Chapter XIV: Act 1906: , specifying as it does cheques alone, appears to exclude documents (9)
BARERE DE VIEUZAC, BERTRAND (1755-1841), one of the most notorious members of the French National Convention, was born at Tarbes in Gascony on the 10th of September 1755. The name of Barere de Vieuzac, by which he continued to call himself long after the renunciation of feudal rights on the famous 4th of August, was assumed from a small fief belonging to his father, a lawyer at Vieuzac. He began to practise as an advocate at the parlement of Toulouse in 1770, and soon earned a considerable reputation as an orator; while his brilliant and flowing style as a writer of essays led to his election as a member of the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse in 1788. At the age of thirty he married. Four years later, in 1789, he was elected deputy by the estates of Bigorre to the states-general, which met in May. He had made his first visit to Paris in the preceding year. His personal appearance, his manners, social qualities and liberal opinions, gave him a good standing among the multitude of provincial deputies then thronging into Paris. He [v.03 p.0398] attached himself at first to the constitutional party; but he was less known as a speaker in the Assembly than as a journalist. His paper, however, the _Point du Jour_, according to Aulard, owes its reputation not so much to its own qualities as to the fact that the painter David, in his famous picture of the "Oath in the Tennis Court," has represented Barere kneeling in the corner and writing a report of the proceedings as though for posterity. The reports of the debates of the National Assembly in the _Point du Jour_, though not inaccurate, are as a matter of fact very incomplete and very dry. After the flight of the king to Varennes, Barere passed over to the republican party, though he continued to keep in touch with the duke of Orleans, to whose natural daughter, Pamela, he was tutor. Barere, however, appears to have been wholly free from any guiding principle; conscience he had none, and his conduct was regulated only by the determination to be on the side of the strongest. After the close of the National Assembly he was nominated one of the judges of the newly instituted court of cassation from October 1791 to September 1792. In 1792 he was elected deputy to the National Convention for the department of the Hautes-Pyrenees. At first he voted with the Girondists, attacked Robespierre, "a pygmy who should not be set on a pedestal," and at the trial of the king voted with the Mountain for the king's death "without appeal and without delay." He closed his speech with a sentence which became memorable: "the tree of liberty could not grow were it not watered with the blood of kings." Appointed member of the Committee of Public Safety on the 7th of April 1793, he busied himself with foreign affairs; then, joining the party of Robespierre, whose resentment he had averted by timely flatteries, he played an important part in the second Committee of Public Safety--after the 17th of July 1793--and voted for the death of the Girondists. He was thoroughly unscrupulous, stopping at nothing to maintain the supremacy of the Mountain, and rendered it great service by his rapid work, by the telling phases of his oratory, and by his clear expositions of the problems of the day. On the 9th Thermidor (July 27th, 1794) Barere hesitated, then he drew up the report outlawing Robespierre. In spite of this, in Germinal of the year III. (the 21st of March to the 4th of April 1795), the Thermidorians decreed the accusation of Barere and his colleagues of the Terror, Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, and he was sent to the Isle of Oleron. He was removed to Saintes, and thence escaped to Bordeaux, where he lived in concealment for several years. In 1795 he was elected member of the Council of Five Hundred, but was not allowed to take his seat. Later he was used as a secret agent by Napoleon I., for whom he carried on a diplomatic correspondence. On the fall of Napoleon, Barere played the part of royalist, but on the final restoration of the Bourbons in 1815 he was banished for life from France as a regicide, and then withdrew to Brussels and temporary oblivion. After the revolution of July 1830 he reappeared in France, was reduced by a series of lawsuits to extreme indigence, accepted a small pension assigned him by Louis Philippe (on whom he had heaped abuse and railing), and died, the last survivor of the Committee of Public Safety, on the 13th of January 1841. (See also FRENCH REVOLUTION.)
The _Memoires de B. Barere ... publies par MM. H. Carnot ... et David (d'Angers) ... precedes d'une notice historique_ (Paris, 1824-1844) are false, but contain valuable information; Carnot's _Notice_, which is very good, was published separately in 1842. See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Constituante_ (Paris, 1882); _Les Orateurs de la Convention_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1905). Macaulay's essay on Barere, (_Edinburgh Review_, vol. 79) is eloquent, but incorrect.
BARETTI, GIUSEPPE MARC' ANTONIO (1719-1789), Italian critic, was born at Turin in 1719. He was intended by his father for the profession of law, but at the age of sixteen fled from Turin and went to Guastalla, where he was for some time employed in a mercantile house. His leisure hours he devoted to literature and criticism, in which he became expert. For many years he led a wandering life, supporting himself chiefly by his writings. At length he arrived in London, where he remained for a considerable time. He obtained an appointment as secretary to the Royal Academy of Painting, and became acquainted with Johnson, Garrick and others of that society. He was a frequent visitor at the Thrales'; and his name occurs repeatedly in Boswell's _Life_. In 1769 he was tried for murder, having had the misfortune to inflict a mortal wound with his fruit knife on a man who had assaulted him on the street. Johnson among others gave evidence in his favour at the trial, which resulted in Baretti's acquittal. He died in May 1789. His first work of any importance was the _Italian Library_ (London, 1757), a useful catalogue of the lives and works of many Italian authors. The _Lettere famigliari_, giving an account of his travels through Spain, Portugal and France during the years 1761-1765, were well received, and when afterwards published in English (4 vols., 1770), were highly commended by Johnson. While in Italy on his travels Baretti set on foot a journal of literary criticism, to which he gave the title of _Frusta letteraria_, the literary scourge. It was published under considerable difficulties and was soon discontinued. The criticisms on contemporary writers were sometimes just, but are frequently disfigured by undue vehemence and coarseness. Among his other numerous works may be mentioned a useful _Dictionary and Grammar of the Italian Language_, and a dissertation on Shakespeare and Voltaire. His collected works were published at Milan in 1838.
