BARNAVE, JOSEPH MARIE, French lawyer, born at Grenoble; president of
the French Constitutional Assembly in 1780; one of the trio in the
Assembly of whom it was said, "Whatsoever those three have on hand,
Dupont thinks it, Barnave speaks it, Lameth does it;" a defender of the
monarchy from the day he gained the favour of the queen by his gallant
conduct to her on her way back to Paris from her flight with the king to
Varennes; convicted by documentary evidence of conspiring with the court
against the nation; was guillotined (1761-1793).
BARN-BURNERS, name formerly given to an extreme radical party in the
United States, as imitating the Dutchman who, to get rid of the rats,
burned his barns.
BARNES, THOMAS, editor of the _Times_, under whom the paper first
rose to the pre-eminent place it came to occupy among the journals of the
day (1786-1841).
BARNES, WILLIAM, a local philologist, native of Dorsetshire; author
of "Poems of Rural Life in Dorset," in three vols.; wrote on subjects of
philological interest (1830-1886).
BARNET (5), a town in Hertfordshire, almost a suburb of London; a
favourite resort of Londoners; has a large annual horse and cattle fair;
scene of a battle in 1471, at which Warwick, the king-maker, was slain.
BARNETT, JOHN, composer, born at Bedford; author of operas and a
number of fugitive pieces (1802-1891).
BARNEVELDT, JOHANN VAN OLDEN, Grand Pensionary of Holland, of a
distinguished family; studied law at the Hague, and practised as an
advocate there; fought for the independence of his country against Spain;
concluded a truce with Spain, in spite of the Stadtholder Maurice, whose
ambition for supreme power he courageously opposed; being an Arminian,
took sides against the Gomarist or Calvinist party, to which Maurice
belonged; was arrested, tried, and condemned to death as a traitor and
heretic, and died on the scaffold at 71 years of age, with sanction, too,
of the Synod of Dort, in 1619.
BARNSLEY (35), a manufacturing town in W. Yorkshire, 18 m. N. of
Sheffield; manufactures textile fabrics and glass.
BARNUM, an American showman; began with the exhibition of George
Washington's reputed nurse in 1834; picked up Tom Thumb in 1844; engaged
Jenny Lind for 100 concerts in 1849, and realised a fortune, which he
lost; started in 1871 with his huge travelling show, and realised another
fortune, dying worth five million dollars (1810-1891).
BAROCCI, a celebrated Italian painter, imitator of the style of
Correggio (1528-1612).
BAROCHE, PIERRE-JULES, a French statesman, minister of Napoleon III.
(1802-1870).
BARO`DA (2,415), a native state of Gujerat, in the prov. of Bombay,
with a capital (101) of the same name, the sovereign of which is called
the Guicowar; the third city in the presidency, with Hindu temples and a
considerable trade.
BARO`NIUS, CÆSAR, a great Catholic ecclesiastic, born near Naples,
priest of the Congregation of the Oratory under its founder, and
ultimately Superior; cardinal and librarian of the Vatican; his great
work, "Annales Ecclesiastici," being a history of the first 12 centuries
of the Church, written to prove that the Church of Rome was identical
with the Church of the 1st century, a work of immense research that
occupied him 30 years; failed of the popehood from the intrigues of the
Spaniards, whose political schemes he had frustrated (1538-1607).
BARONS' WAR, a war in England of the barons against Henry III.,
headed by Simon de Montfort, and which lasted from 1258 to 1265.
BAROQUE, ornamentation of a florid and incongruous character, more
lavish and showy rather than true and tasteful; much in vogue from the
16th to the 18th centuries.
BARRA, a small island, one of the Hebrides, 5 m. SW. of S. Uist, the
inhabitants of which are engaged in fisheries.
BAR`RACKPUR (18), a town on the Hooghly, 15 m. above Calcutta, where
the lieutenant-governor of Bengal has a residence; a healthy resort of
the Europeans.
BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS, ballads by Rudyard Kipling, with a fine
martial strain.
BARRAS, PAUL FRANÇOIS, a member of the Jacobin Club, born in
Provence; "a man of heat and haste,... tall, and handsome to the eye;"
voted in the National Convention for the execution of the king; took part
in the siege of Toulon; put an end to the career of Robespierre and the
Reign of Terror; named general-in-chief to oppose the reactionaries;
employed Bonaparte to command the artillery, "he the commandant's cloak,
this artillery officer the commandant;" was a member of the Directory
till Bonaparte swept it away (1755-1829).
