vi. 4 would then be identical with the feast of Tabernacles mentioned

in vii. 2, and all the time-notices of the Gospel could be arranged to fall within the space of a single year, between the Passover of ii. 13 and the Passover of xi. 55. But of the four authorities alleged, Irenaeus (11. xxii. 3 [xxxiii. i]) and the Alogi (_ap_. Epiphanius, _Haer._ li. 22) were giving catalogues of Passovers "observed" by Christ (at Jerusalem), and therefore naturally omitted a mere chronological reference like vi. 4: Cyril of Alexandria, in so far as his evidence is adverse to the words, appears to be incorporating a passage from the _Commentary_ of Origen, not extant _in loc_.; and the only writer who perhaps really did omit the words--with the view, no doubt, of reconciling the witness of the fourth Gospel with the then widely spread tradition of the single-year ministry--is Origen himself.

(ii.) _Interpretation_ ([alpha]) iv. 35: which is to be taken literally, the "four months to harvest" (about January), or the "fields white to harvest" (about May)? It does not seem possible to rule out either interpretation; the choice between them will follow from the view taken of the general chronological arrangement of the Gospel. ([beta]) v. i.: if "the feast" is read, a choice remains between Passover and Tabernacles (the definite article would not be very definite after all); if the more probable "a feast," the greater feasts are presumably excluded, but a choice remains between, at any rate, Pentecost (May), Trumpets (September), Dedication (December) and Purim (February). Here again the decision will follow on the general chronological arrangement which may be adopted.

(iii.) _Arrangement._--So far the amount of possible latitude left is not so great as to obscure the main outline of the chronology. For a first (ii. 13, 20), second (vi. 4), and third (xi. 55) Passover are established, with two indeterminate notices (iv. 35, v. 1) between the first and second, and two determinate notices (vii. 2 Tabernacles in October, x. 22 Dedication in December) between the second and third. But of late years an increasing desire has been manifested, especially in Germany and America, to manipulate the fourth Gospel on grounds of internal evidence, at first only in the way of particular transpositions of more or less attractiveness, but latterly also by schemes of thorough-going rearrangement. The former class of proposals will as a rule hardly affect the chronology of the Gospel; the latter will affect it vitally. The distinction here drawn may be illustrated from the earliest instance of the former and one of the latest of the latter. In 1871 Archdeacon J.P. Norris (_Journal of Philology_) wished to transpose chapters v. and vi.--ch. vi. was, like ch. xxi., a Galilean appendix, and was inserted by mistake at somewhat too late a point in the body of the Gospel--and to read "the feast" in v. 1, identifying it with the Passover which was near in vi. 4: in any case, whether "the feast" = Passover, or "a feast" = Pentecost, were read in v. 1, the transposition would not affect the two years' ministry. In 1900 Professor B.W. Bacon (_American Journal of Theology_, p. 770) proposed a rearrangement of the whole Gospel, according to which the time-notices would occur in the following order: vi. 4, Passover is near; iv. 35, the fields white to harvest = May; v. 1, "a feast" = Pentecost; vii. 2, Tabernacles; x. 22, Dedication; xi. 55, Passover is near; xii. 1, Jesus at Bethany six days before Passover; ii. 13, Passover is near and Jesus goes up to Jerusalem (ii. 23, an interpolation) for the Passover of the Crucifixion; and the ministry would thus be reduced to a single year. Such a scheme does not lend itself to discussion here; but as far as evidence is at present obtainable, the conclusion that the fourth evangelist drew up his narrative on the basis of a two years' rather than a one year's ministry appears to be irrefragable.

Not only do the fourth and second Gospels thus agree in indications of a two years' ministry, but the notes of the middle spring of the three (John vi. 4; Mark vi. 39) both belong to the feeding of the 5000, one of the few points of actual contact Detween the two Gospels.

The question, however, may still be raised, whether these time-indications of the two Gospels are exhaustive, whether (that is) two years, and two years only, are to be allotted to the ministry. Irenaeus (ii. xxii. 3-6 [xxxiii. 1-4]), in favour of a ministry of not less than ten years, appeals (i.) to the tradition of Asia Minor; (ii.) to the record in St John that Christ, who was thirty years old at the time of his baptism, was addressed by the Jews as "not yet [i.e. nearly] fifty years old": but both his arguments are probably derived from a single source, Papias's interpretation of John viii. 57. With this exception, however, all ancient writers, whether they enumerated two or three or four Passovers in the Gospel history, believed that the enumeration was exhaustive; and their belief appears correctly to represent the mind of the author of the Fourth Gospel, seeing that his various notes of time were probably in intentional contrast to the looser synoptic accounts. Moreover, the wide currency in early times of the tradition of the single-year ministry (Ptolemaeus, _ap._ Iren, loc. cit.; _Clementine Homilies_, xvii. 19; Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i. 145, vi. 279; Julius Africanus, _ap._ Routh, _Rell. Sacr._ ii. 240, 306; Hippolytus, _Paschal Cycle_ and _Chronicle_; Origen, _in Levit. Hom._ ix. 5, _de Principiis_, iv. 5) becomes more difficult to account for the farther it is removed from the actual facts.

5. The date of the Crucifixion.

(a) _The Roman Governor._--Pontius Pilate was on his way back to Rome, after ten years of office, when Tiberius died on the 16th March A.D. 37 (Josephus, _Ant._ XVIII. ii. 2, iv. 2). Luke xiii. 1, xxiii. 12, show that he was not a newcomer at the time of the Crucifixion. For the Crucifixion "under Pontius Pilate" the Passover of A.D. 28 is therefore the earliest possible and the Passover of A.D. 36 the latest.

(b) _The Jewish High-Priest._--Caiaphas was appointed before Pilate's arrival, and was deposed at a Passover apparently not later than that of the year of Herod Philip's death, A.D. 34 (Josephus, _Ant._ XVIII. ii. 2, iv. 3-v. 3). The Crucifixion at some previous Passover would then fall not later than A.D. 33.

(c) _The Day of the Week._--The Resurrection on "the first day of the week" (Sunday) was "on the third day" after the Crucifixion; and that "the third day" implies an interval of only two days hardly needed to be shown, but has been shown to demonstration in Field's _Notes on the Translation of the New Testament_ (on Matt. xvi. 21). The Crucifixion was therefore on a Friday in some year between A.D. 28 and 33 inclusive.

(d) _The Day of the Jewish Month Nisan._--The Passover was kept at the full moon of the lunar month Nisan, the first of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; the Paschal lambs were slain on the afternoon of the 14th Nisan, and the Passover was eaten after sunset the same day--which, however, as the Jewish day began at sunset, was by their reckoning the early hours of the 15th Nisan; the first fruits (of the barley harvest) were solemnly offered on the 16th. The synoptic Gospels _appear_ to place the Crucifixion on the 15th, since they speak of the Last Supper as a Passover;[59] St John's Gospel, on the other hand (xiii. 1, 29, xviii. 28), distinctly implies that the feast had not yet taken place, and thus makes the Crucifixion fall on the 14th. Early Christian tradition is unanimous on this side; either the 14th is mentioned, or the Crucifixion is made the antitype of the slaughter of the Paschal Lamb (and the Resurrection of the first fruits), in the following authorities anterior to A.D. 235: St Paul, 1 Cor. v. 7, xv. 20; Quartodecimans of Asia Minor, who observed the Christian Pascha on the "14th," no matter on what day of the week it fell; Claudius Apollinaris, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, all three quoted in the _Paschal Chronicle_; Irenaeus (apparently) iv. x. 1 [xx. 1]; [Tertullian] _adv. Judaeos_, 8; Africanus, in Routh, _Rell. Sacr._ ii. 297. The Crucifixion, then, should be placed rather on the 14th than on the 15th of Nisan.

These four lines of inquiry have shown that the Crucifixion fell on Friday, Nisan 14 (rather than 15), in one of the six years 28-33 A.D.; and therefore, if it is possible to discover (i.) exactly which moon or month was reckoned each year as the moon or month of Nisan, and (ii.) exactly on what day that particular moon or month was reckoned as beginning, it will, of course, be possible to tell in which of these years Nisan 14 fell on a Friday. To neither question can an answer be given in terms so precise as to exclude some latitude, but to both with sufficient exactness to rule out at once three of the six years. (i.) The difficulty with regard to the month is to know how the commencement of the Jewish year was fixed--in what years an extra month was intercalated before Nisan. If the Paschal full moon was, as in later Christian times, the first after the spring equinox, the difficulty would be reduced to the question on what day the equinox was reckoned. If, on the other hand, it was, as in ancient Jewish times, the first after the earliest ears of the barley harvest would be ripe, it would have varied with the forwardness or backwardness of the season from year to year. (ii.) The difficulty with regard to the day is, quite similarly, to know what precise relation the first day of the Jewish month bore to the astronomical new moon. In later Christian times the Paschal month was calculated from the astronomical new moon; in earlier Jewish times all months were reckoned to begin at the first sunset when the new moon was visible, which in the most favourable circumstances would be some hours, and in the most unfavourable three days, later than the astronomical new moon.

Direct material for answering the question when and how far astronomical calculations replaced simple observations as the basis of the Jewish calendar is not forthcoming. Jewish traditions represented the Sanhedrin as retaining to the end its plenary power over the calendar, and as still fixing the first day of every month and the first month of every year. But as it is quite inconceivable that the Jews of the Dispersion should not have known beforehand at what full moon they were to present themselves at Jerusalem for the Passover, it must be assumed as true in fact, whether or no it was true in theory, that the old empirical methods must have been qualified, at least partially, by permanent, that is in effect by astronomical rules. Exactly what modifications were first made in the system under which each month began by simple observation of the new moon we do not know, and opinions are not agreed as to the historical value of the rabbinical traditions; but probably the first step in the direction of astronomical precision would be the rule that no month could consist of less than twenty-nine or more than thirty days--to which appears to have been added, but at what date is uncertain, the further rule that Adar, the month preceding Nisan, was always to be limited to twenty-nine. In the same way the beginning of the Jewish year according to the state of the harvest was supplanted by some more fixed relation to the solar year. But this relation was not, it would seem, regulated by the date, real or supposed, of the equinox. Christian controversialists from Anatolius of Laodicea (A.D. 277) onwards accused the Jews of disregarding the (Christian) equinoctial limit, and of sometimes placing the Paschal full moon before it; and it is possible that in the time of Christ the 14th of Nisan might have fallen as far back as the 17th of March. In the following table the first column gives the _terminus paschalis_, or 14th of the Paschal moon, according to the Christian calendar; the second gives the 14th, reckoned from the time of the astronomical new moon of Nisan; the third the 14th, reckoned from the probable first appearance of the new moon at sunset. Alternative moons are given for A.D. 29, according as the full moon falling about the 18th of March is or is not reckoned the proper Paschal moon.

A.D. 28 Sat. Mar. 27 Mar. 28 Mar. 30 " 29 Th. Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 19 F. Ap. 15 Ap. 16 Ap. 18 " 30 Tu. Ap. 4 Ap. 5 Ap. 7 " 31 Sat. Mar. 24 Mar. 25 Mar. 27 " 32 Sat. Ap. 12 Ap. 12 Ap. 14 " 33 W. Ap. 1 Ap. 1-2 Ap. 3 or 4

It will be seen at once that Friday cannot have fallen on Nisan 14th in any of the three years A.D. 28, 31 and 32. The choice is narrowed down to A.D. 29, Friday, 18th March (Friday, 15th April, would no doubt be too early even for the 14th of Nisan); A.D. 30, Friday 7th April; and A.D. 33, Friday, 3rd April.

(e) _The Civil Year_ (consuls, or regnal years of Tiberius) in early Christian tradition. It is not _a priori_ improbable that the year of the central event from which the Christian Church dated her own existence should have been noted in the apostolic age and handed down to the memory of succeeding generations; and the evidence does go some way to suggest that we have in favour of A.D. 29, the consulate of the two Gemini (15th or 16th year of Tiberius), a body of tradition independent of the Gospels and ancient, if not primitive, in origin.

The earliest witness, indeed, who can be cited for a definite date for the crucifixion gave not 29, but 33 A.D. The pagan chronicler, Phlegon, writing in the reign of Hadrian, noted under Olympiad 202.4 (= A.D. 32-33), besides a great earthquake in Bithynia, an eclipse so remarkable that it became night "at the sixth hour of the day." The eclipse meant is, presumably, that of the Crucifixion (so Origen, _contra Celsum_,, ii. 33 [but see _in Matt_. 134, Delarue iii. 922], Eusebius's _Chronicle_ Tib. 19 [= A.D. 33], Anon, in Cramer's _Catena in Matt_. p. 237), but as the notice of it was clearly derived by Phlegon, pagan as he was, directly or indirectly from the Gospel narrative, there is no reason at all to ascribe any independent value to the date. Phlegon may have had grounds for dating the Bithynian earthquake in that year, and have brought the dateless portent into connexion with the dated one. Eusebius adopted and popularized this date, which fell in with his own system of Gospel chronology, but of the year 33 as the date of the Passion there is no vestige in Christian tradition before the 4th century.

The only date, in fact, which has any real claim to represent Christian tradition independent of the Gospels, is the year 29. Tiberius 15 is given by Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i. 147; Origen, _Hom. in Jerem._ xiv. 13; cf. c. _Cels._ iv. 22. Tiberius 16 by Julius Africanus (Routh, _Rell. Sacr._ ii. 301-304), and pseudo-Cyprian _de pascha computus_ (A.D. 243), Sec. 20. The consulship of the two Gemini by Lactantius, _Div. Inst._ iv. x. 18, and (Lactantius?) _de morte pers._ Sec. 2; the consulship of the two Gemini = Tiberius 18 by Hippolytus, _Comm. in Danielem_, iv. (ed. Bonwetsch, p. 242); the consulship of the two Gemini = Tiberius 15 by [Tertullian] _adv. Judaeos_, Sec. 8; the consulship of the two Gemini = Tiberius 15 (_al._ 18 or 19) = Ol. 202.4 [this last is a later interpolation from Eusebius] in the _Acts of Pilate_. Other methods of expressing the year 29 appear in Hippolytus's _Paschal Cycle_ and _Chronicle_, and in the Abgar legend (_ap._ Eusebius, _H.E._ i. 13). No doubt it would be possible to explain Tiberius 16 as a combination of Luke iii. 1 with a one-year ministry, and even to treat Tiberius 15 as an unintelligent repetition from St Luke--though the omission to allow a single year for the ministry would be so strange as to be almost unintelligible--but the date by the consuls has an independent look about it, and of its extreme antiquity the evidence gives two indications: (i.) Hippolytus's Commentary on Daniel (now generally dated c. A.D. 200) combines it with an apparently inconsistent date, Tiberius 18; the latter is clearly his own combination of the length of the ministry (he says in the same passage that Christ suffered in his 33rd year) with Luke iii. 1--the consulship must have been taken from tradition without regard to consistency; (ii.) the names of the Gemini are divergently given in our oldest authorities; in [Tert.] _adv. Judaeos_ correctly as Rubellius Geminus and Fufius (or Rufius) Geminus, but in Hippolytus and the _Acts of Pilate_ as Rufus and Rubellio. But if the tradition of the consulship was thus, it would seem, already an old one about the year 200, there is at least some reason to conclude that trustworthy information in early Christian circles pointed, independently of the Gospels, to the year 29 as that of the Crucifixion.

(f) _The Civil Month and Day._--The earliest known calculations, by Basilidian Gnostics, quoted in Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i. 147, gave alternative dates, Phamenoth 25, Pharmuthi 25, Pharmuthi 19; that is, according to the fixed Alexandrine calendar of B.C. 26, 21st March, 20th April, 14th April; in the older, not wholly superseded, Egyptian calendar the equivalents with Roman days varied from year to year. But in all probability these dates were only one development of those speculations in the region of numbers to which Gnosticism was so prone; and in any case to look for genuine traditions among Egyptian Gnostics, or even in the church of Alexandria, would be to misread the history of Christianity in the 2nd century. Such traditions must be found, if anywhere, in Palestine and Syria, in Asia Minor, in Rome, not in Egypt; within the Church, not among the Gnostics. The date which makes the most obvious claim to satisfy these conditions would be the 25th of March, as given by Hippolytus, [Tert.] _adv. Judaeos_, and the _Acts of Pilate_ (according to all extant MSS. and versions, but see below), _locc. citt._--the same three authorities who bear the earliest witness for the consuls of the year of the Crucifixion--and by many later writers. It cannot be correct, since no full moon occurs near it in any of the possible years; yet it must be very early, too early to be explained with Dr Salmon (_Dictionary of Christian Biography_, iii. 92b), as originated by Hippolytus's Paschal cycle of A.D. 221. Now Epiphanius (_Haer._ l. 1) had seen copies of the _Acts of Pilate_ in which the day given was not 25th March, but _a.d. xv. kal. Apr._ (= 18th March); and if this was the primitive form of the tradition, it is easy to see how 25th March could have grown out of it, since the 18th would from comparatively early times, in the East at any rate, have been thought impossible as falling before the equinox, and no substitution would be so natural as that of the day week, Friday, 25th March. But Friday, 18th March, A.D. 29, was one of the three alternative dates for the Crucifixion which on astronomical and calendar grounds were found (see above, 5d) to be possible.

Thus A.D. 29 is the year, the 18th of March is the day, to which Christian tradition (whatever value, whether much or little, be ascribed to it) appears to point. Further, the Baptism was tentatively placed in A.D. 26-27; the length of the ministry was fixed, with some approach to certainty, at between two and three years, and here too the resultant date for the Crucifixion would be the Passover of A.D. 29.

To sum up: the various dates and intervals, to the approximate determination of which this article has been devoted, do not claim separately more than a tentative and probable value. But it is submitted that their harmony and convergence give them some additional claim to acceptance, and at any rate do something to secure each one of them singly--the Nativity in 7-6 B.C., the Baptism in A.D. 26-27, the Crucifixion in A.D. 29--from being to any wide extent in error.

_The Chronology of the Apostolic Age._

The chronology of the New Testament outside the Gospels may be defined for the purposes of this article as that of the period between the Crucifixion in A.D. 29 (30) on the one hand, and on the other the persecution of Nero in A.D. 64 and the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Of the events in Christian history which fall between these limits it must be admitted that there are many which with our present information we cannot date with exactness. But the book of Acts, our only continuous authority for the period, contains two synchronisms with secular history which can be dated with some pretence to exactness and constitute fixed points by help of which a more or less complete chronology can be constructed for at least the latter half of the apostolic age. These are the death of Herod Agrippa I. (xii. 23) and the replacement of Felix by Festus (xxiv. 27).

1. The death of Herod Agrippa I. This prince, son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great, was made (i.) king over the tetrarchy which had been Herod Philip's, "not many days" after the accession of Gaius, 16th of March A.D. 37; (ii.) ruler of the tetrarchy of Antipas, in A.D. 39-40; (iii.) ruler of the whole of Palestine (with Abilene), on the accession of Claudius at the beginning of A.D. 41. Josephus's _Jewish Wars_ and _Antiquities_ differ by one in the number of years they allot to his reign over the tetrarchies (the former work says three years, the latter four), but agree in the more important _datum_ that he reigned three years more after the grant from Claudius, which would make the latest limit of his death the spring of A.D. 44. The _Antiquities_ also place his death in the seventh year of his reign, which would be A.D. 43-44. On the other hand, coins whose genuineness there is no apparent reason to doubt are extant of Agrippa's ninth year; and this can only be reconciled even with A.D. 44 by supposing that he commenced reckoning a second year of his reign on Nisan 1, A.D. 37, so that his ninth would run from Nisan 1, A.D. 44. On the balance of evidence the only year which can possibly reconcile all the data appears to be A.D. 44 after Nisan, so that it will have been at the Passover of that year that St Peter's arrest and deliverance took place.

After Agrippa's death Judaea was once more governed by procurators, of whom Cuspius Fadus and Tiberius Alexander ruled from A.D. 44 to 48; the third, Cumanus, was appointed in A.D. 48; and the fourth, Felix, in A.D. 52. Under Tiberius Alexander, i.e. in A.D. 46 or 47, occurred the great famine which Agabus had foretold, and in which the Antiochene church sent help to that of Jerusalem by the ministry of Barnabas and Saul (Acts xi. 30, xii. 25). Thus the earliest date at which the commencement of the first missionary journey (Acts xiii. 4) can be placed is the spring of A.D. 47. The journey extended from Salamis "throughout the whole island" of Cyprus as far as Paphos, and on the mainland from Pamphylia to Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, at each of which places indications are given of a prolonged visit (xiii. 49, xiv. 3, 6, 7, 21). The same places were visited in reverse order on the return journey, as far as Perga on the Pamphylian coast; but instead of revisiting Cyprus the voyage to Syria was this time made direct. In estimating the length of time occupied by this first missionary journey, it must be remembered that a sea voyage could never have been undertaken, and land travel only rarely, during the winter months, say November to March; and as the amount of the work accomplished is obviously more than could fall within the travelling season of a single year, the winter of 47-48 must have been spent in the interior, and return to the coast and to Syria made only some time before the end of autumn A.D. 48. The succeeding winter, at least, was spent again at Antioch of Syria (xiv. 28). The council at Jerusalem of Acts xv. will fall at earliest in the spring of A.D. 49, and as only "certain days" were spent at Antioch after it (xv. 36) the start on the second missionary journey might have been made in the (late) summer of the same year. The "confirmation" of the existing churches of Syria and Cilicia, and of those of the first journey beginning with Derbe (xv. 41, xvi. 5), cannot have been completed under several months, nor would the Apostle have commenced the strictly missionary part of the journey in districts not previously visited, before the opening of the travelling season of A.D. 50. No delay was then made on the Asiatic side: it may still have been in spring when St Paul crossed to Europe and began the course of preaching at Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea and Athens which finally brought him to Corinth. The stay of eighteen months at the last-named place (xviii. 11) will naturally begin at the end of one travelling season and end at the beginning of another, i.e. from the autumn of A.D. 50 to the spring of A.D. 52. From Corinth the Apostle went to Jerusalem to "salute the church," and then again to Antioch in Syria, where he stayed only for "a time" (xviii. 22), and soon left--on the third missionary journey, as conventionally reckoned--proceeding "in order" through the churches of the interior of Asia Minor. These journeys and the intervening halts must have occupied seven or eight months, and it must have been about the end of the year when St Paul established his new headquarters at Ephesus. The stay there lasted between two and three years (xix. 8, 10, xx, 31), and cannot have terminated before the spring of A.D. 55. From Ephesus he went into Europe, and after "much teaching" given to the churches of Macedonia (xx. 2), spent the three winter months at Corinth, returning to Philippi in time for the Passover (xx. 3, 6) of A.D. 56. Pentecost of the same year was spent at Jerusalem, and there St Paul was arrested, and kept in prison at Caesarea for two full years, until Festus succeeded Felix as governor (xx. 16, xxiv. 27), an event which, on this arrangement of the chronology of the missionary journeys, would therefore fall in A.D. 58.

Care, however, must be taken to remember exactly what this line of argument amounts to--what it can fairly be said to have proved, and what it still leaves open. It has been shown, firstly, that the missionary journeys cannot have commenced before the spring of A.D. 47, and, secondly, that between their commencement and the end of the two years' imprisonment at Caesarea not less than eleven full years must have elapsed. Consequently A.D. 58 appears to be the earliest date possible for the arrival of Festus. On the other hand, a later date for Festus is not absolutely excluded. It is possible that the first missionary journey should be placed in A.D. 48 instead of A.D. 47; and it is possible, though not probable, that the missionary journeys should be spread over one year more than has been suggested above. At any rate, then, the alternative is open that every date given above, from A.D. 47 to A.D. 58, should be moved on one year, with the result of placing Festus's arrival in A.D. 50.

It is now time to run to the direct evidence for the date of Festus's arrival as procurator, in order to test by it the result already tentatively obtained.

2. The replacement of Felix by Festus. This is the pivot date of St Paul's later life, but unfortunately two schools of critics date it as differently as A.D. 55 and A.D. 60 (or 61). The former are represented by Harnack, the latter by Wieseler, whom Lightfoot follows. It can be said confidently that the truth is between these two extremes (though in what exact year it is not easy to say), as will be evident from a consideration of the arguments urged, which in each case appear less to prove one extreme than to disprove its opposite.

_Arguments for the Later Date, A.D. 60 or 61._--([alpha]) St Paul, at the time of his arrest, two years before Felix's recall, addresses him as "for many years past a judge for this nation" (Acts xxiv. 10, 27). It is certain that Felix succeeded Cumanus in A.D. 52, for Tacitus mentions Cumanus's recall under that year, Josephus immediately before the notice of the completion of Claudius's twelfth year [January, A.D. 53], Eusebius probably under Claudius II, that is, between September 51 and September 52 (for the meaning of the regnal years in the _Chronicle_ of Eusebius see the present writer's article in _Journal of Theological Studies_, January 1900, pp. 188-192). It is argued that "many years" cannot mean less than six or seven, so that St Paul must have been speaking at earliest in 58 or 59, and Felix will have left Judaea at earliest in 60 or 61. But this argument overlooks the fact that Felix had been in some position which might properly be described as that of "judge for this nation" before he became governor of all Palestine in A.D. 52. In the words of Tacitus, Felix was at the time of that appointment _iampridem Iudaeae impositus_ (_Annals_, xii. 54); he certainly supposes Felix to have been already governor of Samaria, and apparently of Judaea too, and only recognizes Cumanus as governor of Galilee; and Josephus, though he says nothing of this, and treats Cumanus as the sole procurator down to A.D. 52, implies that Felix had been in some position where the Jewish authorities could judge of his fitness when he tells us that the high priest Jonathan used to press on Felix, as a reason for urging him to govern well, the fact he that had asked for his appointment to the procuratorship (_Ant._ xx. viii. 5). If Felix had acted in some position of responsibility in Palestine before 52 (perhaps for some time before), St Paul could well have spoken of "many years" at least as early as 56 or 57.

([beta]) Josephus enumerates after the accession of Nero (October 54) a long catalogue of events which all took place under the procuratorship of Felix, including the revolt of "the Egyptian" which was already "before these days" at the time of St Paul's arrest, two years from the end of Felix's tenure. This suggests, no doubt, that the Egyptian rebelled at earliest in 54-55, and makes it probable that St Paul's arrest did not take place before (the Pentecost of) A.D. 56; and it implies certainly that the main or most important part of Felix's governorship fell, in Josephus's view, under Nero. But as two years only of Felix's rule (52-54) fell under Claudius, this procedure would be quite natural on Josephus's part if his recall were dated in 58 or 59, so that four or five years fell under Nero. And there is no need at all to suppose that all the incidents which the historian masses under his account of Felix were successive: events in Emesa, Chalcis, Caesarea and Jerusalem may easily have been synchronous.

The arguments, then, brought forward in favour of A.D. 60 or 61 do not do more than bring the rule of Felix down to 58 or 59.

_Arguments for an Early Date, A.D. 55 or 56._--([alpha]) Eusebius's _Chronicle_ places the arrival of Festus in Nero 2, October 55-56, and Eusebius's chronology of the procurators goes back probably through Julius Africanus (himself a Palestinian) to contemporary authorities like the _Jewish kings_ of Justus of Tiberias. But (i.) Nero 2 is really September 56-September 57; (ii.) it is doubtful whether Eusebius had any authority to depend on here other than Josephus, who gives no precise year for Festus--Julius Africanus is hardly probable, since we know that his chronicle was very jejune for the Christian period--and if so, Eusebius had to find a year as best he could.[60]

([beta]) Felix, on his return to Rome, was prosecuted by the Jews for misgovernment, but was acquitted through the influence of his brother Pallas. Pallas had been minister and favourite of Claudius, but was removed from office in the winter following Nero's accession, 54-55. Felix must therefore have been tried at the very beginning of Nero's reign. But this argument would make Felix's recall--if Festus came in summer, as Acts xxv. 1, xxvii. 1, 9, seem to prove--to fall actually under Claudius. And, in fact, it would be a mistake look upon Pallas's retirement as a disgrace. He stipulated that no inquiry should be made into his conduct in office, and was left for another seven years unmolested in the enjoyment of the fortune he had amassed. There is, therefore, every likelihood that he retained for some years enough influence to shield his brother.

Of these arguments, then, the first, so far as it is valid, is an argument for the summer, not of A.D. 55 or 56, but of A.D. 57 as that of the recall, while the second will apply to any of the earlier years of Nero's reign.

In the result, then, the arguments brought forward in favour of each extreme fail to prove their case, but at the same time prove something against the opposite view. Thus the point that Josephus catalogues the events of Felix's procuratorship under Nero cannot be pressed to bring down Felix's tenure as far as 60 or 61, but it does seem to exclude as early a termination as 56, or even 57. Conversely, the influence of Pallas at court need not be terminated by his ceasing to be minister early in 55; but it would have been overshadowed not later than the year 60 by the influence of Poppaea, who in the summer of that year[61] enabled the Jews to win their cause in the matter of the Temple wall, and would certainly have supported them against Felix. Thus the choice again appears to lie between the years 58 and 59 for the recall of Felix and arrival of Festus.

If St Paul was arrested in 56 or 57, and appealed to Caesar on the arrival of Festus in 58 or 59, then, as he reached Rome in the early part of the year following, and remained there a prisoner for two full years, we are brought down to the early spring of either 61 or 62 for the close of the period recorded in the Acts. That after these two years he was released and visited Spain in the west, and in the east Ephesus, Macedonia, Crete, Troas, Miletus, and perhaps Achaea and Epirus, is probable, in the one case, from the evidence of Romans xv. 28, Clem. _ad Cor_. v. and the Muratorian canon, and, in the other, from the Pastoral Epistles. These journeys certainly cannot have occupied less than two years, and it is more natural to allow three for them, which takes us down to 64-65.

Early evidence is unanimous in pointing to St Peter and St Paul as victims of the persecution of Nero (Clem, _ad Cor_. v. vi., Dionysius of Corinth _ap_. Eus. _H.E_. ii. 25, &c., combined with what we know from Tacitus of the course of the persecution, and from Gaius of Rome, _ap_. Eus. ii. 25, of the burial-places of the two apostles); and tradition clearly distinguished the fierce outbreak at Rome that followed on the fire of the city in July 64 from any permanent disabilities of the Christians in the eye of the law which the persecution may have initiated. There is, therefore, no reason at all to doubt that both apostles were martyred in 64-65, and the date serves as a confirmation of the chronology adopted above of the imprisonment, release and subsequent journeys of St Paul.

Investigation, then, of that part of the book of Acts which follows the death of Agrippa, recorded in chap. xii.--i.e. of that part of the apostolic age which follows the year 44--has shown that apparent difficulties can be to a large extent set aside, and that there is nowhere room between A.D. 44 and 64 for doubt extending to more than a single year. The first missionary journey may have begun in 47 or 48; the arrival of Festus may have taken place in the summer of 58 or of 59; the two years of the Roman imprisonment recorded in the last chapter of Acts may have ended in the spring of 61 or 62; and the dates which fall in between these extremes are liable to the same variation. The present writer leans to the earlier alternative in each case, 47, 58, 61; but he willingly concedes that the evidence, as he understands it, is not inconsistent with the later alternative.

But if the events of A.D. 44-64 can thus be fixed with a fair approximation to certainty, it is unfortunately otherwise with the events of A.D. 29-44. Here we are dependent (i.) on general indications given in the Acts; (ii.) on the evidence of the Epistle to the Galatians, which, though in appearance more precise, can be and is interpreted in very different ways.

(i.) The book of Acts is divided, by general summaries from time to time inserted in the narrative, into six periods: i. 1-vi. 7, vi. 8-ix. 31, ix. 32-xii. 24, xii. 25-xvi. 5, xvi. 6-xix. 20, xix. 2l-xxviii. 31. Of these the three last extend respectively from the death of Herod to the start for Europe in the second missionary journey (A.D. 44 to the spring of 50 [51]), from the start for Europe to the end of the long stay at Ephesus (A.D. 50 [51] to the spring of A.D. 55 [56]), and from the departure from Ephesus to the end of the two years' captivity at Rome (A.D. 55 [56] to the beginning of A.D. 61 [62]). It will be seen that these periods are of more or less the same length, namely, six (or seven) years, five years, six years. There is, therefore, some slight presumption that the three earlier periods, which together cover about fifteen years, were intended by so artistic a writer as St Luke to mark each some similar lapse of time. If that were so, the preaching of the apostles at Jerusalem and organization of the Church at the capital--the preaching of the seven and the extension of the Church all over Palestine--the extension of the Church to Antioch, and the commencement of St Paul's work--might each occupy five years more or less, that is to say, roughly, A.D. 29-34, 34-39, 39-44. The conversion of St Paul, which falls within the second period, would on this arrangement fall somewhere between five and ten years after the Crucifixion. Such conclusions are, however, of course general in the extreme.

(ii.) A nearer attempt to date at least the chronology of St Paul's earlier years as a Christian could be made by the help of the Galatian Epistle if we could be sure from what point and to what point its reckonings are made. The apostle tells us that on his conversion he retired from Damascus into Arabia, and thence returned to Damascus; then after three years (from his conversion) he went up to Jerusalem, but stayed only a fortnight, and went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Then after fourteen years (from his conversion? or from his last visit?) he went up to Jerusalem again to confer with the elder apostles. Now, if either of these visits to Jerusalem could be identified with any of the visits whose dates have been approximately settled in the chronology of A.D. 44-64, we should have a fixed point from which to argue back. Unfortunately, even less agreement exists on this head than on the question whether the fourteen years of the last-mentioned visit are to be reckoned from the conversion or from the previous visit. Most critics, indeed, are now agreed that the fourteen years are to be calculated from the conversion; and most of them still hold that the visit of Galatians ii. is the same as the council of Acts xv., partly, no doubt, on the ground that the latter visit was too important and decisive for St Paul to have omitted in giving even the most summary description of his relations with the twelve. This ground would, however, be cut away from their feet if it were possible to hold (with J.V. Bartlet, _Apostolic Age_, 1900, and V. Weber, _Die Abfassung des Galaterbriefs vor dem Apostelkonzil_, Ravensburg, 1900) that the epistle was actually written just before the council, i.e. in the winter of 48-49 [49-50]. In that case, of course, the two visits of Galatians i. and ii. would be those of Acts ix. 26 and xi. 30. The fourteen years reckoned back from the latter (c. A.D. 46) would bring us to A.D. 32-33 as the latest possible date for the conversion. With the older view, on the other hand, the fourteen years reckoned from the council in A.D. 49 [50] would allow us to bring down the conversion to A.D. 36. The new view clears away some manifest difficulties in the reconciliation of the Epistle and the Acts, and the early date for Galatians in relation to the other Pauline epistles is not so improbable as it may seem; but the chronology still appears more satisfactory on the older view, which enables the conversion to be placed at least three years later than on the alternative theory. But it is clear that the last word has not been said, and that definite results for this period cannot yet be looked for.

To sum up: an attempt has been made, it is hoped with some success, to provide a framework of history equipped with dates from the time of St Peter's arrest by Herod Agrippa I. at the Passover of A.D. 44 down to the martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul in the persecution of Nero, A.D. 64-65. For the previous period, on the other hand, from A.D. 29 to A.D. 44, it appeared impossible in our present state of knowledge to state conclusions other than in the most general form.

AUTHORITIES.--The views stated in this article are in general (though with some modifications) the same as those which the present writer worked out with more fulness of detail in Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, i. (1898) 403-424. Of older books should be mentioned:--Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_ (2 vols., 1825); Wieseler, _Chronologie des apostolischen Zeitalters_ (1848); Lewin's _Fasti Sacri_ (1865). Important modern contributions are to be found in Prof. (Sir) W.M. Ramsay's various works, and in Harnack's _Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius_, i. 233-244. Mention should also be made of an article, containing much useful astronomical and Talmudical information, by Mr J.K. Fotheringham, "The Date of the Crucifixion," in the _Journal of Philology_, xxix. 100-118 (1904). Mr Fotheringham is of opinion that the evidence from Christian sources is too uncertain, and that the statements of the Mishnah must be the starting-point of the inquiry: taking then the phasis of the new moon as the true beginning of Nisan, he concludes that Friday cannot have coincided with Nisan 14 in any year, within the period A.D. 28-35, other than A.D. 33 (April 3rd). But in one of the two empirical tests of the value of these calculations that he was able to obtain (_loc. cit._ p. 106, n. 2), the new moon was seen a day earlier than his rules allowed. This being so, it would be premature to disregard the convergent lines of historical evidence which tell against A.D. 33. Among the latest German works may be cited the chapter on New Testament chronology in the _Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte_ of Dr Oscar Holtzmann (2nd ed., 1906), pp. 117-147: regarded as a collection of historical material this deserves every praise, but the mass is undigested and the treatment of the evidence arbitrary. As might be expected, Dr Holtzmann's conclusions are clear-cut, and alternatives are rigidly excluded: the Crucifixion is dated on the 7th of April A.D. 30, and St Paul's arrest (with the older writers) at Pentecost A.D. 58. (C. H. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The books of Samuel, Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Chronicles, were by the Jews each treated (and written) as one book, and were not divided by them into two till the 16th century, through Christian influence.

[2] For a discussion of the word "Massoretes" see W. Bacher (_J.Q.R._ vol. iii. pp. 785 f.), who maintains that the original pronunciation of these words was [Hebrew: masoreth] and [Hebrew: momarah].

[3] The actual date of the introduction of vowel points is not known, but it must in any case have been later than the time of Jerome, and is probably to be assigned to the 7th century. Of the systems of punctuation which are known to us, the more familiar is the Tiberian, or sublinear, which is found in all printed editions of the Hebrew Bible. The other system, the Babylonian or superlinear, is chiefly found in certain Yemen MSS. For yet a third system of vocalization see M. Friedlaender, _J.Q.R._, 1895, pp. 564 f., and P. Kahle in _Z.A.T.W._ xxi. (1901), pp. 273 f. Probably the idea of providing vowel points was borrowed from the Syrians.

[4] This represents the Western tradition as opposed to the Eastern text of ben Naphtali. For the standard copies such as the _Codex Hillelis_ referred to by later writers see H.L. Strack, _Proleg. Critica_, pp. 14 f.

[5] Cf. F.C. Burkitt, _Fragments of the Books of Kings according to the Translation of Aquila_.

[6] The Talmudic story of the three MSS. preserved in the court of the temple (_Sopherim_, vi. 4) sufficiently illustrates the tentative efforts of the rabbis in this direction.

[7] W. Robertson Smith, _Old Testament and the Jewish Church_, pp. 69 f.

[8] For these _Tiqqune Sopherim_ or "corrections of the scribes" see Geiger, _Urschrift_, pp. 308 f.; Strack, _Prolegomena Critica_, p. 87; Buhl, _Canon and Text of the Old Testament_, pp. 103 f. In the _Mekilta_ (Exod. xv. 7) only eleven passages are mentioned. Less important are the _Itture Sopherim_, or five passages in which the scribes have omitted a _waw_ from the text.

[9] _Text of the Books of Samuel_, pp. xxxix. f.

[10] According to Josephus (_Ant._ xi. 7. 8) the temple on Mt. Gerizim was set up by Manasseh in the reign of Darius Codomannus, i.e. about 332 B.C. It is possible that he is correct in placing the building of the temple at the later date, but probably he errs in connecting it with the secession of Manasseh, which, according to Nehemiah, occurred a century earlier; it has been suggested that he has confused Darius Codomannus with his predecessor, Darius Nothus.

[11] e.g. Ex. xx. 17, 19 ff.; Num. xx. f.; Deut. xxvii. 4.

[12] 1 Kings xx. 7-17; 2 Kings xxiii. 12-17, ed. by Mr (now Professor) F.C. Burkitt in _Fragments of the Books of Kings according to the Translation of Aquila_ (Cambridge, 1897), and Ps. xc. 6-13; xci. 4-10, and parts of Ps. xxiii. by Dr C. Taylor in _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ (2nd ed., 1897).

[13] On the question of Theodotion's date, Schuerer (_Geschichte des juedischen Volkes_, Bd. iii. p. 324) argues very plausibly for his _priority_ to Aquila on the grounds, (1) that Irenaeus mentions him before Aquila, and (2) that, after Aquila's version had been adopted by the Greek Jews, a work such as that of Theodotion would have been somewhat superfluous. Theodotion's work, he suggests, formed the first stage towards the establishment of a Greek version which should correspond more closely with the Hebrew. Moreover, this theory affords the simplest explanation of its disappearance from Jewish tradition.

[14] Only one MS. of the Septuagint version of Daniel has survived, the _Codex Chisianus_.

[15] _Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek_, p. 51.

[16] Hence the name _Hexapla_. In some books, especially the poetical, the columns were increased to eight by the addition of the _Quinta_ and _Sexta_, but the _Octapla_, as the enlarged work was called, was not apparently a distinct work. The _Tetrapla_, on the other hand, was a separate edition which did not contain the first two columns of the _Hexapla_.

[17] Lagarde's projected edition of the Lucianic recension was unfortunately never completed; the existing volume contains Genesis-2 Esdras, Esther. It may be noted here that the Complutensian Polyglott represents a Lucianic text.

[18] Hastings's _Dict. of the Bible_, iii. pp. 54 ff.

[19] _The Old Testament in Greek_, by A.E. Brooke and N. McLean, vol. i. pt. 1 (1906)

[20] His arguments are stated briefly (and in order to be refuted) by Jerome in his commentary on _Daniel_.

[21] In what follows the actual quotations are from his English work; some of the summaries take account of the brief expansions in his later Latin version.

[22] See particularly B. Stade, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_ (1887-1888); J. Wellhausen, _Die Kleinen Propheten_ (1892); B.I. Duhm, _Jesaia_ (1892); T.K. Cheyne, _Introduction to the Book of Isaiah_ (1895); K. Marti, _Jesaja_ (1900), and _Das Dodekapropheton_ (1904).

[23] _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_ (1881); _The Prophets of Israel_ (1882).

[24] For details see an article in the _Zeitschr. fuer d. altest. Wissenschaft_ for 1889, pp. 246-302, on "Alttestamentliche Studien in Amerika," by G.F. Moore, who has himself since done much distinguished and influential critical work.

[25] To avoid any possibility of overstating the case, it is necessary to refer here to the fact that Tethmosis (Thothmes) III. in the 16th century B.C. mentions two Palestinian places named respectively Jacobel and Josephel, and Sheshonk in the both century B.C. mentions another called "The field of Abram." From these names alone it is impossible to determine whether the places derived their names from individuals or tribes.

[26] Or according to some MSS., 167.

[27] Shem, the father of Arphaxad, is aged 100 at the time of the Flood, and lives for 600 years.

[28] Disregarding the "two years" of Gen. xi. 10; see v. 32, vii. 11.

[29] Taking account of the reading of LXX. in Ex. xii. 40.

[30] See further Driver's essay in Hogarth's _Authority and Archaeology_ (1899), pp. 32-34; or his _Book of Genesis_ (1904, 7th ed., 1909), p. xxxi. ff.

[31] 1 Petrie, _Hist. of Egypt_, i. (ed. 5, 1903), p. 251; iii. (1905), p. 2.

[32] See Merenptah's account of the defeat of these invaders in Maspero, op. cit. pp. 432-437; or in Breasted's _Ancient Records of Egypt_ (Chicago, 1906), iii. 240-252.

[33] Namely, 40 years in the wilderness; Joshua and the elders (Judges ii. 7), x years; Othniel (iii. 11), 40 years; Ehud (iii. 30), 80 years; Barak (v. 31), 40 years; Gideon (viii. 28), 40 years; Jephthah and five minor judges (x. 2, 3, xii. 7, 9, 11, 14), 76 years; Samson (xvi. 31), 20 years; Eli (1 Sam. iv. 18), 40 years; Samuel (vii. 2), 20 years; Saul, y years; David, 40 years; and Solomon's first four years--in all 440 + x + y years.

[34] Namely, Moses (in the wilderness), Joshua, Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Eli, Samuel, Saul and David.

[35] The "300 years" of Judges xi. 26 agrees very nearly with the sum of the years (namely, 319) given in the preceding chapters for the successive periods of oppression and independence. The verse occurs in a long insertion (xi. 12-28) in the original narrative; and the figure was most probably arrived at by computation upon the basis of the present chronology of the book.

[36] The real Biblical date, Ussher in Gen. xi. 26 interpolating 60 years, because it is said in Acts vii. 4 that Abraham left Haran _after_ his father Terah's death (Gen. xi. 32), and also (as explained above) interpreting wrongly Ex. Xii. 40.

[37] Hilprecht's dates (_The Bab. Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_, vol. i. pt. i. 1893, pp. 11, 12; pt. ii. 1896, pp. 23, 24, 43, 44).

[38] Petrie's dates, _Hist. of Egypt_, vol. i. (ed. 5, 1903), pp. 20, 30, 233, 251, 252; vol. iii. (1905), pp. 2, 235, 261-7, 296-360. Other authorities, however, assign considerably lower dates for the dynasties prior to the 18th. Thus Breasted (_Hist. of Egypt_, 1906, pp. 22 ff., 221, 597) agrees with Ed. Meyer in giving, for reasons which cannot be here explained, for the beginning of the 1st dynasty c. B.C. 3400, for the 4th dynasty c. B.C. 2900-2750, and for the rule of the Hyksos c. B.C. 1680-1580; and in his _Researches in Sinai_, 1906, p. 175, Petrie proposes for Menes B.C. 5510, and for the 4th dynasty B.C. 4731-4454. See EGYPT (_Chronology_).

[39] So Sayce, Rogers (_Hist. of Bab. and Ass._, 1900, i. 318 f.) and others. The date rests upon a statement of Nabu-na'id's, that Sargon's son, Naram-Sin, reigned 3200 years before himself. Lehmann holds that there are reasons for believing that the engraver, by error, put a stroke too many, and that 2200 should be read instead of 3200.

[40] The real Biblical date.

[41] Rogers, i. 373-375. Many monuments and inscriptions of other kings in Babylonia, between 4000 and 2000 B.C., are also known.

[42] The lists of the Babylonian and Assyrian kings are not continuous; and before 1907, from the data then available (see the discussion in Rogers, op. cit. i. 312-348), Khammurabi, the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, was commonly referred to such dates as 2376-2333 B.C. (Sayce) or 2285-2242 B.C. (Johns). But inscriptions recently discovered, by showing that the second dynasty was partly contemporaneous with the first and the third, have proved that these dates are too high; see L.W. King, _Chronicles Concerning Early Bab. Kings_ (1907), i. 93-110; and the article BABYLONIA, _Chronology_. The data B.C. 2130-2088 is that adopted by Thureau-Dangin, after a discussion of the subject, in the _Journal des Savants_, 1908, p. 199; and by Ungnad in the _Orient. Litt.-zeitung_, 1908, p. 13, and in Gressmann's _Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum A.T._ (1909), p. 103.

[43] King, op. cit. i. 116, ii. 14.

[44] The dates of the kings are, in most cases, those given by Kautzsch in the table in his _Outline of the Hist. of the Literature of the O.T._ (tr. by Taylor, 1898), pp. 167 ff.; see also A.R.S. Kennedy, "Samuel" in the _Century Bible_ (1906), p. 31. The dates given by other recent authorities seldom differ by more than three or four years.

[45] The figures after a king's name indicate the number of years assigned to his reign in the O.T. For Saul, see 1 Sam. xiii. 1, R.V.

[46] The date of Sheshonq depends on that fixed for Rehoboam. Petrie places the accession of Rehoboam in 937 B.C.

[47] If these dates are correct, there must be some error in the ages assigned to Ahaz and Hezekiah at their accession, viz. 20 and 25 respectively, for it would otherwise follow from them that Ahaz, dying at the age of [20 + 8 =] 28, left a son aged 25! The date 728 for Hezekiah's accession rests upon the assumption that of the two inconsistent dates in 2 Kings xviii. 10, 13, the one in ver. 10 (which places the fall of Samaria in Hezekiah's 6th year) is correct; but some scholars (as Wellhausen, Kamphausen, and Stade) suppose that the date in ver. 10 (which places Sennacherib's invasion in Hezekiah's 14th year) is correct, and assign accordingly Hezekiah's accession to 715. This removes, or at least mitigates, the difficulty referred to, and leaves more room for the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz; but it requires, of course, a corresponding reduction in the reigns of the kings succeeding Ahaz.

[48] Breasted's dates for these three kings (_Hist. of Egypt_, 1906, p. 601) are: Shabaka 712-700; Shabataka 700-688; Taharqa 688-663.

[49] See George Smith, _The Assyrian Eponym Canon_ (1875), pp. 29 ff., 57 ff.; Schrader, _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_ (transcriptions and translations of Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions), i. (1889), pp. 204 ff.

[50] It may be explained here that the dates of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings can be reduced to years B.C. by means of the so-called "Canon of Ptolemy," which is a list of the Babylonian and Persian kings, with the lengths of their reigns, extending from Nabonassar, 747 B.C., to Alexander the Great, drawn up in the 2nd century A.D. by the celebrated Egyptian mathematician and geographer Ptolemy; as the dates B.C. of the Persian kings are known independently, from Greek sources, the dates B.C. of the preceding Babylonian kings can, of course, be at once calculated by means of the Canon. The recently-discovered contemporary monuments have fully established the accuracy of the Canon.

[51] Or, in any case, between 734 and 732; see Rost, _Die Keilschrifttexte Tiglat-pilesers III._, 1893, pp. xii., 39, 81, with the discussion, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., xxxv.-xxxvi.

[52] This interval does not depend upon a mere list of Eponym years; we have in the annals of Sargon and Sennacherib full particulars of the events in all the intervening years.

[53] The date of this epistle is rather uncertain. Something depends upon the vexed question as to the identity of the Galatian churches. The epistle may be placed conjecturally early in the stay at Ephesus (c. A.D. 52-53). It is to be noted that the chronological grouping of the epistles by minute comparison of style is apt to be deceptive; resemblances of this kind are due more to similarity of subject than to proximity in date.

[54] E.g. from the preface to the Acts: "Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthians, a very ancient writer, quoted by Eusebius, writes that Peter and Paul obtained the crown of martyrdom by the command of Nero on the same day." And again: "Some industrious critics have added (to the narrative of Acts) that Paul was acquitted at his first trial by Nero .... This conjecture they make from the 2nd Ep. to Timothy...."

[55] The phrase is Chillingworth's (1637), who may be described as a Broad High-churchman.

[56] J. Wellhausen, _Einl. in die drei ersten Evangelien_ (1905), p. 57.

[57] If Luke used Josephus, as F.C. Burkitt and others believe, the later date must be taken; otherwise the earlier date is more probable, as in any case it must fall within the lifetime of a companion of St Paul.

[58] It is a curious coincidence that a medieval Jew, R. Abarbanel (Abrabanel), records that the conjunction of these particular planets in this particular constellation was to be a sign of Messiah's coming. It is just conceivable that his statement may ultimately depend on some such ancient tradition as may have been known to Chaldaean magi.

[59] If the Passover celebration could be anticipated by one day in a private Jewish family (and we know perhaps too little of Jewish rules in the time of Christ to be able to exclude this possibility), the evidence of the synoptic Gospels would no longer conflict with that of St John.

[60] Dr C. Erbes (_Texte and Untersuchungen_, new series, iv. 1) attempts to interpret the evidence of Eusebius in favour of the later date for Festus as follows: Eusebius's date for Festus is to be found in Nero 1, by striking a mean between the Armenian, Claudius 12, and the Latin, Nero 2; it is really to be understood as reckoned, not by years of Nero, but by years of Agrippa; and as Eusebius erroneously antedated Agrippa's reign by five years, commencing it with A.D. 45 instead of A.D. 50, his date for Festus is five years too early also, and should be moved to Nero 6, A.D. 59-60. The whole of this theory appears to the present writer to be a gigantic mare's nest: see _Journal of Theological Studies_ (October 1901), pp. 120-123.

[61] This date appears to be satisfactorily established by Ramsay, "A Second Fixed Point in the Pauline Chronology," _Expositor_, August 1900.

BIBLE, ENGLISH. The history of the vernacular Bible of the English race resolves itself into two distinctly marked periods--the one being that of Manuscript Bibles, which were direct translations from the Latin Vulgate, the other that of Printed Bibles, which were, more or less completely, translations from the original Hebrew and Greek of the Old and New Testaments.

Caedmon.

1. _The Manuscript Bible._--The first essays in Biblical translation, or rather paraphrasing, assumed in English, as in many other languages, a poetical form. Even in the 7th century, according to the testimony of Bede (_Hist. Eccl._ iv. 24), Caedmon sang "de creatione mundi et origine humani generis, et tota Genesis historia, de egressu Israel ex Aegypto et ingressu in terram repromissionis, de aliis plurimis sacrae Scripturae historiis, de incarnatione Dominica, passione, resurrectione et ascensione in coelum, de Spiritus Sancti adventu, et apostolorum doctrina." It is, however, doubtful whether any of the poetry which has been ascribed to him can claim to be regarded as his genuine work.

Bede.

The first prose rendering of any part of the Bible--and with these we are mainly concerned in the present inquiry--originated in all probability in the 8th century, when Bede, the eminent scholar and churchman, translated the first portion (chs. i.-vi. 9) of the Gospel of St John into the vernacular, but no part of this rendering is extant. His pupil Cuthberht recorded this fact in a letter to a fellow-student, Cuthwine: "a capite sancti evangelii Johannis usque ad eum locum in quo dicitur, 'sed haec quid sunt inter tantos?' in nostram linguam ad utilitatem ecclesiae Dei convertit" (Mayor and Lumby, _Bedae Hist. Eccl._ p. 178).

