of the otherwise common Biographical Dictionary of all the Engravers, by John Strutt (London, 1785-86, 2 vols. 4to.), which is increased, in this way, to 37 large vols., in folio, and costs not less than £2000 sterling. The library of Dresden has a similar copy of Buddæus's Historical Lexicon, of an earlier date. Among the auctions, where the bibliomania raged with the greatest fury, was that of the library of the duke of Roxburgh (q. v.), in London, 1812. Every work was bought at almost incredible prices. The first edition of Boccaccio, published by Valdarfer, in 1471, was sold for £2260 sterling; to the memory of which a bibliomanio-Roxburgh club was founded in the following year, of which lord Spencer is president. It meets yearly on the 13th of July, the anniversary of the sale of Boccaccio, in the St. Alban's tavern. No further evidence is necessary to show that bibliomania, which flourished first in Holland (the seat likewise of the tulipomania), towards the end of the 17th century, prevails at present in England to a much greater extent than in France, Italy or Germany. -Thomas F. Dibdin's Bibliomania or Book-madness (London, 1811), and his Bibliographical Decameron (London, 1817, 3 vols.), contain many useful directions for the assistance of collectors of books.-The modern bibliomania is very different from the spirit which led to the purchase of books, in the middle ages, at prices which appear to us enormous. External decorations, it is true, were then held in high esteem; but the main reason of the great sums then paid for books was their scarcity, and the difficulty of procuring perfect copies before the invention of the art of printing. There is sometimes found a rage for possessing books, without reference to the value of their contents, or the other circumstances which have been mentioned as influencing the bibliomanist. A priest in Saxony is said to have murdered three persons, with a view of getting possession of their libraries. These, however, he did not read.

BICÈTRE; a castle and village in the neighborhood of Paris, situated on a hill, and commanding one of the finest prospects of Paris, of the course of the Seine, and of the environs. Louis XIII erected the castle for the residence of invalids. When Louis XIV afterwards erected the great hotel royal des invalides, B. became a great hospital, for which it is particularly adapted by its healthy situation: water only was wanting in its vicinity, to obtain

which a well was dug in the rock (1733). B. contains also a house of correction (maison de force) for dissolute persons, swindlers, thieves, &c. Since the revolution, a prison for criminals condemned to the galleys has been erected here, from which they are transferred to the public ship-yards. In the prison and the house of correction are shops for the grinding of glass, and for other kinds of work, in which the prisoners are usefully employed. In the hospital of B., 2200 beds are devoted to the reception of aged patients. No one is admitted under the age of 70 years. They are attended to with the greatest care, and fabricate neat little works of wood and bone, known in France by the name of Bicètre works. A large hospital for incurable madmen has also been erected since the revolution.

BIDASSOA, a boundary river between Spain and France, rises in the Spanish territory, becomes a boundary at Vera, and is navigable to Biriatou at high tide. It forms the isle of Pheasants, or the island of Conference, where the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded (1659), and falls into the bay of Biscay, between Andaye and Fontarabia. On the Spanish side of the river, on the margin of the valley through which it flows, is an advantageous position, near St. Marcial, which commands the great road to Bayonne, before which (Aug. 31, 1813) 8000 Spaniards repulsed a French force of double that number, who attempted to force this position in order to relieve St. Sebastian.

BIDDLE, John, a celebrated Socinian writer, was born in 1615, at Wottonunder-Edge, in Gloucestershire. He entered Magdalen college, Oxford, in his 19th year. He graduated as A. M. in 1641. Being led to doubt of the doctrine of the Trinity, he drew up 12 arguments on the subject; in consequence of which he was committed to jail by the parliamentary committee then sitting at Gloucester, but was liberated on security being given for his appearance when called for. About six months afterwards, he was examined before a committee of the parliament, to whom he readily acknowledged his opinion against the divinity of the Holy Ghost. His Twelve Arguments were now ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. He however persisted in his opinion, and, in 1648, published two tracts, containing his Confessions of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity, and The Testimonies of Irenæus, Justin Martyr, and several other early writers on the same subject. These publications in

