Plant of Ranunculus bulbosus.Plant ofRanunculus bulbosus, showing determinate inflorescence.
Plant ofRanunculus bulbosus, showing determinate inflorescence.
BUTTER(Lat.butyrum, Gr.βούτυρον, apparently connected withβοῦς, cow, andτυρός, cheese, but, according to theNew English Dictionary, perhaps of Scythian origin), the fatty portion of the milk of mammalian animals. The milk of all mammals contains such fatty constituents, and butter from the milk of goats, sheep and other animals has been and may be used; but that yielded by cow's milk is the most savoury, and it alone really constitutes the butter of commerce. The milk of the various breeds of cattle varies widely in the proportion of fatty matter it contains; its richness in this respect being greatly influenced by season, nature of food, state of the animals' health and other considerations. Usually the cream is skimmed off the surface of the milk for making butter, but by some the churning is performed on the milk itself without waiting for theseparation of the cream. The operation of churning causes the rupture of the oil sacs, and by the coalescence of the fat so liberated butter is formed. Details regarding churning and the preparation of butter generally will be found underDairy and Dairy Farming.
BUTTERCUP,a name applied to several species of the genusRanunculus(q.v.), characterized by their deeply-cut leaves and yellow, broadly cup-shaped flowers.Ranunculus acrisandR. bulbosusare erect, hairy meadow plants, the latter having the stem swollen at the base, and distinguished also by the furrowed flower-stalks and the often smaller flowers with reflexed, not spreading, sepals.R. repens, common on waste ground, produces long runners by means of which it rapidly covers the ground. The plants are native in the north temperate to arctic zones of the Old World, and have been introduced in America.
BUTTERFIELD, DANIEL(1831-1901), American soldier, was born in Utica, New York. He graduated at Union College in 1849, and when the Civil War broke out he became colonel of the 12th New York militia regiment. On the 14th of May 1861 he was transferred to the regular army as a lieutenant-colonel, and in September he was made a brigadier-general U.S.V. He served in Virginia in 1861 and in the Peninsular campaign of 1862, and was wounded at Games' Mill. He took part in the campaign of second Bull Run (August 1862), and in November became major-general U.S.V. and in July 1863 colonel U.S.A. At Fredericksburg he commanded the V. corps, in which he had served since its formation. After General Hooker succeeded Burnside, Butterfield was appointed chief of staff, Army of the Potomac, and in this capacity he served in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns. Not being on good terms with General Meade he left the staff, and was soon afterwards sent as chief of staff to Hooker, with the XI. and XII. corps (later combined as the XX.) to Tennessee, and took part in the battle of Chattanooga (1863), and the Atlanta campaign of the following year, when he commanded a division of the XX. corps. His services were recognized by the brevets of brigadier-general and major-general in the regular army. He resigned in 1870, and for the rest of his life was engaged in civil and commercial pursuits. In 1862 he wrote a manual ofCamp and Outpost Duty(New York, 1862). General Butterfield died at Cold Spring, N.Y., on the 17th of July 1901.
ABiographical Memorial, by his widow, was published in 1904.
BUTTERFIELD, WILLIAM(1814-1900), English architect, was born in London, and educated for his profession at Worcester, where he laid the foundations of his knowledge of Gothic architecture. He settled in London and became prominent in connexion with the Cambridge Camden Society, and its work in the improvement of church furniture and art. His first important building was St Augustine's, Canterbury (1845), and his reputation was made by All Saints', Margaret Street, London (1859), followed by St Alban's, Holborn (1863), the new part of Merton College, Oxford (1864), Keble College, Oxford (1875), and many houses and ecclesiastical buildings. He also did much work as a restorer, which has been adversely criticized. He was a keen churchman and intimately associated with the English church revival. He had somewhat original views as to colour in architecture, which led to rather garish results, his view being that any combination of the natural colours of the materials was permissible. His private life was retiring, and he died unmarried on the 23rd of February 1900.
BUTTERFLYANDMOTH(the former from "butter" and "fly," an old term of uncertain origin, possibly from the nature of the excrement, or the yellow colour of some particular species; the latter akin to O. Eng.mod, an earth-worm), the common English names applied respectively to the two groups of insects forming the scientific order Lepidoptera (q.v.).
BUTTER-NUT,the product ofCaryocar nuciferum, a native of tropical South America. The large nuts, known also as saowari or suwarow nuts, are the hard stone of the fruit and contain an oily nutritious seed. The genusCaryocarcontains ten species, in tropical South America, some of which form large trees affording a very durable wood, useful for shipbuilding.
Leaf of Butterwort.A, leaf of Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) with left margin inflected over a row of small flies. (After Darwin.) B, glands from surface of leaf by which the sticky liquid is secreted and by means of which the products of digestion are absorbed.
A, leaf of Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) with left margin inflected over a row of small flies. (After Darwin.) B, glands from surface of leaf by which the sticky liquid is secreted and by means of which the products of digestion are absorbed.
BUTTERWORT,the popular name of a small insectivorous plant,Pinguicula vulgaris, which grows in wet, boggy land. It is a herb with a rosette of fleshy, oblong leaves, 1 to 3 in. long, appressed to the ground, of a pale colour and with a sticky surface. Small insects settle on the leaves and are caught in the viscid excretion. This, like the excretion of the sundew and other insectivorous plants, contains a digestive ferment (or enzyme) which renders the nitrogenous substances of the body of the insect soluble, and capable of absorption by the leaf. In this way the plant obtains nitrogenous food by means of its leaves. The leaves bear two sets of glands, the larger borne on usually unicellular pedicels, the smaller almost sessile (fig. B). When a fly is captured, the viscid excretion becomes strongly acid and the naturally incurved margins of the leaf curve still further inwards, rendering contact between the insect and the leaf-surface more complete. The plant is widely distributed in the north temperate zone, extending into the arctic zone.
BUTTERY(from O. Fr.boterie, Late Lat.botaria, a place where liquor is stored, frombutta, a cask), a place for storing wine; later, with a confusion with "butter," a pantry or storeroom for food; especially, at colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the place where food other than meat, especially bread and butter, ale and wines, &c., are kept.
BUTTMANN, PHILIPP KARL(1764-1829), German philologist, was born at Frankfort-On-Main in 1764. He was educated in his native town and at the university of Göttingen. In 1789 he obtained an appointment in the library at Berlin, and for some years he editedSpeners Journal. In 1796 he became professor at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, a post which he held for twelve years. In 1806 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, and in 1811 was made secretary of the Historico-Philological Section. He died in 1829. Buttmann's writings gave a great impetus to the scientific study of the Greek language. HisGriechische Grammatik(1792) went through many editions, and was translated into English. HisLexilogus, a valuable study on some words of difficulty occurring principally in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, was published in 1818-1825, and was translated into English. Buttmann's other works wereAusführliche griechische Sprachlehre(2 vols., 1819-1827);Mythologus, a collection of essays (1828-1829); and editions of some classical authors, the most important beingDemosthenes in Midiam(1823) and the continuation of Spalding'sQuintilian.
BUTTON(Fr.bouton, O. Fr.boton, apparently from the same root asbouter, to push), a small piece of metal or other material which, pushed through a loop or button-hole, serves as a catch between different parts of a garment, &c. The word is also used of other objects which have a projecting knob-like character,e.g.button-mushrooms, the button of an electric bell-push, or the guard at the tip of a fencing foil; or which resemble a button in size and shape, as the button of metal obtained in assaying operations. At first buttons were apparently used for purposes of ornamentation; inPiers Plowman(1377) mention is made of a knife with "botones ouergylte," and in Lord Berner's translation ofFroissart's Chronicles(1525) of a book covered with crimson velvet with "ten botons of syluer and gylte." While this use has continued, especially in connexion with women's dress, they began to be employed as fastenings at least as early as the 15th century. As a term of comparison for something trivial or worthless, the word is found in the 14th century. Buttons of distinctive colour or pattern, or bearing a portrait or motto, are often worn, especially in the United States, as a decoration, or sign of membership of a society or of adherence to a political party; among the most honoured of such buttons are those worn by members of the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, organized in 1865 by officers who had fought in the Civil War. Chinese officials wear a button or knob on their hats as a mark of rank, the grade being denoted by its colour and material (seeMandarin).
