Chapter 5

SeeThe Times, 10th of January 1896; E. Manson,Builders of our Law(1904).

BLACKBURN, JONATHAN(c.1700-c.1765), American portrait painter, was born in Connecticut. He seems to have been the son of a painter, and to have had a studio in Boston in 1750-1765; among his patrons were many important early American families, including the Apthorps, Amorys, Bulfinches, Lowells, Ewings, Saltonstalls, Winthrops, Winslows and Otises of Boston. Some of his portraits are in the possession of the public library of Lexington, Massachusetts, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but most of them are privately owned and are scattered over the country, the majority being in Boston. John Singleton Copley was his pupil, and it is said that he finally left his studio in Boston, through jealousy of Copley’s superior success. He was a good portrait painter, and some of his pictures were long attributed to Copley.

BLACKBURN,a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, 210 m. N.W. by N. from London, and 24½ N.N.W. from Manchester, served by the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the London & North Western railways, with several lines from all parts of the county. Pop. (1891) 120,064; (1901) 127,626. It lies in the valley of a stream called in early times the Blackeburn, but now known as the Brook. The hills in the vicinity rise to some 900 ft., and among English manufacturing towns Blackburn ranks high in beauty of situation. Besides numerous churches and chapels the public buildings comprise a large town hall (1856), market house, exchange, county court, municipal offices, chamber of commerce, free library, and, outside the town, an infirmary. There are an Elizabethan grammar school, in modern buildings (1884) and an excellent technical school. The Corporation Park and Queen’s Park are well laid out, and contain ornamental waters. There is an efficient tramway service, connecting the town with Darwen, 5 m. south. The cotton industry employs thousands of operatives, the iron trade is also very considerable, and many are engaged in the making of machines; but a former woollen manufacture is almost extinct. Blackburn’s speciality in the cotton industry is weaving. Coal, lime and building stone are abundant in the neighbourhood. Blackburn received a charter of incorporation in 1851, and is governed by a mayor, 14 aldermen and 42 councillors. The county borough was created in 1888. The parliamentary borough, which returns two members, is coextensive with the municipal, and lies between the Accrington and Darwen divisions of the county. Area, 7432 acres.

Blackburn is of considerable antiquity; indeed, the 6th century is allocated to the original foundation of a church on the site of the present parish church. Of another church on this site Cranmer was rector after the Reformation. Blackburn was for some time the chief town of a district called Blackburnshire, and as early as the reign of Elizabeth ranked as a flourishing market town. About the middle of the 17th century it became famous for its “checks,” which were afterwards superseded by a similar linen-and-cotton fabric known as “Blackburn greys.” In the 18th century the ability of certain natives of the town greatly fostered its cotton industry; thus James Hargreaves here probably invented his spinning jenny about 1764, though the operatives, fearing a reduction of labour, would have none of it, and forced him to quit the town for Nottingham. He was in the employment of Robert Peel, grandfather of the prime minister of that name, who here instituted the factory system, and as the director of a large business carefully fostered the improvement of methods.

See W.A. Abram,History of Blackburn(Blackburn, 1897).

BLACKBURNE, FRANCIS(1782-1867), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born at Great Footstown, Co. Meath, Ireland, on the 11th of November 1782. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was called to the English bar in 1805, and practised with great success on the home circuit. Called to the Irish bar in 1822, he vigorously administered the Insurrection Act in Limerick for two years, effectually restoring order in the district. In 1826 he became a serjeant-at-law, and in 1830, and again, in 1841, was attorney-general for Ireland. In 1842 he became master of the rolls in Ireland, in 1846 chief-justice of the queen’s bench, and in 1852 (and again in 1866) lord chancellor of Ireland. In 1856 he was made a lord justice of appeal in Ireland. He is remembered as having prosecuted O’Connell and presided at the trial of Smith O’Brien. He died on the 17th of September 1867.

BLACKCOCK(Tetrao tetrix), the English name given to a bird of the familyTetraonidaeor grouse, the female of which is known as the grey hen and the young as poults. In size and plumage the two sexes offer a striking contrast, the male weighing about 4 ℔, its plumage for the most part of a rich glossy black shot with blue and purple, the lateral tail feathers curved outwards so as to form, when raised, a fan-like crescent, and the eyebrows destitute of feathers and of a bright vermilion red. The female,on the other hand, weighs only 2 ℔, its plumage is of a russet brown colour irregularly barred with black, and its tail feathers are but slightly forked. The males are polygamous, and during autumn and winter associate together, feeding in flocks apart from the females; but with the approach of spring they separate, each selecting a locality for itself, from which it drives off all intruders, and where morning and evening it seeks to attract the other sex by a display of its beautiful plumage, which at this season attains its greatest perfection, and by a peculiar cry, which Selby describes as “a crowing note, and another similar to the noise made by the whetting of a scythe.” The nest, composed of a few stalks of grass, is built on the ground, usually beneath the shadow of a low bush or a tuft of tall grass, and here the female lays from six to ten eggs of a dirty-yellow colour speckled with dark brown. The blackcock then rejoins his male associates, and the female is left to perform the labours of hatching and rearing her young brood. The plumage of both sexes is at first like that of the female, but after moulting the young males gradually assume the more brilliant plumage of their sex. There are also many cases on record, and specimens may be seen in the principal museums, of old female birds assuming, to a greater or less extent, the plumage of the male. The blackcock is very generally distributed over the highland districts of northern and central Europe, and in some parts of Asia. It is found on the principal heaths in the south of England, but is specially abundant in the Highlands of Scotland.