BARFLEUR, a small seaport of north-western France, overlooking the Bay of the Seine, in the department of Manche, 22 1/2 m. N.N.E. of Valognes by rail. Pop. (1906) 1069. In the middle ages Barfleur was one of the chief ports of embarkation for England. In 1120 the "White Ship," carrying Prince William, only son of Henry I., went down outside the harbour. About 2 m. to the north is Cape Barfleur, with a lighthouse 233 ft. high.
BARFURUSH, a town of Persia, in the province of Mazandaran in 36deg 32' N., and 52deg 42' E., and on the left bank of the river Bawul [Babul], which is here crossed by a bridge of eight arches, about 15 m. distant from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the small town of Meshed i Sar serves as a port. It is the commercial capital of Mazandaran, and 26 m. distant from Sari and 90 m. from Teheran. Pop. about 50,000. Built in a low and swampy country and approached by deep and almost impassable roads, Barfurush would not seem at all favourably situated for the seat of an extensive inland trade; it is, however, peopled entirely by merchants and tradesmen, and is wholly indebted for its present size and importance to its commercial prosperity. The principal articles of its trade are rice and cotton, some sugar cane (_nai shakar_), flax (_Kat[=u]n_) and hemp (_Kanab_) are also grown. The town is of peculiar structure and aspect, being placed in the midst of a forest of tall trees, by which the buildings are so separated from one another, and so concealed, that, except in the bazars, it has no appearance of a populous town. The streets are broad and neat, though generally unpaved, and kept in good order. No ruins are to be seen as in other Persian towns; the houses are comfortable, in good repair, roofed with tiles and enclosed by substantial walls. There are no public buildings of any importance, and the only places of interest are the bazars, which extend fully a mile in length, and consist of substantially built ranges of shops covered with roofs of wood and tiles, and well stored with commodities. There are about ten commodious caravanserais and a number of colleges (_medresseh_), the place being as much celebrated for learning as for commerce. On an island in a small lake east of the town is a garden, called Bagh i Shah (garden of the Shah), with ruined palaces and baths. At Meshed i Sar, the port, or roadstead of Barfurush, the steamers of the Caucasus and Mercury Company call weekly, and a brisk shipping trade is carried on between it and other Caspian ports.
Barfurush was formerly called M[=a]mat[=i]r. The present name is from a settlement called Barfurush-deh, which was added to the old city A.D. 1012.
(A. H.-S.)
BARGAIN[1] AND SALE, in English law, a contract whereby property, real or personal, is transferred from one person--called the bargainer--to another--called the bargainee--for a [v.03 p.0399] valuable consideration; but the term is more particularly used to describe a mode of conveyance of lands. The disabilities under which a feudal owner very frequently lay gave rise to the practice of conveying land by other methods than that of feoffment with livery of seisin, that is, a handing over of the feudal possession. That of "bargain and sale" was one. Where a man bargained and sold his land to another for pecuniary consideration, which might be merely nominal, and need not necessarily be actually paid, equity held the bargainer to be seised of the land to the use of the bargainee. The Statute of Uses (1535), by converting the bargainee's interest into a legal estate, had an effect contrary to the intention of its framers. It made bargain and sale an easy means of secret or private conveyance, a policy to which the law was opposed. To remedy this defect, a statute (called the Statute of Enrolments) was passed in the same year, which provided that every conveyance by bargain and sale of freehold lands should be enrolled in a court of record or with the _custos rotulorum_ of the county within six months of its date. The Statute of Enrolments applied only to estates of inheritance or for life, so that a bargain and sale of an estate for years might be made without enrolment. This in turn was the foundation of another mode of conveyance, namely, lease and release, which took the place of the deed of bargain and sale, so far as regards freehold. Bargain and sale of copyhold estates, which operates at common law, is still a mode of conveyance in England in the case of a sale by executors, where a testator has directed a sale of his estate to be made, instead of devising it to trustees upon trust to sell.
See also CONVEYANCING.
[1] From O. Fr. _bargaigne_, a word of doubtful origin, appearing in many Romance languages, cf. Ital. _bargagno_; it is connected with Late Lat. _barcaniare_, to traffic, possibly derived from _barca_, a barge.
BARGE (Med. Lat. _barca_, possibly connected with Lat. _baris_, Gr. [Greek: baris], a boat used on the Nile), formerly a small sailing vessel, but now generally a flat-bottomed boat used for carrying goods on inland navigations. On canals barges are usually towed, but are sometimes fitted with some kind of engine; the men in charge of them are known as bargees. On tidal rivers barges are often provided with masts and sails ("sailing barges"), or in default of being towed, they drift with the current, guided by a long oar or oars ("dumb-barges"). Barges used for unloading, or loading, the cargo of ships in harbours are sometimes called "lighters" (from the verb "to light" = to relieve of a load). A state barge was a heavy, often highly ornamented vessel used for carrying passengers on occasions of state ceremonials. The college barges at Oxford are houseboats moored in the river for the use of members of the college rowing clubs. In New England the word barge frequently means a vehicle, usually covered, with seats down the side, used for picnic parties or the conveyance of passengers to or from piers or railway stations.
BARGEBOARD (probably from Med. Lat. _bargus_, or _barcus_, a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard"), the boards fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give strength to the same and to mask or hide the horizontal timbers of the roof to which they were attached. Bargeboards are sometimes moulded only or carved, but as a rule the lower edges were cusped and had tracery in the spandrels besides being otherwise elaborated. The richest example is one at Ockwells in Berkshire, England, which is moulded and carved as if it were intended for internal work.
BARGHEST, BARGUEST or BARGEST, the name given in the north of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a monstrous goblin-dog with huge teeth and claws. The spectre-hound under various names is familiar in folk-lore. The Demon of Tedworth, the Black Dog of Winchester and the Padfoot of Wakefield all shared the characteristics of the Barghest of York. In Wales its counterpart was Gwyllgi, "the Dog of Darkness," a frightful apparition of a mastiff with baleful breath and blazing red eyes. In Lancashire the spectre-hound is called Trash or Striker. In Cambridgeshire and on the Norfolk coast it is known as Shuck or Shock. In the Isle of Man it is styled Mauthe Doog. It is mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel"--
"For he was speechless, ghastly, wan
Like him of whom the story ran
Who spoke the spectre hound in Man."
