Chapter 16

See A. Kippis,Biographia Britannica(1780), vol. ii. For an account of Blount’s family see Robert Clutterbuck.History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford(1815), vol. i. pp. 207-212.

BLOUNT, WILLIAM(1749-1800), American politician, was born in Bertie county, North Carolina, on the 26th of March 1749. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1783-1784 and again in 1786-1787, of the constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787, and of the state convention which ratified the Federal constitution for North Carolina in 1789. From 1790 until 1796 he was, by President Washington’s appointment, governor of the “Territory South of the Ohio River,” created out of land ceded to the national government by North Carolina in 1789. He was also during this period the superintendent of Indian affairs for this part of the country. In 1791 he laid out Knoxville (Tennessee) as the seat of government. He presided over the constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1796, and, on the state being admitted to the Union, became one of its first representatives in the United States Senate. In 1797 his connexion became known with a scheme, since called “Blount’s Conspiracy,” which provided for the co-operation of the American frontiersmen, assisted by Indians, and an English force, in the seizure on behalf of Great Britain of the Floridas and Louisiana, then owned by Spain, with which power England was then at war. As this scheme, if carried out, involved the corrupting of two officials of the United States, an Indian agent and an interpreter, a breach of the neutrality of the United States, and the breach of Article V. of the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real (signed on the 27th of October 1795) between the United States and Spain, by which each power agreed not to incite the Indians to attack the other, Blount was impeached by the House of Representatives on the 7th of July 1797, and on the following day was formally expelled from the Senate for “having been guilty of high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty as a senator.” On the 29th of January 1798 articles of impeachment were adopted by the House of Representatives. On the 14th of January 1799, however, the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, decided that it had no jurisdiction, Blount not then being a member of the Senate, and, in the Senate’s opinion, not having been, even as a member, a civil officer of the United States, within the meaning of the constitution. The case is significant as being the first case of impeachment brought before the United States Senate. “In a legal point of view, all that the case decides is that a senator of the United States who has been expelled from his seat is not after such expulsion subject to impeachment” (Francis Wharton,State Trials). In effect, however, it also decided that a member of Congress was not in the meaning of the constitution a civil officer of the United States and therefore could not be impeached. The “conspiracy” was disavowed by the British government, which, however, seems to have secretly favoured it. Blount was enthusiastically supported by his constituents, and upon his return to Tennessee was made a member and the presiding officer of the state senate. He died at Knoxville on the 21st of March 1800.

For a defence of Blount, see General Marcus J. Wright’sAccount of the Life and Services of William Blount(Washington, D.C., 1884).

BLOUSE,a word (taken from the French) used for any loosely fitting bodice belted at the waist. In France it meant originally the loose upper garment of linen or cotton, generally blue, worn by French workmen to preserve their clothing, and, by transference, the workman himself.

BLOW, JOHN(1648-1708), English musical composer, was born in 1648, probably at North Collingham in Nottinghamshire. He became a chorister of the chapel royal, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in music; he composed several anthems at an unusually early age, includingLord, Thou hast been our refuge; Lord, rebuke me not; and the so-called “club anthem,”I will always give thanks, the last in collaboration with Pelham Humphrey and William Turner, either in honour of a victory over the Dutch in 1665, or—more probably—simply to commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers. To this time also belongs the composition of a two-part setting of Herrick’sGoe, perjur’d man, written at the request of Charles II. to imitate Carissimi’sDite, o cieli. In 1669 Blow became organist of Westminster Abbey. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the chapel royal, and in the September of this year he was married to Elizabeth Braddock, who died in childbirth ten years later. Blow, who by the year 1678 was a doctor of music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James II. Between 1680 and 1687 he wrote the only stage composition by him of which any record survives, theMasque for the Entertainment of the King: Venus and Adonis. In this Mary Davies played the part of Venus, and her daughter by Charles II., Lady Mary Tudor, appeared as Cupid. In 1687 he became master of the choir of St Paul’s church; in 1695 he was elected organist of St Margaret’s, Westminster, and is said to have resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1680 he had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1699 he was appointed to the newly created post of composer to the chapel royal. Fourteen services and more than a hundred anthems by Blow are extant. In addition to his purely ecclesiastical music Blow wroteGreat sir, the joy of all our hearts, an ode for New Year’s day 1681-1682; similar compositions for 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1693 (?), 1694 and 1700; odes, &c., for the celebration of St Cecilia’s day for 1684, 1691, 1695 and 1700; for the coronation of James II. two anthems,Behold, O God, our Defender, andGod spake sometimes in visions; some harpsichord pieces for the second part of Playford’sMusick’s Handmaid(1869);Epicedium for Queen Mary(1695);Ode on the Death of Purcell(1696). In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of music for one, two, three and four voices, with a figured-bass accompaniment. A famous page in Burney’sHistory of Musicis devoted to illustrations of “Dr Blow’s Crudities,” most of which only show the meritorious if immature efforts in expression characteristic of English music at the time, while some of them (where Burney says “Here we are lost”) are really excellent. Blow died on the 1st of October 1708 at his house in Broad Sanctuary, and was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey.

