The practice of the boiler, bridge and girder shops may here be
conveniently treated together, because similar materials and methods are
employed in each, notwithstanding that many points of divergence in
practice generally relegate them to separate departments. The materials
used are chiefly iron and steel. The methods mostly adopted are those
involved in the working of plates and rolled sections, which vastly
predominate over the bars and rods used chiefly in the smithy. But there
are numerous differences in methods of construction. Flanging occupies a
large place in boilermaking, for end-plates, tube-plates, furnace flues,
&c., but is scarcely represented in bridge and girder work. Plates are
bent to cylindrical shapes in boilermaking, for shells and furnaces, but
not in girder work. Welding is much more common in the first than in the
second, furnace flues being always welded and stand pipes frequently. In
boiler work holes are generally drilled through the seams of adjacent
plates. In bridge work each plate or bar is usually drilled or punched
apart from its fellows. Boilers, again, being subject to high
temperatures and pressures, must be constructed with provisions to
ensure some elasticity and freedom of movement under varying
temperatures to prevent fractures or grooving, and must be made of
materials that combine high ductility with strength when heated to
furnace temperatures. Flanging of certain parts, judicious staying,
limitation of the length of the tubes, the forms of which are
inherently weak, provide for the first; the selection of steel or iron
of high percentage elongation, and the imposition of temper, or bending
tests, both hot and cold, provide for the second.
The following are the leading features of present-day methods.
It might be hastily supposed that, because plates, angles, tees,
channels and joist sections are rolled ready for use, little work
could be left for the plater and boilermaker. But actually so much is
involved that subdivisions of tasks are numerous; the operations of
templet-making, rolling, planing, punching and shearing, bending,
welding and forging, flanging, drilling, riveting, caulking, and
tubing require the labours of several groups of machine attendants,
and of gangs of unskilled labourers or helpers. Some operations also
have to be done at a red or white heat, others cold. To the first
belong flanging and welding, to the latter generally all the other
operations. Heating is necessary for the rolling of tubes of small
diameter; bending is done cold or hot according to circumstances.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Thornycroft-Schulz Water-tube Boiler.]
The fact that some kinds of treatment, as shearing and punching,
flanging and bending, are of a very violent character explains why
practice has changed radically in regard to the method of performing
these operations in cases where safety is a cardinal matter. Shearing
and punching are both severely detrusive operations performed on cold
metal; both leave jagged edges and, as experience has proved, very
minute cracks, the tendency of which is to extend under subsequent
stress, with liability to produce fracture. But it has been found
that, when a shorn edge is planed and a punched hole enlarged by
reamering, no harm results, provided not less than about 1/16 in. is
removed. A great advance was therefore made when specifications first
insisted on the removal of the rough edges before the parts were
united.
In the work of riveting another evil long existed. When holes are
punched it is practically impossible to ensure the exact coincidence
of holes in different plates which have to be brought together for the
purpose of riveting. From this followed the use of the drift,--a
tapered rod driven forcibly by hammer blows through corresponding
holes in adjacent plates, by which violent treatment the holes were
forcibly drawn into alignment. This drifting stressed the plates,
setting up permanent strains and enlarging incipient cracks, and many
boiler explosions have been clearly traceable to the abuse of this
tool. Then, next, specifications insisted that all holes should be
enlarged by reamering _after_ the plates were in place. But even that
did not prove a safeguard, because it often happened that the metal
reamered was nearly all removed from one side of a hole, so leaving
the other side just as the punch had torn it. Ultimately came the era
of drilling rivet-holes, to which there is no exception now in
high-class boiler work. For average girder and bridge work the
practice of punching and reamering is still in use, because the
conditions of service are not so severe as are those in steam boilers.
Flanging signifies the turning or bending over of the edges of a
plate to afford a means of union to other plates. Examples occur in
the back end-plates of Lancashire and Cornish boilers, the front and
back plates of marine boilers, the fire-boxes of locomotive boilers,
the crowns of vertical boilers, the ends of conical cross-tubes, and
the Adamson seams of furnace flues. This practice has superseded the
older system of effecting union by means of rings forming two sides of
a rectangular section (angle iron rings). These were a fruitful source
of grooving and explosions in steam boilers, because their sharp
angular form lacked elasticity; hence the reason for the substitution
of a flange turned with a large radius, which afforded the elasticity
necessary to counteract the effects of changes in temperature. In
girder work where such conditions do not exist, the method of union
with angles is of course retained. In the early days of flanging the
process was performed in detail by a skilled workman (the angle
ironsmith), and it is still so done in small establishments. A length
of edge of about 10 in. or a foot is heated, and bent by hammering
around the edge of a block of iron of suitable shape. Then another
"heat" is taken and flanged, and another, until the work is complete.
But in modern boiler shops little hand work is ever done; instead,
plates 4 ft., 6 ft., or 8 ft. in diameter, and fire-box plates for
locomotive boilers, have their entire flanges bent at a single squeeze
between massive dies in a hydraulic press. In the case of the ends of
marine boilers which are too large for such treatment, a special form
of press bends the edges over in successive heats. The flanges of
Adamson seams are rolled over in a special machine. A length of flue
is rotated on a table, while the flange is turned over within a minute
between revolving rollers. There is another advantage in the adoption
of machine-flanging, besides the enormous saving of time, namely, that
the material suffers far less injury than it does in hand-flanging.
These differences in practice would not have assumed such magnitude
but for the introduction of mild steel in place of malleable iron.
Iron suffers less from overheating and irregular heating than does
steel. Steel possesses higher ductility, but it is also more liable to
develop cracks if subjected to improper treatment. All this and much
more is writ large in the early testing of steel, and is reflected in
present-day practice.
A feature peculiar to the boiler and plating shops is the enormous
number of rivet holes which have to be made, and of rivets to be
inserted. These requirements are reflected in machine design. To punch
or drill holes singly is too slow a process in the best practice, and
so machines are made for producing many holes simultaneously. Besides
this, the different sections of boilers are drilled in machines of
different types, some for shells, some for furnaces, some peculiar to
the shells or furnaces of one type of boilers, others to those of
another type only. And generally now these machines not only drill,
but can also be adjusted to drill to exact pitch, the necessity thus
being avoided of marking out the holes as guides to the drills.
Hand-riveting has mostly been displaced by hydraulic and pneumatic
machines, with resulting great saving in cost, and the advantage of
more trustworthy and uniform results. For boiler work, machines are
mostly of fixed type; for bridge and girder work they are portable,
being slung from chains and provided with pressure water or compressed
air by systems of flexible pipes.
Welding fills a large place in boiler work, but it is that of the
edges of plates chiefly, predominating over that of the bars and rods
of the smithy. The edges to be united are thin and long, so that short
lengths have to be done in succession at successive "heats." Much of
this is hand work, and "gluts" or insertion pieces are generally
preferred to overlapping joints. But in large shops, steam-driven
power hammers are used for closing the welds. Parts that are commonly
welded are the furnace flues, the conical cross-tubes and angle rings.
Another aspect of the work of these departments is the immense
proportions of the modern machine tools used. This development is due
in great degree to the substitution of steel for iron. The steel
shell-plates of the largest boilers are 1-1/2 in. thick, and these
have to be bent into cylindrical forms. In the old days of iron
boilers the capacity of rolls never exceeded about 3/4 in. plate.
Often, alternatively to rolling, these thick plates are bent by
squeezing them in successive sections between huge blocks operated by
hydraulic pressure acting on toggle levers. And other machines besides
the rolls are made more massive than formerly to deal with the immense
plates of modern marine boilers.
The boiler and plating shops have been affected by the general
tendency to specialize manufactures. Firms have fallen into the
practice of restricting their range of product, with increase in
volume. The time has gone past when a single shop could turn out
several classes of boilers, and undertake any bridge and girder work
as well. One reason is to be found in the diminution of hand work and
the growth of the machine tool. Almost every distinct operation on
every section of a boiler or bridge may now be accomplished by one of
several highly specialized machines. Repetitive operations are
provided for thus, and by a system of templeting. If twenty or fifty
similar boilers are made in a year, each plate, hole, flange or stay
will be exactly like every similar one in the set. Dimensions of
plates will be marked from a sample or templet plate, and holes will
be marked similarly; or in many cases they are not marked at all, but
pitched and drilled at once by self-acting mechanism embodied in
drilling machines specially designed for one set of operations on one
kind of plate. Hundreds of bracing bars for bridges and girders will
be cut off all alike, and drilled or punched from a templet bar, so
that they are ready to take their place in bridge or girder without
any adjustments or fitting. (J. G. H.)
