nobleman. He was son of sir Benjamin Bathurst, of Paulers Perry, Northamptonshire, born in Westminster in 1684, and educated at Trinity college, Oxford. In 1705 he was chosen member for Cirencester, in Gloucester'shire, which honour he received the two next parliaments. He joined the tory party, by whom he was brought into the house of peers in 1711. He continued firm in his attachment to his friends, and was a zealous opposer of the measures of sir Robert Walpole. În 1704, he married a daughter of sir Peter Apsley, who was his cousin, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. In 1742, he was admitted of the privy council; in 1757, he was appointed treasurer to the prince of Wales, and at his majesty's accession, he obtained a pension of 2000l. a year; and, in 1772, he was created earl Bathurst. He died in 1775, aged 91,

Sterne, in his letters to Eliza, thus speaks of lord Bathurst: "This nobleman is an old friend of mine: he was always the protector of men of wit and genius; and has had those of the last century always at his table. The manner in which his notice began of me was as singular as it was polite. He came up to me one day as I was at the princess of Wales's court, I want to know you, Mr. Sterne; but it is fit you should know also who it is that wishes this pleasure: you have heard (continned he) of an old lord Bathurst, of whom your Popes and Swifts have sung and spoken so much: I have lived my life with geniuses of that cast, but have survived them; and, despairing ever to find their equals, it is some years since I have closed my accounts, and shut up my books, with thoughts of never opening them again: but you have kindled a desire in me of opening them once more before I die, which I now do; so go home, and dine with me. This nobleman, I say, is a prodigy: for at 85 he has all the wit and promptness of a man of 30; a disposition to be pleased, and a power to please others beyond whatever I knew! added to which, a man of learning, 'courtesy, and feeling."

In the latter part of his life, this extraordinary nobleman preserved his natural cheerfulness and vivacity; always accessible, hospitable,, and beneficent. He delighted in rural amusements; and enjoyed, with a philosophical satisfaction, the shade of the lofty trees he had planted himself. Till within a month of his death he constantly rode out on horseback two hours before dinner, and constantly drank his bottle of claret or Madeira after dinner. He used to declare, in a jocose manner, he never could think of adopting Dr. Cadogan's method, as Dr. Cheyne had assured him, 50 years ago, he would never live seven years longer unless he abridged himself of his wine. Pursuant to this maxim, his lordship having, some years, ago, invited several of his friends to spend a few cheerful days with him at his seat at Cirencester, and being one evening very loth to part with them; on his son the late chancelfor's objecting to their sitting up any longer, ad adding that health and long life were best

secured by regularity, he suffered him to retire : but, as soon as he was gone, the cheerful father said, "Come my good friends, since the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture to crack another bottle."

BATHYLLUS, in ancient geography, a fountain of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus.

BATILLUS, a musical instrument made of metal, in the form of a staff, furnished with metalline rings.

BATING. prep. (from bate.) Except (Ro.). BATIS. In botany, a genus of the class monoecia, order tetandria male ament, fourfold, imbricate; calyxless; corolless Female, ament ovate, with a two leaved involucre; calyxless; corolless; stigma two-lobed, sessile; berries conjoined, four-seeded. One species only, a Caribbean shrub with diffuse, brittle branches; leaves oblong, acute, fleshy, sessile, convex underneath.

BATISTE, a fine white linen made in Flanders.

BATLET. s. (from bat.) A square piece of wood used in beating linen (Shakspeare).

BATMAN, a weight in Turkey, consisting of six okes. Forty of these batmans make a camel's load, and amount to about seven hundred and twenty pounds English weight.

BATO'ON. s. (bâton, Fr. formerly spelt baston.) 1. A staff or club (Bacon). 2. A truncheon or marshal's staff.

BATOON, in heraldry. See BASTON. BATOON, in music, a character for a rest, during 4 bars of common and triple tine: it fills up two spaces of the five line staff. BATOONS OF ST. PAUL, BASTONCINI DI SAN PALO, in natural history, a name given by some of the Italian writers, as Augustino Scilla, and others, to the lapides Judaici, or other spines of echini. These are found in vast abundance in the island of Malta.

