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BULGARIA (continued from part 3)
... the mean interval being 60 m.; the summits are, as a rule, rounded, and the slopes gentle. The culminating points are in the centre of the range: Yumrukchál (7835 ft.), Maragudúk (7808 ft.), and Kadimlía (7464 ft.). The Balkans are known to the people of the country as the Stara Planina or "Old Mountain," the adjective denoting their greater size as compared with that of the adjacent ranges: "Balkán" is not a distinctive term, being applied by the Bulgarians, as well as the Turks, to all mountains. Closely parallel, on the south, are the minor ranges of the Sredna Gora or "Middle Mountains" (highest summit 5167 ft.) and the Karaja Dagh, enclosing respectively the sheltered valleys of Karlovo and Kazanlyk. At its eastern extremity the Balkan chain divides into three ridges, the central terminating in the Black Sea at Cape Eminé ("Haemus"), the northern forming the watershed between the tributaries of the Danube and the rivers falling directly into the Black Sea. The Rhodope, or southern group, is altogether distinct from the Balkans, with which, however, it is connected by the Malka Planina and the Ikhtiman hills, respectively west and east of Sofia; it may be regarded as a continuation of the great Alpine system which traverses the Peninsula from the Dinaric Alps and the Shar Planina on the west to the Shabkhana Dagh near the Aegean coast; its sharper outlines and pine-clad steeps reproduce the scenery of the Alps rather than that of the Balkans. The imposing summit of Musallá (9631 ft.), next to Olympus, the highest in the Peninsula, forms the centre-point of the group; it stands within the Bulgarian frontier at the head of the Mesta valley, on either side of which the Perin Dagh and the Despoto Dagh descend south and south-east respectively towards the Aegean. The chain of Rhodope proper radiates to the east; owing to the retrocession of territory already mentioned, its central ridge no longer completely coincides with the Bulgarian boundary, but two of its principal summits, Sytké (7179 ft.) and Karlyk (6828 ft.), are within the frontier. From Musallá in a westerly direction extends the majestic range of the Rilska Planina, enclosing in a picturesque valley the celebrated monastery of Rila; many summits of this chain attain 7000 ft. Farther west, beyond the Struma valley, is the Osogovska Planina, culminating in Ruyen (7392 ft.). To the north of the Rilska Planina the almost isolated mass of Vitosha (7517 ft.) overhangs Sofia. Snow and ice remain in the sheltered crevices of Rhodope and the Balkans throughout the summer. The fertile slope trending northwards from the Balkans to the Danube is for the most part gradual and broken by hills; the eastern portion known as the Delí Orman, or "Wild Wood," is covered by forest, and thinly inhabited. The abrupt and sometimes precipitous character of the Bulgarian bank of the Danube contrasts with the swampy lowlands and lagoons of the Rumanian side. Northern Bulgaria is watered by the Lom, Ogust, Iskr, Vid, Osem, Yantra and Eastern Lom, all, except the Iskr, rising in the Balkans, and all flowing into the Danube. The channels of these rivers are deeply furrowed and the fall is rapid; irrigation is consequently difficult and navigation impossible. The course of the Iskr is remarkable: rising in the Rilska Planina, the river descends into the basin of Samakov, passing thence through a serpentine defile into the plateau of Sofia, where in ancient times it formed a lake; it now forces its way through the Balkans by the picturesque gorge of Iskretz. Somewhat similarly the Deli, or "Wild," Kamchik breaks the central chain of the Balkans near their eastern extremity and, uniting with the Great Kamchik, falls into the Black Sea. The Maritza, the ancient Hebrus, springs from the slopes of Musallá, and, with its tributaries, the Tunja and Arda, waters the wide plain of Eastern Rumelia. The Struma (ancient and modern Greek Strymon) drains the valley of Kiustendil, and, like the Maritza, flows into the Aegean. The elevated basins of Samakov (lowest altitude 3050 ft.), Trn (2525 ft.), Breznik (2460 ft.), Radomir (2065 ft.), Sofia (1640 ft.), and Kiustendil (1540 ft.), are a peculiar feature of the western highlands.
Geology.—The stratified formation presents a remarkable variety, almost all the systems being exemplified. The Archean, composed of gneiss and crystalline schists, and traversed by eruptive veins, extends over the greater part of the Eastern Rumelian plain, the Rilska Planina, Rhodope, and the adjacent ranges. North of the Balkans it appears only in the neighbourhood of Berkovitza. The other earlier Palaeozoic systems are wanting, but the Carboniferous appears in the western Balkans with a continental facies (Kulm). Here anthracitiferous coal is found in beds of argillite and sandstone. Red sandstone and conglomerate, representing the Permian system, appear especially around the basin of Sofia. Above these, in the western Balkans, are Mesozoic deposits, from the Trias to the upper Jurassic, also occurring in the central part of the range. The Cretaceous system, from the infra-Cretaceous Hauterivien to the Senonian, appears throughout the whole extent of Northern Bulgaria, from the summits of the Balkans to the Danube. Gosau beds are found on the southern declivity of the chain. Flysch, representing both the Cretaceous and Eocene systems, is widely distributed. The Eocene, or older Tertiary, further appears with nummulitic formations on both sides of the eastern Balkans; the Oligocene only near the Black Sea coast at Burgas. Of the Neogene, or younger Tertiary, the Mediterranean, or earlier, stage appears near Pleven (Plevna) in the Leithakalk and Tegel forms, and between Varna and Burgas with beds of spaniodons, as in the Crimea; the Sarmatian stage in the plain of the Danube and in the districts of Silistria and Varna. A rich mammaliferous deposit (Hipparion, Rhinoceros, Dinotherium, Mastodon, &c.) of this period has been found near Mesemvria. Other Neogene strata occupy a more limited space. The Quaternary era is represented by the typical loess, which covers most of the Danubian plain; to its later epochs belong the alluvial deposits of the riparian districts with remains of the Ursus, Equus, &c., found in bone-caverns. Eruptive masses intrude in the Balkans and Sredna Gora, as well as in the Archean formation of the southern
ranges, presenting granite, syenite, diorite, diabase, quartz-porphyry, melaphyre, liparite, trachyte, andesite, basalt, &c.
Minerals.—The mineral wealth of Bulgaria is considerable, although, with the exception of coal, it remains largely unexploited. The minerals which are commercially valuable include gold (found in small quantities), silver, graphite, galena, pyrite, marcasite, chalcosine, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, bornite, cuprite, hematite, limonite, ochre, chromite, magnetite, azurite, manganese, malachite, gypsum, &c. The combustibles are anthracitiferous coal, coal, "brown coal" and lignite. The lignite mines opened by the government at Pernik in 1891 yielded in 1904 142,000 tons. Coal beds have been discovered at Trevna and elsewhere. Thermal springs, mostly sulphureous, exist in forty-three localities along the southern slope of the Balkans, in Rhodope, and in the districts of Sofia and Kiustendil; maximum temperature at Zaparevo, near Dupnitza, 180.5° (Fahrenheit), at Sofia 118.4°. Many of these are frequented now, as in Roman times, owing to their valuable therapeutic qualities. The mineral springs on the north of the Balkans are, with one exception (Vrshetz, near Berkovitza), cold.
Climate.—The severity of the climate of Bulgaria in comparison with that of other European regions of the same latitude is attributable in part to the number and extent of its mountain ranges, in part to the general configuration of the Balkan Peninsula. Extreme heat in summer and cold in winter, great local contrasts, and rapid transitions of temperature occur here as in the adjoining countries. The local contrasts are remarkable. In the districts extending from the Balkans to the Danube, which are exposed to the bitter north wind, the winter cold is intense, and the river, notwithstanding the volume and rapidity of its current, is frequently frozen over; the temperature has been known to fall to 24° below zero. Owing to the shelter afforded by the Balkans against hot southerly winds, the summer heat in this region is not unbearable; its maximum is 99°. The high tableland of Sofia is generally covered with snow in the winter months; it enjoys, however, a somewhat more equable climate than the northern district, the maximum temperature being 86°, the minimum 2°; the air is bracing, and the summer nights are cool and fresh. In the eastern districts the proximity of the sea moderates the extremes of heat and cold; the sea is occasionally frozen at Varna. The coast-line is exposed to violent north-east winds, and the Black Sea, the πόντος ἄξεινος or "inhospitable sea" of the Greeks, maintains its evil reputation for storms. The sheltered plain of Eastern Rumelia possesses a comparatively warm climate; spring begins six weeks earlier than elsewhere in Bulgaria, and the vegetation is that of southern Europe. In general the Bulgarian winter is short and severe; the spring short, changeable and rainy; the summer hot, but tempered by thunderstorms; the autumn (yasen, "the clear time") magnificently fine and sometimes prolonged into the month of December. The mean temperature is 52°. The climate is healthy, especially in the mountainous districts. Malarial fever prevails in the valley of the Maritza, in the low-lying regions of the Black Sea coast, and even in the upland plain of Sofia, owing to neglect of drainage. The mean annual rainfall is 25-59 in. (Gabrovo, 41-73; Sofia, 27-68; Varna, 18-50).
Fauna.—Few special features are noticeable in the Bulgarian fauna. Bears are still abundant in the higher mountain districts, especially in the Rilska Planina and Rhodope; the Bulgarian bear is small and of brown colour, like that of the Carpathians. Wolves are very numerous, and in winter commit great depredations even in the larger country towns and villages; in hard weather they have been known to approach the outskirts of Sofia. The government offers a reward for the destruction of both these animals. The roe deer is found in all the forests, the red deer is less common; the chamois haunts the higher regions of the Rilska Planina, Rhodope and the Balkans. The jackal (Canis aureus) appears in the district of Burgas; the lynx is said to exist in the Sredna Gora; the wild boar, otter, fox, badger, hare, wild cat, marten, polecat (Foetorius putorius; the rare tiger polecat, Foetorius sarmaticus, is also found), weasel and shrewmouse (Spermophilus citillus) are common. The beaver (Bulg. bebr) appears to have been abundant in certain localities, e.g. Bebrovo, Bebresh, &c., but it is now apparently extinct. Snakes (Coluber natrix and other species), vipers (Vipera berus and V. ammodytes), and land and water tortoises are numerous. The domestic animals are the same as in the other countries of southeastern Europe; the fierce shaggy grey sheep-dog leaves a lasting impression on most travellers in the interior. Fowls, especially turkeys, are everywhere abundant, and great numbers of geese may be seen in the Moslem villages. The ornithology of Bulgaria is especially interesting. Eagles (Aquila imperialis and the rarer Aquila fulva), vultures (Vultur monachus, Gyps fulvus, Neophron percnopterus), owls, kites, and the smaller birds of prey are extraordinarily abundant; singing birds are consequently rare. The lammergeier (Gypaëtus barbatus) is not uncommon. Immense flocks of wild swans, geese, pelicans, herons and other waterfowl haunt the Danube and the lagoons of the Black Sea coast. The cock of the woods (Tetrao urogallus) is found in the Balkan and Rhodope forests, the wild pheasant in the Tunja valley, the bustard (Otis tarda) in the Eastern Rumelian plain. Among the migratory birds are the crane, which hibernates in the Maritza valley, woodcock, snipe and quail; the great spotted cuckoo (Coccystes glandarius) is an occasional visitant. The red starling (Pastor roseus) sometimes appears in large flights. The stork, which is never molested, adds a picturesque feature to the Bulgarian village. Of fresh-water fish, the sturgeon (Acipenser sturio and A. huso), sterlet, salmon (Salmo hucho), and carp are found in the Danube; the mountain streams abound in trout. The Black Sea supplies turbot, mackerel, &c.; dolphins and flying fish may sometimes be seen.
Flora.—In regard to its flora the country may be divided into (1) the northern plain sloping from the Balkans to the Danube, (2) the southern plain between the Balkans and Rhodope, (3) the districts adjoining the Black Sea, (4) the elevated basins of Sofia, Samakov and Kiustendil, (5) the Alpine and sub-Alpine regions of the Balkans and the southern mountain group. In the first-mentioned region the vegetation resembles that of the Russian and Rumanian steppes; in the spring the country is adorned with the flowers of the crocus, orchis, iris, tulip and other bulbous plants, which in summer give way to tall grasses, umbelliferous growths, dianthi, astragali, &c. In the more sheltered district south of the Balkans the richer vegetation recalls that of the neighbourhood of Constantinople and the adjacent parts of Asia Minor. On the Black Sea coast many types of the Crimean, Transcaucasian and even the Mediterranean flora present themselves. The plateaus of Sofia and Samakov furnish specimens of sub-alpine plants, while the vine disappears; the hollow of Kiustendil, owing to its southerly aspect, affords the vegetation of the Macedonian valleys. The flora of the Balkans corresponds with that of the Carpathians; the Rila and Rhodope group is rich in purely indigenous types combined with those of the central European Alps and the mountains of Asia Minor. The Alpine types are often represented by variants: e.g. the Campanula alpina by the Campanula orbelica, the Primula farinosa by the Primula frondosa and P. exigua, the Gentiana germanica by the Gentiana bulgarica, &c. The southern mountain group, in common, perhaps, with the unexplored highlands of Macedonia, presents many isolated types, unknown elsewhere in Europe, and in some cases corresponding with those of the Caucasus. Among the more characteristic genera of the Bulgarian flora are the following:—Centaurea, Cirsium, Linaria, Scrophularia, Verbascum, Dianthus, Silene, Trifolium, Euphorbia, Cytisus, Astragalus, Ornithogalum, Allium, Crocus, Iris, Thymus, Umbellifera, Sedum, Hypericum, Scabiosa, Ranunculus, Orchis, Ophrys.
Forests.—The principal forest trees are the oak, beech, ash, elm, walnut, cornel, poplar, pine and juniper. The oak is universal in the thickets, but large specimens are now rarely found. Magnificent forests of beech clothe the valleys of the higher Balkans and the Rilska Planina; the northern declivity of the Balkans is, in general, well wooded, but the southern slope is bare. The walnut and chestnut are mainly confined to eastern Rumelia. Conifers (Pinus silvestris, Picea excelsa, Pinus laricis, Pinus mughus) are rare in the Balkans, but abundant in the higher regions of the southern mountain group, where the Pinus peuce, otherwise peculiar to the Himalayas, also flourishes. The wild lilac forms a beautiful feature in the spring landscape. Wild fruit trees, such as the apple, pear and plum, are common. The vast forests of the middle ages disappeared under the supine Turkish administration, which took no measures for their protection, and even destroyed the woods in the neighbourhood of towns and highways in order to deprive brigands of shelter. A law passed in 1889 prohibits disforesting, limits the right of cutting timber, and places the state forests under the control of inspectors. According to official statistics, 11,640 sq. m. or about 30% of the whole superficies of the kingdom, are under forest, but the greater portion of this area is covered only by brushwood and scrub. The beautiful forests of the Rila district are rapidly disappearing under exploitation.
