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Bassoon.

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also executed several works. He d. in 1592.
father's profession, but were not marked by any special originality of manner.
He left four sons, who all followed their

BASSA'NO, HUGUES BERNARD MARET, Duke of, 1763-1839; a French statesman. At the commencement of the revolution he edited the Bulletin (the original of the Moni teur), containing the proceedings of the constituent assembly, a position which gave him much political influence. In 1791, he was at the head of a bureau in the ministry of foreign affairs, and was sent to England to re-establish suspended diplomatic relations, but he was unsuccessful. In 1793, he was appointed ambassador to Naples, but while on his way was captured by the Austrians, and kept two years a prisoner, being finally exchanged for the daughter of Louis XVI. In 1797, he was one of the negotiators of peace with England. Bonaparte employed him as his private secretary, and he afterwards became secretary of state, in which position he managed the newspapers and exercised great influence over Napoleon, assisting in all his diplomatic business. In 1811, he had direction of foreign affairs; Napoleon made him duke of B., and retained him as his most intimate adviser. He was in exile during the restoration, but Louis Philippe restored him to the peerage in 1831, and for a short time he acted as president of the cabinet.

BAS'SARIS, a genus of animals in North America representing the civet of Europe. They are about as large as common cats, and may be easily tamed. They live in trees, and catch birds, mice, etc. The tail is bushy, and marked with rings like that of the

raccoon.

BASSE-CHANTANTE, in music, the higher of the two basses in a score, partaking of more melody, and performed by the violoncello.

BASSE-CONTRAINTE, a French term in music, meaning a bass melody of a few bars repeated throughout the piece, while the other parts vary.

BASSEIN', the name of two cities in India.-1. B., in Pegu, the capital of a district of the same name, stands on the left bank of an arm of the Irrawaddy, which joins the bay of Bengal a few miles to the s. of Cape Negrais. It lies in lat. 16° 45' n., and long. 94 50' e.; and though it is 90 m. from the sea, yet it is easily and safely accessible to the largest ships. In a military view, also, the place is important, as it completely commands the navigation of the stream. It was captured by the British in 1852. Pop. 72, 20,688. The district of B. has an area of 8954 sq.m., and a pop. of (1872) 316,833.-2. B., in the presidency of Bombay, is situated on an island of the same name; lat. of the island, 19° 20' to 19° 28 n., and long. 72° 48' to 72° 54' e. It appears to be the mere wreck of former grandeur, having been found by bishop Heber, in 1825, with many churches and convents, to be altogether uninhabited and desolate. In 1534, it was ceded to the Portuguese; in 1765, after a possession of 231 years, it was wrested from them by the Mahrattas; in 1780, it surrendered to the British, after a regular siege of 12 days. The island, which contains about 35 sq.m., is separated from the continent by a narrow channel, which, as a shelter for shipping, constituted its value in the eyes of the Portuguese. Historically, B. is of some interest, having been promised, though never delivered, as part of the dowry of Charles II.'s Portuguese consort.

BAS'SES, two ledges of rocks to the s.e. of Ceylon, distinguished as Great and Little -the former group being more to the s.w., and the latter more to the n.e. They lie in n. lat. 6° 11' to 6° 26', and in e. long. 81° 40' to 81° 59'. Their importance arises merely from their position, which is in a great thoroughfare of traffic.

BASSES-ALPES, a department of France on the Italian border, 2685 sq.m.; pop. '81, 131,918. It is sparsely populated, only 20 persons to a square kilo; watered by the Durance; mountainous, with good pasturage, and famed for raising plums. Chief town, Digne.

BASSES-PYRÉNÉES,

Biscay; 2943 sq.m.; pop. '81, 434,366. a department of France bordering on Spain and the bay of Bidouze. About half the surface is marshy. There are mineral springs of value, and The rivers are the Nive, the Odour, and the much industrial activity; trade is carried on through the city and port of Bayonne. Capital, Pau.

