Part 14

BALAGUER (b[.a]-l[.a]-g[=a]r'), Victor, Spanish author and politician, important writer in the Catalonian dialect, born 1824, died 1901. Born at Barcelona, he studied law there, and, becoming learned in Catalonian history, was appointed archivist and soon after professor of history. In 1869 he entered the Cortes as a Liberal; in 1872 was Minister of Public Works; from 1886 to 1888 Colonial Minister. He wrote much both in prose and verse, his prose comprising historical works, novels, &c., his verse lyrics, ballads, tragedies, odes, &c. His tragedies were partly on subjects taken from Catalonian history, partly on subjects connected with Greek and Roman history or literature. Among his lyrical and other poems are: _El Trovador de Montserrat_; _Primavera de Ultimo Trovador Catalan_; _Poesias Completas_ (1874); _Obras Poeticas_ (1880). _Don Juan de Serrallonga_ is the most popular of his novels. Among other works of his are: _Historia Politica y Literaria de los Trovadores_; _Historia de Cataluna_; _Los Pirineos_; _Cristobal Colon_; _Estudios Historicos y Politicos_; _Historias y Tradiciones_; _Instituciones y Reyes de Aragon_. As a poet he was imitative, reminding us of Quintana, Zorilla, and Byron.

BALAKLAVA (b[.a]-l[.a]-klae'va), a small seaport in the Crimea, 8 miles S.S.E. Sevastopol. In the Crimean war it was captured by the British, who used the harbour as a base of supplies. The famous battle of Balaklava was fought some distance to the north of the seaport, on 25th Oct., 1854. The Russians brought a force of 25,000 men against the allies, a much larger force than they had to encounter, and the chief incidents in the battle were as follows: The Russians captured a series of positions occupied by the Turks in front of the British position; a Russian cavalry charge was repulsed by the 93rd Highlanders; a great mass of Russian cavalry was defeated by a charge of British heavy cavalry; the British light cavalry brigade charged and took a Russian battery, and put to flight the cavalry behind it, but were compelled by overpowering force to retreat with heavy loss, their retreat being covered by a brilliant charge of the French. The celebrated charge of the light brigade, or of the 'six hundred', though a brilliant feat of arms, was made under an erroneous interpretation of orders; that of the heavy brigade was equally glorious, and contributed far more to the final repulse of the enemy.

BALAKO'VO, a river-port of South-Eastern Russia, on the left bank of the Volga, government of Samara, with a very important trade in grain. Pop. 16,000.

BALALAI'KA, a musical instrument of very ancient Slavonic origin, common among the Russians and Tartars. It is a narrow, shallow guitar with only two strings.

BAL'ANCE, an instrument for determining the relative weights of bodies. Balances are of various forms; in that most commonly used a horizontal beam rests so as to turn easily upon a fulcrum in the middle. From the extremities of the beam, called the centres of suspension, hang the scales; and a slender metal pointer between them, and in front of the fulcrum, indicates when the beam is level. The characteristics of a good balance are: (1) that the beam should rest in a horizontal position when the scales are either empty or loaded with equal weights; (2) that a very small addition of weight put into either scale should cause the beam to deviate from the level, which property is denominated the sensibility of the balance; (3) that when the beam is deflected from the horizontal position by inequality of the weights on the scales, it should have a tendency speedily to restore itself and come to rest in the level, which property is called the stability of the balance. To secure these qualities the arms of the beam should be exactly similar, equal in weight and length, and as long as possible; the centres of gravity and suspension should be in one straight line, and the fulcrum immediately above the centre of gravity; and the fulcrum and the centres of suspension should cause as little friction as possible. The fulcrum ought to be a knife-edge; and if the balance requires to be very delicate, the centres of suspension ought to be knife-edges also. If the balance has no tendency to one position more than another, when the scales are either loaded, empty, or off altogether, it is proof that the centre of gravity and the fulcrum coincide, and the remedy is to lower the centre of gravity. If the beam is disturbed by a small addition of weight to either scale, and exhibits no tendency to resume the horizontal position, we may infer that the centre of gravity is above the fulcrum. If it requires a considerable excess of weight to deflect the beam from the level, we may infer either that there is too much friction at the fulcrum, or that the centre of gravity is too low. If two weights are found to be in equipoise, one being in each scale, and if, when that which is in one scale is put into the other, there is no longer equilibrium, then we may infer that the arms of the beam are of unequal lengths. For purposes of accuracy, balances have occasionally means of raising or depressing the centre of gravity, of regulating the length of the arms, &c., and the whole apparatus is usually enclosed in a glass case, to prevent the heat from expanding the arms unequally, or currents of air from disturbing the equilibrium. A refinement in weighing is obtained by the use of the milligram rider, a short bent wire which can be moved along a scale engraved on the beam.

