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BAL  in 1767 an account of his "Travels in the East," and in 1769 a work entitled "Gaudia Poetica," &c.; died in 1771. He is said to have bestowed a yearly pension of £200 on the celebrated Corsican general, Pascal Paoli.  BALTZAR,, born at Lubeck about 1630, was esteemed the finest performer on the violin of his time. He came to England in 1656 (not 1658, as generally stated), at which time the instrument had not yet been enabled to assert its powers here, nor to emerge (as it shortly afterwards did) from the low estimation in which it was held. His first patron in England was Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell in Oxfordshire. An account of Baltzar's performance shortly after his arrival here has been left by John Evelyn. Under the date, March 4, 1656, he says:—"This night I was invited by Mr. Roger L'Estrange to hear the incomparable Lubicer on the violin. His variety on a few notes and plaine ground, with that wonderful dexterity, was admirable. Though a young man, yet so perfect and skilful, that there was nothing, however cross and perplext, brought to him by our artists, which he did not play off at sight, with ravishing sweetness and improvements, to the astonishment of our best masters. In sum, he plaid on that single instrument a full concert, so as the rest flung down their instruments, acknowledging the victory. As to my own particular, I stand to this hour amaz'd that God should give so great perfection to so young a person. There were at that time as excellent in their profession as any were thought to be in Europe, Paul Wheeler, Mr. Mell, and others, till this prodigy appeared. I can no longer question the effects we reade of in David's harp to charme evil spirits, or what is said some particular notes produced in the passions of Alexander, and that king of Denmark." Anthony Wood tells us, under the year 1658, that "Tho. Balsar or Baltzar, a Lubecker borne, was now in Oxon, and this day (July 24) A. W. (Anthony Wood) was with him and Mr. Edw. Lowe, lately organist of Ch. Church, at the meeting-house of Will. Ellis. A. W. did then and there, to his very great astonishment, hear him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the fingerboard of the violin, and run them back insensibly, and all with alacrity, and in very good tune, which he nor any in England saw the like before. A. W. entertain'd him and Mr. Lowe with what the house could then afford, and afterwards he invited them to the tavern; but they being engaged to other company, he could no more hear him play or see him play at that time. Afterwards he came to one of the weekly meetings at Mr. Ellis's house, and he played, to the wonder of all the auditory, and exercising his fingers and instrument several ways, to the utmost of his power. Wilson, thereupon the public professor (the greatest judge of musick that ever was), did, after his humoursome way, stoop down to Baltzar's feet to see whether he had a huff [hoof] on; that is to say, to see whether he was a devil or not, because he acted beyond the parts of man. About that time it was that Dr. Joh. Wilkins, Warden of Wadham Coll., the greatest curioso of his time, invited him and some of the musitians to his lodgings in that Coll., purposely to have a concert, and to see and hear him play. The instruments and books were carried thither, but none could be persuaded there to play against him in consort on the violin. At length the company perceiving A. W. standing behind in a comer, near the doore, they haled him in among them, and play, forsooth, he must, against him. Whereupon, he not being able to avoid it, he took up a violin and behaved himself as poor Troylus did against Achilles. He was abashed at it, yet honour he got by playing with and against such a grand master as Baltzar was. Mr. Davis Mell was accounted hithertoo the best for the violin in England, as I have before told you; but after Baltzar came into England, and show'd his most wonderful parts on that instrument, Mell was not so admired, yet he played sweeter, was a well-bred gentleman, and not given to excessive drinking, as Baltzar was."

At the restoration of Charles the Second, Baltzar was appointed leader of the king's celebrated band of twenty-four violins, and about the same time, according to Wood, "he commenced Bachelor of Musick at Cambridge." He died in July, 1663, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Wood says of him, that, "being much admired by all lovers of musick, his company was therefore desired; and company, especially musicall company, delighting in drinking, made him drink more than ordinary, which brought him to his grave."

The arrival of Baltzar in England may be considered as an event which tended in no small degree to place the violin in that station among the stringed tribe which it has since so deservedly occupied. He is said to have first taught the English the practice of shifting (that is to say, of what is termed the whole shift), and the use of the upper part of the fingerboard. It is certain that the power of execution and command of the instrument exhibited by Baltzar were matter of novelty among us, although we had a native performer of no mean abilities at that period, in the person of Davis Mell, who in delicacy of tone and manner, seems even to have exceeded the more potent and renowned German.

The compositions of Baltzar are now very rarely met with. Dr. Burney mentions a MS. collection of his solos in his possession, presented to him by the Rev. Dr. Montague North. A set of sonatas by Baltzar for a "lyra violin, treble violin, and bass viol," formed lot 55 of the sale catalogue of the celebrated Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal man. The only printed compositions of this master are the solos contained in Henry Playford's Division Violin, 1692, ob. quarto.—(Burney; Hawkins; Evelyn's Diary; Wood's Life; Ashmolean MS. 8568; Roger North's Memoirs of Music.)—E. F. R.  BALUE,, a French cardinal, and prime minister of Louis XI., born about 1421 at Verdun, died at Ancona in 1491. He was of very humble origin, and appears to have passed the first years of his life in his native town. Louis XI., to whom he was introduced by Charles of Melun in 1464, made him his secretary and his almoner, and in 1465 appointed him archbishop of Evreux. In 1467 he was nominated bishop of Angers, and before the close of the same year received the cardinal's hat, under the title of Sainte-Suzanne.—G. M.  * BALUFFI,, a Spanish writer, author of a "History of Religion in America." The work is compiled from original documents to which the author had access during his residence in various parts of the New World.  BALUZE,, historian, born at Tulle, December, 1630. Educated for the bar, he early renounced that profession, indulging his taste for historical research. He had a passion for old manuscripts, of which he contrived to make a large and curious collection, procured from various parts of Europe. The reputation he acquired in this way excited a sort of competition amongst those who were at once powerful and learned, for the services of so promising a librarian. The famous minister, Colbert, bore away the prize even from some high dignitaries of the church. After some time the king, Louis XIV., appointed Baluze inspector of the college royal. Like many very learned men, our antiquarian stumbled upon a path of inquiry, which he was probably too simple to see would bring him into collision with the proud monarch himself. The Cardinal Bouillon laid claim to the independent sovereignty of Sedan. Baluze, who was writing a history of the House of Auvergne, found the cardinal's title well founded. Such a disclosure was regarded by the imperious Louis as something like treason, and with the vindictive meanness of the tyrant, he confiscated the historian's property, and ordered him into exile. Allowed to return to Paris in 1713, he was not, however, restored to his place; but nothing could repress a spirit at the same time genial and even social. Baluze loved to blend merriment and learning, and was surrounded by men as witty as wise. The ultramontane party found in him a formidable antagonist, and to this day his writings supply liberal Frenchmen with arms against the encroachments of Rome upon the liberties of the Gallican church. His freedom from vanity, and true devotion to learning, are shown in a curious clause of his will, by which his manuscripts were ordered to be sold to meet the wants of antiquarians. He died July, 1718.—J. F. C.  BALZAC,, an eminent French writer, was born at Angoulême in 1594; died at Paris, February 18, 1654. Among the authors of the seventeenth century there are few whose writings contributed more to the improvement of the French language than those of Balzac. Pompous, affected, and without the genius of originality, he was still an artist in the use of language—an admirable workman, without the power of designing, who could use his materials with skill even in inferior compositions. With little or no enthusiasm for ideas, he had a scrupulous regard for words. He gave polish, precision, and pliability to the language; and in so doing prepared the way for Pascal, who threw into the 