The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 51

BA'LAAM, a Midianitish soothsayer; for the account of him see Num.

xxii.-xxiv., and Carlyle's essay on the "Corn-Law Rhymes" for its application to modern State councillors of the same time-serving type, and their probable fate.

BALACLA'VA, a small port 6 m. SE. of Sebastopol, with a large land-locked basin; the head-quarters of the British during the Crimean war, and famous in the war, among other events, for the "Charge of the Six Hundred."

BALANCE OF POWER, preservation of the equilibrium existing among the States of Europe as a security of peace, for long an important consideration with European statesmen.

BALANCE OF TRADE, the difference in value between the exports and the imports of a country, and said to be in favour of the country whose exports exceed in value the imports in that respect.

BALANOGLOS'SUS, a worm-like marine animal, regarded by the zoologist as a possible connecting link between invertebrates and vertebrates.

BALATA, a vegetable gum used as a subst.i.tute for gutta-percha, being at once ductile and elastic; goes under the name of bully.

BAL'ATON, LAKE, the largest lake in Hungary, 48 m. long, and 10 m.

broad, 56 m. SW. of Pesth; slightly saline, and abounds in fish.

BALBI, ADRIANO, a geographer of Italian descent, born at Venice, who composed in French a number of works bearing on geography (1782-1848).

BALBO, CaeSARE, an Italian statesmen and publicist, born at Turin; devoted his later years to literature; wrote a life of Dante; works in advocacy of Italian independence (1789-1853).

BALBO'A. VASCO NUnEZ DE, a Castilian n.o.ble, established a settlement at Darien; discovered the Pacific; took possession of territory in the name of Spain; put to death by a new governor, from jealousy of the glory he had acquired and the consequent influence in the State (1475-1517).

BALDACHINO, a tent-like covering or canopy over portals, altars, or thrones, either supported on columns, suspended from the roof, or projecting from the wall.

BALD'ER, the sun-G.o.d of the Norse mythology, "the beautiful, the wise, the benignant," who is fated to die, and dies, in spite of, and to the grief of, all the G.o.ds of the pantheon, a pathetic symbol conceived in the Norse imagination of how all things in heaven, as on earth, are subject in the long-run to mortality.

BALDERSTONE, CALEB, the faithful old domestic in Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor," the family he serves his pride.

BALDRICK, an ornamental belt worn hanging over the shoulder, across the body diagonally, with a sword, dagger, or horn suspended from it.

BALDUNG, HANS, or HANS GRuN, a German artist, born in Suabia; a friend of Durer's; his greatest work, a masterpiece, a painting of the "Crucifixion," now in Freiburg Cathedral (1300-1347).

BALDWIN, archbishop of Canterbury; crowned Richard Coeur de Lion; accompanied him on the crusade; died at Acre in 1191.

BALDWIN, the name of several counts of Flanders, eight in all.

BALDWIN I., king of Jerusalem; succeeded his brother G.o.dfrey de Bouillon; a.s.suming said t.i.tle, made himself master of most of the towns on the coast of Syria; contracted a disease in Egypt; returned to Jerusalem, and was buried on Mount Calvary; there were five of this name and t.i.tle, the last of whom, a child of some eight years old, died in 1186 (1058-1118).

BALDWIN I., the first Latin emperor of Constantinople; by birth, count of Hainault and Flanders; joined the fourth crusade, led the van in the capture of Constantinople, and was made emperor; was defeated and taken prisoner by the Bulgarians (1171-1206). B. II., nephew of Baldwin I., last king of the Latin dynasty, which lasted only 57 years (1217-1273).

BALE, JOHN, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland; born in Suffolk; a convert from Popery, and supported by Cromwell; was made bishop by Edward VI.; persecuted out of the country as an apostate from Popery; author of a valuable account of early British writers (1495-1563).

BALEARIC ISLES (312), a group of five islands off the coast of Valencia, in Spain, Majorca the largest; inhabitants in ancient times famous as expert slingers, having been one and all systematically trained to the use of the sling from early childhood; cap. Palma (58).

BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM, a musical composer, of Irish birth, born near Wexford; author of "The Bohemian Girl," his masterpiece, and world-famous (1808-1870).

BALFOUR, A. J., of Whittinghame, East Lothian; educated at Eton and Cambridge; nephew of Lord Salisbury, and First Lord of the Treasury and leader of the House of Commons in Lord Salisbury's ministry; author of a "Defence of Philosophic Doubt" and a volume of "Essays and Addresses"; _b_. 1848.

BALFOUR, FRANCIS MAITLAND, brother of the preceding; a promising biologist; career was cut short by death in attempting to ascend the Wetterhorn (1851-1882).

BALFOUR, SIR JAMES, Lord President of the Court of Session; native of Fife; an unprincipled man, sided now with this party, now with the opposite, to his own advantage, and that at the most critical period in Scottish history; _d_. 1583.

BALFOUR OF BURLEY, leader of the Covenanters in Scott's "Old Mortality."

BALI, one of the Samoa Islands, 75 m. long by 40 m. broad; produces cotton, coffee, and tobacco.

BALIOL, EDWARD, son of the following, invaded Scotland; was crowned king at Scone, supported by Edward III.; was driven from the kingdom, and obliged to renounce all claim to the crown, on receipt of a pension; died at Doncaster, 1369.

BALIOL, JOHN DE, son of the following; laid claim to the Scottish crown on the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290; was supported by Edward I., and did homage to him for his kingdom, but rebelled, and was forced publicly to resign the crown; died in 1314 in Normandy, after spending some three years in the Tower; satirised by the Scotch, in their stinging humorous style, as King Toom Tabard, i. e. Empty King Cloak.

BALIOL, SIR JOHN DE, of Norman descent; a guardian to the heir to the Scottish crown on the death of Alexander III.; founder of Baliol College, Oxford; _d_. 1269.

BALIZE, or BELIZE, the capital of British Honduras, in Central America; trade in mahogany, rosewood, &c.

BALKAN PENINSULA, the territory between the Adriatic and the aegean Sea, bounded on the N. by the Save and the Lower Danube, and on the S. by Greece.

BALKANS, THE, a mountain range extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; properly the range dividing Bulgaria from Roumania; mean height, 6500 ft.