Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/330

314 two predominant classes, the Chinese and Siamese. There is great commercial activity, the principal articles of trade being sugar, pepper, and rice. The supplies of the last article can be brought from a long way inland by means of the river and various canals, such as the Petrio, which joins the Bang-Pa-Kong at Kanat. Cardamoms, timber, and tin are also largely exported. European manufactures are extensively imported, the natives being very ready to adopt new methods and machinery ; and steam-mills for various purposes are being set up. The river is kept clear by a steam-dredger, and iron bridges of European construction are built across the canals. Gas is used in the palaces of the kings and the houses of many of the nobility. A con siderable number of European firms carry on business in the city, and the English Government maintains a consul. Christian missions, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, are maintained, the latter church having established a bishopric. The population is said to amount to 400,000.

1em  BANGOR, a parliamentary borough and market-town of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, nine miles N.E. of Carnar von, to which it is a contributory borough. It consists mainly of one narrow crooked street of nearly a mile in length, stretching N.E. and S.W. through a romantic valley between two ridges of rock. It stands near the northern entrance of the Menai Strait, and the beauty of its scenery attracts thousands of visitors every year. The principal buildings are the cathedral, episcopal palace, deanery-house, Roman Catholic chapel, several dissenting meeting-houses, free schools, union poorhouse, infirmary, market-house (1862), assembly rooms, temperance hall, three banks, and railway station. The cathedral is an embattled cruciform structure, with a low massive tower crowned with pinnacles. It occupies the site of a more ancient edifice, originally founded about 525, but destroyed by the English in 1071. It was afterwards rebuilt, but suffered severely in the wars between the Welsh and Henry III.; and in 1402 it was burned down during the ravages of Owen Glendower. For more than ninety years it remained in ruins. The choir was rebuilt by Bishop Dean in the time of Henry VII., and the tower and nave were added by Bishop Skeffington in 1532. The principal trade of Bangor consists in the export of slates, which are raised in the quarries six miles distant, and conveyed by a railway to Port Penrhyn, at the mouth of the River Cegid, a little to the east of the town. This port is accessible for vessels of from 200 to 300 tons at all states of the tide, and has a quay upwards of 300 yards in length. Population of burgh in 1871, 9859.  BANGOR, a seaport and market-town of Ireland, county Down, on the south side of Belfast Lough, 12 miles E.N.E. of Belfast. It carries on a considerable trade in cotton and linen and embroidered muslin, and has a bank, a market-house, a parish church, several chapels, and a public library. It is greatly frequented as a bathing-place, especially by the people of Belfast. Remains of an ancient abbey, said to have been destroyed by the Danes in 820, are still to be seen. Population in 1871, 2560.  BANGOR, a seaport town in the state of Maine, North America, capital of the county of Penobscot, on the river of that name, at its junction with the Kenduskeag, 60 miles from the sea. Lat. 44 47 50&quot; N., long. 68 47 W. It was incorporated as a town in 1791, and raised to the rank of a city in 1834. The harbour is spacious, and affords anchorage for the largest vessels at high tide. The chief article of trade is timber, which employs about 2000 ihips annually; and there are saw-mills, planing-mills, ship-yards, foundries, and manufactories of furniture. There are numerous good schools arranged on a graduated scale, and churches of about ten different denominations. A theological seminary belonging to the Congregationalists was founded in 1816. A library, instituted in 1843, has upwards of 11,000 volumes. Population in 1870, 18,289.  BANIALUKA, a town and fortress of Turkey, in the eyalet of Bosnia, situated on the Yerbas or Verbitza, a navigable tributary of the Save. Its warm baths, for which it is still known, would seem, from the antiquities discovered on the spot, to have been frequented by the Romans. There are upwards of forty mosques in the town, and one of them is regarded as the finest in Turkey. An active trade is carried on, and gunpowder and cloth are manufactured, while in the neighbourhood silver-mining is also prosecuted with success. Banialuka was for a long time the seat of the Bosnian governors, and has been frequently exposed to the vicissitudes of war. In 1688 it was captured for the Austrians by Louis of Baden. Population, 15,000.  BANIM,, an Irish novelist of great power and ability, was born at Kilkenny in 1798. He received a good education, and at a very early age gave evidence of remarkable genius. In his thirteenth year he entered Kilkenny College, where many other eminent Irishmen have received their training, and devoted himself specially to drawing and painting, in which he became so proficient that he resolved to adopt the profession of an artist. He accordingly proceeded to Dublin and studied for two years in the schools connected with the Royal Society, where he obtained high prizes. For some time afterwards he taught drawing in his native town, and while doing so had the misfortune to fall violently in love with one of his pupils. His affections were returned, but the parents of the young lady interfered and removed her from Kilkenny. She pined away and died in two months. The occurrence made a deep impression on Banim s mind, and this, together with his exposure to the weather on the night of her funeral, caused a severe illness which completely shattered his health. After a partial recovery he set out for Dublin and settled finally to the work of literature. He published a poem, The Celts Paradise, and had some success as a writer for the stage. During a short visit to Kilkenny he married, and at the same time planned, in conjunction with his brother Michael (born 1796), a series of tales illustrative of Irish life. He then set out for London, the great centre of literary activity, and supported himself by writing for magazines and for the stage. A volume of miscellaneous essays was published anonymously in 1824, called Revelations of the Dead Alive. In April 1825 appeared the first series of Tales of the O Hara Family, which achieved immediate and decided success. One of the most powerful of them, Grohoore of the Bill Hook, was by Michael Banim. In 1826 a second series was published, containing what is decidedly one of the best Irish novels in our literature, The Nowlans. John s health had almost en tirely given way, and the next effort of the &quot;O Hara family&quot; was almost entirely the production of his brother Michael. The Croppy, a Tale of 1798, is hardly equal to the earlier tales, though it contains some wonderfully vigorous passages. The Denounced, The Mayor of Windgap, The Ghost Hunter (by Michael Banim), and The Smuggler, followed in quick succession, and were received with con siderable favour. Banim, meanwhile, had completely broken down in health, and had become much straitened in circumstances. During his absence in France a move ment to relieve his wants was set on foot by the English press, headed by Sterling in the Times. A sufficient sum was obtained to remove him from any danger of actual want, and to this Government afterwards added a pension 