during the melting of solid bodies and the evaporation of liquids; and after carefully investigating these facts, he succeeded in establishing the doctrine of latent heat, as generally admitted in the scientific world. He also examined the specific heats of certain bodies; and with a view to test the accuracy of the ordinary mercurial thermometer, he tried whether equal increments of heat in different parts of the scale were always followed by equal expansion. In 1766 he left Glasgow, having been appointed professor of chemistry at Edinburgh. Here, though generally admired for the perspicuity of his lectures, and the neatness of his experiments, he does not seem to have entered upon any original research of moment. Indeed his delicate health soon rendered him incapable of severe exertion. He is said to have been the first who applied hydrogen gas to the elevation of balloons. But in this, as in other cases, he took no pains to establish a claim to the discovery. He died in November, 1799, universally beloved and respected by his contemporaries.—J. W. S.
BLACKBOURNE, John, a nonjuring divine, born in 1683, graduated at Trinity college, Cambridge. At the Revolution he refused to take the oath of allegiance, and renouncing thus his hopes of preferment in the church, became, in order to gain a livelihood, corrector of the press to the celebrated Bowyer. In this obscure position his merits were not overlooked by the chiefs of his party, who prevailed on the exiled king to create him a bishop. Nichols, who visited him at his house in Little Britain, where he lived in the style of a recluse, was permitted to see the commission for his consecration, and received the old man's blessing, as it was given, devoutly. He edited Bales' Chronycle concernynge Syr Johan Oldecastell, 1729; Holinshed's Chronicle; and the works of Bacon, 1740. Died in 1741. His epitaph in Islington churchyard makes no reference to his episcopal rank, but expresses his hatred of papists and low-churchmen, calling him "Pontificiorum æque ac Novatorum Malleus."—J. S., G.
BLACKBURNE, Right Honourable Francis, LL.D., lord justice of appeal in Ireland, was born in the year 1782 at Footstown, in the county of Meath in Ireland, where his family had been long established, and by his mother, Miss Hopkins, was descended lineally from the celebrated Dr. Ezekiel Hopkins, who was bishop of Londonderry during the memorable siege of that city in 1688. The disturbed state of the country compelled his family to take refuge in the metropolis, and Francis was placed in the school of the Rev. William White, then the most eminent in Dublin. From this he entered as a student of Trinity college, Dublin, in the year 1798. His college course was a distinguished one; he obtained in 1801 a special classical premium and the first scholarship, and took his degree of A.B. in the spring of 1803, upon which occasion he obtained the gold medal. At this period the historical society of Trinity college was in its palmiest state. Young Blackburne was a constant and distinguished debater there, and obtained its medals both in oratory and history. He commenced the study of the law during the continuance of his scholarship; and, before its expiration, he was called to the Irish bar in 1805, and went the home circuit. From the first year Mr. Blackburne got into practice, he was soon known as a sound and accomplished lawyer, and his professional business went on increasing steadily till 1822, when he was deservedly called within the bar. During the agrarian disturbances in 1823, Mr. Blackburne was selected by Lord Wellesley to administer the insurrection act, as judge, in the counties of Limerick and Clare; and he continued till the year 1825 to discharge the onerous and not very popular duties connected with this position in a manner so impartial, so firm, and so efficacious, that he gave entire satisfaction to all parties. In 1826 he was appointed his majesty's third serjeant-at-law, and was promoted to be second Serjeant in 1830; and such was the confidence of the government in his judgment and knowledge, and of the Roman catholic leaders in his integrity and moderation, that his appointment upon a special commission of inquiry by Lord Wellesley was accepted on all hands as a proof of the equitable and humane intentions of the government. Upon the formation of the ministry of Earl Grey in 1830, Mr. Blackburne was promoted to the vacant office of attorney-general for Ireland. For four years he continued to fill this office; and it may be safely affirmed that at no period during the present century has any one filling this high place in Ireland been called upon for the exhibition of higher qualities. In these perilous times, Mr. Blackburne, as public prosecutor, displayed an amount of vigour, firmness, temper, and moderation that enabled him to suppress every