BLACK COUNTRY, THE,a name commonly applied to a district lying principally in S. Staffordshire, but extending into Worcestershire and Warwickshire, England. This is one of the chief manufacturing centres in the United Kingdom, and the name arises from the effect of numerous collieries and furnaces, which darken the face of the district, the buildings and the atmosphere. Coal, ironstone and clay are mined in close proximity, and every sort of iron and steel goods is produced. The district extends 15 m. N.W. from Birmingham, and includes Smethwick, West Bromwich, Dudley, Oldbury, Sedgley, Tipton, Bilston, Wednesbury, Wolverhampton and Walsall as its most important centres. The ceaseless activity of the Black Country is most readily realized when it is traversed, or viewed from such an elevation as Dudley Castle Hill, at night, when the glare of furnaces appears in every direction. The district is served by numerous branches of the Great Western, London & North Western, and Midland railways, and is intersected by canals, which carry a heavy traffic, and in some places are made to surmount physical obstacles with remarkable engineering skill, as in the case of the Castle Hill tunnels at Dudley. Among the numerous branches of industry there are several characteristic of certain individual centres. Thus, locks are a specialty at Wolverhampton and Willenhall, and keys at Wednesfield; horses’ bits, harness-fittings and saddlery at Walsall and Bloxwich, anchors and cables at Tipton, glass at Smethwick, and nails and chains at Cradley.

BLACK DROP,in astronomy, an apparent distortion of the planet Mercury or Venus at the time of internal contact with the limb of the sun at the beginning or end of a transit. It has been in the past a source of much perplexity to observers of transits, but is now understood to be a result of irradiation, produced by the atmosphere or by the aberration of the telescope.

BLACKFOOT(Siksika), a tribe and confederacy of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. The name is explained as an allusion to their leggings being observed by the whites to have become blackened by marching over the freshly burned prairie. Their range was around the headwaters of the Missouri, from the Yellowstone northward to the North Saskatchewan and westward to the Rockies. The confederacy consisted of three tribes, the Blackfoot or Siksika proper, the Kaina and the Piegan. During the early years of the 19th century the Blackfoots were one of the strongest Indian confederacies of the north-west, numbering some 40,000. At the beginning of the 20th century there were about 5000, some in Montana and some in Canada.

See Jean L’Heureux,Customs and Religious Ideas of Blackfoot Indians in J.A.I., vol. xv. (1886); G.B. Grinnell,Blackfoot Lodge Tales(1892); G. Catlin,North American Indians(1876);Handbook of American Indians(Washington, 1907), under “Siksika.”

BLACK FOREST(Ger.Schwarzwald; theSilva MarcianaandAbnobaof the Romans), a mountainous district of south-west Germany, having an area of 1844 sq. m., of which about two-thirds lie in the grand duchy of Baden and the remaining third in the kingdom of Württemberg. Bounded on the south and west by the valley of the Rhine, to which its declivities abruptly descend, and running parallel to, and forming the counterpart of the Vosges beyond, it slopes more gently down to the valley of the Neckar in the north and to that of the Nagold (a tributary of the Neckar) on the north-east. Its total length is 100 m., and its breadth varies from 36 m. in the south to 21 in the centre and 13 in the north. The deep valley of the Kinzig divides it laterally into halves, of which the southern, with an average elevation of 3000 ft., is the wilder and contains the loftiest peaks, which again mostly lie towards the western side. Among them are the Feldberg (4898 ft.), the Herzogenhorn (4600), the Blössling (4260) and the Blauen (3820). The northern half has an average height of 2000 ft. On the east side are several lakes, and here the majority of the streams take their rise. The configuration of the hills is mainly conical and the geological formation consists of gneiss, granite (in the south) and red sandstone. The district is poor in minerals; the yield of silver and copper has almost ceased, but there are workable coal seams near Offenburg, where the Kinzig debouches on the plain. The climate in the higher districts is raw and the produce is mostly confined to hardy cereals, such as oats. But the valleys, especially those on the western side, are warm and healthy, enclose good pasture land and furnish fruits and wine in rich profusion. They are clothed up to a height of about 2000 ft. with luxuriant woods of oak and beech, and above these again and up to an elevation of 4000 ft., surrounding the hills with a dense dark belt, are the forests of fir which have given the name to the district. The summits of the highest peaks are bare, but even on them snow seldom lies throughout the summer.

The Black Forest produces excellent timber, which is partly sawn in the valleys and partly exported down the Rhine in logs. Among other industries are the manufactures of watches, clocks, toys and musical instruments. There are numerous mineral springs, and among the watering places Baden-Baden and Wildbad are famous. The towns of Freiburg, Rastatt, Offenburg and Lahr, which lie under the western declivities, are the chief centres for the productions of the interior.

The Black Forest is a favourite tourist resort and is opened up by numerous railways. In addition to the main lines in the valleys of the Rhine and Neckar, which are connected with the towns lying on its fringe, the district is intersected by theSchwarzwaldbahn from Offenburg to Singen, from which various small local lines ramify.