BATRACHIUM. See GERANIUM BA

TRACHIOIDES.

BATRACHOMYOMACHIA, the battle of the frogs and the mice, the title of a fine burlesque poem generally ascribed to Homer. The subject of the work is the death of Plycharpax, a mouse, son to Toxartes, who, being mounted on the back of Physignathus, a frog, on a voyage to her palace, to which she had invited him, was seized with fear when he saw himself in the middle of the pond, so that he tumbled off and was drowned. Physignathus being suspected to have shaken him off with design, the mice demanded satisfaction, and unanimously declared war against the frogs.

BATTE, a people of Germany, formerly inhabitants of what is now called Hesse. Being dissatisfied with their situation there, they settled on the island formed by the Vahalis and Rhine, which from them took the name of Batavia, or Batavorum Insula. Their government was a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.

BATTAILOUS. a. (from battaille, Fr.) Warlike; with a military appearance (Fair.). BATTALIA. s. (battaglia, Ital.) The order of battle (Clarendon).

BATTALION, in the military art, a little body of infantry ranged in form of battle, and ready to engage. The word comes from battel, an engagement of two armies, &c. and that from battualia, the place where two men fight; or from battalia, the exercise of people who learn to fight.

A battalion usually contains from 500 to 800 men; but the number it consists of is not determined. They are armed commonly with firelocks, and bayonets; and divided into 13 companies, one of which is grenadiers. They are usually drawn up three men deep. Some regiments consist of but one battalion, others are divided into four, five, or more, as is the regiment of Royal Artillery. M. de Folard decries the modern method of ranging battalions so shallow, which renders them weak, and unable to support each other; so that they are easily penetrated or broken: an essential fault in the modern tactics. The real strength of a corps, according to this author, consists in its thickness, or the depth of its files, and their connection and closeness. This depth renders the flanks almost as strong as the front. He adds that it may be laid down as a maxim, that every battalion ranged deep, and with a small front, will beat another stronger than itself, ranged according to the usual method. (Polyb. tom. i. p. 7.) But this opinion of Folard has not been adopted in modern practice; and his theory has been vigorously attacked by two French officers in the service of the StatesGeneral. They admit the superior strength of his column to that of a modern battalion, if the action were to be decided with pikes and swords; but where fire arms must be used, M. Folard's column is so very ill disposed for this purpose, that it must infallibly be destroyed.

BATTA'RISMUS. (Extragisμ405, from Barro, a prince of Cyrenaa who stammered: hence EaTTag, to stammer.) Stammering, a defect in pronunciation.

BATTATAS (Indian), potatoes.

BATTEL, a town of Sussex, so called from the decisive battle which was fought here Oct. 14, 1066, between king Harold and William duke of Normandy. The former, with 60,000 men on both sides, were killed. Its weekly market, formerly on Sundays, has, since the year 1000, been changed by act of parliament to Thursday; and it has another on the second Tuesday in every month. It is 57 miles S. E. of London. Lat. 50. 55 N. Lon. 0. 33 E.

BATTEL, in law, or TRIAL BY WAGER OF BATIEL, a species of trial of great autiquity, but now quite disused. It seems to have owed its original to the military spirit of our ancestors, joined to a superstitious frame of mind; it being in the nature of an appeal to Providence, under an apprehension and hope (however presumptuous and unwarrantable,) that heaven would give the victory to him who had the right. The decision of suits, by this appeal to the god of battles, is by some said to have been invented by the Burgundi, one of the northern or German clans that planted

themselves in Gaul. And it is true, that the first written injunction of judiciary combats that we meet with, is in the laws of Gundebald, A. D. 501, which are preserved in the Burgundian code. Yet it does not seem to have been merely a local custom of this or that particular tribe, but to have been the common usage of all those warlike people from the earliest times. And it may also seem, from a passage in Velleius Paterculus, that the Germans, when first they became known to the Romans, were wont to decide all contests of right by the sword: for when Quintilius Varus endeavoured to introduce among them the Roman laws and method of trial, it was looked upon (says the historian) as a novitas incognitæ disciplinæ, ut solita armis decerni jure terminarentur. And among the ancient Goths in Sweden we find the practice of judiciary duels established upon much the same footing as they formerly were in Britain.