BLOW-GUN,a weapon consisting of a long tube, through which, by blowing with the mouth, arrows or other missiles can be shot accurately to a considerable distance. Blow-guns are used both in warefare and the chase by the South American Indian tribes inhabiting the region between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and by the Dyaks of Borneo. In the 18th century they were also known to certain North American Indians, especially the Choctaws and Cherokees of the lower Mississippi. Captain Bossu, in hisTravels through Louisiana(1756), says of the Choctaws: “They are very expert in shooting with an instrument made of reeds about 7 ft. long, into which they put a little arrow feathered with the wool of the thistle (wild cotton?).” The blow-guns of the South American Indians differ in style and workmanship. That of the Macusis of Guiana, calledpucuna, is the most perfect. It is made of two tubes, the inner of which, calledoorah, is a light reed ½ in. in diameter which often grows to a length of 15 ft. without a joint. This is enclosed, for protection and solidity, in an outer tube of a variety of palm (Iriartella setigera). The mouth-piece is made of a circlet of silk-grass, and the farther end is feruled with a kind of nut, forming a sight. A rear open sight is formed of two teeth of a small rodent. The length of thepucunais about 11 ft. and its weight 1½ ℔ The arrows, which are from 12 to 18 in. long and very slender, are made of ribs of the cocorite palm-leaf. They are usually feathered with a tuft of wild cotton, but some have in place of the cotton a thin strip of bark curled into a cone, which, when the shooter blows into thepucuna, expands and completely fills the tube, thus avoiding windage. Another kind of arrow is furnished with fibres of bark fixed along the shaft, imparting a rotary motion to the missile, a primitive example of the theory of the rifle. The arrows used in Peru are only a few inches long and as thin as fine knitting-needles. All South American blow-gun arrows are steeped in poison. The natives shoot very accurately with thepucunaat distances up to 50 or 60 yds.

The blow-gun of the Borneo Dyaks, calledsumpitan, is from6 to 7 ft. long and made of ironwood. The bore, of ½ in., is made with a long pointed piece of iron. At the muzzle a small iron hook is affixed, to serve as a sight, as well as a spear-head like a bayonet and for the same purpose. The arrows used with thesumpitanare about 10 in. long, pointed with fish-teeth, and feathered with pith. They are also envenomed with poison.

Poisoned arrows are also used by the natives of the Philippine island of Mindanao, whose blow-pipes, from 3 to 4 ft. long and made of bamboo, are often richly ornamented and even jewelled.

The principle of the blow-gun is, of course, the same as that of the common “pea-shooter.”

SeeSport with Rod and Gun in American Woods and Waters, by A.M. Mayer, vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1884);Wanderings in South America, &c., by Charles Waterton (London, 1828);The Head Hunters of Borneo, by Carl Bock (London, 1881).

BLOWITZ, HENRI GEORGES STEPHAN ADOLPHE DE(1825-1903), Anglo-French journalist, was born, according to the account given in his memoirs, at his father’s chateau in Bohemia on the 28th of December 1825. At the age of fifteen he left home, and travelled over Europe for some years in company with a young professor of philology, acquiring a thorough knowledge of French, German and Italian and a mixed general education. The finances of his family becoming straitened, young Blowitz was on the point of starting to seek his fortune in America, when he became acquainted in Paris with M. de Falloux, minister of public instruction, who appointed him professor of foreign languages at the Tours Lycée, whence, after some years, he was transferred to the Marseilles Lycée. After marrying in 1859 he resigned his professorship, but remained at Marseilles, devoting himself to literature and politics. In 1869 information which he supplied to a legitimist newspaper at Marseilles with regard to the candidature of M. de Lesseps as deputy for that city led to a demand for his expulsion from France. He was, however, allowed to remain, but had to retire to the country. In 1870 his predictions of the approaching fall of the Empire caused the demand for his expulsion to be renewed. While his case was under discussion the battle of Sedan was fought, and Blowitz effectually ingratiated himself with the authorities by applying for naturalization as a French subject. Once naturalized, he returned to Marseilles, where he was fortunately able to render considerable service to Thiers, who subsequently employed him in collecting information at Versailles, and when this work was finished offered him the French consulship at Riga. Blowitz was on the point of accepting this post when Laurence Oliphant, then Paris correspondent ofThe Times, for which Blowitz had already done some occasional work, asked him to act as his regular assistant for a time, Frederick Hardman, the other Paris correspondent ofThe Times, being absent. Blowitz accepted the offer, and when, later on, Oliphant was succeeded by Hardman he remained as assistant correspondent. In 1873 Hardman died, and Blowitz became chief Paris correspondent toThe Times. In this capacity he soon became famous in the world of journalism and diplomacy. In 1875 the duc de Decazcs, then French foreign minister, showed Blowitz a confidential despatch from the French ambassador in Berlin (in which the latter warned his government that Germany was contemplating an attack on France), and requested the correspondent to expose the German designs inThe Times. The publication of the facts effectually aroused European public opinion, and any such intention was immediately thwarted. Blowitz’s most sensational journalistic feat was achieved in 1878, when his enterprise enabledThe Timesto publish the whole text of the treaty of Berlin at the actual moment that the treaty was being signed in Germany. In 1877 and again in 1888 Blowitz rendered considerable service to the French government by his exposure of internal designs upon the Republic. He died on the 18th of January 1903.

My Memoirs, by H.S. de Blowitz, was published in 1903.

