Chapter VI: Act 1906: , specifying as it does cheques alone, appears to exclude documents (1)

of both these classes from its operation. With regard to the orders for payment, inasmuch as the same section which brings them within the crossed cheques sections expressly provides that they shall not be negotiable, a banker would probably be protected only in taking them from the specified payee, though this distinction has been ignored in some recently decided cases.

[Sidenote: Fraud.]

Where a banker incurs loss through forgery or fraud in circumstances not covered by statutory protection, his right to relief, if any, must depend on general principles. He cannot charge his customer with payments made on a forgery of that customer's signature, on the ground either that he is presumed to know such signature or that the payment is unauthorized. But if the customer has accredited the forgery, or, having knowledge or reasonable ground for belief that it has been committed, has failed to warn the banker, who has thereby suffered loss or prejudice, the customer will be held estopped from disputing the banker's right to debit him with the amount (_Vagliano_ v. _Bank of England_ [1891], A.C. 107; _McKenzie_ v. _British Linen Co._ 6 A.C. 82; _Ewing_ v. _Dominion Bank_ [1904], A.C. 806). The doctrine of the fictitious person as payee may also exonerate a banker who has paid an order bill to a wrongful possessor. Payment on a forgery to an innocent holder is payment under mistake of fact; but the ordinary right of the payor to recover money so paid is subordinated to the necessity of safeguarding the characteristics of negotiability. Views differ as to whether the recovery is precluded only where the opportunity of giving notice of dishonour is lost or prejudiced by delay in reclaiming payment, or whether mere possibility of damage is sufficient (cf. _London & River Plate Bank_ v. _Bank of Liverpool_ [1896], 1 Q.B. 7, and _Imperial Bank of Canada_ v. _Bank of Hamilton_ [1903], A.C. 49).

Cases have frequently arisen where the carelessness of a customer in filling up cheques has enabled a person to fraudulently increase the sum for which such cheques were originally drawn. In _Colonial Bank of Australasia_ v. _Marshall_ [1906], A.C. 559, the judicial committee of the privy council held that the affording such facilities for forgery was no breach of the customer's duty to his banker, and that the latter was not entitled to debit the customer with more than the original amount. As before stated, the customer's dealings with the pass-book cannot, in the present state of the authorities, be relied on as debarring him from disputing unauthorized payments appearing therein.

[Sidenote: Custody of valuables.]

The payment of bills accepted payable at the bank is not, like the payment of cheques, an essential obligation of the banker, and the risk involved is enhanced by the fact that the banker must pay or refuse payment at once, no interval being allowed for verification of endorsements. The abolition or modification of the practice has frequently been advocated, but it is one of the facilities which competition compels bankers to extend to their customers. On the same basis stands the receipt of a customer's valuables for safe custody. The question of the banker's responsibility for the loss of goods so deposited with him was raised, but not decided, in an action brought by Mrs Langtry against the Union Bank of London in 1896. Certain jewels belonging to her had been delivered up by the bank to an unauthorized person on a forged order. The case was settled; but bankers being desirous to ascertain their real position, many legal opinions were taken on the point, and after consideration of these, the Central Association of Bankers issued a memorandum, in which they stated that the best legal opinion appeared to be that a distinction must be drawn between cases in which valuables were by mistake delivered to the wrong person and cases in which they were destroyed, lost, stolen or fraudulently abstracted, whether by an officer of the bank or some other person. That in the former case the question of negligence did not arise, the case being one of wrongful conversion of the goods by a voluntary act for which the bank was liable apart from any question of negligence. That, in the second case, that of loss or theft, the banker, being a gratuitous bailee, would only be liable if he had failed to use such care as an ordinary prudent man would take of valuables of his own. The latter rule is practically that laid down in _Giblin_ v. _MacMullen_, L.R. 2 P.C. 318, but in estimating the amount of care to be taken by the banker, the nature of the goods, if known or suspected, and the exceptional means of protection at the disposition of bankers, such as strong-rooms, must be taken into consideration. Methods of obviating both classes of risk by means of special receipts have frequently been suggested, but such receipts do not appear to have come into general use.

[Sidenote: Trustees.]

Theoretically, bankers are supposed to refuse accounts which are either expressedly or are known to be trust accounts. In practice, however, it is by no means uncommon to find accounts opened with a definite heading indicating the fiduciary capacity. In other cases, circumstances exist which affect the banker with notice of that capacity. In either case, however, the obligation to honour the customer's cheque is the predominant factor, and the banker is not bound or entitled to question the propriety or object of the cheque, unless he has very clear evidence of impending fraud (_Gray_ v. _Johnston_, L.R. 3 H. of L. 1). Even though the banker have derived some personal benefit from the transaction, it cannot be impeached unless the banker's conduct amount in law to his being party or privy to the fraud, as where he has stipulated or pressed for the settlement or reduction of an ascertained overdraft on private account, which has been effected by cheque on the trust account (_Coleman_ v. _Bucks & Oxon Union Bank_ [1897], 2 Ch. 243). A banker is entitled, in dealing with trust moneys, known to be such, to insist on the authority of the whole body of trustees, direct and not deputed, and this is probably the safest course to adopt. Scarcely larger responsibility devolves on Joint Stock Banks appointed custodian trustees under the Public Trustee Act 1906, [v.03 p.0352] a remunerative position involving custody of trust funds and securities, and making and receiving payments on behalf of the estate, while leaving the active direction thereof in the hands of the managing trustees.