BOILING TO DEATH, a punishment once common both in England and on the
continent. The only extant legislative notice of it in England occurs in
an act passed in 1531 during the reign of Henry VIII., providing that
convicted poisoners should be boiled to death; it is, however,
frequently mentioned earlier as a punishment for coining. The
_Chronicles of the Grey Friars_ (published by the Camden Society, 1852)
have an account of boiling for poisoning at Smithfield in the year 1522,
the man being fastened to a chain and lowered into boiling water several
times until he died. The preamble of the statute of Henry VIII. (which
made poisoning treason) in 1531 recites that one Richard Roose (or
Coke), a cook, by putting poison in some food intended for the household
of the bishop of Rochester and for the poor of the parish of Lambeth,
killed a man and woman. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to
be boiled to death without benefit of clergy. He was publicly boiled at
Smithfield. In the same year a maid-servant for poisoning her mistress
was boiled at King's Lynn. In 1542 Margaret Davy, a servant, for
poisoning her employer, was boiled at Smithfield. In the reign of Edward
VI., in 1547, the act was repealed.
See also W. Andrews, _Old Time Punishments_ (Hull, 1890); _Notes and
Queries_, vol. i. (1862), vol. ix. (1867); Du Cange (s.v. _Caldariis
decoquere_).
BOIS BRULES, or BRULES (a French translation of their Indian name
SICHANGU), a sub-tribe of North American Dakota Indians (Teton river
division). The name is most frequently associated with the half-breeds
in Manitoba, who in 1869 came into temporary prominence in connexion
with Riel's Rebellion (see RED RIVER); at that time they had lost all
tribal purity, and were alternatively called _Metis_ (half-castes), the
majority being descendants of French-Canadians.
BOISE, a city and the county-seat of Ada county, Idaho, U.S.A., and the
capital of the state, situated on the N. side of the Boise river, in the
S.W. part of the state, at an altitude of about 2700 ft. Pop. (1890)
2311; (1900) 5957; (1910) 17,358. It is served by the Oregon Short Line
railway, being the terminus of a branch connecting with the main line at
Nampa, about 20 m. W.; and by electric lines connecting with Caldwell
and Nampa. The principal buildings are the state capitol, the United
States assay office, a Carnegie library, a natatorium, and the Federal
building, containing the post office, the United States circuit and
district court rooms, and a U.S. land office. Boise is the seat of the
state school for the deaf and blind (1906), and just outside the city
limits are the state soldiers' home and the state penitentiary. About 2
m. from the city are Federal barracks. Hot water (175 deg. F.) from
artesian wells near the city is utilized for the natatorium and to heat
many residences and public buildings. The Boise valley is an excellent
country for raising apples, prunes and other fruits. The manufactured
products of the city are such as are demanded by a mining country,
principally lumber, flour and machine-shop products. Boise is the trade
centre of the surrounding fruit-growing, agricultural and mining
country, and is an important wool market. The oldest settlement in the
vicinity was made by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company on the west side of
the Boise river, before 1860; the present city, chartered in 1864, dates
from 1863. After 1900 the city grew very rapidly, principally owing to
the great irrigation schemes in southern Idaho; the water for the
immense Boise-Payette irrigation system is taken from the Boise, 8 m.
above the city. (See IDAHO.)
BOISGOBEY, FORTUNE DU (1824-1891), French writer of fiction, whose real
surname was Castille, was born at Granville (Manche) on the 11th of
September 1824. He served in the army pay department in Algeria from
1844 to 1848, and extended his travels to the East. He made his literary
debut in the _Petit journal_ with a story entitled _Deux comediens_
(1868). With _Le Forcat colonel_ (1872) he became one of the most
popular feuilleton writers. His police stories, though not so convincing
as those of Emile Gaboriau, with whom his name is generally associated,
had a great circulation, and many of them have been translated into
English. Among his stories may be mentioned: _Les Mysteres du nouveau
Paris_ (1876), _Le Demi-Monde sous la Terreur_ (1877), _Les Nuits de
Constantinople_ (1882), _Le Cri du sang_ (1885), _La Main froide_
(1889). Boisgobey died on the 26th of February 1891.
BOISGUILBERT, PIERRE LE PESANT, SIEUR DE (1676-1714), French economist,
was born at Rouen of an ancient noble family of Normandy, allied to that
of Corneille. He received his classical education in Rouen, entered the
magistracy and became judge at Montivilliers, near Havre. In 1690 he
became president of the _bailliage_ of Rouen, a post which he retained
almost until his death, leaving it to his son. In these two situations
he made a close study of local economic conditions, personally
supervising the cultivation of his lands, and entering into relations
with the principal merchants of Rouen. He was thus led to consider the
misery of the people under the burden of taxation. In 1695 he published
his principal work, _Le Detail de la France; la cause de la diminution
de ses biens, et la facilite du remede_.... In it he drew a picture of
the general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the bad economic
regime. In opposition to Colbert's views he held that the wealth of a
country consists, not in the abundance of money which it possesses but
in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the time
was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which
would allow the poor to consume more, raise the production and add to
the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the _taille_, the
suppression of internal customs duties and greater freedom of trade. In
his _Factum de la France_, published in 1705 or 1706, he gave a more
concise _resume_ of his ideas. But his proposal to substitute for all
aides and customs duties a single capitation tax of a tenth of the
revenue of all property was naturally opposed by the farmers of taxes
and found little support. Indeed his work, written in a diffuse and
inelegant style, passed almost unnoticed. Saint Simon relates that he
once asked a hearing of the comte de Pontchartrain, saying that he would
at first believe him mad, then become interested, and then see he was
right. Pontchartrain bluntly told him that he did think him mad, and
turned his back on him. With Michel de Chamillart, whom he had known as
intendant of Rouen (1689-1690), he had no better success. Upon the
disgrace of Vauban, whose _Dime royale_ had much in common with
Boisguilbert's plan, Boisguilbert violently attacked the controller in a
pamphlet, _Supplement au detail de la France_. The book was seized and
condemned, and its author exiled to Auvergne, though soon allowed to
return. At last in 1710 the controller-general, Nicolas Desmarets,
established a new impost, the "tenth" (_dixieme_), which had some
analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the
former imposts, however, Desmarets simply added his _dixieme_ to them;
the experiment was naturally disastrous, and the idea was abandoned.
In 1712 appeared a _Testament politique de M. de Vauban_, which is
simply Boisguilbert's _Detail de la France_. Vauban's _Dime royale_
was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilbert's works were
collected by Daire in the first volume of the _Collection des grands
economistes_. His letters are in the _Correspondance des controleurs
generaux_, vol. i., published by M. de Boislisle.
BOISROBERT, FRANCOIS LE METEL DE (1592-1662), French poet, was born at
Caen in 1592. He was trained for the law, and practised for some time at
the bar at Rouen. About 1622 he went to Paris, and by the next year had
established a footing at court, for he had a share in the ballet of the
_Bacchanales_ performed at the Louvre in February. He accompanied an
embassy to England in 1625, and in 1630 visited Rome, where he won the
favour of Urban VIII. by his wit. He took orders, and was made a canon
of Rouen. He had been introduced to Richelieu in 1623, and by his humour
and his talent as a raconteur soon made himself indispensable to the
cardinal. Boisrobert became one of the five poets who carried out
Richelieu's dramatic ideas. He had a passion for play, and was a friend
of Ninon de l'Enclos; and his enemies found ready weapons against him
in the undisguised looseness of his life. He was more than once
disgraced, but never for long, although in his later years he was
compelled to give more attention to his duties as a priest. It was
Boisrobert who suggested to Richelieu the plan of the Academy, and he
was one of its earliest and most active members. Rich as he was through
the benefices conferred on him by his patron, he was liberal to men of
letters. After the death of Richelieu, he attached himself to Mazarin,
whom he served faithfully throughout the Fronde. He died on the 30th of
March 1662. He wrote a number of comedies, to one of which, _La Belle
Plaideuse_, Moliere's _L'Avare_ is said to owe something; and also some
volumes of verse. The licentious _Contes_, published under the name of
his brother D'Ouville, are often attributed to him.
BOISSARD, JEAN JACQUES (1528-1602), French antiquary and Latin poet, was
born at Besancon. He studied at Louvain; but, disgusted by the severity
of his master, he secretly left that seminary, and after traversing a
great part of Germany reached Italy, where he remained several years and
was often reduced to great straits. His residence in Italy developed in
his mind a taste for antiquities, and he soon formed a collection of the
most curious monuments from Rome and its vicinity. He then visited the
islands of the Archipelago, with the intention of travelling through
Greece, but a severe illness obliged him to return to Rome. Here he
resumed his favourite pursuits with great ardour, and having completed
his collection, returned to his native country; but not being permitted
to profess publicly the Protestant religion, which he had embraced some
time before, he withdrew to Metz, where he died on the 30th of October
1602. His most important works are: _Poemata_ (1574); _Emblemata_
(1584); _Icones Virorum Illustrium_ (1597); _Vitae et Icones Sultanorum
Turcicorum_, &c. (1597); _Theatrum Vitae Humanae_ (1596); _Romanae Urbis
Topographia_ (1597-1602), now very rare; _De Divinatione et Magicis
Praestigiis_ (1605); _Habitus Variarum Orbis Gentium_ (1581), ornamented
with seventy illuminated figures.