attempt to break through the laws which the state of the country rendered it necessary to impose and strictly enforce, and to be the chief instrument in maintaining British supremacy in Ireland. After serving successively under Lord Grey and Sir Robert Peel, upon the retirement of the latter in 1835 Mr. Blackburne went out of office. When Sir Robert Peel returned to power in 1841, of course Mr. Blackburne resumed the office which he had previously held under him, and continued attorney-general till November in the following year, when he was promoted to the office of master of the rolls, upon the death of Sir Michael O'Loghlen. He presided over this court till January, 1846, when he was promoted by Sir Robert Peel to the chief justiceship of the court of queen's bench, vacant by the death of Mr. Pennefather. In his new office Mr. Blackburne was eminently distinguished as an able and fearless administrator of the high functions which devolve upon the chief of that court, as well as for a profound knowledge of constitutional law. From that period, and during the entire of Lord John Russell's administration, he continued to fill the office of chief justice, during a crisis of great difficulty in Ireland, and was appointed vice-chancellor of the university of Dublin in December, 1851. Upon the accession of the earl of Derby to the premiership in February, 1852, that nobleman committed the great seal of Ireland to Mr. Blackburne. Lord Derby's administration terminated before the expiration of the year, when Mr. Blackburne tendered his resignation as chancellor of Ireland, which was at once accepted, and he held office only-till the appointment of his successor in the beginning of the year 1853. From that time Mr. Blackburne remained in retirement with the exception of occasionally sitting as a member of the privy council. Upon the passing of the Irish chancery appeal act in the session of 1856, the office of lord justice of appeal was for the first time created. During the debates upon the bill in parliament, it was generally felt that Mr. Blackburne was pre-eminently the fittest person to fill that office, and somewhat tantamount to a pledge was given that he should be appointed. In consequence, in the month of November, 1856, Mr. Blackburne was sworn in as lord justice of appeal. As a lawyer while at the bar, and as a judge while on the bench, Mr. Blackburne held the highest place. In the former position, whether as an advocate or a prosecutor, no one of his day surpassed him. His statements were masterpieces of forensic eloquence, singularly lucid, simple, and brief; he placed every fact before the court in the clearest light, and drew his conclusions with a force that was irresistible; while the power of his calm, self-possessed, and solemn eloquence was deeply impressive. But in his judicial position all these faculties attained their perfection. His calmness rose to imperturbable deliberation, his self-possession to dignity, and the quiet, melodious tones of his voice gave force to the judgments which he delivered. The high estimation in which he was held in Ireland was shared by the best judges in England; Lord Brougham and others having borne testimony in parliament to his great judicial qualities. He died on the 25th September, 1867.—J. F. W.
BLACKBURNE, Francis, an English divine, celebrated as the author of "The Confessional, or a full and free Inquiry into the Right, Utility, Edification, and Success of establishing Systematical Confessions of Faith and Doctrine," a work which occasioned no end of controversy, was born at Richmond, in Yorkshire, in 1705. His father was alderman of that town, and his mother was a descendant of the learned Dr. Comber, dean of Durham. He was educated at Catherine hall, Cambridge, of which college he expected to become fellow, but his principles, which were those of Locke and Hoadly, opposed such obstacles to the realization of that hope, that he retired from the university without taking his degree. In 1739, however, having shortly before passed M.A., he was appointed to the rectory of Richmond, and in 1750 to the archdeaconry of Cleveland, and later in the same year to the prebend of Bilton. Many of his opinions on important subjects were supposed to be so much at variance with those generally received among the dignitaries of the church, that he was frequently accused of a mercenary inconsistency in retaining his preferments; but it would appear that, although on terms of friendship with Priestley and Lindsey, and confessedly heterodox on certain questions of church policy and government, he adhered righteously in the main to the creed of the episcopal church, and was more anxious to unite its members against papacy than to divide them by the introduction of new dogmas. Besides "The Confessional," he published in 1749 "An Apology for the Free
