[1] _Non obstante_ (notwithstanding) means a licence from the crown
to do that which could not be lawfully done without it.
BILL OF SALE, in its original sense, a legal document assigning personal
property, and still used in connexion with the transference of property
in ships. The term has come to be applied to mortgages as well as to
sales, and the expression "bill of sale" may now be understood to
signify generally a document evidencing a sale or mortgage of personal
chattels, unaccompanied by an actual transfer of possession to the
purchaser or mortgagor.
The first English legislation on the subject was the Bills of Sale Act
1854, which, after reciting that "frauds were frequently committed upon
creditors by secret bills of sale of personal chattels, whereby persons
are enabled to keep up the appearance of being in good circumstances and
possessed of property, and the grantees or holders of such bills of sale
have the power of taking possession of the property of such person to
the exclusion of the rest of their creditors," provided that all bills
of sale, as defined in the act, should be void against execution
creditors unless registered. This act was amended by the Bills of Sale
Act 1866. These acts were repealed and a new act passed, the Bills of
Sale Act 1878, which, in the main, followed the lines of the act of
1854. The scope of this legislation was very much widened by the Bills
of Sale Act (1878) Amendment Act 1882, which was intended primarily "to
prevent needy persons being entrapped into signing complicated documents
which they might often be unable to comprehend, and so being subjected
by their creditors to the enforcement of harsh and unreasonable
provisions" (_Manchester &c. Ry. Co._ v. _N.C. Wagon Co._, 1888, 13 App.
Ca. 554). The law is now regulated by these two acts, together with the
Bills of Sale Acts of 1890 and 1891, which effected further small
amendments by excluding from the operation of the principal acts
instruments hypothecating, charging or declaring trusts on imported
goods, during the interval between their unloading from a ship and their
deposit in a warehouse, or re-shipping.
Under the acts of 1878 and 1882 bills of sale are of two kinds, _i.e.
absolute bills of sale_ (where chattels are sold absolutely to a
purchaser), and _bills of sale by way of security for the payment of
money_. The Bills of Sale Act 1878 governs both kinds and is the only
act which applies to absolute bills. Bills of sale given by way of
security for the payment of money on or after the 1st of November 1882
are governed by the act of 1882, which, however, does not apply to
absolute bills. Section 4 of the act of 1878 defines a bill of sale as
(1) including bills of sale, assignments, transfers, declarations of
trust without transfer, inventories of goods with receipt thereto
attached, or receipts for purchase moneys of goods and other assurances
of personal chattels; the term assurance has been best explained as a
document "on which the title of the transferee of the goods depends,
either as the actual transfer of the property, or an agreement to
transfer," _Marsden_ v. _Meadows_, 1881, 7 Q.B.D. 80; (2) powers of
attorney, authorities or licences to take possession of personal
chattels as security for any debt; these words would not include a power
of distress for rent in an ordinary lease or bona fide hiring or hire
purchase agreements; (3) any agreement, whether intended or not to be
followed by the execution of any other instrument, by which a right in
equity to any personal chattels, or to any charge or security thereon,
shall be conferred; (4) any mode of disposition of trade machinery and
attornments and other instruments giving powers of distress to secure a
debt or advance. On the other hand, certain assurances and instruments
are expressly exempt by statute from the definition: marriage
settlements, assignments of ships, assignments for the benefit of
creditors, bills of lading and dock warrants, and by the act of 1882,
debentures and debenture stock of a company. The expression "personal
chattels" is defined as goods, furniture and other articles capable of
complete transfer by delivery, and (when separately assigned or charged)
fixtures and growing crops.
_Absolute Bills._--Absolute bills of sale must be duly attested by a
solicitor, and the attestation must state that before execution the
effect of it was explained to the grantor by the attesting solicitor.
The consideration must be truly stated. The bill of sale, and all
schedules and inventories annexed to or referred to in the bill, and
also a true copy of the bill and of every schedule and inventory and
of every attestation, together with an affidavit stating the time of
making or giving the bill, its due execution and attestation and the
residence and occupation of the grantor, and every attesting witness,
must be presented to, and the copies filed by, the registrar within
seven clear days. In the case of absolute bills the effect of
non-compliance does not affect the validity of the bill as between the
parties to it, but makes it void as against the trustee in bankruptcy
and execution creditors of the grantor.
