The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 50

BAHREIN' ISLANDS (70), a group of islands in the Persian Gulf, under the protection of Britain, belonging to Muscat, the largest 27 m. long and 10 broad, cap. Manamah (20); long famous for their pearl-fisheries, the richest in the world.

BAHR-EL-GHAZAL, an old Egyptian prov. including the district watered by the tributaries of the Bahr-el-Arab and the Bahr-el-Ghazal; it was wrested from Egypt by the Mahdi, 1884; a district of French Congo lies W.

of it, and it was through it Marchand made his way to Fashoda.

BAIae, a small town near Naples, now in ruins and nearly all submerged; famous as a resort of the old Roman n.o.bility, for its climate and its baths.

BAF, a French poet one of a group of seven known in French literature as the "Pleiade," whose aim was to accommodate the French language and literature to the models of Greek and Latin.

BAIKAL, a clear fresh-water lake, in S. of Siberia, 397 m. long and from 13 to 54 wide, in some parts 4500 ft. deep, and at its surface 1560 ft. above the sea-level, the third largest in Asia; on which sledges ply for six or eight months in winter, and steamboats in summer; it abounds in fish, especially sturgeon and salmon; it contains several islands, the largest Olkhin, 32 m. by 10 m.

BAIKIE, W. BALFOUR, an Orcadian, born at Kirkwall, surgeon in the Royal Navy; was attached to the Niger Expedition in 1854, and ultimately commanded it, opening the region up and letting light in upon it at the sacrifice of his life; died at Sierra Leone (1825-1864).

BAILEY, NATHAN, an early English lexicographer, whose dictionary, very popular in its day, was the basis of Johnson's; _d_. 1742.

BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES, English poet, born in Nottingham; author of "Festus," a work that on its appearance in 1839 was received with enthusiasm, pa.s.sed through 11 editions in England and 30 in America, was succeeded by "The Angel World," "The Mystic," "The Universal Hymn," and "The Age"; he has been rated by some extravagantly high; _b_. 1816.

BAILEY, SAMUEL, an English author, born in Sheffield, a liberal-minded man, a utilitarian in philosophy, who wrote on psychology, ethics, and political economy, and left a fortune, acquired in business, to his native town (1787-1870).

BAILLIE, JOANNA, a poetess, born at Bothwell, child of the Presbyterian manse there; joined a brother in London, stayed afterwards with a sister at Hampstead; produced a series of dramas ent.i.tled "Plays of the Pa.s.sions," besides many others, both comedies and tragedies, one of which, the "Family Legend," was acted in the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, under the auspices of Sir Walter Scott; she does not stand high either as a dramatist or a writer (1762-1851).

BAILLIE, LADY GRIZEL, an heroic Scotch lady, famous for her songs, "And werena my heart licht I wad dee" is well known (1665-1740).

BAILLIE, MATTHEW, physician, brother of Joanna, wrote on Morbid Anatomy (1761-1823).

BAILLIE, ROBERT, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, born in Glasgow; resisted Laud's attempt to thrust Episcopacy on the Scotch nation, and became a zealous advocate of the national cause, which he was delegated to represent twice over in London; he was a royalist all the same, and was made princ.i.p.al of Glasgow University; "His Letters and Journals" were published by the Bannatyne Club, and are commended by Carlyle as "veracious," forming, as they do, the subject of one of his critical essays (1599-1662).

BAILLIE, ROBERT, a zealous Scotch Presbyterian, tried for complicity in the Rye House Plot, and unfairly condemned to death, and barbarously executed the same day (in 1683) for fear he should die afterwards and cheat the gallows of its victim.

BAILLY, JEAN SYLVAIN, an astronomer, born at Paris; wrote the "History of Astronomy, Ancient and Modern," in five volumes; was distracted from further study of the science by the occurrence of the Revolution; elected president of the National a.s.sembly; installed mayor of Paris; lost favour with the people; was imprisoned as an enemy of the popular cause and cruelly guillotined. Exposed beforehand "for hours long, amid curses and bitter frost-rain, 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said one; 'Mon ami,' said he meekly, 'it is for cold.' Crueller end," says Carlyle, "had no mortal."