BLACK HAWK[Ma‘katawimesheka‘ka, “Black Sparrow Hawk”], (1767-1838), American Indian warrior of the Sauk and Fox tribes, was born at the Sauk village on Rock river, near the Mississippi, in 1767. He was a member of the Thunder gens of the Sauk tribe, and, though neither an hereditary nor an elected chief, was for some time the recognized war leader of the Sauk and Foxes. From his youth he was intensely bloodthirsty and hostile to the Americans. Immediately after the acquisition of “Louisiana,” the Federal government took steps for the removal of the Sauk and Foxes, who had always been a disturbing element among the north-western Indians, to the west bank of the Mississippi river. As early as 1804, by a treaty signed at St Louis on the 3rd of November, they agreed to the removal in return for an annuity of $1000. British influences were still strong in the upper Mississippi valley and undoubtedly led Black Hawk and the chiefs of the Sauk and Fox confederacy to repudiate this agreement of 1804, and subsequently to enter into the conspiracy of Tecumseh and take part with the British in the war of 1812. The treaties of 1815 at Portage des Sioux (with the Foxes) and of 1816 at St Louis (with the Sauk) substantially renewed that of 1804. That of 1816 was signed by Black Hawk himself, who declared, however, when in 1823 Chief Keokuk and a majority of the two nations crossed the river, that the consent of the chiefs had been obtained by fraud. In 1830 a final treaty was signed at Prairie du Chien, by which all title to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes east of the Mississippi was ceded to the government, and provision was made for the immediate opening of the tract to settlers. Black Hawk, leading the party in opposition to Keokuk, at once refused to accede to this cession and threatened to retaliate if his lands were invaded. This precipitated what is known as the Black Hawk War. Settlers began pouring into the new region in the early spring of 1831, and Black Hawk in June attacked several villages near the Illinois-Wisconsin line. After massacring several isolated families, he was driven off by a force of Illinois militia. He renewed his attack in the following year (1832), but after several minor engagements, in most of which he was successful, he was defeated (21st of July) at Wisconsin Heights on the Wisconsin river, opposite Prairie du Sac, by Michigan volunteers under Colonels Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, and fleeing westward was again decisively defeated on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe river (on the 1st and 2nd of August) by General Henry Atkinson. His band was completely dispersed, and he himself was captured by a party of Winnebagoes. At Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, on the 21st of September, a treaty was signed, by which a large tract of the Sauk and Fox territory was ceded to the United States; and the United States granted to them a reservation of 400 sq. m., the payment of $20,000 a year for thirty years, and the settlement of certain traders’ claims against the tribe. With several warriors Black Hawk was sent to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he was confined for a few weeks; afterwards he was taken by the government through the principal Eastern cities. On his release he settled in 1837 on the Sauk and Fox reservation on the Des Moines river, in Iowa, where he died on the 3rd of October 1838.

See Frank E. Stevens,The Black Hawk War(Chicago, 1903); R.G. Thwaites, “The Story of the Black Hawk War” in vol. xii. of theCollections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; J.B. Patterson,Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk(Boston, 1834), purporting to be Black Hawk’s story as told by himself; and Benjamin Drake,Life of Black Hawk(Cincinnati, 1846).

BLACKHEATH,an open common in the south-east of London, England, mainly in the metropolitan borough of Lewisham. This high-lying tract was crossed by the Roman Watling Street from Kent, on a line approximating to that of the modern Shooter’s Hill; and was a rallying ground of Wat Tyler (1381), of Jack Cade (1450), and of Audley, leader of the Cornish rebels, defeated and captured here by the troops of Henry VII. in 1497. It also witnessed the acclamations of the citizens of London on the return of Henry V. from the victory of Agincourt, the formal meeting between Henry VIII. and Anne of Cleves, and that between the army of the restoration and Charles II. The introduction into England of the game of golf is traditionally placed here in 1608, and attributed to King James I. and his Scottish followers. The common, the area of which is 267 acres, is still used for this and other pastimes. For the residential district to which Blackheath gives name, seeLewisham.

BLACK HILLS,an isolated group of mountains, covering an area of about 6000 sq. m. in the adjoining corners of South Dakota and Wyoming, U.S.A. They rise on an average some 2000 ft. above their base, the highest peak, Harney, having an altitude above the sea of 7216 ft. They are drained and in large part enclosed by the North (or Belle Fourche) and South forks of the Cheyenne river (at whose junction a fur-trading post was established about 1830); and are surrounded by semi-arid, alkaline plains lying 3000 to 3500 ft. above the sea. The mass has an elliptical shape, its long axis, which extends nearly N.N.W.-S.S.E., being about 120 m. and its shorter axis about 40 m. long. The hills are formed by a short, broad, anticlinal fold, which is flat or nearly so on its summit. From this fold the stratified beds have in large part been removed, the more recent having been almost entirely eroded from the elevated mass. The edges of these are now found encircling the mountains and forming a series of fairly continuous rims of hog-backs. The carboniferous and older stratified beds still cover the west half of the hills, while from the east half they have been removed, exposing the granite. Scientific exploration began in 1849, and systematic geological investigation about 1875. Rich gold placers had already been discovered, and in 1875 the Sioux Indians within whose territory the hills had until then been included, were removed, and the lands were open to white settlers. Subsequently low-grade quartz mines were found and developed, and have furnished a notable part of the gold supply of the country (about $100,000,000 from 1875 to 1901). The output is to-day relatively small in comparison with that of many other fields, but there are one or two permanent gold mines of great value working low-grade ore. The silver product from 1879 to 1901 was about $4,154,000. Deposits of copper, tin, iron and tungsten have been discovered, and a variety of other mineral products (graphite, mica, spodumene, coal, petroleum, &c.). In sharp contrast to the surrounding plains the climate is subhumid, especially in the higher Harney region. There is an abundance of fertile soil and magnificent grazing land. A third of the total area is covered with forests of pine and other trees, which have for the most part been made a forest-reserve by the national government. Jagged crags, sudden abysses, magnificent canyons, forests with open parks, undulating hills, mountain prairies, freaks of weathering and erosion, and the enclosing lines of the successive hog-backs afford scenery of remarkable variety and wild beauty. There are several interesting limestone caverns, and Sylvan Lake, in the high mountain district, is an important resort.

See the publications of the United States Geological Survey (especially Professional Paper No. 26,Economic Resources of the Northern Black Hills, 1904), and of the South Dakota School of Mines (Bulletin No. 4, containing a history and bibliography of Black Hills investigations); also R.L. Dodge,The Black Hills: A Minute Description ...(New York, 1876).

