BAINBRIDGE-BALANCE.

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in 1815, extraordinary professor, and in 1817 ordinary professor of Greek and Roman literature, in the university of his native city. Besides various articles of a philological character, published in the "Bibliotheca critica nova," and in the "Annales acad. Lugd. Bat.," he is the author of a valuable work entitled "Scholica hypomnemata,” in 2 volumes (1837–39), and consisting of a number of philological essays, especially in relation to the works of Cicero, evincive of the greatest acuteness and erudition. His last work was an edition of "Cicero de Legibus" (1842).

BAKEWELL (Robert), an eminent English agriculturist, was born at Dishley, in Leicestershire, in 1725, and died there in 1795. He rendered a great service to his countrymen by improving the breeds of cattle and sheep. In this he proceeded

the measure which they feared and opposed, it at least served to satisfy the President and the Secretary of the Navy, as to the entire inexpediency of the measure against which they entered their protest. -Commodore Bainbridge died on the 28th of July 1833, in the 60th year of his age. BAIRD (Sir David), a distinguished British general, was born at Newbyth, in Aberdeenshire, in December 1757, and entered the army as an ensign in 1772. He served in the East Indies for a considerable period, where he had the misfortune, after being severely wounded, to be taken prisoner by the ferocious Hyder Ally, and retained in captivity for three years and a half, under circumstances of great suffering, and in daily apprehension of being put to death. He was present at the storming of the important fortress of Nundydroog, and at the capture also of Savendroog, on the principle that the physical qualities where he rendered himself conspicuous by of the offspring were a mean between his conduct and bravery. In 1793, he those of the parent animals, and, consecommanded the European brigade in the quently, that it was possible, by a proper force to which Pondicherry surrendered. crossing of the breeds, to modify the forms And at the capture of Seringapatam, May of the race, within certain limits, at plea4th 1799, he led the storming party. In sure. Accordingly, the famous Dishley 1801, he was sent with a large body of breed of sheep, which has since obtained troops to co-operate with the British army so high a reputation, has been formed in in Egypt, and reached Alexandria just this artificial manner. The model which after the articles for the capitulation of the Bakewell proposed to himself for his sheep town had been signed, and, of course, too was, "fine forms, small bones, and a true late to be of any actual service in the ex- disposition to make readily fat;" and he pulsion of the French. In 1802, he re- succeeded in his object. In the latter turned with his troops to India; and, ob- years of his life, his sheep were in such taining permission to embark for England, repute as to command enormous prices; he arrived there in 1804, having, on his which gave occasion to the saying, that passage, been captured in the Bay of Bis-"they were too dear to purchase, and too cay by a French privateer, but retaken by an English man-of-war. He commanded the expedition which took possession of the Cape of Good Hope in 1805; and he was at the attack on Copenhagen in 1807. He was second in command under Sir John Moore in Spain, and, on the death of the last-mentioned officer at the battle of Corunna (January 16th 1809), assumed the command; which, however, on being severely wounded, he was obliged to transfer to Sir John Hope. Returning to England, he was made a baronet, and subsequently held several military appointments. He died on the 18th of August 1829.

BAIZE; a coarse, open woollen fabric, with a long nap, sometimes friezed on one side, and without wale, being manufactured on a loom with two treddles, like flannel.

BAKE (John), an eminent Dutch philologer, and an able writer in the Latin language, was born at Leyden, on the 1st of September 1787. He was appointed, VOL. XIV.-11

fat to eat." His long-horned oxen, and his horses, which were large and powerful, also obtained a very high reputation.

BAKU; a town of Russia, on the W. shore of the Caspian. Its harbour is an excellent one, and, next to that of Astrakhan, is more frequented than any other by the vessels which navigate that sea. The exports amounted, in 1831, to 1,702,460 roubles, the principal article being naphtha, of which there are numerous wells or springs in the peninsula of Abscharon, where the town is situated. It is used as a substitute for lamp oil, and, when ignited, emits a clear light, with much smoke, and a disagreeable smell. To the E. of the naphtha springs, there is a temple of the ancient Ghebers or fire-worshippers; a remarkable spot, something less than a mile in circumference, from the centre of which a bluish flame is seen to rise.