Agriculture.—Agriculture, the main source of wealth to the country, is still in an extremely primitive condition. The ignorance and conservatism of the peasantry, the habits engendered by widespread insecurity and the fear of official rapacity under Turkish rule, insufficiency of communications, want of capital, and in some districts sparsity of population, have all tended to retard the development of this most important industry. The peasants cling to traditional usage, and look with suspicion on modern implements and new-fangled modes of production. The plough is of a primeval type, rotation of crops is only partially practised, and the use of manure is almost unknown. The government has sedulously endeavoured to introduce more enlightened methods and ideas by the establishment of agricultural schools, the appointment of itinerant professors and inspectors, the distribution of better kinds of seeds, improved implements, &c. Efforts have been made to improve the breeds of native cattle and horses, and stallions have been introduced from Hungary and distributed throughout the country. Oxen and buffaloes are the principal animals of draught; the buffalo, which was apparently introduced from Asia in remote times, is much prized by the peasants for its patience and strength; it is, however, somewhat delicate and requires much care. In
the eastern districts camels are also employed. The Bulgarian horses are small, but remarkably hardy, wiry and intelligent; they are as a rule unfitted for draught and cavalry purposes. The best sheep are found in the district of Karnobat in Eastern Rumelia. The number of goats in the country tends to decline, a relatively high tax being imposed on these animals owing to the injury they inflict on young trees. The average price of oxen is £5 each, draught oxen £12 the pair, buffaloes £14 the pair, cows £2, horses £6, sheep, 7s., goats 5s., each. The principal cereals are wheat, maize, rye, barley, oats and millet. The cultivation of maize is increasing in the Danubian and eastern districts. Rice-fields are found in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis. Cereals represent about 80% of the total exports. Besides grain, Bulgaria produces wine, tobacco, attar of roses, silk and cotton. The quality of the grape is excellent, and could the peasants be induced to abandon their highly primitive mode of wine-making the Bulgarian vintages would rank among the best European growths. The tobacco, which is not of the highest quality, is grown in considerable quantities for home consumption and only an insignificant amount is exported. The best tobacco-fields in Bulgaria are on the northern slopes of Rhodope, but the southern declivity, which produces the famous Kavala growth, is more adapted to the cultivation of the plant. The rose-fields of Kazanlyk and Karlovo lie in the sheltered valleys between the Balkans and the parallel chains of the Sredna Gora and Karaja Dagh. About 6000 lb of the rose-essence is annually exported, being valued from £12 to £14 per lb. Beetroot is cultivated in the neighbourhood of Sofia. Sericulture, formerly an important industry, has declined owing to disease among the silkworms, but efforts are being made to revive it with promise of success. Cotton is grown in the southern districts of Eastern Rumelia.
Peasant proprietorship is universal, the small freeholds averaging about 18 acres each. There are scarcely any large estates owned by individuals, but some of the monasteries possess considerable domains. The large tchifliks, or farms, formerly belonging to Turkish landowners, have been divided among the peasants. The rural proprietors enjoy the right of pasturing their cattle on the common lands belonging to each village, and of cutting wood in the state forests. They live in a condition of rude comfort, and poverty is practically unknown, except in the towns. A peculiarly interesting feature in Bulgarian agricultural life is the zadruga, or house-community, a patriarchal institution apparently dating from prehistoric times. Family groups, sometimes numbering several dozen persons, dwell together on a farm in the observance of strictly communistic principles. The association is ruled by a house-father (domakin, stareïshina), and a house-mother (domakinia), who assign to the members their respective tasks. In addition to the farm work the members often practise various trades, the proceeds of which are paid into the general treasury. The community sometimes includes a priest, whose fees for baptisms, &c., augment the common fund. The national aptitude for combination is also displayed in the associations of market gardeners (gradinarski druzhini, taifi), who in the spring leave their native districts for the purpose of cultivating gardens in the neighbourhood of some town, either in Bulgaria or abroad, returning in the autumn, when they divide the profits of the enterprise; the number of persons annually thus engaged probably exceeds 10,000. Associations for various agricultural, mining and industrial undertakings and provident societies are numerous: the handicraftsmen in the towns are organized in esnafs or gilds.
Manufactures.—The development of manufacturing enterprise on a large scale has been retarded by want of capital. The principal establishments for the native manufactures of aba and shayak (rough and fine homespuns), and of gaitan (braided embroidery) are at Sliven and Gabrovo respectively. The Bulgarian homespuns, which are made of pure wool, are of admirable quality. The exportation of textiles is almost exclusively to Turkey: value in 1806, £104,046; in 1898, £144,726; in 1904, £108,685. Unfortunately the home demand for native fabrics is diminishing owing to foreign competition; the smaller textile industries are declining, and the picturesque, durable, and comfortable costume of the country is giving way to cheap ready-made clothing imported from Austria. The government has endeavoured to stimulate the home industry by ordering all persons in its employment to wear the native cloth, and the army is supplied almost exclusively by the factories at Sliven. A great number of small distilleries exist throughout the country; there are breweries in all the principal towns, tanneries at Sevlievo, Varna, &c., numerous corn-mills worked by water and steam, and sawmills, turned by the mountain torrents, in the Balkans and Rhodope. A certain amount of foreign capital has been invested in industrial enterprises; the most notable are sugar-refineries in the neighbourhood of Sofia and Philippopolis, and a cotton-spinning mill at Varna, on which an English company has expended about £60,000.
Commerce.—The usages of internal commerce have been considerably modified by the development of communications. The primitive system of barter in kind still exists in the rural districts, but is gradually disappearing. The great fairs (panaïri, πανηγύρεις) held at Eski-Jumaia, Dobritch and other towns, which formerly attracted multitudes of foreigners as well as natives, have lost much of their importance; a considerable amount of business, however, is still transacted at these gatherings, of which ninety-seven were held in 1898. The principal seats of the export trade are Varna, Burgas and Baltchik on the Black Sea, and Svishtov, Rustchuk, Nikopolis, Silistria, Rakhovo, and Vidin on the Danube. The chief centres of distribution for imports are Varna, Sofia, Rustchuk, Philippopolis and Burgas. About 10% of the exports passes over the Turkish frontier, but the government is making great efforts to divert the trade to Varna and Burgas, and important harbour works have been carried out at both these ports. The new port of Burgas was formally opened in 1904, that of Varna in 1906.
In 1887 the total value of Bulgarian foreign commerce was £4,419,589. The following table gives the values for the six years ending 1904. The great fluctuations in the exports are due to the variations of the harvest, on which the prosperity of the country practically depends:—
| Year. | Exports. | Imports. | Total. |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| 1899 | 2,138,684 | 2,407,123 | 4,545,807 |
| 1900 | 2,159,305 | 1,853,684 | 4,012,989 |
| 1901 | 3,310,790 | 2,801,762 | 6,112,552 |
| 1902 | 4,147,381 | 2,849,059 | 7,996,440 |
| 1903 | 4,322,945 | 3,272,103 | 7,595,048 |
| 1904 | 6,304,756 | 5,187,583 | 11,492,339 |
The principal exports are cereals, live stock, homespuns, hides, cheese, eggs, attar of roses. Exports to the United Kingdom in 1900 were valued at £239,665; in 1904 at £989,127. The principal imports are textiles, metal goods, colonial goods, implements, furniture, leather, petroleum. Imports from the United Kingdom in 1900, £301,150; in 1904, £793,972.
The National Bank, a state institution with a capital of £400,000, has its central establishment at Sofia, and branches at Philippopolis, Rustchuk, Varna, Trnovo and Burgas. Besides conducting the ordinary banking operations, it issues loans on mortgage. Four other banks have been founded at Sofia by groups of foreign and native capitalists. There are several private banks in the country. The Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Industrial Bank of Kiev have branches at Philippopolis and Sofia respectively. The agricultural chests, founded by Midhat Pasha in 1863, and reorganized in 1894, have done much to rescue the peasantry from the hands of usurers. They serve as treasuries for the local administration, accept deposits at interest, and make loans to the peasants on mortgage or the security of two solvent landowners at 8%. Their capital in 1887 was £569,260; in 1904, £1,440,000. Since 1893 they have been constituted as the "Bulgarian Agricultural Bank"; the central direction is at Sofia. The post-office savings bank, established 1896, had in 1905 a capital of £1,360,560.
There are over 200 registered provident societies in the country. The legal rate of interest is 10%, but much higher rates are not uncommon.
Bulgaria, like the neighbouring states of the Peninsula, has adopted the metric system. Turkish weights and measures, however, are still largely employed in local commerce. The monetary unit is the lev, or "lion" (pl. leva), nominally equal to the franc, with its submultiple the stotinka (pl. -ki), or centime. The coinage consists of nickel and bronze coins (2½, 5, 10 and 20 stotinki) and silver coins
(50 stotinki; 1, 2 and 5 leva). A gold coinage was struck in 1893 with pieces corresponding to those of the Latin Union. The Turkish pound and foreign gold coins are also in general circulation. The National Bank issues notes for 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 leva, payable in gold. Notes payable in silver are also issued.
Finance.—It is only possible here to deal with Bulgarian finance prior to the declaration of independence in 1908. At the outset of its career the principality was practically unencumbered with any debt, external or internal. The stipulations of the Berlin Treaty (Art. ix.) with regard to the payment of a tribute to the sultan and the assumption of an "equitable proportion" of the Ottoman Debt were never carried into effect. In 1883 the claim of Russia for the expenses of the occupation (under Art. xx. of the treaty) was fixed at 26,545,625 fr. (£1,061,820) payable in annual instalments of 2,100,000 fr. (£84,000). The union with Eastern Rumelia in 1885 entailed liability for the obligations of that province consisting of an annual tribute to Turkey of 2,951,000 fr. (£118,040) and a loan of 3,375,000 fr. (£135,000) contracted with the Imperial Ottoman Bank. In 1888 the purchase of the Varna-Rustchuk railway was effected by the issue of treasury bonds at 6% to the vendors. In 1889 a loan of 30,000,000 fr. (£1,200,000) bearing 6% interest was contracted with the Vienna Länderbank and Bankverein at 85½. In 1892 a further 6% loan of 142,780,000 fr. (£5,711,200) was contracted with the Länderbank at 83, 86 and 89. In 1902 a 5% loan of 106,000,000 fr. (£4,240,000), secured on the tobacco dues and the stamp-tax, was contracted with the Banque de l'État de Russie and the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas at 81½, for the purpose of consolidating the floating debt, and in 1904 a 5% loan of 99,980,000 fr. (£3,999,200) at 82, with the same guarantees, was contracted with the last-named bank mainly for the purchase of war material in France and the construction of railways. In January 1906 the national debt stood as follows:—Outstanding amount of the consolidated loans, 363,070,500 fr. (£14,522,820); internal debt, 15,603,774 fr. (£624,151); Eastern Rumelian debt, 1,910,208 (£76,408). In February 1907 a 4½% loan of 145,000,000 fr. at 85, secured on the surplus proceeds of the revenues already pledged to the loans of 1902 and 1904, was contracted with the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas associated with some German and Austrian banks for the conversion of the loans of 1888 and 1889 (requiring about 53,000,000 fr.) and for railway construction and other purposes. The total external debt was thus raised to upwards of 450,000,000 fr. The Eastern Rumelian tribute and the rent of the Sarambey-Belovo railway, if capitalized at 6%, would represent a further sum of 50,919,100 fr. (£2,036,765). The national debt was not disproportionately great in comparison with annual revenue. After the union with Eastern Rumelia the budget receipts increased from 40,803,262 leva (£1,635,730) in 1886 to 119,655,507 leva (£4,786,220) in 1904; the estimated revenue for 1905 was 111,920,000 leva (£4,476,800), of which 41,179,000 (£1,647,160) were derived from direct and 38,610,000 (£1,544,400) from indirect taxation; the estimated expenditure was 111,903,281 leva (£4,476,131), the principal items being: public debt, 31,317,346 (£1,252,693); army, 26,540,720 (£1,061,628); education, 10,402,470 (£416,098); public works, 14,461,171 (£578,446); interior, 7,559,517 (£302,380). The actual receipts in 1905 were 127,011,393 leva. In 1895 direct taxation, which pressed heavily on the agricultural class, was diminished and indirect taxation (import duties and excise) considerably increased. In 1906 direct taxation amounted to 9 fr. 92 c., indirect to 8 fr. 58 c., per head of the population. The financial difficulties in which the country was involved at the close of the 19th century were attributable not to excessive indebtedness but to heavy outlay on public works, the army, and education, and to the maintenance of an unnecessary number of officials, the economic situation being aggravated by a succession of bad harvests. The war budget during ten years (1888-1897) absorbed the large sum of 275,822,017 leva (£11,033,300) or 35.77% of the whole national income within that period. In subsequent years military expenditure continued to increase; the total during the period since the union with Eastern Rumelia amounting to 599,520,698 leva (£23,980,800).
Communications.—In 1878 the only railway in Bulgaria was the Rustchuk-Varna line (137 m.), constructed by an English company in 1867. In Eastern Rumelia the line from Sarambey to Philippopolis and the Turkish frontier (122 m.), with a branch to Yamboli (66 m.), had been built by Baron Hirsch in 1873, and leased by the Turkish government to the Oriental Railways Company until 1958. It was taken over by the Bulgarian government in 1908 (see History, below). The construction of a railway from the Servian frontier at Tzaribrod to the Eastern Rumelian frontier at Vakarel was imposed on the principality by the Berlin Treaty, but political difficulties intervened, and the line, which touches Sofia, was not completed till 1888. In that year the Bulgarian government seized the short connecting line Belovo-Sarambey belonging to Turkey, and railway communication between Constantinople and the western capitals was established. Since that time great progress has been made in railway construction. In 1888, 240 m. of state railways were open to traffic; in 1899, 777 m.; in 1902, 880 m. Up to October 1908 all these lines were worked by the state, and, with the exception of the Belovo-Sarambey line (29 m.), which was worked under a convention with Turkey, were its property. The completion of the important line Radomir-Sofia-Shumen (November 1899) opened up the rich agricultural district between the Balkans and the Danube and connected Varna with the capital. Branches to Samovit and Rustchuk establish connexion with the Rumanian railway system on the opposite side of the river. It was hoped, with the consent of the Turkish government, to extend the line Sofia-Radomir-Kiustendil to Uskub, and thus to secure a direct route to Salonica and the Aegean. Road communication is still in an unsatisfactory condition. Roads are divided into three classes: "state roads," or main highways, maintained by the government; "district roads" maintained by the district councils; and "inter-village roads" (mezhduselski shosseta), maintained by the communes. Repairs are effected by the corvée system with requisitions of material. There are no canals, and inland navigation is confined to the Danube. The Austrian Donaudampschiffahrtsgesellschaft and the Russian Gagarine steamship company compete for the river traffic; the grain trade is largely served by steamers belonging to Greek merchants. The coasting trade on the Black Sea is carried on by a Bulgarian steamship company; the steamers of the Austrian Lloyd, and other foreign companies call at Varna, and occasionally at Burgas.
The development of postal and telegraphic communication has been rapid. In 1886, 1,468,494 letters were posted, in 1903, 29,063,043. Receipts of posts and telegraphs in 1886 were £40,975, in 1903 £134,942. In 1903 there were 3261 m. of telegraph lines and 531 m. of telephones.
