The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 56

BARMACIDE FEAST, an imaginary feast, so called from a story in the "Arabian Nights" of a hungry beggar invited by a Barmacide prince to a banquet, which proved a long succession of merely empty dishes, and which he enjoyed with such seeming gusto and such good-humour as to earn for himself a sumptuous real one.

BAR'MACIDES, a Persian family celebrated for their magnificence, and that in the end met with the cruellest fate. Yahya, one of them, eminent for ability and virtue, was chosen by the world-famous Haroun-Al-Raschid on his accession to the caliphate to be his vizier; and his four sons rose along with him to such influence in the government, as to excite the jealousy of the caliph so much, that he had the whole family invited to a banquet, and every man, woman, and child of them ma.s.sacred at midnight in cold blood. The caliph, it is gratifying to learn, never forgave himself for this cruelty, and was visited with a gnawing remorse to the end of his days; and it had fatal issues to his kingdom as well as himself.

BAR'MEN (116), a long town, consisting of a series of hamlets, 6 m.

in extent, in Rhenish Prussia; the population consists chiefly of Protestants; the staple industry, the manufacture of ribbons, and it is the centre of that industry on the Continent.

BARNABAS, ST., a member of the first Christian brotherhood, a companion of St. Paul's, and characterised in the Acts as "a good man"; stoned to death at Cyprus, where he was born; an epistle extant bears his name, but is not believed to be his work; the Epistle to the Hebrews has by some been ascribed to him; he is usually represented in art as a venerable man of majestic mien, with the Gospel of St. Matthew in his hand. Festival, June 11.

BARNABITES, a proselytising order of monks founded at Milan, where Barnabas was reported to have been bishop, in 1530; bound, as the rest are, by the three monastic vows, and by a vow in addition, not to sue for preferment in the Church.

BARNABY RUDGE, one of d.i.c.kens' novels, published in 1841.

BARNARD, HENRY, American educationist, born in Connecticut, 1811.

BARNARD, LADY ANNE, daughter of Lindsay, the 5th Earl of Balcarres, born in Fife; auth.o.r.ess of "Auld Robin Gray," named after a Balcarres herd; lived several years at the Cape, where her husband held an appointment, and after his death, in London (1750-1825).

BARNARD CASTLE, an old tower W. of Darlington, in Durham; birthplace of John Baliol, and the scene of Scott's "Rokeby."

BAR'NARDINE, a reckless character in "Measure for Measure."

BARNAVE, JOSEPH MARIE, French lawyer, born at Gren.o.ble; president of the French Const.i.tutional a.s.sembly in 1780; one of the trio in the a.s.sembly of whom it was said, "Whatsoever those three have on hand, Dupont thinks it, Barnave speaks it, Lameth does it;" a defender of the monarchy from the day he gained the favour of the queen by his gallant conduct to her on her way back to Paris from her flight with the king to Varennes; convicted by doc.u.mentary evidence of conspiring with the court against the nation; was guillotined (1761-1793).

BARN-BURNERS, name formerly given to an extreme radical party in the United States, as imitating the Dutchman who, to get rid of the rats, burned his barns.

BARNES, THOMAS, editor of the _Times_, under whom the paper first rose to the pre-eminent place it came to occupy among the journals of the day (1786-1841).

BARNES, WILLIAM, a local philologist, native of Dorsets.h.i.+re; author of "Poems of Rural Life in Dorset," in three vols.; wrote on subjects of philological interest (1830-1886).

BARNET (5), a town in Hertfords.h.i.+re, almost a suburb of London; a favourite resort of Londoners; has a large annual horse and cattle fair; scene of a battle in 1471, at which Warwick, the king-maker, was slain.

BARNETT, JOHN, composer, born at Bedford; author of operas and a number of fugitive pieces (1802-1891).

BARNEVELDT, JOHANN VAN OLDEN, Grand Pensionary of Holland, of a distinguished family; studied law at the Hague, and practised as an advocate there; fought for the independence of his country against Spain; concluded a truce with Spain, in spite of the Stadtholder Maurice, whose ambition for supreme power he courageously opposed; being an Arminian, took sides against the Gomarist or Calvinist party, to which Maurice belonged; was arrested, tried, and condemned to death as a traitor and heretic, and died on the scaffold at 71 years of age, with sanction, too, of the Synod of Dort, in 1619.

BARNSLEY (35), a manufacturing town in W. Yorks.h.i.+re, 18 m. N. of Sheffield; manufactures textile fabrics and gla.s.s.

BARNUM, an American showman; began with the exhibition of George Was.h.i.+ngton's reputed nurse in 1834; picked up Tom Thumb in 1844; engaged Jenny Lind for 100 concerts in 1849, and realised a fortune, which he lost; started in 1871 with his huge travelling show, and realised another fortune, dying worth five million dollars (1810-1891).

BAROCCI, a celebrated Italian painter, imitator of the style of Correggio (1528-1612).

BAROCHE, PIERRE-JULES, a French statesman, minister of Napoleon III.

(1802-1870).

BARO'DA (2,415), a native state of Gujerat, in the prov. of Bombay, with a capital (101) of the same name, the sovereign of which is called the Guicowar; the third city in the presidency, with Hindu temples and a considerable trade.

BARO'NIUS, CaeSAR, a great Catholic ecclesiastic, born near Naples, priest of the Congregation of the Oratory under its founder, and ultimately Superior; cardinal and librarian of the Vatican; his great work, "Annales Ecclesiastici," being a history of the first 12 centuries of the Church, written to prove that the Church of Rome was identical with the Church of the 1st century, a work of immense research that occupied him 30 years; failed of the popehood from the intrigues of the Spaniards, whose political schemes he had frustrated (1538-1607).

BARONS' WAR, a war in England of the barons against Henry III., headed by Simon de Montfort, and which lasted from 1258 to 1265.

BAROQUE, ornamentation of a florid and incongruous character, more lavish and showy rather than true and tasteful; much in vogue from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

BARRA, a small island, one of the Hebrides, 5 m. SW. of S. Uist, the inhabitants of which are engaged in fisheries.

BAR'RACKPUR (18), a town on the Hooghly, 15 m. above Calcutta, where the lieutenant-governor of Bengal has a residence; a healthy resort of the Europeans.

BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS, ballads by Rudyard Kipling, with a fine martial strain.

BARRAS, PAUL FRANcOIS, a member of the Jacobin Club, born in Provence; "a man of heat and haste,... tall, and handsome to the eye;"

voted in the National Convention for the execution of the king; took part in the siege of Toulon; put an end to the career of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror; named general-in-chief to oppose the reactionaries; employed Bonaparte to command the artillery, "he the commandant's cloak, this artillery officer the commandant;" was a member of the Directory till Bonaparte swept it away (1755-1829).

BAR'RATRY, the offence of inciting and stirring up riots and quarrels among the Queen's subjects, also a fraud by a s.h.i.+p captain on the owners of a s.h.i.+p.

BARRe, ISAAC, soldier and statesman, born in Dublin, served under Wolfe in Canada, entered Parliament, supported Pitt, charged with authors.h.i.+p of "Junius' Letters"; _d_. 1802.

BARREL MIRABEAU, Viscount de Mirabeau, brother of the great tribune of the name, so called from his bulk and the liquor he held.