Many varieties of buttons are used on clothing, but they may be divided into two main classes according to the arrangement by which they are attached to the garment; in one class they are provided with a shank which may consist of a metal loop or of a tuft of cloth or similar material, while in the other they are pierced with holes through which are passed threads. To these two classes roughly correspond two broad differences in the method of manufacture, according as the buttons are composite and made up of two or more pieces, or are simply shaped disks of a single material; some composite buttons, however, are provided with holes, and simple metal buttons sometimes have metal shanks soldered or riveted on them. From an early period buttons of the former kind were made by needlework with the aid of a mould or former, but about 1807 B. Sanders, a Dane who had been ruined by the bombardment of Copenhagen, introduced an improved method of manufacturing them at Birmingham. His buttons were formed of two disks of metal locked together by having their edges turned back on each other and enclosing a filling of cloth or pasteboard; and by methods of this kind, carried out by elaborate automatic machinery, buttons are readily produced, presenting faces of silk, mohair, brocade or other material required to harmonize with the fabric on which they are used. Sanders's buttons at first had metal shanks, but about 1825 his son invented flexible shanks of canvas or other substance through which the needle could pass freely in any direction. The mechanical manufacture of covered buttons was started in the United States in 1827 by Samuel Williston, of Easthampton, Mass., who in 1834 joined forces with Joel and Josiah Hayden, of Haydenville.
The number of materials that have been used for making buttons is very large—metals such as brass and iron for the cheaper kinds, and for more expensive ones, gold and silver, sometimes ornamented with jewels, filigree work, &c.; ivory, horn, bone and mother-of-pearl or other nacreous products of shell-fish; vegetable ivory and wood; glass, porcelain, paper, celluloid and artificial compositions; and even the casein of milk, and blood. Brass buttons were made at Birmingham in 1689, and in the following century the metal button industry underwent considerable development in that city. Matthew Boulton the elder, about 1745, introduced great improvements in the processes of manufacture, and when his son started the Soho works in 1767 one of the departments was devoted to the production of steel buttons with facets, some of which sold for 140 guineas a gross. Gilt buttons also came into fashion about the same period. In this "Augustan age" of the Birmingham button industry, when there was a large export trade, the profits of manufacturers who worked on only a modest scale amounted to £3000 and £4000 a year, and workmen earned from £2 to £4 a week. At one time the buttons had each to be fashioned separately by skilled artisans, but gradually the cost of production was lessened by the adoption of mechanical processes, and instead of being turned out singly and engraved or otherwise ornamented by hand, they came to be stamped out in dies which at once shape them and impress them with the desired pattern. Ivory buttons are among the oldest of all. Horn buttons were made at Birmingham at least by 1777; towards the middle of the igth century Emile Bassot invented a widely-used process for producing them from the hoofs of cattle, which were softened by boiling. Pearl buttons are made from pearl oyster shells obtained from various parts of the world, and after being cut out by tubular drills are shaped and polished by machinery. Buttons of vegetable ivory can be readily dyed. Glass buttons are especially made in Bohemia, as also are those of porcelain, which were invented about 1840 by an Englishman, R. Prosser of Birmingham. In the United States few buttons were made until the beginning of the 19th century, when the manufacture of metal buttons was started at Waterbury, Conn., which is now the centre of that industry. In 1812 Aaron Benedict began to make ivory and horn buttons at the same place. Buttons of vegetable ivory, now one of the most important branches of the American button industry, were first made at Leeds, Mass., in 1859 by an Englishman, A.W. Critchlow, and in 1875 commercial success was attained in the production of composition buttons at Springfield, Mass. Pearl buttons were made on a small scale in 1855, but their manufacture received an enormous impetus in the last decade of the 19th century, when J.F. Boepple began, at Muscatine, Iowa, to utilize the unio or "niggerhead" shells found along the Mississippi. By 1905 the annual output of these "fresh-water pearl" buttons had reached 11,405,723 gross, worth $3,359,167, or 36.6% of the total value of the buttons produced in the United States. In the same year the mother-of-pearl buttons ("ocean pearl buttons") numbered 1,737,830 gross, worth $1,511,107, and the two kinds together constituted 44% of the number, and 53.9% of the value, of the button manufactures of the United States. (SeeU.S.A. Census Reports, 1900, Manufactures, part iii. pp. 315-327.)
BUTTRESS(from the O. Fr.bouteret, that which bears a thrust, frombouter, to push, cf. Eng. "butt" and "abutment"), masonry projecting from a wall, provided to give additional strength to the same, and also to resist the thrust of the roof or wall, especially when concentrated at any one point. In Roman architecture the plans of the building, where the vaults were of considerable span and the thrust therefore very great, were so arranged as to provide cross-walls, dividing the aisles, as in the case of the Basilica of Maxentius, and, in the Thermae of Rome, the subdivisions of the less important halls, so that there were no visible buttresses. In the baths of Diocletian, however, these cross-walls rose to the height of the great vaulted hall, the tepidarium, and their upper portions were decorated with niches and pilasters. In a palace at Shuka in Syria, attributed to the end of the 2nd centuryA.D., where, in consequence of the absence of timber, it was necessary to cover over the building with slabs of stones, these latter were carried on arches thrown across the great hall, and this necessitated two precautions, viz. the provision of an abutment inside the building, and of buttresses outside, the earliest example in which the feature was frankly accepted. In Byzantine work there were no external buttresses, the plans being arranged to include them in cross-walls or interior abutments. The buttresses of the early Romanesque churches were only pilaster strips employed to break up the wall surface and decorate the exterior. At a slightly later period a greater depth was given to the lower portion of the buttresses, which was then capped with a deep sloping weathering. The introduction of ribbed vaulting, extended to the nave in the 12th century, and the concentration of thrusts on definite points of the structure, rendered the buttress an absolute necessity, and from the first this would seem to have been recognized, and the architectural treatment already given to the Romanesque buttress receiveda remarkable development. The buttresses of the early English period have considerable projection with two or three sets-off sloped at an acute angle dividing the stages and crowned by triangular heads; and slender columns ("buttress shafts") are used at the angle. In later work pinnacles and niches are usually employed to decorate the summits of the buttresses, and in the still later Perpendicular work the vertical faces are all richly decorated with panelling.
BUTYL ALCOHOLS,C4H9OH. Four isomeric alcohols of this formula are known; two of these are primary, one secondary, and one tertiary (seeAlcohols). Normal butyl alcohol, CH3·(CH2)2·CH2OH, is a colourless liquid, boiling at 116.8°, and formed by reducing normal butyl aldehyde with sodium, or by a peculiar fermentation of glycerin, brought about by a schizomycete. Isobutyl alcohol, (CH3)2CH·CH2OH, the butyl alcohol of fermentation, is a primary alcohol derived from isobutane. It may be prepared by the general methods, and occurs in fusel oil, especially in potato spirit. It is a liquid, smelling like fusel oil and boiling at 108.4° C. Methyl ethyl carbinol, CH3·C2H5·CHOH, is the secondary alcohol derived from n-butane. It is a strongly smelling liquid, boiling at 99°. Trimethyl carbinol or tertiary butyl alcohol, (CH3)3·COH, is the simplest tertiary alcohol, and was obtained by A. Butlerow in 1864 by acting with zinc methyl on acetyl chloride (seeAlcohols). It forms rhombic prisms or plates which melt at 25° and boil at 83°, and has a spiritous smell, resembling that of camphor.
