The principal libraries are the Birmingham library, founded in 1798 by Dr Priestley, in a modern building, the Central free library, and other free libraries in different parts of the city, each with a lending department and a reading room.
Charities.—The general hospital, the foundation of Dr Ash, an eminent local physician, was opened in 1779. The old building was replaced in 1897 by a splendid new one in St Mary’s Square, costing £206,000. The Queen’s hospital, Bath Row, the other large hospital of the town, was founded in 1840 by W. Sands Cox, F.R.S., an eminent local surgeon, who also founded the Queen’s College as a medical school. The general dispensary, the officers of which visit patients at their own homes, relieves about 8000 yearly. The children’s hospital (free) established in 1864 by Dr Heslop, has two establishments—for out-patients (a handsome Gothic building) in Steelhouse Lane, and an in-patient department in Broad Street. There is also a women’s hospital (free) for the special diseases of women; a lying-in charity; special hospitals for diseases of the eye, the ear, bodily deformities, and the teeth; and a homoeopathic hospital. The parish of Birmingham maintains a large infirmary at the workhouse (Birmingham Heath), and a dispensary for out-patients in Paradise Street. The majority of the hospitals and dispensaries are free. Nearly all these medical charities depend upon subscriptions, donations, legacies and income from invested property. There are two public organizations for aiding the charities, both of which were begun in Birmingham. One is a simultaneous collection in October in churches and chapels, on the Sunday called Hospital Sunday, established in 1859; the other is the Saturday Hospital collection, made by the work-people in March, which was established in 1873. A musical festival is held triennially in aid of the general hospital. There is a sanatorium at Blackwell, near the Lickey Hill, 10 m. south of Birmingham, common to all the hospitals. Amongst the non-medical charities the principal are the blind institution and the deaf and dumb asylum, both at Edgbaston; and Sir Josiah Mason’s orphanage at Erdington. There are also in the town numerous almhouses for aged persons, the chief of which are Lench’s Trust, the James Charities, and the Licensed Victuallers’ asylum. Besides the general benefit societies, such as the Oddfellows’, Foresters’, &c., which are strongly supported in Birmingham, the work-people have numerous clubs of a charitable kind, and there are several important local provident societies of a general character, with many thousand members.
Commerce.—From an early period Birmingham has been a seat of manufactures in metal. Hutton, the historian of the town, claims for it Saxon or even British antiquity in this respect, but without foundation. The first direct mention of Birmingham trades is to be found in Leland’sItinerary(1538). He writes:—“I came through a pretty street as ever I entered into Bermingham towne. This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey [Deritend]. In it dwell smiths and cutlers. There be many smithes in the towne that use to make knives and all manner of cutlery tooles, and many lorimers that make bittes, and a great many naylors, so that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire.” The cutlers no longer exist, this trade having gone to Sheffield; but the smiths remain, and the heavier cutting tools are still largely made here. The wide importance of Birmingham as a centre of manufactures began towards the close of the 17th century, one great source of it being the absolute freedom of the town, there being no gilds, companies or restrictions of any kind; besides which the easy access to cheap coal and iron indirectly helped the development. It is remarkable that two important trades, now located elsewhere, were first established here. Steel was made in Birmingham until 1797, but then ceased to be so for about seventy years, when an experiment in steel-making was made by a single firm. Cotton-spinning was begun in Birmingham by John Wyatt, Lewis Paul and Thomas Warren as early as 1730; but the speculation wasabandoned before the end of the century. The great staple of Birmingham is metal-working in all its various forms. The chief variety is the brass-working trade. Iron-working, though largely carried on, is a much less important trade, works of this kind being chiefly established in the Staffordshire district. Jewelry, gold, silver and gilt come next to brass. The remarkable development of this branch of industry is demonstrated by the increase in the amount of gold and silver marked, as recorded by the Assay office—the figures of 48,123 oz. of gold and 84,323 oz. of silver in 1870 had been increased to 363,000 oz. of gold and nearly 3,000,000 oz. of silver by the end of the century. Then follow “small arms” of all kinds. Until 1906 a Royal Small Arms factory was maintained by the government at Sparkbrook, but it was then transferred to the Birmingham Small Arms Company, which had already extensive works in the district. Buttons, hooks and eyes, pins and other articles used for dress, constitute a large class of manufactures. Glass, especially table glass, is a renowned staple of the town. Screws, nails, &c., are made in enormous quantities; indeed, Birmingham has a monopoly of the English screw trade. Steel pens are also a specialty, the name best known in this connexion being that of Sir Josiah Mason. Electro-plating, first established in 1841 by the firm of Elkington, is one of the leading trades. Among other branches of manufacture are wire-drawing, bell founding, metal rolling, railway-carriage building (a large and important industry), the manufacture of cutting implements and tools of all kinds, die-sinking, papier-maché making and a variety of others. In 1897 there was a sudden development of cycle manufacturing, followed in 1899 by an almost equally sudden collapse, but this industry is maintained and accompanied by the manufacture of motor cars, tyres and accessories, for which Birmingham is one of the principal centres in Great Britain.
Birmingham may claim as her own the perfection of the steam engine, through the genius of James Watt and the courage of Matthew Boulton. The memory of the great Soho factory is one of the most precious heritages of the town, and Watt’s own private workshop continues just as he left it, with no single article disturbed, carefully preserved in the garret of his house at Heathfield. The mention of Watt and of Soho recalls the memories of distinguished inventors and others who have been connected with Birmingham. Here John Baskerville, the printer, carried on his work. An institution called the Lunar Society, which met each month about the time of full moon, brought together a brilliant company—Watt, Boulton, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Parr, Dr William Withering, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir William Herschel, Dr Solander, John Roebuck, James Keir and many others. William Murdock, the inventor of gas, was a Soho man, and first used his invention to light the Soho factory at the peace of Amiens in 1802. The series of inventors is continued by the names of Gillott, Elkington, Chance, Mason and others. Thomas Rickman, the reviver and historian of Gothic architecture, practised as an architect in Birmingham. William Hutton, the antiquary and historian, carried on his bookselling business here. Many of the best engravers were Birmingham men, notably James Tibbitts Willmore and John Pye, the special translators of Turner’s marvellous creations. Attwood, Joseph Parkes, John Bright and Joseph Chamberlain speak for Birmingham in the region of politics and statesmanship.
