamudio, informing him that Enciso had 
complained to the kin^, and had obtained a sentence 
conaemning Balboa and summoning him to Spain. In 
his despair at this message Vasco resolved to attempt 
some great enterprise, the success of which he trusted 
would conciliate nis sovereign. On the 1st September 
15 13, he set out with about 190 men, well armed, and 
sailed to Coyba, where he left half his forces to guaid 
the canoes and ships. With the remainder he started 
on his perilous journey across the isthmus. On the 26th 
September they reached the summit of the range of 
mountains, and the dbrious expanse of the Pacific was 
displayed to them. Three days later they began to de- 
scend the mountains on the westem side, and V&ICO9 
arriving at the sea-shore, formall]^ took possession of the 
ocean in the name of the Spanish monarch. He re- 
mained on the coast for some time, heard again of ^'ero» 
had the Pearl Islands pointed out to him, and set out 
for Darien. On the i8th January 15 14 he reach'^l the 
town, and was received with the utmost joy. He at 
once sent messengers to Spain bearing presents, to give 
an account of his discoveries ; but, unfortunatdy, these 
did not arrive till r*^. expedition had sailed from Spain, 
under Don Pedro Arias de Avila (generally called 
Pedrarias, or Davila), to replace Vasco Nunc , and to 
take possession of the colony. For some time after 
Pedrarias reached Darien Vasco was in great straits, 
but at length letters came from the king, announcing to 
him his satisfaction with his exploits, and nailing him 
Addantado, or admiral. Pedrarias was preva'led upon 
to be reconciled with Vasco, and gave him erne c^ his 
daughters in marriage. Vasco then resolved to aocom" 
plish his grand project of exploring the we item sea. 
With infinite labor materials tor budding fhipe were 
conveyed across the isthmus, and two brigantines were 
constmcted. With these the adventurers took posses- 
sion of the Pear] Islands, and, had it not been {^ the 
weather, would have reached the coast of Peru, thif 



754 



BAL 



career of discoireiy was stopped by the iealonsy of Pe- 
drarias, who feared that Balboa would throw off hb 
allegiance, and who enticed him to Acla by a crafty 
message. As soon as he had him in his power, he threw 
him into prison, had him tried for treason, and forced 
the judge to condemn him to death. The sentence, to 
the grief of all the inhabitants, was carried into execu- 
tion on the public square of Acla in 151 7. 

BALBRIGGAN, a seaport of Ireland, in the county 
of Dublin and Parish of Bahrothery, i8>^ miles N.N.E. 
of the capital. 

BALDE, Takob, a modem Latin poet of considerable 
repute, was oom at Ensisheim in Alsace in 1603, and 
died in 1668. 

BALDI, Bernardino, a distinguished mathemati- 
cian and miscellaneous writer, was descended of a noble 
family at Urbino, in which city he was bom on the 6th 
of June 1533. B^ddi died at Urbino on the 12th of 
October 161 7. Ha was, perhaps, the most universal 
genius of his age, and is said to have written upwards of 
a hundred different works, the chief part of wnich have 
remained unpublished. His various works give satis- 
factory evidence of his abUities as a theologian, mathe- 
matician, eeographer, antiquary, historian and poet. 

BALDINGEk, Ernest Gottfried, a German phy- 
sician of considerable eminence, and the author of a 
great number of medical publications, was bora near 
Erfurt, 13th Mav 1738. In 1768 he became professor 
of medicine at Jena, whence he removed, in 1773, to 
Gottingen, and in 178c to Marburg, where he died of 
apoplexy on the 2 1st of January i8(^ 

BALDINUCCI, FiLLippo, a distinguished Italian 
vniter of the history of the arts, was bom at Florence 
about 1624, and died in 1696. 

BALDOVINETTI, Alesio, was a distinguished 
painter of Florence in the iy\ centurv, whose works 
nave now become very scarce. Hogartn takes him as a 
type of those obscure artists to whom the affected ama- 
teurs of his time were wont to ascribe old painting -r- 
" 'Tis a fine piece of Alessio Baldovinetti, m his tnird 
manner." 

BALDUINUS, Jacobus, a distinguished professor 
of civil law in the university of Lulogna. He died at 
Bologna in 1225, and has left behind him some treatises 
on Procedure, w^ch have the merit of being the earliest 
of their kind. 

BALDUK, one of the most interesting figures of the 
Scandinavian mythology, was the son of Odin and 
Frigg. His name (from ^aA/r, the foremost or pre- 
eminent one) denoted his supreme excellence and beautv. 
In the Gylfeginning we read that he was so amiable 
that all loved him, so beautiful that a light seemed to 
shine about him, and his face and hair were for ever re- 
fulgent. He was the mildest, wisest, and most eloquent 
of the J^^x ; and when he pronounced a judment, it 
was infallible. His dwelling was in Brejdablik (far- 
sight), where nothing impure could come, and where 
the most obscure Question could be explained. The 
wonderful legend of his death is first dimly recorded in 
the Voluspay the grandest and most ancient of Eddaic 
poems, and more fully in the younger Edda. Baldur 
was visited by evil dreams, and felt his life to be in 
danger. His mother, Frigg, took oath of all things in 
the world, animal, vegetable, and mineral, that they 
should not sla^ her son. The Eods being then secure, 
found pastime m setting the good Baldur in their midst, 
and in shooting or hurling stones at his invulnerable 
body. Then Loki, the evil god, took on him the form 
of a woman and went to Fri^g in FensaL From Frige 
he learned that of all things m the earth but one could 
injure Baldur, and that was a little tree westward from 
Valhal. that was too young to take the oath. Thither 



went Loki and foond the {>lant ; it was die mistletoe. 
He plucked it up, fashioned it into an arrow, and went . 
back to the iCsir. They were still in a circle, footing 
at Baldur; and outside the ring stood the blind god 
Hdder, of whom Loki asked wherefore he did not 
shoot. When Hoder had excused himself because of 
his blindness, Loki offered to aim for him, and Hoder 
shooting the arrow of mistletoe, Baldur suddenly fell» 
pierced and dead. No such misfortune had ever yet 
befallen gods or men ; there was long silence 
in heaven, and then with one accord there 
broke out a loud noise of weeping. The iEsir 
dared not revenge the deed, because the place 
was holy, but Frigg, rushing into their midst, be$(Might 
them to send one to Hel to fetch him back. Hel 
promised to let him go if all things in heaven and eardi 
were unanimous in wishing it to be so; but when 
inquiry was made, a creature called Thdkt was found 
in the cleft of a rock that said, ** Let Hel keep its booty. ** 
This was Loki, and so Baldur came not back to Vallud. 
His death was revenged by his son Vale, who, being 
only one night old, uew Hoder ; but Loki fled from the 
revenge of the gods. In Baldur was personified the light 
of the sun ; in his death the quenching of that li^t in 
winter. In his invulnerable body is expressed the incor- 
poreal quality of light ; what alone can wound it is 
mistletoe, the symbol of the depth of winter. It is no- 
ticeable that the Druids, when they cut down this plant 
with a golden sickle, did so to prevent it from wounding 
Baldur again. According to the Voluspa^ Baldur wiU 
return, after Ragnarok, to the new heavens and the 
new earth ; so the sun returns in spring to the renovated 
world. In the later versions it was no ordinary season, 
but the Fimbul winter, which no summer follows, which 
Baldur's death prefigured. It must not be overlooked 
that the story of Baldur is not merely a sun-myth, but 
a personification of that glory, purity, and innocence of 
the gods which was believed to have been lost at his death 
thus made the central point of the whole drama of the 
great Scandinavian mythology. Baldur has been also 
considered, in relation to some statements of SaxoGram- 
maticus, to have been a god of peace, — peace attained 
through warfare; this theory has been advanced by Wein- 
hold with much ingenuity. Several myths have been cited 
as paralleling the storv of the death of Baldur ; those of 
Adonis and of Persephone may be considered as most 
plausible. 

BALDUS, an eminent professor of the civil law, and 
also of the canon law, in tne university of Perugia. He 
came of the noble family of the Ubaldi ; and his two 
brothers, Angelus de Ubaldis and Petrus de Ubaldis, 
were almost of equal eminence with himself as jurists. 
He was bora in 1327, and studied civil law under 
Bartolus at Perugia, where he was admitted to the degree 
of doctor of civillaw at the early age of seventeen ill 
1344. Baldus was the master of Peter Beaufort, the 
nephew of Pope Clement VI., who became himself Pope 
under the title of Gregory XL, and whose immediate 
successor, Urban VI., summoned Baldus to Rome to 
assist him by his consultations against the anti-pope 
Clement VII. 

BALDWIN, Thomas, a celebrated English prelate 
of the 12th century. 

BALE, John, Bishop of Ossorv, in Ireland, was bom 
at Cove, near Dunwich, in Suffolk, in November 1495. 

BALEARIC ISLANDS, a remarkable proup in the 
westera part of the Mediterranean Sea, lying to the £. 
and £. of Spain. The name, as now employed, includes 
not only the ancient Insula BaUares {Major and 
Minor )f but also the Pitvusa or Pine Islands, as the 
two more westera were caUed. The origin of the name 
Baleares is a mere matter of conjecture, and the reader 



BAL 



755 



rasf choose any of the derhratkms ttsnaOy offered with 
about an equal diance of not being right. On the other 
hand, it is obvious that a modem Majorca (or, in 
Spanish, Mallorca) and*Minorca (in Spanish, Menorca) 
are obtained from the Latin Major and Minor^ while 
iTiza is plainly the older Ebusus, a name of, probably, 
Carthagmian origin. The Ophiusa of the Greeks (Col- 
Mbraria of the Romans) is now known as Formentera. 

Majorca is the larg»t island of the group, having an 
area of 1430 square miles. Its shape is that of a trape- 
zoid, with the angles directed to the cardinal points ; 
and its diagonal, from Cape Grozer in the W. to Cape 
Pare in the E., is about sixty miles. On the N. W. tne 
coast is highly precipitous, but on the other skle it is 
low and sloping. On the N.E. there are several consid- 
erable bays, of which the chief are those of Alcuda and 
PoUenza ; while on the S. W. is the still more impor- 
tant bay of Palma. No fewer than twtive ports or 
harbors are enumerated round the island, of which may 
be mentioned Andraix, Soller, and Porto Colom. In 
the N. W. Majorca is traversed by a chain of mountains 
running parallel with the coast, and attaining its highest 
elevation in Silla de Totillas, 4600 feet above the sea. 
Towards the south and east the surface is comparatively 
leve), though broken by isolated peaks of considerable 
height. The northern mountains afford great protec- 
tion to the rest of the island from the violent gEiles to 
which it is exposed, and render the climate remarkably 
mild and pleasant, while the heats of summer are tem- 
pered by the sea-breezes. The scenery of Majorca is 
varied and beautiful, with all the picturesqueness of out- 
line that usually belongs to a limestone formation. The 
people are industrious and hospitable, and pique them- 
selves on their loyalty and orthodoxy. They are often 
but poorly educateo. and their si^perstition is great ; 
crime, however, \a rare. Vaccination is common 
throughout die island, except in the cities, — the women 
often performing the operation themselves when medi- 
cal assistance cannot be got. Castilian is spoken by the 
upper and commercial classes : the lower and agricul- 
tural employ a dialect resembling that of the Catalans, 
with whom, also, their general appearance and manners 
connect them. Besides the towns already mentioned, 
Uuchmayor and Campos are places of considerable size ; 
and Uie castle of Bdbez near Palma, which was the 
former residence of the kings, is worthy of notice. 
Population of the island, 204,00a 

Minorca, the second of the group in size, is situated 
27 miles E.N.E. of Majorca. It nas an area of 260 
square miles, and extends about 35 miles in length. 
Tne coast is deeply indented, especially on the north, 
with numerous creeks and bays, — that of Port Mahon 
being one of the finest in the Mediterranean, if not the 
best of them alL ** June, Ju^, August, and Port Ma- 
hon are the best harbors of tne M^iterranean.** The 
ports Addaya, Fomelle, Ciudadela, and Nitja may also 
be mentioned. The surface of the island is uneven, flat 
In the south and rising irregularly toward the centre, 
where the mountain ElToro — probably so called from 
the Arabic Tor, a height, though the natives have a le- 
gend of a tore or bull — has an altitude of 5250 feet. 

Ivi9a, Ivisssa, or in Spanish, Ibiza, the Eausus of the 
ancients, lies 50 miles S. W. of Majorca, and about 60 
from Cape San Martin on the coast of Spain, between 
38^ 50' and 390 8' N. lat, and between 1° 14' and 1° 
38' £. long. Its greatest length from N. E. to S. W. is 
about 25 miles, a^ its greatest breadth about 13. The 
coast is indented by numerous small bavs, the principal 
of which are those of San Antonio on the N.W., and of 
Iviza on the S.E. coast. Of all the Balearic group, 
Iviza is the most varied in its scenery and the most fruit- 
ioL The hiBy putsare richly wqoded.^t was on one 



of the stunmits called Campsey that one of the stations 
in the celebrated measurement of an arc of the meridian 
was placed. The population of the isluid is about 
21 ,000, of whom 5 joo are resident in the capital 

South of Iviza lies the smaller and more irregular 
island of Formentera, which is said to derive its name 
from the production of wheat. With Iviza it agrees 
both in general appearance and in the character of its 
productions, but it is altogether destitute of streams. 
Goats and sheep are found in the mountains, and the 
coast is greatly frequented by flamingoes. The last 
station in the measurement of the arc of the meridian 
was in this island. 

Of the origin of the early inhabitants of the Balearic 
Islands nothing is certainly known, though Greek and 
Roman writers refer to Boeotian and Rhodian settle- 
ments. According to general tradition the natives, 
from whatever quarter derived, were a strange and 
savage people till they received some tincture of civili- 
sation from the Carthaginians, who early took possession 
of the islands, and built themselves cities on their coasts. 
Of these cities, Mahon, the most important, still retains 
the name which it derived from tne family of Mago. 
About twenty-three years after the destruction of 
Carthage the Ko^ans accused the people of the islands 
with piracy, and sent against them Q. Caedlius Metellus, 
who soon reduced them to obedience, settled amongst 
them 3P00 Roman and Spanish colonists, founded the 
cities of Palma and Pollentia, and introduced the culti- 
vation of die olive. Besides valuable contingents of the 
celebrated Balearic slingers the Romans derived from 
their new conquest mules (from Minorca), edible snails, 
sinope^ and pitch. Of their occupation numerous traces 
still exist, — the most remarkable being the aqueduct at 
PoUentia. 

BALES, Peter, a flunous caligraplust, and one of 
the first inventors of short-hand writing. He was bom 
in 1547, and is described by Anthony Wood as a <* most 
dexterous person in his piofesBion, to the great wonder 
of scholars and others." 

BALFE, Michael William, musician and composer, 
was bom, in 1808, at Limerick in Ireland. Musical 
knowledge of a higher kind he never possessed, nor did 
he supply this want by the natural impulses of a truly 
refined nature. To speak of Balfe as an artist is either 
to misuse the word or to permit its meaning to depend 
on temporary success, no matter how acqmred, inaccd, 
less on the intrinsic merits of his works than on their 
undoubted success: and, most of all, on the fact of his 
being one of the few composers of British birth whose 
names are known beyond the limits of their own country. 

BALFOUR, Sir James, of Pittendrdch, at one time 
lord presklent of the Supreme Court in Scotland, an 
active and unscrapulous ];>olitican during the stormy 
period of the reign of Mary. 

BALFOUR, Sir Jambs, Bart, of Denmyhie and 
Kinnaird, an eminent annalist and antiquaiy, was bom 
about i6oa 

BALFOUR, Robert, a learned Scotchman, bom 
about the year 1^50^ who was for many years principal 
of the Guienne College at Bordeaux. 

BALFROOSH, or BarfurOsh, a large commercial 
town of Persia, province of Mazanderan, on die River 
Bhawal, which is here crossed by a bridge of nine 
arches, about twelve miles distant from the southern 
shore of the Caspian Sea, where the small town c^ 
Meshed-i-Sir serves as a kind of port. 

BALGUY, John, an enunent English theologian 
and moral philosopher, was bora at Sheffield on August 
12, 1686. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, 
in 1702, graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1706, was or- 
dained to the ministiy in 1710, and soon uter obtained 



756 



BAL 



the small living of Ltmeslf tnd Tanfidd in the counw 
Durham. Hediedat Harrowgate, September 2I» 174& 
A second volame of sermons appeared shortlj alter- 
wards. The edition of his sermons most commonly met 
with is the 3d» in 2 vch,, published in 176a 

BALI, or Little Java, one of the Sunda Islands, 
in the Eastern Seas, separated from Java bv the straits 
of the same name, whicn arc a mile and a half wide. It 
is 7< miks in length; its greatest breadth is 50 miles. 
A ^in of mountains crosses the island in a direction 
E. and W., and terminates on the E. in the volcanic 
peak Gnnungaguns, 12,^79 feet above the soa-leveL 
The climate and souare the same in Java; it has mount- 
ains of proportionate height, several lakes of great 
depth, and streams well fitted for the purposes ot irri- 
gation. Rice is produced in great quantities, and is 
even exported to Madura, Celebes, Timor, and Java. 
The other productions are tobacco, maize, pulses, vnl, 
and salt; also cotton of an excellent quality. Cofiee 
is now erown with great success; in the district of Teja 
Kttlo atone, 150,000 trees were planted in the first four 
months of 1873. The inhabitants (estimated at about 
800,000), thou^ originally sprung from the same stock 
as those of Java, exceed th^ in stature and muscular 
power, as well as in activity and enteif>rising habits. 

BALIOL, or Baluol, Sir John Db, an Endish 
baron, after whom Balliol College in Oxford has been 
named, was the son of Hug^ Baliol, of Bernard's Castle, 
in the diocese of Durham. His great wealth and power 
raised him to a prominent position in the kingdom, and 
he rendered good service to Henry III. in his contest 
with De Montfort and the revolted barons. In 1263 he 
endowed several scholarships at Oxford, and formed the 
intention of founding a college. This he did not accom- 
plish, but after his death in 1269, his widow, DevorgiUe 
or DevorguiU, carried out his d^isn» and the foundation 
received tne name of Balliol Colk^. Sir John's son 
was the well-known John Baliol, the competitor with 
Bruce for the throne of Scotland. 

BALKAN (the ancient J/itmus), a mountain range 
that separates the waters of the Lower Danube from 
those that flow into the Archipelago; or, ir. the more 
extended application of the name, tM whole mountain 
system from the Adriatic to the Euxine. The main 
chain has a mean elevation of 4000 or 5oriO feet, and 
rises in various parts to a height of 7000 or 8000. Es- 
pecially to the east it breaks up into a number of parallel 
chains, and sends out various ofishoots both south and 
north. Mount Scardus, the highest point of the Char- 
Dagh, attains to 9700 feet above the sen. The most of 
the rivers of the northern watershed find their way to 
the Black Sea, while those from the southern fall mto 
the Mediterranean. The range is crossed by numerous 
defiles, most of which are left in a nearly impassable 
eondition, though they might in many cases be turned 
into serviceable routes. Communication is kept up be- 
tween Vienna and Constantinople by the pass usually 
known as Trajan's Gate. Otheis of importance are the 
Nadir-Derbent, the Kamabad, and tne Basardshik- 
Sophia. 

BALKH, the ancient Baiira or Zariaspoy was for- 
merly a great city, but is now for the most part a mass of 
ruins, situated on the ri|[ht bank of the Adirsiah or Balkh 
river, in a large and fertile plain 1800 feet above the sea. 
The modern name is, according to V^b^ry, the Turk- 
ish balik^ or balikhy a city. The ruins, which occupy a 
space of about twenty miles in circuit, consist chiefljr of 
fallen mosques and decayed buildings of sun-burnt brick. 
No monuments of pre-Mahometan date have been 
pointed out, if we except the bricks with cuneiform in- 
scriptions which Ferrier asserts he observed ; but noth- 
ing lik« a proper investigation of the site has yet been 



effected. The andqnity and greatnes of the place are 
recognised by the native popuations, who speaic of it as 
the Motfur of Cities, From the Memoirs cf Hwen 
Thsangy a Chmese traveller, we learn that, at the time 
of his visit in the 7th century, there were in the city, or 
its vicinity, about a hundred Buddhist -convents, with 
3000 devotees, and that there was a large number of 
stupas^ and other religious monuments. The most re- 
markable was the Nau Behar^ Nova Bihara^ or New 
Convent, which possessed a veiy costly sutue of Bud- 
dha. A curious notice of this building is found in the 
Arabian geographer Yakilt. Ibn-Haukal, an Arabian 
traveller of iSit loth century, describes Balkh as built of 
clay, with ramparts and six gates, and extending half a 
parasang. He also mentions a castle and a mosque. El 
Edrisi, in the 12th century, speaks of its possessing a 
variety of educational establishments, and carrjring on 
an active tride. There were several important commer- 
cial routes from the city, stretching as tar east as India 
and China. In 1220 Genghis Khan sacked Balkh, butch- 
ered its inhabitants, and levelled all the buildings capable 
of defence, — treatment to which it was again subjected 
in the 14th century by Timur. Notwithstanding this, 
however, Marco Polo can still, in the following century, 
describe it as a " noble city and a great." 

BALL, John, a Puritan divine, of whom Baxter 
speaks in verv high terms, was bom, in 1585, at Cass- 
ington, or Qiessington, near Woodstock, and died in 
1640. 

BALLADS. The word ballad is derived fn»n the 
Old French bailer^ to dance, and originally meant a song 
sung to the rhythmic movement of a dancing chorus. 
Later, the word became the technical term for a partic- 
ular form of old fashioned French poetry, remarkable 
for its involved and recurring rhymes. 

In England the term has usually been applied to any 
simple tale, toki in sunpJe verse, though attempts have 
been made to confine it to the subject of this paper, 
namely, Popular Songs. By popular soncs we under- 
stand what the Germans call Vouts-lieder^ that is, songs 
composed by the people, for the people, handed down 
by oral tradition, and in style, taste, and even incident, 
common to the people in all European countries. The 
beauty of these purely popular ballads, their directness 
and freshness, has made them admired even by the arti- 
ficial critics of the most artificial periods in literature. 
Addison devoted two articles in the Spectator to a crit- 
ique of the same poem. Montaigne praised the naiviti 
of the village carols ; the Malherbe preferred a rustic 
chansonette to all the poems of Ronsaid. These, how- 
ever, are rare instances of the taste for popular poetiy, 
and though the Danish ballads were collected and 
printed in the middle of the i6th century, and some 
Scotch collections date from the beginning of the i8th, 
it was not till the publication of Allan Ramsay's Ever- 
green and Tea TMe Miscellany^ and of Bishop Percy's 
Reliques, that a serious effort was made to recover 
Scotch and English folk-songs from the recitation of the 
old people who still knew them by heart. At the time 
when Percy was editing the Reliqtus^ Madame de Ch6- 
nier, the mother of the celebrated French poet of that 
name, composed an essay on the ballads of her native 
land, modem Greece ; and later. Herder and Grimm 
and Goethe, in Germany, dkl for the songs of their 
country what Scott did for those of Liddesdiue and the 
Forest. It was fortunate, perhaps, for poetry, though 
unlucky for the scientific study of the ballads, that they 
were mainly regarded from the literary point cX view. 
The influence of their artless melody and straig^tfor<. 
ward diction may be felt in the lyrics of Goethe and ol 
Coleridge, of Wordsworth, of Heine, and of Andr^ 
Ch6nier. Chdnier, in the most i^focted age jeven ol 
^ Digitized by LjOOQIC 



BAL 



757 



Frendi poetm translated some of the Romaic ballads ; 
one, as it chanced, being identical with that which 
Shdcspeare borrowed from some English reciter, and put 
into the mouth of the mad Ophelia. The beauty of the 
ballads and the interest they excited led to numerous 
forgeries. It is probable that Hogg was as great a cul- 
prit in Scotland as Prosper M^rim& with his Gutla^ or 
collection of Servian imitations, in France. Editors 
could not resist the temptation to interpolate, to restore, 
and to improve the fra£ments that came in their way. 
The Marquis de la ViUemarqu^, who first drew atten- 
tion to the ballads of Brittany, is not wholly free from 
this fault Thus a very general scepticism was awak- 
ened, and when Questions came to be asked as to the 
date and authorship of the Scottish traditional ballads, 
it is scarcely to be wondered at that Dr. Chambers at- 
tributed most of them to the accomplished Lady Ward- 
law, who lived in the middle of the i8th century. 

The vexed and dull controversy as to the origin .of 
Scottish folk-songs was due to ignorance of the compar- 
ative method, and of the ballad literature of EurofM* in 
general The result of the discussion was to leave a 
vague impression that our native ballads were perhaps 
as old as the time of Dunbar, and were the .production 
of a class of professional minstrels. These minstrels 
are a stumbling -block in the way of the student of the 

Sowth of ballads. The domestic annals of Scotland 
ow that her kings used to keep court-bards, and also 
that strollers, /^ff^^f^r/, as they were called, went about 
singing at the doors of farm-houses and in the streets 
of towns. Here were two sets of minstrels who had 
apparently left no poetry ; and, on the other Side, there 
was a number of oallads that claimed no author. It 
was the easiest and most satisfactory inference that the 
courtly minstrels made the verses, which the wandering 
crowders imitated or corrupted. But this theory fails to 
account, among other things, for the universal sameness, 
of tone, of incident, of legend, of primitive poetical 
formube, which the Scotch ballad possesses, in common 
with the ballads of Greece, of France, of Provence, of 
Portugal, of Denmark, and of Italy. The object, 
therefore, of this article is to prove that what has long 
been acknowledged of nurseiy tales, of what the Ger- 
mans call Marc fun, namely, that they are the immemo- 
rial inheritance at least of all European peoples, is true 
also of ballads. The main incidents and jplots of the 
fairy tales of Celts, and Germans, and Slavonic and 
Indian peoples, their unknown antiquity and mysterious 
origjin, are universally recognised. No one any longer 
attributes them to this or tluit author, or to this or that 
date. The attempt to find date or author for a genuine 
popular song is as futile as a similar search in the case of 
a AidrcAen, It is to be asked then, whether what is 
confesssdly true of folk-tales, — of such stories of the 
Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella^ — is true also of folk- 
songs. Are they, or have they been, as tmiversaUy 
sung as the fairy tales have been narrated? Do they 
too, bear traces of the survival of primitive creeds and 
primitive forms of consciousness and of imagination? 
Are they, like Mdrchen, for the most part, little influ- 
enced by the higher religions. Christian or polytheistic? 
Do they turn, as Mdrchen do, on the same mcidents, 
repeat the same stories, employ the same machinery or 
talking birds and beasts ? Lastly, are any specimens of 
ballad literature capable of being traced back to ex- 
treme antiquity? It appears that all these questions 
xax9 be answered in the affirmative; that the great aee 
and universal diffusion of the ballad may be proved; 
and that its birth, from the lips and heart of the people, 
may be contrasted with the origin of an artistic poetry 
in the demand of an aristocracy lor a separate epic liter- 
gture^ destined to b^ \\% own possession, and tQ be the 



first development of a poetry of personalis, — a record 
of individual pasnons and emotions. After bringing 
forwafd examples of the kientity of features in European 
ballad poetry, ifre shall proceed to show that they all 
sprang from the same primitive custom of dance 
accompanied by improvisra song, which still exists in 
Greece and Russia, and even in valleys of the I^enees. 

There can scarcely be a better guide in the examina- 
tion of the notes or marks of popular poetry than the 
instructions which M. Amp^ gave to the committee 
appointed in 1852-53 to search tor the remains of ballads 
in France. M. Amp^ bade the collectors look for the 
following characteristics:'— ** The use of assonance in 
place of rhynrie, the brusque character of the recital, the 
textual repetition, as in Homer, of the speeches of the 
persons, the constant use of certain numbers, — as three 
and seven,— and the representation of the conunonest 
objects of every-day life as being made of gold and sil- 
ver.** M. Amp^e might have added that French 
ballads would probably employ a " bird -chorus," the use 
of talking-birds as messengers ; that ther would repeat 
the plots current in other countries, and oisplay the same 
non-Christian idea of death and of the future world, the 
same ghostly superstitions and stories of metamorphosis, 
and the same belief in elves and fairies, as are found in 
the ballads of Greece, of Provence, of Brittany, Den- 
mark, and Scotland. We shall now examine these sup- 
posed common notes of all genuine popular song, sup- 
plying a few out of the many instances of curious kien- 
tity. As to brusqneness of recital, and use of assonance 
instead of rhyme, as well as the aid to memory given bjr 
reproducing speeches verbally, these are almost un- 
avoidable in all simple poetry preserved by oral tradition* 
Then there is ^ the leaeue, the league, the league, but 
barely three,** of Scotch ballads; and the rpid novXaKtd 
three golden birds, which sing the prelude to Greek 
folk-songs, and so on. A more curious note of primi- 
tive poetry is the lavish and reckless use of gold and sil- 
ver. M. Tozer, in his account of ballads in the /^/^A- 
lands of Turkey, remarks on this fact, and attributes it 
to Eastern influences. But the horses* shoes of silver, 
the knives of fine gold, the talking ** birds with gold on 
their wings,** as in Aristophanes, are common to all 
folk-song. Everything almost is gold in the JCalevala, 
an epic ^rmed by puttmg into juxtaposition all thepopu- 
lar songs of Finland. Gold is used as freely m the 
ballads, real or spurious, which M. Verkovitch has had 
collect^] in the wilds of Mount Rhodope. 

Next as to talking-birds. These are not so common 
as in Mdrchen, but still are very general, and cause no 
surprise to their human listeners. The omniscient pop- 
injav, who ** up and spoke ** in the Border minstrel^, is 
of tne same family of^ birds as those that, according to 
Talyj, pervade Servian song; as the rptd novXaxtd 
which introduce the story in the Romaic ballads ; as the 
wise birds whose speech is still understood by exception- 
ally gifted Zulus ; as the wicked dove that whispers 
temptation in the sweet French folk-song; as the ** oird 
that came out of a bush, on water for to dine," in the 
PVater 0* Wearies fVell. 

In the matter identity of plot and incident in the 
ballads of various lands, it is to be regretted that no 
such comparative tables exist as Von Hahn tried, not 
very exhaustively, to make of the "stoiT-roots" of 
Mdrchen. A common plot is the story of'^the faithful 
leman, whose lord brings home ** a braw new bride,** 
and who recovers his smection at the eleventh hour. 
In Scotland this is the ballad of Lord Thomas, and Fair 
Annie ; in Danish it is Skiaan Anna. ^ It occurs twice 
in M. Fauriel*s collection of Romaic songs. Again, 
there is the familiar ballad about a girl who pretends to 
be dead, (h^t sh^ inay be borne<^ % bier k> meet hef 
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7S8 



BAL 



lover. This occurs not only in Scotland, but fn the 
popular son^ of Provence (collected by Damase 
Aroaud) and in those of Metz (Purmaigre), and in both 
countries an incongruous sequel tells how the lover tried 
to murder his bride, and how she was too cunning, and 
drowned him. Another example of a very wide-spread 
theme brings us to the ideas of the state of the dead 
revealed in folk-songs. The Night Joumev^ in M. 
Fauriel's Romaic coUection, tells now a deaa brother, 
wakened from his sleep of doith bv the longing of love, 
bore hb living sister on his saddle-bow, m one night, 
from Baghdad to Constantinople. In Scotland this it 
the story of Proud Lady Margaret ; in Germany it is 
the song which Burger converted into Lenore ; in Den- 
mark it is Aag^ und EIs^ ; in Brittany the dead foster- 
brother carries his sister to the apple close of the Celtic 
paradise {Sartaz Breiz), Only m Brittanv do the sad- 
hearted people think of the land of death as an island 
of Avalon, with the eternal sunset lingering behind the 
flowering apple trees, and gleaming on the fountain of 
forgetfumess. In Scotland the chankering worm doth 
chide even the souls that come from where, ** beside the 
gate of Paradise, the birk grows fair enough.** The 
Romaic idea of the place of the dead, the garden of 
Charon, whence ** neither in spring or summer, nor when 
grapes are gleaned in autumn, can warrior or maklen 
escape,** is likewise pre-Christian. 

It would not be difficult to multiply instances of re- 
semblance between the difierent folk-songs of Europe ; 
but enough has, perhaps, been saki to support the 
position that they are popular and primitive in the same 
sense as Mdrchm, They date from times, and are 
composed by peo|des who find, in a natural improvisa- 
tion, a natural utterance of modulated and rythmic 
speech, the appropriate reUef of their emotions, in 
moments of high-wrought feeling or on solemn occa- 
sions. Ballads sprang from the very heart of the people, 
and flit from age to age, from lip to lip of shepherds, 
peasants, nurses, of all the class that continues nearest 
to the state of natural men. They make music with the 
plash of the fisherman's oars and the hum of the spinning- 
wheel, and keep time with the step of the ploughman as 
he drives his team. The country seems to have akled 
man in their making \ the bird's note rings in them, the 
tree has lent her whispers, the stream its murmur, the 
village-beU its tinkling tune. The whole soul of the 
peasant class breathes m their burdens, as the great sea 
resounds in the shells cast up on the shores. Ballads 
are a voice from secret places, from silent peoples, and 
old times long dead; and as such they stir us in a 
strangely intimate fashion to which artistic verse can 
never attain. 

BALLANCHE, Pieriie Simon, a distinguished 
French philosopher of the theocratic school, was bom at 
Lyons in 1776. 

It is almost impossible to give a connected view of 
Ballanche's fundamental ideas. He belonged to the 
theocratic school, who, ia opposition to the rationalism 
of the preceeding ase, emphasised the principle of au- 
thority, placing revelation above individual reason, order 
above freedom and progress. But Ballanche made a 
sincere endeavor to unite m one system what was valuable 
in the opposed modes of thinking. He held with the 
theocratists that individualism was an impracticable view; 
man, according to him, exists only m and through 
society. He agreed farther with them that the origin 
of society was to be explained, not by human desire and 
efforts, but by a direct revelation from God. Lastly, 
with De Bonald, he reduced the problem of the origin 
of society to that of the origin of language, and held 
that language was a divine gift. But at this point he 
parts company with Uie theocratists, and in this very 



revelation of langoflge finds agerm of progress. Origin- 
ally, in the primitive state of man, speech and thoi^;ht 
are klentical ; but gradually the two separate ; ]anguas|e 
is no longer only spoken, it is also written, and finally is 
printed. Thus the primitive unity is broken np; the 
original social order which co-existed with, and was de- 
pemtant on it, breaks up also. New institutions spring 
np, upon whidi thought acts, and in and through whi(£ 
it even draws nearer to a final unity, a rehabikution, a 
palingenesis. The volition of primitive man was one 
with that of God, but it becomes broken np into separate 
volitions which oppose themselves to the oivine wul, and 
through the oppositions and trials of this work! work 
onwanl to a second and completer harmony. The 
history of humanity is therefore comprised in the fall 
from Uie perfect state, and in the return, after repeated 
trials, to a similar condition. In the dim, shadowy 
records of mythical times may be traced the obscure 
outlines of primitive society and of its fall ; and this is 
attempted m the Orph/e, Actual history exhibits the 
conflict of two great principles, which may be said to 
be realised in the patricians and plebeians of Rome. 
Such a distinction of caste is regarded by Ballanche as 
the original state of historical society; and history, as a 
whole, ne considers to have followed the same course as 
that taken by the Roman plebs in iu gradual and suc- 
cessful attempts to attain equality witn the patriciate. 
On the future events.through which the human race shall 
achieve its destiny Ballanche gives few intelligent hints. 
The sudden flash which disclosed to the eyes of Hebal 
the whole epic of humanity cannot be reproduced in 
language trammelled by time and space. Scattered 
throughout the works of Ballanche are many valuable 
ideas on the connection of events which makes possible 
a philosophy of history ; but his own theory, so far as 
it can be understood and judged, does not seem likely to 
find more favor than it has aOready met with. 

BALL A RAT, Ballaarat, a large and flourishing 
city of Australia, in the province of Victoria. It is 
situated about 58 miles N. W. of Geelong, with which 
it is connected by railway, and about 66 miles W.N. W 
of Melbourne, at an elevation of 1437 ^^^ above the 
level of the sea, on a small river known as the Yarowee 
Creek. It consists of three portions, — Ballarat West, 
Ballarat East, and Sebastopol,— each of which has its 
own municipality and townhalL Its existence and pros- 
perity are solely due to the gold-fields which were dis- 
covered here in 1851. In 1855 it was proclaimed a 
municipality, and in 1870 Ballarat West was raised to 
the rank of'^a city. In 1871 it contamed 56 churches, 
477 hotels, 10,000 dwellings, I r banks, 8 iron-foundri^ 
I J breweries and distilleries, 3 flour-mills, a free public 
library, a mechanics' institute, a hospital, a ** benevolent 
institution,** a theatre, and a public garden ; while about 
sixty miles of water-mains and fifty of gas-mains had 
been laid down. 

BALLAr! [Bellary], a district in the Madras 
Presidency, is bounded on the N. by the Nizam's territory, 
from which it is separated by the TungbhadrA river ; on 
the £. by the distncts of Kadapa and Kamul ; on the S. 
by the Mysore country; and on the W. by Mysore, and 
the Bombay district of Dharwar. Its extreme length 
from north to south is 170 miles, and its breadth mm 
east to west about 120 miles. The area of the district, 
including 145 square miles of the Sandtir State, b esti- 
mated at about 11,406 square miles; according to other 
returns the area is 10,857 square miles ^eluding 
Sandiir), of which 1004 consist of barren soil, sites m 
villages, beds of water-courses, &c., and 9852 of lands 
either actually cultivated or capable of cultivation. 
The census of 187 1 returned the population at 1,652,044, 
of w* ^ «4 per cent, were Hindus.^^^ i& estimated that 
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759 



941,712, or 71.8 per cent of the population, live by 
agrioiltnre. The general aspect of the district is that 
of an extensive plateau between the Eastern and West- 
em Ghdts, of an average height of from 800 to 1000 
feet above sea-level. Tne most elevated tracts are on 
the W., where the sur&ce rises towards the culminating 
range of hills, and on the S., where it rises to the ele- 
vatra tableland of Mysore. Towards the centre the 
surface of the plain presents a monotonous aspect, be- 
ing almost treeless, and unbroken, save by a few rocky 
elevations that stand forth abruptly from the sheet of 
black soil below. The hill ranges in Ballib^ are those 
of Sandi^ir and Kampli to the W., the Lanki Malla to 
the £., and the Copper mountain to the S.W. The last 
has an elevation of J148 feet The district is watered by 
five hill streams, viz., the Tungbhadrd, formed by the 
junction of two small rivers, Tung and Bhadrd, the 
tiaggari, Hindri, Ponnftr, and Chitravatf. The Ponn&r 
is considered a sacred river by the natives. None of 
the rivers are navigable, and all are fordable during the 
dry season. 

little is known of the early history of the district 
It appears to have been a portion of the ancient 
kingdom of Vijayanagaram, and on the overthrow of 
that state in 1504 A. d. by the Mahometans, the tract 
now forming the district of Ball^ was split up into 
a number of military holdings, held by chiefs called 
Polig&rs. In 1635 the Camatic was annexed to the 
Bijipur dominions, from which again it was wrested in 
idSo by Sivaif, the founder of the MarhattA power. It 
was then included in the dominions of Nizto-ul-mulk, 
the nominal viceroy of the Great Mughul in the Dakhfn, 
from whom again it was subsequently conquered by 
Haidar Alf of Mysor. At the close of the war with 
Tipii Sult&n in 1793, the territories which now form the 
BsUl^f district fell to the share of the Nizto of Haid- 
AT&bidf by whom it was ceded to the British m 1800, in 
return for a force of English troops to be stationed at 
his capital In 1818 the district of Balldrf was consti- 
tuted as it at present remains. Amklst all these political 
convulsions tne little state of Sanddr, occupying a cen- 
tral position in the Balldri district, and surrounded by 
a cordon of hills, preserved its integritv. Sandur can 
only be entered by one of three prinapal natural passes, 
viz., the Bhima^di pass on the N.E., the Riman- 
agundi pass on the N., and the Oblagundf pass on the 
W. Its chief is the repvesentative of one of the most 
ancient Marhatt& families, and derives a revenue of 
j^4500 from his state. He now hoWs Sandur as a JdjYr 
or a military tenure from our Government, but pays no 
tribute. 

BallArI, the principal town of the above district, is 
the chief seat of the judicial and revenue establishments, 
and the headquarters of the military force in the ceded 
districts, consisting of Balldrf and Kadapa. 

BALLATER, a village of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
on the River Dee, 42 miles W. from Aberdeen. In its 
vicinity are the medicinal wells of Pannanich, Balmoral 
Castle (a summer reskience of Queen Victoria), and 
Ballatrich Farm, where Byron spent a part of his boy- 
hood. Ballatrich is a short distance from " Lachin-y- 
Gair ** (Lochnagar), one of the loftiest of the Grampian 
range, and the subject of one of Byron's most beautiful 
poems. 

BALLENSTEDT, a city in the duchy of Anhalt- 
Bemburg. It is situated on the Getel in the Harz 
Forest, in a most pictuiescjue district, and consists of 
an old and a new town. 

BALLET is a word, the signification of which 
de]>ends opon the century in which we find it employed. 
Originally derived from the Greek to dance, it has 
pMsed through the medis^al Latin MAxrf (with daUa- 



tor as synonymous with satiai&r) to the Italian ballart 
and baiiaiay to the French ballet, to the old English 
word balUtte, and to ballad. In oki French, according 
to Rousseau, baiUt signifies ** to dance, to sing, to 
rejoice ; ** and thus it incorporates three distinct modem 
words, " ballet, ball, and baUad. " Through the gradual 
changes in the amusements of diflerent ages, the mean- 
ing of the first two words has at length Mcorae limited 
to dancing, and the third is now confined to singing. 
But, although ballads are no longer the vocal accompan- 
iments to dances round the maypole, our old ballads are 
still sung to dance tunes. The present acceptation of 
the ^otA ballet is — a theatrical representation in which 
a story is told only by g«ture, accompanied by music 
which should be characterised by stronger emphasis than 
would be employed with the voice. The dancing should 
be connected with the story, but is more commonly inci- 
dental. The French word was found to be so compre- 
hensive as to require further definition, and thus the 
above-described would be distinguished as the balUi 
(Tafticn or pantomime ballet, while a single scene, such 
as that of a villajge festival with its dances, would now be 
termed a divertissement. 

The ballet d^ action, to which the changed meaning of 
the word is to be ascribed, and therewith the introduc- 
tion of modem ballet, has been generally attributed to 
the i6th centunr. Novelty of entertainment was then 
sought for in the splendid courts of Ital)r, in order to 
celebrate events which were thought great in their time, 
such as the marriages of princes, or the triumphs of 
their arms. Invention was on the rack for novelty, and 
the skill of the machinist was taxed to the utmost It 
has been supposed that the art of the old Roman 
pantomimi was then revived, to add to the attractions 
of court-dances. Under the Roman empire the pantp* 
mimi had represented either a mythological story, or 
perhaps a scene from a Greek tragedy, by mute gestures, 
while a chorus, placed in the background, sang cantiea 
to narrate the lable, or to describe the action of the 
scene. The question is whether mute oantomimic ac- 
tion, which is the essence of modem ballet, was carried 
through those court entertainments, in which kin^ 
queens, princes, and princesses took parts with ^ the 
courtiers; or whether it is of later growth, and derived 
from professional dancers upon the stage. I1ie former 
is the general opinion, but an analysis of the only ballet 
which IS known to have been printed in a complete form 
during the i6th century, would lead to the inference 
that the court entertainments of Italv and France were 
masques, or masks, which included declamation and 
song, like those of Ben Jonson with Inigo Jones for the 
court of James I. 

The introduction of the Italian style of ballet into 
France was on the occasion of the marriage of the Due 
de Joyeuse with Mdlle. de Vaudemont, sister to the 
queen. This was in 1581 ; and the ballet was printed 
in 1582, in a small folio of eighty-two leaves, with 
music, dialogue, engravings of the scene and of the 
fancy dresses, and full details of the plot. One lady of 
the court sang a song, two others a duet, and, a^in, 
others a choms. Jupiter and Mercury each sang a song, 
but Circe and the rest spoke jjoetry. The kinjfs 
musicians, as tritons, were the taiainstays of the music ; 
the ladies and gentlemen of the court appeared in 
splendid fancy dresses, and danced the entrto. The in- 
ventor of the ballet was Baltazarini Belgioioso, who 
had assume^ the name of Baltasar de Beamoyeux upon 
his afjpoint ment as first musician to Catherine de 
Medicis, qu^en dowager of France. The disuse of 
dialogue anr of vocal mu^c in ballet seems to have been 
arriv^ at >nly by degrees. At length the opinion 
gained groind that, in stafc lepfcsentatioDS^ the ao- 



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1 



tioDf, feellogi, and jpMsfoos could be more faithfully, 
gracefully, and intelli^bly expressed to the eye by pan- 
tomimic action, than it would be possible to do to the 
ear. The art of dramatic expression then became a 
greater object of study ; and, perhaps, from about the 
middle of the last century, or m the tfane of Noverre, 
the spettators have been prepared only by a short printed 
summaiT of the story whieh was to be represented. 

BALLINA, a seaport and market-town of Ireland, 
county of Mavo, i8 miles N.N.E. of Castlebar, situated 
on the River Moy, which is here crossed by two bridges. 
Population in 1 871, 5551. 

BALLINASLOE, a town of Ireland, province of 
Connaught, 91 miles W.S.W. of Dubljn. The River 
Suck, an affluent of the Shannon, divides it into two 
parts ; the western being in the county of Galway, the 
eastern in the county of Roscommon. 

BALLOON. See Aeronautics. 

BALLOT, or secret voting, has been employed in 
political, ]e|[islative, and judicial assemblies, and also in 
the proceedmes of private clubs and corporations. At 
Athens, the mcasts, in giving their verdict, generally 
used balls of stone (psephi) or of metal (sponduli). 
Those pierced in the centre, or black in color, signified 
condemnation; those unpierced, or white, signified ac- 
quittal The boxes were variouslv arranged ; but gen- 
erally a brass box received both classes of votes, and a 
wooden box received the unused balls. In the assembly, 
cases of priviUgiay such as ostracism, the natundisa- 
tion of foreigners, or the release of state-debtors, were 
decided by secret voting. The petalism, or voting by 
words on olive-leaves, practiced at S3rracuse, may also 
be mentioned. At Rome the ballot was introduced to 
the comitia by the L<fes Tabellariae^ of which the Lex 
Gabiana (139 B.a) relates to theelection of magistrates, 
the Lex Cassia (137 B.C.) to judicia populi^ and the Lex 
Papiria (131 B.C.) to the enactment and repeal of laws. 
The wooden tabellae^ placed in the cista^ or wicker box, 
were marked U. R. {uti rogas) and A. (antique) in the 
case of a proposed law; L. ( libera) and D. (damno) 
in the case of a public trial ; in the case of an election, 
puncta were made opposite the names or initials of the 
candidates. Tabellae were also used by the Roman 
iudices, who expressed their verdict or judgment by the 
letters A. ( absolve )f C. (condemno)^ and N. L. (non 
liquet). 

In Great Britain the ballot was suggested for use in 
Parliament by a political tract of the lime of Charles 
II. It was actually used by the Scots Parliament of 
1662 in proceeding on the "Billeting Act,** a measure 
proposed bv Middleton to secure the ostracism of I^u- 
derdale and other political opponents who were by 
secret vote declared incapable of pubhc office. The 
plan followed was this: each member of Parliament 
wrote, in a disguised hand, on a piece of paper, the 
names of twelve suspected persons; the billets were put 
in a bag held by the registrar; the bag was then sealed, 
and was afterwards opened and its contents ascertained 
in the Exchequer Chamber, where the billets were im- 
mediately burned, and the names of the ostracised con- 
cealed on oath. The Billeting Act was repudiated by 
the king, and the ballot was not a^in heard of till 
1705, wneB Fletcher of Saltoun, in his measure for a 
provisional government of Scotland by annual Parlia- 
ments in the event of Queen Anne's death, proposed 
secret voting to protect members from court mfluence. 
The gradual emancipation of the British Parliament 
from the power of the Crown, and the adoption of a 
strictly repres«ntative s)rstem of election, have not only 
destroyed whatever reason may once have existed for the 
ballot in deliberative votine, but have rendered it essen- 
tial that such voting should be open. It was in the agi- 



tations for parliamentary reform at the beginning of the 
19th century that the demand for the ballot in parlia- 
mentary elections was first seriously made. The Ben- 
thamites advocated the system in 181 7. At the Peter- 
loo Massacre (1819) several banners were inscribed with 
the ballot. O'Connell introduced a biU on die subject 
in 1830 ; and the original draft of Lord John RusselTs 
Reform Bill, probably on the su^nestion of Loixis Dur- 
ham and Duncannon, provider for its introductioiL 
Later on Mr. Grote became its chief supporter in the 
House of Commons; and from 18^ to 1819, in spite 
of the ridicule cast by Sydney Smith on the «*monsc- 
trap," and on Mr. Grote s "dagger-box, in which you 
stao the card of your favorite candidate with a dagger," 
the minority for the ballot increased from 106 to 217. 
In 1838 the ballot was the fourth point of the People's 
Charter. In the same year the abolition of the land 
qualification introduced rich commercial candidates to 
the constituencies. Lord Melbourne's cabinet declared 
the question open. The cause, upheld by Macanlay, 
Ward, Hume (in his resolutions, 1848), and Berkeley, 
was strengthened by the Report of Lord Hartingt(m*s 
Select Committee (15th March 1870), to the 
effect that corruption, treating, and intimidation 
by priests and landlords took place to a lar^ 
extent at both parliamentary and municipal elections m 
England and Ireland; and that the ballot, if adopted, 
would probably not only promote tran<^uillity at elec- 
tions, but protect votere from imdue influence, and 
introduce greater freedom and purity in voting, pro- 
vided secrecy was made inviolable, except in cases where 
a voter was found guilty of bribeir, or where an invalid 
vote had been given. At Manchester and Stafford in 
1869, test ballots had taken place on the Australian 
principle as practised in Victoria — the voting cards 
containing the names of all the candidates, prmted in 
different colors (for the benefit of illiterate voters), and 
the voter being directed to score out the names of those 
he did not support, and then to place the card (covered 
by an official envelope) in the box. It was found at 
Manchester that the voting was considerably more rapid, 
and therefore less expensive, thsm under the old system; 
that only 80 cards out of 11,475 ^ere rejected as mfor- 
mal ; and that, the represenutives of candidates being 
present to check false statements of identity, and the 
public outside being debarred from receiving informa- 
tion what voters had voted, th« ballot rather decreased 
the risk of personation. At Manchester the aurds were 
not numbered consecutively, as is done in Victoria, so 
that (rssuming the officials to be free from corruption) 
no scrutiny cculd have detected by whom particular 
votes were given. At Stafford the returning officer 
stamped each card before giving it to the voter, the die 
of the stamp having been finished only on the morning 
of the election. By this means the possibility was 
excluded of what was known in the colonies as ** the 
Tasmanian Dodge,*' by which a corrupt voter gave to 
the returning officer, or placed in the box, a blank non- 
official ticket, and carried out from the booth his official 
card, which a corrupt agent then marked for his candi- 
date, and gave, so marked, to corrupt voter No. 2 (be- 
fore he entered the booth), on condition that he also 
would bring out his official card, and so on o^ libitum; 
the agent thus obtaining security for his bribe, unless 
the corrupt voter chose to disfranchise himself by making 
further marks on the card. 

At the close of 1870 the ballot was employed in the 
election of meml>ers for the London School Board, 
under the Education Act of that year. 

In 1872 Mr. Fosters Ballot Act (35 and 36 Vict c. 
33) introduced the ballot in all parliamentary and muni- 
cipal elections, except parliaroen^ry elections for uni' 
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761 



Tersides 5 and the code of procednre prescribed by the 
Act was adopted by the Scotch Education Board in the 
first School Board election (1873), under "The Educa- 
tion (Scotland) Act, 1872." 

The ballot is used very largely in the British Colonies, 
and on the Continent In South Australia, under the 
Constitution Act of 1856 and the Electoral Act of 1858, 
both the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly 
are elected by manhood suffrage under the ballot, die 
returning officer ^i////«^ kis initials on the voting card, 
which the voter is directed, under pain of nullity, to fold 
so that the officer may not see the vote which is indicated 
by a cross. The cards are destroyed when the poll is 
announced; and thus personation, thoueh proved against 
certain voters far the purpose of punismng them, would 
not void an election, (or tnere can be no scrutiny before 
the Court of Disputed Returns. Canvassing has almost 
disappeared. In Victoria, under the Electoral Act of 
1865, both the Legislative Council and the Legislative 
Assembly are elected practically by manhood suffirage 
under the ballot, which was introduced in 1 8(6. The 
officer adds to his initials a number correspondmg to the 
voter's number on the register, and the cards are pre- 
served till after the time for petitioning the Committee 
of Elections and Qualifications has expired, so that u 
scrutiny may take place of challenged votes. The im- 
portant Road Boards under the Local Government 
fconsondation Act of 1869 are also elected by ballot. In 
Tasmania the chief peculiarity is that (as in South 
Australia) the card is not put directly by the voter into 
the box, but handed to the officer who puts it there 
(this being thought a security against douole voting or 
voting with a non-official card, and also against the 
voter carrying away his card); here also the cards are 
destroyed immediately, while in New South Wales, 
where, as in Victoria, the voting is by scoring out and 
not by a cross, the cards are kept for five years. The 
vigorous municipal boards of these colonics are also 
elected by ballot, which has diminished expense and 
undue influence very p;reatly, but has not produced 
complete secrecy of votmg. 

In^ France, where from 1840 to 1845 the baSot, or 
scrutiny had been used for deliberative voting in the 
Chamber of Deputies, its use in elections to the Corps 
L^gislatif was carefully regulated at the beginning of 
the Second Empire by the Orcanic Decree of ad Feb- 
ruary 1852. Under this law tne voting was superin- 
tended by a bureau consisting of the deputy returning 
officer (called presklent of Uie section), four unpaid 
assessors selects from the constituency, and a secretary. 
Each voter presents a polling card, with his designation, 
date of birth, and signature (to seciure identity), which 
lie has previously got at the Mairie, This the president 
mutilates, and the vote is then recorded by a " bulletin," 
which is not official, but is generally printed with a can- 
didate's name, and given to the voter by an agent 
outside, the only concUtions being that the bulletin shall 
be ** sur papier blanc, sans signes ext^rieurs, et pr^par^ 
en dehors de Tassembl^." The total number of votes 
given (there being only one member in each electoral 
district) is checked by reference to ** la feuille d^appd et 
inscription des votants,** the law still supposing that 
each voter is publicly called on to vote. If the voter, 
when challenged, cannot sign his polling card, he may 
call a wimess to sign for him. The following classes of 
bulletins are rejected: — " illisibles, blancs, ne contenant 
pas une d^gnation suffisante ; sur lesquels les votants 
se sont &it connaitre ; contenant le nom d*unepersonne 
n'ayant pas pr^t^ le serment prescrit** (/.^., of a person 
not nominated). Only the votes pronounced bad by the 
bureau in presence of representative scrutineers are 
preserved, in case these iho«ld be called for daring the 



"Session pour v^rificatien des Pouvoirs." Practically 
the French ballot did not afford secrecy, for you 
might observe what bulletin the voter took from 
the agent, and follow him up the quoie into the 
polling-place; but the determined voter might conceal 
his vote even from the undue influence of Govern- 
ment by scratching out the printed matter and writing 
his vote. This was always a good vote, and scrutinv of 
good votes was impossible. The ballot is still used in 
the electiens to the National Assembly, but in the As- 
sembly itself only in special cases, as, e.g. , in the election 
of a "rapporteur." Under the law of loth August 
1871, theconseilsg^n^raux (departmental councils) are 
elected by ballot. In Piedmont the ballot formed part 
of the free constitutional government introduced by 
Charles Albert in March 18^ ; it was extended to Italy 
in 1 86 1. Voting for the Italian Chamber of Deputies 
takes place under the law of 20th November 1859, *"d 
in public halls (not booths), to which admission b gained 
by showing a certificate of inscription, issued by the 
mayor to each qualified voter. A stamped blue official 
paper, with a memorandum of the law printed on the 
Dack {bolUtino spiegato ), is then issued to the elector ; 
on this he writes the name of a candidate (there being 
equal electoral collets), or, in certain exceptional cases, 
gets a confidential friend to do so, and hands the paper 
folded up to the president of the bureau, who puts it in 
the box ^urna), and who afterwards presides at thepub- 
lic *<squittinio dei suffragi.** No scrutiny is possiole; 
canvassing and bribery are rare; and Cavour thought 
the ballot had quite nullified the clerical power, at least 
in Piedmont. Greece is the only European country in 
which the ball ballot is used. The voting takes place in 
the churches, each candidate has a box, on which is his 
name. Each box has two compartments — ** Yes *» and 
** No " — into one of which the voter drops his ball. 

In the United States the ballot system has from 
time to time been changed to meet the exigencies of 
the case. Fraud has been more or less prevalent, 
and to prevent this, various systems have been intro- 
duced. It ma]^ be generally stated, however, that in all 
the states a uniform principle now underlies the ballot 
system, vi*., all voters are registered, and for a few days 
prior to each election the registration books are opened 
for revision and amendment, all voters who have recently 
came of age being recorded, together with those who 
have, by change of residence, acquired a vote in a naw 
precinct. This latter class must present a transfer cer- 
tificate from their former polling place, which transfer 
is issued by the registrar at said precinct, who at once 
erases the name from his book. In some of the states 
the voter is required, on registration, to take the anti- 
duelling oath, and in others, at every election, he must 
present his capitatioa tax receipt in'order to vote. No 
unpardoned felon, and in some states no unpardoned 
criminal of less degree can vote. The ballot in most 
states is secret, ana in some places a system prevails of 
sending tickets by mail to the home of each voter, so 
that he may prepare hi§ ballot at home, and then at the 
polls deposit it without anyone seeing for whom he votes. 
The history of the ballot in Hungary is remarkable. 
Before 1848 secret voting was unknown there. The 
electoral law of that year left the regulation of parlia- 
mentary elections to the county and town councils, very 
few of which adopted the ballot The mode of voting 
was perhaps the most primitive on record. Each can- 
didate had a large box with his name superscribed, and 
painted in a distinguishing color. On entering the 
room alone the voter received a rod from 4 to 6 feet in 
iengih (to prevent concealment of non-official rods on 
the voter's person), which he placed in the box through 
a slit in the lid. By the electoral law of 18741 the bfU* 



762 



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lot in parluunenttry dections In Hangtiy is abolished^ 
but is made oblintory in the elections of town and 
county councils, where votes arc given /w several per- 
sens at once. This voting, however, carried on by 
party-lists on differently colored cards is practically 
open. There is a strong feeling in Hungary that the 
ballot would be worked by the Uitholic clergy through 
the ConfessionaL As most of the electors are freehold- 
ers, there is little intimidation. In Prussia, Stein, by 
his Stxidteordnung, or Municipal Corporation Act of 
1808, introduced the ballot in the election of the Muni- 
cipal Assembly {Stadtzurordncten Versammiung), 
Under the German Constitution of 1867, and the New 
Constitution of ist January 187 1, the elections for the 
Reichstag are conducted by universal suffrage under the 
ballot in conformity with the Electoral Law of 31st 
May 1869, which also divided Germany into equal 
electoral districts. 

To secure complete secrecy, and to avoid the pos- 
sibility of fraud and the large expense of printing and 
countmg ballot i)apers, several ballot machines or reg- 
isters have been invented. In that of Vassie there was 
an arrangement of confluent funnels, by which the 
voter was prevented from dropping more than one ball 
into the box. In that of Chamberlain the number of 
votes given was indicated by the ringing of a bell. In 
that of Sydserff, the ball was placed by the dieriff in 
the common duct, and the voter, by moving a lever, 
fi[uided it into a channel leading to the box of a particu- 
lar candidate. Generally, it may be said that these 
mechanical contrivances have been attempts to make 
the ball-system secret and accurate, each voter deposit- 
ing a ball, and the accumulated balls showing the state 
of^the polL This in a large constituency would become 
unwielay, and no permanent record of the poll (except 
the collocation of the balls) would be obtained. A con- 
siderable advance is made in the invention erf' Mr. 
James Davie, Edinburgh, which we select for detailed 
description. Of this register an essentia! part is the 
wooden chamber (4 feet square by 7 feet in height) 
which the voter, having received a metal ball from the 
sheriff, enters by a spring- hinged door to which a lever 
is attached. On one side of the chamber is a box, on 
the lid of which stand differently colored cups marked 
each with a number and the name of a candidate. 
Inside the box is a cylinder traversed lengthwise by a 
spindle, and having at one end a toothed wheel By 
a screw-nut the cylinder revolves on and moves along 
the spindle. On the cylinder is paper divided into 
spaces, which correspond with the cups, and above this 
a sheet of carbonised paper as a printing medium. A 
pinion connects the cylinder with the door-lever, so that 
the opening of the door drives round the paper one 
space. A steel t)rf>e, suspended on an elastic card, is 
centred to each cup. The voter having placed the ball 
in a cup, leaves the chamber by another spring-hinged 
door, which in opening displaces the bottoms of the 
cups, and thus causes the ball to drop on the head of 
the type, beneath which it presses against the recording 
sheet on the cylinder. The ball immediately rolls down 
a groove to the sherifl*'s desk outside the chamber, 
where it is handed to the next voter, oniy one ball being 
used in connection with each register (unless, of course, 
there are more votes than one to be given). The clos- 
ing of the exit door restores the bottoms to the cups. 
This simple and effectual plan has the merit of secrecy, 
of immediate detection of fraud (^.^., the introduction 
of a non-offidal ball to the cup), of rapidity in voting 
and in counting, and of leaving almost nothing to the 
voter's presence of mind. The voter can make only one 
well-denned mark on the paper, and this he can do only in 
leaving the chamber before the next voter has entered. 



BALLYCASTLE, a seaport town of Ireland, county 
Antrim, situated on a bay opposite Rathlin island. The 
town is well built, consisting of two parts, about a 
quarter of a mile astmder, and connected by a fine ave- 
nue. Towards the close of the i8th century, one of 
the Boyd family devoted himself to the extension and 
improvement of the town, establishing manufactures, 
enaowing charities, and building churches, and suc- 
ceeded in producing a temporary vitality Upwards of 
;f I cOfOOO IS said to have been expended upon the pier 
and harbor; but the violence of the sea overthrew the 
former, and the latter has been filled with sand. 

BALLY MEN A, a town of Ireland, county Antrim, 
on the Brakl, an affluent of the Maine, two miles above 
their junction. It is 31 miles N.N. W. of Belfast, with 
which it is connected by^ railway. The town owes its 
prosperity chiefly to its linen trade, introduced in I713» 



which gives employment to the greater part 
inhabitants. 

BALLYSHANNON, a seaport and market-town of 
Ireland, countv of Donegal, situated at the mouth of 
the Erne. The river is here crossed by a bridge of 
fourteen arches, which connects the town with the 
suburb of Purt. Below the bridge the river forms a 
beautiful cascade, ISO vards wide, with a fall at low 
water of 16 feet Tbe narbor is a small creek of Done- 
p;al Bay, about 600 yards long and 350 yards broad, and 
IS only accessible to small vessels. 

BALMEZ, Jaime Lucien, a Spanish ecclesiastic, 
eminent as a political writer and a philosopher, was 
bom at Vich in Catalonia, on the 28th August 1810, 
and died there on the oth July 1848. 

BALMORAL CASTLE, a residence of her Majesty 
Queen Victoria, on the right bank of the River Dee, 
about 9 miles above mllater and 50 miles from 
Aberdeen. The property, which now consists of up- 
ward of 10,000 acres, beades a large tract of hill ground^ 
belonged in its original extent to the Farquharsons of 
Inverey, by whom it was soW to the Earl of Fife. In 
1848 it was leased by the late Prince^ Consort, and in 
1852 was Anally purchased for a sum of /^2,ooa The 
castle, which was erected at Prjnce Albert's private 
expense, is of the Scotch baronial style of architecture. 

BALNAVES, Henry, a ^\;itish Protestant, bom at 
Kirkcaldy in Fife, in the reign of James V., and 
educated at the university of St. Andrews. There is 
some doubt both as to the exact date of his birth, which 
has been fixed as 1 520. and as to the rank in society to 
which he belonged. He completed his studies on the 
Continent, an<t returning to Scotland, entered the 
family of the Earl of Arran, who at that time was 
regent ; but in the year 1542 the earl dismissed him for 
embracing the Protestant religion. In 1546 he was im- 
plicated in the murder of Cardinal Beaton, at least he is 
known to have taken refuge with the conspirators in the 
castle of St Andrews; and when they were at last 
obliged to surrender to the French, he was sent with 
the rest of the garrison as a prisoner to France. During 
his confinement at Rouen ne wrote the work entitled 
Confession of Faith^ to which Knox added marginal 
notes and a preface ; but it was not published till 1584, 
five years after his death. He returned to Scotland 
about the year 1559, and having joined the Congrega- 
tion, was appointed one of the commissioners to treat 
with the duiu: of Norfolk on the part of Queen Elizabeth. 
In 1561 he was made one of the lords of Session, an 
oflice wnich he is said to have held for the first time in 
1538, and was appointed b]r the General Assembly, 
with other learned men, to revise the Book of Discipline, 
Knox, his contemporary and fellow-laborer, gives him 
the diaracter of a very learned and pioni man. 
I BalnaYes died at Ediabnigh in '579* QQalp 



B AL 



763 



BALSAM, an oleo-re^ or natural eMttpoand of resin 
and essential oil, in such proportions that the substance 
is in a viscous or semi-fluid condition. The gradations 
from a solid resin to a limpid essential oil are msensible, 
and most resins have a oalsamic consistency on their 
exudation, only hardening by exposure to air. It has 
been proposed to limit the name balsam to such sub- 
stances as contain cinnamic or an analogous acid in 
addition to the volatile oil and resin which turpentines 
contain alone; but this distinction has not been carried 
out. 

The firagrant balsams which contain cinnamic or ben- 
zoic acid mav, however, be regarded as a dbtinct class, 
allied to eadi other by their composition, properties, 
and uses. Those of this class found in commerce are 
the balsam of Peru, balsam of Tolu, liquid storax, and 
liquklambar. Balsam of Peru is the produce of a lofty 
leguminous tree. My rasper mum peruifcrum^ growing 
within a limited area in San Salvador, Central America, 
but now introduced into Ceylon. It is a thick, viscid 
oleo-resin of a deep brown or black color and a fragrant 
balsamic odor. It has been analysed by Kachler, who 
thus states its percentage composition, — cinnamic add 
46, resin 32, oenzylic alcohol 2a It is used in per- 
fumery, and in medicine as a stimulant application to 
indolent sores, as well as internally tor asthma and 

Sectoral complaints. Balsam of Tolu is likewise pro- 
uced from a species of Myrospermum^ M. toluiferum. 
It is of a brown color, thicker than Peru balsam, and 
attains a considerable degree of solidity on keeping. It 
also is a product of equatorial America, but is found 
over a much wkler area than is the balsam of Peru. 
Tolu balsam consists of a combination of inodorous 
resin with cinnamic acid, no benzoic acid being present 
in it. It is used in pertonery and as a constituent in 
cou^h syrups and lozenges. Liquid storax is a balsam 

S 'elded by Liquidambar orientalis^ a native of Asia 
[inor. It is a soft resinous substance, with a pleasing 
balsamic odor, especially after it has been kept for some 
time. It contains a principle — stvrol or cinnamene — 
to which it owes its peculiar odor, beskles cinnamic 
acid, stryacin, and a resin. Liquid storax is used in 
medicine as an external application in skin diseases, and 
internally as an expectorant. An analogous substance 
b derived from Liquidambar Altingia in Java., 
Liquidamhar balsam is derived from Liquidambar 
siyracijlua, a tree found in the United States and 
Mexico. It contains cinnamic acki, but is destitute of 
benzoic acki. 

Of balsams entirely destitute of cinnamic and benzoic 
constituents the following are found in commerce: — 
Mecca Balsam or Balm of Gilead^ yielded by the 
Balsamodendron Berrvi {B. gileadense of De Candolle), 
a tree growing in Arabia and Abyssinia, is supposed to 
be the balm of Scripture and the fidX6afiov of 
Theophrastus. When fresh it is a viscid flukl, with a 
penetrating odor, but it solklifies with age. It was 
regarded with the utmost esteem among the nations of 
antiquity, and to the present day it is peculiarly prized 
among the people of the East Balsam of Copcuba or 
Capivi is a fluid oleo-resin of a pale brown or straw 
color, produced from several trees of the genus Copai' 
fera, growing in tropical America. It possesses a 
peculiar odor and a nauseous persistent tarry taste. 
Balsam of copaiba contains from 40 to 60 per cent, of 
essential oil, holding in solution a resin from which 
ci^yic acid can be prepared. It b chiefly used in 
m edicin e for the treatment of inflammatory affections of 
mncous sur£ftce8. Under the name of Wood OU, or 
Gurjun Balsamy an oleo-resin is procurred in India 
and the Eastern Archipelago from several species of 
DifterocarpHs, chiefly 2>. turbinaiuSf which hM the 



odor and properties of co^iibft, and is used for it in 
East Indian hospital practice. Wood oil is also used 
as a varnish in India, and forms an effective protection 
against the attacks of white ants. A subsdtute for 
copaiba is also found in the dark red balsam yielded by 
Hardwickia pinnata^ a leguminous tree. 

Cancula Balsam. — The oleo-resins obtained from 
coniferous trees are nsually termed turpentines, but 
that yielded by Abies balsamea is known in commerce 
as Balsam of Canada* It is a very transparent substance, 
somewhat fluid when first run, but thiclcening consider- 
ably with a^ possessed of a delicate yellow color, and 
a mfld terebintnous odor. According to Fliickiger and 
Hanbury it contains 24 per cent, of essential oil, 60 per 
cent, of resin soluble in alcohol, and 16 per cent, of 
resin soluble only in ether. It has been used for the 
same purposes as copaiba, but its chief uses are for 
mounting preparations for the microscope and as a 
varnish. 

BALTAy the diief town of a circle of the same name 
in the Russian government of Podolia. 

BALTARD, Louis Pierre, a distinguished French 
architect and engraver, was,bom at Pans in 1765, and 
died in 1846. 

BALTIC SEA. The name by which this inland sea 
is commonly designated is first found in the nth cen- 
tury, in the work of Adam of Bremen, entitled Chcro* 
graphia Scandi$tavia, The derivation of the word is 
uncertain. It seems probable that, whatever may be 
the etymology of the name Baltic^ that of the Great 
and Little Belts is the same. The Swedes, Danes, and 
Germans call it the Ossee or East Sea. 

The Baltic is enclosed by Sweden, Russia, the Ger- 
man empire, and Denmark ; and it communicates with 
the North Sea, by the winding channel which lies 
between the southern part of the Scandinavian penin- 
sula and the northern peninsula of Schleswig and Jut- 
land. The first part of this channel is in great measure 
blocked by the islands of Zealand and Fiinen, so as to 
form the three narrow passages which are known as the 
Sound (between Sweden ana Zealand), the Great Belt 
(between Zealand and FUnen), and tl^e Little Belt 
(between Fiinen and Jutland), ^ch of these forms a 
"Qistinct communication between the Baltic and the 
Cattegat, which is the open portion of the channel 
l]rin£ between the coast of Sweden and the eastern side 
of Jutland ; while the Cattegat opens freely into the 
Skager Rack, which is the contmuation of same open 
channel, between the southern end of Norwav and the 
north-west coast of Jutland, into the North Sea. 

The length of the Baltic Sea, from Swinemiinde in 
the S. to Tomea in the N., is nearly 900 miles; and its 
greatest width, between Karlscronaand Memel, exceeds 
200 miles. Its whole area,jncluding the Gulfs of Both- 
nia and Finland, b about 160,000 geographical square 
miles. It runs first in an easterly direction as far as 
Memel, a disUnoe of 300 miles, and then northwards a 
distance of 3J0 miles, at which point it separates into 
two great gulfs. One of these, the Gulf of Finland, 
runs nearly due £. ; the other, the Gulf of Bothnia, 
almost N. The Gulf of Bothnia is 400 miles 
in length, with an extreme breadth of 120 miles, but 
where narrowest it does not exceed 40 miles. The 
archipelago of Aland lies at its ' entrance. The Gulf of 
Finland is 2S0 miles in length, with a mean breadth of 
60 or 70 miles. 

The depth of the Baltic rardy exceeds loo&thoms — 
being greatest between the island of Bomholm and the 
coast of Sweden, where it reaches 11^ fathoms, and least 
in the neighborhood of the mouths of large rivers, 
which bring down a great quantity of earthy nutter, 
especially in the sprin|^ so that In miay puts the bot 



764 



BAL 



torn is iKin^ to rapidly raited by its dq)Osit that the 
mouths of nvers fonnerly navigabk are now inaccessible. 
This is especially the case in the northern part of the 
Gulf of Bothnia, above Quarken, where several tracts 
are now dry land which were once water, and also in 
the neighborhood of Tomea, where meadows now take 
the place •f waters which were traversed in boats by the 
French Academicians, when they were nieasurine an arc 
of the meridian. Along the southern coast the shallow- 
ners of the harbors is a fipreat obstacle to navifation, 
especially since they are closed by ice for nearly one- 
third of the year. On the western side it is not more 
than 15 fathoms deep ; and, in general, it is only from 
8 to 10 fathoms. On the S. it nowhere exceeds 50 fath- 
oms. The Gulf of Finland suddenly shallows from 50 
or 60 &thoms to 5, or even less. The average depth of 
the Gulf of Bothnui is not greater than that of the rest 
of the sea. Numerous rocky islands and reefs, many of 
them level with the water, render the navigation of this 
tea extremaly dangerous. 

The shore of the Baltic is generally low. Along the 
southern coast it is for the most part sandy, — with sand- 
banks outside, and sand-hiUs ana plains inland. Where 
streams come down, there are often fresh-wafer lakes 
termed haffs^ which are separated from the sea by nar- 
row spits called nehrungs. Two of these kaffs are of 
great extent; one of them, termed the Frische Haff, 
ues between Danaig and Kdnigsberg, which last town b 
situated on the part of it most remote from the sea; 
the other, termed the Kurische Haff, lies between 
Konigsberg and Memel, the latter town being situated 
on the channel connecting the haff with the sea. Near 
the entrance to the Gulf of Finland the coast becomes 
rocky, and continues to be so for the most part around 
the gulfs both of Finland and Bothnia, except towards 
the head of each; the rocks, however, are never high. 
The shores of the southern part of the Swedish pemn- 
sula are mostly high, but not rocky; at Stockholm, 
however, there is an archipelago of rocky islands, on 
some of which the town is jpart^ built. 

Drainage Area,— Thft Baltic maybe conskiered as 
the estuarr of a great number of rivers, none of them 
indivkluaily of great size, but collectively draining a very 
laree area, which is estimated at about 717,000 square 
miles, or nearly one-fifth of the entire area of Europe. 
This great drainage area is remarkable for the small 
pro]>ortion of its boundary that is formed by mountains 
or high tabk- lands,— its greater part consisting of land 
of no considerable elevation, which slopes down very 
graduall3r to its coast-line, and of which a large pro- 
portion is covered by lakes. This is especially the 
character of the drainage area of the Neva, whose waters 
are immediately derived from the large shallow Lake 
Ladoga, which receives the contributions of numerous 
other lakes, Onega being the largest, though Lake 
Saima in Finland, with its irregular prolongations, 
is scarcely less extensive. The entire surface drained 
by the Neva is estimated at about 100,000 square 
miles, or nearly twenty tunes that of the drainage 
area of the Thames. Through Lake Onega, 
the Neva is connected with the Dwina and 
the Volga by canals, through which small vessels can 

Bfrom the Baltic into either the White Sea or the 
ian. The Dnna or South Dwina, which discharges 
into the Gulf of Riga, is another important river, 
drainmg an area of about 35,000 miles in West Russia, 
and having a length of 520 miles, of which 405 miles are 
navigable. The drainage area of the Niemen, which 
enters the Baltic at Memel, is conterminous with that of 
the Duna, and is of about the same extent ; the river 
is navigable for more than 400 miles from its outlet, and 
communitates with the Dnieper by a canal through 



which vessels can pass from the Baltic to the Black Sem. 
The Vistula, which receives the waters of the whole area 
of Russian and Prussian Pdland, flowing past Waruiw 
into the Baltic at Danuig, is a very large and important 
river, having a length of 520 miles, of which 430 are 
navigable, imd a drainage area of 72,000 square miks.. 
And the Oder, rising in the hill districts of Suesia, draJna 
the extensive level areas of Brandenbergand Pomerania, 
and discharges into an estuary, that may be sud to be- 
gin from Stettin, the water drawn from an area of 
45,000 square miles. Numerous rivers dischargee them- 
sdves into the Gulf of Bothnia, bringing down water 
from the mountain ranges of Sweden and Norway ; but 
their course is comparatively short and direct, with few 
tributaries, so that, individually, they do not attain any 
great size. The drainage of the more level southern 
portion of Sweden is for the most part coHected by the 
great lakes of Wener, Wetter, and MiUar, of which the 
first pours its waters into the North Sea, and the others 
into the Baltic By means of a canal joining Lakes 
Wener and Wetter vessels can pass directly from the 
Cattegat into the Baltic 

ClimaU,— It is not only, however, the extent of its 
drainage area, but the large proportion borne by the 
rain and snow which fall upon that area to the amount 
dissipated by evaporation from its surface, that goes to 
swell the aggregate of fresh water ];>oured inio the basin 
of the Baltic ; tor there is probably no inhabited region ^ 
of the whole globe over which so large a Quantity of 
snow falls, in proportion to its area, as it does in the 
countries round this basin. They receive, direct from 
the Atlantic, a vast amount of moisture l>rought bv its 
west and south-west winds ; and even the winds which 
have already passed over the low plains of Juthmd and 
Northern Germany will have parted with httle of their 
moisture before reaching the Baltic provinces of Russia. 
When these vapor-laden west and south-west winds 
meet the cold dry east and north-east winds of Siberia, 
their moisture is precipitated, in summer as rain, and in 
winter as snow ; and owing to the prevalence of a low 
atmospheric tempnerature through a large part of the 
year, the proportion lost by evaporation is extremely 
small as compared with what parses off from other in- 
land seas. The large excess of the amount of fresh 
water discharged into the basin, over that which passes 
off by evaporation from its surface, is indicated oy its 
low salinity, which, however, varies considerably in its 
different parts and at different seasons of the year. The 
temperature of the Baltic is remarkable for its ran^e^ 
which is rather that of a terrestrial than of a marme 
area — this being doubtless owing in great degree to the 
fact that its shallowness and uie low salinity of iu 
water allow a large part of its surface to be frozen dur- 
ing the winter. Nearly the whole of the Gulf of Both- 
nia, with the land enclosing it on both sides, lies between 
the January isotherms of 10^ and 20^ — the former 
crossmg it near its head, and the latter near its junction 
with the Baltic proper; and the whole of the Baltic 
proper, with the land enclosing it on the east, soutlu 
ana west, lies between the January isotherms of 20^ and 
30°. On the other hancC the July isotherm of 60°, 
which crosses Fngland near the parallel of 54^ passes 
across the Gulf of Bothnia near the Walgrund Islands, 
almost 9^ further north; and the whole of the Baltic 
proper, with the Gulf of Finland and the southern part 
of tne Gulf of Bothnia, lies between the July isotherms 
of 60^ and 65^. Thus the range between the nuan 
summer and mean winter temperatures, which is only 
about 20° in the British Islands, is about 40^ over the 
Baltic area. The m^an annual temperature of the 
GiUf of Bothnia ranges between 30° at its northern eK« 
tremity and 40^ at its soathern, while that of the Baltic 



BAL 



765 



ranges from 40^ at its northern boundary to about 46° 
at its southern. 

Formation and Transportation of Ice,-^ The greater 
part of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland is usually 
frozen over during the winter, the formation of ice be- 
ginning at the head and extending downwards. Masses 
of ice, conveyed by the currents into the Baltic proper, 
freeze together as the winter advances, and form vast 
fields, generally extending on the east side as far south 
as the islands of Dago and Oesel, and on the west to 
the south of Stockholm. It happens sometimes, though 
rarely, that large portions of the Baltic proper are con- 
tinuously frozen over; but navigation is usually inter- 
rupted by the blocking up of its biavs and harbors with 
ice, from the htter part of December to the beginning 
of April. The freezing of the Gulfs of Bothnia and 
Finland begins earlier aiSl ends later. 

The curious phenomenon of the formation of hottom-Ue^ 
and its rise to the surface, b more frequently seen in the 
Baltic and the Cattegat than in the open ocean, — chiefly. 
It seems probable, on account of the shallowness of 
these seas. It has been particularly observed by Prof. 
Nilsson in the Catteeat, off KulJen Point, near the 
southern extremity of Sweden ; but according to Chy- 
denins it is very common in various parts of the Baltic, 
having been especially noticed by the fishermen oif the 
Alanalslands. In calm winter weather, water of from 
4 to 8 feet deep is often covered in a very short time 
with small plates of ice, mostly circular in form, varying 
in^ diameter from i to 5 inches, and having a uniform 
thickness which never exceeds two lines. These plates 
can be seen coming up from below, rising edgeways 
towards the surface, often with such force as to hft 
themselves three or four inches out of the water. When 
they come up in great numbers they are often piled one 
upon another, and are then usually soon broken, by the 
action either of waves or of currents, into small pieces, 
which unite again by regulation so as to form irregular 
cakes of ice; and these, as soon as the water becomes 
tolerably still, cohere into a continuous rough sheet. 
But it sometimes happens that if the plates come up 
more sparsely, and the weather is very still and cold, 
they remain unbroken, and the diameter of each in- 
creases, sometimes to two feet or even more. When 
fishermen notice these ice-plates coming up from below 
in large quantities, they at once make for land, as they 
know they might otherwise be soon completely ice- 
bound. The same thing appears to happoi in polar 
seas in the shallow water near land. 
^ It does not seem very clear in what way this forma- 
tion of bottom-ice is to be accounted for. Bottom-ice 
has often been noticed in fresh- water laJces and streams ; 
and large plates have been seen to rise to the surface, 
sometimes with force enough to bring up stones of con- 
siderable size, — in one instance a heavy iron chain. In 
these cases it would seem that the motion of the bottom- 
water over roughened surfaces contributes to its conge- 
lation. And m the shallow water near the sea-shore, 
stones and sea-weeds may be seen covered with ice, like 
the hoar-frost on trees, before any ice forms on the sur- 
face. It is to be remembered that Jra- water increases 
in density down to its freezing point, so that the water 
cooled at the surface will always go down, the deepest 
stratum being thus the coldest. And thus, althou^ no 
lower temperature can be carried down by the water 
than that to which it has been subjected at the surface, 
the water that does not freeze at (sav) — 2° 5 C. when 
lying upon water, changes into ice when it comes in con- 
tact with the irregular solid bottom, perhaps on account 
of the more ready dissipation, under Uie latter circum- 
stances, of the heat set free in the act of congelation. , 

When ice forms over the shallow bottoms ^i^ch border 



parts of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, large blocks 
of stone are frequently frozen into it ; and these, being 
lifted when the water rises in the earlv summer, are often 
transported by currents to considerable distances, finally 
subsioing again to the bottom when the ice melts. In this 
manner a deposit of rocky fragments, some of them 6 or 8 
feet across, is being formed at the bottom of the Baltie 
outlets; as is known from the fact, that sunken ships 
which have been visited by divers in the Sound and m 
Copenhagen roads have been found covered with such 
blocks within no very long period. It not unfirequently 
happens, moreover, that sheets of ice with included 
boulders are driven up on the coast during storms, and 
are thus carried some way inland, being sometimes 
padced to a height of even jo feet. The diminution 
which has been noticed from time to time in the depth 
of the channels, soul the appearance above water of wnat 
were formerly regarded as sunken rocks or reefs, have 
been regarded as concurring with other evidence to 
prove tlut a general rise of land is now going on over 
this area. But it seems probable, from what has now 
been stated, that the increase of height and dimensions 
which has been observed in the reefs and inlets of the 
skilr during the last half century, may be adecjuately 
accounted for by the action of ice, which has piled up 
(generally on a tnisis ^ fixed rock) accumulations of 
transported dibris. 

Early in the last century the Swedish physicist Celsius 
(to whom we owe the invention of the centigrade scale) 
formed the opinion that the waters both of the Baltic 
and of the North Sea were gradually subsiding ; and 
this opinion, though controverted by other authorities, 
was embraced by Linnaeus. It is now clear that many 
of the facts by which it was supported are explicable by 
the transporting agency of rivers and of ice, as already 
explained ; ana it was pointed out by Play fair in 1802, 
that even admitting tm proofs on which Celsius relied, 
they would rather snow that the land is rising, than that 
the water is receding. During the present century a 
great deal of attention has been given to this question, 
on account of its geological interest, by many very able 
observers ; and the results may be briefly summarised as 
follows: — (I.) An elevation of the whole of Norway, 
from the North Cape to the Naze, has taken place 
within a comparatively recent period, — as is evidenced 
by the numbers of raised beaches containing existing 
snells, which are found at different points along the 
western coast, frequently at a height of 200 feet above 
the present sea-level, and in some spots at a height of 
more than 600 feet. As these beaches, where one lies 
above another, are not always parallel, it appears that 
the elevatory action did not take place equally over the 
whole area ; and the movements were probably inter- 
mittent, with long pauses between. (2. ) At various 
points along the coast of the Baltic and the Gulf of 
Bothnia, alike in Sweden and in Finland, similar collec- 
tions of shells have been found, belonging to species now 
inhabitmg the basin, and characterised by the peculiar 
faciei to be present^ noticed as distinguishing its mol- 
luscan fauna from that of the ocean. Such deposits have 
been found very far inland, and at a height of 230 feet 
above the sea. Hence it appears that before this up- 
heaval took place, the Baltic must have been separated, 
as now, from the North Sea by the mountain ridge of 
Norway, although it extended over a considerably 
larger area of what is at present low-lying land. 
(3.) Notwi!hstanding the numerous observations which 
nave been made with a view to ascertain whether 
any change of level is now going on, the question 
must be regarded as still undetermined. Little reliance 
can be placed on occasional comparisons of the heig^ 
of marks made upon recks above the 8ea*level» sinci^ 
- ^ Digitizea 



766 



BAL 



although there are no tides, the height of the water in 
the bfl^in is subject to considerable variations, from 
causes to be presently explained, (a. ) There is a good 
deal of evidence^ on the other hand, that, towards the 
southern extremity of Sweden there has been a depres- 
sum of the land since the historic period. In this por- 
•tion, known as Scania, no elevated beds of recent ma> 
rine shells have been met with; in its seaport towns 
there are streets now at or even below the levd of the 
water, which must have been above it when first built ; 
and a laree stone whose distance from the sea was meas- 
ured by Linnaeus, in 1^49, was found 100 feet nearer 
the water's edge when us distance was a^n measured 
in 1836. Near Stockholm, again, a fishing-hiit, with 
remains of boats of every antique form and construction, 
was found, in 1 81 9, at a depth of 60 feet, covered over 
with gravel and shell-marl ; and it was considered by Sir 
C. Lyell to be impossible to explain the position of^this 
hut without imagining first a suDsidence to the depth of 
more than 60 feet, and then a re-elevation. On the 
whole, it appears clear that the oscillations of level, not 
nniform either in direction or decree, have taken place 
in various parts of the Scandinavian peninsula witliin a 
recent period, whilst in regard to the continuance of 
anj such changes at the present time we have no cer- 
tain knowledge, though it is considered probable by 
many of the most distinguished savant both of Sweden 
and Norway. 

The fauna of the Baltic may be regarded as that of a 
large estuary, having a narrow communication vrith the 
sea, — its marine inhabitants being such as can adapt 
themselves to considerable variations in the salinity of 
its water. Whales rarely enter the Baltic ; but porpoises 
frequent the neighborhood of the Danish islands. Seals 
are obtained in considerable numbers at the breiUdng 
up of the ice around Gottlandand the Aland Isles. The 
salmon is among the most abundant fishes of the Baltic 
proper, ascending its rivers from April to June ; and 
salmon-trout are caught in some of its bays. 

BALTIMORE, in Maryland, one of the largest and 
most flourishing cities in the United States Si North 
America, is situated on the north side of the Patapsco 
River or Bay, 14 miles above its entrance into the Chesa- 
peake, 37 miles N. E. of Washington, and 100 S. W. of 
rhiladelphia. The natural advanta^ of this position 
were long overlooked by the settlers m the vicinity of the 
Chesapeake ; and it was only in 1^29 that thev airected 
their attention to the place, and laid out a pkm of the 
town. At that time a part of it was under ciutivation as 
a farm, but all the rest was a wilderness. For some 
years its growth was by no means rapid, as it had to con- 
tend with all the obstacles that could be thrown in its 
way by the jealousy of older rivals. From an authentic 
sketch of Baltimore made in the year 1753, it appears 
that it then contained about twenty-five houses, only 
four of which were built of brick, the rest being of a 
more primitive structure. In 1768 it became the county 
town ; and in 1775, According to a census then taken, it 
contained 564 houses, and 5934 inhabitants. From this 
time it rose rapklly into importance ; and in 1780 be- 
came a port of entry, when a custom-house was opened. 
Previous to this all vessels trading to and from the port 
had to be entered, cleared and registered at Annapolis. 



In December 1796 it obtained an act of incorporation. 

ofi8» ~ ■ • 
habitants. 



By the census of 1889 Baltimore contained 350,000 in- 



The city is splendidly situated on slightly 'undulating 
ground, and extends aDout4^ miles from E. to W., 
and 3^ from N. to S., covering an area of 10,000 acres. 
It is divided int« tw« nearly equal parts by a small 
strrtun called Jones's Falls, c r o s tad Vy a nmnbcr of 
bridges. The division east of the falls is nominany sub- 



div-ded into two parti — Fell's Pohit and Old Town. 
The former, the most easterly part of the town, is the 
principal resort of seamen, and is the pUu^ where the 
shipbuilding and manufactures are principally carried on 
The Old Town lies to the N. and W. of this. The 
portion west of the Falls is likewise divided into two 
parts, the city proper and Spring Garden. Tlie former 
IS the centre of trade, and the residence of the more 
wealthy inhabitants ; while the latter, which is the ex- 
treme south-western quarter, and the lowest and most 
unhealthy portion of the city, is inhabited by the poorer 
classes. Baltimore contains about 200 churchen, and 
has three universities, several colleges, 122 public schools, 
a state normal school, a manual labor school, besides 
numerous private schools and academies, an aculemy of 
art and science, an infirmary, hospitals, asylums, dispen- 
saries, &c., three theatres, an opera-house, a mtiseum, 
and manj fine public buildings. The most imposing 
building m the city is the new city hall, one of the finest 
structures of the kind in the countrv. It occupies an 
entire square of ground, an area of aoout 26,000 square 
feet, near the centre of the city, and contains the various 
munknpal offices. The style of architecture is the 
Renaissance, of which it is a fine specimen. The entire 
outer facine of the walls, the portico, and all the orna- 
mental wonc, are of white Maryland marble; the inner 
walls and floors are of brick, and are fire-proof. It is 
four stories high, surmounted by a Mansard roof of 
iron and slate, with a dome and tower of iron on a 
marble base, rising to the height of 240 feet. The 
interior is veiy finely finished. It was begun in 1867, 
and cost about $2,600,000. Another important public 
building is that of the Peabodv Institute, founded by the 
late George Peabody, EJsq. of London, and endowcxi by 
him to the amount of $ i ,400,00a It has provisions for a 
public library, a gallery of art, and a conservatory of 
music, also for lectures and musical performances. It 
was incorporated in 1857. One wing of the buiki- 
ing, which is immediately contiguous to the Wash- 
ington monument, is completed, and the remainder is 
in progress. The completed wing is faced and 'orna- 
mented with white marole, in a simple but massive and 
imposing style, and contains the library of over 56,000 
volumes (1875), ^^^ ^ ^^ ^^^ lectures, concerts, &c. 
The new pbstoffice is a splendid structure, built of |janite, 
and recently completed. The Johns Hopkins University 
is another imposingedifice, built by the legac>r of the late 
Johns Hopkins. There are also several grain and coal 
elevators, and numerous magnificent hotels. Baltimore 
has several splendid monuments, which have acquired 
for it the name of ** the Monumental City." The larg- 
est of these, erected to the memory of Washington, 
stands on an eminence of 150 feet, and has, with its 
base, an altitude of 200 feet. It is of white marble ; 
the base is 50 feet square, and 24 feet in height, sur- 
mounted by a Doric column 25 feet in diameter at the 
base, with a spiral staircase in its interior, and on the 
summit is a statue of Washington, 13 feet high. The 
•* Battle Monument," also of white marble, was erected 
by public subscription in 181 5, to the memorj^ of those 
who had fallen in defence of the dtv in the previous year. 
It is 52 feet high ; the base is of Ejgyptian architecture ; 
the column is in the form of a bundle of Roman faces, 
upon the bands of which are inscribed the names of 
those whom it commemorates; and the whole is sur- 
mounted by a female figure, the emblematical genius of 
the city. The city is supplied with water from Lake 
Roland, an artificial lake about 8 miles north of the 
city, of a capacity of 500,000,000 gallons, and from 
three other reservoirs, with an aggremte stq^tige 
capacity of about 580^000,000 gallons, 9ie common 
I source of supply bemg Jones's Falls. There are also 



B AL 



1^7 



nameroiis public scfings find fountains throughout the 
town. Baltimore has a number of parks and public 
squares, chief of which is Druid Hill Park, a tract of 
700 acres on the extreme north-west of the city, possessing 
more natural beauties than any other in the United States. 

The manufact\ires and commerce of Baltimore are very 
extensive and flourishing. Therein crarcely a branch of 
industr]^ that is not prosecuted to some extent in the 
city or its vicinity. Among these are shipbuikiing, iron 
and copper works, woolen and cotton manufactures, 
pottery, sugar-refining, petrolerm refining, distilling, 
saddlery, agricultural implement-making, cabinet, tan- 
ning, &C. In the vicinity of Baltimore is found the 
finest brick clay in the world, of which more than 100,- 
000,000 bricks are made annually. The Abbot Iron 
Works in the eastern part of the city, have the largest 
rollinc; mills in the United States. An industry peculiar 
to Baltimore is the packing of oysters in air-tignt cans 
for shipment to all parts of the world- The oysters are 
taken m Chesapeake Bay. Fruits and vegetables are 
also packed in the same way, the entire tnule consum- 
ing from twenty to thirty million cans annually. This 
city is one of the greatest flour markets in the Union, 
and lias a large export trade in tobacco. There are 
twenty-six banks, and seven savings-banks ; seventeen 
fire and marine and three life insurance companies, be- 
sides many agencies for other companies. Tne harbor, 
which consists of three parts, is excellent. Its entrance, 
between Fort M' Henry and the lazaretto, is about 600 
yards wide, with 23 feet of water. This depth is con- 
tinued with an increased width for a mile and a quarter 
to near Fell's Point. The entrance to the second har- 
bor is opposite Fell's Point, where the width is con- 
tracted to one-fourth of a mile, with a depth of 16 feet. 
Above this entrance it widens to an ellipse of a mile 
long, half a mile broad, and 15 feet deep. The third, 
or inner harbor, has a depth of 14 feet, and penetrates 
to near the centre of the city. Vessels of tne largest 
class can lie at the wharves near Fell's Point, Locust 
Point, and Canton, and those of joo tons can come 
into the inner harbor. The harbor is defended by Fort 
M'Henry. Opposite Fort M' Henry is Fort CarroU, 
a solid masonry structure, designed to aid in defense 
of the harbor, but which was abandoned on account 
of the sinking of the foundation. The railroads cen- 
tering in Baltimore are: The Philadelphia, Wilming- 
ton and Baltimore line, opened in 1837, length 98 
miles; the Northern Central to Sunbury, in Penn- 
sylvania, completed in 1858, length 138 mi!;;^; The 
Baltimore and Potomac, to the Potomac River, opened 
in 1873, length 73 miles, with a branch to Wash- 
ington (on this road there is a tunnel a mile and three- 
quarters in length); the Baltimore and Ohio, the main 
stem of which goes to Wheeling, a distance of 379 
miles, opened through in 1853. It has the Paricersbunr 
Division, 104 miles ; the Central Ohio Division, to Cot 
nmbus, 513 miles from Baltimore; and the Lake Erie 
Division to Chicago, opened in 1874, 878 miles. The 
city is also traversed by numerous lines of horse-rail- 
ways for the convenience of local travel 

BALUCHISTAN, a maritime country of Asia, 
whose coast is continuous with that of the north-western 
part of the Indian Peninsula. It is bounded on the N. 
by Afghanistan, on the £. bv Sindh, on the S. by the 
Arabian Sea, and on the. W. by Persia. Baluchistan 
has an area of 106,500 sq. miles, its extreme length from 
£. to W. being qoo miles, and its breadth ^70. 

The outline of the sea-coast is in general remarkably 
r^ular, running nearly due £. and W., a little N. from 
Cape Monze, on the border of Sindh, to Cape Jewnee, 
on the River Dustee. It is for the most port craggy, 
Imt not remarkably elevated, and has in some pkoes, 



for consklerable distance, a tow sandy shore, though 
almost everywhere the surface becomes much higher 
inland. The principal headlands, proceeding from E. 
to W., are Cape of Monze or Ras Moarree, which is 
the eastern headland of Sonmeanee Bay; Goorab Sing ; 
Ras Arubah; Ras Noo, forming the western headland 
of Gwadel Bay, Ras Jewnee, forming the eastern point 
of Gwadur Bay, and Cape Zegin at its western extremity. 
There is no £ood harbor along the coast, though it ex- 
tends about &o miles ; but there are several roadsteads 
with good hokling-groiind, and sheltered on several 
points. Of these the best are Sonmeanee Bay, Homara, 
and Gwadur. On the latter are situated a small town 
and a fort of the same name, and also a telegrap|) station 
of the Indo-European line. 

Of the early history of this portion of the Asiatic con- 
tinent little or nothing is known. The poverty and 
natural strength of the country, combined with the fero- 
cious habits of the natives, seem to have equally repelled 
the friendly visits of inquisitive strangqrs and the hostile 
incursions of invading armies. The first dist inct account 
which we have is from Arrian, who, with his usual brev- 
ity and severe veracity, narrates the march of Alexander 
through this region, which he calls the country of Oritae 
and Gadrosii. He gives a veiy accurate account of this 
forlorn tract, its general arkfitv, and the necessity of 
obtaining water by di^ng in tne beds of torrents; de- 
scribes the food of the inhabitants as dates and fish; and 
adverts to the occasional occurrence of fertile spots, the 
abundance of aromatic and thorny shrubs and fragrant 
plants, and the violence of the monsoon in the western 
part of Mekran. He notices also the impossibility of 
subsisting a large army, and the conseouent destruction 
of the greater part of the men and bea^s which accom- 
panied the expedition of Alexander. At the commence- 
ment of the 8th century this country was traversed by 
an army of the caliphate. 

The country derives its name from the Baluches, but 
the Brahoes are considered the dominant race, from 
which the rule of the country is alwajrs selected. From 
whatever quarter these may have arrived, they eventually 
expelled, under their leader Kumbur, the Hindu dynasty, 
which at that time governed the country, and conquered 
Baluchistan for themselves. The Baluches are a quite 
distinct race, and must have arrived in this country at a 
subsequent period, probably in small bodies, some of 
which may have come from Syria or from Arabia; in 
proof of this the Kyheree, for instance, possess a re- 
markably handsome breed of horses showing unmis« 
takable Arab blood. Anyhow, so marked is Uie social 
distinction between Baluch and Brahoe, that when the 
khan assembles his forces for war the latter tribes de- 
mand, as their ri^ht, wheaten flour as a portion of their 
daily rations, while the Baluch tribes are only entitled 
to receive that made from a coarse grain called iowar. 
There is also a Persian colony known as the Denwars; 
and a considerable number of Hindus, who appear to 
have been the first settlers in the Brahoe mountains on 
their expulsion from Sindh, Lus, Mekran by the caliphs 
of Baghdad. 

Taking a general view on the subject of the original 
inhabitants of Baluchistan, we may conclude that they 
have, from a very early date, been reinforced by emigra- 
tion from other countries, and from stragglers dropped 
fi-om the hosts of the numerous conquerors, from Alex- 
ander to Nadir Shah, who have passed and repassed 
through Baluchistan or its neijghborhood on their way 
to and from India. Thus we find the Saka tribe located 
on the plains of Gressia, on the borders of Mekran, the 
ancient Gedrosia, and still further to the west, the 
Dahoe. These tribes are on the direct line of Alexan- 
der's march ; and we know that tribes of this name from 



768 



B AL 



the shores of the Caspfan acccnupanied his umj. In 
Sarawan we find the Sirperra, and Pliny tells us that a 
tribe called Sarapane resided near the Oxus. Further, 
on the Dushti-be-doulets, a plain at the northern en- 
trance of the Bolan Pass, we find the Kurds, a name, 
again, familiar as that of the celebrated and ancient 
nation. The names of namerous other tribes mijght be 
cited to support this view, but it would require too 
much space to follow up the subject Both Brahoes 
and Baluches are Mahometans of tne Suni persuasion. 

The precise period at which the Brahoes gained the 
mastery cannot be accurately ascertained ; but it was 
probably about two centuries ago. The last rajah of the 
Hindu dynasty found himself compelled to call for the 
assistance of the mountain shepherds, with their leader, 
Kumbur, in order to check the encroachments of a horde 
of depredators, headed by an Afghan chief, who infested 
the country, and even threatened to attack the seat of 
government Kumbur successfully performed the serv- 
u:e for which he had been engagea; but having in a 
few years (fuelled the robbers, against whom he had 
been called in, and finding himself at the head of the 
only military tribe in the country, he formally deposed 
the rajah and assumed the government 

The history of the country after the accession of 
Kumbur is as obscure as during the Hindu dynasty. It 
would appear, however, that the sceptre was quietly 
transmitted to Abdulla Khan, the fourth in descent 
from Kumbur, who, being an intrepid and ambitious 
soldier, turned his thoughts toward the conquest of 
Cutch-Gundava, then hdd by different petty chiefs, 
under the authority of the Nawabs of Sindh. 

After various success, the Kumburanees at length 
possessed themselves of the sovereignty of a considerable 
portion of that fruitful plain, including the chief town, 
Gundava. It was during this contest that the famous 
Nadir Shah advanced from Persia to the invasion of 
Hindustan ; and while at Kandahar, he despatched sev- 
eral detachments into Baluchistan, and established his 
authority in that province. Abdulla Khan, however, 
was connnued in the government of the country by Na- 
dir's orders ; but he was soon after killed in a battle with 
the forces of the Nawabs of Sindh. He was succeeded 
by his eMest son, Hajee Mohummud Khan, who aban- 
doned himself to the most t^nnical and licentious way 
of life, and alienated his subjects by oppressive taxation. 
In these circumstances Nusseer Khan, the second son of 
Abdulla Khan, who had accompanied the -victorious 
Nadir to Diilhi, and acauired the favor and confidence 
of that monarch, returnea to Khelat, and was hailed by 
the whole population as their deliverer. Finding that 
expostulation nad no effect upon his brother, he one day 
entered his apartment and stabbed him to the heart. 
As soon as the tyrant was dead, Nusseer Khan mounted 
the musnud^ amid the universal joy of his subjects ; 
and immediately transmitted a report of the events which 
had taken place to Nadir Shah, who was then encamped 
near Kandahar. The shah received the intelligence with 
satisfaction, and despatched a finnan, by return of the 
messen^r, appointing Nusseer Khan beglerbqr of all 
Baluchistan. This event took place in the year 1 739. 

Nusseer Khan proved an active, politic, and warlike 
prince. He took great pains to re-establish the internal 
government of all the provinces in his dominions, and 
improved and fortified the city of Khelat. On the 
death of Nadir Shah in 1747, he acknowledged the title 
of the king of Cabul, Ahmed Shah Abdulla. In 1758 
he declared himself entirehr independent; upon which 
Ahmed Shah despatched a force against him, under one 
of his ministers. The khan, however, raised an army 
and totally routed the Afghan army. On receiving in- 
telligence of this discomfitorei the king himself inarched 



with strong reinf';rcements, and a pitched battle was 
fought, in which Nusseer Khan was worsted. He 
retired in good order to Khelat, whither he was followed 
by the victor, who invested the place with his whole 
array. The khan made a vigorous defence ; and, after 
the royal troqps had been foiled in their attempts to 
take the city by storm or surprise, a negotiation was 
proposed by the king, which terminated in a treaty of 
peace. By this treaty it was stipulated that the king 
was to receive the cousin of Nusseer Khan in marriage ; 
and that the khan was to pay tribute, but only, when 
called upon, to furnish troops to assist the armies, fot 
which he was to receive an allowance in cash equal to 
half their pay. The khan frequently distinguished him- 
self in the subseqent wars of Cabul ; and, as a reward 
for his services, the king bestowed upon him several 
districts in perpetual and entire sovereijg[nty. Having 
succeeded in quelling a dangerous rebelhon, headed bv 
his cousin Beheram Kahn, this able prince at lengtn 
died in extreme old age, in the month of June 1795, 
leaving three sons and five daughters. He was suc- 
ceeded by his eklest son Muhmood Khan, then a boy 
of about fourteen years. During the reign of this 
prince, who has been described as a very humane and 
mdolent man, the country was distracted by sanguinary 
broils; the governors of several provinces and custrkrts 
withdrew their allegiance; and the dominions of the 
khans of Khelat gradually so diminished, that they now 
comprehend only a small portion of the provinces for- 
merly subject to Nusseer Khan. 

In 1839, when the British army advanced through the 
Bolan Pass towards Afghanistan, the conduct of Mehrab 
Khan, the ruler of Baluchistan, was considered so 
treacherous and dangerous, as to require ^ the exaction 
of retribution from that chieftain," and ** the execution 
of such arrangements as would establish future security 
in that quarter.** General Willshire was accordingly 
detached from the army of the Indus with 1050 men to 
assault Khelat. A gate was knocked in by the field* 
pieces, and the town and citadel were stormed in a few 
minutes. Above 400 Baluches were slain, among them 
Mehrab Khan himself; and 20cx> prisoners were taken. 
Subsequent inquiries have, however, proved that the 
treachery towards the British was not on the part of 
Mehrab Khan, but on that of his vizier, Mahome<^ 
Hassein, and certain chiefs with whom he was in league, 
and at whose instigation the British convovs were 
plundered in their passage through Cutch- Gundava and 
m the Bolan Pass. The treacherous vizier, however, 
made our too credulous political officers believe that 
Mehrab Khan was to blame, — his object being to bring 
his master to ruin and to obtain for himself all power 
in the state, knowiilg that Mehrab's successor was only 
a child. How far he succeeded in his object history has 
shown. In the following year Khelat changed hands, 
the governor established by the British, togetner with a 
feebte garrison, being overpowered At the close of the 
same year it was reoccupiea by the British under General 
Nott In 1841. Nusseer Khan, the youthful son of the 
slain Mehrab Khan, was recognized by the British, who 
soon after evacuated the country. 

From the conquest of Sindn by the British troops 
under the command of the late General Sir Charws 
Napier in 1843 up to 1854, no diplomatic intercourse 
occurred worthy of note between the British and Baluch 
states. In the latter year, however, under the governor- 
generalship of the late marquis of Dalhousie, the late 
General John Jacob, C.B., at the time political superin- 
tendent and commandant on the Sindh frontier, was 
deputed to arrange and conclude a treaty between the 
Khelat state, then under the chieftainship of Meer 
Nusseer Khan, and the British Govtnunent. Tldt 



B AL 



769 



Imtj was executed on the 14th of May 1854, and was 
to the following effect : — 

" That the former oflOensive and defensive treaty, con- 
cluded in 1841 by Major Outram between the British 
Government and Meer Nuaseer Khan, chief of Khelat, 
was to be annulled. 

** That Meer Nusseer Khan, his heirs and successors, 
bound themselves to oppose to the utmost all the ene- 
mies of the British Government, and in all cases to act 
in subordinate co-operation with that Government, and 
to enter into no negotiations with other states without 
its consent 

" That should it be deemed necessary to station Brit- 
ish troops in any part of the territory of Khelat, they 
shall occupy such positions as may be thought advisable 
by the British authorities. 

* That the Baluch chief was to prevent all plundering 
on the part of his subjects witnin, or in the neigh- 
borhood of, British territory. 

** That he was further to protect all merchants pass- 
ing through his territory, and only to exact from them 
a transit duty, fixed by schedule attached to the treaty ; 
and that, on condition of a faithful performance of 
these duties, he was to receive from the British Govern- 
ment an annual subsidy of 50,000 rupees (jfsooo)." 

The provisions of the above treaty were most royally 
performed by Meer Nusseer Khan up to the time of his 
death in 1856. He was succeeded by his brother, Meer 
Khodadad Khan, the present ruler, a jrouth of twelve 
Tears of a^e, who, however, did not obtain his position 
before he had put down by force a rebellion on the part 
of his turbulent chiefs, who had first elected him, but not 
receiving what they considered an adequate reward from 
his treasury, sought to depose him in favor of his cousin 
Shere dil Khan. In the latter part of 1857, the Indian 
rebellion beine at its height, and 4he city of Delhi still 
in the hands of the rebel^ a British officer (Major Henry 
Green) was deputed, on the part of the British Govern- 
ment, to reside, as political agpit, with the khan at 
Khelat, and to assist him by his advice in maintaining 
control over his turbulent tribes. This duty was success- 
fully performed until 1863, when, during tne temporary 
absence of Major Malcomb Green, the then politicid 
a£[ent, Khodadad Khan was, at the instigation of some 
ef his principal chiefs, attacked, while out riding, by his 
cousin, Shere dil Khan, |nd severely wounded. Khoda- 
dad fled in safety to a residence close to the British bor- 
der, and Shere dil Khan was elected and proclaimed 
khan. His rule was, however a short one, for, early in 
1864, when proceeding to Khelat, he was murdered in 
the Gundava Pass ; and Khodadad was again elected 
•hief by the very men who had only the previous year 
caused his overthrow, and who had lately been ac- 
complices to the murder of his cousin. Since the above 
events Khodadad has maintained his precarious position 
with great difficulty; but owing to his inability to govern 
his unruly subjects without material assistance from the 
British Government, which they are not disposed to give, 
his country has gradually fallen into the greatest anarchy; 
and, consequent, some of the provisions of the treaty 
of 185^ having been broken, diplomatic relations having 
been discontinued with the Khelat state since the end of 
1874. 

The territories of Baluchistan are now comprised 
under the following divisions — Jalawan, ^awan, 
Khelat, Mekran, Lus, Cutch-Gundava, and Kohistan. 

The climate of Baluchbtan is extremely various in the 
different provinces. The soil in general is exceedingly 
stony. In the province of Cutch-Gundava, however, it 
is rich and loamy, and so very productive, that, it is said, 
were it all properly cultivated, the crops would be more 
than sufficient for the supply of th^ whole of Baluchistan. 



Go1d« silver, lead, iron, tin, antimony, brimstone, alnm» 
sal-ammoniac, and many kinds of mineral salts, and 
saltpetre, are found in various parts of the country. 
The precious metals have only been discovered in work* 
ing for iron and lead, in mines near the town of Nal, 
about 150 miles S.S.W. of Khelat. The different 
other minerals above enumerated are very plentiful. 
The gardens of Khelat produce many sorts of fruit, 
which are sold at a very moderate rate, such as apricots, 
peaches, grapes, almonds, pistachio-nuts, apples, pears, 
plums, currants, cherries, quinces, flgs, pomegranates, 
mulberries, plantains, melons, c;uavas, &c. All kinds 
of grain known in India are ctutivated in the different 
provinces of Baluchistan, and there is abundance of 
vegetables. Madder, cotton and indigo are also pro- 
duced ; and the latter is considered superior to that of 
Bengal Great attention is |iven to the culture of the 
date fruit in the province of Mekran. The domestic 
animals of Baluchistan are horses, mules, asses, camds, 
buffiiloes, black-cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats, be- 
skies fowls and pi^ons, but there are neither geese, tur- 
keys nor ducks. The wild animals are tigers, leopards, 
hyenas, wolves, jackals, tiger-cats, wila dogs, foxes, 
hares, maneooses, mountain goats, antelopes, elks, red 
and moose deer, wild asses, &c. Of birds they have al- 
most every species to be met with either in Europe or 
India. 

The principal towns in Buluchistan are as follows:— 
Khelat is the capital of the whole country; Mustoong^ 
of the province of Sarawan ; Kozdar^ of Jalawan ; Beyia^ 
of BeVla ; Kej^ of Mekran ; Bagh^ of Cutch-Gundava ; 
and Dadur and Gundava are towns ui the last-men- 
tioned province. 

The capital stands on an elevated site 7000 feet abovte 
the sea, on the western side of a well-cultivated plain or 
valley, about eight miles long and two or three broad, 
a great part of which is lakl out in gardens and other 
enclosures. The town is built in an oblong form, and 
on three sides is defended by a mud wall, 18 or 20 feet 
high, flanked, at intervals of 250 yards, by bastions, 
which, as well as the wall itself, are pierced with 
numerous loopholes for matchlock-men. The defence 
of the fourth ^e of the city has been formed by cutting 
away perpendicularly the western face of the hill on 
which It is pButly built. On the summit of this eminence 
stands the palace, commanding a distinct view of the 
town and adjacent country. 

We have no data fi-om which we can form an accurate 
computation of the population of Baluchistan, but it 
maybe estimated at about 400,00a The two great 
races of Baluch and Brahoe, each subdivided into an 
infinite number of tribes, are clearly distinguished from 
each other br their language and appearance. 

The Baludies are a £masome, active race of men, not 
possessing great physical strength, but inured to changes 
of climate and season, and capable of enduring every 
species of fatigue. In their habits the^ are pastoral and 
much addicted to predatory warfare, in the course of 
which they do not hesitate to commit every kind of out- 
rage and cruelty. Notwithstanding their predatory 
habits, however, they are considered to be a hospitable 
people. 

Tne common dress of the Brahoes is a coarse white or 
blue calico shirt, buttoned round the neck, and reaching 
below the knee ; their trousers are made of the same 
cloth, or of a kind of striped stuff called soosee, and 
puckered around the ankles. On their heads they wear 
a small silk or cotton quilted cap, fitted to the shape of 
the skull, and a kummurbund or sash, of the same color, 
round their waists. 1 he Baluches wear a similar dress, 
but a turban on the head and wkle trousers unconfined 

at the ankle. In winter the chiefs an4 their relatives 



770 



BAL 



appear in a tonic of chintz, fined and stttfled with cotton ; 
ana the poorer chuKS, when oat of doors, wrap them- 
selves up in a surtout made of cloth, manufactured from 
a mixture of ^oats* hair and sheq>*s wooL The women's 
dress is very similar to that of the men ; their trousers 
are prepot terously wjde, and made of silk, or a mixture 
of suk and cotton. 

BALUE, Jean, a French cardinal, who raised him- 
self from a very mean station to dignity and honors. He 
Was bom of very humble parentage at An^le in Poitou, 
In 142 1, and was first patronised by the bishop of Poi- 
'lers. He eventually became almoner to Louis XL, 
tnd managed to secure a considerable share in the gov. 
tmment ; but being detected in treasonable correspond- 
tnce with the duke of Bourgogne, he was confined by 
Louis in an iron cage 8 feet square. On his release, 
however, eleven years afterwards, he was loaded with 
honors by Sixtus IV., was sent as legate to France, and 
received the bishopric of Albano. He died at Ancona 
in 1491. 

BALUZE, Etienne, a celebrated French scholar, 
was bom at Tulle on the 24th of December 1630, and 
died in July 1718. His reputation and his mastery of 
French law and antiquities obtained for him in 1670 the 
professorship of canon law in the royal college, a chair 
founded expressly for him. On the fall of the Cardinal 
de Bouillon in 1710, Baluze, who had attached himself 
to his party, was removed by a Mtre de cachet from 
Paris, and transferred from Rouen to Blois, Tours, and 
Orleans in succession. He obtained his recall in 181 3, 
though he never recovered his professorship. Of Baluze s 
numerous works the best known is the Capitularia 
Regum Francarum^ which is of consklerable nistorical 
value. 

BALZAC, HoNORt de, perhaps the greatest name in 
the post-Revolutionary literature of France, was bom at 
Tours in 1799, and died in 1858. His date thus corre- 
sponds with the whole period of the rise, the acme, and 
the decline of the Romantic school, to which he can 
scarcely, however, be said to have belong[ed. It is tme 
that he was inspired by many of the mflucnces that 
animated Victor Hugo and his followers. Like them 
he was much occupied by the study of the fantastic ele- 
ment in mediaeval art, so stronglv opposed to the calm 
and limit of classical literature, like them he reproduced 
the remoter phases of life and passion, and thought that 
few subjects V7ere so base or ooscure as to be unworthy 
of artistic treatment But there is something in the 
powerful personality of Balzac indicated by the colossal 
Dody, by the strong and sensual face, somewhat re- 
sembling the profile of the Emperor Nero, which pre- 
served him from the mannerism of any school. He v/as 
never successful in i-eproducing the exbtence of the 
past, he was essentially the man of his own day, and 
La Com/die Humaine is as much the picture of the 19th, 
as the Divina Commedia is of the 13th century. The 
passions that move his characters are the intense desire 
of boundless wealth, of luxunr, of social distinction; 
and though here and there his financiers, his journalists, 
his political intri^ers, his sordid peasantry, are relieved 
b^ the introduction of some pure figure like that of 
Eug^ie Grandet, of Davkl, or of Eve, there are only 
too many elaborate studies of creatures sunk below the 
surface of humanity, the embodiments of infinite mean- 
ness and nameless sin. He was merely " the secretary 
of society," he said, and "drew up the inventory of vices 
and virtues. ** His ambition was, " by infinite patience 
and courage, to compose for the France of the 19th cen- 
tury that history of morals which the old civilisations of 
Rome, Athens, Memphis, and India have left untold." 
The consequence of this ambition is, that Balzac's vol- 
omingns romances hav^ too often the air of a minute 



and tedious chronicle, and that the contemporary i_ 

is wearied with a mass of details about domestic archi- 
tecture, about the stock exchange, and about law» which 
will prove invaluable to posterity. 

Balzac's private history, which maybe traced throogh 
many passages of his novels, was a strange and not a 
happy one. He was early sent from his home in Tours 
to the college of Vend6me, where he neglected the 
studies and sports of childhood to bnry himself in mys- 
tic books and mystic reveries. He has told the story of 
his school life in Louis Lambert^ how he composed a 
th/orie de la volonti^ a theory which was to complete 
the works of Mesmer, Lavater, Gall, and Bichat 
This promising treatise was burned by one of the mas- 
ters of the school; and Bakac, falling into bad health, 
returned home. The next stage in his education was a 
course of study at the Sorbonne, and of lectures on law. 
In the offices of attorneys and notaries he picked up his 
knowledge of the by ways of chicanery, — knowledge 
which he uses only too freely in his romances. Nature 
did not mean Balzac for an advocate; he was constant 
in the belief in his own genius, a belief which for many 
years he had all to himself, and his family left him to 
work and starve, on the scantiest pittance, in a garret of 
the Rue Lesdigui^res. There followed ten years of 
hard toil, poverty, experiments in this and that way of 
getting a living. Tnese struggles are describea in 
Facino Cane, in the Peau de Ckagnn^ and in a series 
of letters to the author's sister, Madame de Surville. 
Balzac found ** three sous for bread, two for miDc, and 
three for firing ** suffice to keep him alive, while he de- 
voured books in the library of the Arsenal, copied 
out his notes at nijght, and then wandered for hours 
among the scenes ofnoctumal Paris. ** Your brother," 
he writes to Madame de Surville, ** is already nourishol 
like a great man, — he is dying of hunger.** He 
tried to make money by scribbling many volumes of 
novels without promise, and borrowed funds to specu- 
late in the business of printing. Ideas which have 
since made other men's fortunes failed in Balzac's 
hands, and he laid the foundations of those famous debts 
which in later life were his torment and his occupation. 
At length appreciation came, and with appreciation 
what ought to have been wealth. Balzac was unfortun- 
ately as prodigal of money as of labor ; he would shut 
himself up for months, and see no one but his printer ; 
and then for months he wouM disappear and oissipate 
hb gains in some mysterious hiding-place of his own, or 
in hurried travelling to Venice, Vienna, or St. Peters- 
burg. As a child he had been a man in thought and 
learning ; as a man he was a child in caprice and ex- 
travagance. His imagination, the intense power with 
which he constmcted new combinationsof the literal facts 
which he observed, was like the demon which tormented 
the magician with incessant demands for more tasks to 
do. When he was not working at La Comfdic Humaine, 
his fancy was still busy with its characters ; he existed in 
an ided world, where some accident was always to put 
him in possession of riches beyond the dreams of avarice. 
Meantime he squandered all the money that could be 
rescued from his creditors on sumptuous apparel, jeweb, 
porcelain, pictures. His excesses of labor, his sleepless 
nights, his abuse of coffee undermined his seemingly in- 
destructible health. At length a mysterious passion for 
a Russian lady was crowned by marriage ; the famous 
debts were paid, the visionary house was built and fur- 
nished, and then, ** when the house was ready, death en- 
tered." Balzac died at the culmination of his fiime, and 
at the beginning, as it seemed, of the period of rest to 
which he had always looked forward. 

BALZAC, Jean Louis Gubz de, a celebrated French 
writer, was bom at Angoul^me in f^^t ''^J^^ ^ 



Digitized, by ■ 



)ogie 



BAM 



771 



Paris in 16^4. His fame rests eadrtlviipoii the Letters^ 
which, though empty, bombastic, anaaflected in matter, 
are written with great skill, and show a real mastery 
over the langnase. They introduced a new style; and 
Balzac has thas ue credit of being the first reformer of 
French prose, as his contemporary Malherbe was the 
first reformer of French poetry. 

BAMBA, a province ol Coneo, on the western coast 
of Africa, lying to the S. of the River Ambriz. This 
district is fertile, abounds in gold, silver, copper, salt, 
&c., and is said to be thickly populated. Its chief town, 
which bears the same name, was formerly of consider- 
able importance, the climate being remarkably healthy 
for that region of African 

BAMBARRAy a country of inner Africa, on the 
Joliba or Upper Niger. The principal towns are Segor, 
Sansading, Jamima, Mursha, Jaboi, Saj, Knllikoro, 
Maraca-Duba, and Damba, in many of whk:h the 
Mahometans have mosques. For further particulars 
see Africa. 

BAMBARRA, a town of western Africa on a back- 
water of the Niger, of consklerable commercial import- 
ance, and situated in a fertile phun, 115 miles S.d.W. 
of Timbuctoo. 

BAMBERG, a town of Bavaria, in the circle of 
Upper Franconia, on the River Regnitz, \ miles above 
its junction with the Maine, and 13 miles N. of Nurem- 
berg, with which it is connected by railway. It was 
founded in 1004 by the Emperor Heniv II., and finished 
in 1012, but was afterwards partially burnt, and rebuilt 
in 1 1 la It contains the tombs of the founder and his 
empress Cunigunde, Conrad \\\^ Pope Clement II., 
&c., and numerous monuments and pcuntings hj emi- 
nent masters. Bamberg was formerly the capital of an 
independent bishopric, which was secularised in 1801, 
and assi^ed to Bavaria in 1803. Population 25,738. 

BAMBOCCIO. See Labr, Peter Van. 

BAMBOO, a genus {Bambusa) of arborescent masses 
very generally distributed throughout the tropics! lands 
of the globe, but found and cultivated especially in In- 
dia, China, and the East Indian Archipelago. There is 
a large number of species enumerated ; but. as is the 
case with most plants under cultivation, much difficulty 
i» found in distinguishing species from varieties pro- 
duced by artificial selection. Bambusa arundinacea is 
the species most commonly referred to. It is a tree-like 
plant, rising to a height of 40, 60, or even 80 feet, with 
a holiowstem, shining as if varnished. The stem is ex- 
tremely slender, not exceeding the thickness of 5 inches 
in some which are 50 feet high, and in others reaching 15 
or 18 inches in diameter. The whole is divkled into 
ioints or septa called knots or internodes, the intervals 
between which in the case of some of the larger stems 
is several feet. These joints or divisions are formed by 
the crossing of the vascular bundles of fibres. They 
produce alternate lateral buds, which form small alter- 
nate branchlets springing from the base to the top, and, 
together with the narrow-pointed leaves issuing from 
them, give the plant an elegant feathered appearance a& 
it waves in the wind. The rapklity of its growth is 
surprisins^ It attains its full height in a few months, 
ana Mr. Fortune records the observation of a growth of 
from 2 to 2|4 feet in a single day. In Malabar it is 
said to bear firuit when fifteen years old, and then to die. 

The bamboo is cultivated with great care in regular 
plantations by the Chinese. The plant is propagated by 
shoots or suckers deposited in pits 18 inches or 2 feet 
deep at the close of autumn or the beginning of winter. 
Vanous expedients are followed to obtain good bam- 
boos ; one of the most usual being to take a vigorous 
root and transplant it, leaving only four or five inches 
Above the joint next the ground. The cavity is then 



filled with a mixture of horse-Utter and sulphur. Ac 
cording to the vigor of the root, the shoots will be more 
or less numerous ; they are destroyed at an early sta^ 
during three successive years ; and those springing in 
the fourth resemble the parent tree. The uses to which 
all the parts and products of the bamboo are applied in 
Oriental countries are almost endless. The soft and 
succulent shoots, when just beginning to spring, are 
cut over and served up at table- like asparagus. Like 
that vegetable, also, they are earthed over to keep them 
longer fit for consumption ; and they afford a continu- 
ous suppljr during the whole year, uiough it is more 
abundant in autumn. They are also salted and eaten 
with rice, prepared in the form of pickles, or candied 
and presenred in sugar. As the plant grows okler, a 
species of flukl is secreted in the hollow ioints, in which 
a concrete substance, highly valued in tne East for its 
medicinal qualities, call^ tabaxir or tabMcheer^ is grad- 
ually developed. This substance, which has been round 
to M a purely siliceous concretion, is po^aessed of pe- 
culiar optical properties. The grains of the bamboo 
are available for fcKxi, and the Chinese have a proverb 
that it produces seed more abundantly in years when the 
rice crop fails, whkh means, probably^ that in times of 
dearth tne natives look more after sucn a source of food. 
The Hindus eat it mixed with honey as a delicacy, equal 
quantities being put into a hollow joint, coated extern- 
ally with clay, and thus roasted over a fire. It is, how- 
ever, the stem of the bamboo which is applied to the 
greatest variety of uses. Joints of sufficient size form 
water buckets; smaller ones are used as bottles, and 
among the Dyaks of Borneo they are employed as cook- 
ing vessels. Bamboo is extensively used as a timber 
wood, and houses are firequently maoe entirely out of the 

f>roduct of the plant ; complete sections of^ the stem 
orm posts or columns; split up, it serves for floors or 
rafters ; and, interwoven in lattice- work, it is employed 
for the sides of rooms, admitting light and air. The 
roof is sometimes of bamboo solely, and when split, 
which is accomplished with the greatest ease, it can be 
formed into kths or planks, ft is employed in ship- 
ping of all kinds ; some of the strongest plants are 
selected for masts of boats of moderate size, and the 
masts of larger vessels are sometimes formed by the 
union of several bamboos built np and joined together. 
The bamboo is employed in tne construction of all 
kinds of agricultural and domestic implements, and in the 
materials and implements required in fishery. Bows are 
made of it by the union of two pieces with many bands; 
and, the septa beine bored out and the lengths joined 
together, it is emj^oyed, as we use leaden rapes, in 
transmitting water to reservoirs or gardens, rrom the 
light and slender stalks shafts for arrows are obtained ; 
and in the south-west of Asia there is a certain species 
of equally slender growth, from which writing-pens or 
reeds are made. A joint forms a holder for paper 01* 
pens, and it was in a joint of bamboo that silk-worm 
eggs were carried from China to Constantinople during 
the reign of Justinian. The outer cuticle of Orientsd 
species is so Hard that it forms a sharp and durable cut- 
ting edge, and it b so silkeous that it can be used as a 
whetstone. This outer cuticle, cut into thin strips, is 
one of the most diurable and beautiful materials for 
basket-making, and both in China and Japan it is largely 
so employed. Strips are also woven mto cages, chairs, 
beds, ana other articles of furniture. Oriental wicker- 
work in bamboo being unequalled for beauty and neat- 
ness of workmanship. ^ In China the interior portions of 
the stem are beaten into a pulp, and used for the 
manufacture of the finer varieties of paper. Bamboos 
are imported to a consklerable extent into Europe for 
the use of basket-makers, and for umbrella and walk* 
gitized by V^ 



772 



BAM— BAN 



^ 



ing-sticks. In short, the porpoMS to which the bam- 
boo is applicable are almost endless, and well justify the 
opinion tnat ** il b one of the most wonderful and most 
beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of 
Nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilized man.** 

6AMBOROUGH, a village in Northumberland, on 
the sea-coast, 14 miles N. of Alnwick. 

BAMBOUK, a country in the interior of Western 
Africa, situated between the Senml and its tribuury 
the Faleme. It is traversed from N. W. to S.E. by the 
steep and wall-like range of the Tamba-Ura Mountains. 
The soil in a large part of the country 13 of remarkable 
fertility ; rice, maize, millet, melons, manioc, grapes, 
bananas, and other fruits, grow almost without cultiva- 
tion ; the forests are rich in a variety of valuable trees; 
and extensive stretches are covered with abundant pas- 
turage of the long guinea gra^ As a natural conse- 
(]uence there is great profusion of animal life. The 
inhabitants, a branch ot the Mandingo race, have made 
but little progress in civilisation. The one product of 
their country which recUy excites them to labor is gold; 
and even it is so common and accessible that the rudest 
methods of collection are deemed sufficient The 
most remarkable deposit is at Natakoo, where a consul- 
erable hill seems to be wholly composed of auriferous 
atrata. There is also a good mine at Kenieba. In ex- 
change for the gold, cloth, ornaments, and salt — the 
last a most valuable article — are imported. The usual 
beast of burden is the ass, the horse being only pos- 
sessed by the very wealthiest in the country. Sheep 
and cattle are both pretty numerous. Unfortunately, 
the climate is very unhealthy, especially in the rainy 
season, which lasts for about four months, from July or 
August The chief towns aie Bambouk, Salalia, and 
Konkuba. The Portuguese early penetrated into Bam- 
bouk, and were even for some time masters of the 
country; but the inhabitants made a general risine and 
completely drove them out. Remains of their build- 
ings, however, are still to be seen. The French, soon 
after they had formed their settlement on the Senef al, 
turned their atteivtion to this land of gold. It was not 
till 1 716, however, that Compagon, under the auspices 
of De U Brue, the governor of Senegal, succeeded, by 
great address, and not without risk, in visiting various 
parts of die auriferous region ; and his explorations 
were followed up by David, Levens, and others. Raf- 
fenel visited the country in 1844, and Pascal, a naval 
lieutenant, was there in 1859. A few commercial 
stations or comptoirs have recently been established. 

BAMIAN, a once renowned citj^ in the territory now 
subject to the Afghans. Its remains lie in a valley of 
the Hazara country, on the chief road from K&bul 
towards Turkest&n, and immediately at the northern 
foot of that prolongation of the Indian Caucasus now 
called Koh-i-Baba. 

That the idols of Bimi&n, about which so many con- 
jectures have been uttered, were Buddhist figures, is 
ascertained from the narrative of the Chinese pilgrim, 
Hwen Thsang, who saw them in their splendor in 630 
A.D. His description of the position of the city and 
images corresponds accurately with modem reports. 
He assigns to the greater image, which was gilt (the 
object, probably, of the plaster coating), a height of 
140 or 150 feet, and to the second loa The latter 
would seem from his account to have been sheathed 
with copper. Still vaster than these was a recumbent 
figure, 2 miles east of B&mi&n, representing; Sak)ra 
Buddha entering Nirvdna^ i.e., in act of death. This 
was "about 1000 feet in length. ** No traces of this 
are alladed to by modem travellers, but in all likelihood 
it was only formed of rubble plastered (as is the case 
Still with such Nirvdna figures in IndQ-Cbina), and of 



no durability. For t city 10 notable B4mila has m 
very obscure history. It does not seem possible to 
identify it with any city in classical geography: AUx- 
andria ad Caucasum it certainly was not 

BAMPTON, Rev. John, founder of the series of 
divinity lectures at Oxford known as the BampUm, 
Ltcturesy appears to have been bom in i68p and to 
have died in 175 1. He was a member of Trmity Cc4- 
lege, Oxford, and for some time canon of Salisbury. 

BANANA {Musa sapiattum\ a ginntic herbaceous 
plant belonging to the natural order Musatett^ origmally 
a native of the tropical ports of the East, but now cnf- 
tivatod in all tropical and sub-tropfeol climates^ It 
forms a spurious land of stenl| rising ic or 20 feet bv 
the sheatning basis of the leaves, the blades of which 
sometimes measure as much as 10 feet in length by 2 feet 
across. The stem bears several clusters of fmit, which 
somewhat resemble cucumbers in size and form ; it die» 
down after maturing the fruit The weight of tlk. 
produce of a single cluster is sometimes as much as 80 
lb, and it was calculated by Humboldt that the pro- 
ductiveness of the banana as compared with vli^at is as 
1 33 to I , and as against potatoes 44 to i. The varieties 
otbanana cultivated in the tropics -are as numerous as 
the varieties of apples in tcmperrtc re(pons, and the 
best authorities now agree that :io tpecific difference 
exists between it and the plantain. The fruit is exten- 
sively used as food ; and m nuuiy of the Pacific islands 
it b the staple on which the native t depend. In its 
immature condition it contains much ctcrch, which on 
ripening changes into sugar ; and as a ripe fruit it has a 
sweet but somewhat flavorless taste. From the unripe 
fmit, dried in the sun, a useful and nutritious flour is 
prepared. The following represents the percentage 
composition of the pulp of the ripe fruit : — Nitrogenous 
matter, 4.820; sugar, pectin, &c., 19.657; fatty matter, 
a 632; cellulose, a 200; saline matter, 0.791 ; water, 
7^900. An analjrsis of the flour by Dr. Murray 
lliompson yiekied the following results: — Water, 
I a. 33; starch, 71.60; gum and su^r, 6.82; nitrogen- 
ous matter, 2.01 ; cellulose, 5.99 ; oil, a 50 ; salts, 0.64. 

BANAT, a district in the south-east of Hungary, 
consisting of the three counties of Thorontal, Temes- 
war, and Krasso, which has strangely acquired this title,^ 
though it was never governed by a "ban." It i:i 
bouiKled bv the Theiss, the Maros, and the Danube, 
forming almost a regular parallelogram. The soil is 
in many parts a remarkably rich alluvial deposit Under 
the Turkish yoke it was allowed to lie almost desolate 
in marsh and heath and forest; but Joseph II. de- 
termined to render it, if possible, a populous and 
prosperous district. He accordingly offered land, at a 
very low rate, to all who were wnling to settle within 
its borders. Germans, Greeks, Turks, Servians, 
Italians, and Frenchmen responded to his call, and soon 
developed the agricultural resources of the region. 
Canals were formra at great expense of labor ; marshes 
and forests were clear^ ; and now the Banat is one of 
the most highly cultivated parts of the Austrian 
empire. 

BANBRIDGE, a town of Ireland, county of Down, 
on the Bann, 23 miles S. W. of Belfast, standing on the 
summit of an eminence. To facilitate access, a central 
carriage-way, 200 yards long, has been cat through the 
main street to a depth of 15 feet, the opposite terraces 
being connected by a bridge. 

BANBURY, a market-town, municipal and parlia- 
mentary borough, and railway junction, in the county 
of Oxford, 71 miles from London, and a little to the 
west of the River Cherwell and the Oxford and Birm- 
indiam canal. 

BANCA, Banka, or Bangka, w isUmd off the etUlt 
Digitized by V^ 



BAN 



773 



coast of Smnfttra, and separated from it by the Strait 
of Baaca. It raries from 8 to 20 miles in breadth, and 
hsLs an area of 5000 English squsuv miles. Its mines of 
tin, which were discovered in 1710, are remarkably pro- 
ductive^ and in 1872 yielded no less than 68,148 piculs, 
the average yield durine the {>revious ten years being 
73,961 piculs. The washing 13 almost wholly carried 
on by Cnmese, and a large part of the metal finds its 
way to their country, iron, copper, lead, silver, and 
arsenic arc also found in the island. The soil is gen- 
erally dry and stony, and the greater part of the sunace 
is covered with forests, in which the logwood tree 
especially abornds. 

BANCROFT, Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury 
in the reign of James I., distinguished as an inflexible 
opponent of Puritanism, %7as bom at Famworth in 
Lancashire in 1544. He was educated at Cambridge 
University, studying first at Christ's College, and after- 
wards at Jlesus CoU^e. He took hh de^ec of B. A. in 
1^67, and that of M. A. in 1570. Ordained about that 
tmic, he was named chaplain to Dr. Cox, then bishop of 
Ely, and in i J75 was presented to the rectory of Tever- 
sham in Cambndgeshire. The next year he was one of 
the preachers to the university, and in 1584 was pre- 
sented to the rectory of 3t. Andrew's, Holbom. His 
unquestionable abilities, and Kz zeal as a champion of 
the church in those unsettled times, secured him rapid 
promotion,' and at length the highest ecclesiastical posi- 
tion in the land. He graduated D. D. in 1 580, and D. D. 
five years later. In 1585 he was appointed treasurer of 
St. Paul's Cathedral, London. On February 9, 1589, 
he preached at Paul's Cross a sermon on i John iv. i, 
the substance of which was a passionate attack on the 
Puritans. He described their speeches and proceedings, 
caricatured their motives, denounced the exercise of the 
ri^ht of private judgment, and set forth the divine right 
of^ bishops in such strong language that one of the 
queen's councillors held it to amount to a threat against 
the supremacy of the Crown. Sixteen days after the 
publication of this eccleciastical manifesto, Bancroft was 
made a prebendary of St. Paul's. Within a few jrears 
he was advanced tc the sam? dignity in the collegiate 
church of Westminster, and in the cathedral church of 
Canterbury. lie was chaplain successively to Lord 
Chancellor Hatton and Arctibishop Whitgift. In May 
I C97 he was consecrated bishop of London ; and from 
this time, in consec^uence of the age and incapacity for 
business of Archbishop Whitgift, he was virtually 
investad with the power of primate, and had the 
sole management of ecclesiastical affairs. Among 
the more noteworthy cases which fell under his 
direction were the proceedings against Martin Mcr- 
Prelate, Cartwright and his friends, and the pious 
Henry, whose "seditious writings" he caused to be 
intercepted and given up to the Lord Keeper. In 1600 
he was sent on an embassy, with others, to Embden, for 
the purpose of settling certain mattersin dispute between 
the English and the Danes. This mission, however, 
failed. Bishop Bancroft was present at the death of 
Queen Elizabeth. He took a prominent part in the 
famous conference of the prelates and the Presb3rterian 
divines held at Hampton Court in 1604. By the king's 
desire he undertook the vindication of the practices of 
confirmation, absolution, private baptism, and lay ex- 
communication ; he lu-ged, but in vain, the reinforce- 
ment of an ancient canon, ** that schismatics are not to 
be heard against bishops;" and in opposition to the 
Puritans' demand of certain alterations in doctrine and 
discipline, he besought the king that care might be taken 
for a fraying clergy ; and that, till men of &iming and 
sufficiency could he found godly homilies might be read 
and their numbers increased. In the capacity of a com- 



missioner for ecclesiastical catises (i6o3),he advocated se- 
vere measures for the suppression of "heresy and schism** 
treating books against Episcopacy as acts of sedition, 
and persecuting their authors as enemies of the state. 
In March 1604, Bancroft, in consequence of the death 
of the primate, was appointed by royal writ president of 
Convocation then assembled ; and he there presented 
for adoption a book of canons collected by himself. In 
the following November he was elected successor to 
Whitgift in the see of Canterbury. In 1608 he was 
chosen chancellor of the University of Oxford. He died 
at Lambeth Palace, November 2d, 1610. 

BANDA, a district of British India, in the AUihi- 
b^ division, under the Lieutenant-Governor of the 
North- Western Provinces. It is bounded on the N. by 
the district of Fathipur, from which it is separated by 
the River Jamnd; on the N.E. by the districts of Fathi- 
pur and Allahdb^; on the S.E, by the native state of 
Riwd ; on the S. and S.W. by some of the petty states 
Bundelkhand ; one! on the W. and N. W. by the district 
of Hamfrpur. ^ Area, J030 square milts, of which 1390 
are under cultivation, 846 cultivable, but not cultivated, 
108 revenue free, and 688 rncultivable waste. The 
census of 1872 took the area at 2908.68 souare miles, 
and returned the district population at 697,010 soids, — 
viz., Hindus, 657,107; Mahometans, 40,497 ; Christ- 
ains, 6. Average density, 230 persons to the square 
mile. Of the population in 1872, 2897 ^^^^ landed pro- 
prietors, 42,230 agriculturists, and 0^,644 non-agricul- 
turists. In some parts the district rises into irregular 
uplands and elevated plains, interspersed with detached 
rocks of ^nite ; in others it sinks into marshy low- 
lands, which frequently remain under water during the 
rainy season. The sloping country on the bank of the 
Jamni is full of ravines. To the S.E. the Vindhya 
chain of hills takes its origin in a low range not ex- 
ceeding 500 feet in height, r.nd forming a natural 
boundary of the district in that direction. The princi- 
pal river of the district is the Jamn^ which flows from 
north-west to south-east, along the N. E. boundary of 
the district for 125 miles. Its most important tributa- 
ries within the district are the Ken, Ddgain, Paisunf, 
and Ohdn, all of which take their rise in. the Vindhya 
hills. The principal towns and market villages in the 
district are Mau, Mdjhg&on or Rdjipur, Marki^ Sani- 
d, Aug&sf, Chi'/i, and Barig&on, all situated on the 

ik of the Jamn&. 

BANDA ISLAIiDS, a group in the East Indian 
Archipelago, lying to the S. of Ceram. They are ten 
or twelve in number, and have an area of about 7150 
square miles. Their volcanic origin is distinctly 
marked. D?»yf-». Lcrtofr, which derives its name from 
the lontar or Pa1"iyra pahn, is the largest of the group. 
The principal articles of commerce in the Banda group 
are nutmegs and mace. The native population luving 
been cleared off by the Dutch, the pUintations were 
worked bv slaves and convicts till the emancipation of 
i860. 1 ne introduction of Malay and Chinese laborers 
has since taken place. The plantations or perken can 
neither be sold nor divided. About 700,000 lb or 
upwards of nutmegs are obtained in a year, with a pro- 
portionate quantity of mace. The imports are provis- 
ions, cloth, and iron-ware from Batavia, and various 
native productions from the Aru Islands, Ceram, &c. 

The Banda Islands were discovered and annexed by 
the Portuguese Abreus about 151 1 ; but in the beginning 
•f the 17th century his countrymen were expelled by the 
Dutch. In 1608 the English built a factory on Pulo 
Way, which was demolished by the Dutch as soon as the 
Enp;lish vessel left Shortly after, however, Banda 
Neira and Lantoir were resigned by the natives to the 
Bnglish, and in 1620 Pulo Roon and Pule Way were 



gari, 
bank < 



774 



BAN 



added to their dommiont ; but, in fpHe of treaties into 
which they had entered, the Dutch attacked and expelled 
their British rivals. In 16C4 they were compdled by 
Cromwell to restore Pulo Koon, and to make satisfac- 
tion for the massacre of Amboyna; but the English 
settlers not being adequately supported from home, the 
island was retaken by the Dutch m 1664. They retained 
undisturbed possession of their conquests in this quarter 
of the globe until the year 1796, when the Banda Islands, 
along with all the other Dutch colonies, were conquered 
by the British. They were restored by the treaty of 
Amiens in the year 1800, ajgain captured, and finally re- 
stored by the treaty of Pans concluded in 1814. In the 
Presklency of Banda there are 111,194 inhabitants, of 
whom 6000 belong to Neiro. 

BANDELLO, Matteo, an Italian novelist, was 
bom at Castelnuovo, near Tortona, about the vear 1480. 
Bandello wrote a number of poems, but hb fame rests 
entirely upon his extensive collection of A'ovel/e, or 
tales, whkn have been extremely popular. They belong 
to that species of literature of which Boccaccio*s 
Decameron r^d the queen of Navarre's Heptanienm are, 
perhaps, the best known examples. 

BANDINELLl, Bartolommeo or Baccio, a Floren- 
tine sculptor, was Ix^m in 1487, and died 15J9> His 
best works are the ; larble colossal group of Hercules 
and Cacus in the Piazza del Cran Duco; his eroup of 
Adam and Eve ; his exquisite bcusi-rilievi in Uie choir 
of the cathedral of Florence; his copy of the Laocoon ; 
and the figures of Christ and Nicodemus on his own 
tomb. 

BANDINI, Angblo Maria, an Italian author, was 
bom at Florence on the 25th Sept. 1726. 

BANDON, or Bandonbridge, an inland town and 
parliamentary borough of Ireland, in the county of Cork, 
and twenty miles by rail from the county town, is situated 
on both sides of the River Bandon, which is herecroved 
by a bridge of six arches. 

BANFF, the county town of Banffshire, is a place of 
great antiquity; according to tradition, it was at times 
the residence of Malcolm Canmore. It was risited by 
Davki I. and his son Henry ; and there b a charter of 
Malcolm IV., signed at Banfif the eleventh year of his 
reien, which corratponds with 1 163. 

BANFFSHIRE, a maritime county in the N.E. of 
Scotland, bounded on the N. bv the Moray Firth, E. 
and S. by Aberdeenshire, and W. by Morayshire and 
part of Inverness-shire. It has an area of oiS6 square 
miles, or 439,219 statute acres, its extent from N. to S. 
being 50 miles, and from E. to W. 32 miles, — its aver- 
age breadth not exceeding 14 miles. 

Some interesting minerals have been found in Banff- 
shire. Among them may be mentioned magnetite, chro- 
mite, and asb^tos at Portsoy ; fluorite near Boharm, at 
Keith, and on the Avon ; also cjranite and chiastolite in 
clajrslate at Boharm. Attempts were made many years 
ago to work a vein of sulphuret of antimony near Keith ; 
and more recently mines of haematite were opened near 
Amdilly on the Spey. 

The manufactures of Banffshire are very unimportant, 
the inhabitants being principally engaged in apiculture 
and the rearing of cattle. The salmon-fishery is actively 
prosecuted on the rivers, and herring and other fisher- 
ies on the coast Distilling is largely carried on in Glen- 
livet and other places ; and there is a woollen factory at 
Keith. 

Banfishire was the scene of man^ bloody conflicts be- 
tween the Scots and their Danish invaders. From 1624 
to i6a5 it was the theatre of almost incessant strugi^les, 
and the Covenantuig troubles of that period, commned 
with the fre<)uent conflicts of the clans, were productive 
of serious evils. Several remains of antiquity are pointed 



out in diflereBt parts of the conntry, tndi ts the icolp- 
tured stone at Mortlach, and the churches of CnUen and 
Fordyce. Ruins of castles and traces of encampments 
are often to be met with, and a great number of cairns 
and tumuli are also found. Among the dtstinguished 
men whom Banffshire has produced, the following may 
be mentioned: — Archbishop Sharp of St An£ews; 
George Baird, distinguished for his services as sheriff of 
the county during the time of the Covenanters ; T1k)iiuis 
Rnddiman, the grammarian ; Walter Goodall, the de- 
fender of Mary Queen of Scots ; Dr. Alennder Gcddes ; 
and Tames Fereuson, the astronomer. 

BANGALORE, the adminbtrative capital and most 
important town of the chief commissionersnip of Mjrsore^ 
also a large military cantonment, is now one of the 
handsomest English stations in India, with noble public 
buiklings, spacious and artistically Uid out eardens, 
broad smooth roads, well-supervised bazaars, and a good 
water supply. The markets dL»|^y ahnost every sort <^ 
English and Indian fruit or vegetable. . Bangalore forms 
the residence of the chief commissk>ner of Mysore and 
the principal officers of his administration, and is well 
worthy of its place as the political aid military cental dL 
the province. 

BANGKOK, a city of Siam, which was raised to the 
rank of capital in. 1769. It b situated on both sides of 
the River jVfenam, about 20 miles Trom the sea. The 
river is navigable to the city for vercels of 350 tons, but 
there is a bar at its mouth, which at the lowest ebbs has 
only six feet of water, and at no time has more than 
fourteen. The general appearance of Bangkok is verj 
striking, alike from its extent, the strange architecture 
of its more important buiklings, and the luxuriant green- 
ness of the trees with which it is profusely interspersed. 
The streets are in many cases traversed by canals, and 
the houses raised on piles, while a large part of the 
population dwell in floating houses moorea along the 
river sides in tiers three or four deep. The nucleus of 
the city on the eastern bank is surrounded by a wall 30 
feet high, and 10 or 12 feet thick, relieved by numerous 
towers and bastions ; but the rest of the city stretched 
irregularly for full seven miles along each side of die 
river, and in some places attains nearly as great a 
breadth, — the Menam itself being about a quarter of a 
mile across. In all there are upwards of a hundred 
temples in the city and suburbs. The palace of the 
** First King ** is inclosed in high white walls, which are 
about a mile in circumference. It consists of a large 
number of different buiklings for various purposes — 
temples, public offices, seraguos, the stalls for the sacred 
elepnant, and accommodation for thousands of soldiers, 
cavalry, artillery, and war elephants, an arsenal, a 
theatre, &c. The hall of audience, in which the throne 
of the king stands, is situated in the middle of the prin- 
cipal court The temples are of great richness, floored 
with mats of silver, and stored with monuments and 
relics. In one of them is a famous jasper statue of 
Buddha. The population of the city is of various 
nationalities, — Burmese, Peguans, Cambodians, Cochin- 
Chinese, Malays, Indo-Portumiese, and others, besides 
the two predominant classes, the Chinese and Siamese. 
There is great commercial activity, the principal artides 
of trade teing sugar, pepper, and rice. The population 
is said to amount to 400,00a 

BANGOR, a parliamentary borough and market- 
town of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, nine miles N.E. 
of Carnarvon, to which it is a contributory boron^ 
Population of burgh in 1 871, 9,859. 

BANGOR, a seaport and market-town of Ireland, 
county Down, on the south side of Belfast Lough, 12 
miles E.N.E. of Belfast. ^ 

BANGOR, a seapor^-j9^^|i(^ state of Maine^ 



BAN 



775 



North America, capital of the cotinty of Penobscot, on 
the river of that name, at its junction with the Kendus- 
keag, 60 miles from the sea. It was incorporated as a^ 
town in 1 79 1, and raised to the rank of a aty in 1834. 
The harbor is spacious, and affords anchorage for the 
largest vessels at high tide. The chief article of trade 
is timber, which employs about 2000 ships annually ; 
ond there are saw-mills, planing-mills, ship-yards, 
foundries, and manufactories of furniture. There are 
numerous good schools arranged on a graduated scale, 
and churches of about tendiferent denominations. A 
theological seminarv belonging to the Congregationalists 
was founded in 1816. A library, institute in 1843, ^^ 
upwards of 1 1 ,000 volumes. Population in 1889, ' 7f ^^^a 

BANIALUKA, a town and fortress of Turkey, in the 
eyalet of Bosnia, situated on the Verbas or Verbitza, a 
navieable tributary of the Save. Its warm baths, for 
whidi it is still known, would seem, from the antiquities 
discovered on the spot, to have been frequented by the 
Romans. There are upwards of forty mosques in th 
town, and one of them is regarded as the finest in 
Turkey. In 1688 it was captured for the Austrians by 
Louis of Baden. Population, 15,000. 

BANIM, John, an Irish novelist of great power and 
ability, was born at Kilkenny in 1798. He received a 
good education, and at a very early ase gave evidence of 
remarkable senius. In his thirteenm year he entered 
Kilkenny College, where many other eminent Irishmen 
have received their training, and devoted himself spec- 
ially to drawing and painting, in which he became so 
proficient that he resolved to adopt the profession of an 
artist. He accordingly proceeded to Dublin and studied 
for two years in the schools connected with the Royal 
Society, where he obtained high prizes. For some time 
afterwards he taught drawing in his native town, and 
while doing so had the misfortune to fall violently in love 
with one of his pupils. His affections were returned, 
but the parents of the young lady interferred and re- 
moved her from Kilkenny. She pined away and died 
in two months. I'he occurrence made a deep impres- 
sion on Banim*8 mind, and this, together with his ex- 
posure to the weather on the night of her funeral, caused 
a severe illness which completely shattered his health. 
After a partial recovery he set out for Dublin and set- 
tled finally to the work of literature. He published a 
J )em. The CeWs Paradise^ and had some success as a 
writer for the stage. During a short visit to Kilkenny 
he married, and at the same time planned, in conjunc- 
tion with his brother Michael (bom 1796), a series of 
tales illustrative of Irish life. He then set out for Lon- 
don, the great centre of literary activity, and supported 
himself by writing for magazines and tor the stage. A 
volume of miscellaneous essays was published anony- 
mously in 1824, called Revelations of the Dead Alive, 
In April 1825 appeared the first senes of Tales of the 
G^Hara Family^ which achieved immediate and decided 
success. One of the most powerful of them, Crohoore 
of the Bill ffookf was by Michael Banim. In 1826 a 
second series was published, containing what is 
decidedly one of the test Irish novels in our litera- 
ture. The Nowlans, John's health had almost entirely 
given way, and next effort of the ** O'Hara family " 
was almost entirely the production of his brother Mich- 
ael The Croppy, a Tale of 1798, is hardly equal to 
the earlier tales, though it contains some wonderinlly 
vigorous passages. The Denounced^ The Mayor of 
Windgap^ The Ghost Hunter (by Michael Banim), and 
The Smuggler, followed in quick succession, and were 
received with considerable favor. Banim, meanwhile, 
had completely broken down in health, and had become 
much straitened in circumstances. During his absence 
in France a movement to relieve his wants was set on 



foot by the Eng^h press, headed by Sterling in the 
Times. A sufficient sum was obtained to remove him 
from any danger of actual want, and to this Govern- 
ment afterward added a pension of ;f i jav He settled 
in Windgap Cottage, a short distance from Kilkenny ; 
and there, a complete invalid, he passed the remainder 
of his life. His last piece of literary work was the 
novel, entitled Father Connell, He died in July 1842, 
aged 44. Banim's true place in literature is to be esti- 
mated from the merits of the O'Hara Tales; his later 
works, though of considerable ability, are not unfre- 
nuently prolix, and are marked by too evident an imita- 
tion of the iVaverley Novels, The Tales^ however, 
show him at his best ; they are masterpieces of faithful 
delineation. The strong passions, the lights and shad- 
ows of Irish peasant character, have rarely been so ably 
and truly depicted. The prevailing quality is a wonder- 
ful vehemence, combined Mrith a gloominess extending 
at times to natural phenomena as well as to the charac- 
ters of the tale ; the incidents are striking, sometimes 
even horrible, and it is not without some justice that 
the authors have been accused of sensationalism^ of 
straining after melodramic effect. The lighter, more 
joyous side of Irish character, which appears so strongly 
m Lever, does not receive due prommence from tne 
Banims. 

BANJARMASSIN, a district in the south-east of 
Borneo, which was incorporated by the Dutch in conse- 

r;nce of the war of i860, in regard to the succession in 
sultanate, which had been under their protection 
since 1787. It is watered by the river system of the 
Banjar, and traversed by a chain of mountains that in 
some places reaches the height of 3000 feet. The dis- 
trict has been divided by the Dutch into the resklency of 
Kween and the sub-residencies of Amuntal and Marta- 
pura. The town of Martapura was the seat of the sul- 
tan from 1 77 1 . The principal productions of the district 
are gold, diamonds, coal, pepper and other spices, drugs, 
edible birds* nests, gum, wax, rattans, &c. The inland 
portion is covered with forest, while the flat and swampy 
seaboard is largely occupied by rice-fields. The inhabi- 
tants, who are for the most part Dayaks, are roughly es- 
timated from 300,000 to 600,00a 

Benjarmassin, the chief town of the above district, 
also known as Fort Tatas, is situated about 15 miles 
from the mouth of the Banjar. 

BANKING. A bank, in its simplest form, is an in- 
stitution where money may be deposited for safe keep- 
ing; but banks are usually established to lend as well 
as to receive money; ana the profits of a banker are 
commonly derived nrom the excess of the interest he 
receives wom those indebted to him over the interest he 
allows, so fJEir as he allows any to those who have 
deposited money with him. Early denunciations of 
usury (Exod. xxu.25) show the antiquity of thepractice 
of lending money at interest ; but this must have long 
preceded the origin of the business of both borrowing 
and lending money. When this first appeared it was 
not, at least in modem Europe, a distinct profession, 
but was undertaken by goldsmiths and dealers in 
precious metals. In the progress of the separation of 
employments, which is a characteristic of an advancing 
society, bEinking became a business of its own, which 
has again been subdivided into many branches independ- 
ently pursued It was, for example, formerly generally 
allowed to be part of the business of a banker to bor- 
row money by issuing promissory notes payable to 
bearer, which passed from hand to hand as money, 
withm the sphere of the operations of the banks, and 
banks thus oorrowing money were called Banks of 
Issue ; but it has been contended of late years that the 
function of issuing notes passing by deliveij as mon^ 



77« 



BAN 



should be leier r eJ for the tttte, or for tome institation 
controUed and directed by the state ; and we shall have 
hereafter to notice the controversy that has arisen on 
this point, and the steps that have been taken in conse- 
qaence of it An explanation of the different species of 
banks will also properly be deferred till a later stage, but 
it will be convenient here to give a general sketch of the 
nature of the business of an ordinary banker. We 
have said he receives and lends money ; he may receive 
money either on a deposit or on a current or drawing 
account When mon^ is received on deposit it is com- 
monly repayable to tne depositor alone, to whom a 
deposit note or receipt is given ; but it may also be paid 
to any one to whom the oeaositor gives an order on the 
bank either endorsed on tne deposit note or receipt or 
accompanying it. If the banker undertakes to pay in- 
terest on deposits, the rate varies according to the lcnjg;th 
of the notice the depositor agrees to give before with- 
drawing the money, the ability of the banker to deal 
with it being, of course, dependent upon the time he 
may rely upon keeping it When money is received on 
a current or drawing account, the customer of the 
banker draws it out, as he requires, by means of orders, 
to which the specific name cheques is given ; and partly 
for convenience and partly by wa^ of security against 
fraud, bankers are in tne habit of giving their customers 
books of forms of cheques consecutively numbered. 
Cheques are generally payable to the person in whose 
favor they are drawn (the payee) or bearer, though thejr 
are sometimes payable to the payee or order, in which 
case endorsement by the payee is necessary before the 
money can be received. 

Bankers lend money by opening credits in their books, 
against which their favoreci customers may draw to the 
extent of the credits opened ; by discounting bills ; by the 
purchase of securities ; or by advancing money on se- 
curities, &c., &C. It will have been gathered that they 
also undertake the business of collectmg the money for 
cheques, for bills, and for other securities as they ma- 
ture, which they may have received from their custo- 
mers. The labor of collection is much facilitated in En- 
gland by the fact that bills of exchange are almost invari- 
ably made payable in London, and that every country 
banker has a correspondent among the London bankers 
who collects for him and pays for him ; and the London 
bankers again maintain an establishment called the 
Clearing-house, where their clerks meet to effect their 
interchanges. 

Banking appears to have reached a high state of devel- 
opment among the ancients. The bankers of Greece 
and Rome exercised nearly the same functions as those 
of the present day, except that they do not appear to 
have issued notes. They received money on deposit, to 
be repaid on demands made b^ cheques or orders, or at 
some stipulated period, sometimes paying interest for it, 
and sometimes not. Their profits arose from their 
lending the balance at their disposal at higher rates of 
interest than they allowed the depositors. They were 
also extensively employed in valuing and exchanging 
foreign moneys for those of Athens, Corinth, Rome, 
&C., and in negotiating bills of exchange. In general 
they were highly esteemed, and great confidence was 
placed in their integrity. The rate of interest charged 
by the bankers was sometimes very high, but that was 
not a consequence, as has been alleged, of their rapacity, 
but of the defective state of the law, which, as it 
gave every facility to debtors disposed to evade pay- 
ment of their debts, obliged the oankers to guarantee 
themselves by charging a proportionately high rate of 
interest. Banking reappeared in Italy upon the re- 
vival of civilisation. The bank of Venice is reputed 
the first in date in the history of modem Europe; but 



it dkl not become a bank, as we ondersttnd the 
term, till long after its foundation. # Historians infiMin 
us that the republic being hard pressed (or money, was 
obliged, upon three different occasions, in 1 156, 1480, 
and 1 5 10, to levy forced contributions upon the dtixens, 
giving them in return perpetual annuities at certain 
rates per cent. The annuities due under the forced loan 
of 1 1 56 were, however, finally extingnished in the i6th 
century; and the offices for tne paTroent of the annui- 
ties due under the other two loans naving been consoli- 
dated, eventually became the bank of Venice. Thb 
might be effected as follows : — The interest on the loan 
to Government being paid punctually, every claim regis- 
tered in the books of the office would be consklered as 
a productive capital; and these claims, the right of re- 
ceiving the annuity accruing thereon, must soon have 
been transferred, by demise or cession, from one person 
to another. This practice would naturally suggest to 
holders of stock the simple and easy method of discharg- 
ing their mutual '^ebts by transfers on the office books, 
wnd as soon as they beomoe sensible of the advantages 
to be derived from this method of accounting, bank- 
money was invented. It will, however, be seen that 
the establishment thus described was at first no more 
than the transfer office of a National Debt, transfers 
of which were accepted at par in discharge of private 
debts, and it is indeed said that the funded debt trans- 
ferred sometimes commanded an agio or premium above 
the current money of the republic. This establishment 
was ruined, after passing through many changes, by the 
invasion of the French in 1797. 

The origin of modem bsmking may be traced to the 
money-de;uers of Florence, who were in high repute as 
receivers on deposit and lenders of money in the 14th 
century ; and banking was indeed practised at Florence 
in the nth if not in tne 12th century. 

The business of banking was not introduced into 
England till the 17th century, when it began to be 
undertaken by goldsmiths in London, who appear t« 
have borrowed it from Holland. It was attacked^as 
innovations commonly are. 

The Bank of England, which has long been the princi- 
pal bank of deposit and circulation in Great Britain, 
and indeed in Europe, was founded in 1694. Its princi- 
pal projector, Mr. William Paterson, an intelligent 
Scotch gentleman, was afterwards engaged in the ill- 
fated Darien enterprise. Government being at the 
time much distressed for want of mone^, partly from 
the defects and abuses in the system of^ taxation, and 
partly from the difficulty of borrowing because of the 
supposed instability of tne Revolutionary establishment, 
the bank grew out of a loan of ;^i, 200,000 for the 
public service. The subscribers, besides receiving 8 per 
cent on the sum advanced as interest, and ^4000 a 
year as the expense of management, in all ;^ioo,ooo a 
year, were incorporated into a society denominated the 
Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The 
charter is dated the 27th of July 1694. It declares, 
amongst other things, that they shall ** be capable, in 
law, to purchase, enjoy, and retain to them and their 
successors, any moneys, lands, rents, tenements, and 
possessions whatsoever ; and to purchase and ac(|uire all 
sorts of goods and chattels whatsoever, wherem they 
are not restrained by Act of Parliment ; and also to 
grant, demise, and dispose of the same. 

** That the managemant and government of the cor- 
poration be committed to the governor and twenty-four 
directors, who shall be elected between the 25th of 
March and the 25th day of April each year, firom among 
the members of the company duly qualified. 

** That no dividend shall at any time be made by the 
said govemor and company, save only out of the interesti 



BAN 



m 



profit, or prodttee arising bv or out of the said capital, 
stock, or fund, or by such dealing as is allowed by Act 
of Parliament 

** They must be natural-born subjects of England, or 
naturalised subjects; they shall have in their own name, 
and for their own use, severally, viz. , the governor at 
least £AfXX^ the deputy governor jf 3000, and each 
director ;f 2000, of the capital stock ofthe said corpora- 
tion. 

** That thirteen or more of the said governors and 
directors (of which the governor or deputy-governor 
must be always one) shall constitute a court of (Erectors, 
for the management of the affairs of the company, and 
for the appointment of all agents and servants which 
may be necessary, paying them such salaries as they 
xxa^ consider reasonable. 

"Every elector must have, in his own name and for 
his own use, ;f 500 or more capital stock, and can only 
give one vote. He must, if required by any member 
present, take the oath of stock, or the declaration of 
stock in case he may be one of the people called 
Quakers. 

** Four general courts shall be held in every year, in 
the months of September, December, April, and July. 
A general court may be summoned at any time, upon 
the requisition of nine proprietors duly qualified as 
electors. The majority of electors in general courts 
have the power to make and constitute bye-laws and 
ordinances for the government of the corporation, pro- 
vided that such bye-laws and ordinances be not repug- 
nant to the laws of the kingdom, and be confirmed and 
approved according to the statutes in such case made 
andprovided." 

The corporation is prohibited from engaging in any 
sort of commercial undertaking other timn dealing in 
bills of exchange, and in gold and silver. It is author- 
ised to advance money upon the security of goods or 
merchandise pledged to it, and to sell by public auction 
such goods as are not redeemed within a specified time. 

It was also enacted, in the same jrear in which the 
bank was established, by statute 6 William and Mary, c. 
20, that the bank <* shall not deal in any goods, wares, 
or merchandise (except bullion), or purcht^e any lands 
or revenues belonging to the Crown, or advance or lend 
to their majesties, their heirs or successors, any sum or 
sums of money, by way of loan or anticipation on any 
part or parts, branch or branches, fund oir funds of the 
revenue, now |[ranted or belonging, or hereafter to be 
granted, to their majesties, their heirs and successors, 
other than such fund or funds, part or parts, branch or 
branches of the said revenue only on which a credit of 
loan is or shall be granted by Parliament.** And in 
Ij597 it was enacted, Uiat the « common capita] or prin- 
cipal stock, and also the real fund, of the go^mor and 
company, or any profit or produce to be made thereof, 
or arising thereby, shall be exempted from any rates, 
taxes, assessments, or impositions whatsoever during the 
continuance of the bank ; that all the profit, benefit, and 
advantage from time to time arising out of the manage- 
ment of the sakl corporation, shall ht applied to the uses 
of all the members of the said association of the gover- 
nor and company ofthe Bank of England, rateably and 
in proportion to each member's part, share, and interest 
in the common capita] and prindpal stock of the said 
governor and company hereby established. " 

In 1696, durino^the ^eat recoinage, the bank was in- 
volved in great dflficulties and was even compelled to 
suspend payment of its notes which were at a heavy 
discount. Owing, however, to the judicious conduct 
of the directors, and the assistance of the Government, 
the bank got over the crisis. But it was at the same 
tim^ judged expedient,^ in order to place it in a sitoation 



the better to withstand any adverse circumstances that 
night afterwards occur, to increase the capital from 
/i,200,oooto ;^2,aoi,i7i. In 1708 the directors un- 
dertook to pay off and cancel one million and a half of 
exchequer bills they had circulating two years before, at 
4^ par cent., with the interest upon them, amounting 
in aO to /i,775»028, which increased the permanent 
debt due by the public to the bank, including ;^400,ooo 
then advanced m consideration of the renewal of 
the charter, to jf3,375»028, for which they were 
. The * ■ 



allowed 6 per cent. 



bank capital was then also 



doubled or increased to /4,ao2,342. But the year 1708, 
is chieflj[ memorable in the history of the bank, for the 
Act previously alluded to, which declared, that during 
the continuance of the corporation of the Bank of 
England, " it should not be lawful for any body politic, 
erected or to be erected, other than' the said governor 
and companv ofthe Bank of England, or of any other 
persons whatsoever, united or to & united in covenants 
or partnership, exceeding the number of six persons, 
in that part of Great Briiam called England, to borrow, 
owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on their 
bills or notes payable on demand, or in any less time 
than six months from the borrowing thereof." This 
proviso is said to have been elicited by the Mine 
Adventurers Company having commenc«i banking 
business and begun to issue notes. It will be seen on 
examination that the proviso did not prohibit the forma- 
tion of associations for general banking business ; it 
simple forbade the issue of^otes by associations of more 
than six partners ; but the issue of notes was regarded 
as so essential to the business of banking, that it came 
to be believed that joint-stock banking associations were 
absolutely prohibited in England, and no such associa- 
tion was founded until after the legislation of 1826 
(see p. 322) ejcprcssly permitting them to be established. 
The charter of^the Bank of England, when first granted, 
was to continue for eleven years certain, or till a year's 
notice after the 1st of August 1705. The charter was 
further prolonged in 1697. In 1708, the bank, having 
advanced j^400,ooo for the public service, without in- 
terest, the exclusive privileges of the corporation were 
prolonged till 173J. And in consequence of various 
advances made at different times, the exclusive privileges 
of the bank were continued by successive renewals till 
the 1st August, 1855, with the proviso that they might 
be cancelled on a year's notice to that affect being given 
after the said ist of August 185J. 

The capital of the bank on which dividends are paid 
has never exactly coinckicd with, though it has seldom 
differed very materially from, the permanent advance by 
the bank to the public. We have already seen that it 
amounted in 1708 to ;f 4,402,342. Between that year 
and 1727 it had increased to near /'OfOOcooa^ In 1746 
it amounted to ;f 10,780,000. From this period it un- 
derwent no change till 1782, when it was increased 8 per 
cent., amounting to j^i 1,642,400. It continued sta-. 
titnary at this sum down to 1816, when it was raised to 
jf 14,553,000, by an addition of 25 per cent, from the 
profits of the bank, under the provisions of the Act 56 
Geo. III. c 96. The act for the renewal of the char- 
ter 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 98, directed that the sum of 
/3,07i,;|tx>, being the fourth part of the debt due by 
tne public to the bank, should be paid to the latter, 
giving the bank the option of deducting it from its capi- 
tal But that has not been done; and after sunory 
changes, the capital of the bank amounts, as formerly, 
to j^i4,^53,ooo. 

The BsmJc of England has been frequently affected by 

panics amonp[st the holders of her notes. In 1745 the 

alarm occasioned by the advance of the Highlanders, 

xmdBj the Pretex^dei:. as Car as Derby, led. t£>.a.ntn uzyut 

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the btnk ; and in order to gain time to effect measures 
for aTerting the nm, the directors adopted the device of 
paying in shillings and sixpences ! But thev derived a 
more effectual relief from the retreat of the Highlanders, 
and from a resohition tfreed to at a meeting of the 
principal merchants and traders of the city, and very 
numerously signed, declaring the willingness of the sub. 
scribers to receive bank-notes in payment of any sum 
that might be due to them, and pledging themselves to 
use their utmost endeavors to make all their payments 
in the same medium. 

During the tremendous riots in June 1780, the bank 
incurred considerable danger. Had the mob attacked 
the establishment at the commencement of the riots, the 
consequences mi^ht have proved fatal. But they de- 
layed their attack till time had been afforded for provid- 
ing a force sufficient to insure its safety. Since that 
period a considerable military force occupies the l»nk 
every night as a protection in any emergency that may 
occur. 

Different Species of Banks -^ The Clearing-house'- 
Authorisation of Banks with Limited Liaoilities, 

We have elsewhere hinted at the subdivision of the 
business of banking which has accompanied the de- 
velopment of commerce. A banker borrows and lends 
moner, but the conditk>ns under which money is bor- 
rowed or lent may be extremely various, and tnc differ- 
ent classes of bankers are distinguished from one 
another by differences in the rules which they observe in 
borrowing or lending. Bankers may borrow money on 
call, at deposit, on debentures, at mterest, or witnout 
interest, and they may lend on open credits, by discount- 
ing bills, by advances on mortgage repayable in instal- 
ments or otherwise, &c., &c 

Banks of Deposit,^T\itst banks receive money on 
deposit, that is to say, on conditions that a certain pre- 
scribed notice shall be given of the time of withdrawal 
They allow interest, and they usually lend a large 
proportion of their money on securities which are not 
at any moment immediately capable of being realised. 

Land Mortgage Banks may be classed with Iranks of 
deposit, but they are also accustomed to borrow on de- 
bentures repajrable at the end of one, two, three, or a 
larger numoer of years, at rates of interest varying 
with the period of the debenture. These institutions 
were first started for the purpose of granting facilities 
to the mortgagers of land. The money received on 
debentures was lent out a^in to proprietors and 
purchasers of land, who repaid their debu by annual 
mstalments. It was in thb way that the legislation of 
Stein was facilitated in Germany; the peasant being 
able to obtain at once from the Luid Mortgage Bank 
the capital necessary to redeem the feudal rights of his 
lord, a debt which he repak) by a series of annual pay- 
ments often correspondmg to what he had previously 
paid as rent, until he became an absolute unincumbered 
owner of the fields he cultivated. # 

Credit Companies^ such as the Cr/dit Fonder^ the 
Cr/dit Mobilier, &c., &c., are strictly analogous to land 
mortgage banks, except that they invest their funds in 
Joans on the security of general industrial undertakings, 
to which business they have added the function of nego- 
tiators of direct loans between companies formed for the 
conduct of such undertakings and the capitalist public. 

Discount Banks and Discount Agencies borrow 
money on call or deposit, and lend it exclusively in th« 
discount of bills and negotiable securities, which they 
often rediscount with capitalists desirous of investing 
their money in forms capable of being speedily realised. 

Trust Associations borrow money on debentures and 
invest it in the loans of foreign states or similar secur- 



ities,— the principle of such an astodction beii^ tbat 
the original mvestor can be secured aainst the de£a«lt 
of any one borrower by the receipt of a high aven^ 
rate of interest and the general soivencj of the rest. 

SavingS'Bcmks are institutions established for the re- 
ceipt of the smaller saving of the poor. As at present 
exbting they are divided mto two classes, the Trustees' 
Savings-banks and the Post Office Savings-banks ; but 
it seems probable that some rearrangement of their 
machinery will be made in the next session of Parlia- 
ment. For further particulars see Savings-banks. 

Allusion has already been made to the Clearing- 
house. This institution was established, just a century 
a^o, as a place where the clerks of the bankers in the 
City of London could assemble daily to exchange with 
one another the cheques drawn upon imd bills payable 
at their respective houses. Before the Gearing-house 
existed, eacn banker had to send a clerk to to the pieces 
of business of all the other bankers in London to collect 
the sums payable by them in resf>ect of cheques and 
bills ; and it is obvious that much time was consumed 
by this process, which involved also the use of an unnec* 
essary quantity of money and corresponding risks of %%Xe 
carriafi;e. In 1775 ^^^ common centre of exchange was 
agreed upon. Its use was confined to the bankers, — at 
that time and long afterward exclusively private bank- 
ers, — doing business within the city, and the bankers in 
the west end of the metropolis used some one or other 
of the city banks as their agent in clearing, a practice 
which still continues. When the joint-stock banks 
were first established the jealousy of the existincf banks 
was powerful enough to exclude them altogether from 
the use of the Clearing-house ; and some vears elapsed 
before this feeling was removed so as to allow them to 
be admitted. 

At first the Clearing-house was simply a place of 
meeting, but it came to be perceived that the sorting 
and distribution of cheques and bills couki be more ex- 
peditiously conducted by the appointment of two oi 
three common clerks, to whom each banker's clerl> 
could give all the instruments of exchange he wished to 
collect, and from whom he could receive all those pay- 
able at his own house. The payment of the balance 
settled the transaction, and the analysis of the statistics 
of the Clearing-house by the late Mr. Babbage {Jour- 
Statist. Soc., March, 1856), shows that the amount of 
ca^ that passed was often less than 4 per cent, of the 
total sums cleared. Latterly, however, the arrange- 
ments of the Clearing-house have been further per- 
fected, so that neither notes nor coin are now required. 
The Clearing-house, as well as each banker using it, has 
an account at the Bank of England ; and the ^ilances 
due at the close of each day^s transactions are settled by 
transfers from one account to another at the bank. 

The use of the Clearing-house was still further ex- 
tended in 1858, so as to mclude the settlement of ex- 
changes between the country bankers of England. 
Before that time each country banker receiving cheques 
on other country bankers sent them to those other 
bankers by post (supposing they were not carrying on 
business in the same place), and requested that the amount 
should be paid by tne London agent of the banker on 
whom the cheques were drawn to the London agent of 
the banker remitting thena. Cheques were thus collected 
by correspondence, and each remittance involved a sep- 
arate payment in London. In 1858 it was proposed to 
set up a country clearing-house in London; but it was 
snggested by Sir John Lubbock that the existing estab- 
lishment could accomplish what was desired, ahd this 
was eventually done. A country banker now sends 
cheques on otner country banks to his London corres- 
pondent, who exchanges them at the Ckanng-houie 



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irith the correspondents of the bankers on whom they 
are drawn. (Sir John Lubbock, Tour, Statist, Soc,^ 
Sept. 1865.) It will be easily understood that an ex- 
traordinary economy in the use of coin has resulted from 
these arrangements; and in the paper by Sir John Lub« 
bock to which we have referred, he gives statistics show- 
ing that out of the sura of a million paid into the bank 
in which he is a partner, only j^2i, coo consists of bonk 
notes and /6,2io of coin. An ordinary weekly clear- 
ing varies from 100 to 130 millions; in 1868 the weekly 
average was, however, no more than ;f 65,397,075, from 
which it rose continuously toanaverageof /i 16,2^4,717 
in 1873. There was a little falling off m 1874, which is 
now beinc recovered. 

Up[to the yetj 18^8 banking companies could not be 
constituted with limited liabiuty of partners except by 
way of privilege under special Acts of Parliament, 
Royal Cnarters, or Letters Patent ; and although the 
Bank of England, and the three oldest established banks 
in Scotland, were thus favored without any consequent 
deterioration in the character of their management, 
abundant arguments were adduced in depreciation of a 
general law m the subject. In 1858, however, an Act 
was passed authorising the formadon and r^;istration 
of banking companies with limited liability, and also 
enabling existing unlimited companies to register as as- 
sociations with a limited liabiUty of partners, subject to 
a proviso that, if the bank was a bank of issues, the 
liaoility of its partners should remain unlimited in 
respect of such issue. Several banks have been estab- 
lished and registered under this law, and no evil results 
have been observed to follow. 

Present Management of the Bank 0/ England, 

When the charter was renewed in 1833, the notes of 
the Bank of England were made legal tender every- 
where in England except at the bank. Of the wisdom 
of this regulation no doubt can be entertained. Bank- 
notes are necessarilv always equivalent to bulHon; and 
bv making them substitutes for coin at country banks, 
the demand for the latter during periods of alarm or 
runs is materially diminished, and the stability of the 
bank and of the pecuniary system of the country pro- 
portionally increased. 

Since 1826 the bank has established branches in 
some of the great commercial towns. 

The Bank of England transacts the whole business of 
Government. ** She acts not only,** sa.y% Adam Smith, 
** as an ordinary bank, but as a great engine of state. 
She receives and pays the greater part of the annuities 
which are due to the creditors of the public ; she circu- 
lates Exchequer bills; and she advances to the Govern- 
ment the annual amount of the land and malt taxes, 
which are frequently not paid till some years thereafter.** 

The Bank of England rarely discounts bills that have 
more than two, or at most three months to run, and it 
were well were this rule generally observed by other es- 
tablishments. The discounting of bills at long dates is 
a powerful stimulus to unsafe speculation. When indi- 
viduals obtain loans which they are not to be called 
in>on to pay for six, twelve, or perhaps, eighteen months, 
they are tempted to adventure m speculations which are 
not expected to be wound up till some proportionally 
distant period ; and as these not unfreqnently fail, the 
consequence is that, when the bills become due, there is 
commonly little or no provision made for their payment. 
In such case the discounters to avoid an imminent loss, 
sometimes consent to renew the bills. But, while a pro- 
ceedmg of this sort is rarely productivt of oltimate ad- 
vantage to either party, the fiu:t of its haviitf takan 
place makes other adventurers reckon that, in & event 
of their ^lecnktion proving lest snccffsfol than they 



anticipated, their bills will be treated in the same manner, 
and thus agravates and extends the evil. « 

In other respects, too, the discount of bills at long 
dates, or their renewal, or the making of permanent loans, 
is altogether inconsistent with sound banking principles, 
for it prevents the bankers from havmg that command 
over tneir resources which is advantageous at all times, 
and indispensable in periods'of difficulty or distress. 

In the discounting of bills, a great d^l of stress is 
usually laid, or pretended to be laid, on the distinction 
between those that arise out of real transactions and 
diose that are fictitious or that are intended for accom- 
modation purposes. The former are said to be legiti- 
mate, while the latter are stigmatised as iU^timate. 
But Mr. Thornton has shown that the difference is 
neither so well marked nor so wide as many suppose. 
A notion seems to be generally entertained tnat all real 
bills are drawn against produce of one sort or other, 
which (or its value) is supposed to form a fund for their 
payment Such, however, is not always, nor even 
most commonly, the case. A, for example, sells to B 
certain produce, for which he draws a bill at sixty da^' 
date. But prices are rising, trade is brisk, or a spirit 
of speculation is afloat, anS, in a week or two (some- 
times much less), B sells the produce at an advance to 
C, who thereafter sells it to D, and so on. Hence it 
may, and, in fact, frequently does happen, that bills 
amounting to four, five, or even ten times the value of 
a quantity of merdiandise, have grown out of its suc- 
cessive sales, before the first bul of the series has 
become due. And not only this, but bills are 
themselves very frequently rediscounted; and in this 
case the credit of the last mdorser is generally the only 
thing looked to ; and there is not, perhaps, one case in 
ten m which any inquiries are made in regard to the 
origin and history of the bilk, though they are often of 
the most questionable description. 

On the whole, therefore, it would seem that the real 
or presumed solvency of the parties signing a bill, and 
responsible for its pavment, is the only safe criterion by 
which to judge whether it should or should not be dis- 
counted. But the fact of a merchant or other trader 
offering accommodation bills for discount ou^t unques- 
tionab^ to excite a suspicion that he is tracung beyond 
his CM>itaL Inquiries of the most searching description 
should forthwith be mstituted ; arid unless satisfactory 
expknations are given, his paper should be rejected 
On the same principle, the oflering of bills for redis- 
count ought to awaken suspicions of the bankers and 
others who resort to so questionable a mode of carrying 
on business. But, except in so far as a feeling of dis- 
trust may be thus very properly excited, there does not 
appear to be anything m an accommodation bill per se 
to hinder it from coming vrithin the pale of negotia- 
bility. It is a mode of obtaining a loan from a bank ; 
and when the character of the bill is known to the 
banker, or is openly declared, it does not appear to be 
an objectionable mode. 

Besides bills avowedly intended for accommodation 
purposes, another and a different variety of such bills is 
drawn by parties at a distance from ea^ other, often 
men of straw, and made to appear as if they were bot- 
tomed on real transactions. Bills of this sort are, it is 
Eeatly to be regretted, always current, and often to a 
rge extent. Of course no person of resi>ectabilitvcan 
be knowingljr connected with such bills, which are almost 
always put in motion either to bolster up sozne bank- 
rupt concern, or to dieat and defraud the public. But 
daspite the mischief of which they are productive, it 
appears to be pretty generally supposed that the curren^ 
of these bills is an evil which cannot be preventeo. 
There can^ however^ be no real doubt that it may^ at all 



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events, be rerj greatly diminished ; and this desirable 
result would be effected were it enacted that all bills 
shall henceforth bear upon their face what they really 
are; that those that are intended for accommodation 
purposes shall have at their head the words ** Accommo- 
dahcn bill; ** and that those only shall bear to be for 
" value received " that has grown out of bonaficU trans- 
fers of property. An enactment of this sort could not 
be felt as a grievance by anv one unless he had a fraudu- 
lent purpose in view. Ana were the impressing of a 
false character on a biU made a criminal offence, [>un- 
ishable by several years' imprisonment, there is every 
probability that a formidable check would be given to 
the issue of spurious bills, and to the manifold abuses 
to which the practice gives rise. 

Bill-discounters who have got fictitious paper on their 
hands and attempt to get rid of it by concealing its 
character or representing it in a favorable light make 
themselves parties to the fraud. Such conduct is so 
very flagitious, that when it can be fairly brought home 
to the parties it shoidd subject them to the severest 
penalties. 

The Bank of England does not allow, either at the head 
ofhce in London, or at its branches, any interest on de- 
posits, and manjT plausible reasons have been advanced 
m defence of this rule. 

Previously to 1786 the bank received an allowance for 
paying the dividends, superintending the transfer of the 
stock, &c., of the national debt, at the rate of ^562, 
los. a million on its amount. In 1786 this allowance 
was reduced to /450 a million, the bank being, at the 
same time, entitled to a considerable allowance for its 
trouble in receiving contributions on loans, lotteries, &c 
This, though long regarded as a very improvident ar- 
rangement on the part of the public, was acquiesced in 
till 1808, when the allowance on account of nunage- 
ment was reduced to £yx> per million on ^^600,000,000 
of the public debt, and to /^yxi per million on all that 
it exceeded that sum, exclusive of some separate allow- 
ances for annuities, &c. The impression, however, was 
still entertained that the allowances for management 
shoukl be further reduced, and this has been effected in 
the interim. 

Exclusive of its functions as public banker and manager 
of the public debt, the Bank of England is connected 
with Government through the circulation. It is enti- 
tled to issue the sum of ^^15,000,000 upon securities, 
that is, on the credit of the funds lent to Government 
But for these the bank receives about 3 per cent, inter- 
est, and such being the case, the public is clearly entitled 
to a portion, if not to the whole amount of the profits 
realised by the bank on the issue of these ;f 15,000,000. 
It is difficult to say how much this ought to be. The 
issue department of the bank sekiom re-issues notes, but 
for the most part destro)rs them as soon as they are re- 
turned to it. This practice is said to be necessary to ena- 
ble the bank to obviate fraud, by keeping a proper 
account of the numbers of the notes afloat. An opinion 
is, however, pretty generally entertained that this mieht 
be effected bv a less expensive process than that which is 
now resortea to. And certainly, it seems to be a very 
wasteful proceeding, that a quantity of newly manu- 
factured notes issued by the bank in the forenoon, and 
returned to her in the imernoon, should not be re -issued, 
but consigned to the flames. The Scotch banks are 
iustly censurable for keeping their notes too long afloat, 
out this is running with a vengeance into the opposite 
extreme. 

In 1 861 a fresh arrangement was made between the 
Government and the bank, to endure for 25 years. Un- 
der this agreement the bank receives ;f 300 per million on 
;^6oo,ooo,ooo, and ^^150 per million on the amount of 



debt above that sum ; b«t fron thcae aUowaaces arc de> 
ducted ;f 60,000 for exemption from stamp ditties anA 
the whole allowance out of profit of isnie, ""f^'rg 
together nearlv ;^200,ooa 

It should be observed that the re^>onsibility and 
expense incurred by the bank, in managing the pobfic 
debt, are very great. The temptation to tbe comnu»- 
sion of fraud, m transferring stock from one indivkliia] 
to anothar, and in the jwyment of the dividends, is well 
known ; and notwithstanding the skilfully devised system 
of checks adopted by the bank for preventing this, it 
has fre(}uentlv sustained very great loaes by forgery and 
otherwise. In 1803 the bank lost, through a firaud com- 
mitted by one of the principal cashiers, Mr. Astlett, no 
less than ^^340,000 ; and the forgeries of Fauntkroy, 
the banker, cost it a still larger sum. At an average of 
the ten years ending with 1831, the bank lost, throng 
forgeries on the public funds, /4O,204 a year. — Report 
on Bank Charter^ Appfn. p. 165. 

Besides the transactions alluded to, the bank entered^ 
on the 20th of March 1823, into an engagement with 
Government with respect to the public pensions aoMl 
annuities, or, as thev nave been more commonly termed, 
the decui weight. At the end of the war, the naval ssA 
military pensions, superannuated allowances, &c., 
amounted to above ;^5,ooo,ooo a year. They would, of 
course, have been gradually lessened, and nltmiately ex- 
tingui^ed, by the death ot the parties ; but it was re- 
solved in 1822 to attempt to spread the burden equalhr 
over the whole period of f&rt^-five years, during wluch 
it was calculated the annuities would continue to de- 
crease. To effect this purpose, it was supposed that, 
upon Government offering to pay /2,8oo,ooo a year for 
forty-five years, capitalists would oe found who would 
undertake to pay the entire annuities, according to a 
graduated scale previously determined upon, making the 
first year a payment of )i^4,ooo,ooo, and gradually de- 
crearaig the payments imtil tne forty-fifth and last year, 
when Uiey were to amount to 01^ /^yoo^oco. This 
supposition was not, however, realised. No ca|atal»ts 
were found willing to enter into such distant engage- 
ments. But in 1&3, the bank agreed, on condition of 
receiving an annuity of ;£'585,74C> for forty-four years, 
commencing on the 5th of April 1823, to pay, on ac- 
count of the pensions, &c., at different specified periods, 
between the years 1823 and 1828, both inclusive, the sum 
of ;f '3»o89,4'9- ~ (4 ^^- IV. c 22.) This annuity has, 
in due course of time, expired. 

Formerly the business transacted at the bank was so 
much encumbered with forms and conditions, that the 
generality of merchants and ordinary people rarely 
thought of employing it to keep their money or make 
their payments. But in this respect an entire change 
has been effected. Cheques, the minimum amount of 
which was formerly Zio, may now be drawn of any 
amount, great or smaU ; and all sorts of banking busi- 
ness is ccmducted with facility and despatch, and, it may 
be added, with perfect security. 

The bank opens banking accounts, or, as they are 
called, " drawing accounts,** for the safe custody, and 
the receipt and pa3nnent of cash, not only with mer- 
chants and traders, but with all persons who dioose to 
keep their money at a banker's and to draw cheques 
against it The bank also takes charge of its customers' 
bUls of exchange, Excheoner bills, smd other securities, 
and does all that is needful either in the collection of 
bills of exchange, the exchange of Excheouer bills, die 
receipt of divicfends, and so forth, free ot any charge. 
Plate chests, and deed and seciurity boxes, may be de- 
posited free of expense, by customers, for safe custody. 
The bank looks to the average balance of cash on eadi 
account to compensate for the trouble and expense of 
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keeping it, and in this respect the requirements of the 
banV are certainly not greater than those of ordinary 
bankers. No particular sum is required to be lodged 
en opening an account; it is only necessary that the 
party should be known as respectable, and in a condition 
to require a banking account. But the bank receives 
and holds sums of money for safe custody for parties 
who have no current accounts. 

Scotch Banks. 

The Act of 1708, preventing more than six individuals 
from entering into a partnership for carrying on ^<t 
business of banking, did not extend to Scotland. In 
consequence of this exemption, several banking com- 
panies, with numerous boaies of partners, have existed, 
for a lengthened period, in that part of the empire. 

The Bank of Scollaxid was projected by Mr. John 
Holland, merchant, of London, and was established by 
Act of the Scotch Parliament in 1695, by the name of 
the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland. 
Its original capital was ;^i, 200,000 Scotch, or £\qo^ooo 
sterling, dbtnbuted in shares of ;^iooo Scotch, or 
jf8;j, OS. 8d. sterling, each. The Act exempted the 
capital of the bank from all public burdens, and gave 
it the exclusive privilege of banking in Scotland for 
twenty-one years. The objects for which the bank was 
instituted, and its mode of management, were intended 
to be, and have been, in most respects, similar to those 
of tne Bank of England. The responsibility of the 
shareholders is limited to the amount of their shares. 
The capital of the bank was increased to /■2oo,ooo in 
1774, and was enlargjed by subsequent Acts of Parlia- 
ment, the last of which (44 Geo. III. c. 23) waspassed 
in 1804, to ;f 1,500,000, its present amount. Of this 
sum /"i ,000,000 has been paid up. The last-mentioned 
Act directed that all sums relating to the affairs of the 
bank should henceforth be rated in sterling money ; 
that the former mode of dividing bank stock by shares 
should be discontinued; and that, for the future, it 
should be transferable in sums or parcels of any amount. 
On the union of the two kingdoms in 1 707, the Bank 
of Scotland undertook the recoinage, and effected the 
exchange of the currency in Scotland. It was also the 
organ of Government in the issue of the new silver 
coinage in 1817. 

The Bank of Scotland is the only Scotch bank con- 
stituted bjr Act of Parliament. It b^an to establish 
branches in 1696, and issued notes for one pound as 
earl^ as 1704. The bank also began, at a very early 
penod, to receive de|x>sits on interest, and to grant 
credit on cash accounts, a minute of the directors with 
respect to the mode of keeping the latter being dated 
as far back as 1729. It is, therefore, entitleato the 
credit of having introduced and set on foot the distinct- 
ive principles of the Scotch banking S3rstem, which, 
whatever may be its defects, is perhaps superior to most 
other systems hitherto established. Generally speaking, 
the Bank of Scotland has been cautiously and skill- 
fully conducted; and there can be no doubt that it has 
been productive, both directly and as an example to 
other banking establishments, of much public utility 
and advantage. 

It may be worth mentioning, that the Act of Will. 
III. establishing the Bank of Scotland, declared that all 
foreigners who became jxirtners in the bank should bv 
doing so become, to all intents and purposes, natural- 
ised Scotchmen. After being for a long time forgotten, 
this clause was taken advantage of in 1818, when sev* 
eral aliens acquired property in the l»nk in order to 
secure the benefit of naturalisation. But after being 
suspended, the privily was finally cancelled in 1822. 

The Royal Bank of Scotland was established in 1727. 



Its original capital of ;^i5i)aD0 has been increased to 
£2,000^000. 

The British Linen Company was incorporated in 
1746, for the purpose, as its name implies, of under- 
taking the manufacture of linen. But the views in 
which it originated were speedily abandoned, and It 
became a banking company only. Its capital amounts 
to ;f 1, 000,00a 

None of the other banking companies established in 
Scotland are chartered associations with limited respon- 
sibility, the partners being liable, to the whole extent of 
their fortunes, for the debts of the firms. The number 
of partners is in every case considerable. The af&irsof 
the banks are uniformly conducted by a board of direct- 
ors, annually chosen by the shareholders. 

The Bank of Scotland began, as already stated, to 
issue £1 notes so early as 1704, and their issue has since 
been continued without interruption. ** In Scotland,** 
to use the statement given in the Report of the Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons of 1826 on the Prom- 
issory Notes of Scotland and Ireland, "the issue of 
promissory notes payable to the bearer on demand, for 
a sum not less than 208. , has been at all times permitted 
by law; nor has any Act been passed limiting tne period 
for which such issue shall continue le^ in that 
country.** 

All the Scotch banks receive deposits of as low a 
value as ;^io, and often lower, and allow interest upon 
them. 

The interest allowed by the banks upon deposits 
varies, from time to time, according to the variations in 
the current rate of interest The aggregate amount of 
the sums deposited with the Scotcboamcs in 1874-5 is 
stated to be jf 78,401,070. 

A witness, connected for many years with different 
banks hi Scotland, and who had experience of their con- 
cerns at Stirling, Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen and Glas- 
gow, being examined by the Commons* Committee of 
1826, stated that more than half the deposits in the 
banks with which he had been connected were in sums 
from j^io to /'20a Being asked what class of the com- 
munity it is tnat makes the small deposits, he gave the 
following answer, — from which it appears that the mode 
of conducting this branch of the bank business in Scot- 
land has long given to that country most part of the 
benefits derivable from the establishment of savings- 
banks : — 

Answer. — They are generally the laboring classes in 
towns like Glasgow ; in country places like Perth and 
Aberdeen, it is from servants and fishermen, and that 
class of the community who save small sums from their 
earnings, till they come to be a bank deposit There is 
now a facility for their placing money in the Provident 
Banks, whicn receive money till the deposit amounts to 
£ 10. When it comes to /lO it is equal to the mini- 
mum of a bank deposit. The system of banking in 
Scotland is an extension of the Provident Bank Sjrstem. 

The loans or advances made by the Scotch banks 
are either in the shape of discounts, or upon cash- 
credits, or, as they are more commonly termed, cash <w- 
counts. 

A cash-credit is a credit given to an individual by a 
banking company for a limited sum, seldom under /loo 
or ;£"200, upon his own security, and that of two or three 
individuals approved by the liank, who become sureties 
for its payment The indivklualwho has obtained such 
a credit is enabled to draw the whole sum^or anypartof 
ft, when he pleases, replacing it, or portions of it, ac- 
cording as he finds it convenient, interest being charged 
upon such part only as he draws out. '^ If a man oor- 
rows ^"5000 from a private hand, besides that it is not 
always to be found when required, he pays interest for 



782 



BAN 



it whether he be using it or not. His bank credit costs 
him nothing, except during the moment it is of service 
to him, and this circumstance is of equal advantage as if 
he had borrowed money at a mudi lower rate of inter- 
est " (Hume's Essay on Balance of Trade). This, then, 
is plainly one of thi most conflnodious forms in which 
advances can be made. Cash-credits are not, however, 
intended to be deeui loans; and they are not granted ex- 
cept to persons in business, or to those who are fre- 
quently drawing out and paying in money. 

The system of cash-cremts has been very well de- 
scribed in the Report of the Lords* Committee of 1826 
on Scotch and Irish Banking. 

The expense of a bond for a cash-credit of ;f 500 is 
I2S. 6d. stamp duty, and a charge of from 58. to los. 6d. 
per cent, for prepe^ng it. 

There have been, on the whole, comparatively few 
failures among the Scotch banks. In 1793 and 1825, 
when so many of the English banks were swept off, there 
was not a single establishment in Scotland that gave way. 
This superior solidity appears to have been owing to 
various causes,— partly to the banks having, for the 
most part, Isurge bodies of partners, who, being conjointly 
and individually bound for the debts of the companies to 
which they belong, go far to render their ultimate se- 
curity all but unquestionable, and partly to the facility 
afTorded by the law of Scotland of attaching a debtor's 
propert)r, whether it consists of land or movables, and 
makmg it available for the pa^rment of his debts. 

But, on the whole, we are inclined to think that the 
long familiarity of the inhabitants with banks and paper 
money, and the less risk that has attended the business 
of banking in Scotland, have been the principal causes 
of the greater stability of the Scotch banks. This 
stability was not, however, everywhere exhibited in the 
crisis of 1857, when two of the principal Scotch Ixinks, 
the headquarters of which were m Glasgow, were com- 
pelled to stop payments. 

A complaint has been often raised that the Act of 
1845 gave the existing Scotch banks a practical monop- 
oly of the business of banking in North Britain, and 
it must be admitted to be the fact, that only one new 
bank has been established in Scotland since the passing 
of the Act, and that bank carried on business for a short 
time only. It is, however, true that legislation pre- 
cisely the same has not prevented the establishment of 
hew banks in Ireland, and it is doubtful whether the 
observed fact is rightly attributed to the cause assigned 
to it. With the exception of London, and some of the 
larger provincial towns, there have been very few banks 
established in England smce 1836, eight years before 
the Bank Charter Act ; and of the banks established 
in 1835 and 1836, very many were formed by the con- 
version of pre-existing private banks into joint-stock 
associations. The truth appears to be that the 
natural obstacles to the estabhshment of a new bank 
in a district already occupied by banks and bankers 
are almost insuperable. A bank cannot be success- 
ful unless it commands credit; and those who 
want a place of safe keeping for their money select 
establishments that have been tried and tested through 
long years. Hence it appears that, though private 
banks of long standing contmue in esteem, the attempts 
to set up new private oanks are most rare ; and, unless 
the wealth and prosperity of a neighborhood have rap- 
idly developed, so that capitalists have risen to promi- 
nence in it who are not connected as shareholders or 
directors with existing banks, it is n«t easy to form 
jomt stock a8s#ciatidns of weight enough to compete 
with the institutions in possession of the field, it is 
not necessary to refer tne absence of new banking 
C9mpanks w ScotUi4 ot elsewhere ^q ^he legislation of 



Sir Robert Peel. Though he allowed the Scotch banks 
to increase indefinitely the issue of their notes, it was 
upon condition of keeping in hand cash to represent 
every note above fixed limits ; so that the amount of 
profit derivable from their issues is not capable of in- 
crease, and the value of their privileges will have been 
strictly included in the selling price of shares in these 
banks since 1845. As far as Uie privilege of issue goes 
capitalists preparing to start a new bankmg association 
in Scotland would be in the same position as in buying 
shares in an established company ; and if they do not 
start an association of their own, it is from the difficulty 
of attracting! confidence, rather than because they 
would not enjoy the profits of a privileged circulation 
for which they would have to pay a full value. It must 
also be observed that the competition among the exist- 
ing banks is sufficiently active to have caus«l them to 
increase the number 01 thdr branches 40 per cent, since 
1845. 

Another Question has been raised in relation to Scotch 
banks, which was the subject of a keen parliamentary 
discussion during the past session (1875^. It has been 
mentioned that English joint-stock banks of issue 
are debarred from setting up branches in London, 
or within sixty-five miles of it, a prohibition origin- 
ally imposed on them in the interest of the Bank of Eng- 
land as a bank of issue. There is no such prohibition 
affecting Scotch and Irish banks, which can set up 
offices in London, or elsewhere in England subject to 
the single condition affecting all banking establishments 
set up in England since 1844, that notes other than 
Bank of Engjland notes are not issued at such offices ; 
and it is obvious that a Scotch or Irish banking com- 
pany establishing a head office in London would be 
able to give it at once a large agency business, and 
would be able to feed it continuously with new con- 
nections owing to the flow of immigration from Scotland 
and Ireland to London. Accordingly, the Directors of 
the National Bank of Ireland began to conduct the gen- 
eral business of banking at their head office in London 
in 1854, and they have subsequently set up seven or 
eight branches in the metropolis, eadi of which is un- 
derstood to be the centre of^ much business. This ex- 
ample was so far followed, that the National Bank of 
Scotland started an office in London in 1864 ; the Bank 
of Scotland did the same in 1867 ; and the Royal Bank 
in 1874, having attained a private act for the purpose. 
The Clydesdale Bank also opened three branches in 
Cumberland in 1874. In consequence of thisaction Mr. 
Goschen brought into Parliament a bill, the object of 
which was to disable Scotch banks from coming into 
England, as En^ish joint-stock banks of issue are dis- 
abled from coming to London. The bill did not extend 
to Irish banks, as they were held too firmly settled in 
the metropolis to be expelled from it. Two arguments 
were advanced iu favor of this measure: the first, that 
it was hard that Scotch banks should be permitted to do 
that which is denied to English joint-stock banks ; but 
it is an easy, and, it would seem, a conclusive answer to 
this argument, that English joint -stock banks of issue 
should be freed from the disability now imposed upon 
them. Now that an increase in its issue is not a meas- 
ure of profit to the Bank of England, there is no reason 
why these country banks of England should not be al- 
lowed to set up nead offices in London, subject to the 
law forbidding the issue of their notes in London. The 
second argument in favor of Mr. Goschen's measure 
was, that something ought to be done to hasten that 
unification of issues which Sir Robert Peel contem- 
plated ; and if the Scotch banks^ had come to Parlia- 
ment asking for a liberty they did not possess, there 
would have been some plausilnlity in this argument X( m 



BAN 



783 



is te be feared that the whole strength of the support to 
Mr. Goschen*s bill sprang from the jealousy of the exist- 
ing bankers of London of any intrusion into their do- 
main. Unworthy as this source of opposition was, it 
prevailed so far as to cause the appointment of a Select 
Committee of the House of Commons to consider the 
law and practice of banking, and this Committee's report 
has just appeared as these sheets are passing thrcnigh 
the press (August 1875). 

Banking in Ireland, 

" In no country, perhaps," says Sir Henry Pamell, 
*• has the issuing of paper money been carried to such 
an injurious excess as in Ireland. A national bank was 
established in 1783, with similar privileges to those of 
the Bank of Engbmd in respect to the restriction of 
more than six partners in a bank, and the injury that 
Ireland has sustained from the repeated failure of banks 
may be mainly attributed to this defective regulation. 
Had tlie trade of banking been left as free in Ireland as 
in Scotland, the want of paper money that would have 
arisen with the progress of trade would in all probability 
have been supplied by joint-stock companies, supported 
hfirith large capitals and governed by wise and effectual 
rules. 

** In 1797, when the Bank of England suspended its 
payments, the same privilege was extended to Ireland ; 
and after this period the issues of the Bank of Ireland 
were rapidlv increased. In i ^<^'J the amount of the notes 
of the Bank of Ireland in circulation was ;^62i,9i7 ; 
in 1810, ;^2, 266,47 1 ; aiKi in 1814, £2,c)i6^<^ 
. ** These increased issues led to corresponding increased 
'issues by the private banks, of which the number was 
fifty in 1804. The consequence of this increase of paper 
was its great depreciation ; the price of bullion and 
guineas arose to 10 per cent, above the mint price ; and 
Uie exchange with London became as high as 18 per cent, 
the par h^ing 8)j. This unfavorable exchange was 
afterwards corrected, not by any reduction in the issues 
of the Bank of Ireland, but by the depreciation of the 
3riti^ currency in the year 1810, when the exchange 
between London and Dublin settled again at about 

** The loss that Ireland has sustained by the failure of 
banks may be described in a few words. It appears, by 
the Report of the Committee on Irish Excnances in 
1804, tnat there were, at that time, in Ireland fifty 
registered banks. Since that year a great many more 
have been established, but the whole have failed, one 
after the other, involving the country from time to time 
in immense distre^ with the following exceptions — 
First, a few that withdrew from business ; secondly, four 
banks in Dublin ; thirdly, three at Belfast ; and, lastly, 
one at Mallow. These eight banks, with the new 
Provincial Bank and the Bank of Ireland, arc the only 
banks now (1827) existing in Ireland." 

Since Si» Henry Pamell published the pamphlet from 
which we have taken the foregoing extract, several joint- 
stock banking companies have been founded in Ireland. 
The Provincial Bank, to which Sir Henry alludes, has a 
paid up capital of £s^^ooo^ and" has been well and 
profiubly maiia^ed. But others have been less fortanate. 
The A^je^itural and Commercial Bank of Ireland^ 
esrablj^ed in 18^, with 2170 partners, a paid up capital 
?^J$552i790, and many branches, stopped payment dur- 
ing' the pressure in November i8j6, and by doing so 
in^lved many persons in great distress. It appears 
^o, have been extremely ill-managed. The auditors 
*lipointed to examine into its afStirs reported — "Its 
yx>k-keeping has been found to be so faulty, that we 
4rc convmcwi no accurate balance-sheet could at any 
y^a^ have been constructed.'* And (hey signK^cantly 



added—" the personal accounts at the head oflfice require 
a diligent and searching revision. *' 

The Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank, which was estab- 
lished in 1839, and stopped payments in 1855, appears 
to have been little, if at all, better than a mere swind- 
ling engine. Luckily it did not issue notes ; and the 
sphere of its operations was not very extensive. But, so 
far as influence went, nothing could be worse, being 
ruinous alike to the majority of its partners and to the 
public. 

We have in the previous section on Scotch banks 
mentioned the fact of the establishment by the National 
Bank of Ireland of a head office and of several branches 
in London. This example has been so far followed by 
the Provincial Bank that it has also set up a head office 
in London, "without, however, competing for general 
business in the metropolis. An addition was made to 
the number of Irish banlcs ui 1864 by the establishment , 
of the Munster Bank ( Limited), having its head office in 
Cork. It has established upwards of 40 branches, 
and pays a dividend of 12 per cent, to its shareholders. 

Bank of Amsterdam, 

The Bank of AmsterdAm was founded in 1609, on 
strictly commercial principles and views, and not to afford 
any assistance, or to intermeddle with the finances ot the 
state. Amsterdam was then the great entrep6t of the 
commerce of the world, and of course the coins of all 
Europe passed current in it. Many of them, however, 
were so worn and defaced as to reduce their general 
average value to about 9 per cent, less than then: mint 
value; and, in consequence, the new coins were imme- 
diately melted down and exported. The currency of the 
cit^ was thus exposed to great fluctuations; and it was 
chiefly to remedy this inconvience and to fix the value or 
par of the current money of the country, that the mer- 
chants of Amsterdam established a "bank," on the 
model of that of Venice. Its first capital was formed of 
Spanish ducats or ducatoons, a silver coin which Spain 
had struck in the war with Holland, and with which the 
tide of commerce had enriched the country it was formed 
to overthrow. The bank aftcr^'ards accepted the corns 
of all countries, worn or new, at their intrinsic value, 
and made its own bank-money payable in standard coin 
of the country, of full weight, deducting a "brassage" 
for the expense of coinage, and giving a credit on its 
books, or " bank-money," for the deposits. 

The Bank of Amsterdam professra not to lend out 
any part of the specie entrusted to its keeping, but to 
retain in its coflers all that was inscribed on its books. 
In 1672, when Louis XIV. penetrated to Utrecht, 
almost every one who had an account with the bank de- 
manded his deposit, and these were paid oif so readily 
that no suspicion coukl exist as to Uie fidelity of the ad- 
ministration. Many of the coins then brought forth 
bore marks of the conflagration which happened at the 
H6tel de Ville, soon after the establishment of the bank. 
This good faith was maintained till about the middle of 
last century, when the managers secretly lent part of 
their bullion to the East India Company and Govern- 
ment. The usual " oaths of office " were taken by a 
religious magistracy, or rather by the magistracy of a 
religious community, that all was safe, and the good 
people of Holland believed, as an article of their creed, 
that every florin which circulated as Ixink-mon^ had its 
metallic constituent in the treasury of the bank, sealed 
up, and secured by oaths, honesty, and good policy. 
This blind confidence was dis^ipat'c^ in December 1790, 
by a declaration that the bank would retain 10 per cent 
of all deposits, and would return none>of a less amount 



less a 



an 2500 florins. . Dotized bv VjOOOJ 

Even this was submittal to ana forgiven. But, fouc 



784 



BAN 



years afterwards, on the inti&ion of the French, the 
hank was obliged to declare that it had advanced to the 
States of Hollaiid and West Friesland, and the East 
India Company, more than 10,500,000 florins, which 
sum it was, of course, unable to make up to the de- 
positors, to whom, however, it assigned its claims on the 
states and the company. Bank -money, which previ- 
ously bore an agio of 5 per cent, immediately fell to 16 
per cent, below current money. 

This epoch marked the fall of an institution which had 
long enjoyed an unlimited credit and had rendered the 
greatest services. The amount of treasure in the vaults 
of the bank, in 1775, was estimated by Mr. Hope at 
33/xx>,ooo florins. 

TAf Bank of France. 

This bank, second in magnitude and importance to the 
Bank of England only, was originally founded in iSoo, 
but was not placed on a solid and well-defrned basis till 
1806. Its capital, which was originally fixed at 
45,000,000 fr., was raised in the last-mentioned year to 
90,000,000 fr., divided into 90,000 shares or actions^ of 
1000 fr. each. Of these shares, 67,900 have passed into 
the hands of the public; the remaining 22,100, having 
been purchased up by the bank out of its surplus profits, 
were subsequently cancelled. Hence itscapital amounted, 
down to 1848, to 67,900,000 fr. (;f2, 71 6,000), with a 
reserve fund, first ot 10,000,000 fr. , and more recently 
of 12,980,750 fr. Since 1806 the bank has enjoyed the 
privilege of being the only institution in Paris entitled 
to issue notes payable on demand; and, as will be after- 
wards seen, it is now the only authorized issuer of such 
paper in France. Its charter and exclusive privileges 
have been prolonged and varied by laws passed at differ- 
ent periods. 

The bank has established, at different periods since 
1817, offices or branches (succursaUs) in different parts 
of the country. They are managed ntzrXy in the same 
way as the parent establishment ; but their operations 
were long on a comparatively small scale. These are 
exclusive of the departmental banks united, as will be 
immediately seen, to the bank in 1848. 