_Bills by Way of Security._--All bills of sale given by way of
security for the repayment of money must be made in accordance with
the form given in the schedule to the act of 1882, and they must not
depart from the statutory form in anything which is not merely a
matter of verbal difference. The form given in the schedule to the act
is as follows:--
This Indenture made the ___ day of ___ between A. B. of ___ of the one
part and C. D. of ___ of the other part, witnesseth that in
consideration of the sum of L ___ now paid to A. B. by C. D, the
receipt of which the said A. B. hereby acknowledges, he the said A. B.
doth hereby assign unto C. D. his executors, administrators and
assigns all and singular the several chattels and things specifically
described in the schedule hereto annexed by way of security for the
payment of the sum of L ___ and interest thereon at the rate of ___ %
per annum. And the said A. B. doth further agree and declare that he
will duly pay to the said C. D. the principal sum aforesaid together
with the interest then due, by equal ___ payments of L ___ on the ___
day of ___ And the said A. B. doth also agree with the said C. D. that
he will (_here insert terms as to insurance, payment of rent, &c.,
which the parties may agree to for the maintenance or defeasance of
the security_). Provided always that the chattels hereby assigned
shall not be liable to seizure or to be taken possession of by the
said C. D. for any cause other than those specified in Sec. 7 of the
Bills of Sale Act (1878) Amendment Act 1882.
In witness, &c.
Signed and sealed by the said A. B. in the presence of me E. F. (_add
witness's name, address and description_).
Non-compliance with the requirement of the statute as to form renders
a bill of sale void even as between the parties. The bill of sale must
have annexed to it an inventory of the chattels comprised in it, and
is void, except as against the grantor, in respect of any personal
chattels not specifically described. It must be duly attested by one
or more credible witnesses (not necessarily by a solicitor, as in the
case of absolute bills). Every witness must sign his name and add his
address and description. It must be duly registered within seven clear
days after the execution thereof, or if it is executed in any place
out of England then within seven clear days after the time at which it
would in the ordinary course of post arrive in England if posted
immediately after the execution. It must truly set forth the
consideration. The grantor must be the true owner of the goods
described in the schedule; as to any personal chattels of which he is
not the true owner, the bill is void, except as against the grantor.
Every bill of sale made or given in consideration of any sum under L30
is void. By Sec. 7 of the act personal chattels shall only be liable to
be seized or taken possession of in the following cases:--(1) If the
grantor make default in payment of the debt or in the performance of
any covenant or agreement contained in the bill and necessary for
maintaining the security; (2) if the grantor becomes a bankrupt or
suffers the goods to be distrained for rent, rates or taxes; (3) if
the grantor fraudulently removes the goods from the premises; (4) if
the grantor does not, without reasonable excuse, upon demand in
writing by the grantee, produce to him his last receipts for rent,
rates or taxes; (5) if execution is levied against the goods of the
grantor under any judgment. By Sec. 13 personal chattels seized or taken
possession of under a bill must not be removed or sold until after the
expiration of five clear days from the date of seizure, and, if the
goods have been wrongly seized, the grantor may within the five days
apply to the High Court or a judge in chambers for an order to
restrain the grantee from removing or selling the goods. The Bills of
Sale Acts 1878 and 1882 do not apply to Scotland or Ireland. According
to Scots law no security or charge can be created over moveable
property without delivery of possession. The Irish statutes
corresponding to the English acts are the Bills of Sale (Ireland) Act
1879 and the Amendment Act 1883.
The stamp duties payable on an absolute bill of sale are 2s. 6d. on
every L25 secured up to L300; over L300, 5s. on every L50. On bills of
sale by way of security, 1s. 3d. for every L50 up to L300 secured;
over L300, 2s. 6d. for every L100. The fees payable on filing a bill
of sale are, 5s. where the consideration (including further advances)
does not exceed L100; above L100 and not exceeding L200, 10s.; above
L200, L1.
The various trade protection papers always publish the registration of
a bill of sale, and the usual effect is, therefore, to destroy the
credit of any person giving one. (T. A. I.)
BILLROTH, ALBERT CHRISTIAN THEODOR (1829-1894), Viennese surgeon, was
born on the 26th of April 1829 at Bergen, on the island of Ruegen, his
family being of Swedish origin. He studied at the universities of
Greifswald, Goettingen and Berlin, and after taking his doctor's degree
at the last in 1852, started on an educational tour, in the course of
which he visited the medical schools of Vienna, Prague, Paris, Edinburgh
and London. On his return to Berlin he acted as assistant to B.R.K.