Towns.—The principal towns of Bulgaria are Sofia, the capital (Bulgarian Sredetz, a name now little used), pop. in January 1906, 82,187; Philippopolis, the capital of Eastern Rumelia (Bulg. Plovdiv), pop. 45,572; Varna, 37,155; Rustchuk (Bulg. Russé), 33,552; Sliven, 25,049; Shumla (Bulg. Shumen), 22,290; Plevna (Bulg. Pleven), 21,208; Stara-Zagora, 20,647; Tatar-Pazarjik, 17,549; Vidin, 16,168; Yamboli (Greek Hyampolis), 15,708; Dobritch (Turkish Hajiolu-Pazarjik), 15,369; Haskovo, 15,061; Vratza, 14,832; Stanimaka (Greek Stenimachos), 14,120; Razgrad, 13,783; Sistova (Bulg. Svishtov), 13,408; Burgas, 12,846; Kiustendil, 12,353; Trnovo, the ancient capital, 12,171. All these are described in separate articles.
Population.—The area of northern Bulgaria is 24,535 sq. m.; of Eastern Rumelia 12,705 sq. m.; of united Bulgaria, 37,240 sq. m. According to the census of the 12th of January 1906, the population of northern Bulgaria was 2,853,704; of Eastern Rumelia, 1,174,535; of united Bulgaria, 4,028,239 or 88 per sq. m. Bulgaria thus ranks between Rumania and Portugal in regard to area; between the Netherlands and Switzerland in regard to population: in density of population it may be compared with Spain and Greece.
The first census of united Bulgaria was taken in 1888: it gave the total population as 3,154,375. In January 1893 the population was 3,310,713; in January 1901, 3,744,283.
The movement of the population at intervals of five years has been as follows:—
| Year. | Marriages. |
Births (living). |
Still- born. | Deaths. |
Natural Increase.[[1]] |
| 1882 | 19,795 | 74,642 | 300 | 38,884 | 35,758 |
| 1887 | 20,089 | 83,179 | 144 | 39,396 | 43,783 |
| 1892 | 27,553 | 117,883 | 321 | 103,550 | 14,333 |
| 1897 | 29,227 | 149,631 | 858 | 90,134 | 59,497 |
| 1902 | 36,041 | 149,542 | 823 | 91,093 | 58,449 |
[1] Excess of births over deaths.
The death-rate shows a tendency to rise. In the five years 1882-1886 the mean death-rate was 18.0 per 1000; in 1887-1891, 20.4; in 1892-1896, 27.0; in 1897-1902, 23.92. Infant mortality is high, especially among the peasants. As the less healthy infants rarely survive, the adult population is in general robust, hardy and long-lived. The census of January 1901 gives 2719 persons of 100 years and upwards. Young men, as a rule, marry betore the age of twenty-five, girls before eighteen. The number of illegitimate births is inconsiderable, averaging only 0.12 of the total. The population according to sex in 1901 is given as 1,909,567 males and 1,834,716 females, or 51 males to 49 females. A somewhat similar disparity may be observed in the other countries of the Peninsula. Classified according to occupation, 2,802,603 persons, or 74.85% of the population, are engaged in agriculture; 360,834 in various productive industries; 118,824 in the service of the government or the exercise of liberal professions, and 148,899 in commerce. The population according to race cannot be stated with absolute accuracy, but it is approximately shown by the census of 1901, which gives the various nationalities according to language as follows:—Bulgars, 2,888,219; Turks, 531,240; Rumans, 71,063; Greeks, 66,635; Gipsies (Tziganes), 89,549; Jews (Spanish speaking), 33,661; Tatars,
18,884; Armenians, 14,581; other nationalities, 30,451. The Bulgarian inhabitants of the Peninsula beyond the limits of the principality may, perhaps, be estimated at 1,500,000 or 1,600,000, and the grand total of the race possibly reaches 5,500,000.
Ethnology.—The Bulgarians, who constitute 77.14% of the inhabitants of the kingdom, are found in their purest type in the mountain districts, the Ottoman conquest and subsequent colonization having introduced a mixed population into the plains.
The devastation of the country which followed the Turkish invasion resulted in the extirpation or flight of a large proportion of the Bulgarian inhabitants of the lowlands, who were replaced by Turkish colonists. The mountainous districts, however, retained their original population and sheltered large numbers of the fugitives. The passage of the Turkish armies during the wars with Austria, Poland and Russia led to further Bulgarian emigrations. The flight to the Banat, where 22,000 Bulgarians still remain, took place in 1730. At the beginning of the 19th century the majority of the population of the Eastern Rumelian plain was Turkish. The Turkish colony, however, declined, partly in consequence of the drain caused by military service, while the Bulgarian remnant increased, notwithstanding a considerable emigration to Bessarabia before and after the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1828. Efforts were made by the Porte to strengthen the Moslem element by planting colonies of Tatars in 1861 and Circassians in 1864. The advance of the Russian army in 1877-1878 caused an enormous exodus of the Turkish population, of which only a small proportion returned to settle permanently. The emigration continued after the conclusion of peace, and is still in progress, notwithstanding the efforts of the Bulgarian government to arrest it. In twenty years (1879-1899), at least 150,000 Turkish peasants left Bulgaria. Much of the land thus abandoned still remains unoccupied. On the other hand, a considerable influx of Bulgarians from Macedonia, the vilayet of Adrianople, Bessarabia, and the Dobrudja took place within the same period, and the inhabitants of the mountain villages show a tendency to migrate into the richer districts of the plains.
The northern slopes of the Balkans from Belogradchik to Elena are inhabited almost exclusively by Bulgarians; in Eastern Rumelia the national element is strongest in the Sredna Gora and Rhodope. Possibly the most genuine representatives of the race are the Pomaks or Mahommedan Bulgarians, whose conversion to Islam preserved their women from the licence of the Turkish conqueror; they inhabit the highlands of Rhodope and certain districts in the neighbourhood of Lovtcha (Lovetch) and Plevna. Retaining their Bulgarian speech and many ancient national usages, they may be compared with the indigenous Cretan, Bosnian and Albanian Moslems. The Pomaks in the principality are estimated at 26,000, but their numbers are declining. In the north-eastern district between the Yantra and the Black Sea the Bulgarian race is as yet thinly represented; most of the inhabitants are Turks, a quiet, submissive, agricultural population, which unfortunately shows a tendency to emigrate. The Black Sea coast is inhabited by a variety of races. The Greek element is strong in the maritime towns, and displays its natural aptitude for navigation and commerce. The Gagäuzi, a peculiar race of Turkish-speaking Christians, inhabit the littoral from Cape Eminé to Cape Kaliakra: they are of Turanian origin and descend from the ancient Kumani. The valleys of the Maritza and Arda are occupied by a mixed population consisting of Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks; the principal Greek colonies are in Stanimaka, Kavakly and Philippopolis. The origin of the peculiar Shôp tribe which inhabits the mountain tracts of Sofia, Breznik and Radomir is a mystery. The Shôps are conceivably a remnant of the aboriginal race which remained undisturbed in its mountain home during the Slavonic and Bulgarian incursions: they cling with much tenacity to their distinctive customs, apparel and dialect. The considerable Vlach or Ruman colony in the Danubian districts dates from the 18th century, when large numbers of Walachian peasants sought a refuge on Turkish soil from the tyranny of the boyars or nobles: the department of Vidin alone contains 36 Ruman villages with a population of 30,550. Especially interesting is the race of nomad shepherds from the Macedonian and the Aegean coast who come in thousands every summer to pasture their flocks on the Bulgarian mountains; they are divided into two tribes—the Kutzovlachs, or "lame Vlachs," who speak Rumanian, and the Hellenized Karakatchans or "black shepherds" (compare the Morlachs, or Mavro-vlachs, μαῦροι βλάχες, of Dalmatia), who speak Greek. The Tatars, a peaceable, industrious race, are chiefly found in the neighbourhood of Varna and Silistria; they were introduced as colonists by the Turkish government in 1861. They may be reckoned at 12,000. The gipsies, who are scattered in considerable numbers throughout the country, came into Bulgaria in the 14th century. They are for the most part Moslems, and retain their ancient Indian speech. They live in the utmost poverty, occupy separate cantonments in the villages, and are treated as outcasts by the rest of the population. The Bulgarians, being of mixed origin, possess few salient physical characteristics. The Slavonic type is far less pronounced than among the kindred races; the Ugrian or Finnish cast of features occasionally asserts itself in the central Balkans. The face is generally oval, the nose straight, the jaw somewhat heavy. The men, as a rule, are rather below middle height, compactly built, and, among the peasantry, very muscular; the women are generally deficient in beauty and rapidly grow old. The upper class, the so-called intelligenzia, is physically very inferior to the rural population.
National Character.—The character of the Bulgarians presents a singular contrast to that of the neighbouring nations. Less quick-witted than the Greeks, less prone to idealism than the Servians, less apt to assimilate the externals of civilization than the Rumanians, they possess in a remarkable degree the qualities of patience, perseverance and endurance, with the capacity for laborious effort peculiar to an agricultural race. The tenacity and determination with which they pursue their national aims may eventually enable them to vanquish their more brilliant competitors in the struggle for hegemony in the Peninsula. Unlike most southern races, the Bulgarians are reserved, taciturn, phlegmatic, unresponsive, and extremely suspicious of foreigners. The peasants are industrious, peaceable and orderly; the vendetta, as it exists in Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia, and the use of the knife in quarrels, so common in southern Europe, are alike unknown. The tranquillity of rural life has, unfortunately, been invaded by the intrigues of political agitators, and bloodshed is not uncommon at elections. All classes practise thrift bordering on parsimony, and any display of wealth is generally resented. The standard of sexual morality is high, especially in the rural districts; the unfaithful wife is an object of public contempt, and in former times was punished with death. Marriage ceremonies are elaborate and protracted, as is the case in most primitive communities; elopements are frequent, but usually take place with the consent of the parents on both sides, in order to avoid the expense of a regular wedding. The principal amusement on Sundays and holidays is the choró (χορός), which is danced on the village green to the strains of the gaida or bagpipe, and the gûsla, a rudimentary fiddle. The Bulgarians are religious in a simple way, but not fanatical, and the influence of the priesthood is limited. Many ancient superstitions linger among the peasantry, such as the belief in the vampire and the evil eye; witches and necromancers are numerous and are much consulted.
Government.—Bulgaria is a constitutional monarchy; by Art. iii. of the Berlin Treaty it was declared hereditary in the family of a prince "freely elected by the population and confirmed by the Sublime Porte with the assent of the powers." According to the constitution of Trnovo, voted by the Assembly of Notables on the 29th of April 1879, revised by the Grand Sobranye on the 27th of May 1893, and modified by the proclamation of a Bulgarian kingdom on the 5th of October 1908, the royal dignity descends in the direct male line. The king must profess the Orthodox faith, only the first elected sovereign and his immediate heir being released from this obligation. The legislative power is vested in the king in conjunction with the
national assembly; he is supreme head of the army, supervises the executive power, and represents the country in its foreign relations. In case of a minority or an interregnum, a regency of three persons is appointed. The national representation is embodied in the Sobranye, or ordinary assembly (Bulgarian, Sŭbranïe, the Russian form Sobranye being usually employed by foreign writers), and the Grand Sobranye, which is convoked in extraordinary circumstances. The Sobranye is elected by manhood suffrage, in the proportion of 1 to 20,000 of the population, for a term of five years. Every Bulgarian citizen who can read and write and has completed his thirtieth year is eligible as a deputy. Annual sessions are held from the 27th of October to the 27th of December. All legislative and financial measures must first be discussed and voted by the Sobranye and then sanctioned and promulgated by the king. The government is responsible to the Sobranye, and the ministers, whether deputies or not, attend its sittings. The Grand Sobranye, which is elected in the proportion of 2 to every 20,000 inhabitants, is convoked to elect a new king, to appoint a regency, to sanction a change in the constitution, or to ratify an alteration in the boundaries of the kingdom. The executive is entrusted to a cabinet of eight members—the ministers of foreign affairs and religion, finance, justice, public works, the interior, commerce and agriculture, education and war. Local administration, which is organized on the Belgian model, is under the control of the minister of the interior. The country is divided into twenty-two departments (okrŭg, pl. okrŭzi), each administered by a prefect (uprávitel), assisted by a departmental council, and eighty-four sub-prefectures (okolía), each under a sub-prefect (okoliiski natchálnik). The number of these functionaries is excessive. The four principal towns have each in addition a prefect of police (gradonatchalnik) and one or more commissaries (pristav). The gendarmery numbers about 4000 men, or 1 to 825 of the inhabitants. The prefects and sub-prefects have replaced the Turkish mutessarifs and kaimakams; but the system of municipal government, left untouched by the Turks, descends from primitive times. Every commune (obshtina), urban or rural, has its kmet, or mayor, and council; the commune is bound to maintain its primary schools, a public library or reading-room, &c.; the kmet possesses certain magisterial powers, and in the rural districts he collects the taxes. Each village, as a rule, forms a separate commune, but occasionally two or more villages are grouped together.
Justice.—The civil and penal codes are, for the most part, based on the Ottoman law. While the principality formed a portion of the Turkish empire, the privileges of the capitulations were guaranteed to foreign subjects (Berlin Treaty, Art. viii.). The lowest civil and criminal court is that of the village kmet, whose jurisdiction is confined to the limits of the commune; no corresponding tribunal exists in the towns. Each sub-prefecture and town has a justice of the peace—in some cases two or more; the number of these officials is 130. Next follows the departmental tribunal or court of first instance, which is competent to pronounce sentences of death, penal servitude and deprivation of civil rights; in specified criminal cases the judges are aided by three assessors chosen by lot from an annually prepared panel of forty-eight persons. Three courts of appeal sit respectively at Sofia, Rustchuk and Philippopolis. The highest tribunal is the court of cassation, sitting at Sofia, and composed of a president, two vice-presidents and nine judges. There is also a high court of audit (vrkhovna smetna palata), similar to the French cour des comptes. The judges are poorly paid and are removable by the government. In regard to questions of marriage, divorce and inheritance the Greek, Mahommedan and Jewish communities enjoy their own spiritual jurisdiction.
Army and Navy.—The organization of the military forces of the principality was undertaken by Russian officers, who for a period of six years (1879-1885) occupied all the higher posts in the army. In Eastern Rumelia during the same period the "militia" was instructed by foreign officers; after the union it was merged in the Bulgarian army. The present organization is based on the law of the 1st of January 1904. The army consists of: (1) the active or field army (deïstvuyushta armia), divided into (i.) the active army, (ii.) the active army reserve; (2) the reserve army (reservna armia); (3) the opltchenïe or militia; the two former may operate outside the kingdom, the latter only within the frontier for purposes of defence. In time of peace the active army (i.) alone is on a permanent footing.
