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, Amelia Edith (Huddleston) (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, Robert (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-
