Page:EB1911 - Volume 03.djvu/236

 and the bailliage or the sénéchaussée was then as important administratively as judicially. But the political power of the bailiffs was greatly lessened when the provincial governors were created. They had already lost their financial powers, and their judicial functions now passed from them to their lieutenants.

By his origin the bailiff had a military character; he was an officer of the “short robe” and not of the “long robe,” which in those days was no obstacle to his being well versed in precedents. But when, under the influence of Roman and canon law, the legal procedure of the civil courts became learned, the bailiff often availed himself of a right granted him by ancient public law: that of delegating the exercise of his functions to whomsoever he thought fit. He delegated his judicial functions to lieutenants, whom he selected and discharged at will. But as this delegation became habitual, the position of the lieutenants was strengthened; in the 16th century they became royal officers by title, and even dispossessed the bailiffs of their judiciary prerogatives. The tribunal of the bailliage or sénéchaussée underwent yet another transformation, becoming a stationary court of justice, the seat of which was fixed at the chief town. During the 15th and 16th centuries ambulatory assizes diminished in both frequency and importance. In the 17th and 18th centuries they were no more than a survival, the lieutenant of such a bailliage having preserved the right to hold one assize each year at a certain locality in his district. The ancient bailiff or bailli d'épée still existed, however; the judgments in the tribunal of the bailliage were delivered in his name, and he was responsible for their execution. So long as the military service of the ban and arrière ban, due to the king from all fief-holders, was maintained (and it was still in force at the end of the 17th century), it was the bailiffs who organized it. Finally the bailliage became in principle the electoral district for the states-general, the unit represented therein by its three estates. The justiciary nobles retained their judges, often called bailiffs, until the Revolution. These judges, who were competent to decide questions as to the payment of seigniorial dues could not, legally at all events, themselves farm those revenues.

BAILLET, ADRIEN (1649–1706), French scholar and critic, was born on the 13th of June 1649, at the village of Neuville near Beauvais, in Picardy. His parents could only afford to send him to a small school in the village, but he picked up some Latin from the friars of a neighbouring convent, who brought him under the notice of the bishop of Beauvais. By his kindness Baillet received a thorough education at the theological seminary, and was afterwards appointed to a post as teacher in the college of Beauvais. In 1676 he was ordained priest and was presented to a small vicarage. He accepted in 1680 the appointment of librarian to M. de Lamoignon, advocate-general to the parlement of Paris, of whose library he made a catalogue raisonné (35 vols.), all written with his own hand. The remainder of his life was spent in incessant, unremitting labour; so keen was his devotion to study that he allowed himself only five hours a day for rest. He died on the 21st of January 1706. Of his numerous works the following are the most conspicuous: (1) Histoire de Hollande depuis la trève de 1609 jusqu’à 1690 (4 vols. 1693), a continuation of Grotius, and published under the name of La Neuville, (2) Les Vies des saints  (4 vols. 1701), (3) Des Satires personnelles , traité historique et critique de celles qui portent le titre d' Anti (2 vols. 1689), (4) Vie de Descartes (2 vols. 1691), (5) Auteurs déguisés sous des noms étrangers, empruntés, &c. (1690), (6) Jugemens des savans sur les principaux ouvrages des auteurs (9 vols. 1685–1686). The last is the most celebrated and useful of all his works. At the time of his death he was engaged on a Dictionnaire universelle ecclésiastique. The praise bestowed on the Jansenists in the Jugemens des savans brought down on Baillet the hatred of the Jesuits, and his Vie des saints, in which he brought his critical mind to bear on the question of miracles, caused some scandal. His Vie de Descartes is a mine of information on the philosopher and his work, derived from numerous unimpeachable authorities.

BAILLIE, LADY GRIZEL (1665–1746), Scottish song-writer, eldest daughter of Sir Patrick Hume or Home of Polwarth, afterwards earl of Marchmont, was born at Redbraes Castle, Berwickshire, on the 25th of December 1665. When she was twelve years old she carried letters from her father to the Scottish patriot, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, who was then in prison. Home’s friendship for Baillie made him a suspected man, and the king’s troops occupied Redbraes Castle. He remained in hiding for some time in a churchyard, where his daughter kept him supplied with food, but on hearing of the execution of Baillie (1684) he fled to Holland, where his family soon after joined him. They returned to Scotland at the Revolution. Lady Grizel married in 1692 George Baillie, son of the patriot. She died on the 6th of December 1746. She had two daughters, Grizel, who married Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, and Rachel, Lady Binning. Lady Murray had in her possession a MS. of her mother’s in prose and verse. Some of the songs had been printed in Allan Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany. “And werena my heart light I wad dee,” the most famous of Lady Grizel’s songs, originally appeared in Orpheus Caledonius (1725).

BAILLIE, JOANNA (1762–1851), British poet and dramatist, was born at the manse of Bothwell, on the banks of the Clyde, on the 11th of September 1762. She belonged to an old Scottish family, which claimed among its ancestors Sir William Wallace. At an early period she moved with her sister Agnes to London, where their brother, Dr Matthew Baillie, was settled. The two sisters inherited a small competence from their uncle, Dr William Hunter, and took up their residence at Hampstead, then on the outskirts of London, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Joanna Baillie had received an excellent education, and began very early to write poetry. She published anonymously in 1790 a volume called Fugitive Verses; but it was not till 1798 that she produced the first volume of her “plays on the passions” under the title of A Series of Plays. Her design was to illustrate each of the deepest and strongest passions of the human mind, such as hate, jealousy, fear, love, by a tragedy and a comedy, in each of which should be exhibited the actions of an individual under the influence of these passions. The first volume was published anonymously, but the authorship, though at first attributed to Sir Walter Scott, was soon discovered. The book had considerable success and was followed by a second volume in 1802, a third in 1812 and three volumes of Dramas in 1836. Miscellaneous Plays appeared in 1804, and the Family Legend in 1810. Miss Baillie herself intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. The Family Legend, brought out in 1810 at Edinburgh, under the enthusiastic patronage of Sir Walter Scott, had a brief though brilliant success; De Monfort had a short run in London, mainly through the acting of John Kemble and Mrs Siddons; Henriquez and The Separation were coldly received. With very few exceptions, Joanna Baillie’s plays are unsuited for stage exhibition. Not only is there a flaw in the fundamental idea, viz. that of an individual who is the embodiment of a single passion, but the want of incident and the direction of the attention to a single point, present insuperable obstacles to their success as acting pieces. At the same time they show remarkable powers of analysis and acute observation and are written in a pure and vigorous style. Joanna Baillie’s reputation does not rest entirely on her dramas; she was the author of some poems and songs of great beauty. The best of them are the Lines to Agnes Baillie on her Birthday, The Kitten, To a Child and some of her adaptations of Scottish songs, such as Woo’d and Married an’a’. Scattered throughout the dramas are also some lively and