BLACKIE, JOHN STUART(1809-1895), Scottish scholar and man of letters, was born in Glasgow on the 28th of July 1809. He was educated at the New Academy and afterwards at the Marischal College, in Aberdeen, where his father was manager of the Commerical Bank. After attending classes at Edinburgh University (1825-1826), Blackie spent three years at Aberdeen as a student of theology. In 1829 he went to Germany, and after studying at Göttingen and Berlin (where he came under the influence of Heeren, Ottfried Müller, Schleiermacher, Neander and Böckh) he accompanied Bunsen to Italy and Rome. The years spent abroad extinguished his former wish to enter the Church, and at his father’s desire he gave himself up to the study of law. He had already, in 1824, been placed in a lawyer’s office, but only remained there six months. By the time he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates (1834) he had acquired a strong love of the classics and a taste for letters ingeneral. A translation ofFaust, which he published in 1834, met with considerable success. After a year or two of desultory literary work he was (May 1839) appointed to the newly-instituted chair of Humanity (Latin) in the Marischal College.

Difficulties arose in the way of his installation, owing to the action of the Presbytery on his refusing to sign unreservedly the Confession of Faith; but these were eventually overcome, and he took up his duties as professor in November 1841. In the following year he married. From the first his professorial lectures were conspicuous for the unconventional enthusiasm with which he endeavoured to revivify the study of the classics; and his growing reputation, added to the attention excited by a translation of Aeschylus which he published in 1850, led to his appointment in 1852 to the professorship of Greek at Edinburgh University, in succession to George Dunbar, a post which he continued to hold for thirty years. He was somewhat erratic in his methods, but his lectures were a triumph of influential personality. A journey to Greece in 1853 prompted his essayOn the Living Language of the Greeks, a favourite theme of his, especially in his later years; he adopted for himself a modern Greek pronunciation, and before his death he endowed a travelling scholarship to enable students to learn Greek at Athens. Scottish nationality was another source of enthusiasm with him; and in this connexion he displayed real sympathy with Highland home life and the grievances of the crofters. The foundation of the Celtic chair at Edinburgh University was mainly due to his efforts. In spite of the many calls upon his time he produced a considerable amount of literary work, usually on classical or Scottish subjects, including some poems and songs of no mean order. He died in Edinburgh on the 2nd of March 1895. Blackie was a Radical and Scottish nationalist in politics, but of a fearlessly independent type; he was one of the “characters” of the Edinburgh of the day, and was a well-known figure as he went about in his plaid, worn shepherd-wise, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and carrying a big stick. His published works include (besides several volumes of verse)Homer and the Iliad(1866), maintaining the unity of the poems;Four Phases of Morals: Socrates, Aristotle, Christianity, Utilitarianism(1871);Essay on Self-Culture(1874);Horae Hellenicae(1874);The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands(1876);The Natural History of Atheism(1877);The Wise Men of Greece(1877);Lay Sermons(1881);Altavona(1882);The Wisdom of Goethe(1883);The Scottish Highlanders and the Land Laws(1885);Life of Burns(1888);Scottish Song(1889);Essays on Subjects of Moral and Social Interest(1890);Christianity and the Ideal of Humanity(1893). Amongst his political writings may be mentioned a pamphletOn Democracy(1867),On Forms of Government(1867), andPolitical Tracts(1868).

See Anna M. Stoddart,John Stuart Blackie(1895); A. Stodart-Walker,Selected Poems of J.S. Blackie, with an appreciation (1896); Howard Angus Kennedy,Professor Blackie(1895).

BLACK ISLE,The, a district in the east of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, bounded N. by Cromarty Firth, E. by Moray Firth, S. by Inner Moray Firth (or Firth of Inverness) and Beauly Firth, and W. by the river Conon and the parish of Urray. It is a diamond-shaped peninsula jutting out from the mainland in a north-easterly direction, the longer axis, from Muir of Ord station to the South Sutor at the entrance to Cromarty Firth, measuring 20 m., and the shorter, from Ferryton Point to Craigton-Point, due north and south, 12 m., and it has a coastline of 52 m. Originally called Ardmeanach (Gaelicard, height;manaich, monk, “the monk’s height,” from an old religious house on the finely-wooded ridge of Mulbuie), it derived its customary name from the fact that, since snow does not lie in winter, the promontory looks black while the surrounding country is white. Within its limits are comprised the parishes of Urquhart and Logie Wester, Killearnan, Knockbain (Gaeliccnoc, hill;bàn, white), Avoch (pron. Auch), Rosemarkie, Resolis (Gaelicrudhaorros soluis, “cape of the light”) or Kirkmichael and Cromarty. The Black Isle branch of the Highland railway runs from Muir of Ord to Fortrose; steamers connect Cromarty with Invergordon and Inverness, and Fortrose with Inverness; and there are ferries, on the southern coast, at North Kessock (for Inverness) and Chanonry (for Fort George), and, on the northern coast, at Alcaig (for Dingwall), Newhallpoint (for Invergordon), and Cromarty (for Nigg). The principal towns are Cromarty and Fortrose. Rosehaugh, near Avoch, belonged to Sir George Mackenzie, founder of the Advocates’ library in Edinburgh, who earned the sobriquet of “Bloody” from his persecution of the Covenanters. Redcastle, on the shore, near Killearnan church, dates from 1179 and is said to have been the earliest inhabited house in the north of Scotland. On the forfeiture of the earldom of Ross it became a royal castle (being visited by Queen Mary), and afterwards passed for a period into the hands of the Mackenzies of Gairloch. The chief industries are agriculture—high farming flourishes owing to the great fertility of the peninsula—sandstone-quarrying and fisheries (mainly from Avoch). The whole district, though lacking water, is picturesque and was once forested. The Mulbuie ridge, the highest point of which is 838 ft. above the sea, occupies the centre and is the only elevated ground. Antiquarian remains are somewhat numerous, such as forts and cairns in Cromarty parish, and stone circles in Urquhart and Logie Wester and Knockbain parishes, the latter also containing a hut circle and rock fortress.