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duced the assembly of divines to solicit parliament to decree the punishment of death against those who should impugn the established opinions respecting the Trinity and other doctrinal points, as well as to enact severe penalties for minor deviations. The parliament indulged these ministers in their intolerant request, which immediately exposed Biddle, who would neither consent nor recant, to the loss of life; but difference of opinion in the parliament itself, and the penalties to which this sweeping measure rendered many in the army liable, prevented its execution. He was, some time after, again remanded to prison, by the zeal of president Bradshaw, and remained for some years in confinement, subjected to the greatest privations. A general act of oblivion, in 1651, restored him to liberty, when he immediately disseminated his opinions, both by preaching and by the publication of his Twofold Scripture Catechism. A complaint being made to Cromwell's parliament against this book, he was confined in the gate-house for six months. Cromwell banished him to St. Mary's castle, Scilly, where he assigned him an annual subsistence of a hundred crowns. Here he remained three years, until the protector liberated him, in 1658. He then became pastor of an independent congregation, and continued to support his opinions, until fear of the Presbyterian parliament of Richard Cromwell induced him to retire into the country. On the dissolution of that parliament, he preached as before, until the restoration, which obliged him to confine his exertions to private preaching. He was, however, in June, 1662, apprehended at one of the private assemblies, and, upon process of law, fined £100, and ordered to lie in prison until it was paid. He fell a martyr to this sentence, by catching one of the distempers so common at that time in jails, and died in Sept. of this year, in the 47th year of his age, a martyr to religious intolerance. The private character of this courageous sectarian, like that of most of those who suffer from principle, was moral, benevolent and exemplary; and his learning and logical acuteness rendered him very fit to gain proselytes. He did not agree in all points with Socinus, but was apparently unsolicitous to establish a perfect agreement. Toulmin styles him the father of the modern Unitarians.

BIDPAI. (See Pilpay.)

BIELEFELD; a town in the province of Westphalia, near Prussian Minden; lon.

8° 27 E.; lat. 51° 53′ N.; population, 6000. The best German linens are manufactured here, and exported, in large quantities, to South America.

BIEVRE, marquis de, marshal, born 1747, served in the corps of the French musketeers, was a life-guard of the king of France, and acquired much reputation by his puns and repartees. After publishing several entertaining works, he composed (1783) Le Séducteur, a comedy in verse, for the theatre, which has maintained its place on the stage, although it is bad both in plan and execution. When he was introduced to Louis XV, the king wished to hear a calembourg (pun) of his. Donnez-moi un sujet, sire, said B.-Faitesen un sur moi.-Sire, le roi n'est pas un sujet, was the witty answer of B. In 1789, he went to Spa for the benefit of his health, and died there. Mes amis, he said, dying, je m'en vais de ce pas (de Spa). He has written several works; among others, an Almanac des Calembourgs. There is also a collection of his jests called Bièvriana.

BIGAMY, in the canon law, means being twice married; in the common acceptation of the word, as a term of municipal law, it means the being married to two wives or husbands at the same time. Though the laws relating to plurality of wives or husbands might, with more strict propriety, be treated of under the head of polygamy, they are more usually brought under that of bigamy; and, in compliance with this usage, they will be introduced in this place. The laws of every civilized society make some provision respecting this subject. By the statute of 4 Edward I, stat. 3, c. 5, the marrying of a second husband or wife, the first being alive, was made felony; and, by that of 2 James I, c. 11, this crime was made punishable by death. But the same statute provided that, where either party was absent beyond seas for seven years, whether known or not known to the other party to be alive, or was absent, though not beyond seas, for the same period, and not known by the other to be alive, the other party was at liberty to marry again. The determination of bigamy involves the consideration of what constitutes a valid marriage. If a person be married within the age of consent, which, in England, in the case of the husband, is 14, and in that of the wife 12 years, or was otherwise incapable of making such a contract; or in case the marriage was not celebrated with the forms and ceremonies required by law; in these cases, a second marriage does not subject the party to the penalty

of bigamy. The statute of James I has been adopted in most of the U. States as to the description of the crime, but the American laws generally differ from it as to the penalty, having assigned, heretofore, instead of death, as provided by the English statute, the punishment of whipping, setting on the gallows, &c., which latter is the punishment in France; but most, if not all of the U. States, have now dispensed with these corporeal inflictions, some of them prescribing imprisonment and hard labor for a number of years, according to the discretion of the court; others leaving it to the verdict of the jury to fix the period of imprisonment.