Notwithstanding the skill and caution with which its 
affairs have generally been conducted, the revolution of 
1848 brought the bank into a <ituation of extreme 
danger. It had to make large advances to the Provis- 
ional Government and the city of Paris. And these 
circumstances, combined with the distrust that was 
universally prevalent, occasioned so severe a drain upon 
the bank for gold, that to prevent the total exhaustion 
of its coffers, it was authorized, by a decree of the 16th 
March 1848, to suspend cash pa3rments, its notes being 
at the same time made legal tender. But to prevent 
the abuse that might otherwise have taken place under 
the suspension, the maximum amount of its issues was 
fixed at 350 millions. The bank was then also author- 
ized to reduce the value of its notes from 500 fr. to 
200 and 100 fr. 

Previously to 1848, joint-stock banks, on the model 
of that of Paris, and issuing notes, had been established 
in Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rouen, and other large 
cities. And it was then determined that these tanks 
should be incorporated with the Bank of France, and 
made branches of the latter. This was effected- by 
decrees issued on the 27th April and 2d May 1848, by 
which the shareholders of the banks refe^rred to (nine in 
number) were allowed, for every 1000 fr. nominal value 
of their shares, a share of 1000 fr. nominal value of the 
stock of the Bank of France. And, in consequence of 
this measure, 23,351 new shares, representing a capital 
of 23,35 1,000 fr., were added to the stock of the Bank 
it>f France, making the latter consist of 9 1,250 fr. divided 



into 91,250 ihtfes. In 1851 the bank resumed specie 
payments. 

The suppression of the local issues of the departmental 
banks was, no doubt, a judicious measure, and was 
indispensable, indeed, to secure the equal value of the 
paper circulating in different parts of the country. This, 
however, might have been effected by the mere stoppage 
of the issues of the departmental banks, without con- 
solidating them with the Bank of France. The latter 
measure is one of which the policy is very questionable; 
and there are, as already seen, £ood grounds for think- 
ing that the banking business of the dep)artments would 
have been more likely to be well conducted Iw local 
associations, than by branches of the Bank of France. 
Constant additions have been made to the number of 
branches, which now exceeds seventy. 

Owing to the war with Russia, and still more to the 
rage for speculation, and the drain for silver to the 
E^t that followed it, the Bank of France became ex- 
posed to considerable difficulties. And in the view of 
strengthening its position, and also, it mavbe presumed, 
of jproviding a loan for Government, a Uiw was passed 
{9th June i»57), by which the capital of the bank was 
increased from 01,250 shares of 1000 fr. each to 182,500 
shares of 1000 fr. each. The new shares were assigned 
to the existing proprietors at the rate of 1 100 fr. per 
share, producmg a total sum of 100,375,000 fr., of 
which 100 millions were lent to Government at 3 per 
cent Hence the measure, though it added to the credit 
and security of the bank, miule no addition to the 
means directly at its disposd. 

Down to tne passing of this law, the bank conki not 
ndse the rate of interest on loans and discounts above 6 
per cent. But this impolitic restriction was removed, 
and the bank authorized to charge any rate of interest 
which she reckoned expedient, except upon advances to 
Government, the maximum interest on which was limited 
to 3 per cent. The bank was further authorized to issue 
notes of the value of 50 fr., to make advances on rail- 
way shares, &c., and the charter was extended to 1897. 

The management of the Bank of France was severely 
tried in the latter part of 1864 by the occurrence of & 
financial crisis at Paris ; and in Januaiy 1865 a comrrjis- 
sion of inquiry was appointed to examme into the prin- 
ciples and practice of banking. There was, however, 
nothing mji^terious or exceptional in the experience ol 
1864. Speculation had been much stimulatea in France 
by the establishment of companies (Cr^t Foncier, 
Cr^it Mobilier, &c,|&c) for the undertaking of public 
works, and much capital was locked up and more 
pledged towards the completion of enterpnses supposed 
at first to be highly profitable, but in reality offering » 
distant and doiiDtful promise of remuneration. The 
crisis of 1864 was the dissipation of these delnaons, 
and the voluminous publication of evidence and opinion 
by the commission of inquiry produced no practical 
consequences. 

The war of 1870-71 could not but have an important 
influence on the operations of the bank. S"^^*^*yf 
Governments resortedjjj iUOHfigstance, which was ob- 
tamed by incre^iag the issue of itsTHHliJ^y ^ wS 
them a- fwced currency. The rate ^^J^gst, v^nu^ 
had been 2% per cent, from May 1867, rapSMC-ag. 
6 and 6^, at which it remained with scarcely an^^S, 
tion from 9th August 1870 till late in the vear » 
The rate would probably have risen much higher, ll 
on the 13th August a law was approved suspending A 
liability of the acceptors of bills current to meet them 1 
maturity, and this suspension was renewed until it w« 
finally withdrawn in July 1871. The amount of uilt 
paid bills held by the link reached a maximum of 36S! 
millions of francs, bat the ultimate loss was extreme^*' 



BAN 



785 



bank was 



On the 23d June 1870 the metallic reserve at the 
IS 1318^ millions of francs, which was reduced 
to a minimum o?505 millions on the 24th December of 
the same year. The notes in circulation before the war 
had been about 1400 millions of francs ; but before the 
end of the year 1870 their volume had increased to 
1700 millions; and this again rose to 2000 millions be- 
fore July 1871, and to 2400 millions before the end of 
1871. A law of the 2gt\\ December 1871 fixed the 
maximum at 2800 millions, which was finally raised on 
15th July 1872 to a maximum of 3200 millions. The 
debt of the state to the bank increased concurrently 
with this increase of issues, which was, indeed, author- 
ized for the purpose of enabling the bank to assist the 
treasury. On the 26th December 1870 the bank held 
treasury "bons" to the extent of 174,800,000 francs 
only, but on the 30th November 1871 it held 1,193,- 
600,000 of these "bons," and in August 1872 the 
amount reached 1,363,100,000 francs. A law of the 
2ist June 1871, followed by an agreement between the 
bank and the Government, provided for the repayment of 
this debt in annual payments of 200 millions, but up to 
this time (August 1875) the income of the state has 
never been large enough to provide the whole of this 
sinking fund. The bank has, however, been able to in- 
crease its metallic reserve through the Ikjuidation of se- 
curities and the accumulation of deposits-, so that,' 
after having been reduced, as we have said, to 505 
millions in December 1870, and not attaining to more 
than 634 millions in December 1871, it rose in the same 
month of 1872 to 793 millions, in 1873 to 820 millions, 
and in 1874 to 1331, or just the amount at which it stood 
before the declaration of war. Its volume has, how- 
ever, continued to increase, and on the 25th March of 
this year (1875) it stood at 1528 millions; and the forced 
currency of the notes of the bank might be at any time 
withdrawn. It must be admitted that the management 
of the bank throughout these years of difficulty has 
been eminently prudent and successful 

The bank is obliged to open a compte courant for any 
one who requires it, and performs services, for those 
who have such accounts, similar to those performed for 
their customers by the banks in London. The bank 
does not charge any commission on current accounts, 
so that its only remuneration arises from the use of the 
money placed in its hands by the individuals whose pay- 
ments It makes.' It is probable, therefore, as has been 
alleged, that this part of the business is but little profit- 
able. The bank also discounts bills with three signa- 
tures at variable dates, but not having more than three 
months or ninety days to run. Besides discounting bills, 
the bank makes advances on stocks and pledges of var- 
ious kinds, and undertakes the care of valuable articles, 
such as plate, jewels, title-deeds, &c., at a charge of % 
per cent, on the value of the deposit for every period of 
six months and under. 

The administration of the bank is vested in a coun- 
cil of twenty-one members, viz., a governor and two 
sub-governors, nominated by the chief of the state, and 
fifteen directors and three censors, nominated by the 
shareholders. The bank ha? a large surplus capital or 
rest In 1848 the dividends only amounted to 75 fr. 
per share. In 1855 and 1856 they were 200 and 272 fr. 
on each share. In 1870 they fell to 114 fr., but rose 
again to too fr. in 1 87 1, and to 320 fr. in 1872. In 
July 1856 the 1000 fr. share of bank-stock was worth 
' 4075 fr.; in July 1857 it had sunk to 2880 fr. 

r [• Banking in the United States, 

"^ *; Before the late Civil War it had been the uniform 

^*i practice of the different States of the Union to allow 
°^- banks to be established for the issue of notes, pa3rable 



in specie on demand. In cases where the liability of 
shareholders in banks was to be limited to the amount 
of their shares, they had, previously to 1838, to be 
established by Acts of the local legislatures; but, in 
general, these were easily obtained, and it may be said 
that banking was quite free, and that, practically, all 
individuals or associations nught issue notes, provided 
they abkled by the rules laid doWn for their guklance, 
and engaged to pay them when presented. 

Under this system the changes in the amount and 
value of the paper currency of the United States were 
greater than in any other country, and it produced an 
unprecedented amount of bankruptcy and ruin. 

Between 181 1 and 1820, about 195 banks, in different 
parts of the Union, became bankrupt ; and it is said, in 
a report by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States, dated 12th May 1820, that these failures, which 
mostly happened in 1814 and 1819, produced a state of 
distress so general and severe that few examples of the 
like had then occurred. 

But bad as this instance was, it was nothing to that 
which took place subsequently to 1834. The accounts 
of the aggregate issues of the banks differ a little , but 
the following statement is believed to be very nearly 
accurate, viz: — 

Years. Notes. 

1830 $66,628,898 

1834 94.839,570 

1835 I03.^M9S 

1836 i4CV3io.o3^ 

1837 149,185,890 

Now observe, that this sudden and enormous increase 
took place under the obligation which we sure told is 
quite enough to prevent ail abuse of paying notes on 
demand. The result was what most men of sense must 
have anticipated, viz., that a revulsion took place, and 
that every bank within the Union, without, it is believed, 
a single exception, stopped payment in 18^7. 

In 1838 such of the banks as had been best managed 
and had the largest capitals resumed payment in specie. 
But in 1839 ^^'^ '840 a farther crash took place ; and 
the bank-notes afloat, which, as has been seen, amounted 
to $149,185,8^ in 1837, sunk to $83,734,000 in i8d2, 
and to $58,563,000 in 1843. ^^ ^ supplied that in this . 
latter crash nearly 180 banks, including the Bank of the 
United States, were totally destroyed. And the loss 
occasioned, by the depreciation which it caused in the 
value of stock of all kinds and of all sorts of property, 
was quite enormous. And yet, vast as the loss was, it 
was really trifling, as a writer in the American Alma- 
nack has stated, compared with ** the injury resultifig 
to society from the upheaving it occasioned of the ele- 
ments of^social order, and the utter demoralization of 
men by the irresbtible temptation to speculation which 
it afforded, ending in swindling to retain ill-gotten 
riches." 

The evils of the American system were aggravated by 
the lowness of the notes which most banks issued. 
Thb brought them into the hands of retail traders, 
laborers, and others in the humbler walks of life, who 
always suffer severely by the failure of a bank. 

After i8t8 and 1042 various measures were taken in 
nearly all the States, but principally in New York, to 
restrain the free action of the banks, and to prevent a 
repetition of the calamities referred to. 

In New York, for example, banks were divided into 
two great classes — the incorporated and the free banks. 
The former, incorporated by the State law, had to con- 
form to certain regulations, and to contribute a half per 
cent, annually upon their capital to a security fund, 
which was devoted to the payment of the notes of de- 



786 



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faulting banks. Bat this was a most objectionable plan; 
for, in the first place, it did not prevent bankruptcies, 
and in the second place, it compelled the well-managed 
banks to contribute to a fund which went to pay the 
debts of those that were mismanaged. It consequently 
declined in favor, and soon became rarely acted upon. 

In the other or free banking system, all individuals or 
associations who chose to deposit securities (minimum 
amount, $100,000) for their payment were allowed to 
issue an equal amount of notes. And this was certainly 
by far the more efficient as well as the more popular of 
the two plans. It was, however, not free firom objec- 
tion; because, u/, A longer or shorter, but always a 
considerable, period necessarily elapses after a bank 
stops before its notes can be retired; and, 2d, The se- 
curities lodged for the notes were necessarily at all 
times of uncertain and fluctuating value, while, in 
periods of panic or general distrust, they became all but 
mconvertible. The Sub-Secretary of the Treasury of 
the United States animadverted as follows on this plan, 
in a letter dated 27th Nov. 1854: — 

** The policy of many of the State Governments has of 
late years consisted in encouraging the issue of small 
notes, by sanctioning the establishment of what are pop- 
ularly called ' free banks,' with deposits of stocks and 
mortgages for the ' ultimate ' security of their issues. 
Thb • ultimate ' security is, it may be admitted, better 
than no secmity at all. The mischief is, that it is least 
available when most wanted. The very causes which 
prevent the banks from redeeming their issues promptly, 
cause a fall in the value of the stocks and mortgages on 
•the ultimate security* of which their notes have been 
issued. The •ultimate* security may avail something 
to the broker who buys them at a discount, and can hold 
them for months or years ; but the laboring man who 
has notes of these < State security banks ' in his posses- 
sion, finds, when they stop pa]nment, that ' the ultimate 
security* for their redemption does not prevent his los- 
ing twenty-five cents, fifty cents, or even seventy-five 
cents in the dollar. 

** In a circulating medium we want something more 
than 'ultimate security.* We want also 'immediate* 
security ; we want security that is good to-day, and will 
be gocd to-morrow, and the next day, and for ever there- 
after. This security is found in gold and silver, and in 
these only.** 

The Report of the Superintendent of Banking for 
the State of New York for 1856 showed that the securi- 
ties he then held in trust amounted to $39,359,071, 
which were almost wholly lodged by banking associa- 
tions and individual bankers. 

During the year the securities held in trust for the 
undermentioned banks that had become insolvent in 
1855 were disposed of. But the sums realized by their 
sale did not in any case suffice to pay the notes at par ; 
while a period, varying from two to four years, would 
have to elapse before the affairs of the insolvent banks 
were finally settled. 

This statement set the defective nature of the security 
system, as administered in New York, in the clearest 
point of view. It might, no doubt, have been improved 
Dy increasing the proportion of securities to notes. But, 
owing to the variety of securities that were taken (viz., 
all manner of bonds and mortgages, state, canal, and 
railway stocks, &c., &c), and the unceruintjf of their 
value, a great deal of risk was alwa3rs incurred in accept- 
ing them, and they could never form a proper founda- 
tion on which to issue notes. 

In 1857 another crash took place, and all the banks 
in the Union, from the Gulf of Mexico to the frontiers 
of Canada, again stopped payments. 

There had been a rapid increase of discounts since 



185 1, and that increase was especially great in 1856, and 
went on augmenting down to August 1857. On the 
8th of that month the discounts and advances by the 
New York banks amounted to $122,077,2^2, the depoa> 
its in their possession being, at the same time, $94,436^- 
417. This was the maximum of both. On the 24th dt 
August the Ohio Life and Trust Company, which cat-, 
ried on an extensive banking business in New York, 
stopped payments, and by so doing gave a severe shock 
to credit and confidence, which the suspension of two 
or three more banks turned into a panic Notes being 
in a certain degree secured, the run upon the banks was 

Srindpall^ for deposits. And to meet it they so re- 
uced their discounts and advances, that, on the 17th 
October, they amounted to only $97,245,826. TTui 
sudden and violent contraction necessarily occasioned 
the suspension of many of those mercantile houses that 
had depended on the banks for discounts. And it dkl 
this without stopping the drain for deposits, which had 
sunk, on the 17th October, to $52,894,62^, being a d^ 
crease of $41, 546, 784 in about two montns. The uni* 
versal stoppage of the banks was a consequence of these 
proceedings. 

The Civil War had as one of its consequences the 
introduction of a general banking law in the United 
States, conformabk in many respects to the principles 
of what we have described as the free banking law of 
New York. At the beginning of the war in 1861, the 
amount of paper money in circulation was about 
$200,000,000, ot which $i5o,ooo,ooo.had been issued ia 
die loyal Sutes ; and the coin in circulation was esti- 
mated at $275,000,000. The necessities of the Treasuxj 
very soon compelled the Government to borrow from 
the associated banks of New York, Philadelphia, and 
Boston, and to issue demand notes to the extent of 
$50,000,000, — which, however, were not at first made 
l^al tender. In Febrtiary 1862 an Act was passed by 
Congress authorizing the issue of $150,000,000, in 
Treasury notes of not less than $5 each, out of which, 
however, $50,000,000 were in lieu of the notes already 
issued; ancf this issue was declared to be legal tend<^ 
except in the discharge of customs, duties, and of the 
payment of interest by the United States on the 
national debt. It will be easily understood that coin 
went out of circulation, and a premium on gold was es- 
tablished, which increased as the amount of the 
Treasury notes was increased by successive l^sUtion 
and as national bank-notes came to be issued in pursu- 
ance of the law we must proceed to describe. This is 
the Banking Law of the 25th February Iis63, which, as 
amended by the Act of the 3d June 1864, now contin- 
ues in force. By this law a Currency Bureau and Comp- 
troller of Currency were appointed in the Treasury De- 
partment, with the power to authorize banking associa- 
tions of not less than five persons subscribing, except in 
very small towns, a minimum capital of $100,000, ^o 
per cent, to be pax) up at once, and the remainder within 
six months. It was enacted that any such association, 
before commencing business, must transfer to the 
Treasurer of the United States any United States inter- 
est-bearing bonds not less than one-third of the capital 
stock, and should thereupon receive from the Comptrol- 
ler of the Currency circulating notes of different de- 
nominations in blank, regbteried and countersigned, 
equal in amount to 90 per cent, of the current market 
value of the bonds so transferred, but not exceeding 
their par value. The whole amount of notes thus 
issued was not to exceed $300,000,000, one-half to bo 
apportioned among the States according to their repre- 
sentative population, and the other half to be appor* 
tioned with regard to the existing banking capitalt 
resources, and business of the States. 



-1 



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787 



The banks already existing in the several States were 
rapidly transformed into national banks under the opera- 
tion of this law, and their previous notes withdrawn in 
exchange for the new national bank issue. The currency 
of the Union thus came to consist of the demand-notes 
of the Treasury, which rose in 1865 to about 
$450,000,000, and of the notes of the national banks, 
which rapidly approached the limit of $300,000,000, — 
the latter notes passin|; throughout the Union, whatever 
the bank through which they were issued, as freely as 
the former, since the ultimate payment of them was 
secured by the deposit under the law we have stated, of 
an adequate amount in United States' bonds at the 
Treasury. It is not our purpose to trace the subsequent 
financial history of the States, but the experience of 1873 
most be referred to for the instruction it affords. As 
no sufficient steps were taken after the termination of 
the war to reduce the swollen value of the currency, gold 
remained out of circulation, though with the growth of 
business the premium on it declined to an average rate 
of 12 per cent.; but no inconvenience was felt from the 
existence of a pure paper circulation, and the opinion, in 
fact, arose that the currenqr thus established was a sure 
preventive of recurring panics and exaggerated rates of 
discount. But in September 187^ the financial hou<^ of 
Jay, Cooke, & Co., having locked up a large amount of 
capital in railway enterprises not immediately if ever 
likely to be productive, suspended payments; other 
financial houses were forced to take the same step, 
several banks closed their doors, and a severe panic set 
in. The holders of the notes in circulation of tne banks 
that failed were protected by the deposit of bonds at the 
Treasury, and the notes were never discredited ; but the 
financial distress throughout the Union was excessive, 
and continued for many months. It was practically 
demonstrated that the national bank law protected the 
holders of national bank-notes from loss, but afforded 
no immunity against the occurrence of financial crises. 

Banking in Germany. 

Banking in Germany, up to the close of the Franco- 
German War, presenter no peculiar features requiring 
attention. The Bank of Hamburg was established in 
1619, on the model of that of Amsterdam, as a purely 
deposit bank for the transfer of sums from the account 
of one individual to that of another ; and its manage- 
ment appears to have been uniformly good. In the 
several German States banks were authorized under laws 
peculiar to each ; and most of them were allowed to 
issue notes according to regulations varying from State 
to State. It followed that the notes of each bank were 
confined to its own neighborhood ; but the establish- 
ment of German unity was followed by a demand for a 
general banking law, and the establishment of a note 
currency that might circulate throughout the empire. 
After some discussion the Act of the 30th January 187$ 
Mras passed to satisfy these demands. Under this law an 
Imperial Bank was established, with an uncovered issue 
of 2JO millions of marks (= ;iji2,5oo,ooo) ; and thirty- 
two banks were recognized as possessing^ rights of un- 
covered issue to the extent of 135 miUions of marks 
(/6,750,ooo). The Imperial Bank is, however, allowed 
to increase its issue, subject to the condition that at least 
one-third is represented by cash in hand, and the remain- 
ing two-thirds by bills not having more than three 
months to run ; while the other banks may also exceed 
their authorized issues subject to the payment of 5 per 
cent, interest on the excess above the authorized limit, 
plus the cash in hand, and weekly returns are required of 
the amount in circulation. No note is to be less than 
100 marks {£s)i and no new right of issue can be con- 
ceded except by a law of the empire. The State itself. 



however, under a law of April 1874, has the rieht to 
issue 120 millions of marks m State notes of smaU de- 
nominations. The TTorking of this law has not yet been 
tested ; but, if v. o may judge from our own expierience, 
it will not produce any rapid withdrawal of local issues, 
and the unification of'^the note currency of the empire 
will not be acconiplished. 

BANKRUPTCY. When aperson is unable to pay 
his debts in full, the law of civilized countries adopts 
some means of satisfying the creditors, as far as they 
can be satisfied, out of the debtor's estate, and relieving 
the debtor himself from pressure which, by his own 
efforts, he would not be likely to overcome. The debtor 
having been declared a bankrupt, his property vests in 
his creditors for the purpose of being ratably divided 
among them, and he thereupon starts a new man, entirely 
relieved from the obligations thus partially satisfied. 
Such, in ^neral terms, is the process of bankruptcy as 
observed in modem societies, slowly evolved out of'^the 
criminal code in answer to the necessities of a widely- 
spread industrial Ufe. Early society is unanimous m 
trefiting inability to fulfil legal obligations as a most 
serious offence; and the harshness of ancient law 
towards debtors has been explained as a consequence of 
the fact that a contract was at first regarded as a sort of 
incomplete conveyance, and creditor and debtor as per- 
sons who respectively had and had not fulfilled their legal 
obligati^s. The early law of Rome, while prohibiting 
contracts of rsury, still gives the 1^1 creditors the savage 
remedy of divkimg the carcase of their debtor or selling 
him and his family into slavery. Severe commerdd 
distress endangering the stability of the state is of fre- 
quent occurrence in the history of Rome ; but the law 
against debtors long retained itsprimitive severity. The 
I^x Poetelia (about 326 B.C. ) enabled a debtor, who could 
swear to being worth as much as he owed, to save his free- 
dom by resigning his property ; and many years after 
the legislation of Julius Caesar established the cessio 
bonarum as an avaiUible remedy for all honest insolvents. 
The slow development of the law, and the practical 
difficulties with which each new adjustment was met, 
are copiously illustrated by the history of bankruptcy 
legislation in England. The first English statute on 
buikruptcy was directed ^^wxsx. fraudulent debtors ^ and 
gave power to the lord chancellor and other high officers 
to seize their estates and divide them among tne credit-' 
ors. The 13 Eliz. c. 7 restricted bankruptcy to /ro^/^rj, 
and prescribed certain acts by committing which a trader 
became a bankrupt. Commissioners appointed by the 
lord chancellor are to seize the person of the bankrupt 
and divide his property among the creditors. The 4 
Anne c. 17 and 10 Anne c. 15 took away the criminal 
character hitherto borne by the proceedings, and allowed 
a debtor, with the consent of a majority of his creditors, 
to obtain a certificate of having conformed to the requi- 
sitions of the bankrupt law, which, when confirmed by 
the chancellor, discharged his person and his after- 
acquired property from debts due by him at the time of 
his bankruptcy. The 6 Geo. IV. c 16 allows a debtor 
to procure his own bankruptcy (an arrangement pre- 
viously regarded as fraudulent), and introduces the prin- 
ciple of de«ls of arrangement between debtor and creditors 
without a public bankruptcy. The i and 2 Will. I V. c 56 
established the Court of Bankruptcy, consisting of six 
commissioners, along with four judges as a Court of 
Review, and appointed official assignees to get in the 
bankrupt's estate on behalf of the creditors. 

In Scotland, as in England, the law of bankruptcy 
arose as a remedy against the frauds of insolvent debt- 
ors. It was declared by an Act of the Scottish Parlia- 
ment that no debtor after insolvency should fraudulently 
diminish the fund belonging to his cieditors, and if ^ 



788 



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deed of assignment was gratuitously executed after the 
contracting of debt in favor of a near relation or a con- 
fidential fnend, fraudulent dealing was to be presumed. 
The Act 1696, c. 5, settled the definition of a notour or 
notorious bankrupt, a que^tion which had previously en- 
gaged the attention of the judges of the Court of Ses- 
sion. The statute defines a " a notour bankrupt ** to be 
any debtor who, being under diligence by homing or 
caption, at the instance of his creditors, shall be either 
imprboned, or retire to the abbey or any other privi- 
leged place, or flee or abscond for his personal security, 
or defend his person by force, and who shall afterwards 
be found, by sentence of the Lx>rds of Session, to be 
insolvent Bankruptcy as thus defined was, it is said, 
intended to afford a remedy against fraudulent prefer- 
ence*by debtors, and not as the ground-work of a gen- 
eral process of distribution, although by later statutes it 
became a necessary requisite of every such process. 
The exceptions recognized in the Act of 1696, of per- 
sons absent from Scotland, and therefore not liable to 
imprisonment, or of persons exempted therefrom by^pe- 
cial privileges, were removed by later l^slation. The 
English distinction between traders and non-traders, it 
will be observed, is not recognized in Scotch law. The 
statute made null and void all voluntary dispositions, 
assignations, and other deeds at or after or within sixty 
days before bankruptcy. The principal Bankruptcy 
Act now in force is the 19 and 20 Vict c. 79 (amended 
by 20 and 21 Vict. c. 19, and 23 and 24 Vict. c. 33). 

By section 9 of the principal Act, notour banlurnptcy 
is now constituted — 

1. By sequestration (or adjudication in England and 
Ireland); and 

2. By insolvency concurring either — {a), with a duly 
executed charge for payment followed by imprisonment 
or apprehension, or flight or retreat to sanctuary, by 
execution of arrestment of debtor's effects, not dis- 
charged within flfteen days, by execution of poinding of 
any of his movable estate; or (3), with sale of effects 
belonging to the debtor under a poinding or under sl 
sequestration for rent, or retiring for twenty-four hours 
to the sanctuary, or making application for the benefit of 
cfssio bonorum. 

Notour bankruptcy continues, in case of sequestra- 
tion, until the debtor has obtained his discharge, and in 
other cases until insolvency ceases. Sequestration may 
be awarded of the estate of any person m the following 
cases: — 

1. Livine debtor subject to jurisdiction of Scotch 
courts, — (fl), on his own petition with concurrence of 
qualified oreditors ; or (^), on petition of qualified credi- 
tors, provided he be a notour bankrupt, and have had a 
dwellmg-house or place of business in Scotland within 
the previous year. 

2. In the case of a deceased debtor, subject at his 
death to the jurisdiction of the court, — (a), on the peti- 
tion of his mandatory ; or (^), on the petition of qualified 
creditors (( 13). 

Sequestration may be awarded either by the Court of 
Session or by the sheriff. A sequestration may be called 
by a majority in number and four-fifths in value of the 
creditors, who may prefer to wind up the estate by pri- 
vate arrangement. If the sequestration proceeds, the 
creditors hold a meetinjg^, and by a majority in value 
elect a trustee to administer the estate, and three commis- 
sioners (beine creditors or their mandatories) to assist 
and control me administration and declare the dividends. 
The bankrupt (under pain of imprisonment) must give 
all the information in his power regarding his estate, 
and he must be publicly examined on oath before the 
sheriff; and "conjunct and confident persons" may 
likewise be examined. The bankrupt maybe discharged 



either by composition or without composition. In the 
latter case (i)Dy petition with concurrence of all the 
creditors, dr (2) after six months with concurrence of a 
majority and four-fifths in value of the creditors, or (3) 
after eighteen months with concurrence of a baire ma- 
jority in number and value, or (4) after two years with- 
out concurrence. In the last case the judge may refuse 
the application if he thinks the bankrupt has fraudu- 
lently concealed his effects, or wilfully failed to comply 
with the law. 

The procedure in cessio bonorum is regulated by 6 and 
7 WiiL IV. c. 56 (which gave jurisdiction to sheriffe) 
and Act of Sederunt of June 1839. A debtor who is or 
has been in prison, or has had a warrant of imprisonn^ent 
served against him, may present a petition setting forth 
his inability to pay his debts, and his willingness to sur- 
render his estate, and praying for interim protection. 
The debtor is examined by the sheriff on oatn, and the 
creditors may be heard against the petition. A decree 
of cessio bofiorum operates as an assignation of a debt- 
or's movables to a trustee for behoof of creditors. _ The 
bankrupt under a cessio has no power to insist on his dis- 
charge, and therefore cannot protect his subsequent ac- 
quisitions against his creditors. By the late statute a 
majority of the creditors (subject to review by the 
court) may, in certain cases, resolve that the bazucrupt 
shall be entitled to apply for a degree of cessio only, and 
not to a discharge in the sequestration, and the court 
may grant the cessio in the sequestration without requir- 
ing a new process. 

By the Bankruptcy (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1872 
(j5 and 16 Vict. c. 58), the law of Ireland had been as- 
fimilatedf to the new system established by the English 
Bankruptcy Act, 1869. 

Bankruptcy in the United States, 

In the United States, Conn-ess alone has power to 
pass a bankrupt law which shall have authority through- 
out the country. The several States may enact such 
statutes when there is no law of Congress in operation ; 
but these statutes will fully bind only the citizens of the 
State which enacts it There is no power to obtain 
effectual control of property without its limits so as to 
prevent local preferences; nor can the State laws dis- 
charge contracts due to non-residents. The general 
Government has made so littie use of the power confided 
to it, that many of the States were obliged to pass bank- 
rupt laws, notwithstanduig the imperfection of their 
operation in some cases, and those, often, the most im- 
portant in the interests mvolved.* Massachusetts had an 
excellent system, established in 1838, which is specially 
mentioned because the act of Congress was largely drawn 
from this source. All State laws on the suDJect were 
suspended while a general law of bankruptcy was in force. 

The first general Bankrupt Act was passed in 1800, 
and repealed in 1803. In 1841 another law was put in 
operation, with a spedal view of meeting the urgent 
needs of debtors who had been ruined by the commer- 
cial revulsion of 1837-38, and who could receive no 
eflectual relief from locu laws. TJhe act was repealed 
in thirteen months ; but in the meantime a very large 
number of cases had been disposed of, amountmg, for 
example, to 3250 in Massachusetts alone. The law 
last in operation took effect June i, 1867. It was hoped 
by its authors that it would form a ]>ermanent addition 
to tiie commercial jurisprudence of the country, but after 
a few years it was repealed. The following account, 
written at the time of its operation, will give an insight 
into the mode of procedure under it: 

The administrative machinery is simple. The district 
courts, which have always had the original jurisdiction 
of causes in admiralty, revenue, andnother national mat* 
gitized by V^^ 



BAN 



789 



ters, are made courts of bankruptcy. The judge of each 
district ascertains how many re^sters are needed for the 
convenient despatch of causes m his territory, and they 
sure appointed bjr the chief justice of the United States 
and the district judge concurrently. The registers have, 
by law, functions chiefly administrative and ministerial; 
but they, in fact, hear and decide many judicial ques- 
tions by consent of the parties, and subject to the revision 
of the judge. In proceedings in bankruptcy proper and 
such as adjudications, discluu-ges, proof of debts, mar- 
shalling assets, there is anapp^ from the district to the 
circuit court, and no farther. Actions at law, or suits in 
equity, to which assignees in bankruptcy are parties, may 
be brought either in the State or the Federal courts. If 
m the latter, the whole case if in equity, or the law points 
Ji an action at law, may be carried to the Supreme 
Court at Washington when the amount in dispute 
exceeds $5000, or questions of law, which the judges of 
the circuit court consider doubtful, may be certified by 
them to the Supreme Court, whatever may be the 
amount involved ; and all decisions of the highest court 
of a State, involving questions of law under the Bank- 
rupt Act, may be reviewed by the Supreme Court, if 
adverse to the right or title set up under that statute. 
In some of these various modes the principal questions 
arising under the Act will in time be settled by tne high- 
est judicial authority, and thus uniformity of decision 
will be secured. 

The statute covers the whole ground of bankruptcy 
and insolvency. It is applied to all debtors, whether 
traders or not, and to debtors petitioning for its benefits, 
as well as to those proceeded against by creditors. Any 
one who owes $300 may petition, and any such debtor 
who has committed certain specified acts may be adjudged 
bankrupt in itwitum. The acts of bankruptcy are sub- 
stantially alike in all such statutes in England and the 
United States, and tend to prove either fraudulent con- 
duct or hopeless insolvency, such as concealing prop- 
erty, conveying it fraudulently, departing the district 
with intent to defraud creditors, lying in prison for 
twenty-one da3rs. There is nothing analogous to the 
trader debtor summons, though the Act of 1800, and 
the Massachusetts law of 18^, admitted a somewhat 
similar test of bankruptcy. This law, however, has 
adopted one which to a considerable extent supplies this 
want, by declaring a merchant, trader, banker, broker, 
manufacturer, or miner to be bankrupt who has suflered 
his commercial paper to remain overdue and unpaid for 
forty days. No other distinction is made between trad- 
ers and other debtors, excepting that merchants and 
tradesmen are bound, under pain of being denied their 
discharge, to keep proper books of account. 

The property of the bankrupt is assigned by the jud^ 
or register to the persons chosen by the majonty m 
number and value of the creditors — the court having 
fun power to overrule the choice of the creditors, or to 
add an ^ assignee to those chosen. The assignment is 
conclusive evidence of the assignees* authority, and can- 
not be collaterally impeached on any ground, excepting 
want of jurisdiction in the bankrupt court, nor in any 
suit whatever. This most valuable rule was adopted by 
Massachusetts in 1838, and has saved an enormous 
amount of useless litigation. There is no danc;er of 
injustice from it, because the adjudication against a bank- 
Tvcpi is never made without notice to him, nor without a 
trial by jury, if he demands one ; and any person having 
an interest adverse to the adjudication has a right to be 
heard as well as the debtor. 

The doctrine of the relation of the assignee's title to 
an act of bankruptcy committed in the country has not 
obtained in the United States. That title relates, as in 
other suits to the beginning of the proceedings, — that 



is to say, the day and hour that the petition, whether 
voluntary or involuntary, is filed. Tne most marked 
difference between the Eujglish and American statutes, or 
rather between the practical working of them, is in the 
extension given by tne latter to the doctrine of prefer- 
ence. By the law of 1867 and its amendments, the 
assignee can avoid all advantages given to pre-existing 
creditors within four months (in involuntary cases within 
two months) before the filing of the petition, if the 
bankrupt was then insolvent, and intended a preference, 
and the preferred creditor knew the insolvenor and the 
intent, no matter what pressure, by suit, tnreat, or 
otherwise, may have been brought to bear upon the 
debtor. This law, as construed, operates almost like a 
relation back of the assignee's title, so far as pre-exist- 
ing creditors are concerned; unless the payments or 
settlements have been made in the ordinary course of 
business, and sometimes, though rarely, when they have 
been so made. This rule is a logical development of the 
law of preference, as established in Lord Mansfield's 
time, and still continued in England. When it is con- 
sidered that a preference is a technical fraud, and may 
be charged as an act of bankruptc]^ and as a valid ob- 
jection to the debtor's discharge, it will be readily seen 
that the conduct of debtors in failing circumstances 
must be restrained and regulated, to the advantage of 
the general creditors, by the perils that attend a partial 
or unfair mode of settlement, or even a struggle to con- 
tinue business after recuperation has become hopeless. 
Such was found to be the operation of a similar law in 
Massachusetts, where it prevailed for more than twenty 
years before the statute of that State was suspended by 
the general Bankruptcy Act of 1867. 

The discharge of the debtor is granted or refused by 
the gourt absolutely. There are no grades or classes 
of certificates, and no power to suspend action upon the 
question, and put the aebtor on probation. In volun- 
tary bankruptcies 30 per cent, must be paid in dividends, 
or the consent of one-fourth in number and one-third in 
value of the creditors must be obtained. Any creditor 
may oppose the decree of discharge for fraud committed 
or continued within six months l^fore the petition, for 
loss by gaming, and in the case of merchants and trades- 
men, as we nave seen, for failure to keep suitable 
accounts. The discharge when granted, is, like the 
assignment, unimpeachable in any court; but it may be 
reviewed within two years by the court that granted it, 
upon evidence afterwards discovered. 

The title, powers, and duties of the assignee, the 
mode of settling joint and separate estates, and mar- 
shalling debts and assets, are substantiallv similar under 
the English and American systems. Thc^ title of the 
assignee, however, does not depend at all, in any case, 
upon the date of the petitioning creditor's debt. The 
misdemeanors created by the law were taken, with some 
modifications, firom the felonies of the English Act 
in force in 1867. The mode of compoundme with 
creditors has recently been adopted from the English 
statute of 1869, and has been largely used with good 
results. 

BANKS, Sir Joseph, for upwards of forty years 
president of the Royal Society of London, was born in 
Argyle Street. London, on the 13th of February, 1743. 
He was the only son of William Banks, a gentleman of 
considerable landed property, whose father had derived 
his fortune principally from successful practice as a 
physician ui Lincolnsnire, had been on one occasion 
sheriff of that county, and had for some years repre- 
sented Peterborough in parliament Veiy little is 
known of Joseph's early life and education. He appears 
to have tieen sent at the age of nine to Harrow, and 
after spending four years there, was removed to £tOB» 



790 



BAN 



Here he teemi first to hart acquired a taste fior botani- 
cal pursuits, and was accustomed to spend all his leisure 
hours in the beautiful lanes and fields round the school. 
He carried the same fondness for natural history to Ox- 
ford, where he was entered as a gentleman commoner 
of Christ's College ; and br his exertions a lecturer on 
natural science was for the first time brought into the 
university. After taking an honoraiy degree he left 
Oxford, and at the age of twenty-one he found himself' 
possessed of ample means, hb father having died in 
1 761. Three years later he made his first scientific ex- 
pedition to Newfoundland and Labrador, and brought 
back a rich collection of plants and insects. Shortly 
after his return, Government resolved to send out 
Captain Cook to observe the transit of Venus in the 
Pacific Ocean, and Banks, through the influence of his 
friend Lord Sandwich, obtained leave to join the expedi- 
tion. He made the most careful preparations, in order 
to be able to profit by every opportunity, and induced 
Dr. Solander, a distinguished pupil of Llnnxus, to ac- 
company him. He even engaged draughtsmen and 
painters to delineate such objects of interest as did not 
admit of being transported or preserved. The voyage 
occupied three years and many hardships had to be un- 
dergone; but the rich harvest of discovery — many 
natural phenomena being for the first time brou^t to 
light — was more than adequate compensation. Banks 
was equally anxious to join Cook's second expedition, 
and expenoed large sums in engaging assistants and fur- 
nishing the necessary equipment ; but, owin^ to ill-feel- 
ing on the part of some Government officials, he was 
compelled to relinquish his purpose. He, however, em- 
ployed the assistants and materials he had collected in a 
voyage to Iceland, returning to the Hebrides and Staflfa, 
the geological formation of which he was the first to 
describe. In 1778 Banks was elected president of the 
Royal Society, of which he had been a fellow fi^om 1766. 
His predecessor had been compelled to resign owing to 
some disagreement with the court, but Banks was 
always a favorite with the king. In 1781 he was made 
a baronet ; in 1795 he received the Order of the Bath ; 
and in 1797 he has admitted to the Privy Council. 

BANKURA, a district of British India, within the 
Bardwin division, under the Lieutenant-Governor of 
Bengal, bounded on the N. and £. by Bardwdn dis- 
trict; on the S. by Midnapur district ; and on the W. 
by M&nbhiim district. B&nkura forms a connecting 
link between the delta of the Ganges on the £. and the 
mountainous highlands of Chhot& N4gpur on the W. 
Along its eastern boundary adjoining £irdwin district 
the country is flat and alluvial, presenting the appear- 
ance of the ordinary paddy lands of Beng^ Going N. 
and W., however, the surface gradually rises into long 
undulating tracts ; rice lands and swamps give way to a 
region of low thorny jungle or forest trees; the ham- 
lets become smaller and more scattered, and nearly dis- 
appear alt<^ether in the wild forests along the western 
boundary. 

BAnkurA, the principal town of the district of the 
same name ; stands on the left bank of the River Dhal- 
kisor. It has a hizin, a spacious building for the ac- 
comnnodation of travellers, and the district courts, school, 
jail, post-office, &c. In 1872 the population amounted to 

BANN, a considerable river of Ireland, which rises 
in the Moume Mountains, County Down, and falls into 
Lough Neagh. The salmon and eel fisheries are of con- 
siderable vSlue. Measured in a direct line, the Upper 
Bann is about ^ miles long, and the Lower 30 miles. 

BANNERETS. In the early ages of chivahry there 
were two kinds of knights, called respectively BacMors 
ind BmnncreU. The former carried pennons terminrt* 



ing in a point or pomts ; the latter, banners,— that is to 
say, pennons rendered square by having the points cut 
off. This process of converting the pennon into the 
banner was done by the sovereign himself on the field 
of battle, standing beneath his own royal standard dis- 
played. The distinction, awarded for peculiar gallant- 
ry, was a very high one, and those who enjoyed it 
ranked above all other knights except those of the Gar- 
ter. The banner bore the coat armor of the banner- 
et himself, and served as an ensign for the followers 
and retainers whom he took with him into the camp or 
court. The king himself and the greatest nobles were 
members of the order ; and we have the Roll of Caerlav- 
erock the blazon of nearly one hundred bannerets (in- 
cluding the king, eleven earls, and the Bishop of Dur- 
ham) who were present with Edward I. in his campaign 
against Scotlana in 130a In France, it is said, the 
dignity was hereditary; but in England it died with the 

Eerson who gained it. On the institution of baronets 
y King James I., the order dwindled, and at last be- 
came extinct. The last banneret created was Sir Tohn 
Smith, who received the dignity after the battle of 
Edgehillr for his gallantry in rescuing the standard of 
Charles I. 

BANNOCKBURN, a village of Scotland, on the 
Bannock, an afHuant of the Forth, three miles S. of 
Stirling. 

BANSWArA (literally, the forest country), a Rijput 
feudatory state under the Mewir agency in R&jputini, 
borders on Gujarit, and is bounded on the N. by the 
native states of Nun^irpur and Udaipur or Mew4r ; on 
die N.E. and E. by Prat4bgarh ; on the S. by the do- 
minions of Holk&r and the state of*Tubu4; and on the 
W. by the state of Rfw&k&nta. Bdnswiri State is 
about 45 miles in length from N. to S., and 33 miles in 
breadth from E. to W., and has an area of 1440 square 
miles, with an estimated population of 144,000 souls. 
The Mahi is the only nver in the sUie, and great 
scarcity of vater occurs in the dry season. 

BANT A ivf , a decayed town of Java, formerly capital 
of a district of the same name, at the north-western ex- 
tremity of the island, situated on the Bay of Bantam, 
near the mouth of a river which falls into the bay. It 
was once a large, rich, and flourishing city, but is now 
mostly in ruins. It is about 61 miles W. of Batavia, 
and is situated on a low, swampy beach, surrounded by 
jungle, and intersected by stagnant streams, so that its 
climate is even more unhealthy than that of Batavia was 
in the last century. Prior to the Dutch conquest Ban- 
tam was a powerful Mahometan state, whose sovereign 
extended its conquests in the neighboring islands of 
Borneo and Sumatra. In 1595 the Dutch, under Hout- 
mann, expelled the Portuguese, and formed their first 
settlement. 

BANTRY, a small seaport situated on Bantry Bay, 
on the S.W. coast of Ireland, in the county of Cork. 

BANU, a district of British India, under the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of the Panj4b, it is bounded on the 
N. by the Khatibf hills, separating it from the district 
of KohAt, and by a comer of the Raw&l Findf district; 
on the E. by the districts of Jhilam and Shiihpur; on 
the S. by the district of Der& IsmiUl Khdn ; and on the 
W. by the Wazfri hills. Total area, 3148 square miles. 
Population, 287,547: consisting of Hindus, 26,222, or 
9.12 per cent.; Mahometans, 260,550, or 90.61 per 
cent. ; Sikhs, 493 ; others, 282 ; density of population 
per square mile, 91. 

The Indus flows through the district from north to 
south, dividing it into two portions. 

BANYAN TREE {Ficus indica, linn., UrostUm& 
benghalense^ Gas^r.) b a native of several parts of the 
East Indies and Ceylon. It ^ ft woody stem, br«Mb> 



BAP 



791 



ing to a great he^ht and vast extent, with heart-shaped 
entire leaves terminating in acute points. Every branch 
from the main body throws oat its own roots, at first in 
small tender fibres, several yards from the ground ; but 
these continually grow thicker until they reach the 
surface, when they strike in, increase to large trunks, 
and become parent trees, shooting out new branches 
from the top, which again in time suspend their roots, 
and these, swelling into trunks, produce other branches, 
the growth continuing as long as the earth contributes 
her sustenance. On the banks of the Nerbudda, 
according to Forbtas's Oriental Memories^ stands a 
celebrated tree of this kind, which is supposed to be 
that described by Nearchus the admiral of Alexander 
the Great. This tree once covered an area so immense 
that it has been known to shelter no fewer than 7000 
men. Though now much reduced in size bj the 
destructive power of the floods, the remainder is still 
nearly 2000 feet in circumference, and the trunks large 
and small exceed 3000 in number. 

BAPHOMET, the imaginary symbol or kiol which 
the Knights Templars were accused of worshipping in 
their secret rites. The term is supposed to be a cor- 
ruption of Mahomet, who in several Mediaeval Latin 
poems seems to be called b^r this name. Von Hammer 
wrote a dissertation in the Mines He t Orient , 1818, in 
which he revived the old charge against the Templars. 
The word, accordmg to his interpretation, signifies the 
baptism of Metis, or of fire, and is, therefore, connected 
with the impure rites of the lowest Gnostic sects, the 
Ophites. Additional evidence of this, according to Von 
Hammer, is to be found in the architectural decorations 
of the Templars' churches. An elaborate and, so far as 
has yet appeared, successful criticism of Von Hammer's 
arguments was made in the Journal des Savons, March 
and April 1819, by M. Raynouard, well known as the 
defender of the Templars. See also Hallam, Middle 
Ages, c. i. note 15. 

BAPTISM. Christian baptism is the sacrament by 
^"hich a person is initiated into the Christian Church 
The wora is derived from the Greek, to dip or wash, 
which is the term used in the New Testament when the 
sacrament is described. In discussing what is meant by 
baptism, three things have to be inquired into— (i) the 
or^in of the rite, (2) its meaning, or the doctrine of 
baptism, and (3) the form of the rite itself. 

I. The Origin 0/ Baptism. — Christian theologians do 
not reouire to go further back than to the New Testa- 
ment, for there, in the record of our Lord's life, and in the 
writings of His apostles, they find all that is required to 
form a basis for their doctrines. The principal passages 
in the New Testament in which baptism is described are 
as follows: — MatL xxviii. 18-20; Mark xvl 16; John 
lii. 26; Acts ii. 38; x. 44,^, viiL 16, xix. i,^,xxii. 16; 
Rom. vi, 4; I Cor. i 14-16, vi ii: Eph. v. 26; CoL il 
12 ; Heb. x. 22, 23, &c. From these texts we learn 
mat baptism is specially connected with the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, with the forgiveness of sins, with our being 
^ied with Christ; and we are also taught by whom 
oaptism is to be administered, and who are the proper 
partakers in the ordinance. It is from a due arrange- 
inent and comparison of the conceptions in these texts 
mat a doctrine of baptism has been formed. But while 
™eologians do not require to ^o beyond the New Testa- 
inent lor the origin and meaning of baptism, historiod 
investigation cannot help trying to trace analogies to the 
"|c m the Old Testament axKi even in Pagan history. In 
«e New Testament itself there are two distinct kinds of 
wptism spoken of— the baptism of John and Christian 
oaptism. Treatises on Jewish antujuities speak of the 
^ptism of proselvtes; and St. Paul applies the term 
^^»tism tQ dc$cnpc c^rtaw OW Testament events, and 



we find in use among certain Pagan tribes rites strongly 
resembling Christian baptism, so far as external cere- 
monies go. Hence the question arises. What is the re- 
lation of Christian baptism to thee? 

Writers on the antiquities of the Christian church were 
accustomed to find the source of Christian baptism in 
the baptism of John, and to assert that John's baptism 
was simply a universal and symbolical use of the well 
known ceremony of the baptism of proselytes, and they 
connected this Jewish rite with Old Testament and even 
with Pagan lustrations. But this mode of explanation 
must now be abandoned. It is very difficult to show 
any real connection between the baptism of John and 
Christian baptism further than the general relation 
which all the actions of the forerunner must have had to 
those of the Messiah. We know very little about the 
baptism of John, and all attempts to describe it minutely 
are foundedeither upon conjecture or upon its identity 
with the baptism of proselytes. Was John's baptism 
an initiation, and if so, initiation into what ? Did 
Christ baptize in His lifetime, or did Christian baptism 
properly begin after Christ's death, and after the mission 
of the Holy Ghost ? What was the formula of John's 
baptism, and was there any change or growth in the 
formula of Christian baptism ? (The TUbigen School, 
for example, think that the formula in Acts it is much 
earlier than the complete and more developed one in 
Matt, xxviii. 19.) AH these questions require to be 
answered with much more precision than the present 
state of our information admits of, before we can define 
the precise relation subsisting between the baptism of 
John and the baptism of Christ. 

The connection between the baptism of John and the 
Jewish baptism of proselytes, of which a great deal has 
been made, is also founded on assumptions which cannot 
be proved. This very plausible tneory first assumes 
that proselytes were baptized from an early time in the 
Jewish Church, although the Old Testament tells us 
nothing about it, and then supposes that John simply 
made use of this ordinary Jewish rite for the purpose of 
declaring symbolically that the whole Jewish nation 
were disfranchised, and had to be re-admitted into 
the spiritual Israel by means of the same ceremony 
which gave entrance to members of heathen nations. 
But the subject of the baptism of proseljrtes is one of 
the most hopelessly obscure in the whole round of 
Jewish antiquities, and can never be safely assumed 
m any argument; and the general results of investi- 
gation seem to prove that the baptism of proselytes 
was not one of the Jewish ceremonies until long after 
the coming of Christ, while there is much to suggest 
that this Jewish rite owes its origin to Christian top- 
tbm. Others again, find the historical basis of baptism 
in the lustrations or sprinkling with water so often men- 
tioned in the Old Testament, in such s3nnboIical acts as 
Naaman's bathing in the Jordan, and in various prophe- 
cies where purification from sin is denoted by spnnklinfi^, 
e.g., Ezek. xxxvi. 25-30, Zech. xiii. i, &c.; but sudi 
anticipations can scarcely be called the hbtorical origin 
of the rite. Many modem writers connect baptism 
with certain Pagan rites, and point to the lustrations in 
use in religious initiation among the Egyptians, Persians, 
and especially the Hindus, but very little can be made of 
such far-fetched analogies. Perhaps the most curious 
instance of this kind is to be found in the double bap- 
tism, — the one Pagan and civil, and the other religious 
and Christian, — which existed side by side with each 
other in Norway and Iceland. The Pagan rite was 
called ** ansa vatri," while the name for Christian bap- 
tism was"sk^ro." The Pagan rite was much older 
than the introduction of Chrisdanity, and was con- 
nected with th« $l^vage custpm of exposing infants who 



792 



BAP 



were not to be brought op. The newly-born in&nt 
was presented to the father, who was to decide whether 
the cnild was to be reared or not ; if he decided to rear 
it, then water was poured over the child and the father 
gave it a name ; if it was to be exposed, then the cere- 
mony was not gone throagh. The point to be observed 
is that, if the child was exposed by any one after the 
ceremony had been gone throush, it was a case of 
marder, whereas it was not thought a crime if the child 
was made away with before water had been poured 
over it and it had been named. The analogv lies in the 
use of water, the bestowal of the name, and the entrance 
into dvil life through the rite. 

II. TA^ Doctrine of Baptism, — Among the Greek 
Fathers, for it is there we must look for the beginning 
of the doctrine, baptism was called by various names, all 
of which referred to the spirtual effects which were sup- 
posed to accompany the rite. For example, a com- 
mon term for baptism was regeneration — for every 
Christian was supposed to be bom again by the waters 
of baptism. The great circumcision^ because it was 
held to succeed in the room of circumcision, the gift of 
the Lord,, because it had Christ for its author, and not 
man; sometimes by way of eminence simply the gift, the 
consecration and consummation, because it gave men 
the perfection of Chrbtians, and a right to partake of 
the Lord's Supper. In studying the statements made 
by the early Fatncrs upon baptism, we find not so much 
a distinct and definite aoctrineas gropings toward a doc- 
trine, and it is not until we come to St. Augustine that 
we can find any strict and scientific theor]^ of the nature 
and effects of the sacrament. The earlier theologians 
sometimes make statements which imply the most ex- 
treme view of the magical effects of the sacrament, and 
at other times explain its results in a purely ethical way. 
It should never be forgotten that the abundant use of 
metaphorical language by the Greek Fathers, and the 
want of anything like a strictly theological terminology, 
prevent our finding anything like the precise doctrinal 
statements which became familiar m the Western 
Church; while the prevalence of carious Greek phy- 
sical speculations, which taught the creative power 
of water, mingled with and distorted the ideas about 
the effects of^ the water in baptism. It was St 
Augustine, the great theologian of the Western 
Church, who first eave expression to exact dogmatic 
statements about the nature and meaning of baptism. 
The real difficulty to be explained was the connection 
between the outward rite and the inward spiritual 
change ; or to put it more precisely, the relation between 
the water used and the Holy Spirit who can alone 
regenerate. The Greek theologians had shirked rather 
than faced the difficulty, and used terms at one time 
exag^rating the magical value of the element, at another 
insisting on the purely ethical and spiritual nature of 
the rite ; but ther never attempted to show in what 
precise rebtion the external rite stood to the inward 
change of heart. It is true that one or two theologians 
had sumost anticipated Augustine's view, but the antici- 
pation was more apparent than real, for the theology of 
the Greek Chiu-ch in this, as in most other doctrines, is 
greatly hampered by the m)rstical tendency to represent 
regeneration and kindred doctrines much more as a 
species of chemical change of nature than as a change 
in the relations of the will. Augustine insisted strongly 
on the distinction between the sacrament itself and 
what he called the " res sacramenti,'* between the 
inward and spiritual and the outward and material, 
and by doing so Augustine became the founder of both 
the modern Roman Catholic and the modem orthodox 
Protestant views. Apart from certain modifying 
lifluenceSi it would not be difficult for the orthodox 



Protestant to tubicribe to most of Aumistine's views 
upon baptism, for he insists strong^ on tne uselessness 
of the external sign without the inward blessing of the 
Spirit But in this doctrine, as in most others, Augus- 
tine's doctrine of the Church so interfered as to make 
practically inoperative his more spiritual views of 
oaptism. The Church, Augustine thought, was the 
body of Christ, and that in a peculiarly external wnd. 
physical way, and just as the soul of man cannot, so far 
as we know, exert any influence save upon and through 
the body, so the Spirit of Christ dispenses His gracious 
and regenerating influences only through the body of 
Christ, f. ^., the Church. But the Church, Augustine 
thought, was no invisible spiritual communion. It was 
the visible kingdom of God, the visible ** civitas Dei in 
peregrinatione per terras," and so entrance into the 
Church, and the right and possibiUty of participating 
in the spiritual benefits which members of the Church 
can alone enjoy was only possible by means of a visible 
entrance into this visible kingdom. Thus while Augus- 
tine in theory always laid great stress upon the work of 
the Holy Spirit and upon the spiritual skle of baptism^ 
he practically gave the impulse to that view of the 
sacrament which made the external rite of primary im- 
portance. It was the Holy Spirit who alone imparted 
spiritual gifts to the children of God. But the one way 
by which the benefits of this Spirit could be shared was 
in the first place through baptism. Baotism was 
thought to be necessary to salvation, and all who were 
unbaptized were unsaved. In this way Augustine, while 
recognizing the spiritual nature of the sacrament, held 
Tiews about the importance of the rite which were as 
strong as those of any Greek theologian who had 
mingled confusedly in his mind Christian doctrines and 
the nuixims of Pagan philosophy about the creative 

Sower of the element of water. Of course such a 
octrine of the importance of the baptism with water 
had to be modified to some extent There were cases 
of Christian martyrs who had never been baptized, and 
yet had confessed Christ and died to confess Him: for 
their sakes the idea of a baptism of blood was brought 
forward ; they were baptized not with water, but in 
their own blood. And the same desire to widen the 
circle of the t^ptized led the way to the recognition of 
the baptism of^ heretics, la3rmen, and nurses. It was 
the Augustinian doctrine of baptism which was de- 
veloped oy the Schoolmen, and which now is the sub- 
stance of modem Roman Catholic teaching. The 
Schoolmen, whose whole theology was dominated bv 
the Augustinian conception of the Church, simply took 
over and made somewhat more mechanical and less 
spiritual Augustine's doctrine. They were enabled to 
give the doctrine a more precise and definite shape by 
accommodating it to the terms of the Aristotelian 
philosophy. They began by distrnguishing between the 
matter and the form of baptism. Had Augustine had 
this distinction before him he would probably have called 
the water the matter, and the action of the Holy Spirit 
the form which verified and gave shape to the matter; 
but the whole idea of the Scnoolmen was much more 
mechanical, the magical idea of the sacranient came 
much more into prominence, and the spiritual and 
ethical fell much more into the background, and with 
them, while water was the materia sacramenti^ the 
forma sacramenti was the words of the rite,. — "I 
baptize thee," &c., &c. Thus insensibly the distinction 
between the external rite and the work of the Holy 
Spirit, which Augustine had clearly before him in 
theory at least, was driven back into its original ob- 
scurity, and while it was always held theoretically that 
the grace conferred in baptism was conferred by the 
Holy Spirit, still the action of the Spirit w^ so IQ* 



BAP 



793 



B^rabl^ connected with the medianical performance 
of the rite, that the external ceremony was held to be 
full warrant for the inward spiritual presence and power, 
and it was held that in baptism grace was conferred 
** by the action performed." The actual benefits which 
were supposed to come in this way were, freedom from 
original sin and forgiveness of it and all actual sins com- 
mitted up to the time of baptism, and the implanting of 
the new spiritual life — a life which could only be slain 
by a deadly sin. The Scholastic doctrine of baptism is 
the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, and the re- 
statements made by M6hler on the one hand, and Jesuit 
theologians on the other, do not do more than give a 
poetical coloring to the doctrine, or bring out more 
thoroughly the magical and mechanical nature of the 
rite. 

The Protestant doctrine of baptism, like the Scholastic 
or Roman Catholic, is to be traced back to Augustine 
and his distinction between the sign and the thing 
agnified, and may be looked at as a legitimate develop- 
ment of the Augustinian doctrine, just as that must be 
considered to be an advance on the doctrine of the early 
Church Fathers. The early Fathers had confused the 
sign with the thing signified, — the water with the action 
of the Holy Spirit, — and could only mark their half- 
conscious recognition of the distincHon by an alternating 
series of strong statements made now on the one side 
and now on the other. Augustine distinguished the two 
with great clearness, but connected them in an external 
way bv means of his conception of the visible Church 
and of baptism as the door leading into it, and this led 
his followers to pay exclusive attention to the external 
side, until the thing signified became lost in the sign. 
The Protestant theologians connected the two in an 
internal way by means of the spiritual conception of 
faith, and so were able always to keep the si^ in due 
subordination to the thing signified. It is faith — not 
faith in the sense of imperfect knowledge, or assent to 
intellectual propositions, but faith in the sense of oersonal 
itrust in a personal Savior, or "fiducia," as tne 17th 
century theologians called it — which so connects the 
water with the presence and power of the Spirit that the 
one is the means which the other uses to impart His 
spiritual grace. In this way baptism is looked upon as 
one of the means of grace, and grace is imparted tnrough 
it as through the other means — the Lord's Supper, the 
Word of God, prayer, &c. Just as the dead letters and 
sounds of the Word of God are but the signs of the 
presence and power of His Spirit, and become at His 
touch the living revelation of the Lord, so in 
baptism, the outward rite, worthless in itself, becomes 
the sign and pledge of the presence and power of the 
Si>irit of God; and as, in the case of the Word of God, 
it b faith or " fiducia ** that on the human side connects 
the external signs with the inward power of the Spirit, 
so, in baptism, it is the same faith which unites the water 
anu :*>e Spirit So far all orthodox Protestants are 
agreed, but in order to show the historical evolution of 
the doctrine, it is necessary to notice in a sentence the 
difference between the Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines. 
Luther's own doctrine of baptism changed very much ; 
in the second stage — the stage represented by the tract, 
De Babyl, Capt. Eccl — it is not different, in germ at 
least, from the Calvinist view ; but he afterwards drew 
back and adopted views much nearer to the Scholastic 
theory. He was evidently afiraid that, if he went too 
far from the Scholastic doctrine, and insisted too strongly 
on the importance of faith, he might be led on to reject 
the baptism of infants ; and his later theories are a re- 
coil from that The question which Lather had to face 
and answer here was. What is meant by faith, the faith 
whtcb connects the symbol with the reality, and so ap- [ 



propriates the gifts of God*s grace fat the sacrament? Is 
It a faith which begins and ends in the individual act of 
faith at work in the person that is baptized? or is it a 
much wider thing with a more universal significance? 
Luther did not face this question thoroughly, but his 
recoil from the Reformed theorv of baptism seems to 
show that he woukl have taken tne former answer. Nor 
did Calvin face the question ; but his doctrine of bap- 
tism implies that he would have taken the latter answer. 
The faitn which a man has in Christ, the faith which ap- 
propriates, is not the individual's only, but extends far 
oeyond him and his small circle. It is awakened by the 
Holy Spirit, it comes into being within the sphere of 
God's saving purpose. Its very existence indicates a 
solidariti between the individual believer and the 
whole Church of God. Hence on the Reformed 
doctrine, while faith is essential to the right ap- 
propriation of the blessing in the rite, there is no 
need for thoroughly developed faith in those who are 
baptized. If they are infants, then they are baptized 
because of the faith of their parents or near relations, 
or of the congregation before whom the baptism is per- 
formed ; only those who are the sponsors tor the child 
bind themselves before God to train up the child to 
know that it has been baptized, and to appropriate in 
conscious individual faith the benefits of tne ordinance. 
Such is the Reformed theory of baptism ; and it rest^ 
upon the ideas of the solidarity of believers, of the 
prior existence of the Church to the individual believer's, 
and of the ethical unity of the Church. On the 
other hand, those who hold that the Church is simply 
the sum of individual men and women, and that it is 
increased not by the silent widening of the influence of 
God's saving purpose within mankind, but by indi- 
vkloal conversions and by individuals joining the 
Church, cannot help regarding infant baptism as a mere 
mockery. Hence the doctrines of the Anabaptists, 
Baptists, Mennonites, &c. (see Baptists), who reject 
infant baptism altogether, and maintain that there can 
be no valid baptism without the conscious appropriation 
by an act of faith of the benefits symbolized ty the rite. 
It is to be noticed that the tendency of those who reject 
infant baptism is to regard the sacrament not so much as 
a means of grace, but simply as an act symbolical of 
entrance into the Church, and to approach in this way 
the views of the Socinians and Remonstrants. Quakers 
reject baptism altogether along with the sacrament of the 
Supper. 

III. Baptismal Rites. — In the Apostolic and imme- 
diately post-Apostolic Church, there was no stated 
time or place for baptism. Philip baptized the Ethio- 
pian eunuch by the roadside, as soon as he had declared 
his faith. The early Church, like most of the Refor- 
mation Churches, condemned private baptism. 

In the Apostolic Church the baptismal rite seems to 
have been a very simple one. " Repent and be bap- 
tised, every one of you," was all that Peter thought it 
necessary to say to those whom he invited to join the 
Christian Church ; but soon after the Apostolic times 
baptism became a very elaborate ceremonial No one 
could be baptized unless he had submitted to a long atid 
elaborate course of instruction as a catechumen ; and in 
order to be made a catechumen a ceremony of some 
length had to be gone through. In the baptismal cere- 
mony the minister first consecrated the water by prayer, 
and the catechumen was then baptized in the name of 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost The usual 
mode of performing the ceremony was by immersion. 
In the case of sick persons the minister was allowed to 
baptize by pouring^ water upon the head or by sprinkling. 
In the early churoi " clinical" baptism, as it was called, 
was only permitted in cases of necessity, bat the practice 



794 



BAP 



of baptism by sprinlcling gradually came in in spite of the 
opposition of councils and hostile decrees. The Council 
of Kavenna, in 131 1, was the first council of the Church 
which legalized baptism by sprinkling, by leaving it to 
the choice of the omciating minister. The custom was 
to immerse three times, once at the name of each of the 
persons in the Trinity, but latterly the threefold immer- 
sion was abolished, l>ecause it was thought to go against 
the unity of the Trinity. The words used in baptising 
idways embodied the formula in the last chapter of St. 
Matthew. But the mode of uttering them varied. 

The present form of administering baptism in the 
Church of Rome is as follows : — When a child is to 
be baptized, the persons who bring it wait at the door 
of the church for the priest, who comes thither in his 
surplice and his purple stole, surrounded by his clerks. 
He begins by questioning the godfathers, whether they 
promise in the child's name to live and die in the true 
Catholic and Apostolic faith ; and what name they would 
give to the child. Then follows an exhortation to the 
sponsors, after which the priest, calling the child by its 
name, asks, " What dost tnou demand of the Church ? " 
The godfather answers, ** Eternal life. ** The priest pro- 
ceeds, "If thou art desirous of obtaining eternal life, 
keep God*s commandments, — Thou shalt love the Lx)rd 
thy God,** &C.; after which he breathes three times in 
the diikl's face, saying, " Come out of this child, thou 
evil spirit, and make room for the Holy Ghost.** Then 
he makes the sign of th« cross on the child's forehead 
and breast, sa3rmg, " Receive the sign of the cross on 
thy forehead and in thy heart;" upon which, taking 
off his cap, he repeats a short prayer, and, laying his 
hand gently on the child's head, repeats a second 
prayer; then he blesses some salt, and putting a little 
of It into the child's month, he says, ** Receive the salt 
of wisdom.** All this is performed at the church door. 
Afterwards, the priest, with the godfathers and god- 
mothers, come into the church, and advancing towards 
the font, repeat the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's 
Prayer. Arrived at the font, the priest again exorcises 
the evil spirit, and taking a little of his own spittle, 
with the thumb of his right hand rubs it on the cnild's 
ears and nostrils, repeating as he touches the right ear, 
the same word Ephphatha^ " be thou opened,** which 
our Saviour made use of to the man bom deaf and 
dumb. Lastly, they pull off its swaddling-clothes, or 
strip it below the shoulders, during which the priest 
prepares the oil. The sponsors then hold the child 
directly over the font, observing to turn it due east and 
west; whereupon the priest asks the child whether he 
renounces the devil ana all his works, and the godfather 
having answered in the afhrmative, the priest anoints 
the child between the shoulders in the form of a cross ; 
then taking some of the consecrated water, he pours 
part of it thrice on the child's head, at each perfusion 
calling on one of the persons of the Holy I'rinity. The 
priest concludes the ceremony of baptism with an exhort- 
ation. It may be added that the Roman Church allows 
midwives, in cases of danger, to baptize a child before 
the birth is completed. A still-bom child thus baptized 
may be buried in consecrated ground. 

Baptism of the dead seems to have been founded on 
the opinion that when men had neglected to receive 
baptism in their life time, some compensation might be 
made for this default by their receiving it after death, or 
by another bemg baptised for them. This practice was 
chiefly in use among various heretical sects. 

Hyi>othetical Baptism was that administered in cer- 
tain doubtful cases, with the formula, ** If thou art 
baptized, I do not rebaptize; if thou art not, I baptize 
thee in the name of the Father,** &c. 

Solemn Baptism was that conferred at stated seasons. 



Such in the ancient Church were the Paschal baptism 
and that at Whitsuntide. This is sometimes also called 
general baptism. 

Lay Baptism we find to have been permitted both by 
the Common Prayer Book of King Edward, and by 
that of Queen Elizabeth, when an infant is in immed- 
iate danger of death, and a lawful minister cannot be 
had; but afterwards, in a convocation held in the y^ax 
1575, it was unanimously resolved, that even private 
baptism, in a case of necessity, was only to be adminis- 
tered by a laMrful minister. The Scotch Reformed 
Church also prohibited private baptism by lay persons^ 
but ordained that when any had been thus baptized, the 
rite was not to be repeated 

The name baptism has been applied to certain cere- 
monies used in giving names to things inanimate. The 
ancients knew nothing of the custom of giving baptisn» 
to inanimate things, such as bells, ships, and the tike. 
The first notice we have of this is in the capitulars of 
Charles the Great, where it is mentioned with censure ; 
but afterwards it crept by degrees into the Roman 
offices. Baronius carries its antiquity no higher than 
the year 968, when the great bell of the church of 
Lateran was christened by Pope John III. At last it 
grew to such a height as to form a ground of complaint 
m the Centum Gravamina of tne German nation, 
drawn up at the diet of Nuremberg in 1581, where the 
ceremony of baptizing a bell, with godfathers, &c, to 
make it capable of chiving away tempests and devils, 
was declared to be a superstitious practice, contrary to 
the Christian religion, and a mere seduction of the 
simple people. 

BAPTISTERY {Baptisterium) viras a hall or chapel 
in which the catechumens were instructed and the sacra- 
ment of baptism administered. It was commonly a 
circular building, although sometimes it had eight and 
sometimes twelve sides, and consisted of an ante-room 
where the catechumens were instructed, and where be- 
fore baptism they made their confession of faith, and 
an inner apartment where the sacrament was adminis- 
tered 

BAPTISTS, a denomination of Christians, dbtin- 
guished, as their name imports, from other denomina- 
tions by the views they hold respecting the ordinance 
of baptism. 

The early history of the Baptists, both in Eng^d 
and on the Continent, is very obscure. In the great 
awakening of religious thought and feeling which diar- 
acterized the beginning of the i6th century, it was in- 
evitable that amongst those who burst the fetters which 
bound them to the see of Rome some should be willing 
to retain as much of the ancient doctrine and practice 
as they could with a safe conscience, whilst others, 
rejoicing in their new-found liberty, would desire to 
cast aside every remnant of what they regarded as super- 
stition, and to advance as far as possible in the path of 
what they deemed Christian liberty ; nor is it at all to 
be wondered at that strange and wild theories on mat- 
ters even remotely connects with religion shouM spring 
into life. But amidst all the diversities of opinion that 
existed, it was constantly held by Protestants that " holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so 
that whatsoever is neither read therein nor may be 
proved thereby, although it be sometime received of the 
faithful as godly and profitable for an order and comeli- 
ness, yet no man ougnt to be constrained to believe it 
as an article of faith or repute it requisite to the neces- 
sity of salvation.** We must not be surprised that 
the right of private judgment, which is mvolved in 
the prmciple thus broadly laid dovm, was neverthe- 
less far from being conceded to the extent that 
was desired by those who departed farthest trom 
Digitized by VjOOQIC 



BAP 



795 



the Church of Rome. In fact, each separate lection 
of Protestants claimed for itself to stand on the ground ' 
of holy Scripture, and was prepared to resist alDce the 
t3rranny of Rome and what is considered the licence of 
other l)odies of Protestants. Thus it happened that the 
Baptists, or as their opponents called them, the Ana- 
baptists (or, as Zwingli names them, Catabaptists), were 
strenuously opposed by all other sections of tne Christian 
Church, and it was regarded by almost all the earlv 
reformers to be the duty of the civil magistrate to punish 
them with fine and imprisonment, and even with death. 
There was, no doubt, some justification for this severity 
in the fact that the fanaticism which burst forth in the 
early times of the Reformation frequently led to insur- 
rection and revolt, and in particular that the leader of 
the ** peasant war " in Saxony, Thomas Miinzer, and 
probaoly many of his followers, were "Anabaptists. »» 
T)ne result of this severity is, that the records of the 
earljr history of the Anabaptists both on the Continent 
and in England are very few and meagre. Almost all 
that is currently known of them comes to us from their 
opponents. There is, however, much valuable informa- 
tion, together with detailed accounts of their sufferings, 
in the Dutch Martyrology of Van Braght, himself a 
Baptist, which bears the title Martelaers Spiegel der 
DoopS'gesinde an English translation of the latter half 
of which was published by Dr. Underbill, now secretary 
of the Baptist Missionary Society. Probably the 
earliest confession of faith of any Baptist community is 
that given by Zwingli in the second part of his Elenchus 
contra Catabafiistas^ published in 1527. Zwingli pro- 
fesses to give It entire, translating: it, as he says, ad ver- 
bum into Latin. He upbraids his opponents with not 
having published these articles, but declares that there 
Is scarcely any one of them that has not a written {descrip- 
turn) copyof these laws which have been so well con- 
cealed. These articles are in all seven. The first, which 
we give in full, relates to baptism :— 

'^ Baptism ought to be given to all who have been 
taught repentance and change of life, and who in truth 
believe that through Christ their sins are blotted out 
i^abolUa)^ and the sins of all who are willing to walk 
m the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and who are willing 
to be buried with him into death, that they may rise 
again with him. To all, therefore, who in this manner 
seek baptbm, and of themselves ask us, we will give it. 
By this rule are excluded all baptisms of infants, the 
great abomination of the Roman pontiff. For this article 
we have the testimony and strength of Scripture, we 
have also the practice of the apostles; which things we 
simply and also steadfastly will observe, for we are assured 
of tnem." 

The second article rebites to withdrawment or excom- 
munication, and declares that all who have given them- 
selves to the Jx)rd and have been baptized into the one 
body of Christ should, if they lapse or fall into sin, be 
excommtmicated. The third article relates to the 
breaking of bread ; in this it is declared that they who 
break the one bread in commemoration of the broken 
body of Christ, and drink of the one cup in commemora- 
tion of his blood poured out, must first be united 
together into the one body of Christ, that is, into the 
church of God. The fourth article asserts the duty of 
separation from the world and its abominations, amongst 
which are included all papistical and semi-papistical 
works. The fifth relates to pastors of the church. 
They assert that the pastor should be some one of the 
flock who has a good report from those who are with- 
out, ** His office is to read, admom'sh, teach, learn, ex- 
hort, correct, or excommunicate in the church, and to 
preside well over all the brethren and sisters both in 
pn^rer and in the breaking of bread; and in all things 



that relate to the body of Christ, to watch that it 
may be estabUshed and increased so that the name of 
God may by us be glorified and praised, and that the 
mouth of blasphemers may be stopped. ** The sixth 
article relates to the power of the sword. *• The 
sword,** they say, **is the ordinance of God outside 
the perfection of Christ, by which the bad is pnnished 
and slain and the good is defended.'* They further 
declare that a Christian ought not to decide or give 
sentence in secular matters, and that he ought not to 
exercise the office of magistrate. The seventh article 
relates to oaths, which they declare are forbidden by 
Christ 

However much we may differ from the points main- 
tained in these articles, we cannot but be astonished at 
the vehemence with which they were opposed, and the 
epithets of abuse which were heaped upon the unfortu- 
nate sect that maintained them. Zwingli, through 
whom they comedown to us, and who gives them, as he 
says, that the world may see that they are " fanatical, 
stolid, audacious, impious,** can scarcely be acooitted of 
unfairness in joining together two of them, — tne fourth 
and fifth,— thus making the article treat " of the avoid- 
ing of abominable pastors in the church ** though there 
is nothing about pastors in the fourth article, and noth- 
ing about abominations in the fifth, and though in a 
marginal note he himself explains that the first two 
copies that were sent him read as he does, but the other 
copies make two articles, as in fact they evidently are. 
To us at the present day it appears not merely strange 
but shocking, that the Protestant Council of ZUricn, 
which had scarcely won its own liberty, and was still in 
dread of the persecution of the Romanists, should pass 
a decree ordering, as Zwingli himself reports, that any 
person who administered anabaptism should be drowned ; 
and still more shocking that, at the time when Zwingli 
wrote, this cruel decree should have been carried inta 
effect against one of the leaders of the Anabaptists, 
Felix Mantz, who had himself been associated with 
Zwingli, not only as a student, but also at the com* 
mencement of the work of Reformation. No doubt 
the wild fanaticism of some of the opponents of infant 
baptism seemed to the Reformers to justify their 
severity. In 1537 Menno Simonis joined himself to the 
Anabaptists and became their leader. His moderation 
and piety, according to Mosheim, held in check the tur- 
bulence of the more fanatical amongst them. He died 
in ij}6i, after a life passed amidst continual dangers and 
conflicts. His name remains as the designation of the 
Mennonites, who eventually settled in the Netherlands 
under the protection of William the Silent, Prince of 
Orange. 

About the beginning of the 1 7th century the severe 
laws against the Puritans led many dissenters to emigrate 
to Holland. Some of these were Baptists, and an 
Englbh Baptist Church was formed in Amsterdam 
about the year 1609. In 161 1 thb church published ** a 
declaration of faith of English people remaining at 
Amsterdam in Holland.** The article relating to bap- 
tism is as folloM^ : — " That every church is to receive m 
all their members by baptism upon the confession of 
their faith and sins, wrought by the preaching of the 
gospel according to the primitive institution and practice. 
Ana therefore churches constituted after any other 
manner, or of any other persons, are not according to 
Christ*s testament. That baptism or washing with 
water is the outward manifestation of dying unto sin 
and walking in newness of life; and therefore in no 
wise appertaineth to infants.** They hold "that no 
church ought to challen^ any prerojjative over any 
other; ** mx. magistracy » ft hoty pidmaocc dL God;^ 



796 



BAP 



^that it is lawful in a just cause for the deciding of 
strife to take an oath bjr tne name of the Lord. " 

The last execution for heresy in England by burning 
aBve took place at Lichfield, April ii, 1612. The con- 
demned person, Edward Wightman, was a Baptist 

With the Revolution of l^, and the passing of the 
Act of Toleration in 1689, the histoiy of the persecu- 
tion of Baptists, as well as of otHer Protestant dissent- 
ers, ends. The removal of the remaining disabilities, 
such as those imposed by the Test and Corporation Acts 
repealed in 1828, has no special bearing on Baptists 
more than any other nonconformists. The ministers of 
the" three denop*naticns of dissenters,"— Presbyterians, 
Independents, and Baptists, — resident in London and 
the nei^borhood, had the privilege accorded to them of 
presenting on proper occasions an address to the sover- 
eign in state, a pnvil^e which they still enjoy. 
'^ The Baptists were early divided into two sections, — 
those who in accordance with Arminian views heki the 
doctrine of ** General Redemption," and those who, 
agreeing with the Calvinistic theor}', held the doctrine 
of *• Particular Redemptk>n ; " and hence they assumed 
respectively the names of General Baptists and Particular 
Baptists. In the last centu nr many of the General Bap- 
tists had gradually adopted the Anan, or, perhaps the 
Socinian theory; whilst, on the other hand, the Galvan- 
ism of the Particular Baptists had in many of the 
churches become more rigid, and approached or actually 
became Antinomianism. In 1770 the orthodox portion 
of the General Baptists formed themselves into a separ- 
ate association nnaer the name of the General Baptist 
New Connection, since which time the ** Old Connection " 
has gradually merged into the Unitarian denomination. 
Somewhat Icier many of the Particular Baptist churches 
became more moderate in their Calvinism, a result 
largely attributable to the writings of Andrew Fuller. 
Up to this time the great majority of the Baptists ad- 
mitted none either to membership or communion who 
were not baptized, the principal exception being the 
churches in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, founded or 
influenced by Bunyan, who maintained that difference of 
opinion in respect to water baptism was no bar to com- 
muniun. At the beginning of the present century this 

Question was the occasion of great and long-continued 
iscussion, in which the celebrated Robert Hall took a 
principal part. The practice of mixed communion grad- 
ually spr^ul in the aenomination. Still more recently 
many Baptist churches have considered it right to admit 
to full membership persons professing faith in Christ, 
who do not agree with them respecting the ordinance of 
baptism. Such churches justify their practice on the 
ground that they ought to grant to all their fellow 
Christians the same right of private judgment as they 
claim for themselves. It may not be out of place here 
to correct the mistake, which is by no means uncom- 
mon, that the terms Particular and General as applied 
to Baptist congregations are intended to express this 
difference in their practice, whereas these terms relate, 
as has been already said, to the difference in their doc- 
trinal views. The difference now under consideration is 
expressed by the terms " strict " and *' open," accordhig 
as communion (or membership) is or is not confmed to 
persons who, according to their view, are baptized. 

The Baptists early telt the necessity of providing an 
educated ministry for their congregations. Some of 
their leading pastors had been educated in one or other 
of the En^ish universities. Others had by their own 
efforts obtained a large amount of learning, amongst 
whom Dr. John Gill was eminent for his knowledge of 
Hebrew. He is said to have assisted Bishop Walton in 
the preparation of his Polyglot. Mr. Edward Terrill, 
from wnose Recordi we have already quoted, and who 



died in 1685, left a cODtidenble part of his estate far 
the instruction of young men for the ministry, under the 
superintendence of the pastor of the church now meet- 
ing in Broadmead, Bristol, of which he was a membei. 
Other bequests for the same purpose were made, and 
from the year 1720 the Baptist Academy, as it was then 
called, received young men as s^dents for the ministry 
amongst the Baptists. Fifty years later, in 1770, a 
society, called the Bristol Education Society, was formed 
to enlarge this academy ; and it was still further enlarged 
by the erection of the present Bristol Baptist Col^e 
about the year 181 1 . In the North of England a similar 
Education Society was formed in 1804 at Bradford, York- 
shire, which has since been removed to Rawdon near 
Leeds. In the metropolis a college was formed in 
1810 at Stepney, and was removed to Regent's Park 
in 18^6. I'tie Pastors* College, in connection wit^ 
the Metropolitan Tabernacle was instituted in 1856. 
Besides these, the General Baptists have maintained a 
college since 1797 which at present is carried on at Chil- 
well, near Nottingham. A theological institution, in- 
tended to promote the views of the ** Strict " Baptists, 
has lately (1866) been established at Manchester. There 
is also a Baptist theological institution in Scotland, and 
there are three colleges in Wales. The total number of 
students in these institutions may l>e reckoned to be 
about 20a 

The Baptists were the first denomination of Britbh 
Christians that undertook the work of missions to the 
heathen, which has become so prominent a feature in 
the religious activity of the present century. As early as 
the year 1 784, the N orthamptonshire Association of Bap> 
tist churches resolved to recommend that die first Monday 
of every month shoukl be set apart for prayer for the 
spread of the gospel, a practice which has since, as a 
German writer remarks, extended over all Protestant 
Christendom, and we may add over all Protestant Mis- 
sions. Six years later, in 1792, the Baptist Missionary 
Society was formed at Kettering in Northamptonshire, 
afler a sermon on Isaiah lit 2, 3, preached by the after- 
wards celebrated William Carey, tne prime mover in the 
work, in which he urged two points: " Expect great 
things from God ; attempt great things for God. " In 
the course of the following year Carey sailed for India, 
where he was johied a few years bter by Marshman and 
Ward, and the mission wxxs established at Serampore. 
The great work of Dr. Carey's life was the translation 
of the Bible into the various languages and dialects of 
India. The society's operations are now carried on, not 
only in the East, but in the West Indies, Africa and 
Europe. In 1873 there were employed 87 European 
missionaries and 229 native pastors and evangelists, at 
423 stations — the total number of members of churches 
being 32,4^^ The funds of the society amounted to 
upwards otV40,ooo, exclusive of the amount raised at 
mission stations. In 1816 the General Baptists estab- 
lished a missionary society, the operations of which are 
confined to India. It employs 16 missionaries, male 
and female, and 16 native preachers, and has an annual 
income of /i4,ooo. 

In regaroto church government, the Baptists agree 
with the Independents that each separate church is com- 
plete in itself, and has, therefore, power to choose its 
own mini.tcrs, and to make such regdations as it deems 
to be met :.i accordance with the purpose of its exist- 
ence, that is, the advancement of the religion of Christ. 
A comparatively small section of the denomination 
maintain that a •'plurality of ekiers" or pastors is re-* 
quired for the complete organization of every separate 
church. Thb is the distmctive peculiarity of those 
churches in Scotland and the north of En^and which are 
known as Scotch Baptists, The largest church of this 



BAR 



797 



sectum* consisting at present of 484 members, originated 
in Edinburgh in 1765, before which date only one Bap- 
tist church — that of Keiss in Caithness, formed about 
1750 — appears to have existed in Scotland. The greater 
number of churches are unite<I in associations voluntarily 
formed, all of them determined by geographical limits 
except the General Baptist Association, which includes 
all tne churches connected with that body. The asso- 
ciations, as well as the churches not in connection with 
them, are united together in the Baptist Union of Great 
Britain and Ireland, formed in 1813. The union, how- 
ever, exerts no authoritative action over the separate 
churches. One important part of the work of the union 
is the collection of information in which all the churches 
are interested. 

Some of the English settlers in all parts of the 
world have carried with them the principles and practice 
of the Baptists. The introduction of baptist views in 
America was due to Roger Williams, who emigrated to 
Boston, Massachusetts, in 16^0. Driven from Massa- 
chusetts on account of his dfenying the power of the 
civil magistrate in matters of religion, he formed a set- 
tlement and founded a state in Rhode Island, and hav- 
ing become a Baptist he formed, in 1639, the first Bap- 
tist church in America, of which he was also for a short 
time the pastor. It is impossible here to trace the his- 
tory of the Baptists in the United States. In 1873 
there are reported — churches, 20,520; ministers, 12,- 
589; members, 1,633,939. The great majority of the 
churches practice " strict " communion. Their mission- 
ary society is large and successful, and perhaps is 
best known in this country through the life of devoted 
labor of Dr. Judson in Burmah. There are many Bap- 
tist churches also throughout British America. In the 
more recent colonies of Australia and New Zealand a 
large number of Baptist churches have been formed 
during the last twenty-five years, and have been prin- 
cipally supplied with ministers from England. 

BAR, a town of Russian Poland, in the government 
of Podolia, 50 miles N.E. of Kaminetz. Population, 
8077. 

BAR-HEBRiEUS. Sec Abulfaragius, voL i. p. 
60. ^ 

BAR-LE-DUC, or Bar-sur-Ornain, the chief town 
of the department of Meuse in France. It occupies the 
declivity and base of a hill, on the river Omain, a trib- 
utary of the Marne, 125 miles E. of Paris, and consists 
of an upper and lower town, the latter being the more 
modem and respectable of the two. It is a railway sta- 
tion on the Paris-and-Strasburg line, and the Marne- 
and-Rhine canal passes in the immediate vicinity. 

BAR-SUR-AUBE, the chief town of an arrondisse- 
ment in the dej^rtment of Aube, in France. It is a 
station on the Paris-and-Mulhouse line, and is situated 
on the right bank of the River Aube, at the foot of 
Sainte Germaine, in a picturesque district, the wine of 
which is much esteemed. It is a pretty little town, with 
a few remains of its ancient fortifications. 

BAR-SUR-SEINE, the chief town of an arrondisse- 
ment in the department of the Aube, in France. In the 
Middle Ages Bar-sur-Scine was a place of considerable 
importance, and, according to Froissart, contained no 
fewer than 900 ** h6tels " or mansions. 

BARA BANKf, a district of British India under the 
jurisdiction of the Chief Commissioner of Oudh. It is 
bounded on the N.W. by the district of SUdpur; on 
the N. by BharAich; on the N.E. by GondA; on the E. 
by F2Jzii>id; on the S. by Sultdnpur md Rai BareH ; 
and on the W. by Lucknow. The district stretches out 
in a level plain interspersed with numerous //4/7f or 
marshes. In the upoer part of the district the soil is 
iandy, while in the lower part it is clayey, and pro- 



duces finer crops. The principal rivers are the Ghagri 
(Go^ra), formmg the northern boundary, and the 
Giimtf, flowing through the middle of the district. 

BARAHAT, a town of northern Hindustan, situated 
in the Himalayas, and within the native state of 
Garhw&I. The town was almost destroyed in 1803 by 
an earthquake — a calamity greatly aggravated by the 
houses having been built of large stones, with slated roofs. 

BARANTE, Amable Guillaume Prosper, Baron 
de Brugi^re, an eminent French statesman, and the 
learned historian of the dukes of Burgundy, was the 
son of an advocate, and was born at Riom, June 10, 
1782. At the age of sixteen he entered the Ecole Poly- 
tcchniquc at Pans, and at twenty obtained his first ap- 
pointment in the civil service. His abilities secured him 
rapid promotion, and in 1806 the post of auditor 10 the 
council of state was given to him. After being em- 
ploved in several political missions in Germany, Poland, 
and Spain, during the next two years, he became prefect 
of Vienne. At the time of the return of Napoleon I. 
he held the prefecture of Nantes, and this post he im- 
mediately resigned. About this period he married. On 
the second restoration of the Bourbons he was named 
councillor of state and Secretary-general of the Ministry 
of the Interior. About the same time he was elected to 
the Chamber of Deputies for the two departments of 
Puy-de-D6me and Loire Inf^rieure ; but in the follow- 
ing year, in consequence of being under the legal age of 
a deputy, as required by a new law, he lost his seat. 
After filling for several years the post of Director-gen- 
eral of Indirect Taxes, he was created, in 1819, a peer 
of France, and took an active and prominent part as a 
member of the opposition in the debates of the Upper 
Chamber. As a scholar his opus magnum is the //is- 
toire des Dues de Bour^ogne de la Maison de Valois^ 
which appeared in a series of volumes between 1824 and 
1828. It procured him immediate admission among the 
Forty of tne French Academy ; and its great qualities 
of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, and purity of 
style, have given him a place among the greatest French 
historians. 

BAR ANY A, a orovince in the kingdom of Hungary, 
extending over i960 square miles. It lies in the angle 
formed at the junction of the Danube and the Drave, is 
traversed by offshoots of the Styrian Alps, and con- 
tains one city, 13 market-towns, and 341 villages. The 
inhabitants number about 283,500, and consist of Mag- 
yars, Germans, Croatians, and Servians, a large propor- 
tion being Roman Catholics. 

BARANZANO, Jean Antoine, sumamed Re- 
demptiis^ an eminent natural philosopher and mathema- 
tician, was born in Piedmont m 1590, and died at Mon- 
targis in 1622. 

BArAS AT, a subdivisional town in the district of the 
24 Pargands, under the Jurisdiction of the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Bengal. For a considerable time Bdrdsat 
town was the headquarters of a joint magistracy, known 
as the '*Bdr4sat District," but in 1861, on a re-adjust- 
ment of boundaries, Bdrdsat district was abolished by 
order of Government, and was converted into a subdi- 
vision of the 24 Pargands. 

BARATlfeRE, or Barettier, John Philip, a very 
remarkable instance of precocious genius, was bom at 
Schwabach near Nuremberg on the loth January 1721. 
His early education was most carefully conducted by his 
father, Francis Barati^re, pastor of the French church at 
Schwabach, and so rapid was his progress that by the 
time he was five years of age he comd speak French, 
Latin, and Dutch with ease, and read Greek fluently. 
He then engaged in the study of Hebrew, and in three 
years was able to translate the Hebrew BiUe into Latin 
or French, or to retranslate these versions into the orig- 



798 



BAR 



jnal Hebrew. From his reading he collected materials 
for a dictionary of rare and difficult Hebrew words, 
with critical and philological observations ; and when he 
was about eleven years old translated from the Hebrew 
Tudela's Itinerarium. In his fourteenth year he was 
admitted Master of Arts at Halle, and received into the 
Royal Academy at Berlin. The last years of his short 
life he devoted to the study of histor^ and antiouities, 
and had collected materials for histones of the Thirty 
Years* War and of Antitrinitarianism, and for an In- 
quiry Concerning Egyptian Antiquities. His health, 
which had alwajrs l>een weak, ^ve way completely 
under these labors, and he died on the5lh October 1 740, 
aged 19 years and 8 months. He had published eleven 
separate works, and left a great quantity of manuscript 
materials. 

BARATYNSKI, Jewgenij Abramovitch, a dis- 
tinguished Russian poet, was bom in 1792. He was 
educated at the royal school at St. Petersburg, and then 
entered the army. He served for eight years in Fin- 
land, and appears to have got into disgrace on account 
of some foolish pranks which he had pla]red. During 
these years he composed his first poem, Eva^ which 
bears very manifest traces of his residence in Finland. 
Through the interest of friends he obtained leave from 
the Ciar to retire from the army, and settled near Mos- 
cow. There, so far as his broken health woukl allow 
him, he devoted his time to poetry, and completed his 
chief work. The Gipsy ^ which has been spoken of by 
critics as the best poem of its kind in the Knssian lan- 
guage, and as fully eoual, if not superior, to the finest 
productions of Pouscnkin. This was his only work of 
any extent; his health gave way completely, and he 
died in 1844 at Naples, whither he had gone for the 
sake of the milder climate. 

BARBACENA, a town of Brazil, in the province of 
Minas-Geraes, situated at the height of about 3500 
feet above the sea, in the Sierra Mantkiueira, 150 
miles N. W. of Rio de Janeiro. It has low nouses and 
broad streets, and contains a town-hall, a prison, a 
hospital, founded in 1852 by Antonio Ferreisa Armond, 
and a ** school of intermediate instruction,** in which 
French history and geometry are taught. The trade is 
principally in gold-dust, cotton, and coffee. Popula- 
tion of town and district, 14,00a 

BARBADOS, or Barbadoes, the most windward of 
the Caribbean Islands, 78 miles E. of St. Vincent, the 
island nearest to it in the Caribbean chain. It lies in 
the track of vessels, and is well adapted to be an entre* 
p6t of commerce. 1 1 has nearly the size and proportions 
of the Isle of Wight, being 21 miles in length, and 
about 14^ miles in its brosulest part. It has a superfi- 
cial area of 106,470 acres, or about 166 square miles, — 
70,000 acres (besides grass land) are under cultivation, 
and nearly 30,000 acres of sugar cane are annually cut 
The island is almost encircled by coral reefs, which in 
some parts extend seaward nearly three miles. There 
are two lighthouses, one on the south point and another 
on the south-east coast. A harbor light has also been 
placed on Needham's Point. The harbor Carlisle Bay, 
IS a large open roadstead. The inner harbor, or careen- 
age, for small vessels, is protected by a breakwater 
called the M olehead. Barbados presenu every variety of 
scenery, — hill and valley, smooth table-land and rugged 
rocks. From one point of view the land rises in a suc- 
cession of limestone and coral terraces, which indicate 
different periods of upheaval from the sea. From an- 
other there is nothing to he seen but a mass of abruptly 
rising rocks. The rainfall is caused, apart from eleva- 
tion, by the exposure of the land to those winds laden 
with moisture which strike the tsland at difiierent periods 
pf the year. 



The N.E. trade-wind blows for three-fourths of the 
year, and most of the rain comes from the same quarter. 
March is the driest of the months, and October the 
wettest ; the average rainfall for the former being 
\% inch, and for the latter 9 inches; Leprosy is not 
uncommon among the negroes, and elepluuntiasis is so 
frequent as to be known by the name of ** Barbados 
leg> 

Bridgetown is the capital and port of the island, and 
the centre of business activity. It contains about 
23(000 inhabitants. Over the creek which received the 
waters from the heights around the Indians had built a 
rude bridge. This was known for a long time after the 
British settlement as the Indian Bridge, but as the 
settlement grew, and after the old bridge had been 
replaced by a more solid structure, the place received the 
name of Bridgetown. The town was destroyed by fire 
in 1666, and rebuilt, principally of stone, upon a larger 
scale. It suffered again from nre in 1766 and 1845. 

The first settlers cultivated maize, sweet potatoes, 
plantains, and yams for their own consumption, and 
indigo, cotton wool, tobacco, ginger, and aloes for ex- 
port. Quantities of logwood, fustic, and li^um vit% 
were also shipped. But the adaptability of tne soil for 
cane becoming known, and the necessary knowledge for 
the manufacture of sugar being obtained, this article at 
once became the great staple of the colony. The value 
of property very largely increased. The half of an estate 
of 500 acres, 200 under cane, with buildings and appur- 
tenances, was sold for £^ooo about the year 1650, the 
laborers being slaves from Africa. 

It was while the rapid progress of the colony was 
attracting especial attention, and many persons of family 
and means, adherents of the royal cause, were finding it 
a refuge from the troubles at home, that Francis Lord 
Willoughby of Parham went out as governor, with the 
consent of King Charles II., who had been proclaimed 
in Barbados as soon as the news of the execution of 
Charles I. had arrived. Lord Carlisle had died, and 
his heir had been entrusted with the duty of paying his 
debts out of the revenue from the isknd. Lord Wil- 
loudiby agreed to take a lease from the new earl of the 
profits of the colony for twenty-one years, to ipxy Lord 
Carlisle one-half, and to accept the governorship, includ- 
ing that of the other islands in the Carlisle grant. 
Upon his arrival in 1650, notwithstanding the actix-e 
opposition of a party headed by Colonel Walrond, he 
procured the passing of an Act acknowledging the king's 
sovereignty, tne proprietary rights of the earl of Car- 
lisle, and his own interest derived from the latter. But 
the Parliament despatched Sir George Ajrscue with a 
souadron and considerable land forces, to reduce the 
island to submission to its authority. About the same 
time the famous Navigation Law was enacted, by which 
foreign ships were probibited from trading with British 
colonies, and imports into England and the dependen- 
cies were not allowed in forejgn bottoms. This restric- 
tion had a great effect upon Barbados, which depended 
upon foreign importation for a great deal of its provis- 
ions. Sir G. Ayscue's expedition appeared off Barba- 
dos in October 1651. After one unsuccess&d attempt, 
a landing was effected, and Lord Willoughby*s^ force 
was routed. The counsels of a moderate party in the 
island, however, prevailed, and a compromise was 
effected. A treaty was made declaring the authority of 
the Parliament, but containing provisions not at all 
unfavorable to the inhabitants, and reserving even to 
Lord Willoughby his rights in the island. During the 
Commonwealth prisoneis of war were sometimes sent to 
Barbados. The expedition of 1655 against St. 
Domingo and Jamaica under Penn and Venables 
was reinforced by a troop of/horse and J500 vol* 
Digitized by VjOi 



BAR 



799 



tmteers from Barbados. At the Restoration Lord 
'Willoodibj went out once more to Barbados and 
resumed his office. Several of the fitithftil adherents of 
the royal cause in the island were made baronets and 
knights, but the restrictions upon commercial intercourse 
which had been imposed by the Parliament were made 
more stringent Tnen doubts began to arise in the minds 
of the planters as to the title bv which they held their 
estates. They had created by their exertions a verv val- 
uable property, and the bare possibility of the earl of Car- 
lisle steppingm and dispossessing them caused much dis- 
content. The death ot Lord Carlisle brouc;ht matters to 
a crisis. An arrangement was made in 1063 by which 
the different claimants were satisfied, the proprietary or 
patent interest was dissolved, and the Crown exercised 
directly its rights, and undertook the government, al- 
though it was not till 1672 that the nomination of the 
<x>ancil was taken into the hands of the king. A duty 
of 4^ per cent upon the produce of the island was kv- 
ied in 1663 to satisfy the claims and defray the govern 
ment expenses. Lord Willoughby received a new com- 
mission, and the only practioil change effected in the 
constitution was that all laws were thenceforward 
made subject to a confirmation by the king. In 1665 
the colony successfully resisted an attack by the Dutch ; 
but in conducting an expedition aeainst the French in 
Guadalonpe in 1066, Lord Wiliot^hby was lost in a hur- 
ricane, and an eventful and occasionally brilliant career 
was thus prematurely ended. He was succeeded in the 

fovemment by his brother, Lord William Willoughby, 
uring whose governorship the dividon of the Caribbean 
Islands into Windward and Leeward was made. The 
hurricane of 1675 gave a serious check to the prosperity of 
the colony. An unsuccessful application was made to the 
home Government, to remit, on account of the distress 
that prevailed, the 4^ per oeot duty, which pressed very 
heavily upon the planters. The island had scarcely 
recovered from the effects of the hurricane when the 
supply of labor was restricted and its expense increased 
by the Royal African Comf^my, at the head of which 
was the duke of York, receiving a charter for the ex- 
clusive supply of slaves of the West India Islands. This 
company had great influence in the appointment <^ 
|[ovemors ; and in consequence of oppressive proceed- 
ings and depreciation q( the value of property, many 
families left the island. A number of persons implicated 
in the duke of Monmouth's rebellion were sent to 
Barbados and treated harshly. Duties upon sugar were 
imposed by the mother country, which were increased 
at the accession of James the IL, to 2s. 4d. per cwt on 
Muscovado, and to 7s. upon all sugars for common 
use. From the survey made by governor Sir Richard 
Dutton in 1683-4, it appears tnat the population con- 
sisted of 17,187 free, 2301 unfree and servants (prisoners 
of war and persons brought from England under en- 
gagements tor terms of years), and ^,602 slaves. The 
number of acres in useful possession was 90,517, and 
of sugar works rjS. These figures show how rapidly, 
in spite of all dimcnlties, the colony had grown in sixty 
years. 

The wars in Europe were reproduced upon a smaller 
scale, though with c^ual if not greater intensity, among 
the different nationalities in the West Indies. In 
such times the seas swarmed |with privateers ; and 
freights were so high as to induce the island L^isla- 
tnre to make a vain attempt to regulate them by 
law. The news of the peace of Ryswick was received 
with great joy, and matters remained quiet until 
the declaration of war against France and Spain in 
1702 revived privateering in West Indian waters. 
Events in the first half of the i8th century do not 
call for detailed description. It was the custom of 



the assembly to supplement the salary of the governor 
(which was paid by the Crown out of the 4^ per cent, 
'luty) by special grants, sometimes of large amount. 
But this dkl not prevent many constitutional conflicts 
between the assembly and the executive. Daring the 
war whidi commencra between England and France in 
1756, the West Indies witnessed much fighting, with its 
attendant suffering. In 1761 a determined attempt was 
made to break the power of France in the archipelago. 
Barbados entered with enthusiasm into the [M-oject. 
Gnadaloupe had been taken in 1759, and the principal 
effort now, under Admiral Rodney and General Monck- 
ton,was directed against Martinique. In 1762 that 
island surrendered. Barbados spent jfa^ooo in rais- 
ing and eqiupping her proportion of men in the attack- 
ing forces; and m 1765 the House of Commons voted 
/io,ooo as compensation for the expense incurred. By 
Uie Treaty of 1763, however, both these islands were 
restored to France. The consUnt wars had naturally 
an injurious effect upon Barbados. During the govern- 
orship of the Hon. Edward Hay, who was appomted m 
1773, differences of opinion arose as to the state of the 
island. When the war between England and the Amer- 
ican colonies began, the supply of provisions, upon 
which Barbados depended, necessarily stopped. The 
assembly addressed a petition to the king, praying for 
relief; through the interposition of the governor the re- 
lief was not unmediately granted, but in 1778, when the 
island was in a very deprosed state, the Britis^ ministry 
sent a quantity of provisions for sale at prime cost. 
With the advent of General Cunninghame as |K>vernor 
another series of contentious vears b^an. In the midst 
of disputes as to the right of the governor to exact cer- 
tain fees without the consent of uie assembly, a hurri- 
cane visited the island and caused much destruction of 
property. Parliament in 1782 granted /8o,ooo for re- 
lief, but an attempt to obtain the repeal of the 4>i per 
cent, duty was again unsuccessful. The French were 
regaining their amndency in the archipelago, and had it 
not been for the great naval victorjr won by Sir Georjge 
Rodnev, Barbados and the remainmg British colonies 
might have fallen to the enemy. As the i8th century 
closed, the prospect of the great final struggle with France 
overshadowed the colonies. The Barbadians energeti- 
cally put themselves in a state of defence, and at the 
same time voted and privately subscribed money to 
assist his Majesty to carry on the war. The peace of 
Amiens, in 1802, relieved anxiety for a brief interval, 
but hostilities were soon renewed. When in 1805 
Napoleon sent a squadron to die archipelago, with 4000 
soldiers, the crisis put Barbados on ner mettle. The 
French fleet was successfnl in exacting[ large sums of 
money from adjacent colonies. Admiral villeneuve, 
too, was on his way with a sail larger fleet and stronger 
force. But when Admiral Cochranearrived off Barbados 
the safety of the island was secured. Even amki the 
intense excitement of these events constitutional ques- 
tions were not forgotten. The governor could only es- 
tablish martial law when the enemy's fleet was in sight. 
A premature declaration drew forth a protest from the 
assembly, and the controversy was only ended when the 
Home Government asserted the full prerogative of the 
Crown to impose martial law when necessary for the 
safety of the island. The most memorable event in i8oq 
was a flying visit from Lord Nelson in search of a Frencn 
fleet. In October of the same year the battle of Tra- 
falgar was won, and Bridgetown soon after had its 
Trafalgar Square and its Nelson statue. In 1800 an 
expedition suled from Barbados, under Governor Beck- 
with, against the French in Martinique. After a bom- 
bardment of five days, that place was taken. Twelve 
months later Beckwith similarly attacked Gnadaloupe ; 



800 



BAR 



and when that island was conqtiered, after some hard 
fighting, the power of the French in the archipelago 
was again reduced to its lowest ebb. When the war 
ended in i8io in the West Indies, the British were 
supreme in that region. But danger was threatened 
from another source. The rupture between Great 
Britain and the United States in 1812 caused privateer- 
ing to be resumed to an extent that almost destroyed the 
commerce of the island, until the abdication of Napoleon 
and the peace with America in 1814 again brought re- 
lief to the colonies. The military history of Barbados 
ceased at the close of the Peninsular War. 

In the meantime Barbadian af&irs had attracted notice 
in Parliament In 1812a motion was made in the House 
of Commons that the 4}^ per cent, duty should be 
applied exclusively to local purposes. A considerable 
amoimt of this revenue had Men devoted to pensions to 
persons entirely unconnected wi the colony, and it was 
stated in the House of Commons that part of the money 
had been appropriated to the king's household in the 
reign of William III. Nor were the Barbadians them- 
selves bade ward in stating their grievances. In 1813 
they protested tigainst the importation of East Indian 
sugars into Great Britain, and also against the system of 
patent offices, by which non-resident officials were able 
to draw large sums from the island for services which 
they never performed. By Act of the Parliament 6 Geo. 
IV. c I Id., 1825, foreign commodities were admitted into 
the British possessions at moderate rates of duty if the 
countries sending those articles would give similar privi- 
leges to British ships. the United States refused 
reciprocity, the West Indian ports were closed agamst 
their vessels, and the United States retaliated by pro- 
hibiting all intercourse with British colonies. From the 
operation of the above-mentioned Act an important con- 
stitutional question arose. These duties, levied in the 
name of the king, were to be paid into the local treasury 
for the uses of tne colony, but the customs officers, of 
course appointed from home, received instructions to 
retain their own salaries from the revenue. This was 
denounc^ by the assembly as illegal, and after a long 
controversy it was agreed, in 1832, that 10 per cent, 
should be deducted to defray the expense of collecting 
the tax. Another question arbse which illustrates the 
relations between England and the colony. By an island 
Act of 1 77 J, a 2s. 6d. tonnage duty was imposed, but 
small vessels belonging to residents were only to pay on 
three voyages a year. By an Act of Parliament in 1832 
this exemption was abolished. The assembly protested 
and denied the right of Parliament to tax colomes which 
had no representative institutions ; but Lord Stanley, in 
1833, declared that this right existed, although its exer- 
cise was a matter of expediency. After the hurricane of 
183 1, which was perhaps the severest the island had ever 
experienced, causmg 1591 deaths and a destruction of 
property estimated at more than a million and a half 
sterling, another urgent appeal was made for the remis- 
sion of the 4)4 per cent, duty, but without effect, 
although /ioo,ocx> was granted by Parliament in i8j2 
for the relief of the islands which had suffered from tne 
visitation ; of this sum Barbados took half. By an Act 
of Parliament passed m 1838, the 4^ per cent, duty 
was at length removed, after having been in existence 
for 175 years. 

But a social revolution had begun which was destined 
to chance not so much the prosperity of the colony, as 
the conditions under which that prosperity arose. From 
the first settlement, of course, the one great want was 
labor. As the labor supply increased and became more 
certain the cultivation expanded, wealth was created, and 
the importance of the colony grew. In the early days 
white labor was employed, assisted by Indians obtained 



from other islands and the nuinlaiid of South Americ«« 
but when the sugar-cane began to be cultivated, negro 
slaves were imported from Africa. This slave trade, 
mostly conducted by companies or persons in England, 
continued until the year 1806, when it was stopjxd by 
Act of Parliament. In that year there were 60,000 
negroes in the island. This measure was, of course, the 
first step to the aboUtion of slavery itself. On the ist 
of August 1834, the great Act of Emancipation came 
into force, and four years of apprenticeship beam. 
Out of the 20 millions granted for compensation, Bar- 
bados received ;f i,720,3a5, bemg an average payment 
of ^20, 14s. on 83,176 sUves. In consequence of 
the large population and small extent of uncultivated 
land, emancipation had not in Barbados such a rdaxing 
effect upon tne industry of the negroes as it had in the 
more thinly-popnlated colonies. An efficient system of 
town and rural police vras, however, essential. From 
the time of emancipation the negroes multiplied rapidly. 
In 1844, out of a total population of 122,198, at least 
^,000 were negroes, among whom females were largely 
in excess. The density of the population in 187 1 wns 
therefore 066 to the square mile. 

BARBAROSSA, meaning red'beard, the name of two 
celebrated Turkish corsairs of the i6th century. They 
were the sons of a Roumelian sipahi who had settled in 
Mitylene after the capture of that island by Mahomet 
1 1. , and who appears to have embraced Islamism. The 
elder of the two is generally called Amch, Horuk, or 
Ouradjh; the name of the vounger was Khizr, but he 
was afterwards called by tne Sultan Khair-ed-iieen^ 
meaning " one good in the faith," whidi was corrupted 
by the Christians into Hayraddin. The brothers early 
betook themselves to pira(^ ; and after various successes 
and revenes, they acquirea suffident wealth and renown 
to enable them to fit out a small fleet with which they 
ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean, and became 
the pests of that sea. A richly laden vessel which they 
presented to the sultan at Constantinople procured for 
them honorary caftans and recognition of their services. 
About the year 15 16, after having been for some time in 
the service of the be^ of Tunis, they began to acquire 
considerable possessions on the coast of Africa. 
Hayraddin seized the island of Shershel, and Amch 
gained a footing in Algiers. The latter began to extend 
his conquests into the district of Telmessan or Tlemcen, 
and was resisted by the Arabs, who summoned the 
Spaniards of Oran to their assistance. Aruch fell in 
battle in 15 18, and was succeeded at Algiers by Hayrad- 
din, who, after the reigning prince, Selun, was removed 
(in what way is somewhat doubtful), consolidated his 
power by placing himself under the Sublime Porte. 
Sol3rman, who was delighted at obtaining so much terri- 
tory at such a small cost, conferred upon Ha^rraddin the 
title of Begler-beg of Algiers. The power of'^the pirates 
rapidly increased; Algeciras, a small island opposite 
Algiers, was taken from the Spaniards after an obstinate 
resistance, and was united to the mainland by a mole. 
The coasts of the Mediterranean were completely at the 
mercy of Barbarossa, who carried off immense numbers, 
of slaves. In 1-533, "when Solyman was about to make 
war ujwn his grea rival, Charles V., Hayraddin Joined 
him with a number of ships. He was received with 
great honor, and made admiral {capUan-pashd) of the 
fleet. His greatest exploit was the capture of Tunis, in 
which he obtained a footing by adopting the cause of a 
rival i>rince. As soon as he had deposedMuley Hassan, 
the reigning sovereign, he seized the town for himself 
and heui it despite the resistance of the people. Charles 
v., however, sent out a great fleet, under Andrea 
Doria, who retook the town after a protracted siege. 
Barbarossa escaped to Algiers, collected his fleet, ud 



^ 



BAR 



8oi 



«(^ swept the seas. He {pondered the coasts of Italy, 
captured Castelnuova, and inflicted a severe defeat on 
Doria. He died at Constantinople 4th Toly 1546. (See 
Von Hanuner, GesckichU des Osmanuchen Retches^ iii. 
164, seq.; also Blackwood^ s Magazint^ voL Hi.) The 
Emperor Frederick I. is very frequently designated by 
surname Barbarossa. 

BARBARY, the ^eral designation of that part of 
Northern Africa which is bounded on the E. by Egypt, 
W. by the Atlantic, S. by the Sahara, and N. by the 
Mediterranean, and comprises the states of Marocco, 
Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli. The name is derived from 
the Betbers^ one of the most remarkable races in the 
region. (See Afiuca, Algeria, Marocco, Tripou, 
Tunis.) 

BARBASTRO, a fortified city of Spwn, m the 
province of Huesca, on the River Vero, near its junction 
with the Cinca. 

BARBAULD, Mrs. Anna Letitia, disdnguished 
pedagogue and author, was bom at Kibworth-Harcourt, 
m Leicestershire, on the 20th June 1743, and died on 
the 9th March 1825. A collected edition of her works, 
with Memoir, was published by her neice, Miss Lucy 
Aikin. 

BARBER, one whose occupation b to shave or trim 
beards. In former times the barber's craft was dignified 
with the title of c profession, being conjoined with the 
art of surcnery. In France the Iwrber-surgeons were 
separated from the perruquiers, and incorporated as a 
distinct body in the reign of Louis XIV. In Eneland 
barbers first received incorporation from Edward IV. in 
1461. By 32 Henry VIII. c. 42, they were united with 
the company of surgeons, it being enacted that the bar- 
bers should confine themselves to the minor operations 
of blood-Iettine and drawing teeth, while the surgeons 
were prohibited from "barbery or shaving." In 1745 
barbers rmdcurgeons wcr:: separated into distinct corpo- 
rations by \Z George II. c 15. The barber's shop was 
a favorite resort of idle persons; and in addition to its 
attraction as a focus of news, a lute, viol, or some such 
musical instrument, was always kept for the entertain- 
ment of waiting customers. The barber's sign con- 
sisted of a striped pole, from which was suspended a 
basin, symbols the use of which is still preserved. The 
fillet round the pole indicated the ribbon for bandagmg 
the arm \.\ bleeding, and the basin the vessel to receive 
the blood. 

BARBERINI, the title of a powerful femily, origi- 
nally of Tuscan extraction, who settled in Florence dur- 
ing the early part of the nth century. They acquired 
•great wealth and influence, and in 1623 Maffeo Barber- 
ini was raised to the papal throne as Urban VIIL He 
made his brother, Antonio, and two nephews, cardi- 
nals, and gave to a third nephew, Taddeo, the prmcipal- 
ity of Palestrina. 

BARBEYRAC, Jean, an able writer on the prind- 
pies of natural law, was the nephew of Charles Barbey- 
rac, a distinguished physician of Montpellier, and was 
bom at B^ziers in Lower Languedoc, in 1674. 

BARBIERI, Giovanni Francesco (otherwise called 
GUERCINO, from his souinting), an eminent historical 
minter, was bom at Cento, a village not far from 
Bologna, in 1500. His most famous piece is thought 
to be the Sta. Petronilla, which was painted at Romefor 
Gr^oryXV. and is now in the Capitol. Guercino 
continued to paint and teach up to the time of his 
death in 1666. He had amassed a handsome fortune 
by his labors. 

BARBIERI, Paolo Antonio, a celebrated painter 
of still life and animals, the brother of Guercino, was 
born at Cento in 1596. He chose for his subjects 
fruitS; flowers, insects, and animals, which he painted 



aOer nature with a lively tint of color, neat tenderness 
of pencil, and a strong character of truth and life. He 
died in 1640. 

BARBOUR, John, the author of the great Scottish 
national poem The Bruce^ was bom, probably in Aber- 
deenshire^ about the beginning of the 14th century. 
He was a contemporsuy of Chaucer and Gower ; but so 
little is known of his life, that the very date of his 
birth can be only approximately given as about 1316. 
In I357» as we leam from a sate-conduct permitting 
him to ^it Oxford for the purpose of study, he held 
the position of archdeacon of Aberdeen. In 1364 he 
was again permitted to enter England for a similar pur- 
pose, and m 1368 he received Tetters of safe-conduct 
authorizing him to pass through England on his way to 
France, whither, it may be conjectured, he was pro- 
ceeding in order to visit the famous university of Paris. 
From this date to his death, which took place probably 
in March 1395, notices of him are slightly more numer- 
ous. In 1373 he is described as holding the office o^ 
clerk of audit of the king's household. About the 
same time he must have been busily engaged in the 
composition of his great work, for, as he nimself tells 
us, his poem was more than half finished in 1375. 

A sum of ten pounds, which was pakl to tne poet by 
the king's orders in 1377, was in all prol^bility a royal 
gift on the completion of the work . Barbour seems in- 
deed to have been well treated by his sovereign ; he re- 
ceived a perpetual annuity of twenty shillings, which he 
bequeathed to the dean and chapter of Aberdeen as pav- 
ment of a yearly mass to be said for his soul), tithes of the 
parish of Kayne in the Garioch, and a crown wardship, 
always a lucrative office in these times. A further bounty 
of ten pounds a year during life, granted in 1388, was 
probablv a reward on the completion of the poet's 
second far^ work. The Bruce. The cessation of pay- 
ment of tms annuity enables us to fix with some accuracy 
the date of Barbour's death. 

The Bruce^ which is Barbour's principal poem, al- 
though it is almost the sole authonty for the events of 
the period, is not to be considered as merely a rh^ing 
chronicle. His theme was freedom and the liberation of 
his country from the dominion of a foreign people. The 
age of Bruce was the age of Scottish chivalry, and the 
kmg himself presented the most perfect model of a 
valiant knight. With such a crisis and such a hero, 
therefore, it is not surprising that Barbour should have 
achieved a work of lasting fame. 

The poem begins with an account of the succession to 
the Scottish crown after the death of Alexander III. In 
this part of his poem Barbour has made a slight anachro- 
nism. He niakes his hero compete with John Baliol for 
the crown of Scotland, while it was his grandfather, the 
Lord of Amumdale, who unsuccessfully contested the 
right. Then follows a lamentable account of the deso- 
lation of the country and the oppression of the people 
by the English. Bruce's energetic actions to free liis 
country, and ins romantic adventures, which form so in- 
teresting an episode in Scottish histoir, are narrated 
with great minuteness, down to the battle of Bannock- 
bum, which is described with all its interesting details. 
At this point the national epic properly ends ; but Bar- 
bour further relates the expedition of Bruce to Ireland, 
and the exploits of Douglas and Randolph on the 
borders, and concludes with an account of the deaths of 
King Robert and his gallant knights. 

BARBUDA, one of the lesser Antilles or Caribbean 
islands, is 10 miles in length by about 8 in breadth, 
presenting a very flat surface, covered to a great extent 
with woods, in which deer abound. Many varieties of 
shell-Bsh and other flsh are found on the coast, which is 
also frei|uented by large flocks of water-fowl. The part 



802 



BAR 



of the island under cnldvttion Is fertile ; com, cotton, 
sugar, tobacco, and indigo are grown ; and the rearing 
of cattle is one of the prindpaT occupations. So salu- 
brious is the climate that Barbuda serves as a kind of 
sanitarium for the adjacent islands. The inhabitants, 
who number less than 2000, are mainly negroes. The 1 
island was annexed to Britain in 1638, isA was bestowed 
in 1680 on the Codrington family, in whose possession 
it still remains. The north point is in lat. 17^ 33' N. 
and long. 61° 43' W. 

BARCA, a maritime district of Northern Africa, 
which formerly belonged to Tripoli, but was raised in 
1869 to be a separate province immediately dependent 
on Constantinople. It extends from the Gulf of Sert 
(the ancient Syrtes) to the Egyptian frontier, and has 
an area of about 60,700 square miles. This territory i^ 
traversed from east to west by a mountain chain vary- 
ing in height from 400 or 500 to upward of 1800 feet. 
A great part of Baitm, particularly toward the coast, is 
very fertile, abounding; with excellent pasturage, and 
producing large supplies of com. The chief town is 
^ngazL 

BARCA, an ancient city in Cyrenaica, and withm 
the above district, to whicn it gave name. Its ruins 
are now known as El-Medinah, It was situated be- 
tween Cyrene (now GrennaJi) and Hesperides (now 
BeHgazi)t about 1 1 miles distant from the sea, on the 
top of the rising ground that overlooks the Syrtes. It 
was founded about ^^4 D.C. by a colony from Cyrene, 
who fled from the ill-treatment of Arcesilans II., and 
obtained the co-operation of a number of Libyans. 

BARCELONA, formerly the capital of the kmgdom 
of Catalonia, and now the chief town of the Spanish 
province to which it gives its name, is a flourishing city 
and seaport on the shore of the Mediterranean, between 
the rivers B^sos {Btttulo) on the north and the Llobre- 
gat {Rubricahis) on the south. It stands on the slop- 
ing edge of a small but fertile plain now covered with 
villas and gardens. 

The educational institutions of Barcelona have from 
an early period been numerous and important. The 
university (Universidad Literaria) was originally 
founded in 1430 by the mi^gistracy of the city, and re- 
ceived a bull of confirmation from Pope Nicholas V. in 
1450, possessing at that time four faculties and thirty- 
one cnairs, all endowed by the corporation. It was 
suppressed in 1714, but restored in 1841, and now oc- 
cupies an extensive building in the new town. There 
are, besides, an academy of natural sciences, a college 
of medicine and surgery, — confirmed by a bull of 
Benedict XIII. in 1400, — an academy of fine arts, a 
normal school, a theolo^cal seminary, an upper indus- 
trial school, an institution for the education of deaf- 
mutes, a school of navigation, and many minor estab- 
lishments. Gratuitous instruction of a very high order 
is afforded by the Board of Trade to upwards of two 
thousand pupils. 

The inhabitants of Barcelona are not only an intel- 
ligent and industrious, but a gay and pleasure-loving 
people. Means of public recreation are abundantly sup- 
plied. There are no fewer than fourteen theatres of 
more or less pretension, the two most important being 
the Teatro Principal and the Teatro del Liceo. 

Barcelona has long been the industrial and commer- 
cial centre of Eastern Spain — a pre-eminence which 
dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. It was the 
rival of Genoa and Venice, and in renown its hardy 
mariners were second to none. The origin of the fa- 
mous code of maritime laws known as the Consolado del 
mar is usually, though not with absolute certainty, 
ascribed to its merchants; and it is pretty well estao- 
ii^hed that they were th« first to epipu>y the method of 



marine insnrance. We find them at an early period 
trading, not only with the ports of the Mediterranean, 
but with the Low Countries and England, on the one 
hand, and with Constantinople and Damascus, £g3rpt 
and Armenia, on the other, — entering into treaties 
with kin^ and magistracies, and establishing in all im- 
pOTtant places consuls to look after their interests. The 
prosperitjr so deeply rooted contmued through numer- 
ous vicissitudes till the emancipation of the Spanish 
American colonies, when a comparative decline set in. 
This, however, proved only temporary, and, in spite of 
the disastrous consequences of the French invasion, and 
the various revolutions of the country since then, Bar- 
celona has no need to look back with regret to the past. 
A great variety of industries are now carried on — the 
most important beine the spinning and weaving of wool, 
cotton, and silk. Of the numerous guilds that were 
anciently formed in the dty an interesting list is to be 
found in Capmany. It carries on a la^ shipping 
trade. 

According to traditions preserved by the Roman 
writers, Ba?oelona owed its origin, or at least its first 
importance, to the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Baxca, 
after whom it was called Sarcino, It received a Roman 
colony, and was known by the name of Faventia. 
After having shared in the various vicissitudes of the 
barbaric invasions, it became the capital of a dukedom 
under Louis the Piotis, and not long after began to give 
the title of count to a family that soon made itself inde- 
pendent. In 985 the dty was captured by the Moors, 
out not long after it was recovered by Count BorelL 
In 1 151 Raymund Berehguer married the daughter of 
Ramiro II. of Aragon, and thus the countship of Bar- 
celona, was united to that kingdom by his son. From 
the successive princes of the line the dty received 
many privileges. In 1640 Barcelona was the centre of 
the Catalonian rebdlion a^inst Philip IV. , and threw 
itself under French protection. In 10J2 it returned to 
its allegiance, but was captured by the duke of Ven- 
d6me in 1697. At the peace of Ryswick, in the same 
year, it was restored to the Spanisn monarchy. Dur- 
ing the War of the Sucession Barcelona adhered to the 
house of Austria. The seizure of Montjuich in 1705 
and the subsequent capture of the dty by the earl of 
Peterborough formed one of his most briUiant achieve- 
ments. In 1 714 it was taken after an obstinate resist- 
ance by the duke of Berwick in the interests of Louis 
XIV., and at the close of the war was reluctantly 
reconciled to the Bourbon dynasty. At the commence- 
ment of Bonaparte^s attempt on the liberty of Spain, 
the French troops obtained possession of the fortress, 
and kept the dty in subjection. Since then it has shared 
in most of the revolutionary movements that have swept 
over Spain, uid has frequently been distinguished by 
the violence of its eivic commotions. 

BARCLAY, Alexander, an English poet, was bom 
probably about 14^. His nationality has been matter 
of much literary dispute, but the evidence on the whole 
seems to point to the conclusion that, though he spent 
theereaterpart of his life in England, he was a native 
of Scotland. The place of his education is equally 
doubtful ; he studied at one of the great English univer- 
sities, but at which has not yet been settled by his 
biographers. He recdved a benefice from the provost 
of Oriel College, Oxford, and it might therefore be in- 
ferred that he had been a student at that place. But 
Oxford is nowhere referred to in his writings, whereas 
Cambridge is mentioned once. He appears to have * 
travelled on the Continent after completing his univer- 
sity course, and on his return received an appointment 
as chaplain in the collegiate church at Ottery St Mary 

in Pevopshir«. (ie afterwards b^cAme a Bcnedictm 



BAR 



803 



monk of the monastery of Ely, and at length assumed 
the habit of St. Francis at Canterbury. Having sur- 
vived the dissolution of the monasteries, he becanae 
successively vicar of Much-Badew in Essex, and, in 
1546, of Wokey in Somersetshire ; and a few months 
before his ' death he was presented by the dean and 
chapter of Canterbury to tne rectory of All- Saints in 
Lombard Street. As he retained some of his prefer- 
ments in the reign of Edward VI., it is presumed that 
he must have complied with the changes of the times. 
He died at an advanced age in the year 1552, and was 
interred at Croydon. Barclay wrote at a oeriod when 
the standard of English poetry was extremely low; and, 
as excellence is always comparative, this arcumstance 
may partly enable us to account for the high reputation 
which he enjoyed among his contemporaries. At the 
same time his best woriC being a comprehensive and 
easily understood satire on the manners of the times, 
naturally acquired a wide popularity, and was exten- 
sively read. The title given toit was the Ship o/FooUs^ 
and It was first printed by Pinson in 1 500. 

BARCLAY, John, a distinguished scholar and 
writer, was bom, Janoary 28, 1582, at Pont-ii-Mousson, 
where his father William Barclay (see below) was pro- 
fessor of civil law. Educated at the Jesuits' college, he 
gave evidence of remarkable ability at an early age, and 
was only nineteen when he published a commentary 
upon the Thebats of Statins. The Jesuits were natur- 
ally desirous that he should enter their order, but to 
this both himself and his father were averse. The jeal- 
ous enmity of the order was roused against them in 
consequence of this refusal, and in 1603 both left 
France and crossed over to England. In 1610 he 
edited an important treatise left b)r his father, De P<h 
testate Papa^ which involved him in controversy with 
the famous Cardinal Bellarmin. In 1614 appeared the 
wittiest and most interesting part of the Satyricoity 
entitled Icon Aninwrum, which gives a critiaU sur- 
vey of the varied manners and diaracteristics of the 
several European nations. It has been frequently 
reprinted. In 1616, after a short stay in Paris, he pro- 
ceeded to Rome, where he continued to reside till his 
death on I2th August 162 1. The Argents^ his last 
work, a long Latin romance, sometimes looked on as a 
political allegory, was very TOpular. It is sakl to have 
been warmly aamired by Richelieu and Leibnitz, while 
Cowper, Pisracli, and GDlcridp speak of it in terms of 
high admiration. 

BARCLAY, John, M.D., an eminent anatomist, 
was bom in Perthshire in 1760, and died at Edinburgh in 
1826. 

BARCLAY, John, founder of a small sect in the 
Scotch Church ^lled Bereans or Bardayites, was bom 
in Perthshire in 1734, and died at Edinburgh iii 179^ 
Neither his writings, which were collected in three vol- 
wies, nor the sect formed by him, are of much impor- 
tance. His adherents were ccUed Bereans, because 
toey regulated their conduct as the inhabitants of Berea 
arc said to have done, by diligently searching the Scrip- 
tures. 

BARCLAY, Robert, one of the most eminent 
^ters belengingto the Society of Friends, or Quakers, 
was bom in 1648 at Gordonstown in Morayshire. He 
was sent to finish his education in Paris, and it luppears 
he was at one time inclined to accept the Roman 
Catholic faith. In 1667, however, he followed the ex- 
ample of his father. Colonel Barclay of Urie, and jomed 
^he recently formed Society of Friends. He was an 
^dent theological student, a man of warm feelings and 
considerable mental power, and he slx>n came promi- 
Jjutly forward as a leading apologist of the new doctrine. 
<HQedio 1690 at the early age of fortyHwo. His 



Apology is still the most important manifesto of the 
Quflicer society. Translations of it into foreign languages 
have also appeared. 

BARCLAY, WiLUAM, LL.D., a writer on dvilhiw, 
was born in Aberdeenshire in the year 1541. He was 
a man of considerable ability, and nis legal writings are 
still valued. In his i>olitical opinions he was direcdy 
opposed to his illustrious countryman Buchanan, and 
was a strenuous defender of the rights of kings; his 
own speculations on the principles of government are 
best known to some from an incidental confutation by 
Locke, in his Treatises on Government, 

BARCLAY DE TOLLY, Michael, a Russian 
prince and general, highly distinguished in the wars 
with Napofeon, was oom in Livonia in I7^. He 
was a descendant of the old Scotch family of Barclay, 
a branch of whom had settled in Russia in the 17th 
century. He was adopted by General Vermoulen, and 
entered a Russian cuirassier regiment when very 
young. In 1788 and 1789 he served against the Turks, 
and in the following years against th^ Swedes and 
Poles. In 1806, when Russia took up arms ogxiinst Na- 
poleon, he commanded the advanced guard at the bat- 
tle of Pnltusk. At Eylau he lost an arm, and was 
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. In 1808 
ne commanded against the Swedes, and in 1809 by a 
rapid and daring march for two days over t' e ice he 
surprised and seized Umeo. In fSio he wr.:^ made min- 
ister of war, and retained the post till 18*3. '« here 
was keen opposition to the appomtment of a foreigner 
as commanaer-in-chief, epd after the defeat of Smo- 
lensk, the outcry was so great that he resigned his office 
and took a subordinate place imder the veteran Kutu- 
soif. On the death of tne latter he was reappointed to 
the supreme command, and fought at the battles of 
Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipsic He was unable to 
bring up his forces in time for the Ix^tde of Waterloo, 
but marched into France and took part ia the occupa- 
tion of Paris. He was rewarded f jc his services by 
being made prince and field-marshal. He died in 18 18 
at Insterburg, in Prussia, while on his way 10 ihe Bo- 
hemian baths. 

BAR-COCHEBAS, or Bar-cochab {Son of a Star), 
a celebrated Jewish leader in the insurrvcf jon against 



Hadrian, 131-13^ A.D., whose rcr.l name vras Simeon. 
The events of his "" * * 
Jews. ^ 



life belong to the .' .*>tory of the 



BARD, from the Welsh bardd, is the name applied 
to the ancient Celtic poets, though the word is some- 
times loosely used as sjmonymous with poet in general. 
So far as can be ascertained, the titb hards^ and some 
01 the privileges peculiar to that cl^ of poets, are to 
be found only among Celtic peoples. The name itself 
is not used by Oeaar in his account of the manners and 
customs of Gaul and Britain, but he appears to ascribe 
:he functions of the bards to a section of the Druids, 
with whkh class they seem to have been dusely con- 
nected. Later Latin anthois used the term BardiBs 
the recognized title of the national poets or singers 
among the peoples of Gaul and Britain. Ift Gaul, how- 
ever, the mstitution soon disappeared; the purely Celtic 
peoples were swept back by the waves of Latin and 
Teutonic conquest, and finally settled in Wales, Ireland, 
Brittany, and the north of Scotland. I'here is clear 
evidence of the existence of bards in all these places, 
though the known relics belong almost entirely to Wales 
and Ireland, where the institution waib more distinctively 
national In Wales they formed ati oi]ganized society, 
with hereditary rights and privileges. They were treated 
with the utmost respect, and were exempt from taxes or 
miliury service. Their special duties were to celebrate 
the vigtories of their people, and to sing hymns of praise 



8o4 



B A R 



to God. In Ireland also the bards were a distinct class 
with peculiar and hereditary privileges. They appear to 
have been divided into three great sections: tne first 
celebratMl victories and sang hymns of praise; the 
second chanted the laws of the nation ; the third |;ave 
poetic genealogies and family histories. The Irish 
bards were held in high repnte, and frequently were 
brought over to Wales to give instruction to the singers 
of tlut country. 

BARDESANES, or Bar Deisan, a celebrated 
Gnostic, was a native of Edessa in Mesopotamia, and 
appears to have flourished during the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius. Very little b known of his life. He is said 
to have held a disputation with Apollonius, a philosopher 
in the train of Lucius Verus, and he is known to nave 
written against the Mardonite and other heresies. 
There is consideralile doubt whether he was ever a 
disciple of Valentinus, but it is acknowledged that he 
never ceased to belong to the Christian church. How- 
ever seriously his principles, if rigidly interpreted, 
might conflict with the doctrines of Christianity, he did 
not regard himself as opposed to that faith, and he was 
generally considered one of its best defenders. He was 
especially famed for his hymns, fragments of which are 
still extant. Of his other works there seems to remain 
only a tr mtisc Ott FaU^ a portion of which was pre- 
served by Eusebius, while trie whole has been printed 
from a Syriac MS. with English translation by Cureton 
{Spicilegium Syricuum^ Lond. 1855). 

BARDILI, Christoph Gottfried, a German meta- 
physician, distinguished bv his opposition to the system 
of Kant, was born at Buiubeuren in Wiirtemburg, in 
1761, and died at Stuttgart in 1808. 

BARDSEY {i.e.. Bard's IsUnd), or in Welsh Ynys 
Enlli, the Island of the Current, is situated at the 
northern extremity of Cardigan Bay. 

BARD WAN (sometimes spelled Burdwan), a division 
or commissionership in India under the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Bengal, comprising the districts of Bardw&n, 
Hugli, with Howrah, Mkinapur, Binkurd or West 
Baldwin, and Bfrbhtlm. It is bounded on the N. by 
the district of the Santil Parganfis in the Bhigalpur 
division, and Murshiddbid in tne Rdjshdhi division ; on 
the E. by the Presidency districts of Nadiyd, and the 
24 Pargands ; on the S. by the Bay of Bencal, and on 
the W. by the native tributary state of Moriihanj, and 
the district of Mdnbhum in theChhotdNdgpur division. 

BardwAn, an important district in the division of 
the same name, tmder the Lieutenant-Governor of Ben- 
gal. It is bounded on the N. bv the districts of Bfrb- 
hum and Murshiddbdd, from which it is separated by 
the River Ajai; on the E. by the districts of Nadiyd and 
HugU, the River Bhdgirathf separating it from the 
former ; on the S. bv the districts of HiigU and Mid- 
napur ; and on the W. by the districts of Bdnkurd and 
Manbhi!im. < 

BardwAn, the principal town of the district of the 
same name, situated on the route from Calcutta to 
Benares, and a station on the East Indian Railway. 
Jaojuemont formerly described Bardwdn town ** as con- 
sisting of an assemblage of crowded suburbs, of wretched 
huts, with walls of mud, and covered with thatch, hav- 
ing no temples of striking aspect, and few lumdsome 
houses." At the present time Bardwdn is a well-built, 
busy town, with commodious streets, dotted with large 
tanks, and surrounded by luxuriant |[ardens. The Man- 
drdjd*s palaces are handsome buildings, furnished in 
the English style, with elegant mirrors and nick-nacks 
from Paris, anid some tolerable oil paintings. Bardwdn 
forms the headquarters of the civil authorities of the 



the judge, magistrate, and collector, and their Euro- 
pean and native ass i sta n ts. 

BAR£:G£S, a small town situated between two 
mountain chains in the department of Hantes Pyrte^es 
in France, about 25 miles from Bagn^res de Bigorre. 
It is celebrated for its warm sulphurous springs, first 
brought into notice by the visit of Madame dn Main- 
tenon in 1676, the teniperature of which varies from 
88<^ to u l^ Fahr. The benefit of the waters is granted 
to the army at the expense of the Government, which 
erected a bath-house m 1864. During the winter the 
town is so exposed to avalanches that only a few of the 
residents remain. The town gives its name to a silk- 
fabric (bar^) which is principally manufactured in 
Bagn^res de Bigorre. 

BARELl, or Bareilly, a Strict of British India in 
the Rohilkhand division, under the jurisdiction of the 
Ll -Governor of the North- Wes tern Provinces. It is 
bounded on the N. by Kumdon district and the inde- 
pendent state of Nepdl; on the E. by a portion of the 
district of Shdhiahdnpur, and the district of Lakhimpur 
in Oudh; on tne S. by the districts of Buddon and 
Shdhjahdnpur; and on the W. by the native state of 
Rdmpur and Buddon. Barelf is a level country, watered 
by many streams, the general slope bein^ towards the 
south. The soil b fertile and highhr cultivated, groves 
of noble trees abound, and the viUa^ have a neat, 
prosperous look. A tract ©f forest jungle, called the 
Tami, stretches along the extreme north of the district, 
and teems with large game, such as tigers, bears, deer, 
wild pigs, &C. 

BarelI \bareiUy\^ the principal place in the district 
of the same name, situated on tne left bank of the Jud, 
a tributary of the Western Rdmgangd, in N. lat 28*=^ 
23', E. lonjg. 79^ 28'. It is a large town, with a brisk 
and lucrative commerce, and manufactures consisting 

Srincipally of house furnitures, such as chairs, tables, 
:c 

BAR£RE DE VIEUZAC, Bertrand, one of the 
most notorious members of the French National Con- 
vention, was bom at Tarbes m Gascony, September 10, 
1755. He was brought up to the profession of the 
law, and was admitted advocate to the parliament of 
Toulouse. He wrote several trivial pieces, panegyrics of 
Louis XVI., Montesquieu, J. J. Rousseau, and others 
which obtained prizes from provincial academies, and a 
dissertation on a Latin inscription which procured him 
membership of the Academy of Floral Games of 
Toulouse. Such was the smooth beginning of a career 
which ultunately became unparalleted for meanness, 
cowardice, lying, and atrocious cruelty. At the age of 
thirty he married. Four years later, in 1789, he was 
elected deputy by his own province to the States-general, 
which met in May. He had made his first visit to Paris 
in the preceding year. His personal ap];)earance, his 
manners, social equalities, ana liberal opinions, gave 
him a good standinc; among the multitude of provincial 
wise-heads then thronging into Paris, eager to be 
the saviors of France, or at least of themselves. He 
took his place at first with the monarchical party ; and 
his glib pen found occupation in the preparation of 
various reports, and in edutine a journal, the Point du 
your^ containing reports of tne debates of the National 
Assembly. For a time he formed a connection with the 
House of Orleans, passing over soon to the republican 
party. Barire appears to have been wholly free from 
the restraints of conscience or any guiding prindple; his 
conduct was regulated only by the determination to be 
on the side of the strongest After the close of the 

.^ _. National Assembly he was nominated one of the judm 

division and (Ustrict, consisting of the commissioner, | of the newly-instituted Coort of Cassation. latTJtlio 



BAR 



805 



was elected deputy to the National Convention for the 
department of the Hautes Pyrin^es. At first he took 
part with die Girondists; but on the trial of the king 
ne voted, with the Mountain, for the king's death *^sans 
appel etsans sursis,** He closed his speech with a sen- 
tence which became memorable, ** Varbre de la liberti 
ne saurait crditre s*il nitait arrosi du sang des rois.^* 
As the Mountain became the strongest party Bar^e 
advanced with it» unscrupulously cairying out its ex- 
tremest projects, and playme a prominent part in the 
Reign of Terror. The light-heartedness with which 
he acted in these awful scenes, I'le fluency and flippancy 
of his speeches and reports, procured him the title of 
the "Anacreon of the Guillotine." He supported 
Robespierre in his atrocious measure against the Giron- 
dists, crawled like a slave at the feet of the " incorrupt- 
ible** Maximilian till the day of his fall, and then 
advocated his execution wnthout a hearing. It was 
Bar^re who had proposed the decree that no quarter 
should be given to any English or Hanoverian soUlier, 
which was unanimously adopted. This procured 
him admission bv acclamation to the Jacobm Club, 
from which he had been previously excluded. The 
decree, however, remained a dead letter. A few 
months after the fall of the Convention, piroceedings 
were taken against Bar^re and his coUeagtK^ of the 
Terror, Collot d'Herbois and Billar.d-Vareimes, and he 
was sent to the Isle of Ol^roii. He was removed to 
Saintes, and thence escaped to Bordeaux, where he lay 
in concealment for several years. In v/g$ he was 
elected member of the Council of Five Hun- 
dred, but was not allowed to take his seat. When 
Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul he was anxious; 
to employ Bar^re, but Bardre refused to overture. It 
was only for a while. The witling of the Terror became 
the hireling and the spy of the new Tyranny. On the 
fall of Napoleon, Barere played the part of royalist, but 
on the final restoration of the Bourbons in 1815 he was 
banished for life from France, and then withcfrew into 
Belgium and temporary oblivion. After the Revolution 
of July 1830 he reappeared in France, was reduced by 
a series of lawsuits to extreme indigence, accepted a 
small pension assigned him by Louis Philippe {on whom 
he had heaped abuse and railing^, and died, the last 
survivor of the Committee of Public Safety, January 15, 
1841. 

BARETTI, Giuseppe, aii Italian critic of some dis- 
tinction, was born at Turin in 17 16, and died in May 
1789. 

BARFLEUR, called formerly Barbeflot, and :•-. the 
Latin chroniclers Barbatus Fluctus^ an ancient town of 
Normandy, in Frrmce, now in the department of 
Manche, 15 miles E. of Cherbourg. It was at 0:1c time 
the seat of an active trade across the Channel, but was 
ruined and had its haibor filled up by the English in 
1346. Cape Barflcur has a hghthouse 271 feet above 
the sea, in long, i*' 16' W., lat. 49^ jo' N. 

BARHAM, Richard Harris, a celebrated humor- 
ist, better known by his nom de plume of Thomas 
Ingoldsby, was bom at Canterbury, December 6, 3768. 
At seven years of age he lost his father, who left him a 
small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappiiij- 
ton, so frequently mentioned in the Legends* At nine 
he was sent to St. Paul's school, but his studies were 
interrupted by an accident which shattered his arm and 
partially crippled it for life. Thus deprived of the 

S>wer of bodily activity, he became a great reader and 
ligent student. In 1807 he entered Brasenose College, 
Oxford, intending at first to study for the profession of 
the law. Circumstances, however, induced him to 
change his mind and to enter the diurch. The choice 
seems surprising, for he had from childhood displayed 



that propensity to fan in the form of parody and pun- 
ning which afterwards made him a reputation. In 1813 
he was ordained and took a country curacy ; he married 
in the following year, and in 182 1 removed to London 
on obtaining uie appointment of minor canon of St. 
Paul's Cathedral Three years later he became one of 
the priests in ordinary of his Majesty's chapel royaL 
In 1826 he first contributed to Blackwood* s Magazine; 
and on the establishment of Benders Miscellany in 
1837 he began to furnish the series of grotesque metrical 
tales known as The Ingoldsby Legends. These became 
very popular, were published in a collected form, and 
have smce passed through numerous editions. In 
variety and whimsicality of rhymes these verses have 
hardly a rival since the days of Hudtbras, But beneath 
this obvious popular quality there lies a store of solid 
antiquarian learning, the n-uit of patient enthusiastic 
research by the light of the midnight lamp, in out-of- 
the-way old book^ which few readers who lau^ over 
his pages detect If it were of any avail we might 
regret that a more acdve faculty of veneration did not 
keep him from writing some objectional passages of the 
Legends, His life was grave, dignified, and highly 
honored. His sound judgment and his kind heart made 
him the trusted counsellor, the valued friend, and the 
frequent peacemaker ; and he was intolerant of all that 
was mean, and base, and false. In politics he was a 
Tory of the old school ; yet he was the life-long friend 
of tne liberal Sydney Smith, whom in many respects he 
singularly resembled. Theodore Hook was one of his 
most intimate friends. Mr. Barham was a contributor 
to the Edinburgh Review and the Literary Gazette; 
published a novel in 3 vols., entitled My Cousin 
Nicholas ; and, strange to tell, wrote nearly a third of 
the articles in Gorton's Biographical Dictionary, His 
life was not without such cnan^ and sorrows as make 
men grave. He had nine children, and six of them 
died in his lifetime. But he retained vigor and freshness 
of heart and mind to the last, and his latest verses show 
no signs of decay. He died in London after a long, 
painful illness, June 17, 1845, leaving his beloved wife, 
two daughters, and a son, surviving him. 

BARI, Terra di, a province of Italy, in the district 
of Apulia, bounded on the N. by the Adriatic, E. and 
S. E. by the province of Otranto, S. W. by Basilicata, 
and W. by Capitanata. It has an area of 1782 geo« 
graphical square miles, and is divided into the three dis- 
tricts of Bari, Barletta, and Altamura. Except in the 
S. and S.W., where branches of the Apennines occur, 
the surface is generally level. The soil is for the most 
part calcareous, with a rich covering of loam. The cli- 
mate is oppressively hot in summer, but very pleasant 
during the rest of the year. The only considerable 
river IS the O fan to, or Aufidus\ but, in spite of the lack 
of irrigation, the province is among the best cultivated 
in the kingdom, producing abundance of grain, flax, to- 
bacco, cotton, wine, oil, almonds, liquorice, &c. Swine, 
asses, goats, and sheep with a very fine wool, are nu- 
merous; and the salt and nitre works form important 
brandies of industry. Among the more important 
towns beside the capital are Barletta, Trani, Bisceglie, 
Molfetta, Monopoli, and Fasano on the coast, and 
Andria Ruvo, Nola, Bitonto, and Conversano somewhat 
inland. The population, which is densest along the coast, 
was 604,540 m 1871. 

Bar I, the ancient Barium^ capital of the above prov- 
ince and seat of an archbishop, is situated on a tongue 
of land projecting into the Adriatic. It is defended by 
various fortifications, among which the most important 
is the citadel, which is about a mile in circumference, 
and dates from the Norman possession. The general 
character of the older part of the town is gloomy and 



So6 



fiAR 



irregular, bat the newer portion has spacions streets, 
with handsome buildings. Barium, according to the 
evidence of its coins, was a place of importance in the 
3d centurv B.C., and had a decided Greek element in its 
culture ; out it never acquired any great influence in the 
old Roman world, and all allusions to it in the classical 
authors are of an incidental description. 

BARKING, a town of England, county of Essex, 7 
miles E.N. E. of London, on the River Koding, not far 
from the Thames. It was celebrated for its nunnery, 
one of the oldest and richest in England, founded about 
670 by Erkenwald, bishop of Ixtndon, and restored in 
970 by King Edgar, about a hundred years after its 
destruction by the Danes. 

BARLAAM and JOSAPHAT, Saints. These two 
saints appear in both the Greek and the Roman Mar- 
tjrrology, in the former under 26th Au^st, in the latter 
under 27th November. Their story is in the highest 
degree worthy of note, because it is, in fact, a Christian- 
ized version of the Indian legendary history* of the Bud- 
dha Sakya Muni. 

The remarkable parallel between Buddhistic ritual, 
costume, and discipline, and those which especially 
claim the title of Catholk: in the Christian church, has 
often been recognized, even hv the most faithful sons of 
Rome ; and though the parallel has perhaps never been 
elaborated as it mieht be, some of its more salir'it points 
are familiar. Still, many readers may be imnware that 
Sakyi Muni himself, or, as he was by birth, Siddharta, 
the son of Suddodhana, prince of Kapilavastu (in the 
north of modem Oudh), has found his way mto the 
Roman Calendar as a saint of the church. 

The Christian story first appears in Greek among the 
works of St. John of Damascus, an eminent cBvine 
and an opponent of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian in the 
Iconoclastic movement, who flourished in the early part 
of the 8th century, and who, before he adopted the 
monastic life and devoted himself to theology, nad held 
high office at the court of the caliph Abu J&far Almansiir, 
as his father Sergiusissaid to have done before him. 

The outline of the Greek story is as follows : — St. 
I'homas had converted the people of India, and after the 
eremitic life originated in Egypt, many Indians adopted 
it. But a powerful pagan king arose who hated and per- 
secuted the Christians, especially the ascetics. After 
this king, Abenner by name, had long been childless, a 
boy greatly desired, and matchless in beauty, was born 
to him, and received the name of Josaphat. The king, 
in his joy, summons astrologers to predict the child s 
destiny. They foretell glory and prosperity beyond 
those of all his predecessors. One sage, most learned 
of all, assents, but intimates that the scene of this glory 
will be, not the paternal kingdom, but another infinitely 
more exalted, and that the child will adopt the I'aitn 
which his father persecutes. 

The boy shows a thoughtful and devout turn. King 
Abenner, troubled by this and bj^ the remembrance of 
the prediction, selects a secluded citv, in which he causes 
a splendid palace to be built, where his son shoukl abide, 
attended only by tutors and servants in the flower of 
youth and healtn. No stranger was to have access, and 
the bo)r was to be cognizant of none of the sorrows of 
humanity, such as poverty, disease, old age, or death, 
but only of what was pleasant, so that he should have 
no inducement to think of the future life; nor was he 
ever to hear a word of Christ and his religion. 

Prince Josaphat grows up in this seclusion, acquires 
an kinds of knowledge, and exhibits singular endow- 
ments. At length, on his urgent prayer, the king re- 
luctantly permits him to pass the limits of the pdace, 
after having taken all precautions to keep painful ob- 
ject* out of sight But through some neglect of orders, 



the prince one day encoimters a leper and a blind man, 
and asks of his attendants with pun and astonishment 
what such a spectacle should mean. These, they tell 
him, are ills to which a man is liable. Shall all men 
have such ills ? he asks. And in the end he returns 
home in deep depression. Another day he falls in with 
a decrepit old man, and, stricken witli dismay at the 
sight, renews his Questions, and hears for the first time 
of death. And in now many years, continues the prince, 
does this fate befall man ? and must he expect death as 
inevitable ? Is there no way of escape ? No means of 
eschewing this wretched state of decay? The attendants * 
reply as maybe imagined; and' Josaphat goes home 
more pensive than ever, dwelling on the certainty of 
death, and on what shall be thereafter. 

At this time Barlaam, an eremite of great sanctity 
and knowledge, dwelling in the wilderness of Sennari- 
tis, divinely warned, travels to India in the disguise of a 
merchant, and ;^ins access to Prince Josaphat, to whom 
he imparts the Christian doctrine and commends the 
monastic life. Si :;picion arises and Barlaam departs. 
But all attempts to shake the princess convictions faiL 
As a last resource the king sends for Theudas, a magi- 
cian, who removes the prince's attendants and substitutes 
seductive girls ; but all their blandishments are resisted 
through prayer. The king abandons these efforts and 
associates his son in the |;ovemment. The prince uses 
his power to promote religion, and everything prospers 
in nis hands. At last Abenner himself yieus to the 
faith, and after some years of penitence dies. Josaphat 
surrenders the kingdom to a fnend called Barachias, and 
departs for the wilderness. After two years of painful 
search, and much buffeting by demons, he finds Bar- 
laam. The latter dies, and Josaphat survives as a her- 
mit many years. King Barachias afterwards arrives, 
and transfers the bodies of the two saints to India, where 
they are the source of many miracles. 

Now this story is, in all essentials and in many de- 
tails, the story of Buddha. ^ We can indicate but one 
example in the prominent episode of Sakya's youth, his 
education in a secluded palace, his encounter succes^vely 
with a decrepit old man, with a man in mortal disease 
and poverty, with a dead body, and, lastly, with a relig- 
ious recluse radiant wi:'^ peace and dignity, and his con- 
sequent abandonment of nis princely state for the ascetic 
life in the jungle. Some of the correspondences in the 
two stories arc : \ost mmute, and rrof. MiiUer has 
pointed out that even the phraseology, in which some 
of the details of Josaphat' s history are described, almost 
literally renders the Sanskrit of the Lalita Vistara, 

We have given but the skeleton of the histoiy of 
Barlaam and Josaphat. It is filled out with episodes 
and apologues, several of which also have been traced 
to Buodhist sources. These stories no doubt promoted 
the vast medieval popularity of the legend in both the 
GDek and the Latin Churches. Its nrst favor in the 
for.ner seems to have been due to its embodiment in the 
Li7/es of the Saints, as compiled anew by Simeon the 
Metaphrast, a person of disputed age, but not of later 
date than 1 1 50 A. D. Selections from his work, in which 
this legend takes the lead, continue to be issued in 
Romaic as works of popular edification. 

The story continued for centuries to be one of the 
most popular works in Christendom. It was translated 
into most European tongues, including Bohemian, 
Polish, and Icelandic A version in the Ust, executed 
by a Norwegian kin^, dates from 1204; in the East 
there were versions m (at least) Arabic, Ethiopic, 
Armenian, and Hebrew ; whilst a translation into the 
Tagala language of the Philippines was printed at 
Manilla in 17 12. The story was rendered into poems and 
miracle plays. Moreover, its episodes and apolognet' 



BAR 



807 



have fiimisYied materials to poets and stoiy-writers of 
very diverse ages and characters. 

BARLETTA, the ancient Bardulunty called in the 
Middle Ages Barolum^ a fortified seaport town of 
Italy, the seat of an archbishop, in the province of 
Terri di Ban. 

BARLEY {Hardeum\ a most important genus of 
the cereal plants which belongs peculiarly to temperate 
regions. Four distinct species of barley, cultivated for 
the production of grain, are commonly enumerated, — 
ist, common or two-rowed barley, Hordeum disttckum ; 
2d, Bere or Bigg, //. vulgare ; 3d, six-rowed barley, H, 
kfxtctstichHm ; and 4th, fan, spratt, or battledore barley, 
H. zeocrilon. Of these species, but chiefly of the first 
two, very many varieties are recognized by cultivators, 
and new kinds are constantly being introduced. Barley 
is the most hardy of all cereal grains, its limit of cultiva- 
tion extending further north than any other ; and, at the 
same time, it can be profitably cultivated in sub-tropical 
countries. The opinion of rliny, that it is the most 
ancient aliment of mankind, appears to be well founded, 
for no less than three varieties have been found in the 
lake dwellings of Switzerland, in deposits belonging to 
the Stone Period. According to Professor Heer these 
varieties are the common two-rowed {H, distuhum)^ 
the lar^e six-rowed (//. hextasHchum tUmum)^ and the 
small six-rowed {H. hextasHchum sanctum), .The last 
variety is both the most ancient and the most commonly 
found, and is the sacred barley of antiquity, ears 
of which are frequently represented plaited in the 
hair of the goddess Ceres, besides being figured on 
ancient coins. The cultivation of barley in ancient 
Egypt is indicated in Exod. ix. 31. Till within recent 
times barley formed an important source of food in 
northern countries, and barley cakes are still to some 
extent eaten. Owing, however, to its poverty in that 
form of nitrogenous compound called gluten, so abun- 
dant in wheat, barley-flour cannot be baked into vesicu- 
lated bread ; still it is a highly nutritious substance, the 
salts it contains having a high proportion of phosphoric 
add, and on it the Greeks trained their athletes. 

Barley is now chiefly cultivated for malting, to pre- 
pare spirits and beer (see Brewing), but it is also 
largely employed in domestic cookery. 

BARLOW, Joel, an American poet and politician, 
born in 1755 at Reading in Connecticut In 1774, 
some years after his father's death, he was entered at 
Yale College, New Haven, where he soon began to 
manifest considerable taste for poetry and power of com- 
position. A few small pieces published by him were re- 
ceived with some degree of public favor. During his 
vacations he had taken part with the colonists in several 
engagements against the British, and immediatelv after 
completing his course, he qualified himself for the church, 
and was appointed chaplain to a regiment. This post 
he held till the conclusion of peace between Britain and 
America, when he settled in the village of Hartford, and 
began to practise as a lawyer. He also conducted a 
newspaper, and about the same time published his best 
poem, tne Vision of Columbus^ a vigorous and spirited 
piece of writing. About the year 1788 he gave up his 
newspaper and his legal practice, and came to Europe as 
the agent for a land company. Having discovered that 
this company was merely a swindling concern, he severed 
his connection with it, but dki not return to America. 
In London he became acquainted with some of the 
most advanced liberal thinkers, and published several 
polhical tracts of a decidedly revolutionary character. 
*^ '793» after having been some time in France, he ac- 
companied the Commission of the National Convention, 
which was sent to or^nize the newly-acquired territory 
in Savoy. During his resklence in Paris he engaged in 



commercial transactions, by which he acquired consid- 
erable fortune and importance. In 1795 he was ap- 
pointed American consul at Algiers, and efficiently dis- 
charged the duties of that office. In 1805 he returned 
to America and began to interest himself in the politics 
of his own countrv. A pvnphlet of his, sketching a 

flan of national education, was received with great favor, 
n 1808 he published an enlarged editk>n of his great 
poem, under the title Columbicui. It was magnificently 
illustrated, but did not achieve the popularity of its 
predecessor. In 181 1 he was appointed minister pleni- 
potentiary to France, with the object mainly of negoti- 
ating a commercial treaty and of obtaining compensa- 
tion for some American property that had ^n unjustly 
confiscated. To accomplish this he required a personal 
interview with Napoleon, and set out to meet the em- 
peror, who was at Wilna. On his way he was attacked 
with inflammation of the lungs, and died at a Polish vil- 
U^ near Cracow, on the 22d December 181 2. 
BARLOW, Peter, an able, writer on pure and ap- 

Slied mathematics, was born at Norwich in 1776, and 
ied in 1862. 

BARMECIDES, or descendants of Barmak, were a 
noble Persian family, who attained great power under 
the Abbaside caliphs. Barmak, the first ot them, was a 
Ghebre, or Persian fire-worshipper, anil is supposed to 
have been a native of the district of Khorassan. 
He was introduced to the caliph Abd-ul-Malik, and 
acquired great power under him. His family pros- 
pered, and his grandson, Yahya, was vizier to the 
caliph El-Mah(^, and tutor of the famotis prince 
Haroun-al-Rascmd, celebrated in the Thousand and 
One Nights, Ya^ya's sons occupied high offices, 
one of them, Ja'aueir (the Giafar of the Arabian 
Nigkts\ being vizier and constant companion of 
Haroun. The caliph, however, conceived suspicions 
a^inst the Barmeades, and in 802 beheaded Ja'afar 
with great cruelty, condemned the whole family to 
prison, and confiscated their property. Oriental his- 
torians dve a romantic and not improbable reason for 
die calipn*s conduct towards his viiier. Ja'afar had been 
marriea to Haroun^s favorite sister Abbasah, on condition 
that he should never see his wife save in presence of the 
caliph. He neglected this injunction, and Abbasah bore 
a son, who was brought up secretly. The caliph be- 
came aware of this, and in his wrath punished Ja'afar 
and all his family. The use of the expression Barme- 
cides' Feast, to denote an imaginary banquet, is drawn 
from one of the tales in the Arabian Nights, where an 
entertainment of merely imaginary viands is served up to 
a hungry man by one of the Barmeckies. 

BARMEN, a town of Rhenish Prussia, in the gov- 
ernment of Dusseldorf and circle of Elberfeld, on the 
Bergisch-Markisch railway. It is formed by the com- 
bination of a. large number of separate villages, which 
stretch along the northern valley of the Wupper for a 
distance of six miles in almost perfect continuit]r with 
Elberfeld. It is the chief seat of ribbon-weaving in 
Germany, and manufactures thread, lace, buttons, 
braids, cotton, cloth, silk stuffs, steel wares, and plated 
goods. There are also numerous bleachfieWs, print- 
fields, dyeworks,— famous for their Turkey-red, — soap- 
works, chemical-works, and potteries. 

BARNABAS was the surname given by the apostles 
to Joses, " a Levite, of the country of Cyprus,*' who, 
though like Paul not of the twelve, was with him rec- 
ognized among the number of the apostles. 

BARNABAS, Epistle of, and Gospel op. See 
Apostolic Fathers and Gospels. 

BARNARD CASTLE, a market and manufacturing 
town and parish in the county of Durham, <m the banks 
of the Tees, 246 miles from London. 



8o8 



BAR 



BARNAUL, A town of Asiatic Russia, in the govern- 
ment of Tomsk, and capital of a circle to which it gives 
its name. It b situated in a wide plain which is 
bounded by offshoots of the Altai Mountains, and is 
built on both sides of the Bamaulka River at its con- 
fluence with the Ob. Popolation, 12,927. 

BARN AVE, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie, one 
of the greatest orators and noblest actors and victims of 
thehrst French Revolution, was bom at Grenoble in Dau- 
phiny, October 22, 1761. He was of a Protestant fam- 
ily. His father was an advocate to the parliament of 
Grenoble, and his mother was a woman of high birth, 
superior ability, and noble character. He was at once 
thoughtful and passionate, studious and social, hand- 
some in person and graceful in manners. He was 
brought up to the law, and at the age of twenty-two 
made himself favorably known by a discourse pro- 
nounced before the locaJ parliament on the division of 
political powers. Dauphiny was one of the first of the 
provinces to feel the excitement of the coming revolu- 
tion ; and Bamave was the foremost to give voice to the 
general feeling, in a pamphlet entitled £'^»>rf/ desMttsen- 
registrfs militairement le 10 Mai 1 780. He was im- 
mediatelv elected deputy, with his father, to the States 
of Daupniny, and took a prominent part in their de- 
bates. A few months later he was transferred to a 
grander field of action. The States-general were con- 
voked at Versailles for May 5, 1789, and Bamave was 
chosen deputy of the Tiers Etat for his native prov- 
ince. He soon made an impression on the Assembly, 
and became the friend of most of the leaders of the 
ix>pular party. He took part in the conferences on the 
claims of the three orders, drew up the first address to 
the king, and supported the proposal of Siey^ that the 
Assembly should declare itself National. Though a 
passionate lover of liberty, he knew that excess is the 
ruin of liberty, and maintained the necessity for the in- 
dividual and for the community of both freedom and re- 
straint. He hoped to secure the freedom of France and 
her monarchy at the same time. But he was almost un- 
awares borne away by the mighty currents of the time, 
and he took part in the attacks on the monarchy, on 
the clergy, on church property, and on the provin- 
cial parliaments. With the one exception of the 
mighty Mirabeau, Bamave was the most power- 
ful orator of the Assembly. On several occa- 
sions he stood in opposition to Mirabeau. After 
the fall of the Bastile he wished to save the throne. 
He advocated the suspensive veto, the system of two 
chambers, and the establishment of trial by jury in civil 
causes. Hisconflict with Mirabeau on the question of 
assigning to the king the right to make peace or war 
was one of the most striking scenes in the Assembly, 
About this time, after a vehement debate, he fought a 
duel with Cazalte, in which the latter was slightly 
wounded. About the close of October 1790 Bamave 
was called to the presidency of the Assembly. On the 
death of Mirabeau a few months later, Bamave paid a 
high tribute to his worth and public services, designating 
him the Shakespeare of oratory. On the arrest of the 
king and the royal family at Varennes, while attempting 
to escape from France, Bamave was one of the three ap- 
pointee! to conduct them back to Paris. On the joumey 
he was deeply affected by the mournful fate of these 
royal persons, and resolved to do what he could to alle- 
viate their sufferings. In one of his most powerful speeches 
he maintained the inviolability of the king's person. 
His public career came to an end with the close of the 
Constituent Assembly, and he returned to Grenoble at 
the beginning| of 1792. His sympathy and relations with 
the royal family, and his desire to cneck the downward 
progress of the Revolution, brought on him the sus- 



picion and persecution of the more violent part^- At 
the end of August 1792 be was arrested and imprisoned, 
and in November 1793 Was transferred to Paris. The 
nobility of his character was proof against the asBaolis 
of suffering. ••Better to suHer and to die," he said, 
•• than lose one shade of my moral and political char- 
acter." On November 28 he appeared before the Rev-. 
olutionary Tribunal, in company with Duport-Dutertre, 
and two days later they botn perished by the guillotiiie. 

BARNES, Albert, a theologian of America, spe- 
cially distinguished as a Biblical expositor, was bom at 
Rome in the state of New York, ist December 179S, 
and died at Philadelphia 24th December 187a In 1&20 
he graduated at Hamilton College, and in the same year 
commenced his studies for the ministry at Princeton 
Theological Seminary. Soon after takine licence he- 
was called to the Presbyterian church in Morristown^ 
New Jersey, from which he was transferred to the pas> 
toral charge of the first Presbyterian church of Phila- 
delphia in 18^ In 1867 he was compelled to resign 
owing to failing health. Barnes held a prominent 
place in the New School branch of the Presbyterians, 
to which he had adhered on the division of the denom- 
ination. He was an eloquent preacher, but bis wide- 
spread reputation rests chiefly on his expository works, 
which have probably had a larger circulation both in 
Europe and America than any others of their class. Of 
the well-known Notes on the New Testament it Is said 
that more than a million volumes had been issued at the 
time of their author's death. 

BARNES, Joshua, an English scholar, bom in. 
1654. In 1695 he was chosen queen's professor in 
Greek, a language which he wrote and spoke with the 
utmost facility. 

BARNET, or Chipping Barnet, a market-town in 
the county of Hertford, II miles from London, on the 
great northern road. Near it, in 147 1, was fought the 
decisive battle between the houses of York and Lancas> 
ter, in which the great earl of Warwick fell. 

BARNEVELDT, Jan van Olden, Grand Pension- 
ary of Holland, who played a great part and rendered 



the most signal services to his country in the long con- 
flict with Philip II. of Spain, was born in 1547. He 
was a native of Amersfoot in the province of Utrecht^ 



and could boast of a long line of noble ancestors. En-^ 
dowed with superior abilities, he was educated for the 
profession of the law, and commenced practice as an ad- 
vocate at the Hague in 1569. He sympathized deeply 
with his countrymen in their resolution to throw ofi" the 
hated yoke of Spain, and. served as a volunteer at the 
sieges of Haarlem and Leyden. In 1575 he married ; 
and in the following year he was appointed to the hon- 
orable post of counsellor and chief-pensionary of Rot- 
terdam. In 1585, when, in consequence of the assas- 
sination of the sagacious and resolute leader of the 
Dutch, and the general success of the Spaniards under 
the Prince of Parma, the cause of the patriots seemed 
almost hopeless, Bameveldt was chosen head of an em- 
bassy to Queen Elizabeth, to ask for her assistance and 
to offer her the sovereignty of the United Provinces. 
The queen agreed to give aid both in money and men, 
but refused to accept the sovereignty. An expedition 
was sent under the command of Dudley, earl of Leices- 
ter, on whom the Dutch conferred supreme and abso- 
lute authority. Bameveldt was then raised to the high- 
office of advocate-general of Holland and West Fries- 
land. Dissatisfied and indignant' at Leicester's incom- 
petence, arro^^ance, and mismanagement, he endeavored 
to limit his powers. For this purpose he suc- 
ceeded in persuading the States to appoint Maurice 
of Nassau, the young son of the late Prince 
of Orange, stadtholder and captain^general of iloUand 
- Digitized by VjOOQI 



BAR 



809 



and Zealand, thus contributing to place in the highest 
position the man who was afterwards to become his 
great antagonist. Leicester was recalled at the close of 
1586. In the course of a few years Barneveldt, by his 
prudence and energy in admmistration, succeeded in 
restoring order and materially improving the financial 
aflfairs of the States. He proposed to resign in i^^St but 
at the ur£;ent entreaty of the States he retained his post. 
In 1598 he was sent on an embassy to Henry IV. of 
France, the object of which was to strengthen and main- 
tain the friendship of France and the United Provinces. 
In 1603, on the accession of Tames I. to the throne, 
Barneveldt was again sent to Endand as head of an 
embassy, and in conjunction with tne French ambassa- 
dor, M. de Rosny, afterwards duke of SuUy, nego- 
tiated an arrangement for further assistance against Uie 
Spaniards. In 1607, having first insisted on and 
obtained a recognition of the independence of the 
Provinces, he began negotiations with Spain with a 
view to establish a truce. He had to contend against 
the opposition of the stadtholder and the army, and 
tosutterfrom unmerited popular suspicions of taking 
bribes from the Spanish court. But he triumphed 
over all difficulties, and on April 9, 1609, the famous 
twelve years* truce was concluded. From this time 
Maurice was his sworn foe. The two men were leaders 
of two g^eat political parties, and the struggle between 
them was embittered by the admixture of theological 
and ecclesiastical controversy. In the strife then going 
on between the Gomarites (the Calvanistic party) and 
the Arniinians, Maurice sided with the former, while 
Barneveldt supported the latter. Maurice was aiming 
at the sovereign power; Barneveldt resolutely main- 
tained the freedom of the repubhc. The clerical party, 
who looked up to Prince Maurice as their chief, were 
bent on getting the Calvinistic system established 
as the state religion, and on refusing to tolerate any 
other system ; ^meveldt and the Arminians contended 
that each province should be free to adopt the form 
which it preferred. Barneveldt was the consistent 
champion of the supremacy of the civil authority, and 
•^ the prime minister of Protestantism ** (Motley). The 
convocation of a National Synod was proposed by the 
party of the stadtholder and resisted by Barneveldt 
When disturbances broke out against the Arminians, 
Maurice refused to suppress them, and disarmed the 
militia organized for the pur{X}se by Barneveldt. The 
former now assumed the chief power. An interview 
took place on August 17, 1618, between the advocate 
and the stadtholder; each adhered resolutely to his own 
views, and the meeting remained fruitless. Barneveldt, 
with his friends Grotius and Hoogerbeets, was arrested 
and imprisoned on the 29th. In November foUowing, 
in pursuance of the command of Prince Maurice, the 
famous S3mod of Dort assembled. A few days later 
the trial of the prisoners began before a special com- 
mission. The proceedings were illegal; the accusations 
against Barneveldt were fully disproved, but he was 
unjustly found guilty and sentenced to death. This 
sentence was unscrupulously confirmed by the cleriod 
synod. It was a foregone conclusion, ana Barneveldt 
had seen clearly that there was no hope for him. On 
the 14th of May 1619, just five days after the closing of 
the synod, the venerable statesman and patriot, then in 
his seventy-first year, was beheaded at the Hague. He 
met his fate without a word of regret, without a sign of 
fear. His calm courage and his tenderness of heart are 
attested bv a letter^ stfll extant, written to his wife a few 
hours befdre his execution. Besides his wife, Maria 
van Utrecht, Barneveldt left two sons and two daughters. 
Four years after their father's death the sons took part 
ui a plot against Prince Maurice; one of them made his 



escape and entered the service of Spain, the other was 
arrested and beheaded. 

BARNSLEY, or Black Barnsley, mentioned in 
Doortusda^ Book as Bemesleye, a town and municipal 
boroueh m the West Riding of Yorkshire, 171 mues 
from London and about 1 1 north of Sheffield. It is 
situated on rising ground to the west of the River 
Deame, in a district of considerable natural beauty. 
The manufacture of iron and steel, and the weaving of 
linen and other cloth, are the two principal industnes; 
but there are also bleachfields, pnntfields, dyeworks, 
sawmills, commiUs, and malt-houses; and the manufac- 
ture of glass, needles, and wire is still carried on. Popu- 
lation in 1 871, 23,021. 

BARNSTABLE, a seaport town, and capital of the 
county of the same name, m the state of Massachusetts, 
North America. It is situated on the south side of a bay 
of the same name, which opens into Cape Cod Ba^^, and 
is 65 miles S.E. of Boston. The population, which is 
largely sea-faring, ainoimted in 1880 to 4793. 

BARNSTAPLE, a market and borough town of 
Eng^d, county of Devon, 40 miles N. W. ^f Exeter. 
It is situated on the River Taw, 6 miles from its mouth, 
but has always been considered a seaport. The stream, 
which is only navigable for small craft, is here crossed 
by an ancient stone brkige of 16 arches, and by a rail- 
way bridge on the Ilfracombe line. 

BAROCCHIO, or Barozzi, Giacomo da Vignola, 
architect, born at Vignola in the Modenese territory, in 
1507, and died in I ^73. 

BAROCCI, or Baroccio, Federigo, painter, was 
bom in IJ28 at Urbino, where the genius of Raphael 
inspir^ him. In his early youth he travelled to Rome, 
where he painted in fresco, and was warmly commended 
by Michael Angelo. He then returned to Urbino, 
where, with the exception of some short visits to Rome, 
he continued to reskie till his death in 161 2. 

B A ROD A, a city of British India, the capital of the 
nadve state known as the Gaikw&r's donunions, is situ- 
ated near the River BiswamintrL The Government of 
Bombay exercises a political superintendence over the 
Gaikwih- and a Britioh political agent resides at Barodd. 
The town is fortified, but has no great strength. 

BAROMETER, the instrument by which the weight 
or pressure of the atmosphere is estimated. The baro- 
meter was invented by Torricelli, a pupil of Galileo, in 
1643. It had shortly before been found, in attemptmg 
to raise water from a very deep well near Florence, that, 
in spite of all the piuns taken in fitting the piston and 
valves, the water could by no effort be made to rise 
higher in the pump than about 32 feet. This remark- 
able phenomenon Torricelli accounted for by attributing 
pressure to the air. He reasoned that water will rise in 
a vacuum only to a certain height, so that the down- 
ward pressure or weight of the column of water will just 
balance the pressure of the atmosphere; and he further 
argued that if a fluid heavier than water be used it will 
not rise so high in the tube as the water. To prove 
this, he selected a glass tube about a quarter of an inch 
in diameter and 4 feet long, and hermetically sealed one 
of its ends; he then filled it with mercury and, apply- 
ing his finger to the open end, inverted it in a basin con- 
taming mercury. The mercury instantly sank to nearly 
JO inches above the surface of the mercury in the basin, 
leaving in the top of the tube an apparent vacuum, 
which is, indeed, one of the most perfect that can yet be 
produced, and is called after this great experimenter, the 
Torricellian vacuum. He next converted the mercurial 
column into a form suited for observation by bending 
the lower end of the tube, thus constructingwhat has 
since been called the siphon barometer. The funda- 
mental principle of the urometer cannot be better iUus- 



8io 



BAR 



trated than by his experiment In truth, a scale is all 
that is required to render this simple apparattis a perfect 
barometer. 

The heights of the columns of two fluids in eqnilib- 
rium are inversely as their specific gravities ; and as mer- 
cury is 10,784 times heavier than air, the height of the 
atmosphere would be 10,784 times jo inches, or nearly 
five miles, if it wene composed of layers eoually dense 
throughout. But since air becomes less aense as we 
ascend, owing to its CTeat elasticity and the diminished 
pressure, the real height of the atmosphere is very much 
greater. From observations of luminous meteors, it 
has been inferred that the height is at least lao miles, 
and that, in an extreme^ attenuated form, it may even 
considerably exceed 200 miles. 

Various ifnids mi^ be used in constructing barome- 
ters. If water were used, the barometnc column 
would be about 35 feet long. The advantages, how- 
ever, which water barometers might be supposed to 
possess in showing changes of atmospheric pressure on 
a large scale, are more than counter-balanced by a 
serious objection. The space in the tube above the 
column of water is far from being a vacuum, being 
filled with aqueous vapor, which presses on the column 
with a force varying with the temperature. At a tem- 
perature of 32^ Fahr. the column would be deprened 
naif an inch, and at 75° a foot. Since in mercurial 
barometers the space at the top of the column is 
one of the most perfect vacuums that can be pro- 
duced, the best fluid for the construction of oar- 
ometers is mercury. It is therefore the only fluid used 
where scientific accuracy is aimed at. Pure mercury 
must be used in filling the tubes of barometers ; because 
if it be impure, the density will not be that of mercury, 
and, consequently, the length of the columns will not 
be the same as that of a column composed of pure 
mercury alone. 

The best barometers are usually fitted with an air* 
trap, originally proposed by Gay- Lussac for the purpose 
of arrestmg the ascent to the Torricellian vacuum of any 
air that may have found its way into the column by | the 
cisteriL The air-trap is fitted into the tube somewhere 
between the scale and the cistern. Barometers fur- 
nished with an air-trap can be conveyed from place to 
place with more safety, and they remain longer in good 
working order. 

There are two classes of barometers — Siphon Bar' 
ometers and CisttrH Barometers. The Sipnon Barom- 
eter consists of a tube bent in the form of a siphon, and 
is of the same diameter throughout. A graduated scale 
passes along the whole length of the tube, and the height 
of the barometer is ascertained bv taking the difference 
of the readings of the upper and lower limbs respect- 
ively. This instrument may also be read by bringing 
the zero-point of the graduated scale to the level of the 
surface of the lower limb by means of a screw, and read- 
ing off the height at once from the surface of the upper 
limb. This barometer requires no correction for errors 
of capillarity or capacity. Since, however, impurities 
are contracted by the mercury in the lower limb, whidi 
is usually in open contact with the air, the satisfactory 
working of the instrument comes soon to be seriously 
interfered with. 

The Cistern Barometer is subject to two kinds of 
error, the one arising from capillarity, and the* other 
from changes in the level of the surface of the cistern as 
the mercury rises and fiills in the tube, the latter being 
technically called the error of capacity. If a glass tube 
of small bore be plunged into a vessel containing mer- 
cury, it will be oDserved that the level of the mercury in 
the tube is not in the line of that of the mercury in the 
YQ$sel, b^t 8Q(n«what below iU and that th^ surface is 



convex. The capiUaiy depession is inversely propop 
tional to the diameter of the tube. If the diameter oi 
the tube be o. i inch, the capillary depression of mercury 
in boiled tubes, or error of capillarity^ is 0.070 inch ; \\ 
0.2" inch, the error is ao29 inch ; if o.^ inch, it is aoi4 
inch ; and if 0.5 inch, it is only 0.003 1^^ Since cap- 
illarity depresses the height of the columi^ dstem bar- 
ometers require an addition to be made to the observed 
height, in order to give the true pressure, the amount 
deMnding, of course, on the diameter of the tube. 

The error of capacity arises in this way. The height 
of the barometer is the perpendicular distance between 
the surface of the mercury in the dstem and the upper 
surface of the mercurial column. Now, when the oar- 
ometer [falls from 30 to 29 inches, an inch of mercury 
must flow out of the tube and pass into the dstem, 
thus raising the cistern level ; and, on the other hand, 
when the barometer rises, mercury must flow out of the 
dstem into the tube, thus lowering the level of the mer- 
cury in the dstem. Since the scsdes of barometers are 
usually engraved on thdr brass cases, which are fixed 
(and, consequently, the zero-point fi-om which the scale 
is graduated is also fixed), it follows that, from the in- 
cessant changes in the level of the cistern, the readings 
would be sometimes too high and sometimes too low, 
if no provision were made against this source of error. 

A simple way of correcting the error of capacity is — 
to ascertain (i) the neutral pdnt of the instrament, or 
that hdght at which the zero of the scale is exactly at 
the height of the surface of the dstem, and (2^ the rate 
of error as the barometer rises or falls above this point, 
and then apply a correction proportional to this rate. 
In many of the barometers used on the Continent the 
surface area of the cistern is 100 times greater than that 
of the tube, in which case the error is small, and can, 
besides, be easily calculated. This is a good barometer 
for ordinary observers, inasmuch as no error arises in 
bringing the surface of the mercury of the cistern to the 
zero-point of the scale, which one requires to have some 
skill as a manipulator and good light to do correcdy. 
Another way of getting rid of this error is effected by 
the Board of Trade Barometer^ constracted originally 
by Adie of London. In this barometer the error of 
capillarity is allowed for in fixing: (he zero-point of the 
scale, and the error of capacity is obviated by making 
the scale-inches not true inches, but just so much less 
as exactly to counterbalance the error of capadty. 

But the instmment in which the error of capadty is 
satisfactorily (indeed, entirely) got rid of is Fortin^s 
Barometer, The dstem is formed of a glass cylinder, 
through which the level of the mercury may lie seen. 
The bottom is made like a bag, of flexible leather, 
against which a screw works. At the top of the interior 
of the dstem is a small piece of ivory, the point of 
which coincides with the zero of the scale. By means 
of the screw, which acts on the flexible dstem bottom, 
the level of the mercury can be raised or depressed so 
as to bring the ivory point exactly to the surface of the 
mercury in the cistem. In some barometers the dstem 
is fixed, and the ivory point is brought to the level of 
the mercury in the cistem by raising or depressing the 
scale. 

What is called the Fitzroy Barometer is only a 
modified form of the siphon barometer, with the lower 
limb blown into a moderately-sized bulb, resembling a 
dstem in some respects, and thus giving a larger range 
to the readings of the upper limb. It is only suited for 
popular, not for scientific purposes. Tlie common 
Wheel Barometer^ the common form of the weather glassy 
IS also a modification of the siphon barometer. A smaU 
"^^ight, glass or iron, floats on the mercury in the lower 
limb) to this wei^^t a thr^ is atta«hed^ w^l| is leA 



BAR 



8il 



round a horizontal axis, a small weight being suspended 
at its free extremity to keep it tifi;ht The float rises and 
falls with the fluctuations of the oarometer, and a pointer 
fixed to a horizontal axis being turned by this means 
indicates the height of the barometer b^ fisures on a dial. 
Since the mercury only rises or falls m the open end of 
the siphon to the extent of half the oscillation, a cistern 
is added to the top of the upper limb to increase the 
amount of the osdilation in the lower limb. This form 
of the barometer is only suited for very rough purposes, 
since large and uncertain errors arise from the shortening 
and lengthening of the thread with the varying dampness 
or dryness of the air, and from the friction of me difierent 
parts of the mechanism of the instrument 

Since in working out the great atmospheric prob- 
lem of the force of the wind in its relation to the bar- 
ometric gradient (/.^., the differences of the pressures at 
different places, reduced to the same level) readings 
from about the hundredth of an inch (coio), or even 
less, required to be observed and stated with great 
accuracy, the extreme importance of accurate sensitive 
barometers will be apparent,— instruments not onlv 
possessing a great range of scale, but a scale which will 
truly indicate the real atmospheric pressure at all times. 
The two barometers which best satisfy this requirement 
are King*s Baromtter^ which has been in use for many 
years at the Liverpool Observatory, and Howson's 
Baronuter, 

The liability of the barometer to be broken in carriage 
is great This risk is considerably lessened in the 
Board of Trade Barometer^ which has the tube very 
much reduced in diameter for a part of its length, 
breakage from ** pumping*' being so much lessened 
thereby that the instrument mav bJ sent as a parcel by 
rail, if only very ordinary care be taken in the carriage. 
This is essentially the principle of the Marine Bar- 
ometer, which, however, has the tube still more con- 
tracted. For rougher modes of transit an ingeniously 
constructed iron barometer has been invented by Mr. 
T. Stevenson, C. E. 

The Aneroid Barometer was invented by Vidi, and 
patented in England in 1844. Its action depends on the 
effect produced by the pressure of the atmosphere on a 
circular metallic chamber partially exhausted of air and 
hermetically sealed. 

The instrument requires, however, to be repeatedly 
compared with a mercurial barometer, being liable to 
plianges from the elasticity of the brass chamber chang- 
^%i or from changes in the system of levers which work 
the pointer. Thoug^h aneroids are constructed showing 
great accuracy in their indications, yet none can lay any 
claim to the exactness of mercurial barometers. The 
n»€chanism is liable to get fouled and otherwise go out 
of order, so that they may change a 300 inch in a few 
^ecks, or even indicate pressure so inaccurately and so 
irregularly that no confidence can be placed in them for 
even a few days, if the means of comparing them with a 
mercurial barometer be not at hand. 

Of the self-registering barometers^ the best are those 
^hich accomplish this ooject by photography. This is 
done by concentrating the rays of^a gas flame by means 
of a lens, so that they strike the top of the mercurial 
^lumn. A sheet of prepared paper is attached to a 
frame placed behind a screen, with a narrow vertical 
sut in the line of the rays. The mercury being opaque 
throws a part of the paper in shade, while fax>ve the 
>nercury the Ays from the flame pass unobstructed to 
the paper. The paper being earned steadily round on 
a drum at a given rate per hour, the height of the column 
of mercury is photographed continuously on the paper, 
'^fom the photograph the height of Ae barometer at 
any instance way l^t^kdV Kin^s^Ha^rdys^ifou^fCs^ 



Mipfs and ThorelP s self rejpstering barometers may also 
be referred to as giving continuous records of the presure. 

The height of the barometer is expressed in English 
inches in England and America. In France and most 
European countries, the height is given in millimetres, 
a millimetre being the thousandth part of a m^tre, which 
equals 39.37079 English inches. Up to 1869 the barom- 
eter was ^ven in half-lines in Russia, which, equalling 
the twentieth of an English inch, were readily reduced 
to English inches by dividing bjr 20. The metric 
barometric scale is now used in Russia. In a few coun- 
tries on the Continent the French or Paris line, equall- 
ing ao888i4 inch, still continues to be used. Probably 
millimetre and English inch scales will soon be exclus- 
ively in use. The English measure of length being a 
standard at 62° Fahr., the old French measure at 61 '-'.2, 
and the metric scale at 12°, it is necessary, before com- 
paring observations maoe with the three barometers, to 
reduce them to the same temperature, so as to neutra- 
lize the inequalities arising from the expansion of the 
scales by heat . 

The barometer is a valuable instrument as an indi- 
cator of comin|[ weather, provided its readings be in- 
terpreted with intelligence. High pressures generally 
attend fine weather, but they not unfrequendy accom- 
pany wet stormy weather; on the other hand, low 
pressures, which usually occur with wet and stormy 
weather, not unfrequentlv accompany fine mild weather, 
particularly in winter and in the northern parts of Great 
Britain. The truth is, the barometer merely indicates 
atmospheric pressure directly, whilst it indicates 
weather only inferentially. The chief points to be at- 
tended to are its fluctuations taken in connection with 
the wind and the state of the sky, but above all, the 
readings of the barometer as compared with those at 
neighlK)ring places, since it is difference of pressure, or 
the amount of the barometric gradient, wnich deter- 
mines the strength of the wind and the weather gener- 
ally. 

Barometrical Measurement of Heights, 

The decisive experiment by which Pascal established 
the reality of atmospheric pressure suggested to him the 
method of measuring heights by means of the barom- 
eter. The first attempts to effect this were necessarily 
rude and inaccurate, since they went on the assumption 
that the lower mass of air is of uniform density. The 
discovery, however, of the actual relation subsisting 
between the density of air and its elasticity by Boyle in 
England, and about the same time by Mariotte in 
France, laid a sure foundation for this branch of atmos- 
pheric physics — the relation being that, at the same 
temperature, the pressure of a gas is exactly propor- 
tional to its density. 

This law, however, only holds provided the tempera- 
ture is the same. The familiar illustration of a bladder, 
partially filled with ur, expanding on being placed near 
a fire, shows that if the pressure remains the same, — 
the pressure in this case being that of the atmosphere, — 
the gas will occupy a larger space if its temperature be 
raisOT. If the temperature be increased and the air be 
confined so as to occupy the same space, the pressure 
will be increased. 

The relation between the temperature and pressure of 
gases was first discovered b^ Gay-Lussac; and more re- 
cently our knowledge of this branch of the subject has 
been greatly enlarged by the beautiful and accurate 
experiments of Regnault. From these experiments it 
has been concluded that the co-efficient which denotes 
increase of elasticity for i^ Fahr. of air whose volume 
is constant ec^uals .002036; and that the co-efficient 
wlu^ denotes rncre^ 9f volam^ for 1° Fahr. of aiv 



8l2 



BAR 



whose elasticity is constant eqaals .002039. It may 
further be added that the co-emdcnt of expansion for 
carbonic acid ^, hydrogen, and all other gases, is as 
nearlv as possible the same. 

Wnen a fluid is allowed to evaporate in the exhausted 
receiver of an air-pump, vapor arises from it until its 
pressure reaches a certain point, after which all further 
evaporation is arrested. This point depends on the 
nature of the fluid itself and on the temperature* and it 
indicates the greatest vapor pressure possible for the 
fluid at the particular temperature. 

If gases of different densities be put into the same 
vessel it is found that they do not arrange themselves 
according to their densities, but are ultimately diffused 
through each other in the most intimate manner. Each 
gas tends to difluse itself as in a vacuum, the eflect of 
the presence of other gas being merely to retard the 
process of their mutual difi'usion. As regards the at- 
mosphere, evaporation goes on until the maximum 
vapor pressure tor the temperature has been attained, at 
which point the air is said to be saturated, and whibt 
the temperature remains the same further evaporation 
is arrested. Thus, at a temperature of 50*^ evaporation 
goes on until the vapor pressure reaches a^6i inch, but 
if the temperature were raised to 60° the process of 
evaporitlion would be renewed, and go on till the vapor 
pressure rose to 0.518 inch. If at a vsmor pressure of 
0.518 inch the temperature were to fall from 60° to 50°, 
the air would no longer be capable of retaining the 
whole of the aqueous vapor in suspension, but the sur- 
plus part would be condensed and fall as rain. In the 
change from the aeriform to the liquid state a quantity 
of latent heat is given out. The y^ uncertain eflect of 
these changes, particularly the change of form from the 
aeriform to the liquid state, on the pressure, tempera- 
ture, and movements of the air, renders it peculiarly de- 
sirable that barometeric observations for the determina- 
tion of heights should not be made when clouds are 
forming or rain is falling. 

Dalton has shown mat air chcxged with vapor is 
specifically lighter than when it wants the vapor; in 
other words, the more vapor any given quantity of air 
has in it the less is its speciiic gravity ; and Sir William 
Thompson has shown that the condensation of vapor 
in ascending currents of air is the chief cause of the cool- 
ing eflect being so much less than that which would be 
experienced by dry air. From these ascertained eflects 
of aqueous vapor in modifying the pressure and temper- 
ature of the atmosphere, the importance in the barome- 
tric measurement of heights of full and accurate observa- 
tions of the hygrometry of the atmosphere and of the 
weather will be apparent. 

Since the equilibrium of the vapor atmosphere is being 
constantly disturbed by every instance of condensation, 
bv the ceaseless process of evaporation, and by every 
change of temperature, and since the presence of oxygen 
and nitrogen p-eatly obstructs the free diffusion of the 
aqueous vapors, it follows that Dalton*s law of the in- 
dependent pressure of the vapor and the dry air does 
not absolutely hold good. From the constant effort of 
the vapor to attain to a state of equilibrium there is, 
however, a continual tendency to approach this state. 
Since the equal diffusion of the dry air and the vapor 
is never reached, observations can only indicate local 
humidity, and therefore as regards any considerable stra- 
tum of air can only be regarded as approximate. Though 
particular observations may often indicate a humidity 
wide of the mark, yet in long averages a close approxi- 
mation is reached, except confined localities which are 
exceptionally damp or ary. Hence in observations for 
the determination of heights, the results of a long-con- 
tinued series of observations should be employed, and 



those hours should be chosen whose mean is near the 
daUv mean. 

Tne most recent results arrived at by Regnault are the 
besty but it is to be r^^tted that the wh& subject of 
hygrometrv, both as reg;ards the methods of observa- 
tion and the methods of discussing the obsenrations, is 
still in an unsatisfactory state. This consideration, 
taken in connection with our defective knowledge of the 
relation of aqueous vapor to radiant heat, of the mode 
of its diffusion both verticallv and horizontally, and of the 
influence exerted by its condensation intodoud and rain, 
and with our ignorance of the merely mechanical effects 
of ascending, descending, and horizontal currents of air 
in increasing or diminishing barometric pressure, renders 
it evident that heidits deduced from barometric obser- 
vations can only be regarded as approximate. It is 
much to t>e desired, in stating results, that the limit of 
error were taken into account, and the nearest rooivl 
number in accordance therewith should alone be given 
as the calculated result. Thus, it is a mistake to give as 
the height of a place 1999 feet when the calculation is 
based wholly on barometric observations, and the limit 
of error amounts to 30 feet or more. The height 2000 
should be given as the result 

The correction for decrease of gravitjr at the higher 
station, as compared with the force of gravity at the 
lower station or at sea-level, must also be taken into 
account. Its amount is small, being, roughly speaking, 
only about 0.001 inch per 400 feet. Since the force of 
gravity is diminished in proportion to the square of the 
distance from the centre of gravity, the rate of its decrease 
with the height varies in different latitudes. Places at 
the equator being farther from the earth^s centre than 
places at the poles, it follows that the force of gravity 
diminishes at a less rapid rate as we ascend at the 
equator than it does at the poles.^ Now, since at the 
equator gravity diminishes less rapidly with the height, 
the air at any given height will exert a higher pressure 
there than anywhere else on the globe at the same hei^it 
as compared with what it does at the sea-level of the 
latitude. Hence a subtraction requires to be made at 
the equator, and the amount to be subtracted diminishes 
as we proceed into higher latitudes, till it falls to zero 
at latitude 45^, where the force of gravity is assumed to 
be the mean. For higher latitudes an addition is re- 
quired which constantly increases till it reaches the 
maximum at the poles. This correction is also small, 
being for looo feet less than 0.001 inch in Great Britain, 
and less than 0.003 ^^ ^^ equator and the poles. 

From their portability and handiness the anerokl 
barometer, and the thermometer for ascertaining the 
point at which water boils, are of great use in determin- 
ing heights, — the thermometer, if properly managed, 
bemg the more accurate of the twa Since, owing to 
the sluggishness with which the aneroid often follows 
the changes of pressure, esp)ecially low pressures, its 
readings should not be recorded till it has hung for 
some hours at the place of observation, and if this be 
not possible, the time which elapsed from arriving at the 
place and making the observations shoukl be stated. It 
may not be unnecessary to add that every opportunity 
which presents itself should be taken of comparing it 
with a standard mercurial barometer, owing to the varia- 
tions, irregular or permanent, to which aneroids are 
subject, and that the instrument shoukl always be read 
in one position, since the difference between the reading 
in a horizontal position and the reading % averticu 
position is often considerable. 

BARON. The origin and primary import of this 
term have been much contested. Menage derives it 
from the Latin dara^ a word which we find used in clas- 
sical Latin to signify " a simple ** or *• foolish man,* 



BAR 



813 



/vnothcr form of the same word appears to be varo^ to 
which Lucilius gives the meaning " a stupid man,** ** a 
blockhead,** Forcellini observing that its primary sense 
is " a block of tough, hard wood.** But with greater 
probability Graff derives the word baron from the old 
oerman Bar^Afann^ freier Mann. The word seems 
related to the Spanish varon^ which means ** a male,'* 
•* a noble person,** and its root may be found in the San- 
skrit vera. Like the Greek aner and the Latin z//>, the 
-word baron signifies man in general and also a husband 
— the old legal expression baron and feme being equiva- 
lent to our ordinary phrase " man and wife.** 

In modern English tftage the term is particularly ap- 
plied to a member of. the lowest order of the peerage, 
but in ancient records the barony included all tne (titu- 
lar) nobility of England, because all noblemen were 
barons though they might possess a higher dignity also ; 
and the great council of peers, in which were included 
dukes, marquesses, and earls, as well as barons, was 
styled simply the " Council de Baronage. ** In like man- 
ner we speak of the *• barons* wars,** and " the barons ** 
who signed Magna Charta, although nobles of higher 
rank joined in both, and it is usual m summoning to the 
Upper House a peer's son in the lifetime of the father to 
give, for the occasion, a separate existence to the latter's 
barony. Thus Earl Fortescue sat in the House of 
Lords during his father's lifetime as baron of Castle 
Hill, county DeVon — the baronjr held with his father's 
earldom. The fiction is still maintained when a com- 
moner is raised directly to one of the higher grades of 
the peerage, as in the case of Admiral Jervis, who was 
created at the same time Baron Jervis and Earl St. Vin- 
cent. 

Barons of the ExchequeTy six judges (a chief baron 
and five puisne barons) to whom the administration of 
justice is committed in causes betwixt the king and his 
subjects relative to matters of revenue. Selden, in his 
Titles of Honor^ conjectures that they were originally 
chosen from among the barons of the kingdom, and 
hence their name. 

Barons of the Cinque Ports (originally Hastings, 
Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich) were (prior to 
1831) members of the House of Commons, elected by 
the Cinque Ports, two for each port. Their right to 
the title is recognized in many old statutes, but in 1606 
the use of the term in a message from the Lower House 
drew forth a protest from the peers, that " they would 
never acknowledge any man that sitteth in the Lower 
House to the right or title of a baron of parliament ** 
{Lordi Journals), These ports are now under the 
jurisdiction of a warden. 

Baron and Feme^ in the English Law^ a term used 
for husband and wife, in relation to each other, who are 
accounted as one person. Hence, by the old law of 
evidence the one party was excluded from being evidence 
for or a^inst the other in civil questions, and a relic of 
it is stilfpreserved in the crimintu law. 

Baron and Feme^ in Heraldry ^ is when the coats-of- 
armsofaman and his wife are borne per pale in the 
same escutcheon,— the man's being always on the dex- 
ter side, and the woman's on the sinister. But in this 
case the woman is supposed not to be an heiress, for 
then her coat must be borne by the husband on an 
escutcheon of pretence. 
See Heraldry. 

BARONET, a name originally given to the lesser 
barons mentioned in the preceding article, but now con- 
fined to the lowest graae of our hereditary nobility. 
The order was instituted by King James I. m 161 1, at 
the suggestion of Sir Robert Cotton, to whom the 
plan had been submitted by Sir Thomas Sherley of 
Wiston, its actual inventor. 



Baronets take precedence according to the dates of 
their patents, conformably to the terms of which no 
intermediate honor between baron and baronets can be 
established, and they rank above all knights except 
those of the Garter. The title or prefix of Sir is granted 
them by a peculiar clause in tneir patents, and until 
1827 they could claim for themselves and the heirs male 
of their bodies the honor of knighthood. All baronets 
are entitled to bear in their coat-of-arms, either in a 
canton or an escutcheon at their choice, the arms of 
Ulster, viz., a bloody hand. 

Baronets of Scotland^ called also Baronets of Nova 
Scotia. — This order of knights-baronets was instituted 
by Charles I. in the year 1625, when the first person 
dignified with the title was Sir Robert Gordon of Gor- 
donstone, a younger son of the earl of Sutherland. 

After the Union with England in 1707 the baronets 
of Scotland charged their arms with the Ulster badge, 
being created as baronets of the United Kingdom. 

Baronets of Ireland. — This order was likewise insti- 
tuted by King James L in the 18th year of his reign, for 
the same purpose and with the same privileges within 
the kingdom of Ireland as had been conferred on the 
analogous order in England ; for which also the Irish 
baronets paki the same fees into the treasury of Ireland, 

BARONIUS, C>ESAR, the great church historian, 
was born on the 31st October 1538 in the district of 
Naples. His parents, Camillo de Barono or Baron io 
and Porcia Trebonia, were of noble birth. He was 
educated at Veroli and Naples, where his favorite 
studies were theology and juris[>rudence. In 1557 he 
accompanied his father to Rome, and found himself in 
the midst of the reactionary enthusiasm which did much 
to restore Italy, in spite of the efforts of her reformers, 
to the papal authority. There he was brought in con- 
tact with Philip Neri, a man who then and since has 
done much to reconcile the speculative student with the 
Church of Rome, and to provide for him work in her 
service to which he can give his whole heart. Neri had 
just founded the Italian Oratory, the model of many 
another, and he and his monks had vowed to devote 
themselves to student lives, and to dedicate their 
whole power of study to the Roman Catholic Church. 
Among th© theological studies pursued in the oratory, 
church history and ecclesiastical biography held 
a prominent place, the greater part of every fore- 
noon being set apsurt for these subjects. In this small 
congregation Baronius found a congenial home, and his 
superior, Philip Neri, soon saw that he had secured a 
coadjutor who would make his oratory all he had hoped 
it would become. The alarm caused by the first 
Protestant church history, the Magdeburg Centuries^ 
gave his studies a special direction, and, as he told Pope 
Sixtus v., he was urged by his own desires, and the 
encoui-agement of Neri, to attempt to answer the 
Magdeburg divines. Thb was the origin of the 
Annates Ecclesiasticiy his great work, which occupied 
thirty laborious years. These Annates^ the first and in 
many respects the most important historical work 
which the Roman Catholic Church has produced, begin 
with the birth of Christ and end with the year 1198. 
The book is not properly history ; it is annals rather, 
as everything is subordinated to cmronology. 

BARQUISMETO, a city of Venezuela, and since 
1830 the capital of the province of Nueva Segovia, is 
situated on a confluent of the Portu^esa, which belomgs 
to the northern part of the Ormoco system. The 
surrounding district is fertile, and produces excellent 
coffee, cocoa, and sugar; and the climate is healthy 
and pleasant. Barquisimeto was founded in 1522 by 
Joan de Villegas, principally for the exploration and 
working of goM-mines supposed to exist m the neigh* ^ 



8i4 



BAR 



borlrt)^ ; tiki at first it received tht ntme of Naeva 
SagOTia in hoAor of hit native city. The commercial 
advanta^ of its tituation soon raised it to considerable 
prospenty. In 1807 it bad about 15,000 inhabitants ; 
DQt on tlie 16th of March 1812, it was totally destroyed 
by an earthquake. It has since been regularly rebuilt, 
and, in spite of disastrous effects of the revolutionary 
wars, has recovered its position. Among its public 
buildings may be mentioned a college and several 
schools. The inhabitants are partly engaged in the 
rearing of horses and mules. 

BAkR, a town in Alsace, 18 miles S. W. of Stras- 
burg, situated on the eastern slope of the Vosges, at 
the mouth of the UlrichthaL Population 5651. 

6ARRA, or Baeray (from the Scandinavian 
Baraty^ isle of tlie ocean), one of the Hebrides or 
Western Isles of Scotland, forming part of Ivemess- 
shire. It lies about five miles S. W. of South Uist, 
and is 8 miles in length by from 2 to 4 miles in breadth. 

BARRACKPUR, a nu^sterial subdivision and town 
of British India, in the district of 24 Pargan&s, under 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. 

Barrackpur Town and CANTONifENT, situated on 
the HtigK, 15 miles above Calcutta. 

Barrukpur played an important part in the two Sepoy 
mutinies of 1824 and 1857, but the details of these be- 
long to the ceneral history of British rule in India. 

BARRACKS are groups of buildings constructed for 
the accommodation di soldiers. The word, which was 
formerly spelt " baracks *» or " baraaues," is derived from 
the Spanish ** barracas,** meaning tne Utde huts or cab- 
ins used bv the fishermen on the sea-shore, or for sol- 
diers in tne fieW. The French call them ** casernes,** 
meaning lodgings for soldiers. Barracks of a tempor- 
ary character, commonly called ** huts,'* have ordinarily 
been constructed by troops on a campaign as winter 
quarters, or when for any length of time in ** standing 
camp,** — xhey being accommodated when in the field 
under other circumstances in tents, or else, if not pro- 
vided with tents, bivouacinc without cover. 

In time of peace barracks were formerly only pro- 
vided for troops in fortified places termed ** gamsons,** 
soldiers elsewhere being provided with quarters by being 
billeted on public-houses. The apprehension of dis- 
turbances, and risk of the troops being too much mixed 
up with the populations of the localities in which they 
might be stationed, mainly led to the construction of 
banacks in or near towns in England about the year 
1792. In the first instance the Deputy-adjutant-general 
was charged with the building andnttine up of barracks. 
In 1 79J the same officer was appointed " Superintendent- 
generalof barracks,** and subsequently " Barrack-master- 
general.** In 1806 the barrack establishment was 
placed under the direction of a board of four commis- 
sioners, of whom one was generally a military man. 
About the year 1825 thedukeofWellmgton arranged for 
the construction and maintenance of barracks to be 
given over to the corps of Royal En^eers. The cus- 
tody and equipment of barracks, with the supply of 
fuel and light to the troops quartered in them, were then 
made and remained, until recently, the duty of the 
"barrack department,** which consisted of barrack- 
masters and barrack-sereeants. 

The arrangement tind composition of barracks vary 
according to the arm of the service to be accommodated 
in them ; thus for the cavalry, horse and field artillery. 
Royal Engineer train, and transport branch of the army 
service corps, stables are required ; and it is usual to 
provide for the unmarried non-commissioned officers 
and men ouarters over their horses, a troop of cavalrv or a 
division of field artillery being placed in a separate block 
of two stories in height Horse and field artillery also 



require gunslieds and workshops for artificers, such ar 
coUarmakers, wheelers, &c All mounted troops reqoire 
forage and shoeing accommodation as well as saddlers' 
shops. Garrison artillery and companies of Royal 
Engineers can be accommodated in similar barracks to 
those for in&ntnr, bat the latter require an ample pro- 
vision of worksnops for artificers, with store accommo- 
dation for materials, &c. 

Not fifty years since, in the West Indies, men slept in 
barracks, in hammocks touching each other, only 23 
inches of lateral space being allowed for each man. At 
the same time in England the men slept in wooden 
beds, with two tiers, like the berths of a ship, and not 
unfreqnently each bed held four nien. Now, eadi 
soldier has an iron bedstead wUch turns up in the 
middle, forming a seat for the day-time, and only two 
rows of beds are allowed m barrack-rooms, and the 
principle of providing one window for every two beds is 
carried out in all new barracks. 

The best size of a barrack-room is now considered to 
be 60 or 62 feet long, by 20 feet wide, and about 12 feet 
hl^. The number of men each room is to contain is 
painted on the door ; and in barracks of modem con- 
struction each barrack-room has attached to it : — 

(I.) A small (sinde) seraeant's room, with fire-place, 
cupboard, and snuul window looking into the men's 
room. 

(2.) An ablution room, with basins, water-taps, and a 
fixed pan in which the feet can be washed. 

(3. ) A night urinal, with water for flushing laid on. 

&rracks are washed once a week, and on intermediate 
days the rooms are dry-scrubbed. The walls and 
ceilings are limewashed by the troops twice a year. The 
general periodical painting of all barrack buildings is 
performed twice externally and once interally in every 
eight years. Formerly, barrack buildings were placed 
on very limited areas, and even a whole regiment was 
lodged in one house built in the form of a square, with 
the quarters of the officers on one side for the better 
supervision of the men ; but the Barrack and Hospital 
Improvement Commission recommended that the men 
should be divided in numerous detached buildings, so 
placed as to impede as little as possible the movement 
of air and the action of the sun*s rays. 

For barracks, as a general rule, buildings of two 
stories in height are preferred to those of three stories, 
but three-story buildings may be adopted where space 
is limited and land very costly. Buildings of two 
stories are less expensive than those of only one story 
in height, and the general arrangement, when the 
former mode of construction is adopted, is more com- 
pact. The selection of a site for a barrack requires 
great care and circumspection. This duty is performed 
in the first instance by tne Commanding Royal Engineer 
of the district, or an officer appointed by him ; but the 
ground proposed is also reported on by an Army 
medical officer as well as subsequendv by the General 
Officer commanding the district, the final approval 
resting with the Secretary of State for War. 

BARRAS, Paul Francois Jean Nicolas, Comtk 
DE, a distinguished actor in the great French Revolu- 
tion, was bom in June 1755. He was a descendant of 
a noble family in Provence, and at an early age entered 
the army. He was twice in India with his regiment, 
but retired from the service after attaining the rank of 
captain. Like many others, he saw in the Revolution 
a good opportunity for retrieving his fortunes, which had 
been ruined by his extravagance and dissipation ; and 
his penetration enabled him to foresee the certain fall 
of the royalist party. He threw in his lot with the 
revolutionists, and speedily distinguished himself by his 
vigor and hardihood. "When elected a member of the 



1 



BAR 



815 



National Coiivention, he gave an uncompromising vote 
for the king's death; and at the siege of Toulon, where 
for the first time he met Napoleon, his energetic 
measures contributed much to the success of the French 
arms. Robespierre, who hated Barras for his dissolute 
habits, and feared him for his boldness, endeavored to 
have his name included in one of his prescription lists, 
bat, on the 9th Thermidor 1794 Barras completely 
overthrew his power. His success from this period 
was secured; after the 13th Vind^miaire I795» ^^ ^^ 
nominated general-in-chief ; and after the affeir of the 
1 8th Fructidor, 1 797, in which Augereau played^a prom- 
inent part, he was practically dictator. Bonaparte's 
i-oup <P/tat of the loth Brumaire 1799 changed the 
whole aspect of afi^rs. Barras, seeing that resistance 
to his powerful prot^e^ was useless, gave in his resigna- 
tion, and retirea to his country seat His latter years 
were spent in various intrigues, in which he showed a 
strong leaning towards the royalist party. He died in 
1829. The character of Barras has little in it that is 
worthy of a^iniration. He was dissolute in private life, 
and can scarcely be said to have had any definite public 
policy. At the same time he was courageous, prudent, 
and on occasions, an able speaker. 

BARRHEAD, a town of Scotland, county of Renfrew, 
three miles S. of Paisley, and 8 miles S. W. of Glasgow 
on the Caledonian Railway line between that city and 
Kilmarnock. 

BARRI, GiRALD DE, commonly called Giraldus 
Cambrensisy an historian and ecclesiastic of the 12th 
and 13th centuries, was born at the castle of Maenor 
Pyrr near Pembroke, probably in 1 147. By his mother 
he was descended from the princess of South Wales, and 
, the De Barris were one of the most powerful Welsh 
families. Being a younger brother, and intended for 
the church, he was sent to St. David's, and educated in 
the family of his uncle, the bishop of that see. When 
about twenty years of age he was sent to the Universitv 
of Paris, where he continued for some years, and, 
according to his own account, became an excellent 
rhetorician and lecturer. On his return in 11 72 he 
entered holy orders, and was made archdeacon of 
Brecknock. Having observed with much concern that 
his countrymen the Welsh were very backward in pay- 
ing tithes of wool and cheese, he applied to Richard, 
archbishop of Canterbury, and was appointed his legate 
in Wales for remedving this and other disorders. Barry 
excommunicated all, without distinction, who refused to 
compound matters with the church, and, in particular, 
delivered over bodily to the evil one those who with- 
held the tithes, ^fot satisfied with enriching, he also 
attempted to reform the clergy. He delated an aged 
archdeacon to the archbishop, for the unpardonable 
crime of matrimony ; and on his refusing to put away 
his wife he was deprived of his archdeaconry, which was 
bestowed upon the zealous legate. On the death of his 
uncle, the bishop of St David's, in 1 176, he was elected 
his successor by the chapter ; but this choice having 
heen made without the permission and against the wifl 
of Henry II., Girald prudently decUned to insist upon 
it, and went again to Paris to prosecute his studies. 
He speaks with exultation of the prodigious fame which 
he acquired by his eloquent declamations in the schools, 
and of the crowded audiences who attended them. 
Having spent about four years at Paris, he returned to 
St. David's, where he found everything in confusion ; 
and on the temporary retirement of the bishop, which 
took place soon after, he was appointed administrator 
by the advice of the archbishop of Canterbury, and 
governed the diocese in that capacity till 1184, when 
the bishop was restored. About the same time he was 
called to court by Henry II., appointed one of his 



chaplains and sent into Ireland with Prince John, by 
whom he was offered the imited bishoprics of Femes 
and Leighlin. He would not accept them, and em- 
ployed his time in collecting materials for his. Topo- 
graphy of Ireland^ and his history of the conquest of 
that IsUund, which was completed in three books m 1 187. 
In 1 188 he attended Baldwm, archbishop of Canterbury, 
in his progress through Wales, preaching a crusade for 
the recovery of the Holy Land, — an employment in 
which he tells us, with his usual modesty, that he was 
far more successful than the primate, adding signifi- 
cantly, that the people were most affected with Latin 
sermons (whkh they did not understand), melting into 
tears, and coming in crowds to take the cross. On the 
accession of Richard I. in 1189 he was sent by that 
monarch into Wales to preserve the peace of that coun« 
try, and was even joined in commission with William 
Longchamp, bishop of Ely, as one of the regents of the 
kingdom. He failed, however^ to improve this favor- 
able opportunity ; and having fixed his heart on the see 
of St. David's, the bishop of which was very old and in- 
firm, he refused the bishopric of Bangor in 1 190, and 
that of Llandaff the year following. But in 1192 the 
state of public affairs became so unfavorable to Barri's 
interest at court that he determined to retire. He pro- 
ceeded to Lincoln, where William de Monte read lec- 
tures in theology with great applause; and here he spent 
about six years in the study of divinity, and in compos- 
ing several works. At last the see of'^St. Davids, wnich 
h£ui long been the object of his ambition, became vacant, 
and he was unanimously elected by the chapter, but met 
with so powerful an adversary in Hubert, archbishop of 
Canterbury, that it involved him in a litigation which 
lasted five years, cost him three journeys to Rome, and 
ended in his defeat in the year 1203. Retiring from the 
world, he spent the last seventeen years of his life in 
studious privacy. His MSS. are preserved in the British 
Museum, the library at Lambeth, and the Bodleiaq 
Library. 