BOISSIER, MARIE LOUIS ANTOINE GASTON (1823-1908), French classical
scholar, and secretary of the French Academy, was born at Nimes on the
15th of August 1823. The Roman monuments of his native town very early
attracted Gaston Boissier to the study of ancient history. He made
epigraphy his particular theme, and at the age of twenty-three became a
professor of rhetoric at Angouleme, where he lived and worked for ten
years without further ambition. A travelling inspector of the
university, however, happened to hear him lecture, and Boissier was
called to Paris to be professor at the Lycee Charlemagne. He began his
literary career by a thesis on the poet Attius (1857) and a study on the
life and work of M. Terentius Varro (1861). In 1861 he was made
professor of Latin oratory at the College de France, and he became an
active contributor to the _Revue des deux mondes_. In 1865 he published
_Ciceron et ses amis_ (Eng. trans, by A.D. Jones, 1897), which has
enjoyed a success such as rarely falls to the lot of a work of
erudition. In studying the manners of ancient Rome, Boissier had learned
to re-create its society and to reproduce its characteristics with
exquisite vivacity. In 1874 he published _La Religion romaine d'Auguste
aux Antonins_ (2 vols.), in which he analysed the great religious
movement of antiquity that preceded the acceptance of Christianity. In
_L'Opposition sous les Cesars_ (1875) he drew a remarkable picture of
the political decadence of Rome under the early successors of Augustus.
By this time Boissier had drawn to himself the universal respect of
scholars and men of letters, and on the death of H.J.G. Patin, the
author of _Etudes sur les tragiques grecs_, in 1876, he was elected a
member of the French Academy, of which he was appointed perpetual
secretary in 1895.
His later works include _Promenades archeologiques: Rome et Pompei_
(1880; second series, 1886); _L'Afrique romaine, promenades
archeologiques_ (1901); _La Fin du paganisme_ (2 vols., 1891); _Le
Conjuration de Catilina_ (1905); _Tacite_ (1903, Eng. trans, by W.G.
Hutchison, 1906). He was a representative example of the French talent
for lucidity and elegance applied with entire seriousness to weighty
matters of literature. Though he devoted himself mainly to his great
theme, the reconstruction of the elements of Roman society, he also
wrote monographs on _Madame de Sevigne_ (1887) and _Saint-Simon_ (1892).
He died in June 1908.
BOISSONADE DE FONTARABIE, JEAN FRANCOIS (1774-1857), French classical
scholar, was born at Paris on the 12th of August 1774. In 1792 he
entered the public service during the administration of General
Dumouriez. Driven from it in 1795, he was restored by Lucien Bonaparte,
during whose time of office he served as secretary to the prefecture of
the Upper Marne. He then definitely resigned public employment and
devoted himself to the study of Greek. In 1809 he was appointed deputy
professor of Greek at the faculty of letters at Paris, and titular
professor in 1813 on the death of P.H. Larcher. In 1828 he succeeded
J.B. Gail in the chair of Greek at the College de France. He also held
the offices of librarian of the Bibliotheque du Roi, and of perpetual
secretary of the Academie des Inscriptions. He died on the 8th of
September 1857. Boissonade chiefly devoted his attention to later Greek
literature: Philostratus, _Heroica_ (1806) and _Epistolae_ (1842);
Marinus, _Vita procli_ (1814); Tiberius Rhetor, _De Figuris_ (1815);
Nicetas Eugenianus, _Drosilla et Charicles_ (1819); Herodian,
_Partitiones_ (1819); Aristaenetus, _Epistolae_ (1822); Eunapius, _Vitae
Sophistarum_ (1822); Babrius, _Fables_ (1844); Tzetzes, _Allegoriae
Iliados_ (1851); and a _Collection of Greek Poets_ in 24 vols. The
_Anecdota Graeca_ (1829-1833) and _Anecdota Nova_ (1844) are important
for Byzantine history and the Greek grammarians.
A selection of his papers was published by F. Colincamp, _Critique
litteraire sous le premier Empire_ (1863), vol. i. of which contains a
complete list of his works, and a "Notice Historique sur Monsieur B.,"
by Naudet.
BOISSY D'ANGLAS, FRANCOIS ANTOINE DE (1756-1828), French statesman,
received a careful education and busied himself at first with
literature. He had been a member of several provincial academies before
coming to Paris, where he purchased a position as advocate to the
parlement. In 1789 he was elected by the third estate of the
_senechaussee_ of Annonay as deputy to the states-general. He was one of
those who induced the states-general to proclaim itself a National
Assembly on the 17th of June 1789; approved, in several speeches, of the
capture of the Bastille and of the taking of the royal family to Paris
(October 1789); demanded that strict measures be taken against the
royalists who were intriguing in the south of France, and published some
pamphlets on finance. During the Legislative Assembly he was
_procureur-syndic_ for the directory of the department of Ardeche.
Elected to the Convention, he sat in the centre, "_le Marais_," voting
in the trial of Louis XVI. for his detention until deportation should be
judged expedient for the state. He was then sent on a mission to Lyons
to investigate the frauds in connexion with the supplies of the army of
the Alps. During the Terror he was one of those deputies of the centre
who supported Robespierre; but he was gained over by the members of the
Mountain hostile to Robespierre, and his support, along with that of
some other leaders of the _Marais_, made possible the 9th Thermidor. He
was then elected a member of the Committee of Public Safety and charged
with the superintendence of the provisioning of Paris. He presented the
report supporting the decree of the 3rd Ventose of the year III. which
established liberty of worship. In the critical days of Germinal and of
Prairial of the year III. he showed great courage. On the 12th Germinal
he was in the tribune, reading a report on the food supplies, when the
hall of the Convention was invaded by the rioters, and when they
withdrew he quietly continued where he had been interrupted. On the 1st
Prairial he presided over the Convention, and remained unmoved by the
insults and menaces of the insurgents. When the head of the deputy, Jean
Feraud, was presented to him on the end of a pike, he saluted it
impassively. He was reporter of the committee which drew up the
constitution of the year III., and his report shows keen apprehension of
a return of the Reign of Terror, and presents reactionary measures as
precautions against the re-establishment of "tyranny and anarchy." This
report, the proposal that he made (August 27, 1795) to lessen the
severity of the revolutionary laws, and the eulogies he received from
several Paris sections suspected of disloyalty to the republic, resulted
in his being obliged to justify himself (October 15, 1795). As a member
of the Council of the Five Hundred he became more and more suspected of
royalism. He presented a measure in favour of full liberty for the
press, which at that time was almost unanimously reactionary, protested
against the outlawry of returned _emigres_, spoke in favour of the
deported priests and attacked the Directory. Accordingly he was
proscribed on the 18th Fructidor, and lived in England until the
Consulate. In 1801 he was made a member of the Tribunate, and in 1805 a
senator. In 1814 he voted for Napoleon's abdication, which won for him a
seat in the chamber of peers; but during the Hundred Days he served
Napoleon, and in consequence, on the second Restoration, was for a short
while excluded. In the chamber he still sought to obtain liberty for the
press--a theme upon which he published a volume of his speeches (Paris,
1817). He was a member of the Institute from its foundation, and in
1816, at the reorganization, became a member of the Academie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. He published in 1819-1821 a two-volume
_Essai sur la vie et les opinions de M. de Malesherbes_.
See F.A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Revolution_ (2nd ed., 1906); L.
Sciout, _Le Directoire_ (4 vols., 1895); and the "Notice sur la vie et
les oeuvres de M. Boissy d'Anglas" in the _Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions_, ix. (R. A.*)
BOITO, ARRIGO (1842- ), Italian poet and musical composer, was born at
Padua on the 24th of February 1842. He studied music at the Milan
Conservatoire, but even in those early days he devoted as much of his
time to literature as to music, forecasting the divided allegiance which
was to be the chief characteristic of his life's history. While at the
Conservatoire he wrote and composed, in collaboration with Franco
Faccio, a cantata, _Le Sorelle d'Italia_, which was performed with
success. On completing his studies Boito travelled for some years, and
after his return to Italy settled down in Milan, dividing his time
between journalism and music. In 1866 he fought under Garibaldi, and in
1868 conducted the first performance of his opera _Mefistofele_ at the
Scala theatre, Milan. The work failed completely, and was withdrawn
after a second performance. It was revived in 1875 at Bologna in a much
altered and abbreviated form, when its success was beyond question. It
was performed in London in 1880 with success, but in spite of frequent
revivals has never succeeded in firmly establishing itself in popular
favour. Boito treated the Faust legend in a spirit far more nearly akin
to the conception of Goethe than is found in Gounod's Faust, but, in
spite of many isolated beauties, his opera lacks cohesion and dramatic
interest. His energies were afterwards chiefly devoted to the
composition of libretti, of which the principal are _Otello_ and
_Falstaff_, set to music by Verdi; _La Gioconda_, set by Ponchielli;
_Amleto_, set by Faccio; and _Ero e Leandre_, set by Bottesini and
Mancinelli. These works display a rare knowledge of the requirements of
dramatic poetry, together with uncommon literary value. Boito also
published a book of poems and a novel, _L'Alfier Meno_. The degree of
doctor of music was conferred upon him in 1893 by the university of
Cambridge.