[Sidenote: Bill-discounting.]

Other incidents of the ordinary practice of banking are the discounting of bills, the keeping of deposit accounts, properly so called, and the making of advances to customers, counting either by way of definite loan or arranged overdraft. So far as the discounting of bills is concerned, there is little to differentiate the position of the banker from that of any ordinary bill-discounter. It has been contended, however, that the peculiar attribute of the banker's lien entitled him to hold funds of the customer against his liability on current discounted bills. This contention was ultimately disposed of by _Bowen_ v. _Foreign & Colonial Gas Company_, 22 W.R. 740, where it was pointed out that the essential object of a customer's discounting bills with his banker was to feed the current account, and that a possible liability constituted no set-off against an existing debt. Whether a particular bill has been taken for discount or collection is a question of fact. As in the payment of bills, so in the collection of them, there is no statutory protection whatever for the banker; as against third parties he can only rely either on the customer's title or his own as a holder for value, if no forged endorsement intervene and he can establish a consideration.

[Sidenote: Deposit accounts.]

A deposit account, whether at call or on fixed notice, does not constitute any fiduciary relation between the depositor and the banker, but merely a debt due from the latter to the former. It has been suggested that cheques can be drawn against deposit account on call, and, though a banker might safely honour such a cheque, relying, if necessary, on his right of lien or set-off, there appears no legal right in the customer to enforce such payment. Deposit receipts given by bankers are exempt from stamp duty, even though they contain an undertaking with respect to payment of principal and interest. They are clearly not negotiable instruments, but it is difficult to deduce from the cases how far dealings with them may amount to an equitable assignment of the moneys they represent. Probably deliberate definite transfer, coupled with endorsement, would confer an effective title to such moneys. Where, as is not uncommon, the form of deposit note includes a cheque, the banker could not refuse to pay were the cheque presented and any superadded formalities complied with.

[Sidenote: Overdrafts and advances.]

There is no obligation on a banker to permit his customer to overdraw, apart from agreement express or implied from course of business. Drawing a cheque or accepting a bill payable at the banker's which there are not funds meet is an implied request for an overdraft, which the banker may or may not comply with. Interest is clearly chargeable on overdrafts whether stipulated for or not. There is no direct authority establishing this right in the banker, and interest is not usually recoverable on mere debts, but the charge is justifiable on the ground of the universal custom of bankers, if not otherwise. The charging of compound interest or interest with periodical rests has been supported where such system of keeping the accounts has been brought to the notice of the customer by means of the pass-book, and not objected to by him, but in the present attitude of the courts towards the pass-book some further recognition would seem necessary. Such system of charging interest, even when fully recognized, only prevails so long as the relation of banker and customer, on which it is founded, continues in force; the taking a mortgage for the existing debt would put an end to it.

[Sidenote: Lien.]

The main point in which advances made by bankers differ from those made by other people is the exceptional right possessed by bankers of securing repayment by means of the banker's lien. The banker's lien is part of the law merchant and entitles him, in the absence of agreement express or implied to the contrary, to retain and apply, in discharge of the customer's liability to him, any securities of the customer coming into his possession in his capacity as banker. It includes bills and cheques paid in for collection (_Currie_ v. _Misa_, 1 A.C. 564). Either by virtue of it, or his right of set-off, the banker can retain moneys paid in by or received for the credit of the customer, against the customer's debt to him. Goods deposited for safe custody or moneys paid in to meet particular bills are exempt from the lien, the purpose for which they come to the banker's hands being inconsistent with the assertion of the lien. The existence of the banker's lien entitles him to sue all parties to bills or cheques by virtue of sec. 27, subs. 3 of the Bills of Exchange Act, and to the extent of his advances his title is independent of that of the previous holder. Moreover, the banker's lien, though so termed, is really in effect an implied pledge, and confers the rights of realization on default pertaining to that class of bailment. But with regard to the exercise of his lien, as in many other phases of his relation to his customer, the banker's strict rights may be curtailed or circumscribed by limitations arising out of course of business. The principle, based either on general equity or estoppel and independent of definite agreement or consideration, requires that when dealings between banker and customer have for a reasonable space of time proceeded on a recognized footing, the banker shall not suddenly break away from such established order of things and assert his strict legal rights to the detriment of the customer. By the operation of this rule, the banker may be precluded from asserting his lien in particular cases, as for instance for an overdraft on one account against another which had habitually been kept and operated on separately. It equally prevents the dishonouring of cheques in circumstances in which they have hitherto been paid independent of the actual available balance.

Restrictions arising from course of business can of course be put an end to by the banker, but only on reasonable notice to the customer and by providing for outstanding liabilities undertaken by the latter in reliance on the continuance of the pre-existing state of affairs (see _Buckingham_ v. _London & Midland Bank_, 12 Times L.R. 70). As against this, the banker can, in some cases, fortify his position by appeal to the custom of bankers. The validity of such custom, provided it be general and reasonable, has frequently been recognized by the courts. Any person entering on business relations with a banker must be taken to contemplate the existence of such custom and implicitly agree that business shall be conducted in accordance therewith. Practical difficulty has been suggested with regard to proof of any such custom not already recognized in law, as to how far it can be established by the evidence of one party, the bankers, unsupported by that of members of the outside public, in most cases impossible to obtain. It is conceived, however, that on the analogy of local custom and the Stock Exchange rules, such outside evidence could be dispensed with, and this is the line apparently indicated with relation to the pass-book by the court of appeal in Vagliano's case (23 Q.B.D. at p. 245). The unquestionable right of the banker to summarily debit his customer's account with a returned cheque, even when unindorsed by the customer and taken by the banker in circumstances constituting him a transferee of the instrument, is probably referable to a custom of this nature. So is the common practice of bankers to refuse payment of a so-called "stale" cheque, that is, one presented an unreasonable time after its ostensible date; although the fact that some banks treat a cheque as stale after six months, others not till after twelve, might be held to militate against the validity of such custom, and lapse of time is not included by the Bills of Exchange Act among the matters working revocation of the banker's duty, and authority to pay his customer's cheque. Indirectly, this particular custom obtains some support from sec. 74 (2) of the Bills of Exchange Act, although the object of that section is different.