9th and 10th century glosses.

The 9th century is characterized by _interlinear glosses on the Book of Psalms_, and towards its close by a few attempts at independent translation. Of these "glossed Psalters" twelve MSS. are known to exist, and they may be ranged into two groups according to the Latin text they represent. The _Roman Psalter_ is glossed in the following MSS.: (1) Cotton Vesp. A. 1 (_Vespasian Psalter_); (2) Bodl. Junius 27; (3) Univ. Libr. Camb. Ff. 1. 23; (4) Brit. Mus. Reg. 2. B. 5; (5) Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 17. 1 (_Eadwine's Psalter_); (6) Brit. Mus. Add. 37517. The _Gallican Psalter_ in the following: (1) Brit. Mus. Stowe 2 (Spelman's text); (2) Cotton Vitell. E. 18; (3) Cotton Tib. C. 16; (4) Lambeth 48; (5) Arundel 60; (6) Salisbury Cath. 150.[1]

The oldest and most important of these MSS. is the so-called _Vespasian Psalter_, which was written in Mercia in the first half of the 9th century. It was in all probability the original from which all the above-mentioned Old English glosses were derived, though in several instances changes and modifications were introduced by successive scribes. The first verse of Psalm c. (Vulg. xcix. 2) may serve as a specimen of these glosses.

_Roman Text._ _Gallican Text._

MS. Vespasian. A. 1. MS. Stowe. 2.

Wynsumiaeth gode, all eorethe Drymaeth drihtne, eall eorethe; ethiowiad Dryhtne in blisse; etheowiaeth drihtne on blisse; ingaeth in gesihethe his in infaraeth on gesyhethe hys wynsumnisse. on bliethnysse.

_Jubilate Deo, omnis terra; _Jubilate Domino, omnis terra; servite Domino in laetitia; Servite Domino in laetitia; intrate in conspectu eius in introite in conspectu eius exultatione._ in exultatione._

To the late 9th or early 10th century a work may be assigned which is in so far an advance upon preceding efforts as to be a real translation, not a mere gloss corresponding word for word with the Latin original. This is the famous _Paris Psalter_,[2] a rendering of the first fifty Psalms (Vulg. i.-l. 10), contained in the unique MS. _lat. 8824_ in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The authorship of this version is doubtful, being by some scholars attributed to King Alfred (d. 901), of whom William of Malmesbury writes (_Gesta Regum Anglorum_, ii. 123), "Psalterium transferre aggressus vix prima parte explicata vivendi finem fecit." This view is, however, denied by others.

Lindisfarne Gospels.

In the course of the 10th century the Gospels were glossed and translated. The earliest in date is a _Northumbrian Gloss on the Gospels_, contained in a beautiful and highly interesting MS. variously known as the _Durham Book_, the _Lindisfarne Gospels_, or the _Book of St Cuthbert_ (MS. Cotton, Nero. D. 4). The Latin text dates from the close of the 7th century, and is the work of Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne (698-721). The English gloss was added about a century and a half later (c. 950) by one Aldred, whom Dr Charles O'Conor (_Bibl. Stowensis_, 1818-1819, ii. 180) supposes to have been the bishop of Durham of that name. The Lord's Prayer is glossed in the following way:--

_Lindisfarne Gospels._

Matthew vi. 9. Suae ethonne iuih gie bidde fader urer ethu areth _sic ergo uos orabitis + Pater noster qui es_

ethu bist in heofnum & in heofnas; sie gehalgad noma ethin; _in caelis; sanctificetur nomen tuum_;

(10) to-cymeeth ric ethin. sie willo ethin suae is in heofne _adueniat regnum tuum fiat uoluntas tua sicut in caelo_

J in eoretho. et in terra.

(11) hlaf userne oferwistlic sel us to daeg. _panem nostrum super-substantiale[m] da nobis hodie._

(12) J forgef us scylda usra suae uoe forgefon scyldgum _et demitte nobis debita nostra sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus_

usum. _nostris._

(13) J ne inlaed usih in costunge ah gefrig usich from yfle _et ne inducas nos in temtationem sed libera nos a malo.[3]_

Rushworth Version.

Of a somewhat later date is the celebrated _Rushworth Version of the Gospels_ (MS. Bodl. Auct. D. ii. 9), which contains an independent translation of the Gospel of St Matthew, and a gloss on those of St Mark, St Luke and St John, founded upon the Lindisfarne glosses. From a note in the manuscript we learn that two men, Faerman and Owun, made the version. Faerman was a priest at Harewood, or Harwood, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and to him the best part of the work is due. He translated the whole of St Matthew, and wrote the gloss of St Mark i.-ii. 15, and St John xviii. 1-3. The remaining part, a mere transcript, is Owun's work. The dialect of the translation of St Matthew is Mercian.[4]

West-Saxon Gospels.

A further testimony to the activity which prevailed in the field of Biblical lore is the fact that at the close of the century--probably about the year 1000--the Gospels were rendered anew for the first time in the south of England. Of this version--the so-called _West-Saxon Gospels_--not less than seven manuscripts have come down to us. A note in one of these, MS. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 140, states, _ego AElfricus scripsi hunc librum in Monasterio Baethžonio et dedi Brihtwoldo preposito_, but of this AElfric and his superior nothing further is known.[5]

The Lord's Prayer is rendered in the following way in these gospels:--

_West-Saxon Gospels.--MS Corpus 140._

Matthew vi. 9. Eornustlice gebiddaeth eow ethus; Faeder ure žu že. eart on heofonum; si žin nama gehalgod (10) to-becume žin rice; gewurže ethin willa on eorethan swa swa on heofonum. (11) urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us to daeg, (12) J forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfaeth urum gyltendum. (13) J ne gelaed žu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele sožlice.

AElfric.

Towards the close of the century the Old Testament found a translator in AElfric (q.v.), the most eminent scholar in the close of the 10th and the opening decades of the 11th century. According to his own statement in _De vetere testamento_, written about 1010, he had at that period translated the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Kings, Job, Esther, Judith and the Maccabees.[6] His rendering is clear and idiomatic, and though he frequently abridges, the omissions never obscure the meaning or hinder the easy flow of the narrative.

Dietrich, AElfric's most competent biographer (Niedner's, _Zeitschrift fuer historische Theologie_, 1855-1856), looks upon the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges as a continuation of his _Lives of Saints_, including as they do in a series of narratives the Old Testament saints. Genesis is but slightly abridged, but Job, Kings, Judges, Esther and Judith as well as the Maccabees are mere homilies epitomized from the corresponding Old Testament books. Judith is metrical in form.

The 11th century, with its political convulsions, resulting in the establishment of an alien rule and the partial suppression of the language of the conquered race, was unfavourable to literary efforts of any kind in the vernacular. With the exception of AElfric's late works at the very dawn of the century, we can only record two transcripts of the West-Saxon Gospels as coming at all within the scope of our inquiry.

In the 12th century the same gospels were again copied by pious hands into the Kentish dialect of the period.

Anglo-Norman Period.

The 13th century, from the point of view of Biblical renderings into the vernacular, is an absolute blank. French--or rather the Anglo-Norman dialect of the period--reigned supreme amongst the upper classes, in schools, in parliament, in the courts of law and in the palace of the king. English lurked in farms and hovels, amongst villeins and serfs, in the outlying country-districts, in the distant monasteries, amongst the lower clergy, amongst the humble and lowly and ignorant. There were certainly renderings of the Bible during the 12th, 13th and early 14th centuries, but they were all in French. Some of these translations were made in England, some were brought over to England and copied and recopied. Amongst the latter was the magnificently illuminated Norman Commentary on the Apocalypse, some of the earliest copies of which were written in an English hand. In fact before the middle of the 14th century the entire Old Testament and the greater part of the New Testament had been translated into the Anglo-Norman dialect of the period. (MSS. Bibl. Nat. fr. 1, 9562, Brit. Mus. Reg. I.C. iii. Cf. S. Berger, _La Bible francaise au moyen age_, Paris, 1884, pp. 78 ff.)

14th-century renderings.

When English finally emerged victorious, towards the middle and latter half of the 14th century, it was for all practical purposes a new language, largely intermixed with French, differing from the language of the older period in sound, flexion and structure. It is evident that any Old English versions which might have survived the ravages of time would now be unintelligible, it was equally natural that as soon as French came to be looked upon as an alien tongue, the French versions hitherto in use would fail to fulfil their purpose, and that attempts should again be made to render the Bible into the only language intelligible to the greater part of the nation--into English. It was also natural that these attempts should be made where the need was most pressing, where French had gained least footing, where parliament and court were remote, where intercourse with France was difficult. In fact in the Northern Midlands, and in the North even before the middle of the 14th century, the book of Psalms had been twice rendered into English, and before the end of the same century, probably before the great Wycliffite versions had spread over the country, the whole of the New Testament had been translated by different hands into one or other of the dialects of this part of the country.

At the same time we can record only a single rendering during the whole century which originated in the south of England, namely the text of James, Peter, 1 John and the Pauline Epistles (edited by A.C. Paues, Cambridge, 1904).

Of these pre-Wycliffite versions possibly the earliest is the _West Midland Psalter_, once erroneously ascribed to William of Shoreham.[7] It occurs in three MSS., the earliest of which, Brit. Mus. Add. 17376, was probably written between 1340 and 1350. It contains a complete version of the book of Psalms, followed by the usual eleven canticles and the Athanasian Creed. The Latin original is a glossed version of the Vulgate, and in the English translation the words of the gloss are often substituted for the strong and picturesque expressions of the Biblical text; in other respects the rendering is faithful and idiomatic. The following two verses of the first psalm may exemplify this:--

_MS. British Mus. Add. 17376._

(i. 1.) _Beatus uir, qui non abijt in consilio impiorum, & in uia peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra .i. iudicio pestilencie .i. falsitatis non sedit._ Blesced be že man žat yede nouyt in že counseil of wicked, ne stode nouyt in že waie of sinyeres, ne sat nouyt in fals iugement. (2) _Set in lege domini uoluntas eius, & in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte._ Ac hijs wylle was in že wylle of oure Lord, and he schal ženche in hijs lawe bože daye and nyyt.

Richard Rolle.

Before the middle of the century Richard Rolle (q.v.), the hermit of Hampole (+1349), turned into English, with certain additions and omissions, the famous _Commentary on the Psalms_ by Peter Lombard. The work was undertaken, as the metrical prologue of one of the copies tells us (MS. Laud. misc. 286), "At a worthy recluse prayer, cald dame Merget Kyrkby." The Commentary gained immediate and lasting popularity, and spread in numerous copies throughout the country, the peculiarities of the hermit's vigorous northern dialect being either modified or wholly removed in the more southerly transcripts. The translation, however, is stiff and literal to a fault, violating idiomatic usage and the proper order of words in its strict adherence to the Latin. The following brief extracts may exemplify the hermit's rendering and the change the text underwent in later copies.[8]

_MS. Univ. Coll. 64._ _MS. Reg. 18 B. 21_ (i. 1.) Blisful man že whilk Blessed is žat man žat haž oway ged noght in že counsaile not gone in že counsell of wicked of wicked, and in že way of men, and in že weye of sinfull synful stode noght, & in že men haž not stonde, and in že chaiere of pestilens he noght chaire of pestilence sat not. sate. (2) Bot in laghe of lord že 2. But in že lawe of our lorde will of him; and in his laghe is že will of him; and [in] his he sall thynke day & nyght. lawe we shall žinke day and nyght.

Approximately to the same period as these early renderings of the Psalter belongs a version of the _Apocalypse with a Commentary_, the earliest MS. of which (Harleian 874) is written in the dialect of the North Midlands. This Commentary, for a long time attributed to Wycliffe, is really nothing but a verbal rendering of the popular and widely-spread Norman Commentary on the Apocalypse (Paul Meyer and L. Delisle, _L'Apocalypse en Francais au XIII^e siecle_, Paris, 1901), which dates back as far as the first half of the 13th century, and in its general tenor represents the height of orthodoxy. The English apocalypse, to judge from the number of MSS. remaining, must have enjoyed great and lasting popularity. Several revisions of the text exist, the later of which present such striking agreement with the later Wycliffite version that we shall not be far wrong if we assume that they were made use of to a considerable extent by the revisers of this version.

To the North Midlands or the North belongs further a complete version of the _Pauline Epistles_ found in the unique MS. 32, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of the 15th century.

_Commentaries on the Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke_, we are told by the heading in one of the MSS. (Univ. Libr. Camb. Ii. 2. 12), were also translated into English by "a man of že north cuntre." The translation of these Gospels as well as of the Epistles referred to above is stiff and awkward, the translator being evidently afraid of any departure from the Latin text of his original. The accompanying commentary is based on the Fathers of the Church and entirely devoid of any original matter. The opening lines of the third chapter of Matthew are rendered in the following way:--

_MS. Camb. Univ. Libr. Ii. 2. 12._

(iii. 1.) In žo dayes come Ihone baptist prechand in desert of že Iewry, & seyand, (2) Do ye penaunce; forwhy že kyngdome of heuyne sal come negh. (3) Žis is he of whome it was seide be Isay že prophete, sayand, "že voice of že cryand in že desert, redye ye že way of God, right made ye že lityl wayes of him." (4) & Ihone his kležing of že hoerys of camels, & a gyrdyl of a skyn about his lendys; & his mete was že locust & hony of že wode.

A version of the _Acts and the Catholic Epistles_ completes the number of the New Testament books translated in the northern parts of England. It is found in several MSS. either separately or in conjunction with a fragmentary _Southern Version of the Pauline Epistles, Peter, James and 1 John_ in a curiously compiled volume, evidently made, as the prologue tells us, by a brother superior for the use and edification of an ignorant "sister," or woman vowed to religion.[9] The translation of this, our only southern text, surpasses all previous efforts from the point of view of clearness of expression and idiomatic use of English, and, though less exact, it may be even said in these respects to rank equal with the later or revised Wycliffite version.

Apart from these more or less complete versions of separate books of the Bible, there existed also numerous renderings of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, accounts of the Life, Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, translations of the epistles and gospels used in divine service, and other means of familiarizing the people with Holy Scripture. It was the custom of the medieval preachers and writers to give their own English version of any text which they quoted, not resorting as in later times to a commonly received translation. This explains the fact that in collections of medieval homilies that have come down to us, no two renderings of the Biblical text used are ever alike, not even Wyclilfe himself making use of the text of the commonly accepted versions that went under his name.

It is noteworthy that these early versions from Anglo-Saxon times onwards were perfectly orthodox, executed by and for good and faithful sons of the church, and, generally speaking, with the object of assisting those whose knowledge of Latin proved too scanty for a proper interpretation and understanding of the holy text. Thus Richard Rolle's version of the Psalms was executed for a nun; so was in all likelihood the southern version of the epistles referred to above. Again the earliest MS. (Harl. 874) of the Commentary on the Apocalypse gives the owner's name in a coeval hand as "Richard Schepard, _presbiter_," and the Catholic Epistles of MS. Douce 250[10] were probably glossed for the benefit of men in religious orders, if one may judge from a short Commentary to James ii. 2, "& žerfore if eny man come into youre siyt, _žat is, into youre cumpenye žat bež Godes religiouse men in what degre so ye be_." Nor do any of the remaining works contain anything but what is strictly orthodox.

The Wycliffite Versions.

It is first with the appearance of Wycliffe (q.v.) and his followers on the arena of religious controversy that the Bible in English came to be looked upon with suspicion by the orthodox party within the Church. For it is a well-known fact that Wycliffe proclaimed the Bible, not the Church or Catholic tradition, as a man's supreme spiritual authority, and that he sought in consequence by every means in his power to spread the knowledge of it among the people. It is, therefore, in all likelihood to the zeal of Wycliffe and his followers that we owe the two noble 14th-century translations of the Bible which tradition has always associated with his name, and which are the earliest complete renderings that we possess of the Holy Scriptures into English.[11]

The first of these, the so-called _Early Version_, was probably completed about 1382, at all events before 1384, the year of Wycliffe's death. The second, or _Later Version_, being a thorough revision of the first, is ascribed to the year 1388 by Sir Frederic Madden and the Rev. Joshua Forshall in their edition of these two versions.[12]

It is a matter of uncertainty what part, if any, Wycliffe himself took in the work. The editors of the Wycliffite versions say in the Preface, pp. xv. ff.--"The New Testament was naturally the first object. The text of the Gospels was extracted from the Commentary upon them by Wycliffe, and to these were added the Epistles, the Acts and the Apocalypse, all now translated anew. This translation might probably be the work of Wycliffe himself; at least the similarity of style between the Gospels and the other parts favours the supposition." The Wycliffite authorship of the Commentaries on the Gospels, on which the learned editors base their argument, is, however, unsupported by any evidence beyond the fact that the writer of the Prologue to Matthew urges in strong language "the propriety of translating Scripture for the use of the laity." The Biblical text found in these Commentaries is in fact so far removed from the original type of the Early Version as to be transitional to the Late, and, what is still more convincing, passages from the Early Version, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, are actually quoted in the Commentary. Under such circumstances it would be folly to look upon them as anything but late productions, at all events later than the Early Version, and equal folly to assign these bulky volumes to the last two years of Wycliffe's life merely because the text used in them happens to be that of the Early Version. It is therefore at present impossible to say what part of the Early Version of the New Testament was translated by Wycliffe.[13]

The Old Testament of the Early Version was, according to the editors (Preface, p. xvii.), taken in hand by one of Wycliffe's coadjutors, Nicholas de Herford. The translator's original copy and a coeval transcript of it are still extant in the Bodleian library (Bodl. 959, Douce 360). Both break off abruptly at Baruch iii. 19, the latter having at this place a note inserted to the following effect: _Explicit translacionem Nicholay de herford_. There is consequently but little doubt that Nicholas de Herford took part in the translation of the Old Testament, though it is uncertain to what extent. The translator's copy is written in not less than five hands, differing in orthography and dialect. The note may therefore be taken to refer either to the portion translated by the last or fifth hand, or to the whole of the Old Testament up to Baruch iii. 19. Judging from uniformity of style and mode of translation the editors of the Bible are inclined to take the latter view; they add that the remaining part of the Old Testament was completed by a different hand, the one which also translated the New Testament. This statement is, however, not supported by sufficient evidence. In view of the magnitude of the undertaking it is on the contrary highly probable that other translators besides Wycliffe and Nicholas de Herford took part in the work, and that already existing versions, with changes when necessary, were incorporated or made use of by the translators.

The Early Version, apart from its completeness, shows but little advance upon preceding efforts. It is true that the translation is more careful and correct than some of the renderings noticed above, but on the other hand it shares all their faults. The translation of the Old Testament as far as Baruch iii. 19 is stiff and awkward, sometimes unintelligible, even nonsensical, from a too close adherence to the Latin text (e.g. Judges xx. 25). In the remaining parts the translation is somewhat easier and more skilful, though even here Latinisms and un-English renderings abound.

It is small wonder, therefore, if a revision was soon found necessary and actually taken in hand within a few years of the completion of the Earlier Version. The principles of work adopted by the revisers are laid down in the general prologue to their edition, the so-called "Later Version."

For these resons and orhere ... a symple creature hath translatid the bible out of Latyn into English. First, this symple creature hadde myche traueile, with diuerse felawis and helperis, to gedere manie elde biblis, and othere doctouris, and comune glosis, and to make oo Latyn bible sumdel trewe; and thanne to studie it of the newe, the text with the glose, and othere doctouris, as he miyte gete, and speciali Lire on the elde testament, that helpide ful myche in this work; the thridde tyme to counseile with elde gramariens, and elde dyuynis, of harde wordis, and harde sentencis, hou tho miyten best be vndurstonden and translatid; the iiij tyme to translate as cleerli as he coude to the sentence, and to haue manie gode felawis and kuonynge at the correcting of the translacioun.

It is uncertain who the revisers were; John Purvey, the leader of the Lollard party after Wycliffe's death, is generally assumed to have taken a prominent part in the work, but the evidence of this is extremely slight (cf. Wycl. Bible, Preface, oo. xxv. f.). The exact date of the revision is also doubtful: the editors of the Wycliffe Bible, judging from the internal evidence of the Prologue, assume it to have been finished about 1388. This Revised or Later Version is in every way a readable, correct rendering of the Scriptures, it is far more idiomatic than the Earlier, having been freed from the greater number of its Latinisms; its vocabulary is less archaic. Its popularity admits of no doubt, for even now in spite of neglect and persecution, in spite of the ravages of fire and time, over 150 copies remain to testify to this fact. The following specimens of the Early and Late Versions will afford a comparison with preceding renderings:--

_Early Version._ _Late Version._

(Psalm i. 1.) Blisful the man, (i. 1.) Blessid _is_ the man, that that went not awei in the counseil yode not in the councel of wickid of vnpitouse, and in the wei men; and stood not in the off sinful stod not; and in the weie of synneris, and sat not in chayer of pestilence sat not. the chaier of pestilence. (2) (2) But in the lawe of the Lord his But his wille _is_ in the lawe of wil; and in the lawe of hym he the Lord; and he schal bithenke shal sweteli thenke dai and nyyt. in the lawe of hym dai and nyyt.

(Matthew iii. 1.) In thilke (iii. 1.) In tho daies Ioon days came Ioon Baptist, prechynge Baptist cam, and prechide in in the desert of Iude, the desert of Iudee, and seide, sayinge, (2) Do ye penaunce, (2) Do ye penaunce, for the for the kyngdom of heuens shal kyngdom of heuenes shal neiye. neiy, _or cume niye_. (3) Forsothe (3) For this is he, of whom it is this is he of whome it is said by seid bi Ysaie, the prophete, Ysaye the prophet. A voice of seyinge, A vois of a crier in a cryinge in desert, Make ye redy desert, Make ye redi the weies the wayes of the Lord; Make ye of the Lord; make ye riyt the riytful the pathes of hym. (4) pathis of hym. (4) And this Forsothe that ilk Ioon hadde cloth Ioon hadde clothing of camels of the heeris of cameylis, and a heeris, and a girdil of skynne girdil of skyn aboute his leendis; aboute his leendis; and his mete sothely his mete weren locustis, was honysoukis and hony of the and hony of the wode. wode.

The Lollards.

The 15th century may well be described as the _via dolorosa_ of the English Bible as well as of its chief advocates and supporters, the Lollards. After the death of Wycliffe violence and anarchy set in, and the Lollards came gradually to be looked upon as enemies of order and disturbers of society. Stern measures of suppression were directed not only against them but against "Goddis Lawe," the book for which they pleaded with such passionate earnestness. The bishops' registers bear sufficient testimony to this fact.[14] It would appear, however, as if at first at all events the persecution was directed not so much against the Biblical text itself as against the Lollard interpretations which accompanied it. In a convocation held at Oxford under Archbishop Arundel in 1408 it was enacted "that no man hereafter by his own authority translate any text of the Scripture into English or any other tongue, by way of a book, booklet, or tract; and that no man read any such book, booklet, or tract, now lately composed in the time of John Wycliffe or since, or hereafter to be set forth in part or in whole, publicly or privately, upon pain of greater excommunication, until the said translation be approved by the ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the council provincial. He that shall do contrary to this shall likewise be punished as a favourer of heresy and error."[15]

It must be allowed that an enactment of this kind was not without justification. The Lollards, for instance, did not hesitate to introduce into certain copies of the pious and orthodox Commentary on the Psalms by the hermit of Hampole interpolations of their own of the most virulently controversial kind (MSS. Trin. Coll. Camb. B.V. 25, Brit. Mus. Reg. 18. C. 26, &c.), and although the text of their Biblical versions was faithful and true, the General Prologue of the Later Version was interlarded with controversial matter. It is small wonder if the prelates and priests sought to repress such trenchant criticism of their lives and doctrines as appeared more especially in the former work, and probably in many others which since have perished in "faggots and burning."

For all this, manuscripts of Purvey's Revision were copied and re-copied during this century, the text itself being evidently approved by the ecclesiastical authorities, when in the hands of the right people and if unaccompanied by controversial matter.

Of the Lollard movement in Scotland but little is known, but a curious relic has come down to our times in the shape of a New Testament of Purvey's Revision in the Scottish dialect of the early 16th century. The transcriber was in all probability a certain Murdoch Nisbet, who also showed his reforming tendencies by adding to it a rendering of Luther's Prologue to the New Testament.[16]

2. _The Printed Bible._--It is singular that while France, Spain, Italy, Bohemia and Holland possessed the Bible in the vernacular before the accession of Henry VIII., and in Germany the Scriptures were printed in 1466 and seventeen times reprinted before Luther began his great work, yet no English printer attempted to put the familiar English Bible into type. No part of the English Bible was printed before 1525, no complete Bible before 1535, and none in England before 1538.

Versions of the Scriptures so far noticed were all secondary renderings of the Vulgate, translations of a translation. It was only with the advent of the "new learning" in England that a direct rendering from the originals became possible. Erasmus in 1516 published the New Testament in Greek, with a new Latin version of his own; the Hebrew text of the Old Testament had been published as early as 1488.

William Tyndale.

The first to take advantage of these altered conditions was William Tyndale (q.v.), "to whom," as Dr Westcott says,[17] "it has been allowed more than to any other man to give its characteristic shape to the English Bible." Of Tyndale's early life but little is known. Be it enough for our purpose to say that he thoroughly saturated his mind with the "new learning," first at Oxford, where in 1515 he was admitted to the degree of M.A., and then in Cambridge, where the fame of Erasmus still lingered. Before the beginning of 1522 we find Tyndale as chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh of Old Sodbury in Gloucestershire. He was there constantly involved in theological controversies with the surrounding clergy, and it was owing to their hostility that he had to leave Gloucestershire. He then resolved to open their eyes to the serious corruptions and decline of the church by translating the New Testament into the vernacular. In order to carry out this purpose he repaired in July or August 1523 to London, and to the famous protector of scholars and scholarship, Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall. His reception was, however, cold, the bishop advising him to seek a livelihood in the town. During a year of anxious waiting, it became clear to him "not only that there was no rowme in my lorde of londons palace to translate the new testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all englonde."[18] In May 1524 he consequently betook himself to Hamburg, his resolution to carry out his great work never for a moment flagging, and it was probably during his stay in this free city and in Wittenberg, where he may have been stimulated by Luther, that his translation of the New Testament was actually made. At all events there is no doubt that in 1525 he was in Cologne, engaged in printing at the press of Peter Quentel a quarto edition of the New Testament. This edition was provided with prefaces and marginal glosses. He had advanced as far as the tenth sheet, bearing the signature K, when his work was discovered by Johann Cochlaeus (q.v.), a famous controversialist and implacable enemy of the Reformation, who not only caused the Senate of Cologne to prohibit the continuation of the printing, but also communicated with Henry VIII. and Wolsey, warning them to stop the importation of the work at the English seaports. Tyndale and his assistant, William Roye, managed, however, to escape higher up the Rhine to Worms, and they succeeded in carrying with them some or all of the sheets which had been printed. Instead of completing Quentel's work, Peter Schoeffer, the Worms printer, was employed to print another impression of 3000 in a small octavo size, without prefaces to the books or annotations in the margin, and only having an address "To the Reder" at the end in addition to the New Testament itself. Two impressions, the quarto having possibly been completed by Schoeffer, arrived in England early in the summer of 1526, and were eagerly welcomed and bought. Such strong measures of suppression were, however, at once adopted against these perilous volumes, that of the quarto only a single fragment remains (Matt, i.-xxii. 12), now preserved in the British Museum (Grenville, 12179),[19] of the octavo only one perfect copy (the title-page missing) in the Baptist College at Bristol,[20] and one imperfect in the library of St Paul's cathedral.

But Tyndale continued his labours undaunted. In 1529 the manuscript translation of Deuteronomy is mentioned as having perished with his other books and papers in a shipwreck which he suffered on the coast of Holland, on his way to Hamburg. In 1530, however, the whole of the _Pentateuch_ was printed in Marburg by Hans Luft; it is provided with prefaces and marginal annotations of a strongly controversial character. The only perfect copy is preserved in the Grenville library of the British Museum.[21] It was reissued in 1534 with a new preface and certain corrections and emendations in Genesis, and again in London in 1551.

In 1531 the _Book of Jonah_ appeared with an important and highly interesting prologue, the only copy known of which is in the British Museum.[22]

Meanwhile the demand for New Testaments, for reading or for the flames, steadily increased, and the printers found it to their advantage to issue the Worms edition of the New Testament in not less than three surreptitious reprints before 1534. This is testified by George Joye in his _Apology_, who himself brought out a fourth edition of Tyndale's New Testament in August 1534, freed from many of the errors which, through the carelessness of the Flemish printers, had crept into the text, but with such alterations and new renderings as to arouse the indignation of Tyndale. The only remaining copy, a 16mo, is in the Grenville library. To counteract and supersede all these unauthorized editions, Tyndale himself brought out his own revision of the New Testament with translations added of all the _Epistles of the Old Testament_ after the use of Salisbury. It was published in November 1534 at Antwerp by Martin Emperowr. Prologues were added to all books except the Acts and the Apocalypse, and new marginal glosses were introduced. Three copies of this edition are in the British Museum, and it was reprinted in 1841 in Bagster's _Hexapla_. In the following year Tyndale once more set forth a revised edition, "fynesshed in the yere of oure Lorde God A.M.D. and XXXV.," and printed at Antwerp by Godfried van der Haghen.[23] In this headings were added to the chapters in the Gospels and the Acts, and the marginal notes of the edition of 1534 were omitted. It is chiefly noted for the peculiarities of its orthography. Of this edition one copy is in the University library, Cambridge, a second in Exeter College, Oxford, and a fragment in the British Museum. It is supposed to have been revised by Tyndale while in prison in the castle of Vilvorde, being the last of his labours in connexion with the English Bible. His execution took place on the 6th of October 1536, and about the same time a small folio reprint of his revised edition of 1534 was brought out in England, the first volume of Scripture printed in this country, probably by T. Berthelet.[24] A perfect copy is found in the Bodleian library. In later years, between 1536 and 1550, numerous editions of Tyndale's New Testament were printed, twenty-one of which have been enumerated and fully described by Francis Fry.[25]

"The history of our English Bible begins with the work of Tyndale and not with that of Wycliffe," says Dr Westcott in his _History of the English Bible_, p. 316, and it is true that one of the most striking features of the work of Tyndale is its independence. Attempts have been made to show that especially in the Old Testament he based a great deal of his work on the Wycliffite translations, but in face of this we have his own explicit statement, "I had no man to counterfet, nether was holpe with englysshe of eny that had interpreted the same (i.e. the New Testament), or soche lyke thige i the scripture beforetyme."[26]

He translated straight from the Hebrew and Greek originals, although the Vulgate and more especially Erasmus's Latin version were on occasion consulted. For his prefaces and marginal notes he used Luther's Bible freely, even to paraphrasing or verbally translating long passages from it.

Apart from certain blemishes and awkward and even incorrect renderings, Tyndale's translation may be described as a truly noble work, faithful and scholarly, though couched in simple and popular language. Surely no higher praise can be accorded to it than that it should have been taken as a basis by the translators of the Authorized Version, and thus have lived on through the centuries up to the present day.

The following specimens may prove of interest:--

_The thryde Chapter._

(Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the baptyser cam and preached in the wyldernes of Iury, saynge, Repent, the kyngedom of heven ys at hond. Thys ys he of whom it ys spoken be the prophet Isay, whych sayth: the voice of a cryer in wyldernes, prepaire ye the lordes waye, and make hys pathes strayght. Thys Ihon had hys garment of camelles heere, and a gyrdyll of a skynne about hys loynes. Hys meate was locustes * and wyldhe ony.

* "Locustes are more then oware greshoppers, souche men vse to eate in divres parties of the est" (marginal note).

(Matthew vi. 9-13.) O oure father which art in heven, halewed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be fulfilled, as well in erth, as hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them whych treaspas vs. Lede vs nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from yvell. Amen. (Grenville 12179.)

Miles Coverdale.

Meanwhile a complete English Bible was being prepared by Miles Coverdale (q.v.), an Augustinian friar who was afterwards for a few years (1551-1553) bishop of Exeter. As the printing was finished on the 4th of October 1535 it is evident that Coverdale must have been engaged on the preparation of the work for the press at almost as early a date as Tyndale. Foxe states (_op. cit._ v. 120) that Coverdale was with Tyndale at Hamburg in 1529, and it is probable that most of his time before 1535 was spent abroad, and that his translation, like that of Tyndale, was done out of England.

In 1877 Henry Stevens, in his catalogue of the Caxton Exhibition, pointed out a statement by a certain Simeon Ruytinck in his life of Emanuel van Meteren, appended to the latter's _Nederlandische Historie_ (1614), that Jacob van Meteren, the father of Emanuel, had manifested great zeal in producing at Antwerp a translation of the Bible into English, and had employed for that purpose a certain learned scholar named Miles Conerdale (_sic_). In 1884 further evidence was adduced by W.J.C. Moens, who reprinted an affidavit signed by Emanuel van Meteren, 28 May 1609, to the effect that "he was brought to England _anno_ 1550 ... by his father, a furtherer of reformed religion, and he that caused the first Bible at his costes to be Englisshed by Mr Myles Coverdal in Andwarp, the w'h his father, with Mr Edward Whytchurch, printed both in Paris and London" (_Registers of the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars_, 1884, p. xiv.). Apart from the reference to Whytchurch and the place of printing, this statement agrees with that of Simeon Ruytinck, and it is possible that van Meteren showed his zeal in the matter by undertaking the cost of printing the work as well as that of remunerating the translator. Mr W. Aldis Wright, however, judging from the facts that the name of Whytchurch was introduced, that the places of printing were given as London and Paris, not Antwerp, and lastly that Emanuel van Meteren being born in 1535 could only have derived his knowledge from hearsay, is inclined to think that the Bible in which J. van Meteren was interested "was Matthew's of 1537 or the Great Bible of 1539, and not Coverdale's of 1535."[27]

It is highly probable that the printer of Coverdale's Bible was Christopher Froschouer of Zuerich,[28] who printed the edition of 1550, and that the sheets were sent for binding and distribution to James Nicolson, the Southwark printer.[29] This first of all printed English Bibles is a small folio in German black letter, bearing the title: "_Biblia, The Bible_; that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche (German) and Latyn into Englishe, M.D.XXXV." The volume is provided with woodcuts and initials, the title-page and preliminary matter in the only two remaining copies (British Museum and Holkam Hall) being in the same type as the body of the book. A second issue of the same date, 1535, has the title-page and the preliminary matter in English type, and omits the words "out of Douche and Latyn"; a third issue bears the date 1536. A second edition in folio, "newly oversene and corrected," was printed by Nicolson, with English type, in 1537; and also in the same year, a third edition in quarto. On the title-page of the latter were added the significant words, "set forth with the Kynge's moost gracious licence."

Coverdale, however, was no independent translator. Indeed, he disavows any such claim by stating expressly, in his dedication to the king, "I have with a cleare conscience purely & faythfully translated this out of fyue sundry interpreters, hauyng onely the manyfest trueth of the scripture before myne eyes," and in the Prologue he refers to his indebtedness to "The Douche (German) interpreters: whom (because of theyr synguler gyftes and speciall diligence in The Bible) I haue ben the more glad to folowe for the most parte, accordynge as I was requyred."[30] These "fyue interpreters" Dr Westcott (_ibid._ p. 163) identifies as Luther, the Zuerich Bible, the Latin version of Pagninus, the Vulgate, and, in all likelihood, the English translation of Tyndale.

Though not endowed with the strength and originality of mind that characterized Tyndale's work, Coverdale showed great discrimination in the handling and use of his authorities, and moreover a certain delicacy and happy ease in his rendering of the Biblical text, to which we owe not a few of the beautiful expressions of our present Bible.

The following extracts from the edition of 1535 may serve as examples of his rendering:--

_The first psalme._

(i. 1-2.) Blessed is že man, že goeth not in the councell of že ungodly: že abydeth not in the waye off synners, & sytteth not in že seate of the scornefull. But delyteth in the lawe of že Lorde, & exercyseth himself in his lawe both daye and night.

_The gospell of S. Mathew._

(iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the Baptyst came and preached in the wildernes of Jury, saynge: Amende youre selues, the kyngdome of heuen is at honde. This is he, of whom it is spoken by the prophet Esay, which sayeth: The voyce of a cryer in že wyldernes, prepare the _Lordes_ waye, and make his pathes straight. This Ihon had his garment of camels heer, and a lethren gerdell aboute his loynes. Hys meate was locustes and wylde hony.

It should be added that Coverdale's Bible was the first in which the non-canonical books were left out of the body of the Old Testament and placed by themselves at the end of it under the title _Apocripha_.

Matthew's Bible.

The large sale of the New Testaments of Tyndale, and the success of Coverdale's Bible, showed the London booksellers that a new and profitable branch of business was opened out to them, and they soon began to avail themselves of its advantages. Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch were the first in the field, bringing out a fine and full-sized folio in 1537, "truely and purely translated into English by Thomas Matthew." Thomas Matthew, is, however, in all probability, an alias for John Rogers, a friend and fellow-worker of Tyndale, and the volume is in reality no new translation at all, but a compilation from the renderings of Tyndale and Coverdale. Thus the Pentateuch and the New Testament were reprinted from Tyndale's translations of 1530 and 1535 respectively, with very slight variations; the books from Joshua to the end of Chronicles are traditionally, and lately also by external evidence,[31] assigned to Tyndale and were probably left by him in the hands of Rogers. From Ezra to Malachi the translation is taken from Coverdale, as is also that of the Apocryphal books. John Roger's own work appears in a marginal commentary distributed through the Old and New Testaments and chiefly taken from Olivetan's French Bible of 1535. The volume was printed in black letter in double columns, and three copies are preserved in the British Museum. In 1538 a second edition in folio appeared; it was reprinted twice in 1549, and again in 1551. It is significant that this Bible, like Coverdale's second edition, was "set forth with the kinges most gracyous lycence," probably with the concurrence of Cranmer, since he, in a letter to Cromwell, begged him to "exhibit the book unto the king's highness, and to obtain of his grace ... a licence that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger of any act, proclamation or ordinance, heretofore granted to the contrary."[32] And thus it came to pass, as Dr Westcott strikingly puts it, that "by Cranmer's petition, by Crumwell's influence, and by Henry's authority, without any formal ecclesiastical decision, the book was given to the English people, which is the foundation of the text of our present Bible. From Matthew's Bible--itself a combination of the labours of Tyndale and Coverdale--all later revisions have been successively formed" (op. cit. p. 71).

Taverner.

Meanwhile the successful sale of Matthew's Bible, the private venture of the two printers Grafton and Whitchurch, was threatened by a rival edition published in 1539 in folio and quarto by "John Byddell for Thomas Barthlet" with Richard Taverner as editor. This was, in fact, what would now be called "piracy," being Grafton's _Matthew Bible_ revised by Taverner, a learned member of the Inner Temple and famous Greek scholar. He made many alterations in the Matthew Bible, characterized by critical acumen and a happy choice of strong and idiomatic expressions. He is, perhaps, the first purist among the Biblical translators, endeavouring, whenever possible, to substitute a word of native origin for the foreign expression of his predecessors.[33] His revision seems, however, to have had little or no influence on subsequent translators, and was only once, in 1549, reprinted in its entirety. Quarto and octavo editions of the New Testament alone were published in the same year, 1539, as the original edition, and in the following year, 1540, the New Testament in duodecimo. The Old Testament was reprinted as part of a Bible in 1551, but no other editions are known than those named.

The Great Bible, 1539.

It will have been observed that the translations of Holy Scripture which had been printed during these years (1525-1539) were all made by private men and printed without any public authority. Some of them had indeed been set forth by the king's licence, but the object of this is shown by the above-quoted letter of Archbishop Cranmer to Cromwell, touching Matthew's Bible. It is "that the same may be sold and read of every person ... until such time that we, the bishops, shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday." This letter was written on the 4th of August 1537, and the impatient words at the end refer to an authorized version which had been projected several years before, and which was, in fact, at that very time in preparation, though not proceeding quickly enough to satisfy Cranmer. In the year 1530, Henry VIII. had issued a commission of inquiry respecting the expediency and necessity of having "in the English tongue both the New Testament and the Old" (Wilkins' _Concilia_, iii. 737). This commission reported against the expediency of setting forth a vernacular translation until there was a more settled state of religious opinion, but states that the king "intended to provide that the Holy Scripture shall be, by great, learned and Catholic persons, translated into the English tongue if it shall then seem to His Grace convenient to be" (ib. 740). The Convocation of Canterbury refreshed the royal memory on the subject by petitioning the king on the 19th of December 1534 "that His Majesty would vouchsafe to decree, that the Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue ... and ... delivered to the people according to their learning" (_ibid._ 770). The subject was again before Convocation in 1536,[34] but the detailed history is lost to us--all that is known being that Cromwell had placed Coverdale at the head of the enterprise, and that the result was an entirely new revision, based on Matthew's Bible.[35] Coverdale consulted in his revision the Latin version of the Old Testament with the Hebrew text by Sebastian Muenster, the Vulgate and Erasmus's editions of the Greek text for the New Testament.

Concerning the printing of this authorized Bible more details are known. Cromwell had planned the work on a large scale, too large evidently for the resources of the English presses, for it was determined that the printing should be entrusted to Francis Regnault, a famous Paris printer. At the request of Henry VIII., a licence was granted to Regnault for this purpose by Francis I., while Coverdale and Grafton were sent over in 1538 to superintend the work as it passed through the press. The work was pressed forward with all speed, for, as Coverdale writes to Cromwell, they were "dayly threatened" and ever feared "to be spoken withall."[36] Indeed, when the printing was far advanced, on the 17th of December 1538, its further progress was interdicted by the Inquisitor-general for France, and orders were given to seize the whole of the impression. Coverdale and Grafton left Paris quickly, but soon returned, rescued a great number of the finished sheets, "four great dry-vats" full of them having been sold to a haberdasher instead of being burnt--and conveyed types, printing-presses and workmen to England. Thus the volume which had been begun in Paris in 1538 was completed in London, the colophon stating that it was "Fynisshed in Apryll, _Anno_ M.CCCCC.XXXIX." It is a splendid folio Bible of the largest volume, and was distinguished from its predecessors by the name of _The Great Bible_. The title-page represents Henry VIII. giving the "Word of God" to Cromwell and Cranmer, who, in their order, distribute it to laymen and clerics, and describes the volume as "truly translated after the veryte of the Hebreue and Greke texts by že dylygent studye of dyverse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch." "Certain godly annotations," which Coverdale promised in the Prologue, did not, however, appear in the first issue, nor in any of the following. This was the first of seven editions of this noble Bible which issued from the press during the years 1539-1541,--the second of them, that of 1540, called _Cranmer's Bible_ from the fact that it contained a long Preface by Archbishop Cranmer, having the important addition "This is the Byble apoynted to the vse of the churches" on the title-page. Seventy years afterwards it assumed the form ever since known as the _Authorized Version_, but its Psalter is still embedded, without any alteration, in the Book of Common Prayer.

For the sake of comparison the following extracts from St Matthew are given, according to the edition of 1539.

(Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes came Iohn the Baptyst, preaching in the wyldernes of Iewry, saying, Repent of the life that is past, for the kyngdome of heauen is at hande, For thys is he, of whom the prophet Esay spake, which sayeth, the voyce of a cryer in the wyldernes, prepare ye the waye of the lorde: make hys pathes strayght. Thys Iohn had hys garment of camels heer And a gyrdell of a skynne aboute hys loynes. His meate was locustes and wylde hony.

(Matthew vi. 9-13.) Oure father which art in heauen, halowed be thy name. Let thy kingdome come. Thy will be fulfilled, as well in erth, as it is in heuen. Geue vs this daye oure dayly bred. And forgeue vs oure dettes, as we forgeue oure detters. And leade vs not into temptation: but delyuer vs from euyll. For thyne is the kyngdom and the power, and the glorye for euer. Amen.

Meanwhile the closing years of Henry VIII.'s reign were characterized by restrictive measures as to the reading and use of the Bible. Tyndale Version was prohibited by an act of parliament, 1543; at the same time it was enacted that all notes and marginal commentaries in other copies should be obliterated, and that "no woman (unless she be a noble or gentle woman), no artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under the degree of yeomen ... husbandmen or labourers" should read or use any part of the Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.[37]

William Whittingham.

In 1546 Coverdale's Bible was included in the proscription, the _Great Bible_ being the only translation not interdicted. During Edward VI.'s reign there was a brief respite, but with the accession of Mary the persecutions of the English Bible and its friends were renewed. Cranmer suffered martyrdom at the stake, as John Rogers had done before him. Other prominent reformers, amongst them Coverdale, sought refuge in Geneva, the town of Calvin and Beza, where they employed their enforced leisure in planning and carrying out a new revision of the Bible. The first fruits of these labours was a New Testament issued in June 1557, with an introduction by Calvin, probably the work of William Whittingham.[38] The volume, in a convenient quarto size, printed in clear Roman type, and provided with marginal annotations, gained immediate popularity in England, where a Bible suited for household demands had long been needed. It was the first Bible which had the text divided into "verses and sections according to the best editions in other languages."[39]

The Genevan Bible.

Whittingham's enterprise was, however, soon superseded by an issue of the whole Bible, which appeared in 1560, the so-called _Genevan Bible_, popularly also known as the _Breeches Bible_, from its rendering of Gen. iii. 7, "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches." This edition was mainly due to the combined efforts of William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby and Thomas Sampson, and the expenses towards printing and publication were borne by members of the congregation at Geneva. It represented in the Old Testament a thorough and independent revision of the text of the _Great Bible_ with the help of the Hebrew original, the Latin versions of Leo Judae (1543), Pagninus (1528), Sebastian Muenster (1534-1535), and the French versions of Olivetan. The New Testament consisted of Tyndale's latest text revised to a great extent in accordance with Beza's translation and commentary. The changes introduced by the Genevan translators were, as a rule, a great improvement, and the version received a ready welcome and immediate popularity, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, but because of its handy size, usually that of a small quarto, and of its being printed, like Whittingham's New Testament, in a readable Roman type instead of black letter. Like this earlier publication, it had the division of the chapters into verses, and a marginal commentary which proved a great attraction to the Puritans. The popularity of the Genevan Bible was so great that between 1560 and 1644 at least 140 editions of it were published,[40] and this in spite of its not being allowed for use in the churches.

In 1576 the New Testament of the Genevan Bible was again revised by Lawrence Tomson and provided with a new commentary mainly translated from Beza. It soon became popular and even replaced the Genevan New Testament in later editions of this Bible.

The Bishops' Bible.

Some time after the accession of Queen Elizabeth an attempt was made to improve the authorized _Great Bible_, and in this way to challenge the ever growing popularity of the Calvinistic _Genevan Bible_. The initiative was taken by Archbishop Parker, about 1563-1565, who, according to Strype (Parker i. 414) "took upon him the labour to contrive and set the whole work a going ... by sorting out the whole Bible into parcels ... and distributing these parcels to able bishops and other learned men, to peruse and collate each the book or books allotted them ... and they to add some short marginal notes for the illustration or correction of the text."

The rules upon which they proceeded were these:--

1. "To follow the common English translation used in the churches, and not to recede from it, but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the text as Pagnine in his translation useth, and for the verity of the Hebrew to follow the said Pagnine and Muenster specially, and generally others learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such chapters and places as contain matters of genealogies, or other such places not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient terms and phrases."

The work was pushed forward with energy, and on the 5th of October 1568 the volume was ready for publication. It was a magnificent folio, generally known as the _Bishops' Bible_, since not less than eight of these dignitaries took part in the revision. But the detached and piecemeal way in which the revision had been carried out naturally caused certain inequalities in the execution of the work. The different parts of the Bible vary considerably in merit, the alterations in the New Testament, for instance, showing freshness and vigour, whereas most of the changes introduced in the Old Testament have been condemned as "arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the Hebrew text" (Westcott, op. cit. p. 237). Several editions of the _Bishops' Bible_ were afterwards published, but it is doubtful whether the ecclesiastical authorities in spite of repeated enactments (Cardwell, _Synodalia_, pp. 115, 123, 210, 292) ever succeeded in entirely enforcing its public use in the churches. After 1569 the Great Bible ceased, however, to be reprinted. But in the homes the Genevan version still maintained its supremacy. One thing is certain, that the book of Psalms of the new revision had fairly soon to give way before the well-known and smooth rendering of the Great Bible. In the second edition of the Bishops' Bible, 1572, the two texts were actually printed side by side; in all later editions except one (1585) the older Psalter alone remained.

The Reims and Douai Version.

From the time of Tyndale onwards the translation of the Scriptures into English had been more or less an outcome of the great reformatory movements within the church. It was not until Queen Elizabeth's reign that members of the Romanist party found it expedient to translate the Bible into the vernacular "for the more speedy abolishing of a number of false and impious translations put forth by sundry sectes, and for the better preseruation or reclaime of many good soules endangered thereby" (_Preface_ to the Rhemish Version).

According to the title-page the New Testament was "translated faithfvlly into English ovt of the authentical Latin, according to the best corrected copies of the same, diligently conferred vvith the Greeke and other editions in diuers languages.... In the English College of Rhemes, 1582." The Old Testament had been "long since" completed, but "for lacke of good meanes" (Preface to the New Testament), its appearance was delayed till 1609-1610, when it was published at Douai. The complete work, known as the _Rhemes and Douay Version_, was reprinted in Rouen in 1635, and after a considerable time revised by Dr Challoner (1749-1750). The translation is really anonymous, but there seems to be little doubt that it was carried out by some of the Romanist refugees connected with the Seminary at Douai and the English college at Reims, the chief amongst them being Gregory Martin, William Allen, Richard Bristow and J. Reynolds. Like the Wycliffite Versions it is merely a secondary rendering from the Latin Vulgate, and it suffered from many of the defects which characterized these versions, extreme literalness, often stilted, ambiguous renderings, at times unintelligible except by a reference to the Latin original, as in Luke xxii. 18, "I will not drink of the generation of the vine," or Phil. ii. 7, "But he exinanited himself."

As further examples of this rendering we print the same passages from St Matthew:--

(Matthew iii. 1-4.) And in those dayes cometh Iohn the Baptist preaching in the desert of Ievvrie, saying. Doe penance: for the Kingdom of heauen is at hand. For this is he that vvas spoken of by Esay the Prophet, saying, A voyce of one crying in the desert, prepare ye the way of our Lord, make straight his pathes. And the sayd Iohn had his garment of camels heare, & a girdle of a skinne about his loynes: and his meate was locustes & vvilde honie.

(Matthew vi. 9-13.) Ovr Father which art in heauen, sanctified be thy name. Let thy Kingdom come. Thy wil be done, as in heauen, in earth also. Giue vs to day our supersubstantial bread. And forgiue vs our dettes, as we also forgiue our detters. And leade vs not into tentation. But deliuer vs from evil. Amen.

The strongly Latinized vocabulary of this version was not without its influence on the next great venture in English translations of the Bible, the _Authorized Version_.[41]

The Authorized Version, 1611.

The English Bible, which is now recognized as the _Authorized Version_ wherever the English language is spoken, is a revision of the Bishops' Bible, begun in 1604, and published in 1611. It arose incidentally out of a Conference between the High Church and the Low Church parties convened by James I. at Hampton Court Palace in January 1604, for the purpose of determining "things pretended to be amiss in the church," and was originally proposed by Dr Reynolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the leader and spokesman of the Low Church party, and subsequently on the committee which revised the translation of the Prophets.

No real opposition was offered to the proposal, and the king cleverly sketched out on the moment a plan to be adopted. He "wished that some special pains should be taken in that behalf for one uniform translation--professing that he could never yet see a Bible well translated in English--and this to be done by the best learned in both the Universities; after them to be reviewed by the bishops and the chief learned of the Church; from them to be presented to the privy council; and lastly to be ratified by his royal authority; and so this whole church to be bound unto it and none other."[42] He also particularly desired that no notes should be added by way of comment in the margin, since some of those in the Genevan Bible appeared to him "very partial, untrue, seditious and savouring too much of dangerous and traiterous conceits."

The appointment of the revisers was a work of much responsibility and labour, and five months elapsed before they were selected and their respective portions assigned to them; but the list of those who began the work, and who, with some few changes in consequence of deaths, brought it to a happy conclusion, shows how large an amount of scholarship was enlisted. It includes Dr Andrewes, afterwards bishop of Winchester, who was familiar with Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, Latin and at least ten other languages, while his knowledge of patristic literature was unrivalled; Dr Overall, regius professor of theology and afterwards bishop of Norwich; Bedwell, the greatest Arabic scholar of Europe; Sir Henry Savile, the most learned layman of his time; and, to say nothing of others well known to later generations, nine who were then or afterwards professors of Hebrew or of Greek at Oxford or Cambridge. It is observable also that they were chosen without reference to party, at least as many of the Puritan clergy as of the opposite party being placed on the committees.

The following list[43] is drawn up in such a way as to show the academical or other position which each of them occupied, and the particular part of the work on which they were engaged.

Genesis-2 Kings.

Westminster.

Dr Lancelot Andrewes, dean of Westminster. Dr John Overall, dean of St Paul's. Dr Hadrian de Saravia, canon of Canterbury. Dr Richard Clark, fellow of Christ's Coll., Camb. Dr John Layfield, fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb. Dr Robert Teigh, archdeacon of Middlesex. Mr Francis Burleigh, Pemb. Hall, Camb., D.D., 1607. Mr Geoffrey King, fellow of King's Coll., Camb. Mr Thompson, Clare Hall, Camb. Mr William Bedwell, St John's Coll., Camb.