BALANCE is a term which is used to denote various modifications of the lever employed to ascertain the weights of bodies.

BALANCE-BALLANCHE.

BALLANCHE-BALZAC.

BALLAST. The object of the ballast, placed at the bottom of a ship or vessel, is to give her stiffness; that is, to increase her tendency to return to the upright position, when inclined or heeled over by the force of the wind, or other cause. Iron ballast has the advantage, over the other kinds of ballast employed, of lying in a smaller compass; but, in consequence of its great weight, it tends to give an excess of stability, which renders the vessel uneasy from the suddenness of the motion. This defect is, however, remedied by placing the ballast higher up in the vessel. Owing to its greater cleanliness, iron ballast is more healthy for the crew than any other.

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that it was firmly established. In 1842, constitutional government of the Cortes. he was elected a member of the French Thereupon, he was named by the king Academy. vice-president of the provisional government. For a time he exercised the whole executive power of the state, Ferdinand being, in reality, a mere prisoner in his own palace. One of the first steps which he took was to set at liberty all persons imprisoned for political offences. He removed from office all persons who had co-operated in the overthrow of the Cortes, and organized the municipality of Madrid anew, on the model of what it had been in 1812. And when, in July 1822, the royal guards rose against the existing authorities, he marched against them at the head of the militia of the city, and promptly suppressed the revolt. On the invasion of Spain by the French army, under the orders of the duke of Angoulême, in 1823, Ballesteros was appointed to the command of the force destined for the defence of Navarre and Aragon. After several unsuccessful actions, he was obliged to retire towards the southern portion of the peninsula, and, at length, to enter into a convention with the enemy, by which the troops under his command were placed in a state of inactivity, and the suppression of the resistance still made to the French, elsewhere in Spain, thereby facilitated. In this convention it was stipulated that the Spanish officers should retain the rank which they respectively held in the service. When the king, by the decree of the 1st of October, declared all the acts of the constitutional government to be invalid, Ballesteros, in a letter to the duke of Angoulême, protested against this stretch of arbitrary power, and complained especially of the violation of the military convention above mentioned. Being excepted from the benefits of the amnesty published by the government, he made his escape into France, and resided at Paris till his death, in June 1832.

BALLESTEROS (Don Francisco) was born at Saragossa, in Spain, in the year 1770. He entered at an early age into the military service of his country, and distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, in the Eastern Pyrenees. In 1804, he was deprived by the then minister of war, Caballero, of his rank of captain, on a false accusation, preferred against him, of having converted to his use a sum of money, which had been intrusted to him for the purchase of provisions for the troops; but was reinstated soon afterwards, through the influence exerted in his behalf by the Prince of the Peace. On the occurrence of the war with Napoleon in 1808, he rose rapidly to the rank of a general officer, and was conspicuous on various occasions for his activity and bravery. When the duke of Wellington was appointed general-in-chief of the Spanish armies, Ballesteros, refusing to serve under his orders, on the ground of the impropriety of the appointment in question being conferred upon any foreigner, was arrested and sent as a prisoner to Ceuta. It was not long, however, before he was recalled, and appointed to the command of a body of troops in the county of Niebla, whose operations were, however, of minor importance. He was appointed minister of war on the return of Ferdinand, but was dismissed from this office through the influence at court of the absolutists and serviles, and exiled on half-pay to Valladolid. On the breaking out of the insurrection of the Isle of Leon, in 1820, he was again sent for by Ferdinand, and offered the command of the forces destined to quell the insurgents. He refused the offer, expressing it as his opinion that the only effectual mode of accomplishing this was by restoring the

BALTIC SEA. Not only its high northern latitude, but also its little depth, and the comparative freshness of its waters, subject it to being more readily frozen over. This has not unfrequently occurred, even in its widest portion; and, in 1809, the ice of the gulf of Bothnia was sufficiently firm to afford a passage to a Russian army over it. The increasing elevation of the coasts above the level of the sea is a phenomenon that is now fully ascertained; and is common to the Baltic with the Black and Caspian seas.