That section does, however, import the custom of bankers into the reckoning of a reasonable time for the presentation of a cheque, and with other sections clears up any doubts which might have arisen on the common law as to the right of the holder of a cheque, whether crossed or not, to employ his banker for its collection, without imperilling his rights against prior parties in case of dishonour. On dishonour of a cheque paid in for [v.03 p.0353] collection, the banker is bound to give notice of dishonour. Being in the position of an agent, he may either give notice to his principal, the customer, or to the parties liable on the bill. The usual practice of bankers has always been to return the cheque to the customer, and sec. 49, subs. 6 of the Bills of Exchange Act is stated to have been passed to validate this custom. Inasmuch as it only provides for the return of the dishonoured bill or cheque to the drawer or an endorser it appears to miss the case of a cheque to bearer or become payable to bearer by blank endorsement prior to the customer's.

Where a bank or a banker takes a mortgage, legal or equitable, or a guarantee as cover for advances or overdraft, there is nothing necessarily differentiating the position from that of any other mortgagee or guaranteed party. It has, however, fallen to banks to evoke some leading decisions with respect to the former class of security. In _London Joint Stock Bank_ v. _Simmons_ ([1892], A.C. 201) the House of Lords, professedly explaining their previous decision in _Sheffield_ v. _London Joint Stock Bank_, 13 A.C. 333, determined that negotiable securities, commercial or otherwise, may safely be taken in pledge for advances, though the person tendering them is, from his known position, likely to be holding them merely as agent for other persons, so long as they are taken honestly and there is nothing tangible, outside the man's position, to arouse suspicion. So again in _Lloyd's Bank_ v. _Cooke_ [1907], 1 K.B. 794, the bank vindicated the important principle that the common law of estoppel still obtains with regard to bills, notes and cheques, save where distinctly annulled or abrogated by the Bills of Exchange Act, and that therefore a man putting inchoate negotiable instruments into the hands of an agent for the purpose of his raising money thereon is responsible to any one taking them bona fide and for value, although the agent may have fraudulently exceeded and abused his authority and the case does not fall within the provisions of the Bills of Exchange Act.

[Sidenote: Guarantees.]

With regard to guarantees, the main incidents peculiarly affecting bankers are the following. The existence of a guarantee does not oblige the banker to any particular system of keeping the account. So long as it is not unfairly manipulated to the detriment of the guarantor, there is no obligation to put moneys paid in, without appropriation, to the guaranteed rather than to the unguaranteed account, and on the termination of a guarantee, the banker may close the account, leaving it to be covered by the guarantee, and open a new one with the customer, to which he may devote payments in, not otherwise appropriated. Where by its nature or terms a continuing guarantee is revocable either summarily or on specified notice, difficult questions may arise on such revocation as to the banker's duty and obligations towards the customer, who has probably incurred liabilities on the strength of the credit afforded by the guarantee. Although the existence of a guarantee does not bind the banker to advance up to the prescribed limit, he could not well, on revocation, immediately shut off all facilities from the customer without notice, while subsequent purely voluntary advances might not be covered by the guarantee. These contingencies should therefore be fully provided for by the guarantee, particularly the crucial period of the pendency of notice.

AUTHORITIES.--The Institute of Bankers (London), _Questions on Banking Practice_ (6th ed., 1909); J. Douglas Walker, _A Treatise on Banking Law_ (2nd ed., 1885); Chalmers, _Bills of Exchange_ (7th ed., 1909); Sir J. R. Paget, _The Law of Banking_ (2nd ed., 1908); H. Hart, _The Law of Banking_ (2nd ed., 1906).

(J. R. P.)

[1] A translation of the act of the 3rd of May 1619 may be found in the appendix to the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_ (Boston, U.S.A.) for April 1892. These documents present a distinct picture of banking in its true sense.

[2] The clearest account of its early days is found in Thorold Rogers' _History of the First Nine Years of the Bank of England._

[3] The date 1876 is taken as being that when the Imperial Bank of Germany came into full operation.

[4] _"The Grasshopper" in Lombard Street_, by John Biddulph Masters (1892).

[5] See _Vortraege und Aufsaetze hauptsaechlich aus dem Handels- und Wechselrecht_, von Dr R. Koch, pp. 163-164.

[6] The imperial treasury is bound to pay the state notes in cash at any time when this is required, but an independent fund of cash set apart for this purpose does not exist. See _Handwoerterbuch der Staatswissenschaften_, vol. v. art. "Papiergeld," p. 97 (Jena, 1893; ed. J. Conrad, L. Elster, W. Lexis and E. Loening).