A Welsh variant is the _Cwn Annwn_, or "dogs of hell." The barghest was essentially a nocturnal spectre, and its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. Its Welsh form is confined to the sea-coast parishes, and on the Norfolk coast the creature is supposed to be amphibious, coming out of the sea by night and travelling about the lonely lanes. The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. "Ghost" in the north of England is pronounced "guest," and the name is thought to be _burh-ghest_, "town-ghost." Others explain it as German _Berg-geist_, "mountain demon," or _Bar-geist_, "bear-demon," in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. The barghest has a kinsman in the _Rongeur d'Os_ of Norman folklore. A belief in the spectre-hound still lingers in the wild parts of the north country of England, and in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, nurses frighten children with its name.
See Wirt Sikes, _British Goblins_ (1880); _Notes and Queries_, first series, ii. 51; Joseph Ritson, _Fairy Tales_ (Lond. 1831), p. 58; _Lancashire Folklore_ (1867); Joseph Lucas, _Studies in Nidderdale_ (Pateley Bridge, 1882).
BARHAM, RICHARD HARRIS (1788-1845), English humourist, better known by his _nom de plume_ of THOMAS INGOLDSBY, was born at Canterbury on the 6th of December 1788. At seven years of age he lost his father, who left him a small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappington, so frequently mentioned in the _Legends_. At nine he was sent to St Paul's school, but his studies were interrupted by an accident which shattered his arm and partially crippled it for life. Thus deprived of the power of bodily activity, he became a great reader and diligent student. In 1807 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, intending at first to study for the profession of the law. Circumstances, however, induced him to change his mind and to enter the church. In 1813 he was ordained and took a country curacy; he married in the following year, and in 1821 removed to London on obtaining the appointment of minor canon of St Paul's cathedral. Three years later he became one of the priests in ordinary of the King's Chapel Royal, and was appointed to a city living. In 1826 he first contributed to _Blackwood's Magazine_; and on the establishment of _Bentley's Miscellany_ in 1837 he began to furnish the series of grotesque metrical tales known as _The Ingoldsby Legends_. These became very popular, were published in a collected form and have since passed through numerous editions. In variety and whimsicality of rhymes these verses have hardly a rival since the days of _Hudibras_. But beneath this obvious popular quality there lies a store of solid antiquarian learning, the fruit of patient enthusiastic research, in out-of-the-way old books, which few readers who laugh over his pages detect. His life was grave, dignified and highly honoured. His sound judgment and his kind heart made him the trusted counsellor, the valued friend and the frequent peacemaker; and he was intolerant of all that was mean and base and false. In politics he was a Tory of the old school; yet he was the lifelong friend of the liberal Sydney Smith, whom in many respects he singularly resembled. Theodore Hook was one of his most intimate friends. Barham was a contributor to the _Edinburgh Review_ and the _Literary Gazette_; he wrote articles for Gorton's _Biographical Dictionary_; and a novel, _My Cousin Nicholas_ (1834). He retained vigour and freshness of heart and mind to the last, and his last verses ("As I laye a-thynkynge") show no signs of decay. He died in London after a long, painful illness, on the 17th of June 1845.
A short memoir, by his son, was prefixed to a new edition of _Ingoldsby_ in 1847, and a fuller _Life and Letters_, from the same hand, was published in 2 vols. in 1870.
BAR HARBOR, a well-known summer resort of Hancock county, Maine, U.S.A., an unincorporated village, in the township of Eden, on Frenchman's Bay, on the E. side of Mount Desert Island, about 45 m. S.E. of Bangor. Pop. of the township (1900) 4379; (1910) 4441; of the village (1910), about 2000, greatly increased during the summer season. Bar Harbor is served by the Maine Central railway and by steamship lines to New York, Boston, Portland and other ports. The summer climate is cool, usually too cool for sea-bathing, but there is a [v.03 p.0400] large open-air salt water swimming bath. Rugged mountains from 1000 to 1500 ft. in height, a coast with deep indentations and lined with bold cliffs, a sea dotted with rocky islets, clear lakes, sparkling rivulets, deep gorges, and wooded glens are features of the attractive scenery here and in the vicinity. Several fine hotels and a number of costly residences occupy a plateau along the shore and the hillsides farther back. The Kebo Valley Club has fine golf links here; and since 1900 an annual horse show and fair has been held at Robin Hood Park at the foot of Newport Mountain. Bar Harbor is usually a summer rendezvous of the North Atlantic Squadron of the United States Navy. The name Bar Harbor, which displaced East Eden, was suggested by the bar which appears at low water between it and Bar Island. Although the first summer hotel was built here in 1855, Bar Harbor's development as a summer resort began about 1870, after some artists had visited the place, and made it widely known through their pictures. (See MOUNT DESERT.)
BAR-HEBRAEUS or ABU'L-FARAJ, a maphri[=a]n or catholicus of the Jacobite (Monophysite) Church in the 13th century, and (in Dr. Wright's words) "one of the most learned and versatile men that Syria ever produced." Perhaps no more industrious compiler of knowledge ever lived. Simple and uncritical in his modes of thought, and apparently devoid of any striking originality, he collected in his numerous and elaborate treatises the results of such research in theology, philosophy, science and history as was in his time possible in Syria. Most of his works were written in Syriac, but some few in Arabic, which had long before his time supplanted Syriac as a living speech.