BAR`RATRY, the offence of inciting and stirring up riots and
quarrels among the Queen's subjects, also a fraud by a ship captain on
the owners of a ship.
BARRÉ, ISAAC, soldier and statesman, born in Dublin, served under
Wolfe in Canada, entered Parliament, supported Pitt, charged with
authorship of "Junius' Letters"; _d_. 1802.
BARREL MIRABEAU, Viscount de Mirabeau, brother of the great tribune
of the name, so called from his bulk and the liquor he held.
BARRÈRE. See BARÈRE.
BARRETT, WILSON, English actor, born in Essex; made his _début_ at
Halifax; lessee of the Grand Theatre, Leeds, and of the Court and the
Princess's Theatres, London; produced his Hamlet in 1884; _b_. 1846.
BARRIE, JAMES MATTHEW, a writer with a rich vein of humour and
pathos, born at Kirriemuir ("Thrums"), in Forfarshire; began his literary
career as a contributor to journals; produced, among other works, "Auld
Licht Idylls" in 1888, and "A Window in Thrums," in 1889, and recently
"Margaret Ogilvie," deemed by some likely to prove the most enduring
thing he has yet written; _b_. 1860.
BARRIER REEF, THE GREAT, a slightly interrupted succession of coral
reefs off the coast of Queensland, of 1200 m. extent, and 100 m. wide at
the S., and growing narrower as they go N.; are from 70 to 20 m. off the
coast, and protect the intermediate channel from the storms of the
Pacific.
BARRIÈRE, JEAN FRANÇOIS, French historian of the Revolution
(1786-1868).
BARRIÈRE, PIERRE, would-be assassin of Henry IV. of France; broken
on the wheel in 1593.
BARRIERS, BATTLE OF THE, a battle fought within the walls of Paris
in 1814 between Napoleon and the Allies, which ended in the capitulation
of the city and the abdication of Napoleon.
BARRINGTON, JOHN SHUTE, 1st Viscount, gained the favour of the
Nonconformists by his "Rights of Dissenters," and an Irish peerage from
George I. for his "Dissuasive from Jacobitism"; left six sons, all more
or less distinguished, particularly Daines, the fourth, distinguished in
law (1727-1800), and Samuel, the fifth, 1st Lord of the name,
distinguished in the naval service, assisted under Lord Howe at the
relief of Gibraltar, and became an admiral in 1787 (1678-1764).
BARROS, JOÃO DE, a distinguished Portuguese historian; his great
work. "Asia Portugueza," relates, in a pure and simple style, the
discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the Indies; he did not
live to complete it (1493-1570).
BARROT, ODILON, famous as an advocate, born at Villefort;
contributed to the Revolutions of both 1830 and 1848; accepted office
under Louis Napoleon; retired after the _coup d'état_, to return to
office in 1872 (1791-1873).
BARROW, a river in Ireland rising in the Slievebloom Mts.; falls
into Waterford harbour, after a course of 114 m.
BARROW, ISAAC, English scholar, mathematician, and divine, born in
London; a graduate of Cambridge, and fellow of Trinity College; appointed
professor of Greek at Cambridge, and soon after Gresham professor of
Geometry; subsequently Lucasian professor of Mathematics (in which he had
Newton for successor), and master of Trinity, and founder of the library;
a man of great intellectual ability and force of character; besides
mathematical works, left a "Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy," and a body
of sermons remarkable for their vigour of thought and nervousness of
expression (1630-1677).
BARROW, SIR JOHN, secretary to the Admiralty for 40 years, and much
esteemed in that department, distinguished also as a man of letters;
wrote the Lives of Macartney, Anson, Howe, and Peter the Great
(1764-1848).
BARROW-IN-FURNESS (51), a town and seaport in N. Lancashire, of
recent rapid growth, owing to the discovery of extensive deposits of iron
in the neighbourhood, which has led to the establishment of smelting
works and the largest manufacture of steel in the kingdom; the principal
landowners in the district being the Dukes of Devonshire and Buccleuch.
BARRY, JAMES, painter, born in Cork; painted the "Death of General
Wolfe"; became professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, but was
deposed; died in poverty; his masterpiece is the "Victors at Olympia"
(1741-1806).