BUTYRIC ACID, C4H8O2. Two acids are known corresponding to this formula,normal butyric acid, CH3·CH2·CH2·COOH, andisobutyric acid, (CH3)2·CH·COOH. Normal butyric acid or fermentation butyric acid is found in butter, as an hexyl ester in the oil ofHeracleum giganteumand as an octyl ester in parsnip (Pastinaca sativa); it has also been noticed in the fluids of the flesh and in perspiration. It may be prepared by the hydrolysis of ethyl acetoacetate, or by passing carbon monoxide over a mixture of sodium acetate and sodium ethylate at 205° C. (A. Geuther,Ann., 1880, 202, p.306), C2H5ONa + CH3COONa + CO = H·CO2Na + CH3·CH2·CH2·COONa. It is ordinarily prepared by the fermentation of sugar or starch, brought about by the addition of putrefying cheese, calcium carbonate being added to neutralize the acids formed in the process. A. Fitz (Ber., 1878, 11 p. 52) found that the butyric fermentation of starch is aided by the direct addition ofBacillus subtilis. The acid is an oily liquid of unpleasant smell, and solidifies at -19° C.; it boils at 162.3° C., and has a specific gravity of 0.9746 (0° C.). It is easily soluble in water and alcohol, and is thrown out of its aqueous solution by the addition of calcium chloride. Potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid oxidize it to carbon dioxide and acetic acid, while alkaline potassium permanganate oxidizes it to carbon dioxide. The calcium salt, Ca(C4H7O2)2·H2O, is less soluble in hot water than in cold.
Isobutyric acidis found in the free state in carobs (Ceratonia siliqua) and in the root ofArnica dulcis, and as an ethyl ester in croton oil. It may be artificially prepared by the hydrolysis of isopropylcyanide with alkalies, by the oxidation of isopropyl alcohol with potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid (I. Pierre and E. Puchot,Ann. de chim. et de phys., 1873, [4] 28, p. 366), or by the action of sodium amalgam on methacrylic acid, CH2·C(CH3)·COOH. It is a liquid of somewhat unpleasant smell, boiling at 155.5° C. Its specific gravity is 0.9697 (0°). Heated with chromic acid solution to 140° C., it gives carbon dioxide and acetone. Alkaline potassium permanganate oxidizes it toα-oxyisobutyric acid, (CH3)2·C(OH)·COOH, whilst concentrated nitric acid converts it into dinitroisopropane. Its salts are more soluble in water than those of the normal acid.
BUXAR,orBaxar, a town of India, in the district of Shahabad, Bengal, on the south bank of the Ganges, and on the East Indian railway. Pop. (1901) 13,945. There is a dismantled fort of small size which was important from its commanding the Ganges. A celebrated victory was gained here on the 23rd of October 1764 by the British forces under Major (afterwards Sir Hector) Munro, over the united armies of Shuja-ud-Dowlah and Kasim Ali Khan. The action raged from 9 o'clock till noon, when the enemy gave way. Pursuit was, however, frustrated by Shuja-ud-Dowlah sacrificing a part of his army to the safety of the remainder. A bridge of boats had been constructed over a stream about 2 m. distant from the field of battle, and this the enemy destroyed before their rear had passed over. Through this act 2000 troops were drowned, or otherwise lost; but destructive as was this proceeding, it was, said Major Munro, "the best piece of generalship Shuja-ud-Dowlah showed that day, because if I had crossed the rivulet with the army, I should either have taken or drowned his whole army in the Karamnasa, and come up with his treasure and jewels, and Kasim Ali Khan's jewels, which I was informed amounted to between two and three millions."
BUXTON, JEDEDIAH(1707-1772), English arithmetician, was born on the 20th of March 1707 at Elmton, near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. Although his father was schoolmaster of the parish, and his grandfather had been the vicar, his education had been so neglected that he could not write; and his knowledge, except of numbers, was extremely limited. How he came first to know the relative proportions of numbers, and their progressive denominations, he did not remember; but on such matters his attention was so constantly riveted, that he frequently took no cognizance of external objects, and when he did, it was only with reference to their numbers. He measured the whole lordship of Elmton, consisting of some thousand acres, simply by striding over it, and gave the area not only in acres, roods and perches, but even in square inches. After this, he reduced them into square hairs'-breadths, reckoning forty-eight to each side of the inch. His memory was so great, that in resolving a question he could leave off and resume the operation again at the same point after the lapse of a week, or even of several months. His perpetual application to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other knowledge. His wonderful faculty was tested in 1754 by the Royal Society of London, who acknowledged their satisfaction by presenting him with a handsome gratuity. During his visit to the metropolis he was taken to see the tragedy ofRichard III.performed at Drury Lane theatre, but his whole mind was given to the counting of the words uttered by David Garrick. Similarly, he set himself to count the steps of the dancers; and he declared that the innumerable sounds produced by the musical instruments had perplexed him beyond measure. He died in 1772.
A memoir appeared in theGentleman's Magazinefor June 1754, to which, probably through the medium of a Mr Holliday, of Haughton Hall, Nottinghamshire, Buxton had contributed several letters. In this memoir, his age is given as forty-nine, which points to his birth in 1705; the date adopted above is on the authority of Lysons'Magna Britannia(Derbyshire).
BUXTON, SIR THOMAS FOWELL(1786-1845), English philanthropist, was born in Essex on the 1st of April 1786, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where, in spite of his early education having been neglected, hard work made him one of the first men of his time, with a high reputation as a speaker. In 1807 he married Hannah Gurney, sister of the celebrated Elizabeth Fry. As his means were not sufficient to support his family, he entered in 1808 the brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, of which his uncles, the Hanburys, were partners. He devoted himself to business with characteristic energy, became a partner in 1811, and soon had the whole concern in his hands. In 1816 he brought himself into notice by his speech on behalf of the Spitalfields weavers, and in 1818 he published his ableInquiry into Prison Discipline. The same year he was elected M.P. for Weymouth, a borough for which he continued to sit till 1837. In the House of Commons he had a high reputation as an able and straightforward speaker, devoted to philanthropic schemes. Of these plans the most important was that for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. Buxton devoted his life to this object, and through defeat and opposition, despite the attacks of enemies and the remonstrances of faint-hearted friends, he remained true to it. Not till 1833 was he successful, and even then only partially, for he was compelled to admit into the bill some clauses against which his better judgment had decided. In 1837 he ceased tosit in the House of Commons. He travelled on the continent in 1839 to recruit his health, which had given way, and took the opportunity of inspecting foreign prisons. He was made a baronet in 1840, and then devoted himself to a plan for ameliorating the condition of the African natives. The failure of the Niger expedition of 1841 was a blow from which he never recovered. He died on the 19th of February 1845.
SeeMemoir and Correspondence of Sir T.F. Buxton(1848), by his third son, Charles Buxton (1823-1871), a well-known philanthropist and member of parliament.