BALTIMORE. See United States, (Sup.) BALZAC (Honoré de) was born at Tours, on the 20th of May 1799. After

being considerably more than half the amount of the tin annually produced from the Cornwall mines in England. Pre

the sultan of Palembang, in Sumatra; it was then ceded to the East India Company; and, in 1816, was transferred to the Dutch.

BANDA ISLANDS.* There are at present about 100,000 lbs. of nutmegs, and 30,000 lbs. of mace, annually produced in these islands.

BANDANA OF BANDANNA; a kind of calico printing practised in India, by which bright figures or spots are produced on a red or dark ground. But the European imitations now far surpass, in beauty and precision of design, the oriental patterns.

having gone through a regular course of education at the college of Vendome, he went to Paris about the year 1820. He began his literary career there by pro-viously to 1812, this island belonged to ducing, in rapid succession, under various fictitious names, a number of novels, and some poetical effusions, which met with very moderate success; and of most of which he felt himself at liberty subsequently to disavow the authorship. He next set up a printing establishment; but, finding himself unable to conduct this business to any advantage, he soon resumed his literary efforts. In 1829, he published "Le dernier des Chouans, ou la Bretagne en 1800;" affixing his own name to the title-page The intention of doing this had probably exerted a favourable influence on the composition of the work; which exhibited much greater merits, both in respect to arrangement and style, than any of his former productions had done; and, deviating in it from the manner of Pigault Lebrun, of which he had hitherto been a close imitator, he succeeded in making a favourable impression on the public mind. His " Physiologie du mariage" (1831) went, however, much farther to establish his reputation: it is replete with acute observations, brilliant wit, and exquisite delineations of character; but has the demerit-not a slight one in a moral point of view of representing the married state as almost necessarily an unfortunate, and even a ridiculous one, -a circumstance which, it is more than probable, contributed to its popularity among the Parisians. The works already mentioned have been followed by the "Scènes de la vie privée" (1831); the "Scènes de la vie de province" (1832); the "Scènes de la vie parisienne" (1832); "Le médecin de campagne," "Le père Goriot," "La peau de chagrin," "La recherche de l'absolu," "L'Histoire intellectuelle de Louis Lambert," "Eugène Grandet," &c.; all works of the same class, and all of which have added, or contributed to maintain his reputation as a writer. In his "Contes drolatiques" (1833) he has attempted, quite happily, an imitation of the manner and language of Rabelais. Latterly, also, he has produced two dramatic pieces, "Vautrin" and the "Ressources de Quinola," which have been severely criticised, and pronounced by those best qualified to judge to be unequivocal failures.

BANCA has been lately estimated to contain as many as 160,000 inhabitants. It is noted not only for the production of tin, but also for its pearl fisheries. In 1836, the tin exported amounted to 2834 tons,

BANG-KOK, the present capital of the kingdom of Siam, in the peninsula beyond the Ganges, is situated on both banks of the river Meinam, about 30 miles from its mouth. It has a population of from 50,000 to 60,000, and is a place of considerable commerce. The most active portion of this commerce is carried on with the ports of the Chinese empire; but the trade with Singapore and British India has latterly been augmenting in importance. The principal exports are sugar, black pepper, ivory, sandal wood, hides, &c.: the imports are porcelain, tea, quicksilver, dried fruits, silks, &c., from China; with opium, British and Indian piece goods, and British woollens and glass, from India. More than one-half the inhabitants are Chinese, or their descendants; the rest are foreigners from the different states of the peninsula, and some Christians of Portuguese descent, together with a few Brahmins, who are supported by the king, and have a small temple of their own.

BANIAN-TREE, of India; one of the most remarkable curiosities of the vegetable kingdom. It never dies; for every branch shoots downwards, and, striking into the ground, becomes itself a parent tree, whose branches, in like manner, spread. One of them has been described as having as many as 350 stems, equal to large oaks, and more than 3000 smaller ones, covering a space sufficient to shelter 7000 persons. Its branches are crowded with families of monkeys, and with birds of every kind, and also with enormous bats, all of which find a subsistence upon the rich scarlet figs that grow upon it.

