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these ancient feudatories were early elevated to the rank of counts or princes. The modern barons only form a rank of lower nobility after the counts.-Barons of the exchequer; four judges in England and five in Scotland, to whom the administration of justice is committed, in causes between the king and his subjects, relating to the revenue. They were formerly barons of the realm, but, of late, are, generally, persons learned in the laws.

BARON, Michael; a celebrated French actor, born at Paris in 1652; equally successful in tragedy and comedy. Preachers are said to have attended in a grated box to study his action. Such was his vanity, that he said, every century produced a Cesar, but it required 2000 years to produce a Baron. He died in 1729.

BARON and FEME. (See Husband and Wife.)

BARONETS; a hereditary dignity in Great Britain and Ireland, next in rank to the peerage, originally instituted by James I, May 22, 1661. It is said that lord chancellor Bacon suggested the idea, and the first baronet was sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave. Baronets are created by patent, under the great seal, and the honor is generally given to the grantee and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, though sometimes it is entailed on collaterals. From the preamble of the original patent, it appears that the order was created to get money for the support of soldiers in Ireland, each baronet, on his creation, being obliged to pay into the treasury a sum little less than £1100. In 1823, there were 661 baronets in England. Precedency is given to baronets before all knights, except those of the garter, bannerets created on the field, and privy counsellors.

Baronets of Ireland; an order instituted by James I, for the same purpose, and with the same privileges, as the baronets of England. Since the union, in 1801, none have been created otherwise than as baronets of the United Kingdom. A hereditary dignity, somewhat similar to knighthood, appears to have been conferred, in this country, even in very ancient times.

Baronets of Nova Scotia, and Baronets of Scotland. Charles I instituted this order in 1621, for the purpose of advancing the plantation of Nova Scotia, in which the king granted a certain portion of land to each member of the order. Since the union, the power of the king to create new baronets within Scotland is held to have ceased.

BARONIUS, OF BARONIO, Caesar; born at

Sora, in the kingdom of Naples, Oct. 30, 1538; received his early education in Naples; in 1557, went to Rome; was one of the first pupils of St. Philip of Neri, and member of the congregation of priests of the oratorio founded by him; afterwards cardinal and librarian of the Vatican library. He owed these dignities to the services which he rendered the Catholic church by his Ecclesiastical Annals, on which he labored, with indefatigable assiduity, from the year 1580 until his death, June 30, 1607. They comprise a rich collection of genuine documents from the papal archives, and are, therefore, of great use to the student of ecclesiastical history, but contain many false statements and unauthentic documents; and the air of sincerity, which prevails throughout, is calculated to give very erroneous ideas of the papal administration of the church. They are principally written to confute the Centuries of Magdeburg, and to prove that the doctrine and the constitution of the church had remained the same from the beginning. These Annales Ecclesiastici a Christo nato ad A. 1198, a C. Baronio (Rome, 1588-1607, 12 vols., folio), were often reprinted, with the corrections of the author. At Mentz, an edition was commenced, in 1601, in 12 vols., folio. The Antwerp edition, however, begun in 1589, in 10 vols., folio, is handsomer, but does not contain the treatise De Monarchia Sicilia, which contests the ecclesiastical privileges of the king of Sicily, known by the above name, and, therefore, was forbidden by the Spanish court. Many errors, particularly chronological, were corrected by the Franciscan Anthony Pagi, in his excellent criticism on the work ("Critica Historico-chronologica in Ann. Baron. Antverp"; Geneva, 1705, 4 vols., folio). Other Catholic writers have also mentioned his errors, against which the censures of the Protestants have been more particularly directed. Among the continuations of the Annals, none of which is equal to the work of B., Raynaldi has furnished the most copious (ab a. 1198–1565, Rome, 1646, 8 vols., folio: continued until 1671 by Laderchi, Rome, 1728, 3 vols., folio).