BUXTON,a market town and fashionable health-resort in the High Peak parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, on the London & North-Western and Midland railways, 36 m. N.W. by N. of Derby. Pop. of urban district (1901) 10,181. It occupies a high position, lying between 1000 and 1150 ft. above sea-level, in an open hollow, surrounded at a distance by hills of considerable elevation, except on the south-east side, where the Wye, which rises about half a mile away, makes its exit. The old town (High Buxton) stands a little above the new, and consists of one wide street, and a considerable market-place with an old cross. The new town is the richer portion. The Crescent is a fine range of buildings in the Doric style, erected by the duke of Devonshire in 1779-1788. It contains hotels, a ballroom, a bank, a library and other establishments, and the surrounding open grounds are laid out in terraces and gardens. The Old Hall hotel at the west end of the Crescent stands on the site of the mansion built in 1572 by the earl of Shrewsbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was the residence of Mary queen of Scots when she visited the town. The mineral waters of Buxton, which have neither taste nor smell, are among the most noted in England, and are particularly efficacious in cases of rheumatism and gout. There are numerous public and private baths, the most important of which are those in the establishment at the eastern end of the Crescent. The springs supply hot and cold water at a very short distance from each other, flowing at the rate of 60 gallons a minute. The former possesses a uniform temperature of 82° Fahr., and the principal substances in solution are bicarbonate of calcium, bicarbonate of magnesium, chloride of sodium, chloride of magnesium and silica acid. There is also a chalybeate spring known as St Anne's well, situated at the S.W. corner of the Crescent, the water of which when mixed with that of the other springs proves purgative. The Devonshire hospital, formerly known as the Bath Charity, is a benevolent institution, supported by voluntary subscriptions. Every year some thousands of poor patients are treated free of cost; and the hospital was enlarged for their accommodation, a dome being added which is of greater circumference than any other in Europe. In 1894 the duke of Devonshire erected a handsome pump-room at St Anne's well. The Buxton season extends from June to October, and during that period the town is visited by thousands, but it is also popular as a winter resort. The Buxton Gardens are beautifully laid out, with ornamental waters, a fine opera-house, pavilion and concert hall, theatre and reading rooms. Electric lighting has been introduced, and there is an excellent golf course. The Cavendish Terrace forms a fine promenade, and the neighbourhood of the town is rich in objects of interest. Of these the chief are Poole's Hole, a vast stalactite cave, about half a mile distant; Diamond Hill, which owes its name to the quartz crystals which are not uncommon in its rocks; and Chee Tor, a remarkable cliff, on the banks of the Wye, 300 ft. high. Ornaments are manufactured by the inhabitants from alabaster and spar; and excellent lime is burned at the quarries near Poole's Hole. Buxton is an important centre for horse-breeding, and a large horse-fair is held annually. Although the annual rainfall, owing to the situation of the town towards the western flank of the Pennine Hills, is about 49 in., the air is particularly dry owing to the high situation and the rapidity with which waters drain off through the limestone. The climate is bracing and healthy.
The waters were known and used by the Romans, but to a limited extent, and no remains of their baths survive. Roman roads connected the place with Derby, Brough in Edale and Manchester. Buxton (Bawdestanes, Bue-stanes), formed into a civil parish from Bakewell in 1895, has thus claims to be considered one of the oldest English spas. It was probably the "Bectune" mentioned in Domesday. After the departure of the Romans the baths seem to have been long neglected, but were again frequented in the 16th century, when the chapel of St Anne was hung round with the crutches of those who were supposed to owe their cure to her healing powers; these interesting relics were destroyed at the Reformation. The baths were visited at least four times by Mary queen of Scots, when a prisoner in charge of George, earl of Shrewsbury, other famous Elizabethan visitors being Lord Burleigh, the earl of Essex, and Robert, earl of Leicester. At the close of the 18th century the duke of Devonshire, lord of the manor (whose ancestor Sir Ralph de Gernons was lord of Bakewell in 1251), spent large sums of money on improvements in the town. In 1781 he began to build the famous Crescent, and since that time Buxton has steadily increased in favour as an inland watering-place. In 1813 a weekly market on Saturday and four annual fairs were granted. These were bought by the local authorities from the duke of Devonshire in 1864.
See Gough's edition of Camden'sBritannia; Stephen Glover,History of the County of Derby(Derby, 1829); W. Bemrose,Guide to Buxton(London, 1869).
BUXTORF,orBuxtorff,JOHANNES(1564-1629), German Hebrew and Rabbinic scholar, was born at Kamen in Westphalia on the 25th of December 1564. The original form of the name was Bockstrop, or Boxtrop, from which was derived the family crest, which bore the figure of a goat (Ger.Bock, he-goat). After the death of his father, who was minister of Kamen, Buxtorf studied at Marburg and the newly-founded university of Herborn, at the latter of which C. Olevian (1536-1587) and J.P. Piscator (1546-1625) had been appointed professors of theology. At a later date Piscator received the assistance of Buxtorf in the preparation of his Latin translation of the Old Testament, published at Herborn in 1602-1603. From Herborn Buxtorf went to Heidelberg, and thence to Basel, attracted by the reputation of J.J. Grynaeus and J.G. Hospinian (1515-1575). After a short residence at Basel he studied successively under H.B. Bullinger (1504-1575) at Zürich and Th. Beza at Geneva. On his return to Basel, Grynaeus, desirous that the services of so promising a scholar should be secured to the university, procured him a situation as tutor in the family of Leo Curio, son of Coelius Secundus Curio, well-known for his sufferings on account of the Reformed faith. At the instance of Grynaeus, Buxtorf undertook the duties of the Hebrew chair in the university, and discharged them for two years with such ability that at the end of that time he was unanimously appointed to the vacant office. From this date (1591) to his death in 1629 he remained in Basel, and devoted himself with remarkable zeal to the study of Hebrew and rabbinic literature. He received into his house many learned Jews, that he might discuss his difficulties with them, and he was frequently consulted by Jews themselves on matters relating to their ceremonial law. He seems to have well deserved the title which was conferred upon him of "Master of the Rabbins." His partiality for Jewish society brought him, indeed, on one occasion into trouble with the authorities of the city, the laws against the Jews being very strict. Nevertheless, on the whole, his relations with the city of Basel were friendly. He remained firmly attached to the university which first recognized his merits, and declined two invitations from Leiden and Saumur successively. His correspondence with the most distinguished scholars of the day was very extensive; the library of the university of Basel contains a rich collection of letters, which are valuable for a literary history of the time.
Works.—Manuale Hebraicum et Chaldaicum(1602; 7th ed., 1658);Synagoga Judaica(1603 in German; afterwards translated into Latin in an enlarged form), a valuable repertory of information regarding the opinions and ceremonies of the Jews;Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum cum brevi Lexico Rabbinico Philosophico(1607; reprinted at Glasgow, 1824); his great Rabbinical Bible,Biblic Hebraica cum Paraphr. Chald. et Commentariis Rabbinorum(2 vols., 1618; 4 vols., 1618-1619), containing, in addition to the Hebrewtext, the Aramaic Paraphrases of Targums, punctuated after the analogy of the Aramaic passages in Ezra and Daniel (a proceeding which has been condemned by Richard Simon and others), and the Commentaries of the more celebrated Rabbis, with various other treatises;Tiberias, sive Commentarius Masoreticus(1620; quarto edition, improved and enlarged by J. Buxtorf the younger, 1665), so named from the great school of Jewish criticism which had its seat in the town of Tiberias. It was in this work that Buxtorf controverted the views of Elias Levita regarding the late origin of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the controversy between Louis Cappel and his son Johannes Buxtorf (q.v.). Buxtorf did not live to complete the two works on which his reputation chiefly rests, viz. his greatLexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Rabbinicum, and theConcordantiae Bibliorum Hebraicorum, both of which were edited by his son. They are monuments of untiring labour and industry. The lexicon was republished at Leipzig in 1869 with some additions by Bernard Fischer, and the concordance was assumed by Julius Fürst as the basis of his great Hebrew concordance, which appeared in 1840.
For additional information regarding his writings seeAthenae Rauricae, pp. 444-448; articles in Ersch and Gruber'sEncyclopädie, and Herzog-Hauck,Realencyk.; J.P. Niceron'sMémoires, vol. xxxi. pp. 206-215; J.M. Schroeckh'sKirchengeschichte, vol. v. (Post-Reformation period), pp. 72 seq. (Leipzig, 1806); G.W. Meyer'sGeschichte der Schrift-Erklärung, vol. iii. (Göttingen, 1804); and E. Kautsch,Johannes Buxtorf der Ältere(1879).
