BIRDS. Divided by Linnæus into six orders; by Blumenbach into eight; and by Cuvier into six. Man is specially enjoined not to harm the nest of the bird: "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young."-Deuteronomy, xxii. 6. BIRMINGHAM. This town existed in the reign of Alfred, A.D. 872; but its importance as a manufacturing town commenced in the reign of William III. Birmingham was besieged and taken by prince Rupert in 1643. The great works of Soho were established by the illustrious engineer, Matthew Boulton, in 1764. The Birmingham canal was originated by act of parliament, 1768. The memorable riots commenced here, July 14, 1791, on some persons commemorating the French revolution. The theatre was destroyed by fire, August 17, 1792. More commotions, Nov. 1800. The theatre again burnt in 1817; and again, Jan. 7, 1820. The Birmingham Political Union was formed in 1831; it dissolved itself May 10, 1834. The town-hall was built in 1833. The Birmingham and Liverpool railway was opened as the Grand Junction, July 4, 1837. The London and Birmingham railway was opened its entire length, Sept. 17, 1838. Great political riot, firing of houses, and other outrages committed by the chartists, July 15, 1839. The Birmingham police act passed, 3 Victoria, 1839.

BIRTHS. Parish registers of them, and of marriages and burials, were instituted by Cromwell, earl of Essex, 28 Henry VIII. 1536. The births of children were taxed in England, viz. : birth of a duke, 301.-—of a common person, 28.—7 Wm. III. 1695. Taxed again, 1783. The instances of four children at a birth are numerous; but the most extraordinary delivery recorded in modern times is that of a woman of Konigsberg, who had five children at a birth, September 3, 1783.-Phillips. The wife of a man named Nelson, a journeyman tailor, of Oxford-market, London, had five children at a birth, in October 1800.-Annals of London.

BISHOPS. The name was given by the Athenians to those who had the inspection of the city. The Jews and Romans had also a like officer; but now it means only that person who has the government of church affairs in a certain district. In England, the dignity is coeval with Christianity. St. Peter, the first bishop of Rome, was martyred A.D. 33. The bishops of Rome assumed the title of pope in 138. The rank was anciently assumed by all bishops; but it was afterwards ordained that the title of pope should belong only to the occupant of St. Peter's chair.-Warner. BISHOPS OF ENGLAND. See them severally. The first was appointed in A.D. 180. See York, London. They were made barons, 1072. The Congé d'Elire of the king to choose a bishop originated in an arrangement of king John with the clergy. Bishops were elected by the king's Congé d'Elire, 26 Henry VIII. 1535. Seven were deprived for being married, 1554. Several suffered martyrdom under queen Mary, 1555-6. See Cranmer. Bishops were excluded from voting in the house of peers on temporal concerns, 16 Charles I. 1640. Twelve were committed for high treason, in protesting against the legality of all acts of parliament passed while they remained deprived of their votes, 1641. Regained their seats, Nov. 1661. Seven were sent to the Tower for not reading the king's declaration for liberty of conscience, contrived to bring the Catholics into ecclesiastical and civil power, and were tried, and acquitted, June 29-30, 1688. The archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Sancroft) and five bishops were suspended for refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, 1689, and were deprived 1690.-Warner's Eccles. Hist. The sees of Bristol and Gloucester were united, and that of Ripon created, in 1836; and by an order in council issued in October 1838, the sees of Bangor and St. Asaph are to be united on the next vacancy in either, and Manchester, a new see, is to be created thereupon.-See Manchester.

