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 reformation. Edinburgh, printed by Robert Charteris, printer to the king’s most excellent maiestie, 1606' (4to). This was reprinted in 1833, in one hundred copies, by W. B. D. Turnbull. Birnie here deprecates interment within the church. There is considerable learning in the book, but its lack of arrangement and an absurdly alliterative style make it wearisome reading.

 BIRNSTON. [See .]

BIRREL, ROBERT (fl. 1567–1605), diarist, was a burgess of Edinburgh. His ‘Diary, containing Divers passages of Staite, and Uthers Memorable Accidents. From the 1532 yeir of our Redemption, till ye Beginnin of the yeir 1605,’ was published in 1798 in 'Fragments of Scottish History,' edited by Sir John Graham Dalyell. Extracts from the ‘Diary’ were also published in 1820. There is not much minuteness in the record of events till about 1567, when Birrel probably began to keep a note of them. There is no evidence in the ‘Diary’ regarding the political or religious views of the writer, facts being simply recorded as they happened, without comment or any apparent bias of opinion. There is some evidence that the work was intended for publication, the writer having apparently taken some trouble to collect his facts. A considerable part of it was incorporated by Sir James Balfour in his ‘Annals.' The original manuscript is in the Advocates' Library.

 BISBY or BISBIE, NATHANIEL, D.D. (1635–1695), divine, son of the Rev. John Bisbie, of Tipton, Staffordshire, who was ejected from a rebend in Lichfield Cathedral about 1644, and of Margaret, daughter of Anthony Hoo, of Bradely Hall in the same county, was born 5 June 1635. He was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, from Westminster School, in 1654, proceeded B.A. 1657 and M.A. 1660, and accumulated his degrees in divinity on 7 June 1668. At the Restoration he was resented to the rectory of Long Melford, Sudbury, Suffolk. He was then, says Anthony à Wood, ‘esteemed an excellent preacher and a zealous person for the church of England.' He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Wall of Radwater Grange, Essex, in 1672. He published a number of occasional sermons, entitled ‘The Modern Pharisees,’ 1673; ‘Prosecution no Persecution, or the Difference between Suffering for Disobedience and Faction and Suffering for Righteousness and Christ’s sake,’ 1682; ‘Mischiefs of Anarchy,' 1682; ‘Korah and his Company proved to be the Seminary and Seed-plot of Sedition and Rebellion,’ 1684; ‘The Bishop visiting,' 1686. On the accession of William and Mary he refused to take the oath of allegiance, and as a nonjuror was deprived of his rectory of Melford in February 1690. His publications consist nearly wholly of violent invectives against the nonconformists. He died 14 May 1695, and was buried at Long Melford.

 BISCHOFF, JAMES (1776–1845), author of works on the wool trade, was of a German family which settled in Leeds in 1718. He was born at Leeds about 1776,and was brought up there. His early mercantile pursuits were connected with the wool and woollen trades, and he took a lively interest in all measures likely to affect, them. Being convinced that the restrictive laws relating to wool were bad, he used his utmost endeavours to bring about a change. He published some letters on the subject in 1816 in the ‘Leeds Mercury’ and the ‘Farmers Journal.' In 1819 he was appointed one of the deputies from the manufacturing districts to promote a repeal of the Wool Act, and wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Reasons for the Immediate Repeal of the Tax on Foreign Wool' (1819, 8vo, pp. 47). In the following year he published 'Observations on the Report of the Earl of Sheffield to the Meeting at Lewes Wool Fair, July 20, 1820.' In 1825 Huskisson, then president of the board of trade, invited the counsel of Bischoff with regard to some proposed alterations in commercial policy, particularly a reduction of the duty on foreign manufactured goods. Bischoff gave his opinion strongly in the direction of freedom of trade, and the reasons he advanced had great weight with the minister in the proposal which he subsequently made in parliament. He was examined in 1828 before the privy council on the subject of the wool trade, and in the same year published ‘The Wool Question considered: being an Examination of the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords appointed to take into consideration the State of the British Wool Trade, and an Answer to Earl Stanhope's Letter to the Owners and Occupiers of Sheep Farms’ (8vo, pp. 112). In 1832 he issued a ‘Sketch of the History of