Langenbeck from 1853 to 1860, and then accepted the professorship of
surgery at Zuerich. In 1867 he was invited to fill the same position at
Vienna, and in that city the remainder of his professional life was
spent. In 1887 he received the distinction, rarely bestowed on members
of his profession, of a seat in the Austrian _Herrnhaus_. He died at
Abbazia, on the Adriatic, where he had a beautiful villa, on the 6th of
February 1894. Billroth was one of the most distinguished surgeons of
his day. His boldness as an operator was only equalled by his skill and
resourcefulness; no accident or emergency could disturb his coolness and
presence of mind, and his ability to invent or carry out any new
procedure that might be demanded in the particular case with which he
was dealing, gained for him the appellation of "surgeon of great
initiatives." At the same time he was full of consideration for the
comfort and well-being of his patient, and never forgot that he had
before him a human being to be relieved, not a mere "case" for the
display of technical dexterity. He was especially interested in military
surgery, and during the Franco-German War volunteered to serve in the
hospitals of Mannheim and Weissenburg. His efforts did much to improve
the arrangements for the transport and treatment of the wounded in war,
and in a famous speech on the War Budget in 1891, he eloquently urged
the necessity for an improved ambulance system, pointing out that the
use of smokeless powder and the greater precision of the arms of modern
warfare must tend to increase the number of men wounded, and that
therefore more efficient means must be provided for removing them from
the battlefield. Possessing a clear and graceful style, he was the
author of numerous papers and books on medical subjects; his _Allgemeine
chirurgische Pathologie und Therapie_ (1863) ran through many editions,
and was translated into many languages. He was of an exceedingly
artistic disposition, and in particular was devoted to music. A good
performer on the pianoforte and violin, he was an intimate friend and
admirer of Brahms, many of whose compositions were privately performed
at his house before they were published. His work on the physiology of
music (_Wer ist musikalisch?_) was published after his death.
BILMA, or KAWAR, an oasis in the heart of the Sahara desert, some 60 m.
long by 10 broad. The inhabitants are Tibbu and Kanuri. The name Bilma
is properly confined to the southern part of this region, where is the
chief settlement, called Bilma or Garu. This place is 800 m. due S. of
the town of Tripoli and about 350 N. of the N.W. corner of Lake Chad. In
the vicinity are a number of lakes, the waters of which on evaporation
yield large quantities of very pure and fine salt, which is the object
of an extensive trade with the countries of Central Africa. North of
Bilma is the town of Dirki, said to date from the 11th century. Near
Bilma is a small circular oasis, kept green by a fine spring, but
immediately to the south begins the most dreary part of the Saharan
desert, over which the caravans travel for fifteen days without
discovering the slightest trace of vegetable life. Gustav Nachtigal, who
visited Bilma in 1870, records that the temperature during the day
rarely sank below 113 deg. Fahr. By the Anglo-French Declaration of the 21st
of March 1899 Bilma was included in the French sphere of influence in
West Africa. Turkey claimed the oasis as part of the hinterland of
Tripoli and garrisoned Bilma in 1902. In 1906, however, a French force
from Zinder occupied the town, no opposition being offered by the
Ottoman authorities. In 1907 the oasis and surrounding district was
created a circle of the Military Territory of the Niger (see SAHARA).
BILNEY, THOMAS (d. 1531), English martyr, was born at or near Norwich.
The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but at all events it was not
before 1495. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating
LL.B. and taking holy orders in 1519. Finding no satisfaction in the
mechanical system of the schoolmen, he turned his attention to the
edition of the New Testament published by Erasmus in 1516.
"Immediately," he records, "I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness."
The Scriptures now became his chief study, and his influence led other
young Cambridge men to think along the same lines. Among his friends
were Matthew Parker, the future archbishop of Canterbury, and Hugh
Latimer. Latimer, previously a strenuous conservative, was completely
won over, and a warm friendship sprang up between him and Bilney. "By
his confession," said Latimer, "I learned more than in twenty years
before." In 1525 Bilney obtained a licence to preach throughout the
diocese of Ely. He denounced saint and relic worship, together with
pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury, and refused to accept the
mediation of the saints. The diocesan authorities raised no objection,
for, despite his reforming views in these directions, he was to the last
perfectly orthodox on the power of the pope, the sacrifice of the mass,
the doctrine of transubstantiation and the authority of the church. But
Wolsey took a different view. In 1526 he appears to have summoned Bilney
before him. On his taking an oath that he did not hold and would not
disseminate the doctrines of Luther, Bilney was dismissed. But in the
following year serious objection was taken to a series of sermons
preached by him in and near London, and he was arrested and imprisoned
in the Tower. Arraigned before Wolsey, Warham, archbishop of Canterbury,
and several bishops in the chapter-house at Westminster, he was
convicted of heresy, sentence being deferred while efforts were made to
induce him to recant, which eventually he did. After being kept for more
than a year in the Tower, he was released in 1529, and went back to
Cambridge. Here he was overcome with remorse for his apostasy, and after
two years determined to preach again what he had held to be the truth.
