uniting the two sovereignties, 2059 B.C. According to Eusebius this empire existed 1240 years; according to Justin, 1300 years; according to Herodotus, 500 or 600 years. Of these opinions Blair has adopted the first, which calculates from the foundation of the empire by Ninus, B.C. 2059, to the close of the reign of Sardanapalus, who was dethroned by his generals, and his kingdom divided into the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Median kingdoms, 820 B.C.-See Assyria.

Babylon taken by the Medes and Per-
sians, under Cyrus
Taken by Darius.-Usher

538

511

The astronomical observations are begun
at Babylon by the Chaldeans.-Blair;
Lenglet
Belus, king of Assyria, extends his em-
pire over the neighbouring states, de-
feats the Babylonians, and makes
them tributary.—Usher

Ninus, son of Belus, reigns in Assyria, The city of Babylon was, anciently, the most magnificent in the world; and in later times famous for the empire established under the Seleucidæ. Its greatness was so reduced in succeeding ages, that Pliny says, in his time it was but a desolate wilderness; and at present the place where it stood is scarcely known to travellers. -Rollin's Ancient Hist.

BABYLON, HANGING GARDENS OF. They were of a square form, and in terraces one above another until they rose as high as the walls of the city, the ascent being from terrace to terrace by steps. The whole pile was sustained by vast arches raised on other arches; and on the top were flat stones closely cemented together with plaster of bitumen, and that covered with sheets of lead, upon which lay the mould of the garden, where there were large trees, shrubs, and flowers, with various sorts of vegetables. There were five of these gardens, each containing about four English acres, and disposed in the form of an amphitheatre.-Strabo; Diodorus. BACCHANALIA, games celebrated in honour of Bacchus. They arose in Egypt, and were brought into Greece by Melampus, and were there called Dionysia, about 1415 B.C.-Diodorus. They were celebrated in Rome under the name of Bacchanalia. BACHELORS. The Roman censors frequently imposed fines on unmarried men; and men of full age were obliged to marry. The Spartan women at certain games laid hold of old bachelors, dragged them round their altars, and inflicted on them various marks of infamy and disgrace.-Vossius. After twenty-five years of age, a tax was laid upon bachelors in England, 127. 10s. for a duke, and for a common person, one shilling, 7 William III. 1695. Bachelors were subjected to a double tax on their male and female servants, in 1785.

BACKGAMMON. Palamedes of Greece is the reputed inventor of this game (decidedly one of the oldest known to our times), about 1224 B.C. It is stated by some to have been invented in Wales in the period preceding the Conquest.-Henry. BADAJOS, Siege of. This important barrier fortress had surrendered to the French, March, 11, 1811, and was invested by the British under lord Wellington on March 18, 1812, and stormed and taken on April 6, following. This victory was not only a glorious military achievement in itself, but it obliged the French, who had entered Portugal for the purpose of plunder, to commence a precipitate retreat from that kingdom.

BADEN, HOUSE OF, descended from Herman, son of Berthold I. duke of Zahringen, who died A.D. 1074. From Christopher, who united the branches of Hochberg and Baden, and died in 1527, proceed the branches of Baden-Baden, and BadenDourlach. This family makes a most conspicuous figure in the annals of Germany, and is allied to all the principal families in the empire.

BADEN, TREATY OF, between France and the emperor, when Landau was ceded to the former, Sept. 7, 1714. Baden was formerly a margravate; it was erected into a grand duchy, as a member of the Rhenish Confederation, in 1806. Its territorial acquisitions by its alliances with France, were guaranteed by the congress at Vienna,

in 1815.

BAFFIN'S-BAY, discovered by William Baffin, an Englishman, in 1616. The nature and extent of this discovery were much doubted until the expeditions of Ross and Parry proved that Baffin was substantially accurate in his statement. These voyagers returned home in 1818. See article North West Passage. BAGDAD, built by Almansor, and made the seat of the Saracen empire, A.D. 762taken by the Tartars, and a period put to the Saracen rule, 1258. It has since been often taken by the Persians, and from them again by the Turks.-Blair. BAGPIPE. This instrument is supposed by some to be peculiar to Ireland and Scotland; but it must have been known to the Greeks, as, on a piece of Grecian sculpture of the highest antiquity, now in Rome, is represented a bagpiper dressed like a modern highlander. Nero is said to have played upon a bagpipe, A.D. 51.

BAHAMA ISLES. These were the first points of discovery by Columbus. San Salvador was seen by this great navigator on the night of the 11th October, 1492.-The Bahamas were not known to the English till 1667. Seized for the crown of England, 1718, when the pirates who inhabited them surrendered to Captain Rogers.

