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BLANC — BLASTING

member of the National Assembly, and protested passionately against the peace-proposals. Though a member of the extreme Left, he was too clear-minded to sympathize with the Commune, but exerted his influence in vain on the side of moderation. In 1878 he advocated the abolition of the Presidency and the Senate, with unlimited right of association and freedom of the press. His last important act was to obtain an amnesty for the Communists. He died at Cannes on 6th December 1882, and on 12 th December received a public funeral in PereLachaise. As a historian Louis Blanc obtained most success with his Histoire de dix ans, 1830-18J/.0 (1841-44). During his stay in England he utilized the collection of French revolutionary tracts at the British Museum, as the basis of the greater part of his Histoire de la Revolution Fran^aise (1847-62). He possessed a picturesque and vivid style, and considerable power of research; but the fervour with which he expressed his convictions, while placing him in the first rank of orators, too often degraded his historical writings into political pamphlets. His most important works, besides those already mentioned, are Lettres sur l ’Angleterre (1866-67), Fix annees de Vhistoire de VAngleterre (1879-81), and Questions d'aujcmrd!hui et de demain (1873-84). (h. Sy.) Blanc, Le, chief town of arrondissement, department of Indre, France, 27 miles W.S.W. of Chateauroux, on the railway from Paris to Agen, and on the Creuse, which divides it into two parts, an upper and a lower town. It has manufactures of cloth, agricultural implements, and tools, wool- and hemp-spinning and tanning, and trade in horses. The town (anciently Fines, later Oblincuni, and in the 15th century Naillac, from the baronial family who then held possession of it) was a frontier fortress of the province of Berry. It is well built, and has the remains of three ancient castles and the church of St. Genitour, parts of which date from the 12th century. Population (1881), 4614; (1896), 4971, comm., 6253. Blandford, or Blandfobd Forum, a municipal borough, market town, and railway station, in the Northern parliamentary division of Dorsetshire, England, on the Stour, 16 miles N.E. of Dorchester. The town is an ancient one, and has a town hall, cottage hospital, a grammar school (founded 1521 at Milton Abbas, transferred to Blandford 1775), and Blue Coat school (1729). There are other educational charities. Antiquarian remains are found in the district, and the Chalk abounds in fossils. Lord Portman has recently built a fine new mansion on the high ground in place of the old “Bryanston” near the river. Area, 145 acres; population (1881), 3753; (1901), 3649. Blankenberghe, a seaport town of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders, on the North Sea, 94 miles N.N.W. of Bruges, with which it is connected by rail. A canal from this town unites, a little to the west of Bruges, with the Bruges-Ostend canal. The popularity of the place as a bathing resort is growing, and it now receives about 30,000 visitors annually. A dyke, forming a handsome promenade, a mile long, has been constructed along the dunes, and there are a casino, large hotels, and villas. Population (comm.) (1890), 4116. Blankenburg*, a town and health resort of Germany, duchy of Brunswick, at the N. foot of the Harz Mountains, 12 miles by rail S.W. from Halberstadt. It has been in large part rebuilt since a fire in 1836, and possesses a castle, with various collections, a museum of antiquities, an old town hall, and churches. There are pine-needle baths and a hospital for nervous diseases. Gardening is a speciality. Population (1885), 6010; (1895), 9289; (1901), 10,173.

Blanqui, Louis Auguste (1805-1881), French publicist, was born on 8th February 1805 at Puget-Theniers, where his father, Jean Dominique Blanqui, was at that time sub-prefect. He studied both law and medicine, but found his real vocation in politics, and at once constituted himself a champion of the most advanced opinions. He took an active part in the Revolution of July 1830, and continuing to maintain the doctrine of republicanism during the reign of Louis Philippe, was condemned to repeated terms of imprisonment. Implicated in the armed outbreak of the Societe des Saisons, of which he was a leading spirit, he was in the following year, 1840, condemned to death, a sentence that was afterwards commuted to imprisonment for life. He was released by the Revolution of 1848, only to resume his attacks on existing institutions. The Revolution, he declared, was a mere change of name. The violence of the Societe republicaine centrale, which was founded by Blanqui to demand a modification of the government, brought him into conflict with the more moderate Republicans, and in 1849 he was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment. In 1865, while serving a further term of imprisonment under the Empire, he contrived to escape, and henceforth continued his propaganda against the Government from abroad, until the general amnesty of 1869 enabled him to return to France. Blanqui’s leaning towards violent measures was illustrated in 1870 by two unsuccessful armed demonstrations : one at the funeral of Victor Noir on 12th January; the other on 14th August, when he led an attempt to seize some guns at a barrack. Upon the fall of the Empire, through the Revolution of 4th September, Blanqui established the club and journal La patrie en danger. He was one of the band that for a moment seized the reins of power on 31st October, and for his share in that outbreak he was again condemned to death on 10th March of the following year. A few days afterwards the insurrection which established the Commune broke out, and Blanqui was elected a member of the insurgent government, but his detention in prison prevented him from taking an active part. Nevertheless he was in 1872 condemned along with the other members of the Commune to transportation; but on account of his broken health this sentence was commuted to one of imprisonment. In 1879 he was elected a deputy for Bordeaux ; although the election was pronounced invalid, Blanqui was set at liberty, and at once resumed his work of agitation. At the end of 1880, after a speech at a revolutionary meeting in Paris, he was struck down by apoplexy, and expired on 1st January 1881. Blanqui’s uncompromising communism, and his determination to enforce it by violence, necessarily brought him into conflict with every French Government, and half his life was spent in prison. Besides his innumerable contributions to journalism, he published an astronomical work entitled L'Fternite par les astres (1872), and after his death his writings on economic and social questions were collected under the title of Critique sociale (1885) (h. Sy.) Blantyre, a parish in Lanarkshire, Scotland, S.E. of Glasgow, containing High Blantyre, Low Blantyre, Stonefield, and several villages, besides stations. High Blantyre had a population of 7836 in 1891. Low Blantyre (1505) has a weaving factory, successor to one in which David Livingstone, born in Blantyre Works village, worked as a boy. Stonefield (5581) has a purely mining population. Coal and limestone are worked in the parish. The population of Blantyre parish in 1901 was 14,151. Blantyre (Aft ica). 1

Blasting.

See British Central Africa.

See Mining.