BLOWPIPE,in the arts and chemistry, a tube for directing a jet of air into a fire or into the flame of a lamp or gas jet, for the purpose of producing a high temperature by accelerating the combustion. The blowpipe has been in common use from the earliest times for soldering metals and working glass, but its introduction into systematic chemical analysis is to be ascribed to A.F. Cronstedt, and not to Anton Swab, as has been maintained (see J. Landauer,Ber. 26, p. 898). The first work on this application of the blowpipe was by G. v. Engeström, and was published in 1770 as an appendix to a treatise on mineralogy. Its application has been variously improved at the hands of T.O. Bergman, J.G. Gahn, J.J. Berzelius, C.F. Plattner and others, but more especially by the two last-named chemists.

The simplest and oldest form of blowpipe is a conical brass tube, about 7 in. in length, curved at the small end into a right angle, and terminating in a small round orifice, which is applied to the flame, while the larger end is applied to the mouth. Where the blast has to be kept up for only a few seconds, this instrument is quite serviceable, but in longer chemical operations inconvenience arises from the condensation of moisture exhaled by the lungs in the tube. Hence most blowpipes are now made with a cavity for retaining the moisture. Cronstedt placed a bulb in the centre of his blowpipe. Dr Joseph Black’s instrument consists of a conical tube of tin plate, with a small brass tube, supporting the nozzle, inserted near the wider end, and a mouth-piece at the narrow end.

The sizes of orifice recommended by Plattner are 0.4 and 0.5 mm. A trumpet mouth-piece is recommended from the support it gives to the cheeks when inflated. The mode of blowing is peculiar, and requires some practice; an uninterrupted blast is kept up by the muscular action of the cheeks, while the ordinary respiration goes on through the nostrils.

If the flame of a candle or lamp be closely examined, it will be seen to consist of four parts—(a) a deep blue ring at the base, (b) a dark cone in the centre, (c) a luminous portion round this, and (d) an exterior pale blue envelope (seeFlame). In blowpipe work only two of these four parts are made use of, viz. the pale envelope, for oxidation, and the luminous portion, for reduction. To obtain a goodoxidizing flame, the blowpipe is held with its nozzle inserted in the edge of the flame close over the level of the wick, and blown into gently and evenly. A conical jet is thus produced, consisting of an inner cone, with an outer one commencing near its apex—the former, corresponding to (a) in the free flame, blue and well defined; the latter corresponding to (d), pale blue and vague. The heat is greatest just beyond the point of the inner cone, combustion being there most complete. Oxidation is better effected (if a very high temperature be not required) the farther the substance is from the apex of the inner cone, for the air has thus freer access. To obtain a goodreducing flame(in which the combustible matter, very hot, but not yet burned, is disposed to take oxygen from any compound containing it), the nozzle, with smaller orifice, should just touch the flame at a point higher above the wick, and a somewhat weaker current of air should be blown. The flame then appears as a long, narrow, luminous cone, the end being enveloped by a dimly visible portion of flame corresponding to that which surrounds the free flame, while there is also a dark nucleus about the wick. The substance to be reduced is brought into the luminous portion, where the reducing power is strongest.

Various materials are used as supports for substances in the blowpipe flame; the principal are charcoal, platinum and glass or porcelain. Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing the fusibility of minerals and in reduction. The best kind of charcoal is that of close-grained pine or alder; it is cut in short prisms, having a flat smooth surface at right angles to the rings of growth. In this a shallow hole is made for receiving the substance to be held in the flame. Gas-carbon is sometimes used, since it is more permanent in the flame than wood charcoal.Platinumis employed in oxidizing processes, and in the fusion of substances with fluxes; also in observing the colouring effect of substances on the blowpipe flame (which effect is apt to be somewhat masked by charcoal). Most commonly it is used in the form of wire, with a small bend or loop at the end.

The mouth blowpipe is unsuitable for the production of a large flame, and cannot be used for any lengthy operations; hence recourse must be made to types in which the air-blast is occasioned by mechanical means. The laboratory form in common use consists of a bellows worked by either hand or foot, and a special type of gas burner formed of two concentric tubes, one conveying the blast, the other the gas; the supply of air and gas being regulated by stopcocks. Thehot blast blowpipeof T. Fletcher, in which the blast is heated by passing through a copper coil heated by a separate burner, is only of service when a pointed flame of a fairly high temperature is required. Blowpipes in which oxygen is used as the blast have been manufactured by Fletcher, Russell & Co., and have proved of great service in conducting fusions which require a temperature above that yielded by the air-blowpipe.

For the applications of the blowpipe in chemical analysis seeChemistry:Analytical.

BLÜCHER, GEBHARD LEBERECHT VON(1742-1819), Prussian general field marshal, prince of Wahlstadt in Silesia, was born at Rostock on the 16th of December 1742. In his fourteenth year he entered the service of Sweden, and in the Pomeranian campaign of 1760 he was taken prisoner by the Prussians. He was persuaded by his captors to enter the Prussian service. He took part in the later battles of the Seven Years’ War, and as a hussar officer gained much experience of light cavalry work. In peace, however, his ardent spirit led him into excesses of all kinds, and being passed over for promotion he sent in his resignation, to which Frederick replied, “Captain Blücher can take himself to the devil” (1773). He now settled down to farming, and in fifteen years he had acquired an honourable independence. But he was unable to return to the army until after the death of Frederick the Great. He was then reinstated as major in his old regiment, the Red Hussars. He took part in the expedition to Holland in 1787, and in the following year became lieutenant-colonel. In 1789 he received the orderpour le mérite, and in 1794 he became colonel of the Red Hussars. In 1793 and 1794 he distinguished himself in cavalry actions against the French, and for his success at Kirrweiler he was made a major-general. In 1801 he was promoted lieutenant-general.