One of the most marked features of social life in Birmingham is the fact that contrasts in the distribution of wealth are less strongly marked than in most other great cities. The distance between the poorest and the richest is bridged over by a larger number of intermediate gradations. Colossal fortunes are few; on the other hand there is a numerous class of rich men. These, however, for the greater part are actually engaged in trade or manufactures, and hold their place in local life rather on account of industry pursued than of wealth possessed. The number of the leisured class, enjoying large incomes without participating in any local industry, is relatively small, but is said to be on the increase. There are many manufacturing companies, but great private firms are also numerous. In regard to labour conditions, the system of small masters holds its own in the manufactures of Birmingham, and shows no signs of extinction. One effect of this condition is that capital and labour are not brought into enmity, and consequently strikes and disputes are infrequent. As regards the condition of the working classes it may be noted that Birmingham was the birthplace of the freehold land and building societies, by which workmen are enabled on easy terms to acquire houses of their own. The risk of an overcrowded population is consequently minimized; the houses, moreover, are generally well situated as regards light and air, and many have small gardens. Among industrial communities where peculiar attention is paid to the housing of workmen and their families, that of Bourneville, occupied by theemployésof Messrs Cadbury, chocolate manufacturers, is well known.
History.—Owing to its rapid expansion, and the consequent newness of most of the public and other buildings, Birmingham is often supposed to be a modern town. It was, however, in existence as a community in the Saxon period. Proof of this was given in 1309 by William de Bermingham, then lord of the manor, who showed in a law-suit that his ancestors had a market in the place and levied tolls before the Conquest. Some authors have endeavoured to identify the town with the supposed Roman station called Bremenium, but this claim has long been abandoned as fabulous. A Roman road runs north and south across the site of the town, but no remains have been found other than a very few coins. The origin of the name is untraceable; the spelling itself has passed through about 100 different forms. Dugdale, the historian of Warwickshire, adopts Bromwycham, and regards it as of Saxon derivation. Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, has the fanciful etymology ofBrom(broom),wych(a descent), andham(a home), making together the home on the hill by the heath.
InDomesday BookBirmingham is rated at four miles of land with half a mile of woods, the whole valued at £203. Two hundred years later the family of de Bermingham, the owners of the place, come into sight, one of them, William, being killed at the battle of Evesham, in 1265, fighting with Simon de Montfort and the barons against Henry III. The son of this William afterwards took part in the French war, and was made prisoner; his father’s estates, forfeited by treason, were restored to him. Thenceforward the family engaged in various local and other offices, but seemingly abstained from politics. They held the place until 1527, when Edward de Bermingham was deprived of his property by means of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who trumped up a pretended charge of riot and robbery against him and procured Birmingham for himself. On the attainder of Dudley the manor passed to the crown, and was granted to Thomas Marrow, of Berkswell, from whom by marriage and descent it went to Christopher Musgrave, and finally, as regards the only valuable part—the market tolls—by purchase to the town itself. In the Wars of the Roses it does not seem that Birmingham took any part; but energy revived in the Civil War under Charles I., when the town sided actively with the Parliamentarians. In 1642, when Charles was marching from Shrewsbury to relieve Banbury, the Birmingham people seized part of his baggage, including much plate, money and wine, which they sent to the Parliamentary garrison at Warwick. Before the battle of Edgehill Charles rested for two nights at Aston Hall, near the town, as the guest of Sir Thomas Holte. The Birmingham people resented this by helping the Parliamentarians to cannonade the Hall and to levy a fine upon Sir Thomas Holte. They also supplied the Parliamentary army with 15,000 sword blades, refusing to make a single blade for the Royalists. These manifestations of hostility were avenged in April 1643 by Prince Rupert, who, with 2000 men and several pieces of artillery, attacked the town, planting his cannon on an eminence near Sparkbrook, still known as Camphill. The townspeople resisted, but were beaten, many persons being killed or wounded. Amongst the former was Lord Denbigh, one of the Royalist officers. Having captured the place, Prince Rupert allowed his troops to plunder it, to burn about eighty houses and to set their prisoners to ransom. He also levied a fine of £30,000,equal to at least £100,000 of the present value of money. This bitter lesson kept Birmingham quiet during the rest of the Civil War, though the sympathies of the people with the Parliamentarians were unabated. In 1665 Birmingham suffered heavy losses by the plague, great numbers of dead being buried in the Pest Field, at Ladywood, then a lonely place far outside the town, but long since thickly covered with buildings. In 1688 the Revolution provoked a temporary outbreak of Protestant feeling. James II. had given timber from the royal forest of Needwood, near Burton, to build a Roman Catholic chapel and convent in a place still called Mass-house Lane. This edifice the mob promptly destroyed when James gave place to William and Mary. Rather more than a century of quiet prosperity ensued, and then occurred the serious and most lamentable outbreak of popular fury known as the Church and King riots of 1791. For some years there had been much political activity in Birmingham, the dissenters, particularly the Unitarians, being desirous of relief from the political and religious disabilities under which they laboured. The leader in these movements was the famous Dr Priestley, who kept up an active controversy with the local clergy and others, and thus drew upon himself and his co-religionists the hatred of the more violent members of the Church and Tory party. The smouldering fire broke out on the occasion of the French Revolution. On the 14th of July a dinner of Birmingham Liberals was held at the Royal hotel to celebrate the destruction of the Bastille. This was the signal of a popular outbreak. A Church and King mob, encouraged and organized by leaders of better station, who were too cowardly to show themselves, began an attack upon the Unitarians. Priestley was not present at the dinner, but his house at Fair Hill, Sparkbrook, was one of the first to be sacked and burnt—his library and laboratory, with all his manuscripts, the records of lifelong scientific and philosophical inquiries, perishing in the flames. The house and library of Hutton the historian were also destroyed. The Unitarian chapel was burnt, and several houses belonging to members of the sect were sacked and burnt. The riot continued until a strong body of troops was marched into the town, but before their arrival damage to the amount of more than £60,000 had been done. Some of the rioters perished in the burning buildings, in the cellars of which they drank themselves into stupefaction. Others were tried and imprisoned, and four of the prisoners were hanged. The persecuted Unitarians recovered a small part of their losses from the county; but Priestley himself, owing in a great measure to the unworthy prejudice against him, was forced to remove to the United States of America, where he spent the rest of his life. A late atonement was made by the town to his memory in 1873, by the erection of a statue in his honour in front of the town hall and the foundation of a Priestley scholarship at the Midland Institute.