BASSE-TERRE, a French term, equivalent to the English lowlands, or, rather, lowland, appropriately applied to several localities in the West Indies.-1. The capital of St. Kitt's, on the w. coast, in lat. 17° 17' n., and long. 62° 42' west. dusty place, standing at the outlet of a lovely valley of the same name. about 9000, and its trade, as the port of the island, is considerable. The designation of It is a low, hot, the valley and town is a memorial of the former occupation of the half of St. Kitt's by Its pop. is the French.-2. The capital of Guadeloupe, giving its name to the larger of the two islets into which Guadeloupe is divided by an arm of the sea, known as Salt river. stands on the s. w. coast, in lat. 16° n., and long. 61° 44' w., having nothing worthy of the name of harbor, but merely a roadstead. It contains about 13,000 inhabitants.-3. B. The chief town of Marie Galante, a dependency of Guadaloupe, which is about 12 m. to the n.w. It is otherwise ambitiously called Grand Bourg.

BAS'SET HORN (corno di basetto), the richest and softest of all wind-instruments, invented in Passau, in 1770, improved by Lotz in Presburg, in 1782. It is similar to a

clarionet in tone and fingering; its compass is two and a half octaves, the notes written

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BAS'SI, LAURA MARIA CATERINA, 1711–78; an Italian lady of Bologna, distinguished for learning. She received a doctor's degree, and was made professor in the philosophical college, where she lectured on experimental philosophy until her death. She was a member of many societies, and conducted an extensive correspondence with eminent men of learning; was well acquainted with the classics, and also with the literature of Italy and France. In 1738 she married Dr. Guiseppe Verrati.

BAS'SIA, a genus of plants of the natural order sapotacea (q.v.). The species are trees, tropical or sub-tropical, the flowers of which are remarkable for their fleshy corolla, and for the abundance of oil or butyraceous fat which the seeds contain, and which is used for many purposes by the inhabitants of the countries to which they are indigenous. The fruit has a pulpy rind, and three or four one-seeded cells. The ovary has eight cells; but some of them are always abortive. The BUTTER-TREE, described by Mungo Park as growing in the interior of Africa, in the country of Bambarra, has been supposed to belong to this genus, and named B. Parki. According to the eminent botanist Robert Brown, however, the secd of the butter-tree, as figured by Park, scarcely belongs to the genus B., but rather to the nearly allied genus vitellaria or lucuma. It produces the galam butter, also called shea butter (i.e., tree butter), which is highly valued, and forms an important article of internal commerce in the interior of Africa. The seeds of the fruit, which resembles an olive, are dried in the sun, or in a peculiar kind of oven, and the kernels are then boiled in water, in order to obtain the butter from them, which not only keeps for a whole year without salt, but is also whiter, more solid, and more pleasant to the taste than the butter of cows' milk. This butter is used both as an article of food and of medicine. It has been supposed that the introduction of this tree might be of great importance in other tropical countries.-The MADHUCA, MAHWA, or MAHOWA Tree of the East Indies (B. latifolia) is described as resembling a good oak in size, and is a valuable timber-tree. It is found in the mountainous parts of the Circars, Bahar, Bengal, etc. Its flowers are eaten raw, and a kind of arrack or spirit is distilled from them. The seeds yield, by expression, a considerable quantity of a concrete greenish-yellow oil, which is used for lamps, and occasionally for frying articles of food.-The Indian BUTTER-TREE, OF PHULWARA or FULWA TREE (B. butyracea), is found in some of the more mountainous parts of India, and attains a height of 50 feet. Its timber is light and of no value. The leaves are 6 to 12 in. long. The fruit is of the size of a pigeon's egg, and although eaten, is not much esteemed; but from the seed, a concrete oil or butter is obtained, by expression, of a delicate white color, much valued for medicinal uses, and as an unguent.-The seeds of the ILLUPIE-TREE, or Indian OIL-TREE (B. longifolia), a native of Coromandel, yield a large quantity of oil, which is used for lamps, for soap-making, and in cookery. The flowers are much esteemed for eating; and the wood is almost as hard and durable as teak.

BASSIM, a t. of India in the district of that name in the province of Berar. Pop. in 1872, 8531.

BASSINET. See HELMET.