The churches being no longer open to him, he preached openly in the
fields, finally arriving in Norwich, where the bishop, Richard Nix,
caused him to be arrested. Articles were drawn up against him by
Convocation, he was tried, degraded from his orders and handed over to
the civil authorities to be burned. The sentence was carried out in
London on the 19th of August 1531. A parliamentary inquiry was
threatened into this case, not because parliament approved of Bilney's
doctrine but because it was alleged that Bilney's execution had been
obtained by the ecclesiastics without the proper authorization by the
state. In 1534 Bishop Nix was condemned on this charge to the
confiscation of his property. The significance of Bilney's execution
lies in the fact that on essential points he was an orthodox Roman
Catholic.
See _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ vols. iv.-v.; Foxe's _Acts and
Monuments_; Gairdner's _History of the Church_; Pollard's _Henry
VIII_. (A. F. P.)
BILOXI, a city of Harrison county, Mississippi, U.S.A., in the south
part of the state, on Biloxi Bay, a branch of the Mississippi Sound,
which is a part of the Gulf of Mexico. By rail it is 80 m. N.E. of New
Orleans and 61 m. S.E. of Mobile, Alabama. Pop. (1880) 1540; (1890)
3234; (1900) 5467 (949 being negroes and 455 foreign-born); (1910) 7988.
The city is served by a branch of the Louisville & Nashville railway,
and by an electric railway extending to Bay St Louis, through Gulfport
(pop., 1900, 1060; 1910, 6386), 13 m. S.W., the port of entry of the
Pearl River customs district, whose exports, chiefly timber, lumber,
naval stores and charcoal, were valued at $8,392,271 in 1907. Biloxi is
both a summer and a winter resort, particularly for the people of New
Orleans and Mobile, and has a fine beach, extending for about 12 m.
around its peninsula, and bordered by an automobile drive; along the
beach are some attractive residences, hotels and boarding houses, and
several sanatoriums. The city's principal industries are the canning of
oysters, shrimp, fish, figs and vegetables, and the manufacture of
fertilizers and flour. A beautiful thin faience with remarkable metallic
glazes is made here. The municipality owns the water-works, the water
being obtained from artesian wells. Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville
(1661-1706) in 1699 built Fort Maurepas across the bay from the present
city; and the settlement there, called Biloxi after the Biloxi Indians,
was the first to be established by the French in this region. In 1702
this post, known as Old Biloxi, was abandoned, and the seat of
government was removed to the Mobile river. In 1712 a settlement was
made on the present site, being the first permanent settlement within
what is now the state of Mississippi. Many of the early settlers were
French Canadians, who came down the Mississippi to join the new colony.
Biloxi was again the capital from 1719 until 1722. It was incorporated
as a village in 1872, and was chartered as a city in 1896.
BILSTON, a market town of Staffordshire, England, 21/2 m. S.E. of
Wolverhampton and 124 N.W. of London, in the Black Country. Pop. of
urban district (1901) 24,034. It is served by the Great Western railway,
and by the London & North-Western at Ettingshall Road station. In the
vicinity are very productive mines of coal and ironstone, as well as
sand of fine quality for casting, and grinding-stones for cutlers.
Bilston contains numerous furnaces, forges, rolling and slitting mills
for the preparation of iron, and a great variety of factories for
japanned and painted goods, brass-work and heavy iron goods. Though
retaining no relics of antiquity, the town is very ancient, appearing in
Domesday. The parish church of St Leonard, dating as it stands mainly
from 1827, is on the site of a building of the 13th century. Bilston
suffered severely from an outbreak of cholera in 1832. The town is
within the parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton.
BILTONG, a South African Dutch word (from _bil_, buttock, and _tong_,
tongue), for sun-dried strips of antelope or buffalo meat.
BIMANA (Lat. "two-handed"), a word first used by the naturalist Johann
Friedrich Blumenbach to distinguish the order of man from Quadrumana or
other mammals. The term was popularized by Cuvier, and the majority of
writers followed him in its adoption. In 1863, however, Huxley in his
_Man's Place in Nature_ demonstrated that the higher apes might fairly
be included in Bimana. Again and again it has been proved that the human
great toe can be by constant practice used as a thumb; artists exist who
have painted pictures grasping the brush with their toes, and violinists
have been known to play their instruments in the same manner. Among many
savage races there is developed a remarkable power of foot-grasp, which
in a lesser degree is often so noticeable among sailors. Haeckel calls
attention to the fact that a baby can hold a spoon with the big-toe as
with a thumb. Man, in a word, is potentially quadrumanous.