He was one of the leaders of the war party in Prussia in 1805-1806, and served as a cavalry general in the disastrous campaign of the latter year. At Auerstädt Blücher repeatedly charged at the head of the Prussian cavalry, but without success. In the retreat of the broken armies he commanded the rearguard of Prince Hohenlohe’s corps, and upon the capitulation of the main body of Prenzlau he carried off a remnant of the Prussian army to the northward, and in the neighbourhood of Lübeck he fought a series of combats, which, however, ended in his being forced to surrender at Ratkau (November 7, 1806). His adversaries testified in his capitulation that it was caused by “want of provisions and ammunition.” He was soon exchanged for General Victor, and was actively employed in Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Königsberg until the conclusion of the war. After the war, Blücher was looked upon as the natural leader of the patriot party, with which he was in close touch during the period of Napoleonic domination. His hopes of an alliance with Austria in the war of 1809 were disappointed. In this year he was made general of cavalry. In 1812 he expressed himself so openly on the alliance of Russia with France that he was recalled from his military governorship of Pomerania and virtually banished from the court.

When at last the Napoleonic domination was ended by the outbreak of the War of Liberation in 1813, Blücher of course was at once placed in high command, and he was present at Lützen and Bautzen. During the armistice he worked at the organization of the Prussian forces, and when the war was resumed Blücher became commander-in-chief of the Army of Silesia, with Gneisenau and Müffling as his principal staff officers, and 40,000 Prussians and 50,000 Russians under his control. The autumn campaign of 1813 will be found described in the articleNapoleonic Campaigns, and it will here be sufficient to say that the most conspicuous military quality displayed by Blücher was his unrelenting energy. The irresolution and divergence of interests usual in allied armies found in him a restless opponent, and the knowledge that if he could not induce others to co-operate he was prepared to attempt the task in hand by himself often caused other generals to follow his lead. He defeated Marshal Macdonald at the Katzbach, and by his victory over Marmont at Möckern led the way to the decisive overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig, which place was stormed by Blücher’s own army on the evening of the last day of the battle. On the day of Mockern (October 16, 1813) Blücher was made a general field marshal, and after the victory he pursued the routed French with his accustomed energy. In the winter of 1813-1814 Blücher, with his chief staff officers, was mainly instrumental in inducing the allied sovereigns to carry the war into France itself. The combat of Brienne and the battle of La Rothière were the chief incidents of the first stage of the celebrated campaign of 1814, and they were quickly followed by the victories of Napoleon over Blücher at Champaubert, Vauxchamps and Montmirail. But the courage of the Prussian leader was undiminished, and his great victory of Laon (March 9 to 10) practically decided the fate of the campaign. After this Blücher infused some of his own energy into the operations of Prince Schwarzenberg’s Army of Bohemia, and at last this army and the Army of Silesia marched in one body direct upon Paris. The victory of Montmartre, the entry of the allies into the French capital, and the overthrow of the First Empire were the direct consequences. Blücher was disposed to make a severe retaliation upon Paris for the calamities that Prussia had suffered from the armies of France had not the allied commanders intervened to prevent it. Blowing up the bridge of Jena was said to be one of his contemplated acts. On the 3rd of June 1814 he was made prince of Wahlstadt (in Silesia on the Katzbach battlefield), and soon afterwards he paid a visit to England, being received everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm.

After the peace he retired to Silesia, but the return of Napoleon soon called him to further service. He was put in command of the Army of the Lower Rhine with General Gneisenau as his chief of staff (seeWaterloo Campaign). In the campaign of 1815 the Prussians sustained a very severe defeat at the outset at Ligny (June 16), in the course of which the old field marshal was ridden over by cavalry charges, his life being saved only by the devotion of his aide-de-camp, Count Nostitz. He was unable to resume command for some hours, and Gneisenau drew off the defeated army. The relations of the Prussian and the English headquarters were at this time very complicated, and it is uncertain whether Blücher himself was responsible for the daring resolution to march to Wellington’s assistance. This was in fact done, and after an incredibly severe march Blücher’s army intervened with decisive and crushing effect in the battle of Waterloo. The great victory was converted into a success absolutely decisive of the war by the relentless pursuit of the Prussians, and the allies re-entered Paris on the 7th of July. Prince Blücher remained in the French capital for some months, but his age and infirmities compelled him to retire to his Silesian residence at Krieblowitz, where he died on the 12th of September 1819, aged seventy-seven. He retained to the end of his life that wildness of character and proneness to excesses which had caused his dismissal from the army in his youth, but however they may be regarded, these faults sprang always from the ardent and vivid temperament which made Blücher a dashing leader of horse. The qualities which made him a great general were his patriotism and the hatred of French domination which inspired every success of the War of Liberation. He was twice married, and had, by his first marriage, two sons and a daughter. Statues were erected to his memory at Berlin, Breslau and Rostock.

