scripts, which he presented to the British Museum. Banks took an active part in the proceedings of the Royal Society. When Sir John Pringle retired from the presidency in 1777, Banks was fixed upon as his successor. He entered upon the duties of the office in 1778, and continued to discharge them with zeal until his death. He married in 1779, and in 1781 he was created a baronet. His office as president of the Royal Society brought him into difficulties for some time, on account of discontent among the members of the physical section, who seemed to fear that natural history would occupy the place of mathematics and physics. Dr. Horsley, afterwards bishop of St. Asaph's, was the leader in the emeute. The malcontents were however finally defeated, and unanimity was restored in the Society. On July 1, 1795, Banks was invested with the order of the Bath, and on 29th March, 1797, he was made a member of the privy council, and in 1802 he was elected a member of the French Institute. For thirty years he continued to be the centre of attraction for all naturalists. His hospitality to men of science of all nations was remarkable. His house and his collections were open to them. He devoted a large part of his income to botanical science, and he aided every scheme which aimed at its advancement. He supported and encouraged voyages of discovery. He took an active part in the management of the garden at Kew, and he was an able promoter of the Horticultural Society of London. He originated the plan of a colony at Botany Bay. Many useful plants and fruits were by his instrumentality introduced into our colonies. His library was consultable by all lovers of science. Many works on natural history owe their value in part to the assistance afforded by the Banksian collections. During the time of war, he was instrumental in getting the government to protect naturalists of all nations in their researches, and to hold their collections as sacred. On ten different occasions, collections addressed to the Paris Museum, and captured by the British, were returned to the French by his exertions. He suffered much from gout in the latter years of his life. He died at his house in Soho Square, London, on 19th August, 1820, at the age of seventy-seven. He left no family. His memory will be cherished with gratitude by all the friends of science. He bequeathed to the British Museum his valuable library, his foreign correspondence, and his herbarium, under the care of the celebrated botanist, Robert Brown. He did not publish any large work, but he contributed many papers to the Transactions of the Horticultural and Linnæan societies, to the Society of Antiquaries, and to the board of agriculture. A catalogue of the Banksian library by Dr. Dryander, one of Linnæus' pupils, was published in 5 vols. 8vo. A New Holland genus, Banksia, was named in compliment to him.—J. H. B.
BANKS, Percival Weldon, M.A., barrister of Gray's Inn, called to the bar January 30, 1835. He was the "Morgan Rattler" of Fraser's Magazine and other periodicals. Died August 13, 1850, aged 44.
BANKS, Thomas Christopher, law genealogist and antiquarian. He was the author of the "Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England," London, 1807-9, 3 vols.; "History of Families of the Ancient Peerage of England," London, 1826, as well as of various other genealogical works. He died at Greenwich, September 80, 1854, in his 90th year.
BANKS, Thomas, an English sculptor of the second half of the eighteenth century. Although not so highly esteemed as he deserves, he must be considered as the pioneer of the style in which Bacon and Chantrey became so proficient afterwards. His works in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey are fair specimens of his talent. Yet some small bas-reliefs, representing the "Seasons," show even a greater power both in composition and execution.—R. M.
BANNERMAN, Alexander, an English engraver, born at Cambridge in 1730. According to Walpole, he was especially clever in portraits; and his print of the "Death of St. Joseph," after Velasquez, is quite enough to entitle him to rank with the best artists of the time. Died at the beginning of this century.
* BANNERMAN, Sir Alexander, son of the late T. Bannerman, Esq., of Aberdeen, and many years M.P. for that city, was born in 1783. After holding some inferior offices under the Crown, he was appointed in 1851 lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward's Island, and at the same time received the honour of knighthood. In 1854 he was made governor and commander-in-chief of the Bahamas, and was transferred towards the close of 1857, to the post of governor and commander-in-chief of Newfoundland. The Bannerman family, as their name implies, were anciently standard-bearers to the kings of Scotland.—E. W.