BARRY, SIR CHARLES, architect, born at Westminster; architect of the
new Palace of Westminster, besides other public buildings (1795-1860).
BARRY CORNWALL. See PROCTER.
BART, or BARTH, JEAN, a distinguished French seaman, born at
Dunkirk, son of a fisherman, served under De Ruyter, entered the French
service at 20, purchased a ship of two guns, was subsidised as a
privateer, made numerous prizes; having had other ships placed under his
command, was captured by the English, but escaped; defeated the Dutch
admiral, De Vries; captured his squadron laden with corn, for which he
was ennobled by Louis XIV.; he was one of the bravest of men and the most
independent, unhampered by red-tapism of every kind (1651-1702).
BARTH, HEINRICH, a great African explorer, born at Hamburg; author
of "Travels in the East and Discoveries in Central Africa," in five
volumes (1821-1865).
BARTHÉLEMY, AUGUSTE-MARSEILLE, a poet and politician, born at
Marseilles; author of "Nemesis," and the best French translation of the
"Æneid," in verse; an enemy of the Bourbons, an ardent Imperialist, and
warm supporter of Louis Napoleon (1796-1867).
BARTHÉLEMY, THE ABBÉ, JEAN JACQUES, a French historian and
antiquary, born at Cassis, in Provence; educated by the Jesuits; had
great skill in numismatics; wrote several archæological works, in chief,
"Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grèce;" long treated as an authority in
the history, manners, and customs of Greece (1716-1795).
BARTHÉLEMY SAINT-HILAIRE, JULES, a French baron and politician, born
at Paris; an associate of Odilon Barrot in the Revolutions of 1830 and
1848, and subsequently a zealous supporter of M. Thiers; for a time
professor of Greek and Roman Philosophy in the College of France; an
Oriental as well as Greek scholar; translated the works of Aristotle,
his greatest achievement, and the "Iliad" into verse, as well as wrote on
the Vedas, Buddhism, and Mahomet; _b_. 1805.
BARTHEZ, PAUL JOSEPH, a celebrated physician, physiologist, and
Encyclopædist, born at Montpellier, where he founded a medical school;
suffered greatly during the Revolution; was much esteemed and honoured by
Napoleon; is celebrated among physiologists as the advocate of what he
called the Vital Principle as a physiological force in the functions of
the human organism; his work "Nouveaux Eléments de la Science de l'Homme"
has been translated into all the languages of Europe (1734-1806).
BARTHOLDI, a French sculptor, born at Colmar; his principal works,
"Lion le Belfort," and "Liberté éclairant le Monde," the largest bronze
statue in the world, being 150 ft. high, erected at the entrance of New
York harbour; _b_. 1834.
BARTHOLOMEW, ST., an apostle of Christ, and martyr; represented in
art with a knife in one hand and his skin in the other; sometimes been
painted as being flayed alive, also as headless. Festival, Aug. 24.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, an annual market held at Smithfield, London, and
instituted in 1133 by Henry I., to be kept on the saint's day, but
abolished in 1853, when it ceased to be a market and became an occasion
for mere dissipation and riot.
BARTHOLOMEW HOSPITAL, an hospital in Smithfield, London, founded in
1123; has a medical school attached to it, with which the names of a
number of eminent physicians are associated.
BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, ST., 24th August, day in 1572 memorable for the
wholesale massacre of the Protestants in France at the instance of
Catharine de Medici, then regent of the kingdom for her son, Charles IX.,
an event, cruelly gloried in by the Pope and the Spanish Court, which
kindled a fire in the nation that was not quenched, although it
extinguished Protestantism proper in France, till Charles was coerced to
grant liberty of conscience throughout the realm.
BARTIZAN, an overhanging wall-mounted turret projecting from the
walls of ancient fortifications.
BARTLETT, JOHN H., an American ethnologist and philologist, born at
Rhode Island, U.S.; author of "Dictionary of Americanisms," among other
works particularly on ethnology (1805-1886).
BARTOLI, DANIELE, a learned Italian Jesuit, born at Ferrara
(1635-1685).
BARTOLI, PIETRO, Italian engraver, engraved a great number of
ancient works of art (1635-1700).
BARTOLINI, LORENZO, a Florentine sculptor, patronised by Napoleon;
produced a great number of busts (1777-1850).