Of the various lives of Prince Blücher, that by Varnhagen von Ense (1827) is the most important. His war diaries of 1793-1794, together with a memoir (written in 1805) on the subject of a national army, were edited by Golz and Ribbentrop (Campagne Journal 1793-4 vonGl. Lt. v. Blücher).

BLUE(common in different forms to most European languages), the name of a colour, used in many colloquialphrases. From the fact of various parties, political and other, having adopted the colour blue as their badge, various classes of people have come to be known as “blue” or “blues”; thus “true blue” meant originally a staunch Presbyterian, the Covenanters having adopted blue as their colour as opposed to red, the royal colour; similarly, in the navy, there was in the 18th century a “Blue Squadron,” Nelson being at one time “Rear-Admiral of the Blue”; again, in 1690, the Royal Horse Guards were called the “Blues” from their blue uniforms, or, from their leader, the earl of Oxford, the “Oxford Blues”; also, from the blue ribbon worn by the knights of the Garter comes the use of the phrase as the highest mark of distinction that can be worn, especially applied on the turf to the winning of the Derby. The “blue Peter” is a rectangular blue flag, with a white square in the centre, hoisted at the top of the foremast as a signal that a vessel is about to leave port. At Oxford and Cambridge a man who represents his university in certain athletic sports is called a “blue” from the “colours” he is then entitled to wear, dark blue for Oxford and light blue for Cambridge.

BLUEBEARD,the monster of Charles Perrault’s tale ofBarbe Bleue, who murdered his wives and hid their bodies in a locked room. Perrault’s tale was first printed in hisHistoires et contes dutempspassé(1697). The essentials of the story—Bluebeard’s prohibition to his wife to open a certain door during his absence, her disobedience, her discovery of a gruesome secret, and her timely rescue from death—are to be found in other folklore stories, none of which, however, has attained the fame ofBluebeard. A close parallel exists in an Esthonian legend of a husband who had already killed eleven wives, and was prevented from killing the twelfth, who had opened a secret room, by a gooseherd, the friend of her childhood. In “The Feather Bird” of Grimm’sHausmärchen, three sisters are the victims, the third being rescued by her brothers. Bluebeard, though Perrault does not state the number of his crimes, is generally credited with the murder of seven wives. His history belongs to the common stock of folklore, and has even been ingeniously fitted with a mythical interpretation. In France the Bluebeard legend has its local habitation in Brittany, but whether the existing traditions connecting him with Gilles de Rais (q.v.) or Comorre the Cursed, a Breton chief of the 6th century, were anterior to Perrault’s time, we have no means of determining. The identification of Bluebeard with Gilles de Rais, thebête d’exterminationof Michelet’s forcible language, persists locally in the neighbourhood of the various castles of the baron, especially at Machecoul and Tiffauges, the chief scenes of his infamous crimes. Gilles de Rais, however, had only one wife, who survived him, and his victims were in the majority of cases young boys. The traditional connexion may arise simply from the not improbable association of two monstrous tales. The less widespread identification of Bluebeard with Comorre is supported by a series of frescoes dating only a few years later than the publication of Perrault’s story, in a chapel at St Nicolas de Bieuzy dedicated to St Tryphine, in which the tale of Bluebeard is depicted as the story of the saint, who in history was the wife of Comorre. Comorre or Conomor had his original headquarters at Carhaix, in Finistère. He extended his authority by marriage with the widow of Iona, chief of Domnonia, and attempted the life of his stepson Judwal, who fled to the Frankish court. About 547 or 548 he obtained in marriage, through the intercession of St Gildas, Tryphine, daughter of Weroc, count of Vannes. The pair lived in peace at Castel Finans for some time, but Comorre, disappointed in his ambitions in the Vannetais, presently threatened Tryphine. She took flight, but her husband found her hiding in a wood, when he gave her a wound on the skull and left her for dead. She was tended and restored to health by St Gildas, and after the birth of her son retired to a convent of her own foundation. Eventually Comorre was defeated and slain by Judwal. In legend St Tryphine was decapitated and miraculously restored to life by Gildas. Alain Bouchard (Grandes croniques, Nantes, 1531) asserts that Comorre had already put several wives to death before he married Tryphine. In theLégendes bretonnesof the count d’Amezeuil the church legend becomes a charming fairy tale.

See also E.A. Vizetclly,Bluebeard(1902); E. Sidney Hartland, “The Forbidden Chamber,” inFolklore, vol. iii. (1885); and the editions of theContesof Charles Perrault (q.v.). Cf. A. France,Les Sept Femmes de Barbe Bleue(1909).

BLUE-BOOK,the general name given to the reports and other documents printed by order of the parliament of the United Kingdom, so called from their being usually covered with blue paper, though some are bound in drab and others have white covers. The printing of its proceedings was first adopted by the House of Commons in 1681, and in 1836 was commenced the practice of selling parliamentary papers to the public. All notices of questions, resolutions, votes and proceedings in both Houses of Parliament are issued each day during the session; other publications include the various papers issued by the different government departments, the reports of committees and commissions of inquiry, public bills, as well as returns, correspondence, &c., specially ordered to be printed by either house. The papers of each session are so arranged as to admit of being bound up in regular order, and are well indexed. The terms upon which blue-books, single papers, &c., are issued to the general public are one halfpenny per sheet of four pages, but for an annual subscription of £20 all the parliamentary publications of the year may be obtained; but subscriptions can be arranged so that almost any particular class of publication can be obtained—for example, the daily votes and proceedings can be obtained for an annual subscription of £3, the House of Lords papers for £10, or the House of Commons papers for £15. Any publication can also be purchased separately.