Of the other forms of balance, the Roman balance, or steel-yard, consists of a lever moving freely upon a suspended fulcrum, the shorter arm of the lever having a scale or pan attached to it, and the longer arm, along which slides a weight, being graduated to indicate quantities. It is commonly used for weighing loaded carts, for luggage at railway stations, &c. A variety of this, the Danish balance, has the weight fixed at the end of the lever, the fulcrum being movable along the graduated index. The spring-balance registers the weight of an article by the extent to which it draws out or compresses a spiral spring. It is of service where a high degree of exactness is not required, as in its domestic use, and it also finds application in the dynamometer for measuring horse-power of machinery. An extremely ingenious balance, used in the Mint and the Bank of England, for weighing 'blanks' and sovereigns, distributes them automatically into three compartments according as they are light, heavy, or the exact weight. The Roberval balance is a form in common use for weighing letters and parcels.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. A. Brauer, _The Construction of the Balance_; E. Nicholson, _Men and Measures: a history of weights and measures, ancient and modern_.

BALANCE OF POWER, a political principle which first came to be recognized in modern Europe in the sixteenth century, though it appears to have been also acted on by the Greeks in ancient times, in preserving the relations between their different States. The object in maintaining the balance of power is to secure the general independence of nations as a whole, by preventing the aggressive attempts of individual States to extend their territory and sway at the expense of weaker countries. The first European monarch whose ambitious designs induced a combination of other States to counteract them was the Emperor Charles V, similar coalitions being formed in the end of the seventeenth century, when the ambition of Louis XIV excited the fears of Europe, and a century later against the exorbitant power and aggressive schemes of the first Napoleon. Since that time we have the instance of the Crimean War, entered into to check the ambition of Russia. Of late years there has been a marked tendency among British politicians to decry and impugn the principle of the balance of power, as calculated only to propagate a system of mutual hostility, and retard the cause of progress, by the expenditure both of money and life thus occasioned. An equilibrium between the various Powers is, of course, essential to the very existence of international law. The war of 1914-8 has proved to the world that in the absence of any central authority neither treaties nor signatures could prevent a State sufficiently powerful from ignoring the law and acting solely according to its interests and ambitious designs. See _Society of Nations_.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hume, _Essay on the Balance of Power_; Von Gentz, _Fragments on the Balance of Power_; Professor L. Oppenheim, _International Law_, vol. i; Vattel, _Le droit des gens_.

BALANCE OF TRADE, the difference between the stated money values of the exports and imports of a country. The balance is erroneously said to be 'in favour' of a country when the value of the exports is in excess of that of the imports, and 'against it' when the imports are in excess of the exports. The phrases date from the days of the mercantile system, the characteristic doctrine of which alleged the desirability of regulating commerce with a view to amassing treasure by exporting produce largely, importing little merchandise in return, and receiving the balance in bullion. In certain conceivable political and industrial conditions this may have had beneficial results; but its importance was greatly overestimated, and the state of this balance came to be regarded as an invariable criterion of the industrial condition of a country. The false analogy of the successful merchant who gains more than he spends became the basis of popular reasoning, the products of a country being mistakenly identified with its exports, its consumption with its importation. It is now generally recognized that if bullion be exported from a country it is because it is at the time the cheapest commodity available for export; and further, that there are certain natural limits to its undue exportation, in that the increased scarcity of money is attended with a fall in the money-value of other commodities, which thus in turn become preferable objects of exportation, while bullion flows back. The excess of the value of imports over that of exports, which is regarded by some as an adverse and alarming symptom in British trade, is in large part readily accounted for on the ground of shipping receipts, insurance returns, interest on capital employed in foreign trade, merchants' profits, and the income derived from foreign investments.