The son of a physician of Jewish descent, Bar-Hebraeus was born in 1226 at Mala[t.]iah on the upper Euphrates. His youth was passed in the troublous times of the Mongol advance into western Asia, and his father eventually retired to Antioch, where Bar-Hebraeus completed his education. In 1246 he was ordained at Tripolis as Jacobite bishop of G[=u]b[=a]s near Mala[t.]ia, and a year later was transferred to the neighbouring diocese of La[k.]abh[=i]n, whence in 1253 he passed to be bishop of Aleppo. Deposed almost immediately by an ecclesiastical superior on account of disputes about the patriarchate, he was restored to his see in 1258, and in 1264 was promoted by the patriarch Ignatius III. to be maphri[=a]n--the next rank below that of patriarch--an office which he held till his death at Mar[=a]gha in 1286. He seems to have been a model of devotion to his ecclesiastical duties and to have won the respect of all parties in his diocese.
It is mainly as an historian that Bar-Hebraeus interests the modern student. His great historical work--the Syriac _Chronicle_--is made up of three parts. The first[1] is a history of secular events from the Creation to his own time, and in its later portions gives valuable information regarding the history of south-east Europe and western Asia. A compendium in Arabic of this secular history was made by Bar-Hebraeus under the title _al-Mukhta[s.]ar fi'd-Duwal_ (Compendious History of the Dynasties). The second and third parts[2] of the _Chronicle_ deal with the history of the Church, the second being mainly concerned with the patriarchate of Antioch, and the third with the eastern branch of the Syrian Church. Of special value to theologians is the _Au[s.]ar R[=a]z[=e]_ (Storehouse of Secrets), a critical and doctrinal commentary on the text of the Scriptures. Of this many portions have been edited by various scholars, and a valuable study of the work, together with a biography and estimate of its author, has been published by J. Goettsberger (_Barhebraeus und seine Scholien zur heiligen Schrift_, Freiburg i. B., 1900).
A full list of Bar-Hebraeus's other works, and of editions of such of them as have been published, will be found in W. Wright's _Syriac Literature_, pp. 268-281. The more important of them are:--(1) _K[)e]th[=a]bh[=a] dhe-Bh[=a]bh[=a]th[=a]_ (Book of the Pupils of the Eyes), a treatise on logic or dialectics; (2) _[H.][=e]wath H[=e]khm[)e]th[=a]_ (Butter of Wisdom), an exposition of the whole philosophy of Aristotle; (3) _Sull[=a][k.][=a] Haun[=a]n[=a]y[=a]_ (Ascent of the Mind), a treatise on astronomy and cosmography, edited and translated by F. Nau (Paris, 1899); (4) various medical works; (5) _K[)e]th[=a]bh[=a] dh[)e]-[S.]em[h.][=e]_ (Book of Ravs), a treatise on grammar; (6) ethical works; (7) poems; (8) _K[)e]th[=a]bh[=a] dh[)e]-Thunn[=a]y[=e] M[)e]gha[h.][h.][)e]kh[=a]n[=e]_ (Book of Entertaining Stories), edited and translated by E. A. W. Budge (London, 1897).
(N. M.)
[1] Imperfectly edited and translated by Bruns and Kirsch in 1789. There is now a better edition by Bedjan (Paris, 1890).
[2] Edited and translated by Abbeloos and Lamy (Paris and Louvain, 1872-1873).
BARI, a tribe of Nilotic negroes, living on the banks of the upper Nile some 200 m. N. of Albert Nyanza. They have as neighbours the Dinka to the north, the Madi to the south, and the Galla to the east. The men are tall and thin, the women fat and under middle height. Their colour is a deep dead brown. The men and unmarried girls go practically naked, the married women wearing a goatskin dyed red. The body is ornamented with red clay and the lower incisors are often extracted. Their sole wealth is cattle and their chief food milk and blood; meat is only eaten when a cow happens to die. They live in round grass huts with conical roofs. Twins are considered unlucky, the mother is divorced by her husband and her family must refund part of the marriage-price. The dead are buried in the hut; a square grave is dug in which the body is arranged in a sitting position with the hands tied behind the back. The most important men in the country are the rainmakers, who are reverenced even more than the chiefs, and, indeed, are famous among the surrounding tribes. The Bari warriors have been much recruited for the Egyptian army and were formerly used as slave-hunters by the Arab traders.
See Sir Samuel Baker, _The Albert N'yanza_ (London, 1866); Friedrich Muller, _Die Sprache der Bari_ (Vienna, 1864); G. Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_ (London, 1891); W. Junker, _Travels in Africa_ (English ed., 1890-1892); R. C. Owen, _Bari Grammar_ (1908).
BARI (anc. _Barium_), a seaport and archiepiscopal see of Apulia, Italy, capital of the province of Bari, situated on a small peninsula projecting into the Adriatic, 69 m. N.W. of Brindisi by rail. Pop. (1901) 77,478. The town consists of two parts, the closely built old town on the peninsula to the N., and the new town to the S., which is laid out on a rectangular plan. The former contains the cathedral of S. Sabino, begun in 1035 but not completed till 1171: the exterior preserves in the main the fine original architecture (notably the dome and campanile), but the interior has been modernized. Not far off is the church of S. Nicola, founded in 1087 to receive the relics of this saint, which were brought from Myra in Lycia, and now lie beneath the altar in the crypt. The facade is fine, and the interior, divided into three naves by columns, with galleries over the aisles, has fortunately not been restored; the vaulting of the crypt has, however, been covered with modern stucco. The church is one of the four Palatine churches of Apulia (the others being the cathedrals of Acquaviva and Altamura, and the church of Monte S. Angelo sul Gargano). Adjacent is the small church of S. Gregorio, belonging also to the 11th century. The castle, built in 1169, and strengthened in 1233, lies on the W. side of the old town: it is now used as a prison. The old harbour lies on the E. side of the peninsula, and the new on the W. In the new town is the Ateneo, containing the provincial museum, with a large collection of vases found in the district, in which the pre-Hellenic specimens are especially important (M. Mayer in _Roemische Mitteilungen_, 1897, 201; 1899, 13; 1904, 188, 276). Bari is the seat of the command of the IX. army corps, and the most important commercial town in Apulia. It manufactures olive oil, soap, carbon sulphide and playing-cards, and has a large iron foundry.