BLACKLOCK, THOMAS(1721-1791), Scottish poet, the son of a bricklayer, was born at Annan, in Dumfriesshire, in 1721. When not quite six months old he lost his sight by smallpox, and his career is largely interesting as that of one who achieved what he did in spite of blindness. Shortly after his father’s death in 1740, some of Blacklock’s poems began to be handed about among his acquaintances and friends, who arranged for his education at the grammar-school, and subsequently at the university of Edinburgh, where he was a student of divinity. His first volume of Poems was published in 1746. In 1754 he became deputy librarian for the Faculty of Advocates, by the kindness of Hume. He was eventually estranged from Hume, and defended James Beattie’s attack on that philosopher. Blacklock was among the first friends of Burns in Edinburgh, being one of the earliest to recognize his genius. He was in 1762 ordained minister of the church of Kirkcudbright, a position which he soon resigned; in 1767 the degree of doctor in divinity was conferred on him by Marischal College, Aberdeen. He died on the 7th of July 1791.

An edition of his poems in 1793 contains a life by Henry Mackenzie.

BLACKMAIL,a term, in English law, used in three special meanings, at different times. The usual derivation of the second half of the word is from Norman Fr.maille (medalia; cf. “medal”), small copper coin; theNew English Dictionaryderives from “mail” (q.v.), meaning rent or tribute. (1) The primary meaning of “blackmail” was rent paid in labour, grain or baser metal (i.e.money other than sterling money), calledreditus nigri, in contradistinction to rent paid in silver or white money (mailles blanches). (2) In the northern counties of England (Northumberland, Westmorland and the bishopric of Durham) it signified a tribute in money, corn, cattle or other consideration exacted from farmers and small owners by freebooters in return for immunity from robbers or moss-troopers. By a statute of 1601 it was made a felony without benefit of clergy to receive or pay such tribute, but the practice lingered until the union of England and Scotland in 1707. (3) The word now signifies extortion of money or property by threats of libel, presecution, exposure, &c. See such headings asCoercion,Conspiracy,Extortion, and authorities quoted underCriminal Law.

BLACKMORE, SIR RICHARD(c. 1650-1729), English physician and writer, was born at Corsham, in Wiltshire, about 1650. He was educated at Westminster school and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was for some time a schoolmaster, but finally, after graduating in medicine at Padua, he settled in practice as a physician in London. He supported the principles of the Revolution, and was accordingly knighted in 1697. He held the office of physician in ordinary both to William III. and Anne, and died on the 9th of October 1729. Blackmore had apassion for writing epics.Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in X Booksappeared in 1695, and was followed by six other long poems before 1723. Of theseCreation... (1712), a philosophic poem intended to refute the atheism of Vanini, Hobbes and Spinoza, and to unfold the intellectual philosophy of Locke, was the most favourably received. Dr Johnson anticipated that this poem would transmit the author to posterity “among the first favourites of the English muse,” while John Dennis went so far as to describe it as “a philosophical poem, which has equalled that of Lucretius in the beauty of its versification, and infinitely surpassed it in the solidity and strength of its reasoning.” These opinions have not been justified, for the poem, like everything else that Blackmore wrote, is dull and tedious. HisCreationappears in Johnson’s and Anderson’s collections of the British poets. He left also works on medicine and on theological subjects.

BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE(1825-1900), English novelist, was born on the 7th of June 1825 at Longworth, Berkshire, of which village his father was curate in charge. He was educated at Blundell’s school, Tiverton, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a scholarship. In 1847 he took a second class in classics. Two years later he entered as a student at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1852. His first publication was a volume ofPoems by Melanter(1854), which showed no particular promise, nor did the succeeding volume,Epullia(1855), suggest that Blackmore had the makings of a poet. He was nevertheless enthusiastic in his pursuit of literature; and when, a few years later, the complete breakdown of his health rendered it clear that he must remove from London, he determined to combine a literary life in the country with a business career as a market-gardener. He acquired land at Teddington, and set earnestly to work, the literary fruits of his new surroundings being a translation of theGeorgics, published in 1862. In 1864 he published his first novel,Clara Vaughan, the merits of which were promptly recognized.Cradock Nowell(1866) followed, but it was in 1869 that he suddenly sprang into fame withLorna Doone. This fine story was a pioneer in the romantic revival; and appearing at a jaded hour, it was presently recognized as a work of singular charm, vigour and imagination. Its success could scarcely be repeated, and though Blackmore wrote many other capital stories, of which the best known areThe Maid of Sker(1872),Christowell(1880),Perlycross(1894),Tales from the Telling House(1896) andDariel(1897), he will always be remembered almost exclusively as the author ofLorna Doone. He continued his quiet country life to the last, and died at Teddington on the 20th of January 1900, in his seventy-fifth year.Lorna Doonehas the true out-of-door atmosphere, is shot through and through with adventurous spirit, and in its dramatic moments shows both vigour and intensity. The heroine, though she is invested with qualities of faëry which are scarcely human, is an idyllic and haunting figure; and John Ridd, the bluff hero, is, both in purpose and achievement, a veritable giant of romance. The story is a classic of the West country, and the many pilgrimages that are made annually to the Doone Valley (the actual characteristics of which differ materially from the descriptions given in the novel) are entirely inspired by the buoyant imagination of Richard Blackmore. A memorial window and tablet to his memory were erected in Exeter cathedral in 1904.