BARTOLOMME`O, FRA, a celebrated Florentine painter of sacred
subjects, born at Florence; an adherent of Savonarola, friend of Raphael;
"St. Mark" and "St. Sebastian" among his best productions (1469-1517).
BARTOLOZ`ZI, FRANCESCO, an eminent engraver, born at Florence;
wrought at his art both in England and in Portugal, where he died; his
chief works, "Clytie," after Annibale Caracci, the "Prometheus," after
Michael Angelo, and "Virgin and Child," after Carlo Dolci; he was the
father of Madame Vestris (1725-1815).
BARTON, BERNARD, the "Quaker poet," born in London; a clerk nearly
all his days in a bank; his poems, mostly on homely subjects, but
instinct with poetic feeling and fancy, gained him the friendship of
Southey and Charles Lamb, as well as more substantial patronage in the
shape of a government pension (1784-1849).
BARTON, ELIZABETH, "the Maid of Kent," a poor country servant-girl,
born in Kent, subject from nervous debility to trances, in which she gave
utterances ascribed by Archbishop Warham to divine inspiration, till her
communications were taken advantage of by designing people, and she was
led by them to pronounce sentence against the divorce of Catharine of
Aragon, which involved her and her abettors in a charge of treason, for
which they were all executed at Tyburn (1506-1534).
BARUCH, (1) the friend of the prophet Jeremiah, and his scribe, who
was cast with him into prison, and accompanied him into Egypt; (2) a book
in the Apocrypha, instinct with the spirit of Hebrew prophecy, ascribed
to him; (3) also a book entitled the Apocalypse of Baruch, affecting to
predict the fall of Jerusalem, but obviously written after the event.
BARYE, a French sculptor, distinguished for his groups of statues of
wild animals (1795-1875).
BASAITI, a Venetian painter of the 15th and 16th centuries, a rival
of Bellini; his best works, "Christ in the Garden" and the "Calling of
St. Peter and St. Andrew."
BASEDOW, JOHANN BERNARD, a zealous educational reformer, born at
Hamburg; his method modelled according to the principles of Rousseau;
established a normal school on this method at Dessau, which, however,
failed from his irritability of temper, which led to a rupture with his
colleagues (1723-1790).
BASEL (74), in the NW. of Switzerland, on the Rhine, just before it
enters Germany; has a cathedral, university, library, and museum; was a
centre of influence in Reformation times, and the home for several years
of Erasmus; it is now a great money market, and has manufactures of silks
and chemicals; the people are Protestant and German-speaking.
BASEL, COUNCIL OF, met in 1431, and laboured for 12 years to effect
the reformation of the Church from within. It effected some compromise
with the Hussites, but was hampered at every step by the opposition of
Pope Eugenius IV. Asserting the authority of a general council over the
Pope himself, it cited him on two occasions to appear at its bar, on his
refusal declared him contumacious, and ultimately endeavoured to suspend
him. Failing to effect its purpose, owing to the secession of his
supporters, it elected a rival pope, Felix V., who was, however, but
scantily recognised. The Emperor Frederick III. supported Eugenius, and
the council gradually melted away. At length, in 1449, the pope died,
Felix resigned, and Nicholas V. was recognised by the whole Church. The
decrees of the council were directed against the immorality of the
clergy, the indecorousness of certain festivals, the papal prerogatives
and exactions, and dealt with the election of popes and the procedure of
the College of Cardinals. They were all confirmed by Nicholas V., but are
not recognised by modern Roman canonists.
BA`SHAN, a fertile and pastoral district in NE. Palestine of
considerable extent, and at one time densely peopled; the men of it were
remarkable for their stature.
BASHAHR, a native hill state in the Punjab, traversed by the Sutlej;
tributary to the British Government.
BASHI-BAZOUKS`, irregular, undisciplined troops in the pay of the
Sultan; rendered themselves odious by their brutality in the Bulgarian
atrocities of 1876, as well as, more or less, in the time of the Crimean
war.
BASHKIRS, originally a Finnish nomad race (and still so to some
extent) of E. Russia, professing Mohammedanism; they number some 500,000.
BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE, a precocious Russian young lady of good family,
but of delicate constitution, who travelled a good deal with her mother,
noted her impressions, and left a journal of her life, which created,
when published after her death, an immense sensation from the confessions
it contains (1860-1884).