BARQUISIMETO; a city in Venezuela, 110 miles W. S. W. Caraccas, 440 N. N. E. Santa Fé de Bogota; lat. 9° 45′ N.; pop., 11,300. It is situated on an elevated plain, and is regularly laid out, and well built. The surrounding country is fertile. Cacao grows abundantly there. Coffee has been planted recently. B. was founded by the Spaniards, in 1552,

BARRA, or BAR; a kingdom in Africa, near the mouth of the Gambia, on the borders of which it extends about 60 miles. The Mandingoes form a considerable part of the inhabitants. They are Mohammedans, have public schools, and are the most civilized people on the Gambia. The population is estimated at 200,000.-Barra, or Barra Inding, the capital, is a populous town, near the point of B., on the north side of the Gambia, Lon. 16° 45 W; lat. 13° 25′ N.

BARRAS, Paul François Jean Nicholas, comte de, member of the national convention, afterwards of the executive directory, born at Fox, in Provence, June 30, 1755, of the family of Barras, whose antiquity in this quarter had become a proverb, served as second lieutenant in the regiment of Languedoc until 1775. He made, about this time, a voyage to the Isle-deFrance, the governor of which was one of his relations, and entered into the garrison of Pondicherry. He afterwards served in Suffren's squadron, and at the cape of Good Hope. At his return, he gave himself up to gambling and women, and dissipated his fortune. The revolution broke out. He immediately showed himself an opponent of the court, and had a seat in the tiers-état, whilst his brother was sitting in that of the nobility. July 14, 1789, he took part in the attack upon the Bastile, and, Aug. 10, 1792, upon the Tuileries. He was afterwards elected a juryman at the tribunal of Orleans, and, in September, a member of the national convention, where he voted for the death of Louis XVI. In October, he was sent with Fréron into the southern provinces, and showed himself at Marseilles less violent than the latter. Although he had established his reputation as a patriot, yet he displeased Robespierre. B.'s threat to repel force by force alone restrained him. Robespierre resolved to involve him in the great proscription, which he then meditated. On this account, B. joined the members of the committee, who also foresaw the danger which awaited them, and were determined to strike an effectual blow, and overthrow their oppressor. He therefore took an important part in the events of the 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794). He was intrusted with the chief command of the forces of his party, repelled the troops of Henriot, and made himself master of Robespierre. Feb. 4, 1795, he was elected president of the convention. The 13th Vendemiaire (Oct. 5, 1795), when the troops of the sections, which favored the royal cause, approached

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the convention, Barras, for a second time, received the chief command of the troops of the convention, and the battalion of the patriots, who hastened to their assistance. On this occasion, he employed general Bonaparte, whose services were of the highest importance to him. In his report, he attributed the victory to this young general, and, a few days after, procured for him the chief command of the army of the interior. His important services promoted him to the directory. It is said that Bonaparte owed to him the command of the army of Italy. However this may be, Barras soon perceived that Bonaparte would give a decisive superiority to him who should obtain an influence over him; and, therefore, he displaced Carnot from the war department, and took possession of it himself. This separated them, and Carnot, for some time, took part with the council, where a party had been formed to restrain the power of the directory, and particularly that of Barras. The rupture could only terminate with the ruin of one of the parties: that of the council fell by the events of the 18th Fructidor (Sept. 4, 1797), in which Barras took a leading part. From this period, he governed absolutely until the 13th June, 1799, when Sieyes entered the directory. Nevertheless, Barras succeeded in preserving his seat, whilst Merlin de Douay, Treilhard and La Réveillère-Lepeaux were compelled to give in their resignation. He himself became a victim of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799). In a badly-composed letter, which he sent to St. Cloud, he resigned his office, and received, upon his request, from the first consul, a passport to his estate. He afterwards retired to Brussels, where he lived for several years; but, finally, received permission to repair to the south of France. He died in January, 1829. His memoirs are expected soon to appear.

BARRATOR, COMMON. (See Barratry, common.)