1 Chron.-Eccles.

Cambridge.

Mr Edward Lively, fellow of Trin. Coll. Mr John Richardson, afterwards master of Trin. Coll. Mr Laurence Chatterton, master of Emm. Coll. Mr Francis Dillingham, fellow of Christ's Coll. Mr Thomas Harrison, vice-master of Trin. Coll. Mr Roger Andrewes, afterwards master of Jesus Coll. Mr Robert Spalding, fellow of St John's. Mr Andrew Byng, fellow of St Peter's Coll.

Isaiah-Malachi.

Oxford.

Dr John Harding, pres. of Magd. Coll. Dr John Reynolds, pres. of Corpus Christi Coll. Dr Thomas Holland, afterwards rector of Ex. Coll. Mr Richard Kilbye, rector of Lincoln Coll. Dr Miles Smith, Brasenose Coll. Dr Richard Brett, fellow of Lincoln Coll. Mr Richard Fairclough, fellow of New Coll.

The Apocrypha.

Cambridge.

Dr John Duport, master of Jesus Coll. Dr William Branthwait, master of Caius Coll. Dr Jeremiah Radcliffe, fellow of Trin. Coll. Dr Samuel Ward, afterwards master of Sid. Coll. Mr Andrew Downes, fellow of St John's Coll. Mr John Bois, fellow of St John's Coll. Mr Robert Ward, fellow of King's Coll.

The Four Gospels, Acts, Apocalypse.

Oxford.

Dr Thomas Ravis, dean of Christ Church. Dr George Abbot, dean of Winchester. Dr Richard Eedes, dean of Worcester. Dr Giles Thompson, dean of Windsor. Mr (Sir Henry) Saville, provost of Eton. Dr John Perin, fellow of St John's Coll. Dr Ravens [fellow of St John's Coll.] Dr John Harmer, fellow of New Coll.

Romans-Jude.

Westminster.

Dr William Barlow, dean of Chester. Dr William Hutchinson, archdeacon of St Albans. Dr John Spencer, pres. of Corp. Chr. Coll., Ox. Dr Roger Fenton, fellow of Pemb. Hall, Camb. Mr Michael Rabbett, Trin. Coll., Camb. Mr Thomas Sanderson, Balliol Coll., Oxford, D.D., 1605. Mr William Dakins, fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb.

When this large body of scholars were set down to their task, an elaborate set of rules was drawn up for their guidance, which contained a scheme of revision as well as general directions for the execution of their work. This is one of the very few records that remain of their undertaking.[44]

"(1) The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called 'the Bishops' Bible,' to be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit. (2) The names of the prophets and the holy writers, with the other names of the text to be retained as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were vulgarly used. (3) The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, viz. the word _Church_ not to be translated _Congregation_, &c. (4) When a word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most of the ancient fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogy of the faith. (5) The division of the chapters to be altered either not at all or as little as may be, if necessity so require. (6) No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek words which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text. (7) Such quotations of places to be marginally set down as shall serve for the fit reference of one Scripture to another. (8) Every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters; and having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree for their parts what shall stand. (9) As any one company hath dispatched any one book in this manner, they shall send it to the rest to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for his majesty is very careful in this point. (10) If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, doubt or differ upon any place, to send them word thereof, note the place, and withal send the reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company at the end of the work. (11) When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed by authority to send to any learned man in the land for his judgment of such a place. (12) Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, admonishing them of his translation in hand, and to move and charge as many as being skilful in the tongues and having taken pains in that kind, to send his particular observations to the company either at Westminster, Cambridge or Oxford. (13) The directors in each company to the deans of Westminster and Chester for that place; and the king's professors in the Hebrew or Greek in either university. (14) These translations to be used when they agree better with the text than the Bishops' Bible; viz. Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, Geneva. (15) Besides the said directors before mentioned, three or four of the most ancient and grave divines in either of the universities, not employed in translating, to be assigned by the vice-chancellor upon conference with [the] rest of the heads to be overseers of the translations, as well Hebrew as Greek, for the better observation of the fourth rule above specified."

It is not possible to determine in how far all these rules were adhered to. All we know of the way this noble work was carried out is contained in the Preface, where Dr Miles Smith, in 1612 bishop of Gloucester, in the name of his fellow-workers gives an account of the manner and spirit in which it was done:--

"Neither did we run ouer the worke with that posting haste that the _Septuagint_ did, if that be true which is reported of them, that they finished it in 72 days.... The worke hath... cost the workemen, as light as it seemeth, the paines of twise seuen times seuentie two dayes and more... Truly (good Christian Reader), we neuer thought from the beginning, that we should neede to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principall good one, not iustly to be excepted against.... To that purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other mens eyes than in their owne, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.... Neither did wee thinke much to consult the Translators or Commentators, _Chaldee, Hebrewe, Syrian, Greeke_, or _Latine_, no mor the _Spanish, French, Italian_ or _Dutch_ [German]; neither did we disdaine to reuise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anuitl that which we had hammered: but hauing and vsing as great helpes as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coueting praise for expedition, wee haue at the length, through the good hand of the Lord vpon vs, brought the worke to that passe that you see."

From the above it appears that the actual work of revision occupied about two years and nine months, an additional nine months being required for the final preparation for press. The edition appeared at length in 1611, the full title being as follows: The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues, & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised, by his Maiesties speciall comandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie. _Anno Dom_. 1611.[45] Since that time many millions of this revised translation have been printed, and the general acceptance of it by all English-speaking people of whatever denomination is a testimony to its excellence.

Still the work of improving and correcting went on through the centuries, and a modern copy of the Authorized Version shows no inconsiderable departures from the standard edition of 1611. Dr Scrivener imputes some of those differences "to oversight and negligence... but much the greater part of them" he holds to be "deliberate changes, introduced silently and without authority by men whose very names are often unknown." (A. C. P.)

The Revised Version.

More ambitious attempts at amending the new version were not lacking, but they all proved fruitless, until in February 1870 the Convocation of Canterbury appointed a committee to consider the subject of revision. The report of this committee, presented in May, was adopted, to the effect "that Convocation should nominate a body of its own members to undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to whatever nation or religious body they may belong"; and shortly afterwards two companies were formed for the revision of the Authorized Version of the Old and New Testaments.

These companies consisted of the following:--1. For the Old Testament:--([alpha]) _Appointed by Convocation._--Connop Thirlwall, bishop of St David's (d. 1875); Alfred Ollivant (1798-1882), bishop of Llandaff; E. Harold Browne (1811-1891), bishop of Ely; Christopher Wordsworth, bishop of Lincoln; and Lord Arthur Hervey (1808-1894), bishop of Bath and Wells; Archdeacon H.J. Rose (d. 1873); William Selwyn (1806-1875), canon of Ely and Lady Margaret professor at Cambridge; Dr John Jebb (1805-1886), canon of Hereford; and Dr William Kay (1820-1886). ([beta]) _Invited._--Dr William Lindsay Alexander (1808-1884), congregational minister; Thomas Chenery (1826-1884), professor of Arabic at Oxford, and afterwards (1877) editor of _The Times_; Frederick Charles Cook (1810-1889), canon of Exeter; Professor A.B. Davidson; Dr Benjamin Davies (1814-1875), professor of oriental and classical languages at Stepney Baptist College; the Rev. A.M. Fairbairn, congregationalist; the Rev. Frederick Field (1801-1885), fellow of Trinity, Cambridge; Dr C.D. Ginsburg; the Rev. Dr Gotch of Bristol; Archdeacon Benjamin Harrison (1808-1887), Hebraist; the Rev. Stanley Leathes (1830-1900), professor of Hebrew at King's College, London; Professor M'Gill; Canon Robert Payne Smith (1819-1895), regius professor of divinity at Oxford, dean of Canterbury (1870); Professor J.J.S. Perowne, afterwards bishop of Worcester; the Rev. Edward Hayes Plumtre (1821-1891), professor of exegesis at King's College, London, afterwards dean of Wells; Canon E. Bouverie Pusey; William Wright (1830-1889), the orientalist; W. Aldis Wright, Cambridge. Of these Canons Cook and Pusey declined to serve, and ten members died during the progress of the work. The secretary of the company was Mr W. Aldis Wright, fellow of Trinity, Cambridge.

2. For the New Testament:--([alpha]) _Appointed by Convocation._--Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Winchester; Charles J. Ellicott, bishop of Gloucester and Bristol; and George Moberly, bishop of Salisbury; Dr Edward Bickersteth (1814-1892), prolocutor of the lower house of convocation; Henry Alford, dean of Canterbury, and Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, dean of Westminster; Joseph Williams Blakesley (1808-1885), canon of Canterbury, and (1872) dean of Lincoln. ([beta]) _Invited._--The Rev. Dr Joseph Angus, president of the Stepney Baptist College; Dr David Brown; Richard Chenevix Trench, archbishop of Dublin; the Rev. Dr John Eadie (1810-1876), Presbyterian; the Rev. F.J.A. Hort; the Rev. W.G. Humphry (1815-1886), vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London; the Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, canon of Ely; William Lee (1815-1883), archdeacon of Dublin, and professor of ecclesiastical history in the university; J.B. Lightfoot, afterwards bishop of Durham; Professor William Milligan; the Rev. William Fieldian Moulton (1835-1898), Wesleyan biblical scholar; Dr J.H. Newman; the Rev. Samuel Newth (1821-1898), congregationalist, professor of ecclesiastical history at, and afterwards president of, New College, London; Dr A. Roberts; the Rev. G. Vance Smith; Dr Robert Scott; the Rev. F.H.A. Scrivener (1813-1891), rector of St Gerrans, Cornwall; Charles Wordsworth, bishop of St Andrews; Dr W.H. Thompson; Dr S.P. Tregelles; Dr C.J. Vaughan; Canon Westcott. Of these, Dr Thompson and Dr Newman declined to serve. Dean Alford, Dr Tregelles, Bishop Wilberforce and Dr Eadie were removed by death. Only the first vacancy was filled up. Dean Merivale was co-opted, and on his resignation Professor, afterwards Archdeacon, Edwin Palmer. The Rev. J. Troutbeck, minor canon of Westminster, acted as secretary.

Negotiations were opened with the leading scholars of the Protestant denominations in America, with the result that similar companies were formed in the United States. The work of the English revisers was regularly submitted to their consideration; their comments were carefully considered and largely adopted, and their divergences from the version ultimately agreed upon were printed in an appendix to the published work. Thus the Revised Version was the achievement of English-speaking Christendom as a whole; only the Roman Catholic Church, of the great English-speaking denominations, refused to take part in the undertaking. The Church of England, which had put forth the version of 1611, fitly initiated the work, but for its performance most wisely invited the help of the sister churches. The delegates of the Clarendon Press in Oxford, and the syndics of the Pitt Press in Cambridge, entered into a liberal arrangement with the revisers, by which the necessary funds were provided for all their expenses. On the completion of its work the New Testament company divided itself into three committees, working at London, Westminster and Cambridge, for the purpose of revising the Apocrypha.

The work of the Old Testament company was different in some important respects from that which engaged the attention of the New Testament company. The received Hebrew text has undergone but little emendation, and the revisers had before them substantially the same Massoretic text which was in the hands of the translators of 1611. It was felt that there was no sufficient justification to make any attempt at an entire reconstruction of the text on the authority of the versions. The Old Testament revisers were therefore spared much of the labour of deciding between different readings, which formed one of the most important duties of the New Testament company. But the advance in the study of Hebrew since the early part of the 17th century enabled them to give a more faithful translation of the received text. The value of their work is evident, especially in Job, Ecclesiastes and the prophetical books.

It is the work of the New Testament committee which has attracted most attention, whether for blame or praise. The critical resources at the disposal of scholars in 1611 were very meagre, and the few early manuscripts with which they were acquainted failed to receive the attention they deserved. The results of modern critical methods could not fail to make the incompleteness of the "Received Text," and of the "Authorized Version," which was based on it, obvious. It had long been the opinion of all competent scholars that a thorough revision was necessary. A proposal in favour of this course was made in Convocation in 1856, but it was not until fourteen years later that the committee was appointed to undertake the work. The revisers' first task was to reconstruct the Greek text, as the necessary foundation of their work. In this difficult duty they were no doubt influenced by Westcott and Hort's edition of the New Testament. These two scholars were members of the committee which prepared the Revised Version, and on the question of various readings they appear to have exercised a predominating influence. The revisers were privately supplied with instalments of Westcott and Hort's text as their work required them. But it is scarcely necessary to say that the Revised Version is not the work of one or two scholars. Different schools of criticism were represented on the committee, and the most careful discussion took place before any decision was formed. Every precaution was taken to ensure that the version should represent the result of the best scholarship of the time, applied to the work before it with constant devotion and with the highest sense of responsibility. The changes in the Greek text of the Authorized Version when compared with the _textus receptus_ are numerous, but the contrast between the English versions of 1611 and 1881 is all the more striking because of the difference in the method of translation which was adopted. The revisers aimed at the most scrupulous faithfulness. They adopted the plan--deliberately rejected by the translators of 1611--of always using the same English word for the same Greek word. "They endeavoured to enable the English reader to follow the correspondences of the original with the closest exactness, to catch the solemn repetition of words and phrases, to mark the subtleties of expression, to feel even the strangeness of unusual forms of speech."

The revision of the New Testament was completed in 407 meetings, distributed over more than ten years. It was formally presented to Convocation on May 17, 1881. The revision of the Old Testament occupied 792 days, and was finished on June 20, 1884. The revised Apocrypha did not make its appearance until 1895.

The text of the Revised Version is printed in paragraphs, the old division of books into chapters and verses being retained for convenience of reference. By this arrangement the capricious divisions of some books is avoided. Various editions of the New Version have been published, the most complete being the edition of the whole Bible with marginal references. These references had their origin in the work of two small subcommittees of the revisers, but they received their present form at the hands of a specially appointed committee. The marginal references given in the original edition of the Authorized Version of 1611 have been retained as far as possible.

The work of the revisers was received without enthusiasm. It was too thorough for the majority of religious people. Partisans found that havoc had been played with their proof texts. Ecclesiastical conservatives were scandalized by the freedom with which the traditional text was treated. The advocates of change were discontented with the hesitating acceptance which their principles had obtained. The most vulnerable side of the revision was that on which the mass of English readers thought itself capable of forming a judgment. The general effect of so many small alterations was to spoil the familiar sonorous style of the Authorized Version. The changes were freely denounced as equally petty and vexatious; they were, moreover, too often inconsistent with the avowed principles of the revisers. The method of determining readings and renderings by vote was not favourable to the consistency and literary character of the Version. A whole literature of criticism and apology made its appearance, and the achievement of so many years of patient labour seemed destined to perish in a storm of resentments. On the whole, the Revised Version weathered the storm more successfully than might have been expected. Its considerable excellences were better realized by students than stated by apologists. The hue and cry of the critics largely died away, and was replaced by a calmer and juster appreciation.

The work of the revisers has been sharply criticized from the standpoint of specialists in New Testament Greek. Dr Rutherford stated the case briefly and pointedly in the preface to his translation of the Epistle to the Romans (London, 1900). He maintains that "the Greek of the New Testament may never be understood as classical Greek is understood," and accuses the revisers of distorting the meaning "by translating in accordance with Attic idiom phrases that convey in later Greek a wholly different sense, the sense which the earlier translators in happy ignorance had recognized that the context demanded."

The use of the new Version has become general. Familiarity has mitigated the harshness of the revisers' renderings; scholarship, on the whole, has confirmed their readings. The Version has been publicly read in parish churches both in London and in the country. In Canterbury cathedral and Westminster Abbey it has definitely displaced the older Version. Bishops have acquiesced and congregations approved. It is no longer possible to maintain the plausible and damaging contention that the Revised Bible is ill suited for public use. The Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury in May 1898 appointed a committee to consider the expediency of "permitting or encouraging" the use of the Revised Version in the public services of the Church. (H. H. H.*)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The principal works dealing with the separate versions have been referred to in the text of the article. The following authorities may also be cited:

For the version as a whole: J.R. Dore, _Old Bibles_ (2nd ed., 1888); J. Eadie, _The English Bible: an External and Critical History of the various English Translations of Scripture_ (2 vols., 1876: the most complete account); A. Edgar, _The Bibles of England_ (1889); H.W. Hoare, _The Evolution of the English Bible_ (2nd ed., 1902: gives historical setting of the Versions); F.G. Kenyon, _Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts_ (1895); J.H. Lupton, article on "English Versions," in Hastings' _Dict. of the Bible_ (extra vol.); R. Lovett, _The Printed English Bible, 1525-1885_ (1894); G. Milligan, _The English Bible, a Sketch of its History_ (1895); J.I. Mombert, _English Versions of the Bible_ (1883); F. Moulton, _The History of the English Bible_ (2nd ed., 1884); T.H. Pattison, _History of the English Bible_ (1894); J. Stoughton, _Our English Bible, its Translations and Translators_ [1878].

For the earlier history: J. Lewis, _History of English Translations of the Bible_ (1818); the historical accounts prefixed to Bagster's issue of _The English Hexapla_ and of Forshall and Madden's edition of the _Wycliffite Versions_ (Oxford, 1850). These are all to a great extent antiquated, their errors being repeated in almost all subsequent accounts of the subject. The only trustworthy authority on the Anglo-Saxon Bible is A.S. Cook's "Introduction on Old English Translations of the Bible," in _Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose-writers_.

For the 14th and 15th centuries: See A.C. Paues, _The Bible in the Fourteenth Century_.

For the early printed Bibles: H. Cotton, _List of Editions of the Bible_ (1852), _Rhemes and Doway_ (1855); F. Fry, _The Bible by Coverdale_ (1867); _Description of the Great Bible, 1539_ (1865); _Bibliographical Descriptions of the Editions of the New Testament_ (1878); N. Pocock, "On the Bishops' and Genevan Bible," (_Bibliographer_, vols. i.-iv.); Prime Wendell, _Fifteenth-Century Bibles_ (1888); John Wright, _Early Bibles of America_ (1893).

For the Authorized Version: F.H.A. Scrivener, _The Authorized Edition of the English Bible_ (1884). See also R. Gell, _Essay toward the Amendment of the Authorized Version_ (1659); W. Kilburne, _Dangerous Errors in ... Bibles_ (1659); R.C. Trench, _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament in connexion with some recent proposals for its revision_ (2nd ed., 1859).

For the Revised Version: J.B. Lightfoot, _On a Fresh Revision of the English New Testament_ (London, 1871; 3rd ed. 1891); Westcott, _Some Lessons of the Revised Version_ (London, 1897); Kennedy, _Ely Lectures on the Revised Version_ (London, 1882). The Revisers fully explained their principles and methods in the Preface. The American Committee of Revision issued an historical account of their work (New York, 1885). The case against the Revisers is ably stated in _The Revision Revised_, by Dean Burgon (London, 1883). The literary defects of the Version are elaborately exhibited by G. Washington Moon in two works: _The Revisers' English_ (London, 1882), and _Ecclesiastical English_ (London, 1886). See also _Some Thoughts on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament_, by G. Salmon, D.D. (London, 1897); Bishop Ellicott's _Charge_ (1901). The Greek Text of the New Testament adopted by the Revisers was edited for the Clarendon Press by Archdeacon Palmer (Oxford, 1881). Parallel editions of the Bible, showing both the Authorized and Revised Versions, a large-type edition for public use, a reference edition, and (1900) a "Two Version" edition, have been issued by one or both the University Presses. (A. C. P.; H. H. H.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See A.S. Cook, _Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers_, with an introduction on _Old English Biblical Versions_ (London, 1898-1903), vol. i. pp. xxvi. ff.; H. Sweet, _The Vespasian Psalter_ in "Oldest English Texts" (E.E.T.S., No. 83, London, 1885); F. Harsley, _Eadwine's Canterbury Psalter_ (E.E.T.S., No. 92, London, 1892); John Spelman, _Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum Vetus_ (London, 1640); Fr. Roeder, _Der altengl. Regius Psalter_ (Reg. II. B. 5, Halle, 1904).

[2] Benjamin Thorpe, _Libri Psalmorum versio Antiqua Latina cum paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonica_ (Oxford, 1835); cf. J.D. Bruce, _The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms ... known as the Paris Psalter_ (Baltimore, 1894).

[3] K.W. Bouterwek, _Die vier Evangelien in alt-nordh. Sprache_ (Guetersloh, 1857), _id. Screadunga_ (Elberfeld, 1858, prefaces to the Gospels); J. Stevenson and E. Waring, _The Lindisfarne and Rushworth Gospels_ (Surtees Soc., 1854-1865); W.W. Skeat, _The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian Versions_ (Cambridge, 1871-1887).

[4] See Stevenson, Waring and Skeat, op. cit.

[5] W.W. Skeat, _The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, &c._ (Cambridge, 1871-1887); J.W. Bright, _The Gospel of Saint Luke in Anglo-Saxon_ (Oxford, 1893); for earlier editions see Cook, op. cit, p. lx.

[6] C.W.M. Grein, _AElfrik de vetero et novo Testamento, &c._--Bibl. d. Angels. Prosa (Cassel and Goettingen, 1872), p. 6; E. Thwaites, _Heptateuchus, Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi; Anglo-Saxonice_ (Oxon., 1698).

[7] K.D. Buelbring, _The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter_ (E.E.T.S., No. 97), part i. (London, 1891); cf. A.C. Paues, _A Fourteenth-Century Engl. Bibl. Version_ (Upsala Diss.) (Cambridge, 1902), p. lvi.

[8] H.R. Bramley, _The Psalter and Certain Canticles... by Richard Rolle of Hampole_ (Oxford, 1884); cf. H. Middendorff, _Studien uber Richard Rolle van Hampole unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung seiner Psalmen-Commentare_ (Magdeburg, 1888).

[9] A.C. Paues, _A Fourteenth-Century English Biblical Version_ (Cambridge, 1904), pp. xxiv. ff.

[10] See Paues, _op. cit._ p. 210.

[11] For a different view as to the authorship of the Wycliffite versions, see F.A. Gasquet, _The Old English Bible and Other Essays_ (London, 1897), pp. 102 ff.

[12] Sir F. Madden and Rev. J. Forshall, _The Holy Bible... made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers_ (4 vols., Oxford, 1850), pp. xix., xxiv.

[13] Cf. A.C. Paues, _The English Bible in the Fourteenth Century_.

[14] See Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, iv. 135 ff. (ed. Townsend, 1846).

[15] Wilkin's _Concilia_, iii. 317.

[16] T.G. Law, _The New Testament in Scots_, being Purvey's Revision of Wycliffe's version turned into Scots by Murdoch Nisbet, c. 1520 (Scot. T.S., Edinburgh, 1901-1905).

[17] B.F. Westcott, _History of the English Bible_ (3rd ed.), revised by W. Aldis Wright (London, 1905), p. 25.

[18] _Pref. to Genesis_, p. 396 (Parker Soc.).

[19] Photo lithographed by Edw. Arber (London, 1871).

[20] Reprinted by G. Offor (London, 1836); reproduced in facsimile by Francis Fry (Bristol, 1862).

[21] Reprinted with an introduction by J.T. Mombert (New York, 1884).

[22] Reproduced in facsimile by Francis Fry (1863).

[23] Cf. H. Bradshaw, _Bibliographer_ (1882-1881), i. 3 ff. (reprinted 1886).

[24] See F. Jenkinson, _Early English Printed Books in the Univ. Libr. Cambridge_, iii. (1730).

[25] See _Biographical Description of the Editions of the New Testament, Tyndale's Version, in English_ (1878).

[26] _Epistle to the Reader_ in the New Testament of 1526, reprinted by G. Offor; cf. _Parker Soc._ (1848), p. 390.

[27] Westcott, op. cit. p. 57 note.

[28] See Dr Ginsburg's information to Mr Tedder, _D.N.B._ xii. 365.

[29] Cf. H. Stevens, _Catalogue of the Caxton Exhibition_ (1877) p. 88.

[30] _Remains_, Parker Soc., pp. II f.

[31] Westcott, op. cit. p. 172 note.

[32] Cranmer's _Works_, letter 194 (Parker Soc.).

[33] See examples in Westcott, op. cit. pp. 208 f.

[34] Burnet's _Ref._, ed. Pococke, 1865.

[35] Westcott, op. cit. pp. 180 f.

[36] _Remains_ (Parker Soc.), p. 493; cf. J.A. Kingdon, _Incidents in the Lives of Thomas Poyntz and Richard Grafton_ (1895).

[37] Cf. Burnet's _Ref._ i. 584.

[38] Printed in Bagster's _Hexapla_, 1841, reprinted separately in 1842.

[39] See "Address to the Reader." The division into verses of the New Testament was first found in R. Stephanus' Greek-Latin New Testament (4th ed., 1551), whereas these divisions already existed in the Hebrew Old Testament.

[40] See T.H. Darlow and H.F. Moule, _Historical Catal. of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Libr. of the Brit, and Foreign Bible Soc._ (London, 1903).

[41] See J.G. Carleton, _The Part of Rheims in the Making of the English Bible_ (Oxford, 1902).

[42] Barlow, _Sum and Substance of the Conference ..._ in Cardwell's _History of Conferences_, pp. 187 f.

[43] Compiled chiefly from the list found in Cardwell's _Synodalia_ (ed. 1844), ii. 145-146, a reprint from Burnet's _Doc. Annals_, ii. 106 ff., "who himself took his list from a copy belonging originally to Bishop Ravis." The list is correct for the year 1604; cf. Westcott, op. cit. pp. 112 f.

[44] Quoted from G. Burnet's _Hist. of Reformation_, ii. p. 368 (1861).

[45] A reprint of this edition has been published by the Clarendon Press (Oxford, 1833).

BIBLE CHRISTIANS, one of the denominations now merged in the United Methodist Church (see UNITED METHODISTS), so called because its early preachers appealed solely to the Bible in confirmation of their doctrines. The denomination arose in the agricultural districts and fishing villages of north Cornwall and Devon; a district only slightly influenced by John Wesley and the original Methodist movement. The founder was William O'Bryan (afterwards Bryant), a Methodist lay preacher of Luxillian, Cornwall. Finding that the people had no evangelical preaching he began an itinerary to supply the need. The coastmen were expert smugglers and wreckers, the agriculturists were ignorant and drunken, the parish clergy were slothful, in many cases intemperate, and largely given to fox-hunting. Only in a parish or two was there any approach to religious ministry. O'Bryan commenced his labours in north Devon, and in 1815 a small society was formed at Lake Farm, Shebbear. The movement had the seeds of great vitality in it. In 1819 the first conference was held at Launceston. There were present besides O'Bryan one accepted minister--James Thorne--fourteen ministers on trial and fifteen women preachers, a class that was always conspicuous in the denomination. At that conference the work had spread from Ring's Ash in Devon to Morrah, a lonely and desolate parish in west Cornwall. In 1820-1821 Kent, Northumberland, the Scilly and Norman (i.e. Channel) Islands appeared on the list of stations. Then came a serious break. In 1829 there was a severance between the larger part of the new body and O'Bryan, who had claimed to be perpetual president, and to have all property vested in him personally. He tried to establish a separate conference, but failed, and in 1836 there was a reunion. O'Bryan left England for America, where he remained for the rest of his life, and his contingent (numbering 565 members and 4 ministers) returned to the original conference. The growth continued. In 1831 agents were sent to Canada and Prince Edward's Island, in 1850 to South Australia, in 1855 to Victoria, in 1866 to Queensland, in 1877 to New Zealand and in 1885 to China, so that the original O'Bryan tradition of fervid evangelism was amply maintained.

On O'Bryan's departure, James Thorne, the first fully recognized minister, at whose father's farm the connexion started, became its leader. Although reared as an ordinary farm lad, he proved to be a man of singular devotion and spiritual genius. He laid the foundations broadly in evangelism, finance, temperance and education, founding in the latter connexion a middle-class school at Shebbear, at which generations of ministers' sons and numerous students for the ministry have been educated. James Thorne was five times president of the conference and fifteen times secretary. He died in 1872. In this period there was much persecution. Landowners refused sites, and in the Isle of Wight the people worshipped for many months in a quarry. The preachers were sometimes imprisoned and many times assaulted. The old Methodist body even excommunicated persons for attending "Bryanite" meetings. Partly co-operative with James Thorne and at his death independently, the Church was favoured with the influence of Frederick William Bourne. He was a minister for fifty-five years, and served the Bible Christians as editor, missionary treasurer, book steward and three times president of conference. With him will always be associated the name of Billy Bray, an illiterate but inimitable Cornish evangelist, a memoir of whom, written by Bourne, exerted a great influence in the religious life of the denomination.

In doctrine the Bible Christians did not differ from the other Methodists. In constitution they differed only slightly. There was an annual conference with full legislative power, and ability to hold and dispose of property, composed of an equal number of lay and ministerial representatives meeting together. The local churches were grouped into circuits governed representatively by a quarterly meeting. The quarterly or circuit meetings were in turn organized into twelve districts, eleven in England and one in China. In 1906 the statistics showed 218 ministers, 32,549 members and 652 chapels, with 47,301 scholars in Sunday-schools. These figures include nearly 1400 full and probationary members in the China mission, the first-fruits of two years' labour amongst the Miao tribe. In the various colonial Methodist unions the Bible Christians have contributed a total of 159 ministers, 14,925 members and 660 chapels.

The community supported a regular ministry from the beginning. Its members have been keen evangelists, trusting largely to "revivals" for their success, staunch Radicals in politics and total abstainers to a man. Both ministers and people entered with interest and sympathy into the scheme for union between themselves, the Methodist New Connexion and the United Methodist Free Church, which was successfully accomplished in 1906. See METHODISM.

BIBLE SOCIETIES, associations for translating and circulating the Holy Scriptures. This object has engaged the attention of the leaders of Christendom from early times. In an extant letter, dated A.D. 331, the emperor Constantine requested Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, to provide him with fifty copies of the Old and New Testaments for use in the principal churches in Constantinople. In 797 Charlemagne commissioned Alcuin to prepare an emended text of the Vulgate; copies of this text were multiplied, not always accurately, in the famous writing-schools at Tours. The first book printed in Europe was the Latin Bible, and Copinger estimates that 124 editions of the Vulgate had been issued by the end of the 15th century. The Italian Bible was printed a dozen times before A.D. 1500, and eighteen editions of the German Bible had already been published before Luther's version appeared.

The Reformation quickened men's interest in the Scriptures to an extraordinary degree, so that, notwithstanding the adverse attitude adopted by the Roman Church at and after the council of Trent, the translation and circulation of the Bible were taken in hand with fresh zeal, and continued in more systematic fashion.

Thus, the Revised French Geneva Bible of 1588, which was issued in folio, quarto and octavo, and became a standard text, bears the following note on the verso of the title: _"Les frais de cet ouvrage, imprime en trois diuerses formes en mesme temps, pour la commodite et contentement de toutes sortes de personnes, ont este liberalemet fournis par quelques gens de bien, qui n'ont cherche gagner pour leur particulier, mais seulement de servir a Dieu et a son Eglise."_ The Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England (founded in 1649) bore the expense of printing both the New Testament and the Bible as a whole (Cambridge, Mass., 1663--the earliest Bible printed in America), which John Eliot, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, translated into "the language of the Massachusetts Indians," whom he evangelized. In Arnauld's _Defence_ (1669) of the famous Port Royal version of the New Testament in French (issued, 1667), he states that it had been printed in many forms and sizes, including very cheap editions for the poor, and goes on to describe how its circulation was promoted by _"les sacrifices que s'imposaient les pieux solitaires pour faire participer les plus indigents au bienfait de leur entreprise. Des que leur traduction fut prete, ils envoyerent de Paris un grand nombre de colporteurs charges de la vendre au prix de revient et meme, dans certaines circonstances, a des prix reduits; et ils couvrirent la depense par des dons volontaires"_ (E. Petavel, _La Bible en France_, p. 152).

To meet the cost of publishing the Finn Bible in 1685, the editor, J. Gezelius, bishop of Abo, obtained an order from the Swedish government for the appropriation of certain corn-tithes, still known as _Bibel Tryck-Tunnan_. When the Finnish Bible Society began to publish editions of the Scriptures, the tsar Alexander I. contributed 5000 roubles from his privy purse, and ordered that these corn-tithes should again be appropriated to this purpose for five years from 1812. In 1701 at Frankfort-On-Main there appeared a quarto edition of the Ethiopic Psalter, whose editor, H. Ludolf, writes in his preface: _"Quamobrem nullum gratius officium Christianae huic nationi a me praestari posse putavi, quam si Psalterium Aethiopicum, quod apud illos non aliter quam in membrana manuscriptum habetur, et caro satis venditur, typis mandari, ejusque plurima exemplaria nomine Societatis Indicae in Habessinia gratis distribui curarem."_

In 1719 appeared the first of numerous editions of the French New Testament, connected with the name of the Abbe de Barneville, a priest of the Oratory at Paris. Impressed by the popular ignorance of the Scriptures, he himself translated, or caused others to translate, the New Testament into French from the Vulgate, and formed an association to distribute copies systematically at low prices. The prefaces to his various editions contain details as to the methods of this association, and repeatedly insist on the importance of reading the Scriptures. (On this _Societe biblique catholique francaise_ see O. Douen, _Histoire de la societe biblique protestante de Paris_, Paris, 1868, pp. 46-51.)

Christian missionaries to non-Christian lands have naturally been among the most skilful translators and the most assiduous distributors of the Bible. The earliest complete Arabic Bible was produced at Rome in 1671, by the _Congregatio de Propaganda Fide_. Protestant missionary societies have engaged energetically in the task not only of translating, but of printing, publishing and distributing the Scriptures. Thus the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1698), besides its other activities, has done much to cheapen and multiply copies of the Scriptures, not only in English and Welsh, but in many foreign languages. Early in the 18th century it printed editions in Arabic, and promoted the first versions of the Bible in Tamil and Telugu, made by the Danish Lutheran missionaries whom it then supported in south India. The earliest New Testament (1767) and Old Testament (1783-1801) in Gaelic were published by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (founded 1709). The S.P.C.K. now publishes versions of the Scriptures (either complete, or in part) in 38 different languages (without reckoning versions of the Prayer Book in 45 other languages); and during 1905-1906 the S.P.C.K. issued in England 116,126 Bibles and 17,783 New Testaments.

The earliest noteworthy organization, formed for the specific purpose of circulating the Scriptures, was the Canstein Bible Institute (_Bibelanstalt_), founded in 1710 at Halle in Saxony, by Karl Hildebrand, baron von Canstein (1667-1719), who was associated with P.J. Spener and other leaders of Pietism in Germany. He invented a method of printing, perhaps somewhat akin to stereotyping--though the details are not clearly known,--whereby the Institute could produce Bibles and Testaments in Luther's version at a very low cost, and sell them, in small size, at prices equivalent to 10d. and 3d. per copy, respectively. In 1722 editions of the Scriptures were also issued in Bohemian and Polish. At von Canstein's death he left the Institute to the care of his friend August Hermann Francke, founder in 1698 of the famous _Waisenhaus_ (orphanage) at Halle. The Canstein Institute has issued some 6,000,000 copies of the Scriptures.

In England various Christian organizations, which arose out of the Evangelical movement in the 18th century, took part in the work. Among such may be mentioned the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge among the Poor (1750); and the Society for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools (1785). An institution was founded in 1780 under the name of the Bible Society, but as its sphere was restricted to soldiers and seamen the title was afterwards changed to the Naval and Military Bible Society. The first ship among whose crew it distributed the Scriptures was the "Royal George," which had 400 of this society's Bibles on board when it foundered at Spithead on the 29th of August 1782. The French Bible Society, instituted in 1792, came to an end in 1803, owing to the Revolution.

_The British and Foreign Bible Society._--In 1804 was founded in London the British and Foreign Bible Society, the most important association of its kind. It originated in a proposal made to the committee of the Religious Tract Society, by the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala, who found that his evangelistic and philanthropic labours in Wales were sorely hindered by the dearth of Welsh Bibles. His colleagues in the Religious Tract Society united with other earnest evangelical leaders to establish a new society, which should have for its sole object "to encourage a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment." This simplicity of aim is combined with a catholicity of constitution which admits the co-operation of all persons interested in the society's object. The committee of management consists of thirty-six laymen, six of them being foreigners resident in or near London, while of the remaining thirty, half are members of the Church of England, and half are members of other Christian denominations.

Supported by representative Christian leaders, such as Granville Sharp, Zachary Macaulay, William Wilberforce, Charles Grant and Henry Thornton, with Lord Teignmouth, ex-governor-general of India, as its first president, and Dr Porteus, bishop of London, as its friendly counsellor, the new society made rapid progress. It spread throughout Great Britain, mainly by means of auxiliaries, i.e. local societies, affiliated but self-controlled, with subsidiary branches and associations (these last being often managed by women). Up to 1816-1817 the parent society had received from its auxiliaries altogether L420,000. This system continues to flourish. In 1905-1906 the society had about 5800 auxiliaries, branches and associations in England and Wales, and more than 2000 auxiliaries abroad, mainly in the British Colonies, many of which undertake vigorous local work, besides remitting contributions to London.

The society's advance was chequered by several controversies. (a) Its fundamental law to circulate the Bible alone, without note or comment, was vehemently attacked by Bishop Marsh and other divines of the Church of England, who insisted that the Prayer Book ought to accompany the Bible. (b) Another more serious controversy related to the circulation--chiefly through affiliated societies on the continent--of Bibles containing the Deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament. In 1826 the society finally resolved that its fundamental law be fully and distinctly recognized as excluding the circulation "of those Books, or parts of Books, which are usually termed Apocryphal." This step, however, failed to satisfy most of the society's supporters in Scotland, who proceeded to form themselves into independent organizations, grouped for the most part round centres at Edinburgh and Glasgow. These were finally amalgamated in 1861 into the National Bible Society of Scotland. (c) A third dispute turned upon the admissibility of non-Trinitarians to the privilege of co-operation. The refusal of the society to alter its constitution so as formally to exclude such persons led to the formation (1831) of the Trinitarian Bible Society, which is still in existence. (d) A fourth controversy arose out of the restrictive renderings of the term "baptize" and its cognate terms, adopted by William Carey and his colleagues in their famous "Serampore Versions," towards publishing which the society had contributed up to 1830 nearly L30,000. Protests from other Indian missionaries led the society to determine that it could circulate only such versions as gave neutral renderings for the terms in question. As a sequel, the Bible Translation Society was founded in 1839 to issue versions embodying distinctively Baptist renderings.

By one of its original laws the British and Foreign Bible Society could circulate no copies of the Scriptures in English other than King James's Version of 1611. In 1901 this law was widened to include the Revised English Version of 1881-1885.

From its foundation the society has successfully laboured to promote new and improved versions of the Scriptures. In 1804 the Bible, or some part of it, had been printed in about fifty-five different tongues. By the year 1906 versions, more or less complete, had been published in more than 530 distinct languages and dialects, and in 400 of these the work of translation, printing or distribution had been promoted by the society. Translations or revisions in scores of languages are still being carried on by companies of scholars and representative missionaries in different parts of the world, organized under the society's auspices and largely at its expense. New versions are made, wherever practicable, from the original Hebrew or Greek text, and the results thus obtained have a high philological value and interest. The society's interdenominational character has commonly secured--what could hardly otherwise have been attained--the acceptance of the same version by missions of different churches working side by side. The society supplies the Scriptures to missions of every Reformed Communion on such terms that, as a rule, the books distributed by the missions involve no charge on their funds. Except under special circumstances, the society does not encourage wholesale free distribution, but provides cheap editions at prices which the poorest can pay. On the whole it receives from sales about 40% of what it expends in preparing, printing and circulating the books.

During the year 1905-1906 the society's circulation reached the unprecedented total of 5,977,453 copies, including 968,683 Bibles and 1,326,475 Testaments. Of the whole 1,921,000 volumes were issued from the Bible House, London, and 1,331,000 were in English or Welsh, circulating chiefly in England and the British colonies. The other main fields of distribution were as follows:--France, 203,000 copies; Central Europe, 679,000; Italy, 117,000; Spain and Portugal, 120,000; the Russian empire, 595,000; India, Burma and Ceylon, 768,000; Japan, 286,000; and China, 1,075,000 (most of these last being separate gospels).

The society spends L10,000 a year in grants to religious and philanthropic agencies at home. Outside the United Kingdom it has its own agencies or secretaries in twenty-seven of the chief cities of the world, and maintains depots in 200 other centres. It employs 930 Christian colporteurs abroad, who sold in 1905-1906 over 2,250,000 volumes. It supports 670 native Christian Bible-women in the East, in connexion with forty different missionary organizations. The centenary festival in 1904 was celebrated with enthusiasm by the Reformed Churches and their foreign missions throughout the world. Messages of congratulation came from the rulers of every Protestant nation in Christendom, and a centenary thanksgiving fund of 250,000 guineas was raised for extending the society's work. During the year 1905-1906 the society expended L238,632, while its income was L231,964 (of which L98,204 represented receipts from sales). Up to the 31st of March 1906 the society had expended altogether L14,686,072, and had issued 198,515,199 copies of the Scriptures--of which more than 78,000,000 were in English.

_In Scotland_ the Edinburgh Bible Society (1809), the Glasgow Bible Society (1812), and other Scottish auxiliaries, many of which had dissociated themselves from the British and Foreign Bible Society after 1826, were finally incorporated (1861) with the National Bible Society of Scotland, which has carried on vigorous work all over the world, especially in China. During 1905, with an income of L27,108, it issued 1,590,881 copies, 907,000 of which were circulated in China. Its total issues from 1861 to 1906 were 26,106,265 volumes.

_In Ireland_ the Hibernian Bible Society (originally known as the Dublin Bible Society) was founded in 1806, and with it were federated kindred Irish associations formed at Cork, Belfast, Derry, &c. The Hibernian Bible Society, whose centenary was celebrated in 1906, had then issued a total of 5,713,837 copies. It sends an annual subsidy to aid the foreign work of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

_Other European Societies._--The impulse which founded the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804 soon spread over Europe, and, notwithstanding the turmoils of the Napoleonic wars, kindred organizations on similar lines quickly sprang up, promoted and subsidized by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Many of these secured royal and aristocratic patronage and encouragement--the tsar of Russia, the kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Sweden, Denmark and Wuerttemberg all lending their influence to the enterprise.

Within fourteen years the following Bible societies were in active operation: the Basel Bible Society (founded at Nuremberg, 1804), the Prussian Bible Society (founded as the Berlin Bible Society, 1805), the Revel Bible Society (1807), the Swedish Evangelical Society (1808), the Dorpat Bible Society (1811), the Riga Bible Society (1812), the Finnish Bible Society (1812), the Hungarian Bible Institution (Pressburg, 1812), the Wuerttemberg Bible Society (Stuttgart, 1812), the Swedish Bible Society (1814), the Danish Bible Society (1814), the Saxon Bible Society (Dresden, 1814), the Thuringian Bible Society (Erfurt, 1814), the Berg Bible Society (Eberfeld, 1814), the Hanover Bible Society (1814), the Hamburg-Altona Bible Society (1814), the Luebeck Bible Society (1814), the Netherlands Bible Society (Amsterdam, 1814). These were increased in 1815 by the Brunswick, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Strassburg and Eichsfeld (Saxony) Bible Societies, and the Icelandic Bible Society. In 1816-1817 came the Norwegian Bible Society, the Polish Bible Society and ten minor German Bible Societies. Twelve cantonal societies had also been formed in Switzerland.

Up to 1816-1817 these societies had printed altogether 436,000 copies of the Scriptures, and had received from the British and Foreign Bible Society gifts amounting to over L62,000. The decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1826 with regard to circulating the Apocrypha (see above) modified its relations with the most influential of these continental societies. Some of them were ultimately dissolved or suppressed through political or ecclesiastical opposition, the Roman Church proving especially hostile. But many of them still flourish, and are actively engaged in their original task.

The circulation of the Scriptures by German Bible Societies during 1905 was estimated as follows:--The Prussian Bible Society (Berlin), 182,000 copies; the Wuerttemberg Bible Institute (Stuttgart), 247,000; the Berg Bible Society (Eberfeld), 142,000; the Saxon Bible Society (Dresden), 44,000; the Central Bible Association (Nuremberg), 14,000; the Canstein Bible Institute (Halle), the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society, the Hamburg-Altona Bible Society and others, together 56,000.

During 1905, nine cantonal Bible societies in Switzerland circulated altogether 71,000 copies; the Netherlands Bible Society reported a circulation of 54,544 volumes, 48,137 of which were in Dutch; the Danish Bible Society circulated 45,289 copies; the Norwegian Bible Society circulated 67,058 copies; and in Sweden the Evangelical National Society distributed about 110,000 copies.

In Italy, by a departure from the traditional policy of the Roman Church, the newly formed "Pious Society of St Jerome for the Dissemination of the Holy Gospels" issued in 1901 from the Vatican press a new Italian version of the Four Gospels and _Acts_. By the end of 1905 the society announced that over 400,000 copies of this volume had been sold at 2d. a copy.

In France, the _Societe biblique protestante de Paris_, founded in 1818, with generous aid from the British and Foreign Bible Society, had a somewhat restricted basis and scope. In 1833 the _Societe biblique francaise et etrangere_ was formed on wider lines; after its dissolution in 1863, many of its supporters joined the _Societe biblique de France_, which dates from 1864, and represents chiefly members of the _Eglise libre_, and kindred French Evangelicals. During 1905 its issues were 34,475 copies, while the _Societe biblique protestante de Paris_ issued 8061 copies.

Of these non-British societies the most noteworthy was established in Russia. In December 1812, while "the last shattered remnants of Napoleon's Grand Army struggled across the ice of the Niemen," the tsar Alexander I. sanctioned plans for a Bible society, which was promptly inaugurated at St Petersburg under the presidency of Prince Galitzin. Through the personal favour of the tsar, it made rapid and remarkable progress. Nobles and ministers of state, with the chief ecclesiastics not only of the Russian Church but of the Roman, the Uniat, the Armenian, the Greek, the Georgian and the Lutheran Churches, found themselves constrained to serve on its committees. By the close of 1823 the Russian Bible Society had formed 289 auxiliaries, extending eastwards to Yakutsk and Okhotsk; and had received altogether L145,640. In 1824, however, Prince Galitzin ceased to be procurator of the Holy Synod, and Seraphim, metropolitan of St Petersburg, became president of the Russian Bible Society. And in 1826, soon after his accession, the tsar Nicholas I. issued a _ukase_ suspending the society's operations--after it had printed the Scriptures in thirty different languages, seventeen of which were new tongues, and had circulated 600,000 volumes from the Caucasus to Kamchatka. In 1828 Nicholas I. sanctioned the establishment of a Protestant Bible Society, which still exists, to supply the Scriptures only to Protestant subjects of the tsar (cf. Th. Schiemann, _Geschichte Russlands unter Nikolaus I._ vol. i. chap. ix.). In 1839 St Petersburg became the headquarters of an agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which enjoys special facilities in Russia, and now annually circulates about 600,000 copies of the Scriptures, in fifty different languages, within the Russian empire.

_In America_ the earliest Bible society was founded at Philadelphia in 1808. Six more societies--including those of New York and of Massachusetts--were formed during 1809, and other societies, auxiliaries and associations quickly followed. In 1816 a convention of delegates representing 31 of these institutions met at New York and established the American Bible Society, with Elias Boudinot as president. All kindred organizations in the states gradually became amalgamated with this national body, and the federation was completed in 1839 by the adhesion of the Philadelphia Society (which now changed its name to the Pennsylvania Bible Society). Not a few noteworthy versions of the Bible, such as those in Arabic, 15 dialects of Chinese, Armenian, and Zulu, and many American Indian, Philippine, and African languages have appeared under the auspices of the American Bible Society. Turkish, classical Chinese, and Korean versions have been made by the American and British societies jointly. The society's foreign agencies extend to China, Japan, Korea, the Turkish empire, Bulgaria, Egypt, Micronesia, Siam, Mexico, Central America, the South American republics, Cuba and the Philippines. In the year ending March 31st 1909 the income of the Society was $502,345, and it issued 2,153,028 copies of the Scriptures, nearly half of which went to readers outside the United States. The total distribution effected by the American Bible Society and its federated societies had in 1909 exceeded 84,000,000 volumes, in over a hundred different languages.

AUTHORITIES.--Besides the published reports of the societies in question, the following works may be mentioned: J. Owen, _History of the First Ten Years of the British and Foreign Bible Society_ (London, 1816-1820); G. Browne, _History of the Bible Society_ (London, 1859); Bertram, _Geschichte der Cansteinschen Bibelanstalt_ (Halle, 1863); E. Petavel, _La Bible en France_ (Paris, 1864); O. Douen, _Histoire de la societe biblique protestante de Paris_ (Paris, 1868); G. Borrow, _The Bible in Spain_ (London, 1849); W. Canton, _The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_ (London, 1904 foll.); J. Ballinger, _The Bible in Wales_ (London, 1906); T.H. Darlow and H.F. Moule, _Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture_ (London, vol. i. 1903, vol. ii. 1908). (T. H. D.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOLOGY. The word [Greek: bibliographia] was used in post-classical Greek for the writing of books, and as late as 1761, in Fenning's _English Dictionary_, a bibliographer is defined as "one who writes or copies books." The transition from the meaning "a writing _of_ books" to that of "a writing _about_ books," was accomplished in France in the 18th century--witness the publication in 1763 of the _Bibliographie instructive_ of de Bure. In England the new meaning seems to have been popularized by the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin early in the 19th century, while Southey preferred the rival form _bibliology_, which is now hardly used. Present custom inclines to restrict the province of bibliography to printed books as opposed to manuscripts, and on the other hand recognizes as coming within its scope almost everything in which a book-loving antiquary can be interested, including the history of printing (see TYPOGRAPHY), book-binding (q.v.), book-illustration (see ILLUSTRATION) and book-collecting (q.v.). The present article is only concerned with bibliography as the art of the examination, collation and description of books, their enumeration and arrangement in lists for purposes of information, and further with the literature of this subject, i.e. with the bibliography of bibliography.

_Examination and Collation._--Books are submitted to examination in order to discover their origin, or to test statements concerning it which there is reason to doubt, or to ascertain if they are perfect, and if perfect whether they are in their original condition or have been "made up" from other copies. The discovery of where, when and by whom a book, or fragment of a book, was printed, is the most difficult of these tasks, though as regards books printed in the 15th century it has been much facilitated by the numerous facsimiles enumerated under INCUNABULA (q.v.). In the article BOOK (q.v.) a sketch is given of the chief external characteristics of books in each century since the invention of printing. Familiarity with books of different ages and countries soon creates a series of general ideas as to the dates and places with which any combination of these characteristics may be connected, and an experienced bibliographer, more especially if he knows something of the history of paper, will quickly narrow down the field of inquiry sufficiently to make special search possible.

As regards the correction of mis-statements in early books as to their place and origin, glaring piracies such as the Lyonnese counterfeits of the octavo editions of the classics printed by Aldus at Venice, and the numerous unauthorized editions of works by Luther, professing to be printed at Wittenberg, have long ago been exposed. A different variety of the same kind of puzzle arises from the existence of numerous original editions with fictitious imprints. As early as 1499 a Brescia printer, in order to evade the privilege granted to Aldus, gave to an edition of Politian the spurious imprint "Florentiae," and in the 16th century many controversial books printed in England purported to have been issued in German towns, or with pleasant humour, "at Rome before the castle of S. Angel at the sign of S. Peter." Only a knowledge of the general characteristics which a book printed at such a place and such a time should possess will secure avoidance of these traps, but when suspicion has been aroused the whole story will often be found in such books as Weller's _Die maskirte Literatur der aelteren und neueren Sprachen_ (1856-1867), and _Die falschen und fingirten Druckoerte_ (1864), Brunet's _Imprimeurs imaginaires et libraires supposes_ (1866), de Brouillant's _La Liberte de la Presse en France; Histoire de Pierre du Marteau, imprimeur a Cologne, &c._ (1888); in the various bibliographies of Erotica and in Brunet's _Manuel de l'Amateur_ and other handbooks for the use of collectors. A special case of this problem of piracies and spurious imprints is that of the modern photographic or type-facsimile forgery of small books possessing a high commercial value, such as the early editions of the letter of Columbus announcing his discovery of the New World. Bad forgeries of this kind can be detected by the tendency of all photographic processes of reproduction to thicken letters and exaggerate every kind of defect, but the best of these imitations when printed on old paper require a specific knowledge of the originals and often cause great trouble. The type-facsimile forgeries are mostly of short pieces by Tennyson, George Eliot and A.C. Swinburne, printed (or supposed to have been printed--for it is doubtful if some of these "forgeries" ever had any originals) for circulation among friends. These trifles should never be purchased without a written guarantee.

When the edition to which a book belongs is known, further examination is needed to ascertain if it is perfect and in its original state. Where no standard collation is available, this can only be ascertained by a detailed examination of the quires or gatherings of which it is made up (see below). In the earliest books these are often very irregular. A large book was usually printed simultaneously in four or six sections on as many different presses, and the several compositors, if unable to end their sections at the end of a complete quire, would insert a single leaf to give more space, or sometimes leave a blank page, or half page, for lack of matter, occasionally adding the note _"Hic nullus est defectus."_ A careful examination of the text, a task from which bibliographers often shrink, and a comparison with other editions, are the only remedies in these cases.