Barium does not seem to have been a place of great importance in early antiquity; only bronze coins struck by it have been found. In Roman times it was the point of junction between the coast road and the Via Traiana; there was also a branch road to Tarentum from Barium. Its harbour, mentioned as early as 181 B.C., was probably the principal one of the district in ancient times, as at present, and was the centre of a fishery. But its greatest importance dates from the time when it became, in 852, a seat of the Saracen power, and in 885, the residence of the Byzantine governor. In 1071 it was captured by Robert Guiscard. In 1095 Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade there. In 1156 it was razed to the ground, and has several times suffered destruction. In the 14th century it became an [v.03 p.0401] independent duchy, and in 1558 was left by Bona Sforza to Philip II. of Spain and Naples.
(T. AS.)
BARILI, a town of the province of Cebu, island of Cebu, Philippine Islands, on the Barili river, 2 m. from its mouth and about 35 m. S.W. of Cebu, the capital. Pop. (1903) 31,617. It has a relatively cool and healthful climate. Its people are agriculturists and raise Indian corn, sibucao, hemp, cacao and coffee. The language is Cebu-Visayan.
BARING, the name of a family of English financiers and bankers. The firm of Baring Brothers was founded by FRANCIS BARING (1740-1810), whose father, John Baring, son of a Lutheran minister at Bremen, had come to England from Germany, and started a cloth manufactory at Larkbear, near Exeter. Francis Baring was born at Larkbear, and in due course was placed in a London commercial firm. In 1770, in conjunction with his brother John, Francis Baring established a banking-house in London, and before he died in 1810 had so developed the business that he was regarded as the first merchant in Europe. He was for many years a director of the East India Company, and chairman in 1792-1793, receiving a baronetcy for his services. From 1784-1806 he sat almost continuously in parliament as a Whig. He left five sons, of whom the eldest, SIR THOMAS BARING (1772-1848), was a well-known art-patron and collector. The control of the business passed to his second son, ALEXANDER (1774-1848), better known as LORD ASHBURTON, who had already been highly successful in extending the firm's operations in America, where his marriage with the daughter of William Bingham, a wealthy resident of Philadelphia and United States senator, secured him considerable influence with the American commercial community. From 1806-1835 he represented various constituencies in parliament where he strongly opposed reform. In 1834 he became president of the Board of Trade and master of the mint in Sir Robert Peel's first administration, and the following year was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashburton. His business capacity and intimate acquaintance with American customs and institutions caused his appointment in 1842 as commissioner to the United States to negotiate the settlement of the north-eastern boundary question and other matters in dispute between the two countries, and he concluded in that year at Washington the treaty, commonly known as the Ashburton treaty, by which the frontier between Maine and Canada was fixed. After his death in 1848 the affairs of the house were managed by THOMAS BARING (1799-1873), the son of Sir Thomas Baring. Thomas Baring represented Huntingdon in parliament from 1844 till his death. His elder brother, Sir FRANCIS THORNHILL BARING (1796-1866), sat for Portsmouth from 1826-1865. From 1839-1841 he was chancellor of the exchequer, and from 1849-1852 first lord of the admiralty. In 1866 he was created BARON NORTHBROOK, the barony being converted in 1876 into an earldom in favour of his eldest son Thomas George Baring (1826-1904). The latter, the 1st EARL OF NORTHBROOK, was occupied almost entirely with public affairs, and filled at different times many important official positions. He is best remembered as viceroy of India, which office he held from 1872-1876, but his last public position was first lord of the admiralty (1880-1885). With the death of Thomas Baring, Edward Charles Baring (1828-1897), son of Henry Baring, M.P., and grandson of Sir Francis Baring, became head of the firm of Baring Brothers, and in 1885 was raised to the peerage as BARON REVELSTOKE. The house of Baring then stood at the height of its prosperity. During the following years a large amount of English capital was advanced to the Argentine Republic, Barings undertaking the loans and guaranteeing the interest. Through the continued default of the Argentine government, Barings became seriously involved, their heavy obligations precipitating a general financial crisis. Towards the end of 1890 it became known that the firm was on the eve of suspending payment, with liabilities amounting to L21,000,000. The prompt action of the Bank of England, which in conjunction with the leading joint-stock banks of the United Kingdom took over these liabilities, averted further disaster, and the firm of Baring Brothers was subsequently reorganized as a limited company with a capital of L1,000,000. Besides those already referred to, various other members of the Baring family have achieved public distinction, notably Charles Baring (1807-1879), bishop of Durham, and Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (_q.v._).
BARING-GOULD, SABINE (1834- ), English novelist, was born at Exeter on the 28th of January 1834. After graduating at Clare College, Cambridge, he spent some years in travel, and became in 1864 curate of Horbury, Yorkshire; then perpetual curate of Dalton, in the same county, in 1867; and in 1871 rector of East Mersea, Essex. On his father's death in 1872 he inherited the estate of Lew Trenchard, North Devon, where his family had been settled for nearly three centuries, and he exchanged his Essex living for the rectory of Lew Trenchard in 1881. He had a ready pen, and began publishing books on one subject or another--fiction, travel, history, folk-lore, religion, mythology, from 1854 onwards. His novel _Mehalah_ (1880), the scene of which is laid on the east coast of England, was an excellent story, and among many others may be mentioned _John Herring_ (1883), a tale of the west country; _Court Royal_ (1886); _Red Spider_ (1887); _The Pennycomequicks_ (1889); _Cheap Jack Zita_ (1893); and _Broom Squire_ (1896), a Sussex tale. His contributions to the study of topography, antiquities and folk-lore, while popularly written, were also full of serious research and real learning, notably his _Book of Were-wolves_ (1865), _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ (1866), _Curious Survivals_ (1892). He produced at the same time many volumes of sermons and popular theology, and edited (1871-1873) _The Sacristy_, a quarterly review of ecclesiastical art and literature.