BANKSIA, an Australian genus of shrubs and trees (natural order Proteaceae), with leathery leaves often deeply cut and handsome dense spikes of flowers. It is named after Sir Joseph Banks (_q.v._). The plants are grown in England for their handsome foliage as evergreen greenhouse shrubs.

BANKURA, a town and district of British India, within the Burdwan division of Bengal. The town has a population of 20,737. The district has an area of 2621 sq. m., and in 1901 its population was 1,116,411, showing an increase of 4% in the decade. It is bounded on the N. and E. by Burdwan district; on the S. by Midnapur district; and on the W. by Manbhum district. Bankura forms a connecting link between the delta of the Ganges on the E. and the mountainous highlands of Chota Nagpur on the W. Along its eastern boundary adjoining Burdwan district the country is flat and alluvial, presenting the appearance of the ordinary paddy lands of Bengal. Going N. and W., however, the surface gradually rises into long undulating tracts; rice lands and swamps give way to a region of low thorny jungle or forest trees; the hamlets become smaller and more scattered, and nearly disappear altogether in the wild forests along the western boundary. Large quantities of lac and tussur silk are gathered in the hilly tract. The stone quarries and minerals are little worked. There are indigo factories and two coal-mines. Both cotton and silk are woven, and plates, &c., are carved from soap-stone. The old capital of the country was at Bishnupur, which is still the chief centre of local industries. The north-east part of the district is skirted by the East Indian railway beyond the river Damodar. The Midnapur-Jherria line of the Bengal-Nagpur railway passes through the district, and there is a line from Howrah to Bankura. The climate of Bankura is generally healthy, the cold season being bracing, the air wholesome and dry, and fogs of rare occurrence. The district is exposed to drought and also to destructive floods. It suffered in the famines of 1866, 1874-1875 and 1896-1897. The temperature in the hot season is very oppressive and relaxing. The Bishnupur raj was one of the largest estates in Bengal in the end of the 18th century, but it was sold for arrears of revenue shortly after the conclusion of the permanent settlement in 1793.

BANN, the principal river in the north of Ireland. Rising in the Mourne mountains in the south of the Co. Down it runs N.W. until it enters Lough Neagh (_q.v._), which it drains N.N.W. to an estuary at Coleraine, forming Lough Beg immediately below the larger lough. The length of its valley (excluding the lesser windings of the river) is about 90 m. The total drainage area, including the other important feeders of Lough Neagh, is about 2300 sq. m., extending westward to the confines of the Co. Fermanagh, and including parts of the Cos. Down and Antrim, Armagh and Monaghan, Tyrone and Londonderry. The river has valuable salmon fisheries, but is not of much importance for navigation. Above Lough Neagh it is known as the Upper Bann and below as the Lower Bann.

BANNATYNE, GEORGE (1545-?1608), collector of Scottish poems, was a native of Newtyle, Forfarshire. He became an Edinburgh merchant and was admitted a burgess in 1587. Some years earlier, in 1568, when the "pest" raged in the capital, he retired to his native county and amused himself by writing out copies of poems by 15th and early 16th century Scots poets. His work extended to eight hundred folio pages, divided into five parts. The MS. descended to his only daughter Janet, and later to her husband's family, the Foulises of Woodhall and Ravelston, near Edinburgh. From them it passed to the Advocates' library, where it is still preserved. This MS., known as the "Bannatyne Manuscript," constitutes with the "Asloan" and "Maitland Folio" MSS. the chief repository of Middle Scots poetry, especially for the texts of the greater poets Henryson, Dunbar, Lyndsay and Alexander Scott. Portions of it were reprinted (with modifications) by Allan Ramsay in his _Ever Green_ (1724), and later, and more correctly, by Lord Hailes in his _Ancient Scottish Poems_ (1770). The entire text was issued by the Hunterian Club (1873-1902) in a handsome and generally accurate form. The name of Bannatyne was honoured in 1823 by the foundation in Edinburgh of the Bannatyne Club, devoted to the publication of historical and literary material from Scottish sources. The thirty-third issue of the club (1829) was _Memorials of George Bannatyne_ (1545-1608), with a memoir by Sir Walter Scott and an account of the MS. by David Laing.

See also Gregory Smith, _Specimens of Middle Scots_ (1902).

BANNERET (Fr. _banneret_, from _banniere_, banner, elliptical for _seigneur_ or _chevalier banneret_, Med. Lat. _banneretus_), in feudalism, the name given to those nobles who had the right to lead their vassals to battle under their own banner. Ultimately bannerets obtained a place in the feudal hierarchy between [v.03 p.0354] barons and knights bachelors, which has given rise to the idea that they are the origin of King James I.'s order of baronets. Selden, indeed, points out that "the old stories" often have _baronetti_ for _bannereti_, and he points out that in France the title had become hereditary; but he himself is careful to say (p. 680) that banneret "hath no relation to this later title." The title of knight banneret, with the right to display the private banner, came to be granted for distinguished service in the field. "No knight banneret," says Selden, of the English custom, "can be created but in the field, and that, when either the king is present, or at least his royal standard is displayed. But the creation is almost the self-same with that in the old French ceremonies by the solemn delivery of a banner charged with the arms of him that is to be created, and the cutting of the end of the pennon or streamer to make it a square or into the shape of a banner in case that he which is to be created had in the field his arms on a streamer before the creation." The creation of bannerets is traceable, according to Selden, to the time of Edward I. "Under these bannerets," he adds, "divers knights bachelors and esquires usually served; and according to the number of them, the bannerets received wages." The last authentic instance of the creation of a knight banneret was that of John Smith, created banneret at the battle of Edgehill by Charles I. for rescuing the royal standard from the enemy.