BARRINGTON, John Shute, first Viscount, a 
nobleman distinguished for theological learning, was the 
youngest son of Benjamin Shute, merchant, and waa 
Dom at Theobald, in Hertfordshire, in 1678. He died 
in 1734. Of his large family four were distinguished. 

The eldest, William Wildman, second Viscount 
Barrington (bom 171 7, died 1793), held important Gov^ 
emment offices. 

The Hon. Daines Barrington, the third son, bom 
in 1727, was a distinguished antiquary and naturalist. 
Among the most curious and ingenious of his papers, 
are his Experiments and Observations on the Singing 
of Birds, and his Essay on the Language of Birds, 
He died on the 14th March 1800, and was buned in the 
Temple church. 

Samuel Barrington, the fourth son, was bom in 
1729, and died in 1800. He entered the navy at an 
early age, and in 1 747 had worked his way to a post' 
captaincy. He was distinguished for his bravery and 
skill, and in 1778 attained the rank of rear-admiral. 
He held command for some time in the West Indies, 
and repulsed a superior French force at Sta Lucia. 

Shute Barrington, the youngest son, was bom in 
1784, and died in 1826. He was educted at Eton and 
Oxford, and after holding some minor dignities, was 
made bishop of Llandaff in 1769. 

BARRISTERS, in England, are the highest class of 
lawyers who have exclusive audience in all the superior 
courts. Every barrister must be a member of one^ of 
the four ancient societies called Inns of Court, viz., 
Lincoln's Inn, the Inner and Middle Temples, and 
Gray's Inn. The existence of these societies as schools 
can be traced back to the 13th century, and their rise is 



8i6 



BAR 



attributed to the clause in Magna Charta, by which the 
Common Pleas were fixed at Westminster instead of fol- 
lowing the king's court, and the professors of law were 
consequently brought together in London. Associa- 
tions of lawyers acquired nouses of their own in which 
students were educated in the common law, and the 
degrees of barrister (corresponding to apprentice or 
bachelor^ and sergeant (corresponding to doctor) were 
Conferred. The schools of law are now represented b^ 
the Inns of Court, which still enjoy the exclusive privi- 
lege of calling to the bar, and through their superior 
order o{ bencners control the discipline of thcprofession. 
BARROW-IN-FURNESS, a borough, port, and 
parish in the hundred of Ijonsdale, North- West 
La iicashire, situated opposite the island of Walney, at 
the extreme point of the peninsula of Fumess, which 
lies between Morecambe Bav and the estuary of the 
Duddon. It is distant 35 miles from Lancaster and 91 
from Carlisle. The area of the borough, which in- 
cludes Walney and the islets at its south end, is 17,000 
acres, of which 8155 are land, the rest being sand and 
water. 

BARROW, Isaac, an eminent mathematician and 
divine, was th^ son of Thomas Barrow, a linen draper in 
London, where he was bom in 1630. He was at first 
placed for two or three years at the Charter-house 
school. There, however, his conduct gave but little 
hopes of hb ever succeeding as a scholar, for he was in- 
attentive and extremely fond of fighting. But after his 
removal from this establishment, his disposition took a 
happier turn ; and having soon made considerable 
progress in learning, he was in 1643 entered at St. 
Peter's College, and afterwards at Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he applied himself with great dili- 
gence to the study of literature and science, especially 
of natural philosophy. He at first intended to adopt 
the medical profession, and made some progress m 
anatomv, botany, and chemistry, after which he studied 
chronology, geometry, and astronomy. He then trav- 
elled in France and Italy, and in a voyage from Leghorn 
to Smyrna gave proofs of great personal bravery ; for 
the ship having been attacked by an Algerine pirate, 
Barrow remained upon deck, and fo»r^t witn the 
utmost intrepklity, until the pirate, imprepared for the 
stout resistence made by the ship, sheered off and left 
her to pursue her voyage. 

In July 1662 he was elected professor of geometry in 
Gresham College, on the recommendation of Dr. Wil- 
kins, master of Trinity College, and afterwards bishop 
of Chester ; and in May 1663 he was chosen r. fellow of 
the Royal Society, at the nrst election made by the 
council after obtaining their charter, in 1669 he re- 
signed his mathematical chdr to his illustrious pupil 
Isaac Newton, having now determined to renounce the 
study of mathematics for that of divinity. In the year 
1670 he was created doctor in divinity by mandate; and, 
upon the promotion of Dr. Pearson, master of Trinity 
CfoUece, to the see of Chester, he was appointed to suc- 
ceed him by the king's patent, bearing date of i^th 
February 1072. In 1075 Dr. Barrow was chosen vice- 
chancellor of the university. He died on the 4th of 
May 1677, in the 47th year of his age, and was interred 
in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, surmounted 
by his bust, was soon after erected by the contributions 
01 his friends. By his English contemporaries Barrow 
was considered a mathemetidan second only to Newton. 
Continental writers do not place him so high, and their 
judgment is probably the more correct one. 

BARROW, Sir John, Bart., was born near Ulvers- 
ton, in Lancashire, June 19, 1764^ His early oppor- 
tunities of instruction were limited; but by self- 
education he matured those powers which eventually 



were turned to so g[ood an account He displayed at aa 
early age a decided inclination for mathematical pursuits. 
He pa^«d some years of his youth as saperinteoding 
clerk of an iron foundry at Liverpool, and he afterwards 
taught mathematics at an academy in Greenwich. While 
in the latter situation he was fortunate in obtaining^ 
through the interest of Sir C^eorge Staunton, a place in 
the first British embassy to China. He was thus 
enabled to put his foot on the first step of the ladder of 
ambition ; out each step in his subseouent career may 
be fairly said to have been achieved oy himselC The 
accQunt af the embas^ published by Sir George Staun- 
ton records many of Barrow's valuable contributions to 
literature and science connected with China. This work, 
together with his own subsequendy published volume of 
travels, is ample evidence how well his time had been 
employed. Few persons could, within the space of a 
few months, overcome all the practical difficulties of 
such a laflguage as the Chinese ; but Barrow soon 
began to converse in it, and acquired a complete knowl- 
ed^ of its theory. His papers on the subject in the 
Quarterly Review (to which periodical he was for many 
years a very frequent contributor) contain a very admir- 
rable account of^ that singular language. 

He retired from public life in I045, ™ considera- 
tion of his advanced years, although still in vigorous 
possession of all the mental and bodily powers re- 
quired for the due discharge ot' the functions of his 
office. 

BARROWS. The custom of constructing barrows, 
or mounds of stones or earth, over the remains of 
the dead was the most characteristic feature of the 
sepulchral systems of primitive times. Originating in the 
common sentiment of humanity, which desires by some 
visible memorial to honor and perpetuate the memory 
of the dead, it was practiced alike by nations of high 
and of low development, and continued through all the 
stages of culture that preceded the introduction of 
Christianity. The primary idea of sepulture appears to 
have been the provision of a habitation for the dead ; 
and thus, in its perfect form, the barrow included a 
chamber or chamoers where the tenant was surrounded 
with all the prized possessions of his previous life. A 
common feature of tne earlier barrows is the enclosing 
fence, which marked off the site from the surrounding 
ground. When the barrow was of earth, this was 
usually effected by an encircling trench or a low vallum. 
When the barrow was a stone structure, the enclosure 
was usually a circle of standing stones. Sometimes, 
instead of a chamber formed above ground, the barrow 
covered a pit excavated under the original surface, in 
which the interments had been made. In later times 
the mound itself was frequently dispensed with, and the 
interments made under the natural surface, within the 
enclosure of a trench, a vallum^ or a circle of standing 
stones. Usually the great barrows occupy conspicuous 
sites ; but in f^eneral the external form is no index to 
the intenml construction, and gives no absolute indica- 
tion of the nature of the cepulchral usages. Thus, while 
the lone barrov/ is characteristic of the Stone Age, it is 
im|X)SsiDle to tei7. 'ivithout direct examination whether it 
may be chambered or unchambered, or whether the 
burials within i! may be those of burnt or of imbumt 
bodies. 

In England the long barrow usually contains a single 
chamber, entering by a passage underneath the higher 
and wider end of the mound. In Denmark the cham- 
bers are at irregular intervals along the body of the 
mound, and have no passages leading into them. The 
long barrows of Great Britain are often from 200 to 400 
feet in length by 60 to 80 feet wide. Their chambers 
are rudely but strongly built, with dome-shaped ixk% 



BAR 



817 



foEtned by overlapping the successive courses of the 
upper part of the side walls. In Scandinavia, on the 
other hand, such dome-shaped chambers are unknown, 
and the construction of the chambers as a rule is mega- 
lithic, tive or six monoliths supporting a capstone of 
enormous size. Such chambers cfenuded of the covering 
mound, or over which no covering mound has been 
raised, are popularly known in England as '* cromlechs ** 
and in France as "dolmens." The prevailing mode of 
sepulture in all the different varieties of these structures 
is by the deposit of the body in a contracted position, 
accompanied by weapons and implements of stone, 
occasionally by ornaments of gold, /et, or amber. 
Vessels of clay, more or less ornate in coaracter, which 
occur with these early interments of unburnt bodies, are 
regarded as food vessels and drinking cups, differing in 
charncter and purpose from the cinerary urns of the 
Cremation Period m which the ashes of the dead were 
deposited. 

in the case of the long barj-'>»"^ the tradftional form 
of the circular chambered barrows >vas retained through 
various changes in the sepulchral customs of the peopfe, 
and we find it used both in connection with burnt and 
with unburnt burials. It was the natural result of the 
practice of cremation, however, that it should induce a 
modification of the barrow structure. The chamber, no 
longer regarded as a habitation to be tenanted by the 
deceased, became simply a cist for the reception of the 
urn which held his ashec. The degradation of the cham- 
ber naturally produced a corresponding degradation of 
the mound which covered it, and the barrows of the 
Bronze Age, in which cremation was the rule, are 
smaller and less imposinj^ than those of the Stone Age, 
but often surprisingly rich in the relics of the life and of 
the art workmanship of the time. In addition to the 
varied and beautiful forms of implements and weapons, — 
frequently ornamented wiih a high degree of artistic 
taste, — armlets, coronets, or diadems of solid gold and 
vases of elegant form and ornamentation in gold and 
bronze, are not uncommon. The barrows of tht Bronze 
Period, like some those of the Stone Age, appear 
to have been us as tribal or family cemeteries. In 
Denmark as many £3 seventy deposits of burnt inter- 
ments have been observed in r. single mound, indicating 
its use a burying-place throughout a long succession 
of years. 

. In the early Iron Age there was a partial return to 
the more massive construction of the earlier periods. 
Sometimes chambers arc found formed of timber instead 
of stones, in which the lx)dies were deposited unburnt, 
although the custom of crematiou was largely continued. 
In Scandinavia both of these modes of sepulture lingered 
tilLthe close of the Pagan time. One of the latest 
examples of the great timber-chambered barrov/ iz that 
at Jellinge in Jutland, known as the barrow of Thyre 
Banebod, queen of King Gorm the Old, who died 
about the middle ofthe loth century. It is a mound about 
200 feet in diameter, and O'^^r 50 feet in height, containing 
a chamber ^3 feet long, 6 iJwt wide, and 5 feet high, 
formed of massive slabs of oak. Though it had been 
entered and plundered in the Middle Ages, a few relics, 
overlooked by its original violaters, were found when it 
was recently reopened, amon^ which were a silver cup, 
ornamented with the interlaang work characteristic of 
the time, and some personal ornaments. It is highly 
illustrative of the tenacity with which the ancient 
Sfpulchral usages were retained even after the introduc- 
tion of Christianity that King Herald, son and successor 
of Gorm the Old, who is said to have Christianized all 
Dttimark and Norway, followed the Pagan custom of 
Ejecting a chambered tumulus over the remains of his 
&ther, on the summit of which was placed a rude pillar- 



stone, bearing on one ade the memorial inscription in 
Runes, and on the other a representation of the Savior 
of mankind distinguished by the crossed nimbus sur- 
roundine the head. 

The Homeric account of the building of the barrow 
of Hector (//. xxiv.) brings vividly before us the scene 
so often suggested by the examination of the tumuli of 
prehistoric times. During nine days wood was collected 
and brought, in carts drawn by oxen, to the sight of the 
funeral pyre. Then the pyre was built and the body laid 
upon it. After burning for twenty-four hours the 
smouldering embers were extinguished with libations of 
wine. The white and calcined bones were then picked 
out of the ashes by the friends and placed in a metallic 
urn, which was deposited in a hollow grave, or cyst, and 
covered over with large well-fitting stones. Finally, a 
barrow of great magnitude was heaped over the remains, 
and the funeral feast was celebratea. The obsequies of 
Achilles, as described in the Odyssey , were abo celebrated 
with details which are strikingly similar to those observed 
in tumuli both of the Bronze and Iron Ages. 

Herodotus, describing the funeral customs of the 
Scythians, states that, on the death ot a chief, the body 
was placed upon a couch in a chamber sunk in the earth 
and covered with timber, in which were deposited all 
things needful for the comfort of the deceased in the 
other world. One of his wives was strangled and laid 
beside htm, his cup-bearer, and other attendants, his 
charioteer, and his horses, were killed and placed in the 
tombs which was then filled up with earth, and an enor- 
mous mound raised high over all. The barrows which 
cover the plains of ancient Scythia attest the truth of this 
description. A Siberian barrow, described by Demidoff, 
contained three contiguous chambers of unhewn stone. 
In the central chamber lay the skeleton of the ancient 
chief, with his sword, his spear, his bow, and a quiver 
full of arrows. The skeleton reclined upon a sheet of 
pure gold, extending the whole length of the body, 
which had been wrapped in a mantle broidered with 
gold and studded with precious stones. Over it was ex- 
tended another sheet of pure gold. In a smaller cham- 
ber at the chiefs head lay the skeleton of a female, 
richly attired, extended upon a sheet of pure goki, and 
similarly covered with a sheet of the same metal A 
golden chain adorned her neck, and her arms were en- 
circled with bracelets of pure gold. In a third chamber, 
at the chiefs feet, lay the skeleton of his favorite horse 
with saddle, bridle, and stirrups. 

So curiously alike in their general features were the 
sepulchral usages connected with barrow-burial over the 
whole of Europe, that we find the Anglo-Saxon Saga of 
Beowulf describing the chambered tumulus with its gi- 
gantic masonry" held fast on props with vaults of stone," 
and the passage under the mound haunted by a dragon, 
the guardian of the treasures of heathen gold whidK it 
contained. Beowulfs own burial is minutely described 
in terms which have a strong resemblance to the parallel 
passage in the //tad and Odyssey,- 

The pyramids of Egypt, the mausolea of the Lydian 
kings, the sepulchres of the Atreidae at Mycenae, and 
the Etruscan tombs at Caere and Void, are lineally 
descended from the chambered barrows of prehistoric 
times, modified in construction according to the ad- 
vancement of architectural art at the period of their 
erection. There is no ,ountry in Europe destitute of 
more or less abundant proofs of the almost universal 
prevalence of barrow-burials in early times. It can be 
traced on both sides of the basin of the Mediterranean, 
in Northern Africa, and in Asia Minor, across the plains 
of Mesopotamia, in the valley qf Cabul, and through- 
out Western India. But more extended research in the 
archaeology of these vast regions is needed to enable 



■:=ii- 



8l8 



BAR 



Us to correlate their ancient remains with those of the 
European continent 

In the New Wnrld, as well as in the Old, the same 
customs prevailed over vast areas from a very remote 
period. In the great plains of North America the dead 
were buried in Mrrows of enormous ma^itude, which 
occasionally present a remarkable similarity to the long 
barrows of Great Britain. In these mounds cremation 
appears more freq|uently than inhumation ; and both are 
accompanied bv implements, weapons, and ornaments 
of stone and bone. The pottery accompanying the 
remains is often elaborately ornamented, and the mound 
builders were evidently possessed of a higher develop- 
ment of taste and skill than is evinced oy any of the 
modem aboriginal races, by whom the mounds and their 
contents are regarded as utterly mvsterious. 

It is not to be wondered at tnat customs so widely 
spread and s« deeplv rooted as those connected witn 
barrow-burial shoiud have been difficult to eradicate. 
In fact, compliance with the Christian practice of inhu- 
mation in the cemeteries sanctioned by the church, was 
only enforced in Europe by capitularies denouncing the 
punishment of death on those who persisted in burjring 
their dead after the Pagan fashion or in the Pa^m 
mounds. Yet c ven in the M iddle Ages kings Mrere buned 
with their swords and spears, and queens with their 
spindles end ornaments ; the bishop was laid in his grave 
with his crosier and comb, his cnalice and vestments; 
and clay vessels filled with charcoal (answering to the 
urns of heathen times) are found with the interments in 
the churches of France and Denmark. 

BARROW'S STRAITS, a portion of the channel 
which runs W. from Baffin's Bay through the islands of 
the Arctic archipelago to Melville Sound. 

BARRY, Sir Charles, a distinguished English 
architect, was bom at Westminster, May 23, 1795. His 
masterpiece, and perhaps, notwithstancung all unfavor- 
able criticism, the mr.-terpiece of English architecture 
of the 19th century, is the new palace at Westminster. 
After the destruction of the old houses of parliament 
by fire in October 1834, Barry was ths cuccessml compet- 
itor for erecting the new pr.loce. The firct ctonc was 
laid in the spring of 1840 ; the work "vva^ cteadilr carried 
on in the face c? many difficulties, c.id through :: mr-.z 
of private dissensions and public complaints, and it was 
at lengtl: completed in 1060. Twenty years seemed 
long in passing, but once pa:t the time r.:3uredly wil! 
no more seem too lon^ to haV2 been employed in the 
erection, or, rye might say, aUo'.rid far tha rjrovnh of 
this statelv :i\d beautiful pile, one of the trac:.t glories 
of the banks cf the Thames. 

BARRY, James, an eminent painter, v/as bom r.t 
Cork on the nth October 1741. 

As an artist Barry is more distin^ished fcr the 
strength of hb conceptions, end for his resolute and 
persistent determination to appl^r himself caly '.o rjrcat 
subjects, than for his skill in aesigning cr for beauty in 
his coloring. His ideas were generally fir.c, but tho 
realization of them v/as almost wiuiout exception -jnsuc- 
cessfuL His drawing b rarely good, his coloring; fre- 
(juently wretched. Thb curious contradiction in his artis- 
tic powers was in complete harmony with his general 
character. He was extremely imp:*lsivc and r.ncqual; 
sometimes morose, sometimes socuble and urbane; 
jealous of his contemporaries, and yet capab!: of pro- 
notmcing a splendid euloey on Reynolds. 

BARS, a province of Hungarv. ui the district watered 
by the Neqtra, Gran, and ^tva, whicn oelon^ to the 
northern part ef the system of the Danube. It is for 
the most part mountainous and has great mineral wealth, 
especially in gold and silver. 

BARtAN, a tawn in Asiatic Turkey, situated near 



the mouth of the Bartan-su, whidi was known to tlie 1 
Greeks as the Parthenius^ and formed part of the bound- 
ary between Bithynia and Paphlagonia. 

BARTAS, GuiLLAUif E DE Salluste DU, a French 
poet, was bom in 1544, and died in 1590 of woancis 
received in the battle of Ivry. 

BARTFELD, or BArtfa, a town in Hongarj, 
county of Saros, on the River Tepla. 

BARTH, HiifRiCH, a distinguished African explorer^ 
was bom at Hamburg, Febmary 16, 1821. 

BARTH, or Bart, Jean, son of a fisherman of Don- 
kirk, was bom in 1651 and died in 1702. He served, 
when young, in the Dutch navy, but when war broke 
out between Louis XIV. and Holland, he entered the 
French service. He gained great distinction in the 
Mediterranean, where he held an irregular sort of a 
commbsion, not being then able from his low birth to 
receive a command in the navy. His success was so 
^eat, however, that he was made a lieutenant. He 
rose rapkilyto the rank of captain, and then to that of 
admiral. The peace of Ryswick put a close to his 
active service. Many anecdotes are narrated of the 
courage and bluntness of the uncultivated sailor, who 
became the popular hero of the French naval service. 

BARTHfiLEMY, Auguste Marseiixe, a French 
satirical poet, was bom at Marseilles in 1796, and died 
in 1867. 

BARTH£LEMY, Jean Jacques, a cekbrated 
French writer, was bom on the 20th January 1716, 
at Cassb, a little seaport on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. He was educated, first at the collie of the 
Oratory in Marseilles, and afterwards at that of the 
Jesuits in the same city. While completing the course 
of study requisite for the church, which he intended to 
join, he devoted much attention to Oriental languages, 
in which he became very proficient. After assummg 
the ecclesiastical habit, ne resided with hb family at 
Aubagne, and during thb period of hb life was intro- 
duced by hb friend, M. Gary of Marseilles, to the study 
of classical antiquities, particularly in the department 
of numismatics. In 1744 ho repaired to Paris, carrying 
with him a letter of introduction to M. Gros de fifoze, 
perpetual secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and 
BclIwC Letters, and keeper of the medals. He became 
assbtant to Dc Boze, and on the d?ath of the latter in 
1753, was appointed hb successor. In Che following 
;'car h^ was enabled to pay a vbit to Italy, and spent 
some time in that countr}", inspecting its nch treasures 
of classical remains. While on hb journey he made the 
acquaintance of the French ambassador, W, de Stain- 
ville, afterwards due de Ghoiseul, and of his wife. Hie 
rainister conceived a great regard for Barth^emy, and 
on V:.z accession to power loaded the scholar with bene- 
fits. In 175^ he gave him a pension on the archbishop- 
ric or Albi ; in 1765 he conferred on him the treasurer- 
chip of St Martin de Tours, and, in 176S, made him 
secretary-general to the Swbs miards. In addition to 
i^.cic sourccc of revenue, the abW e:ijo^ed iv pension of 
50CO livrci on the Mercure de France, His income, 
which w.".:; thus conskierable, was well employed by him; 
h? supported and established in life three nephews, and 
gav^ largely to indigent men of letters. In 1789, after 
th? publication of his great work, he was elected a 
iricmocr of the French Academy, one of the highest 
honors to which a French author aspires. During the 
troubled years of the Revolution, Barth^lemv, from his 
position and habits, took no share in any puolic affairs. 
Vet he was informed against and arrested as an aristo- 
crat. So great, however, was the respecf felt for hb 
character and talents, that the Committee of Public 
Safety were no sooner informed of the arrest, than thty 



BAR 



819 



gave orders for his immediate release. Barth^Iemy died 
soon after, on the 30th April 1795. 

BARTHEZ, or Barth^, Paul Joseph, one of the 
mo6t celebrated physicians of France, was bom on the 
1 1 tb of December 1 734, at Montpellier. He commenced 
the study of medicine at Montpellier in 1750, and in 
1753, when he had only attained his nineteenth year, he 
received his doctor's degree. In 1761 he obtained a 
medical professorship at Montpellier, in which his abili- 
ties as a teacher soon shone forth with unrivalled lustre. 
His success was the more honorable, inasmuch as his 
colleagues — Lamure, Leroy, and Venel — were men of 
distinguished reputation, and had rdsed the school to a 
high pitch of celebrity. 

In 1^74 he was created joint chanceUor of the univer- 
sity, with the certainty of succeeding singly to the office 
on the death of the colleague, which happened in 1786. 
He afterwards took the d^ee of doctor in civil law, 
and was appointed counsellor to the Supreme Court of 
Aids at Montpellier. In 1780 he was induced to fix his 
residence in Paris, having been nominated consulting 
physician to the king, with a brevet of counsellor of 
state, and a pension of a hundred louis. 

The outbreak of the French Revolution compelled 
Barthez to leave Paris. He lost considerable part of his 
fortune, and retired to Carcassonne, where he devoted 
himself to the study of theoretical medicine. 

His Traitement des Maiadies Goutteuses^ in two 
vols. 8vo, appeared in 1802, and he afterwards occupied 
himself in preparing for the press a new edition ot his 
Elimens de la Science de Vtlammey of which he just 
lived to see the publication. His health had been 
declining for some years before his death, which took 
place soon after his removal to Paris, on the 15U1 of 
October 1806, in the 72d year of his age. 

Barthez has enjoyed a much higher reputation on the 
Continent than in England, where, indeed, his writings 
are comparatively little known. 

BARTHO LINUS, Gaspard, a learned Swede, bom 
in 1585, at Malmoe. His precocity was extraordinary ; 
at three veers of age he was able to read, and in his 
thirteenth year he composed Greek and Latin orations, 
and delivered them in public. When he was about 
eighteen he went to the University of Copenhagen, and 
he afterwards studied at Rostock and Wittemberg. 
He then travelled through Germany, the Netherlands, 
England, France, and Italy, and was received with 
marked respect at the different universities he visited. 
In 1613 he was chosen professor of medicine in the 
University of Copenhagen, and filled that office for 
eleven years, v/hen, falling into a dangerous illness, he 
made a vow, that if it should please God to restore him, 
he would apply himself solely to the study of divinity. 
He recovered, observed his vow, and soon after obtained 
the professorship of divinity, with the Ci^rmnry of 
Rothschild. He died on the 13th of July i63o> after 
having written nearly fifty works on different subjects. 

BARTHOLIN US, Thomas, a physician, son of the 
above, was bom at Copenhagen in 1619, and died on 
the 14th of December i68a 

BARTHOLOMEW. St., one of the twelve apos- 
tles, generally -supposed to have been the same as 
Nathanael (John i. 45). He was a native of Can in 
Galilee (John xxi. 2), and was introduced by Philip to 
Jesus, who, on seeing him approach, at once pro- 
nounced that eulogy on his character which has made 
the name Nathanael almost synonymous with sincerity. 
He was a witness of the resurrection and the ascension, 
and returned with the other apostles to Jerusalem. Of 
his subsequent history we have little more than vague 
traditions. According to Eusebius {Hist. Eccles.y v. 10), 
when Pantsemis went on a mission lo th« Indians 



(towards the close of the 2d century), he lound among 
them the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew, which 
had been left there by the apostle Bartholomew^ 
Jerome {De Vir, Iliustr,^ c. 36) gives a nmilar account. 
But the name Indians is appued by ancient writers to 
so many different nations, that it is difficult to deter- 
mine the scene of Bartholomew's labors. Mosheim 
(with whom Neander aerees) is of opinion that it was 
part of Arabia Felix, inliabited by Jews, to whom alone 
a Hebrew gospel could be of any service. According 
to the received tradition, this apostle was flayed alive 
and crucified with his head downwards, at Albanopolis 
in Armenia, or, according to Nicephorus, at Urbanopolis 
in Cilicia. A spurious gospel which bears his name is 
in the catalogue of apociyphal books condemned by 
Pope Gelasius. The festival of St Bartholomew Is 
celebrated on the 24th of August. 

BARTOLINI, Lorenzo, an Italian sculptor, was 
bom in 1777, of very humble parents, at Vemio in 
Tuscany. After various vicissitudes in his youth, dur- 
ing which he hc4 acquired great skill and reputation as 
a modeller in alabaster, he came to Paris in 1797. His 
great patron, v>owever, was Napoleon, for whom he 
executed a colossal bust, and who sent him to Carrara 
to found a school of sculpture. He remained in Car- 
rara till after the fiedl cf Napoleon, and then took up his 
residence in Florence, v/^here he continued to reside till 
his death in 185a His works, which include an 
immense number of busts, are numerous and varied. 
The best are, perhaps, the group of Charity, the Her- 
cules and Lichas, and the Faith m God, which exemplify 
the highest types of Bartolinfs style. By the Italians 
he is ranked next to Thorwaldsen and Car.ova. 

BARTOLOZZI, Francesco, a distinguished en. 
graver, was bom at Florence in 1725, or, according to 
some authorities, in 1730. For nearly forty years he 
resided in London, and produced an enormous number 
of engravings, the best oeing those of Clytie, after An- 
nibide Carracci, and of the Virgin and Child, after 
Carlo Dolce. A great proportion of them are from the 
works of Cipriani and Angelica Kanffimann. Bartolozd 
also contributed a number of plates to BoydelPs Shakes- 
peare Gallery. In 1802 he was invited to Lisbon to 
superintend a school of engraving in that city. He 
remained in Porti^ till his death, atan advanctd age, 
about the year iSio. 

BARTOLUS, professor of the civil law at the 
University of Perugia, and the most famous master of 
the dialectical rrhool of jurists, was bom in 1314, at 
Sasso Ferrato, in the duchy of Urbino, and hence 
is generally styled Bartolus de Saxo Ferrato. His 
father was Frandscus Severi, and his mother was 
of the family of the Alfanl He «tU(Ued the civil 
law first of pJl under Cinus at Perugia, and after- 
wards under Oldradus and Jacobus de Belvisio at 
Bologna, where he was promoted to the degree of doc- 
tor of civil law in 1334. His great reputation dates 
from his appointment to a chair of dvil law in the Uni- 
versity of Perugia, 1343, where he lectured for many 
years, raising the diaracter of the law school of Perugia 
to a level with fV»nr of L^/logna. He died in 13 J7 at 
Perugia, where j. magnificent monument recorded the 
interment of his remains in the church of San Fran- 
cisco, by the simple inscription of " Ossa Bartoli.*' 

BARTON, Benjamin Smith, M.D., an American 
naturalist, who was the first professor of botany and 
natural history in a college in the United States. He 
was born in Pennsylvania in 1766, studied for two years 
at Edinburgh, and afterwards graduated at Gottingen. 
He settled at Philadelphia, and soon obtained a consid- 
erable practice. In 1789 he wai appointed to the pro- 
fessorship above mentioned ifl Philadelphia College \ he 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



820 



BAR 



was made professor of materia medlca in 1705, and on 
the death of Dr. Rush in 1813 he obtained the chair of 
practical medicine. In 1802 he was chosen president 
of the American Philosophical Society. Barton was the 
author of various works on natural history, botany, and 
materia roedica. By his lectures and writings he may 
be said to have founded the American school of natural 
history. He died in 1815. 

BARTON, EuZABETH, the ** Maid of Kent,*» be- 
longed to the village of Aldington in Kent. She was a 

I>ious, nervous, and enthusiastic person, subject to epi- 
epsy; and her enthusiasm, unfortunately for herself, 
took a political turn at a somewhat critical period in 
English history. When all England was exated with 
the attempts made by Henry VlII. to obtain a divorce 
from Queen Cathenne, Elizabeth Barton saw visions 
and heard speeches, all of which related to the contem- 
plated divorce. These she confided to her parish 
priest, Richard Masters, and he made them known to 
Dr. Bockling, a canon of Canterbury. Through these 
men they became widely known, and were everywhere 
proclaimed to be divine revelations. The chapel at 
Aldington became the centre of many pilgrimages, and 
the scene of many excited and tumultuous assemblies. 
Elizabeth Barton was commonly believed to be a proph- 
etess, and was called the ** holy maid of Kent** Mean- 
while her visions continued ; she saw letters written in 
characters of gold sent to her by Mary Magdalene, 
which contained both revelations and exhortations. 
Among other things she declared that it was revealed 
to her that if the contemplated divorce took place, ihe 
king would be a dead man within seven months. The 

Principal agents for the Pope and for Queen Catherine 
;nt themselves to fan the excitement. Even such men 
as bishops Fisher and Warham and Sir Thomas More 
corresponded with the Maid of Kent. At last the king's 
wrath was aroused. In 1533 Elizabeth with her prin- 
cipal supporters. Masters, Bockling, and several oth- 
ers, were examined before parliament, and sentenced 
to be executed. She was oeheaded at Tyburn April 
2i» 1534- 

BAkUCH, son of Neriah, was the frien'l and amanu- 
ensis of the prophet Jeremiah. After the temple at 
Jerusalem had been plundered by Nebuchadnezzar, he 
wrote down Jeremiah*s prophecies respecting the return 
of the Babylonians to destroy the state, and read them 
in the temple before the assembled people at the risk 
of his life. The roll having been bumea by the king's 
command, Jeremiah dictat^ the same again. When 
the temple was destroyed, Baruch went to Egypt with 
Jeremian, having been blamed as the prompter of the 
threatening prophecies uttered by the latter. Nothing 
certain is loiown as to his death, — some accounts repre- 
senting him as dying in Egypt, others in Babylonia. 
The Talmud adopts uie latter opinion, making him the 
instructor of Ezra, to whom he is said to have com- 
municated the traditions he had received from Jere- 
miah. 

The Book of Baruch belongs to the Apocrypha, 
according to Protestants, and to the deutero-canonical 
productions, according to Roman Catholics. 

Much difference of opinion prevails regarding the 
original language. Some are for a Greek original, others 
for a Hebrew one; while Fritzsche and Ruetschi think 
that the firstpartwas composed in Hebrew, the second 
in Greek. The original seems to have been Hebrew, 
though Jerome says that the Jews had not the book in 
that language ; and Epiphanius asserts the same thing. 
The testimony of the former resolves itself into the fact 
that the original had been supplanted by the Greek ; and 
that of the latter is not of much value, since he gives 
Baruch, along with Jeremiah and the Lamentations, in 



a second list of the canonical books. We rely on the 
statement that the work was meant to be publicly read 
in the temple (i. 14) as favorable to a Hebrew onginal, 
as well as on the number and nature of the Hebraisms, 
which are sometimes so peculiar that they cannot be 
resolved into the authorship of a Greek-speaking Jew. 
That the writer was a Palestinian appears from vanous 
passages, such as ii. 17, ** For the dead that are in the 
graves, whose souls are taken from their bodies, will 
give unto the Lord neither praise nor righteoosness ; *• 
** Hearken, O ye that dwell about Zion ** (iv. 9) ; " Ye 
have forgotten the everlasting God that brought you m> ; 
and ye have grieved Jerusalem that nursed you" (iv, 8). 
Both the latter passages betray a Palestinian. Besides, 
the conception of Wisdom in iiL 12, &c., is Palestinian 
rather than Alexandrian ; for the words in iil 37 do not 
refer to the incarnation of the I^os, but to personified 
Wisdom, as in Sirach xxiv. 10. This points to a Hebrew 
original. The version seems to be free, especially in the 
latter part. Who was the translator? A comparison 
of the Septuagint translation of Jeremiah with that of 
Baruch will suggest the answer. The a greement between 
the two is remarkable. Constructions, phrases, and 
words are the same in them, so that we may conjecture 
with Ewald and Hitzig that the same translator appears. 
Though Baruch professes to have written the book, a 
later writer speaks in his name. Jeremiah's faithful 
friend is said to have composed it at Babylon. This 
view is untenable on the following grounds: — 

1. The work contains historical inaccuracies. Jere- 
miah was living in the fifth year after the destruction of 
Jerusalem, yet the epistle is dated that year at Babylon. 
It is unlikely that Baruch left Jeremiah, since the two 
friends were so united. According to Baruch i. 3, Je- 
coniah was present in the great assembly before which 
the epistle was read, whereas we learn from 2 Kings 
XXV. 27 that he was kept a prisoner as long as Nebu- 
chadnezzar lived. Joalcim is supposed to be high priest 
at Jerusalem (i- 7)' But we learn from i Chron. vi 15 
that Jehozadak filled that office the fifth year after Jeru- 
salem was destroyed. In i. 2 there is an error. The 
city was not burned when Jehoiachim was carried away. 
And if the allusion be to the destruction of the city by 
Nebuchadnezzar, the temple and its worship are sup- 
posed still to exist in i. &-10. The particulars narrated 
are put into the fifth year of the exile ; yet we read, 
•* Thou art waxen old in a strange country " (iii. 10). 

2. Supposing Baruch himself to have been the writer, 
books later than his time are used in the work. Nehe- 
miah is followed, as in ii. 1 1 (comp. Nehem. ix. 10). 
But Eichhorn's language is too strong in calling the 
contents "a rhapsody composed of various writings 
belonging to Hebrew antiquity, especially Daniel and 
Nehemiah." 

According to Jerome and Epiphanius, the Jews did 
not receive the book into their canon ; nor is it in the 
lists given by Josephus, Melito, and others. It has been 
thought, however, that Origen considered it canonical, 
because in his catalogue of sacred books he gives La- 
mentations and " the epistle" along with Jeremiah ; and 
Jeremiah's epistle formed a part of Baruch. The testi- 
mony of Origen on this point is perplexing ; but it is con- 
ceivable that some Jews may have thought very highly 
of the book in his time, though its authority was not 
generalljr admitted among the co-religionists. From 
the position which the book occupied in the Septuagint, 
I. ^., either before or after lamentations, it was often 
considered an appendix to Jeremiah by the early Chris- 
tians, and was regarded in the same light, and of equal 
authority. Hence the words of it were often quoted as 
Jeremiah's by Irenseus, Clemens Alexandrinus, and 
Tertullian. ^^ ^ 

Digitized by LjOOQIC U 



B AR— B AS 



821 



The ver^ns are the two Latin, a Syriac, and an 
Arabic. The Latin one in the Vulgate belongs to a 
time prior to Jerome, and is tolerably literal 

JSpistU of Jeremy, — An epistle of Jeremiah's is often 
appended to Baruch, forming the sixth chapter. Accord- 
ing to the inscription, it was sent by the prophet by 
God's command to the Jews who were to be carried 
captive to Babylon. The writer describes the folly and 
absurdity of idolatry in a declamatory style, with repe- 
titions somewhat like refrains. Thus, in verses 16, 23, 
29, 65 occurs the sentence, " Whereby they are known 
not to be gods ; therefore fear them not ;" •• How should 
a roan then think and say that they are gods," in 40, 44, 
j6, 64, 69 ; «* How then cannot men perceive that they 
be no gods," in 49, 52. These and other repetitions 
are unlike Jeremiah's. The concluding verse is abrupt. 

All the relation this epistle has to Jeremiah is, that the 
contents and form are derived from Jeremiah x. 1-16 
and xxix. 4-23. Its combination with Baruch is purely 
accidentaL ft could not have been written by Jeremiah, 
though many Catholic theologians maintain that it was. 
The Hellenist betrays himself in a few instances, as 
when he speaks of kings, verses 5 1 , 53, 56, 59. Though 
Welte tries to prove that the epistle was written in 
Hebrew, which is consistent witn Jeremiah's author- 
ship, his arguments are invalid. The original is pure 
Hellenistic Greek. The warning against idolatry be- 
speaks a foreigner living out of Palestine. The place 
of its origin was probably Egypt ; and the writer may 
have lived in the Maccabean period, as we infer from 
his making the exile last for seven generations, 1. e.., 
about 210 years. Jeremiah, on the contrary, gives the 
time as 70 years in round numbers. The olaest allusion 
to the epistle is commonly found in 2 Maccab. ii. 2, 
where a few words are similar to the fourth verse of our 
epistle. But the appropriateness of the supposed refer- 
ence is doubtful. 

BARYTES, or Baryta, an oxide of the metal ba- 
rium, usually prepared from the two most common ores 
of the substance, the sulphate and the carbonate of 
banrta. It is a highly caustic alkaline poisonous body, 
which with water forms a hydrate of baryta. On a 
commercial scale barjrta is prepared from the native 
carbonate (Witherite) by exposing the mineral, mixed 
with one- tenth of its weight of lamp black, to a very 
high heat. It is now largely employed in the beet sugar 
manufacture for separating; crystallized sugar from the 
molasses. A solution of the hydrated oxide, under the 
name of baryta- water, is of very great use in the chemi- 
cal laboratory for precipitating metallic oxides, and on 
account of its sensitiveness to carbonic add. Sulphate 
of baryta, or heavy spar, the cawk of miners, is a min- 
eral of very high specific gravity, found abundantly in 
veins in the mountain limestone of England and fre- 
quently associated with metallic ores. When reduced 
to powder the white varieties are sometimes used as a 
pigment, but the powder is more frequently applied as 
an adulterant to white lead. Heavy spar is also used in 
the manufacture of pottery. The powdered carbonate 
of baryta is used to some extent in the manufacture of 
glass, taking the place of a part of the alkali in plate 
glass, and some portion of red-lead in flint glass. Cas- 
sel green, or Kosenstiehl's green, is a pigment manu- 
factured from the calcined manganate of baryta. Both 
the nitrate and the chloride are of great value as chemi- 
cal reagents. The nitrate and chlorate are also used to 
produce a green light in pyrotechny. 
\ BASE-BALL. The national game of America, is an 

f' ition of the old English school-boy piastime known 
•ounders." It was but a boy's game in this country 
to about i860, but has been extended throughout 
Jntted States, and has secured a strong foothold in 



Canada. The game needs little introduction to the 
American reader. It is played on a level fieW of con- 
venient size, upon which a space 90 feet square is marked 
out in the form of a diamond, as per diagram. Upon 
each angle of the diamond are marked the bases —home, 
first, second and third. The players, nine on each side, 
are as follows: Pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second 
baseman, third baseman, right-fielder, left-fieWer, centre- 
fielder and shortstop. The first man to bat takes his 
position, and the pitcher of the oppo^te party delivers 
a ball. This, to be fair, must pass fairly over the home 
base, not lower than the batsman's knee nor higher than 
his shoulder. If three good balls are delivered he must 
strike or go out ; if four unfair balls arc pitched, he gets 
a base, and the second man comes in. If he strikes the 
ball, he must run to at least one base, and, if the hit will 
allow it, may make all four ; thus achieving a home run. 
Supposing the first man to have reached first base, he 




DIAGRAM OF A BASE-BALL GROUND. 
AA— Ground reserved for umpire, batsman and catohen BE — 
Ground reserved for captain and assistant. CC — Players' 
bench. D— Visiting players' bat-rack. E— Home playenf 
bat-rack. 

must run further on, when his successor makes a strike, 
or he can steal a run to another base if the fielders are 
negligent. The pitcher's aim is to so deliver the balls 
as to bring them within the fair line and still to bother 
the batsman, which he does by putting a twist or curve 
upon the ball by a peculiar turn of the wrist, very diffi- 
cult to attain, and answering to " side " or " English " at 
billiards, or to " inwick " or " outwick " in curling. But 
in thi** case the pitcher has only the resistance offered to 
the ball by the air to rely upon, supplemented of course 
by his own skill in giving it a rotary motion. If the 
batsmafti touches the ball and the catcher can secure it 
before it grounds, the batsman is out ; and, so, too, if 
it is taken by a fiekler under similar circumstances. A 
ball hit behind the lines of the diamond is " foul," but 
the batsman may be caught out on such a ball, though 



822 



B A S 



ht cannot nin upon it The nine players go to bat in 
socccttion, but when three are caught out, struck out, 
or run out, the innings is over and the opposite side take 
their turn at the bat ; the first team supplanting them in 
the field. Two men may be put out at once — e.g., the 
batsman may be caught and the man on base may fail to 
reach the next stoppmg place. Nine innings are played 
by each side, the one securing the most runs wmning 
the game. If there is a tie an additional inning or more 
is played. The bat used in League or Association 
matches must not be more than 42 inches long, nor 
have a greater diameter than 2^ inches. The ball is 
from 5 to 5X ounces in weignt, and from 9 to 9ji^ 
inches in circumference. 

Basedow, Johann Bernhard, a German 
author, bom at Hamburg nth September 1723, and 
died Magdeburg on the 25th Julv ijoo. 

BASEL, BALE, or Basle (the first being the Ger- 
man, the others the French and Old French forms of 
the name), a canton in the N. W. of Switzerland, with 
an area of 184 English square miles. It is bounded on 
the N. W. by Alsace, N. oy the grand-duchv of Baden, 
E. by the canton of Aargau, and S. and S. W. by those 
of Solothum and Berne. The canton is traversed by the 
Jura chain, the highest peaks of which rise to from 4000 
to 5000 feet With the exception of the Rhine and its 
tributaries,— the Birse and the Ergolz, — there are no 
streams of any magnitude. The soil is for the m&st part 
fertile and well cultivated, the mountain sides aiforaing 
excellent pasturage. The principal pursuits of the peo- 
ple are agricultum and pastoral, though here and there, 
as at Liestal, Sissach, and Miinchenstein, coal-mining is 
carried on. The chief manufactures are ribbons, wool- 
len, linen, and cotton goods, and iron and steel wares. 
Politically the canton consists of two divisions, one 
urban and the other rural (Basel stadt and Basel-lands- 
chaft), each with its own constitution and laws. The 
former sends two members to the National Council ; its 
legislative power is in the hands of a Great Council 
which consists of 134 members, chosen for six years, 
and its executive power belongs to a Lesser Council of 
15 members. In the rural division the legislative body 
(or Landratk) is chosen for three years, and has the 
ultimate authority over all departments ; the executive 
council consists of five memoers elected for the same 
period ; it sends three members to the National Coun- 
cil The prevailing language is German. Population 
of Basel-stadt 48,ooo,ana of Basel-landschaft, 55,000. 

Basel, or BAlb, the capital of the above canton, 
and next to Geneva, the largest city in Switzerland, is 
situated on both sides of the Rhine, 43 miles N. of 
Berne. Great Basel or the city proper, lies on the 
south side of the river, and is connected with Little 
Basel on the north side by a handsome bridge 800 feet 
long, whidi was originally erected in 1229. The dty is 
generally well built, but there are fewer remarkable 
edifices than in many other Continental cities of similar 
size. Hie fine old Gothic cathedral, founded loio, 
still stands, and contains a number of interesting 
monuments, besides the tombs of Erasmus CEcolampa- 
dius, and other eminent persons. A re-decoration was 
skilfully effected in 1852-1856. Among other ecclesi- 
astical buildings of interest may be mentioned St. 
Martm's, restored in 185 1; St Alban's, formerly a 
monastery; the church of the Bare-footed Friars, 
which now serves as a store house ; Elizabeth Church, 
of modem erection ; and St. Clara*s in Little Basel. 
The town-hall was built in 1508 and restored i* 1826. 
A post-office, a new bank, and an hospital are of recent 
erection. Besides the university, which was founded by 
Pope Pius II. in I450f and reorganized in 1817, Basel 
possesses a public library of 95,000 vols., with a valu- 



able collection of MSS., a picture-gallery, a museum, a 
theological seminary for missionaries (established in 
1 816), a g3rmnasiuro, an industrial school, a botanical 
garden, an orphan-asylum, an institution for deaf- 
mutes, and vanous learned societies. Of these may be 
mentioned the Society for the Propagation of Useful 
Knowledge, founded m 1777 by Iselin, the Society of 
Natural History, the Society of National Antiquities, 
and the Bible society, which dates from 1804 ^^ '^"^^ 
the first of the kind on the Continent Basel is the 
seat of an active transit-trade between France, C^rmanyy 
and Switzerland, and possesses important 'manufieictares 
of silk, linen, and cotton, as well as dyeworks, bleach- 
fields, and iron -works, the most valuable of all being 
the ribbon-trade. Basel was the birthplace of Euler, 
Bemouilli, Iselin, and perhaps of Holoein; and the 
names of Erasmus, CEcolampadius, Grynxus, Meriaa, 
De Wette, Hagenbach, ana Wacknemagel, are asso- 
ciated with the university. Population in 1880, 53,00a 

Basel (Basiiia) first appears in the 4th century as a 
Roman military post. On the decay of the neighbor- 
ing city of Augusta Raurmcorum^ the site of which is 
still marked by the village of Augst, it began to rise into 
importance, and, after numerous vicissitudes, became a 
free city of the empire about the middle of the loth cen- 
tury, and obtained a variety of privileges and rights. In 
1356 the most of its buildings were destroyed by an 
earthquake. 

BASEL, THE Council of (i43x-I443)» was the last 
of the three great reforming counalsof the 15th century, 
coming after the councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance 
(1414-18). In these three councils the aim of the major- 
ity was to reform the church by destro3rine the absolute 
supremacy of the Pope, and by curbing the rule of the 
Roman curia ; and the acts of these councils were all 
designed to re-establish the power of the episcopate by 
asserting the supremacy of oecumenical councils. At 
Pisa these aims were only indicated ; at Constance they" 
were so far successful that schismatic popes were depos- 
ed, and the council practically showed its superiority to 
the Pope by bestowing the papal chair on Martin V. ; 
and although the fathers of Constance were compelled to 
separate before they could do much else in the way of 
reform, they practic^y laid the foundation by insisting 
that councils should be held frequently, and by order- 
ing a new council to be called at the end of five years. 
The council summoned in obedience to thisconunand 
was the Council of Basel, but the results of its meeting 
were simply to show the helplessness of the episcopate 
and Uie power of the Roman curia. At Basel the 
labors of Pisa and Constance were undone, and after 
this council thoughtful men began to see that the church 
could not be remrmed without destroying the Papacy. 

The Council of Basel was summoned by Martin V. 
(1431). He first appointed it to meet at Pavia, then at 
Siena, but Basel was at last fixed upoi\. At the very 
beginning Martin died, but his successor, Eugenius IV., 
sanction^ all his decrees ; and the council accordingly 
met at Basel on the 23d of July 1431, under the presi- 
dency of Cardinal Julian Cfesarini. At first all went 
well. The bishops took care so to arrange the organ- 
ization of the council and its method of procedure as to 
make it a true and fair representative of the whole (Cath- 
olic Church. The members of the council were divided 
into four equal classes, each consisting of about the 
same number of cardinals, archbbhops, bishops, abbots, 
&c., and each completely organized, with its president, 
secretaries, and other officers. This was done to neu- 
tralize the votes and prevent the intrigues of the Italian 
bishops, who were very numerous, and for the most 
part under the power of the Roman curia. To eadi of 
the four was assigned the investigation of a spedtl 



BAS 



823 



class of subjects. Each section met separately in its 
own hall thrice a week. Each section elected three of 
its number to form a committee of business. One- 
third of this committee was changed every month. All 
the business had to pass through this committee, and it 
sent down special subjects to be discussed in each of 
the sections. When ^he section had discussed the mat- 
ter it sent its decision vrith the reasons of it to each of 
the other sections, who then discussed the matter and 
gave their opinion upon it. If three sections were 
aereed upon it, the subject was brought before the 
iiniole council for general discussion and a final de- 
cision. 

The three subjects which were specially assigned to 
this council were the reunion of the Greek and Latin 
Churches, the reconciliation of the Bohemians, and the 
reform of the church according to the resolutions come 
to at Constance. Soon after the begiiming of the coun- 
cil the Roman curia took alarm at the zeal and deter- 
mination of the assembled bishops, and by intrigues 
compelled the Pope, who was really anxious for reform, 
to do all he could to hinder the work of the fathers at 
Basel. Eugenius twice tried to dissolve the council ; 
but it resisted, maintaining that a council beingsuperior 
to the Pope could not be dissolved, and the Pope 
yielded. The bishops refused to admit the Poi>e*s lega- 
tees until they admitted the supremacy of the council 
and promised to obey its decrees. 

The first business to which the members addressed 
themselves was to curb the power of the Pope and of 
the Roman curia. They tried to do this by attempting 
to stop the flow of money from all parts of Europe to 
Rome. They abolished the annates; they declared it 
illegal in a bishop to send the sum of money commonly 
presented on his investiture, &c; and they passed many 
laws to restrain the luxury and vice of the clergy. 
These proceedings so alarmed Eugenius that he resolved 
. either to bring the council within the readi of his in- 
fluence or to dissolve it. The occasion for interference 
arose out of a debate which the subject of reunion with 
the Greek Church gave rise to. The Emperor John 
Palxologrus, induced principally by fear of the Turks, 
had written both to the Pope and to the council on the 
subject of the reunion of Christendom, and both had 
entertained his proposals. The majority, however, of 
the bishops in the council maintained that this subject 
could not properly be discussed in luly, and that the 
deliberations must take place in France, Savoy, or 
Basel, far from the influence of the Pope. To this 
Eugenius woukl not agree ; and when the council decided 
against him, he resolved to assemble another council, 
which met first at Ferrara and afterwards at Florence. 
The rest of the proceedings of the Council of Basel is 
simply a record of struggles with the Pope. In 1437 the 
counal ordered the Pope to appear before them at 
Basel. The Pope repliea by dissolving the council ; the 
bishops, backed by the emperor and the king of France, 
continued their deliberations, and pronounced the Pope 
contumacious for not obeying them. When Eugenius 
tried to take away the authority of the council b^ sum- 
moning the opposition Council of Florence, the bishops 
at Basel deposed him. B.ugenius replied by a severe 
hull, in which he excommunicated the oishops, and they 
^jswered by electing a new Pope, Amadeus, duke of 
Savoy, who assumed the name of Felix V. The greater 
part of the church adhered to Eugenius, but most of the 
universities acknowledged the authority of Felix and the 
Council of Ba^L Notwithstanding the opposition of 
Eugenius and his adherents, the Council of Basel con- 
nnued to pass laws and degrees until the year 1441 ; 
*^d when the bishops separated they declared publicly 
uat they would reassemble at Basel, Lyons, or Lau- 



sanne. In 1447 Eugenius died and was succeeded by 
Nicholas V., who tried to brine about a reconciliation 
between the parties in the chnrcL A compromise was 
effected, by which Felix resigned the pontificate, and 
the fathers of Basel having assembled at Lausanne, 
ratified the abdication of Felix, and directed the church 
to obey Nicholas, while Nicholas confirmed by his sanc- 
tion the acts and decrees of the Council of Basel. 

BASHAN, a country lying to the east side of the 
Jordan valley, towards its northern extremity, often 
mentioned in Jewish history. The name is understood 
to be derived from a root signifying fgrtilf, or, accord- 
ing to some, basaltic ; and in some of fhe ancient ver- 
sions of the Old Testament it is occasionally rendered 
by a word indicating fertility. When we first hear of 
this region in the days of Abraham it is occupied by the 
Rephaim, whose chief city is Ashteroth Kamaim (Gen. 
xiv. 5). These Rephaim, with kindred tribes spread 
over the trans-Jordanic region, were in ^reat part sub- 
dued and supplanted by the children of Lot (Deut ii, 10, 
II, 19-21), who in their turn were invaded and dis- 
placed by the Amorities (Num. xx. 26-30). By this 
people, at the time of the Exodus, the whole region 
nortn of the Amon was occupied ; and they formed 
two kingdoms, the most northerly embracing all Bashan 
and a parr of Gilead (Deut iii. 8, 13; Josh. xii. 4, 5). 
Og, who is described as a man of gigantic statue, be- 
longing to the race .of the Rephaim, was, at the time 
referred to, the ruler of this kingdom ; and having come 
out against the Israelities, he was overthrown in battle 
at Earei,'one of his own cities. Subsequently, his 
country became the allotment of the half trine of Man- 
asseh (Tosh. xiii. 29-31). 

The history of Bas^n, af^er its conquest by the Israel- 
ites, merges into the general history of that nation, and 
of Western Asia. It is last mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, in 2 Kings x. 33, in connection with the attacks 
made by Hazael, the king of Damascus, upon the ter- 
ritory of Israel Throughout the Psalms and the 
Prophets Bashan is celebrated for its fertility and lux- 
uriance, its rich pastures, its strong bulls, its fatlinjgs 
" of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks ;• its oaks 
and its firs (Ps. xxiL 12 ; Amos iv. i ; Isa. ii. 13 ; Jer. 
1. i^ ; Ezek. xxxix. 18, xxvii. 6); and its extraordinary 
fertility is attested by the density of its population (Deut. 
iii 4, 5, 14) — a density proved by the unparalleled 
abundance with which ruined towns and eities are now 
strewn over the whole country. In the dbturbed period 
which followed the breaking up of the empire of Alex- 
ander, its possession was an obiect of continued contest. 
Idumsean princes, Nabathsean icings, Arab chiefs, ruled 
in their turn. 

Both in its natural and its arch^eolo^cal aspects, the 
country of Bashan is full of interest. The Lej4h is one 
of the most remarkable regions on the earth's surface. 
It is, in fact a lava bed ; a stone torrent poured out . . • 
over the ruddy yellow clay and the limestone floor of the 
Hauran valley, high raised by the ruins of repeated erup- 
tions, broken up by the action of fumaroles or blow 
holes, and crack«i and crevassed when cooling by earth- 
quakes, and by the weathering of ages. 

In regard to the architectural monuments of the 
HaurSai, the striking feature, says Count de Vogu6 is 
the exclusive use of stone. The country produces no 
wood, and the only rock which can be obtained is a 
basalt, veiy hard and very difficult to work. The walls 
are formed of large blocks, carefully dressed, and laid 
together without cement, and often let into one another 
with a kmd of dovetail Roofs, doors, stairs, and 
windows, are all of stone. This, of course, imparts to 
the buildings great massiveness of appearance and great 
solidity, and m multitudes of cases the houses, though 



824 



BAS 



** without inhabitants," are as perfect as when first 
reared. Since buildings so strong are apparently capa- 
ble of enduring for any length' of time, and since some of 
these are kaown, from the inscriptions upon them, to 
date from before the commencement of the Christian 
era, it is not unnatural to re^urd them as, in fact, the 
work of the earliest known inhabitants of the land, the 
Amorites of the Rephaim. This however, is contested, 
on the ground that the extant inscriptions and the 
architectural style point to a much later date, and must 
be regarded as at least improved. Many inscriptions 
have been found in this region, — most of them com- 

Sosed in Greek, a considerable number in two forms of 
hemitic writing (the Palmyrenian or Aramccan, and 
the Sinaitic or Nabathsean), and some in an unknown 
character, resembling the Himyaritic. Arabic inscrip- 
tions are numerous on buildings of more recent date. 
The oldest recognizable Greek record bears the name of 
Herod the Great ; and the Nabathaean kings, of the 
dynasty of Aretas, who reigned from about lOO B.C. at 
Bozrah have also left memorials. 

BASHKIRS, a people who inhabit the Russian gov- 
ernments of Orenburg, Perm, and Samar, and parts of 
Viatka, espedallv on the slopes and confines of tne Ural, 
and in the neignboring plains. The Bashkirs are a 
Tatarized Finnish race, and are called £es(yak by the 
Kirghiz, in allusion to their origin from a mixture of 
Ostyaks and Tatars. The name Bashkir or Bash-kArt 
appears for the first time in the beginning of the loth 
century in the writings of Ibn-Foslan, who, describing 
his travels among the Vol^- Bulgarians, mentions the 
Bashkirs, as a warlike and idolatrous race. The name 
was not used by the people themselves in the loth cen- 
tury, but is a mere nickname. It probably points to the 
£act that the Bashkirs, then as now, were clistinguished 
by their large, round, short, and, possibly, close-cropped 
heads. In 1556 they voluntarily recognized the su- 
premacy of Russia, and, in consequence, the city of 
Upha was founded to defend them from the Kirghiz, 
and they were subjected to a fur- tax. In 1786 they were 
freed from taxes; and in 1798 an irregular army was 
formed from among them. They are now divided into ■ 
thirteen cantons, and each canton into y{irts or districts, 
the whole being under the jurisdiction of the Orenburg 
governor-general. Almost their sole occupation is the 
rearing of cattle ; and they attend to that in a very 
negligent manner, not collecting a sufficient store of 
winter fodder for all their herds, but allowing part of 
them to perish. The Bashkirs are usually verv poor, 
and in winter live partlv on a kind of eniel called yur3ru, 
and badly prepared cneese named sicdrt Thev are 
hospitable but suspicious, apt to plunder, and to tne last 
degree lazy. They have large heads, black hair, eyes 
narrow and flat, small fore-heads, ears always sticking 
out, and a swarthy skin. In general, they are strong and 
muscular, and capable of enduring all kinds of labor and 
privation. They profess Mahometanism, but are little 
acquainted with its doctrines. In intellectual develop- 
ment they do not stand high. 

BASIL THE GREAT, an eminent ecclesiastic in 
the 4th century. He ¥^as a leader in the Arian contro- 
versy, a distinguished theologian, a liturgical reformer; 
and nis letters to his friends, especially those to Gregory 
of Ncizianzus, give a great amount of information about 
the stirring period in which he lived. Basil came of a 
iomewhat famous family, which gave a number of dis- 
tinguished supporters to the church of the 4th century. 
His eldest sister, Macrina, was celebrated for her saintly 
life; his second brother was the famous Gregory of 
Nyssa; his youngest was Peter, bishop of Sebaste; and 
his eldest brother was the famous Christian jurist Nau- 

ratius. It has been observe that there was in the 



whole family a tendency to ecstatic emotion and entlia* 
siastic piety. Basil was bom about 330, at Caesarea in. 
Cappadocia. While he was still a diild, the fiunily 
removed to Pontus ; but he soon returned to Cappadoda. 
to live with his mother's relations, and seems to have 
been brought up by his grandmother Macrina. It was 
at Caesarea that he became acquainted with his life-long 
friend Gregory of Nazianzus, and it was there that he 
began that mteresting correspondence to which reference 
has been made. Biwil did not from the first devote 
himself to the church. He went to Constantinople in 
pursuit of learning, and spent four or five years there 
and at Athens. It was while at Athens that he seri- 
ously began to think of the church, and resolved to seek 
out the most famous hermit saints in Syria and Arabia, 
in order to learn from them how to attain to that en- 
thusiastic piety in which he delighted, and how to keep 
his bodv under by maceration and other ascetic derices. 
After this we find him at the head of a convent near 
Arnesi in Pontus, in which his mother Emmilia, now a 
widow, his sister Macrina, and several other ladies, gave 
themselves to a pious life of prayer and charitable works. 
He was not ordained presbyter until 365, and his ordi- 
nation was probably the result of the entreaties of his 
ecclesiastical superiors, who wished to use his talents 
against the Arians, who were numerous in that part of 
the country, and were favored by the Arian emperor^ 
who then reigned in Constantinople. In 370 Eusebius, 
bishop of Caesarea, died, and Basil was chosen to suc- 
ceed liim. It was then that his great powers were 
called into action. Caesarea was an important diocese, 
and its bishop was, ^x offUioy exarch of the great diocese 
of Pontus. Basil was threatened with confiscation of 
property, banishment, and even death, if he did not 
relax his regulations against the Arians ; but he refused 
to yield, and in the end triumphed. He died in 379. 
The principal theological writings of Basil are his De 
Stiritu Sancti and his three books against Eunomius. 
lie was a famous preacher, and we possess at least sev- 
enteen homilies by him on the Psauns and on Isaiah. 
His principal efforts as a reformer were directed towards 
the iniprovement of the Liturgy (the Liturgy of the 
Holy Basil) ^ and the reformation of the monastic orders 
of the Elast. 

The name Basil also belong[s to several distinguished 
churchmen besides Basil the Great, (i.) Basil, bishop 
of Ancyra (336-360), a semi-Arian, highly favored by 
the Emperor Constantine, and a great polemical writer ; 
none ot his works are extant. (2.) Basil of Seleucia 
(fl. 448-458), a bishop who shifted sides continually in 
the Eutvchian controversy, and who wrote extensively; 
hisworRs were published m Paris in 1622. (3.) Basil of 
Ancyra, fl. 787 ; he opposed image worship at the sec- 
ond council of Nicsea, but afterwards retracted, (a.) 
Basil, the founder of a sect of mystics who appeared m 
the Greek Church in the 12th century {cf, Anna Com* 
nena, Alexiad^ bk. 15). 

BASILICA, a term denoting (i) in civil architecture, 
a court of law, or merchants' exchange, and (2) in eccle- 
siastical architecture, a church of similar form and ar- 
rangement. 

The name basilUa, "a royal portico,** or "hall, " is 
evidence of a Greek origin. The portico at Athens in 
which the second archon, sat to aajudicate on matters 
touching religion, and in which the council of Are5pagas 
sometimes met, was known as Basilike. From this cir- 
cumstance the term appears to have gained currency as 
the designation of a law-court, in which sense it was 
adopted by the Romans. The introduction of btuilim 
into Kome was not very early. Liyy expressly tells os^ 
when describing the conflagration of the city, 210 BX.» 
that there were none such tnen. The earliest niun«d&^ . 



B AS 



82s 



t"hat erected by M. Porcius Cato, the censor, 183 B.C., 
and called after its founder basilica Porcia, When once 
introdnced this form of buildine found favor with the 
Romans. As many as twenty basilicse are recorded to 
have existed within the walls of Rome, erected at differ- 
ent periods, and bearing the names of their founders, 
€.g, — j^milia^ Juiia, Semproniat L/lpia or Trajani^ 
&C. The basilicas were always placed in the most fre- 
quented quarter of the city, in the immediate vicinity of 
a forum, and on its sunniest and most sheltered side, 
that the merchants and others who resorted thither 
mi^ht not suffer from the severity of the weather. 
Originally, the bascilicas, like the Royal Exchange in 
Lx>ndon and the Bourse at Antwerp, were unroofed, 
consisting of a central area surrounded simply by covered 
porticoes, without side walls. Subsequently, side walls 
were erected and the central space was covered by a 
roof, which was generally of timber, the beams bemg 
concealed by an arched or covered ceiling, ornamented 
with lacunaria. Some baslicas {e.g. that of Maxentius 
or " the Temple of Peace **) were vaulted. 

In plan the basilicas were large rectangular halls, the 
length of which, according to the rules laid down by 
Vitruvius, was not to be more than three times or less 
than twice its width. In any cases where, from the 
necessity of the locality, the length exceeded these pro- 
{>ortions, the excess was to be masked by the construc- 
tion of small apartments at the further end, on both 
sides of the tribunal. On each side of the central area 
was one, or sometimes, as in the Ulpian and ^milian 
basilicas,. two rows of columns. These were returned 
at either end, cutting off a vestibale at one extremity, 
and the tribunal or court proper, forming a kind of 
transept, elevated above the nave, at the other. Above 
the ables thus formed {porticus) were galleries, formed 
by a second row of columns supporting the roof, 
approached by external staircases, for the accommoda- 
tion of the general public — men on one side, women 
on the other. They were guarded by a parapet wall 
between the columns, high enough to prevent those in 
the galleries from being seen by those below. Some- 
times, as in Vitruvius' s own basilica at Fanum, and in 
that at Pompeii, instead of a double there was only a 
single row of colunms, the whole height of the building, 
<m which the roof rested. In this case the galleries 
were supported by square piers behind the main col- 
rnnns. The buildmg was lighted with windows in the 
side walls, and at the back of the galleries. In the 
centre of the end-wall were the seats of the judge and 
his aiisessors, generally occupying a semicircular apse, 
the praetor's curule chair standing in the centre of the 
curve. When the assessors were very numerous (accord- 
ing to Plinv u.s,y they sometimes amounted to one 
hundred ana eighty), they sat in two or three concentric 
curves arranged like the seats of a theatre. The advo- 
cates and other officials filled the rest of the raised plat- 
form, divided from the rest of the building by a screen 
of lattice-work {cancelli). In the centre of the chord 
of the apse stood an altar on which rhtjudices took an 
oath to administer true justice. The tribunal some- 
times ended square instead of apsidally. This is so in 
the basilica at Pompeii, where the tribunal is parted 
from the body of the hall by a podium bearing a screen 
of six columns, and is flanked by staircases to the gal- 
leries and by the chalcidica. The larger and more 
magnificent basilicas were sometimes finished with an 
apse at each extremity,. 

The plans of Trajan's basilica usually give this 
arrangement. 

The fragment of the ground-plan in the marble tablets 
preserved in the Capitol, usually called that of the 
i£milian, but really, as Canina has shown, that of the 



Ulpian basilica, also shows an apse, designated {Atrium) 
Libertatis. This, we know from many ancient authori- 
ties, was the locality for the manumission of slaves ; 
and, therefore, the tribunal must have been at the other 
end, and, doubtless, also apsidal. The basilica of Tra- 
jan was one of the largest and most magnificent in 
Rome. From its existing remains we learn that it was 
174 feet in breadth, and more than twice as long as it was 
brdad. The nave, 86 feet in breadth, was divided from 



the double aisles by rows of granite columns, 35 feet 
high. An upper row of columns in front of the 
galleries above the aisles supported a ceiling, covered 
with plates of gilt bronze. The total internal height 
was about 120 feet. The walls were cased with white 
marble from Luna. It was paved with giallo antico 
and purple breccia. A side court, which enclosed the 
well-Known memorial column to Trajan, was flanked by 
libraries. The basilica of Maxentius (or of Constan- 
tine), usually known as the Temple of Peace ^ in the 
Forum at Rome, was on an entirely different plan from 
those already described. The internal colonnades were 
dispensed with, the central s^ce beinc covered by a 
vast quadripartite brick vault, in three bays ; and the 
aisles were roofed with three huge barrel vaults, each 
72 feet in span. Columns were only used for ornament. 
The tribunal was apsidaL Its width was 195 feet, but 
it was 100 feet shorter than Trajan's basilica. A good 
example of a provincial basilica remains at Treves. It 
is a plain hall, about 90 feet long, the walls, being 100 
feet nigh, without aisles, and it has an apsidal tribunal 
elevatS considerably above the floor. Under the 
empire, when architectural magnificence reached a 
hitherto unparalleled height basilica formed a part of 
the plan of the palaces erected by the emj)erors and 
nobles of Rome. A beautiful example on a small soede, 
the Basilica Jovis, has been recently excavated in the 
ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine. Only 
the lower part of the walls remains, but the arrange* 
ments of tne building are singularly perfect, even to the 
pierced marble cancelli^ and throw the clearest light on 
the construction of these halls. 

On the establishment of Christianity as the imperial 
religion, these vast halls furnished exactly what was 
wanted for the religious assemblies of the Christian com- 
munity. The basilica was, in fact, a ready-made church, 
singularly adapted for its new purpose. The capacious 
nave accommodated the ordinary congregations, the 
galleries or aisles the females and the more dignified 
worshippers; while the raised tribunal formed the 
sanctuary, separated by lattice-work from the less sacred 
portion below, the bishop and his clergy occupying the 
semicircular apsis. The pnetor's curule chair became 
the episcopal throne, the curved bench of his assessors 
the seat for the presbyters of the church. The inferior 
clergy, readers, and singers took the place of the advo- 
cates below the tribunal; while on the site of the 
heathen altar rose the holy table of the Eucharistic 
feast, divided from the nave by its protecting lattice- 
work screen, from which were suspended curtains guard- 
ing the sacred mysteries from the intrusive gaze of the 
profane. 

The words of Ausonius to the Emperor Gratian, in 
which he speaks of " the basilicas once full of business, 
but now of prayers for the emperor's preservation," are 
a testimony to the general conversion of these civil 
basilicas into Christian churches. We know this to 
have been the case with the basilicas of St. Cross and 
St. Mary Major's at Rome, which were halls in the 
Sessorian and Liberian palaces respectively, granted by 
Constantine to the Christians. We may adduce also as 
evidence of the same practice a passage from the theo- 
logical romance known as Thg keco^tUions of Clemet. 



826 



B AS 



(bk. X. ch. 71), probably dating from the early half of 
the 3d century, in which we are told that Theophilus of 
Antioch, on his conversion by St. Peter, made over 
" the basilica of his house ** for a church. But however 
this may have been, with, perhaps, the single exception 
of St. Cross, the existing Christian basilicas were 
erected from the ground for their sacred purpose. At 
Rome the columns, friezes, and other matenals of the 
desecrated temples and public buildings furnished 
abundant materials for their construction. The de- 
cadence of art is plainly shown by the absence of rudi- 
mentary architectural knowledge in these reconstruc- 
tions. Not only are columns of various heights and 
diameters made to do duty in the same colonnade, but 
even different orders stand side by side ; while pilasters 
assume a horizontal position, and serve as entablatures, 
as at St. Lawrence's. There being no such quarry of 
ready-worked materials at Ravenna, the noble basilicas 
of that cit^ are free from these defects, and exhibit 

freater unity of design and harmony of proportions, 
n all cases, however, the type of the civil basilica, 
which had proved so suitable for the rec^uirements of 
Christian congregations, was adhered to with remarka- 
ble uniformity. 

An early Christian basHica may be thus described in 
its main features: — A porch supported on pillars (as at 
St. Clement) gave admission mto an open court or 
atrium f surrounded by a colonnaded cloister (St. Cle- 
ment, Old St. Peter's, St. Ambrose at Milan, Parenzo). 
In the centre of the court stood a cisterp or fountain 
{cantharus^ fhiaU), for drinking and ablutions. In 
close contiguity to the atrium, often to the west, was the 
baptistery, usually octa£;onal (Parenzo). The church 
was entered through a long narrow porch {narthex\ 
beyond which penitents, or those under ecclesiastical 
censure, were forbidden to pass. The narthex was 
sometimes internal (St. Agnes), sometimes an external 
portico (St Lawrence's, St. Paul's). Three or four 
lofty doorways, according to the number of the aisles, 
set in marble cases, gave admission to the church. The 
doors themselves were of rich wood, elaborately carved 
with scriptural subjects, or of bronze similarly adorned 
and often gilt. Magnificent curtains, frequently em- 
broidered with sacred figures or scenes, closed the 
entrance, keeping out the heat of summer and the cold 
of winter. 

The interior consisted ot a long and wide nave, often 
80 feet across, terminating in a semicircular apse, with 
one or sometimes (St. Paul's, Old St. Peter's, St. John 
Lateran) two aisles on each side, separated by colon- 
nades of marble pillars supporting horizontal entabla- 
tures (Old St Peter's, St. Mary Major's, St Lawrence's) 
or arches (St. Paul's, St Agnes, St Clement, the two 
basilicas of St. Apollinaris at Ravenna). Above the 
pillars the clerestorv wall rose to a great height, pierced 
in its upper part by a range of plain round-neaded 
windows. Tne space between the windows and the 
colonnade (the later triforium-space) was usually decor- 
ated with a series of mosaic pictures in panels (Old St. 
Peter's, St Paul's, St. Mary Major's, St Apollinaris 
within the walls at Ravenna). Tne upper galleries of 
the secular basilicas were not usually adopted in the West, 
but we have examples of this arrangement at St. Agnes, 
St. Lawrence's, and . the Quattro Santi Coronati. 
They are muchyonore frequent in the East. The 
colonnades sometimes extended quite to the end of 
the church (St. Mary Major's), sometimes ceased some 
little distance from the end, thus forming a transverse 
aisle or transept (St. Paul's, Old St. Peter's, St. John 
Lateran). Where this transept occurred it was divided 
from the nave by a wide arch, the western face and 
loffit of which were richly decorated with mosaics. 



Over the crown of the arch we often find a bust of 
Christ or the holy lamb lying upon the altar, and, oq 
either side, the evangelistic symbols, the seven candle- 
sticks, and the twenty-four elders. Another arch 
spanned the semicircular apse, in which the church al- 
ways terminated. This was designated the atxk 0/ tri- 
umphy from the mosaics that decorated it, representing 
the triumph of the Saviour and His church. The concn 
or semi-dome that covered the apse was always covered 
with mosaic pictures on a gold ground, usually paintings 
of our Lord, either seated or standing, with St. Peter 
and St. Paul, and other apostles and saints, on either 
hand. The beams of the roof were generally concealed 
by a fiat ceiling, richly carved and gilt The altar, 
standing in the centre of the chord of the apse on a 
rabed platform, reached by a flight of steps, was ren- 
dered conspicuous by a lofty canopy supported by mar- 
ble pillars {Ciborium^ baldaccAino)^ trom which de- 
pended curtains of the richest materials. Beneath the 
altar was the confession a subterranean chapel, contain- 
ing the body of the patron saint, and relics of other 
holy persons. This was approached by descending 
flights of steps from the naves or aisles. The confessio 
in some cases reproduced the original place of inter- 
ment of the patron saint, either in a catacomb-chapel or 
in an ordinary grave, and thus formed the sacred nucleus 
around which the church arose^ We have good exam- 
ples of this arrangement at St Peter's, St Paul's, St. 
Fudenziana, and St. Lawrence. It was copied, as we 
will see hereafter, in the original Cathedral of Canter- 
bury. The bishop or officiating presbyter advanced 
from his seat in the centre of the semicircle of tbe apse 
to the eastern side (ritually) of the altar, and celebrated 
the Eucharist with his face to the congregation below. 
At the foot of the altar steps a raised platform occupy- 
ing the upper portion of the nare formed a choir for 
the singerSi^ readers and other inferior clergy. This ob- 
long space was separated from the aisles and from the 
western portion of the nave by low marble walls or rail- 
ings. From these walls projected ambonts, or pulpits 
with desks, also of marble, ascended by steps. That for 
the reader of the gospel was usually octagonal, with a 
double flight of steps westward and eastward. That for 
^he reader of the epistle was square or oblong. 

The exterior of the basilicas was usually of a repulsive 
plainness. The vast brick walls were unrelieved by 
ornament, without any compensating grace of outline 
or beauty of proportion. An exception was made for 
the west front, wnich was usually covered with plates of 
marble mosaices or painted stucco (Old St. Peter's, St. 
Lawrence's). This part was frequently crowned with a 
hollow projecting cornice (St. Lawrence's, Ara Coeli). 
But in spite of any decorations the external effect of a 
basilica must always have been heavy and unattractive. 

To pass from general description to individual 
churches, the first place must be given, as the earliest 
and grandest examples of the type, to the world-famous 
Roman basilicas ; tnose of St. reter, St. Paul, and St. 
John Lateran. It is true that no one of these exists in 
Its original form. Old St. Peter's having been entirely 
removed in the i6th century to make room for its 
magnificent successor; and both St. Paul's and St. 
John Lateran having been greatly injured by fire, and 
the last named being so completely modernized as to 
have lost all interest. Of the two former, however, we 
I>ossess drawings, and plans, and minute descriptions, 
which give an accurate conception of ♦h*» nrioinnl hnilH. 
ings. As to St. Peter's, the church ' 
a vast colonnaded atrium^ 212 feet 
fountain in the centre, — the atrium 
a porch mounted by a noble flij 
church was 212 feet wide-by 380 ^^C^ (^r\(j\p^ 



B AS 



827 



80 feet in width, was six steps lower than the side aisles, 
of which there were two on each side. The four divid- 
ing colonnades were each of twenty-two Corinthiaji 
coTamns. Those next the nave supported horizontal 
entablatures. The inner colonnades oore arches, with 
a second clerestory. The main clerestory walls were 
divided into two rows of square panels containing 
mosaics, and had windows above. The transept pro- 
jected .beyond the body of the church, — a very unusual 
arrangement The apse, of remarkably small dimen- 
sions, was screened off by a double row of twelve 
wreathed columns of Parian marble, of great antiquity, 
reported to have been brought from Greece, or from 
Solomon's Temple. The pontifical chair was placed in 
the centre of the curve of the apse, on a platform raised 
several steps above the presbytery. To the right and 
left the seats of the cardmals followed the line of the 
apse. At the centre of the chord stood the high altar 
beneath a dborium, resting on four pillars of porphyry. 
Beneath the altar was the subterranean chapel, the 
centre of the devotion of so large a portion of the 
Christian world, believed to contain the remains of St. 
Peter ; a vaulted crypt ran round the foundation wall 
of the apse in which many of the popes were harried. 
The roof showed its naked beams ana rafters. 

The cathedral on the island of Torcello near Venice, 
originally built in the ytli century, but largely repaired 
ctrra 1000 A.D., deserves special attention from the fact 
that it preserves, in a more perfect state than can be 
seen elsewhere, the arrangements of the seats in the apse. 

Another very remarkaole basilicia, less known tnan 
it deserves to be, is that of Parenzo in Istria, circa 542 
A.D. Few basilicas have sustained so little alteration. 

In the Eastern church, though the erection of St. 
Sophia at Constantinople introduced a new type which 
almost entirely superseded the old one, the oasilican 
form, or as it was tnen termed dromical^ from its shape 
being that of a race-course, was originally as much tne 
rule as in the West. The earliest church of which we 
have any clear account, that of Paulinus at Tyre, 313- 
322 A.D., described by Eusebius, was evidently basilican, 
with galleries over the aisles, and had an atrium in front. 
That erected by Constantine at Jerusalem, on the site of 
the Holy Sepulchre, 33^, followed the same plan, asdki 
the original churches of St. Sophia and of the Apostles 
at Constantinople. Both these buildings have entirely 
passed away, but we have an excellent example of an 
Oriental basilica of the same date still standing in the 
church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, rebuilt by Justin- 
ian in the 6th century. 

Constantinople still preserves a basilican church of 
the 5th century, that of St. John Studios, 463, now a 
mosque. 

BASILICA, a code of law, drawn up in the Greek 
language, with a view to put an end to the uncertainty 
which prevailed throughout the empire of the East in the 
9th century as to the authorized sources of law. This 
uncertainty had been brought about by the conflicting 
opinions of the jurists of the 6th century as to the 
proper interpretation to be given to the legislation 
of the Emperor Justinian, from which had resulted a 
system of teaching which had deprived that legislation 
of all authority, aiid the imperial judges at last were at 
a loss to know by what rules of law tney were to regu- 
late their decisions. An endeavor had been made 
by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian to remedy this evil, 
but his attempted reform of the law had been rather 
calcnlated to increase its uncertainty ; and it was 
reserved for Basilius the Macedonian to show himself 
worthy of the throne, which he had usurped by puri- 
fying the administration, of justice and once more 
reducing the law into an intelligible code. There has 



been considerable controversy as to the part which 
the Emperor Basilius took in framing the new code. 
There is, however, no doubt that he abrogated in a 
formal manner the ancient laws, which had fallen mto 
desuetude, and the more probable opinion would seem 
to be, that he caused a revision to be made of the ancient 
laws which were to continue in force, and divided them 
into forty books, and that this code of laws was subse- 
quently enlarged and distributed into sixty books by 
his son Leo the Philosopher. A further revision of this 
code is stated to have been made by Constantinus 
Porphyrogenitus, the son and successor of Leo, 
but this statement rests only on the authority of Theo- 
dorous Balsamon, a very learned canonist of the I2th 
century, who, in his preface to the Nomocanon of Patri- 
arch Photius, cites passages from the Basilica, which dif- 
fer from the text of^the code as revised by the Emperor 
Leo. The weight of authority, however, is against any 
further revision of the code Kaving been made after the 
formal revision which it underwent in the reign of the 
Emperor Leo, who appointed a commission of jurists 
under the presidency of Sympathius, the captain of the 
body-guard, to revise the work of his father, to which 
he makes allusion in the first of his Novella, This lat- 
ter conclusion is the more probable from the circum- 
stance, that the text of the code, as revised by the Em- 
peror Leo, agrees with the citations from the Basilica 
which occur m the works of Michael Psellus and Michael 
Attaliates, both of them high dignitaries of the court of 
Constantinople, who lived a century before Balsamon, 
and who are alent as to any second revision of the code 
having; taken place in the reign of Constantinus Porphy- 
rogenitus, as well as with other citations from the Basil- 
ica, which are found in the writings of Mathaeus Blast - 
ares and of Constantinus Hermenopulos, both of whom 
wrote shortly after Balsamon, and the latter of whom 
was far too learned a jurist and too accurate a lawyer to 
cite any but the ofhcial text of the code. 

Authors are not agreed as to the origin of the term 
Basilica, by which the code of the Emperor Leo is now 
distinguished. The code itself appears to have been 
originally entitled The Revisum of the Ancient Laws, 

BASlLlCATA, or, as it is also called, Potenza, a 
province of Italy, bounded on the N. by Capitanata, 
N.E. by Terra di Bari, E. by Otranto and the Gulf of 
Taranto, S. by Calabria Citra, S.W. by the Mediterra- 
nean, W. by Principato Citra, and N. W. by Principato 
Ultra. It nas an area of 4120 English square miles, and 
is divided into the four districts ol Lagonegro, Matera, 
Melfi, Potenza. 

BASILIDES, one of the most celebrated of the 
Gnostics, flourished probably about 120 A. D. Extremely 
little is known of his life. lie is said to have been born 
in Syria and to have studied at Alexandria, and this is 
probably correct. There is, to some extent, a corres- 
ponding uncertainty with regard to the precise doctrines 
neld by him. 

BASILISK,— of the Greeks, and Tsepha (cockatrice) 
of the Hebrews,— a name applied by the ancients to a 
horrid monster of their own imagination, to which they 
attributed the most malignant powers and an equally 
fiendish appearance. The term is now applied, owing 
to a certain fanciful resemblance, to a genus of Lizards 
belonging to the fJEunily Iguanida^ the species of which 
are characterized by tne presence of a membraneous bag 
on the crown of the head, which they can distend or 
contract at will, and of a fin-like ridge along the back 
and part of the tail. Both appenda^ are admirably 
adapted for aiding the basilisk in swimming, while they 
do not impede its movements on land, — its mode of life 
being partly aouatic, partly arboreal. The Mitred Basi- 
lisk occurs inCxttiaiia, the Hopdad BasiUak fai Amboyna. 



82c; 



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BASINGSTOKE, a mArket and borough town in 
the county of Hants, 45 miles from London. 

BASKERVILLE, John, a celebrated printer, and 
the introducer of many improvements in type-founding, 
was born at Wolverley in Worcestershire in 1706, and 
died in 1775. 

BASKET, a utensil made of twies, rushes, or strips 
of wood, as well as of a variety of omer materials, inter- 
woven together, and used for holding or carrying any 
commodity. Modern ingenuity has applied many sub- 
stances before unthought of to the construction of 
baskets, such as iron and even glass. But wicker-work 
being the oldest as well as the most universal invention, 
it alone will be treated of in the present article. The 
process of interweaving twigs, seeds, or leaves, is prac- 
ticed among the rudest nations of the world ; and as it 
is one of the most universal of arts, so also does it rank 
among the most ancient industries, being probably the 
origin of all the textile arts of the workL A bundle of 
numes spread out mi^ be compared to the warp of a 
web, and the application of others across it to the woof, 
idso an car!y discovery; for basket-work is literally a 
web of the coarsest materials. The ancient Britons 
appear to lia*c excelled in the art of basket-making, 
and their baskets were highly prized in Rome as we 
learn from MardaL Among many uncivilized tribes at 
the present day baskets of a superior order are made 
and applied to various useful purposes. The North 
American Indians prepare strong water-tight ** Wattape *' 
baskets from the roots of a species of Aoies, and these 
they frequently adorn v/ith verj' pretty ]mttems made 
from Uie d\ed quills of their native porcupine. The In- 
dians of South America weave baskets equally useful 
from the fronds of the Carnahuba and other palms. 
The Kaffrcs and Hottentots of South Africa are simi- 
larly skillful in using the Ilda reed and the roots of 
plants ; while the tribes of central Africa and the Abys- 
sinians display great adroitness in the art of basket- 
weaving. 

Baalvct-making, however, has by no means been con- 
fined to the f::brjccticn of those simple and useful uten- 
sils, from \/hich its name is derived. Of old, the shields 
of soldiers were fashioned of wicker-work, either plain 
or covered witli hides ; and the like has been witnessed 
among modern savages. In Britain, the shields of the 
ancient warriors, and also their huts, even up to the 
so-called pcbccs of the Saxon monarchs, were made of 
wicker- work J and their boats of the same material, 
covered with the skins of animals, attracted the notice 
of the Romans. Herodotus mentions boats of this kind 
on the Tigris and Euphrates, but with this difference, 
that the former seem to have been of the ordinary figure 
of a boat, whereas the latter were round and were covered 
wit!i bitumen. Boats of this shape, about 71 feet in 
di::meter, are used at the present day on these rivers 
and boats of analogous construction are employed in 
crossing the rivers of India which have not a rapid cur- 
rent. Nothing can be more expeditious or more simple 
than the fabncation and materials of these vessels, if 
they merit ihat name. One may be made by six men in 
as many Iiours — only two substances, hides and bamboo, 
almost always (;:cessible, being used. Window screens, 
perambulators, chairs, &c., are now largely made of 
basket-work, r.nd ilic lighi pony bjisl;et carriages in 
generc! ti:^ arc representatives of the Continental 
Holstein svagon cf the early part of the century, which 
was a two-horse br.:!:wt carnage of considerable size. 
In Berlin cr.cl Kiel thcro now exist large factories of 
basket funiiture, devoted to the manufacture of basket- 
work, chairs, tabl^, stands, frames, screens, &c. , and 
the use of this description of furniture is very general 
in Continental houses* 



The materials which are actually employed in th| 
construction of basket-work are numerous and varied, 
and to the principal of these allusion will be made bdow. 
As it is, however, from various species of willow that 
the largest supply of basket-making materials is pro- 
duced, we shall first confine our attention to thb source. 
Willows for basket-work are extensively prown in Hol- 
land, Belgium, France, and Germany, whence large 
Quantities are exported to Great Britain and even to 
tne United States. The willows of France are highly 
esteemed by basket-makers as firm, dean rods ; an<l the 
Dutch proKluce are lowest in value, being soft and 
pithy. No Continental rods eoual those of EngUsh 
growth for their tough and leatnery texture, rjid the 
hnest of all basket-ma^ng willows are now cultivated in 
large quantities in the valleys of the Thames and the 
Trent 

The ^us Salix^ to which all willows and osiers 
belong, IS extremely complex in its botanical characters, 
and the species and varieties, as sjrstematically arranged, 
are very numerous. 

It was long supposed that willows flourish nowhere 
but with abundance of water. Undoubtedly the osier 
class thrive well with a considerable de^^ee of humidity, 
but a dry well-drained ouil is best suited for all hard- 
wooded varieties. For the laying out of a willow holt, 
the land should be well drained, cleared and tilled to a 
depth of about one foot. Willows are propagated solely 
from cuttings, which retain their vitality long, and strike 
with great facilitT. The cuttings are made about 9 
inches long, and two or three may be obtained 
from a single rod. They should be planted in rows 
from 16 to i8 inches apart, the plants in each row being 
placed at intervals of from 8 to 12 inches according to 
the size of the willow under cultivation ; and the entire 
length of the cutting should be pushed into the ground. 
The planting m; y be done 2 1 anv time from late autumn 
to early spring during the period of ^lant rest, when the 
ground is free from frost At tho end of each year the 
shoots are to be cut down close to the ground, manure 
is lai-1 on between the rows and plou^ed in, and the 
soil should be kept as open and free from weeds as ara- 
ble land. The produce of the first year will, as a 
rule, be of litde value ; nevertheless, in Mr. Scaling*s 
cpi^iion, it is of consequence that the rods should be 
cat down. The second year's crop should yield a good 
return ; in the third ye:j the plants are at their best, 
and for the ten follo^ving years thev should exhibit un- . 
diminished productiveness, after wnich they graduaUy 
decline in strength. 

The rods intended for basket-making are either taken 
entire, cut from the root, split asunder, or stripped of 
their bark, according to the work to be produced ; but 
in all cases ihe,' are previously soaked in water, and 
indeed sometimes boiled. The stripping is performed 
by drawing the .villows through a bifurcated irdn imple- 
ment called a brake, which removes the bark, and the 
willows are then cleaned, as far as necessary, by manual 
operation with a knife. When they are boiled orevious 
to peeling 2, very nice light brown color is developed in 
the wood by the action of the tannin contained in the 
bark, and rods thus prepared are much more durable 
than those peeled white. Next they are exix)sed to the 
sun and air, and afterwards placed in a dry situation. 
But it is not the less necessary to preserve willows with 
their bark in the same manner; for nothing can be 
more injurious than the humidity inherent in the plant ; 
and previous to use they must be soaked some days in 
water also. The barked or white osier is then divided 
into bundles or faggots according to the size; the 
larger being reserved to form the strong work in the 
skeleton of the basket, and the smaller for weaving the 



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bottom and sides. Should the latter be applied to 
ordinary work, they are taken whole; but for imple- 
ments of slight and finer texture, each osier is divided 
into splits and skains of different degrees of size. Splits 
are osiers cleft into four parts, by means of an implement 
employed for that purpose called a cleaver, which is a 
wedge-shaped tool inserted at the point or top end of 
the rod and run down through its entire length. These 
are next drawn through an implement resembling the 
common spoke-shave, keeping the grain of the split 
next the iron or stock of tne shave, while the pith is 
presented to the steel edge of the instrument, which is 
set in an oblique direction to the wood ; and in order 
to bring the split into a shape still more regular, it is 
passed through another implement called an upright, 
consisting of a flat piece of steel, each end of which is 
fashioned into a cutting edge, like that of an ordinary 
<^iseL The flat is bent round, so that the two edges 
approach each other at a greater or less interval by 
means of regulating screws, and the whole is fixed into 
a handle. By passmg the splits between the two edges 
they are reduced to skains, the thickness of which is 
determined by the interval between the edges of the 
tooL 

The implements required by a basket-maker are few 
and simple. They consist, besides the preceding, of 
knives, bodkins, leads for keeping the work steady while 
in process ; and where the willows are worked as rods a 
heavy piece of iron called a beater is employed to beat 
them close as they are woven in. On the Continent, 
where fancy baskets are made, blocks are required on 
which the webs of wicker-work are set to particular 
shapes. 

From the simplicity of this manufacture, a great many 
individuals, independent of professed basket-makers, are 
occupied in it ; and it affords suitable employment to the 
blind in the several asylums and workshops established 
for their reception in this and other countries. 
^ In addition to willows, a lar^e variety of other mate- 
rials is employed in the fabncation of wicker-work. 
Among the most important of these are splits of various 
species of bamboo, with which the Japanese and Chinese 
manufacture baskets of unequalled beauty and finish. 
The bamboo wicker-work with which the Japanese 
sometimes encase their delicate egg-shell porcelam is a 
marvellous example of manipulation, and they and the 
Chinese excel in the application of bamboo wicker-work 
to furniture. The ** canes " or rattans of commerce, 
stems of species of Calamus zxid. Damonorops are scarcely 
less important as a source of basket materials. In India 
** Cajan ^ baskets are extensively made from the fronds 
of the Palmyra palm, Borassus fladglliformis ; and this 
nianufacture has in recent years been established in the 
Black Forest of Germany, where it is now an important 
and characteristic staple. 
• BASN AGE, Jacques, pastor of the Walloon Church 
at the Hagrue, was bom at Rouen in Normandy on the 
8th of August 1653. He was the son of Henri Bas- 
nage, one of the ablest advocates in the parliament of 
Normandy. At the age of seventeen, having acquired 
a good knowledge of me Greek and Latin authors, as 
well as of the English, Spanish, and Italian languages, 
he went to Geneva, where he began his theological 
studies under Mestrezat, Turretin, and Troiuhin; he 
completed them at Sedan, under the professors Jurieu 
and Leblanc de Beaulieu. He then returned to Rouen, 
where he was received as pastor in September 1676 ; 
and in this capacity he remamed till the year 1685, when, 
^ exercise of the Protestant religion being suppressed 
at Rouen, he obtained leave of the king to retire to 
HoUand. He settled at Rotterdam, and continued a 
■minister pensionary there till 1691, when he was chosen 



pastor of the Walloon Church of that city. In 1709, 
the pensionary Heinsios secured his election as one of 
the pastors of the Walloon Church at the Hague, 
intending to employ him not only in religious but also 
in civil smairs. Accordingly he was enga^d in a secret 
negotiation with Marshal d'Uxelles, plenipotentiary of 
France at the congress of Utrecht, — a service which he 
executed with so 'much success, that he was afterwards 
instrusted with several important commissions, all of 
which he discharged with such ability and address that 
Voltaire said of him that he was fitter to be a minister of 
state than the minister of a parish. The Abb6 Dubois, 
who represented France at tne Hague in 1 7 16, in nego- 
tiating a defensive alliance between France, England, 
and the States-General, received instructions to consult 
with Basnage ; they accordingly acted in concert, and 
the alliance was concluded in January 171 7. He died 
on the 22d September 1723. 

BASQUE PROVINCES C/V<wj«aax Vascangadas). 
The three Spanish provinces known by this name, 
which are distinguished from all the other divisions of 
Spain by the character, language, and manners of the 
inhabitants, and by the enjoyment of political privileges 
which make the form of their government nearly repub- 
lican, are Biscay jVizcaya), Guipuzcoa, and Alava. The 
territory occupied by them is in the form of a triangle, 
bounded on the N. oy the Bay of Biscay, S, by Soria, 
E. by Navarra and part of France, and W. by Santan- 
der and Burgos. It comprises an area of 2958 square 
miles; popuutionin 1857, 414,146. These three pro- 
vinces arc more particularly described under their re- 
spective heads. The French Basque provinces now 
form the arrondissements of Bayonne and Mauleon. 
The Basque language which is also prevalent in Navarre, 
Is still spoken hy about 600,000 Spaniards and French. 
Its native name is Eskuara, It cannot be classed with 
any Indo-European or Semitic tongue, and appears to 
be of earlier origin, presenting some grammatical anal- 
oligies with Mongol, North American, and certain East 
African languages. No written Basque is known of 
earlier date thaSi the 15th century, and little genuine 
literature exists ; the orthography is therefore arbitrary, 
and the earliest writings are difficult to interpret. All 
that has yet bec:i noticed regarding manners, customs, 
institutions, and legends may be paralled by those of 
other Pyrencan peoples, or traced to foreign influences. 
But, through their moral qualities, physiciJ situation, 
and historical circumstances the Basques have built up 
and preserved a body of customs and institi'.tions highly 
original in the mass. Each province is governed by a 
parliament composed of representatives selected partly 
by election, partly by lot, among the householders of 
each country parish or town. A deputation named by 
the parliament, ensures the strict observance of the spe- 
cial laws and customs of the province, and negotiates 
with the representatives of the Spanish crown. Delegates 
from the three parliaments meet annually to consider 
the common interests of the provinces ; they employ a 
seal representing three interlaced hands, with the motto 
Iruracbat, " the three are one " but no written federal 
pact exisits. Much speculation regarding the origin of 
the Basques has been indulged in without sufficient 
special knowledge. The belief that th<^ originally oc- 
cupied great part of Spain and Southern France, founded 
on tlie apparently Basque character of certain local 
names, is very generally accepted. 

BASS ROCK, an islet of greenstone and trap tuff, 
about a mile in circumference, on the coast of East 
Lothian near the entrance to the Firth of Forth. 

BASS'S STRAITS, the channel which separates 
Tasmania from Victoria. It is about 180 mfles in 
length from E. to W., and about 140 from N. to S. 



830 



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BASSAHIR, a {Ujput hill sUte in Hindust&n, tinder 
the politicai superintendence of the Lieutenant-Goveroor 
of the Panidb, is bounded on the N. by the Spiti valley, 
on the E. by Chinese Tartary, on the S. by the district 
of Garhwil, and on the W. hj several small hill states. 

BASS A NO, a city in Italy in the provmce of Vin- 
cenza. It stands on the river. Br en ta, over which there 
is a bridge i8o feet in length, built by Palladio. It is 
surroundSi with walls, and has six gates, one of which, 
also by Palladio, is very much admired. Population, 

BASSANO, GiACOMO da PoNxn, a Venetian painter, 
bom in 1 5 10 at Bassano. His compositions, though they 
have not much eloquence or grandeur, have abundance 
of force and truth ; the local colors are well observed, 
the carnations are fresh and brilliant, and his chiaroscuro 
and perspective are unexceptionable. He is said to 
have finished a great number of pictures ; but his genu- 
ine v/orlis are somewhat rare and valuable, — many of 
thoc2 which are called originxils being copies either by 
the sons of Bassano, or by others. lie died in 1592, 
aged eighty- two. 

BASSE-TERRE, the capital of St. Christopher's, 
one of the British Wcct India Islanc?7. Population, 
850a See Saint Christopher's 

BASSE-TERRE, formerly the capital of Guadeloupe, 
one of the Frendi West India Islands. Population, 
948a See Guadeloupe. 

BASSEIN, a British district on the eastern coast of 
the Br.y of Bengal, under the jurisdiction of the Chief 
Commissioner of Burmah, b biounded on the N. by the 
districts of ICyouIc Phoo and Myononng, on the E. by 
the district of Rangoon, and on the S. and W. by the 
Bay cf Bengal 

Bassein, the principal place of the district of the 
same name, on the eastern bank of the Brxcsein River, 
one of the main arteries by which the waters of the 
Irawadi discharge themselves into the sea. It forms an 
important seat of the rice trade, and has great capabil- 
ities both from a mercantile and a military pomt of 
view, as it commands the great outlet of the Irawadi. 
It fell before the British arms, in May 1852, during the 
second Burmese war. 

BASSELIN, Olivier, an old French poet or writer 
of verses, was bom in the Val-de-Vire m Normandy 
about the middle of the 14th century, and died about 
1418 or 1410. 

BASSI, Laura Maria Caterina, an Italian lady, 
eminently distinguished for her learning, was bom at 
Bologna in 1 711. On account of her extraordinary at- 
tainments she received a doctor's degree, and was ap- 
pointed professor in the philosophiod college, where 
she delivered public lectures on experimented philoso- 
phy till the time of her death. She was elected mem- 
ber of many literary societies, and carried on an 
extensive correspondence with the most eminent Europ- 
ean men of letters. She was well acquainted with class- 
ical literature, as well as with that of France and Italy. 
In 1 738 she married Giuseppe Verrati, a physician, and 
left several children. She died in 1778. 

BASSI AN US, JOANNHS, a distinguished professor in 
the law school of Bologna, the pupil of Bulgarus aad the 
master of Azo. 

BASSOON, a musical wind instrument of the reed 
order, made of wood, and played through a bent mouth- 
piece of metal. 

BASSO-RILIEVO. See Alto Rilievo and Re- 
lief. 

BASTAR, a feudatory state in the Central Provinces 
of British India, bounded on the N. by the Kanker zam- 
ind&ri and R4ipur district; on the E. by the Bendri 
Naw&garh zamindiri and Riipur, Jaipur state and Sa- 



bad River ; on the S. by the Sironchi district; azxl on 
the W. by the Indrivati River and the Aheri zamin- 

BASTARD is a person bom out of lawful wedlock, 
1.^., whose parents have not been married previous to 
his birth. The rules by which legitimacy is determined 
vary chiefly as to the effect to be assigned to the subse- 
quent marriage of the bastard's parents. The law of 
Scotland, and of most Continentai countries, following 
the rules of the civil and canon law, legitimizes the bas- 
tard whose parents afterwards marry. The same prin- 
ciple was at one time advocated by the clergy in Eng- 
land, but summarily rejected by the famous statute of 
Merton. The English law, however, takes no acconnt 
of the interval between the marriage and the birth; pro- 
vided the birth hsuppens after the marriage, the offspring 
is legitimate. Tne presumption of mw is in favor 
of the legitimacy of the child of a married woman, and 
at one time it was so strong that Lord Coke held that 
" if the husband be within Uie four seas, 1.^., within the 
jurisdiction of the king of En^and, and the wife hath 
issue, no proof shall \x admitted to prove the^ child a 
bastard unless the husband hath an apparent impossi- 
bility of procreation. " It is now settled, however, that 
the presumption of legitimacy may be rebutted by evi- 
dence rhowmg non-access on the part of the husband, 
or any other circumstance showing that the husband 
could not in the course of nature have been the father 
of his wife's child. If the husband had access, or the 
access be not clearly negatived, and others at 
the same time were carrying on a criminal inter- 
course with the wife, a child lx>m under such circum- 
stances is legitimate. If the husband had access inter- 
course must be presumed, unless there is irresistible 
evidence to the contrary. Neither husband nor wife will 
be permitted to prove the non-access directly or indi- 
rectly. Children bom after a divorce a tfunsa ct thoro 
will be presumed to be bastards unless access be proved. 
A child bom so lung after the death of a husband that 
he could not in the ordinary course of nature have been 
its father is illegitimate. The period of gestation is 
presumed to be Sfout nine calendar months ; aiKl if there 
were any circumstances from which an unuscrJly long 
or short period of gestation could be inferred, speciu 
medical testimony would be required. A marriage be- 
tween persons within the prohibited degrees of aJbniiy 
was before 1835 not void, but only voidable, and the 
ecclesiastical courts were restrained from bastardizing 
the issue after the death of either of the parents. Lcnrd 
Lyndhurst's Act declared all such existing marriages 
valid, but all future marriages between persons within 
the prohibited dcgr of consanguinity or affinity were 
made null and void, and the issrc iUegitimate. (See 
Marriage.) 

The incapacities attaching to a bastard consist prin- 
cipally in tnis, that he cannot be heir to any one ; for 
beine nullius filius^ he is therefore of kin to nobody, 
and nas no ancestor from whom an inheritable blood 
can be derived. Therefore, if there be no other claim- 
ant upon an inheritance than such an illegitimate child, 
it escneats to the lord. And as bastards cannot be 
heirs themselves, so neither can they have any heirs but 
those of their own bodies; for as all collat^al kindred 
consists in being derived from the same common an- 
cestor, and as a bastard has no legal ancestor, he can 
have no collateral kindred, and consequently no l^al 
heirs, except such as daim by a lineal descent from 
himself. And hence, if a bastard purcha.rj land, and 
die seised thereof without issue and intestate, the land 
escheats to the lord of the fee. Originally a bastard was 
deemed incapable of holy orders, and disqualified by the 
fact of his birth from holding any dignity m the church | 



B AS 



831 



b«t this doctrine if now obsolete, and in all other res- 
pects there is no distinction between a bastard and 
another man. 

BASTf , a district of British India, in the Benares 
division, under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of the N, W. Provinces. It is bounded on the N. 
by the independent state of Nepil, on the E. by the 
district of Gorakhpur, on the S. by the Ghagrd River, 
and on the W. by the district of Gondd in Oudh. 

BAST I A, a fortified town and seaport on the eastern 
coast of the island of Corsica, aad the capital of an ar- 
rondissement. It occupies a very picturesque situation, 
rising from the sea in the form of an amphitheatre ; but 
the town itself is ill-built, and the streets are narrow 
and crooked. The harbor, which is defended by a cita- 
del, has a narrow and difficult entrance. Bastia is the 
seat of a royal court for the island, and of tribunals of 
commerce and primary jurisdiction, and has a theatre, a 
military and a civil hospital, a communal college, a 
model school, a museum, and ft library of 30,000 
Tolumes. 

BASTIAT, Frederick, the son of a merchant of 
Bayonne, was bom in Umt town on the 19th of June 
1801. After being educated at the colleges of Saint- 
Sever and of SoT&d, he entered in 1818 the counting- 
house of his uncle at Bayonne. Here his intensely active 
mind soon began to interest itself in the study of the 
principles of commerce, but he felt no enjoyment in the 
practical routine of mercantile life, and in 1825 retired to 
a property at Mugron, of which he became posssessor 
on the death of his grandfather. Thus withdrawn from 
society, he devoted mmself with eagerness to meditation 
and study, mastering the English and Italian languages 
and literatures, speculating on the problems of pniloso- 
phy and religion, digesting the doctrines of Adam Smith 
and Say, of Charles Compte and Dunoyer, cultivating 
music, experimenting in farming, and talking over all 
that he read, thought and desired, with his able, dearly 
loved, and life-long friend, M. Felix Coudroy. Hi 
welcome with enthusiasm the Revolution of 1S30. 

Ih 1845 he came to Paris in order to superintend the 
publication of his Cobden e* '1 LigueyOuP agitation An- 
glaise pour la liber ti des ^chan^esy and was very cordirUv 
received by the economists of die capital ; from Paris lie 
went to London and Manchester, and made the personal 
acquaintance of Cobden, Bright, and other leaders of 
the league. When he return^ to France he found that 
his writings had been exerting^ a powerful influence ; and 
in 1846 he assisted in organizmg at Bordeaux the first 
French Free Trade Association. 

He wrote in rapid succession a series of brillirmt and 
effective pamphlets and essays, showing how socialism 
was connected with protection, and exposin|; the delu- 
sions on which it rested. While thus occupied he was 
meditating the composition of a great constructive 
work, meant to renovate economical science by basing 
it on the principle that " interests, left to themselves, 
tend to harmonious combinations, and to the progress- 
ive preponderance of the general good." The first 
volume of this work Les Harmonies J^onomiques was 
published in the beginning of 1850. In the autumn of 
taat year, when working on the second volume, the in- 
^^'c^e of his malady compelled him to repair to Italy, 
^ter lingering at Pisa and Florence he reached Rome, 
hnt only to die there on the 24th of December 1850, in 
the fiftieth year of his age. An affecting account of the 
«8t days of'^this illustrious martyr to the cause of eco- 
nomical science and political iustice was published by 
Jus friend, M. PaiUottet. 

^ The life-work of Bastiat, in order to be fakly appre- 
Wed, requires to be considered in three a^p>ects. (I.) 
He was the advocate of free trade, the opponent of pro- 



tection. The general theory of free trade had, of 
course, been clearly stated and solidly established be- 
fore he was bom, and his desire to see its principles 
acted on in France was quickened and confirmed by the 
agitation of the Anti-Cora-Law League for their reali- 
zation in England, but as no one denies it to have been, 
a great merit in Cobden to have seen so distinctly and 
comprehensively the bearing of economical truths which 
he did not discover, »io one should denj it to have been 
also a great merit in Bastiat. He did far more than, 
merely restate the already familiar truths of free trade. 
He snowed as no one before him had done how the^ 
were applicable in the various spheres of French agn- 
culture, trade, and commerce. Now, the abstract 
theory of free trade is of comjMuratively little value; its 
elaboration so as to cover details, its concrete applica- 
tion, and its varied illustration are equally essentiaL 
And in these respects it owes more, pernaps, to Bastiat 
than to any other economist. In the Sopkismes ^con* 
omiques we have the completest and most effective, the 
wisest itnd the wittiest exposure of protectionism in its 
principles, reasonings, and consequences which exists 
m any language. (2.) He was the opponent of social- 
ism. In this re£;v*r t also he had no equal amone the 
economists of France. He alone fought socialism hand 
to hand, body to body, as it were, not caricaturing it, 
not denouncing it, not criticzing^ under its name some 
merelv abctract theory, but taking it as actually pre- 
sented by its most popular representatives, consider- 
ing patientl]^ their proposals and arguments, ^d prov- 
ing conclusively that thev proceed on false principles, 
reasoned badly, and sought to realize generous aims by 
foolish and harmful means. Nowhere will reason find 
a richer armory of weapons available against socialism 
than in the pamphlets published by Bastiat between 
1848 and 1850. These pamphlets will live, it is to be 
hoped, at least as long as the errors which they expose. 
(3). He attempted to expound ia an original and mde- 
pendent manner political economy as u science. In 
combating, first, tne Protectionists, and, afterwards, the 
Socialists, there gradually rose on his mind a conception 
which seemed to him to shed a flood of light over the 
whole of economical doctrine, and, ind^, over the 
whole theory of society, viz., the harmony of the essen- 
tial tendencies of human nature. The radical error, he 
became always more convinced, both of protectionism 
and socialism, was the assumption that human interests, 
if left to themselves, would inevitably prove antagonistic 
and anti-social, capital robbing labor, manufactures ruin- 
ing agriculture, the foreigner injurving the native, the 
consumer the producer, &c; and tne chief weakness of 
the various schools of political economy, he believed he 
had discovered in their imperfect apprehension of the 
truth that humr.n interests, when left i themselves, 
when not arbitrarily and forcibly interfered with, tend 
to harmonious combination, to tne general good. Such 
was the point of view from which Bastiat sought to ex- 
pound the v/hole of economical science. The sphere of 
that science he limited to exchange, and he drew a 
sharp distinction between utility and value. Political 
economy he defined as the theory of value, and value 
as " the relation of two services exchanged.** The lat- 
ter definition he deemed of supreme importance. It 
appeared to him to correct what was defective or erro- 
neous in the conflicting definitions of value given by 
Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo, Senior, Storch, &c, to 
preserve and combine what was true in them, and to 
afford a basis for a more consistent and developed eco- 
nomical theory than had previously been presented. 
It has, however, found little acceptance, and Roscher, 
Cairnes, and others seem to have shown it to be ambig- 
uous and misleading. A consequence of it on which he 



832 



BAS— B AT 



had great stress was that the gratuitous gifts of nature, 
whatever be their utility, are incapable of acquiring 
value, — what is gratuitous for man m an isolated state 
remaining gratuitous in a social condition. Thus, land, 
according to Bastiat, is as gratuitous to men at the 
present Saj as to their first parents, the rent which is 
paid for it — its so-called value — being merely the re- 
turn for the labor and capital which have been expended 
on its improvement. In the general opinion of eco- 
nomists he has &iled to establi^i this doctrine, failed to 
show that the properties and forces of nature cannot 
be so appropriated as to acquire value. His theory of 
rent is nearly the same as Mr. Carey's, i. ^., decidedly 
anti-Ricardian. His views on the growth of capital and 
interest, on landed property, competition, consumption, 
wages, and population, are independent, and, if not un- 
qualifiedly true, at least richly sugeestive. 

BASTILLE (from dasiir, nowXf//>, to build), in the 
earlier use of the word, was any fortified building form- 
ing part of a system of defence or attack; and tli^ name 
was especially applied to several of the principal points 
in the ancient fortifications of Paris. In the reign of 
king John, or even earlier, the gate of Saint Antoine 
was flanked by two towers ; and in 1369 Hugues Aubriot, 
at the command of Charles V., chang^ it into a regu- 
lar bastille or fort by the addition of six others of 
massive structure, the whole united by thick walls and 
surrounded by a ditch 25 feet wide. Various extensions 
and alterations were afterwards effected ; but the build- 
ing remained substantially what it was made by the 
vigorous provost, a strong and gloomy structure, with 
eight stem towers. As the ancient fortifications of the 
city were superseded, the use of the word bastille as a 
general designation gradually died out, and it became 
restricted to the castle of Saint Antoine, the political 
importance of which made it practically, long before it 
was actually, the only bastille of Paris. The building 
had originally a military purpose, and it appears as a 
fortress on several occasions in French history. When 
Charles VII. retook Paris from the English m 1436, all 
his opponents in the city took refuge in the Bastille, 
which they were prepared to defend with vigor, but the 
want of provisions obliged them to capitulate. In 1588 
the duke of Guise took possession of the Bastille, gave 
the command of it to Bussy-Leclerc, and soon after- 
wards shut up the whole parliament within its walls, for 
liaving refused their adherence to the League. When 
Henri IV. became master of Paris he committed the 
command of the Bastille to Sully, and there he deposited 
his treasures, which at the time of his death amounted 
to the sum of 1,870,000 livres. On the iiih of 
January 1649, the Bastille was invested by the forces of 
the Fronde, and, after a short cannonaae, capitulated 
on the 13th of that month. The garrison consisted of 
only twenty-two men. The Frondeurs concluded a 
peace with the court on the nth of March ; but it was 
stipulated by treaty that they should retain possession 
of the Bastille, which, in fact, was not restored to the 
king till the2ist of October 1651. In that year took 
place the famous fight of the Porte St. Antoine between 
tond^ and Ture^ne, on which occasion the forces of 
Cond6 owed their safe retreat into Paris to the cannon 
of the Bastille. 

At a very early period, however, the Bastille was em- 
ployed for the custody of state prisoners, and it was ulti- 
mately much more of^a prison than a fortress. Accord- 
ing to the usual account, which one is tempted to 
ascribe to the popular love of poetical justice, the first 
who was incarcerated within its walls was the builder 
himself, Hugues Aubriot. Be this as it may, the duke 
of Nemours spent thirteen years there in one of those 
iron cages wmch Louis XI. called his filUtUs and Jac- 



ques d'Armagnac, Poyet, and Chabot were snccesstveif 
prisoners. It was not till the reign of Louis XIII. that 
It became recognised as a regular place of confinement ; 
but from that time till its destruction it was freaaentlj 
filled to embarrassment with men and women of ewtiy 
age and condition. 

Of die treatment of prisoners in the Bastille verjr vari- 
ous accounts have been given even by those who speak 
from personal experience, for the simple reason tliat it 
varied ^eatly in different cases. The prisoners 'were 
divkled into two main classes, those who were detained 
on pounds of precaution or by way of admonitory cor- 
rection, and those who lay under presumption or pro^ 
of guilt. The former were subject to no investigadoo 
or judG;ment, and the length of their imprisonment de- 
pended on the will of the king : the latter were broug^ 
to trial in the ordinary courts or before sp>ecial tribanjds, 
such as that of the Arsenal, — > though even in their case 
the interval between their arrest and their trial was 
determined solely by the royal decree, and it was quite 

Kssible for a man to grow old in the prison witnont 
ving the opportunity of havix^ his fate decided. 
Until euilt was established, the prisoner was r^;istered 
in the king's name, and — except in the case of state 
prisoners of importance, who were kept with greater 
strictness and often in absolute isolation — he enjoyed a 
certain degree of comfort and freedom. Visitors were 
admitted under restrictions ; ^ames were allowed ; and^ 
for a long time, at least, exercise was permitted in open 
parts of the interior. Food was both abundant and 
good, at least for the better class of prisoners ; and in- 
stances were not unknown of people living below their 
allowance and, by arrangement with the governor, sav- 
ing the surplus. When the criminality of the prisoner 
was establisned, his name was transferred to the register 
of the " commission,** and he became exposed to numer- 
ous hardships and eveiv barbarities, which, however, 
belonged not so much to the special or^nization of the 
Bastille as to the general system of criimnal justice then 
in force. 

Among the more distinguished personages who were 
confined in the fortress during the reigns of Louis XIV., 
XV., and XVI., were the famous Man of the Iron 
Mask^ Fouquet, the Marshal Richelieu, Le Maistre de 
Sacy, de Renneville, Voltaire, De Latude, Le Provost, 
de Beaumont, Labourdonnais, Lally, Cardinal Rohan, 
Linguet, and La Chalotais. 

At the breaking out of the Revolution the Bastille 
was attacked by tne Parisians, taken and razed to the 
ground on the 14th July 1789. At the time of its cap- 
ture only seven pnsoners were found in it. A very 
striking account of the siege will be found in Car- 
lyle*s French Revolution^ voL i. The site of the build- 
ing is now marked by a lofty column of bronze, dedi- 
cated to the memory of the patriots of July 1789 and 
1830. It b crowned by a gilded figure of Mercury 
spreading his pinions in the act of flight. 

BASTWICK, Dr. John, bom at Writtle, in Essex, 
in 1593, was a physician at Colchester, whose celebrity 
rests on his strong opposition to the Roman Catholic 
ceremonial. 

BAT, the common name of a well marked group of 
Mammab forming the order Cheiroptera (i.e.^ vrmg- 
handed), distinguished from all other members of theur 
class by the possession of true organs of flight. These 
consist of a delicate membrane stretching from limb to 
limb on both sides of the body, enclosing the greatly 
elongated digits of the hand, and in many cases ex- 
tendingbeyond the posterior limbs so as to include the 
tail. Their whole structure bears evidence of spejcni 
adaptation to the purpose of sustained flight, while their 
-moae of progression on the ground is as awkward at 



I 



BAT 



833 



their aerial movements are gracefoL The eyes of the 
bat are usually small, but the organs of the other senses 
in most cases attain extraordinary development. The 
external ear is generally large, as in the Long-eared Bat 
of Britain {Plecotus auritus)^ in which it is equal to the 
entire length of the body. In the group to which the 
Horse-shoe Bats {Rhinolaphus ferrum equinum) belong, 
the nose is surrounded with leaf-like appendages, the 
purpose of which is by no means well determined, but 
which, probably, are as useful to the orcan of smelling 
as is the greatly elongated auricle to that of hearing. 
In all bats the wing-membrane affords a vast expansion 
of the sense of touch, which is of such exauisite aelicacy 
that bats which have been deprived of their sight, and 
as far as possible of hearing and smelling, are yet able 
by it alone to fly about in perfect security, avoiding, 
with apparent ease, all the obstacles that may be placed 
in their way. 

BATAVIA, a town of New York, in Genesee 
County, of some importance as a commercial and 
railroad and telegraph centre. Its population is about 
8,00a 

BATAVIA, a large city and seaport on the north 
coast of the island of Java, and the capital of all the 
Dutch settlements in the East. It is situated on both 
sides of the river Tacatra or Tjiliwong, in a swampy 
plain at the head of a capacious bay. The streets are 
for the most part straight and regular, and many of them 
have a breadth of from 100 to 200 feet. In several cases 
there is a canal in the centre lined with stone, and 
defended by low parapets or banks, while almost every 
street and square is fringed with trees. The old town 
has greatly changed from what it was in the 1 8th cen- 
tury. It was then surrounded by strong fortifications, 
and contained a number of important buildings, such as 
the town-house (built in 1652 and restored in 1706), the 
excluinge, the infirmarv and orphan asylum, and the 
European churches. But the ramparts were long ago 
demolished, and most of the public edifices have either 
fallen into de(^ or been converted into magazines and 
warehouses. The great church which was finished in 
1760, at an expense of. /8o,ooo, had to be taken down 
in consequence of its foundation having given away. 
Canals have been filled up, streets have been altered, 
and the general character of the place considerably 
modified. All the European inhabitants, except those 
immediately connected with the shipping, have removed 
to the New Town, which has been gradually formed by 
the integration of Weltevreden ( Well-content)^ Molen- 
vliet {Mill-stream)^ Rijswijk {Rice'town), Noordwijk 
\North'tawn\ Koningsplein i^in^'s square), and other 
suburban vilWes or stations. The situation of this 
modem part ishigher and healthier ; and the grandeur 
and yariety of its buildings far surpass anvthin^ to be 
found in the older sections of the city. The misplaced 
imitation of Dutch arrangements has been happily 
avoided, and the natural advantages of the situation and 
climate have been turned to account. The houses are 
frequently separated from each other by rows of trees. 

As the chief city of the Dutch colonies in the East, 
Batavia contains numerous buildings connected with the 
civil and military organization of the Government 

The population of Batavia is very varied, — the Dutch 
residents oeing a comparatively small class, and greatly 
intermixed with Portuguese and Malays. Here are 
foond members of the afferent Indian nations, origi- 
nally slaves ; Moors and Arabs, who are principally en- 
gaged in navigation, but also inhabit the Rua Malacoa 
aistrict, and trade in gold and precious stones ; Javanese, 
who are cultivators ; and Malays, chiefly boatmen and 
labors, and adherents of Mahometanism. But, per- 



haps, the most important Asiatic element is the Chinese,, 
who are both numerous and industrious. 

Batavia is still a great commercial depdt, though it 
has had to contend against the rivalry of Singapore. 
The bay is rendered secure by a number of islands at 
its mouth, and is capacious enough for a much larger 
trafBc than it has ever seen ; but it unfortunately grows 
very shallow towards the shore. Ships of 300 or 400 
tons anchor about a mile and a half out ; the river is 
navigable a couple of miles inland for vessels of 30 or 
40 tons, but the entrance is narrow, and requires con- 
tinual attention to keep it open. 

The exports from Batavia to the other islands of the 
archipelago, and to the ports in the Malayan peninsula, 
are nee, sago, coffee, sugar, salt, oil, tobacco, teak tim- 
ber and planks, Java cloths, brass wares, &c., and 
European, Indian, and Chinese goods. The produce of 
the Eastern Islands is also collected at its ports for re- 
exportation to India, China, smd Europe, — namely, 
gold-dust, diamonds, camphor, benzoin, and other 
drugs ; edible bird-nests, trepang, rattans, bees' wax, 
tortoise-shell, and dyeing woods from Borneo and 
Sumatra; tin from Banca; spices from the Moluccas; 
fine cloths from Celebes and Bali; and pepper from 
Sumatra. From Bengal are imported opium, drugs, and 
cloths; from China, teas, raw silk, silk piece-goods, 
varnished umbrellas, coarse China wares, nankeen, 
paper, and innumerable smaller articles for the Chinese 
settlers. British manufactures also are largely intro- 
duced. , The number of British ships that entered in 
1870 was 103, with a tonnage of nearly 31,000 tons, the 
total number of vessels of all nationalities being 783, 
with a tonnage of nearly 194,000. 

Almost the only manufactures of any importance are 
the distillation of^arrack, which is principally can ied on 
by Chinese, the burning of lime and bricks, and the bak- 
ing of pottery ; and even the brick-making is in a decay- 
ing condition. 

Batavia owes its origin to the Dutch general John 
Petersen Coen, who, in 1619, took the town of Jacatra 
(which had been built on the ruins of the old Javanese 
town of Sunda Calappa), destroyed it, and founded in 
its stead the present city, which soon acquired a flour- 
ishing trade and increased in importance. The ruins of 
Jacatra are to be found between Batavia and Anjol. In 
1699 Batavia was visited by a terrible earthquake, and 
the streams were choked by the mud from the volcano of 
Gunong Salak (7244 feet high), by which the climate 
was so affected that the city became notorious for its 
unhealthiness, and was in great danger of being alto- 
gether abandoned. In the twenty-two years from 1730 
to 1752, 1, 100,000 deaths are said to have been recorded. 
General Daendals, who was governor from 1808 to 
181 1, caused the ramparts of the town to be demolished, 
and began to form a nucleus of a new city at Welte- 
vreden. By 18 16 nearly all the Europeans had left the 
old town. In 181 1 a British armament was sent against 
the Dutch settlements in Java, which had been incor- 
porated by France, and to this force Batavia surrendered 
on the 8th of August. It was restored, however, to the 
Dutch by the treaty of 1814. 

BATES, William, D.D., an eminent Nonconform- 
ist divine, bom in November 1625, and died in July 
1699, in the 74th year of his age. 

BATH, the chief town of Somersetshire, and, from 
the elegance of its buildings and the b^uty of its 
situation, one of Ihe finest cioes in England, is situated 
mainlv on the right bank of the river Avon, though a 
considerable extension has also taken place on the 
left 

According to the legend to which the inhabitants 
adhered till the middle of the 18th centurv, Bath was 



834 



BAT 



founded bj the British king Bladad ; bnt ks origin can- 
not be historically traced to an earlier date than the 1st 
century, when the Romans established here the cit^ of 
Aqua So/if, nameroos remains of which have at various 
times been discovered. Daring the Saxon period the 
chief events in its annals are the foundation of an abbey 
by Offa in 775, and the coronation of Edgar in 973. In 
the reign of William Rufus the city was rMuced to ashes, 
but it soon recovered its prosperity under its abbot John 
of ViUula, and his successors. Richard Coeur de Lion 
granted its first charter as a free borough, and about the 
same time the foundations were laid of its wool manu- 
factures. In -1297 the city was first represented in 
parliament ; in 1447 it obtained a charter from Henrv 
VI. , and one from Queen Elizabeth in 159a In the i8tn 
century it became the most fashionable watering-place 
hi England, and was greatly extended under the oirec- 
tion of the architects Wood. 

BATH, i citv and port of the United SUtes of North 
America, chief town of the county of Sagadahock in 
Maine. It is situated on the W. bank of the Kennebec, 
about twelve miles from the sea, and forms a situation 
on the branch railway from Brunswick to Rockland. 
The prosperity of the town depends almost entirely on 
its shippmg and fisheries ; ana its manufacturing in- 
ilustries are nearly all auxiliary to the one department* 
shipbuilding, in which it competes with the chief 
American centres of the trade. It has a fine custom- 
house built of granite. The dty was settled in 1756, 
Incorporated In 1 780* and raised to the rank of a dtj in 
1850. Population, 7371. 

BATH, Knights op tub. See Heraldry and 
Knighthood. 

BATHGATE, a town of Scotland, hi die county of 
Linlithgow, 19 miles from Edinburgh, and 26 from 
Glasg^ow, with Doth of which it has direct commnniration 
by railway. 

BATHS. In the ordinaiy acceptation of the word a 
bath is the immersion of the body in a medium different 
from the ordinary one of atmospheric air, which medium 
is usually common water in some form. In another 
sense it includes the nature of the different media that 
may be used, and of the various arrangements by which 
they are applied. Perhaps the simplest method of pre- 
senting r. general view of the whole subject is first to give 
an outline of the history of baths in all ages, and next to 
give some account of the principles on which baths act 
on the human system. 

Ancient Baths, — Bathing, as serving both for cleanli- 
ness and for pleasure, has b^n almost instinctively prac- 
ticed by nearly every people. The most ancient records 
mention bathing in the rivers Nile and Ganges. From 
«n early period the Tews bathed in running water, used 
both hot and cold baths, and employed ods and oint- 
ments. So also did the Greeks ; tneir earliest and com- 
monest form of bathing was swimming in rivers, and 
bathing in them was practiced by both sexes. Warm 
baths were, according to Homer, used after fatigue or 
exercise. The Athenians appear for a long time only to 
have had private baths, but afterwards they had public 
ones: the latter seem to have originated among the 
Lacedaemonians, who invented the hot-air bath, at least 
the form of it called after them, the Laconicum, 
Although the baths of the Greeks were not so luxurious 
as those of some other nations, yet effeminate people 
were accused among them of using warm baths in excess ; 
and the bath servants appear to nave been rogues and 
thieves, as in later and larger establishments. The Per- 
sians must have had hanidsomely equipped baths, for 
Alexander the Great admired the luxury of the baths of 
Darius. 

But the iMUfas of the Greeks, and probably of all 



Eastern natfoos, were on a^small scale as compared with 
those which eventually spnmg up among the Romans. 
In earlv times the Romans used after exercise to throw 
themselves into the Tiber. Next, when ample sapi^ies 
of water were brought into the city, large cold swim- 
ming baths were constructed, the earliest of which 
appear to have been \\k^ piscina publka (31^ B.C.), near 
the Circus Maximus, supplied by the Appian aqaeduct, 
the Icnnurum of Agrippma, and a bath at the end of the 
Clivus Capitolinus. Next, small public as well as 

f>rivate baths were built; and with the empire more 
uxurious forms of bathing were introduced, and warm 
became fiur more popular than cold baths. 

Public baths or balnea were first built in Rcnne after 
Qodius brought in the supply of water from Prseneste. 
After that date baths be^m to be common both in 
Rome and in other Italian cities; and private baths, 
which gradually came into use, were attached to the 
villas of the wealthy citizens. Maecenas was one of the 
first who built public baths at his own expense. After 
his time each emperor, as he wished to ingratiate him- 
self with the people, lavished the revenues of the state 
in the construction of enormous buildings, which not 
only contained suites of bathing apartments, bnt in- 
cluded gymnasia, and sometimes even theatres and 
libraries. Such enormous establishments went by the 
name of therma. The principal thermae were those of 
Agrippa 21 B.C., of Nero 65 A.D., of Titus 81, of Dom- 
itianos, of Commodus 185, of Caracalla 217, and still 
later those of Diocletian 302, and of Constantine. The 
technical skill displayed by the Romans in rendering 
their walls and tne sides of reservoirs impervious to 
moisture, in conveying and heating water, and in con- 
structing flues for the convevance of hot air through the 
walls, was of the highest order. 

The Roman baths contained swimming baths, warm 
baths, baths of hot air, and vapor baths. 

The water was heated ingeniously. Close to the (ar- 
nace, about 4 inches off, was placed the calidarium, the 
copper (akcnum) for boiling water, near which, with 
the same interval between them, was the copper for 
warm water, the tcpidariuniy and at the distance of 2 
feet from this was the receptacle for cold water, or 
the frigidarium^ often a plastered reservoir. A con- 
stant communication was kept up between these vessels, 
so that as fast as hot water was orawn off firom the cali- 
darium a supply was obtained from the temdarium, 
which, being already heated, but slightly reauced the 
temperature of the hotter boiler. The tepidarium, 
agam, was supplied from the frigidarium, and that fi-om 
an aqueduct. In this way the heat which was not taken 
up by the first boiler passed on to the second, and in- 
stead of being wasted, helped to heat the second — a 
principle which has only lately been introduced into 
modem furnaces. In the case of the large thermae the 
water of an a(}ueduct was brought to the castellum^ or 
top of the building, and was allowed to descend into 
chambers over the hypocaustum, where it was heated 
and transmitted in pipes to the central buildings. Re- 
mains of this arrangement are to be seen in the baths 
of Caracalla. 

The arrangements of the thernta were mainly those 
of the balance on a larger scale. Some idea of their size 
may be gathered from such facts as these, that in. the 
batns ofDiocletian one room has been transmuted into 
a church of most imposing proportions, and that the 
outside walls of the oaths of Caracalla extend about a 
quarter of a mile on each of the four sides. A visit to 
tne remains of the baths of Titus, of Diocletian, or of 
Caracalla impresses the mind strongly with a sense of 
the vast scale on which they were erected, and Amml* 
I anus*s designation of them as provinces appears s caiceif 



BAT 



835 



exageerated. It is said that the baths of Caracalla con- 
t^ned 1600, and those of Diocletian 3300 marble seats 
for the use of the bathers. In the largest of the ther- 
tax there was a stadium for the games of the yonng 
men, with raised seats for the spectators. There were 
open colonnades and seats for philosof^ers and literarv 
men to sit and discourse or read their productions aloud, 
or for others to discuss the latest news. Near the por- 
ticoes, in the interior open space, rows of trees were 
planted. There was ^spAarisUrium, or place for play- 
ing ball, which vras often over the apodvterium ; but it 
must be confessed that the purposes of many portions 
of these large edifices have not been made out in as sat- 
isfactory a way as those of smaller baths. 

The magnificence of many of the thermae and their 
luxurious arrangements were such that some writers, as 
Seneca, are quite lost in their descriptions of them. 
The piscinae were often of immense size, — that of Dio- 
cletian being 200 feet lone, — and were adorned with 
beautiful marbles. The hafls were crowded with magni- 
ficent columns, and were ornamented with the finest 
pieces of statuary. The walls, it has been said, were 
covered with exauisite mosaics that imitated the art of 
the painter in their elegance of design and variety of 
color. The Egyptian syenite was encrusted with the 
precious green marbles of Numidia. The rooms con- 
tained the works of Phidias and Praxiteles. A perpet- 
ual stream of water was poured into capacious basins 
through the wide mouths of lions of bright and polished 
silver; water issued from silver, and Mras received on silver. 
**To such a pitch of luxury have we reached,** says 
Seneca, "• that we are dissatisfied if we do not tread on 
gems in our baths.** 

The richer Romans used every variety of oils and 
pomades {smegmata)\ they scarcely had true soaps. 
The poorer class had to be content with the flour of 
lentils, an article used at this day for the same purpose 
by Orientals. The most important bath utensil was the 
strigillus, a curved instrument made of metal, with 
which the skin was scraped and all sordes removed. 

The bath servants assisted in anointing, in using the 
strigillus, and in various other menial offices. The 
poorer classes had to use their strigils themselves. The 
various processes of the aliptse seem to have been car- 
ried on very systematically. 

The hot baths appear to have been open from i P.M. 
till dark. It was only one of the later emperors that 
had them li^t^ up at night When the hot baths 
were ready (for, doubtless, the plunge baths were 
available at an earlier hour,) a bell was rung for the in- 
formation of the people. Among the Greeks and 
Romans the eighth hour, or i o'clock, before their dinner, 
was the commonest hour for bathing. The bath was 
supposed to promote appetite, and some voluptuaries 
had one or more baths after dinner, to enable tnem to 
hegin eating again ; but such excesses, as Juvenal tells 
us, occasionally proved fatal. Some of the most effem- 
inate of the emperors are saki to have bathed seven or 
eight times in the course of a day. In early times 
there was delicacy of feeling about the sexes bathing 
together ; even a father could not bathe with his sons, 
bttt latterly, tmder most of the emperors, men and 
women often used the same baths. There frequently 
were separate baths for the women, as we see at Pom- 
peii, or at Badenweiler ; but although respectable ma- 
trons woukl not go to public baths, promiscuous bath- 
^ was common during the empire. 

The public baths and thermae were under the more 
immediate superintendence of the sediles. The charge 
tnade at a public bath was only a quadrons or quarter 
of an as, aoout half a farthing. Yet cheap though this 



was, the emperors used to ingratiate themtelves with 
the populace, by making the baths at times gratuitous. 

Wherever the Romans settled, they built public 
baths; and wherever they found hot springs or natural 
stufse, they made use of them, thus saving the expense 
of heating, as at the myrteta of Baise, or the aqua soils 
of Bath. In the cities there appear to have been pri' 
vate baths for hire, as well as the public baths; and 
every rich citizen had a set of baths attached to his 
villa, the fullest account of which is given in the Let' 
ters of Pliny, or in Ansonius*s Account of a Villa on 
the Moselle^ or in Statius*s De Balneo Etryisco, Al- 
though the Romans never wholly gave up cold bathing, 
and that practice was revived under Augustus by Anton- 
ius Musa, and again under Nero by Charmis (at which 
later time bathing in the open sea became common), 
yet they chiefly practiced warm bathing {calida lavatio). 
This is the most luxurious kind ot bathmg, and when 
indulged to excess, is enervating. The women were 
particularly fond of these baths, and were accused, at 
all events m some provincial cities, of drunkenness in 
them. 

The unbounded licence of the public baths, and their 
connection with modes of amusement that were con- 
demned, led to their bein^ to a considerable extent pro- 
scribed by the early Christians. The early fathers wrote 
that bathing might be practiced for the sake of cleanli- 
ness or of health, but not of pleasure; and Gregory the 
Great saw no objection to baths being used on Sunday. 
About the 5th century many of the large thermae m 
Rome fell into decay. The cutting off of the aqueducts 
by the Huns, and tne gradual decrease of the popula- 
tion, contributed to this. Still it is doubtful whethei 
bathing was ever disused to the extent that is usually 
represented. It was certainly kept up in the East in 
full vigor at Alexandria and at Brusa Hot bathing, 
and especially hot air and vapor baths, were adopted bv 
the Mahometans; and the Arabs brought them with 
them into Spain. The Turks, at a later time, carried 
them high up the Danube, and the Mahometans spread 
or, it may be more correct to say, revived their use in 
Persia and Hindustan. The Crusaders also contributed 
to the spread of baths in Europe, and hot vapor baths 
were specially recommended for the leprosy so preva- 
lent in those days. After the commencement of the 
13th century there were few large cities in Europe with- 
out hot vapor baths. We have full accounts of their 
regulations, — how the Jews were only allowed to ^isit 
them once a week, and how there were separate baths 
for lepers. In England they were callea hothouses. 
Erasmus, at the date of the Reformation, spoke of them 
as common in France, Germany, and Belgium ; he gives 
a lively account of the mixture of all cl^es of people 
to be found in them, and would imply that they were a 
conunon adjunct to inns. They seem after a time to have 
become less common, though Montaigne mentions them 
as being still in Rome in his day. In England the 
next revival of baths was at the close of the 17th century, 
under the Eastern name of Hummuns, or the Italian 
name of Bagnios. As these, like more recent revivals 
of them, were avowediv on the principle of the Turkish 
baths, that species ot bath must be briefly noticed. 
But before doine so, we must observe that there were 
several considerable epochs in the history of baths, one in 
the commencement of the i8th century, when Floyer 
and others recalled attenrion to cold bathing, of which 
the virtues had long been overlooked. In the middle of 
the century also, Russell and others revived sea-bathing 
in England, and were followed by others on the Conti- 
nent, until the value of sea-bathing became fully appre- 
ciated. Later in the same century the experiments of 
Currie on the action of complete or partial baths on the 



836 



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system in diieste attracted attention ; and though for- 
gotten for a while, they have borne abundant froit in 
moEe recent times. 

Modem Baths. — It is uncertain how far the Turkish 
and Egyptian and even the Russian l)aths are to be re- 
garded merely as successors of the Roman baths, be- 
cause the pnnciple of vapor baths has been known to 
many nations in a very early period of civilisation. 
Thus the Mexicans and Indians were found using small 
vapor baths. The ancient inhabitants of Ireland and 
of Scotland had some notion of their use, and the large 
yapor baths of Japan, now so extensively employed, are 
probably Sf indepnendent origin. 

Turkish baths have, with various modifications, be- 
come popular in Europe. The Russian baths were in- 
'i^oducea into most German towns about half a century 
«igo. They had a certain limited amount of i>opuIarity, 
but did not take firm root. Another class practically owes 
fts origin to Dr. Barter and Mr. Urquhart. It professed 
to be founded on the Turkish bath, but in reahty it was 
much more of a hot air bath, i.e.., more devoid of vapor 
than either Roman or Turkish baths ever were, for it is 
doubtful whether in any case the air of the kconicum 
was free from vapor. These baths, with their various 
modifications, have become extreme^ popular in Great 
Britain, in Germany, and in Northern Europe, but 
have, curiously enou^ never been used extensively in 
France, notwithstanmne the familiartty of the French 
with Turicish baths in Algiers. 

In England hot air baths are now employed very ex- 
tensively. They are often associated with Turkish and 
electric baths, and with the usual processes of hydro- 
pathic treatment. 

Bathing among the ancients, was practised in various 
forms. It was sometimes a simple bath in cold or in 
tepid water ; but at least, in the case of the higher orders, 
it usually included a hot air or vi^r bath, and was fol- 
lowed by affusion of cold or warm water, and generally 
by a plunge into the piscina. In like manner me order 
varies in which the different processes are gone through 
in Turkish baths in modem Europe. Thus in the new 
baths in Vienna, the process bec;ins by immersion in a 
large basin of warm water. Sudation is repeatedly in- 
terrupted by cold douches at the will of the bathers, and 
after the bath they are satisfied with a short stay in the 
cooling-room, where they have only a simple sheet 
rolled round them. In Copenhagen and in Stockholm 
Ihe Oriental baths have beai considerably modified by 
Iheir association with hydropathic practices. 

This leads us to notice the introduction of hydro- 
pathy. Although cold baths were in vogue for a time in 
Rome, warm baths were always more popular. Floyer, 
as we have seen, did somethmg to revive their use in 
England ; but it was nearly a century and a half after- 
wards that a Silesian peasant, Priessnitz, introduced 
with wonderful success, a variety of operations with 
cold water, the most important of which was the packing 
the patient in a wet sheet, a process which after a time 
is followed by a profuse sudation. Large establishments 
for carrying out this mode of bathing and its modifica- 
tions have within the last thirty jrears been erected in 
many places on the Continent and in Great Britain, and 
have enjoyed a large share of popularity. 

But the greatest and most important development of 
ordinary baths in modern times has taken place in Eng- 
land, and has been extending gradually to the Conti- 
nent. The English had long used afmsion and swim- 
ming baths freely in India. Cold and hot baths and 
^ower baths have been introduced into private houses 
to an extent never known before ; and from 1842 down- 
wards, public swimming baths, besides separate baths, 
have been supplied to the public at very moderate rates, 



and in some cases associated with wash houses ibr the 
poorer classes. Their number has increased rapidly in 
London and in the principal continental cities. Floating 
baths in rivers, always known in some German towns, 
have become common wherever there are flowing 
streams. The better supply of most European cities 
with water has aided in this movement Ample enclosed 
swimming baths have of late years been erected at many 
sea-side places. When required, the water, if not 
heated in a boiler, is raised to a sufficient temperature by 
the aid of hot water pipes or of steam ; and gas has been 
utilized for heating small quantities of water for baths in 
private houses. As to separate baths, they used to be 
of wood, painted; they are now most frequent^ of 
metal, painted or lined with porcelain enamel The 
swimming baths are lined with cement, tiles, or marble 
and porcelain slabs ; and in some of the newest baths a 
gooa deal of ornamentation and painting of the walls 
and ceiling of the apartments, in imitation of the an* 
dents, has been attempted. 

We have thus traced in outline the history of baths 
through successive ages down to the present trnie. The 
medium of the baths spoken of thus far has been water, 
vapor, or dry hot air. But baths of more complex 
nature, and of the greatest variety, have been in use 
from the earliest ages. The best known media are the 
various mineral waters and sea- water. These, and baths 
impregnated with their gases, cannot here be consid- 
ered in detail ; we can do little more than enumerate a 
few of the artificial baths. Of baths of mineral sub- 
stances, those of sand are the oklest and best known ; 
the practice of arenation or of burying the body in the 
sand of the seashore, or in heated sand near some hot 
spring, is very ancient, as also that of applying heated 
sand to various parts of the body. Within the last few 
years establishments have been introduced into various 
European cities where hot dry sand is methodically 
applied. Baths of peat earth are of comparatively 
recent origin, and are little used out of Germany. The 
peat earth is carefully prepared and pulverized, aiid then 
worked up with water mto a pasty consistence, of 
which the temperature can be regulated before the 
patient immerses himself in it. 

There are various baths that may be termed chemical, 
in which chlorine or nitromuriatic acid is added to the 
water of the bath, or where fimies of sulphur are made 
to rise and envelop the body. 

Of vegetable baths the number is very large. Leys of 
wine, in a state of fermentation, have been employed. 
An immense variety of aromatic herbs have been used 
to impregnate wrater with. Of late )rears fuci or sea- 
weed have been added to baths, under the idea of con- 
veying into the system the iodine which they contain; 
but by far the most popular of all vegetable baths are 
those made with an extract got by distilling certain 
varieties of pine leaves. They are pleasant and stimulating. 

The strangeness of the baths of animal substances, 
that have been at various times in use, is such that their 
employment seems scarcely credible. That baths of milk 
or of whey might not be unpopular is not surprising, but 
baths of blood, in some cases even of human blood, have 
been used. 

Electrical OT galrninic baths have been popular of late 
years, in which galvanic action is conununicated to the 
patient while in baths. 

Baths also of compressed air, in which the patient is 
subjected to the pressure of two or three atmospheres, 
have been in use at certain places for some years. 

A sun bath, exposing the body to the sun, the head 
being covered, was a favorite practice among the Greelu 
and Romans. This list of artificial baths mi^ be 
readily increased. ^ (^c^n\4> 

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837 



We have hitherto spoken of general baths, but there 
are many varieties of local ones, the use of which has 
become somewhat more definite than it used to be, 
before the principles of hydropathy were understood. 
Some of these are affusion, half-babh, full bath, sitz baths, 
wave baths, local baths, shower and spray baths, 
douches, fomentations, injections, wrapping up in the wet 
sheet. Some of these processes, though by no means 
of novel origin, require a few words of explanation. 

Douches were useii by the ancients, and have always 
been^ important mode of applying water to a circum- 
scribed portion of the body. Tney are, in fact, spouts 
of water, varying in size and temperature, applied with 
more or less force for a longer or shorter time against 
particular parts. A douche exercises a certain amount 
of friction, and a continued impulse on the spot to which 
it is applied, which stimulate the skin and the parts 
beneatn it, quicken the circulation of the capillaries, and 
thus favor the absorption of abnormal deposits. It 
wakes up the slumbering activity of the tissues and 
helps to remove congestions from the deeper seated 
organs. The effecjs of the douche are so powerful that 
it cannot be applied for a long time continuously. 
After every two or three minutes there should be an 
interval in its use. It is obvious that a douche is 
capable of many local applications, on the description of 
which it is here impossible to enter. Nor need we say 
that the douche must be used with gpreat care in the case 
of nervous and excitable people, and better not at all 
when any irritation or inflammation is present. Douches 
are invaluable in old neuralgias, in the sequelae of rheu- 
matism, and in thickened jomts. 

The alternation of hot and cold douches, which for 
some unknown reason has got the name of Ecossaise^ is 
a very powerful remedy from the strong action and 
reaction which it produces, and is one of very great 
value. The shower bath may be regarded as a union of 
an immense number of fine douches projected on the 
head and shoulders. It has been long in use in England, 
and produces a strong effect on the nervous system. 
An ingenious contrivance for giving circular spray baths, 
by which water is propelled laterally in fine streams 
against every portion of the sui£eu:e of the body, is now 
found in most establishments. 

To all these modes of acting on the cutaneous sur- 
face and circulation must be added dry rubbing, as prac- 
ticed by the patient with the flesh glove, but much more 
thoroughly by the bath attendants, if properly in- 
structed. 

Action of Baths on the Human System. — We shall 
jHow inquire shortly into the theory of the operation of 
the baths and of the bathing processes, of which we have 
briefly traced the history. 

The primary operation of baths is the action of heat 
and cold on the cutaneous surfaces through the medium 
of water. 

The first purpose of baths is simply that of abstersion 
and cleanliness, to remove any foreign impurity from 
the surface, and to prevent the pores from being clogged 
hy their own secretions or by desquamations of cuticle. 
It need scarcely be said thiat such objects are greatly 
promoted by the action of alkali of soaps and hy fric- 
tion; that trie use of warm water, owing to its imme- 
diate stimulation of the skin, promotes the separation of 
sordes ; and that the vapor of water is still more effi- 
cient than water itself. 

It has been supposed that water acts on the system 
by being absorbed through the skin. The question has 
"fen frequently discuss^ ; but the great majority of 
observers believe that, under ordinary circumstances, no 
J*ater is absorbed, or if any, so minute a quantity that 
K IS not worth considering. And further, as we have 



alluded to medicated baths, it is proper to say that, ac- 
cording to the latest authorities, no foreign bodies, 
under the ordinary circumstances of a bath, are ab- 
sorbed into the system ; although when a portion of 
skin has been entirely cleared of its sebaceous secretion, 
it IS possible that a strong solution of salts may be par- 
tially absorbed. In the case of medicated baths we 
therefore only look (in addition to the action of heat 
and cold, or more properly to the abstraction or com- 
munication and retention of heat) to any stimulant ac- 
tion on the skin which the ingredients ol the bath may 
possess. 

The powerful influence of water on the capillaries of 
the skin, and the mode and extent of that operation, de- 
pend primarily on the temperature of the nuid ; for the 
influence of the mechanical pressure on the body of the 
water of a bath, which has been calculated at nearly 
one pound on each square inch of the surface, has never 
been accurately determined. Baths have therefore to be 
considered according to their temperature ; and the ef- 
fects of cold and of hot baths have to be studied. But 
we may as well first point out one or two general facts. 
The human sjrstem bears changes of temperature of the 
air much better than changes of the temperature of 
water. While the temperature of the air at 75*^ is per- 
haps too warm for the feelings of many people, a con- 
tinued bath at that temperature is felt to be cold and 
depressing. Again, a bath at 98® to 102** acts far more 
excitingly than air of the same temperature, both be- 
cause, being a better conductor, water brings more heat 
to the body, and because it suppresses the perspiration, 
which is greatly augmented by air of that temperature. 
Further, a temperature a few degrees below blood heat 
is that of indifferent baths, which can be borne longest 
without natural disturbance of the system. 

Cold baths act by refrigeration, and their effects vary 
according to the degree of temperature. The effects of 
a cold bath, the temperature not being below 50^, are 
these: — there is a diminution of the temperature of the 
skin and of the subjacent tissues ; the blood at first rises 
in temperature nearly 4**, but soon subsides again, this 
diminution of temperature of the blood usually not tak- 
ing place in the bath, but shortly after leaving it. There 
is a certain feeling of shock difiiised over the whole 
surface, and if the cold is intense it induces a slight feel- 
ing of numbness in the skin. It becomes pale and its 
capillaries contract. The further action of cold bath 
reaches the central nervous system, "the heart and the 
lungs, as manifested by the tremor of the limbs it pro- 
duces, along with a certain degree of oppression of the 
chest and a gasping for air, while the pulse becomes 
small and sinks. After a time reaction talces place, and 
brings redness to the skin and an increase ot tempera- 
ture. 

The colder the water is, and the more powerful and 
depressing its effects, the quicker and more active is the 
reaction. Very cold baths, anything below 50°, cannot 
be borne long. Lowering of the temperature of the skin 
may be borne down to 9^, but a further, reduction may 
prove fatal. The diminution of temperature is much 
more rapid when the water is in motion, or when the 
bather moves about ; because, if the water is still, the 
layer of it in immediate contact with the body gets 
warmed to a certain degree. 

The effects of hydropathy depend on the power of 
abstracting heat from the body, and of stimulating it by 
the application of cold water. The action b depressing 
or exciting, according as the withdrawal of heat or the 
stimulation predominates. 

A great deal depends on the form of the bath ; thus 
one may have — ( i.) Its depressing operation, — with a 
loss of neat, retardation of tne circulation, and feeling of 



«38 



BAT 



weariness, when the same water remains in contact 
with the skin, and there is continuous withdrawal of heat 
without £resh stimulation. This occurs with full or sitz 
baths, with partial or complete wrapping up the bod^ in 
a wet sheet which remains unchanged, and with frictions 
practiced without removing the wet sheets. (2.) Its 
exciting operation, — with quickening of the action of the 
heart imd lungs, and feeling of glow and of nervous ex- 
citement and of increased muscular power. These sen- 
sations are produced when the layer of water next the 
body and heated by it is removed, and fresh cold water 
causes fresh stimulus. These effecu are produced by 
full baths with the water in motion used only for a short 
time, by frictions when the wet sheet is removed from 
the bomr, by douches, shower baths, bathing in rivers, 
&c. The depressing operation comes on much earlier in 
very cold water than in warmer ; and in the same way 
the exciting operation comes on faster with the colder 
than with the warmer water. The short duration of the 
bath makes both its depressing and its exciting action less; 
its longer duration increases them ; and if the baths be 
continued too long, the protracted abstraction of animal 
heat may prove very depressing. 

We shall not attempt to give more than those few 
hints about hydropathic processes, and shall merely 
remark that, under them the system is subjected to 
alternate periods of excitement and of rest. There is 
persistent lowering of the temperature of the body, with 
contraction of the capillaries and local anaemia. This is 
succeeded by the reverse, or by local hjrpersemia. There 
is powerful excitement of the vascular and nervous 
systems. The processes of absorption and of excretion 
are stimulated. There is a great increase of perspira- 
tion. The transformation ottissue is materially quick- 
ened. 

We must next consider the operation of warm baths 
of different temperatures. 

Tepid, 850 to 05O — The effects of a bath of thb tem- 
perature are confined to the peripheral extremities of the 
nerves, and are so slight that they do not reach the cen- 
tral system. There is no reaction, and the animal tem- 
perature remains unchanged. Baths of this kind can be 
borne for hours with impunity. 

Warm baths from o6<*/tf 104°.— In these the action of 
the heat on the peripheral surface is propagated to the 
central S3rstem, and causes reaction, which manifests itself 
in moderately increased flow of the circulating fluids to 
the surface, and ih an increased frequency of pulse. It 
appears to supply a slight stimulus to the renewal of 
tissue. 

With a hot bath from 102° up to no° the central 
nervous and circulating systems are more affected. The 
frequency of the pulse increases rapkily, the respiration 
becomes quickened, and is interrupted by deep inspira- 
tions. The skin is congested, ana the retain^ animal 
heat bursts out, causing a profuse perspiration. 

Very hot bath — Everything above 110° feels very 
hot; anything above 120° almost scalding. Baths of 
from 1 19° to 126° have caused a rise of 2^ to 4^^ in 
the temperature of the blood. Such a bath can only be 
borne for a few minutes. It causes violent reflex action 
on the heart and the arterial system, excessive conges- 
tion of the skin, and violent perspiration. 

In the use of hut baths a certain amount of vapor 
reaches the parts of the body not covered by the water, 
and is also inhaled. 

Vapor baths produce profuse perspiration, and act in 
cleansing the skin, as powerful hot water baths do. 
Vapor, owing to its smaller specific heat, does not act 
so fast as water on the body. A vapor bath can be 
borne for a much longer time when the vapor is not 
inhaled. Vapor baths can be borne hotter than water 



baths, but cannot be continued so long, a vapor, being 
a bad conductor, prevents^ radiation of heat from the 
body. A higher heat than 122^ is not borne comforta- 
bly. The vapor bath, though falling considerably short 
of the temperature of the lK>t air bath, heats the blood 
conskierably more. 

Hot air baths differ from vapor baths in not impeding 
the respiration as the latter do, bj depositing moisture 
in the bronchial tubes. The lungs, instead of having to 
heat the inspired air, are subjected to a temperature 
above their own. Hot air baths, say of IBS'", produce 
more profuse perspiration than vapor batns. If 'very 
hot, they raise the temperature of the body by several 
degrees. 

Vapor baths, hot air baths, and many hydropathic 
processes agree in producing violent sudation, and also 
frequently in subjecting the body, while in a state of per- 
spiration, to the action of vrater of a comparatively low 
temperature. Of perspiration we shall only say, that 
it is sensible and insensible : 30 os. may be considered 
to be about its average amount m the twenty-four hours ; 
of this, whidi is chiefly water, about >^ of an oz. con- 
sists of urea and of other peculiar substances. A man 
has been known to lose 3 pounds in a Russian bath ; 
some think more may be lost. As perspiration elimi- 
nates water and effete matter from the system, and also 
akls in respiration, it is obvious that its r^ulation most 
have an important effect on the economy. 

In comparing the general effects of hot and cold 
baths, it may be said that while the former tend to 
check cutaneous transpiration, the latter favor it It is 
supposed, but is scarcely proved, that cold baths, by 
the stimulus they give, increase the reaction of the 
gastric and other flmds of the stomach, and of the ali- 
mentary canal, and that warm baths rather serve to 
retard it. Either hot or cold baths, but especially the 
latter, favor the secretion of urine. Whether warm or 
cold baths, like the breathing of hot or cokl air, have 
any effect on the exhalation of carbonic acid has not 
been determined. 

The warm bath causes swelling and congestion of 
the capillaries of the surfisu^e in the nrst instance; when 
the stimulus of heat is withdrawn their contraction 
ensues. A cold bath, again, first causes a contraction 
of the capillaries of the surface, which is followed bv 
their expansion when reaction sets in. A warm bath 
elevates the temperature of the body, both by bringing 
a supply of heat to it and by preventmg the radiation cm 
heat from it. It can be borae longer than a cold bath. 
It draws blood to the surface, while a cold bath favors 
internal congestions. There is in both cases increased 
oxidation or waste of the tissues ; but with the warm 
bath there is less call made on the system, as oxidation 
depends chiefly on Increased heat, which in the case of 
the warm baths k artificially supplied. The reason 
why a man when much exhausted feels a hot bath re- 
freshing, while he cannot bear a cold one, may be 
that the increased heat conveyed to him by the warm 
bath helps the process of oxioation, and thus relieves 
his system. Cold refreshes by exciting the functions, 
heat by physically relieving their action ; a hot bath 
calms by reducing the loss of heat, and by supplyii^a 
certain amount of it. Very hot baths, it is true, act 
like cold baths, as stimulants to the heart and nervous 
centres ; but they do it more gradually and with leK 
shock to the sysftm than cold baths. The general re* 
suit of this comparison would show that warm are a 
milder remedy than cold baths, and are applicable often 
when the system does not possess power of reactxoa 
sufficient to make the use of the latter expedient* 

As regards the use of baths simply for the ] 



of health, it follows, from wha(<«as^been^state4» jAff^ 



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839 



wann baths are best snited for the delicate, for the very 
3roiing, and for the old; cold baths for the strong and 
active, in >vhom the powers of reaction are unimpaired. 
It would be out of place to say much here about the use 
of baths in medicine. Warm baths according to their 
degree of heat are of great value in relaxing spasms, in 
calming the nervous system, and in neuralgias, chronic 
rheumatisin, and gout Turkish baths are useful in 
these last affections, and wherever it is of importance 
that there should be free action of the skin. Cold baths, 
again, are more useful when the system requires tonics, 
and when it can bear the shock of coM aflusion ; when 
diseases of the system, especially of the nervous system, 
are more functional than organic. It is obvious that 
the cold- water cure, including, as it does, copious suda- 
tion, combines i^ a certain degree the effects of both 
kinds of baths. 

But baths often produce injurious effects when used 
injudiciously. Long continuea warm baths are soporific, 
and have. owing to this action often caused death by 
drowning. The effects of very hot baths are swimming 
in the head, vomiting, fainting, congestion of the brain, 
and, in some instances, apoplexy. 

The symptoms seem to point to paralysis of the action 
of the heart. It is therefore very evident how cautious 
those should be, in the use of hot baths, who have weak 
hearts or any obstruction to the circulation. Fat men, 
and those who are full-blooded or predisp>osed to 
epilepsy, should avoid them. Protractea indulgence in 
warm baths is relaxing, and has been esteemed a sign of 
effeminacy in all ages. Sleepiness, thoue^h it will not 
follow the first immersion in a cold batn, is one of the 
effects of protracted cold baths ; depression of the tem- 
perature of the surface that exceeds 9° becomes danger- 
ous. The risk in cold baths is congestion of the internal 
organs, as oflen indicated by the lips getting blue. 
Extremely coki baths are, therefore, very unsafe wher- 
ever there is a tendency to internal congestion ; and they 
are always dangerous when the system is exhausted by 
fatigue. 

» We shall conclude with a few words of advice about 
ordinary bathing for hygienic purposes: — Whenever it 
is practicable, bathing should be over before i p.m. 
It is not to be thought of when the stomach is loaded, 
or after much wine. The shorter the tmth is, especially 
if the water be cold, and the bather cannot swim, 
the better, — say five minutes. He should swim if pos- 
sible, and then a quarter of an hour is long enough. 
Bathing should not be practiced more than once a day. 
When one is over-heated, but not exhausted, it Is ad- 
visable to bathe at once, without waiting to cool. 
After hot air or vapor baths care must be taken that 
cold be not caught, although the more enthusiastic ad- 
vocates of such baths declare that there is no risk of 
this. 

BATHURST, a town of New South Wales, on the 
Macquarie River, 122 miles W.S.W. of Sydney, with 
"Which it IS connected by railway. 

BATHURST, Allen Bathurst, Earlof, adis- 
tmguished statesman in Queen Anne's reign, was bom 
y the year 1684. He died after a few days* illness, at 
his seat near Cirencester, September 16, \i77s, in the 
Wnety-first year of his age. 

BATHURST, Ralph, uncle of the preceding, was 
born m the year 162a He died June 24, 1704, in his 
eighty-fourth year. 

BATHYCLES, a Greek sculptor, bom at Magnesia 
on the Maeander, known for nis sculptures on the 
wone of the statue of Apollo at Amyclie near Sparta, 
Jhich Pausaniaa saw and describes (iii. 18, 6). His 
^t« is uncertain, bat Mnnot well be later than between 
5^3-549 B.C. 



BATON-ROUGE, a town in the state of Louisiana, 
North America, situated on a bluff on the left bank of 
the Mississippi, 120 miles above New Orleans. It has 
a court house, state penitentiary, national arsenal and 
barracks, military hospital, deaf and dumb asylum, and 
state university. Baton- Rouge was one of the first 
settlements of the French. In 1849 it was the State cap- 
ital, and has recently superseded New Orleans as the seat 
of government. Occupied by the Federal troops after the 
capture of that citv, it was defended in 1862 by General 
Williams against tne attack of the Confederates under 
Breckinridge. 

BATOm, PoMPEo Girolamo, a native of Lucca, 
who was regarded in Italy as a great painter in the i8ih 
century, and who unquestionably did much to rescue 
the art from the intense mannerism into which it had 
fallen during the century preceding. He was bom in 
1708, and died at Rome in 1787. 
BATRACHIA. See Amphibia, voL i. p. 750. 
BATRACHUS, according to Pliny, the name of a 
Greek architect who, along with Sauras (both natives of 
Sparta), was employed by Metellus in the construction 
of certain temples in Rome. 

BATTALI6N is the tactical unit of infantry. It is 
the term applied to the most numerous body of dis- 
mounted men which one commanding officer can per- 
sonally superintend. It consists of from four to ten 
companies, is always commanded by a field officer, and 
has a normal war strength of about 1000 men. Two 
or more battalions constitute a regiment ; two or more 
regiments a brigade ; two or more brigades a division ; 
two or more divisions a corps d^armie; and two or 
more corps d ^armie an army. See ARMY. . 

B ATT AS, a people in the northern portion of Suma- 
tra, which regards itself as the oldest in the island, and 
is distinguished by a pertinacious adherence to ancient 
customs. The Batta is of middle height, his color b a 
light brown, and his hair is black and is worn lone. He 
is dirty in his dress and dwelling, and eats any kind of 
food that presents itself, though he lives chiefly on rice. 
Cannibalbm is practiced. 

Batta or Batak Language. — Up to the publication of 
Dr. H. N. van der Tuuk's essay Ovcur schrift en uit* 
spraak der Tobascke taal (1855), the first fruits of an 
eight years' residence amongst the Battas, our knowl- 
ec^ of the Batak language was confined to lists of 
words more or less complete, chiefly to be found in 
Marsden's Miscellaneous Works, By his exhaustive 
works that eminent Dutch savant has made the Batak 
lanc^age the most accessible of the various tongues 
spoken in Sumatra. According to him the BataJc 
language is nearest akin to the Old Japanese and Tagal, 
whereas a recent writer has endeavored to prove its 
closer affinity with the Malay proper. Like most 
languages spoken by less civilized tribes, the Batak is 
poor in general terms, but abounds in terms for special 
objects. 

BATTERING RAM {Aries\ a military engine used 
before the invention of gunpowder, for beating down 
the walls of besieged lortresses. 

BATTERY is the Uctical unit of artillery. It is the 
term applied to the largest number of fully equipped 
mobile guns which can 1^ personally superintended by 
one man. Batteries may be divided into four classes of 
horse, fields mountain, and position artillery batteries. 
In England, France, and Germany batteries consist of 
six guns ; in Austria and Russia of eight guns each. 
The guns of horse fieH artillery are drawn by from four 
to eight horses, the usual number being six. Each bat- 
tery nas a certain number of men told off for the service 
of the gun called gunners, and others to manage the 
draught called drivers. In the horse artillery the gun- 



840 



BAT 



ncrs are mounted on howtt, in field batteries they arc 
carried on the limbers and wagons, in mountain and 

S^sition batteries both ^nners and drivers usually walk, 
olh horse and field batteries are recognized tactical 
units of an army, and are maintained in an efficient state 
in time of peace. Position batteries are organized gen- 
erally in time of war, are possessed of the heaviest guns 
consistent with mobility, and are useful in certain special 
«ises, such as the attack or defence of a fortified posi- 
tion, the bombardment of a town, &c. Mountain bat- 
rerics consist usually of light guns mounted on the backs 
of mules, and are adapted solely for warfare in the 
mountainous countries. See Artillery. 

liATTERY, as a law term, is the unlawful beating 
of another. See Assault. 

BATTEAUX, Charles, a French writer on philoso- 
phy and the principals of literature, was bom near Vou* 
xiers in 1713, and died in 1780. 

BATTICALOA, the chief town of a district in the 
Eastern Province of Ceylon, situated on an island It 
is of importance for its haven and the adjacent salt 
lagoons. 

BATTLE, an engagement Between two armies, as 
distmguished from the skirmishes, or minor actions, 
fought between their smaller sections. A battle is said 
to be general, where the whole, or the greater part, of 
each army is brought into action ; and partial, where 
only brigades, divisions, or some corps a'arm^ out of 
several upon the ground, are engaged. However the 
numbers may vary, the great principles to be applied in 
delivering battle are at root in all ages the same. It is 
no doubt true that, in the circumstances under which 
battles are- fought, there is nothing invariable ; on the 
contrary, it is scarcely possible to suppose two cases 
alike in every particular, or even resembling each other 
in all their leading features. From the very nature of 
things, the minor data of the problem are variable ; but 
the grand principles — those which depend on moral 
elements — continue immutably the same. On the 
other hand, the material elements which enter into the 
calculations of a general are constandy changing ; and 
it is this circumstance which affords scope for the ex- 
ercise of his genius, his sagacity, and his military 
science. But it wovld be manifestly absurd to maintain 
that, because the lesser conditions are so frequently 
altered, the great principles of the art are changeSd witn 
them. The issue of a battle is indeed always uncertain, 
— because the calculations of the p;eneral may be de- 
fective, his combinations unscientific, his foresight 
limited, or his temperament rash and impetuous ; and 
because, even where none of these causes of failure 
exist, events which no human sagacity could have di- 
vined or provided against may occur to defeat the wisest 
plans. But all this implies that if every contingency 
could have been foreseen and properly met, the result 
would not have been doubtful, and that the grand 
chances are alwa.ys on the side of him who, being pro- 
vided with sufficient means for his end, forms his plan 
with the greatest sagacity, and executes it with 
corresponding vigor and ability. For, variable as 
the results of battles appear, decisive success has in 
all ages followed the combinations of great com- 
manders ; and victory in the long-run has seldom 
failed to pay homage to science. And this is be- 
cause those principles which science has established as 
xmiversally applicable depend on certain fixed laws in 
human nature, which ages have not changed since his- 
tory was first written. The undisciplined forces, for 
example, are easily shaken by panic arising out of any 
inch sudden disaster as the fall of their general, was as 
true in the day when Ahab, for this reason, disguised 
himself at Ramoth-Gilead as it is now. That infantry, 



thoroughly broken tro and exposed on open grotmd, my 
be taken or destroyed by a very inferior number of cav- 
alry, was illustrated no less by Hannibal at Cannae than 
by Murat's charge round the allied right at Dresden. 
The feeling that there was no safe retreat open in case 
of disaster was as fatal to the Persians at Marathon as 
to the French at Leipsic. The crashing effect of heavy 
columns pressing against a line (which, as only the outer 
part of the column can act, is purely moral) was quite 
as conspicuous in the victory of Epaminondas at Man- 
tinea as when Napoleon cut his enemy's centre through 
at Austerlitz. Above all, military history, froro the 
earliest times, proves two facts of prime importance to 
commanders in every action : the one, that the best 
troops become unsteady when their flank is gained, just 
as a single man in a stru^le desires to face fairly the 
adversary about to rush oxinim ; the other, that a com- 
paratively small body coming fresh into action with 
troops exhausted by the exertions and nervous tension 
of a battle, has an advantage over much larger numbers. 
And being thus fixed, these principles obviously yield 
certain general rules, to which every prudent commander 
of any age strives to conform. Circumstances majlead 
him to violate them, but the examples of Leipsic and 
Waterloo are there to prove that, even with the great- 
est of generals, the result may be ruinous. In the first 
case, the French were forced to fight with their backs 
to a river ; in the second, by a combination they were 
not prepared, for their flank was struck by the Prussians 
when they were fully engaged with Wellington in 
front ; and total defeat ensued m both. 

A battle is not only the most imposing, but also the 
most important event in war. It is the consummation 
to which all previous combinations necessarily tend ; it 
is that grand act which mav decide the fate of empires as 
well as armies. The highest and dearest interests of 
nations, nay, even of humanity itself, msij be involved 
in its issue. It cannot, therefore, be uninstractive to 
look briefly at the theory of those received principles by 
the skilful application of which the fete of^ battles has 
in all ages oeen determined. 

All tne methods in which a battle jcan be fought m^ 
be reduced to three for abstract purposes, each governed 
by a distinct principle. The first, the pureljr aefensive, 
consists in waiting for the enemy, in a position chosen 
for the purpose, tne object being ^"^E![7 ^^ ^^ main- 
taining it successfully against him. Theorists almost 
universally condemn this, and that with good apparent 
reason ; for there is something peculiarly trying to the 
moral endurance of even the l^st troops in feeling that 
they are pinned to one spot to await me assaults of the 
enemy without any prospect of retaliation. But the 
rule is not without exceptions, as is plainly proved by 
comparing the two gr^t examples of purely defensive 
actions foudit during the campaigns of 1S62-65 in 
America, — Frederick«)urg and Gettysburg. The de- 
fender in each case was perfectly successful, beating off 
his assailant with tremendous loss ; but the results were 
very opposite. Lee's victory at Fredericksburg stopped, 
indeed, the advance upon Richmond for the time, but 
did not seriously affect the course of the war. Meade, 
on the other hand, by beating the Confederates off at 
Gettysburg, completely turned the tide of the campaign, 
and compelled Lee to abandon all idea of invading the 
North and commence adifficult retreat to Virginia ; while 
thenceforth Washington was saved from all danger of be- 
ing separated from the states that supported tne union. 
This was because the position maintained at Fredericks* 
burg was no more than one point on a single line of ad- 
vance direct upon Richmond, whereas that of Gettysburg 
was so completely the key to the whole of the oampaigli 
of Maryland, that, whilst it was heldb^ Meade^it wi 

gitizedbyLiOOgle 



BAT 



841 



possible for Lee to advance be^nd it or any part of the 
north-eastern states. The faihire to carry it therefore 
paralyzed the whole scheme of the Confederates for 
transferring the burden of the struggle to hostile soil. 
And from a compsuison of the varying conseqaences of 
these actions, so similar in their course, it wul be seen 
that the defensive battle is justified only when the posi- 
tion to be maintained is one of vital consequence for the 
enemy to seize in order to carry on further operations 
with success. Lee has been fairly condemnea by even 
friendly critics for not turning his defensive attitude at 
Fredericksburg into an offensive on the repulse of the 
enemy's attack. No one blames Meade for the like con- 
duct at Gettysbui-g, because his holding Iiis ground fully 
accomplished all that it was necessary for him to do. 
But sach an instance as this last, it should be added, 
can but rarely occur. 

The second system is the entirely offensive, — in plain 
words, the attacking the enemy wherever found, with 
all force available. As it carries with it the moral 
power which in all ages is found to accompany, until 
some decided check occurs, bodies of disciplined mert 
moving freely forward to the assault, and as it gives the 
leader the power of dioosing the weaker points of his ad- 
versary's hne on which to concentrate his blows, so it 
has ever been the favorite with bold and skilful generals 
leading good troops. Frederick and Napoleon alike 
preferred it, and won some of their chiefest victories by 
using it freely. Wellington employed it with marked 
success in the latest phases of the Peninsular War in 
1813-14. Grant adopted it avowedly in his great stnig- 
ele with Lee in Virginia in 1864. And the Prussians 
fought on this principle throughout the two great wars 
of 1866 and 1870-71. History, however, shows that it 
is only fully justified when the attacking general has a 
force decidedly superior either in numbers or in moral 
power ; or when, as in the famous case of Frederick at 
Leuthen, he possesses such extraordinary skill in man- 
oeuvering as to give him all the advantages of long odds, 
although engaged against superior numbers. It has the 
serious defect that if the defence prove more successful 
than was expected, the assailant may have to bring up 
successively and exhaust all his forces, and thus leave 
himself without any reserve to meet a sudden onset from 
the opposite side. In such case defeat probably entails 
the complete wreck of the hitherto offensive army, and 
with it possibly the loss of the campaign. 

It is for thii reason that prudent commanders are 
wont, where the choice lies with them, to select the 
third mode, the defensive-offensive, or a combination of 
the two preceding. This consists. in taking up a posi- 
tion with the design of awaiting the adversary's attack 
on it, but also of watching the opportunity afforded by 
the exhaustion of his army in its assaults, or by his ex- 
tendmg it too widely in choosing the best points from 
^nich to make them, in order to pass suddenly to the 
oflfensive. Wellington is justly famous for the success 
^Wi which he employed this form of action. But it is 
one of the highest tests of generalship to know exactly 
when most fitly to use either. And as Napoleon won 
three at least of his most striking victories,— Marengo, 
Ansterlitz, ^d Dresden, — by passing at the right 
"Jpment suddenly from an apparently passive attitude 
of defence to a vigorious offensive, so Wellington, after 
JH the workl had come to r^ard him as great only on 
ge defensive used the strictly offensive form, with the 
««e success, at Vitoria, Orthez, and Toulouse, the last 
Jf these three actions being one of such apparent temer- 
ity as can hardly be paralleled in modem history, and 
^tperfectlv -justified by his instmctive knowledge of the 
32J^iz«i «tate of the enemy whose position he un- 
itttocA to force. Marlboroueh. who as a fighter of 



great battles has never been surpassed, and who, like 
Wellington, led a mixed army of English and allies, 
appears to have always had a decided preference for the 
offensive ; — so little does nationality supply any just rule 
for selecting either. Marlborough's choice, in all prob- 
ability, was adopted from the coniparatively passive 
attitude of his various adversaries at Blenheim, Kamil- 
lies, and Malplaauet, which tempted a bold offensive on 
his part. Lee, though certainly addicted to the strictly 
defensive, which was suited to his inferiority of num- 
bers and to the strong nature of the ground he usually 
occupied, had the true instinct (as was especially shown 
in his great victory at Chancellorsville) of seizing anv 
special opportunity offered by the carelessness of an ad- 
yersary who brought against him apparently overwhelm- 
ing forces. And in the late war, although the German 
generals elsewhere continually took that bold offensive 
which was justified at first by superior numbers, and 
later by the increasingly high spirits of their troops, 
yet in the most important and bloodiest action of the 
whole. Mars-la -Tour, they were content, after it had 
been well begun by their own attack, to pass to the 
completely defensive, — it being evident that by merely 
maintaining the position they had taken up across the 
French line of retreat from Metz, all the immediate ad- 
vantage possible from victory would be won. 

On the whole, therefore, it may be affirmed that no 
theory is sound which prescribes or forbids the use of 
any of the three methods, or lays down strict rules for 
the application of any of them. Defence is, however, 
the natural attitude of the weaker party, as Clausewitz, 
the greatest of all theoretical writers on war, has care- 
fully pointed out under what conditions it is to be 
accepted, or how long adhered to when once assumed, 
are problems which it requires true genius to grapple 
with successfully ; for they can only be solved rigntly 
according to the circumstances of the hour, perhaps 
of the moment. To see a crucial instance illustrated by 
a failure, we may look at Gravelotte. There Bazaine 
was forced by the case to fight on the defensive. An 
opportunity occurred in the day, on the decided repulse 
of the German right- win^ under Steinmetz, of strikins^ 
such a counterblow as, from Napoleon's hand, would 
probably have forced a victory over even the great odds 
possessed by the German commander. But Bazaine 
nad no spark of the instinctive genius needed. He lost 
the opportunity, and with it the battle, — the loss entail- 
ing the last hope of rescuing his host from the dangerous 
and indeed ignominious position in which previous errors 
of judgment had placed it. 

In conclusion, in order to demonstrate the undying 
truth of the main principle of battle, which is that, the 
the genera] conditions being equal, the moral advantage 
is invariably at the outset with the offensive rather than 
the defensive, — with the army that feels itself moving 
forward rather than that which stands still, — it is well 
to refer to the recent discussion on the effect of breech- 
loading arms. It was almost universally assumed by 
theorists, especially by those of Prussia herself, when 
she first put the needle-gun into her soldiers' hands, 
that the power of the new weapK>n would be most per- 
ceptible m defense, for which its more rapid fire seemed 
so specially adapted. The Prussian instructions, drawn 
up oefore 1866, avowedly followed this view. Those 
wno compiled them overlooked the fact that the moral 
power of the weapon would of itself tend to carry those 
who bore it forward, and add an additional advantage 
to those the assailant had before in his greater show of 
vigor and activity, and his power of searching out the 
weaker parts of his enemy's position and throwing his 
troops in force upon them. History has reversed the 
Prtttsian theorv. and nroved afresh how nowerful for 



84: 



BAT— B AU 



victory is the moral ektuent to the soldtert* character. 
For, out of the opening events of 1866, and the vast 
encouragement the Prussians experienced in their first 
collisions with Benedek's army, has been evolved the 
most audacioos and aggressive series of actions any 
nation ever fooght Certain Prussian writers have 
since the war of 1870-71 gone almost to the opposite 
extreme, and claimed absolute superiority for the offen- 
sive under all drcnmstances, forgetting that, against a 
stronger army, or even one perfectly equal in all other 
respects and well posted, it must inevitably be as danger- 
ous as it proved when confidently tried oy Napoleon's 
marshals a^nst British troops under Wellington. 

The various so-called " orders of battle ** of which 
theoretical writers treat, believing that they see a close 
similarity in the dispositions of well-led armies from the 
days of the Grecians down to our own, are, so far as 
such similarity really exists, founded entirely on one or 
other of the moral elements already mentioned, above 
all, on the desire to gain the enemy's flank. The late 
General Winfield Scott, one of the few commanders who 
<x>uld boast that he had more than once seen the back 
of English infantry in fair fight, declared that this desire 
is so instinctive that it is impossible to array two bodies 
of disciplined troops against each other witnout one at 
least soon striving for this advantage. But so far as this 
and other like universal principles are applied to the 
actual drawing up of an army at any perioa in a special 
order of battle, tne arrangements must in practice vary 
with the arms and discipline. This subject, in fact, 
forms part of that special art which treats of the handling 
of troops in the presence of the enemy, and falls under 
the head of "tactics," for which see the article War 

BATTLE CREEK, a growing town of Michigan, 
situated in Calhoun County. Its population at present 
(1800) numbers about ii,ooa 

BATTLE, a market-town in the county of Sussex, on 
the South- Eaistem Railway, 56 miles from London. 

BATTUS, the founder of the Greek colony of ^'yrene 
in Libya, whither he had been directed by tne oracle at 
Delphi (about 650 B. c. ). The Greeks who accompanied 
liim were, like himself, natifes of Thera (Santorin), and 
partly descended from the race of the Minyse. 

BATU, a thickly-wooded island lying off the north- 
western coast of Sumatra, 40 miles in length by 10 in 
average breadth, almost immediately under the equinoc- 
tial line. 

BATUM, a seaport town of Asiatic Turkey, in the 
pashalic of Trebizond, and 1 10 miles N. E. of the city of 
that name. It is situated on the Black Sea, not far from 
the mouth of the Chorak, and the harbor is the safest 
and most important on the eastern coast. The popula- 
tion does not exceed 2000. 

BAUDELAIRE, Charles, who would have been 
pleased to be considered as a master in the French 
oatanic school of poetry, was bom at Paris in April 
1821, and died in 1867 at the age of forty-six. He will 
possibly be best remembered for his translation of the 
works of Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most accurate 
and brilliant translations in literature. The impression 
left on the reader by Baudelaire's life and industry is 
rather a painful one. It is difficult to be blind to the 
fact that ne lived for notoriety, and that he preferred to 
gain notoriety by a distinguished activity in the least 
wholesome fields of letters. His poems represent the 
high-water mark of the tide of Romanticism ; and it 
may be hoped that the taste for lepers and corpses in 
poetry will now gradually decline. The best edition of 
nis works, prose and verse, is that published by Michel 
Levy, Pans. Some of his suppressed poems were 
printed in Brussels, under the title Les ^paves. 

BAUHIN, Gaspard, the son of an eminent French 



phyncian, who had to leave his native country on bd 
coming a convert to Protestantism, was bom at Basel in 
in 1560. In 1582 he was appointed to the Greek pro- 
fessorship in tliie university of that city, and in 1 585 to 
the chair of anatomy and botany. He was afterwards 
made city phjrsician, professor of the practice ofnaedidne, 
rector of the university, and dean of his (acuity. He 
published several works relative to botany, of wmch the 
most valuable is his Pinax Theatri Botanici. The con- 
fusion that b^n to rise at this time from botanical 
writers describmg the same plant under different names 
rendered such a task hig^y necessary ; and though there 
are many defects in the execution, the Pinax of Bauhin 
is still a useful key to all the writers before his time. 
He died in 1624. 

BAUHIN, Jean, brother of the above, was bom at ' 
Basel in 1541. He studied at Tiibingen under the cde- 
brated botanist Fuchs, and afterwards travelled with 
Conrad Gesner, and collected plants in the Alps, in 
France, and in Italy. His great work on plants was 
not completed at his death, which happened in 16 x 3. A 
society at Yverdun published in 1619 t^^" Prodromus;" 
but it was not till 1650 and 165 1 that the work itself 
appeared. It was long considered a standard work, and, 
with all its defects, it entitles its author to a high place 
among the founders of botanical science. 

BAUM£, Antoine, a French chemist, distinguished 
for his success in the practical iqsplication of the science, 
was bom at Senlis in 1728. 

BAUMGARTEN, Alexander Gottlieb, a German 
philosopher, bom at Berlin in 1714. He studied at 
Halle, and afterwards became profinsor of philosophy at 
Frankfort on the Oder, in which city he died in the year 
1762. He was a disciple of Leibnitz and Wolff, and 
was particularly distinguished for his sesthetical specula- 
tions, having been the first to develop and establish the 
Theory of the Beautiful as an independent science. 

BAUMGARTEN CRUSIUS, Ludwig Friedrich 
Otto, a distinguished German Uieologian, was bom in 
July 1788 at Merseburg. In 1805 he entered the 
university of Leipsic, and studied theology and {^lil- 
osophy. In 1 81 2 he was appointed extraordinary 
professor of theolo^ at Jena, where he remained to the 
end of his life, rising gradually to the head of the 
theological faculty. In the midst of his labors as 
professor and author, he was struck down with apoplexy, 
and died on the 31st May, 1843. 

BAUR, Ferdinand Christian, the distinguished 
leader of the Modern Tubingen School of Theology, 
was bom in the neighborhood of Cannstadt on the 21st 
June 1792. The son of a Wiirtemberg pastor he en- 
tered, at the age of thirteen, the well-known seminary 
at Biaubeuren, to which his father had some years 
before been transferred as a deacon. Thence he passed, 
in the year 1809, to the university at Tiibingen. Solid 
and somewhat reserved in character, he was indefatiga- 
ble in his studies, but did not come prominently to me 
front till near the close of his acaaemic career. His 
intellectual development proceeded slowly from step to 
step. For a time he was attracted ana conskierably 
influenced by the study of Ben^l, the great head of the 
preceding orthodox scnool, which had givA Tiibingen 
Its reputation in the 19th century. Both Beneel him- 
self in his noble personality, and the historical character 
of his critical labors on the New Testament, remarkable 
for their time, had a charm for the youthful student of 
the 19th century. With historical mterest Baur com- 
bined a special interest in the philosophy of religion, 
but as yet without betraying any opposition to the 
supernatural stand-point of'^the older theology. 

In 181 7 he was called as professor to Slaubenreii, 
which he had left as a pupil eight years before. Tlietft 



B A U 



843 



appeared his Symholik und Mythologies in 1824. This 
was his first elaborate work, the prectirsor of all his 
special studies in religions history and the development 
of religious thought. 

This publication drew attention to Baur's marked 
abilities, and, on a vacancj occnrrine; in the theological 
faculty at Tiibingen, he was promoted after some hesita- 
tion to the chair of histori<^ theology in that famous 
university, destined from his labors to acquire a yet 
more notable reputation. This took place in 1826 ; and 
for thirty-four jwars Baur's life was passed at Tiibingen 
in an unceasing found of academic work, — while his 
name continued to gather from his successive writings 
an increasing lustre and influem:e. All accounts agree 
in testifying to his marvellous industry and unceasing toil 
of research, his conscientiousness and self-sacrifice as a 
teacher, and the unobtrusive enthusiasm and dignity 
with which he discharged all the dunes entrust^ to 
him, not only as a professor, but as for some time the 
head of the Stift, or college of residence for the Prot- 
estant divinity students. 

Baur at first, like almost all his contemporaries, owned 
the influence of Schleiermacher. The dlaubenslehre of 
the latter which appeared in 182 1, is said to have affected 
him deeply, and moukled his thought for some time. 
But there was too little affinity betwixt the men, — the 
one mystic and spiritual, the other intellectual and ob- 
jective, — to permit this -influence to be permanent. 
From Schleiermacher Baur passed to Hegel, whose com- 
manding genius laid its spell upon him as upon others. 
It was not, however, till nearly ten years after his set- 
tlement at Tiibineen that his theological views under- 
went a decided change, and that the special tendency 
known as that of the Modern Tiibingen School was 
fully developed. 

The second and distinctive period of his intellectual 
flevelopment is dated from the year 1835, when 
Strauss's Leben ^esu appeared, and spread commotion 
in the .theological mind of Germany. In the same year 
Baur published his great work on Gnosticism, in which 
he had obviously quite passed beyond the influence of 
Schleiermacher. A brief work on the So-called Pas- 
toral Epistles in the same year showed him at work in 
an independent critical direction, and ready to take a 
new start in thac^ogical inquiry. This start, or at least 
the lengths to which it cawried him, have been by many 
attributed to the effect of Strauss's work. But he has 
himself plainly denied this, and claimed an independ- 
ent origin for his own speculations. " I had begun," 
he ^y%{/Circhen^eschichte des 19 Jahrkunderts^ 395), 
" my critical inquiries long before Strauss, and set out 
from an entirely different point of view. Nfy study of 
the two epistles to the Corinthians led me first to seize 
clearly the relation of the apostle Paul to the other 
apostles. I was convinced that in the letters of the 
apostle themselves there was enough from which to in- 
fer that this relation was something very different from 
that usually supposed,—- that, in short, instead of being 
a relation of harmony it was one of sharp opposition, 
so much so that on the part of the Jewish Christians 
"»e authority of the apo^jle was held everywhere in dis- 
P"'^: A closer investigation of the Pseudo-Clementine 
nomilies, to whose si^ificance in reference to the ear- 
liest period of Christ an history Neander first drew at- 
tention, led me to a clearer understanding of this oppo- 
sition; and it always became more evident to me that 
tne contrast of the two parties m the Apostolic and 
wb-Apostolic age must be traced not merefy in the for- 
^|on of the Petrine tradition but as having exercised 
an important influence upon the composition of the 
Acts of the Apostles. 
This supposed conflict betwixt Petrinism and Paulin- 



ism, or, in other words, betwixt Jewish and Gentile 
Christianity, lies at the foundation of all Baur*s critical 
labors. His speciality as a New Testament scholar and 
critu: was the nrmness with which he laki hold of what 
he believed to be the only genuine foundation of histori- 
cal Christianity in St Paul, and his four great epistles 
to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, and to the Romans. 
These epistles were to him alone unchangeable as the 
authentic writings of the great apostle of the Gentiles, 
and the antagonism of which he made so much appeared 
to him everywhere to pervade them. The epistles to the 
Ephesians, the Colossians, and to the Philippians, and the 
short letter to Philemon, were at the best doubtfully 
genuine. They seemed to him to bear traces of a later 
Anosticism in many of their expressions, while he alto- 
gether rejected the apostoUcal cnaracter of the Pastoral 
Epistles. These letters, as well as the Acts of the 
the Apostles, were to him writings not of the ist but 
of the 2d century, proceeding not from the Pauline 
School, but from me Catholic and Conciliatory School, 
which towards the middle and end of the 2d century 
sought to adjust and harmonize the earlier conflicting 
elements of Petrinism and Paulinisnu This impress of 
conciliation and compromise appeared to him to be 
specially stamped upon the Acts of the Apostles, and to 
TO the true explanation of the relations there depicted 
betwixt St Peter and St Paul 

Such were the views advocated by Baur in a succes- 
sion of writings on the Pastoral Epistles (18^5) and the 
Episde to the Romans (1836); but especially in his 
great work on the Apostle Paul (1845), which may be 
said to sum up the result of his criticd labors on the 
Pauline writings. 

Then in a further series ol critical investigations he 
turned his attention to the Gospels. He dealt with 
them as a whole, " their relation to one another, their 
origin, and character,^ in a treatise which appeared in 
1847, ^^^ ^^^ ^^5' ^^ devoted a special volume to the 
Gospel of St. Mark. The result of his investigations 
in tnis direction was to satisfy him that all the Gospels 
owe their origin more or less to the same tendencies or 
traces of party design, which he everywhere discovers 
in the first Christian age. Our present Gospels are not, 
in his view, the most ancient documents of the kind 
possessed by the church. Before them there was a 
primary cycle of evangelical traditi(m, known by vari- 
ous names — as the gospel of the Hebrews, of St 
Peter, of the Ebionites, of the Egyptians, &c. In the 
existing canon the Gospel of St. Matthew resembles 
those earlier narratives most closely. It reproduces 
most completely the character of the primitive Jewish 
Christianity, yet not without important later modifica- 
tions. The Gospel of St. Luke is, of course, of Pauline 
origin, yet also retouched with a view to the conciliatory 
tendencies of the Church of the 2d century and the in- 
fluence of the Petrine tradition. That rf St Mark is 
of later date than either, and bears the most evident 
traces of adaptation. Of all the gospels it is the most 
suspected by the Tiibingen School. The Fourth 
Gospel, on the other hand, is a definite work, but of 
the 2d, not of the ist century. An examination of its 
contents, its mode of composition, and its general plan 
clearly reveals its dogmatic and idealistic character. 
The historical data are merely a background to the 
speculative ideas which it unfolds. The prologue by 
itself is sufficient proof of its logical method and pur- 
pose, while the contrasts which everywhere pervaae it 
Detwixt light and darkness, life and death, the Spirit 
and the flesh, Christ and the children of the devil, and 
the dramadc force and propriety with which these con- 
trasts are handled throughout, point to the same con- 
clusion. Further, the differences oetwixt the Apocaljrpse 



844 



B A U — B A V 



and the Fourth Gospel are held to show conclusively 
that they could not have proceeded from the same 
author. 

His death took place on the 2d December i860. He 
lies buried in the cemetery at Tubingen, not far from 
the poet Uhland, with the simple inscription on his 
tomb, "F. C. Baur, Theolog." 

Such an amount and variety of authorship sufficiently 
shows Baur's indefatigable industry and enthusiasm as a 
theologian; and when it is remembered that all his 
works are of a strictly scientific character, indicating 
everywhere original research, and a penetrating and 
systematic intelligence which never slumbers, however 
it may be mistaken, it is evident that there are few 
names in the recent history of theology that claim more 
significance than that of Ferdinand Christian Baur. Of 
the value of his labors and the extent to which his 
theological views may be said to have verified them- 
selves in the modem mind which has continued pro- 
foundly agitated by thejproblems which he started, this 
is not the place to speak. It need only be sakl that, 
while many of his opinions are strongly contested, and 
some of the most enlightened recent investigations prove 
that he has greatly exaggerated the antagonisms of the 
early church, and post-dated most of the writings of the 
New Testament, it is at the same time admitted b^ all 
advanced scholars that he has, even, in his exaggera- 
tions, contributed to a clearer view of the great princi- 
ples at work in the ist and 2d centuries and die Imes of 
spiritual movement along which the Christian church 
moved to its historical formation and develomnent. 

BAUTAIN, Louis Fig^ne Marie, a French phi- 
losopher and theologiai. was bom at Paris, in February 
1796, and died in October 1867. 

BAUTZEN (in Wendish Budissin^ which is equiva- 
lent to ** town "), the capital of Saxon Upper Lausatia, 
occupies an eminence on the right bank of the Spree, 
680 feet above the level of the sea, and 32 E.N.E. from 
Dresden. Bautzen wns already in existence when 
Henry the Fowler couquered Lausatia in 928. It be- 
came a town and fortress under Otto I., his successor, 
and speedily attained considerable wealth and impor- 
tance, for a good share of which it was indebted to the 
pilgrimages which were made to the " Arm of St. Peter,'* 
preserved in one of the churches. The battle of Bautzen 
was fought here on the 21st and 22d of May 1813, be- 
between the French under Napoleon and the allied 
forces of Russia and Pmssia, m which, after severe 
losses on both sides, the latter were defeated. 

BAVARIA (in German, Bayem)^ a kingdom of 
Southern Germany, forming part of die German Em- 
pire, consists of two distinct portions, Bavaria proper 
and the Palatinate of the Rhine, which are separated by 
the grand duchies of Baden and Hesse. Bavaria proper 
contains an area of about 26,895 n^iles, and the Pala- 
tinate rather less than 2282, making the whole extent of 
the kingdom about 29,177 square miles. 

The frontier of Bavaria proper on the north-east, 
towards Bohemia, consists of^a long range of mountains 
known as the Bohmerwald; while the north is occupied 
by the Fichtelgebirge and the Frankenwald, which 
separate Bavaria from Ruess, Meiningen, and Hesse- 
Darmstadt. The ranges last named seldom exceed the 
height of 3000 or 4000 feet; but the ridges in the south, 
towards tne Tjrrol, form part of the system of the Alps, 
and frequently attain an elevation of 90ooor 10,000 feet. 
On the west it is bounded by Wiirtemberg, Baden, and 
Hesse-Darmstadt. The whole of the country belongs 
to the basins of the Danube and the Main ; by far the 
greater portion being drained by the former river, 
which, entering from Swabia as a navigable stream, 

;raverses the entire breadth of the kingdom, with a 



winding coarse of 200 miles, and receives in its peisM 
the lUer, the Lech, the Isar, and the Inn from thesootJi^ 
and the Naab, the Altmiihl, and the Womitz from the 
north. The Inn is navigable before it enters the 
Bavarian territory, and afterwards receives the Saka, a 
large river flowing from Upper Austria. The Isar does 
not become navigable tiU it has passed Munich ; and the 
Lech is a stream of a similar size. The Main traverses 
the northern regions, or Upper and Lower Franconia, 
with a very winding course, and greatly facilitates the 
trade of the provinces. The district watered by the 
southern tributaries of the Danube consists for the most 
part of an extensive plateau, with a mean elevation of 
2390 feet. In the mountainous parts of the country 
there are numerous lakes, and in the lower portions con- 
siderable stretches of marshy ground. The climate ctf 
Bavaria differs greatly, according to the character of the 
region, beinf cold in the vicinity of the Tyrol but warm 
in the plains adjoining the Danube and the Main. On 
the whole, the temperature is in the winter months con- 
siderably colder than that of England, and a good dea^ 
hotter during summer and autunm. 

The extent of forest forms more than a fourth of tlic 
total area of Bavaria. Thb is owin^ to various causes 
— the extent of hilly and mountamous country, the 
thinness of the population, and the necessity of keeping 
a given extent of ^ound under wood for tne supply ch 
fuel. Nearly a third of the forests are public property, 
and furnish a considerable addition to the revenue. 
They are orincipally situated in the pro^ces of Upi>cr 
Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, and the Upper Palatinate. 
The level country, including both Lower Bavaria (ex- 
tending northwards to the Danube), and the western 
and middle parts of Franconia, is very productive in 
rye, oats, wheat, barley, and millet, and also in hemp, 
flax, hopsf madder, and (in warm situations) in \Tnes. 
The last are grown chiefly in the vidnity of the Lake of 
Constance and on the b&mks of the Main, in the lower 
part of its course, while the most extensive hop-grow- 
ing district is central Franconia. Potatoes are culti- 
vated in all the provinces, but especially in the Palatinate 
and in the Spessart district, which hes in the north- 
west within a curve of the Main. The southern 
division of Swabia and Upper Bavaria, where pasture- 
land predominates, form a cattle-breedfflg district, and 
the dairy prc^'-'.ce is extensive,1io less than 1 1,000 tons 
of cheese and 2386 tons of butter being sold in the 
course of a year. The former finds a market all over 
Germany, and is also exported to Austria, France, and 
other countries, while Northern Germany is the chief 
consumer of the latter. The greater proporricm of the 
land throughout the kingdom is in the hands of peasant 
proprietors, the extent of the separate holdings oifTering 
very much in different districts. The largest peasant 
property may be about 170 English acres, and the small- 
est, except in the Palatinate, Ea>out 50. 

The exports of Bavaria consist chiefly of salt, timber, 
cattle, pigs, com, and madder; and the imports com- 
prise sugar, tobacco, raw cotton, cotton-goods, silks 
and linen, iron and iron-wares. As most 01 the imports 
are introduced indirectly through other ZoUverein 
states, no custom-house register is kept of the total 
amount. 

The Bavarians proper form a distinct section of the 
German race, speaking a well-defined dialect of the 
High German, but a large portion of the population <A 
the country is of Swabian origin. The national char- 
acter resembles that of the Austrians, bmg generally 
marked by fidelity and loyalty. In matters of religion 
they are credulous and even superstitious ; and thei^ 
of their superiors is received by the lower ordot wi 
great deference both in political and ecclesii * ' '^'^^ 



B A V 



845 



Independence of thought and action have, however, 
been gradually increasing ;*and now that the country 
has b^ome part of the German empire, a rapid trans- 
fusion of intellectual and political life is apparently 
taking place. 

The present form of government is founded partly on 
long-established usage and partly on a constitutional 
act, pas^ in May iSi8, and modified by subsequent 
acts, of which the most important was passed in 1848-9. 
The monarchy is hereditary, with a legislative body of 
nvo houses. The title of the soverei|;n is simply king 
of Bavaria ; that of his presumptive heir is crown-prince 
of Bavaria. The executive p^wer is vested altogether 
in the king, whose person is declared inviolable, the 
responsibility rests with Viq ministers, whose functions 
are nearly the same as those of mi'^isters in England ; 
and there are offices for foreign ai&irs for the home 
department, for religion and education, for the treasury, 
the army, and the admin hlrr.t ion of justice. These are 
all sittiated in Munich, th^ capital. The upper houte of 
the Bavarian parliament, !aio\7n as the Chamber of the 
RHchsratke^ comprise: the princes of the blood-royal, 
the two archbishops, t"ho br.rons or heads of certain 
noble families, a Roman Call:olic bishop and Protestant 
clergymai-i appointed by the Crown, and any other 
member- whom the king may nominate either as hered- 
itary peers or as counsellors for life; but these last 
must not exceed a third of the hereditary members. The 
lower house, or Chamber of Representatives ( V.^ahikam' 
«vr), con£- Is of about 150 deputies, v/ho formerly 
were chosen in definite proportions from the different 
classes of the conmnmity, an eighth part from the 
nobility, another ci^ith from the clerg}', a fourth part 
from the burfiihers, "'r.r.d the remaining half from the 
landed proprietors ; but since 1848 they :aay be selected 
without any ruch restrictions. A general election takes 
place onco in six years, one deput)' being allowed for 
every 7000 fami'ics ill the kingdom. The election, 
however, is inc^'rcct, — electoral pro:;ies, or IVahlmdn' 
ncr^ to whom the r«d election is entrusted, being chosen 
hy the general body of electors at the rate of one proxy 
to every 500 men. The king generally convenes the 
parliament once a year, and by the constitution it is 
obligatory on him to do so at least once in three years. 

Tue Bavarian army forms, since the 23d November 
'870, a separate portion of the army of the German em- 
pire, with a distinct ^ministration ; but its organization 
|s subject to the general imperial rules, and in time of war 
it is placed under the command of the emperor. It com- 
prises two corps (Parm^e, each divided into two divis- 
'ons. In lime of peace its infantry consists of 26,590 
"**€», distributed m sixteen regiments ; besides which 
there are ten battalions of chasseurs, 5500 strong, and 
thirty-two battalions of landwekr ; the cavalry numbers 
7200 men divided into ten regiments, and the artillery 
amounts to 5528 men in six regiments ; there are also 
two battalions of pioneers and as many of the military 
train. In time of war the total force is raised to 149,892, 
or rather more than trebled. 

The districts of Lower Bavaria, Upper Bavaria, and 
the Upper Pdatinate are almost wholly Catholic, while 
*n the Rhine Palatinate, Upper Franconia, and espe- 
cially Middle Franconia, the preponderance is on the 
side of the Protestants. The exercise of religious wor- 
^ in Bavaria is altogether free. The Protestants 
have the same civil rights as the Catholics, and the sov- 
^»gn may be either Catholic or Protestant. Of the 
Roman Catholic Church the heads are the two arch- 
^op6 of Munich- Freising and Bamberg, and the six 
»»shops of Eichstadt, Spire, Wiirzburg, Augsburg, Re- 
^^"^tuiVjandPassau, of whom the first three aresuffra- 
«ww of Bamberg. The « Old Catholic " party has rc- 



ccntly taken considerable hold of the country, and has 
organized congregations in all the more important towns. 
Among the Protestants the highest authority is the gen- 
eral consistory of Mimich. The proportion of the differ- 
ent religions in 187 1 was as follows : — Roman Catho- 
lics, 3,464,364 ; Protestants, 1,342,592 ; Jews, 50,662 ; 
lesser Christian sects, 5453 ; other religions, 379. 

Bavaria was formerly as backward in regard to educa- 
tion as Austria, or any part of the south of Germany ; 
but latterly considerable efforts have been made to 
lessen the prevailing ignorance. At Munich there are 
scientific and literary academies, as well as a university, 
a lyceum, a gymnasium, and other public schools. The 
university has a very numerous attendance of students, 
ranking third in the new German empire ; and there 
are two provincial universities on a small s(^e, one 
(Catholic) at Wiirzburg, the other (ProtesUnt) at Erlan- 
gen in Franconia. 

The duchy of Bavaria during *the Middle Ages con- 
sisted of the southern half of the present kingdom, and 
lay almost all to the south of the Danube, extending 
about 100 miles from that river to the Tyrol, and some- 
what more from Swabia on the west to Austria on the 
east. The addition in 1623 of the Upper Palatinate, a 
province of full 3000 square miles, to the north of the 
Danube, gave the elector a territory of about 15,000 
square miles, with a population of less than 1,000,000, 
which in a century and a half had increased to about 
1,500,000. In 1778 the succession of the Rhenish 
branch of the reigning family added the Palatinate of 
the Rhine, and in 1806 a large augmentation was 
effected by Napoleon, who presented the king with the 
districts of the Lower Main and the Rezat, and with 
part of those of the Upper Main and the Upper 
Danube ; not to mention Tyrol, which was afterwards 
restored to Austria. Some slight changes have taken 
place in the extent of the kingdom since then ; but its 
general character has not been aflfected. The most 
important cession of recent years was that of part of 
Franconia in 1866 to Prussia, amounting to 291 square 
miles, with a population of 32,976 inhabitants. 

The name in German, Ba^ern, or BiUm, is derived, 
like Latin Boiaria, from Boii, the name of a Celtic peo- 
ple by whom the country, which then formed part of 
Rhsetia, Vindelicia, and Noricum, was inhabited in the 
time of Augustus. After the fall of the Roman power the 
natives were governed by chieftains of their own till the 
era of Charlemagne, who subjugated this as well as most 
other parts of Germany. After his death Bavaria was 
governed by one of his grandsons, whose successors 
bore the title of Margrave, or Lord of the Marches. In 
the year 920 the ruling margrave was raised to the rank 
of duke, which continued the title of his successors for 
no less than seven centuries. During this period Bava- 
ria was connected with Germany nationally by language 
and politically as a frontier province, but m civilization 
was almost as backward as Austria, and was greatly be- 
hind Saxony, Franconia, and the banks of the Rhine. 
At last, in 1620, the reigning duke, having rendered 
great service to Austria against an insurrection in Bohe 
mia, received an important accession of territory at the 
expense of the Elector Palatine, and was appointed one 
of the nine electors of the empire. His successors con- 
tinued faithful members of the Germanic body and allies 
of Austria until 177 1, when the elector Max Emanuel 
began to assist Louis XIV. of France by threatening 
and attacking Austria, so as to prevent her from co-op- 
eratuig effidenUy with England and Holland. This in* 
duced the duke of Marlborough, m the spring of 1704, 
to inarch his army above 300 miles from the banks of 
the Meuse to invade Bavaria, the fate of which was de- 
cided by the battle of Blenheim on the 13th August 



846 



B A V — B AX 



1704. For ten yetrs firom thif date tke elector and his 
remaining forces served in the French armies, and his 
country was governed by imperial commission until the 
peace of Utrecht, or nwre pro|)crly that of Baden, in 
1 714, reinstated him in his dominions. 

His son Charles Albert, who succeeded him in 1726, 
untaught by these disasters, renewed his connection with 
France; and, in 1740, on the death of the emperor of 
Germany, came forward as a candidate for the imperial 
crown. He obtained the nomination of a majonty of 
the electors, and overran a considerable part of the Aus- 
trian territory ; but his triumph was of small duration, 
for the armies of Maria Theresa not only repulsed the 
Bavarians, but obtained in 1744 possession of the elec- 
torate. The elector died soon alter, and his soi\ Max- 
imilian Joseph recovered his dominions only by renoun- 
cing the pretensions of his father. 

Bavaria now remayied tranquil above thirty years, 
until 1777, whe:i, by the death of Maximilian, the 
vounger line of the house of Wittelsbach, the line which 
had long ruled in Bavaria, became extinct. The next 
heir was Cb-irles Theodore the Elector Palatine, the 
representative of the elder line of Wittelsbach ; but Aus- 
tria unexpectedly laid claim to the succession, and took 
military possession of part of the country. This called 
into the field, on the side of Bavaria, Frederic 1 1., of 
Prussia, then advanced in years; but, before any blood 
had been shed, Austria desisted from her pretensions, on 
obtaining from Bavaria the frontier district which bears 
the name of Innviertel, or the Quarter of the Inn. 

Bavaria again remained at peace until the great con- 
test between Germany and France began in 1793, when 
|he was obliged to furnish her contingent as a member 
of the empire. During three years her territory was un- 
touched ; but in the summer of 1796, a powerful French 
army under Moreau occupied her capital, forced her to 
sign a separate treaty witli France, and to withdraw her 
contingent from the imperial army. The next war be- 
tween France and Austria, begun in 1799, ending dis- 
astrously for the latter, the influence of France in the 
empire was greatly strengthened, so that, when the Aus- 
trians once more took up arms, in 1805, Bavaria was 
the firm ally of France, and for the first time found 
advantage in the connection,— its elector, Maximilian 
Joseph, receiving from Napoleon the title of king and 
several additions of territory. 

Bavarir^ continued to support the French interest with 
her best energies till 181 3, when, on condition of her 
late acquisitions being secured to her, she -.vas led to 
join the Allies, and her forces contributed largely to the 
ultimate defeat of Bonaparte. In 181S Maximilian pre- 
sented his countpr with a constitution, of rather a mixed 
character, in which an attempt was made at once to 
satisfy the growing desire for political liberty and to 
maintain the kingly power. At the same lime several 
beneficial measures, such as the abolition of serfdom, 
were effected in the earlier sessions of the nevr parlia- 
ment. In 182J Maximilian was succeeded by his son 
Louis, who distinguished himself as a promoter of the 
fine arts, but proved himself destitute of political ca- 
pacity, and in consciousness of his disagreement with 
the spirit of his times, abdicated in March 1848 in favor 
of his son Maximilian II. It was not long before the 
difficulties of the new king were distinctly brought to 
view by the insurrection of the democratic party in 
Westphalia. Bv the assistance of Prussia the rising 
was quelled, and punishment was so ruthlessly inflicted 
bv the tribunals that the trials became known as the 
bloody assizes. An anti-liberal reaction set in, and 
many of the political eains of former years were con- 
sequently lost. In 18^ King Louis was succeeded by 
his son of the same name (Louis IL); and at this 



time the great question of the future hegemony of Ger- 
many was bting agitated throu&^out the country. In 
the war of 1860 the Bavarian Government an< people 
threw in their lot with Austria, shared in the contest, 
and were involved in the defeat and loss. On the with- 
drawal of Austria from the German confederaCioQ a 
change of policy was introduced, and the Govenunent 
veerra round to the interests of Prussia, a cooise whidi 
was confirmed by the Franco-German War of 1870, 
when Bavaria took en active part with Prussia agunst 
the common enemy. Much ferment, however, remained 
in the country, and religious elements were introduced 
into the pohtical discussions. The clerical, or, as it 
styles itself, the patriot party, is opposed to Pmssian 
influence, and contends for "particularism," wishing to 
maintain a greater degree of mdependence for Bavaria 
than seems to be compatible with imperial unity. For 
a number of years the Government has been in the 
hands of the Liberal party. Thus a series of the most 
important measures nave been passed with a liberal 
tendency, and the country is being gradually assimilated 
to the more advanced states of Northern Germany. 
The focus of the Liberal party is the Palatinate of the 
Rhine, while the "patriots " are mainly recruited from 
the districts of Old Bavaria. The decisive triumph of 
the former was marked by the treaty of Novembo- 23, 
1870, between Bavaria and the Confederation of North- 
cnv Germany, which was followed by the recognition of 
the king of Prussia as the head of a new German em- 
pire. At the same time a greater degree of independ- 
ence was granted to Bavaria than to the other members 
of the Confederation ; it was freed from the domiciliary 
surveillance of the empire, and allowed to maintain the 
administratioti of its own postal and telegraph sjrsteros, 
while its army has a separate organization, and during 
peace is under the command of the Bavarian kin^. 

BAXAR, or Buxar, a town of Hindustan, in the 
povince of Behar, district of Shiih&b4d, on the scmth 
bank of the Ganges. Population, 13,446. 

