Baillie, Robert, an eminent Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, was born at Glasgow in 1599, died 1662. Though educated and ordained as an Episcopalian, he resisted the attempt of Archbishop Laud to introduce his Book of Common Prayer into Scotland, and joined the Presbyterian party. In 1638 he represented the presbytery of Irvine in the General Assembly at Glasgow, which dissolved Episcopacy in Scotland. In 1640 he was selected to go to London, with other commissioners, to draw up the accusation against Archbishop Laud. Of this, and almost all the other proceedings of his public life, he has left a minute account in his letters and journals, which form a most valuable collection for the history of his time. In 1642 he was appointed professor of divinity at Glasgow. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and attended its sittings from 1643-6. After the Restoration, though made principal of his college through Court patronage, he did not hesitate to express his dissatisfaction with the reintroduction of Episcopacy.
Baillie, Robert, of Jerviswood, in Lanarkshire, a Scottish patriot of the reign of Charles II. He brought himself into notice by opposing the tyrannical measures of Archbishop Sharpe against the Nonconformists, for which he was fined 6000 merks (or £500) and imprisoned for four months. In 1683 he went to London in furtherance of a scheme of emigration to South Carolina taken up by a number of Scottish gentlemen, as being the only way of escaping the tyranny of the Government. He became associated with Monmouth, Sydney, Russell, and the rest of that party, and was charged with complicity in the Rye-house plot. After a long imprisonment, during which vain attempts were made to obtain evidence against him, he was brought before the Court of Justiciary (23rd Dec., 1684), was found guilty, and condemned to be executed that afternoon.
Baillieston, a town of Scotland, in Lanarkshire, a few miles east of Glasgow, with extensive collieries, in which many of the inhabitants are employed. Pop. 5500.
Bailly (ba˙-yē), Jean Sylvain, French astronomer and statesman, born at Paris 1736. After some youthful essays in verse, he was induced by Lacaille to devote himself to astronomy, and on the death of the latter in 1753, being admitted to the Academy of Sciences, he published a reduction of Lacaille's observations on the zodiacal stars. In 1764 he competed ably but unsuccessfully for the Academy prize offered for an essay upon Jupiter's satellites, Lagrange being his opponent; and in 1771 he published a treatise on the light reflected by these satellites. In the meantime he had won distinction as a man of letters by his Éloges on Pierre Corneille, Leibnitz, Molière, and others; and the same qualities of style shown by these were maintained in his History of Astronomy (1775-87), his most extensive work. In 1784 the French Academy elected him a member. The revolution drew him into public life. Paris chose him, 12th May, 1789, first deputy of the tiers-état, and in the Assembly itself he was made first president, a post occupied by him on 20th June, 1789, in the session of the Tennis Court, when the deputies swore never to separate till they had given France a new constitution. As Mayor of Paris his moderation and impartial enforcement of the law failed to commend themselves to the people, and his forcible suppression of mob violence, 17th July, 1791, aroused a storm which led to his resignation and retreat to Nantes. In 1793 he attempted to join Laplace at Melun, but was recognized and sent to Paris, where he was condemned by the revolutionary tribunal, and executed on 12th Nov.
Bailment, in law, is the delivery of a chattel or thing to a person in trust, either for the use of the bailer or person delivering, or for that of the bailee or person to whom it is delivered. A bailment always supposes the subject to be delivered only for a limited time, at the expiration of which it must be re-delivered to the bailer, the responsibility of the bailee being dependent, in some degree, upon the contract on which the bailment is made. Pledging and letting for hire are species of bailment. Agistment, or the taking in of cattle or live stock to feed at a rate of so much per head, is a contract of bailment.
Baily, Edward Hodges, an English sculptor, born at Bristol 1788, died at London 1867. He became a pupil of Flaxman in 1807, gained the Academy Gold Medal in 1811, and was elected R.A. in 1821. Principal works: Eve at the Fountain, Eve Listening to the Voice, Maternal Affection, Girl Preparing for the Bath, The Graces, &c. The bas-reliefs on the south side of the Marble
Arch, Hyde Park, the statue of Nelson on the Trafalgar Square monument, and other public works, were by him.
Baily, Francis, astronomer, born in Berkshire 1774; settled in London as a stockbroker in 1802. While thus actively engaged he published Tables for the Purchasing and Renewing of Leases, The Doctrine of Interest and Annuities, The Doctrine of Life Annuities and Assurances, and an epitome of universal history. On retiring from business with an ample fortune in 1825 he turned his attention to astronomy, became one of the founders of the Astronomical Society, contributed to its Transactions, and in 1835 published a life of Flamsteed. He died in 1844.
Baily's Beads, a phenomenon attending eclipses of the sun, the unobscured edge of which appears discontinuous and broken immediately before and after the moment of complete obscuration. It is classed as an effect of irradiation, and is caused by the sun shining through the depressions between the lunar mountains.
Bain, Alexander, Scottish philosopher and educationalist, was born at Aberdeen in 1818. He was educated at Marischal College (then a separate university), Aberdeen; was for some years a deputy professor in the university; subsequently held official posts in London; and in 1860 was appointed professor of logic and English in Aberdeen University, a post which he held till his resignation in 1881. His most important works are: The Senses and the Intellect (1855); The Emotions and the Will (1859), together forming a complete exposition of the human mind; Mental and Moral Science (1868); Logic, Deductive and Inductive (1870); Mind and Body (1873); Education as a Science (1879); James Mill, a Biography (1881); John Stuart Mill, a Criticism with Personal Recollections (1882); besides an English Grammar; English Composition and Rhetoric; an Autobiography, &c. Bain was at once grammarian, rhetorician, educationalist, and logician, but his fame rests on his contributions to psychology. He died in 1903.