BOIVIN, FRANCOIS DE, Baron de Villars (d. 1618), French chronicler,
entered the service of Charles, Marshal Brissac, as secretary, and
accompanied him to Piedmont in 1550 when the marshal went to take
command of the French troops in the war with Spain. Remaining in this
service he was sent after the defeat of the French at St Quentin in 1557
to assure the French king Henry II. of the support of Brissac. He took
part in the negotiations which led to the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in
April 1559, but was unable to prevent Henry II. from ceding the
conquests made by Brissac. Boivin wrote _Memoires sur les guerres
demelees tant dans le Piemont qu'au Montferrat et duche de Milan par
Charles de Cosse, comte de Brissac_ (Paris, 1607), which, in spite of
some drawbacks, is valuable as the testimony of an eye-witness of the
war. An edition, carefully revised, appears in the _Memoires relatifs a
l'histoire de France_, tome x., edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F.
Poujoulat (Paris, 1850). He also wrote _Instruction sur les affaires
d'etat_ (Lyons, 1610).
See J. Lelong, _Bibliotheque historique de la France_ (Paris,
1768-1778).
BOKENAM, OSBERN (1393?-1447?), English author, was born, by his own
account, on the 6th of October 1393. Dr Horstmann suggests that he may
have been a native of Bokeham, now Bookham, in Surrey, and derived his
name from the place. In a concluding note to his _Lives of the Saints_
he is described as "a Suffolke man, frere Austyn of Stoke Clare." He
travelled in Italy on at least two occasions, and in 1445 was a pilgrim
to Santiago de Compostela. He wrote a series of thirteen legends of holy
maidens and women. These are written chiefly in seven-and eight-lined
stanzas, and nine of them are preceded by prologues. Bokenam was a
follower of Chaucer and Lydgate, and doubtless had in mind Chaucer's
_Legend of Good Women_. His chief, but by no means his only, source was
the _Legenda Aurea_ of Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, whom he
cites as "Januence." The first of the legends, _Vita Scae Margaretae,
virginis et martiris_, was written for his friend, Thomas Burgh, a
Cambridge monk; others are dedicated to pious ladies who desired the
history of their name-saints. The Arundel MS. 327 (British Museum) is a
unique copy of Bokenam's work; it was finished, according to the
concluding note, in 1447, and presented by the scribe, Thomas Burgh, to
a convent unnamed "that the nuns may remember him and his sister, Dame
Betrice Burgh." The poems were edited (1835) for the Roxburghe Club with
the title _Lyvys of Seyntys_ ..., and by Dr Carl Horstmann as _Osbern
Bokenams Legenden_ (Heilbronn, 1883), in E. Kolbing's _Altengl.
Bibliothek_, vol. i. Both editions include a dialogue written in Latin
and English taken from Dugdale's _Monasticon Anglicanum_ (ed. 1846, vol.
vi. p. 1600); "this dialogue betwixt a Secular asking and a Frere
answerynge at the grave of Dame Johan of Acres shewith the lyneal
descent of the lordis of the honoure of Clare fro ... MCCXLVIII to ...
MCCCLVI". Bokenam wrote, as he tells us, plainly, in the Suffolk speech.
He explains his lack of decoration on the plea that the finest flowers
had been already plucked by Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate.
BOKHARA, or BUKHARA (the common central Asian pronunciation is Bukhara),
a state of central Asia, under the protection of Russia. It lies on the
right bank of the middle Oxus, between 37 deg. and 41 deg. N., and
between 62 deg. and 72 deg. E., and is bounded by the Russian
governments of Syr-darya, Samarkand and Ferghana on the N., the Pamirs
on the E., Afghanistan on the S., and the Transcaspian territory and
Khiva on the W. Its south-eastern frontier on the Pamirs is undetermined
except where it touches the Russian dominions. Including the khanates of
Karateghin and Darvaz the area is about 85,000 sq. m. The western
portion of the state is a plain watered by the Zarafshan and by
countless irrigation canals drawn from it. It has in the east the
Karnap-chul steppe, covered with grass in early summer, and in the north
an intrusion of the Kara-kum sand desert. Land suitable for cultivation
is found only in oases, where it is watered by irrigation canals, but
these oases are very fertile. The middle portion of the state is
occupied by high plateaus, about 4000 ft. in altitude, sloping from the
Tian-shan, and intersected by numerous rivers, flowing towards the Oxus.
This region, very fertile in the valleys and enjoying a cooler and
damper climate than the lower plains, is densely populated, and
agriculture and cattle-breeding are carried on extensively. Here are the
towns of Karshi, Kitab, Shaar, Chirakchi and Guzar or Huzar. The Hissar
range, a westward continuation of the Alai Mountains, separates the
Zarafshan from the tributaries of the Oxus--the Surkhan, Kafirnihan and
Vakhsh. Its length is about 200 m., and its passes, 1000 to 3000 ft.
below the surrounding peaks, reach altitudes of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. and
are extremely difficult. Numbers of rivers pierce or flow in wild gorges
between its spurs. Its southern foot-hills, covered with loess, make the
fertile valleys of Hissar and the Vakhsh. The climate is so dry, and the
rains are so scarce, that an absence of forests and Alpine meadows is
characteristic of the ridge; but when heavy rain falls simultaneously
with the melting of the snows in the mountains, the watercourses become
filled with furious torrents, which create great havoc. The main
glaciers (12) are on the north slope, but none creeps below 10,000 to
12,000 ft. The Peter the Great range, or Periokh-tau, in Karateghin,
south of the valley of the Vakhsh, runs west-south-west to
east-north-east for about 130 m., and is higher than the Hissar range.
From the meridian of Garm or Harm it rises above the snowline, attaining
at least 18,000 ft. in the Sary-kaudal peak, and 20,000 ft. farther east
where it joins the snow-clad Darvaz range, and where the group Sandal,
adorned with several glaciers, rises to 24,000 or 25,000 ft. Only three
passes, very difficult, are known across it.
Darvaz, a small vassal state of Bokhara, is situated on the Panj, where
it makes its sharp bend westwards, and is emphatically a mountainous
region, agriculture being possible only in the lower parts of the
valleys. The population, about 35,000, consists chiefly of Moslem
Tajiks, and the closely-related Galchas, and its chief town is
Kala-i-khumb on the Panj, at an altitude of 4370 ft.
The chief river of Bokhara is the Oxus or Amu-darya, which separates it
from Afghanistan on the south, and then flows along its south-west
border. It is navigated from the mouth of the Surkhan, and steamboats
ply on it up to Karki near the Afghan frontier. The next largest river,
the Zarafshan, 660 m. long, the water of which is largely utilized for
irrigation, is lost in the sands 20 m. before reaching the Oxus. The
Kashka-darya, which flows westwards out of the glaciers of Hazret-sultan
(west of the Hissar range), supplies the Shahri-sabs (properly
Shaar-sabiz) oasis with water, but is lost in the desert to the west of
Karshi.
The climate of Bokhara is extreme. In the lowlands a very hot summer is
followed by a short but cold winter, during which a frost of -20 deg.
Fahr. may set in, and the Oxus may freeze for a fortnight. In the
highlands this hot and dry summer is followed by four months of winter;
and, finally, in the regions above 8000 ft. there is a great development
of snowfields and glaciers, the passes are buried under snow, and the
short summer is rainy. The lowlands are sometimes visited by terrible
sand-storms from the west, which exhaust men and kill the cotton trees.
Malaria is widely prevalent, and in some years, after a wet spring,
assumes a malignant character.
The population is estimated at 1,250,000. The dominant race is the
Uzbegs, who are fanatical Moslem Sunnites, scorn work, despise their
Iranian subjects, and maintain their old division into tribes or clans.
The nomad Turkomans and the nomad Kirghiz are also of Turkish origin;
while the Sarts, who constitute the bulk of the population in the towns,
are a mixture of Turks with Iranians. The great bulk of the population
in the country is composed of Iranian Tajiks, who differ but very little
from Sarts. Besides these there are Afghans, Persians, Jews, Arabs and
Armenians. Much of the trade is in the hands of a colony of Hindus from
Shikarpur. Nearly 20% of the population are nomads and about 15%
semi-nomads.