BARRATRY, in commerce, is usually considered to be any fraud or knavery committed by the master or mariners of a ship, whereby the owners or freighters are injured. It has been held, in one case, that barratry may be committed on land, and by other persons than the master and mariners of a ship. Some goods insured from London, by land carriage, to Harwich, and thence to Gothenburg, sustained damage by the misconduct of the carriers. Lord Ellenborough held that this damage was insured against, in a policy against barratry. The following are among the acts which have been considered barra

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trous, viz., evading foreign port-duties; deviation from the usual course of the voyage, by the captain, for his own private purposes; or dropping anchor, to go ashore on his own affairs; cruising against an enemy contrary to instructions; trading with an enemy, whereby the ship is exposed to seizure; wilful violation of a blockade; a wilful resistance of search by a belligerent vessel, where the right of search is legally exercised; and even negligence, when so gross as to bear a fraudulent character, is barratry; and, more especially, embezzlement of any part of the cargo; and the shipper recovers against the underwriters for such an act of barratry, even though it is consented to by the owners of the ship. Under insurance against barratry, the underwriters are liable for any barratrous act of the mariners, which could not have been prevented by ordinary diligence and care on the part of the captain. And as far as the circumstance of barratry depends upon its being an act against the owners, it is sufficient that it be prejudicial to the charterers, who are, for this purpose, considered the owners.-It is obviously of great importance to protect the owners of ships and cargoes against the fraud and knavery of those to whose care they are intrusted; and, because property at sea is commonly beyond the care and superintendence of the owner, and is necessarily intrusted to the master and mariners, the laws usually punish any embezzlement, or wilful destruction of it by them, with great severity. By an act of congress, March 26, 1804, it is enacted, that "any person, not being an owner, who shall, on the high-seas, wilfully and corruptly cast away, burn or otherwise destroy any vessel unto which he belongeth, being the property of any citizen, or citizens, of the United States, or procure the same to be done, shall suffer death." And the same penalty is enacted against any owner, or part-owner, for the same act done with intent to prejudice an underwriter on a policy of insurance, or a shipper, or any other part-owner. The British statutes are of the same import.

Barratry, common, is the stirring up of suits and quarrels between other persons, and the party guilty of this offence is indietable as a common barrator, or barretor. But more than one instance is necessary to constitute the offence; and any number of suits brought in the party's own name, if there be any color for them, do not constitute this offence. The commencing of

suits in the name of a fictitious plaintiff is common barratry.

BARRÈRE, Bertrand, de Vieuzac, born at Tarbes, Sept. 10, 1755, of a respectable family, was advocate of the parliament at Toulouse, and attracted attention by his easy and elegant delivery. In 1789, he was chosen deputy to the states general, where he openly expressed his republican principles. He was afterwards a member of the convention, and, Nov. 29, 1792, elected their president. Louis XVI was examined, for the first time, Dec. 11, under the presidency of B., who voted for his death. He became one of the most active members of the committee of safety. From Sept. 21, 1792, when the convention was opened, until July 27, 1794 (9th Thermidor), few sessions took place at which B. did not occupy the tribune. As he spoke on all the measures of the reign of terror in flowery and poetical language, he was called l'Anacréon de la guillotine! On the day previous to Robespierre's fall, B. pronounced his eulogy; but, when he saw that the convention declared itself against him, he deserted him, took part in the proceedings of the 9th Thermidor, and preserved, by this means, some influence. In March, 1795, he was condemned to deportation, but escaped by flight. The first consul revoked his banishment after the revolution of the 18th Brumaire. He afterwards edited a journal, Mémorial Anti-Britannique. He appeared, on all occasions, a zealous defender of Napoleon, yet without playing any important part during his reign. In 1815, he was banished, like all the regicides, who had entered into the service of Napoleon after his return from Elba.

BARRICADE, or BARRICADO; those objects which are hastily collected, to defend a narrow passage (for instance, the street of a village, a defile, a bridge, &c.), the removing of which retards the enemy, and gives to the sharpshooters, posted behind or in its neighborhood, an opportunity of firing upon them with effect. Wagons, harrows, casks, chests, branches of trees, beams, in short, every thing which is at hand is used for this purpose; and, if it is necessary that the enemy, when consisting principally of cavalry, should be checked in the pursuit, though it be but for a moment, the ammunition and baggage-wagons may be employed with effect.