BUXTORF,orBuxtorff,JOHANNES(1599-1664), son of the preceding, was born at Basel on the 13th of August 1599, and when still a boy attained considerable proficiency in the classical languages. Entering the university at the age of twelve, he was only sixteen when he obtained his master's degree. He now gave himself up to theological and especially to Semitic studies, concentrating later on rabbinical Hebrew, and reading while yet a young man both the Mishna and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Gemaras. These studies he further developed by visits to Heidelberg, Dort (where he made the acquaintance of many of the delegates to the synod of 1619) and Geneva, and in all these places acquired a great reputation. In 1622 he published at Basel aLexicon Chaldaicum et Syriacum, as a companion work to his father's great Rabbinical Bible. He declined the chair of logic at Lausanne, and in 1624 was appointed general deacon of the church at Basel. On the death of his father in 1629, he was unanimously designated his successor in the Hebrew professorship. From this date until his death in 1664 he remained at Basel, declining two offers which were made to him from Groningen and Leiden, to accept the Hebrew chair in these two celebrated schools. In 1647 the governing body of the university founded, specially for him, a third theological professorship, that of "Commonplaces and Controversies," which Buxtorf held for seven years along with the Hebrew chair. When, however, the professorship of the Old Testament became vacant in 1654 by the death of Theodor Zwinger, Buxtorf resigned the chair of theology and accepted that of the Old Testament instead. He was four times married, his three first wives dying shortly after marriage and the fourth predeceasing her husband by seven years. His children died young, with the exception of two boys, the younger of whom, Jakob (1645-1704), became his father's colleague, and then his successor, in the chair of Hebrew. The same distinction fell to the lot of his nephew Johann (1663-1732).
A considerable portion of Buxtorf's public life was spent in controversy regarding disputed points in biblical criticism, in reference to which he had to defend his father's views. The attitude of the Reformed churches at that time, as opposed to the Church of Rome, led them to maintain many opinions in regard to biblical questions which were not only erroneous, but altogether unnecessary for the stability of their position. Having renounced the dogma of an infallible church, it was deemed necessary to maintain as a counterpoise, not only that of an infallible Bible, but, as the necessary foundation of this, of a Bible which had been handed down from the earliest ages without the slightest textual alteration. Even the vowel points and accents were held to have been given by divine inspiration. The Massoretic text of the Old Testament, therefore, as compared either with that of the recently discovered Samaritan Pentateuch, or the Septuagint or of the Vulgate, alone contained the true words of the sacred writers. Although many of the Reformers, as well as learned Jews, had long seen that these assertions could not be made good, there had been as yet no formal controversy upon the subject. Louis Cappel (q.v.) was the first effectually to dispel the illusions which had long prevailed by a work on the modern origin of the vowel points and accents. The elder Buxtorf had counselled him not to publish his work, pointing out the injury which it would do the Protestant cause, but Cappel sent his MS. to Thomas Erpenius of Leiden, the most learned orientalist of his day, by whom it was published in 1624, under the titleArcanum Punctationis revelatum, but without the author's name. The elder Buxtorf, though he lived five years after the publication of the work, made no public reply to it, and it was not until 1648 that Buxtorf junior published hisTractatus de punctorum origine, antiquitate, et authoritate, oppositus Arcano punctationis revelato Ludovici Cappelli. He tried to prove by copious citations from the rabbinical writers, and by arguments of various kinds, that the points, if not so ancient as the time of Moses, were at least as old as that of Ezra, and thus possessed the authority of divine inspiration. Unfortunately he allowed himself to employ contemptuous epithets towards Cappel, such as "innovator" and "visionary." Cappel speedily prepared a second edition of his work, in which, besides replying to the arguments of his opponent, and fortifying his position with new ones, he retorted his contumelious epithets with interest. Owing to various causes, however, this second edition did not see the light until 1685, when it was published at Amsterdam in the edition of his collected works. Besides this controversy, Buxtorf engaged in three others with the same antagonist, on the subject of the integrity of the Massoretic text of the Old Testament, on the antiquity of the present Hebrew characters, and on the Lord's Supper. In the two former Buxtorf supported the untenable position that the text of the Old Testament had been transmitted to us without any errors or alteration, and that the present square or so-called Chaldee characters were coeval with the original composition of the various books. These views were triumphantly refuted by his great opponent in hisCritica Sacra, and in hisDiatriba veris et antiquis Ebraicorum literis.
Besides the works already mentioned in the course of this article, Buxtorf edited the greatLexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Rabbinicum, on which his father had spent the labour of twenty years, and to the completion of which he himself gave ten years of additional study; and the great HebrewConcordance, which his father had little more than begun. In addition to these, he published new editions of many of his father's works, as well as others of his own, complete lists of which may be seen in theAthenae Rauricaeand other works enumerated at the close of the preceding article.
BUYING IN,on the English stock exchange, a transaction by which, if a member has sold securities which he fails to deliver on settling day, or any of the succeeding ten days following the settlement, the buyer may give instructions to a stock exchange official to "buy in" the stock required. The official announces the quantity of stock, and the purpose for which he requires it, and whoever sells the stock must be prepared to deliver it immediately. The original seller has to pay the difference between the two prices, if the latter is higher than the original contract price. A similar practice, termed "selling out," prevails when a purchaser fails to take up his securities.
BUYS BALLOT'S LAW,in meteorology, the name given to a law which may be expressed as follows:—"Stand with your back to the wind; the low-pressure area will be on your left-hand." This rule, the truth of which was first recognized by the American meteorologists J.H. Coffin and W. Ferrel, is a direct consequence of Ferrel's Law (q.v.). It is approximately true in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, but the angle between barometric gradient and wind is not a right angle in low latitudes. The law takes its name from C.H.D. BuysBallot, a Dutch meteorologist, who published it in theComptes rendus, November 1857.
BUZEU,the capital of the department of Buzeu, Rumania, situated near the right bank of the river Buzeu, between the Carpathian Mountains and the fertile lowlands of south Moldavia and east Walachia. Pop. (1900) 21,561. Buzeu is important as a market for petroleum, timber and grain. It is the meetingplace of railroads from Râmnicu Sarat, Braila and Ploesci. Amber is found by the riverside, and there are cloth-mills in the city. Buzeu is the seat of a bishop, whose cathedral was erected in 1640 by Prince Matthias Bassarab of Walachia, on the site of an older church. In the neighbourhood there are many monasteries. Buzeu was formerly called Napuca or Buzograd.
BUZOT, FRANÇOIS NICOLAS LÉONARD(1760-1794), French revolutionist, was born at Evreux on the 1st of March 1760. He studied law, and at the outbreak of the Revolution was an advocate in his native town. In 1789 he was elected deputy to the states-general, and there became known for his advanced opinions. He demanded the nationalization of the possessions of the clergy, and the right of all citizens to carry arms. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, Buzot returned to Evreux, where he was named president of the criminal tribunal. In 1792 he was elected deputy to the Convention, and took his place among the Girondists. He demanded the formation of a national guard from the departments to defend the Convention against the populace of Paris. His proposal was carried, but never put into force; and the Parisians were extremely bitter against him and the Girondists. In the trial of Louis XVI., Buzot voted for death, but with appeal to the people and postponement of sentence. He had a decree of death passed against theémigréswho did not return to France, and against anyone who should demand the re-establishment of the monarchy. Proscribed with the Girondists on the 2nd of June 1793, he succeeded in escaping, and took refuge in Normandy, where he contributed to organize a federalist insurrection against the Convention, which was speedily suppressed. Buzot was outlawed, and fled to the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, and committed suicide in the woods of St Émilion on the 18th of June 1794. He was an intelligent and honest man, although he seems to have profited by the sale of the possessions of the clergy, but he had a stubborn, unyielding temperament, was incapable of making concessions, and was dominated by Madame Roland, who imparted to him her hatred of Danton and the Montagnards.