BLACK MOUNTAIN,a mountain range and district on the Hazara border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. It is inhabited by Yusafzai Pathans. The Black Mountain itself has a total length of 25 to 30 m., and an average height of 8000 ft. above the sea. It rises from the Indus basin near the village of Kiara, up to its watershed by Bruddur; thence it runs north-west by north to the point on the crest known as Chittabut. From Chittabut the range runs due north, finally descending by two large spurs to the Indus again. The tribes which inhabit the western face of the Black Mountain are the Hassanzais (2300 fighting men), the Akazais (1165 fighting men) and the Chagarzais (4890 fighting men), all sub-sections of the Yusafzai Pathans. It was in this district that the Hindostani Fanatics had their stronghold, and they were responsible for much of the unrest on this part of the border.

The Black Mountain is chiefly notable for four British expeditions:—

1. Under Lieut.-Colonel F. Mackeson, in 1852-53, against the Hassanzais. The occasion was the murder of two British customs officers. A force of 3800 British troops traversed their country, destroying their villages and grain, &c.

2. Under Major-General A.T. Wilde, in 1868. The occasion was an attack on a British police post at Oghi in the Agror Valley by all three tribes. A force of 12,500 British troops entered the country and the tribes made submission.

3. The First Hazara Expedition in 1888. The cause was the constant raids made by the tribes on villages in British territory, culminating in an attack on a small British detachment, in which two English officers were killed. A force of 12,500 British troops traversed the country of the tribes, and severely punished them. Punishment was also inflicted on the Hindostani Fanatics of Palosi.

4. The Second Hazara Expedition of 1891. The Black Mountain tribes fired on a force within British limits. A force of 7300 British troops traversed the country. The tribesmen made their submission and entered into an agreement with government to preserve the peace of the border.

The Black Mountain tribes took no part in the general frontier rising of 1897, and after the disappearance of the Hindostani Fanatics they sank into comparative unimportance.

BLACKPOOL,a municipal and county borough and seaside resort in the Blackpool parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 46 m. N. of Liverpool, served by the Lancashire & Yorkshire, and London & North Western railways. Pop. (1891) 23,846; (1901) 47,346. The town, which is quite modern, contains many churches and chapels of all denominations, a town hall, public libraries, the Victoria hospital, three piers, theatres, ball-rooms, and other places of public amusement, including a lofty tower, resembling the Eiffel Tower of Paris. The municipality maintains an electric tram service. There are handsome promenades along the sea front, which command fine views. Extensive works upon these, affording a sea front unsurpassed by that of any English watering-place, were completed in 1905. The beach is sandy and the bathing good. The borough was created in 1876 (county borough, 1904), and is governed by a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, exclusive of foreshore, 3496 acres; including foreshore, 4244 acres.

BLACK ROD(more fully, “Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod “), an official of the House of Lords, instituted in 1350. His appointment is by royal letters patent, and his title is due to his staff of office, an ebony stick surmounted with a gold lion. He is a personal attendant of the sovereign in the Upper House, and is also usher of the order of the Garter, being doorkeeper at the meetings of the knights’ chapter. He is responsible for the maintenance of order in the House of Lords, and on him falls the duty of arresting any peer guilty of breach of privilege or other offence of which the House takes cognizance. But the duty which brings him most into prominence is that of summoning the Commons and their speaker to the Upper House to hear a speech from the throne or the royal assent given to bills. If the sovereign is present in parliament, Black Rodcommandsthe attendance of the gentlemen of the Commons, but when lords commissioners represent the king, he onlydesiressuch attendance. Black Rod is on such occasions the central figure of a curious ceremony of much historic significance. As soon as the attendants of the House of Commons are aware of his approach, they close the doors in his face. Black Rod then strikes three times with his staff, and on being asked “Who is there?” replies “Black Rod.” Being then admitted he advances to the bar of the House, makes three obeisances and says, “Mr Speaker, the king commands this honourable House to attend his majesty immediately in the House of Lords.” This formality originated in the famous attempt of Charles I. to arrest the five members, Hampden, Pym, Holies, Hesilrige and Strode, in 1642. Indignantat this breach of privilege, the House of Commons has ever since maintained its right of freedom of speech and uninterrupted debate by the closing of the doors on the king’s representative.

BLACK SEA(orEuxine; anc.Pontus Euxinus),1a body of water lying almost entirely between the latitudes 41º and 45º N., but extending to about 47º N. near Odessa. It is bounded N. by the southern coast of Russia; W. by Rumania, Turkey and Bulgaria; S. and E. by Asia Minor. The northern boundary is broken at Kertch by a strait entering into the Sea of Azov, and at the junction of the western and southern boundary is the Bosporus, which unites the Black Sea with the Mediterranean through the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles. The 100-fathom line is about 10 to 20 m. from the shore except in the north-west corner between Varna and Sevastopol, where it extends 140 m. seawards. The greatest depth is 1030 fathoms (1227 Russian fathoms) near the centre, there being only one basin. The steepest incline outside 100 fathoms is to the south-east of the Crimea and at Amastra; the incline to the greater depths is also steep off the Caucasus and between Trebizond and Batum. The conditions that prevail in the Black Sea are very different from those of the Mediterranean or any other sea. The existence of sulphuretted hydrogen in great quantities below 100 fathoms, the extensive chemical precipitation of calcium carbonate, the stagnant nature of its deep waters, and the absence of deep-sea life are conditions which make it impossible to discuss it along with the physical and biological conditions of the Mediterranean proper.