On the irrigated lowlands rice, wheat and other cereals are cultivated,
and exported to the highlands. Cotton is widely grown and exported. Silk
is largely produced, and tobacco, wine, flax, hemp and fruits are
cultivated. Cattle-breeding is vigorously prosecuted in Hissar and the
highlands generally. Cotton, silks, woollen cloth, and felt are
manufactured, also boots, saddles, cutlery and weapons, pottery and
various oils. Salt, as also some iron and copper, and small quantities
of gold are extracted. Trade has been greatly promoted by the building
of the Transcaspian railway across the country (from Charjui on the Oxus
to Kati-kurgan) in 1886-1888. The exports to Russia consist of raw
cotton and silk, lamb-skins, fruits and carpets, and the imports of
manufactured goods and sugar. The imports from India are cottons, tea,
shawls and indigo. There are very few roads; goods are transported on
camels, or on horses and donkeys in the hilly tracts.
Bokhara has for ages been looked upon as the centre of Mussulman
erudition in central Asia. About one-fourth of the population is said
to be able to read and write. The primary schools are numerous in the
capital, as well as in the other cities, and even exist in villages, and
_madrasas_ or theological seminaries for higher courses of study are
comparatively plentiful. The _mullahs_ or priests enjoy very great
influence, but the people are very superstitious, believing in
witchcraft, omens, spirits and the evil eye. Women occupy a low position
in the social scale, though slavery has been abolished at the instance
of Russia. The emir of Bokhara is an autocratic ruler, his power being
limited only by the traditional custom (_sheriat_) of the Mussulmans. He
maintains an army of some 11,000 men, but is subject to Russian control,
being in fact a vassal of that empire.
_History._--Bokhara was known to the ancients under the name of
Sogdiana. It was too far removed to the east ever to be brought under
the dominion of Rome, but it has shared deeply in all the various and
bloody revolutions of Asia. The foundation of the capital is ascribed to
Efrasiab, the great Persian hero. After the conquests of Alexander the
Great Sogdiana formed part of the empire of the Seleucidae, and shared
the fortunes of the rather better-known Bactria. Somewhat later the
nomad Yue-chi began to move into the valley of the Oxus from the east,
and gradually became a settled territorial power in Bactria and
Sogdiana, and the dominions of their king, Kadphises I. (who is believed
to have come to the throne about A.D. 45), extended from Bokhara to the
Indus. The district, however, was reconquered by Persia under the
Sassanian dynasty, and we hear of Nestorian Christians at Samarkand, at
any rate in the 6th century. Islam was introduced shortly after the Arab
conquest of Persia (640-642) and speedily became the dominant faith. In
the early centuries of Mahommedan rule Sogdiana was one of the most
celebrated and flourishing districts of central Asia. It was called
Sughd, and contained the two great cities of Samarkand and Bokhara, of
which the former was generally the seat of government, while the latter
had a high reputation as a seat of religion and learning. During the
early middle ages this legion was also known as Ma wara 'l Nahr or
Ma-vera-un-nahr, the meaning of which is given in the alternative
classical title of Transoxiana. Malik Shah, third of the Seljuk dynasty
of Persia, passed the Oxus about the end of the 11th century, and
subdued the whole country watered by that river and the Jaxartes. In
1216 Bokhara was again subdued by Mahommed Shah Khwarizm, but his
conquest was wrested from him by Jenghiz Khan in 1220. The country was
wasted by the fury of this savage conqueror, but recovered something of
its former prosperity under Ogdai Khan, his son, whose disposition was
humane and benevolent. His posterity kept possession till 1369, when
Timur or Tamerlane bore down everything before him, and established his
capital at Samarkand, which with Bokhara regained for a time its former
splendour. Babar, the fifth in descent from Timur, was originally prince
of Ferghana, but conquered Samarkand and northern India, where he
founded the Mogul (Mughal) empire. His descendants ruled in the country
until about 1500, when it was overrun by the Uzbeg Tatars, under
Abulkhair or Ebulkheir Khan, the founder of the Shaibani dynasty, with
which the history of Bokhara properly commences. The most remarkable
representative of this family was Abdullah Khan (1556-1598), who greatly
extended the limits of his kingdom by the conquest of Badakshan, Herat
and Meshhed, and increased its prosperity by the public works which he
authorized. Before the close of the century, however, the dynasty was
extinct, and Bokhara was at once desolated by a Kirghiz invasion and
distracted by a disputed succession. At length, in 1598, Baki Mehemet
Khan, of the Astrakhan branch of the Timur family, mounted the throne,
and thus introduced the dynasty of the Ashtarkhanides. The principal
event of his reign was the defeat he inflicted on Shah Abbas of Persia
in the neighbourhood of Balkh. His brother Vali Mehemet, who succeeded
in 1605, soon alienated his subjects, and was supplanted by his nephew
Imamkuli. After a highly prosperous reign this prince resigned in favour
of his brother, Nazr Mehemet, under whom the country was greatly
troubled by the rebellion of his sons, who continued to quarrel with
each other after their father's death. Meanwhile the district of Khiva,
previously subject to Bokhara, was made an independent khanate by
Abdul-Gazi Bahadur Khan; and in the reign of Subhankuli, who ascended
the throne in 1680, the political power of Bokhara was still further
lessened, though it continued to enjoy the unbounded respect of the
Sunnite Mahommedans. Subhankuli died in 1702, and a war of succession
broke out between his two sons, who were supported by the rivalry of two
Uzbeg tribes. After five years the contest terminated in favour of
Obeidullah, who was little better than a puppet in the hands of Rehim Bi
Atalik, his vizier. The invasion of Nadir Shah of Persia came to
complete the degradation of the land; and in 1740 the feeble king, Abu
'l-Faiz, paid homage to the conqueror, and was soon after murdered and
supplanted by his vizier. The time of the Ashtarkhanides had been for
the most part a time of dissolution and decay; fanaticism and imbecility
went hand in hand. On its fall (1785) the throne was seized by the
Manghit family in the person of Mir Ma'sum, who pretended to the most
extravagant sanctity, and proved by his military career that he had no
small amount of ability. He turned his attention to the encroachments of
the Afghans, and in 1781 reconquered the greater part of what had been
lost to the south of the Oxus. Dying in 1802 he was succeeded by Said,
who in bigotry and fanaticism was a true son of his father. In 1826
Nasrullah mounted the throne, and began with the murder of his brother a
reign of continued oppression and cruelty. Meanwhile Bokhara became an
object of rivalry to Russia and England, and envoys were sent by both
nations to cultivate the favour of the emir, who treated the Russians
with arrogance and the English with contempt. Two emissaries of the
British government, Colonel C. Stoddart and Captain A. Conolly, were
thrown by Nasrullah into prison, where they were put to death in 1842.
In 1862-1864 Arminius Vambery made in the disguise of a dervish a
memorable journey through this fanatical state. At this time the Russian
armies were gradually advancing, and at last they appeared in Khokand;
but the new emir, Mozaffer-eddin, instead of attempting to expiate the
insults of his predecessor, sent a letter to General M.G. Chernayev
summoning him to evacuate the country, and threatening to raise all the
faithful against him. In 1866 the Russians invaded the territory of
Bokhara proper, and a decisive battle was fought on the 20th of May at
Irdjar on the left bank of the Jaxartes. The Bokharians were defeated;
but after a period of reluctant peace they forced the emir to renew the
war. In 1868 the Russians entered Samarkand (May 14), and the emir was
constrained to submit to the terms of the conqueror, becoming
henceforward only a Russian puppet.
See Khanikov's _Bokhara_, translated by De Bode (1845); Vambery,
_Travels in Central Asia_ (1864), _Sketches of Central Asia_ (1868),
and _History of Bokhara_ (1873); Fedchenko's "Sketch of the Zarafshan
Valley" in _Journ. R. Geogr. Soc._ (1870); Hellwald, _Die Russen in
Central Asien_ (1873); Lipsky, _Upper Bukhara_, in Russian (1902);
Skrine and Ross, _The Heart of Asia_ (1899); Lord Ronaldshay,
_Outskirts of Empire in Asia_ (1904); and Le Strange, _The Lands of
the Eastern Caliphate_ (1905). (P. A. K.; C. El.)
BOKHARA (Bokkara-i-Sherif), capital of the state of Bokhara, on the left
bank of the Zarafshan, and on the irrigation canal of Shahri-rud,
situated in a fertile plain. It is 8 m. from the Bokhara station of the
Transcaspian railway, 162 m. by rail W. of Samarkand, in 39 deg. 47' N.
lat. and 64 deg. 27' E. long. The city is surrounded by a stone wall 28
ft. high and 8 m. long, with semicircular towers and eleven gates of
little value as a defence. The present city was begun in A.D. 830 on the
site of an older city, was destroyed by Jenghiz Khan in 1220, and
rebuilt subsequently. The water-supply is very unhealthy. The city has
no less than 360 mosques. Nearly 10,000 pupils are said to receive their
education in its 140 _madrasas_ or theological colleges; primary schools
are kept at most mosques. Some of these buildings exhibit very fine
architecture. The most notable of the mosques is the Mir-Arab, built in
the 16th century, with its beautiful lecture halls; the chief mosque of
the emir is the Mejid-kalyan, or Kok-humbez, close by which stands a
brick minaret, 203 ft. high, from the top of which state criminals used
to be thrown until 1871. Of the numerous squares the Raghistan is the
principal. It has on one side the citadel, erected on an artificially
made eminence 45 ft. high, surrounded by a wall 1 m. long, and
containing the palace of the emir, the houses of the chief
functionaries, the prison and the water-cisterns. The houses are mostly
one-storeyed, built of unburned bricks, and have flat roofs.