BAXTER, Andrew, an able metaphysician, the son 
of a merchant in Old Aberdeen, was bom in 1686 or 
1687, and educated at King's College there. Alter 
leaving the university he actc^ for some years r- tutor 
to various young gentlemen, among others to Lord 
Gray, Lord Blantyre, and Mr. Hay of Drummclzicr. 
In 1 7J3 he publisned, in quarto, but without date, An 
Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Sauly wherein 
its immateriality is deduccS from the principles of reason 
and philosophy. In 1741 he went abroad with Mr. Hay, 
and resided several years at Utrecht, from which place 
he made excursions into Flanders, France, and Germany. 
He returned :o Scotland in 1747, and resided at Whit- 
tingham, in Haddingtonshire, till his death, which 
occurred on April 23, 1750. 

BAXTER, RICHARD, one of the most eminent of 
English divines, styled by Dean Stanley " the chief of 
English Protestant Schoolmen,** was bom at Rowtonin 
Shropshire, at the house of his maternal grandfather, 
on l^ovember 12, l6i5. His family connections were 
favorable to the growth of piety. But his early educa- 
tion was much neglected, and he did not study at any 
university, a circumstance worthy of notice, consklering 
the eminent learning to which he afterwards attained. 
His best instructor was a Mr. John Owen, master of the 
Free School at Wroxeter. His diligence in the ac- 

Suirement of knowledge was remarkable ; and from die 
rst he had a strong bent towards the philosophv with 
which religion is concerned, — Mr. Francis Gaxbet of 
Wroxeter being the director of these studies. For a 
short time his attention was turned to a court life, and 
he went to London under the; patronage of Sir iUory 
Herbert, master of the revels, to follow that oowie) 



B AX 



847 



but he vcrv soon returned home with a fixed resolve to 
cultivate the pursuit of divinity. Practical rather than 
speculative theology seems to have occupied his mind, 
and he therefore presented himself for ordination with- 
out any careful examination of the Church and English 
system. He was nominated to the mastership of the 
Free Grammar School, Dudley, in which place he com- 
menced his ministry, having been ordained and licensed 
by Thomborough, bishop of Worcester. His popular- 
ity as c preacher was, at this early period, very great ; 
and he was soon transferred to Bridgnorth, where, as 
assistant to a Mr. Madstard, he established a reputation 
for the vigorous discharge of the duties of his office. 

During this time he took a special interest in the con- 
troversy relating to Nonconformity end the English 
Church. He soon, on some points, becama c!icnated 
from the Church ; and after the requirc-nent of what is 
called " the et cetera oath," he rejectee! Episcopacy in it^ 
English form. He could not, however, be c^ed more 
than a moderate Nonconformist ; and such he continued 
to be throughout his life. Though commonly denom- 
inated a Presbyterian, he had no e-tci . ive attachment 
to Presbj^terianism, and often manifest<.d a willingness 
to accept a modified Episcopalianism. All forms of 
church government were regarded by him as subservient 
to the true purposes of religion. 

One of the first measures of the Long Parliament was 
to effect the reformation of the clergy ; and, with this 
view, a committee was appointed to receive complaints 
against them. Among the complainants were the in- 
habitants of Kidderminster, a town which had become 
famous for its ignorance and depravity. This state of 
matters was so clearly proved that an arrangement was 
agreed to on the part of the vicar, by which he allowed 
/6o a year, out of his income of ;£'2oo, to a preacher 
who should be chosen by certain trustees. Baxter was 
invited to deliver a sermon before the people, and was 
unanimously elected as the minister of the place. This 
happened in 164J, when he was twenty-six vears of age. 

His ministry continued, with very considerable inter- 
raptions, for about nmeteen years ; and during that time 
he accomplished a work of reformation in Kidderminster 
and Ife neighborhood which is as notable as anytWng of 
the same kind upon record. Civilized behavior suc- 
ceeded to brutality of manners ; and, whereas the pro- 
fessors of religion had been but small exceptions to the 
inass, the unreligious people became the exceptions in 
their turn. He formed the ministers in the country 
around him into an association for the better fulfilment 
of the duties of their calluig, uniting them together ir- 
respective of their differences as Presbyterians, Episco- 
palians, and Independents. The spirit in whicn he 
acted may be judged of from The Reformed Pastor^ a 
book published in relation to the general ministerial 
efforts he promoted. It drives home the sense of clerical 
responsibility with extraordinary power. The result of 
his action is that, to this day, his memory is cherished as 
Uiat of the true apostle of tne district wnere he laborei. 

Jhe interruptions to which his Kidderminster life was 
subjected arose from the condition of things occasioned 
oy the Civil War. Worcestershire was a cavalier county, 
and a man in Baxter's position was, while the war con- 
vSf^' exposed to anno3rance and danger in a place like 
^wderminster. He therefore remov^ to Gloucester, 
an^" afterwards settled in Coventry, where he for the 
most part remained about two years, preaching r^u- 
^rly Doth to the garrison and the citizens. After the 
^tle of Naseby he took the situation of chaplain to 
Colonel Whalley's regiment, and continued to hold it 
tiU February 1647. 

His connection with the Parliamentary army was a 
^ characteristic one. He joined it that he mi^t, if 



possible, connteract the growth of the sectaries in that 
neld, and maintain the cause of constitutional govern- 
ment in opposition to the republican tendencies of the 
time. He r^etted that he had not previously accepted 
an offer of Cromwell to become chaplain to the Iron- 
sides, being confident in his powers of persuasion under 
the most difficult circumstances. His success in con- 
verting the soldiery to his views does not seem to have 
been very great, but he preserved his own consistency 
and fidehty in a remarkable degree. By public disputa- 
tion and private conference, as well as by preaching, he 
enforced his doctrines, both ecclesiastical and political, 
and sh/ank no more from what he conceived to be the 
truth upon the most powerful officers than he did from 
instructing the meanest lollowers of the camp. Crom- 
well thunned his society; but Baxter, having to preach 
before him after he had assumed the Protectorship, chose 
for his subject the old topic i the divisions and distrac- 
tions of the church, ana lu subsequent interviews not 
only opposed him about liberty of conscience, but spoke 
in favor of the monarchy he had subverted. There is a 
striking proof of Baxter's insight into character in his 
account of what happened under these circumstances. 
Of Cromwell he says, ** I saw that what he learned must 
be from himself. " It is worthy of notice that this inter- 
course with Cromwell occurred when Baxter was sum- 
moned to London to assist in settling ^ the fundamentals 
of religion,** and made the memorable declaration in 
answer to the objection, that what he had proposed as 
fundamental " might be subscribed by a Papist or So- 
cinian.** "So much the better,** was i5axter*s reply, 
" and so much the fitter it is to be the matter of con- 
cord.** 

After the Restoration in 1660 Baxter settled in- Lon- 
don. He preached there till the Ejectment Act took 
effect in 1062, and was employed in seeking for such 
terms of comprehension as would have permitted the 
moderate di^enters with whom he acted to have re- 
mained in the Church of England. In this hope he was 
sadly disappointed. There was at that time on the part 
of the rulers of the church no wish for such comprenen- 
sion, and their object, in the negotiations that took 
place, was to excuse the breach of faith which their re- 
jection of all reasonable methods of concession involved. 
The chief good that resulted from the Savoy Conference 
was the production of Baxter's Reformed Liturgy^ a 
work of remarkable excellence, though it was cast asid^ 
without consideration. The same kind of reputation 
which Baxter had obtained in the country he secured in 
the larger and more important circle of the metropolis. 
The power of his preacning was universally felt, and his 
capacity for business placed him at the heaa of his party. 
That he should have been compelled by the activity of 
party spirit to remain outside the National Church is to 
be deeply re|jretted. He had, indeed, been made a 
kind's chaplam, and was offered the bishopric of Here- 
ford, but he could not accept the offer without virtually 
assenting to things as they were; after his refusal he 
was not allowed, even before the passing of the Act of 
Uniformity, to be a curate in Kidderminster, though he 
was willing to serve that office gratuitously. Bishop 
Morley even prohibited him from preaching in the dio- 
cese of Worcester. The whole case illustrates afresh 
the vindictive bitterness of ecclesiastical factions in the 
heat of party contests, and especially in the hour of secu- 
lar triumph. 

From the Ejectment of 1662 to the Indulgence of 
1687, Baxter's life was constantly disturbed by persecu- 
tion of one kind or another. He retired to Acton 
in Middlesex, for the purpose of quiet study, and was 
dragged thence to prison on an illegal accusation of 
keepmg a conventicle. He was taken ap for preaching in 



848 



BAY 



London after the licences grtnted in 167 2were recalled hj 
the king. The meeting-house which he had built for 
himself m Oxendon Street was closed against him after 
he had preached there but once. He was, in 1680, seized 
in his house, and conveyed away at the risk of his life; 
and though he was released that he mi^t die at home, 
his books and goods were distrained. He was in 1684 
carried three times to the sessions' house, being scarcely 
able to stand, and without any apparent cause made to 
enter into a bond for ;^400 in security for his good 
beharior. 

But his worst encounter was with Judge Teffrcys in 
May 1685. He had been committed to the King's 
Bench Prison for his Paraphrase on the New Testament^ 
which was ridiculously attempted to be turned into a 
seditious book, and was tried before Jeifre3rs on this 
accusation. The scene of the trial b well known as 
amongst the most brutal perversions of justice which 
have occurred in England. Jeffreys himself acted like 
an infuriated nuuiman ; but there were among his black- 
guardisms some sparks of intelligence. 

Baxter was sentenced to pay 500 marks, to lie in 
prison till the money was paid, and to be bound to his 
good behavior for seven years. It was even asserted at 
the time that Jeffreys proposed he shouW be whipped at 
the cart*s tail throngh London. The old man, for he 
was now seventy, remained in prison for two vears. 

During the long time of oppression and injurv which 
followed the Ejectment, Baxter was sadl^ afflicted in 
body. His whole life was indeed one continued disease, 
but in this part of it his pain and languor had greatly 
increased. Vet this was the period of his greatest 
activity as a writer. He was a most voluminous author, 
his ^eparate works, it is said, amounting to 168. A 
considerable proportion of these, including folios and 
quartos of the most solid description, were published by 
him while thus deprived of the common rights of citizen- 
ship. How he composed them is matter of wonder. 
Thev are as learned as they are elaborate, and as varied 
in their subject as they are faithfully composed. Such 
treatises as the Christian Directory^ tne Methodus 
Theologia Christiana and the Catholic Theology , might 
each have occupied the principal part of the life of an 
ordinary man. One eartnly consolation he had in all his 
troubles ; he was attended upon by a loving and faithful 
wife, whom he had married in the Ejectment year. She 
was much younger than himself, and had been brought 
up as a lady of wealth and station ; but she adhered to 
him in all his wanderings, sharing his suffermgs, and 
following him to prison ; and she luis her reward in that 
Breviate of the Life of Mrs, Margaret Baxter, which, 
while it records her virtues, reveals on the part of her 
husband a tenderness of nature which might otherwise 
have been unknown. 

The remainder of Baxter's life, from 1687 onward, 
was passed in peace and honor. He continued to preach 
and to publbh almost to the end. He was surrounded 
by attached friends, and reverenced by the religious 
world. His saintly behavior, his great talents, and his 
wide influence, added to his extended age, raised him to 
a position of unequalled reputation. He died in London 
on the 8th of December 1691; being seventy-six years 
oki, and was buried in Christ Church. His funeral was 
attended by a very large concourse of people of all ranks 
and professions, including churchmen as well as dis- 
senters. A similar tribute of general esteem was paki 
to him nearly two centuries later, when a statue was 
erected to his memory at Kidderminster in July 1875. 

BAYAMO, a considerable town in the Island of 
Cuba. Its population at the last census amounted to 
7,500 people. 

BAYARD, Pierre du Terrail, Chevauer de, 



was born, of a noble family, at the chatetm 
Dauphin^ in 1476. He served as a page to the \ 
Savoy until Charles VIH., attracted by his ^ 
bearing, placed him among the royal followers oadcr t 
count de ligny. As a youth he was distinguished i 
comeliness, affability of manner, and skill in the 1 
yard. In 1494 he accompanied Charles VIH. into lb 
and was knighted after tne battle of Fomova, whei 
had captured a standard. Shortly afterwards, entc 
Milan alone in pursuit of the enemy, he was tal 
oner, but was set free without a ransom by^ 
Sforza. His powers and daring were coospicaoos I 
the Italian wars of this period. On one occAsion it| 
said, single-handed, he made good the defence of a 1 
over the Garigliano against about 200 Spaniards, an < 
ploit that 'brought him such renown that Pope Jnfios 1 
sought to entice him into the Papal service, mit n 
cessfully. The captaincy of a company in the 
service was given him in 1508, and the following 1 
he led a storming party at the siege of B^esda. 
his intrepkiitv in first mounting the ramparts cost I 
severe wound, which obliged his soldiers to carry 1 
into a neighboring house, the residence of a nob 
man, whose wife and daughters he protected fi 
threatened insult. On his recovery he declined a 
of 2500 ducats, with whkh thej sought to 
hinL At this time his general was the cell 
Gaston de Foix, who acted greatly in 
ance with his advice, and, indeed, fell at 
batde of Ravenna through neglecting it. In 15^ 
when Henry VHI. of England routed the French at t 
battle of the Spurs, Bayard, in trying to rally his con 
trymen, found his escape cut off. Suddenly rkling 
to an En^i^ ofhcer who was resting unarmed, he si 
moned him to yield, and, the knight complying Bay 
in return gave himself up to his prisoner. He was ta. 
into the £nglish camp, out on relating this gallant ix 
dent was immediately set free by the king without i 
som. On the accession of Francis L in 15 15 he ^ 
made lieutenant-general of Dauphin^ ; and alter the ' 
tory of Marignano, to which his valor largely cont 
uted, he had the honor of conferring knighthood 
his youthful sovereign. When war again broke out T 
tween Francis I. Mid Charles V., &yard, with ic 
men, held M&i^res, a town which had been dec 
untenable, against an army of 35,000, and after 
weeks compelled Nassan to raise the si^;e. This st 
bom resistance saved Central France from invasion, 
the king had not then sufficient forces to withstand 
imperialists. All France rang with the achieve 
Parliament thanked Bayard as the savior of his « 
try ; the king made him a knight of the order of ; 
Michael, ana commander in his own name of 100 g 
d'armes, an honor till then reserved for princes of 
blood. After allaying a revolt at Genoa, and striv 
with the greatest assiduity to check a pestilence 
Dauphin^, Bayard was sent, in 1523, into Italy ir 
Admiral Bonivet, who, being defeated at Rebec, i 
plored him to assume the command and save the an 
He repulsed the foremost pursuers, but in guarding \ 
rear at the passage of the Sesia was mortally wotmdi 
He had himself placed against a tree that he mights 
facing the enemy, and to Bourbon who came up and \ 
pressed pity for him, he replkxl, ** My lord, I thank] 
out pity is not for me, who die a true man, servi 
king ; pity is for you who bear arms against your 1 
your country, and your oath.** He expixed at 
peating the Miserere, His body was restored toj 
friends and interred near Grenoble. Chivalry, dq 
of fantastic extravagance, is perfectly mirrored _ 
character of Bayard. He combined the merits 1 
skilful tactician with the romantic herotsnii pi(i^|fa> 



B A Y— BEA 



849 



mu:naxiiinity of the ideal knight-errant. Even adver- 
saries experienced the finscination of his virtues, and 
joined in the sentiment that he was, as his contempo- 
raries call^ him, ** Le chevalier sans peur et sans re- 
proche. " 

BAYAZID, or BAjAzm, a dty of Turkish Armenia 
in the pashalic of Erzeroom, 50 miles S.S.W. of Erivan, 
situated on the skle of a rugged mountain that forms, as 
it were, a bastion of the Ala-dagh chain. 

BAY CITY, a flourishing city in the State of Mich- 
igan, in Bay County. Its population at last census was 
30»ooa 

BAYEUX, formerly the capital of the Bessin, and 
now the chief town of an arrondissement in the depart- 
ment of Calvados, in France. 

BAYLE, Pierre, author of the famous Historical 
and Critical Dictionary^ was bom on the i8th Novem- 
ber 1647, at Carlat-Ie-Comte, near Foix, in the south of 
France He was educated at first by his father, a Cal- 
vinist minbter, and was afterward sent to an academy 
at Puy-Laurens, where he studied with such asskluityas 
seriously to injure hb health. After a short residence 
at home he entered a Jesuit college at Toulouse. While 
there he devoted much of his time to controversial works 
on theology, and ended by abjuring Calvinism and em- 
hracing the Roman Catholic faith. In this, however, he 
continued only seventeen months, abruptly resuming his 
former religion. To avoid the punishment inflicted on 
such as relapsed from the Catholic Church, he withdrew 
to Geneva, where he resumed his studies, and for the first 
time became acquainted with the philosophical writing 
of Descartes. For some years he acted as tutor m 
various families ; but in 1675, when a vacancy occurred 
in the chair of philosophy at the Phrotestant university of 
Sedan, he was prevailed upon to compete for the post, 
and was successful. In 168 1 the university at Sedan 
was suppressed, but almost immediately afterwards Bayle 
was app>ointed professor of philosophv and history at 
Rotterdam. Here in 1682 he published his famous 
letter on comets, and his critique of Maimbourg's work 
on the history of Calvinism. The great reputation 
achieved by this critique stirred up the envy of Bayle's 
colleague Jurieu, who had written a book on the same 
subject, and who afterwards did all in his power to in- 
jure his former friend In 1690 appeared a work en- 
titled Avis atix Rifugihy which Jurieu attributed to 
Bayle, whom he attacked with the bitterest animosity. 
After a long quarrel Bayle was deprived of his chair m 
16^3. He was not much depressed by this misfortune, 
being at the time closely engaged in the preparation of 
his great Dictionary, which appeared in 16^7. A second 
edition was called for in 1702. The few remaining 
years of Basle's life were devoted to miscellaneous 
flings, arising in many instances out of criticisms 
made upon his Dictionary. He died on the 28th De- 
cember 1706. 
BAYONET. See Arms and Armor. 
BAYONNE, probably the ancient Lapurdum<, Bat- 
otium civitas^ or Baioticum^ a first -class fortified city of 
France, and the capital of an arrondissement, in the 
department of the Lower P)rrenees. It is well built, 
and agreeably situated at the confluence of the Nive and 
Adour, about three miles from the sea. The citadel is 
one of the finest works of Vauban, and the cathedral is 
a large and elegant Gothic structure. 

BAYONNE, a town of New York State, in Hudson 
Counhr. Popidation, 13,100. 

BAZA (the medieval BasHana\ a city of Spain in 
wera-ovince of Granada, situated in a fruitful valley in 
we Sierra Nevada, not far from the river of its own 



BAZARD9 A&MANDy a French socialist, the founder 



of a secret political society in France, corresponding to 
the Carbonari of Italy, and a warm adherent of 
St. Simon, was bom in Paris in 1791. He took part 
in the defence of Paris in 18 15, and afterwards occupied 
a subordinate situation in the prefecture of the Seine. 
About the year 1820 he united some patriotic friends 
into a society, which was called Amis de la VMti. 
From this was developed a coniplete system of Carbon- 
arism, the peculiar principles of^ which were introduced 
from Italy oy two of Bazard's friends. 

BAZfGARS, a tribe of Indians, inhabiting different 
parts of the peninsula of Hindust^ They are recog[- 
nized by several appellations, as Bdzfgars, Panchpfn, 
Kunjri, or Nats ; tney follow a mode of life distinguish- 
ing them from the Hindus, among whom they owell ; 
they abstain from intermixing their families with the 
Hindus, and from any intercourse by which they can be 
united. They are dispersed throughout the whole of 
India, partly in wandering tribes, partly adhering to 
fixed residences, but the greater proportion lead a 
nomadic life. 

The B^fgars are supposed to present many features 
analogous to the gipsies scattered over Europe and Asia, 
where they subsist as a race distinct from all the other 
inhabitants of the countries frequented by them. The 
B^fgars, as well as the gipsies, have a ctiief or king ; 
each race has a peculiar language, different from that of 
the people amon^ whom ^hey reside ; and the analogy 
of tne languages is so decidea, that it is difficult to deny 
that they have had a common origin. Another resem- 
blance, which has probably been lost in the lapse of 
time, is supposed to consist in the three-stringed viol 
introduced into Europe by the jugglers of the 13th cent- 
ury, which is exactly similar to the instrument now 
used in Hindustan. Disjointed, these analogies may 
not carry conviction of the identity of the European 
gipsies with the Indian B^fgars; but, on combining the 
wnole, it does not seem unlikely, that if Asia was their 
original country, or if they have found their way from 
Egypt to India, they may also have emigrated farther at 
a period of remote antk^uity, and reached the bounda- 
ries of Europe. 

BAZZI, Giovanni. See Soddoma. 

BDELLIUM, a fragrant gum-resin of a dark-reddish 
color, bitter and pungent to the taste. It is closely 
allied to myrrh, ana like it is produced from one or more 
species of Balsctmodendron, — the Goopul resin, or 
Indian bdellium, yielded by B. nukul^ being considered 
by Dr. Bird wood to be the bdellium of Scripture. 

BEACHY HEAD, a promontory on the coast of 
Sussex, between Hastings and Brighton, near which the 
French defeated the English and Dutch fleet in 169a 

BEACONSFIELD, a market-town in the county of 
Buckingham, 23 miles from London, on the road to 
Oxford. It consists of four streets crossing each other 
at right angles, and before the opening of the railways 
was rather a bus^ place. At one time, indeed, it was 
the seat of a considerable manufacture of ribbons. The 
poet Waller and Edmund Burke lived in the neighbor- 
nood, and both are buried in the town. Beaconsfield 

ive the title of viscountess to the late wife of the 

ight Hon. B. Disraeli. Population of parish in 1871, 
1524. 

BEAD, a small globule or ball used in necklaces, and 
made of diflPerent materials, as pearl, steel, garnet, coral, 
diamond, amber, glass, rock-crystal, and seeds. The 
Roman Catholics make great use of beads in rehearsing 
their Ave-Af arias and Pater-nostcrs, and a similar cus- 
tom obtains among the religious orders of the East. A 
string of such b^s is c^ed a rosary. Glass beads 
were used by the Spaniards to barter with the natives of 
South America for gold when they first established 



^ 



8 so 



BEA 



themselves on that continent, and to this day they are a 
fiivorite article of traffic with all savage nations. Beads 
of £lass are sent in enormous quantities to Zanzibar, 
and to all other porU from which a trade with the inte- 
rior of Africa is carried on, as they form almost the only 
convenient medium of exchange with the native tribes. 
The qualities and varieties recognized in the Zanzibar 
market are said to number more than 400, and the trade 
there is almost entirely in the hands of the Banyans. 
Large quantities are also sent to India, the Eastern 
Archipelago, and the Polynesian Islands; and in the 
more primitive parts of Europe beads are in considera- 
ble demand. Under the name of bugles a very great 
quantity of small, mostly cylindrical, beads are used in 
lace-making, and for the ornamentation of ladies* 
diesses, the demand in this form fluctuating greatly 
according to the demands of fashion. Venice is the 
principal centre of the manufacture of glass beads of 
all kinds. 

BEAN, the seed of certain leguminous plants culti- 
vated for food all over the world, and furnished chiefly 
by the fi^nera Faba^ Phaseolus^ DolichoSy Cajanus^ and 
Soja. The common bean, in all its varieties, as culti- 
vated in Britain and on the continents of Europe and 
America, is the produce of the Faba vulgaris. The 
French bean, kidney bean, or haricot, is the seed of the 
Phaseoius vulgaris; but in India several other species 
of this genus of plants are raised, and form no small 
portion of the diet of the inhabitants. From the eenus 
Dclichos^ again, the natives of India and South Amer- 
ica procure beans or pulse, of no small importance as 
artides of diet, such as the D. ensiformis^ or sword 
besn of India, the Lima beans, &c • Besides these there 
are numerous other pulses cultivated for the food both 
of man and domestic animals, to which the name beans 
is frequently given. The common bean is even more 
nutriuous than wheat ; and it contains a very high pro- 
portion of nitrogenous matter under the form of legu- 
min, which amounu on an average to 24 per cent. It 
is, however, a rather coarse food, and difficult of diges- 
tion, and is chiefly used to feed horses, for which it is 
admirably adapteo. 

BEAR, the common name of the Ursida^ a typical 
family of Plantigrade Mammals, distinguished by their 
massive bodies, short limbs, and almost rudimentary 
tails. With the single exception of the Honey Bear, 
all the species have forty-two teeth, of which tne inci- 
sors ana canines closely resemble those of the purely 
carnivorous mammals; while the molars, and especially 
that known as the '*camassial," have their surfaces 
tuberculated so as to adapt them f9r grinding vegetable 
substances. As might have been supposed from their 
dentition, the bears are truly omnivorous; but most of 
the family seem to prefer vegetable food, including 
honey, when a sufficient supp^ of this can be had. 
The Grizzly Bear, however, is chiefly carnivorous; 
while the rolar Bear, in a state of nature, is believed 
to be almost wholly so. The strength and ferocity of 
diflerent species and of different individuals of the same 
species seem to depend largely on the nature of their 
met, — those restricted to purely vegetable food show- 
ing an approach to that mildness of disposition charac- 
teristic or herbivorous animals. 

Bears are flve-toed, and are provided with formidable 
daws, but these are not retractile as in the cats, and are 
thus better fitted for digging and climbing than for tear- 
ing. Most of the bears climb trees, which they do in a 
slow, lumbering fashion, and, in descending, always 
come hindquarters flrst. The Grizzly Bear is said to 
lose this power of climbing in the adult state. ^ In 
northern countries the bear retires during the winter 
•eason into caves and the hollows of trees, or allows the 



falling snow to cover it, where it remains dormant tiO 
the advent of spring, about which time the female usually 
produces her young. These are bom naked and blind, 
and it is commonly Ave weeks before they tee, orbecooe 
covered with hair. Before hibernating they grow veiy 
fat, and it is by the gradual consumption of this &t— 
known in commerce as bear's grease — that socfa rital 
action as is necessary to the continuance of life b 
sustained. 

The bear family is widely distributed, being (bund in 
every quarter of the globe except Australia, and m sH 
climates, from the highest northern latitudes vet reached 
by man to the warm regions of India and Malaya. In 
the north-west comer of Africa the single representa- 
tive of the family found on that continent occurs. Of 
the remaining species described in Gra3r's recent mono- 
graph of this family, three are European, six American, 
and eight Asiatic; while one spedes — the Polar Bear 
— is common to the Arctic regiont of both hemispheres. 
In addition to these, the best known species are pecnl- 
iarly rich in varieties. Bears have been recently divided 
into three groups, — sea bears, land bears, and honey 
bears. 

(I.) Sea bears, of which the Polar or White Bear 
( Tkalassarctos marilimus) is the only species known, 
are distincuished from the other groups oy havii^ the 
soles of tne feet covered with dose-set hairs, — a beaa- 
tiful instance of special adaptation to the wants of the 
creature, the bear being thereby enabled to walk more 
securely on the slippery ice. In the whiteness of its 
fur also, it shows such an assimilation in color to that 
of surroundine nature as must be of considerable serv- 
ice in concealing it from its prey. These bears are 
strong swimmers. Captain Sabine having found one 
** swimming powerihlly forty miles from the nearest 
shore, and with no ice m sight to aflbrd it rest." They 
are often carried on floating ice to ereat distances, and 
to more southern latitudes than their own, no fewer 
than twdve Polar bears havin|r been known to reach Ice- 
land in this way during one wmter. The female always 
hibernates, but the nude may be seen abrcMid at all sea- 
sons. In bulk the White Bear exceeds all other members 
of the family, measuring nearly 9 feet in length, and 
often weighing 1600 lb. 

(2. ) Land l^rs have the soles of their feet destitute 
of hair, and their fur more or less shaggy. Of these 
the Brown Bear is found in one or other of its varieties 
all over the temperate and north temperate regions of 
the eastern hemisphere, from Spain to Japan. Its fur 
is usually of a brownish color, but tnere are black, 
blackish-gray, and yellowish varieties. It is a solitary 
animal, frequenting the wooded parts of the regions it 
inhabits, and living on a mixed diet of fruits, vegetables, 
honey, and the smaller animals. In winter it hiber- 
nates, concealing itself in some hollow or cavern. 

The American Black Bear ( C/rsus Afmricanus) occurs 
throughout the wooded parts of the North American 
continent, whence it is being gradually driven to make 
room for man. It is similar in size to the Brown Bear, 
but its fur is of a soft even texture, and of a shining 
black color, to which it owes its commercial value. At 
the be^nning of the present centunr Black Bears were 
killed in enormous numbers for their furs, whidi at 
that time were highly valued. 

The Grizzly Bear ( Ursus horrihilis) approaches the 
Polar Bear in size, while it exceeds that, and all other 
American mammals in ferodty of disposition and in mus- 
cular strength. It is said to attack the bison, and has been 
known to carry ofl* a carcase weighing looo lb. for a 
considerable distance to its den, mere to devour it at 
leisure. It also eats fruit and other vegetables. Its 
fur is usually of a yellowish brown color, couM ^ 



LEA 



851 



L 



grixded, and of litUe rtlne commerciallT, while its flesh, 
unlike that of other bears, is uneatable even by the 
Indians. It is found in great abundance on the eastern 
slopes of the Rocky Mountains. 

(3.) Honey bears are distinguished from the other 
groups by the absence of two upper incisors, and the 
very extensile character of the lips. Of these there is 
but one species, the Sloth or Honey Bear {Melursus 
labiatus), 

BEAR LAKE, Great, an extensive sheet of fresh 
water in the north-west of Canada, between 65° and 
67^ N. lat., and 117*^ and 123° W. long. It is of a very 
irregular shape, has an estimated area of 14,000 square 
milesy and is upwards of 200 feet above the sea. The 
Bear Lake River carries its waters into the Mackenzie 
River. 

BEARD. The tradition that Adam wascreated with a 
beard (which may be described as bushy rather than flow- 
ing), is recorded on ancient monuments, and especially 
on an antique sarcophagus, which is one of the orna- 
ments of the Vatican. The Jews, with the Orientals 
raMrally, seem to have accepted the tradition for a law. 
The beard was a cherished and a sacred thing. Israel 
brought it safe out of the bondage of universally shaven 
Egypt, and the beard was the outward and visible sign 
ofa t roe man. To rudely touch his beard was to cruelly 
assail his dignity. Children and other kinsfolk might 
gently touch it as a sign of love ; a fugitive might rever- 
entially raise his hand to it when pra3ring for succor ; 
and he who put his hand on his own beara and swore 
by it bound himself by the most solemn of oaths, to 
violate which would reiuler him infamous among his fel- 
low-men. To touch the beard in the allegiance of love 
established peace and trustfuhiess between the two par- 
tics. When Joab went in to Amasa he took the beard 
of the latter to kiss him, saying the while, ** Art thou in 
health, my brother?" Therefore it was that Amasa 
took no heed of the sword in }oab's hand, which Joab 
at once thrust beneath the other's fifth rib. The Script- 
ures abound with examples of how the beard and its 
treatment interpreted the feelings, the joy, the sorrow, 
the pride, or the despondency of the wearer. 

Although the Jews carried their beards with them 
from their bondage in Egypt, the Egyptians were not at 
all insensible of the significance of that appendage. 
They did not despise the type of manhood. Accord- 
ingly, on days of high festival they wore false beards, as 
assertions of their dignity in the scheme of creation, 
and they represented their male deities with beards 
* tip-tilted " at the ends. The general reader having 
laudable curiosity on this matter may be safely referred 
to the pages of Herodotus, — a writer who has much to 
toy pertinently to the subject, and who, after being 
nialigned as the second father of lies, is now praised for 
his modesty, and relied on for his trustworthiness. 

The modem Mahometans, e^cially those who have 
most come in contact with Europeans, have a good 
deal fallen away from old conservative ideas respecting 
Ae beard- Once this glorious excrescence, as it was 
held to be, was made, by the followers of Islam, a help 
to salvation. The hairs which came from it in combing 
were preserved, broken in two, and then buried. The 
breaking was a sort of stipulation with some angel who 
^as supposed to be on the watch, and who would look 
to the safe passage of the consigners of the treasure into 
the paradise of never-failing sherbet and ever-blooming 
nouris. The first sultan who broke through the ortho- 
^x oppression of beardedness was Selim I. (1512-20). 
This act was a violent shock to the whole body of the 
faithful, and especially of the Mufti. The very highest 
priest alone could dare to remonstrate with so absolute 
a monarch. Selim put aside the remonstrance with a 



joke. "I have cut off my beard, "he said, "in order 
that my vizier may have nothing to lead me by ! " 

If we turn to Europe and begin with classical times, 
we may remember that the Greeks and Romans once 
styled as barbarians, or bearded, unshaven savages, all 
nations who were out of the pale of their own customs 
and religion. Nevertheless, the younc^ Roman, anxious 
for beaid and moustache, used to apply the househoki 
oil to his chin and cheeks, in order to bring thereon 
that incipient fringe which woukl entitle him to be 
called " barbatulus. ** The full-furnished man was ** bar- 
batus.** It was not till the beard ceased to be miivers- 
ally worn, and Sicilian barbers set up in Rome (about 
300 B.C.), that the Romans began to apply the word, 
translated " barbarous," to the rude men and manners 
of the early ages, and of the beard universal But, 
after all, we may still see, in old counterfeit present- 
ments, that the fi&shionable, clipped beard of young 
Roman " swells ** in the last days of the Republic, and 
of some of the emperors from the time of Hadrian, is not 
nearly so majestic as the overflowing hair depending 
from the chin of Numa Pompilius. Nero offisred some 
of the hair of his beard to Jupiter Capitolinns, who 
could have furnished a dozen emperors from his own. 
Homer, Virgil, Pliny, Plutarch, Strabo, Diodorus, Ju- 
venal, Persius, are among the writers who furnish mate- 
rial for a volume on beards. One Roman emperor, 
Julian, wrote a vrork on the subject, which is commonly 
supposed to be as fierce a denunciation against beards, 
as King James's ^/bi/ was against tobacco; but Julian 
in his MisopogoH^ or Enemy of the Beard, descants 
satirically ** with pleasure and even with pride,** says 
Gibbon, " on the length of his nails and the inky black- 
ness of his hands, protests that although the* greatest 
part of his body was covered with hair, the use of the 
razor was confined to his head alone, and celebrated with 
visible complacency the shaggy and populous beard 
which he fondly cherished, Mter the examples of the 
philosophers of Greece.** Persius undoubtedly associ- 
ated wisdom with the beard. He exhausted the whole 
vocabulary of praise when he desi^ated Socrates by the 
term Magister Barbatus. In this, however, there is 
less wit than in the rejoinder of the young ambassador 
to a king, who had expressed his wrath at having a 
beardless youth sent to him as an envoy. *^ If,** ^id 
the latter, " my master had thought you would have laid 
so much account on a beard he woukl have sent you a 
goat.** 

Goth is equivalent for the older term of Barbarian, 
One is about as unjust in its application as the other. 
Gothic rudeness is often illustrated by the case of the 
"ugly rush** made by the northern warriors into the 
Capitol, where the conscript fathers sat in silence and 
fearlessness, waiting events. One of these unlettered 
soldiers lifted his hand to the beard of an old legislator, 
who, taking it for insult, smote the Goth to the ground. 
Let us do me Goth the justice of believing that, awed by 
the stern mute majesty of the senators, he raised his 
hand reverentially to the beard. At all events, the tak- 
ing it with such prompt and painful action was dearly 
paid for in the swift retaliation which followed. 

If the phrase be not too light for use, we would say 
that as beards existed before barbers, the Europeans, 
like all other people, were originally a bearded people. 
The beard is perhaps more general now in Germany 
than elsewhere in Europe; and (Germany affords an 
example of the longest beard known, out of fairy story, 
in the person of the painter Johan Mayo, whose beard 
was so long that when he stood upright it still trailed 
on the ground ; accordingly, he often doubled it up in 
his girdle. Germany knows him as John the Bearded, 
just as it does one of its emperors as Frederick Bar* 



852 



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barossa ; but many cations, ancient and modem, can 
boast of men and monarchs who have been nicknamed 
from their beards. 

When Peter the Great levied a tax on Russian beards, 
he was onlj following a precedent which once existed in 
England. Noble chms were assessed at a rouble ; jour 
commoner chin at a copec It caused commotion, and 
there was much compulsory shaving of those who did 
not pay. Beards are not now valued in Russia. He 
who wears one seems to acknowledge that he has no 
very high* place in the sodal scale. On the other hand, 
beards were highly treasured in Spain till the time of 
Philip v., who was unable to cultivate one. As was to 
be expected, this infirmity set the fashion of affecting the 
infirmity ; but beardless dons were wont to exclaim with 
a sigh, ** Since we have lost our beards, we have lost our 
ioub ! ** Thus, they unconsciously adopted something 
akin to the superstition of the Roskolniki, a sect of 
schismatics who obstinately maintained that the divine 
image resided in the beard. Portugal was not behind 
Spam in appreciating the beard. When the Portuguese 
admiral, Juan de Castro, borrowed a thousand pistoles 
from the city of Goa, he lent in pledge one of his 
whiskers, saying, **A11 the gold in the world cannot 
equal this natural ornament of my valor." In these 
modern days one would not think much of the security 
of such a material euarantee, nor of the modesty of the 
admiral who might nave the face to ofler it. 

As Spaniards denuded their chins because their king 
could not CTOw a beard, so the French grew beards, long 
after they had gone out of fashion, because their king 
found it necessary to do so. Francis the First, having 
wounded his chin, concealed the ugly scar by cover- 
ing it wi4h a beard ; and all lojral chins forthwith affected 
to have scars to conceal. But when fashion and loyalty 
were united the beard was carefully tended. It was 
not as in the time of the idle, helpless, and long haired 
kings, who were less potential than their chief officers, 
when the wild, dirty, and neglected beard was a t vpe of 
that majesty, made up of shreds and patches, whicn used 
to be paraded before the people on a springless cart. 
Three nairs from a French King's beard under the waxen 
seal stamped on royal letter or charter, were supposed 
to add greater security for the fulfilment of all promises 
made in the document itself. In course of time fashion 
complimented majestv ; a certain sort of moustache was 
called a ** royal," and the little tuft beneath the lower 
Up was knoMHi by the term ** imperial" As a rule the 
French chin assumed the appearance of that of the king 
for the time being. The royal portrait reflects a ^eral 
fashion from which onl^ the disloyal or the iroiifferent 
departed. On the subject of shaving, Talleyrand once 
drew a fine distinction. Rogers asked him if*^ Napoleon 
shaved himself. " Yes," replied the statesman ; " one 
bom to be a king has some one to shave him ; but they 
who acquire kingdoms shave themselves." Tradition 
has exaggerated accounts of bearded prisoners in the 
Bastille, out there was an official there whose duty 
consisted in keeping the captives without beards. Some 
years before the Revolution the celebrated lawyer and 
polTt!cal writer Linguet was incarcerated there. On 
the morning after his being locked up, an individual 
entered his room who announced himself as the barber 
of the Bastille. "Very well," said the sharp-witted 
Linguet, *'as you are the barber of the Bastille — 
rasez-la." 

Among the men of whom it was said of old that they 
would be known by their love for one another, the beard 
has been a cause of much fierce uncharitableness. The 
Greek Church, advocating the beard, and the Roman 
Church, denouncing it, were not more forgetful of ever- 
blessed charity than the Bekoan Reformers, the close- 



shaven of whom wbhed the bearded members to be 
expelled as non-Christians. The tradition cui M y Tn i n g 
the Master whom both proposed to follow was k>gicai]y 
pleaded by the wearers of beards. As a general mle, in 
the earlier time, the man who wore his hair short and 
his beard long, was accounted as at least bearing the 
guise of respectability — looking like a priestly person- 
age. There is a series of medaSof the popes at Naples, 
from Clement VII. (1523-34) to Alexander VIII. (1689- 
91). AU these are bearded. Clement's beard Is kmg 
and dark; Alexander wears beard and moostacjiesw 
Perhaps Clement Giulio de' Medici set the fashion. 
Certain it is that a few years before, his kinsmap, 
Giovanni de' Medici, Leo X. (1513-22), was always 
close-shaven, and beards were not to be seen <m the 
dun of Leo*s clerics and courtiers. 

In the 13th century beards are said to have first come 
into fashion in England. If we may judge from the 
15th century brasses in England, few men of distinction 
enough to l>e so conunemorated wore beards. Hot^mr's 
fop had his ** chin new reaped." In the reign of Ilenry 
VIII. the fashion had so revived among lawyers that the 
authorities of Lincoln's Inn prohibited wearers of beards 
from sitting at the great table, unless they paid doable 
commons ; but in all probability this was before that 
sovereign ordered ( 1 5^5) his courtiers to *^ poll their hair, •• 
and he let that crisp oeard grow which is familiar to ns 
aU. Thence came a fiscal arrangement ; beards were 
taxed, and the levy was CTaduated according to the 
condition of the wearer, in the Burghmote Book of 
Canterbury (quoted in Notes and Queries) there is the 
following entry : — " 2nd Ed. vi. The Sheriff of Canter- 
bury and another paid their dues for wearing beards, 
3s. 4d and is. Sd." In the next reign, and in the year 
1555, Queen Mary sent four agents^ to Moscow; all 
were bearded, but one of them, a certain George Killing- 
worth, was especially distin^ished by a beard 5 feet 
2 inches lone, at sight of which a smile crossed the grim 
features of Ivan the Terrible himself. George's beard 
was thick, broad, and yellow ; and, after dinner, Ivan 
played with it, as with a favorite toy. Most of the 
Protestant martyrs were burnt in their beards. Sir 
Thomas More, on the other hand, ]3ut his out of the way, 
as he laid 1^ head on the block, with the innocent joke 
so well known. Elizabeth introduced a new impost with 
regard to beards. Every beard of above a fortnight's 
growth was subject to yearly tax of 3s. 4d. The rate 
was as heavy as the law authorizing it was absurd. It 
was made in the first year of her reign, but it proved 
abortive. Fashion stamped it out, and men laughed in 
their beards at the idea of pajing for them. The law 
was not enforced, and the Legislature left the heads of 
the people alone till much later times, when necessity and 
the costs of war put that tax on hair-powder which even 
now contributes a few thousands a year to the British 
Exchequer. The Vandyke beard, pointed (as Charles 
the First and the illustrious artist, with most cavaliers, 
wore it), wsis the most universally worn for a time. 
Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Queen of Corinthy make 
allusion, doubtless, to a fashion of wearing moustache 
and beard, common to the reign of the firet James as 
well as that of Charles. 

John Taylor, the water-poet, notices the T beard, 
and mentions at least a score of the various ways of 
wearing beards in his time, not forgetting the contem- 
porary proverb, "Beard natural, more hair than wit.* 
Soon after this time, however, the beard in England . 
was everjrwhere kept down by the razor. At the dose 
of last century the second Lord Rokeby (Mat. Robw 
neau) endeavored to restore the fashion. ** His beard," 
says a contemporary, ** forms one of tho most conspicti* 
ous trails of his person." But too^short a period hsil' 
Digitized by VjOC 



BE A 



853 



dapsed since Lord George Gordon, the hero of ** the 
Riots,'* had turned Jew and let his beard grow, to allow 
of any favor being awarded to an appendage which 
seenied a type of infamy. To the literature of the beard 
a remarkable addition WM made in the present century 
by James Ward, R.A., the celebrated animal painter. 
Mr. Ward published a Defence of the Beardy on scrip* 
tural grounds ; hfe gave eighteen reasons why man was 
bcmna to growabeard, unless he was indifferent sis to 
offqidin^ the Creator and good taste ; for the artist as- 
serted hunself as much as the religious zealot, and the 
writer asked, "What would a Jupiter be without a 
beard? Who would countenance the kiea of a shaved 
Christ?** Mr. Ward had what the French call "the 
courage of his opinions," and wore a beard of the most 
Tupiter-like majesty. Mr. Muntz, M.P. for Birming- 
ham, followed the example, but it was not adopted by 
many others. A new champion, however, appeared in 
i860, but on peculiar ground. " Theologos ** expressed 
his views in tne title-page of his work, namely, — Skcn)- 
ing: a breach of the Sabbath^ and a hindrance to the 
spread of thi Gospel, A carrying out of the views of 
the writer would lead to the full practice which prevailed 
among the Essenes, who never did on the Sabbath any- 
thing whatever that they were in the regular habit of 
doing on other days. " Theologos" points out that God 
gave the beard to man as a protection for his throat 
and chest; and, he adds, witn the most amusing sim- 
plicity, " Were the beard in any other pnosition its benefit 
and purpose might be doubtea ; but situated where it 
is, no physiologist will dare to deny its intention." 
Since this naive assertion was made, the beard, but not 
as a consequence, has grown into favor ; and^ though 
not universal, it is at least general, and a famij|ar sight 
to us alL 

B£aRN, formerly a small frontier province in the 
south of France, now included within the department of 
Basses-IVr6n6es, was bounded on the W. by Soule and 
Lower l/avarre, on the N. by Chalosse, Tursan, and 
Astarac, E. by Bisorre, and b. by the Pyrenees. Its 
name can be traced back to the town of Benehamum, 
which first appears in the Antonine Itinerary.^ The 
population is mainly of Basque origin, with possibly a 
certain mixture of Greek blood from the ancient colo- 
nies of tha# people. The Basque langua^, in spite of 
the diffusion of Frendi, is still maintained in the aistrict; 
and it is asserted that traces of old Hellenic names are 
not infrequent 

BEATON, David, archbishop of St. Andrews, and 
cardinal, was a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour 
in the county of Fife, and is said to have been bom in 
the year 1494. The ereat ability of Beaton aad the 
patronage of his nnde, the archbishop of Glasgow, 
ensured nis rapid promotion to high offices in the church 
and Kin^om. He was sent by King James V. on vari- 
ous missions to France, and in 1528 was appointed 
keeper of the privy seal. He took a leading part in the 
ne»>tiations connected with the king's marriages, first 
with Magdalen of France and afterwards with Mary of 
Lorraine. At the French court he was held in high 
«timation by King Francis I., and was presented to the 
hishopric of Mirepoix in Languedoc, to which he is said 
to have been consecrated on 5th December 1537. On 
the 2oth of December 1538 he was appointed a cardinal 
priest by Pope Paul HL, under the title of St. Stephen 
jn the Coelian Hill. He was the only Scotsman who 
J^d been named to that high office by an undisputed 
right, Cardinal Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow, having 
received his appointment from tne Antipope Clement 
^ *!• On the death of Archbishop James Beaton in 
f539* the cardinal was raised to the primatial see of 
V Scotland. 

14-C 



Beaton was one of King James's most trusted advisers, 
and is said to have taken a part in dissuading him from 
his proposed interview with Henry VUI. at York. On 
die death of James in December 1542 he attempted to 
assume office as one of the regents for the infant sov- 
ereign Mary, founding his pretensions on an alleged will 
of the late king ; but his claims were disregarded, and 
the Earl of Arran, head of the great house of Hamil- 
ton, and next heir to the throne, was raised to the re- 
gency. The cardinal was imprisoned by order of the 
regent, but ifter some time was set at liberty. He was 
subsequently reconciled to Arran, and in September 
1543 crowned the young queen at Stirling. Soon after- 
waids he was raised to the highest office under the re- 
gent, that of Chancellor of Scotland, and was appointed 
legate a latere by the Pope. 

I'he two questions which agitated Scotland at this 
time were the struggle for ascendency between the sup- 
porters of English and French influence, and that be- 
tween the fri^ds of the hierarchy and the teachers of 
the Reformed opinions, — questions which frequently 
became complicated in consequence of the assistance 
given by France to the bishops, and the encouragement 
which, for political reasons, tne king of En^and secretly 
gave to the adherents of the Reformation. In this con- 
test the audinal supported the interests of France, res- 
olutely opposing the selfish intrigues of King Henry and 
his party, which had for their object the extinction of 
the ancient independence of the Scottish kingdom and 
its subjection to the supremacy of England. Had he 
been content with this ne would have won for himself 
the gratitude of his countrymen ; but his evil deeds as 
an ecclesiastic made them overlook his patriotic exer- 
tions as a statesman. During the hfetime of his uncle 
he had taken his share in the persecuting policy of the 
hierarchy, and the same line of conduct was still more 
systematically adopted after his elevation to the primacy. 
Having won over the regent to his opinions he became 
more open and severe in nis proceedings. The popular 
accounts of the persecution are no doubt exa^erated, 
and it sometimes ceased for considerable period so far 
as capital punishments were concerned. When the 
sufferers were of humble rank general attention was not 
much directed to thenu It was otherwise when a more 
distinguished victim was selected in the person of 
George Wishart. This preacher, whose ecclesiastical 
opinions resembled those of Patrick Hanulton and 
Hamilton's teacher, Francis Lambert, returned to Scot- 
land after an absence of several years about the end of 
1544. His sermons produced a great effect, and he was 
protected by several of the barons who were leading 
men in the English faction. These barons, with the 
knowledge and approbation of King Henry, were en- 
gaged in a plot against the cardinal, in which his assassin- 
ation was contemplated as the speediest mode of remov- 
ing the chief obstacle to the influence of England. Of 
the reality of the plot and the intentions of the conspir- 
ators there can be no doubt ; whether Wishart was 
aware of these has been a matter of controversy during 
the present century. There are strong suspicions 
against him but no sufficient evidence; and all the 
presumptions which may be drawn from his personal 
character are entirely in his favor. The cardinal, though 
ignorant of the details of the plot, perhaps suspecting 
Wishart's knowledge of it, and in any event desurout to 
seize one of the most eloquent supporters of the new 
opinions, endeavored, with the aid of the regentj to ap- 
prehend him, but was baffled in his efforts for some 
time. He was at last successful in seizing the preacher, 
and bringing him a prisoner to his castle of St Andrews. 
On the 28th of February 1546 Wishart was brought to 
trial within the cathedral church, before the cardinal 



854 



BEA 



and other ecdesiftstica] jadget, the regent declining to 
take any active part. He defended his opinions with 
temper and moderatioci ; hot as he admitted certain of 
them which were held by his judges to be heretical, he 
was condemned to death and burnt. 

The prosecution of Wishart, and the meekness with 
which he bore his sufferings, produced a deep effect on 
the mind of the Scottish people, and the cardinal be- 
came an object of general dislike. Those who hated 
him on other grounds were encouraged to proceed with 
the design they had formed against him. Naturally res- 
olute and fearless, he seems to have undervalued the 
strength and character of his enemies, and even to have 
relied on the friendship of some of the conspirators. 
He crossed over to Angus, and took part in tne mag- 
nificent ceremonials of the marriage of his illigitimate 
daughter with the heir of the Ean of Crawfoni. On 
his return to St. Andrews he took up his residence in 
the castle. The conspirators, the chief of whom were 
Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, and William Kir- 
kaldv of Grange, contrived to obtain admission at day- 
break of the 29th of May 1546, and murdered the carcfi- 
nal under circumstancesof horrible mockery and atrocity. 
The assassination excited very different feelings among 
the partisans on either side. The zealous adherents o? 
the Church of Rome, as a matter of course, viewed it as 
a cruel murder aggravated by sacrilege ; the most vio- 
lent of the Protestant party justified and even applauded 
it Those who, without any strong feeling eitner way, 
disliked the cardinal on account of his arrogance and 
cruelty, spoke of the deed as a wicked one, but hardly 
professed to regret the victim. Ignorant of the treason- 
able designs of his enemies, viewing him as the cham- 
pion of ecclesiastical supremacy, and attributing to him 
all the evils of the unsuccessful war with England, thev 
looked upon his death as an advantage to the Scottisn 
kingdom. The men of that age were too much accus- 
tomed to such violent deeds to entertain a great abhor- 
rence of assassination, and such feelings and crimes 
were not confined to the adherents of the Reformation. 
A few years afterwards Martinuzzi, the cardinal arch- 
bishop of Gran, was murdered by the express command 
of a Koman Catholic prince, Ferdinand, king of the 
Romans, brother of the Emperor Charles V. 

BEATRICE, the county seat of Gage County, Neb. 
Population about 5,300. 

BEATTIE, James, a Scottish poet and writer on 
philosophy, was bom at Laurencekirk on the 25th 
October 1735. His father, a small farmer and shop- 
keeper, died when he was very young; but an elder 
brother took charge of the boy, ana observing his apti- 
tude for learning sent him to Marischal College, Aberdeen, 
where he gained a bursary. In 1770 Beattie published 
his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, 
in which he attacked Helvetius and Hume, and advo- 
cated the doctrine afterwards familiarly known ^ as that 
of Common Sense. The work had an astonishing suc- 
cess, and its author, when on a visit to London in 1773, 
was received with the greatest honor by the king him- 
self. About the same time he received a pension of 
£200 a year. In 1773 and 1774 he publishea the first 
and second parts of The Minstrel, wnich were received 
with great favor, and gained for the author a fresh ac- 
cession of popularity. His later writings are partly 
literary, such as the Essays, 1776; Dissertations, 1783, 
partly philosophical; Evidences 0/ Christianity, 1781; 
Elements of Moral Science, ly^O-^^, He died on the 
18th August 1803. Beattie's fame rests now solely on 
his poems. 

BEA UC AIRE, a town of France, department of 
Gard, and arrondissement of Nimes. It is situated on 
Uie right bank of the Rhone, opposite Tarascon, ¥rith 



which it is connected by a magnificent suspension 
bridm of four spans and 1456 feet in length. 

BEAUCHAMP, Au^honse de, Frendi historian 
and man of letters, was bom at Monaco in 1767, and 
died in 1832. 

BEAUHARNAIS, EuctNB de, step-son of Napol- 
eon I., was bom at Paris September 3, I78i. Hb 
father, the Vicomte Alexanderde Beauhamais, nad been a 
member x>f the National Convention, and for some time 
commanded the republican army of the north. His 
want of success in the field, however, brought him un- 
der the suspicion of the revolutionary lea&rs ; he was 
tried on a charge of treason, and was execnted on the 
23d June, 1794. After the marriage of Napoleon with the 
Vicomtesse Josephine Beauhamais, her son Eugtoe ac- 
companied the army of I taly and acted as aide-de-camp to 
his stepfather, by whom he was treated with the grea!tesi 
affection and favor. He was rapidly promoted, and after 
the establishment of the empire, was made prince and 
viceroy of Italy. In 1806 he was adopted by Napoleon. 
During the great campaign of 1809 he had the com- 
mand of the Italian army, and by his skilfol conduct 
materially contributed to the success cff the emperor. 
In 1812 he commanded a corps of the grand army ; and 
after the departure of Napoleon and flight of Murat, 
had the entire charge of the broken French forces. The 
disastrous campaigns of 1813 and 1814 deprived him of 
his viceroyalty, and he retired to Munich, the capital o( 
the kingof Bavaria, whose daughter he had married in 
1806. There he continued to reskie, with the title of 
duke of Leuchtenberg, till his death in 1824. 

BEAUMANOIR, Phiuppe de, a distingnished 
writer on French law, was bom in the early part of the 
13th centunr, and died in 1296. 

BEAUMARCHAIS, Pierre Augustin Cason, 
better known by his acquired title De Beaumarchais, 
the most distinguished of French comic dramatists next to 
Moli^re, and a man of much importance during the 
pre-Revolutionary period, was born at Paris in 1732. 
His father, who was a watchmaker, brought' him up to 
the same trade. He was an unusually precodoiis and 
lively boy, shrewd, sagacious, and, like nis sisters, pas- 
sionately fond of music, and imbued with a strong de- 
sire for rising in the world. At the age of twenty-one 
he invented a new escapement for watchOl, which was 

{>irated by a rival maker. Young Caron at once pub- 
ished his grievance in the newspapers, and had the 
matter referred to the Academy of Sciences, who de 
cided in his favor. This af&ir brought him into notice 
at court ; he was appointed, or at least chose to dub 
himself, watchmaker to the king, who had called him in 
to examine Mme. de Pompadour's watch. His hand- 
some figure and cool assurance soon began to make 
their way at court, where he so earnestly desired to ob- 
tain a footing. Nor was it long before his wish was 
accomplished The wife of an old court official, con- 
ceiving a violent passion for young Caron, pursuaded 
her husband to make over his office to his rival, and on 
her husband's death, a few months later, married the 
handsome watchmaker. Caron at the same time as- 
sumed the title De Beaumarchais; and four years later, 
by purchasing the ofhce of secretary to the king, ob- 
tained a title of nobility. 

While employed at court his musical talents brouj^t 
him under the notice of the king's sisters, who engaged 
him to teach them the harp. In this way he obtained 
access to the best society of the court, and by a fortu- 
nate accident was enabled to make use of the prince^es^ 
friendship to confer a slight favor on the great badcer 
Paris-Duverney. Duvemev testified his gratitnde in a 
most substantial manner ; he bestowed shares in sewcal 
of his speculations upon Beaumarchais, and the ]mM^ 



BE A 



855 



whose business talents were of a high order, soon real- 
ized a handsome forttme. In 1764 he took a joamey to 
Spaiiiy partly with commercial objects in view, oat 
principally on account of the Clavijo afiair, which was 
afterwards made famous by the Goesman memoirs, and 
by Goethe's drama. Four years later he made his first 
essay on the stage with the sentimental drama Euginie^ 
which was followed after an intepal of two years by 
Les Deux Amis. Neither had more than moderate suc- 
cess, and it was clear that, though the author might be 
unaware of it, his strength did not lie in the grave and 
sentimental. Meantime the clouds of the first mat 
storm in Beaumarchais*s life were gathering round nim. 
He was very generally disliked as an upstart, and there 
were many ready to seise the first opportunity of hurl- 
ing him from the position he had attained. Duvemey, 
his great benefactor, died in 1770; but some time before 
his death a duplicate settlement of the afiairs between 
him and Beaumarchais had been drawn up, in which 
the former acknowledged himself debtor to the latter 
for 16,000 francs. Duvemey's heir. Count la Blache, 
a bitter enemy of B^Eiumarchais, denied the validity of 
this document, though without directly stigmatizing it 
as a forgery. The matter was put to trial. Beaumar- 
chais gained his cause, but his adversary at once carried 
the case before the parliament, and in the early part of 
1773 ^^"^ ^ody was preparing to give its decision on the 
report of one of its members, M. Goezman. Beaumar- 
chais was well nigh in despair ; ruin stared him in the 
face ; he was looked upon not only with dislike but with 
suspicion and contempt. Worst of all, he was unable 
to obtain an interdew with Goezman, in whose 
hands his fate rested. At last, just before the day 
on which the report was to be given in, he was 
informed privately that, by presenting 200 louis 
to Mme. Goezman and 15 to her secretary, 
the desired interview mieht take place; if the result 
should prove unfavorable tne money would be refunded. 
The money was sent and the interview obtained ; but 
the decision was adverse, and 200 louis were returned, 
^15 going as business expenses to the secretary. 
Beaumarchais, who had learned that there was no secre- 
tary save Mme. Goezman herself, insbted on restitution 
of the I C louis, and the lady, in her passion, denied all 
knowledge of the affair. Her husband, who seems not 
to have been cognizant of the transaction at first, and 
who, doubtless, thought the defeated litigant would be 
easily put down, at once brought an accusation against 
him in parliament for an attempt to corrupt a judge. 
The battle was fought chiefly through the Mimotres^ or 
reports published by the adverse parties, and in it Beau- 
marchais*s success was most complete. All his best 
<pialities were drawn forth by the struggle ; his wit, en- 
ergy, and cheerfulness seemed to be doubled; and for 
vivacity of style, fine satire, and broad humor, his 
famous M^moires have never been surpassed. Even 
Voltaire was constrained to envy them. Nor was the 
efiect of the struggle apparent only in Beaumarchais him- 
sdf. He was attacking the parliament through one of 
its members, and the parliament was the universally de- 
tested body formed by the chancellor Maupeou. The 
M/moires were, therefore hailed with general delight ; 
and the author, from being perhaps the most unpopular 
man in France, became at once tne idol of the people. 
The decision in the case, however, so far as law 
Jjent, was against him. The parliament condemned 
him au bldme^ — 1>., to civic degradation ; but he ob- 
^ed restitution of his rights within two vears, and 
finally triumphed over his adversary La Blache. 

During the next few years his employment was of a 
somewhat singular nature. He was engaged by the 
■^g in secret service, principally to destroy certain 



scurrilous pamphlets concerning Mme. dti Barry, the 
publication of which had been threatened. His visits to 
England, on these missions, in which he was very sue- 
cesnul, led him to take a deep interest in the impending 
struggle between the colonies and the mother country. 
His sympathies were entirely with the Americans; and 
by his unwearied exertions he succeeded in inducing the 
French Government to give ample, though private assist- 
ance in moner and arms to the msurgent colonists. He 
himself, partly on his own account and partly as an 
agent, carriea on an enormous traffic with America. 
During the same period he^ had laid the foundations of 
a more enduring fame by his two famous comedies, the 
best of their cU^ since those of Moli^re. The earlier, 
Le Barbeir de Seville, after a short prohibition, was 
put on the stage in 1775. '^^^ ^^^ representation was 
a complete failure. Beaumarchais haa overloaded the 
last scene with allusions to the facts of his own case and 
the whole action of the piece was labored and heavy. 
But with undaunted energy he set to work, cut down 
and remodelled the piece in time for the second repre- 
sentation, when it achieved a complete success. The 
intrigues which were necessary in order to obtain a 
license for the second and more famous comedy Z^il/<7r- 
riage de Figaro are highly amusing, and throw much 
light on the unsettled state of public sentiment at the 
time. The play wa$ completed m 1781, but the opposi- 
tion of Louis aVL, who saw its dangerous tendencies, 
was not overcome till 17S4. The comedy had an un- 
precedented success. The principal character in both 
pla3rs, the world-famous /i>a/v, is a completely original 
conception; and for mingled wit, shrewdness, gaiety, 
and philosophic reflection, may not unjustly be ranked 
alongside ot the great Tartuffe. To English readers the 
Figaro plays are generally known through the adapta- 
tions of them in the grand operas of Mozart and Rossini; 
but in France they long retained popularity as acting 
pieces. Beaumardiais's later productions, the bombas- 
tic opera Tarare, and the drama TAe Citiltv Mother, 
which was very popular, are hardly worthy of nis genius. 

By his writmgs Beaumarchais contributed greatly, 
though ouite unconsciously, to hurry on the events that 
led to tne Revolution. At heart he hardly seems to 
have been a republican, and the new state of afiairs did 
not benefit him. His popularity had been somewhat 
lessened by the afiairs Bergasse and Mirabeau, and his 
great wealth and splendid mansion exposed him to the 
enmity of the envious. A speculation into which he 
entered, to supply the Convention with muskets from 
Holland, proved a ruinous failure. He was charged 
with treason to the Republic, and was obliged for some 
time to take refuge m Holland and England. His 
memoirs entitled, Mes Six £poques, detailing his suffer- 
ings under the Republic, are not unworthy of the Goez- 
man period. His courage and happy disposition never 
deserted him ; he was gay and hopetiu up to the time of 
his death, which took place suddenly in May 1799. 

BEAUMARIS (formerly Bonorvor, and deriving its 
present French name of Beau Marais from Edward L ), 
a borough and market-town of Anglesea, North Wales. 

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. Six or seven 
years before the birth of his brother in art, John 
Fletcher was bom in December 1579 at Rye in Sussex. 
Richard Fletcher, his father, afterwards queen's 
chaplain, dean of Peterborough, and bishop successively 
of Bristol, Worcester, and London, was then minister 
of the parish in which the son was bom who was to 
make their name immortal That son was just turned 
of seven when the dean distinguished and disgraced 
himself as the spiritual tormentor of the last moments 
on earth of Mary Stuart. When not quite twelve he 
was admilted pensioner of Bene*t College, Cambridge, 



8s6 



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and two ymn Uter was made one of the Bible-clerks: 
of this college Bishop Fletcher had been president 
twenty years earlier, and six months before nis son's 
admission had received from its authorities a first letter 
of thanks for various benefactions, to be followed next 
year by a second. Four years later than this, when 
John Fletcher wanted nve or six months of his 
seventeenth year, the bishop died suddenly of over 
much tobacco and the displeasure of Queen Elisabeth 
at his second marriage, — this time, it appears, with a 
lady of such character as figures something too frequently 
on the stase of his illustrious son. He left eight 
children by nis first marriage in such distress that their 
uncle. Dr. Giles Fletcher, author of a treatise on the 
Russian commonwealth which is still held in some 
repute, was obliged to draw up a petition to the queen 
on their behalf, which was supix>rted by the intercession 
of Essex, but with what result is uncertain. From this 
date we know nothing of the fortunes of. John 
Fletcher, till the needy orphan boy of seventeen reap- 
pears as the brilliant and triumphant poet whose name 
IS linked for all time with the yet more glorious name 
of Francis Beaumont, third and youngest son of Sir 
Francis Beaumont of Grace-Dieu, one of the justices of 
the Common Pleas, — bom, according to general report, 
in 1586, but, according to more than one apparently irre- 
fragable document, actually bom at least a year earlier. 
The ftrst record of his existence is the entry of his name, 
together with those of his elder brothers Henry and 
John, as a gentleman-commoner of Broadffates Hall, 
Oxford, now supplanted by Pembroke College. But 
most lovers of his fame will care rather to remember the 
admirable lines of Wordsworth on the ** eager child " 
who played among the rocks and woodlands of Grace- 
Dieu ; though it may be doubted whether even the boy's 
first verses were of^ the peaceful and pastoral character 
attributed to them by the great laureate of the lakes. 
That passionate and nerv senius which was so soon and 
for so short a time to " shiuce the buskined stage '* with 
heroic and tragic notes of passion and of sorrow, of 
scorn and rage and slighted love and jealousy, must 
surely have sought vent from the first m fancies of a 
more ardent and ambitious kind ; and it would be a 
likelier conjecture that when Frank Beaumont (as we 
know on more authorities than one that he was alwajrs 
called by his contemporaries, even in the full flush of his 
adult fame — " nevermore than Frank,** says Heywood) 
went to college at the ripe age of twelve, he had already 
committed a tragedy or two in emulation of Tambur- 
laine AndronUus, or Jeronymo, The date of his 
admission was 4th February 1597 ; on April 22d of the 
following year his father died ; and on the 3d of Novem- 
ber 1600, naving left Oxford without taking his degree, 
the boy of fifteen was entered a member of the Inner 
Temple, his two brothers standing sponsors on the 
grave occasion. But the son of Judge Beaumont was 
no fitter for success at the bar than the son of Bishop 
Fletcher for distinction in the church: it is equally 
difficult to imagine either poet invested with either gown. 
Two years later appeared the poem Salmacis and 
Hermaphroditus^ a voluptuous and voluminous expan- 
sion of the O vidian legend, not on the whole discreditable 
to a lad of seventeen, fresh from the popular love-poems 
of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds 
in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and 
conceits. At twenty-two Beaumont prefixed to the 
magnificent masterpiece of Ben Jonson some noticeable 
verses in honor of his " dear friend '* the author ; and in 
the same year (1607) apf>eared the anonymous comedy 
of The WomanHaUr^ usually assigned to Fletcher 
alone ; but being as it is in the main a crude and puerile 
imitation of Jonson's manner, and certainly more like a 



man's work at twenty-two than at twentv-eigfat, inlcnxa) 
evidence would seem to justify, or at £east to < 
those critics who ki the teeth of bi^ 1 
tradition would transfer from Fletcher to ] 
principal responsibility for this first play that can be 
traced to the nand of either. As Fletdier also prcfijoed 
to the first edition of Volpcm a copy of commend- 
atory verses, we may presume that their common 
admiration for a common friend was among the earliest 
and strongest influences whidi drew together the 
two great poets whose names were thenceforward to be 
forever indivisible. During the dim eleven years be- 
tween the death, of his fatho- and the dawn of nis Came, 
we cannot but imagine that the career of Fletcher had 
been nnprosperous as well as obscure. From seventeen 
to twenty-eieht his youth may presumably have been 
spent in such painful stru^;ks for success, if not lor 
sustenance, as were never Known to his younger col- 
league, who, as we have seen, was entered at Oxford a 
few months after Fletcher must in all likelihood have 
left Cambridge to try his hick in London ; a venture 
most probably resolved on as soon as the yoadi had 
found his family reduced by the father's death to such 
minous straits that any smoother course can hardly 
have been open to him. Entering coUe^e at the same 
age as Fletcner had entered six years earlier, Beumont 
had before him a brighter and briefer line of Itfe than 
his elder. But whatever may have been their respective 
situations when, either by happy chance or, as Mr. 
Dyce suggests, by the good offices of Jonson, they were 
first brought together, their intimacy soon becajne so 
much closer tlun that of ordinary brothers that the 
household which they shared as bachelors was conducted 
on such thoroughly communistic principles as might 
have satisfied the most trenchant theorist who ever pro- 
claimed, as the cardinal point of his doctrine, a com- 
plete and absolute community of bed and board, with 
all £oods thereto appertaining. 

Hardly eight years of toil and triumph, of joyous and 
glorious life, were spared by destiny to the younger poet 
between the date assigned to the first radiant revelation 
of his genius in Philaster and tlie date which marks the 
end of all its labors. On the 6th of March 1616 Francis 
Beaumont died, — according to Tonson and tradition, 
" ere he was thirty years of age," out this we have seen 
to be inconsistent with the registry of his entrance at 
Oxford. If we may trust the elegiac evkience of friends, 
he died of his own genius and fieiy overwork of brain ; 
yet from the magnificent and masculine beauty of hb 
portrait one should cei^nly never have guessed that 
any strain of spirit or stress of invention comd have worn 
out so long before its time so fair and royal a temper 
for so bright and affluent a soul. That spring of 1616, 
we may note in . passing, was the darkest that ever 
dawned upon England or the work! ; for, just fortj- 
eight days afterwards, it witnessed, on the 23d of Apnl, 
tl]^ removal from earth of the mightiest genius that ever 
dwelt among men. Scarcely more than a month and a 
half divided the death-days of Beaumont and Shakespeare. 
Dyine when just four months short of fony-sixy 
Fletcher had thus, as well as we can now calculate, alto» 
gether some fourteen years and six months more of life 
than the poet who divides with him the imperial inherit- 
ance of their common glory. 

The perfect union in genius and in friendship which 
has made one name of ihe two names of these great 
twin brothers in song is a thing so admirable ax^ so 
delightful to remember, that it would seem ungradoQs 
and unkindly to claim for either a precedence which we 
may be sure he would have been eager to disdaim. 
But if a distinction must be made between the Dioscuri 
of English poetry, we must admif> that Beamnont Wis 
Digitized by V^jOC 



BEA 



857 



the twin of heavenlicr birth. Few thm^ are stranger 
thail the avowal of so great and exquisite a critic as 
Coleridge, that he could trace no faintest line of demar- 
cation between the pla3rs which we owe mainly to 
Beaumont and the plays which we owe solely to 
Fletcher. In the plays which we know by evidence 
surer than the most trustworthv tradition to be the 
common work of Beaumont ana Fletcher, there is in- 
deed no trace of such incongruous and incompatible 
(dmixture as leaves the greatest example of romantic 
ragedy — for Cymbeline and the Wtntef^s TaUy 
■hough not guiltless of blood, are in their issue no more 
tragic than Pericles or the Tempest — an unique instance 
of glorious imperfection, a hybrid of heavenly and other 
than heavenly breed, disproportioned and divine. But 
throughout these noblest ot the works inscribed gener- 
ally with the names of both dramatists we trace on 
every other page the touch of a surer hand, we hear at 
every other turn the note of a deeper voice, than we 
can ever recognise in the work of Fletcher alone. Al- 
though the beloved friend of Jonson, and in the field of 
comedy his loving and stuaious disciple, vet in that 
tragic field where his freshest bajrs were gathered Beau- 
mont was the worthiest and the closest follower of 
Shakespeare. In the external but essential matter of 
expression by rhythm and metre he approves himself 
always a student of Shakespeare's second manner, of the 
stjde in which the graver or tragic part of his historical 
or romantic plays is mostly written ; doubtless, the most 
perfect model that can be studied by any poet who, like 
Beaumont, is great enough to be in no dlangerof sinking 
to the rank of a mere copjrist, but while studious of the 
perfection set before him is yet conscious of his own 
personal and proper quality of genius, and enters the 
presence of tne master not as a seivant but as a son. 
The generaJ style of his tra^c or romantic verse is as 
simple and severe in its purity of note and regularity of 
outline as that of Fletcher's is by comparison lax, effu- 
sive, exuberant. The matchless fluency and rapidity 
with which the elder brother pours forth the stream of 
his smooth swift verse gave probably the first occasion 
for that foolish rumor which has not yet fallen duly 
silent, but still murmurs here and there its suggestion 
that the main office of Beaumont was to correct and 
contain within bounds the over-flowing invention of his 
colleague. The poet who while yet a youth had earned 
by his unaided mastery of hand such a crown as was be- 
stowed by the noble love and the loving "envy" of 
Ben Jonson was, according to this tradition, a mere pre- 
cocious pedagogue, fit only to revise and restrain the too 
liberal effusions of his elder in genius as in yeare. Now, 
in every one of the plays common to both, the real diffi- 
culty for a critic is not to trace the hand of Beaumont, 
out to detect the touch of Fletcher. Throughout the 
better part of every such play, and above all of their two 
masterpieces, Philaster and The Maid^s Tragedy, it 
should be clear to the most sluggish or cursory of read- 
^s that he has not to do with the author of VaUntinian 
and The Double Marriage, In those admirable trag- 
edies the style is looser, more fluid, more feminine. 
From the first scene to the last we are swept as it were 
along the race of a running river, always at full flow of 
light and buoyant melody, with no dark reaches or 
perilous eddies, no stagnant pools or sterile sand- 
oanks; its bright course only varied by sudden 
iBpids or a strongs ripple here and there, but in rough 
plaoes or smooth still stirred and tfNirkling with sum- 
mer wind and sun. But in those tragic poems of which 
the dominant note is the note of Beaumont's genius a 
subtler chord of thought is sounded, a deeper key of 
emotion is touched, than ever was struck by Fletcher. 
The Eghter genius is palpably subordinate to the 



stronger, and loyally submits itself to the in^iresslon of a 
loftier spirit. It is true that this distinction is never 
grave enough to produce a discord: it is also true that the 
plays in which the predominance of Beaumont's mind and 
style is generalhr perceptible make up altogether bat a 
small section of tne work that bears their names con- 
jointly; but it is no less true that within this section 
the most precious part of that work is comprised. Out- 
side it we shall find no figures so firmly drawn, no sudi 
clearness of outline, no such cunning of hands as we 
recognize in the three great studies of Bellario, E^^idne, 
and Aspatia. In his male characters, as for instance in 
the parts of Philaster and Arbaces, Beaumont also is 
apt to show something of that exaggeration or incon- 
sistency for which his colleague is perhaps more fre- 
c{uently and more heavily to blame ; but in these there 
i« not a jarring note, not a touch misplaced ; unless, 
indeed, a rigid criticism may condemn as unfeminine 
and incongruous with the pjentle beauty of her pathetic 
patience the 'device by which Aspatia procures herself 
the death desired at the hand ^f Amintor. The noble 
scen^ of regicide, which it was found expedient to 
cancel during the earlier years of the Restoration, may 
indeed be the work of Fletcher ; but the part of Evadne 
must undoubtedly be in the main assigned to the more 
potent hand of his fellow. There is a fine harmony of 
character between her naked audacity in the second act 
and her fierce repentance in the fourth, which is not 
unworthy a disciple of the tragic school of Shakespeare; 
Fletcher is less observant of tne due balance, less heed- 
ful of the nice proportions of good and evil in a faulty 
and fiery nature, compounded of perverse instinct and 
passionate reaction. From him we might have had a 
figure as admirable for vigor of handling, but hardly in 
such perfect keeping as this of Beaumont's Evadne, 
the murderess- Magdalen, whose penitence is of one 
crimson color with her sin. Nor even in Fletcher's 
Ordella, worthy as the part is throughout even of the 
precious and exquisite praise of Lamb, is there any 
such cunning touch of tenderness or delkate perfume 
of pathos as in the parts of Bellario and Aspatia. 
These have in them a bitte^ sweetness, a subtle pun- 

fency of mortal sorrow and tears of divine delight, 
eyond the reach of Fletcher. His highest studies of 
female character have dignity, energy, devotion of the 
heroic t3rpe ; but they never touch us to the quick, never 
waken in tls any finer and more profound sense 
than that of applause and admiration. There is a modest 
pathos now and then in his pictures of feminine 
submission and slighted or outraged love; but this 
submission he is apt to make too servile, this love 
too dog-like in its abject devotion to retain that 
tender reverence which so many generations of 
readers have paid to the sweet memories of 
Aspatia and Bellario. To excite compassion was 
enough for Fletcher, as in the masculine parts of lus 
work it was enough for him to excite wonder, to sus- 
tain curiosity, to goad and stimulate by any vivid and 
violent means the interest of readers or spectators. 
The single instance of noble pathos, the one scene which 
he has left us which appeals to the higher and purer 
kind of pity, is thedeatn of the chikl Hengo in Btmduca^ 
— a scene which of itself would have sufficed to enroll 
his name for ever on the list of our great tragic poets. 
To him we may probably assign the whole merit of that 
fiery and high-toned tragedy, with all its spirit and 
splendor of national and martial passion ; the conscious 
and demonstrative exchange of courtesy between Roman 
and Briton, which is one of the leading notes of the 
poem, has in it a touch of the overstrains and artificial 
chivalry characteristic of Fletcher ; yet the parts of 
Caratach and Poenius may be counted among the loftiest 



858 



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and molt eqnal of his crettioQt. But no rarer tesc or bet- 
ter example can be taken of the distinctive aualitv which 
denotes the graver genins of either poet than that sup- 
plied by a comparison of Beaumont's Triumph of Lffve 
with Fletcher's Triumfh of Doath, Each little olay, 
in the brief course of its single act, gives proof of the 
peculiar touch and spedal tnck of its author's hand : 
the deeper and more delicate passion of Beaumont, the 
rapid and ardent activity of Fletcher, have nowhere 
found a more noticeable vent for the expression respect- 
ively of the most tender and profound simplicity of quiet 
sweetness, the most buoyant and impatient energy of 
tragic emotion. 

In the wider field of their comic or romantic drama it 
is yet easier to distinguish the respective work of either 
hand. The bias of Fletcher was towards mixed comedy ; 
his lightest and wildest humor is ustially crossed or tem- 
pered by an infusion of romance ; like Shakespeare in 
this one point at least, he has left no single play without 
some touch on it of serious interest, of poeAc eloquence 
or fancy, however slight and fugitive. Beaumont, evi- 
dently under the imperious influence of Ben JonsX)n's 
more rigid theories, seems rather to have bent his genius 
with the whole force of a resolute will into the form or 
moW prescril)ed for comedy by the elder and greater 
comic poet. In pure comedy, varied with broad farce 
and mock-heroic parody, Beaumont was the earliest as 
well as the ablest disciple of the master whose mantle 
was afterward to be shared among the academic poets of 
a 3rounger generation, the Randolphs and Cartwrights 
who sought shelter under the shadow of its voluminous 
folds. The best example of the school of Jonson to be 
found outside the ample range of his own work is The 
Scornful Lady, a comedy whose exceptional success and 
prolonged popularity must have been due rather to the 
broad effect of its forcible situations, its wealth and 
variety of ludicrous incidents, and the strong gross humor 
of its dialogue, than to any finer quality of style, inven- 
tion, or character. It is the only work of Beaumont and 
Fletcher which a critic who weighs the meaning of his 
words can admit to be as coarse as the coarsest work of 
Ben Jonson. They are prone, indeed, to indulse else 
where in a wanton and exuberant license of talk ; and 
Fletcher, at least, is liable to confuse the shades of right 
and wrong, to deface or efface the boundary lines of 
good and evil, to stain the ermine of virtue and 
palliate the nakedness of* vice with the same inde- 
corous and incongruous laxity of handling. Often, in 
mere haste to despatch the business of a play, to huddle 
up a catastrophe or throw out some particular scene 
into sharp and immediate relief, he will sacrifice all seem- 
liness and consistency of character to t)ie present aim of 
stage effect, and the instant impression of strong inci- 
dent or audacious eloquence. But in this play both 
style and sentiment are throughout on a lower level, the 
action and emotion are of a baser kind than usual ; the 
precept of Aristotle and the practice of Jonson have been 
so carefully observed and exaggerated tnat it mi^ht al- 
most be said to offer us in one or two places an imitation 
not merely of the sorrier but of the sorriest qualities of 
human nature; and full as it is of spontaneous power 
and humorous invention, the comedy extolled by the 
moral Steele (with just as much of reservation as |)er- 
mits him to deprecate the ridicule cast upon the clerical 
character) is certainly more offensive to artistic law and 
<esthetic judgment by the general and ingrained coarse- 
ness of its tone, than the tragic comedy denounced by 
the immoral Dryden as exceeding in licence his own 
worst work and that of his fellow playwrights; an impu- 
tation, be it said in passing, as groundless &8 the protest 
pleaded on their behalf is impudent; for though we 
may hardly agree with the uncompromising panegyrist 



who commends that j;>lay in particnlar to the approtalof 
** the austere scarlet ^ 'remembering, perhaps, that Aris- 
tophanes was the chosen bedfellow of Chrysostom), 
there is at least no such offense against art or taste m 
the eccentricity of its situations or the daring of its dia- 
logue. The buoyant and fadle grace dt Fletcher's 
style carries him lightly across quagmires in whidi a 
heavier-footed poet, or one of slower tread, would have 
stuck fast, ana come forth bemired to the knees. To 
Beaumont his stars had given as birthright the gifts of 
tragic pathos and ^ssion, of tender power, and broad 
strong numor ; to Fletcher had been allotted a more fiery 
and fruitful force of invention, a more aerial ease and 
swiftness of action, a more various readiness and fulness 
of bright exuberant speech. The genius of Beaumont 
was deeper, sweeter, nobler than his elders ; the gmius 
of Fletcner more brilliant, more supple, morepr<^igal, 
and more voluble than his friend's. Without a taint or 
a shadow on his fame of such imitative servility as marks 
and degrades the mere henchman or satelite of a stronger 
poet, Beaumont may fairly be* said to hold of Shaks- 
peare in his tragedy, in his comedy of Jonson ; in each 
case rather as a kinsman than as a client, as an ally than 
as a follower; but the more special province of Fletcher 
was a land of his own discovering, where no later colo- 
nist has ever had power to settle or to share his reign. 
With the mixed or romantic comedy of Shakspeare it 
has nothing in common except the admixture or 
alternation of graver with lighter interest, of serious 
with humorous action. Nothing is here of his magic 
exaltation or charm of fairy empire. The rare and r^ 
adventures of Fletcher on that forbidden track are too 
sure to end in pitiful and shameful failure. His crown 
of praise is to have created a wholly new and wholly 
delightful form of mixed comedy or dramatic romance, 
dealing merely with the humors and sentiments of men, 
their passions and their chances; to have woven of all 
these a web of emotion and event with such c;ay^ dexter- 
ity, to have blended his colors and combined his effects 
with such exquisite facility and swift light sureness of 
touch, that we may return once and agam from those 
heights and depths of poetry to which access was for- 
bidden him, ready as ever to enjoy as of old the fresh 
incomparable charm, the force and ease and erace of 
life, which fill and animate the radiant world of his 
romantic invention. Neither before him nor after do 
we find, in this his special field of fancy and of work, 
more thsm shadows or echoes of his coming or depart- 
ing genius. Admirable as are his tragedies already 
mentioned, rich in splendid eloouence and strong in 
large grasp of character as is the Roman history oiThe 
False One, full of interest and vigor as is the better part 
of Rollo Duke of Normandy, and sublime in the loveli- 
ness of passion as is the one scene of perfect beauty and 
terror which crowns this latter tragedy, Fletcher may 
claim a yet higher and more special station among his 
great dramatic peers by right of his comic and romantic 
than by right of his tragic and hbtoric plays. Even in 
these he is more a romantic than a tragic poet. The 

?^uaUty of his genius, never sombre or subtle or |>ro- 
ound, bears him always towards fresh air and sunsmne. 
His natural work is in a midday world of fearless boyish 
laughter and hardly bitter tears. There is always more 
of rainbow than of storm in his skies ; their darkest 
shadow is but a tragic twilight. What with him is hot 
the noon of nidit would seem as simshine on the Hotm 
of Ford or Webster. There is but one passage in iU 
these noble plays which lifts us beyoikl a sense of Ae 
stage, which raises our admiration out of speedi into 

I silence, tempers and transfigures our emotions ^rM % 
touch of awe. And this we owe to the genius of tM** 
mont, exalted for an instant to the very tone wjfA. 



BEA 



859 



ncr of Shakespeare's tragedy, when Amintor stands 
between the dead and the d3nng woman whom he has 
unwittingly slain with hand and tongue. Tiie first few 
lines that drop from his stricken lips are probably the 
only verses of Beaumont or Fletcher which might pass 
for Shakespeare's even with a good judge of style — 

" This earth of mine doth tremble,'* &c 

But in Fletcher's tragedy, however we may be thrilled 
and kindled with high contagious excitement, we are 
never awed into dumb delight or dread, never pierced 
with any sense of terror or pity too deep or even deep 
enough for tears. Even his Brunhalts and Martias can 
hardly persuade us to forget for the moment that " they 
do but jest, poison in jest.** A critic bitten with the 
love of classification might divide those plays of Fletcher 
usually ranked together as comedies into three kinds : 
the first he would class under the head of pure comedy, 
the next of heroic or romantic drama, the third of 
mixed comedy and romance ; in this, the last and most 
delightful division of the poet's work the special qual- 
ities of the two former kinds being equally blendea and 
delicately harmonized. The most perfect and trium- 
phant examples of this class are The Spanish CuraU, 
Monsitur Thonias, The Custom of the Countryy and 
The Elder Brother, Next to these, and not too far 
below them, we put The Little French Latuyer, The 
Humorous Lieutenant, Women Pleased^ Beggars* 
Bushy and perhaps we might add 7^ Fair Maid of the 
Inn ; in most if not in all of which the balance of ex- 
ultant and living humor with serious poetic interest of a 
noble and various kind is held with even hand and the 
skill of a natural master. In pure comedy Rule a Wife 
and Have a Wife is the acknowledged and consummate 
masterpiece of Fletcher. Next to it we might class, for 
comic spirit and force of character, Wit without Money , 
The Wildgoose Chase, The Chances, and The Noble 
Gentleman, — a broad poetic farce to whose overflowing 
fim and masterdom of extra^ragance no critic has ever 
done justice but Leigh Hunt, who has ventured, not 
without reason, to match its joyous and preposterous 
audacities of superlative and sovereign foolery with the 
more sharp-edged satire and practical merriment of 
JCing and no /iing, where the prosaic humor of Bessus 
and his swordsmen is as typical of the comic style in 
which Beaumont had been trained up under Ben Jonson 
as the high interest and graduated action of the serious 
part of the play are characteristic of his .more earnest 
genius. Among the purely romantic plays of Fletcher, 
or those in which the comic effect is throughout subor* 
dinate to the romantic. The Knight of Malta seems 
most worthy of the highest place for the noble beauty 
and exaltation of spirit which informs it with a lofty 
life, for its chivalrous union of heroic passion and Cath- 
olic devotion. This poem is the fairest and first exam- 
ple of those sweet fantastic paintings in rose-color and 
azure of visionary chivalry and ideal holiness, by dint 
of which the romance of more recent da3rs has sought 
to cast the glamour of a mirage over the darkest and 
deadliest " ages of faith." The pure and fervent elo- 
quence of the style is in perfect keeping with the high 
romantic interest of character and story. In the same 
class we may rank among the best samples of Fletcher's 
workmanship The Pilgrim, The Loyal Subject, A Wife 
for a Month, Lovers Pilgrimage, and The Lover's Pro- 
^fss, — rich all of them in exquisite writing, in varied 
incident, in brilliant effects and graceful or passionate 
interludes. In The Coxcomb and The Honest Man's 
Fortune — two plays which, on the whole, can hardly 
^ counted among the best of their class — there are 
tones of homelier emotion, touches of a simpler and 
more pathetic interest than usual ; and here, as in the 



two admirable first scenes between Leucippus and 
Bacha, which relieve and redeem from contempt the 
tragic burlesque of Cupids Revenge, the note of Beau- 
mont's manner is at once discernible. 

Even the most rapid revision of the work done by 
these great twin poets must impress every capable student 
with a sense of the homage due to this living witness of 
their large and liberal genius. The loss of their names' 
from the roll of Engli^ poetry would be only less than 
the loss of the few greatest inscribed on it. Nothing 
could supply the want of their tragic, their comic or 
romantic drama ; no larger or more fiery planet can 
ever arise to supplant or to eclipse the twin lights of our 
zodiac. Whatever their faults of shortcoming or excess 
there is in their very names or the mere thoupit of their 
common work a kind of special and personal attraction 
for all true lovers of high dramatic poetry. 

BEAUNE, the chief town of an arrondissement in 
France, in the department of C6te-d'0r, situated on the 
River Bourzeoise, twenty- three miles S.S.W. of Dijon, 
on the railway from Pans to Lyons. 

BEAUSOBRE, Isaac de, a learned Protestant 
writer, of French origin, was born at Niort in 1659 and 
died in 1738, aged seventy-nine, after having published 
several works, 

BEAUVAIS, a town of France, capital of an arron- 
dissement in the department of Oise. 

BEAVER, the English name of a genus of Mam- 
mals belonging to the order Rodentia, tne two known 
species of whicn are among the largest members of that 
group. Both beavers, European and American, mea- 
sure about 2 feet in length, exclusive of the tail, 
which b about 10 inches long, and are covered with the 
fur to which they owe their chief commercial value. 
This consists of two kinds of hair, — the one close-set, 
silky, and of a greyish color; the other much coarser 
and longer, and of a reddish brown. Beavers are essen- 
tially aquatic in their habits, never traveling by land 
unless driven to it by necessity. Their hind feet are 
webbed to the nails, and in swimming those only are 
used, the front legs remaining motionless by the side. 
They differ from all other rodents in possessing a broad 
horizontally flattened tail, somewhat oval in form and 
covered with scales, which they use as an aid to their 
progress through the water, and not as a trowel for 
plastering their mud houses as was formerly supposed. 
The front incisor teeth in each jaw have a snarp chisel- 
like edge, and are so formed as to preserve this through 
life. They consist of an outer layer of orange-colored 
enamel, and a broad inner la3rer of a softer substance. 
As the creature gnaws, the softer material is worn away 
more rapidly than the enamel, which thus protrudes in 
a sharp ridge. There is a continuous growth at the 
roots of those teeth to* repair the constant waste that 
goes on at the cutting edge, so that should one of the 
mcisors be destroyed, the opposite tooth, meeting with 
no check to its enlargement, will grow to an enormobs 
length; and beavers have been found in which this 
abnormal growth had proved fatal by preventing the 
other teeth from coming together. Tne enamel is ex- 
ceedingly hard; and, until superseded by files, those 
teeth, fixed in wooden handles, were used by the North 
American Indians in carving their weapons of bone. 

The European Beaver ( Castor fibre) was at one time 
an inhabitant of the British Isles, having been found, 
according to Pennant, in certain Welsh rivers as late as 
the I2th century, while fossil remains of it occur in 
various parts of the country. In Scandinavia beavers 
are now extinct, — the last known specimen having been 
killed in 1844. Isolated pairs are still occasionally met 
with on thfe banks of the Rhone, the Weser, and the 
Elbe; and a considerable number are to be found in 



86o 



BEC 



one of the parks belongmg to the emperor of Austria, 
on the banks of the Danube, where they are strictly 
preserved. 

The American Beaver {Castor canadensU) extends 
over that part of the American continent included 
between the Arctic circle and the tropic of Cancer; 
owing» however, to the firadual spread of population 
over part of this area, ana still more to the enormous 
quantity of skins that, towards the end of last century 
and the beginning of the present, were exported to 
Europe, numbering about 200^000 aanually, this species 
was in imminent danger of extirpation. More recentlv 
the employment of silk and of the fiir of the South 
American Coypu in the manufacture of hats, so lessened 
the demand for beaver skins that the trapping of these 
animals became unprofitable; and being thus little 
sought after for many years, they have again become 
abundant in such of their old haunts as have not vet been 
occupied by man, so that the trade in beaver skins has 
now nearly attained its former proportions. The Ameri- 
can Beaver is essentially social, inhabiting lakes, ponds, 
and rivers, as well as those narrrow creeks which con- 
nect the lakes together. They generally, however, 
prefer flowing waters, probably on account of the ad- 
vanta^ afforded by the current lor transporting the 
matenals of their dwellings. They also prefer deepish 
water, no doubt because it ]rields a better protec- 
tion from the frost. When they build in small 
creeks or rivers, the waters of which are liable 
to dry or to be drained off, instinct leads them 
to the formation of dams. These dlfler in shape 
according to the nature of particular localities. 
Where the water has little motion the dam is almost 
straight ; where the current is considerable it is curved, 
with its convexity towards the stream. The materials 
made use of are drift wood, ^reen willows, birch, and 
poplars ; also mud and stones mtermixed in such a man- 
ner as must evidently contribute to the strength of the 
dam ; but there is no particular method observed, except 
that the work is carried on with a regular sweep, and 
that all the parts are made of equal strength. ** In 

E laces,** says Heame, " which have been long frequented 
y beavers undisturbed, their dams, by frequent repair- 
ing, become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great 
force both of ice and water ; and as the willow, poplar, 
and birch generally take root and shoot up, they by de- 

frees form a kind of regular planted hedge, which I 
ave seen in some places so tall that birds have built 
their nests among the branches.** Their houses are 
formed of the same materials as the dams, with little 
order or regularity of structure, and seldom contain 
more than four old, and six or eight young beavers. It 
not unfrequently happens that some of the larger houses 
have one or more partitions, but these are only posts of 
the main building left by the sagacity of the builders to 
support the roof, for the apartments, as some call them, 
have usually no communication with each other except 
by water. The beavers carry the mud and stones with 
their fore-paws, and the timber between their teeth. 
They always work in the night, and with great expedi- 
tion. They cover their houses late every autumn with 
fresh mud, which freezing when the frost sets in, be- 
comes almost as hard as stone, and thus neither wolves 
nor wolverines can disturb their well-earned repose. 

The flesh of the American Beaver is usually eaten by 
the Indians and the Canadian voyageurs; and when 
roasted in the skin it b esteemed a delicacy. It is said 
to taste like pork. The castoreum of the beaver is a 
substance contained in two pyriform sacs, situated near 
the organs of reproduction, of a bitter taste,- and 
slightly fcetid odor, at one time largely employed as a 
medicme for derangement of the nervous system, as 



hysteria, <S:c., but now little used. Fossil remains of 
both beavers are found in the Tertiary beds of the con- 
tinonts still inhabited by them. 

BEAVER FALLS, an important Pennsylvania town, 
the county seat of Beaver County. Pop. about il,ooa 
It is a railroad and telegraph centre. 

BECCAFUMI, DoMftNico, was a disdngnisfaed 
painter, of the sdiool of Siena at the beginning of the 
i6th century. In the early days of the Tuscan repuWks 
Siena had been in artistic eenius, and almost in poh'tical 
importance, the rival of Florence. But after the great 
plague in 1348 the city declined ; and though her popula- 
tion always comprised an immense number 01 skilled 
artists and artificers, yet her school did not diare in the 
general progress of Italy in the 15th century. About 
tne jrear 1500, indeed, Siena had no native artists of the 
first importance ; and her public and private commissions 
were often ^ven to natives of other cities. But after 
the uncovering of the works of Raphael and Michael 
Angelo at Rome in 1^08, all the schools of Italy were 
stirred with the desire of imitating them. Among 
those accomplished men who now, without the mind 
and inspiration of Raphael or Michael Angelo^ mastered 
a great deal of their manner, and initiated the decadence 
of^ltajian art, several of the most accomplished arose in 
the school of Siena. (See articles Peruzzi and SoD- 
DOMA.) Among these was Domenico, bom about 1488, 
of a peasant, one Giacomo di Pace, who worked on the 
estate of a well-to-do citizen named Lorenzo BeccafumL 
Seeing some sicns of a talent for drawing in his laborer's 
son, Lorenzo Beccafumi took the boy into his service 
and presently adopted him, causing him to learn painting 
from masters of the city. Known afterwards as Domen- 
ico Beccafumi, or by the nickname of Mecarino, signify- 
ing the littleness of his statur^ the peasant's son soon 
gave proof of extraordinary industry and talent. In 
1509 he went to Rome and steeped himself in the manner 
of the great men who had just done their first work in the 
Vatican. The work by which he will longest be 
remembered is that which he did for the celebrated 
pavement of the cathedral of Siena. For a hundred 
and fifty years the best artists of the state had been 
engaged laying down this pavement with vast designs in 
commesso -wonit — white marble, that is, engraved with 
the outlines of the subject in black, and having borders 
inlaid with rich patterns in many colors. From the 
year 1517 to 1544 Beccafumi was engaged in continuing 
this pavement. He made very ingenious improvemenls 
in the technical processes employed, and laid down 
multitudinous scenes from the stories of Ahab and 
Elijah, of Melchisedec, of Abraham, and of Moses. 
These are not so interesting as the simpler work of the 
earlier schools, but are much more celeorated and more 
jealously guarded. Such was their fame that the agents 
of Charles I. of England, at the time when he was 
collecting for Whitehall, went to Siena expressly to try 
and purchase the original cartoons. But their owner 
would not part with them, and they are now the property 
of the cathedral works. The subjects have oeen 
engraved on wood, by the hand, as it seems, of Becca- 
fumi himself, who at one time or another essayed almost 
every branch of fine art. He made a triumphial arch 
and an immense mechanical horse for the procession of 
Charles V. on his entry into Siena. In his later days, 
being a solitary liver and continually at work, he b said 
to have accelerated his death by over-exertion upon the 
processes of bronze-casdng. He died in 1551. 

BECCARIA, Cesar Bonesana, Marquis, a cde* 
brated writer on the principles of jurisprudence aod 
national economy, was bom at Milan in tne year 17^ 
and died in 1793. ' * 

BECCARIA, Giovanni Battista, a dUKi i g ii iim 



B£C— BED 



86i 



electrician and practical astronomer, was bom at Mon- 
dovi on the 2d of October 1716, and died on the 27th of 
May 1 781. Beccaria's name is associated with no great 
discovery in physical science ; but he did much, both in 
the way of experiment and exposition, to spread abroad 
the researches of Franklin and othtrs in the science of 
electricity. 

BECCLES, a market-town and municipal borough, 
in the county of Suffolk, on the right bank of the River 
Waveney, 32 miles N.N.E. of Ipswich. Population in 
1871, 4844. 

BECERRA, Caspar, a distinguished Spanish painter 
and sculptor, was born at Balza m 152a His best work 
was a magnificent figure of the Virgin, which was des- 
troyed during the French war. Becerra died in 157a 
The most competent judges assigned to him the chief 
share in Uie establishment of the fine arts in Spain. 

BECHE-DE-MER, or Trepang, an important food 
luxury among the Chinese, Japanese, and other Eastern 
peoples, connected with the production of which a yerv 
considerable commerce exists in the Eastern Archipel- 
ago, the coasts of New Guinea, and generally on the 
coral reefs of the Pacific. It consists of several |pecies 
of echinoderms, generally referred to the ^enus Holo- 
tkuria ; but very many varieties, widely distributed in 
Eastern seas, are prepared and sold in Chinese and Jap- 
anese markets. The creatures, which exist on coral 
reefs, have bodies from 6 to 1 ^ inches long, shaped like 
a cucumber, hence a name they receive, — sea cucum- 
bers. The skin is sometimes covered with spicules or 
prickles, and sometimes quite smooth, and with 
or without "teats" or ambulacral feet disposed in 
rows. 

BECHER, JoHANN Joachim, a celebrated chemist, 
born at Spire in 1635, and died in 1682, it is said at 
London. 

BECH WANA, Betjuana, the name of a nation ex- 
tending over a large tract of the interior of South 
Africa. There are remains as well as traditions indica- 
ting that they once occupied lands further to the south 
and north of their present boundaries. The country is 
bounded on the W. by what may be called the southern 
Sahara ; on the E. by the Limpopo, and on the N. by 
the Matebele, a tribe which escaped the power of the 
Chaka, the bloody chief of the Zulus. 

The number of the Bechwana has been variously 
estimated, and according to some amounts to more than 
2bo,ooo. Their language is copious, with but few 
slight dialectic differences, being entirely free of the 
Hottentot elements found in the Kaffire and Zulu. The 
power of the language which, like the Kaffire and Zulu, 
belongs to the 6a-nta familv, formerly unwritten, may 
be conceived when it is known, that, besides ele- 
mentary and educational works, the whole of the Bible 
has been translated into it, and is now read by thous- 
ands. 

The Bechwana are divided into numerous tribes, all 
independent of each other, and each governed by its own 
chiefs and councillors. The names of some of the prin- 
cipal tribes are Batlapee, Barolong, Bangwaketse, Bak- 
hat la, Bakuena, Bamangwato, and Batauana, the last 
living near the lake Ngami, first visited by Dr. Living- 
stone. There are numerous minor divisions, with laws 
and customs very similar. With the exception of the 
Balala (the poor inhabiting the country), tliey are not 
nomadic, but live in towns of considerable size, contain- 
ing from 5000 to 40,000. Doubtless, their former war- 
like habits had the tendency to induce them to congre- 
gate for security ; for latterly they live, for the sake of 
agriculture and pasturage, in many formerly uninhabited 
places. 
Though from time immemorial they had been en- 



gaged in constant strife with each other, and thus in- 
ured to warfare, they were no match for the warlike 
Kaffire and butchering Zulu and Matebele. Since the 
introduction of Christianity among the Bechwana, their 
clannish strifes have ceased ; and, being a people of in- 
dustrious habits, and acute observers of wnatever may 
increase their property and comfort, they go in great 
numbers to Cape Colony and other parts where they can 
obtain labor and wages, being prised as servants. This 
enables them to return enridi^ to their homes. in a few 
years. 

BECK, or Beek, David, an eminentportraltpamter,' 
bom in 162 1, at Amheim in Guelderland. He was 
trained by Vandyck, from whom he acouired the fine 
manner of pencilling and sweet style of coloring peculiar 
to that great master. He posseted likewise that free- 
dom of hand and readiness, or rather rapidity of execu- 
tion, for which Vandyck was so remarkable, insomuch 
that when King Charles I. observed the expeditious 
manner of Beck's painting, he exclaimed, ** Faith ! 
Beck, I believe you could paint riding post." He was 
appointed portrait-painter and chamberlain to Queen 
Cfhristina of Sweden, and he executed portraits of most 
of the sovereigns of Europe to adorn tier gallery. He 
lived in the highest favor with his r(wal mistress, and 
with difficulty obtained a short leave of^absence from her 
court He died soon after (1656) at the Hague, not 
without suspicion of having been poisoned. 

BECKER, WtLHELM Adolf, a classical archaeolo- 

S'st of distinction, was bom at Dresden in 1796, and 
ed at Meissen in September 1846. 
BECKET, or A Becket, Thomas. See A 

BSCKET. 

BECKFORD, William, an English author, the son 
of Alderman Beckford, who was noted for his manly 
reply to George HI. on the presentation of an address 
from the city of London, was bom in 1761, and died in 
1844. He was a powerful and original writer. 

BECKMANN, Johann, the author of the History 
of Inventions^ was bom in 1739 ** Hoya in Hanover, 
where hb father was postmaster and receiver of taxes. 
His mother, who was left a widow before he was seven 
vears of age, sent him to school at Stade; and in 1759 
ne repaired to the University of GOttingen with the in- 
tention of studving theology, which, however, he soon 
abandoned in favor of natural science. The death of 
his mother in 1762 having deprived him of his former 
means of support, he acceptea, at the offer of Busching, 
the professorship of natural history in the Lutheran 
Academy, St. Petersburg. This office he soon re- 
linquished, and journeyed through Sweden, where he 
inspected the manner of working the mines, and formed 
the acquaintanceship of Linnaeus at Upsala. In 1766 he 
was appointed professor at Gdttingen. There he 
lecturea on various arts and on political and domestic 
economy, and was in the habit of leading his students 
into the workshops that they might acquire a practical 
as well as a theoretical knowledge of different processes 
and handicrafts. While thus engaged he determined to 
trace the history and describe the present condition of 
each of the arts and sciences on which he was lecturing, 
being perhaps incited by the Bibliothecct of Haller. 
But even Beckmann*s industry and ardor were unable to 
overtake the amount of study necessary for this task. 
He therefore confined his attention to several practical 
arts and trades ; and to these labors we owe his Notices 
on the History of Discoveries in the Common Arts of 
Lifcy'-z. work m which he relates the origin, history, 
and recent condition of the various machines, utensils, 
&c., employed in trade and for domestic purposes. 

BEDArRIEUX, a town of France, in the depart- 
ment of H^rault, situated on the River Orb, with a 



862 



BED 



station on the branch nihray from B^ders to Grais- 
sesac 

BEDDOES, Thomas, a physician and scientific 
writer, was bom at ShiffoaU, in Shropshire, 13th April 
1 760. After studyinffat Bridgnorth grammar school and 
Pl3rmhill, in Staffordshire, he enter^ when about six- 
teen yean of age, at Pembroke College, Oxford. There 
he proved himself an excellent lini^iust, while especially 
devoting himself to science. Having taken his badie- 
lor*s degree at twenty-one, he studied at iiondon for the 
mcKlical profession under Shekloo. In 1783 he became 
master of arts, and in 1784 he removed to Edinburgh, 
where he remained about three years. In 1784 he pub- 
lished a translation of Spallanzani*s Dissertations on 
Natural History f and in 1785 produced a translation, 
with original notes, of Bergman's Essays on Elective 
Attractions. He took his degree of doctor of medicine 
at Oxford in 1786, and, after visiting Paris, where he be- 
came acquainted with Lavoisier, was appointed reader 
in chemistry at Oxford University. His lectures there 
attracted large and appreciative audiences; but his advo- 
cacy of the French Revolution exciting a clamor against 
him, he resigned his readership in 1702, and took up his 
abode with a friend at Ketley, in Shropshire. While 
resident there he published Observations on the Nature 
of Demonstrative Evidence^ in which he maintains that 

5eometnr is founded on experiment, and the History of 
saac Jenkinst a story which powerfully exhibits the 
erils of drunkenness, and of which 40,000 copies are re- 
ported to have been sold. He endeavored for man^ 
^rs subse<^uently to realize his project of a pneumatic 
institution, in which the efficacy of certain gases in curing 
diseases could be tested. While working for this object 
he was assisted by the father of Maria Edgeworth, 
Richard Lovell Edgeworth, one of whose daughters be- 
came his wife in 1704. He was ultimately enabled by 
the liberality of Wedgwood, to establish the proposed 
institution (1798), and was fortunate in secunne as its 
superintendent Mr. (afterwards the famous Sir Humph- 
rey) Davy, who had already given proofs of uncommon 
endowments, and many of wnose discoveries were made 
in its laboratory. Among the first results of the pneu- 
matic institution was the discovery of the chemical 
properties of nitrous oxide, in regard to which, as in 
many other cases, Beddoes showed himself over-sanguine 
and speculative. The original aim of the institution 
was gradually abandoned ; it became an ordinary sick- 
hospital, and was relinquished by its projector in the year 
before his death, which ocrurred in 1808. 

BEDDOES, Thomas Lovell, a modem English 
dramatist of peculiar and almost unique genius, was the 
son of the preceding, and was bom at Cufton, 20th July 
1803. He received his education at the Charter House, 
and subsequently at Pembroke College, Oxford, at both 
of which places ne displayed a rugged independence of 
character combined with eccentricity of demeanor and 
an aversion to the ordinary course of study. While still 
an undergraduate he published his Bride^s Tragedy ^ a 
piece less characterized by originality than his subsequent 
performances, and altogether in the taste of the Eliza- 
Dethan revival of the dav initiated by the publication of 
Lamb*s Specimens, Tne notice it obtained from Barry 
Cornwall and other representatives of this school, en- 
couraged him to devote himself altogether to the culti- 
vation of dramatic poetry; and he speedily produced a 
number of superb fragments, ranging down from the 
ambitious but unfinished sketches for tragedies to be 
entitled Torrismond and The Second Brother^ to short 
descriptive passages of a few lines each, unsurpassed for 
originality of conception and condensed force. His 
genius, unfortunately, though highly poetical, was in no 
respect dramatic ; he entirely lacked the power of con- 



structing a ploc and deducing character from action ; wd 
his endeavors to achieve a complete work proved abor- 
tive until 1839, when the strangely ^fHnatnig but fim- 
tasticand incoherent AnxoA of DeeUh^s Jest-Book^ or 
The FooPs TVu//^, was laboriously put tCMxtfaer fincat 
a series of abortive attempts. By this time Beddoes had 
become a resident in Germany, and a zealous student of 
physiology, which, by affording another- outlet for that 
intense curiosity respecting the mysteries of life and 
death which had hitnerto oeen the mainspring of his 
poetical efforts, greatly contributed to repress tlS exter- 
nal manifestations of^ his genius. Dissatisfactioo with 
his tragedy, which he never cared to publish during his 
lifetime, and the gradual disuse of his native language^ 
conspired to reduce him to silence. He led for sevml 
years an unsettled life on the Continent, devoted to 
anatomical research, and actively participating in liberal 
and democratic movements in Germany and Switzerhmd, 
until his death in 1840 from the effects of an acddeuL 

BEDE, Beda, or B^cda (commonly called The Ven- 
erable Bede), the father of English history, the most 
leamed Englishman and most eminent writer of his 
age, was bo^ about the year 6^3, in the neighborhood 
of Monkwearmouth, in the N.E. of the county of Dur- 
ham. The story of his life is told by himself at the 
conclusion of his most famous and most important woiic 
** Thus much of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain* 
and more especially of the English nation, as far as I 
could learn either from the writings of the ancients, or 
the tradition of our ancestors, or of my own knowledge, 
has, with the help of God, been digested by me, Bede, 
the servant of God, and priest of the monastery of the 
blessed apostles Peter and Paul, which is at Wear- 
mouth ana Jarrow ; who being born in the territory of 
that same monastery, was given, at seven years ot age, 
to be educated by the most reverend Abbot Benedict^ 
and afterwards by Ceolfrid; and spending all the re- 
maining time of my life in that monastery, I wholly 
applied myself to the study of Scripture; and, amidst 
the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care 
of singing in the church, I always took delight in learn- 
ing, teaching and writing. In the nineteenth year of 
my age I received deacon's orders; in the thirtieth, 
those of the priesthood. . . . From which time, 
till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made it my 
business, tor the use of me and mine, to compile out of 
the works of the venerable Fathers, and to interpret 
and explain according to their meaning these following 
pieces " (a list of his writings follows). 

Bede's industry was marvelous, alike in acquiring and 
in communicating his stores of knowledge. Besides the 
usual manual labors of the monastery, the duties of the 
priest, and his additional occupation as a teacher, he 
succeeded in writing upwards 01 forty distinct treatises, 
wbidi together form what may be looked upKm as an 
early encyclopaedia. His Biblical works are principally 
made up of extracts from the Fathers, especially from 
St. Augustine — his interpretations following the alle- 
gorical mode of the Middle Ages, as suggested by his 
own declaration: ''He who knows how to interfnet 
allegorically will see that the inner sense excels the am- 
plicity of the letter, as apples do leaves." The scientific 
treatises are founded on the Bible, and the science of 
the ancients as contained m such writers as PUnj. 
Bede's historical works, on the other hand, and espe- 
dally his great historical work, are remarkable for tte 
patience indicated in the search after all trustworthy 
sources of information, for his careful statement of these 
various sources, for the sincerity and love of truth man* 
ifest throughout^ and for the pleasant artlessness willl 
which the story is told. 

A long letter of his pupil Cuthbert has been ] 



BE D — BEE 



863 



ghrine a simple and touching account of his death, which 
probably took place in 735. 

The origin of the title " Venerable ** cannot be traced, 
but it appears as early as 836 ; and succeeding ages have 
gladly owned the justness of the appellation. For cen- 
turies his theological and educational works held a hieh 
position as authorities and even as text-books. Tne 
diief monument of his labors and erudition is his 
Ecclesiastical Histarv^ which gives us the most and the 
best of our knowledge of the history of England until 
731, four years before his death. 

BEDELL, William, bishop of Kihnore and Ardagh, 
in Ireland, was bom at Black Notley, in Essex, in 1570. 
He died on the 7th Febmary 1643. His life was written 
by Burnet. 

^ BEDFORD, the county town of Bedfordshire, a mun- 
icipal and parliamentary borough and market-town, 
situated in a fertile vale on both sides of the River Ouse, 
which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of 
five arches. It is 50 miles N.W. of London, and has 
excellent railwa^r accommodations as well as a navigable 
river. Population 16,850. 

BEDFORD LEVEL, the name given to a flat district 
on the eastern coast of England, comprising the g;reater 
part (amounting to 450,000 acres) of the marshy dis- 
trict called the /V^j, the whole Isle of Ely in Cam- 
bridgeshire, and a portion of the north of tKat county, 
30,000 acres of Suffolk, 63,000 acres of Norfolk, 57,000 
of Huntingdon, about 8000 of Northamptonshire, and 
the south-eastern portion of Lincolnshire. 

BEDFORDSHIRE, one of the south midland 
counties of England, surrounded by the counties of 
Buckingham, Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, 
and Hertford. 

BEDNOR, a town of Hindustan, in the territories 
of R&jd of Mysore. In 1645 the seat of government of 
the Kk]is of Ikeri was transferred to this place ; as the 
inhabitants of the former capital removed with the 
court, Bednor became a city of great importance, con- 
taining, it is sakl, 20,000 houses besides huts. It was 
taken and plundered b^ Haidar AH in 1763, who 
ordered it to be called Haidarnagor. It is still, however, 
known by its original name of &dnor. At that time it 
was estimated at 8 miles in circumference. In 1 783 it 
surrendered to a British detachment under General 
Matthews, but being shortly after invested by Tipu 
Sult&n, the garrison capitulated on condition of safe con- 
duct to the coast Tipu violated the stipulation, put 
General Matthews and the principal officers to death, 
and imprisoned the remainder of the force. 

BEDOUINS, the portion of the Arab race that live 
in the desert in tents. See Arabia. 

BEE. The bee, from its singular instincts, its active 
industry, and the useful products resulting from its 
labors, has, from the remotest times, attracted general 
attention and interest No nation upon earth has had 
so many historians as this remarkable class of insects. 
The patience and sa^unty of the naturalist have had an 
ample Beld for exercise in the study of Che structure, 
physiology, and domestic economy of bees ; their pre- 
servation and increase have been objects of assiduous 
care to the agricultiurist ; and their reputed perfection 
of policy and government have long been the theme of 
admiration, and have supplied copious materials for ar- 
gument and allusion to the poet and the moralist in 
every age. It is a subject that has l)een celebrated by 
the muse of Virg^, and illustrated by the philosophic 
genius of Aristotle. Cicero and Pliny recora that Aris- 
tomachus devoted sixty years to the study of these in- 
sects ; and Philiscus is ^id to have retired into a re- 
mote wood, that he mig^t pursue his observation on 
them without interruption. A very great number of 



authors have written express treatises on bees ; periodi- 
cal works have been published relating exclusively to 
their management and economy ; and teamed societies 
have been established for the sole purpose of conduct- 
ing researches on this subject 

The leading feature in the natural history of bees, and 
one which distinguishes them from almost all other 
insects is their singular distribution into three different 
kinds, constituting to all appearance so many different 
modifications of sex. The drone, which is character- 
ized by a thicker body, a round head, a more flattened 
shape, and more obtusely terminated abdomen, within 
which are contained the male organs of generation, is 
undoubtedly the male of the species. It is distinguished 
also by the absence of a sting, and by the humming noise 
that accompanies its flight. The queen bee, which is 
unequivocally recognised as the female, is larger than 
any of the others, has the abdomen of g^reater lengthy 
and is' provided with a sting and two ovaria of consider- 
able size. The worker be^ compose the third class, 
and are distinguished bv the smallness of their size, their 
lengthened proboscis, the peculiar structure of their legs 
and thighs, which are adapted to the collection of cer- 
tain materials obtained from vegetables, and by the 
apparent absence of every trace ofgenerative organs, — 
we say apparent^ because, as will be shown, rudiments 
of ovaria do exist, which, however, are not perceptible 
without a very minute and careful dissection. Tul re- 
cently the worker bees .were regarded as devoid of sex, 
and were accordinglv termed neuters. It is their func- 
tion to periorm all the laborious offices for the commun- • 
ity, to construct the interior of their habitation, to 
explore the country in search of nourishment and other 
materials, to collect and bring them to the hive, and 
apply them to different purposes, to attend upon the 
queen, and supply all her wants, to defend tne hive 
from the attacks of depredators, and to carry on hostili- 
ties against the various enemies of the tribe. The life 
of the Queen is chiefly engrossed with the duties of laying 
eggs. The drones producing neither wax nor honey, and 
depending on the rest for their subsistence, are idle spec- 
tators of the others* labors. They appear to be formed 
only for the momentary but important duty of impreg- 
nation, since they perish when this purpose is accom- 
plished. There is commonly onl;^ one perfect queen 
existing at a time within each hive, and she usually 
appears to be treated by all the other bees with every 
mark of affection and of deference. The number of 
workers is very different in different hives; sometimes 
there are only a few thousands ; at other times from 
twenty to forty, or even fifty thousand. The drones, 
even m the spring, seldom compose more than one- 
thirtieth or one-fortieth of the whole ; and, at other 
seasons, there are none to be found in the hive when a 
fertile queen is present. In order to form some esti- 
mate of the number of bees which can occupy a certain 
space. Hunter counted what number of drowned bees 
could be contained in an alehouse pint, and found it to 
be 2160; so that if a swarm were to fill two quarts, their 
numbers would be nearly 900a Reaumur, with the 
same view of ascertaining their numbers, employed the 
more accurate method of weighing them; he found that 
a collection, weighing one ounce, consisted of 336 bees, 
and, therefore, that 16 ounces, or one pound, woukl 
consist of 5376 bees. 

Notwithstanding the difference in conformation, in- 
stincts, and offices between the queen-bee and the 
workers, it is now established oh tne most incontro- 
vertible evidence that they both originally proceed from 
the same kind of egg or larva, which is capable of being 
converted, according to circumstances, either into a 
worker or a queen. It has been proved that the former^ 



864 



BEE 



although exhibiting no appearaice of texoal orgaas on 
a supc^da] examination, are in reality females, and 
have the rudiments of these oreans, which, however, 
not being developed, are incapable of exercising their 
proper functions, although it sometimes happens that 
thev become sufficiently so to enable a worker to lay 
uniecunded eggs. It may be remarked that the idea of 
the worker bees being radically females had been sug- 
^ted lone ago by Dr. Warder m his Monarchy of Bees ^ 
m which lie terms them ''True Amazons;** but no 
attention had been pakl to his opinion. The real merit 
of this great discovery, which affords a key to a multi- 
tude of hitherto inexplicable facts, unquestionably be- 
longs to Schirach. When first announced to the world 
it was received with suspicion by the greater number of 
naturalists, and with complete incredulity by others. 
It was, indeed, at variance with the whole tenor of the 
observations of Swammerdam, Marakii, and Reaumur. 
Wilhelmi, the brother-in-law of Schirach, though an 
eye-wimess of the experiments from which this &eory 
had been deduced, for a long time refused to admit the 
doctrine, but at length became one of its most strenuous 
supporters. It is noticed in a vein of sarcastic ridicule 
by John Hunter in his otherwise excellent paper on 
bees in the Philosophical TransacHons, Needham 
wrote a Memoir for the Imperial Academy of Brussels 
in 1777 for the express purpose of refuting it, and he 
then inveighs in strong language against those natural- 
ists who had deigned to give it the least countenance. 
Bonnet, after exercising a laudable scepticism, and 
•making a dilieent inouiry, in which he displays a genu- 
ine spirit of philosophy, yielded a reluctant assent. But 
the truth of the doctrme has since been placed bevond 
the reach of controversy by a multiplied series of obser- 
vations and experiments in different parts of Europe and 
America. 

In conskiering the physiolo^ of the bee, the first 
function that claims our notice is that of nutrition. The 
food of bees is principally of two kinds, namely, the 
fluid secretions of vegetables contained in the nectaries 
of the flowers, and the dust of anthers, which has been 
termed by botanists the pollen, but which, when col- 
lected by the bees, has received a variety of appella- 
tions, such as farina, bee-bread, &c. Occasionally, 
however, we find bees feeding upon other saccharine 
substances besides honey, sucn as honey-dew, syrup, 
&c. 

The organs by which they collect food are extremely 
complex, comprising instruments adapted to the recep- 
tion of liquid aliment as well as those fitted for the oi- 
vision of solid materials. Reaumur has given a most 
elaborate description of these organs, and corrects some 
errors into which Swammerdam had fallen. For the 
purpose of taking up fluids, bees are provided, in com- 
mon with all hymenopterous insects, with a long and 
flexible proboscis or trunk, which may be considered as 
a lengthened tongue, though, strictly speaking, it is 
formed by a prolongation of the under lip. It is not 
tubular, as Swammerdam had supposed, but solkl 
throughout ; and the minute depression at its extremity 
is not the aperture of any canal through which liquids 
can be absorbed. The trunk of the bee performs strictly 
the office of a tongue, and not that of a tube for suc- 
tion ; for when it takes up honey or any other fluki ali 
ment, the under or the upper surfaces are more immedi- 
ately applied to it, and rolled from side to side, and the 
bee thus licks up what adheres to it, while the extrem- 
ity of the trunk is frequeiuly not applied at aU to the 
substance taken up. The trunk is supported on a ped- 
icle, which admits of being bent back or propelled' for- 
wards, and thus can retract or stretch out the trunk to 
a considerable extent. Protection is given to it by a 



double sheath ; the external part consisting of two s 

furnished by the expansion of one of the portions of diye 
labial palpi, and the internal formed by toe proloagaticm 
of the two external portions of the jaw. 

For the purpose of mechanically dividing solid mate- 
rials, the mouth is furnished with two strong maodibies 
and four palpi ; they are but little employed in eatiog, 
but are of great use in enabling the insect to seite and 
break down hard substances for other purposes. In 
the worker bee all these parts are of larger <&mensioiis 
than in the other kinds. The teeth are two in number, ' 
and have the form of concave scales vrich sharp edges; they 
are fixed to the ends of the jaws, and play horizontally 
as in other insects. Reaumur describes and delineates 
a larger aperture above the root of the proboscis, which 
is so surrounded with fleshy parts as not to be readily 
seen unless the proboscis be extended and bent dows- 
wards. This he consklers as the mouth or orifice of the 
gullet ; on the upper skie of which, and of course 
opposite to the root of the proboscis, a small fleshy and 
pointed organ is seen, which he regards as the tongue, 
assisting in the deglutition of the food. Throa|[h this 
orifice. It is presumed, all the aliment, whe^ier boaid or 
solid, passes ; the former being conveyed to it by the 
trunk, which, by its contractile power, presses forwaord 
the fluids it has collected between itself and the inner 
sheath, and the latter being received directly after its 
comminution by the teeth, behind which it is dtuated. 
Latreille, however, whose authority is great on a point 
of this nature, thinks that Reaumur has deceived him- 
self with regard to such an i^perture, and disbelieves its 
existence. He conceives that the food simply passes on 
by the skies of the tongue, finding its way from thenoe 
into the oesophagus and so on to the stomach. 

The bee has two stomachs. The first is a large trans- 
parent membraneous bag, pointed in front and swelling 
out into two pouches behind. It performs an office in 
some respects analogous to that of the crop in birds ; 
for it receives and retains for a time the fluid of the 
nectaries, which does not appear to differ in any respect 
from honey. Hunter observes that whatever time the 
contents of this reservoir may be retained hit never 
found them altered so as to give the idea of digestion 
having taken place. The coats of this reservoir are 
musctuar, by which means it is capable of throwing up 
the honey into the mouth, so that it b regurgitated into 
the honey cells or imparted to other bees. None of it 
ever, passes out from the extremity of the trunk as 
Swammerdam had believed. For the purpose of dig»- 
tion a second stomach is provided, which takes its ongin 
from the mkidle of the two posterior lobes of the former, 
and is of a lengthened cylindrical shape . Its communi- 
cation with the intestine is not direct, but takes place 
by a projecting or inverted pylorus, thickest at its most 
prominent part, with a very small opening in the centre, 
of a peculiar construction. This inward projecting part 
is easily seen through the coats of the reservoir, esped- 
cally if^full of honey. A similar kind of structure takes 
place at the communication of the first with the second 
stomach, and having the properties of a valve, must 
effectually prevent all regurgitation from the latter into 
the former. 

The pollen, or fertilizing dust of flowers is coQected 
by the bees for the purpose of feeding the young. It is 
stored in the cells until required, and then pai^ 
digested by the nuraes with honey, and a kind of ctffe 
formed of it When natural pollen cannot be obtainai 
the bees will eagerly take farina, either of rye, chestnuts* 
or pease, as a substitute, whidi appears to answer t)ie 
same purpose. The bees, by means of the pencil of 
hair which grows on the tarsi, first collect « omih, 
quantity of pollen, and then knead it togetliac.||m^ 



B EE 



865 



bdO, and place it in the space sitxiated at the middle 
joint or tibia of the hinder leg, which has been termed 

. tile basket Thk pomon of the leg is smooth and con- 
cave, somewhat like the bowl of a spoon, with stout 
hairs of moderate length rising from its left edge and 
nearly straight Other hairs on the right side are much 
longer and are curved, rising up with a high arch and 

. crossing m6re than half the width of the hollow, making 
a large basket4ike enclosure for a load of pollen. In 
order to gather large quantities at once, the bees are 
sometimes observed to roll their bodies on the flower, 
and then brushing off the pollen which adheres to them 
with the feet, form it into two masses, which they dis- 
pose of as befoi^ mentioned ; and it is said that in 
moist weather, when the partkles of i>ollen cannot be 
readily made to adhere, they return to their hive dusted 
all over with pollen, which they then brush off with 
their feet. The part in Nature's economy thus uncon- 

- sciously performed by the bee in common with other 
insects is most important By this means the pollen is 
carried from flower to flower, or from stamens to the 
pistils, and plants are made fertile which without such 
aid would often remain barren. 

It was long the received opinion that wax was but a 
modification of poUen, which reauired for this conversion 
only a slight pressure and a kind of kneading by the feet 
of the bees. But it has been completely proved, by the 
researches of Duchet, Hunter, and Huber, that wax is 
a secretion from the abdomen of the bee, and that it 
depends not at all on the pollen which the insect may 
consume (indeed, it is doubtful if it consumes any), but 
on the quantity of honey or other saccharine substance 
which it receives into its stomach. The first light 
thrown on this subject was in a letter of Wilhelmi to 
Bonnet in 1768, in which he says that wax, instead of 
beine ejected by the mouth, exudes from the rings 
which enclose the posterior part of the body. Of this 
we may satisfy ourselves by drawing out the bee from 
the cell in which it is working with wax, by means of 
the point of a fine needle ; and we may perceive, in 
proportion as the oody is elong|ated, that the wax will 
make its appearance under the rmgs in the form of small 
scales. Duchet, in his Culture des AbeilUsy gives a full 
statement of the principal circumstances attending the 
production of wax, which he very justly ascribes to the 
conversion of honey into this substance in the body of 
the bee. ^ These facts appear to have been entirely over- 
looked till the subject was again brought forward by 
Hunter, in his paper in the Philosophical Transactions 
for 1792. Huber was engaged in prosecuting his in- 
quiries on this subject at the same period with Hunter, 
and discovered, in 1793, ^^ existence of regular recepta- 
cles or pouches, from the coats of which the wax is 
secrtted, and within which it accumulates till its edees 
raise the scales, and become apparent externally. 
These plates of wax are withdrawn by the bee itself, or 
some of its fellow-laborers, and are applied in a manner 
hereafter to be described. 

Huber has shown, by a series of well conducted 
experiments, that, in a natural state, the quantity of 
wax secreted Is in proportion to the consumption of 
honey, but that an equal or even greater quantity will 
.be formed if the bee be fed on a solution of sugar in 
water. Warmth and rest promote this process of 
secretion; for the bees, after feeding plentifully on 
saccharine food, hang together in a cluster without 
moving, for several hours, at the end of which time 
large plates of wax are found imder the abdominal rings. 
This happened when bees were confined and restricted 
from any other sort of nourishment, whilst those that 
were fed on pollen and fruits alone did not produce any 
wax. In die second volume of Iluber's Nouvelles Ob- 



servatioAS.sur Us AbeilUs, he describes minutely the 
anatomy of the pouches or receptacles for the wax, 
which are parts peculiar to the working bees, being 
totally absent in the males and oueens. The cavities 
are lined with a membrane, which presents a number 
of folds, forming an hexagonal net- work, not unlike the 
appearance in the second stomach of ruminant quadru- 
peds, and evidently destined to perform the office of 
secretion. 

Among the secretions pecuhar to the bee, the poison 
which b poured into the wounds made by the sting 
deserves to be noticed. It is said to owe its mischiev- 
ous efficacy to certain pungent salts. If a bee is pro- 
voked to strike its sting against a plate of glass, a arop 
of poison will be discharged ; and if this is placed under 
a microscope, the salts may be seen to concrete, as tne 
li(juor dries, into clear, oblong, pointed crystals. . The 
stmg consists of a finely pointeil tubular mstrument, 
open along the whole length of its upper surface, this 
opening being dosed by two slender nomy barbs each 
having about ten serrations on its outer edge. These 
barbs are not projected in advance of tilie sting as 
usually describea, neither are they within the sting, but 
complete its outer tubular surface, down tlie centre of 
which the poison is injected from a little bag at the root 
of the stiiMf' The serrations prevent the worker bee 
from withdrawing its sting from an enemy; and, conse- 
cjuently, it is torn from the body, with a portion of the 
intestines, causing the death of the bee. 

Respiration is effected by means totally different from 
those which are usual in the higher classes of the Anunal 
Kingdom. As the blood, or fluki corresponding to 
the blood, cannot be presented to the air m any sep- 
arate organ, the air must be conducted to the blood 
wherever such a fluid is met vrith. For this purpose 
tracheae, or air-tubes, having several external openings 
or spiracles, are made to ramify like arteries, and are 
distributed in an infinite number of branches to every 
part of the body. The condition of a hive of bees in 
which many thousand individuals, full of animation and 
activity, are crowded together in a confined space, hav- 
ing no communication with the external air but by- 
means of a very small aperture in the lowest part, which, 
aperture is firequently obstructed by a throng of bees 
passing in and out during sultry weather, would with- 
out some precautions be of all possible conditions the 
one least favorable to life. Bees cannot exist in an 
impure atmosphere any more than creatures of a larger 
growth. And on examining the air of a populous hive 
It is found scarcely to differ in purity from the sur- 
rounding atmosphere. The means by which this is 
effected observation has shown is by the rapid vibration 
of the bees* wings, a certain nimiber being told off to 
imitate the action of flying, for which purpose they 
fasten themselves with their feet to the floor of the hive, 
so that the whole effect of that impulse which, were 
they at liberty, would carry them forwards with con- 
siderable velocity is exerted on the air, which is there- 
fore driven backwards in a powerful current. Some 
bees occasionally perform these ventilating motions on 
the outside of the hive, near the entrance, but a still 
greater number are employed in this office within 
doors. Sometimes twenty are thus occupied at once, 
and each bee continues its motions for a certain time,, 
occasionally for nearly half an hour, and is then relieved 
by another, which takes its place. So rapid a motion 
of the wings is thus produced that they cannot be seen 
except at the two extremities of the arc of vibration, which 
is at least one of 90°. This is the occasion of that hum- 
ming sound which is constantly heard from the interior of 
the hive when the bees are in a state of activity. The 
immediate cause of these action^ is probably some 

Digitized by LjOOQIC 



866 



BEE 



impretnon mUe om tlielr orgtM hf the presence of 
▼itutedair, for a bee mMjbt made to ventilate itielf 
by plidng near it tabftascet which have to it an 
unpleasant odor. 

The connection be t wee n an active resoiration and a 
high temperatare is remarkably exemDiified in bees, 
among which, in consequence of tneir collecting 
together in large numbers, the heat is not readily 
dissipated, and admits also of being easily ascertained 
by ttie thermometer. Hunter found it to vary from 
73^ to 84^ Fahr. ; and Huber observed it on some 
occasions to rise suddenly from about 92^ to above 
104O. 

The physiology of the external senses in a class of 
animals 01 a nature so remote from our own species 
must necessarily be very imperfectly understood by us. 
The infinite diversity of character presented bj the 
different tribes of insects, as well as of other animab, 
oaturally sug^ts the idea that external objects produce 
on their sentient organs impressions widelv oifferent 
from those which they communicate to ourselves. The 
notions we form of their senses must not onl]^ be liable 
to great inaccuracy, but may often be totsdly inadequate 
representations of^the truth. A finer organization and 
more subtile perceptions would alone sumce to extend 
the sphere ottheir ordinary senses to an inconceivable 
degree, as the telescope and the microscope have with 
us extended the powers of vision. But they ]x>ssess in 
all probability other organs appropriated to unknown 
kinds of impressions, which must open to them avenues 
to knowledge of various kinds to wnich we must ever 
remain total strangers. Art has supplied us with many 
elaborate modes of bringing within our cognisance some 
of the properties of matter which nature has not 
immediately furnished us with the means of detecting. 
But who will compare our thermometers, spectroscopes, 
or hygrometers, however elaboratelv constructed, with 
those refined instruments with which the lower orders 
of animals, and particularly insects, are so liberally pro- 
vided. 

The antennae, which are so universally met widi m 
this class of animals, are doubtless organs of the greatest 
importance in conveying impressions from without 
Their continual motion, the constant use which is made 
of them in examining objects, the total derangement in 
the instincts of those insects which have been deprived 
of them, point them out as exauisite organs of sense. 
To impressions of touch arising from the immediate con- 
tact of^bodies they are highly sensitive, but their motions 
evidently show that they are affected by objects at some 
distance. They are, no doubt, tflive to all tne tremulous 
movement of the surrounding air, and probably commu- 
nicate preceptions of some of its other qualities. Com- 
posed of a great number of articulations, they are 
exceedingly flexible, and can readily embrace the outline 
of any body that the bee wishes to examine, however 
small its diameter. Newport, in a paper published in 
the Transactions of the Entomological Society^ says he 
is convinced from experiments ^tnat the antennae are 
auditory organs; and that however varied may be their 
structure, they are appropriated to the perception and 
transmission of sound. The majority of modem physi- 
ologists and entomologists coincide in this view, and 
tiie weight of authority in favor of it is certainly very 
great, comprising as it does Sulzer, Scarpa, Schneider, 
Borkhausen, Bonsdorf, Cams, Straus-Durckheim, Oken, 
Burmeister, Kirby and Spence, LespH and Hicks 
Nevertheless, other eminent entomolo^ts, as, for in- 
stance, Lyonet, KClster, Robineau-Desvoidy, Vogt, and 
Erichson, regard these or^ns as the seat of smelL 
The cjuestion mav be considered as 3ret undetermined, 
and it is possible that they are the organs of some 



sense of which we know nothing, and which w 

anently cannot describe. It is by these instruments that 
^e bee is enabled to execute so manv works in the in- 
terior of the hive, from which the light must be totalfy 
excluded. Aided bjr them it baikb its combs, poms 
honey into its marines, feeds the larvae, and ministers 
to every want which it appears to discover /nd judge of 
solely by the sense of toucn. The antennse appear also 
to be tlie principal means empki^ed for mutual commn- 
nication of impressions. The different modes of contact 
constitute a kind of language which seems to be suscept- 
ible of a great variety of modifications, capable of sup- 
plying every sort of information for which they have 
occasion. 

The sense residing ih the antennse appean to be on 
many occasions supplementary to that of vision, whidi 
in bees, as in other insects, is less perfect than in the 
larger animals. During the night, therefore, they are 
chiefly guided in their movements by the former of these 
senses. In full daylight, however, they appear to enioj 
the sense of vL«ion in great perfection. A bee afighis 
unerringly on the flowers in search of nectar or pollen, 
and as tnuv at its own hive*s entrance on its arrival 
there. When returning from the fiekis to its hive it 
seems to ascertain the proper direction by rising with 
a circular flight into the air ; it then darts forward with 
unfailinf precision, passing through the air in a straight 
line with extreme rapidity, and never failing to alight at 
the entrance of its own hive, though whether its 
course be determined by vision alone we are onable to 
say. 

Theirperceptions of heat and coM are extremely ddi- 
cate. The influence of the sun's rays excites them to 
vigorous action. Great cold will reduce them to a state 
of torpor, and inferior degrees of cokl are unpleasant 
to them ; a temperature of 40^ Fahr. will so benumb a 
bee as to deprive it of the power of flight, and it will 
soon perish unless restored to a warmer atmosphere. 
When, however, bees are in the usual winter's duster 
in the hive, th^ will bear a very great degree of cold 
without injury. In America hives often stand where 
the external temperature is as low as 20^ below zero, 
and from the condensed vapor within the hive, the bees 
may be found in a solkl lump of ice, and yet, with re- 
turning spring, they awake to life and actirity. The 
degree of cold which bees can endure has not been as- 
certained, though it is no doubt considerable. Thrj 
survive the winter in many coki parts of Russia, in hol- 
low trees, without any attention being paid to them; 
and their hives are frequently made otthe bark of trees, 
which does not afford a very complete protection from 
the effects of frosts. Many bees which are thought to 
die of cold in winter die in reality of famine or damp. 
A rainy summer and cold autumn often prevent their 
laying m a suflident store of provisions ; and the hives 
shouB, therefore, be carefully examined in the after- 
part of the season, and the amount of food ascertained. 
Mr. White iudidously observes, that bees which stand 
on the north skle of a buikiing whose hei^ intercepts 
the sun's beams all the vrinter will waste less of thdr 
provisions than others which stand in the sun; for, com- 
ing forth seldom, they eat little, and yet are as forward 
in the spring to work and swarm as those which had 
twice as much honey left with them the preceding 
autumn. They show by thdr conduct that diey are 
sensible of changes in the state of the weather for 
sometime before we can perceive such alterations* 
Sometimes when working with great assiduity they 1^ 
suddenly desist from their labors, none will stir oat of 
the hive, while all the workers that are abroad \mt9 
home in crowds, and press forward so as to oInmA 
I theentrance of the hive. Often, when thej wm i^ 



BEE 



867 



warned of the approach of bad weather, we can distin- 
epish no altenuion in the state of the atmosphere. 
Gathermg dottds sometimes produce this effect on 
them ; but perhaps they possess some species of lurgro- 
metrical sense anconnected with any impression or vis- 
ion. Huber supposes that it is the rapid diminution of 
light that alarms them, for if the sky be uniformly over- 
cast they proceed on their excursions, and even tne first 
drops of a shower do not make them return Iwith any 
great precipitancy. 

Their taste is, perhaps, the most imperfect of their 
senses. They use scarcely any discrimination in the col- 
lection of honey from different flowers. They are not 
repelled by the scent or flavor of such as are extremely 
offensive to our organs, and scruple not to derive sup 
plies from such as are highly poisonous. In some dis- 
tricts in America it is well known that honey acquires in 
this way very deleterious properties. The qualities of 
honey arc observed to vary much according to the par- 
ticular situation from wMch it is obtain^. In tneir 
selection of flowers they are guided by the quantity of 
honey theyexpect to meet with, and in no respect by its 
quality. That ^thered from ivy blossoms in England 
IS sometimes so bitter and nauseous as to be useless for 
our eatinfir, although the bees consume it readily. But 
their sm^l must he sufiiciendy acute to enable them to 
discover honey at great dbtances, and in concealed situ- 
ations direct experiment has indeed proved this to be the 
case. Huber found that they proceeded immediately 
towards boxes which contained honey concealed from 
view ; and sudi, in fact, is the situation of the fluid of 
the nectaries in flowers. Some odors, and especially all 
kmds of smoke, are highly obnoxious to them ; and this 
is also the case with ammonia and other volatile chemical 
agents, upon reqeiving the impression of which they imme- 
diately set about ventilatmg themselves in the usual 
manner. The odor of the poison of their sting pro- 
duces similar eflects, excidng them to immediate rage 
and hostility. It has been oMerved that bees recognize 
the presence of a stranger in their hive by the smell ; and 
in joining two stocks into one, if the bees are united 
without precautions, a battle will probably ensue. To 
obviate this bee-keepers are in the practice of strongly 
iKrenting both families by means of peppermint, tobaax> 
smoke, or other strong-smelling agent ; this overpower- 
ing the bees* natural scent, they are unable to distmguish 
their own party from the intruders, and peace is insured. 
The sense of vision does not appear to aid them, for 
^▼en where Ligurians are added to common black bees 
the effect is the same, although in color the two varieties 
are very different. In the introduction of an alien queen 
to a stock it is also usual to imprison the new sovereign 
within the hive which she is to rule until she has acquired 
the peculiar scent of her future subjects, who will then 
make no objections to her, while had she been at once 
•et at liberty she would probably have met her death. 

Although it ^is clear that insects possess the power of 
amell, yet the particular organ of^this sense has never 
been accurately ascertained, and the opinions of natura- 
lists have been much divided on the subject These 
opinions have been supported more by arguments drawn 
from the analogy of what happens in other classes of 
animals than ^ direct experunents on insects thcm- 
aelves. We know that in all animals respiring by means 
of lungs, the organs of smell are placed at the entrance 
of the air-passages ; and it has often been concluded 
that in like manner the stigmata, or the orifices of the 
air-tubes, are the seat of this sense in insects. Huberts 
opinion was that in the bee this sense resides in the 
ttouth itself, or in its immediate vicinity. Here, indeed, 
Would be its proper station if this fiaculty be intended, 
tt we may reasonably suppose it to be, to apprise the 



indiridaal of the qualides of the food prior to its being 
eaten. When the mouth of a bee was plugged up with 
paste, which was allowed to dr^ before the insect was 
set at liberty, it remained quite insensible to the same 
odors to which he had before manifested the strongest 
repugnance. 

It IS generally supposed that bees poness the sense of 
hearing. The common practice of inaking a loud noise 
by drums and kettles in order to attract a swarm is 
founded on this supposition. But the evidence is by no 
means conclusive, for we find that they are not disturbed 
by a loud dap of thunder, or by the report of a gun, or 
by any other noise that may happen to arise around 
them. Sir John Lubbock, who has made a great many 
observations in this direction, says that he could never 
find them take notice of any sound he made even whm 
he was close to them. He tried them with a violin, dog 
whistle, shrill pipe, and set of tuning forks, also by 
shouting, &c., close to their heads, but in spite of his 
utmost efforts the bees took no notice, not even by a 
twitch of the antennae showing they heard. It is, how* 
ever, certain that they are capable of emitting a variety 
of sounds which appear expressive of anger, fear, satis* 
faction, and other passions ; and it would seem that 
they are even capable of communicating certain emo- 
tions to one another in this manner. 

A certain cry or humming noise from the queen will 
srtrike with sudden consternation all the bees in the hive, 
and thev remain for a considerable time motionless and 
stupified. Hunter has noticed a number of modulations 
of sound emitted by bees under different circumstances, 
and has instituted an inquiry concemine the means 
emploved by them in producing these sounds. 

If the function of sensation m insects be involved in 
doubt and obscurity, the knowledge of those more 
interior faculties, which are the springs of voluntary 
action, is hid in still deeper m3rstay. Buffon refuses 
to allow bees any i>ortion of intelligence, and contends 
that the actions we behold, however admirably they are 
directed to certain ends, are in fact merely the results of 
their peculiar mechanism. Other philosophers, such as 
Reaumur and Brougham, have gone into the opposite 
extreme, and have considered them as endued with 
extraordinary wisdom and foresight, as animated by a 
disinterested patriotism, and as uniting a variety of 
moral and intellectual qualities of a higher order. The 
truth, no doubt, lies between these overstrained opin- 
ions ; but it is nevertheless extremely difhcult to decide 
in what deg^ree these respective principles operate in 
the production of the effects we witness. The term 
instinct should properly be regarded, not as denoting a 
particular and definite principle of action, whose opera* 
tion we can anticipate in any new or untried combina* 
tion of circumstances, but as expressive of our inability 
to refer the phenomena we contemplate to anv pre* 
viously known principle. Thus the actions which an 
aniimd performs in obedience to the calls of appetite are 
not properly said to be instinctive ; nor can the term be 
applied to actions which are the consequence of acquired 
luiowledee, and of which the object is with certainty 
foreseen by the agent. But when an animal acts appar* 
ently under a bliml impulse, and produces effects usefiol 
to itself or to the species, which effects it could not 
have previously contemplated as resulting^ from those 
actions, it is then customary to say that it is under the 
guidance of instinct, that is, of some unknown principle 
of action. It will be proper, therefore, to kecrp tnis 
distinction in view in juoging of the voluntary actions of 
the lower animals. 

In no department of natural history is it more neces* 
sary to be aware of the proper import of the term in* 
stinct, than in studying tne phenomena presented by the 



868 



BEE 



bee ; for nowhere is h more difficult to dtscriminatt 
between the regular operAtion of implanted motives and 
the result of acquired knowledge ana habits. The most 
striking feature of their history, and the one which 
apparently lays the foundation for those extraordinary 
equalities which raises ihem above the level of other 
insects, is tne disposition tO social union. It may in 
general, indeed oe remarked, that animals which as- 
sociate together so as to form large communities, display 
a higher degree ofsagadty than those which lead a solitary 
life. This is especially observable among insects. The 
spider and Formka leonis may exhibit particular talents, 
or practise particular stratagems in the pursuit and 
capture of their prey ; but their history is limited to a 
single generation, and embraces none of*^ those interest- 
ing relations which exist between individuals composing 
the grM^arious tribes, such as the ant, the wasp, and the 
bee. Among these we trace a community of wants and 
desires, and a mutual intelligence and sjrmpathy, which 
lead to the constant mterchange of jgood offices, and 
which, by introducing a sjrstematic division of labor, 
amidst a unity of design, leads to the execution of public 
works on a sode of astonishing nugnitnde. The attach- 
ment of bees to their hive, which thev defend with a 
courage and sdf-devotion truly aomirable, their 
jealousy of intruders, their ready co-operation in all the 
labors required for the welfare of the community, their 
tender care of their young, the affection and homage 
which thev bestow on their queen, imply qualities such 
as we could hardly persuade ourselves conk! animate a 
mere insect, on which we are in the habit of proudly 
looking down as placed in one of the lowest orders of 
created beings. 

We shall content ourselves at present with these gen- 
eral observations, as the instances which serve to illus- 
trate their moral and intellectual character belong prop- 
erly to the histor3r of the different processes the^ fbllow 
in the constructk>n of their comos, the hatchmg and 
rearing of their progeny, and the mode of conducting 
their migrations. To these subjects, therefore, we shall 
now proceed ; and in order to present the most con- 
nectea and complete account of their economy, we shall 
begin the historV from the period when a new swarm has 
just occupied a hive, and wnen all the arrangements for 
their habiution, and the constructions of the cells in 
which their eggs and provisions are to be deposited, are 
yet to be effected. 

The first care of the worker bees, on their settlement 
in their new abode, is to clean it out thoroughly. 
While one set of bees is thus employed, another is dis- 
tributed about the country in order to procure the proper 
materials for blocking up the small holes and chinks 
of the hive, and for laying a firm foundation for the edi- 
fice which is to be constructed within it. The substance 
which is principally employed in this preliminary stage 
S& propolis^ a species of glutinous resin, of an agreeable 
aromatic odor, and reddish- brown color, in process of 
time becoming darker, and acquiring a firmer consistence. 

The propoUs adheres so strongly to the legs and feet 
of the bee which has collected it, tlu^ it cannot be de- 
tached without the assistance of its fellow-laborers. 
For this purpose the bee that is loaded presents its legs 
to the workers in the hive, which carry off vdth their 
jaws this adhesive substance and immediately apply it, 
while yet ductile, all round the interior of the hive, and 
particularly over all the projecting parts; hence its 
name, of Greek derivation, signifying be/ore the city. 

The next object of their labors is tl^ construction of 
the combs, the future receptacles for the eggs with 
which the queen is pregnant and which are now to be 
laid. The material employed is wax ; and the bees, for 
the purpose of secreting this, are actively employed in 



collecting honey. When they have filled thdr crops 
with honry they hang together in a thick cluster from 
the top of the hive, and thtis remain in a state of inac- 
tivity tor a considerable period, during which time the 
secretion of wax is proceeding. It may be seen col- 
lected in laminse nnder the abdominal scales, whence it 
is removed by the hind legs of the bee, transferred to 
the fore legs, and from thence taken up by the jaws. 
In this operation they are often assisted by their com- 
panions, who even sometimes directly siese upon the 
wax from under the abdomen of those who are before 
them. When a sufficient quantity of material has thos 
been collected together, the process of building is com- 
menced; but in order to understand the stJ>seqaect 
operations it is necessary to have a correct idea of the 
form of the cells which compose the combs. We shaU, 
therefore, proceed to give some account of the structure 
when it has attained its perfect state. 

The combs of a bee-hive are formed ia pandlel ver- 
tical strata, each of which is about an im^ in thkkiiess, . 
the distance between the surfaces of adjoining strati 
being about ha(f an hM:h, a space whidi allows for the 
passage of the bees over both services. The combs 
generally extend the whole breadth of the hive, and 
nearly the whole length from the top to the bottom. 

Royal cells are only formed when it is necessary that 
queens should be reared, either from their bemg reooired 
to lead off swarms, or from the fact of the colony being 
queenless trough accklental circumstances. 

The comb of^the hive may be said to be the furniture 
and storehouse of the bees, which b^ use must wesr out; 
but independently of this, it will m time become unfit 
for use, by the accumulations of cocoons, which are 
never removed. These line the whole ceQ, sides and bot- 
tom. Hunter counted above twenty different linings in 
one cell, and found the cell about one-quarter or one- 
third filled up. 

The regularity of the cells is often disturbed in conse- 
quence of the admixture of rows of larger ceUs with 
Uiose of smaller dimensions; but the oyraraidal pard- 
tions are adapted by successive graoadons to these 
changes, so that in many rows of what may bg caDcd 
cells of transition, the bottom presents four planes in- 
stead of three, two being trapeziums, and the other two 
irregular hexagons. These irregularities are met with 
chiefly in the combs most distant from the central one. 
Wben an abundant supply of honey induces the bees to 
lay up a large quantity in store, they build up for this 
purpose the walls of common cells, so as to give them a 
greater depth. The roval cells, are often raised from 
Uie ruins of a number of other cells, which are destroyed 
to make room for them; they are usually built on the 
edge of some of the shorter combs, and often in the 
very centre of the hive. Sometimes there is btit one; 
at other times as many as sixteen have been counted in 
the same hive. They are formed of a mixture of prop- 
olis and wax; their form is oblong, resembling that of 
a pear; their position is always vertical, so that when 
they rise from the nudst of other cells, they are placed 
against the mouths of those cells, and project bwna 
the common surface of the comb. The^ are perfectly 
smooth on the inner surface, while their outer side i« 
covered with a kind of hexagonal fret-work, as if m- 
tended for the foundation of regular cells. 

The impregnation of the (jueen-bee was formerly uj- 
volved in the deepest obscurity, and has given rise to ft 
multitude of very fanciful opinions. Some have deniea 
that any intercourse with the male was necessary for die 
fecundation of the eggs. It has since been dearly 
proved that copulation takes place in the air dur^ 
flight, and if the queen is confined to the hive cither^ 
bid weather, or malformation or mutilation of htf 



BEE 



869 



wiogs, although she may be surrounded by drones, she 
never becomes impregnated ; and if she does not find a 
mate within three weeks of her birth, the power of 
sexual intercourse seems to become lost. If a nive con- 
taining a virgin <|ueen be attentively watched on fine 
days the queen will be observed preparing for her matri- 
monial flight, and after having attentively surveyed her 
home so as to be able to recognize it agam she nies to a 
considerable height in the air ; and if her errand is suc- 
cessful, in half an hour she returns to the hive with un- 
equivocal proofs of the intercourse that has taken place, 
for she has in fact robbed the drone of the organs con- 
cerned in this operation ; and the drone, thus mutilated, 
is left to perish on the ground. From its being neces- 
sary that the queen jshoidd fl v to a distance in order to be 
imprejg;nated, Huber infers tne necessity of a great num- 
ber ofdrones being attached to the hive, that there may 
be a sufficient chance of her meeting one of them during 
her aerial excursion. 

The fact that the eggs of an unimpregnated queen 
will hatch and produce drones may be easily verified, 
and b now undisputed. By depriving a colony of its 
queen late in the year, a youne oueen will be reared ; 
and the drones having been killed long before, no 
impregnation can take place, yet the queen will infalli- 
bly lay eggps which hatch into drones ; these eggs are 
laid indiscriminately in drone and worker cells, the bees 
bred in the latter being stunted in their growth. If 
now the spermatheca be examined, no spermatozoa will 
be found present. The same result will be found if, in 
the summer, the virgin oueen be deprived of her wings 
and so made unable to fly. 

If the impregnation of the queen be delayed beyond, 
as elsewhere stated, the twenty-first day of her life, she 
becomes incapable of receiving impregnation, and begins 
soon after to lay the eggs of drones, and produces no 
other kind of eggs during her life. This very curious 
and unexpected fact was discovered by Huber ; and has 
been satisfactorily established by his very numerous and 
varied experiments, although its explanation is perhaps 
attended with insuperable difficulties. The abdomen of 
a queen that is unimpregnated is much more slender than 
that of one which is completely fertile ; but, on dissec- 
tion, the ovaries are found expanded and full of ova. 

One of the most remarkable facts concerning the gen- 
eration of bees, is the existence occasionally of prolific 
workers, the discovery of which we owe to Reims. 
Although it was doubted by Bonnet, its reality has been 
fully confirmed by the researches of Huber and subse- 
quent observers, and it explains what was before inex- 
plicable — the production of eggs in hives absolutely 
destitute of a queen. It is also remarkable that the eggs 
thus producea are always those of drones, but this is 
explained by the fact that these fertile workers have not 
received, and, in fact, are unable to receive, impregna- 
tion from the drone. The origin of these abnormal egg- 
layers is accounted for firom their having passed the larva 
state in cells contiguous to the royal ones, and from 
their having at an early period devoured some portion 
of the stimulating jelly which was destined for the nour- 
ishment of the royal brood, their ovaries thus receiving 
a partial development ; or when a colony is deprived of 
its queen late in the autumn, and an attempt to raise a 
queen from some unknown cause has failed, a larva has 
sufficiently advanced to develop into a fertile worker. 

As soon as a sufficient number of cells have been con- 
structed, the queen begins to deposit her eggs. Unlike 
most msects the queen bee deposits eggs ten or eleven 
months in the year in temf>erate climates, although it is 
probable this is not the case when the winter is much 
more severe than in Britain. Young queens ordinarily 
commence ovipositing thirty-six hours after impregna- 



tion. What power, if an^, the queen has in determin* 
ing the sex of her ^gs is unknown, but, as alreadv 
noticed, eggs that wilTproduce workers or queens wiU 
always be found laid m worker cells, and those that 
will produce drones will also be found in their appro- 
priate cells. A queen of a new swarm will rarely pro- 
duce drones the first year ; instinct, seemingly, teaching 
her they will not be required. In the early spring, if a 
clean empty piece of drone comb be put into the centre 
of the brood nest, the queen will usually fill it with 
drone eg^, and this circumstance is taken advantage of 
by scientific apiarians to secure a supply of drones for 
the impr^nation of early hatched queens. When the 
eggs are about to hatch, the bees eagerly seek for that 
species of nourishment on which the farvae are to be fed. 
This consists of pollen with a proportion of honey and 
water, which is partly digested in the stomach of the 
bees, and made to vary in its quality according to the 
age of the young. The egg of a bee is of a lengthened 
oval shape with a slight curvature and of a bluish white 
color. It is hatched without requiring any particular 
attention on the part of the bees, except that a proper 
temperature be kept up, in which case three days are 
sufficient for the exclusion of the larva. This has the 
appearance of a small white worm without feet, which 
remains generally coiled up at the bottom of the cell. 
The bees feed it with great assiduity with the kind of 
chyle above described, and in every respect exhibit 
towards it the greatest care and attention. Hunter 
sa3rs a young bee might easily be brought up by any 
person who would be attentive to feed it. As it grows 
up it casts its cuticle like the larvae of other insects. In 
the course of five or six days it has attained its full size, 
and nearly fills the cell in which it is lodged. It now 
ceases to eat, and the bees close up its cell with a cover- 
ing of wax, or rather an admixture of wax and propolis, 
which they possess the art of amalgamating. During 
the next thirty-six hours the larva is engaged in spinning 
its cocoon, and in three days more it assumes the pupa 
state. It is now perfectly white, and every part of tne 
future bee may be distinguished through its transparent 
covering. In the course of a week it tears asunder its 
investing membrane, and makes its way through the 
outer wSl of its prison in its perfect form. Reckoning 
from the time that the egg is laid, it is only on the 
twenty-first dav of its existence that this last metamor- 
phosis is completed. No sooner has it thus emancipated 
Itself than its guardians assemble around it, caress it 
with their tongues, and supply it plentifully with food. 
Thev clean out the cell which it had been occupying, 
leaving untouched, however, the greater part of the web, 
which thus serves to bind together still more firmly the 
sides of the comb. The color of the bee when it quits 
the cell is a light grey. For several days, sometimes a 
week or two after birth, the worker bees occupy them- 
selves within the hive, not flying abroad during that 
time, their principal employment then being that of 
nurses; and many old observers thought them a different 
class altogether from the honey-gatherers and wax- 
niakers. The metamorphosis of the male bee follows 
the same course, but requires four days longer for its 
completion, occupying twenty-five days from the time of 
the egg being laid to the attainment of the perfect state. 
When from the egg or young larva it is the intention 
of the bees to raise a queen, their attention b more in- 
cessantly bestowed upon it, the cell being enlarged as 
elsewhere described. It is supplied with a peculiar kind 
of food, which appears to be more stimulating than that 
of ordinary bees. It has not the same mawkish taste, 
and is evidently acid. It is furnished to the royal larva 
in greater quantities than can be consumed, so that a por- 
tion always remains behind in the cell after the trans- 



870 



BEE 



formation. As a proof that any vfotktr egg or young 
larva not more than three days old may be made to pro- 
duce {I queen, the experimenter has only to supply to 
such an one, a portion of royal jelly, and the nurses will 
enlarge its cell and continue so to feed it, when in due 
time a aueen will be produced. The growth of the 
larva ana the development of all its organs are very much 
accelerated by this treatment, so that m five days it is 
prepared to spin its web, and the bees enclose it by 
Duilding up a wall at the mouth of its cell. The web is 
completed in twenty-four hours ; twodavs and a half are 
spent in a state of inaction, and then the larva trans- 
forms itself into a pupa. It remains between four and 
five days in this state, and thus on the sixteenth day after 
the egg has been laid, the perfect insect is produced. 
When this change is about to take place, the bees gnaw 
away part of the wax covering of the cell till at last it 
becomes pellucid from its extreme thinness. This not 
only must facilitate the exit of the bee, but may possibly 
be useful in permitting the evaporation of tne super- 
abundant fluids. 

But the queen bee, although perfectly formed, is not 
a]wa]rs at liberty to come out ot her prison, for if the 
queen- mother be still in the hive waiting a favorable 
state of the weather to lead forth another swarm, the 
bees do not suffer the young queens to stir out ; they 
even strengthen the covering of the cell bv an additional 
coating ofwax, perforating it with a small hole through 
which the prisoner can thrust out her tongue in order to 
be fed by tnose who guard her. 1 he royal prisoners 
continually utter a kind of plaintive cry, called by bee- 
keepers ** piping,** and this appears to be answered by 
the mother queen. The modulations of thb piping are 
said to vary. The motive of this proceeding on the ]mrt 
of the bees who miard them is to be found in the im- 
placable hatred which the old queen bears against all 
those of her own sex, and which impels her to destroy 
without mercy all the young queens that come within 
her reach. The workers are on this account very solicit- 
ous to prevent her even approaching the ro3ral cells 
while there is any prospect of a swarm being about to 
issue. They establish themselves as a jg^uard around 
these cells; and, forgetting their allegiance on this 
occasion, actually beat her off as often as she endeavors 
to come near them. If, on the other hand, the swarm- 
ing season is over, or circumstances prevent any further 
swarms from being sent off, the bees do not interpose 
any obstacle to the fury of the old queen, which immedi- 
ately begins the work of destruction, transfixing with 
her sting one after the other the whole of the royal brood, 
while they are yet confined in their cells. It is observed 
by Huber, that the royal larvae construct only imperfect 
cocoons, open behind, and enveloping only the head, 
thorax, ana first ring of the abdomen ; and he conceives 
that the intention of Nature in this apparent imperfec- 
tion is, that thev may be exposed to the mortal sting of 
the queen, to whom they may be given up as a sacrifice. 

When the old queen has taken her departure along 
with the first swarm, the young queens are liberated in 
succession, at intervals of a few days, in order to prevent 
their attacking and destroying one another, which would 
be the infallible consequence of their meeting. This 
exterminating warfare is prevented by the vigilance of 
the bees which guard them, so long as new swarms are 
expected to go off. When a young queen is liberated, 
she is, like others of her sex, anxious to get rid of her 
rivals, and even at that early age seeks to destroy her 
sisters, which are still confined m the other royal cells ; 
but as often as she approaches them she is bit, pulled, 
and chased without ceremony by the sentinels. But 
when the season is too far advanced for swarming, or if 
two or more queens should happen to emerge at the 



same moment, they matoally seek each other and figfat 
till one is killed, and the survivor is immediately 
reiicived as the sovereign of the hive. The bees, far 
from seeking to prevent these battles, appear to ezdte 
the combatants against each other, surrounding and 
bringing them back to the charge when they are dis- 
posed to recede from each other, and when either of 
the queens shows a disposition to approach her an- 
tagonists, all the bees forming the cluster instantly 
give way to allow her full liberty for the attack. TTjc 
first use which the conquering queen makes of her 
victory is to secure herself against fresh dangers by 
destroying all her future rivals m the royal cells ; while 
the other bees, which are spectators of the carnage, share 
in the spoil, greedily devouring any food which may be 
found at the bottom of the ceus, and even sucking the 
flukl from the abdomen of the pupee before they toss ont 
the carcasses. 

We are now to direct our attention to the migrations 
of bees, by which new colonies similar to that which 
had originally peopled the parent hive are founded. 
The final causes of this phenomenon are sufficiently ob- 
vious, but it does not so clearly i^ppcar to what dream- 
stances it is immediately owing. The increasing popu- 
lation of a hive probably occasions inconvenience from 
want of room ; the increase of heat and the greater 
vitiation of the air become still more serious as the sum- 
mer advances. The spring is, accordingly, the com- 
mencement of the swarming season. No swarming, in- 
deed, will ever take place while the weather is cold, or 
until the hive is well stocked with eggs. The queen- 
bee, in consequence of the great number of eggs she 
has been laying, is now reduced to a more slender shape, 
and is well fitted for flight ; her aversion for the royal 
brood, which she seems to foresee will in a short time 
become able to dispute the throne with her, and the 
vain attempts she makes to destroy them in the cradle, 
in which attempts she is invariably repelled by the bees 
who guard them, produce in her a constant restlessness 
and agitation which, as Huber represents it, rises to a 
degree of deliriunu This frenzy, from whatever cause 
it may originate, is communicated to the workers; they 
may be seen hurrying to and fro in the combs with evi- 
dent marks of impatience. The heat of the hive is in- 
creased by their tumultuous movements ; it sometimes 
rises suddenly on these occasions from 92° to above 
104^. A general buzz is heard throughout the hivp. 
This state of things occurs from time to time for some 
days before the swarm is actually on the wing ; and the 
interval is occupied in making preparations for the ap- 
proaching expeaition ; provisions are collected in greater 
ouantity by the workers. Hunter killed several of 
tnose that came away, and found their crops full, while 
those that remained in the hive had their croik not 
nearly so. 

On the day on which the swarm quits the hive, few of 
the workers roam to any distance, but several are seen 
performing circles in the air round the hive. The noise 
IS on a suc&en hushed, and all the bees enter the hive; 
this silence announces their immediate departure. A 
few workers appear at the door, turn towards the hive, 
and striking with their wings, give, as it were, the signal 
for flight. All those which are to accompany the expe- 
dition rush towards the door, and issue forth with won- 
derful rapidity, rising in the air and hovering for some 
time, as if in order to wait for the assemblage of the 
whole troop ; then, having selected a rallying point, gen- 
erally on some tree or bush, some alight, l^mg jomed 
immediately by others until the whole number is col- 
lected in one mass of bees. It does not alwajrs happeft 
that the queen is the first to alight or is with the dnater 
at all ; but if she be not there the bees soon dtSQOr«r il 



BEE 



871 



and disperse in search of her— if they fail to find her 
they return to the parent hive. Thither the queen some- 
times, from weakness or other causes, returns, and is 
immediately attended by the rest But if the weather 
be fine, the expedition is only deferred for one or two 
days, and they again take their departure. If their 
return be owing to the loss of their queen, they remain 
a fortnight or longer before the attempt to migrate is re- 
newed, and then the swarm is much larger than before, 
which renders it probable that they have waited for the 
<^iieen that was to go off with the next swarm. Some- 
tmies, when everyOiing indicates an approaching emi- 
gration, the passage of a cloud across the sun wUl sus- 
pend aU their operations, and the previous bustle gives 
J ►lace to a state of perfect calm. But, if the dav be not 
ar advanced, the breaking out of sunshine will renew 
the commotion, and determine the moment of actual 
flifi;ht 

The swarm having rested for some time on the first 
landing-place, and collected the whole of its numbers, 
soars again in the air, keeping in a close phalanx, and 
directing its course with great velocity to the spot 
which their guides had selected, — eiving out, at the 
same time^ aloud and acute-toned hum by the action 
of their wings. 

The parent hive^ thus deserted by its queen and a 
large proportion of its inhabitants, is busily occupied in 
repairing its loss. The bees which remain quietly pur- 
sue their labors; the young brood, soon arriving at ma- 
turity, quickly fill up every deficiency; and young 
queens, being allowed their liberty, one after the other, 
conduct in tlusir turns new swarms, in the same manner 
as the first. The second swarm is not sent off till after 
the space of from five to ten days after the first. The 
following swarms succeed quicker to each other, but 
consist of smaller numbers than the earlier ones. If it 
happen that two queens are found in a swarm, either the 
swarm divkles itself into two, and have separate desti- 
nations, or a single combat between the queens decides 
on which of them the empire is to devolve. Sometimes, 
indeed, they appear not to perceive each other, and the 
parties belonginc; to each construct separate combs within 
the same hive: b>at no sooner do these combs come in 
contact, and tmis give occasion to queens meeting each 
other, than a contest begins which terminates only by 
the death of one of the rival c^ueens. Successive swarms 
arc sent off as long as the mcrease of population per- 
mits; and the number thus produced in a season de- 
Cos on a variety of circumstances, such as the abun- 
cc of flowers, the warmth of the climate, and the 
capacity of the hive. Bosc, while he was French consul 
in Carolina, found a stock of bees in the woods which 
had been robbed of its wax and honey by the nen-oes; 
he contrived to convey the bees in his hat to a hive in 
his garden. He obtained from his hive eleven swarms 
before the end of the autumn; and these, again gave him 
the same number of secondary swarms, so that by the 
end of the year he had twenty-two hives stocked from 
the one he had thus saved from destruction. In Britain 
a hive commonly sends off only two and sometimes three 
swarms in the course of the summer; and prudent apia- 
rians will be satisfied with one swarm only, returning 
all subsequent ones to the parent hive, which would 
otherwise become very weak. When the bar-frame hives 
are used, the issue of after-swarms is easily and surely 
prevented hy destro]ring all queen-cells but one after the 
Ksue of the first swarm. 

Very few drones accompany the new colonies, so that 
almost all* those produced in the spring remain in the 
hive. But when the queens are impregnated, and new 
swarms are about to take place, the workers, who had 
till then suffered them to live unmolested in the hive. 



are on a sudden seized with a deadly fury to^rd them, 
and a scene of carnage ensues. This usually happens in 
June, July, or August. They chase their unhappy vic- 
tims in ever^ quarter, till they seek a refuge at the bot- 
tom of the mve, where they collect in crowds, and are 
indiscriminately, and without a single exception, massa- 
cred by the working bees, who, with implacable fury, 
*bite, maim,^ and throw them out of the hive. So grcBt 
is their andpathy to all the race of drones, that they 
destroy, at the same time, the male e^ and larvae, and 
tear open the cocoons of their pupae, m order to devote 
them to one common destrucdon. This sacrifice of the 
males b not, however, the effect of a blind and indis- 
criminating instinct; for if a hive be deprived of its 
queen, the massacre does not take place, while the 
hottest persecution rages in all the surrounding hives. 
In this case the males are allowed to survive the winter. 

Having thus got rid of the useless mouths which con- 
sumed, without any advantage to the public, a large 
portion of their provisions, the bees spena the remainder 
of the summer in collecting stores of honey and of 
pollen for the ensuing winter. Their gleanings are now 
less abundant than in the spring, and require more labor 
in the search and collection. But at this season the 
leaves of many kinds of trees, which are covered in the 
morning with a saccharine fluid that exudes from them, 
furnish them with a species of nourishment, which 
though of very inferior quality to the nectarial fluid, still 
contnbutes to their support. ^ Fruit is also attacked by 
bees, after the cudcular covering has been broken throufi;n 
by birds or snails. They also find nutriment in the 
honey 'dew t which is an excrementitious fluid deposited 
on the leaves of plants by certain species of aphides. 
Often, however, these resources fail, and the hive is 
threatened with famine. On these occasions the dis- 
tressed bees frequently betake themselves to plunder ; 
and if a weak or queenless hive can be discovered they 
begin'a furious onset, which costs great numbers their 
lives. If the invaders should fail in their attempt to 
force the entrance .they retreat, and are not pursued by 
those whom they have assailed ; but if they succeed in 
making ^od the assault, the war continues to rage in 
the interior of the hive until one side finds itself beaten, 
in which case, should the conquerors be the invaders, the 
invaded will generally join their forces, and help their late 
enemies to carry off their plunder, and at once become 
members of the lately hostile hive. 

The life of a queen -bee will sometimes extend to 
three or four years, but her fertility decreases after her 
second breeding season. When absent from the hive 
on her matrimonial excursions she very often becomes a 
prey to a bird, and not seldom on her return mistakes 
ner hive, when she is probably killed by the stranger 
bees, or by the queen on whose territory she has in- 
truded. Drones seldom die a natural death ; there is 
no evidence of the duration of the lives of individuals, 
but normally they are hatched about May and slaugh- 
tered by the workers in June, July, or. August ; should 
the hive be queenless, however, the workers do not 
harm the drones, and some will then live far into 
the winter or even to the following spring. The life of 
a worker is greatly dependent on the season of the 
year and the amount of labor performed. The modem 
method of introducing a fertile Ligurian queen {Apis 
Hgusticd) into a queenless stock of the common black 
bee {Apis mellifica\ in order to obtain pure stocks of 
the former variety, nas plainly demonstrated the short 
life of the worker bee. If the Ligurian queen be intro- 
duced in May, when bees are busy and work abundant, 
in from six to eight weeks thereafter scarcely a black 
bee will be found in the hive, although at the time of the 
introduction multitudes of young larvae were present. 



872 



BEE 



which prc^bablj would not all be folly developed for 
nearly tnree weeks ; therefore in the season of hardest 
work, the inhabitants of the hive woukl seldom 
attain the age of six weeks. Bat if the experiment 
of the queen's introduction be deferred until Oc- 
tober, then not until the following May will the 
black bees have become extinct. And it is a curious 
fact that if a hive be deprived of its queen in October* 
(and none other supplied), then the workers, having no 
labor to perform eitner in replenishing stores or attend- 
ing on the larvs, will possibly in May be found still 
living, although somewhat reduced in numbers. Such 
a colony, however, generally becomes a victim to rob- 
bers when the activity of spring arrives, for a queenless 
stock rarely makes much defence of its stores. In fine 
winter days, when the sun shines brightly, numbers of 
bees are tempted abroad, which easily become benumbed 
by cold, fall to the ground, and die. Insectivorous 
birds also make victims of great numbers at such times, 
other insect food being scarce; so that, probably in 
winter and early spring, more workers die from acci- 
dent than by natural decay. The fecundity of the 
queen-bee is, however, adequate not onl^ to repair these 
losses, but to multiply the population m a very high 
progression. /i/>is iigustica has the reputation of being 
more prolific than A, mellifica; and a young and vigor- 
ous queen will, in the fine weather of a warm May and 
June, deposit as many as 2000 eggs per day for several 
weeks in succession, and this fertility is of much longer 
continuance in America and other warm climates than 
in England. In England, eggs are deposited and 
young reared ten or eleven months in the year, when 
the colony is strong in numbers and well supplied with 
stores; but the increase in the cold months seldom 
equals the decrease by deaths. 

The loss of the queen is an event which has the most 
marked influence on the conduct of the workers. 
Although the queen is constantly an object of attention 
and of affection to the whole community, they are not 
immediately sensible to her absence when sne is re- 
moved from the hive. The ordinary labors are con- 
tinued without interruption, and it is not till a whole 
hour has elapsed that symptoms of uneasiness are 
manifested, and it is even then only partially displayed. 
The inquietude begins in one part of the hive, the 
workers become resuess, abandon the young which they 
were feeding, run to and fro, and, by striking each other 
with their antennae, communicate the alarming intelli- 
gence very quickly to their companions. The ferment 
soon extends to the whole community ; the bees ru^ 
precipitately out of the hive, and seek for their lost 
queen in every direction. This state of confusion con- 
tinues for a day or two, after which tranquillity is 
again established ; they return to their labors ; and, 
selecting an egg, or one of the larvae that is not more 
than three days old, they break down two of the con- 
tiguous cells, sacrificing the larvae contained in them, 
and proceed to build up one royal cell from their ruins. 
They then supply the worm with the food necessary 
to promote its quick growth, and leaving untouched 
the rhomboidal bottom they raise around it a cylindrical 
enclosure. In three days the lava has grown to such 
a size as to require an extension of its lodging, and 
must inhabit a cell nearly of a pyramidal figure, and 
hanging perpendicularly. A new pyramkial tube is 
therefore constructed with the wax of the surround- 
ing cells, which is soldered at right angles to the first, 
and the bees, working downwards, gradually contract 
its diameter from the base, which is very wide, to the 

{)oint. In proportion as the worm grows, the bees 
abor in extending the cell, and bring kkxI, which they 
place before its mouth and round its body, forming a 



kind of coiled zone around it. The worm, \« hidi can 
more only in a spiral direction, turns incessantly to 
take its food before its head; it insensiblT descendsy 
and at length arrives at the orifice of the odL It 
then transforms itself into a pupa, is enclosed with a 
covering of wax, as before described, and, in the sp^e 
of ten to uxteen days the original loss is thus repaued 
by the birth of a new queen. Schirach found that, if & 
number of bees be confined with even *a single larva, 
which in the natural course would have become a 
worker bee, they immediately set about giving it the 
royal education above described, and thus raise it to 
the dignity of queen. 

The discovery that queens may be reared at will has 
been confirmed by recent experiment, and is now largely 
taken advantage of by apiarians both in Europe and 
America, to fi^itate the making of artificial swarms 
and otherwise increase the production of bees. By the 
aid of small frame hives called nucleus boxes, whidi 
only materially differ fi-om the larger or mother hive by 
containing frames less in number and in size (generally 
three), a stock of fertile queens is kept on hand ready to 
supp^ any colony requinng a sovereigp, or to exchange 
an old queen for a young one, or a Ligurian queen for 
an ordinary English one. 

In Switzerlaml, Italy, and Germany a large business 
is done in Ligurian queen-raising for export Great 
numbers of those queens come to England and America 
in little wooden boxes, accompanied by sufficient wcn-k- 
ers to develop enough heat The price in Italy varies, 
according to the season, from five francs in October to 
twelve francs in March ; but few are raised until May, 
owing to the diflficulty of their obtaining impregnation. 
To overcome this difficulty in the autumn some colonies 
are purposely kept queenless, whose drones remain in 
existence. The advantage of having fertile queens at 
the bee-master's disposal is very great. When a swarm 
issues the young queen is not usually mature, and has to 
become impregnated. Should unfavorable weather 
ensue, a still further delay occurs ; and the virgin oueen, 
on her excursion, is liable to be lost or killed. Snould 
no such accident occur, it may still be two or three 
weeks before ovipositing again commences, and this in 
the very height of the Dreading season ; while if the 
skilful bee-master, first taking the precaution to destroy 
any existing queen celb, can immediately, on the issue 
Of the swarm, introduce the queen and her retinue from 
a nucleus hive, no time is lost, and probably 20^000 to 
40,000 eggs will be deposited in the time that would 
otherwise have been lost. By this system of nucleus 
queen-rearing, it may be fairly calculated that the in- 
crease of population may be doubled. While the hive 
remains without a queen svrarming can never take place, 
be the hive ever so crowded. 

Bees are subject to few diseases, but these few are 
sometimes very fataL Dysentery occasionally commits 
great havoc in a hive, and is usually caused by the 
neglect of sanitary measures, by close confinement, 
want of ventilation, and damp. 

In the management of bees a great tleal must, of 
course, depend on supplying them \^th an abundant 
pasture. A rich com country is well known to be to 
them as a barren desert during a |[reat portion of the 
year* Hence the judicious practice of shifting them 
from place to place according to the circumstances of 
the season. 

In many parts of France floating bee-houses are 
also common ; there are on board one barge three to 
five score of bet-hives, well defended from the inclem- 
ency of an accklental storm. The owners aJlow their 
barges to float gently down the river, the bees om»* 
tinually choosing their flowery pasture along tbe f ' 



BEE 



873 



of the stream, and thus a single floating bee-house 
yields the proprietor a considerable income. 

On the continents of Europe and America bee- 
keeping is carried on in a much larger and more 
scientinc manner than in the United Kingdom, where 
the cottagers still, in the greater majority of instances, 
use only the ancient straw sleep or hive, and know no 
other method of depriving the colonies of their stores 
than the barbarous and wasteful practice of smothering 
them with brimstone. 

The Drincipal objects to be considered in the constmc- 
tion and management of an apiary, are, first, to secure 
the prosperity and multiplication of the colonies, and 
then to increase the amount of their productive labor, 
and to obtain their products with facintv and with the 
least possible detriment to the stock. The apiary should 
mffori to the bees shelter against moisture and the ex- 
tremes of heat and cold, ai^ specially against sudden 
-vicissitudes of temperature. Tne hives Siould render 
every facility for constructing the combs and rearing the 
young; thej should allow of every part of the combs 
being occasionally inspected, and of tneir bein^ removed 
when necessary; ana, while due attention is paid to 
economy, they should be made of materials that will in- 
sure durability. Much ingenuity has been (Usplayed by 
different apiarians in the construction of hives lo unite in 
the greatest possible degree all these advanta^ ; but 
there is still great room for improvement on the mves that 
are in common use. 

While some cultivators of bees have been chiefly anx- 
ious to promote their multiplication, and prevent the es- 
cape of the swarms in the natural way b^ procuring what 
are termed " artificial swarms,** which a effected by va- 
rious means, others have taken into consideration only 
the abundance of the products which they yield, and 
the best way of extracting them from the hive, without 
showing any particular solicitude as to the preservation 
of the l^es themselves; still another cls^ of apiarians 
have had more particularly in view the prosecution of 
researches in the natural history and economy of bees. 
The hive invented by Huber was in his time a great ad- 
vance for the purpose last named. It had, however, 
many inconveniences which are remedied in some hives of 
more modem construction, and Huber's leaf-hive Is now 
rarely used, although it may claim the distinction of 
having been the first of the frame hives which are now, 
with many modifications, generally acknowledged to be 
the only ones capable of giving the maximum of pros- 
perity to the bees and producing a large honey harvest, 
combined with affording facilities for observation and 
manipulation. The old cylindrical straw skep or hive 
is still generally used among the cottagers of England, 
although abandoned in many other countries. Whfle 
very excellent for warmth and ventOatiun, it has the 
dissidvantage that its interior is inaccessible for ioibrma- 
tion ; and the fixity of its combs precludes many manip- 
ulations which the skilful apiarian is called upon to per- 
form. This was well known to the ancients, who, to 
remedy it, fitted the crowns of their hives with movable 
wooden bars, from which the bees built their combs, 
but still diey were attached by their sides to the hive 
and required to be cut away before they could be re- 
moved, — these operations greatly disturbing the bees. 
In 1851, Dzierzon in Germany, and Langstroth in Amer- 
ica, two of the most skilful apiarians of the present day, 
simultaneously designed or invented the bar-frame hive, 
the principle of which, with many varieties of detail, is 
found in all the best hives now in use. 

Many improvements have been made on the Wood- 
bury hive, tending still further to the comfort and well- 
being of the bees, as well as to the furtherance of scien- 
tific study; and, perhaps, the hive that may be said to 



combine most of these advantages is one deagned by 
Mr. Frank Cheshire, and known as the ** Cheshire 
Hive.** To afford the bees the maximum of comfort and 
to economize their heat, the walls of this hive are made 
double, enclosing an air space. The Woodbury frames 
are used, bnt rest on the thin edge of a strip of zinc 
within the hive at the back and front, which prevents the 
bees fixing them vrith propolis. The floor-board is con- 
structed to slide in a groove beneath the hive, and the 
entrance can be enlarged or diminished at pleasure by a 
pair of sliding-shutters ; the hive is complete with stand 
and roof, and altogether leaves little to be desired. 

The adoption of frame hives has greatly facilitated the 
scientific study of the insects* habits, the artificial mul- 
tiplication of colonies,^ and die appropriation of their 
surplus stores without injury to the bees. It is quite a 
secondary consideration what size or pattern of firame is 
used, or now the frames are suspended in the hive, pro- 
vided the principle of movable frames be adopted ; and 
although much ingenuity has been exercised by scientific 
men to design a hive embracing every possible advantage 
regardless of cost, the roughest timber and coarsest 
workmanship will give as good results as the most elab- 
orate. Frame hives are exceedingly well calculated for 
procuring artificial swarms. 

Bee-Keeping, 

A description has already been given of examples of 
the best movable bar and frame hives, and the system 
they represent should alone be adopted, i.e.^ every comb 
in the hivcs should be movable and interchimgeable. In 
stocking these it is usual, first, to hive the swarm in an 
old-fashioned straw skep ; and in the evening, after all 
the bees are quietly settled, suddenly to shake them 
down against the entrance of the hive or on the top of 
the frames, when the astonished insects will immediately 
take refuge in their future home. Should continuous 
bad weather occur after hiving a swarm, the bees must 
be fed, for, as they have as yet no stores, they will 
otherwise starve. 

For feeding bees a multitude of appliances have been 
invented, but they may all g^ive place to a common wide 
mouth pickle bottle ; this is filled with syrup, the mouth 
tied over with a double fold of net, or placed inverted on 
a piece of perforated zinc or vulcanite over the feeding- 
hole of the crown-board of the hive. The supply can be 
regulated to the bees by the number and size ot tne holes 
through which they are allowed to suck. 

An abundant supply of water is essential to the 
healthy condition of bees. They consume a large quan- 
tity, and often stop to drink at the edge of stagnant 
pools, and seem even to prefer putrid and urinous waters 
to purer streams, as if their sanne and pungent qualities 
were grateful to them. 

Where the bee-keeper has die use of a honey-extractor, 
and a laige produce of honey is his desideratum, the 
combs can be emptied as fast as they are filled; and at 
the close of the season the bees may be deprived of the 
whole of their honey if syrup be supplied to them in 
its place. This is of much less value, and answers every 
purpose for winter stores. No hive should be trusted to 
the exigencies of winter with a less weight of sealed 
comb tlmn 15 lb. 

We conclude by observing that the honey-bee is sup- 

g>sed to be of Asiatic origin. It was imported from 
urope to America, where it is now found wild in 
great numbers, and at a vast distance from human hab- 
itations. 

BEECH, a well-known tree, the Fagtis syhatua. 
Beech-mast, the fruit of the beech tree, was formerly 
known in England as buck ; and the county of Bucking- 
ham is so named from its fame as a beedi-growing 



874 



BEE 



coontry. Buckwheat deriYes its name from the limi- 
larity of its an^lar seeds to beech-masL The generic 
name Fagus is derived from q^dyt^ I eat ; but the 
<pijyd^ of Theophrastns was probably the sweet chest- 
nut (asculus) of the Romans. Beech*mast has been 
used as food m times of distress and fiunine ; and in 
autumn it yields an abundant supply of food to park- 
deer and other game, and to pi^ which are turned into 
beech-woods in order to utilize the fallen mast. In 
France it b used for feeding pheasants and domestic 
poultry. Well-ripened beech-mast yields from 17 to 20 
per cent of a non-drying oil, suitable for illumination, 
and said to be used in some parts of France and other 
Continental countries in cookmg, and as a substitute for 
butter. 

BEECHEY, Frederick William, a distinguished 
naval officer and navigator, son of Sir William Mechey, 
R. A., was bom in London, in 1796. In 1806, at the 
age of ten, he entered the navy, and was for several 
years engaged in active service during the war with 
France and America. In 181 8 he served under Frank- 
lin in Buchan*s Arctic expedition, of which at a later 
period he published a narrative: and in the following 
jrcar he accompanied Parry in the ♦* Hecla.** In 1821 
he took part in the survey of the Mediterranean coast, 
under the direction of Captain, afterwards Admirtd, 
Smyth. He and his brother, H. W. Beechey, made an 
overland survey of the north coast of Africa, of which a 
full and valuable account was published in 1827. In 
1825 he was appointed to the *• Blossom," which was 
intended to explore Behring's Straits in concert with 
Franklin and Parry. He passed Behring*s Straits and 
penetrated as far as lat. 71*^ 23' 31" N., and long. 156^ 
21' 30" W., reaching a point only 146 miles west of 
that reached by Franklin's expedition from the 
Mackenzie River. In 1854 he was made rear-admiral, 
and in the following year was elected president of the 
Geographical Society. He died on the 20th Nor. 1856. 

BEECHEY, Sir William, R.A., a fashionable 
portrait painter, bom at Burford in December 175^ 
His works are generally Tigorous, but are wanting m 
grace and dignity. He was a good, but not an eminent 
portrait painter. He died January 1839, at theadvanoed 
age of eighty-six. 

BEELZEBUB. The name of the supreme yod 
among all the Syro-Phoenician peoples was Baal, i.e., 
lord or owner ; and by addmg to it nebub^ insect, the 
proper name Baalzebub was formed, the god of Ekron 
according to 2 Kings i. 2, the fly-god, the averter of in- 
sects. Hug*s hypothesis that this Philistine god was the 
dung-beetle, the Scarabaus piilularius, worshipped in 
Egypt, cannot be accepted. Beelzebub was so named 
not from his form, but from his supposed power of driv- 
ing away noxious flies. In the New Testament the word 
is applied to Satan, the ruler or prince of the demons. 
But the best Greek MSS. read BttX^ifiovX, Beelzeboul, 
in tlie Gospels, — an orthography followed by the latest 
critical editions, though the Syriac and Vuleate versions 
have Beelzebub, which is also recommended by Jerome, 
The most obvious derivation of it is Baal (or lord oj) the 
dwelling, a name of Saturn among the Phoenicians, ac- 
cording to Movers. So it may mean Baal 0^ the heav- 
enly dwelling or habitation^ ^ust as Satan is termed in 
the epistle of the Ephesians (li. 2) " prince of the power 
of the air. ** Others suppose that Beelzebul arose from 
Beelzebub by a pun on the part of the later Tews, who 
wished to throw ridicule on kiols by forming the appella- 
tion lord of dung. This is improbable, because Beelze- 
bul was not a current name in Jewish literature. 

BEER. See Brewing. 

BEERSHEBA, now Bir-es-Seba, a place in the 
southernmost part of Canaan, 27 miles S.E. from Gaza, 



cdebrated for the sojourn of the patriarch. The name, 
signifying the well of the oath, was bestowed in aUnsioo 
to the covenant niade there between Abraham and 
Abimelech, and is frequently referred to in the Script- 
ures in describing the extent of the country — ^from 
Dan to Beersheba,^ 

BEET. A considerable number of varieties of the 
genus Beta (Nat. Ord. Chenopodiacea) are cnltirated for 
use on account of their large fleshy roots. The beets 
which are grown as root-plants, under the names of 
mangel-wurzel or maneold, fieki-beet, and |;anien beet, 
are generally supposed to be cultivated varieties of tbe 
sea-beet {B, maritima). The cultivation of beet as a 
fleld crop is treated under Agriculture, and in relation 
to the production of sugar, for which purpose certain 
varieties of beet stand next in importance to the sugar 
cane. See Sugar. 

BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van, is in music what 
Shakespeare is in poetry, a name before the greatness of 
which all other names, however great, seem to dwindle;. 
He stands at the end of an epoch in musical history, 
marking its climax; but his works at the same time 
have ushered in a new phase of progress, from which 
everything that is great m modem music has taken its 
rise. This historic side of his genius will have to be 
further dealt with when the progress of musical art is 
traced in its continuity. At present we have to consider 
Beethoven chiefly as a man and an individual artist, 
showing at the same time the reciprocal relations 
between his life and his work. For although the most 
ideal artist in that most ideal of arts — music ~ he is 
always inspired by the deepest sense of truth and reality. 
The grand note of sadness resounding in his com- 
positions is the reverberation of personal suflering. He 
was a great artist only because he was a great man, and 
a sad man withal -» 

The family of Beethoven is traceable to a village near 
Lowen in Belgium, in the 17th century. In 1650 a 
member of this family, a linod ancestor of our com- 
poser, settled in Antwerp. Beethoven*s grandfather, 
Louis, owing to a quarrel with his family, left Belginm 
for Germany, and came to Bonn in 1732, where his 
musical talents and his beautiful voice did not long 
remain unnoticed. The archbishop of Cologne, an 
art-loving prelate, received him amone his court- 
musicians; and the same position afterwards was 
held by Ludwig's son, Johann, our composer's father. 
The latter was married to Maria Magdalena Kevericfa, * 
daughter of a cook, and widow of a valet-de-chambre 
of the elector of Treves. The day of our composer's 
birth is uncertain; he was baptised Dec 17, 1770, 
and received the name of his paternal grandfather 
Louis, or, in its Germanized form, Ludwic;. Bee- 
thoven himself seems to have considered the i6th 
December of the saki year his birthday, but docu- 
mentary evidence is wanting. At one period of his 
life he believed himself to have been bom in 1772, 
being most likely deceived on the point by his father, 
who tried to endow his son and pupil with the prestige 
of miraculous precocity. No less imcertain than the 
date is tht exact place of the great composer's birth ; 
two houses in Bonn claim the honor of having been the 
scene of the important event The youth of Beethoven 
was passed unaer by no means happv circumstances. 
His father was of a rough and violent temper, not 
improved by his passion for intoxicating drink, nor by 
the dire poverty under which the family labored. Htt 
chief desire was to reap the earliest possible advaatagp 
firom the musical abilities of his son, who, la 
sequence, had at the age of five to submit to a 1 
training on the violin under the father's super 
Little benefit was derived from this unsystemjUitt 1 



BEE 



875 



of iostnictioiiy which, fortunately, was soon abandoned 
for a more methodical coarse of pianoforte lessons under 
a musician of the name of Pfefier. Under him and two 
other masters. Van der Eden and Neefe, Beethoven made 
rapid progress as a player of the organ and pianoforte ; 
his proficiency in the theoretical knowledge of his art 
the aspiring composer soon displayed in a set of Varia- 
tions on a Marcn published in 1783, with the inscrip- 
tion on the title-page, ^ par un jeunt amateur^ Louis 
van B^eth^rven^ dgi dix ansy'^ a statement the inaccu- 
racy of which the reader will be able to trace to its 
proper soorce. In 1785 Beethoven was appointed 
assistant of the court-organist Neefe ; and in a catalogue 
raisofttU oi the musicians attached to the court of the 
archbishop, he is described as " of good capacity, young, 
of goody quiet behavior, and poor." The elector of 
Cologne at the time was Max Franz, a brother of the 
Emperor Joseph, who seems to have recognized the first 
sparks of genms in the quiet and little communicative 
youth. By him Beethoven was, in 1787, sent for a 
short time to Vienna, to receive a few lessons from 
Mozart, who is said to have predicted a great future for 
his youthful pupil. Beethoven soon returned to Bonn, 
where he remained for the next five years in the position 
already described. Little remains to be said of this 
period of apprenticeship. Beethoven conscientiously 
studied his art, and reluctantlv saw himself compelled 
to alleviate the difficulties of nis family by giving les- 
sons. This aversion to making his art useful to him- 
self by imparting it to others remained a characteristic 
feature of our master during all his h'fe. Of the com- 
positions belonging to this time nothing now remains ; 
and it must be confessed that, compared with those of 
other masters, of Mozart or Handel, for instance, 
Beethoven's early 3rears were little fertile with r^rd 
either to the quantity or the quality of the works pro- 
duced. Amon^t the names connected with his stay at 
Bonn we mention only that of his first friend and pro- 
tector. Count Waldstein, to whom it is said Beethoven 
owed his appointment at the electoral court, and his first 
journey to Vienna. To the latter city the young musi- 
cian repaired a second time in 1792, in order to com- 
plete his studies under Haydn, the greatest master then 
living, who had become acquainted with Beethoven's 
talent as a pianist and compo«cr on a previous occasion. 
The relation of these two great men was not to be fruit- 
ful or pleasant to either of them. The mild, ea^- 
going nature of the senescent Viennese master was lit- 
tle adapted to inspire with awe, or even with sympathy, 
the fiery Rhenish youth. Beethoven in after life 
asserted that he had never learned anvthing from 
Haydn, and seems even to have doubled the latter's 
intention of teaching him in a proper manner. He 
seems to have had more confidence in the instruction of 
Albrechtsberger, a dry but thorough scholar. He, 
however, and all the other masters of Beethoven agree 
in the statement, that being taught was not much to the 
liking of their self-willed pupil. He preferred acquirmg 
hy his own toilsome experience what it would have been 
easier to accept on the authority of others. This auto- 
didactic vein, inherent, it seems, in all artistic genius, 
^ of immense importance in the development of 
Beethoven's ideas and mode of expression. 

In the meantime his worldly prospects seemed to be 
of the brightest kind. The introductions from the arch- 
bishop and Count Waldstein gave him admittance to the 
drawmg-rooms ot the Austrian aristocracy, an aristocracy 
unrivalled by that of any other country m its apprecia- 
tion of artistic and especially musical talent Vienna, 
moreover, had been recently the scene of Mozart's 
ttiuraphs ; and that prophet's cloak now seemed to rest 
on the shoulders of the young Rheni^ musician. It was 



chiefly his original style as a pianist, combined with an 
astonishing gift of improvisation, that at 'first impressed 
the amateurs of the capital ; and it seems, indeed, that 
even Haydn expected greater things from the executive 
than from the creative talent of his pupil It ma^ be 
added here, that, according to the unanimous verdict of 
competent witnesses, Beethoven's greatness as a piano- 
forte player consbted more in the bold, impulsive ren- 
dering of his poetical intentions than in the absolute 
finish of his technique^ which p>articularly in his later 
years, when his growing deafness debar/ed him from 
self-criticism, was somewnat deficient. 

As a composer Beethoven appeared before the public 
of the Austrian capital in 1 7^5. In that year his Three 
Trios for Pianoforte and Strings were published. Bee- 
thoven called this work his Opus i, and thus seems to 
disown his former compositions as juvenile attempts un- 
worthy of remembrance. He was at that time twenty- 
five, an age at which Mozart had reaped some of the 
ripest fruits of his genius. But Beethoven's works are 
not like those of the earlier master, the result of juvenile 
and all but unconscious spontaneity ; they are the bitter 
fruits of thought and sorrow, the results of a pas- 
sionate but conscious strife for ideal aims. Before 
considering these works in their chief features, we will 
add a few more remarks as to the life and character 
of their author. The events of his outward career are 
so few and of so simple a kind that a continuous narrative 
seems hardly reouired. The numerous admirers whom 
Beethoven's art nad found amongst the highest circles of 
Vienna, — Archduke Rudolf, his devoted pupil and friend, 
amongst the number, — determined him to take up his 
permanent residence in that city, which henceforth he 
left only for occasional excursions to Baden, Modling, 
and other places in the beautiful surrounding of the 
Austrian capital. It was here, in his lonely walks, that 
the master received new impulse from his admiring 
intercourse with nature, and that most of his grandest 
works were conceived and partly sketched. Except for 
a single artistic tour to Northern Germany in 1796, 
Beethoven never left Vienna for any length of time. A 
long-projected journey to England, in answer to an invi- 
tation of the London Philharmonic Society, was ulti- 
mately made impossible by ill-health. Beethoven's rep- 
utation as a composer soon became established beyond 
the limits of his own country, notwithstanding that 
charges of abstruseness, unpopularity, and the like, 
which he, like most men of original power, had to sub- 
mit to from the obtuse arrogance of contemporary crit- 
icism. The summit of his fame, so far as it manifested 
itself in personal honors conferred upon him, was reached 
in 1815, when Beethoven celebrated by a symphony the 
victories of the Allies over the French oppressor, and 
was rewarded by the applause of the sovereigns of 
Europe, assembled at the Congress of Vienna. In the 
same year he received the freedom of that city, an honor 
much valued by him. After that time his immediate 
popularity began to some extent to decline before the 
epnemend splendor of the composers of the day ; and 
the great master seemed henceforth to speak more to 
conung generations than to his ungrateful contempo- 
raries. When, however, on rare occasions he emerged 
from his solitude, the old spell of his overpowering 
genius proved to be unbroken. In particular, mention 
must be made of that memorable Academie (concert) in 
1824, at which his 9th S3rmphony, and parts of the 
grand Missa Solemnis^ were performed, producing a 
storm of applause — inaudible, alas! to the composer, 
who had to be turned round by one of the singers to 
realize, from the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, the 
effect of his work on the excited multitude. 

The last-mentioned incklent leads us to one of the 



876 



BEE— BEG 



most tragic features of Beethoven's life. By the bitter 
irony of fate, he who had given to thousands enjoyment 
and elevation of the heart by the art of sotma, was 
himself deprived of the sense of hearing. The first 
traces of beginning deafness showed themselves as early 
as I797t ftnd were perceived by the master with an anx- 
iety bordering on aespair. Physicians and quacks were 
consulted with eagerness, but all their efforts (partly im- 
paired, it must be confessed, by the unruly disposition of 
the patient) proved unable to stem the encroaching evil. 
The Royal Library of Berlin possesses a melaxKholy 
collection of ear-trumpets and similar instruments, 
partly made expressly for Beethoven to assist his weak- 
ened sense, but all to no avail. In his latter ^ears con- 
versation with IKm could be carried on by wnting only, 
and of the charms of his own art he was wholly de- 
priv€xl. But here, again, the victory of mind over mat- 
ter, — of genius over circumstance, — was evinced in the 
most triumphant manner. It has been asserted, not 
without reason, that the euphonious beauty of some of 
Beethoven's vocal compositions has suffered through his 
inability to listen to them ; but how grand is, on the 
other hand, the spectacle of an artist deprived of all 
intercourse with what to him in this world was dearest, 
and yet ponrine forth the lonely aspirations of his soul 
in works all the more sublime as we seem to hear in 
them the voice of the innermost spirit of mankind^ in- 
audible to the keen ears of other mortals. If in this 
manner the isolation of Beethoven further sublimated 
his efforts as an artist, it, on the other hand, poignantly 
intensified his sufferings as a man. His was a heart 
open to the impo^ssions of friendship and love, and, in 
spite of occasional roughness of utterance, yearning for 
tne responsive affection of his kind. It is deeplv touch- 
ing to read the following words in the master's last will, 
written during a severe illness in xSoa : — " Ye men," 
Beethoven writes, " who believe or say that I am inim- 
ical, rough, or misanthropical, how unjust are you to 
me in your ignorance of the secret cause of what appears 
to you in that light. . . . Bom with a fiery, lively 
temper, and susceptible to the enjoyment of society, I 
have been compelled early to isolate myself and lead a 
lonely life ; whenever I tried to overcome this isola- 
lation, oh ! how doubly bitter was then the sad expe- 
rience of my bad hearing, which repelled me again; and 
yet it was impossible for me to tell people, * Speak 
louder, shout, for I am deaf ** 

Domestic troubles and discomforts contributed in a 
minor degree to darken the shadow cast over our mas- 
ter's life by the misfortune just alluded to. Although 
by no means insensible to female beauty, and ind^ 
frequently enraptured in his grand, chaste way, with 
the charms of some lady, Beethoven never mamed, and 
was, in consequence, deprived of that feeling of home 
and comfort which only the unceasing care of refined 
womanhood can bestow. His helplessness and igno- 
rance of worldly matters completely ex|>osed him to 
the ill-treatment of servants, frequently, perhaps, ex- 
cited by his own morbid suspicions and complaints. On 
one occasion the great master was discovered with his 
face bleeding from the scratches inflicted by his own 
valet. It was from amidst such surroundings that Bee- 
thoven ascended to the sublime elevation of such works 
as his Missa Solemnis or his 9th Symphony. But his 
deepest wounds were to be inflicted by dearer and nearer 
hands than those of brutal domestics. Beethoven had 
a nephew, rescued by him from vice and misery, and 
loved with a more than father's affection. His educa- 
tion the master watched with unceasing care. For him 
he hoarded with anxious parsimony the scanty earnings 
of his artistic labor. Unfortunately, tHe young man 
was unworthy of such love, and at last disgraced his 



great name by an attempt at suicide, to the deepest 
grief of his noble guardian and benefactor. 

Beethoven died on March 37, 1827, during a terrible 
thunderstorm. It oogfat to fill every Englishman's 
heart with pride that it was given to the LoMon Phil- 
harmonic SocietT to relieve tne anxieties of Beethoven's 
deathbed by a liberal gift, and that almost the last ut- 
teraoces of the dying man were words of thanks to his 
friends and admirers in England. 

Beethoven's compositions, 138 in number, comprise 
all the forms of vood and instrumental music, from the 
sonata to the symphony, — from the simple song to the 
opera and oratorio. In each of these forms he cBspl^ed 
the depth of his feeling, the power of his genius; in 
some of them he reached a greatness never approadied 
by his predecessors or followers. His pianoiorte son- 
atas have brought the technical resources of that instru- 
ment to a perfection previously unknown, but they 
at the same time embody an infinite variety and 
depth of emotion. His nine symphonies show a con- 
tinuous climax of development, ascending from the 
simpler forms of Haydn and Mozart to the colossal di- 
mensions of the Choral Symphony^ which almost seems 
to surpass the possibilities of^artistic expansion, and the 
subiect of which is humanity itself with its soflerin^ 
and ideals. His dramatic works — the opera Fidtlto^ 
and the overtures to Egmont and Coriolanus — dispky 
depth of pathos and force of dramatic characterisation. 
Even his smallest songs and pianoforte-pieces reflect a 
heart full of love, and a mind bent on thoughts of eter- 
nal things. 

Beethoven's career as a composer is general^ divided 
into three periods of gradual progress, and his works 
are generally classified by critics with reference to this 
progression. 

BEETLE, a name commonly applied to those insects 
which form the order Coleoptera (" sheathwinged ■), 
and which are readily distinguished from all others bf 
the nature of the two upper wings. These are formed 
of a hard, horny substance known as chitin ; and, 
although useless in flight, they serve as shields for the 
protection of the dehcate wings underneath, while in 
many cases their hardness protects the beetle itself from 
the attacks of insectivorous birds. In some instances 
the elytra, as those upper wings are called, are firmly 
soldered together, and such species are thus rendered 
incapable of flight Owing to the beauty of many of 
the exotic species, and the ease with which they can be 
preserved, beetles have been collected with great dili- 
p;ence b^ entomologists, so that nearly 80,000 species, 
It is estimated, have already been described. 

BEGAS, Karl, a distinguished German historical 
painter, was bom at Heinsberg in 1794, ^^^ ^^^ ^ 

BEGBAZAAR, or Beibazaar, a town of Asiatic 
Turkey, in the Anatolian province of Angora, situated 
on the Sangarius or Sakaria, about 52 mues W. of the 
provincial capital. Population, 47^ 

BEGHARDS and BEGUINES. The nature and 
history of the Beghards is one of the obscurest problems 
in mediseval times, and nothing very certain nas been 
ascertained. During the Middle Ages there were 
formed, alongside of the regular orders, companies of 
men and women who devoted themselves to a religious 
life, but dki not bmd themselves by strict vows. The 
design was to enable men and women, who did not 
mean to separate themselves entirely from the world, to 
lead, nevertheless, what, in the Middle Ages, was 
esteemed the religious life. ^ Such companies were Ac 
Tertiarii of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, aw 
at first the Beghards and Beguines were similarly fOB- 
stituted. The first notices we have of them tdl osttilt 



BEH— BEK 



877 



in the end of the 12th century, in several of the towns of 
the Netherlands, companies of women formed thcm- 
sdhres together, under a simple rule, Tor the purpose of 
talcing care of the sick and for other charitable objects. 
They were generally widows and maidens of high rank, 
and they were called Beghinae,'or Beguinae, or Beguttx. 
The origin of the word is very obscure. Some time 
later, companies of men were formed in a similar way 
and under the same rule. They took no vows, and were 
at liberty to leave the company when they liked. The 
men were called Beghards. In the 14th century these 
Beghards seem to have attached themselves to the 
Franciscans, and to have been instrumental in exciting 
to revolt that portion of the order which rebelled against 
the Pope. 

BEHAR, a province of British India, under the juris- 
diction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, comprises 
the districts of Champ&ran, Tirhut, Shdhdbdd, Sdrdn, 
Fatniy Pumiah, Bhiigalpur, and the Santdl pargands ; 
and is bounded on theN. by the independent kmgdom of 
NepAl ; on the E. by the Rdjshdhf and Bardw&n divi- 
sions of Bengal proper ; on the S. by the Chhotd Ndgpur 
dmsion ; and on the W. by the North- Western Prov- 
inces. The general aspect of the country is flat 
except in the district of Monghir, where detached hills 
occur, and in the south-east of the province, where the 
Rdjmahal and Santdl ranges abut upon the plains. 

In ancient times Behar comprised the aominions of 
the kings of Magadha, who at one time were the lords 
paramount of India, and whose court is represented as 
one of the most brilliant that ever existed. Alexander 
the Great when he invaded India intended to push his 
conquests to Palibothra, the capital of Magadha, whose 
monarch he heard could oppose him with 30,000 cavalry, 
600,000 infantry, and 9000 elephants. Their highest 
point of grandeur was supposed to have been attained at 
the time of Seleucus Nicator, one of the immediate suc- 
cessors of Alexander, who invaded Magadha. Accord- 
ing to the Greek historians he was victorious, but this 
is doubtful, as he relinquished all the Macedonian con- 
quests to the east of the Indus, and gave his daughter in 
marriage to Chandra Gupta, the reigning king. At this 
time Magasthenes was appointed to represent him at 
Magadha court. The Magadha monarcns encouraged 
arts and learning, constructed roads, and sent their 
fleets across the Bay of Bengal to colonize Java, Bali, 
and other islands in the Indian Archipelago. The 
Magadha kingdom flourished from the 4111 century be- 
fore the Christian era to the 5th century after it. But 
ancient Behar is far more celebrated in another respect. 
Six centuries before the Christian era it was the cradle 
of Buddhism when that religion was in its infant state. 
It sent its missionaries to Ceylon, China, Thibet, and 
Tartaiy, and the religion they taught is still followed by 
300 millions of people. Behar is a sacred spot in the 
eyes of the Chinese and other Buddhist nations. In 
1202 A.D. Behar fell into the hands of the Mahometans 
without a struegle, and from this time it formed one of 
the three subahs or provinces under the rulers of Bengal. 
In the time of Akbar it comprised the seven sarkdrs of 
Monghir, Champaran, H^ifpur, Sdran, Tirhut, Roht^, 
and Behar. It came into tne possession of the East India 
Company with the acquisition of the Dfwdnf in 1765, 
when the province was united with Bengal. In 1857 
two zamlndArs, Umar Sinh and Kumdr Sinh, rebelled 
Jgainst the British Government, and for some months 
held the ruinous fort of Roht&s against the English. 

Behar, a magisterial subdivision, and a town of Patna 
district. The Subdivision was formed in 1846. It has 
an area of 792 square miles, with a total population of 
S7o,888 souls, the average population per square mile 
being 731. 



BEHBEHAN, a town of Persia, in the province of 
Pars, pleasantly situated in the middle of a highly- 
cultivated plain, which is watered by the Rivers Zab and 
Jerahi. 

BEHEM, or Behaim, Martin, a well-known navi- 
gator and cartographer, was bom at Nuremberg about 
1436. Having entered the service of Portugal, he was 
appointed, in 1484, to act as geographer in Die expedi- 
tion of Diego Cam to the western coast of Africa, and 
on his return to Lisbon received the honor of knight- 
hood in reward for his services. He was afterwards" 
employed by the king in various capacities, and visited 
the capital from time to time in connection with his 
engagements ; but, after his marriage in i486, his prin- 
cipal residence seems to have been at Fayal, in the 
Azores, where his father-in-law. Job Huerter, held the 
rank of governor of the Flemish colony. On a visit to 
his native city in 1492, he constructed a terrestrial 
globe, in which he incorporated the discoveries of Marco 
Polo and other recent travellers. The globe is still 
preserved in the family, and has frecjuently been repro- 
duced by engraving. He died at Lisbon in 1506, or, 
according to nis tombstone, 1507. 

BEHISTUN, BiHSUTUN, or BisuTUN, the ancient 
Baghistan, a precipitous mountain or rock in Persia, 
remarkable for the extensive inscriptions of a very early 
date still preserved on some parts of its escarpment. 
It lies 27 miles E. of Kirmanshah, in the province of 
Irak Ajemi. The principal inscription is cuneiform, 
and relates to the victones of Darius Hystaspes, who 
is represented in a sculptured centre-piece as receiving 
the homage of a number of captives, upon one of whom 
he has planted his foot. The labor expended on the 
work must have been verv great. 

BEH MEN, Jacob. See Boehme. 

BEHN, Aphra, an English authoress of some celeb- 
rity, was born of a good family in Canterbury in the 
reign of Charles I., probably in 1642. 

BEHRING»S ISLAND, the most westerly of the 
Aleutian group in the North Pacific. It is rocky and 
desolate, and is only remarkable as being the place 
where the navigator Behring was wrecke<f and died in 
1741. 

BEHRING STRAIT, the narrow sea between the 
N. E. part of Asia and the N. W. part of North America, 
connecting the North Pacific with the Arctic Ocean. 
At the narrowest part. East Cape in Asia approaches 
within about 36 miles of Cape Prince of Wales on the 
American shore. 

BEIRA, a province of Portugal, bounded on the N. 
by the provinces of Traz-os-Montes and Minho, E. by 
Spain, S. by Almeteio and Portuguese Estremadnra, 
and W. by the Atlantic. Area about 8586 square 
miles. Population in 1871, 1,294,282. 

BEIT EL FAKIH (i.e,. House of the Saint), an un- 
walled town in Arabia, in the province of Yemen, 77 
miles N. E. of Mocha, and about 1 7 from the coast. 

BEJA, a city of* the province o\ Alemtejo, in Portu- 
gal, jj6 miles S. of Evora. 

BEJAR, a fortified town of Spain, in the province of 
Salamanca, situated on the River Cuerpo de Hombre, 
in a deep and fertile valley of the Sierra de Bejar, about 45 
miles S. of the provincial capital. Population, 10,683. 

BEKE, Charles Tilstone, a distin^ished Englidx 
traveller, geographer, and Biblical critic, was bom in 
London, October 10, 1800, and died at Bromley, in 
Kent, July 31, 1874. 

BfiKfiS, a market-town of Hungary, formerly a royal 
free city, and the capital of the county of the same 
name, situated at the confluence of the White and Black 
Kdros, 14 miles N.N.W. of Gjrul^which is^now the 
capital. 



