In 1830, when Louis Philippe assumed the reins of government, Barbé-Marbois went, as president of the cour des comptes, to compliment him and was confirmed in his position. It was the sixth government he had served and all with servility. He held his office until April 1834, and died on the 12th of February 1837. He published various works, of which may be mentioned: Réflexions sur la colonie de Saint-Domingue (1794), De la Guyane, &c. (1822), an Histoire de la Louisiane et la cession de cette colonie par la France aux États-Unis, &c. (1828), and the story of his transportation after the 18th Fructidor in Journal d'un déporté non jugé, 2 vols. (1834).
BARBER (from Lat. barba, beard), one whose occupation it is to shave or trim beards, a hairdresser. In former times the barber's craft was dignified with the title of a profession, being conjoined with the art of surgery. In France the barber-surgeons were separated from the perruquiers, and incorporated as a distinct body in the reign of Louis XIV. In England barbers first received incorporation from Edward IV. in 1461. By 32 Henry VIII. c. 42, they were united with the company of surgeons, it being enacted that the barbers should confine themselves to the minor operations of blood-letting and drawing teeth, while the surgeons were prohibited from "barbery or shaving." In 1745 barbers and surgeons were separated into distinct corporations by 18 George II. c. 15. The barber's shop was a favourite resort of idle persons; and in addition to its attraction as a focus of news, a lute, viol, or some such musical instrument, was always kept for the entertainment of waiting customers. The barber's sign consisted of a striped pole, from which was suspended a basin, symbols the use of which is still preserved. The fillet round the pole indicated the ribbon for bandaging the arm in bleeding, and the basin the vessel to receive the blood.
See also Beard, and Annals of the Barber Surgeons of London (1890).
BARBERINI, the name of a powerful Italian family, originally of Tuscan extraction, who settled in Florence during the early part of the 11th century. They acquired great wealth and influence, and in 1623 Maffeo Barberini was raised to the papal throne as Urban VIII. He made his brother, Antonio, a distinguished soldier, and two nephews, cardinals, and gave to a third nephew, Taddeo, the principality of Palestrina. Great jealousy of their increasing power was excited amongst the neighbouring princes, and Odoardo Farnese, duke of Parma, made war upon Taddeo, and defeated the papal troops. After the death of Urban in 1644 his successor, Innocent X., showed hostility to the Barberini family. Taddeo fled to Paris, where he died in 1647, and with him the family became extinct in the male line. His daughter Cornelia married Prince Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra in 1728, who added her name to his own. On the death of Prince Enrico Barberini-Colonna the name went to his daughter and heiress Donna Maria and her husband Marquis Luigi Sacchetti, who received the title of prince of Palestrina and permission to bear the name of Barberini. The fine Barberini palace and library in Rome give evidence of their wealth and magnificence. The ruthless way in which they plundered ancient buildings to adorn their own palaces is the origin of the saying, "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini."
See A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1868), iii. b. 611-612, 615, 617, &c.; Almanach de Gotha (Gotha, 1902); J. H. Douglas, The Principal Noble Families of Rome (Rome, 1905).
BARBERRY (Berberis vulgaris), a shrub with spiny-toothed leaves, which on the woody shoots are reduced to forked spines, and pale yellow flowers in hanging racemes, which are succeeded by orange-red berries. It is a member of the botanical natural order Berberidaceae, and contains about 100 species in the north temperate zone and in the Andes of South America extending into Patagonia. The order is nearly allied to the buttercup order in having the parts of the flowers all free and arranged in regular succession below the ovary which consists of only one carpel. It is distinguished by having the sepals, petals and stamens in multiples of 2, 3 or 4, never of 5. The berries of Berberis are edible; those of the native barberry are sometimes made into preserves. The alkaloid berberine (q.v.) occurs in the roots.
BARBERTON, a town of the Transvaal, 283 m. by rail (175 m. in a direct line) E. of Pretoria and 136 m. W.N.W. of Delagoa Bay. Pop. (1904) 2433, of whom 1214 were whites. Barberton lies 2825 ft. above the sea and is built on the side of a valley named De Kaap, from a bold headland of the Drakensberg which towers above it. The chief town of a district of the same name, it owes its existence to the discovery of gold in the Kaap valley, and dates from 1886. There are several fine public buildings grouped mainly round President Square. The town is connected with the Lourenço Marques-Pretoria trunk railway by a branch line, 35 m. long, which runs N.E. through fine mountainous country and joins the main line at Kaapmuiden. During the war of 1899-1902 the Boers were driven out of Barberton (13th of September 1900) by General (afterwards Sir John) French.
BARBETTE (Fr. diminutive of barbe, a beard), a platform inside a fortification raised sufficiently high for artillery placed thereon to be able to fire en barbette, viz. over the top of the parapet; also in warships a raised platform, protected by armour on the sides, upon which guns are mounted en barbette.
BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, JULES AMÉDÉE (1808-1889), French man of letters, was born at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte (Manche) on the 2nd of November 1808. His most famous novels are Une Vieille Maîtresse (1851), attacked at the time of its publication on the charge of immorality; L'Ensorcelée (1854), an episode of the royalist rising among the Norman peasants against the first republic; the Chevalier Destouches (1864); and a collection of extraordinary stories entitled Les Diaboliques (1874). Barbey d'Aurevilly is an extreme example of the eccentricities of which the Romanticists were capable, and to read him is to understand the discredit that fell upon the manner. He held extreme Catholic views and wrote on the most risqué subjects, he gave himself aristocratic airs and hinted at a mysterious past, though his parentage was entirely bourgeois and his youth very hum-drum and innocent. In the 'fifties d'Aurevilly became literary critic of the Pays, and a number of his essays, contributed to this and other journals, were collected as Les Œuvres et les hommes du XIXe siècle (1861-1865). Other literary studies are Les Romanciers (1866) and Goethe et Diderot (1880). He died in Paris on the 23rd of April 1889. Paul Bourget describes him as a dreamer with an exquisite sense of vision, who sought and found in his work a refuge from the
uncongenial world of every day. Jules Lemaître, a less sympathetic critic, finds in the extraordinary crimes of his heroes and heroines, his reactionary views, his dandyism and snobbery, an exaggerated Byronism.