BAIL. By ancient common law, before and since the Conquest, all felonies were bailable, till murder was excepted by statute; and by the 3d Edward I. the power of bailing in treason, and in divers instances of felony, was taken away, 1274. Bail was further regulated, 23 Henry VI.; 2 Philip and Mary, and in later reigns. BAILIFFS, OR SHERIFFS are said to be of Saxon origin. London had its shire-reve prior to the Conquest, and this officer was generally appointed for counties in England in 1079. Sheriffs were appointed in Dublin under the name of bailiffs, in 1308; and the name was changed to sheriff, 1548. There are still some places where the chief-magistrate is called bailiff, as the high bailiff of Westminster. The term Bum-bailiff is a corruption of bound-bailiff, every bailiff being obliged to enter into bonds of security for his good behaviour.-Blackstone.

BAIZE. This species of woollen manufacture was brought into England by some Fleming or Dutch emigrants who settled at Colchester, in Essex, in the reign of Charles II., about the year 1660.-Anderson.

BALANCE OF POWER, to assure the independency and integrity of states, and control ambition; the principle is said to be a discovery of the Italian politicians of the fifteenth century, on the invasion of Charles VIII. of France.-Robertson. By the treaty of Munster, the principle of a balance of power was first recognised by treaty October 24, 1648.

BALKAN, PASSAGE OF THE. This adventurous experiment was deemed impracticable by a hostile army, until effected by the Russian army under Diebitsch, whose march through the Balkan mountains is a memorable achievement of the Russian and Turkish war the passage was completed July 26, 1829. BALLADS. They may be traced in British history to the Anglo-Saxons.-Turner. Andhelme, who died A.D. 709, is mentioned as the first who introduced ballads into England. "The harp was sent round, that those might sing who could."-Bede. Alfred sung ballads.—Malmsbury. Canute composed one.-Turner. Minstrels were protected by a charter of Edward IV.; but by a statute of Elizabeth they were made punishable among rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars.-Viner. BALLADS, NATIONAL. "Give me the writing of the ballads, and you may make the laws."-Fletcher of Saltoun. A British statesman has said, "Give me the writing of the ballads of the country, and while I place at your command every other species of composition, I will fix public opinion, and rule public feeling, and sway the popular sentiment, more powerfully than all your writers, political and moral, can do by any other agency or influence." The beautiful and frequently touching ballads of Dibdin, particularly those of the sea, inspired many a brave defender of his country in the late war; Dibdin died Jan. 20, 1833.

BALLETS. They arose in the meretricious taste of the Italian courts. One performed at the interview between our Henry VIII. and Francis I. of France, in the field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520.-Guicciardini. In the next century, they reached the summit of their glory in the splendid pomps of the courts of Tuscany and Lorraine; and their most zealous patron, Louis XIV. bore a part in one, 1664.

E

BALLOON. Galien of Avignon wrote on aerostation, in 1755. Dr. Black gave the hint as to hydrogea, in 1767. A balloon was constructed in France by MM. Montgolfier, in 1783, when Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes ascended at Paris. Pilâtre Desrozier and M. Romain perished in an attempted voyage from Boulogne to England, the balloon having taken fire, June 14, 1785. At the battle of Fleurus, the French made use of a balloon to reconnoitre the enemy's army, and convey the observations by telegraph, June 17, 1794. Garnerin ascended in a balloon to the height of 4,000 feet, and descended by a parachute, Sept. 21, 1802. GayLussac ascended at Paris to the height of 23,000 feet, Sept. 6, 1804. Madame Blanchard ascended from Tivoli at night, and the balloon, being surrounded by fire-works, took fire, and she was precipitated to the ground, and killed, July 6, 1819. BALLOON, IN ENGLAND. The first attempt to navigate the atmosphere in England in a balloon was by Signor Lunardi, who ascended from Moorfields, Sept. 15, 1784. Blanchard and Jeffries passed from Dover to Calais, in 1785. Mr. Arnold went up from St. George's- Fields, and fell into the Thames; and major Money ascended from Norwich, and fell into the North Sea, but was saved by a revenue cutter. The first ascent from Ireland, was from Ranelagh-gardens, Dublin, in 1785. Sadler, who made many previous expeditions in England, fell into the sea near Holyhead, but was taken up, Oct. 9, 1812. Saddler, jun., was killed, falling from & balloon, in 1825. Mr. Cocking ascended from Vauxhall; the parachute in its descent from the balloon, collapsed, and he was thrown out and killed, July 24, 1837. Green and others have made repeated ascents.

BALLOON, THE NASSAU. The great Nassau balloon, of immense dimensions, and which had for some time previously been exhibited to the inhabitants of London in repeated ascents from Vauxhall gardens, started from that place on an experimental voyage, having three individuals in the car, and, after having been eighteen hours in the air, descended at Wielburg, in the duchy of Nassau, Nov. 7, 1836. BALLINAHINCH, BATTLE OF, a sanguinary engagement on the estate of the earl of Moira, between a large body of the insurgent Irish and the British troops, June 13, 1798. In this battle a large part of the town was destroyed, and the royal army suffered very severely.