BISHOPS OF IRELAND. See them severally. Bishops are said to have been consecrated in this country as early as the second century. The bishopric of Ossory, first planted at Saiger, was founded A.D. 402, thirty years before the arrival of St. Patrick. The bishopric of Trim has been named as the first by some writers, although not erected before anno 432. Prelacies were constituted, and divisions of the bishoprics in Ireland made, by cardinal Paparo, legate from pope Eugene III. A.D. 1151. Several prelates were deprived by queen Mary, 1554. One suffered death ignominiously, 1640. Two were deprived for not taking the oaths to William and Mary,

1691. One was deprived (Clogher) in 1822. The Church Temporalities Act, for reducing the number of bishops in Ireland, 3 and 4 William IV. August 1833. By this statute, of the four archbishoprics, of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam, and Cashel, the last two were abolished on the decease of the then archprelates, which has since occurred; and it was enacted that eight of the then eighteen bishoprics should, as they became void, be thenceforth united to other sees, viz. :

Since the passing of the above act, six bishoprics have fallen in, and have been united to the respective sees, in compliance with it-namely, Raphoe, Clonfert, Killala, Ossory, Waterford, and Cloyne-up to 1845.

BISHOPS OF SCOTLAND. They were constituted in the fourth century. The see of St. Andrew's was founded by Hergustus, king of the Picts, who, according to a legendary tale of this prelacy, encouraged the mission of Regulus, a Greek monk of Patræ, about A.D. 370. The bishops were deprived of their sees, and episcopacy abolished in Scotland at the period of the revolution, 1688-9. Warner's Eccles. Hist. -There are now, however, six bishops belonging to the Scotch Episcopal Church, viz: Aberdeen, Brechin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Moray, and St. Andrew's. BISHOPS, PRECEDENCY OF, was settled by statute 31 Henry VIII. to be next to viscounts, they being barons of the realm, 1540; and they have the title of Lord, and Right Rev. Father in God. The archbishops of Canterbury and York, taking place of all dukes, have the title of Grace. The bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester have precedence of all bishops; the others rank according to the seniority of consecration. A late contest in Ireland between the bishops of Meath and Kildare for precedency was decided in favour of the former, who now ranks after the archbishop of Dublin. The others rank according to consecration. BISHOPS IN AMERICA. The first was the Right Rev. Doctor Samuel Seabury, consecrated bishop of Connecticut by four nonjuring prelates, at Aberdeen, in Scotland, November 14, 1784. The bishops of New York and Pennsylvania were consecrated in London, by the archbishop of Canterbury, Feb. 4, 1787; and the bishop of Virginia in 1790. The first Catholic bishop of the United States, was Dr. Carroll of Maryland, in 1789. Various colonial bishoprics have latterly been erected. BISSEXTILE OR LEAP YEAR. An intercalary day was thrown into every fourth year to adjust the calendar, and make it agree with the sun's course. It originated with Julius Cæsar, who ordered a day to be counted before the 24th of February, which among the Romans was the 6th of the calends, and which was therefore reckoned twice, and called bissextile: this added day we name the 29th of February every fourth year, 45 B.C.-See Calendar and Leap Year. BITHYNIA. Conquered by Croesus, about 560 B.c.; and again by Alexander, 332 B.C. It afterwards recovered its liberty; but its last king bequeathed it to the Romans, 40 B.C. In modern history Bithynia makes no figure, except that from its ruins rose the Othman Turks, who, in A.D. 1327, took Prusa, its capital, and made it the seat of their empire before they possessed Constantinople. BLACK BOOK, a book kept in the English monasteries, wherein details of the scandalous enormities practised in religious houses were entered for the inspection of visitors, under Henry VIII., 1535, in order to blacken them and hasten their dissolution; hence the vulgar phrase "I'll set you down in the black book." BLACK-HOLE AT CALCUTTA. Here, 146 British gentlemen, merchants, and others, in the service of the East India Company, were seized by order of the nabob, Surajah Dowlah, and thrust into a dungeon called the "Black-hole," in the fort, by his soldiers. These latter saw that the place was too small for such a number, but

they were afraid to awaken the nabob, then asleep, for further orders. One hundred and twenty-three of the sufferers died before morning, having been suffocated by the heat, crushing, and stench of a dungeon only eighteen feet square, June 20, 1756. Calcutta was retaken next year, and the nabob was deposed and put to death by his successor.-Holwell's India Tracts.