BASSOMPIERRE, FRANÇOIS DE, Marshal of France, was b. in 1579, at Harnel, in Lorraine. Belonging to one of the oldest French families, he came, at the age of 20, to the French court, where he gained the favor of Henry IV. After the murder of Henry IV., he attached himself to the party of the queen, who appointed him col. of the Swiss guards; but on the murder of Concini, he sought to establish himself in the favor of the young king, and when the quarrel broke out betwixt mother and son, he particularly contributed to the overthrow of the former. He was raised to the rank of marshal of France in 1622; was sent on embassies to Spain, Switzerland, and England; was actively employed in the siege of La Rochelle; took the pass of Susa by storm in 1629; and commanded for a little while the troops raised in Languedoc against the Huguenots. He beecame, however, an object of suspicion and dislike to Richelieu, who caused him to be cast into the bastile in Feb., 1631, from which he was not liberated until the death of Richelieu, in 1643, after he had been 12 years imprisoned. He d. in 1646. He was an accomplished courtier, extravagant, and excessively addicted to gallantries. At the time of his arrest, he destroyed 6000 love-letters. His Mémoires (2 vols., Cologne, 1665; 4 vols., Amst., 1723), written in the bastile, are rendered interesting by their spirited style. BASSOON (Ital. fagotto), a well-known wind instrument of the reed species, made of maple-wood or plane-tree. The B. is an Italian invention; its name fagotto, meaning a bundle, probably from its being made in different pieces laid one against the other. The French call it basson de hautbois; the Germans retain its Italian name. Its invention is attributed to Canonicus Afranio, in Ferrara, in 1539. In the middle of the 16th c., it had already reached great perfection. Sigmund Schnitzer, in Nuremberg, who d. in 1578, was a celebrated maker. The B. consists of a bored-out tube of wood in several pieces,

Bastard.

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fixed together alongside each other, so as to bring the holes and keys within the reach of the fingers of each hand. The B. has, in general, not less than 8 holes and 10 keys. In the narrow end of the wooden tube is fixed a small tapering brass tube in the form of an S, on the end of which is placed the reed for producing the tone. The compass of the B. is from

but the best tones are those from

The

lowest C sharp, and B natural, are wanting. The notes for the B. are written on the bass clef for the lower part, and on the tenor clef for the higher. The best keys for the B. are E flat, B flat, F, C; G, D, and A; all the other keys are more or less difficult. For military bands there are different sizes of bassoons-one a fourth lower; another, the contra B, an octave lower; and a third, the tenor B, a fifth higher-all of the same construction. The best instruction books for the B. are by Almenräder, Fröhlich, Ozi, and by the Paris conservatorium. B. is also the name of an organ-stop, the pipes of which are made to imitate the tones of the instrument.

BASSO'RA, BUSSORA, or BASRAH, a t. of Asiatic Turkey, pashalic of Bagdad, is situ ated on the western bank of the Euphrates, here called the Shat-el-Arab, about midway between the mouth of the Tigris and the Persian gulf, from which it is 70 m. distant. Lat. 30° 30' n., long. 47° 34′ e. and many plantations of roses around it, but it is very dirty. The river, which is navi There are many gardens within the walls of the city, gable up to B. for ships of 500 tons, is there divided into a number of channels, and by evaporation and frequent overflowing makes the climate very unhealthy. The inhabitants, once 150,000, now only 5000 in number, are for the most part poor Arabs and Persians; the officials and military alone are Turks. ans. Most of the houses are low huts, built of unburned bricks. Commerce is in the hands of Armenicarried on in the exchange of the productions of Turkey and Persia with those of India, An extensive trade is and also in European goods, particularly articles of British manufacture. exports are strong and beautiful horses, and dates, which are grown in great abundance. Caravans travel to Persia, and also by Bagdad and Aleppo to Constantinople. It has Amongst the steam communication with Bombay and Bagdad. To guard against the incursions of the Arabs, a wall of about 94 m. in length has been erected in the neighboring desert, at all the gates of which a watch is maintained. Omar, and soon became one of the most famous and opulent cities of the east. The B. was founded in 636 by the caliph possession of it has been the subject of many contests between the Turks and the Persians. It is a place of great note in the history of Arabic literature.