The depths of the Black Sea are lifeless, higher organic life not being known to exist below 100 fathoms. Fossiliferous remains ofDreissena,Cardiumand other molluscs have, however, been dredged up, which help to show that conditions formerly existed in the Black Sea similar to those that exist at the present day in the Caspian Sea. According to N. Andrusov, when the union of the Black Sea with the Mediterranean through the Bosporus took place, salt water rushed into it along the bottom of the Bosporus and killed the fauna of the less saline waters. This gave rise to a production of sulphuretted hydrogen which is found in the deposits, as well as in the deeper waters.

Observations in temperature and salinity have only been taken during summer. During summer the surface salinity of the Black Sea is from 1.70 to 2.00% down to 50 fathoms, whereas in the greater depths it attains a salinity of 2.25%. The temperature is rather remarkable, there being an intermediate cold layer between 25 and 50 fathoms. This is due to the sinking of the cold surface water (which in winter reaches freezing-point) on to the top of the denser more saline water of the greater depths. There is thus a minimum circulation in the greater depths causing there uniformity of temperature, an absence of the circulation of oxygen by other means than diffusion, and a protection of the sulphuretted hydrogen from the oxidation which takes place in homologous situations in the open ocean. The temperature down to 25 fathoms is from 78.3º to 46.2º F., and in the cold layer, between 25 and 50 fathoms, is from 46.2º to 43.5º F., rising again in greater depths to 48.2º F.

TheSea of Marmoramay be looked upon as an arm of the Aegean Sea and thus part of the Mediterranean proper. Its salinity is comparable to that of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, which is greater than that of the Black Sea, viz. 4%. Similar currents exist in the Bosporus to those of the Strait of Gibraltar. Water of less salinity flows outwards from the Black Sea as an upper current, and water of greater salinity from the Sea of Marmora flows into the Black Sea as an under-current. This under-current flows towards Cape Tarhangut, where it divides into a left and right branch. The left branch is appreciably noticed near Odessa and the north-west corner; the right branch sweeps past the Crimea, strikes the Caucasian shore (where it comes to the surface running across, but not into, the south-east corner of the Black Sea), and finally disperses flowing westwards along the northern coast of Asia Minor between Cape Jason and Sinope. This current causes a warmer climate where it strikes. So marked is this current that it has to be taken into account in the navigation of the Black Sea.

TheSea of Azovis exceedingly shallow, being only about 6 fathoms in its deepest part, and it is largely influenced by the river Don. Its water is considerably fresher than the Black Sea, varying from 1.55 to 0.68%. It freezes more readily and is not affected by the Mediterranean current.

See N. Andrusov, “Physical Exploration of the Black Sea,” inGeographical Journal, vol. i. p. 49.

1The early Greek navigators gave it the epithet ofaxenus,i.e.unfriendly to strangers, but as Greek colonies sprang up on the shores this was changed toeuxinus, friendly to strangers.

BLACK SEA(Russ.Chernomorskaya), a military district of the province of Kuban, formerly an independent province of Transcaucasia, Russia; it includes the narrow strip of land along the N.E. coast of the Black Sea from Novorossiysk to the vicinity of Pitsunda, between the sea and the crest of the main range of the Caucasus. Area, 2836 sq. m. Pop. (1897) 54,228; (1906, estimate) 71,900. It is penetrated by numerous spurs of this range, which strike the sea abruptly at right angles to the coast, and in many cases plunge down into it sheer. Owing to its southern exposure, its sheltered position, and a copious rainfall, vegetation, in part of a sub-tropical character, grows in great profusion. In consequence, however, of the mountainous character of the region, it is divided into a large number of more or less isolated districts, and there is little intercourse with the country north of the Caucasus, the passes over the range being few and difficult (seeCaucasus). But since the Russians became masters of this region, its former inhabitants (Circassian tribes) have emigrated in thousands, so that the country is now only thinly inhabited. It is divided into three districts—Novorossiysk, with the town (pop. in 1897, 16,208) of the same name, which acts as the capital of the Black Sea district; Velyaminovsk; and Sochi. Novorossiysk is connected by rail, at the west end of the Caucasus, with the Rostov-Vladikavkaz line, and a mountain road leads from Velyaminovsk (or Tuapse) to Maikop in the province of Kuban.

BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM(1723-1780), English jurist, was born in London, on the 10th of July 1723. His parents having died when he was young, his early education, under the care of his uncle, Dr Thomas Bigg, was obtained at the Charterhouse, from which, at the age of fifteen, he was sent to Pembroke College, Oxford. He was entered in the Middle Temple in 1741. In 1744 he was elected a fellow of All Souls’ College. From this period he divided his time between the university and the Temple, where he took chambers in order to attend the law courts. In 1746 he was called to the bar. Though but little known or distinguished as a pleader, he was actively employed, during his occasional residences at the university, in taking part in the internal management of his college. In May 1749, as a small reward for his services, and to give him further opportunities of advancing the interests of the college, Blackstone was appointed steward of its manors. In the same year, on the resignation of his uncle, Seymour Richmond, he was elected recorder of the borough of Wallingford in Berkshire. In 1750 he became doctor of civil law. In 1753 he decided to retire from London work to his fellowship and an academical life, still continuing the practice of his profession as a provincial counsel.