Most foreign countries have a distinctive colour for the binding of their official publications. That of the United Slates varies, but foreign diplomatic correspondence is bound in red. The United States government publications are not only on sale (as a rule) but are widely supplied gratis, with the result that important publications soon get out of print, and it is difficult to obtain access to many valuable reports or other information, except at a public library. German official publications are bound in white; French, in yellow; Austrian, in red; Portuguese, in white; Italian, in green; Spanish, in red; Mexican, in green; Japanese, in grey; Chinese, in yellow.

BLUESTOCKING,a derisive name for a literary woman. The term originated in or about 1750, when Mrs Elizabeth Montagu (q.v.) made a determined effort to introduce into society a healthier and more intellectual tone, by holding assemblies at which literary conversation and discussions were to take the place of cards and gossip. Most of those attending were conspicuous by the plainness of their dress, and a Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet specially caused comment by always wearing blue or worsted stockings instead of the usual black silk. It was in special reference to him that Mrs Montagu’s friends were called the Bluestocking Society or Club, and the women frequenting her house in Hill Street came to be known as the “Bluestocking Ladies” or simply “bluestockings.” As an alternative explanation, the origin of the name is attributed to Mrs Montagu’s deliberate adoption of blue stockings (in which fashion she was followed by all her women friends) as the badge of the society she wished to form. She is said to have obtained the idea from Paris, where in the 17th century there was a revival of a social reunion in 1590 on the lines of that formed in 1400 at Venice, the ladies and men of which wore blue stockings. The term had been applied in England as early as 1653 to the Little Parliament, in allusion to the puritanically plain and coarse dress of the members.

BLUFF(a word of uncertain origin; possibly connected with an obsolete Dutch word,blaf, broad), an adjective used of a ship, meaning broad and nearly vertical in the bows; similarly, of a cliff or shore, presenting a bold and nearly perpendicular front; of a person, good-natured and frank, with a rough or abrupt manner. Another word “bluff,” perhaps connected with Germanverblüffen, to baffle, meant originally a horse’s blinker, the corresponding verb meaning to blindfold: it survivesas a term in such games as poker, where “to bluff” means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe it to be stronger than it is; hence such phrases as “the game of bluff,” “a policy of bluff.”

BLUM, ROBERT FREDERICK(1857-1903), American artist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th of July 1857. He was employed for a time in a lithographic shop, and studied at the McMicken Art School of Design in Cincinnati, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but he was practically self-taught, and early showed great and original talent. He settled in New York in 1879, and his first published sketches—of Japanese jugglers—appeared inSt Nicholas. His most important work is a large frieze in the Mendelssohn Music Hall, New York, “Music and the Dance” (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the Century magazine attracted wide attention, as did his illustrations for Sir Edwin Arnold’sJaponica. In the country and art of Japan he had been interested for many years. “A Daughter of Japan,” drawn by Blum and W.J. Baer, was the cover ofScribner’s Magazinefor May 1893, and was one of the earliest pieces of colour-printing for an American magazine. InScribner’sfor 1893 appeared also his “Artist’s Letters from Japan.” He was an admirer of Fortuny, whose methods somewhat influenced his work. Blum’s Venetian pictures, such as “A Bright Day at Venice” (1882), had lively charm and beauty. He died on the 8th of June 1903 in New York City. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, being elected after his exhibition in 1892 of “The Ameya”; and was president of the Painters in Pastel. Although an excellent draughtsman and etcher, it was as a colourist that he chiefly excelled.

BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH(1752-1840), German physiologist and anthropologist, was born at Gotha on the 11th of May 1752. After studying medicine at Jena, he graduated doctor at Göttingen in 1775, and was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in 1776 and ordinary professor in 1778. He died at Göttingen on the 22nd of January 1840. He was the author ofInstitutiones Physiologicae(1787), and of aHandbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie(1804), both of which were very popular and went through many editions, but he is best known for his work in connexion with anthropology, of which science he has been justly called the founder. He was the first to show the value of comparative anatomy in the study of man’s history, and his craniometrical researches justified his division of the human race into several great varieties or families, of which he enumerated five—the Caucasian or white race, the Mongolian or yellow, the Malayan or brown race, the Negro or black race, and the American or red race. This classification has been very generally received, and most later schemes have been modifications of it. His most important anthropological work was his description of sixty human crania published originally infasciculiunder the titleCollectionis suae craniorum diversarum gentium illustratae decades(Göttingen, 1790-1828).