BAL'ANUS ('acorn-shells'), a genus of sessile cirripeds, family Balanidae, of which colonies are to be found on rocks at low water, on timbers, crustaceans, shells of mollusca, &c. They differ from the barnacles in having a symmetrical shell, and being destitute of a flexible stalk. The shell consists of six plates, with an operculum of four valves. They pass through a larval state, in which they are not fixed, moving by means of swimming feet which disappear in the final state. All the Balanidae are hermaphrodite. A South American species (_Bal[)a]nus psitt[)a]cus_) is eaten on the coast of Chile, the _Bal[)a]nus tintinnab[)u]lum_ by the Chinese. The old Roman epicures esteemed the larger species.

BALAPUR', town of India, in Akola district, Berar, with strong fort and fine pavilion of black stone. Pop. 10,500.

BAL'AS, a name used to distinguish the rose-coloured species of ruby from the ruby proper.

BALASOR', a seaport town, Hindustan, presidency of Bengal, province of Orissa, head-quarters of a district and subdivision bearing the same name. It carries on a considerable traffic with Calcutta. Pop. 21,362.

BALA'TA, a gum yielded by _Mim[=u]sops Balata_, a tree growing abundantly in British, French, and Dutch Guiana, Honduras and Brazil, obtained in a milky state by 'tapping' the tree, and hardening to a substance like leather. Used for similar purposes to india-rubber, and in the United States chewed as a masticatory.

BAL'ATON, or PLATTENSEE, a lake of Hungary, 55 miles S.W. of Pesth; length, 50 miles; breadth, 3 to 10 miles; area, about 390 sq. miles. Of its thirty-two feeders the Szala is the largest, and the lake communicates with the Danube by the Rivers Sio and Sarviz. It abounds with a species of perch.

BALBEC. See _Baalbek_.

BALBI, Adrien, geographer and statistician, born at Venice in 1782. In 1808 his first work on geography, _Prospetto Politico-Geografico_, procured his appointment as professor of geography in the College of San Michele at Murano, and he became in 1811 professor of natural philosophy in the Lyceum at Fermo. In 1820 he proceeded to Portugal, and collected there materials for his _Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve_ and _Varietes Politiques et Statistiques de la Monarchie Portugaise_, both published in 1822 at Paris, where he resided till 1832. He then settled in Padua, where he died in 1848. Balbi's admirable _Abrege de Geographie_ was written at Paris, and translated into the principal European languages.

BALBI, Gasp[=a]ro, a Venetian dealer in precious stones, born about the middle of the sixteenth century, who travelled first to Aleppo and thence down the Euphrates and Tigris to the Malabar coast, sailing finally for Pegu, where he remained for two years. His _Viaggio all' Indie Orientale_, published on his return to Venice in 1590, contains the earliest account of India beyond the Ganges.

BALBO, Ces[=a]re, Italian author and statesman, born in 1789 at Turin. After holding one or two posts under the patronage of Napoleon, he devoted himself to history, publishing a history of Italy prior to the period of Charlemagne, a compendium of Italian history, &c. His _Speranze d'Italia_ (1843), a statement of the political condition of Italy, and of the practicable ideals to be kept in view, gave him a wide reputation. He died in 1853.

BALBO'A, Vasco Nunez de, one of the early Spanish adventurers in the New World, born 1475. Having dissipated his fortune, he went to America, and was at Darien with the expedition of Francisco de Enciso in 1510. An insurrection placed him at the head of the colony, but rumours of a western ocean and of the wealth of Peru led him to cross the isthmus. On 25th Sept., 1513, he saw for the first time the Pacific, and after annexing it to Spain, and acquiring information about Peru, returned to Darien. Here he found himself supplanted by a new governor, Pedrarias Davila, with much consequent grievance on the one side, and much jealousy on the other. Balboa submitted, however, and in the following year was appointed Viceroy of the South Sea. Davila was apparently reconciled to him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, but shortly after, in 1517, had him beheaded on a charge of intent to rebel. Pizarro, who afterwards completed the discovery of Peru, served under Balboa.