BASSORA GUM, a whitish or yellowish-opaque substance resembling gum-arabic, but differing from it by being mostly insoluble in water. factorily ascertained. Its source has not been satis

BASSO-RILIEVO. See ALTO-RILIEVO.

BASS ROCK, a remarkable island-rock near the mouth of the firth of Forth, about 2 m. from Canty bay, Haddingtonshire, opposite the ruined castle of Tantallon. It is composed of hard granular greenstone or clinkstone, and is about a mile in circumference, nearly round, and 400 ft. high. It is inaccessible on all sides except the s. w., where it shelves down to the water, and there, the landing is difficult, and almost impossible, when there is any swell. On the w., n., and e., the precipices rise perpendicularly out of the sea, to a great elevation. These are the abode of immense numbers of solan geese (it is estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 of these fowls resort here annually) and other aquatic birds, which give to the surface of the precipices a snowy appearance in the distance. A cavern traverses the rock from w. to e., and is accessible at low tide. There is a spring on the island, and a few sheep are pastured on it, the mutton of which is much prized. How early the Bass was tenanted, is doubtful; but there is a tradition to the effect that St. Baldred resided on it as early as the 7th century. It is also not very certainly known when the Bass was first fortified, but it formed a retreat for the son of Robert III., afterwards James I. of Scotland, before his nineteen years' captivity in England. James VI. visited the Bass in 1581, and was anxious to obtain it for state purposes; but its owner, "Lauder of the Bass," refused to part with it. The registers of the church of Scotland were sent to the Bass in 1651, for preservation from Cromwell; but the protector forced their surrender in the following year. the rock for £4000, and within its dreary dungeons many of the most eminent of the In 1671, Charles II. purchased Covenanters were confined during that and the following reign. ous fact that the Bass was the last spot in the British islands which held out for the It is a somewhat curiStuarts. A mere handful of adventurers in the Jacobite interest, 24 in number, had the address to capture the island, and to retain it in name of king James, from June. 1691, till April, 1694, against all the forces which the government of William III. sent against them; at last, the spirited little garrison surrendered on honorable terms, and only from a consciousness of failing provisions. For an account of this romantic incident, see Pictorial History of England, vol. iv. p. 16, new edition. In 1701, the fortifications were demolished by order of William III. Five years afterwards, the Bass passed into the possession of Sir Hew Dalrymple, to whose lineal descendant it now belongs

The king of the Belgians (then prince Leopold) visited the rock in 1819, and three years afterwards, George IV., on passing it on his voyage to Scotland, was honored with a royal salute from some guns then on it. It has also been visited by the prince of Wales. The Bass is let to a "keeper," who pays a considerable sum for it annually, the rent being made up by young geese, which are used as food; by eggs, feathers, and oil; also by fees exacted from visitors to the rock. There is an interesting volume on the Bass, historical, geological, and botanical, the joint production of Dr. M'Crie, jun., Hugh Miller, and professors Fleming and Balfour.

BASS ROCKS, the name of several places on the coast of the U. S., and on the shores of the great lakes-often small fishing villages. Bass Rock in the eastern part of Gloucester, Mass., near the extremity of Cape Ann, is a summer resort, with a few cottages of city visitors. The rocks are not noticeable for height, but the marine view is impressive. Near by is one of the “singing beaches.”

BASS'S STRAIT separates Tasmania from Australia. It contains many islands, chiefly in its southern section, and is greatly beset by coral-reefs. It runs almost due e. and w., has an average breadth of about 200 m., and is pretty nearly bisected by the parallel of 40°.