BIG. (See Barley.)

In

BIGNON, Louis Edward, born 1771, at Meilleraye, department of Lower Seine, studied at Paris, in the collège Lisieux. He approved the principles of the revolution in 1789, but was proscribed in 1793, because he opposed all violent measures. He therefore joined the army. In 1797, he entered on the diplomatic career. Berlin, where the royal family of Prussia bestowed on him many marks of favor, he was, in 1801, secretary of legation, and, in 1802 and 1803, chargé d'affaires. From 1803 to 6, he was minister plenipotentiary at the court of Cassel, where, the day before the battle of Jena, he proposed to the elector a treaty of neutrality, which was declined. After the entry of the French troops into Berlin, he was appointed imperial commissary to the Prussian states. He was afterwards charged with the general administration of the domains and finances in the countries taken possession of until the end of 1808. He asserts, that he conducted this difficult business with as much mildness as possible, and that he has since received many proofs of gratitude from the people among whom he acted. In 1809, he was minister plenipotentiary to the grand duke of Baden, when an imperial decree, dated Schönbrunn, appointed him administrator-general in Austria. He was afterwards intrusted with an important mission to Warsaw, with secret instructions: here he remained about three years. At the opening of the campaign in 1812, M. de Pradt succeeded him, and he was appointed imperial commissary at the provisory government in Wilna. After the retreat from Moscow, he took the place of M. de Pradt in the embassy at Warsaw, and, in conjunction with prince Poniatowski, succeeded in delaying for four months the retreat of the Austrian allied army under prince Schwarzenberg, afterwards under

He soon

general Frimont, until the scattered Polish corps, of about 7000 men, were collected under Poniatowski in Cracow. This was increased to 20,000 men, and made its retreat, in May, through Austria into Saxony. B. now repaired to the French headquarters at Dresden, and remained there, with the other members of the diplomatic corps, during the siege, until the capitulation. As he had procured passports from the confederation of the Rhine for several foreign ministers, prince Schwarzenberg caused him to be escorted by one of his aides to the French out-posts at Strasburg. On his arrival in Paris, Dec. 7, 1813, he brought to the emperor the first information of the defection of Murat. after retired into the country. On the restoration of the Bourbons, he wrote his Exposé comparatif de la Situation de la France et celle des principales Puissances de l'Europe, in which he showed great penetration, and also proved himself a true Frenchman of the school of Napoleon. During the "hundred days," Napoleon appointed him under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, and, in 1820, several departments chose him their deputy. He spoke against the law of exception, and advocated the recall of the exiles, reminding the ministers of certain secret circumstances, on which he did not think proper to explain himself more fully. B. also advocated the law of election. In 1820, he wrote Des Proscriptions, in which he paints the struggle for liberty against every kind of tyranny. His latest writings on national disputes have attracted much notice; for instance, Coup d'Eil sur les Démêlés des Cours de Bavière et de Bade (1818), and particularly his work Du Congrès de Troppau (1821), his Lettre sur les Différends de la Maison d'Anhalt avec la Prusse, and his Les Cabinets et les Peuples (Paris, 1824).

BIJA-PUR, or VIJAYA-PURI; a city of Hindostan, formerly capital of the province of Beejapoor (q. v.), called Viziapoor, by the European travellers of the three last centuries. The city is 306 miles N. Seringapatam, 384 N. W. Madras; lon. 75° 47′ E.; lat. 16° 46′ N. It is situated in a fertile plain, and is of very great extent, consisting of three towns within each other: the innermost is the citadel, a mile in circuit; the next a fort, eight miles in compass; and the exterior is environed with walls many miles in circuit. But a great proportion of the space is covered with ruins. It is thinly inhabited, but the population is unknown. The inhabitants affirm, that, according to au

thentic records, it contained, in the time of its prosperity, 984,456 houses, and 1600 mosques; and travellers are of opinion that the latter number is not exaggerated. It was taken by Aurangzeb in 1689, when, it is said, 15,000 cavalry could encamp between the fort and the city wall. It was one of the wealthiest cities of Asia. The fort is protected by high walls, with massive_towers, and is surrounded by a ditch. It has seven gates, and contains several cannon of enormous dimensions, particularly one called the sovereign of the plains.