If a copy contains the right number of leaves, the further question arises as to whether any of these have been supplied from other copies, or are in facsimile. Few collectors even now are educated enough to prefer copies in the condition in which the ravages of time have left them to those which have been "completed" by dealers; hence many old books have been "made up" with leaves from other copies, or not infrequently from other editions. These meddlings often defy detection, but proof of them may be found in differences in the height and colour of the paper, in the two corresponding leaves at either end of a folio quire both possessing a watermark, or in their wiremarks not corresponding, or (in very early books) by the ornamentation added by hand being in a different style.

When it has been ascertained that a copy contains the right number of leaves and that all these leaves are original, the last point to be settled is as to whether it differs in any respect from the standard collation. Owing to the extreme slowness of the presswork for the first two centuries after the invention of printing, there were more opportunities for making small corrections while an old book was passing through the press than there are in the case of modern ones, and on the other hand the balls used for inking the type sometimes caught up words or individual letters and these were replaced by the compositors as best they could. The small variations in the text noticed in different copies of the First Folio edition of Shakespeare, and again of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, are probably to be explained by a mixture of these two causes. Where a serious error was discovered after a sheet had been printed off, the leaf on which it occurred was sometimes cut out and a new leaf (called a "cancel") printed to replace it and pasted on to the rest of the sheet. Variations between different copies of the first edition of Herrick's _Hesperides_ which have puzzled all his editors are due to the presence of several of such cancels. Lastly, a printer when he had printed part of a book might wish to increase the size of the edition, and the leaves already printed off would have to be reprinted, thus causing a combination of identical and different leaves in different copies. The famous 42-line Bible of c. 1455, variously attributed to Gutenberg and to Fust and Schoeffer, and the _Valerius Maximus_ printed by Schoeffer in 1471, are instances of editions being thus enlarged while passing through the press. As each book was set up simultaneously on several different presses, the reprinted leaves occur at the beginning of each of the sections.

It should be mentioned that there are books of which it is difficult to find two copies in exact agreement. Either to quicken presswork or to comply with trade-regulations made in the interest of compositors, in some books of which large numbers were required, e.g. the _Paraphrases of Erasmus_, the _First Prayer-book of Edward VI._, and the "Songs and Sonnets" known as _Tottell's Miscellany_, each forme was set up two or more different times. The formes were then used at haphazard for printing, and both at this stage and when the printed sheets came to be stitched almost any number of different combinations might be made. The books named were all printed in the middle of the 16th century, but probably later instances could be produced.

_Description._--The ideal towards which all bibliographical work should be directed is the provision in an accessible form of a standard description of a perfect copy of every book of literary, historical or typographical interest as it first issued from the press, and of all the variant issues and editions of it. When such standard descriptions shall have been made, adequately checked and printed, it will be possible to describe every individual copy by a simple reference to them, with a statement of its differences, if any, and an insistence on the points bearing on the special object with which it is being re-described. Only in a few cases has any approach been made to a collection of such standard descriptions. One instance which may be cited is that of the entries of the 15th century books in the _Repertorium Bibliographicum_ of Ludwig Hain (1826-1838), which the addition of an asterisk marks as having been examined by Hain himself in the copies in the Royal library at Munich. The high standard of accuracy of these asterisked entries (save for the omission to note blank leaves at the beginning or end) has been so well established, and the _Repertorium_ is so widely known, that in many catalogues of incunabula the short title of the book together with the number of Hain's entry has been usefully substituted for a long description. Books printed at Oxford up to 1640 can be equally well described by their short titles and a reference to Mr Falconer Madan's _Early Oxford Press_ published in 1895. At present the number of works which can thus be taken as a standard is only small, owing partly to the greater and more accurate detail now demanded, partly to the absence of any system of co-operation among libraries, each of which is only willing to pay for catalogues relating exclusively to its own collections. It may be hoped that through the foundation of bibliographical institutes more work of this kind may be done.

A standard description of any book must, as a rule, consist of the following sections, though in the case of works which have no typographical interest, some of the details may be advantageously omitted:--(a) A literal transcript of the title-page, also of the colophon, if any, and of any headings or other portions of the book serving to distinguish it from other issues; (b) Statements as to the size or form of the book, the gatherings or quires of which it is made up, with the total number of leaves, the measurement of an uncut copy or of the type-page, a note of the types in which different parts of the book are printed, and a reference to any trustworthy information already in print; (c) A statement of the literary contents of the book and of the points at which they respectively begin; (d) A note giving any additional information which may be needed.

(a) In transcribing the title-page and other parts of the book it is desirable not to omit intermediate words; if an omission is made it should be indicated by three dots placed close together. The end of a line should be indicated by an upright stroke.[1] It is a considerable gain to indicate to the eye in what types the words transcribed are printed, i.e. whether in roman, gothic letter, or italic, and in each case whether in majuscules or minuscules ("upper or lower case"). To do this, however, adds greatly not only to the cost of printing, but also to the liability of error. If roman minuscules are used throughout, or roman for the text and italic for the imprint of colophon, the method of transliteration which the printer himself would have used should be adopted. Many of the best modern catalogues and bibliographies are disfigured by the occurrence in them of such forms as "qvinqve," "qveen," "Evrope," due to an unintelligent transliteration of the forms QVINQVE, QVEEN, EVROPE, as they occur on title-pages at a date when "V" was the majuscule form of both "v" and "u." If it is desired to retain the V forms the words should be printed in majuscules. If minuscules are used, the words should be transliterated as quinque, queen, Europe, according to the practice of the old printers themselves.

A troublesome question often arises as to what notice should be taken in reproducing the misprints which frequently occur in the original titles. Bibliographers who have satisfied themselves (and their readers) of their own accuracy may reproduce them in silence, though it will need constant watchfulness to prevent the printer from "setting them right." Transcribers of only average accuracy will consult their happiness by indicating the misprint in some way, and the frequent use of (_sic_), more especially when printed in italics, or of the German (!), being ugly, probably the simplest plan is to add a note at the end stating that the misprints in question occur in the original.

(b) The "size" of a book is a technical expression for the relation of the individual leaves to the sheet of paper of which they form a part. A book in-folio means one in which the paper has been folded once, so that each sheet has made two leaves. In a book in-quarto, each sheet has been folded twice so as to make four leaves. In an octavo another fold has produced eight leaves, and so on for books in 16mo, 32mo and 64mo. For books in twelves, twenty-fours, &c., the paper has at some stage to be folded in three instead of in two, and there will be some difference in form according to the way in which this is done. The size of a book printed on handmade paper "is very simply recognized by holding up a page to the light. Certain white lines, called wire-lines, will be noticed, occurring as a rule about an inch apart, and running at right angles to the fine lines. These wire-lines are perpendicular in a folio, octavo, 32mo, and horizontal in a quarto and 16mo. In a 12mo, as the name implies, the sheet is folded in twelve; and in the earlier part at least of the 16th century this was done in such a way that the wire-lines are perpendicular, the height of the sheet forming two pages, as is the case in an octavo, while the width is divided into six instead of into four as in an octavo. The later habit has been to fold the sheet differently, the height of the sheet forming the width of four pages, and the width of the sheet the height of three pages, consequently the wire-lines are horizontal" (E.G. Duff, _Early Printed Books_, pp. 206-207).

The recognition of what is meant by the size of a book has been obscured by the erroneous idea that the quires or gatherings of which books are made up necessarily consist of single sheets.[2] If this were so all folios would be in gatherings of two leaves each; all quartos in gatherings of four leaves; all octavos in gatherings of eights. In the case of books printed on handmade paper, this is generally true of octavos, but to reduce the amount of sewing the earliest folios were usually arranged in tens, i.e. in gatherings of five sheets or ten leaves, while in Shakespeare's time English folios were mostly in sixes. In the same way quartos are often found made up in eights, and on the other hand the use of a half-sheet produces a gathering of only two leaves.

When a manuscript or early printed book was being prepared for binding, it was usual for the order in which the quires or gatherings were to be arranged to be indicated by signing them with the letters of the alphabet in their order, the alphabet generally used being the Latin, in which I stands for both I and J; V for both U and V, and there is no W. If more than twenty-three letters were needed the contractions for _et, con, rum_ and (less often) that for _us_, were used as additional signs, and for large books minuscules were used as well as majuscules, and the letters were doubled. In 1472 printed signatures came into use. If the quires or gatherings in the book to be described are signed in print, the signatures used should be quoted without brackets. If they are not signed, the order of the gatherings should be noted by the letters of the alphabet in square brackets. In each case the number of leaves in each gathering should be shown by index-figures. Thus, six gatherings of eight leaves followed by one of four should be represented by the symbols A-F^8 G^4. The "make-up" of an old book in original binding is usually sufficiently shown by the strings in the middle of each quire. In books which have been rebound help may sometimes be obtained from the fact that between (roughly) 1750 and 1850, a period during which there was much rebinding of early books, the gatherings before being put into their new quires were mostly separately pressed, with the result that the outer pages of each gathering are much smoother than the rest. But the only safe guide to the make-up of an old book without printed signatures is a collation by means of the watermarks, i.e. the devices with which the papermaker as a rule marked each sheet (see PAPER). In a folio book one of every pair of leaves should have a watermark in the middle of the paper. In a quarto some pairs of leaves will have no watermark; in others it will be found divided by the fold of the paper. As the great majority of books without printed signatures are in folio or quarto, the sequence of watermarked and un-watermarked leaves, if carefully worked out, will mostly reveal the "make-up" of the successive gatherings.

After the size and sequence of the gatherings has been stated, the total number of leaves should be noted, with a mention of any numeration of them given in the book. Any discrepancy between the total of the leaves assigned to the successive gatherings and the total as separately counted of course points to an error, and the reckonings must be repeated till they tally. Errors in the printed enumeration of the leaves of old books are common, and it is seldom necessary to point them out in detail. When reference has to be made to a particular page of an old book, the printed signatures offer the readiest means, an index number placed below the letter indicating the number of the leaf in the gathering and the addition of "recto" or "verso" marking the upper or under page of the leaf. Thus "X4 recto" (some bibliographers prefer the rather clumsier form "X 4 recto") stands for the first page of the fourth leaf of the gathering signed X. Where there are no printed signatures the leaf-number may be given, the letters "a" and "b" above the numeral taking the place of "recto" and "verso" (leaf 99^a). Where some leaves of a book are numbered and others not, if the reference is to the printed numeration this should be stated. Printed leaf numeration is found as early as 1470, and became common about ten years later. Printed pagination did not become common till nearly the middle of the 16th century.

The foregoing details are all directed to showing which leaves of a book would be printed by the same pull of the press, how it was made up for binding, and how imperfections in any copy may be detected. They give little or no indication of the dimensions of the book. In the case of modern editions this may be done by adding one of the trade epithets, pott, foolscap, crown, &c., to the name of the size, which when thus qualified denotes paper of a particular measurement (see PAPER). As, however, these measurements are not easily remembered, it is better to give the actual measurements in inches or millimetres of a page of an uncut copy. In old books uncut copies are not easily found, and it is useful instead of this to give the measurement in millimetres of the printed portion of the page (technically called the "type-page"), although this is subject to a variation of about 3% in different copies, according to the degree to which they were damped for printing. To this is added a statement of the number of lines in the page measured. The character of the type (roman, gothic or italic) is next mentioned, and in the case of 15th-century books, its number in the sequence of founts used by the printer (see INCUNABULA). Finally a reference to any authoritative description already printed completes this portion of the entry. Thus the description of the collation of the first-dated book printed at Augsburg, the _Meditationes_ of S. Bonaventura, printed by Guenther Zainer in 1468, should read: Folio (a^10, b-d^8, e-g^10, h^8) 72 leaves. Type-page ([3]) 202 x 120 mm.; 35 lines. Type 1 (gothic letter). Hain 3557.

(c) While many books, and this is especially true of early ones, contain little or nothing beyond the bare text of a well-known work, others are well provided, not only with commentaries which are almost sure to be mentioned on the title-page, or in the colophon (which the editor himself often wrote), but also with dedicatory letters, prefaces, complimentary verses, indexes and other accessories, the presence of which it is desirable to indicate. In these cases it is often convenient to show the entire contents of the book in the order in which they occur, noting the leaves or pages on which each begins. Thus in the first edition (1590) of the first three books of Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, the literary contents, their order, and the space they occupy can be concisely noted by taking the successive gatherings according to their signatures and showing what comes on each page. Thus: A1, recto, title; verso, dedication, "To the Most Mightie and Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth"; A2-Oo8, text of books i.-iii.; Pp1, letter dated the 23rd of January 1589 [1590] to Sir Walter Raleigh expounding the intention of the work; Pp3 verso, commendatory verses signed W. R[aleigh], Hobynoll (Gabriel Harvey), R.S., H.B., W.L. and Ignoto; Pp5-8, complimentary sonnets severally inscribed to Sir C. Hatton, the earls of Essex, Oxford, Northumberland and Ormond, Lord Ch. Howard, Lord Grey of Wilton and Sir W. Raleigh, and to Lady Carew and to the Ladies in the Court; and "Faults escaped in the print"; Qq(1-4), fifteen other sonnets.

Some bibliographers prefer to reverse the order of notation, (title, A1, recto; dedication, A1, verso, &c.), and no principle is sacrificed in doing so, though the order suggested usually works out the more neatly.

_Enumeration and Arrangement._--In the 18th and early 19th centuries there was a tendency, especially among French writers, to exaggerate the scope of bibliography, on the ground that it was the duty of the bibliographer to appraise the value of all the books he recorded, and to indicate the exact place which each work should occupy in a logical classification of all literature based on a previous classification of all knowledge. Bibliographers are now more modest. They recognize that the classification of human knowledge is a question for philosophers and men of science, that the knowledge of chemistry and of its history needed to make a good bibliography of chemistry is altogether extrinsic to bibliography itself; that all, in fact, to which bibliography can pretend is to suggest certain general principles of arrangement and to point out to some extent how they may be applied. The principles are neither numerous nor recondite. To illustrate the history of printing, books may be arranged according to the places and printing-houses where they were produced. For the glorification of a province or county, they are sometimes grouped under the places where their authors were born or resided. For special purposes, they may be arranged according to the language or dialect in which they are written. But, speaking generally, the choice for a basis of arrangement rests between the alphabetical order of authors and titles, a chronological order according to date of publication, a "logical" or alphabetical order according to subjects, and some combination of these methods. In exercising the choice the essential requisite is a really clear idea of the use to which the bibliography, when made, is to be put. If its chief object be to give detailed information about individual books, a strictly alphabetical arrangement "by authors and titles" (i.e. by the names of authors in their alphabetical order, and the titles of their books in alphabetical sequence under the names) will be the most useful, because it enables the student to obtain the information he seeks with the greatest ease. But while such an alphabetical arrangement offers the speediest access to individual entries, it has no other merit, unless the main object of the bibliography be to show what each author has written. If it is desired to illustrate the history and development of a subject, or the literary biography of an author, the books should be entered chronologically. If direction in reading is to be given, this can best be offered by a subject-index, in which the subjects are arranged alphabetically for speedy reference, and the books chronologically under the subject, so that the newest are always at the end. Lastly if the object is to show how far the whole field has been covered and what gaps remain to be filled, a class catalogue arranged according to what are considered the logical subdivisions of the subject has its advantages. It is important, however, to remember that, if the bulk of the bibliography is very large, a principle of arrangement which would be clear and useful on a small scale may be lost in the quantity of pages over which it extends. An arrangement which cannot be quickly grasped, whatever satisfaction it may give its author, is useless to readers, the measure of its inutility being the worn condition of the alphabetical index to which those who cannot carry a complicated "logical" arrangement in their heads are obliged to turn, in the first instance, to find what they want. It should be obvious that any system which necessitates a preliminary reference to a key or index rests under grave suspicion, and needs some clear counterbalancing gain to justify the loss of time which it entails. The main classification should always be that which will be most immediately useful to readers of the books. To throw light on the history of a subject and to indicate how far the field is covered are honourable objects for compilers, but should mostly be held subordinate to practical use. It is noteworthy also that they may often be better forwarded by means of an index or table than by the main arrangement. The history of Hain's _Repertorium Bibliographicum_, which enumerates in an alphabetical arrangement of authors and titles some 16,000 books printed in the 15th century, is a good example of this. For sixty-five years it was of the utmost use for its accurate descriptions of individual books, but threw practically no light on the history of printing. In 1891 Dr Konrad Burger published an appendix to it containing an Index of Printers, since greatly enlarged in his index to Dr Copinger's _Supplement to Hain_ (1902). The form of the index enables each printer's work to be seen at a glance, and the impetus given to the study of the history of printing was very great. But if the book had originally been arranged under Printers instead of Authors, it would have been far more difficult to use; its literary value would have been halved, and the record of the output of each press, now instantly visible, would have been obscured by the fuller entries causing it to extend over many pages.

_The Bibliography of Bibliography._--The zeal of students of early printing has provided the material for an almost exhaustive list (see INCUNABULA) of the books printed in the 15th century still extant. Of those printed in the years 1501-1536 there is a tentative enumeration in the continuation of Panzer's _Annales Typographici_ (1803), and materials are gradually being collected for improving and extending this. But the projects once formed for a universal bibliography have dwindled in proportion as the output of the press has increased, and the nearest approaches to such a work are the printed catalogue of the library of the British Museum, and that of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, now in progress. Of books of great rarity unrepresented in these catalogues a fairly sufficient record exists in Brunet's _Manuel du libraire_, the bibliographical collections of Mr W.C. Hazlitt, the _Bibliographer's Manual_ by Lowndes, and the other bibliographical works enumerated in the article on book-collecting (q.v.). When a universal bibliography was recognized as an impossibility, patriotism suggested the compilation of national bibliographies, and the _Bibliotheca Britannica_ of Robert Watt (Edinburgh, 1824) remains an extraordinary example of what the zeal of a single man could accomplish in this direction. Querard's _La France litteraire_ (Paris, 1827-1839), while it gives fuller titles, is much less comprehensive, embracing mainly books of the 18th and early 19th centuries, and only such of these as appeared to the compiler to be written by "savants, historiens, et gens de lettres." In the works of Heinsius (_Allgemeines Buecherlexikon, 1700-1815_, Leipzig, 1812-1817), and Kayser (_Buecherlexikon, 1750_, &c., Leipzig, 1834, &c.) Germany possesses a fine record of her output of books during the last two centuries, and since the organization of the book-trade, contemporary lists of books, with _resumes_ and indexes issued at intervals, exist for most European countries. For the period before these became of importance in England much bibliographical material has been collected in the Catalogues of English Books printed up to the end of the year 1640, issued by the British Museum in 1884, by the John Rylands library, Manchester, in 1895, and by the University library, Cambridge, in 1900-1906. A similar record of the rich English collections in the Bodleian library, Oxford, remains a great _desideratum_. While these substitutes for a universal author catalogue have gradually been provided, similar contributions to a universal subject catalogue have been made in the form of innumerable special bibliographies compiled by students or bookmen interested in special subjects or departments of literature. The most important of these are enumerated in the bibliographical notes appended to articles in this Encyclopaedia, but many attempts have been made to compile separate catalogues of them.

The most recent of these bibliographies of bibliographies naturally take over all that is of any value in their predecessors, and it may suffice therefore to make special mention of the following:--_Bibliotheca bibliographica. Kritisches Verzeichniss der das Gesammtgebiet der Bibliographie betreffenden Litteratur des In- und Auslandes, in systematisches Ordnung bearbeitet von Dr Julius Petzholdt. Mit alphabetischen Namen und Sachregister_ (Leipzig, 1866), 8vo, pp. xii. 940; _Manuel de bibliographie generale_, par Henri Stein (Paris, 1898), 8vo, pp. xx. 896; _Manuel de bibliographie historique_, par Ch. V. Langlois (Paris, 1901), 12mo, pp. xi. 623; _A Register of National Bibliography. With a selection of the chief bibliographical works and articles printed in other Countries_, by W.P. Courtney (London, 1905), 8vo, pp. viii. 631.

It should also be noted that the _List of Books of Reference in the Reading-Room of the British Museum_, first published in 1889, and the _Subject-index of the Modern Works added to the Library of the British Museum in the years 1881-1900_, edited by G.K. Fortescue (supplements published every five years), include entries of a vast number of bibliographical works, and that an eclectic list, with a valuable introduction, will be found in Professor Ferguson's _Some Aspects of Bibliography_ (Edinburgh, 1900). (A. W. Po.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Some bibliographers prefer to use double strokes to avoid confusion with the old-fashioned long commas. Others use a single stroke to indicate the space between two lines and increase the number of strokes where the space left is wider than this.

[2] It may be noted that some confusion is caused in descriptions of books by the word "sheet," which should be restricted to the original sheet of paper which by folding becomes folio, quarto, &c., being applied also to the double-leaf of four pages. A word specially appropriated to this is greatly needed, and as gatherings of two, three, four, &c., of such double-leaves are known technically as duernions, ternions, quaternions, &c., the double-leaf itself might well be called a "unit."

[3] Here specify the page measured.

BIBLIOMANCY (from the Gr. [Greek: biblion], a book, and [Greek: manteia], prophecy), a form of divination (q.v.) by means of the Bible or other books. The method employed is to open the Bible haphazard and be guided by the first verse which catches the eye. Among the Greeks and Romans the practice was known under the name of _sortes Homericae_ or _sortes Virgilianae_, the books consulted being those of Homer or Virgil.

BIBRACTE, an ancient Gaulish town, the modern Mont Beuvray, near Autun in France. Here, on a hilltop 2500 ft. above sea-level, excavation has revealed a vast area of 330 acres, girt with a stone and wood rampart 3 m. long, and containing the remains of dwelling-houses, a temple of Bibractis, and the workshops of iron and bronze workers and enamellers. It was the capital of the Aedui in the time of Julius Caesar. Later on Augustus removed the inhabitants to his new town Augustodunum (Autun), to destroy the free native traditions. Another far more obscure town in Gaul, near Reims, also bore the name.

See Bulliot, _Fouilles de Beuvray_; Dechelette, _Oppidum de Bibracte_; also references s.v. AEDUI.

BIBULUS, a surname of the Roman gens Calpurnia. The best-known of those who bore it was Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, consul with Julius Caesar, 59 B.C. He was the candidate put forward by the aristocratical party in opposition to L. Lucceius, who was of the party of Caesar; and bribery was freely used, with the approval of even the rigid Cato (Suetonius, _Caesar_, 9), to secure his election. But he proved no match for his able colleague. He made an attempt to oppose the agrarian law introduced by Caesar for distributing the lands of Campania, but was overpowered and even personally ill-treated by the mob. After making vain complaints in the senate, he shut himself up in his own house during the remaining eight months of his consulship, taking no part in public business beyond fulminating edicts against Caesar's proceedings, which only provoked an attack upon his house by a mob of Caesar's partisans. His conduct gave rise to the jest, that Julius and Caesar were consuls during that year. When the relations of Caesar and Pompey became strained, Bibulus supported Pompey (Plutarch, _Cato Minor_, 41) and joined in proposing his election as sole consul (52 B.C.). Next year he went to Syria as proconsul and claimed credit for a victory gained by one of his officers over the Parthians, before his own arrival in the province. After the expiration of his term of office, Pompey gave him command of his fleet in the Ionian Sea. He proved himself utterly incapable; his chief exploit was the burning of thirty transports on their return from Epirus whither they had succeeded in conveying Caesar and some troops from Brundusium. He died soon afterwards (48) of fatigue and mortification (Caesar, _Bell. Civ._ iii. 5-18; Dio Cassius xli. 48). Although not a man of great importance, Bibulus showed great persistency as the enemy of Caesar. Cicero says of him that he was no orator, but a careful writer. By his wife Porcia, daughter of Cato, afterwards married to Brutus, he had three sons. The two eldest were murdered in Egypt by some of the soldiery of Gabinius; the youngest, Lucius Calpurnius Bibulus, fought on the side of the republic at the battle of Philippi, but surrendered to Antony soon afterwards, and was by him appointed to the command of his fleet. He died (about 32) while governor of Syria under Augustus. He wrote a short memoir of his step-father Brutus, which was used by Plutarch (Appian, _B.C._ iv. 136; Plutarch, _Brutus_, 13. 23).

BICE (from Fr. _bis_, a word of doubtful origin, meaning dark-coloured), a term erroneously applied in English to particular shades of green or blue pigments from the French terms _vert bis_ and _azur bis_, dark green or blue. These colours are generally prepared from basic copper carbonates, but sometimes from ultramarine and other pigments.

BICESTER, a market town in the Woodstock parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, 12 m. N.N.E. of Oxford by a branch of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3023. It lies near the northern edge of the flat open plain of Ot Moor, in a pastoral country. The church of St Eadburg, the virgin of Aylesbury, is cruciform, with a western tower, and contains examples of Norman and each succeeding style. There is, moreover, in the nave a single rude angular arch considered to be Saxon. Incorporated with a farm-house, scanty Perpendicular remains are seen of an Augustinian priory founded at the close of the 12th century. Bicester has considerable agricultural trade and a brewing industry. It is a favourite hunting centre.

The termination _cester_, commonly indicating Roman origin, does not do so here, and is perhaps copied from Alchester and Chesterton, 2 m. west of Bicester, where there is a small Roman site, probably a wayside village, at the meeting of roads from the south (Dorchester), west, north-east and east.

Bicester (Berncestre, Burencestre, Bissiter), according to the Domesday survey, was held by Robert d'Oily. In 1182 Gilbert Basset founded here an Augustinian priory, which from that date until its dissolution in 1538 became the centre of the industrial life and development of the town. In 1253 William Longspey obtained a grant of a fair at the feast of St Edburg, and a Friday market is mentioned in the 14th century. Richard II. granted a Monday market and a fair at the feast of St James the Apostle, and in 1440 an additional market was granted to be held in that part of the town called Bury-End, from this date known as Market-End. Bicester never possessed any manufactures of importance, but the fairs and markets were much frequented, and in the 16th century the cattle market was especially famous.

See J.C. Blomfield, _History of the Deanery of Bicester_ (London, 1882-1894); John Dunkin, _History of Bicester_ (London, 1816).

BICHAT, MARIE FRANCOIS XAVIER (1771-1802), French anatomist and physiologist, was born at Thoirette (Jura) on the 14th of November 1771. His father, a physician, was his first instructor. He entered the college of Nantua, and afterwards studied at Lyons. In mathematics and the physical sciences he made rapid progress, but ultimately devoted himself to the study of anatomy and surgery, under the guidance of M.A. Petit (1766-1811), chief surgeon to the Hotel Dieu at Lyons. The revolutionary disturbances compelled him to fly from Lyons and take refuge in Paris in 1793. He there became a pupil of P.J. Desault, who was so strongly impressed with his genius that he took him into his house and treated him as his adopted son. For two years he actively participated in all the labours of Desault, prosecuting at the same time his own researches in anatomy and physiology. The sudden death of Desault in 1795 was a severe blow to Bichat. His first care was to acquit himself of the obligations he owed his benefactor, by contributing to the support of his widow and her son, and by conducting to a close the fourth volume of Desault's _Journal de Chirurgie_, to which he added a biographical memoir of its author. His next object was to reunite and digest in one body the surgical doctrines which Desault had published in various periodical works. Of these he composed _Oeuvres chirurgicales de Desault, ou tableau de sa doctrine, et de sa pratique dans le traitement des maladies externes_ (1798-1799), a work in which, although he professes only to set forth the ideas of another, he develops them with the clearness of one who is a master of the subject. In 1797 he began a course of anatomical demonstrations, and his success encouraged him to extend the plan of his lectures, and boldly to announce a course of operative surgery. In the following year, 1798, he gave in addition a separate course of physiology. A dangerous attack of haemoptysis interrupted his labours for a time; but the danger was no sooner past than he plunged into new engagements with the same ardour as before. He had now scope in his physiological lectures for a fuller exposition of his original views on the animal economy, which excited much attention in the medical schools at Paris. Sketches of these doctrines were given by him in three papers contained in the Memoirs of the Societe Medicale d'Emulation, which he founded in 1796, and they were afterwards more fully developed in his _Traite sur les membranes_ (1800). His next publication was the _Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et sur la mort_ (1800), and it was quickly followed by his _Anatomie generale_ (1801), the work which contains the fruits of his most profound and original researches. He began another work, under the title _Anatomie descriptive_ (1801-1803), in which the organs were arranged according to his peculiar classification of their functions, but lived to publish only the first two volumes. It was completed on the same plan by his pupils, M.F.R. Buisson (1776-1805) and P.J. Roux (1780-1854).

Before Bichat had attained the age of eight-and-twenty he was appointed physician to the Hotel Dieu, a situation which opened an immense field to his ardent spirit of inquiry. In the investigation of diseases he pursued the same method of observation and experiment which had characterized his researches in physiology. He learned their history by studying them at the bedside of his patients, and by accurate dissection of their bodies after death. He engaged in a series of examinations, with a view to ascertain the changes induced in the various organs by disease, and in less than six months he had opened above six hundred bodies. He was anxious also to determine with more precision than had been attempted before, the effects of remedial agents, and instituted with this view a series of direct experiments which yielded a vast store of valuable material. Towards the end of his life he was also engaged on a new classification of diseases. A fall from a staircase at the Hotel Dieu resulted in a fever, and, exhausted by his excessive labours and by constantly breathing the tainted air of the dissecting-room, he died on the 22nd of July 1802. His bust, together with that of Desault, was placed in the Hotel Dieu by order of Napoleon.

BICHROMATES AND CHROMATES. Chromium trioxide dissolves readily in water, and the solution is supposed to contain chromic acid, H2CrO4; the salts of this acid are known as the chromates. In addition to these normal salts, others exist, namely bichromates, trichromates, &c., which may be regarded as combinations of one molecular proportion of the normal salt with one or more molecular proportions of chromium trioxide. The series will thus possess the following general formulae:--

M2CrO4 M2Cr2O7 M2Cr3O10 &c. (M = one atom of a normal chromate bichromate trichromate monovalent metal.)

_Chromates._--The alkaline chromates are usually obtained by fusion of a chromium compound with an alkaline carbonate and an oxidizing agent, such for example as potassium nitrate or chlorate. The native chrome-ironstone (Cr2O3.FeO) may be used in this way as a source of such compounds, being fused in a reverberatory furnace, along with soda-ash and lime, the oxidizing agent in this case being atmospheric oxygen. They may also be prepared by oxidizing chromium salts (in alkaline solution) with hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, bleaching powder, potassium permanganate and manganese dioxide. The majority of the chromates are yellow in colour, and many of them are isomorphous with the corresponding sulphates. The alkaline chromates are soluble in water, those of most other metals being insoluble. By the addition of mineral acids, they are converted rapidly into bichromates. They are easily reduced in acid solution by sulphuretted hydrogen, and also by sulphur dioxide to chromium salts. The chromates are stable towards heat; they are poisonous, and may be recognized by the yellow precipitates they give with soluble barium and lead salts.

Potassium chromate, K2CrO4, may be prepared by neutralizing a solution of potassium bichromate with potassium carbonate or with caustic potash. It crystallizes in yellow rhombic prisms, and is readily soluble in water, the solution having a bitter taste and an alkaline reaction. When heated in a current of sulphuretted hydrogen, or carbon bisulphide, it yields a mixture of chromium sesquioxide and sulphide. When heated with sulphur it yields chromium sesquioxide. Sodium chromate, Na2CrO4.10(H2O), forms pale yellow crystals isomorphous with hydrated sodium sulphate, Na2SO4.10(H2O). It is deliquescent, and melts at 23 deg. C. (M. Berthelot). By evaporation of its aqueous solution at temperatures above 30 deg. C. it may be obtained in the anhydrous condition. Lead chromate, PbCrO4, occurs native as the mineral crocoisite, and may be obtained as an amorphous pale yellow solid by precipitating a soluble lead salt by an alkaline chromate. It is used as a pigment under the name "chrome yellow." When digested for some time with a caustic alkali it is converted into a basic salt, PbCrO4.PbO, a pigment known as "chrome red." It melts readily, and on cooling resolidifies to a brown mass, which at moderately high temperatures gives off oxygen and leaves a residue of a basic lead salt; for this reason fused lead chromate is sometimes made use of in the analysis of organic compounds. Silver chromate, Ag2CrO4 is a dark red amorphous powder obtained when silver nitrate is precipitated by an alkaline chromate. It is decomposed by the addition of caustic alkalis, forming silver oxide and an alkaline chromate.

_Bichromates._--The bichromates are usually of a red or reddish-brown colour, those of the alkali metals being readily soluble in water. They are readily decomposed by heat, leaving a residue of the normal chromate and chromium sesquioxide, and liberating oxygen; ammonium bichromate, however, is completely decomposed into chromium sesquioxide, water and nitrogen. Sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphur dioxide reduce them in acid solution to the condition of chromium salts.

Potassium bichromate, K2Cr2O7, is obtained by fusing chrome ironstone with soda ash and lime (see above), the calcium chromate formed in the process being decomposed by a hot solution of potassium sulphate. After the calcium sulphate has settled, the potassium chromate solution is converted into bichromate by the action of sulphuric acid, and the salt is allowed to crystallize. It forms large triclinic prisms of specific gravity 2.6-2.7, which are moderately soluble in cold water and readily soluble in hot water. The solution is strongly acid in reaction and is very poisonous. Potassium bichromate finds extensive application in organic chemistry as an oxidizing agent, being used for this purpose in dilute sulphuric acid solution, K2Cr2O7 + 4H2SO4 = KaSO4 + Cr2(SO4)3 + 4H2O + 3O. On the addition of concentrated sulphuric acid to a cold saturated solution of the salt, red crystals of chromium trioxide, CrO3, separate (see CHROMIUM), whilst when warmed with concentrated hydrochloric acid and a little water, potassium chlorochromate is produced. When heated with phosphorus trichloride in a sealed tube to 160 deg. C., potassium chlorochromate, phosphorus oxychloride, potassium chloride, and a complex chromium oxide (possibly Cr3O6) are produced (A. Michaelis, _Jour. prak. Chem._, 1871, ii. 4, p. 452). Potassium bichromate finds application in photography, in calico-printing and in the preparation of bichromate cells. Sodium bichromate, Na2Cr2O7.2{H2O}, may be obtained by the addition of the requisite quantity of chromium trioxide to a solution of sodium chromate. It crystallizes in hyacinth-red prisms, which are very hygroscopic and melt at 320 deg. C.

_Trichromates._--The trichromates are obtained by the addition of nitric acid (of specific gravity about 1.2) to solutions of the bichromates. They form rhombic crystals of a red or brown red or brown red colour and are readily decomposed by warm water, with formation of the bichromate.

_Perchromic Acid._--By the addition of hydrogen peroxide to a solution of chromic acid, a fine blue coloration due to a perchromic acid is produced which is readily absorbed by shaking out with ether. The following formulae have been assigned to the compound:--H2O2.CrO3 (H. Moissan, _Comptes rendus_, 1883, 97, p. 96); H2O2.2HCrO4 (M. Berthelot, _Comptes rendus_, 1889, 108, p. 25); Cr2O7.xH2O (L.C.A. Barreswil, _Ann. chim. et phys._, 1847 [3], 20, p. 364), and CrO6.3{H2O} (T. Fairley, _Chem. News_, 1876, 33, p. 237). The more recent investigations of H.G. Byers and E.E. Reed (_Amer. Chem. Jour._, 1904, 32, p. 503) show that if metallic potassium be added to an ethereal solution of the blue compound at -20 deg. C., hydrogen is liberated and a purple black precipitate of the perchromate, of composition KCrO4 or K2Cl2O8, is produced; this compound is very unstable, and readily decomposes into oxygen and potassium bichromate. Similar sodium, ammonium, lithium, magnesium, calcium, barium and zinc salts have been obtained. It is shown that the blue solution most probably contains the acid of composition, H2Cr2O8, whilst in the presence of an excess of hydrogen peroxide more highly oxidized products probably exist.

BICKER (connected by Skeat with _bike_, to thrust or strike), an Old English word (traced from the 13th century) implying conflict or disputation. A poetical use, from the noise, is seen in Tennyson's _Brook_, "to bicker down the valley."

BICKERSTAFFE, ISAAC (c. 1735-c. 1812), English dramatist, was born in Ireland about 1735. At the age of eleven he was appointed a page to Lord Chesterfield, then lord lieutenant of Ireland, and subsequently held a commission in the Marines, but was dismissed the service under discreditable circumstances. He was the author of a large number of plays and burlesque farces interspersed with songs, produced between 1760 and 1771. The best-known are _Maid of the Mill_ (founded on Richardson's _Pamela_), _The Padlock, He Would if he Could, Love in a Village, The Hypocrite_ and _The Captive_. In 1772 Bickerstaffe, suspected of a capital offence, fled to the continent. The exact date of his death is unknown, but he is stated to have been still living in abject misery in 1812.

A full account of his dramatic productions is given in _Biographia Dramatica_, edited by Stephen Jones (1812).

BICKERSTETH, EDWARD (1786-1850), English evangelical divine, brother of Henry, Baron Langdale, master of the rolls (1836-1851), and uncle of Robert Bickersteth, bishop of Ripon (1857-1884), was born at Kirkby Lonsdale, and practised as a solicitor at Norwich from 1812 to 1815. In 1816 he took orders, and was made one of the secretaries of the Church Missionary Society. On receiving the living of Watton, Hertfordshire, in 1830, he resigned his secretaryship, but continued to lecture and preach, both for the Church Missionary Society and the Society for the Conversion of the Jews. His works include _A Scripture Help_ (London, 1816), which has been translated into many European languages, and _Christian Psalmody_ (London, 1833), a collection of over 700 hymns, which forms the basis of the _Hymnal Companion_ (London, 1870), compiled by his son, E.H. Bickersteth, bishop of Exeter (1885-1890). He was active in promoting the Evangelical Alliance of 1845, strongly opposed the Tractarian Movement, and was one of the founders of the Irish Church Missions, and Parker, Societies.

EDWARD BICKERSTETH (1814-1892), dean of Lichfield, was his nephew, and EDWARD BICKERSTETH (1850-1897), bishop of South Tokyo, his grandson.

BICYCLE (from prefix _bi_ = twice, and [Greek: kyklos] a circle, wheel). The modern bicycle, as developed from the old velocipede (see CYCLING), consists essentially of two wheels placed one behind the other and mounted on a frame which carries a saddle for the rider. Between the wheels is a crank-axle which the rider drives by means of the cranks and pedals, and its motion is transmitted to the rear or driving wheel either by a chain which passes over two chain wheels, one fixed on the crank-axle and the other on the hub of the rear wheel, or, in the chainless bicycle, by a tubular shaft and two pairs of bevel-wheels. The rear wheel is usually so arranged that it can turn, when the bicycle is running by its own momentum, independently of the chain and pedals ("free-wheel"), and a variable speed gear is often provided so that the rider may at will alter the ratio between the rate of revolution of the crank-axle and the driving wheel. The front, or steering wheel, is mounted in a fork having its two upper ends brazed into the "crown," to which also the lower end of the steering tube is brazed. The steering tube is mounted by ball bearings in the socket tube, which forms the forward portion of the rear-frame.

The highest quality of materials and the most accurate workmanship are required to produce a first-class bicycle. Steel of 75 to 100 tons per sq. in. tensile strength is used in chains, spokes, &c. In balls and ball-races, hardness without brittleness, and homogeneity are of primary importance. Broken balls, or even traces of wear in bearings, are now seldom heard of in a first-class bicycle. The process of case-hardening, whereby an extremely hard outer skin is combined with a tough interior, has been brought to a high degree of perfection, and is applied to many parts of the bicycle, particularly chains, free-wheels and toothed-wheel variable speed gears. Interchangeability of parts is secured by working to the smallest possible limits of error of workmanship.

_Frames._--Fig. 1 represents a road-racer. A full roadster would have the handles a little higher relatively to the saddle, and would be provided with mud-guards, free-wheel and sometimes a gear-case and variable speed gear. Fig. 2 shows a lady's bicycle with gear-case and dress-guard. The rear frame of the "diamond" type (fig. 1) is subjected to very small stresses due to vertical load. The front fork and steering post are subject to bending moment due to the reaction from the ground in the direction _dcb_. A slight amount of elasticity in the front fork adds considerably to the comfort in riding over rough roads. When the brake is applied lightly to the front wheel, the reaction from the ground falls more closely along the axis of the front fork, and the bending moment at the crown is diminished. If the front brake is applied harder the reaction from the ground at d may pass through the crown, in which case the bending moment at the crown is zero. Still harder application of the brake causes a bending moment in the opposite direction. In fig. 1 the axes of the top and bottom tubes of the rear frame are produced to meet at _a_. If the reaction from the ground is in the direction _da_, the top and bottom tubes are subjected to pure compressive and tensile stresses respectively. When no brake pressure is applied a bending moment due to the overhang _ab_ is superimposed on these tubes. Thus a short socket head with top tube sloping downwards towards the head gives a stronger frame than a horizontal top tube. The steering axis _ef_ is arranged so as to cut the ground at _f_, a little in front of the point of contact _d_ of the wheel with the ground, giving a slight castor action, and making steering possible without use of the handle-bar. The rake of the steering head (that is the angle between _ef_ and _bd_) and the set of the fork (that is the displacement of the wheel centre _c_ from the axis _ef_) may be varied within tolerably large limits without much affecting the easy steering properties of the bicycle. The transverse stresses on the rear frame due to the action of pedalling are more severe than those due to the vertical load. The pedal pressure is applied at a considerable distance from the central plane of the bicycle, and the pedal pin, cranks and crank-axle are subjected to a bending moment which is transmitted by the ball bearings to the frame. The down-tube from the seat lug to the crank-bracket and the bottom tube from the foot of the steering socket tube to the crank-bracket are made fairly stout to resist this bending moment. Further, the pull of the chain causes a transverse bending moment in the plane of the chain-stays, which must be stiff enough under heavy pedal pressure.

The tubular portions of the frame are made of weldless cold-drawn steel tube. The junctions or lugs are usually of malleable cast iron, bored to fit the outside of the tube, the final union being effected by brazing. In very light bicycles the tubes are kept thin, 22 or 24 W.G. (.028 in. or .022 in. thickness) at the middle, and are strengthened at the ends by internal liners. Or butt-ended tubes are employed, the tubes being drawn thicker at the ends than in the middle. The steering post and fork sides especially should be thus strengthened at their junction with the crown. Some of the best makers use sheet steel stampings instead of cast lugs, greater lightness and strength being secured, and in some cases the sheet steel lugs are inside the tubes, so that the joints are all flush on the outside. The front fork blades are best made of sheet steel stamped to shape and with the edges brazed together to form a hollow tube. The sheet steel that can be thus employed has a much higher elastic limit than a weldless steel tube.

_Bearings._--Ball bearings are universally used. Each row of balls runs between two ball-races of hardened steel, one on the stationary member, the other on the rotating member. The outer is called the "cup," and the inner the "cone." One of the four ball-races is adjustable axially so that the bearing may run without any shake. The ball-races are often made of separate pieces of steel, but the crank-axle usually has the cones formed integral with it, the necessary hardness being obtained by case-hardening. According as the two cups face outwards or inwards the bearing is said to have outward or inward cups, and according as the adjustable ball race is the cone or cup, the bearing is said to be cone-adjusting or cup-adjusting. Fig. 3 shows a ball-bearing hub with outward cups. The hub-shell H is turned out of mild steel, and the cups C are forced into the ends of the hub-shell and soldered thereto. A thin washer W is then spun into the end, for the purpose of retaining oil, and a thin internal tube T unites the two cups, and guides the oil fed in at the middle of the hub to the balls. The projecting flanges S are for the attachment of the tangent spokes used to build the hub into the wheel. The spindle A has the two cones screwed on it, one C1 against a shoulder, the other C2 adjustable. The spindle ends are passed through the back-fork ends and are there adjusted in position by the chain-tension adjusters. After adjustment the nuts N clamp the spindle securely between the fork-ends. The chain-wheel or free-wheel clutch is screwed on the end of the hub-shell, with a right-hand thread. The chain being at the right-hand side of the bicycle (as the rider is seated) the driving pull of the chain tends to screw the chain-wheel tight against the shoulder. A locking-ring R with a left-hand thread, screwed tight against the chain-wheel, prevents the latter from being unscrewed by back-pedalling. With a free-wheel clutch screwed on the hub, the locking-ring may be omitted.

Fig. 4 shows one end of the cup-adjusting hub, with inward bearings. The cones are formed of one piece with the spindles, and the adjusting cup C is screwed in the end of the hub shell, and locked in position by the screwed locking-ring R. The figure also illustrates a divided spindle for facilitating the removal of the tire for repair when required without disturbing the wheel, bearings, chain or gear-case. The chain side of the hub-spindle, not shown in the figure, is secured to the frame in the usual way; on the left side the spindle S projects very little beyond the adjusting cup. A distance washer W is placed between the end of the spindle S and the fork-end F. A detachable screw-pin, or the footstep, P, passes through the chain-adjusting draw-bolt B, the fork-end F, and the distance washer W, and is screwed into the end of the spindle S, the hexagon head of the detachable pin drawing all the parts securely together. On unscrewing the detachable pin, the distance washer W drops out of place, leaving a clear space for removing the tire without disturbing any other part.

The inward-cups bearing retains more oil than the other form. The pressure on a ball being normal to the surface of contact with the ball race, and each ball touching two ball races, the two points of contact must be in line with the centre of the ball. All the lines of pressure on the balls of a row meet at a point _f_ on the axis of the spindle. The distance between the two points _f_ (fig. 5) may be called the virtual length of the bearing. Other things being equal, the outward-cups bearing has a greater virtual length than the inward-cups bearing. In hubs and pedals where the actual distance between the two rows of balls is sufficient, this point is of little importance. At the crank-axle bearing, however, where the pedal pressure which produces pressure on the axle bearings is applied at a considerable overhang beyond the ball-races, the greater virtual length of the outward-cups is an advantage.

Fig. 5 shows diagrammatically the usual form of crank-axle bearing which has inward-cups and is cup-adjusting. The end of the bracket is split and the cup after adjustment is clamped in position by the clamping screw S. The usual mode of fastening the cranks to the axle is by round cotters C with a flat surface at a slight angle to the axis, thus forming a wedge, which is driven in tight. The small end of the cotter projects through the crank, and is screwed and held in place by a nut. The chain-wheel at the crank-axle is usually detachably fastened to the right-hand crank.

The Rudge-Whitworth crank-bracket has outward cups and is cup-adjusting. The cranks are cotterless. Fig. 6 is a sectional view. The left crank and axle are forged in one piece. The fastening of the right crank and chain-wheel is by multiple grooves and teeth, this fastening being better mechanically than the cotter type.

_Pedals._--The pedal consists of a pedal body, on which the foot of the rider rests, mounted by ball-bearings on a pedal-pin, which is secured to the end of the crank and turns with it. The pedal body is made in many forms, but usually the bearing-cups are contained in a tube from the ends of which project plates, carrying rubber blocks, or serrated plates (rat-trap pedals), on which the foot of the rider rests. Cone adjustment is most used. The fastening of the pedal pin to the crank is best effected by screwing it up against a shoulder, the right and left crank eyes being tapped with right and left hand screws respectively. With this arrangement, if the pedal pin screw is a slack fit in the crank eye, the pressure on the pedal tends to screw it up against the shoulder.

_Wheels._--Bicycle and tricycle wheels are made on the "suspension" principle, the spokes being of high-tenacity steel wire, screwed up to a certain initial tension, thus putting a circumferential compression on the rim. In the "artillery" wheel, the wooden spokes are in compression, and the rim is under tension. The rims, which are made to a section suitable for pneumatic tires (see TIRE), may be of sheet steel or aluminium alloy rolled to the required section, either without joint or jointed by brazing or riveting. Wood rims are used on racing bicycles, but in England are not popular for roadster bicycles. Holes are drilled at or near the central plane of the rim for the spoke nipples, which have shoulders resting on the outer surface of the rim and shanks projecting through the rim towards the hub. The spoke ends are screwed to fit the nipples. The shank of the nipple has a square cut on its outside surface by which it can be screwed up. The spoke flanges on the hub are placed far apart and the spread of the spokes gives the wheel lateral stability. Tangential rigidity under driving and braking is obtained by fastening the spokes to the hub tangentially (figs. 1 and 2). The hub fastening of the spoke is simply obtained by forming a hook and head on the spoke end, and passing it through a hole in the hub flange. The best spokes are butted at the ends, i.e. made of larger diameter than at the middle, to allow for screwing at one end and the hook bend at the other.

_Chains._--There are two widely used types of chains. The "block" chain (fig. 7) consists of a series of central blocks connected by side plates. The "roller" chain (fig. 8) consists of a series of outside and inside links. The outside link A is made up of two steel side plates P united by two shouldered rivets R. The inside link B consists of two side plates P united by two tubular pieces T, which form bushes for the rivets R and pivots for the rollers L. The rivets, bushes and rollers are case-hardened.

Roller chains for cycles are made in two pitches, 1/2 in. and 5/8 in., and in widths from 1/8 in. to 1/4 in. between the side plates of the inside links. The weight of 4 ft. length (96 links) of a 1/2 in. pitch 1/8 in. wide roller chain is about 121/4 oz., and its breaking load is about 2000 lb. In a block chain the ends of the blocks engage with the teeth of the chain-wheels, and the same surfaces continually coming into contact, the wear may become excessive, especially when exposed to mud and grit. In the roller chain the outer surfaces of the rollers engage with the teeth of the chain-wheels, and during the engagement and disengagement may roll slightly on the tubular rivets. The surface of contact of the roller and tubular rivet is not directly exposed to the dust and grit from the road. The rollers therefore serve the double purpose of (1) transferring the relative motion of the parts to a pair of surfaces under better conditions as regards lubrication, and (2) presenting a new part of the outside surface of the roller for the next engagement with the chain-wheel. The durability of roller chains is thus much greater than that of block chains, under the usual conditions of cycling.

_Chain-wheels._--The pitch line of the chain-wheel is polygonal (fig. 9), _a, b, c, d_ being centres of adjacent joints of the chain when lying in contact with the wheel. The path of the joint _a_ of the chain, relative to the chain-wheel as it enters on to and leaves the chain-wheel, is evidently the curve _a3 a2 a a'1 a'2_ made up of a series of circular arcs having centres _d, c, b, b', c'_, respectively. Similarly for the path of the adjacent joint _b_. The fullest possible form of the tooth is that between the two parallel curves, of radii less by an amount equal to the radius of the roller, as indicated in fig. 9. But since it is neither necessary nor desirable that the roller should roll along the whole length of the tooth, the radii of curvature of the tooth outline may be less than shown in fig. 9. A good arrangement of tooth form is shown in fig. 10.

Owing to the polygonal pitch surfaces of the chain-wheels a chain does not transmit motion with constant speed-ratio of the shafts. The variation of speed-ratio in a chain with links of equal pitch is approximately inversely proportional to the square of the number of teeth in the smaller chain-wheel, as shown in the table annexed, in which the percentage variation is--

maximum speed-ratio - minimum speed-ratio ----------------------------------------- x 100. average speed-ratio

+----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | Number of teeth on hub | | | | | | | | | | chain-wheel | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 24 | 28 | +----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | Percentage Variation | 5.1 | 3.5 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.7 | +----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

The rollers as they come in contact with the chain-wheel strike it with a speed proportional to the angular speed of the chain-wheel and to the pitch of the chain, causing a certain amount of noise.

_Chain Adjustment._--To keep the chain running at correct tension, it is necessary to have some adjustment of the distance between the crank-axle and hub. This is obtained either by an eccentric adjustment at the crank-bracket, an eccentric adjustment at the hub-spindle or by draw-bolts at the fork-ends, the last method being most common.

_Gear-case._--The modern roller chain by makers of repute is so durable that the necessity for a gear-case is not so great as when chains were of inferior quality. But if the bicycle is to require the minimum amount of care and attention a gear-case should be fitted. The Sunbeam gear-case is built into the frame and is oil-retaining, and the chain, chain-wheels, free-wheel and two-speed gear are continually lubricated by an oil-bath. A detachable gear-case is not usually oil-retaining, but serves to exclude grit and mud from the chain.

_Gear and Crank-length._--The "gear" of a bicycle is given by the formula Dn1/n2 where D is the diameter of the driving wheel in inches, n1 and n2 the numbers of teeth on the crank-axle and hub chain-wheels respectively. At each revolution of the crank-axle, the bicycle is moved forward a distance equal to the circumference of the circle of diameter equal to the gear. Thus with a 28 in. diameter driving-wheel, 18 teeth on the hub chain-wheel, 45 teeth on the crank-axle chain-wheel, the bicycle is geared to 70 in. The usual crank-length is 61/2 to 7 in. Cranks of 71/2, 8 and 9 in. length can be had, but require a bicycle frame of special design. The gear should be roughly proportional to the crank-length. The gear 10 times the crank-length is a good proportion for an average rider.

_Free-wheels._--A free-wheel clutch transmits the drive in one direction only, allowing the pedals to remain at rest at the will of the rider, while the bicycle runs on. With a free-wheel, chain breakages are reduced or nearly eliminated, as should the chain get accidentally caught the free-wheel comes into play. There are three principal types of free-wheel clutches--roller, ratchet and friction cone. The roller type was the earliest in use, but has fallen into disfavour. A sectional view of a ball-bearing ratchet free-wheel, with outer cover removed, is shown in fig. 11. The ring on which the three pawls and springs are carried is screwed on the end of the hub; the chain-wheel is combined with an inner ratchet wheel and is mounted by two rows of ball bearings on the pawl ring. The friction cone type of free-wheel clutch is usually combined with a brake inside the hub, the whole combination being termed a coaster hub. Fig. 12 shows a sectional view of the Eadie two-speed coaster, in which the free-wheel clutch and brake are combined with a two-speed gear. The free-wheel clutch action is as follows: A forward pressure of the pedals turns the externally threaded driving cone H in the internally threaded cone F, the latter being thus forced to the right into engagement with the cup J which is screwed to the hub-shell, thus forming a friction driving clutch. The pedals being held stationary the driving cone H is stationary, and the hub running on the ball bearings G, the cone F travels towards the left until released from the cup J, when it also remains at rest. In this type of free-wheel clutch it is essential that there be little or no friction between the screwed surfaces of H and F, else on beginning to pedal, the cone F may remain stationary relative to the driving cone H, and no engagement between F and J may take place. If F be prevented from turning faster than the hub-shell, as is sometimes done by a light spring between the two, the engagement of the friction clutch must take place as soon as the pedals tend to move faster than the speed corresponding to that of the hub-shell.