Bokhara has for ages been a centre of learning and religious life. The
mysticism which took hold on Persia in the middle ages spread also to
Bokhara, and later, when the Mongol invasions of the 13th century laid
waste Samarkand and other Moslem cities, Bokhara, remaining independent,
continued to be a chief seat of Islamitic learning. The _madrasa_
libraries, some of which were very rich, have been scattered and lost,
or confiscated by the emirs, or have perished in conflagrations. But
there are still treasures of literature concealed in private libraries,
and Afghan, Persian, Armenian and Turkish bibliophiles still repair to
Bokhara to buy rare books. Bokhara is, in fact, the principal
book-market of central Asia. The population is supposed by Russian
travellers not to exceed 50,000 or 60,000, but is otherwise estimated at
75,000 to 100,000. Amongst them is a large and ancient colony of Jews.
Bokhara is the most important trading town in central Asia. In the city
bazaars are made or sold silk stuffs, metal (especially copper) wares,
Kara-kul (i.e. astrakhan) lamb-skins and carpets.
_New Bokhara_, or _Kagan_, a Russian town near the railway station, 8 m.
from Bokhara itself, is rapidly growing, on a territory ceded by the
emir. Pop. 2000. (P. A. K.)
BOKSBURG, a town of the Transvaal; 14 m. E. of Johannesburg by rail.
Pop. of the municipality (1904) 14,757, of whom 4175 were whites. It is
the headquarters of the Witwatersrand coal mining industry. The
collieries extend from Boksburg eastward to Springs, 11 m. distant.
Brakpan, the largest colliery in South Africa, lies midway between the
places named.
BOLAN PASS, an important pass on the Baluch frontier, connecting
Jacobabad and Sibi with Quetta, which has always occupied an important
place in the history of British campaigns in Afghanistan. Since the
treaty of Gandamak, which was signed at the close of the first phase of
the Afghan War in 1879, the Bolan route has been brought directly under
British control, and it was selected for the first alignment of the
Sind-Pishin railway from the plains to the plateau. From Sibi the line
runs south-west, skirting the hills to Rindli, and originally followed
the course of the Bolan stream to its head on the plateau. The
destructive action of floods, however, led to the abandonment of this
alignment, and the railway now follows the Mashkaf valley (which
debouches into the plains close to Sibi), and is carried from near the
head of the Mashkaf to a junction with the Bolan at Mach. An alternative
route from Sibi to Quetta was found in the Harnai valley to the N.E. of
Sibi, the line starting in exactly the opposite direction to that of the
Bolan and entering the hills at Nari. The Harnai route, although longer,
is the one adopted for all ordinary traffic, the Bolan loop being
reserved for emergencies. At the Khundilani gorge of the Bolan route
conglomerate cliffs enclose the valley rising to a height of 800 ft.,
and at Sir-i-Bolan the passage between the limestone rocks hardly admits
of three persons riding abreast. The temperature of the pass in summer
is very high, whereas in winter, near its head, the cold is extreme, and
the ice-cold wind rushing down the narrow outlet becomes destructive to
life. Since 1877, when the Quetta agency was founded, the freedom of the
pass from plundering bands of Baluch marauders (chiefly Marris) has been
secured, and it is now as safe as any pass in Scotland. (T. H. H.*)
BOLAS (plural of Span, _bola_, ball), a South American Indian weapon of
war and the chase, consisting of balls of stone attached to the ends of
a rope of twisted or braided hide or hemp. Charles Darwin thus describes
them in his _Voyage of the Beagle_: "The _bolas_, or balls, are of two
kinds: the simplest, which is used chiefly for catching ostriches,
consists of two round stones, covered with leather, and united by a
thin, plaited thong, about 8 ft. long. The other kind differs only in
having three balls united by thongs to a common centre. The Gaucho
(native of Spanish descent) holds the smallest of the three in his
hand, and whirls the other two around his head; then, taking aim, sends
them like chain shot revolving through the air. The balls no sooner
strike any object, than, winding round it, they cross each other and
become firmly hitched." Bolas have been used for centuries in the South
American pampas and even the forest regions of the Rio Grande. F. Ratzel
(_History of Mankind_) supposes them to be a form of lasso. The Eskimos
use a somewhat similar weapon to kill birds. _Bolas perdidas_ (i.e.
lost) are stones attached to a very short thong, or, in some cases,
having none at all.
BOLBEC, a town of northern France, in the department of
Seine-Inferieure, on the Bolbec, 19 m. E.N.E. of Havre by rail. Pop.
(1906) 10,959. Bolbec is important for its cotton spinning and weaving,
and carries on the dyeing and printing of the fabric, and the
manufacture of sugar. There are a chamber of commerce and a board of
trade-arbitration. The town was enthusiastic in the cause of the
Reformed Religion in the 16th century, and still contains many
Protestants. It was burned almost to the ground in 1765.
BOLE (Gr. [Greek: bolos], "a clod of earth"), a clay-like substance of
red, brown or yellow colour, consisting essentially of hydrous aluminium
silicate, with more or less iron. Most bole differs from ordinary clay
in not being plastic, but in dropping to pieces when placed in water,
thus behaving rather like fuller's-earth. Bole was formerly in great
repute medicinally, the most famous kind being the Lemnian Earth
([Greek: gae Laemnia]), from the Isle of Lemnos in the Greek
Archipelago. The earth was dug with much ceremony only once a year, and
having been mixed with goats' blood was made into little cakes or balls,
which were stamped by the priests, whence they became known as _Terra
sigillata_ ("sealed earth"). Large quantities of bole occur as red
partings between the successive lava flows of the Tertiary volcanic
series in the north of Ireland and the west of Scotland. Here it seems
to have resulted from the decomposition of the basalt and kindred rocks
by meteoric agencies, during periods of volcanic repose. In Antrim the
bole is associated with lithomarge, bauxite and pisolitic iron-ore. Bole
occurs in like manner between the great sheets of the Deccan traps in
India; and a similar substance is also found interbedded with some of
the doleritic lavas of Etna.
In the sense of stem or trunk of a tree, "bole" is from the O. Norwegian
_bolr_, of. Ger. _Bohle_, plank. It is probably connected with the large
number of words, such as "boll," "ball," "bowl," &c., which stand for a
round object.
BOLESLAUS I., called "The Great," king of Poland (d. 1025), was the son
of Mieszko, first Christian prince of Poland, and the Bohemian princess
Dobrawa, or Bona, whose chaplain, Jordan, converted the court from
paganism to Catholicism. He succeeded his father in 992. A born warrior,
he speedily raised the little struggling Polish principality on the
Vistula to the rank of a great power. In 996 he gained a seaboard by
seizing Pomerania, and subsequently took advantage of the troubles in
Bohemia to occupy Cracow, previously a Czech city. Like his
contemporaries, Stephen of Hungary and Canute of Denmark, Boleslaus
recognized from the first the essential superiority of Christianity over
every other form of religion, and he deserves with them the name of
"Great" because he deliberately associated himself with the new faith.
Thus despite an inordinate love of adventure, which makes him appear
rather a wandering chieftain than an established ruler, he was
essentially a man of insight and progress. He showed great sagacity in
receiving the fugitive Adalbert, bishop of Prague, and when the saint
suffered martyrdom at the hands of the pagan Slavs (April 23, 997),
Boleslaus purchased his relics and solemnly laid them in the church of
Gnesen, founded by his father, which now became the metropolitan see of
Poland. It was at Gnesen that Boleslaus in the year 1000 entertained
Otto III. so magnificently that the emperor, declaring such a man too
worthy to be merely _princeps_, conferred upon him the royal crown,
though twenty-five years later, in the last year of his life, Boleslaus
thought it necessary to crown himself king a second time. On the death
of Otto, Boleslaus invaded Germany, penetrated to the Elbe, occupying
Stralsund and Meissen on his way, and extended his dominions to the
Elster and the Saale. He also occupied Bohemia, till driven out by the
emperor Henry IV. in 1004. The German war was terminated in 1018 by the
peace of Bautzen, greatly to the advantage of Boleslaus, who retained
Lusatia. He then turned his arms against Jaroslav, grand duke of Kiev,
whom he routed on the banks of the Bug, then the boundary between Russia
and Poland. For ten months Boleslaus remained at Kiev, whence he
addressed triumphant letters to the emperors of the East and West. At
his death in 1025 he left Poland one of the mightiest states of Europe,
extending from the Bug to the Elbe, and from the Baltic to the Danube,
and possessing besides the overlordship of Russia. But his greatest
achievement was the establishment in Poland of a native church, the
first step towards political independence.
