fealty to the king of England. On the 3rd of August, commissioners appointed by Edward met at Berwick to receive the claims to the crown; but the final decision of the case was postponed till the following year. When the parliament met at Berwick, 15th October, 1292, for the settlement of the question, Baliol and Bruce were heard at great length in support of their respective pretensions. The former rested his claims on the fact, that he was the grandson of the eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon. The latter pleaded that he was nearer in blood than his rival to their common ancestor, that his title was supported by the custom of succession to the Scottish crown, by which the brother, as nearest in degree, was preferred to the son of the deceased king, and especially that his right to the crown had been recognized by the estates of the realm in the reign of Alexander II., who had presented him to the nobles and magnates of Scotland as his lawful heir, and that the whole of them had then, by the king's command, taken the oath of fealty to Bruce. After various deliberations, the final decision was given by Edward in favour of Baliol on the 17th of November. On the 19th the new king received seizin of his kingdom from the regents, and next day he swore fealty to Edward in the castle of Norham. On the 30th—St. Andrew's day—he was solemnly crowned at Scone; and that he might keep in mind his dependence on his feudal superior, he was made to renew his homage and fealty to Edward at Newcastle on the 26th of the following month. Both at the commencement and the close of these proceedings, the English king had protested that, although he consented now to act as lord paramount, he did not resign his right of property in the kingdom of Scotland, whenever he should think fit to assert it; and he soon made it appear that it was his object, by a series of galling indignities, to goad his vassal into resistance, that he might thus be furnished with a plausible pretext to annex Scotland to his own dominions as a forfeited fief. In the course of a year, Baliol was summoned on no fewer than six occasions to appear personally before his liege lord in the English parliament, to answer complaints, mostly of a trifling nature, preferred against him by his own subjects. When Baliol remonstrated against this treatment, and reminded Edward that, by treaty, no Scottish subject was to be compelled to answer in an English court for any act done in Scotland, the English king replied with unblushing effrontery, that he did not intend to be bound by a promise which had been made merely to suit his own convenience. The patience of Baliol at length gave way under these repeated insults, and he refused to plead before the English parliament, upon an appeal made by Macduff, granduncle of the earl of Fife, against a sentence of the Scottish estates. He was, therefore, declared guilty of a contempt of court and of open disobedience. The case was decided against him; and as a punishment for his contumacy, the three principal castles of Scotland were ordered to be delivered over to the custody of the English king. At this juncture a war broke out between France and England, and Baliol, stimulated by the estates of his kingdom, resolved to avail himself of the favourable opportunity to shake off the English yoke. He, therefore, not only refused to obey the summons of Edward to attend him in person with his vassals in the French war, but he entered into a treaty offensive and defensive with Philip, king of France, which was signed at Paris on the 23rd of October, 1295—"The groundwork," says Lord Hailes, "of many more equally honourable and ruinous to Scotland." Early in the spring of the following year Edward invaded Scotland at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army. His first exploit was the capture of the town and castle of Berwick, after a desperate resistance, which so enraged the English king, that he gave up the inhabitants to an indiscriminate massacre that lasted for two days, during which the streets ran with blood. Before leaving Berwick, Edward received on the 5th of April Baliol's renunciation of his allegiance, on the ground of the insults offered to himself, and the grievous injuries inflicted upon his subjects. "The foolish traitor," exclaimed the savage monarch, when he received the letter, "of what folly is he guilty! but since he will not come to us, we will go to him." The earl of Surrey was dispatched with a powerful force to besiege the castle of Dunbar, the key of the eastern marches. A numerous Scottish army assembled for the relief of this important fortress, and took up a strong position on an eminence in its vicinity. But having unfortunately mistaken a movement of the enemy for a retreat, they rushed down precipitately to the encounter, and were defeated with great slaughter. Next day the castle of Dunbar surrendered at discretion, and this example was speedily followed by the strong fortresses of Roxburgh, Dumbarton, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling. The battle of Dunbar, for the present, decided the fate of Scotland. Baliol retired beyond the Tay with the remains of his defeated and dispirited army, and perceiving that farther resistance to the power of the invader was hopeless, he sent a message to Edward, who had now reached Perth in his triumphant progress through the kingdom, offering submission and imploring mercy. He was informed that this would be granted him only on condition, that he would make an unconditional surrender of his kingdom to the English king, accompanied by a public acknowledgment of his rebellion. To these humiliating terms Baliol submitted. The degrading ceremonial of his abdication and penitence took place in the churchyard of Stracathro, near Montrose, on the 7th of July, 1296, in the presence of the bishop of Durham and the barons of England. He was first of all divested of his royal robes, crown, and sceptre, and then, dressed only in his shirt and drawers, with a white rod in his hand, he confessed that, misled by evil and false counsel, he had grievously offended his liege lord, and recapitulating his various transgressions, he acknowledged that he was justly deprived of his crown. Three days after this, at the castle of Brechin, he resigned his kingdom into the hands of Edward himself. After this humiliating ceremony, Baliol and his eldest son were sent to London, where they remained for three years in confinement in the Tower. In spite of his abdication, however, the Scots continued for some years to acknowledge Baliol as their rightful king; his claims were recognized by the pope, the king of France, and other continental princes, and Wallace himself held the office of governor of Scotland, in the name of King John. He remained in confinement until 1299, when, at the earnest request of Pope Boniface, Edward consented to release the fallen monarch, and to deliver him to the bishop of Vicenza, the papal nuncio. He was conveyed to his ancestral estate of Bailleul in Normandy, where he lived in obscurity till his death in 1314.—J. T.
BALL, John, an itinerant preacher who took part in the Kent insurrection in 1381. He had previously been excommunicated more than once for preaching "errors and schisms and scandals against the pope, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy." At Blackheath, Ball was appointed preacher to the rebel army, and on the occasion harangued from the text:—
" When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"
He was executed along with other rebels at Coventry.—J. S., G.
BALL, John, a Puritan divine, born at Cassington, or Chersington, in Oxfordshire in 1585; died in 1640. He was curate of Whitmore in Staffordshire at a salary of £20 a year. Baxter said of him that he deserved as high esteem and honour as the best bishop in England. His works are very numerous, and of considerable merit. "A short treatise concerning all the principal grounds of the Christian religion," &c., his first publication, passed through fourteen editions before 1632.—J. S., G.
BALL, Robert, LL.D., an Irish naturalist, was born at Queenstown in the county of Cork, on the 1st April, 1802. During his pupilage, he displayed a love of learning and a strong predilection for natural history, and was a successful competitor for honours with several persons who have since obtained high distinction. After attaining his majority. Ball took an active part in the various public institutions of Youghal, where he then resided, of which town he was elected a local magistrate. In the meantime he applied himself to the study of medicine, with the intention of adopting it as his profession; but he was induced to abandon this design, and enter the civil service, and shortly after he obtained a place in the Irish office in Dublin. He filled situations in various government departments from that period, and discharged the duties imposed upon him with zeal and ability until the year 1854, when he was put on the retired list, with a small pension. During all this period Mr. Ball did not fail to prosecute his scientific pursuits. To the study of natural history he especially devoted himself, and soon acquired a high reputation in that department of science. In 1837 he was elected secretary to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, of which he continued an active and most useful member, delivering from time to time public lectures in connection with the society. In the following year he was elected upon the