_Brakes_ of many types are used, differing in the place and mode of application. The tire brake has fallen into disuse, rim brakes and internal hub brakes being usual. The retarding force that can be applied by a brake is limited by the possibility of skidding the wheel. In riding at uniform speed, without acceleration, the greater part of the load is on the rear-wheel; but as soon as the brake is applied to cause retardation the wheel load distribution is altered, more load being thrown on the front wheel. Thus the most powerful brake is one applied to the front wheel. On the other hand, a front-wheel brake often sets up an unpleasant vibration of the front fork. On a greasy road too powerful pressure on the front-wheel brake may cause a side-slip with no chance of recovery; while with the back-wheel brake recovery is possible. The Bowden system of transmission, which is largely used for cycle brake work, consists of a steel stranded cable inside a flexible tube formed by a closely wound spiral of steel wire, the cable being practically inextensible and the spiral tube practically incompressible; if the ends of the latter be fastened it forms a guide tube for the cable, any movement given to one end of the cable being transmitted to the other end. The spiral tube may be led round any corners, but the frictional resistance of the cable inside the spiral tube increases with the total angle of curvature of the guide tube; the laws of friction of a rope passing over a drum apply. In fitting the Bowden system the total curvature should therefore be kept as small as possible. With a back-pedalling rim brake the cycle cannot be wheeled backwards unless a special device is used to throw the operating clutch out of action. A back-pedalling brake is most conveniently applied inside the hub, as in the coaster hub. In the Eadie two-speed coaster (fig. 12) the braking action is obtained by the expansion of the steel band I against a phosphor bronze ring L carried by the rotating hub-shell. The steel band I is mounted on a disk with a projecting arm, the end of which is clipped to the frame tube. The expansion of the steel band is effected by the movement of the lever K fixed to the cone E. On moving the pedals backward the screw drive-ring H forces the cone nut F with which it engages to the left into contact with the cone E. The backward movement of the pedals being continued sets up the required movement of the lever K, and applies the brake.

_Variable Speed Gears._--The effort required to propel a bicycle varies greatly, according to the conditions of road surface, gradient up or down hill, wind against or behind. To meet these variable conditions, a variable speed-gear is an advantage. The action of the human motor is, however, so entirely different from that of a mechanical motor that it is easy, without practical experience, to over-estimate the value of a variable speed gear. Probably from 50 in. to 80 in. represents the greatest useful range of gear for an average rider. With a gear lower than 50 in., the speed of climbing a steep gradient is so slow that balancing difficulties begin, and it is better to walk up. With 80 in. gear and 7 in. cranks, the speed of pedalling, even at 25 miles an hour, is not irksome, provided the conditions are favourable. For those who have not cultivated the art of quick pedalling the useful range of gear under favourable conditions may be extended to say 90 in. or 100 in. The gear-ratio of a two-speed gear is the ratio of the high to the low gear. The most suitable gear-ratio for any rider will depend upon his personal physique and the nature of the country in which he rides. For a middle-aged rider of average physique a gear-ratio of 125:100 is suitable, for those of weaker physique the gear-ratio may with advantage be greater, say 137.5:100; while for road racing it may be smaller, say 117:100. With a three-speed gear the low and high gears should be chosen respectively below and above the single gear which suits the rider, the middle gear being about the same as the rider's usual single gear.

All the variable speed gears at present made consist of toothed wheel mechanism either at the hub or crank-bracket, and nearly all are based on the same epicyclic train of toothed wheels. At one speed there is no relative motion of the toothed wheels, the whole mechanism revolving as one solid piece; this is called the "normal" speed. At the other speed one part of the mechanism is held stationary and the driven part revolves faster or slower than the driver, according as the gearing is up or down. In some two-speed gears the normal is the high speed, in others the low. In expressing the gear-ratio, the normal speed will be denoted by 100. At the normal gear there is of course no additional friction. The type of two-speed gear used practically settles whether the normal gear is at high or low speed; but it seems best, other things being equal, to have the low speed the normal gear, as then the conditions are worst. If the high speed is at normal gear, then at low speed the chain gears up and the two-speed gear gears down; which is, to say the least, a roundabout transmission.

Fig. 13 is a sectional view of the Sunbeam two-speed gear which is arranged at the crank-axle, and clearly shows the relative disposition of the toothed wheel mechanism common to nearly all cycle speed gears. The chain-wheel is fixed to the annular wheel A; the planet carrier C is fixed to the crank; and when the sun-wheel D is held stationary, the chain-wheel is driven faster than the cranks. When the sun-wheel D is released, the planet carrier C drives the annular wheel A by the ratchet free-wheel clutch; the part thus revolves as a solid piece, and gives the normal or low speed. The gear-ratio is 133.3:100.

Fig. 14 is a sectional view of the "Hub" two-speed gear, the chain-wheel or free-wheel clutch being omitted. In this the annular wheel is the driver, and the planet carrier is part of the hub-shell. When the central pinion is held stationary the hub is driven at a less speed than the chain-wheel; the gear-ratio is 100:76.2.

In the Fagan two-speed gear, shown combined with the Eadie coaster hub in fig. 12, the sun-wheel B can be moved laterally by the striking gear, so as to engage with the chain-wheel centre C, giving normal gear, or with an internally toothed wheel A fixed to the spindle. The chain-wheel centre C carries the annular wheel, and the four planet pinions D are mounted on the driving cone H. Thus the gear gives a reduction of speed, the gear-ratio being 100:75. The Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub (fig. 15) has gear-ratios 125:100:80. In the high gear position the epicyclic toothed wheels are to the extreme left position. The chain-wheel is mounted by a free-wheel on a drive-ring, with which the ends of the spindles of the planet wheels engage at high gear. The sun-wheel, not shown in the figure, is held stationary, and the annular wheel engages with a ring screwed to the hub-shell, by means of keys engaging in notches. The hub is thus driven at a higher speed than the chain-wheel. For normal gear, the striking gear draws the internal mechanism of the hub towards a central position, compressing a spring, disengaging the sun-wheel and locking the drive-ring hub and annular wheel together. At low gear, the internal mechanism is drawn to the right-hand side, where the planet carrier engages with the end plate of the hub by means of claw-clutches. The annular wheel is still engaged with the drive-ring, and the sun-wheel is again locked to the spindle. The hub is thus driven at a lower speed.

_Tandem Bicycles._--The weight of a roadster tandem is about the same as, or a trifle less than, that of two single roadster bicycles, but the frictional resistance of the mechanism, the rolling resistance of the tires, and the air resistance at a given speed are much less than twice the values for a single bicycle. Consequently, much higher speeds are attained on the level, and free-wheeling down hill is much faster. On the other hand for riding up hill on a moderate gradient, the effort required is about the same as on a single, while on very steep gradients the tandem is at a slight disadvantage. For the full enjoyment of tandem riding, therefore, a two-speed gear is a necessity, while a three-speed gear is better. In the Raleigh tandem (fig. 16) the frame design is such that it can be ridden by two ladies, and the strength and rigidity is sufficient for two heavyweight riders. The steering and control of the brakes is done by the front rider. Connected steering is employed in some tandems, allowing the rear rider to steer if necessary. For two expert tandem riders, connected steering is slightly more pleasurable than fixed handle grips for the rear rider, but on the other hand, divided control may lead to disaster at a critical moment. Most passengers on a tandem with connected steering unconsciously give the steering a bias in one direction or the other, putting a nervous strain on the steersman which becomes almost intolerable towards the end of a long ride.

_Motor Bicycles._--Fig. 17 shows a touring motor bicycle, fitted with luggage carrier and stand, the latter for supporting the bicycle while at rest. The average speed of a motor bicycle being much greater than that of a pedal bicycle the stresses on the frame due to moving over rough roads are greater. This necessitates greater strength and weight in all parts--frame, wheels and tires. To take this increased weight up steep gradients requires increased engine power. The weight of a touring motor bicycle may be from 150 to 200 lb. The drive is usually by a V belt of leather, or of canvas and rubber, the angle of the V being 28 deg.. The engine speed at maximum power is from 1500 to 2000 revolutions a minute, and the belt gears down in a ratio varying between 1/3 and 1/6 according to the cylinder capacity of the engine. The possibility of the belt slipping slightly is conducive to smoothness of drive; chain-driving, except in combination with a slipping clutch, is too harsh. The principal defect of the belt drive is that the belt stretches, and on coming to a steep hill may have to be tightened before the bicycle can be driven up. The control of the speed and power of the engine is effected by the throttle, extra air valve and spark advance, the levers for which are all placed within convenient reach of the driver. As the engine is almost invariably air-cooled, the skilful manipulation of these three levers is essential for satisfactory results. On a good level road when the engine may be working at a small fraction of its maximum power, the proportion of air mixed with the petrol vapour from the carburettor may be great, giving a "weak" mixture, yet one rich enough to be ignited in the cylinder. The throttle valve may be fully open and the spark advanced for high speed; the throttle partially closed and spark retarded for slow speed. Under these conditions the engine will run for an indefinite period without overheating. Up a steep gradient, the mixture may have to be made "richer" by partial closing of the extra air opening, and as more heat is evolved, the cylinder walls may become overheated, unless the engine power is sufficient to keep the bicycle moving through the air at a good speed. As the engine cannot run steadily at low speed, pedalling is resorted to for starting and for riding slowly through traffic. For this purpose, an "exhaust valve lifter" is usually fitted, by means of which the exhaust can be kept permanently open, in order to relieve the resistance to pedalling which the compression stroke would otherwise offer.

The nominal rating of the horse-power of a motor cycle engine is rather vague and indefinite. A 3-H.P. engine may have a cylinder of 76-80 mm. diameter and 76-80 mm. stroke. Twin-cylinder engines, with one crank, are largely used, and some excellent 4-cylinder motor bicycles are made with bevel gear transmission. The chief advantage of the multicylinder engine is the smoother drive obtained.

A "trailer" with two wheels for carrying a passenger can be attached to a motor bicycle, but the element of risk is increased. A side-car, with one additional wheel, forms a safer passenger carrier. (A. Sp.)

BIDA, a town and administrative district in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria. Bida town, situated in 9 deg. 5' N., 6 deg. E., 25 m. N. by E. of Muraji on the Niger, is the capital of the province of Nupe. It was founded in 1859 when Fula rule was established in Nupe, is walled and of considerable size. In 1909 it was connected by railway with Baro, 40 m. S.S.E., the river terminus of the Northern Nigeria railway. The inhabitants, mostly Hausa, carry on an extensive trade and are especially noted for their embossed brass and copper work. The Bida goblets, in which brass and copper are beautifully blended, are of extremely elegant design. The town also boasts a glass factory. The preparation of indigo and the dyeing of cloths are other flourishing industries. The streets are planted with huge shade-trees, so that as Bida is approached it looks like a forest.

In 1897 there was a two-days' fight outside the walls of Bida between the forces of the emir of Nupe and those of the Royal Niger Company, ending in the defeat of the Fula army (mostly cavalry). The victory was not followed at the time by a British occupation, and the defeated king returned after the withdrawal of the company's troops and re-established himself upon the throne. In 1900 he allied himself with other hostile chiefs and adopted an openly antagonistic attitude to the British government. In 1901 it became necessary for British troops to march on Bida. The emir fled, without fighting, to Kano. Another emir was appointed in his place, and the province of Nupe was placed under British administrative control. Since that date the town has been peaceful and very prosperous. A mission school has been established, and is attended by the sons of the emir and of the principal chiefs, who are desirous of learning to read and write English. The administrative district of Bida includes the town and is the western division of the province of Nupe (q.v.). (See also NIGERIA: _History_.)

BIDDEFORD, a city of York county, Maine, U.S.A., on the Saco river, opposite Saco, and on the Atlantic Ocean, 15 m. S.W. of Portland. Pop. (1890) 14,443; (1900) 16,145, of whom 7,149 were foreign-born (mostly French Canadians); (census, 1910) 17,079. Biddeford is served by the Boston & Maine railway, and is connected by electric lines with Portland and with Old Orchard Beach, a popular summer resort north of the Saco river. The climate and the scenery in and about Biddeford attract summer visitors and there are two resorts, Biddeford Pool and Fortune Rocks within the municipal limits; but the city is chiefly a manufacturing centre (third in rank among the cities of the state in 1905)--good water-power being furnished by the river--and cotton goods, foundry and machine shop products and lumber are the principal products, the first being by far the most important. The value of the factory products increased from $5,472,254 in 1900 to $6,948,722 in 1905, or 27%. There are large quarries of granite of excellent quality. A permanent settlement was established on both sides of the river about 1630 under the leadership of Richard Vines (1585-1651) and was named Saco. In 1718 the present name was adopted. In 1762 that portion of Biddeford which lay east of the river was incorporated as the town of Pepperellborough, for which name Saco was substituted in 1805. Biddeford was incorporated as a city in 1855.

BIDDER, GEORGE PARKER (1806-1878), English engineer, was born at Moreton Hampstead, in Devonshire, on the 14th of June 1806. From a very early age he manifested an extraordinary natural aptitude for calculation, which induced his father, who was a stone-mason, to exhibit him as a "calculating boy." In this way his talent was turned to profitable account, but his general education was in danger of being completely neglected. Interest, however, was taken in him by some of those who happened to witness his performances, among them being Sir John Herschel, and it was arranged that he should be sent to school in Camberwell. There he did not remain long, being removed by his father, who wished to exhibit him again, but he was saved from this misfortune and enabled to attend classes at Edinburgh University, largely through the kindness of Sir Henry Jardine, to whom he subsequently showed his gratitude by founding a "Jardine Bursary" at the university. On leaving college in 1824 he received a post in the ordnance survey, but gradually drifted into engineering work. In 1834 Robert Stephenson, whose acquaintance he had made in Edinburgh, offered him an appointment on the London & Birmingham railway, and in the succeeding year or two he began to assist George Stephenson in his parliamentary work, which at that time included schemes for railways between London and Brighton and between Manchester and Rugby via the Potteries. In this way he was introduced to engineering and parliamentary practice at a period of great activity which saw the establishment of the main features and principles that have since governed English railway construction. He is said to have been the best witness that ever entered a committee-room. He was quick to discover and take advantage of the weak points in an opponent's case, and his powers of mental calculation frequently stood him in good stead, as when, for example, an apparently casual glance at the plans of a railway enabled him to point out errors in the engineering data that were sufficient to secure rejection of the scheme to which he was opposed. In consequence there was scarcely an engineering proposal of any importance brought before parliament in connexion with which his services were not secured by one party or the other.

On the constructive side of his profession he was also busily occupied. In 1837 he was engaged with R. Stephenson in building the Blackwall railway, and it was he who designed the peculiar method of disconnecting a carriage at each station while the rest of the train went on without stopping, which was employed in the early days of that line when it was worked by means of a cable. Another series of railways with which he had much to do were those in the eastern counties which afterwards became the Great Eastern system. He also advised on the construction of the Belgian railways; with R. Stephenson he made the first railway in Norway, from Christiania to Eidsvold; he was engineer-in-chief of the Danish railways; and he was largely concerned with railways in India, where he strongly and successfully opposed break of gauge on through-routes. But though he sometimes spoke of himself as a mere "railway-engineer," he was in reality very much more; there was indeed no branch of engineering in which he did not take an interest, as was shown by the assiduity with which for half a century he attended the weekly meetings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he was elected president in 1860. He was one of the first to recognize the value of the electric telegraph. That invention was in its infancy when, in 1837, jointly with R. Stephenson he recommended its introduction on a portion of the London & Birmingham and on the Blackwall lines, while three years later he advised that it should be adopted to facilitate the working of the single line between Norwich and Yarmouth. He was also one of the founders of the Electric Telegraph Company, which enabled the public generally to enjoy the benefits of telegraphic communication. In hydraulic engineering, he was the designer of the Victoria Docks (London), being responsible not only for their construction, but also for what was regarded by some people at the time as the foolish idea of utilizing the Essex marshes for dock accommodation on a large scale. His advice was frequently sought by the government on points both of naval and military engineering. He died at Dartmouth on the 28th of September 1878.

His son, GEORGE PARKER BIDDER, Junr. (1836-1896), who inherited much of his father's calculating power, was a successful parliamentary counsel and an authority on cryptography.

BIDDERY, or BIDRI (an Indian word, from Bedar or Bidar, a town in the Nizam's Dominions), an alloy of copper, lead, tin and zinc used in making various articles and ornaments which are inlaid with gold and silver.

BIDDING-PRAYER (O. Eng. _biddan_, to pray, cf. Ger. _beten_), the formula of prayer or exhortation to prayer said in England before the sermon in cathedrals, at university sermons, in the Inns of Court and elsewhere on special occasions. Such formulae are found in the ancient Greek liturgies, e.g. that of St Chrysostom, in the Gallican liturgy, and in the pre-Reformation liturgies of England. The form varies, but in all the characteristic feature is that the minister tells the people what to pray for. Thus in England in the 16th century it took the form of a direction to the people what to remember in "bidding their beads." In course of time the word "bid" in the sense of "pray" became obsolete and was confused with "bid" in the sense of "command" (from O. Eng. _beodan_, to offer, present, and hence to announce, or command; cf. Ger. _bieten_, to offer, _gebieten_, to command), and the bidding-prayer has come practically to mean the exhortation itself. A form of exhortation which "preachers and ministers shall move the people to join with them in prayer" is given in the 55th canon of the Church of England (1603).

BIDDLE, JOHN (1615-1662), frequently called the father of English Unitarianism, was born on the 14th of January 1615, at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town and at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1638 and proceeded M.A. in 1641, and was then appointed to the mastership of the free school in the city of Gloucester, where "he was much esteemed for his diligence in his profession, serenity of manners and sanctity of life." He also diligently prosecuted theological studies, and the results he arrived at were of such a nature as to draw down upon him the reprobation of the civic authorities. A treacherous friend obtained the manuscript of his _Twelve Arguments drawn out of Scripture, wherein the commonly received opinion touching the deity of the Holy Spirit is clearly and fully refuted_; and in December 1645 he was summoned before the parliamentary committee then sitting at Gloucester. By them he was committed to prison, though he was at the time labouring under a dangerous fever. He was released on bail after a short imprisonment, but was in July 1647 called before parliament, which desired to inquire into his views. After tedious proceedings, during which Sir Henry Vane befriended him, Biddle was committed to custody and his _Twelve Arguments_, which he had now published, was ordered by parliament to be seized and burned by the hangman. Notwithstanding this and the ordinance of the 2nd of May 1648, visiting denial of the doctrine of the Trinity with death, Biddle issued two tracts, one a _Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity_, and the other _The Testimonies of Irenaeus, &c., concerning the one God and the Persons of the Trinity_ (1648). These were suppressed by government, and the Westminster assembly of divines eagerly pressed for the passing of an act by which heretics like Biddle could be put to death. This, however, was resisted by the army, and by many of the Independent parliamentarians; and after the death of the king, Biddle was allowed to reside in Staffordshire under surveillance. He engaged in preaching and in literary work, particularly an edition of the Septuagint, published by Roger Daniel. In February 1652 the general act of oblivion gave him complete freedom, and his adherents soon began to meet regularly for worship on Sundays. They were called Biddellians, or Socinians, or Unitarians, the name which has now become associated with their opinions. Biddle was not left long in peace. He translated some Socinian books, among others the _Life of Socinus_, and published two catechisms which excited a fury of indignation. He was summoned before the parliament in December 1654 and imprisoned. The dissolution of that body again set him at liberty for a short time, but he was presently brought up for some expressions used by him in a discussion with John Griffin, an illiterate Baptist pastor, who invoked the law against his superior opponent. He was put upon trial, and was only rescued by Cromwell, who sent him (October 1655) out of the way to one of the Scilly Islands, allowed him 100 crowns a year, and in 1658, on the solicitation of many friends, released him. For a few years he lived and taught quietly in the country, but returning to London he was in June 1662 again arrested, and fined L100. As he was unable to pay this sum, he was at once committed to prison, where fever, caused by the pestilential atmosphere, carried him off on the 22nd of September 1662.

BIDDLE, NICHOLAS (1786-1844), American financier, was born in Philadelphia on the 8th of January 1786. He was the nephew of a naval officer, Captain Nicholas Biddle (1750-1778), who lost his life while fighting on the American side, during the War of American Independence. After almost finishing the prescribed course at the university of Pennsylvania, the boy went to Princeton, where he graduated with high honours in 1801. During 1804-1807 he was the secretary, first of John Armstrong, minister to France, and then of James Monroe, minister to Great Britain. After his return to America he practised law for several years in Philadelphia, was an associate editor of Dennie's _Portfolio_, to which he contributed both prose and verse, and, with much literary skill, prepared for the press from the explorers' own journals a _History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark_ (1814). He was a prominent member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1810-1811 and of the Senate in 1814-1817, and in 1819 became, by President Monroe's appointment, one of the five government directors of the Bank of the United States. In 1823 he replaced Langdon Cheves as its president. In general he followed a conservative policy and showed marked ability in the management of the bank, but during President Andrew Jackson's warfare upon that institution, his character and his policy were violently assailed by the president and his followers. The bank's national charter lapsed in 1836, but it was immediately chartered by Pennsylvania as the "Bank of the United States, of Pennsylvania"; and Biddle remained president until 1839, two years before the bank failed. As president of the board of trustees appointed for the purpose, he took a prominent part in the establishment of Girard College, in accordance with the will of Stephen Girard (q.v.). He died in Philadelphia on the 27th of February 1844.

His son, CHARLES JOHN BIDDLE (1819-1873), served in the Mexican War as a captain of infantry, earning the brevet of major at Chapultepec; practised law in Philadelphia; was a representative in Congress in 1861-1863; was long editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia _Age_; and published "The Case of Major Andre, with a Review of the Statement of it in Lord Mahon's History of England," in the _Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania_ (1858).

The best account of Nicholas Biddle's administration of the bank may be found in an excellent work, by Ralph C.H. Catterall, _The Second Bank of the United States_ (Chicago, 1903).

BIDEFORD, a seaport, market town and municipal borough in the Barnstaple parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 81/4 m. S.W. of Barnstaple. Pop. (1901) 8754. It is served by the London & South-Western and the Bideford, Westward Ho & Appledore railways. It is picturesquely situated on two hills rising from the banks of the river Torridge, 3 m. above its junction with the estuary of the Taw. Many of the houses are built with timber framework in Elizabethan style, and the two parts of the town are united by a bridge of 24 arches, originally erected in the 14th century, when the revenue of certain lands was set apart for its upkeep. The church of St Mary, with the exception of the tower, is a modern reconstruction. A stone chancel screen and a Norman font are also preserved. Industries include the manufacture of earthenware, leather goods, sails, ropes and linen, and ironfounding. The small harbour has about 17 ft. of water at high tide, but is dry at low tide. Anthracite and a coarse potter's clay are found near the town. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 3398 acres.

Bideford (Bedeford, Bydyford, Budeford, Bytheford) is not mentioned in pre-Conquest records, but according to Domesday it rendered geld for three hides to the king. From the time of the Conquest down to the 18th century, Bideford remained in the possession of the Grenville family, and it first appears as a borough in an undated charter (probably of the reign of Edward I.) from Richard de Grenville, confirming a charter from his grandfather, Richard de Grenville, fixing the rent and services due from the burgesses and granting them liberties similar to those in use at Breteuil and a market every Monday. Another charter, dated 1271, confirms to Richard de Grenville and his heirs a market every Monday and five days' fair yearly at the feast of St Margaret (20th of July). In 1573 Elizabeth granted a charter creating Bideford a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a mayor, 5 aldermen and 7 chief burgesses, together with a recorder, town-clerk and 2 serjeants-at-mace. This charter also granted the Tuesday market, which is still held, and three annual fairs in February, July and November, now discontinued. A later charter from James I. in 1610 added the right to have a town seal, 7 aldermen instead of 5, and 10 chief burgesses instead of 7, and continued in force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1873, which established 4 aldermen and 12 common councillors. In the 16th century Sir Richard Grenville, the famous Virginian settler, did much to stimulate the commercial development of Bideford, which long maintained a very considerable trade with America, Spain and the Mediterranean ports, the import of tobacco from Maryland and Virginia being especially noteworthy. From the beginning of the 18th century this gradually declined and gave place to a coasting trade in timber and coal, chiefly with Wales and Ireland. The silk industry which flourished in the 17th century is extinct.

See John Watkins, _History of Bideford_ (Exeter, 1792).

BIDPAI (or PILPAY), FABLES OF, the name given in the middle ages (from Sanskrit _Vidya-pati_, chief scholar) to a famous collection of Hindu stories. The origin of them is undoubtedly to be found in the _Pancha Tantra_, or Five Sections, an extensive body of early fables or apologues. A second collection, called the _Hitopadesa_, has become more widely known in Europe than the first, on which it is apparently founded. In the 6th century A.D., a translation into Pahlavi of a number of these old fables was made by a physician at the court of Chosroes I. Anushirvan, king of Persia. No traces of this Persian translation can now be found, but nearly two centuries later, Abdallah-ibn-Mokaffa translated the Persian into Arabic; and his version, which is known as the "Book of Kalilah and Dimna," from the two jackals in the first story, became the channel through which a knowledge of the fables was transmitted to Europe. It was translated into Greek by Simeon Sethus towards the close of the 11th century; his version, however, does not appear to have been retranslated into any other European language. But the Hebrew version of Rabbi Joel, made somewhat later, was translated in the 13th century into Latin by John of Capua, a converted Jew, in his _Directorium vitae humanae_ (first published in 1480), and in that form became widely known. Since then the fables have been translated into nearly every European tongue. There are also versions of them in the modern Persian, Malay, Mongol and Afghan languages.

See Wilson's analysis of the Pancha Tantra, in the _Mem. of the Royal Asiat. Soc._ i.; Silvestre de Sacy's introduction to his edition of the _Kalilah and Dimna_ (1816); articles by the same in _Notices et Extr. des MSS. de la Bib. du Roi_, vols. ix. and x.; German translation by Philipp Wolff, _Bidpai's Fabeln_ (2 vols., 2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1839); the _Anvar-i Suheili_, Persian version of the Fables, translated by E.B. Eastwick (Hertford, 1854); Benfey, _Pantscha Tantra_, German translation with important introduction (2 vols., Leipzig, 1859); other editions, by L. Fritze (ib. 1884) and R. Schmidt (ib. 1901); Max Mueller, _Essays_ (Leipzig, 1872), vol. iii. pp. 303, &c.; J. Jacobs' edition of Sir T. North's _Morall Philosophie of Doni_, the earliest English version of the fables (London, 1888); J.G.N. Keith-Falconer, _Kalilah and Dimnah, or the Fables of Bidpai_ (Cambridge, 1895), their history, with a translation of the later Syriac version and notes; Leopold Hervieux, _Les Fabulistes Latins_, &c. v. _Jean de Capoue et ses derives_ (1899); E.G. Browne, _Persian Literat._ (1906), ii. 350.

BIEKKICH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine, 3 m. S. from Wiesbaden, of which it is the river port, and on the main line of railway from Cologne to Frankfort-on-Main. Pop. (1900) 15,048; (1905) 20,137. The palace of the former dukes of Nassau occupies a fine position on the river bank, and the shady gardens and groves attract large numbers of visitors during the summer. It is an important steamboat station for both passenger and cargo traffic, and besides manufactures of cement, dyes and soap, has a considerable trade in the wines of the district.

BIEDERMANN, FRIEDRICH KARL (1812-1901), German publicist and historian, was born at Leipzig on the 25th of September 1812, and after studying at Leipzig and Heidelberg became professor in the university of his native town in 1838. His early writings show him as an ardent advocate of German unity, and he was a member of the national parliament which met at Frankfort in 1848. Becoming a member of the Upper House of the parliament of Saxony, he advocated union under the leadership of Prussia; and, subsequently losing his professorship, he retired to Weimar, where he edited the _Weimarische Zeitung_. Returning to Leipzig in 1863 he edited the _Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_, and regained his professorship in 1865. He was again a member of the Saxon Upper House, and from 1871 to 1874 a member of the German Reichstag. He died at Leipzig on the 5th of March 1901. Biedermann's chief works are: _Erinnerungen aus der Paulskirche_ (Leipzig, 1849); _Deutschland im 18. Jahrhundert_ (Leipzig, 1854-1880); _Friedrich der grosse und sein Verhaeltnis zur Entwickelung des deutschen Geisteslebens_ (Brunswick, 1859); _Geschichte Deutschlands 1815-1871_ (Berlin, 1891); _Deutsche Volks- und Kulturgeschichte_ (Wiesbaden, 1901). He also wrote the dramas, _Kaiser Heinrich IV._ (Weimar, 1861); _Kaiser Otto III._ (Leipzig, 1862); and _Der letzte Buergermeister von Strassburg_ (Leipzig, 1870).

BIEL, GABRIEL (c. 1425-1495), scholastic philosopher, was born at Spires (Speier). He was the first professor of theology at the newly founded (1477) university of Tuebingen, of which he was twice rector. Some years before his death he entered a religious fraternity. His work consists in the systematic development of the views of his master, William of Occam. His _Epitome et Collectorium ex Occamo super libros quatuor Sententiarum_ (1508, 1512, and various dates) is a clear and consistent account of the nominalist doctrine, and presents the complete system of scholastic thought from that point of view. The empirical individualism of the work, tending necessarily to limit the province of reason and extend that of faith, together with scattered utterances on special points, which gained for Biel the title of _Papista Antipapista_, had considerable influence in giving form to the doctrines of Luther and Melanchthon. It is the best specimen of the final aspect of scholasticism. His other works also have been frequently reprinted. The title _Ultimus Scholasticorum_ is often wrongly bestowed on Biel; scholasticism did not cease with him, even in Germany, and continued to flourish long after his time in the universities of Spain.

See Linsenmann, in _Theologischen Quartalschrift_ (Tuebingen, 1865); Stockl, _Phil. d. Mittelalt._ ii. Sec. 269; H. Plitt, _Gabriel Biel als Prediger_ (Erlangen, 1879); art. s.v. by P. Tschackert in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopaedie_, vol. iii. (1897); W. Roscher, _Ges. d. Nationalokonomik_ (Munich. 1874), pp. 21-28; and works quoted under SCHOLASTICISM.

BIELEFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 68 m. S.W. from Hanover on the main line to Cologne. Pop. (1885) 34,931; (1905) 71,797. It is situated at the foot of the Teutoburger Wald, and consists of two portions, separated by the river Lutter, which were first united into one town in 1520. Among its public buildings and institutions are the old town church, with a curious carved altar-piece, the town hall, the gymnasium and the provincial industrial school. On the height above the town is the old castle of Sparenburg, built in the 12th century by Bernhard, count of Lippe. It was for a long time employed as a prison, but was restored after its destruction by fire in 1877 and now contains a historical museum. Bielefeld is the centre of the Westphalian linen industry. It has also important plush, silk and hosiery manufactures, as well as extensive bleaching works, and does a very large export trade to all parts of the world in these branches. Engines, automobiles, biscuits, glass, pianos, furniture and paper are also manufactured.

Bielefeld is mentioned as early as the 9th century, as _Belanvelde_, but its first recorded mention as a town is in 1233. It belonged at this time to the counts of Ravensberg, who often resided in the Sparenburg. It joined the Hanseatic league in 1270, and about the same time began to engage in the linen manufacture, which was greatly extended during the 16th and 17th centuries by a number of refugees from the Netherlands. In 1347 the town passed with the countship of Ravensberg to the duchy of Juelich, and in 1666 to that of Brandenburg.

BIELITZ (Czech _Bilsko_, Polish _Bielsko_), a town of Austria, in Silesia, 80 m. S.E. of Troppau by rail. Pop. (1900) 16,885, chiefly German. It is situated on the Biala river, just opposite the Galician town of Biala and possesses a fine castle belonging to the Sulkowsky family, in favour of whom the lordship of Bielitz was raised to a duchy in 1752. It has an important woollen and linen industry, and manufactures of jute and machinery, as well as an active trade, especially of woollens, to the East. The town was founded in the 13th century, and in the 15th and 16th was a fortified place.

BIELLA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Novara, 55 m. N.E. of Turin by rail, and 38 m. direct, situated on the S. edge of the lower Alps. Pop. (1901) town, 3454; commune, 19,267. The old town (1558 ft.) lies on a hill above the new town, and is reached from it by a cable tramway. It has fine palaces with decorations in terra-cotta; and a modern bath establishment is situated here. The new town contains the 15th-century cathedral and the fine Renaissance church of S. Sebastiano; near the former is a baptistery of the 9th century. It is a considerable manufacturing centre for woollens, silks and cottons, electric power being furnished by the torrents descending from the mountains at the foot of which it lies. It is frequented as a tourist centre, and several hydropathic establishments and mountain resorts lie in the vicinity.

BIENNE, or BIEL, an industrial town in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is built between the N.E. end of the lake of the same name and the point at which the river Suze or Scheuss (on the right bank of which it is situated) issues from a deep cleft (called the Taubenloch) in the Jura range. Bienne is 19 m. by rail N.E. of Neuchatel, and 21 m. N.W. of Bern. Its industrial importance is shown by the fact that it is the site of the West Swiss technical institute, which has departments for instruction in watch-making, in electricity, in engraving and chasing, and in subjects relating to railway, postal and telegraph matters. Its chief industries are watch-making, chain-making, the manufacture of machines and other objects for use on railways, &c. Its rapidly increasing commercial activity accounts no doubt for the rapid rise in its population, which in 1850 was but 3589, rose in 1870 to 8165, and in 1900 was 22,016, mainly Protestant, and two-thirds German-speaking. The parish church of St Benedict dates from 1451, but was restored in 1775--it has some fine 15th-century painted glass in the choir. In the town is the Schwab museum, which is chiefly notable for its fine collection of objects from the lake-dwellings. To the north-west of Bienne two funicular railways lead up to Evilard (or Leubringen) and Macolin (or Magglingen), both situated on the slope of the Jura.

First mentioned in the 12th century, Bienne continued for centuries to be under the jurisdiction of the prince-bishop of Basel. In 1279 (permanently in 1352) it made an alliance with Bern, in 1344 with Soleure, and in 1382 with Fribourg. But its attempts to be admitted into the Swiss Confederation were fruitless, though after it adopted the Reformation in 1525, it was closely associated with the Protestant cantons. In 1798 it was seized by the French, but in 1815, with the greater part of the bishopric of Basel, it became part of the canton of Bern.

See C.A. Bloesch, _Geschichte der Stadt Biel_ (to 1854), (3 vols., Biel, 1855-1856). (W. A. B. C.)

BIENNE, LAKE OF, or BIELERSEE, a lake in Switzerland, S.W. of the town of Bienne, and extending along the southern foot of the Jura range. It is 71/2 m. in length, 21/2 m. broad and 249 ft. in depth, while its surface is 1424 ft. above the sea-level, and its area 16 sq. m. In it is the Ile de St Pierre, where Rousseau resided for a short time in 1765. Many traces of lake-dwellings have been discovered on the shores of the lake. It receives the river Suze or Scheuss at its north-east end, while the Hagneck canal leads the waters of the Aar into the lake, as that of Nidau conducts them out again. At the southwestern end the river Thiele or Zihl flows into this lake from that of Neuchatel. (W. A. B. C.)

BIERSTADT, ALBERT (1830-1902), American landscape painter, was born in Solingen, Westphalia, Germany, on the 7th of January 1830, and was taken to the United States when about a year old. In 1853-1856 he studied painting at Duesseldorf. His pictures of the western part of the United States, and particularly the Rocky Mountains, made him widely popular. His "Estes Park, Colorado," is in the collection of the earl of Dunraven; his "Sierra Nevada" (1878) is in the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, and "The Valley of Yosemite" in the James Lenox collection in New York. He received many German and Austrian decorations, and was a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. He rendered panoramic views with a certain ability, though his work was rather topographically correct and impressive than artistic in conception and execution. He was a member of the National Academy of Design of New York, and is represented by two historical paintings, "The Discovery of the Hudson River," and "The Settlement of California," in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. He died in New York City on the 18th of February 1902.

BIFROST, in Old Norse mythology, the rainbow, which was supposed to form the bridge by which the gods passed between heaven and earth. It was guarded by Heimdal, god of light.

BIGAMY (from Lat. _bis_, twice, and Gr. [Greek: ghamos], marriage), in English law. according to the statute now in force (24 and 25 Vict. c. 100, Sec. 57), the offence committed by a person who "being married shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife." In the canon law the word had a rather wider meaning, and the marriage of a clerk in minor orders with a widow came within its scope. At the council of Lyons (A.D. 1274) bigamists were stripped of their privilege of clergy. This canon was adopted and explained by an English statute of 1276; and bigamy, therefore, became a usual counterplea to the claim of _benefit of clergy_. However, by an act of 1547 every person entitled to the benefit of clergy is to be allowed the same, "although he hath been divers times married to any single woman or single women, or to any widow or widows, or to two wives or more."

A bigamous marriage, by the ecclesiastical law of England, is simply void. By a statute of 1604 the offence was made a felony. This statute, after being repealed in 1828, was re-enacted and reproduced in the Offences against the Person Act 1861. It is immaterial whether the second marriage has taken place within England and Ireland or elsewhere, and the offence may be dealt with in any county or place where the defendant shall be apprehended or be in custody. The following clause embodies the necessary exceptions to the very general language used in the definition of the offence.--"Provided that nothing in this section contained shall extend to any second marriage contracted elsewhere than in England and Ireland by any other than a British subject, or to any person marrying a second time whose husband or wife shall have been continuously absent from such person for the space of seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time, or shall extend to any person who at the time of such second marriage shall have been divorced from the bond of the first marriage, or to any person whose former marriage shall have been declared void by any court of competent jurisdiction." The punishment is penal servitude for not more than seven nor less than five years, or imprisonment with or without hard labour, not exceeding two years.

A valid marriage must be proved in the first instance in order to support a charge of bigamy. A _voidable_ marriage, such as were marriages between persons within the prohibited degrees before the Marriage Act 1836, will be sufficient, but a marriage which is absolutely _void_ as all such marriages now are, will not. For example, if a woman marry B during the lifetime of her husband A, and after A's death marry C during the lifetime of B, her marriage with C is not bigamous, because her marriage with B was a nullity. In regard to the second marriage (which constitutes the offence) the English courts have held that it is immaterial whether, but for the bigamy, it would have been a valid marriage or not. An uncle, for example, cannot marry his niece; but if being already married he goes through the ceremony of marriage with her he is guilty of bigamy. In an Irish case, however, it has been held that to constitute the offence the second marriage must be one which, but for the existence of the former marriage, would have been valid. With reference to the case in which the parties to the first marriage have been divorced, it may be observed that no sentence or act of any foreign country dissolving _a vinculo_ a marriage contracted in England by persons continuing to be domiciled in England, for grounds on which it is not liable to be dissolved _a vinculo_ in England will be recognized as a divorce (_R. v. Lolley_ 1812, R. & R. 237). Hence, a divorce _a vinculo_ for adultery, in a Scottish court, of persons married in England, is not within the statute. But if a person charged with bigamy in England can prove that he has been legally divorced by the law of the country where the divorced parties were domiciled at the time (even though the ground on which the divorce was granted was not one that would justify a divorce in England) it will be good defence to the charge. Criminal jurisdiction is always regarded as purely territorial, but bigamy (together with homicide and treason) is an exception to this rule. A British subject committing bigamy in any country may be tried for the same in the United Kingdom (Earl Russell's case, 1901).

In Scotland, at the date of the only statute respecting bigamy, that of 1551, cap. 19, the offence seems to have been chiefly considered in a religious point of view, as a sort of perjury, or violation of the solemn vow or oath which was then used in contracting marriage; and, accordingly, it was ordained to be punished with the proper pains of perjury.

Bigamy was punished in England until the reign of William III. by death, then the penalty changed to life imprisonment and branding of the right hand. An act of George I. still in force lessened the penalty to deportation for seven years or imprisonment for two years with or without hard labour. The Offences against the Person Act 1861 changed deportation to penal servitude.

In the United States the law in regard to bigamy is practically founded on the English statute of 1604, with the exception that imprisonment and a fine, varying in the different states, were substituted instead of making the offence a felony. Congress has passed a statute declaring bigamy within the territories and places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States to be a misdemeanour (U.S. Rev. Stat. Sec. 5352). By statute in some states, upon absence of one spouse from the state for five years without being heard of, the other may marry again without committing bigamy, in other states the period is seven years. In most of the states, prosecutions for bigamy are barred after the lapse of a certain number of years. The marriage wherever solemnized must be a valid marriage according to the law of the place of solemnization; if void there, no prosecution for bigamy can be founded upon it. In some jurisdictions, an honest belief that a prior divorce of one of the parties was valid would be a defence to a prosecution for bigamy, in others the contrary is held.

On the continent of Europe, bigamy is punishable in most countries with varying terms of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, according to the circumstances of the case.

See Stephen, _History of Criminal Law_; Dicey, _Conflict of Laws; Report of the Royal Commission on Marriage Laws_ (1868).

BIGELOW, JOHN (1817- ), American journalist and diplomat, was born at Malden, New York, on the 25th of November 1817. He graduated at Union College in 1835, practised law in New York for several years after 1839; took up journalistic work; was joint owner (with William Cullen Bryant) and managing editor of the New York _Evening Post_ (1849-1861); was United States consul at Paris in 1861-1864, and was minister to France in 1864-1867. While consul, Bigelow wrote _Les Etats-Unis d'Amerique en 1863_ in order to counteract the apparent desire of the French people for a dissolution of the American Union, by showing them the relative importance of the commerce of the northern and southern states. On discovering in 1863 that a French shipbuilder, with the connivance of Napoleon III., was constructing two formidable iron-clads and two corvettes for the use of the Confederacy, he devoted his energies to thwarting this scheme, and succeeded in preventing the delivery of all but one of these vessels to the Confederate agents. In his work entitled _France and the Confederate Navy_ (New York, 1888) he gives an account of this episode. In 1865-1866, it devolved upon Bigelow, as minister to France, to represent his government in its delicate negotiations concerning the French occupation of Mexico, and he discharged this difficult task with credit. From 1875 to 1877 he served as secretary of state of New York. He wrote books of travel, of popular biography, or of historical or political discussion, &c., from time to time; but his principal literary achievements were editions, between 1868 and 1888, of Franklin's autobiography and autobiographical writings, copiously annotated; and of the complete works of Franklin, in ten octavo volumes (New York, 1887-1889). These editions were based in part upon the editor's personal investigations of manuscript sources in France and elsewhere, and supplanted the well-known, long serviceable, but less accurate edition of Jared Sparks (Boston, 1836-1840); they have in turn been supplanted by the edition of A.H. Smythe (10 vols., 1905-1907). Mr Bigelow was a close friend of Samuel J. Tilden, and became his literary executor, editing his speeches and other political writings (1885), publishing a biography in 1895, and editing a two-volume collection of Tilden's letters and literary memorials (1908). He also wrote a biography of William Cullen Bryant (1890). In 1897 he published a volume entitled _The Mystery of Sleep_ (2nd ed., 1903). In 1909 he published _Retrospections of an Active Life_.

BIGGAR, a police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1366. It is situated about 10 m. S.E. of Carstairs Junction (Caledonian railway), where the lines from Edinburgh and Glasgow connect. Lying on Biggar Water and near the Clyde, in a bracing, picturesque, upland country, Biggar enjoys great vogue as a health and holiday resort. It was the birthplace of Dr John Brown, author of _Rab and his Friends_, whose father was secession minister in the town. It was created a burgh of barony in 1451 and a police burgh in 1863. St Mary's church was founded in 1545 by Lord Fleming, the head of the ruling family in the district, whose seat, Boghall Castle, however, is now a ruin. John Gledstanes, great-grandfather of W.E. Gladstone, was a burgess of Biggar, and lies in the churchyard. Easter Gledstanes, the seat of the family from the 13th to the 17th century, and the estate of Arthurshiels, occupied by them for nearly a hundred years more, are situated about 31/2 m. to the north-west of the burgh. On the top of Quothquan Law (1097 ft.), about 3 m. west is a rock called Wallace's Chair, from the tradition that he held a council there prior to the battle of Biggar in 1297. Lamington, nearly 6 m. south-west, is well situated on the Clyde. It is principally associated with the family of the Baillies, of whom the most notable were Cuthbert Baillie (d. 1514), lord high treasurer of Scotland, William Baillie, Lord Provand (d. 1593), the judge, and William Baillie (fl. 1648), the general whose strategy in opposition to the marquess of Montrose was so diligently stultified by the committee of estates. The ancient church of St Ninian's has a fine Norman doorway. Lamington Tower was reduced to its present fragmentary condition in the time of Edward I., when William Heselrig, the sheriff, laid siege to it. The defenders, Hugh de Bradfute and his son, were slain, and his daughter Marion--the betrothed, or, as some say, the wife of William Wallace--was conveyed to Lanark, where she was barbarously executed because she refused to reveal the whereabouts of her lover. Wallace exacted swift vengeance. He burnt out the English garrison and killed the sheriff.

BIGGLESWADE, a market town in the Biggleswade parliamentary division of Bedfordshire, England, 41 m. N. by W. of London by the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5120. It lies on the east bank of the Ivel, a tributary of the Ouse, in a flat plain in which vegetables are largely grown for the London markets. The town is a centre of this trade.

Biggleswade (Bichelswade, Beckeleswade, Bickleswade) is an ancient borough by prescription which has never returned representatives to parliament. The borough court was held by the lord of the manor. At the time of Edward the Confessor, Archbishop Stigand owned the manor, which according to Domesday passed to Ralf de Insula. Henry I. granted it to the bishop of Lincoln, under whose protection the borough evidently grew up. In 1547 the bishop surrendered his rights to the king, and in the 17th century Biggleswade formed part of the jointure of the queens of England. Owing to its important position on the Roman road to the north the town became an agricultural centre for the surrounding district. In 1335 Edward III. renewed the bishop's licence to hold a Monday market, and annual fairs were held here from very early times. Those for horses are mentioned as famous by Camden. In addition to agriculture, Biggleswade was formerly engaged in straw-plaiting and lace manufacture.

BIGHT (O. Eng. _bight_, bend; cf. Ger. _Bucht_, a bay, and _beugen_, to bend), a nautical term for the loop or bent part of a rope, as distinguished from the ends; also a geographical term for a bay between two distant headlands, or with a shallow curve, e.g. the Bight of Benin, the Great Bight of Australia.

BIGNON, JEROME (1589-1656), French lawyer, was born at Paris in 1589. He was uncommonly precocious, and under his father's tuition had acquired an immense mass of knowledge before he was ten years of age. In 1600 was published a work by him entitled _Chorographie, ou description de la Terre Sainte_. The great reputation gained by this book introduced the author to Henry IV., who placed him for some time as a companion to the duc de Vendome, and made him tutor to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII. In 1604 he wrote his _Discours de la ville de Rome_, and in the following year his _Traite sommaire de l'election du pape_. He then devoted himself to the study of law, wrote in 1610 a treatise on the precedency of the kings of France, which gave great satisfaction to Henry IV., and in 1613 edited, with learned notes, the _Formulae_ of the jurist Marculfe. In 1620 he was made advocate-general to the grand council, and shortly afterwards a councillor of state, and in 1626 he became advocate-general to the parlement of Paris. In 1641 he resigned his official dignity, and in 1642 was appointed by Richelieu to the charge of the royal library. He died in 1656.

BIGNON, LOUIS PIERRE EDOUARD, BARON (1771-1841), French diplomatist and historian, born on the 3rd of January 1771, was the son of a dyer at Rouen. Though he had received a good education, he served throughout the early part of the revolutionary wars without rising above the rank of private. In 1797, however, the attention of Talleyrand, then minister of foreign affairs, was called to his exceptional abilities by General Huet, and he was attached to the diplomatic service. After serving in the legations in Switzerland and the Cisalpine republic, he was appointed in 1799 attache to the French legation at Berlin, of which three years later he became charge d'affaires. As minister-plenipotentiary at Cassel, between the years 1804 and 1806, he took a prominent share in the formation of the confederation of the Rhine; and after the battle of Jena he returned to Prussia as administrator of the public domains and finances. He filled a similar function in Austria after the battle of Wagram. At the end of 1810 he became French resident at Warsaw and was for a couple of years supreme in the affairs of the grand duchy.

The preparation of a constitution for Poland, on which he was engaged, was, however, interrupted by the events of 1812. Bignon, after a short imprisonment at the hands of the allies, returned to France in time to witness the downfall of Napoleon. During the Hundred Days he once more entered Napoleon's service, and, after Waterloo, as minister of foreign affairs under the executive commission, it was he who signed the convention of the 3rd of July 1815, by which Paris was handed over to the allies. Bignon did not re-enter public life until 1817, when he was elected to the chamber of deputies, in which he sat until 1830, consistent in his opposition to the reactionary policy of successive governments. His great reputation and his diplomatic experience gave a special weight to the attacks which he published on the policy of the continental allies, two of his works attracting special attention. _Du Congres de Troppau ou Examen des pretentions des monarchies absolues a l'egard de la monarchie constitutionelle de Naples_ (Paris, 1821), and _Les Cabinets el les peuples depuis 1815 jusqu'a la fin de 1822_ (Paris, 1822).

The revolution of 1830, which brought his party into power, only led to a very temporary resumption of office by Bignon. He was for a few weeks minister of foreign affairs in the first government of Louis Philippe, and again for a few weeks minister of public instruction. But the idea of making him responsible for the foreign policy of France could not be realized owing to the necessity under which Louis Philippe lay of courting the goodwill of the powers, whom Bignon had offended by his outspoken writings. Elected deputy in 1831 and member of the chamber of peers in 1839, he withdrew for the most part from politics, to devote himself to his great work, the _Histoire de France sous Napoleon_ (10 vols. 1829-1838, then 4 posthumous vols., 1847-1850). This history, while suffering from the limitations of all contemporaneous narratives, contains much that does not exist elsewhere, and is one of the best-known sources for the later histories of Napoleon's reign.

See Mignet, _Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. Bignon_ (1848).

BIGOD, HUGH (d. 1177), earl of Norfolk, was the second son of Roger Bigod (d. 1107), the founder of the English family of this name. Hugh inherited large estates in East Anglia on the death of his brother William in 1120, and enjoyed the favour of Henry I. At first a supporter of Stephen during this king's struggle with the empress Matilda, Hugh was rewarded with the earldom of Norfolk before 1141. After having fought for the king at the battle of Lincoln the earl deserted him, assumed a position of armed neutrality during the general anarchy, and then assisted Henry II. in his efforts to obtain the throne. This king confirmed him in the possession of his earldom; but becoming restless under the rule of law initiated by Henry, he participated in the revolt of 1173, which so far as England was concerned centred round his possessions. Though defeated and compelled to surrender his castles, Bigod kept his lands and his earldom, and lived at peace with Henry II. until his death, which probably took place in Palestine.

His son ROGER (d. 1221), who succeeded to the earldom of Norfolk, was confirmed in his earldom and other honours by Richard I., after he had fallen under the displeasure of Henry II. He took part in the negotiations for the release of Richard from prison, and after the king's return to England became justiciar. The earl was one of the leaders of the baronial party which obtained John's assent to Magna Carta, and his name appears among the signatories to this document.

Roger was succeeded as 3rd earl by his son, Hugh, who died in 1225, leaving a son, ROGER (d. 1270), who became 4th earl of Norfolk. Through his mother, Matilda, a daughter of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, Roger obtained the office of marshal of England in 1246. He was prominent among the barons who wrested the control of the government from the hands of Henry III., and assisted Simon de Montfort. The earl married Isabella, daughter of William the Lion, king of Scotland, but left no sons.

Hugh, the 3rd earl, left a younger son, HUGH (d. 1266), who was chief justiciar of England from 1258 to 1260, and who fought for Henry III. at the battle of Lewes. The latter's son, ROGER, succeeded his uncle Roger as 5th earl of Norfolk in 1270. This earl is the hero of a famous altercation with Edward I. in 1297, which arose out of the king's command that Bigod should serve against the king of France in Gascony, while he went to Flanders. The earl asserted that by the tenure of his lands he was only compelled to serve across the seas in the company of the king himself, whereupon Edward said, "By God, earl, you shall either go or hang," to which Bigod replied, "By the same oath, O king, I will neither go nor hang." The earl gained his point, and after Edward had left for France he and Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, prevented the collection of an aid for the war and forced Edward to confirm the charters in this year and again in 1301. Stubbs says Bigod and Bohun "are but degenerate sons of mighty fathers; greater in their opportunities than in their patriotism." The earl died without issue in December 1306, when his title became extinct, and his estates reverted to the crown. The Bigods held the hereditary office of steward (_dapifer_) of the royal household, and their chief castle was at Framlingham in Suffolk.

