Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/289

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a, few miles up, but is celebrated for its sudden floods and the vast extent of country which it submerges in the rainy season. 6. The Baitarani enters the district at the village of Balipur, and flows for about 45 miles in a south-westerly direction till it joins the Dhamra, 5 miles from it3 mouth. The united stream enters the sea under the name of the Dhamra, in lat. 20 47 , long. 87. The Dhamra is a fine navigable estuary, but, like all the Orissa rivers, it is ren dered perilous by a bar across its mouth.

Population of Balasor in 1872, 770,232 souls, residing in 3266 villages, and 138,913 houses; persons per square mile, 378; vil lages per square mile, 1 58; persons per village, 236; houses per square mile, 67; persons per house, 5 5. Of the total population 738,396, or 95 9 per cent., were Hindus ; 18,878, or 2 4 per cent., Mahometans ; 530, or 1 per cent., Christians ; 1 Buddhist ; and 12,427, or 1 6 per cent, of aboriginal origin. The proportion of males to the total district population was 49 2 per cent. ; number of male" adult agriculturists, 150,391, and male adult non-agricul turists, 82,542. Brahmans, Karans, Khandaits, and other castes, compose the Hindu population. There are two settlements of Christian missionaries in the district belonging to the Freewill Baptists, from Dover, New Hampshire, U.S. The district contains only one town with upwards of 5000 inhabitants, viz., Balasor itself, with 18,263. Almost the whole population of the district lives by agriculture. Rice forms the staple crop of the district, and is divided into 5 great genera, and 49 principal varieties. Pulses, oil-seeds, hemp, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, &c., makeup the other agricultural products of Balasor. Balasor husbandmen consist of two classes, thdni or cultivators, with a right of occupancy, and pdht, or tenants at will. Pioughly speaking, one half of the district is under tillage, and the other half incapable of cultivation. Exports Grain, sugar, oil-seeds, timber, hides, horns, &c. Imports Native cloths, English piece-goods, &c. Total revenue of the Bala sor district in 1870-71, 102,052, of which 41, 408, or 40 per cent, was from land ; total expenditure in the same year, 51,620. In 1872 the police force of the district consisted of 566 officers and men of the regular police, maintained at a total cost of 8879, 8s. ; 32 officers and men of the municipal police, maintained at a cost of 224, 12s ; and 2320 men of the village watch, maintained by grants of service lands and by subscriptions from villages, which amounted to 2745 in 1872 ; total strength of police, 2918 men ; total cost, 11,849. Balasor contained 1053 schools in 1872, attended by 11,538 pupils. The Government and aided schools were 43 in number, attended by 1631 pupils, and maintained at a total cost of 1559, to which Government contributed 748, 16s. The climate of Balasor greatly varies according to the seasons of the year. The hot season lasts from March to June, but is tempered by cool sea breezes ; from June to September the weather is close and oppressive ; and from October to February the cold season brings the north easterly winds, with cool mornings and evenings.

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Balasor, the principal town and administrative head quarters of the above district, situated on the River Bura- balang, in 21 28 45" N. lat,, and 86 59 33" E. long., about 8 miles from the sea-coast as the crow flies, and 16 by the river. The English settlement of Balasor, formed in 1642, and that of Pippli in its neighbourhood, seven years earlier, became the basis of the future greatness of the British in India. The servants of the East India Company here fortified themselves in a strong position, and carried on a brisk investment in country goods, chiefly cottons and muslins. They flourished in spite of the oppressions of the Mahometan governors, and when needful asserted their claims to respect by arms. In 1688, affairs having come to a crisis, Captain Heath, commander of the Company s ships, bombarded the town. In the 18th century Balasor rapidly declined in importance, on account of a dangerous bar which formed across the mouth of the river. At present the bar has 12 to 15 feet of water at spring tides, but not more than 2 or 3 feet at low water in the dry season. Large ships have to anchor outside in the open roadstead. The town contains a population of 18,263 ; municipal income in 1872, 519 ; expenditure, 514; rate of taxation, 6

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BALBI, Adrian, one of the most eminent geographers of modern times, was born at Venice in 1782. In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his well-known work entitled Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal et d Algarve, which was published at Paris in 1822. This was followed by Varietes Politiques et Statis- tlques de la Monarchic Portugaise, which contains some urious observations respecting that country under the Roman sway, and on the state of literature and the arts. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas Ethno- graphique du Globe, <fcc., a work of great erudition, mbodying the researches of the most distinguished German philologists and geographers. In 1832 appeared the Abrege de Geographic, which added greatly to the author s reputa tion. This work, in an enlarged form, was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Balbi afterwards retired to Padua, where he continued to pursue his favourite science with unabated ardour. Besides those already mentioned, he was the author of several other works in the same de partment of science. He died on the 14th of March 1848.

BALBO, Cesare, an important Italian writer and states man, was born at Turin, November 21, 1789. His father, Prospero Balbo, held a high position in the PiedmontesQ court, and at the time of Cesare s birth was syndic of the capital. His mother, a member of the Azeglio family, died when he was three years old ; and he was brought up in the house of his great-grandmother, the countess of Bugino, "a noble and proud old lady." In 1798 he joined his father at Paris. From 1808 to 1814 Balbo served in various capacities under the Napoleonic empire, helping, at Florence and Rome, to fix the chains of despotism on his country. Gradually, however, his eyes were opened, and, on the fall of Napoleon, he was ready, in various capacities, to serve the cause of his country. While his father was appointed minister of the interior, he entered the army, and undertook political missions to Paris and London. On the revolution of 1821 he was forced into exile, and though, not long after, he was allowed to return to Piedmont, all active service as a statesman was denied him. Reluctantly, and with frequent endeavours to obtain some appointment, he gave himself up to literature as the only means left him to influence the destinies of his country. This accounts for the fitfulness and incompleteness of so much of his literary work, and for the practical, and in many cases temporary, element that runs through even his most elaborate produc tions. The great object of his labours was to help in securing for Italy that independence from foreign control which, even more than internal freedom, he regarded as the first necessity of national life. Of true Italian unity he had no expectation and no desire. A confederation of separate states under the supremacy of the Pope was the genuine beau ideal of Balbo, as it was the ostensible beau idml of GiobertL But Gioberti, in his Primato, seemed to him to neglect the first essential of independence, which he accordingly inculcated in his Speranze or Hopes of Italy. Preparation, both military and moral, alertness, and patience, were his constant theme. He did not wish revolution, but reform ; and thus he became the leader of a moderate party, and the steady opponent not only of despotism but of democracy. At last, in 1848, his hopes were so far satisfied by the constitution granted by the king. He was appointed a member of the commission of electoral law, and held a post in the first reformed government. With the ministry of Azeglio, which soon after got into power, he continued on friendly terms, and his pen continued the active defence of his political principles till his death, on the 3d June 1853. The most important of his writings are historico-political, and derive at once their majesty and their weakness from his theocratic theory of Christianity. His style is clear and vigorous, and not unfrequently terse and epigrammatic. He published Quattro Novelle in 1829 ; Storia d Italia in 1830, Vita di Dante, 1839; Meditazioni Storiche, 1842-5 ; Le Speranze d Italia, 1843 ; Sommario della Storia d Italia.

BALBOA, Vasco Nuñez de, one of the bravest and

most successful of the Spanish discoverers of America, was

born at Xeres de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, about the