Living the life of the rapidly disappearing English "squarson," and full of cultivated interests, especially in humanizing the local village mind, and investigating and recording the good things of old-time, his many-sided activities were shown in every direction and his literary facility made his work known far and wide. His familiarity with the country-side and his interest in folk-lore were of special utility in recovering and preserving for publication a large mass of English popular song, and in assisting the new English movement for studying and appreciating the old national ballad-music.
BARINGO, a lake of British East Africa, some 30 m. N. of the equator in the eastern rift-valley. It is one of a chain of lakes which stud the floor of the valley and has an elevation of 3325 ft. above the sea. It is about 16 m. long by 9 broad and has an irregular outline, the northern shore being deeply indented. Its waters are brackish. Fed by several small streams it has no outlet. The largest of the rivers which enter it, the Tigrish and the Nyuki, run north through a flat marshy country which extends south of the lake. This district, inhabited by the negro tribe of Njamusi, was by the first explorers called Njemps. It is a fertile grain-growing region containing two considerable villages. The Njamusi are peaceful agriculturists who show marked friendliness to Europeans. N. of the lake rise the Karosi hills; to the E. the land rises in terraces to the edge of the Laikipia escarpment. A characteristic of the country in the neighbourhood of the lake are the "hills" of the termites (white ants). They are hollow columns 10 to 12 ft. high and from 1 ft. to 18 in. broad. The greater kudu, almost unknown elsewhere in East Africa, inhabits the flanks of the Laikipia escarpment to the east of the lake and comes to the foot-hills around Baringo to feed.
The existence of Lake Baringo was first reported in Europe by Ludwig Krapf and J. Rebmann, German missionaries stationed at Mombasa, about 1850; in J. H. Speke's map of the Nile sources (1863) Baringo is confused with Kavirondo Gulf of Victoria Nyanza; it figures in Sir H. M. Stanley's map (1877) as a large sheet of water N.E. of Victoria Nyanza. Joseph Thomson, in his journey through the Masai country in 1883, was the first white man to see the lake and to correct the exaggerated notions as to its size. Native tradition, however, asserts that the lake formerly covered a much larger area.
BARISAL, a town of British India, headquarters of Backergunje district in Eastern Bengal and Assam, situated on a river of the same name. Pop. (1901) 18,978. It is an important centre of river trade, on the steamer route through the Sundarbans [v.03 p.0402] from Calcutta to the Brahmaputra. It contains a first grade college and several schools. There are a public library, established by subscription in 1858; and a students' union, for helping the sick and poor and promoting the intellectual and physical improvement of boys. Barisal has given its name to a curious physical phenomenon, known as the "Barisal guns," the cause of which has not been satisfactorily explained. These are noises, like the report of cannon, frequently heard in the channels of the delta of the Brahmaputra, at the rising of the tide.
BARIUM (symbol Ba, atomic weight 137.37 [O=16]), one of the metallic chemical elements included in the group of the alkaline earths. It takes its name from the Greek [Greek: barus] (heavy) on account of its presence in barytes or heavy spar which was first investigated in 1602 by V. Casciorolus, a shoemaker of Bologna, who found that after ignition with combustible substances it became phosphorescent, and on this account it was frequently called Bolognian phosphorus. In 1774 K. W. Scheele, in examining a specimen of pyrolusite, found a new substance to be present in the mineral, for on treatment with sulphuric acid it gave an insoluble salt which was afterwards shown to be identical with that contained in heavy spar. Barium occurs chiefly in the form of barytes or heavy spar, BaSO_4, and witherite, BaCO_3, and to a less extent in baryto-calcite, baryto-celestine, and various complex silicates. The metal is difficult to isolate, and until recently it may be doubted whether the pure metal had been obtained. Sir H. Davy tried to electrolyse baryta, but was unsuccessful; later attempts were made by him using barium chloride in the presence of mercury. In this way he obtained an amalgam, from which on distilling off the mercury the barium was obtained as a silver white residue. R. Bunsen in 1854 electrolysed a thick paste of barium chloride and dilute hydrochloric acid in the presence of mercury, at 100deg C., obtaining a barium amalgam, from which the mercury was separated by a process of distillation. A. N. Guntz (_Comptes rendus_, 1901, 133, p. 872) electrolyses a saturated solution of barium chloride using a mercury cathode and obtains a 3% barium amalgam; this amalgam is transferred to an iron boat in a wide porcelain tube and the tube slowly heated electrically, a good yield of pure barium being obtained at about 1000deg C. The metal when freshly cut possesses a silver white lustre, is a little harder than lead, and is extremely easily oxidized on exposure; it is soluble in liquid ammonia, and readily attacks both water and alcohol.
Three oxides of barium are known, namely, the monoxide, BaO, the dioxide, BaO_2, and a suboxide, obtained by heating BaO with magnesium in a vacuum to 1100deg (Guntz, _loc. cit._, 1906, p. 359). The monoxide is formed when the metal burns in air, but is usually prepared by the ignition of the nitrate, oxygen and oxides of nitrogen being liberated. It can also be obtained by the ignition of an intimate mixture of the carbonate and carbon, and in small quantities by the ignition of the iodate. It is a greyish coloured solid, which combines very energetically with water to form the hydroxide, much heat being evolved during the combination; on heating to redness in a current of oxygen it combines with the oxygen to form the dioxide, which at higher temperatures breaks up again into the monoxide and oxygen.