The peace strength in 1905 was 2500 officers, 48,200 men and 8000 horses, the active army being composed of 9 divisions of infantry, each of 4 regiments, 5 regiments of cavalry together with 12 squadrons attached to the infantry divisions, 9 regiments of artillery each of 3 groups of 3 batteries, together with 2 groups of mountain artillery, each of 3 batteries, and 3 battalions of siege artillery; 9 battalions of engineers with 1 railway and balloon section and 1 bridging section. At the same date the army was locally distributed in nine divisional areas with headquarters at Sofia, Philippopolis, Sliven, Shumla, Rustchuk, Vratza, Plevna, Stara-Zagora and Dupnitza, the divisional area being subdivided into four districts, from each of which one regiment of four battalions was recruited and completed with reservists. In case of mobilization each of the nine areas would furnish 20,106 men (16,000 infantry, 1200 artillery, 1000 engineers, 300 divisional cavalry and 1606 transport and hospital services, &c.). The war strength thus amounted to 180,954 of the active army and its reserve, exclusive of the five regiments of cavalry. In addition the 36 districts each furnished 3 battalions of the reserve army and one battalion of opltchenïe, or 144,000 infantry, which with the cavalry regiments (3000 men) and the reserves of artillery, engineers, divisional cavalry, &c. (about 10,000), would bring the grand total in time of war to about 338,000 officers and men with 18,000 horses. The men of the reserve battalions are drafted into the active army as occasion requires, but the militia serves as a separate force. Military service is obligatory, but Moslems may claim exemption on payment of £20; the age of recruitment in time of peace is nineteen, in time of war eighteen. Each conscript serves two years in the infantry and subsequently eight years in the active reserve, or three years in the other corps and six years in the active reserve; he is then liable to seven years' service in the reserve army and finally passes into the opltchenïe. The Bulgarian peasant makes an admirable soldier—courageous, obedient, persevering, and inured to hardship; the officers are painstaking and devoted to their duties. The active army and reserve, with the exception of the engineer regiments, are furnished with the .315″ Mannlicher magazine rifle, the engineer and militia with the Berdan; the artillery in 1905 mainly consisted of 8.7- and 7.5-cm. Krupp guns (field) and 6.5 cm. Krupp (mountain), 12 cm. Krupp and 15 cm. Creuzot (Schneider) howitzers, 15 cm. Krupp and 12 cm. Creuzot siege guns, and 7.5 cm. Creuzot quick-firing guns; total of all description, 1154. Defensive works were constructed at various strategical points near the frontier and elsewhere, and at Varna and Burgas. The naval force consisted of a flotilla stationed at Rustchuk and Varna, where a canal connects Lake Devno with the sea. It was composed in 1905 of 1 prince's yacht, 1 armoured cruiser, 3 gunboats, 3 torpedo boats and 10 other small vessels, with a complement of 107 officers and 1231 men.
Religion.—The Orthodox Bulgarian National Church claims to be an indivisible member of the Eastern Orthodox communion, and asserts historic continuity with the autocephalous Bulgarian church of the middle ages. It was, however, declared schismatic by the Greek patriarch of Constantinople in 1872, although differing in no point of doctrine from the Greek Church. The Exarch, or supreme head of the Bulgarian Church, resides at Constantinople; he enjoys the title of "Beatitude" (negovo Blazhenstvo), receives an annual subvention of about £6000 from the kingdom, and exercises jurisdiction over the Bulgarian hierarchy in all parts of the Ottoman empire. The exarch is elected by the Bulgarian episcopate, the Holy Synod, and a general assembly (obshti sbor), in which the laity is represented; their choice, before the declaration of Bulgarian independence, was subject to the sultan's approval. The occupant of the dignity is titular metropolitan of a Bulgarian diocese. The organization of the church within the principality was regulated
by statute in 1883. There are eleven eparchies or dioceses in the country, each administered by a metropolitan with a diocesan council; one diocese has also a suffragan bishop. Church government is vested in the Holy Synod, consisting of four metropolitans, which assembles once a year. The laity take part in the election of metropolitans and parish priests, only the "black clergy," or monks, being eligible for the episcopate. All ecclesiastical appointments are subject to the approval of the government. There are 2106 parishes (eporii) in the kingdom with 9 archimandrites, 1936 parish priests and 21 deacons, 78 monasteries with 184 monks, and 12 convents with 346 nuns. The celebrated monastery of Rila possesses a vast estate in the Rilska Planina; its abbot or hegumen owns no spiritual superior but the exarch. Ecclesiastical affairs are under the control of the minister of public worship; the clergy of all denominations are paid by the state, being free, however, to accept fees for baptisms, marriages, burials, the administering of oaths, &c. The census of January 1901 gives 3,019,999 persons of the Orthodox faith (including 66,635 Patriarchist Greeks), 643,300 Mahommedans, 33,663 Jews, 28,569 Catholics, 13,809 Gregorian Armenians, 4524 Protestants and 419 whose religion is not stated. The Greek Orthodox community has four metropolitans dependent on the patriarchate. The Mahommedan community is rapidly diminishing; it is organized under 16 muftis who with their assistants receive a subvention from the government. The Catholics, who have two bishops, are for the most part the descendants of the medieval Paulicians; they are especially numerous in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis and Sistova. The Armenians have one bishop. The Protestants are mostly Methodists; since 1857 Bulgaria has been a special field of activity for American Methodist missionaries, who have established an important school at Samakov. The Berlin Treaty (Art. V.) forbade religious disabilities in regard to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, and guaranteed the free exercise of all religions.
Education.—No educational system existed in many of the rural districts before 1878; the peasantry was sunk in ignorance, and the older generation remained totally illiterate. In the towns the schools were under the superintendence of the Greek clergy, and Greek was the language of instruction. The first Bulgarian school was opened at Gabrovo in 1835 by the patriots Aprilov and Neophyt Rilski. After the Crimean War, Bulgarian schools began to appear in the villages of the Balkans and the south-eastern districts. The children of the wealthier class were generally educated abroad. The American institution of Robert College on the Bosporus rendered an invaluable service to the newly created state by providing it with a number of well-educated young men fitted for positions of responsibility. In 1878, after the liberation of the country, there were 1658 schools in the towns and villages. Primary education was declared obligatory from the first, but the scarcity of properly qualified teachers and the lack of all requisites proved serious impediments to educational organization. The government has made great efforts and incurred heavy expenditure for the spread of education; the satisfactory results obtained are largely due to the keen desire for learning which exists among the people. The present educational system dates from 1891. Almost all the villages now possess "national" (narodni) primary schools, maintained by the communes with the aid of a state subvention and supervised by departmental and district inspectors. The state also assists a large number of Turkish primary schools. The penalties for non-attendance are not very rigidly enforced, and it has been found necessary to close the schools in the rural districts during the summer, the children being required for labour in the fields.
The age for primary instruction is six to ten years; in 1890, 47.01% of the boys and 16.11% of the girls attended the primary schools; in 1898, 85% of the boys and 40% of the girls. In 1904 there were 4344 primary schools, of which 3060 were "national," or communal, and 1284 denominational (Turkish, Greek, Jewish, &c.), attended by 340,668 pupils, representing a proportion of 9.1 per hundred inhabitants. In addition to the primary schools, 40 infant schools for children of 3 to 6 years of age were attended by 2707 pupils. In 1888 only 327,766 persons, or 11% of the population, were literate; in 1893 the proportion rose to 19.88%; in 1901 to 23.9%.
In the system of secondary education the distinction between the classical and "real" or special course of study is maintained as in most European countries; in 1904 there were 175 secondary schools and 18 gymnasia (10 for boys and 8 for girls). In addition to these there are 6 technical and 3 agricultural schools; 5 of pedagogy, 1 theological, 1 commercial, 1 of forestry, 1 of design, 1 for surgeons' assistants, and a large military school at Sofia. Government aid is given to students of limited means, both for secondary education and the completion of their studies abroad. The university of Sofia, formerly known as the "high school," was reorganized in 1904; it comprises 3 faculties (philology, mathematics and law), and possesses a staff of 17 professors and 25 lecturers. The number of students in 1905 was 943.
Political History
The ancient Thraco-Illyrian race which inhabited the district between the Danube and the Aegean was expelled, or more probably absorbed, by the great Slavonic immigration which took place at various intervals between the end of the 3rd century after Christ and the beginning of the 6th. The numerous tumuli which are found in all parts of the country (see Herodotus v. 8) and some stone tablets with bas-reliefs remain as monuments of the aboriginal population; and certain structural peculiarities, which are common to the Bulgarian and Rumanian languages, may conceivably be traced to the influence of the primitive Illyrian speech, now probably represented by the Albanian. The Slavs, an agricultural people, were governed, even in those remote times, by the democratic local institutions to which they are still attached; they possessed no national leaders or central organization, and their only political unit was the pleme, or tribe. They were considerably influenced by contact with Roman civilization. It was reserved for a foreign race, altogether distinct in origin, religion and customs, to give unity and coherence to the scattered Slavonic groups, and to weld them into a compact and powerful state which for some centuries played an important part in the history of eastern Europe and threatened the existence of the Byzantine empire.
The Bulgars.—The Bulgars, a Turanian race akin to the Tatars, Huns, Avars, Petchenegs and Finns, made their appearance on the banks of the Pruth in the latter part of the 7th century. They were a horde of wild horsemen, fierce and barbarous, practising polygamy, and governed despotically by their khans (chiefs) and boyars or bolyars (nobles). Their original abode was the tract between the Ural mountains and the Volga, where the kingdom of Great (or Black) Bolgary existed down to the 13th century. In 679, under their khan Asparukh (or Isperikh), they crossed the Danube, and, after subjugating the Slavonic population of Moesia, advanced to the gates of Constantinople and Salonica. The East Roman emperors were compelled to cede to them the province of Moesia and to pay them an annual tribute. The invading horde was not numerous, and during the next two centuries it became gradually merged in the Slavonic population. Like the Franks in Gaul the Bulgars gave their name and a political organization to the more civilized race which they conquered, but adopted its language, customs and local institutions. Not a trace of the Ugrian or Finnish element is to be found in the Bulgarian speech. This complete assimilation of a conquering race may be illustrated by many parallels.
Early Dynasties.—The history of the early Bulgarian dynasties is little else than a record of continuous conflicts with the Byzantine emperors. The tribute first imposed on the Greeks by Asparukh was again exacted by Kardam (791-797) and Krum (802-815), a sovereign noted alike for his cruelty and his military and political capacity. Under his rule the Bulgarian realm extended from the Carpathians to the neighbourhood of Adrianople; Serdica (the present Sofia) was taken, and the valley of the Struma conquered. Prêslav, the Bulgarian capital, was attacked and burned by the emperor Nicephorus, but the Greek army on its return was annihilated in one of the Balkan passes; the emperor was slain, and his skull was converted by Krum into a goblet. The reign of Boris (852-884) is memorable
for the introduction of Christianity into Bulgaria. Two monks of Salonica, SS. Cyril and Methodius, are generally reverenced as the national apostles; the scene of their labours, however, was among the Slavs of Moravia, and the Bulgars were evangelized by their disciples. Boris, finding himself surrounded by Christian states, decided from political motives to abandon paganism. He was baptized in 864, the emperor Michael III. acting as his sponsor. It was at this time that the controversies broke out which ended in the schism between the Churches of the East and West. Boris long wavered between Constantinople and Rome, but the refusal of the pope to recognize an autocephalous Bulgarian church determined him to offer his allegiance to the Greek patriarch. The decision was fraught with momentous consequences for the future of the race. The nation altered its religion in obedience to its sovereign, and some of the boyars who resisted the change paid with their lives for their fidelity to the ancient belief. The independence of the Bulgarian church was recognized by the patriarchate, a fact much dwelt upon in recent controversies. The Bulgarian primates subsequently received the title of patriarch; their see was transferred from Prêslav to Sofia, Voden and Prespa successively, and finally to Ochrida.
The First Empire.—The national power reached its zenith under Simeon (893-927), a monarch distinguished in the arts of war and peace. In his reign, says Gibbon, "Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth." His dominions extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, and from the borders of Thessaly to the Save and the Carpathians. Having become the most powerful monarch in eastern Europe, Simeon assumed the style of "Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bulgars and Greeks" (tsar i samodrzhetz vsêm Blgarom i Grkom), a title which was recognized by Pope Formosus. During the latter years of his reign, which were spent in peace, his people made great progress in civilization, literature nourished, and Prêslav, according to contemporary chroniclers, rivalled Constantinople in magnificence. After the death of Simeon the Bulgarian power declined owing to internal dissensions; the land was distracted by the Bogomil heresy (see Bogomils), and a separate or western empire, including Albania and Macedonia, was founded at Ochrida by Shishman, a boyar from Trnovo. A notable event took place in 967, when the Russians, under Sviatoslav, made their first appearance in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian tsar, Boris II., with the aid of the emperor John Zimisces, expelled the invaders, but the Greeks took advantage of their victory to dethrone Boris, and the first Bulgarian empire thus came to an end after an existence of three centuries. The empire at Ochrida, however, rose to considerable importance under Samuel, the son of Shishman (976-1014), who conquered the greater part of the Peninsula, and ruled from the Danube to the Morea. After a series of campaigns this redoubtable warrior was defeated at Bêlasitza by the emperor Basil II., surnamed Bulgaroktonos, who put out the eyes of 15,000 prisoners taken in the fight, and sent them into the camp of his adversary. The Bulgarian tsar was so overpowered by the spectacle that he died of grief. A few years later his dynasty finally disappeared, and for more than a century and a half (1018-1186) the Bulgarian race remained subject to the Byzantine emperors.
The Second Empire.—In 1186, after a general insurrection of Vlachs and Bulgars under the brothers Ivan and Peter Asên of Trnovo, who claimed descent from the dynasty of the Shishmanovtzi, the nation recovered its independence, and Ivan Asên assumed the title of "Tsar of the Bulgars and Greeks." The seat of the second, or "Bulgaro-Vlach" empire was at Trnovo, which the Bulgarians regard as the historic capital of their race. Kaloyan, the third of the Asên monarchs, extended his dominions to Belgrade, Nish and Skopïe (Uskub); he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope, and received the royal crown from a papal legate. The greatest of all Bulgarian rulers was Ivan Asên II. (1218-1241), a man of humane and enlightened character. After a series of victorious campaigns he established his sway over Albania, Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace, and governed his wide dominions with justice, wisdom and moderation. In his time the nation attained a prosperity hitherto unknown: commerce, the arts and literature flourished; Trnovo, the capital, was enlarged and embellished; and great numbers of churches and monasteries were founded or endowed. The dynasty of the Asêns became extinct in 1257, and a period of decadence began. Two other dynasties, both of Kuman origin, followed—the Terterovtzi, who ruled at Trnovo, and the Shishmanovtzi, who founded an independent state at Vidin, but afterwards reigned in the national capital. Eventually, on the 28th June 1330, a day commemorated with sorrow in Bulgaria, Tsar Michael Shishman was defeated and slain by the Servians, under Stephen Urosh III., at the battle of Velbûzhd (Kiustendil). Bulgaria, though still retaining its native rulers, now became subject to Servia, and formed part of the short-lived empire of Stephen Dushan (1331-1355). The Servian hegemony vanished after the death of Dushan, and the Christian races of the Peninsula, distracted by the quarrels of their petty princes, fell an easy prey to the advancing might of the Moslem invader.