See W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, vols. i. and ii. (1896-1897); J.R. Planche, "The Earls of East Anglia" (_Brit. Arch. Ass._, vol. xxi., 1865); and G.E. C(okayne), _Complete Peerage_, vol. vi. (1895).

BIGOT, one obstinately and intolerantly holding particular religious opinions, who refuses to listen to reason and is ready to force others to agree with him; hence also applied to one who holds similar views on any subject. The early meaning of the word in English, at the end of the 16th century, was that of a religious hypocrite. The origin is obscure; it appears in French, in the forms _bigot_ or _bigos_, in the 12th century romance of Girard of Roussillon, where it is applied to certain tribes of southern Gaul, and in the _Roman du Rou_ of Wace (d. 1175?) as an abusive name given by the French to the Normans:

"Moult on Franchois Normans laidis et de meffais et de mesdis. Souvent lor dient reproviers, et claiment Bigos et Draschiers."

To this use has been attached the absurd origin from "_ne se, bi god_," the words in which, according to the 12th century chronicle, Rollo, duke of the Normans, refused to kiss the foot of Charles III., the Simple, king of the West Franks. The word may have some connexion with a corruption of Visigoth, a suggestion to which the use in the Girard romance lends colour. The meaning changed in French to that of "religious hypocrite" through the application, in the feminine _bigote_, to the members of the religious sisterhoods called Beguines (q.v.).

BIG RAPIDS, a city and the county-seat of Mecosta county, Michigan, U.S.A., on both sides of the Muskegon river, 56 m. N. by E. of Grand Rapids, in the west central portion of the lower peninsula. Pop. (1890) 5303; (1900) 4686, of whom 881 were foreign-born; (1910, U.S. census) 4519. It is served by the Pere Marquette and the Grand Rapids & Indiana railways. Big Rapids is the seat of the Ferris Institute (opened 1884, incorporated 1894), a large private co-educational school, founded by W.N. Ferris. The river, which falls 16 ft. within the city limits, is dammed a short distance south of the city, and 16,000 horse-power is generated, part of which is transmitted to the city. The principal manufactures are lumber and furniture, and saw-filing and filing-room machinery. Big Rapids, named from the falls of the Muskegon here, was settled in 1854, was platted in 1859 and was chartered as a city in 1869.

BIGSBY, JOHN JEREMIAH (1792-1881), English geologist and physician, the son of Dr John Bigsby, was born at Nottingham on the 14th of August 1792. Educated at Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D., he joined the army medical service and was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope in 1817. About a year later he went to Canada as medical officer to a regiment, and having developed much interest in geology he was commissioned in 1819 to report on the geology of Upper Canada. In 1822 he was appointed British secretary and medical officer to the Boundary Commission, and for several years he made extensive and important geological researches, contributing papers to the _American Journal of Science_ and other scientific journals; and later embodying an account of his travels in a book entitled _The Shoe and Canoe_ (1850). Returning to England in 1827 he practised medicine at Newark until 1846 when he removed to London, where he remained until the end of his life. He now took an active interest in the Geological Society of London, of which he had been elected a fellow in 1823. In 1869 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1874 he was awarded the Murchison medal by the council of the Geological Society. During the last twenty years of his long life he was continually at work preparing, after the most painstaking research, tabulated lists of the fossils of the Palaeozoic rocks. His _Thesaurus Siluricus_ was published with the aid of the Royal Society in 1868; and the _Thesaurus Devonico-Carboniferus_ in 1878. In 1877 he founded the Bigsby medal to be awarded by the Geological Society of London, with the stipulation that the receiver should not be more than forty-five years old. He died in London on the 10th of February 1881.

BIHARI (properly _Bihari_), the name of the most western of the four forms of speech which comprise the Eastern Group of modern Indo-Aryan Languages (q.v.). The other members are Bengali, Oriya and Assamese (see BENGALI). The number of speakers of Bihari in 1901 was 34,579,844 in British India, out of a total of 90,242,167 for the whole group. It is also the language of the inhabitants of the neighbouring Tarai districts of Nepal. In the present article it is throughout assumed that the reader is in possession of the facts described under the heads of INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES and PRAKRIT. The article BENGALI may also be studied with advantage.

"Bihari" means the language of the province of "Bihar," and to a certain extent this is a true description. It is the direct descendant of the old Magadhi Prakrit (see PRAKRIT), of which the headquarters were South Bihar, or the present districts of Patna and Gaya. It is, however, also spoken considerably beyond the limits of this province. To the west it extends over the province of Agra so far as the longitude of Benares, and to the south it covers nearly the whole of the province of Chota Nagpur. Allowing for the speakers in Nepal, its area extends over about 90,000 sq. m., and the total number of people who claim it as a vernacular is about the same as the population of France. Bihari has been looked upon as a separate language only during the past twenty-five years. Before that it was grouped with all the other languages spoken between Bengal and the Punjab, under the general term "Hindi."

The usual character employed for writing Bihari is that known as _Kaithi_, a cursive form of the well-known Nagari character of Upper India. The name of the character is derived from the _Kayath_ or _Kayasth_ caste, whose profession is that of scribes. Kaithi is widely spread, under various names, all over northern India, and is the official character of Gujarati. The Nagari character is commonly employed for printed books, while the Brahmans of Tirhut have a character of their own, akin to that used for writing Bengali and Assamese. In the south of the Bihari tract the Oriya character belonging to the neighbouring Orissa is also found.

Bihari has to its east Bengali, also a language of the Outer Band. To its west it has Eastern Hindi, a language of the Intermediate Band (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). While it must decidedly be classed as an Outer language, it nevertheless shows, as might be expected, some points of contact with the Intermediate ones. Nothing is so characteristic of Bengali as its pronunciation of the vowel _a_ and of the consonant _s_. The first is sounded like the _o_ in "hot" (transliterated _o_). In Eastern Bihari the same vowel has a broad sound, but not so broad as in Bengali. As we go westwards this broad sound is gradually lost, till it entirely disappears in the most western dialect, Bhojpuri. As regards _s_, the Magadhi Prakrit pronounced it as _'s_, like the _sh_ in "shin." The Prakrits of the West preserved its dental sound, like that of the _s_ in "sin." Here Bengali and Eastern Hindi exactly represent the ancient state of affairs. The former has the _'s_-sound and the latter the _s_-sound. At the present day Bihari has abandoned the practice of the old Magadhi Prakrit in this respect, and pronounces its _s_'s as clearly as in the West. There are political reasons for this. The pronunciation of _s_ is a literal shibboleth between Bengal and Upper India. For centuries Bihar has been connected politically with the West, and has in the course of generations rid itself of the typical pronunciation of the East. On the other hand, a witness as to the former pronunciation of the letter is present in the fact that, in the Kaithi character, _s_ is always written _'s_. In the declension of nouns, Bihari follows Bengali more closely than it follows Eastern Hindi, and its conjugation is based on the same principles as those which obtain in the former language.

Language.

The age of Bihari as an independent language is unknown. We have songs written in it dating from the 15th century, and at that time it had received considerable literary culture. Bihari has three main dialects, which fall into two divisions, an eastern and a western. The eastern division includes _Maithili_ or _Tirhutia_ and _Magahi_. Magahi is the dialect of the country corresponding to the ancient Magadha, and may therefore be taken as the modern representative of the purest Magadhi Prakrit. Its northern boundary is generally the river Ganges, and its western the river Son. To the south it has overflowed into the northern half of Chota Nagpur. It is nearly related to Maithili, but it is quite uncultivated and has no literature, although it is the vernacular of the birthplace of Buddhism. Nowadays it is often referred to by natives of other parts of the country as the typically boorish language of India. Maithili faces Magahi across the Ganges. It is the dialect of the old country of _Mithila_ or _Tirhut_, famous from ancient times for its learning. Historically and politically it has long been closely connected with Oudh, the home of the hero Rama-candra, and its people are amongst the most conservative in India. Their language bears the national stamp. It has retained numerous antiquated forms, and parts of its grammar are extraordinarily complex. It has a small literature which has helped to preserve these peculiarities in full play, so that though Magahi shares them, it has lost many which are still extant in the everyday talk of Mithila. The western division consists of the Bhojpuri dialect, spoken on both sides of the Gangetic valley, from near Patna to Benares. It has extended south-east into the southern half of Chota Nagpur, and is spoken by at least twenty millions of people who are as free from prejudice as the inhabitants of Mithila are conservative. The Bhojpuris are a fighting race, and their language is a practical one, made for everyday use, as simple and straightforward as Maithili and Magahi are complex. In fact, it might almost be classed as a separate language, had it any literature worthy of the name.

(Abbreviations: Mth. = Maithili, Mg. = Magahi, Bh. = Bhojpuri, B. = Bihari, Bg. = Bengali. Skr. = Sanskrit, Pr. = Prakrit. Mg. Pr. = Magadhi Prakrit.)

_Vocabulary._--The Bihari vocabulary calls for few remarks. _Tatsamas_, or words borrowed in modern times from Sanskrit (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES), are few in number, while all the dialects are replete with honest home-born _tadbhavas_, used (unlike Bengali) both in the literary and in the colloquial language. Very few words are borrowed from Persian, Arabic or other languages.

_Phonetics._--The stress-accent of Bihari follows the usual rules of modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars. In words of more than one syllable it cannot fall on the last, whether the vowel of that syllable be long or short, pronounced, half-pronounced, or not pronounced. With this exception, the accent always falls on the last long syllable. If there are no long syllables in the word, the accent is thrown back as far as possible, but never farther than the syllable before the antepenultimate. Thus, _ki-sa'-n(a)_ (final a not pronounced); _pa'ni_, _ha-m^a-ra_; _de-kh^a-la-h^u_. In the last word there is a secondary accent on the penultimate, owing to the following imperfect vowel (see below). When the first syllable of a word has not the main stress-accent, it also takes a secondary one, as in _de-kh^a-li-ai-nh'_. When the letter a follows a syllable which has the accent (secondary or primary) it is only half pronounced, and is here denoted by a small ^a above the line. In Mth. (but not in Mg. or Bh.) a final short _i_ or _u_ is often similarly very lightly pronounced, and is then represented by the same device. Before such an "imperfect" ^i or ^u the preceding syllable has a secondary accent, if it has not already got the main one.

When a word ends in _a_ preceded by a single uncompounded consonant, the _a_ is not pronounced; thus, _kisana_, sounded _kisan_. This vowel is sometimes pronounced with a drawl, like the _a_ in "ball," and is then transliterated _a_. When _a_ has this sound it can end a word, and in this position is common in the second person of verbs; thus, _dekha_, see thou. This sound is very frequently heard in Bhojpuri, and gives a peculiar tone to the whole dialect, which at once strikes the casual hearer. The usual short form of the letter _a_ is _a_, but when this would lead to confusion it is shortened in Mth. and Mg. to a sound like that of _a_ in the German _Mann_, and is then transliterated _a_. In Bh. it is always shortened to _a_. As an example, from _pani_, water, is formed the word _paniya_, but (in Mth. and Mg.) from the word _marab_, to strike, we have Mth. _mar^ali_, Mg. _mar^ali_, I struck, because _mar^ali_ (_-li_) would mean "I died." In Bh. _mar^ali_ actually has both these meanings. The letters _e_ and _o_ may be either long (_e, o_) or short (_e, o_). In Skr. the diphthongs _ai_ and _au_ (here transliterated _ai, au_) are much longer than the Bihari _ai_ and _au_, which are contractions of only _a + i_ and _a + u_ respectively. We may compare the Sanskrit, or _tatsama, ai_ with the English "aye," and the _tadbkava ai_ with the English "I." In counting syllables in Bihari, _ai_ and _au_ count each as two syllables, not each as one long syllable. The Skr. _r_ appears only in _tatsamas_. Nasalization of vowels is extremely frequent. In this article it is represented by the sign ~ over the vowel, as in _muh, mar^ali_ and _dekh^alah^u_.

As regards consonants, _d_ and _dh_, when medial, are pronounced as strongly burred _r_ and _rh_, and are then transliterated as here shown. There is a constant tendency to change these to an ordinary dental _r_ and _rh_; thus, _ghoda_, pronounced _ghora_ or _ghora_. The semivowels _y_ and _v_ are always pronounced like _j_ and _b_ respectively, unless they are simply euphonic letters put in to bridge the hiatus between two concurrent vowels; thus _yauvana_ pronounced _jauban_, and _maliya_ for _mali-a, ghor^awa_ for _ghor^a-a_. The sibilants _s_ and _s_ are both pronounced as a dental _s_, but (a relic of the old Mg. Pr.) are both invariably written as a palatal _s_ in the Kaithi character. Thus, the English word "session" (_sesun_) is written _sesan_ and pronounced _sesan_. The cerebral _s_, when uncompounded, is pronounced _kh_. When compounded, it generally has its proper sound. Thus, _sastha_, sixth, is pronounced _khasth_. As a general statement we may say that Bihari spelling is not fixed, and that there are often many ways of writing, and sometimes two or three ways of pronouncing, the same word.

The main typical characteristics of Mg. Pr. are that western Pr. _s_ becomes _s_, and that western Pr. _r_ becomes _l_. We have seen that the change of _s_ to _s_ occurs in Bengali but not in Bihari, and have given reasons for the change back to _s_ in the latter language, although the Mg. Pr. _s_ is retained in writing. In both Bengali and Bihari, a western _r_ is not now represented by _l_, but is represented by _r_. This deviation from the Mg. Pr. rule is only apparent, and is due to the letter _r_ representing two distinct sounds. In Skr., in the western Prakrits, and in the modern western languages, _r_ is a cerebral letter, with a cerebral sound. In the modern eastern languages, _r_ is a dental letter, with a dental sound. Everywhere, both in old times and at the present day, _l_ was and is a dental letter. The meaning, therefore, of the change from western Pr. _r_ to Mg. Pr. _l_ was that the western _r_ lost its cerebral sound, and became a dental letter, like _l_. That dental character is preserved in the _r_ of the modern eastern languages. In fact, in Bihari _r_ and _l_ are frequently confounded together, or with _n_, another dental letter. Thus, we have _kali_ or _kari_, black; _phar_ or _phal_, fruit; Skr. _rajju-_, B. _leju-ri_, a string; _Lakhnaur_, the name of a town, quite commonly pronounced _Nakhlaul_; and the English names Kelly and Currie both pronounced indifferently _kari_ or _kali_. Compare Assamese _saril_ for _Skr. sarira-_.

The genius of the Bihari language is adverse to the existence of a long vowel in a _tadbhava_ word, when it would occupy a position more than two syllables from the end. Thus, _ghora_, but _ghor^awa_; _marel_, but _mar^ali_. This is subject to various subsidiary rules which will be found in the grammars. The principle is a most important one, and, indeed, pervades all Indo-Aryan vernaculars of the present day, but it is carried out with the greatest thoroughness and consistency in Bihari. The whole system of declension and conjugation is subject to it. When _a_ preceding _i_ or _e_ is shortened, the two together become _ai_, and similarly a shortened _a + u_ or _o_ become _au_.

_Declension._--Bihari has a stronger sense of gender than the other languages of the Eastern Group. In the modern language the distinction is in the main confined no animate beings, but in the older poetry the system of grammatical, as distinct from sexual, gender is in full swing. Except in the case of the interrogative pronoun, there is no neuter gender--words which in Skr. and Pr. were neuter being generally, but not always, treated as masculine. The plural can everywhere be formed by the addition of some noun of multitude to the singular, and this is the universal rule in Mth., but in Mg. and Bh. it is generally made by adding _n_ or (in Bh.) _nh_ or _ni_ to the singular, before all of which a final vowel is shortened. Thus _ghora_, a horse, _ghoran_, horses.

As for cases, the Apabhramsa locative--_hi_ (_-hi_) and the ablative _-hu_ (see PRAKRIT) terminations have survived in poetry, proverbs and the like, and each of them can now be used for any oblique case; but in ordinary language and in literature _-hi_ and _-hi_ have become contracted to _e_ and _e_, the former of which is employed for the instrumental and the latter for the locative case. Thus, _ghar_, house; _ghare_, by a house; _ghare_, in a house. The old termination _-hu_ has also survived in sporadic instances, under the form _o_, with an ablative sense. Cases are, however, usually formed, as elsewhere, by suffixing postpositions to a general oblique case (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). The oblique case in Bihari is generally the same as the nominative, but nouns ending in _n, b, l or r_, and some others, form it by adding _a_ (a relic of the old Mg. Pr. genitive in _aha_). Thus, _maral_, the act of striking, obl. _mar^ala_ (Mg. Pr. _mari-allaha_). Another set of verbal nouns forms the oblique case in _ai_, _e_ or _a_, thus, Bh. _mar_, the ace of striking, _mare-la_, for striking, to strike. In Mg. every noun ending in a consonant may have its oblique form in _e_; thus, _ghar_, a house, _ghar-ke_ or _ghare-ke_, of a house. The _ai-_ or _e-_ termination is another relic of the Apabhrarhsa _-hi_, and the _a_ is a survival of the Ap. _-hu_.

The usual genitive postposition is _k_, which has become a suffix, and now forms part of the word to which it is attached, a final preceding vowel being frequently shortened. Thus, _ghora_, gen. _ghorak_. Other genitive postpositions are _ke_, _kar_ and _ker_. These, and all other postpositions, are still separate words, and have not yet become suffixes. The more common postpositions are[1] Acc.-Dat. _ke_; Instr.-Abl. _sa, se_; Loc. _ma., me_. The genitive does not change to agree with the gender of the governing noun, as in Hindostani, but in Bh. (not in Mth. or Mg.), when the governing noun is not in the nominative singular, the genitive postposition takes the oblique form _ka_; thus, _raja-ke mandir_, the palace of the king; but _raja-ka mandir-me_, in the palace of the king. In Mth. and Mg. pronouns have a similar oblique genitive in _a_. There is no case of the agent, as in Hindostani; the subject of all tenses of all verbs being always in the nominative case.

Every noun can have three forms, a short, a long and a redundant. The short form is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. Occasionally both weak and strong forms occur for the same word; thus, short weak, _ghor_; short strong, _ghora_; long, _ghor^awa_; redundant, _ghorauwa_. This superfluity of forms is due to the existence of the pleonastic suffix _-ka-_ in the Prakrit stage of the language (see PRAKRIT). In that stage the _k_ of the suffix was already elided, so that we have the stages:--Skr. _ghota-ka-s_, Pr. _ghod-a-u_, B. _ghora_ (by contraction) or _ghor^a-wa_ (with insertion of a euphonic _w_). The redundant form is a result of the reduplication of the suffix, which was allowed in Pr. Thus. Skr. _*ghota-ka-ka-s_, Pr. _ghoda-a-a-u_, B. _ghorauwa_ (contracted from _ghor^a-wa-wa-a_). The long and redundant forms are mainly used in conversation. They are familiar and often contemptuous. Sometimes they give a definite force to the word, as _ghor^awa_, the horse. In the feminine they are much used to form diminutives.

As in other languages of the Eastern Group, the singulars of the personal pronouns have fallen into disuse. The plurals are used politely for the singulars, and new forms are made from these old plurals, to make new plurals. The old singulars survive in poetry and in the speech of villagers, but even here the nominative has disappeared and new nominatives have been formed from the oblique bases. All the pronouns have numerous optional forms. As a specimen of pronominal declension, we may give the most common forms of the first personal pronoun.

+------------+----------------+--------------+------------+ | | Maithili. | Magahi. | Bhojpuri. | +------------+----------------+--------------+------------+ | Sing. Nom. | ham | ham | ham | | Gen. | hamar | hamar | hamar | | Obl. | ham^ara | ham^ara | ham^ara | | | | | | | Plur. Nom. | ham^ara sabh | ham^arani | ham^ani-ka | | Gen. | ham^ara sabhak | ham^arani-ke | ham^ani-ke | | Obl. | ham^ara sabh | ham^arani | ham^a ni | +------------+----------------+--------------+------------+

The important point to note in the above is that the oblique form singular is formed from the genitive. It is the oblique form of that case which is also used when agreeing with another noun in an oblique case. Thus, _hamar ghar_, my house; _ham^ara ghar-me_, in my house; _ham^ara-ke_, to me. In Mth. the nominative plural is also the oblique form of the genitive singular, and in Bh. and Mg. it is the oblique form of the genitive plural. In Bengali the nominative plural of nouns substantive is formed in the same way from the genitive singular (see BENGALI). The usual forms of the pronouns are _ham_, I; _to_, _tu_, thou; Mth. _ap^anah_, Bh. _raura_, Your Honour; _i_, this; _o_, that, he; _je_, who; _se_, he; _ke_, who? Mth. _ki_, Mg., Bh. _ka_, what? _keo, keu_, any one; Mth. _kicch^u_, Mg. _kuchu_, Bh. _kachu_, anything. The oblique forms of these vary greatly, and must be learned from the grammars.

_Conjugation in Maithili and Magahi._--It is in the conjugation of the verb that the amazing complexity of the Mth. and Mg. grammars appears. The conjugation of the Bhojpuri verb is quite simple, and will be treated separately. In all three dialects the verb makes little or no distinction of number, but instead there is a distinction between non-honorific and honorific forms. In Mth. and Mg. this distinction applies not only to the subject but also to the object, so that for each person there are, in the first place, four groups of forms, viz.:--

I. Subject non-honorific, object non-honorific. II. Subject honorific, object non-honorific. III. Subject non-honorific, object honorific. IV. Subject honorific, object honorific.

+-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------+ | | Object: non-honorific | Object: honorific. | +-------+----------------------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+--------------+------------+ |Person.| Short Form | Long Form | Redundant Form. | | | | +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+ | | | | Group I. | Group II. | Group I. | Group II. | Group I. | Group II. | Group III. | Group IV. | | |(Subject: non-| (Subject: |(Subject: non-| (Subject: |(Subject: non-| (Subject: |(Subject: non-| (Subject: | | | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+------------+ | | | _mar^aliai_ Or | _mar^aliaik_ Or | | | 1 | _mar^ali_ or _mar^ulak^u_ | (with object in 2nd person)| (with object in 2nd person)| _mar^aliainh^i_ | | | | _mar^aliau_ | _mar^aliauk_ | | | +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+ | | | | |Same as 1st | |Same as 1st | | | | | | Same as 1st | |person, but | |person, but | |Same as 1st| | 2 | _mar^ale_ | person. | _mar^alah_ |no forms for | _mur^alahak_ |no forms for |_mar^alukunh^i_| person. | | | | | |object in | |object in | | | | | | | |2nd person. | |2nd person. | | | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+ | | | | maral^ukai Or| |maral^akaik Or| | | | | 3 | _mar^alak_ |_mar^alunh^i_| (with object | Wanting | (with object | Wanting | maral^akainh^i|_maral^at- | | | | |in 2nd person)| |in 2nd person)| | | hinh^i_ | | | | | _maral^akau_ | |_maral^akauk_ | | | | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+

In Mth. all the forms in which the object is honorific end in -_nh^i_. Mg. closely follows this, but the forms are more abraded.

Forms in which the object is non-honorific may be, as in the case of nouns, short, long or redundant. The long forms are made by adding _ai_ (or in the second person -_ah_) to the short forms, and the redundant forms by adding _k_ to the long forms. Again, if the _object_ is in the second person, the _ai_ of the long and redundant forms is changed to _au_. Finally, in the first person the non-honorific and honorific forms depending on the subject are the same, and are also identical with those forms of the second person in which the subject is honorific. We thus get the following paradigm of the Mth. past tense of the verb _marab_, to strike. The Mg. forms are very similar. Besides the above there are numerous optional forms. Moreover, these are only masculine forms. The feminine gender of the subject introduces new complications. It is impossible here to go into all these _minutiae_, interesting as they are to philologists. They must be learnt from the regular grammars. On the present occasion we shall confine ourselves to describing the formation of the principal parts of the verb.

In Mth. the usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is, as in Bengali, based on the root _ach_ (Skr. _rcchati_), the initial vowel being generally dropped, as in _chi_, I am; _chalah^u_, I was; but _ach^i_, he is. In Mg. we have _hi_ or _hiki_, I am; _halu_, I was. The finite verb has three verbal nouns or infinitives, viz. (from the root _mar_, strike), Mth. _mar^i_ or Mg. _mar_; _marab_; and _maral_. All three are fully declined as nouns, the oblique forms being _marai_ or _mare_, _mar^aba_, and _mar^ala_, respectively. There are two participles, a present (Mth. _marait_ = Pr. _marentu_) and a past (Mth. _maral_ = Pr. _mari-allu_). The Mg. forms are very similar. The old Mg. Pr. present and imperative have survived, but all other tenses are made from verbal nouns or participles. The past tense (of which the conjugation for a Maithili transitive verb is given above) is formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle. Thus, _maral+i_, struck + by-me, becomes _mar'li_, I struck. In the case of intransitive verbs, the suffixes may represent the nominative and not the instrumental case of the pronoun, and hence the conjugation is somewhat different. The future is a mixed tense. Generally speaking, the first two persons are formed from the verbal noun in _b_, which is by origin a future passive participle, and the third person is formed from the present participle. Thus, _marab + ah^u_, about-to-be-struck + by-me, becomes _mar^abah^u_, I shall strike, and _marait + ah_, striking + he, becomes _mar^atah_, he will strike (compare the English "he's going," for "he is on the point of going"). A past conditional is also formed by adding similar suffixes to the present participle, as in _maritah^u_, (if) I had struck. This use of the present participle already existed in the Pr. age (cf. Hema-candra's _Grammar_, in. 180). In Mth. the present definite and the imperfect are formed by conjugating the present or past tense respectively of the auxiliary verb with the present participle; thus _marait chi_, I am striking. Mg. (like vulgar English) substitutes the oblique form of the verbal noun for the present participle, as in _mare hi_, I am a-striking. The perfect is usually formed by adding the word for "is" to the past; thus, Mth. _mar^ali ach^i_, I have struck, lit. struck-by-me it-is. A pluperfect is similarly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb.

There are numerous irregular verbs. Most of the irregularities are due to the root ending in a vowel or in a weak consonant such as _b_ (= Pr. _v_). Thus root _pab_, obtain, past participle _paol_, first singular, past tense, _pauli_. More definitely irregular are a few roots like _kar_, do, past participle _kail_. These last instances are cases in which the past participle is independently derived from a Skr. past participle, and is not formed as usual by adding the pleonastic suffix -_al_ or -_il_ (Skr., Pr., _-alla-_, _-illa_-, see PRAKRIT) to the Bihari root. Thus, Skr. _krta-s_, Pr. _kaa-u, ka-ill-u_, B. _kail_, instead of _kar-al_.

There is a long series of transitive verbs formed from intransitives and of causal verbs formed from transitives, generally by adding _ab_ (Skr. _apaya_-, Pr. _ave_-). Compound verbs are numerous. Noteworthy is the desiderative compound formed by adding the root _cah_, wish, to the dative of a verbal noun. Thus, _ham dekha-ke cahait-chi_, I am wishing for the seeing, I wish to see.

_Conjugation in Bhojpuri._--The Bh. conjugation is as simple as that of Mth. and Mg. is complex. In the first and second persons the plural is generally employed for the singular, but there is no change in the verb corresponding to the person or honour of the object. The usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is derived in the present from the root _bat_ or _bar_, be, as in _bate_ or _bare_ (Skr. _vartate_, Pr. _vattai_), he is. The past is derived from the root _rah_ (Skr. _rahati_, Pr. _rahai_), as in _rah^ali_ or (contracted) _rahi_, I was. The verbal nouns and participles are nearly the same as in Mth.-Mg., the first verbal noun and the present participle being _mar_ and _marat_, as in Mg. The old present and imperative, derived from the Mg. Pr. forms, are also employed in Bh. Thus, _mare_ (Pr. _marei_), he strikes. This tense is often used as a present conditional. When it is wished to emphasize the sense of a present indicative, the syllable -_la_ is suffixed. The same suffix is employed in Rajasthani, Naipali and Marathi to form the future, and in Bh. it is often also used with a future sense. The past tense is formed, as in Mth.-Mg., by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle; thus, _mar^ali_ (_mara + li_), I struck, as explained above. Similarly, for the first and second persons of the future we have _mar^abi_, I shall strike, and so on, but the third person is _mari_ (Pr. _marehi_), he will strike, _marihen_ (Pr. _marehinti_), they will strike. The periphrastic tenses are formed on the same principles as in Mth. As an example of Bh. conjugation we give the present, past and future tenses in all persons. There are a few additional optional forms, but nothing like the multiplicity of meanings which we find in Mth. and Mg.

+---------+----------+----------+----------+ | | Present. | Past. | Future. | +---------+----------+----------+----------+ | Sing. 1 | Not used | Not used | Not used | | 2 | mare-le | mar^alas | mar^abe | | 3 | mare-la | mar^ale | mari | | | | | | | Plur. 1 | mari-la | mar^ali | mar^abi | | 2 | mara-la | mar^ala | mar^aba | | 3 | mare-le | mar^alen | marihen | +---------+----------+----------+----------+

It will be observed that the termination of the present changes in sympathy with the old present to which it is attached. In some parts of the Bh. area, especially in the district of Saran, _u_ is substituted for _^al_ in the past. Thus, _marui_, I struck. The _maru_- is merely the past participle without the pleonastic termination _-alla-_ which is used in Bihari, as explained under the Mth.-Mg. conjugation.

Irregular verbs, the formation of transitive and causal verbs, and the treatment of compound verbs, are on the same lines as in Mth.

Literature.

_Bihari Literature._--In all three dialects there are numerous folk-epics transmitted by word of mouth. Several have been published at various times in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ and in the _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft_. The only dialect which has any real literature is Maithili. The earliest writer of whom we have any record is Vidyapati Thakkura (Bidyapati Thakur), who lived at the court of Raja Siva Simha of Sugaona in Tirhut in the 15th century. He was a voluminous Sanskrit writer, but his fame rests chiefly on his dainty lyrics in Maithili dealing with the loves of Radha and Krishna. These have exercised an important influence on the religious history of eastern India. They were adopted and enthusiastically recited by the reformer Caitanya (16th century), and through him became the home-poetry of the Bengali-speaking Lower Provinces. Their language was transformed (we can hardly say translated) into Bengali, and in that shape they have had numerous imitators. A collection of poems by the old Master-singer in their Maithili dress has been published by the present writer in his _Chrestomathy_ of that language. The most admired of Vidyapati's successors is Manbodh Jha, who died in 1788. He composed a _Haribans_, or poetical life of Krishna, which has great popularity. Many dramas have been composed in Mithila. The fashion is to write the body of the work in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but the songs in Maithili. Two dramas, the _Parijata-harana_ and the _Rukmini-parinaya_, are attributed to Vidyapati. Among modern writers in the dialect, we may mention Harsanatha, an elegant lyric poet and author of a drama entitled _Usa-harana_, and Candra Jha, whose version of the Ramayana and translation of Vidyapati's Sanskrit _Purusa-pariksa_ are deservedly popular.

AUTHORITIES.--_The Linguistic Survey of India_, vol. v. part ii. (Calcutta, 1903), gives a complete conspectus of Bihari in all its dialects and sub-dialects. See also G.A. Grierson, _Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Sub-dialects of the Bihari Language_, parts i. to viii. (Calcutta, 1883-1887--these deal with every form of Bihari except standard Maithili); and S.H. Kellogg, _A Grammar of the Hindi Language, in which are treated High Hindi... also the Colloquial Dialects of ... Bhojpur, Magadha, Maithila, &c._ (2nd ed., London, 1893).

For Maithili, see G.A. Grierson, _An Introduction to the Maithili Language of North Bihar, containing a Grammar, Chrestomathy and Vocabulary_; part i. _Grammar_ (Calcutta, 1881; 2nd ed., 1909); part ii. _Chrestomathy and Vocabulary_ (Calcutta, 1882). For Vidyapati Thakkura, see J. Beames, "The Early Vaishnava Poets of Bengal," in _Indian Antiquary_, ii. (1873), pp. 37 ff.; the same, "On the Age and Country of Vidyapati," _ibid_. iv. (1875), pp. 299 ff.; anon, article in the _Banga Darsana_, vol. iv. (1282 B.S.), pp. 75 ff.; Saradacarana Maitra, Introduction to _Vidyapatir Padavali_ (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1285 B.S.); C.A. Grierson, _Chrestomathy_, as above; "Vidyapati and his Contemporaries," _Indian Antiquary_, vol. xiv. (1885), pp. 182 ff.; "On some Mediaeval Kings of Mithila," _ibid_. vol. xxviii. (1899), pp. 57 ff.

For Bhojpuri, see J. Beames, "Notes on the Bhojpuri Dialect of Hindi spoken in Western Bihar," in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. N.S., 1868, pp. 483 ff.; A.F.R. Hoernle, _A Grammar of the Eastern Hindi compared with the other Gaudian Languages_ (here "Eastern Hindi" means "Western Bhojpuri"), (London, 1880); J.R. Reid, _Report on the Settlement Operations in the District of Azamgarh_ (Allahabad, 1881--contains in appendices full grammar and vocabulary of Western Bhojpuri).

No special works have been written about Magahi. (G. A. Gr.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The origin of the postpositions is discussed in the article HINDOSTANI.

BIHARI-LAL, a name famous in Hindustani literature as the author of the _Sat-sai_, a collection of approximately seven hundred distichs, which is perhaps the most celebrated Hindi work of poetic art, as distinguished from narrative and simpler styles. The language is the form of Hindi called _Braj-bhasha_, spoken in the country about Mathura, where the poet lived. The couplets are inspired by the Krishna side of Vishnu-worship, and the majority of them take the shape of amorous utterances of Radha, the chief of the Gopis or cowherd maidens of Braj, and her divine lover, the son of Vasudeva. Each couplet is independent and complete in itself, and is a triumph of skill in compression of language, felicity of description, and rhetorical artifice. The distichs, in their collected form, are arranged, not in any sequence of narrative or dialogue, but according to the technical classification of the sentiments which they convey as set forth in the treatises on Indian rhetoric.

Little is known of the author beyond what he himself tells us. He was born in Gwalior, spent his boyhood in Bundelkhand, and on his marriage settled in his father-in-law's household in Mathura. His father was named Kesab Ray; he was a twiceborn (_Dwija_) by caste, which is generally understood to mean that he was a Brahman, though some assert that he belonged to the mixed caste, now called Ray, sprung from the offspring of a Brahman father by a Kshatriya mother. A couplet in the _Sat-sai_ states that it was completed in A.D. 1662. It is certain that his patron, whom he calls Jai Shah, was the Raja of Amber or Jaipur, known as Mirza Jai Singh, who ruled from 1617 to 1667 during the reigns of the emperors Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. A couplet (No. 705) appears to refer to an event which occurred in 1665, and in which Raja Jai Singh was concerned. For this prince the couplets were composed, and for each _doha_ the poet is said to have received a gold piece worth sixteen rupees.

The collection very soon became celebrated. As the couplets are independent one of another, and were put together fortuitously as composed, many different recensions exist; but the standard is that settled by an assembly of poets under the direction of Prince A'zam Shah, the third son of the emperor Aurangzeb (1653-1707), and hence called the A'zam-shahi; it comprises 726 couplets. The estimation in which the work is held may be measured by the number of commentators who have devoted themselves to its elucidation, of whom Dr Grierson mentions seventeen. Two of them were Musalmans, and two other commentaries were composed for Musalman patrons. The collection has also twice been translated into Sanskrit.

The best-known commentary is that of Lallu-ji-Lal, entitled the _Lala-chandrika_. The author was employed by Dr Gilchrist in the College of Fort William, where he finished his commentary in 1818. A critical edition of it has been published by Dr G.A. Grierson (Calcutta, government of India Press, 1896). (C. J. L.)

BIJAPUR, an ancient city and modern district of British India in the southern division of Bombay. It is a station on the Southern Mahratta railway, 60 m. S. of Sholapur. The ancient city was supplied with water by an elaborate underground system of reservoirs and aqueducts, which has been restored in part as a famine relief work. The population in. 1901 was 23,811. The city used to be the extensive, splendid and opulent capital of an independent sovereignty of the same name, but now retains only the vestiges of its former grandeur. It is still, however, the most picturesque collection of ruins in India. The city of Bijapur owed its greatness to Yusuf Adil Shah, the founder of the independent state of Bijapur. It consists of three distinct portions--the citadel, the fort and the remains of the city. The citadel, built by Yusuf Adil Shah, a mile in circuit, is of great strength, well built of the most massive materials, and encompassed by a ditch 100 yds. wide, formerly supplied with water, but now nearly filled up with rubbish, so that its original depth cannot be discovered. Within the citadel are the remains of Hindu temples, which prove that Bijapur was an important town in pre-Mahommedan times. The fort, which was completed by Ali Adil Shah in 1566, is surrounded by a wall 6 m. in circumference. This wall is from 30 to 50 ft. high, and is strengthened with ninety-six massive bastions of various designs. In addition there are ten others at the various gateways. The width is about 25 ft.; from bastion to bastion runs a battlemented curtained wall about 10 ft. high. The whole is surrounded by a deep moat 30 to 40 ft. broad. Inside these walls the Bijapur kings bade defiance to all comers. Outside the walls are the remains of a vast city, now for the most part in ruins, but the innumerable tombs, mosques, caravanserais and other edifices, which have resisted the havoc of time, afford abundant evidence of the ancient splendour of the place. Among its many buildings three are specially worthy of mention. The Gol Gunbaz, or tomb of Sultan Mahommed Adil Shah, which was built 1626-1656, is one of the most interesting buildings in the world. It is a square building, 135 ft. each way, which is surmounted by a great circular dome 198 ft. high. The inside area (18,360 ft.) is greater than the Pantheon at Rome (15,833 sq. ft.). When first built the dome was covered by gold leaf, and the outer walls were adorned with stucco work picked out in gold and blue, but to-day there are very few traces of this ornamentation. Of late years this mosque has been thoroughly restored, and one portion is now used as a museum in which all objects of interest discovered in the surrounding country are exhibited. Next to this comes the Ibrahim Roza, or tomb and mosque of Ibrahim Adil Shah II., which was completed about 1620 and is supposed to be one of the most exquisite buildings in the world after the Taj at Agra. It is said to have cost L1,700,000 and to have occupied thirty-six years in its construction. The Gagan Mahal, or ancient audience hall, is now a mass of ruins, but when complete must have been a beautiful building. The archway remains. It is over 60 ft. span and about 90 ft. high. Through this arch Sikandar Adil Shah, the last king of Bijapur, was brought bound with silver chains, while on a raised platform sat Aurangzeb, the Mogul emperor, who had left Delhi three years previously to conquer the Deccan. This magnificent palace, where so many scenes historic in the Bijapur dynasty occurred, is now the abode of hundreds of pigeons. Their cooing is the only sound that breaks the silence of the old halls.

_History._--The founder of the Bijapur dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah, is said by Ferishta to have been a son of the Ottoman sultan Murad II. When on his accession Mahommed II. gave orders for the strangling of all his brothers, Yusuf was saved by a stratagem of his mother. He went to India, where he took service under the Bahmani king of the Deccan, and ultimately became a person of great importance at the court of Mahmud II. In 1489 he took advantage of the break-up of the Bahmani power to establish himself as an independent sultan at Bijapur, his dominions including Goa on the west coast. He died in 1511 (Goa had been taken by the Portuguese a few months before), and was succeeded by his son Ismail, who reigned prosperously till 1534. The next king worth mentioning is Ali Adil Shah I., who reigned from 1557 to 1579 and, besides the fort, built the Jama Masjid or great mosque, the aqueducts and other notable works in the city. His son Ibrahim (d. 1626) maintained the prosperity of the state; but under his successor, Mahommed Adil Shah (d. 1656), the rise of the Mahratta power under Sivaji began to make inroads upon it, and it was exposed to the yet more formidable ambition of Shah Jahan. On the death of Mahommed the succession passed to Ali Adil Shah II., and on his death in 1672 to his infant son, Sikandar Adil Shah, the last of the race. The kingdom had been for some time rapidly falling to ruin, and in 1686 the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb, who as Shah Jahan's general had unsuccessfully besieged the city under Mahommed Adil Shah, took Bijapur and annexed the kingdom to the Delhi empire. Among the curiosities of the capital is the celebrated monster gun (Malik-i-Maidan), stated to be the largest piece of cast bronze ordnance in the world. It was captured from the king of Ahmednagar by the king of Bijapur about the middle of the 17th century. An inscription on the gun recording that fact was erased by Aurangzeb, who substituted the present inscription stating that he conquered Bijapur in 1686. The city and territory of Bijapur remained annexed to Delhi till 1724, when the nizam established his independence in the Deccan, and included Bijapur within his dominions. His sway over this portion of his acquisitions, however, was of brief duration; for, being defeated by the Peshwa in 1760, he was compelled to purchase peace by its cession to the Mahrattas. Upon the fall of the Peshwa in 1818 Bijapur passed into the hands of the British, and was by them included in the territory assigned to the raja of Satara. In 1848 the territory of Satara was escheated through the failure of heirs. The city was made the administrative headquarters of the district in 1885.

The district of Bijapur, formerly called Kaladgi, occupies a barren plain, sloping eastward from a string of feudatory Mahratta states to the nizam's dominions. It contains an area of 5669 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 735,435, showing a decrease of 8% compared with an increase of 27% in the preceding decade, and a decrease of 21% in the period between 1872 and 1881. These changes in population reveal the effects of famine, which was very severely felt in 1876-1878 and again in 1899-1000. There is very little irrigation in the district. The principal crops are millet, wheat, pulse, oil-seeds and cotton. There are considerable manufactures of cotton and silk goods and blankets, and several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The East Deccan line of the Southern Mahratta railway traverses the district from north to south.

BIJAWAR, a native state of central India, in the Bundelkhand agency. Area, 973 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 110,500; revenue, L10,000. Forests cover nearly half the total area of the state, which is believed to be rich in minerals, but lack of transport facilities has hindered the development of its resources.

The state takes its name from the chief town, Bijawar (pop. in 1901, 5220), which was founded by Bijai Singh, one of the Gond chiefs of Garha Mandla, in the 17th century. It was conquered in the 18th century by Chhatarsal, the founder of Panna, a Rajput of the Bundela clan, by whose descendants it is still held. It was confirmed to Ratan Singh in 1811 by the British government for the usual deed of allegiance. In 1857 Bhan Pratap Singh rendered signal services to the British during the Mutiny, being rewarded with certain privileges and a hereditary salute of eleven guns. In 1866 he received the title of maharaja, and the prefix _sawai_ in 1877. Bhan Pratap was succeeded on his death in 1899 by his adopted son, Sanwant Singh, a son of the maharaja of Orchha.

BIJNOR, or BIJNAUR, a town and district of British India in the Bareilly division of the United Provinces. The town is about 3 m. from the left bank of the Ganges. The population in 1901 was 17,583. There is a large trade in sugar. The American Methodists have a mission, which maintains some aided schools, and there is an English high school for boys.

The DISTRICT OF BIJNOR has an area of 1791 sq. m. The aspect of the country is generally a level plain, but the northern part of it rises towards the Himalayas, the greatest elevation being 1342 ft. above the sea-level. The Koh and Ramganga are the principal rivers that flow through the district, and the Ganges forms its western boundary. In 1901 the population was 779,451, showing a decrease of 2% in the decade. The country is watered in most parts by streams from the hills, but a series of small canals has been constructed. Sugar is largely exported. A line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Moradabad to Saharanpur runs through the district.

_History._--Of the early history of Bijnor even after it passed under Mahommedan rule little is known with any certainty. The district was ravaged by Timur in 1399, and thenceforward nothing is heard of it till the time of Akbar, when it formed part of the Delhi empire and so continued undisturbed, save for occasional raids, so long as the power of the Moguls survived intact. In the early part of the 18th century, however, the Rohilla Pathans established their independence in the country called by them Rohilkhand; and about 1748 the Rohilla chief Ali Mahommed made his first annexations in Bijnor, the rest of which soon fell under the Rohilla domination. The northern districts were granted by Ali Mahommed to Najib Khan, who gradually extended his influence west of the Ganges and at Delhi, receiving the title of Najib-ud-daula and becoming paymaster of the royal forces. His success, however, raised up powerful enemies against him, and at their instigation the Mahrattas invaded Bijnor. This was the beginning of a feud which continued for years. Najib, indeed, held his own, and for the part played by him in the victory of Panipat was made vizier of the empire. After his death in 1770, however, his son Zabita Khan was defeated by the Mahrattas, who overran all Rohilkhand. In 1772 the nawab of Oudh made a treaty with the Rohillas, covenanting to expel the Mahrattas in return for a money payment. He carried out his part of the bargain; but the Rohilla chieftains refused to pay. In 1774 the nawab concluded with the government of Calcutta a treaty of alliance, and he now called upon the British, in accordance with its terms, to supply a brigade to assist him in enforcing his claims against the Rohillas. This was done; the Rohillas were driven beyond the Ganges, and Bijnor was incorporated in the territories of the nawab, who in 1801 ceded it to the East India Company. From this time the history of Bijnor is uneventful, until the Mutiny of 1857, when (on the 1st of June) it was occupied by the nawab of Najibabad a grandson of Zabita Khan. In spite of fighting between the Hindus and the Mahommedan Pathans the nawab succeeded in maintaining his position until the 21st of April 1858, when he was defeated by the British at Nagina; whereupon British authority was restored.

BIKANIR, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency with an area of 23,311 sq. m. The natural aspect of the country is one desolate tract, without a single permanently running stream. Its surface is overspread with undulating sand-hills of from 20 to 100 ft. above the average level, and so loose that men and quadrupeds stepping off the beaten track sink as if in snow. Two streams, the Katli and Ghaggar, attempt to flow through this dismal region, but are lost in its sands. Water is very scarce, and is raised from wells of from 250 to 340 ft. in depth. A few shallow salt lakes are filled by rain water, but they dry up on the setting in of the hot weather, leaving a thick crust of salt on their beds, which is used for commercial and domestic purposes. The inhabitants are very poor. They live chiefly by pasturage--rearing camels, of which their chief agricultural stock consists, and horses of a fine breed, which fetch good prices. From the wool which their sheep yield they manufacture every article of native dress and good blankets. The other industries are leather work, sugar-refining, goldsmith's work, ivory carving, iron, brass, copper, stone masonry, tanning, weaving, dyeing and carpentry. The principal towns are Bikanir, the capital, Churu, Rajgarh, Ratangarh and Reni. In 1901 the population was 584,627, showing a decrease of 30% due to the results of famine. The revenue is L141,000. The military force consists of 500 men, besides the Imperial Service Corps of the same strength. The schools include a high school affiliated to the university of Allahabad, a school for the sons of nobles, and a girls' school called after Lady Elgin. The railway from Jodhpur has been extended towards Bhatinda in the Punjab; on the northern border, the Ghaggar canal in the Punjab irrigates about 5000 acres. Drought is of common occurrence. The famine of 1899-1900 was severely felt. The city of Bikanir has a railway station. The city is surrounded by a stone wall, 6 ft. thick, 15 to 30 ft. high and 31/2 m. in circuit, with five gates and three sally-ports. The citadel is half a mile north-east of the city, and is surrounded by a rampart with bastions. The population in 1901 was 53,075. There are manufactures of fine blankets and sugar-candy.

_History._--In the 15th century the territory which now forms the state of Bikanir was occupied by Rajput clans, partly Jats, partly Mahommedans. About 1465 Bika, a Rathor Rajput, sixth son of Rao Jodha, chief of Marwar, started out to conquer the country. By taking advantage of the rivalries of the clans he succeeded; in 1485 he built the small fort at the capital which still bears his name, and in 1488 began the building of the city itself. He died in 1504, and his successors gradually extended their possessions. In the reign of Akbar the chiefs of Bikanir were esteemed among the most loyal adherents of the Delhi empire, and in 1570 Akbar married a daughter of Kalyan Singh. Kalyan's son, Rai Singh, who succeeded him in 1571, was one of Akbar's most distinguished generals and the first raja of Bikanir; his daughter married Selim, afterwards the emperor Jahangir. Two other distinguished chiefs of the house were Karan Singh (1631-1669), who in the struggle of the sons of Shah Jahan for the throne threw in his lot with Aurangzeb, and his eldest son, Anup Singh (1669-1698), who fought with distinction in the Deccan, was conspicuous in the capture of Golconda, and earned the title of maharaja. From this time forward the history of Bikanir was mainly that of the wars with Jodhpur, which raged intermittently throughout the 18th century. In 1802, during one of these wars, Elphinstone passed through Bikanir on his way to Kabul; and the maharaja, Surat Singh (1788-1828), applied to him for British protection, which was, however, refused. In 1815 Surat Singh's tyranny led to a general rising of his _thakurs_, and in 1816 the maharaja again applied for British protection. On the 9th of May 1818 a treaty was concluded, and order was restored in the country by British troops. Ratan Singh, who succeeded his father in 1828, applied in vain in 1830 to the British government for aid against a fresh outbreak of his _thakurs_; but during the next five years dacoity became so rife on the borders that the government raised a special force to deal with it (the Shakhawati Brigade), and of this for seven years Bikanir contributed part of the cost. Henceforth the relations of the maharajas with the British government were increasingly cordial. In 1842 Ratan Singh supplied camels for the Afghan expedition; in 1844 he reduced the dues on goods passing through his country, and he gave assistance in both Sikh campaigns. His son, Sardar Singh (1851-1872), was rewarded for help given during the Mutiny by an increase of territory. In 1868 a rising of the _thakurs_ against his extortions led to the despatch of a British political officer, by whom affairs were adjusted. Sardar Singh had no son, and on his death in 1872 his widow and principal ministers selected Dungar Singh as his successor, with the approval of the British government. The principal event of his reign was the rebellion of the _thakurs_ in 1883, owing to an attempt to increase the dues payable in lieu of military service; this led to the permanent location at Bikanir of a British political agent. Dungar Singh died in 1887 without a son, but he had adopted his brother, Ganga Singh (b. 1880), who succeeded as 21st chief of Bikanir with the approval of the government. He was educated at the Mayo College at Ajmere, and was invested with full powers in 1898. He attended King Edward's coronation in 1902, and accompanied the British army in person in the Chinese campaign of 1901 in command of the Bikanir Camel Corps, which also did good service in Somaliland in 1904. The state owes to this ruler the opening up of new railways across the great desert, which was formerly passable only by camels, and the tapping of the valuable coal deposits that occur in the territory. For his conspicuous services he was given the Kaisar-i-Hind medal of the first class, made an honorary major in the Indian army, a G.C.I.E., a K.C.S.I., and A.D.C. to the prince of Wales.

BILASPUR, a town and district of British India in the Chhattisgarh division of the Central Provinces. The town is situated on the right bank of the river Arpa. It is said to have been founded by a fisherwoman named Bilasa in the 17th century, and it still retains her name. The place, however, came into note only after 1741, the year of the Mahratta invasion (see below), when a Mahratta official took up his abode there and began to build a fort which was never completed. In 1862 it was made the headquarters of the district. The population in 1901 was 18,937. It is an important junction on the Bengal-Nagpur railway, where the two lines from the west meet on their way to Calcutta, 255 m. from Nagpur.

The DISTRICT of BILASPUR has an area of 7602 sq. m. It forms the upper half of the basin of the river Mahanadi. It is almost enclosed on the north, west and east by ranges of hills, while its southern boundary is generally open and accessible, well cultivated, and closely dotted with villages embedded in groups of fruit trees. The principal hills are--(1) the Maikal range, situated in the north-western extremity of the district; (2) a chain of hills forming part of the Vindbyan range, on the north; (3) the Korba hills, an off-shoot of the Vindhyas, on the eastern boundary; and (4) the Sonakhan block of hills, in the vicinity of the Mahanadi river. The Mahanadi is the principal river of the district, and governs the whole drainage and river system of the surrounding country. It takes its rise in a mountainous region which is described as the wildest of all wild parts of the Central Provinces, crosses the Bilaspur boundary near Seorinarain, and after a course of 25 m. in the south-eastern extremity of the district enters Sambalpur district. Within Bilaspur the river is everywhere navigable for six months in the year. Minor rivers are the Sakri, Hamp, Tesua, Agar, Maniari, Arpa, Kharod, Lilagar, Jonk and Bareri. The most important affluents of the Mahanadi are the Seonath and Hasdu. Besides the natural water supply afforded by the rivers, Bilaspur abounds in tanks. There are large forest areas, those belonging to the government covering over 600 sq. m. Sal (_Shorea robusta_) is the chief timber tree.

Bilaspur, which was formerly a very isolated tract, is now traversed in three directions by lines of the Bengal-Nagpur railway. It suffered severely from the famine of 1896-1897. In 1897 the general death-rate was as high as 90 per thousand, rising to 297 in Bilaspur town. It suffered no less severely in 1900, when in May the number of persons relieved rose to one-fourth of the total population.

In 1901 the population was 1,012,972, showing a decrease of 13%, compared with an increase of 14% in the preceding decade. In 1906, however, the new district of Drug was formed, which took away 739 sq. m. from Bilaspur; the population on this reduced area of Bilaspur in 1901 was 917,240.