BLACK MONDAY. In England, this was a memorable Easter Monday, which in the 34th of Edward III. "happened to be full dark of mist and hail, and so cold, that many men died on their horses' backs with the cold," 1360.-Stowe. In Ireland it was the day on which a number of the English were slaughtered at a village near Dublin, in 1209. See Cullen's Wood.

BLACK ROD. The usher belonging to the order of the Garter is so called from the black-rod he carries in his hand.-Cowel. It has a gold lion at the top and is carried by the king's chief gentleman usher, instead of a mace, at the feast of St. George at Windsor, instituted A.D. 1349-50. He also keeps the chapter-house door when a chapter of the order is sitting, and during the sessions of parliament attends the house of lords.

BLACK-FRIARS. Friars of the order of St. Dominic, instituted in 1215 by Dominic de Gusman, a priest of Spain. They had monasteries throughout Europe, and their power, influence, and authority became almost universal. Among their convents in England were those at Oxford and in London, on the banks of the Thames; the site and vicinity of the latter are called Blackfriars to this day. BLACKFRIARS-BRIDGE, LONDON. The first stone of this bridge was laid October 31, 1760; and it was completed by Mylne, in 1770, though for some time previously made passable. It was the first work of the kind executed in England in which arches approaching to the form of an ellipsis were substituted for semicircles. It is about a thousand feet in length and forty-five wide. Repaired in 1831. thorough repair of its arches and piers (which had suffered from the combined exciting action of wind and water, and the vicissitudes of temperature) was commenced in 1837; the carriage-way was closed for the purpose of levelling the centre, and reducing the ascent, July 22, 1840; and the bridge was again opened, with improved approaches, October 1, following.

The

BLACKGUARD. The name was originally given to the scullions and coal-carriers to great houses, and mean dependants who were employed in the lowest offices.— Stanihurst. In modern nomenclature its import has undergone considerable change. BLACKHEATH. On this plain the celebrated Walter, the Tiler, assembled his 100,000 men: his rebellion arose out of the brutal rudeness of a tax-collector to his daughter. The indignant plebeian having killed the collector in his rage, raised this multitude of followers to oppose a grievous impost called the poll-tax, June 12, 1381. Subsequently, in an interview with the king (Richard II.), in Smithfield, Tyler having frequently raised his sword in a menacing manner, William of Walworth, then lord mayor of London, struck him down with the mace, and one of the king's knights despatched him. His awed followers, on being promised a charter by Richard, submitted and dispersed; but the grant of it was afterwards revoked by parliament. Here, also, Jack Cade and his 20,000 Kentish men encamped, 1451. See Cade. Battle of Blackheath, in which the Cornish rebels were defeated and Flannoc's insurrection quelled, June 22, 1497. The cavern, on the ascent to Blackheath, supposed to have been the retreat of Cade, and the haunt of banditti in the time of Cromwell, was rediscovered in 1780.

BLACKWALL. In this neighbourhood are erected the finest commercial docks and warehouses in the world. The West India docks were commenced Feb. 3, 1800, and opened Aug. 27, 1802. The East India docks were commenced under an act passed July 27, 1803, and opened Aug. 4, 1806. The Blackwall railway was opened to the public July 4, 1840; the eastern terminus being at Blackwall wharf, and the western in the Minories.

BLANC COURSIER HERALD. Created by patent, on the revival of the order of the Bath, to attend on the first companion of the order, 12 George I. 1725. BLANDFORD ASSIZES. Memorable for the death of the judge, the jury, sheriff, and many others, who caught an infection from the prisoners, called the jail-fever; the distemper in most cases carried off the infected in forty-eight hours; 1730.