The Turkish Conquest.—In 1340 the Turks had begun to ravage the valley of the Maritza; in 1362 they captured Philippopolis, and in 1382 Sofia. In 1366 Ivan Shishman III., the last Bulgarian tsar, was compelled to declare himself the vassal of the sultan Murad I., and to send his sister to the harem of the conqueror. In 1389 the rout of the Servians, Bosnians and Croats on the famous field of Kossovo decided the fate of the Peninsula. Shortly afterwards Ivan Shishman was attacked by the Turks; and Trnovo, after a siege of three months, was captured, sacked and burnt in 1393. The fate of the last Bulgarian sovereign is unknown: the national legend represents him as perishing in a battle near Samakov. Vidin, where Ivan's brother, Strazhimir, had established himself, was taken in 1396, and with its fall the last remnant of Bulgarian independence disappeared.
The five centuries of Turkish rule (1396-1878) form a dark epoch in Bulgarian history. The invaders carried fire and sword through the land; towns, villages and monasteries were sacked and destroyed, and whole districts were converted into desolate wastes. The inhabitants of the plains fled to the mountains, where they founded new settlements. Many of the nobles embraced the creed of Islam, and were liberally rewarded for their apostasy; others, together with numbers of the priests and people, took refuge across the Danube. All the regions formerly ruled by the Bulgarian tsars, including Macedonia and Thrace, were placed under the administration of a governor-general, styled the beylerbey of Rum-ili, residing at Sofia; Bulgaria proper was divided into the sanjaks of Sofia, Nikopolis, Vidin, Silistria and Kiustendil. Only a small proportion of the people followed the example of the boyars in abandoning Christianity; the conversion of the isolated communities now represented by the Pomaks took place at various intervals during the next three centuries. A new kind of feudal system replaced that of the boyars, and fiefs or spahiliks were conferred on the Ottoman chiefs and the renegade Bulgarian nobles. The Christian population was subjected to heavy imposts, the principal being the haratch, or capitation-tax, paid to the imperial treasury, and the tithe on agricultural produce, which was collected by the feudal lord. Among the most cruel forms of oppression was the requisitioning of young boys between the ages of ten and twelve, who were sent to Constantinople as recruits for the corps of janissaries. Notwithstanding the horrors which attended the Ottoman conquest, the condition of the peasantry during the first three centuries of Turkish government was scarcely worse than it had been under the tyrannical rule of the boyars. The contemptuous indifference with which the Turks regarded the Christian rayas was not altogether to the disadvantage of the subject race. Military service was not exacted from the Christians, no systematic effort was made to extinguish either their religion or their language, and within certain limits they were allowed to retain their ancient local administration and the jurisdiction of their clergy in regard to inheritances and family affairs. At the time of the conquest certain towns and villages, known as the voïnitchki sela, obtained important privileges which were not infringed till the 18th century; on condition of
furnishing contingents to the Turkish army or grooms for the sultan's horses they obtained exemption from most of the taxes and complete self-government under their voïvodi or chiefs. Some of them, such as Koprivshtitza in the Sredna Gora, attained great prosperity, which has somewhat declined since the establishment of the principality. While the Ottoman power was at its height the lot of the subject-races was far less intolerable than during the period of decadence, which began with the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683. Their rights and privileges were respected, the law was enforced, commerce prospered, good roads were constructed, and the great caravans of the Ragusan merchants traversed the country. Down to the end of the 18th century there appears to have been only one serious attempt at revolt—that occasioned by the advance of Prince Sigismund Báthory into Walachia in 1595. A kind of guerilla warfare was, however, maintained in the mountains by the kaiduti, or outlaws, whose exploits, like those of the Greek klepkts, have been highly idealized in the popular folk-lore. As the power of the sultans declined anarchy spread through the Peninsula. In the earlier decades of the 18th century the Bulgarians suffered terribly from the ravages of the Turkish armies passing through the land during the wars with Austria. Towards its close their condition became even worse owing to the horrors perpetrated by the Krjalis, or troops of disbanded soldiers and desperadoes, who, in defiance of the Turkish authorities, roamed through the country, supporting themselves by plunder and committing every conceivable atrocity. After the peace of Belgrade (1737), by which Austria lost her conquests in the Peninsula, the Servians and Bulgarians began to look to Russia for deliverance, their hopes being encouraged by the treaty of Kuchuk Kaïnarji (1774), which foreshadowed the claim of Russia to protect the Orthodox Christians in the Turkish empire. In 1794 Pasvanoglu, one of the chiefs of the Krjalis, established himself as an independent sovereign at Vidin, putting to flight three large Turkish armies which were despatched against him. This adventurer possessed many remarkable qualities. He adorned Vidin with handsome buildings, maintained order, levied taxes and issued a separate coinage. He died in 1807. The memoirs of Sofronii, bishop of Vratza, present a vivid picture of the condition of Bulgaria at this time. "My diocese," he writes, "was laid desolate; the villages disappeared—they had been burnt by the Krjalis and Pasvan's brigands; the inhabitants were scattered far and wide over Walachia and other lands."
The National Revival.—At the beginning of the 19th century the existence of the Bulgarian race was almost unknown in Europe, even to students of Slavonic literature. Disheartened by ages of oppression, isolated from Christendom by their geographical position, and cowed by the proximity of Constantinople, the Bulgarians took no collective part in the insurrectionary movement which resulted in the liberation of Servia and Greece. The Russian invasions of 1810 and 1828 only added to their sufferings, and great numbers of fugitives took refuge in Bessarabia, annexed by Russia under the treaty of Bucharest. But the long-dormant national spirit now began to awake under the influence of a literary revival. The precursors of the movement were Paisii, a monk of Mount Athos, who wrote a history of the Bulgarian tsars and saints (1762), and Bishop Sofronii, whose memoirs have been already mentioned. After 1824 several works written in modern Bulgarian began to appear, but the most important step was the foundation, in 1835, of the first Bulgarian school at Gabrovo. Within ten years at least 53 Bulgarian schools came into existence, and five Bulgarian printing-presses were at work. The literary movement led the way to a reaction against the influence and authority of the Greek clergy. The spiritual domination of the Greek patriarchate had tended more effectually than the temporal power of the Turks to the effacement of Bulgarian nationality. After the conquest of the Peninsula the Greek patriarch became the representative at the Sublime Porte of the Rûm-millet, the Roman nation, in which all the Christian nationalities were comprised. The independent patriarchate of Trnovo was suppressed; that of Ochrida was subsequently Hellenized. The Phanariot clergy—unscrupulous, rapacious and corrupt—succeeded in monopolizing the higher ecclesiastical appointments and filled the parishes with Greek priests, whose schools, in which Greek was exclusively taught, were the only means of instruction open to the population. By degrees Greek became the language of the upper classes in all the Bulgarian towns, the Bulgarian language was written in Greek characters, and the illiterate peasants, though speaking the vernacular, called themselves Greeks. The Slavonic liturgy was suppressed in favour of the Greek, and in many places the old Bulgarian manuscripts, images, testaments and missals were committed to the flames. The patriots of the literary movement, recognizing in the patriarchate the most determined foe to a national revival, directed all their efforts to the abolition of Greek ecclesiastical ascendancy and the restoration of the Bulgarian autonomous church. Some of the leaders went so far as to open negotiations with Rome, and an archbishop of the Uniate Bulgarian church was nominated by the pope. The struggle was prosecuted with the utmost tenacity for forty years. Incessant protests and memorials were addressed to the Porte, and every effort was made to undermine the position of the Greek bishops, some of whom were compelled to abandon their sees. At the same time no pains were spared to diffuse education and to stimulate the national sentiment. Various insurrectionary movements were attempted by the patriots Rakovski, Panayot Khitoff, Haji Dimitr, Stephen Karaja and others, but received little support from the mass of the people. The recognition of Bulgarian nationality was won by the pen, not the sword. The patriarchate at length found it necessary to offer some concessions, but these appeared illusory to the Bulgarians, and long and acrimonious discussions followed. Eventually the Turkish government intervened, and on the 28th of February 1870 a firman was issued establishing the Bulgarian exarchate, with jurisdiction over fifteen dioceses, including Nish, Pirot and Veles; the other dioceses in dispute were to be added to these in case two-thirds of the Christian population so desired. The election of the first exarch was delayed till February 1872, owing to the opposition of the patriarch, who immediately afterwards excommunicated the new head of the Bulgarian church and all his followers. The official recognition now acquired tended to consolidate the Bulgarian nation and to prepare it for the political developments which were soon to follow. A great educational activity at once displayed itself in all the districts subjected to the new ecclesiastical power.
The Revolt of 1876.—Under the enlightened administration of Midhat Pasha (1864-1868) Bulgaria enjoyed comparative prosperity, but that remarkable man is not remembered with gratitude by the people owing to the severity with which he repressed insurrectionary movements. In 1861, 12,000 Crimean Tatars, and in 1864 a still larger number of Circassians from the Caucasus, were settled by the Turkish government on lands taken without compensation from the Bulgarian peasants. The Circassians, a lawless race of mountaineers, proved a veritable scourge to the population in their neighbourhood. In 1875 the insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina produced immense excitement throughout the Peninsula. The fanaticism of the Moslems was aroused, and the Bulgarians, fearing a general massacre of Christians, endeavoured to anticipate the blow by organizing a general revolt. The rising, which broke out prematurely at Koprivshtitza and Panagurishté in May 1876, was mainly confined to the sanjak of Philippopolis. Bands of bashi-bazouks were let loose throughout the district by the Turkish authorities, the Pomaks, or Moslem Bulgarians, and the Circassian colonists were called to arms, and a succession of horrors followed to which a parallel can scarcely be found in the history of the middle ages. The principal scenes of massacre were Panagurishté, Perushtitza, Bratzigovo and Batak; at the last-named town, according to an official British report, 5000 men, women and children were put to the sword by the Pomaks under Achmet Aga, who was decorated by the sultan for this exploit. Altogether some 15,000 persons were massacred in the
district of Philippopolis, and fifty-eight villages and five monasteries were destroyed. Isolated risings which took place on the northern side of the Balkans were crushed with similar barbarity. These atrocities, which were first made known by an English journalist and an American consular official, were denounced by Gladstone in a celebrated pamphlet which aroused the indignation of Europe. The great powers remained inactive, but Servia declared war in the following month, and her army was joined by 2000 Bulgarian volunteers. A conference of the representatives of the powers, held at Constantinople towards the end of the year, proposed, among other reforms, the organization of the Bulgarian provinces, including the greater part of Macedonia, in two vilayets under Christian governors, with popular representation. These recommendations were practically set aside by the Porte, and in April 1877 Russia declared war (see Russo-Turkish Wars, and Plevna). In the campaign which followed the Bulgarian volunteer contingent in the Russian army played an honourable part; it accompanied Gourko's advance over the Balkans, behaved with great bravery at Stara Zagora, where it lost heavily, and rendered valuable services in the defence of Shipka.
Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin.—The victorious advance of the Russian army to Constantinople was followed by the treaty of San Stefano (3rd March 1878), which realized almost to the full the national aspirations of the Bulgarian race. All the provinces of European Turkey in which the Bulgarian element predominated were now included in an autonomous principality, which extended from the Black Sea to the Albanian mountains, and from the Danube to the Aegean, enclosing Ochrida, the ancient capital of the Shishmans, Dibra and Kastoria, as well as the districts of Vranya and Pirot, and possessing a Mediterranean port at Kavala. The Dobrudja, notwithstanding its Bulgarian population, was not included in the new state, being reserved as compensation to Rumania for the Russian annexation of Bessarabia; Adrianople, Salonica and the Chalcidian peninsula were left to Turkey. The area thus delimited constituted three-fifths of the Balkan Peninsula, with a population of 4,000,000 inhabitants. The great powers, however, anticipating that this extensive territory would become a Russian dependency, intervened; and on the 13th of July of the same year was signed the treaty of Berlin, which in effect divided the "Big Bulgaria" of the treaty of San Stefano into three portions. The limits of the principality of Bulgaria, as then defined, and the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, have been already described; the remaining portion, including almost the whole of Macedonia and part of the vilayet of Adrianople, was left under Turkish administration. No special organization was provided for the districts thus abandoned; it was stipulated that laws similar to the organic law of Crete should be introduced into the various parts of Turkey in Europe, but this engagement was never carried out by the Porte. Vranya, Pirot and Nish were given to Servia, and the transference of the Dobrudja to Rumania was sanctioned. This artificial division of the Bulgarian nation could scarcely be regarded as possessing elements of permanence. It was provided that the prince of Bulgaria should be freely elected by the population, and confirmed by the Sublime Porte with the assent of the powers, and that, before his election, an assembly of Bulgarian notables, convoked at Trnovo, should draw up the organic law of the principality. The drafting of a constitution for Eastern Rumelia was assigned to a European commission.
The Constitution of Trnovo.—Pending the completion of their political organization, Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia were occupied by Russian troops and administered by Russian officials. The assembly of notables, which met at Trnovo in 1879, was mainly composed of half-educated peasants, who from the first displayed an extremely democratic spirit, in which they proceeded to manipulate the very liberal constitution submitted to them by Prince Dondukov-Korsakov, the Russian governor-general. The long period of Turkish domination had effectually obliterated all social distinctions, and the radical element, which now formed into a party under Tzankoff and Karaveloff, soon gave evidence of its predominance. Manhood suffrage, a single chamber, payment of deputies, the absence of property qualification for candidates, and the prohibition of all titles and distinctions, formed salient features in the constitution now elaborated. The organic statute of Eastern Rumelia was largely modelled on the Belgian constitution. The governor-general, nominated for five years by the sultan with the approbation of the powers, was assisted by an assembly, partly representative, partly composed of ex-officio members; a permanent committee was entrusted with the preparation of legislative measures and the general supervision of the administration, while a council of six "directors" fulfilled the duties of a ministry.
Prince Alexander.—On the 29th of April 1879 the assembly at Trnovo, on the proposal of Russia, elected as first sovereign of Bulgaria Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a member of the grand ducal house of Hesse and a nephew of the tsar Alexander II. Arriving in Bulgaria on the 7th of July, Prince Alexander, then in his twenty-third year, found all the authority, military and civil, in Russian hands. The history of the earlier portion of his reign is marked by two principal features—a strong Bulgarian reaction against Russian tutelage and a vehement struggle against the autocratic institutions which the young ruler, under Russian guidance, endeavoured to inaugurate. Both movements were symptomatic of the determination of a strong-willed and egoistic race, suddenly liberated from secular oppression, to enjoy to the full the moral and material privileges of liberty. In the assembly at Trnovo the popular party had adopted the watchword "Bulgaria for the Bulgarians," and a considerable anti-Russian contingent was included in its ranks. Young and inexperienced, Prince Alexander, at the suggestion of the Russian consul-general, selected his first ministry from a small group of "Conservative" politicians whose views were in conflict with those of the parliamentary majority, but he was soon compelled to form a "Liberal" administration under Tzankoff and Karaveloff. The Liberals, once in power, initiated a violent campaign against foreigners in general and the Russians in particular; they passed an alien law, and ejected foreigners from every lucrative position. The Russians made a vigorous resistance, and a state of chaos ensued. Eventually the prince, finding good government impossible, obtained the consent of the tsar to a change of the constitution, and assumed absolute authority on the 9th of May 1881. The Russian general Ernroth was appointed sole minister, and charged with the duty of holding elections for the Grand Sobranye, to which the right of revising the constitution appertained. So successfully did he discharge his mission that the national representatives, almost without debate, suspended the constitution and invested the prince with absolute powers for a term of seven years (July 1881). A period of Russian government followed under Generals Skobelev and Kaulbars, who were specially despatched from St Petersburg to enhance the authority of the prince. Their administration, however, tended to a contrary result, and the prince, finding himself reduced to impotence, opened negotiations with the Bulgarian leaders and effected a coalition of all parties on the basis of a restoration of the constitution. The generals, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the prince, withdrew; the constitution of Trnovo was restored by proclamation (19th September 1883), and a coalition ministry was formed under Tzankoff. Prince Alexander, whose relations with the court of St Petersburg had become less cordial since the death of his uncle, the tsar Alexander II., in 1881, now incurred the serious displeasure of Russia, and the breach was soon widened by the part which he played in encouraging the national aspirations of the Bulgarians.