As if ashamed of the excesses of 1791, Birmingham thenceforth became, with one or two exceptions, a peaceful town. In the dismal period from 1817 to 1819, when the manufacturing districts were heavily distressed and were disturbed by riots, Birmingham remained quiet. Even when some of the inhabitants were tried and punished for demanding parliamentary representation, and for electing Sir Charles Wolseley as their delegate, there was no demonstration of violence—the wise counsels of the leaders inducing orderly submission to the law. The same prudent course was observed when in the Reform agitation of 1831-1832 the Political Union was formed, under the leadership of Thomas Attwood, to promote the passing of the Reform Bill. Almost the whole town, and great part of the surrounding district, joined in this agitation; vast meetings were held on Newhall Hill; there was much talk of marching upon London 100,000 strong; but, owing to the firmness and statesmanship of Attwood and his associates, there was no rioting or any sign of violence. Ultimately the Political Union succeeded in its object, and Birmingham helped to secure for the nation the enfranchisement of the middle classes and other political reforms. One exception to the tranquillity of the town has to be recorded—the occurrence of riots in 1839, during the Chartist agitation. Chartism took a strong hold in Birmingham, and, under the influence of Feargus O’Connor and some of his associates, nightly meetings of a threatening character were held in the Bull Ring. The magistrates resolved to put these down, and having obtained the help of a detachment of the metropolitan police—the town then having no local police force—a meeting was dispersed, and a riot ensued, which resulted in injury to several persons and required military force to suppress it. This happened on the 4th of July. On the 15th of the same month another meeting took place, and the mob, strongly armed and numbering many thousands, set fire to several houses in the Bull Ring, some of which were burned to the ground and others were greatly damaged. The military again interfered, and order was restored, several of the ringleaders being afterwards tried and imprisoned for their share in the disturbance. There was another riot in 1867, caused by the ferocious attacks of a lecturer named Murphy upon the Roman Catholics, which led to the sacking of a street chiefly inhabited by Irishmen; but the incident was comparatively trivial and further disorders were prevented by the prompt action of the authorities.
See W. Hutton,History of Birmingham(2nd ed., Birm., 1783); J.A. Langford,A Century of Birmingham Life, 1741-1841(Birm., 1868), andModern Birmingham and its Institutions, 1841-1871(Birm., 1873); J.T. Bunce,History of the Corporation of Birmingham(Birm., 1885).
See W. Hutton,History of Birmingham(2nd ed., Birm., 1783); J.A. Langford,A Century of Birmingham Life, 1741-1841(Birm., 1868), andModern Birmingham and its Institutions, 1841-1871(Birm., 1873); J.T. Bunce,History of the Corporation of Birmingham(Birm., 1885).
BIRNEY, JAMES GILLESPIE(1792-1857), American reformer, leader of the conservative abolitionists in the United States from about 1835 to 1845, was born in Danville, Kentucky, of a family of wealth and influence, on the 4th of February 1792. He graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1810. In 1814, after a course of legal study, he began the practice of the law at Danville. He entered immediately, as a Democrat, into Kentucky politics, and political ambition caused his removal in 1818 to northern Alabama, near Huntsville. There was at that time in the south-west much anti-slavery sentiment. Birney’s father was among those who advocated a “free state” constitution for Kentucky, and the home environment of the boy had thus fostered a questioning attitude towards slavery, though later he was himself a slave-holder. In the general assembly of Kentucky in 1816, and in that of Alabama in 1819, he opposed inter-state rendition of fugitive slaves and championed liberal slave-laws. His career as a lawyer in Alabama was exceptionally brilliant; but his political career was abruptly wrecked by his opposition in 1819 to Andrew Jackson, whose friends controlled the state. His tariff and anti-slavery views, moreover, carried him more and more away from the Democratic party and toward the Whigs.