His lectures on the laws of England appear to have been an early and favourite idea; for in the Michaelmas term immediately after he abandoned London, he entered on the duty of reading them at Oxford; and we are told by the author of hisLife, that even at their commencement, the high expectations formed from the acknowledged abilities of the lecturer attracted to these lectures a very crowded class of young men of the first families, characters and hopes. Bentham, however, declares that he was a “formal, precise and affected lecturer—just what you would expect from the character of his writings—cold, reserved and wary, exhibiting a frigid pride.” It was not till the year 1758 that the lectures in the form they now bear were read in the university. Blackstone, having been unanimously elected to the newly-founded Vinerian professorship, on the 25th of October read his first introductory lecture, afterwards prefixed to the first volume of his celebratedCommentaries. It is doubtfulwhether theCommentarieswere originally intended for the press; but many imperfect and incorrect copies having got into circulation, and a pirated edition of them being either published or preparing for publication in Ireland, the author thought proper to print a correct edition himself, and in November 1765 published the first volume, under the title ofCommentaries on the Laws of England. The remaining parts of the work were given to the world in the course of the four succeeding years. It may be remarked that before this period the reputation which his lectures had deservedly acquired for him had induced him to resume practice in London; and, contrary to the general order of the profession, he who had quitted the bar for an academic life was sent back from the college to the bar with a considerable increase of business. He was likewise elected to parliament, first for Hindon, and afterwards for Westbury in Wilts; but in neither of these departments did he equal the expectations which his writings had raised. The part he took in the Middlesex election drew upon him many attacks as well as a severe animadversion from the caustic pen of “Junius.” This circumstance probably strengthened the aversion he professed to parliamentary attendance, “where,” he said, “amidst the rage of contending parties, a man of moderation must expect to meet with no quarter from any side.” In 1770 he declined the place of solicitor-general; but shortly afterwards, on the promotion of Sir Joseph Yates to a seat in the court of common pleas, he accepted a seat on the bench, and on the death of Sir Joseph succeeded him there also. He died on the 14th of February 1780.

The design of theCommentariesis exhibited in his first Vinerian lecture printed in the introduction to them. The author there dwells on the importance of noblemen, gentlemen and educated persons generally being well acquainted with the laws of the country; and his treatise, accordingly, is as far as possible a popular exposition of the laws of England. Falling into the common error of identifying the various meanings of the word law, he advances from the law of nature (being either the revealed or the inferred will of God) to municipal law, which he defines to be a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong. On this definition he founds the division observed in theCommentaries. The objects of law are rights and wrongs. Rights are either rights of persons or rights of things. Wrongs are either public or private. These four headings form respectively the subjects of the four books of theCommentaries.

Blackstone was by no means what would now be called a scientific jurist. He has only the vaguest possible grasp of the elementary conceptions of law. He evidently regards the law of gravitation, the law of nature, and the law of England, as different examples of the same principle—as rules of action or conduct imposed by a superior power on its subjects. He propounds in terms the doctrine that municipal or positive laws derive their validity from their conformity to the so-called law of nature or law of God. “No human laws,” he says, “are of any validity if contrary to this.” His distinction between rights of persons and rights of things, implying, as it would appear, that things as well as persons have rights, is attributable to a misunderstanding of the technical terms of the Roman law. In distinguishing between private and public wrongs (civil injuries and crimes) he fails to seize the true principle of the division. Austin, who accused him of following slavishly the method of Hale’sAnalysis of the Law, declares that he “blindly adopts the mistakes of his rude and compendious model; missing invariably, with a nice and surprising infelicity, the pregnant but obscure suggestions which it proffered to his attention, and which would have guided a discerning and inventive writer to an arrangement comparatively just.” By the want of precise and closely-defined terms, and his tendency to substitute loose literary phrases, he falls occasionally into irreconcilable contradictions. Even in discussing a subject of such immense importance as equity, he hardly takes pains to discriminate between the legal and popular senses of the word, and, from the small place which equity jurisprudence occupies in his arrangement, he would scarcely seem to have realized its true position in the law of England. Subject, however, to these strictures the completeness of the treatise, its serviceable if not scientific order, and the power of lucid exposition possessed by the author demand emphatic recognition. Blackstone’s defects as a jurist are more conspicuous in his treatment of the underlying principles and fundamental divisions of the law than in his account of its substantive principles.

Blackstone by no means confines himself to the work of a legal commentator. It is his business, especially when he touches on the framework of society, to find a basis in history and reason for all the most characteristic English institutions. There is not much either of philosophy or fairness in this part of his work. Whether through the natural conservatism of a lawyer, or through his own timidity and subserviency as a man and a politician, he is always found to be a specious defender of the existing order of things. Bentham accuses him of being the enemy of all reform, and the unscrupulous champion of every form of professional chicanery. Austin says that he truckled to the sinister interests and mischievous prejudices of power, and that he flattered the overweening conceit of the English in their own institutions. He displays much ingenuity in giving a plausible form to common prejudices and fallacies; but it is by no means clear that he was not imposed upon himself. More undeniable than the political fairness of the treatise is its merits as a work of literature. It is written in a most graceful and attractive style, and although no opportunity of embellishment has been lost, the language is always simple and clear. Whether it is owing to its literary graces, or to its success in flattering the prejudices of the public to which it was addressed, the influence of the book in England has been extraordinary. Not lawyers only, and lawyers perhaps even less than others, accepted it as an authoritative revelation of the law. It performed for educated society in England much the same service as was rendered to the people of Rome by the publication of their previously unknown laws. It is more correct to regard it as a handbook of the law for laymen than as a legal treatise; and as the first and only book of the kind in England it has been received with somewhat indiscriminating reverence. It is certain that a vast amount of the constitutional sentiment of the country has been inspired by its pages. To this day Blackstone’s criticism of the English constitution would probably express the most profound political convictions of the majority of the English people. Long after it has ceased to be of much practical value as an authority in the courts, it remains the arbiter of all public discussions on the law or the constitution. On such occasions theCommentariesare apt to be construed as strictly as if they were a code. It is curious to observe how much importance is attached to theipsissima verbaof a writer who aimed more at presenting a picture intelligible to laymen than at recording the principles of the law with technical accuracy of detail.

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