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 From 1566 to the end of the 18th century it was the seat of a bishopric.

 BOULOGNE-SUR-SEINE, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, S.W. of Paris and immediately outside the fortifications. Pop. (1906) 49,412. The town has a Gothic church of the 14th and 15th centuries (restored in 1863) founded in honour of Notre-Dame of Boulogne-sur-Mer. To this fact is due the name of the place, which was previously called Menus-lès-St Cloud. Laundrying is extensively carried on as well as the manufacture of metal boxes, soap, oil and furniture, and there are numerous handsome residences. For the neighbouring Bois de Boulogne see.

 BOULTON, MATTHEW (1728–1809), English manufacturer and engineer, was born on the 3rd of September 1728, at Birmingham, where his father, Matthew Boulton the elder, was a manufacturer of metal articles of various kinds. To this business he succeeded on his father’s death in 1759, and in consequence of its growth removed his works in 1762 from Snowhill to what was then a tract of barren heath at Soho, 2 m. north of Birmingham. Here he undertook the manufacture of artistic objects in metal, as well as the reproduction of oil paintings by a mechanical process in which he was associated with Francis Eginton (1737–1805), who subsequently achieved a reputation as a worker in stained or enamelled glass. About 1767, Boulton, who was finding the need of improving the motive power for his machinery, made the acquaintance of James Watt, who on his side appreciated the advantages offered by the Soho works for the development of his steam-engine. In 1772 Watt’s partner, Dr John Roebuck, got into financial difficulties, and Boulton, to whom he owed £1200, accepted the two-thirds share in Watt’s patent held by him in satisfaction of the debt. Three years later Boulton and Watt formally entered into partnership, and it was mainly through the energy and self-sacrifice of the former, who devoted all the capital he possessed or could borrow to the enterprise, that the steam-engine was at length made a commercial success. It was also owing to Boulton that in 1775 an act of parliament was obtained extending the term of Watt’s 1769 patent to 1799. In 1800 the two partners retired from the business, which they handed over to their sons, Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt junior. In 1788 Boulton turned his attention to coining machinery, and erected at Soho a complete plant with which he struck coins for the Sierra Leone and East India companies and for Russia, and in 1797 produced a new copper coinage for Great Britain. In 1797 he took out a patent in connexion with raising water on the principle of the hydraulic ram. He died at Birmingham on the 18th of August 1809.

 BOUND, or (from O. Fr. bonde, Med. Lat. bodena or butina, a frontier line), that which serves to indicate the limit or extent of land. It is usually defined by a certain mark, such as a post, ditch, hedge, dyke, wall of stones, &c., though on the other hand it may have to be ascertained by reference to a plan or by measurement. In law, the exact boundary of land is always a matter of evidence; where no evidence is available, the court acts on presumption. For example, the boundary of land on opposite sides of a road, whether public or private, is presumed to be the middle line of the road. Where two fields are separated by a hedge and ditch the boundary line will run between the hedge and the ditch. Boundaries of parishes, at common law, depended upon ancient and immemorial custom, and in many parishes great care was taken to perpetuate the boundaries of the parish by perambulations from time to time. The confusion of local boundaries in England was the subject of several commissions and committees in the 19th century, and much information will be found in their reports (1868, 1870, 1873, 1888). The Local Government Act 1888, ss. 50-63, contains provisions for the alteration of local areas.

 BOUNDS, BEATING THE, an ancient custom still observed in many English parishes. In former times when maps were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension day or during Rogation week. The latter is in the north of England still called “Gang Week” or “Ganging Days” from this “ganging” or procession. The priest of the parish with the churchwardens and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, beat with them the parish border-stones. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys was obviously to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible. In England the custom is as old as Anglo-Saxon days, as it is mentioned in laws of Alfred and Aethelstan. It is thought that it may have been derived from the Roman Terminalia, a festival celebrated on the 22nd of February in honour of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes and wine were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the boundaries. In England a parish-ale or feast was always held after the perambulation, which assured its popularity, and in Henry VIII.’s reign the occasion had become an excuse for so much revelry that it attracted the condemnation of a preacher who declared “these solemne and accustomable processions and supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse.” Beating the bounds had a religious side in the practice which originated the term Rogation, the accompanying clergy being supposed to beseech (rogare) the divine blessing upon the parish lands for the ensuing harvest. This feature originated in the 5th century, when Mamercus, bishop of Vienne, instituted special prayers and fasting and processions on these days. This clerical side of the parish bounds-beating was one of the religious functions prohibited by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth; but it was then ordered that the perambulation should continue to be performed as a quasi-secular function, so that evidence of the boundaries of parishes, &c. might be preserved (Gibson, Codex juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani (1761) pp. 213-214). Bequests were sometimes made in connexion with bounds-beating. Thus at Leighton Buzzard on Rogation Monday, in accordance with the will of one Edward Wilkes, a London merchant who died in 1646, the trustees of his almshouses accompanied the boys. The will was read and beer and plum rolls distributed. A remarkable feature of the bequest was that while the will is read one of the boys has to stand on his head.

 BOUNTY (through O. Fr. bontet, from Lat. bonitas, goodness), a gift or gratuity; more usually, a premium paid by a government to encourage some branch of production or industry, as in England in the case of the bounty on corn, first granted in 1688 and abolished in 1814, the herring-fishery bounties, the bounties on sail-cloth, linen and other goods. It is admitted that the giving of bounties is generally impolitic, though they may sometimes be justified as a measure of state. The most striking modern example of a bounty was that on (q.v.). Somewhat akin to bounties are the subsidies granted to (q.v.) by many countries. Bounties or, as they may equally well be termed, grants are often given, more especially in new countries, for the destruction of beasts of prey; in the United States and some other countries, bounties have been given for tree-planting; France has given bounties to encourage the Newfoundland fisheries.

Bounty was also the name given to the money paid to induce men to enlist in the army or navy, and, in the United Kingdom, to the sum given on entering the militia reserve. During the American Civil War, many recruits joined solely for the sake of the bounty offered, and afterwards deserted; they were called “bounty-jumpers.” The term bounty was also applied in the English navy to signify money payable to the officers and crew of a ship in respect of services on particular occasions.

(q.v.) is a fund applied for the augmentation of poor livings in the established church.

King’s Bounty is a grant made by the sovereign of his royal bounty to those of his subjects whose wives are delivered of three or more children at a birth.

 BOURBAKI, CHARLES DENIS SAUTER (1816–1897), French general, was born at Pau on the 22nd of April 1816, the son of a Greek colonel who died in the War of Independence in 1827. He entered St Cyr, and in 1836 joined the Zouaves, becoming lieutenant of the Foreign Legion in 1838, and aide-de-camp to