About 1826 he began to show an active interest in the American Colonization Society, and in 1832-1833 served as its agent in the south-west. In 1833 he returned to Danville, and devoted himself wholly to the anti-slavery cause. He freed his own slaves in 1834. Convinced that gradual emancipation would merely stimulate the inter-state slave trade, and that the dangers of a mixed labour system were greater than those of emancipation in mass, he formally repudiated colonization in 1834; moreover, gradualism had become for him an unjustifiable compromise in a matter of religion and justice. At this time also he abandoned the Whig party. He delivered anti-slavery addresses in the North, accepted the vice-presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and announced his intention to establish an anti-slavery journal at Danville (1835). For this he was ostracized from Kentucky society; his anti-slavery journals were withheld in the mails; he could not secure a public hall or a printer. In these circumstances, he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there, in January 1836, founded thePhilanthropist, which, in spite of rancorous opposition, became of great influence in the north-west. Birney soon relinquished its active control in order to serve the Anti-Slavery Society as secretary and as a lecturer. He favoured immediatism, but he differed sharply from the Garrisonian abolitionists, who abhorred the federal Constitution and favoured secession. He always wrote, spoke and laboured for the permanent safety of the Union. The assaults of the South in defence of slavery upon free speech, free press, the right of petition and trial by jury, he pronounced“exorbitant claims ... on the liberties of the free states”; the contest had become, he said, “one not alone of freedom for the blacks but of freedom for the whites.” Twenty-three years before William H. Seward characterized as an “irrepressible conflict” the antagonism between freedom and slavery, Birney proclaimed: “There will be no cessation of conflict until slavery shall be exterminated or liberty destroyed”—“liberty and slavery cannot both live in juxtaposition” (1835). The ends being political, so also, thought Birney, must be the means; as parties in the south were fusing, he laboured to re-align parties in the north, and advocated the formation of an independent anti-slavery party. After the separation of the Garrisonian and the political abolitionists in 1840 the new party was formed, and in 1840, and again in 1844, as the Liberty party (q.v.), it made Birney its candidate for the presidency. In 1840 he received 7069 votes; in 1844, 62,263. A fall from his horse in 1843 made him a hopeless invalid, and completely removed him from public life. He died at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on the 25th of November 1857.
Two of Birney’s sons, William Birney (1810-1907) and David Bell Birney (1825-1864), were prominent as officers on the Federal side during the Civil War in America.
SeeJames G. Birney and His Times(New York, 1890), by his son, William Birney; and his principal writings:On the Sin of Holding Slaves(1834).Letter on Colonization(1834),Vindication of Abolitionists(1835),American Churches the Bulwark of American Slavery(1840, 3rd ed. 1885);Speeches in England(1840); andCase of Strader et al.v.Graham(1852).
SeeJames G. Birney and His Times(New York, 1890), by his son, William Birney; and his principal writings:On the Sin of Holding Slaves(1834).Letter on Colonization(1834),Vindication of Abolitionists(1835),American Churches the Bulwark of American Slavery(1840, 3rd ed. 1885);Speeches in England(1840); andCase of Strader et al.v.Graham(1852).
BIRON, ARMAND DE GONTAUT,Baron de(1524-1592), a celebrated French soldier of the 16th century. His family, one of the numerous branches of the house of Gontaut, took its title from the territory of Biron in Perigord, where on a hill between the Dropt and the Lide still stands the magnificent castle begun by the lords of Biron in the 11th century. As a page of the queen of Navarre Biron attracted the notice of the marshal de Brissac, with whom he saw active service in Italy. A wound received by him in his early years made him lame for life, but he did not withdraw from the military career, and he held a command in Guise’s regiment of light horse in 1557. A little later he became chief of a cavalry regiment, and in the wars of religion he repeatedly distinguished himself.
His great services to the royal cause at Dreux, St Denis, Jarnac and Moncontour were rewarded in 1569 by his appointment as a privy councillor of the king and grand master of artillery. He commanded the royal forces at the siege of La Rochelle in 1572, and four years later was made a marshal of France. From 1576 to 1588 he was almost continuously employed in high command. From 1589 he supported the cause of Henry of Navarre, but was suspected of prolonging the civil wars in his own interest. Biron was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Epernay on the 26th of July 1592. He was a man of considerable literary attainments, and used to carry a pocket-book, in which he noted everything that appeared remarkable. Some of his letters are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale and in the British Museum; these include a treatise on the art of war.
His son,Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron (1562-1602), fought brilliantly for the royal party against the League. He was made admiral of France in 1592, and marshal in 1594; governor of Burgundy in 1595, he took the towns of Beaune, Autun, Auxonne and Dijon, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fontaine-Francaise. In 1596 he was sent to fight the Spaniards in Flanders, Picardy and Artois. After the peace of Vervins he discharged a mission at Brussels (1598). From that time he was engaged in intrigues with Spain and Savoy, and, notwithstanding, directed the expedition sent against the duke of Savoy (1599-1600). After fulfilling diplomatic missions for Henry IV. in England and Switzerland (1600), he was accused and convicted of high treason and was beheaded in the Bastille on the 31st of July 1602.
His collateral descendant,Armand Louis de Gontaut, due de Lauzun, afterwards duc de Biron (1747-1793), is known for the part he played in the War of American Independence and the revolutionary wars. Until 1788, when he succeeded to the duchy of Biron on the death of his uncle,—Louis Antoine de Gontaut, duc de Biron (1700-1788)—he bore the title of duc de Lauzun, which had passed, on the death of Antoine Nompas de Caumont, duc de Lauzun (1633-1723), to his niece, the wife of Charles Armand de Gontaut, duc de Biron (1663-1756). After for a while wasting his fortune in dissipation in various parts of Europe, he attracted attention by an essay on the military defences of Great Britain and her colonies (État de défense d’Angleterre et de toutes ses possessions dans les quatres parties du monde). This led to his appointment to a command against the English in 1779, in which he gained several successes. In the following year he took a conspicuous part in the War of American Independence, and on his return to France was mademaréchal de camp. In 1789 he was returned as deputy to the states-general by thenoblesseof Quercy, and attached himself to the revolutionary cause. In 1791 he was sent by the Constituent Assembly to receive the oath of the army of Flanders, and subsequently was appointed to its command. In July 1792 he was nominated commander of the army of the Rhine, with the duty of watching the movements of the Austrians. In May 1793 he was transferred to the command of the army of La Rochelle, operating against the insurgents of La Vendée. He gained several successes, among them the capture of Saumur and the victory of Parthenay; but the insubordination of his troops and the intrigues of revolutionary agents made his position intolerable and he sent in his resignation. He was thereupon accused by the notorious Carrier ofincivismeand undue leniency to the insurgents, deprived of his command (July), imprisoned in the Abbaye and condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was guillotined on the 31st of December 1793. SomeMémoires, which come down to 1783, were published under his name in 1822 (new ed. 1858), and in 1865 letters said to have been written by him in 1789 to friends in the country, describing the states-general.
