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, the principal town and administrative head quarters of the above district, situated on the River Bura- balang, in 21 28 45&quot; N. lat,, and 86 59 33&quot; E. long., about 8 miles from the sea-coast as the crow flies, and 16 by the river. The English settlement of Balasor, formed in 1642, and that of Pippli in its neighbourhood, seven years earlier, became the basis of the future greatness of the British in India. The servants of the East India Company here fortified themselves in a strong position, and carried on a brisk investment in country goods, chiefly cottons and muslins. They flourished in spite of the oppressions of the Mahometan governors, and when needful asserted their claims to respect by arms. In 1688, affairs having come to a crisis, Captain Heath, commander of the Company s ships, bombarded the town. In the 18th century Balasor rapidly declined in importance, on account of a dangerous bar which formed across the mouth of the river. At present the bar has 12 to 15 feet of water at spring tides, but not more than 2 or 3 feet at low water in the dry season. Large ships have to anchor outside in the open roadstead. The town contains a population of 18,263 ; municipal income in 1872, 519 ; expenditure, 514; rate of taxation, 6  BALBI,, one of the most eminent geographers of modern times, was born at Venice in 1782. In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his well-known work entitled Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal et d Algarve, which was published at Paris in 1822. This was followed by Varietes Politiques et Statis- tlques de la Monarchic Portugaise, which contains some urious observations respecting that country under the Roman sway, and on the state of literature and the arts. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas Ethno- graphique du Globe, &amp;lt;fcc., a work of great erudition, mbodying the researches of the most distinguished German philologists and geographers. In 1832 appeared the Abrege de Geographic, which added greatly to the author s reputa tion. This work, in an enlarged form, was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Balbi afterwards retired to Padua, where he continued to pursue his favourite science with unabated ardour. Besides those already mentioned, he was the author of several other works in the same de partment of science. He died on the 14th of March 1848.  BALBO,, an important Italian writer and states man, was born at Turin, November 21, 1789. His father, Prospero Balbo, held a high position in the PiedmontesQ court, and at the time of Cesare s birth was syndic of the capital. His mother, a member of the Azeglio family, died when he was three years old ; and he was brought up in the house of his great-grandmother, the countess of Bugino, &quot;a noble and proud old lady.&quot; In 1798 he joined his father at Paris. From 1808 to 1814 Balbo served in various capacities under the Napoleonic empire, helping, at Florence and Rome, to fix the chains of despotism on his country. Gradually, however, his eyes were opened, and, on the fall of Napoleon, he was ready, in various capacities, to serve the cause of his country. While his father was appointed minister of the interior, he entered the army, and undertook political missions to Paris and London. On the revolution of 1821 he was forced into exile, and though, not long after, he was allowed to return to Piedmont, all active service as a statesman was denied him. Reluctantly, and with frequent endeavours to obtain some appointment, he gave himself up to literature as the only means left him to influence the destinies of his country. This accounts for the fitfulness and incompleteness of so much of his literary work, and for the practical, and in many cases temporary, element that runs through even his most elaborate produc tions. The great object of his labours was to help in securing for Italy that independence from foreign control which, even more than internal freedom, he regarded as the first necessity of national life. Of true Italian unity he had no expectation and no desire. A confederation of separate states under the supremacy of the Pope was the genuine beau ideal of Balbo, as it was the ostensible beau idml of GiobertL But Gioberti, in his Primato, seemed to him to neglect the first essential of independence, which he accordingly inculcated in his Speranze or Hopes of Italy. Preparation, both military and moral, alertness, and patience, were his constant theme. He did not wish revolution, but reform ; and thus he became the leader of a moderate party, and the steady opponent not only of despotism but of democracy. At last, in 1848, his hopes were so far satisfied by the constitution granted by the king. He was appointed a member of the commission of electoral law, and held a post in the first reformed government. With the ministry of Azeglio, which soon after got into power, he continued on friendly terms, and his pen continued the active defence of his political principles till his death, on the 3d June 1853. The most important of his writings are historico-political, and derive at once their majesty and their weakness from his theocratic theory of Christianity. His style is clear and vigorous, and not unfrequently terse and epigrammatic. He published Quattro Novelle in 1829 ; Storia d Italia in 1830, Vita di Dante, 1839; Meditazioni Storiche, 1842-5 ; Le Speranze d Italia, 1843 ; Sommario della Storia d Italia.  BALBOA,, one of the bravest and most successful of the Spanish discoverers of America, was born at Xeres de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, about the 