Digitized by LjOOQIC 



878 



BEK— BEL 



BEKKER, Balthazak, a celebrated Dutch divine, 
was born in Friesland in 1634. He was the author of 
several works in ohilosophy and theology, which from 
their freedom of tnought and critical rationalism excited 
considerable enmity against him. His most celebrated 
prodoction was the work entitled Die Betoorverde 
Wereld, or The World Betwitehed, in which he ex- 
amined critically the phenomena generally ascribed to 
spiritnal agency, and ^posed with much force the many 
aosiurdities regarding the power of Satan that had be- 
come articles of Christian faith. The odium 
theologicum was fiercely roused by this book, and 
Bekker ¥^as deposed from the office of the ministry. 
He resided in Amsterdam til^ his death in 1698. 

BEKKER, or Wolff, Elizabeth, a Dutch novelist, 
was bom in 1738. She was married to Adrian Wolf, 
a Reformed clergyman, but is alwavs known under her 
maiden name. After the death of her husband in 1777, 
she resided for some time in France, with her close 
friend, Agatha Deken. She was exp>osed to some of 
the dangers of the French Revolution, and, it is said, 
escaped the guillotine only by her great presence of 
mind. In 1705 she returned to Holland, and resided at 
the Hague till her death in 1804. 

BEKKER, Immanuel, a distinguished philologist, 
was bom at Berlin in 1785, and died the 7th June 
1871. 

BEL. See Baal. 

BEL, or Belius, Matthias, an Hungarian divine 
and historian, was bom in 1684, and was educated partly 
at Halle. In 17 19 he was made rector of the evangeli- 
cal Lyceum at Presburg, where he remained till his 
death in 1749. 

BEL AND THE DRAGON, one of the apocryphal 
books of the Old Testament. See Apocrypha. 

BELA, or Bevla, a town of Baluchistan, capital of 
the province of Lus, on the north-eastern bank of the 
River Poorally, 293 miles N. of Khelat. Population 
about^ooo. 

BELBEIS, or Belbeys, a town of Upper Egypt, in 
the province of Kelyubieh, on the eastern arm of the 
Nile, 28 miles N»N.E. of Cairo. The present popula- 
tion is not supposed to exceed 5000. 

BELEM, a town of Portugal, now regarded as a 
suburb of Lisbon. See Lisbon. 

BELFAST, the chief manufacturing and commercial 
town of Ireland, a municipal and parliamentary borough, 
the capital of Ulster, and, since 1850, the county town 
of Antrim, in which, with the exception of the large 
suburb of Ballymacarret on the other side of the river, 
it is mainly comprised. It is situated at the mouth of die 
Lagan, which flows into Belfast Lough (Carrickfergus 
Bay), and is built on an alluvial deposit and land re- 
claimed from the sea, the greater portion of which is not 
more than 6 feet above high-water mark. It was thus 
for a long period exposed to occasional inundations, and 
was somewhat subject to epidemics; but its situation, 
improved by drainage, ha? become more healthy, while 
the environs are agreeable and picturesque. 

At the commencement of tne 18th century Belfast 
had become known as a place of considerable trade, and 
what was then thought a handsome, thriving, and well- 
peopled town, with many new houses and good shops. 
During the civil commotions which so long afflicted the 
country, it suffered less than most other places ; and it 
soon afterwards attained the rank of the " greatest town 
for trade in the north of Ireland." 

The increased freedom of trade with which Ireland 
was favored, the introduction of the cotton manufacture 
by Robert Joy in 1777, the establishment in 1791 of 
ship-building on an extensive scale by William Ritchie, 
an energetic Scotchman, combined with the rope and 



canTU manu&cttire already existing, supplied 
habitants with employment, and increased the 
for skilled labor. 

Bel£ut Lotigh is exceedingly picturesque, 
entered by the Antrim or by the Down side] 
channel The outer hafbor is one of the : 
kingdom, ^eat improvements having been i 
the last thirty years on the more immediate < 
the port. Tne course of the Lagan, which nms \ 
quays and down to Gramoyle, was originally i 
tuous and somewhat difficult to navigate; ~ 
1840, the late William Dargan was employed to j 
straight cut from the lower part of the harbor j 
deepen the channel, so that ships of large 
be brought to the quays, which extend for : 
below Queen's Bridge on both sides of the river, 
are also seven extensive docks and tidal basins \ ' 
with the necessary conveniences for the shii , 

The exports from Belfast beinc largely cottv 
steamer to London, Liverpool, and GU^ow, 1 
trans shipped to their destinations, do not 1 
Board of Trade returns, as only the direct 1 
foreign counties, which does not reach any < 
amount, is registered in those tables. Thus \ 
get credit for business which really belongs to ] 

The weaving of linen \ijt means < 
though long carried on in Dundee, 
great seats of manufacture, is of comparatiydyl 
mtroduction into Belfast, — being hanily kno — 
five-and-twenty years ago. 

Cotton-spinning, whioi at one period formed.] 
extensive industry in Belfast, has greatly falh 
nearly all the mills having been converted to 1 
ning of flax. 

The enterprize of the citizens of Belfast ^ 
ported by the liberal system of tenure for bo 
poses granted by the late Lord Donegall and 1 
cessors. Sites for mills, factories, and other | 
works were obtained on very reasonable terms, j 
all religious and charitable objects those lords j 
soil bestowed ground free of rent. 

The River Lagan is crossed by three bride^ 1 
the principal is the Queen's Bridge, opened in _ 
1843, and built on the site of the Old Long| 
which dated from 1686. Like most modem to 
have rapkily risen through commerce and i 
Belfast cannot boast of manv architectural 1 
would seem as if its people had been too< 
sorbed in the bustle of business to think of 
superfluities. More recently, however, a highei 
building has been adopted; and some of the \ 
and shops show great taste in design and f 
manship. 

The chief educational establishments are 
Academical Institution, -the Queen's College 
brick in the Tudor style and opened in 18^9)^ 
ernment School of Design, the General i 
College, the Catholic Institute, and the Wesh 
tute. 

BELFAST, a town of some note in 
Maine, with a populatioa of about 5,500 ] 

BELFORT, B6FORT, or Bedfort, a 
fortified town of France, was formerly in 1 
of Upper Rhine, and capital of an arrond 
since the peace of 1871, it has given name t 
territory not as yet incorporate with any ( 
It is situated on the left bank of the Sam 
miles S.S.W of Colmar, at the intersection t 
important roads and railways, by which it 
considerable trade with Germany and Switai 
November 1870 siege was laid to the (daoe \ 
man forces, but the French garrison 

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BEL 



879 



nt till the i6th of February 1871, when they capitulated 
rith the sanction of the Government, and inarched out 
nth the honors of war. 

BELGAM (Belgaum), a district of British India 
n the Bombay Presidency. It is bounded on the 
^f. by the state of Miraj, on the N.E. by the 
ilal^ldgi collect orate, on the £. by the states of Jibnk- 
landi and Mudhol, on the S. by the coUectorates of 
Dhirwdr and K&nard, on the S.W. by the Portuguese 
lerritory of Goa, and on the W. by the States of 
Sliwantwdri and Kolhiipur. 

BELGIUM (Fr. Belgique, Get. BelgUn),\& one of 
the smaller of the European states, among which it 
ranks 1 6th in point of area and 8th according to popu- 
lation. It is bounded on the N. by Hollimd, £. by 
Dutch Limbour^ Luxembourg, and Rhenish Prussia, 
S. and S.W. by France, and N.W. by the North Sea. 
It is somewhat triangular in form, the long^t side — 
(hat which adjoins France — being 384 miles in length. 
The length of its other boundaries are,— towards Hol- 
land 268 miles, Germany 59, Luxembourg 80, and the 
North Sea 41. Its greatest length from N.W. toS.E. 
<from Ostend to Arlon) is 174 miles, and its greatest 
breadth from N. to S. 105. It has an area of 2,945,593 
hectares, equal to 7,278,968 English acres, or 11,373 
square miles, — being about one-eiehth of the area of 
Great Britain. This country is divided into nine prov- 
inces, — Antwerp in the N., West and East Flanders 
and Hainault in the W., Namur in the S., Luxembourg 
in the S. E., Li^ge and Limbourg in the E., and Brabant 
in the centre. 

Belgium is in general a very flat country having few 
elevations, and these rarely exceeding 2000 feet in 
height Thev are principally to be found in the E. and 
S.E., while the N. and N.W. parts of the country bear 
a considerable resemblance to Holland. The elevations 
of Belgium take their rise in France, and extend gener- 
ally in a N. E. direction. A chain proceeding from the 
neighborhood of the sources of the Saone separates the 
waters of the Meuse from those of the Moselle, passes 
Arlon and Neufchateau, then extends in a north-eastern 
direction towards Bastogne, and finally enters Prussia. 
A branch of this chain goes off at Neufchateau, pro- 
ceeds northward towards Li6ge, passes St. Hubert, and 
separates the Ourihe from the Meuse. A part of the 
Ardennes also extends into Belgium, and separates the 
bttsin of the Meuse from that of the Scheldt. It pro- 
cceds in a north -eastern direction, passing Fontaine 
l*Ev4que, Gembloux, Ramillies, and Tongres, then, 
gradually decreasing in height, it turns northward to 
Asch, and afterwards N.W. to Hechtal, Lommel, and 
Tumhout. A series of heights on the frontier of France, 
near Chimay, extends in a N.W. direction towards 
Namur, and separates the Meuse from the Sambre. 

The provinces of Li^ge, Luxembourg, and Namur 
present the greatest irregularities of surface. This part 
of the country is intersected by numerous ravines and 
streams with steep and rocky banks, by deep valleys, 
and by ridges of hills, which often have precipitous and 
rocky escarpments. The vegetation here is of a very 
poor and languid character. The greater part of the 
region is covered with dense forests, marshy and uncul- 
tivated plateaus or poor pasture land, and corn is very 
^'clycul tivated. Descending towards the coasts the for- 
ests become less extensive ; and r)re, oats, and potatoes 
take the place of the pasture land. In the western and 
north-western provinces are extensive and well-watered 
plams, which, from their great fertility and the high 
^^^ ^ *" <^°^^»vation, are the boast of the Belgians 
and the admiration of strangers. 

In the provinces bordering on the sea the land is in 
•ome places so low as to be required to be protected 



from inundation by dikes. These parts are called 
polders. Numerous places along the banks of the 
rivers are also protected by embankments; these arc 
called interior polders. About a sbctieth part of the 
kingdom (50,000 hectares, or 193 S()uare nules) is thu» 
artificially gained from the sea and nvers. 

The coast of Belgium is said to be undergoing a 
change similar to that of Scandinavia, — in some parts a 
gradual elevation, and in others a mdual depression. 
Nieuport is said to be on the axis of this change, from 
which, northward, to the mouth of the Scheldt, the sea 
is continually gaining upon the land, while southward 
to Pas de Calais it is losmg. 

The principal rivers are the Scheldt, Meuse, and Yzer, 
with their tributaries. The Scheldt is navigable durinjg 
its entire course through Belgium, and has a general di- 
rection from S.W. toN.E., passing through the prov- 
ihce of Hainault, along the eastern boundary of West 
Flanders, traversing East Flanders, and finally forming 
the boundary between the provinces of East Flanders 
and Antwerp. Its entire length through Beldumis 108 
miles. The Meuse has a course nearly parallel to that 
of the ScheWt, traversing the provinces of Namur, Li^ge, 
and Limbourg. It is 115 miles in length, during the 
whole of which it is navigable. The small river of Yzer, 
which enters the sea at Nieuport, is navigable for about 
26 miles. The navigable rivers connected with the 
Scheldt are,— the Dyle, which after receiving the Nethe 
at the villa^ of Rumpst, takes the name of Kuppel, and 
joins the Scheldt nearly opposite to Ruppelsmonde ; the 
Great and Little Nethe, which after their junction take 
the name of Nethe, and fall into the Dyle ; the Demer, 
also an affluent of the Dyle ; the Dender, which enters 
the Scheldt at Dendermonde ; the Dunne, which joins 
it near Thielrode ; and the Lys at Ghent. The entire 
navigable length of these streams is 230 English miles. 
The navigable rivers of the Meuse are the Amblere and 
the Vesdre, affluents of the Ourthc ; <he Ourthe, which 
joins the Meuse at li^ ; and the Sambre, which joins 
It at Namur. The navigable length of these is 143 
miles. The small river of Ypnerlee, which joins the 
Yzer, is navigable for about 9 miles. The other streams 
are the Senne, the Haine, the Semoy, and the Lease. 

Besides these navigable rivers, Belgium has a number 
of canals for inland navigation, some of which are used 
also for irrigation. They are twenty-nine in number, 
and their entire length is 606,440 metres, or 376 Enelish 
miles. The principal of these are the canals— from 
Bruges to Ostend, from Brussels to Charleroi,. from 
Bocholt to Herenthal, from Brussels to WUlebroeck, 
from Ghent to Bruges, from Li^ge to Maestricht, from 
Maestricht to Bois-le-Duc, from Pommeroeul to 
Antoing, from Plasschendaele to Nieuport, the Louvain 
canal, tne Lieve, and the Moevaert. Each of these 
canals is upwards of twelve miles in length, and the 
longest that from Brussels to Charleroi, upwards of 46 
miles. The entire length of the river and canal naviga- 
tion of Belgium is loSb English miles. 

Belgium possesses a number of mineral springs, the 
principal of which are the hot springs of Chaudfontaine, 
situated about five miles from Li^ge, and the mineral 
spring of Tongres ; but the most celebrated waters are 
those of Spa. The ferruginous springs of Huy were 
formerly in consklerable repute, but are now little 
used. 

The climate of Belgitun b similar to that of England, 
but is a little colder in winter and hotter in summer. 
In the south-eastern parts the atmosphere is more pure 
and bracing than in tne lower parts towards the N. W., 
where it is frequently damp and hazy. Frost rarelv 
appears before the middle ot October or after tbe_ mkt* 
die of April 



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880 



BEL 



The principal towns tre^Bnusels, with 180,173 in- 
baliitants; Antwerp, 141,910; Ghent, 128,424 ; Li^e, 
««3»774; Bruges, ^113; Verviers, 38,875 ; Tournay, 
31^3; Malines, 38,540 ; Louvain, 32,314. 

Belgium is the most densely popuUted country of 
Europe, having on an average 178 inhabitants to the 
square kflometre, which is equivalent to 461 to the 
square mile. The density differs greatly in the several 
provinces, being as high as 285 per square kilometre in 
East Flanders, 281 in Brabant, and 250 in Hainault ; 
and as low as 86 in Namur, 84 in Limbourg, and 47 in 
Luxembourg. 

The languages spoken in Belgium are French or 
Walloon (a dttHect of the ancient French), and Flemish 
or Dutch. French is the language of the upper and 
educated classes, and is eenerally understood even in 
the Flemish parts of the kingdom. 

Since the formation of Belgium into an independent 
state, the Government has taken a laudable interest in 
all that concerns the advancement and happiness of the 
people ; and not being trammelled by a respect for old 
laws or useless customs, it has adopted, as far as possi- 
ble, the most improved systems of other countries. The 
whole system of government is based upon the broadest 
principles of rational freedom and liberality. All power 
emanates from the people, and can be exercised only 
according to law. The people are upon a strict equal- 
ity in the eye of the law ; personal liberty is guaranteed 
to all, as well as entire freedom in opinion and in relig- 
ious worship. All the religious sects are endowed by 
the state, and large ^ants are also given annually for 
educational and charitable purposes. Home is inviol- 
able, nor can any one be deprived of his property un- 
less for the good of the state and for a suitable indem- 
nity. Justice is open to all, as well as the means cf 
education, and the benefits of the public charities. The 
press is free, and civil death is abolished. Any one 
may address petitfons to the public authorities signed 
by one or more persons. Trial by jury is established 
for all criminal and political charges, and for offences 
of the press. The contents of letters are inviolable, and 
thepost-office is responsible for all letters committed to it. 

The government is a constitutional representative 
and hereditary monarchy. The legislative power is 
vested iki the king, the chamber of representatives, and 
the senate. TTie judicial power is exercised b^ fixed 
tribunals, freed from all autnoritative influences, judging 

fniblicly, and assigning reasons for their decisions. At- 
iairs exclusively provincial or communal are managed by 
the provincial or communal councils. 

Tne royal succession is in the direct male line in the 
order of primogeniture; to the exclusion of females and 
their descendants. The king's person is declared sacred, 
and his ministers are held responsible for the acts of 
the Government. No act of the kin^ can have effect 
unless countersigned by one of his mmisters, who thus 
becomes the responsible party. The king convokes, 
prorogues, and dissolves the chambers, and makes rules 
and orders necessary for the execution of the laws, but 
has no power to suspend or dispense with the execution 
of the laws themselves. He nominates to civil and 
military offices, and commands the sea and land forces. 
He declares war, and concludes treaties of peace, of al- 
liance, and of commerce, — communicating the same to 
the chambers as far as may be consistent with the in- 
terest and safety of the state. He sanctions and pro- 
mul gates the laws, and has the power of remitting or 
reducing the punishments pronounced by the judges, ex- 
cept in the case of his ministers, to whom he can extend 
pardon only at the request of one of the chambers. In 
default of male heirs the king may nominate his succes- 
sor with the consent of the chambers. The regency can 



only be conferred ttpon one person, and no dunge i^ 
the constitution can be made under his mle. 

The people are represented in the Legislature by the 
Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, the mem- 
bers of which are chosen bv the people.' Each dumber 
determines the manner of*^ exercising its own powers, 
and every session nominates its president and vioe-pres- 
dents, and forms its bureau. No petition can be pre- 
sented personally ; andeverf resolution is adopted bf 
the at>solute majoritv, except in some special cases» 
when two- thirds of tne votes of the members are re- 
ouired to be favorable ; in the case of an equality of votes 
the proposition is thrown out. The chambers meet an- 
nually in the month of November, and should sit for at 
least forty days ; but the king has the power of con- 
voicing them on extraordinary occa^ons, and of dissolT- 
ing them either simultaneously or separately. On dis- 
solution a new election must take place within forty 
days, and a meeting of the diambers within two 
months. An adjournment cannot be made for a period 
exceeding one month without the content of the 
chambers. 

The Chamber of Representatives is composed of 
deputies chosen directly by the people paying a certain 
amount of direct taxes. The number of deputies is fixed 
accordmg to the population, and cannot exceed one 
member for every 40,000 inhabitants; at presoit 
they amount to 124. To be eligible for membe»ip it 
is necessary to be a Belgian by Urth or to have received 
the grand naturalization, to be in the possession of the 
civil and political rights of the kingdom, to have attained 
the age of twenty-five years, and to be resident in 
Belgium. The members not reskling in the town where 
the chamber sits receive, during the session, an indem- 
nity of 200 florins (/i6, 13s. 4d.) each per month. 
The members are elected for four years, one-half going 
out every two years, except in a case of a dissolution, 
when a general election takes place. This chambo^ 
has the parliamentary initiative and the preliminary ynif^ 
in all cases relating to the receipts and escpenses of the 
state, and to the contingent of the army. 

The electors of the Chamber of Representatives have 
also the nomination of the members of the Senate. To 
be eligible as a senator it is necessary to be a Belgian bf 
birth or to have received the grand naturalization, to hie 
in the enjoyment of civil and political rights, to be domi^ 
ciled in Belgium, to be forty years of age, and to pay at 
least 1000 florins {£^) of direct taxes. In those pro- 
vinces where the number of those pajring 1000 florins of 
taxes does not amount to one in every 6000 inhabitants, 
this proportion is made up b^ those paying the hig^iest 
amount oelow that sum. The permanent deputations 
of the provincial councils annualhr prepare a list of those 
who are eligible to the Senate. In 1874 the number of 
these was 45^. At the age of eighteen the heir-pfe- 
sumptive to the throne has a seat in the Senate, but he 
has no voice in its deliberations till he attain the age of 
twenty-five. The senators receive no indemnity. 
They are elected for eight years, one-half going oat 
every four years, except in tne case of a dis&ohitiua. 
The Senate is composed of half as many members as 
the Chamber of RepresenUtives, the number at pres^M 
being 62. 

In order to be a general elector it is necessary to h« ft 
Belgian by birth or to have received the grand natnnnl- 
ization, to be twenty-one years of s^, and to pay dktot 
taxes to the amount of at least 20 florins (33s. 40.) tn 
1874 the total number of general electors was Ill^tjg^ 
or at the rate of 21. 15 per 1000 of the populatioo^ ' 

The king appoints and dismisses hismmiscersarpllit|» 
ure. ^o member of the royal family can be a MM^ 
nor any but a Belgian, or one who has raectaHi^fH^ 



BEL 



S8i 



(rrand naturalization. Ministers have a richt of admis- 
sion to the chambers, and may demand a hearinjg; ; bat 
they have no voice in the deliberations unless thcf are 
members. The chambers can at any time require the 

E-esence of the ministers. No act or writinjg by the 
ng can free a minister from responsibility. The 
Chamber of Representatives has the power of accusing 
the ministers, and of bringing: them before the court of 
cassation, which dlkme has the right of jud^nf them, 
in all cases of offences committed m the exercise of their 
fanctions. There are six ministers, viz., of foreign 
afllairs, of the interior, of justice, of finance, of war, 
and of public works. 

Naturalization is of two kinds, the one conferring on 
the foreigner all the dvil and political rights belonging 
to a Bel^an, with certain exceptions specified by law, 
such as the right to vote in the choice of members for 
the legislative chambers or of sitting there; to obtain 
these the grand naturalization is requisite. The regis- 
tration-fee for the former is 500 francs ; for the latter, 
1000. Since 1831 only 47 have received the grand nat- 
uralization and 1527 the ordinary. 

For civil purposes the provinces are divided into 26 
arrondissements, 204 justice-of-peace cantons, and 2528 
communes ; and for military purposes, into 41 arrondisse- 
ments, 503 military cantons, and 2568 communes. 

In each province is a governor named directly by the 
king, for the purpose of superintending and securing the 
<ftie execution of the laws, and a provincial council, 
composed of Belgian citizens at least twenty-five years 
of age, residing m the province, and in the enjoyment 
of civil and political rights. The number of members 
of each provincial council is made to depend upon the 
population, and varies in the different provinces from 
one for every 11,500 of the population in Brabant and 
Hainault, to one for every 5000 in Limbourg and Lux- 
embouif . Each canton, however, b entitled to be rep- 
res#ntea by at least one member, and the number of 
members for each canton depends upon the population 
according to the scale fixed for the province. 

These councils are of the highest importance to the 
country. They watch over the interests of their several 
provinces, prepare the budgets, direct taxation, and su- 
perintend public works. They give a healthy impulse 
to agriculture, trade, and commerce; direct the con- 
struction of roads, canals, and bridges; and extend the 
benefits of education and religion throughout the coun- 
try. The communes have the power of appeal to the 
king if they consider themselves aggrieved by any of the 
acts of the provincial council, or ofthe permanent dep- 
utation. 

Matters exclusively communal are managed by com- 
munal councils. The councillors are Belgian citizens in 
the full enjoyment of civil and i>olitical rights, and, ex- 
cept in some special cases, resident in the commune. 
They are elected for six years, one- half going out every 
three years. The number of councillors is from 7 to ^i, 
in proportion to the population of the commune, which 
varies from under 1,000 to upwards of 70,000 inhab- 
itants. 

Full liberty is guaranteed to all in the exercise of the 
public or private rites of their worship ; nor does the 
state interfere in any way in matters of religion, except 
where the public safety may be concerned or the laws 
infringed. Almost the entire population of Belgium is 
Roman Catholic, there being onljr about 15,000 Prot- 
estants and 3000 Jews. The ministers of each denom- 
ination are oaid by the state. 

The kingaom is divkied into six Roman Catholic dio- 
ceses, — the archbishopric of Malines, and the bishoprics 
of Bruges, Ghent, Liege, Namur, and Tournay. The 
archbii3iopric has three vicars-general, and a chapter of 



twelve canons; and each ofthe bbhoprics, two vicars^ 
general, and a chapter of eight canons. In 1873 there 
were iq6 deaneries, 233 rectories, 2788 chapels of ease^ 
X48puDlic chapels, and 1 745 vicariates. 

The temporal aifairs of^tbe churches are managed bj 
a vestry-board and a board of wardens. 

The Protestant Evangelical Church is under a ^nod, 
composed of the clergymen of the body and a represent- 
ative from each of tiie churches. It sits in Brussete 
once a year, when each member is required to be 
present, or to delegate his powers to anotner member. 
The Anglican Church has eight pastors and as many 
chapeb m Belgium, — three in Brusseb and one in mu» 
of the towns Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Ostend^ and 
Spa. 

The Jews have a central synagogue at Brussels, three 
branch synagogues of the first-c&ss at Antwerp, Ghent, 
and Li^e, and two of the second-class at Arlon and 
Namur. 

The Belgian Government has shown itself thoroughly 
alive to the great importance of a genend diffusion oi 
education amone the people. Numerous public schools 
and literary and scientific institutions are established 
througout me country, supported out of the communal, 

f)rovincial, or Government funds. Different classes of 
nspectorsare appointed to visit and report upon the 
state of education in their various districts. Prises, 
scholarships, and other rewards are bestowed upon 
those that dbtingubh themselves most in the prosecu- 
tion of their studies. Religious and moral instruction 
is under the direction of the sect to which the majority 
of the pupils belong ; but those connected with other 
sects may be exempted from attendance on thb course. 
Normal schools nave also been established for the 
purpose of securing trained and efficient teachers. The 
schoob are open to all, and gratuitious instruction b 
provided for those who may not otherwise have the 
means of acquiring it. Yet, with all these advantages, 
there are still many among the . lower classes growing 
up in ignorance. 

The educational institutions may be divided into four 
classes, viz., primary, middle, superior, and special. 

A law passed in 1842 enacted that there should be at 
least one primary school in every commune, except in 
certain cases where primary education b already suffi- 
ciently provided for by private schoob, or where one 
school may serve for several neighboring communes. 
The communes may also adopt one or more private 
schools-, possessing the legal qualifications, to occupy the 
place of the communal school The branches taught 
are reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic ; the 
rudiments of the language spoken in the locality, — 
French, Flemish, or German ; moral and religious in- 
struction ; and the legal system of weights and measures, 
in most schoob taught practically. In many of the 
schools gymnastics, music, the elements of drawing, the 
outlines of history and geography, and the rudiments of 
the natural sciences, are dso taught. The communes 
are obliged to afford gratuitous instruction to all the 
children within their bounds whose parents are in poor 
circumstances or are otherwise unable to educate them. 
The primary schoob are under the surveillance of the 
communal authorities and Government inspectors ; and 
the imparting of moral and religious instruction is super- 
intended by delegates from the religious bodies. 

The expenses of public primary education fall in the 
first instance on the commune ; and in case of insuffi- 
ciency of funds, the province, and finally the state, come 
to its assbtance. Each commune, however, must con- 
tribute a sum equal to at least two per cent, upon its 
direct taxation before being entitled to claim any assbt" 
ance from the province or slate. 



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BEL 



The middle schook are divided into two classes, those 
rapported by the Government, and those maintained by 
the commanes. The former are of two kinds — ( i ), the 
royal athenaenms, called also the middle superior schools; 
and (2), the middle inferior schools, or the middle 
schools properly so called, including the former superior 
primaiT, as weU as the schools formerly known as in- 
dustrial and commercial schools. 

In the state middle schools the courses are arranged 
•o as to occupy three years. To some is annexed a pre- 
paratory section, makmg a vear or more. 

The communal middle scnools are of two grades, a 
first and second, — the former embracing 17 schools, 
the latter 16. They ought to be based upon the same 
principles, and teach the same branches as the royal 
athenaeums and middle schools. In 1872 the number 
of scholars in the first or higher grade of schools was 
I3S1, of whom 239 were in tne preparatory classes, 730 
in the humanity section, and 412 in the professioniu. 
The number of scholars in the lower grades of schools 
was 1828, of whom 1274 were in the Tower sections and 
554 in the higher. Most of these schools have libraries, 
museums of natural history, and chemical laboratories 
attached to them. There are in addition to these 75 unen- 
dowed colleges, of which 45 are Episcopal and 1 1 Jesuit. 

The educational staff consists of a prefect of studies 
in the athenaeum, and a rector in the middle schools, 
professors, regents, and masters. The prefects, pro- 
fessors, rectors, and regents are nominated by the kmg, 
and the masters and teachers by the minister of the in- 
terior. The diploma of a professor agregi of either 
degree is bestoin^ by a special jury after a searching 
examination. It is given without rcsnaid to the place 
where the candidate has studied. The prefects and 
rectors reside on the premises, and have the general 
direction and man^ement of the institutions over which 
they are placed. Each has to report annually as to the 
state and condition of the institution under his care, and 
to register the conduct and progress of the scholars. 

The middle, like the primary schools, are subjected 
to a regular system of inspection. 

The superior instruction establishments are the four 
universities, — two belonging to the state, at Ghent and 
li^, the free university at Brussels, and the Catholic 
university at Louvain. 

Each of the state universities has faculties of philoso- 
phy and literature, science, law, and medicine. In each 
there are 8 professors in philosophy, 9 in the sciences, 7 
in law, and 8 in medicine. One or two additional pro- 
fessors may be added to each of the faculties in case of 
necessity. The professors are nominated by the king, 
and cannot exercise any other profession without the 
consent of the Government. 

Attached to each university are a number of agregis 
named by the king. Their title is honorary, and they 
are chosen from among those students who have most 
distinguished themselves at the public competitions or 
final examinations, from professors of middle instruction, 
or from members of the civil or military body of engi- 
neers. They are nominally attached to one of the 
faculties, but are not prohibited from exercising; any of 
the liberal professions, and in case of any of tne pro- 
fessors being unable to perform his duties, a sufcsti- 
tute is chosen from among the agreg/s attached to that 
faculty. 

The universities are under the management of a rector, 
a secretary, deans of faculty, the senatus academicus, and 
the board of assessors. The rector is nominated by the 
king for three years, and has the direction of all acaaemic 
matters. The secretary is appointed annually by the 
king from a list of two candidates nominated by the 
senatus academicus. The deans of the faculties are 



chosen annually by the professors of each faculty, and 
have the right of convoking the professors of their 
faculty. The senatus and the board of assessors are 
convoked by the rector; the former is composed ol 
the professors, under the presidency of the rector, and 
the latter of the rector, secretary, and the deans of 
faculty. 

Each student pays annually for eiyolment IJ francs,. 
and then takes out a ticket for the brandies of me course 
in which he intends to take his examinations. For 
philosophy and literature, and for law, the anniuil 
ticket costs 250 francs, and 200 francs for the other 
faculties. The instructions are given in the French 
language. 

Attached to the university of Ghent is a school for 
civil engineers. The preparatory course extends over 
two years, and comprehends the mathematical, physical^ 
and natural sciences necessary to the subsequent courses. 
The special course is divided into two sections, the one 
for engineers of roads and bridges, and the other for 
architectural engineers. 

Similar to the above is the mining school attached ta 
the university of D^. 

The free university of Brussels has faculties of philos- 
ophy and literature, of science, of law, and of medicine, 
courses in which are given by ordinary and extraordi- 
nary professors and agreg/s. Each student pays anna- 
ally 15 francs for enrolment, and a fee of 200 or 2,y> 
francs for the courses in any of the faculties. The fee 
for single classes is generally 50 francs. An annual 
subsidy of 10,000 francs is allocated to the university by 
the provincial council of Brabant, and the permanent 
deputation has the right of annually presenting ten 
youths of the province tor gratuitous instruction. 

The Catholic university of Loavain is governed by a 
mnd rector, nominated and revocable by the episcopal 
body. A vice rector is also nominated by the episcc^ial 
body on the advice of the grand rector. The rector 
nominates the secretary and other functionaries of the 
university. The faculties are philosophy and literature* 
the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences^ law, 
medicine, and theology. 

A competition takes place annually among the scholars 
of superior instruction, and at these competiticms two 
gold medals are given in each of the faculties. There 
are also twelve travelling scholarships given annnally,, 
tenable for two years, to such students as have taken 
their doctor's degree with the highest distinction and 
wish to travel, to enable them to visit foreign countries; 
and about sixty bursaries of 400 francs each are given 
annually to poor students to enable them to prosecute 
their studies. 

The special educational institution of Belgium are 
of various kinds, and are generally in a very efficient 
state. They include (in addition to the engineering 
and mining schools already mentioned) normal schoc^ 
military schools, navigation schools, &c, and acadenaies 
and schools of design, painting, sculpture, music, &c. 

There are two Government normal sdiools for pri- 
mary teachers, one at Lierre and the other at Nivdie5» 
— the former having twelve and the latter thirteen 
professors, with a rector each. The course extends over 
three years, and during the last year of attendance the 
pupib are exercised in teaching in the primary schoc& 
of the town. There are also seven episcopal normal 
schools, in which similar branches are tau^t, except 
that the principles of the Catholic religion aremorepaarv 
ticularly inculcated. 

Bursaries of 200 francs each are annually ghWft 
Government to assist poor students attendmg thene 
schools; and students of promise, who have tf^ceft'^ 
mas at either of the Government primary t 




BEL 



883 



may be admitted to the normal school of middle instruc- 
tion at Nivelles. 

There is a military school at Brussels for training of- 
ficers for the army. 

Each regiment has a regimental school for training 
young men in the army for subalterns, and a number of 
evening schools for affording the means of education to 
the soldiery. Attendance at one of these schools is 
obligatory on all subalterns and corporals whose educa- 
tion is not complete, according to their position. 

Schools of navigation have been established at 
Antwerp and Ostend for furnishing properly educated 
masters for merchant vessels, where instruction is given 
gratuitously. 

A Government agricultural institute was established 
Bt Gembloux in i860 for affording theoretical and prac- 
tical instructions in agriculture and kindred subjects. 

The academies and schools of design, painting, 
sculpture, &c, are divided in three classes : — i. The 
roya} academies of fine arts, in which painting, sculpture, 
architecture, and engraving are tau|;ht in the most 
efficient manner ; 2. Academies of design established in 
the principal towns, and giving instructions in des^- 
mg, architecture, and the principles of geometry and 
respective drawing; 3. Schools of design established in 
all the larger towns for instructing young persons and 
artisans in the elements of designing and architecture. 

The Royal Academy of the Fine Arts at Antwerp is 
principally intended to afford gratuitous instructions 
m painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving, and 
to propagate and encoura^i a taste for the nne art. In 
1873 there were i66k scholars. A competition in one 
of the branches of the fine arts is annually held in 
Antwerp, the laureate at which receives a pension of 
3500 francs annuallv for four years, to enable him to 

fcrfect himself in his art in Germany, France, and 
taly. The second prize is a gold medal of 300 
francs. 

The Royal Musical Conservatory at Brussels is under 
the direction of the minister of the interior, aided by a 
commission of seven members nominated by the king, 
with the burgomaster of Brussels as honorary president. 
The instruction is ^tuitous, and includes vocal and 
instrumental music, composition, and the Italian 
language. 

Belgium possesses a great number of learned societes, 
as the Ro^l Medical Academy, the Royal Academy of 
Science, Literature, and Art, &c. 

The Royal Academy of SdencCj Literature, and Art 
also has its seat at Brussels. It is divided into three 
classes, for the sciences, literature, and the fine arts ; 
the first two are each subdivided into two sections, and 
the last into branches, for painting, sculpture, engraving, 
architecture, and music. Each class is composwi of 30 
members, 50 foreign associates, and not more than ten 
native correspondents. 

The;« is a Government inspector-general of science, 
literature, and art, who has the general superintendence 
of that department, under the minister of the interior. 
Under him are two administrative boards, the one for 
literature and science, and the other for the fine arts. 

The Royal Observatory for astronomical and meteoro- 
logical observations is under the management of a di- 
rector and three assistants. In the observatory are 
instruments specially provided by Government for the 
use of young men desirous of making meteorological or 
astronomicalobservations, 

Tlie Royal Museum of Brussels, for the reception of 
objects in natural history belonging to the state, is un- 
der the direction of a coundl of five members ap)pointed 
by the king. There is also a museum of industry, con- 
taining models and plans of machines used in arts, 



manufactures^^ and agriculture. Annexed to this museum 
is a school where instruction is given gratuitously in the 
construction of such machines. It possesses a chemical 
laboratory, library, &c 

Besides the libraries belonging to different societies, 
associations, &c, there are a number of public libraries 
in Belgium. The principal of these is the royal library 
of Brussels, it contained in 1871 about 301,500 vol- 
umes, 22,221 manuscripts, 53,556 engravings, and 19*517 
med^ and coins. 

The archives of Belgium contain a great number of 
interesting and valuable documents connected with the 
history of the country. These are carefully preserved, 
classified, and catalogued. 

The benevolent and charitable institutions of Belgium 
are numerous and open to alL The duty of supporting 
them falls in the first instance upon the commune, 
afterwards upon the province, and finally, in case of 
necessity, upon the state. 

Every town of importance and many of the rural 
communities have ho^itals for the a^ed, infirm, and in- 
digent. Asylums for incurables are ^o numerous, but 
much less so than the former. 

Foundling hospitals are established in Antwerp, 
Brussels, Louvain, Bruges, Ostend, &c 

To prevent the misery, and frequently the crime, 
arising firom the want of employment among the work- 
ins classes, charity workshops have been established in 
Ghent, Li^e, and other towns. These are accessible 
to all workmen without employment and in poor cir- 
cumstances. The able-bodied are paid according to 
their work, and the aged and infirm according to their 
necessities. The woncshops of apprenticeship and im- 
provement are intended not only to supply work to the 
unemployed, but principally to initiate the people in the 
exercise of new or improved branches of industry, and 
to instruct the young men in some trade or pro/ession 
by which they may be able to gain an honest livlihood. 
They have been found of great benefit to many of the 
poorer classes who would otherwise have been brought 
up as vagrants and beggars. The apprenticeship gen- 
erally lasts from four to six months. Similar to these 
are tne manufacturing schools, intended principally for 
girls, where they are employed in the manufacture of 
lace, &c These are supported partly by the state and 
partly by the province ana commune, but many of them 
areprivate. 

There are three depdts of mendicity or workhouses in 
the kingdom, at Bruges, Hoogstraeten, and Reckheim. 

The judicial system of Belgium consists of courts and 
tribunals of various kinds, as the court of cassation, the 
courts of appeal, and of assize, tribunals of primary in- 
stance, of commerce, &c. The court of cassation or 
annulment sits at Brussels, and is divided into two 
chambers, the one for civil and the other for criminal 
matters. It is composed of a president-general, a 

President of the chamber, and fifteen councillors. It 
ecides upon appeals against judgments pronounced 
in the otner courts and tribunals m contravention of 
legal forms. There are three courts of appeal ; one at 
Brussels, for the provinces of Antwerp, Brabant, and 
Hainault ; another at Ghent, for the two Flanders; and 
a third at Li^ge, for Li^ge, Limbourg, Luxembourg, 
and Namur. In the capital of each province is a court 
of assize, composed of a councillor, deputed from one 
of the courts of appeal, who presides, and two judges 
chosen from among the presiaents and judges of me 
primary tribunals, where the court is hekL Crimes, 
graver misdemeanors, political offences, and abuses of 
the press are adjudged by the courts of assize. In each 
judiciary arrondissement is a •tribunal of primary in- 
stance, judging of misdemeanors belonging to the cor- 



884 



BEL 



rectional police, in civil miUters, and in commercial 
mffiurs where there is no commercial tribunal. The 
number of judges varies from three to ten in each tri- 
bunal. TriDunals of commerce are established by law 
in several principal towns. They judce definitively in 
civil matters of not more than 2000 francs, but above 
that sum their decisions are subject to appeal, as in the 
tribunab of primary instance. In sereral of the manu- 
facturing towns are councils oi prud^ hommes^ composed 
of master tradesmen and workmen. They decide in 
all ouestions and disputes arising between masters and 
workmen. For all criminal and political cases, as well 
as offences of the press, trial by jury is established. 
The jury is composed of twelve persons chosen by lot 
from a feet of thirty. Justices ot the peace and judges 
of the tribunals are chosen direCtlv by the king. 

Councils of war are held in the chief place of each 
province, with the exception of Limbourg, which is joined 
to Li^ge, and of Luxembourg, which is unitea with 
Namur. They decide m crimes and ^ misdemeanors 
committed in their provinces by the military of a rank 
not higher than captain. The military court for the 
whole of Belgium has its seat at Brussels. It is com- 
posed of five members, one of whom is a councillor of 
the appeal court of Brussels, del^Ued annually to pre- 
side ; the rest are general or superior officers chosen by 
lot every month. All officers of a grade superior to 
that of captain are amenable to this court. It also de- 
cides on appeals from the provincial or other military 
courts. 

Besides the ordinary police, there are commissaries of 
police, royal procurators, jupes cf instrtution^ &c. The 
commissaries of police, and in the communes where 
these are wanting the burgomasters or delegated alder- 
men, are specially charged with searching out and prov- 
ing all contraventions of the police laws. The royal 
procurators are charged with discovering and prosecut- 
ing for all offences coming within the jurisdiction of the 
courts of assize or the correctional tribunals of police. 
There is at least one jnge d* instruction^ or examining 
judce, in each arrondissement who is specially charged 
with the collection of evidence, and with brining the 
culprit before the tribunal. There is a council cham- 
ber composed of at least three judges, including the 
;uge d' instruction, for the preliminary examination of 
cujprits. 

The prisons are of three kinds — (i), central prisons; 
(2), houses of surety; and (3), houses of arrest. The 
houses of surety arc established in the capital of each 
province, where there is a court of assize, and the houses 
of arrest are in the capital of each arrondissement, the 
seat of a court of primary instance, where there is not 
already a house of surety. In these houses are confined 
the prisoners whose term does not exceed six months if 
the prison is a common one, and three years if on the 
solitary system. 

Since 1830 the amcultural state of the country has 
been much improved. A superior council of agriculture 
is specially cnarged with tne promotion and superin- 
tendence of the agricultural interests of the country ; 
and in each of the provinces a commission of prac- 
tical men is nominated to encourage the introduction 
of improvements in the different branches of agricul- 
ture and report annually upon the state of agriculture 
in their provinces. Every five years a grand a^icnl- 
tural exhibition of horses, cattle, agricultural imple- 
ments, and produce is held in Brussels, at which a num- 
ber of gold and silver medals, &c., are given as prizes. 
Ijxal exhibitions are also held frequently in the various 
districts. 

The Belgians, particularly in Flanders, are averse to 
the introduction of improvements in their agricultural 



operations, and their implements are generally rede and 
clumsy. Their lands are, however, cultivated with great 
care and are very productive. Of the cereal crops lye 
is the most extensively cultivated, and forms an inaport- 
ant article of food for the working classes. WiMat and 
oats are also extensively cultivated, the former partiail- 
arly in the provinces of Hainault, Brabant, and West 
Flanders. Comparatively little barley is raised. Hops, 
chicory, tobacco, rape and other oleaginooe plants, 
hemp, flax, madder, beet, &c., are common. Ot these 
the most extensively cultivated is flax, principally in the 
two Flanders. Tomcco was much more extensively 
grown a few years ago than at present ; it is now al- 
most entirely confmed to the two Flanders and Hainonk. 
The chicory plant is principally raised in Hainaolt. The 
cultivation of beet for the extraction of sugar is oontinn- 
ally increasing, and numerous establishments have been 
formed for its preparation. The leguminous plants, 
pease, beans, and tares, are used principalhr as fodder 
for cattle ; the most common are beans. The beet root 
i; even more extensively cultivated as fodder tlian as an 
Industrial plant, particularly in the provinces of West 
Flanders, Li^ge, Hainault, and Brabant. Potatoes are 
largely grown in all the provinces ; and, next to pota- 
toes, turnips are the most extensively cultivated of the 
alimentary roots. 

Belgium is rich in various kinds of minerals, as coaL 
iron, calamine, &c., which form a valuable source of 
employment to many thousands of its inhabitants. 

Marble is abundant in many parts of Belgium; and 
the black marbles, as thoy of Dinant and Gochene, 
may rival the finest productions of other countries. 
There are also numerous quarries of freestone, granite, 
limestone, slate, &c 

Notwithstanding many vicissitudes, flax, the most 
ancient, still forms one of the most important branches 
of industry in the country. 

Cotton also forms an important branch of industry, 
which is at present in a more flourishing condition than 
at any former period. 

The manufacture of woollens forms also an import- 
ant branch of industry. The wool for this purpose is 
principally imported from Prussia, Saxony, &c, the 
native produce being small in quantity and chiefly used 
in hosiery. 

There are twenty-three chambers of commerce and 
manufacture established in the principal towns, the 
members of which are nominatea by the king from a 
triple list of candidates presented to him by the 
chambers. The members of^ each vary in number from 
nine to twenty-one, one-third going out annually. Th^ 
present to the Government or legislative chambers their 
views as to the best means of increasing the commercial 
and industrial prosperity of the country, report annually 
upon the state of their districts, and give useful informa- 
tion or direction to the provincial or civic authorities 
under their administration. There is a superior cooncfl 
of industry and commerce, composed of two delegates 
chosen annually by each of the chambers of commerce 
of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Li^ge, Mons, and Char- 
leroi, one elected by each of the other chambers of 
commerce, and a certain number of members choaen hy 
the king, not exceeding a third of the others. Tile 
president and two vice-presidents are nominated by the 
icing for each session. The council considers matttti 
aflecting commerce and industry, and such c^uesliiMtt 
connected therewith as may be submitted to it by tflt 
Government. 

Belgium po^esses a great number of conunerdatMl 
financial associations, joint-stock companies fore 
on ])ublic works or other enterprises, assurance^ 
nies, private banking companies, railway < 




BEL 



885 



It has eight commercial exchanges, under the direction 
of Government, namely, in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, 
Bruges, Ostend, Mons, Terraonde, and Louvain. In 
1822 the General Society for the Encouragement of 
National Industry was formed at Brussels, tmder a royal 
charter for 27 y«irs, which has since been extended to 
1875 and i9oi The National Bank, instituted by 
charter granted in 1850 and renewed 1872, has its seat, 
at Brussels, and has branches in all the provincial capi- 
tals and several other towns. Its capital is 50,000,000 
francs, in shares of 1000 francs each. It pays a divi- 
dend of 5 per cent, upon the shares, and one-third at 
least of the profits excc^ng 6 per cent. |;oes to form a 
sinking funoL The administration consists of a gov- 
ernor nominated by the king, six directors, and a council 
of censors. The oanking operations are superintended 
by a Government commissary ; and a report upon its 
state is presented to the Government every month. 
The state funds are deposited in this bank. The Bank 
of Bdgium, chartered m 1835, has a capital of 50,000,000 
francs. Its seat is at Brussels. The Bank of Flan- 
ders, cstaUished in Ghent, has a capital of 10,000,000 
francs. 

After England, there is no countrr in Europe where, 
in proportion to its extent, the roads are more numer- 
ous or better kept than in Belgium. They are of three 
kinds, — those maintained byUie state, and those by the 
provinces and communes. The total length of the two 
latter cannot be given with accuracy; that of the first 
is 1 187 leagues. 

A hni was passed in 1834 authorizing the establish- 
ment of a system of railroads, of which Malines was to 
form the centre, and the line from Brussels to Malines, 
opened Ma^ 5, 1835, was the first railway in operation 
on the Contment The Government railways arc wrought 
on account of the Government, and are under spedal 
administration. 

In the time of the Romans this portion of the Neth- 
erlimds was included in Gaul, and formed part of that 
division of it which was known as Gallia Belgica, It 
was inhabited mostly by Celtic tribes, but there were 
also not a few of German race. The latter was subse^ 
quently largely increased by eruptions from the north, 
so that in the 5th and 6th centuries, under the rule of 
the Franks, thiey formed the principal element of the 
population. For several centuries the history of the 
Franks is the history of the Netherlands. ^ Afterward 
the country was divided into a number of independent 
duchies, counties, and fi-ee cities. Among these may 
be mentioned the duchies of Brabant, Limbourg, and 
Luxembourg, the counties of Flanders, Hainault, and 
Namur, the oishopric of Li^ge, the lordship of Melines, 
&C. Of these the county of Flanders rose to be supe- 
rior to all the others, and became distinguished for its 
industry and commercial activity. In 1385 the male 
line of the counts of Flanders became extinct, and their 
possessions passed into the hands of the dukes of Bur- 
gundy, who soon after, in various ways, came into pos- 
session of the whole of the Netherlands. In order to 
strengthen their power they sought to repress the spirit 
of liberty, and to do away with the free institutions that 
had sprung up in the country; but notwithstanding 
ttiis tne people contmued to increase in wealth and 
prosperity, and industry and commerce flourished more 
and more among them. In 1447 Mary of Burgundy, 
only daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, married 
the Archduke Maximilian, son of the Emperor Freder- 
kk IV., and thus the Netherlands came into the posses- 
sion of the House of Austria. Maximilian succeeded to 
the imperial throne in 1493. *^^ ^^ following year he 
resigned the government of the Netherlands to his son 
Phinp, then a youth of seventeen years of age. The 



latter, in 1496, married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella of Castile, and died in 1506, leaving to suc- 
ceed him a son who afterward became Charles V. Dur- 
ing the reign of this monarch the Protestant religion 
began to spread in the country, though its acUierents 
were subjected to much persecution. His son and suc- 
cessor, Philip II. of Spam, by his cruel persecutions and 
his attempt to establish the Inquisition in the country, 
drove the people int« open rebellion. The duke of 
Alva, who was sent at the head of a Spanish army to 
reduce them to subjection, perpetrated upon them the 
most horrid cruelties, devastating the whole country in 
every direction, and erecting scaffolds in every K^tj, At 
leneth the northern portion of the Netherlands suc- 
ceeded in establishing its independence, and became the 
republic of the Seven United Provinces, while the 
southern portion, or Belgium, continued under the 
rule of Spiun. In 1598 Philip ceded Beldum to his 
daughter Isabella and her husband the Archduke Albert, 
under whom it formed a distinct and independent king- 
donu Attempts were then made to restore the pros- 
perity of the country and improve its internal condition ; 
out, unfortunately, Albert died without leaving issue in 
162 1, and the country ajgain fell into the hands of Spain. 
For many years Belgium continued to diare in the de- 
clining fortunes of Spain ; and in the wars that broke 
out between that power and France and Holland, it was 
exposed to the first attack, and peace was usually pur- 
chased at the expense of some part of its territory. By 
the treatv of the Pyrenees (1659) the county of Artois, 
Thionville, and otner districts were ceded to France. 
Subsequent French conquests, confirmed by the peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), took away Lille, Charleroi, 
Oudenarde, Cfoutray, and other places. These were, 
indeed, partly restored to Belgium by the peace of 
Nimeguen (1679); but, on the other hand, it lost 
Valenciennes, Nieuport, Cambray, St. Omer, Ypres, 
and Charlemont, wnich were only in part recovered by 
the peace of Ryswick (1697). After the conclusion of 
this last treaty the Spanish Government attempted to 
restore prosperity to Belgium by the introduction of 
new customs laws, and by other means, particularly by 
the construction of canals to counteract tne injury aone 
to its commerce by the closing of the navigation of the 
Scheldt by the Dutch. But these attempts were of lit- 
tle avail in consequence of the breaking out of the War 
of the Spanish Succession, which was only brought to 
an end by the peace of Utrecht in 1713. By this treaty 
Belgium was assigned to Austria, and took the name of 
the Austrian Netherlands. Yet such was the enfeebled 
state of the country that Holland retained the right, 
which had been conceded to her during the late war, of 
garrisoning the prindpal fortresses on the French fron- 
tier, and her rignt to close the navigation of the Scheldt 
was also recognized. In 1 722 a commercial company was 
formed at Ostend by Charles VI., but this was sacri- 
ficed in 1731 to the jealously of the Dutch. During 
the Austrian War of Succession almost the whole coun- 
try fell into the hands of the French, but was restored 
to Austria by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Bel- 

fium was undisturbed by the Seven Years' War (1756- 
3), and during the long peace which followed enjoyed 
considerable prosperity under the mild rule of Maria 
Theresa, whose representative here, Prince Charles of 
Lorraine, conducted affairs with great judgment and 
moderation. The empress did much for the advance- 
ment of education, founding, among other institutions, 
the Belgian Academy of Sciences, and opposed the un- 
due power of the clergy. Her son and successor, Joseph 
II., got into difficulties with Holland, and compelled 
that power to withdraw her garrisons from the fron- 
tier towns, but was unsuccessful in his attempts 



886 



BEL 



to free the navigttion of the Scheldt. It was, how- 
ever, in his attempts to reform internal abuses that 
he failed most signally here as in other parts of his 
dominions. He exdted the religious feelings of the 
people against him, by attempting to curb the power 
of tne pnests, and he oJfended the states by seeking to 
overturn the civil government. Numbers of the mal- 
contents left the country, and organized themselves as a 
military force in Holland. As the discontent became 
more general, the insurgents returned, took several 
forts, defeated the Austrians at Tumhout. and overran 
the country. On nth December 1789, the people of 
Brussels rose against the Austrian garrison, and com- 
pelled it to capitulate, and on the 27th the states of 
hrabant declared their independence. The other pro- 
vinces followed, and, on iitn January 1790, the whole 
formed themselves into an independent state under the 
name of United Belgium, with a congress to manage its 
affairs. After the death of Joseph II. his successor, 
Leopold II., issued a proclamation on 3d March 1790, 
wherein he promised the restoration of the former con- 
stitution if the people would return to their allegiance. 
This, however, they refused to do, and they also re- 
jected the proposal of a congress to meet at the Hamie 
for the settlement of their differences. In the end of 
November, therefore, a strong Austrian army was sent 
into Belgium, and the country was subdued without any 
great opposition. The^ constitution as it existed at the 
end of the reign of Maria Theresa was restored, an am- 
nesty was proclaimed for past offences, and the opposi- 
tion of the states was put down. The short penod of 
peace which followed was terminated by the breaking 
out of the war with revolutionary France. The battle of 
Jemappes (7ih Nov. 1792) made the French masters of 
the country to the south of Li^ge; and the battle of 
Fleurus (26th June 1794) put an end to the Austrian 
rule in Belgium. The treaty of Campo Formio (1797) 
and the subsequent treaty of Luneville (1801) confirmed 
the conquerors in the possession of the country, and 
Belgium became an integral part of France, being go- 
verned on the same fooling, receiving the Code NapoUon^ 
and sharing in the fortunes of the Republic and of the 
Empire. (See France.) After the fall of Napoleon 
and the conclusion of the first peace of Paris (30tn May 
18 14), Belgium was for some months^ vul^ by an 
Austrian governor-general, after which it was united 
with Holland under Prince William Frederick of Nassau, 
who took the title of king of the Netherlands (23d 
March 1815), The Congress of Vienna (31st May 1815) 
determined the relations and fixed the boundaries of 
the new kingdom ; and the new constitution was pro- 
mulgated on the 24th of August following, the Icing 
taking the oath at Brussels, Sept. 27. 

Belgium enjoyed during her union with Holland a de- 
gree of prosperity that was quite remarkable. The 
mmeral wealtn of the country was largely developed, the 
iron manufactures of Li^ge rapidly advanced m pros- 
perity, the woollen manufactures of Verviers received a 
similar impulse, and many large establishments were 
formed at Ghent and other places where cotton goods 
were fabricated which rivalled those of England and far 
surpassed those of France. The extensive colonial and 
foreign trade of the Dutch furnished them with new 
markets for their produce; while the opening of the 
navigation of the Scheldt raised Antwerp to a place of 
the first commercial importance. The Government also 
did much in the way ot improving the internal commu- 
nications of the country, in repairing the roads and canals, 
and forming new ones, deepening and widening rivers, 
and the like. Nor was the social and intellectual im- 
provement of the people by any means neglected. A 
new imiversity was formed at Li^ge, normal schools for 



the inttmction of teachers were instituted, and numer- 
ous elementary schools and schools for higher instruction 
were established over the cotmtry. 

Matters were in this state when the news of the suc- 
cess of the Paris rerolation of 1830 readied Bdginnu 
Numbers of the Propagandists came to Brussels, where 
they paraded the streets and talked loixHy in the pablk 

S laces of the elories of the Revolution and of the ttitiire 
estinies of France. The first outbreak occtured on the 
2jth of August, just a month after the commenGement 
of that of Paris. A play, called La Mueite^ whtcfa 
abounds in passages well odculated to inflame the popu- 
lace in their then excited state, was performed in the 
theatre, and when the curtain fell the audience rushed 
out into the street shouting, "Imitons les Pariaens.^ 
They were speedially joined by others, and the mob at 
once proceeded to deeds of violence, destroying or dam- 
aging a number of public buildings, manufactories, and 
private houses The guards and posts in the centre of 
the city were overcome or quietly surrendered; the 
troops were drawn out, but they were too few in nmn- 
ber to contend with the insurgents, and they either re- 
treated to their barracks or were withdrawn to the 
upper part of the city, where they piled their arms in 
front of the king's pauice, and renounced all attempts at 
suppresang the tumult. A number of the more uflu- 
ential and the middle-class citizens now enrolled them- 
selves into a burgher guard for the protection of life and 
property, and to interpose in a manner between the 
conterKung paides. The intelligence of these events 
in the capital soon spread throughout the provinces; 
and in most of the lar^ towns similar scenes were en- 
acted, commencing with plunderings and outrages by 
the mobs, followed by the institution of burgher gnank 
for the maintenance of peace. The burgher guard of 
Brussels was most anxious to terminate the dispute with- 
out recourse being had to extreme measures. They 
demanded the dismissal of the minister, Van Maanen, 
who was obnoxious to the people, and a separate ad- 
ministration for Belgium without an entire separation of 
the two countries. The Government neither agreed to 
make these concessions nor did it resolve upon actual 
force, but adopted a sort of middle course which, by 
allowing things to go on, ended in converting a popular 
riot into a complete revolution. The heir-appaient, the 
prince of Orange, was sent on a peaceful mission to 
Brussels, but furnished with such limited powers as, in 
the circimistances, were utterly inadequate. On hb 
arrival a conference was held which extended over 
several days ; and at the final meeting on 3d Sept., 
when a number of the membeis of the States-general 
were present, the prince had become so convinced that 
nothing but a separate administration of the two coun- 
tries would restore tranquility, that he promised to use 
his influence with his father to bring aoout that object 
— the persons present on their part assuring him that 
they would heartily imite in maintaining the dynasty of 
the House of Orange. The king summoned an extra- 
ordinary States-general, which met at the Hague, 
13th Sept, and was opened by a speech from the 
throne, which was firm and temperate, but faf 
no means definite. The proceedings of the boAr 
were dilatory, and the conduct of the Dutch 
deputies exasperated the people of Belgium beyond 
measure. The modem party m the country gradoafly 
lost their influence, and those who were m favor oT 
violent measures prevailed, while the warlike demon* 
stradons made by the troops kindled a feeling of M^ 
mosity and stimulated preparations for defence. Jbl^ 
though the States were still sitting at the Hag«^ fl 
king's army was gradually approaching Branm .J 
consisted of 14,000 well-appointed troops under t|Mi4 ^ 



BEL 



887 



mand of Prince Frederick ; bnt its movements were too 
taxdy if force was to be employed, and it was entirely 
out of place if conciliatory measures were to prevail On 
20th September the council resolved to take possession 
of Brossels, believing that the inhabitants were eager to 
receive the troops, and that their presence there would 
tend to restore peace ; and orders were sent to Prince ' 
Frederick to that effect On the 23d the troops ad- 
vanced towards the dty, and, with little opposition, 
occnpied the upper or court portion of it, which is sit- 
uated on a hill, by which the rest of the town is com- 
manded. The figtiting continued for three da3rs with- 
out any definite result, when the prince ordered a re- 
treat The news of this soon reached Ghent, Bruges, 
Ostend, and other towns which at once declared in 
favor of separation. A Provisional Government was 
formed at Brussels, which declared Belgium to be an in- 
dependent state, and summoned a national congress for 
the regulation of its aftidrs. The council of me king 
now consented to separate administrations for the two 
kingdoms, but it was too late to restore peace. Antwerp 
was the only important town which remained in the 
hands of the Dutch, and the army on leaving Brussels 
had fallen back on this town. In the end of October an 
insurgent army had arrived before the gates, which were 
opened by the populace to receive them, and the troops, 
under General Chass^, retired within the citadeL A truce 
was concluded between the parties, but the Belgian 
officers were unable to restrain the fury of the populace 
who, with such weapons as they had, attacked the citadel 
The general ordered a cannonade and bombardment 
of the town, which continued for two davs, destroying 
a number of houses and lar£[e quantities of merchandise. 
A suspension of hostilities then took place, but the mis- 
representations and exag^rations of the proceedings 
which spread did much to mflame the minds of the Bel- 
gians still further against the Dutch. 

A convention of representatives of the five great 
powers met in London, m the beginning of November, 
at the request of the king of the Netherlands, but its 
attention was mainly directed to brindng about peace, 
and through it both sides were brought to consent to a 
cessation of hostilities. On the 10th November the 
national congress assembled at Brussels, consisting of 
200 deputies chosen from the different provinces. Three 
important questions were decided by tnat assembly: — 
(i.) The independence of the country, — carried unani- 
mously ; (2), a constitutional hereditary monarchy, — by 
a majority of 1 74 against 13 in favor of a republic ; and 
(3), the perpetual exclusion of the Orange Nassau 
famUy,— by a majority of 161 against 28 in &vor of de- 
lay- On 2oth December the conference of London pro- 
claimed the dissolution of the kingdom of the Netner- 
™is, at the same time that it claimed for itself the 
ri|ht of interfering even against the will of both coun- 
tries to regulate the conditions of partition. On the 
28th of January 1831 the congress proceeded to the 
election of a lung, and out of a number of candidates 
wie choice fell on the duke of Nemours, second son of 
l/)uis Philippe, but he declined the office. The con- 
gress then resolved on the election of a regent as a tem- 
porary measure, and they selected Baron Surlei de Gro- 
wer, who was installed on the 25th of February. This, 
"oj'^ver, did little to restore tranquillity to the country, 
^ the partisans of the prince of Oran^ w^ere still 
acttvdy intriguing in his favor. At length, in the month 
^i April, a proposition was privately made to Prince 
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, widower of the Princess Char- 
f ^ °^ Engiand, with the view of ascertaining whether, 
*f chosen, he would accept the crown. It is remarkable 
Jhat though his name was mentioned he was not among 
tnc number of candidates brought forward on the previ- 



ous occasion. He answered in the affirmadve, but strictly 
abstained from giving any authority to exertion being 
made in his favor. After many stormy discussions the 
election at length took place on the 4th of June, when 
1^2 votes out of 106, four onlv being absent, determined 
that Prince Leopold should be proclaimed king of the 
Belgians, under the express condition that he ** would 
accept the constitution and swear to maintain the 
national independence and territorial integrity.** Leo- 
pokl at once accepted, and made his public entry into 
Brussels on the 21st, when he was received with great 
cordiality. ^ 

Leopold now proceeded wth vigor to strengthen his 
position, and to restore order and confidence. French 
officers were selected for the training and disciplining 
of the army, the civil list was arranged with economy 
and order, and the other branches of the public service 
were reformed or rearranged. He kept on the best 
terms with the Roman Gatnolic clergy and the Roman 
Gatholic nobility ; and his subsequent marriage with a 
daughter of the French king (9th August 1832), and a 
contract that the children of the marriage should be 
educated in the Roman Gatholic faith, dkl much to in- 
spire confidence in his good intentions. The king now 
gave his attention to the improvement of the manufact- 
ures and commerce of Belgium; and on ist May 1834 
he sanctioned the law which was to create the first rail- 
road on the continent of Europe. 

In 183 J the alien bill gave nse to considerable discus- 
sion, but It was at length carried. Its object was to 
give Government the power to send out of the kingdom, 
or to compel to reside in a particular place, any 
forei^er whose conduct was calculated to endanger the 

{)ublic peace. In i8;^6 an Act to regulate the municipal 
brm of government m the towns and communes was 
passed. The election of the members of the municipal 
councils was continued in the citizens, but the appoint- 
ment of the burgomaster and magistrates was vested in 
the king fi-om among the members of the councils. 
The manufactures ana commerce continued to flourish 
and extend, and the formation of railways was actively 
carried on. As Holland had not yet acceded to all the 
conditions of the twenty-four articles, Belgium still 
kept possession of the wnole of Limbourg and Luxem- 
bourg except the fortress of the latter, with a small 
area round it, which was occupied by Prussian troops. 
These territories had been treated in every way as a 
part of Belgium, and had sent representatives to both 
chambers. Great indignation was therefore felt at the 
idea of their being separated, when Holland, on the 
14th of March 1830, signified its readiness to accept the 
conditions of the treaty. The chambers arguea that 
Belgium had been induced to agree to the twenty-four 
articles in 1832 in the hope of thereby at once termi" 
nating all harassing disputes, but that as Holland did 
not then accept them, the conditions were no onger 
binding, and the circumstances were now quite chan^. 
They urged that Luxembourg in effect formed an 
integral part of their territory, and that the people 
were totally opposed to a union with Holland They 
offered to pay for the territory in dispute, but the 
treaty gave them no right of purchase, and the pro- 
posal was not entertained. The two chambers unani- 
mously voted addresses to the king, expressing a hope 
that the integrity of Belgium would be maintained, 
Similar addresses were sent from all parts of the country, 
and the people were roused to a great state of excite- 
ment. The king was at one with nis people, and every 
preparation was made for war. But the firmness of the 
allied powers, and their determination to uphold the 
conditions of the treaty, at last brought the km^, though 
with extreme reluctimce, to give in to their view* 



888 



BEL 



After violent dSscnssimiftlie Chamber of Representatives 

give its adhesion on 19th March 1839, ana some days 
ter the Senate followed the example. The treaty was 
signed at London on the 19th of April. The annual 
pa^rment by Belgium for its share of the national debt, 
whidi had been fixed at 8,aoo,ooo florins, was reduced 
to $,000,000 florins, or ^416,666, with quittance of 
arrears prior to 1st Januarv 1859. When this excite- 
ment was at its height the Bank of Brussels failed, and 
much misery and distress among the people was the 
result. This was immediately followed by the failure 
of the Bru^els Savings- Bank, but the Government 
instantly came forward and guaranteed the claims there- 
upon, amounting to 1,500,000 florins. 

The Belgian revolution owed its success to the union 
of the Roman Catholics and the Liberals ; and the king 
had been very careful to maintain the alliance between 
these two parties. This continued to be the character 
of the Government up to 1840, but by degrees it had 
been becoming more and more conservative, and was 
giving rise to dissatisfaction. A ministry was formed on 
more liberal principles, but it clashed with the Catholic 
aristocracy, who had the majority in the Senate. The 
elections of 1847 gave a majority in favor of the Liber- 
als ; the cabinet resigned, and a Liberal administration 
took its place and formally announced a new policy. 
Hence it happened that when next year France was m 
revolution and her kine a fugitive, Belgium remained 
calm and unshaken. Wnen the news roiched Brussels 
the king convoked a council of his ministers and offered 
to resign if they thought it would avert calamity or con- 
duce to the public welfare. The ministers replied that 
a constitutional monarchy was best fitted for tne people, 
and that a republic was neither according to their wishes 
nor adapted to their character. The democratic socie- 
ties of Brussels attempted a revolutionary movement, 
but met with little success. At this time a new electoral 
law was issued lowering the franchise of 20 florins* 
worth of property (33s. 4d.), by which the number of 
electors was at once doubled ; and soon after another 
law reduced the oualification ibr municipal councils to 
46 francs (36s.) These timely concessions eave general 
satisfaction, and completely disarmed tne extreme 
democratic 1^^^; so that when an expedition was 
organized in Paris against the throne of Leopold, with 
the countenance and aid of certain members of the 
French Government, it met with no sympathy and 
totaUv failed in its object. On the night of the 24th 
Marcn the conspirators, to the number of about 800 
French and 100 Belgians, arrived at Quievrain by train, 
but they were at once surrounded by the military and 
peasants and made prisoners. Alarmed at this attempt 
the Government strongly reinforced the frontier towns 
with troops, and was thus able to repulse a more for- 
midable invasion that took place a few days later. Bel- 
gium, however, suffered severely from the shock given 
to commercial credit and general industry. 

On the loth December 1865 King Leopold died, after 
a reign of m years. He was greatly beloved by his 

gsopTe, and much respected by the other sovereigns of 
urope. He was repeatedly chosen to decide in inter- 
national disputes ; and the grievances of hostile Govern- 
ments were not unfrequentty submitted to him. His 
well-known honesty and integrity of purpose, his re- 
flective and well-balanced intellect, his habit of close 
and accurate reasoning, his grave and serious deport- 
ment, all eminently fitted him for the office of arbiter. 
To him Belgium owed much. In difficult circumstances 
and critical times he managed its affiurs with great tact 
and judgment ; by conciliatory measures he reconciled 
and kept at peace opposing factions ; and by his well- 
known devotion to the best interests of the country he 



secured the confidence and esteem of all classes o( the 
people. He was succeeded by his eldest son LeopoM 
iL, who was immediately proclaimed king, and took 
the oath to the constitution on 17th December. 

On the outbreak of the war between France and 
Germany in 1870, Belgium saw the difficulty and dan- 
ger of her position, and lost no time in providing fv 
contingencies. A large war credit was voted, the 
strengm of the army was raised, and large detachments 
were moved to the frontier. The feeling of danger to 
Belgium sdso caused great excitement in Englano^ par- 
ticularly after the contents of the secret treaty — which 
revealed the aggrandizing schemes of France against 
Belgium — became known. The British Government 
deckred its intention to maintain the int^rity of Bd- 

fium in accordance with the treaty of 1839, and it in- 
uced the two belligerent powers to sign treaties to that 
effect In the event of either power violating the ocu- 
trality of Belgium, England was to co-operate wish the 
other in such manner as might be mutually i^;reed npoo 
to secure the integrity of the countrv. It was at nrs 
feared that Belgian territory might be violated fay tht 
necessities of one or other of the belligerents, but tfab 
was not the case. A considerable portion of the French 
army routed at Sedan did, indeed, take refuge in Bel- 
gian territory ; but they laid down their arms according 
to convention, and were ** interned ** in the Idi^g^ do- 
minions. 

In 1870 the liberal party, who had been in power for 
thirteen years, was overthrown by a union of the Catho- 
hcs with the Radicals or Progressionists, joined by not 
a few Liberals, to whom the opposition of the Govern- 
ment to certain reforms had gjven offense. A ministerial 
crisis followed, which was terminated by the advent to 
office of a Catholic cabinet, at the head of which was 
Baron d' Anethan. A new election took place in August 
1876, which gave tnem a majority in both houses,— a 
result brought about in no small degrae by the excite- 
ment consequent on the breaking out of, the Franco- 
German war. The Baron d*Anethan steered his course 
prudently, and increased the power of the Ultramontanes 
considerably by carrying a reform bill, which widened 
the basis of representation as r^rded the proviacia] 
and communal councils, by introducing large masses of 
the Catholiclo^r orders to the privilege of the franchise. 
It added nearly one-half to the number of electors for 
the provincial councils, and more than a fourth to those 
for the communal councils. The Liberals were very 
much dissatisfied ; and towards the end of the year tlie 
mob in Brussels took up the question, and tumults broke 
out which the police and civic guard had to put down by 
force. They demanded the dismissal of the minoteis, 
to which the king at length consented ; and a new ma- 
istry was formed under M. de Theux. The commwial 
elections of 1873 were the occasion of a sharp struggle 
throughout the kingdom between the church party and 
the Liberals, butsuccessremainedchiefiywith the latter. 
The elections of June 1874 resulted in a considendile 
reduction of the Ultramontane majority within the Sen- 
ate and the Chamber of Representatives, without 
actually converting it into & minority. In July of ^st 
year a conference of representatives of the leadm^ pow- 
ers of Europe was held in Brussels, with the view oT 
introducing certain changes in the usages of war, bntao 
definite^result was arrived at. In Ma]^ and June iS}^ 
religious disturbances broke out in various parts, Vina 
were attended with serious consequences. At BrwHCl^. 
Ghent, and other places, religious processions* y^iSk 
partook of the character of party demonstratioQS» 10tfc 
attacked by mobs of the populace, and many fg it f mk 
were injured. These disturbances were only Mt %«|||^ 
to by energetic measures on the part of those IfeinlHi' 

ej» ''.'S3 



BEL 



889 



itj, and the inflictioii of severe panishments on the 
d^nquents. 

The attention of forei^ states has of late been par- 
ticnlarly directed to Belffinm, in consequence of certain 
remonstrances addressed to it by Germany on the sub- 
ject of its international relations and its duties towards 
foreign powers. This arose from an obscure Belgian, 
named Duchesne, having written to a French arch- 
bishop, offering to assassinate Prince Bismark for a 
consiaeration. He was taken and tried by the Bel^;ian 
Government, but it was found that the law had provided 
no punishment for the offence which he had committed. 
This led to a remonstrance on the part of the German 
Government, which was couched in such terms as to 
afford ground for the gravest fears, on the part of Bel- 
gium and of foreign states, as to what might be the re- 
sult The correspondence, however, was carried on in 
a friendly spirit on both sides, satisfactory explanations 
followed, and the Belgian Government passed a measure 
making such offences as that of Duchesne criminal. 

BELGRADE (in Servian, Biel^orod, or White 
Town), the capital of the Servian prmcipality, situated 
at the confluence of the Save and the Danube, on the 
right bank of the latter stream, opposite the Austrian 
town and fortress of Semlin. It is built both on, and 
at the side of, a northern spur of the Avala heights, the 
rocky summit being crowned by its once famous citadel, 
which still remains very much as it was left bv Prince 
Engene, except that on the E. S. and W. the glacis has 
been changed into a promenade. The town was for- 
merly divided into three parts, namely, the Old Town, 
ihe Russian Town {Sava mahala or Save-district), and 
the Turkish town {Dorcol, or Cross-road). A great 
diange has, however, taken place in the course of the 
present century, and the old divisions are only partially 
applicable, while there has to be added the Tirazia, 
an important recent suburban extension along the line 
of the aqueduct or Tirati. Since i860 great activity 
has been shown in building, and the Ola Town is grad- 
ually being regulated according to a definite plan. The 
general appearance of the place is growing more and 
more European ; its mosques and minarets, protected 
from actual demolition by a Turkish treaty, are falling 
into ruin from neglect Belgrade is identified with the 
ancient Singidunum, and was the station of the Ligio 
IV, Flavia Felix, It has from its enrliest existence 
been a place of militaxy importance, and m modem 
times has sustained many sieges, and repeatedly passed 
from the hands of the Austrians to those of the Turks. 
It was taken by Soliman II. in 1521, and retaken by the 
Austrians in 1688, but again lost in 169a In 171 7 it 
surrendered to Prince Eugene. The imperialists re- 
tained it till 1739, when the Turks invested and reduced 
it. Austria again took it in 1789, but it was restored at 
the peace of 1791. In the year 1806 the Servian in- 
surgents succeeded in carrying it. In 1862 it was bom- 
barded from the citadel on account of a contest raging 
between the Turkish and Servian inhabitants, but five 
years later it was completelj^ evacuated by the foreign 
forces, and the citadel received a Garrison of Servian 
soldiers. The only mark of Turkish occupation is the 
banner which continues to be shown firom its walls 
along with the national colors. Population, 26,674. 

BELIEF, with its synonyms Assurance, Confidence, 
Conviction, Credence, Trust, Persuasion, Faith, is in 
popular language taken to mean the acceptation of some- 
thmg as true which is not known to be true, the mental 
attitude being a conviction that is not so strong as cer- 
tainty, but is stronger than mere opinion. For the 
grounds of such conviction, ordinal^ language refers at 
once to probable as opposed to intuitive or demonstra- 
Ctve evidence. Such popular phrases do not, of course, 



amount to a definition of belief; but this is not to be 
expected from them, especiaUjr if, as may be laid down 
with some confidence, no logical definition of the pro- 
cess be possible. It may be described and markea off 
from similar or contrasted states, but a rigidly sdendfic 
definition of what s^ppears to be a simple, ultimate fiict 
is not attainable. The general explanation, however, 
is so far unsatisfactory in that it throws no lisht tipon 
the most interesting question with regard to belief, its 
province, and does not teU us what are the objects of 
Delief as opposed to those of knowledge. To answer 
this it is necessary to describe somewhat more minutely 
the mental process under examination. 

Unfortunately for purposes of analysis, the Word be* 
lief is used in a variety of relations which seem at first 
sight to have but little in eommon. We are said to 
believe in what lies beyond the limits of our tenmoral 
experience, in the supersensible, in God vid a future 
life. Again, we are said to believe in the first princi- 
ples or ultimate verities from which all trains of (femon- 
stration must start ; ^ as conditions of demonstration, 
these are themselves indemonstrable, and are therefore 
objects and belief. We receive by belief perceptions of 
single matters of fact, which fix>m their very nature can- 
no^ be demonstrated. We believe from memorv the 
facts of past experience ; we have expectation or belief 
in future events. We accept truths on the evidence of 
testimony ; and finally, we believe that our actual con- 
sciousness of things is in harmony with reality. From 
this unsystematic arrangement of objects of belief it will 
be p<^sible to eliminate certain classes by noting in the 
first instance what we are not said to believe, but to 
know. By knowledge may be understood generally the 
conviction of truth which rests on grounds valid for all 
intelligence, and which is expressed in propositions 
necessary both for our thinking and for reality. At the 
same time we are commonly and correctly said to know 
states of consciousness when they are immediately pres- 
ent, together with their differences, similarities, con- 
nections, and relations to self. Whatever is necessarily 
connected with present experience, and can be logically 
deduced firom it, is also matter not of belief but of 
knowledge. Again, we know all propositions of apo- 
dictic certainty, such as those of mathematics and logic 
Mathematical propositions carry us beyond mere think- 
ing ; the laws which flow firom the relations of space 
and time are not only thought but known to be true of 
all objects of sensible experience, for no objects what- 
soever can form part of that experience save under these 
Quantitative conaitions. It is therefore an error to say 
that we believe abstract mathematical laws apply to ob- 
jects ; we know this with absolute certainty. So also 
our cognizance of lo^cal principles, such as the laws of 
identity and contradiction, is matter of knowledge, of 
insight, not of belief. It would appear, therefore, that 
knowledge extends to facts immediately present in con- 
sciousness, and to certain relations true of all facts of 
sensible experience ; but in neither of these classes of 
cognition aoes there seem to be given an absolute 
guarantee for the existence of any fact which is not im- 
mediately before us. 

It follows from what has been said that we exclude 
firom the province of belief primitive truths and facts of 
immediate experience, with such phenomena, past or 
future, as are connected casually or by rational links 
with facts immediately known. There is still a vride 
field left for belief. In the stage of knowledjge, which 
we call sensible cocpition belief introduces itself; for 
consciousness, whidi unhesitatingly affirms the corres- 
pondence of its content with reahty, readily exhibits its 
falsity^ when submitted to analysis. The belief, thoa^ 
firm, is shown to be erroneous, — to be merely the rapid 



890 



BEL 



n 



sttmmation of a number of signs, which themselves do 
not come clearly before consciousness, and are therefore 
accepted without examination. In memory of our past 
experience belief is involved. When I remember, I 
hate present to consciousness ideas which represent 
past reality. To have idtts simplr is to imagine; to 
nave ideas which we are convinced represent past ex- 
perience is to have imagination //mj belief, /'. r., to re- 
member. It should be observed that we are frequently 
said to trust our memory, to believe that what we re- 
member is true. This phraseology is objectionable; 
we cannot properly be said to frusf our memory, we 
fimply use it In the very fact of remembering b in- 
volved the reference to past reality which is the essence 
of belief. We believe te^imony, /. ^., we accept as 
true facts not in our experience, and which possibly 
may never be. In this case our belief is, that under cer- 
tain conditions we should have the experience which 
from the testimony we can picture to ourselves. Ex- 
pectation, so far as merelv contingent elements are con- 
cerned, is a pure case of belief 

So far as we have yet seen, all objects of belief have been 
or may be objects of knowledge ; and the most prominent 
distinction between the two is the presence m the pne 
of an actual intuition and its absence in the other. 
This distinction, however is not absolute ; all thinking 
of reality is not belief Belief is rather the thinking of 
reality which is determined by grounds not necessarilv 
valid for all intelligence, but satisfactory for the indi- 
vidual thinker. The difference between imagination 
and the thought of some reality does not seem capable 
of further analysis ; it expresses an ultimate fact. Ac- 
cording to Mill, belief is a case of constant association ; 
an klea is believed which is irresistibly called up in con- 
nection with present experience. Thus in memory, the 
ideas of the past expenence are irresistibly associated 
with the idea of myself experiencing them, and this 
irresistibility constitutes belief. Expectation, ^ain, is 
the irresistible sup^gestion by present experience of a 
consequent or tram of consequents. And to memory 
and expectation all ordinary cases of belief may be 
reduced. 

Kant's distinction of Mdnung and Glauhe leads us 
directly to the one species of belief which has not vet 
been considered. All objects of belief, so far as nas 
yet appeared, might come within our temporal experi- 
ence ; out we are said to believe in the supersensible, 
which from its very definition seems to surpass experi- 
ence and, consequently, knowledge. To such belief 
the name/aifA is properly restricted, and in its nature 
it differs somewhat from the belief hitherto discussed. 
When understood in this sense, religious be!ief is by no 
means a mere feeling, though it contains feeling as one 
of the stages in its development, for mere feeling is in 
itself blind and valueless, whereas faith is intelligent or 
rational. Nor is it a blank faith which would have the 
same value whatever were the objects believed in, for 
religious belief has a definite content ; it is the accepta- 
tion of certain facts and truths and the active realization 
of them. As its content is definite (for if it were not 
so, the religions of Christ and of Mahomet, of Buddha 
and of Zoroaster, would stand on the same level, all 
having subjective faith or conviction), belief of necessity 
involves knowledge, rational construction of the facts 
believed. Faith is but the lower scage of completed in- 
sight, and in its own development follows the natural 
order of progress in knowleaee, which begins with feel- 
ing and intuition, rises through concrete representation 
into logical connection, and finally culminates in rational 
cognition. So religious belief, which is primarily 
little more than a vague feeling of something over and 
beyond the present state of existence, combined with 



the dim sense of our own finite and dependent condi- 
tion, gradually rises to a higher stage, and in its effocts 
to attain some cognizance of the supersensible, begins 
even to attach itself to natural objects. But as it can 
find in these no satisfaction, it is compelled to construct 
some representations of the supematoral which daH 
harmonize with our ^iritual wants. In the formatiaa 
of these religious ideas we are not left without help, 
nor are they to be looked upon as mere figments of the 
mind. The revelation which has been given in natvre, 
both physical and moral, and in the q>ecial expenence 
to which the name is more frequently applied, famishes 
matter whkh is laid hold of and pressed into the service. 
Religious belief or faith always attaches itself to repre- 
sentations, intuitions, or facts; it gives what Newman 
has called Real as opposed to Notional Assent But it 
is not the less necessary that faith should be raised to 
insight, and that we should construe in terms of thou^ 
what religious experience brines before us as direct ai> 
tuition. There must be theology as well as rdigioo. 
Nothing is believed which is not held to be soeonnected 
with the rational nature of man as irretrievably to injure 
that nature shoukl its truth be overthrown. This is not 
to put knowledge in place of faith, if knowledge be un- 
derstood to apply onlv to the logkallv necessary; nor is 
it to assert that what have been called truths of revela* 
tion could have been discovered by natural reason. 
Knowledge, however, cannot be confined to the abstract 
understanding ; and nothing is more delusive than the 
total opposition of revelation and reason. " What is 
there in the nature of things," says Augustine, "that 
God has done unreasonably?" To affirm that reason 
does not of itself discover the truths of revelation, is 
simply to bring against it the reproach it mavweU bear, 
that It does not create experience. Reason has not to 
make new facts, but to accept given experience, and 
evolve from it the pure elements of thought wfakh it 
contains, and in which its truth consists. Faith, there- 
fore, precedes knowledge, as Anselm used to say ; but 
its priority is that of time, not of authority. 

There remains to be taken into account the interest- 
ing question of the grounds and motives for belief. It 
is, of course, necessary to distinguish between these 
two ; the causf of a belief mav not be exactly a remsm 
for it. Belief, though natural, is not alwa^ rational, 
but frecjuently rests with happy unconsaousness cm 
foundations utterly inadequate to its support. But tf' 
we disregard this distinction and incluae both causes 
and reasons under the title principles of belief; these 
may be divided into three classes — (i^. Testimony ; (»)• 
Feeling, Desires, or Wishes; (3), Evidence of Reamu 
These are rarely dissevered in actual practice. Testi> 
mony, to the reception of which the name befief is 
frequently restricted, is familiar enough to require no 
extended notice. Our natural tendency is to Mccept a^ 
testimony as true ; it is experience alone that teaches 
caution. Where from the nature of the case no snch 
experience is to be had, credulity settles down into fim 
and ineradicable conviction. The majority of ffwn 
would be astonished to find how much their b^ef ^ 
pends upon the society into which they have been bom 
and in which they live. Dogmas at first forced ttKMI a 
people gradually become ingrained in the mindaQi Aose 
brought up in habitual contact with them. Ttac Is 
hardly a limit to the possibility of instilliiic JMJIlfe 
through continued custom, and no resistance to MIMri» 
is so strong as that offered by mere custbnaij 9^mbmt 
which has imperceptibly introduced itself into (Ami 1^7 
life's blood of those who share it. 

The feelings, though not so directly a I 
victions as testimony, exercise an exten 
plex influence on belief. It has ahn||t^ 




BEL 



891 



saying that a man believes what he wishes — that *' the 
wish IS father to the thought ; " and there can be no 
doubt that the superior force given to an idea hy the 
concentration on it of desire or affection, causes it to 
bulk so largely in conciousness as to exclude the 
thought of its opn-realization. The very idea of a re- 
sult opposed to what we earnestly desire is un- 
pleasant enough to make us resolutely shut it out of 
sight. This, however, is but a partial and limited ef- 
fect. We know very well that our belief is only occas- 
ionally swayed by our wishes, and that necessity too 
often constrains us to believe what we willingly would 
not. Our volition cannot directly compel belief. But 
the feelings plajr a most important part ; for it is by 
their means primarily that we stretcn beyond the field 
of direct knowledge and complete our limited exper- 
ience with what we feel to be necessary for the harmony 
of our moral and religious nature. We believe that 
without which our nature would be dissatisfied, and 
this belief takes its rise in the feeling, — the blind ex- 
pression of intellectual want, — which form the first 
stage towards completed insight 

It is hardly necessary to do more than refer to the 
rational grounds for belief. AVherever our knowledge 
of any object or law is incomplete, belief is ready to 
step in and fill uf> the gap by some hypothesis, which is 
in conformity with our experience, is rationally con- 
nected with the facts to be explained, and is not yet 
known to be true. Great portions of our so-called 
scientific knowledge are nothmg but rational beUef, — 
hypotheses unverined, perhaps even un verifiable, — and 
the settlement of the conditions or legitimacy of such 
presumptions forms the principal part of inductive logic 

BELISARIUS rSclavonic, Belltzar,'' White Prince") 
the greatest general of the Byzantine empire, was bom 
about 505 A.D., at Germania, on the borders of Illyria. 
As a youth he served in the body-guard of Justinian, 
who i^pointed him commander of the Eastern army. 
He won a signal victory over the Persiaifi in 530, and 
successfully conducted a campaign against them, until 
forced, by the rashness o( his soldiers, to join battle and 
suffer defeat in the following year. Recalled to Con- 
stantinople, he married Antonina, a profligate, daring 
woman. During the sedition of tne "green" and 
|» blue " parties of the circus he did Justinian good serv- 
ice, Q0ectually crushing the rebels who had proclaimed 
Hypatius emperor. In 5;j;j the command of the expedi- 
tion against the Vandal kingdom in Africa, apenlous 
office, which the rest of the imperial generals shunned, 
was conferred on Belisarius. With 15,000 mercenaries, 
whom he had to train into Roman (tiscipline, he took 
Carthage, defeated Gelimer the Vandal king, and carried 
him captive, in 534, to grace the first triumph witnessed 
in Constantinople. In reward for these services Belis- 
arius was invested with the consular dimity, and med- 
als were struck in his honor. At this time the Ostro- 
gothic kingdom, founded in Italy by Theodoric the 
Great, was shaken by internal dissensions, of which Jus- 
tinian resolved to avail himself^ Accordingly, Belsar- 
ius invaded Sicily ; and, after storming Naples and de- 
fending Rome for a year against almost the entire 
strength of the Goths in Italy, he concluded the war by 
the capture of Ravenna, and with it of the Gothic king 
Vitiges. So conspicuous were Belisarius^s heroism and 
milttai^ skill that the Ostrogoths offered to acknowledge 
him Emperor of the West. But his loyalty did not 
waver; he rejected the proposal and returned to Con- 
stantinople in 540. -Next year he was sent to check the 
Persian King Nushirvan; but, thwarted by the turbu- 
lence of his troops, he achieved no decisive result. On 
his return to Constantinople the intrigues of Anton- 
ina, whom he had confined on account of her illicit 



amours, CSQsed him to be stripped of his dignities and 
condemned to death, and he was only pardoned by 
humbling himself before his imperious consort. The 
Goths luiving meanwhile reconquered Italy, Belisarius 
was dispatched with utterly inadequate forces to oppose 
them. Nevertheless, during five campaigns his strategic 
skill enabled him to hold his enemies at bay, until he 
was removed from the command, and the conclusion of 
the war entrusted to his rival Narses. Belisarius re- 
mained at Constantinople in tranquil retirement until 
559. when an incursion of Bulgarian savages spread a 
panic through the metropolis, and men's eyes were once 
more turned towards the neglected veteran, who placed 
himself at the head of a mix^ multitude of peasants and 
sokliers, and repelled the barbarians with his wonted cour- 
age and adroitness. But this, like his former victories, 
stimulated Justinian's envy. The savior of his country 
was coldly received and left unrewarded by his suspicious 
sovereign. Shortly afterwards Belisarius was accused of 
complicity in a conspiracy against the emperor ; his 
fortune was confiscated, and himself flung into prison. 
His last years are shrouded in uncertainty, as they are 
not dealt with in the circumstantial history of Procopius ; 
but he seems to have been liberated and reinstalled in 
the enjoyment of his hard-won honors before his death 
in 565. The fiction of Belisarius wandering as a blind 
beggar through the streets of Constantinopfe, which has 
been adopted by Marmontel in his Bilisaire^ and by 
various painters and poets, seems to have been invented 
by Tzetzes, a writer of the 12th century. Gibbon justly 
calls Belisarius the Africanus of New Rome. But for 
his successes, which were achieved with most insignifi- 
cant means, the effete Byzantine empire would have oeen 
dismembered among Vandals, Persians, and Goths. He 
was merciful as a conqueror, stern as a disciplinarian, 
enterprising and wary as a general ; while his courage, 
loyalty, and forbearance seem to have been almost un- 
sullied. Like Corbulo, the faithful general of Nero, he 
was suspected and persecuted by an ungratefid master ; 
and, like him, he restored the old discipline to the troops 
and the ancient lustre to the Roman arms in a corrupt 
and nerveless age. 

BELIZE, the capital of British Honduras, and the 
only trading-port in the colony. It is situated on the 
sea-coast, at the mouth of a river of the same name. 
The population is about 5000. 

BELKNAP, Jeremy, an American clergyman and 
author, was bom at Boston in 1744 and died in 1798. 
He was educated at Harvard University, where he grad- 
rated in 1762. In 1767 he was called to a Congrega- 
tional church in Dover, New Hampshire, and remained 
there for twenty years. He then removed to the Federal 
Street church in Boston, which he heW till his death. 

BELL (from pelvis^ a basin or foot -pan. Pes lavare), 
an open percussion instrument varying in shape and 
material, but usually cup-like or globular and metallic, 
so constructed as to yield one dominant note. 

Antiquaries have worried themselves and their readers 
about the antiquity of bells and to small purpose. It 
is doubtful whether the bells of gold (Exod. xxviii. 
32» 35) were anything but jangling ornaments of some 
kind worn by the high priest; but Mr. Layard believes 
that he lias found some small bronze bells in the palace 
of Nimroud. We may gather generally rhat small bells 
long preceded large ones, which latter, however, were 
us3 m India and China long before tl ey were known 
in Europe. 

The Romans used bells for various purposes. Lu- 
cian, 180 A.D., mentions an instrument mechanically 
constructed with water, which rang a bell as the water 
flowed to measure time. Bells summoned the Romans 
to the public baths; they were also used in processions, 



892 



BEL 



and so ptssed naturtlly into the service of the Western 
Chorch. The first recorded application of them to 
chorchet is ascribed by Polydore Virgil to Paulinas 
{ctfra 400 A.D.) He was bishop of Nola, a city of 
Ounpania (hence no/a and campana^ the names of cer- 
tain oells). It has been maintained that Pope Sabini- 
anns, 604, first used church bells ; but it seems clear 
Ihat they were introduced into France as early as C50. 
In 6S0, Benedict, abbot of Wearmouth, imported them 
from Italy ; and in the 7th century, Bede mentions them 
in England. St. Dunstan hung many in the loth cen- 
t-urv ; and in the nth they were not uncommon in Swit- 
zeiUnd and Germany. It is incredible that the Greek 
Christians, as has been asserted, were unacquainted with 
bells till the 9th century ; but it is certain that, for polit- 
ical reasons after the taking of Constantinople by the 
Turks, in 1453* their use was forbidden, lest they should 
provide a popular signal for revolt. 

Several ola bells are extant in Scotland, Ireland, and 
Wales; the oldest are often quadrangular, made of 
thin iron plates hammered and rivetted together. Dr. 
Reeves of Lusk described in 1850 St. Patrick's bell pre- 
served at Belfast, called Clctr an eadhacta Phatraicy 
•« the bell of St. Patrick's wiU.^ It is 6 inches high, 
^ broad, 4 deep,»adomed with gems and gold and silver 
filagree work ; it is inscribed 1091 and 1105, but is prob- 
ably alluded to in Ulster annals in 552. 

Tne four-sided bell of the Irish missionary St. Gall, 
646, is preserved at the monastery of St. Gall, Switzer- 
land. In these early times bells were usually small ; 
even in the nth century a bell presented to the church 
at Orleans weighing awx) pounds was thought large. 
In the 13th century larger bells were cast. The bell, 
Jacqueline of Paris, cast 1400, weighed 15,000 pounds ; 
another Paris bell of 1472, 25,000 pounds ; and the fa- 
mous Amboise bell at Rouen, 1501', 36,364 pounds. 
But there we have reached the threshold of the golden 
age of bells, of which more anon. 

We shall now give a brief account of the manufact- 
ure of the bell proper, i.e.^ the church bell of the last 
five centuries. It must not be supposed that the early 
bell-founders understood all the pnnciples of construc- 
tion, mixture of metals, lines, and proportions which go 
to form our notions of a good bell. 

Bell-metal is a mixture of copper and tin in the pro- 
portion of 4 to I. 

Bells, like viols, have been made of every conceivable 
shape within certain limits. The lon^ narrow bell, the 
quadrangular, and the mitre-shaped m Europe at least 
indicate antiquity, and the graceful curved-inwardly- 
midway and full trumpet-mouthed bell indicates an age 
not earlier than the loth century. 

The bell is first designed on paper according to the 
scale of measurement. Then the crook is made, which 
is a kind of double wooden compass, the legs of which 
are respectively curved to the snape of the inner and 
outer sides of the bell, a space of the exact form and 
thickness of the bell being left betwixt them. The 
compass is pivotted on a stake driven into the bottom 
of the casting-pit. A stuffing of brickwork is built 
round the stake, leaving room for a fire to be lighted 
inside it. The outside of this stuffing is then padded 
with fine soft clay, well mixed and bound together with 
calves' hair, and the inner leg of the compass run 
round it, bringing it to the exact shape of the inside of 
the belL Upon this core^ well smeared with grease, 
is fashioned the false clay bell, the outside of voiich is 
defined by the outer leg of the compass. Inscriptions 
are now moulded in wax on the outside of the clay-bell; 
these are carefully smeared with grease, then lightly 
covered with the finest clay, and then with coarser clay, 
until a solid mantle is thickened over the outside of the 



day belL A fire is now Uglited, and the whole baked 
hard; the grease and wax inscriptions steam out 
through holes at the top, leaving the sham day bdl 
baked hard and tolerably loose, oetween the ctfvand 
the cope or mantle. The cope is then lifled, the day 
bell broken up, the cope let down again, eodosiiig now 
between itself and the core the exact shape c^ the belL 
The metal is then boiled, and run molten into the 
mould. A large bdl will take several weeks to cool 
When extricated it ought to be scarcely touched, and 
shouki hardly require tuning. This is called its maiden 
state, and it is one so sou^t after that many bells are 
left rough and out of tune in order to claim it 

A g(K)d bell, when struck, yiekls one note, so that 
any person with an ear for music can say what it is. 
This note is called the consonant^ and when it is dis- 
tinctly heard the bell is saki to be " true." Any bdl of 
moderate size (little bells cannot well be experunented 
upon) may be tested in the following manner: — Tap 
the bell just on the curve of the top, and it wiU yield a 
note one octave above the consonant. Tap tne bdl 
about one quarter's distance from the top, and it should 
yield a note which is the quint or fifth of the octave. 
Tap it two quarters and a half lower, and it will yield a 
tierce or third of the octave. Tap it stron^y above the 
rim where the clapper strikes, and the quint, the tierce, 
and the octave will now sound simultaneoudy, yielding 
the consonant or key-note of the bell. 

The history of bells is full of romantic interest. In 
civilized times they have been intimately assodated, 
not only with all kinds of religious and sodal rights 
but with almost every important historical event 
Their influence upon architecture is not less remark- 
able, for to them indirectly we probably owe all the 
most famous towers in the world. Grose in his 
Antiquities observes, ** Towers at first scarcely rose 
above the roof, being intended as lanterns for the ad- 
mission of light, an addition to the height was in all 
likelihood suggested on the more common use of bells." 

Bells early summoned soldiers to arms, as wdl as 
citizens to bath or senate, or Christians to church. 
They sounded the alarm in fire or tumult ; and the 
rights of the burghers in their bells were jealoasly 
guarded. Thus the chief bell in the cathedral often 
belonged to the town, not to the cathedral chapter. 
The curfew, the Carolus, and St. Mary's bell in the 
Antwerp tower all belong to the town ; the rest are 
the property of the chapter. He who commanded the 
bell commanded the town; for by that sound, at a 
moment's notice, he could rally and concentrate his 
adherents. Hence a conqueror commonly acknow- 
ledged the p>olitical importance of bells by melting 
them down ; and the cannon of the conquer^ was in 
turn mdted up to supply the garrison with bells to be 
used in the suppression of revolts. Many a bloody 
chapter in history has been rung in and out by bells. 

On the thiid day of Easter 1282, at the ringing of the 
Sicilian vespers, 0000 French were massacred in cold 
blood by John of Procida, who had thus planned to 
free Sicily from Charles of Anjou. On the 24th of 
August, St. Bartholomew's day, I57i» bells ushered m 
the massacre of the Huguenots in France, to the nam^ 
ber, it is said, of 100,000. Bells have rung alike over 
slaughtered and ransomed cities; and far uid iddo 
throughout Europe in the hour of victory or irrepusMa 
loss. At the news of Nelson's triumpn and denlkfjl 
Trafalgar, the bells of Chester rang a tastry mA 
alternated with one deep toll, and simiUr striking a^- 
dents could be indefinitely multiplied. It wa% I 
in the low countries of Belgium and HolIan<L 4 
with incessant dvil wars, that, for pare^ 
reasons, bells acquired unique importance. 



BEL 



893 



But tfaar religious and civil uses may be farther 
noticed. The Ave Mary bell tolled at 6 and 12 to re- 
mind men of prayer to the Virgin ; the vesper bell for 
evening prayer ; the compline was for the fast service 
of the day. The sanctus, often a handbell, rang at the 
sacrifice of the mass ; the passinjg bell, at death. The 
corfew (couzye feu), introduced oy the Conaueror into 
England, rang at 8 o'clock to extinguish all hghts. In 
many parts of the country and in university towns at 8 
and 6 o'clock bells are still rnn^. 

Bell-founding attained perfection in Holland in the 
i6th and 17th centuries; and the names of Hemony, 
Dumery, and the Van den Gheyns stand out as the 
princes of the art. Their bells are still heard through- 
out the Low Countries, and are plentiful at Amsterdam, 
Bruges, Ghent, Louvain, Mechlin, and Antwerp. 
These bells are freouently adorned with bas reliefs of 
exquisite beauty, sucn as feathers, forest leaves, fruit, 
flowers, portraits, 6x dancing groups, and inscribed with 
Latin, sometimes bad, but strong, quaint, and often 
pathetic. 

Bell-ringing is conducted as follows: — Ropes hang 
through holes in the bell-chamber, and are usually 
fastened to a wheel for leverage, round which the rope 
^sses. There is a great knack in handling the rope. 
The first half-pull ** drops" the bell, the second ** sets'* 
it ; it next swings up to tne slur-bar, then it swings down 
and up to the other side, the clapper striking as it 
ascends. Eight bells make the most perfect peal, tuned 
in the diatonic scale. 

Bells are strack in three ways, — (i) vrith a hammer 
on the outside, let off either by a tambo'.c or revolving 
drum, similar in appearance to the prickly cylinder of a 
musical box, which drum can be fitted with tunes or 
chimes by musical nuts or spikes, and altered at will ; 
(2) the bell can also be strack by hand, as in the com- 
mon stand of small bells to be seen occasionally in the 
London streets, the player having a hammer m each 
hand ; cr (3) the clapper may strike the bell internally, 
cither being pulled by a rope, the bell being stationary, 
or by the 1^11 swinging to and fro. If the hammer or 
clapper be too light the tone of the bell is not properly 
drawn ; if too heavy it will pulverize er crack the beU 
in time. 

Great reforms are needed in the hanging of bells, a 
subject to which the Americans have given much atten- 
tion. What Messrs. Gillett and Bland are in England 
with reference to carillon machinery, the Menek^ of 
New York are to the ordinary mechanism and hanging 
of bells. There is hardly a cathedral tower in England 
where the hanging of one or more bells, or the oscilla- 
tion of the tower, is not justlv complained of. When a 
bell is hard to ring it is usually on account of its hang- 
ing. The leverage is wrongly applied ; the wood-wonc 
is crowded against the masonry, and many of the finest 
towers have thus become unsa^. 

There are a few bells of world-wide renown, and sev- 
eral others more or less celebrated. The great bell at 
Moscow, Tzar Kolokol, which, according to the inscrip- 
tion, was cast in I733t^ was in the earth 103 years, and 
was raised by the Emperor Nicholas in 1536. The 
present bell seems never to have been actually hung or 
rung, havmg cracked in the furnace. Photograpns of 
it are now common, as it stands on a raised platform in 
the middle of a square. It b used as a chapeL It 
weighs about 440,000 lb. : height, 19 feet 3 inches ; cir- 
cumference, 60 feet 9 inches ; thickness, 2 feet ; weight 
of broken piece, 11 tons. The second Moscow belLthe 
largest in tne world in actual use, weighs 128 tons. The 
great bell at Peking weighs 53 tons ; Nanking, 22 tons; 
Ohnotz, 17 tons; Vienna (1711)1 17 tons; Notre Dame 
(1680), 17 tons ; Erfurt, one of the finest bell metal, 13 



tons; Great Ptter, Yotic Minster, which cost £2000 in 
184^, 10 tons ; St. Paul's, 5 tons ; Great Tom at Ox- 
ford, 7 tons ; Great Tom at Lincoln, 5 tons. Big Ben 
of the Westminster clock tower (cracked) weig& be- 
tween ix and 14 tons ; it was cast by George Mears un- 
der the direction of Edward Beckett Denison in 1858. 
Its four quarters were cast by Warner in 1856. tne 
Kaiserglocke of Cologne cathedral, lately recast (1875), 
weighs 25 tons. 

On the varied uses past and present of small bells a 
volume might be written. Octaves of little bells have 
been introduced into organs and utilized in the orchestra. 
Handringers are still common throughout the country — 
one man with a bell fitted with a clapper, in each hand, 
ringing but two notes of the tune in his turn. Upright 
stands of bells without dappers, struck with wands may 
often be seen in the streets. Bells for horses, dogs, 
cows, sheep, &c, have already been alluded to. In 
Italy and elsewhere they are often made of baked earth; 
these have a very sweet sound, and cost about a penny. 
For sledges and harness they are of metal, and worn 
usually in bunches. A bunch of twelve cost about two 
francs. On the Italian lakes and elsewhere a bell fixed 
to a floating cork marks the spot where Unes or nets 
are laid for fish. Hunting-hawks were formerly sup- 
plied with small bells to facilitate recairery. 

While some uses of bells have gone out, new ones 
have come in. A few instances will give the reader 
some kiea of the indefinite number of services to which 
they have been applied. The expression to curse with 
book, bell, and candle, alludes to an old form of exor- 
cism, in which the bell was used to scare the evil spirit 

— a function also attributed to larger bells. Bearing 
the bell alludes to the prize of a silver bell usually given 
at horse-races to the winner ; hence comes what is, after 
all, only the bell reversed and used as a drinking vessel 

— the prize cup. The diving-bell no more comes within 
the scope of tne present article than the dome of a 
mos<}ue. Certain uses of small bells are fast disap- 
peanng. 

BELL, DiL Andrbw, a clergyman of the Church of 
England well known for his philanthropic efforts in the 
cause of education, and more particularly for his success 
m extending the monitorial s)rstem of instractwn in 
sdioob, was born at St. Andrews in 1753. He gradu- 
ated at the university of that town, and aifterwards spent 
some years in America. In 1807 Dr. Bell was called 
upon to organize a system of schools in accordance with 
his views. For his valuable services he was in some 
degree recompensed by his preferment to a prebend of 
Westminster, and to the mastership of Shebom Hospi- 
tal, Durham. He died in 1832 at Cheltenham, and was 
buried in Westminster Abbey. 

BELL, Sir Charles, K. H., the youngest son of 
the Rev. William Bell, a clergyman of the Episfxjpal 
Church of Scotland, was born at Edinburgh, November 
1774. After having studied two vears at the High 
School and two years more at the University of Edin- 
burgh, Charles embraced the profession of medicine and 
devoted himself chiefly to the study of anatomy, under 
the direction of his brother John, who was twelve years 
older, and who had already earned a reputation as an 
anatomist and surgeon. 

On the 1st of August 1799 he became a fellow of the 
Rojral College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. At that 
time the fellows of the college were in rotation surgeons 
to the Royal Infirmary of ^nburgfa. In this position 
Bell soon gave evidence of great abiUty. He dissected, 
drew^ described, mounted preparations of anatomical, 
physiological, or pathological value^ improved on the 
modes of operatmg in surgery known at that time, and 
invented a method of making models of morbid parts, 



894 



BEL 



of which spedmens mayttill be seen in the musenm of 
the college. 

In 1807 Ben first published his idea of a new^anatomy 
of the brain, in whicn he announced the dbcover^ of the 
different functions of the nerves corresponding with their 
relations to different parts of the brain. It is now 
difficult to imagine the confusion which prevailed in the 
minds of anatomists and physiologists regarding the 
functions of the various nerves prior to this discovery. 
The nerves had been noticed by anatomists from the 
earliest times, and they were divided into cranial and 
spinal nerves, according as they originated from the 
brain or spinal cord. Some were supposed to carry 
from the brain the mandates of the will, while others 
communicated to the sensorium impressions made on 
their extremities, which resulted in consciousness. It 
was supposed, however, tliat the same nerve, even at 
the same time, might in some m^terious way transmit 
either motor or sensory impressions in oppKjsite direc- 
tions. When a nerve was cut, the parts beyond the 
incision were found to be destitute of sensibility, and to 
be beyond the influence of the will. It was conse- 
quently correctly inferred to be the cord through which 
volition acted on the muscles, and through which sen- 
sory impressions were transmitted to the sensorium. 
The idea of two sets of filaments functionally different 
in the same nerve was not then entertained. Boerhaave 
asserted that there were two kinds of spinal nerves, the 
one serving for motion and the other for the use of the 
senses. Haller states,' ** I know not a nerve which has 
sensation without also producing motion." The first 
Monro held a similar opinion, and he believed all those 
spinal nerves which passed through a ganglion to be 
motor nerves. 

To Sir Charles Bell we owe the discovery that in the 
nervous trunks there are special sensory filaments, the 
office of which is to transmit impressions from the 
periphery of the body to the sensorium, and special 
motor filaments which convey motor impressions from 
the brain or other nerve centre to the muscles. He 
also showed that some nerves consist entirely of sensory 
filaments and are therefore sensory nerves, that others 
are composed of motor filaments and are therefore 
motor nerves, whilst a third variety contain both kinds 
of filaments and are therefore to be regarded as sensory- 
motor. Furthermore, he indicated that the brain and 
spinal cord may be divided into separate p>arts, each 
part having a special function — one part ministering to 
motion, the otner to sensation, and that the origin of 
the nerves from one or other or both of those sources 
endows them with the peculiar property of the division 
wnence they spring. He also demonstrated that no 
motor nerve ever passes through a ganglion. Lastly, 
he showed both from theoretical considerations and 
from the result of actual experiment on the living 
animal, that the interior roots of the spinal nerves are 
motor, while the posterior are sensory. These discov- 
eries as a whole must be regarded as the greatest in 
physiology since that of the circulation of the blood by 
the illustrious Harvey. It not only was a distinct and 
definite advance in scientific knowledge, but from it 
flowed many practical results of much importance in 
the diagnosis and treatment of disease. 

In 1007 he produced a System of Comparative Sur^ 
gery founded on the basis of anatomy. This work 
mmcates the author's idea of the science of surgery. 
He regarded it almost wholly from an anatomical and 
operative point of view, and there is little or no men- 
tion of the use of medicinal substances. It placed 
him, however, in the highest rank of English writers on 
surgery. 

Tne chair of surgery in the University of Edinburgh 



was offered to him in 1836. When the ofier was mafe 
he was regarded as one of the foremost scientific men 
in England, and he had a large surgical practice. In 
Edinburgh he did not earn great local proKSstonal suc- 
cess ; ana, it must be confessed, he was not appreciated 
as he deserved. But honors came thick npoo turn. On 
the Continent he was spoken of as greater than Harvey. 
It is narrated that one day Roux, a celebrated Frendi 
physiologist, dismissed his class without a lecture, saying 
** That will do gentlemen, you have seen Charles BelL* 

Sir Charles Bell died at Hallow Park near Worcester 
on Thursday, 28th April 1S42, in his sixty-eighth year ; 
and he lies under the yew tree in the peaceml church* 
yard of Hallow. His epitaph, written by his life-long 
friend Lord Jeffrey, summarizes his character as fol- 
lows : — " Sacred to the memory of Sir Chartes Bell, 
who, after unfolding, lyith unrivalled sagacity, patience^ 
and success, the wonderful structure of our mortal 
bodies, esteemed lightly of his greatest discoveries, ex- 
cept only as they tended to impress himself and others 
with a deeper sense of the infimle wisdom and inefiOaible 
goodness of the Almighty Creator. He was bom at 
Edinburgh 1774; died, while on a visit of friendship, at 
Hallow park, in this parish, 1842 ; and lies buried in 
the adjoining churchyard." 

BELL, George Joseph, brother of the preceding, 
was bom at Edinburgh on the 20th of March, 1770. 
In 182 1 he was unanimously elected professor ofUielaw 
of Scotland in the University of Edinburgh ; and in 
1 83 1 he was appointed to one of the principal clerkships 
in the Supreme Court. He was in 1833 placed at tne 
head of a commission to inquire into the expediency of 
making various improvements in the Scottish bank< 
ruptcy law ; and in consequence of the reports of the 
commissioners, chiefly drawn up by himself, many bene- 
ficial alterations have been maoe m this department of 
the law. He died on the 23d September 1843. 

BELL, Henry, a mechanical engineer, well known 
for his successful application of steam-power to the pro- 
pulsion of ships, was bom at Torphichen, in Linlith- 
gowshire in 1767. He died at Helensburgh, 14th 
November 1830, and a monument was erect«i to his 
memory at Dunglass, near Bowting, on the banks of 
the Clyide. 

BELL, Henry Glassford, was bom at Glasgow m 
1805, and received his education at the High School of 
that city. He afterwards studied at Edinburgh and be- 
came intimate with Moir, Hogg, Wilson, and others of 
the brilliant staff of Blackwo^s Magazine, to whidi 
he was drawn by his political sympathies. In 1828 he 
became editor of the Edinhurgh Literary youmaly 
which proved unsuccessful. He passed to the bar in 
1832. In 1831 he published Summer and Winter 
Hours, a volume of poems, of which the best known is 
that on Mary Queen of Scots. He further defended 
the cause of tne unfortunate queen in a prose Life, He 
died in January 1874. 

BELL, John, of Antermony, a Scottish traveller in 
the first half of the last century, was bom in 1691, and 
educated for the medical profession, in which he took 
the d^ree of M.D. He died m 1780. His travels, 
published at Glasgow, in 2 vols. 4to, 1763, were 
speedily translated into French, and widely drcnlated 
in Europe. 

BELL, John, anatomist and surgeon, was b(Mii at 
Edinbur^, 12th May 1763. He had the merit of b^Bf 
the first m Scotland who applied with success the sQ- 
ence of anatomy to practical surgery. Whfle ttSK % 
young man he established, in the &oe of modi \ ^ 
tion, an anatomical theatre in Surgeon Sqoai^ ' 
he attracted lai^ audiences by his aanurable l6Q|a 
anatomy, physiology, and surgery, in wUdll 



BEL 



895 



sisted by his younger brother Charles. He died at 
Rome in 1820, while on a tour in Italy for the benefit of 
his health. 

BELL, Robert, editor of the Annotated Edition of 
th£ British Poets, was an Irishman by birth and educa- 
tion, but a Londoner by a lon§ residence of nearly forty 
years. He was born at Cork m 1800, and was educated 
at Trinity College, Dublin. With the tasks, of a subor- 
dinate in a Government office at Dublin he combined 
literary pursuits, editing a political journal and contrib- 
uting to periodicals. In 1828 he settled in London, and 
literature was thenceforward the business of his life. As 
journalist he edited the^//<w for several years ; and after- 
wards the Monthly Chronicle^ Mirror^ and Home 
JS/'rws. He made himself favorably known as a novelist 
by The Ladder of Gold and Hearts and Altars. He 
died in London, at the age of sixty-seven, April 12, 
1867. 

BELLA, Stefano de la, engraver, was bom at 
Florence in i6ia He died in 1664. His productions 
were very numerous, amounting to over 1400 separate 
pieces. 

BELLADONNA, Dwale, or Deadly Nightshade 
(Atropa Belladonna)^ a tall bushy herb of the natural 
order Solanacea^ growing to a height of 4 or 5 feet, 
having leaves of a dull green color, with a Hack shining 
berry fruit about the size of a cherry, and a large taper- 
ing root. The plant is a native of Central and South 
Europe, extending into Asia, and it is also found in 
waste places and hedge-rows of Britain, though it is a 
doubtful native. The enture plant is highly poisonous, 
and accidents not unfrequently occur through chil- 
dren and unwary persons eating the attractive-look- 
ing fruit. Its leaves and roots are largely used in medi- 
cine, on which account the plant is cultivated, chiefly in 
South Germany, Switzerland, and France. Both roots and 
leaves contain the poisonous alkaloid atropia, but in prac- 
tice the roots only are employed for its extraction. Prep- 
arations of belladonna and atropia are used in medicine 
as anodjmes in local nervous pams, — atropia being fre- 
quently hypodermically injected but rarely taken intem- 
fOly. I'hey are also of great value in opht nalmic practice 
on account of their peculiar property of producing dila- 
tation of the pupil, cither when pamted around or dropped 
into the eye. Belladonna, b ailso used as an anti-spas- 
modic in hooping-cough and spasmodic coughs gener- 
ally, and for various other medicinal pur]>oses. 

BELLAI, or Bellav, Guillaume du, lord of 
Langey, a French general, who signalized himself in the 
service of Francis I., was bom at Glatigny in 1491. 
He died in 1543, and was buried in the church of Mans, 
where a noble monument was erected to his memory. 

BELLAMY, Jacobus, a Dutch poet, was bom at 
Flushing in 1757. He was apprenticed when yotmg to 
a baker, but his abilities were discovered hy a clergy- 
man named De Water, who exerted himself m the boy's 
behalf, and obtained sufficient assistance to send him, in 
1782, to the University of Utrecht. In 1785 appeared 
his Voder landsche GeMngeny which at once gained him 
the highest reputation as a poet. 

BELLAIRE, a town of some importance, situated 
in the State of Ohio, in Belmont County. Populadon 
about 1 1, oca 

BELLARMINE (Ital. Bellarmino), Robert 
Francis Romulus, Cardinal, Catholic theologian and 
polemic, was bom, October 4, 1542, at Montepulciano, 
m Tuscany. He was destined by his father for state 
service, but his inclinations were too strong to be re- 
strained, and at the age of eighteen he entered the So- 
ciety of Jesus. In 1599 he was, much against his will, 
rai^ to the dignity of cardinal, and two years later 
was made archb^op of Capua. He resigned the arch- 



bishopric in 1605, being detained in Rome by the desire 
of the newly-elected Pope Paul V. About the same 
time he had a controversy with James I. of England, 
who, after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, had 
passed severe laws against Roman Catholics. For 
some years before his death, which occurred at Rome^ 
17th September 162 1, he held the bishopric of his native 
town. Bellarmine, whose life was a model of Christian 
asceticism, is one of the greatest Roman Catholic theo- 
logians, particularly in the department of polemics. 

BELLA Y, Joachim du, an eminent French poet 
and member of the Pleiad, was bom late in 1524, at 
Lyr^, on the left bank of the Loire, not far from 
Angers. His collected works did not appear until 1568. 
The early death of the French OvW, as he has been 
called, was a serious loss to European literature, for 
Joachim de Bellay was at the height of his power, and 
still rapidly advancing. His poems have a force, an 
occasional sublimity, and a direct pathos for which we 
look in vain among his contemporaries ; and none but 
Ronsard excelled him in facility and grace. His most 
famous poem, Un Vanneur de Bli aux VentSy one of 
the loveliest lyrics of the age, was written shortly before 
his death, and appeared in the Jeux Rustiques in 1560 ; 
it is nominally a ^raphasefrom the Latin of Naugerius. 

BELLEFONTE, a Pennsylvania railroad town, in 
Center County. Population about 5,00a 

BELLE-ISLE-EN-MER, an island on the W. coast 
of France, belonging to the department of Morbihan. 
It is about 10 miles in length by 4 or 5 in breadth, and is 
divide into the four communes of Palais, Bangor, Porte 
Philippe, and Locmaria, The inhabitants are princi- 
pally engaged in agriculture and the fisheries, and in 
the preservation of sardines, anchovies, &c. The breed 
of draught horses in the island is highly prized. 

BELLEAU, Remy, French poet of the Renaissance, 
and member of the Pleiad, was oom at Nogent-le-Rot- 
rou in 1528. Extremely popular in his own age, he be- 
came undeservedly forgotten in the next. 

BELLENDEN, John, a Scotch poet, and the trans- 
lator of Boece*s History ^ was born about the begnning 
of the i6th century, probably in East Lothian. Bellen- 
^<yx^ who was a strenuous opponent of the Reformation, 
is said to have died at Rome in 1550. His translation 
of Boecc, which is a remarkable specimen of Scottish 
prose, distinguished by its freedom and vi^or of expres- 
sion, appears to have been first published m 1536. 

BELLENDEN, William, a distinguished classical 
scholar, who flourished during the early part of the 1 7th 
century, is said to have been a professor at the Univer- 
sity of Paris. Nothing is known with certainty of his 
life, except that he hera the office, probably a sinecure, 
of Master of Requests. 

BELLEROPHON, in Greek Legend, a local hero 
of Corinth, but partly also connected with, and partly 
similar to, Perseus, the local hero of the neighboring 
Argos, the points of likeness being such as to suggest 
that they had originally been one and the same hero, 
while the difference in tneir exploits might result from 
the rivalry of the two towns. Both are connected with 
the sun-god Helios and with the sea-god Poseidon, the 
grmbol of the union being the winged horse Pegasus. 
Bellerophon was a son of Glaucus of Corinth, who is 
spoken of as a son of Poseidon, and in some way him- 
self a marine deity. To account for the name, i.e., 
"slayer of BeUeros," an otherwise unknown hero of this 
name was invented. But it is by no means certain that 
"BeUeros*' is a personal name; it may mean nothing 
more than ** monster." 

The first act of Bellerophon was to capture the horse 
Pegasus, when it alighted on the Acrocorinth to drink 
at the fountain of Peirene, with a bridle which he found 



896 



BEL 



by his side on awakinr from sleep beside the tltar of 
Athene, where he had laid himself down on the advice 
of a seer Polyidus. The goddess had appeared to him 
in a dieam, reached him a golden bridle, and told him to 
sacrifice a white bull to his father Poaeidon. The next 
incident occurs in Tiryns, at the court of Proetus, whose 
wife, Stheneboea (or Anteia, as Homer calls her), fiul- 
ing to seduce Bellerophon, charges him with an attempt 
on her virtue. Proetos now sends him to lobates, his 
wife's father, the king of Lycia, with a letter or sealed 
tablet, in which were instructions, apparentlv by means 
of signs, to take the life of the bearer. Arriving in 
Lycia, he was received as a guest and entertained for 
nine days. On the tenth, being asked the object of his 
visit, he handed the letter to the king, whose first pFan 
for complying with it was to sendhkn to slay the 
Chimaera, a monster which was devastating the country. 
Its forepart was that of a lion, its hindpart that of a 
serpent ; a goat's head sprang from his back, and fire 
wa& vomited from its mouth. Bellerophon, mounted on 
Pe^us, kept up in the air out of the way of the 
Chimaera, but yet near enough to kill it with his spear, 
or as he is at other times represented, with his sword or 
with a bow. He was next ordered out against the 
Solymi, a hostile tribe, and afterwards against the 
Amazons, from both of which expeditions he not only 
returned victorious, but also on his way back slew an 
ambush of chosen warriors whom lobates had placed to 
intercept him. His divine origin was now proved ; the 
king gave him his daughter in marriage ; and the Lydans 
presented him with a Urge and fertile estate on which he 
lived, and reached the pinnacle of happiness, surrounded 
by two sons, Isander and Hippolochos, and one 
daughter, Laodamia. But, as in the case of Hercules, 
the gods now punish him with frenzy. His son Isander 
fell in battle ; his daughter is slain by Artemis ; and he 
himself wandered in the "plain of madness.** The 
cause of his misfortune, Pindar says, was his ambitious 
attempt to mount to the heavens on Pegasus. 

BELLEVILLE, a city of the United States of 
America, capital of the county of St. Gair in Illinois, 
situated about 14 miles S.E. of St. Louis on a rising 
ground, in the midst of a fertile district. It is a thriv- 
mg commercial and manufacturing city, well supplied 
with water, and in the immediate neighborhood of coal 
deposits. Its industrial establishments comprise brew- 
eries, flour-mills, distilleries, foundries, and a woollen 
factory, and it possesses a court-house, banks, a high 
school and a convent for the education of jroung ladi^ 
Popalatibn, 20,000. 

BELLEVILLE, a town in the province of Ontario, 
Canada. It has considerable commercial interests, and 
contains a population of about io,ooa 

BELLE V, the capital of an arrondissement in the de- 
partment of Ain, France, is situated near the Rhone, 39 
miles east of Lyons. 

BELLINI, the name of an honorable Venetian 
family. Three members of this family fill a great place 
in the history of the Venetian school of painting in the 
15th century and at the beginning of the i6th. In their 
hands the art of Venice was developed from a condition 
more primitive and archaic than that of any other school 
in Italy, and advanced to the final perfection of Gior- 
eione and of Titian. The first distinguished member of 
3ie family was — 

I. Jacopo Belunl When Gentile da Fabriano, 
one of the most refined and accomplished of the religious 
painters of the Umbrian Apennines, came to pracuce at 
Venice, where art was backward, several young men of 
the city took service under him as pupils. Among 
these were Giovanni and Antonio of Murano, and 
Jacopo Bdlini. The Umbrian master left Venice for 



Florence in 1422, and the two brothers of Morano 
stayed behind and prewntly founded a school of their 
own. (See Vivarini.) But Jacopo Bellini followed 
his teacher to Florence in the capaaty of famulms. It 
was the time when a new spirit had just broken o« in 
Florentine art, and when the leaders of that school — 
Ghiberti and Donatello, Andrea del Castagno, Paolo 
Uccello, Masacdo — had made inunense progress in 
many ways at once, — in the science of anatomy and 
perspective, in classical grace and style, in the truth 
and sincerity of nature, — so that from them the yoni^ 
Venetian found much more to lerm than even from his 
Umbrian teacher as to the possible perfections of the 
art The little evidence leit us proves that he made 
good use of his opportunities. But hb works are as 
rare as the events of his life, after his service in Florence 
with Gentile da Fabriano, are uncertain. That service 
presently got him into trouble. The Umbrian, as 
a stranger coming to paint in Florence, was jealously 
looked on. One day a group of young Florentines 
took to throwing stones at his shop, and the Venetian 
pupil ran out imd put them to flight with his fists. 
Thinking this might be turned agamst him, he went 
and took servke on board the gallevs of the Florentine 
state ; but, returning after a year, ne found he had in 
his absence been tried for assault and condemned in a 
heavy fine. He was arrested and put in prison, but the 
matter was afterwards compromise upon a public act 
of penance to which Jacopo submitted. Whether he 
accompanied his master to Rome in 1426 we cannot tdl, 
but there b evidence to show that he was practising on 
his own account in Venice in 1410, and probably as 
soon as 1427. Neither can we fix the date of^his 
marriage ; but it was probably about the time of his 
return to his native state, for we know that he had 
grandchikiren before 1458. The remainder of his life 
was spent between Venice, Verona, and Padua. At 
Venice, besides other work, he painted a great series 
from the lives of Christ and the Virgin in the church of 
St John the Evangelist. This lutf entirely perished. 
In the cathedral of Verona there was, untu it was 
destroyed by the barbarism of the i8th century, an 
important Crucifixion from his hand. In the ardi- 
bbhop's palace of the same city another Crucifixion still 
remains, but greatly injured. At Padua Jacopo appears 
to have lived several years, and to have founckd tnere a 
school which became the rival of the school of Squar- 
done. There hb sons, Gentile and Giovanni, grew 
up ; there hb daughter Niccolosia found a husband in 
Andrea Mantegna, the most famous of the scholars of 
Squarcione. (See Mantegna.) In Jacopo Bellini 
the Venetian school had not jret found its special and 
characteristic manner. But he holds a position of 
great importance, as having been the first to fertilize 
Venetian soil with the science and genius of Florence. 
From no extant pictures of hb can his manner be judged 
so well as from the book of his sketches, which nas 
become the property of the British Museum. This, in 
spite of fading and decay, is a unique and invaluable 
possession, containing a vast number of original studies 
tinted or drawn with pen or ink, and including composi- 
tions from Scripture and the lives of the saints, from 
classical fable, and from natural history in surprising 
variety. 

2. Gentile Bellini was the elder of the two sons of 
Jacopo. To the precise date of his bijrth we have no 
clue. Both he and his brother Giovanni served together 
under their fother Jacopo as hb pupib as long as he 
lived. After hb death each of them practised hb art 
independently in their native city ; but a warm and m- 
broken afiection b recorded to have always suhrist^ 
between the brothers. In 1479 ^^ Sultan " ' 



BEL 



897 



sent worA to the Sign«ria of Venice that he desired the 
senrices at Constantinople of a good painter of their 
state, at the same time inviting the dc^ to the 
wedding of his son. The do^e declined to go, but the 
Signoria chose Gentile BeUini to be sent with two 
assistants at the expense of the state and to paint for the 
Turk, first electing his younger brother Giovanni to fill 
his place in the works at the Ducal Palace until he 
should return. He was admirably received, and painted 
the portraits of the sultan and many of his officers, 
besioes that picture of the reception of a Venetian 
embassv by the gruid vizier which is now at the Louvre 
(No. 68). It is a well-known and doubtful story how 
the sultan alleged that a picture of Gentile's showed an 
Imperfect knowledge of the appearance of the muscles of 
the neck after decapitation, and to convince the painter 
had a slave decapitated in his presence, and how this 
made Gentile uncomfortable and anxious to get away. 
He returned at the end of 1480, bringing gifts and 
honors ; and from that time he and Giovanni were en< 



faged together for the state on the decoration of the c^reat 
all. Gentile painted there four ereat subjects from 
the story of Barbarossa, which unhappily periled in 



the fire of 1577. It is recorded that in i486 the young 
Titian entered his workshop as a pupil. Three of the 
most important of his works date nrom the last five or 
six Tears of the century, and were done for the school 
of St« John the Evangelist at Venice He died on the 
23d February 1507. It is by his science and spirit in 
tne treatment of animated and dignified processional 
groups, vdth many figures and architecture of masterly 
perspective, that we chiefly know Gentile Bellini. 

3. Giovanni Hellini. His birth it is no less im- 
pcNSsible to fix with accuracy than that of his brother. 
His earliest work, done at Padua, shows strongly the 
stem inflnence of his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. 
The National Gallery has a Christ on the Mount, 
painted bv Giovanni, probab1)r about I455» ^"^ appar- 
ently in direct competition with a pkture of the same 
subject by Mantegna himself, similarly conceived, which 
belongs to the Baring Gallery. The characteristics of 
the style formed at Padua by Mantegna and Giovanni 
Bellini, and maintained by the former all his life, are a 
great intensity and vehemence of expression, an iron 
severity and unmatched firmness and^ strength of 
dran^tsmanship ; a tendency, in draperies, to imitate 
the qualities of sculpture ; a love of the difficulties of 
perspective ; a leaning towards the antique, which these 
masters learned to transform and reanimate with a more 
passionate energy and an austerer strength of their own. 
Of the two, Bellini is always the more reserved and 
simple, the more inclined to work from nature and the 
less from the antique, and he has the richer choice in 
color; but there are works in which they are indis- 
tinguishaUe. It is probable that the famous picture of 
the Circumcision now at Castle Howard, which was 
repeated more than once by the master himself, and 
many times over by his pupils and assistants, was painted 
before this date. The altar pieces on a great scale, 
which are the noblest monument of his middle period, 
were certainly painted after it. Of these the chief were 
the Virgin and Saints, in a chapel of the church of Saints 
Giovanni and Paolo at Venice, which perished along 
with Titian's Peter Martyr in the fatal nre of 1867 ; a 

Seat Coronation of the Virgin, in the church of St 
ominic at Pesaro ; a Transfiguration, now in the 
museum of Naples ; a Virgin and Saints, painted for the 
church of S. Giobbe, now in the Academy at Venice 
(No. 36). These, and the multitude of Madonnas and 
other devotional pictures painted by Giovanni Bellini 
during the thirty years following his change of manner 
and adoption of the oil medium, are among the noblest 



products of the religious art of the world. They stand 
alone in their union of splendor with solemnity : they 
have the manful energy of Mantegna without his harsh' 
ness, and the richness of Giorgione without his luxury. 
Succeeding pictures show an increase of this richness, 
and a character more nearly tender. In 1506, when 
Albert Diirer visited Venice, where he was subject to 
some annoyances, he found the noble old man not only 
the most courteous of the Venetian artists in his recep* 
tion of a stranger, but the best in his profession. 

BELLINI, Lorenzo, physician and anatomist, was 
bom at Florence in 1643, and died in 1703, in the six- 
tiethyear of his age. 

BELLINI, VicENZO, one of the most celebrated op- 
eratic composers of the modem Italian school, was bom 
at Catania in Sicily, November 3, 1S02. He was de- 
scended from a family of musicians, both his father and 
grandfather having been composers of some reputation. 
AAer having received his preparatory musical education 
at home, he entered the conservatoire of Na{^es, where 
he studied singing and composition under Tritto and 
Zingarelli. He soon began to write pieces for various 
instruments, as well as a cantata and several masses and 
other sacred compositions. Hb first opera, AdeUon e 
Savina, was performed in 1824 at a small theatre ol 
Naples; his second dramatic work, Bianca e Fernando^ 
saw the ligjit two years later at the San Carlo theatre of 
the same dty, and made his name known in Italy. His 
next work, // Parata, was written for the celebrated 
Scala theatre in Milan, to words by Felice Romano, 
with whom BeUini formed a union of friendship to be 
severed only by his death. The splendid rendering of 
the music hf Tamburini, Rttbini, and other great ItaU 
ian singers, contributed greatly to the success of the 
work, which at once estamishea the European reputa- 
tion of its composer. Almost creiy year of the sttort 
remainder of his life witnessed the production of a new 
operatic work, each of wMch was received with rapture 
by the audiences of France, Italy, Germany, and Eng- 
land, and some of which retain their place on the stage 
up to the present day. We mention the names and 
dates of four of Bellini's q^eras familiar to most lovers 
of modern Italian music, viz.: — / Montechi i CapuieH 
(1829), in which the part of Romeo has been a favorite 
with all the great contraltos for the last seventy years ; 
La Somnambula (1831), Norma^ Bellini's best and 
most popular creation (1832), and / Puritani (1834), 
written for the Italian opera in Paris, and to some ex- 
tent under the influence of French music. In 1831 
Bellini had l^cft his country to accompany to England 
the great singer Pasta, who had creatol the part of his 
Somnambula. In 1834 he accepted an invitation to 
write an opera for the national Grand Opera in Paris. 
Wbile he was carefully studying the French language 
and the cadence of French verse for the purpose, he was 
seized with a sudden illness and died at his villa in Pu- 
teaux near Paris, September 21, 1835. This unexpected 
interraption of a career so brilliant sheds, as it were, a 
gloom of sadness over the whole of Bellini's life, a sad- 
ness which, moreover, was foreshadowed by the charac- 
ter of his works. His operatic creations are throughout 
replete with a spirit of gentle melancholy, frequently 
monotonous and almost always undramatic, but at the 
same time irresistibly sweet, and almost disarming the 
stern demands of higher criticism which otherwise would 
be compelled to reprove the absence of both dramatic 
vigor and musical aepth. To the feature just mentioned, 
combined with a ricn flow of cantilena^ Bellini's operas 
owe their popularity, and will owe it as long as the au- 
diences of our large theatres are willing to tolerate out- 
rages on rhyme and reason if sung by a beautiful voice 
to a pleasing tune. In so far, however, as the defects 



898 



BEL 



fir. 
1)1 



of Bellini*s style are ditncteristic of the school to 
which he belongs, they fall to be considered in a general 
treatment of the whole sabiect See Music. 

BELLINZONA, or Bellsnz, one of the threetowns 
which are the capital in turn of the Swiss canton of 
Tessin or Ticino. Bellinzona was in existence at least 
as early as 1242, when it was conquered by Otto Vis- 
conti. It was long an object of contest between the 
Swiss and the Milanese; it finally passed into the hands 
of the three cantons of Uri, Unterwalden, and Schwyz 
after the battle of Mariguano in 151^* 

BELLMAN, Karl Mikael, the greatest lyrical 
poet of Sweden, was bom at Stockholm on the 4th of 
February 1740. His father, who held a responsible 
official position, was descended from a family that had 
already distinguished itself in the fine arts; his mother, 
a gifted and beautiful woman, early instructed him in 
the elements of poetry and music. When quite a child 
he suddenly developed his extraordinary girt of impro- 
vising verse, during the delirium of a severe illness, 
weavine wild thoughts together Ijrrically, and singing 
airs of his own composition. From this time he gave 
himself up to the poetic art, and received great encour- 
agement from the various eminent men who met round 
his father's table, among whom was Dalin, the favorite 
poet of the day. As early as 1757 he published a book 
of verse, a translation of Schweidnitz's EvangelUal 
Thoughts of Deaths and for the next few years wrote a 
;reat quantity of poems, imitative for the most part of 
J>alin. In 1760 appeared his 6rst characteristic work. 
The AfooHf a satirical poem, which was revised and edited 
by Dalin. But the great work of his life occupied him 
from 1765 to 1780, and consists of the collections of 
dilhyrambic odes known as Fredman^s Epistles and 
Fredmafi's Songs, These were not printed until 170a 
The mode of their composition was extraordinary. No 

?oetry can possibly smell less of the lamp than BeUman's. 
le was accustomed, when in the presence of none but 
confidential friends, to announce that the god was about 
to visit him. He would shut his eyes, take nis zither, and 
begin to improvise a lone Bacchic ode in praise of love or 
wine, and sing it to a melody of his own mvention. The 
genuineness of these extremely singular 6ts of inspira- 
tion could not be doubted. The poems which Bellman 
wrote in the usual way were tame, poor, and without 
character. The Fredmatt's Epistles glow with color, 
ring with fierce and mysterious melody, and bear the 
clear impress of individual genius. These torrents of 
rhymes are not without their method ; wild as they seem, 
they all conform to the rules of style, and among those 
that have been preserved there are few that are not per- 
fect in form. The odes of Bellman breathe a passionate 
love of life ; he is amorous of existence, and keen after 
pleasure, but under all the frenzy there is a pathos, a 
yearning that is sadder than tears. The most dissimilar 
elements are united in his poem ; in a bacchanal hymn 
the music will often fade away into a sad elegiac vein, 
and the rare picturesqueness of his idyllic pictures is 
warmed into rich color by the geniality of his humor. 
He is sometimes frantic, sometimes gross, but always 
ready, at his wildest moment, to melt into reverie. A 
great Swedish critic has remarked that the voluptuous 
joviality of Bellman is, after all, only ** sorrow clad in 
rose-color,** and this underlying pathos gives his poems 
their imdying charm. His later works, The Temple of 
Bacchus^ a journal called What you IVill^ a rehgious 
anthology entitled Z ion's Holiday^ and a translation of 
Gellert*s Fables, are comparatively unimportant. He 
died on the nth of February 179^. Several statues 
exist of Bellman. One represents him naked, crowned 
with ivy, and striking the guitar ; the best is the splen- 
did colossal bust by Bystrom, which adorns the public 



gardens of Stockholm, whidi wu erected by the Swedidi 
Academy in 1829. Bellman had a grand maoner, a fine 
voice, and great gifts of mimicrr, and was a favorite 
companion of King Gostavus III. The best edition of 
his works is one latehr pnblidied at StockhcJm, edited by 
J. G. Carl^n. 

BELLON A, in Roman Mythology^ the goddess of war, 
corresponding to the Greek Enjro, and odled now the 
sister or daughter of Mars, now hb charioteer or his 
nurse. Her worship appears to have been promoted in 
Rome chiefly by the family of the Clandii, wnose Sabine 
origin, together with their use of the name of ** Nero," 
has suggested an identification of Bellona with the 
Sabine wargoddess Nerio. 

BELL01\ J[osEPH RENfi, one of the heroes and 
victims of Arctic exploration, was bom at Paris, March 
18, 1826. At the age of fifteen he entered the Naval 
School, in which he studied two ]rc»rs, and earned a 
high reputation. He distinguished himself in the French 
expedition of 1845 against Tamatave in Madagascar; 
and althoughiie was not yet twenty he received the cross 
of the Legion of Honor at the close of that year. He 
was afterwards attached to the staff of the station, was 
promoted to the rank of Enseigne de VeUsseau in 
November 1847, ^^ in 1851 obtained permission to jom 
the English expedition then preparing to £0 out, under 
the command of Captain Kennedy, in search of Sir John 
Franklin. On this occasion he cusplayed great courage, 
presence of mind, and self-devotion, rendered important 
services, and made the discovery of the strait, which 
bears his name, between Boothia Felix and Somerset 
Land. Early in 1852 he was promoted lieutenant. In 
the same year he accompanied, as a volunteer, the 
expedition sent out by the English Government under 
Captain Inglefield on the same quest. His intelligence, 
his devotion to duty, and his courage won him the esteem 
and admiration ol all with whom he was associated. 
While making a perilous journey with two comrades 
across the ice, for the purpose of communicating with 
Captain Inglefield, he was overtaken by a storm, 
August 21, and beinj^ blown into an opening between 
the broken masses ofice was seen no more. A pension 
was granted to his family by the Emperor Napoleon III., 
and an obelisk was erected to his memory in front of 
Greenwich HospitaL 

BELLOWS AND BLOWINGMACHINES are 
machines for producing a current of air, chiefly in 
order to assist the combustion of a fire. 

The common bellows now in use probably represents 
one of the oldest contrivances for this purpose. It 
consists of two flat boards, of oval or triangular shape, 
connected round their edges by a piece of teather so as 
to form an air chamber. The leather is kept from 
collapsing, on separation of the boards, by two or more 
hoops, wnich act like the ribs in animals. The lower 
board has a hole in its centre covered inside by a 
leather flap or valve opening inwards; it has also 
fastened to it a metal pipe or nozzle, of smaller 
aperture than the valve. On raising the upper board, 
the air from without lifts the valve and enters the 
cavity; then on pressing down the top board, this air 
is compressed, s(nuts the valve, and is driven through 
the pipe with a velocity corresponding to the pressure. 

Tne blast here is, of course, not continuous, but in 
pnfTs, — a certain interval being needed for refilling 
the bellows after each discharge. This drawback was 
remedied by the invention of double bellows. To 
understand their action, it is only necessary to conceive 
an additional board with valve, like the lower board of 
the single bellows, attached by leather under this lower 
board. Thus two similar cavities are obt 
separated by the lower board of what was the 



BEL 



899 



bellows. The lowest board is held down by a weight, 
and another weig^ht i)resscs the top board. When the 
lowest board is raiM it forces the air into the apper 
cavity, and the valve of the middle board prevents re- 
turn of this .air. The lowest board bein^ then de- 
pressed, air enters the lower cavity from without, and 
this in its torn is next forced into the upper cavity. 
The weighted top board is meanwhile continaously 
pressing the air of the np{)er cavity through the nozzle. 
While the blast thus obtained is continuous, it is not 
wholly free from irregularities. 

By a simple arrangement for altering the diameter 
of the pipe the force of the blast may be varied. 

The blowing-machines now almost exclusively used 
for blast furnaces are of the cylinder and piston type 
(which is the principle adopted, it may be remarked, m 
a small hand bellows used oy the Chinese). At first the 
blowing cylinders were single-acting, that is to sav, they 
had the power of propelling a blast only when tne pis- 
ton ^^as moving in one direction. With two or more 
of these blowing cylinders attached to one crank-shaft, 
worked by a water-wheel, a tolerably steady pressure 
of air was obtained. But in these and other respects 
considerable progress has been realized. 

The cylinder-engines of the present day (which are 
generally driven by steam) may be classed in two chief 
systems, according as the cylinder is placed horizontally 
or vertically. In the former case the steam and blast 
orlinders are usually in one line, the same rod carrying 
the pistons of both, and being guided on both sides, 
while a fly-wheel is employed as regulator. In the ver- 
tical systems the steam and blowing cylinders are some- 
times similarly connected, but, in the larger engines, 
they are generally placed one at each end of a beam 
connecting their pistons. The vertical engines have been 
most popmar in England and in some parts of the Con- 
tinent (as Silesia), but the other type (almost exclusively 
used in Westphalia and on the Rhine) is now adopted 
in several English works. 

Where it is desirable to make small blast engines do 
the work of large ones, compensating smallness of size 
with velocity, it becomes necessary that the air valves 
be moved otherwise than by the sunple action of the air 
itself. The best form of such an arrangement is that 
devised by Mr. Slate, in which there is an annular slide 
valve pla^ outside the blast cylinder ; it receives its 
motion from a crank connected with the fly-wheel shaft. 
Thus, with lap and lead of the valve properly propor- 
tioned, a high velocity can be attainea, and the tremor 
and jar that are observable in some of the larger engines 
are entirely absent. Two such engines working together, 
with their cranks at right andes, give such a uniform 
blast that no regulator of any kind is needed. 

The blast engines with slide valves, however, have 
not proved so ^vantageous in practice as was antici- 
pated, owing to the large amount of friction on the valve 
surfaces, greater liability to derangement, and the wear 
and tear resulting from such rapid motion. 

Another kind of blowinc; engine, in which water is 
employed, is that invented by Mr. Street ; in its simpler 
form It consists of a barrel-shaped vessel, supported 
horizontally by the two ends of Us axis. The cylinder 
is divided lon^tudinally by a plane extending from the 
middle of the internal surface above (the barrel being in 
its position of rest) to near the opposite side. Suppose 
the cylinder partly filled with water and made to turn a 
httle way round on its axis^ the air on one side will be 
compressed by the water, while that on the other will be 
rarefied. ^ A valve opening outwards from the condensed 
side admits the air to a cavity from which a nozzle pipe 
piwieeds, while a valve opening inwaixls on the rarefied 
aide admits external air. With additional and corres- 



ponding valves, the process is repeated on the reverse 
oscillation of the cylinder. Thus by swinging the cylin- 
der from side to side, by a crank and rod connected with 
the engine, alternate pufls of air are propelled into a 
r^;ulative air chest ot special construction, which then 
supplies a steady blast. 

Fan-blast machines are frequently employed, espe- 
cially to urge the fire of steam boilers, and in puddlmg 
and reheating, and in the cupola furnaces where antra- 
cite is burnt, or coke used for remelting pig-iron in 
foundries. In one common form the fan consists of 
four spokes of a rimless wheel, tipped with vanes and 
made to rotate in a c)[lindrical chest, in which it has 
often a slightly eccentric position. There are openings 
on both sides round the spindle for- admission of air, 
which, sucked in by the centrifugal action of the fan as 
it quickly rotates, flows towards the vanes, and is driven 
through an exit pipe attached to another part of the 
cylinoer. 

The rotary blower, invented by Messrs. Root of Con- 
nersville, Ind., is one which has of late years found 
extensive use both in America and Europe. The ar- 
rangement differs in some essential features from that of 
the ordinary fan ; it acts by regular displacement of the 
air at each revolution. 

Among the exhibits at a recent exhibition of the 
Franklin Institute in America, was shown a new form 
of blower, acting much on the same principle as the 
Root blower, but, according to the report of the com- 
mittee, offering certain advantagc:s over the latter. 
From a cross section of the chamber it appears that 
three drums of equal size are enclosed in it, two in a 
line below and one above ; the upper one is provided 
with wings, and the two lower have wide slots along 
their entire length, allowing the wings to enter in the 
course of rotation. The function of the two lower 
drums is to supply alternately abutments to prevent the 
escape of the air. They are caused to revolve in proper 
relation with the motion of the upper drum by spur- 
wheels on the journals, which mesh into another spur- 
wheel on the snaft of the upper drum. In the moving 
parts of this machine there are no parts that come into 
actual contact except the teeth of the spur-wheels. 

BELLUNO, the ancient Beiunum, is the capital of a 
province of Northern Italy, and the seat of a bishop, 
situated at the confluence of the Piave, and the Ardo. 
Population, 15,509. 

BELMONT, formerly Pittsburgh Landing, a town of 
Ohio, near the mouth of the Ohio River, noted as the 
scene of a sanguinary battle between the Confederate 
and Union forces, in the early part of the war of the 
rebellion, said to be General Grant's first battle in that 
struggle. 

BELOIT, a growing town of Rock County, Wis. 
It has railroad and telegraph facilities, and a population 
of about 5,500. 

BELON, Pierre, French naturalist, was bom about 
1 5 17 at the hamlet of Soulleti^re, in Maine. Belon, 
who was highly favored both by Henr)r II. and by 
Charles IX., was assassinated one evening in April 
1564, when coming through the Bois de Boulogne. 
Besides the narrative of his travels he wrote several 
scientific works of considerable value. 

BELPASSO, a town of Sicily, on the slopes of Etna, 
in the province of Catania, and about 8 miles from the 
city of that name. Population, 7620. 

HELPER, a market-town of Derbyshire, situated on 
the banks of the Derwent, which is here crossed by a 
stone bridge. It is 7 miles north of Derby, on the Mid- 
land Railway. 

BELSHAM, Thomas, a Unitarian clergyman, was 
born at Bedford in 1750. In 1805 he was appoimted to 



Digitized by 



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900 



BEL— BEN 



the Essex Street chapel, where he remained till his 
cteath in 1829. His most popular work was the Evi- 
deuces 0/ Christianity ; tic most important was his 
translation and exposition of the Epistles of St. Paul. 
Bdsham is one of tne most yigorous and able writers on 
the Unitarian »de. 

BELSHAM, William, brother of the preceding, 
was lx>m in 1752, and died in 1827. His productions 
were mainly hsiorical and political writings, advocating 
the politics of the Whig party. 

BELSHAZZARf the name of a Babylonian prince 
mentioned in the book of Daniel. According to the 
account in the fifth chapter of Daniel, Belshazzar was 
king of Babylon at the time of the capture of the dty by 
the Medes and Persians, and was slain when the city was 
surprised during a fesHval. No ancient historioi.. men- 
tions the name of Belshazsar among the successors of 
Nebuchadnezzar, and there has been considerable con- 
troversy as to the identity d[ the tnifortunote monarch. 
The successors of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the 
copyists of Berosus, were as follov/s : — Evil-merodach, 
two years, son of Nebuchadnezzar ; NerigUssar, or Ner- 
galsharezer, four jrears, son-in-law of Nebuchadneizar ; 
Mkborosoadiod, nine months^ son of Noridissar ; Na- 
bonidus, seventeen years, not of the royal tanil/ ; Nie- 
btthr and some others klentified Belshazzar, with Evil- 
merodach ; other scholars with NerigUssar ;'and a third 
section^ including Ewald and Browne, identified him with 
Nabonidns. There is no necessity now to argi^ against 
these and similar views, as they are act aside by the 
Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions, \/hich show that Bd- 
sar-u2ur, or Belshazzar, was the name of the eldest son 
of Nabonklus, the last king of Babylon. 7 1 some of his 
latter inscriptions Nabu-nahid or Nabonidus mentions 
his eklest son Bel-sar-uzur in such terms a» to lead to 
the impression that the ''oung prince was associated \rith | 
himself on the throne ; and this c::plains several difficul- 
ties between the historians and the book of Daniel with 
respect to the capture of Babylon. After the defeat of 
the Babylonian forces Nabonidus fled to Dorsippa, while 
the young prince Belshazzar was left in charge 01 Baby- 
lon, the capital, which was closelv besieged by the Medes 
and Persians. The historians all say that Nabonidus, 
the last king of Babylon, submitted to the conquerors at 
Borsipi>a after the taking; of his capital, while the book 
of Daniel states that Belshazzar was slam on the ni^t 
of the capture of Babylon.^ These two statements have 
been supposed to contradict each other, but we now 
know that they refer to two totally distinct princes whose 
fates were quite different. The mscriptions of Naboni- 
dus which mention Belshazzar are found on clay cylin- 
ders from Mugheir and other Chaldean sites, and they 
were first discovered and published by Sir Henry Raw- 
linson, to whom we owe this r<^ctification in ancient his- 
tory. One of these passages in a prayer reads : •* Me 
Nabu-nahki, king of Babylon, from sin against thy great 
divinity, do thou save me, and health and long da3rs nu- 
merous do thou multiply. And of Bel-sar-uzur, — my 
eklest son, the delight of my heart in the worship of thy 
great divinity, his heart do thou establish, and may he 
not consort with sinners." The other texts are after 
the same form, and give no new details as to Belshaz- 
zar, — the account in the fifth chapter of Daniel contain- 
ing all that is known of his histoiy. 

BELT, Great, and Little Belt, two straits which 
connect the Baltic Sea with the Cattegat 

BELTANE, or Beltein, a festival originally com- 
mon to all the Celtic peoples, of which traces were to 
be found in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland 
down to the beginning of the present century. The 
name is compounded of bei or oeal^ che Celtic god of 
light, and tin or tine, meaning fire. The principal 



Beltane celebration was held annually in the beginning 
(ffenerally on the first day) of May, though the name is 
sLo apphed to a similar festival which occarred in th« 
beginning of November. 

BELUCHISTAN. See Baluchistan. 

BELVEDERE, a town of Italy, in the provfaice of 
Calabria Citra, on the Mediterranean, 3a miles N.W. 
of Cosenza. 

BELZONI, Giovanni Battista, one of the most 
enterprising and successful Egyptian cxplorefs, was 
bom of humble parentage at Paana in 1778. When 
about eighteen years of age he i^mears to luive removed 
to Rome, and for a short time became a monk. In 
1798 the occupation of the city by the French troops 
drove him from Romo^ He waiulered throngh Hol- 
land, and in 1803 came to England. Here tor some 
time he was compelled to find subsistence for himsdf 
and his wife^ an Englishwoman, by exhibitin g the 
streets athletic exercises and fieats of agility. TUhNiHi 
the kindness of Mr. Salt, who was ever ajterwards & 
patron, he was engaged at Astley's amphitheatre, and 
his drcnmstances soon began to improve. In iSia he 
set out on his travels, passing throng^ Lisbon and 
Madrid to Egypt, where his friend, Mr. Sah, was Brit- 
ish consuL He was desirous of liMring before the padia 
Mehemet AU a hydraulic machine for raisiBg the waten 
of die Nile. Though the experiment with this engine 
was snccessfnl, the design was abandoned by the pasha, 
and Bdzoni resolved to continue his travels. He visited 
Thebes and remored with great skill thecolossal statue, 
commonly called roung Memnon, which he shipped to 
En^and. He also pushed his tnvesti^ti<»is mto the 
great temple of Edfoo, visited Elej^iantina ati-i Phils, 
discoverea the temple Abnsimbel, made excavations at 
Camac, and openea up a splendid tomb in the Befaan- 
el-Molonk. He was the first to penetrate into the sec- 
ond great pyramid of Ghizeh, and the fhrst to viat the 
oasis west of Lake Mceris. In 1819 he returned to En- 
gland and published in the following year a most inter- 
esting account of his travels and dixoveries. He also 
exhibited for some time at the Egyptian Hall fac-sira- 
iles of the great tomb at Beban-el-Molonk. In 182J he 
again set out for Afirica, intending to penetrate to Tim- 
buctoo. He reached Benin, but was seized with dysen* 
tery at a village called Gato, and died December 3, 1823. 

BEMBO, PIBTRO, Cardinal, was bom at Venke on 
the 20th of May 1470. While still a boy he accompa- 
nied his father to Florence, and there acquired a love 
for that Tuscan form of speech which he afterwards 
cultivated in preference to the dialect of his native city. 
Having completed his studies, which included two 
years' devotion to Greek under Lascaris at Messina, he 
chose the ecclesiastical profession. The offer of a car- 
dinal's hat by Pope Paul III. took him in 153^ again to 
Rome, where he renounced the study of classical litefa- 
tme and devoted himself to theology and classical his- 
tory, receiving before long the reward of his conversion 
in the shape of bishoprics of Gubbio and Bergamo. He 
died on the i8th of January 1847. Bembo, as a writer, 
is the beau ideal of a purist The exact imitation of 
the style of the genuine classics was the highest perfect 
tion at which he aimed. 

BENARES, a division, district, and city of British 
India, under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of the N.W. provinces. It is bounded on the N. 
by Oudh, the Duab, and Bundelkhand ; on the E Iqr 
Nepil ; on the S. by Bengal ; and on the W. by Rfwa. 
It coniprises the districts of Mirzipur, Gh^pur, Azim* 
garh, Bastf, and Gorakhpur ; has an area of i8,m 
square miles ; and a total population of 8,i28,t47i 01 
whom 7,286,415, or 89.1, were Hmdus; 889^3^ ^ 
ia9, Mahometans; 1797 Christians andothets,. 



BEN 



901 



Benares, & District of British India, in the division 
of C2 same name, under the jurisdiction of the Lieu- 
tcr^nt-Govemor of the N. W. Provinces, hes between 
cs^ f and ^<* 33' N. lat, and 82*^ 45' and 83° 38' E. 
long. It is bonnded on the N. bv the Briti^ dbtrict of 
Jaonpnr, on the N.E. by Gh&zipur, on the S.E. by 
Sh&hibiid, on the S. and S.W. by Mirzipur, and on the 
W. by Mirzdpur and Jaunpur. The surface of the 
country is remarkably level, with numerous deep ravines 
in the calcareous conglomerate. This svbstratum when 
bnmt affords good lime, and forms an excellent material 
lor roads in its natural state. The soil is a clayey or a 
sandy loam, and very fertile, except in the tracts caUed 
Usur, which are impregnated with soda, nitre, and 
other salts. 

From a very remote period Benares formed the seat 
of a Hindu kingdom, said to have been founded by one 
Kisi Rdjd, 1200 years B.C. Subseouently it became 
part of the kinc^lom of Kananj, which in 1 193 a. D. was 
conquered by' Muhammad of Ghor. On the (lownfallof 
the Pathim dynasty of Dehli, about 1599, it was incor- 
porated with the Mughu! empire. On the dismember- 
ment of the Dehli empire it was seized by Safdar Jang, 
the NawAb Vaz(r of (^udh, by whose grandson it was 
ceded to the East India Company by the treaty of 1775. 
The subsequent histoxT of Benares contains two import- 
ant events, — the rebellion of Chait Sinh, occasioned by 
the unjust demands of Warren Hastings for money to 
carry on the Marhattft war ; and the mutiny of the 
Native regiments in 1857, on which occasion the energy 
and coolness of the European officials (chiefly of Gen- 
eral Neill) carried the district successftuly through the 
storm. 

Be.vares, the most populous city in the North- West- 
em Provinces, and the headquarters of the commissioner 
of the division, is situated on the north bank of the 
Ganges, in 25° f N. lat. and 83O 4' E. long. Accord- 
ing to the census of 1872, the populadon amounted to 
17s, 188, viz., 89,763 males, and 85,425 females,— 133,- 
S49» or 76.23 per cent, being Hindus; 41,374, or 25.77 
percent., Manometans; others, 265. Gross muniapal 
mcomein 1871, ^16.069; expenditure, jf 14,331; aver- 
age rate of municipal taxation, is. lod per head. 

The town of Benares — the religious centre of Hin- 
duism — is one of the most ancient cities on the globe. 
The Rev. Mr. Sherring, in his Sacred Ctty of the 
Ifindus {1S6S), states— " Twenty-five centuries ago, at 
the least, it was famous. When Babylon was struggling 
with Nineveh for supremacy, when Tyre was planting 
her colonies, when Athens was growing in strength, be- 
fore Rome had become known, or Greece had con- 
tended with Persia, or Cyrus had added lustre to the 
Persian monarchy, or Nebuchadnezzar had captured 
Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judea had been carried 
mio captivity, she had already risen to greatness, if not 
to glory. Nay, she may have heard of the fame of 
Solomon, and have sent her ivory, her apes, and her 
peacocks to adorn his palaces; while portly vnth her 

fold he may have overlaid the temple of the Lord.** 
liouen Thsang, the celebrated Chinese pilgrim, visited 
Benares in the 7th century A.D., and described it as 
containing thirty Buddhist monasteries, with about 
3000 monks, and about a hundred temples of Hindu 
fods. Even after the lapse of so great a time the city 
18 still in its glory, and as seen from the river it presents 
9^ scene of great picturesqueness and grandeur. The 
^^ges here forms a fine sweep of alK>ut 4 miles in 
*^gth, the city being situated on the outside of the 
«orve, on the northern bank of the river, whidi is the 
jnost elevated It is about 3 miles in leneth, by i in 
Jj[^tk, rising from the river in the form of an amphi- 
™atre, and is thickly studded with domes and minarets. 



The bank of the river is entirely Xned with stone, and 
there are many very fine gAdts or landing-places built 
by pious devotees, and highly ornamented. These are 
generally crowded with Withers and worshippers. 
Shrines and temples line the bank. The internal streets 
are so winding and narrow that there is not room for a 
carriage to pass, and it is difficult to penetrate them 
even on horseback. Their level is considerably lower 
than the ground-floors of the houses, which have gener- 
ally arched rows in front, with little shops behind 
them ; and above these they are richly embellished with 
verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and very 
broad overhanging eaves supported by carved brackets. 
The houses are built of ChanAr stone, and are loftjr— 
none beine less than two stories high, most of them 
three, and several five or six stories. The Hindus are 
fond of paindng the outside of their houses a deep red 
color, and of covering the most conspicuous parts with 
pictures of flowers, men, women, bulls, elephants, and 
gods and goddesses in all the multiform shapes known 
m Hindu mythology. The number of tempfcs is very 
great; they are mostly small, and are placed in the 
angles of the streets, under the shadow of the lofty 
houses. I'heir forms are not ungraceftil, and many of 
them are covered over with beautiful and elaborate 
carvings of flowers, animals, and palm branches, rival- 
ling in richness and minuteness the finest specimens of 
Gothic or of Grecian architecture. 

Benares, having from time immemorial been a holy 
city, contains a vast number of Brahmans, who either 
subsist by charitable contributions, or are supported by 
endowments in the numerous religious institudons of 
the city. Hindu religious mendicants, with every con- 
ceivable bodily deformity, literally line the prmcipal 
streets on both sides. Some have their legs or arms dis- 
torted by long continuance in one position ; others have 
kept their hands clenched until the finger nails have 
pierced entirely through their hands. But besides an 
immense resort to Benares of poor pilgrims from every 
part of India, as well as from Thibet and Burmah, num- 
Ders of rich Hindus, in the decline of life, retire thither 
to pass the remainder of their days, or temporarily to 
wash away their sins in the sacred water of the Ganges. 
These devotees lavish large sums in indiscriminate 
charity, and it is the hope of sharing in such pious dis- 
tributions that brings together the concourse ot religious 
mendicants from allquarters of the country. 

Besides its religious interest, Benares is important as 
a wealthy city and a place of considerable trade ; the 
hizirs are filled with the richest goods, and there is a 
constant bustle of business in all the principal streets. 
A large trade is carried on in the su^r, sahpetre, and 
indigo which are produced in the district. Silk and 
shawls are manufactured in the city ; and Benares is 
especially famous for its gold embroidered cloths, called 
Kinkdb (Kincob), and for its gold filagree work. 

BENAVENTE, a decayed town of Spain, in the 
province of Zamora, situated on a gende eminence near 
the River Esla. 

BENBOW, John, English admiral, the son of a 
Shropshire gentleman, was bom at Shrewsbury about 
165a He went to sea when very young, and at the age 
of thirty became master of a merchantman. When 
trading to the Mediterranean in 1686, he beat off a 
Sallee pirate with such bravery that James II., who took 
a keen interest in ships and seamen, made him captain 
of a man-of-war. On the accession of William III. he 
was employed to protect English commerce in the 
Channel, a duty which he vigilantly discharged. After 
taking part with great intrepidity in the bombardment 
of St. kfalo (1693), and superintending the blockade of 
Dunkhk (1696); he sailed in 1698 for the West Indies, 



902 



BEN 



1 



where he compelled the SpaaUrdt to restore stveral 
English vessels which ihcj hid seised. On his return he 
was appointed vice-admiral, and was frequently con- 
sulted of the lung. In 1 701 he was sent a^ain to the 
West Indies, a station declined by his seniors from fear 
of the French strength in these waters. In August 1 702 
his ship, the ** Breda,** nve chase off Santa Martha to a 
French squadron under Uu Casse ; and although unsup- 
ported by his consorts, he kept up a running fight for 
five days with the most stubborn courage. While board- 
ing the stemmost French vessel he received two severe 
wounds; and shortly afterwards his ri^ht leg was 
shattered by a chain-shot, despite which he remained on 
the (quarter-deck till morning, when the flagrant dis- 
obedience of the captains umler him, and the disabled 
condition of his ship, forced him reluctantly to abandon 
the chase. After his return to Jamaica, where his sub- 
ordinates were tried by court-martial, he died of his 
wounds on November 4, 1 702. He possessed inflexible 
resolution and great navai skill, ana secured his high 
rank through his unakled merits. 

BENCH, or Banc, has various Iqgal significations. 

Frse-Bknch si^inifies that estate in copyhold-lands 
which the wife, being espoused a virgin, has, after the 
decease of her husband, tor her dower, according to the 
custom of the manor. With respect with the free-bench 
diflerent manors have different customs. 

QuEKN*s Bench is one of the three superior courts of 
Common Law at Westminster, the others being the 
Common Pleas and the Exchequer. 

The Court of Common Pleas is sometimes called the 
Common Bench. 

Sittings in Banc (in the courts of Common Law) are 
the sittings of the full court for the hearing of motions, 
special cases, &c, as opposed to the nisi pn'us, sittings 
for trial of facts, where usually only a single judge pre- 
sides. 

BENCHERS, in the Inns of Court, the senior mem- 
bers of the society, who are invested with the govern- 
ment of the body to which they belong. 

BENCOOLEN, the chief town of a Dutch residency 
in the S. W. of Sumatra. It is situated on the coast at 
the mouth of a river of the same name. The locality is 
low and swampy, and most of the houses are raised on 
bamboo piles. The bay is a mere open roadstead 
fringed with coral reefs, and landing is difficult on ac- 
count of the surf. A lighthouse has been recently 
erected by the Dutch authorities. At one time there 
was a very extensive trade carried on with Bengal, the 
Coromandel coast, and Java, but it has greatly de- 
clined. The principal exports are pepper and cam- 
phor. 

BENDER, a town of Russia, the capital of a district 
in the province of Bessarabia, situated on the right bank 
of the Dniester, 35 miles from KishenefT. As early as 
the I2th century tne Genoese had a settlement on the 
site of Bender. The Moldavians called the place 
Teegeen, and the name of Bender was only bestowed 
by ^e Turks in the end of the 14th century. In 1709 
Charles XII., after the defeat of Poltava, collected his 
forces here in a camp which they called New Stockholm, 
and continued there till 171 1. Bender was thrice taken 
by the Russians, — bv Panim in 1770, Potemkin in 1789, 
and)Meyendorf in 1006, — but it was not held perma- 
nently by Russia till the Bucharest peace of 1812. 

BENDER. A BBASI, a town of^ Persia in the pro- 
vince of Kirman, on the northern shore of the Persian 
Gulf, about 12 miles N.W. of the island of Ormuz. 

BENEDICT, St., the founder of the celebrated 
Baiedictine order, is the most illustrious name in the 
early history of Western monasticism. To him more 
than to any other the monastic system, which was des- 



tined to exercise such an influence for centuries, owet 
its extension and organization. Benedia was bom at 
Nursia in Umbria, about the year 480. He belonged 
to an oU Italian family, and was early sent to Rome to 
be educated. But the disorder and vices of the capital 
drove him into solitude while still a youth. It was a 
time of publk peril and social rain. The Roman empire 
was crumbling to pieces, shaken by the successrve inroads 
of barbarians, ana a prey to every spedes of Tic^ence and 
corruption. Young Benedict fled from the wickedness 
around him. He gave up his literary studies and pre- 
ferred to be wisely ignorant. This is the statement of 
his biographer Gregory the Great, from whom come all 
the details that we know of Benedict's life. 

When Benedict fled from Rome he to<^ refuge m a 
solitary gorge formed by the Anio, in its picturesque 
course, about 40 miles from the city. There, in a dark 
inaccessible grotto near Subiaco, he found seduston and 
shelter. A neighboring monk supplied him with food 
let down by a rope, with a small bell attadied, whidi 
gave notice of the approach of the food. After q)ending 
about three years in retirement a neighboring convent 
of monks insisted upon choosing him as their head. He 
warned them of the severity of the rule he would be 
bound to exercise, but thev would not be dissuaded 
from their purpose. He nad hardly commenced his 
office, however, when they broke out into fierce resent- 
ment against him, and attempted to poison him. The 
attempt proved abortive, and Benedict, calmhr reproving 
them tor their in^titude, left diem and witndrew once 
more into his solitude. 

By this time, however, the fame of Benedict had 
spread, and it was impossible for him to remain inactive. 
Multitudes gathered around him, and no fewer thsn 
twelve select cloisters were planted in the lonely valley 
of the Anio and on the adjacent heights. Young pa- 
tricians from Rome and euewhere were attracted to 
these fraternities : and amongst them one of the name 
of Maurus (St Maur), who be^ to share in popular 
esteem something of the sanctity and miraculous en- 
dowments of Benedict, and who was destined to be his 
successor. ^ But with increasing fimie came also jealousy 
of his position and duties. A renewed attempt was 
made by an envious priest to administer poison to the 
saint ; and, miraculous interpositions having again come 
to his rescue, the same priest, by name Florentius, had 
recourse to the diabolical device of sending seven lewd 
girls within the precincts of the monastery, to seduce 
the monks by their gestures and sports. Benedict 
determined to depart from a neighborhood so full of 
danger, notwithstanding the long period of thirty years 
during; which he had labored to consecrate it and spread 
abroad the blessings of an ascetic Christianity. He 
journeyed southwaids, and at length settled at Monte 
Cassino, an isolated and picturesque hill near the source 
of the Liris. There at tnis time an andent temple of 
Apollo still stood, to which the ig:norant peasants brought 
their offerings. Benedict, in his holy enthu^asm, pro- 
ceeded to demolish the temple and to erect in its place 
two oratories, one to St. John the Baptist and the other 
to St. Martin, whose ascetic fame had travelled to 
Italy from the south of Gaul. Around these sacred 
spots gradually rose the famous monastery which was 
destin^ to carry the name of its founder throu^ the 
Christian world, and to eive its laws, as Milman si|S» 
" to almost the whole of Western monasticism. " 

Benedict survived fourteen years after he had hegjBk 
this great work. His sanctity and his influence grcv 
with nis years, in illustration of which it is now tott 
how the barbarian king Totila, who made himself was^ 
ter of Rome and Italy, sought his presence, and. M 
trating himself at his feet, accepted a rebukv^JlMtl 



BEN 



903 



cruelties, and departed a humbler and better man. His 
last days were associated with the love and devotion of 
his sister Scolastica, who too had forsaken the world 
and given hersdf to a religious life with an enthusiasm 
and genius for government hardly less than his own. 
He died standing, after partaking of the holy commun- 
ion, and was buried by the side of his sister. 

The Benedictines, or followers of St. Benedict, 
\ivere those who submitted to the monastic rule which he 
instituted. This rule will be generally described in the 
article on Monasticism. It is sufficient here to say 
that its two main principles were labor and obedience. 
It was the distinction of Benedict that he not merely 
organized the monks into communities, but based their 
community-life, in a great degree, on manual labor, in 
contrast to the mereqr meditative seclusion which had 
hitherto been in vogue both in the Elast and the West. 

BENEDICT, f'ourteen Popes bore the name of Ben- 
edict — 

Benedict I. (573-8) succeeded John III., and occu- 
pied the Papal chair during the incursions of the Lom- 
bards, and durinfi the series of plagues and famines 
which followed these invasions. (PauL Diacon. De 
Gest. Longob.^YL 10. ^ 

Benedict II. (6S4-685) succeeded Leo IL, but 
although chosen in 683 he was not ordained till 684, be- 
cause Uie leave of the Emperor Constantine was not 
obtained until some months after the election. (PauL 
Diacon. op, cit. vi. 53.) 

Benedict III. (855-858) was chosen by the clergy 
and peq^e of Rome, but the election was not confirmed 
by the Emperor Lothair, who appointed an anti-pope, 
Anastasius. Benedict was at last successful, ana the 
schism helped to weaken the hold of the emperors upon 
the popes. The mythical Pope Joan is usually placed 
between Benedict and his predecessor Leo IV. 

Benedict IV. (900-903). 

Benedict V. (964-96<) was elected by the Romans 
on the death of Tohn XI 1. The Enjperor Otho did not 
approve of the choice, and carried ofi the pope to Ham- 
burg, where he died. 

Benedict VI. (972-974) was chosen with great cer- 
emony and installed pope under the protection of the 
Emperor Otho the Great. On the death of the emperor 
the turbulent citizens of Rome renewed their outrages, 
Mid the pope himself was strangled by order of Crescen- 
tins, the son of the notorious Ineodora. 

Benedict VII. (975-983) belonged to the noble fem- 
ily of the counts H Tusculum, and governed Rome 

auietly for nearly nine years, a somewhat rare thing in 
lose days. 

Benedict VIII. (1012-1024), also of the family of 
Tusculum, was opposed by an anti-pope, Gregory, who 
compelled him to nee from Rome. He was restored by 
Henry of Saxony, whom he crowned emperor in 1014. 
In his pontificate the Saracens began to attack the 
southern coasts of Europe, and effected a settlement in 
Sardinia. The Normans also then began to settle in 
Italy. 

Benedict IX. (1033-1056), the son of Alberic, count 
of Tusculum, and nephew of Benedict VIII., obtained 
the Papal chair by simony. He was deposed in 1044, 
and Sylvester was chosen in his stead. The result was 
a long and disgraceful schism {cf, Mittler De Schismate 
in Eccl. Rom, sub Pontiff, Bened. IX,) 

Benedict X. (1058-9) scarcely deserves to be reck- 
oned a pope. He reigned nine months. It is impor- 
tant, however, to remember that his election is one ot the 
latest made bv Roman factions, and under his successor 
the mode of election by the cardinals was adopted. 

Benedict XI. (1303-1304) succeeded the famous 
Boniface VIII., but was unable to carry out his Ultra- 



montane policy. He released Philip the Fair of France 
from the excommunication laid upon him by Boniface^ 
and practically ignored the bull unam Sanctam, The 
popes who immediately succeeded him were completely 
under the influence of the kings of France, and removea 
the Papal seat from Rome to Avignon. 

Benedict XII. (1334-1342) succeeded Pope John 
XXII. , but did not carry out the policy of his predfeces- 
sor. He practically made peace with the Emperor 
Louis, and as far as possible came to terms with the 
Franciscans, who were then at war with the Roman see. 
He was a reforming pope, and tried to curb the luxury 
of the monastic orders, but without much success. 
(Baluze, Vita Pont if. AvenioH^^i.) 

Benedict XIII. Two popes assumed this title — (!)• 
Pfter de Luna, a Spaniard, who was chosen by the 
French cardinals on the death of Clement VII. in 1^39*. 
On the death of Urban V. in 1389 the Italian cardmals 
had chosen Boniface IX.; the election of Benedict 
therefore perpetuated the great schism. The greater 
portion of the church refusra to recognize him, and in 
''397 the French Church, which had supported him, 
withdrew from allegiance to both popes, and in 139S 
Benedict was imprisoned in his own palace at Avignon. 
The Council of Constance brou^t this state of matters 
to an end. Ben^ct abdicated m 141 7, but was recog- 
nized by Scotland and Spain until his death in 1424. 
His name does not appear in the Italian list of popes. 
{€/, Dupuy, J/ist, du Schisme, IJ78-1428). (2.) Vin- 
ceniG Marco Orsini, who succeeded Innocent XIII. in 
1724. He at first called himself Benedict XIV., but 
afterwards altered the title. He \7as a reforming pope» 
and endeavored to put down the luxury of the Italian 
priesthood and of the cardinalate. He died in 1730. 

Benedict XIV. (i 740-1 758) belonged to a noble 
family of Bologna. Elected to the Papal chair at a time 
of great difficulties, chiefly caused by the disputes be- 
tween Roman Catholic nations about the election of 
bishops, he managed to overcome most of them. The 
disputes of the Holy See with Naples, Sardinia, 
Spain, Venice, and Austria were settlea. Perhaps the 
most important act of his pontificate was the promulga- 
tion of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, 
Ex quo singulari and Omnium solicitudinum. In 
these bulls he denounced the custom of accommodating 
Christian words and usages to express heathen ideas 
and practices, which had been extensively done by the 
Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions; The con- 
sequence of these bulls was that the most of the so- 
caHed converts were lost to the church. 

BENEFICE, a term first applied under the Roman 
empire to portions of land, the usufruct of which was 
granted by the emperors to their soldiers or others for 
nfe, as a reward or beneficium for past services, and as 
a retainer for future services. In imitation of the prac- 
tice observed under the Roman empire, the term came 
to be applied under the feudal system to portions of 
land granted by a lord to his vassal for the maintenance 
of the latter on condition of his rendering military ser- 
vice ; and such grants were originally for life only, and 
the land reverted to the lord on the death of the vassal. 
In a similar manner grants of land, or of the profits of 
land, appear to have oecn made by the bishops to their 
clergy for Ufe, on the ground of some extraordinarv 
merit on the part of the grantee. The validity of such 
grants was first formally recognized by the Council of 
Orleans, 511 a.d., which forbade, however, under any 
circumstances, the alienation from the bishoprics of any 
lands so granted. The next following Council of Or- 
leans, 533, broke in upon this principle, by declaring 
that a bishop could not reclaim from his clergpr anjr 
grants made to them by his predecessor, exceptmg in 



904 



BEN 



cases of miscondoct This iiinov»don on the mndeot 

E-actice was confinned by the subsequent Council of 
yons, 566, and from this period these grants ceased to 
be regarded as personal, and their substance became an- 
nexed to the aiurches, — in other words, they were 
henceforth enjoyed /wr/ titu/i, and no longer jure per- 
sonali. How and when the term hentficia came to be 
applied to these episcopal granu is uncertain, but the^ 
are designated \ff that term in a canon of the Counal 
of Mayence, 813. 

The term benefice, according to the canoi law, im- 
plies alwrays an ecclesiastical omce,but it does notalwavs 
imply a cure of souls. It has been defined to be tne 
right which a derk has to enjoy certain ecclesiastical 
revenues on condition of discharging certain services 
pHrescribed by the canons, or by usage, or by the condi- 
tions under which his office has been founded. These 
services might be those of a secular priest with cure of 
souls, or tl^ might be those of aregularpriest, a mem- 
ber of a religious order, without cure of^ souls ; but in 
«very case a benefice implied three things: i. An 
obligation to discharge the duties of an office, which is 
altogether spiritual ; 2. The right to enjoy the fruits 
attached to tnat office, which is the benefice itself ; 3. 
The fruits themselves, which are the temporalities. 

By the L^teran Council of 1215, which was received by 
the Church of England, no clerk can hold two benefices 
with cure of souls, and if a beneficed clerk shall take a 
second benefice with cure of souls, he vacates ipso facto 
his first benefice. Dispensations, however, could be 
easily obtained from Rome, before the reformation of the 
Church of England, to enable a clerk to hold several 
«cclesiastical dignities or benefices at the same time. 

BENEKE, Friedrich Eduard a distinguished 
German psycholc^st, was born at Berlin on the 17th 
February 1798. He was educated under Bernhardt at 
the Gymnasium Fredericianum, and studied at the uni- 
versities of Halle and Berlin. He directed his attention 
in the first instance to theol<^, coming under the influ- 
ence of Schleiermacher and JDe Wette, but afterwards to 
pure philosophy, studying particularly Elnglish writers, 
and the German modifiers of Kantianism, such as Jacobi, 
Fries, and Schopenhauer. In 1820 he published his 
Theory of Knowledge^ his Empirical^ Psychology as the 
Foundation of all Knowledge, and his inaugural disser- 
tation DeVeris Philosophia /nitis. In all these writings 
appeared very strongly his fundamental view, that phi- 
losophical speculation must be limited to the facts of in- 
ner experience, and that a true psychology, which is 
the basis of all knowledge, must be formed by treating 
these facts according to the rigid methods of physical 
science. His markoi opposition to the philosophy of 
Hegel, then dominant in Berlin, came to the front still 
more clearly in the short tract. New Foundation of 
Metaphysics^ intended to be the programme for his lect- 
ures zs privat'docent, and in the able treatise, Ground- 
work of a Physic of Ethics , written indirect antagonism 
XoK.dXii^s Metaphjfsics of Ethics, 2ifid attempting to de- 
duce ethical pnnciples from a basis of empirical feeling. 
In the same year ( 1622) his lectures were pronibited at Ber- 
lin, according to his own belief througn the influence of 
Hegel with the Prussian authorities, who also prevented 
him from obtaining a chair from the Saxon Government. 
He retired to Gdttingen, lectured there for some years, 
and was then allowed to return to Berlin. In 1832 he 
received an appointment as Professor Extraordinarius 
in the university, which he continued to hold till his 
death. On ist March 1854 he disappeared from his 
home; and some months later his boay was found in 
the canal near Chariot tenburg. There was some sus- 
picion that he had committed suicide in a fit of mental 
depression. 



BENEVENTO, a city of Italy, the cafMtal of a pcov- 
ince, situated on a hill near the confluence of the Ga- 
lore and the Sabato, 32 miles N.E. of Ni^es. The 
town is surrounded by walls, and was formerlj die- 
fended by a castle of the lath century, whidi now con- 
tains Government offices and a priscm. It occiunes the 
site of the ancient Beneventum, and is largely built of 
its ruins. Except Rome, few cities can boast of so 
many remains of antk^uity. Of these the most beauti- 
ful and perfect is the arch of Trajan, erected in 1 14 a. d., 
53 feet m height, and consisting of a single arch of 
rarian marble of the Corinthian order, highly orna- 
mented with basso and alto relievos, which rec 



various events in the reign of that emperor. It now 
forms one of the gates of the city (Porta Aurem), Of 
the amphitheatre the remains, now known as Gf^aitoni 
di Mappa, are in a very ruinous condition, and the 
arrena is occupied by houses of a mean description. 
Benevento is the see of a bishop, and has a cathearal of 
the 1 2th century in the Lombardo-Saracenic style, in 
front of which is an Egyptian obelisk of granite covered 
with hieroglvphics. Among its other buildings may be 
mentioned tne town-hall, the diocesan seminary, the ly- 
ceum, which was formerly a Jesuit college, and several 
hospitals. The principal manufactures are leather, 
parchment, and plated goods. A considerable trade is 
carried on in grain. 

Beneventum, or, as it was originally called, Maleven- 
tum, seems to have been of Samnite foundation. In 268 
B. c. it was colonised by the Romans, who had probably 
been in possession of it for some time. During the sec- 
ond Punic war two of the most important battles were 
fought in the neighborhood. It continued to be a very 
flourishing city till the close of the empire, and from its 
position on the Via Appia, it often comes into notice. 
About 545 A.D. it was sacked by Totila, but before lone 
had recovered its prosperity. Being raised to the rank 
of a duchy by Alboin, king of the Lombards, it contin- 
ued in ]X]Ssession of its oMm dukes till 1053, when the 
emperor, Henrv III., who had rendered himself master 
of me city, exchanged it with Leo IX. for the bishopric 
of Bambeig. From that time it continued in Papal 
possession till 1806, when the Emperor Napoleon I. be- 
stowed it, with the title of prince, on I'alleyrand. 

BENGAL (or, as it is often more precisely desig* 
nated, "Lower Bengal^), the largest and most popn- 
lous of the twelve local governments of British Inma, 
comprising the lower valleys and deltas of the Ganges 
and Brahmaputra, lies between 19° 18' and 28^ 15' N. 
lat., and between 82^ and 97^ E. long. Excluding 
Assam, which was erected into a separate administra- 
tion in February 1874, Bengal now includes the four 
great provinces of Bengal Proper, Behar, Orissa, and 
Chhot& or Chuti4 N&gpur; and forms a Lieutenant- 
Governorship with an area of 203,473 square miles, and 
a population of 64,444,379 souls. Including Assam, 
which, until the spring of 1874, was a part of Bengal, 
the area was 248,231 square miles, and ^he population 
66,856,859. This great lieutenant-governorship, exclud- 
ing Assam, contains one-third of thie total population of 
Bntish India, and yields a revenue of ^I7,oi57,072, or 
over one-thiid of the aggregate revenues of the Indian 
empire. It is boundeoon the N. by Assam, Bhutan, 
and Nepdl ; on the S. by Burmah, the Bay of Bengal, 
and Madras ; on the W. by an imaginary line running 
between it and the adjoining lieutenant-governorship ^ 
the North-Westem Provinces, and by the plateau of the 
Central Provinces ; and on the E. by the unexplored 
moimtainous region which separates it fi-om China and 
Northern Burmah. The territory, thus hemmed ill» 
except at its north-western angle, oy the unchasMl^ 
land-marks of nature, consists chiefly of two bvoi3|Mt 



BEN 



905 



▼alleys. By the western one, the Gsnges brines down 
the wealth and the accimnilatcd waters of Northern 
India. The eastern valley forms the route by which the 
Brahmaputra, after draining the Thibetan plateau far 
to the north of the Himiilayas, and skirting round 
their passes not far from the Yanetse-Kiang and the 
great river of Cambodia, ends its boisterous journey 
of 1800 miles. These valleys, although for the most 
part luxuriant alluvial plains, are diversified by spurs 
and peaks thrown out from the great moimtain sys- 
tems which wall them in on the north-east and south- 
west They teem with every product of nature, from 
the fierce beasts and irrepressible vefi;etation of the 
tropics, to the stunted barley which the hill-man 
rears, aind the tiny furred animal which he hunts within 
sight of the unmelting snows. Tea, indigo, turmeric, lac, 
waving white fields of the opium-poppy, wheat and 
innumerable grains and pulses, ]>epper, ginger, betel- 
nut, quinine and many costly spices and drugs, oil-seeds 
of sorts, cotton, the silk mulberry, inexhaustible crops 
of jute and other fibres ; timber from the feathery bam- 
boo and coronetted palm to the iron-hearted sal tree — 
in short, everv vegetable product which feeds and 
clothes a people, and enables it to trade with foreign 
nations, abounds. Nor is the country destitute of min- 
eral wealth. The districts near the sea consist entirely 
of alluvial formations ; and, indeed, it is stated that no 
substance so coarse as eravel occurs throughout the 
Delta, or in the heart of the provinces within 400 miles 
of the river mouths. But amid the hilly spurs and un- 
dulations on either side, coal, and iron and copper ores, 
hold out a new future to Bengal, as capital increases 
under the influence of a stable government, and our 
knowledge of the country becomes more exact The 
coal-fiel<u on the west have for over a century been 
worked by English enterprise; in 1868 they yielded 
5^933 tons, and more m the following vears. In 
the east, the coal measures of Assam, whicn province 
was separated from Bengal in 1874, still await the 
opening out of the countr3r and improved facilities of 
transport. The climate varies from the snowy regions 
of the Himalayas to the tropical vapor-bath of the 
Delta and the burning winds of Behar. The ordinary 
range of the thermometer on the plains is from about 
52** Fahr. in the coldest month to 103° in the shade in 
summer. AB3rthinj^ below 60^ is considered very cold ; 
and by care in the hot weather the temperature of well- 
built Houses rarely exceeds 95^. The rainfall also 
varies greatly ; from 500 to 600 inches per annum at 
Chard Piinji (Cherra Poonjee) on the range between 
Silhet and Assam, to an average of about 37 inches in 
Behar, and about 65 inches on the Delta. 

RrvBRS.— But the secret of the wesilth of Bengal is its 
rivers. These untaxed highways bring down, almost by the 
motive power of their own current, the crops of North- 
cm India to the sea-board, — an annual harvest of wealth 
to the trading classes, for which the population of the 
Lower Provinces neither toil nor spin. Lower Bengal, 
indeed, exhibits the two typical stages in the life of a 
great river. In the northern districts the rivers. Wee 
our English ones, run along the valleys, receive the 
drainage from the country on either side, al»orb broad 
tributaries, and rush forward with an ever increasing 
volume. But near the centre of the provinces the rivers 
enter upon a new st^ of their career. Their main 
channels bifurcate, and each new stream so created 
throws off its own set of distributaries to right and left. 
The country which they Uius enclose and intersect 
forms the Delta of Bengal. OriginaUy conquered by 
the fluvial deposits from the sea, it now stretches out as 
a vast dead level, in which the rivers find their velocity 
checked, and their current no longer able to carry 



along the silt which they have brought down from 
Northern India. The streams, accordingly, deposit 
their alluvial burden in their channels and upon their 
banks, so that by degrees their beds rise above the level 
of the surroundmg country. In this way the rivers in 
the Delta slowly build themselves up into canals, which 
every autumn break through or overflow their margins, 
and leave their silt upon the adjacent flats. Thousands 
of square miles in Lower Bengal annually receive a top- 
dressing of virgin soil, brought free of expense a quarter 
of a year's journey from the Himdla3ras, — a system of 
natural manuring which renders elaborate tillage a mere 
waste of labour, and which defies the utmost power of 
over-cropping to exhaust its fertility. As tne rivers 
creep further down the Delta, they become more and 
more slugeish, and their bifurcations and interlacings 
more conipiicated. The last scene of all is a vast am- 
phibious wilderness of swamp and forest, amid whose 
solitude their network of channels insensibly merges 
into the sea. Here the perennial struggle between 
earl4i and ocean goes on, and all the ancient secrets of 
land-making stand disclosed. The rivers, finally 
checked by the dead weight of the sea, deposit their re- 
maining silt, which emerges as banks or blunted pro- 
montories, or, after a years battling with the tide, adds 
a few feet, or, it may be, a few inches to the foreshore. 

The Ganges, which enters on the western frontier, 
and runs diagonally across Bengal, gives to the country 
its peculiar character and aspect About 200 miles from 
its mouth it spreads out into numerous branches, form- 
ing a large delta, composed, where it borders on the sea, 
of a labyrinth erf" creelcs and rivers, running through the 
dense forests of the Sundarbans, and exhibiting during 
the annual inundation the appearance of an immense 
sea. At this time the rice fielas to the extent of many 
hundreds of square miles are submerged. The scene 
presents to a European eye a panorama of singular nov- 
elty and interest; — rice fields covered with water to a 
great depth ; the ears of grain floating on the surface ; 
the stupendous embankments, which restrain, without 
altogether preventing, the excesses of the inundations \ 
and peasants in all quarters going out to their daily work 
with their cattle in canoes or on rafts. The navigable 
streams which fall into the Ganges intersect the country 
in every direction, and afford great facilities for intemsd 
communication. In many parts boats can approach by 
means of lakes, rivulets, and water-courses, to the door 
of almost every cottage. The lower region of the Gan- 
ges is the richest and most productive portion of Bengal, 
abounding in valuable produce. Another mighty river 
by which Bengal is intersected is the Brahmaputra, the 
source of whose remotest tributary is on the opposite 
side of the same mountains which give rise to the Gan- 
ges. These two rivers proceed in diverging courses un- 
til they are more than 1200 miles asunder ; and again 
approaching each other, intermix their waters before 
they reach the ocean. The other principal rivers in 
Bengal are the Ghagra, Son, Gandak, Kusi, Tistii ; the 



IliigH (Hoogly), formed by the junction of the Bhd- 
girathf and Talangf ; and farther to the west, the Da- 
modar and Kiipnlriyan; and in the south-west, the 
Mahdnadf, or great river of Orissa. In a level country 
like Bengal, where the soil is composed of yielding and 
loose materials, the courses of the rivers are continually 
shifting, from the wearmg away of their diflerent banks, 
or from the water being turned off by obstacles in its 
course into a diflerent channel. As this channel is grad- 
ually widened the old bed of the river is left dry. The 
new channel into which the river flows is, of course, so 
much land lost, while the old bed constitutes an acces- 
sion to the adjacent estates. Thus, one man's property 
is diminished, while that of another is enlarged •r im* 



9o6 



BEN 



proved ; and a distinct branch ofinrispradence has grown 
up, the particular province of which is the definition and 
regulation of the alluvial rights alike of private property 
and of the state. 

Thi People.— Within the provinces under the lieu- 
tenant •Governor of ^Bengal dwell a ereat congeries of 
people, of widely diverse origin, speaking different lan- 
guages, and representinjg far separated eras of civilixa- 
tion. They amounted in 1872 (including Assam, which 
then formed part of Bengal), to 66,850,859 souls, or 
over a million and a ouarter more than the whole inhab- 
itants of England ana Wales, Sweden, Norway, Den- 
mark (with Jutland), Greece, and all the Ionian Islands, 
with the total white population, Indians and Chinese, of 
the United States. The problem of government in 
Bengal, however, is not one of numbers. It is intensi- 
fied and infinitely complicated by the fact, that while 
this vast population is ruled by a single lead, it consists 
of elements so dissimilar as to render it impracticable to 
place them under any one system of aoministration. 
They exhibit every stage of human process, and every 
type of human enliditenment and superstition, — from the 
sceptical educated classes, represented l^ the Hindu 
gentleman who distinguishes himself at a London Inn 
of Court and harangues the British public in the Brigh- 
ton Pavilion, or from a metropolitan platform, to the 
hill chieftain, who lately sacrificed an idiot on the top 
of a mountain to obtain a favorable decision in a Privy 
Council appeal A large section ui the people belongs 
to the august Aryan race, from which we ourselves de- 
scend, having a classical language more kindred to our 
own than those of the Welsh or Scottish Highlanders. 
We address the Deity and His earthly representatives, 
our father and mother, by words derived from roots 
common to the Christian and the Hindu. Nor does the 
religious instinct assume a wider variety of manifesta- 
tions, or exhibit a more striking series of metamor- 
phoses, among the European than among the Indian 
branches of the race. Theodore Parker and Comte are 
better known to the rising generation of Hindus in 
Bengal than any Sanskrit theologian. On the same 
bencn of a Calcutta college sit youths trained up in the 
strictest theism, others indoctrinated in the mysteries of 
the Hindu trinity and pantheon, with representatives of 
every link in the chain of superstition — from the harm- 
less oflTering of flowers before the family god to the cruel 
rites of K^f, whose altars in the most civilized districts 
of Bengal, as lately as the famine of 1866, were stained 
with human blood. Indeed, the very word Hindu is 
one of absolutely indeterminate meaning. The census 
officers employ it as a convenient generic to include 42U 
millions ot the population of Bengal, comprising ele- 
ments of transparently distinct ethnical origin, and 
separated from each other by their language, customs, 
and religious rites. But Hinduism, understood even in 
this wide sense, represents only one of many creeds 
and races found within Bengal. The other great 
historical cultus, which, during the last twelve centuries, 
did for the Semitic peoples what Christianity accomp- 
lished among the European Aryans, has won to itself 
one- third of the whole population of Bengal. The 
Muhammadans exceed 20^ millions of souls; and 
the Lieutenant-Governor of^ Bengal is, so far as num- 
bers go, as great a Musahn&n power as the Sultin 
of Turkey himself. Amid the stupendous catastrophes 
of the seasons, the river inundations, fanu'nes, tidal 
waves, and c]^clones of the lower provinces of Bengal, 
the r^lifi^ious instinct works with a vitality unknown in 
European countries, where the forces of nature have 
long yielded to the control of man. Until the British 
Government stepped in with its police, and canals, and 
railroads, between the people and what they were accus- 



tomed to consider the datHngs of Providence, scarc^ 
a year passed without some terrible manifestation of the 
power and the wrath of God. Marhatti invasions from 
Central India, piratical devastations on the sea-board, 
banditti who marched about the interior in bodies d 
50,000 men, floods which drowned the harvests tA 
whole districts, and droughts in which a third of the 
population starved to death, kept alive a sense of human 
powerlessness in the presence of an Omnipotent fate 
with an intensity which the homilies of a stipendiary 
der^r fail to awaken. Under the Muhammadans a 
pestilence ttimed the capital into a silent wilderness, 
never again to be re-i>eopled. Under oar own rule, it 
is estimated that 10 millions perished within the Lower 
Provinces alone in the famine of 1769-70; and the first 
surveyor-general of Dcngal entered on his laaos a tract 
of many hundreds of square liiiles as bare of^viUi^eSy 
and " depopulated by the Maghs.** 

Popular Religions.— TTie people of Bennl, thus 
constantly reminded by calamity of a m3rsterious Supreme 
Power, have alwa)^ exhibited deep earnestness in their 
own modes of propitiating it, and a singular suscqitibOity 
to new forms of faith. Great tidal waves of religion 
have again and a^n swept over the provinces within 
even the brief penod of the Christian era. IsUm was 
one of many reformed creeds offered to them, and sev- 
eral circumstances combined to render its influence more 
widely spread and more permanent than that of its 
rivals. It was the creed of the governing power; its 
missionaries were men of zeal, who spoke to the popular 
heart ; it brought the good news of the unity of uoa and 
the equality of man to a priest-ridden and caste-ridden 
people. Above all, the initiatory rite made relapse im- 
possible, and rendered the convert and his postenty true 
believers forever. Forcible conversions are occasionally 
recorded, with several well-known instances of Hindus 
becoming apostates from their ancient &ith to purdiase 
pardon for crimes. Such cases, however, were few in 
number, and belonged to the higher ranks. It would 
also appear that a Mughul adventurer now and then 
circumcised off hand the villages allotted to him in fieC 
But it was not to such measures that Islira owed its 
permanent success in Bengal. It appealed to the peo- 
ple, and it derived the great mass of its converts frora 
among the poor. It brought in a truer conception of 
God, a nobler ideal of tl^ life of man, and offered 
to the teeming low castes of Bengal, who had sat for 
ages despised and abject on the outermost pale of the 
Hindu commimity, free entrance into a new sodd 
organization. So far as local tradition and the other 
fragmentary evidence which survives enable a modem 
inquirer to judge, the creed of Muhammad was here 
spread neither by violence nor by any ignoble means. 
It succeeded because it deserved to succeed. Neverthe- 
less, it has conspicuously failed to alter the permanent 
religious conceptions of the people. The initiatory 
rite separated the Musalm&ns from the rest of tM 
Bengali population, and elevated the heterogeneous lo«- 
caste converts into a respectable community of thdr 
own. But the proselytes brought their old superstitioM 
with them into their new faith. Their ancient rites oi 
modes of religious thought reasserted themselves wl4l 
an intensity that couM not be suppressed, until Hm'- 
fierce white light of Semitic monotheism almost flickcfii 
out amkl the fuliginous exhalations of HmduisnL ^ ' 
local writer, speaking from personal acquaintance % 
the Musalm^ peasantry in the northern di 
Lower Bengal, states that not one in ten can 1 
brief and simple kalmd or creed, whose con 
tation is a matter of almost unconscioas 
Muhamnu&dans. He describes them as '*ft4tt| 
observes none of the ceremonies of its £iMf| 9 



distrtoji 



BEN 



907 



ignorant of the simplest formulas of its creed, which 
worships at the shrines of a rival relieion, and tenaci- 
ously adheres to practices which were aenonnced as the 
foulest abominations by its founder." Fifty years ago 
these sentences would have truly described the Muham- 
madan peasantry, not only in thie northern districts, but 
throughout all Lower BengaL In the cities, or amid 
the serene palace life of the Musalmdn nobility and their 
religious foundations, a few Maulvfs of piety and learn- 
ing calmly carried on the routine of their faith. But 
the masses of the rural Musalm&ns had relapsed into 
something little better than a mongrel breed of circum- 
cised low-caste Hindus. Since then, one of those 
religious awakenings so characteristic of India has 
passed over the Nfuhammadans of Bengal Itinerant 

J>reachecs, generally^ from the north, h&ve wandered 
rom district to district, calling on the people to return 
to the ^ true faith, and denouncing God's wrath on 
the indifferent and unrepented. A great body of the 
Ben^i Musalmins have purged themselves of the taint 
of Hinduism, and shaken off the yoke of ancient rural 
rites. The revival has had a threefold effect — religious, 
social, and political. It has stimulated the religious in- 
stinct amon|^ an impressionable people, and produced an 
earnest desire to cleanse the worship of Uod and his 
prophet from idolatry. This stem rejection of ancient 
superstitions has widened the gulf between the Muham- 
madans and the Hindus. Fiuy years ago the Benc^i 
Musalm&ns were simply a recognised caste, less wi&ly 
separated from the lower orders of the Hindus than the 
latter were from the Kulin Br&hmans. There were 
certain essential points of difference, of a doctrinal sort, 
between the Hindu and Muhammadan villager; but 
they had a great many rural customs and even reli^ous 
rites in common. The Muhammadan husbanding 
theoretically recognised the one Semitic God ; but in a 
country subject to floods, famines, the devastations of 
banditti, and the ravages of wild beasts, he would have 
deemed it a simple pohcy to have neglected the Hindu 
festivals in honor of Krishna and Durg£ The Bengali 
peasantry no longer look to their gods, but to the officer in 
charge of the district, for protection, and when he fails 
them, instead of offering expiatory sacrifices to K&li, 
they i>etition Government, or write violent letters to the 
vernacular press. The reformed M uhammadan husband- 
men now stand aloof from the village rites of the Hin- 
dus- They have ceased to be merely a separate caste in 
the rural organization, and have become a distinct com- 
munity, keeping as much apart from their nominal co- 
religionists of the old unreformed faith as from the 
idolatrous Hindus. This social isolation from the sur- 
rounding Hindus h the second effect of the Musalm^ 
revival m Bengal. Its third result is political, and 
effects ourselves. A Muhammadan like a Christian re- 
vival strongly reasserts the duty of self-abnegation, and 
places a multitude of devoted instruments at the dis- 
posal of any man who can convince them that his 
schemes are identical with the will of God. But while 
a return to the primitive teachings of Christ means a 
return to a religion of hnmanity and love, a return to 
Muhammadan first principles means a return to a reg- 
ion of intolerance and agere^sion. The very essence of 
M usalmdn Puritanbm is abhorrence of the Infidel The 
whole conception of Isldm is that of a church either 
actively militant or conclusively triumphant — forcibly 
converting the world, or ruling with a rod of iron the 
stiff-neckS unbeliever. The actual state of India, where 
it is the Musalmdns who are in subjection, and the un- 
believer who governs them, is manifestly not in accord 
with the prinutive ideal ; and many devout Muhamma- 
dans of the reformed faith have of late years endeavored, 
by plots and frontier attacks, to remove this anomaly. 



The majority are not actively hostile, but they stand 
aloof from our institutions, and refuse to coalesce widi 
the system which the British Government has imposed 
on Bengal. Their rebel camp beyond our frontier has 
forced us into three expedidons, which has broken their 
military power ; and trie calm, inexorable action of the 
courts has stamped out the chronic abetment of rebell- 
ion by Muhammadans within Bengal. 

Besides the 42)4 millions a^egated under the name 
of Hindus, and the 2o}i millions of Musulm&ns, a great 
resklue remains. These consist, with the exception of 
two very small bodies of Christians and Buddhists, of 
semi-aboriginal and distinctly non-Ar3ran races. They 
number over j}4 millions, eaualling almost exactly the 
population of Scotland. Tnese people dwell, for the 
most part, among the lofly ranges ana primeval forests 
which wall in Bengal on the north, east, and south-west, 
or upon the spurs and hilly outworks which these mount- 
ain systems have thrown forward upon the lowlands. 
Some of them represent the simplest types of social 
organization known to modem research. Their rudi- 
mentary communities are separated by religion, custom, 
and language from each other and from the dwellers on 
the plains. Many of them, till lately, looked upon war 
as the normal condition of human society, and on peace 
as an unwelcome temporary break in their existence. 
For ages they have regarded the lowland Hindus as 
their natural enemies, and in turn have been dealt with 
as beasts of chase by the more civilized inhabitants of 
the valleys. Within the present generation human sac- 
rifice continued to be an obligatory rite among them — 
a rite so deeplv graven upon their village institutions, 
and so essential to the annually recurring festivals of 
their religious year, as to seriously occupy the Indian 
legislature, and to require a special agency to suppress 
it. To this day instances of the detestable practice 
occur ; and their extreme jealousy of anything like for- 
eign rule renders it the wisest policy to leave them as 
much as possible under their own hamlet communities and 
petty chiefs. Nevertheless, they form the most hopeful 
material yet discovered in Bengal for the humanizing 
influences of Christianity, and of that higher level of 
morality and religious hope which Christian missions 
represent. 

Government. — Nor are the diversities in race and 
religion among the 66^ millions of Bengal less marked 
than their different capacities for self-government, and 
the varying degrees to which they can be subjected to 
administrative control. They exhibit every stage of 
political development, from the great municipality based 
upon English models, with powers of self-taxation and 
a public debt of its own, down to the primitive hill- 
hamlet, which pays no rent, acknowledges no higher 
tenure than the aboriginal one of priority of occupauon, 
clings to its ancient sjrstem of nomadic husbandry, and 
is scarcely aware of any power superior to that of its 
own tribe fathers. Incluoing Assam, which up to Feb- 
ruary 1874 formed a part of Bengal, the territories un- 
der the Lieutenant-Governor consist of five great prov- 
inces, each of which speaks a language of its own, and 
has a separate political and ethnical history. For ad- 
ministrative purposes these five provinces are divided 
into 58 distncts, of which 36 are regulation districts, 
whose advanced state has rendered it expedient to place 
them under the complete system of the Anglo-Indian 
law ; while 22 are non-regulation districts, in which this 
has not yet been found practicable. The latter contain 
territories of three aistinct classes. The first of 
them consists, for the most part, of newly-acquired ter- 
ritory, to which the general regulations have never been 
extended in their entirety. The second, of tracts in- 
habited by primitive races specially ei^^pted from the 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



908 



BEN 



operation of the regolations, to whom a lets formal 
code of law is better adapted. The third, of semi-in- 
dependent or tributary states, administered, or partly 
administered by British officers. The management of 
the whole is firmly concentrated in a single num, the 
Lieatenant-Govemor of Bengal, who is answerable to 
the Government of India, and through it to Her Majes- 

3f's ministers and Parliament. His responsibility is 
ivided br no executive council, as in Maaras or Bom- 
bay. All orders issue through his secretaries in his own 
name ; and although his policy is subject to the watch- 
ful control of the Government of India, represented by 
the Viceroy, yet to the Lieutenant-Governor personally 
belong the reputation or disgrace of a successful or an 
inglorious administration. In making laws for his peo- 
ple he is assisted by a legislative council, composed 
partly of his principal officers, partly of leading mem- 
bers of the non-official European and Native communi- 
ties. In his legislative, as in his executive functions, 
a power of control, amounting if needful to veto, 
rests with the Government of India — a power which, 
from the English talent for harmonious proconsular 
rule, is very seldom exercised. The administration is 
conducted by a body of covenanted civilians, supple- 
mented by a few military officers in the less dvuized 
districts, and aided by a staff of subordinate officials. 
The civilians are appointed direct from England, enter 
into a bond with the Secretary of State, and give secur- 
ities for the discharge of their highlyresponsible duties. 
In 1871 they numbered 260 men. The military officers 
belong to the staff corps of the Bengal army, and are 
employed to the number of 52 in the backward tracts, 
which do not require so exact an administration, and 
cannot afford to pay for the cost of it. The subordinate 
district officials are appointed in Bengal by the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, and consist chiefly of natives and Anglo- 
Indians; but several departments, such as Ihe educa- 
tional, telegraph, and public works, are now officered to 
a certain extent by gentlemen engaged direct from Eng- 
land. The revenues raised in the territories under the 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal amoimted in 1871-72 to 
;f 17,687,072. Of this sum, /'i6,7l3,636 accrued from 
the iniperial taxes laid on by the Government of India, 
and jC973A3^f ^^om provmcial, municipal, and rural 
taxation. The total cost of government was only 
;f 6»338,968, leaving a surplus from this single one of 
the Indian local governments of /*! 1,348,104. It is 
scarcely too much to say, that so long as the British 
power retains the port of Calcutta and the rich prov- 
inces under the Lieutenant - Governor of Bengal, it 
would have sufficient revenue to effect the reconquest of 
India if any accident should happen in the Panjib or 
north-west. The vast income winch the Lower Prov- 
inces yield is not altogether derived from their people. 
vThina pays an annnal tribute of over 5 millions in the 
shape of opium duty, and the inland parts of India con- 
tribute about a third of a million to the customs of 
BengaL Taking the total thus obtained from other ter- 
ritones at a littk over 6 millions, the population under 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal pays, in round 
figures, 11^ millions 4 year, or about js. 5d. a head. 
Tnis includes imperial, provincial, municipal, and rural 
taxation of every sort. * 

The return which the Government gives for thib light 
taxation may be briefly summed up as follows: — It 
assures to the provinces absolute protection from for- 
eign enemies. The army employed in the territories 
under the Lieutenant-Governor of^ Bengal numbers only 
11,554 officers and men, exclusive of a detachment of 
Madras Native infantry stationed at Cattack, in Orissa, 
and numbering about 600 men — making a gross total 
of troops in Bengal of abont 1 2,000 men. Of this small 



force 4662 are mased in Calcutta and its enyirons, wi^ 
a view to their proximity to the sea- board, rather tham 
with an eye to tne internal requirements of the coontry ; 
6892 guard the frontiers, with detachments on the Ime 
of railway, which now forms the great highway of Ben- 
gal ; a detachment of about 600 dfective troops of the 
Madras Native infantry is stationed in Orissa. Taking 
12,000 as the total military force stationed in Bengal, 
3000 consist of European troops and English officers, 
and 9000 of native officers and men. The Government 
is a purely dvil one, the existence of any armed force 
being less realized than in the quietest county of Ed- 

fland; and of the 66^ millions of people under the 
Jeutenant-Govemor of Bengal, probaoly 40 millions go 
through life without once seeing the ^leam of a bayonet 
or the face of a soldier. Intermd oraer and protectioQ 
to person and property are secured by a large army of 
police. This force consists of two elements : a regular 
constabalary introduced by the English Government, 
numbering 33,913 men in 1871, and costing j^584,o59 
to the state; and an indigenous police developed out of 
the rural watch of the Hindu common wealtn, number- 
ing 184,645 men, and costing ;^435f336 a year, paki by 
grants of land, or by the villages and landowners. 
The total number of the Bengal ponce amounts therefore 
to 217,558, or one man to every 307 of the population; 
and, excluding uninhabited swamps and hill jungles, 
about one policeman to each square mile of area. This 
minute supervision costs just over a million sterling a 
year, being at the rate of jf4, 2s. i^^d. per square mue, 
or 3>id. per head of the population. 

A great system of state education has been rapidly 
developed since 1844. In 1871-72 the Government and 
aided schools numbered 4383, with 7292 teachers, and 
163,280 pupils, — maintains at a total cost of ;{^i94,7i6, 
of which Government contributed rather under one- 
half, or ^89,649. The total aimual cost of education 



per pupil was /i, 12s. 9d., of which Government bore 

'fVor 15s.; 
from school fees, local subscriptions, &c Besida 



under one-halfV or 15s.; the remainder being obtained 



these, there were 10,907 ascertained schools not receiv- 
ing aid from the state, witT( 11,026 teachers, and 169,917 
pupils. In addition to these, there is a vast number df 
petty hedge schools in Bengal, of which no statistics 
exist. The total of state and ascertained private schook 
in 1871 was 15,290, with 18,318 teachers, and 333,197 
pupils. 

The cheapness of labor, as compared with European 
countries, enables the Government to perform its other 
fmictions at an equally small cost. It has brought 
courts very near to the door of the peasant, and estab- 
lished a system of registration by which proprietary 
rights and transfers are cheaply and absolutely ascer- 
tained. A great department of public works has spread 
a network of roads over the country, connecting Bei^ 
by railways with other parts of India, and, in districts 
which specially require it, is endeavoring to exercise 
some degree of control over the rivers and the natural 
water-supply, on which the safety of a tropical people 
depipds. An organized system of emigration watches 
over the movements of the landless classes, from the 
overcrowded or unfertile districts of the west to the rich 
under-populated territories on the east, and to colonies 
beyond tne seas. Charitable dispensaries and a well- 
equipped medical department strug^e to combat the 
diseases and epidemics which from time immemcnal 
have devastated the Delta, and place the operations of 
European surgery within the reach of the poorest peas- 
ant. The whole cost of dvil administration for lh/t$Sji 
millions of Bengsd amounts, as already stated»«to 
<;^6,338,o68, or under is. i id. per head. An imfetttotd 
vernacular press makes known the views of diep$^ 



BEN 



909 



to their rnlers, and mxinicipal instittitions are developing 
the anoent Hindu capaaty for self-government torn 
the village to the municipal stase of human society. 