Union with Eastern Rumelia.—In Eastern Rumelia, where the Bulgarian population never ceased to protest against the division of the race, political life had developed on the same lines as in the principality. Among the politicians two parties had come into existence—the Conservatives or self-styled "Unionists," and the Radicals, derisively called by their opponents
"Kazioni" or treasury-seekers; both were equally desirous of bringing about the union with the principality. Neither party, however, while in power would risk the sweets of office by embarking in a hazardous adventure. It was reserved for the Kazioni, under their famous leader Zakharia Stoyánoff, who in early life had been a shepherd, to realize the national programme. In 1885 the Unionists were in office, and their opponents lost no time in organizing a conspiracy for the overthrow of the governor-general, Krstovitch Pasha. Their designs were facilitated by the circumstance that Turkey had abstained from sending troops into the province. Having previously assured themselves of Prince Alexander's acquiescence, they seized the governor-general and proclaimed the union with Bulgaria (18th September). The revolution took place without bloodshed, and a few days later Prince Alexander entered Philippopolis amid immense enthusiasm. His position now became precarious. The powers were scandalized at the infraction of the Berlin Treaty; Great Britain alone showed sympathy, while Russia denounced the union and urged the Porte to reconquer the revolted province—both powers thus reversing their respective attitudes at the congress of Berlin.
War with Servia.—The Turkish troops were massed at the frontier, and Servia, hoping to profit by the difficulties of her neighbour, suddenly declared war (14th November). At the moment of danger the Russian officers, who filled all the higher posts in the Bulgarian army, were withdrawn by order of the tsar. In these critical circumstances Prince Alexander displayed considerable ability and resource, and the nation gave evidence of hitherto unsuspected qualities. Contrary to general expectation, the Bulgarian army, imperfectly equipped and led by subaltern officers, successfully resisted the Servian invasion. After brilliant victories at Slivnitza (19th November) and Tsaribrod, Prince Alexander crossed the frontier and captured Pirot (27th November), but his farther progress was arrested by the intervention of Austria (see Servo-Bulgarian War). The treaty of Bucharest followed (3rd of March 1886), declaring, in a single clause, the restoration of peace. Servia, notwithstanding her aggression, escaped a war indemnity, but the union with Eastern Rumelia was practically secured. By the convention of Top-Khané (5th April) Prince Alexander was recognized by the sultan as governor-general of eastern Rumelia; a personal union only was sanctioned, but in effect the organic statute disappeared and the countries were administratively united. These military and diplomatic successes, which invested the prince with the attributes of a national hero, quickened the decision of Russia to effect his removal. An instrument was found in the discontent of several of his officers, who considered themselves slighted in the distribution of rewards, and a conspiracy was formed in which Tzankoff, Karaveloff (the prime minister), Archbishop Clement, and other prominent persons were implicated. On the night of the 21st of August the prince was seized in his palace by several officers and compelled, under menace of death, to sign his abdication; he was then hurried to the Danube at Rakhovo and transported to Russian soil at Reni. This violent act met with instant disapproval on the part of the great majority of the nation. Stamboloff, the president of the assembly, and Colonel Mutkuroff, commandant of the troops at Philippopolis, initiated a counter-revolution; the provisional government set up by the conspirators immediately fell, and a few days later the prince, who had been liberated by the Russian authorities, returned to the country amid every demonstration of popular sympathy and affection. His arrival forestalled that of a Russian imperial commissioner, who had been appointed to proceed to Bulgaria. He now committed the error of addressing a telegram to the tsar in which he offered to resign his crown into the hands of Russia. This unfortunate step, by which he ignored the suzerainty of Turkey, and represented Bulgaria as a Russian dependency, exposed him to a stern rebuff, and fatally compromised his position. The national leaders, after obtaining a promise from the Russian representative at Sofia that Russia would abstain from interference in the internal affairs of the country, consented to his departure; on the 8th of September he announced his abdication, and on the following day he left Bulgaria.
The Regency.—A regency was now formed, in which the prominent figure was Stamboloff, the most remarkable man whom modern Bulgaria has produced. A series of attempts to throw the country into anarchy were firmly dealt with, and the Grand Sobranye was summoned to elect a new prince. The candidature of the prince of Mingrelia was now set up by Russia, and General Kaulbars was despatched to Bulgaria to make known to the people the wishes of the tsar. He vainly endeavoured to postpone the convocation of the Grand Sobranye in order to gain time for the restoration of Russian influence, and proceeded on an electoral tour through the country. The failure of his mission was followed by the withdrawal of the Russian representatives from Bulgaria. The Grand Sobranye, which assembled at Trnovo, offered the crown to Prince Valdemar of Denmark, brother-in-law of the tsar, but the honour was declined, and an anxious period ensued, during which a deputation visited the principal capitals of Europe with the twofold object of winning sympathy for the cause of Bulgarian independence and discovering a suitable candidate for the throne.
Prince Ferdinand.—On the 7th of July 1887, the Grand Sobranye unanimously elected Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a grandson, maternally, of King Louis Philippe. The new prince, who was twenty-six years of age, was at this time a lieutenant in the Austrian army. Undeterred by the difficulties of the international situation and the distracted condition of the country, he accepted the crown, and took over the government on the 14th of August at Trnovo. His arrival, which was welcomed with enthusiasm, put an end to a long and critical interregnum, but the dangers which menaced Bulgarian independence were far from disappearing. Russia declared the newly-elected sovereign a usurper; the other powers, in deference to her susceptibilities, declined to recognize him, and the grand vizier informed him that his presence in Bulgaria was illegal. Numerous efforts were made by the partisans of Russia to disturb internal tranquillity, and Stamboloff, who became prime minister on the 1st of September, found it necessary to govern with a strong hand. A raid led by the Russian captain Nabokov was repulsed; brigandage, maintained for political purposes, was exterminated; the bishops of the Holy Synod, who, at the instigation of Clement, refused to pay homage to the prince, were forcibly removed from Sofia; a military conspiracy organized by Major Panitza was crushed, and its leader executed. An attempt to murder the energetic prime minister resulted in the death of his colleague, Beltcheff, and shortly afterwards Dr Vlkovitch, the Bulgarian representative at Constantinople, was assassinated. While contending with unscrupulous enemies at home, Stamboloff pursued a successful policy abroad. Excellent relations were established with Turkey and Rumania, valuable concessions were twice extracted from the Porte in regard to the Bulgarian episcopate in Macedonia, and loans were concluded with foreign financiers on comparatively favourable terms. His overbearing character, however, increased the number of his opponents, and alienated the goodwill of the prince.
In the spring of 1893 Prince Ferdinand married Princess Marie-Louise of Bourbon-Parma, whose family insisted on the condition that the issue of the marriage should be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. In view of the importance of establishing a dynasty, Stamboloff resolved on the unpopular course of altering the clause of the constitution which required that the heir to the throne should belong to the Orthodox Church, and the Grand Sobranye, which was convoked at Trnovo in the summer, gave effect to this decision. The death of Prince Alexander, which took place in the autumn, and the birth of an heir, tended to strengthen the position of Prince Ferdinand, who now assumed a less compliant attitude towards the prime minister. In 1894 Stamboloff resigned office; a ministry was formed under Dr Stoïloff, and Prince Ferdinand inaugurated a policy of conciliation towards Russia with a view to obtaining his recognition by the powers. A Russophil
reaction followed, large numbers of political refugees returned to Bulgaria, and Stamboloff, exposed to the vengeance of his enemies, was assassinated in the streets of Sofia (15th July 1895).
The prince's plans were favoured by the death of the tsar Alexander III. in November 1894, and the reconciliation was practically effected by the conversion of his eldest son, Prince Boris, to the Orthodox faith (14th February 1896). The powers having signified their assent, he was nominated by the sultan prince of Bulgaria and governor-general of Eastern Rumelia (14th March). Russian influence now became predominant in Bulgaria, but the cabinet of St Petersburg wisely abstained from interfering in the internal affairs of the principality. In February 1896 Russia proposed the reconciliation of the Greek and Bulgarian churches and the removal of the exarch to Sofia. The project, which involved a renunciation of the exarch's jurisdiction in Macedonia, excited strong opposition in Bulgaria, and was eventually dropped. The death of Princess Marie-Louise (30th January 1899), caused universal regret in the country. In the same month the Stoïloff government, which had weakly tampered with the Macedonian movement (see Macedonia) and had thrown the finances into disorder, resigned, and a ministry under Grekoff succeeded, which endeavoured to mend the economic situation by means of a foreign loan. The loan, however, fell through, and in October a new government was formed under Ivanchoff and Radoslavoff. This, in its turn, was replaced by a cabinet d'affaires under General Petroff (January 1901).
In the following March Karaveloff for the third time became prime minister. His efforts to improve the financial situation, which now became alarming, proved abortive, and in January 1902 a Tzankovist cabinet was formed under Daneff, who succeeded in obtaining a foreign loan. Russian influence now became predominant, and in the autumn the grand-duke Nicholas, General Ignatiev, and a great number of Russian officers were present at the consecration of a Russian church and monastery in the Shipka pass. But the appointment of Mgr. Firmilian, a Servian prelate, to the important see of Uskub at the instance of Russia, the suspected designs of that power on the ports of Varna and Burgas, and her unsympathetic attitude in regard to the Macedonian Question, tended to diminish her popularity and that of the government. A cabinet crisis was brought about in May 1903, by the efforts of the Russian party to obtain control of the army, and the Stambolovists returned to power under General Petroff. A violent recrudescence of the Macedonian agitation took place in the autumn of 1902; at the suggestion of Russia the leaders were imprisoned, but the movement nevertheless gained force, and in August 1903 a revolt broke out in the vilayet of Monastir, subsequently spreading to the districts of northern Macedonia and Adrianople (see Macedonia). The barbarities committed by the Turks in repressing the insurrection caused great exasperation in the principality; the reserves were partially mobilized, and the country was brought to the brink of war. In pursuance of the policy of Stamboloff, the Petroff government endeavoured to inaugurate friendly relations with Turkey, and a Turco-Bulgarian convention was signed (8th April 1904) which, however, proved of little practical value.
The outrages committed by numerous Greek bands in Macedonia led to reprisals on the Greek population in Bulgaria in the summer of 1906, and the town of Anchialo was partially destroyed. On the 6th of November in that year Petroff resigned, and Petkoff, the leader of the Stambolovist party, formed a ministry. The prime minister, a statesman of undoubted patriotism but of overbearing character, was assassinated on the 11th of March 1907 by a youth who had been dismissed from a post in one of the agricultural banks, and the cabinet was reconstituted under Gudeff, a member of the same party.
Declaration of Independence.—During the thirty years of its existence the principality had made rapid and striking progress. Its inhabitants, among whom a strong sense of nationality had grown up, were naturally anxious to escape from the restrictions imposed by the treaty of Berlin. That Servia should be an independent state, while Bulgaria, with its greater economic and military resources, remained tributary to the Sultan, was an anomaly which all classes resented; and although the Ottoman suzerainty was little more than a constitutional fiction, and the tribute imposed in 1878 was never paid, the Bulgarians were almost unanimous in their desire to end a system which made their country the vassal of a Moslem state notorious for its maladministration and corruption. This desire was strengthened by the favourable reception accorded to Prince Ferdinand when he visited Vienna in February 1908, and by the so-called "Geshoff incident," i.e. the exclusion of M. Geshoff, the Bulgarian agent, from a dinner given by Tewfik Pasha, the Ottoman minister for foreign affairs, to the ministers of all the sovereign states represented at Constantinople (12th of September 1908). This was interpreted as an insult to the Bulgarian nation, and as the explanation offered by the grand vizier was unsatisfactory, M. Geshoff was recalled to Sofia. At this time the bloodless revolution in Turkey seemed likely to bring about a fundamental change in the settled policy of Bulgaria. For many years past Bulgarians had hoped that their own orderly and progressive government, which had contrasted so strongly with the evils of Turkish rule, would entitle them to consideration, and perhaps to an accession of territory, when the time arrived for a definite settlement of the Macedonian Question. Now, however, the reforms introduced or foreshadowed by the Young Turkish party threatened to deprive Bulgaria of any pretext for future intervention; there was nothing to be gained by further acquiescence in the conditions laid down at Berlin. An opportunity for effective action occurred within a fortnight of M. Geshoff's recall, when a strike broke out on those sections of the Eastern Rumelian railways which were owned by Turkey and leased to the Oriental Railways Company. The Bulgarians alleged that during the strike Turkish troops were able to travel on the lines which were closed to all other traffic, and that this fact constituted a danger to their own autonomy. The government therefore seized the railway, in defiance of European opinion, and in spite of the protests of the suzerain power and the Oriental Railways Company. The bulk of the Turkish army was then in Asia, and the new régime was not yet firmly established, while the Bulgarian government were probably aware that Russia would not intervene, and that Austria-Hungary intended to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, and thus incidentally to divert attention from their own violation of the treaty of Berlin. On the 5th of October Prince Ferdinand publicly proclaimed Bulgaria, united since the 6th of September 1885 (i.e. including Eastern Rumelia), an independent kingdom. This declaration was read aloud by the king in the church of the Forty Martyrs at Trnovo, the ancient capital of the Bulgarian tsars. The Porte immediately protested to the powers, but agreed to accept an indemnity. In February 1909 the Russian government proposed to advance to Bulgaria the difference between the £4,800,000 claimed by Turkey and the £1,520,000 which Bulgaria undertook to pay. A preliminary Russo-Turkish protocol was signed on the 16th of March, and in April, after the final agreement had been concluded, the independence of Bulgaria was recognized by the powers. Of the indemnity, £1,680,000 was paid on account of the Eastern Rumelian railways; the allocation of this sum between Turkey and the Oriental railways was submitted to arbitration. (See Turkey: History.)
