Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/615

BARON OF THE EXCHEQUER. chequer in Kngland. Originally the revenue board nt" the Crown, attended by the great men of the realm, the Exchequer, in the course of time, became one of the three ordinary tribunals, shar- ing with the King's Bench and the Common Pleas the common law jurisdiction of the king- dom. Its judges, however, whether peers of the realm or not, continued to be distinguished by the title of Baron. See Coukts.

BARONS' WAR. See Montfort, Simon de.

BAR'ONY (OF. h(ironie) . A term of some- what indelinite signification in the feudal system of land tenure. We know that it was com- pounded of many knight's fees held directly of the King by a single title, and that it was, therefore, usually of great extent; and we know also that the holder, or 'tenant,' of a barony was a baron, a peer of the realm, and entitled to a seat in the Parliament. But wlietlier all manors (see JIanor) were capable of being held as baronies, or only great manors, or whether the term was limited to an estate made up of several manors, commonly known as an "honor' (q.v.), we do not know. It is certain that every lord of a manor who was entitled to hold a eoui-t- baron (q.v.) was not a baron in the strict sense of the term, any more than he was a lord in the strict sense of "that term. But a barony, how- ever constituted, always involved the idea of a general jurisdiction to be exercised through courts maintained by the lord of the estate. It was decided in 10(30 that baronies by tenure were extinct in England, and could not be revived, and this decision was reaffirmed by the House of Lords in the celebrated Berkeley Peerage case in 1803. Consult Pollock and Maitland, History of Eugliih Law (2d ed., Cambridge, Eng., and Bos- ton, 1899).

The term briroin/ is also applied to the heredi- tary title or degree of nobility which in England entitles the holder to a seat in the House of Lords. See B.^bon.

BAROTSE, ba-rot'se. A former kingdom of Soutli Africa, now a part of Rhodesia (q.v.).

BAROZZI, ba-rot'se, GiAcoMO. See Vignola.

BARQUISIMETO, bar'ke-se-ma'tS. An epis- copal city, capital of Lara, Venezuela, on the Barquisiiiieto River, 90 miles southwest of Puerto Cabello (Map: Venezuela, D 2). The city is in a plain ; 2000 feet above sea-level, and is regularly built.' It is the seat of a college and other educational institutions, and has sev- eral line buildings, among which are the Govern- ment palace, the barracks, the cathedral, and the market. It is the centre of a fertile agricultural and stock-raising district, and controls impor- tant commercial interests, owing to its excellent transportation facilities. Barquisimeto, one of the oldest settlements made by the Spaniards in America, was founded in 15r)2. It was almost completely destroyed by the great earthquake of 1812, and suffered severely during the War of In- dependence and the later civil wars. From 1830 to 1881 it was the capital of the State of the same name. Population, in 1891, about 30,000 (with the district) ; in 1899, about 40,000.

BARR,  (1831-— I. An Anglo-American novelist. She was born at Ulverston, England, March 29, 1831, and married Robert Barr in 1850. In 18.54 she re- moved to Texas, and in 1809 to New York, where she took up literature as a calling. She has written some thirty novels, among them Romniwe and Reality (1872) ; Jan Tedder's Wife (1885) ; .1 Daughter of Fife (1880) ; A Bow of Orange Ribbon (1880); Friend Olivia (1891); Birds of a Feather (1893); The Lone House (1894); Bernicia (1895) ; A Knight of the Nets (1890) ; Trinity Bells (1899) ; The Maid of Maiden Lane (1900); Souls of Passage (1901); and The Lion's Whelp (1901). She is best in historical tales, with a flavor of religious persecution, and in scenes of Scotland, the North of England, and Dutch New York.

BARR, (1850 — ). An English novel- ist, born at Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at the Normal School of Toronto, Canada, was headmaster of the Central School, Windsor, Ontario, and in 1870 became a member of the staff of the Detroit Free Press, in which his con- tributions appeared under the signature 'Luke Sharp.' In 1881 he removed to London, to establish there the weekly English edition of the Free Press, and in 1892 joined Jerome K. .lerome in founding the Idler magazine, from whose co-editorship he retired in 1895. In 1898 he came to the United States. Barr displays much shrewd observation in A Woman Inter- venes ( 1896), a story of love, finance, and Ameri- can journalism. He has essayed the historical novel in the Countess Tekla' (1899). In the Midst of Alarms (1894; revised, 1900), a story of the attempted Fenian invasion of Canada in 1800, has enjoyed wide popularity. Other publi- cations are: In a Steamer Chair (1992); The Face and the Mask (1894); The Unchanging East, travels (1900); The Victors (1901); and A Prince of Good Fellows (1902).

BAR'RA. A small island near the southern extremity of the Hebrides, Scotland, belonging to Inverness-shire. It is 8 miles long and 2 to 3 miles broad, with deep inlets of the .sea. The inhabitants (about 2500) are Roman Catholics, and speak GJaelic. Their main occupations are cattle-raising and fishing. South of Barra is situated the islet of Berneray, with the highest lighthouse in Great Britain, 083 feet above high water, and visible for 33 miles.

BARRACKPUR, bar'rak-poor' (Eng. bar- rack -f Skt. pur, city). A native town and military cantonment in Bengal. British India, on the east bank of the Hugli, 15 miles north of Calcutta (Map: India, E 4). Population. 18,- 000. From the salubrity of its air, Barrackpur is a favorite retreat for Europeans from Cal- cutta, and is the country residence of the Gov- ernor-General. Barrackpur is historically promi- nent among the mutinous centres of 1824 and 1857. See India.

BAR'RACKS (Fr. baroque. It. baracca, Sp. harraca, a tent; origin uncertain). A permanent structure for the housing of troops, as distinguished from temporary cantonments or camps. In England the practice of billeting or quartering soldiers on the citizens had in 1792 become a great burden; added to which was the effect on the morals of the community, caused by the dissolute character of the soldiery of the period. Consequently, George III. obtained the consent of Parliament for the construction of new barracks, not without considerable opposition, however; as it was urged that the liberty of the subjects might possibly be endangered by sepa-