Among the Hindu inhabitants of the district, the Chamars and Pankas deserve particular notice. The former, who form the shoemaker and leather-dealing caste of the Hindu community, had always been held in utter contempt by the other Hindu castes. But between 1820 and 1830 a religious movement, having for its object their freedom from the trammels of caste, was inaugurated by a member of the caste, named Ghasi Das, who preached the unity of God and the equality of men. Ghasi Das gave himself out as a messenger of God; he prohibited the adoration of idols, and enjoined the worship of the Supreme Being without any visible sign or representation. The followers of the new faith call themselves _Satnamis_, or the worshippers of _Satnam_ or God. They do not keep the Hindu festivals and they defy the contempt of the Brahmans. Ghasi Das, the founder of the faith, was their first high priest. He died in 1850; his son succeeded him, but was assassinated (it was said by the Hindus), and the grandson succeeded him. The Pankas, who form about a sixth of the population, are all Kabirpanthis, or followers of Kabir, a religious reformer of the 15th century. There is no great difference between the Kabir Pankas and the Satnamis. They both abstain from meat and liquor, marry at the age of puberty, ordinarily celebrate their ceremonies through the agency of the elders of their own caste and bury their dead. The Pankas worship the Supreme Being under the name of _Kabir_, and the Chamars under the name of _Satnam_; while each community has a high priest to whom reverence is paid. At present the majority of the Pankas are cultivators, though formerly all were weavers. The Gonds are the most numerous among the aboriginal tribes, but so great an intermixture has taken place between them and the Hindu races that they have lost their language and most of their ethnical characteristics, such as the flat forehead, squat nose, prominent nostril, dark skin, &c., and are scarcely distinguishable from the other classes of the Hindu labouring population. In addition to some of the Hindu deities which they worship, the Gonds have their own gods--Bara Deva and Dula Deva. The Kanwars are the next largest section of the aboriginal population. The upper class among them claim to be Rajputs, and are divided into numerous septs. Although an aboriginal tribe, the census returns them as a Hindu caste. All the northern landholders of Bilaspur belong to this tribe, which consequently occupies an influential position.

The chief wealth of the district consists in its agricultural produce. Rice, wheat, pulses, millet, mustard, oil-seeds and cotton are the chief crops. Rice, the chief export, is sent to Bombay, Berar and northern India. The tussur silk industry is of considerable importance, and the silk is reputed the best in the Central Provinces. Sal and other timber is exported. Lac is sent in large quantities to Calcutta and Mirzapur. Coal and iron are the chief minerals; sandstone for building purposes is quarried near Bilaspur and Seorinarain. Among local industries the most important is the weaving trade.

The early history of the district is very obscure. From remote ages it was governed by kings of the Haihai dynasty of Ratanpur and Raipur, known as the Chhattisgarh rajas, on account of thirty-six forts (_garhs_), of which they were the lords. A genealogical list of kings of this dynasty was carefully kept up to the fifty-fifth representative in the year 1741, when the country was seized without a struggle by the Mahrattas of Nagpur. From 1818 to 1830 Bilaspur came under the management of the British government, the Mahratta chief of Nagpur being then a minor. In 1854 the country finally lapsed to the British government, the chief having died without issue. During the Sepoy mutiny a hill chief of the district gave some trouble, but he was speedily captured and executed.

BILBAO, formerly sometimes written BILBOA, the capital of the province of Biscay, in northern Spain; in 43 deg. 15' N. and 2 deg. 45' W.; on the river Nervion on Ansa (in Basque _Ibaizabal_), and about 8 m. inland from the Bay of Biscay. Pop. (1900) 83,306. Bilbao is one of the principal seaports of Spain, and the greatest of Basque towns. It occupies a small but fertile and beautiful valley, shut in by mountains on every side except towards the sea, and containing the fortified haven of Portugalete, the industrial town of Baracaldo (q.v.), and the villages of Santurce and Las Arenas, where the Nervion broadens to form the Bay of Bilbao at its mouth. Bilbao comprises two distinct parts, ancient and modern. The new town lies on the left bank, while the old town rises on the right in terraces. Communication across the river is afforded by five bridges, of which the oldest, San Antonio, is of stone, and dates from the 14th century. The houses in the principal streets are built of hewn stone, and are several storeys high, with projecting eaves that give shelter from both sun and rain. Many of the streets in the old town are very narrow, and have an appearance of cleanliness and quiet. For a long time no carts or carriages were permitted to enter the city for fear of polluting and injuring the pavement, and the transport of goods was carried on in hand-carts. But after 1876 entirely new districts were mapped out on the left bank of the Nervion. Fine broad streets, splendid squares and public gardens, hotels, villas, palatial new public buildings and numerous schools came into existence. The part of the town on the right bank is, however, still the great centre of business, the narrow streets containing the best shops. There, too, are the banks, the town hall, the theatre, the principal clubs, and the principal churches, including that of Santiago, which dates from the 14th century. In and around Bilbao there are more than thirty convents and monasteries, and at Olaveaga, about a mile off, is the Jesuit university, attended by 850 students. Public education is not, however, entirely in the hands of the priesthood and nuns; there are an institute, a normal school to train teachers, a school of arts and handicrafts, a nautical school and numerous public primary schools for both sexes.

Few Spanish cities grew so rapidly in size, importance and wealth as Bilbao in the latter half of the 19th century. Its first bank was founded in 1857; its first railway (Bilbao-Tudela) opened in 1863. Thenceforward, despite the check it received from the Carlist rebellion of 1870-1876, and the contemporaneous decline of its wool and shipbuilding industries, its prosperity increased steadily. The population, 17,649 in 1870, rose to 50,734 in 1887, 74,076 in 1897, and 83,306 in 1900. This development was due principally to the growth of the mining and metallurgical industries. From a very early period, as the Old English word _bilbo_, "a sword," attests, Bilbao was celebrated for the excellent quality of its steel blades; in modern times it was the natural headquarters of the important steel and iron trades of the Basque Provinces. Hence it became the centre of a network of railway lines unsurpassed in Spain. The harbour works board, constituted in 1877, improved the river channel and the bar; made wharves and embankments; lighted the lower reaches of the river by electricity, so as to allow vessels to enter by night; and constructed a breakwater and counter-mole outside the bar of the river Nervion, between Santurce, Portugalete and the opposite headland at the village of Algorta, so as to secure deep anchorage and easy access to the river. The first dry dock was constructed in 1896; in 1905 it was supplemented by another, the largest in Spain. The exports are chiefly iron; the imports coal; large quantities of wine from Navarre and the Ebro valley are also sent abroad, and the importation of timber of all kinds from Scandinavia and Finland, and coastwise from Asturias, is of great importance. In the coasting trade the exports are mostly pig-iron, codfish and some products of local industries and agriculture. The shipping at Bilbao is mainly Spanish, owing to the multitude of small vessels employed in the coasting trade; but from 1880 onwards the majority of foreign ships were British. In 1904, 3319 vessels of 2,267,957 tons were accommodated at Bilbao; more than 2000 were Spanish and nearly 700 British. In the same year new harbour works and lighting arrangements were undertaken on a large scale, and a movement was initiated for the revival of shipbuilding. Besides the mining and metallurgic industries, Bilbao has breweries, tanneries, flour mills, glass works, brandy distilleries, and paper, soap, cotton and mosaic factories.

Bilbao, or Belvao, as it was often called, was founded by Don Pedro Lopez de Haro about 1300, and soon rose into importance. It was occupied by the French in 1795, and from 1808 to 1813; and in 1835 and 1874 it was unavailingly besieged by the Carlists.

BILBEIS, or BELBES, a town of lower Egypt, on the eastern arm of the Nile, 36 m. N.N.E. of Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907) 13,485. The Coptic name, Phelbes, seems to have been derived from Egyptian, but nothing is known of the place before medieval times. Considered the bulwark of the kingdom on that side, Bilbeis was by the Moslems defended with strong fortifications. In 1163-1164 it was besieged for three months by the crusaders under Amalric, and in 1168 was captured and pillaged by another army of crusaders. Napoleon in 1798 ordered the restoration of the fortifications, but they have again fallen into decay. Bilbeis was the first halting-place of the English cavalry in their march on Cairo after the fight at Tel-el-Kebir on the 13th of September 1882.

BILBERRY, BLAEBERRY or WHORTLEBERRY, known botanically as _Vaccinium myrtillus_ (natural order Ericaceae), a low-growing shrub, found in woods, copses and on heaths, chiefly in hilly districts. The stiff stems, from half a foot to two feet long, bear small ovate leaves with a serrate margin, and small, globose, rosy flowers tinged with green. The berries are dark blue, with a waxy bloom, and about one-third of an inch in diameter; they are used for tarts, preserves, &c. The plant is widely distributed throughout the north temperate and extends into the arctic zone. Cowberry is a closely allied species, _V. Vitis-Idaea_, growing in similar situations, but not found in the south-eastern portion of England, distinguished by its evergreen leaves and red acid berry.

BILBO (from the Spanish town Bilbao, formerly called in England "Bilboa," and famous, like Toledo, for its sword-blades), in the earliest English use, a sword, especially one of superior temper. In the plural form (as in Shakespeare's phrase "methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes") it meant the irons into which offenders were put on board ship.

BILDERDIJK, WILLEM (1756-1831), Dutch poet, the son of an Amsterdam physician, was born on the 7th of September 1756. When he was six years old an accident to his foot incapacitated him for ten years, and he developed habits of continuous and concentrated study. His parents were ardent partisans of the house of Orange, and Bilderdijk grew up with strong monarchical and Calvinistic convictions. He was, says Da Costa, "anti-revolutionary, anti-Barneveldtian, anti-Loevesteinish, anti-liberal." After studying at Leiden University, he obtained his doctorate in law in 1782, and began to practise as an advocate at the Hague. Three years later he contracted an unhappy marriage with Rebecca Woesthoven. He refused in 1795 to take the oath to the new administration, and was consequently obliged to leave Holland. He went to Hamburg, and then to London, where his great learning procured him consideration. There he had as a pupil Katharina Wilhelmina Schweickhardt (1776-1830), the daughter of a Dutch painter and herself a poet. When he left London in June 1797 for Braunschweig, this lady followed him, and after he had formally divorced his first wife (1802) they were married. In 1806 he was persuaded by his friends to return to Holland. He was kindly received by Louis Napoleon, who made him his librarian, and a member and eventually president (1809-1811) of the Royal Institute. After the abdication of Louis Napoleon he suffered great poverty; on the accession of William of Orange in 1813 he hoped to be made a professor, but was disappointed and became a history tutor at Leiden. He continued his vigorous campaign against liberal ideas to his death, which took place at Haarlem on the 18th of December 1831.

A picture of the Bilderdijk household is given in the letters (vol. v., 1850) of Robert Southey, who stayed some time with Bilderdijk in 1825. Madame Bilderdijk had translated _Roderick_ into Dutch (1823-1824). For his work as a poet see DUTCH LITERATURE. His many-sided activity showed itself also in historical criticism--_Geschiedenis des Vaderlands_ (1832-1851, 13 vols.), a conservative commentary on Wagenaar's _Vaderlandsche Historie_; in translations from Sophocles (1779 and 1789), of part of the _Iliad_, of the hymns and epigrams of Callimachus, and from the Latin poets; in philology--_Taal en Dichtkundige Verscheidenheden_ (1820-1825, 4 vols.); and in drama--the tragedies, _Floris de Vijfde_ (1808), _Willem I. van Holland_ (1808), and others. His most important poetical works are the didactic poem, _De Ziekte der geleerden_ ("The Disease of the Learned"), 2 vols., 1807; a descriptive poem in the manner of Delille in _Het Buitenleven_ (1803); and his fragmentary epic, _De Ondergang der eerste wereld_ (1820). Other volumes were _Mijne Verlustigung_ (Leiden, 1781), _Bloemtjens_ (1785), _Mengel-poezij_ (1799, 2 vols.), _Poezij_ (1803-1807, 4 vols.), _Mengelingen_ (1804-1808, 4 vols.), _Nieuwe Mengelingen_ (1806, 2 vols.), _Hollands Verlossing_ (1813-1814, 2 vols.), _Vaderlandsche Uitboezemingen_ (Leiden, 1815), _Winterbloemen_ (1811, 2 vols.), &c., in some of which his wife collaborated.

His poetical works were collected by I. da Costa (Haarlem, 1856-1859, 16 vols.), with a biography of the poet. See also "Mijne Levensbeschrijving" in _Mengelingen en Fragmenten_ ... (1834); his _Brieven_ (ed. 1836-1837) by I. da Costa and W. Messchert; Dr R.A. Kollewijn, _Bilderdijk, Zijn Leven en werken_ ... (2 vols., 1891).

BILEJIK (Byzantine _Belocome_), chief town of the Ertoghrul sanjak of the Brusa vilayet in Asia Minor, altitude 1900 ft., situated on a hill 21/2 m. from its station on the Ismid-Angora railway. Pop. 10,500 (Moslems, 7200; Christians, 3300). It is an important centre of the silk industry, and has several silk-spinning factories.

BILFINGER (BUeLFFINGER), GEORG BERNHARD (1693-1750), German philosopher, mathematician and statesman, son of a Lutheran minister, was born on the 23rd of January 1693, at Kanstatt in Wuerttemberg. As a boy he showed great aptitude for study, and at first devoted himself to theology, but under the influence of Wolff's writings he took up mathematics and philosophy on the lines of Wolff and Leibnitz. Returning to theology, he attempted to connect it with philosophy in a treatise, _Dilucidationes philosophicae, de deo, anima humana, mundo_ (Tuebingen, 1725, 1746, 1768). This work, containing nothing original, but giving a clear representation of Wolff's philosophy, met with great success, and the author was appointed to the office of preacher at the castle of Tuebingen and of reader in the school of theology. In 1721, after two years' study under Wolff, he became professor of philosophy at Halle, and in 1724 professor of mathematics. His friends at Tuebingen disapproved his new views, and in 1725, on Wolff's recommendation, he was invited by Peter the Great to lecture in St Petersburg, where he was well received. His success in winning the prize of a thousand crowns offered for a dissertation on the cause of gravity by the Academy of Sciences of Paris secured his return to his native land in 1731. In 1735, largely on account of his knowledge of military engineering, Duke Charles Alexander (1733-1737) made him a privy councillor, but his hands were tied owing to the frivolous atmosphere of the court. On the death of the duke, however, he became a member of the Regency Council, and devoted himself with energy and success to the reorganization of the state. In the departments of education, state-religion, agriculture and commerce, his administration was uniformly successful, and he became in a real sense the head of the state. He died at Stuttgart on the 18th of February 1750. After his return from Russia, he won the highest respect at home and abroad, and Frederick the Great is recorded to have said of him, "He was a great man whom I shall ever remember with admiration."

Beside the _Dilucidationes_, he wrote:--_De harmonia animi et corporis humani commentatio_ (Frankfort and Leipzig, 1735; Tuebingen, 1741); _De origine et permissione mali_ (1724), an account of the Leibnitzian theodicy.

For his life and times see Tafinger, _Leichenrede_ (Stuttgart, 1750); Prof. Abel in Moser's _Patriot. Archiv._, 1788, 9, p. 369; Spittler, _Verm. Schriften_, 13, p. 421; G. Schwab in _Morgenblatt_ (1830). For his philosophy, see R. Wahl, "Bilfinger's _Monadologie_" (_Zeitschrift fuer Philos._ vol. 85, pp. 66-92, 202-231 (Leipzig, 1884), E. Zeller, _Geschichte d. deutsch. Philos. seit Leibnitz_, pp. 283 foll., 294).

BILGE (a corruption of bulge, from Fr. _bouge_, Lat. _bulga_, a bag, deriving probably from an original Celtic word), the "belly" or widest part of a cask; the broad horizontal part of a ship's bottom above the keel; also the lowest interior part of the hull; hence "bilge-water," the foul water which collects in the bilge. "Bilge-keels" are pieces of timber fastened to the bottom of a ship to reduce rolling (see SHIPBUILDING).

BILHARZIOSIS. In various parts of Africa the inhabitants are liable to suffer from a form of endemic haematuria caused by the presence of a parasite in the mucous membrane of the urinary passages. This parasite was discovered in 1852 by Bilharz, and hence is generally known as Bilharzia, though it has been more scientifically named Schistosoma haematobium. The condition to which it gives rise is that of bilharziosis. (For description and life history of the parasite see TREMATODES.) In man the parasites and ova have been found in the minute veins of the bladder, ureter and pelvis of the kidney (more rarely in other organs), where they infest the mucous and submucous tissues. In an affected bladder the mucous membrane presents swollen vascular patches of varying size, or warty prominences on which the urinary salts may be deposited. The ova often serve as a nucleus for urinary calculi. Similar changes may take place in the ureter, and the consequent swelling lead to obstruction to the passage of urine, and if left untreated to pyelitis and pyonephrosis. If the rectum be affected the mucous membrane becomes thickened, polypoid growths form and large submucous haemorrhages may take place.

As to the mode of entrance of this parasite opinion is divided. Some authorities favour the view that the entrance is through the skin, urethra or rectum, the result of bathing in infected water; others that it is taken by the mouth in water or uncooked fish. The symptoms to which it gives rise are haematuria, pain in the perineal region and a greater or less degree of anaemia through loss of blood. If the disease continue, cystitis and its consequent train of symptoms ensue (see BLADDER AND PROSTATE DISEASES). If the rectum be affected there is considerable discharge of mucus, and later prolapsus ani may be the result. But the symptoms vary to a remarkable extent, from the slightest producing but little discomfort, to the most severe resulting in death. The liquid extract of male fern is the only drug used with much success. The symptoms caused by the parasite must be treated as they arise. Polypoid growths of the rectum must be surgically treated.

BILIN (Czech _Bilina_), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 90 m. N. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 7871, chiefly German. It is a very old town situated on the Biela, and contains a 17th-century castle, belonging to Prince Lobkowitz. In the vicinity of the towns are extensive lignite mines. Bilin is famous for its mineral springs, the _Biliner Sauerbrunnen_. They have a temperature of 45.6 deg. F., and contain a large proportion of bicarbonate of soda. About 4,000,000 bottles of water are exported annually, and another article of export is the salt recovered from the water by evaporation. About 5 m. to the S. of the Sauerbrunnen lies the Boren or Biliner Stein (1763 ft.), a large mass of phonolite or clinkstone, with rare flora and fine view. The town is indeed surrounded by basaltic rocks, the largest of them being the Radelstein (2460 ft.), from which a fine view is obtained.

BILL. There are three words in English with distinct meanings and derivations. (1) A written, originally sealed, document. The word is derived from the Early English _bille_, Anglo-Latin _billa_, from Latin _bulla_, in the medieval sense of "seal." It is a doublet, therefore, of "bull." (2) A common Teutonic word for a long-handled cutting weapon (O. Eng. _bil, billes_, sword or falchion, O. Sax. _bill_, M.H.G. _Bil_, Mod. Ger. _Bille_, a pickaxe; no connexion with Ger. _Beil_, an axe), of which the name and shape is preserved in the hedging-bills used for pruning hedges and lopping the branches of trees. For an account of the weapon see (2) below. (3) The beak of a bird. This may be connected with (2), but it does not appear in any Teutonic language other than English.

(1) In the sense of a document the word is used in various connexions in law and commerce.

In the English parliament, and similar legislative bodies, a bill is a form of statute (q.v.) submitted to either house, which when finally passed becomes an act. The modern system of legislating by means of bill and statute appears to have been introduced in the reign of Henry VI., superseding the older mode of proceeding by petitions from the Commons, assented to by the king, and afterwards enrolled by the judges. A bill consists of a preamble, reciting the necessity for legislation, and clauses which contain the enactments. (For procedure see PARLIAMENT.)

A _Bill in Chancery_, in former days, in English law, was a written statement of the plaintiff's case whereby he complained of the wrong upon which the suit was based and prayed for relief. By the Judicature Acts 1873 and 1875 its place was taken by a writ and statement of claim (see PLEADING).

A _Bill of Indictment_ is a presentment against a prisoner, charging him with an offence, and presented at quarter sessions or assizes to the grand jury (see INDICTMENT).

A _Bill of Costs_ is an account setting forth the charges and disbursements incurred by a solicitor in the conduct of his client's business. The delivery of a bill of costs is by statute a condition necessary before the solicitor can sue upon it (see COSTS).

A _Bill of Exceptions_ was formerly a statement in writing of objections to the ruling of a judge, who, at the trial, had mistaken the law, either in directing the jury, or in refusing or admitting evidence or otherwise. The bill of exceptions was tendered at any time before the verdict by counsel of the dissatisfied party, who required the judge to seal it. The case proceeded to the jury, and judgment being given, the point raised was brought before a court of error. Bills of exceptions were confined to civil cases. They were abolished by the Judicature Act 1875, and a "motion for a new trial" substituted (see TRIAL).

A _Bill of Health_ is a document given to the master of a ship by the consul or other proper authority of the port from which he clears, describing the sanitary state of the place. A bill of health may be either "clean," "suspected" or "touched," or "foul." A "clean" bill imports that at the time the ship sailed, no disease of an infectious or contagious kind is known to exist, a "suspected" or "touched" bill, that no such disease has as yet appeared, but that there is reason to fear it; a "foul" bill, that such a disease actually exists at the time of the ship's departure. Bills of health are necessary where the destination of the ship is a country whose laws require the production of such a bill before the ship is allowed into port, and where, in default of such production, the ship is subjected to quarantine.

A _Bill of Mortality_ in England was a weekly return issued under the supervision of the company of parish clerks showing the number of deaths in a parish. During the Tudor period England suffered much from plague, and various precautionary measures became necessary. Quarantine or isolation was the most important, but to carry it out successfully it was necessary to have early warning of the existence of plague in each parish or house. For this purpose searchers--usually women--were appointed, who reported to the clerk the cause of each death in the parish. He, in turn, sent a report to the parish clerks' hall, from whence was issued weekly a return of all the deaths from plague and other causes in the various parishes, as well as a list of those parishes which were free from plague. Bills of mortality are usually said to date from 1538, when parish registers were established by Cromwell (Lord Essex), but there is extant a bill which dates from August 1535, and one which is possibly even earlier than this. It is certain that they first began to be compiled in a recognized manner in December 1603, and they were continued regularly from that date down to 1842, when under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836 they were superseded by the registrar-general's returns. It was not till 1728, when the _ages_ of the dead were first introduced, that bills of mortality acquired any considerable statistical value. It was on the data thus furnished that the science of life insurance was founded.

A _Bill of Particulars_ was, in law, a statement in writing, informing each party to a suit the precise nature of the case they had to meet. It contained the plaintiff's cause of action or the defendant's set-off. Particulars are now usually indorsed on the pleadings (see PLEADING).

A _Bill of Peace_ is, in equity, a suit brought by a person to establish and perpetuate a right which he claims, and which from its nature may be controverted by different persons at different times and by different actions; or where several attempts have already been unsuccessfully made to overthrow the same right, and justice requires that the party should be quieted in the right if it is already sufficiently established. Bills of this nature were usually filed where there was one general right to be established against a great number of persons, or where one person claimed or defended a right against many, or where many claimed or defended a right against one. Thus, a bill might be filed by a parson for tithes against his parishioners; by parishioners against a parson to establish a _modus_; by a lord against tenants for an encroachment under colour of a common right; or by tenants against a lord for disturbance of a common right. Bills were also filed in cases where the plaintiff had, after repeated and satisfactory trials, established his right at law, and yet was in danger of further litigation and obstruction to his right from new attempts to controvert it. Actions in the nature of bills of peace are still maintainable.

A _Bill of Sight_ is a document furnished to a collector of customs or other proper officer by an importer of goods in England, who, being unable for want of full information to make a perfect entry of goods consigned to him, describes the same to the best of his knowledge and information. The goods may then be provisionally landed, but perfect entry must be made within three days by indorsing on the bill of sight the necessary particulars. In default of perfect entry within three days the goods are taken to the king's warehouse, and if perfect entry is not made within one month and all duties and charges paid, they are sold for payment thereof. See the Customs Consolidation Act 1876.

A _Bill of Store_ is a license granted by the custom-house to re-import British goods into the United Kingdom. All British goods re-imported into the United Kingdom are entered as foreign, unless re-imported within ten years after their exportation and unless the property in the goods continues and remains in the person by whom they were exported. But in such case they may be entered as British goods, by bill of store, with the exception of corn, grain, meal, flour and hops.

A _Bill of Victualling_ or _Victualling Bill_, in its original meaning, is a list of all stores for shipment, but now an order from an export officer of the customs for the shipment from a bonded warehouse or for drawback of such stores as may be required and allowed with reference to the number of the crew and passengers on board a ship proceeding on an oversea voyage. It is made out by the master and countersigned by the collector of customs. Its object is to prevent frauds on the revenue. No such stores are supplied for the use of any ship nor any articles taken on board deemed to be stores unless they are borne upon the victualling bill, and any such stores relanded at any place in the United Kingdom without the sanction of the proper officers of the customs will be forfeited and the master and owner will each be liable to a penalty of treble the value of the stores or L100. A victualling bill serves as a certificate of clearance when there is nothing but stores on board the ship.

See also ADVENTURE, ATTAINDER, INDEMNITY, LETTER OF CREDIT, BILL OF EXCHANGE, BILL OF RIGHTS and BILL OF SALE; for a _bill of lading_ see AFFREIGHTMENT. (T. A. I.)

(2) In the sense of a weapon, the primitive forms of a bill suggest short scythe-blades or hedgers' bill-hooks mounted on tall staves. In such shape it is found in the hands of the English before the Conquest. English medieval documents make much confusion between the bill and the halbert and other forms of staved weapons with cutting heads. Before the 15th century the bill had been reinforced with a pike head above the curved blade and another jutting at a right angle from the blade's back. In this form it became a popular English weapon, the "brown bill" of many ballads. Billmen are not found in the king's host at Crecy and Calais, the bowmen carrying malls or short swords, and Henry VII.'s contracts for troops do not name the bill, which may be regarded rather as the private man's weapon. But when, in the middle of the 15th century, Walter Strickland, a Westmorland squire, contracts to raise armed men, it is noticeable that more than half his horsemen carry the bill as their chief arm, while seventy-one bowmen are to march on foot with seventy-six billmen. In the 16th century the bill, with the halbert, fell out of use among regular troops, the pike taking their place on account of the longer staff, which made it a better defence against cavalry. It remained during the 17th century as a watchman or constable's weapon, although rudely-fashioned bills were seen in Sedgemoor fight. (O. Ba.)

BILLAUD-VARENNE, JACQUES NICOLAS (1756-1819), French revolutionist, was the son of an _avocat_ at the parlement of Paris. He was badly brought up by a feeble father, a mother who combined immorality with religion, and a libertine abbe. At nineteen he donned the robe of an Oratorian, but did not take the vows, and busied himself with literature rather than with religion. In 1785 he left the Oratorian college where he was prefect of studies, came to Paris, married and bought a position as _avocat_ in the parlement. Early in 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the _Despotisme des ministres de la France_, and he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the Revolution.

At the Jacobin club he became from 1790 one of the most violent of the anti-royalist orators. After the flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes, he published a pamphlet, _L'Acephocratie_, in which he demanded the establishment of a federal republic. On the 1st of July, in a speech at the Jacobin club he spoke of a republic, and the reference called out the stormy derision of the partisans of the constitutional monarchy; but repeating his demand for a republic on the 15th of the same month, the speech was ordered to be printed and to be sent to the branch societies throughout France. In the night of the 10th of August 1792 he was elected one of the "deputy-commissioners" of the sections who shortly afterwards became the general council of the commune. He was accused, though proof is lacking, of having been an accomplice in the massacres in the prison of the Abbaye. Elected a deputy of Paris to the National Convention, he at once spoke in favour of the immediate abolition of the monarchy, and the next day demanded that all acts be dated from the year 1 of the republic. At the trial of Louis XVI. he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death "within 24 hours." On the 2nd of June 1793 he proposed a decree of accusation against the Girondists; on the 9th, at the Jacobin club, he outlined a programme which the Convention was destined gradually to realize: the expulsion of all foreigners not naturalized, the establishment of an impost on the rich, the deprivation of the rights of citizenship of all "anti-social" men, the creation of a revolutionary army, the licensing of all officers _ci-devant_ nobles, the death penalty for unsuccessful generals. On the 15th of July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists. Sent in August as "representative on mission" to the departments of the Nord and of Pas-de-Calais, he showed himself inexorable to all suspects. On his return he was added to the Committee of Public Safety, which had decreed the arrest _en masse_ of all suspects and the establishment of a revolutionary army, caused the extraordinary criminal tribunal to be named officially "Revolutionary Tribunal" (on the 29th of October 1793), demanded the execution of Marie Antoinette and then attacked Hebert and Danton. Meanwhile he published a book, _Les Elements du republicanisme_, in which he demanded a division of property, if not equally, at least proportionally among the citizens. But he became uneasy for his own safety and turned against Robespierre, whom he attacked on the 8th Thermidor as a "moderate" and a Dantonist. Surprised and menaced by the Thermidorian reaction, he denounced its partisans to the Jacobin club. He was then attacked himself in the Convention for his cruelty, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety. He was arrested, and as a result of the insurrection of the 12th Germinal of the year 3 (the 1st of April 1795), the Convention decreed his immediate deportation to French Guiana. After the 18th Brumaire he refused the pardon offered by the First Consul. In 1816 he left Guiana and took refuge in Port-au-Prince (Haiti), where he died of dysentery.

In 1821 were published the _Memoires de Billaud-Varenne ecrits a Port-au-Prince_ (Paris, 2 vols.), but they are probably forgeries. An interesting autobiographical sketch of his youth, _Tableau du premier age_, composed in 1786, was published in 1888 in the review, _La Revolution francaise_. The facts of such a life need no comment. See, in addition to histories of the Revolution, F.A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la legislative et de la convention_ (2nd ed., 1906). (R. A.*)

BILLET, (1) (Like the Fr. _billet_, a diminutive of _bille_, a writing), a small paper or "note," commonly used in the 18th and early 19th centuries as a "billet of invitation." A particular use of the word in this sense is to denote an order issued to a soldier entitling him to quarters with a certain person (see BILLETING). From meaning the official order, the word billet came to be loosely used of the quarters thus obtained, giving rise to such colloquial expressions as "a good billet." Hence arises the sense of "billet" as the destination allotted to anything, for example in the saying of William III. "every bullet has its billet." Another special sense of the word is that of a voting-paper, found in the 17th century, especially with reference to the Act of Billets passed by the Scottish parliament in 1662.

(2) (From the diminutive _billette_ or _billot_ of the Fr. _bille_, the trunk of a tree), a piece of wood roughly cylindrical, cut for use as fuel. In medieval England it was used of the club or bludgeon which was the weapon proper to the serf (Du Cange, s. _Billus_). The name has been transferred to various objects of a similar shape: to ingots of gold, for example, or bars of iron; and in heraldry, to a bearing of rectangular shape. The term is applied in architecture to a form of ornamental moulding much used in Norman and sometimes in Early English work. It bears a resemblance to small billets of wood arranged at regular intervals in a sunk moulding. In French architecture it is found in early work and there, sometimes, forms the decoration of a string-course under the gutter, with two or three rows of billets.

BILLETING, the providing of quarters (i.e. board and lodgings) for soldiers (see BILLET, 1). Troops have at all times made use of the shelter and local resources afforded by the villages on or near their line of march. The historical interest of billeting in England begins with the repeated petitions against it in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., which culminated in the Petition of Right. The billeting of troops was superintended by a civil magistrate of the district to which the troops were sent or through which they passed. The magistrate, who acted under an order from the king, too often spared his friends at the expense of his political or personal opponents. Owing to the abuses to which the system led, it was declared illegal by the Petition of Right 1628, and again by an act of 1679. During the reign of James II., however, orders were frequently issued for billeting, and one of the grievances in the Bill of Rights was the quartering of soldiers contrary to law. On the organization of a standing army after the revolution it was necessary to make legal provision for billeting owing to the deficiency of barrack accommodation, which sufficed only for 5000 men. Accordingly, the Mutiny Act 1689 authorized billeting among the various innkeepers and victuallers throughout the kingdom. This statute was renewed annually from 1689 to 1879, when the Army Discipline Act, consolidating the provisions of the Mutiny Act, was passed. This statute was replaced by the Army Act 1881 (renewed annually by a "commencement" act), which contains the provisions by which billeting is now regulated. But modern conditions have practically dispensed with the necessity for billeting; there is extensive barrack accommodation in most parts of the United Kingdom, and, moreover, troops are entrained or sent by sea when the distance to be covered is more than one day's march. In Scotland the provisions as to billeting were assimilated to those in England in 1857, and in Ireland in 1879. The Army (Annual) Act 1909 provided for the billeting of the Territorial forces in case of national emergency, on occupiers of any kind of house at the discretion of the chief officer of police.

BILLIARDS, an indoor game of skill, played on a rectangular table,[1] and consisting in the driving of small balls with a stick called a cue either against one another or into pockets according to the methods and rules described below. The name probably originated in the Fr. _bille_ (connected with Eng. "billet") signifying a stick. Of the origin of the game comparatively little is known--Spain, Italy, France and Germany all being regarded as its original home by various authorities. In an American text-book, _Modern Billiards_, it is stated that Catkire More (Conn Cetchathach), king of Ireland in the 2nd century, left behind him "fifty-five billiard balls, of brass, with the pools and cues of the same materials." The same writer refers to the travels of Anacharsis through Greece, 400 B.C., during which he saw a game analogous to billiards. French writers differ as to whether their country can claim its origin, though the name suggests this. While it is generally asserted that Henrique Devigne, an artist, who lived in the reign of Charles IX., gave form and rule to the pastime, the _Dictionnaire universel_ and the _Academie des jeux_ ascribe its invention to the English. Bouillet in the first work says: "Billiards appear to be derived from the game of bowls. It was anciently known in England, where, perhaps, it was invented. It was brought into France by Louis XIV., whose physician recommended this exercise." In the other work mentioned we read: "It would seem that the game was invented in England." It was certainly known and played in France in the time of Louis XI. (1423-1483). Strutt, a rather doubtful authority, notwithstanding the reputation attained by his _Sports and Pastimes of the People of England_, considers it probable that it was the ancient game of Paille-maille (Pall Mall) on a table instead of on the ground or floor--an improvement, he says, "which answered two good purposes: it precluded the necessity of the player to kneel or stoop exceedingly when he struck the bowl, and accommodated the game to the limits of a chamber." Whatever its origin, and whatever the manner in which it was originally played, it is certain that it was known in the time of Shakespeare, who makes Cleopatra, in the absence of Anthony, invite her attendant to join in the pastime--

"Let us to billiards: come, Charmian." _Ant. and Cleo._ Act ii. sc. 5.

In Cotton's _Compleat Gamester_, published in 1674, we are told that this "most gentile, cleanly and ingenious game" was first played in Italy, though in another page he mentions Spain as its birthplace. At that date billiards must have been well enough known, for we are told that "for the excellency of the recreation, it is much approved of and played by most nations of Europe, especially in England, there being few towns of note therein which hath not a public billiard table, neither are they wanting in many noble and private families in the country."

The game was at one time played on a lawn, lik e modern croquet.[2] Some authorities consider that in this form it was introduced into Europe from the Orient by the Crusaders. The ball was rolled or struck with a mallet or cue (with the latter, if Strutt's allusion to "inconveniences" is correct) through hoops or rings, and these were reproduced for indoor purposes on a billiard-table, as well as a "king" or pin which had to be struck. In the original tables, which were square, there was one pocket, a hole in the centre of the table, as on a bagatelle board, the hoop or ring being retained. Then came similar pockets along one of the side cushions sunk in the bed of the table; and eventually the modern table was evolved, a true oblong or double-square, with pockets opening in the cushions at each corner and in the middle of each long side. The English tables are of this type, small bags of netting being attached to the pockets. The French and American game of billiards is played on a pocketless table. We shall deal first with the English game.

ENGLISH BILLIARDS

The English table consists of a framework of mahogany or other hard wood, with six legs, and strong enough to bear the weight of five slabs of slate, each 2-2/5 ft. wide by 6 ft. 11/2 in., and about 2 in. thick. These having been fitted together with the utmost accuracy to form a level surface, and a green cloth of the finest texture having been tightly strained over it, the cushions are screwed on, and the pockets, for which provision has been made in the slates, are adjusted. As the inside edge of the cushion is not perpendicular to the bed of the table, but is bevelled away so that the top overhangs the base by about 3/4 of an in., the actual playing area of the table is 6 ft. wide but is 11/2 in. short of 12 ft. long. The height of the table is 2 ft. 8 in. measured from the floor to the cloth. The cloth is in the shape shown in the diagram.

The three spots are on the centre line of the table, and are usually marked by small circular pieces of black tissue paper or court plaster; sometimes they are specially marked for the occasion in chalk. The _baulk_ line and the D are marked either with chalk, tailors' pipeclay, or an ordinary lead pencil; no other marks appear on the table. Smaller tables provide plenty of practice and amusement, provided that the relation of the length to the breadth be observed. On these tables full-sized balls may be used, the pockets being made slightly smaller than in the full-size table.

In the early part of the 19th century the bed of the table was made of wood, occasionally of marble or stone; green baize was used to cover both the bed and the cushions, the latter made of layers of list. Then as now the cushions proper were glued to a wooden framework which is screwed on to the bed of the table. The old list cushions possessed so little resilience that about 1835 india-rubber was substituted, the value of the improvement being somewhat modified by the fact that in cold weather the rubber became hard and never recovered its elasticity. Vulcanite resisted the cold, but was not "fast" enough, i.e. did not permit the ball to rebound quickly; but eventually a substance was invented, practically proof against cold and sufficiently elastic for all purposes. Late in the 19th century pneumatic cushions were tried, tubes into which air could be pumped, but they did not become popular, though the so-called " vacuum "cushions give good results. The shape of the face of the cushion has gone through many modifications, owing to the difficulty experienced in the accurate striking of the ball when resting against the cushion with only a small fraction of it's surface offered to the cue; but low cushions are now made which expose nearly half of the upper part of the ball.

On the size and shape of the pockets depends the ease with which the players score. The mouth of the pocket, known as the "fall" or "drop," is part of the arc of a circle, the circle being larger in the case of the corner pockets than in that of the middle pockets; the cushions are cut away to admit the passage of the ball. The corner pockets are measured by the length of the tangent drawn at the outside point of the arc to the cushion on either side. The middle pockets are measured at the points where the arc terminates in the cushions. The fall of the middle pockets, i.e. the outside point of the arc, is on the line of the outside face of the cushion; that of the corner pockets is half way down the passage cut in the cushions.

From 1870 to 1885 matches for the championship were played on "Championship Tables," the pockets measuring only 3 in. at the "fall." The tables in ordinary use have 3-5/8-in. or 33/4-in. pockets, but in the "Standard Association Tables," introduced by the Billiard Association at the end of the 19th century, the 3-5/8-in. pocket was adopted for all matches, while the fall of the middle pocket was withdrawn slightly from the cushion-line. Further, as the shape of the shoulders of the cushion at the pockets affects the facility of scoring, the Association adopted a much rounder shoulder than that used in ordinary tables, thereby requiring greater accuracy on the part of the player. In the championship tables the baulk line was only 28 in. from the cushion, and the radius of the D was reduced to 91/2 and afterwards to 10 in., the spot being 121/2 in. from the top cushion.

The principal games are three in number,--_billiards proper, pyramids_ and _pool_; and from these spring a variety of others. The object of the player in each game, however, is either to drive one or other of the balls into one or other of the pockets, or (only in billiards proper) to cause the striker's ball to come into successive contact with two other balls. The former stroke is known as a _hazard_ (a term derived from the fact that the pockets used to be called hazards in old days), the latter as a _cannon_. When the ball is forced into a pocket the stroke is called a winning hazard; when the striker's ball falls into a pocket after contact with the object ball, the stroke is a losing hazard; "red hazards" mean that the red ball is the object-ball, "white hazards" the white.

Three balls are used in billiards proper, two white and one red. One of the white balls has a black spot at each end of an imaginary diameter, to distinguish it from the other, the white balls being known as spot-white (or "spot") and "plain." They should be theoretically perfect spheres, of identical size and weight, and of equal durability in all parts. The size that is generally used in matches has a diameter of 2-1/16 in., and the weight about 4-2/3 oz. It is exceedingly difficult to get three such ivory balls (the best substance for elasticity) except by cutting up many tusks, and when procured the halls soon lose their perfection, partly because ivory is softer in one part than another, partly because it is very susceptible to changes of weather and temperature, and unequally susceptible in different parts; it is also liable to slight injury in the ordinary course of play. Various substitutes have, therefore, been tried for ivory (q.v.), such as crystalate, or bonzoline (a celluloid compound), and even hollow steel; but their elasticity is inferior to that of ivory, so that the ball rebounds at a wider angle when it strikes. The price of a first-rate set of ivory balls is from four to six guineas; the composition balls cost about half a guinea apiece.

The cue is a rounded rod of seasoned ash about 4 ft. 9 in. in length, tapering from the butt, which is about 11/2 in. in diameter, to the tip, which varies in size according to the fancy of the player. The average tip is, however, 1/2 in. in diameter. The cue weighs generally between 14 and 18 oz. The tip of the cue is usually a leather cap or pad, which, being liable to slip along the surface of the ball in striking, is kept covered with chalk. To the leather tip, the invention of a Frenchman named Mingin (about 1820), and to the control which it gives the player over the ball, the science of modern play is entirely due. The butt of the cue is generally spliced with ebony or some other heavy wood, since a shaft of plain ash is too light for its purpose, and is furthermore liable to warp. At one time it was lawful to use the butt of the cue or even a special instrument with a squared spoon-shaped end called a mace (or mast), in making strokes or giving misses, but now all strokes must be made with the point. The cue is held in one hand, and with the other the player makes a "bridge" by placing wrist and finger-tips on the table, and extending his thumb so as to make a passage along which to slide his cue and to strike the ball. As it is not always possible to reach the ball in this way, longer cues (the "half-butt" and "long butt") are required; they are used with a "rest," a shaft of wood at the end of which, perpendicular to the axis, is fastened an x of wood or metal, the cue being rested on the upper half while the lower is on the cloth. A "long rest," about 6 ft. long, is used with the long cues, the "short rest" (or "jigger") about 4 ft. long, with the ordinary cue. A marking-board and stands or racks for rests and butts, with iron and brush for the table, and a cover for the table when not in use, complete the billiard "furniture" of the room, apart from its seating accommodation.

The game of _billiards proper_ consists of the making of winning and losing hazards and cannons. It is usually played between two opponents (or four, two against two) for 100 or more points, three being scored for each red hazard, two for each white hazard and two for each cannon. Certain forfeitures on the other hand score to the opponent: running your ball off the table or into a pocket without having hit another ball, 3 (a coup); ordinary misses (not hitting an object-ball), 1. All these forfeits involve the termination of the turn. There are also "foul strokes" which score nothing to the opponent, and only involve the termination of the turn: such as playing with the wrong ball, forcing a ball off the table, hitting a ball twice, &c. When the red ball is pocketed it is replaced on the billiard-spot; if that is occupied, on the pyramid-spot; if that too, on the centre-spot; but if the opponent's white ball is pocketed it remains out of play till his turn comes. Public matches between adepts are played for higher points, but the rules which govern them are the same. The players have alternate turns, each being "in play" and continuing his "break" until he fails to score.

The game commences by stringing for the lead and choice of balls. The players standing behind the baulk line, strike each a ball from the semicircle up to the top cushion, and he whose ball on its return stops nearest the bottom cushion has the choice of lead and balls. The red ball is placed on the spot at the commencement of the game, and the first player must "break the balls." The balls are said to be "broken" when the first player has struck the red or given a miss; and the opponent's ball when off the table is said to be "in hand." Breaking the balls thus takes place whenever the position, as at the beginning of the game, recurs. The first player (or the player at any stage of the game when he plays after being "in hand") must place his own ball in any part of the D, or on the lines that form the D, and must play into the part of the table outside the baulk line, for he may not hit direct any ball that is "in baulk," i.e. on or behind the baulk-line; if he wishes to play at it he must first strike a cushion out of baulk (or, as it is called, _bricole_). If a player fails to score, the adversary plays, as soon as all the balls are at rest, either from baulk (if "in hand") or from the place where his own ball has stopped. If by the same stroke a player makes two scores, i.e. a cannon and a hazard for instance, or a winning and a losing hazard, he scores for each of them. Thus if he pockets the red ball and the cue-ball, he scores six, or if he makes a cannon and holes the red ball, five. In the case of a cannon and a losing hazard, made by the same stroke, the value of the hazard depends on the ball first struck. Thus if the cue-ball strikes the red, cannons on to the white, and runs into a pocket, the stroke counts five points, but only one cannon can be made by the same stroke, even if the cue-ball strikes each of the others twice. If both object-balls are struck simultaneously it is considered that the red is struck first. Ten points are the most that can be scored by a single stroke with the cue, namely by striking the red ball first and then the white, and holing all three. If the white ball be struck first and the same series occurs, the value of the stroke is nine points. When the cue-ball and object-ball are _touching_, whatever the position, the red ball is spotted, the white object-ball put on the centre-spot, and the player plays from baulk.

There are various subtleties in the art of striking, which may be indicated, though only practice can really teach them; the simple stroke being one delivered slightly above the centre of the ball.

The _side-stroke_ is made by striking the object-ball on the side with the point of the cue. The effect of such a mode of striking the ball is to make it travel to the right or to the left, according as it is struck, with a winding or slightly circular motion; and its purpose is to cause the ball to proceed in a direction more or less slanting than is usual, or ordinary, when the ball is struck in or about the centre of its circumference. Many hazards and cannons, quite impossible to be made with the central stroke, are accomplished with ease and certainty by the side-stroke. It was the invention of the leather tip which made _side_ possible. The _screw_, or twist, is made by striking the ball low down, with a sharp, sudden blow. According as the ball is struck nearer and nearer to the cushion, it stops dead at the point of concussion with the object-ball, or recoils by a series of reverse revolutions, in the manner familiar to the schoolboy in throwing forward a hoop, and causing it to return to his hand by the twist given to its first impetus.

The _follow_ is made by striking the ball high, with a flowing or following motion of the cue. Just as the low stroke impedes the motion of the ball, the follow expedites it.

In the _drag_ the ball is struck low without the sudden jerk of the screw, and with less than the onward push of the follow.

The _spot-stroke_ is a series of winning hazards made by pocketing the red ball in one of the corners from the spot. The great art is, first, to make sure of the hazard, and next, to leave the striking ball in such a position as to enable the player to make a similar stroke in one or other of the corner pockets. To such perfection was the spot-stroke brought, that at the end of the 19th century it was necessary to bar it out of the professional matches, and the "spot-barred" game became consequently the rule for all players. The leading English professionals so completely mastered the difficulties of the stroke and made such long successions of hazards that they practically killed all public interest in billiards, the game being little more than a monotonous series of spot-strokes. In 1888 W.J. Peall made 633 "spots" in succession, and in 1890 in a break of 3304--the longest record--no less than 3183 of the points were scored through spot-stroke breaks. J.G. Sala, by use of the screw-back, made 186 successive hazards in one pocket, but C. Memmott is said to have made as many as 423 such strokes in succession. The spot-stroke was known and used in 1825, when a run of twenty-two "spots" caused quite a sensation. The player, whose name was Carr, offered to play any man in England, but though challenged by Edwin Kentfield never met him, so the latter became champion. Kentfield, however, did not regard the spot-stroke as genuine billiards, rarely played it himself, and had the pocket of his tables reduced to 3 in., and the billiard-spot moved nearer to the top of the table, so as to make the stroke exceedingly difficult. John Roberts, sen., who succeeded Kentfield as champion in 1849, worked hard at the stroke, but never made, in public, a longer run than 104 in succession. But W. Cook, John Roberts, jun., and others, assisted by the improvements made in the implements of the game, soon outdid Roberts, sen., only to be themselves outdone by W. Peall and W. Mitchell, who made such huge breaks by means of the stroke that it was finally barred, the Association rules providing that only two "spots" may be made in succession unless a cannon is combined with a hazard, and that after the second hazard the red ball be placed on the centre-spot.

_Top-of-the-Table Play._--When the spot-stroke was dying, many leading players, headed by John Roberts, jun., assiduously cultivated another form of rapid scoring, known as "top-of-the-table-play," the first principle of which is to collect the three balls at the top of the table near the spot. The balls are then manipulated by means of red winning hazards and cannons, the winning hazard not being made till the object-white can be left close to the spot.

_The Push-stroke._--Long series of cannons were also made along the edge of the cushion, mainly by means of the "push-stroke," and with great rapidity, but eventually the push-stroke too was barred as unfair. It was usually employed when cue-ball and object-ball were very close together and the third ball was in a line, or nearly in a line with them; then by placing the tip of the cue very close to the cue-ball and pushing gently and carefully, not striking, the object-ball could be pushed aside and the cue-ball directed on ball 3.

_Balls Jammed in Pockets._--If the two object-balls get jammed, either by accident or design, in the jaws of a corner pocket, an almost interminable series of cannons may be made by a skilful player. T. Taylor made as many as 729 cannons in 1891, but the American champion, Frank C. Ives, in a match with John Roberts, jun., easily beat this in 1893, by making 1267 cannons, before he deliberately broke up the balls. In Ives's case the balls, however, were just outside the jaws, which were skilfully used to keep the balls close together; but in this game, which was a compromise between English and American billiards, {21/4}-in. balls and {31/4}-in. pockets were used. Under the aegis of the Billiard Association a tacit understanding was arrived at that the position must be broken up, should it occur. A similar position came into discredit in 1907, in the case of the "cradle-double-kiss" or "anchor" cannon, where the balls were not actually jammed, but so close on each side of a pocket that a long series of cannons could be made without disturbing the position--a stroke introduced by Lovejoy and carried to extremes by him, T. Reece and others (see below).

_The Quill or Feather Stroke._--This stroke was barred early in the game's history. It could only be made when the cue-ball was in hand and the object-ball just outside that part of the baulk-line that helps to form the D. The cue-ball was set so close to the object-ball as only not to touch it, and was then pushed very gently into the pocket, grazing the other so slightly as just to shake it, and no more. A number of similar strokes could thus be made before the object-ball was out of position.

A _jenny_ is a losing hazard into one of the (generally top) pockets when the object-ball is close to the cushion along which the pocket lies: it requires to be played with the side required to turn the ball into the pocket. Long jennies to the top pockets are a difficult and pretty stroke: short jennies are into the middle pockets.

_Masse and Pique._--A _masse_ is a difficult stroke made by striking downwards on the upper surface of the cue-ball, the cue being held nearly at right angles to the table, and the point not being directed towards the centre of the ball. It is generally used to effect a cannon when the three balls are more or less in a line, the cue-ball and the object-ball being close together. The term _masse_ is often used irregularly for _pique_, made when the object-ball is as close to the cue-ball as the latter to the cushion, or the third ball, or to make screwing impossible; the cue is then raised to an angle of almost 45 deg. or 50 deg. and its axis directed to the centre of the cue-ball, so that backward rotation is set up. Vignaux, the French player, says, "_Le masse est un pique_." _Masse_ is in fact _pique_ combined with side.

The perfection of billiards is to be found in the nice combination of the various strokes, in such fashion as to leave the balls in a favourable position after each individual hazard and cannon; and this perfection can only be attained by the most constant and unremitting practice. When the cue-ball is so played that its centre is aimed at the extreme edge of the object-ball, the cue-ball's course is diverted at what is called the "_natural_" or "_half-ball_" angle. If the balls were flat discs instead of spheres the edge of one ball would touch the centre of the other. The object-ball is struck at "three-quarter ball" or "quarter-ball" according as the edge of the cue-ball appears to strike mid-way between the half-ball point and the centre or edge respectively of the object-ball. The half-ball angle is regarded as the standard angle for billiards, other angles being sometimes termed rather vaguely as "rather more or less than half-ball." The angle of the cue-ball's new course would be about 45 deg., were the object-ball fixed, but as the object-ball moves immediately it is struck, the cue-ball is not actually diverted more than 33 deg. from the prolongation of its original course, it being conventional among players to regard the prolongation of the course and not the original track when calculating the angle. The natural angle, and all angles, may be modified by side and screw; the use of strength also makes the ball go off at a wider angle.

_Development in Billiard Play._--The modern development of English billiards is due mainly to the skill of such leading players as John Roberts, sen., and his son of the same name. Indeed, their careers form the history of modern billiards from 1849 when the elder Roberts challenged Kentfield (who declined to play) for the championship. No useful comparison can be made between the last-named men, and the change of cushions from list to india-rubber further complicates the question. Kentfield represented the best of the old style of play, and was a most skilful performer; but Roberts had a genius for the game, combined with great nerve and physical power. This capacity for endurance enabled him to practise single strokes till they became certainties, when weaker men would have failed from sheer fatigue; and that process applied to the acquisition of the spot-stroke was what placed him decisively in front of the players of his day until a younger generation taught by him came forward. In 1869 the younger generation had caught him up, and soon afterwards surpassed him at this stroke; both W. Cook and J. Roberts, jun., carried it to greater perfection, but they were in turn put entirely in the shade by W. Mitchell and W.J. Peall. It is curious to realize that John Roberts, sen., developed the game chiefly by means of spot-play, whereas his son continued the process by abandoning it. The public, however, liked quick scoring and long breaks, and therefore a substitute had to be devised. This was provided chiefly by the younger Roberts, whose fertility of resource and manual dexterity eventually placed him by a very long way at the head of his profession. In exhibition matches he barred the spot-stroke and gave his attention chiefly to top-of-the-table play.