The word Bengal is derived from Sanskrit geogra- 
phy, and applies strictly to the country stretching south- 
wsirds from Bh^i^pnr to the sea. The ancient Banga 
formed one of the 6ve outlying kingdoms of Aryan 
IndicL, and vras practically conterminous with the Delta 
of BengaL It derived its name, according to the 
etymology of the Pandits, from a price of MaMbhiurata, 
to whose portion it fell on the primitive partition of the 
country among the Lunar race of Denli. But a city 
called b&ng&Li, near Chittagong, which, although now 
washed away, is supposed to have existed in the 
Mnhammadan period, appears to have given the name 
to the European world. The word B&gdl& was first 
used by the Mnsalm^uis ; and under their rule, like the 
Banga of old Sanskrit times, it applied specifically to 
tl:^ Gangetic delta, although the latter conquests to the 
east of the Brahmaputra were eventnally included 
within it. In their distribution of the country for fisoil 
purpKises, it formed the central province of a eovemor- 
ship, with Behar on the N.W., andOrisa on die S.W., 
jointly ruled by one deputy of the Dehli emperor. 
Under the English the name has at different periods 
borne very different significations. Francis Fernandez 
applies it to the country from the extreme east of Chitta- 

fjng to Point Palmyras in Orissa, with a coast line which 
UTchas estimates at 600 miles, running inland for the 
same distance, and watered by the Ganges. This 
territory would include the Muhammadan province of 
Bengal, with parts of Behar and Orissa. The loose idea 
thus derived from old voyagers became stereotyped in 
the archives of the East India Company. All its north- 
eastern factories, from Balasor, on the Orissa coast, to 
PatnA, k\ the heart of Behar, belonged to the " Bengal 
Establishment,** and as our conquests crept higher up 
the rivers, the term came to be applied to the whole of 
Northern India. The Presidency of Bengal, in contra- 
distinction to those of Madras and Bombay, eventuaUy 
included all the British territories north of the Central 
Provinces, from the mouths of the Ganges and Brahmapu- 
tra to the Himdlays and the Pani&b. The term Ben^ 
continues to be officially employed in this sense by the mil- 
itary department of the Government of India. But during 
die last forty years the tendency to a more exact order 
of civil administration has gradually brought about a 
correspondingprecision in the use of Indian geograph- 
ical names. Tne North- Western Provinces date their 
separate existence from 1831. Since that year they 
stand forward under a name of their own as tne North- 
western Provinces, in contradistinction to the Lower 
Provinces of BengaL 'Later annexations have added 
■ew territorial entities, and the northern Presidency is 
now mapped out into four separate governments — the 
North- Western Provinces, Oudh, Panjdb, and Lower 
BengaL Three of the provinces of the present Lieu- 
tenant-Governorship of Bengal — namely, Bengal proper, 
Behar, and Orissa — consist of great river vsdleys ; the 
fourth, Chhot4 or Chutid Ndgpur, is a mountainous re- 

8 'on which separates them from the Central India plataau. 
rissa tmbraces the rich deltas of the Mahdnadl and 
&e neighboring rivers, bounded by the Bay of Bengal 
on the S.E., and walled in on the N.W. by tributary 
InH states.* Proceeding westward, the province of Ben- 

gd proper stretches alone the coast from Orissa to 
ritah Burmah, and inland from the sea-board to the 
Himilayas. Its southern portion is formed by the 
vmited deltas of the Ganges and Brahmaputra; its 
northern consists of the valleys of these great rivers and 
^heir tributaries. Behar lies on the north-west of Ben- 
8^1 proper, and comprises the higher valley of the Ganges, 



from the spot where it issues from the territories of the 
Lieutenant-Governor of the North- Western Provinces. 
Between Behar and Orissa, but stretching further west- 
ward and deep into the hill country, lies Uie province of 
Chhotd or Chutid Ndgpur. 

Principal Crops.— The chief products of the proir. 
ince have been already enumerated. The great staple 
crop is rice, of which there are three harvests in the 
year, — the 6cfv, or spring rice ; dus^ or autumn rice ; 
and dmafty or winter rice. Of these the last or winter 
rice is by far the most extensively cultivated, and forms 
the great harvest of the year. The dman crop is grown 
on low land. Aman rice is much more extensive^ cul- 
tivated than dtts, and in favorable years is the most val> 
uable crop, but being sown in low lands is liable to be 
destroyed by excessive rainfall. Harvest takes place in 
December or January. Aus rice is generally sown on 
high ground. 

MINERAL Products.— The coal mines of Rdnfganj, 
within Bardwdn district, however, demand somewhat 
more special notice. In this field there were, in 1872, 
altogetner 44 mines worked, of which 19 turn out more 
than 10,000 tons of coal per annum apiece. In the 
larger and better mines, coal is raised by steam power 
from pits and galleries ; and in the snoaller mines or 
workings, by hand labor from open quarries. In the 
Rdnfganj coal-Bekl alone, 61 steam endues, with an 
aggregate of 867 horse-power, are at work. Only one 
seam or set of seams of less thickness than S}i feet is 
worked, and the average thickness of the seams at the 
Rdn^ani mines is al^ut 15 or 16 feet. The pits are 
most^ shallow, very few are more than 150 feet deep. 

Trade. — No complete statistics of the internal trade 
of Bengal exist. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and 
on a much smaller scale, the MahdnadI in Orissa, with 
the Eastern Bengal Railway and the great East Indian 
Line, form the main arteries of commerce. From these 
main channels a network of minor streams, and a fairly 
adeouate although not yet complete system of raised 
roads, radiate to the remotest districts. The chief articles 
of internal traffic are the vegetable and mineral produc- 
tions enumerated above. The larger transactions of 
conunerce are conducted in the great cities, such as Cal- 
cutta and Patna, and in a number of purely market 
centres, such as Nawdbganj and Sirdjganj, which hkie 
recently grown up under British rule. 

History. — The history of so large aproyinoe as 
Bengal forms an integral part of the general history of 
India. (See IndiaT. The northern part, Behar, 
formed a powerful idngdom in Sanskrit times, and its 
chief town, Patnd, is identified as the Palibothra of the 
Greeks. The Delta or southern part of Bengal lay 
be3rend the ancient Sanskrit polity, and was governed 
by a number of local kings belonging to a pre- Aryan 
st«ck. The Chinese travellers, Fa Hiang m the 5th 
century, and Hiouen Thsang in the 7th century, found 
the Buddhist religion prevailing throughout Bengalf 
but alrtady in a fierce struggle with Hinduism— ft 
9trugflt which ended about the oth or loth ctntury in 
the gentral establishment of tht latter Odtb. Until the 
end ef tht 12th century Hindu princss governed bi a 
number ef pctnjr principalities, till, in 119Q, Muhammad 
Bakhtiyar Khifji was appointed to lead the first Musid- 
mdn invasion into BeneaL The Muhammadan con- 
quest of Behar dates from 1200 A.D., and the new 
power speedil]^ spread southwards into the Delta. 
From ahHOut this date until 1340 Bengal was ruled by 

Sovtmors appointed by the Muhammadan emperors in 
le north. From 13AO to 1530 its governors asserted 
aprecarious independence, ana arrogated the potitioo 
of sovereigns on their own account. From 1540 to 
1576 Bengal passed under the rule of the PiMhte or 



9IO 



BEN 



Afghin dfnastr, which commonly bears the name of 
Sher Shin. On the overthrow of this house by the 
powerful arms of Akbar, Ben^ was incorporated into 
the Muffhul empire, and administered by governors ap- 
pointed l)y the Dehli emperor, until the treaties of 1765, 
whi placed Bengal, Benar, and Orissa under the ad- 
ministration of the East Indian Company. Until 18C4 
Bengd remained under the Governor-General of India 
as governor, his place being supplied, during his ab- 
sence in other parts of India, by aaeputy-governor from 
among the members of his council. I^y the statute 16 
and 17 Vict cap. 95, these two great offices were 
separated, and Bei^^ erected into a Lieutenant- 
Governor, hip. The first lieutenant-governor was ap- 
pointed in 1054, and the constitution of the Govern- 
ment of Bengal still continues on this basis, except that 
the lieutenant-governor is now appointed subject to the 
approval of Her Majesty. 

English connection with Bengal. — The East India 
Company formed its earliest settlements in Bengal in 
the first half of the 17th century. These settlements 
were of a purely commercial cluuracter. In 1620 one of 
the Company's £au:tors dates from Patni ; in 1624-36 
the Company established itself, by the favor of the em- 
peror, on the ruins of the ancient Portugese settlement 
of Pfppliy in the north of Orissa; in 1640-42 the patri- 
otism of an English^surgeon, Mr. Gabriel Boughton, ob- 
tained for us establishments at Balasor, also in Orissa, 
and at H(igl(, some miles above Calcutta. The vex- 
ations and extortions to which the Company's early 
agents were subjected more than once almost induced 
them to abandon the trade, and in 1677-78 they threat- 
ened to withdraw from Bengal altc^ther. In 1685, 
the Bengal factors, driven to extremity by the oppres- 
sion of ue Mughul governors, threw down the gaunt- 
let ; and after various successes and hair-breadth escapes, 
purchased from the grandson of Aurangzeb in 1696, the 
villages which have since ^wn up into Calcutta, the 
metropolis of India. During the next fifty years the 
Englisn had a long and hazardous struggle alike with 
the Mughul governors of the province and the Marhattd 
armies which invaded it. In 1756 this strugdc culmi- 
nated in the great outrage known as the DUuik Hole of 
Calcutta, followed bv Cbve's battle of Plassey and cap- 
ture of Calcutta, wnich avenged it That battle, and 
the subsequent years of contused fighting, established 
our military supremacy in Bengal, and procured the 
treaties of 1765, by which the provinces of Bengal, 
Behar, and Onssa passed under our administration. 
To Warren Hastings (1772-8S) belongs the gloiy of 
consolidating our power, ana converting a military 
occupation into a stable civil government. To another 
memoer of the civil service, John Shore, afterwards 
Loid Teignmouth (i786-93)» is due the formation of a 
regular S3rstem of Ane;laJndian legislation. Acting 
through Lord ComwaUiSy then Governor-General, he 
ascertained and defined the rights of the landholders in the 
soU. These landhoklers under the native system had, for 
the most part, started as collectors of the revenues, and 
gradually acqtiired certain prescriptive rights as quad- 
proprietors of the estates entrusted to them by the Gov- 
ernment In 1 793 Lord Comwallis declared their rights 
perpetual, and made over the land of Bengal to the pre- 
vious quasi-proprietors or tamlnddrs, on condition of 
t^e pa]!inent of a fixed land tax. This great piece of 
legislation is known as the Permanent Settlement of the 
Land Revenue. But the Comwallis code, while defin- 
ing the rights of the proprietors, foiled to give adequate 
recognition to the rights of the under-tenants and the 
cultivators. His Regulations formally reserved the lat- 
ter class of riihts, but dkl not legally define them, or 
enable the husbandmen to enforce them in the courts. 



After half a century of rural disouiet, the rig^ of tiw 
cultivators were at length carefully formulated by Act 
X. of 1850. This measure, now known as the land Isv 
of Bengal, effected for the rights of the ander-holden 
and cultivators what the Comwallis code in 1793 ^^^ 
effected for those of the superior landholders. The 
status of each class of person interested in the soil, from 
the Government as suzerain, throueh the M amimddr s or 
superior landhoklers, the intermediate tenure-holders, 
and the under-tenants, down to the actual caltivator, is 
now clearly defined. The Act dates from the first year 
after the transfer of India fi^m the Company to the 
Crown; for, meanwhile, the mutiny had burst oot m 

1857. '^c transactions of that revolt chiefly took |>Uce 
in Northem India, and will be found under the artide 
on the North-Wcstem Provinces ; the uprising, although 
fierce and for a time perilous to our supremacy, was 
qukkly r>vt down. In Bengal it began at Bar&ackfvk. 
{q.v.)t wA^commuiiicated to Decca in Eastern Beneal, 
and for a dme raged in Behar, producing the memorable 
defence of the bmiard-room at Arrah bv a handful of 
civilians and Sikhs, — one of the most splendid pieces of 
gallantry in the history of the British arms. Sinoe 

1858, when the country passed to the Crown, the history 
of Bengal has been one of steady and peaceful progress. 
The two great lines of railway, the Etot Indian and the 
Eastern Bengal, have been completed ; and a third, the 
Northern Bengal Railway, is now in progress. Trade 
has enormousfy expanded; new centres of commerce 
have spmng up in spots which not long ago were silent 
jungles ; new staples of trade, such as tea and jnte, have 
rapidly attained importance; and the coal-fields and 
iron ores are beginmng to open up prospects of a new 
and splendid era in me internal aevelopment of the 
country. 

BENGAZI, a seaport town on die northern coast of 
Africa, and capital of the province of Barca, is sitnated 
on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf c^ Sidra and 
a salt' lake. 

BENGEL, JfoHN Albert, a ^^elebrated BiUical 
scholar and critic, was bom at Winnenden, in Wiirtem- 
berg, on the 24th Tune 1687. ^i? father, who was one 
of tne ministers of that town, having died when Bengel 
was only six years old, his education was taken in huod 
by a friend of his father named Spindler, who having 
afterwards become master in the gymnasium at Stutt- 
gart, carried the boy thither with him, and superintended 
his education until ne entered the University of Tiibingen 
in the year 1703. While at the university, the worics to 
which, among others, he gave special attention as private 
studies were those of Aristotle and Spinoze, and so 
thoroughly did he make himself acquamted with the 
metaphysics of the latter, that he was selected by one of 
the professors to prepare materials for a treatise De 
Spinosismo which the professor afterwards published. 
He himself used to express his " great thankmlneas for 
the benefit which he had derived from the stndv of 
metaphysics and mathematics, in respect to the dear- 
ness of thought which they imparted, wti^ was of the 
utmost value to him in the analysis taoA diposition ef 
the language of Scripture." After taking nis degree, 
Bengel devoted himself to the study of the<Hogy toirau^ 
the grave and religious tone of his mind, deepened and 
strengthened by his early training and dis^iplbne, nator- 
ally inclined him. Like other yom^ vseH <X thongfatfiil 
character, before and since, he hid (6 ifl^ngg^ with 
doubts and difficulties of a reli^^o^ tilNfare, and be 
alludes, with much feeling, to the ** maAjf iilows which 
pierced his poor heart, and made hfe fbiHth hard to 
bear." It is interesting to know diat at tMs early date 
his attention was directed to the various readings of tlia 
Greek New Testament, and that one canse <^ his men- 
— Digitized 



BEN 



9" 



tal perplexities was the difficulty of ascertaining the 
true reading among the great namber of those 
which were presented to his notice. In 1707 
Bengel enterea the church, and was appointed to 
the parochial charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. Here 
he remained only one year, and doling that time devoted 
hhnself to the study of the writing of Spencer, Amdt, 
A. H. Franke, and Chemnitz. The profound impres- 
sion which the works of these men made upon his mind 
was never effaced, and may be traced in that vein of 
devotional, not to say pietistic, feeling which runs 
through all his relieious compositk>ns. In 1708 Bengel 
was recalled to TUbingen to undertake the office of 
Repetent or theological tutor. Here he remained until 
1713, when he was appointed the head of a seminary 
recently established at Denkendorf and intended as a 
preparatory school of theology. Before entering on his 
duties there, he made a literary journey through the 
greater part of Germany, to acquaint hunself with the 
various systems of education which were in use, in order 
to (qualify himself for the better dischar^ of his official 
duties. In prosecuting the joumev he visited with laud- 
ahle impartiality the seminaries ot the Jesuits as well as 
those of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. Amone 
other places he visited Heidelberg and Halle, and had 
his attention directed at the former city to the canons 
of Scripture criticism published by Gerhard von 
MEstricnt, and at the latter to Vitrinea*s Aracrisis ad 
Apocalypsin, The influence exerted by these upon his 
theological studies will be apparent when we come to 
notice his works upon the criticism and interpretation of 
Scriptnre. For twenty-eight years — from 1713-1741 
— he discharged his important duties as head of the 
school of Denkendorf with distinguished ability and 
success, devoting all his ener|g;ie8 to the reli^ous and 
intellectual improvement of his students. It is impos- 
sihle to read the extracts from his diary and correspond- 
ence, which have been preserved, without being struck 
with the spirit of fervent piety, combined with sagacity 
and good sense, which characterized his management 
of the mstitution. These twenty-eight years were 
the period of Bengel's greatest intellectual activ- 
ity, many of the works on which his reputation 
rests being included within them. In 1741 he was 
appointed prelate of the cloister of Herbrechtingen, 
an office which he held for eight years. In 1749 
he was raised to the dimity of consistorial coun- 
sellor and prelate of Alpursfaiach, with a residence 
in Stuttgart. Ben^l henceforth devoted himself to the 
discharge of his duties as a member of the consistory. A 
question of considerable difficult was at that time oc- 
cupying the attention of the cnurch courts, viz., the 
manner in which those who separated themselves from 
the church were to be dealt with, and the amount of 
toleration which should be accorded to meetin^i held in 
private houses for the purpose of religious edification. 
Tlie civil power (the duke of Wiirtemberg was a Roman 
Catholic) was disposed to have recourse to measures of 
repression, while the members of the consistory, recog- 
_ nizing the good effects of such meetings, were inclin^ 
to concede a considerable degree of "berty. Bengel 
exerted himself on the side of the latter. Tne admirer 
of Spener, the founder of the collegia pietatis, could not 
but show himself favorably disposed to meetings hekl 
for reIijg;ious purposes, and while maintaining the rights 
and pnvileges of the church, he was an advocate of all 
reasonable freedom bemg accorded to those who felt 
themselves bound on grounds of conscience to withdraw 
from her communion. The good effects of this policy 
may be seen at this day in the attitude taken up by 
those who in Wiirtemberg have separated from the 
dmck Bcogd's paUic position necessarily bron^t 



him into contact with many indivkluals of celebrity, by 
whom he was consulted on all important theological and 
ecclesiastical questions. In a single year he received no 
fewer than 1200 letters. In the year 1751 the Univer- 
sity of Tubingen, his own alma mater, conferred upon 
him the degree of doctor of divinity. Bengel's life was 
now drawing to a close. He died, after a short illness, 
in 1 752, aged sixty-five years and four months. He him- 
self is reported to have said: ** I shall be forgotten for a 
while, but I shall again come into remembrance ; ** and 
his favorite pupil Oetinger remarked of him : ** His like 
is not left in Wiirtemberg.** 

BENGUELA, a country on the western coast of 
Africa, situated to the south of Angola, and extending 
from the River Coanza to the Cunene, which is other- 
wise known as Nourse, Rio das Trombas, Rio dos Elc- 
phantes. The population of the whole territory of 
Benguela is estimated at about iJO,ooa 

BENICARLO, a city of Spam, in the province of 
Castellon, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Popu- 
lation, 7,000. 

BENIN, a country, city, aiid river of Western Africa, 
to the west of the main channel of the Niger. The 
name was formally applied to the whole stretch of coast 
from the Volta, in Kio del Rey or Riumbi, including 
what is now known as the Slave Coast, the whole delta 
of the Niger, and a small portion of the country to the 
eastward; and some trace of this earlier appfication 
remains in the name of Bight of Benin, still given to 
that part of the sea which washes the Slave Coast. The 
Kinedom of Benin seems at one time to have been one 
of the most powerful of Western Africa, and was 
known to Europeans in the 17th century as the Great 
Benin. Budagiy and Lagos, now British possessions, 
are both Beninese colonies. Benin has now been long 
in a state of decline, and the territory is broken up into 
independent states of no individual importance. Such 
coherence, indeed, as still exists is rather ethnographiod 
than territorial ; but it may be regarded as bounded on 
the E. by the Niger, N. by the Yoruba country, and W. 
by Egba. The soil is highly fertile, and produces 
palms, rice, beans, maize, kokos, plantains, cotton, 
sugar, and Guinea pepper, in great abundance. The 
pawpaw and African plum grow wild, and excellent 
tobacco can be raised. Many parts of the country arc 
covered with almost impenetrable forests and SMramps, 
but towards the north there b fine pasture land, in which 
the natives rear both cattle and horses of considerable 
value. Of trees the cotton wood, the tamarind, and the 
mangrove are the most freouent The population is 
pretty dense, and it is sakl that in the most flourishing 
state of the kingdom the king could collect 100,000 men. 
His rule is absolute, and he is revered by his subjects as a 
species of divinity. It is a crime to beheve that the king 
either eats or sleeps ; and all offences against him are 
punished with the utmost severity. The religion and 
mythology agree with the great svstem of Yoruba and 
Oro; the chief god is worsnippea with human sacrifices 
to an appalling extent. The people, at the same time, 
do not indulge in wanton cruelty ; they usually stupify 
the victims l^fore putting them to death. The houses, 
at least of the better classes, are built on a plan similar 
to that of the Romans, with a regular atrium and im- 

{luvium. The Beninese weave their cotton into a fine 
ind of muslin, which is worn in huge bulging petti- 
coats by people of wealth, while the lower orders are 
content with a simple Beluko or kilt. The capital of 
the kingdom, or city of Benin, is situated about 7J^ 
miles inland from the mouth of the Rio Formoso or 
Benin River. It covers a large extent of ground, but is 
so broken up into separate portions by inte r v e ning 
spaces of jungle, that no proper estimate can be formed 



912 



BEN 



of its population. The Obwe, or King[*s qtiarter, tlone 
is supposed to have upwards of 15,000 inhabitants; but 
at the time of Burton^s visit in 1&2 many of the houses 
were empty and falling to ruin. 

The River Benin, called by the natives Uwo Ko Jakri, 
or Outlet of Jakri, is alwut two miles broad at its mouth; 
but it is crossed by a very extensive bar of mud and 
sand, on which there is only 12 feet of water at spring 
tides. Ships of 60 tons can ascend as far as Gwato. 

BENJaMIN, the youngest son of the patriarch 
Jacob, by Rachel H is mother, dying in chikibed, gave 
him the name Benoni, " Son of my pain, ** which was 
changed by his father to Benjamin, meaning probably 
** Son of the right hand, ** that is, " Son of prosperity.^ 
Of his personal history litde is recorded, lie was the 
favorite of his father and brothers, and seems to have 
been of an amiable though somewhat weak character. 
In this respect he strikingly contrasts with the tribe, 
whose history was foretold in the dving prophecy of 
Jacob, " Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf." The tribe of 
Benjamin, though the least numerous of Israel, became 
nevertheless a considerable race. In the desert it 
counted 35,400 warriors, and at the entrance of Israel 
into Canaan even as many as 45,600. The portion 
allotted to this tribe was encompassed by the districts of 
Ephraim, Dan, and Judah. 

BENJAMIN, of Tudela, in Navarre, a celebrated 
Jewish rabbi of the 12th century, whose Itinfraryvi a 
literary curiosity. 

BENNET, Henry, Earl of Arlington, a distin- 
guished statesman in the reign of Charles II., was bom 
of an ancient family in Middlesex, in the year 1618, and 
died in 1685. His Letters to Sir IVilliam Temple were 
published after his death. 

BENNETT, James Gordon, American journalist, 
originator and editor of the New York Herald^ was by 
birth a Scotchman. He was bom at Newmills in Banff- 
shire, about i8oa Destined for the priesthood in the 
Roman Catholic Church, he was educated in a seminary 
at Aberdeen. But it beoime evklent that he was natur- 
ally unfit for the priestly calling; and his aversion 
rif>ened into a determination to escape from it The 
reading of Franklin's Autobiography led him to resolve 
on emigration to America, and in the spring of 1819 he 
sailed tor the New World. Landing at Halifax, he 
earned apoor living there for a short time by giving les- 
sons in French, Spanish, and bookkeeping ; he passed 
next to Boston, where starvation almost threatened him 
till he got employment in a printing-office; and in 1822 
lie went to New York. An engagement as translator 
of Spanish for a newsi^iper took him for a few months 
to Cnarleston, South Carolina. On his retum to New 
York he projected a school, gave lectures on political 
economy, and did subordinate work for the joumals. 
In 1825 he made his first attempt to establish a journal 
of his own ; and the next ten years were occupied in a 
variety of similar attempts, which proved futile. Dur- 
ing that period, however, he became Washington cor- 
respondent of the Inquirer ; and his letters, written in 
imitation of the letters of Horace Walpole, attracted 
attention. Notwithstanding all his hard work and his 
resolutely abstemious life, he was still a poor man. It 
was not till 1835 ^'^^ ^® struck the vein which was to 
reward and ennch him. On May 6 of that year ap- 
peared the first number of a small one-cent paper, bear- 
ing the title of Ne^v York Herald ^ and ^ issuing from a 
^eUar, in which the proprietor and editor played also 
the part of salesman. ** He started with a disclaimer 
df flJl principle, as it is called, all P^y> all politics ; " 
and to this he certainly adhered. By his immense in- 
dustry and practical sagacity, his unscrupulousness, va- 
riety of news, spicy correspondence, snpply of personal 



g;osstp and scaiidal» the pai>er became a |»re«t commer- 
cial success. Bennett continaed to edit tne Herald tiB 
his death. The successful mission of Stanley to Cen- 
tral Africa in search of Dr. Livingstone, of whom notli- 
ing had long been hearcL was ondertaken \rf his desire 
and at bis expense ; and he thus showed m the last 
year of his life the inextinfi;uidiable spirit of enterprise 
which had animated him throughout his whole carca. 
He died at New York, Tune a, 1872. 

BENNETT, John Hughes, for twentr^siz yeais 
professor of the institutes of medidne at "fedinbiirgh 
Universitv, was bom in London on the 31st August 
1812, and died on the 2jth September, 1875. 

BENNETT, Sir Wiluam Stbrndale, was coq- 
sidered, for more than the last 20 years of his VS^ the 
head of the musical profession in England by the unani- 
mous verdict of botn English and foreign mnsicians. 
At his death he received the highest honor England can 
confer upon her sons — a grave in Westminster Abbey. 
He was oom in 1816 at Sheffield, where his father was 
organist Having lost his father at an early age, he was 
brought up at Cambridge b^ his grandfather, from whora 
he received his first musical education. In 1826 he 
entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a 
pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying 
pianoforte and composition under Cipriani Potter, Dr. 
Crotch, W. H. Holmes, and C. Lucas. It was during 
this time that he vnrote several of his most appreciated 
works, not uninfluenced it seems by the contemporary 
movement of musical art in Germany, which country he 
frequend]^ visited during the jeax% 1856-42. At one of 
the Rhenish musical festivals in Diisseldorf he made the 
personal acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and soon after- 
wards renewed it at Leipsic, where the talented yoonf 
Englishman was welcomed by theleadingmusidans of the 
rising generation. He plaved at one of the celebrated Gew- 
andhaus concerts his third pianoforte concerto, which was 
received by the public in a manner flattering both to the 
pianist and the composer. We still possess an enthusi- 
astic account of the event from the pen of Robert Schii- 
mann, whose gjenial expansive nature was always open 
to new impressions. He never tired of Bennett's praise, 
whom he pronounced to be " the most musical of all 
Englishmen,'* and whom, in a private letter, he goes so 
far as to call ** an angel of a musician." But even Schu- 
mann could not wholly conceal from himself the influ- 
ence which Mendelssohn's compositions exercised on 
Bennett's mode of utterance, an influence which pre- 
cluded the possibility of an original development^o a 
degree almost unequaled in the history of music, ex- 
cepting perhaps the case of the Danish composer Niels 
^ Gade, who like Bennett was attracted to Leipsic by 
the fame of Mendelssohn, and who like him offered his 
ovm artistic individuality at the shrine of the German 
composer's genius. According to a tradition, the late 
Professor Hauptmann, after listening to a composition 
by Gs^e, is ^d to have pronounced the sarcastic sen- 
tence, ''This sounds so much like Mendelssohn, that 
one might almost suppose it to be written by Siemdak 
Bennett." It would lead us too far on the present occa- 
sion to point out how, by this subserviency of the lead- 
ing English musician to a foreign composer, the na- 
tional development of English art was impeded in a de- 
plorable manner. His great success on the Continent 
established Bennett's position in England. He settled 
in London, devoting himself chiefly to pracdcal teach- 
ing. For a short time he acted as conductor of the 
Philharmonic Society, in which capacity, however, he 
earned little success. He was maoe musical profosor 
at Cambridge in 1856, and in 1868 principal of the Royal 
Academy of Music In 1871 he received tixe honor d 
knighthood. He died in 1875. 



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BENSERADE, Isaac de, a French poet^ was born 
in 16 13 at Lions-la- For^t in Nonnanoy. He made 
himself known at court by his verses and his wit, and 
had tbe good fortune to please the cardinals Richelieu 
and Mazarin. Some years before his death in 169 1 
Boiserade retired to Qiantilly, and devoted himself to 
a translation of the Psalms, which he nearly completed. 
BENSON, George, a learned dissentins" minister, 
was born at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, in 1699. 
His mental capacity was so precocious, that at 1 1 years 
of age he was able to read the Greek Testament He 
afterwards studied at an academy at Whitehaven, 
whence he removed to the University of Glasgow. In 
1721 he was chosen pastor of a congregation of dissent- 
ers at Abingdon, in Berkshire, where he continued till 
1729, when ne became the choice of a congregation in 
Sonthwark ; and in 1740 he was appointed by the con- 
gregation of Crutched Friars colleague to the learned 
Dr. Lardner. He died in 1763. 

BENTHAM, Jeremy, was bom on the 15th 
February 1748, in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, 
London, in which neighborhood his grand&ther and 
father successively carried on business as attorneys. 
The boy's talents justified the ambitious hopes which 
his parents entertained of his future When tnree jrears 
old ne read eagerly such works as Rapin's History^ and 
began the study of Latin. A year or two later he 
learnt the violin and French conversation. At West- 
minster school he obtained a reputation for Greek and 
Latin verse writing ; and he was only thirteen when he 
was matriculated at Queen's College. ^ 

Bentham's fiimily connections would naturally have 
given him a fair start at the bar, but this was not the 
cilreer for which he was preparing himself. He spent 
his time in making chemical experiments and in speculat- 
in|; upon legal abuses, rather than in reading Coice upon 
Littleton and the Reports. The first fruits of Bentham's 
studies, the Fragment on Govemmait, appeared in 1776. 
This masterly attack upon Blackstone's praises of the 
English constitution was variously attributed to Lord 
Mansfield, Lord Camden, and Lord Ashburton. One 
important result of its publication was that, in 1781, 
Lord Shelbume called upon its author in his chambers 
at Lincoln's Inn. Henceforth Bentham was a frequent 
guest at Bowood, where he saw the best society, and 
where he met Miss Caroline Fox, to whom he afterwards 
made a proposal of marriage. In 1 785 Bentham started, 
by way of Italy and Constantinople, on a visit to his 
brother. Sir Samuel Bentham, who became a general in 
the Russian service ; and it was in Russia that he wrote 
his Defense of Usury. Disappointed in the hope which 
he had entertained, through a misapprehension of some- 
thing said by Lord Lansdowne, of taldng a personal part 
in the legislation of hb country, he settled down to the 
yet higher task of discovering and teaching the principles 
upon which all sound legislation must proceed. His 
fame spread widely and rapidly. He was made a French 
citizen in fpa ; and his advice was respectfully received 
in most of the states of Europe and America, with many 
of the leading men of which he maintained an active 
correspondence. His ambition was to be allowed to 
prepare a code of law for his own or some foreign country. 
During nearly a quarter of a oentury he was engaged in 
n^tiations with Government for the erection of a 
"Panopticon, "which would render transportation un- 
necessary. The scheme was eventually abandoned, and 
Bentham recehred /23,ooo by way of compensation. 
In 1823 he established the Westminster Review Some 
idea of the extent of Bentham's literary labors may be 
derived from the fact that his Works^ as edited with 
biographical notices by Dr. Bowring in 184J, fill eleven 
volumes octavo, of closely printS double columns. 



Baotham died on the 6th of June 1812, in his 85th year, 
at the house in Queen's Square Place, which he had 
occupied for fifty vears. In accordance with his directions, 
his tx)dy, after oeing dissected in the presence of his 
fnends, was embalmed, and is still preserved, seated in 
his wonted dress, in University CoUep, London. 

Bentham*s lift was a happy one of its kind. His con- 
stitution, weakly in childnood, strengthened with ad- 
vancing years so as to allow him to get through an 
incredible amount of sedentary labor, while he retained 
to the last the fresh and cheerful temperament of a boy. 
An ample inherited fortune permitted him to pursue his 
studies undistracted by the necessity for making a liveli- 
h($od, and to maximize the resuhs of his time and labor 
by the employment of amanuenses and secretaries. He 
was able to gather around him a group of congenial 
fnends and pupils, such as the Mills^ the Austins, and 
Bowrine, with whom he could dbduss the problems 
upon which he was engaged, and by whom several of 
his books were practically rewritten, from the mass of 
rough though orderly memoranda which the master had 
himself prepared. tThus, for instance, was the Ration- 
ale 0/ Judicial Evidence written out by J. S. Mill, and 
the Book 0/ Fallacies by Bin^^ham. The services which 
Dumont rendered in recasting, as well as translating, 
the works of Bentham were still more important 

The popular notion that Bentham was a morose 
visionary is far removed from fact. It is true that he 
looked upon general society ^ a waste of time, and 
that he disliked poetry as " misrepresenution"; but he 
intensely enjoyed conversation, gave good dinners, and 
delighted in music, in country sights, and in making 
others happy. These features of Bentham's character 
are illustrated in the graphic account given by the 
American minister, Mr. Rush, of an evening spent at 
his house in the stunmer of the year 1818. 

Whether or no he can be said to have founded a school, 
his doctrines have become so far part of the common 
thought of the time, that there is hardly an educated 
man who does not accept as too clear for argument 
truths which were invisible till Bentham pointed them 
out. His sensitively honorable nature, which in early 
life had caused him to shrink from asserting his belief 
in Thirty-nine articles of faith which he had not exam- 
ined, vras shocked by the enormous abuses which con- 
fronted him on commencing the study of the law. He 
rebelled at hearing the system under which they flour- 
ished described as the perfection of human reason. But 
he was no merely destructive critic. He was determined 
to find a solkl foundation for both Aorality and law, and 
to raise it upon an edifice, no stone of which should be 
lakl except in accordance with the deductions of the 
severest logic. Thb foundation is ** the greatest happi- 
ness of the greatest number," a formula adopted from 
Beccaria. The pursuit of such happiness is taught by 
the ** utilitarian " philosophy, a phrase used by Bentham 
himself in 1802, and therefore net invented by Mr. J. 
S. Mill, as he supposed, in 1823. In order to ascertain 
what modes of action are most conducive to the end in 
view, and what motives are bast itted to produce them, 
Bentham was led to construct marvellously exhaustive, 
though somewhat mechanical, tables of motives. Wi^ 
aU their elaboration, these tables are, however, defect- 
ive, as they omit some of the highest and most influen- 
tial springs of action. But most of Bentham's condu- 
sions may be accepted without any formal profession of 
the utilitarian theory of morals. They are, indeed, 
merely the application of a rigorous common sense to 
the facts of society. That the proximate ends at which 
Bentham aimed are desirable hardly any one would deny, 
though the feasibility of the means by which he proposes 
to attain them may often be questioned: and much of 
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the new amimclittire in which he thought fit to dothe 
his doctrines may be rejected at annecctsary. To be 
judged fairly, Bentham must be judged as a teacher of 
the principfes of IcjzisUtion. With the principles of pri- 
Tate morals he reaUy deals only so far as is necessary to 
enable the reader to appreciate the impulses which hate 
to be controlled by law. 

As a teacher of le^slation he inquires of all institu- 
tions whether their utility justifies their existence. If not, 
he is prepared to suggest a new form of institution by 
which the needful service may be rendered. While thus 
engaged no topic is too large for his mental grasp, none 
too small for his notice ; and, what is still rarer, every 
topic is teen in its due relation to the rest. English in- 
stitutions had never before been thus comprehensively 
aad dispassionately surveyed. 

BENTINCK, Lord William Gborgb Frederick 
Cavendish, better known as Lord George Bentinck, 
the second son of the fourth duke of PortUmd, by Hen- 
rietta, sister to the Viscountess, was bom February 27, 
1802. He was educated at Eton, and at Christ Church, 
Oxford ; after which he entered the armjTy and served 
for several years in the Guards. On retiring from the 
annT, he acted for some time as private secretary to his 
uncle Mr. Canning, then prime minister; in which 



capacitT he gave proofs of high ability for the conduct of 
public business. In 1828 he succeeded his uncle Lord 
William Bentinck as member for Lynn* Regis, and con- 



tinued to represent that constituency during the remain- 
ing twenty years of hb life. Till within three years of 
hb death Lord Georee Bentinck was little known out 
of the sporting world. His early attempts at public 
speaking afforded no indication of the abilities which the 
subsequent course of political events served to develop 
so conspicuously. His failures in the House of Com- 
mons seem to have discouraged him from the attempt to 
acquire reputation as a politician. On his first entrance 
into parliament he belonged to what may be called the 
moderate Whig party, and voted in favor of Catholic 
emancipation, as also for the Reform Bill, though he 
opposed some of its principal details. Soon after, how- 
ever, he joined the ranks of the Opposition, with whom 
he sided up to the important era of 1846. When, in 
that year. Sir Robert Peel openly declared in favor of 
free trade, the advocates of the com-hiws, then without 
a leader, after several ineffectual attempts at organisa- 
tion, discovered that Lord Georee Bentinck was the 
only man around whom the severalsections of the Oppo- 
sition could be brought to rallv. His sudden elevation 
to so prominent a position tooic the public mind by sur- 
prise ; but he soon gave convincing evidence of powers 
so formidable, that the position of the Protectionist 

SartT at once assumed an imposing aspect. Towards 
ir Robert Peel, in particular, his hostility was marked 
and uncompronusing. Believing, as he himself ex- 
pressed it, that that statesman and hb political col- 
leagues had ** hounded to the death his illustrious rela- 
tive" Mr. Canning, he combined with hb opposition as 
a political leader a degree of personal animosity that 
gave additional force to the poignancy of hb invective. 
Apart from the question of the corn-laws, his politics 
were strictly independent. In opposition to the rest of 
hb p*rty* he supported the bill for removing the Tewish 
disabilities, and was favorable to the scheme for the 

Eyment of the Ronum Catholic clergy in Ireland by the 
idowners. As he had held no high office under Gov- 
ernment, hb qualifications as a statesman never found 
scope beyond the negative achievements of a leader of 
Opposition ; but it may be safely affirmed that nothing 
hut hb untimely death could have debarred him from 
aooniring a dbtmguished position among the statesmen 
oC pritain. This event, caused by the rupture of a ves- 



sel in the hetrt, took place suddenly on the 21st Septan- 
ber 1848, while he was proceeding on foot t» Tisit a 
friend in the country. 

BENTIVOGLIO, Giovanni, was bom at Bokmia 
about 1438, seven years before the murder of his &tBer 
Annibale, then the chief magistrate of the republic. lo 
1462 Giovanni contrived to make himself master of tbe 
state, which he continued to rule with a stem sway for 
nearly half a century ; but hb encouragement of thiefine 
arts, and hb decoration of the dty l^ sumptuous edi- 
fices, eilded hb usurpation. He was finally expelled by 
Pope Julian II., in 1506, and died in the state of Milaa 
at the a£e of seventy. 

BENTIVOGLIO, GuiDO, Carduial, an emiDeiit 
statesman and historian, was bom at Ferrara in 1579. 
After studyinjg at Padua, he went to reside at Rome, 
and was received with great favor by Pope Clemcnl 
VIII., who made him a prelate. He was sent as noncio 
into Flanders, and afterwards to France; and when be 
returned to Rome he was intrusted by Louis XIII. widi 
the management of the French afftirs at that coart. In 
1621 he was made a cardinal, and in 1641 received tbe 
bishopric of Terracina. He was the intimate firiend of 
Pope Urban VIIL, and on the death of Urban public 
opinion marked out Bentivoglio for hb successor. He 
died suddenly, however, before the election took place. 
Hb principal works are, Delia Guerra di Fiandria^ 
1632- JO ; Rela%umi di G. Bentivoglio in ttmpo delU 
sue Nun%iature di Fiandria e di Francia, 1631 ; 
Afemcrie 1648; Lettere, 1631. 

BENTLEY, Richard (bom, 1662; died, 1743), 
was bom at Oulton, a township in the parish of Roth- 
well, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 

In 1690 Bentley took deacon's orders in the Estab- 
lished Church. In 1692 he was nominated first Boyle 
lecturer, a nommation which was repeated in 1694. He 
was offered the appointment a thiiti time in 1695, but 
declined it, being l>y that time involved in too many 
other undmakings. In these first series of lectures he 
endeavors to present the Newtonian physics in a ^pnlar 
form, and to fitune them into a proof of the exbtence 
of an mtelligent Creator. The second series, preached 
in 1694, has not been published, and b believed to be 
lost Scarcely was Bentley in priest's orders before he 
was preferred toaprebendalstall in Worcester cathedral 
And, in 1693, the keepership of the royal library becom- 
ing vacant t^ the death of Henri de Justel, great efforts 
were made l^ his friends to obtam the place for Bentley. 
But, though there was a High Church candidate (Ed- 
mund Gibson^ backed by the archbbhops, the court 
interest prevailed, and the place was given to Mr. 
Thjmne. Mr. Thynne, however, wantea only the sal- 
ary and not the office, and was prevailed on to cede the 
place to Bentley for an annmty of ;f 130 for life, the 
whole emoluments being but £200 and apartments in 
St. James's Palace. To these preferments were added, 
in 1695, a royal chaplaincy, and the living of Hartle- 
bury. He was also about the same time elected a fellow 
of the Royal Society. And the recognition of Conti- 
nental scholars came in the shape of a dedication, by 
Graevius (John (George), prefixed to a dissertation of 
Albert Rubens, De vita TJL^ Mallii^ published at 
Utrecht in 1694. 

While these distinctions were heing accumulated 
on Bentley, hb energy was making itseU felt in many 
and various directions. Hb first care was the royal 
library, the queen's library as it was commonly called. 
He made great efforts to retrieve this collection from 
the dilapidated condition into which it had been allowed 
to fall. He employed the mediation of the earl of 
Marlborough to beg the grant of some additional 
rooms in the palace for the boplgi. The rooms were 

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granted, but Marlboroagh cbftncteristicall^ kept them 
for himselt Bentley enforced the law against tne pub- 
lishers, and thus aidded to the Hbrarv nearly 1000 
volumes which had been neglected to be delivered. He 
was commissioned by the University of Cambridge to 
obtain Greek and Latin founts for their classical books, 
and he had accordingly cast, in Holland, those beauti- 
ful types which appear in the Cambrkige books of that 
date. He assisted Evelyn in his Numismata. 

In the year 1700, Bentley, then in his 38th year, re- 
ceived that main preferment which, says De Quincey, 
* was at once his reward and his scourge for the rest of 
his life. *• The six commissioners of eccfesiasdcal patron- 
age unanimously recommended Bentley to the Crown 
for the headship of Trinity College. 

Trini^ College, the most splendid foundation in the 
University of Cambridge, and m the scientific and liter- 
ary reputation of its fellows the most eminent society in 
either university, had, in 1700, greatly fallen from its 
high estate. It was not that it was more degraded than 
the other coUeges, but its former lustre made the abuse 
of endowments in its case more conspicuous. Bentley 
inaugurated many beneficial reforms in college usages 
and discipline, executed extensive improvements in tne 
buildings, and generally used his eminent station for 
the promotion of the interests of learning, both in the 
college and in the university. But this noble energy 
was attended by a domineering temper, an overweening 
contempt for the feelings, and even for the rights, of 
others, and an unscrupidous use of means when a good 
end could be obtained. Bentley, at the summit of 
classical learning, disdained to associate with men 
whom he regarded as illiterate priests. He treated 
them with contumely, while he was diverting^ their in- 
come to public purposes. The continued drain upon 
their purses — on one occasion the whole dividend of 
the year was absorbed by the rebuilding of the chapel — 
was the grievance which at last rousol the fellews to 
make a resolute stand. After ten years of stubborn, 
but ineffectual resistance within the college, they had 
recourse, in 1710* to the last remedy — an appeal to the 
visitor. Their petition is an ill-drawn invective, full of 
general complaints, and not alleging any special delin- 

?uency. Bentley*s reply ( The Present State of Trinity 
allege^ d'r., 8vo; Lond. i7io) is in his most crushing 
style. The fellows amended their position, and put in 
a fresh charge, in which they articlea fifty-four separate 
breaches of the statutes as having been committed by 
the master. Bentley, called upon to answer, demurred 
to the bishop of Ely's jurisaiction, alleging that the 
Crown was visitor. He backed his application by a 
dedication of his Horace to the lord treasurer (Harley). 
The Crown lawvers decided the point against him ; the 
case was hearcf, and a sentence of ejection from the 
mastership ordered to be drawn up, but before it was 
executed the bishop of Ely died, ana the process lapsed. 

l*his process, though it had lasted nearly five years, 
was only a prologue to the great feud, the whole dura- 
tion of which was twenty-nine years. Space will not 
allow of its vicissitudes being here followed. It must 
suffice to say that Bentley was sentenced by the bishop 
of Ely (Greene) to be ejected from the mastership, and 
by Convocation to be stripped of his degrees, and that 
he foiled both the visitor and the university. 

Bentley survived the extinction of this thirty years* 
war, two years. Surrounded by his grandchildren, he 
experiencol the joint pressure of age and infirmity as 
ligntly as is consistent with the lot of humanity. He 
continued to amuse himself with reading ; and though 
nearly confined to his arm-chair, was able to enjoy the 
society of his friends, and several rising scholars, Mait- 
Ifundy Jolm Taylor, his nephews Richard and Thomas 



Bentley, with whom he discussed classical subjects. He 
was accustomed to say that he should live to be 80, add- 
ing that a life of that duration was long enough to read 
everything worth reading. 

Dr. Bentley married, in 1 701/f oanna, daughter of Sir 
John Bernaid of Brompton. Their union lasted forty 
years. Mrs. Bentley died in 1740, leaving a son, 
Richard, and two daughters, one ot whom married, in 
1728, Mr. Denison Cumberland, grandson of Richard 
Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, and father of 
Richard Cumberland, the dramatic author. Bentley is 
most imperfectly represented by any one of his books. 
They have all the same occasional stamp. If we try to 
form our idea of the man, not from this or that extem- 
pore effusion, but from all that he did or was, we shall 
find that Bentley was the first, periiaps the only Eng- 
lishman, who can be ranked with the great heroes of 
classical learning. Before him we have only Selden ta 
name, or, in a more restricted field, Gataker and Pear- 
son. But Selden, with stupendous learning, wanted 
that which Bentley shared with Scaliger or Wolf, the 
freshness of original genius and confident mastery over 
the whole region of his knowledge. " Bentley is not,** 
sa3rs M^y, ** one among the great classical scholars, 
but he inaugurates a new era of the art of criticism. 
He opened a new path. With him criticism attained 
its majority. When scholars had hitherto offered sug- 
gestions and cpnjectures, Bentley, with unlimited con- 
trol over the whole material of learning, gave decisions." 
The modern German school of philology, usually so 
unjust to foreigners, yet does ungrudging homage to 
the genius of this one Englishman. &ntley, sa3rs 
Bunsen, ** was the founder of^historical philology." 

BENZOIC ACID, an organic acki present in large 
quantity in gum benzoin, and found also in dragoiTs 
blood (the resin of Caiamus Draco) and some allied 
substances. It is, besides, prepared by numerous re- 
actions from organic substances, being now largelv 
made from naphthalin, one of the products of the distil- 
lation of coal tar. Benzoic acid is extracted, from gum 
benzoin by the process of sublimation. The resin, 
coarsely powderea, is submitted to a heat of 300^ Fahr. 
in a close vessel, by which the acid is expelled and may 
be condensed in receivers. By the sublimation process 
the acid carries away with it a small portion of essential 
oil, which gives its peculiar sweet odor to sublimed 
benzoic acid. 

BENZOIN, Gum, sometimes called Gum Benjamin, 
a fragrant gum- resin obtained from Styrax Benzoin^ a 
tree of considerable size, a nadve of Sumatra and Java, 
and introduced into Siam, Borneo, &c The gum-resin 
is obtained by making incisions in the bark of trees 
after they have attained six years of age, when the ben- 
zoin exudes, and after hardening in the air is carefully 
scraped off with a knife. A tree produces on an aver- 
age about 3]b. annually for 10 or 12 years. The pro- 
duce of the first three years is known as *<head" benzoin, 
and is esteemed the finest and most valuable \ that pro- 
duced in later 3rears goes by the name of **belly*' ben- 
zoin ; and after the trees are cut down a small quantity 
of a dark-colored and very inferior quality is obtained, 
which is called ** foot" benzoin. In medicine benzoin is 
seldom administered except as an adjunct to pectoral 
medicines. A compound tincture of benzoin is applied 
to flabby ulcers, and to excised wounds after the edges 
have been brought together. In these connections 
benzoin has a popular reputation under the name of 
Friars' or Monks' Balsam, which is a compound tinct- 
ure of benzoin, and it forms an ingredient in court or 
black sticking-plaster. Benzoin diminishes the tendency 
towards rancidity in fats, a circumstance turned to «C* 
count ia the Adept btnaoaihM of pbarmacr. 



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b£rANGER, PntnnB Jean de, the national tong- 
writer'of France, was bom at Paris on the 19th August 
l^8a The aristocntic |)article before the name was a 
piece of groundlest vanity on the part of his father, 
which the poet found useful as a distinction. He was 
descended, in truth, from a country innkeeper on the one 
tide, and, on the other, from a tailor in the Rue Mon- 
torgiieiL Of education, in the narrower sense, he had 
bat little. From the roof of his first school he beheld 
the capture of the Bastille, and this stirring memory was 
all that he acquired. Later on he passea some time in 
m school at Peronne, founded by one Bellenglise on the 
principles of Rousseau, where the bojrs were formed 
into ctubs and regiments, and taught to play solenmly 
atoolitics and war. B^ranger was president of the 
duD, made speeches before such members of CouTen- 
tion as passea through P^ronne, and drew up addresses to 
Tallien or Rob^ierre at Paris. In the meanwhile he 
learned neither Greek nor Latin — not eren French, it 
would appear ; for it was after he left school, from the 
printer Laisney, that he acquired the elements of gram- 
mar. His true education was of another sort In his 
childhood, shy, sickly, and skilful with his hands, as he 
aat home alone to carve cherry stones, he was already 
forming for himself those habits of retirement and 
patient elaboration which influenced the whole tenor 
of his life and the character of all that he wrote. At 
P^ronne he learned of his good aunt to be a stout 
republican : and from the doorstep of her inn, on quiet 
evenings, he would listen to the thunder of the 
guns l^ore Valenciennes, and fortify himself in his 
bassionate love of France and distaste for all things 
foreign. Although he could never read Horace save m 
a translation, be had been educated in Telemaque^ 
Racine, and the dramas of Voltaire, and taught, from 
a chikl, in the tradition of all that is highest and most 
correct in French. 

After serving his aunt for some time in the capacity 
of waiter, and oassing some time also in the printing 
office of one Laisney, he was taken to Paris by his 
father. Here he saw much low speculation and many 
low royalist intrigues. In 1802, in consequence of a dis- 
tressing quarrel, he left his father and began life for 
himselfin the garret of his ever memorable song. For 
two years he did literary hackwork, when he could get 
it, and wrote pastorals, epics, and all manner of am- 
bitious failures. At the end of that period (1804) he 
wrote to Lucien Bonaparte, enclosing some of these 
attempts. He was then in bad health, and in the last 
stage of misery. His watch was pledged. His ward- 
roM consisted of one pair of boots, one greatcoat, one 
pair of trousers with a hole in the knee, and ** three bad 
shirts which a friendly hand wearied itself in endeavoring 
to mend." The friendly hand was that of Judith Fr^re, 
with whom he had been already more or less acquainted 
since 1796, and who continued to be his faithful com- 
panion until her death, three months before his own, 
in 1857. She must not be confounded with the Lisette 
of the songs; the pieces addressed to her {La Bonne 
VieilU^ Aiaudit Printemps, &c. ) are in a very different 
vein. Lucien Bonaparte interested himself in the young 
poet, transferred to nim his own pension of 1000 francs 
from the Institute, and set him to work on a Death of 
Nero. Five jrears later, through the same patronage, 
although indirectly, B6ranger became a clerk m the uni- 
versity at a salary of another thousand. 

Meanwhile he had vnritten many songs for convivial 
occasions, and ** to console himself under all misfortunes ; ^ 
some, according to M. Boiteau, had been already pub- 
lished by his father ; but he set no great store on tnem 
himself; and it was ouly in 1812, while watching by the 
Mck-bed of a friend, that it occurred to him to write 



down the best he could remember. Next year he wis 
elected to the Caveau Moderne, and his reputatioo as a 
song-writer began to spread. Manuscript copies of Ler 
Gueux^ Le SMateur^ above all of Z/ koi er Yvetai, a 
satire against Napoleon, whom he was to magnify so 
much in the sequel, passied from hand to hand with ac- 
clamation. It was tnus that all his best works weat 
abroad ; one man sang them to another over all the laad 
of France. He was the only poet of m'odem times who 
coukl alt6gether have dispensed with printing. 

His first collection escaped censure. **We most 
ptfdon many things to the author of the Roi d ' Yvrtd/' 
said Louis XVIIL The second ( 1821) was more daring. 
The apathy of the Liberal camp, he says, had coovinced 
hini of the need for some bugle call of awakening. 
This publication lost him his situation in the uniyersity, 
and subjected him to a trial, a fine of 500 francs, and an 
imprisonment of three months. Imprisonment was a 
snudl affair for B^ranger. At Sainte P61aeie he occ opi ed 
a room (it had just been quitted by Paul Louis Conner), 
warm, well-furnished, and preferable in every wa^ to 
his own poor lodging, where the water frose on winter 
ni^ts. He adds, on the occasion of hb second im- 
prisonment, that he found a certain charm in this quiet, 
dobteral existence, with its regular hours and long 
evenings alone over the fire. This second imprisonnient 
of nine months, together with a fine and expenses 
amounting to 1100 francs, followed on the i^ypearance 
of his fourth collection. The Government proposed 
through Lafhtte that, if he would submit to me iodf- 
ment without appearing or making defences, he snoold 
only be condemned in the smallest penalty. But his 
public spirit made him refuse the prdposid ; and he 
would not even ask permission to pass his term ct 
imprisonment in a Maison de Santi^ although his health 
was more than usually feeble at the time. ** When 
you have taken your stand in a contest with Goyem- 
ment, it seems to me,** he wrote, "ridiculous to com- 
plain of the blows it inflicts on you, and impolitic to 
furnish it with any occasion of generosity." ilis first 
thought in La Force was to alleviate the condition of the 
other prisoners. 

In tne revolution of July he took no inconsiderable 
part. Copies of his song, Le Vieux Drapeau^ were 
served out to the insurgent crowd. He had been for 
long the intimate friend and adviser of the leading men; 
and during the decisive week his counsels went a good 
way towards shaping the ultimate result ** As for the 
republic, that dream of my whole life,** he wrote in 1831, 
** I did not wish it shoiUd be given to us a second time 
unripe.** Louis Philippe, hearing how much the song- 
writer had done towards his elevation, expressed a wiu 
to see and speak with him ; but B^ranger refused to 
present himself at court, and used his favor only to ask 
a place for a friend, and a pension for Rouget oe Plsle, 
author of the famous Marseillaise, who was now old 
and poor, and whom he had been adready succoring for 
five years. 

In 184K, in spite of every possible expression of his 
reluctance, he was elected to tne assembly, and that by 
so hirge a number of votes (4471) that he felt himself 
obli^ to accept the office. Not long afterwards, and 
with great difficulty, he obtained leave to resign. This 
was the last public event of B^ran^er's life. He con- 
tinued to polish his songs in retirement, visited by 
nearly all tne famous men of France. He numbered 
amone his friends Chateaubriand, Thiers, Laffitte, 
Michelet, Lamennais, Mignet. Nothing could exceed 
the amiability of his private character ; so poor a man 
has rarely been so ricn in good actions ; he was alwa^ 
ready to receive help from his friends when he was m 
need, and always forward to help others. His ooa^ 



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spondeace is fall of wisdom and Isindness, with a smack 
CM Montaigne, and now and then a vein of pleasantry 
tba* will remind the English reader of Charies Lamb. 
He occupied some of his leisure in preparing his own 
memoirs, and a certain treatise on Socio/ and Political 
Aforality, intended for the people, a work he had much 
at heart, but judged at last to be beyond his strength. 
Fie died on the 16th July 1857. It was feared that his 
funeral would be the signal for some poUtical disturb- 
ance ; but the Government took immediate measures, 
and all went quietly. The streets of Paris were lined 
'With soldiers and full of townsfolk, silent and uncovered. 
From time to time cries arose : ** Honneur^ Honneur d 
Sirangerr^ 

BEkAR, a province of British India, forming a Com- 
missionership. Area, about 17,500 square miles; po- 

Sulation, 2^ millions. The province consists of the 
Lstricts assigned to the British Government by the 
Niz^un of Haklar&b^, under the treaties of 1853 and 
1 861. These districts are Amdoti, Elichpur^ Wun, 
Akoli, Buld&nd, and Bdsim. Berrar province is bounded 
on the N. and E. by the Central provinces, on the S. 
by the Nizdm's dominions, and on the W. by the 
Nizim's territory, the Bombay district of Khandesh, 
and by the Centrid Provinces. The Ajanti range inter- 
sects the whole province from W. to E., and divides it 
into two distinct sections — the Payan^hdt or lowland 
country, bounded on the N. by the G&wilgarh range of 
the Sdtpurd hills, which form the northern boundary 
between Berar and the Central Provinces, and on the S. 
by the Ajanti range, and the Bdldghdt or upland coun- 
try of the Ajanti hills, occupying the whole southern 
part of the province. The Payangh4t is a wide valley 
running up eastward between the Ajantd range and the 
G&wilgarh hills, from 40 to 50 miles in breadth. This 
tract contain^ all the best land in Berar, it is full of 
deep, rich, black alluvial soil, called regdr^ of almost in- 
exhaustible fertility, and it undulates just enough to 
maintain a natural system of drainage. Here and there 
are barren tracts where the hills jut out far into the 
plain, covered with stones and scrub jungle, or where a 
few isolated flat-topi5ed hills occur. There is nothing 
picturesque about this broad strip of alluxoal country, it 
IS destitute of trees except near tne villages close under 
the hills ; and apart from the Pumd, which intersects it 
from east to west, it has hardly a perermial stream. In 
the early autumn it is one sheet of cultivation, but after 
the beginning of the hot season, when the crops have 
been gathered, its monotonous plain is relieved by 
neither verdure, shade, nor water. The aspect of the 
country above the passes which lead to the Bdldghdt is 

?|uite aifferent The trees are finer and the groves more 
requent than in the vjilley l)elow ; water is more plenti- 
ful and nearer to the surface. The highlands fall south- 
wards towards the ,Nizam's country by a gradual series 
of ridges or steppes. The principal rivers of the pro- 
vince are the Taptf, which forms a portion of its north- 
western boundary; the Purnd, which intersects the val- 
ley of the Payanghdt ; the Wardhd, forming the whole 
western boundary line ; and the Pdin-gangd, marking 
the southern boundary for nearly its whole distance. 
The only natural lake is the Salt Lake of Sundr. There 
are no large tanks or artificial reservoirs. 

The early history of Berar belongs to that of the 
Deccan. The province suffered repeated invasions of 
Mahometans from the north, and on the collapse of the 
Bdhmani dynasty in 1526, Berar formed cme of the five 
kingdoms under independent Mahometan princes, into 
which the Deccan split up. In the beginning of the 
seventeenth century the province was invaded by Prince 
Murad Mirza, son of the Emperor Akbar, and annexed 
to the Dehli empire. 1 1 dkl not long enjoy the blessings 
18^ 



of tranauUlitv, for on the rise of the Maihattd power 
about 1650, tne province became a favorite fiekl of plun- 
der. In 167 1 tne Marhattd general, Pratip R&o, ex- 
tended his ravages as far east as Karinjd, and exacted 
from the village officers a pledge to pay chauth. In 
1704 things had reached their worst; the Marhattds 
swarmed tnrough Berar *' like ants or locusts," and laid 
bare whole districts. They were expelled in 1704 by 
Zulfikdr Khan, one of Aurangzeb's best generals, but 
they returned incessantly, levying black-mauin the shape 
of chauth and sardeshmukkl, with the alternative of 
fire and sword. Upon the death of Aurangzeb the 
Marhattds consolidated their predominance in Berar, 
and in 181 7 their demand for chauth^ or a fourth, and 
sardeshmukhi^ or a tenth of the revenue of the province^ 
was conceded bry the governor. But in 1720-24 the 
viceroy of the Deccan, under the title of Nizam-ul- 
mulk, gained his independence by a series of victories 
over the imperial ^^erals, and from that time till its 
cession to England in 1853, Berar was always nominally 
subject to the Haidardbdd dynasty. The Marhatti 
rulers posted their officera all over the province, they 
occupied it with their troops, they collected more than 
half the revenue, and they fousht among themselves 
for possession of the right to collect ; but with the ex- 
ception of a few fargands ceded to the Peshwi, the 
Niz&m maintained nis title as de jure sovereign of the 
country, and it was always admitted by the >farhatt^ 
In the Marhattd war of 180'}, the British under General 
Wellesley, afterwards the duke of Wellington, assisted 
by the Nizam, crushed the Marhattd power in this part 
of the country, by utterly defeating them at Are&on 
on the 28th November 1803, and a few days after- 
wards at G&wilgarh. On the 19th December 1803 
the Marhatt& chief signed a treaty, in which he resigned 
idl daim to territory and revenue west of the Wardh&, 
but retained Namald and Gdwilgarh in his posses- 
sion. Yij this treaty the whole of Berar was made 
over in pepetual sovereignty to the Niz&m. From that 
time till 1848 the history of the province consists of a 
long list of internal dissentions and dvil wars. These 
troubles reduced the state to the verge of bankru]>tc7. 
The pay of the Niz&m's irregular force, maintained 
under the treaty of 1800, fell into arrears, and had to be 
advanced by the British Government There were also 
other unsatisfied claims of the Government on the Niztoi, 
and in 1853 his whole debt amounted to ;f45o,ooa 
Accordin^y, in that year a new treaty was concluded 
with the Niz&m, under which the existin^^ Haklarib^d 
contin|;ent force is maintained by the Bntish Govern- 
ment, in lieu of the troops whicn the Nizfim had been 
previously bound to furnish on demand in time of war ; 
while for the payment of this contingent and other 
claims on the Nizim, districts then yielding a gross 
revenue of /5oo,ooo per annum, mcluding the present 
province of Berar, were assigned to that Government 

Bl^RARD, Fr^d^ric, a French physician and 
writer on psychology, was bom at Montpiemer in 17^ 
and died in 1828, at the early age of 39. 

BERBER, or El-Mecheref, a town of considerable 
size on the east bank of the Nile, some distance below 
the confluence of the Atbara, in about 18^ N. lat. and 
yp E. long. It is of importance as one of the main 
stations on the direct route from Khartoum to Cairo, 
and as the starting place of caravans for Suakin, on the 
eastern coast 

BERBERA, one of the most important se«)orts on 
the coast of the Somali country, in East Africa, 160 
miles E.S.E. of Zeyla, and nearty opposite Aden. It 
seems at one time to have been a town of some size, as 
there are still remains of an aqueduct extending inland 
for several miles ; but its permanent inhabitants hafe ^ 



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a long period been very few. From November to 
April, nowevcr, it becomes the general resort of from 
ten to twenty thousand persons from all the neighbor- 
ing countries. 

BERBICE, the eastern division of British Guiana. 
Sec Guiana. 

BERCHEM, or Berghem, Nicholas, an eminent 
painter, bom at Haarlem in 162A. He received instruc- 
tion from his father, and from tnc painters Van Goyen, 
Wils, and Weeninx. His pictures, of which he pro- 
duced an immense numlKT, were in great demand, as 
were also his etchings and drawings. His landscapes 
are highly esteemed ; and many of them have been finely 
engraved byjohn Visscher, an eminent artist in his 
own line. Tne distinguishing characteristics of Ber- 
chem*s works are — breadih and iust distribution of 
lights, grandeur of masses of shadow, truth and sim- 
plicity of the figures, just gradation of distances, brill- 
iancy and transparency of coloring, correctness of design, 
and elegance of composition. He died in 1683. 

BERCHTESGADEN, or Berchtolsgaden, a small 
town, beautifully situated on the south-eastern confines 
of Bavaria, and long celebrated for its extensive mines of 
rock-salt, which were worked as early as 11 74. 

BERDIANSK, a seaport town of Russia, in the 
government of Taurida, situated on the north-west 
shore of the Sea of AzofT, near the entrance of the 
River Berdianka into the Berdiansk Gulf. 

BERDICHEFF, a town of Russian- Poland, in the 
government of Kieff, 24 miles from Jitomir, on the 
Gnilopyat, and not far from the borders of Volhynia, to 
which It historically belongs. 

BERENGARIUS, a celebrated mediaeval theologian, 
was bom at Tours, 998 A.D. He was educated in the 
famous school of Fulbert of Chartres, and early 
acquired a great reputation for learning, ability, and 

Sicty. Appointed in 1031 superintendent of the cathe- 
ral school of his native ^ city, he taught with such 
success as to attract pupils from all parts of France, 
and powerfully contributed to diffuse an interest in the 
study of logic and metaphysics, and to introduce that 
dialectic development of theology which is designated the 
scholastic. About 1040 Berengar was made archdeacon 
of Angers. It was shortly after this that rumors began 
to spread of his holding neretical views regarding the 
sacrament of the supper. He had submitted the doc- 
trine of transubstantiation (already generally received 
both by priests and people, although it had been first 
unequivocally taught ana reduced to a regular theory by 
Pascnasius Radbert only in 831^ to an independent 
examination, and had come to tne conclusion that it 
was contrary to reason, unwarranted by Scripture, and 
inconsistent with the teachings of men like Ambrose, 
Jerome, and Aagustine. He did not conceal this con- 
viction from his scholars and friends, and through them 
the report spread widely that he denied the common 
doctrine respecting the Eucharist. His early friend and 
school companion, Adelmann, archdeacon of lie^, 
wrote to him letters of expostulation on the subject of 
this report in 1046 and 1048 ; and a bishop, Hugo of 
Langres, wrote (about 1049) a refutation of the views 
which he had himself heard Berengar express in con- 
versation. Berengar's belief was not shaJcen by their 
arguments and exhortations, and hearing that Lanfranc, 
the most celebrated theologian of that age, strongly 
approved the doctrine of Paschasius and condemned that 
of Ratramnus, he wrote to him a letter expressing his 
surprise, and uiging him to reconsider the question. The 
letter arriving at Bee when Lanfranc was absent at Rome, 
was sent after him, but was opened before it reached him, 
and brought under the notice of Pope Leo IX. Because 
of it Berengar was condenmed as a heretic, without being 



heard, at t syBOd tt Rome and another at VerceOi, botk 
held in 105a His enemies in France cast him into 
prison ; but the bishop of Angers and other powerfal 
friends, of whom he nad a considerable number, hjKl 
sufficient influence to procure his release. At the 
Council of Tours (1054) he found a protector in the 
Papal legate, the famous Hildebrana, who, satisfied 
himself with the fact that Berengar did not deny the 
real presence of Christ in the sacramental elements, suc- 
ceeded in persuading the assembly to be content with 
a general confession from him that the bread and wine, 
after consecration, were the body and blood of the Lord, 
without requiring him to define how. Trusting in Hil- 
debrand*s support, and in the justice of his own cavse, 
he presented nimself at the Synod of Rome in 1050» bat 
found himself surrounded by fierce and superstitions 
zealots, who forced him by the fear of death to signify 
his acceptance of the doctrine ** that the bread and wine, 
after consecration, are not merely a sacrament, bnt the 
true body and the true blood of Christ, and that ^is 
l)ody is touched and broken by the hands of the priests, and 
ground by the teeth of the faithful, not merely in a sacra- 
mental but in a real manner. " He had no sooner done so 
so than he bitterly repented his weakness ; and acting, as 
he himself says, on the principle ** to take an oath which 
never ought to have been taken is to estrange one's self 
from God, but to retract what one has wrongfully sworn 
to, is to retum back to God,'* when be got safe again 
into France he attacked the transubstantiation theory 
more vehemently than ever. He continued for about 
sixteen years to disseminate his views by writinc; and 
teaching, without being directly interfered with by 
either his civil or eclesiastical superiors, greatly to 
the scandal of the multitude and of the zealots, in 
whose eyes Berengar was "ille apostolus Satanse," and 
the acacfemy of Tours the *• Babylon nostri temporis.* 
An attempt was made at the Council of Poitiers in 
1075 to allay the agitation caused by the controversy, 
but it faileo, and Berengar narrowly escaped death 
in a tumult raised by fanatics. Hildebrand, now Gr^ory 
VII., next summoned him to Rome, and, in a synod 
held there m 1078, tried once more to obtain a dedara- 
tion of his orthodoxy by means of a confession of faith 
drawn up in general terms; but even this strong-minded 
and strong-willed Pontiff, although sincerehr anxious to 
befriend tne persecuted theologian, and fully alive to 
the monstrous character of the dogma of trasub- 
stantiation as propounded by Pope Nicholas II. and 
Cardinal Humbert at the synod held in 1059, was at 
length forced to jrield to the demands of the multitude, 
and its leaders ; and in another synod at Rome (io7^),\ 
finding that he was only endangering his own position 
and reputation, he turned unexpectedly upon Berengar 
and commanded him to confess that he had erred in not 
teaching a change as to substantial reality of the sacra- 
mental bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. 
"Then," sajrs Berengar, "confounded by the sudden 
madness of the Pope, and b^iause God in punishment 
for my sins dki not give me a steadfast heart, I threw 
myself on the ground, and confessed with im{uous voice 
that I had erred, fearing the Pope would instantly pro- 
nounce against me the sentence of condemnation, and. 
as a necessary consequence, that the populace would 
hurry me to the worst of deaths. »* He was kindly dis- 
missed by the Pope not long after, with a letter recom- 
mending him to tne protection of the bishops of Tours 
and Angers, and another pronouncing^ anatnema on all 
who should do him any injury or call him a heretic He 
returned home overwhelmed with shame and bowed down 
with sorrow for having a second time been guilty of a 
great impiety. He immediately recalled his torced con- 
fession, and besought all Christian men ** to pray for hrn^ 



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919 



so that his tears might secure the pity of the Ahnighty." 
He now saw, however, that the spirit of the a^e was 
against him, smd hopelessly given over to the belief of what 
he had combated as a delusion. H e withdrew, therefore, 
into solitude, and passed the rest of his life in retirement 
and prayer on the island of St. Cdme near Tours. He 
died there in 1088. In Tours his memory was held in 
great respect, and a yearly festival at hb tomb long 
commemorated his saintly virtues. 

Berengar left behind him a considerable number of 
followers. All those who in the Middle Ages denied 
the substantial presence of the body and blocxl of Christ 
in the Eacharist were commonly designated Berenga- 
rians. 

BERENICE, an ancient city on the western shore of 
the Red Sea, near the head of the Sinus Immundus or 
Foul Bay. 

BERENICE, the name of several Egyptian and Jew- 
ish princesses. The two most general^^ known are— ^ 

1. Berenice, the daughter of Magus, king of ^rene,* 
and the wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, of Egypt During 
her husband's absence on an expedition to Syria, she 
dedicated her hair to Venus for his safe return, and 
placed it in the temple of the goddess of Zephjrrium. 
The hair having by some unknown means disappeared, 
Conon, the miuhematician, explained the phenomenon 
in courtly phrase, saying that it had been carried to the 
heavens and placed among the stars. The name Coma 
Berenices applied to a constellation, commemorates this 
incident Only a few lines remain of the poem in which 
CaHimachus celebrated the transformation, but there is 
a fine translation of it by Catullus. 

2. Berenice, daughter of Agrippa I., king of Judaea, 
and bom probably about 28 A. d. She was first married 
to her ancle, Herod, after whose death she lived for 
some years with her brother Agrippa, nor without scan- 
daL Her second husband was Polemo, kine of Cilicia, 
but she soon deserted him, and return^ again to 
Agrippa, with whom she was living when Paul appeared 
before him at Caesarea. During the devastation of Judaea 
by the Romans, she fascinated Titus, whom she accom- 
panied to Rome, and who would willingly have married 
ner had it not been for the hatred cherished by the peo- 
ple against the Jewish race. 

BEREZINA, a river of Russia, in the government 
of Minsk, forming a tributary of the Dnieper. It rises 
in the nuurshes of Boresoff, and has a course of more 
than 330 miles, for the most part through low-lying but 
well-wooded country. 

BEREZOFF, a town of Asiatic Russia, capital of a 
circle ip Tobolsk, 700 miles N. of that dty, situated on 
three hills on the left bank of the Sosna, 13 miles above 
its mouth, ajnd on the Bogul, a tributary cf the Sosna. 
In 1742 General Osterman was sent to BerezofT with 
his wife and died therein 1747. In 1782 the town was 
raised to the rank of chief town of a district of the 
Tobolsk government In 1808 it was burned down. 

BERG {Ducatus Montensis)^ a former duchy of 
Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, bounded on 
the N. by the duchy of Cleves, E by the countship of 
Mark and duchy of Westphalia, and on the S. and W. 
py the bishopric of Cologne. The district was raised 
*n 1 108 to the rank of a countship, but did not become 
• duchy till the 14th centurv, after it had passed into 
^he possession of the Jiilich family. On the extinction 
of this house in 1609, Austria laid claim to the duchy 
•J «n imperial fief; but, in keeping with the wishes of 
the inhanitants, it was administered conjointly by the 
Rectors of Saxony and Brandenburg and the Elector 
Palatine till 1624, when by the Diisseldorf treaty the 
[Mt of the three obtained the sole authority. In 1806 
u was bestowed by Napoleon, along with the dochy of 



Geves and other possessions, on Murat, who bore the 
title of grand duke of Berg; and after Murat't deva- 
tion to the throne of Naples, it was transferred to 
Louis, the son of the king of Holland. By the Con- 
gress of Vienna in 1815 it was made over to Prussia, 
and now forms a flourishing part of her territory. 

BERGAMA, a town of Asia Minor, with 2500 in- 
habitants. See Pergamus. 

BERGAMO, a northern province of Italy, bounded 
on the N. by Sondrio, E. by Tyrol and Brescia, S. by 
Cremona, and W. by Milan and Como. To the N. and 
W. of Lake Iseo there are numerous mineral wells, the 
most important of which are those of Trescoro. Mar- 
ble is abundant in the mountains, and there are valua- 
able iron mines. At an early period the wealth of the 
capital appears to have beenmcreased by the working of 
the copper mines in the district 

Br EG AMD, the capital of the above province, is situ- 
ted between the Brembo and Serio, two tributaries of 
the Adda, 39 miles N.E of Milan, on the railwajr that 
runs from Venice to the Lake of Como. It consists of 
a new and an old town, the latter known as the Cittd, 
or city, being built on a hill, while the former, or Borgo 
S. Leonardo^ occupies the level ground below. It dates 
from the loth century, and is of great importance, es- 
pecially for the silk trade. Ber^mo, or Bergomum^ 
was a municipal town during the Roman empire, and, 
after being destroyed by Attila, became one of the most 
flourishine cities of the Lombard kings, who made it 
the capital of a duchy. In the 15th century it was ap- 
propriated and fortified by the Venetians. In ij$09 it 
was occupied by Louis XII. of France, who retamed it 
for seven years, and then restored it to Venice. In 
1796 the French again made themselves masters of the 
city, and coustituted it the capital of their department 
of Serio. Bergamo was the birthplace of Tiraboschi, 
Rubini, and Doitizetti. 

BERGAMOT, Oil of, an essential oil obtamed from 
the rind of the fruit of a ^)ecies of Citrus^ rewded by 
Risso as C. bergamia^ but not generally beueved to 
constitute a distmct species. The bergamot is a small 
tree with leaves and flowers like the bitter orange, and 
a round fruit nearly 3 mches in diameter, with a thin 
lemon-yellow smooth rind. The oil is now obtained by 
placing several finits in a saucer-shaped apparatus, the 
surface of which is cut into radiating sharp-edged 
grooves. Against the sharp edges of this oish the 
n*uits are rapidly revolved by means of a heavy cover 
placed above it, which is moved by a cog wheeL 
The oil vessels are ruptured by pressure against 
the knife edges, and the oil which exudes Calls through 
small perforations in the bottom into a vessel placed 
underneath. It is allowed to rest till a greasy sub- 
stance — bergamot camphor — dep^osits, after which it ti 
bottled for use. Bergamot Oil is a limpid greenish- 
yellow fluid of a specific gravity of a869, of a oowerful 
but pleasant citnne odor and an arromatic oitterish 
taste. The chief use of bergamot oil is in perfumeiy 
and as a flavoring material in cookery. 

BERGEN, a city and seaport on the west coast of 
Norway, c^tal of the province of Sooth Bergen. It ia 
situated on a rocky promontory at the bead of a deep 
bay called the Vaag, has a fine harbor with two good 
entrances, and is surrounded by hills, some of which at- 
tain the height of 2000 feet Berfi|en has a consider- 
able export trade, which consists of stockfish, lobsters, 
fish-roes, herring whale oU, horns, sldns, rock moss, 
and timber and is chie^ carried on with the northern 
countries of Europe. Beigen was founded in the nth 
centunr by Olaf the PeacefiU, kmg of Norway. 

BERGEN-OP-ZOOM, a town of Holland, in thepro- 
vince of North Brabooty titoated on both sidea otdM 



920 



BER 



River Zoom, nctr its conflaence wMi the East Scheldt 
It is about IS miles N. of Antwerp, and 22 W.S. W. of 
Breda. 

BERGERAC, the chief town of an arrondissement 
in the department of Dordoene, in France, situated in a 
fertile plain, 30 miles S.S.W. of P^rigueux, 

BERGEN POINT, a railroad and telegraph town 
in Hudson County, N. Y. It has some commercial 
interest Pop. 5,00a 

BERGMANN, TORBBRN Olop, Swedish chemist 
and naturalist, was bom at Catherinbere, West Goth- 
land, in 1735. At the age of seventeen he entered the 
University of Upsala, and distinguished himself by ex- 
traordinary assiduity in study, directing his attention 
more particularly to the natural sciences. During a 
residence at home rendered necessaiy byhis weak health, 
he employed himself in collecting specimens of insects 
and plants, which he forwarded to Linnaeus, who was 
much pleased with them. In 1756 he gained great repu- 
tation by his memoir on the Coccus aguaticus^ which, 
contrary to the opinion of Linnaeus, he proved to be 
nothing but the ovum of a certain species of leech. 
Some years later he was made professor of physics at 
Upsala, and published numerous scientific memoirs. In 
1767 the chair of chemistry and mineralogy having be- 
come vacant through the resignation of Wallerius, 
Bergmann resolved to become a candidate. He had 
njt hitherto devoted special attention to chemistry, but 
in a very short period oy incredible application he pro- 
duced as evidence of his fitness for the post a paper on 
the composition of alum, which is still regarded as a 
masterpiece. He appointed to the chair, which he 
held till his death in 7&^ In 1776 he had declmed an 
offer from the king of Prussia inviting him to settle in 
Berlin. Bergmann was an unusually acute and saga- 
cious analytical chemist, and made extensive and con- 
stant use of the laboratory. He described very carefully 
the properties of carbonic acid gas, and gave a valuable 
analysis of mineral waters. His researches in mineral- 
ogy, to which he applied his geometrical knowledge, 
were even more imf>ortant, and led the way to Hauy*s 
discovery and clas'-ification. The theory of elective or 
chemical affinities, which he worked out very fully, has 
had great influence in the history of chemistry. 

BERKELEY, a market-town in the county of Glou- 
cester, near the River Severn, on the Midland Rail- 
way. 

BERKELEY, George, bishop of Cloyne, one of 
the most subtle and original English metaphysicians, 
was bom on the 12th March 1685, at Dysert castle, on 
the banks of the Nore, about two miles below Thoma-- 
town, Ireland. Not much is known of his family, who 
seem to have been connected with the noble English 
house of the same name. From his own account, and 
from the few notices of contemporaries, we can gather 
that his was a mind of peculiar subtilety,keen to probe 
to the very foundation any fact presented to it, and res- 
olutely determined to rest satisfied with no doctrine 
which had only the evidence of authority or custom, 
and wc:; not capable of being realized in conscious- 
ness. Of the greatest importance for the development 
of his rare powers in a definite direction was the gen- 
eral conr^ition of thought at the time of his residence at 
Dublin. The older text-books of physics and philoso- 
phy were no doubt in use (Dublin in this respect has 
always been conservative), but alongside of tnem the 
influences of the new modes of thinkmg were stream- 
ing in. The opposed physical systems of Descartes 
and Newton had begun to fee known ; the new and pow- 
erful calculus was being handled ; the revolution in met- 
aphysical speculation inaugurated by Descartes had 
reached Dublin ; and, above aU, the first great English 



work on pore j>hflosopliy, the Bnay of Lodce, bad 
been translated mto Latin, and its doctrines were being 
eagerly and minutely discussed by the youn^ Trinirf 
CoUep students. Add to this the undoubted mflneoce 
exercised by the presence in Dublin of such men as the 
university provost, Peter Browne, afterwards Inshop of 
Cork, and King, archbishop of I>ublin firom 1703, and 
it will be readuy seen that Berkdey, to use Professor 
Eraser's words, "entered an atmosphere which was 
beginning to be charged with the elements of reaction 
against traditional scholasticism in physics and meta- 
physics." 

Althou||h more competent than any man of lus time 
to apprecute these new movements of thought, Berke- 
ley Old not neglect the routine work of the nniversity. 
He had a distinguished career, was made scholar m 
1702, took his RA. d^ee in 1704, and obtained a fel- 
lowship in 1707. 

He soon b^an to appear as an author. In 1707 he 
publi^ed two short tracts on mathematics, and in 1709 
the New Theory of Vision^ in which he applied his new 
principle, though without stating it expUatJy. The new 
theory is a critical esumiination of the true meaning of 
the externality which is apparently given in visual con- 
sciousness, and which, to the impnw>sophical mind, is 
the strongest evidence of the inaependent existence of 
outer objects. Such Tisual consciousness is shown to 
be ultimately a system of arbitrary signs, symbolising for 
us certain actual or possible tactual experience — in Tact, 
a language which we learn through custom. The dif- 
ference between the contents of the vbual and tactual 
consciousness is absolute; they have no element in 
common. The visible and visual signs are definitely 
connected with tactual experiences, and the assodatioo 
between them, which has grown up in our minds 
through cnstdm or habit, rests upon, or is cnaaranteed 
by, the constant conjunction of the two by ic will of 
the Universal Mind. But this synthesis, whether on 
the objective side as the universal thought or coarse of 
nature, or on the subjective side as mental assodatioo, 
is not brought forwards prominently by Berkeley. It 
was at the same time perfectly evident that a quite 
similar analysis might have been applied to tactual con- 
sciousness, which does not give externality in its deepest 
signifiance any more than visual ; but it was with dcUb> 
erate purpose that Berkeley at first drew out only one 
side of his argument In 17 10 the new doctrine re- 
ceived its full statement in the Principles of Human 
Knowledge where externality in its ultimate sense as 
independenec of all mind is considered ; where matter, 
as an abstract, impercetved substance or cause, is shown 
to be an impossible and onreal conception; where true 
substance is affirmed to be conscious spirit, true caus- 
ality the free activity of such a spirit, while physical 
sutetantiality and causality in their new meaning are 
held to be merely arbitrary but constant relations 
among phenomena connected subjectively b^ sug- 

fcstion or assodatkm, conjoined objectively in the 
JniversalMind. In ultimate analysis, then, nature is 
conscious experience, and forms the sign or symbol of 
a divine, universal intelligence and wilL 

In the preceding 3rear Berkeley had been ordained as 
deacon, and in 17 11 he delivered his Discourse on Pas- 
sive Obedience^ in which he deduces moral rules from 
the intention of God to promote the general happiness, 
thus working out a theological utilitarianism, which 
may with advantage be compared with the later expon* 
tions of Austin and MilL From the year 1707 he had 
been eng^ed as college tutor; in 1712 he paid a short 
visit to England, and in April of the following year be 
was presented by Swift at court His splendid abilities 
and fine, courteous manners, combmed with the parity 

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92 1 



And npri^cness of his character, made him a universal 
favorite. While in London he published his Dialogues 
(I7I3)> ^ more popular exposition of his new theory ; for 
exquisite facility of style these are perhaps the finest 
philosophical writings in the Endish laoc^iace. In 
Novemoer of tlie same year he became chamain to 
Liord Peterborough, whom he accompanied on the Con- 
tinent, returning in August 1 7 14. tie travelled again 
in 1715 as tutor to the son of Dr. Ashe, and was absent 
from England for five years. On his way home he 
-wrote and sent to the French Academy the^ essay 
Z>€ Motti^ in which is given a fiill account of his new 
conception of causality, the fundamental and all-com- 
prehensive thought in his philosophy. In 1 721, during 
the dbturbed state of social relations consequent on the 
bursting of the great South Sea babble, he published an 
£ssav towards preventing the Ruin of Great Britain^ 
-which shows the intense interest he took in all practical 
aflairs.^ In the same year he returned to Ireland as 
chaplain to the duke of Grafton, and was made divinity 
lecturer and university preacher. In 1722 he was 
appointed to the deanery of Dromore, a post which 
seems to have entailed no duties, as we find him hold- 
ing the offices of Hebrew lecturer and senior proctor at 
the university. The following year brought him an 
unexpected addition of fortune. Miss Vanhomrigh, 
Swift's Vanessa, having left him half her property. It 
would appear that he had only met her once at dinner. 
In 1724 he was nominated to the rich deanery of 
Derry, but had hardly been appointed before he was 
using every eflfort to resign ir in order to devote 
himself to his enthusiastically conceived scheme of 
founding a college in the Bermudas, and extending 
its benefits to the Americans. With infinite exertion 
he succeeded in obtaining from Government a prom- 
ise of /■20,ooo, and, after four years spent in prepara- 
tion, sailed in September 1728, accompaniea hy 
some friends and by his wife, daughter of Judge For- 
stcr, whom he had married in the precedmg month. 
Their destination was Rhode Island, where they re- 
solved to wait for the promised grant from Govern- 
ment Three years of quiet retirement and study were 
spent in the island. Berkeley bought a farm, made 
many friends, and endeared himself to the inhabitants. 
But it gradually became apparent that Government 
would never hand over the promised grant, if indeed 
they had ever seriously contemplated doing so. Berke- 
ley was therefore compelled reluctantly to give up his 
dierished plan. Soon after his return he published the 
fruits of his quiet studies in Alciphron^ or the Minute 
FhHosopIier (1733), a fineljr written work in the form 
of dialogue, critically examining the various forms of 
free-thinking in the age, and brmging forward in anti- 
thesis to them his own theory, which shows all nature 
to be the language of God. The work was extremely 
popular. In 1734 he was raised to the bishopric of 
Cloyne, and at once went into residence. The same 
year, in his Analyst^ he attacked the higher mathematics 
M leading to freethinking ; this involved him in a hot 
controversy. The Querist^ a practical work in the 
form of questions on what would now be called social or 
economical philosophy, appeared in three parts, 173^, 
1736, 1737. In 1744 was published the Sir is ^ partly 
occasioned by the controversy with regard to tar-water, 
but rising far above the petty circumstances firom which 
it took its rise, and in its chain of reflections 
revealing the matured thoughts and wkle reading of its 
author, while opening up hidden depths in the Berke- 
leian metaphysics. In 17?! his eldest son died, and in 
1752 he removed with his uunily to Oxford for the sake 
ot his son George who was studying there. On the 
evening of the 14th January i753» lie expired soddettly 



and painlesslv in the midst of his family. And thus 
quietly closed one of the purest and most beautiful lives 
on record. His remains were deposited in Christ 
Church, Oxford. 

BERKHAMPSTEAD, Great, a market-town of 
England, in the county of Herts, twenty-six miles 
northwest of London, on the Junction canal and the 
North- Western railway. Population (1890), 5,00a 

BERKSHIRE, one of the southeastern counties of 
England, bounded on the northeast by Buckingham- 
shire, from which it is separated by the Thames; north 
by Oxfordshire and a small portion of Gloucester; west 
by Wilts; south by Hants; and southeast by Surrey. It 
is of a very irregular figure, extending from east to west 
fully sixty miles; whue from nortn to south, in its 
widest part, it is about thirty-five miles, and in its nar- 
rowest part, at Reading, not more than seven. Area, 
450,1^2 acres. Population (1890), 238,361. 

Berkshire is not a manufacturing county, although 
the woollen manufacture was introduced here as long 
a^o as the time of the Tudors. There are some paper- 
miUs, particularly in the neighborhood of Newbury, 
and an extensive biscuit manufactory at Reading. Tne 
chief trade consists in agricultural produce. 

Antiquities, both Roman and Saxon, are numerous 
in various parts of this county. Watling Street enters 
Berkshire from Bedfordshire at the village of Streatley, 
and leaves it at Newbury. Another Roman roM 
passes from Reading to Newbury, where it divides into 
two branches, one passing to Marlborough in Witt- 
shire, and the other to Cirencester in Gloucestershire 
A brandi of Ickfield Street ps^ses from Wallingford to 
Wantage. Near Wantage is a Roman camp, of a 
quadrangular form ; and there are other remains of en- 
campments at East Hampstead near Wokingham, at 
Pusey, on White-Horse HiU, and at Sinodun Hill, near 
Walhngford. At Lawrence Waltham there is a Ronum 
fort, and near Denchworth a fortress said to have been 
built by Canute the Dane, called Cherbury Castle. 
Barrows are very numerous in the downs in tne N. W. 
of the county, particularly between Lamboum and 
Wantage. Dragon Hill is supposed to have been the 
burying-place of a British prmce called Uther Pendra- 
gon, and near to it is Uffington Castle, supposed to be 
of Danish construction. On White- Horse Hill, in the 
same vicinity, is the rude figure of what is called a 
horse, although it bears a greater resemblance to a 
greyhound, ft has been formed by cutting away the 
turf and leaving the chalk bare. 

Berkshire comprehended the principality inhabited \ff 
the At rebates^ a tribe of people who originally migrated 
from Gaul. Under the Romans it formcxl part ol 
Britannia Prima^ and during the Saxon heptarchywas 
included in the kingdom of the West Saxons, vflm 
Alfred divided the country into shires, hundreds a|id 
parishes, it obtamed the name of Berocscire^ which njaa 
subseouently changed to that which it now bears. 

BERLm is the chief dty of the province of Branden^ 
burg, the capital of the kingdom of Prussia, and since 
1871 the metropolis of the German empire. 

The city is Duilt on what was originally in part a 
sandy and in part a marshy district on both sides of the 
River Spree, not far from its junction with the Havel, 
one of the principal tributaries of the Elbe. By its 
canals it has also direct water communication with the 
Oder. The Spree rises in the mountain region of Upper 
Lusatia, is navigable for the last 97 English miles otits 
course, enters Berlin on the S.E. as a broad sluggish 
stream, retaining an average width of 420 feet, and a 
depth of 6 or 7 feet, until it approaches the centre of the 
dty, where it has a sudden tail of 4 feet, and leaves the 
dty on the N.W., after reodymg the waters of the 
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Panke, again as a doll and sluggish straam, with an 
average width of only i6o feet, but with its depth 
increitfed to from 12 to 14 feet Within the boundaries 
of the city it feeds canals, and divides into branches, 
which, however, reunite. The river, with its canals and 
branches, is crossed by about Jo bridges, of which very 
few have have any claim to architecturid beau ty. Among 
these latter may be mentioned the Schlossbriicke, built 
after designs by Schinkel in the years 1822-24, with its 
eight colossal figures of white marble, representing the 
ideal stages of a warrior's career. The statues are for 
the most part of hieh artistic merit. They stand on 
granite pedestals, and are the work of Drake, Wolff, and 
other eminent sculptors. The KurfiirstenbrQcke is an- 
other bridge which merits notice, on account of the 
equestrian oronze statue of the Great Elector, by which 
it is adorned. 

Similar obscurity rests on the oridn of the city. The 
t^rpotheses which carried it back to the early years of the 
Qiristian era have been wholly abandoned. Even the 
Margrave Albert the Bear (d. 1 1 70) is no longer nnques- 
tioniu>ly regarded as its founder, and the tendency of 
opinion now is to date its origin from the time of his 
great-grandsons, Otho and John. When 6rst alluded 
to, what b now Berlin was spoken of as two towns. Coin 
and Berlin. The first authentic document concerning 
the former is from the year 1237, concerning the latter 
from the year 1244, and it is with these dates that the 
trustworthy histoiy of the city begins. Fidicin, in his 
Diplomatischt Beitra^e tur GeschichU derSictdt Berlin^ 
vol. iii., divides the history of the town, from its origin 
to the times of the Reformation, into three periods. The 
first of these, down to tlie jrear 1307, is the period dur- 
ing which the two towns had a separate administration ; 
the second, from 1307 to 1442, dates from the initiation 
of the joint administration of the two towns to its 
consummation. The third period extends from 1442 to 
i539» when the two towns embraced the reformed faith. 

In the year 156J the town had already a population of 
12,000. About nmety years later, after the close of the 
Thirty Years' War, it had sunk to 6000. At the death 
of the Great Elector in 1688, it had risen to 20,00a 
The Elector Frederick III., afterwards Kin^ Frederick 
I., sought to make it worthy of a royal " residence," to 
which rank it had been raised in 1 701. From that time 
onwards Berlin grew steadily in extent, splendor, and 
population. Frederick the Great found it, at his ac- 
cession in 1740, with 90,000 inhabitants. At the 
accession of Frederick William IV. in 1840 it had 331,- 
894, and the month of July 1874, thirty-four jrears later, 
the population had nearly trebled, the exact numbers 
in tnat year bein^ 949, 144. The two original townships 
of Cdln and Berlin have grown into the sixteen town- 
ahips into which the city is now divided, covering 
about 25 English square miles of Und, and Berlin now 
takes its pla^ as the fourth, perhaps the third, greatest 
city in Europe, surpassed only by Ix>ndon, Paris, and 
possibly Vienna. Its importance is now such that a bill, 
recently snbmitted by the Government to the consider- 
ation of the Legislature, proposed to raise it to the nuk 
of a province of the kingaom. 

Progress and prosperity have, however, been chequered 
by reverses and humiliation. The 17th century saw 
the Imperialists and Swedes, under Wallenstein and 
nnder Gnsuvus Adolphus, as enemies, within its walls ; 
(he i8th century, the Austrians and Russians, during the 
Seven Years' War; the 19th century. Napoleon I. and 
the French ; and the year 1848 witnessed the bloody 
■cenea of the March Revolution. But the development 
of constitutional government, and the triumphs ot 1866 
and 1870, have wiped out the memory of these dark 
spots m the histoiy of the Pmssian capital 



The town hat grown in splendor as it has in crmul ni 
ntunbers. 

Up to a very recent date Berlin was a walkd dtv. 
Those of its nineteen gales which still remain have only 
an historical or architectural interest. The principal of 
these is the Brandenburg Gate, an imitation of the 
Propylxa at Athens. It is 201 feet brood and near^ 
65 ieet high. It b supported by twelve Doric columns, 
each 44 feet in height, and surmounted by a car of 
victory, which, taken bv Napoleon to Paris in 1807, 
was brought back by tne Prussians in 18 14. It has 
recently b^en enlarged by two lateral colonnades, each 
supported by 16 columns. 

The streets, about 520 in number, are, with the ex- 
ception of the districts in the most ancient part of the 
city, long, straight, and wide, lined with high houses, 
for the old typical Berlin house, with its ground floor 
and first floor, is rapidly disappearing. The Unter den 
Linden is 3287 feet long by 160 broad. The new boule- 
vard, the Koni^^rsUzerstrasse, is longer still, though not 
so wkle. The rriedrichstrasse and the Oranienstraste 
exceed 2 English miles in length. The city has about 
60 squares. It has 25 theatres and 14 large halls for 
regular entertainments. It has an aquarium, zoological 
garden, and a floral institution, with park, flower, and 
palm houses. It has several hospitals, of which the 
largest is the Charit^, with accommodation for 1500 
patients. The Bethany, Elizabeth, and Lazarus hos- 

Sitals are attached to establbhments of Protestant 
eaconesses. The St Hed wig's hospital is nnder the 
care of Roman Catholic sisters. The Angnsta honntal, 
under the immediate patronage and control of the 
empress, is in the hands of lady nurses, who nurse the 
sick without assuming the garb and character of a 
religious sisterhood. The people's parks are the Hum- 
boldt's Hain, the Friedrich*s Hain, the Hasenheide, 
and, above all, the Thiergarten, a wood covering 820 
Prussian acres of grouno^ and reaching up to the 
Brandenburg Gate. 

As has been seen, the population has trebled itself 
within the last 34 years, naturally not so mudi by the 
excess of births over deaths, as by an unbroken current 
of immigration. In past times £lerlin received a strong 
infusion of foreign blood, the influence of wliich is per- 
ceptible to the present day in its intellectual and sodsl 
1^. Such names as Savigny, LandzoDe, De la Croix, 
De le Coq, Du Bois-Re)rmond, tell of the French refu- 
gees who found a home here in the cold north when ex- 
pelled from their own land. Daniel, in his Geography^ 
voL iv. p. 155, says that there was a time when evot 
tenth man in the city v»ras a Frenchman. Flemish and 
Bohemian elements, to say nothing of the banished 
Salzburgers, were introduced in a similar manner. Add 
to these the 36,013 Jews now resident in the city, and 
the picture of the commingled races which make up its 
population is pretty complete. 

The rate ot mortality is high. In 1873, * ^i^"^ 
year, it was 28 to every 1000 of the population. Taking 
the deaths as a whole, 58 per cent, were of chiUren 
under 10 years of age. The rate of mortality is on the 
increase. Professor Virchow, in a report to the mum- 
cipjd authorities, stated that, dividing the last i^T^ 
into periods of 5 years each, the general mortality m 
each of the three periods was as 5, 7, 9. The mortality of 
children under i jrear in the same three periods was as 
5, 7, II ; that is, it had more than douoled. In the 
year 1872, out of 27,800 deaths, 11,136 were of chiUien 
under i year. 

The city is well supplied with water by works con- 
structed by an Englisti company, which have now be- 
come the property of the oity. English and Gcrmsn 
companies supply the city with w. A system of on* 

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923 



defgioinid drainage is at proent in process of construc- 
tion. Internal cammnnication is kept up by means of 
tiamways, omnibuses, and cabs. In 187^ there were 
^ tram-carria^, 185 omnibuses, andf 4424 cabs 
ucensed, served by 10,000 horses. 

Berlin is governed by the president of police, by the 
mnnicipal authorities, and in military matters by the 
governor and commandant of the city. The police 
president stands nnder the minister of the interior, and 
nms the control of all that stands related to the mainte- 
nance of public order. The municipal body consists of 
a bnr^master-in-chief, a burgomaster, a body of town 
councillors (Stadtrathe), and a body of town deputies 
(Stadtverordnete). For municipal purposes the city is 
drrided into 16 townships and 210 districts For police 
porposes the work b divided into six departments, and 
an extra department for the fire brigpEuie and street 
-leaning, and the tcwn into six larger and fifty smaller 
districts. At the head of each larger district b a police 
captain, at the head of each smiuler district a police 
lieiiteBant 

With the exception of a few of the higher schools, 
which are under the direct supervbion of tne provincial 
anthorities, the Berlin schools are either wider the di- 
rect supervision of the municipal bodv or of its commit- 
tee for school purposes. The schools, public and pri- 
vate, are divided into higher, middle and elementary. 
In 1872 there were 24 higher public schoob. Of these, 
10 were gymnasia or schoob for the highest branches of 
a leamea education. The second class of high schools, 
the so-called Reabchulen, give instruction in Latin, but 
otherwise devote almost exclusive attention to the de- 

Eu-tments of mathematics, science, hbtory, modern 
ngaac;es, and the reouirements of the higher stages of 
general or commercial life. 

The scholastic life of Berlin culminates in its univer- 
sity, whidMB, of course, not a municipal, but a national 
institut^^o. It is, with exception of Bonn, the youneest 
of the Prussian universities, but the first of them all in 
influence and reputation. It was founded in 18 la Prus- 
sia had iost her celebrated university of Halle, when 
that dty was included by Napoleon in hb newly created 
* kingdom of Westphalia, ** It was as a weapon of war, 
as well as a nursery of learning, that Frederick William 
III., and the great men whose names are identified with 
its origin, called it into exbtence, for it was felt that 
knowlrage and religion are the true strength and defence 
of nations. William v. Humboldt was at that time at 
the head of the educational department of the kingdom, 
and men like Fichte and Scnleiermacher worked the 
popalar mind. It was opened on the 15th of October 
i8ia Its first rector was Schmalz ; its first deans of 
iacnKpr, Schleiermacher, Biener, Hufeland, and Fichte. 
Withm the first ten years of its existence it counted 
among its professors such names as De Wette, Neander, 
Morheineke, Savign^, Eichhom, Bockh, Bekker, Hegel, 
Raumer, Wolff, Niebuhr, and Buttmann. Later fol- 
lowed such names as Hengstenberg and Nitzsch ; Ho- 
meyer, Bethman-HoUweg, Puchta, Stahl, and HefTler ; 
Schelling, Trendelenburg, Bopp, the brothers Grimm; 
Ztonpt, Carl Ritter ; and at the present time it can boast 
of SBch names as Twesten and Domer ; Gnebt and 
Hinschius ; Langenbeck, Bardeleben, Virchow, and Du 
B<M8-R^mond ; von Ranke, M ommsen, Curtius, Lep- 
sivs, Hoffman the chembt, and Kiepert the geographer. 

Berlin possesses eight public museums, in addition to 
tfK Royal Mosemn ana the National Gallery. The 
fomil museums are the old and new museums. 

she mew museum b connected with the old museum 
by a cofvered conridor. In its interior arrangements and 
docoratioik it is undoubtedly the most splendid structure 
intbecitj. like the old maseum, it has three floors. 



The lowest of these contains the Ethnographical and 
Egyptian museums and the museum of northern antiqui- 
ties. In the first floor, plaster casts of ancient, mediae- 
val, and modem sculpture are found in thirteen haib 
and in three departments. On the walls of the grand 
marble staircase, which rise to the full height of the 
building, Kaulbach's renowned cyclus of stereochromic 
pictures is painted, representing the six great epochs of 
numan progress, firom the confusion of tonp:ues at the 
tower of Babel and the dispersion of the nations to the 
Reformation of the i6th century. The uppermost 
story contains the collection of engravings and the 
gallery of curiosities. 

The national gdlery b itn degant building, after de- 
signs by Stiller, situated betMreen the new museum and 
the Spree, and b intended to receive the collection of 
modem paintings now exhibited provbionally in the 
apartments of the academy. 

The public monuments are the equestrian statues of 
the Great Elector on the Lange Briicke, erected in 
1703; Ranch's celebrated statute of Frederick the 
Great, ** probably the grandest monument in Europe," 
opposite tne emperor*s palace, Unter den Linden ; and 
the statue of Frederick WiUiam III. in the Lustgarten. 
In the Thiergarten b Drake's marble monument of 
Frederick William III.; and in the neighboring 
Charlottenburg, Ranch's figures of the same king and 
the Queen Louise in the mausoleum in the Park. A 
second group of monuments on the Wilhelm's Platz 
commemorates the generals of the Seven Years* War ; 
and a third, in the neighborhood of the Opera, the 

fenerab who fought against Napoleon I. On the 
[reuzberg, the highest spot in tne neighborhood of 
Berlin, a Gothic monument in bronze was erected by 
Frederidc William III. to commemorate the victories 
of 1813-15; and in the Konigsplatz the emperor, 
Wilhelm I., erected a column of victoryin honor of the 
triumphs of i86d, 1866, and 1870. Thb monument 
rises to the height of 187 feet, the g^ded figure of 
Victory on the top being 40 feet high. Literature, 
science, and art are represented in different parts of the 
city by statues and busts pi Ranch, Schinkel, Thaer 
Beuth, Schadow, Winckelmann, Schiller, Hegel, Jahn; 
while the monuments in the cemeteries and churches 
bear the names of dbtin&[nbhed men in all departments 
of political, military, and scientific life. 

Next to Leipsic, Berlin b the largest publishing 
centre in Germany. 

Berlin is not only a centre of intelligence, but b also 
an important centre of manufacture and trade. Its 
trade and manufactures appear to be at present in a 
transition state — old branches are dying out, and new 
branches are springing into existence. Direct railway 
communication between the com lands of north-eastern 
Germany, Poland, and Russia on the one hand, and the 
states 01 Central and Western Germany on the other, 
have deprived Berlin of much of its importance as a 
centre of trade in com and flour In like manner the 
spirit trade and manufacture have suffered. On the 
other hand, for petroleum. Berlin has become an 
emporium for the supply of the Mark of Brandenburg, 
part of Posen, Silesb, Saxony, and Bohemia. Silk 
and cotton manufacture, whicn in former times con- 
stituted a principal branch of Berlin manufacture, has 
died out. The chief articles of manufacture and com- 
merce are locomotives and machinery; carriages, 
copper, brass, and bronze wares ; porceudn ; and the 
requbites for building of every descnption. The manu- 
facture of sewing-nuM^ines has assumed large propor- 
tions, from 70,000 to 75,000 being manufactnred 
annually. 

BERLIOZ, HecTOK, by fiur the most original aan- 

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poser of modem Fmee, Wit born in 1803 it Cftte^aint- 
Andr^ a small town near Grenoble, in the department 
of Isire. His fiuher was a physician of repute, and hr 
his desire our composer for some time devoted himself 
to the study of the same profession. At the same time 
he had music lessons, ana, in secret, perused numerous 
theoretical works on counterpoint and harmony, with 
little profit it seems, till the hearing and subsequent 
careful analysis of one of Haydn*s quartets opened a 
bew visU to his unguided aspirations. A similar work 
krritten by Berlios in imitation of Haydn'i masterpiece 
Was favorably received by his friends. From raris, 
where he had been sent to complete his medical studies, 
he at last nuule known to his father the unalterable de- 
cision of devoting himself entirely to art, the answer to 
which confession was the withdrawal of all further pecu- 
niary assistance. In order to support life Berlios had 
to accept Uie humble engagement of a singer in the 
chorus of the GTmnase theatre. Soon, however, he 
became reconciled to his father, and entered the Conser- 
vatoire, where he studied composition under Reicha and 
Lesueur. His first important composition was an opera 
called Les Francs-Juges^ of which, however, only the 
overture remains extant In 1825 he left the Conser- 
vatoire, disgusted, it is said, at the dry pedantry of the 
professors, and becin a course of autodidactic education, 
founded chiefly on the worksof Beethoven, Gluck, Weber, 
and other G^man masters. About this period Berlioz 
saw for the first time on the stase the talented Irish 
actress Miss Smithson, who was then charming Paris by 
her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet, and other Shakes- 
pearean characters. The young enthusiastic composer 
became deeply enamoured uf her at first sight, and tried, 
for a long tmie in vain, to £ain the responsive love or 
even the attention of his idof To an incident of this 
wild and persevering courtship Berlioz's first symphonic 
work, EjAsode de la Vie d^un Artist^ owes its origin. 
It descnoes the dreams of an artist who, under the in- 
fluence of opium, imagines that he has killed his mis- 
tress, and in his vision witnesses his own execution. It 
is replete with the spirit of contemporary French ro- 
manticism and of self-destructive Byronic despair. A 
written progranmie is added to each of the five move- 
ments to expound the imaginative material on which the 
music is founded. By the advice of his friends Berlioz 
once more entered the Conservatoire, where after several 
unsuccessful attempts, his cantata Sardanapalus (i8ik>) 
gained him the first prize for foreign travel, in spite ofthe 
strong personal antagonism of one of the umpires. Dur- 
ing a stay in Italy Berlioz composed an overture to King 
Lear^ and Le Retour d la F/>, — a sort of symphony, 
with intervening poetical declamation between the single 
movements, caUed by the composer a melologue, and 
written in continuation of the Episode de la Vie d*un 
Artist^ along with which work it was performed at the 
Paris Conservatoire in 1832. Paganini on that occasion 
spoke to Berlioz the memorable words: " Vous commen- 
ces par oCi les autres ont fini." Miss Smithson, who 
also was present on the occasion, soon afterwards con- 
sented to become the wdt of her ardent lover. The ar- 
tistic success achieved on that occasion did not prove to 
be of a lasting kind. Berlioz's music was too far remote 
from the current of popular taste to be much admired 
beyond a small circle of esoteric worshippers It is true 
that his name became known as that ofa gifted though 
eccentric composer ; he also received in tne course of 
time his due snare of the dictinctions generally awarded 
to artistic merit, such as the ribbon of the Legion of 
Honor and the membership of the Institute. But these 
distinctions he owed, perhaps, less to a genuine admira- 
tion of his compositions tlum to his influential position 
as the musical critic of the Journal des Dibats (a posi- 



tion which h« iief«r UMd or abmed to push his ows 
works), and to his successes abroad. In 1842 Berlios 
went for the first time to Germany, where he was hailed 
with welcome by the leading musicians of the younger 

?!neration, Robert Schumann foremost amongst them. 
he latter paved the way for the Frendi compcxer's sac- 
cess, by a comprehensive analysis of the Episode in his 
musical journal, the Netu Zatschrift fUr Aiusik. Ber- 
lioz gave successful concerts at Leipsic and other Ger- 
man cities, and repeated his visit on various later occa- 
sions — in 1852, by invitation of Liszt, to conduct \a% 
opera Benvenuto Cellini (hissed off the stage in Paris), 
at Weimar ; and in 1855 ^^ produce his oratorio- trilogy, 
VEnfance du Christy in tne same city. This latter 
work had been previously performed at Paris, where 




Pierre Ducr^ by name. Berlioz also nuide jonmejrs to 
Vienna (1866) and St. Petersburg (1867), where his 
works were received with great enthusiasm. He died 
in Paris, March 9, 1869. 

BERMUDAS, Somers's Islands, or SiTMMm Is- 
lands, a group in the Atlantic Ocean, the seat of a 
British colonT, about 600 miles £. by S. from Cape 
Hatteras on the American coast They lie to the south 
of a coral reef or atoll, which extends about 24 miles 
in length from N.E. to S. W., by 12 in breadth. The 
largest of the series is Great Bermuda, or Long Island, 
enclosing on the east Harrington or Little Sound, and 
on the west the Great Sound, which b thickly studded 
with islets, and protected on the north \tf the islands of 
Somerset, Boaz, and Inland. The remaining members 
of the group, St. George's, Paget's, Smith's, St 
David's, Cooper*s, Nonsuch, &c., lie to the east, and 
form a semicircle round Castle Harbor. The islands 
are wholly composed of a white granular limestone of 
various de^ees of hardness, from the crystaline ** base 
rock,** as it is called, to friable ^t It seems that they 
are in a state of subsidence and not of elevation. The 
caves which usually appear in limestone formations are 
well represented, many of them running far into the 
land and displaying a rich variety of stalagmites and 
stalactites. Among the less ordmary geological phe- 
nomena may be mentioned the ** sand glacier " at EIdow 
Bay. The surface soil is a curious kmd of red earth, 
which is also found in ochre-like strata throughout the 
limestone. It is generally mixed with v^table mat- 
ter and coral sand. There is a total want ofstreams and 
wells of fresh water, and the inhabitants are dependent 
on the rain, which they collect and preserve in tanks. 
The climate of the Bermudas has a reputation for 
unhealthiness which is hardly borne out, for the ordinary 
death-rate is only 22 per looow ^ Yellow fever and typhus, 
however, have on some occasions raged with extreme 
violence, and the former has appeared four times within 
the space of thirty years. Vegetation is very rapid, 
and tne soil is clad in a manue of almost perpetual 
green. The principal kind of tree is the so-called •• Ber- 
mudas cedar," really a species ofjuniper, which fur- 
nishes timber for small vessels. The shores are fringed 
with the mangrove ; the prickly pear grows luxuriantly 
in the most barren districts ; ana wherever the fi[ronnd 
is left to itself the sage-brush springs up proTuselv. 
The citron, sour orange, lemon, and lime grow wila ; 
but the apple and peach do not come to perfection. 
The loquat, an introduction from China, thrives admir- 
ably. The gooseberry, currant, and raspberrv, all run 
to wood. The oleander bush, with aU its oeanty, is 
almost a nuisance. The soil is very fertile in the 
growth of esculent plants and roots ; and a considerable 
trade has grown up within recent years between Ber< 



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mucks and New York, prittdpftlly in Mffmbbt^ of ex- 
cellent quality, ODions, Irish potatoes, and tomatoes. 
Regular steam communication between the island and 
that city is maintained, the government subsidizing the 
vessels. Medicinal plants, as the castor-oil plant, aloe, 
and jalap, come to great perfection without culture ; and 
coffi^ indigo, cotton, and tobacco are also of spon- 
taneous growth. Tobacco curing ceased about 1707. 
Few oxen or sheep are reared in the colony, a supply 
being obtained from North America; but goats are Icept 
by a large number of the inhabitants. The ass is the 
usual beast of burden. The indigenous Mammalia are 
very few, and the only Reptilia are a small lizard and 
the ^een turtle. Birds, however, especially aquatic 
species, are very numerous, — one of the commonest 
being the cardinal-grosbeak ; and the chigre or jigger, 
are common. Fish are plentiful round the coasts, and 
the whale-fisherv was once an important industry. 
Gold-fish, introauced from Demerara, swarm in the 
ditches. 

There are two towns in the Bermudas, St George's, 
founded in 1794, and Hamilton, founded in 1790, and 
incorporated in 1793. 

BER N, or Berne, a canton of Switzerland. It extends 
from the French and Alsace frontier south-east through 
the heart of the Confederacy to Valais, by which it is 
bounded on the S., while it has the cantons of Basel, 
Soleure, Aargau, Lucerne, Unterwalden, and Uri on the 
E., and Vaud, Freiburg, Neufch&tel on the W. Bern 
is the second largest canton of Switzerland, its sur- 
face being estimated at 2562 square miles. The can- 
ton is naturally divided into three regions, in which the 
climate varies with the elevation. The southern part, 
called the Oberland, is for its scenery the most attract- 
ive part of all Switzerland, Many of the grandest 
mountains of the Alpine system — such as the Grimsel, 
the Finsteraarhom, the Schreckhorn, the Wcttcrhom, 
the Eiger, and the Jungfrau — lie along the frontier 
chain, and numerous offshoots and valle3rs of great beauty 
stretch northward toward the central part of the canton. 
This latter district consists for the most part of an un- 
dulating plain, interspersed with lesser chains and hills, 
~the soil being fertile and well cultivated. Tie north 
is occupied with the ranges of the Jura system. The 
principal river in the canton is the Aar. which drr.'-^r- by 
far the larger proportion of its surface, either directly or 
by means of numerous tributaries. Of these, the most im- 
portant are the Saane, from the S. ; the Thielc, which 
forms the outlet of the lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel ; 
and the Emme, which eives its name to the beautiful 
Emmenthal. The nortnem comer of the canton is di- 
vided between the basins of the Rhone and the Rhine. 
On the upper course of the Aar are the two lakes of 
Brienz and Thun. The mineral wealth of the country 
is neither extenswe nor varied ; but iron mines arc 
worked, and gold is found in the River Emme. Quar- 
ries of sandstone, marble, and granite are abundant 
The postures in the Oberland and the Emmenthal are 
excellent, and cattle and horses of the best description 
^ largely reared. The latter district also produces 
cheese of excellent quality, which is exportea to Ger- 
n»any and Italy. Fruit is extensively cultivated in the 
antral region and in the neighborhood of the lal;es of 
Brienz and Thun ; the vine is principally grown to the 
north of Lake Bienne. In the forests, which are of 
^nsiderable importance, the prevailing trees are the fir, 
"le pine, and the beach. The industrial productions of 
canton are the cotton, woollen and flaxen stufis, leather, 
^tches, and wooden wares of all kinds. Bern is di- 
J«cd into thirty bailiwicks or prefectures, each with a 
Joal adnunistrator. The capital is Berne, and the other 
cmef towns aro Bienne or Biel, Thun, Bnrgdorf or 



BcrthMd, P d i mitiu y (nt Prtnjfcmt, DflAnonl or Dels- 
berg. The highest legislative authority is the Great 
Council, the members of which are chosen in propor- 
tion to the number of the people ; and the executive 
power is in the hands of a lesser council of nine mem- 
bers, chosen bv the Great Council for a space of four 
years. The eaucational institutions in the canton com- 
prise a university and two gymnasiums in the capital, 
and gymnasiums and colleges at Biel, Thun, Bnrgdorf, 
Neuenstadt, Porrentruy, and D^l^mont. There is a 
deaf and dumb institution at Frienisberg, and a cantonal 
lunatic asylum named Waldau, about a mile from Bern. 

Bern, the capital of the above canton, and, since 
1848, the permanent seat of the Government and Diet 
of the Swiss Confederation. It is situated at an eleva- 
tion of 17 10 feet above the sea, on a sandstone penin- 
sula, formed by the windings of the Aar, which is 
crossed on the south side of the city by an extensive 
weir, and fiirther down passes under four bridges con- 
necting the peninsula with the right bank. It is one 
of the most characteristically Swiss towns ; some of the 
streets are brcMd and regular, the houses beinjg well 
built with hewn stone; in others a peculiar e^t is 
produced by the presence of lines of arcades down the 
sides. Prominent among the public buildings is the 
Federal Council Hall, or Bundes-Rathkaus^ a fine 
structure in the Florentine style, whii'.i was completed 
in 1857. The upper story is occupied by a pictiu-e gal- 
lerr of some value. The town-hall dates from i^, 
ana was restored ii 1861. Among the ecclesiastical 
buildings tiie first place is held by the cathedral, a richly- 
decorated Gothic edifice, begun in 142 land completed m 
1571, from the neighborhoai of which a splendid view 
of the Alps is obtained. Educational institutions are 
very numerous, comprising a university, founded in* 
1834, which is attended by 400 students, a gymnasium, 
and^a veterinary school. Attached to the university 
are a botanical garden and an observatory ; and there 
are, besides, a valuable museum^ a public library of 
45,000 volumes, especially rich m works relating to 
Swiss history, and several literary and scientific soci- 
eties. Among the charitable estoblishments are two 
large hospital, a foundling hospital, two orphan asy- 
lums, and a lunatic asylum. Another asylum was 
erected in 1854, about 2% miles from the city. 
The penitentiary is capable of containing 400 prisoners. 
Among the other buildings of interest are the granary, 
which, till 1830, used to be stored with com in case of 
famine ; the clock tower, with its automatic pantomime; 
the arsenal, with its mediaeval treasures ; the mint ; and 
the Murtner Gate. The most freauent ornament 
throughout the city is the figure of the bear, in allusion 
to the mythical origin of the name of Bern ; and the 
authorities still maintain a bear's den at municipal ex- 
pense. Although, properly speaking, not a commer- 
cial city, Bern carries on some trade in woollen cloth, 
printed calico, muslin, silk stuffs, straw hats, stockings, 
and other articles of home manufacture. The climate 
is severely coldin winter, owing to the elevation of the 
situation. 

Bern was founded, or at least fortified, by Berthokl 
V. of Zahringcn, about the end of the 12th or begin- 
nmg of the 13th century, and gradually became a refuge 
for those who were oppressed l)y feudal exactions in the 
neighboring countries. In I2i8itwas declared a free 
imperial city by the Emperor Frederick II* At first 
its constitution was purely democratic; but in 1203 a 
legislative body of 200 cidzens was appointed, which 
formed the germ of one of the most remarkable oligar- 
dhies in modem European history. The extension of 
territory, gradually effected by the valor of the Bernese, 
rendered necessary a more elaborate and ri^ organiz*- 

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tioD than that which had sufficed while the limits of the 
city were almost the limits uf the state; and the power 
of the nobility at home was strengthened by every new 
success against the enemies of the city. The blow that 
decided the fate of Bern was struck at Laupen on June 
2>f I339> when Rudolph von Erlach beat the allied 
army of the neighboring states. It continued to flour- 
ish, and in 1352 joined the Swiss Confederation. A fire 
destroyed the city in 1405, but it was rebuilt on the 
same plan. In the 17th century the gradually increasing 
aristocratic tendency reached its climax. Tne adoption 
of new burghers was forbidden, and the burghers proper 
were carefully distinguished from those who were 
merely permanent inluu>itants of the city; the burghers 
were divided into those capable of holdmg office in the 
state and those destitute of that privilege; and the 
privileged class itself, which, by 1785, numbered only 
09 families, was subdivided into a higher and a lower 
grade. This ^lite grew more and more exclusive and 
domineering, and at last became unendurable to their 
humbler fellow-citizens. In 1 748 the discontent made 
itself evident in a formidable conspiracy, of which the 
unfortunate Hcnzi was one of the leaders. The con- 
spiracy was crushed, but the opposition broke out 
tnrough other channels. At last the French Revolution 
came to submerge the aristocracy in a general Helvetian 
republic ; and when the flood nad passed the ancient 
landmarks could not be replaced, though a restoration 
was attempted with at first an appearance of success. 
The Liberal oarty has long been the strongest in the 
canton, which nas at last returned almost to democracy; 
for, in 1870, the referendum was introduced, by which 
it is agreed that all laws, after being discussed by the 
Great Council, shall first receive the sanction of the 
people before they come into force. 

BERNADOTTE, Jean Baptiste- Jules, after- 
wards King Charles XIV. of Sweden and Norway, 
was the son of a lawyer at Pan in B^m, and was bom 
January 26, 1764. He was destined by his parents for 
the law, but cnose the profession of arms, and enlisted 
in 1780 as a private in the royal marines. When the 
Revolution swept away the arbitrary distinction of 
classes, and opened up to all alike the path of prefer- 
ment, the abilities of Bernadotte were speedily ac- 
knowledged. In 1 792 he was made a colonel, in the 
following year a general of brigade, and soon after a 
general of divison. In the campaign of the Rhine and 
of Italy his military talents found ample scope for dis- 
play ; and his diplomatic abilities had also been tested 
as ambassador at the court of Vienna. During Bona- 
parte's absence in Egypt Bernadotte was appointed 
minister of war. He reorganized the whole army, and 
prepared the way for the conquest of Holland Not- 
witnstanding the rivalry that all along existed between 
him and Napleon, Bernadotte was made a marshal on 
the establishment of the empire. He was also 
nominated to the government of Hanover, and took 
part in the campaign of 180C at the head of a force of 
20,000 men. He distinguished himself at the battle of 
Austerlitz, and in 1806 he was created prince of Ponte- 
Corvo. In 1810 the death of Prince Augustenburg of 
Sweden having left the throne of that kingdom without 
an heir, the Swedish States in Council nominated 
Bernadotte as successor to Charles XIII. of Sweden, a 
distinction for which he was scarcely less indebted to 
his nobility of character than to ms military talents. 
During the great campaigns of 1813 and 1814 bernadotte 
joined the coidition against Napoleon, and it was his 
Swedish contingent that mainly decided the battle of 
Leipsic. It is stated, on good authority, that he had 
formed the ambitious design of succeeding the emperor 
on the French throoe. As crown prince of Sweden he 



devoted hit whole energies to tbe welfiue of hit adoptee) 
country. Owing to the infirmities of the king be was 
intrusted with tlw entire conduct of the govenmcnt 
On the death of Charles XIII., in Febrawy 181^ 
Bernadotte ascended the throne. For the events of his 
administration, so condudre to the prosperity of that 
country, the reader is referred to the article Swiz>bn. 
Hedied at Stockholm, March 8, i844f lesviof aa only 
son, Oscar, who succeeded him. 

BERNARD, St., one of the most ilhistrions'Cliris- 
tian teachers and representatives of monastidsm in the 
Middle Ages, was bom at Fontaines, near Dijon^ in 
Burgundy, in 1091. The son of a kni^t and vassal of 
the duke of Burgundy who perished in the first crmsade, 
Bernard may have felt for a time tbe temptations of m 
military career, bat the influence of a moos mother and 
his own inclinations towards a 4ife of meditation and 
study led him to the cloister. While still a jpooA be 
is said to have been * marvelloasly cogitative," and 
the ascendency of his mind and character were soon 
shown. He joined the small monastery of Citeanz in 
1 1 13 when twenty-two years of age, and sudi were the 
effects of his own devotion and eloquent enthusiasm in 
commending a religious life, that be drew after him not 
only his two younger brotners, bat also his two dder 
ones, Guido and C^rard, bodi of vrhom had natorally 
taken to soldiering, and the elder of whom vras married 
and had children. The effect of his preadiing is said 
to have been that " mothers hkl their sons, wives their 
husbands, companions their friends, "lest they ahoold 
be drawn away by hisjpersoasive eamesmess. 

The monastery of Citeanx had attracted St Bernard 
not only on account of its neighborhood (it vvas only a 
few miles distant from Dijon), out bv its reputation for 
austerity. The monks were few ana very poor. They 
were under an Englishman of the name of Stephen 
Harding, ori^nally m>m Dorsetshire, whose aim was to 
restore die fienedictine rule to its orighud simplicity 
and give a new impulse to the monastic m o v e ment. In 
Bernard, Harding Toand a congenial spirit No amount 
of self-mortification could exceed his ambition. He 
strove to overcome his bodiljr senses altogether and to 
live entirelv absorbed in religious meditation. Sleep he 
counted a loss, and compared it to death. Food was 
only taken to keep him firom fiunting. The most menial 
offices were his delight, and even then his homiliqr 
looked around for some lowlier emplojrment Fortun- 
ately he loved nature, and foond a constant solace in 
her rocks and woods. 

So ardent a nature soon found a sphere of amb ition 
for itself. The monks of Citeaux, from being a poor 
and unknown company, beran to attract attention after 
the accession of St Botiard and his friends. The fame 
of their self-denial was noised abroad, and out of their 
lowliness and abnegation came, as usual, distmctkm and 
success. The small monastery was unable to contain the 
innuites that gathered withm it, and it began to send 
forth colonies in various directions. St Bernard had 
been two Tears an inmate, and the penetrating m of 
the abbot had discovered beneath all his spiritual devo- 
tion a genius of rare power, and especiaBy litted to aid 
his measures of monastic reform. He was chosen 
to head a band of devotees who issued from 



Citeaux m 11 15 in search of a new home. This band, 
with Bernard at their head, joumefed northwardi till 
they reached a spot in the diocese oTLangres — a thSdt- 
wooded valley, wild and ^oomy, but widi a deu 
stream running through it Here they lettled and laid 
the foundations of the famous abb^ of Qiiivanx, wfth 
which St Bernard's name remains aasodatad in h^ttoiy. 

Gradually the influence of Bemaid^ cbanMer r 
to extend beyond his monastery. Hii Msiflllli^ 

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WOliam of Cbampeaox and others gave amency to bis 
opinions, and from his simple retreat came by voice or 
pen an authority before which many bowed, not only 
within his own order bat within the church at hirge. 
This influence was notably shown after the death of 
Pop>e Honorius II. in 11 30. Two rival popes assumed 
the purple, each being al>le to ap[)eal to his election by 
a section of the cardinals. Christendom was divided 
betwixt the claims of Anacletus II. and Innocent II. 
The former was backed by a strong Italian party, and 
drove his adversary from Rome and even from Italy. 
Innocent took refuge in France. The king, Louis the 
Fat, espoused his cause, and having summoned a coun- 
cil of archbishops and bishops, he laid his commands on 
the holy abbot of Clairvaux to be present also and give 
the benefit of his advice. With reluctance Bernard 
obeyed the call, and from the depths of seclusion was at 
once plunged into the heart of the great contest which 
was amicting the Christian world. The king and pre- 
lates put the question before him in such a way as to in- 
vite his decision and make him arbiter. After careful 
deliberation he gave his judgment in favor of Innocent, 
and not only so, but from tluit time forward threw him- 
self with characteristic fervor and force into the cause 
for which he had declared. Not only France, but Eng- 
land, Spain, and Germany were won to the side of Inno- 
cent, who, banished from Rome, in the words of St. 
Bernard, was "accepted by the world." He travelled 
from place to place with the powerful abbot by his side, 
who also received him in his humble cell at Clairvaux. 
Apparently, however, the meanness of the accommoda- 
tion and the scantiness of the fare (one small fowl was 
^1 that could be got for the Pope's repast), left no wish 
on the part of Innocent or his retinue to continue their 
stay at Clairvaux. He found a more dainty reception 
elsewhere, but nowhere so powerful a friend. Through 
the persuasions of Bernard the emperor took up arms wt 
Innocent ; and Anacletus was driven to shut himself up 
in the impregnable castle of St. Angelo,' where his 
death opened the prospect of a united Christendom. A 
second anti-pope was elected, but after a few months 
retired from the field, owing also, it is said, to St Bem- 
ard's influence. A great triumph was gained not with- 
out a struggle, and the abbot of Clairvaux remained 
master of the ecclesiastical situation. No name stood 
higher in the Christian world. 

The chief events which fill up his subsequent life 
attest the greatness of his influence. These were his 
contest with the famous Abelard, and his preaching of 
the second a*usade. 

Peter Abelard was twelve years older than Bernard, 
and had risen to eminence before Bernard had entered 
the gates of Citeaux. His first intellectual encounter 
had been with Bernard's aged friend William of Cham- 
peaux, whom he had driven from his scholastic throne 
at Parb by the sujjeriority of his dialectics. His sub- 
scjjuent career, his ill-fated passion for Heloise, his 
misfortunes, his intellectual restlessness and audacity, 
his supposed heresies, had all shed additional renown 
wi his name ; and when a council was summoned at 
Sens in 1140, at which the French king and his nobles 
^d all the prelates of the realm were to be present, 
Abelard dared his enemies to impugn his opinions. St. 
Bernard had been amongst those most alarmed by Abel- 
»rd*s teaching, and had sought to stir up alike Pope, 
princes, and bishops to take measures against him. He 
did not readily, however, take up the gauntlet thrown 
down by the ^eat hero of the schools. He professed 
himself a " stripling too unversed in l(^c to meet the 
giant practiced in every kind of debate." But "all 
^e come prepared for a spectacle,*' and he was forced 
mto the field* To the amazement of all, when the com- 



batants met and aU seemed ready for the intellectual 
fray, Abelaxd refused to proceed with his defence. 
After several passages considered to be heretical had 
been read from his books he made no reply, but at once 
appealed to Rome and left the assembly. Probably he 
saw enough in the character of the meeting to assure 
him that it formed a very different audience from those 
which he had been accustomed to sway by his subtilety 
and eloquence, and had recourse to this expedient to 
gain time and foil his adversaries. Bemara followed 
up his assault b^ a letter of indictment to the Pope 
against the heretic The Pope responded by a sentence 
of condemnation, and Abelard was silenced. Soon 
after he found refuge at Cluny with the kindly abbot, 
Peter the Venerable, who brought about something of 
a reconciliation betwixt him and Bernard. The latter, 
however, never heartily forgave the heretic He was 
too zealous a churchman not to see the danger there is 
in such a spirit as Abelard's, and the senous conse- 
quences to which it might lead. 

In all things Bernard wa<; enthusiastically devoted to 
the church, and it was this enthusiasm which led him 
at last into the chief error of hb career. Bad news 
reached France of the progress of the Turkish arms 
in the East. The capture of Edessa in 1144 sent a 
thrill of alarm and indication throughout Christian 
Europe, and the French king was urgedto send forth a 
new army to reclaim the Holy Land from the trium- 
phant infidels. The Pope was consulted, and en- 
couraged the good work, aelegating to St Bernard the 
office of preadiing the new crusade. Weary with grow- 
ing years and cares the abbot of Clairvaux seemed at 
first reluctant, but afterwards threw himself with all his 
accustomed power into the new movement, and by his 
marvelous eloquence kindled the crusading maclness 
once more throughout France and Germany. Not only 
the French king, Louis VII., but the German emperor, 
Conrad III., placed himself at the head of a vast army 
and set out for the East by way of Constinople. De- 
tained there too long by the duplicity of the Greeks, 
divided in council, the Christian armies encountered 
frightful hardships, and were at length either dispersed 
or destrojred. Utter min and misery followed in the 
wake of the wildest enthusiasm. Bernard became an 
object of abuse as the great preacher of a movement 
which had terminated so disastrously, and wrote in 
humility an apologetic letter to the Pope, in which the 
divine judgments are made as usual accountable for 
human folly. This and other anxieties bore heavily 
upon even so sanguine a spirit. Disaster abroad and 
heresy at home left him no peace, while his body was 
worn to a shadow by his fasting and labors. It was, 
as he said, "the season of calamities.** Still to the 
last, with failing strength, sleepless, unable to take 
sol^ food, with hmbs swollen and feeble, his spirit was 
unconquerable. " Whenever a great necessity called 
him forth,** as his friend and biographer Godfirey says, 
" his mind conquered all his bodily infirmities, he was 
endowed with strength, and to the astonishment of all 
who saw him, he could surpass even robust men in his 
endurance of fatigue. ** He continued absorbed in public 
affairs, and dispensed his care and advice in all directions 
often about the most trivial as well as the most import- 
ant affairs. Finally the death of his associates and 
friends left him without any desire to live. He longed 
rather "to depart and be with Christ.** To his sor- 
rowing monks, whose earnest prayers were supposed 
to have assisted his partial recovery when near his 
end, he said, " Wh^ ao you thus detain a miserable 
man? Spare me. Spare me, and let me depart** He 
expired August 2Q, 1 1 53, shonrtly after his disciple Pope 
Eugenius III. ^^ j 

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His character tpMtrt in oar brief sketch as that of a 
noble enthusiast, semsh in nothing save in so far as the 
church had become a part of himself, ardent in his s^- 
pathies and friendships, tenacious of purpose, temble 
in indignation. He spared no abuse, and denounced 
what he deemed corruption to the Pope as frankly as to 
one of hb own monks. He is not a thinker nor a man 
in advance of his age, but much of the best thought and 
piety of his time are sublimed in him to a sweet mysterv 
and rupture of sentiment which has still power to touch 
amidst all its rhetorical exaggerations. 

BERNARD, Tames, professor of philosophy and 
mathematics, and minister of the Walloon church at 
Leyden, was bom at Nions, in Dauphin^, September i, 
1658. Having studied at Geneva, he returned to 
France in 1679, smd was chosen minister of Venterol, in 
Dauphin^, whence he afterwards removed to the church 
of Vinsoln^. A« he continued to preach the Reformed 
doctrines in opposition to the roval ordinance, he was 
obliged to leave the country ana retired to Holland, 
where he was well received, and appointed one of the 
pensionary ministers of Gouda. He died on the 27th 
of April 17 18. He was the author of two practical 
treauses, one on late repentance, the other on tne excel- 
lence of religion.^ 

BERNARDIN, St., of Siena, a celebrated preacher, 
was bom at Massa Carrara in 138a His family, the 
Albizeschi, was noble, and his father was chief magis- 
trate of Massa. He lost both parents before his eighth 
jrear, and was educated by his aunt, a pious woman. 
After completing his course of study he passed some 
years as a voluntary assistant in the hospiul of Scala, 
and in 1404 entered the order of St. Francis. His elo- 

?uence as a preacher made him celebrated throughout 
talv, nor was his fame diminished by his visit to the 
Holy Land, from which he retumed with fresh seal. 
Three cities, Siena, Ferrara, and Urbino, successively 
sought the honor of having him as their bishop, but 
without avail. In 1438 he was made vicar-general of 
his order in Italy. He died on the 20th May 1444, ^^ 
Aquila in Abruzzo. His canonization took place in 
1450 by the order of Nicholas V. A collection of his 
works was published in 1571 by Rudolfi, bishop of 
Sinigi^lia. 

BEkNAY, the chief town of an arrondissement in 
the department of Eure, in France, on the left bank of 
the Charentonne, 26 miles W.N.W. of Evreux. It is 
beautifully situated in the midst of green wooded hills, 
and still justifies Madame de Stael*s description — ** Ber- 
nay is a basket of flowers. ** 

BERNBURG, a city of Anhalt in Germany, and for- 
merly the capital of the now incorporated duchy of 
Anhalt- Bemburg. 

BERNE. See Bern. 

BERNERS, Juliana, prioress of Sopewell nunnery, 
near St. Albans, was the daughter of Sir James Bemers, 
who was beheaded in the reign of Richard II. She 
was celebrated for her beauty, her spirit, and her 
passion for field sports. 

BERNI, Francesco, Italian poet, was bora about 
1490 at Lamporecchio, in Bibbiena, a district Ijring along 
the Upper Ama His familv was of good descent, but 
excessively poor. At an early apje he was sent to Flor- 
ence, where he remained till his i^th year. He then 
set out for Rome, trusting to obtain some assistance 
from his uncle, the Cardinal Bibbiena. The cardinal, 
however, did nothing for him, and he was obliged to 
accept a situation as clerk or secretary to Gniberti, 
dataiy to Clement VII. The duties of his office, for 
which Bemi was in every way unfit, were ezceedinely 
irksome to the poet, who, however, made himself cele- 
bcated at Rome as the most witty and inventive of a 



certain club of litenuj men, who deroted th emscl fe s to 
light and sparkling effusions. So strong was die adna- 
ration for Berni's verses, that mocking or burlesque 
poems have since been called /aesie benwctu 

BERNINI, Giovanni Lorenzo, an ItaUan artist, 
bora at Naples in I J98, was more celebrated tA an ardu- 
tect and a sculptor than as a painter. His busts were io 
so much request that Charles I. of England, being un- 
able to have a personal interview with Bernini, sent him 
three portraits by Vandyck, from which the artist was 
enabled to complete his model His architectural de- 
signs, including nis great colonade of St. Peter's, brought 
him perhaps his greatest celebrity. Lx>uis XIV., wheo 
he contemplated the restoration of the Louvre, sent for 
Bernini, but did not adopt his designs. The artist's 
progress through France was a triumphal procession, 
and he was most liberally rewarded by the great mon- 
arch. He died at Rome in 1680, leaving a fortune of 
over /Ti 00,000. 

BERNOULLI, or Brrnouilli, a name illustrioos 
in the annals of science, belonging to a family of respect- 
ability, originally of Antwerp. Driven from their coun- 
try during the oppressive government of Spain for their 
attachment to the Reformed Religion, the family souj^ 
first an asylum at Frankfort (1583), and afterwards at 
Basel, where they ultimately obtained the highest dis- 
tinctions. In the course of a century eight ofits mem- 
bers successfully cultivated various brandies of mathe- 
matics, and contributed powerfully to the advance of 
science. The most celebrated of the fami**' were James, 
John, and Daniel ; but, for the sake of p*.. . picuitr they 
may be considered as nearly as possible in the order of 
family succession. 

I. James Bernoulli was bom at Basel on the 27th 
December 1654. He was educated at the public scho<^ 
of Basel, and also received private instractions from the 
learned Hoffinann, then professor of Greek. At the 
conclusion of his philosophical studies at the universitj, 
some geometrical figures, which fell in his way, excit«l 
in him a passion for mathematical pursuits, and in spite 
of the opposition of his father, who wished him to be 
a clergyman, he applied himself in secret to his favorite 
science. In 1676 nc visited Geneva on his way to 
France, and subsequently travelled to England and 
Holland. 

On his final return to Basel in 1682, he devoted him- 
self to physical and mathematical investigations, and 
opened a public seminary for experimental physics. 
In the same year he published his essay on comets, 
Conamen Novi Systematii Cometarunit which was 
occasioned by the appearance of the comet of 168a 
This essay, and his next publication, entitled De Grain- 
tate JE.theris^ were deeply tinged with the philosophy of 
Descartes, but they contain truths not unworthy of the 
philosophy of the Principia. 

As an additional claim to remembrance, he was the 
first to solve Leibnitz's problem of the isochronous 
curve, and to determine the catenary, or curve formed 
by a chain suspended by its two extremities, which he 
also showed to be the same as the curvature of a sail 
filled with wind. Thb led him on to another curve, 
which, being formed by an elastic plate or rod fixed at 
one end and bent by a weight applied to the other, he 
called the elastic curve, and whicn he showed to be the 
same as the curvature of an impervious sail filled with a 
liquid. 

in 1696 he proposed the famous problem of isoperi- 
metrical figures, and offered a reward for its solution. 
This problem engaged the attention of British as well 
as Continental matnematicians ; and its proposal gate 
rise to a painful quarrel between the brothers. 

In 1687 the mathematical chair of the UnirersiqfQf 



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Basel tras conferred upon James ; and In the discharge 
of its duties he was so saccessM as to attract students 
from other countries. Some of his pupils became after- 
wards professors in the universities of Germany. He 
was once made rector of his nniversitv, and had other 
distinctions browed on him. He and his brother John 
were the first two foreign associates of the Academy of 
Sciences at Paris ; and, at the request of Leibnitz, they 
were both received as members of the Academy of Ber- 
lin. Intense application brought on infirmities and a 
slow fever, of which he died on the 16th of August, 
1705, with the resifination of a Christian and the hrm- 
ncss of a philosopher. Like another Archimedes, he 
requested that, as a monument of his labors and an 
emblem of his hope of a resurrection, the logarithmic 
spiral should be engraven on his tombstone. 

James Bernoulli wrote elegant verses in I^tin, Ger- 
man, and French ; but although these were held in high 
estimation in his own time, it is on his mathematical 
works that his fame now rests. 

II. John Bernoulli, brother of the preceding, was 
bom at Basel on the 7th August 1667. In his studies 
he was aided by his elder brother James. His inde- 
pendent discoveries in mathematics are numerous and 
important. Amon^ these were the exponential calculus, 
and the curve caUea by him the linea brachistochrona^ 
or line of swiftest descent, which he was the first to de- 
termine, pointing out at the same time the beautiful re- 
lation which this curve bears to the path described by a 
ray or particle of light passing through strata of variable 
density, such as our atmosphere. On his return to his 
native cit^ he studied medicine, and in 1604 took the 
degree of M. D. At this period he mamed into one 
of the oldest Cunilies in Basel; and although he had 
declined a professorship in Germany, he now accepted 
an invitation to the chair of mathematics at Groningen 
\Commerciufit PhilosophUum, epist. xl and xiL) 
There, in addition to the learned lectures by which he 
endeavored to revive mathematical science in the uni- 
versity, he gave a publiccourseof experimental physics. 
During a residence of ten years in Groningen, his con- 
troversies were almost as numerous as his discoveries. 
His dissertation on an electrical appearance of the ba- 
rometer first observed by Picard, and discussed by John 
Bernoulli under the name of mercurial phosphorus, or 
mercury shining in vacuo, procured him the notice of 
rojralty, and en^piged him in controversy. Through 
Leibnitz he received from the king of Prussia a gmd 
medal for his supposed discoveries ; out Hartsoekerand 
some of the French academicians disputed the fact. 
The family quarrel about the problem of isoperimetrical 
figures above mentioned began about this time. In his 
dispute with his brother, in his controversies with the 
Hi^lish and Scotch mathematicians, and in his harsh 
and jealous bearing to his son Daniel, he showed a 
temper mean, unfair, and violent. 

He was a member of almost every learned society in 
Europe, and one of the first mathematicians of a mathe- 
matical age. ^ He was as keen in his resentments as he 
J^w, ardent in his friendships ; fondly attached to his 
™ily, he ytX disliked a deserving son ; he gave full 
praise to Leibnitz and Euler, yet was blind to the excel- 
lence o^ Newton. Such was the vigor of his constitu- 
tion that he continued to pursue his usual mathematical 
studies till the age of eighty. He was then attacked bv 
J «)mplaint at first apparently trifling ; but his strength 
dwly and rapidly declined till the ist of January 1748, 
when he died peacefully in his sleep. 

^n. Nicholas Bernoulli, the eldest of the three 

sons of John Bernoulli, was born in 160J. His early 

Widkations of genius were carefully cherished. At the 

H« of egiht 1^ coild speak German, Dutch, French, 

k S9A _ _ _ 



and Latm. When his father retnmed to Basel he went 
to the university of that city, where, at the age of six- 
teen, he took the de^ee of doctor in philosophy, and 
four years later the highest degree in law. Meanwhile 
the study of mathematics was not n^lected, as appears 
not only from his giving instructions m geometry to his 
younger brother Daniel, but from his writings on the 
differential, integral, and exponential calculus, and 
from his father considering him, at the age of twenty- 
one, worthy of receiving the torch of science from his 
own hands. With his father's permission he visited 
Italy and France, and during his travels formed friend- 
ship with Varignon and with Riccati, one of the first 
mathematicians of Italy. The invitation of a Venetian 
nobleman induced him again to visit Italy, where he re- 
sided two years, till his return to be a candidate for the 
chair of jurisprudence at Basel. He was unsuccessful, 
but was soon afterwards appointed to a similar office in 
the University of Bern. Here he resided three years, 
his happiness only marred by r^et on account of his 
separation from his brother Daniel, with whom he was 
united in sentiment and pursuits. Both were api>ointed 
at the same time professors of mathematics in the 
Academy of St Petersburg ; but this office Nicholas en- 
joyed for litde more than eight months. At the end of 
July 1726 he was cut off in the prime of life by a linger- 
me fever. 

IV. Danibl Bernoulli, the second son of John Ber- 
noulli, was bom 9th February 1700, at Groningen. He 
studied medicine and became a physician, but His atten* 
tion was early directed also to geometrical studies. The 
severity of his father's manner was ill calculated to en- 
courage the first efforts of one so sensitive; but fortun- 
ately, at the age of eleven, he became the pupil of his 
brother Nicholas. He afterwards studied in Italy under 
Michdotti and MorgagnL After his return, though 
twenty-four years of age, he was invited to become pre- 
sident of an acadamv men projected at Genoa; but de* 
dining this honor, ne was, in the following year, ap- 
pointed professor of mathematics at St Petersburg. In 
consequence of the state of his health, however, he 
returned to Basel in 1733, where he was appointed pro- 
fessor of anatomy and botanv, and afterwards of experi- 
mental and speculative philosophy. In the labors of 
this office he spent the remaining years of his life. He 
had previously published some medical and botanical 
dissertations, besUies his Exercitationes quetdam Mathe* 
maticce^ containing a solution of the differential equation 
proposed by Riccati and known by his name. In 
1738 appeared his Hydrodynamica^ in which the equi- 
Ubrium, the pressure, the reaction, and varied velodties 
of fluids are considered both theoretically and practi- 
cally. One of these problems, illustrated by experi- 
ment, deals with an ingenious mode of propelling 
vessels by the reaction of water ejected from the 
stem. Some of his experiments on this subject were 
performed before Maupertuis and Clairaut, whom the 
fame of the Bemoullis had attracted to Basel. With a 
success eaualled only by Euler, Daniel Bernoulli gained 
or sharea no less than ten prizes of the Acadany 
of Sciences of Paris. His labors in the decline of liie 
were chiefly directed to the doctrine of probabilities in 
reference to practical purposes, and in particular to eco- 
nomical subjects, as, for example, to inoculation, and to 
the duration of married life in the two sexes, as well as 
to the relative proportion of male and female births. 
He retained his usual vigor of understanding till near 
the age of eighty, when his nephew James refieved him 
of his public duties. He was afflicted with asthma, and 
his retirement was relieved only by the sodety of a few 
chosen friends. In the spring of 1 782, after some daya^ 
illness, he died, like his father, in the repose of skep. 



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He was wont to mentioD the folbwiiiff at the two inci- 
dents in his life which had afforded Tiim the greatest 
pleasure,— that a Strang, whom he had met as a tra- 
velling companion in his yoath, made to his declaration 
* 1 am Daniel Bemoaili** the incredulous and mocking 
reply, " And I am Isaac Newton ;" and that, while en- 
tertaining Konig and other gue^ he solved without 
rising from the table a problem which that mathematician 
had submitted as difficult and lengthy. 

Like his father, he was a member of almost eftrj 
learned society of Europe, and he tucoeeded him as for- 
tign associate of the Academy of Paris. 

V. John Bernoulu, the yoimgest of the three 
sons of John Bernoulli, was born at Basel on the i8th 
May 171a He studied law and mathematics, and, 
after travelling in France, was for five years professor 
of eloquence in the imiversity of his native dty. On the 
death of his father he succeeded him as professor of 
mathematics. He. was thrice a soccessfnl competitor 
for the prizes of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. 
His prize subjects were, the capstan, the propantion 
of light, and Uie magnet He enjoyed the friendsnip of 
Maupertuis, who di^ imder his roof while on his way 
to Berlin. He himself died in 170a His two sons, 
John and James, are the last noted mathematicians df 
the fiaimily. 

VI. Nicholas Bbrnoulu, cousin of the three pre- 
ceding, and son of Nicholas Bernoulli, one of the 
senators of Basel, was bom in that dty on the loth 
October 1687. He visited England, where he was 
kindly received by Newton and Halley (Com. PAi/, ep. 
199), held for a tune the mathematical chair at Padua, 
which Galileo had once filled, and was successively 
professor of logic and of law at Basel, where he died on 
the 29th of November 175a He was editor of the Ars 
Conjectandi of his unde James. His own works are 
contained in the Acta Eruditarum^ the GiomaU d^ 
Letterati d'Jtaliay and the Commercium Philosophicum, 

VII. John Bernoulli, grandson of the first John 
Bemoullt, and son of the second of that name, was 
bom at Basel on the 4th December 1744. He studied 
at Basel and at Neufch&tel, and when thirteen Tears of 
age took the degree of doctor in philosophy. At nine- 
teen he was appointed astronomer royal of Berlin. 
Some years after, he visited German]|r, France and 
England, and subsequently Italy, Russia, and Poland. 
On nis return to Berlin he was appointed director of the 
mathematical department of the academy. Here he 
died on the loth Julj 1807. His writings consist of 
travels and astronomical, geo^phical, aiKl mathemati- 
cal works. In 1774 he published a French translation 
of Euler's EUments of Algebra. He contributed 
several papers to the Academy of Berlin. 

VIII. JAMES Bernoulli, younger brother of the 
preceding, and the second of^ this name, was bom at 
Basel on the 17th October 1759. Having finished his 
literarv studies, he was, acccmling to custom, sent to 
Keufcn&tel to learn French. On his return he studied 
law and took a degree. This study, however, did not 
check his hereditary taste for geometry. The early 
lessons which he had received from his father were con- 
tinued by his uncle Daniel, and such was his progress in 
the exact sciences that at the age of twent3r-one ne was 
oUled to undertake the duties of the chair of experi- 
mental phjrsics, which his uncle's advanced years ren- 
dered him unable to discharge. He afterwards accepted 
the situation of secretary to Count de Brenner, which 
afibrded lum an opportunity of seeing Germany and 
Italy. 4n Italy he formed a friendship with Loi|;na, 
professor of mathematics at Verona, and one ot the 
founders of the Italian sodety for the encouragement of 
the sciences. He was also made corresponding member 



of the Roytl Sodety of Twin; Mid, wUle reiifing it 
Venice, he was, through the friendly representation of 
Fuss, admitted into the Academy of St Feteiabiirg. la 
1788 he was named one of its mathcanattad professors. 
In the following year he married a datt|;hter of Albert 
Euler, son of the illustrious Euler. This n 
soon tragically dissolved by the death of the 1 
who was drowned while bathing in the Neitt in Jily 

IeROSUS was a Chaldean priest who fived in the 
time of Alexander the Great and his immediate soc- 
cessors. He translated the history of his native conntir, 
Babj^onia, into the Greek language, and dedicat ed tne 
work to one of the Greek kii^ of Syria named Anti- 
ochus. His work is princmuly known through the 
fragments of Polyhistor and ApoUodoras, two writes 
in the ist century before the Christian era, who are 
quoted by Eusebius and Lyncdlua. 

The work of Berosus professed to commenoe with tiK 
creation of the universe, and the hbtoij was carried 
down to his own time. A few quotations at second or 
third hand, and the bare outlines of his system of dira- 
nology, are all that has been transmitted to ns through 
the copyists of Berosus; but the dose coonectiaQ 
throughout between his stonr and the BiUe, and the 
knowledge that he drew his information firom the records 
of Babjlonia, have always invested these fragments with 
great importance, — an importance which has been in- 
creased of late, since the discovery of several coneiibrm 
inscriptions confirming different parts of his history. 

BERRI, Charles Ferdinand, Due db, younger 
son of Charles X. of France, was bom at Versailles on 
the 24th Jan. 1778. With his &ther, then Cdmte 
d'Artois, he had to leave France, and for several years 
served in the army of Cond6. He afterwards joined die 
Russian army, and in 1801 took up his rendeoce ia 
England, where he remained for thirteen vears. Dar- 
ing that time he married an English lady, \if whom he 
\aA two children. The marriage was cancelled for 
political reasons in 1814, when the duke set out for 
France. His frank, open manners rained him some 
favor with his fickle countrymen, whidi was increased 
b^ his marria^ in 18 16 with the Princess Caroline Fer- 
dmande Louise of Naples. On the 13th of Fdiruary 
i8ao he was mortal^ wounded, when leaving the opera- 
house with his wife, by a man named Louvd. Seren 
months after his death the duchess gave birth to a son, 
who received the title of duke of Bordeaux. She was 
compelled to follow Charles X. in his retirement froia 
France after Julv 1830, but it was with the reaolutios of 
returning speedily and making an attempt to secure the 
throne for her son. In April 1852 she landed near 
Marseilles, but receiving no support, was compdled to 
make her way towards the ever-loyal districts ci Ls 
Vend^ and Bretagne. Her followers, however, were 
defeated, and after much suffering, she was bettaytd to 
the Government and imprisoned m the castle of Blafei 
Here she gave birth to a son, the firuit of a secret Ina^ 
riage contracted vrith an Italian nobleman, son of the 
Marchese Lucchesi PallL llie annoimcement of thif 
marriage at once deprived the dudiess of the sympathies 
of her supporters. She was no longer an object of fesr 
to the French Government, who released her in J<°>^ 
1833. She set sail for Sicily, and from that time till bef 
death in April 1870 lived a retired life with her husband 
and his relatives. 

BERRYER, Pisrrs Antoinb, a Frendi adfOOite 
and parliamentary orator, was bom at Paris, January 
4, 1790, in the nudst of the agitating events of the 6n^ 
year of the rreat Revolution. In the great conflict ol 
the period between Napoleon I. and the Boarboi^ 
Benyer, like his father, was an ardent Legitimists w 
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In iht spring of iStj, at the opodng of the campugn of 
the Hundred Days, he followed Louis XVIII. to Ghent 
as a Tolanteer. After the second restoration he distin- 
guished himself as a courageous advocate of moderation 
in the treatment of the military adherents of the 
enneror. He was eneaged, in conjunction with his 
fiuher and Duptn, in the unsuccessful defence of Mar- 
shal "Sty before the Chamber of Peers ; and he under- 
took aloo« the defence of General Cambronne and Gen- 
eral Debbie, procuring the acquittal of the former and 
&e pardon of the latter. Proceedings were soon after 
commenced ag^unst hkn for some assertions in one of 
his speeches^ but he escaped with nothing more severe 
than a oensare by the Council of Advocates. By this 
time he had a veiy large business as advocate, and was 
engaged on behalf of journalists in many press prosecu- 
tions. He stood fonivard with a noble resolution to 
maintain the freedom of the press, and severely censured 
the rigoroos measures of tne police department. In 
I&3CV not long before the fall of Charles X., Berryer 
was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies. 
He appeared there as the champion of the king, and 
enooura^sd him in his tjrrannical course. After the 
Revolution of July, \^n the Le^timists withdrew in a 
body, Berryer alone retained his seat as deputj ; and 
though avowedly the friend of the deposed kme, he 
took an independent course, not makinjg himsdf an 
unscrupulous partisan, but cuided in his aovocacy or his 
opposition by reason and prudence. In 1834 he 
defended two deputies in a Government prosecution for 
libel, and the same year opposed the passing of a new 
rigorous law against political and other assodadons. 
Among the more noteworthy events of his subsequent 
(^reer were his defence of Louis Napoleon after the 
ridiculous slSbu of Boulogne, in 1840, and a visit to 
England in December 1843, f^'' the purpose of formally 
scknowlec^^pnff the pretender, the duke of Bordeaux, 
then living in London, as Henry V., and lawful king of 
France. In November 1868 he was removed by his own 
desire from Paris to his country seat at Augerville, and 
there he died on the 29th of the same month. 

BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis, one of the most 
distii^^shed chemists of the French school, was bom at 
Talloire, near Annecy, in Savoy, in 1748. He studied 
fiist at Chambery, and subsequently at Turin, where he 
took his degree as a physiaan. In 1772 he settled at 
Paris, and soon became the medical attendant of Philip, 
duke of Orleans. B^ the publication of a volume of 
chemical essays, he gained such reputation that he was 
admitted in 1781 into the Acad^mie des Sciences. He 
^ appointed government superintendent of the estab- 
liihment for the improvement of dyeing; and in 1791 he 
published his essay Sur la Teinture, a work that first 
svstematized and chemically explained the principles of 
the art It was he who in 1785 first proposed to i4)ply 
it to bleaching. He discovered the remarkable salt now 
called chlorate of potash ; and we owe to him also an 
excellent essay on the chemical constitution of soaps. 
In 1798 BertnoUet accompanied General Bonaparte to 
%ypt. On the overthrow of the Directory he was 
Buide a senator and a grand officer of the Legion of 
Honor. Under the empire he was created a count, 
*Bd he sat as a peer on the restoration of the Bourbons. 
His last work was his curious essay on Chemical 
^^^f (i&>3)» in which he controverted, the views of 
^^vgniann. Berthollet was a man of great modesty and 
^^>^<)^tentations manners. For some years he lived re- 
^^^ at Arcueil, especially after the misconduct and 
ovicide of his <mly son. He died at Paris of a painful 
"■^""^ bravely home, November 6, 1822. 

BEkTHOuD, Ferdinand, a celebrated Swiss chro- 
Qometer-maker, was bom in NeufchAteL The date of 



his birth is variously given as 1725, 1727, and 1729. 
His father was an architect, and the son was intended 
for the church ; but, showing a taste for mechanics, he 
was placed under an experienced workman to be in- 
structed in clock and watch making, and was afterwards 
sent to Paris to improve himself in the knowledge and 
practice of the art. He settled in Paris in 1745, and 
applied himself to the making of^ chronometers, an art 
which was then in its infancy. He soon attained dis- 
tinction for the excellence of his workmanship and the 
accuracy of his chronometers. Fleurieu and Borda, by 
order of the French Government, made a vojrage from 
La Rochelle to the West Indies and Newfoundland 
for the purpose of testing them, and they found that 
they gave the longitude with an error of only a Quarter 
of a degree, after a cruise of six weeks. Satistactory 
results were also obtained in the expedition of Verdun, 
Borda, and Pingr6, which was appointed to try thesa 
chronometers and those of his only rival, Le Roy. 
Sully, an English watchmaker established in Paris, was 
the first who in that city attempted the construction of 
chronometers for finding the longitude; and this he did 
in 1724. Ferdinand Berthoud*s chronometers were 
long the most esteemed of any in France. Louis Bert- 
houd, his nephew and successor, introduced some im- 
provements, and made chronometers of a smaller size 
and therefore more portable. Berthoud was a member 
of the French Institute, a fellow of the Royal Society 
of London, and a member of the Lq^on of Honor. 
He was regular in his habits, and retained the use of 
his faculties to the last. He died of hydrothorax, at 
his country house, in the valley of Montmorency, in 
1807, aged about eighty. 

BERTINORO (identified, on conjecture, with the 
ancient Forum Druentinorum)^ a city of Italy, in the 
province of Emilia and district of Forli, the seat of the 
oishop of the united dioceses of Forlimpopoli and Ber- 
tinoro. 

BERWICK, James Fitzjames, DtncE of, marshal 
and peer of France, was a natural son of James, duke 
of York, afterwards James II. of England, by Arabella 
Churchill, sister of the great duke of Marlborough. He 
was born at Moulins, August 21, 1670. He served his 
first campaigns in Hungary, and was present at the 
siege of Buda and the battle of Mohacz. In 1687 he 
returned to England, was made Knight of the Garter, 
and created duke of Berwick. After the Revolution he 
served under James II. in the campaign in Ireland, was 
in one engagement severely wounaed, and was present 
at the battle of the Boyne. For a short time he was 
left in Ireland as commander-in-chief, but his youth and 
inexperience unfitted him for the post, and he was a 
mere puppet in stronger hands. In 1692 he was called 
to France, and took service in the French army. He 
fought under Marshal Luxembourg in Flanders, took 
part in the battles of Steinkerk and Landen (Neer- 
winden), and was taken prisoner at the latter. He was, 
however, immediately exchanged for the duke ol 
Ormond, and afterwards he served under VilleroL In 
1696 the duke of Berwick took a prominent part in a 
plot for a Jacobite insurrection, but the scheme came to 
nothing. In 1702 he served under the duke of Bur- 
gundy, and in the following vear became naturalized as 
a Frenchman. In 1704 he brst took command of the 
French army in Spain. So h;|;hly was he now esteemed 
for his courage, abilities, and integrity, that all parties 
were anxious to haye him on their side. From Spain 
he was recalled to take command against the Camisards 
in Languedoc, and when on this expedition he is said to 
have carried out with remorseless ngor the orders which 
he received from Versailles. About this time he was 
created marshal of France. He wa&^then sent %gain to 
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BER 



Spdn to i^ i l ey e the al&lrtof thtt kin^om, and to prop 
up the tottering throne. In April 1707 he won the 
great victory of Almanxa, an Englishman at the head of 
a French army, over the earl of Galwa^ (comte de 
RuTigny), a Frenchman at the head of sm uaglish armj. 
The victory established Philip V. on the throne of 
Sp(un, although neither he nor his rival, the archduke, 
was present at the battle. Berwick was made a peer of 
France and grandee c4 Spain. In 1708 he oecame 
oonunander-in-chief of the armies of France and Spain, 
in Flanders, on the Rhine, and on the Moselle. 
Through the four following years he nined fresh 
lanrels by hit masterly defence of Daupnin^ and in 
17 13 he returned to Spain and took Barcelona. • Three 
years later he was appointed military governor of the 
province of Goienne. He advised and conducted in 
1734 Uie tiege of Philipsburg on the Rhine, and while 
the siege was going on was killed by a cannon-shot, 
June 12 of that year. 

BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, a ntapori town and 
municipal and parliamentary borough, at the mouth of 
^ Tweed, 300 miles N. by W. from London, and 47 
E.S.E. from Edinburgh. 

Berwick is one of tl^ few remaining walled towns in 
the United Kingdom. The present ramparts were built 
fai the reign of Elizabeth. To the north and east they 
are formed of earth Caced with stone ; bastions with cav- 
aliers are placed at intervals, and a ditch, now dry, ex- 
tends to the river. Fronting the river are four-gun 
and six-gun batteries defending the entrance to the 
harbor, and a twenty-two-gun battery commanding 
the south side. These ramparts which are perforated 
by five gateways, are ^eraAj in good repair, but since 
1822 have been destitute or guns save for volunteer 
pfactice. 

BERWICKSHIRE, a maritime county of Scotland, 
forming its S.E. extremity, bounded N.E. by the Ger- 
man Ocean, N. by Haa(Ungton, W. bv Midlothian, 
S. W. by Roxbqrgh, S. by the Tweed, which separates 
h from the Northumberland, and S.E. by the liberties 
of the town of Berwick. Its greatest length from E. 
to W. is 31X TaHes ; its greatest breadth 19^ ; area 
about 464 smiare miles, or 297,161 acres. 

The early nistory of Berwickshire is to a great extent 
bound up with that of the ancient frontier town ; from its 
position It also suffered much durinc: the border wars. The 
most noteworthy antiquities are Coldineham Priory in 
ttie E. and Dryburgh Abbey in the S. W. They were 
burnt in the same jrear, 1545, during the barbarous in- 
road of the English army under die earl of Hereford. 
About four miles N. from Coldingham are the ruins of 
Fast Castle (•* The Wolfs Craig »» of the Brid^ of Lam- 
wurmoor)^ situated on a peninsular cliff, 120 feet bv 60, 
and 70 feet above the sea. A little further north is the 
Pease or Peaths Bridge, built by Telford, in 1786, over 
the deep glen which forms the celebrated pass — of old 
•ne of the strongest natural defences of Scotland. 
Near it is Cockbumspath Tower, once a strong fortress, 
now in ruins. In the west of Berwickshire, besides 
Drylmrgh, there are, at Earlstoun, the remains of the 
ancient tower ** The Rh3nner's Castle,** the traditional 
residence of Thomas Learmont, commonly odled 
Thomas of Ercildoune or Thomas me Rhymer. About 
a mile from Earlstoun is Cowdenlmowes, on a hill above 
which grew the * bonnie broom ** of the old song. 
None of it now remains, it having bean graduallv en- 
croached upon by the plough, and the last of it killed 
by the severe frost of 1861-62. Hume Castle, the an- 
oent seat of the Home familv, also towards the west, 
has a commanding view, and ts itself visible from nearly 
eveiy part of the coun^. Traces of Roman occupa- 
tion and o£ ancient British settlements exists in various 



Cot the Merse. £&*s or Ethi*s HaD. on Cock* 
Law, about four miles north of Dunse, still goes 
under the name of the Pech*s or Pict's House. Tfce 
are manv large mansions throughout the county, the 
principal being Thirlestane Castle (earl of Laoderdale), 
Vfertoun House (Lord Polwarth), Mellerstain and Len- 
nel House (earl of Haddington), Nesbit (Lord SixMrlair), 
Dunse Castle (Hinr), Wedderbum and Paxton (Milne 
Home), Lees (Sir John Marjoribanks), LaMdrk (Baroa. 
ess Marjoribanks), Ayton Castle (Mitchell Innes), Hirsd 
(earl of Home). 
BERYL, a mineral species which indodes, in additioa 



to what are ordinarily Known as beryls, the aquam 
or precious beryl and the emerald. The similari^ be- 
tween the beryl and the emerald was pointed out by Pliny, 
and the onhr points of distinction are the g r een color of 
the emerald and the somewhat superior hardness of die 
bervL The color of the emerald is generally bdievcd 
to be due to the presence of a minute portion of oxide 
of chromium, although M. Lewy asserts, from analyss 
of Muzo emeralds, that it is reuly owing to the pres- 
ence of organic matter. 

Leaving out of account the emerald, the colors of the 
beryl ranjze from blue through soft sea green to a pak 
honev yeflow, and in some cases the stones are entirely 
colorless. The aquamarine is so named on account of 
its bluish green color. The chrysoberylus, dirysoprasns, 
and chrysolithus of ancient jewellery appear to some ex- 
tent at least to have been names ap|^ed to different shades 
<rf beiyl The beryl was highl]^ pnsed for use in jewellery 
by the Romans, bv whom it was cut into six-sided 
prisms and mountea as ear-drops. Some of the finest 
examples of ancient Greek and Roman gem engraving 
are found executed in beryl ''The grandest intagtio 
extant of the Roman period is upon an aquamarine of 
the extraordinary magnitude of 2% by 2% inches : the 
bust of Julia Tid signed by the artist Euodos. For 
nearl^r a thousand years it formed the knosp of a goUen 
reliqniary presented by Charlema^e to the abbey of 
St. Denys, in which it was set with the convex back 
uppermost, being regarded as an invaluable emerald.** 

BERZELIUS, Jons Jakob, one of the most illus- 
trious of modem chemists, was bom on the 20th of 
August 1779, at a farm near WJlfversunda, in Ostcreot- 
land, Sweden. At the age of nine he was left an orphan 
in the charge of his stepuither, A. Elmark of Ekeby, a 
learned and amiable man, gifted, too, it would seem, 
with some prophedc insight, for one day he said to the 
child, ** Jakob, I think you will tread in the footsteps of 
Linnaeus, or be another Cartouche 1 *• From that day a 
desire for distinction as a man of science awoke in the 
child's breast. In 1 793 Berzelius entered the gymnasium 
school at Linkoping, where he made n^icTprogress. 
During his holidays, spent in the country, ne met a man 
who instmcted him in the elements of entomoloc^, and 
thus gave a fresh impetus to his scientific procfivities. 
The Tatter soon developed into a passion, and under 
Homstedt at Linkdping, progressea ru)idly till he left 
the college in 1796, and proceeded to the university of 
Upsala. In 1798 he b^gan to stud^ chemistir under 
Professor AfzeUus ; and although in those days the 
lectures were without practical experiments and ex- 
tremely uninteresting, he became more and more ab- 
sorbed in the study. In 1800 he was called to Stodc- 
holm as assbtant to the royal physician, Dr. Hedin, and 
his success as a practical chemist began. The ItaliflV 
Volta, had in 1800 invented the galvanic battery which 
bears his name ; and Benelhas was one of the first 
persons in Europe to observe the greatness of thtf 
discovery. In 1802 he published a treatise on this 
subject. In 1803 he became professor of physics, and 
by his lectures rapidly founded a new, a rational school 
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933 



of jiby^tAogy^ and threw new Ucht on many difficult 
pomts connected with the chemic^ and physiod charac- 
teristics of animal life. In the same y^ he published 
his Essay on the Division of Salts through Galvanism^ 
in which he propounds the electro-chemical theory, the 
honor of first laying down which is divided between 
Berzelins and Davy. In conjunction with Hisinger, 
Berzelius then published in numbers Treatises on 
Physics, Chemistry, and Mineralogy, a work of the 
greatest value for science. Honor after honor was 
heaped upon him ; in 1810 he was called to be a member 
of the Medical College of Sweden; in 1808 he was 
elected president of ue Academy of Sciences. Two 
years later he brought out his famous treatise On the 
Fixed Proportions and Weights of Atoms* He then 
took up mineralogy with special ardor, and published 
his Treatise on the Blowfnpe ; he set up for nimself a 
regularly graduated chemical system of minerals, and 
the value of this was felt to be so great that the Royal 
Society of London voted him its gold medal for it. 
After mcessant labor he retired, in 1832, from his pro- 
fessorship at Stockholm, having never been connected 
as teacher with any of the universities. In 1842, while 
he was engaged in a chemical experiment, an explosion 
took place and he was much injured, but recovered and 
continued to work on till the close of his days. He 
died August 7, 1848. After Linnaeus, his is considered 
to be the greatest name in science of which Sweden can 
boast. 

BES, the name of an Egyptian god, apparently the 
same as that of the city Bessa. He is stated to have 
been worshipped and to have had an oracle at Abydos 
according to Ammianus Marcellinus, and according to 
oth»s at Antinoe or Antinoopolis. The name Bes is 
found in Egyptian monuments attached to a eod clad in 
a Hofl's skin, the head and skull of the animiu covering 
his head and concealing his features; his legs are bowea 
like Ptah, and his whole appearance is grotesque, re- 
sembling in other respects the Greek Hercules. 

BESANgON, a city of France, capital of the dgwut- 
nent of Doubs, 45 miles E. of Dijon, on the River 
Doubs, which flows round it on three skies. It is well 
protected by strong fortincations and a citadel on an 
•hnost impr^;nable rock, 410 feet above the river. 

Besan^on is a place ojf great antiquity. Under the 
name of Vesentio^ it was, in the time of Caesar, the 
chief town in Sequani. Under the Roman emperors it 
was rich and prosperous, and Aurelian especially had a 
peat liking for tne place. Many of the streets still 
hear the oM Roman names. It was frequently destroyed 
»pd rebuilt during the Middle Ages, and tne present 
city stands twenty feet above the original level 

BESKOW, Bernhard von. Baron, the Swedish 
dramatist, was born at Stockholm, April 19, 1796. 
Bcskow's first book. Poetical Efforts, published in 1818, 
made a favorable impression with tne public, and he 
wotethe prize poem for the Swedish Academy some 
F^ars later. His dramas, however, are his chief claim 
to remembrance; the best are Torkei Knutsson, Erik 
^^y*, Birger and his Race, and Gustavus Adolphus 
«« Germany. Torkel Knutsson is conskiered the finest 
^rama that Swedish literature possesses. CEhlenschla- 
ger translated his drama into Danish, and various per- 
sons rendered them into German. He died on the 17th 
of October 1868. 

BESSARABIA, a government in the S.W. of Eu- 
J^P^an Russia, on the borders of Austria and the Danu- 
hJ«n principalities, with an area, since the cessions of 
we Paris peace in 1856, of I4»577 English square 
ndles. Till the last Eastern war Bessarabia occupied 
2^^Je space between the Dniester and the Pruth 
ftom the Austroo frontier to the Black Ses. 



Bessarabia, in keeping with its position near the 
Danube, played an important historic part in ancient 
times, espeaally in the beginning of our era, when it 
served as a key to the eastern approaches of the Bysan- 
tine empire. And thus, from immemorial times, na- 
tions were ceaselessly alternating with nations within 
its borders. The original inhabitants were the Cymri, 
succeeded by the Scythians. Herodotus, who had been 
in the Greek colomes of the Black S«i, relates that 
near the mouth of the Dniester (Tyras) Uiere lived the 
Tyritians, possessing on the estuary of that river the 
town of Tyras (Oxeia or, according to Pliny, Ophinsa). 
In the 2d century after Christ Bessarabia was occupied 
by the Geti and oflishoots fi-om the Bastroni, and in 106 
A.D., the Geti were conquered by Trajan. After this 
subjugation of the land by the Romans, the present 
Bessarabia went along with Walachia, Moldavia, and 
Transylvania, to compose Dacia. In the ^d century 
appeared the Goths, recently converted to Christianity. 
In the 5th century Bessarabia was overrun try the Huns; 
after the Huns, m the end of the 5th century, arrived 
the Avars and the Bulgarians; and last of all came the 
Slavonians (Lutichi and Tevertzi), who built themselves 
the town of Bielgorod. In the 7th century appeared 
the race of the Bessi from whom the country acquired 
its present name. In the oth century arrived the 
Ugnans; in the loth the Pechen^; in the nth the 
Kumans, the Uses, and the Polovtzians ; and in the i jth 
the Mongolians, under the leadership of Batia. In this 
last century, alsojthe Genoese founded their colonies on 
the shores of the Dniester. In 1367 Bessioabia formed 
a part of Moldavia. In i C03 the sonthem portion of 
the countiy, or Budiak, fell under the power of the 
Turks ; and in 1560 tnere settled in that custrict 30^000 
Nogaitzians, who had devastated northern Bessarabia, 
then inhabited by Roumanians. These Nogaitzians ac- 
quired the name of the Bielgorod hordS. Russian 
armies occupied Bessarabia dunng all the Turlddi wars 
in the i8th century, and again in 1806^12, when it was 
united to Russia \>y the Bukharest treaty. By the Paris 
convention of 1856, Russia ceded the districts of lamael 
and the greater part of the Cagul to Turkey, and these 
now form a part of Roumania. 

BESSARION, Joannes, dtular patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, and one of the illustrious Greek scholars 
who contribued to the great revival of letters in the i jtfa 
century, was bom at Trebizond in 1389, or, according 
to others, in 1395. Bessarion was one of the most 
learned scholars of his time. Besides his translations 
of Aristode*s Metaphysics and of Xenophon*s Memora' 
bilia, his most iinportant work^ is a treatise directed 
against George of Trebizond, a violent Aristoteliui, and 
entided In Calumniaiorem Platonis. Bessarion, 
though a Platonist, is not so thorough-going in his ad- 
miration as Pletho, and rather strives after a reconcilia- 
tion of the two philosophies. His work, by opening 
up the relations of Platonism to the main ques- 
tions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension 
of speculative thought in the department of theo- 

•%SSfeGES. a town of Franc, in *e de»ar.„.e«t of 
Gard, 20 miles north of Alais bv r^way, of importance 
for its coal and iron mmes and blast-nimaces. Popu- 
lation 8036. 

BESSeL, Friedrich Wilhblm, a distinguished 
Prussian astronomer, was bom at Minden on uie aad 
July 1784. At an early age he was pkced in the count- 
mg-house of a merchant at Bremen. His strong desire 
to obtain a situation as supercargo on a foreign voyagt 
led him to the study first of navigation and then of ma- 
thematics. He devoted himself with the utmost ardor 
to msthcmatkial and astronomical Mknlationsy and m 

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BET 



1804 andertook the redaction of the observations made 
on the comet of 1607. His results were commonicated 
to Gibers, who warmly praised the young astronomer, 
and in 1806 recommended him for the post of assistant 
to Schroter in the observatory at Lilienthal. In 1810, 
after his reputation had been much extended by various 
memoirs, treating particularly of cometary orbits, he 
was appointed director of the new observatory then 
being founded by the king of Prussia at KSnigsberg. 
He was at the same time made professor of astronomv 
and mathematics in the university of that town. Bessel, 
from his keen practical intelligence, thorough acquain- 
tance with all mstrumental appliances, and complete 
mastery of the methods of calculation, was admirably 
fitted for the post of observer. The establishment at 
Konigsberg was one of the best of its kind, and its ob- 
servations, published continuously from 1813, are of 
freat value. In 1818 Bessel completed a task on whidi 
e had been engaged for several years — the reduction 
of Bradley's priceless but neglected Greenwich observa- 
tions. The results were published in the volume 
entitled Fundamenta Astronomia^ the importance of 
which for astronomical science cannot be oTerrated. By 
its publication the author at once took his place among 
the first astronomers of Europe ; he was received with 
honor by the various foreign scientific societies, and was 
made a privy councillor by the king of Pmssia. Of his 
later labors in practical astronomy perhaps the most 
important is his determination of the parallax of the 
star 61 Cygni, accomplished by methods of extreme in* 
genuity and delicacy. 

BETEL NUT. The name betel is applied to two 
different plants, which in the East are very doselv 
aasociatea in the purposes to which they are applied 
The betel nut is the fruit of the Areca or betel palm, 
Areca Catechu^ and the betel leaf is the produce of the 
betel vine or pan, Chavica Betel^ a plant allied to that 
which yields olack pepper. The areca palm is a grace- 
ful tree, which appears to be indigenous over a wide 
area in the East, including Soutl''.em India, Ceylon, 
Siam, the Malay Archipem^o, and the Philippine 
Islands, in the whole of which it is extensively cultivated. 
The fi^t of the palm is about the size of a small hen's 
egg, and within its fibrous rind is the seed or 80*called 
nut, the albumen of which is very hard and has a 
prettily mottled grejr and brown app>earance. The 
chief purpose for which betel nuts are cultivated and 
collected is for use as a masticatory, — their use in this 
form being so wide-spread amone Oriental nations that 
it is estimated that one-tenth of the whole human family 
indulge in betel cheMring. For this use the fruits are 
annu^ly gathered between the months of August and 
November, before they are quite ripe, and deprived of 
their husks. They are prepared by boiling in water, 
cutting up into slices, and drying in the sun, by which 
treatment the slices assume a dark brown or black 
color. When chewed a small piece is wrapped up in a 
leaf of the betel vine or pan, with a pellet of shell lime 
or chanam ; and in some cases a litUe cardamon, tur- 
meric, or other aromatic Is added. The mastication 
causes a copious flow of saliva of a brick-red color and 
gives the mouth, lips, and gums of the diewer a 
repulsive appearance. The liabit blackens the teeth, 
but it is asserted by those addicted to it that it 
strengthens the gums, sweetens the breath, and stimu- 
lates the digestive organs. 

BETHANY (Le„ probably the " House of Dates 'O, 
a vills^e, now called El' Azarfyeh, or Lazarieh, nearly 
two miles E.S.E. from Jerusalem, on the eastern slope 
of the Mount of Olives, at a height of 2208 feet above 
the sea. The whole importance of the place is derived 
firom \^ ♦onn^ction with th^ New Testameot history, 



it being never mentioned in the Old 'Tetttmait or 
Apocrypha. It was the residence of Lazams mnd Ins 
sisters, a favorite retreat of the Saviour, and the socbc 
not only of his greatest mirack bat also of hisasccnaian. 

BETHEL (1.^., in Hebrew, the « House of God"). 
originally called Luz, an andent city of Palestine, on tbe 
bottlers of the tribe of Benjamin, eleven KngHsh mites 
UOTth of Jerusalem. 

BETHESDA was a pool or public bath in JcnnBleai. 
where miraculous cures were believed to be performed; 
now usually identified with the Birket Israel, near Si. 
Stephen's Uate. See Jerusalem. 

BETHLEHEM (1./., in Hebrew, the -House of 
Bread**), a small town in Palestine, situated on a fime> 
stone ridee, about six miles from Jerusalem, 00 die 
main road to Hebron. Almost complete dbaoirity 
was gathering round it when it became one of die 
worliTs most memorable spots — the birthplace of the 
Saviour. Desecrated during the rdgn of Hadrian b]r & 
grove of Adonis, the traditional scene of the i — * ' ' ' " 
(a grotto on the eastern part of the ridge) was < 
b^r the Empress Helena with a noble basHio . 
still stands, surrounded by three convents sucoesshrelj 
erected here by the (^eek, Latin, and ArmeatBa 
Churches. 

BETHLEHEM, a town of Pennsylvania, in Nortk- 
ampton County, is of importance as a commercial centre, 
and has railroad and tdemph connections. Pop. lo,oocx 

BETHUNE, the dutftown of an aroodissement m 
the French department of Pas de Calais, situated 00 a 
rode above the River Brette, 16 miles N.N.W. of 
Arras. 

BETLIS, Brrus, or Bkdlis, a town of Tnikidi 
Armenia, in the San^ak of Miish, situated near the 
sonth-west comer of Lake Van, in a hi^^y cultivated 
valley, which is watered br the Bidis-chai, a sub-tiflMi- 
tanrof the Tigris. 

BETTERTON, THOifAS, die best Eng^ actor of 
his time, was the son of Mr. Betterton, under-cook to 
King Charles I., and was bom at Westminster in 1635. 
He was apprenticed to Mr. Rhodes, a booksdkr near 
Charing Cross. Rhodes, who had been vrardrobe- 
keeper to the theatre in Blackfriars, obtained in 16J9 a 
licence to set up a company of pUyers at the Codcptt in 
Drury Lane ; and there Betterton made his first appear- 
ance on the stage. On the <M>ening of the new tneatre 
in Lincoln*s-Inn-Fiekls in 1602, Sir William Davenant 
the patentee, engaged Betterton and all Rhodei*s com- 
pany to play in ms Siege of Rhodes, Betterton became 
a great favorite with the long, and was sent to Paris to 
examine the French stage, with a view to the introduc- 
tion of improvements. According to Cibber it was 
after his return that shifting scenes were first used in 
the English theatre instead of tapestry. 

His performance of Hamlet after this time is partio- 
ularly mentioned in the Tatler, In the spiine 01 17 10 
he made his last appearance on the stage in nis ode- 
brated part ot Melantius in The MaitTs Tra^y. A 
rash attempt to reduce the swelling of his limbs faf 
external applicadons threw the gout into his head, and 
he died on the 28th of April 

BETTINELLI, Saverio, Italian Jesuit and littte- 
teur, was bom at Mantua on the i8th of July 1718. 

BETTING may be defined as the stalong or pledg- 
mg between two parties of some object of maternl 
vsJue on the issue or contingent issue of some event or 
contest. The pursuit fit can hardly be termed a nas- 
time, sdence, or art) of betting has been in vogue vom. 
the earliest days of dvilization, commencing in the East 
with royal and noble gamblers, and eradnaly extendii^ 
itself westward and throughout lul dasses. In aU 
I countries where the En^^ish tongi^r. is spoken bctdn^ i| 



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935 



DOW Lii^ly indulged in ; and in tbe United States it 
has spi^ to such an extent amongst all grades of so- 
detv during the last twenty Years that the interference 
of tne legisTature has been iound necessary. The erils 
it has been productive of are two well known to call for 
comment here, and the principles re<)uire to be treated 
solely firom mathematical and legislative points of 
view. 

The first principle of all betting is that ** you caimot 
win where you cannot lose.*' Accordingly no bets are 
** play or pay" except those on certain events enumer- 
ated oelow, or unless such a stipulation is laid down at 
the time the bet is made. Bettmg may be divided into 
" bookmakinf '* and •* backing. " The former consbts in 
laying the odds, and, theoretically speaking, secures a 
smaD though certain proBt, were all debts paki and the 
number of starters for the event large. During the 
first half of the 19th century bookmaking was afar more 
lucrative business than now, because betting was con- 
fined to the wealthier classes and bod debts were fewer. 
Also, betting commenced manv months before a great 
race, and so the bookmaker haa more opportunities of 
lajring against all the entries, whereas most betting on 
I^ay or pay events is now done just before the start. 

** Backing ** is a very plain matter, but in the lone- 
nm invariably a losing method of betting. It simp^ 
consists in taking tne odds laid by a bookmaker 
against one or more starters for any event If it be 
a play or pay event, and the possible starter be scratched, 
the fa^ker loses his moncjat once. Although a backer 
may become possessed of such special information as 
may enable nim to win large sums occasionally, his 
losses will in the long-run exceed them. In fact, the 
bookmaker virtually keeps a bank against him. 

*' Hedging ^ consists in laying off at shorter odds 
part of the sums various starters may have been backed 

In the United Kingdom betting has been the source 
of considerable legislation during the past thirty years. 
Curiously enough, by the 9th of Queen Anne, if any 
one gained over £^0 by betting, the loser was entitled 
to sue for repayment of the stake if he had paid it, 
and if he did not do so within three months any one 
might sue for treble the amount with costs. After it 
had become a dead letter some informers raked up this 
Act in 1S44, and the result was the insertion of a clause 
m the Gaming Act, 8 and 9 Vict. c. 109, annulling the 
<dd statute. During the next seven years bettmg on 
horse races increased to an enormous extent ** List 
shops," where the proprietors kept a bank against all 
comers, and backers could stake tneir money in advance 
on a horse, sprung up in the metropolis and large towns, 
leadbg to many acts of flaunt dishonesty. 

In 1866 a system of betting, termed Paris mutueh, 
was started in France. It consisted of agencies where 
^y one may back a probable starter for any sum or 
sums he pleases. The whole of the money thus staked 
^ all starters is added together, a commission deducted 
by the agent for his troul^e, and the balance divided in 
* equal SiareSj^or Paris mutuels^ amongst those who 
nave backed the victor. In this instance the agent's 
sun is, of course, certain. It has been found, liow- 
ever, that unlicensed opportunities of staking money in 
^hrance have produced the same evils in France as in 
England. During the past three years the French 
Government have taken the matter up stronjzly, and 
hettmg-houses and agencies are now as e^ctnally 
jjoomed on the French as on the English side of the 
Channel 

In the United States betting is also iUegal. Under 
ge Gambling Act, whenever any money has been staked 
■^ ft bet, either side can sue the stakeholder and recover 



his portion of the mone^, either before or after the bet 
has oeen decided. Owmg, howevo-, to the strong pub- 
lic sentiment which naturally condemns such^ a course, 
proceedings against stakeholders are excessively rare. 
Any voter bettmg on the result of an election forfeits 
his firanchise, yet the heaviest betting in the States is on 
elections, and the betters go unchallenged to the poU. 

BETUL, a hilly district of British India, m the Cen- 
tral Provinces, comprising the westernmost section of 
the creat S&tnuril plateau, is bounded on the N. by the 
Ho^iang&bid district and the Makr&i territory, on the 
£. bv the district of Chhindwiri, on the S. by the com- 
missionership of West Berars, and on the W. by the 
district of Hoshang&b^ The area is about 41 18 square 
miles. 

Litde is known of the earlv history of th- -district ex- 
cept that it must have been tne centre of thelirst of the 
four ancient Gond kingdoms of Kherld, Deogarh, 
Mandla, and Chindd. According to Farishti, these 
kingdoms engrossed in 1398 all the hiUs of Gondwdn^ 
and adjacent countries, and were of great wealth and 
power. About the year 1418 Sultto Ilusain Shiih of 
M&lwa invaded KherlA, and reduced it to a dependency. 
Nine years later the R&ji rebelled, but although with 
the help of the B4hmfni kings of the Deccan he man- 
aged for a time to assert his independence, he was fin- 
afly subdued and deprived of his territories. In 1467 
Kherla was seized by the BUhmfni king, but was after- 
wards restored to M&lwa. A century later the king- 
dom of M&lwa became incorporated into the dominions 
of the emperor of DelhL In 1703 a Musfilman convert 
of the Gond tribe held the country, and in 174^ Raghujf 
Bhonsld, the Marhatti ruler of Berar, annexed it to his 
dominions. The Marhattis in the year 1818 ceded this 
district to the East India Company as payment for a 
contingent, and bv the treaty of^i8i6 it was formally in- 
corporated with tne British possessions. Detachments 
of Briti^ troops were stationed at Multii, Betul, and 
Sh^pur to cut off the retreat of Ap& S^ib, the Mar- 
hatti general, and a military force was quartered at 
Betul until Jtme 1862. The ruined city of KherU 
formed the seat of government under the Gonds and 
preceding rulers, and hence the district was, until the 
time of its annexation to the British dominions, known 
as the ** KherU Sark&r.** The town of Multdi contains 
an artificial tank, from the centre of which the Taptf is 
said to take its rise ; hence the reputed sanctity of the 
spot, and thp accumulation of temples in its honor. 

The climate of Betul is fairly salubrious. Its height 
above the plains and in the neighborhood of extensive 
forests moderate the heat, and render the temperature 
pleasant throughout the greater part of the year. 
During the cold season the thermometer at night falls 
below the freezing point; little or no hot wind is felt 
before the end of April, and even then it ceases after 
sunset The nighte in the hot season are comparatively 
cool and pleasant. During the monsoon the climate is 
very damp, and at times even cold and raw, thick clouds 
and mists enveloping the sky for many dys together. 
The average annual rainfall is 40 inches. In the denser 
jungles malaria prevails for months after the cessation 
of the rains, but the Gonds do not appear to suffer 
much from its effects. Travellers and strangers who 
venture into these jundes run the risk of fever of a 
severe type at almost all seasons of the year. 

BETWA, a river of India, which rises in the native 
state of BhopaU m M^wa, and after a course of 360 
miles, for the most part in a north-easterly direction, 
falls into the Tamni at Hamfrpur. 

BEUDANT, FnANgois Sulplick, a French mineral- 
ogist and geobgist, was bom at Paris in 1787, ai4 

•^ *"•«** Digitized by Google ^ 



936 



BEU — BEY 



BEULfi, Charlis Ernest, a Frendi ardiKologist 
mod man of letters, was bora at Sanmur a9Ch June 
i8a6, and died 4th April 1874. 

BEUTHEN, the chief town of a drde in the gorern- 
mcnt of Oppeln in Prussian Siesia, 00 tfat railway be- 
tween Oppeln and Cracow, about 50 miks from the 
former. 

BEUTHEN, or Niedvr Beuthin, a town in the 
government of Lic^iu, in Silesia, on the Oder, and the 
capital of the mediatized prindpalitj of Carolath-Beu- 
then. 

BEVERLEY, a market and borough town in the 
East Riding of Yorkshire, about a mile from the River 
Hull, with which it commanicates by means of a canal 
called the Beverley Beck. 

BEVERLEY, a seaport of Massachosetu in the 
United States, situated on a branch of Ann Harbor, 
and connected with Salem by a bridge built in 1788. It 
is 16 miles N.E.'of Boston, on the Eastern Railway, and 
is connected with Gloucester by a branch line. The 
principal industry is the manutecture of shoes ; and a 
consklerable number of people are employed in the 
coaftinff trade and fisheries. Population in 1880, io,ooa 

BEVERLEY, John of, a celebrated prdate, who 
flourished daring the 7th and 8th centuries, was bom at 
Harpham in Northumbria. He received his education 
at Canterbury, and after his return to the north was the 
instructor of the Venerable Bede. In 685 he was made 
bishop of Hoffalstad or Hexham, and two vears later 
was promoted to the archbishopric -of York. He re- 
signed his see in 717, and retirect to a college which he 
had founded some years before at Beverley, where he 
died in 721. ^ 

BE WDLEY, a market and borough town in the par- 
ish of Ribbesford, in the county of Worcester, 129 
miles from London, on the Severn Valley Railway. 

Bewdley, or, as it was formerly called, BeauiUu, was 
a place of some importance in the 13th century, and had 
die right of sanctuary for those who shed blood. 

BEWICK, Thomas, who m^ be considered as the 
reviver of wood-engraving in England, was bora at 
Cherrybura, near Newcasue-on-Tyne, in August 1753. 
At the age of fourteen be was apprenticed to Mr. 
Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle. In his office Bewick 
engraved on wood for Dr. Hutton a series of diagrams 
fllustrating a treatise on mensuration. He seems there- 
after to have devoted himself entirely to engraving on 
wood, and in 1775 he received a premium from the 
Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufact- 
ures K>r a woodcut of the ** Huntsman and the Old 
Hound.** In 1784 appeared his SfUct Fables, the en- 
gravings in which, tnough far surpassed by his later 
productions, were incomparably superior to anythin£ 
that had yet been done in that line. _ The Quadrupeds 
appeared in 1790, and his great achievement, that with 
which his name is inseparably associated, the British 
Birds, was published from 1797-18OA. Bewick, from 
Im intimate knowledge of the habits of animals acquired 
during his constant excursions into the conntrr, was 
thoroughly qualified to do justice to his great task. Of 
hk other productions the engravings for Goldsmith's 
Travellet and Deserted Village, for Paraell's Hermit, 
ibr Somerville's Chase, and for the collection oi Fables 
of JEsop and others, may be specially mentioned. 
Berwick was for manT years in partnership with his 
former master, and in later life had numerous pupils, 
several of whom rained distinction as engravers. He 
died on the 8th November 1828. 

BEYLE, Marie-Henri, better known as De Stend- 
hal, tbe most celebrated of his many noms de tlume, 
was bora at Grenoble on the 23d of January, 1783. At 
the a^ of twelve be was sent to the Ecole Centrale, 



newly esublished at Grenoble, and continiied in attend- 
ance for four years, during which time he distinguished 
himself in all his studies. In 1790 he was prepariae to 
become a candidate for the EcoM Polyteoinique wLea 
his plans were disturbed by an offer from M. Dar«» a 
distant relative, of some appointment coonected with the 
ministry for war. In the following year be accompuued 
M. Daru to Milan, on the chance of some suitable post 
offering itself. He was present at the battle of Marengo ; 
and carried away, apparently, by the military enthnsiasai 
consequent on Napoleon's brilliant victories, he suddenly 
enlisted as quartermaster in a dragoon raiment. In a 
month's time he was made sub-lieutenant, and for aboat 
a year and a half acted as aide^-camp to General 
Michaud. But the routine of nrrison life, to which he 
was soon afterwards condemned, made him heartily tired 
of a military career. On the conclusion of the peace of 
Amiens ( 1802) he threw up his commission and went to 
reside with his family at Grenoble. From them be ob- 
tained means to take up his abode in Paris, where for 
some time he continued to devote himself to study and 
literary work. In 180J he suddenly accepted a situation 
as clerk in a mercantile house at Marseilles, and re- 
mained there nearly a year, — in fact, till the actress, for 
whose sake he had taken this curious step, married a 
wealthy Russian. In the following year ne again ac- 
companied M. Dara into Germany, uid was appointed 
to superintend the possessions of the emperor in Bruns- 
wick. Whatever German he learned there was after- 
wards completely forgotten. In his official capaciQr as 
connected with the commissariat he took part m the in- 
cited Russian campaign of 181a, and remained loyal to 
the fallen emperor. He declined to lay himself 00 1 for 
employment under the new r^sime, and retired to Milan, 
where he resided till 182 1. His early works, chiefly on 
painting and music, date from this period of his life. In 
1 82 1 he was compelled to retura to France, an un- 
founded suspicion that he was a French spy having 
somehow arisen at Milan. During the following nine 
years he resided at Paris, and gradually be^an to acquire 
(lis high reputation as an accomplished htterateur and 
man of the world. He was an aomirable talker and fall 
of anecdote, which in his opinion ought to form tiie 
staple of conversation. His fine analytic powers were 
displayed to full advanti^ in the curious work, De 
r Amour, which he published in 1822, but the book dxl 
not find an appreciative audience. Toe Vie de Rossimi, 
which followed, was more successful ; and the pamphlet 
Racine et Shakespeare did good service for the caxee of 
Romanticism in its struggle with the ripid Hassiral 
canons of older French luerature. In 1&9 appeared 
his Promenades dans Rome, full of information, criti- 
cism, and original observation, but somewhat chaotic in 
form. He was appointed consul at Trieste in 1830, and 
three years later he quitted that place with thegreatest 
joy for a similar post at Civita Vecchia. There he 
remained till 184I, with frequent absences, one 
extending from 1836 to 1839, during which he paki a 
short visit to London. In 1841 his health gave way, and 
he returaed to Paris, where he died on tltt 22d March, 
18^. 

BEYROUT, Beirout, or Bairut, tfie most in^x>r- 
tant seaport town of Syria, on the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean, m the pashalic of Acre, 57 miles W.N.W. of 
Damascus. 

Beyrout is a place of great antiooity, and may per- 
haps be identified with the Berothan of the Phoenicians. 
For a time at least it was under the supremacy of Sidon. 
Destroyed by Trypho, the Syrian usurper, about 140 
B.a, it was restored l^ the elder Agrippa about 41 A.D., 
raised to the rank of a Roman colony, and adorned with 
an amphitheatre and varioos splendid bvfldings. In 
Digitized by VL, 



BEZ — BHA 



937 



die 3d oentvy it becane a seat of jnrispnidence, which 
long maintained its reputation, and was attended by 
several eminent men. During the reign of Justinian, 
in (actf Beyrout was the only place in the empire, ex- 

XRome and Constantinople, where law was permitted 
taught, and of the three the Syrian school, under 
the management of Theophilus and Dorotheus, appears 
to have stood highest in general estimation. But the 
injury inflicted on the city by an earthquake in 551 led 
to the removal of the sdiool to Sidon, and not long 
after the building in which it had been held was totally 
consumed by fire. In the time of the crusades Beyrout 
again rose into prominence, and was captured by Bald- 
wm I. in 1 1 1 1, ai\er a two months* siese. Early in the 
1 7th century it became a chief seat of the Druses, who 
retained their possession till 1763, when it was betrayed 
into the hands of the Turks. In 1 772 it was bombarded 
and plundered by a Russian fleet, and in 1840 it was 
nearly destroyed by the attack of the English under 
Admiral Stopford. 

BEZA» Theodore, or more correctly Ds BftZE, was 
bom at Vezelai in Bureundy on the 24th July 15 19. 
His family was of good descent, and his parents were 
noted for their piety and generosity. Wnile an infant 
he was adopted by his uncle, Nicholas de Beza, a coun- 
sellor of the parliament of Paris, who took his nephew 
to live with him, and superintended his education with 
the greatest care. At the age of ten he was put under 
the tuition of Meldiior Wolmar, a German, who resided 
at Orleans. Beza studied under him for seven years at 
Orleans and Bomges, and from him received the im- 
pulse which guided his after life. Wolmar, who was an 
excellent scholar, belonged to the Reformed Church, and 
hb pupil not onl]^ learned from him the principles of 
the Reformed faith, but acquired the habit of diligent 
and critical study of Scripture. After the return of 
Wolmar to Germany in 1^35, Beza with great reluct- 
ance departed for Orleans in order to begin the study of 
law. After four vears he obtained the degree of licen- 
tiate in law, and leaving Orleans, took up nis abode in 
Paris. He was young, ardent, and poetical,, of high 
rank, surrounded with friends, and amply supplied with" 
funds, — for, though he was not in orders, he enjoyed 
the proceeds of two benefices. It was small wonder 
that under these circumstances he should have yielded 
to the temptations of Paris, and have eagerly seized the 
pleasures that presented themselves. But the extent of 
his dissipation nas been enormously exaggerated; more 
particularly has his connection with the woman whom 
ue afterwards married been the occasion of calumny 
and misrepresentation. A severe illness at last recalled 
to his mind the teachings of his old master Wolmar, 
and brought dearly before him the contrast his conduct 
Pjesented to them. Immediately on his recovery in 
October 1548, he retired to Geneva, publicly fulnlled 
nis promise to marry the woman with whom he had 
fomierly lived, and joined the Reformed Church. In 
flje following year he was made professor of Greek at 
the academy of Lausanne, where he remained for ten 
yews, communicating freauenuy with Calvin at Geneva, 
luring this time he completed Gement Marot's French 
translirtion of the Psalms, and began the extended labors 
on the New Testament, which resulted in his famous 
translation and commentary. His veneration for Cal- 
y**>» already gr^, was strengthened by closer 
gtCTcoorse; he vigorously defended the execution of 
^"■▼etus; and in 1558 he gladly removed to Geneva. 
He was am)oioted professor of Greek in the academy, 
pd assisted Calvin in his theological lectures. Soon by 
nis vigorous teaching, his numerous writings, and his 
•''^**S8 in foreign embassies, he came to be looked 
Vpon as the most prominent man in the church of 



Geneva next to Cahrhi ; and after the death of the latter 
in 1564, he was nominated his successor as teacher of 
theology, and generally recognized as the leader of the 
Calvinist party. 

BfiZIERS, a city of France, in the department of 
H^rault, the capital of an arrondissment of the same 
name. 

B£ZIQUE, a i^ame at cards (probably from Sp. ^sicCt 
little Idss, in allusion to the meeting of the queen and 
knave, an important feature in the game). 

BHAGALPUR, a division or commissionership of 
British India, under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 
comprising the districts of Bh4galpur, Monghir, SantiU, 
Parganls, and Pumiah. It is bounded on the N. by 
the independent state of NepiU and the British district 
of Dirjifing ; on the E. by the districts of Jalp&iguri, 
Dinijpur, Mfildah, HurshidibAd, and Bfrbhiim ; on 
the S. by the districts of Bfrbhilm, MdnbhiSm and 
Hazdrfbagh ; and on the W. by the districU of Gayii, 
Patni, and Tirhut 

BhAgalpur, the prindpal town of the district and 
division of the same name, situated on the right bank 
of the Ganges, here seven miles wide. 

BHAM6, or Banmo ( in Chinese Tsinggai), a city 
of Upper Burmah, on the left bank of the Irawady, a 
short distance below its confluence with the Tapeng, 
and about 300 miles up the river froir Mandalay the 
capital. It was formerly a very flourishing city, and 
the chief town of a Shan principality; and though 
greatly decayed, it is still the seat or a Burmese governor 
and the centre of a considerable trade. 

BHANDArA, a district of British India, under the 
jurisdiction of the Chief Commission^ of the Central 
Provinces. It is bounded on the N. by the districts 
of Seonf and Bdl&gh&t, on the £. by the district of 
R&ipur, on the S. by the district of Chindi, and on the 
W. by the district of Niigpur. Tigers, panthers, deer, 
wild noes, and other animals abound in the forests, and 
during Uie rainy season many deaths occur from snake- 
bites. 

BhandArA, the principal town and headquarters of 
the district of the same name, is situated on the Wain* 
gan&, about 38 miks east of NIgpur. The town is kept 
neat and dean, is well drained, and is considered 
healthy. 

BHANG, an East Indian name for the hemp plaot, 
Cannalfis sativa^ but applied specially to the feaves 
dried and prepared for use as a narcoticdrug. The hemp 
plant, as ciihivated in the Bengal Presidency and the 
North- West Provinces, yields a peculiar resinous exu- 
dation, which is altogether wantmg in the hemp grown 
on account of its fibre in European countries. For this 
re^ous exudation, in which its virtues as a drug reside, 
hemp is cultivated in Kashmir, Bokhiut^ Yarkand, and 
Central Asia generaDy, beskles North India, and in cer- 
tain parts of East Africa, where, according to Omtain 
Barton, it is crown "before every cottage door.*» In 
India the products of the plant for use as a narcotic and 
intoxicant are recognizea under the three luunes and 
forms of Bhang, Gunja or Ganja, and Churrus or Cha^ 
ras. Bhang consists of the larger leaves and capsules of 
the plant on which an effloresence of resinous matter 
has occurred. Bhang is used in India for smoking 
with or without tobacco ; it is prepared in the form ofa 
cake or manjan, and it is made into an intoxicating bev- 
erage by infusing in cold water and straining Gunja is 
the flowering or fruit-bearing tops of the female plaats* 
It is gather^ in stalks of several inches in length, the 
tops of whkh form a matted mass, from the a^uthia- 
tion of flowers, seeds, and leaflets by the abundant resin* 



938 



BH A 



ons exodttion which coats them. Chumis is the resin- 
ous substance separated from the plant. According to 
Dr. O'Shaughnessy it is obtained by men dressed in 
leather aprons brushinj^ forcibly through the growing 
stalks, and the resin which therel^ adheres to the leather 
is scraped off with knives. It is stated that in Nepaal 
the leather covering is dispensed with, and the resin 
gathered on the naked bodies of coolies, who brash 
through the standing stalks. Dr. Royle says "the ^land- 
nlar secretion is collected from the plants on the hills by 
the natives pressing the upper part of the young plants 
between the palms of their hands, and scraping off the 
secretion which adheres." The preparation known as 
hashish among the Arabs is similar to the gnnja of India, 
and is used in the same manner. The use of prepara- 
tions of hemp among the Mussulman and Hindu popu- 
lation of India is very general ; and the habit also ob- 
tains among the population of Central Asia, the Arabs, 
and Egyptians, extending even to the negroes of the 
valley of the Zambesi and the Hottentots of South 
Africa. The habit appears to date from very remote 
times, for Herodotus says of the Scythians, that they 
creep inside huts and throw hemp seeds on hot stones. 
The seeds **soon send forth a virulent intoxicating 
smoke, which fills the close tent, and the people inside, 
being overpowered with the intoxicating effects, howl 
with excitement and delight.** The observations of Dr. 
O'Shaughnessy on the effects of the drug on the native 
population of India led him to conclude that it alleviates 
pain, and causes a remarkable increase of appetite, une- 
quivocal aphrodbia, and great mental cheerfulness. Its 
violent effects are delirium of a peculiar kind, and the 
production of a cataleptic condition. Sir Robert Chris- 
tison savs, that ** for energy, certainty, and convenience, 
Indian hemp is the next anodyne, hypnotic, and anti- 
spasmodic to opium and its denvatives, and often equal 
to it.** Preparations are used in British pharmacy in 
the form of tincture and extract prepared from gunja, 
and it is understood to form an ingreaient in the patent 
medicine chlorodyne. 

BHARAICH, a district of British India, tmder the 
jurisdiction of the Chief Commissioner of Oudh, is 
bounded on the N. bv the independent state of Nep&l, 
on the E. and N.E. dv the district of Gond&, on the 
S. W. b3r the district of B^bra B&nki, and on the W. by 
the districts of Sft&pur and Khert 

BHARTPUR, or Bhurtporb, a native state of 
R4jput4n& in Upper India, onder the political superin- 
tenaence of the British Government, is bounded on 
the N. by the British district of Gurgion, on the N.E. 
by Mathuri, on the E. by Agra, on the S. and S. W. by 
the R4jput states of Karauli and Jaipur, and on the W. 
bv the state of Alwar. Length from north to south, 
about 77 miles; greatest breadth, 50 miles ; area, 1974 
square miles. 

Bhartpur rose into importance nnder S<iraj Mall, who 
bore a conspicuous part in the destruction of the Dehli 
empire. Having built the forts of Dig and Kumbher 
in 1730, he received in 1756 the title of R&j^, and subse- 
quently joined the great Marhatti army with to,ooo 
troops. But the misconduct of the Marhatti leader in- 
duced him to abandon the confederacy, just in time to 
escape the murderous defeat at Piniput SiHraj Mall 
raised the J&t power to its highest point ; and Cfolonel 
Dow, in 1770, estimated the Rii&*s revenue (perhaps 
extravagantly) at ;f 2,000,000, and his military force at 
60,000 or 7o,ooo men. In 1803 ^^^ ^^^^ India Com- 
pany concluded a treaty, offensive and defensive, with 
Bhartpur. In 1804, however, the R&j& assisted the 
Marhatt^ against the Britbh. The English under 
Lord Lake captured the fort of D(g and besieged Bhart- 
pur, but was compelled to raise the siege after four 



attempts tt storming. A treaty, coodaded oa iTtli 
of April, 1805, guaranteed the Riji's territory; but 
he became bound to pay /300,ooo as indemnitv to 
the East India Company. A^dispute as to the right of 
the succession again led to a war in 1825, ^'^ Lord Com- 
bermere captur^ Bhartpur Vfith a besieging force of 
20,000 men, after a desperate resistance, on the 18th 
January 1826. The fortifications were dismantled, the 
hostile chief bein^ deported to Benares, and an infant son 
of the former Rib& installed mider a treaty favorable to 
the Company. In 1853 the Bhartpur ruter died, leav- 
ing a minor neir. The state came under British man- 
agement, and the administration has been improved, the 
revenue mcreased, a system of irrigation developed, new 
tanks and wells constructed, and an excellent system of 
roads and public buikiings organized. 

BHATGAON, a town of Northern India, in the 
Nep^l valley, situated in 27^ 37* N. lat. and Ss*^ 22' E. 
long. It is a celebrated place of Hindu superstition, 
the favorite reskience of the Brihmans of Nep^ and 
contains more families of that order than either Kat- 
mandu or Patu. 

BHATNIAR, or Bhattis, a people of the northern 
part of Hindustan, inhabiting the tract of country now 
included within the British district of Hissar, former^ 
called Bhatiind, the eastern frontier of whicb is situated 
125 miles north-west of DehlL The Bhattis present 
many peculiarities in manners and customs, distingnoUH- 
ing them from the other people of Hindustan. They 
consist of two distinct races — the one being composed 
of Mahometans of R&jput descent, who constitute the 
influential class, and who report amonjg; themselves thst 
their ancestors emigrated some centuries ago from the 
district of Jasalmir, and after various vicissitudes set- 
tled in the Bhatni&r countir; the other comprising the 
common people, known as jits, who have aaopted the 
religion of their superiors, and are consequently treated 
with great moderation. Most of these people are de- 
scenoed from dwellers on the western bank of the 
Satlej, who were invited by a R&ji of the Bhattis to 
cross the river and settle in his countir. Though tillers 
of the soil, the Bhattis are more generaUy characterized is 
shepherds ; and though they are mostly restricted to the 
territory whence their name is derived, various tribes 
of them are to be found in the Panjib, and th^ vt 
also scattered over the high grotmds to the east of the 
Indus. 

Notwithstanding they are Mahometans, their cus- 
toms are in some respects at variance with those ob- 
served by the majority of the followers of the prophet, 
particuUu-ly in the females appearing, without resenre, 
unveiled in public, and in their associating openly with 
the men. 

While under the influence of native role the Bhattis 
appear to have formed a collection of hordes of free- 
booters. They have been described as of a cruel, sat 
age, and ferocious disposition, entertaming an abhor- 
rence of the usages of civilized life— thieves from weir 
earliest infancy, and during their predatory incomoj* 
into the neighboring districts, not scruiding, though 
unresisted, to add murder to robbery. 

The former capital of the Bhattb was Bhatniir, which 
lies in a situation almost inaccessible to an enemyt jot 
no water is to be procured within 12 miles but what 
supplies the inhabitants. It was taken, howcter, « 
1398 by Timur, more recently by the military adj^' 
turer George Thomas, and finally in 1805 by the R*p 
of Bikinir, who still retams authority over it To* 
principal town is SfrsA, between whidi and BhAwslpar 
a route for commercial purposes has been opened. , 

The history of the Bhattis has attiaaed the notioe ot 



BH A — BI A 



939 



few European authors. Thej seem to have carried on 
frcqaent wars with neijgi^bonng states, and were the 
most formidable enemies opposed to the R&j& of 
Bikinir. The latter, however, invaded their territories 
in the beginning of the present century, and obtained 
some temporary advantages. Bat George Thomas, the 
military adventurer already noticed, an Irishman by 
birth, who, endowed with singular talents and intrepid- 
ity, fauad founded for himself an independent state in the 
north-west of India, was then at war with the province 
of Bildbiir. Having reached its frontiers, the Bhattis 
solicited his aHianre, and, to induce him to espouse their 
cause the more readily, offered him 40,000 rupees. 

BHAWALPUR, a feudatory state in North- Western 
India, under the political jurisaiction of the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Panj&b. It is bounded on the N. by 
Sind and Panj&b, on the E. and S.E. by the British db- 
trict of Hissar and the Rdjput states of Bildmir and 
Jasalmrf, and on the S. W. by Sind. 

BHIL, a tribe and a British political agency in Cen- 
tral India. The agency was foimed in I&5, when the 
Bhil corps was organized, with a view to utilizing the 
warlike instincts of the Bhil tribes. This brave body of 
men have done good service, and gradually put down 
the predatory habits of their countrymen. The Bhil 
tribes chie^ inhabit the rocVj ranges of the Vindhya 
and Sitpura moantains, and tne bsuoks of the Narbadi 
and the Taptt In common vrith other hill tribes, the 
Bhils are sn{^>osed to have been aborigines of India, and 
to have been driven to their present fastness at the time 
of the Hindn invasion. Thef are of dark complexion 
and diminutive stature, but active, and capable of en- 
daring ereat fatigue. Various efforts have been made 
by the British Government to reclaim this people from 
their predatorr habits, and m 1869-70 the official report 
stated that ** tne Bhils of Mtopur are becoming recon- 
ciled to the life of cultivators, though not yet willing to 
take oat leases.** 

BHOPAl, a British political agency in Central 
India, comprisin|[ 31 native administrations. 