BAILY, E. H., a sculptor, born in Bristol, studied under Flaxman; his most popular works were, "Eve Listening to the Voice," "The Sleeping Girl," and the "Graces Seated" (1788-1867).

BAIN, ALEXANDER, born at Aberdeen, professor of Logic in the university, and twice Lord Rector, where he was much esteemed by and exercised a great influence over his pupils; his chief works, "The Senses and the Intellect," "The Emotions and the Will," and "Mental and Moral Science"; has written on composition in a very uninteresting style; his psychology, which he connected with physiology, was based on empiricism and the inductive method, to the utter exclusion of all _a priori_ or transcendental speculation, such as hails from Kant and his school; he is of the school of John Stuart Mill, who endorsed his philosophy; _b_.

1818.

BAIRAM, a Mohammedan festival of three days at the conclusion of the Ramadan, followed by another of four days, seventy days later, called the Second Bairam, in commemoration of the offering up of Isaac, and accompanied with sacrifices.

BAIRD, JAMES, ironmaster, founder of the Baird Lectureship, in vindication of Scotch orthodoxy; bequeathed 500,000 to support churches (1802-1876).

BAIRD, SIR DAVID, a distinguished English general of Scotch descent, born at Newbyth, Aberdeenshire; entered the army at 15; served in India, Egypt, and at the Cape; was present at the taking of Seringapatam, and the siege of Pondicherry; in command when the Cape of Good Hope was wrested from the Dutch, and on the fall of Sir John Moore at Corunna, wounded; he afterwards retired (1757-1829).

BAIRD, S. FULLERTON, an American naturalist, wrote, along with others, on the birds and mammals of N. America, as well as contributed to fish-culture and fisheries (1823-1887).

BAI'REUTH (24), the capital of Upper Franconia, in Bavaria, with a large theatre erected by the king for the performance of Wagner's musical compositions, and with a monument, simple but ma.s.sive, as was fit, to the memory of Jean Paul, who died there.

BAIREUTH, WILHELMINA, MARGRAVINE OF, sister of Frederick the Great, left "Memoirs" of her time (1709-1758).

BAJAZET' I., sultan of the Ottoman Turks, surnamed ILDERIM, _i. e_.

Lightning, from the energy and rapidity of his movements; aimed at Constantinople, pushed everything before him in his advance on Europe, but was met and defeated on the plain of Angora by Tamerlane, who is said to have shut him in a cage and carried him about with him in his train till the day of his death (1347-1403).

BA'JUS, MICHAEL, deputy from the University of Louvain to the Council of Trent, where he incurred much obloquy at the hands of the Jesuits by his insistence of the doctrines of Augustine, as the Jansenists did after him (1513-1580).

BAKER, MOUNT, a volcano in the Cascade range, 11,000 ft.; still subject to eruptions.

BAKER, SIR RICHARD, a country gentleman, born in Kent, often referred to by Sir Roger de Coverley; author of "The Chronicle of the Kings of England," which he wrote in the Fleet prison, where he died (1603-1645).

BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE, a man of enterprise and travel, born in London; discovered the Albert Nyanza; commanded an expedition under the Khedive into the Soudan; wrote an account of it in a book, "Ismailia"; visited Cyprus and travelled over India; left a record of his travels in five volumes with different t.i.tles (1821-1893).

BAKSHISH, a word used all over the East to denote a small fee for some small service rendered.

BAKU (107), a Russian port on the Caspian Sea, in a district so impregnated and saturated in parts with petroleum that by digging in the soil wells are formed, in some cases so gushing as to overflow in streams, which wells, reckoned by hundreds, are connected by pipes with refineries in the town; a district which, from the spontaneous ignition of the petroleum, was long ago a centre of attraction to the Pa.r.s.ees or fire-worshippers of the East, and resorted to by them as holy ground.

BAKU'NIN, MICHAEL, an extreme and violent anarchist, and a leader of the movement; native of Moscow; was banished to Siberia, but escaped; joined the International, but was expelled (1814-1876).

BALA, the county town of Merioneth, in Wales. Bala Lake, the largest lake in Wales, 4 m. long, and with a depth of 100 ft.