BARRIER TREATY. When, by the peace of Utrecht, the Spanish Netherlands were ceded to Austria, 1715, this cession was agreed to by the Dutch, who had conquer

ed these provinces in alliance with England, only on condition that they should have the right (in order to secure their borders against their powerful neighbor) to garrison several fortresses of the country, viz., Namur, Tournay, Menin, Furnes, Warneton, Ypres, and the fort of Kenock, and to maintain, in common with Austria, a garrison in Dendermonde; and that Austria should engage to pay yearly to Holland 350,000 dollars for the support of these garrisons. The treaty which was concluded between these two powers, in 1718, was called the Barrier treaty. In 1781, the emperor Joseph II declared it void, notwithstanding all the remonstrances of the states general.

BARRINGTON, Daines; fourth son of the first viscount Barrington; distinguished as a lawyer, antiquary and naturalist. He was born in 1727, and, after preparatory studies at Oxford and the Inner Temple, was called to the bar. He held several offices previous to his being appointed a Welsh judge in 1757; and was subsequently second justice of Chester till 1785, when he resigned that post, and, thence forward, lived in retirement, chiefly at his chambers in the Inner Temple, where he died, March, 1800. His works are numerous; among them is Tracts on the Probability of reaching the North Pole, 1775, 4to. BARRISTER; in England, an advocate or counsellor, who has been admitted by one of the inns of court, viz., the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn, to plead at the bar. Before a student can be admitted to the bar, he must have been a member of one of those societies, and have kept terms there for five, or, if he be a master of arts of either of the universities of Cambridge, Oxford or Dublin, for three years. Twelve public disputations, or legal theses, were formerly required; but these have now dwindled into mere forms. Barristers are also called utter or outer barristers, to distinguish them from serjeants and king's counsel, who sit within the bar in the courts. They are also styled, in the old books, apprenticii ad legem, as being still but apprenticed to the profession, to the highest grade of which (that of serjeant, or serviens ad legem) they could not be admitted until they had sat without the bar, through the apprenticeship of 16 years. The duties of a counsel are honorary, and he can maintain no action for his fees, which are considered as a gratuity, and not as hire. In the U. States, the degree of barrister, though not formally abolished, has fallen into disuse.

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BARROS, Joan de, the most illustrious of the Portuguese historians, born at Viseu, 1496, was descended from an ancient noble family. At first one of the pages of the king Emanuel, he distinguished himself so much by his talents and address, that the king selected him, at the age of 17, for the companion of the prince royal. He employed all his leisure time in reading Sallust, Livy and Virgil. He wrote his first work, in the midst of the distractions of the court, in the antichamber. It was a historical romance, entitled the Emperor Clarimond, distinguished for beauty of language. It appeared in 1520, the author being but 24 years old. B. presented it to the king, who urged him to undertake the history of the Portuguese in India. The king died a few months after, but his orders were executed, and this historical work appeared 32 years later. King John III appointed B. governor of the Portuguese settlements in Guinea, and, afterwards, general agent for these colonies. He performed the duties of this office with understanding and honesty. The king presented him, in 1530, with the province of Maranham in Brazil, for the purpose of colonization. B. lost a great part of his fortune by the enterprise, and returned the province to the king, who indemnified him for his losses. At the age of 72 years, he retired to his estate Alitem, where he died after three years. His work L'Azia Portugueza, upon the doings of the Portuguese in India, consists of 40 books, and probably will always remain a standard work in this department of literature. He wrote, besides, a moral dialogue, Rhopicancuma, in which he shows the pernicious consequences of accommodating principles to circumstances; but this work was prohibited by the inquisition. He has written also a dialogue on false modesty, and a Portuguese grammar, the first ever published.

BARROW, Isaac, an eminent mathematician and divine, was the son of Mr. Thomas Barrow, a respectable citizen and linen-draper of London, in which city he was born in 1630. His childhood gave no presage of his future celebrity; for, at the Charter-house, where he was educated, he was chiefly remarkable for fighting and neglect of study. Being removed to a school at Felsted, in Essex, he began to show some earnest of his future great reputation. He was subsequently entered a pensioner of Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he was chosen a scholar, in 1647. The ejection of his uncle, the bishop of