BhopAl, a native state in Malwa in Central India, 
nider the political superintendence of the British 
Government It is bounded on the N. by the state of 
Gwalior and the British district of BairsiA, on the N.E. 
and S.E. by the S6gar and Nerbadi territory, on the 
S.W. hj the possessions of Holk&r and Sindhii, and on 
the N. w. by Sindhi&'s districts and OmatwiWL Length 
of the state from E. to W., 157 miles ; breadth from N. 
to S., 76 miles ; estimated area, 6764 square miles. 

BHUTAN, an independent kingdom in the Eastern 
Mimikyas, is bounded on the N. by Thibet ; on the 
^ by a track inhabited by various uncivilized independ- 
ent mountain tribes ; on the S. by the British province 
of Assam, and the district of Jalp&iguri ; and on the W. 
hy the independent native state of Sikim. 

Previous to the British annexation of the Dwdrs from 
BoQtin, the area of the kingdom was reckoned at 20,- 
000 s<|. mfles. The population of the country now re- 
'■'Aining to Bhntiui was estimated in 1864 at 20,000 
Jwds. Later information, however, points to a larger 
"?Ji[^ The people are industrious, and devote them- 
*JvW toagricidture, but from the geological structure 
of the country, and from the insecurity of property, 
*^lar husbandry b limited to comparatively few 
•pots. The people are oppressed and poor. ** Nothing 
**t a Bhutia possesses is his own,** wrote the British en- 
^^y^n 1864 ; ** he is at all times liable to lose it if it at- 
2f^ ^^ cupidity of any one more powerful than him- 
**«• The lower classes, whether villagers or public serv- 
^ts, are little better than the slaves of higher officials. 
*^ f^Sud to them no ri^^ of property are observed, 



and ther have at once to surrender axwthing that is de- 
manded of them. There never was, I fancy, a country 
in which the doctrine of 'might is right' formed more 
completely the whole and sole law and custom of the 
land than it does in BhutioL The people nominally pro- 
fess the Buddhist religion, but in reality their reli^ous 
exercises are confined to the propitiation of evil spirits, 
and the mechanical recital of a few sacred sentences. 
Around the cottages in the mountains the land is cleared 
for cultivation, and produces thriving crops of bariey, 
wheat, buckwheat, millet, mustard, chillies, &c. Tur- 
nips of excellent quality are extensively grown ; they are 
free from fibre and remarkably sweet. The wheat and 
barley have a full round grain, and the climate is well 
adapted to the production of both European and Asiatic 
vegetables. Potatoes have been introduced. Elephants 
are so numerous as to be dangerous to travellers ; but 
tigers are not common, except near the River Tistd. 
Leopards abound in the Hah valley ; deer everywhere, 
some of them of a very large species. The musk dei r 
is found in the snows, and the tarking deer on every hi il 
side. Wild hogs are met with even at great elevations. 
Large squirrels are common. Bears and rhinoceros are 
also found. Pheasants Jungle fowls, pigeons, and other 
small game abound. The Bhutiiis are no sportsmen. 
They have a superstitious objection to firing agun, think- 
ing that it offends the deities of the woods and valleys, 
and brings down rain. A species of horse, which seems 
indigenous to Bhutim, and is used as a domestic animal, 
is ctdled tdngaftf from Tdngastiui, the general appella- 
tion of that assemblage of mountains which constitutes ^ 
the territory of Bhutan. It is peculiar to this tract, not 
being founa in any of the neighboring countries of As- 
sam, Nepdl, Thibet, or Bengal, and unites in an emi- 
nent degree the two qualities of strength and beauty. 
The tdngan horse usually stands about thirteen hands 
high, is short bodied, clean-limbed, deep in the chest, and 
extremely active, his color usually inclining to piebald. 
Swords, iron spears, and arrow-heads, and a few copper 
caldrons fabricated from the metal obtained in the coun- 
try, complete the list of manufactures. The foreign trade 
of Bhut&n has gready declined. The total military force 
was estimated by the British envoy in 1864 at 6000. 

History. — Bhutin formerly belonged to a tribe called 
by the Bhutito Tephu, generally befieved to have been 
the people of Kucn Beluur. About two hundred years 
ago some Thibetan soldiers subjugated theTephus, took 
possession of the country, and settled down in it. At 
the head of the Bhut&n goverment there are nominally 
two supreme authorities, the Dharm Riji, the spiritual 
head, and the Deb Rijd, the temporal ruler. To aid 
these R&jds in administering the country, there is a 
council of permanent ministers, called the Lenehen. 
Practically, however, there is no government at all. Sub- 
ordinate officers and rapacious governors of forts wield 
all the power of the state, and tyranny, oppression, and 
anarchy reign over the whole country. The Dharm 
R4j& succeeds as an incarnation of the deity. On the 
death of a Dharm R&j& a year or two elapses, and the 
new incarnation then reappears in the shape of a child 
who generally happens to be bom in the family of a 
principal officer. The child establishes identity by 
recognizing the cooking utensils, &c. , of the late Dharm 
Rijd ; he is then trained in a monastery, and on attain- 
ing his majority is recognized as Rdjd, though he exer- 
cises no more real authority in his majority than he did 
in his infancy. The Deb KAji is in theory elected by 
the council. In practice he is merely the nominee of 
whichever of the two governors of East and West Bhu- 
Xk^ happens for the time to be the more powerful. 

BIAFRA, a tract of country on the coast of West- 
ern Africa, on a bay or bight of the same name. 



940 



BIA— BIB 



BIANCHINI, Francis, a letrned lulian astrono. 
mer and antiquary, was born at Verona in 1662, of a 
noble and ancient family. He died in 1 729. 

BIARRITZ, a wateruig-place in the soath of France, 
in the department of Bassess- P yr^n^e*, on the tea^ 
coast about five miles south-west of Bayonne. From a 
mere fishing village, with a few hundred inhabitants, in 
the beginmng of the century, it roae rapidly into a 
place of importance under the patronage of the late 
emperor Napoleon III. and the empress, with whom it 
was a favorite resort Excellent bathing-ground is af- 
forded by the Vieux Port and the various sheltered bays 
into which the difls of this part of the coast are carved 
by the swell of the Atlanuc ; and the irregular emi- 
nences and promontories supply attractive sites for the 
erection of villas. The climate is delightful and brac- 
ing ; and the bareness of the nei^borhood has been 
considerably relieved by fir plantations. 

BIAS, a native of Priene, one of the seven lages of 
Greece, was the son of Teutamus, and flourished about 
the middle of the 6th century B.C. He was one of the 
most eloquent speakers of his time, and is celebrated as 
having never used his talents for the purpose of mere 
gain, but as having devoted them to the service of the 
lnj^]red and oppre^ed. Many stories are told illustra- 
tive of the nobility of his character in this and other re- 
spects. According to one of these, when his native town 
was taken by an enemy, and the inhabitants were carry- 
ing off whatever seemed to each most valuably one of 
them, observing Bias without any burden, advised him 
to follow his example. ** I am dobg so,** said he, ** for 
I carry all my valuables with me.** His fellow-citizetts 
honored him with a splendid funeral, and dedicated to 
him a sanctuary which they called Teutamium. He is 
said to have written an heroic poem on the aflfairs of 
the lonians, in order to show them how thev might be 
most prosperous. A great number of the short, pithy, 
ethicaJ sayings or apophthegms characteristic of the 
Greek sages are ascribed to Bus. Bias is the author of 
the famous and often imitated reproof to the impious 
sailors, who in the midst of a tempest were calling on 
the gods — " Be quiet,** said he, " lest the gods discover 
that you are here. *• 

BIBERACH, a town of Wiirtemburg, in the circle 
of the Danube, a capital of a bailiwick 23 miles S.S. W. 
of Ulm. It is situated on the River Riss, a small trib- 
ntary of the Danube, partly on level cround and partly 
on hills, and still has a somewhat roediseval appearance 
from the remains of its ancient walls and towers. Bib- 
erach is the birthplace of the sculptor Natter and the 
painter Neher ; and Wieland, who was bom at the 
neighboring village of Oberholzheim, spent a series of 
years in the town. 

BIBIRINE, or Bebeerinb, an alkaloid obtained 
from the bark and fruit of the greenheart tree. Nee- 
tandra Rodiai^ called bibirn or sipiri in Guiana, where 
the tree grows, The alkaloid was discovered about the 
year 183^ by Hugh Rodie, a surgeon resklent in Dem- 
erara, who found it possessed great effica^ as a febri- 
fuge, and it was recommended by him as a substitute 
for quinine. 

BIBLE. The word Bible, which in English, as in 
Mediaend Latin^ is treated as a singular noun, is in its 
original Greek form a plural,— raf ptfiXia^ the ^sacred) 
A»Ij,— correctly expressing the fact that the sacred 
writings of Christendom are made up of a number of 
independent records, which set before us the gradual 
development of the relieion of revelation. The origin 
of eacn of these records forms a distinct critical prob- 
lem ; and for the discussion of these questions of detail 
the reader is referred to the articles on separate Biblical 

books. The present article seeks to give a general 



account of the historical and fiterarr condidoas 

which the unique literature of the Old and New Testa- 
ments sprang up, and of the way in which the Biblicsi 
books were Drought together in a caaonical collection 
and handed down from age to age. The Biblical de- 
velopment is divided into two great Pfnods bv the maa- 
ilestation and historical work of ChrisL In its pce- 
Christian stage the religion of revelation is rureseMed 
as a covettani between the spiritual God and His dioiea 
people the Hebrews. In accordance with this and in 
alluiioa to Jer. zxxi, 31, Jesus speaks of the new dxs- 
pensation founded in His death as a new cffvemsmt 
(2 Cor. zL as). Hence as early as the 2nd century of 
our era the two great divisions of the Bible were known 
as the books of the Old and of the New Covenant r»ect- 
ively. Among Latin-speaking Christians the GredL 
word for covenant was often incorrectly rendered 
testament and thus Western Christendom still uses the 
names of the Old and New Testaments 

Old It&TKUSXfn, Struggle and Frogress ofSfintuai 
Religion. Priests^ PropheUy <&*f.— The pre-Christian 
age of the Biblical religion falls into a period of religious 
productivity and a subsequent period of stagnation and 
mainly conservative traditions. The period of pro- 
ductivity is also a period of contest, during which the 
spiritual principles of the religion of revelation were in- 
volved in continual struggle with polytheistic nature- 
worship on the one hand, and, on tne other hand, with 
an unspiritual conception of Jehovah as a God whose 
interest in Israel and care for His sanctuary were inde- 
pendent of moral conditions. In this long struggle, 
which began with the foundation of the theocracy in the 
work of Moses, and did not issue in conclusive victory 
until the time of Ezra, the spiritual fiuth was compdkd 
to show constant powers of new development, — work- | 
ing out into ever clearer form the latent contrssts 
between true and fiJse religion, proving itself fitter than 
any other belief to supply all the religious needs of the 
people, and, above aU, finding its evidence in the kmg 
providential historyin which, from the great deKvenncc I 
of the Exodus down to the Omtivity and the Restota^ 
tion, the reality of Jehovah's kingsfiip over Israel, of 
His redeeming love, and of His moral government, were 
vindicated by the most indisputable proofs. As it was j 
only the deliverance from Egypt and the theocrstic 
covenant of Sinai that boundthe Hebrew tribes into 
national unity, the worship of Jehovah was alwsyi 
acknowledged as the national religion of Israel Bat 
from Joshua to Samuel national feeling was fiur wesker 
than tribal jealousy; and in the poUtical disintegration 
of the people the religion of Jehovah seemed rca^J[° 
be lost in local superstitions. During this period the 
chief centre of moQotheism was the sanctuary and nrittt- 
hood of the ark; and it was from the priestfy circle that | 
Samud arose to reunite the nation oy recalling it to 
the religion of Jehovah, and thus to prepare the wif wr 
the splendid age of David and Solomon. Bat thoogb 
Samuel was by education a priest, it was not si « 
priest, but as a prophet that he accomplished this wott | 
In all ages a priesthood b conservative, not crestrj; 
and it was only as a growing and creative power that thf 
still undeveloped spiritual religion could live. While t 
was the business of the priest faithfully to preser?e re- 
ligious traditions ahready acknowledged as tniejujo 
venerable, the characteristic of the prophet is a ftcnuqr 
of spiritual intuition, not gained by human ryon,lff " 
conung to him as a word from God himself, wher« s« , 
apprehends religious truth in a new light, as besosl » - 
a way not manifest to other men on the practiciljsoB- j 
sities, the burning questions of the present Uslikettf 
priesthood, the prophets never formed a repibrjFj; 

It was an axiom that the gift of prophecy was 
Digitized by V^ 



BIB 



941 



by the inward and immediate call of Jehovah. But from 
the time of Samuel we find a re^ar succession of 
prophets working out the spiritual problems of the na- 
tional faith with ever increasing clearness, and gather- 
ing round them, sometimes in regularly formed com- 
munities, a circle of disciples and s]rmpathizers which, 
though never, perhaps, numerically considerable, em- 
braced the names of David and other leaders of Hebrew 
history, and impressed the stamp of prophetic influence 
on every part of the national life. From this time the 
priests hold only the second place in the hbtory of the 
Old Testament religion ; sometimes they even appear 
as the opponents of the prophetic party, whose pro- 
gressive ideas are distastefiil to their natural conserva- 
tism and aristocratic instincts. But on the whole, the 
more enlightened ministers of the central sanctuary 
continued to share with the prophets the task of up- 
holding a lofty religious tradition, and not unfrequently 
both characters were united in one person. It was, in 
fact, only through the priests that the ideas of the 
prophets could receive public sanction in the ordinances 
of reli^on, as it was only through rulers like David, or 
Hezekiah, or Jehu, that they could influence the poUt- 
ical conduct of affairs. 

A iust insight into the work of the prophetic party in 
Israel was long rendered difficult b^ traditional prejudi- 
ces. On the one hand the predictive element in proph- 
ecy received undue prominence, and withdrew attention 
from the influence of the prophets on the relig^ious life of 
their own time ; while, on the other hand, it was as- 
sumed, in accordance with Jewish notions, that all the 
ordinances, and almost, if not quite, all the doctrines of 
the Jewish church in the post-canonical period, existed 
from the earliest days of tne theocracy. The prophets, 
therefore, were conceived partly as inspired preachers of 
old truths, partly as predicting future events, but not as 
leaders of a great development, in which the reUgious 
ordinances as well as the religious beliefs of the Old 
Covenant advanced from a relatively crude and imper- 
fect to a relatively mature and adequate form. 

The proof that this latter view, and not the traditional 
conception, is alone true to history depends on a variety 
of arguments which cannot here be reproduced. That 
the religious ideas of the Old Testament were in a state 
of growth during the whole prophetic period became 
inanifest as soon as the laws of grammatico-historical 
exegesis were fairly applied to the Hebrew Scriptures. 
That the sacred ordinances were subject to variation was 
less readily admitted, because the admission involved a 
change of view as to the authorship of the Pentateuch ; 
hut here also the facts are decisive. But the worship of 
Jehovah on the high places or local sanctuaries was con- 
stantly exposed to superstitious corruption and heathen 
acbnixture, and so it is frequently attacked by the proph- 
ets of the 8th century. It was undoubtedly under their 
mfluence that Hezekiah abolished the high places. The 
abolition was not permanent ; out in the reign of Josiah, 
the next reforming king, we find that the principle of a 
single sanctuary can claim the support not only of pro- 
phetic teaching, but of a written law-book found in 
|he temple, and acknowledged by the high priest The 
legislation of this book corresponds not with the old law 
m Exodus, but with the book of Deuteronomy. But 
pcrbaj» the clearest proof that, during the perioa of pro- 
phetic inspiration, there was no doctrine of finality with 
^^^^ to the ritual law any more than with regard to 
^hgious ideas and doctrines, lies in the last chapters of 
''-^kicl, which sketch at the very era of the Captivity an 
2jitline of sacred ordinances for the future restoration, 
r Torn these and similar facts it follows indisputably, that 
the true and spiritual religion which the prophets and like- 
"ftinded priests maintain^ at once against heathenism and 
19^ 



against tmspiritnal worship of Jehovah as a mere national 
deity without moral attributes, was not a finished but a 
growing sjrstem, Bot finally embodied in authoritative 
documents, but propagated mainly by direct per- 
sonal efforts. At the same time these personal 
efforts were accompanied and supported oy the 
gradual rise of a sacred literature. Though the 
priestly ordinances were mainly published by oral 
decisions of the priests, which are, in fact, what is 
usually meant by the word /aw (Torah) in writings 
earlier than the Captivity, there can be no reasonable 
doubt that the priests possessed written legal collections 
of greater or less extent from the time of Moses down- 
wards. Again, the example of Ezekicl, and the obvious 
fact that the law-book found at the time of Josiah con- 
tained provisions which were not up to that time an 
acknowledged part of the law of the land, makes it 
probable that legal provisions, which the prophets and 
their priestly allies felt to be necessary for the mainte- 
nance of the truth, were often embodied in legislative 
programmes, by which previous legal tradition was 
gradually modified Then the prophets, especially when 
they failed to produce immediate reformation, began 
from the 8th century, if not still earlier, to commit their 
oracles to writings; and these written prophecies — cir- 
culating widely m a nation which had attained a high 
d^ree of literary culture, and frequently cited by later 
seers — disseminated prophetic teaching in a permanent 
form. Long before tnis time music and song had been 
practised in the prophetic circle of Samuel, and were 
mtroduced under David into the service of the sanctu- 
ary. Another important vehicle of religious instruction 
was the written history of the nation, which could not 
fail to be generally set forth in the theocratic spirit in 
which all loftier Hebrew patriotism had its root. And, 
indeed, the literaiy diffusion of spiritual ideas was not 
confined to the mrect efforts of priests and prophets. 
In spite of the crass and unspiritual character of the 
mass of the people, the noblest traditions of national life 
were entwined with religious convictions, and the way 
in which a prophet, like Amos, could arise untrainea 
from among the herdsmen of the wilderness of Judah, 
shows how deep and pure a current of spiritual faith 
flowed among the more thoughtful of the laity. Proph- 
ecy itself may from one point of view be regarded simply 
as the brightest efflorescence of the lay element in the 
religion of Israel, the same element which in subjective 
form underlies many of the Psalms, and in a shape less 
highly developed tinged the whole proverbial and popu- 
lar literature had not yet sunk to represent the lowest 
impulses of national life. 

Close of the Old Testament Development. Formation 
of the Canon. — The struggle between spiritual and un- 
spiritual religion was brought to a crisis when the pro- 
phetic predictions of judgment on national sin were ful- 
filled in the fall of the kingdom of Judah. The merely 
political worship of Jehovah as the tutelarv §od of the 
state was now reduced to absurdity. Faith m the cov- 
enant God was impossible except on the principles of 
spiritual belief. Nor did the restoration by Cyrus affect 
tnis result. No political future lay before the returning 
exiles, and continued confidence in the destiny of the 
race was not separable from the religious ideas and Mes- 
sianic hopes of the prophets. To obe^ the law of 
Jehovah and patiently to await the coming Deliverer 
was the only distinctive vocation of the community that 
gathered in the New Jerusalem ; and after a period of 
misfortune and failure, in which the whole nation 
seemed ready to collapse in despair, this vocation was 
clearly recognized and embodied in permanent institu- 
tions in the reformation of Ezra and Nehemiah (445 
B. c.) But with this victory the spiritual religion 



942 



BIB 



passed into a stationarr state. The spirit of prophecy, 
long decadent, expired with Malachi, the younger con- 
temporary of Nehcmiah ; and the whole concern of the 
nation from this time downwards was simply to preserve 
the lacrcd inheritance of the past The Exile had so 
utterly broken all continuity of national life, that that 
inhentance could only be sought in the surviving monu- 
ments of sacred literature. To these, more than to the 
expiring voice of prophecy in their midst, the founders 
of the new theocracy turned for guidance. The books 
that had upheld the exile's faith, when all outward 
ordinances of religion were lacking, were also the fittest 
teachers of the restored community. Previous re- 
formers had been statesmen or prophets. Ezra is a 
scril)e who comes to Jerusalem armea, not with a fresh 
message from the Lord, but with " the book of the law 
of Moses.** This law book was the Pentateuch, and 
the public recognition of it as the rule of the theocracy 
was the declaration that the religious ordinances of 
Israel had ceased to admit of development, and the first 
steps towards the substitution of a canon or authorita- 
tive collection of Scriptures for the living guidance of 
the prophetic voice. A second step in the same direc- 
tion IS ascribed to Nehemiah by a tradition intrinsically 
probable, though of no great external authority. He, 
It is said, collected a library which, besides documents 
of temporary importance, embraced "the books about 
the kings and prophets, and the writincs of David.*' 
Certainly a complete body of the remains of the prophets, 
with an authentic account of the history of the period of 
their activity, must soon have been felt to be scarcely 
second in importance to the law; and so Nehemiah may 
very well be supposed to have begun the collection whicn 
now forms the second part of the Hebrew Bible, em- 
bracing, under the general title of The Prophets^ the 
historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings 
{Ear iter Prophets)^ and the four prophetic books of 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor proph- 
ets {Later Prophets). The mention of the writmgs of 
David implies that Nehemiah also began the third and 
last part of the Hebrew Canon, which comprises, under 
the title of Ketubim (Scriptures, Hagiographa), the 
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five Megillot or rolls (Can- 
ticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecdesiastes, Esther), and, 
finally, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is 
certam, however, that this part of the collection was 
not completed till lon^ after Nehemiah*8 time ; for to 
say nothing of the disputed dates of Ecdesiastes and 
Daniel, the book of Chronicles contains genealogies 
which go down at least to the close of the Persian pe- 
riod. The miscellaneous character of the Ketubim 
seems, in fact, to show that after the Law and the 
Prophets were closed, the third part of the canon was 
open to receive additions, recommended either by their 
religious and historical value, or by bearing an andent 
and venerable name. And this was the more natural 
because the Hagiographa had not the same place in the 
^rnagogue service as was accorded to the Law and the 
Propnets. 

The time and manner in which the collection was ab- 
solutely closed are obscure. The threefold division of 
the sacred writings is referred to in the prologue to the 
Wisdomof Siradi (Ecclesiasticus) about 130 B.C., but 
Jewish tradition indicates that the full canonicitv of sev- 
eral books, especially of Ecdesiastes, was not free from 
doubt till the time of the famous R. Akiba, who per- 
ished in the great national struggle of the Jews with the 
Emperor Hadrian (Mishna, Jadaim^ 3 ; Edaiot, 5). 
The oldest list of canonical books, given by Joseph us {c. 
Apion,^ i. 8), is of somewhat earlier date. Josephus 
seems to have had quite cJur present canon ; but he took 
Ruth along with Jud|;e5, and viewed Lamentations as 



part of the book of Jeremiah, thus conntiAg twentf^l 
two books instead of the twenty-four of the Talnuufiel 
enumeration and of the present Hebrew Bible. There 
is other evidence that only twenty-two bocfe were reck- 
oned by the' Jews of the first Christian century; and it 
appears that this number was accommodated to that of 
the letters of the Hebrew alphsibeL Even in the time 
of Jerome, Ruth and Lamentations were not onifbrmlj 
reckoned apart. The expansion of the Talmodic twenty- 
four to the thirty-nine Old Testament books of the Eng- 
lish version is effected by reckoning the minor prophets 
one by one, by separating Ezra from Nehemiah, and bj 
subdividing tne long books of Samuely Kings, and 
Chronicles. In this reckoning, and in Uie very differ- 
ent order of the books, we follow in the main the Alex- 
andrian Greek and Vulgate Latin versions. Bat die 
Alexandrian differed from the Hebrew canon in more 
important points. The h'ne of distinction between in- 
spired and human writings was not so sharply draws; 
and the Greek Bible not only admitted additions to sev- 
eral of the Hagiographa, but contained other apooypbil 
books, of some of which Greek was the original tongne, 
while others were translations of Hebrew or Aramaic 
writings. See Apocrypha. 

In turning now to a literary and cridcal survey of the 
Old Testament books, we shall find it convenient to de- 
part from the division of the Hebrew canon, in favor of 
a classification suggested by the order of the books fol- 
lowed in the Engush version and in most other transla- 
tions. The Old Testament literature is made up of his- 
torical, poetico-didactic, and prophetic writings, vd^ 
under these three heads we will arrange what remains 
to be said on the subject. 

Historical Books.'—Thtist form two parallel series of 
sacred history. The books from Genesis to Kino give 
a continuous story (with some episodical addiuoiu) 
from the creation to the fall of the kingdom of Jndah. 
The book of Chronicles covers tne same ground 00 • 
narrower plan, contracting the early history into genea- 
logical lists, and occupying itself almost entirely with 
the kingdom of Judah, and especially with matters con- 
nected with the temple and its worship. The narrative 
of the chronicler is continued in the books or latbcr 
book of Ezra and Nehemiah, which incorporates original 
memoirs of these two reformers, but otherwise is so ex- 
actly the style of the Chronides that critics are prscu- 
cally agreed in ascribing the whole to a single aath<r, 
probably a Levite, who, as we have already seen, cannot 
nave written before the close of the Persian mmtt. 
The (questions that are raised as to the work of jw 
chronicler bdong less to the general history of Biblical 
literature than to special introduction. We p*^^ 
therefore, to the larger and more important senes. The 
Pentateuch and the so-called earlier prophets /o'^^ 
gether a single continuous narrative. It is plaiOi oOf' 
ever, that the whole work is not the uniform production 
of one pen, but that in some way a variety of records ot 
different ages and styles have been combined to form a 
single narrative. Accordingly, Jewish tradition b»fs 
that Mi^es wrote the Pentateuch, Joshua the wok 
named after him, Samuel the book of Judges, V^to 
forth. As all Hebrew history is anonymous,— •>■'* 
proof that pople had not yet learned to lav w^^ 
questions of authorship, — it is not probable that V» 
tradition rests on any surer ground than co°J*2J[f* 
and, of course, a scribe who saw in the sacred boow 
the whole outcome of Israel's history would natiwT 
leap to the conclusion that the father of the La^fJ* 
the author of the Pentateuch, and that the other leajW* 
of Israel's history could not but be the ^"^^^^^^J i 
great part of the Scriptures. A more careM '^S^ 
the books themselves shows that the actual ttlli#!P 



BIB 



943 



case is not so simple. In the (irst place, tHe limits of 
the iodrvidual books are certainly not the limits of 
authorship. The Pentateuch as a law-book is complete 
without Joshua, but as a history it is so planned that 
the latter book is its necessary complement. CC^» for 
example, Exod. xvi. 35, Tosh. v. 12; Gen. L 
24, 25 ; Exod. xiii. I9; Josh. xxiv. 32.) In truth, 
an author who wrote after the occupation of Canaan 
could never have designed a history which should 
relate all God's promises to Israel and say nothing of 
their fulfilment But in its present shape the Penta- 
teuch is certainly subsequent to the occupation, for it 
uses geographical names which arose alter that time 
(Hebron, Dan), refers to the conqnest as already ac- 
complished (Deut it 12, cf. Num. xv. 32; Gen. xii. 6), 
and even presupposes the existence of a kingship in 
Israel (Gen. xxxvi 31). And with this it agrees, that 
though there are marked differences of style and 
langiuige within the book of Joshua, each style finds its 
counterpart in some section of the Pentateuch. In the 
subsequent books we find quite similar phenomena. 
The last chapters of Judges cannot be separated from the 
book of Samuel, and the earlier chapters of Kings are 
obviously one with the foregoing narrative ; while all 
three books contain certain passages strikingly akin to 
parts of the Pentateuch and Joshua (r/j, for example, 
the book of Deuteronomy with Josh, xxiii., i Sam. xiL, 
1 Kings viii.). Such phenomena not onl^ prove the 
futility of any attempt to base a theory of*^ authorship 
on the present division into books, but suggest that 
the history as we have it is not one narrative carried on 
from age to age by successive additions, but a fusion 
of several narratives which partly covered the same 
ground and were combined mto unity by an editor. 
This view is supported by the fact, that even as it now 
stands the history sometimes gives more than one ac- 
count of the same event, and that the Pentateuch often 
gives several laws on the same subject. Of the latter we 
nave already had one example, but for our present argu- 
ment the main point is not diversity of enactment, which 
may often be only apparent, but the existence within the 
Pentateuch of distinct groups of laws partly taking up 
the same topics. Thus the legislation of Exod. xx.- 
xxiiL is partly repeated in ch. xxxiv., and on the pass- 
over and feast of unleavened bread we have at least six 
laws, which if not really discordant, are at least so di- 
^'ergent in form and conception that they cannot be all 
from the same pen. (Exod. xii. 1-28, xiiL 3-10, xxiii. 
I5> xxxiv. 18; Lev. xxiii 5-14, Deut xvi) Of histori- 
es duplicates the most celebrated are the twofold 
history of the creation and the flood, to which we must 
recur presendy. The same kind of thing is found in 
the later books ; for example, in the account of the 
w^y in which Saul became king, where it is scarcely 
possible to avoid the conclusion that i Sam. 
*»• i-ii should attach directly to ch. x. 16 {cf, x. 
7). But the extent to which the historical books are 
made up of p«uallel narratives which, though they cover 
the same period, do not necessarily record 'the same 
^^nts, was first clearly seen after Astruc (175JA.D.) 
observed that the respective uses of Jehovah (Lord) 
and Elohim (God) as the name of the Deity afford a 
criterion by which two documents can be dissected out 
of the book of Genesis. That the way in which the two 
names are used can only be due to difference of author- 
snip is now generally admitted, for the alternation corre- 
sponds with such important dupUcates as the two accounts 
ot creation, and is regularly accompanied through a 
great part of the book by unmistakable peculiarities of 
lari'^uage and thought, so that it is still possible to re- 
constriRt at least the Elohim document with a com- 
P*W^oess whi9lx makes it«% original independence and 



homogeneity matter of direct observfttion. The charac- 
ter of this narrative is annalistic, and where other 
material fails blanks are supplied by genealogical lists. 
Great weight is laid on orderly development, and the 
name Jehovah is avoided in the nistory of the patriarchs 
in order to give proper contrast to the Mosaic period 
{cf. Gen. xvii. i ; Exod. vi. 3) ; and, accordingly, we find 
that the unmistakable secondary marks of this author 
run through the whole Pentateuch and Joshua, thou^^h 
the exclusive use of Elohim ceases at Exod. vi Of 
course the disappearance of this criterion makes it 
less easy to carry on an exact reconstruction of the latter 
parts of the document ; but on many points there can be 
no uncertainty, and it is clearly made out that the author 
has strong priestly tendencies, and devotes a very large 
proportion of his space to liturgical matters. The sepa- 
ration of this document may justly be called the point of 
departure of positive criticism of the sources of the Old 
Testament ; and present controversy turns mainly on its 
relation to other parts of the Pentateuch. Of these the 
most important are — i. The Jehovistic narrative, which 
also begins with the creation, and treats the early history 
more in the spirit of prophetic theology and idealism, 
containing, for example, the narrative of the fall, and the 
parts of the history of Abraham which are most impor- 
tant for Old Testament theology. That this narrative is 
not a mere supplement to the other, but an independent 
whole, appears more plainly in the story of the flood, 
where two distinct accounts have certainly been inter- 
woven by a third hand. 2. Many of the finest stories in 
Genesis, especially great part of the history of Joseph, 
agree with the Elohim document in the name of God, 
but are widely divergent in other respects. Since the 
researches of Hupfeld, a third author, belonging to 
northern Israel, and specially interested in the ancestors 
of the northern tribes, is generally postulated for these 
sections. His literary individuality is in truth sharply 
marked, though the Umits of his contributions to the 
Pentateuch are obscure. 

It will be remembered that we have already seen that 
three currents of influence run through the Old Testa- 
ment development, — the traditional lore of the priests, 
the teaching of the prophets, and the religious life oi 
the more enlightened of the people. Now, in the three 
main sections of the early history just enumerated we find 
the counterpart of each of these. The priestly narrative 
of the Elohist, the prophetic delineation of the Jehovist, 
the more picturesque and popular story of the third 
author, emoody three tendencies, which are not merely 
personal but national, and which constantly reappear 
m other parts of Hebrew literature. Up to me book of 
Joshua all three run side by side. But the pnestly in- 
terest found little scope in the subsequent history ; and 
from the time of the Judges we can generally distinguish 
onlysections marked by prophetic pragmatism and others 
which, though distinctly religious and theocratic, are, so 
to speak, written from a layman's stand-point. The 
latter comprise a large part of Judges, and by far the 
greatest part of Samuel, as well as the beginning of 
Kings. To the modem mind this part of the narrative, 
which is rich in color and detail, is by far the most in- 
teresting, and it is with sincere regret that we pass at 
I Kings xi. to a division of the history for which the 
chief sources — cited as the Chronicles of the Kin^s of 
Israel and Judah respectively — treat ahnost exclusively 
of the outer political life of the nation. In striking con- 
trast to the uniformity of this narrative are the inter- 
spersed histories of Elijah and other northern prophets. 
These histories are veiy remarkable in style ana even 
in language ; and, containing some of the noblest pass- 
ages of the Old Testament, form one of many proofs of 
the unusual literary genius of the kingdom of Ephraim. 



944 



B I B 



But how are these Tarious namtiTes related to each 
other ? This question is not easy to answer. In gen- 
eral the third or lay element ot the history seems to 
stand nearest to the events recorded, and even, perhaps, 
to form the^ direct basis of the prophetical matter ; 
while, occasionally, old lists of names and places, 
poetico-historical pieces, and the like, form a still deeper 
stratum in the story. (Poetical pieces in the Book of 
the IVars o/ye/uwah. Num. xxi. 14 ; Book of Jashar 
[the upright], Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. i. Lists like 2 
Sam. xxiu.) Whether the same hands or only the 
same tendencies as appear in the non-Levitical parts 
of Genesis run on as fiir as the book of Kmgs, 
is a Question which, though answered in the affirm- 
ative by Schrader and others, cannot be viewed 
as decided. Even the date of these elements of the 
Pentateuch is obscure ; but in the 8th century Hosea 
refers quite clearly to passages of both. Thus far 
there is tolerable agreement among critics ; but the 
Levitical or Elohistic history is the subject of violent 
controversy, which, however, turns mainly on the anal- 
ysis of the legal parts of the Pentateuch. These con- 
tain other elements besides those already enumerated, 
of which we need only mention the brief code which fol- 
lows the Decalogue in Exod. xx.-xxiii., and the great 
repetition of the law in a prophetic spirit which occupies 
the major part of Deuteronomy. Both these codes may 
be called popular in tone. They are precepts not for 
the priests, but for the whole people ; and the former 
is the fundamental sketch of the whole theoretic consti- 
tution, which the latter develops and to some extent 
alters. Now the book of Deuteronomy presents a quite 
distinct type of style which, as has been already men- 
tioned, recurs from time to time in passages of the lat- 
ter books, and that in such a connection as to suggest to 
many critics since Graf the idea, that the Deuteronomic 
hand is the hand of the last editor of the whole history 
from Genesis to Kings, or, at least, of the non-Levitical 
parts thereof. This conclusion is not stringent, for a 
good deal may be said in favor of the view that the 
Deuteronomic style, which is very capable of imitation, 
was adopted by writers of different periods. But even 
so it is oifiicult to suppose that the legislative part of 
Deuteronomy is as old as Moses. If the law of the king- 
dom in Deut. xvii. was known in the time of the Judges, 
it is impossible to comprehend Judg. viii. 23, and above 
all I Sam. viii. 7. That the law ofhigh places given in 
this part of the Pentateuch was not acknowledged till 
the time of Josiah, and was not dreamed of by Samuel 
and Elijah, we have already seen. The Deuteronomic 
law is familiar to Jeremiah, the younger contemporary 
of Josiah, but is referred to by no prophet of earlier 
date. And the whole theological stand-point of the 
book agrees exactly with the period of prophetic 
literature, and gives the highest and most spiritual 
view of the law, to which our Lord himself directly 
attaches his teaching, and which cannot be placed 
at the beginning of the theocratic development with- 
out makmg the whole history unintelligible. Be- 
yond doubt the book is, as already hinted, a pro- 
phetic legislative programme ; and if the author put 
nis work m the mouth of Moses instead of giving it, 
with Ezekiel, a directly prophetic form, he did so not in 
pious fraud, but simply because his object was not to 
give a new law, but to expound and develop Mosaic prin- 
ciples in relation to new needs. And as ancient writers 
are not accustomed to distinguish historical data from 
historical deductions, he naturally presents his views in 
dramatic form in the mouth of Moses. If then the 
Deuteronomic legislation, is not earlier than the pro- 
phetic period of the 8th and 7th centuries, and, accord- 
ingly, IS subseouent to the elements of the Pentateuchal 



history which we' have seen to be known to Hosea, it is 
plain that the chronology of the composition of the Pen- 
tateuch may be said to centre in the question whether 
the Levitico-Elohistic document, whidi embraces most 
of the laws in Leviticus with large parts of Elxodns and 
Numbers, is earlier or later than Deuteronomy. The 
answer to this question turns almost wholly on archaeo- 
logical inquiries, for there is, perhaps, no quite condu- 
sive reference to the Elohistic record in the prophets 
before the Exile, or Deuteronomy itself. And here 
arises the great dispute which divides critics, and makes 
our whole construction of the origin of the historical 
books uncertain. The Levitical laws give a graduated 
hierarchy of priests and Levites ; Deuteronomy regards 
all Levites as at least possible priests. Round this dif- 
ference, and points aliied to it, the whole discussion 
turns. We know, mainly from Ezek. xliv. , that bdbre 
the Exile the strict hierarchical law was not in forces 
apparently never had been in force. But can we sup- 
pose that the very idea of such a hierarchy is the latest 
point of liturgicsu development? If so, the Levitical 
element is the latest thing in the Pentateuch, or, in 
truth, in the historical series to which the Pentateuch 
belongs ; or, on the opposite view, the hierarch theory 
existed as a legal pro^amme long before the Exile, 
though it was fully carried out only after Ezra. As all 
the more elaborate symbolic observances of the ritual 
laws are bound up with the hierarchial ordinances, the 
solution of this problem has issues of the greatest im- 
portance for the theology as well as for the literary his- 
tory of the Old Testament. 

And now a single word on the way in which these 
various elements, mirroring so many sides of the na- 
tional life, and dating from so various ages, came to be 
fused into a single history, and yet retained so much of 
their own identity. The Semitic genius does not at all 
lie in the direction of organic structure. In architec- 
tujie, in poetry, in history the Hebrew adds part to 
part instead of developing a single notion. The temple 
was an aggregation of small cells, the longest Psalm is 
an acrostic, and so the longest biblical history is a strati- 
fication and not an organism. This process was facili- 
tated by the habit of anonymous writing, and the ac- 
companying lack of all notion of anything like cop]^ 
right. If a man copied a book it was his to add and 
modify as he pleased, and he was not in the least 
bound to distinguish the old from the new. If he had 
two books before him to which he attached equal worth, 
he took large extracts from both, and harmonized them 
by such additions or modifications as he felt to be neces- 
sary. But in default of a keen sense for organic unity 
very little harmony was sought in points of internal 
structure, though great skill was ofken shown, as in the 
book of Genesis, in throwing the whole material mto a 
balanced scheme of extern^ arrangement On such 
principles minor narratives were fused together one 
after the other, and at length in exile a final redactor 
completed the great work, on the first part of which 
Ezra based his reformation, while the latter part was 
thrown into the second canon. The curious combina- 
tion of the functions of copyist and author which is 
here presupposed did not wholly disappear till a pretty 
late date ; and where, as in the books of Samuel, we 
have two recensions of the text, one in the Hebrew and 
one in the Septuagint translation, the discrepancies are 
of such a kind that criticism of the text and analysis of 
its sources are separated by a scarcely perceptible fine. 

Poetical Books. — The origin of some leading pecoK- 
arities of Hebrew poetry has been recently referred^ 
Assyriologists to Accadian models ; but however th» 
may be, the key to the whole development of ^JP^ 
etical literature of Israel is found in the same f<|W* 



BIB 



945 



logical characteristics of the race which are impressed 
on the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the 
language. The Hebrew tongue is sensuous, mobile, 
passionate^ almost incapable of expressing an abstract 
ideal, or depicting a complex whole with repose and 
symmetry of parts, but fit to set forth with great sub- 
dlity individual phases of nature or feelmg. It is the 
speech of a nation whose naturally quick perceptions 
minister to an emotional temperament and an imperious 
will, which subordinates knowledge to action and de- 
sire, and habitually contemplates the universe through 
the medium of personal feeling or practical purpose. 
To speak with the philosophers, the Hebrew character 
is one of predominant subjectivity, eager to reduce 
everything to a personal standing, swift to seize on all 
that touches the feelings or bears directly on practical 
wants, capable of intense effort and stubborn persistence 
where the motive to action is personal affection or de- 
sire, but indisposed to theoretical views, unfit for con- 
templation of things as they are in themselves apart 
from relation to the thinker. In the poetry of such a 
nation the leading current must necessarily be lyrical, 
for the lyric is tne natural vehicle of intense and im- 
mediate personal feehng. The earliest Hebrew poems 
are brie^ pregnant expressions of a single idea, full of 
the fire of passion, full, too, of keen insight into nature, 
in her power to awake or sustain human emotion ; but 
recordmg this insight not with the pictorial fiilness of 
western art, but in swift, half-formed outlines, in meta- 
phor piled on metaphor, without regard to any other 
principle of proportion or verisimilitude than the emo- 
tional harmony of each broken figure with the domi- 
nant feeling. Such a poetry could not but find its 
highest scope in the service of spiritual religion. The 
songs in Exod. xv. and Judg. v. prove the early origin 
of a theoretical poetry ; but the proper period of He- 
brew psalmody begins with David, and its history is 
practically the history of Psalter. Here, as in the case 
of the historical books, we have to begin by questioning 
the tradition contained in the titles, which ascribe 
seventy-three Psabns to David, and besides him name as 
authors Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses, 
Heman, Ethan. Again the tendency is to refer as much 
as possible to familiar names. There is no reason to be- 
lieve that any title is as old as the Psalm to which it is 
prefixed, and some titles are certainly wrong; for ex- 
ample, the author of the elegy on Saul and Tonathan 
could not possibly have written Ps. Ixxxvi.; which is a 
mere cento of reminiscences from other poems. 
On the other hand the titles are not purely ar- 
bitrary. They seem to supply useful hints as to the 
earlier collections from which our present Psalter was 
made up. The Korahite and Asaphite Psalms may 
probably have been derived from collections in the 
hands of these families of singers ; and the so-called 
" Psalms of David " were very likely from collections 
which really contained poems by David and other early 
singers. The assertion that no Psalm is certainly 
David's is hyper-sceptical, and few remains of ancient 
literature have an auuiorshipso well attested as the i8th 
Jf even as the 7th Psalm. These, along with the indu- 
bitably Davidic poems in the book of Samuel, give a 
sufficiently clear image of a very unique genius, and 
^^e the ascription of several other poems to David 
tttremely probable. So, too, a very strong argument 
claims Psalm ii. for Solomon, and in later times we have 
5^e landmarks in the psalms of Habakkuk (Hab. iii.) 
^d Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii.) But the greater part of 
the Ijrrics of the Old Testament remain anonymous, and 
^ecan only poup the Psalms in broad masses, distin- 
pushed by diversity of historical situation and by vary- 
«g degrees of freshness and personality. As a rule the 



older Psalms are the most personal, and are not written 
for the congregation, but flow from a present necessity 
of individual (though not individualistic) spiritual life. 
This current of productive psalmody runs apparently 
from David down to the Exile, losing in the course oSf 
centuries something of its original ^eshness and fire, 
but gaining a more chastened pathos and a wider range 
of spiritual sympathy. Psalm li., obviously composed 
during the clesolation of the temple, marks, pernaps, 
the last phase of this development. The epoch of the 
return was still not without poetic freshness, as some ot 
the so-called Songs of Degrees (Pilgrim-songs ?) prove. 
But on the whole the Psalms of the second temple are 
only reflections of old ideas, cast mainly in directly litur- 
gical form, or at least embodying the experience of the 
nation rather than of the individuaL Thd date of the 
latest Psalms is much disputed. Most lines of evidence 
suggest that the collection was complete before the lat- 
estbooks of the canon were written, but many exposi- 
tors find in individual Psalms (44, 74, 79, 83, &c.) clear 
traces of the Maccabee age. 

Through the whole period of Hebrew lyric, repre- 
sented not only by the Psalter, but by the Lamentations, 
traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah, and by various scat- 
tered pieces in Prophets f?.^., Isa. xii.^ and in historical 
books {g.g., Num. xxi. 17; i Sam. li.), there is little 
change in form and poetic structure. From first to last 
the rhythm consists not in a rise and fall of accent or 
quantity of syllables, but in a pulsation of sense, rising 
and falling through the parallel, antithetic, or otherwise 
balanced members of each verse. (So-called Hebrew 
Parallelism; hetteTf Sense-rAylAm.) Beyond this one 
law of rhythm, which is itself less an artificial rule than 
a natural expression of the principle, that all poetic 
utterance must proceed in harmonious undulation, and 
not in the spasm of unmodulated passion, the Hebrew 
poet was subject to no code of art, though strophical 
arrangements, sometimes marked by a refrain, are not 
uncommon ; while poems of acrostic structure (alpha- 
betic Psalms) are found not exclusively in the most 
recent literature (Ps. ix., x. form a single undoubtedly 
old acrostic). The latter are on the whole logger than 
the earlier poems. But this is due not to increased 
constructive power, but to the diffuser style, a less 
vigorous unity of feeling and thought, and a tendency 
to ring many variations on one key. A wider range of 
artistic power appears in the Song of Solomon, a lyrical 
drama, in which, according to most critics, the pure 
love of the Shulamite for her betrothed is exhibited as 
victorious over the seductions of Solomon and his 
harem. As the motive of the piece is political as well 
as ethical^ it is most naturally assign^ to the early 
period of the northern kingdom. 

The remaining poetical books of the Old Testament 
belong to a different category. Unfit for abstract specu- 
lation, valuing no wisdom that is not practical, and 
treasuring up such wisdom in sententious rhythmical 
form, — enforced by symbol and metaphor, and warm 
with the breath of human interest, — the Hebrew is a 
poet even in his philosophy. Side by side with the 
ode the earliest Hebrew literature shows us the Mashal, 
or similitudey sometimes in the form of biting epi^am 
(Num. xxi. 27,^) or sarcastic parable (Judg. ix. »; 2 
Kings xiv. 8), sometimes as the natural vehicle of 
general moral teaching. The greatest name in the 
early proverbial wisdom of Israel is that of Solomon 
(I Kings iv. 32), and beyond doubt many of his 
aphorisms are to be found in the book of Proverbs. 
Yet this book is not all Solomonic. The last two 
chapters are ascribed to other names, and part of the 
collection was not put in shape till the time of Hezekiah 
(xxv. I), who can nave no infallible criterion of author* 



946 



BIB 



•hip b^ Solomon, and most not be credited witli critical 
intentions. In truth, the several sections of the book 
are varied enough in color to make it plain that we have 
before us the essence of the wisdom of centuries, while 
the introductory address in chapters i.-ix. shows how 
A later age learned to develop the gnomic style, so as to 
fit it for longer compositions. The fundamental type 
of Hebrew philosophy remains, however, unchangiixl, 
even in the book of Ecclesiastes, which bears every 
mark of a very late date, long after the Exile. On the 
other hand, a fresh and creative development, alike in 
point of form and of thought, is found m the book of 
Job, which; in grandly dramatic construction, and with 
wonderful discrimination of character in the several 
speakers, sums up the whole range of Hebrew specula- 
tion on the burning question of Old Testament religion, 
the relation of affliction to the justice and goodness of 
God and to the personal merit and demerit of the 
sufferer. Like the other noblest parts of the Old 
Testament, the book of Job has a comparatively early 
date. It was known to Jeremiah, and may be plausibly 
referred to the 7th century B.C. 

In the book of Job we find poetical invention of inci- 
dents, attached for didactic purposes to a name appa- 
rently derived from old tradition. There is no valki 
a priori reason for denving that the Old Testament 
may contain other examples of the same art. The book 
of Jonah is generally viewed as a case in point. Esther, 
too, has been viewed as a fiction by many who are not 
over sceptical critics ; but on this view a book which 
finds no recognition in the New Testament, and whose 
canoniciiy was long suspected by the Christian as well 
as by the Jewish Churcn, must sink to the rank of an 
apocryphal production. 

In the poetical as in the historical books anonjrmons 
writing is the rule; and along with this we observe 
great freedom on the part of readers and copyists, who 
not only made verbal changes (^*/i Ps. xiv. with Ps. liii.), 
but composed new poems out of fragments of others 
(Ps. cviii. with Ivii. and Ix.) In a large part of the 
Psalter a later hand has systematically substituted 
Elohim for Jehovah, and an imperfect acrostic, like Ps. 
ix., x., cannot have proceeded m its present form from 
the first author. Still more remarkable is the book of 
Job, in which the speeches of Elihu quite break the 
connection, and are almost universally assigned to a 
later hand. 

Prophetical Books. — We have already seen that the 
earliest prophecies of certain date are of the 8th century, 
though there is a probability that Joel flourished in the 
9th'century, in the reign of Joash of Tudah, and that 
the opening verses of Amos are cited from his book. 
On the other hand, the old school of prophecy, whose 
members from Samuel to Elisha were men of action 
rather than of letters, was not likely to leave behind it 
any written oracles. The prophets generally spoke under 
the immediate influence of the Spirit or " hand of Jeho- 
vah." What they wrote was secondary, and was, no 
doubt, greatly abridged. The most instructive account of 
the literary activity of a prophet is given in Ter. xxxvl 
Jeremiah did not oegin to write till he had Seen more 
than twenty years a prophet. Some prophetic books, like 
that of Amos, seem to have been composed at one time 
and with unity of plan. Other prophets, like Isaiah, pub- 
lished several books summing up portions of their 
ministry. In one or two cases, especially in that of 
Ezekiel, the prophet writes oracles which were apparently 
never spoken. Before the exile there was arculation 
of individual prophetic books, and earlier prophets 
quote from their predecessors. But the task of 
collecting and editing the remain*^ of the prophet was 
hardly undertaken till the commencement of the second 



canon ; and by this time, no doubt, nifiny writmgskd 
been lost, others were mwe or less fragmentary, and the 
tradition of authorship was not always complete. It 
was, indeed, more important to have an oracle authentic 
cated by the name of its author than to know the 
writer of a histonr or a Psalm, and many prophets seem 
to have prefixed their names to their works. But other 
propheaes are quite anonymous, and prop>hets vho 
quote earlier oracles never give the author's name. (A 
famous case occurs, Isa. xv., xvi., where in xvi i^ for 
since thai time read long ago,) Now all the remains of 
prophecy, whether provided with titles or not, wwe 
ultimately arranged in four books, the fourth of which 
names, in separate titles, twelve authors ; while the first 
three books are ifamed after Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekid, 
and actually mention no other names in the titles of the 
several prophecies of which they arc made up. Bat is 
it safe to assume that every anonymous prophecy in 
these books must be by the author of the next prccedii^ 
prophecy which has a title? Certainly any such 
assumption can only be provisional, and may be over* 
thrown bjr internal evidence. But internal evidence of 
date, it is said, cannot apply to prophetic books in 
which the author looks in a supernatural way into the 
future. The value of this argument must be tested by 
looking more closely at the actual contents of the pro- 
phetic books. The prophecies contain — if/, reproof o{ 
present sin ; 2^/, exhortation to present duty ; 3^ 
encouragement to the godly and threatenbg to the 
wicked, based on the certainty of God*s righteous pur- 
pose. In this last connection prophecy is predictive. 
It la3rs hold of the kieal elements ot the theocratic con- 
ception, and depicts the way in which, b}r God's grace, 
they shall be actually realized in a Messianic age, and 
in a nation purified by judgment and mercy. But in 
all thb the prophet starts from present sin, present 
needs, present historical situations. There is no reason 
to thiuK that a prophet ever received a revelation which 
was not spoken directly and pointedly to his own time. 
If we find, then, that after the prophecy of Zechariah 
i viii., which is complete in itself, there begins at dL 
ix. a new oracle, quite iistinct Vi subject and style, 
which speaks of an alliance between Juoah and Israel 
as a thing subsisting in the prophet's own time, whidi 
knows no oppressor later than Assyria and Egypt, a«l 
rebukes forms of idolatrr that do not app>ear after the 
Exile; — if, in short, the whole prophecy becomes 
luminous when it is placed a little after the time of 
Hosea, and remains absolulely dark if it is ascribed to 
Zechanah, we are surely entitled to let it speak for 
itself. When the principle is admitted other apfJica- 
tions follow, mainly in the book of Isaiah, where the 
anonymous chapters, xl. Ixvi. , cannot be understood in 
a natural and living way except by looking at them from 
the historical stand-point of the Exile. Then arises a 
further question, whether all titles are certainly authen- 
tic and conclusive ; and here, too, it is difficult to an- 
swer by an absolute afiirmative. For example, in Isa- 
XXX. 6, the title, " The burden of the beasts oi the 
south,'* interrupts the connection in a most violent way. 
This is not a solitary instance, but on the whole the 
titles are far more trustworthy in the prophecies than 
in the Psalms, and partly on this account, but mainly 
from the direct historical bearing of prophetic teaching, 
we can frame a completer history of written prophecy 
than of anv other part of Old Testament literature. " ^ 
have, on the other hand, a series of prophets — Am«i 
Hosea, and the anonymous author of Zech ix.-xi.— 
who preached in the northern kingdom, but arc »<**^ 
scendants of the school of Elisha, wliich had so deca^ 
under court favor from the dynasty of Jehu, that Amo* 
had to be sent from the wilderness to Judah to ^ ^ 



BIB 



947 



again the forgotten word of the Lord. In Judah proper 
we have the great Assyrian prophets, Isaiah with his 
younger contemporary Micah, the powerful supporters 
of the reformation of Hczekiah, laboring one in the 
capital, the other in the country district of the Philis- 
tine border. To the Assyrian period belongs also 
Nahuniy who wrote, perhaps, in captivity, and foretold 
the fall of Nineveh. Then comes Zephaniah about the 
time of the Scythian ravages, foUowea by the prophets 
of the Chaldean periofl ; first Habakkuk and then Jere- 
miah and £zekiel, men of a heavier spirit and less glow- 
ing poetic fire than Isaiah, no longer upholding the 
courage of Judah in the struggle with the empire of the 
East, but predicting the utter dissolution of existing 
things, and finding hope only in a new covenant — a 
new theocracy. In the period of Exile more than one 
anonymous prophet raised his voice ; for not only the 
"Great Unnamed "of Isa. xl.-lxvi., but the authors of 
other Babylonian prophecies, are probably to be 
assigned to this time. In the new hope of deliverance 
the poetic genius, as well as the spiritual insight of 
propnecy, awakes to fresh life, and sets forth the mis- 
sion of the new Israel to carry the knowledge of the 
Lord to ail nations. But the spirit of the new Jerusa- 
lem had little in common with these aspirations, and in 
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, propnecy retains not 
mach of its oldpower except an uncompromising moral 
earnestness. Tne noble poetry of the old prophets, 
which even in the time of Ezekiel had begun to give 
way to plain prose, finds no counterpart in these latest 
oracles ; and imaginative power is shown, where it still 
exists, in the artincial structureof symbolic visions. No 
important new ideas are set forth, and even the tone of 
moral exhortation sometimes reminds us more of the 
rabbinical maxims of the fathers in the Mishna, than of 
the prophetic teaching of the 8th century. And as if 
the spirit of prophecy foresaw its own dissolution, Mal- 
achi looks not to the continued succession of prophets; 
but to the return of Elijah as the necessary preparation 
for the day of the Lord. In this sketch of the prophetic 
writings we find no place for the book of Daniel, which, 
whether composed in the early years of the Persian 
empire, or, as modern critics hold, at the time of the 
Maccabee wars, presents so many points of diversity 
from ordinaiy prophecy as to require entirely separate 
treatment. It is in point of form the precursor of the 
apocalyptic books of post-canonical Judaism, though in 
its intrinsic qualities far superior to these, and akin to 
the prophets proper. 

Further History of the Old Testament Canoi^ in 
the yewish Church, — Under this head we confine our- 
selves to points which lead up to the reception of the 
Old Testament by Giristendom. These are mainly 
two: — (I), the history of the Hebrew text, which we 
now posess only in the recension established by Jewish 
scribes at a time later than the Christian era ; (2), the 
history of those versions which arose among the Jews, 
but have influenced Christendom. 

The Text 0/ the Old Testament. — Semitic alphabets 
have no full provision for distinguishing vowels, and the 
oldest writing, before orthography became fixed, was 
negligent in the use even of such vowel-letters as exist. 
For a long time, then, not only during the use of the 
old Phoenician character, but even after the more 
Baodcrn square or Babylonian letters were adopted, the 
written text of the Bible was consonantal only, leaving 
a certain scope for variety of pronunciation and sense. 
But even the consonantal text was not absolutely fixed. 
The loose state of the laws of spelling and the great 
•wniliarity of several letters made errors of copying 
fr«ment. The text of Micah, for example, is often un- 
intemgibley and many hopeless errors are older than the 



oldest versions. But np to the time of the Alexandrian 
version, MSS. were in circulation which differed not 
merely by greater or less accuracy of transcription, but 
by presenting such differences of recension as could not 
arise by accident. The Greek text of Jeremiah is vastly 
different from that of the Hebrew Bible, and it is not 
certain that the latter is always best. In the books of 
Samuel the Greek enables us to correct many blunders 
of the Hebrew text, but shows at the same time that 
copyists used great f.eedom with details of the the text. 
For the Pentateuch we have, in the copies of the Samari- 
tans, a third recension, often but not always closely 
allied to the Greek. The three recensions show im- 
portant variations in the chronology of Genesis ; and it 
is remarkable that the Book of Jubilees, a Jewish 
treatise which cannot be much older than the Christian 
era, perhaps not much older than the destruction of the 
Jewish state sometimes agrees with the Samaritan or 
uath the Alexandrian recension. Up to this time, 
then, there was no absolutely received text. But 
soon after the Christian era all this was changed, and 
by a process which we cannot follow in detail, a single 
recension became supreme. The change was, no doubt, 
connected with the rise of an overdrawn and fantastic 
system of interpretation, which found lessons in the 
smallest peculiarity of the text ; but Lagrade has made 
it probable that no critical process was used to fix the 
standard recension, and that all existing MSS. are de- 
rived from a single archetyi^, which was followed even 
in its marks of deletion and other accidental peculiari- 
ties. (Lagarde, Anmerkn, zur griech.- Uebersetzung 
der Prov,, 1863, p. i ; r/". Noldeke in Hilgeufeld's 
Zeitschr,^ 1873, p. 445.) Then the received text be- 
came the object of farther care, and the Massorets, or 
" possessors of tradition ** with regard to the text, 
handed down a body of careful directions as to the true 
orthography and pronunciation. The latter was fixed by 
the gradual invention of subsidiary marks for the vow- 
els, &c., an invention developed in slightly diver- 
gent forms in the Babylonian and Palestinian 
schools of Jewish scholarship. The vowel points were 
not known to Jerome, but the system was complete 
before the 9th century, presumably several hundred 
years before that time. All printed Bibles follow the 
Western punctuation, but old Karite MSS. with the 
Babylonian vowels exist, and are now in course of pub- 
lication. It is from the Massoretic text, with Masso- 
retic punctuation, that the English version and most 
Protestant translations are derived. Older Christian 
versions, so far as they are based on the Hebrew at all 
(Jerome's Latin, Sjrriac), at least follow pretty closely 
the received consonantal text. 

Jewish Versions. — Versions of the Old Testament 
became necessary partly because the Jews of the West- 
ern Dispersion adopted the Greek language, partly be- 
cause even in Palestine the Old Hebrew was gradually 
supplanted by Aramaic. The chief seat of the Hellen- 
istic Jews was in Egypt, and here arose the Alexandrian 
version, commonly known as the Septuagint or Version, 
of the LXX., from a fable that it was composed, with 
miraculous circumstances, by seventy-two Palestinian 
scholars summoned to Egypt by Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
In reality there can be no doubt that the version was 
gradually completed by several authors and at different 
times. The whole is probably older than the middle of 
the 2d century B.c. We have already seen that the text 
that lay before the translators was in many parts not 
that of the present Hebrew. The execution is by no 
means uniform; and, though there are many good 
renderings, the defects are so numerous that the Greek- 
speaking Jews, as well as the large section of the Chris- 
tian church which long depended directly or indirectly 



948 



BIB 



on this version, were in mtnypUces quite shnt out from 
a right anderstanding of the Old Testament Neverthe- 
less, the authority of the version was very great, its in- 
spiration was often asserted, and its interpretations ex- 
ercised a great influence on Jewish and Christian 
thought, though among the Jews it was to a certain ex- 
tent displaced by the version of the proselyte Aonila (id 
century of our era), which followed with slavisn exact- 
ness the letter of the Hebrew text 

Among the Jews who spoke Aramaic, translations into 
the vernacular accompanied, instead of supplanting the 
ose of the original text, which was read and then orally 
paraphrased in the sjmagogues by interpreters or Meth- 
urgemanim, who used great freedom of embellishment 
and application. This practice naturally, led to the 
formation of written Targums, or Aramaic translations, 
which have not, however, reached us in at all their 
earliest form. It used, indeed, to be suppc«ed that the 
simple and literal Targum of Onkelos on tne Pentateuch 
was earlier than the time of Christ. But recent inquirers 
have been led to see in it, and in the linguistically cog- 
nate Targum on the Prophets (Targum of Jonathan), 
Sroducts of the Babylonian schools, m which the free- 
om of the early paraphrastic method was carefully 
avoided. Upon this view the date of these Targums is 
some centuries after the Christian era. On the other 
hand, an older style of paraphrase is preserved in the 
Palestinian Targums, which nevertheless contain in their 
present form elements later than the Babylonian versions. 
The Tarcum of Pseudo-Jonathan on the Pentateuch is 
apparently the latest form of the free Palestinian version, 
full of l^endary adornments and other additions to the 
text. Other fragments of Palestinian translation, 
known as the Jerusalem Targum, and referring the in- 
iividual passages of the Pentateuch and Prophets, 
probably represent an earlier stage in the growth of 
the Aramaic versions. There are also Targums on the 
Hagiographa, which, however, have less importance, and 
do not seem to have had so changeful a history. The 
Tai]gums as a whole do not offer much to the textual 
critic. They are important, partly from the insight they 
give into an early^ and in part pre-Christian exegesis, 
partly from their influence on later Jewish expositors, 
and through them on Christian versions and expositions. 
In some cases the literal or Babylonian Targums have a 
text differing from the Massoretic. But it is not unlikely 
that if we had a satisfactory text of the Targums (towards 
which almost nothing has hitherto been done), these 
variations would find their explanation in the Eastern 
text and the Assyrian punctuation. 

New Testament.— -^^Az//<w of the Earliest Christi- 
anity to the Literary and Intellectual Activity of the 
AFe.— la the literature of Palestine at the time of 
Cnrist we distinguish a learned and popular element. 
The learned class or scribes were busy on their twofold 
structure of Halacha, or legal tradition and inference, 
supplementing and " hedging in ** the Pentateuchal law, 
and Haggada, or fantastic exegesis, legendary, ethical, 
or theosophic, under which the religious directness of 
the Old Testament ahnost wholly disappeared. The 
popular religious literature of^ the day seems again to 
nave been niainly apocal3rptic. {See Apocalyptic 
Literature.) The people never wearied of these 
mysterious revelations couched in strange symbolic and 
enigmatic forms, and placed in the moutlis of ancient 
patriarchs and worthies, which held forth golden 
visions of deliverance and vengeance in a shape 
which, because crasser and earthher, was also more 
palpable than the spiritual hopes of the old prophets. 
Beyond the limits of Palestine thought took a 
Wider range. In adopting the Greek language the 
Hellenistic Jews had also become open to the mfluences 



of foreign specolttioB, and the schools of Alexandrii, 
whose greatest teacher, Philo, was contemporary wiih 
the foundation of Christianity, had in great measure 
exchanged the faith of the Old Testament for a compli- 
cated svstem of metaphysicb-theological speculations 
upon tne Absolute Being, the Divine Wisdom, the 
Ix>gos, and the like, which by the aid of alkgorical 
interpretation were made to appear as the true teaching 
of Hebrew antiquity. To these currents of thought the 
relation of the earliest Christianity, entirely absorbed m 
the one great fact of the manifestation of God in Christ 
crucified, risen, and soon to return in glory, was for the 
most part hostile, when It was not merely superficial. 
With the spirit of the scribes Jesus had openly joined 
issue. In the legal tradition of the elders He saw the 
commandment of God annulled (Matt, xv.) It vts 
His part not to destroy but to fill up into spiritxul 
completeness the teaching of the old dispensation (Matt, 
v.); and herein He attached himself directly to the 
prophetic conception of the law in Deuteronomv (Matt 
xxii. Xj,ff») And not only in His ethical teacning bat 
in His personal Sense o\ fellowship with the Father, 
and in the inner consciousness of His Messianic mission, 
Jesus stood directly on the Old Testament, reading in 
the Psalms and Prophets, which so vainly exercised the 
unsympathetic exegesis of the scribes, the direct ana 
unmistakable image of His own experience and work as 
the founder of the spiritual kingdom of God {cf. 
especially, Luke xxiv. 25, ff.) Thus Jesus found His 
first desciples among men who were strangers to the 
theological culture of the day ( AcU iv. 13), cherishing 
no literature but the Old Testament witness to Christ, 
and claiming no wisdom save the knowledge of Him. 
At first, indeed, the church at Jerusalem was content io 
express its new life in simple exercises of faith and hope, 
without any attempt to define its relation to the past 
dispensation, and without breaking with the legal ordi- 
nances of the temple. But the spread of Christianity to 
the Gentiles compelled the principles of the new religion 
to measure themselves openly witn the Judaism of the 
Pharisees. In the heathen mission of Paul the ceremo- 
nial law was ignored, and men became Christians 
without first becoming proselytes. The stricter Phari- 
saically-trained believers were horror-stricken. The 
old apostles, though they could not refuse the right 
hand of fellowship to workers so manifestly blessed of 
God as Paul and Barnabas, were indisposed to throvr 
themselves into the new current, and displayed consider- 
able vacillation in their personal conduct. Paul and 
his associates had to fight their own battles against the 
constant efforts of Judaizing emissaries, and the rab- 
binical training acquired at the feet of Ganaaliel 
enabled the apostle of the heathen to meet the Judaiiers 
on their own ground, and to work out the contrast of 
Christianity and Pharisaism with a thoroughness onljr 
possible to one who knew Pharisaism from long expcn- 
ence, and had learned the gospel not from the tradirion 
or teaching of men, but by revelation of Jesus Christ 
(Gal. i. 12). 

The relation of the first Christians to the current apoc- 
alyptic was of a different kind. The Messianic hopes 
already current among the first hearers of the gospel 
were unquestionably of apocalyptic color. And ^ough 
the contents of Christian hope were new, and expressed 
themselves in a revival of prophetic gifts (I Cor. xii. 10; 
Acts xi. 27, &c.), it was not a matter of course that 
apocalyptic forms should be at once dropped, espedtlly 
as Old Testament prophecy itself had inclined in its Uter 
stages towards an increasing concreteness in delineating 
the Messianic kingdom, and so had at least formed the 
basis for man;^ apocalyptic conceptions. The apoca)^ 
tic books continued to be read, as appears from the 9* 



BIB 



949 



f; 



flnenceofthebook of Enoch on the epistle of Jude; 
and after the new spirit of prophecy had died away a 
Christian apocalvptic followed the Jewish models. But 
the way in whicn a genuine Christian prophecy, full of 
•* the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. xix. lo), retained not a 
little of the apocalyptic manner (mainly, it is true, in 
dependence on the book of Daniel), appears clearly in 
the Revelation of John, which, whether we accept the 
prevalent tradition of its apostolic authorship, or, with 
some ancients and many modems, ascribe it to a differ- 
ent John, is at least an undisputed monument of the 
prophecy of the apostolic age (according to modem crit- 
ics, earlier than the fall of Jerusalem). 

The influence on Christianity of Hellenistic philoso- 
phy, and, in general, of that floating spirit of specula- 
tion which circulated at the time in the meeting- places 
of Eastern and Western thought, was for the most part 
hter than the New Testament period. Yet the Alex- 
andrian education of a man like Apollos could not fail 
to give some color to his preaching, and in the epistle 
to die Hebrews, whose author, a man closely akin to 
Paul, is not a direct disciple of Jesus (^eb. li. 3), the 
theological reflection natural to the second generation, 
which no longer stood so immediately under the over- 
powering influence of the manifestation of Christ, is 
plainly fdfected in some points by Alexandrian views. 
in the case of other books the assertion of fo reign s|>ec- 
nlative influences is generally bound up with the denial 
of the authenticity of the book in question. That the 
gospel of John presents a view of the person of Christ 
dependent on Philonic speculation is not exegetically ob- 
vious, but is simply one side of the assertion that this 
"gospel is an unhistorical product of abstract reflection, 
n the same way other attacks on the genuineness of 
New Testament writings are backed up by the supposed 
detection of Orphic elements in the epistle of James, 
and so forth. 

Motives and Oripn of the first Christian Literature. 
-^We have seen that the earliest currents of Christian 
life and thought stood in a very secondary relation to the 
intellectual activity of the period. The only books from 
which the Apostolic Church drew largely and freely 
were those of^the Old Testament, and the Christian task 
of proclaiming the gospel was not in the first instance a 
literary task at all. The first writings of Christianity, 
therefore, were of an occasional kind. The care of so 
niany churches compelled Paul to supplement his per- 
sonai efforts by epistles, in which the discussion of inci- 
dental questions and the energetic defence of his gospel 
against the Judaizers is interwoven with broad applica- 
tions of the fundamental principles of the gospel to the 
whole theory and practice of Christian life. In these 
epistles, and generally in the teaching of Paul and his 
associates. Christian thought first shaped for itself a 
suitable literary vehicle, ft was in Greek that the mis- 
sion to the Gentiles was carried on, for that language 
Was everywhere understood. Already in the mouths of 
Hellenistic Jews and in the translation of the Old Testa- 
inent the ycoivri^ or current Greek of the Macedonian 
period, had been tinctured with Semetic elements, and 
adapted to express the ideas of the old dispensation. Now 
a new modification was necessary, and soon in the circle 
of the Pauline churches specifically Christian ideas be- 
came inseparably bound up with words which to the 
heathen had a very different sense. Whether the epis- 
tolary way of teacning was used upon occasion by the 
older apostles before the labors of Paul is not clear ; for 
niost scholars have declined to accept the ingenious view 
which sees in the epistle of James the eariiest writing 
of the New Testament. The other episdes are certainly 
later, and the way in which several of them are ad- 
dressed, not to a special community in reference to a 



special need, but to a wide circle of readers, seems to 
presuppose a formed custom of teaching by letter which 
extended from Paul not only to so like-nunded a write* 
as the author of Hebrews (Apollos or fiamabas ?) but 
to the old apostles and their associates. 

Besides epistles we have in the New Testament a soli- 
tary book of Christian prophecy and a fourfold account 
of the gospel history, with a continuation of the third 
gospel m tne Acts of the Apostles. The origin and 
mutual relations of the gospels form at the present mo- 
ment the field of numerous controversies which can 
only be dealt with in separate articles. We must here 
confine ourselves to one or two points of general bear- 
ine. 

Jewish disciples were accustomed to retain the oral 
teaching of their masters with extraordinary tenacity 
and verbal exactness of memory (Mishna, Aboth iii. 8 ; 
Edaiothy i. 3), and so the words of Jesus might for 
some time be handed down by merely oral tradition. 
But did the gospel continue to be taught orally alone 
up to the time when the extant gospels were written? 
or must we assume the existence of earlier evangelical 
writings forming a link between oral tradition and the 
narratives we now possess? The earliest external evi- 
dence on this point is given in the prologue to Luke's 
gospel, whichr speaks of many previous essays towards 
a regularly digested evangelical history on tne basis of 
the tradition (whether exclusively oral or partly written 
is not expressed) of eye-witnesses who haa followed the 
whole course of Christ's ministry. It seems to be im- 
plied that if the eye-witnesses wrote at all, they, at least 
so far as was known to Luke, did not compose a re^lar 
narrative but simply threw together a mass of reminis- 
cences. This understanding of the words of the evan- 
gelist agrees very well with the uniform tradition of the 
old church as to the second gospel, viz. . that it was 
composed by Mark from material furnished by Peter. 
This tradition goes back to Papias of Hierapolis, about 
150 A. D., but it is a fair question whether the second 
gospel as we have it is not an enlarged edition 
of Mark's original work. On the other hand ecclesi- 
astical tradition recognizes the apostle Matthew as the 
author of the first gospel, but aoes so in a way that 
really bears out the statements of Luke. For the tradi- 
tion that Matthew wrote the first gospel is alwa]^ 
combined with the statement that he wrote in Hebrew 
(Aramaic). But from the time of Erasmus the best 
Greek scholars have been convinced that the gospel 
is not a translation. Either, then, the whole tradition 
of a directly apostolic Aramaic gospel is a mistake, 
caused by the existence among the Judaizing Christians 
in Palestine of an apocryphal " Gospel according to 
the Hebrews," which was by them ascribed to 
Matthew, but was, in fact, a corrupt edition of our 
Greek gospel; or, on the other hand, what Matthew 
really wrote in Aramaic was different from the book 
that now bears his name, and only formed an important 
part of the material from which it draws. The 
latter solution is naturally suggested by the oldest form 
of the tradition ; for what Papias says of Matthew is 
that he wrote rd Xdyta, the omcUs^ — an expression 
which, though much disputed, seems to be most fairly 
understood not of a complete gospel but of a collection 
of the words of Christ. And if so, all the earliest 
external evidence points to the conclusion that the 
synoptical gospels are non-apostolic digests of spoken 
and written apostolic tradition, and that the arrange- 
ment of the earlier material in orderly form took place 
only gradually and by many essays. With this the in- 
temal evidence agrees. The three first gospels are 
often in such remarkable accord even in minute and 
accidental points of expression, that it is certain either 



950 



BIB 



that they copied one another or that all have sonie 
sources in common. The first explanation is inadequate, 
both from the nature of the discrepancies that accom- 
pany the agreement of the three narratives, and from 
the impossibility of assigning absolute priority to any 
one gospel. For example, even if we suppose that the 
gospel of Mark was used by the other two authors, or 
conversely that Mark was made up mainly from Mat- 
thew and Luke, it is still necessary to postulate one or 
more earlier sources to explain residuary phenomena. 
And the longer the problem is studied the more general 
is the conviction of critics, that these sources cannot 
possibly have been merely oral. 

It appears from -what we have already seen, that a 
considerable portion of the New Testament is made up 
of writings not directly apostolical, and a main problem 
of criticism is to determine the relation of these writings, 
especially of the gospels, to apostolic teaching and 
tradition. But behmd all such questions as the relative 
priority of Matthew or of Mark, the weight to be 
assigned to the testimony of Papias, and so forth, lies a 
series of questions mucn more radical in character by 
which the whole theological world is at present agitated. 
Can we say of all the P^ew Testament books that they 
are either oirectly apostolic, or at least stand in imme- 
diate dependence on genuine apostolic teaching which 
they honestly represent ? or must we hold, with an in- 
fluential school of modern critics, that a large proportion 
of the books are direct forgeries, written in the mtcrest 
of theological tendencies, to which they sacrifice without 
hesitation thegenuine history and teaching of Christ and 
his apostles ? There are, of course, positions inter- 
mediate to these two views, and the doctrine of tend- 
encies is not held by many critics even of the Tubingen 
school in its extreme form. Yet, as a matter of fact, 
every book in the New Testament, with the exception 
of the four great epistles of St Paul, is at present more 
or less the subject of controversy, and interpolations are 
asserted even in these. The details of such a contro- 
versy can only be handled in separate articles, but a few 
general remarks may be useful here. 

The arguments directed by modern critics against the 
genuineness or credibility of New Testament books do 
not for the most part rely much on external evidence. 
Except in one or two cases (particularly that of 2d 
Peter) the external evidence in favor of the books is as 
strong as one can fairly expect, even where not alto- 
gether decisive. We shall see when we come to speak 
of the canon that, towards the close of the 2d century, 
the four gospels, the Acts, thirteen epistles of Paul, the 
first epistles of Peter and John, and the book of Rev- 
elation, were received in the most widely separated 
churches with remarkable unanimity. Before this time 
the chain of evidence is less complete. All our knowl- 
edge of the period that lies between the apostles and the 
great teachers of the Old Catholic Church towards the 
close of the 2d century is fragmentaiy. We possess but 
scanty remains of the literature, and the same criticism 
which seeks to bring down many New Testament books 
into this period Questions the genuineness of many of 
the writings whicn claim to date from the first half of 
the 2d century, and so are appealed to by conservative 
writers. But on the whole, what evidence does exist is 
of a kind to push back all the more important writings 
to an early date. The gospel of John, for example, is 
one of the books which negative critics are most deter- 
mined in rejecting. Yet the fairest writers of the school 
(Hilgenfeld, Keim) admit that it was known to Justin 
Martyr in the middle of the 2d century, though they 
think that besides ouf four gospels he had a fifth of 
apocryphal character. But references of an earlier date 
can hardly be denied; and the gospel may be traced 



almost to the beginning of the centnir by the aid of 
fragments of the Gnostic Basihdes and of^the epistks 
of Ignatius. The Tubingen school, indeed, maintain 
that the fragments preserved by Hippol3rtusare not from 
Basilides, but from a later writer of his school, and 
utterly reject the Ignatian epistles. But it cannot be 
said that they have proved their case beyond diqiote. 
They have at most shown that, if the gospel must on 
other grounds be taken as spurious, the external evi- 
dence maybe pushed aside as not absolutely insuperable. 
On the other hand they try to bring positive proof that 
certain books were unknown in circles where, if gen- 
uine, they must have circulated. But such a negative 
is in its very nature difficult to prove. Probably the 
strongest argument of the kind is that bronght to diow 
that Papias dki not know the gospel of John. But we 
know Papias only through Eusebius; and though the 
latter is careful to mention all references to disputed 
books, it does not appear that it was part of his design 
to cite testimony to a book so universally allowed as 
John's gospel. And Papias does give testimony to the 
first epistle of John, which is hardly separable from the 
gospel. On the whole, then, we repeat that, on the 
most cardinal points, the external evidence for the New 
Testament books is as strong as can fairly be looked 
for, though not of course, strong enough to convince a 
man who is sure a priori that this or that bo<^ is unhis- 
torical and must be of late date. 

The strength of the negative critics lies in intemil 
evidence. And in this connection they have certainly 
directed attention to real difficulties, many of which stiu 
await their explanation. Some of these difficulties are 
not properly connected with the Tubingen position. 
The genuineness of 2d Peter, which, indeed, is very 
weakly attested by external evidence, was suspicious 
even to Erasmus and Calvin, and no one will assert that 
the Pauline authorship of ist Timothy is as palpsJl)le as 
that of the epistle to the Romans. So, agam, it is un- 
deniable that the epistle to the Colossians and the 
so-called epistle to tne Ephesians differ considca^ly in 
language and thought from other Pauline epistles, and 
that their relation to one another demands explanation. 
But in the Tubingen school all minor difficulties, each 
of which might be solved in detail without any very 
radical procedure, are brought together as phases of a 
single extremely radical theory of the growth of the 
New Testament. The theory has two bases, one philo- 
sophical or dogmatical, the other historical; and it 
cannot be pretended that the latter basis is adequate if 
the former is struck away. Philosophically the Tii- 
bingen school starts from the position so clearly laid 
down hj Strauss, that a miraculous interruption of the 
laws o\ nature stamps the narrative in which it occurs 
as unhistorical, or, at least, as more cautious writers pu!t 
the case, hampers the narrative with such extreme im- 
probability that the positive evidence in favor of its truth 
would require to be much stronger than it is in the case 
of the New Testament history. The application of this 
proposition makes a great part of the narrative of the 
Gospels and Acts appear as unhistorical, and thercfoft 
late ; and the origin of this late literature is sought by 
regarding the New Testament as the monument of > 
long struggle, in the course of which an original shfip 
antagonism between the gospel of Paul and the Judw*- 
ing gospel of the old apostles was gradually softened 
down and harmonized. The analysis of the ^^ew Tcfti^ 
ment is the resurrection of early parties in the chnrdif 
each pursuing its own tendency by the aid of Ittettfy 
fiction. In the genuine epistles of Paul on theoW 
hand, and in the Revelation and in some parts of ]{|l' 

Ithew on the other, the original hostility of ethniCMli 
Jewish Christianity is sharply defined^ iMI/i ,^Jk— - 



BIB 



951 



series of intermediate stages the Johaimitte writings 
present the final transition in the 2d century from the 
contests of primitive Christianity to the uniformity of 
the Old Catholic Church. This eeneral position has 
been developed in a variety of forms, more or less 
drastic, and is supported by a vast mass of speculation 
and research ; but the turning pomts of the controversy 
may, perhaps, be narrowed to four questions — (i.) 
Whether in view of PauTs undoubted conviction that 
miraculous powers were exercised by himself and other 
Christians (i Cor. xii. 9,/; 2 Cor. xii. 12) the miracle 
criterion of a secondary narrative can be maintained? 
(2.) Whether the book of Acts is ladically inconsistent 
with Paul's own account of his relations to the church at 
Jemsalem, and whether the antithesis of Peter and Paul 
IS proved from the epistles of the latter, or postulated in 
accordance with the Helegian law of advance by antag- 
onism? (3.) Whether the gospel of John is necessarUy 
a late fiction, or does not rainer supply in its ideal de- 
lineation of Jesus a necessarv supplement to the synop- 
tical gospels which can only be understood as resting on 
true apostolic reminiscence? (4. ) Whether the external 
evidence for the several t>ooks and the known facts of 
church history leave time for the successive evolution 
of all the stages of early Christianity which the theory 
postulates? 

TAg Christian Canon of the Old and Nrm Testa- 
fnents, — We have already seen that the Apostolic Church 
continued to use as sacred the Hebrew Scriptures, whose 
authority derived fresh confirmation from the fulfilment 
of the prophecies in Christ. The idea that the Old Tes- 
tament revelation must now fall back into a secondary 
position as compared with inspired apostolic teaching 
was not for a moment entertained. Still less could the 
notion^ of a bod)r of New Testament Scriptures, of a 
collection of Christian writings, to be read like the Old 
Testament in public worship and appealed to as authori- 
tative in matters of faith, take shape so long as the 
church was conscious that she had in her midst a living 
▼oice of in^iration. The first apostolic writings were, 
as we have seen, occasional, and it was not even matter 
of course that every epistle of an apostle should be care- 
fally preserved, much less that it should be prized above 
his oml teaching. Paul certainly wrote more than two 
epistles to the Corinthians, and even Papias is still of 
opinion, when he collects reminiscences of^a|K)stolic say- 
ins from the mouths of the elders, that what he reads 
inlxxiks cannot do him so much good as what he re- 
ceives "from a living and abiding voice." Nay, the 
very writers who are the first to put Old and New Tes- 
tament books on a precisely similar footing (^-^-t Tertull- 
lanj attach equal importance to the tradition of churches 
which had been directly taught by apostles, and so were 
presumed to possess the " rule of'^faith ** in a form free 
irom the difhculties of exposition that encumber the 
written word. In the first instance, then, the authori- 
tative books of the Christian church were those of the 
Old Testament ; and in the time of the apostles and 
their immediate successors it was the Hebrew canon that 
^"'as received. But as most churches had no knowledge 
of the Old Testament except through the Greek transla- 
tion and the Alexandrian canon, the Apocrypha soon 
"^gan to be quoted as Scripture. Tne feeling of 
uncertainty as to the proper number of Old Testa- 
ment books which prevailed in the 2d century is illus- 
trated by an epistle of Melito of Sardls, who journeyed 
to Palestine in i|uest of light, and brought back the pres- 
et Hebrew canon, with the ombsion of the book of 
^ther. In the 3d century Origen knew the Hebrew 
canon, out accepted the Alexandrian additions, appar- 
ently because he considered that a special providence had 
Wched ov^r lK>th fonns of the wUcction, gubseaujcnt 



teachers in the Eastern Church gradnally went back to the 
Hebrew canon (Esther being still excluded from full can- 
onicityby Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus distin- 
guishing Alexandian additions as dyayiYvoi}6K6nera 
— books used for ecclesiastical lessons. In the Western 
Church the same distinction was made by scholars like 
Jerome, who introduced for merely ecclesiastical books 
the somewhat incorrect name of Apocrypha ; but a 
laxer view was very prevalent and gained ground during 
the Middle Ages, till at length, in opposition to the Pro- 
testants, the Council of Trent accepted every book in 
the Vulgate translation as canonical. 

We turn now to the New Testament collection. The 
idea of canonicity — the right of a book to be cited as 
Scripture — was closely connected with regular use in 
public worship, and so the first step towards a New 
Testament canon was doubtless the establishment of a 
custom of reading in the churches individual epistles or 
gospels. The first beginnings of this custom must have 
been very early. The reference to Luke in i Tim. v. 
18 is disputed, and 2 Pet. iii. 16 is usually taken as one 
of the many arguments against the genuineness of that 
epistle; butacitation from Matthew is certainly referrred 
to as Scripture in the epistle of Barnabas. But such 
recognition of an individual gospel is a long way re- 
moved from the recognition of an apostolic canon. The 
apostolic writings continued to be very partially diffused, 
and readers used such books as thev had access to, 
often failing to distinguish between books of genuine 
value and worthless forgeries. For most readers were 
very uncritical, and there was an enormous floating 
mass of spurious and apocalyptic literature, including 
recensions of the gospel altered by heretical parties to 
suit their own views. It was perhaps in contest with 
the heretics of the 2d century that the necessity of form- 
ing a strict list of really authoritative writing came to 
l>e clearly felt ; and it is remarkable that heretics, gener- 
ally hostile to the Old Testament, seem to have been 
among the first to form collections of Christian writings 
for themselves. Thus Marcion, in the middle of the 
2d century, selected for himself on dogmatical grounds 
ten Pauline epistles, and a gos|>cl which seems to have 
been based on Luke. Up to this time perhaps no 
formal canon of sacred writings had been put forth by 
the Catholic Church. But in the second half of the 
century the notion of an authoritative New Testament 
collection appears in full development, and there is an 
amount of agreement as to the contents of the canon, 
which hnplies that, in spite of the loose way in whicb 
apocryphal books circulated side by side with genuine 
works, the church had no great difficulty in drawing a 
sharp line between the two classes when this was 
felt to be necessary. At the time of the great teachers 
of the 2d century (Irena?us, Tertullian, Clement) we 
had a twofold collection, the Gospel ^.n^ the Apostles, 
The Gospel comprises the four evangelists ; and this 
number was already so absolutely fixed as lo admit of no 
further doubt. 

Quite beyond dispute were also the main books of 
the Apostolicon^ the Acts, thirteen epistles of Paul, 
1st Peter, 1st John, and the Apocalypse. The Murator- 
ian fragment which contains a list twenty or thirty years 
older than the 3d century orbits ist Peter, but adds T^ci^ 
2d and 3d John (?), and (as a disputed book) the ApoC' 
alypse of Peter. The Shepherd of Hermas might also 
be read, but it is pointed out that it is of quite recent 
date and not of prophetic or aix)stolic authority. From 
this time forward, then, the controversy is narrowed 
lo a few books, occupying a middle position between 
the large mass of our present New Testament, which 
was already beyond dispute, and the spurious litera^ 
turQ which was <|ttit9 ^xqIu^^ from ec(;lQsiastical nsp^ 



952 



BIB 



Absolute uniformity wti not tt once tttainable, for 
various churches had quite independent usages ; and, 
as^ we have seen from the Muratorian canon, a book 
might receive a certain ecclessiastical recognition, with- 
out being, therefore, viewed as strictly canonical. This 
dubious margin to a canon was of very uncertain 
limits, and Clement of Alexandria still uses many 
apocryphal books which found no acknowledgment in 
other pt*its of the church. Gradually the list of books 
which have even a disputed claim to authority is cut 
down. In the time of Eusebius the Shepnerd of 
Hermas was still read in some churches, and several 
other books — the Epistle of Barnabas, the Acts of Paul, 
the Revelation of Peter, the Teachings of the Apostles 
— appear as controverted writings. But all these are 
plainly oa the verge of rejection, while, on the other 
hand, 2d and 3d John, James, and 2d Peter are 
gradually gaining ground. This process continued to 
go on without interruption till at length the whole class 
of disputed books {antiUgomena) melted away, and 
only our present canon was left on the one hand, and 
books of no authority or repute upon the other. Thus 
the Council of Laodicea was able wholly to forbid 
the ecclesiastical use of uncanonical books (360 A. D.) 
and the only uncertain point r-nnaining in the tradition 
of the Eastern Church was the position of the Apoc- 
alypse, which had graduallv fallen into suspicion, and 
was not fully reinstated till the cth century. The 
Western Church, on the other hand, was long dubious 
as to the epistle t*> the Hebrews, which was received 
without hesitation in the East, as the Apocalypse con- 
tinued to be in the West The age of Augustine and 
Jerome saw the close of the Western canon. 

BIBLE SOCIETIES, associations for extending'the 
circulation of the Holy Scriptures. For a long period 
this object has been pursued to a considerable extent by 
Kveral religious institutions, such as the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, formed by the 
Rev. Thomas Gouge, one of the two thousand minis- 
ters ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662 ; the So- 
ciety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 
1698; the Society for sending Missionaries to India, 
established in the vear 1705 by Frederick IV., King of 
Denmark, and which numbered among its agents the 
celebrated missionary. Christian Frederick Schwartz ; 
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the 
Highlands and Islands of Scotland, formedin Edinburgh 
in 1709; the Moravian Missionary Society, founded m 
1732; the Book Society for Promoting Religious 
Knowledge among the Poor, which was formed in Lon- 
don in 1 750, and numbered among its earliest friends 
Dr. Doddridge and the Rev. James Hervey; and the 
Religious Tract Society, founded in 1779. ^"^ the first 
British association which had in view the single purpose 
of disseminating the Scriptures was the Naval and 
MiUTARY Bible Society, established in the year 1780, 
which has done immense service to the army and navy 
of Great Britain. The sphere of its operations, how- 
ever, was comparatively limited, and in 1804 the Brit- 
ish AND Foreign Bible Society, the greatest agency 
ever devised for the diffusion of the Word of God, was 
founded. The proposal to institute this association 
originated with the Rev. Mif. Charles of Bala, whose 
philanthropic labors in Wales were greatly impeded by 
the scarcity of the Scriptures in the prindpahty, and it 
was largely fostered at the outset by members of the 
committee of the Religious Tract Society. The ex- 
clusive object of the Bntish and Foreign Bible Society 
is to promote the circulation of the Scriptures, both at 
home and abroad, and its constitution admits the co- 
operation of all persons disposed to concur in its support. 
The commit^ of oiana^ment consists Qf 36 laymen, 



6 of them bein^ foreigners resident in or near the rw. 
tropoUs, and of the remaining 30, one-half are memben 
of the Church of England, and the other half members 
of other Christian denominations. 

The proceedings of this society gave rise to several 
controversies, one of which related to the fundamenul 
law of the society to circulate the Bible alone withf^ut 
notes or coniments. On thb ground it was vehemenily 
attacked by Bishop Marsh and other di\anes of the 
Church of England, who insisted that the praycr-boc^ 
ought to be given along with the Bible. Another cno- 
troversy in which the late Dr. Andrew Thomson of 
Exiinburgh took a prominent part, related to the cir- 
culation on the continent, chiefly by affiliated societies, 
of the Apocrypha along with the canonical books d 
Scripture. In 1826 it was resolved by the committee 
that the fundamental law of the society be fuUyand 
distinctly recognized as excluding the circulation of the 
Apocrypha. This step, however, failed to satisfy all 
the supporters of the society in Scotland, who pro- 
ceeded to form themselves into independent assodaticmi. 
A third serious controversy, by which the society has 
been agitated, was occasioned by the alleged inaccuracy 
of some of the translations issued under its anthoritr; 
and a fourth referred to the admissibility ofn<Mi-Tnn- 
itarians to the privilege of co-operation. The refusal of 
the society in 1831 to alter its constitution so as form- 
ally to exclude such persons, led to the formation of the 
Trinitarian Bible Society. This has, however, bcea 
exceedingly limited in its operations, and the original 
society stands unrivalled. 

The Edinburgh Bible Society originated in the 
controversy respecting the circulation of the Apocrypha, 
and was composed of Protestants professing tneir belief 
in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and disposed to 
co-operate in promoting the dissemination of the 
Scriptures. 

The Scottish Bible Society was instituted up- 
wards of forty years ago. At the time of its establish- 
ment, the other Bible societies in Scotland empIoj-cJ 
their funds chiefly in circulating the Scriptures m for- 
eign countries. Tnis association was intended exclusi%"ely 
for the distribution of the Bible at home, and its funds 
were at first derived from collections made in the parish 
churdies within the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. 

The Scotch Bible societies were amalgamated in 
1861, and took the name of National Bible Society 
of Scotland. During the year 1874 the society issued 
J40,9C^ Bibles, lestamenls and ** Portions," its receipts, 
mcluding the proceeds of sales, amounting to /26,84tt 

The first Bible society in America is beRevea to ha« 
been established by a few Baptists- in New York ia 
1804; its object was to pordiase and lend Bibles fort 
month at a time. The Philadelphia Bible Soamr, 
which was instituted December 12, i8o8, was for some 
years the only association in the country for the gratui- 
tous distributiou of the sacred Scriptures. The Amw- 
ican Bible Society was formed at New York, May 8. 
181 7. It has numerous auxiliaries throughout the sev- 
eral states of the Union. In 1875 its income amounted 
to $577,569. Its issues during that year were ^26,gpo 
Bibles and Testaments, and since its fonnatioa 
31.893,332. • 

Among other societies may be mentioned the BOW 
Translation Society, whose versions emlxxi^ the 
views of the Baptists, and the Porteusian BibU So- 
ciety (named from Bishop Porteus), for the drcfdftliotj 
of Bibles marked so as to show the practical bearivgw 
each chapter. 

It is believed that there are altogether abont fOimm 
societies in the world. 

The monopoly of the right to pri«t tlie BiW^^WNt 



BIB 



953 



bnd is stai possessed by the Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, and her Majesty's printer for England. 
But after a controversy wnich was carried on for some 
time with great warmth (1840-41), the prices of the 
common Bibles and Testaments were greatly reduced, 
and they have gradually attained their present remark- 
able cheapness. 

In Scotland, on the expiry of the monopoly in 1839, 
Parliament refused to renew the patent, and appointed 
a Bible Board for Scotland, with power to grant licen- 
ces to print the Authorized Version of the Scriptures. 
This step produced a great reduction in the price of the 
sacred volume, and its circulation was considerably 
increased. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. The term Bibliography has 
passed through different meanings. When the name 
bibliographic was adopted by the French, it was used, 
as late as the middle of the last century, to signify skill 
in deciphering and judging of ancient manuscripts. Its 
special application to printed books may be said to date 
from the Bibliographie Instructive of De Bure in 1763; 
not that he ap]>ears to h^ve coined the new meaning of 
the term, but his work first popularized the study which 
the growth of libraries and the commerce in literature 
had created. 

Bibliography, thus understood, may be defined as the 
sdence of books, having re^^ard to their description and 
proper classification. Viewmg books simply as vehicles 
of learning, it would undoubtedly be correct to extend 
our inquiry to the period when the only books, so 
called, were manuscripts. And such is, in fact, the 
▼iew adopted by bibliographers like Peignot, Namur, 
and Hart well Home. But a survey so extensive is 
open to practical objections. In the first place, bibh- 
ography as a science was unknown until long after 
printing had laid its first foundations, and indeed made 
It a necessity, with requirements increasing with the 
multiplied productions of the press. The materials for 
comparative study were wanting in an age when books 
were regarded as isolated treasures, to be bought at 
prices corresponding with their scarcity. In the second 
place, the critical study and comparison of ancient man- 
uscripts, their distribution into families deduced from 
one or more archetjrpes, and the investigation of ancient 
S3rstems of writing, embrace a subject so wide in its 
scope and special in its character, that convenience 
of treatment, confirmed as it is by the facts of his- 
tory, would alone suggest the propriety of distinguish- 
ing^ between manuscripts and printed bibliography. 
Tfis distinction it is here proposed to observe, the 
subject of MSS. being reserved for the article Pai.^- 
OGRAPHY, the name which in its maturity it received. 

^Amid much variety of treatment in detail, two main 
divisions underlie the general study of bibliography, 
^.> material and literary , according as books are 
•■egarded with reference to their form or their substance. 
The former belongs chiefly to the bookseller and book- • 
collector J the latter to the literary man and the scholar. 
Material bibliography treats of what Savigny terms the 
"aussere Biicherwesen,*' or the external characteristics 
of books, their forms, prices and rarity, the names*of 
|he printers, the date and place of publication, and the 
nistonr of particular copies or editions. It involves a 
knowledge of typography, not, indeed, as a mechanical 
process, but in its results, and, in fact, of all the con- 
stituent part of books, as a means of identifying par- 
^ular productions. Its full development is due to the 
gradual formation of a technical science of books. 
Considerations of buying and selling, which were first 
fcduoed to a system In Holland, and afterwards 
^vanced to thefr present complete form in France and 
^i^ghad» 0KV« an unpetus to this branch of bibli- 



ography. The growth of private libraries, especially 
during the last century in France, promoted a passion 
among rich amateurs for rare and curious books ; and 
literary antiquarians began to study those extrinsic 
circumstances, apart from the merit of their contents, 
which went to determine their marketable value, and 
to reveal the elements of rarity. 

Literary, or, as it is sometimes called, intellectua! 
bibliography treats of books by their contents, and of 
their connection in a literary point of view. It has 
been subdivided into pure and applied^ according as its 
functions became more complex with the spread of 
primed books and the increasing requirements of learn- 
m^. Catalogues expanded into dictionaries, whose 
object was to acquaint literary men with the most 
important works in every branch of learning. Books 
were accordingly classified by their contents, and the 
compiler had to distinguish between degrees of relative 
utility, so that students might know what books to 
select. This duty, which devolved in most cases on 
men of learning, has led French writers in particular to 
exaggerate the province of bibliography. Its real value, 
in a literary aspect, depends on the recognition of its 
purpose as ancdlary to the study of literature; not in 
short, as an end, but as a means to the attainment of 
knowledge, by the investigation of its sources. 

France musi be regarded as the real mother of biblio- 
graphy. The labors of French bibliographers, especially 
after Naud^, converted a study, more or less desultory, 
into a science and a systematic pursuit. In Germany, 
poor in public and almost destitute of private libraries, 
bibliography has been studied almost exclusively in its 
literary aspect. The science in America has been cul- 
tivated only recently; but the names of Cogswell, 
Ticknor, and Jewett are already well known to bibliog- 
raphers. 

The history of the materials used for early manuscripts 
— a subject fruitful in reseach — lies outside the limits we 
have proposed for bibliography as the study of primed 
literature. Forrunately for tlw spread of books, in the 
modern sense of the term, the invention of printing was 
preceded by the important discovery of the art of making 
paper from linen rags. The precise date of this dis- 
covery is not known, nor are writers agreed as to the 
country in which it was made ; but it seems to be ascer- 
tained that this kind of paper was in general use in 
Europe before the end of the 14th century. 

An accurate knowledge of the different forms of 
books is necessary to the bibliographer, as without it 
no book can be correctly described ; and however easy 
such knowledge may appear, it is yet certain that errors 
in this respect have been committed even by experienced 
bibliographers, and that doubts have been entertained 
as to the existence of editions, owing to their forms 
having been inaccurately described. 

The respective merits of different editions can be as« ' 
certained often only by minute inquiries. It is a princi- 
pal object of the bibliographical dictionaries, to be 
afterwards mentioned, to point out those editions of im- 
portant works which sucn inquiries have discovered to 
be the best. There are many particulars in which one 
edition may differ from or excel another. Tliere may 
be differences or grounds of preference in size, in paper, 
and in printing. Later revision by the author may give 
his worK, when it comes to be reprinted, a complexion 
differing largely from what it had at first ; while the 
first edition exhibits his original thoughts as they came 
fresh from his pen. One edition may derive its superi- 
ority from being furnished with notes, an index, or a 
table of contents. Plates make great differences in the 
value of editions, and even in the value of copies of 
the same edition. In the beautifully en|;raved editioa 



954 



BIB 



of Horace by Pine, a small error in the first impressions 
serves as a test whctht-r any copy contains the l)est en- 
gravings of those elegant vigncUes which illustrate that 
edition. 

The first productions to which the name of books has 
been apphed, were printed, not with movable types, but 
from solid wooden blocks. These consisted of a few 
leaves only, on which were impressed images of saints 
and other historical pictures, with a text or a few ex- 
planatory lines. The ink was of a brownish hue, and 
glutinous quality, to prevent it from spreading. These 
are known by the name of Image Booh ^ or Block Books, 
and are generally supposed to have succeeded the earlier 
impressions for playing cards, which are dated back to 
theendof the i^ih century. Strictly sjx^aking, they were 
the immediate precursors, rather than the first hi)ccimens 
of typography ;in fact, they mark the transition to that art 
from engraving. Peignoi puts their numl)erat seven or 
eight, but others extended it to ten. They belong 
chiefly to the Low Countries, and were often reprinted, 
as is generally thought, during the first half of the 15th 
century, and, indeed, after tne discovery of printing, 
properly so called. One of the most celebrated is 
the Biblia Paiiperum^ consisting of forty leaves, 
printed on one side, so as to make twenty when pasted 
together, on which passages from Scripture are repre- 
sented by means of figures, with inscriptions. It ap- 
j)ears to have lieen originally intended for the use of 
those poor nersfms who could not afford to buy complete 
copies of the Bible. Some fugitive sheets still attest 
the primitive attempts at printing, in the modem sense 
of the word. The Letters of Indulgence of Pope Nich- 
olas v., two editions of which, on a small sheet of 
parchnient, were printed in 1454, fix the earliest period 
of the impression of metal types, with a date subjoined. 
The earliest known book, however, of any magnitude, 
and probably the first thus printed, was the undated 
editio frtncets of the Bible, commonly known as the 
Mazann Bible, from a copy having been found by De 
Bure in the Ubrary of the Cardinal, It is undated, but 
authorities generally concur in ascribing it to a period 
between 1450 and 1455. The work is usually mvided 
into two volumes, the first containing 324, and the 
second 317 pages, each page consisting of two columns. 
The characters, which are Gothic, are large and hand- 
some, and resemble manuscript. No fewer than twenty 
copies are known to be extant. The first printed book 
with a date is the Psalter of Faust and Schofler, printed 
at Mentz in 1457, as a somewhat pompous colophon an- 
noimces. It was found, in 1665, in the Castle of Am- 
bra-s near Innsbruck, where the Archduke Francis 
Sigismund had collected a quantity of MSS. and printed 
books, taken chiefly from the library of Corvinus. A 
few other copies are in existence, one of which was 
bought under Louis XVIII. for the Royal Library at 
Paris for the sum of 12,000 francs. Whether the types 
employed were wooden or metallic has been disputed 
between Van Praet and Didot. As a specimen of early 
printing the work is magnificent; it contains richly em- 
belUshS capitals in blue, red, and purple. 

The devices of the early printers are of importance to 
the bibliographer, since questions occur as to the early 
editions which can only be ascertained by discovering 
the printer^s name. The invention of marks or vig- 
nettes is ascribed by Lai re to Aldus ; he traces them to 
a Greek Psalter of^ 1495. A device, however, consist- 
ing of two shields occurs in Faust and Sch6ffer*8 Bible 
of 1462. They were not used by Ulric Zell, the first 
printer at Cologne, nor by the fathers of the Paris or 
Venetian presses. Monograms or ciphers were fre- 
ouently employed, with initial letters of names or other 
devices cunously interwoveoi and these famish a trust- 



worthy dtie to identity. The monogrfti&s of the Early 
English printers are explained in Ames's Typographical 
Antiquities. 

The branch which Ebert terms ** restricted " bibW- 
ranhy belongs neculiarlv to the book-collector and book- 
seller, if re^Lra be haa especially to the inclinatioiis of 
purchasers, the actual demand, and the nuurketaUe value 
of books. Rarity and price depend very ronch on each 
other ; rarity makes them dear, and harness makes 
them rare. Hallam asserts that the price of books vas 
reduced four-fifths bv the inventing of printing. From 
a letter of Andreas, bishop of Aleria, to (he )x>pe, in hL< 
preface to the Epistles of Jerome^ it would seem that 100 
golden crowns was the maximiun demanded for a valu- 
able MS., and that the first printed books were sold for 
about 4 golden crowns a volume. At any rate, one 
natural eflect of printing was to restrict the number of 
rare books to a separate class. Caillean, who has been 
followed by most other writers on this subject, distin« 
guishes between absolute and relative raritj. The for- 
mer term is applied to those books or editions of which 
only a small number has been printed. Such for the 
most part are works printed for private drcalation, as 
those of the Strawberry Hill Press, which are very 
scarce and enormously dear. M uch of the value attached 
to editions of the 15th century arises from the timitcd 
nomber of impressions. They were seklom more than 
300 ; John of Spira printed only 100 copies of his Pliny 
and Cicero ; and printers had the example of Sweyn- 
heim and Pannartz, who were reduced to poverty by 
their surplus copies, to avoid exceeding the current de- 
mand, suppressed works belong to the same category, 
in proportion to the success of prohibition. Others o«e 
their scarcity to accklental destruction ; as, for instance, 
the second volume of Hevelius*s Machina Ceelestis^ 
1679, which would have shared the fate of the remain- 
der of his works, on the burning of his house, had the 
author not previously given some copies to his friends. 
At the great fire of I^ndon in 1660 there were some 
works of Dugdale, among other writers, as well as the 
first volume of Prynne*s Records of the Tower^ of which 
only a few copies escaped; but their value has been 
reduced by subsequent impressions. The same kind 
of rarity attaches to Editions de luxe^ chiefly made for 
rich amateurs ; to large paper copies and //x// copies, %.<.% 
copies of a work published on paper of ordinary size and 
barely cut down by the binder ; and to books printed 
on colored paper. A list of the last-named is jgiven 
by Duclos and Cailleau, and reprinted by Home m his 
introduction to Bibliography, It includes an edition 
of Sterne's Sentimental Journey, three copies only of 
which were printed at Paris in 1802, on rose-colored 
paper, and the complete Works of Voltaire, edited bf 
beaumarchais (Kchl, 1785), twenty-five copies of which 
were struck off on blue paper, after some had been 
requested bv Frederick the Great for kis own use, on 
account of the weakness of his eyesight. Vellum cop*^ 
again, have been much prized by collectors. They 
belong to the early da^s of printing, especial^ to ihe 
AWine, Verard, and Giunti presses, and to those of the 
first English printers. Fe\v were made between the 
latter half ot the 16th and the beginning of the la^ 
century ; but the art was revived in France by Pidol 
and Bodoni, and the folio I/orace of 1799 by the former 
is a chef d^ceuvre of its kind. The Royal libraiy ^t 
Paris has a sumptuous collection of vellum copies 
which have been elaborately described by Van Pra^ 
At the sale of the McCarthy library, the PsaUtr v 
Fust and SchofTer on vellum was bought byLooi* 
XVIII. for 12,000 francs. Burton's Annim tf 
Melancholy, which fascii^ated Dr. Johnson^ 9 W 
instance of undeserved neglecU For a lony ttettf 



BIB 



9S5 



into disuse, and from being a waste-paper book, became 
extremely rare, uitil reprinted in recent times. 

In a literary sense, a book, to deserve the title of rare, 
should be a work of some merit, and not one whose 
obscurity is due to its worthlessness. Curious books, 
however, depend very much on the pleasure of the 
curious; ana the follies and caprice of collectors are 
summed up in the word Bibliomania, Some copies 
of TubcrviJle's Book of Huntings i6ii, were bouna in 
deer-skin; Mr. Jeffery, the bookseller, enclosed Mr. 
Fox's htftoncal works in fox's-skin ; and a story is told 
of Dr. Askew having caused a book to be bound in 
human skin, for the payment of which he was prose- 
cuted by the binder. German bibliographers reproach 
us with undue passion for book curiosities. Biblio' 
mania forms the title of an amusing work by Dr. 
Dtbdin, who, though accused of leaning to this weak- 
ness, knew well how to value the intelligent study of 
books. The practice was satirized as early as the time 
of Bnu[)dt,(see his Ship of Fools. ) It prevailed in Eng- 
land chiefly during last century, and reached its height at 
the sale of the duke of Roxhurghe*s library in 1812. 

Fortunately for the preservation of ancient literature, 
the discovery of printing coincided very closely with the 
full development of that zeal for classical learning, 
which had begun with the 15th century. To Italy be- 
longs the chief glory of first embodjring, in 2tn imperish- 
able form, those materials which the industry of roggio 
and others had rescued from the dust of monastic 
libraries. In rapid succession the first editions of 
the classics issued from Italian presses ; no less than 
fifty of these are enumerated by Panzer. Apuleius^ 
Aulus Gellius, Casar, Livy^ Lucan, Virgil^ and por- 
tions of Cicero^ were printed by Sweynheim and Pan- 
nartz at Rome before 1470 ; while the rival press of the 
Spiras at Venice boasted of Plautus, Tacitus^ Prisciaftt 
Sallusij Catullius, Tibullus, and Propertius. From 
Brescia came Lucretius^ from Vicenta, Claudian ; 
Ferrara and Naples gave birth to Martial and Seneca. 
In Germany, France, and the Low Countries, on the 
Other hand, the progress at first was slow. Few classics 
were printed out of Italy before 1480, or, indeed, until 
the last ten years of that century. The De Officiis of 
Cicero, it is true, had appeared at Mentz in 1465, — the 
first portion of any classical work committed to the 
press, unless precedence is given to the De Oratore of 
Sweynheim and Pannartz at Subiaco. But with that 
exception the first impressions of Terence and Valerius 
Maximus at Strasburg, and of Sallust^ and, perhaps, 
Florus at Paris, are all that Cisalpine presses contrib- 
uted of that kind within the period under review. 

Most of the Latin classics had appeared in print be- 
fore the art was employed on any Greek author. This 
was due rather to the want of acfequate editorship than 
to any indifference to Greek in Italy ; for the taste for 
that language had steadily increased since the arrival of 
the learned Greeks from Constantinople, and the want 
of printed editions became general before the close of 
the 15th century. To Aldus belongs the ^lory of min- 
istering to that desire, by publishing, in quick succession 
and with singular beauty and correctness, almost all the 
principal authors in that tongue. At Paris the first 
Greek press of importance was established in 1507 by 
Gourmont, but the days of its chief celebrity date from 
his successors, Colines and Stephens. Aldus, though 
the most prolific, was not the earliest Greek printer. 
The first entire work in that language was the Gram- 
mar of Constantine Lascaris, printed by Zarot at Milan 
in 1476. The absolute rarity of the first editions of the 
ckancs it is difficult to determine with precision. They 
have been much j^ed by collectors, especially during 



the last century, thotigji their price has fluctuated con* 
siderably at different times. 

Sets of the classics, more or less complete, have been 
published at different times, and for different purposes. 
Among the earliest and most important are the Delphin 
ediuons, prepared, by order of Louis XIV., at the iii-» 
stance of the duke de Montausier, for the use of the Dau^ 
phin. The duke had been in the habit of studying the 
classics on his campaigns, and the want of boolcs of ref- 
erence appears to have su^ested to him the idea of a 
uniform series of the principal classics, with explanatory 
notes and illustrative comments. On his becoming gov- 
ernor to the Dauphin, the scheme was carried into exe- 
cution; and Huet, bishop of Avranches, a preceptor of 
the prince, was entrusted with the choice of^authors and 
editors, and with the general supervision of the series. 
A list of the editors is given by Baillet in his Critiques 
Grammairiens. The collection, which, including Danet*s 
Dictionary of Antiquities^ extends to sixty-four volumes 
ciuarto,is of very unequal merit; but the copious verbal 
indices, which were added by the direction of Huet, af- 
ford a useful means of reference to particular passa^. 
Only Latin classics, however, are included in the series; 
and "it is remarkable,** as Dr. Aikin observes, "that 
Lucan is not amon^ the number. He was too much the 
poet of liberty to suit the age of Louis XIV. " The edi- 
tions most prized by collectors are the Elzevirs and the 
Foulises. The Elzevirs, or properly Elseviers, were a 
family of famous printers and booksellers at Amsterdam, 
no fewer than fifteen of whom carried on the business in 
succession from 1580 to 1712. Their Pliny {\^2>^\ Vir- 
gil {i(>2f>)i and Cicero {1642) f are the masterpieces of 
their press ; the last of the family brought out coitions in 
I2mo. and i6mo. 

Books of this class originate, generally speaking, 
either from the necessities or the caprice of authorship. 
Their number, however, has been such as to occupy, at 
an early time, the attenrion of bibliographers. In 1689 
appeared the Centuria plagiariorum et pseudonymorum 
of John Albert Fabricius, as well as a letter to Placcius 
from John Majrer, a clergyman of Hamburg, under 
the title — Disscrtatio Epistolica ad PlacciuMy qua 
anonymorum et pseudonymorum farrago exhibitur. 
The complete fruits of Plapcius's researches were pub- 
lished after his death in a folio volume at Hamburg in 
1708, by Matthew Dreyer, a lawyer of that city. The 
work was now entitled Theatrum Anonymorum et 
Pseudonymorum; and, besides an Introduction by Drwer 
and a life of Placcius by Fabricus, it contains, in an Ap- 
pendix, the before-notioed treatises of Geisler and Decker 
with the relative letters of Vindingius and Bayle, and 
the Dissertation of Mayer. This eleborate work con- 
tains notices of six thousand books or authors ; but it is 
ill-arranged and frequently inaccurate, besides being 
cumbered with citations and extracts, equally useless 
and fatiguing. 

The subject of false and fanciful names attached to 
books had been undertaken in France by Adrien Baillet, 
nearly about the same period that Placcius commenced 
his inquiries. In 1 690 tnis author published his Auteurs 
Di^uisis; but this is Httle more than an introduction to 
an intended catalogue which Baillet never completed, 
being deterred, as Niceron sa)rs, by the fear lest the ex- 
posure of concealed authors should in some way or 
other involve him in trouble. In this piece, which was 
reprinted in the sixth volume of De La Monnoye*s edi- 
tion of Baillet's yugemens des Savans, there are some 
curious literary anecdotes, especially with reference to 
the passion which prevailed after the revival of letters 
for assimiin g classic names. I n Italy thsttt names wtre 
so generally mtrodnced into fitmilies, ihtt thi n^uom •£ 
the saints, hitherto the commoivifippellatlvts, alftost 
Digitized by V^ 



9S6 



BIB 



disappeared from that cotmtry. A timiltr rage for 
assuming the names of celebrated authors was common 
. among 1* rench writers in the i8th century. 

Books supposed hurtful to the interests of govenmient» 
religion, or morality have been sometimes condemned to 
the flames, sometimes censured by particular tribunals, 
and sometimes suppressed. Such methods of destruc- 
tion have been followed in various countries, with rewd 
both to their own and to foreign productions ; and lists 
have been published from time to time of the works so 
interdicted. 

Heathen antiquity supplies some instances of the 
burning of obnoxious books, such as the reported de- 
struction of the works of Pythagoras at Athens, and of 
astrological works, as well as the writings of Labienus, 
by Augustus at Rome. Some Greek works, alleged to 
have been found in the tomb of Numa in i8i B.C., and 
ascribed to him, were burnt by order of the Senate; 
the stonr of their discovery, however, is a mere fabrica- 
tion. Tacitus mentions a Historv by Cremutius Cor- 
dus, which the Senate, to flatter Tlborius, condemned, 
because it designated C. Cassius the last of the Romans. 
Diocletian, according to Eusebius, caused the Scriptures 
to be burnt, but the early Christian Church was not 
slow in following the example of intolerance, and the 
charge of heresy was a resuiy instrument for putting 
down works alleged to be injurious to the faith. The 
first recorded instance is that of Arius, whose writings 
were condemned to the flames at the Council of Nicaea. 
Constantine himself threatening with death those who 
should harbor any copies. The same fate befell the 
works of Nestonus at the Council of Ephesus, and 
those of Eutyches at Chalcedon. Pagan works were 
prohibited at the Council of Carthage in 400. Aristotle 
was forbidden by the church in the 13th century, but the 
restriction was relaxed in favor of the universities by 
Pope Nicholas V. A list of prohibited books is found 
in a decree of a council at Rome as early as 494. But 
the chief rigors of persecution began with the Inguisi- 
tion, and the crusade against literature increased m se- 
verity with the multipucation of books through the 
press. In 1515 the Council of Lateran at Rome ap- 
pointed clerical censors to examine all works before 
publication, as if, to use Milton's indignant remonstrance, 
**St Peter had bequeathed to them the keys of the 
press as well as of Paradise." In 1543 Caraffa issued 
an order that no book should be printed without leave 
from the Inquisition, and booksellers were, accordingly, 
required to send in catalogues. Brunet mentions, how- 
ever, a list of prohibited authors, prepared by order of 
Charles V., wnich was printed at Brussels in 1540, and 
is the earliest of its kind. An Index generalis scriptO' 
rum interdictorum was published by tne Inquisition at 
Venice in 1543, and similar catalogues followed from 
the universities of Paris and Louvain. The first Index 
of the Court of Rome appeared in 1558, and was re- 
printed in 1^59' The subject was discussed at the 
Council of Trent, who delegated the right of supervision 
to the Pope, and the result was the Index Tridentinus 
of Pius IV., — the first strictly Papal Index, — 
which was printed by Aldus at Rome in 1564. Thence 
began a long series of literarjf proscriptions, which was 
continued by the Congregation of tne Index, and of 
which one of the immediate effects was to drive printing 
to Switzerland and Germany. The right of Rotating ' 
what books should or should not be reiul was a conse- 
quence of the claims of the Papacjr over the conscience 
and morals of mankind ; and tne vitality of persecution 
has been preserved within the Romish Church by the 
consistent exercise of such pretensions. The biblio- 
graphy of these Expurgatory Indices has been copiously 
treated. Ameng the, earlier victims were Galileo and 



Copemietis ; and English literature is represented \ff sacii 
names as Gibbon, Robertson, Bacon, HaHam, Milton, 
Locke, Whately, and J. Stuart Mill. In Spain the 

E>wer of the Inquisition, provoked by the invasion of 
utheranism, was wielded by Fernando de Vakles, 
whose catalogue of 1559 formed the model of that issued 
by Pius IV. m the same year. An edict of Philip l\, 
was published at Antwerp in 1570, and a general Index 
of alt books suppressed by royal authority am>eared at 
Madrid in 179a It is noticeable that Smithes Wealth 
of Nations tias been proscribed in that country, •'on 
account of the lowness of its style and the looseness of 
its morals.** A list of books suppressed in France 
between 18 14 and 1850 has been edited by Pillet. 

A comprdiensive account of works condemned or sup- 
pressed in England has yet to be written, but an artide 
m the Edinburgh Review supplies some interesting ma- 
terials on this subject Peacock's Precursor^ which 
the author burnt with his own hand, is an early in- 
stance before the invention of printing. The **war 
against books," however, began under Henry VIII., 
the suddenness of whose breach with Rome is shown 
by the circumstance that, whereas in 1526 anti-popeiy 
books were condemned as heretical, in 1535 all books 
favoring popery were decreed to be seditious. Several 
of the early translations of the Bible were suppressed,— 
Tyndall's version amon^ others. As many copies of 
tliat work as the supenor clergy could buy up, were 
publicly burnt at St. Paul's on Shrove Tuesday, 1527, 
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, preaching a sermon on the 
occasion. An edition of the Bible was suppressed for a 
misprint, the printer having omitted the word ** not" in 
the seventh commandment, but a copy survives in the 
Bodleian. A general burning of unlicensed books was 
ordered by the king in 1530, the Supplication of Beg- 
gars a well-known invective against Wolsey, being in- 
cluded in the list. 

This branch of bibliography has a peculiar interest to 
the literary historian. It serves to indicate, for the 
most part, periods of political excitement or religious 
intolerance. Fortunately, however, the efficacy of per- 
secution has been frustrated by the disseminating power 
of the press. 

The first catalogues, after the invention of printing. 
were those of the early printers, who, as booksellers, 
published sale-lists of tneir works, to attract the atten- 
tion of the learned. The most ancient of these eatale^ 
officinales ^Xhc humble predecessors of Bohn*s gigantic 
catalogue — is a simple leaf, entided Libri Grceci im- 
pressi^ printed by Aldus in 1498. The list consists of 
fourteen articles, distributed into five classes, — grammar, 
poetry, logic, philosophy, and theology, and may be re- 
gard«l as one of the first attempts to apply a system of 
classification to printed books. Its interest is enhanced 
by its containing the price of the books advertised for 
sale. The increasing commerce in literature was at 
once a cause and a consequence of similar catalogues; 
and the example of Aldus was followed by the StejSicns, 
and by Colines, Wechell, and Vascosan, and other 
French printers of the first half of the 1 6th century, 
whose lists are given in vols. ii. and iiL of Maittairrs 
Annates Typographiciy the divisions of subjects increas- 
ing with the spread of printed literature. In England 
the earliest known sale-list of printed books was piib- 
lished by Andrew Maun sell, a London bookseller, in 
1595, and contains the titles of many works now lost or 
forgotten. In 1554 or 1564 appeared the first printed 
catalogue of the Frankfort book -fair, published hf 
George Weller, a bookseller at Augsburg ; and in mt 
it was followed by the general Easter catalogue, priotoi 
by permission of the Government. 

The different methods, adopted £rom time 



Digitized by vjOO 



gl^ 



BIB 



957 



classing hooks according to their subject matter, has oc- 
casioned a variety of so-called syUems of bibliography, 
which it is important to notice, but which space forbids 
us to describe in detail A distinction must be ob- 
served between a scheme of arrangement applied -to a 
particular library, and limited therefore by its contents, 
and one which embraces in its divisions and subdivisions 
the entire range of literature. Nothing, on either head, 
is Icamt frotn the Greeks and Romans ; the classed 
catalogue of the library of St. Emmeran at Ratisbon, 
compi&d in 1347, and containing twelve divisions, is 
citeaas the earliest specimen of its kind. (See Libra- 
ries.) The most ancient system, in the wider sense of 
the term, is ascribed to the Chinese, who in the 13th 
century distributed the field of human knowledge into 
classes numbering from fourteen to twenty, with sec- 
tbnal subdivisions to each. 

In England the classification of learning has been 
treated as a branch of philosophy rather than of biblio- 
graphy. Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding 
contams, in book iv. c. 21, a •* Division of the Sciences ; " 
and Bentham has an '* Essay on Nomenclature and Clas- 
sification ^ in his Chrestomathia^ though it does not ap- 
pear that he intended it to applv to the distribution of 
books. Coleridge, in his Lniversal Dictionary of 
Knowledge^ 1817, aimed at combining th« advantages of 
a philosophical and alphabetical arrangement, and 
adopted four leading classes, viz., — pure science^ mixed 
sciences, history, and literature, mcluding philology. 
Lord Lindsay's Progression by Antagonism^ 1845, con- 
tains another method, based on his theory of the divi- 
sions of human thought. 

As regards works and collections which cannot with 
propriety be limited to any one division of knowledge. 
It would be advisable to refer them to an additional or 
miscellaneous class, as has, in fact, been done by some 
writers. Camus proposes to enter such work in the 
class in which their authors most excelled ; but this 
plan would obviously produce much confusion. While, 
however, a miscellaneous class might properly indicate 
the collective editions of an author's works, yet his 
separate treatises should be entered under the subjects 
to which they belong. A sjrstem of cross-reference is 
in man^ cases unavoklable, if completeness of general 
design is to be combined with the cardinal object of a 
classed catalogue, namelv, that of showing what has 
been written by the authors specified therein on the 
different branches of knowledge as they may be best 
arranged. 

It has been our object in this article to institute such 
a division of the subject, as should enable us to point 
put the best sources of information in regard to all 
its branches. Some works still remain to be noticed 
which treat generally of all matters relating to biblio- 
graphy, though their scope and purpose differ according 
to the view of the science adopted by the writer. A 
comprehensive and judicious digest of bibliographical 
lore is still wanted, but there are several works which 
may be consulted with advantage. Cailleau's Essai de 
bibliographies appended to his Dictionnaire of 1 790, is 
an interesting treatise. The Einleitung in dieBikher- 
kundt of M. Denis, 1 795-96, is an excellent work 
divided into two parts, the first of them relating to 
bibliographv, and the second to literary histoiy. The 
7>ai// Elementaire de Bibliographies by S. Boulard, 
I^aris, 1806, was intended to serve as an introduction to 
aU works on that subject written up to the date of its 
appearance. The labors of Peignot, besides his works 
on suppressed and rare books already noticed, include — 
(0» the Manuel BibltographiquCs ou Essai sur la 
fonnoissance des lii/res, des formats^ des iditionSy de la 
^anikre de composer une Bwliothiqtu etc, 1801 ; and (2) 



the Dictionnaire raisonni de Bihliologtes 2 Vols. 8vo, 1802 
The plan of this work, as Brunet admits, is well con- 
ceived, and furnishes a convenient mode of reference. 
Bibliography is certainly indebted to this industrious 
compiler, but his details have in many respects been 
rendered obsolete by subsequent research, and his 
vague notions of the scope and objects of his study have 
frequently led him into confusion and extravagance. A 
Afanuel du Bibliophile^ by the same author, appeared 
at Dijon in 1823. The Cours Elhnentaire de Dibluh- 
graphicy by C. F. Achard, Marseilles, 3 vols. 8vo, 1807, 
derives its chief value from its excellent summary of the 
different systems of classification applied to books. We 
learn from the introduction, that M. Fran9ois de Neuf- 
chateau, when Minister of the Interior, ordered the 
librarians of all the departments to deliver lectures on 
bibliography, but that the plan, which indeed appears 
fanciful, entirely failed, the librarians having been found 
quite incapable of prelecting upon their vocation. The 
introduction to the Study of Bibliographv ^ by Thos. 
Hartwell Home, 2 vols, in i, 8vo, Loncfon, 1814, is 
perhaps the most useful book of this kind in the English 
language, though the compiler would have done better 
to restrict himself to printed books, instead of ranging 
discursively over the whole field of MS. literature. His 
book is chieflv translated and compiled from French 
bibliographical works, and will be found useful to those 
who have not access to them. Besides some excellent 
specimens of earlv typography, it contains full lists of 
authorities on bibliography and literary history, and a 
copious account of hbraries both British and foreign. 
The Studio BibliographicOy by Vincenzo Mortillaro, 
Palermo, 1832, is an Italian treatise of considerable 
merit. P. Namur's Bibliographic palceographico-diplo' 
matico'bibliogiques Li^ge, l8j8, emoraces many subjects 
outside the province of bibliography proper. The 
Librarian'' s Manual^ by Reuben A. Guild, New York, 
1858, is a compendious book of reference for the stu- 
dent in search of authorities. Enough has been said to 
show that the different branches of bibliography have 
been treated with considerable industry ; but there is 
room for further effort, if bibliographers will recognize 
the chief value of their science as the handmakl of liter- 
ature. 

BIBULUS. The best-known of those who bore this 
surname, which belonged to the Gens Calpumia at 
Rome, was Marcus Calpumius Bibulus, elected consul 
with Julius Csesar, 59 B.c. He was the candidate put 
forward by the aristocratical party in opposition to L. 
Lucceius, who was of the party of Caesar ; and bribery 
was fi-eely used ( with the approval, says Suetonius, 0/ 
even the rigid Cato ) to secure his election. But he 
proved no match for his able colleague. He made an 
attempt to oppose the agrarian law introduced by Caesar 
for distributing the lan£ of Campania, but was over- 
powered and even personally ill-treated by the violence 
of the mob. After making vain complaints in the sen- 
ate, he shut himself up in his own nouse during the 
remaining eight montns of his consulship, taking no 
part in public business beyond fulminating edicts against 
Csesar's proceedings, which only provoked an attack 
upon his house by a mob of Ca?sar's partizans. When 
the interests of C?esar and Pompey became divided, 
Bibulus supported the latter, and joined in proposing his 
election as sole consul ( 52 B.C.) Next year he went to 
Syria as proconsul, and claimed credit for a victory 
gained by one of his officers over the Parthians, who 
had invaded the province, but which took place before 
his own arrival in the country. After the expiration of 
his government there, Pompey gave him the command 
of his fleet in the Ionian Sea. Here also he proved 
himself utterly incapable ; distinguishing himself chiefly 



958 



BIC 



by the crncl baming, with all their crews on board, of 
thirty transport vessels which hatl coiueycd Causar from 
Brundisium to the coast of Kpirits, and which he had 
captured on their return, having failed to prevent their 
passage. He died soon afterwards of fatigue and 
mortincation. I5y his wife I*ortia, daughter of Cato, 
afterwards married to Brutus, he had three sons. The 
two eldest were murdered in Kgypt by some of the 
soldiery of Gabinius ; the youngest, Lucius Calpumius 
Bibulus, fought on the side of the republic at the battle 
of Philippi, but surrendered to Antony soon after- 
wards, and was l)y him appointed to the command of 
his fleet, lie died while governor of Syria under 
Augustus. 

BICIIAT, MARiE-FRANgois Xavier, a celebrated 
French anatomist and physiologist, was bom at 
Thoirette in the dej^artment of Ain, in 1 77 1. His 
father, who was himself a physician, was his instructor. 
He entered the College of Mantua, and afterwards 
studied at Lyons. I n mathematics and physical sciences 
he made rapid profjress. Becoming passionately fond 
of natural history he ultimately devoted himself to the 
study of anatomy and surgery, under the guidance of 
Petit, chief surgeon to the Hdtcl Dieu at Lyons. He 
resumed for a time his early studies, restricting himself, 
however, within such limits as did not interfere with 
his medical pursuits. Petit soon discerned the superior 
talents of his pupil, and, although the latter had scarcely 
attained the age of twenty, employed him constantly as 
his assistant. The revolutionary disturbances compelled 
Bichat to fly to Lyons and take refuge in Paris about 
the end of the year 1793. He there became a pupil of 
the celebrated surgeon Desault. One day, volunteering 
to supply the place of an absent pupil who was to have 
recapitulated the lecture of the clay before, he acouitted 
himself so admirably that Desault was strongly im- 
pressed with his genius ; and from that time Bichat be- 
came an inmate of his house, and was treated as his 
adopted son. For two years he actively participated in 
all tne labors of Desault, prosecuting at the same time 
his own researches in anatomy and physiology. The 
sudden death of Desault in 1795 was a severe blow to 
Bichat. His first care was to acquit himself of the 
obligations he owed ii is benefactor, by contributing to 
the support of his widow and her son, and by conduc- 
ting to a close the fourth volume of Desault 's Journal 
de Chirurgie^ to which he added a biographical memoir 
of its author. His next object was to reunite and digest 
in one body the surgical doctrines which Desault had 
published in various periodical works. He was now at 
liberty to pursue the full bent of his genius, and, undis- 
turbed by the storms which agitated the political world, 
he directed his full attention to surgeiy, which it was 
then his design to practice. In 1 707 he began a course of 
anatomical demonstrations, and nis success encourged 
him to extend the plan of his lectures, and boldly to an- 
nounce a course of operative surgery. Bichat*s reputa- 
tion was now fully established, and he was ever after the 
favorite teacher with the Paris students. In the follow- 
ing year, 1 708, he gave, in addition to his course of 
anatomy ana operative surgery, a separate course of 
physiology. He had now scope in nis phjrsiological 
lectures (ox a fuller exposition of his original views on 
the animal economy, which excited much attention in 
the medical schools at Paris. Sketches of these doc- 
trines were given by him in three papers contained in 
the Memoirs of the Sociiti MiaicaU <P Emulation, 
The doctrines were afterwards more fully developed in 
his Traits snr Us Membranes^ which appeared in 1 800. 

Before Bichat had attained the age of eight-and- 
twenty he was appointed physician to tne HAtel Dieu, a 
situation which opened an immense field to his ardent 



spirit of isqniiy. In the investig&tkm of disetses k 
pursued the same method of observation and experiment 
which had characterized his researches in physiology. 
He learned their history by studying them at the bed- 
side of his patients, and by accurate dissection of their 
bodies after death. He engaged in a series of examisft- 
tions, with a view to ascertam the changes indiiccd in 
the various organs by disease, and in less tnannx montls 
he had opened above six hundred bodies. He was 
anxious also to determine, with more precision than had 
been attempted before, the effects of remedial agents, 
and instituted with this view a series of direct experi- 
ments on a very extensive scale. In this way he pro- 
cured a vast store of valuable materials for his coarse of 
lectures on the Materia Medica, the completion of whkh 
was prevented by his death ; but a great part of the 
facts were embodied in the inaugural dissertations of his 
pupils. Latterly, he also occupied himself with form- 
ing a new classification of diseases 

Bichat commenced a new work on anatomy, in which 
the organs were arranged according to his peculiar 
classification of their functions, under the title of 
Anatontie Descriptiva^ but he lived only to publish the 
first two volumes. It was continued on the same plan, 
and completed in five volumes by his assistants MM. 
Buisson and Roux. His death was occasioned by a fall 
from a staircase at the H6tel Dieu, which threw him 
into a fever. Exhausted by excessive labor, and en- 
feebled by constantly breathing fhe tainted air of the 
dissecting-room, he sank under the attack and died on 
22d July 1802, attended to the last by the widow of his 
benefactor, from whom he had never been separated. 
His funeral was attended by above six hundrea of his 
pupils,and by a large number of the physicians of Paris. 
His bust, together with that of Desault, was placed in 
the H6tel Dieu by order of Napoleon. 

BICYCLE. As the derivation of the term implies, 
the chief component parts of thb machine consists of two 
wheels. The word is applied to those two-wheeled 
machines which have been brought to their present 
state of perfection for human locomotion during the 
past 10 years. Shortly after the close of the great Con- 
tinental war in 18 15, the first bicycle was mtroduced 
into England from France. It was at the best an 
awkward aflair, composed of a couple of heavy wooden 
wheels of eoual diameter, one behind the other, and 
joined togetner by a' longitudinal bar on which the 
rkler's seat was fixed, the mode of propulsion being the 

Cushmg the feet against the ground. That such a cum- 
ersome method of locomotion soon died a natural 
death is not to be wondered at. For the next fifty 

J^ears no real progress was made, as various kinds of 
evers and other attempted appliances were found too 
intricate. In 1869 M. Michaux of Paris conceived the 
idea of making the front or driving wheel much larger 
than the hind wheel; and very soon afterwards, Mr. 
Magee, another Parisian, still further improved bicycles 
by making them entirely of steel and iron. The prin- 
ciple of crank action attached to revolving axles having 
also become developed, the pastime of bicycling was 
entirely revolutionized. India-rubber tyres and strong 
beaks were brought into requisition to relieve jolting; 
and now-a-days a crack racing bicycle with a driving- 
wheel from 55 to 60 inches diameter does not exceed 
50 pounds in weight, or about half the weight of one of 
the old wooden machines. Tricycles have been tried, 
but no great amount of speed will ever be got out « 
them until the friction and wei^ can be matenaBy 
reduced. 

The diameter of the front or driving whed of te 
modem bic3rcle varies from 2^ to 5 feet, acccidii^ to 
the length of the rider's legi. When it is mesnt lorsa^ 



BID — BIE 



959 



ingf, most of the component parts are lighter, and the 
rest for relieving the legs when going down hill is dis- 
pensed with. The rider sits astride a small saddle, and 
the motive power is obtained from the feet working the 
crank treadles attached to the revolving axle of the driv- 
ing-wheeL There being no lateral support to the ma- 
chine, the first thing to be learnt is balancing, after 
which it is best to begin riding down a gentle gradient 
without using the treadles. Steering, which is managed 
by a transverse handle attached to the driving-wheel 
and placed in front of the rider, should be mastered in 
the same manner, after which the feet and legs may be 
broug^ht into play on the treadles and speed gradually 
acquired. Falls are inevitable at first, and they are best 
avoided by slightly turning the driving-wheel in the di- 
rection the machine is inclining, not the contrary way. 
Care must be taken to keep allbearings, &c., oiled from 
time to time, in order to prevent friction and so lessen 
speed. With the exception of skating, bicycling is the 
ouickest means of locomotion that man possesses. A 
fair bicyclist can outstrip a horse in a day, whilst an ex- 
pert can do so in an hour. Bicycling has rapidly grown 
m favor during the past two years ; and lone tours are 
now made with the greatest ease. Where the roads are 
fairly level, and in a tolerably good state of repair, the 
bicycle is unsurpassed as a means of self-locomotion. In 
hilly and mountainous countries, where there are no 
made roads, or where they are much broken up and 
heavy, it is next to useless, although india-rubber tyres 
to a certain extent relieve thejolting over rough ground. 
Lightness, great strength, and the best of workmanship 
we necessary in the manufacture of bicycles in order to 
prevent serious accidents. It is in the two former re- 
quisites that steel and india-rubber have such an advan- 
tage over iron and wood. 

BIDA, an inland town of Africa, situated in about 
N. lat. 9° 5' and E. long. 6^ 5', sixteen miles N. of the 
River Niger or Quorra, and l)nng N.N.W. of the town 
of Egga. Bida^ which was visited by Dr. Blaikie in 
1862, is a large town, the capital of the kingdom of 
Nupe. 

BIDDLE, John, frequently called the father of 
English Unitarianism, was born in 161 5 at Wotton- 
under-E^ge in Gloucestershire. He graduated as bach- 
elor of arts in 1638 and as master in 1641, and was then 
appointed to the mastership of the free school in the city 
of Gloucester. While conducting this school in an 
admirable manner he diligently prosecuted his theologi- 
cal studies ; and the results he arrived at were of such a 
nature as to draw down u]>on him the reprobation of the 
civic authorities. He circulated privately a tract called 
Twelve Arguments draivn out of Scripture^ wherein 
ike commonly-received opinion touching the deity of the 
Holy Spirit is clearly and fully refuted; and towards 
the close of 1645 he was summoned before the f*arlia- 
mentary committee then sitting at Gloucester. By them 
he was committed to prison, though he was at tne time 
laboring under a dangerous fever. He was released on 
bail after an imprisonment of some duration, and was 
then called before the Parliament, which desired to 
inquire into his views. After tedious proceedings Biddle 
Was committed to custody, in which he remained for five 
years. During that time the Assembly of Divines at 
Westminster had discussed his opinions, and in defence 
he published his Twelve Arguments. The book was at 
once ordered by Parliament to be seized and burned ^y 
the hangman. Notwithstanding this, Biddle issued two 
tracts, one a Confession of Faith with regard to the 
Holy Trinity^ the other Testimonies of Innaus, <Sr»r. , 
concerning the one God and the Persons of the Holy 
Trinity. These were suppressed by Government, and 
the Assembly of Divines eagerly pressed for the passing 



of an Act by which heretics like Biddle could be put to 
death. This, however, was resisted by the army, and 
by many of the Independent Parliamentarians; and 
after the death of the king, Biddle was allowed to reside 
in Staffordshire under surveillance. In 1651 the general 
Act of Oblivion gave him complete freedom, and his 
adherents soon b^an the practice of meeting regularly 
for worship on Simdays. They were called BiddelUans, 
or Socinians, or Unitarians, the name which has now 
become associated with their opinions. Biddle was not 
left long in peace. He translated some Socinian books, 
among others the Life of Socinusy and published t>Vo 
catecmsms, which excited a fury of indignation against 
him. He was summoned before the Parliament and 
imprisoned. The dissolution of that body again set him 
at liberty for a short time, but he was presently brought 
up for some expressions used by him in a (uscussion 
with a Baptist clergyman. He was put upon trial, and 
was only rescued by Cromwell, who sent him out of the 
way to one of the Scilly Islands, and after three years 
released him. But in 1662 he was again arrested, and 
fined £100, As he was unable to pay this sum, he Mras 
at once committed to prison, where fever, caused by the 
pestilential atmosphere, carried him off on the 22d Sep- 
tember 1662. 

BIDDEFORD, an important town of Maine, in York 
County. It has a population of 10,000, and railroad 
and telegraph facilities. 

BIDEFORD, a municipal borough, market-town, and 
seaport, in the county of^ Devon, eight miles S. W. of 
Barnstable, with which it is connected by railway. 

BIDPAI, more commonly known under the cor- 
rupted name of Pilpay, is the supposed author of a 
famous collection of Hindu fables. Nothing is known 
of Bidpai beyond the name, which, indeed, occurs only 
in the Arabic version, but the history of the collectioa 
of stories is curiotis and interesting. The origin of them 
is undoubtedly to be found in the Pantcha Tantra^ or 
Five Sections, an extensive body of fables or apologues. 

BIEL (or in French Bienne), a town of the canton 
of Bern, in Switzerland, situated at the foot of the Tura 
Mountains, near the northern end of the lake to which 
it gives its name. Population, 81 13. 

BIEL, Gabriel, frequently but erroneously styled 
the last of the scholastics, was born at Spire about the 
middle of the 15th century. He held for some time a 
pastoral charge at Mainz, and afterwards removed to 
(jrach. On the foundation of the University of Tubingen 
in 1477 he was appointed to the professorship of theology, 
and was twite afterwards promoted to the dignity of rec- 
tor. Some years before Kb death, in 1495, he entered 
a religious fraternity. Biel was a follower of William of 
Occam, and professes only to develop systematically the 
principles of his master. 

BIELAU, frequently distinguished as Langen Bielau, 
the longest village in the Prussian monarchy. It is situ- 
ated in the government of Breslau in Silesia, on a tribu- 
tary of the Piela, and extends for a distance of rather 
more than four miles. 

BIELAYA TSERKOV (i.e.. White Church), a 
township of Russia, in the government of Kieff, 32 
miles S. S. W. of Vasilko, on the main road from Kiefif 
to the Crimea. 

BIELEFELD, a town in the Prussian province of 
Westphalia, the capital of a circle in the government of 
Minden. Jt is situated at the foot of the Osning, and 
consists of two portions, separated by the River Lutter, 
which were first united into one town in 152a 

BIELEFF, a town of Russia, in the government of 
Tula, and 82 miles from that city, on the left bank of 
the Oka. 

BIELGOROD (/.<'., White T/Jwn), a town of Russia, 
Digitized by V^ 



g6o 



BIE — BI J 



in the government of Karsk, 87 miles S.S.W. from that 
city, on the n^ht bank of the North Donetz, near the 
confluence of the Vizelka. 

BIKLITZ, a tt)wn of Austrian Silesia, in ,the circle 
of Tesclien, on the Biala River, a sub-tributary of the 
Vistula, and opposite the (jalician town of Biala, with 
which it is connected by a bridge. 

BIELLA, a town of Italy, in the province of No vara, 
38 miles N.K. of Turin, with which it is connected by 
rail. Population in 1870, 11,935. 

BIELOPOLI, a town in Russia in the government 
of Kharkoff, near the Vuira and Kriuga, 37 miles N.W. 
from the town of Sum. It was founded in 1672. A 
verv extensive trade in wheat, salted fish, salt, pitch, 
ana timber is carried on by the inhabitants, who num- 
ber upwards of 12,000. 

BIELOSTOK (in Polish Bialystok), a town of 
Russia, in the government of Grodno, 50 miles S.W. of 
Grodno on the River Biela, a tributary of the Suprasla. 
There is an important trade in grain, wood, and various 
industrial articles. In i860 the population was 16,544, 
no fewer than 11,288 being Jews. 

BIENHOA, the capital of one of the six provinces of 
Lower Cochin-Giina, situated about 20 mUes to the 
northwest of Saigon, on a canal that connects it with 
that city. It was captured by the French admiral 
Bonard m 1861, and is now one of the fortified posts in 
the French possessions. The population of the " In- 
spection" of Bienhoa is 19,26a 

BIEZHETZ, a town of Russia, in the government of 
Tver, and 181 miles from that city, situated on the right 
bank of the Mologa. 

BIGAMY, according to the statute now in force, is 
the offence committed by a person who " being married 
shall marry any other person during the life of the 
former husband or wife. '* 

BIGNON, Jerome, a French lawyer, was bom at 
Paris in 1589. He was uncommonly precocious, and 
under his father's tuition had acquired an immense mass 
of knowledge before he was ten years of age. In 1600 
was published a work by him entitled Chorographif^ ou 
Description de la Terre Sainte. The great reputation 
gained by this book introduced the author to Henry IV., 
who placed him for some time as a companion to the 
duke of Vendome, and afterward made him tutor to the 
Dauphin. In 1604 ^^ wrote his Discourse on the City 
0/ komCy and in the following year his Summary 
Treatise on the Election of the Pope. He then devoted 
himself to the study of law, wrote in 1610 a treatise on 
the precedency of the kings of France, which ^ave great 
satisfaction to Henry IV., and in 1 61 3 edited, with 
learned notes, the Formuite of the jurist Marculfe. In 
1620 he was made advocate-general to the grand coun- 
cil, and shortly afterwards a councillor of state, and in 
1626 he became advocate-general to the parliament of 
Paris. In 1641 he resigned his official dignity, and in 
1642 was appointed bv Richelieu to the charge of the 
royal library. He died in i6s6. 

BIGORDI, DoMENico. See Ghirlandajo. 

BIG RAPIDS, a railroad town of Mecosta County, 
Mich. It has a population of about 6,000 souls. 

BIJAINAGAR, or Bijanagar, an ancient city m the 
south of India, once the capital of a great Hindu em- 
pire, but now in ruins, situated on the south bank of the 
TumbhadrA River, directly opposite to Annagundi. 
The city has been enclosed with strong stone walls on 
the east side, and is bounded by the nver on the west, 
the circumference of the whole appearing to be about 
eipht miles. The streets of this city, from 30 to 40 yards 
wide, can be traced between the immense piles of rocks 
crowned with paeodas ; and one street yet remains 
perfect. The building of the metropolis was begun in 



1336. Between the kings of the principality, of whiA 
it was the capital, and the Mahometan sovereigns of i^ 
Deccan constant hostility was maintained. In 1564 
Rim R&J4, the king of Bijainagar, was totally over- 
thrown on the plains of Tehkota, by a combination of 
the four Mahometan sovereigns of the Deccan, who 
immediately nmrched to the metropolis, which they 
abandoned to pillage. From that time it has lain in 
ruins. 

BIJAPUR, or BijAiPUR, in Southern India, the an- 
cient capital of an independent sovereignty of the same 
name, and once an extensive, splendid, and opulent city, 
but now retaining only the vestiges of its former grand- 
eur. It is situated in a fertile plain, and b a place of 
great extent, consisting of three distinct portions — the 
citadel, the fort, and the remains of the aty. The cita- 
del, a mile in circuit, is a place of great strength, well 
built of the most massive materials, and encompassed by 
a ditch 100 yards wide, formerly supplied witn water, 
but now nearly filled up with rubbish, so that its original 
depth cannot be discovered. It was built in 1489, by 
Yusaf Adil Shdh, the founder of the dynasty of 
Bij&pur. The fort consists of a rampart flanked by 
numerous towers, a ditch, and a covered way. Its de- 
fenses, which are not less thansix miles in circumference, 
were completed by Ali Adil Shdh in 1566. Outside the 
fort are remains of a vast city, now for the most part in 
ruins, but the innumerable tombs, mosques, caravan- 
serais, and other edifices, which have resisted the havoc 
of time, afford abundant evidence of the ancient spl'm^ 
dor of the place. It is asserted by the natives xhat Bijd- 
pur contained, according to authentic records, 1600 
mosques and nearly 1,000,000 houses. The number of 
houses is certainly overrated ; that of the mosques, in 
the opinion of recent travellers, is no exaggeration. 
Several mosques and mausoleums, adorned with embel- 
lishments of Eastern architecture, are still to be seen in 
Bijapur. The fort in the interior is adorned with many 
of these edifices, in rather better preservation tlian die 
outworks. The mausoleum of Sultan Muhammad Shah 
is a plain building, 153 feet square, over which is reared 
a dome 1 1 7 feet in diameter at its greatest concavity, 
and called by the natives the grand cupola. The mosque 
and mausoleum of Ibrahim Adil Shan, king of Bijdpur, 
which was probably completed about the year 1620, is 
said to have cost /^ 1,700,000, and to have occupied thirty- 
six years in its construction. Among the curiosities of 
the capital is the celebrated monster gun, stated to be 
the Kirgest piece of cast brass ordnance in the world. It 
was captured from the king of Ahmadnagar by the king 
of Biiipur about the middle of the 17th century. An 
inscription on the gun recording that fact was erased by 
Aurangzeb, who substituted the present inscription, 
stating that he had conquered Bijdpur in 1685. The 
city is well watered, having, besides numerous wells, 
several rivulets running through it. 

The place, as already intimated, is rich in monuments 
of the bygone period when Bijdpur was the capital of a 
powerful and Nourishing Mahometan kingdom. Such 
traces of the i^ast it is always desirable to preserve to 
the greatest possible extent, as theyfumisn the best 
commentary upon the history of the times in which they 
were raised, and, indeed, constitute their history, so far 
as manners are concerned- It is fortunate that their 
value was duly appreciated by the late Rajd of Satari 
who took great pains to preserve them ; and that the 
British Government, participating in the same feeling 
has, since the country passed into its possession, mani* 
fested great zeal in rescuing these xnagnificient relics 
from the ravages of time. 

BIJNAUR, a district of British India, under ftft, 
Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Fwi^BCCIfife 



BIK — BIL 



961 



bounded on the N.E. brthe British district of Garhwal, 
on the E, and S.E. by the British district of Mor^ibdd, 
and on the W. by the British districts of Mirat, Muzaf- 
farnagar» and Ssuiiranpnr. The aspect of the countiy 
is generally a level plain, but the northern part of it 
rises towards the Him&layas, the greatest elevation be- 
ing 1342 feet above the sea-level. The Koh and R4m- 
gangi are the only streams that flow through the dis- 
trict. 

Until the latter part of the i8th century Biinaur be- 
longed to the brave Rohilla Afghans, whose subjugation 
forms so deep a blot on the career of Warren Hastings. 
In 1774 the mercenary arms of Britain subjected this 
people to the oppressive rule of the Nawdb of Oudh, 
who in turn ceded the district to the East India Com- 
pany in 1802. 

BIKANIR, a native state of Rdjputini, under the 
political superintendence of the British Government, is 
bounded on the N. by the Panidb, on the E. by the 
British districts of Haridnd ana Shekdwati, on the S. 
by the native state of Jodhpur or Mdrwdr, and on the 
W. by the native states of Jasalm^r and Bhdwalpur. 
Length of the state from E. to W. 200 miles ; breadth, 
160 miles; area, 1 7,676 square miles. The inhabitants 
are very poor. They live chiefly by pasturage, — rear- 
ing camels, and horses of a fine breed, which fetch good 
pnces. From the wool which their sheep yield they 
manufacture every article of native dress and good 
blankets. The other industries are leather work, sugar 
refining, goldsmith's work, iron, brass, copper, stone 
masonry, tanning, weaving, dyeing, and carpentry. 

BILASPUR, a district of British India, in theCen- 
tral Provinces, forms the northern section of the Chhat- 
tisgarh plateau, and is bounded on the N. by the native 
states of Rewd and Korid ; on the E. by the Udaipur 
tributary state of Chhotd Nagpur, and the district of 
Sambalpur ; on the S. by the Rdipur district ; and on 
the W. by th« hilly tracts of Mandld and Bdldghdt. 
Extreme length of the district north and south, 106 
miles ; extreme breadth from east to west, 136 miles ; 
area, 7798 square miles. The Mahdnadi is the prin- 
cipal river of the district, and governs the whole drain- 
age and river S3rstem of the surrounding country. 
Among the Hindus, the Chdmdrs and Pankds deserve 
particular notice. The former, who form the shoe- 
maker and leather-dealing caste of the Hindu commu- 
nity, had alwa3rs been held in utter contempt by the 
other Hindu castes. But between 1820 and 1830 a 
religious movement, having for its object their freedom 
from the trammels of caste, was inaugurated by a mem- 
ber of the caste, named Ghdsi Dds, who preached the 
unity of God and the equality of men. Ghdsl Dds gave 
himself out as a messenger of God ; he prohibited the 
adoration of idols, and enjoined the worship of the 
Supreme Being without any visible sign or representa- 
tion. The followers of the new feith call themselves 
Satndmis, or the worshippers of Saindm or God. 
They do not keep the Hindu festivals, and they defy 
the contempt of the Brahmans. Ghdsi Das, the founder 
of the faith, was their first high priest. He died in 
1850; his son succeeded him, out was assasinated (it 
was said by the Hindus), and the grandson b the pres- 
ent high priest. 

.The early history of the district is very obscure. 
From remote ages it was governed by kings of the Hai- 
hai dynasty, known as the Chhatiisgarh Kdjds, on ac- 
count of thirty-six forts, of which they were the lords. 
A genealogical list of the kings of this dynasty has 
been carefully kept up to the fifty-fifth representative 
in the year 1740, when the country was seized without 
ftstrucgle by the Marhattds of N^ur, From 1818 to 



1830 Bildspur came tinder the management the Brit- 
ish Government, the Marhattd chief of Ndgpur being 
then a minor. In 1854 the country fmally lapsed to the 
British Government, the chief having died without issue. 
During the Sepoy mutiny a hill chief of the district 
gave some trouble, but he was speedily captured and 
executed. 

BiuisPUR, the chief town of the district of the same 
name, is situated on the south bank of the River Arpd. 
It is said to have been founded by a fisherwoman, 
named Bildsa, three hundred years ago, and still retains 
her name. The place, however, came to note only 
about one hundred years ago, when a Marhattd official 
took up his abode there, and began to build a fort 
which was never completed. In 1862 it was made the 
headnuarters of the district, and is now a rising town. 

BILBAO, one of the principal cities of Spain, and 
capital of the province to which it gives its name, is 
situated in a small but beautiful fertile valley, bounded 
on three sides by mountains, about six miles from the 
sea, on the banks of the River Ansa, which is also 
known as the Nervion, or, in Basque, as the Ibaizabal. 
The old town lies on the left bank, while the new town, 
which is by far the more important, rises on the right in 
handsome terraces. Population, 17,649. Bilbao, or 
Belvao, was founded about 1300 by Don Pedro Lopez 
de Haro, and soon rose into importance. It was cap- 
tured by the French in 1795, and was again held by 
them from 1808 to 1813. During the Carfist contest it 
was gallantly defen(^ against Zumalacarregui in 1835. 

BILDERDI IK, Willem, a modem Dutch poet, by 
some considered to be the most eminent that his country 
has produced, was bom at Amsterdam in 17^6. In 
1776, after completing a wide course of study at Leyden 
Uriiversity, he gained the prize from the Leyden Society 
of Art for his poem on the Influence of Poetry on States 
and Governments. In the following year he gained 
another prize for his poem Love of Father landy and in 
1779 he translated the (Edipus 7jKra«««j of Sophocles. 
In 1786 he left Holland on account of the disturbed 
state of public affairs, and after residing some time in 
Germany crossed to England, where he remained till 
1806. Returning then to his native country he was re- 
ceived with great favor by the new king Louis Napo- 
leon, who made him president of the recently founded 
Institute of Holland. He died on the i8th December 
18^1. 

BILE. See Physiology. • 

BILFINGER, George Bernhard, was bora on the 
23d January 1693, at Cannstadt in WUrtemberg. His 
father was a Lutheran minister. By a singularity of 
constitution, hereditary in his family, ^ilfingercame into 
the world with twelve fingers and as many toes. From 
his earliest years he showed the greatest inclination to 
learning. He studied in the schools of Blaubeuern and 
Bol>enhausen, and afterwards entered the theological 
seminary of Tiibingen. The works of Wolff, which he 
studied in order to learn mathematics, soon inspired 
him with a taste for the Wolffian philosophy and that of 
Liebnitz, — a passion which made him neglect for some 
time his other studies. Returning to theology, he 
wished at least to try to connect it with his favorite sci- 
ence of philosophy ; and in this spirit he composed the 
treatise entitled Dilucidationes Philosophicay De Deo, 
Anima Humana^ Mundo^ &c. This work, containing 
nothing original, but giving an admirably clear represen- 
tation of WolfTs philosophy, met with great success, and 
contributed to the advancement of the author, who was 
appointed soon after to the office of preacher at the cas- 
tle of Tiibingen, and of reader in the school of theology. 
He soon after left for Halle, in order to attend the lec- 
tures of Wolff i and, after two years of study, returned 



962 



BIL 



to Tubingen, mhen the WolfTin philosophy wm not vet 
In fmvor. He fo^jid his protectors there cooled, saw nis 
lectures deserted, and perceived himself shunned, from 
the dislike of his new aoctrines ; his ecclesiastical views 
also sufiered from the same cause. By the intervention 
of Wolffhe received an invitation to St Petersburg, where 
Peter I. wished to appoint him professor of loeic and 
metaphysics, and member of his new academy. He was 
received in that city, where he arrived in 1725, with the 
consideration due to his abilities. The Academy of Sci- 
ences of Paris having proposed about this time the fam- 
ous problem on the cause of cravity, Bilfinger gained the 
prize, which was a thousand crowns. His reputation 
was so much increased by this success that he was al- 
most immediately recalled to his native country, by the 
Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Wiirtemberg. He quitted 
St. Petersburg in I73i,andin 1735 the Duke Charles 
Alexander appointed him privy councillor. After care- 
ful preparation Bilfinger entered on the duties of his new 
office, and soon approved himself one of the best and 
most enlightened ministers that his country had yet pro- 
duced. Under his wise administration the commerce, 
public instruction, and agriculture of Wiirtemberg flour- 
ished, and the state was raised to a position it had not 
. before attained. Bilfinger died at Stuttgart on the 1 8th 
February 175a 

BILL means generally a statement in writing, and is 
derived from the Latin 6it//a. The word is used in a 
great many special applications. 

Bill, in Congress, is a form of statute submitted to 
either House, which, after passing both Houses and re- 
ceiving the assent of the President, becomes an Act. 

A Bill of Exchange is defined as ** an uncondi- 
tional written order from A to B, directing B to pay to 
C a certain sum of money therein named. ** A is called 
the drawer, B the drawee, andC the payee. When the 
drawer has undertaken to pay the bill he is called the 
acceptor. Contrary to the general rule in the law of 
England the benefit of a contract arising on a bill of ex- 
change is assignable, and consideration will be presumed 
unless the contrary appear. Bills of exchange are be- 
lieved to have been in use in the 14th century, but the 
first recorded decision of an English court regarding 
them occurs in the reign of James 1. The courts long 
regarded them with jealousy as an exception to thecom- 
mon law, and restricted their use to the cla*is of mer- 
chants, but their obvious utility overcame the scruples 
of the judges. The law on this subject lias been evoived 
in a long series of judicial decisions. The followmg are 
a few of its leading principles : — A bill to be transfer- 
able must contain a direction to the order of the payee 
or to bearer. If payable to order it must be transferred 
by endorsement ; but if to bearer, it may be transferred 
by mere delivery. A blank endorsement (^.^., the 
mere signature of the endorser) makes the bill payable 
to bearer ; a special endorsement directs payment to a 
person named, or his order. Eveiy endorser of a bill . 
IS in effect a new drawer, and is liable to every succeed- 
ing holder in default of acceptance or payment. Just as 
the original drawer contracts to pay the payee, if the 
acceptor do not, so the endorser contracts that, if the 
drawer shall not pay the bill, he, on receiving due notice 
of the bill being dishonored, will pay the holder what the 
drawee ought to have paid. An endorsement is held to 
admit " the signature and capacity of every prior party," 
and an endorser, in default of acceptance or payment, has 
a right of action against all those whose names were on 
the bill when it was endorsed to him. When a bill is 
transferred by delivery without endorsement it is gener- 
ally regarded as sold, and the instrument is taken with 
all its risks. There are, however, some exceptions to 
this rule, as in the case of payment by bill for the pre- 



cedent debt, ftc, and the transfeier wQI be lield le- 
sponsible if he knows at the time of sale that the biOs 
are good for nothing. When a bill is payable xq bearer 
it circulates like money, and the bona juie possessor is 
considered the true owner. Bills should l^e presented 
as soon as possible to the drawer or h»s agent for accept- 
ance, which must be in writing on the bill. They shouki 
be presented for |Miyment at the proper time, and the 
laws of commercial countries u'^llally allow three days^f 
grace after the day on which the bill becomes due. If 
the bill is not duly presented by the holder, the antece- 
dent parties are relieved from liability. If the bill is 
not accepted, or after acceptance not paid, the holder 
must give notice of dishonor to the antecedent parties 
within a reasonable time, otherwise their liability will 
be discharged. When a foreign bill is dishonored the 
custom of merchants requires that it should be pro- 
tested. The protest is a solemn declaration by a notaiy 
written under a copy of the bill that payment or accept- 
ance has been demanded and refused. Bills and notes, 
by the usage of trade, carry interest from the date <rf 
maturity. If in an action on a bill it turn out that the 
bill has been lost, the action may still be maintained pro- 
vided that an indemnity is given against the claims of 
other persons upon the instrument. Unless the defend- 
ant has obtained leave to appear and has appeared to 
the action, the plaintiff" may sign final judgment for the 
amount with costs. The defendant, if he wishes to de- 
fend the action, must pay the money into court or show 
by affidavit such facts as may be sufficient to induce the 
judge to give him leave. 

Foreign Bills (as distinguished from Inland Bilk) 
are bills drawn or pajrable abroad. Foreign bills are 
usually drawn in sets or parts, each containing a con- 
dition to be payable only so long as the others continue 
unpaid. 

When a bill is accepted by the drawee without con- 
sideration, and merely in order that the drawer may be 
able to raise money upon it, it is called an accomodation 
bill. Both parties are liable to the holder ; but as be- 
tween themselves, the drawer is the principal and the 
acceptor a sort of surety. When acceptance has been 
refused and the bill protested, a stranger may accept it 
" supra protest^ in honor of a drawer or endorser. " The 
effect of this is to render the acceptor liable if the 
drawer does not pay, and the party for whose honor it 
was made, and parties antecedent to him, become liable 
to the acceptor. Payment for the honor of one of the 
parties may likewise l>e made by a mere stranger when 
a bill has been protested for non-payment, who there- 
upon acquires a claim against such person and all those 
to wjiom he could have resorted. 

The negotiability of promissory notes and bank 
cheques b for the most part regulated by the same 
principles as bills of exchange. A promissory note is 
a " promise in writing to pay a specified sum at a time 
therein limited, to a jierson therein named or his order 
or to bearer. " Cheques which are inland bills of ex- 
change drawn on a banker have become subject to cer- 
tain j>eculiar usages. See Exchange. 

A Bill of Lading is a document signed by the mas- 
ter of a general ship and delivered to the owners of 
goods conveyed therem. It is usually made out in sev- 
eral parts or copies, of which the snipper retiuns one 
and sends one or more to the consignee, while the inasi 
ter keeps one for his own guidance. 

A Bill of Sale is an assignment of personal prop- 
erty. It is frequently made by way of security, toe 
property remaining in possession of the vendor. TV 
usage as to commercial bills in the United States varid 
by statute in the different States. 

BILLETING. The l^w ^ to billeting soi$0|J 



BIL 



963 



Great Britain is regulated by the provisions of the An- 
noft] Mutiny Act Constables of parishes and places, 
pdioe officers, high constables, ana other chief officers 
and magistrates may billet officers and soldiers on actual 
service, with their horses and baggraee, in victualhng 
house, inn, hotel, livery stable, aTe-noase, or in the 
house of any seller of wine by retail to be drunk in such 
house, or the houses of persons selling brandy, spirits, 
stroi^ waters, cider, or metheglin by retail; but no officer 
or soMier shall be billeted in any private houses, or in 
any canteen under the authority of the War Depart- 
ment, nor on persons keeping taverns only being vint- 
ners of the city of London, nor on distillers, nor on shop- 
keepers whose principal dealing is more in other goods 
than in brandy and strong waters, so as such distillers 
and shopkeepers do not permit tippling in such houses. 
BILLIARDS is a well-known indoor game of skill, 
played on a rectangular table with ivory balls, which 
are driven by means of an ash rod or stick called a 
** cue," iptp pockets and against each other according 
to certain defined rules. Of the origin of billiards 
comparatively little is known — some considering that 
the game was invented by the French, and others that 
it was improved by them out of an ancient German 
diversion. Even the French themselves are doubtful 
on the point, some of dieir writers ascribing the game to 
.the English. 

BouiSet ss^ — ** Billiards appear to be derived from 
the game of bowls. It was anciently known in England, 
where, perhaps, it ;was invented. It was brought into 
France oy Louis XIV., whose physician recommended 
this exercise. *• In another woric we read — "It would 
seem that the game was invented in England." Strutt, 
a rather donbtful authority, considers it probable that it 
was the ancient game of Paille-maille on a table instead 
of on the ground or floor, — an improvement, he says, 
** whkh answered two good purposes : it precluded the 
necessity of the player to kneel or stoop exceedingly 
when he struck the bowl, and accommodated the game 
to the limits of a chamber.** 

TAf Cu€. — The strokes are all made with a cue, 
which is a long stick of ash, or other hard wood, gradu- 
ally tapering to the end, which is tipped with leather 
and rubbed with chalk to prevent it slipping off the sur- 
face of the ball struck. The mace or hammer-headed 
cue, once common, is no longer used, even by ladies. 
The cue is taken in the right hand, generally oetween 
the fingers and thumb, and not grasped in the palm; 
and with the left hand the player makes a bridge, by 
resting the wrist and the tips of the fingers on the table, 
arching the latter, and extending the thumb in such a 
way as to allow apassage in which the cue may slide. 

The Table, — The sluipe of the table has varied from 
time to time. At first it was square, with a hole or 
pocket at each comer to receive the balls driven for- 
ward with a cue or mace; then it was lengthened and 
Cvided with two other pockets; and occasionally it 
been made round, oval, triangular, or octagonal, 
with or without pockets, according to the game re- 
quired. It is covered by a fine green cloth, and sur- 
rounded by elastic india-rubber cushions. The table 
")ust be perfectly level and sufficiently firm to prevent 
^bration; and its usual height from the floor to the sor- 
^ce is three feet. 

. The game, as played in America, has taken a distinc- 
• ^'ve character, both in regard to the manner in which, 
^ the tables on which, it is played. The older Ameri- 
^ game was the four-ball game (now rarely played 
Of experts), and it was at first played on a six -pocket 
^hle, after the English pattern, and then on a four-pocket 
^hle, and finally on a pocketless table. Formerly the 
caroms were oombinea with winning hazards, losing 



hazards counting against the player. Caroms and 
hazards counted two and three points respectively; 
but latterly, since the abolition of pockets, the points of 
the game number usually thirty-four, each carom uni- 
formly counting one. At the commencement of the 
game the players " string for lead,** which is done by 
each simultaneously driving his ball against the bottom 
cushion, the ball approaching and rchiing nearer to the 
head cushion on the rebound deciding the winner, both 
as to choice of balls and order of play. If the striker 
fail to hit any ball with his ball he forfeits one to the 
opposing side, or if he drive his cue ball off" the table he 
forfeits three, If, however, the player's ball be in con- 
tact (" froze ") with another ball at the time he makes 
a stroke, he does not forfeit if he fail to strike some 
other ball. Foul strokes are made when one player 
plays another's ball; when he plays at a ball in motion; 
when a player does not withdraw his cue from his ball 
before tnat ball comes in contact with another; when 
a stroke is made while the red ball is ofi" the table and 
its spot is unoccupied; when a player in making a shot 
touches his cue-ball twice; when a player in any way 
obstructs the motion of a ball; when a player has not 
at least one foot on the floor while making a shot; 
when a player does not cause a ball in hand to pass out- 
side the strmg before touching an object ball or a cush- 
ion, except when an object ball lies partly outside and 
partly inside the string; when a player plays directly at 
a ball inside the string; when a miss is given inside the 
string when a player is in hand; when a player at 
some one's suggestion alters his intended stroke. 

The three-ball game is played with three balls, two 
white and one red. The table has three spots, one in 
center and one each at head and foot of table. The 
spot at head of table is called the white spot and the one 
at foot the red spot; the center spot being used only 
when a ball is forced off* the table and the two other 
spots are occupied. The e^ame is begun by stringing 
for lead as alreadv described in the four-ball game. 
Should the first player fail to count, his opponent can 
plajj at either ball on the table. A carom consists in 
hittmg both object balls with the cue ball. Each carom 
scores one. Each miss forfeits one to the opposite 
side. If a ball jump off* the table after counting, the 
count is good and the ball must be spotted. The foul 
strokes are about the same as have teen given above. 
When the cue ball is in contact with another the balls 
are respotted and the player plays ball in hand as at the 
commencement of the game. The object balls are con- 
sidered crotched when they lie within a four and one- 
half inch s(^uare at either corner of the table. When 
in such position three counts only will be allowed unless 
one or both the object balls be forced out of the square. 
The crotch has at times on special occasions been en- 
larged to restrict rail play, but such enlargement is not 
generally accepted. The cushion carom game is a 
highly scientific play, it bein^ necessary to a successful 
carom that the cue ball shall, m the course of the stroke, 
strike not only both object balls, but ^he cushion as 
well. The balk line is another limitation which has 
been imposed on the older game; in this form of the 
game a balk line either eight or fourteen inches from the 
rail is established, and the player is compelled- to drive 
one or both object balls outside the line in order to 
count. The points of the game are usually thirty-four, 
fifty or one hundred. In match games various handi- 
caps are agreed on, but the social game is generally 
pl^ed as above described. 

In the English game the object of the player is to 
drive one or other of the balls into one or other of the 
pockets, or to cause the striker's baU to come into suc- 
cessive contact with two otb^r balls. The one strpkc 



964 



. BIL— BIN 



b known ts a haztid, the other ts a cannon (or carom); 
and from hazards and cannons, together with misses, 
forfeitures and foul strvjkes, are reckoned the fK)ints of 
the pamc. When the ball is forced into a pocket the 
stroke is called a winnintj hazard ; when the striker's 
ball falls into a p<K:ket after contact with the ol)iect ball, 
the stroke is a losint^ liazard ; an<i these ha/ards count 
two or three to the player's sore acccmlinj^ as they are 
made from the white or the red ball — two points for 
the white, three for the red. Two points are scored for 
the cannon, three for a coup — a term useti when the 
player's l)all runs into a pocket without striking a Imll ; 
and one point for a miss, whether given purposely or 
accidentally. 

The princi|)al modifications of this game are the four- 
handed game, which is ordinary billiards by four players 
in sides of two, each player being allowed to instruct 
his partner; ^ la rovale, or the game of three; the 
white winning game, consisting entirely of winning haz- 
ards ; the white losing game ; the red winning game ; 
the red losing game ; the cannon game ; and the Amer- 
ican game. 

/^nj«*</j' (American fifteen -ball pool) is played by two 
or 'more persons — usually each player for himself. 
It is played with fifteen balls, placed close together 
in the form of a triangle or pyramki, with the apex 
toward the player, and a white striking ball. The 
object of the players is to drive a majority of the balls 
into the pockets of the table, and each one is generally 
required to name the pocket into which he intends the 
ball to go. Failing in this, he loses his shot, and he 
forfeits one if his cue ball goes into a pocket; if the 
object ball goes into any otner than the pocket. named 
he does not score. In another form of the game the 
balls are all numbered, from one to fifteen, and tne player 
whose added ball-numbers foot up the highest total 
is the winner — thus it may happen that a minority of 
balls may win. In this game tne sum of three is de- 
ducted from the player's score who pockets the cue ball. 

Pool^ an English game, played by two or more per- 
sons, consists entirely of wmnmg hazards. Elach player 
subscribes a certain stake to form the pool, and at start- 
ing has three chances or lives. He is then provided 
with a colored or numbered ball, and the game com- 
mences thus: — The white ball is placed on the spot, and 
the red is played at it from the balk semicircle. If the 
player pockets the white he receives the price of a life 
from the owner of the white; but if he fails, the next 
player, the yellow, plays on the red; and so on altern- 
ately till all have played, or till a ball be pocketed. 
When a ball is pocketed, the striker plays on the ball 
nearest his own, and continues as long as he can score. 

Pin Pool is played with two (or four) white balls and 
one red ball, together with five small pins, each pin hav- 
ing a number — ranging from one to five. At the begin- 
ning of the play each player receives from the marker a 
ball drawn at random, which marks his order of playing. 
The object of the game is to knock down the pins after 
striking a ball, and to do this in such a manner that the 
numbers of the pins knocked down, added together, 
shall form, in addition to the private number which the 
player drew in the beginning of the game, the sum 
thirty-one. This gives such player the game. But if he 
exceed thirty-one he "bursts," and must commence 
again or drop out of the game. He must score thirty- 
one — no more or less. 

BILLITON, or Blitong, an island of the East In- 
dies, belonging to the Dutch, situated between Sumatra 
and Borneo, in lat. 3° S. and long. 108° E. It is of a 
circular form, about 50 miles in length by 45 in breadth; 
and has an area, according to Melvill van Carnb^, 
of 2500 sc^uare miles. 



BILMA, or Kawar, a town !■ tlie heart of ^ 
African desert^ and the capital of the wandering tnbe 
calkxl the Tibboos. The place is mean and pour, su- 
rounded with a mud walL 

BILSA, a town of Hindustin, in the territory of^ 
Gwdlior or the possessions of Sindhii, situated on the 
Ik-twd River. It is enclosed with a stone wiH, aodi 
defended by square towers and a ditch. 

BILSTOK, formerly Bii-SRETON, a market toimof; 
England, in the county of Stafford, 1% miles S.E.of 
Wolverhampton, indebted for its importance to the iron 
trade, which it carries on in various departments. 

BIN(;EN, the ancient Bin^um^ a town of the 
grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, in the jMtmnoe of 
Rhenish Hesse, 15 miles W. of Mentz. It issitoaird 
almost opposite Riidesheim, on the left bank of the 
Rhine, at the confluence of the Nahe (or A^irtw), whidi 
is crossed near its mouth by an iron railway bridge rest 
ing on old Roman foundations. A considerable trade; 
is carried on in wine, grain, and cattle; ami tobacco, 
starch, and leather are manufactured. A short wsjr 
down the Rhine is the Bingerloch, a famous whiripool 
the dangers of which were almost removed by blastii^ 
undei taken by the Prussian Government in 1834; wfaOe 
about half-way between it and the town rises on a rock, 
in the middle of the stream, the tower of Bishop Hatto. 
On a height immediately to the south-east is the mined 
castle of Klopp, originally founded by Drusus, and ' 
higher still on tne Rochusbcrg the celebrated chapel of " 
St. Roch. Population 5938. 

BINGHAMTON, the capital of Broome county, 
N. Y., is situated on the Susquehanna river, near the 
mouth of the Chenango river, also on the Susquehanna "1 
division of the Delaware and Hudson canal, Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western, and the New York, Lake I 
Erie and Western roads, and on the Clienango ctnL 
It contains a dozen churches, seven banks, tluee^Sj 
and five weekly papers, a high school, the Dean coOfige, 
a Catholic academy, etc, and is the location of the New 
York State Inebriate Asylum, which occupies a masht 
structure of brick and stone. The manufactures in- 
clude cigars, steam engines, machinery, scales, iron- 
work, oik, leather and leather goods, sash, doors and 
blinds, planed lumber, etc. The population in 1890 was 
estimated at 30,cxx>. 

BINGHAM, Joseph, a learned scholar and divine, 
was bom at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, England, in Sep- 
tember, 1668. He was educated at University College, 
Oxford, of which he was made fellow in 1689, and 
college tutor in 1691. He died August 17, 1723. 

BINGLEY, a thriving market-town in the West 
Rkiing of Yorkshire, on the River Aire, 5^ miles from 
Bradford, on the Midland Railway. 

BINNEY, Thomas, an English Nonconformist 
divine, was bom at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1798, and 
died Febroary 24, 1874- After spending seven years in 
the employment of a bookseller he ent^ed the theolog- 
ical college of Wymondley, Herts, with the view of 
studying for the minbtry. His first pastoral charge 
was that of the Congregational church at Newport, Wc 
of Wight, to which he was inducted in 1824. Five 
years later — in 1829 — he accepted a call to the historic 
Weigh House chapel, London. Here he at once cstab* 
lish^ what proved to be a lasting popularity, and it was 
found necessary to build a muoi larger place of wor- 
ship on Fish Street Hill, to which the congregation le* 
moved in 1834. His liberality of view and breadth of 
ecclesiastical sympathy entitle him to rank on qnestiov 
of Nonconformity among the most distinguisbcKl of-lfte 
school of Richard Baxter. Accordingly, in his Ws 
years he was not only recognized by general conacali^ 
the foremost name among all sections of Fiiym|||^ 



BIN — BIO 



965 



c«nformists, but maintained friendly relations with many 
of the leading di^itaries of the Established Church. A 
manly, vigorous intellect, fearless independence of jud|j- 
menl, a lively imagination, showing itself chiefly m 
frequent flashes of happy illustration, a keen, sarcastic 
homor, chastened but of deHberate purpose not alto- 
gether repressed, a direct forcible style, a commanding 
presence, and a pleasant musical voice, sufficiently ac- 
count for his popularity. He was the pioneer in a 
much needed improvement of the forms of service in 
Nonconformist cnurches, and gave a special impulse to 
congregational psalmody by the publication of a book 
entitled The Servke of Song in the House of the Lord, 
which also had a large circulation. ^ 

BINTANG, one of the islands which mark the south 
side of the Strait of Singapore. The latter is the exit 
towards China and Siam of the great channel which we 
call the Straits of Malacca. Bintang has an area of 
about 440 square miles, and is surrounded by many 
rocks and small islands, making navigation dangerous. 

BIOLOGY. The Biological sciences are those which 
deal with the phenomena manifested by living matter; 
and though it is customary and convenient to group 
apart su3i of these phenomena as are termed mental, 
and such of them as are exhibited by men in society, 
under the heads of Psychology and sociology, yef it 
must be allowed that no natural boundary separates the 
subject matter of the latter Sciences from that of Biology. 
Psychology is inseparably linked with Physiology; and 
the phases of social life exhibited by animals other than 
man, which sometime curiously foreshadow human pol- 
ky, fall strictly within the province of the biologist. 

On the other hand, the biological sciences are sharply 
marked off from the abiological, or those which treat of 
the phenomena manifested by not-living matter, in so 
far as the properties of living matter distinguish it abso- 
lutely from all other kinds of things, and as the present 
state of knowledLge furnishes us with no link between 
the living and the not-living. 

These distinctive properties of living matter are— 
^ I. Its chemical composition — containing, as it inva- 
riably does, one or more forms of a complex compound 
of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the so- 
called protein (which has never yet been obtaine<i except 
as a product of living bodies) united with a large pro- 
portion of water, and forming the chief constituent of a 
substance which, in its primary unmodified state, is 
known as protoplasm. 

2. Its universal disintegration and waste by oxida- 
tion; and its concomitant redintegration by the intus- 
susception of new matter, 

A process of waste resulting from the decomposition 
of the molecules of the protoplasm, in virtue of which 
they break up into more highly oxidated products, 
which cease to form any part of'^ the living body, is a 
constant concomitant of life. There is reason to be- 
lieve that carbonic acid is always one of these waste pro- 
ducts, while the others contain the remainder of the cax- 
W, the nitrogen, the hydrogen, and the other elements 
which may enter into the composition of the protoplasm. 

This new matter taken in to make good this constant 
*oss is either a ready-formed protoplasmic material, 
supplied by some other living bemg, or it con- 
sists of the elements of protoplasm, united together 
jn simpler combinations, which consequently have to 
he built up in protoplasm by the agency of the living 
"^tter itself. In either case the addition of molecules 
to those which already existed takes place, not at the 
surface of the living mass, but by interposition between 




matter remains stadonary, while, if the reconstructive 
process is the more rapid, the living hoAy grows. But 
the increase of size which constitutes growth is the re- 
sult of a process of molecular intussusception, and 
therefore differs altogether from the process of growth 
by accretion, which may be observed in crystals and is 
eftectcd purely by the external addition of new matter — 
so that, ii\ the well-known aphorism of Linnaeus, the 
word " grow," as applied to stones, signifies a totally 
different process from what is called " growth ** in plants 
and animals. 

3. Its tendency to undergo cyclical changes. 

In the ordinary course of nature, all living matter 
proceeds from pre-existing living matter, a portion of 
the latter being detached and acquiring an independent 
existence. The new form takes on the characters o( 
that from which it arose; exhibits the same power of 
propagating itself by means of an offshoot ; and, soonci 
or later, like its predecessor, ceases to live, and is re. 
solved into more nighly oxidated compounds of its ele- 
ments. 

Thus an individual living body is not only constantly 
changing its substance, but its size and form are under- 
going continual modifications, the end of which is the 
death and decay of that individual ; the continuation of * 
the kind being secured by the detachment of portions 
which tend to run through the same cycle of forms as 
the parent. No forms of matter which are either not 
living, or have not been derived from living matter, ex- 
hibit these three properties, nor any approach to the re- 
markable phenomena defined under the second and 
third heads. But in addition to these distinctive char- 
acters, living matter has some other peculiarities, the 
chief of which are the dependence of all its activities 
upon moisture and upon heat, within a limited range of 
temperature, and the fact that it usually possesses a cer- 
tain structure, or organization. 

As has been said, a large proportion of water enters 
into the composition of all living matter; a cenAAti 
amount of dying arrests vital activ^ity, and the complete 
abstraction of this water is absolutely incompatible 
with either actual or potential life. But many of the 
simpler forms of life may undergo desiccation to such 
an extent as to arrest their vital manifestations and con- 
vert them into the semblance of not-living matter, and 
yet remain potentially alive. That is to say, on being 
duly moistened they return to life again. And this re- 
vivification may take place after months, or even years, 
of arrested life. 

The properties of living matter are intimately related 
to temperature. Not only does exposure to heat suffi- 
cient to decompose protein matter destroy life, by de- 
molishing the molecular structure upon which life 
depends; but all vital activity, all phenomena of nutritive 
growth, movement, and reproduction are possible only 
between certain limits of temperature. As the temper- 
ature approaches these limits the manifestations of life 
vanish, tnough they may be recovered by return to the 
normal conditions; but if it pass far beyond these limits, 
death takes place. 

This mucn is clear ; but it is not easy to say exactly 
what the limits of temperature are, as they appear to 
vary in part with the kind of living matter, and in part 
with the conditions of moisture which obtain along with 
the temperature. The conditions of life are so complex 
in the higher organisms, that the experimental investi- 
gation of this question can be satisfactorily attempted 
only in the lowest and simplest forms. It appears tnat, 
in the dry state, these are able to bear far greater 
extremes both of heat and cold than in the moist con- 
dition. Thus Pasteur found that the spores of fungi, 
when dry, could be exposed without destruction to a 



966 . 



BIO 



temperattire of lao^-iaj*' C. (245^-457® Fahr.), Tvhile 
the same spores when moist, were all killed by exposure 
to 100^ C. (212^ Fahr.) On the other hand, Cajgniard 
de la Tour found that dry yeast might be exposed to 
the extremely low temperature of solid carbonic acid 
(-60'^ C. or -76^^ Fahr.) without being killed. In the 
moist state he found that it might be frozen and cooled 
to -5^ C (23^ Fahr. ), but that it was kill<,*d by lower 
temperatures. However, it is very desirable that these 
experiments should be repeated, for Cohn's careful 
observations on Bacteria show that, though they fall 
into a state of torpidity, and like yeast, lose all their 
powers of exciting fermentation at, or near, the freezing 
point of water, they are not killed by exposure for five 
nours to a temperature below -10^ C. (14° Fahr.), 
and, for some time, sinking to i8° C. (-oP.4Fahr.) 
Specimens of Spirillum voutans^ which had been 
cooled to this extent, began to move about some little 
time after the ice containing them thawed. But Cohn 
remarks that EtigUna^ which were frozen along with 
them, were all killed and disorganized, and that the 
same fate had befallen the higher Infusoria and Roti/era^ 
with the exception of sonte encysted Vorticelta^ in 
which the rhythmical movements of the contractile 
ve.sicle showed thai life was preserved. 

Thus it would apjx'ar tnat the resistance of living 
matter to cold depends greatly on the special form of 
that matter, and that the limit of the EtigUna^ simple 
organism as it is, is much higher than that of the Bac- 
terium. 

Considerations of this kind throw some li|[ht upon the 
apparently anomalous conditions under which many of 
the lower plants, such as Protococcus and the Diato- 
tnaceity and some of the lower animals, such as the 
Radiolaria^ are observed to flourish. Protococcus has 
been found, not only on the snows of great heights in 
temperate latitudes, but covering extensive areas of ice 
and snow in the Arctic regions, where it must be ex- 
posed to extremely low temperatures, — in the latter 
case for many montlis together ; while the Arctic and 
Antarctic seas swarm with Diatomacea and Radiolaria, 
It is on the DiatotnacM, as Hooker has well shown, 
that all surface life in these regions ultimately depends ; 
and their enormous multitudes prove that their rate of 
multiplication is adequate to meet the demands made 
upon them, and is not seriously impeded by the low 
temperature of the waters, never much above the freez- 
ingpoint, in which they habitually live. 

Tne maximum limit of heat which living matter can 
resist is no less variable than its minimum Umit. Kiihne 
found that marine Amaibtc were killed when the tem- 
perature reached 35^ C. (95^ Fahr. ), while this was not 
the case with fresh -water Amarkt, which survived a heat 
of 5^, or even 10^, C. higher. .And Actinophrys 
Eichomii was not killed until the temperature rose to 
44O or 45° C. Didymium serpula is killed at 35^ C. ; 
while another Myxomycete^ ^thalium septicum^ suc- 
cumbs only at 40^ C. 

It appears to be very generally held that the simpler 
veeetaole organisms are deprived of life at temperatures 
as nigh as txP C. (HC^ Fahi.); but Alga have been 
found living in hot springs at much higher temperatures, 
namely, from 168*^ to 2^^ Fahr., for which latter sur- 
prising fact we have the high authority of Descloiseaux. 
It is no explanation of these phenomena, but only an- 
other mode of stating them, to say that these organ- 
isms have become " accustomed " to such temperatures. 
If this degree of heat were absolutely incompatible with 
the activity of living matter, the plants could no more 
resist it than they could become " accustomed ** to being 
made red hot. Habit may modify subskliary, but can- 
not affect fundamental, conditions. 



Recent inveftigttione point to die cosdnsiOB taSi 
the immediate cause of the arrest of vitality, in the fim 
place, and of its destruction, in the second, isthecoacih 
lation of certain substances in the protoplasm, and tut 
the latter contains various coaguiable nwtten, vhidi 
solklify at different temperatures. And it remaiBS to 
be seen, how far the death of any form of living matter, 
at a given temperature, depends on the destruction df 
its fundamental substance at that heat, and hov far 
death is brought about by the coagulation of merely ac- 
cessory compounds^ 

It may be safely said of all those living things vhidt 
are large enough to enable us to trust the eviacBoe of 
microscopes, that^hey are heterogeneous optically, and 
that their different parts, and especially the sar£ue 
layer, as contrasted with the intenor, difier physically 
and chemically; while, in most livW things, men 
heterogeneity is exchanged for a dennite stroctnre, 
whereby the body is distinguished into Tisibly difieroit 
parts, which possess different powers or functions. Liy- 
mg things which present this visible structure are said 
to be organited; and so wkiely does organization ob- 
tain among living beings, that organized and liwng are 
not unfrequently used ns if they were terms of co-a- 
tensive applicabdity. This, however, is not exactly ac- 
curate, if it be thereby implied that all living tnings 
have a visible organization, as there are numerous forms 
of living matter of which it cannot properly be said thai 
they possess either a definite structure or permanenilj 
si^ecialized organs : though, doubtless, the simplest pam- 
cle of living matter must possess a highly complex mole- 
cular structure, which is far beyond tne reach of vision. 

The broad distinctions which, as a matter of feet, 
exist between every known form of living substance aiui 
every other component of the material world, jtistJ^ 
the separation of the biological sciences from all others. 
But it must not be supposed that the differences between 
living and not -living matter are such as to justify the 
assumption that the forces at work in the one are dif- 
ferent from those which are to be met with in theother. 
Considered apart from the phenomena of consciousness, 
the phenomena of life are all dependent upon the work- 
ing of the same physical and chemical forces as those 
which are active in the rest of the world. It may be 
convenient to use the terms " vitality " and •* vital force * 
to denote the causes of certain great groups of natural 
operations, as we employ the names of •* electricity ** and 
" electrical force " to denote others ; but it ceases to be 
proper to do so, if such a name implies the absurd aasomp- 
tion that " electricity *» and " vitality "are entities playi^ 
the part of efficient causes of electrical or vital phenomeni- 
A mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular ma- 
chine of great complexity, the total results of the 
working of which, or its vital phenomena, depend,— on 
the one hand, upon its construction, and, on the other, 
upon the energy supplied to it; and to speak of 
" vitality *' as an^inff but the name of a series w optf»' 
tionsas if one should talk of the "horolopty" « * 
clock. 

Living matter, or protoplasm and the products of its 
metamorphosis, may be r^jarded under four aspects ;-- 

(i.) It has a certain external and internal form, tbe 
latter being more usually called structure ; 

(2.) It occupies a certain position in space and » 
time; 

(3. ) It is the subject of the operation of certam fan^ 
in virtue of which it undergoes internal changes, IW** 
fies external objects, and is modified by them ; m^ 

(4.) Its form, place, and powers are the «Acts « 
certain causes. ^. 

In correspondence with these four aspects of^ty 
ject, biology is divisible into four chief subdiviiiuili^'** 



BIO — BIR 



967 



Morphology ; II. Distribution ; III. Physiology 5 

IV- i€TIOLOGY. 

BION, the second of the three Greek bucolic poets, 
was bom in the neighborhood of Smyrna, — according 
to Suidas, at Phlossa on the River Meles. The few 
facts known to us of his life are to be gathered from the 
beautiful Epitaphios Biotios of his friend and scholar 
Moschus. From his account it appears that Bion left 
his native country and, during the later part of his life, 
resided in Sicily and cultivat<3 the form of poetry pecul- 
iarly associated with that island. He was contempor- 
aiy with Theocritns and somewhat older than Moscnus. 
IHs death was due to poison, administered to him by 
some jealous rivals who afterwards suffered the penalty 
of their crime. The subjects of his verses are described 
by Moscbus as ** Love and Pan ;** but though his works 
are included in the general class of bucolic poetry, they 
have little of the pastoral imagery and description char- 
acteristic of Theocritus. They breathe a more refined 
air of sentiment, and show traces of the overstrained 
reflection frequently observable in later developments 
of pastoral poetry. The longest and best of his extant 
works is the Lament for Adonis the prototype of many 
modern poems. His other pieces are short and in 
many cases fragmentary. Two of the Idylls of Theoc- 
rftus are frequently ascribed to him. 

BIOT, Jean Baptisi e, French physicist, was bom 
at Paris, 21st April 1774. After leaving school he 
served for a short time in the artillery, but again re- 
sumed his studies at the licole Polytechnique. lie dis- 
tinguished himself in mathematics, and was appointed 
to a professorship at Beauvais. There he carried on 
his researches witn the greatest assiduity, and gained 
the acquaintance and friendship of Laplace, from whom 
he solicited and obta^ed the favor of reading the proof- 
sheets of the M^canique CdUste, In 1800 ne was re- 
called to Paris as professor of physics at the College de 
France. Three years later he was elected a memlSr of 
the Academy of Sciences, a distinction rarely accorded 
to one so young as he was. In 1803 Biot, in concert 
with Arago, investigated the refracting properties of 
gases, and in the following year accompanied Gay-Lus- 
sac in his balloon ascent. He was agam associated with 
Arago in the great undertaking of the measurement of 
an arc of the meridian in Spain, and at a later date 
(1817-18) he crossed over to Britain«and measured care- 
fully the length of the seconds' pendulum along an arc 
extending to the extreme north of Shetland. In 1814 
he was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, an 
order of which he became a commander in 1849. He 
was a member of the French Academy and of the Acad- 
emy of Inscriptions and Belles -Lett res, as well as of 
most foreign scientific societies. In 1840 he received 
the Rumford gold medal for his researches m polarized 
light. He died at an advanced age in 1862. Biot*3 
researches extended to almost every branch of physical 
science; but his greatest discoveries were made in the 
department of optics, mainly in connection with the 
polarization of lignt. He had a thorough command of 
the best methods of analysis, and applied mathematics 
rigidly and successfully to physical phenomena. 

BIK, or BiREjiK (the former being its Arabic and 
the latter its Turkish name), a town of Asiatic Turkey, 
in the pashalik of Rakka, built on the side of a chalky 
range of hills that skirts the left bank of the Euphrates, 
about 90 miles N. E. of Aleppo. 

BIRBHUM, a district of British India, withm the 
Bardw&n division, under the lieutenant-governor of 
Bengal, is bounded on the N. by the districts of 
Sant&l Pargan^ and Bhdgalpur ; on the E. by the dis- 
tricts of Mnrshidibdd and Bardwdn ; on the S. by the 
iUier Ajaiy separating it from the district of Bardw&n;- 



and on the W, by the districts of the Santdl Pargan&s. 

BiRBHiJM, or SuRf, the principal town and adminis- 
trative headcjuarters of the district of the same name. 

BIRCH {Beluia\ a genus of arboraceous plants 
constituting the principal portion of the natural order 
Betulace(F. The various species of birch are mostly 
trees of medium size, but sfeveral of them are merely 
shrubs. They are as a rule of a very hardy character, 
thriving best in northern latitudes, — the trees having 
round, slender branches, and serrate deciduous leaves, 
with barren and fertile catkins on the same tree and 
winged seeds. The bark in most of the trees occurs in 
fine soft membranous layers, the outer cuticle of which 
peels off in thin white papery sheets. The common 
oirch (^. alba) grows throughout the gjreater part of 
Europe, and also in Asia Minor, Siberia, and Nor^ 
America, reaching in the north to the extreme limits of 
forest vegetation, and stretchmg southward on the 
European continent as a forest tree to 45^ N. lat, be- 
yond which birches occur only in special situations or 
as isolated trees. It is one of the most widc-sprd!ad 
and generally useful of forest trees of Russia, occur- 
ring in that empire in vast forests, in many instances 
alone, and in other cases mmgled with pine, poplars, 
and other forest trees. The wood is hignly vsdued by 
carriage-builders, upholsterers, and turners, on account 
of its toughness ana tenacity, and in Russia it i^ prized 
as firewood and a source of charcoaL A very exten- 
sive domestic industry in Russia consists in the manu- 
facture of wooden spoons, which are made to the ex- 
tent of 30,000,000 annually, mostly of birch. Its 
pliant and flexible branches are made into brooms ; and 
m ancient Rome the fasces of the lictors, with which 
they cleared the way for the magistrates, were made up 
of birch rods. A similar use of birch rods has con- 
tinued among pedagogues to times so recent that the 
birch is yet, Bterally or metaphorically, the instrument 
of school-room discipline. The bark of the common 
birch is much more durable, and industrially of greater 
value, than the wood. It is impermeable to water, and 
is therefore used in northern countries for roofing, for 
domestic utensils, for boxes and jars to contain both solid 
and liquid substances, and for a kind of bark shoes, of 
which It is estimated 25 millions of pairs are annually 
worn by the Russian peasantry. The jars and boxes of 
birch bark made by Russian peasants are often stamped 
with very eflfective patterns. By dry distillation the bark 
yields an empyreumatic oil, called aiogott in Russia used 
in the preparation ot Russia leather; to this oil the 
peculiar pleasant odor of the leather is due. The bark 
Itself is used in tanning; and by the Samoiedes and 
Kamchatkans it is ground up and eaten on account of 
the starchy matter it contains. A sugary sap is drawn 
from the trunk in the spring before the opening of the 
leaf-buds, and is fermented into a kind of beer and vine- 
gar. The whole tree, but especially the bark and leaves, 
has a very pleasant resinous odor, and from the young 
leaves and buds an essential oil is distilled with water. 
The leaves are used as fodder in northern latitudes. 
The species which belong peculiarly to America {B, 
lenta, exceisa, nigra, papyracea^ &c.) are generally sim- 
ilar in appearance and properties to B, alba^ ana have 
the same range of applications. The largest and most 
valuable is the black birch {B, lenta), found abundantly 
over an extensive area in British North America, grow- 
ing 60 to 70 feet high, and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It 
is a wood most extensively used for furniture and for 
carriage building, being tough in texture and bearing 
shocks well, while much of it has a handsome |;rain, and 
it b susceptible of a fine polish. The bark, which is dark 
brown or reddish, and very durable, is used by Indians 
and backwoodsmen in the same way as the bark of B» 



968 



BIR 



alba is used in Northern Europe. Concerning the canoe 
or paper birch {B. pii/>yra<ra)^ which some regard as a 
vaneiy of the white birch, M r. liernard R. Ross, of the 
Hudson's Bay Comi>any, writes: — "The canoe or 
paper birch is found as far north as 70^ N. on the 
American continent, but it becomes rare and stunted in 
the Arctic circle. It is a tree of the greatest value to 
the inhabitants of the Mackenzie River district in 
British North America. Its bark is used for the con- 
struction of canoes, and for drinking-cups, dishes, and 
baskets. From the wood, platters, axe nandles, snow- 
shoe frames, and dog sledges are made, and it is worked 
into articles of furniture which are susceptible of a good 
polish. The sap which flows in the spring is drawn off 
and boiled down to an agreeable spirit, or fermented 
with a birch-wine of considerable alcoholic strength. 
The bark is also used by the Christianized Amencan 
Indians as a substitute for paper.** 

BIRCH, Thomas, historical and biographical writer, 
and one of the early trustees and benefactors of the 
British Museum, was bom in l^>ndon, November 23, 
170J. He was the son of a coflce-miU maker, and was 
to have followed his father's business ; but his active 
mind and ambition of higher pursuits led him into the 

Saths of literature. His parents were members of the 
ociety of Friends, and therefore he had not the advan- 
tages of a university training. But by persevering appli- 
cation to study and to teaching he qualified himself for 
the ministry of the Church of England. In 1 728 he 
obtamed a curacy, and in the same year he married. 
His wife died in the following year. He was ordained 
priest in December 1 731, and was soon after recom- 
mended to the favor of Philip Yorke, then attorney- 
general, afterwards Lord Chancellor and earl of Hard- 
wicke, to whom he owed his successive preferments in 
the church. His first benefice was the vicarage of 
Ultingin Essex. In 1734 he was appointed domestic 
chaplain to the earl of Kilmarnock, who was beheaded 
for nis share in the rebellion of '45. He afterwards held 
successively benches in Pembrokeshire, Gloucestershire, 
and the city of London. His last church preferment 
was to the rectory of Depden m Essex, to which he was 
prc^sented m February 1761. In his latter years he was 
appointed chaplain to the princess Amelia. His literary 
attainments procured him election as a fellow of the 
Royal Society in February 1735, and in the following 
December he was chosen a member of the Society of 
Antiauaries. He held the office of Secretary to the 
Rcyal Society for thirteen years 1 752-1 765. From the 
university of Aberdeen he received the degrees first of 
M.A„ and afterwards (1753) of D.D. The degree of 
D.D. was also conferred on him about the same time by 
the archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Birch was engaged 
in a large number of literary undertakings. His appetite 
and his capacity for hard work were extraordinary. 
Besides his diversified labors of compilation and editing, 
he transcribed many volumes in the library of Lambetn 
Palace, and carried on an extensive correspondence with 
literary men. He was an early riser ; ana amidst all his 
labors he found time to take part in social enjoyments. 
He was only in his sixty-first year when he was killed by 
a fall from his horse in Hamptead Road, January 9, 
1766. He bequeathed his books and manuscripts, with 
part of his pictures and prints, to the British Museum. 
The rest of his property, in value about ^^500, he gave 
to be invested in Government securities, the interest to 
be applied in augmenting the salaries of the three assist- 
ant librarians. 

BIRD, William, an English composer, and one of 
the best organists of his time, was born about 1540, and 
died at London, 4th July 1623. He was appointed 
organist of Lincoln cathedral in 1563 ; and in 1575 he 



and his master TaUis were gentlemen of the diapd 
rojral, and organists to Queen Elizabeth. Bird was the 
earUest English com{x>ser of madrigals, and some of his 
numerous sacred compositions are still much esteemed. 
Most of them were published during his hietime osder 
a patent from Queen Elizabeth, which secured to him 
and TaUis the sole right to print and sell music Be- 
tween 1575 and 161 1 there were issued under this 
patent eight different collections of his work, with such, 
titles as Canticnfs Sacra ; Gradualia ; Psalms, Songs^ 
and Sonnets, &c The vocal canon Non nobis Domim, 
generally attributed to him, is well known, and often 
sung. He also wrote a number of pieces for Qaeen 
Elizabeth's Virtual Book, and other similar collections 
In his compositions there is a freedom and elegance 
rarely found in the music of his period. 

BIRDS, a little examination will show that tlie 
groups made by consideration of any, even the most im- 
portant, morphological modifications, cannot be suPtr- 
imposed upon groups made by reference to the whole 
sum of the characters of the Bird. This may be easlr 
explained. About half the known birds, 5000 or 
thereabouts, belong, according to G. R. Gnj, to 
Professor Huxley's group, the Coracomorpha. These 
birds undergo a peculiar metamorphosis of the naso- 
palatal structures, and are called by Professor Hoxky 
the ALgithognatha on that account. Now all the 
CoracomorpJix have the segithognathous palate, bat so 
also have the Cyps^lida, or Swifts, which are placed by 
this author with the Humming-birds and Goatsuckers, 
both of which groups are simply schizognathous. 
Moreover, below the Passerine types, and only next 
above the Semistruthious Tinamous, we find the Hemi- 
pods, Tumicida, or Tumicitttorpka, and these have an 
sej^ithognathous palate. So alsb has another t]rpe, 
dhinocorus, which lies on the same low zoologicsl 
level as the Hemipods. This latter bird is essentially a 
small Geranomorph, but it is below the true Cranes, 
and unites in its palate characters belonging to the 
Ostriches below it and the Passerines w£ch ascend, 
zoologically far above it. 

The difficulty of applying this very valuable morpho- 
logical grouping, and making it fit in with one that is 
more generally and distinctively zoologiod (that is, 
liaving reference to every character, external and in- 
ternal), does not take away anything of real value from 
it. ^ To the anatomist such a m<Se of viewing the 
various types is perfectly natural, however hard it may 
be to satisfy the pure zoologist as to its great value.' 
Certainly, the structures of the skuU and face govern 
the whole body, as it were ; every other part of the 
organism corresponds to what is observable there. 
Nor must it be forgotten that the true mode of studying 
any kind of creature is that of its development ; ana the 
head undergoes the most remarkable morphological 
changes. 

It will seem contradictory to assert the great unifor- 
mity of the skulls of Birds, and indeed of the Birds 
themselves. Yet so it is ; and the countless modifica- 
tions that offer themselves for observation are gende in 
the extreme. One form often is seen to pass into an- 
other by almost insensible gradations. One thing » 
certain, namely, that an anatomist not familiar with thi| 
class, and coming to its study fresh from the Reptiles, 
would find himself at fault at every turn ; for he would 
see changes altogether as great as if he had pasted 
from the Helminthoid t3rpes and from mere larva and 
pupa of the Insects to the (to him supposably) !■• 
thought-of imagines that spring from those lo^f iid 
worm-like stages. 

In the rest of the Birds* organization abu 
deuce of the same specialization will be seen. 



>se io\)r aiB 



BIR 



969 






fiuk to ctesire more beauty or to contemplate more 
exquisite adaptations. An almost infinite variety of 
Vertebrate life is to be found in this class. Of its 
members some dig and bury their germs, which rise 
again in full plumace, whilst others watch and inces- 
santly feed their tender brood in the shady covert or " on 
the crags of the rock and the strong place." In loco- 
motion some walk, others run, or they may wade, swim, 
plunge or dive, whilst most of them ** fly in the open 
firroament of heaven. '* 

The spinal column of birds contains numerous and 
well-ossified vertebrae, a considerable number of which 
(more than six) are ankylosed together to form a 
sacrum. Of the vertebrae which enter into the com- 
position of this complex bone, however, not more than 
from three to five can be regarded as the homologues 
of the sacral vertebrae of a Crocodilian or Lacertuian 
Reptile. The rest are borrowed, in front, from the 
lumbar and dorsal regions ; behind, from the tail The 
cervical region of the spine is always long ; and its ver- 
tebrae, which are never fewer than eight, and may be as 
many as twentv-three, are, for the most part, large in 
proportion to those of the rest of the body. 

The ^ sternum in Q^rds is a broad plate of cartilage 
which is always more or less completely replaced in the 
adolt by membrane bone. It be^ns to ossify by, at 
fewest, two centres, one on each side, as in the Ratitct. 
In the Carinata it usually begins to ossify by five 
centres, of which one is median for the keel, and two 
are in pairs for the lateral parts of the sternum. Thus 
the sternum of a Chicken is at one time separable into 
five distinct bones. 

^ The fore-limb of a Bird, when in a state of rest ex- 
hibits a great change of position, if it be compared with 
that of an ordinary Reptile ; and the change is of a char- 
acter similar to, but in some respects greater, than that 
which the arm of a man presents when compared with 
the fore-limb of aouadrupedal MammaL Tne humerus 
lies parallel with the axis of the body, its proper ventral 
surface looking outwards. The fore-arm is in a position 
inidway between pronation and supination, and the manus 
is bent back upon the ulnar side of the fore-arm in a 
position not of flexion but of abduction. 

The f etuis of a Bird is remarkable for the great 
elongation, both anteriorly and posteriorly, of the iliac 
bones, which unite with the whole length of the edges 
of the sacrum, and even extend forwards over the pos- 
terior ribs of the dorsal region. 

The upper articular head of the femur is rounded, 
and its axis is almost at right angles with the body of 
the bone ; a structure whidi is not found in ordinary 
Reptilia^ but exists in the Iguanodon and other Ornith- 
oscelida. 

The fibula of Birds is alwajrs imperfect, ending in. a 
mere style below. Generally, it is decidedly snorter 
than the tibia, but it has the same length as that bone 
in some Penguins. The tiiiaf or rather "tibio- tarsus," 
is a highly cmiracteristic bone. Its proximal end is ex- 
panded, and produced anteriorly, into a great cnemial 
process as in Dinosauria, 

The cutaneous muscles of Birds are well developed, 
>wl form broad expansions in various parts of the body. 
Special bundles of muscular fibres pass to the great 
^ttill feathers of the tail and wings, and others to the 
P^^agium, a fold of integument which stands between 
Jne trunk and brachium behind and between the 
"f^ium and ante-brachium in front. 

*hus in all birds possessing the power of flight, the 
P*ctoralis major^ the chief agent of the downward 
stroke of the wing, is very large and thick, taking its 
^"pn from the wnole length, and a great part of the 
*«pth, of the keel of the sternum. 



The brain fills the cavity of the skull, aad presents a 
well-developed cerebellum ; a mesencephalon, divided 
above into two optic lobes ; and relatively large pro- 
sencephalic hemispheres, which attain a considerable 
size but never conceal the optic lobes. 

Birds possess nasal glands, which attain a large size, 
and lie more usually upon the frontal bone, or in the 
orbits, than in the nasal cavity. 

The eye in many Birds, as in the extinct Ichthyosau' 
ria, attains very great absolute and relative dimen- 
sions. 

In the organs of hearing, the Bird is best studied as 
a culmination of the Sauropsida. 

Only Crocodilia and Aves possess a rudiment of an ex- 
ternal ear. 

In the Crocodilia and in Aves the walls of the stom- 
ach are very muscular, and the muscular fibres of each 
side radiate from a central tendon or aponeurosis. The 
thickening of the muscular tissue of the stomach attains 
its maximum in the Graminivorous Birds ; and it is ac- 
companied by the development of the epithelium into a 
dense and hard coat, adapted for crushing the food of 
these animals. Birds commonly aid the triturating power 
of this gastric mill by swallowing stones ; but the habit 
b not confined to them. Crocodiles having been observed 
to do the same thing. 

In Birds, the venous and arterial blood currents com- 
municate only in the pulmonary and systemic capillaries. 
The auriculai and ventricular are complete, as in the 
Crocodilia; but the right ventricle only gives ofF the 
pulmonary artery, the left aortic arch has disappeared, 
and the right arch becomes the most important of all the 
arches. 

The lungs are firmly fixed on each side of the vertebral 
column, the dorsal surface of each lung being moulded to 
the super-jacent vertebne and ribs. The muscular fibres 
of the diaphragm arise from the ribs outside the mar- 
gins of the lungs, and form the vertebral column, and 
end in an aponeurosis upon the ventral surface of the 
lungs. 

Tne kidneys are composed of a number of lobules of 
unequal sizes, and these are packed in the concavities of 
the pelvis, in the same manner as the lungs are packed 
in the regular intercostal spaces of the upper part of the 
thorax. The ureters, as in the Reptiles, open directly 
into the cloaca ; but there is no urinary blzidder. The 
bursa Fabricii opens into the cloaca above its hinder 
part. 

The testes lie on each side the foremost lobes of the 
kidneys. They are very small in mid-winter, and 
largest by the middle of April. 

The feathers are of various kinds. Those which ex- 
hibit the most complicated structure are called penna^ 
or contour feathers^ because they lie on the surface and 
determine the contour of the body. 

The contour feathers are distributed evenly over the 
body only in a few Birds, as the Ratitce^ the Penguins, 
and some others. Generally, the pennae are arranged 
in definitely circumscribed patches or bands, between 
which the int^ument is either bare or covered only with 
down. 

FOSSIL BIRDS. 

Footprints, or casts of footprints, at the time of their 
discovery and long afterwards supposed to be those of 
Birds, were found about the year 1835 in the Triassic 
formation of the valley of the Connecticut in New Eng- 
land, and were described by Messrs. Deane and Marsh. 

The fossils of the Paris Basin and its coeval deposits 
deserve fuller notice. First brought to light at Mont- 
martre towards the end of the last century, many of the 
remains fell under the notice of Cuvier, and were by him 



970 



BIR 



determined In a manner more or less extct. Following 
kis investigations, the labors of MM. Gcrvais, Blanch - 
ard, and Desnoyers considerably added to our knowl- 
edge of these omiiholites, till finally M. Alphonsc Milne- 
Edwards, having carefully gone over all the specimens 
discovered, refers them to the genera A^nopUrus^ Cor- 
Vioranus {i,e.y Phalacrocorax^y Coturmx {2 spp.), Falco^ 
Gvpsomisy Leptosomus (a form now only known from 
^1adagascar), Limosa^ PalaocircuSy Palaortyx^ Pelidna^ 
Rallus^ Sitta^tcndi Tringa {?), Of these arc extinct the 
first, which seems to have been in some measure allied 
to the Flamingoes { Ph^tnUopterida) ; the fifth, a Ralline 
form ; and the eighth and ninth, belon^nf to the diamal 
Birds-of.prer and the Gallina respectively. The foot- 
prints of at feast seven more speaes of birds have also 
txjen recognized in the same beds, so famed for the re- 
mains of Anoplothtrium^ PaUtotherium^ and their con- 
temporaries, which were resuscitated by the great Cu- 
vier. 

A great number of Birds* bones have been discovered 
in caves, and among them some bearing marks of human 
workmanship. In France we have first a large and ex- 
tinct species of Crane {Grus primigenia)^ but more in- 
teresting than that are the very numerous relics of two 
species, the concomitants even now of the Reindeer, 
which were abundant in that country at the period when 
this beast flourished there, and have followed it in its 
northward retreat. These are the Snowy Owl {Oyctea 
scandiaca)^ and the Willow-Grouse {Lagopus alims), 

SUB FOSSIL BIRDS. 