BILBAO. (See Bilboa.)

BILBOA, or BILBAO, or VILVAO, a Spanish province in Biscay. The capital, of the same name, is a seaport on the Ybaiçabal, in a plain surrounded with high mountains; lon. 3° 4′ W.; lat. 43° 16 N.; population, 15,000. It contains about 1200 houses, part of which are built on piles. The harbor is good, and well frequented. Between 500 and 600 vessels visit this port annually; and the yearly export of wool is estimated at 50 or 60,000 sacks of 2 cwt. each. The air is healthy; the inhabitants are strong, robust, and live long. It is well supplied with water and provisions: fish are very abundant; and the environs are fertile in legumes and fruits. It contains 5 parishes and 12 religious houses. Among the laws peculiar to the town is one against ingratitude. Its commerce principally consists in wool and iron.

BILDERDYK, William, born at Amsterdam, 1750, lives at Leyden, and is now considered one of the greatest lawyers in Holland-a man of learning in the fullest extent of the word, and, according to the judgment of the Dutch critics, one of the greatest poets of the present age. He studied the classics at Leyden, chiefly under Ruhnken and Valkenaer. In 1776, he obtained from the learned society of Leyden, whose judgment was always respected, the first prize for a poem on the influence of poetry upon government. In the following year, he obtained from the same society two prizes for an ode and a didactic poem, On True Patriotism. Since that period, he has ranked with Feith and madame de Launoy, among the first Dutch poets. The present age is the epoch of the modern Dutch school of poetry, in which, besides B., Feith and Launoy, and particularly Bellamy, Helmers, Tollens, Loots, van Hall, Kinker, Klyn and others are distinguished. B. introduced into Dutch poetry iambics and hexameters, rather to show his talent for

overcoming difficulties of all kinds than from preference to these measures, which, on the contrary, he declared not admissible into Dutch poetry. In 1780, he obtained a new prize for a poem, on the connexion of poetry and eloquence with philosophy. He added to this poem, some time afterwards, an important commentary, which showed him to be a man of learning and a philologer. B., besides, devoted himself to law, at the Hague, with great success. On the invasion of the Netherlands by the French, he left his country on account of his adherence to the hereditary stadtholder, and removed to Brunswick, where he studied the German language and poetry, and afterwards to London, where he delivered, in the French language, lectures on literature and poetry, which were numerously attended. After the new order of things was firmly established in Holland, he returned, in 1799, and soon afterwards published some of his principal works. Among these are a didactic poem on astronomy, and the masterly imitations of Delille's L'Homme des Champs, and Pope's Essay on Man. Louis Bonaparte, on his accession to the throne, appointed him his teacher of Dutch, and one of the first members of the national institute founded by him. After the incorporation of Holland into the French empire, B.'s muse was silent; but she rose the more vigorously after the deliverance of his country. Perhaps there is no poem of our time superior in fire, vigor and enthusiasm, to Holland's Verlossing, the joint composition of B. and his wife, who is a successful poetess. When Napoleon returned from Elba, B. produced a number of war-songs, which are considered among the best in Dutch poetry. He published his Mengelpoezy (Miscellaneous Poems, two small volumes, Rotterdam, 1823, second edition), which contains some ballads and imitations of Ossian. We may also mention that he is a bitter enemy of German literature.

BILDGE. (See Bilge.)