BIRR,orParsonstown, a market-town of King’s county, Ireland, on an acclivity rising above the Birr, and on a branch of the Great Southern & Western railway by which it is 87 m. W.S.W. from Dublin. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4438. Cumberland Square, in which there is a Doric column surmounted by a statue of the duke of Cumberland, to commemorate the battle of Culloden, is the point from which the several principal streets diverge in regular form. The fine castle of Birr, beside its historical interest, has gained celebrity on account of the reflecting telescope erected here (1828-1845) by William, third earl of Rosse. This is 56 ft. in length and weighs 3 tons; and there is another smaller instrument. Among institutions the model and preparatory schools of the Brothers of the Presentation Order are noteworthy. There is a bronze statue by Foley of Lord Rosse (d. 1867). Some trade is carried on in corn and timber, and in brewing and distilling.
An abbey was founded at Birr by St Brendan (d. 573), to whom the present parish church is dedicated. The district formed part of Ely O’Carroll, and was not included in King’s county till the time of James I. A great battle is said to have been fought near Birr in the 3rd century between Cormac, son of Cond of the Hundred Battles, and the people of Münster. The castle was the chief seat of the O’Carrolls. In the reign of James I. it and its appendages were assigned to Lawrence Parsons, brother of Sir William Parsons, surveyor-general. From him the alternative name of the town is derived. The castle was more than once besieged in the time of Cromwell, and was taken by Ireton in 1650. It also suffered assault in 1688 and 1690.
BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE(1850- ), English author and politician, son of a Nonconformist minister, was born near Liverpool on the 19th of January 1850. He was educated at Amersham Hall school and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He went to the bar, and gradually obtained a good practice; in 1893 he became a K.C., and he was professor of law at University College from 1896 to 1899. But it was as a literary critic of unusually clever style and an original vein of wit, that he first became known to the public, with his volume of essays entitledObiter Dicta(1884). In 1889 he was returned to parliament for West Fifeshire as a Liberal. In the House of Commons his lightbut pointed humour gradually led to the coining of a new word, “barrelling,” and his literary and oratorical reputation grew apace. Whether he was writing miscellaneous essays or law-books, his characteristic style prevailed, and his books on copyright and on trusts were novelties indeed among legal textbooks, no less sparkling than his literaryObiter Dicta. A second series of the latter appeared in 1887.Res Judicataein 1892 and various other volumes followed, for he was in request among publishers and editors, and his easy charm of style and acute grasp of interesting detail gave him a front place among contemporary men of letters. Mr Birrell was first married in 1878, but his wife died next year, and in 1888 he married Mrs Lionel Tennyson, daughter of the poet Frederick Locker (Locker-Lampson). At the general election of 1900 he preferred to contest the N.E. division of Manchester rather than retain his seat in Fifeshire, but was defeated. He did valuable service, however, to his party by presiding over the Liberal Publication Department, and at the general election of 1906 he was returned for a division of Bristol. He had been included in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s cabinet, and as minister for education he was responsible for the education bill which was the chief government measure in their first session. But the prolonged controversy over the bill, and its withdrawal in the autumn owing to the refusal of the government to accept modifications made by the House of Lords in the denominational interest, made his retention of that office impossible, and he was transferred (January 1907) to the post of chief secretary for Ireland, which he subsequently retained when Mr Asquith became prime minister in 1908. In the session of 1907 he introduced an Irish Councils bill, a sort of half-way house to Home Rule; but it was unexpectedly repudiated by a Nationalist convention in Dublin and the bill was promptly withdrawn. His prestige as a minister, already injured by these two blows, suffered further during the autumn and winter from the cattle-driving agitation in Ireland, which he at first feebly criticized and finally strongly denounced, but which his refusal to utilize the Crimes Act made him powerless to stop by the processes of the “ordinary law”; and the scandal arising out of the theft of the Dublin crown jewels in the autumn of 1907 was a further blot on the Irish administration. On the other hand his scheme for a reconstituted Irish Roman Catholic university was very favourably received, and its acceptance in 1908 did much to restore his reputation for statesmanship.
BIRTH(a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb “to bear”), the act of bringing forth a child, or the fact of its being born; so also a synonym for descent or lineage. In law, a child not actually born, buten ventre sa mère, is supposed for many purposes to be actually born, and may take any benefit to which it would have been entitled if actually born,i.e.it may take as legatee or devisee, or even as next-of-kin or heir, but none of these conditions will take effect, unless the child is born alive (seeMedical Jurisprudence). The given year of age of a child is gained at the first instant of the day preceding the birthday, and no account is taken of parts of a day,e.g.a child born at 11.59 on the night of the 2nd-3rd of May 1900, would be of age the first moment after midnight of the 1st-2nd of May 1921. In English law, by the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, it is a misdemeanour punishable by a maximum of two years’ imprisonment with hard labour, to endeavour to conceal the birth of a child by any secret disposition of its dead body, whether the child died before, after or at its birth.