See Selden, _Titles of Honor_ (3rd ed., London, 1672), p. 656; Du Cange, _Glossarium_ (Niort, 1883), s.v. "Bannereti."

BANNERS, FEAST OF (Jap. _Nobori-no-Sekku_), a Japanese festival in honour of male children held on the 5th of May. Every householder who has sons fastens a bamboo pole over his door and hangs from it gaily-coloured paper fishes, one for each of his boys. These fishes are made to represent carp, which are in Japanese folklore symbolical of health and longevity. The day is recognized as a national holiday.

For banners in general see FLAG.

BANNISTER, CHARLES (1738-1804), English actor and singer, was born in Gloucestershire, and after some amateur and provincial experience made his first London appearance in 1762 as Will in _The Orators_ at the Haymarket. Gifted with a fine bass voice, Bannister acquired a reputation as a singer at Ranelagh and elsewhere, as well as an actor, and was received with such favour that Garrick engaged him for Drury Lane. He died on the 26th of October 1804.

His son JOHN BANNISTER (1760-1836), born at Deptford on the 12th of May 1760, first studied to be a painter, but soon took to the stage. His first formal appearance was at the Haymarket in 1778 as Dick in _The Apprentice_. The same year at Drury Lane he played in James Miller's version of Voltaire's _Mahomet_ the part of Zaphna, which he had studied under Garrick. The Palmira of the cast was Mrs Robinson ("Perdita"). Bannister was the best low comedian of his day. As manager of Drury Lane (1802) he was no less successful. He retired in 1815 and died on the 7th of November 1836. He never gave up his taste for painting, and Gainsborough, Morland and Rowlandson were among his friends.

See Adolphus's _Memoirs of John Bannister_ (2 vols., 1838).

BANNOCK (adapted from the Gaelic, and apparently connected with Lat. _panis_, bread), the term used in Scotland and the north of England for a large, flattish, round sort of bun or cake, usually made of barley-meal, but also of wheat, and sometimes with currants.

BANNOCK, the name of a county in the south-east of the state of Idaho, U.S.A., and of a river in the same state, which runs northward in Oneida county into the Snake or Lewis river. It is taken from that of the Bannock Indians (see BANATE), a corruption of the native _Panaiti_.

BANNOCKBURN, a town of Stirlingshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 2444. It is situated on the "burn" from which its name is derived, the Bannock (Gaelic, _ban oc_, "white, shining stream"), a right-hand affluent of the Forth, which was once a considerable river. The town lies 2-1/4 m. S.S.E. of Stirling by the Caledonian railway, and now has thriving manufactures of woollens (chiefly tweeds, carpets and tartans) and leather, though at the beginning of the 19th century it was only a village. The Bore Stone, in which Bruce planted his standard before the battle in which he defeated Edward II. in 1314 (see below), is preserved by an iron grating. A mile to the west is the Gillies' Hill, now finely wooded, over which the Scots' camp-followers appeared to complete the discomfiture of the English, to which event it owes its name. Bannockburn House was Prince Charles Edward's headquarters in January 1746 before the fight at Falkirk.

The famous battle of Bannockburn (24th June 1314) was fought for the relief of Stirling Castle, which was besieged by the Scottish forces under Robert Bruce. The English governor of Stirling had promised that, if he were not relieved by that date, he would surrender the castle, and Edward II. hastily collected an army in the northern and midland counties of England. Bruce made no attempt to defend the border, and selected his defensive position on the Bannock Burn, 2-1/2 m. S. of Stirling. His front was covered by the marshy bed of the stream, his left flank by its northerly bend towards the Forth, his right by a group of woods, behind which, until the English army appeared, the Scots concealed themselves. Two corps were left in the open in observation, one at St Ninian's to watch the lower course of the burn, one to guard the point at which the Falkirk-Stirling road crosses the burn. On the 23rd the van of the army of Edward, which numbered about 60,000 against the 40,000 of the Scots, appeared to the south of the burn and at once despatched two bodies of men towards Stirling, the first by the direct road, the other over the lower Bannock Burn near its junction with the Forth. The former was met by the Scottish outpost on the road, and here occurred the famous single combat in which Robert Bruce, though not fully armed for battle, killed Sir Henry Bohun. The English corps which took the other route was met and after a severe struggle defeated by the second Scottish outpost near St Ninian's. The English army assembled for battle on the following day. Early on St John's day the Scottish army took up its assigned positions. Three corps of pikemen in solid masses formed the first line, which was kept out of sight behind the crest until the enemy advanced in earnest. A line of "pottes" (military pits) had been previously dug to give additional protection to the front, which extended for about one mile from wing to wing. The reserve under Bruce consisted of a corps of pikemen and a squadron of 500 chosen men-at-arms under Sir Robert Keith, the marischal of Scotland. The line of the defenders was unusually dense; Edward, in forming up on an equal front with greatly superior numbers, found his army almost hopelessly cramped. The attacking army was formed in an unwieldy mass of ten "battles," each consisting of horse and foot, and the whole formed in three lines each of three "battles," with the tenth "battle" as a reserve in rear. In this order the English moved down into the valley for a direct attack, the cavalry of each "battle" in first line, the foot in second. Ignoring the lesson of Falkirk (_q.v._), the mounted men rode through the morass and up the slope, which was now crowned by the three great masses of the Scottish pikemen. The attack of the English failed to make any gap in the line of defence, many knights and men-at-arms were injured by falling into the pits, and the battle became a _melee_, the Scots, with better fortune than at Falkirk and Flodden, presenting always an impenetrable hedge of spears, the English, too stubborn to draw off, constantly trying in vain to break it down. So great was the press that the "battles" of the second line which followed the first were unable to reach the front and stood on the slope, powerless to take part in the battle on the crest. The advance of the third English line only made matters worse, and the sole attempt to deploy the archers was crushed with great slaughter by the charge of Keith's mounted men. Bruce threw his infantry reserve into the battle, the arrows of the English archers wounded the men-at-arms of their own side, and the remnants of the leading line were tired and disheartened when the final impetus to their rout was given by the historic charge of the "gillies," some thousands of Scottish camp-followers who suddenly emerged from the woods, blowing horns, waving such weapons as they possessed, and holding aloft [v.03 p.0355] improvised banners. Their cries of "slay, slay!" seemed to the wearied English to betoken the advance of a great reserve, and in a few minutes the whole English army broke and fled in disorder down the slope. Many perished in the burn, and the demoralized fugitives were hunted by the peasantry until they re-crossed the English border. One earl, forty-two barons and bannerets, two hundred knights, seven hundred esquires and probably 10,000 foot were killed in the battle and the pursuit. One earl, twenty-two barons and bannerets and sixty-eight knights fell into the hands of the victors, whose total loss of 4000 men included, it is said, only two knights.