SeeMémoires de Pétion, Barbaroux, Buzot, published by C.A. Daubon (Paris, 1866). For the history of the federalist movement in Normandy, see L. Boivin Champeaux,Notices pour servir à, l'histoire de la Révolution dans le département de l'Eure(Evreux and Paris, 1884).
BUZZARD,a word derived from the Lat.Buteo, through the Fr.Busard, and used in a general sense for a large group of diurnal birds-of-prey, which contains, among many others, the species usually known as the common buzzard (Buteo vulgaris, Leach), though the English epithet is nowadays hardly applicable. The name buzzard, however, belongs quite as rightfully to the birds called in books "harriers," which form a distinct subfamily ofFalconidaeunder the titleCircinae, and by it one species, the moor-buzzard (Circus aeruginosus), is still known in such places as it inhabits. "Puttock" is also another name used in some parts of England, but perhaps is rather a synonym of the kite (Milvus ictinus). Though ornithological writers are almost unanimous in distinguishing the buzzards as a group from the eagles, the grounds usually assigned for their separation are but slight, and the diagnostic character that can be best trusted is probably that in the former the bill is decurved from the base, while in the latter it is for about a third of its length straight. The head, too, in buzzards is short and round, while in the eagles it is elongated. In a general way buzzards are smaller than eagles, though there are several exceptions to this statement, and have their plumage more mottled. Furthermore, most if not all of the buzzards, about which anything of the kind is with certainty known, assume their adult dress at the first moult, while the eagles take a longer time to reach maturity. The buzzards are fine-looking birds, but are slow and heavy of flight, so that in the old days of falconry they were regarded with infinite scorn, and hence in common English to call a man "a buzzard" is to denounce him as stupid. Their food consists of small mammals, young birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects—particularly beetles—and thus they never could have been very injurious to the game-preserver, if indeed they were not really his friends, though they have fallen under his ban; but at the present day they are so scarce that in England their effect, whatever it may be, is inappreciable. Buzzards are found over the whole world with the exception of the Australian region, and have been split into many genera by systematists. In the British Islands are two species, one resident (theB. vulgarisalready mentioned), and now almost confined to a few wooded districts; the other the rough-legged buzzard (Archibuteo lagopus), an irregular winter-visitant, sometimes arriving in large bands from the north of Europe, and readily distinguishable from the former by being feathered down to the toes. The honey-buzzard (Pernis apivorus), a summer-visitor from the south, and breeding, or attempting to breed, yearly in the New Forest, does not come into the subfamilyButeoninae, but is probably the type of a distinct group,Perninae, of which there are other examples in Africa and Asia. In America the name "buzzard" is popularly given to the turkey-buzzard or turkey-vulture (Cathartes Aura).
(A. N.)
BYELAYA TSERKOV(i.e.White Church), a town of Russia, in the government of Kiev, 32 m. S.S.W. of Vasilkov, on the main road from Kiev to the Crimea, in 49° 47′ N. lat. and 30° 7′ E. long. Pop. (1860) 12,075; (1897) 20,705. First mentioned in 1155, Byelaya Tserkov was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. In 1550 a castle was built here by the prince of Kiev, and various privileges were bestowed upon the inhabitants. From 1651 the town was subject alternately to Poland and to independent hetmans (Cossack chiefs). In 1793 it was united to Russia. There is a trade in beer, cattle and grain, sold at eleven annual fairs, three of which last for ten days each.
BYELEV,a town of Russia, in the government of Tula, and 67 m. S.W. from the city of that name on the left bank of the Oka, in 53° 48′ N. lat., and 36° 9′ E. long. Pop. (1860) 8063; (1897) 9567. It is first mentioned in 1147. It belonged to Lithuania in the end of the 14th century; and in 1468 it was raised to the rank of a principality, dependent on that country. In the end of the 15th century this principality began to attach itself to the grand-duchy of Moscow; and by Ivan III. it was ultimately united to Russia. It suffered greatly from the Tatars in 1507, 1512, 1530, 1536 and 1544. In 1826 the empress Elizabeth died here on her way from Taganrog to St Petersburg. A public library was founded in 1858 in memory of the poet Zhukovsky, who was born (1782) in a neighbouring village. The industries comprise tallow-boiling, oil-manufacture, tanning, sugar-refining and distilling. There is a trade in grain, hemp oil, cattle and tallow. A fair is held from the 28th of August to the 10th of September every year.
BYELGOROD(i.e.White Town), a town of Russia, in the government of Kursk, 100 m. S.S.E. by rail from the city of that name, in 50° 46′ N. lat. and 36° 37′ E. long., clustering on a chalk hill on the right bank of the Donets. Pop. (1860) 11,722; (1897) 21,850. In the 17th century it suffered repeatedly from Tatar incursions, against which there was built (from 1633 to 1740) an earthen wall, with twelve forts, extending upwards of 200 m. from the Vorskla to the Don, and called the Byelgorod line. In 1666 an archiepiscopal see was established in the town. There are two cathedral churches, both built in the 16th century, as well as a theological seminary. Candles, leather, soap, lime and bricks are manufactured, and a trade is carried on in grain, cattle, wool, honey, wax and tallow. There are three annual fairs, on the 10th Friday after Easter, the 29th of June and the 15th of August respectively.
BYELOSTOK(Polish,Bialystok), a town of West Russia, in the government of and 53 m. by rail S.W. of the city of Grodno, on the main railway line from Moscow to Warsaw, at its junction with the Kiev-Grayevo (Prussian frontier) line. Founded in 1320, it became part of Prussia after the third partition of Poland, but was annexed to Russia in 1807, after the peace of Tilsit. Its development dates from 1845, when woollen-mills were built. Since that time it has grown very rapidly, its population being 13,787 in 1857; 56,629 in 1889; and 65,781 in 1901, three-fourths Jews. Its woollen, silk and felt hat factories give occupation to several thousand workers.
BYEZHETSK,a town of Russia, in the government of Tver, and 70 m. N.N.E. of the city of that name, on the right bank of the Mologa, in 57° 46′ N. lat. and 36° 43′ E. long. Pop. (1860) 5423; (1897) 9090. It is mentioned in the chronicles of 1137. On the fall of Novgorod, to which it had belonged, it was incorporated (1479) with the grand-duchy of Moscow. The town is famous for its scythes and shearing hooks, but makes also axes, nails and other hardware, and trades in grain, linen, hemp and flax.
BY-LAW,orBye-law(by-being used in the sense of subordinate or secondary, cf. by-path), a regulation made by councils, boards, corporations and companies, usually under statutory power, for the preservation of order and good government within some place or jurisdiction. When made under authority of a statute, by-laws must generally, before they come into operation, be submitted to some confirming authority for sanction and approval; when approved, they are as binding as enacted laws. By-laws must be reasonable in themselves; they must not be retrospective nor contrary to the general law of the land. By various statutes powers are given to borough, county and district councils, to make by-laws for various purposes; corporate bodies, also, are empowered by their charters to make by-laws which are binding on their members. Such by-laws must be in harmony with the objects of the society and must not infringe or limit the powers and duties of its officers.
BYLES, MATHER(1706-1788), American clergyman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 26th of March 1706, descended, on his mother's side, from John Cotton and Richard Mather. He graduated at Harvard in 1725, and in 1733 became pastor of the Hollis Street church (Congregational), Boston. He held a high rank among the clergy of the province and was noted for his scholarly sermons and his ready wit. At the outbreak of the War of Independence he was outspoken in his advocacy of the royal cause, and after the British evacuation of Boston his connexion with his church was dissolved. He remained in Boston, however, and subsequently (1777) was arrested, tried and sentenced to deportation. This sentence was later changed to imprisonment in his own house. He was soon released, but never resumed his pastorate. He died in Boston on the 5th of July 1788. Besides many sermons he publishedA Poem on the Death of George I.(1727) andMiscellaneous Poems(1744).