BLASPHEMY. This crime is recognised both by the civil and canon law of England. Justinian adjudged it the punishment of death. In Scotland, the tongue was amputated. Visited by fine and imprisonment, 9 & 10 William III. 1696-7.—Statutes at large. In England this offence has been subjected, on some late occasions, to the visitation of the laws. Daniel Isaac Eaton was tried and convicted in London of blasphemy, 13th March, 1812. A protestant clergyman, named Robert Taylor, was tried in London twice for the same crime, and as often convicted. Taylor was last brought to the bar, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and largely fined, for (among other things) reviling the Redeemer in his discourses, July, 1831. Even as late as in Dec. 1840, two prosecutions against publishers of blasphemous writings, subjected the offenders to the sentence of the court of Queen's Bench. BLAZONRY. The bearing coats-of-arms was introduced, and became hereditary in families in France and England, about A.D. 1192, owing to the knights painting their banners with different figures, thereby to distinguish them in the crusades.-Dugdale. BLEACHING. This art was known early in Egypt, Syria, and India. Known in ancient Gaul.-Pliny. In the last century an improved chemical system was adopted by the Dutch, who introduced it into England and Scotland in 1768. There are now immense bleachfields in both countries, particularly in Lancashire, and in the counties of Fife, Forfar, and Renfrew, and in the vale of the Leven, in Dumbarton. The chemical process of Berthollet was introduced in 1795.Blanchiment des Toiles.

BLENHEIM, BATTLE OF; between the English and confederates, commanded by the duke of Marlborough, and the French and Bavarians, under marshal Tallard and the elector of Bavaria, whom Marlborough signally defeated with the loss of 27,000 in killed, and 13,000 prisoners, Tallard being among the latter the electorate of Bavaria became the prize of the conquerors. The nation testified its gratitude to the duke by the gifts of the honour of Woodstock and hundred of Wotton, and erected for him one of the finest seats in the kingdom, known as the domain and house of Blenheim. Fought Aug. 2, 1704.-Hume.

BLINDING, by consuming the eyeballs with lime or scalding vinegar, a punishment inflicted anciently on adulterers, perjurers, and thieves. In the middle ages they changed the penalty of total blindness to a diminution of sight. Blinding the conquered was a practice in barbarous states; and a whole army was deprived of their eyes by Basilius, in the eleventh century. See Bulgarians. Several of the Eastern emperors had their eyes torn from their heads. See article Eastern Empire. BLISTERS. They were first made, it is said, of cantharides.-Freind. Blisters are said to have been first introduced into medical practice by Aretæus, a physician of Cappadocia, about 50 B.c.-Le Clerc's Hist. of Physic.

BLOOD, CIRCULATION OF THE, through the lungs, first made public by Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician, in 1553. Cisalpinus published an account of the general circulation, of which he had some confused ideas; improved afterwards by experiments, 1569. Paul of Venice, commonly called Father Paolo, whose real name was Peter Sarpi, certainly discovered the valves which serve for the circulation; but the honour of the positive discovery of the circulation of the blood belongs to our immortal countryman, Harvey, by whom it was fully confirmed, 1628.—Freind's Hist. of Physic.

BLOOD, DRINKING OF. Anciently a mode was tried of giving vigour to the system by administering blood as a draught. Louis XI., in his last illness, drank the warm blood of infants, in the vain hope of restoring his decayed strength, 1438.-Henault. Eating blood was prohibited to Noah, Gen. ix.; and to the Jews, Lev. xvii. The prohibition repeated by the apostles at the council of Jerusalem, Acts xv. BLOOD, TRANSFUSION OF. In the fifteenth century an opinion prevailed that the declining strength and vigour of old people might be repaired by transfusing the blood of young persons, drawn from their veins, into those of the infirm and aged. It was countenanced in France by the physicians, and prevailed for many years, till the most fatal effects ensued from the operation. Some of the principal nobility having died, and others turned raving mad, it was suppressed by an edict. Attempted in France in 1797. Practised more recently there, in a few cases, with success; and in England (but the instances are rare) since 1823.-Med. Jour. "One English physician, named Louver, or Lower, practised in this way; he died in 1691."—Freind's Hist. of Physic.