BANIM (John) was born near Kilkenny in Ireland, in the year 1800. His genius began to be very early developed; and there are said to be still in existence manuscripts of his prose and poetry, writ

ten by him when a boy, which contain | ruptcy, which issues in individual cases, ample promise of the excellence to which on a petition of one or more creditors to he afterwards attained. He displayed, the Lord Chancellor. The fiat is directed also, considerable taste and skill as a either to a commissioner of the Court of painter, and, for some years, intended to Bankruptcy, or to the commissioners of the make painting his profession. When district courts of bankruptcy, constituted scarcely 17 years of age, he became editor under 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 22. This act, of the "Leinster Journal." At the age of which went into operation on the 11th of 18, he produced the play of "Damon and November 1842, also effected several imPythias," which was successfully repre- portant alterations. It added, more espesented at Drury-Lane. When about 20 cially, to the cases in which, according to years old, he married and proceeded to the previously existing statutes, or judicial London, where he became the editor of the decisions under them, an act of bankruptcy "Literary Register." He, however, aban- can be committed, by rendering a trader doned the unprofitable work of editorship liable to a fiat of bankruptcy who neglects in a few years, when the great success of paying, securing, or compounding a judgthe first series of "The O'Hara Tales" ment debt, upon which the plaintiff might appeared (1825) to open to him the way to sue out execution, or who disobeys an fame and fortune. In these, he was the order of any court of equity, or order first to depart from the path chosen by the in bankruptcy or lunacy, for payment of Edgworths and the Morgans, and to exhibit money on a peremptory day fixed. — In the crime, the passion, and the tragedy of Ireland, there is no separate court of bankthe cabin, in all their dark colours. Carle- ruptcy; but there are two commissioners ton, Griffin, and others, have since follow- who are empowered to act by a commised, but have not surpassed him. The se- sion under the great seal.-In June 1838, cond series of "The O'Hara Tales" ap- the French law of bankruptcy and insol peared in 1827. Then followed, in rapid vency was abrogated; and an entirely succession, the " Boyne Water," the new law was promulgated, which now "Croppy," the "Denounced," the "Smug- forms Book III. of the "Code de Comgler," the "Mayor of Windgap," "Father merce."-The Congress of the United Connell," &c. But Mr. Banim, although States legislated a second time on the he laboured most indefatigably, found lite- subject of bankruptcy, by an act, passed rature a precarious subsistence; and he in August 1841, to establish a uniform was, in consequence of an accident which system of it throughout the Union; which seriously injured his health, in 1832, re- took effect on the second day of February duced to much distress at Boulogne; from 1842, but was repealed in the session of which he was relieved by a public sub- Congress of 1842-43. The act providea scription made in his behalf, and enabled for two kinds of bankruptcy, voluntary and to return to Kilkenny, in the summer of compulsory. Of these, the first was where 1835. In 1837, a pension of £150 was a person who owed debts, not created by granted to him by the government, which any defalcation as a public officer, or in a was subsequently increased by an addition fiduciary capacity, might, upon making a of £40 per annum. In his latter days, petition to the proper court, be declared to however, he was compelled to be depend- be a bankrupt by a decree of the court, ent on the bounty of friends.-Banim died and if he have been found to have comon the 4th of August 1842. plied with the provisions of the law, be BANKRUPT.* The act of 1 & 2 Wil-entitled to a discharge from all his debts. liam IV., c. 56, constituting "the Court of Bankruptcy," materially altered the mole of administering the bankrupt law of England. It entirely removed the jurisdiction in the first instance, in cases of bankruptcy, from the Court of Chancery to the new Court of Bankruptcy, reserving only an appeal from the judges of that court to the Lord Chancellor, as to matters of law and equity and questions of evidence. Instead of the commission under the great seal, which formerly issued to a certain number of barristers-at-law, who were permanent bankrupt commissioners, the above act substituted a fiat of bank

The second was where the debtor, being a merchant, whether engaged in the wholesale or retail trade, and indebted to an amount not less than 2000 dollars, might be declared in a variety of specified cases to be a bankrupt, on the petition of one or more of his creditors, to whom he owes debts amounting altogether to a sum not under 500 dollars; but any person, in this manner declared to be a bankrupt, was entitled, if he claimed it, to a trial by jury, before being compelled to make an assignment of his property for the benefit of his creditors.-In assigning his property, too, the bankrupt was permitted to retain the