Among other Norman customs, this was introduced in England by William the Conqueror; but was only used in these three cases, viz. military, criminal, and civil. The first in the court-martial, or court of chivalry and honour; the second in appeals of felony, and the third upon issue joined in a writ of right, the last and most solemn decision of real property. For in writs of right the jus proprietatis, which is frequently a matter of difficulty, is in question; but other real actions being merely questions of the jus possessionis, which are usually more plain and obvious, our ancestors did not in them appeal to the decision of Providence. Another pretext for allowing it, upon these final writs of right, was also for the sake of such claimants as might have the true right, but yet by the death of witnesses or other defect of evidence be unable to prove it to a jury. But the most curious reason of all is given in the Mirror, that it is allowable upon warrant of the combat between David for the people of Israel of the one party, and Goliath for the Philistines of the other party; a reason which pope Nicholas I. very seriously decides to be inconclusive.

To BATTEN. v. a. 1. To fatten, or make fat (Milton). 2. To fertilize (Philips).

To BATTEN. v. n. To grow fat (Garth). BATTEN, a name which the workmen give to a scantling of wooden stuff, from two to four inches broad, and about an inch thick; the length being pretty considerable, but undetermined.

To BATTER. v. a. (battre, to beat, Fr.) 1. To beat; to beat down; to shatter (Wal.), 2. To wear with beating (Swift). 3. To wear out with service (Southern).

BATTER. S, (from to batter.) a mixture of several ingredients beaten together (King).

BATTERDEAU, or COFFERDAM, in bridge-building, a case of piling, &c. without a bottom, fixed in the bed of the river, by which to lay the bottom dry for a space large enough to build the pier on. When it is fixed, its sides reaching above the surface of the river, the water is drawn out by pumps, &c., and it

is kept dry till the pier is built up; and then the materials of the cofferdam are taken up. BATTERER. s. (from batter.) He that

batters.

BATTERING, in the military art, the attacking a place, &c. with heavy artillery.

BATTERING-PIECES, large pieces of ordnance proper for battering a fortification. See CANNON.

BATTERING-RAM, a machine used by the ancients in sieges, for battering the walls and Lowers of a fortified place. The use of this machine is very ancient, and the invention of it ascribed to different people.

Of this there were three kinds; the first rude and plain, the others artificial and compound.

The first seems to have been no more than a great beam, which the soldiers bore in their arms, and with one end of it, by main force, assailed the walls. This required a great force to work it; yet produced but a small effect.

The second or compound ram is described by Josephus (de Excid. Hierosol. 3.) thus: "The ram is a vast long beam, like the mast of a ship, strengthened at one end with a head of iron something resembling that of a ram, whence it took its name. This is hung by the middle, with ropes, to another beam which lies across a couple of posts; and hanging thus equally balanced, is, by a great number of men, violently thrust forward, and recoiled backward, and so shakes the wall with its iron head. Nor is there any tower or wall so thick or strong as to resist the repeated assaults of this forcible machine."

The third only differed from the former in that it was covered with a xeon or screne to guard the soldiers, whence it is also called testudo arietaria.

M. Felibien describes a fourth sort of battering ram, which ran on wheels, and was the most perfect and effectual of them all. Vitruvius affirms, that the battering ram was first invented by the Carthaginians, while they laid siege to Cadiz: theirs was the simple kind first mentioned: Pephasmenos, a Tyrian, afterwards contrived to suspend it with ropes; and finally, Polydus, the Thessalian, to mount it on wheels, at the siege of Byzantium, under Philip of Macedon. Yet Pliny assures us the ram was invented at the siege of Troy; and that it was this that gave occasion to the fable of a wooden horse.