BALBRIGGAN, a seaport and favourite watering-place, Ireland, county of Dublin; celebrated for its hosiery. Pop. 2273.

BAL'CONY, in architecture, is a gallery projecting from the outer wall of a building, supported by columns or brackets, and surrounded by a balustrade. Balconies were not used in Greek and Roman buildings, and in the East the roof of the house has for centuries served similar purposes on a larger scale. Balconies properly so styled came into fashion in Italy in the Middle Ages, and were introduced into Britain in the sixteenth century.

BAL'DACHIN (-kin; It. _baldachino_), a canopy or tent-like covering of any material, either suspended from the roof, fastened to the wall, or supported on pillars over altars, thrones, pulpits, beds, portals, &c. Portable baldachins of rich materials were formerly used to shield the heads of dignitaries in processions, and are still so used in the processions of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the East. The enormous bronze baldachin designed by Bernini for Pope Urban VIII, and placed over the tomb of the apostles in St. Peter's at Rome, is one of the most famous, though surpassed in beauty by many in other European cathedrals and churches.

BALDER, or BALDUR, a Scandinavian divinity, represented as the son of Odin and Frigga, beautiful, wise, amiable, and beloved by all the gods. His mother took an oath from every creature, and even from every inanimate object, that they would not harm Balder, but omitted the mistletoe. Balder was therefore deemed invulnerable, and the other gods in sport flung stones and shot arrows at him without harming him. But the evil god Loki fashioned an arrow from the mistletoe and got Balder's blind brother H[=o]der to shoot it, himself guiding his aim. Balder fell dead, pierced to the heart, to the deep grief of all the gods. He is believed to be a personification of the brightness and beneficence of the sun.

BALDI, Bernardino, mathematician, theologian, geographer, historian, poet, &c., born at Urbino 1533; studied at Padua; became abbot of Guastalla. He knew upwards of twelve languages, and is said to have written over a hundred works, most of which remain in MS. His works include a poem on _Navigation_, various translations and commentaries, _Lives of Celebrated Mathematicians_, &c. He died in 1617.

BALDNESS, loss of the hair, complete or partial, usually the latter, and due to various causes. Most commonly it results as one of the changes belonging to old age, due to wasting of the skin, hair-sacs, &c. It may occur as a result of some acute disease, or at an unusually early age, without any such cause. In both the latter cases it is due to defective nourishment of the hair, owing to lessened circulation of the blood in the scalp. The best treatment for preventing loss of hair seems to consist in such measures as bathing the head with cold water and drying it by vigorous rubbing with a rough towel and brushing it well with a hard brush. Various stimulating lotions are also recommended, especially those containing cantharides. But probably in most cases senile baldness is unpreventable. When extreme scurfiness of the scalp accompanies loss of the hair, an ointment that will clear away the scurf will prove beneficial.

BALDOVINET'TI, Alessio, Florentine artist, born 1427. Few of his works remain except a _Nativity_ in the church of the Annunziato, and two altarpieces in the gallery of the Uffizi and the Academy of Arts, Florence. Died 1499. His portrait by himself is in the gallery at Bergamo.

BALDRIC (b[a:]ld'rik), a broad belt formerly worn over the right or left shoulder diagonally across the body, often highly decorated and enriched with gems, and used not only to sustain the sword, dagger, or horn, but also for purposes of ornament, and as a military or heraldic symbol.

BAL'DUNG, Hans, or HANS GRUEN (gruen), German painter and wood engraver, born in Swabia 1470, died in Strasburg 1552. His work, though inferior to Duerer's, possessed many of the same characteristics, and on this account he has been sometimes considered a pupil of the Nuremberg master. His principal paintings are the series of panels (of the date 1516) over the altar in Freiburg Cathedral; others of his works are to be found at Berlin, Colmar, and Basel. His numerous and often fantastic engravings have the monogram H and B, with a small G in the centre of the H.