BIMETALLISM. The very general employment of both gold and silver for
currency purposes (see MONEY) has given rise to serious practical
difficulties which have in turn led to keen theoretical discussion as to
the proper remedies to be employed. Though every arrangement under which
two metals form the money of a region may be described as "bimetallism,"
the term--as often happens in economics--has received a specialized
meaning. It denotes a system under which the two metals are freely
received by the mint and are equally available as legal tender. The last
clause implies the establishment of a definite ratio in value between
the two metals (e.g. 1 oz. of gold = 151/2 oz. of silver) so that the
title "rated bimetallism" may be given to it, in contradistinction to
the "unrated bimetallism" which exists wherever two metals circulate
together, but have their relative values determined, not by law, but by
"the higgling of the market." Further, the inventor of the term--H.
Cernuschi in 1869--regarded it as properly applicable to an
international arrangement by which a number of states agree to adopt the
same ratio, rather than to the use of the two metals by a single
country, which may be described as national bimetallism. International
bimetallism is at all events the form which has attracted attention in
recent times, and it is certainly the most important.
Regarded from the historical point of view it appears that the failure
of separate countries to maintain the two metals in circulation was the
cause which produced the idea of bimetallism as an international system.
We find first the upholders of a national double standard, as in France
and the United States, and these are followed by the advocates of
bimetallism set up by a combination of countries. The theoretical
considerations which underlie the controversy between the supporters and
the opponents of bimetallism find their appropriate place in the article
MONEY, as does also the earlier history of the double standard. The
circumstances that have led to the prominence of the bimetallic question
and the principal events that have marked the course of the movement
form the subject of this article.
In the earlier years of the 19th century, when the monetary disturbances
that resulted from the Revolutionary wars had ceased, we find France
(1803) and the United States (1792) with the double standard legally
established. England, on the other hand, had in 1816 accepted by law the
_gold standard_, which had come into use in the 18th century. Silver
formed the currency of the other European countries. The great
discoveries of gold in California (1848) and Australia (1851) brought
about the displacement of silver by gold in France, and the continuance
of gold as the principal currency metal in the United States, where by
the law of 1834 it had been somewhat over-rated (1:16), as compared with
the ratio adopted in France (1:151/2), and had therefore expelled most of
the silver previously in circulation. Between 1848 and 1860 over
L100,000,000 of gold was coined in France, while an equivalent amount of
silver was exported, principally to the East.
At this time the weight of economic and official opinion was very
decidedly in favour of the single gold standard as the best system. In
1865 the Latin Union was established, in which the French currency
system was adopted and was followed by the international conference of
1867 in Paris (see MONETARY CONFERENCES), when gold was unanimously
accepted as the standard for the proposed international system to be
produced by coordinating the various currencies with that of the Latin
Union.
A series of political and economic events speedily changed this
situation. The Franco-German War (1870-71) deposed France from her
leading position, and led to the establishment of a German gold currency
with a different unit from the franc, accompanied by the demonetization
of the silver currencies previously in use in the German states. The
United States, where an inconvertible paper currency had been introduced
during the Civil War, formally established the gold dollar as the
standard coin (1873) and arranged for a return to specie payments
(1878). At this time, too, the great production of gold which had marked
the period 1850-1870 diminished, while very productive silver mines were
discovered in the Pacific states of America. As a result of these
combined influences the gold price of silver, which had risen a little
during the height of the gold discoveries, began to fall rapidly, and
the reverse process to that by which France had in the 'fifties acquired
a gold currency came into operation. Silver, in accordance with
_Gresham's Law_, was imported and offered for coinage. To obviate this
the policy of limiting the coinage of silver (the _Limping Standard_)
was adopted by the Latin Union. A further fall in the gold price of
silver naturally resulted, and this made the position of Eastern trade
and the finances of the Indian government insecure. American silver
producers, and the German government, as holders of a large mass of
demonetized silver, were also sufferers by the depreciation. The effect
on public and official opinion was shown by the English parliamentary
committee on the depreciation of silver (1876), the American silver
commission of the same year, and the appearance of many works on the
subject, most of them advocating the double standard. On the initiative
of the United States an international monetary conference met in Paris
in 1878, but though the necessity of keeping a place for silver in the
money of the world was recognized, the proposal to adopt the double
standard for general use was rejected by the European states. By the
Bland-Allison Act (Feb. 1878) the United States had provided for the
coinage of a certain amount of silver per month as a mode of keeping up
the price of the metal, which notwithstanding fell to 48 pence per oz.