His son,Mather Byles(1735-1814), graduated at Harvard in 1751, and was a Congregational clergyman at New London, Connecticut, until 1768, when he entered the Established Church, and became rector of Christ church, Boston. Sympathizing with the royal cause, he settled, after the War of Independence, in St Johns, New Brunswick, where he was rector of a church until his death.
BYNG, JOHN(1704-1757), British admiral, was the fourth son of George Byng, Lord Torrington, and entered the navy in 1718. The powerful influence of his father accounts for his rapid rise in the service. He received his first appointment as lieutenant in 1723, and became captain in 1727. His career presents nothing of note till after his promotion as rear-admiral in 1745, and as vice-admiral in 1747. He served on the most comfortable stations, and avoided the more arduous work of the navy. On the approach of the Seven Years' War the island of Minorca was threatened by an attack from Toulon and was actually invaded in 1756. Byng, who was then serving in the Channel with the rank of admiral, which he attained in 1755, was ordered to the Mediterranean to relieve the garrison of Fort St Philip, which was still holding out. The squadron was not very well manned, and Byng was in particular much aggrieved because his marines were landed to make room for the soldiers who were to reinforce the garrison, and he feared that if he met a French squadron after he had lost them he would be dangerously undermanned. His correspondence shows clearly that he left prepared for failure, that he did not believe that the garrison could hold out against the French force landed, and that he was already resolved to come back from Minorca if he found that the task presented any great difficulty. He wrote home to that effect to the ministry from Gibraltar. The governor of the fortress refused to spare any of his soldiers to increase the relief for Minorca, and Byng sailed on the 8th of May. On the 19th he was off Minorca, and endeavoured to open communications with the fort. Before he could land any of the soldiers, the French squadron appeared. A battle was fought on the following day. Byng, who had gained the weather gauge, bore down on the French fleet of M. de la Galissonière at an angle, so that his leading ships came into action unsupported by the rest of his line. The French cut the leading ships up, and then slipped away. When the flag captain pointed out to Byng that by standing out of his line he could bring the centre of the enemy to closer action, he declined on the ground that Thomas Mathews had been condemned for so doing. The French, who were equal in number to the English, got away undamaged. After remaining near Minorca for four days without making any further attempt to communicate with the fort or sighting the French, Byng sailed away to Gibraltar leaving Fort St Philip to its fate. The failure caused a savage outburst of wrath in the country. Byng was brought home, tried by court-martial, condemned to death, and shot on the 14th of March 1757 at Portsmouth. The severity of the penalty, aided by a not unjust suspicion that the ministry sought to cover themselves by throwing all the blame on the admiral, led in after time to a reaction in favour of Byng. It became a commonplace to say that he was put to death for an error of judgment. The court had indeed acquitted him of personal cowardice or of disaffection, and only condemned him for not having done his utmost. But it must be remembered that in consequence of many scandals which had taken place in the previous war the Articles of War had been deliberately revised so as to leave no punishment save death for the officer of any rank who did not do his utmost against the enemy either in battle or pursuit. That Byng had not done all he could is undeniable, and he therefore fell under the law. Neither must it be forgotten that in the previous war in 1745 an unhappy young lieutenant, Baker Phillips by name, whose captain had brought his ship into action unprepared, and who, when his superior was killed, surrendered the ship when she could no longer be defended, was shot by sentence of a court-martial. This savage punishment was approved by the higher officers of the navy, who showed great lenity to men of their own rank. The contrast had angered the country, and the Articles of War had been amended precisely in order that there might be one law for all.
The facts of Byng's life are fairly set out in Charnock'sBiogr. Nav.vol. iv. pp. 145 to 179. The number of contemporary pamphlets about his case is very great, but they are of no historical value, except as illustrating the state of public opinion.
(D. H.)
BYNKERSHOEK, CORNELIUS VAN(1673-1743), Dutch jurist, was born at Middleburg in Zeeland. In the prosecution of his legal studies, and while holding the offices first of member and afterwards of president of the supreme court, he found the common law of his country so defective as to be nearly useless for practical purposes. This abuse he resolved to reform, and took as the basis of a new system the principles of the ancient Roman law. His works are very voluminous. The most important of them areDe foro legatorum(1702);Observationes Juris Romani(1710), of which a continuation in four books appeared in 1733; the treatiseDe Dominio Maris(1721); and theQuaestiones Juris Publici(1737). Complete editions of his works were published after his death; one in folio at Geneva in 1761, and another in two volumes folio at Leiden in 1766.
BYRD, WILLIAM(1543-1623), English musical composer, was probably a member of one of the numerous Lincolnshire families of the name who were to be found at Lincoln, Spalding, Pinchbeck, Moulton and Epworth in the 16th century. According to Wood, he was "bred up to musick under Thomas Tallis." He was appointed organist of Lincoln cathedral about 1563, and on the 14th of September 1568 was married at St Margaret in the Close to Ellen or Julian Birley. On the 22nd of February 1569 he was sworn in as a member of the Chapel Royal, but he does not seem to have left Lincoln immediately. In the Chapel Royal he shared with Tallis the honorary post of organist, and on the 22ndof January 1575 the two composers obtained a licence for twenty-one years from Elizabeth to print music and music-paper, a monopoly which does not seem to have been at all remunerative. In 1575 Byrd and Tallis published a collection of Latin motets for five and six voices, printed by Thomas Vautrollier. In 1578 Byrd and his family were living at Harlington, Middlesex. As early as 1581 his name occurs among lists of recusants, and though he retained his post in the Chapel Royal he was throughout his life a Catholic. About 1579 he set a three-part song in Thomas Legge's Latin playRicardus Tertius. In 1588 he publishedPsalmes, Sonets and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie,and in the same year contributed two madrigals to Nicolas Yonge'sMusica Transalpina. In 1589 appearedSongs of Sundrie Natures, a second edition of which was issued in 1610. In the same year he publishedLiber Primus Sacrarum Cantionum, a second series of which was brought out in 1591. In 1590 two madrigals by Byrd were included in Thomas Watson'sFirst Sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished; one of these seems to have been sung before Queen Elizabeth on her visit to Lord Hertford at Elvetham in 1591. In April 1592 Byrd was still living at Harlington, but about 1593 he became possessed of the remainder of a lease of Stondon Place, Essex, a farm of some 200 acres, belonging to William Shelley, who was shortly afterwards convicted of high treason. The property was sequestrated, and on the 15th of July 1595 Byrd obtained a crown lease of it for the lives of his eldest son Christopher and his daughters Elizabeth and Rachel. On the death of Shelley his son bought back his estates (in 1604), whereupon his widow attempted to oust Byrd from Stondon Place, on the ground that it formed part of her jointure. Byrd was upheld in his possession of the property by James I. (Calendar of State Papers, Dom. Series, James I. add. series, vol. xxxvi.), but Mrs Shelley persevered in her suit, apparently until her death in 1609. In the following year the matter was settled for a time by Byrd's buying Stondon Place in the names of John and Thomas Petre, part of the property being charged with a payment to Byrd of £20 for his life, with remainder to his second son Thomas. Throughout this long suit Byrd, though in possession of property which had been confiscated from a recusant and actually taking part as a member of the Chapel Royal at the coronation of James I., had been excommunicated since 1598, while from 1605 until 1612, and possibly later, he was regularly presented before the archidiaconal court of Essex as a Catholic. In 1603 Easte published a work (no copies of which are known to exist) entitledMedulla Musicke. Sucked out of the sappe of two[of]the most famous Musitians that ever were in this land, namely Master Wylliam Byrd ... and Master Alphonso Ferabosco ... either of whom having made 40tie severall waies (without contention), showing most rare and intricate skill in 2 partes in one upon the playne song Miserere. In 1607 appeared two books ofGradualia, a second edition of which was issued in 1610. In the following year he publishedPsalmes, Songs and Sonnets; some solemne, others joyfull, framed to the life of the Words. Probably in the same year was issuedParthenia, a collection of virginal music, in which Byrd was associated with Bull and Orlando Gibbons. The last work to which he contributed was Sir Thomas Leighton'sTeares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule(1614). His death took place on the 4th of July 1623. It is recorded in theCheque Bookof the Chapel Royal as that of a "father of musicke." His will, dated the 15th of November 1622, shows that he remained a Catholic until the end of his life, and he expresses a desire that he may die at Stondon and be buried near his wife. From the same document it seems that his latter years had been embittered by a dispute with his eldest son, but that the matter was settled by an agreement with his daughter-in-law Catherine, to whom he left his property at Stondon, charged with the payment of £20 to his second son Thomas and £10 to his daughter Rachel, with remainder to his grandson Thomas and his second son of the same name. In 1635 the estate again came before the court of chancery, on the ground that the annuities had not been paid. The property seems about 1637 to have been let to one John Leigh, and in 1651 was held by a member of the Petre family. The committee for compounding with delinquents at that date allowed Thomas Byrd the annuity of £20 bequeathed by his father. Byrd's arms, as entered in the Visitation of Essex of 1634ex sigillowere three stags' heads cabossed, a canton ermine. His children were (1) Christopher, who married Catherine, daughter of Thomas Moore of Bamborough, and had a son, Thomas, living at Stondon in 1634; (2) Thomas; (3) Elizabeth, who married successively John Jackson and—Burdett; (4) Rachel, married (1)—Hook, by whom she had two children, William and Catherine, married to Michael Walton; in 1634 Rachel Hook had married (2) Edward Biggs; (5) Mary, married (1) Henry Hawksworth, by whom she had four sons, William, Henry, George and John; (2) Thomas Falconbridge. Anne Byrd, who is mentioned in the proceedingsShelleyv.Byrd(Exchequer Decrees, 7 James I., series ii. vol. vii. fol. 294 and 328), was probably a fourth daughter who died young.