See J.N. Pawlowski, _St Adalbert_ (Danzig, 1860); _Chronica Nestoris_
(Vienna, 1860); Heinrich R. von Zeissberg, _Die Kriege Kaiser
Heinrichs II. mit Herzog Boleslaw I._ (Vienna, 1868).
BOLESLAUS II., called "The Bold," king of Poland (1039-1081), eldest son
of Casimir I., succeeded his father in 1058. The domestic order and
tranquillity of the kingdom had been restored by his painstaking father,
but Poland had shrunk territorially since the age of his grandfather
Boleslaus I., and it was the aim of Boleslaus II. to restore her dignity
and importance. The nearest enemy was Bohemia, to whom Poland had lately
been compelled to pay tribute for her oldest possession, Silesia. But
Boleslaus's first Bohemian war proved unsuccessful, and was terminated
by the marriage of his sister Swatawa with the Czech king Wratyslaus II.
On the other hand Boleslaus's ally, the fugitive Magyar prince Bela,
succeeded with Polish assistance in winning the crown of Hungary. In the
East Boleslaus was more successful. In 1069 he succeeded in placing
Izaslaus on the throne of Kiev, thereby confirming Poland's overlordship
over Russia and enabling Boleslaus to chastise his other enemies,
Bohemia among them, with the co-operation of his Russian auxiliaries.
But Wratyslaus of Bohemia speedily appealed to the emperor for help, and
a war between Poland and the Empire was only prevented by the sudden
rupture of Henry IV. with the Holy See and the momentous events which
led to the humiliating surrender of the emperor at Canossa. There is
nothing to show that Boleslaus took any part in this struggle, though at
this time he was on the best of terms with Gregory VII. and there was
some talk of sending papal legates to restore order in the Polish
Church. On the 26th of December 1076 Boleslaus encircled his own brows
with the royal diadem, a striking proof that the Polish kings did not
even yet consider their title quite secure. A second successful
expedition to Kiev to reinstate his _protege_ Izaslaus, is Boleslaus's
last recorded exploit. Almost immediately afterwards (1079) we find him
an exile in Hungary, where he died about 1081. The cause of this sudden
eclipse was the cruel vengeance he took on the _milites_, or noble
order, who, emulating the example of their brethren in Bohemia, were
already attempting to curb the royal power. The churchmen headed by
Stanislaus Szczepanowski, bishop of Cracow, took the side of the nobles,
whose grievances seem to have been real. Boleslaus in his fury slew the
saintly bishop, but so general was the popular indignation that he had
to fly his kingdom.
See M. Maksymilian Gumplowicz, _Zur Geschichte Polens im Mittelalter_
(Innsbruck, 1898); W.P. Augerstein, _Der Konflikt des polnischen
Konigs Boleslaw II. mit dem Bischof Stanislaus_ (Thorn, 1895).
BOLESLAUS III., king of Poland (1086-1139), the son of Wladislaus I. and
Judith of Bohemia, was born on the 23rd of December 1086 and succeeded
his father in 1102. His earlier years were troubled continually by the
intrigues of his natural half-brother Zbigniew, who till he was
imprisoned and blinded involved Boleslaus in frequent contests with
Bohemia and the emperor Henry V. The first of the German wars began in
1109, when Henry, materially assisted by the Bohemians, invaded Silesia.
It was mainly a war of sieges, Henry sitting down before Lubusz, Glogau
and Breslau, all of which he failed to take. The Poles avoided an
encounter in the open field, but harried the Germans so successfully
around Breslau that the plain was covered with corpses, which Henry had
to leave to the dogs on his disastrous retreat; hence the scene of the
action was known as "the field of dogs." The chief political result of
this disaster was the complete independence of Poland for the next
quarter of a century. It was during this respite that Boleslaus devoted
himself to the main business of his life--the subjugation of Pomerania
(i.e. the maritime province) with the view of gaining access to the sea.
Pomerania, protected on the south by virgin forests and almost
impenetrable morasses, was in those days inhabited by a valiant and
savage Slavonic race akin to the Wends, who clung to paganism with
unconquerable obstinacy. The possession of a seaboard enabled them to
maintain fleets and build relatively large towns such as Stettin and
Kolberg, whilst they ravaged at will the territories of their southern
neighbours the Poles. In self-defence Boleslaus was obliged to subdue
them. The struggle began in 1109, when Boleslaus inflicted a terrible
defeat on the Pomeranians at Nackel which compelled their temporary
submission. In 1120-1124 the rebellion of his vassal Prince Warceslaus
of Stettin again brought Boleslaus into the country, but the resistance
was as stout as ever, and only after 18,000 of his followers had fallen
and 8000 more had been expatriated did Warceslaus submit to his
conqueror. The obstinacy of the resistance convinced Boleslaus that
Pomerania must be christianized before it could be completely subdued;
and this important work was partially accomplished by St Otto, bishop of
Bamberg, an old friend of Boleslaus's father, who knew the Slavonic
languages. In 1124 the southern portions of the land were converted by
St Otto, but it was only under the threat of extermination if they
persisted in their evil ways that the people of Stettin accepted the
faith in the following year. In 1128, at the council of Usedom, St Otto
appointed his disciple Boniface bishop of Julin, the first Pomeranian
diocese, and the foundation of a better order of things was laid. In his
later years Boleslaus waged an unsuccessful war with Hungary and
Bohemia, and was forced to claim the mediation of the emperor Lothair,
to whom he did homage for Pomerania and Rugen at the diet of Merseburg
in 1135. He died in 1139.
See Gallus, _Chronicon_, ed. Finkal (Cracow, 1899); Maksymilian
Gumplowicz, _Zur Geschichte Polens im Mittelalter_ (Innsbruck, 1898).
BOLETUS, a well-marked genus of fungi (order _Polyporeae_),
characterized by the central stem, the cap or pileus, the soft, fleshy
tissue, and the vertical, closely-packed tubes or pores which cover the
under surface of the pileus and are easily detachable. The species all
grow on the ground, in woods or under trees, in the early autumn. They
are brown, red or yellow in colour; the pores also vary in colour from
pure white to brown, red, yellow or green, and are from one or two lines
to nearly an inch long. A few are poisonous; several are good for
eating. One of the greatest favourites for the table is _Boletus
edulis_, recognized by its brown cap and white pores which become green
when old. It is the _ceps_ of the continental European markets. There
are forty-nine British species of _Boletus_.
BOLEYN (or BULLEN), ANNE (c. 1507-1536), queen of Henry VIII. of
England, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, afterwards earl of Wiltshire and
Ormonde, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey,
afterwards duke of Norfolk, was born, according to Camden, in 1507, but
her birth has been ascribed, though not conclusively, to an earlier date
(to 1502 or 1501) by some later writers.[1] In 1514 she accompanied Mary
Tudor to France on the marriage of the princess to Louis XII., remained
there after the king's death, and became one of the women in waiting to
Queen Claude, wife of Francis I. She returned in 1521 or 1522 to
England, where she had many admirers and suitors. Among the former was
the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt,[2] and among the latter, Henry Percy, heir of
the earl of Northumberland, a marriage with whom, however, was stopped
by the king and another match provided for her in the person of Sir
James Butler. Anne Boleyn, however, remained unmarried, and a series of
grants and favours bestowed by Henry on her father between 1522 and 1525
have been taken, though very doubtfully, as a symptom of the king's
affections. Unlike her sister Mary, who had fallen a victim to Henry's
solicitations,[3] Anne had no intention of being the king's mistress;
she meant to be his queen, and her conduct seems to have been governed
entirely by motives of ambition. The exact period of the beginning of
Anne's relations with Henry is not known. They have been surmised as
originating as early as 1523; but there is nothing to prove that Henry's
passion was anterior to the proceedings taken for the divorce in May
1527, the celebrated love letters being undated. Her name is first
openly connected with the king's as a possible wife in the event of
Catherine's divorce, in a letter of Mendoza, the imperial ambassador, to
Charles V. of the 16th of August 1527,[4] during the absence in France
of Wolsey, who, not blinded by passion like Henry, naturally opposed the
undesirable alliance, and was negotiating a marriage with Renee,
daughter of Louis XII. Henry meanwhile, however, had sent William
Knight, his secretary, on a separate mission to Rome to obtain
facilities for his marriage with Anne; and on the cardinal's return in
August he found her installed as the king's companion and proposed
successor to Catherine of Aragon. After the king's final separation from
his wife in July 1531, Anne's position was still more marked, and in
1532 she accompanied Henry on the visit to Francis I., while Catherine
was left at home neglected and practically a prisoner. Soon after their
return Anne was found to be pregnant, and in consequence Henry married
her about the 25th of January 1533[5] (the exact date is unknown), their
union not being made public till the following Easter. Subsequently, on
the 23rd of May, their marriage was declared valid and that with
Catherine null, and in June Anne was crowned with great state in
Westminster Abbey. Anne Boleyn had now reached the zenith of her hopes.
