Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/243

 BAILLIE BAILLY 223 ed characters, and a prose dissertation called " A View of the General Tenor of the New Testa- ment regarding the Nature and Dignity of Je- sus Christ." Miss Baillie was greatly esteemed by two generations of scholars. Her poetical works were collected and published in 1851. BAILLIE, Matthew, a Scottish physician, born at the manse of Shotts, Lanarkshire, Oct. 27, 1761, died at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Sept. 23, 1823. He was the elder brother of Jo- anna Baillie, and nephew of William and John Hunter, the anatomists. Having spent several years at the Glasgow university and one year at Balliol college, Oxford, he went to London in 1780 to study under the direction of Dr. William Hunter, to whom two years after he became assistant and demonstrator. In 1783, on the death of Dr. Hunter, who bequeathed him his anatomical theatre and the use of his museum for 30 years, Mr. Baillie commenced giving lectures in conjunction with Mr. Cruik- shank, the anatomist. He was for 13 years physician to St. George's hospital, and in 1795 published a very valuable treatise on morbid anatomy, which was translated into German, French, and Italian. He afterward published a 4to volume of illustrations to this work. By the time he was 40 his fees in one year (during which he said he had scarcely time to take a regular meal) amounted to 10,000. He be- queathed his medical library and his valuable collection of anatomical preparations to the college of physicians, with 600 to keep them in a perfect state of preservation. His lectures were published after his death. BAILLIE, Robert, a Scottish theologian, born at Glasgow in 1599, died in July, 1662. He was educated at the Glasgow university and ordained by Archbishop Law in 1622. In the religious controversies of the day he generally preserved a moderate tone. He was a member of the general assembly of 1638, which protest- ed against the episcopacy, and in 1640 was chosen as commissioner to London to prefer charges against Archbishop Laud. On his re- turn to Glasgow in 1642 he became a professor of divinity in the university, and in the follow- ing year he was sent as a delegate to the West- minster assembly of divines, where he main- tained the rights of the presbytery with great spirit. After the execution of Charles I. in 1649 he was sent to Holland to invite Charles II. to accept the crown and covenant of Scot- land. After the restoration in 1660 he was made principal of the Glasgow university. Dr. Baillie wrote Opus ffistoricum et Chronologi- eum (Amsterdam, 1663) and many other works, mostly theological pamphlets and discussions. His " Letters and Journals," of great historical value, were first published in 1775, at the in- stance of Hume and Eobertson (new ed., 3 vols. 8vo, 1841-'3). BAILLOT, Pierre Marie Francois de Sales, a French violinist, born at Passy, near Paris, Oct. 1, 1771, died in Paris, Sept. 15, 1842. He was a professor in the conservatoire for many 67 VOL. ii. 15 years, and wrote several treatises and address- es on musical subjects. He traveDed in Russia, Belgium, Holland, and England, and was con- sidered without a rival in the severely classical style. BAILLY, Jean Svhain. a French astronomer and statesman, born in Paris, Sept. 15, 1736, guillotined Nov. 12, 1793. His father was an artist, and intended that he should follow the same profession ; but he was attracted more by poetry and belles-lettres until his acquaintance with La Caille, when he turned his attention to astronomy. In 1763 he was admitted to the academy of sciences, and published a reduc- tion of La Caille's observations on the zodiacal stars. He competed with Lagrange for the academy's prize on the theory of Jupiter's satellites in 1764. His treatise on that subject, published in 1766, contains a history of that department of astronomy. In 1771 he pub- lished a treatise on the light of those bodies. The 1st volume of his " History of Astronomy " appeared in 1775, the 4th in 1783. To these he afterward added a volume on oriental as- tronomy. He also published letters to Voltaire on the origin of the sciences and of the people of Asia, and on Plato's Atlantis. In 1784 he was chosen secretary of the academy of scien- ces and admitted to the French academy, and the next year to the academy of inscriptions. About this time he wrote his graceful and eloquent eloges on Charles V., Corneille, Leib- nitz, Moliere, and La Caille. In 1784 he was one of the .commissioners to investigate Mes- mer's discoveries, and made a clear and saga- cious report on the subject. He espoused the democratic cause in the revolution, was elected from Paris in 1789 first deputy of the tiers- etat, and was chosen president of the popu- lar division of the states general in Versailles. When the national assembly was formed, he retained the presidential chair, and dictated the oath by which the members swore that they would " resist tyrants and tyranny, and never separate until they had secured a free constitution." In July, 1789, he was chosen mayor of Paris, and discharged his duties dur- ing 26 months with great firmness and wis- dom. His vigor in suppressing a riotous dem- onstration on the Champ de Mars, July 17, 1791, and in defending the queen from charges brought against her, having lessened his pop- ularity, he resigned his office in September, but was induced to retain it two months long- er. He then lived for some time at Nantes, and afterward with Laplace at Melun ; but in 1793 he was seized by the Jacobin sol- diery, and dragged to Paris, where he was charged with being a royalist conspirator and executed. He is considered one of the noblest victims of the reign of terror. Several posthu- mous works of his have appeared ; the most noted are 'an "Essay on the Origin of Fables and Ancient Religions," and his " Memoirs of an Eye-witness of the Revolution," embracing the period from April to October, 1789.