Registration of Births.—The registration of baptisms is said to have been first introduced by Thomas Cromwell when vicar-general in 1538, but it is only in comparatively modern times that registration has been fully carried out. The law relating to the registration of births was consolidated for England by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874, and for Ireland by the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Ireland) 1880. In Scotland it depends upon the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1854, as amended by later acts. Previously to the passing of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, the records of the births were compiled from parish registers, which were formerly a part of the ecclesiastical organization, and continued to be attached, more or less, to the church till the passing of the act of 1836. That act provided a far more complete machinery than that before existing for the exact record of all births. The new system relieved the clergy from all functions previously thrown upon them, and finally, after improvement by subsequent acts, was made compulsory in 1874. The act of 1836 established a general register office in London, presided over by an officer called the registrar-general, with general superintendence over everything relating to registration. The registrar-general is appointed under the Great Seal. Every poor-law union or parish is divided into districts, each of which is called by a distinct name, and is in charge of a registrar, who is a local officer appointed by the guardians of the union. Over each union is a superintendent registrar, who has supervision over the registrars within his district. The office of superintendent registrar is usually filled by the clerk to the guardians of the union. He receives quarterly from every registrar within his district certified copies of the births registered by him and having verified their correctness, transmits them to the registrar-general. He takes charge of the register-books within the district, when filled. Every registrar is required to inform himself carefully of every birth which happens within his sub-district and register the same, with the various particulars required, according to the forms laid down for the purpose. It is the duty of the father or mother of any child born alive, or in their default, then of the occupier of the house (if he knows of the birth) or of any person present at the birth or having charge of the child, to give to the registrars, within forty-two days after the day of the birth, information of the particulars required to be registered concerning the birth, and in the presence of the registrar to sign the register. Every person required to give information concerning any birth who wilfully refuses to answer questions put to him by the registrar concerning the particulars required to be registered, or who refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to give information of any birth, becomes liable to a penalty of forty shillings. After three months a birth can only be registered in the presence of the superintendent registrar, and after the expiration of twelve months a birth can only be registered with the written authority of the registrar-general. In the case of an illegitimate child, no person as the father of such child is required to give information, nor is the name of any one entered in the register as the father of such a child, unless at the joint request of the mother and the person who acknowledges himself to be the father. An additional duty is placed upon the father by the Notification of Births Act 1907. By that act it is the duty of the father of a child if he is actually residing in the house where the birth takes place at the time of its occurrence to give notice in writing of the birth to the medical officer of health of the district in which the child is born within thirty-six hours of the birth. The same duty is also imposed upon any person in attendance (i.e.medical practitioner or midwife) upon the mother at the time of or within six hours after the birth. The medical officer of health is then in a position to take such steps, by advice or otherwise, as may, in his opinion lead to the prevention of infant mortality. Notice under the act is given by posting a prepaid letter or postcard to the medical officer of health giving the necessary information. Failure to give notice entails on summary conviction a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings. The act is optional to local authorities, but may be enforced within any area by the Local Government Board. By the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874 and the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, commanding officers of ships trading to or from British ports must, under a penalty, transmit returns of all births occurring on board their ships to the registrar-general of shipping, who furnishes certified copies of such returns to the registrars-general for England, Scotland and Ireland. These returns of births (and deaths) constitute the “Marine Register Book.”
Registration is very efficiently carried out in practically every European country, with the exceptions of Turkey and Russia. In the United States laws requiring registration vary in the different states.
Tax on Birth.—In 1694 an act was passed in England for “granting to His Majesty certain rates and duties upon marriages, births and burials, upon bachelors and widowers for the term of five years, for carrying on the war against France with vigour.” The taxes were graduated, rising from four shillings on the burial of the humblest person to £50 in the case of a duke or duchess. The duty on births varied according to the rank of the parents. A duke paid £30 on the birth of an eldest son, and £25 for every other child; a baronet or knight, £5 for an eldest son, and £1 each for other children. An archbishop or bishop, or a doctor of divinity, law or physic paid £1 for every child; a gentleman having a personal estate of £600 or a real estate worth £50 per annum, paid ten shillings on the birth of each child. Every other person not receiving alms paid a tax of two shillings on the birth of each child. This measure, however, was only temporary, and passed for revenue purposes solely.
See also articlesIllegitimacy;Infanticide;Legitimacy and Legitimation;Population;Succession;Obstetrics, &c.
See also articlesIllegitimacy;Infanticide;Legitimacy and Legitimation;Population;Succession;Obstetrics, &c.
BĪRŪNĪ[Abū-r-Raiḥān Muḥammad al-bīrūnī] (973-1048), Arabian scholar, was born of Persian parentage in Khwārizm (Khiva), and was a Shi‘ite in religion. He devoted his youth to the study of history, chronology, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and medicine. He corresponded with Ibn Sīnā (seeAvicenna), and the answers of the latter are still preserved in the British Museum. For some years he lived in Jurjān, and then went to India, where he remained some years teaching Greek philosophy and learning Indian. In 1017 he was taken by Mahmud of Ghazni to Afghanistan, where he remained until his death in 1048. HisAthār ul-Bākiya(Vestiges of the Past) was published by C.E. Sachau (Leipzig, 1878), and a translation into English under the titleThe Chronology of Ancient Nations(London, 1879). HisHistory of Indiawas published by C.E. Sachau (London, 1887), and an English translation (2 vols., London, 1888). Other works of his, chiefly on mathematics and astronomy, are still in manuscript only.
See C. Brockelmann,Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur(Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 475-476.
See C. Brockelmann,Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur(Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 475-476.
(G. W. T.)
BISALTAE,a Thracian people on the lower Strymon (Struma; Karasu, “black water”), in the district between Amphipolis and Heraclea Sintica on the east and Crestonice on the west. They also made their way into the peninsulas of Acte and Pallene in the south, beyond the river Nestus in the east, and are even said to have raided Cardia. Under a separate king at the time of the Persian wars, they were annexed by Alexander I. (498-454B.C.) to the kingdom of Macedonia. At the division of Macedonia into four districts by the Romans after the battle of Pydna (168) the Bisaltae were included in Macedonia Prima (Livy xlv. 29).