See J. E. Shearer, _Fact and Fiction in the Story of Bannockburn_ (1909).

BANNS OF MARRIAGE (formerly _bannes_, from A.S. _gebann_, proclamation, Fr. _ban_, Med. Lat. _bannum_), the public legal notice of an impending marriage. The church in earliest days was forewarned of marriages (Tertullian, _Ad Uxorem, De Pudicitia_, c. 4). The first canonical enactment on the subject in the English church is that contained in the 11th canon of the synod of Westminster in London (A.D. 1200), which orders that "no marriage shall be contracted without banns thrice published in the church, unless by special authority of the bishop." It is, however, believed that the practice was in France as old as the 9th century, and certainly Odo, bishop of Paris, ordered it in 1176. Some have thought that the custom originated in the ancient rule that all "good knights and true," who elected to take part in the tournaments, should hang up their shields in the nearest church for some weeks before the opening of the lists, so that, if any "impediment" existed, they might be "warned off." By the Lateran Council of 1215 the publication of banns was made compulsory on all Christendom. In early times it was usual for the priest to betroth the pair formally in the name of the Blessed Trinity; and sometimes the banns were published at vespers, sometimes during mass. In the United Kingdom, under the canon law and by statute, banns are the normal preliminary to marriage; but a marriage may also be solemnized without the publication of banns, by obtaining a licence or a registrar's certificate. In America there is no statutory requirement; and the practice of banns (though general in the colonial period) is practically confined to the Roman Catholics.

BANNU, a town and district of British India, in the Derajat division of the North-West Frontier Province. The town (also called Edwardesabad and Dhulipnagar) lies in the north-west corner of the district, in the valley of the Kurram river. Pop. (1901) 14,300. It forms the base for all punitive expeditions to the Tochi Valley and Waziri frontier.

The district of Bannu, which only consists of the Bannu and Marwat tahsils since the constitution of the North-West Frontier Province in 1901, contains an area of 1680 sq. m. lying north of the Indus. The cis-Indus portions of Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan now comprises the new Punjab district of Mianwali. In addition to the Indus the other streams flowing through the district are the Kurram (which falls into the Indus) and its tributary the Gambila. The valley of Bannu proper, stretching to the foot of the frontier hills, forms an irregular oval, measuring 60 m. from north to south and about 40 m. from east to west. In 1901 the population was 231,485, of whom the great majority were Mahommedans. The principal tribes inhabiting the district are: (1) Waziri Pathans, recent immigrants from the hills, for the most part peaceable and good cultivators; (2) Marwats, a Pathan race, inhabiting the lower and more sandy portions of the Bannu valley; (3) Bannuchis, a mongrel Afghan tribe of bad physique and mean vices. The inhabitants of this district have always been very independent and stubbornly resisted the Afghan and Sikh predecessors of the British. After the annexation of the Punjab the valley was administered by Herbert Edwardes so thoroughly that it became a source of strength instead of weakness during the Mutiny. The inhabitants of the valley itself are now peaceful, but it is always subject to incursion from the Waziri tribes in the Tochi valley and the neighbouring hills. Salt is quarried on government account at Kalabagh and alum is largely obtained in the same neighbourhood. The chief export is wheat. A military road leads from Bannu town towards Dera Ismail Khan. The Indus, which is nowhere bridged within the district, is navigable for native boats throughout its course of 76 m. The chief frontier tribes on the border are the Waziris, Battannis and Dawaris. All these are described under their separate names.

BANSDA, a native state in the south Gujarat division of Bombay, India, belonging to the Surat agency. Area, 215 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 40,382, showing a decrease of 2% in the decade; estimated revenue L19,508. Its chief is a rajput. About half the total area of the state is cultivable, but the bulk is forested.