BLOOD'S CONSPIRACY. Blood, a discarded officer of Oliver Cromwell's household, and his confederates, seized the duke of Ormond in his coach, and had got him to Tyburn, intending to hang him, when he was rescued by his friends. Blood afterwards, in the disguise of a clergyman, stole the regal crown from the Jewel-office in the Tower: yet, notwithstanding these and other offences, he was not only pardoned, but had a pension of £500 per annum settled on him by Charles II. 1673. BLOOMSBURY GANG. An old political knot, that ruled the councils of the king for many years, was known by this designation, in consequence of the then duke of Bedford being at its head: of this knot was the marquis of Stafford, and other conspicuous men of the reign of George III. The marquis of Stafford, the last survivor of the Bloomsbury gang, died Oct. 26, 1803.

BLOWING MACHINES. The first cylinders of magnitude, used in blowing machines, erected by Mr. Smeaton at the Carron iron-works, 1760. One equal to the supply of air for forty forge fires lately erected at the king's dock-yard, Woolwich. By means of the BLOW-PIPE the alkalies are melted, and even volatilised, in a few minutes; rock crystal and quartz are converted into glass; opal and flint into enamel; blue sapphire, talc, emerald, and lapis lazuli, are converted into glass; gold and diamond are volatilised; platina and brass wire burn with a green flame; copper melts without burning; but iron burns with brilliant light.-Phillips. BLUE-COAT SCHOOLS. There are numerous schools in the empire under this denomination, so called in reference to the costume of the children. The Bluecoat school in Newgate-Street, London, is regarded as the first charitable foundation of the kind in the world; it was instituted by Edward VI. in 1552. See Christ's Hospital.

BLUE STOCKING. This term is applied to literary ladies, and was originally conferred on a society of literary persons of both sexes. One of the most active promoters of the society was Benjamin Stillingfleet, the distinguished naturalist and miscellaneous writer, who always wore blue worsted stockings, and hence the name: the society existed in 1760, et seq.-Anec. of Bowyer. The beautiful and fascinating Mrs. Jerningham is said to have worn blue stockings at the conversaziones of lady Montague; and this peculiarity also fastened the name upon accomplished women.

BOADICEA TRANSPORT, with a large body of military on board, stranded in a violent gale near Kinsale, Ireland, when upwards of 200 of the 82nd regiment perished: this calamity was made more deplorable by many attendant circumstances and affecting incidents, which produced universal sympathy, Jan. 31, 1816.

BOARD OF CONTROL. Mr. Pitt's celebrated bill, establishing this board for the purpose of aiding and controlling the executive government of India, and of superintending the territorial concerns of the company, was passed 24 George III. Aug. 1784. This act was amended 1786; and the board remodelled in 1793.-See India. BOARD OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS. Charles II., on his restoration, established a council of trade for keeping a control over the whole commerce of the nation, 1660; he afterwards instituted a board of trade and plantations, which was remodelled by William III. This board of superinspection was abolished in 1782; and a new council for the affairs of trade was appointed, Sept. 2, 1786. BOATS. Their invention was so early, and their use so general, the art cannot be traced to any age or country. Flat-bottomed boats were made in England in the reign of the Conqueror: the flat-bottomed boat was again brought into use by Barker, a Dutchman, about 1690. The life-boat was first suggested at South Shields; and one was built by Mr. Greathead, the inventor, and was first put to sea, Jan. 30, 1790. BOCCACCIO'S BOOK, IL DECAMERONE, a collection of a hundred stories or novels, not of moral tendency; feigned to have been related in ten days, and, as is said by Petrarch, "possessing many charms." A copy of the first edition (that of Valdafer, in 1471) was knocked down, at the duke of Roxburgh's sale, to the duke of Marlborough, for £2260, June 17, 1812. This identical copy was afterwards sold, by public auction, for 875 guineas, June 5, 1819.

BOTIA, the country of which Thebes was the capital. Thebes was equally celebrated for its antiquity, its grandeur, and the exploits and misfortunes of its kings and heroes. The country was known successively as Aonia, Messapia, Hyantis, Ogygia, Cadmeis, and Boeotia; and it gave birth to Pindar, Hesiod, Plutarch, Democritus,.Epaminondas, and the accomplished and beautiful Corinna.