B. S. deservedly bears the name of its explorer, who, without having been professionally a seaman, is entitled to a very high place among maritime discoverers. After having made shorter excursions from Port Jackson, in a mere wherry of 8 ft. in length, Mr. Surgeon Bass resolved to settle, in a whaling-boat, the question as to the connection or separation of New Holland and Tasmania. În his frail craft, he penetrated as far as Western Port, near the entrance of Port Phillip, where, from the trending of the land and the swell of the sea, he inferred that he had most probably reached the open ocean. He did not rest contented, however, until, in a tiny bark of 25 tons, he actually circumnavigated Tasmania. The discovery, so deliberately prosecuted, and so satisfactorily completed, soon proved to be fertile of results; for in 1802, only four years after the exploration of Bass, Port Philip was entered; in 1804, Tasmania was colonized; and now the strait is the highway for a trade of more than a million sterling between Victoria and Tasmania-a trade which has very recently received an additional impetus from the laying of a telegraphic cable between the two colonies at their joint expense.

BASSU'TOS, a tribe of the Bechuanas in s. Africa, estimated 100,000 in number. They have made some progress in agriculture and civilization under the influence of French missionaries. In 1866, the B. were obliged to cede a part of their territory to Orange Free state, and in 1871 were incorporated with Cape Colony. See BASUTOS.

BAST, or Bass, also called inner bark, liber, or endophlæum (see BARK), the fibrous inferior layer of the bark in the stems of exogenous plants, which is particularly conspicuous in exogenous trees, as a peculiar substance interposed between the true bark and the wood. It consists in great part of sap-vessels (laticiferous vessels, see LATEX and SAP) lying close together, and assuming the appearance of tough fibers. In a fresh state, it has generally a whitish color; and it is often composed of several layers, to which, however, the collective name of bast-layer is very often applied. The uses of this part of plants in the arts are very numerous; the fibers of hemp, flax, jute, etc., are nothing else than bast. The name B., however, is more commonly applied to the inner bark of trees, and is originally Russian, designating the inner bark of the lime-tree (q.v.) or linden-tree, which is employed for making a coarse kind of ropes, mats well known as bast-mats, and a kind of shoes much worn by the Russian peasantry. The trees are 'cut when full of sap in spring. For B. to be plaited into shoes, young stems of about three years old are preferred; and it is said that two or three are required to make a single pair of shoes. Trees of six or eight years old are cut down for the better kind of mats, which are exported in large quantities from Russia, and particularly from the port of Archangel, and so much used for packing furniture, for covering tender plants in gardens, supplying strands with which plants are tied, etc. The trees from which the B. is taken are very generally burned for charcoal. After the bark is dried, its layers are easily separated by steeping in water. The finest layers are the inner, and the coarser are the outer ones.-The manufacture of bast-mats is nearly confined to Russia and Sweden. Not fewer than 3,500,000 are annually exported from Russia, and from 500,000 to 800,000 are annually imported into Britain. A few are made in Monmouthshire. Lime-tree B. is used in the s. of Europe for making hats. The name bast-hat is, however, very often given to a hat made of willow-wood planed off in thin ribbons, and plaited in the same manner as straw-hats. The inner bark of grewia didyma, a tree of the same natural order with the lime-tree, is used for making ropes in the Himalaya mountains.

BASTARD BAR. In popular speech we frequently hear of a bar-sinister, as a mark of bastardy. But a bar-sinister, strictly speaking, is an impossibility, inasmuch as the bar (q.v.) is not formed of diagonal but of horizontal lines. A bend-sinister (q. v.), which, by the French, is called a bar, has with more reason been confused with the true mark of illegitimacy, and has on that account been avoided even by heralds. But the real B. B. differs very essentially from the bend-sinister, being half of the scarp, which again it half of the bend-sinister. "The half of the scarp," says Nisbet. with the English, is

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Bastards.

called a baton-sinister; by the French, baston-sinister; it is never carried in arms but as a mark of illegitimation, commonly called the bastard barr." In modern practice, the baton does not touch the extremities of the shield, or of the quarter in which the paternal arms are placed, but is couped—that is, cut short at the ends. In this form the baton, when used as a mark of illegitimacy, is placed over the paternal coat of the bastard, whether used singly or in a quartered shield. Nisbet informs us that the baton-sinister, both in England and Scotland, is comparatively of modern invention, natural children in earlier times not having been permitted to assume the arms or even the names of their fathers. "The unlawful children of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, begot on Katharine, daughter of sir Payen Roat Guyn, king of arms, did not carry the arms of their father the king, though nobilitate, with a baton-sinister, as now used;

but after the legitimation of these three natural sons by act of parliament, they then assumed the sovereign ensigns of England, within a bordure gobbonated (q.v.), argent and azure."

