of Bristol. From 1778 to 1785 he was second justice of Chester. He also held appointment as King's counsel and as commissary-general of the stores at Gibraltar. He was at one time deeply interested in Arctic exploration, and through the Royal Society prevailed upon the Government to dispatch an unsuccessful expedition of two ships. His antiquarian papers, read before the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society, deal with a multitude of varied subjects, from the antiquity of playing cards to Julius Cæsar's landing in Britain. His learning was more extensive than accurate, and his curious blunders, due often to his gullibility, exposed him to no little ridicule. His edition (1773) of Alfred the Great's Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius, with a translation, has been discredited. The best-known and most valuable of his writings is the Observations on the Statutes (1766), a discursive work, with no evidence of arrangement, but still valuable for its ingenious and learned notes. He corresponded with Gilbert White, of Selbourne. whose Natural History, it has been asserted, was prepared at his suggestion. After he had become a bencher of the Inner Temple, he was much in the Temple Gardens, where he was familiar with Charles Lamb, who calls him "an other oddity," and says that "he walked burly and square." Consult Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (9 vols., London, 1812-15).
BARRINGTON (properly, WALDRON),
George (1755-c. 1840). An Irish author, born at Maynooth, County Kildare. He attended schools' there and at Dublin, and in 1771 joined a band of strolling players. Subsequently he set up in London as a polite pickpocket, his most noted professional exploit being the theft from Prince Orloff of a snuffbox roughly valued at £30,000. He was sentenced in 1700 to seven years' transportation, but during the voyage to Botany Bay he frustrated an attempted mutiny, and in 1792 received the first emancipation warrant ever granted. He was long superintendent of convicts, and afterwards high constable at Paramatta. For the opening of the theatre at Sydney with the presentation by the convicts of Dr. Young's Revenge, he wrote the prologue containing the well-known lines —
"True patriots we, for be it understood.
We left our country for our country's good."
He published A Voyage to Botany Bay (1801); The History of New South Wales (1802); and The History of New Holland (1808).
BARRINGTON, John Shute, First Viscount (1678-1734), An English lawyer and polemical writer. He was born in London, and was educated at the University of Utrecht, where he remained for four years. After his return to England in 1698 he published two treatises. An Essay Upon the Interests of England in Respect to Protestants Dissentinq from the Established Church (1701) and The Rights of Protestant Dissenters (1704-05). He was one of the commissioners sent to Scotland to win the support of the Presbyterians for the union between the two kingdoms, and in 1708 he was appointed a commissioner of customs. He was a member of the House of Commons from 1715 to 1723. Swift described Barrington as "the shrewdest head in England." He was the author of numerous religious essays, collected and published by the Rev. George Townsend, under the title of The Theological Works of the First Viscount Barrington (3 vols., 1828).
BARRIOS, biir'rf-os, JrsTO Rifino (183.5-
85). A Guatemalan politician, born at San
Lorenzo. In 1871 he was prominent in the over-
throw of President Cerna, and under President
Granados became commander-in-chief of the Army
of Guatemala. He was President of Guatemala
from 1873 until his death. Despite many dicta-
torial measures, he did much to promote civil
order and prosperity. He attempted to unite the
five Central American States in a confederation;
but Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica leagued
against him, and during an invasion of Salvador
he was killed at Chalchuapa.
BAR'RISTER (earlier barester, barraster, from barre, bar). The distinctive name by which the advocates at the English and Irish bars are known. (See Bar.) They are admitted to their office under the rules and regulations of the Inns of Court, and they are entitled to exclusive audience in all the superior courts of law and equity, and generally in all courts, civil and criminal, presided over by a superior judge. In the county courts attorneys are allowed to practice without the assistance of counsel; also at petty sessions, though at the quarter sessions where four counsel attend, the justices always give them exclusive audience. In Scotland the same body are styled advocates, and they have the same exclusive privileges that barristers enjoy in England and Ireland. Of barristers there are various ranks and degrees, and among each other they take precedence accordingly, the general name, 'counsel,' being, in the practice of the court, common to them all. But they may be divided into two leading groups — barristers and King's counsel. The ancient order of sergeants-at-law, formerly a well-marked third group, was distinguished by the coif and other peculiarities, but has now ceased to exist. (See Serjeant-at-Law.) Besides these three orders or gradations of rank at the English bar, the Crown sometimes grants letters-patent of precedence to such barristers as his Majesty may think proper to honor with that mark of distinction, whereby they are entitled to such rank and pre-audience as are assigned to them in their respective patents. Persons who desire to become barristers must secure admission to one of the Inns of Court, and, after keeping a prescribed number of 'terms,' must pass a 'call examination' successfully, and thus entitle themselves to be called to the bar. The fees which the candidate must pay on being called, before signing the roll of barristers in the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, are quite onerous, ranging from £90 to £100. He remains subject to the discipline of his Inn, which has the power to 'disbar' him upon criminal conviction or for gross professional misconduct.
The professional ethics, or etiquette, of the bar is carefully and accurately defined. Its principal rules are as follows: "(1) That fees are divided between a leader (who ought to be a King's counsel, a sergeant, or a barrister with a patent of precedence) and a junior in the proportion of three-fifths to the former and two-fifths to the latter; (2) that no barrister accepts business upon a circuit to which he does not belong, except for a special fee; (3) that all litigious business must come through a solicitor, though a barrister may advise a client, directly and per-