The next development was borrowed from the French game (see below), which consists entirely of cannons. Both French and American professors, giving undivided attention to cannons and not being permitted to use the _push-stroke_, arrived at a perfection in controlling or "_nursing_" the balls to which English players could not pretend; yet the principles involved in making a long series of cannons were applied, and leading professionals soon acquired the necessary delicacy of touch. The plan is to get the three balls close to each other, say within a space which a hand can cover, and not more than from 4 to 8 in. from a cushion. The striker's ball should be behind the other two, one of which is nearer the cushion, the other a little farther off and farther forward. The striker's ball is tapped quietly on the one next the cushion, and hits the third ball so as to drive it an inch or two in a line parallel to the cushion. The ball first struck rebounds from the cushion, and at the close of the stroke all three balls are at rest in a position exactly similar to that at starting, which is called by the French _position mere_. Thus each stroke is a repetition of the previous one, the positions of the balls being relatively the same, but actually forming a series of short advances along the cushion. With the push-stroke a great number of these cannons could be quickly made, say 50 in 31/2 minutes; and, as that means 100 points, scoring was rapid. Most of the great spot-barred breaks contained long series of these cannons, and their value as records is correspondingly diminished, for in such hair's-breadth distances very often no one but the player, and sometimes not even he, could tell whether a stroke was made or missed or was foul. Push-barred, the cannons are played nearly as fast; but with most men the series is shorter, _masse_ strokes being used when the cannon cannot be directly played.

_Championship._--When Kentfield declined to play in 1849, John Roberts, sen., assumed the title, and held the position till 1870, when he was defeated by his pupil W. Cook. The following table gives particulars of championship matches up to 1885:--

+-------+-------------------+--------------------------------+-----+ |Points.| Date. | Players. | Won | | | | | by. | +-------+-------------------+--------------------------------+-----+ | 1200 | Feb. 11, 1870 | Cook b. Roberts, sen. | 117 | | 1000 | April 14, 1870 | Roberts, jun., b. Cook | 478 | | 1000 | May 30, 1870 | Roberts, jun., b. Bowles | 246 | | 1000 | Nov. 28, 1870 | Jos. Bennett b. Roberts, jun. | 95 | | 1000 | Jan. 30, 1871 | Roberts, jun., b. Bennett | 363 | | 1000 | May 25, 1871 | Cook b. Roberts, jun. | 15 | | 1000 | Nov. 21, 1871 | Cook b. Jos. Bennett | 58 | | 1000 | March 4, 1872 | Cook b. Roberts, jun. | 201 | | 1000 | Feb. 4, 1874 | Cook b. Roberts, jun. | 216 | | 1000 | May 24, 1875 | Roberts, jun., b. Cook | 163 | | 1000 | Dec. 20, 1875 | Roberts, jun., b. Cook | 135 | | 1000 | May 28, 1877 | Roberts, jun., b. Cook | 223 | | 1000 | Nov. 8, 1880 | Jos. Bennett b. Cook | 51 | | 1000 | Jan. 12, 13, 1881 | Jos. Bennett b. Taylor | 90 | | 3000 | March 30, 31, and | | | | | April 1, 1885 | Roberts, jun., b. Cook | 92 | | 3000 | June 1, 2, 3, 4, | | | | | 1885 | Roberts, jun., b. Jos. Bennett |1640 | +-------+-------------------+--------------------------------+-----+

These games were played on three-inch-pocket tables, and John Roberts, jun., fairly contended that he remained champion till beaten on such a table under the rules in force when he won the title or under a new code to which he was a consenting party. A match was played for the championship between Roberts and Dawson, in 1899 of 18,000 up, level. The main departure from a championship game lay in the table, which had ordinary, though not easy pockets, instead of three-inch pockets. The match excited much interest, because Dawson, who had already beaten North for the Billiard Association championship, was the first man for many years to play Roberts even; but Roberts secured the game by 1814 points. After this Dawson improved materially, and in 1899, for the second time, he won the Billiard Association championship. His position was challenged by Diggle and Stevenson, who contested a game of 9000 points. Stevenson won by 2900, but lost to Dawson by 2225 points; he beat him in January 1901, and though Dawson won a match before the close of the spring, Stevenson continued to establish his superiority, and at the beginning of 1907 was incontestably the English champion.

_Records._--Record scores at billiards have greatly altered since W. Cook's break of 936, which included 292 spots, and was made in 1873. Big breaks are in some degree a measure of development; but too much weight must not be given to them, for tables vary considerably between easy and difficult ones, and comparisons are apt to mislead. Peall's break of 3304 (1890) is the largest "all-in" score on record; and in the modern spot-barred and push-barred game with a championship table, H.W. Stevenson in April 1904 made 788 against C. Dawson. In January 1905 John Roberts, however, made 821 in fifty minutes, in a match with J. Duncan, champion of Ireland; but this was not strictly a "record," since the table had not been measured officially by the Billiard Association. A break of 985 was made by Diggle in 1895 against Roberts, on a "standard table" (before the reduction in size of the pockets). On the 5th of March 1907 T. Reece began beating records by means of the "anchor" stroke, making 1269 (521 cannons), and he made an unfinished 4593 with the same stroke (2268 cannons) on the 23rd of March. Further large breaks followed, including 23,769 by Dawson on the 20th of April 1907, and even more by Reece; and towards the end of the year the Billiard Association ruled the stroke out.

_Handicapping._--The obvious way of handicapping unequal players is for the stronger player to allow his opponent an agreed number of points by way of start. Or he may "owe" points, i.e. not begin to reckon his score till he has scored a certain number. A good plan is for the better player to agree to count no breaks that are below a certain figure. The giver of points scores all forfeits for misses, &c. If A can give B 20 points, and B can give C 25 points, the number of points that A can give C is calculated on the following formula,

20 x 25 20 + 25 - ------- = 40. 100

The handicap of "barring" one or more pockets to the better player, he having only four or five sockets to play into, has been abolished in company with other methods that tended to make the game tedious.

_Pyramids_ is played by two or four persons--in the latter case in sides, two and two. It is played with fifteen balls, placed close together by means of a frame in the form of a triangle or pyramid, with the apex towards the player, and a white striking ball. The centre of the apex ball covers the second or pyramid spot, and the balls forming the pyramid should lie in a compact mass, the base in a straight line with the cushion.

Pyramids is a game entirely of winning hazards, and he who succeeds in pocketing the greatest number of balls wins. Usually the pyramid is made of fifteen red or coloured balls, with the striking ball white. This white ball is common to both players. Having decided on the lead, the first player, placing his ball in the baulk-semicircle, strikes it up to the pyramid, with a view either to lodge a ball in a pocket or to get the white safely back into baulk. Should he fail to pocket a red ball, the other player goes on and strikes the white ball from the place at which it stopped. When either succeeds in making a winning hazard, he plays at any other ball he chooses, and continues his break till he ceases to score; and so the game is continued by alternate breaks until the last red ball is pocketed. The game is commonly played for a stake upon the whole, and a proportionate sum upon each ball or life--as, for instance, 3s. game and 1s. balls. The player wins a life by pocketing a red ball or forcing it over the table; and loses a life by running his own, the white, ball into a pocket, missing the red balls, or intentionally giving a miss. In this game the baulk is no protection; that is to say, the player can pocket any ball wherever it lies, either within or without the baulk line, and whether the white be in hand or not. This liberty is a great and certain advantage under many circumstances, especially in the hands of a good player. It is not a very uncommon occurrence for an adept to pocket six or eight balls in a single break. Both Cook and Roberts have been known, indeed, to pocket the whole fifteen. If four persons play at pyramids, the rotation is decided by chance, and each plays alternately--partners, as in billiards, being allowed to advise each other, each going on and continuing to play as long as he can, and ceasing when he misses a hazard. Foul strokes are reckoned as in billiards, except as regards balls touching each other. If two balls touch, the player proceeds with his game and scores a point for every winning hazard. When all the red balls but one are pocketed, he who made the last hazard plays with the white and his opponent with the red; and so on alternately, till the game terminates by the holing of one or other ball. The pyramid balls are usually a little smaller than the billiard balls; the former are about 2 in. in diameter, the latter 2-1/16 in. to 2-1/8 in.

_Losing Pyramids_, seldom played, is the reverse of the last-named game, and consists of losing hazards, each player using the same striking ball, and taking a ball from the pyramid for every losing hazard. As in the other game, the baulk is no protection. Another variety of pyramids is known as _Shell-out_, a game at which any number of persons may play. The pyramid is formed as before, and the company play in rotation. For each winning hazard the striker receives from each player a small stake, and for each losing hazard he pays a like sum, till the game is concluded, by pocketing the white or the last coloured ball.

_Pool_, a game which may be played by two or more persons, consists entirely of winning hazards. Each player subscribes a certain stake to form the pool, and at starting has three chances or lives. He is then provided with a coloured or numbered ball, and the game commences thus:--The white ball is placed on the spot and the red is played at it from the baulk semicircle. If the player pocket the white he receives the price of a life from the owner of the white; but if he fail, the next player, the yellow, plays on the red; and so on alternately till all have played, or till a ball be pocketed. When a ball is pocketed the striker plays on the ball nearest his own, and goes on playing as long as he can score.

The order of play is usually as follows:--The white ball is spotted; red plays upon white; yellow upon red; then blue, brown, green, black, and spot-white follow in the order of succession named, white playing on spot-white. The order is similar for a larger number, but it is not common for more than seven or eight to join in a pool. The player _wins_ a life for every ball pocketed, and receives the sum agreed on for each life from the owner of that ball. He _loses_ a life to the owner of the ball he plays on and misses; or by making a losing hazard after striking such ball; by playing at the wrong ball, by running a coup; or by forcing his ball over the table. Rules governing the game provide for many other incidents. A ball in baulk may be played at by the striker whose ball is in hand. If the striker's ball be angled--that is, so placed in the jaws of the pocket as not to allow him to strike the previously-played ball--he may have all the balls except his own and the object ball removed from the table to allow him to try bricole from the cushion. In some clubs and public rooms an angled ball is allowed to be moved an inch or two from the corner; but with a ball so removed the player must not take a life. When the striker loses a life, the next in rotation plays at the ball nearest his own; but if the player's ball happen to be in hand, he plays at the ball nearest to the centre spot on the baulk line, whether it be in or out of baulk. In such a case the striker can play from any part of the semicircle. Any ball lying in the way of the striker's ball, and preventing him from taking fair aim and reaching the object-ball, must be removed, and replaced after the stroke. If there be any doubt as to the nearest ball, the distance must be measured by the marker or umpire; and if the distance be equal, the ball to be played upon must be decided by chance. If the striker first pocket the ball he plays on and then runs his own into a pocket, he loses a life to the player whose ball he pocketed, which ball is then to be considered in hand. The first player who loses all his three lives can "star"; that is, by paying into the pool a sum equal to his original stake, he is entitled to as many lives as the lowest number on the marking board. Thus if the lowest number be 2, he stars 2; if 1, he stars 1. Only one star is allowed in a pool; and when there are only two players left in, no star can be purchased. The price of each life must be paid by the player losing it, immediately after the stroke is made; and the stake or pool is finally won by the player who remains longest in the game. In the event, however, of the two players last left in the pool having an equal number of lives, they may either play for the whole or divide the stake. The latter, the usual course, is followed except when the combatants agree to play out the game. When three players are left, each with one life, and the striker makes a miss, the two remaining divide the pool without a stroke--this rule being intended to meet the possible case of two players combining to take advantage of a third. When the striker has to play, he may ask which ball he has to play at, and if being wrongly informed he play at the wrong ball, he does not lose a life. In clubs and public rooms it is usual for the marker to call the order and rotation of play: "Red upon white, and yellow's your player"; and when a ball has been pocketed the fact is notified--"Brown upon blue, and green's your player, in hand"; and so on till there are only two or three players left in the pool.

There are some varieties of the game which need brief mention.

_Single Pool_ is the white winning hazard game, played for a stake and so much for each of three or more lives. Each person has a ball, usually white and spot-white. The white is spotted, and the other plays on it from the baulk-semicircle; and then each plays alternately, spotting this ball after making a hazard. For each winning hazard the striker receives a life; for each losing hazard he pays a life; and the taker of the three lives wins the game. No star is allowed in single pool. The rules regulating pool are observed.

_Nearest-Ball Pool_ is played by any number of persons with the ordinary coloured balls, and in the same order of succession. All the rules of pool are followed, except that the baulk _is_ a protection. The white is spotted, and the red plays on it; after that each striker plays upon the ball nearest the upper or outer side of the baulk-line; but if the balls lie within the baulk-line, and the striker's ball be in hand, he must play up to the top cushion, or place his ball on the spot. If his ball be not in hand, he plays at the nearest ball, wherever it may lie.

_Black Pool._--In this game, which lasts for half-an-hour, there are no lives, the player whose ball is pocketed paying the stake to the pocketer. Each player receives a coloured ball and plays in order as in "Following Pool," the white ball being spotted; there is, in addition, however, a black ball, which is spotted on the centre-spot. When a player has taken a life he may--in some rooms and clubs _must_--play on the black ball. If he pockets it he receives a stake from each player, paying a stake all round if he misses it, or commits any of the errors for which he would have to pay at "Following Pool." The black ball cannot be taken in consecutive strokes. Sometimes a pink ball, spotted on the pyramid spot, is added and a single stake is paid all round to the man who pockets it, and a double stake on the black; it is also permitted in some rooms to take blacks and pinks alternately without pocketing a coloured ball between the strokes. Again it is the custom in certain rooms to let a player, after the first round, play on any ball. The game is more amusing when as much freedom is allowed as possible, so that the taking of lives may be frequent. At the end of the half-hour the marker announces at the beginning of the round that it is the last round. White, who lost a stroke at the beginning by being spotted, has the last stroke. If a player wishes to enter the game during its progress his ball is put on the billiard-spot just before white plays, and he takes his first stroke at the end of the round.

_Snooker Pool._--This is a game of many and elaborate rules. In principle it is a combination of pyramids and pool. The white ball is the cue-ball for all players. The pyramid balls, set up as in pyramids, count one point each, the yellow ball two points, green ball three, and so on. The black is put on the billiard-spot, the pink on the centre-spot, blue below the apex ball of the pyramid; brown, green and yellow on the diameter of the semicircle, brown on the middle spot, green on the right corner spot of the D, yellow on the left. The players, having decided the order of play, generally by distributing the pool balls from the basket, and playing in the order of colours as shown on the marking board, are obliged to strike a red ball first. If it is pocketed, the player scores one and is at liberty to play on any of the coloured balls; though in some clubs he is compelled to play on the yellow. If he pockets a coloured ball he scores the number of points which that ball is worth, and plays again on a red ball, the coloured ball being replaced on its spot, and so on; but a red ball must always be pocketed before a more valuable ball can be played at. When all the red balls have been pocketed--none are put back on the table as at pyramids--the remaining balls _must_ be pocketed in the pool order and are not replaced. The penalties for missing a ball, running into a pocket, &c., are deducted from the player's score; they correspond to the values of the balls, one point if the red be missed, two if the yellow be missed, &c. If, before hitting the proper ball, the player hits one of a higher value, the value of that ball is deducted from his score, but there is no further penalty. A player is "snookered" if his ball is so placed that he cannot hit a ball on which he is compelled to play. In this case he is allowed in some rooms to give a miss, but in such a way that the next player is not snookered; in others he must make a _bona fide_ attempt to hit the proper ball off the cushion, being liable to the usual penalty if in so doing he hits a ball of higher value. In some rooms it is considered fair and part of the game to snooker an opponent deliberately; in others the practice is condemned. The rules are so variable in different places that even the printed rules are not of much value, owing to local by-laws.

Among other games of minor importance, being played in a less serious spirit than those mentioned, are _Selling Pool, Nearest Ball Pool, Cork Pool_ and _Skittle Pool_. The directions for playing them may be found in _Billiards_ (Badminton Library series).

_French and American Billiards._--French and American billiards is played on a pocketless table, the only kind of table that is used in France, though the English table with six pockets is also occasionally to be found in America. For match purposes the table used measures 10 ft. by 5 ft., but in private houses and clubs 9 ft. by 41/4 ft. is the usual size, while tables 8 ft. by 4 ft. are not uncommon. The balls, three in number as in English billiards, measure from 21/4 to 2-3/8 in., the latter being "match" size. Since they are both larger and heavier than the English balls, the cues are somewhat heavier and more powerful, so that better effects can be produced by means of "side," masses, &c. Only cannons (called in America "caroms," in French _caramboles_) are played, each counting one point.

The three-ball carom game is the recognized form of American billiards. The table is marked with a centre-spot, "red" spot and "white" spot. The first is on the centre of an imaginary line dividing the table longitudinally into halves; the red (for the red ball) and white spots are on the same line, half-way between the centre-spot and the end cushions, the white spot being on the string-line (corresponding to the English baulk-line). The right to play first is decided, as in England, by "stringing." The opponent's white ball and the red ball being spotted, the player plays from within the imaginary baulk-line. Each carom counts one point; a miss counts one to the opponent. A ball is re-spotted on its proper spot if it has been forced off the table. Should red be forced off the table and the red spot be occupied, it is placed on the white spot. White under similar conditions is set on the red spot. The centre spot is only used when, a ball having been forced off the table, both spots are occupied. If a carom be made, and the ball afterwards jumps off the table, it is spotted and the count allowed. If the striker moves a ball not his own before he strikes, he cannot count but may play for safety. If he does so after making a carom the carom does not count, he forfeits one, and his break is ended. If he touches his own ball before he plays, he forfeits a point, and cannot play the stroke. Should he, however, touch his ball a second time, the opponent has the option of having the balls replaced as exactly as possible, or of playing on them as they are left. It is a foul stroke to play with the wrong ball, but if the offence is not detected before a second stroke has been made, the player may continue.

Such long runs of caroms, chiefly "on the rail" along the cushion, have been made by professional players (H. Kerkau, the German champion, making 7156 caroms in 1901 at Zuerich), that various schemes have been devised to make the game more difficult. One of these is known as the "continuous baulk-line." Lines are drawn, 8, 14, 18 or even 22 in. from the rails, parallel to the side of the table, forming with them eight compartments. Of these 14 and 18 are the most general. Only one, two or three caroms, as previously arranged, are allowed to be made in every space, unless one at least of the object-balls is driven over a line. In the space left in the middle of the table any number of caroms may be made without restriction. In the case of the _Triangular Baulk-line_, lines are drawn at the four corners from the second "sight" on the side-rails to the first sight on the end-rails, forming four triangles within which only a limited number of caroms may be made, unless one object-ball at least be driven outside one of the lines. The _Anchor Baulk-lines_ were devised to checkmate the "anchor" shot, which consisted in getting the object-balls on the rail, one on either side of a baulk-line, and delicately manipulating them so as to make long series of caroms; each ball being in a different compartment, neither had to be driven over a line. The "anchor baulk-lines" form a tiny compartment, 6 in. by 3, and are drawn at the end of a baulk-line where it touches the rail and so divides the compartment into two squares. Only one shot is allowed in this "anchor-space," unless a ball be driven out of it. By these methods, "crotching" (getting them jammed in a corner) the balls, and long series of rail-caroms were abolished. The push-stroke is strictly forbidden.

The _Cushion Carom_ game is a variety of the ordinary three-ball game, in which no carom counts unless the cue-ball touches a cushion before the carom is completed. There is also _Three-Cushion Carom_, which is explained by its title, and the _Bank-Shot_ game, in which the cue-ball must touch a cushion before it strikes either ball. The cushion carom games are often used in handicapping, other methods of which are for the better player to make a certain number of caroms "or no count," and for the weaker to receive a number of points in the game.

In France billiards was played exclusively by the aristocracy and the richer middle class until the first part of the 17th century, when the privilege of keeping billiard-rooms was accorded to the _billardiers paulmiers_, and billiards became the principal betting game and remained so until the time of Louis Philippe. The most prominent French player of late years is Maurice Vignaux. The French game became the accepted one in the United States about 1870, and the best American players have proved themselves superior to the French masters with the exception of Vignaux. The best-known American masters have been M. Daly, Shaafer, Slosson, Carter, Sexton and Frank C. Ives, doubtless the most brilliant player who ever lived. His record for the 18-in. baulk-line game was an average of 50, with a high run of 290 points. In cushion-caroms he scored a run of 85.

The four-ball game, the original form of American billiards, is practically obsolete. It was formerly played on an English six-pocket table, with a dark-red and a light-red ball and two white ones. At present when played an ordinary table is used, the rules being identical with those of the three-ball game.

_Pool_ is played in America on a six-pocket table with fifteen balls, each bearing a number. There are several varieties of the game, the most popular being _Continuous Pool_, an expanded form of _Fifteen-Ball Pool_, in which the balls are set up as in English pyramids, the game being won by the player pocketing the majority of the fifteen balls, each ball counting one point, the numbers being used only to distinguish them, as a player must always name, or "call," the ball he intends to pocket and the pocket into which he will drive it. The player who "breaks" (plays first) must send at least two balls to the cushion or forfeit three points. The usual method is to strike a corner ball just hard enough to do this but not hard enough to break up the balls, as in that case the second player would have too great an advantage. Balls pocketed by chance in the same play in which a called ball has been legitimately put down are counted; all others pocketed by accident are replaced on the table. In Fifteen-Ball Pool each frame (fifteen balls) constitutes a game. In Continuous Pool the game is for a series of points, generally 100, the balls being set up again after each frame and the player pocketing the last ball having the choice whether to break or cause his opponent to do so.

The balls in Fifteen-Ball Pool are generally all of one colour, usually red. In _Pyramid Pool_ they are parti-coloured as well as numbered, and the game, which usually consists of a single frame, is won by the player who, when all fifteen balls have been pocketed, has scored the greatest aggregate of the numbers on the balls. In _Chicago Pool_ each frame constitutes a game and is won by the player scoring the highest aggregate of numbers on the balls, which are set up round the cushion opposite the diamond sights, the 1 being placed in the middle of the top cushion, opposite the player, with the odd-numbered balls on the player's left and those with even numbers on his right. The arrangement of the balls, however, varies and is not important. Each player must strike the lowest-numbered ball still on the table, forfeiting the number of points represented by the ball should his ball first hit any other ball, or should he pocket his own ball. If he pockets the proper ball all others that fall into pockets on that play count for him also. Missing the ball played at forfeits three points (sometimes the number on the ball played at), as well as fouls of all kinds. _Bottle Pool_ is played with a cue-ball, the 1 and 2 pool-balls and the leather pool-bottle, which is stood upon its mouth in the middle of the table. A carom on two balls counts 2 points; pocketing the 1-ball counts 1; pocketing the 2-ball counts 2; upsetting bottle from carom counts 5; upsetting bottle to standing position counts 10, or, in many clubs, the game is won when this occurs. Otherwise the game is for 31 points, which number must be scored exactly, a player scoring more than that number being "burst," and having to begin over again. There are many penalties of one point, such as missing the object-ball, foul strokes, forcing a ball or the bottle off the table, pocketing one's own ball and upsetting the bottle without hitting a ball. The game of _Thirty-Four_ is played without a bottle, the scoring being by caroms or pocketing the two object-balls. Exactly 34 must be scored or the player is "burst."

_High-Low-Jack-Game_ is played with a set of pyramid balls by any number of players, the order of starting being determined by distributing the small balls from the pool-bottle. The 15-ball is High, the 1 Low, the 9 Jack, and the highest aggregate of numbers is the game, each of these four counting one point, the game consisting of seven points, and therefore lasting at least for two frames. The balls are set up with the three counting balls in the centre and broken as in pyramids, although balls accidentally falling into pockets count for the player, on which account the balls are sometimes broken as violently as possible. When two or more players have the same score the High ball wins before the Low, &c., as in the card game of the same title.

_Pin Pool_ is played with two white balls, one red and five small pins set up in diamond form in the centre of the table with the pin counting 5 (the king-pin) in the middle, the pins being 3 in. apart. Each player is given a small ball from the bottle and this he keeps secret until he is able to announce that his points, added to the number on his small ball, amount to exactly 31. If he "bursts" he must begin again. Points are made only by knocking down pins, which are numbered 1 to 5. Should a player knock down with one stroke all four outside pins, leaving the 5-pin-standing, it is a "natural" and he wins the game.

Besides these common varieties of pool there are many others which are played in different parts of America, many of them local in character.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The scientific features of billiards have been discussed at more or less length in several of the following older works:--E. White, _Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards_ (1807), this was partly a translation of a French treatise, published in 1805, and partly a compilation from the article in the _Academie universelle des jeux_, issued in the same year, and since frequently re-edited and reprinted; _Le Musee des jeux_ (Paris, 1820); Monsieur Mingaud, _The Noble Game of Billiards_ (Paris, 1834); a translation of the same, by John Thurston (London, 1835); Kentfield, _On Billiards_ (London, 1839), founded principally on the foregoing works: Edward Russell Mardon, _Billiards, Game 500 up_ (London, 1849); Turner, _On Billiards_, a series of diagrams with instructions (Nottingham, 1849); Captain Crawley, _The Billiard Book_ (London, 1866-1875); Roberts, _On Billiards_ (1868); Fred. Hardy, _Practical Billiards_, edited by W. Dufton (1867); Joseph Bennett (ex-champion), _Billiards_ (1873). These older books, however, are largely superseded by such modern authorities as the following:--J. Roberts, _The Game of Billiards_ (London, 1898); W. Cook, _Billiards_ (Burroughes & Watts); J.P. Buchanan, _Hints on Billiards_ (Bell & Sons); _Modern Billiards_ (The Brunswick--Balke--Collender Co., New York); Broadfoot, _Billiards_, Badminton Library (Longmans); Locock, _Side and Screw_ (Longmans); M. Vignaux, _Le Billiard_ (Paris, 1889); A. Howard Cady, _Billiards and Pool_ (Spalding's Home Library, New York); Thatcher, _Championship Billiards, Old and New_ (Chicago, 1898). For those interested in the purely mathematical aspect of the game, Hemming, _Billiards Mathematically Treated_, (Macmillan).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In 1907 an oval table was introduced in England by way of a change, but this variety is not here considered.

[2] A later form of "lawn-billiards" again enjoyed a brief popularity during the latter half of the 19th century. It was played on a lawn, in the centre of which was a metal ring about 51/2 in. in diameter, planted upright in such a manner as to turn freely on its axis on a level with the ground. The players, two or more, were provided with implements resembling cues about 4 ft. long and ending in wire loops somewhat smaller in diameter than the wooden balls (one for each player), which were of such a size as barely to pass through the ring. In modern times such games as billiards have afforded scope for various imitations and modifications of this sort.

BILLINGTON, ELIZABETH (1768?-1818), British opera-singer, was born in London, her father being a German musician named Weichsel, and her mother a popular vocalist. She was trained in music, and at fourteen sang at a concert in Oxford. In 1783 she married James Billington, a double-bass player. She had a voice of unusual compass, and as Rosetta in _Love in a Village_ she had a great success at Covent Garden in 1786, being engaged for the season at a salary of L1000, a large sum for those days. Her position as a singer in London was now assured. In 1794 she and her husband went to Italy, and Mrs Billington appeared at Naples (where she was the heroine of a new opera, _Inez di Castro_, written for her by F. Bianchi), at Florence, at Venice and at Milan. Her husband died suddenly during the tour, and in 1799 she married a Frenchman named Felissent, whom, however, she left in 1801. Returning to England she appeared alternately at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, her professional income during 1801 amounting to between L10,000 and L15,000. Henceforward she sang in Italian opera till the end of 1810, when ill-health forced her to abandon her profession. In 1817 she was reconciled to her husband, and went with him to live near Venice, where she died on the 25th of August 1818.

BILLITON (Dutch _Blitoeng_), an island of the Dutch East Indies, between Banka and Borneo, from which it is separated respectively by Caspar and Karimata straits. Politically it is under an assistant resident. It is roughly circular in form, its extreme measurements being 55 m. by 43, and its area 1773 sq. m. In physical structure and in products it resembles Banka; its coasts are sandy or marshy; in the interior an extreme elevation of 1670 ft. is found. The geological formation is Devonian and granitic, with laterites. The mean annual rainfall is heavy, 102 to 126 in. The day temperature varies from 80 deg. to 87 deg. Fahr. The nights are very cool. Like Banka, Billiton is chiefly noted for its production of tin, the island forming the southern limit of the occurrence of this metal in this locality. There are upwards of 80 mines, which employ some 7500 workmen, and have produced more than 6500 tons of tin in a year. Iron is also worked. On the rocks along the coast are found tortoises, trepang and edible birds' nests, which are articles of export. The forests supply wood of different kinds for boat-building, in which the inhabitants are expert; and also provide trade in cocoa-nuts, sago, gum and other produce. The population is about 42,000, of whom some 12,000 are Chinese. The natives belong to two classes, the _Orang Darat_, the aborigines, thought to be akin to the Battas and other branches of the pre-Malayan or Indonesian race; and the _Orang Sekah_, people of Malayan stock who live in boats. The coast is as a rule difficult of access, being beset with rocks and coral banks, and the best harbour is that at the chief town of Tanjong Pandan on the west coast. The island was formerly under the sultan of Palembang, by whom it was ceded to the British in 1812. As no mention was made of it in the treaty between the British and Dutch in 1814, the former at first refused to renounce their possession, and only recognized the Dutch claim in 1824. Till 1852 Billiton was dependent on Banka.

BILL OF EXCHANGE, a form of negotiable instrument, defined below, the history of which, though somewhat obscure, was ably summed up by Lord Chief Justice Cockburn in his judgment in _Goodwinn_ v. _Robarts_ (1875), L.R. 10 Ex. pp. 346-358. Bills of exchange were probably invented by Florentine Jews. They were well known in England in the middle ages, though there is no reported decision on a bill of exchange before the year 1603. At first their use seems to have been confined to foreign bills between English and foreign merchants. It was afterwards extended to domestic bills between traders, and finally to bills of all persons, whether traders or not. But for some time after they had come into general employment, bills were always alleged in legal proceedings to be drawn _secundum usum et consuetudinem mercatorum_. The foundations of modern English law were laid by Lord Mansfield with the aid of juries of London merchants. No better tribunal of commerce could have been devised. Subsequent judicial decisions have developed and systematized the principles thus laid down. Promissory notes are of more modern origin than bills of exchange, and their validity as negotiable instruments was doubtful until it was confirmed by a statute of Anne (1704). Cheques are the creation of the modern system of banking.

Before 1882 the English law was to be found in 17 statutes dealing with isolated points, and about 2600 cases scattered over some 300 volumes of reports. The Bills of Exchange Act 1882 codifies for the United Kingdom the law relating to bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques. One peculiar Scottish rule is preserved, but in other respects uniform rules are laid down for England, Scotland and Ireland. After glancing briefly at the history of these instruments, it will probably be convenient to discuss the subject in the order followed by the act, namely, first, to treat of a bill of exchange, which is the original and typical negotiable instrument, and then to refer to the special provisions which apply to promissory notes and cheques. Two salient characteristics distinguish negotiable instruments from other engagements to pay money. In the first place, the assignee of a negotiable instrument, to whom it is transferred by indorsement or delivery according to its tenor, can sue thereon in his own name; and, secondly, he holds it by an independent title. If he takes it in good faith and for value, he takes it free from "all equities," that is to say, all defects of title or grounds of defence which may have attached to it in the hands of any previous party. These characteristic privileges were conferred by the law merchant, which is part of the common law, and are now confirmed by statute.

_Definition._--By Sec. 3 of the act a bill of exchange is defined to be "an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer."[1] The person who gives the order is called the drawer. The person thereby required to pay is called the drawee. If he assents to the order, he is then called the acceptor. An acceptance must be in writing and must be signed by the drawee. The mere signature of the drawee is sufficient (Sec. 17). The person to whom the money is payable is called the payee. The person to whom a bill is transferred by indorsement is called the indorsee. The generic term "holder" includes any person in possession of a bill who holds it either as payee, indorsee or bearer. A bill which in its origin is payable to order becomes payable to bearer if it is indorsed in blank. If the payee is a fictitious person the bill may be treated as payable to bearer (Sec. 7).

The following is a specimen of an ordinary form of a bill of exchange:--

L100 LONDON, _1st January_ 1901.

Three months after date pay to the order of Mr J. Jones the sum of one hundred pounds for value received.

BROWN & Co. To Messrs. Smith & Sons, Liverpool.

The scope of the definition given above may be realized by comparing it with the definition given by Sir John Comyns' _Digest_ in the early part of the 18th century:--"A bill of exchange is when a man takes money in one country or city upon exchange, and draws a bill whereby he directs another person in another country or city to pay so much to A, or order, for value received of B, and subscribes it." Comyns' definition illustrates the original theory of a bill of exchange. A bill in its origin was a device to avoid the transmission of cash from place to place to settle trade debts. Now a bill of exchange is a substitute for money. It is immaterial whether it is payable in the place where it is drawn or not. It is immaterial whether it is stated to be given for value received or not, for the law itself raises a presumption that it was given for value. But though bills are a substitute for cash payment, and though they constitute the commercial currency of the country, they must not be confounded with money. No man is bound to take a bill in payment of debt unless he has agreed to do so. If he does take a bill, the instrument ordinarily operates as conditional, and not as absolute payment. If the bill is dishonoured the debt revives. Under the laws of some continental countries, a creditor, as such, is entitled to draw on his debtor for the amount of his debt, but in England the obligation to accept or pay a bill rests solely on actual agreement. A bill of exchange must be an unconditional order to pay. If an instrument is made payable on a contingency, or out of a particular fund, so that its payment is dependent on the continued existence of that fund, it is invalid as a bill, though it may, of course, avail as an agreement or equitable assignment. In Scotland it has long been the law that a bill may operate as an assignment of funds in the hands of the drawee, and Sec. 53 of the act preserves this rule.

_Stamp._--Bills of exchange must be stamped, but the act of 1882 does not regulate the stamp. It merely saves the operation of the stamp laws, which necessarily vary from time to time according to the fluctuating needs and policy of the exchequer. Under the Stamp Act 1891, bills payable on demand are subject to a fixed stamp duty of one penny, and by the Finance Act 1899, a similar privilege is extended to bills expressed to be payable not more than three days after sight or date. The stamp may be impressed or adhesive. All other bills are liable to an _ad valorem_ duty. Inland bills must be drawn on stamped paper, but foreign bills, of course, can be stamped with adhesive stamps. As a matter of policy, English law does not concern itself with foreign revenue laws. For English purposes, therefore, it is immaterial whether a bill drawn abroad is stamped in accordance with the law of its place of origin or not. On arrival in England it has to conform to the English stamp laws.

_Maturity._--A bill of exchange is payable on demand when it is expressed to be payable on demand, or at sight, or on presentation or when notice for payment is expressed. In calculating the maturity of bills payable at a future time, three days, called days of grace, must be added to the nominal due date of the bill. For instance, if a bill payable one month after sight is accepted on the 1st of January, it is really payable on the 4th of February, and not on the 1st of February as its tenor indicates. On the continent generally days of grace have been abolished as anomalous and misleading. Their abolition has been proposed in England, but it has been opposed on the ground that it would curtail the credit of small traders who are accustomed to bills drawn at certain fixed periods of currency. When the last day of grace is a non-business day some complicated rules come into play (Sec. 14). Speaking generally, when the last day of grace falls on Sunday or a common law holiday the bill is payable on the preceding day, but when it falls on a bank holiday the bill is payable on the succeeding day. Complications arise when Sunday is preceded by a bank holiday; and, to add to the confusion, Christmas day is a bank holiday in Scotland, but a common law holiday in England. When the code was in committee an attempt was made to remove these anomalies, but it was successfully resisted by the bankers on alleged grounds of practical convenience.

_Acceptance._--By the acceptance of a bill the drawee becomes the principal debtor on the instrument and the party primarily liable to pay it. The acceptor of a bill "by accepting it engages that he will pay it according to the tenor of his acceptance," and is precluded from denying the drawer's right to draw or the genuineness of his signature (Sec. 54). The acceptance may be either general or qualified. As a qualified acceptance is so far a disregard of the drawer's order, the holder is not obliged to take it; and if he chooses to take it he must give notice to antecedent parties, acting at his own risk if they dissent (Sec.Sec. 19 and 44). The drawer and indorsers of a bill are in the nature of sureties. They engage that the bill shall be duly accepted and paid according to its tenor, and that if it is dishonoured by non-acceptance or non-payment, as the case may be, they will compensate the holder provided that the requisite proceedings on dishonour are duly taken. Any indorser who is compelled to pay the bill has the like remedy as the holder against any antecedent party (Sec. 55). A person who is not the holder of a bill, but who backs it with his signature, thereby incurs the liability of an indorser to a holder in due course (Sec. 56). An indorser may by express term either restrict or charge his ordinary liability as stated above. Prima facie every signature to a bill is presumed to have been given for valuable consideration. But sometimes this is not the case. For friendship, or other reasons, a man may be willing to lend his name and credit to another in a bill transaction. Hence arise what are called _accommodation bills_. Ordinarily the acceptor gives his acceptance to accommodate the drawer. But occasionally both drawer and acceptor sign to accommodate the payee, or even a person who is not a party to the bill at all. The criterion of an accommodation bill is the fact that the principal debtor according to the instrument has lent his name and is in substance a surety for some one else. The holder for value of an accommodation bill may enforce it exactly as if it was an ordinary bill, for that is the presumable intention of the parties. But if the bill is dishonoured the law takes cognizance of the true relations of the parties, and many of the rules relating to principal and surety come into play. Suppose a bill is accepted for the accommodation of the drawer. It is the drawer's duty to provide the acceptor with funds to meet the bill at maturity. If he fails to do so, he cannot rely on the defence that the bill was not duly presented for payment or that he did not receive due notice of dishonour. If the holder, with notice of the real state of the facts, agrees to give time to the drawer to pay, he may thereby discharge the acceptor.

_Holder in due Course._--The holder of a bill has special rights and special duties. He is the mercantile owner of the bill, but in order to establish his ownership he must show a mercantile title. The bill must be negotiated to him, that is to say, it must be transferred to him according to the forms prescribed by mercantile law. If the bill is payable to order, he must not only get possession of the bill, but he must also obtain the indorsement of the previous holder. If the bill is payable to bearer it is transferable by mere delivery. A bill is payable to bearer which is expressed to be so payable, or on which the only or last indorsement is an indorsement in blank. If a man lawfully obtains possession of a bill payable to order without the necessary indorsement, he may obtain some common law rights in respect of it, but he is not the mercantile owner, and he is not technically the holder or bearer. But to get the full advantages of mercantile ownership the holder must be a "holder in due course"--that is to say, he must satisfy three business conditions. First, he must have given value, or claim through some holder who has given value. Secondly, when he takes the bill, it must be regular on the face of it. In particular, the bill must not be overdue or known to be dishonoured. An overdue bill, or a bill which has been dishonoured, is still negotiable, but in a restricted sense. The transferee cannot acquire a better title than the party from whom he took it had (Sec. 36). Thirdly, he must take the bill honestly and without notice of any defect in the title of the transferor,--as, for instance, that the bill or acceptance had been obtained by fraud, or threats or for an illegal consideration. If he satisfies these conditions he obtains an indefeasible title, and can enforce the bill against all parties thereto. The act substitutes the expression "holder in due course" for the somewhat cumbrous older expression "bona fide holder for value without notice." The statutory term has the advantage of being positive instead of negative. The French equivalent "tiers porteur de bonne foi" is expressive. Forgery, of course, stands on a different footing from a mere defect of title. A forged signature, as a general rule, is a nullity. A person who claims through a forged signature has no title himself, and cannot give a title to any one else (Sec. 24). Two exceptions to this general rule require to be noted. First, a banker who in the ordinary course of business pays a demand draft held under a forged indorsement is protected (Sec. 60). Secondly, if a bill be issued with material blanks in it, any person in possession of it has prima facie authority to fill them up, and if the instrument when complete gets into the hands of a holder in due course the presumption becomes absolute. As between the immediate parties the transaction may amount to forgery, but the holder in due course is protected (Sec. 20).

_Dishonour._--The holder of a bill has special duties which he must fulfil in order to preserve his rights against the drawers and indorsers. They are not absolute duties; they are duties to use reasonable diligence. When a bill is payable after sight, presentment for acceptance is necessary in order to fix the maturity of the bill. Accordingly the bill must be presented for acceptance within a reasonable time. When a bill is payable on demand it must be presented for payment within a reasonable time. When it is payable at a future time it must be presented on the day that it is due. If the bill is dishonoured the holder must notify promptly the fact of dishonour to any drawer and indorser he wishes to charge. If, for example, the holder only gives notice of dishonour to the last indorser, he could not sue the drawer unless the last indorser or some other party liable has duly sent notice to the drawer. When a foreign bill is dishonoured the holder must cause it to be protested by a notary public. The bill must be noted for protest on the day of its dishonour. If this be duly done, the protest, i.e. the formal notarial certificate attesting the dishonour, can be drawn up at any time as of the date of the noting. A dishonoured inland bill may be noted, and the holder can recover the expenses of noting, but no legal consequences attach thereto. In practice, however, noting is usually accepted as showing that a bill has been duly presented and has been dishonoured. Sometimes the drawer or indorser has reason to expect that the bill may be dishonoured by the drawee. In that case he may insert the name of a "referee in case of need." But whether he does so or not, when a bill has been duly noted for protest, any person may, with the consent of the holder, intervene for the honour of any party liable on the bill. If the bill has been dishonoured by non-acceptance it may be "accepted for honour _supra protest_." If it has been dishonoured by non-payment it may be paid _supra protest_. When a bill is thus paid and the proper formalities are complied with, the person who pays becomes invested with the rights and duties of the holder so far as regards the party for whose honour he has paid the bill, and all parties antecedent to him (Sec.Sec. 65 to 68).

_Discharge._--Normally a bill is discharged by payment in due course, that is to say, by payment by the drawee or acceptor to the holder at or after maturity. But it may also be discharged in other ways, as for example by coincidence of right and liability (Sec. 61), voluntary renunciation (Sec. 62), cancellation (Sec. 63), or material alteration (Sec. 64).

_Conflict of Laws._--A bill of exchange is the most cosmopolitan of all contracts. It may be drawn in one country, payable in another, and indorsed on its journey to its destination in two or three more. The laws of all these countries may differ. Provision for this conflict of laws is made by Sec. 72, which lays down rules for determining by what law the rights and duties of the various parties are to be measured and regulated. Speaking broadly, these rules follow the maxim _Locus regit actum_. A man must be expected to know and follow the law of the place where he conducts his business, but no man can be expected to know the laws of every country through which a bill may travel. For safety of transmission from country to country bills are often made out in sets. The set usually consists of three counterparts, each part being numbered and containing a reference to the other parts. The whole set then constitutes one bill, and the drawee must be careful only to accept one part, otherwise if different accepted parts get into the hands of different holders, he may be liable to pay the bill twice (Sec. 71). Foreign bills circulating through different countries have given rise to many intricate questions of law. But the subject is perhaps one of diminishing importance, as in many trades the system of "cable transfers" is superseding the use of bills of exchange.

Cheques.

A cheque "is a bill of exchange drawn on a banker payable on demand" (Sec. 73). For the most part the rules of law applicable to bills payable on demand apply in their entirety to cheques. But there are certain peculiar rules relating to the latter which arise from the fact that the relationship of banker and customer subsists between the drawer and drawee of a cheque. For example, when a person has an account at a bank he is, as an inference of law, entitled to draw on it by means of cheques. A right to overdraw, can, of course, only arise from agreement. The drawer of a cheque is not absolutely discharged by the holder's omission to present it for payment within a reasonable time. He is only discharged to the extent of any actual damage he may have suffered through the delay (Sec. 74). Apart from any question of delay, a banker's authority to pay his customer's cheques is determined by countermand of payment or by notice of the customer's death (Sec. 75). Of recent years the use of cheques has enormously increased, and they have now become the normal machinery by which all but the smallest debts are discharged. To guard against fraud, and to facilitate the safe transmission of cheques by post, a system of crossing has been devised which makes crossed cheques payable only through certain channels. The first act which gave legislative recognition to the practice of crossing was the 19 and 20 Vict. c. 95. That act was amended in 1858, and a consolidating and amending act was passed in 1876. The act of 1876 is now repealed, and its provisions are re-enacted with slight modifications by Sec.Sec. 76 to 82 of the Bills of Exchange Act 1883. A cheque may be crossed either "generally" or "specially." A cheque is crossed generally by drawing across it two parallel lines and writing between them the words "& Co." When a cheque is crossed generally it cannot be paid over the counter. It must be presented for payment by a banker. A cheque is crossed specially by adding the name of the banker, and then it can only be presented through that particular banker. A cheque, whether crossed generally or specially, may further be crossed with the words "not negotiable." A cheque crossed "not negotiable" is still transferable, but its negotiable quality is restricted. It is put on pretty much the same footing as an overdue bill. The person who takes it does not get, and cannot give a better title to it, than that which the person from whom he took it had. These provisions are supplemented by provisions for the protection of paying and collecting bankers who act in good faith and without negligence. Suppose that a cheque payable to bearer, which is crossed generally and with the words "not negotiable," is stolen. The thief then gets a tradesman to cash it for him, and the tradesman gets the cheque paid on presentment through his banker. The banker who pays and the banker who receives the money for the tradesman are protected, but the tradesman would be liable to refund the money to the true owner. Again, assuming payment of the cheque to have been stopped, the tradesman could not maintain an action against the drawer.

Promissory notes.

A promissory note is defined by section 83 of the act to be an "unconditional promise in writing made by one person to another, signed by the maker, engaging to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person or to bearer." A promissory note may be made by two or more makers, and they may be liable either jointly, or jointly and severally, according to its tenor (Sec. 85). For the most part, rules of law applicable to a bill of exchange apply also to a promissory note, but they require adaptation. A note differs from a bill in this: it is a direct promise to pay, and not an order to pay. When it issues it bears on it the engagement of the principal debtor who is primarily liable thereon. The formula for applying to notes the rules as to bills is that "the maker of a note shall be deemed to correspond with the acceptor of a bill, and the first indorser of a note shall be deemed to correspond with the drawer of a bill payable to drawer's order" (Sec. 89). Rules relating to presentment for acceptance, acceptance, acceptance _supra_ protest, and bills in a set, have no application to a note. Moreover, when a foreign note is dishonoured it is not necessary, for English purposes, to protest it. All promissory notes are, under the Stamp Act 1891, subject to an _ad valorem_ stamp duty. Inland notes must be on impressed stamp paper. Foreign notes are stamped with adhesive stamps. For ordinary legal purposes a bank note may be regarded as a promissory note made by a banker payable to bearer on demand. It is, however, subject to special stamp regulations. It is not discharged by payment, but may be re-issued again and again. In the interests of the currency the issue of bank notes is subject to various statutory restrictions. A bank, other than the Bank of England, may not issue notes in England unless it had a lawful note issue in 1844. On the other hand, Bank of England notes are legal tender except by the bank itself.

Foreign laws.

In fundamental principles there is general agreement between the laws of all commercial nations regarding negotiable instruments. As Mr Justice Story, the great American lawyer, says: "The law respecting negotiable instruments may be truly declared, in the language of Cicero, to be in a great measure not the law of a single country only, but of the whole commercial world. _Non erit lex alia Romae, alia Athenis, alia nunc alia posthac, sed et apud omnes gentes et omni tempore, una eademque lex obtinebit_" (_Swift_ v. _Tyson_, 16 Peters i). But in matters of detail each nation has impressed its individuality on its own system. The English law has been summarized above. Perhaps its special characteristics may be best brought out by comparing it with the French code and noting some salient divergences. English law has been developed gradually by judicial decision founded on trade custom. French law was codified in the 17th century by the "Ordonnance de 1673." The existing "Code de Commerce" amplifies but substantially adopts the provisions of the "Ordonnance." The growth of French law was thus arrested at an early period of its development. The result is instructive. A reference to Marius' treatise on bills of exchange, published about 1670, or Beawes' _Lex Mercatoria_, published about 1740, shows that the law, or rather the practice, as to bills of exchange was even then fairly well defined. Comparing the practice of that time with the law as it now stands, it will be seen that it has been modified in some important respects. For the most part, where English law differs from French law, the latter is in strict accordance with the rules laid down by Beawes. The fact is that, when Beawes wrote, the law or practice of both nations on this subject was nearly uniform. But English law has gone on growing while French law has stood still. A bill of exchange in its origin was an instrument by which a trade debt due in one place was transferred to another place. This theory French law rigidly keeps in view. In England bills have developed into a paper currency of perfect flexibility. In France a bill represents a trade transaction; in England it is merely an instrument of credit. English law affords full play to the system of accommodation paper; French law endeavours to stamp it out. A comparison of some of the main points of difference between English and French law will show how the two theories work. In England it is no longer necessary to express on a bill that value has been given for it, for the law raises a presumption to that effect. In France the nature of the consideration must be stated, and a false statement of value avoids the bill in the hands of all parties with notice. In England a bill may be drawn and payable in the same place. In France the place where a bill is drawn should be so far distant from the place where it is payable that there may be a possible rate of exchange between the two. This so-called rule of _distantia loci_ is said to be disregarded now in practice, but the code is unaltered. As French lawyers put it, a bill of exchange necessarily presupposes a contract of exchange. In England since 1765 a bill may be drawn payable to bearer, though formerly it was otherwise. In France it must be payable to order; if it were not so it is clear that the rule requiring the consideration to be truly stated would be a nullity. In England a bill originally payable to order becomes payable to bearer when indorsed in blank. In France an indorsement in blank merely operates as a procuration. An indorsement, to operate as a negotiation, must be to order, and must state the consideration; in short, it must conform to the conditions of an original draft. In England, if a bill is dishonoured by non-acceptance, a right of action at once accrues to the holder. In France no cause of action arises unless the bill is again dishonoured at maturity; the holder in the meantime is only entitled to demand security from the drawer and indorsers. In England a sharp distinction is drawn between current and overdue bills. In France no such distinction is drawn. In England no protest is required in the case of the dishonour of an inland bill, notice of dishonour being sufficient. In France every dishonoured bill must be protested. Opinions may differ whether the English or the French system is better calculated to serve sound commerce and promote a healthy commercial morality. But an argument in favour of the English system may be derived from the fact that as the various continental codes are from time to time revised and re-enacted, they tend to depart from the French model and to approximate to the English rule. The effect upon English law of its codification has yet to be proved. A common objection to codification in England is that it deprives the law of its elastic character. But when principles are once settled common law has very little elasticity. On the other hand no code is final. Modern parliaments legislate very freely, and it is a much simpler task to alter statute law than to alter common law. Moreover, legislation is cheaper than litigation. One consequence of the codification of the English law relating to bills is clear gain. Nearly all the British colonies have adopted the act, and where countries are so closely connected as England and her colonies, it is an obvious advantage that their mercantile transactions should be governed by one and the same law expressed in the same words.

The ordinary text-books on the law of bills of exchange are constantly re-edited and brought up to date. The following among others may be consulted:--Byles, _Bills of Exchange_; Chalmers, _Bills of Exchange_; Daniel, _Law of Negotiable Instruments_ (United States); Nouguier, _Des lettres de change et des effets de commerce_ (France); Thorburn, _Bills of Exchange Act_ 1882 (Scotland); Story, _Bills of Exchange_ (United States); Hodgins, _Bills of Exchange Act_ 1890 (Canada). (M. D. Ch.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This is also the definition given in the United States, by Sec. 126 of the general act relating to negotiable instruments, prepared by the conference of state commissioners on uniform legislation, and it has been adopted in the leading states.

BILL OF RIGHTS, an important statute in English constitutional history. On the 13th of February 1689 the Declaration of Right, a document drawn up by a committee of the commons, and embodying the fundamental principles of the constitution, was delivered by the lords and commons to the prince and princess of Orange, afterwards William III. and Mary. In December 1689 the rights claimed by the declaration were enacted with some alterations by the Bill of Rights, next to Magna Carta the greatest landmark in the constitutional history of England and the nearest approach to the written constitutions of other countries. The act (the full name of which is An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown), after reciting the unconstitutional proceedings of James II., the abdication of that king, the consequent vacancy of the crown, and the summons of the convention parliament, declared, on the part of the lords and commons, "for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties"--

"(1) That the pretended power of suspending of laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of parliament is illegal. (2) That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal. (3) That the commission for erecting the late court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. (4) That levying money for or to the use of the crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of parliament, for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. (5) That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. (6) That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. (7) That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law. (8) That elections of members of parliament ought to be free. (9) That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament. (10) That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. (11) That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders. (12) That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void. (13) And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, parliament ought to be held frequently. And they do claim, demand and insist upon all and singular the premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties."

The further provisions of the act were concerned with the settlement of the crown upon the prince and princess of Orange, with the exception of Sec. 12, which negatived the right of dispensation by _non obstante_[1] to or of any statute or any part thereof, unless a dispensation be allowed in the statute itself or by bill or bills to be passed during the then session of parliament.

It is to be noticed that the Declaration of Right and the Bill of Rights introduced no new principle into the English constitution; it was merely a declaration of the law as it stood. In the United States, the main provisions of the Bill of Rights, so far as they are applicable, have been adopted both in the constitution of the United States and in the state constitutions.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Non obstante_ (notwithstanding) means a licence from the crown to do that which could not be lawfully done without it.

BILL OF SALE, in its original sense, a legal document assigning personal property, and still used in connexion with the transference of property in ships. The term has come to be applied to mortgages as well as to sales, and the expression "bill of sale" may now be understood to signify generally a document evidencing a sale or mortgage of personal chattels, unaccompanied by an actual transfer of possession to the purchaser or mortgagor.

The first English legislation on the subject was the Bills of Sale Act 1854, which, after reciting that "frauds were frequently committed upon creditors by secret bills of sale of personal chattels, whereby persons are enabled to keep up the appearance of being in good circumstances and possessed of property, and the grantees or holders of such bills of sale have the power of taking possession of the property of such person to the exclusion of the rest of their creditors," provided that all bills of sale, as defined in the act, should be void against execution creditors unless registered. This act was amended by the Bills of Sale