Their country was rich in figs, vines and olive trees; the silver mines in the mountain range of Dysorum brought in a talent a day to their conqueror Alexander. The Bisaltae are referred to by Virgil (Georgics, iii. 461) in connexion with the treatment of the diseases of sheep. The fact that their eponymus is said to have been the son of Helios and Ge points to a very early settlement in the district.
See Smith’sDict. of Greek and Roman Geography; M. Ihm in Pauly-Wissowa’sRealencyclopädie, iii. part i. (1897); W. Tomaschek,Die alien Thraker(Vienna, 1893); and for the coins of the Bisaltic kings, B.V. Head,Historia Numorum, p. 178.
See Smith’sDict. of Greek and Roman Geography; M. Ihm in Pauly-Wissowa’sRealencyclopädie, iii. part i. (1897); W. Tomaschek,Die alien Thraker(Vienna, 1893); and for the coins of the Bisaltic kings, B.V. Head,Historia Numorum, p. 178.
BISCAY(Vizcaya), a maritime province of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by the Bay of Biscay, E. by Guipúzcoa, S. by Álava and W. by Burgos and Santander. Pop. (1900) 311,361; area, 836 sq. m. A small strip of isolated territory within the borders of Biscay, on the west, is officially included in the province of Santander. Biscay is one of the Basque Provinces, and its name is occasionally employed as geographically equivalent to Basque, in that case including the three provinces of Biscay proper, Guipúzcoa and Álava. The coast-line, which extends from Ondarroa to a short distance east of Castro Urdiales, is bold and rugged, and in some places is deeply indented. The surface of the country is for the most part very mountainous, being traversed towards the south by the great Cantabrian chain; but at the same time it is diversified with numerous narrow valleys and small plains. Some of the mountains are almost entirely composed of naked calcareous rock, but most of them were formerly covered to their summits with forests of oaks, chestnuts or pine trees, now destroyed to provide fuel. Holly and arbutus are common, and furze and heath abound in the poorer parts. The only river of any size is the Nervion, Ansa or Ibaizabal, on which Bilbao is situated; the others, which are numerous, are merely large mountain streams. The climate is rather inclement and variable; but the thermometer seldom drops below freezing-point, nor does snow fall frequently in winter except on the highest summits. The rainfall is on an average greater than in any province except those of the extreme north-west. The soil, though not very fertile, except in some of the valleys and sheltered hillsides, produces wheat, maize, barley, rye, flax, grapes, peaches, apples and other fruits. The mountainous slopes of Biscay are studded with the traditional Basquecaserio, or farm-house, in which the peasantry live on themétayersystem, dividing the profits of the soil with absentee landlords. The farms are generally small, and are for the most part tilled by manual labour. The fisheries are actively prosecuted along the coast by a hardy race of fishers, who were the first of their craft in Europe to pursue the whale, formerly abundant in the Bay of Biscay. Cod, bream, tunny and anchovy are the principal fish taken. The fishing fleet consists of several hundred boats, manned by nearly 5000 men and boys. Biscay is very rich in minerals. Iron of the finest quality is found in almost every part, and forms a main article of export. At the beginning of the 20th century an average of about 5,000,000 tons was produced every year, and many large foundries were at work. Lead and zinc are mined in much smaller quantities, alum and sulphur are also present, and marble, lime and sandstone are abundant. Another very important industry is the manufacture of dynamite and other explosives at Baracaldo, closely connected with the mining interests. There are also potteries, paper, soap and shoe factories, flour mills and breweries, and the many mineral springs and spas are frequented by people from all parts of Spain. The mining and industrial interests of Biscay were very materially assisted by the quick and important development of means of communication of every kind. The provincial and parish roads, kept up by the local government, are excellent. No province in Spain had at the beginning of the 20th century such a complete network of railways, all built since 1870.
Bilbao (pop. 83,306), the capital and principal port, and Baracaldo (15,013), an important industrial town, are described in separate articles. Sestao (10,833) is the only other town of more than 10,000 inhabitants; the port of Bermeo (9061) is the chief fishing station; Durango (4319), on the river of the same name, was founded by the early kings of Navarre in the 10th century, obtained the rank of a countship in 1153, and contains one of the oldest churches in the Basque Provinces, San Pedro de Tavira; Guernica (3250), a picturesque village on the river Mondaca, was until 1876 the meeting-place of the provincial parliament. The deputies assembled under an old oak-tree, celebrated by the Basque poet, José Maria Iparraguirre, in a song which is regarded by the Spanish Basques almost as a national anthem. For the history of the Basques, seeBasque Provinces; for their origin, language and customs, seeBasques. The inhabitants of Biscay are intelligent, enterprising and well-educated; and, owing to the uniformly high birth-rate, low death-rate, and very slight loss by emigration, their numbers increased rapidly during the latter part of the 19th century, until in 1900 the density of population (372.4 per sq. m.) was greater than in any other Spanish province.
BISCAY, BAY OF(Fr.Golfe de Gascogne; Sp.Golfo de Vizcaya), an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean; bounded on the E. and N.E. by France, as far as the island of Ushant, and on the S. by Spain as far as Cape Ortegal. The Bay of Biscay is theSinus Aquitanicus,Sinus CantabricusorCantaber Oceanusof the Romans; hence it is sometimes known as the Cantabrian Sea. Its modern English name is a corrupt form of the SpanishVizcaya. The bay forms a fairly regular curve, broken on the French seaboard only by the estuaries of the Loire, Garonne, Adour and other rivers. The rugged Spanish coast is indented by manyfjord-like inlets, especially in the west, where navigation is sometimes difficult and dangerous; but its rivers are comparatively unimportant. The exposed position of the bay, and the diversity of its currents, have rendered it notorious for its storms.