BANSHEE (Irish _bean sidhe_; Gaelic _ban sith_, "woman of the fairies"), a supernatural being in Irish and general Celtic folklore, whose mournful screaming, or "keening," at night is held to foretell the death of some member of the household visited. In Ireland legends of the banshee belong more particularly to certain families in whose records periodic visits from the spirit are chronicled. A like ghostly informer figures in Brittany folklore. The Irish banshee is held to be the distinction only of families of pure Milesian descent. The Welsh have the banshee under the name _gwrach y Rhibyn_ (witch of Rhibyn). Sir Walter Scott mentions a belief in the banshee as existing in the highlands of Scotland (_Demonology and Witchcraft_, p. 351). A Welsh death-portent often confused with the gwrach y Rhibyn and banshee is the _cyhyraeth_, the groaning spirit.

See W. Wirt Sikes, _British Goblins_ (1880).

BANSWARA (literally "the forest country"), a rajput feudatory state in Rajputana, India. It borders on Gujarat and is bounded on the N. by the native states of Dungarpur and Udaipur or Mewar; on the N.E. and E. by Partabgarh; on the S. by the dominions of Holkar and the state of Jabua and on the W. by the state of Rewa Kantha. Banswara state is about 45 m. in length from N. to S., and 33 m. in breadth from E. to W., and has an area of 1946 sq. m. The population in 1901 was 165,350. The Mahi is the only river in the state and great scarcity of water occurs in the dry season. The Banswara chief belongs to the family of Udaipur. During the vigour of the Delhi empire Banswara formed one of its dependencies; on its decline the state passed under the Mahrattas. Wearied out by their oppressions, its chief in 1812 petitioned for English protection, on the condition of his state becoming tributary on the expulsion of the Mahrattas. The treaty of 1818 gave effect to this arrangement, Britain guaranteeing the prince against external enemies and refractory chiefs; he, on his part, pledging himself to be guided by her representative in the administration of his state. The chief is assisted in the administration by a _hamdar_ or minister. The estimated gross revenue is L17,000 and the tribute L2500. The custom of suttee, or widow-burning, has long been abolished in the state, but the people retain all their superstitions regarding witches and sorcery; and as late as 1870, a Bhil woman, about eighty years old, was swung to death at Kushalgarh on an accusation of witchcraft. The perpetrators of the crime were sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment, but they had the sympathy of the people on their side. The chief town is Banswara, situated about 8 m. W. of the Mahi river, surrounded by an old disused rampart and adorned by various Hindu temples, with the battlements of the chief's palace overlooking it. Its population in 1901 was 7038. The petty state of Kushalgarh is feudatory to Banswara.

BANTAM, the westernmost residency of the island of Java, Dutch East Indies, bounded W. by the Strait of Sunda, N. by the Java sea, E. by the residencies of Batavia and Preanger, and S. by the Indian Ocean. It also includes Princes Island and Dwars-in-den-weg ("right-in-the-way") Island in Sunda Strait, as well as several smaller islands along the coasts. Bantam had a population in 1897 of 709,339, including 302 Europeans, 1959 Chinese and 89 Arabs and other Asiatic foreigners. The natives are Sundanese, except in the northern or Serang division, where they are Javanese. The coast is low-lying and frequently marshy. The northern portion of the residency constitutes the most fertile portion, is generally flat with a hilly group in the middle, where the two inactive volcanoes, Karang and Pulosari, [v.03 p.0356] are found, while the north-western corner is occupied by the isolated Gede Mountain. The southern portion is covered by the Kendang (Malay for "range") Mountains extending into the Preanger. The rivers are only navigable at their mouths. Various geysers and cold and warm sulphur springs are found in the centre of the residency, and on a ridge of the Karang Mountain is the large crater-lake Dano, a great part of which was drained by the government in 1835 for rice cultivation. Pulse (_kachang_), rice and coffee are the principal products of cultivation; but in the days of government culture sugar, indigo and especially pepper were also largely grown. The former considerable fishing and coasting trade was ruined by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, a large stretch of coast line and the seaport towns of Charingin and Anjer being destroyed by the inundation. The prosperity of the residency was further affected by a cattle plague in 1879, followed by a fever epidemic which carried off 50,000 people, and except in the rice season there is a considerable emigration of natives. Bantam contains five native regencies or territorial divisions, namely, Serang, Anjer, Pandeglang, Charingin, Lebak. The principal towns are Serang, the capital of the residency, Chilegon, Pandeglang, Menes and Rangkas Betug. The chief town, Serang, is situated 2 1/2 m. from Bantam Bay on the high road from Batavia. The port of Serang is Karangantu, on Bantam Bay, and close by is the old ruined town of Bantam, once the capital of the kingdom of Bantam, and before the foundation of Batavia the principal commercial port of the Dutch East India Company. The ruins include the remains of the former pepper warehouses, the old factory, called Fort Speelwijk, belonging to the company, the fortified palace of the former sultans and a well-preserved mosque thought to have been built by the third Mahommedan ruler of Bantam about 1562-1576, and containing the tombs of various princes of Bantam. Before the Dutch conquest Bantam was a powerful Mahommedan state, whose sovereign extended his conquests in the neighbouring islands of Borneo and Sumatra. In 1595 the Dutch expelled the Portuguese and formed their first settlement. A British factory was established in 1603 and continued to exist till the staff was expelled in 1682. In 1683 the Dutch reduced the sultan to vassalage, built the fort of Speelwijk and monopolized the port, which had previously been free to all comers; and for more than a century afterwards Bantam was one of the most important seats of commerce in the East Indies. In 1811 after Batavia had surrendered to the British, Bantam soon followed; but it was restored to the Dutch in 1814. Two years later, however, they removed their chief settlement to the more elevated station of Serang, or Ceram, 7 m. inland, and in 1817 the ruin of Bantam was hastened by a fire.