:

BALTIC EXPEDITION. This was also called the Copenhagen expedition, the Danish expedition, &c. There were two in the first expedition, under lord Nelson and admiral Parker, Copenhagen was bombarded, and twenty-eight sail of the Danish fleet were taken or destroyed, April 2, 1801.-See Armed Neutrality. In the second expedition, under admiral Gambier and lord Cathcart, eighteen sail of the line, fifteen frigates, and thirty-one brigs and gunboats surrendered to the British, July 26, 1807.

BALTIMORE, BATTLE OF, between the British army under general Ross and the Americans; the British in making an attack upon the town were unsuccessful, and after a desperate engagement were repulsed with great loss; the gallant general who led the enterprise was killed, Sept. 12, 1814.

BAND OF GENTLEMEN PENSIONERS, a court retinue instituted by Henry VIII. 1509. The earl of Essex was appointed their first captain.-Salmon. BANDON, founded by the first earl of Cork, in 1610. The walls having been demolished by the Irish then in arms, the Catholics were forbidden to enter the town; and the following words, which were set up in 1689, by the inhabitants"A Turk, a Jew, or atheist-may enter here, but not a papist,"

are memorable as an interdict long blazoned on its gates.-Annals of Munster. The catholics in derision and humour added, in chalk, the following couplet :

"Whosoe'er wrote these words, he wrote them well;

The same are written on the gates of hell."-Burn's Annals.

BANGALORE, SIEGE OF, commenced by the British under lord Cornwallis, March 6, and the town taken by storm, March 21, 1791. Bangalore was restored to Tippoo in 1792, when he destroyed the strong fort, deemed the bulwark of Mysore. BANGOR. Here was one of the earliest monastic institutions in Britain, and its monks were mercilessly murdered by the Danes; its bishopric is of great antiquity, but its founder is unknown; the church is dedicated to St. Daniel, who was bishop anno 516. Owen Glendower greatly defaced the cathedral; but a more cruel

ravager than he, the bishop Bulkely, alienated many of the lands, and even sold the bells of the church, 1553. The see is valued in the king's books at 1317. 16s. 4d. An order in council directing that the sees of Bangor and St. Asaph be united on the next vacancy in either, was issued, Oct. 1838.

BANK. The first established was in Italy, A.D. 808, by the Lombard Jews, of whom some settled in Lombard-street, London, where many bankers still reside. The name bank is derived from banco, a bench, which was erected in the marketplace for the exchange of money. The mint in the tower of London was anciently the depositary for merchants' cash, until Charles I. laid his hands upon the money, and destroyed the credit of the mint, in 1640. The traders were thus driven to some other place of security for their gold, which, when kept at home, their apprentices frequently absconded with to the army. In 1645, therefore, they consented to lodge it with the goldsmiths in Lombard-street, who were provided with strong chests for their own valuable wares; and this became the origin of banking in England.— Bank of Venice formed

Bank of Geneva

Bank of Barcelona

Bank of Genoa

Bank of Amsterdam

Bank of Hamburgh

1157

Bank of Scotland

. 1635

In the East Indies

. 1688
1694

And one in America

Branch banks in these realms

1695 . 1736 1765

. 1776

. 1783

1786

. 1787

. 1791

. 1828

Bank of Rotterdam Bank of Stockholm Bank of England BANK OF ENGLAND, (See preceding article,) originally projected by a merchant named Patterson. It was incorporated by William III. in 1694, in consideration of 1,200,000., the then amount of its capital, being lent to government. The capital has gone on increasing from one period to another up to the present time, as the discretion of parliament allowed; and the same authority has also at different intervals prolonged the privileges of the bank, and renewed its charter. When first established the notes of the bank were at 20 per cent. discount; and so late as 1745, they were under par. Bank bills were paid in silver, 1745. The first bank post-bills were issued 1754; small notes were issued 1759; cash payments were discontinued February 25, 1797, when notes of one and two pounds were put into circulation. Silver tokens appeared in January, 1798; and afterwards Spanish dollars, with the head of George III. stamped on the neck of Charles IV., were made current. payments were resumed partially, September 22, 1817, and the restriction had altogether ceased in 1821. For a number of years the financial measures of the crown have been largely aided by loans from this great reservoir of wealth. The average amount of the Bank of England notes in circulation is as follows :

The circulation of notes, in 1845, exceeded 27 millions, and the bullion in the bank fluctuated between 15 and 16 millions. The returns of issues, &c. are now made weekly. To secure the credit of the Bank it was enacted, "that no other banking company should consist of more than six persons," 6 Anne 1707. There are branch banks of the Bank of England in many of the chief towns of the kingdom; as Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Gloucester, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Swansea, &c., all formed since 1828. See Funds. BANK OF IRELAND. Established by act of parliament, and opened at Mary'sabbey, Dublin, June 25, 1783. The business removed to the late houses of parliament, in College-green, in May 1808. Branch banks of this establishment have been formed in most of the provincial towns in Ireland; as Armagh, Belfast, Clonmel, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Newry, Sligo, Waterford, Westport, Wexford, &c., all since 1828.