BISCEGLIE(perhaps anc.Natiolum), a seaport and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, on the E.S.E. coast, in the province of Bari, from which it is distant 21½ m. by rail. Pop. (1901) 30,885. Two towers, one some 90 ft. high, of a once strong Norman castle still remain; the cathedral belongs to the same period. The church of S. Margherita, founded in 1197, has fine canopied Gothic tombs of the Falcone family.
BISCHOFSWERDA, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Wesenitz, and at the junction of the Dresden-Görlitz and Bischofswerda-Zittau railways in the governmental district of Bautzen. Pop. (1905) 7465. There are cloth, artificial flower, and cigar factories, glass-works, potteries, and in the neighbourhood large granite quarries. It is famous as the scene of a battle, on the 12th of May 1813, between the French and the Allies after Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. It was the residence of Benno, bishop of Meissen, in the 11th century, and the “Bishop’s Road” still runs from here to Meissen.
BISCHWEILER, a town of Germany, in the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine, district of Lower Alsace, 23 m. by rail N. by E. from Strassburg. Pop. (1900) 7897. It has manufactures of jute and machinery, brewing and iron-founding.
BISCUIT(pronounced according to the old spelling “bisket,” a Fr. form from Lat.bis, twice, andcoctum, cooked, in reference to the original method of preparation; cf. Ital.biscotto, Sp.bizcocho, &c.), a form of unvesiculated bread (q.v.) which is made in thin cakes of various shapes and baked in such a way as to be crisp and short. In the United States of America biscuits of this kind are usually called crackers, but the word biscuit is used there, as also in the north of England, for vesiculated bread baked in little flat loaves or cakes. Earthenware, porcelain, &c., which has undergone its first baking and is ready to be glazed is also known as biscuit or bisque.
The raw material chiefly used in biscuit manufacture is flour, but many other substances, such as butter, sugar, salt, various flavouring essences, &c., are also employed. The flour used by the biscuit-maker differs somewhat from that preferred by the bread-baker. In the main the bread-baker wants flour of some strength, that is to say, flour capable of absorbing a considerable proportion of water and of making a loaf of more or less volume. For biscuits flour strength is not such a desideratum, and as a matter of fact such moisture as is used to make the dough is largely evaporated by the oven; but, except for the commoner kind of biscuits, colour is most essential, as well as sweetness of flavour. In a large biscuit factory several hundred different kinds of biscuits are made, ranging from plain water biscuits to the daintiest fancy biscuits glistening in sugar and piping. The storage required for such an establishment is extensive, but lifts serve to handle both raw material and finished products with a minimum of labour. The flour used by a firm which has a reputation to maintain is sifted as a precaution against the presence of bits of string or other foreign bodies which will make their way into flour sacked by the most careful of millers, and like the butter, sugar and other raw materials, is carefully inspected and tested before being accepted. After blending it is run through a shoot or sleeve to the mixers, which may be of any type used in bakehouses (seeBread). From the mixers or kneaders the dough is delivered on a flat table, or it may go direct to a pair of rolls. These consist of iron rollers with a reversing motion, between which the dough is rolled backwards and forwards into sheets of uniform thickness. The next stage is the feeding of portions of this slab of dough to a cutting and panning machine. In details this apparatus differs as supplied by different makers, but the broad principle is the same in every case. The dough, after first passing through a pair of gauging rollers, which still further thin out the sheet and are capable of regulating its thickness with the utmost nicety, is received by an endless conveyor-band of webbing or similar material. By this band it is carried forward by intermittent motion to a set of punches or stamps which descend on it in quick succession, and serve to mould the surface and cut the edges to the required pattern. This operation completed, the moulded dough passes forward on the same endless band. The dough has now been cut into two distinct divisions, the moulded biscuits and the unworked portion which forms a continuous sheet of a sort of scrap. The latter is separated from the moulded dough, and is carried upwards by another band, which delivers it on a tray or box whence it is returned to the rollers to be reworked. The moulded dough intended for the oven is carried along by the first band and is gently deposited on trays of sheet iron or woven wire. These trays are taken from the machine by boys and placed on the travelling-chains at the oven, or the trays may be automatically moved forward by a travelling-band and placed on the oven. The oven used for biscuit-baking is quite unlike any bread oven. It is much longer and is provided with sets of endless chains moving in parallel lines, and travelling over sprocket-wheel terminals and intermediate supports. The chains have special attachments on which the trays of biscuits are rested, and thus pass them through the oven, and discharge them at the opposite end. Some ovens are provided with a sort of endless belt of iron plates on which the biscuits are placed. These travelling bands are used chiefly for ship and also for dog biscuits, but the most usual type is the oven in which trays are moved on the travelling chains already described. The exact rate of travel, or the time during which the biscuits are in the oven, can be easily adjusted by means of countershafts and leather belts running on cone pulleys fitted at the discharging end. The heat of the oven as well as the rate of travel is varied according to the kind of biscuit, some varieties requiring a gentle heat and a comparatively long sojourn in the oven, while others must be exposed to a fierce heat, but only for a few minutes. The ovens, fired by coke, may be 38 to 50 ft. in length. Their temperature is not generally raised above 500 degrees, but the speed of travel of the trays ranges between 3½ and 25 minutes. The whole process of biscuit-making is thus rapid and continuous. The dough is kneaded in the mixers in a few minutes, and when discharged on the dough table is rapidly moulded into the required form by the cutter and panner. By means of endless bands the material is kept moving forwards, whether on the cutter, or in the oven. For certain fancy biscuits special processes are used. Piping and sugar decoration is still necessarily done by hand, and the glaze on some fancy biscuits is imparted by spraying the moulded biscuit with very fine jets of fresh milk. Cracknels are made from a very stiff dough, and when cut out are thrown into coppers of boiling water. They speedily float to the top, remaining apart and not forming into groups. From these coppers they are taken out in trays pierced so as to drain off the water. Then they go into vats of cold water, from which they are again removed, and after being strained of their moisture are panned and baked in a fierce oven.