Language and Literature
Language.—The Bulgarian is at once the most ancient and the most modern of the languages which constitute the Slavonic group. In its groundwork it presents the nearest approach to the old ecclesiastical Slavonic, the liturgical language common to all the Orthodox Slavs, but it has undergone more important modifications than any of the sister dialects in the simplification of its grammatical forms; and the analytical character of its development may be compared with that of the neo-Latin and Germanic languages. The introduction of the definite article, which appears in the form of a suffix, and the almost total disappearance of the ancient declensions, for which the use of
prepositions has been substituted, distinguish the Bulgarian from all the other members of the Slavonic family. Notwithstanding these changes, which give the language an essentially modern aspect, its close affinity with the ecclesiastical Slavonic, the oldest written dialect, is regarded as established by several eminent scholars, such as Šafařik, Schleicher, Leskien and Brugman, and by many Russian philologists. These authorities agree in describing the liturgical language as "Old Bulgarian." A different view, however, is maintained by Miklosich, Kopitar and some others, who regard it as "Old Slovene." According to the more generally accepted theory, the dialect spoken by the Bulgarian population in the neighbourhood of Salonica, the birthplace of SS. Cyril and Methodius, was employed by the Slavonic apostles in their translations from the Greek, which formed the model for subsequent ecclesiastical literature. This view receives support from the fact that the two nasal vowels of the Church-Slavonic (the greater and lesser ûs), which have been modified in all the cognate languages except Polish, retain their original pronunciation locally in the neighbourhood of Salonica and Castoria; in modern literary Bulgarian the rhinesmus has disappeared, but the old nasal vowels preserve a peculiar pronunciation, the greater ûs changing to ŭ, as in English "but," the lesser to ĕ, as in "bet," while in Servian, Russian and Slovene the greater ûs becomes ū or ō, the lesser e or ya. The remnants of the declensions still existing in Bulgarian (mainly in pronominal and adverbial forms) show a close analogy to those of the old ecclesiastical language.
The Slavonic apostles wrote in the 9th century (St Cyril died in 869, St Methodius in 885), but the original manuscripts have not been preserved. The oldest existing copies, which date from the 10th century, already betray the influence of the contemporary vernacular speech, but as the alterations introduced by the copyists are neither constant nor regular, it is possible to reconstruct the original language with tolerable certainty. The "Old Bulgarian," or archaic Slavonic, was an inflexional language of the synthetic type, containing few foreign elements in its vocabulary. The Christian terminology was, of course, mainly Greek; the Latin or German words which occasionally occur were derived from Moravia and Pannonia, where the two saints pursued their missionary labours. In course of time it underwent considerable modifications, both phonetic and structural, in the various Slavonic countries in which it became the liturgical language, and the various MSS. are consequently classified as "Servian-Slavonic," "Croatian-Slavonic," "Russian-Slavonic," &c., according to the different recensions. The "Russian-Slavonic" is the liturgical language now in general use among the Orthodox Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula owing to the great number of ecclesiastical books introduced from Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries; until comparatively recent times it was believed to be the genuine language of the Slavonic apostles. Among the Bulgarians the spoken language of the 9th century underwent important changes during the next three hundred years. The influence of these changes gradually asserts itself in the written language; in the period extending from the 12th to the 15th century the writers still endeavoured to follow the archaic model, but it is evident that the vernacular had already become widely different from the speech of SS. Cyril and Methodius. The language of the MSS. of this period is known as the "Middle Bulgarian"; it stands midway between the old ecclesiastical Slavonic and the modern speech.
In the first half of the 16th century the characteristic features of the modern language became apparent in the literary monuments. These features undoubtedly displayed themselves at a much earlier period in the oral speech; but the progress of their development has not yet been completely investigated. Much light may be thrown on this subject by the examination of many hitherto little-known manuscripts and by the scientific study of the folk-songs. In addition to the employment of the article, the loss of the noun-declensions, and the modification of the nasal vowels above alluded to, the disappearance in pronunciation of the final vowels yer-golêm and yer-malúk, the loss of the infinitive, and the increased variety of the conjugations, distinguish the modern from the ancient language. The suffix-article, which is derived from the demonstrative pronoun, is a feature peculiar to the Bulgarian among Slavonic and to the Rumanian among Latin languages. This and other points of resemblance between these remotely related members of the Indo-European group are shared by the Albanian, probably the representative of the old Illyrian language, and have consequently been attributed to the influence of the aboriginal speech of the Peninsula. A demonstrative suffix, however, is sometimes found in Russian and Polish, and traces of the article in an embryonic state occur in the "Old Bulgarian" MSS. of the 10th and 11th centuries. In some Bulgarian dialects it assumes different forms according to the proximity or remoteness of the object mentioned. Thus zhena-ta is "the woman"; zhena-va or zhena-sa, "the woman close by"; zhena-na, "the woman yonder." In the borderland between the Servian and Bulgarian nationalities the local use of the article supplies the means of drawing an ethnological frontier; it is nowhere more marked than in the immediate neighbourhood of the Servian population, as, for instance, at Dibra and Prilep. The modern Bulgarian has admitted many foreign elements. It contains about 2000 Turkish and 1000 Greek words dispersed in the various dialects; some Persian and Arabic words have entered through the Turkish medium, and a few Rumanian and Albanian words are found. Most of these are rejected by the purism of the literary language, which, however, has been compelled to borrow the phraseology of modern civilization from the Russian, French and other European languages. The dialects spoken in the kingdom may be classed in two groups—the eastern and the western. The main point of difference is the pronunciation of the letter yedvoïno, which in the eastern has frequently the sound of ya, in the western invariably that of e in "pet." The literary language began in the western dialect under the twofold influence of Servian literature and the Church Slavonic. In a short time, however, the eastern dialect prevailed, and the influence of Russian literature became predominant. An anti-Russian reaction was initiated by Borgoroff (1818-1892), and has been maintained by numerous writers educated in the German and Austrian universities. Since the foundation of the university of Sofia the literary language has taken a middle course between the ultra-Russian models of the past generation and the dialectic Bulgarian. Little uniformity, however, has yet been attained in regard to diction, orthography or pronunciation.
The Bulgarians of pagan times are stated by the monk Khrabr, a contemporary of Tsar Simeon, to have employed a peculiar writing, of which inscriptions recently found near Kaspitchan may possibly be specimens. The earliest manuscripts of the "Old Bulgarian" are written in one or other of the two alphabets known as the glagolitic and Cyrillic (see Slavs). The former was used by Bulgarian writers concurrently with the Cyrillic down to the 12th century. Among the orthodox Slavs the Cyrillic finally superseded the glagolitic; as modified by Peter the Great it became the Russian alphabet, which, with the revival of literature, was introduced into Servia and Bulgaria. Some Russian letters which are superfluous in Bulgarian have been abandoned by the native writers, and a few characters have been restored from the ancient alphabet.
Literature.—The ancient Bulgarian literature, originating in the works of SS. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, consisted for the most part of theological works translated from the Greek. From the conversion of Boris down to the Turkish conquest the religious character predominates, and the influence of Byzantine literature is supreme. Translations of the gospels and epistles, lives of the saints, collections of sermons, exegetic religious works, translations of Greek chronicles, and miscellanies such as the Sbornik of St Sviatoslav, formed the staple of the national literature. In the time of Tsar Simeon, himself an author, considerable literary activity prevailed; among the more remarkable works of this period was the Shestodnev, or Hexameron, of John the exarch, an account of the creation. A little later the heresy of the Bogomils gave an impulse to controversial writing. The principal champions of orthodoxy were St Kosmâs and the monk Athanas of Jerusalem; among the Bogomils the Questions of St Ivan Bogosloff, a work containing a description of the beginning and the end of the world, was held in high esteem. Contemporaneously with the spread of this sect a number of apocryphal works, based on the Scripture narrative, but embellished with Oriental legends of a highly imaginative character, obtained great popularity. Together with these religious writings works of fiction, also of Oriental origin, made their appearance, such as the life of Alexander the Great, the story of Troy, the tales of Stephanit and Ichnilat and Barlaam and Josaphat, the latter founded on the biography of Buddha. These were for the most part reproductions or variations of the fantastical romances which circulated through Europe in the middle ages, and many of them have left traces in the national legends and folk-songs. In the 13th century, under the Asên dynasty, numerous historical works or chronicles (lêtopisi) were composed. State records appear to have existed, but none of them have been preserved. With the Ottoman conquest literature disappeared; the manuscripts became the food of moths and worms, or fell a prey to the fanaticism of the Phanariot clergy. The library of the patriarchs of Trnovo was committed to the flames by the Greek metropolitan Hilarion in 1825.
The monk Païsii (born about 1720) and Bishop Sofronii (1739-1815) have already been mentioned as the precursors of the literary
revival. The Istoria Slaveno-Bolgarska (1762) of Païsii, written in the solitude of Mount Athos, was a work of little historical value, but its influence upon the Bulgarian race was immense. An ardent patriot, Païsii recalls the glories of the Bulgarian tsars and saints, rebukes his fellow-countrymen for allowing themselves to be called Greeks, and denounces the arbitrary proceedings of the Phanariot prelates. The Life and Sufferings of sinful Sofronii (1804) describes in simple and touching language the condition of Bulgaria at the beginning of the 19th century. Both works were written in a modified form of the church Slavonic. The first printed work in the vernacular appears to have been the Kyriakodromion, a translation of sermons, also by Sofronii, published in 1806. The Servian and Greek insurrections quickened the patriotic sentiments of the Bulgarian refugees and merchants in Rumania, Bessarabia and southern Russia, and Bucharest became the centre of their political and literary activity. A modest bukvar, or primer, published at Kronstadt by Berovitch in 1824, was the first product of the new movement. Translations of the Gospels, school reading-books, short histories and various elementary treatises now appeared. With the multiplication of books came the movement for establishing Bulgarian schools, in which the monk Neophyt Rilski (1793-1881) played a leading part. He was the author of the first Bulgarian grammar (1835) and other educational works, and translated the New Testament into the modern language. Among the writers of the literary renaissance were George Rakovski (1818-1867), a fantastic writer of the patriotic type, whose works did much to stimulate the national zeal, Liuben Karaveloff (1837-1879), journalist and novelist, Christo Boteff (1847-1876), lyric poet, whose ode on the death of his friend Haji Dimitr, an insurgent leader, is one of the best in the language, and Petko Slaveikoff (died 1895), whose poems, patriotic, satirical and erotic, moulded the modern poetical language and exercised a great influence over the people. Gavril Krstovitch, formerly governor-general of eastern Rumelia, and Marin Drinoff, a Slavist of high repute, have written historical works. Stamboloff, the statesman, was the author of revolutionary and satirical ballads; his friend Zacharia Stoyanoff (d. 1889), who began life as a shepherd, has left some interesting memoirs. The most distinguished Bulgarian man of letters is Ivan Vazoff (b. 1850), whose epic and lyric poems and prose works form the best specimens of the modern literary language. His novel Pod Igoto (Under the Yoke) has been translated into several European languages. The best dramatic work is Ivanko, a historical play by Archbishop Clement, who also wrote some novels. With the exception of Zlatarski's and Boncheff's geological treatises and contributions by Georgieff, Petkoff, Tosheff and Urumoff to Velnovski's Flora Bulgarica, no original works on natural science have as yet been produced; a like dearth is apparent in the fields of philosophy, criticism and fine art, but it must be remembered that the literature is still in its infancy. The ancient folk-songs have been preserved in several valuable collections; though inferior to the Servian in poetic merit, they deserve scientific attention. Several periodicals and reviews have been founded in modern times. Of these the most important are the Perioditchesko Spisanie, issued since 1869 by the Bulgarian Literary Society, and the Sbornik, a literary and scientific miscellany, formerly edited by Dr Shishmanoff, latterly by the Literary Society, and published by the government at irregular intervals.
Authorities.—C.J. Jireček, Das Furstenthum Bulgarien (Prague, 1891), and Cesty po Bulharsku (Travels in Bulgaria), (Prague, 1888), both works of the first importance; Léon Lamouche, La Bulgarie dans le passé et le présent (Paris, 1892); Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg, Die Volkswirthschaftliche Entwicklung Bulgarians (Leipzig, 1891); F. Kanitz, Donau-Bulgarien und der Balkan (Leipzig, 1882); A.G. Drander, Événements politiques en Bulgarie (Paris, 1896); and Le Prince Alexandre de Battenberg (Paris, 1884); A. Strausz, Die Bulgaren (Leipzig, 1898); A. Tuma, Die östliche Balkanhalbinsel (Vienna, 1886); A. de Gubernatis, La Bulgarie et les Bulgares (Florence, 1899); E. Blech, Consular Report on Bulgaria in 1889 (London, 1890); La Bulgarie contemporaine (issued by the Bulgarian Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture), (Brussels, 1905). Geology: F. Toula, Reisen und geologische Untersuchungen in Bulgarien (Vienna, 1890); J. Cvijić, "Die Tektonik der Balkanhalbinsel," in C.R. IX. Cong. géol. intern. de Vienne, pp. 348-370, with map, 1904. History: C.J. Jireček, Geschichte der Bulgaren (Prague, 1876); (a summary in The Balkans, by William Miller, London, 1896); Sokolov, Iz drevneì istorii Bolgar (Petersburg, 1879); Uspenski, Obrazovanïe vtorago Bolgarskago tsarstva (Odessa, 1879); Acta Bulgariae ecclesiastica, published by the South Slavonic Academy (Agram, 1887). Language: F. Miklosich, Vergleichende Grammatik (Vienna, 1879); and Geschichte d. Lautbezeichnung im Bulgarischen (Vienna, 1883); A. Leskien, Handbuch d. altbulgarischen Sprache (with a glossary), (Wiemar, 1886); L. Miletich, Staroblgarska Gramatika (Sofia, 1896); Das Ostbulgarische (Vienna, 1903); Labrov, Obzor zvulkovikh i formalnikh osobenostei Bolgarskago yezika (Moscow, 1893); W.R. Morfill, A Short Grammar of the Bulgarian Language (London, 1897); F. Vymazal, Die Kunst die bulgarische Sprache leicht und schnell zu erlernen (Vienna, 1888). Literature: L.A.H. Dozon, Chansons populaires bulgares inédites (with French translations), (Paris, 1875); A. Strausz, Bulgarische Volksdichtungen (translations with a preface and notes), (Vienna and Leipzig, 1895); Lydia Shishmanov, Légendes religieuses bulgares (Paris, 1896); Pypin and Spasovich, History of the Slavonic Literature (in Russian, St Petersburg, 1879), (French translation, Paris, 1881); Vazov and Velitchkov, Bulgarian Chrestomathy (Philippopolis, 1884); Teodorov, Blgarska Literatura (Philippopolis, 1896); Collections of folk-songs, proverbs, &c., by the brothers Miladinov (Agram, 1861), Bezsonov (Moscow, 1855), Kachanovskiy (Petersburg, 1882), Shapkarev (Philippopolis, 1885), Iliev (Sofia, 1889), P. Slaveïkov (Sofia, 1899). See also The Shade of the Balkans, by Pencho Slaveïkov, H. Bernard and E.J. Dillon (London, 1904).
(J. D. B.)
