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 332 BARON AND FEME BARQUISIMETO who, though incapable of holding titles, were nevertheless capable of transmitting them. From this a practice arose of creating barons by patent, limiting the succession to heirs male. All noblemen were originally the king's barons, and inter pares the question of precedence was one not always easy of settlement. The creation of dignities superior to those of bar- ons dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts to which some of the greater barons were raised, settled the question in part, and the antiquity of the particular title determined the precedence among those of equal dignity. Some other persons in England, as for instance the citizens of York and London, were styled bar- ons, whose titles were drawn perhaps from the relation of suit and service in which they stood to the crown. The judges of the court of ex- chequer, a court instituted immediately after the conquest, are still styled barons. BARON AND FEME, the Norman-French term used to signify man and wife in the early Eng- lish law writers. (See HUSBAND AND WIFE.) BARONET, an English title of honor. The baronet is the next degree in point of prece- dence below a baron. The baron is a peer of the realm, a hereditary legislator ; the baronet is a commoner. The dignity dates from James I., and according to Blackstone was instituted by that monarch in order to raise a competent sum for the reduction of the province of Ulster in Ireland, for which reason all baronets have the arms of Ulster superadded to their family coat. The candidates for the honor were re- quired to be of gentle blood, and of adequate means to support the dignity ; and it was prom- ised that the number should not exceed 200, and that lapses by death should not be filled up. This promise, however, was soon aban- doned. For similar reasons an order of baro- nets of Nova Scotia was created by Charles I. (See ALEXANDER, WILLIAM.) BARONIES, or Baronio, Cesar*, an Italian his- torian, born at Sora in 1538, died in Rome in 1607. He went to Rome in 1557, and became one of the first disciples of St. Philip of Neri, founder of the congregation of the Oratory, whom he succeeded as superior in 1593. Pope Clement VIII. soon after made him his confessor, in 1596 created him cardinal, and finally appointed him librarian of the Vati- can. He was twice a candidate for the papal chair, .but was defeated by the Spanish party, to which he had given offence in his treatise De Monarchia Sicilim, by opposing the claim of Spain to Sicily. His principal work, a his- tory of the church, entitled Annales Ecclesias- tici a Christo nato ad annum 1198 (12 vols., Rome, 1588-1607), written to oppose the "Magdeburg Centuries," occupied him for 30 years. It abounds in errors of various kinds, and shows a lack of critical spirit ; but it is esteemed one of the most valuable reposito- ries of church history, and a work of great learning and research. It was continued by Rinaldi and Laderchi, and annotated by Pagi ; and the whole work, with the continuations, &c., was republished at Lucca in 38 vols. fol., 1737-'57. A more recent continuation, em- bracing the years 1572-'85, was composed by Theiner (Rome, 1856-'57). Baronius also pub- lished an edition of the Martyrologium Roma- num, with notes (fol., Rome, 1586), but after- ward endeavored to suppress it on account of errors discovered in it. BARONY, in England, the manorial right or lordship of a baron, for which the courts baron were formerly held. In Ireland the term des- ignates a particular territorial division existing from very ancient times, and corresponding nearly to the English hundred. BAROTSE, a valley in the interior of S. Africa, inhabited by a tribe of the same name, lying between lat. 15 20' and 16 30' S. and Ion. 23 and 24 E. It is traversed by the Zam- bezi river below its confluence with the Leba, and is subject to annual inundations by that river, like the valley of the Nile, to which it bears a close resemblance. The villages are built on mounds, some of which are said to be artificial, and during the inundation the country assumes the appearance of a large lake, with the villages on the mounds like islands, as in Egypt. Barotse is supposed to have once been a lake, and there is a slight tradition of the waters having burst through the low hills on the south. The soil is very fertile, and the natives are able to raise two crops a year ; but there are comparatively few trees. Dr. Livingstone thought that the Barotse valley was too rich to raise wheat, and would make the corn run to straw ; one species of grass was observed 12 feet high with a stem as thick as a man's thumb. The land is little cultivated, and mostly covered with coarse succulent grasses which afford ample pasturage for large herds of cattle. On the waters retiring subsequent to the inun- dation the gases arising from the masses of decaying vegetation are the cause of fevers from which the natives suffer severely. Other dis- eases are almost unknown except smallpox, which sometimes rages there. The natives, however, appear to be acquainted with inocu- lation. The river abounds with voracious alli- gators. The Barotse pray to these animals, and eat them too. They reverence the sun, and believe in a future spiritual existence. The capital of the country is Narile, with 1,000 in- habitants. BAROZZIO DA VIGNOLA. See VIGNOLA. BARQUISIJIETO. I. A N. W. state of Vene- zuela, touching the Caribbean sea on the N. E. ; area, 9,350 sq. m. ; pop. about 314,000. The surface consists of fertile valleys, densely cov- ered desert mountains, arid hills and barren plains, all of which afford, however, good pas- turage for goats, which are reared in num- bers, also for horses, mules, and asses. Cattle raising and agriculture are the chief occupa- tions. The largest rivers are the Portuguesa, Tocuyo, and Yaracuy. The state is the most prosperous of Venezuela, and is divided into