BANK OF SCOTLAND. The old bank was set up in 1695, the year after the establishment of the Bank of England, and was the second institution of the kind in these kingdoms. The Royal Bank was instituted in 1727. The Commercial bank in 1810. National bank, 1825. The first stone of the present bank of Scotland was laid June 3, 1801.

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BANK OF SAVINGS. Jeremy Bentham suggested a Frugality Bank in 1797.— Young's Annals of Agriculture. The first bank actually instituted for the benefit of the poor, and established at Tottenham by Mrs. Elizabeth Wakefield in 1803. The first bank for savings in Edinburgh was founded in 1814. Several were established in England in 1816, having been brought under parliamentary regulation by the efforts of the Right Hon. George Rose; since which period, savings' banks have been very generally opened throughout the United Kingdom.-See Savings' Banks. BANKS, JOINT STOCK. A vast number of banks under this denomination have been established in England since the act of the 7th George IV. 1826; they have been instituted in almost every large town in the kingdom. In 1840, the amount of paper currency issued by joint stock banks amounted to 4,138,6181.; the amount in circulation by private banks, same year, was 6,973,6137.-the total amount exceeding eleven millions. In Ireland there have been many similar banks instituted, the first being the Hibernian bank, established by a special act in 1825.

BANKRUPTS, IN ENGLAND, first law enacted regarding them, 35 Henry VIII. 1543. Again, 3 of Elizabeth, 1560; again, 1 James I. 1602; again, 1706; and more recently. It was determined by the King's Bench that a bankrupt may be arrested except in going to and coming from any examination before the commissioners, May 13, 1780. The lord chancellor (Thurlow) refused a bankrupt his certificate because he had lost five pounds at one time in gaming, July 17, 1788. Enacted that members of the house of commons becoming bankrupts, and not paying their debts in full, shall vacate their seats, 1812. The new bankrupt bill, constituting a new bankrupt court, passed October 1831.-Statutes at large.

NUMBER OF BANKRUPTS IN GREAT BRITAIN AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.

According to a return to parliament made at the close of February 1826, there had become bankrupt in the four months preceding, 59 banking-houses, comprising 144 partners; and 20 other banking establishments had been declared insolvent. Every succeeding week continued to add from seventy to a hundred merchants, traders, and manufacturers to the bankrupt list. This was, however, the period of bubble speculation, and of unprecedented commercial embarrassment and ruin. BANKRUPTCY COURT. Act empowering his majesty to erect and establish a court of judicature to be called the Court of Bankruptcy, and to appoint a judge thereto, 2 William IV. October 1831. Bankruptcy act, Ireland, consolidating all the statutes relating to bankruptcy, and founding a complete system of administering bankrupts' estates, 6 William IV. May 1836.

BANNER. Almost every nation had its banner to distinguish it in battle, and under which it fought, inspired with superstitious confidence of success. The standard of Constantine bore the inscription In hoc signo vinces-in this sign thou shalt conquer, under the figure of the cross.-See Cross. The banner was early in use in England: the famous magical banner of the Danes was taken by Alfred, A.D. 879.Spelman. St. Martin's cap, and afterwards the celebrated auriflamma, or oriflammo were the standards of France, about 1100.-See Auriflamma, Standards, &c. BANNERET. Some trace the origin of bannerets to France, others to Brittany, and more to England. These last attribute the institution of this order to Conan, lieutenant of Maximus, who commanded the Roman legions in England, A.D. 383. Banneret is an almost obsolete title of nobility, conferred by the king himself, under the royal standard. The knights led their vassals to battle under their own banner, but knights-bachelors were commanded by a superior. The dignity lies between baron and knight.-Beatson. Created in England, 1360; renewed by Henry VII., 1485. It was disused from the reign of Charles I., but was revived by George III. in the person of sir William Erskine in 1764. BANNOCKBURN, BATTLE OF, between king Robert Bruce, of Scotland, and Edward II. of England; the army of Bruce consisted of 30,000 Scots, and that of Edward of 100,000 English, of whom 52,000 were archers. The English crossed a rivulet to the attack, and Bruce having dug pits, which he had covered, they fell into them, and were thrown into confusion. The rout was complete, the king narrowly escaping, and 50,000 English were killed or taken prisoners, June 25, 1314.-Barbour.