in 1879. The prolonged depression of trade in America and Germany was
attributed to the scarcity of money, due to what was described as "the
outlawry of silver." By the joint action of France and the United States
a fresh monetary conference was held in Paris in 1881, where the
advocates of bimetallism were very strongly represented. After prolonged
discussion no conclusion was reached, in consequence of the refusal of
England and Germany to abandon the gold standard. Though an adjournment
to the following year was resolved on, the conference did not
reassemble, and the bimetallic movement took the form of agitation,
carried on in each country. The English inquiry into the depression of
trade (1885-1886) drew from the commission a recommendation for a fresh
commission to investigate the relation of gold and silver. This latter
body, appointed in 1886, obtained a great body of important evidence,
and in 1888 closed its work by a report in which the views of the two
sections of the commission were separately presented. Six members
supported the existing gold standard and six were in favour of the
bimetallic system. This inconclusive result was soon followed in the
United States by the Sherman Act (1890), providing for a larger monthly
coinage of silver. A temporary rise in the price of the metal was
followed by a further fall, making the situation still more critical. A
new monetary conference was summoned by the United States and met in
Brussels in November 1892. To modify opposition the "desirability of
increasing the use of silver" was the resolution proposed; the actual
method being left open. This conference also proved abortive and
adjourned to 1893, but like that of 1881 did not meet again.
International action having failed to secure any system of bimetallism,
the United States and India sought to relieve their position by local
legislation. The former repealed the Sherman Act, and the latter closed
its mints to the free coinage of silver (1893). As these measures were
opposed to bimetallism in that they restricted the use of silver, and
were followed by a lower price for that metal than had ever been known,
the agitation in the United States and Europe continued. In America it
took the form of advocating the free coinage of silver by the United
States without waiting for other countries; and in this shape made the
principal issue at the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, in each
of which it was emphatically rejected.
A further attempt at securing international bimetallism was made by
Senator Wolcott's commission in 1897. The American envoys, in concert
with the French government, proposed to England (1) the reopening of the
Indian mints, and (2) the annual purchase by England of L10,000,000 of
silver. The French minister claimed further concessions which were
regarded as inadmissible by the English government; but the fate of the
mission was settled by the refusal of the Indian government to reopen
its mints.
After the American election of 1900, bimetallism as a popular cause
disappeared from view. The silver issue was withdrawn from the
democratic platform in 1904, and the bimetallic movement died out in
England.
Amongst the causes of this collapse the most important are: (1) the
adoption of the gold standard by so many countries--Austria-Hungary
(1892), Russia and Japan (1897), India (1899), Mexico (1904)-a movement
which pointed to the complete triumph of gold in the future; (2) the
great increase in the output of gold. Australia and South Africa so
developed their gold mines as to bring the yield for 1906 to L81,000,000
as contrasted with the less than L20,000,000 of 1883. This growing
supply removed all that dread of a "gold famine" which served as a
popular argument with bimetallists. To these may be added (3) the
knowledge that experience had brought of the difficulties surrounding
any attempt to establish a common ratio where the interests of different
countries are so opposed; and (4) the great expansion of trade and
industry, concomitantly with the wider adoption of the gold standard.
Therefore, to quote the words of perhaps the ablest advocate of
bimetallism, "The outcome of the prolonged controversy ... appears to be
that the commercial world will carry on its business principally and
more and more on a gold basis, and that particular countries will
endeavour in different ways to adjust their actual medium ... to the
gold standard" (Nicholson, _Money and Monetary Problems_, 6th ed.).
Perhaps the principal service rendered by the many able minds engaged in
the movement will prove to be the fuller development of the more
difficult parts of monetary theory and the additional light thrown on
the course of monetary history.
A proposal, sometimes confounded with bimetallism, is that for a
standard composed of both gold and silver, which is better described as
the _Joint-standard_ or as _Symmetallism_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-On the bimetallic side, Nicholson, _Money and Monetary
Problems_ (6th ed., 1903); F.A. Walker, _International Bimetallism_
(1896); Barbour, _The Theory of Bimetallism_ (1885); Lord Aldenham
(H.H. Gibbs), _A Colloquy on Currency_ (1900); and the numerous
pamphlets and leaflets of the Bimetallic League. Opposed to
bimetallism, Giffen, _The Case against Bimetallism_ (1892); Laughlin,
_History of Bimetallism in the United States_ (4th ed., 1897); Lord
Farrer, _Studies in Currency_ (1898), _The Gold Standard_
(1898)--papers issued by the Gold Standard Defence Assoc. Leonard
Darwin's _Bimetallism_ aims at a judicial summary. See also MONEY,
MONETARY CONFERENCES. (C. F. B.)
BIMLIPATAM, a town of British India, in the Vizagapatam district of
Madras, on the sea-coast 18 m. N.E. of Vizagapatam. Pop. (1901) 10,212.
