Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/405

BABEUF. BABEUF, ba'bef, (1760-97). A French political agitator and revolutionist, born at Saint Quentin, November 23, 1760. He was at first a land-surveyor. He became an enthusiastic adherent of the Revolution, and established a paper (Journal de la Liberté de la Presse) which, in July, 1794, began its second series of numbers under the title, La Tribune du Peuple. Absolute equality; the realization of the ideal of average mediocrity; communism of land and property; the sovereignty of the masses — these were the ideals for which he stood, and which he advocated in violent language. He spoke of himself as Gracchus Babeuf. His participation as ringleader in a plot to overthrow the Directory and to reëstablish the Constitution of 1793, resulted in his death sentence, in 1797. Consult Advielle, Histoire de Babeuf et du Babouvisme (Paris, 1884). See ; and.

BABI, ba'be. See.

BABINET, ba'be'na', (1794-1872). A French physicist, born at Lusignan, Vienne. He was appointed professor of physics at the Collège Saint-Louis, at Paris, and in 1840 was made a member of the Academy of Sciences. To him are due various improvements in the air-pump, the hygrometer, and other apparatus. In general, however, he was known less as an investigator than as a clever expositor. His publications include; Traité de géometrie descriptive (1850); Etudes et lectures sur les sciences d'observation et leurs applications (1855-68); and Télégraphie électrique (1861).

BAB'INGTON, (1561-86). An English Roman Catholic gentleman and conspirator. He was born at Dethick, Derbyshire, October, 1561. At ten years of age. he was left an orphan with a rich heritage, and became a page to Mary, Queen of Scots, during her imprisonment at Sheffield. In 1586 he was persuaded by Ballard and other Catholic emissaries to head a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth, to effect the release of Mary, and to organize a general uprising of the Catholics. The conspiracy became known to Walsingham, Elizabeth's secretary, who at the right moment arrested Babington and his accomplices. They were condemned and executed by hanging and quartering in London, September 20, 1586. Four months later, Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded, mainly on the evidence of a letter approving of the murder of Elizabeth, which she had written to Babington. She denied the authorship, and her friends maintained that the document was written by Walsingham himself, as a trick to implicate and entrap the conspirators; but the truth of this accusation is, at least, doubtful. On the day of his death, Babington explained the cipher in which the letter was written; and there is other evidence, alleged to be satisfactory, of Mary's complicity in the plot. Consult; Maria Stuarts Briefwechsel mit A. Babington (Munich, 1886); Collier, "Fourteen Notable Traitors," in Vol. I., Illustrations of Early Popular Literature (London, 1863).

BABIRUSSA, bab'i-risysa (Malay bābī, hog + rūsa, deer). An East Indian wild hog (Babirussa alfurnus), inhabiting Celebes and Buro, called also 'horned hog' and 'pig-deer.' It is nearly naked, slender-legged, and active, and feeds upon fallen fruits instead of rooting in the ground. The boar is remarkable for his long, exposed canine teeth. "The tusks of the lower jaw are very long and sharp; but the upper ones, instead of growing downward in the usual way, are completely reversed, growing upward persistently out of long sockets through the skin on each side of the snout, curving backward to near the eyes, and in old animals often reaching 8 or 10 inches in length." It is difficult to understand the use of these teeth, which are not possessed by the sows. A. R. Wallace offers, as explanation, that probably they were once useful, and were then kept worn down by constant use, but that changed conditions of life have rendered them unnecessary, and they now develop into monstrous form, as will the persistently growing teeth of beavers and rabbits when distorted so that the opposite teeth do not wear them away.

TUSKS OF BABIRUSSA BOAR.

BABISM, bab'iz'm. A term applied to the beliefs of a sect in Persia, founded by Mirza Ali Muhammad ibn Radhīk, born about 1824, who assumed the name of Bab-ud-Din, i.e. 'gate of the faith.' On returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1843, the Bab appeared in his native city of Shiraz with a new commentary on the Koran, and soon became engaged in controversy with the regular priests, or mullahs, who, exasperated by his free criticism of their conduct, obtained an order forbidding him to teach in public, and confining him to his house. He taught privately, however, but increased his pretensions, until he declared he was the Nuqtah, 'the point,' — an epithet of Mohammed as well. He thus claimed to be not merely the recipient of a new divine revelation, but the focus in which all preceding dispensations converged. He gained proselytes rapidly. Among these was a woman, — a remarkable circumstance in any country of the East, — known as Gurrad-ul-Ain ('consolation of the eyes'), because of her surpassing loveliness, which was enhanced by her intelligence and purity. The sect made rapid progress with their new religion, but they were not molested until the accession of Nasr-ed-Din in 1848. At this juncture the Babis, in fear of persecution by the new Shah, arose in rebellion and proclaimed the Bab as a universal sovereign, when a civil war ensued. Hussein, one of the disciples, was made prisoner, after defeating several expeditions sent against him, and was put to death in 1849; and the next year Baliurushi, another leader, was slain in battle. The Bab himself, who had taken no active part in the rebellion, was imprisoned and executed at Tabriz, in 1850, after a long incarceration; but his death did not discourage his followers. They recognized Mirza Yahya, a youth of noble descent, and son of the Governor of Teheran, as his successor, who established himself in Bagdad. An attempt, in 1852, of some zealous