BLUMENTHAL, LEONHARD,Count von(1810-1900), Prussian field marshal, son of Captain Ludwig von Blumenthal (killed in 1813 at the battle of Dennewitz), was born at Schwedt-on-Oder on the 30th of July 1810. Educated at the military schools of Culm and Berlin, he entered the Guards as 2nd lieutenant in 1827. After serving in the Rhine provinces, he joined the topographical division of the general staff in 1846. As lieutenant of the 31st foot he took part in 1848 in the suppression of the Berlin riots, and in 1849 was promoted captain on the general staff. The same year he served on the staff of General von Bonin in the Schleswig-Holstein campaign, and so distinguished himself, particularly at Fredericia, that he was appointed chief of the staff of the Schleswig-Holstein army. In 1850 he was general staff officer of the mobile division under von Tietzen in Hesse-Cassel. He was sent on a mission to England in that year (4th class of Red Eagle), and on several subsequent occasions. Having attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he was appointed personal adjutant to Prince Frederick Charles in 1859. In 1860 he became colonel of the 31st, and later of the 71st, regiment. He was chief of the staff of the III. army corps when, on the outbreak of the Danish War of 1864, he was nominated chief of the general staff of the army against Denmark, and displayed so much ability, particularly at Düppel and the passage to Alsen island, that he was promoted major-general and given the orderpour le mérite. In the war of 1866 Blumenthal occupied the post of chief of the general staff to the crown prince of Prussia, commanding the 2nd army. It was upon this army that the brunt of the fighting fell, and at Königgrätz it decided the fortunes of the day. Blumenthal’s own part in these battles and in the campaign generally was most conspicuous. On the field of Königgrätz the crown prince said to his chief of staff, “I know to whom I owe the conduct of my army,” and Blumenthal soon received promotion to lieutenant-general and the oak-leaf of the orderpour le mérite. He was also made a knight of the Hohenzollern Order. From 1866 to 1870 he commanded the 14th division at Düsseldorf. In the Franco-German War of 1870-71 he was chief of staff of the 3rd army under the crown prince. Blumenthal’s soldierly qualities and talent were never more conspicuous than in the critical days preceding the battle of Sedan, and his services in the war have been considered as scarcely less valuable and important than those of Moltke himself. In 1871 Blumenthal represented Germany at the British manoeuvres at Chobham, and was given the command of the IV. army corps at Magdeburg. In 1873 he became a general of infantry, and ten years later he was made a count. In 1888 he was made a general field marshal, after which he was in command of the 4th and 3rd army inspections. He retired in 1896, and died at Quellendorf near Köthen on the 21st of December 1900.

Blumenthal’s diary of 1866 and 1870-1871 has been edited by his son, Count Albrecht von Blumenthal (Tagebuch des G.F.M. von Blumenthal), 1902; an English translation (Journals of Count von Blumenthal) was published in 1903.

BLUNDERBUSS(a corruption of the Dutchdonder, thunder, and the Dutchbus; cf. Ger.Büchse, a box or tube, hence a thunder-box or gun), an obsolete muzzle-loading firearm with a bell-shaped muzzle. Its calibre was large so that it could contain many balls or slugs, and it was intended to be fired at a short range, so that some of the charge was sure to take effect. The word is also used by analogy to describe a blundering and random person or talker.

BLUNT, JOHN HENRY(1823-1884), English divine, was born at Chelsea in 1823, and before going to the university of Durham in 1850 was for some years engaged in business as a manufacturing chemist. He was ordained in 1852 and took his M.A. degree in 1855, publishing in the same year a work onThe Atonement. He held in succession several preferments, among them the vicarage of Kennington near Oxford (1868), which he vacated in 1873 for the crown living of Beverston in Gloucestershire. He had already gained some reputation as an industrious theologian, and had published among other works an annotated edition of the Prayer Book (1867), aHistory of the English Reformation(1868), and aBook of Church Law(1872), as well as a usefulDictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology(1870). The continuation of these labours was seen in aDictionary of Sects and Heresies(1874), anAnnotated Bible(3 vols., 1878-1879), and aCyclopaedia of Religion(1884), and received recognition in the shape of the D.D. degree bestowed on him in 1882. He died in London on the 11th of April 1884.

BLUNT, JOHN JAMES(1794-1855), English divine, was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, and educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he took his degree as fifteenth wrangler and obtained a fellowship (1816). He was appointed a Wort’s travelling bachelor 1818, and spent some time in Italy and Sicily, afterwards publishing an account of his journey. He proceeded M.A. in 1819, B.D. 1826, and was Hulsean Lecturer in 1831-1832 while holding a curacy in Shropshire. In 1834 he became rector of Great Oakley in Essex, and in 1839 was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge. In 1854 he declined the see of Salisbury, and he died on the 18th of June 1855. His chief book wasUndesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and New Testaments(1833; fuller edition, 1847). Some of his writings, among them theHistory of the Christian Church during the First Three Centuriesand the lecturesOn the Right Use of the Early Fathers, were published posthumously.

A short memoir of him appeared in 1856 from the hand of William Selwyn, his successor in the divinity professorship.