It was formerly a Dutch factory, and is now the principal port of the
district. The anchorage is an open roadstead protected to some extent by
headlands with a lighthouse at Santapalli. Nearly half the sea-borne
trade is conducted with foreign countries. The principal exports are
oil-seeds, hides and jute.
BIN, a receptacle of various kinds, originally of wicker or basket work.
The word appears in most European languages, of. M.L. and Ital. _benna_,
Ger. _Benne_, &c.; etymologists trace the word to a root meaning "to
plait." It survives in various connexions, e.g. dust-bin, wine-bin (for
holding bottles), hop-bin, coal-bin, corn-bin.
BINAN, a town of the province of La Laguna, Luzon, Philippine Islands,
on the W. shore of Laguna de Bay, about 20 m. S.S.E. of Manila. Pop.
(1903) 9563. The town is surrounded by an extensive and extremely
fertile plain which produces very large quantities of rice as well as a
great variety of tropical fruits, and a ready market for these products
is found in Manila whither they are shipped by boat. The language is
Tagalog.
BINARY SYSTEM, in astronomy, a system composed of two stars revolving
around each other under the influence of their mutual attraction. A
distinction was formerly made between double stars of which the
components were in revolution around each other, and those in which no
relative motion was observed; but it is now considered that all double
stars must really be binary systems.
BINCHOIS, EGIDIUS (d. 1460), an early 15th-century musical composer
evidently named after his birthplace, Binche, near Mons. He was esteemed
by contemporary and later theorists as second only to Dunstable and
Dufay.
BINGEN (anc. _Vincum_ or _Bingium_), a town of Germany, in the
grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, 15 m. N.W. from Mainz, on the main line
to Cologne. Pop. (1905) 9950. It is situated on the left bank of the
Rhine opposite Ruedesheim, at the confluence of the Nahe (or Nava), which
is crossed near its mouth by a stone bridge, attributed to Drusus, and
certainly of Roman origin, and an iron railway bridge. On a height
immediately to the south-east is the ruined castle of Klopp, on the site
of a fortress founded by Drusus, and higher still the celebrated chapel
of St Roch (rebuilt in 1895 after a fire), where thousands of pilgrims
gather on the first Sunday after the 16th of August. Apart from its
situation, which renders it a convenient place of tourist resort, the
town itself presents but few attractions. There are a Protestant and
three Roman Catholic churches, among the latter the parish church with a
crypt dating from the 11th century, and a medieval town hall. It has a
considerable commerce in wine, grain and cattle, and, new quays and a
harbour having been recently constructed, does an extensive transit
trade in coal and iron. A short way down the Rhine is the Bingerloch, a
famous whirlpool, while about halfway between it and the town rises on a
rock in the middle of the stream the _Maeuseturm_ (derived from
_Muserie_, cannon), in which, according to legend, Archbishop Hatto II.
of Mainz was in 969 eaten by mice (the legend being doubtless due to the
erroneous derivation from _Maeuse_, mice). Another legend states that the
Nibelung treasure is hidden hereabouts in the Rhine.
BINGERBRUeCK, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, at the
confluence of the Nahe and the Rhine, lying just below Bingen, and at
the junction of the main lines of railway--Mainz-Coblenz and
Bingerbrueck-Metz. It has an extensive trade in the wines of the
district. Pop. 2500.
BINGHAM, JOSEPH (1668-1723), English scholar and divine, was born at
Wakefield in Yorkshire in September 1668. He was educated at University
College, Oxford, of which he was made fellow in 1689 and tutor in 1691.
A sermon preached by him from the university pulpit, St Mary's, on the
meaning of the terms "Person" and "Substance" in the Fathers, brought
upon him a most unjust accusation of heresy. He was compelled to give up
his fellowship and leave the university; but he was immediately
presented by Dr John Radcliffe to the rectory of Headbournworthy, near
Winchester (1695). In this country retirement he began his laborious and
valuable work entitled _Origines Ecclesiasticae_, or Antiquities of the
Christian Church, the first volume of which appeared in 1708 and the
tenth and last in 1722. His design, learnedly, exhaustively and
impartially executed, was "to give such a methodical account of the
antiquities of the Christian Church as others have done of the Greek and
Roman and Jewish antiquities, by reducing the ancient customs, usages
and practices of the church under certain proper heads, whereby the
reader may take a view at once of any particular usage or custom of
Christians for four or five centuries." Notwithstanding his learning and
merit, Bingham received no higher preferment than that of
Headbournworthy till 1712, when he was collated to the rectory of
Havant, near Portsmouth, by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of
Winchester. Nearly all his little property was lost in the great South
Sea Bubble of 1720. He died on the 17th of August 1723.