St. Asaph, from his fellowship of Peterhouse, in consequence of his adherence to the royal party, and the great losses sustained by his father in the same cause, left him in a very unprovided condition. His good disposition and great attainments, however, so won upon his superiors, that, although he refused to subscribe to the covenant, he was very highly regarded. In 1649, he was elected fellow of his college, and, finding that opinions in church and state opposite to his own now prevailed, proceeded some length in the study of anatomy, botany and chemistry, with a view to the medical profession. He how ever changed his mind, and to the study of divinity joined that of mathematics and astronomy, unbending his mind by the cultivation of poetry, to which he was always much attached. In 1652, he graduated M. A. at Oxford, and, being disappointed in his endeavor to obtain the Greek professorship at Cambridge, engaged in a scheme of foreign travel. He set out in 1655; and, during his absence, his first work, an edition of Euclid's Elements, was published at Cambridge. He visited France and Italy, where he embarked for Smyrna; and, the ship in which he sailed being attacked by an Algerine corsair, he stood manfully to the guns until the enemy was beaten off. From Smyrna he proceeded to Constantinople, returned, in 1659, by way of Germany and Holland, and was soon after episcopally ordained by bishop Brownrigg. In 1660, he was elected Greek professor at the university of Cambridge, without a competitor. At the recommendation of doctor Wilkins, afterwards bishop of Chester, he was, in 1662, chosen professor of geometry in Gresham college, and, in 1663, the royal society elected him a member of that body, in the first choice after their incorporation. The same year, he was appointed the first Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, on which occasion he delivered an excellent prefatory lecture on the utility of mathematical science. In 1669, on a conscientious principle of duty, he determined to give up mathematics, and adhere exclusively to divinity. Accordingly, after publishing his celebrated Lectiones Optica, he resigned his chair to a successor worthy of him-the great Newton. In 1670, he was created D. D. by mandate, and, in 1672, the king nominated him to the mastership of Trinity college, observing that he had bestowed it on the best scholar in England. He had, before this, refused a living, given him with a

view to secure his services as a tutor to the son of the gentleman who had it to bestow, because he deemed such a contract simoniacal; and he now, with similar conscientiousness, had a clause in his patent of master, allowing him to marry, erased, because incompatible with the intentions of the founder. In 1675, he was chosen vice-chancellor of the university of Cambridge; but the credit and utility expected from his labors were frustrated by his untimely death, from a violent fever, in May, 1677, in the 47th year of his age. The works of doctor Barrow, both mathematical and theological, are of the highest class. Of the former, the following are the principal:-Euclidis Elementa, Cantab., 1655, 8vo.; Euclidis Data, Cantab., 1657, 8vo.; Lectiones Optice, Lond., 1669, 4to.; Lectiones Geometrica, Lond., 1670, 4to.; Archimedis Opera, Apollonii Conicorum, lib. iv; Theodosii Sphericorum, lib. iii, novo methodo illustrata et succincte demonstrata, Lond., 1675, 4to.; Lectio in qua Theoremata Archimedis de Sphera et Cylindro per Methodum indivisibilium investigata, &c., Lond., 1678, 12mo.; Mathematica Lectiones, Lond., 1683. The two last works were not published till after his death. All his English works are theological: they were left in MS., and published by doctor Tillotson, in 3 vols., folio, Lond., 1685. Isaaci Barrow Opuscula, appeared in 1697, Lond., folio. As a mathematician, especially in the higher geometry, Barrow was deemed inferior only to Newton: as a divine, he was singularly distinguished for depth and copiousness of thought; and he so exhausted the subjects which he treated in his sermons, that Charles II used to call him an unfair preacher, for leaving nothing to be said after him. Le Clerc speaks of his sermons as exact dissertations, rather than addresses to the people; and, although unusually long, they so abound in matter, that his language sometimes labors in the expression of it; whence his style is occasionally involved and parenthetical. Passages of sublime and simple eloquence, however, frequently occur; and, although his divinity is less read now than formerly, it is not unfrequently resorted to as a mine of excellent thoughts and arguments. A fine specimen of his characteristic copiousness is quoted, by Addison, from his sermon on Vain and Idle Talking, in which the various forms and guises of wit are enumerated with a felicity of expression which it would be difficult to parallel. Doctor Barrow was himself celebrated for wit,