Barium hydroxide, Ba(OH)_2, is a white powder that can be obtained by slaking the monoxide with the requisite quantity of water, but it is usually made on the large scale by heating heavy spar with small coal whereby a crude barium sulphide is obtained. This sulphide is then heated in a current of moist carbon dioxide, barium carbonate being formed, BaS + H_2O + CO_2 = BaCO_3 + H_2S, and finally the carbonate is decomposed by a current of superheated steam, BaCO_3 + H_2O = Ba(OH)_2 + CO_2, leaving a residue of the hydroxide. It is a white powder moderately soluble in cold water, readily soluble in hot water, the solution possessing an alkaline reaction and absorbing carbon dioxide readily. The solution, known as _baryta-water_, finds an extensive application in practical chemistry, being used in gas-analysis for the determination of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and also being used in organic chemistry as a hydrolysing agent for the decomposition of complex ureides and substituted aceto-acetic esters, while E. Fischer has used it as a condensing agent in the preparation of [alpha]- and [beta]-acrose from acrolein dibromide. A saturated solution of the hydroxide deposits on cooling a hydrated form Ba(OH)_2 . 8H_2O, as colourless quadratic prisms, which on exposure to air lose seven molecules of water of crystallization.
Barium dioxide, BaO_2, can be prepared as shown above, or in the hydrated condition by the addition of excess of baryta-water to hydrogen peroxide solution, when it is precipitated in the crystalline condition as BaO_2 . 8H_2O. These crystals on heating to 130deg C. lose the water of crystallization and leave a residue of the anhydrous peroxide. In the Brin process for the manufacture of oxygen, barium dioxide is obtained as an intermediate product by heating barium monoxide with air under pressure. It is a grey coloured powder which is readily decomposed by dilute acids with the production of hydrogen peroxide.
Barium chloride, BaCl_2 . 2H_2O, can be obtained by dissolving witherite in dilute hydrochloric acid, and also from heavy spar by ignition in a reverberatory furnace with a mixture of coal, limestone and calcium chloride, the barium chloride being extracted from the fused mass by water, leaving a residue of insoluble calcium sulphide. The chloride crystallizes in colourless rhombic tables of specific gravity 3.0 and is readily soluble in water, but is almost insoluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid and in absolute alcohol. It can be obtained in the anhydrous condition by heating it gently to about 120deg C. It has a bitter taste and is a strong poison. Barium bromide is prepared by saturating baryta-water or by decomposing barium carbonate with hydrobromic acid. It crystallizes as BaBr_2 . 2H_2O isomorphous with barium chloride. Barium bromate, Ba(BrO_3)_2, can be prepared by the action of excess of bromine on baryta-water, or by decomposing a boiling aqueous solution of 100 parts of potassium bromate with a similar solution of 74 parts of crystallized barium chloride. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, and separates from its aqueous solution as Ba(BrO_3)_2 . H_2O. On heating, it begins to decompose at 260-265deg C. Barium chlorate, Ba(ClO_3)_2, is obtained by adding barium chloride to sodium chlorate solution; on concentration of the solution sodium chloride separates first, and then on further evaporation barium chlorate crystallizes out and can be purified by recrystallization. It can also be obtained by suspending barium carbonate in boiling water and passing in chlorine. It crystallizes in monoclinic prisms of composition Ba(ClO_3)_2 . H_2O, and begins to decompose on being heated to 250deg C. Barium iodate, Ba(IO_3)_2, is obtained by the action of excess of iodic acid on hot caustic baryta solution or by adding sodium iodate to barium chloride solution. It crystallizes in monoclinic prisms of composition Ba(IO_3)_2 . H_2O, and is only very sparingly soluble in cold water.
Barium carbide, BaC_2, is prepared by a method similar to that in use for the preparation of calcium carbide (see ACETYLENE). L. Maquenne has also obtained it by distilling a mixture of barium amalgam and carbon in a stream of hydrogen. Barium sulphide, BaS, is obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen over heated barium monoxide, or better by fusion of the sulphate with a small coal. It is a white powder which is readily decomposed by water with the formation of the hydroxide and hydrosulphide. The phosphorescence of the sulphide obtained by heating the thiosulphate is much increased by adding uranium, bismuth, or thorium before ignition (_J. pr. Chem._, 1905, ii. p. 196).
Barium sulphate, BaSO_4, is the most abundant of the naturally occurring barium compounds (see BARYTES) and can be obtained artificially by the addition of sulphuric acid or any soluble sulphate to a solution of a soluble barium salt, when it is precipitated as an amorphous white powder of specific gravity 4.5. It is practically insoluble in water, and is only very slightly soluble in dilute acids; it is soluble to some extent, when freshly prepared, in hot concentrated sulphuric acid, and on cooling the solution, crystals of composition BaSO_4 . H_2SO_4 are deposited. It is used as a pigment under the name of "permanent white" or _blanc fixe_.
Barium nitride, Ba_3N_2, is obtained as a brownish mass by [v.03 p.0403] passing nitrogen over heated barium amalgam. It is decomposed by water with evolution of hydrogen, and on heating in a current of carbonic oxide forms barium cyanide (L. Maquenne). Barium amide, Ba(NH_2)_2, is obtained from potassammonium and barium bromide.
Barium nitrate, Ba(NO_3)_2, is prepared by dissolving either the carbonate or sulphide in dilute nitric acid, or by mixing hot saturated solutions of barium chloride and sodium nitrate. It crystallizes in octahedra, having a specific gravity of 3.2, and melts at 597deg C. (T. Carnelley). It is decomposed by heat, and is largely used in pyrotechny for the preparation of green fire. Barium carbonate, BaCO_3, occurs rather widely distributed as witherite (_q.v._), and may be prepared by the addition of barium chloride to a hot solution of ammonium carbonate, when it is precipitated as a dense white powder of specific gravity 4.3; almost insoluble in water.
Barium and its salts can be readily detected by the yellowish-green colour they give when moistened with hydrochloric acid and heated in the Bunsenflame, or by observation of their spectra, when two characteristic green lines are seen. In solution, barium salts may be detected by the immediate precipitate they give on the addition of calcium sulphate (this serves to distinguish barium salts from calcium salts), and by the yellow precipitate of barium chromate formed on the addition of potassium chromate. Barium is estimated quantitatively by conversion into the sulphate. The atomic weight of the element has been determined by C. Marignac by the conversion of barium chloride into barium sulphate, and also by a determination of the amount of silver required to precipitate exactly a known weight of the chloride; the mean value obtained being 136.84; T. W. Richards (_Zeit. anorg. Chem._, 1893, 6, p. 89), by determining the equivalent of barium chloride and bromide to silver, obtained the value 137.44. For the relation of barium to radium, see RADIOACTIVITY.
