Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/82

* BIGLOW PAPERS. 1848, and Part II., concerned with the Civil War, in 1867. All is under the fictitious editor- ship of the Rev. lionier Wilbur. Lowell's wit and humor are here unstinted. Written rapidly and with great personal delight, the work was warnilv received, and parts of it are still popuhir. BIGNON, be'nyo.N', Loms Pierre EnouASD (17T1-1S41). A French diplomat and historian, born at Guerbavillc, in the Department of Seine- Inferieurc. During the Revolution he entered the army as a volunteer, hut transferred, after some years, to the diplomatic service, and in 1801 was made secretary of legation at Berlin, becoming in the following year charge d'aflfaires. He subsequentlv was Minister Plenipotentiary to Cassel (180406) and, after the battle of Jena, was administrator of finances and public domains in the Prussian provinces occupied by the French. After acting as French Ambassador at the Court of Baden and as administrator-gen- eral in Austria ( 1809) he was sent in the follow- ing year on a secret mission to Warsaw where he remained for three years. His encouragement and advice enntributed to arouse the Poles to an energetic resistance against Russia and Austria. After the fall of Xapoleon he lived in retirement, but during the Hundred Days became Under-Secre- tary of State for Foreign Affairs, and subsequent- ly iiead of that department. From 1817 to 1837 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and from July to Xovember, 1830, held the port- folio of foreign affairs. He was raised to the peerage in 1837. Designated by Xapoleon. in his will, to write the diplomatic history of France after the establishment of the Consulate, Bignon performed his task in the Bixtoire de France dcpuis Ic ]S hnintaire jusqu'a hi paix de Tilsit (7 vols., 182!)-30) and Jlisfoire de France depuia la paix de Tilsit jusqu'cn 1SI2 (4 vols., 1838). He also wrote Expose comparatif de l'{tat financier, politique et voral de la France ct d-es princiinitra puissances, de I'Europe (1815). BIGNO'NIA (named after the Abb^ Bignon). A genus of Bignoniacea- embracing about 100 species of twining shrubs. Host of the species are South American, although one. liir/nonia capreohita, occurs in the southern I'nited States. Jlany of the species are cultivated in gi'een- houses for their striking habit of growth. They climb by twining and by tendrils. The flowers of many are very handsome. The long flexuous stems are fre(iuently used as cordage substi- tutes, and the natives of French Guiana are said to weave the split stems into mats, baskets, etc. BIGOD, big'od, Hugh (?-U76). First Earl of Norfolk. He was a son of Robert Bigod, who had come to England with William the Con- queror. The origin of the family name has been traced to the oath 'bt got.' frequently used among the Normans. Bigod is said to have secured the throne to Stephan by swearing to Archbishop William Corbois immediately after the death of Henry T. that the latter on his deathbed had quarreled with his daughter ^Matilda, and had disinherited her in favor of Stephan of Blois, whose arrival in England shortly afterwards seemed to substantiate this statement. In recog- nition of his services, Bigod subsequently re- ceived the earldom of Norfolk. BIGORDI, W'-gor'dc". The real name of a family of Florentine painters, better known as Ghirlandajo (q.v.). 66 BIG SANDY. BIGORBE, bS'gor' (from the Gallic people Bitjerri, or liigerriones) . A mountainous dis- trict in the southwestern part of France, former- ly constitviting a part of Aquitainc and subse- quently of Gascony. It is now included in the Department of Ilautes-PyrfnCes. In mediipval times it was ruled by counts of the houses of Foix and Albret, and was united to France on the accession of Henri IV. Tarbes (q.v.) has been the chief town since the days of the Romans. Consult Troidour, Mcmoire du pays, et des €tat» de Bi(iorrc (Paris, 1892). BIGORRE, L'.XnuE. The pseudonym signed to Voltaire's Historii of the Parlement of Paris, published in Amsterdam, in 1769. BIGOT, be'gO'. Cn.4Rr.Es Juujs (1840-93). A French writer and critic, born in Paris. Ho re- ceived his education at the Ecole Normalc and at the Art School at Athens, and. devoting himself to journalism, became one of the leading critics and reviewers of his day. He wrote for the XIX. Siecle and to the Revue Bleu contributed the popular Annales politiques et liticraires. Among his books are: Les classes dirifleantes (1876): Le cler;/^ frant:ais devant la loi fraiv- Caise (1877): Le petit Fraii^ais (1882); Ra- phael et la Farncsine (1884): Grece, Turquie, le Danube (1886) ; De Paris au Magara (1887). His wife, Mary Healey Bigot, of American parentage, was the author of a number of success- ful novels dealing with contemporary life, of which ilarca (1882) was crowned by the Acad- crav. Other titles are: Vne folic (1886): La tache du petit Pierre (1887) ; Artiste (1890). BIG BAP'IDS. A city and the county-seat of ilecosta County, Mich.. 'io miles north of Grand Rapids: on the Muskegon River, here crossed by two bridges, and on the Grand Rajiids and Indiana and the P^re Marquette railroads (ilap: Michigan, II 5). It has a public library, and a fine courthouse and jail, and is the seat of the Ferris Institute. Good water-power is sup- plied by the river, and the city has an extensive lumber trade and manufactures of furnitire, veneer, doors, sash, blinds, bed-spring frames, stoves, and cast-iron pijies. Settled in 18.59. Big Rapids was incorporated ten years later. It is governed by a charter of 1887, revised 1S9.'). which provides for a mayor, elected annually, and a city council. The waterworks are owned and operated bv the city. Population, in 1890, .5.303; in 1900. 4686. BIG SANDT. A navigable affluent of the- Ohio River, formed by the junction of two main forks on the border between Kentucky and West Virginia and flowing north to the Ohio, separating these two States (Map: West 'ir- ginia, B 3). The east fork, called Tug Fork or Tattarawka River, rises in West Virginia near the Virginia line, and flowing n<uthwest. forms with the Big Sandy the southern boundary be- tween West Virginia and Kentucky. The west fork, called the Levisa Fork, rises in southwest Virginia, and flows northwest into Kentucky and then northeast to its junction with Tug Fork. Both branches pass through a heavily wooded coimtry. but the best timber has been removed. The river drains an area of over 4000 square miles and lies in the Ohio coal-producing area. It empties into the Ohio River near Cat- lettsburg. Ky., and is navigable for small boats for 100 miles.