At an uncertain but (geologically speaking) recent 
epoch in Madagascar, there flourishea huge birds of 
Struthious affinities. The first positive evidence of their 
former existence was made known in 185 1 by M. Is. 
Geoffroy St Hilaire, who gave the name of ^pyomis 
maximus to the species which had laki an enormous egg, 
sent to Paris a short time before; and the discovery of 
some bones of correspn^nding magnitude soon after 
proved to all but the prejudiced the kinship of the pro- 
ducer of this wonderful specimen, which not unnaturally 
recalls the mythical Roc that figures so largely in Ara- 
bian tales. Three, if not four, well-marked species of 
this genus have now been characterized from remains 
found in the drifted sands of the southern part of that 
island. 

The most remarkable of birds recently extirpated is 
the Dodo {Didus inepius\ which, on the discovery of 
Mauritius by the Portuguese under Mascaregnas in the 
beginning of the i6th century, was found to inhabit ^t 
island. Clumsy, flightless, and defenceless, it soon suc- 
cumbed, not so much to the human invaders of its realm 
as to the domestic beasts which accompanied them, and 
there gaining their liberty, unchecked by much of the 
wholesome discipline of nature, ran riot, to the utter de- 
struction of no inconsiderable portion of the Mauritian 
fauna. 

MIGRATION. 

Most strangely and unaccountably confounded by 
many writers with the subject of Distribution is that of 
Migration. True it is that owing to the vast powers of 
locomotion possessed by nearly all Birds, we have indi- 
viduals belonging in the main to certain groups, but by 
no means always confined to them, straying from their 
proptT quarters and occurring in places far removed, not 
only from the land of their birth, but from the country 
whither ihey are ordinarily bound in their journeys, to 
reach which is the object wherefore such journeys are 
undertaken. It may be that in some measure this errat- 
icism is governed by fixed laws, and indeed indication 
is not wanting that such laws exist, thouj^ as yet we 



know much too little to lay thm down with any approaek 
to confidence. But it is obvious on reflection that grant* 
ing the existence of most rigorous laws of this kmd — 
determining the flight of every winged vagabond — they 
must be very different from those which are obeyed by 
Birds commonly called ** Migratory," and migrating jeai 
after year according to a more or less fixed rule from 
one locality to another with the seasons as they roU. 
The former laws would seem to be created or controlled 
by purely external circumstances, which if they posses 
any periodicity at all possess a periodicity of C3rdes, and 
are most likely dependent in the main on cycles of the 
weather, but on this point observation has not jret sup- 
plied us with the means of avoiding speculation, ^e 
may indeed say almost without much risk of error that 
so many individuals of a foreign species — whether 
North-American or Asiatic — will occur in Great Britain 
so many times in the course of a term of jrears ; but^ 
though we may safely predict that if they appear at all 
they will do so at a certain season, it is impossibk to 
make a forecast as to the year in which an example wiD 
turn up, or whether in one year some half-dozen may or 
may not occur. At present we can but attribute the 
appearance of foreign stragglers oft our shores, and no 
doubt the same may be said of other countries, to the 
influence of storms which have driven the wanderers 
from their course, and though other more remote causes 
may possibly be assigned, there seems to be none bot 
this on which we can safely rely. Consequently until 
the periodicity of storms is brought within our knowl- 
edge we must be content to abide in our ignorance of 
the laws which govern the appearance of the strangers. 

But returning to the subject of Migration proper, dis- 
tinguished as it ought to be fi*om tnat of trie more or 
less accidental occurrence of stray visitors from afiu, we 
have here more than enough to excite our wonder, and 
indeed are brought face to face with perhaps the great- 
est mystery whi3i the whole animal kingdom presents 
— a mystery which attracted the attention of the earliest 
writers, and tan in its chief point be no more explained 
by tlie modern man of science than by the simple* 
minded savage or the poet or prophet of antiquity. 
Some facts are almost universally known and have been 
the theme of comment in all ages and in all lands. The 
Hawk that stretches her wings toward the south is as 
familiar to the latest Nile-boat traveller or dweller 00 
the Bosphorus as of old to the author of the book of 
Job. Tne autumnal thronging of myriads of Waterfowl 
by the rivers of Asia is witnessed by the modem sports- 
man as it was of old by Homer. Anacreon welcomed the 
returning Swallow, in numbers which his imitators of 
the colder north, to whom the associations connected 
with it are doubly strong, have tried in vain to excd. 
The Indian of the Fur-Countries in forming his radc 
calendar names the recurring moons after the Birds-of* 
passage whose arrival is coincident with their changes. 

On one -point and one only in connection with lii« 
subject can we boast ourselves to be clearly wiser tiuA 
our ancestors. Some of them fully believed that ti» 
seasonal disappearance of the Swallow, the Nightin^le, 
the Cuckow, and the Corncrake was due to hibematiOBi 
while others indeed doubted whether or not this"** 
the true explanation of the fact. It is not so longsiifi^ 
this belief and these doubts were in vogue, but nowil- 
suredly they have no hold upon the mind of any ۥ> 
ci*pable of appreciating evidence, and this absordmy 
being exploaed need not again trouble us. 

In considering the phenomena of Migration itiiQIlt 
best first to take the facts, and then try to 1 
their cause or causes. That a very large 
Birds all over the world change their abode •<._ 
the season is well known, and we find that t& % 



BIR 



971 



ccRmtries there are some species tvhich arrive in sprine, 
remain to breed, and dq>art in autumn ; others which 
arrive hi autulnn, stop for the winter, and depart in 
spring ; and others again — and these are stnctjy speak- 
ing tfc •* Birds of Passage ** — which show themselves 
but twice a year, passing through the country without 
staying long in it, and Sieir transient visits take place 
about sprins; and autumn. People who have given but 
little thought to the subject are apt to suppose mat these 
migrants, which may thus easily be classed in three cat- 
egories, arc acted upon by influences of different kinds, 
whereas very little reflection will show that all are really 
affected by the same impulse, whatever that may be, 
and that the at first sight dissimilar nature of their 
movements is in truth almost uniform. The species 
which resort to this and to other temperate countries 
in winter are simply those which have their breeding 

aoarters much nearer the poles, and in returning to 
iem on the approach of spring are but doing exactly 
as do those species which, having their winter abode 
nearer the equator, come to us with the spring. The 
Birds-of-passage proper, like our winter visitants have 
their breeding quarters nearer the poles, but, like our 
summer visitants they seek their wmter abode nearer 
the equator, and thus perform a somewhat longer mi^a- 
tbn. So far there is no difficulty and no hypothesis — 
the bringing together of these three apparently different 
eateries is the result of simple observation. 

There is scarcely a Bird of either Pabearctic or Nearc- 
tic Region, whose habits are at all well known, which is 
not to a n'eater or less degree minatory in some part or 
other of Its range. Such conclusion brings to us a still 
more general inference — namely that Migration, instead 
of being the exceptional characteristic it used formerly 
to be thought, may really be almost universal, and 
tboujiJi the lack of observations in other, and especially 
tropical, countries do not allow us to declare that such is 
the case, it seems very probable to be so. Before pro- 
<*c^g however to any further conclusions it is nec- 
essary to examine another class of facts which may 
possibly throw some light on the matter. 

It must be within the experience of every one who 
has been a birds'-nesting boy that the most sedentary of 
Birds jrear after year occupy the same quarters in the 
breeding season. In some instances this may beascribed, 
It is true, to the old haunt affording the sole or the most 
convenient site for the nest in the neighborhood, but in 
s^mahy instances such is not the case that we are led to 
believe in the existence of a real partiality, while there 
jre quite enough exceptions to show that a choice is 
fr^entlv exercised. 

I With these two sets of facts before us we may begin 
to try and account for the cause or causes of Migration. 
In some cases want of food would seem to be enough, 
?s It is undoubtedly the most obvious cause that presents 
itsdf to our mind. The need which all animals have of 
nnding for themselves proper and sufficient sustenance 
« ail-powerful, and the difficulties they have to en- 
counter in obtaining it are so great that none can 
^''jonder that those which possess the power of removing 
themselves from a place of scarcity should avail them- 
selves of it, while it is unquestionable that no class of 
^"nals has the facility in a greater degree than Birds, 
^•▼en among many oi'^ those species which we commonly 
speak of as sedentary, it is only the adults which main- 
«^ their ground throughout the year. It has long 
Jjeen known that Birds-of-prey ctistomarily drive away 
tneir offspring from their own haunts as soon as the 
young are able to shift for themselves. The reason 
*h- K ^' and no doubt truly, given for this behavior, 
^fi»ch at first sight appears so unnatural, is the impossi- 
*«"ty of both parents and progeny getting a livehhood 



in the same TiCinity. The practke, however, is not 
limited to the Birds-of-prey alone, but is much more 
universal We find it to obtain with the Redbreast, 
and if we watched our feathered neighbors closely we 
shall perceive that most of them indulge in it. The 
perioa of expulsion, it is true, is in some Birds deferred 
from the end of summer or the autumn, in which it is 
usually performed, until the following spring, when in- 
deed from the maturity of the young it must be regarded 
as much in the light of a voluntary secession on their 
part as in that of an act of parental compulsion, but 
the effect is ultimately the same. 

The mode in which the want of sustenance produces 
Migration may best be illustrated by confining ourselves 
to the unquestionably migrant Birds of our own northern 
hemisphere. As food grows scarce towards the end of 
summer in the most northern limits of the ran^ of a 
species, the individuals affected thereby seek it else- 
where. Thus doing, they press upon the haunt of other 
individuals; these in likemannerupon that of yet others, 
and so on, until the movement wnich began in the far 
north is communicated to the individuals occupying the 
extreme southern range of the species at that season ; 
though, but for such an intrusion, these last might be 
content to stay some time longer in the enjoyment ol 
their existing quarters. 

This seems satisfactorily to explain the southward 
movement of all migrating birds in the northern hemis- 
phere; but when we consider the return movement 
which takes place some six months later, doubt may be 
entertained whether scarcity of food can be assigned as 
its sole or sufficient cause, and perhaps it would be 
safest not to come to any decision on this point. On 
one side it may be urged that the more equatorial regions 
which in winter are crowded with emigrants from the 
north, though well fitted for the resort of so great a 
population at that season are deficient in certain neces- 
saries for the nursery. Nor does it seem too violent an 
assumption to suppose that even if such necessaries are 
not absolutely wanting, yet that the regions in question 
would not supply sufficient food for lx)th parents and 
of^pring — the latter being at the lowest computation, 
twice as numerous as the former — unless the numbers 
of both were diminished by casualties of travel. But 
on the other hand we must remember what has above 
been advanced in regard to the pertinacity with which 
Birds return to their accustomed breeding-places, and 
the force of this passionate fondness for the old home 
cannot but be taken into account, even if we do not 
allow that in it lies the whole stimulus to undertake the 
perilous voyage. 

For many yeaxs past a large number of persons in 
different countries have occupied and amused tnemselves 
by carefully registering the dates on which various 
migratory Birds first ma3ce their appearance, and certain 
publications abound with the records so compiled. 
Some of the observers have been men of high scientific 
repute, others of less note but of not inferior capabili- 
ties for this special object. Still it does not seem that 
they have been able to determine what connection, if 
any, exists between the arrival of birds and the state of 
the weather. This is not very wonderful, for the move- 
ments of the migrants, if governed at all by meteoro- 
logical forces, must be influenced by their action in the 
places whence the travelers have come, and therefore to 
establish any direct relation of cause and effect corres- 
ponding observations ought equally to be made in such 
places, which has seldom been done. Lay down the 
paths of migratory Birds, obser\'e their comings and 
goings, or strive to account for the impulse which urges 
them forward as we will, there still remains for consid- 
eration the most marvellous thing of all— How do the 



972. 



BIR 



birds find their way «o unerringly from such immense 
distances? This seems to l>e by far the most inex- 
plicable part of the matter. Year after year the migra- 
tory Wagtail will build her nest in the accustomed spot, 
and year after year the migratory Cnckoo will deposit 
her eggs in that nest, and yet in each interval of time 
the former may have passed some months on the shores 
of the Mediterranean, and the latter, absent for a still 
lon^r period, may have wandered into the heart of 
Africa. The writer cannot offer an approach to the 
solution of this mjrstery. There was a time when he 
had hopes that what is called the ** homing" faculty in 
Pigeons might furnish a clue, but Mr. Tegetmeir and 
all the best authorities on that subject declare that a 
knowledge of landmarks obtained by sieht, and sight 
only, is the sense which directs these Birds — and there 
is reason to think that there are several such — which at 
one stretch transport themselves across the breadth of 
Europe, or even traverse more than a thousand miles of 
open ocean, to say nothine^ of those — and of them there 
are certainly many — whidi perform their migrations by 
night. 

Other authors there are who rely on what they calf 
•*instinct" as an explanation of this wonderful faculty. 
This with them is simply a way of evading the difficulty 
before us, if it does not indeed remove the question 
altogether from the domain of scientific inquiry. Re- 
jecting such a mode of treatment, Herr Palm^n meets it 
m a much fairer spirit. He asserts that migrants are 
led by the older anci stronger individuals among them, 
and, observing that most of those which stray from 
their right course are yearlings that have never before 
taken the journey, he ascribes the -due performance of 
the flight to "experience.'* But, granting the undis- 
puted truth of his observation, his assertion seems to be 
only partially proved. That the birds which lead the 
flock are the strongest is on all accounts most likely, 
but what is there to show that these are also the oldest 
of the concourse ? Besides this, there are many Birds 
which cannot be said to migrate in flocks. While 
Swallows, to take a sufficiently evident example, con- 
spicuously congregate in vast flocks and so leave our 
snores in large companies, the majority of our summer- 
visitors slip away almost unobserved, each apparently 
without concert with others. It is also pretty nearly 
certain that the same species of Bird does not migrate 
in the same manner at all times. 

SONG. 

Leaving then the subject of Migration, the next im- 
portant part of the economy of Birds to be considered is 
perhaps their Song — a word, however, in a treatise of 
this kmd to be used in a general sense, and not limited 
to the vocal sounds uttered by not more than a moiety of 
the feathered races which charm us by the strains they 
pour from their vibrating throat, — strains indeed denied 
Dy the scientific musician to come under cogni2ance as 
appertaining to his art, but strains which in all countries 
and in all ages have conveyed a feeling of true pleasure 
to the human hearer, and strains of which by conunon 
consent the Nightingale is the consummate master. It 
is necessary' in a jmilosophical spirit to regard every 
sound made by a Bird under the all-powerfiU influence 
of love or lust as a " Song." It seems impossible to 
draw any but an arbitrary hne between the deep boom- 
ing of the Emeu, the harsh cry of the Guillemot (which, 
when proceeding from a hundred or a thousand throats, 
strikes the distant ear in a confused murmur like the 
roar of a tumultuous crowd), the plaintive wail of the 
Plover, the melodious whistle of the Widgeon, " the 
Cock's shrill clarion," the scream of the Eagle, die hoot 
of the Owl, the solemn chime of the Bell-bird, the whip- 



cracking of the MinaHn, the Chafliiich*s joyous tmnt 
or the hoarse croak of the Raven, on the one hand, aad 
the bleating of the Snipe or the drumming of the Rofled 
Grouse, on the other. Innumerable are the forms 
which such utterances take. In many birds the sounds 
are due to a combination of vocal and instrumental pov- 
ers, or, as in the cases last mentioned, to the latter only. 
But, however produced — and of the machinery whereby 
they are accomplished there is not room here to speak 
— all have the tame cause and the same effect. The 
former has been already indicated, and the latter is its 
consummation. Almost coinstantaneously with the 
hatching of the Nightingale's brood, the son^ of 
the sire is hushed, and the notes to which we have 
for weeks hearkened with rapt admiration are 
changed to a guttural croak, expressive of alarm 
and anxiety, inspiring a sentiment of the most op- 
posite character. No greater contrast can be inu^incd, 
and no instance can be cited which more completely 
points out the purpose which " Son^" fulfils in the econ- 
omy of the bird, for if the Nightmg^le's nest at this 
earlv time be destroyed or its contents removed, the 
COCK speedily recovers his voice, and his favorite haunts 
again resound to his bewitching strains. For them his 
mate is content again to undergo the wearisome roand 
of nest-buiWin^ and incubatk>n. But should some days 
elai^e before disaster befalls their callow care, his con- 
stitution undergoes a change and no second attempt to 
rear a family is made. It would seem as though a mild 
temperature, and the abundance of food by which it is 
generally accompanied, prompt the physiological altera- 
tion which inspires the males of most birds to indulge in 
the ** Song " peculiar to them. Thus after the annual 
moult is accomplished, and this is believed to be the 
most critical epoch in the life of any bird, cock Thrushes, 
Skylarks, and others begin to sing, not indeed nith the 
jubilant voice of spring, but in an uncertain cadence 
which is quickly silenced by the supervention of coki 
weather. Yet some birds we have which, except during 
the season of moult, hard frost, and time of snow, sing 
almost all the year round. Of these the Redbreast and 
the Wren are familiar examples, and the Chifichaff re- 
peats its two-noted cry, almost to weariness, during the 
whole period of its residence in this country. 

NIDIFI CATION. 

Following or coincident with' the actions just named, 
and countless more besides, comes the real work of the 
breeding-season, to which they are but the prdudc or 
the accompaniment. Nidification is with most birds the 
beginning of this busJhess ; but with many it is a labor 
that is scamped if not shirked. Some of the Auk tribe 
place their smgle egg on a bare ledge of rock, where its 
peculiar conical shape is but a precarious safeguard 
when rocked by the wind or stirred by the throngine 
crowd of its parents' fellows. The Stone-Curlew aiw 
the Goatsucker deposit their eggs without the sli^tesi 
preparation of the soil on whichthey rest ; yet this is not 
done at haphazard, for no birds can be more constaat is 
selecting, almost to an inch, the very same spot wkkhyesr 
after year they choose for their procreant cradle. Ij 
markai contrast to such artless care stand the wondcrwl 
structures which others, such as theTailor-bird, thcBrt-. 
tie-Titmouse, or the Fantail- Warbler build for tlieooBi* 
fort or safety of their young. But every variety of daj** 
sition may be found in the Class. The Aptcrj^ seem W 
entrust its abnormally big egg to an excavation attOOI 
the roots of a tree-fern ; while a band of iemdtO** 
triches scrape holes in the desert -sand and them tojljj; 
miscuously dropping their eg^ cover them wilifcljW 
and leave the task of incubation to the male. wMp 
charges the duty thu3 imposed upon him bf aMHB 



B I R 



973 



and trnsts by day to the sun's rap for keeping up the 
Eiecdfiil, fostering warmth. The Megapodes raise a huge 
hotDedofdead leaves wherein they deposit their eggs 
and tne young are hatched withodt turtner care on the 
port of either parent Some of the Grebes and Kails 
seem to avail themselves in a less degree of the heat 
generated by v^etable decay, and dragging from the 
bottom or sides of the waters they freouent fragments of 
aaoatic plants form of them a rude nalf-floatmg mass 
'wnich is piled on some growing water- weed — but these 
buds do not spam the duties of maternity. Other birds, 
ma the Wooapeckers» hew holes in living trees, even 
when the timber is of considerable hardness, and therein 
establish their nursery. Some of the Swifts secrete from 
their salivary glands a fluid which rapidly hardens as it 
dries on exposure to the air into a stibttance resembling 
isinglass, and thus furnish the ** edible birds' nests,^ 
that are the delight of Chinese epicures. The Tailor- 
bird deliberately spins a thread ofcotton and therewith 
stitches together tne edges of a pair of leaves to make a 
receptacle for its nest. Beautiful too is the felt fabri- 
cated of fur or hairs by the various species of Titmouse, 
while many birds ingeniously weave into a compact mass 
both animal and vegetable nbres, forming an admirable 
non-conducting medium which guards the eggs from the 
extremes of temperatures outside. 

In the strongest contrast to these amiable qualities is 
the parasitic nature of the Cuckoos of the Old World 
and the Cow-birds of the New, but this peculiarity of 
theirs is so well known that to dwell upon it would be 
needless. Enough to say that the egg of the parasite is 
introduced into the nest of the dupe, and after the neces- 
sary incubation by the fond fool of a foster-mother the 
interloper successfully counterfeits the heirs, who perish 



miserably, victims of^his superior strength. The whole 
process has been often watcned, but the reflective natur- 
ust will pause to ask how such a state of things came 



about, and there is not much to satisfy his enquiry. 
Certain it is that some birds whether by mistake or stu- 
pidity do not unfrequently lay their eggs in the nests of 
others. 

The first thing which strikes the eye of one who be- 
holds a lar^ collection of egg-shells is the varied hues 
of the specimens. Hardly a shade known to the color- 
ist is not exhibited by one or more, and some of these 
tints have their beauty enhanced by the glossy surface on 
which they are displayed, by their harmonious blending, 
or bv the pleasing contrast of the pigments which form 
markings as often of the most irrecnlar as of regular 
shape. The depth of coloring whether original or 
supervening is obviously dependent in a great measure 
on the constitution or boduy condition of the parent. 
If a bird, bearing in its oviduct a fully-formed egg, be 
captured, that egg will speedily be laid under any cir- 
cumstances of inconvenience to which its producer shall 
be subjected, but such an tg^ is usually deficient in 
coloration — fright and captivity having arrested the 
natural secretions. In like manner over excitement or 
debility of the organs, the consec|uence of ill health, give 
rise to much and often very curious abnormality, ft is 
commonly believed that the older a bird is the more in- 
tensely colored will be its eggs, and to some extent this 
beUef^a|^>ears to be true. 

The composition of this pigment has long excited 
much curiosity, and it has been commonly and rather 
crudely ascribed to the secretions of the blood or bilt, 
but very recently unexpected lichthas been shed upon 
the subject by the researches of^Mr. Sorby (Pror. Zool, 
Sac. 1875. p. 351), who, using the method of spectrum- 
analysis, has now ascertained the existence oisiven well- 
Wri«, Irtsugccs in the «Jori«g.«.tter of egg, to 



the admixture of which in certain proportions all their 
tints are due. 

Inform eggs vary very much, and this is someimts 
observable in examples not only of the same species but 
even from the same mother, yet a certain amount of 
resemblance is usuallv to be traced according to the 
natural group to which the parents belong. Those of 
the Owls {StrigidtF) and of some of the Picaria — 
especially those which lay the glossy eggs — are often 
apparently spherical, though it is probable that if tested 
matlvematically none would be found truly so — indeed it 
may be asserted that few eggs are strictly symmetrical, 
however nearly they may seem so, one side bulging out, 
though very su^^tly, more than the other. The really 
ffval form, with which we are most familiar, needs no 
remark, but this is capable of infinite variety caused by 
the relative position and proportion of the major and 
minor axes. 

Incubation is performed, as is well known, by the 
female of nearly all Birds, but with most of the Passer es 
and many others the male seems to share her tedious 
duties, and among the RattUey apparently without ex- 
ception, the cock takes the office wholly on himself. 

The more or less protracted business of reproduction 
being ended there forthwith follows in the case of nearly 
all Birds a process of the most vital consequence to 
them. This is the Moult or shedding of their oki and 
often weather-beaten feathers to be replaced by an en- 
tirely new suit It is probably the severest strain to 
which bird-life is exposed, and, to judge from its cflfects 
on our domesticated pets, produces a greater mortality 
than an occasional want of proper or even any food does. 
Important however as are its bearing on every indi- 
vidual of the whole Class, the subject is one which has 
been sadly neglected by ornithological writers and, with 
one exception, we are not aware of any connected series 
of observations on Moult within the whole range of 
their literature. The structure and mode of growth of 
feathers has been very well studied and described by 
several investigators, and must be especially treated in 
introducing the subject of Ptervlography— or the dis- 
position of the various plumea patches on the bird's 
body — which, having been founa to be a most useful 
auxiliary in Classification, is deferred untfl that comes to 
be discussed under the article "Ornithology.^ For 
the present we have briefly to consider the different 
phases which the process of Moulting offers. 

As a general rule all Birds are subject to an annual 
Moult, and this, as above stated, commonly begins im- 
mediately on the close of the breeding-season, but, as 
wUl be explained further on, there are some which un- 
dergo in addition a second or even a third partial change 
of plumage, and it is possible that there may be others 
still more exceptional, our information respecting these, 
however, is too meagre to make it worth while saying 
anything here about them. It must be acknowledged 
that with regard to the great majority of forms we can 
only judge by analogy, and though it may well be that 
some interesting deviations from the general rule exist 
of which we are altogether ignorant, yet when we con- 
sider that the Ratita^ so far as observed, moult exactly 
in the same manner as other birds, the uniformity of the 
annual change may be almost taken for granted. 

BIRDS OF PARADISE, a woup ofPasserine Birds 
inhabiting New Guinea and the adjacent islands, so 
named by the Dutch voyagers in allusion to the bril- 
liancy of their plumage, and to the current belief that, 
possessing neither wings nor feet, thev passed their lives 
in the air, sustained on their ample plumes, resting only 
at lone intervals suspended from the branches of lofty 
trees by the wire-like feathers of the tail, and drawing 
their food ** from the dews ofheaTen and the nectar of 



974 



BIR 



flowers." Such stories obtained credence from the fact 
that so late as the year 1760, when Linnaeas named the 
principal species apoda^ or " footless," no perfect speci- 
men had been seen in Europe, the natives who sola the 
skins to coast traders invariably depriving them of feet 
and wings. The birds now osoally included under this 
name belong to two distinct families, the Paradiseida 
and the Epinuuhidrr^ the former or true Birds of Para- 
dise being closely allied to the Crows, the latter or 
Lone-billeid Paradise Birds being usual^ classed, from 
the form and size of their bills, with the Hoopoes. 
Both families occupy the same geographical area, 
and are alike distinguished by the enormous de- 
velopment of certain parts ot their plumage. Of 
the true birds of paradise, the largest is the 
Great Emerald Bird {Paradisfa apoda)^ about the 
size of the common jay. Its head and neck are covered 
with short thick-set feathers, resembling velvet pile, of a 
bright straw color above, and a brilliant emerald green 
beneath. From under the shoulders on each side springs 
a dense tuft of golden-orange plumes, about two feet m 
length, which the bird can raise at pleasure, so as to 
enclose the greater part of its body. The two centre 
tail feathers attain a length of 54 inches, and, being des- 
titute of webs, have a thin wire-like appearance. This 
splendid plumage, however, belongs only to the adult 
males, the females being exceedingly plain birds of a 
nearly uniform dusky orown color, and possessing 
neither plumes nor lengthened tail feathers. The young 
males at first resemble the females, and it is only after 
the fourth moulting, according to A. R. Wallace, who 
recently studied those birds in their native haunts, that 
they assume the perfect plumage of their sex, which, 
however, they retain permanently afterwards, and not 
during the breeding season only as was formerly sup- 
posed. At that season the males assemble, in numbers 
varying from twelve to twenty, on certain trees, and 
there disport themselves so as to display their magnifi- 
cent plumes in presence of the females. Wallace in his 
Malay Archipelago^ vol. ii. , thus describes the attitude 
of the male birds at one of these " sacaleli," or dancing 
parties, as the natives call them; "their wings," he 
says, " are raised vertically over the back, the bead is 
bent down and stretched out, and the long plumes are 
raised up and expanded till thev form two magnificent 
golden fans striped with deep red at the base, and fading 
off into the pale brown tint of the finely-divkled and 
softlv- waving points; the whole bird is then over- 
shadowed by tnem, the crouching body, yellow head, 
and emerald green throat, forming but the foundation 
and setting to the golden glory which waves above." 
It is at this season tlmt those birds are chiefly captured. 
The bird-catcher having found a tree thus selected for 
a "dancing party," builds a hut among the lower 
branches in which to conceal himself. As soon as the 
male birds have begun their graceful antics, he shoots 
them one after the other, with blunt arrows, for the 
purpose of stunning them and bringing them to the 
^ound without drawing blood, which would injure 
Uieir plumage ; and so eager are those birds it their 
courtship tluit almost all the males are thus brought 
down before the danger is perceived. The natives 
in preparing the skins remove both feet and wings, 
so as to give more prominence to the commer- 
cially valuable tuft of plumes. They also remove the 
skull, and the skin is uien dried in a smoky hut. The 
Great Emerald Bird, so far as yet known, is only found 
in the Aru Islands. The Lesser Bird of Paradise 
{Paradisea minor)^ though smaller in sise and somewhat 
less brilliant in plumage, in other respects closely re- 
sembles the pceoseding species. It is also more com- 
mon^ and much more widely distributed, bemg found 



throngfaont New Gidnea and the neighboring isbiKi& 
Its plumes are those most generally used as ornaments 
for tidies' head-dresses. It has been brought alir* to 
Europe, and has been known to live for two yeaxs in the 
gardens of the Zoological Society of London. Bodi speoes 
are omnivorous, feeding voraciously on fruits and in- 
sects. They are stronc^^ active birds, and are believed 
to be polygamous. The King Bird of Para£se 
{Cuinnurus regius) is one of the smadlest and most 
brilliant of the group, and is specially distinguished by 
its two middle tail feathers, the ends of which alone are 
webbed, and coiled into a beautiful spiral disc of a 
lovely emerald green. In the Red Bird of Panuiise 
(Paradisea rubra) the same feathers are greatly elongated 
and destitute of webs, but differ from those in the other 
species, in being flattened out like ribbons. They are 
only found in the small island of Waigiou off the coast 
of New Guinea. Of the Long-billed Paradise Birds 
{Epimackida) the most remarkable is that known as the 
** Twelve-wired" {Seleiuides alba)^ its delicate yellow 
plumes, twelve of which are transformed mto wire-like 
oristles nearly a foot long, affording a striking contrast 
to the dark metallic tints of the rest of its plumage. 
Like the Paradiseida they feed on insects and fruits. 

BIRKBECK, George, an English physician and 
philanthropist, bom at Settle in Yorkshire m iTTd He 
early evinced a strong predilection for scientific pur- 
suits ; and in 1799, aftei* graduating as doctor of medi- 
cine, he was appointed to the chair of natural phOoso- 
}>hv at the Andersonian Institution of Glasgow. In the 
ollowing year he delivered, for the benefit of the work- 
ing-classes, a gratuitous course of scientific lectures, 
which were continued during the two following years 
and proved eminently successful. He removed to Lon- 
don in 1804, and there he endeavored to prosecute his 
philanthropic schemes, at first without much encour- 
agement, but ultimately with marked success. In 1827 
he contributed to found the Mechanics' Institute, hs 
coadjutors being Bentham, Wilkie, Cobbett, and otheis. 
He was appointed director of the institute, which be 
had originatay endowed with the sum of £3700, and held 
the oflice till his death in December 1S41. 

BIRKENHEAD, a seaport, market-town, extra- 
parochial district, township, and parliamentary bor- 
ough, in the hundred of Wirral and west division of 
Cheshire, England, is situated on the western bank of 
the Mersey, (Erectly opposite Liverpool It is of con- 
siderable antiquity, its history dating from 1150, when a 
priory was founded in honor of St. Mary and St. James 
by the third baron of Dunham Maney, and had consid- 
erable endowments. 

Birkenhead began to develop itself as a market-town 
in the year 183^, when an Act was obtained for paving, 
lighting, watching, cleansing, and improving the town, 
and for regulating the police and establishing a market 
By this Act the Improvement Commissioners were 
originally constituted, and at that time included ^ 
mayor, bailiffs, and four aldermen of Liverpool Imme- 
diately after the gtssing of this Act the town made 
rapid progress. The principal streets were laid out on 
a regular plan, intersecting each other at right an|^ 
A line of tramway, the mst laul in England, affords 
every facility of street communication. HamHtoi 
Square, which occupies the summit of the rising gronnd 
near the river, forms the basis or starting point for dl 
the parallel or rectangular lines of streets^ The hovMf 
of tne square are four stories in hdght, with ttOM 
fronts, the centres and ends of each terrace bang i*- 
lieved or ornamented with columns and porticos in fim 
Tuscan order of architecture. 

Birkenhead Park, opened in 1847, occnpiet Wfft 
acres of ground^ and was laid out at a cost (iiiclilSS. 



BIR 



975 



die knd) of /I4(vooo. Birkenhead Cemetery, on 
Flaybrick HmT occupies 20}4 acres of ground, and 
cost abont /4o,ooo. 

The late jVI r. William Laird, whose name is so well 
known in connection with iron shipbuilding, first con- 
ceived the idea of turning to advantage the capabilities 
of Wallasey Pool for the formation of a dock. After a 
lapse of many years, the Commissioners of Birkenhead, 
ahve to the advantages which this project would confer 
upon the town, employed the late Mr. Rendel as their 
engineer, and applied to Parliament for powers to con- 
struct the necessarv works. The foundation-stone of 
the new docks was laid in October 1S44, and the first 
dock was opened by the late Lord Morpeth on 5th 
April 1847. Subsequently, the dock powers of the 
Commissioners were entrusted to a corporate body of 
trustees who afterwards transferred the property to 
the corporation of Liverpool; and ultimately it 
was vested in the Mersey Docks and Harbor 
Board, a corporation created by the Act of 
1857 for the management of the docks on both 
tides of the Mersey. At that time the area of the dock 
space open and in use in Birkenhead was about 7 acres. 

The entrances to the Birkenhead Docks are^ijable of 
docking the largest class of steamers afloat. The mass- 
ive iron bridges across the dock entrances are opened 
and closed by hydraulic power, which is likewise appHed 
to the cranes, coal hoists, warehouse lifts, and other 
appliances about the docks. At the extreme western 
end of the West Float are three large graving dock.s, 
two about 750 feet in length, and 130 feet and 80 feet 
in width respectively, and the largest, now in course of 
construction, measuring about 900 feet in length and 130 
feet in width. 

In 1847 the Birkenhead Dock Warehousing Com- 
Dony opened their first warehouses, capable of storing 
00,000 tons of goods. Each block is detached, and the 
whole premises are surrounded by a wall 12 feet high. 
A railway branch, called the Dock Extension Railway, 
is carried round the property. The company also bmlt 
blocks of houses for their workmen, known as the Dock 
Cottages. This property is now in the hands of the 
Mersey Docks ana Harbor Board. 

The commerce of Birkenhead is in sdl respects a 
branch of that of Liverpool, and chiefly devoted to coal, 
guano, and grain, — the quantity of coal alone exported 
being over one million tons per annum. 

BIRMINGHAM, the fourth town in size and popu- 
lation in England, and the fifth in the United Kingdom, 
is situated at the extreme north-west of the county of 
Warwick, and is 102 miles in a straight line N. W. of 
London, from which it is distant 112 miles by the 
North- Western Railway. The Roman Road, known 
as the Ikenield Street, runs through the town. On the 
north Birmingham touches Staffordshire, and on the 
south and west Worcestershire, the suburbs of the 
town extending largely into both these counties — Har- 
bome and Handswortn beins in the former and Balsall, 
Moseley, and Yardley in the latter. The borough itself, 
however — both parhmentery and municipal, the bound- 
aries being identical — is wholly in the county of War- 
wick. It covers an area of 8420 acres (of which J900 
are built upon), and includes the whole of the parishes 
of Birmingham and Edgbaston, and about one-third of 
the parish of Aston. It is nearly six miles long, has an 
average breadth of 3 miles, is 21 miles in circumference, 
and luis 190 miles of street and roads. The population, 
at the census of 187 1, was 343,ocx) ; and in June 1875 it 
was estimated br the r^strar-general at 360,00a 

The town is built upon the New Red Sandstone, on 
a boldlv undulated site, varying from 200 to 600 feet 
above tne sea-leveL The plan of the town is irregular, 



and the streets are mostly winding and many of them 
somewhat narrow. In the centre, however, is a large 
open space, known as the Bull Ring and High Street, at 
tne foot of which stands the mother church of St. Mar- 
tin, and in which is situated the Market-Hall, one of the 
largest buildings of its kind in the kingdom. 

0/ Public BuildingSy the Town Hall, a nobly pro- 
portioned and impressive edifice, is the principal. It 
stands at the top of New Street, and on three sides is 
isolated from all other building by broad and handsome 
streets. The hall, completed m 1850 at a total cost of 
;£'52,ooOi is severely cLassic, modelled upon a Greek 
temple. On one side of the Town Hall are the build- 
ings of the Midland Institute and the Free Libraries 
(of Italian design) occupying the whole of Ratcliff Place, 
wHh fronts to Paradise Street and Edmund Street. A 
new Art Gallery is in course of erection, fronting the 
latter street. At the back of the Town Hall is the site 
of the new building of the Mason College (Gothic), and 
in front of the hall, in Paradise Street, are Christ 
Church (classic), the Queen's College (Gothic), and the 
Post-Office. On the side of the hall, in Ann Street, 
opi>osite to the Midland Institute, are the new Cor- 
porate Buildings (Italian), now bein^ erected at a cost 
of nearly ;£'200,ooa These will give accommodation 
for the Town Council, law courts, public offices, and the 
mayor of the borough. Lower down New Street is the 
building of the Royal Society of Artists (classic), with a 
noble portico; then comes the Exchange (Gothic) in 
Stephenson Place; and at the bottom of the latter 
street is the Central Railway station, used by the North- 
western, the Midland, and their branch railways, and 
fironted by the Queen's Hotel. The station is more 
than a quarter of a mile in length. 

From an early period Birmingham has been a seat \oi 
manufactures in metal. Hutton, the historian of the 
town, claims for it Saxon or even British antiquity in 
this respect, but without the shadow of foundation. The 
great staple of Birmingham is metal-working in all its 
various forms. The chief variety is the brass-working 
trade, which employs several hundred masters, and 
about 10,000 work-people, and consumes probably 50,- 
Goo tons of metal annually, which is worked up into an 
ihfinity of articles of ornament and utility. Iron-work- 
ing, though largely carried on, is a much less important 
trade, works of this kind being chiefly establishea in the 
Staflfordshire district. JeweUerv, gold, silver, and gilt 
come next to brass. Then follow small arms of all 
kinds, some of the larger establishments being capable 
of turning out 2000 stand per week. Buttons, hooks 
and eyes, pins, and other articles used for dress, consti- 
tute a large class of manufactures. Glass, especially 
table glass, is a renowned staple of the town. Screws, 
nails, &c., are made in enormous quantities; indeed, 
Birmingham has a monopoly of the English screw trade. 
Steel pens are also a specialty — as much as, probably, 15 
tons or more of steel being the weekly consumption of 
these articles; the largest maker. Sir Josiah Mason, 
rolls 5 tons weekly for his own consumption, and has 
about 60 tons of pens constandyin manufacture in vari- 
ous stages. About 20,000,000 pens are made weekly in 
the town, and are sold at prices ranges from i>^d. to 
I2S. per gross of 12 dozen. The fact that each gross re- 
quires 144 pieces of steel to go through 12 different pro- 
cesses, renders this cheapness of sale one of the greatest 
marvels of manufacturing skill and industry. Electro- 
plating, first established about 1848 by Messrs. Elking- 
ton and Mason, is one of the leading trades. 

Wealth is more evenly distributed than in most other 
places. There are no colossal fortunes in Birmingham, 
and comparatively few large ones, and of these very few 
sure made by speculative operations. To compensate 



976 



BIR — BIS 



for these dtstinctioitt there is an unntniny large comfort- 
able class — people of good though not excessive in- 
comes derived from solid trade, or from savings made 
by hard personal and associated work. This class, touch- 
ing the actually wealthy on one side, byeasv and almost 
imperceptible stajges touches the actual woridng-class on 
the other, and this latter class is constantly rising into 
the middle rank. 

The Birmingham work-people, in their vrmy, are 
courteous and helpfoL This is probably owin^ to the 
free and open and common discussion of subjects of 
I>olitical and social interest en^eed in without distinc- 
tion of class. The same principle is adopted educa- 
tionally — in the Midland Institute, for example — the 
Act of Parliament which established the Institute pro- 
viding that the governing council shall always include 
artizan members. Another noticeable characteristic of 
the town is the development of means of self-instruction 
and of self-help. Birmingham was amongst the earliest 
places to establish a mechs^cs' institution, the place of 
which is now more efficiently supplied by the Midland 
Institute. Birmingham, again, was the birthplace of 
the freehold land and building societies, by which work- 
men are enabled, on easy terms, to acquire houses of 
their own ; and in addition to these institutions, which 
are numerous .and flourishing, it has a very large number 
of sick and friendly societies, savings-clubs, and other 
organizations of a provident kind, — more in proportion 
to population than, probably, any other of the large 
towns in England. 

Owing to Its rapid expansion, and the consequent new- 
ness of most of the public and other buildings, Birm- 
ingham is often snppc»ed to be a modem town. It is 
really one of the oldest in the country, and was in ex- 
istence as a community in the Saxon period. 

BIRMINGHAM, the name of several towns in the 
United States, of these the most important are: i. Bir- 
mingham, Jefferson County, Ala. This town is another 
American instance of marvelous growth and develop- 
ment. But a few years ago there was no town at all 
here. To-day there is a flourishing city of 41 ,000 people 
and millions of capital invested in iron and steel manu- 
factures. 2. Birmingham, New Haven County, Coniv, 
a town of 7,000 people, having railroad and telegraph 
facilities and some manufactures and commerce. 

BIRON, Armand de Gontault, a baron and mar- 
shal of France, and a celebrated general, who signal- 
ized himself by his valor and conduct in several sieges 
and battles in the i6th century. He was made grand 
master of the artilleiy in 1569, and commanded at the 
siege of Rochelle, and in Gmenne. He was one of the first 
who declared for Henry IV. ; he brought a part of Nor- 
mandy under his subjection, and dissuaded him from re- 
tiring to England or Rochelle. Biron was killed by a 
cannon-ball at the siege of Epemay, July 26, 1592. 
He was a man of considerable literary attainments^ and 
used to cany a pocket-book, in whidi he noted everything 
that appeared remarkable. This gave rise to a proverb at 
court, when a person happened to say anything uncom- 
mon, "You have found tniat in Biron's pocket-book." 

BIRON, Charles de Gontault, son of the above 
and bom in 1562, created duke of Biron and admiral of 
France by Henry IV., was a man of great intrepidity, 
but fickle and treacherous. In 160 1 he was sent as 
ambassador to the court of queen Elizabeth to announce 
his royal master's marriage with Mary of Medici ; but 
being discovered in a treasonable correspondence with 
Spain, he was beheaded in the Bastille at Paris, July 31, 
1602. The extent to which he had carried treason was 
not great, and Henry by sparing his life would WOt have 
shown undue clemency. 

9WCSJ^IMRVP, SecBASYWN, 



BISACCIA, a dtj of Italy, in the Prindpato Ultcrf- 
ore, 60 miles E. of Naples. It is a bishopric in con- 
junction with St. Angelo, and contidns 5342 inhabitanii 

BISCAY, or Vizcaya, one of the three Basqae prov- 
inces of Spain, with the title of Sei^ory. It is Dotmded 
on the N. by the bay to which it fi[ive8 its name, E. by 
Guipuzcoa, S. by Alava, and W. by Santander. Its 
area is 845 square miles, and its popularion i83,09& In 
minerals Biscay is very rich. Iron of the finest quaBty 
is found in every part, and forms a main article of ex- 
port. The best mines are those of Somorostro, ncir 
the coast. The amount obtained in 1S66 was about 
80,000 tons. Lead, zinc, alum, and sulphur, are also 
present in smaller quantities.; and marble, lime, and 
sandstone are abundant. The manufacture of the iron 
ore is the chief branch of industry ; bnt porcebun, lin- 
ens, copper and brass wares, ropes, ana leather, are 
also produced. The fisheries are actively prosecuted 
along the coast by a hardy race of fishers, who were the 
first of their craft in Europe to pursue the whak, for- 
merly abundant in the Bay of Biscay. The name Rs- 
cay IS not unfrequently employed geographically eqmvt- 
lent to Basque, in that case including tne three prov- 
inces of Biscay proper, Guipuzcoa, and Alava. 

BISCAY, Bay of, in French theGolfe de Gascogne, 
and the Roman Sinus Aauitanicus, an extensive gmf or 
hxf of the Atlantic, enclosed by the northern coast of 
Spain and the western coast of France. It extends 
from the island of Ushant, on the coast of Finist^ to 
Cape Ortegal on the north of Galicia. In the Spanish 
portion of the bay the water is about 200 fathoms deep, 
while in the French portion it is only 20 fathoms. Nay* 
igation is impeded by strong westerly winds, and by 
Rennel*s Current, which sets in from the west and 
sweeps along the southern and eastern shores sometimes 
at a rate of 27 miles a day. The Loire, Charente, 
Gironde, and Adour, besides numerous smaller stnams 
from the Spanish mountains, fall into the bay, 

BISCEGLIA, perhaps the ancient Nattolum, a forti- 
fied seaport of Italy, in the province of Terra di Bari, 
situated on a rocky promontory on the Adriatic, 21 
mUes W.N.W. of Ban. 

BISCH WEILER, a town of Alsace, 14 miles N. of 
Strasburg, on the railway from Hagenau. 

BISCUIT, See Baking. 

BISHOP, the title of an ecclesiastical dignitary set 
over the presbyters and deacons at a very ear^ period 
in the Christian church. The word is derived from the 
Saxon bisceofy which is a corruption of the Greek word 
episcoposy wnich signifies an "overlooker" or "o?cr- 
seer," and the churches in which the order of bishops is 
recognized as distinct from and superior to the order of 
presbyters are styled " Episcopal cnurches." The ear^ 
nistory of the Episcopal order is obscure, but it wodd 
appear that the first bishops were established m the 
cnief cities of Christendom, and each bishop had a cer- 
tain territorial district placed under his superintendence, 
whence the city was termed the see {sedetS of ^ 
bishop, and the district his parish, and subsequently 
his diocese. In course of time the districts assigned to 
the first bishops became too populous, whereupon ^ 
clergy of each diocese, as the case mi^^t be, appev to 
have assembled and subdivided the diocese, ana to lis** 
selected a second bishop, and so bishops and jBwgg 
were multiplied, according to the wants of the dmRP^ 
until it ¥ras thought expedient to reserve tht ijjfc^g 
erecting new bishoprics to proidndal counals»tH|W 
reservation was made a rule of the chnrch * 
of the Council of Sardica. Meanwhile th 
the new sees had grouped themselves roond 
of the more ancient sees, who exercised 
cor^ spiritiM^ authority as primates, 



BIS 



^n 



their cotmcas; and as some of the great cities in which 
the sees of the first bishops had been estabhshed were 
distinguished by the title of " metropolis,** or mother- 
city, and were in fact the chief cities of civil provinces 
of the Roman empire, the bishops of those sees came 
to be distinguised by tfie title of metropolitan bishops, 
and exercised a superior authority in the councils of the 
church in proportion to the greater importance of their 
respective sees. This superior dignity of the metro- 
pofitan bishops over the others was formally recognized 
at the Council of Niaea as being in accordance with 
custom. Upon the establishment of Christianity in the 
Roman empire a coercive jurisdiction was engrafted on 
the spiritual superiority of the metropolitan, and the 
district over which the metropolitan exercised this juris- 
diaion was termed his province, the earliest ecclesiasti- 
cal provinces being for the most part conterminous with 
the civil provinces of the empire. From the circum- 
stance that there was no metropolitan city in Western 
Africa, the term metropolitan was never adopted in the 
Carthaginian Church, the senior bishop of that church 
being termed the primate, and having precedence and 
authority as such over the other bishops. ' 

In the Church of Rome the Pope claims of right the 
appointment of all the bishops ; but the exercise of this 
ngnt is modified by concordats with the sovereigns of the 
respective states. In France, since the concordat be- 
tween Pope Leo X. and King Francis I., the sovereign 
has had the exclusive right of nominating the bishops, 
but the nomination is subject to the Pope^ confirmation. 
In Austria (with the exception of four bishoprics) in 
Bavaria, in Spain, and in Portugal, the bishops are also 
nominated by the sovereign. In some countries the 
bishops areelected by the chapter of the cathedral church, 
as in Wiirtemberg, or by the bishops of the province, 
as in Ireland. In England, in the United States of 
America, and in Belgium, the Pope selects one out of a 
list of candidates submitted to him by the chapter. In 
all cases the bishop-nominate or the bishop-elect, as the 
case may be, has to obtain from the Holy See certain 
letters, entitled provisions, to authorize his consecration, 
and to recommend him to the protection of the sovereign 
and to the good offices of his metropoUtan. 

In the Church of Russia, after its separation from that 
of Constantinople, the right to elect a bishop was for 
some centuries vested in a synod of bishops, but by a 
regulation of the Emperor Peter the Great, the Holy 
Synod was restricted to recommend two j^ersons to the 
sovereign for him to select one of them to be bishop. 

In the Church of the Levant, properly called the 
Greek Church, which is governed by the four patriarchs 
of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, 
each patriarch has the right ol confirming the election 
of the bishops within his patriarchate ; but the firman 
or barat of the sultan is likewise necessary to give full 
authority to the bishops after their confirmation. 

^ The mshops of the Church of England are twenty- 
eight in number, two of them being metropolitans, 
namely, Canterbury and York, who enjoy the more dig- 
nified title of archoishop, and have a special precedence 
assigned to them by law (see Archbishop). The 
twenty-six diocesan oishops, with the exception of the 
bishop of the Isle of Man, who is desi^atea the bishop 
of Sodor and Man, are lords of parliament, and take 
precedence of the barons in the House of Lords ; but 
the junior bishop for the time being is, by statute, dis- 
^titled from being summoned to parliament. From 
this disqualification the bishops of London, Durham, 
«nd Winchester are exempt. These three bishops have 
precedence over one anotner in the order in which their 
names are above mentioned, and they precede all the 
^I'ther bishops, the latter Uking precedence of one 



another according to the date of their appointment, 
l^he junior bishop who has a seat in parliament acts as 
chaplain to the House of Lords. 

In the Church of England the bishops exercise certain 
spiritual fimctions which are held not to be within the 
competence of the presbjrters. They alone can admin- 
ister the rite of confirmation to baptized persons, and 
they alone can ordain candidates for the sacred ministry. 
These functions the bishops exercise in virtue of their 
order, but they are also empowered by law to exercise a 
certain jurisdiction over all consecrated places and over 
all ordained persons. 

BISHOP, Sir Henry Rowley, musical composer, 
was bom in London on the i8th November 1786. He 
received his artistic training from Francisco Bianchi, at 
whose instance, probably, he was emplojred to write his 
first work, the ballet of Tamerhn et Bajazet^ produced 
at Co vent Garden in 1806. This proved successful, 
and was followed within two years by several others, of 
which Caractacusy a pantomimic ballet, written for 
Drury Lane, may be named. In 1809 his first opera. 
The Circassian's Bride, was produced at Drury Lane ; 
but by a singular misfortune the theatre was burned 
down after one performance, and the score of the work 
perished in the names. His next work of importance, 
the opera of The Maniac, written for the Lyceum in 
1810, established his reputation, and probably secured 
for him the appointment of composer for Covent Gar- 
den theatre. 1 he numerous worlcs— 'operas, burlettas, 
cantatas, incidental music to Shakespeare's pla3rs, &c. 
— which he composed while in this position, are now in 
great part forgotten. His English adaptations, or 
rather mangled versions, of Mozart's Don Giovanni 
and Figaro, and Rossini's // Barbiere and Guillaume 
Tell, were certainly no true service to art. It seems 
almost incredible that a man of Bishop's undoubted 
genius should have been so misguided as to suppress the 
mcomparable Figaro overture of Mozart in favor of 
one of his own.. In 184 1 he was appointed to the 
" Reid** chair of music in the University of Edinburgh, 
but he resigned the office in 1843. He was knighted by 
the queen in 1842, being the first musician who ever 
received that honor. In 1848 he succeeded ^ Dr. 
Crotch in the chair of music at Oxford. The music for 
the ode on the occasion of the installation of Lord 
Derby as chancellor of the university (1853) proved to 
be his last work. He died on the 30th April 1855 in 
impoverished circumstances, though few composers 
ever made more by their labors. Bishop's name will 
live in connection with his numerous glees, songs, etc. 

BISHOP-AUCKLAND, a market-town of England, 
in the county of Durham, 11 miles south-west of the 
city of Durham. 

BISHOP-STORTFORD, a market-town of Eng- 
land, on the eastern border of Herts, ii miles E.N.E. 
of Hertford, and 32 miles by railway from London. 

BISHOP- WEARMOUTH, a township of Durham 
in England, now incorporated in the parliamentary 
borough of Sunderland. See Sunderland. 

BIS KARA, or Biskra, a town of Algeria, in the 
province of Constantine, and the most important mili- 
tary post of the Sahara. Population in 1872, 7367. 

BISMARCK, a town of North Dakota, in Burley Ca, 
the second largest in point of population in the State. It 
^ is a railway centre, and has a population of 5,000. 

BISMUTH. This metal appears to have been un- 
known to the older metallurgical writers, it having been 
first noticed by Agricola, who speaks of it as a form of 
lead, and describes the method of separating it from its 
associated minerals by liauidation. 

The principal minerals containing bismuth are:— I. 
Native bbmuth, essentially the pure metal, having all 



978 



BIS — BIT 



the properties described below. This, the most im- 
portant ore, occurs in connection with nickel and cobalt 
ores at Schneeberg, Saxony, at Wheal Spamon in Corn- 
wall, similarly associated, and with tin ores in the mines 
of the St. Juit district. It is also found in some quan- 
tity in Bolivia. 2. Tetradymite, or telluric bismuth, a 
compound in variable proportions with the isomorphous 
element tellurium. This contains from 60 to 80 per 
cent, of bismuth, 15 to 35 per cent, of tellurium, and 
from 3 to 5 per cent, of sulpliur. It occurs usually in 
aiisociation with gold ores ; the principal localities are 
Schenrmitz and Retzbanya in Hungary, the gold mining 
district of Virginia and North Carolina, Cahfomia and 
other western .States of America. 

Bismuth may be readily obtained in crystals by jwur- 
ing it when melted into a heated iron ladle, and cooling 
it until a crust is formed on the surface, which must 
then be pierced by a red-hot iron rod, and the liquid 
metal poured off. The solidified portion adhering to 
the ladle is found to be covered with hopper-shaped 
crystals, which are usually beautifully irised, owing to 
the formation of a thin film of oxide on the surface, 
showing the colors of thin plates. This coloring is only 
obtained when the metal is quite free from arsenic It 
may be purified by melting with about 10 per cent, of 
nitre, and keeping it constantly stirred at a temperature 
not much above its melting point, whereby tne more 
oxidizable metals are removed and form a slag at the 
surface. Another method of purifying it from arsenic 
is by fusing it with from 3 to 5 per cent, of zinc, cover- 
ing the surface with charcoal to prevent oxidation of the 
zinc, which takes off the whole of the arsenic, and is 
subseouently removed bv treatment with hydrochloric 
acid, the purified bismuth remaining insoluble. When 
prepared oy any of these processes. Bismuth is a hard, 
brittle metal, and the fracture is highly crystalline and 
white, with a perceptible red tinge by reflected light. 
The crystalline form is rhombohedral, the angle of the 
primary rhombohedron being 87° 40', or very close to a 
cube. The specific gravity is 9.83, but when subjected 
to great p:c:sure the density is reduced to 9.6. The 
melting point is 264^^ C. 

Bismuth i.iites readily with cdier metals, the alloys 
being remarkable for their ready lunibility, and by their 
property of e.^u-iding on colicuficction. Bismuth may 
be employed in3tcad of los^ (for tho asszy of gold and 
silver by cupellation, rs Chc mdtedoxidc is ribsorbed by 
bone ash in exjictly the ca!-0 manneir as litharge. 

BISON, a genus of RuminciC Manmials belonging to 
the family Bovid^y and comprismgfwo widely separated 
species — the European ana Americnii Bisons. They 
are distinguished from ether 'bovine animals by the 
greater breadth and convexity orchcir foreheads, supe- 
rior length of limb, and the longer r>pina1 processes of the 
dorsal vertebrae, which, with tho povcrful muscles 
attached for the support of tho massive ?iead, form a 
protuberance or hump on t!;e chouldcrs. The bisons 
nave also fourteen pairs of ribs, while the common ox 
has only thirteen. The forehead and neck of both 
species are covered with long, sha|^ hair of a dark 
brown color ; and in winter the >^ole of the neck, 
shoulders, and hump are similarly clothed, so as to 
form a " curly felted mane. " This mane in the Euro- 
pean species disappears in cummer ; but in the American 
bison It is to a considcrarb extent ;3crsistent. The 
European Bison ( Bison bonassus ), or Aurochs of the 
Germans, is the largest existing European quadrupeds, 
measuring about 10 feet long, exclusive of the tail, and 
standing nearly 6 feet high, formerly it was abundant 
throughout Europe, as is proved by its fossil remains 
found on the Continent and in England, associated with 
those of the extinct mammoth and rhinoceros. These 



remains, while mdicatin^ larger proportions in the 
ancient aurochs than in those now living, do not, in 
Professor Owen's opinion, exhibit any satisfactory 
specific distinction. Csesar mentions the aurochs as 
abounding, along with the now extinct ^Ar/riiwif/tr/iM, 
in the forests of Germany and Belgium, where it appears 
to have been occasionally captured, and afterwards 
exhibited alive in the Roman amphitheatres. At that 
period, and long after, it seems to have been conunon 
throughout Central Europe, the Caucasus, and the 
Carpathian Moimtains. It is now only found in one of 
the forests of Lithuania, where it is saved from imine- 
diate extinction by the protection of the emperor of 
Russia, but notwithstanaing this it is gradually dying 
out. The American Bison ( Bison anuricemus ) has its 
home on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, 
being seldom found to the west of these, and rarely to 
the east of the Appalachian range. Northward it 
extends to lat 63°, and southward as far as New 
Mexico. These bisons or buffaloes, now almost extinct, 
roamed in enormous herds over the western prdrics, 
in quest of fresh pastures, being specially fond of the 
tender grass that springs up after a prairie fire. The 
two sexes live in separate herds during the greater part 
of the year, althougn one or two a^^ bulk, it is said, 
always accompany the females. During the rutting 
season when the sexes come together, the bulls enga^ 
in fierce fights among themselves, and at such seasons rt 
is highly dangerous to approach them. At other tiroes 
they are shy, and retreat before man ; but when 
wounded they become furious, and then all the dexterity 
of the practised hunter is needed to make his retreat; 
The Indians capture them in various ways; by hunting' 
on horseback, and shooting them with bows and arrows, 
or with fire-arms; by snaring them within inunense 
enclosures of snow, which the bisons are unable to over- 
leap ; or by attracting the herd towards a precipice, and 
then setting it in motion from behind, so that those in 
front are pushed irresistibly forward and over. The 
American Bison, is rapidly diminishing before the 
advance of the white settler ; and should man in the 
meantime not succeed in domesticating it, it will prob- 
ably ere long share the fate which threatens its Euro- 
pean congener. To the Indian the bison has hitherto 
been indispensable as an article of food, and for the 
many usenil purposes to which its horns, skin, and hair 
are applied. Its hide forms an excellent fur wrapper; 
its great value in this respect was proved during the 
Crimean war. 

BITHYNIA, a province in the N,W. of Asia- 
Minor, adjoining the PropontiSj the Thracian Bos- 
phorus, and the Euxine. According to Strabo it was 
Dounded on the east by the River Sangarius; but the 
more commonly received division extended it as far ss 
the Parthenius, which separated it from Paphlagonia, 
thus comprising the district on the sea-coast between 
these two rivers, which was inhabited by the Man- 
andyni. Towards the west and south-west it was lim- 
ited by the River Rhyndacus, which separated it from 
Mysia; and on the south it adjoined the portion of 
Phrygia called Phrygia Epictetus, and a part of Gilatia. 
The territory thus defined is in great part occupiedby 
mountains and forests, but has vaUeys and districts nesr 
the sea-coast of great fertility. The most important of 
the mountain ranges is that known as the Mysian Olym- 
pus — from its proximity to that province, thou^ prop- 
erly included within the limits of JBithynia — which riltf 
to a height of about 6400 feet. It towers in a ^OIii> 
manding manner above the city of Bronssa, whBi^ ^ 
forms a conspicuous object as seen from Constantiaql^ 
at a distance of 70 miles. Its summits are cuVipl0i|fP 
snow for a great part of t]^ year. ej 



BIT 



979 



According to the general testimony of ancient au- 
thors (Herodotus, Xenophon, Stabo, &c.), the Bithyn- 
ians were a tribe of Thracian origin who had migrated 
into Asia by cros^ng the Bosphorus. The existence of 
a tribe called Thyni m Thrace is well attested, and the 
two cognate tribes of the Th)rni and Bithyni appear to 
have settled simaltaneously in the adjoming parts of 
Asia, where they ejcpelled or subdaed the previously ex- 
isting races of the Mysians, Caucones, and other petty 
tribes, the Mariandyni alone maintaining themselves in 
the north-eastern part of the country. Herodotus 
mentions the two tnbes, the Thyni and Bithyni, as ex- 
isting side by side ; but ultimately the latter people must 
have become the more important, so as to give name to 
the whole country. • They were first subdued by Croe- 
sus, and incorporated with the Lydian monardiy, to- 
gether with which they soon after fell under the do- 
minion of Persia (546 B.C.) During the Persian empire 
they were included in .the satrapy of Phnrgia, which 
comprised all the countries up to the Hellespont and 
Bosphorus. But even before the conquest by Alex- 
ander some obscure native chiefs appear to have asserted 
their independence in the mountains of Bithynia, and 
successfully maintained it under two native princes 
named Bas and Zipoetes, the last of whom transmitted 
his power to his son Nicomedes I., who was the first to 
assume the title of king. He became the founder of 
the city of Nicomedia, which soon rose to great pros- 
perity and opulence ; and during his long reign (2 78-2 ?o 
B.C.), as well as those of his successors, Prusias I., 
Prusias II., and Nicomedes II., (149-91 B.C.), the 
kingdom of Bithynia held a considerable place among 
the minor monarchies of Asia. But the last king, Ni- 
comedes III., was unable to maintain himself against 
the increasing power of his neighbor Mithridates, king 
of Pontus ; and although restored to his throne by 
the interposition of the Roman Senate, at his death, 
in 74 B.C., he bec^ueathed his kingdom by will to the 
Komans. Bithynia was now reduced into the form of a 
Roman province; but its limits were frequently varied, 
and it was commonly united for administrative purposes 
with the neighboring province of Pontus, extending 
along the southern shore of the Black Sea as far as Tra- 
pezus or Trebi/onJ. This was the state of things in the 
time of Trajan, when the younger Pliny was appointed 
governor of the combined provinces (103-105 a. D.), a 
circumstance to which we are indebted for much valua- 
ble information concerning the Roman provincial ad- 
ministration. Under the Byzantine empire Bithynia 
was again divkled into two provinces, separated by the 
River Sangarius, to the westernmost of which the name 
of Bithynia was restricted. 

The most important cities of Bithynia in ancient times 
were Nicomedia and Nicsea, which disputed with one 
another the rank of its capital. Both of these were 
founded after the time of Alexander the Great ; but at a 
much earlier period the Greeks had established on the 
coast the colonies of Cius (afterwards named Prusias), 
on the sight of the mo<lem Gemlik ; Chalcedon, at the 
entrance of the Bosphorus, nearly opposite Constanti- 
^op\e ; and Heraclea, sumamed rontica, on the coast 
of the Euxine, about 120 miles east of the Bosphorus. 
AH these rose to be flourishing and important places of 
trade. Prusa, at the foot of Mount Oljnmpus, which 
was founded by the Prusias, was also a considerable 
town under the Roman empire, but did not attain in 
fncient times to anything like the importance enjoyed 
oy the modem city of Broussa, which became the capi- 
tal of the Ottoman Turks before the conquest of Con- 
stantinople, and is still (after Smvma) the second city of 
Asia Mmor. The only other places of importance at 
the present day are Ismid (Nicomedia) and Scutari, 



which, from its position on the Bosphorus, may be con- 
sidered as a mere suburb of Constantinople. 

The principal rivers of Bithynia are the Sangarius, 
still called the Sakaria, which traverses the province 
from S. to N. ; the Rhyndacus, which forms the bound- 
aiy that separat^l it from Mysia, the Billieus(Filyas), 
which rises in the cham of the Ala-Dah, about 150 miles 
from the sea, and after flowing by the town of Boli (the 
ancient Claudiopolis) falls into the Euxine, close to the 
ruins of the anc^pnt Tium, about 40 miles N. E. of Her- 
aclea. It has a course of more than 100 miles. The 
Parthenius (now called the Bartan), which forms the 
boundary of the province towards the E., is a much 
less consklerable stream. 

BIl ONTO, a city and bishop's see, in the province 
of Bari, in South Italy, on the great road from Foggia 
to Bari, about 12 miles from the latter town. In 1735 
it was the scene of a severe battle, in which the Austrians 
were defeated by the Spaniards under Mortemar, in 
whose honor Philip V. caused a p3rramid to be erected 
on the spot Population, 24,978. 

BITSCH (French, Bitche), formerly Kaltkn- 
HAUSEN, a town and fortress in German Lorraine, on 
the River Horn, at the foot of the northern slope of the 
Vos^es, between Hagenau and Saargemund. It was 
originally a countship m the possession of the counts of 
Alsace and Flanders, but was bestowed by Frederick 
III. on the dukes of Lorraine, and at length passed with 
that duchy to France in 1738. After that date it rap- 
idly increased, and its citadel, which had been con- 
structed by Vauban on the site of the ducal palace, was 
restored and strengthened. The attack upon it by the 
Prussiails in 1793 was repulsed, and'although the Bava- 
rians occupied the town in 18 15 and 18 18, they did not 
get possession of the fort. In the war of 1870 it was 
blockaded by the Germans in vain, and only surrendered 
in 187 1, after the campaign was over. A large part of 
the fortification is excavated in the red-sandstone rock, 
and rendered bomb-proof ; while a supply of water is 
secured to the garrison by the possession of a deep well 
in the interior. 

BITTERN, a genus of Wading Birds, belonging to 
the family Ardeid(Cy comprising several species closely 
allied to the Herons, from which they differ chiefly in 
their shorter neck, the back of whic!> h covered with 
down, and the front with long feathrrs, which car be 
raised at pleasure. They are soHtary birds, frequent- 
ing countries possessing extensive swamps and marshy 
grounds, remaining at rest by day, concealed among the 
reeds and rushes of their haunts, and seeking their food, 
which consists of fish, reptiles, insects, and small quad- 
rupeds, in the twilight. The American Bittern (Botau- 
rus lentiginosus) is somewhat smaller than the Euro- 
pean species, and is found throughout the central and 
southern portions of North America, where it forms an 
article of food. 

BITTERS, an aromatized alcoholic beverage, so 
named originally in the United States, where it wa? first 
used on account of its flavor and tonic influence. The 
drink by itself, or as an addition to unflavored spirits, 
is used with considerable frequency in Europe, and 
especially in France it has come to be favorably re- 
garded as a substitute for the insidious and deleterious 
absinthe. In the year 1867 the daily consumption of 
bitters in Paris alone had reached 4000 litres. The 
preparation of bitters in Europe was at first a speciality 
of the Dutch, and Dutch bitters are the staple used in 
Great Britain. A considerable variety of recipes are in 
use for the preparation of Dutch bitters, but generally 
gentian root is the leading bitter ingredient in the 
beverages. The following is given as the composition 
of brandy bitters: — Gentian root, 4 oz. ; orange peel, 5 



98o 



BIZ — BLA 



oz.; cassia bark, 2 oz.; cardamoms, i oz.; and proof 
tpirits, I gallon, colored with )/ oz. of cochmeal. 
Bitters prepared in the great French cities — Bordeaux, 
Rouen, Havre, Paris, &c. — contain extracts of gentian 
root, bitter orange peel, and orange flowers, with a pro- 
portion of sugar, and possess an alcoholic strengtn of 
about 40". 

BIZERTA, or Benzert, a seaport of North Africa, 
in Tunis, 38 miles from the capital, on a gulf or salt 
lake of the same name, which communicates with a 
^hallow freshwater lake in the interior, formerly called 
Sisara, and now the lake of Gcbel Ishkel. It occupies 
the site of the ancient Tynan colony Hippo Zaritus, the 
harbor of which, by means of a spacious pier, protect- 
ing it from the north-east wind, was rendered one of the 
safest and finest on this coast. Population, 800a 

BLACK, Dr. Joseph, a celebrated chemist, was 
born, in 1728, at Bordeaux, where his father — a native 
of Belfast, but of Scottish descent — was engaged in the 
wine trade. He was educated from his twelfth to his 
eighteenth year at a grammar school in Belfast, whence 
he removed, in 1746, to the university of Glasgow, 
There he chose medicme as his profession, and devoted 
himself earnestly to physical science, being encouraged 
and ^kled by Dr. Cullen, who then lectured on chem- 
istry in Glasgow, and whose liberal and original views 
were in unison with Black's own aspirations. From as- 
sisting in Cullen' s chemical experiments he acquired the 
delicate manipulative skill essential to success in original 
scientific research. 

In 1751 he went to complete his medical sttidies at 
Edinburgh, and after taking his medical degi«e there 
in 1754 revealed himself as a great scientific discoverer. 
At that time the causticity of the alkalies was attributed 
to their absorbing an imaginary fire-essence known as 
phlo^ston, an hypothesis which Black overthrew by 
showmg that then* causticity depended on their combin- 
ing with a ponderable gas, carbonic acid, which he 
named ^x^i/ air^ meaning that it was found not only as 
a separate fluid, but as Jixtd in solid bodies. This dis- 
covery, made by Black in his twenty-fourth year, was 
first sketched in a treatise, Df Acido e Cibts orto^ et de 
Magnesm^ and afterwards embodied in his work, Experu 
ments on Magnesia^ Quicklime^ and other Alkaline 
Substances, which Lord Brougham has declared to be 
" incontestibly the most beautiful example of strict in- 
ductive investigation since the Optics of Sir Isaac New- 
ton." 

These works revolutionized chemistry. Previous in- 
vestigators imagined that atmospheric air was the sole 
^permanently aeriform element, a belief to which even 
*Hales, who had shown that solids contain elastic fluids, 
had adhered. But when Black proved that a gac not 
identical with atmospheric air was found in alkalies, it 
was made plain that various dissimilar gases might ex- 
ist, and pneumatic chemistry was founded. 

Although the full value of this discovery was not im- 
mediately visible, it added so greatly to Black's reputa- 
tion that in 1756 he was chosen to succeed Dr. Cullen 
as lecturer on chemistry in Glasgow University. From 
1759 to 1763 he prosecuted inquiries resulting in his 
theory of latent heat, which may be thus summarized : 
A solid liquefies or a fluid vaporizes through heat uniting 
with the solki or fluid body, and a fluid solidifies or a gas 
liquefies through the loss of heat ; but in no case is this 
increase or diminution of heat detected by the senses or 
the thermometer. Black therefore narned that heat 
latent which alters the condition, not the temperature, 
of a body. He likewise proved that bodies of equal 
masses require different increments of heat to raise them 
to the same sensible temperature— «doctnae now koown 
ai the law of ipecijic heal. 



He retired from his professor^p in 17^, ana on Ae 
26th November 1799, passed awajr 90 quietly that a cop 
of water, which he haa hekl in bis hand, remained im* 
spilled after he had breathed his last. 

BLACK FOREST (German, Schwarzwald), an 
extensive upland district on the right bank of the upper 
Rhine, stretching from that river to the Ned^ar and up- 
per Danube. See Baden and WCRTEMBEta 

BLACK SEA, or EuxiNE, the Pontus Euxinus of 
the ancients, is a large inland sea, bounded on the W. 
hw the Turkish provinces of Ramilia, Bolgaria, and 
Moldavia; on iht N. by South Russia, inclncSng Bess- 
arabia, Kherson, and Taurida; on the £. by the 
Russian provinces of Circassia and Transcancasia ; 
and on tne S. by the Turkish provinces of Asia 
Minor. It is entered from the Meoiterranean throt^ 
the channel of the Dardanelles or Hellespontus, the 5a 
of Marmora or Propontis, and the channel of Con- 
stantinople or Thracian Bosphorus ; and it is connected 
with the Sea of Azo(7, or Palus MaoHs, by the strait 
between the Crimea and the isle of Taman, anciently 
the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and known by the various 
modem names of the Strait of Kertch, of Venikale, and 
of Taman. 

The first navigators of Greece who ventured mto this 
sea having been repulsed or massacred by some of the 
fierce trit^ inhabitmg its coasts, their coantrrmen gave 
it the name of Pontus Axenos, or ** t ^ unfriendly to 
strangers. ** But when the repeated visits of the Gieds 
had rendered these tribes more familiar v.-ith strangen, 
and commercial intercourse had softened down the 
original ferocity of their character, Grecian colonies 
were established at diflerent points on the shores of this 
sea, and the epithet Axenus was changed into Er.xinns, 
which has the opposite import, and means " frierdly to 
strangers." The modem name c^ems to have been nven 
to it by the Turks, who, being accustomed to the navi- 
gation of the yEgean, the islands of which furnish numer- 
ous harbors of refu^ vrere appalled by the dangers of a 
far wider expanse c? water without any shelter, subject 
to sudden and violent storms, and often covered with 
dense fogs. 

The basin of the Black Sea is of an irregular onUe 
form, its long diameter lying nearly E. and W. Its 

Ctest length, from the head of the Bay of Burchaz in 
liliaon the west to the boundary between Trans- 
caucasia and Asiatic Turkey near Batum on the east, is 
about 720 miles. Its greatest breadth is in its western 
portion, between the estuary of the Dnieper on the 
north and the mouth of the Sakaria on the south, where 
it is 380 miles; its middle portion is narrowed, by the 
projection of the Crimean peninsula on the north and of 
the coast line of Anatolia between Cape Kerempe and 
Smope on the south, to 160 miles ; but further east it 
widens out again between the Strait of Kertch on tl^e 
north and the mouth of the Kixil Irmak (the andent 
Halvs) on the south, to 260 miles. Its total area, ift- 
cluding the Sea of Azoff, is about 172,500 square iiAs* 
The Sea "of Azof may be considered as the widt 
shallow estuary ofthe River Don, which discharges ks 
waters into the north-eastern prolongation of the seSt 
sometimes distinguished as the Gulf of Taganrog ; ^ 
area is estimated at about 14,000 square miles; and ^ 
depth which is nowhere more than 7^ fathoffi^ 
diminishes near the shores to ^% fathoms, and Is fea» 
that 2 fathoms opposite the town of Taganrog. 

The basin of tne Euxine communicates with tlMlw 
the Sea of Marmora by the Bosphorus, a ttmll 
20 miles long, from %Xq2% miles wide, and«4l(, 
from 30 to 40 fathoms, resembling a broad jhW 
I high l^nks, which maintain a general pa *" " 
I though the strait has seven distinct reachei» 



«MU4q#[M 



BL A 



96i 



00 either side presents distinct evidence of recent 
volcanic action. 

The Sea of Marmora lies in the coarse of the channel 
that connects the Bhick Sea with the /Eeean, Its bot- 
tom is depressed to a depth far greater than that of the 
channel of which it is an expansion. Its length Lorn 
strait to strait is i lo geograptiical miles, and its greatest 
breadth is 43 miles. 

The channel \/hich connects the Sea of Marmora with 
the iEgean is properly termed the Hellespont, — the 
name Dardanelles, by which it is commonly known, 
being really that of the fortifications erected on the two 
sides of the strait by which its passage is guarded. The 
Sea of Marmora narrows to a breadth of ten miles to- 
wards the north-eastern entrance of the channel ; at 
Gallipoli, the distance between the two shores sudcknly 
contracts to about two miles ; and between this and the 
Mgesji end of the strait, that distance is diminished at 
certain points to even less than a mile. The depth of 
the channel is considerable, being for the most part be- 
tween 50 and 50 fathoms. 

The mode in which the replacement of the water in the 
basin is effected has been recently elucidated by a careful 
examination of the currents of the Black Sea straits, of 
which an account will be presently given. 

It is during the winter months, when a large propor- 
tion of the drainage area of the Black Sea nvers is 
covexed with snow, that the supply of water is at its 
niinimum ; but it is then that the evaporation from its 
surface is also at its minimum ; so that' there is no 
reason to snppose that the level of the Black Sea ever 
falls below tnat of the i^gean. There can be no 
reasonable doubt that during the spring and early sum- 
nier, when the melting of the snows causes the rivers 
to swell to their highest, the quantity of fresh water 
thus brought into the basin, being greater than that 
which is lost by evaporation (as is shown by the general 
reduction which then takes place in the salinity of its 
contents), wonkl cause a considerable rise of level, if 
this were not kept down by the outflow throufh the 
straits. 

The Basin of the Black Sea is frequented by seals, 
dolphins and porpoises; and it is said that in the neigh- 
borhood of the mouths of the Danube the porpoise is 
perfectly white, so that the Greek mariners, when they 
catch sight of it, know that they are in the current of 
that river, althouch in 10 fathoms of water, and many 
leapes from land. The fish of the Black Sea appear 
to be for the most part the same as those of the Caspian 
and the Sea of Aral. Its northern rivers bring into it 
the sturgeon, sterlet, and other fresh-water fish, which 
Gm live in and near their estuaries. On the other 
hand, its waters are elsewhere salt enough for the 
naackerel, whiting, mullet, turbot, and sole. 

BLACKBIRD {Turdus merula), belongs to the 
J^dida or Thrushes, a family of Dentirostrol Birds. 
The plumage of the male is of a uniform black Color, 
Jhat of the female various shades of brown, while the 
hill of the male, especially during the breeding season, 
IS of a bright gamboge yellow. 

BLACRBuRN, a large manufacturing town and 
municipal borongh of England, situated on a stream 
called, in Domesday Book^ the Blackebum, but now 
only known as « The Brook, *» iii the north-eastern divis- 
jon of the county of Lancaster, 209 miles from London 
h? railway, 15 E. of Preston, and 30 N.N.W. of Man- 
Chester. Besides its numerous churches and chapels, 
the public buildings of Blackburn comprise a large town- 
hall finished in 1856, a market-house, an exchange, 
huilt in 1865. a county court (1863), pubh'c baths (1864). 
and, outside the town, an infirmaiy (1862). A public 
parl^ of about 50 acres was opened in 1857, Since 



aboQt 1865 a variety ot extensive and important im- 
provements have been effected in the general condition 
of the town, which is now well paved and lighted, haff 
an elaborate ^tem of drainage, and receives an abun« 
dant supply ot water. Previous to that date the so-called 
streets were, over a large area, almost useless for pur- 
poses of traffic The staple trade of Blackburn has 
long been the manufacture of cotton, for the develop- 
ment of which a great deal was done by some natives of 
the town, such as Peel and Hargreaves, in the last 
century. The subordinate brancMs include woollen 
factories, engineering works, iron foundries, and brew- 
eries. In 1871 there were employed in the cotton 
factories 14,220 men and 17,075 women, of twenty 
years of age and upwards ; the engineering works gave 
employment to 350 men, and the iron manufacture to 
794. Coal, and lime, and building stone are abundant 
m the neighboring district, which is, however, very far 
from fertile. The Leeds and Liverpool canal passes tht 
town, which has also extensive railway communication. 
Blackburn is a place of some antiquity, and its parish 
church of St. M^ary's (for the most part taken down in 
181 3), dated from before the Norman Cononest It 
was for a time the chief town of a district Icnown as 
Blackbumshire, and as early as the reign of Elisabeth 
ranked as a flourishing market town. About the mid- 
dle of the 17th century it became famous for its 
** checks," which were afterwards superseded by a sim- 
ilar linen-and-cotton fabric known as '* Blackburn 
greys." A charter of incorporation was obtained in 
1 85 1, when W. H. Hornby, one of the largest cotton 
manufacturers of the place, was elected mst mayor. 
The population of the town, which viras only i^ut 5000 
in 1790, had increased by 1801 to 17,980. In 1861 
there were ii,Jo6 inhabited houses in the municipal 
borough; and by the census of 187 1 the number had' 
increased to 14,690. In the former year the population 
of the municipal borough was 63,126, and m 1871 it 
amotmted to 70,339. 

BLACKCOCK (7V/ra^/^/njr), a Gallinaceous Bird 
belonging to the family Tetraonida or Grouse, the 
female of which is known as the Grey Hen and the 
young as Poults. In size and plumage the tvo sexes 
ofler a striking contrast, the male weiring about 4 lb., 
its plumage for the most part of a rich glossy black shot 
witn blue and purple, the lateral tail feathers curved 
outwards so as to form, when raised, a fan-like crescent, 
and the eyebrows destitute of feathers and of a bright 
vermilion red. The female, on the other hand, weighs 
only 2 lb., its plumage is of a russet brown color irregu- 
larly barred with black, and its tail feathers are of the 
ordinary form or but slightly forked. The males are 
polygamous, and during autumn and winter associate 
together, feeding in flocks apart from the females ; but 
with the approach of spring they separate, each select- 
ing a locality for itself, from which it drives off all 
intruders, and where morning and evenmg it seeks to 
attract the other sex by a dis]3ay of its beautiful plum- 
age, which at this season attains its greatest perfection, 
and by a peculiar cry, which is similar to the noise 
made by the whetting of a scythe. The blackcock is 
very generally distributed over the highland districts of 
Northern and Central Europe, and in some parts ol 
Asia. It is found on the prmcipal heaths in the south 
of England, but is specially abundant in the Highlands 
of Scotland, where great numbers are killed annually 
during the statutory snooting season, which commences 
on August 20 and extends to December 10. The bird 
does not occur in Ireland, and all attempts that have 
hitherto been made to naturalize it there have failed, al- 
though it now thrives and breeds in the south-west o( 
Scotknd within z\ nules of the Irish ^^o^s^^Tp 

o 



982 



BLA 



BLACKLOCK, Thomas, a Scottish poet ancldWine, 
was bom of humble but respectable parents at Annan, 
in Dumfriesshire, in 1721. When not auite six months 
old he lost his sight bv the smallpox. Under this mis- 
fortune, his father and friends endeavored to amuse him 
as he grew up by reading to him various books, — among 
others, the works of Muton, Spenser, Prior, Pope, and 
Addison. Shortly after the death of his father, which 
took pkce in 1740, some of Blacklock's poems began 
to be banded about among his acquaintances and friends, 
and a few specimens were brought under the notice of 
Dr. Stevenson of Edinburgh, who was struck by their 
merits, and formed the design of giving the author a 
classical education. Blacklock, in consequence, was en- 
rolled a student of divinity in the university of Edin- 
burgh in 1 741, and continued his studies under the pa- 
tronage of Dr. Stevenstm till 1745, when he retired to 
Dumfries, and resided there until the close of the civil 
war. When peace had been restored, he returned to 
the university, and during this resklence in Edinburgh 
he inade the acquaintance of several literary men, m 
particular of Hume, who was extremely useful to him 
in the publication by subscription of the 4to edition of 
his poems in 1 756. 

BLACK MO RE, Sir Richard, a physician, and 
voluminous writer of theological and poetical works, 
was bom in Wiltshire about 1650, and (6ed on the 9th 
of October, 1729. 

BLACKPOOL, a seaside town of England, in 
Lancashire, situated on the coast to the north of the es- 
tuary of the Ribble, about 20 miles W. of Preston bv 
rail It is largely frei^uented as a bathing-place. A 
good sandy beach, bracing air, and a fine view, are its 
chief attractions. In the end of the last century it was 
a mere hamlet, but since then it has gradually increased. 
It has two churches, two market-lmlls, a court-house, 
and assembly rooms. The parade affords a fine prome- 
nade. A new pier was built in 1866. Population in 
1871, 6100. 

BLACKSTONE, Sir William, an eminent English 
jurist, was bom at London, July 10, 1723. He was a 
posthumous child, and his mother died before he was 
twelve years old. From his birth the care of his educa- 
tion was undertaken by his matemal uncle Thomas 
Bigg, an eminent surgeon in London. When about 
seven years old he was sent to the Charterhouse School, 
and in 1 735 he was admitted upon the foundation there 
by the nomination of Sir Robert Walpole. His prog- 
ress was so rapid that at the age of fifteen he was at 
the head of the school, and qualified to be removed to 
the university, and he was accordingly entered a com- 
moner at Pembroke College. 

Raving made choice of the profession of the law, he 
was entered in the Middle Temple, November 20, 1 741. 
In a copy of verses of considerable merit, afterward pub- 
lished by Dodsley in the fourth volume of his Miscel- 
lanies, entitled TAe Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse^ he 
gave utterance to the regret with which he abandoned 
the pleasing pursuits of his youth for severer studies. 
Besides this several fugitive pieces were at times com- 
municated by him to his friends ; and he left, but not 
with a view to publication, a small collection of juvenile 
pieces, consisting of both original poems and transla- 
tions. Some notes which just before his death he com- 
municated to Steever.s, and which were inserted by thf 
latter in his last edition of Shakespeare* s works, show 
how well he understood the meanmg and relished the 
beauties of his favorite English poet 

In 1750 he commenced doctor of civil law, and thereby 
became a member of the convocation, which enabloi 
him to extend his views beyond the narrow circle of his 
own society, to the benefit of Ae u^vcrsity at large. In 



the stxmmer of 1753 he took the reioliitK» of whoDy le- 
tiring to his fellowship and an academical fife, still 
contmuing the practice of his profession as a prorindsl 
counsel. 

His lectures on the laws of England appear to have 
been an early and favorite idea ; ^r in the Michadmas 
term immediately after he quitted Westminster HaU, be 
entered on the duty of reading them at Oxford ; and we 
are told by the author of h^ Life, that even at their 
commencement, the highest expectations formed from 
the acknowledged abuity of tne lecturer attracted to 
these lectures a very crowded class of young men of the 
first families, characters, and hopes. Bentham, how- 
ever, declares that he was a "formal, precise, and af- 
fected lecturer — just what you would expect from the 
character of his writings — cold, reserved, and wary, ex- 
hibiting a frigid |)ride.'» It was not till the year 1758 
that the lectures in the form the^ now bear were read 
in the university. Mr. Viner havmg by his will left not 
only the copyright of his abridgment, but other prop- 
erty to a considerable amount, to the Universiw of Ox- 
ford, in order to found a professorship, fellowships, and 
scholarships of common law, Blackstone was on tne 20th 
of October, 17^8, unanimously elected Vinerian profes- 
sor ; and on the 25th of the same month he read his 
first introductory lecture, which he published at the re- 
quest of the vice-chancellor and heads of houses, and 
afterwards prefixed to the first volume of his celebrated 
Commentaries, It is doubtful whether the Commin- 
taries were ori^nally intended for the press ; bat many 
imperfect and incorrect copies having got into cnxnla- 
tion, and a printed edition of them bong either pnb- 
lished or preparing for publication in Ireland, the 
author thought proper to print a correct edition him- 
self, and in November 1765 published the first volume, 
under the title of Commentaries on the Laws 0/^ Eng- 
land. The remaining parts of the work were given to 
the world in the course of the four succeeding years. It 
ought to be remarked, that before this peri<Kl the roQ- 
tation which his lectures had deserveoiy acquired for 
him had induced him to resume his practice in West- 
minster Hall ; and, contrary to the general order of the 
profession, he who had quitted the bar for an academic 
fife was sent back from the college to the bar with a 
considerable increase of business. He was likewise 
elected to parliament, first for Hikidon, and afterwards 
for Westbury in Wilts; but in neither of these def»rt- 
ments did he equal the expectations which his wnti^ 
had raised. The part he took m the Mkldlesex dectkn 
drew upon him tne attacks of some persons of ability 
in the senate, and likewise a severe animadveRion 
fi"om the caustic pen of Junius, In 1770 he dedined 
the place of solicitor-general; but shortly afterwards, 
on the promotion of Sir Charles Yates to a seat 
in the Court of Common Pleas, he accepted a scat on 
the bench, and on the death of Sir Joseph succeeded 
him there alsa Blackstone died on the 14th Febmaiyi 
1780, in the fifty- seventh year of his age. 

BLACKSTONE, the name of a Massachusetts town, 
situated in Worcester County, having railroad and tele- 
graph connections, and possessing a population of aboot 
6,000 persons. 

BLAINVILLE, Henri-Marie Ducrotay de, • 
distinguished naturalist, was bom at Arques, near 
Dieppe, Sept. 12, 1777. About the year 1795 he en- 
tered the school of design at Rouen, but after a veit 
short time went to Paris, where he became a po^ 
of Vincent the painter. Attracted bjr the lectures of 
Cuvier and other eminent professors in the CoUe^ of 
France, he commenced the study of anatomy, «»*Jj 
1808 he took the degree of M.D. He nowde^fljjp 
himself to the study of natural history, partkiilB^.^ 



BLA 



983 



deportment of myology, and he soon attracted the atten- 
tion of Caviery who engaged him to draw some figures 
for one of his works, and to carry out some of the prac- 
tical work of anatomy. He was also Chosen by that 
illustrious professor to supply his place on occasions at 
the College of France and at the Athenaeum, and in 
181 2 he obtained the vacant chair of anatomy and zool- 
ogy in the Faculty of Science at Paris. His somewhat 
irascible disposition was probably one cause of the sub- 
sequent estrangement between him and Cuvier, which 
ended in an open and irreconcilable enmity. In 1825 
Blainville was admitted a member of the Academy of 
Sciences; and in 1830 he was appointed to succeed 
Lamarck in the chair of natural history at the museum. 
This he resigned in 1832, being appointed on the death 
of Cuvier to the chair of comparative anatomy, which 
he continued to occupy for the space of eighteen years, 
and in the conduct of which he proved himself no un- 
worthy successor to his great teacher. Blainville was 
found dead in a railway carriage while travelling be- 
tween Rouen and Caen, May i, 185a 

BLAIR, or Port- Blair, the chief place in the con- 
vict settlement of the Andaman Islands in the Indian 
Ocean, is situated on the south-east shore of the South 
Andaman Island, in ii^ 42' N. lat. and 93° E. Jong. 

BLAIR, Dr. Hugh, was born April 7, 1718, at 
Edinburgh, where his father was a merchant He en- 
tered Edmburgh University in 1730 and won the favor- 
able notice of Professor Stevenson by an essay on the 
Beautiful, written for the logic class in his sixteenth 
year. On taking the d^ee of M.A. in 1739, he 
printed a thesis De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis 
rv^atura, which contains an outline of the moral princi- 
ples afterwards unfolded in his sermons. He was 
licensed to preach in 1741, and in a few months the earl 
of Leven, hearing of his eloquence, presented him to the 
parish of CoUessie in Fife. In 1743 he was elected to 
the second charge of the Canongate Church, Edin- 
burgh, where he performed the pastoral duties with 
great success until removed to Lady Yester*s, one of the 
city churches, in 1754. In 1777 the first volume of his 
Sermons appeared. It was succeeded by other four 
volumes, all of which met with the greatest success. 
t>r. Samnel Johnson praised them warmly. "I love 
Blair's Sennons,^ Johnson saki, "his doctrine is the 
best limited, the best expressed; there is the most 
warmth without fanaticism, the most rational trans- 

E)rt** The Sermons were translated into almost every 
nguage of Europe, and in 1780, to signify the royal 
approbation, George III. conferred upon him a pension 
of ^200 a year. He died after a brief illness on the 
27th Decemoer 1801. In the church Blair belong to 
the ** moderate*' or latitudinarian party, and his Ser- 
mons have been objected to as deficient in doctrinal 
definiteness. His once brilliant reputation is now be- 
coming forgotten. His works display little originality, 
but are written in a flowing and elaborate style ; and his 
Rhetoric^ although inferior to Campbell's, and wanting 
in research and depth of thought, is unworthy of the 
n^lect it has met with. 

BLAIR, Robert, author of the well-known poem 
entitled The Grave^ was the eldest son of the Rev. Rob- 
ert Blair, of Edinburgh. He was probably born at 
Edinburgh about the year 1700, and aied of fever Feb- 
ruary 4, 1746. 

BLAKE, Robert, the famous English admiral of the 
Commonwealth, was born at Bridgewater in Somerset- 
shire, in August 1598. His birth 3ius falls in the year 
before that of Cromwell ; their lives ran parallel in the 
service of their country ; their characters present many 
points of likeness ; and they died within a few months 
9f ea^h Qtber- Plake w^ w ^liest son pf » well-to-do 



merchant, and received his early education at the gram- 
mar school of Bridgewater. At the age of sixteen he wag 
sent to Oxford, enterine at first St Alban's Hall, but 
removing afterwards to Wadham College, then recently 
foundedi)y his father's friend, Nicholas Wadham, from 
Oxford, after taking his degree of M. A., he returned to 
his father's house, where, his thorough honesty, his pub- 
lic spirit and disinterestedness, his courageous utterance 
of what he thought of the court and the church, of 
shipmoney and the High Commission Court and the 
licence of the times, made him a man of mark among 
his neighbors. And when, after eleven years of king- 
ship without parliaments, a parliament was summon^ 
to meet in April 1640, Blake was elected by the Presby- 
terian party to represent his native borough. This par- 
liament, named ** the Short," was dissolved in three 
weeks, and the career of Blake as a politician was sus- 
pended. Two years later the inevitaole conflict began. 
Blake declared for the Parliament ; and thinking, says 
Johnson, a bare declaration for right not all the duty of 
a good man, he raised a troop of horse in his county, 
and rendered such efficient service, that in 1643 he was 
entrusted with the command of one of the forts of Bristol. 
This he stoutly held during the siege of the town by 
Prince Rupert, and was near being hung for continuing 
his resistance after the governor had capitulated. In 
the following year Colonel Blake took Taunton by sur- 
prise, and notwithstanding its imperfect defences and 
madequate supplies, held the town for the Parliament 
against two sieges by the Royalists, until July 1645, 
when it was relieved by Fairfax. Blake did not approve 
of the trial and execution of Charles I. ; but he adhered 
to the Parliamentary party after the king's death, and 
within a month (February 1649) was appointed, with 
Colonels Dean and Popham, to the command of the 
fleet, under the title of General of the Sea. In April 
he was sent in pursuit of Prince Rupert, who with the 
Royalist fleet had entered the harbor of Kinsale in Ire- 
land. There he blockaded the Prince Tor six months ; 
and when the latter, in want of provisions, and hopeless 
of relief, succeeded in making his escape with the fleet 
and in reaching the Tagus, Bhke followed him thither, 
and again bloclcaded him for some months. The kinjg 
of Portugal refusing permission for Blake to attack his 
enemy, the latter made reprisals by falling on the Por- 
tuguese fleet, richly laden, returning from Brazil. He 
captured seventeen ships and burnt three, bringing his 
prizes home without molestation. After revictualling 
his fleet, he ssdled again, captured a French man-of-war, 
and then pursued Prince Rupert once more to the harbor 
of Carthagena. The Spanish governor would not allow 
him to violate the peace of a neutral port, and he there- 
fore withdrew. In January 165 1 he at last attacked the 
Royalist fleet in Malaga harbor, and destroyed the whole 
with the exception of t^wo ships. In consequence of the 
Portuguese protest against his proceedings, a formal 
investigation was instituted in England, which resulted 
in the approval of the home authorities. The thanks of 
Parliament were voted to Blake, and he was appointed 
warden of the Cinque Ports. He was continued in his 
office of admiral and general of the sea ; and in May 
following he took, in conjunction with Ayscue, the 
Scilly Islands. For his service the thanks of Parliament 
were again rewarded him, and he was soon after made 
a member of the Council of State. In 1652 war broke 
out with the Dutch, who had made great preparations for 
the conflict. In March the command of the fleet was 
given to Blake for nine months ; and in the middle of 
May the Dutch fleet of forty-five ships, led by their 
great admiral Van Tromp, appeared in the Downs. 
Blake, who had only twenty ships, sailed to meet them, 
and Uie battle took place pff Dpver on May 19. Tlw 



984 



BL A 



Dutch were defeated in tn en^igemcnt of four or fire 
hoars, lost two ships, and withdrew under cover of 
darkness. Attempts at accommodation were made by 
the Slates, bat tney fiuled. Early in July war was 
formally declared, and in the same month Blake cap- 
tured a large part of the Datch fishery-fleet and the 
twelve men-of-war that formed their convoy. On Sep- 
tember 28, Blake and Penn again encountered the Dutch 
fleet, now commanded by De Ruytcr and \)e Witt, in 
the Downs, defeated it, and chased it for two days. 
The Dutch took refuge in Goree. A third battle was 
fought near the end of November. By this time the 
ships under Blake's command had been reduced in 
number to forty, and nearly the half of these were use- 
less for want of seamen. Van Tromp, who had been 
reinstated in command, appeared in the Downs, with a 
fleet of eight ships, besides ten fire-ships, Blake, never- 
theless, risked a battle, but was defeated, and withdrew 
into the Thames. It was in his first elation at this 
victory that Van Tromp carried the broom at his mast- 
head m his passage through the CTiannel, as a pledge of 
his determination to sweep the English off" the seas. 
His bravado was speedily avengwl The English 
fleet having been refitted, put to sea again in February 
i6$3 ; and on the i8th, Blake, at the head of eighty 
ships, encountered Van Tromp in the Channel. 
The Dutch force, according to ('larendon, numbered 
100 ships of war, but according to the official 
reports of the Dutch, only seventy. The battle was 
severe and continued through three days, the Dutch 
however retreating, and taking refuge in the shallow 
waters ofl'the French coast. In this actioiT Blake was 
severeljr wounded. The three English admirals put to 
sea again in May ; and on June 3d and 4th another Imt- 
tle was fought near the North Foreland. On the first 
day Dean and Monk were repulsed by Van Tromp ; but 
on the second day the scales were turned by the arrival 
of Blake, and thi Dutch retreated to the Texel. In 
November 1654 ne was selected by Cromwell to con- 
duct a fleet to the Mediterranean to exact compensation 
from the Duke of Tuscany, the knights of Nialta, and 
the piratical states of North Africa, for wrongs done to 
English merchants. This mission he execut^ with his 
accustomed spirit and complete success. Tunis alone 
dared to resist his demands, and Tunis paid the penalty 
of the destruction of its two fortresses by English guns. 
In the winter of 1655-56, war being declared against 
Spain, Blake was sent to cruise ofl* Cadiz and the neigh- 
boring coasts, to intercept the Spanish shipping. One 
of his captains captured a part of the Plate fleet in Sep- 
tember 1656. In April 1657 Blake, then in very ill 
health, suflering from dropsy and scurvy, and anxious 
to have assistance in his arduous duties, heard that the 
Plate fleet lay at anchor in the bay of Santa Cruz, in the 
island of Teneriffie. The position was a very strong one, 
defended by a castle and several forts with ^ns. Under 
the shelter of these lay a fleet of sixteen ships drawn up 
in crescent order. Captain Stayner was ordered to enter 
the baT and fall on the fleet. This he did. Blake fol- 
lowed nhn. Broadsides were poured into the castle and 
the forts at the same time ; and soon nothing was left 
but ruined walls and charred fragments of burnt ships. 
The wind was blowing hard into the bay ; but suddenlyt 
and fortunately for the heroic Blake, it shifted, and car- 
ried him safely out to sea. ** The whole action,** says 
Clarendon, ** was so incredible that all men who knew 
the place wondered that any sober man, with what cour- 
age soever endowed, would ever have undertaken it ; and 
they could hardly persuade themselves to believe what 
they had done; while the Spaniards comforted them- 
selves with the belief that they were devils and not men 
\fho hj^d d^^royed them in such a mwrner," The Eng- 



lish lost one ship and 200 men killed and wounded. The 
thanks of Parliament were voted to officers and men; 
and a very costly diamond ring was presented to Bkke. 
This was the last action of the brave clake. After again 
cruising for a time off" Cadiz, his health failing mare and 
more, be was compelled to make homewards before the 
summer was over. He died at sea, but within sight of 
Plymouth, August 17, 1657. His body was broi^;ht to 
London and embalmed, and after lying in state at Green- 
wich House was interred with great pomp and solemnity 
in Westminster Abbey. 

BLAKE, William, poet and painter, was bom in 
London, on 28lh November 1757. At the age of ten 
the boy was sent to a drawing school kept by Mr. Pars, 
and at the same time he was already cultivating his own 
taste by constant attendance at tfie diflferent art sak 
rooms, where he was known as the ** little connoisseur.* 
Here he began to collect prints after Michael Angelo, 
and Raphael, Durer, and Hemskerk, while at the sdiool 
in the Strand he had the opportunity of drawing from 
the antique. After four years of this preliminaiy in- 
struction Blake entered upon another branch of art 
study. In 1 777 he was apprenticed to James Basire, an 
engraver of repute, and with him he remained seven 
jrears. His apprenticeship had an important bearing on 
Blake's artistic education, and marks the department of 
art in which he was made technically proficient. In 
1 778, at the end of his apprenticeship, he proceeded to 
the school of the Royal Academy, where he continued 
his early study from the antique, and had for the first 
time an opportunity of drawing from tlu living model 

In 1784 Blake set up in comi^any with a fellow-pupil, 
Parker, as print-seller and engraver next to his father's 
house in Broad Street,Golden Square, but in 1787 this 
partnership was severed, and he established an independ- 
ent business in Poland Street It was from this house, 
and in 1787, that the Son^s of Innocence were published, 
a work that must always be remarkable for beauty both 
of verse and of design, as well as for the singular 
method by which the two were combined and expressed 
by the artist. Blake became in fact his own printer 
and publisher. He eneraved upon copper, by a process 
devised by hunself, both the text of his poems and the 
surrounding decorative design, and to the pages printed 
from the copper plates an appropriate coloring was 
afterwards added by hand. The poetic genius ahready 
discernible in the first volume of Poetical Sketches is 
here more decisively expressed, and some of the songs 
in this volume deserve to take rank with the best things 
of their kind in our literature. In an age of enfeeblai 
ptoetic style, when Wordsworth, with more weighty 
apparatus, had as yet scarcely begun his reform of 
English versification, Blake, unaided by any contem- 
porary influence, produced a work of fresh and living 
teauty; and if tne Songs of Innocence establishea 
Blake's claim to the title of poet, the setting in which 
they were given to the world proved that he was also 
something more. For the full devek>pment of his 
artistic powers we have to wait till a later date, but 
here at least he exhibits a just and original understand- 
ing of the sources of decoradve beauty. Each page of 
these poems is a study of design, full of invention, and 
often wrought with the utmost deUcacy of workman- 
ship. The artist retained to the end this feeling for 
decorative effect ; but as time went on, he considerably 
enlarged the imaginative scope of his work, and dccoii- 
tion then became the condition rather than the aim of 
his labor. 

Notwithstanding the distinct and precious qualities of 
this volume, it attracted but slight attention, a fact JjjBT- 
haps not very wonderful, when the system of publicatic« 
is takea ir^to accgunt. Blake, however, proceedcdltt 



BLA 



98s 



oAer Work of the same kind. The same year he pub- 
lished TAr Book of Thel, more decidedly mysiic m its 
|)octry, but scarcely less beautiful as a piece of illumina- 
tion ; Th€ Marriage of Heaven and Hell followed in 
1790 ; and in 1793 ^here are added The Gates of Par- 
adise^ The Vision of the Daughters of Albion^ and 
some other ** Prophetic Books. " 

In 17^ Blake was actively employed in the work of 
illustration. Edwards, a bookseUer of New Bond 
Street, projected a new edition of Young's Night 
Thoughts^ and Blake was chosen to illustrate the work. 
It was to have been issued in parts ; but for some 
reason not very clear the enterprise failed, and only a 
first part incluoing forty-three designs, was given to the 
world. These designs were engraved by Bl2ke himself, 
and they are interesting not only for their own merit 
but for the peculiar system by which the illustration 
has been associated with the text. Quite recently it has 
been discovered that the artist had executed original de- 
signs in water color for the whole series, and these 
drawings, 537 in number, form one of the most inter- 
esting records of Blake's genius. 

The remainder of the artist's life is not outwardly 
eventful. In i8i3he formed, through the introduction 
of George Cumberland of Bristol, a valuable friendship 
with Mr. John Linnell and other rising water color 
painters. Amongst the group Blake seems to have 
lound special sympathy in the society of Varley, who, 
himself addicted to astrolo^, encouraged Blake to cul- 
tivate his gift of inspired vision ; and it is probably to 
this influence that we are indebted for sevferal curious 
drawings made from visions, especially the celebrated 
** ghost of a flea " and the very humorous portrait of 
the builder of the Pyramids. In 182 1 Blake removed 
to Fountain Court, in the Strand, where he died 1827. 
The chief work of these last years was the splendid 
series of engraved designs in illustration of the book of 
Job, Here we find the highest imaginative qualities of 
Blake's art united to the technical means of expression 
which he best understood. 

BLANC, Mont, the highest, and in other respects 
<me of the most remarkable mountains in Europe, is 
situated in that division of the great Alpine system 
known as the Ptnnine Alps. It rises almost in the 
shape of a pyramid to the height of 15,780 feet, and is 
visible at a distance of 130 miles to the west. The 
mass of the mountain is composed of granite, covered 
with strata of schists and limestones. To the N.E. lies 
the beautiful vale of Chamouni, and on the S.W. the 
AU^ Blanche. Of the numerous glaciers that send 
their ice-streams down its sides the most remarkable is 
the Mer de Glace, which winds down its northern slope 
towards Chamouni, and gives birth to the River Arve. 
The ascent of Mont Blanc was first accomplished in 1786 
by a guide named Jaques Balmat, who shortly after- 
Wards led Dr. Paccard, a local physician, to the summit, 
and thus gave him the honor of being the first person 
of scientific education to make known the possibility of 
the undertaking. De Saussure, the naturalist, ascended 
in the following year, and when the Italian naturalist 
Imperiale de Sant-Angelo made the ascent in "1840 he 
had been preceded by thirty-three known travellers. 
The whole journey to the top and back can now be 
accomplished in 50 or 60 hours ; but in general the view 
can hardly be said to be worth the fatigue, the extreme 
height of the position, even when the outlook is 
imcTouded, rendering the prospect indistinct. For 
authorities see Alps. 

BLANE, Sir Gilbert, a distinguished physician, 
Was bom at Blanefield in Ayrshire, in 1749, and died in 
London in i934* 
^ BLAN£S# a dtj of the province of Gerona in Spain, | 



at the mouth of the River Tordera, defended by a castle. 
The population, 5900 in number, are principally 
employed in the fisheries and navigation. Lace is manu- 
factured by the women. 

BLARNEY, asnmll village of Ireland, in the county 
of Cork, about 5 miles from that city, chiefly celebrated 
as giving name to a peculiar kind ot eloquence, alleged 
to be characteristic of the natives of Ireland. The 
" Blarney Stone,'' the kissing of which is said to confer 
this faculty, is pointed out within the castle. 

BLASPHEMY means literally defamation or evil 
speaking, but is more peculiarly restricted to an indignity 
offered to the Deity by words or writing. 

BLASTING is the process by which portions dt 
rock, or other hard suDstances, are disintegrated by 
means of an explosive agent, such as gunpowder. It is 
largel)r resortea to in quarrying, tunnelling, and mining 
operations. 

Of late years there has been rapid advance in the art, 
through tne discovery of new explosives, through im- 
provements in appliances for firing, &c. ; so that the 
older method of blasting has, in many instances, given 
place to a more complex system, with which much &tter 
results are obtained. 

In reviewing recent developments of theart of blasting, 
the application of machinery in the boring of rocks 
naturally claims some attention. A good rock-boring 
machine, at least where used in connection with simul- 
taneous firing by electricity, ensures considerable econ- 
omy in time and labor over the old method of hand- 
boring. Of such machines, in which the jumper is 
repeatedly driven against the rock by compressed air or 
steam, being also made to rotate slightly at each blow, 
there are several varieties ; the Burleigh rock drill is one 
of the best. It was used in the Hoosac tunnel in 
Massachusetts from 1869 ; and the last 5220 yards were 
completed with only eight of these machines. The rock 
was gneiss alternating with quartz. With hand-boring, 
the progress per minute was about 16 jrards ; with the 
Burleigh drill it was 48 yards, and the work was about 
one-third cheaper. According to Engineerings the cost 
of the Mont Cenis tunnel was /'195 per linear yard ; 
that ofthe Hoosac tunnel, notwithstanoingmuch harder 
rock, only /180. In the recent larp:e blastings at Hell- 
gate, New York, the Burleigh machmcs also established 
their superiority, and came to be used exclusively. 

Where rapid destruction is to be accomplished there is 
a saving of labor, of tools, and of time by use of the 
new explosive agents (such as dynamite or gim-cotton). 
Their shattering and splittmg effect in hard rock is much 
greater; but in quarrying, the rock is generally not 
thrown out by them to the same extent Where a mod- 
erate cleaving or splitting effect is desired, with as little 
local action as possible, gunpowder is best, as in raising 
large blocks of slate ; also where great displacing action 
is required. In submarine blasting of soft rocks the 
violent explosives disintegrate the rock into a plastic 
mass within a limited area, but do not shatter or rend it 
to any great distance. 

As regards comparative safety, there is no doubt that 
modem explosives offer a relative immunity from the 
danger arising from fire, to which gunpowder is subject. 
Neither dynamite nor gun-cotton can be fired by a spark, 
and if acadentally fired by a flame, they allow reason- 
able chances of escape. On the other hand, accidents 
have often happened in the thawing of nitroglycerine 
preparations when frozen, — a process that requires great 
care and for which suitable warming-pans are provided. 
But miners are slow to understand that a cartrioge which 
firing does not set off cannot be slowly heated with the 
ame impunity ; hence they will roast the preparations 



986 



BLE 



near a fire, or on hot dnders, or in other ways really 
dangeroui>. 

1 1 is known that electricity has a thermal effect on 
wire through which it passes ; and the amount of heat 
produced in any part of the circuit is proportional to 
the resistance in that part Thus a piece of wire 
of small section and conductivity may be made incan- 
descent by a current On this principle platinum is 
sometimes employed to fire blasting charges. In mak- 
ing a fuse of tnb sort, two insulated copper wires are 
twisted together for a length of about 6 mches, leaving 
the extremities free for a^ut half an incA, and sepa- 
rated the same distance. A fine platinum (or iron) wire 
is stretched across this interval, metallic contact being 
established with the copper. The other ends of the 
fuse are connected with a battery. Platinum fuses are 
not much to be relied on for simultaneous blasting of 
several charges by one battery; for some of the fuses 
may take a little more time to reach the exploding tem- 
perature than others, and thus, as soon as one explodes, 
the connection between the others and the battery is 
broken. The batteries to be used with them are such 
as generate elect ricitjr of great quantitjr. The Bunsen 
and Leclanch^ batteries, in some of their varieties, are 
well suited for this. Twelve celb of Highton*s battery 
will melt a piece of platinum wire over an inch long. 

There is, however, another class of fuses, offering cer- 
tain advantages over those just referred to, in which 
the spark produced by electricity of tension is the 
means used to effect the explosion. It might naturally 
be thought that an electric spark must inevitably cause 
explosion in a mass of powder or like substance through 
which it is made to pass ; but this is not the case. The 
heating; power of the spark is often insufficient for an 
explosion. The duration of an induction spark is about 
i\ie millionth of a second; whereas, to ignite powder. 
It is necessary that a spark should exist for at least the 
(href hundredth part of a second. By interposing, 
however, a suitable priming composition in the interval 
which the spark is to cross, and in contact with the 
charge, explosion may be thus effected. In preparing 
such a composition, the properties of the ingredients as 
regards conductivity, inflammability, and explosiveness 
have to be nicely adjusted, accordmg to the degree of 
tension of the electricity emplojred. The composition 
selected by Professor Abel for ms fuses is an intimate 
mixture of subsulphide of copper, subphosphide of cop- 
per, and chlorate of potassium. It is a mixture which 
conducts, but conducts with difficulty, and the fuses 
made with it are very effective. There are several other 
varieties, ^.^., Ebner's fuse, where the priming consbts 
of a mixture of sulphuret of antimony, chlorate of 
potash, and graphite. 

BLEACHING b the process of whitening or depriv- 
ing objects of color, an operation incessantly in activity 
in nature by the influence of light, air, and moisture. 
The art of bleaching, of which we have here to treat, 
consists in inducing the rapid operation of whitening 
agencies, and as an industry it b mostly directed to cot- 
ton, linen, silk, wool, and other textile fibres, but it b 
also applied to the whitening of paper-pulp, bees* -wax, 
and some oib and other substances. The term bleach- 
ing is derived from the Anglo-Saxon biacan to bleach, 
or to fade, from which also comes the cognate German 
word bUichen^ to whiten or render pale. Blead^ers, 
down to the end of last century, were known in England 
as " whitsters," a name obviously derived from the na- 
ture of their calling. 

The operation of bleaching must from its very nature 
be of the same antiquity as the work of washing textures 
of linen, cotton, or other vegetable fibres. Clodiing re- 
peatedly washed, and exposed in the open air to dxy, 



gradtially assumes a whiter and whiter hue, and our an- 
cestors cannot have failed to notice and take advantage 
of thb fact. Scarcely anything b known with certainty 
of the art of bleaching as practised by the nations of 
antiquity. Egypt in the early ages was the great centre 
of textile manufactures, and her white and colored linens 
were in high repute among contemporary nations. As 
a uniformly weil-bleached oasb b necessary for the pro- 
duction ofa satisfactory dye on cloth, it may be assnmed 
that the Egyptians were fairly proficient in bleaching, and 
that still more so were the Phoenicians with their bril- 
liant and famous purple djres. We learn, from Pliny, 
that different plants, and likewise the ashes of plants, 
which no doubt contained alkali, were employed as de- 
tergents. He mentions particularly the Struthium as 
much used for blesu:hing m Greece, a plant which hi» 
been identified by some with Gvpsophila Struthium^ 
But as it does not appear from Sibthorp's Fiora Grsca^ 
publbhed by Sir James Smith, that thb species b a na- 
tive of Greece, Dr. Sibthorp's conjecture that the 
Struthium of the ancients was the Saponaria officinalis^ 
a plant common in Greece, b certainly more probable. 

In modem times, down to the middle of the i8th cen- 
tury, the Dutch possessed almost a monopoly of the 
bleaching trade, although we find mention of bleadi- 
works at Southwark near London as early as the middle 
of the 17th century. It was customary to send all the 
brown linen, then largely manufactured in Scotland, to 
Holland to be bleachra. It was sent away in the month 
of March, and not returned till the end of October, be- 
ing thus out of the hands of the merchant more tlum 
half a year. 

The Dutch mode of bleaching, which was mostly con- 
ducted in the neighborhood of Haarlem, was to steep 
the linen first in a waste lye, and then for about a week 
in a potash lye poured over it boiling hot. The doth 
being taken out of this lye, and washed, was next pnt 
into wooden vesseb containing butter-milk, in wliich it 
lay under pressure for five or six days. After thb it was 
spread upon the grass, and kept wet for several montiis, 
exposed to the sunshine of summer. 

in 1728 James Adair from Belfast proposed to the 
Scotch Board of Manufactures to establbh a bleach* 
field in Galloway ; this proposal the board approved of, 
and in the same year resolved to devote Zaooo as pre- 
miums for the establbhment of bleachfieOs throo^ont 
the country. In 1732 a method of bleaching with kelp^ 
introduced by R. H olden, also from Ireland, was sqd- 
mitted to the board ; and with their assistance Holden 
established a bleachfield for prosecuting hb process al 
Pitkerro, near Dundee. 

The bleaching process, as at that time performed, was 
very tedious, occupying a complete summer. It con* 
sbted in steeping the cloth in alkaline lyes for sevecal 
days, washing it clean, and spreading it upon the gnM 
for some we^LS. The steeping in alkaline lyes, called 
buckings and the bleaching on the grass, called crofihi^ 
were repeated alternately for five or six times. fSt 
cloth was then steeped for some days in sour wSk^ 
washed clean, and crofted. These processes were re- 
peated, diminishing every time the strength of the 1 *" 
line lye, till the linen had acquired the requisite y 
ness. 

For the first improvement in thb tedious 
which was faithfully copied from the Dutch 1 
manufacturers were indebted to Dr. Frauds How % 
Edinburgh, to whom the Board of Trustees paid ^ 
for his experiments in bleaching. He proposed tH I 
stitute water acidulated with siuphuric acia for 
milk previously employed, a suggestion matfefai 
quence of the new mode of preparing s ' * 
contrived some time before by Dr. Roeb 



I!F?=^ 



BLE 



987 



daced the price of that add to less than one-thtra of what 
it had formerly been. When this change was first 
adopted by the bleachers, there was the same outcry 
against its corrosive effects as arose when chlorine was 
substituted for crofting. A great advantage was found to 
result from thie use of sulphuric acid, which was that a 
soaring with sulphuric acid required at the longest only 
tMrenty-four hours, and often not more than twelve ; 
whereas, when sour milk was employed, six weeks, or 
even two months, were requisite, according to the state 
of the weather. In consequence of this improvement, 
the process of bleaching was shortened from eight months 
to four, which enabled the merchant to dispose of his 
goods so much the sooner^ and consequently to trade 
with less capital. 

No further modification of consequence was intro- 
duced in the art till the year 1 787, when a most impor- 
tant change was initiated by the use of chlorine, an ele- 
ment which had been discovered by Scheele in Sweden 
about thirteen years before. Berthollet repeated the 
experiments of Scheele in 1 785, and by the prosecution 
of further investigations he added considerably to the 
facts already known. He showed that this substance 
(called by Scheele dtphlogisticated muriatic acid) is a 
gas soluble in water, to which it gives a yellowish ereen 
color, an astringent taste, and the peculiar smell by 
which the body is distinguished. 

The property which this gas possesses of destroying 
▼eg;etable colors, led Berthollet to suspect that it might 
be introduced with advantage into the art of bleaching, 
and that it would 'enable practical bleachers greatly to 
shorten their processes. In a paper on dephlo^sticated 
muriatic acid^ read before the Academy of Saences at 
I'aris in April 1785, and published in the Journal d^ 
Physique for May of the same year (vol. xxvi. p. 325^, 
he mentions that he had tried the effect of the gas in 
bleaching cloth, and found it answered perfectly. This 
idea is still further develop)ed in a paper on the same 
subs^imce, published in the Journal de Physique for 
1786. In 1786 he exhibited the experiment to Mr. 
lames Watt, who, immediately upqn his return to Eng- 
land, commenced a practical examination of the subject, 
and was accordingly the person who first introduced the 
new method of bleaching into Great Britain. We find 
from Mr. Watt's own testimony that chlorine was prac- 
tically employed in the bleachfield of his father-in-law, 
Mr. Mac^regor, in the neighborhood of Glasgow in 
March 1757. Shortly thereafter the method was intro- 
duced at Aberdeen by Messrs. Gordon, Barron, and 
Co., on information received from M. de Saussure 
through Professor Copland of Aberdeen. Mr. Thomas 
Henry of Manchester was the first to bleach with chlo- 
rine in the Lancashire district, and to his independent 
investigations several of the early improvements in the 
application of the material were due. 

No very great amount of success, however, attended 
the efforts to utilize chlorine in bleaching operations till 
the subject was taken up by Mr. Tennant of Glasgow. 
He, after a great deal of most laborious and acute in- 
vestigation, hit upon a method of making a saturated 
liquid of chloride of lime, which was found to answer 
perfectly all the purposes of the bleacher. This was 
certainly a most important improvement, without 
which, the prodigious extent of business carried on by 
some bleachers could not possibly have been transacted. 
Such was the acceleration of processes effected by the 
new method that, it is stated, a bleacher in Lancashire 
received 1400 pieces of ^ray muslin on a Tuesday, 
which on the Thursday immediately following were 
returned bleached to the manufacturers, at the distance 
of sixteen miles, and were packed up and sent off on 
that very day to a foreign market 



In the year 1798 Mr. Tennant took ont a patent for 
his new invention, and offered the use of it to practical 
bleachers, for a fair and reasonable portion of the 
savings made by its substitution for potash, then in gen- 
eral use. Many of the bleachers, however, used it 
without paying him, and a combination was formed to 
resist the right of the patentee. In December 1802, an 
action for damages was brought against Messrs. ^ Slater 
and Varley, nominally the defendants, but who, in fact, 
were backed and supported by a combination of almost 
all the bleachers in Lancashire. In consequence of 
this action, the patent right was set aside by the verdict 
of a jury and the decision of Lord Ellenborough, who 
used very strong language against the patentee. The 
grounds of this decision were, that the patent included a 
mode of bucking with quicklime and water, which was 
not a new invention. It was decided that, because one 
part of the patent was not new, therefore the whole 
must be set aside. Lime was indeed used previous to 
the patent of Mr. Tennant ; but it was employed in a 
quite different manner from his, and he would have 
allowed the bleachers to continue their peculiar method 
without any objection, because it would have been pro- 
ductive of no injury to his emolument. 

In consenuence of this decision the use of liquid 
chloride of lime in bleaching was thrown open to all, and 
speedily came to be universally employed by the bleach- 
ers in Britain. Mr. Tennant, thus deprived of the 
fruits of several years of anxious and laborious investiga- 
tion, advanced a step further, to what maybe considered 
as the completion of the new method. This consisted 
in impregnating quickHme in a dry state with chlorine, 
an idea originally suggested by Mr. Charles M'Intosh 
of Cross Basket, then a partner with Messrs. Tennant 
and Knox. A patent for this was taken out on the 13th 
of April 17^, and he began his manufacture of solki 
chloride of lime, at first upon a small scale, which has 
ever since been gradually extending, and the manufactory 
is now the largest of the kind in Great Britain. 

The various processes for the preparation of the so- 
called chloride of lime, or bleaching-powder, as con- 
ducted at the present day, and its other applications in 
arts, will be found described under the head of ChloRi 

INE. 

BLEACHING OF COTTON. 

Of the two great staples, cotton and Knen, to the 
whitening of which the art of the bleacher is directed, 
cotton is the more easily and expeditiously bleached. 
The basis of all vegetable fibres is cellulose or ligneous 
tissue, a pure white substance, and it is to obtain this 
body in a state of purity, free from the resinous matter 
naturally associated with it, as well as from adventitious 
impurities imparted in the process of spinning and weav- 
ing, that is the object of bleaching. The operations, 
although apparently complex and numerous, are essen- 
tially simple, though frequently repeated, and the greatest 
variety of detail is connected with the finishing of cloth, 
which is in reality a separate industry, frequently con- 
ducted in distinct establishments under the name of 
calendering and finishing works. Bleaching proper re- 
solves itself into washing with suitable detergents, and 
subjecting the washed material to the influence of chlor- 
ine, whereby the coloring matter either belonging to the 
fibre or imparted to it is oxklized and discharged. 

BLEACHING OF LINEN. 

The bleaching of linen is a much more tedious and 
difficult operation than the bleaching of cotton. The 
process of water-retting, or rotting, by which the fibre 
is separated from the woody portion of^the stalk, lodges 
a large proportipn of coloring matter in the fiUk^ witb 



988 



BLE 



which it enters mio very btimate combination. The 
amottnt of coloring matter which has thus to be dealt 
with in the bleachmg of linen is very great, being as 
Btnch aa one-third of the entire weight of the fibre. In 
the early part of the ccntuiy a great amount of public 
attention was given to a plan proposed by Mr. James 
Lee for prepanng flax fibre without the process of steep- 
ing or rettmg, by which it was affirmed that, among 
other advantages, it would only be necessary simply to 
wash, in soap, linen fabrics made from fibre so pre- 
pared, to render them pure and white. Mr. Lee ob- 
tained a special Act of Parliament allowing the specifica- 
tion of his patent to remain sealed for seven years, and 
his plans were entered into in a most full andf laborious 
manner by the Irish Linen Board. After the expendi- 
ture of many thousands of pounds on his machines and 
experiments, the plan had to be entirely abandoned as a 
£suiure. 

The bleaching of linen to the present day is con- 
ducted much more in the p)rimitive fashion of last cen- 
tury than is the practice with cotton-bleaching. Owing 
to the stiffness and elasticity of flax fibres, a great part 
of the machinery used for cotton is not available for 
linen, and solutions of acid and bleachine-powder re- 
ij^uire to be used in a very dilute condition for linen fab- 
rics, involving frecjuent repetitions of the various pro- 
cesses before a satisfactory white is produced. ** Croft- 
ing," or exfxjsure to the air on jgrass, is also very largely 
resorted to in the bleaching of hnens, especially for plain 
shirting and sheeting, which necessitates the possession 
of very extensive grass parks in connection with works, 
and renders the process both tedious and subject to the 
influence of the weather.^ A large proportion of Unen 
cloth is half-bleached or improved in the yam before be- 
ing woven, and it consequently reauires less bleaching 
than that which comes in its original " green '' condition. 

Bleaching op Paper-Making Materials. 

In addition to cotton and linen rags, esparto or Span- 
ish erass {Macrochloa tenacissima) is now very largely 
usea for the manufacture of the better classes of paper. 
Wood, especially the wood of the aspen (Populns treni- 
ula)^ is also now applied as a paper-making material 

ifute has been used for printing paper, and straw is very 
argely employed, but chiefly for brown and packing 
papers. Tnese and the numerous other substances used 
lor paper-making are all reduced to the condition of 
**hsuf-stufF" before they come to imdergo the operation 
of bleaching, and the treatment they receive in this 
stage varies only in the amount of whitening required, 
and consequently in the proportions of bleaching solu- 
tion used. It is therefore unnecessary to notice more 
than the process followed in the bleaching of the *• half- 
stuff,** which is very frequently prepared from a mixture 
of esparto fibre and rags. The bleaching solution of 
chloride of lime is either prepared in specially con- 
structed cisterns, fitted with revolving agitators and 
stored in a reservoir for use, or prepared for immediate 
use in a wooden vessel. When the solution is made up 
to the requisite strength, and all insoluble sediment has 
sunk to the bottom of the vessel, it is ready for pour- 
ing into the engine. From 4 to 10 lbs. of ordmary 
bleaching powder are used for every 100 lbs. of rag 
half- stuff, but a much larger proportion is required for 
esparto. Sulphuric acid in not more than a proportion 
of^ I lb. to 4 lbs. of bleaching powder is thereafter 
bedded in a highly diluted condition, and the whole, 
after mixing in the engine, is turned into the drainer, 
which is a large tank provkled with a false bottom of 
perforated wood covered with wire netting or bagging. 
In some cases the bleaching liquids are not added to the 
pulp material till it is deposited in the drainer; and the 



acid solution may be poured in first, or bodi soktlott 
may be alternately used in small quantities. The bkKfa- 
ing process is sometimes carried on in separate engipes 
constructed of materials not affected \tj the corrosive 
action of add substances. Drained half-stuff may abo 
be bleached in a suitable apparatus l^ the direct appli- 
cation of chlorine gas. 

It is of the greatest importance to free the pulpy ntt< 
terial from the laist traces of chlorine before it is made 
into paper, as it would react tiPpn the manufactured 
product and render it brittle. To eUminate the free 
chlorine and acid, &c, the pulp is washed in the beater 
with pure water till it ceases to redden litmus paper, or 
give other characteristic indicatkms of the presence of 
such compounds. The prejudicial effects of dilorine 
and its combinadoos are also overcome by the addition 
of **antichlor," the hyposulphite of soda or of hme, 
which forms with them compoonds that do not affect the 
color of the paper, although it is denrable, as &r as pos- 
sible, to remove such compounds also by washing with 
water. 

BLEACHING OF STRAW. 

The fine wheat-straw used in Tuscany and elsewhere 
for straw-plaiting, after being cut, dried, and tied up in 
bundles, is stacked for a month. It is then spre^l oat 
in a meadow, and exposed to the action of the sun snd 
air, bein^ frequently turned during that period. The 
lower joint of^ the straw b then separated, leaving only 
the upper joint with the ear attached, — this being the 
only part of the straw used. It is then steamed, and 
after that exposed to the action of sulphurous add gas 
prepared by ouming sulphur, which complete the bleach- 
ing. It is then tied up m bundles, in which state it is 
ready for the market In the strawplait-maldng centres 
of Great Britain — Luton, Dunstable, &c., in Bedford- 
shire — straw is bleached, chiefly, after plaiting, by the 
influence of sulphurous add gas. 

BLEACHING OP WOOU 

The bleaching of wool and animal fibres generally is 
a much simpler and less important operation than is the 
whitening of vegetable fibres. Wool is covered with a 
peculiar varnish or greasy matter which impairs its 
qualities, and which it is the object of the bleacher to re- 
move. 

Scouring is performed by means of an ammoniacal lye* 
prepared of river or other soft water mixed with 
stale purified urine, which is found to contain a laive 

Quantity of ammonia, ifpon which its action probal^ 
epends. 

It is known that the wool is properly scoured by its 
filaments being smooth, long, slender, white, and ner- 
fectly free from foreign substances, aiutnot having lost 
their naturtd tenadty. If this scouring be prope^ 
done there is no need of further washings in soaps, or 
otherwise, till the wool is subjected to the process aW 
"sulphuring; "and in point of fact, it is very ratter 
pa^ed through any other process. Some, howcrer, r^ 
commend for the finer wools, where a very delkiie 
white is wished, that they should be passed tlvo«^ 
one, two, or more baths of soft soap. The proc eM « 
suld|iuring b now much more expeditiously perfo f^w 
by Thom's sulphuring process. The goods are I***** 
on a long chain up and down over a series of roDcifB* 
small chamber filled with sulphurous acid ^xyw% > wg 
faw minutes suffice for the operation. Sulfite tfgwp 
addified with hydrochloric acid is also uaed kl f5 
for the bleaching of woolen &brics. 

BLEACHING OP SILK. 
Raw silk is covered with a kind of 
of which was first thoroughly in¥e8t^;atedty 




BLE 



989 



Heihowod that this varnish, instead of being a gum, as 
was nsoall^ believecU resembled a mixture of bees' wax 
and oil, with a resinous coloring matter, and in raw silk 
constituted 23 or 34 per cent, of the weight The Tar- 
nish is soluble in water, and affords a solution which 
forms a lather like soap. The yellow varnish b of a 
resinous nature, and is insoluble in water, but is soluble 
in alcohol The waxy substance exists in all silks, but 
the whiter the silk the less wax does it conuin. 

White or yellow silks maybe completely scoured in 
one hour in the soap bath, using about 15 lb of water 
for each pound of silk, and a suitable quantity of the 
finest soap. The soap and silk should be* put into the 
water halt an hour before it is brought to the boiling 
point, and then be boiled one hour. They are then re- 
moved, wnmg out, washed in pure water, and either 
Xsed to the vapor of sulphur or passed through a 
ion of sulphurous add gas in water. 
BLEEK, Friedrich, one of the greatest Biblical 
scholars that Gennany has produced in modem times, 
was bom on the 4th Julv 1793, at Ahrensbok, in 
Holstein, a village near Ltibeck. While attending the 
elanentary school there, he gave evidence of such 
ability that his father sent him, after he had acquired 
some knowledge of Latin and Greek, in his sixteenth 
year, to the gymnasium at Liibeck, where he spent 
three years, and there imbibed so great a love for the 
languages of antiouity, that he abajidoncd the klea of a 
leeal career, which he had once entertained, and re- 
solved to devote himself to the study of theology. After 
spending some time at the University of Kiel, he re- 
paired to Berlin, and there, from 1814 to 1817, eniojred 
the instructions of De Wette, Neander, and Schleier- 
macher. The teaching of these distinguished men, 
especially of the last named, exercised a decisive influ- 
ence upon the whole of his after life. So highly were 
his merits appreciated by his professors — Schleier- 
macher was accustomed to sav of Bleek that he pos- 
sessed a special charisma for the science of "Introduc- 
tion" — that in 1818, after he had passed the necessary 
examinations for entering the church, he was recalled to 
Berlin to occupy the position of Repetent or tutor in 
theologv, a temporary post which the theological 
faculty nad obtained for hina, with a view of retaining 
hia services in connection with that department of the 
university. In this position, besides discharging his 
duties in the theological seminary, he published, in 
Schleiermacher*s and Liicke's Journal (1819, 1820, 
1822), two dissertations, one on the <*Origin and Com- 
position of the Sibylline Oracles,** and another on the 
"Authorship and Design of the Book of Daniel.*' 
These articles attracted much attention, and were dis- 
tinguished by thos6 qualities of solid learning, thorough 
investigation, and candor of judgment, which character- 
ized all the productions of his pen. Bleek*s merits as 
a risiujg^ scholar were recognized by the minister of 
public instruction, who continued his stipend as Repetent 
for a third jrear, and promised further advancement in 
due time. But the attitude of the political authoritv un- 
derwent a change. The excitement caused in academic 
circles by the dismissal of De Witte from his professorship 
in 1819, in consequence of certain injudicious expressions 
in the letter of sympathy which he had written to the 
mother of Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue, had not 
died out, and the odium and punishment which fell 
upon De Witte were shared in a greater or less degree 
l^ his friends. Bleek, who had been a finvorite pupil 
of the banished professor, incurred the suspicion of the 
Government as one who was believed to hold extreme 
democratic opinions. Not only was his stipend as 
R$petent discontinued, but hii nomination to the office 
•f extraordinary professor^ which bad already been 



signed by the minister Altenstein, was withheld for two 
vears. The mystery at last was cleared up. Bleek had 
Seen confounded with another individual of a similar 
name. Tardy justice was at length done, and ui 1823 
Bleek received the appointment to which his merits so 
well entitled him. 

In 182^ he was induced, on the death of Liicke, to 
accept his chair in the recentl^r-founded university of 
Bonn, and entered nppn his duties there in the summer 
of the same year. Por the space of thirty years he 
labored with ever-increasing success, attracting students 
to his lectures, not by any attractions of manner nor by 
the enunciation of novel or bizarre ophiions on theo- 
lojgical subjects, but by the soundness and thoronghness 
of^his investigations, the remarkable impartiality of his 
critical judgments, and the exceeding clearness of his 
method of presentation. In 1843 ^^ ^^ raised to the- 
office of consbtorial councillor, and was selected by the 
university to hold the office of rector, a distinction! 
which has not since been conferred upon any theologian 
of the Reformed Church. After a long and honored 
academic life he died suddenly of apoplexy on the 27th 
February 1859. 

Bleek s works belong entirely to the departments of 
Biblical criticism and exegesis. Hii great merits as a 
critic and exegete consist, as has been already observed, 
in the thoroughness of his investigations, and especially 
in the candor of his judgment. The latter quality, in- 
dee<V he possessed in so remarkable a degree, that, as a 
recent writer has remarked, it has become ** proverbial." 
His views, indeed, on questions of Old Testament criti- 
cism would be regarded in this country as those of the 
** advanced" school ; for on all the disputed points con- 
cerning the unity and authorship of the books of the 
Old Covenant he was led to form conclusions opposed 
to received opinions. But with respect to the New 
Testament, his position was highly conservative. His 
defence of the genuineness and authenticity of the 
gospel of St John is still regarded as the ablest that has 
yet appeared \ and although, on some minor points, his 
views did not altogether coincide with those of the tra- 
ditional school, his critical labors on the New Testa- 
inent must nevertheless be regarded as among the most 
important contributions to the maintenance of orthodox 
opinions that the present century has produced. Bleek's 
works were pubnshed partly during his lifetime, and 
partly after his death. His greatest work, his commen- 
tary on the epistle to the Hebrews, appeared in three 
girts, in 1828, 1836, and 1840 respectively. Of it 
e Wette said that " It was so distinguished for com- 
prehensive learning and thorough untinng industry, for 
so pure and transparent a love of truth and so profound 
a theological feeling, that it was entitled to one of the 
foremost, if not the very foremost, place among the 
exegetical works of our time ;** and Delitzsch adds that 
** every one acquainted with the subject will endorse the 
judgment." 

BLEEK, WiLHELM Heinrich Immantjkl, son of 
the preceding, dbtinguished by his researches in African 
philology, was bom in 1827 ^^ BerUn, and died at Cape 
Town on the 17th August 1875. His works, which are 
of the first importance for African and Australian philo- 
logy, consist of the Voeahilary of the Mozambique 
Language^ Lond, 1856; Handbook of African^ Austra^ 
lian^ and Polynesian Philology ^ Cape Town and Lond., 
3 vols., 1858^3 ; Comparative Grammar of the South 
African Jjctnptages^ vol i., Lond., 1869 ; Reynard the 
Fox in South Africa^ or Hottentot Fables and Tales^ 
Lond, 1864; Origin of Language^ Lond, i860. 
^ BLENHEIM (German, Blindheim), a small village 
of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, and circle of 
Swabia, ntuatcd 00 die left bank of the Danube^ a for 



990 



BLE — BLl 



miles below Hochitadt. It is only remarkable u the 
scene of the defeat of the French and Bavarians, on the 
13th of Auffust 1704, by the English and the Austrians 
under the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene. 
Population, 751. 

BLENHEIM HOUSE, a princely mansion erected 
by Parliament for the duke of Marlborough at Wood- 
stock, near Oxford, and with the manor of Woodstock, 
settled on the duke and his heirs, in conskleration of his 
military service, and especially his decisive victory at 
Blenhemi. 

BLESSINGTON, Margaret Power, Countess 
OF, novelist and miscellaneous writer, was bom near 
Clonmel, Tippcrary, Ireland, September i, 179a Her 
childhood was made unhappy by the bad temper, im- 
providence, and loose living of ner (ather, anci by the 
reduced circumstances of t& family. Her early woman- 
hood was made unhappier still by her compulsory mar- 
riage at fifteen to one captain Farmer, whose drunken- 
ness involved him in debt, and whose debts brought 
him to the King's Bench prison, where he was 
killed by a fall in one of his drunken fits, in October 
181 7. His wife had some time before left his house, 
and in February 1818 she was married a second 
time to the earl of Blessington. Celebrated for her 
wit, her literary accomplishments, her generosity, and 
her social attractions, she was no less distinguished 
by her passion for pleasure and her craving for 
show and a high style of living. In the gratifica- 
tion of these tastes debts were accumulated, and the 
estates of the earl soon became burdened with ** mcum- 
brances.** In the autumn of 1822 they set out on a 
Continental tour, and remained abroad till the death of 
the earl, which took place at Paris in May i829i. Some 
years earlier they had become acquainted with Count 
Alfred d'Orsay, a man of fashk>n and seeker of pleasure, 
^o was then serving in the army, but quitted it for the 
sakeof joining them. In 1827 ne ^^ connected him- 
self wiUi the family by his marriage with the only 
daughter of the earl by a former wife. After Lord 
Blessinjgton's death Count d*Orsay, who had separated 
from his wife, came to England with the cotmteis, and 
they lived together in London till her death. The 
home of the beautiful and brilliant countess (first Sea- 
more Place, and afterwards Gore House, Kensin^on) 
became a centre of attraction for whatever was distin- 
guished in literature, learning, art, science, and fashion. 
Ambitious of the distinction of authorship. Lady Bless- 
ington had published in 1822 her first work entitled 
Sketches, in two volumes. Ten years later she made 
herself favorably known by a yournai of Conversations 
with Lord Byron^ which appeared first in successive 
numbers of the New Monthly Magazine^ and soon 
afterwards as a separate work. This was followed by a 
long series of worlcs, most of them novels of high life 
several of which obtained considerable popularity. Her 
Idler in Italy and Idler in France were rendered tem- 
porarily attractive by personal gossip and anecdote, de- 
scriptions of nature, and sentiment. Lady Blessing- 
ton was for some years editor of Heath's Book of 
Beauty and the Keepsake^ the popular annals of the 
day, and also contributed largely to magazines and 
newspapers. Early in 1849, ^" consequence of failing 
resources, the splendors of Gore House were extin- 
guished ; its furniture and decorations were sokl to pay 
debts, and its presiding genius withdrew to Paris, 
whither her friend Count d*Orsay had previously gone. 
She died there, June 4, 1849. Her Literary Life and 
Corro^ondence, 3 vols., edited by R. R. Madtkn, ap- 
peared in 1855. 

BUCHEk, Stesn Stesnsbn, Danish Ijrical poet 
and novdist, was bom at Vium in Viboig, J utlano^ 00 



the nth October 1782. He was extremely d^cate fa 
constitution, and after having passed a year or two at 
the university, which he joined in 1799, was compelled 
to give up his studies on account of a consumptive com- 
plaint He accepted a situation as tutor in a fiunily at 
Falster, and by vigorous physical exercise and flnte- 
playmg succeeded in restonng himself to health. He 
afterwards returned to the university, and completed his 
course in 1^09. Several years were then spent at his 
father's parsonage, preparing for the ministry and msn- 
aging the farm. In 1819 he was called to tlie church of 
lliommg, and in 1825 to a more remunerative k^si^ 
at Spentrup. Here he died in 184S. 

BLIDAH, the diief town of an arrondissement in the 
province of Algiers in A^ria, about 50 miles inlssd 
from the capital, on the railway from that dty to Onn. 
Blkiah was a town of some importance under the Turks, 
but in 1825 it was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. 
It was not tin 1838 that it was finally heU by the 
French, though th^ had been in possession for a short 
time eight years before. In 1867 it suffered from so- 
other earthquake which also nearly ruined the village of 
ChiflTa. 

BLIGH, William, admiral, was bom of a good 
family in the south of Ejigland in 1754. He accom- 
panira Captain Cook in his second expedition as sailing- 
master of the ** Resolution,** and in 1 T^-j was despatchoi 
to the Pacific in command of H.M.S. ** Bounty," for 
the purpose of introducing in the West Iixms the 
bread-fruit tree from the South Sea Islands. Bligh 
sailed, in 1787, from Otaheite, where he had remained 
about six months ; but, when near the Friendly Islands, 
a mutiny broke out on board the *• Bounty,** headed by 
Fletcher Christian, the nnaster*s mate, and Blig^, with 
eighteen others, was set adrift in the launch. This 
mutiny, which forms the subject of Byron's Island, did 
not arise so much from tyranny on the part of Bli^ as 
from attachments contracted between the seamen and 
the women of Otaheite. After suffering severely froia 
hunger, thirst, and storms, Bligh and his compamons 
landed at Timor m the East Inmes, having performed a 
voyage of about 4000 miles in an open boat. Bligh re- 
turn^ to England in 1790, and he was soon afterwards 
appointed to the "Providence," in which he effected 
the purpose of his former appointment by introducing 
the or^-fruit tree into the West India Islands. He 
^owed great courage at the mutiny of the Nore in 1797, 
and in the same year took part in the battle of Chan- 
perdown, where Admiral Duncan defeated the Dntdi 
under De Winter. In 1801 he commanded the "Ghu- 
ton" at the battle of Copenhagen, and received the per- 
sonal commendations of Nelson. He was subsequendy 
made governor of New South Wales, and vice-admiru 
of the blue. He died at London in 181 7- 

BLIND. The blind, as a class, are Umited to such 
narrow spheres of action that those unacquainted with 
the subject fail to realize how large a number of die 
human race are deprived of sight In the temperate 
regions of the globe about 1 in every 1000 of the popn* 
lation is blind, but in less favorable climates thegpr- 
centage is much greater. When we conskier what 
medioil skill has already accomplished in Europe and 
America, not only for the relief but the positive pre- 
vention of blindness, we may readily conclude that in 
warmer and less civilized countries the class is mofC 
numerous and their condition more deplorable. 

We rejoice that much can still be done by proper cut 
and treatment to prevent blindness ; for instance, oph* 
thalmia of infieints is a very common cause, and oajj^ 
not to terminate in loss of sight, which in most oJEi 
results from neglect and dirt Glaucoma is ali^ ( 
fruitful source of blindness, invariably causing lOMv- 



BLl 



991 



la^ if left to itself; but, thanks to Professor G^Ue's 
bmlknt discoverv, these cases are generally curable if 
operated on early. Another veiy common cause of 
bfindness b serious injury to one eye» which is thus lost, 
and if the injured org^n be not at once removed, sym- 
pathetic innammation and destruction of the other b 
very apt to follow, resulting in total blindness ; whereas, 
if the injured eye be at once removed the other is 
generally preserved. 

Loss of sight from small-pox is now comparatively 
rare, owing to the general practice of vaccination, but 
mudi undoubtedly may still be done towards diminish- 
ing die firec^uency of blindness by further advances in the 
art of treating eye-disease, ana especially by spreading 
among all classes a knowledge of what has alreEuly been 
done m this direction. 

It often occurs that children become blind through 
the most trivial causes by parents consulting unskillful 
practitioners. The improvement and increase in the 
immber of well regulated hospitak now makes it pos- 
able for every parent, however poor, to have the oest 
medical advice and attendance. 

In all ages of the world the blind have been the ob- 
jects^ of pity and commiseration, yet it has only been 
within ike past century that Christian civilization in 
its grand onward march has taken them in its embrace, 
and shed the influence of its life upon their midnight 
darkness. Daring recent years leading philanthropists 
have given much earnest thought to the best methods of 
amefiorating and improving the condition of the blind. 
Nearly all the European Governments and the States of 
the American Union have made liberal provision for 
their education and special training. In Great Britain 
the work has been left thus far to charitable enterprise. 
Much, however, has beenjdone, — almost every large town 
having its asylum, workshop, or home teaching society. 

The institutions of America are not asylums, but in the 
truest sense of the word educational establishments, in 
which the blind, without regard to their future, receive 
a thorough education. The blind in the United States 
are sodaUy far above those of any other country ; large 
numbers of them become eminent scholars and musicians, 
and even their blind workmen enjoy a degree of comfort 
unknown in England or on the Continent. 

The results achieved by the Perkins Institmtion at 
Boston, U.S., are particularly instructive. High-class 
musical training was commenced there about 30 years 
ago, previous to which time the results in this respect 
were far from satisfoctory. The report of 1889 states 
that music is now taught to all of^both sexes whose 
natural abilities make it probable that, under proper 
instruction, they will succed as organists, teachers of 
music, or piano tuners, and goes on to say — "The 
teaching of^ music and playing is now the largest field 
open to the blind as a means of support, and it seems to 
be growing larger. People are becoming more disposed 
to employ them ; and as they go forth From the school 
thev have more and more ground of hope that they will 
find opportunities to earn their living in this way. " The 
whole tone of mind among the musical pupils has been 
changed, for instead of looking forward to the future 
with fear and anxiety, they now feel a well-grounded 
confidence in themselves. It seems that in Boston, and 
in America generally, the blind are able to earn more as 
teachers of music than as tuners, which b exactly the 
reverse of the state of things existing in Paris, ana may 
arise either from differences in the condition of the two 
countries, or from the training for teachers being 
more thorough at Boston than at Paris ; but their ex- 
perience is identical in one respect, which is, that the 
bind who have the requisite amount of talent are almost 
certdn to make a good income oat of music ; but to 



attain this they mast aim high. It will not do to be 
equal to the average seeing teacher or tuner ; they must 
be superior; and this involves a good musiod notation 
with nrst-rate masters, instruments, and appliances, and 
above all, a determination on the part of managers and 
teachers to overcome all obstacles. 

A few paragraphs from American reports will snfii- 
ciently iUustrate the enlightened views held in that coun- 
try in regard to the education of the blind. 

** A school for the higher education of the blind should 
be specially adapted to the condition and wants of the 
persons to be trained. In it the course of study should 
be the same as in our best colleges. All instruction 
should be oral, and the apparatus and modes of illus- 
tration be addressed to the touch. It should be sup- 
plied with text-books, maps, diagrams, and the like, m 
raised characters. It should have large collections of 
models of various kinds, such as weights, measures, 
tools, machinery, and the like ; mannikms and models 
showing the anatomy of plants and animals, as well as 
their outward form. It should have collections of shells, 
crystals, minerals, and the like; models and sections 
showing geological strata; pitilosophical apparatus 
adapted to the touch; in short, everjrtning that can be 
represented by tangible forms. 

** It would amaze those who have not reflected upon it 
to know how much can be done in this way. Saunder- 
son, the blind professor of mathematics in Cambridge^ 
not only knew ordinary monev well, but he was an ex- 
pert numismatist, and could cletect counterfeits in a col- 
lection of antique coins better than ordinary persons 
could do by sight 

** Such an institute should have able professors and 
teachers, with special aptness for adapting their lessons 
to the condition of their scholars. It should fumbh 
special facilities for the study of languages, ancient and 
modem, of mathematics, of pedagogy, imd especially of 
music. It should also be well provided with everything 
necessary in a good conservatory of music, and have funds 
for the payment of competent* teachers. 

" It is evident that there are a large number of persons 
to whom such an institute would be a source of great 
happiness, and a means of preparation for great useful- 
ness. 

** A little reflection will show what a great advantage 
generous culture would be to a blind man, even if he 
were to be only a musician. Let him be ever so accom- 
plished in his immediate art, he is under great disad- 
vantages as compared with his competitors who can see. 
But if he has generous culture in other branches of 
knowledge, he will have advantages which few of them 
possess, and of course he will be more nearly on a level 
with them, and more capable of earning a living and en- 
joving it. Human effort will in such a case be success- 
ful in counteracting the principal evil which flows from 
the infirmity of blindness. 

** The careful observer will see a marked difference 
between a hundred youths in a blind institution and 
the same number of boys in an ordinary school This is 
especially true of the male sex. He will find among 
the blind a larger proportion of scrofulous, narrow- 
chested, angular, pallia, and feeble boys, who move 
sluggishlv and soon tire ; and a smaller proportion of 
those full-chested, chubby, rosy, elastic creatures, whom 
nothing can keep still, and nothing tire out 

** Now, if the blind, as a class, have a much smaller 
quantum of life than ordinary persons, it must be either 
on account of some flaw m the stock whence they 
sprung, or of some peculiarity in their mode of life, in- 
duced by their infirmity, such as bodily inactivity; bnt 
it probably results firom both cana^^ At any ni^ it il 

amatterwortiiconsideriii|^«^^^yQOi ^ 



992 



BLO 



L. 



BLOCH, Mark ElibzIR, a GCTman naturalist, born 
at Ansbach, of rery poor Jewish parents, about the 
year 173a Having entered the emplo^ent of a sur- 
geon at Hamburg, he was enabled by his own exertions 
to supply the want of early education, and made great 
progress in the study of anatomy, as well as in the other 
departments of medical science. After taking his deg^ree 
as doctor at Frankfort-on-the-Oder he esublished lum- 
idf as a phjrsician at Berlin, and found means to collect 
there a valuable museum of objects from all the three 
kingdoms of nature, as well as an extensive library. 
His first work of importance was an essay on the differ- 
ent species of worms found in the bodies of other 
animals, which gained the prise offered by the Academy 
of Copenhagen. Many of hb papers on different sub* 
jects of natural history, comparative anatomv, and 
physiology, were publislied in the collections of the vari- 
ous academies of Germany, Holland, and Russia, par- 
tkmlarly in that of the Friendly Society of Naturalists at 
Berlin. But his greatest work was his AtUgemeitu 
NaturgeschukU der Fische (12 vols., 1782-95), whkh 
occupied the labor of a considerable portion of his life, 
and is consklered to have laid the foundations of the 
science of ichthyologpr. The publication was encouraged 
by a large subscription, and it passed rapidhr through 
five editions in German and in French. Bloch nrnde 
little or no alteration in the systematic arrangements of 
Artedi and Linnxus, although he was disposra to intro- 
duce into the classification some modifications depend- 
ing on the structure of the eills, especially on the pres- 
ence or absence of the fifth gill, without a bony arch. 
To the number of genera before established he found it 
necessary to add nineteen new ones ; and he described 
176 new species, many of them the inhabitants of the 
remotest parts of the ocean, and by the brilliancy of 
their colors or the singularity of their forms, as much 
objects of popular admiration as of scientific curiosity. 
In 1797 he i>aid a visit to Paris, m order to examine the 
larrc collections of such subjects of natural historv as 
had been inaccessible to him on the diores of the Baltic \ 
and he returned to Berlin by way of Holland. His 
health, which had hitherto been impaired, began now 
to decline. He went to Carlsbad for -its recovery, but 
his constitution was exhausted, and he died there on the 
6th of August, 1799. 

BLOCK MACHINERY. A block is a case with 
its contained pulley or pullers, by means of which 
weighty objects are tioisted or lowered with facility. 

The process of manufacturing blocks by machinery 
may be described as follows: — Pieces of wood are cut 
roughly to the size of the block, and the first operation 
is then performed by the boring-machine^ which bores a 
hole for the pin, and one, two, or three holes, as the 
case may be, for single, double, or treble Uocks, to re- 
ceive the first stroke of the mortising chisel; the block 
is next taken to the mortising-machtne^ where the mor- 
tise or mortises for the sheaves are cut ; after this, to a 
circular saw^ conveniently arranged for cutting oflf the 
comers and so preparing the block for the shaping-ma- 
chint^ which consists pnncipallv of two equal and par^- 
lel circular wheels moving on the same axis, to which 
one of them is firmly fix^, but on which the other is 
made to sUde ; so that these two wheels may be placed 
at any given distance from each other, and blocks of any 
sbe admitted between their two rims or peripheries. For 
this purpose, both rims are divided into ten equal parts, 
for the reception of ten blocks, which are firmly fixed be- 
tween the two wheels. When the double wheel with its 
ten attached blocks is put in motion, the outer surface of 
the blocks, or those wnich are farthest from the centre, 
strike against the edge of a chisel or gouge fixed in a 
novable frame, which, bdng made to slide in a curved 



direction in the Une of the axis, cots those oatwaidActt 
of the blocks to their proper curvature. A contrivance 
is attached to the cuttmg tool which allows of the curva- 
ture being altered in any required way. One side bong 
slumed,'me ten blocks are wen, by a single operatkm, 
each tmned one fourth jMot roond, and another side is 
exposed to the cutting mstmment moving in the same 
direction as before. A third skie is tlien turned out- 
wards, and after that the fourth sxte^ when the idiok 
ten blocks are completely shaped. 

The velocity with which the wheek revolve, sad the 
great weight with which their peripheries are loaded, 
would make it dangerous to the workmen or bystanders, 
if, by the violence of the oentrifngal force, any of the 
\Aoaa should happen to be thrown off from the rim of 
the wheels ; to prevent the possibility of sudi an ac dd en t, 
an iron cage or guard is placed between the worianiii 
and the machine. 

The last operation is performed by the sc^tit^-ma- 
chine, which cuts a groove to receive the binding or 
strapping of the block. The binding may be of iron or 
rope, and is very frequentlr of wire rope. 

The Sheaves, — The machinery employed for making 
this part of the block consists of a circular saw, b^ 
which the log is cut into plates of the thickness reqmred 
for the sheaves, according to their several dianieters. 
These plates are next ornried to a crown saw, which 
bores the central hole, and at the same time reduces 
them to a perfect cirde of the assigned diameter. The 
sheave, thus shaped, is next brought to the cooking' 
machine, a piece of mechanism not inferior in ingenuity 
to the shaping machine for the shells. A small cntter, 
in traversing round the central hole of the sheaves, 
forms a groove for the insertion of the coah or busk, 
the shape of whidi is that df three semidrckiy not 
concentric with each other, nor with the ^leaves, hot 
eadi having a centre equally distant from that of the 
sheave, "nie manner in which the cutter traveises from 
the first to the second, and from this to the third sdni- 
circle, after finishing each of them, is exceedingly is- 
genions. So very exact and accurate is this groove cot 
for the reception of the metal coak, and so unifonn 
in their shape and size are the latter cast, the casting 
being made not in sand but in iron moulds, that they 
are invariably found to fit each other so nicely that the 
tap of a hammer is sufficient to fix the coak in its 
place. The coaks are cast with small grooves or 
channels m the inside of their tubes, which serve to I^ 
tain the oil or grease for the pins. 

The sheave, with its coak thus fitted in, is now takai 
to the drilling-machitu, which is kept in constant «»• 
tion. In casting the coaks a mark is left in the certre 
of each of the three semicircles. This mark is ap|W 
by a boy to the point of the moving drill, which speeder 
goes through the two coaks and the intermediate wood 
of the sheave. Rivets are put in these l^olcs iw 
clenched hj hand. The next operation is perfcmea 
by the factng-machine, which has two cutters, soy 
ranged as to finish the side and groove the edge flSM^ 
taneoudy ; then the hole for the pin is enlaiig^ toto^ 
exact size by the hvaching-machtne. The pias fWig 
form a very important part of the blodc, are no Wjy 
at Portsmouth, not of tron but of steel, carefiiOy M^ 
ered by special appliances. They are turned by Mf^ 
acting lathe, and are then reduced to the esr^ 
quirra diameter, and polished in the P>*'ff^ 
machine. They are also, in this machine, wh 
a proof strain proportional to their sectional I 
thus the strength of the pin is guaranteed. 

The blocks are invariably niade of £1^ ' 
grain of the wood running leng^wmys of t 
m Germany recently, blocks have been s 




BLO 



993 



gram of the wood nmniDg across the block, the reason 
bane duit the^ are less likiely to be split by the pressure 
on the ]Hn of the sheave. The sheaves 9fe made of 
lignum vits. 

BLOCKADE. It appears to have been the ancient 
practice of belligerents at the outset of the war to forbid 
by proclamation all trade on the part of neutrals with 
the enemy, and to treat as enemies all those who con- 
travened the proclamation; and neutrals acquiesced 
tacitly in this practice until the commencement of the 
17th century. In the course of that century the ancient 
practice came into (question, as impcsing on the com- 
merce of neutrals an mconvenience not justified by any 
adequate necessity on the part of belligerents, and it has 
^ince fallen into desuetude. Belligerents, however, 
have still maintained, without any question on the part 
of neutrals, the practice of intercepting supplies going 
over sea to an enemy under certain conditions, namely, 
when a belligerent has invested an enemy's port, with 
the intention of reducing the enemy to surrender from 
the failure of supplies, and for that object a stoppage of 
all supplies to such port has become a necessary opera- 
tion of the war. . Any attempt, under such circum- 
stances, on the part of a neutral merchant to introduce 
supplies into the invested port is a direct interference 
with the o]>erations of the war, and is inconsistent with 
neutrality, and it accordingly subjects the offending 
party to be treated as an enemy by the belligerent. The 
question. What constitutes such a belligerent invest- 
ment of an enemy's port as to create an obligation on 
the part of neutrals to abstain from attempting to enter 
it, has been much controverted since the " armed neu- 
trality" of 1780 ; but all uncertainty as to the principle 
upon which the decision in each case must proceed, has 
heen put an end to by the declaration of the powers as- 
sembled in cong[rcss at Paris in 1856, that ** Blockades, 
in order to be binding, must be effective, that is to say, 
must be maintained by a force sufficient really to pre- 
vent access to the enemy's coast.*' The (question of 
fiict will still be a subject of judicial inquiry in each 
case of capture, whether the conditions under which a 
blockade lias been maintained satisfy the above decla- 
ration. If an asserted blockade is maintained in a 
manner which satisfies the above declaration, there is no 
limit to the extent of an enemy's coast which may be 
placed under blockade. There is also a general con- 
sent amongst nations that a neutral merchant must have 
knowledge of a blockade in order to be liable to be 
treated as an enemy for attempting to break it ; but 
there is not any uniform practice amongst nations 
on this subject further than that when a block- 
ade has become notorious, the knowledge of it 
will be presumed against every neutral vessel 
which attempts to enter the blockaded port On 
the other hand, where a blockade is not notori- 
ous, it is in accordance with the practice of nations 
to give some notice^ of it to neutrals; and this 
notice may be communicated to them either by actual 
warning given to each neutral vessel which seeks to cross 
the line of blockade, or by a constructive warning to all 
neutrals resulting from an official notification of the 
blockade on the part of the blockadingpower to all pow- 
ers in amity with it. It is a p;rowing practice, if not al- 
together an established practice, amongst nations which 
accredit to one another resident envoys, for belligerents 
to notify diplomatically to the neutral powers the fAci 
that they have placed an enemy's port under blockade ; 
and it is the rule of the prize courts of Great Britain and 
of the United States of America to hold that, where 
such an official notification has been made, all the sub- 
jects of the neutral powers may be presumed to have 
JgK>wled^ of th^ block^ck* Other powers, amongst 



which France may be mentioned, have been accustomed 
to direct their blockading cruisers to givewaminsof the 
blockade to each vessel uat attempts to cross tne line 
of blockade, and not to capture any vessel unless she 
attempts to break the blockade after such wamins; but 
the practice of France aejees with the practice of other 
powers in not giving such wamine after a blockade has 
Decome notorious. There is, further, a general practice 
amongst nations to treat the act of sailing with an inten- 
tion to enter a blockaded port as an unneutral act, 
which will warrant the capture of a neutral merchant 
vessel by a belligerent cruiser on any part of the high 
seas, unless clear evidence is forthcoming from the cap- 
tured vessel that the intention has been abandoned, or 
that its execution was contingent on the blockade being 
raised. After a port has been placed under blockade, 
egress is prohibited to all neutral vessels, except to such 
as have entered the port before the blockade was estab- 
lished, if they come out either in ballast or with cargoes 
taken on board before the commencement of the block- 
ade. No warning is required to affect such vessel with 
a knowledge of the blockade, and if any such vessel 
should succeed in passing through the blockading squa- 
dron it becomes liable to capture as eood prize by a be- 
ligerent cruiser on any part of the high seas, until it 
has reached its port of destination, when the of- 
fense is considered to be purged. Under the ancient 
Eractice both ship and cargo were confiscable for the 
reach of a blockade, and even the captain and crew 
were liable to be treated as enemies. A milder practice 
is now generally observed as regards the captain and 
crew, aiKl a certain equity is administered in the British 
and American prize courts towards the owners of cargo, 
where the ship and the cargo do not belong to the same 
parties, and the owners of me cargo have not any knowl- 
edge of the blockade, or have been unable to counter- 
mimd the shipment of the cargo since the blockade has 
become known to them. In such cases the cargo is re- 
leased, although the ship may be rightfully condemned 
to the captors. 

BLOId, the chief town of the department of Loir* 
et-Cher in France, is^ situated in the form of an 
amphitheatre on the steep slope of a hiU on the 
right bank of the Loire, 35 miles of Orleans. 
The castle is an immense structure built at different 
periods, part as early as the 13th century. It was the 
birth-place of Louis XII., and is noted as the scene 
of the assassination of the duke of Guise and his brother 
the cardinal by command of Henry III. Among the 
other remarkable buildings in the town are the Hdtel de 
Ville, the episcopal palace, now occupied by the pre- 
fecture, the cathedral of St. Louis (a modem structure), 
and the churches of St. Vincent and St. Nicholas. An 
ancient aqueduct, cut in the solid rock by the Romans, 
conveys the water of several springs to a reservoir, 
whence it is distributed to different parts of the town. 
Blois is the seat of a bishopric founded by Louis XIV., 
and has a communal college, a normal school, and two 
diocesan seminaries ; an exchange, a hospital, a theatre, 
a botanical garden, a public library, and an agricultural 
society. 

BLOOMFIELD, Charles James, bishop of Lon- 
don, was bom on the 29th May 1786, at Bury-St-Ed- 
mund's. His career at Trinitjr College, Cambridge, 
which he entered in 1804, was brilliant He gained the 
Browne medals for Latin and Greek odes, and carried 
off the Craven scholarship. In 1808 he graduated as 
third wrangler and first medallist, and in me following 
year was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College. 
The first-fruits of his scholarship was an edition of me 
Prometheus of iEschylus, in 18 1(^ this was followed by 
editions of the Sefiemfontra Thekas^ Perut^ Choefkorcf^ 



994 



BLO 



and Agam€m9um^ of CaQimadnis, and of the fragments 
of Sappho, Sophron, and Alcaeos. Bloomfield, how- 
erer, soon ceased to derote himself to mere scholarship. 
He had been ordained in i8io, and held for a short 
time the curacy of Chesterford. He was then presented 
to the rectory of Quarringtoo, and shortly afterwards 
to that of Duntoiu in Backinfhamshire, where he re- 
mained for about nve years. In 1817 he was moved to 
the benefices of Great and Little Chesterford and Tud- 
denham, and he was in the same year appointed private 
chaplain to Howley, bishop of London. In 1819 be 
was nominated by Lord Liverpool to the rich living of 
St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and in 1822 he beoune 
archdeacon of Colchester. Two years later he was 
raised to the bishopric of Chester, and in that position 
began his career of incessant labor for the advancement 
of the church. Many reforms were needed in the dio- 
cese, and the new bishop's ener^ and ardor succeeded 
in effecting much, though not without stirring up ene- 
mies. In 1828 he was transferred to a wider sphere of 
activity, being raised to the bishopric of London. This 
im{>ortant office he held for eight-and-twent^ years, la- 
boring incessantly in a field where unremitting exertion 
was absolutely necessary. He gave his whole heart to 
the endeavor to extend the influence and efficiency of 
the church, and his strenuous activity was not without 
result. In all political or social movements which con- 
cerned the church the bishop took a prominent part 
He was noted as being one of the best debaters on the 
episcopal bench in the House of Lords; he took a lead- 
ing position in the action for church reform, which cul- 
minated in the Ecclesiastical Commission ; and he did 
much for the extension of the colonial episcopate. His 
health gave way under his unceasing labors, and in 1856 
he was permitted to resign his bishopric, retaining Fm- 
ham palace as his residence, along with a pension of 
;f 6000 per annum. He died at Fmham on tne 5th Au- 
gust l8j7. 

BLONDEL, David, a Protestant clergyman, dis- 
tinguished by his proficiency in ecclesiastical and civil 
history, was bom at Charlons-sur-Mame in I59i» and 
died in 1665. ^ 

BLOOD. See Anatomy and Physiology. 

BLOOD, Thomas, generally known by the appella- 
ation of Colonel Blooal was a disbanded officer of the 
Parliamentary army. Bearing a grudge against the 
duke of Ormond, who had £featra a conspira^ he 
engaged in to surprise the castle of Dublin, Blood 
seized the duke one night in his coach in St. James's 
street, and carried him off a considerable distance, re- 
solving to hang him at Tyburn ; but Ormond stru^led 
for his liberty and was rescued by his servants. ^x>n 
after, in 167 1, Blood formed the design of canying ofl^ 
the crown and regalia from the Tower, — an attempt 
which very nearly proved successful He had bound 
and wounded Edwards, the keeper of the jewel-office, 
and had escaped out of the Tower with his prey ; but he 
was overtaken and seized, together with some of his 
associates. One of these was Known to have been con- 
cerned in the attempt upon Ormond, and Blood was im- 
mediately concluded to be the ringleader. When 
questioned he frankly avowed the enterprise, but 
refused to discover his accomplices. All these extraor- 
dinary circumstances inducea Charles II. to seek an 
interview with him, which not only led to his pardon, 
but to the king's granting him an estate of £s<>o a 
year in Ireland, encouraging his attendance about his 
person, and showing him great favor. He died August 
24, 1680. 

BLOOMFIELD, Robert, was bom of very humble 
parents at the village of Honington, in Suffolk, in 1766. 
Losing his father at the age of cleveni he was appren« 



ticed to a fiumer, and could only cultivate his literaiy 
tastes by perusing such books as he could borrow. 
Thomson stems to have been his favorite author, and 
TAe Seasons inspired him with the ambition of being a 
poet. He came to London and composed TJke Farmer^ i 
Doy in a garret in Bell Alley. The manuscript fell into 
the hands of Capel Loflt, who encouraged him to print 
it, and it succeeded so well that above 26,000 copies of 
it were sold. His reputation was increased by tne ap- 
pearance of his Rural TaUs^ Songs and Ballads^ Ndcs 
from the Farm^ Wild Flowers^ and The Banks of the 
Wye, These are of uneaual merit ; but all breathe a 
spirit of purity and entnusiasm for the beauties of 
nature, that place the name of Bloomfieki among the 
most natural and amiable of our pastoral poets. The 
extensive sale of The Farmer's Boy and Wild Fhwers 
seems to have done little for the benefit of the poet, who 
died in poverty at Shefford in Bedfordshire in 1823. 

BLOOMFIELD JUNCTION, an important nulway 
and telegraph town m Essex County, N. J., with a pop- 
ulation of about 6,000 people. 

BLOOMINGTON, a large and rapidl]^ growing rail- 
way centre in McLean Countv, III It is a well-built 
dty, and has a poptHation of about 2j,ooa 

BLOOMSBuRGH, a Penn^lvania town, in Colum- 
bia County, having railroad and telegraph facilities, and 
a population of 5,00a 

BLOUNT, Charles, young son of Sir Henry Bbuni, 
was bom at Upper Holloway, April 27, 1654, and died 
1693. He gained considerable reputation as a politician 
and a man of letters, but his abilities w«re not great, 
and his strength lay in scoffing infidelity. His Anima 
Mundif or an Historical Narration of the Opinions cf 
the Ancients concerning Mah*s Soul after this Ufe^ 
according to Unenlightened Nature^ gave great offence ; 
and his translation of Philostratus's Life of ApolUmiris 
Tymeus was suppressed for the flippancy and impertin- 
ence of its attacks on revealed religion. A similar work 
of his called Great is Diana of the Ephesiansyxxn^tr fxAot 
of exposing superstition, struck at revelation. In 16S4, 
he pnnted a kind of introduction to polite literature, under 
the title of Janua Scientiarum, His Just Vindicatitm 
of Learning and of the Liberty of the /V«j (1693) is a 
shameless plagiarism from the Areopagitica. The 
pamphlet wnich he sent annonymously to Bohun, the 
censor, entitled King William and Queen Mory 
Conquerors, set all London in a flame, and completfcl/ 
attained its object, the ruin of Bohun. Indirectly it 
had a good result in directing attention to the folly « 
the censorship. After the death of his wife he pro- 
posed to marry her sister, and wrote a letter on thit 
subject with great learning and address ; but the arch- 
bisnop of Canterbury and other divines decided agaiast 
him, and the lady havine therefore refused him, be is 
said to have shot himself; or, according to Popc*s ac- 
count, to have given himself a mortal wound in the aon* 

BLOW. John, an Endish musical composer, vss 
born in 1648 at North CoUingham in Nottinghamsteei 
and died in 1 7o8. None of his compositions, most 01 
which are anthems, atain the highest order of mertt* 

BLOWPIPE, a tube for directing a ^et of air ii» » 
fire or into the flame of a lamp or gas jet, for die IJJ: 
fK>se of producing high temperature by complete «» 
rapid combustion. The blowpipe has been in conmjg 
use from the earliest times for soldering metals ■* 
working glass ; and since 1733, when Anton Swab W 
applied it to analysis of mineral substances, it h al W* 
come a valuable auxiliary to the mineralogist and dM>^ 
ist, in the chemical examination and analysis of WJt^ 
als. Its application has been variously improvsljil|l 
hands of Cronstedt, BergmancyCahn, BeivefiM|^flB! 
ncr, and others. Digitized by V^- - . .SL 



BLO 



995 



The simplest and oldest form of blowpipe (still used 
hr gasiittcrs, jewelers, &c), is a conical brass tube, 
about 7 inches in length, curved at the small end into a 
right angle, and terminating in a small round orifice, 
which is applied to the flame, while the larger end is ap- 
plied to the mouth. Where the blast has to be kept up 
tor only a few seconds, this instrument is quite service- 
able ; but in longer chemical operations inconveniences 
arises from the condensation of moisture exhaled by the 
longs in die tube. Hence many blowpipes are made 
with a cavity for retaining the moisture. Cronstedt 
placed a bulb in the centre of his blowpipe. Dr. Black's 
con\'enient instrument consists of a conical tube of tin plate 
with a small brass tube, supporting the nozzle, inserted 
oear the wider end, and a mouth-piece at the narrow 
end. 

If the flame of a candle or lamp be closely examined, 
it will be seen to consist of four parts — {a) a deep blue 
ring at the base, (^) a dark cone in the centre, (c) a 
himinous portion round this, and {d) an exterior pale 
blue envelope. The blue ring is formed chiefly by com- 
bustion of carbonic oxkie. In the central cone the com- 
bustible vapors from the wick, though heated, are not 
burned, atmospheric oxygen not reaching it. In the 
luminous portion the supply of oxygen is not sufficient 
for complete combustion ; the hj^rogpn takes up all or 
most of it, and carbon is precipitated in solid particles 
and ignited. In the exterior envelope, lastly, the tem- 
perature is highest, and combustion most complete, — 
sutTicient oxyg^en being supplied to convert the carbon 
and hydrogen into water and carbonic acid. 

In blowpipe work only two of these four parts are 
made use of, viz., the pale envelope, for oxidatioHj and 
the luminous portion, for reduction. To obtain a good 
oxidizing fiatney the blowpipe is held with its nozzle in- 
serted in the edge of the flame close over the level of the 
y^k, and blown into gently and evenly. A conical jet 
1$ thus produced, consisting of an inner cone, with an 
outer one commencing near its apex: — the former, cor- 
responding to (a) in the free flame, blue and well de- 
fined ; the latter, corresponding to (^), pale blue and 
▼ague. The heat is greatest just beyond the point of 
the inner cone, combustion being there most complete. 
Oxidation is better effected (if a very high temperature 
be not required) the farther the suostance is from the 
apex of the inner cone, so far as the heat proves suffi- 
cient, for the air has thus freer access. 

To obtain a good reducing flame (in which the com- 
bustible matter, very hot, but not yet burned, is disposed 
to take oxygen from any compound containing it), the 
nozzle, with smaller orifice, should iust touch tne flame 
at a point higher above the wick, and a somewhat weaker 
current of air should be blown. The flame then ap- 
pears as a long, narrow, luminous cone, — the end being 
enveloped by a dimly visible portion of flame correspond- 
ing -to that which surrounds the free flame, while there is 
also a dark nucleus about the wick. The substance to 
be reduced is brought into the luminous portion, where 
the reducing power is strongest 

The flame of an oil-lamp is the best for blowpipe 
operations where gas is wanting; candle flame may be 
used when great heat is not required The blowpipe 
lamp of Berzelius, supplied with colza oil, is probably 
the most suitable. The wick, when in use, should be 
carefully trimmed and clean, so as to avoid a smoking 
flame. The general introduction of gas has quite driven 
out the use of oil-lamps for blowpipe purposes in labor- 
atories. 

Various materials are used as supports for substances 
in the blowpipe flame ; the principle are charcoal, plati- 
num, and glass. Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility 
and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be 



strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing 
agency by the proauction of carbonic oxide when ignited ; 
so that it is chiefly employed in tiring the fusibility of 
minerals, and in reduction. The best kind of charcoal 
is that of close-grained pine or alder ; it is cut in short 
prisms, having a flat smooth surface at right angles to the 
rings of growth. In this a shallow hole is made with 
a knife or borer, for receiving the substance to be held 
in the flame. Platinum is emplojred in oxidizing pro- 
cesses, and in fusion of substances with fluxes witn a 
view to try their solubiUty in them, and note the phe- 
nomena of the bead; also in observing the coloring 
effect of substances on the blowpipe flame (which effect 
is apt to be somewhat masked by charcoal). Most 
commonly it is used in the form of wire, with a small 
bend or loop at the end. In flux experiments this loop 
is dipped when i^ited in the powdered flux U, g.^ 
borax), then held in a lamp flame till the powaer is 
fused, and the process is repeated, if necessary, till the 
loop is ouite fltled with a bead of the flux ; to this is 
now adaed a little of the substance to be examined. 
Platinum is also used in the form of foil and of spoons, 
and for the points of forceps. Metals and easily re- 
ducible oxides, sulphides, or chlorides should not be 
treated upon platinum, as these substances may com- 
bine with and damage it. Tubes of hard German glass^ 
5 to 6 inches long, about >^th inch diameter, and open 
at both ends, are 'useful in the examination of sub- 
stances containing sulphur, selenium, arsenic, antimony, 
and tellurium ; these, when heated with access of air, 
evolve characteristic fumes. They are put in the tube 
near one end (which is held slightly depressed), and sub- 
jected to the blowpipe flame. The sublimates often 
condense on the cooler parts of the tube. Small tubes, 
closed at one end, are used, where it is required to de- 
tect the presence of water, mercury, or other bodies 
which are volatilized by heat without access of air. 

The most important fluxes used in blowpipe analysis 
are carbonate of sodium, borax, and microcosmic salt. 
The first (which must be anhydrous and quite free from 
sulphates) serves chiefly in reducing metallic oxkles and 
sulphides on charcoal, decomposing silicates, determin- 
ing the presence of sulphur, and discriminating between 
lime and other earthy bases in minerals. Pure borax, 
or acid borate of sodium deprived of its water of crys- 
tallization by heating, is used for the purpose of dis- 
solving up metallic oxides, when in a state of fusion at 
a red heat, such fused masses usually having character- 
istic colors when cold. In some cases the color and 
transparency change on cooling. Microcosmic salts, or 
ammonio-phosphate of sodium, is used on platinum 
wire in the same way as borax ; on heating, water and 
ammonia are given off. The following are some other 
reagents for certain cases — nitrate of potash, bisul- 
phate of potash, nitrate of cobalt, silica, fluoride of 
calcium, oxide or oxalite of nickel, protoxide of copper, 
tinfoil, fine silver, dry chloride of silver, bone ash, and 
litmus and Brazil-wood paper. 

The blowpipe was first applied in the quantitative 
determination of metab by Harkort in 1827, and was 
brought to a high degree of perfection \pf Plattner. 
The methods are substantially those adopted in the assay 
of ores on the large scale in the vrind furnace or muffle, 
thin capsules of clay or cavities in charcoal blocks being 
substituted for crucibles, and steel basins faced with 
bone ash, for cupels, in silver and ^ki assa3ring. From 
the small size of the beads obtained, especially when the 
ores of the precious metals are operated upon, the re- 
sults are often such as cannot be weighed, and they are 
then measured by a tangent scale, and the weight com- 
puted from the observed diameter. This meUiod, de- 
vised by Harkorti gives very accurate results when 



996 



BLU— BOA 



carefoOf Qted, M owing to the difficulty of sampling 
the minute quantities operated upon so as to represent 
the bulk of the mineral fairly, the quantitative blowpipe 
assay has not made much progress. Perhaps the most 
useful quantitative applicauon is in the determination of 
nickel and cobalt This depends upon the fact that 
when the compounds of these metals, as well as those of 
copper and iron, with arsenic, are melted in contact with 
an oxidizing flux, such as borax or salt of phosphorus, 
iron is first taken up, then cobalt, and next nickel, 
and finally copper ; and as the oxides of these metals 
give very different colors to the flux, we are enabled bjr 
examining the slag to detect the exact moment at which 
each is removed. For the details of the process the 
reader is referred to Plattner's work. 

BLOCHER, Gerhard Leberecht von, fieki-mar- 
shal of the Prussian armies, prince of Wahlstadt in 
Silesia, was bom at Rostock in 1742. In his fourteenth 
year he entered into the service of^ Sweden ; and in the 
war between that power and Prussia he was taken 
prisoner. He afterwards entered into the service of 
Prussia, in which he became distinguished by his activitv; 
but conceiving himself neglected by the great Frederick, 
he became a farmer in Silesia, and by his enterprise and 
perseverance in fifteen years he acquired an honorable 
independence. On the accession ot Frederick- William 
II. he was recalled to military service, and replaced as 
major in his old regiment, the Black Hussars, where he 
distinguished himself in six general actions against the 
French, rose to the rank of colonel and major-general 
in 1793-4, and gained a high reputation by his energy, 
promptitude, and foresight. lie was in a subordinate 
command in the disastrous battle of Jena in 1802 ; but 
he made a masterly retreat with his colunm to Liibeck, 
and extorted the praises of his adversaries, who testi- 
fied on his capitulation that it was caused by ** want of 
}>rovisions and amunition." He was soon exchanged 
or General Victor, and was actively emploved in 
Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Konigsberg, until the con- 
clusion of the war. When Prussia shook off the French 
yoke in 1813, he first obtained a separate command. At 
the head of 60,000 troops, chiefry composed of raw 
militia, he defeated four French marshals at Katzbach, 
and rapidly crossing the Elbe, materially contributed to 
the signal victory of Leipsic In several severe actions 
he fought his way to Paris, which he entered on 31st 
March 1814 ; and there, it has been stated, but for the 
intervention of the other allied commanders, he was dis- 
posed to make a severe retaliation for the calamities that 
Prussia had suffered from the armies of France. Blow- 
ing up the bridge of Jena across the Seine was said to be 
one of his contemplated acts. When war again broke 
out in 1815, the veteran was at the head of the Prussian 
armies in Belgium, and exhibited his wonted enterprise 
and activity. But partly owing to his own confidence 
and temerity, partly to the skiuol strategy of his cele- 
brated opponent, he was defeated in the severe battle of 
Ligny on i6thof June; yet with his characteristicspiritand 
energy, Bliicher ralliea his defeated forces, and appeared 
on the field of Waterloo on the i8th, just as WeUmgton 
had repulsed the last attack of Napoleon on the Bndsh 
position. At that critical moment Bliicher was seen 
emerging from the wood of Frichemont on the French 
right ; and the simultaneous irresistible charge of the 
British forces converted the retreat of the French into a 
tumultuous flight. The allied conmianders met on the 
Gemappes road, near the farm called the Maison du Roi, 
where the British forces were halted. The pursuit was 
continued through the night by sixteen fresh Prussian 
regiments with terrible carnage. The allies soon again 
entered Paris, where Bliicher remained for several 
months^ but the health of tue aged conuoimdcr having 



declined, he retired to his SiMan residence at Kiifato- 
witz, where he died on the 12th September 1819, aged 
seventy-seven. 

BLlTMENBACH, JOHANN Friedrich, a distin- 
guished phjTsiologist, was bom at Gotha on the nth of 
May 1752. He studied medicine at Jena, and after- 
waras at Gottingen, where he took the degree of doctor 
in 1 775. In physioloQT he was of the school of HaUer, 
and was in the habit of illustrating his theory by a care- 
ful comparison of the animal functions of man with 
those of the lower animals. His reputation was modi 
extended by the publication of his excellent Institutwna 
Pk^siolozica, a condensed, well-arranged view of the 
animal functions, expounded without (Oscossion of mi- 
nute anatomical details. This work appeared in 1787, 
and between its first publication and 1821 went throi^ 
many editions in Germany, where it was the general 
text- book of the science. It was translated into Eng- 
lish in America by Caldwell in 1798, and in London by 
Elliotson in 1807. 

Blumenbach was perhaps still more extensively known 
by his admirable Handbuch of comparative anatomy, of 
which the German editions were numerous, from its ap- 
pearance in 1805 to 1824. It was translated into Eng- 
lish in 1809 by the eminent surgeon Lawrence, and again, 
with the latest improvements and editions, by Couson 
in 1827. 

Although the greatest part of Blumenbach's long life 
was passeid at Gottingen, in 1789 he found leisure to 
visit Switzerland, ana|;ave a curious medical topc^- 
raphy of that country m his Bibliot/uk. He was ui 
England in 1788 and 1792. The Prince Regent con- 
ietteA on him the ofhoe of physician to the ro^ family 
in Hanover in 1816, and made him knight companion 
of the Guelphic order in 1821. The Royal Ac^emy 
of Paris elected him a member in 1831. He died at 
Gottingen on the 22d of January 184a 

BOA, a name formerly applied to all large Serpents, 
which, devoid of poison nmgs, killed their prey bjf con- 
striction ; but now confined to that section of them 
occurring in America, the Old World forms bcmg 
knoMrn as Pythons. The true boas are widely dis- 
tributed throughout tropical America, occurring most 
abundantly in Guiana and Brazil, where they are foand 
in dry sandy localities, amid forests, on the banks of 
rivers and lakes, and in the water itself, according to the 
habits of the various species. They feed chiefly on the 
smaller quadrupeds, in search of which they often ssoend 
trees, suspending themselves from the branches by the 
tail, and thus awaiting motionless the approach of their 
victim. While so hanging they are partly supported by 
two spine-like hooks, situated one on eadi side of the 
vent, which are connected with several small bones con- 
cealed beneath the skin and attached to the main 
skeleton. These bones, terminating thus in an cxteinsl 
claw, are characteristic of the family Boida^ and'ire 
recognized by anatomists as the rudiments of those 
which form the hind limbs in all quadrupeds. The size 
of the boa*s prey often seems enormousfy beyond its ap* 
parent capacity for swallowing, a difnculty which dtf- 
appears on ao^uaintance with the peculiar stmctore of 
the creature's laws. The bones composing these vt 
not knit togetner as in Mammals, but are merely 0(tt- 
nected by ligaments, which can be distended at pknW- 
The mouth of the boa can thus be made toy* 
transversely as well as vertically; and in addittojJJ 
this the two jaws are not connected directly as in<J» 
animals, but by the intervention of a distinct ^Qi^ 
which adds greatly to the extent of its gape »^ 
also the power of moving one half of the jaw h , 
ently of the other, and can thus keep a rnin holA^ 
victim while gradually swallowing it. Tbeboap^ 



r 



BO A— BOC 



997 



ft doable row of solid sharp teeth in the upper ja^, and 
a single row beneath, all pointing inwards, so that, its 
prej once caoght, it would be well nigh impossible cvea 
tor the boa itself to release it. After feeding, boas, Kke 
all other reptiles, become inactive, and remain so while 
the process of digestion is going on, which, in the case 
of a full meal, may extend over a few weeks, and during 
this period they are readily killed. All the species are 
ovoviviparous. The Jiboya or Boa constrictor — the 
latter name having been loosely given to all the species — 
is an inhabitant of the dry and sandy districts of tropical 
America, and rarely exceeds 20 feet in length. Its food 
consists chiefly of the agoutis, capybaras, and ant-bears, 
vhich abound in those districts. It seeks to avoid man, 
and is not feared by the inhabitants, who kiH it readily 
with a sharp blow from a stick. The Water-boa or 
Anaconda ( Eumctens tnurinus) is a much more 
formidable creature, attaining, it is said, a length of 40 
feec, and being thus probably the largest of living 
serpents. It inhabits the lakes, rivers, aud marshes of 
Brazil and Guiana, and passes a considerable p>ortion of 
its existence in the water. It is exceedingly voracious, 
feeding on fishes and on such animals as may come to 
the bajiks of the stream to drink, for which it lies in 
wail with only a small part of its head above the surface 
of the water. It also occasionally visits the farmyards, 
carrying off poultry and young cattle^ and it has been 
known to attack man. 

BOADICEA, a British queen in the time of the Em- 
peror Nero. She was wife of Prasutagus, king of the 
Iceni, a people inhabiting the eastern coast of Britain. 
On his deathbed, 60 a.d., Prasutagus named the em- 
peror heir to his accumulated treasures conjointly with 
his own two daughters, in expectation of securing there- 
by Nero*s protection for his family and people ; but he 
was no sooner dead than the emperor*s officers seized all 
Boadicea's opposition to these unjust proceedings was 
resented with such cruelty, that orders were given that 
she should be publicly whipped, and her daughters ex- 
posed to the brutality of the soldiers. The Britons 
took up arms, with Boadicea at their head, to shake off 
the Roman yoke ; the colony of Camalodunum or Col- 
chester was taken, and the Romans were massacred 
wherever they could be found. The whole province of 
Britain would have been lost to Rome, if Suetonius 
Paulinas had not hastened from the Isle of Mona, and 
at the head of 10,000 men engaged the Britons, who 
are said to have amounted to 230,000. A great battle 
was fought, which resulted in the complete defeat of 
the Britons, (62 a.d. ) Boadicea, who had displayed ex- 
traordinary valor, soon after despatched herself by poison. 
BOAR, Wild (Sus scro/a), an important species of 
Suid<s, a family of Pachydermatous Mammals, and gen- 
erally regarded as the original stock of our domestic 
breeds of swine. In size it is equal to the largest of 
the domestic kinds, while exceeding them all in strength 
of body and ferocity of disposition. It is of a greyish- 
black color, coverecl with short woollyhair, thickly inter- 
spersed with coarse stiff bristles, which assume the form 
of a mane along the spine. The canine teeth are 
largely developed, forming two pairs of prism-shaped 
tusks, which thus l>ecome formidable weapons. In old 
age those tusks in the lower jaw gradually curve in- 
wards and upwards over the snout until they are ren- 
dered useless for purposes of attack, when, according 
to Darwin, they become serviceable for defence in the 
frequent fights which take place during the rutting 
season. At the same time, the canines of the upper 
jaw begin to develop outwards and upwards, and these 
take the place of tne lower ones as offensive weapons. 
The wild boar is a native of the temperate regions of 
Europe and Asia, where k inhabits the deepest recesses 



of forests and marshy grounds. Vambery, in his recent 
journey through Central Asia, found them in enormous 
numbers in the extensive swamps of Turkestan. The 
wiW boar was for many centuries a favorite beast of 
chase with the nobility of Europe. It was hunted on 
foot vnth the spear — its great strength and its ferocity 
when at bay, rendered the sport alike exciting and dan- 
gerous. 

BOAT-BUILDING. See Ship-buildino. 

BOBRUISK, a town of Russia, in the government 
of Minsk, no miles S. E. of that city, on the right 
bank of the Berezina, near the confluence of the Bob- 
ruiska, on the high road from Mogileif to Brest- Litovsk. 

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Comparatively little is 
known of Boccaccio's life, particularly of tne earlier 
portion of it. He was born in 13 13, as we know from 
a letter of Petrarch, in which that poet, who was bom 
in 1304, calls himself the senior of his friend by nine 
years. The place of his birth is somewhat doubtful, — 
Florence, Paris, and Certaldo being all mentioned by 
various writers as his native city. Boccaccio undoubt- 
edly calls himself a Florentine, but this may refer 
merely to the Florentine citizenship acquired b;^ his 
grandfather. He always signed his name Boccaccio da 
Certaldo, and named tnat town as his birthplace in his 
own epitaph. Petrarch calb his friend Certaldese ; and 
Filippo Villani, a contemporary, distinctly says that 
Boccaccio was bom in Certaldo. 

Boccaccio, an illegitimate son, as is put beyond dis- 
pute by the fact that a special license had to be obtained 
when ne desired to become a priest, was brought up 
with tender care by his father, who seems to have been 
a merchant of respectable rank. His elementary educa- 
tion he received from Giovanni da Strada, an esteemed 
teacher of grammar in Florence. But at an early age 
he was apprenticed to an eminent merchant, with whom 
he remained for six years, a time entirely lost to him, if 
we may believe his own statement. For from his ten- 
derest years his soul was attached to that **aima pocsis^^* 
which, on his tombstone, he names as the task and study 
of his life. In one of his works he relates that, in his 
seventh year, before he had ever seen a book of poetry, 
or learned the rules of metrical composition, he began 
to write verse in his childish fashion, and earned for 
himself amongst his friends the name of "the poet." 
It is uncertain where Boccaccio passed these six years of 
bondage ; most likely he followed his master to various 
centres of commerce in Italy and prance. We know at 
least that he was in Naples and Paris for some time, and 
the youthful impressions received in the latter city, as 
well as the knowledge of the French lan^age acquired 
there, were of considerable influence on his later career. 
Yielding at last to his son's immutable aversion to com- 
merce, the elder Boccaccio permitted him to adopt a 
course of study somewhat more congenial to the literary 
tastes of the young man. He was sent to a celebrated 
professor of canon law, at that time an important field 
of action both to the student and the practical jurist 
According to some accounts — far from authentic, it is 
true — this professor was Cino da Pistoia, the friend of 
Dante, and nimself a celebrated poet and scholar. But, 
whoever he mav have been, Boccaccio's master was un- 
able to inspire his pupil with scientific ardor. "Again," 
Boccaccio says, **I lost nearly six years. And so 
nauseous was his study to my mind, that neither the 
teaching of my master, nor the authority and command 
of my lather, nor yet the exertions and reproof of my 
friends, could make me take to it, for my love of poetry 
was invincible." 

About 1333 Boccaccio settled for some years at Naples, 
apparently sent there by his father to resume his mer- 
cantile pursuits, the canon law being finally abandooe 



996 



BOC 



The place, it must be confessed, was little adapted to 
lead to a practical view of life one in whose heart the 
love of poetry was firmly rooted* The court of King 
Robert of Anjou at Naples was frequented by manv 
Italian and French men of letters, the grtati retrarcn 
amongst the number. At the latter*s public examina* 
tion in the noble science of poetry by the king, pre- 
vious to his receiving the laurel crown at Rome, Boc- 
caccio was present, — without, however, making his per- 
sonal acquaintance at this period. In the atmosphere 
of this eay court, enlivened and adorned by the wit of 
men andthe beauty of women, Boccaccio lived for sev- 
eral years. We can imagine how the tedious duties of Uie 
market and the counting-house became more and more 
distasteful to his aspiring nature. We are told d^ 
finding himself b/ chance on the supposed grave of Vir- 

fil, near Naples, Boccaccio on that sacred spot took the 
rm resolution of devoting himself for ever to poetry. 
But perhaps another event, which happened some time 
after, led quite as much as the first mentioned occur- 
rence to this decisive turning point in his life. On 
Easter-eve, 1341, in the church of San Lorenzo, Boc- 
caccio saw for the first time the natural daughter of 
King Robert, Maria, whom he immortalized as Fiam- 
metta in the noblest creations of his muse. Boccaccio's 
passion on seeing her was instantaneous, and (if we 
may accept as genuine the confessions contained in one 
of her lover *s works) was returned with equal ardor on 
the part of the lady. It has been ingeniously pointed 
out by Baldelli, that the fact of her descent from King 
Robert being known only to Maria herself, and through 
her to Boccaccio, the latter was the more at liberty to 
refer to this circumstance, — the boW expression of the 
truth serving in this case to increase the mystery with 
which the poets of the Middle A|«s lovea, or were 
obliged, to surround the objects of their praise. From 
Boccaccio's Ameto we learn that Maria's mother was, 
like his own, a French lady, whose husband, according 
to BaldelU's ingenious conjecture, was of the noble 
house of Aquino, and therefore of the same family with 
the celebrated Thomas Aquinas. Maria died, according 
to his account, long before her lover, who cherished her 
memory to the end of his life, as we see from a sonnet 
written shortly before his death. 

Boccaccio's poetry has been severely criticized by his 
countrymen, and most severely by the author himself. 
On reading Petrarch's sonnets, Boccacdo resolved in a 
fit of despair to burn his own attempts, and only the 
kindly encouragement of his great firiend prevented the 
holocaust Posterity has justly differed from the 
author's sweeping self-critidsm. It is true, that compared 
with Dante's grandeur and passion, and with Petrarch's 
absolute mastership of metre and language, Boccaccio's 
poetry seems to be somewhat thrown into shade. His 
verse is occasionally slip-shod, and particularly his epic 

Soetry lacks what in modem parlance is called poetic 
iction, — the quality, that is, which distineuishes the 
elevated pathos of the recorder of heroic deeds from 
the easy gpce of the mere conteur. This latter feature, 
so charmingly displayed in Boccaccio's prose, has to 
some extent proved fatal to his verse. At the same 
time, his narrative is always fluent and interesting, and 
his lyrical pieces, particularly the poetic interludes in 
the Decanuron^ abound with charming gallantry, and 
frequently rise to lyrical pathos. 

About the year 1341 Boccaccio returned to Florence 
by command of his father, who in his old age desired 
the assistance and company of his son. Florence, at 
that time disturbed by civil feuds, and the silent gloom 
of his father's house could not but appear in an uniisiv- 
orable light to one accustomed to tne My life of the 
Neapohtan court. But more than all this, Boc(»ccio 



regnttedthc separadon firom his beloved Fiammetta. 
The thought of ner at once embittered and consoled his 
loneliness. I'hree of his works owe their existence to 
this period. With all of them Fiammetta is connected; 
of one of them she alone is the subject. 

By the intercession of an influential friend, Boccaccio 
at last obtained (in 1344) his father's permission to re- 
turn to Naples, where in the meantime Giovanna, 
grand-daughter of King Robert, had succeeded to the 
crown. Being young and beautiful, fond of poetry 
and of the praise of poets, she received Boccaccio with 
all the distinction due to his literary fame. For maay 
years she remained his faithful friend, and the poet re- 
turned her favor with grateful devotion. Even when 
the charge of having instigated, or at least connived at, 
the murder of her husband was but too dearW proved 
against her, Boccaccio was amongst the few who stood 
by her, and undertook the hopeless task of clearing her 
name from the dreadful stam. It was by her desire, no 
less than by that of Fianmietta, that he composed (be- 
tween 13^4 and 1350) most of the stories of his Decame- 
ron^ which afterwards were collected and placed in the 
mouths of the Florentine ladies and gentlemen. 

In 1350 Boccaccio returned to Florence, owing to the 
death cS^his father, who had made him guardian to his 
younger brother Jacopo. He was received with great 
distinction, and entered the service of the Republic, be- 
ing at various times sent on important missions to the 
margrave of Brandenburg, and to the courts of several 
popes, both in Avignon and Rome. 

During the 14th centurr the study of ancient litera- 
ture was at a low ebb in Italy. The interest of the lay 
world was engrossed by political struggles, and the 
treasures of c&ssical history and poetry were at the 
mercy of monks, too lagr or too i^orant to use, or 
even to preserve them. Boccaccio hunself told that, on 
asking to see the library of the celebrated monastery of 
Monte Cassino, he was shown into a dusty room wiloout 
a door to it. Many of the valuable manuscripts were 
mutilated ; and his gmde told him that the monks were 
in the habit of tearing leaves from tlie codices to torn 
them into psalters for chikUen, or amulets for women at 
the price of four or five soldi a piece. Boccaccio did oU 
in his power to remove by word and example this bar- 
barous indifference. He bought or copied with his own 
hand numerous valuable manuscripts, and an old \KTiter 
remarks that if Boccaccio had been a professional copy- 
ist, the amount of his work might astonish us. His 
zealous endeavors for the revival of the all but forgot- 
ten Greek language in western Europe are well kn6wn. 
The most celebrated Italian scholars about the begin- 
ning of the 15th century were unable to read the Greek 
characters. Boccack) deplored the ignorance of his age 
He took lessons from Leone Pilato, a learned advent- 
urer of the period, who had lived a long time in The** 
sa^ and, altnough bom in Calabria, pretended to be a 
Greeks By Boccaccio's advice Leone PiUito >*« ^ 
pointed professor of Greek lang^ge and literature m 
the university of Florence, a position which he held for 
several years, not without groit and lastinjr beneik for 
the revival of classical learning. Boccaccio ^ j''^^ 
proud of having been intimately connected with w^ 
foundatwn of the first chair of Greek in Italy. Brt M 
did not forget, in his admiration of classic liteiatt^ 
the great poets of his own country. He never ting* 
his praise of the sublime Dante, wnose works becy * 
with his own hand. He conjures his friend Peti WWif 
study the great Florentine, and to defend hims^ 
the charges of wilful ignorance and envy ^ 
against hun. A life of Dante, and the commeol 
the first 16 cantos of the Inferno^ bcur wikBCli.'^ 
caccio's learning and enthusiasm. 



(In the chronological entimer&tion of our author's 
writings we now come to his most important work, the 
Decamtron^ a collection of one hundred stories^ pub- 
lished m their combined form in 1353, although mostly 
KTitten at an earlier date. This wonk marks in a cer- 
tain sense the rise of Italian prose. It is true that 
Dante's Vita Nutrtfa was written before, but its involved 
sentences, founded essentially on Latin constructions, 
cannot be compared with the infinite suppleness and 
precision of Boccaccio's prose. The Cento NovdU 
Aniichey on the other hand, which also precedes the 
Detamcron in date, can hardly be said to be written in 
utistic language according to definite rules of grammar 
and style. Boccaccio for the first time speaks a new 
idiom, flexible and tender, like the character of the na- 
tion, and capable of rendering[ all the shades of feeKng, 
from the coarse laugh of cynicism to the sigh of hopeless 
love. It is by the name of " Father of Italian Prose »• 
that Boccaccio ought to be chiefly remembered. 

A detailed analysis of a work so well known as the 
Decameron would be unnecessary. The description of 
the plamie of Florence preceding the stories is univer- 
sally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of epic grand- 
cur and vividness. 1 1 ranks with tne paintings of simi- 
lar calamities by Thucydides, Defoe, and Mansoni. 
Like Defoe, Boccaccio had to draw largely on hearsay 
and his own imagination, it being almost certain that in 
1348 he was at iMaples, and therefore no eye-witness of 
the scenes he describes. The stories themselves, a hun- 
dred in number, range from the highest pathos to the 
coarsest licentiousness. A creation like the patient 
Griselc}^ wliich international literature owes to Boccac- 
cio, ought to atone for much that is morally and artist- 
Kally objectionable in the Decameron. It may be said 
on this head, that his age and his country were not only 
deeply immoral, but in addition exceedingly outspoken. 
Moreover, his sources were anything but pure. Most 
of his improper stories are either anecdotes from real 
life, or they are taken from the fabliaux of mediaeval 
French poets. 

Boccaccio has been accused of plagiarism, particularly 
hy French critics, who correctly state that the subjects 
of many stories in the Decameron are borrowed from 
their literature. A similar objection might be raised 
against Chaucer, Shakespeare, Goethe (in FaustV and 
indeed most of the master minds of all nations. Power 
of invention is not the only nor even the chief criterion 
of a great poet. One of the greatest masterpieces of 
German literature, Lessing's A'iiMaw the IVise^ contains 
a story from ^cczcdo (Decameron y Day ist, tale iii.), 
and the list of English poets who have drawn from the 
same source comprises among^ many others the names 
of Chaucer, Lydgate, Dryden, Keats, and Tennyson. 

About 1360 Boccaccio seems to have retured from the 
turbulent scenes of Florence to his native Certaldo, the 
secluded charms of which he describes with rapture. In 
the following year took place that strange turning-point 
in Boccaccio s career, which is generally described as his 
conversion. It seems that a Carthusian monk came to 
him while at Certaldo charged with a posthumous mes- 
sage from another monk of the same order, to the efiect 
that if Boccaccio dkl not at once abandon his godless 
ways in life and literature his death would ensue after a 
short time. It is also mentioned that the revelation to 
the friar on his deathbed of a secret known only to Boc- 
caccio gave additional import to this alarming informa- 
tion. Boccaccio's impresaonable nature was deeply 
moved. His life had been far from virtuous; in nis 
writings he had frequently sinned a^nainst the rules of 
morahty, and worse still, ne had attadced with bitter sa- 
tire the institutions and servants of holy mother church. 
Terrified by the approach of immediate death, he re- 



BOC 



999 



solved to sen his libranr, abandon literature, and devote 
the remainder of his liie to penance and religious exer- 
cise. To this effect he wrote to Petrarch. We possess 
the poet's answer ; it is a masterpiece^ of writing, and 
what is more, a proof of tenderest friendship. The mes- 
sage of the monk Petrarch is evidently inclmed to treat 
simpl)r as pious firaud, without however actually commit- 
ting himself to that opinion. ** No monk is required to 
tell thee of the shortness and pecariousness ot human 
life. Of the advice received accept what is good ; aban- 
don worldly cares, conquer thy passions, ai3 reform thy 
soul and life of degraded habits. But do not give up 
the studies which are the true food of a healthy mind.'* 
Boccaccio seems to have acted on this valuable advice. 
His later works, although written in Latin and scientific 
in character, are by no means of a religious kind. It 
seems, however, that his entering die church in 13^2 is 
connected with the events just related. 

During the next ten years Boccaccio led an unsettled 
life, residing chiefly at Florence or Certaldo, bat fre- 
ouently leavuig his home on visits to Petrarch and other 
n-iends, and on various diplomatic errands in the service 
of the Republic. He seems to have been poor, having 
spent large sums in the purchase of books, but nis inde- 
pendent spirit rejected tne numerous splendid offers of 
hospitality made to him by friends and admirers. Dur- 
ing this period he wrote four important Latin works of 
scientific character. 

li> 1373 ^c ^^^ Boccaccio again settled at Certaldo. 
Here he was attacked by a terrible disease whidi brought 
him to the verge of death, and from the consequences 
of which he never quite recovered But sickness couHl 
not subdue his intellectual vigor. When the Fk>rentines 
established a chair for the explanation of the Divina 
Commedia in their university, and offered it to Boccaccio, 
the senescent poet at once undertook the arduous 
duty. He delivered his first lecture on the 23d of Octo- 
ber 1373. The commentary on part of the In/emo^ 
alreacly alluded to, bears witness of his unabated power 
of intellect. In 1374 the news of the loss of his dearest 
friend Petrarch reached Boccaccio, and from this blow 
he may be said to have never recovered. Almost his 
dying efforts were devoted to his friend; urgently he 
entreated Petrarch's son-in-law to arrange the publica- 
don of the deceased poet's Latin epic Africa^ a work of 
which the author had been far more proud than of his 
immortal sonnets to Laura. 

In his last will Boccaccio left his library to his father 
confessor, and after his decease to the convent of Santo 
Spirito in Florence. His small property he bequeathed 
to his brother Jacopo. His own natural children had 
died before him. He himself died on the 21st of Decem- 
ber 1375 at Certaldo, and was buried in the church of 
SS. facopo e Filippo of that town. 

BOCCALINI,Trajano, an Italian satirist, was bom 
at Loretto in 1556. The son of an architect, he himself 
adopted that profession, and it appears that he com- 
menced late in life to apply to literal pursuits. Pursu- 
ing his studies at Rome, he had the honor of teaching 
Bentivoglio, and acquired the friendship of the cardinal 
Gaetano and Borghesi, as well as of other distinguished 
personages. By their influence he obtained various 
posts, and was even appointed by Gregory XIII. gov- 
ernor of Benevento in tne states of the church. Here, 
however, he seems to have acted hnprudently, and he 
was soon recalled to Rome, where he shortly afterwards 
composed his most important work, the Kagguagli di 
PamasOt in which Apollo is represented as receiving 
the complasits of all who present themselves, and dis- 
tributing justice according to the merits of each partic- 
alar case. The book is full of light and fantastic satire 
on the actions and writings of his eminent contempors 



1000 



BOC— BOD 



lies, and some of its htppier hits are among the hack- 
neyed felicities of literature. To escape, it is said, 
from the hostility of those whom his shafts had wounded, 
he returned to Venice, and there, according to the reg- 
ister in the parochial church of Sta Mana Formosa, 
died in 1613. 

BOCHART, Samuel, a learned writer of the 17th 
century, specially distin^shed as an Oriental scholar, 
was blom at Rouen in Normandy, May 30, 1599. He 
was many years pastor of a ProtesUnt church at Caen, 
and became tutor to Wentworth Dillon, earl of Ros- 
common, author of the Essay on Translated Verse. 
While at Caen he particularly distinguished himself by 
his public disputations with Father Veron, a Jesuit, 
and celebratea as a polemic The dispute vras held in 
the castle of Caen, in the presence of a great number of 
Catholics and Protestants, the duke of Longueville 
being among the former. .In 1652, Christiana, queen 
of Sweden, invited him to Stockholm, whither he re- 
paired, accompanied by Huet: On his return to Caen 
ne resumed his duty as a minister of the gospel, mar- 
ried, and was received into the academy of that city. 
Bo«hart was a man of profound erudition ; he possessed 
a thorough knowledge of the principal Oriental lan- 
guages, including Hebrew, Sjrriac, Chaldaic, and 
Arabic ; and such was his zeal for extending his acooire- 
ments, that at an advanced ajge he wished to learn 
Ethiopic. He was remarkable for modesty and candor; 
but so absorbed was he in his favorite study, that he 
saw Phoenician, and nothing but Phoenician, in every- 
thing, even in the words of the Celtic, and hence tne 
prodigious number of chimerical etymologies which 
swarm in his works. He died at Caen, May 16, 1667. 

BOCHNIA, the chief town of a district in Austrian 
Galacia, on the River Raba or Uswica, a tributary of 
the Vistula. 

BOCHUM, the chief town of a circle in the Prussian 
province of Westphalia and government of Arnsberg, 
^on the railway between Duisburg and Dortmund. 

Bode, Johann Elert, a celebrated German as- 
tronomer, bom January 19, 1747, at Hamburg, where 
his father kept a commercial academy. From his 
earliest years he was devoted to the mathematical 
sciences, especially astronomy. In the gafret of his 
fiiither's house, with the aid of a telescope constructed 
by himself, he eagerly made observatioms of the heav- 
ens ; and at eighteen years of age he had acquired so 
great a knowledge of astronomy, that when Dr. Reim- 
arus visited his father, young Eclde was found occupied 
in calculating an eclipse of Uie sun. This inckient was 
the means of introducing him to the notice of Professor 
Biisch, who at once afforded him every facility for pro- 
secuting hb labors with success. Shortly afterwards 
Bode gave the first public proof of his knowledge by a 
short work on the solar eclipse of August 5, 1766; 
and this was followed by an elementary treatise on as- 
tronomy, which was eminently successful, and has since 
gone through numerous editions. In 1772, being 
called to Berlin by Frederick II., he was nuuie astron- 
omer to the Academy of Sciences, and afterwards a 
member of that institution. The well-known periodi- 
ical work entitled Asiranomische Jahrbiicher^ which 
is continued to the present day, was commenced by 
Bode in 1774; but that on which his fame chiefly rests 
is the 6Vfl«<7^rtr/A/a, published in 180 1, in which the 
industrious author has given observations of 17,240 
stars, or 12,000 more than are to be found in any older 
charts. This veteran observer, who may justhfr be said 
to have been the first to diffuse a general taste for 
astronomy in German^r, died at Berlin, Nov. 23d, 1826. 
For the curious empirical law which bears Bode's name, 
see Astronomy. 



BODIN, Jean, one of the ablest political thinkers | 
France during the i6th century, was bom at Angeisl 
ijja He studied law at Toulouse, and, after taki^ 
his degree, lectured there for some time on jurispii 
dence. Thence he proceeded to Paris, and began I 
practice at the bar. 

His great work — Lis six tivres de la Repuhliqi 
(Paris, 1576) — passed through various editions in t 
author's lifetime, that of 1583 having as an append 
Vafologie de Reni Herpin (Bodin hmoseU). ^^ ^f 
he issued a Latin version, for .the use chiefly of Engfii 
students of law and politics. It is the first daboratej^ 
tempt in modem times to construct a system of poHtid 
science. ** Prodi the tinie,'' says Sir WiUiam Hamiltoj 
*• when Aristotle wrote his eight books of Politics^ nn 
the time when Montesquieu wrote his thirty-one bod 
on The Sfnrit of Laws ^ the six books of the Republu 
Bodinns is the ablest and most remarkable treatise ' 
tant on the philosophy of government and. legislati 
and even until the present day these three authors stand 
as the great political trivmvirate." Bodin was, of com 
greatly indented to Aristotle for hb knowledge of tl 
working of political causes, bnt he made use of whit 
illustrious predecessor taught him in no servile way, 
added muck from his own reflections, his large acqu 
ance with history, and his vivid personal exper 
The Republic is a work of which it is quite imp 
to give a brief aoooimt, and as th^e have been 
lengthened snmmaries of it, it may suffice to say^ 
those to be found in Hallam's/^ of Europe (voLfi. 
ed.). Heron's History of Jurisprudence^ Lera* 
Introduction d V Histoire du Droit, and Bluni 
Geschichte des Staatsrechts, give a good generaTview 
its character, while that in Professor BaudriUart's^ 
Bodin et son Temps is so exceedingly careful and a 
cellent that scarcehr a thought of any value in the orf 
nal has escaped being mdicated. Although he was hi» 
self regarded by most of his contemporaries as a sceptK 
and by some as an atheist, he denounced all who dam 
to doubt of sorcery, and zealously urged the burning « 
witches and wizards. It might, perhaps, have gtiRj 
hard with himself if Ws ooonsd had been strictly w 
lowed, as he confessed to have had from his thinj 
seventh year a friendly demon who, if properly invoked 
touched his right ear when he purposed domg what w* 
wrong, and his left when he meditated doing good. W« 
died of the plague in that city in 1596, andwasbanff 
in the dwrch of the Carmelites. , 

BODLEY, Sir Thomas, founder of the Bodleian li- 
brary at Oxford, was born at Exeter in 1544, and died 
at his house in London, January 28, 1612. . 

BODMIN, a parliamentary and municipal borougn 
and market-town of Engkind, in the county of Cora- 
wall, 235 miles from London, and 30 from Plymoutfl oj 
rail - , 

BODONI, GlAMBATTlSTA, superintendent oi i"*^ 
royal press at Parma, chief printer to his Cathohc iwa- 
jesty, member of various academies in Italv, and kW 
of several orders, was born in 1740, at Saluzzo in V^- 
mont, where hb father owned a printing establis/wn^^j 
While yet a boy he began to engrave on wood. Hc a 
length went to Rome, and there became a compose 
for the press of the Propaganda. He made J*'"***^ !!. 
quainted with the Oriental languages, and thus ^''^ 
abled to render essential service to the P^P*^^ 
press, by restoring and accurately distributing Jjj^ 
of several Orientalalphabets which had fallen "*^. 
order. The beauty of his typography, &c, ^^^Z^ 
in^ further to be desired; but the intrinsic ^'•^i. His 
editions is seldom equal to their outward sfitoMtf^ 
Homer however»i& a truly magnificent wtrin* 



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