indeed, less on the intrinsic merits of his works than on their undoubted success; and, most of all, on the fact of his being one of the few composers of British birth whose names are known beyond the limits of their own
country.BALFOUR, Sir James, of Pittendreich, at one time lord president of the Supreme Court in Scotland, an active and unscrupulous politician during the stormy period of the reign of Mary. He was originally educated for the church, and adopted the principles of the Reformers. With Knox and others he was condemned to the galleys on account of the part he had taken in the murder of Beaton, but after their release he abjured Protestantism, and speedily acquired great favour with the court, obtaining some con siderable legal dignities. He was deeply implicated in the murder of Darnley, and drew up the bond which was signed by all the conspirators. As some reward for his services, he was made, by Mary, governor of Edinburgh Castle, a position in which he had a good opportunity for the exercise of his great talents for treachery. He yielded the castle to Murray on conditions favourable to himself alone, and then threw in his lot with the regent s party, by whose favour he secured the post of lord president. During the next few years he changed his political views more than once, but managed to keep in safety, though for a time he deemed it prudent to withdraw to France. On the accession of James he returned ; and, after having had once to flee from Morton, now his deadly enemy, he brought about the destruction of that nobleman by producing the bond bearing upon Darnley s murder. He died not long after in 1583. The collection of statutes entitled the Practices is generally ascribed to him ; but it is not known how much of the book belongs to him and how much to Sir John Skene, his colleague in the task of arranging them.
BALFOUR, Sir James, Bart., of Deumylne and Kinnaird, an eminent annalist and antiquary, was born about 1600. He received a good education, travelled for some time on the Continent, and then devoted his attention almost entirely to the study of the history and antiquities of his country. He was well acquainted with Sir Wm. Segar and with Dugdale, to whose Monasticon he contri buted. He was knighted by Charles L in 1630, was made lyon king-at-arms in the same year, and in 1633 received the baronetcy of Kinnaird. He was removed from his office of king-at-arms by Cromwell, and died in 1657. Some of his works, which are very numerous, are preserved in the Advocates Library at Edinburgh, together with his correspondence, from which rich collection Mr Haig published Balfour s Annales of Scotland from the zeire 1057-1603, in 4 vols. 8vo. (1824-25). See Sibbald, Memoria Balfouriana, 1699.
BALFOUR, Robert, a learned Scotchman, born about the year 1550, who was for many years principal of the Guienne College at Bordeaux. His principal work is his Commentary on the Logic and Ethics of Aristotle (Burdig. 1616-20, 2 torn. 4to), which is described by Dr Irving (Lives of the Scottish Writers] as uniting vigour of intellect with great extent and variety of learning. Balfour was one of the scholars who in the Middle Ages contributed to spread abroad over the Continent the fame of the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum.
BALFROOSH, or Barfurush, a large commercial town of Persia, province of Mazanderan, on the River Bhawal, which is here crossed by a bridge of nine arches, about twelve miles distant from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the small town of Meshed-i-Sir serves as a kind of port. Built in a low and swampy, though fertile country, and approached by deep and almost impassable roads, it would not seem at all favourably situated for the seat of an extensive inland trade. It is, however, peopled entirely by merchants, mechanics, and their dependants, and is wholly indebted for its present size and importance to its commercial prosperity. The principal articles of its trade are rice, silk, and cotton. The town is of a very peculiar structure and aspect. It is placed in the midst of a forest of tall trees, by which the buildings are so separated from one another, and so concealed, that, except in the bazaars, it has no appearance of a populous town. The streets are broad and neat, though generally unpaved ; and they are kept in good order. No ruins are to be seen, as in other Persian towns ; the houses are comfortable, in good repair, roofed with tiles, and enclosed by substantial walls. There are no public buildings of any importance. The only places of interest are the bazaars, which extend fully a mile in length, and consist of substantially-built ranges of shops, covered with a roof of wood and tiles, and well stored with commodities. There are about ten principal caravansaries, and from twenty to thirty medresses or colleges, the place being as much celebrated for learning as for commerce. At the time of Fraser s visit (1822) it was said to contain 200,000 inhabitants, but this was probably an exaggera tion. Since that time its population has undergone various fluctuations, and is now estimated at 125,000. Long. 52 42 E., lat. 36 37 N.
moral philosopher, was born at Sheffield on August 12, 1686. He received his early education partly under his father, and partly under Mr Daubuz, his father s successor, in the grammar-school of that town. He entered St John s College, Cambridge, in 1702, graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1706, was ordained to the ministry in 1710, and soon after obtained the small living of Lamesly and Tanfield in the county of Durham. He married in 1715. It was the year in which Bishop Hoadley preached that famous sermon on The Kingdom of Christ, which gave rise to the long, wearisome, and confused theological war known as the " Bangorian controversy ;" and Balguy, under the nom de plume of Silvius, began his career of authorship by taking the side of Hoadley in this controversy against some of his High Church opponents. In 1726 he published A Letter to a Deist concerning the Beauty and Excellency of Moral Virtue, and the support and improvement which it receives from the Christian Religion, chiefly designed to show that, while a love of virtue for its own sake is the highest principle of morality, religious rewards and punish ments are most valuable, and in some cases absolutely indispensable, as sanctions of conduct. He supposed that a contrary opinion had been maintained by Lord Shaftesbury in his Inquiry concerning Virtue ; but an examination of that essay will prove him to have in this respect done Shaftesbury injustice. In 1728 he was made a prebend of Salisbury by his friend, Bishop Hoadley. He published in the same year the first part of a tractate entitled The Foundation of Moral Goodness, and in the following year a second part, " illustrating and enforcing the principles con tained in the former." The aim of the work is twofold to refute the theory of Hutcheson regarding the basis of rectitude, and to establish the theory of Clarke. His objections to Hutch eson s theory are, (1.) That it represents virtue as arbitrary and insecure by making it depend on two instincts, benevolent affection and the moral sense ; (2.) That if true, brutes, since they have kind instincts or affections, must have some degree of virtue ; (3.) That if such affections constitute virtue, the virtue must be the greater in proportion as the affections are stronger, contrary to the notion of virtue, which is the control of the affections; and (4.) That virtue is degraded by being made a result of instincts instead of being represented as the highest part of our nature. Clarke s
fundamental ethical principle, that virtue is conformity to