BILE; a yellowish-green liquid substance, of a bitter taste. Man and many animals have, on the inferior surface of the liver, a peculiar bladder, in which the bile, formed by the liver from the blood, is preserved. It consists of water and several other substances. The water constitutes the greatest part, and keeps the other parts in a state of solution. The remaining ingredients are a yellow, very bitter, fusible resin, which contributes most to the taste of the bile; a small por

tion of natron; some mineral alkaline salts; some oxyde of iron; a small quantity of a yellowish substance, which is only partly dissolved in the natron; and a considerable portion of albumen. The nard and Berzelius have done much to determine the ingredients of the bile. Its principal use seems to be, to separate the excrement from the chyle, after both have been formed, and to produce the evacuation of the excrement from the body. It is probable that these substances would remain mixed together, and they would, perhaps, even be partly absorbed together, were it not for the bile, which seems to combine with the excrement, and, by this combination, to facilitate its separation from the chyle, and thus to prevent its absorption. Fourcroy supposes that the bile, as soon as it is mixed with the contents of the intestinal canal, suffers a decomposition; that its alkali and saline ingredients combine with the chyle, and render it more liquid, while its albumen and resin combine with the excrementitious matters, and gradually render them less fluid. From the late experiments of Berzelius on fæces, it cannot be doubted that the constituents of the bile are to be found in the excrementitious matter; so that the ingenious theory of Fourcroy is so far probable. The bile also stimulates the intestinal canal, and causes it to evacuate its contents sooner than it otherwise would do; for when there is a deficiency of bile, the body is constantly costive.Biliary calculi, or gall-stones, are sometimes found in the gall-bladders of men and animals. They are more rarely met with in the substance and body of the liver. Those that are found in the human subject consist, principally, of that peculiar substance, called, by Fourcroy, adipocire. They are of a white, grayish-brown, or black color. The calculi found in the gall-bladders of quadrupeds have been thought to consist almost entirely of inspissated bile; but, though much less complicated than the corresponding concretions in the human subject, they must contain something more than the inspissated fluid, since they are insoluble, both in alcohol and water.

BiLEDULGERID (Bhelad al Dsherid, country of dates); a country in Northern Africa, south of mount Atlas, bounded on the north by Tunis, on the west by Algiers and the Sahara, on the east by Tripoli; supposed to be about 180 miles

square.

In the desert are oases (q. v.), which are cultivated and watered like gardens. At the foot of mount Atlas, the

winds which come from these mountains allay the heat of the climate. The chief products of the oases are barley of an excellent kind, used by the caravans, and dates, which are no where else so excellent. Much dew falls in the oases, rain but seldom. All the productions of the tropics, which can ripen without rain, grow here in abundance. The Berbers who live here, as likewise the Negroes and Arabs, carry on trade by means of caravans. A large proportion of the young men are destroyed by the change of climate to which they are thus exposed, as also by bad nourishment and epidemic fevers. Certain parts of this country, called Dara, Tasilet and Segelmesse, belong to Morocco; to Algiers belongs Wadreag, and to Tunis Tozer. Gademes, Welled-Sidi and Mosselemis are independent. Little is known of the customs, laws, &c., of the inhabitants of B.

BILIN, mineral spring of; a celebrated spring near the town of Bilin, in Bohemia, The water is clear, has a sourish taste, and mantles, particularly if mixed with wine and sugar. The temperature of the spring is 59° Fahrenheit. The water is used with advantage in many complaints. BILIOUS FEVER. (See Fever.)

BILL OF EXCHANGE is a written request or order to one person to pay a certain sum of money to another, or to his order, at all events; that is, without any qualification or condition. The person who makes the bill is called the drawer; the person to whom it is addressed, the drawee, and the person to whom, or whose order, on the face of the bill, it is payable, the payee. If the drawee accepts the bill, he thereby becomes the acceptor. A promissory note differs from a bill of exchange in being merely a promise to pay money by the maker, instead of being a request to another person to pay it, to the payee. The expression promissory note is not strictly confined to negotiable notes, or those payable "to bearer," or to the payee named in it, "or his order," but is more frequently used to denote such instruments; and we shall consider promissory notes in this sense in the present article, since the same rules and principles are, in a great degree, applicable to such notes and to bills of exchange. The maker of the note answers to the acceptor of the bill, since he is the party promising to pay it; whereas the maker or drawer of a bill of exchange does not directly promise, on the face of the instrument, to pay it, but merely requests the drawee to do so: this is, however, construed to be a