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BAROMETRIC LIGHT. duce a vacuum, Francis I[auk>.l)e(> constructed a jar in which a bright light was ohtaini'il by the friction of falling mercury with the glass. A description of the apparatus and his explana- tion of the phenomenon are given in the I'll Ho- nophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1705 and 1706. Consult, also, Tyn- dall. Lessons in Eleclricity (London, 1870).

BARON, bar'on (Med. Lat. haro, from Kelt. bar, man, or AS. bcorn, ORG. haro, man, vas- sal. The notion of noliility later attached to haron came through the intermediate stage: the man of a lord). The title applied to the low- est degree of the English hereditary nobility. The rank of baron forms a species of landing- place, corresponding amongst noblemen, in a certain sense, to that of gentleman at a lower stage of the social pyramid. It was in this sense that the word was used in former times to include the whole nobility of England, because all noblemen were harons, whatever might be the higher grades in the peerage which they occu- pied. The word "peer' has recently come to be used with the same signification, perhaps be- cause it is no longer necessarily the case that every nobleman must be a baron, there being instances in which earldoms and other honors have been given without a barony being attached to them, and in which the barony has been sepa- rated from the higher degree by following a different order of descent. The general theory of the Constitution, however, still is, that it is as barons that all the peers sit in the Upper House ; and it is on this ground that the archbishops and bishops are said to sit in virtue of their baronies. The distinction into yreuter and lesser barons was commonly used during the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries. At first the (ireuter biirons were those whose estates were consider- able enough to be taxed as a barony in the Exchequer, who led their own vassals in war, and who received individual summonses from the King to attend his councils and military gatherings; all other tenants in chief were the lesser barons, whose summonses and payments were only general. Later, as the royal councils developed into Parliament and this body became more influential, the King called to it from the baronage only the greater barons, and indeed only a select group of them. Thus the lesser barons ceased to be called barons at all, and the term was gradually restricted to those who were regularly summoned to Parliament. The custom of conferring the rank of baron by letters-patent. by which it was converted into a mere title of honor, apart from the possession of landed prop- erty or of territorial jurisdiction, was first in- troduced by King Richard II., who, in L388, created John Beauchamp, of Holt Castle. Baron of Kidderminster. In Germany, the old barons of the Empire or Freiherren were for the most part raised to the dignity of Graf en (counts) and princes: while the lesser, in place of passing into the ranks of the untitled gentry, as in England, constituted a grade of the lower no- bility, to which no duties were assigned and scarcely any political privileges belonged.

When a baron is first summoned to the British House of Lords, a letter in the Sovereign's name directs him to repair to the Parliament to be holden at a special time and place, to advise with the Sovereign, the prelates, and nobles about the weighty affairs of the nation. On the arrival of the new peer, he is presented by two barons to the Lord Chancellor, his patent or writ being carried by a king-at-arms. This is read by the Chancellor, who congratulates him on becoming a member of the House of Peers, and invests him with his robe. The oaths are then administered by the clerk of Parliament and the new baron is conducted to a seat on the barons' bench. Be- tween creation by writ and by patent there is this distinction, that in the ca.se of the for- mer it is necessarjf for a man actually to take his seat in the House of Lords before the title may vest. On account of the dillieulties attend- ing this mode of procedure, creation by writ is practically obsolete. But though creation by patent is in general the surest way of insuring the hereditary character of the peerage, it la- bors under one disadvantage as compared with a creation by writ — viz. that whereas in the latter case the dignity once assured by possession passes to the heirs of the holder without any words to that purpose, in the former there must be words to direct the inheritance, else the dignity endures to the grantee only for life. Where the patent, again, in place of being silent as to the succession, expressly sets forth that the dignity of baron is for life merely, it was held, in the Wensleydale Case, that it does not make the grantee a lord of Parliament at all. The coronation and parliamentarj' robes of a baron differ very slightly from those of an earl. The right of wearing a coronet was conferred on barons for the first time by King Charles II., their head-dress till then having consisted of a cap of crimson velvet, lined with ermine, and having a plain gold band. A baron's coronet as now worn is adorned with six [K'arls, set at equal intervals on the chaplet. Coronets are worn only on great occasions of State ceremonials. A baroii has the title of 'right honorable lord,' etc., and is addressed as 'my lord,' or 'your lordship.' His wife has also the title of 'right honorable,' and is addressed as 'madam,' or 'your ladyship.' The barons of the E.xchequer (q.v.) and "of the Cinque Ports (q.v.) are examples still existing of the ancient barons by office.

A good article on the baronage will be found in the Cyclopwdia of Political Knowledge (Lon- don, 1853). Consult, also: Stubbs, Constitu- tional History of England. Vol. 11. (Oxford, 1801) ; Cruise, Treatise on the Origin and Nature of Dignities or Titles of Honor ('Zd ed., Lon- don, 1832) : Pike, Constitutional History of the House of Lords (London, 1894); and Badeau, Aristocracy in England (New York, 1886). .See Peer.

BARON, ba-ron', .Tultus (1834-98). A German jurist, born at Festenlierg, Silesia. He studied at Breslau and Berlin, and was ap- pointed professor in 1880 at Greifswald, in 1883 at Berne, and in 1888 at Bonn. His works include De Judiciorum Constitutione in Veteris Haxonice Urbihus (1855), Die Gesamtreehtsver- haltnisse im romischen Recht (1804); Abhand- hingen ans dem romischen Civilprozess (3 vols., 1881-87), Die Rorsenenquete (Berlin, 1894), and Pandektcn (9th ed.. 1890).

BARON, ba'roN', or BOYRON, bwii'rON', Michel (1653-1729). A celebrated French ac- tor and playwright, a pu]>il and friend of Molifere. Endowed with great beauty and an unusually fine voice, he soon became the favorite of the Paris public, excelling both in tragedy