BLUNT, WILFRID SCAWEN(1840- ), English poet and publicist, was born on the 17th of August 1840 at Petworth House, Sussex, the son of Francis Scawen Blunt, who served in the Peninsular War and was wounded at Corunna. He was educated at Stonyhurst and Oscott, and entered the diplomatic service in 1858, serving successively at Athens, Madrid, Paris and Lisbon. In 1867 he was sent to South America, and on his return to England retired from the service on his marriage with Lady Anne Noel, daughter of the earl of Lovelace and a grand-daughter of the poet Byron. In 1872 he succeeded, by the death of his elder brother, to the estate of Crabbet Park, Sussex, where he established a famous stud for the breeding of Arab horses. Mr and Lady Anne Blunt travelled repeatedly in northern Africa, Asia Minor and Arabia, two of their expeditions being described in Lady Anne’sBedouins of the Euphrates(2 vols., 1879) andA Pilgrimage to Nejd(2 vols., 1881). Mr Blunt became known as an ardent sympathizer with Mahommedan aspirations, and in hisFuture of Islam(1888) he directed attention to the forces which afterwards produced the movements of Pan-Islamism and Mahdism. He was a violent opponent of the English policy in the Sudan, and inThe Wind and the Whirlwind(in verse, 1883) prophesied its downfall. He supported the national party in Egypt, and took a prominent part in the defence of Arabi Pasha.Ideas about India(1885) was the result of two visits to that country, the second in 1883-1884. In 1885 and 1886 he stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Home Ruler; and in 1887 he was arrested in Ireland while presiding over a political meeting in connexion with the agitation on Lord Clanricarde’s estate, and was imprisoned for two months in Kilmainham. His best-known volume of verse,Love Sonnets of Proteus(1880), is a revelation of his real merits as an emotional poet.The Poetry of Wilfrid Blunt(1888), selected and edited by W.E. Henley and Mr George Wyndham, includes these sonnets, together with “Worth Forest, a Pastoral,” “Griselda” (described as a “society novel in rhymed verse”), translations from the Arabic, and poems which had appeared in other volumes.

BLUNTSCHLI, JOHANN KASPAR(1808-1881), Swiss jurist and politician, was born at Zürich on the 7th of March 1808, the son of a soap and candle manufacturer. From school he passed into thePolitische Institut(a seminary of law and political science) in his native town, and proceeding thence to the universities of Berlin and Bonn, took the degree ofdoctor jurisin the latter in 1829. Returning to Zurich in 1830, he threw himself with ardour into the political strife which was at the time unsettling all the cantons of the Confederation, and in this year publishedÜber die Verfassung der Stadt Zürich(On the Constitution of the City of Zurich). This was followed byDas Volk und der Souverän(1830), a work in which, while pleading for constitutional government, he showed his bitter repugnance of the growing Swiss radicalism. Elected in 1837 a member of the Grosser Rath (Great Council), he became the champion of the moderate conservative party. Fascinated by the metaphysical views of the philosopher Friedrich Rohmer (1814-1856), a man who attracted little other attention, he endeavoured inPsychologische Studien über Staat und Kirche(1844) to apply them to political science generally, and in particular as a panacea for the constitutional troubles of Switzerland. Bluntschli, shortly before his death, remarked, “I have gained renown as a jurist, but my greatest desert is to have comprehended Rohmer.” This philosophical essay, however, coupled with his uncompromising attitude towards both radicalism and ultramontanism, brought him many enemies, and rendered his continuance in the council, of which he had been elected president, impossible. He resigned his seat, and on the overthrow of the Sonderbund in 1847, perceiving that all hope of power for his party was lost, took leave of Switzerland with the pamphletStimme eines Schweizers über die Bundesreform(1847), and settled at Munich, where he became professor of constitutional law in 1848.

At Munich he devoted himself with energy to the special work of his chair, and, resisting the temptation to identify himself with politics, publishedAllgemeines Staatsrecht(1851-1852);Lehre vom modernen Staat(1875-1876); and, in conjunction with Karl Ludwig Theodor Brater (1819-1869),Deutsches Staats-wörterbuch(II vols., 1857-1870: abridged by Edgar Loening in 3 vols., 1869-1875). Meanwhile he had assiduously worked at his code for the canton of Zürich,Privatrechtliches Gesetzbuch für den Kanton Zürich(4 vols., 1854-1856), a work which was much praised at the time, and which, particularly the section devoted to contracts, served as a model for codes both in Switzerland and other countries. In 1861 Bluntschli received a call to Heidelberg as professor of constitutional law (Staatsrecht), where he again entered the political arena, endeavouring in hisGeschichte des allgemeinen Staatsrechts und der Politik(1864) “to stimulate,” as he said, “the political consciousness of the German people, to cleanse it of prejudices and to further it intellectually.” In his new home, Baden, he devoted his energies and political influence, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, towards keeping the country neutral. From this time Bluntschli became active in the field of international law, and his fame as a jurist belongs rather to this province than to that of constitutional law. HisDas moderne Kriegsrecht(1866);Das moderns Völkerrecht(1868), andDas Beuterecht im Krieg(1878) are likely to remain invaluable text-books in this branch of the science of jurisprudence. He also wrote a pamphlet on the “Alabama” case.

Bluntschli was one of the founders, at Ghent in 1873, of the Institute of International Law, and was the representative of the German emperor at the conference on the international laws of war at Brussels. During the latter years of his life he took a lively interest in theProtestantenverein, a society formed to combat reactionary and ultramontane views of theology. He died suddenly at Karlsruhe on the 21st of October 1881. His library was acquired by Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, U.S.A.

Among his works, other than those before mentioned, may be citedDeutsches Privatrecht(1853-1854);Deutsche Staatslehre für Gebildete(1874); andDeutsche Staatslehre und die heutige Staatenwelt(1880).

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