BARKER, EDMUND HENRY (1788-1839), English classical scholar, was born at Hollym in Yorkshire. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a scholar in 1807, but left the university without a degree, being prevented by religious scruples from taking the oath then required. He had previously obtained (in 1809) the Browne medal for Greek and Latin epigrams. After acting as amanuensis to the famous Samuel Parr, the vicar of Hatton in Warwickshire, he married and settled down at Thetford in Norfolk, where he lived for about twenty-five years. He was in the habit of adding the initials O. T. N. (of Thetford, Norfolk) to the title-page of his published works. In later life he became involved in a law-suit in connexion with a will, and thus exhausted his means. In 1837-1838 he was a prisoner for debt in the king's bench and in the Fleet. He died in London on the 21st of March 1839. Barker was a prolific writer on classical and other subjects. In addition to contributing to the Classical Journal, he edited portions of several classical authors for the use of schools. He was one of the first commentators to write notes in English instead of Latin. In a volume of letters he disputed the claims of Sir Philip Francis to the authorship of the Letters of Junius; his _Parriana_ (1828) is a vast and ill-digested compilation of literary anecdotes and criticisms. He also saw through the press the English edition of Lempriere's _Classical Dictionary_ (revised by Anthon) and of Webster's _English Dictionary_. It is as a lexicographer, however, that Barker is chiefly known. While at Hatton, he conceived the design of a new edition of Stephanus's _Thesaurus Graecae Linguae_. The work was undertaken by A. J. Valpy, and, although not expressly stated, it was understood that Barker was the responsible editor. When a few parts had appeared, it was severely criticized in the _Quarterly Review_ (xxii., 1820) by Blomfield; the result was the curtailment of the original plan of the work and the omission of Barker's name in connexion with it. It was completed in twelve volumes (1816-1828). The strictures of the _Quarterly_ were answered by Barker in his _Aristarchus Anti-Blomfieldianus_, which, although unconvincing, was in turn answered by Bishop Monk. He also published notes on the _Etymologicum Gudianum_, and collaborated with Professor Dunbar of Edinburgh in a Greek and English Lexicon (1831). The _editio princeps_ (1820) of the treatise attributed to Arcadius, [Greek: Peri tonon], was published by him from a Paris MS. Continental scholars entertained a more favourable opinion of him than those of his own country. He expressed contempt for the minute verbal criticism of the Porsonian school, in which he was himself deficient.
An account of his life will be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for May 1839; see also _Notes and Queries_ (6th series, xii. p. 443), where a full list of his works is given.
BARKER'S MILL, a mechanical contrivance invented by a Dr Barker about the end of the 17th century. It consisted of a hollow vertical cylinder, provided with a number of horizontal arms fitted with lateral apertures; the contrivance is mounted so as to rotate about the vertical axis. By allowing water to enter the vertical tube, a rotation, due to the discharge through the lateral orifices, is set up.
BARKING, a market-town in the Romford parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the river Roding near its junction with the Thames, 8 m. E. of Fenchurch Street station and Liverpool Street station, London, by the London, Tilbury & Southend and Great Eastern railways. Pop. of urban district of Barking town (1891) 14,301; (1901) 21,547. The church of St Margaret is Norman with perpendicular additions, and contains many monuments of interest. Barking was celebrated for its nunnery, one of the oldest and richest in England, founded about 670 by Erkenwald, bishop of London, and restored in 970 by King Edgar, about a hundred years after its destruction by the Danes. The abbess was a baroness _ex officio_, and the revenue at the dissolution of the monasteries was L1084. There remains a perpendicular turreted gateway. There is also an ancient market-house, used as a town-hall. Victoria Gardens form a public pleasure-ground, and there are recreation grounds. The Gaslight and Coke Company's works at Beckton are in the parish, and also extensive rubber works. At the mouth of the Roding (Barking Creek) are great sewage works, receiving the Northern Outfall sewer from London. There are also chemical works, and some shipping trade, principally in timber and fish. Barking is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of St Albans.
BARKLY EAST, a town of Cape province, South Africa, capital of a district of the same name, and 80 m. by rail E.S.E. of Aliwal North. The town lies north of the Drakensberg on the Kraai tributary of the Orange river at an elevation of 5831 ft. The district has an area of 1564 sq. m. and a population (1904) of 8490, of whom 50% are whites. The chief occupation followed is sheep-farming, the pasturage being excellent. Like Barkly West, the town and district are named after Sir Henry Barkly, governor of Cape Colony, 1870-1877.
BARKLY WEST, a town of Cape province, South Africa, 21 m. N.W. of Kimberley, capital of a district and of an electoral division of the same name in Griqualand West. It is built on the right bank of the Vaal, here spanned by a bridge. Pop. (1904) 1037. Originally called Klipdrift, the town was the first founded by the diggers after the discovery in 1867 of diamonds along the valley of the Vaal, and it had for some years a large floating population. On the discovery of the "dry diggings" at Kimberley, the majority of the diggers removed thither. Barkly West remains, however, the centre of the alluvial diamonds industry. The diamonds of this district are noted for their purity and lustre, and are generally associated with other crystals--garnets, agates, quartz and chalcedonies.
Barkly West electoral division includes the whole of Griqualand West save the Kimberley division. It is divided into the fiscal districts of Barkly West, Hay and Herbert, with a total pop. (1904) of 48,388, of whom 12,170 are whites (see GRIQUALAND).
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Banks" to "Bassoon"Chapter XIV: Act 1906: , specifying as it does cheques alone, appears to exclude documents (9)
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