A weak, giddy woman of no stability of character, her success turned her
head and caused her to behave with insolence and impropriety, in strong
contrast with Catherine's quiet dignity under her misfortunes. She, and
not the king, probably was the author of the petty persecutions
inflicted upon Catherine and upon the princess Mary, and her jealousy of
the latter showed itself in spiteful malice. Mary was to be forced into
the position of a humble attendant upon Anne's infant, and her ears were
to be boxed if she proved recalcitrant. She urged that both should be
brought to trial under the new statute of succession passed in 1534,
which declared her own children the lawful heirs to the throne. She was
reported as saying that when the king gave opportunity by leaving
England, she would put Mary to death even if she were burnt or flayed
alive for it.[6] She incurred the remonstrances of the privy council and
alienated her own friends and relations. Her uncle, the duke of Norfolk,
whom she was reported to have treated "worse than a dog," reviled her,
calling her a "grande putaine." But her day of triumph was destined to
be even shorter than that of her predecessor. There were soon signs that
Henry's affection, which had before been a genuine passion, had cooled
or ceased. He resented her arrogance, and a few months after the
marriage he gave her cause for jealousy, and disputes arose. A strange
and mysterious fate had prepared for Anne the same domestic griefs that
had vexed and ruined Catherine and caused her abandonment. In September
1533 the birth of a daughter, afterwards Queen Elizabeth, instead of the
long-hoped-for son, was a heavy disappointment; next year there was a
miscarriage, and on the 29th of January 1536, the day of Catherine's
funeral, she gave birth to a dead male child.
On the 1st of May following the king suddenly broke up a tournament at
Greenwich, leaving the company in bewilderment and consternation. The
cause was soon known. Inquiries had been made on reports of the queen's
ill-conduct, and several of her reputed lovers had been arrested. On the
2nd Anne herself was committed to the Tower on a charge of adultery with
various persons, including her own brother, Lord Rochford. On the 12th
Sir Francis Weston, Henry Norris, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton were
declared guilty of high treason, while Anne herself and Lord Rochford
were condemned unanimously by an assembly of twenty-six peers on the
15th. Her uncle, the duke of Norfolk, presided as lord steward, and gave
sentence, weeping, that his niece was to be burned or beheaded as
pleased the king. Her former lover, the earl of Northumberland, left the
court seized with sudden illness. Her father, who was excused
attendance, had, however, been present at the trial of the other
offenders, and had there declared his conviction of his daughter's
guilt. On the 16th, hoping probably to save herself by these means, she
informed Cranmer of a certain supposed impediment to her marriage with
the king--according to some accounts a previous marriage with
Northumberland, though the latter solemnly and positively denied
it--which was never disclosed, but which, having been considered by the
archbishop and a committee of ecclesiastical lawyers, was pronounced, on
the 17th, sufficient to invalidate her marriage. The same day all her
reputed lovers were executed; and on the 19th she herself suffered death
on Tower Green, her head being struck off with a sword by the
executioner of Calais brought to England for the purpose.[7] She had
regarded the prospect of death with courage and almost with levity,
laughing heartily as she put her hands about her "little neck" and
recalled the skill of the executioner. "I have seen many men" (wrote Sir
William Kingston, governor of the Tower) "and also women executed, and
all they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this lady has
much joy and pleasure in death." On the following day Henry was
betrothed to Jane Seymour.
Amidst the vituperations of the adherents of the papacy and the later
Elizabethan eulogies, and in the absence of the records on which her
sentence was pronounced, Anne Boleyn's guilt remains unproved. To Sir
William Kingston she protested her entire innocence, and on the scaffold
while expressing her submission she made no confession.[8] Smeaton alone
of her supposed lovers made a full confession, and it is possible that
his statement was drawn from him by threats of torture or hopes of
pardon. Norris, according to one account,[9] also confessed, but
subsequently declared that he had been betrayed into making his
statement. The others were all said to have "confessed in a manner" on
the scaffold, but much weight cannot be placed on these general
confessions, which were, according to the custom of the time, a
declaration of submission to the king's will and of general repentance
rather than acknowledgment of the special crime. "I pray God save the
king," Anne herself is reported to have said on the scaffold, "and send
him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was
there never; and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord."
A principal witness for the charge of incest was Rochford's own wife, a
woman of infamous character, afterwards executed for complicity in the
intrigues of Catherine Howard. The discovery of Anne's misdeeds
coincided in an extraordinary manner with Henry's disappointment in not
obtaining by her a male heir, while the king's despotic power and the
universal unpopularity of Anne both tended to hinder the administration
of pure justice. Nevertheless, though unproved, Anne's guilt is more
than probable. It is almost incredible that two grand juries, a petty
jury, and a tribunal consisting of nearly all the lay peers of England,
with the evidence before them which we do not now possess, should have
all unanimously passed a sentence of guilt contrary to the facts and
their convictions, and that such a sentence should have been supported
by Anne's own father and uncle. Every year since her marriage Anne had
given birth to a child, and Henry had no reason to despair of more;
while, if Henry's state of health was such as was reported, the desire
for children, which Anne shared with him, may be urged as an argument
for her guilt. Sir Francis Weston in a letter to his family almost
acknowledges his guilt in praying for pardon, especially for offences
against his wife;[10] Anne's own conduct and character almost prepare us
for some catastrophe. Whether innocent or guilty, however, her fate
caused no regrets and her misfortunes did not raise a single champion or
defender. The sordid incidents of her rise, and the insolence with which
she used her triumph, had alienated all hearts from the unhappy woman.
Among the people she had always been intensely disliked; the love of
justice, and the fear of trade losses imminent upon a breach with
Charles V., combined to render her unpopular. She appealed to the king's
less refined instincts, and Henry's deterioration of character may be
dated from his connexion with her. She is described as "not one of the
handsomest women in the world; she is of a middling stature, swarthy
complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact
has nothing but the English king's great appetite, and her eyes which
are black and beautiful, and take great effect."[11] Cranmer admired
her--"sitting in her hair" (i.e. with her hair falling over her
shoulders, which seems to have been her custom on great occasions),
"upon a horse litter, richly apparelled," at her coronation.[12]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Art. in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_ and authorities
cited; _Henry VIII._ by A.F. Pollard (1905); _Anne Boleyn_, by P.
Friedman (1884); _The Early Life of Anne Boleyn_, by J.H. Round
(1886); _The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon_, by J.A. Froude (1891);
"Der Ursprung der Ehescheidung Konig Heinrichs VIII." and "Der Sturz
des Cardinals Wolsey," by W. Busch (_Historisches Taschenbuch_, vi.
Folge viii. 273 and ix. 41, 1889 and 1890); _Lives_, by Miss E.O.
Benger (1821); and Miss A. Strickland, _Lives of the Queens of
England_ (1851), vol. ii.; _Notices of Historic Persons Buried in the
Tower of London_, by D.C. Bell (1877); _The Wives of Henry VIII._ by
M.A.S. Hume (1905); _Excerpta Historica_, by N.H. Nicolas (1831), p.
260; _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._ tr. by M.A.S. Hume (1889);
_Records of the Reformation_, by N. Pocock (1870); _Harleian
Miscellany_ (1808), iii. 47 (the love letters); _Archaeologia_, xxiii.
64 (memorial of G. Constantyne); _Eng. Hist. Rev._ v. 544, viii. 53,
299, x. 104; _State Trials_, i. 410; _History of Henry VIII._ by Lord
Herbert of Cherbury; E. Hall's _Chronicle: Original Letters_, ed. by
Sir H. Ellis, i. ser., ii. 37, 53 et seq., ii. ser., ii. 10; _Extracts
from the Life of Queen Anne Boleigne_, by G. Wyat (1817); _The
Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey_, by Sir W. Cavendish (1641, rep.
Harleian Misc. 1810 v.); C. Wriothesley's _Chronicle_ (Camden Soc.,
1875-1877); _Notes and Queries_, 8 ser., viii. 141, 189, 313, 350; _Il
Successo de la Morte de la Regina de Inghilterra_ (1536); _The Maner
of the Tryumphe of Caleys and Bullen_, and the _Noble Tryumphaunt
Coronacyon of Queen Anne_ (1533, rep. 1884); _State Papers Henry
VIII._; _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, by Brewer and Gardiner,
esp. the prefaces; _Cal. of State Pap. England and Spain, Venetian and
Foreign_ (1558-1559), p. 525 (an account full of obvious errors);
_Colton MSS._ (Brit. Mus.), Otho C. 10; "Baga de secretis" in Rep.
iii., App. ii. of Dep. Keeper of Public Records, p. 242; "Romische
Dokumente," v., M.S. Ehses (_Gorres-gesellschaft_, Bd. ii., 1893). See
also articles on CATHERINE OF ARAGON and HENRY VIII. (P. C. Y.)