According to the practice of France, which probably was followed in England also, the bastard could not cancel or alter the baton without the consent of the chief of the family, or the authority of the sovereign. Even where the baton was not removed, it was common for the sovereign to grant his permission to carry it dexter, in place of sinister. Charles VII. of France allowed John, the bastard of Orleans, for his valor against the English, to turn his sinister traverse to the dexter, with which he and his issue afterwards bruised the arms of Orleans, as dukes of Longueville. The same privilege was granted to James, earl of Murray, natural son of king James V. of Scotland, by his sister queen Mary, and he thenceforth carried the lion and tressure of Scotland thus bruised, quartered with the feudal arms of the earldom of Murray. The general practice of the milder heraldry of our own day is to substitute the gobbonated bordure for the B. B., not only in the case of the legitimate children of bastards, but of bastards themselves.

BASTARD EIGNÉ is the name given in English law-books to an eldest son illegitimate by birth, but whose father and mother were subsequently married, and had other children born in wedlock. See BASTARDS AND BASTARDY.

*BASTARDS and BASTARDY. Bastards, as described by Blackstone, are such children as are not born either in lawful wedlock, or within a competent time after its determination. The Scotch lawyers, again, true to their peculiar law of marriage, define a bastard as a child born of a woman, who was not married to the father at the time of conception, and who was never thereafter married to him. It was at one time the law of Engiand, when divorces a mensa et thoro were adjudged by the ecclesiastical courts, that if the wife had children during the legal separation occasioned by the former kind of divorce, such children were prima facie bastards-for the law presumed the parties to live conformably to the sentence of separation. But in modern times, the presumption has changed, and now always favors legitimacy.

Bastards are incapable of inheriting real property; nor can they claim any share of personal estate as next of kin to a party dying intestate. They are said to be filii nullius, or filii populi, the sons of nobody, or the sons of the people, having no inheritable blood in them. As laid down, however, in many authorities, and among others in the last (4th) edition of Stephen's Commentaries, there is an exception to this rule in the case of a bastard eigné and mulier puisné, and where, it may be observed, the principle of the Scotch law of legitimation appears to some extent to be admitted. Thus, where a man has a bastard son, called a bastard eigné (q.v.), and afterwards marries the mother, and by her has a legitimate son, who, in the language of the law, is called a mulier puisné— if the father dies, and the bastard eigné enters upon his land, and enjoys it to his death, and dies seised thereof, whereby the inheritance descends to his issue, the mulier puisné · and all other heirs are totally barred of their right, because the laws of England pay such a regard to a person in the situation of the bastard eigné, that after the land had descended to his issue, they would not unravel the matter again, and suffer his estate to be shaken. But this indulgence was shown to no other kind of bastard; for if the mother was never married to the father, such bastard could have no colorable title at all. And the above exception would almost appear to be the law of England at the present day. But a recent statute renders this opinion somewhat doubtful, for by the 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 27, s. 39, it is enacted that no descent cast, after the 31st day of December, 1833, shall defeat any right of entry or action for the recovery of land. By descent cast is meant an heir of a party who had contrived illegally to enjoy the land without challenge during his life, and was thereby enabled to transmit it to his heir, who thenceforward had a title which could not be impeached either by the original rightful owner, or by any of his descendants. The above statute, however, has cut off the rights in this behalf of all such descents cast, and the true owner can now, under the provisions of the act, always recover. But is the son of a bastard eigné such a "descent cast" as is contemplated by the 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 27? It may be doubted whether he is. The expression "descent cast" is generally applied in law-books to the case of a stranger who, under a forcible, wrongful, and illegal entry on the land, had succeeded in diverting the inheritance from the direct and original channel. But such is not the position of a bastard eigné. He is not, in any sense of the word,

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