BINGHAMTON, a city and the county-seat of Broome county, New York,
U.S.A., in the south part of the state, on both banks of the north
branch of the Susquehanna river, at the mouth of the Chenango river.
Pop. (1880) 17,317; (1890) 35,005; (1900) 39,647, of whom 4272 were
foreign-born; (1910), 48,443. It is an important railway centre, being
served by the Delaware & Hudson, the Erie, and the Delaware, Lackawanna
& Western railways; and an extensive system of electric railways
connects it with the suburbs and neighbouring towns. Binghamton is
picturesquely situated and has a number of parks, the most attractive of
which are Ross Park of 100 acres, and Ely Park of 134 acres. Among the
principal buildings are the city hall, the court-house, the post-office,
the Binghamton city hospital, Stone opera-house, the Carnegie library
(1904), the central high school, and a state armoury. Binghamton has
also some fine office buildings. Among the city's educational and
charitable institutions are the Lady Jane Grey school (for girls), St
Joseph's academy, St Mary's home for orphans, the Susquehanna Valley
orphan asylum, and a state hospital for the insane. Binghamton is a
manufacturing centre of considerable importance, ranking twelfth in the
state in 1905 in the value of factory products, $13,907,403, which was
an increase of 32.0% over the value of the factory products in 1900;
among its manufactures are tobacco, cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff
(value in 1905, $2,879,217), patent medicines (value in 1905,
$2,133,198), flour and grist mill products ($1,089,910), men's clothing
($833,835), and, of less importance, commercial and computing scales and
time recorders, chemicals, distilled liquor, beer, fire-alarm apparatus,
overalls, agricultural implements, wagons, electrical apparatus, refined
oil, sheet metal, paper bags and envelopes, tacks and nails, window
glass, glass-ware, clocks, whips and furniture (especially Morris
chairs). In the village of Lestershire (pop. in 1910, 3775; incorporated
in 1892), about 2 m. west, and in Endicott, another suburb, are large
boot and shoe factories. The municipality owns and operates the
water-works. When Binghamton was first settled, about 1787, it was known
as Chenango Point. Its site was originally included in the so-called
"Bingham Patent," a tract on both sides of the Susquehanna river owned
by William Bingham (1751-1804), a Philadelphia merchant, who was a
member of the Continental Congress in 1787-1788 and of the United States
Senate in 1795-1801, being president _pro tempore_ of the Senate from
the 16th of February to the 3rd of March 1797. In 1800 a village was
laid out by an agent of Mr Bingham, and was named Binghamton. In 1834 it
was incorporated as a village, and in 1867 was chartered as a city.
BINGLEY, a market town in the Otley parliamentary division of the West
Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the Aire, 51/2 m. N.W. of Bradford, on
the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 18,449. The church of
All Saints is good Perpendicular, though considerably restored. The
large industrial population is engaged principally in the worsted and
cotton manufacture. The neighbourhood is populous, but the natural
beauty of the Aire valley is not greatly impaired.
BINIOU, or BIGNOU, a species of cornemuse or bagpipe, still in use at
the present day in Brittany. The biniou is a primitive kind of bagpipe
consisting of a leather bag inflated by means of a short valved
insufflation tube or blow-pipe, a chaunter with conical bore furnished
with a double reed concealed within the stock or socket (see BAG-PIPE),
and seven holes, the first being duplicated to accommodate left- and
right-handed players.
The scale of the biniou is usually [Illustration][1] and the single
drone is tuned to the lower octave of the first hole [Illustration].
The more primitive biniou, still occasionally found in the remote
districts of Cornouailles and Morbihan, has a chaunter with but five
holes,[2] giving part of the scale of D, the drone being also tuned to
D. The drone of the biniou is of boxwood, handsomely inlaid with tin,
and has a single or beating reed hidden within the stock.
The word biniou or bignou (a Gallicized form), often erroneously derived
from _bigno, se renfler beaucoup_--an etymology not supported by Breton
dictionaries--is the Breton plural form of _benvek_, instrument, tool,
_i.e. binviou, binvijou_.[3] The word is also found in the phrase,
"_Sac'h ar biniou_" (a biniou bag), a bag used by weavers to hold their
tools, spindles, &c. The biniou is still the traditional and popular
instrument of the Breton peasants of Cornouailles and Morbihan, and is
almost inseparable from the bombard (q.v.), which is no other than a
survival of the medieval musette, hautbois or chalemie, formerly
associated with the bag-pipe in western Europe (see OBOE). At all
festivals, at the _pardons_, wedding feasts and threshing dances, the
two traditional musicians or _sonneurs_ give out in shrill penetrating
tones the ancient Breton _rondes_[4] and melodies.