Besides the works already mentioned Byrd was the composer of three masses, for three, four and five voices respectively, which seem to have been published with some privacy about 1588. There exists a second edition (also undated) of the four-part mass; all three have recently appeared in modern editions, and increase Byrd's claim to rank as the greatest English composer of his age. In addition to his published works, a large amount still remains in MS., comprising nearly every kind of composition. The FitzwilliamVirginal Bookcontains a long series of interesting pieces for the virginal, and more still remains unpublished in Lady Neville'sVirginal Bookand other contemporary collections. His industry was enormous, and though his work is unequal and the licences he allowed can hardly be defended on strict grounds, his Latin church music and his instrumental compositions entitle him to high rank among his contemporaries. As a madrigalist he was inferior to Morley, Wilbye and Gibbons, though even in this branch of his art he often displays great charm and individuality.
(W. B. S.*)
BYROM, JOHN(1692-1763), English poet, writer of hymns and inventor of a system of shorthand, was born at Kersal Cell, near Manchester, on the 29th of February 1692, the younger son of a prosperous merchant. He was educated at Merchant Taylors school, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1714. His first poem, "Colin to Phoebe," a pastoral, appeared in theSpectator, No. 603. The heroine is said to have been Dr Bentley's daughter, Joanna, the mother of Richard Cumberland, the dramatist. After leaving the university Byrom went abroad, ostensibly to study medicine, but he never practised and possibly his errand was really political, for he was an adherent of the Pretender. He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1724. On his return to London he married his cousin in 1721, and to support himself taught a new method of shorthand of his own invention, till he succeeded (1740) to his father's estate on the death of his elder brother. His diary gives interesting portraits and letters of the many great men of his time whom he knew intimately. He died on the 26th of September 1763. A collection of his poems was published in 1773, and he is included in Alexander Chalmers'sEnglish Poets. His system of shorthand was not published until after his death, when it was printed asThe Universal English Shorthand; or the way of writing English in the most easy, concise, regular and beautiful manner, applicable to any other language, but particularly adjusted to our own(Manchester, 1767).
ThePrivate Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom, related by Richard Parkinson, D.D., was published by the Chetham Society (1854-1857).
BYRON, GEORGE GORDON BYRON,6th Baron(1788-1824), English poet, was born in London at 16 Holles Street, Cavendish Square, on the 22nd of January 1788. The Byrons were of Norman stock, but the founder of the family was Sir John Byron, who entered into possession of the priory and lands of Newstead in the county of Nottingham in 1540. From him it descended (but with a bar-sinister) to a great-grandson, John (1st Baron) Byron (q.v.), a Cavalier general, who was raised to the peerage in 1643. The first Lord Byron died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, the great-grandfather of William, the 5th lord, who outlived son and grandson, and wassucceeded by his great-nephew, the poet. Admiral the Hon. John Byron (q.v.) was the poet's grandfather. His eldest son, Captain John Byron, the poet's father, was a libertine by choice and in an eminent degree. He caused to be divorced, and married (1779) as his first wife, the marchioness of Carmarthen (born Amelia D'Arcy), Baroness Conyers in her own right. One child of the marriage survived, the Hon. Augusta Byron (1783-1851), the poet's half-sister, who, in 1807, married her first cousin, Colonel George Leigh. His second marriage to Catherine Gordon (b. 1765) of Gight in Aberdeenshire took place at Bath on the 13th of May 1785. He is said to have squandered the fortunes of both wives. It is certain that Gight was sold to pay his debts (1786), and that the sole provision for his wife was a settlement of £3000. It was an unhappy marriage. There was an attempt at living together in France, and, when this failed, Mrs Byron returned to Scotland. On her way thither she gave birth to a son, christened George Gordon after his maternal grandfather, who was descended from Sir William Gordon of Gight, grandson of James I. of Scotland. After a while her husband rejoined her, but went back to France and died at Valenciennes on the 2nd of August 1791. His wife was not a bad woman, but she was not a good mother. Vain and capricious, passionate and self-indulgent, she mismanaged her son from his infancy, now provoking him by her foolish fondness, and now exciting his contempt by her paroxysms of impotent rage. She neither looked nor spoke like a gentlewoman; but in the conduct of her affairs she was praiseworthy. She hated and avoided debt, and when relief came (a civil list pension of £300 a year) she spent most of it upon her son. Fairly well educated, she was not without a taste for books, and her letters are sensible and to the point. But the violence of her temper was abnormal. Her father committed suicide, and it is possible that she inherited a tendency to mental derangement. If Byron owed anything to his parents it was a plea for pardon.
The poet's first years were spent in lodgings at Aberdeen. From 1794 to 1798 he attended the grammar school, "threading all classes" till he reached the fourth. It was a good beginning, a solid foundation, enabling him from the first to keep a hand over his talents and to turn them to a set purpose. He was lame from his birth. His right leg and foot, possibly both feet, were contracted by infantile paralysis, and, to strengthen his muscles, his mother sent him in the summers of 1796, 1797 to a farm house on Deeside. He walked with difficulty, but he wandered at will, soothed and inspired by the grandeur of the scenery. To his Scottish upbringing he owed his love of mountains, his love and knowledge of the Bible, and too much Calvinism for faith or unfaith in Christianity. The death of his great-uncle (May 19, 1798) placed him in possession of the title and estates. Early in the autumn Mrs Byron travelled south with her son and his nurse, and for a time made her home at Newstead Abbey. Byron was old enough to know what had befallen him. "It was a change from a shabby Scotch flat to a palace," a half-ruined palace, indeed, but his very own. It was a proud moment, but in a few weeks he was once more in lodgings. The shrunken leg did not improve, and acting on bad advice his mother entrusted him to the care of a quack named Lavender, truss-maker to the general hospital at Nottingham. His nurse who was in charge of him maltreated him, and the quack tortured him to no purpose. At his own request he read Virgil and Cicero with a tutor.