The engine opposed to the ram was called lapus, the wolf.-Plutarch tells us that Mark Antony, in the Parthian war, used a ram of 80 feet long; and Vitruvius assures us they were sometimes made 106, and sometimes 120 feet long, to this great length, perhaps, the force of the engine was in great measure owing.

The ram was managed at once by a whole century of soldiers; so that it played continually, and without intermission; being usually covered with a vinea, to protect it from the attempts of the enemy.

If we were to institute a comparison between

the effects of the battering ram, and those of the modern artillery, we should find the former, in some respects, far exceeded the latter. Thus with respect to momentum: the battering ram of Vespasian weighed at least 100,000 pounds (though this was far inferior in weight to some mentioned by Vitruvius;) suppose now, this was moved at the rate of 10 feet per second, a velocity far within the bounds of probability; a cannon ball of 32 pounds must move at the rate of 31,250 feet per second, to have the same momentum; but this velocity is more than 10 times as great as that with which a cannon ball is ever fired.. Nor is this all: their effects are widely different in other respects. Very large bodies moving with mode rate velocities, are known to lose much more of their motion by impinging on bodies at rest, than small bodies do when moving with velocities proportionally greater, so as to have the same momentum: that is, large bodies moving with small velocities communicate more of their motion to bodies on which they impinge, than small bodies with great velocities. Hence the effect of battering rains would be to communicate a vibratory motion to a wall against which they were exerted, which by judicious management would be diffused farther and farther, until at length huge masses of the wall would fall before such powerful engines: but the modern artillery being more calculated to penetrate than to shake a structure, would make smaller breaches, and destroy by a kind of piecemeal progress. Hence, also, may be seen the reason why ancient walls of defence were of a far more thick and massy construction than any modern fortifications.

BATTERY, (from battre, to beat or strike,) in the military art, a work from which cannon may play on the enemy's troops as they advance to the attack: it consists of an epaulement or breast-work, cut into embrasures through which the guns are fired. The height of the embrasures on the inside is about three feet; but they go slooping lower to the outside. Their width is two or three feet, but they open to six or seven on the outside. The mass of earth that is betwixt two embrasures is called the merlon. The platform of a battery is a floor of planks and sleepers, to keep the wheels of the guns from sinking into the earth; and is always made sloping towards the embrasures, both to hinder the reverse, and to facilitate the bringing back of the gun.

Battery of Mortars differs from a battery of guns; for it is sunk into the ground, and has no enbrasures, being designed to throw its charge up into the air.

Cross-Batteries are two batteries which play athwart one another upon the same object, forming there an angle, and beating with more violence and destruction; because what one ball shakes, the other beats down.

Sunk or buried battery is that whose platform is sunk or let down into the ground, so that there must be trenches cut in the earth, before the muzzles of the guns, for them to fire out at, and to serve for embrasures.