For "Bantam" fowls see POULTRY.

BANTIN, or BANTING, the native name of the wild ox of Java, known to the Malays as sapi-utan, and in zoology as _Bos (Bibos) sondaicus._ The white patch on the rump distinguishes the bantin from its ally the gaur (_q.v._). Bulls of the typical bantin of Java and Borneo are, when fully adult, completely black except for the white rump and legs, but the cows and young are rufous. In Burma the species is represented by the tsaine, or h'saine, in which the colour of the adult bulls is rufous fawn. Tame bantin are bred in Bali, near Java, and exported to Singapore. (See BOVIDAE.)

BANTRY, a seaport, market-town and seaside resort of Co. Cork, Ireland, in the west parliamentary division, 58 m. S.W. of Cork by the Cork, Bandon & South Coast railway, on the bay of the same name. Pop. (1901) 3109. It is an important centre both for sea fisheries and for sport with the rod. It is the terminus of the railway, and a coaching station on the famous "Prince of Wales" route (named after King Edward VII.) from Cork to Glengarriff and Killarney. The bay, with excellent anchorage, is a picturesque inlet some 22m. long by 3 to 6 broad, with 12 to 32 fathoms of water. It is one of the headquarter stations of the Channel Squadron, which uses the harbour at Castletown Bearhaven on the northern shore, behind Bear Island, near the mouth of the bay. It was the scene of attempts by the French to invade Ireland in 1689 and 1796, and troops of William of Orange were landed here in 1697. There are several islands, the principal of which are Bear Island and Whiddy, off the town. Ruins of the so-called "fish palaces" testify to the failure of the pilchard fishery in the 18th century.

BANTU LANGUAGES. The greater part of Africa south of the equator possesses but one linguistic family so far as its native inhabitants are concerned. This clearly-marked division of human speech has been entitled the Bantu, a name invented by Dr W. H. I. Bleek, and it is, on the whole, the fittest general term with which to designate the most remarkable group of African languages.[1]

It must not be supposed for a moment that all the people who speak Bantu languages belong necessarily to a special and definite type of negro. On the contrary, though there is a certain physical resemblance among those tribes who speak clearly-marked Bantu dialects (the Babangi of the upper Congo, the people of the Great Lakes, the Ova-herero, the Ba-tonga, Zulu-Kaffirs, Awemba and some of the East Coast tribes), there is nevertheless a great diversity in outward appearance, shape of head and other physical characteristics, among the negroes who inhabit Bantu Africa. Some tribes speaking Bantu languages are dwarfs or dwarfish, and belong to the group of Forest Pygmies. Others betray relationship to the Hottentots; others again cannot be distinguished from the most exaggerated types of the black West African negro. Yet others again, especially on the north, are of Gala (Galla) or Nilotic origin. But the general deduction to be drawn from a study of the Bantu languages, as they exist at the present day, is that at some period not more than 3000 years ago a powerful tribe of negroes speaking the Bantu mother-language, allied physically to the negroes of the south-western Nile and southern Lake Chad basins (yet impregnated with the Caucasian Hamite), pushed themselves forcibly from the very heart of Africa (the region between the watersheds of the Shari, Congo and western Nile) into the southern half of the continent, which at that time was probably sparsely populated except in the north-west, east and south. The Congo basin and the south-western watershed of the Nile at the time of the Bantu invasion would have been occupied on the Atlantic seaboard by West Coast negroes, and in the centre by negroes of a low type and by Forest Pygmies; the eastern coasts of Victoria Nyanza and the East African coast region down to opposite Zanzibar probably had a population partly Nilotic-negro and partly Hottentot-Bushman. From Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa south-westwards to the Cape of Good Hope the population was Forest-negro, Nilotic-negro, Hottentot and Bushman. Over nearly all this area the Bantu swept; and they assimilated or absorbed the vast majority of the preceding populations, of which, physically or linguistically, the only survivors are the scattered tribes of pygmies in the forests of south-west Nile land, Congo basin and Gabun, the central Sudanese of the N.E. Congo, a few patches of quasi-Hottentot, Hamitic and Nilotic peoples between Victoria Nyanza and the Zanzibar coast, and the Bushmen and Hottentots of south-west Africa. The first area of decided concentration on the part of the Bantu was very probably Uganda and the shores of Tanganyika. The main line of advance south-west trended rather to the east coast of Africa than to the west, but bifurcated at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, one great branch passing west between that lake and Nyasa, and the other southwards. Finally, when the Bantu had reached the [v.03 p.0357] south-west corner of Africa, their farther advance was checked by two causes: first, the concentration in a healthy, cattle-rearing part of Africa of the Hottentots (themselves only a superior type of Bushman, but able to offer a much sturdier resistance to the big black Bantu negroes than the crafty but feeble Bushmen), and secondly, the arrival on the scene of the Dutch and British, but for whose final intervention the whole of southern Africa would have been rapidly Bantuized, as far as the imposition of language was concerned.