BANNAKER, Benjamin, an American negro, who, in the condition of a slave on one of the plantations in the state of Maryland, applied himself with such zeal to the study of astronomy as to master many of its highest problems, and to add to its records many valuable observations. With the help of the works of Fergusson and the tables of Mayer, he prepared for publication a tract entitled "Ephemerides," &c. He left also some very curious and valuable MSS. Died in 1807.—J. S., G.
BANQUO, a famous Scottish thane, died about 1050. In conjunction with Macbeth, cousin of Duncan the king, he obtained a victory over the Danes, who had landed on the Scottish coast. Macbeth, shortly afterwards, violently dethroned Duncan, and caused him secretly to be assassinated. Banquo, though not an accomplice, was a witness of the crime; and being consequently regarded by Macbeth with fear and suspicion, the latter invited him and his son to supper, and hired assassins to attack them on their return home during the darkness of night. Banquo was slain, but the youth made his escape. Shakspeare has interwoven this transaction with the theme of his celebrated tragedy of Macbeth.—G. M.
BANTIUS, L., of Nola, served in the Roman army at the battle of Cannæ, in 216 b.c. Here he was severely wounded in protecting the person of the consul Paulus Emilius. This procured him the friendship of Hannibal, who had witnessed and admired his valour.
BAODAN, king of Ireland, lived in the sixth century. He ascended the throne about 565, but was soon after dethroned and put to death by Colman, the son of Dermod.
BAOITHIN, Saint, an Irishman, succeeded St. Columbkill in the abbacy of Hy, whose life he wrote in Irish verse, and also some MSS. still extant. He died January 9th, 599.—J. F. W.
BAOUR LORIMAN, Pierre Marie François Louis, born at Toulouse in 1770, began his literary career by satires, which attracted considerable attention. But what raised his reputation was his translation of Ossian, which was received with an enthusiasm that reached even Napoleon himself, who marked out Baour for his special favour. Elected member of the Academy in 1815, he thought it due to his reputation to complete a translation he had made of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, which he achieved with distinguished success. When eighty years of age, blind and suffering, he translated the book of Job. The French Academy, respecting his infirmities, and venerating his talent, dispensed with his personal attendance, by inscribing his name upon the feuille de presence, a favour that had never been conferred except on two individuals—Suard and Delille. Baour lived to the year 1857.—J. F. C.
BAPHOMETUS. The name of the image which the knights-templars were charged with worshipping, when the order was suppressed by Philip IV. of France. It is probably a corruption of "Mahomet," and the charge may have arisen from the circumstance that some of the templars had gone over to the Moslem faith.
BAPTISTA, Joseph, a Mexican theologian, author of "Informationes Confessariorum in India vel America," was professor of theology at Tetzuco, in the sixteenth century.
BAPTISTA or BATTISTA, Giuseppe, a Neapolitan poet and theologian, was born in 1675. He wrote "Epicedii Eroici;" "Poesie Meliche;" and "Vita del B. Felice Capucino," &c.
BAQUOY, Maurice, a French engraver of landscapes, died in Paris in 1747. His son, Jean Charles (1721-1777), was equally renowned for his plates illustrating the Metamorphoses of Ovid, as Pierre Charles, grandson of Maurice (1759-1829), for those of the works of Voltaire and Racine, and for his prints after Poussin.—R. M.
BAR, a family of Berry, settled at Bourges since 1270. They owed their elevation, in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, chiefly to the protection granted them by John duke of Berry, and continued to them by his uncle and successor Charles VII. Among the members of that family, the following have been noticed:—
Jean III. de Bar, lord of Villemenard, valet de chambre and apothecary to the king, lived in the fifteenth century.
Jean IV. de Bar, lord of Baugy, La Guerche, &c., died in 1470. He held successively the offices of general of finances, captain of the castles of Toms and Amboise, and, lastly, bailiff of Tourraine under the kings Charles VII. and Louis XI.