BASIL, ST., THE GREAT, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, his
birthplace; studied at Athens; had Julian the Apostate for a
fellow-student; the lifelong friend of Gregory Nazianzen; founded a
monastic body, whose rules are followed by different monastic
communities; a conspicuous opponent of the Arian heresy, and defender of
the Nicene Creed; tried in vain to unite the Churches of the East and
West; is represented in Christian art in Greek pontificals, bareheaded,
and with an emaciated appearance (326-380). There were several Basils of
eminence in the history of the Church: Basil, bishop of Ancyra, who
flourished in the 4th century; Basil, the mystic, and Basil, the friend
of St. Ambrose.
BASIL I., the Macedonian, emperor of the East; though he had raised
himself to the throne by a succession of crimes, governed wisely;
compiled, along with his son Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, a code of
laws that were in force till the fall of the empire; fought successfully
against the Saracens; _d_. 886.
BASILICA, the code of laws, in 60 books, compiled by Basil I., and
Leo, his son and successor, first published in 887, and named after the
former.
BASILICA, a spacious hall, twice as long as broad, for public
business and the administration of justice, originally open to the sky,
but eventually covered in, and with the judge's bench at the end opposite
the entrance, in a circular apse added to it. They were first erected by
the Romans, 180 B.C.; afterwards, on the adoption of Christianity, they
were converted into churches, the altar being in the apse.
BASILICON DORON (i. e. Royal Gift), a work written by James I. in
1599, before the union of the crowns, for the instruction of his son,
Prince Henry, containing a defence of the royal prerogative.
BASILI`DES, a Gnostic of Alexandria, flourished at the commencement
of the 2nd century; appears to have taught the Oriental theory of
emanations, to have construed the universe as made up of a series of
worlds, some 365 it is alleged, each a degree lower than the preceding,
till we come to our own world, the lowest and farthest off from the
parent source of the series, of which the God of the Jews was the ruler,
and to have regarded Jesus as sent into it direct from the parent source
to redeem it from the materialism to which the God of the Jews, as
Creator and Lord of the material universe, had subjected it; which
teaching a sect called after his name accepted and propagated in both the
East and the West for more than two centuries afterwards.
BAS`ILISK, an animal fabled to have been hatched by a toad from the
egg of an old cock, before whose breath every living thing withered and
died, and the glance of whose eye so bewitched one to his ruin that the
bravest could confront and overcome it only by looking at the reflection
of it in a mirror, as PERSEUS (q. v.) was advised to do, and
did, when he cut off the head of the Medusa; seeing itself in a mirror,
it burst, it as said, at the sight.
BASKERVILLE, JOHN, a printer and typefounder, originally a
writing-master in Birmingham; native of Sion Hill, Worcestershire;
produced editions of classical works prized for their pre-eminent beauty
by connoisseurs in the art of the printer, and all the more for their
rarity (1706-1756).
BASNAGES, JACQUES, a celebrated Protestant divine, born at Rouen;
distinguished as a linguist and man of affairs; wrote a "History of the
Reformed Churches" and on "Jewish Antiquities" (1653-1723).
BASOCHE, a corporation of lawyers' clerks in Paris. See
BAZOCHE.
BASQUE PROVINCES, a fertile and mineral district in N. of Spain,
embracing the three provinces of Biscaya, Guipuzcoa, and Alava, of which
the chief towns are respectively Bilbao, St. Sebastian, and Vittoria; the
natives differ considerably from the rest of the Spaniards in race,
language, and customs. See BASQUES.
BASQUE ROADS, an anchorage between the Isle of Oléron and the
mainland; famous for a naval victory gained in 1809 over a French fleet
under Vice-Admiral Allemand.
BASQUES, a people of the Western Pyrenees, partly in France and
partly in Spain; distinguished from their neighbours only by their
speech, which is non-Aryan; a superstitious people, conservative,
irascible, ardent, proud, serious in their religious convictions, and
pure in their moral conduct.
BAS-RELIEF (i. e. low relief) a term applied to figures very
slightly projected from the ground.
BASS ROCK, a steep basaltic rock at the mouth of the Firth of Forth,
350 ft. high, tenanted by solan geese; once used as a prison, specially
in Covenanting times.
BASS STRAIT, strait between Australia and Tasmania, about 150 m.
broad.