BALDWIN I, Emperor of Constantinople, founder of the short-lived dynasty of Latin sovereigns of the Eastern Empire, was born in 1172, and was hereditary Count of Flanders and Hainault. His courage and conduct in the fourth crusade led to his unanimous election as Emperor of the East after the capture of Constantinople by the French and Venetians in 1204. In the absence of Baldwin's brother with a large part of the army, the Greeks rose in revolt under the instigation of Joannices, King of Bulgaria. Baldwin marched on Adrianople, but was taken prisoner and died in captivity, 1205. Baldwin was succeeded by his brother Henry.--BALDWIN II, fifth and last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, was born 1217. During his minority John de Brienne was regent, but on his assuming the power himself the Empire fell to pieces. In 1261 Constantinople was taken by the forces of Michael Palaeologus, and Baldwin retired to Italy, dying in 1270.

BALDWIN I, King of Jerusalem, reigned 1100-18, having assumed the title which his elder brother, Godfrey de Bouillon, had refused. He subdued Caesarea, Ashdod, Tripolis, and Acre.--BALDWIN II, his cousin and successor, reigned from 1118-31. During his reign the reduction of Tyre and institution of the order of Templars took place.--BALDWIN III, King of Jerusalem from 1143 to 1162, was son and successor of Foulques of Anjou, and the embodiment of the best aspects of chivalry. After defeating Noureddin in 1152, and again in 1157, he was enabled to devote himself to the hopeless task of improving the kingdom and establishing the Christian chivalry in the East. His death in 1162 was almost immediately followed by the total collapse of the kingdom.

BALDWIN, James Mark, American philosopher, born in Columbia, 12th Jan., 1861. He was educated at Princeton College, Leipzig and Berlin Universities; was instructor of German and French at Princeton College, 1885-7; professor of philosophy in Lake Forest University, 1887-9; professor of psychology at Princeton University, 1893-1903. From 1903-9 he was professor of philosophy and psychology at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Professor Baldwin is best known by his experimental psychology and his theories of genetic logic. He distinguishes between genetic logic, as theory of thought, and genetic philosophy, as theory of reality. Genetic sciences, according to Baldwin, are psychology, sociology, ethics, &c., and his point of view he terms 'Aesthonomical Idealism'. Among his numerous works are: _Handbook of Psychology_ (2 vols., 1891-2); _Mental Development in the Child and the Race_ (3rd edition, 1906); _Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development_ (1904); _Thought and Things, or Genetic Logic_ (1906-8). He also edited the _Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology_ (1901-9) and _The Psychological Review_ (1894-1909).

BALE (bael). See _Basel_.

BALE, John, an English ecclesiastic, born in Suffolk in 1495, died in 1563. Although educated a Roman Catholic, he became a Protestant, and the intolerance of the Catholic party drove him to the Netherlands. On the accession of Edward VI he returned to England, was presented to the living of Bishop's Stoke, Southampton, and soon after nominated Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland. Here, on his preaching the reformed religion, the popular fury against him reached such a pitch that in one tumult five of his domestics were murdered in his presence. On the accession of Mary he lay some time concealed in Dublin, and after many hardships found refuge in Switzerland. At her death he was appointed by Elizabeth a prebend of Canterbury, where he died. His fame as an author rests upon his _Scriptorum Illustrium Majoris Britanniae Catalogus_, or _An Account of the Lives of Eminent Writers of Britain_, commencing with Japhet the son of Noah, and ending with the year 1557. It is compiled from various writers, chiefly from the antiquary Leland. He was also the author of nineteen miracle plays, printed in 1558. One of his plays, _Kynge Johan_, is a link between the old morality plays and the historical drama.

BALEAR'IC CRANE (_Balear[)i]ca pavon[=i]na_), a handsome species of crested crane inhabiting North-West Africa.