knob to any of the knobs of the battery. When a very great force is required, the size or number of the jars may be increased, or two or more batteries may be used.-But the largest and most powerful battery of all is that employed by Dr. Van Marum, to the electrical machine, constructed for Teyler's museum at Haarlem. This grand battery consists of a great number of jars coated as above, to the Amount of about 130 square feet; and the effects of it, which are truly astonishing, are related by Dr. Van Marum in his description of this machine, and of the experiments made with it, at Haarlem, 1785. For descriptions of other batteries, see Haüy's Natural Philosophy, and the notes of the Translator, vol. i. p. 408. Galvanic Battery, or Pile, an apparatus employed for accumulating the electricity of galvanism which is produced by the mutual agencies of certain metallic and carbonaceous stances, and peculiar fluids. It was inventod by the celebrated Volta, from whose labours the new science of galvanism has derived many advantages and much improvement. Mr. Heary, in his valuable Epitome of Chemistry, Ets the following easy directions for the construction of this pile. Procure, at a brazier's or coppersmith's, 30, 40, or 50, pieces of zinc or speltre, cast in sand, of the size of half crowns or shillings, but rather thicker. A corresponding number of half crowns or shillings will also be required, according to the sizes of the pieces of zinc that may be employed. Let an equal number of pieces of woollen cloth be cut, of a circular shape, to correspond with the pieces of zinc, and steep these in a strong solution of common salt in water. Then dispose the three substances alternately, in the following order,-silver, zinc, moistened cloth; silver, zinc, &c., till a sufficient number of these triplicates, not less then 20 or 30, have been thus arranged, the silver terminating the pile at top. In order to facilitate the touching of the bottom piece of silver, it may be well to put under it a slip of tinfoil, or Dutch leaf, which may project a few inches. Next, let the hands be moistened with salt and water, and, on touching the piece of tinfoil with one hand, and the uppermost piece of silver with the other, a shock will pass through the arms, which will be strong in proportion to the anmber of pieces of zinc, &c. employed." Of late, copper has been used instead of silver, on account of its being cheaper; and solutions of muriate of ammonia (sal-ammoniac), of nitrous acid and of muriatic acid, have been substituted for the solution of common salt, with increased effect. Any two metallic substances, which are perfect conductors of electricity, will answer the purpose, on condition that the interposed fluid is capable of oxidating at least

one of them.

Various forms of this battery, have been adopted by different philosophers; but none have been brought into such general use as the galvanic trough invented by Mr. Cruicshank, of Woolwich. It consists of a box of baked wood, in which plates of copper and VOL. II.

zinc, or of silver and zinc soldered together at their edges, are cemented in such a manner as to leave a number of water-tight cells corresponding to the number of the series.' The common Voltaic pile, on account of the loss of moisture, generally loses its electrical action in a few days, and this cannot be renewed without the trouble of reconstruction; but, by Mr. Cruicshank's contrivance, which becomes active on merely filling the cells with the proper saline fluids, and freeing it, when necessary, from oxyd, by muriatic acid, greater permanency is secured, much trouble is prevented, and much time saved.

A very powerful galvanic pile is that of Mr. Pepys, junior; for a description of which the reader may consult the Philosophical Magazine, No. 57. See also GALVANISM.

BATTIFOLIUM, or BATTIFOLLUM, in antiquity, a kind of tower or defence frequently mentioned by Latin historians of the middle age. It seems to have been wood, and to have been erected on sudden emergencies.

BATTING MACHINE, a machine for beating and cleaning cotton from the husks and foulnesses contained in it. an ingenious machine for this purpose was invented by sir. Bowden, of Meller in Derbyshire, and is described in the Repertory of Arts.

BATTLE, in geography. See BATTEL. BATTLE, a general engagement between two armies, in a country sufficiently open for them to encounter in front and at the same time (see WAR.) The word is also written battel, battell, and battail. It is formed from the French battaille, of the Latin verb batuere, to fence or exercise with arms: whence batualia and batalia, which properly denoted the action or exercise of those who learned to fence, and who were hence also denominated batuatores.

The ancients never risked a battle without much ceremony and preparation; as taking auguries, offering sacrifice, haranguing the soldiers, giving the word or a tessera, &c. The signals of battle were, sounding the classicum or general charge, and displaying a peculiar flag, called by Plutarch a purple robe. To which may be added, singing pæans, raising military shouts, and the like.

A battle lost almost always draws with it the loss of the artillery of the army, and frequently also that of the baggage: consequently, as the army beaten cannot again look the enemy in the face till it have repaired those losses, it is forced to leave the enemy a long time master of the country, and at liberty to execute all its schemes.Whereas a great fight lost is rarely attended with a loss of all the artillery, and scarcely ever of the baggage, because the two armies not meeting in frout, they can only have suffered in the part that has been engaged. Feuq. loc. cit.

An ingenious modern author remarks, that it is not, usually, the real loss sustained in a battle (that is, of some thousands of men) that proves so fatal to a state; but it is the imaginary loss and discouragement which

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