BULGARIA, EASTERN, formerly a powerful kingdom which existed from the 5th to the 15th century on the middle Volga, in the present territory of the provinces of Samara, Simbirsk, Saratov and N. Astrakhan, perhaps extending also into Perm. The village Bolgari near Kanzañ, surrounded by numerous graves in which most interesting archaeological finds have been made, occupies the site of one of the cities—perhaps the capital—of that extinct kingdom. The history, Tarikh Bulgar, said to have been written in the 12th century by an Arabian cadi of the city Bolgari, has not yet been discovered; but the Arabian historians, Ibn Foslan, Ibn Haukal, Abul Hamid Andalusi, Abu Abdallah Harnati, and several others, who had visited the kingdom, beginning with the 10th century, have left descriptions of it. The Bulgars of the Volga were of Turkish origin, but may have assimilated Finnish and, later, Slavonian elements. In the 5th century they attacked the Russians in the Black Sea prairies, and afterwards made raids upon the Greeks. In 922, when they were converted to Islam, Ibn Foslan found them not quite nomadic, and already having some permanent settlements and houses in wood. Stone houses were built soon after that by Arabian architects. Ibn Dasta found amongst them agriculture besides cattle breeding. Trade with Persia and India, as also with the Khazars and the Russians, and undoubtedly with Biarmia (Urals), was, however, their chief occupation, their main riches being furs, leather, wool, nuts, wax and so on. After their conversion to Islam they began building forts, several of which are mentioned in Russian annals. Their chief town, Bolgari or Velikij Gorod (Great Town) of the Russian annals, was often raided by the Russians. In the 13th century it was conquered by the Mongols, and became for a time the seat of the khans of the Golden Horde. In the second half of the 15th century Bolgari became part of the Kazañ kingdom, lost its commercial and political importance, and was annexed to Russia after the fall of Kazañ.
(P. A. K.)
BULGARUS, an Italian jurist of the 12th century, born at Bologna, sometimes erroneously called Bulgarinus, which was properly the name of a jurist of the 15th century. He was the most celebrated of the famous "Four Doctors" of the law school of that university, and was regarded as the Chrysostom of the Gloss-writers, being frequently designated by the title of the "Golden Mouth" (os aureum). He died in 1166 A.D., at a very advanced age. Popular tradition represents all the Four Doctors (Bulgarus, Martinus Gosia, Hugo de Porta Ravennate and Jacobus de Boragine) as pupils of Irnerius (q.v.), but while there is no insuperable difficulty in point of time in accepting this tradition as far as regards Bulgarus, Savigny considers the general tradition inadmissible as regards the others. Martinus Gosia and Bulgarus were the chiefs of two opposite schools at Bologna, corresponding in many respects to the Proculians and Sabinians of Imperial Rome, Martinus being at the head of a school which accommodated the law to what his opponents styled the equity of "the purse" (aequitas bursalis), whilst Bulgarus adhered more closely to the letter of the law. The school of Bulgarus ultimately prevailed, and it numbered amongst its adherents Joannes Bassianus, Azo and Accursius, each of whom in his turn exercised a commanding influence over the course of legal studies at Bologna. Bulgarus took the leading part amongst the Four Doctors at the diet of Roncaglia in 1158, and was one of the most trusted advisers of the emperor Frederick I. His most celebrated work is his commentary De Regulis Juris, which was at one time printed amongst the writings of Placentius, but has been properly reassigned to its true author by Cujacius, upon the internal evidence contained in the additions annexed to it, which are undoubtedly from the pen of Placentinus. This
Commentary, which is the earliest extant work of its kind emanating from the school of the Gloss-writers, is, according to Savigny, a model specimen of the excellence of the method introduced by Irnerius, and a striking example of the brilliant results which had been obtained in a short space of time by a constant and exclusive study of the sources of law.
BULL, GEORGE (1634-1710), English divine, was born at Wells on the 25th of March 1634, and educated at Tiverton school, Devonshire. He entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1647, but had to leave in 1649 in consequence of his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth. He was ordained privately by Bishop Skinner in 1655. His first benefice held was that of St George's near Bristol, from which he rose successively to be rector of Suddington in Gloucestershire (1658), prebendary of Gloucester (1678), archdeacon of Llandaff (1686), and in 1705 bishop of St David's. He died on the 17th of February 1710. During the time of the Commonwealth he adhered to the forms of the Church of England, and under James II. preached strenuously against Roman Catholicism. His works display great erudition and powerful thinking. The Harmonia Apostolica (1670) is an attempt to show the fundamental agreement between the doctrines of Paul and James with regard to justification. The Defensio Fidei Nicenae (1685), his greatest work, tries to show that the doctrine of the Trinity was held by the ante-Nicene fathers of the church, and retains its value as a thorough-going examination of all the pertinent passages in early church literature. The Judicium Ecclesiae Catholicae (1694) and Primitiva et Apostolica Traditio (1710) won high praise from Bossuet and other French divines. Following on Bossuet's criticisms of the Judicium, Bull wrote a treatise on The Corruptions of the Church of Rome, which became very popular.
The best edition of Bull's works is that in 7 vols., published at Oxford by the Clarendon Press, under the superintendence of E. Burton, in 1827. This edition contains the Life by Robert Nelson. The Harmonia, Defensio and Judicium are translated in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (Oxford, 1842-1855).
BULL, JOHN (c. 1562-1628), English composer and organist, was born in Somersetshire about 1562. After being organist in Hereford cathedral, he joined the Chapel Royal in 1585, and in the next year became a Mus. Bac. of Oxford. In 1591 he was appointed organist in Queen Elizabeth's chapel in succession to Blitheman, from whom he had received his musical education. In 1592 he received the degree of doctor of music at Cambridge University; and in 1596 he was made music professor at Gresham College, London. As he was unable to lecture in Latin according to the foundation-rules of that college, the executors of Sir Thomas Gresham made a dispensation in his favour by permitting him to lecture in English. He gave his first lecture on the 6th of October 1597. In 1601 Bull went abroad. He visited France and Germany, and was everywhere received with the respect due to his talents. Anthony Wood tells an impossible story of how at St Omer Dr Bull performed the feat of adding, within a few hours, forty parts to a composition already written in forty parts. Honourable employments were offered to him by various continental princes; but he declined them, and returned to England, where he was given the freedom of the Merchant Taylors' Company in 1606. He played upon a small pair of organs before King James I. on the 16th of July 1607, in the hall of the Company, and he seems to have been appointed one of the king's organists in that year. In the same year he resigned his Gresham professorship and married Elizabeth Walter. In 1613 he again went to the continent on account of his health, obtaining a post as one of the organists in the arch-duke's chapel at Brussels. In 1617 he was appointed organist to the cathedral of Notre Dame at Antwerp, and he died in that city on the 12th or 13th of March 1628. Little of his music has been published, and the opinions of critics differ much as to its merits (see Dr Willibald Nagel's Geschichte der Musik in England, ii. (1897), p. 155, &c.; and Dr Seiffert's Geschichte der Klaviermusik (1899), p. 54, &c.). Contemporary writers speak in the highest terms of Bull's skill as a performer on the organ and the virginals, and there is no doubt that he contributed much to the development of harpsichord music. Jan Swielinck (1562-1621), the great organist of Amsterdam, did not regard his work on composition as complete without placing in it a canon by John Bull, and the latter wrote a fantasia upon a fugue of Swielinck. For the ascription to Bull of the composition of the British national anthem, see National Anthems. Good modern reprints, e.g. of the Fitzwilliam Virginal-Book, "The King's Hunting Jig," and one or two other pieces, are in the repertories of modern pianists from Rubinstein onwards.
BULL, OLE BORNEMANN (1810-1880), Norwegian violinist, was born in Bergen, Norway, on the 5th of February 1810. At first a pupil of the violinist Paulsen, and subsequently self-taught, he was intended for the church, but failed in his examinations in 1828 and became a musician, directing the philharmonic and dramatic societies at Bergen. In 1829 he went to Cassel, on a visit to Spohr, who gave him no encouragement. He now began to study law, but on going to Paris he came under the influence of Paganini, and definitely adopted the career of a violin virtuoso. He made his first appearance in company with Ernst and Chopin at a concert of his own in Paris in 1832. Successful tours in Italy and England followed soon afterwards, and he was not long in obtaining European celebrity by his brilliant playing of his own pieces and arrangements. His first visit to the United States lasted from 1843 to 1845, and on his return to Norway he formed a scheme for the establishment of a Norse theatre in Bergen; this became an accomplished fact in 1850; but in consequence of harassing business complications he went again to America. During this visit (1852-1857) he bought 125,000 acres in Potter county, Pennsylvania, for a Norwegian colony, which was to have been called Oleana after his name; but his title turned out to be fraudulent, and the troubles he went through in connexion with the undertaking were enough to affect his health very seriously, though not to hinder him for long from the exercise of his profession. Another attempt to found an academy of music in Christiania had no permanent result. In 1836 he had married Alexandrine Félicie Villeminot, the grand-daughter of a lady to whom he owed much at the beginning of his musical career in Paris; she died in 1862. In 1870 he married Sara C. Thorpe of Wisconsin; henceforth he confined himself to the career of a violinist. He died at Lysö, near Bergen, on the 17th of August 1880. Ole Bull's "polacca guerriera" and many of his other violin pieces, among them two concertos, are interesting to the virtuoso, and his fame rests upon his prodigious technique. The memoir published by his widow in 1886 contains many illustrations of a career that was exceptionally brilliant; it gives a picture of a strong individuality, which often found expression in a somewhat boisterous form of practical humour.
There is a fountain and portrait statue to his memory in the Ole Bulls Plads in Bergen.
BULL, (1) The male of animals belonging to the section Bovina of the family Bovidae (q.v.), particularly the uncastrated male of the domestic ox (Bos taurus). (See Cattle.) The word, which is found in M.E. as bole, bolle (cf. Ger. Bulle, and Dutch bul or bol), is also used of the males of other animals of large size, e.g. the elephant, whale, &c. The O.E. diminutive form bulluc, meaning originally a young bull, or bull calf, survives in bullock, now confined to a young castrated male ox kept for slaughter for beef.
On the London and New York stock exchanges "bull" and "bear" are correlative technical slang terms. A "bull" is one who "buys for a rise," i.e. he buys stocks or securities, grain or other commodities (which, however, he never intends to take up), in the hope that before the date on which he must take delivery he will be able to sell the stocks, &c., at a higher price, taking as a profit the difference between the buying and selling price. A "bear" is the reverse of a "bull." He is one who "sells for a fall," i.e. he sells stock, &c., which he does not actually possess, in the hope of buying it at a lower price before the time at which he has contracted to deliver (see Account; Stock Exchange). The word "bull," according to the New English Dictionary, was used in this sense as early as the beginning of the 18th century. The origin of the use is not known, though it is tempting to connect it with the fable of the frog and the bull.
The term "bull's eye" is applied to many circular objects, and particularly to the boss or protuberance left in the centre of a sheet of blown glass. This when cut off was formerly used for windows in small leaded panes. The French term œil de bœuf is used of a circular window. Other circular objects to which the word is applied are the centre of a target or a shot that hits the central division of the target, a plano-convex lens in a microscope, a lantern with a convex glass in it, a thick circular piece of glass let into the deck or side of a ship, &c., for lighting the interior, a ring-shaped block grooved round the outer edge, and with a hole through the centre through which a rope can be passed, and also a small lurid cloud which in certain latitudes presages a hurricane.
(2) The use of the word "bull," for a verbal blunder, involving a contradiction in terms, is of doubtful origin. In this sense it is used with a possible punning reference to papal bulls in Milton's True Religion, "and whereas the Papist boasts himself to be a Roman Catholick, it is a mere contradiction, one of the Pope's Bulls, as if he should say a universal particular, a Catholick schismatick." Probably this use may be traced to a M.E. word bul, first found in the Cursor Mundi, c. 1300, in the sense of falsehood, trickery, deceit; the New English Dictionary compares an O.Fr. boul, boule or bole, in the same sense. Although modern associations connect this type of blunder with the Irish, possibly owing to the many famous "bulls" attributed to Sir Boyle Roche (q.v.), the early quotations show that in the 17th century, when the meaning now attached to the word begins, no special country was credited with them.
(3) Bulla (Lat for "bubble"), which gives us another "bull" in English, was the term used by the Romans for any boss or stud, such as those on doors, sword-belts, shields and boxes. It was applied, however, more particularly to an ornament, generally of gold, a round or heart-shaped box containing an amulet, worn suspended from the neck by children of noble birth until they assumed the toga virilis, when it was hung up and dedicated to the household gods. The custom of wearing the bulla, which was regarded as a charm against sickness and the evil eye, was of Etruscan origin. After the Second Punic War all children of free birth were permitted to wear it; but those who did not belong to a noble or wealthy family were satisfied with a bulla of leather. Its use was only permitted to grown-up men in the case of generals who celebrated a triumph. Young girls (probably till the time of their marriage), and even favourite animals, also wore it (see Ficoroni, La Bolla d' Oro, 1732; Yates, Archaeological Journal, vi., 1849; viii., 1851). In ecclesiastical and medieval Latin, bulla denotes the seal of oval or circular form, bearing the name and generally the image of its owner, which was attached to official documents. A metal was used instead of wax in the warm countries of southern Europe. The best-known instances are the papal bullae, which have given their name to the documents (bulls) to which they are attached. (See Diplomatic; Seals; Curia Romana; Golden Bull.)
BULLER, CHARLES (1806-1848), English politician, son of Charles Buller (d. 1848), a member of a well-known Cornish family (see below), was born in Calcutta on the 6th of August 1806; his mother, a daughter of General William Kirkpatrick, was an exceptionally talented woman. He was educated at Harrow, then privately in Edinburgh by Thomas Carlyle, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a barrister in 1831. Before this date, however, he had succeeded his father as member of parliament for West Looe; after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 and the consequent disenfranchisement of this borough, he was returned to parliament by the voters of Liskeard. He retained this seat until he died in London on the 29th of November 1848, leaving behind him, so Charles Greville says, "a memory cherished for his delightful social qualities and a vast credit for undeveloped powers." An eager reformer and a friend of John Stuart Mill, Buller voted for the great Reform Bill, favoured other progressive measures, and presided over the committee on the state of the records and the one appointed to inquire into the state of election law in Ireland in 1836. In 1838 he went to Canada with Lord Durham as private secretary, and after rendering conspicuous service to his chief, returned with him to England in the same year. After practising as a barrister, Buller was made judge-advocate-general in 1846, and became chief commissioner of the poor law about a year before his death. For a long time it was believed that Buller wrote Lord Durham's famous "Report on the affairs of British North America." However, this is now denied by several authorities, among them being Durham's biographer, Stuart J. Reid, who mentions that Buller described this statement as a "groundless assertion" in an article which he wrote for the Edinburgh Review. Nevertheless it is quite possible that the "Report" was largely drafted by Buller, and it almost certainly bears traces of his influence. Buller was a very talented man, witty, popular and generous, and is described by Carlyle as "the genialest radical I have ever met." Among his intimate friends were Grote, Thackeray, Monckton Milnes and Lady Ashburton. A bust of Buller is in Westminster Abbey, and another was unveiled at Liskeard in 1905. He wrote "A Sketch of Lord Durham's mission to Canada," which has not been printed.
See T. Carlyle, Reminiscences (1881); and S.J. Reid, Life and Letters of the 1st earl of Durham (1906).
BULLER, SIR REDVERS HENRY (1839-1908), British general, son of James Wentworth Buller, M.P., of Crediton, Devonshire, and the descendant of an old Cornish family, long established in Devonshire, tracing its ancestry in the female line to Edward I., was born in 1839, and educated at Eton. He entered the army in 1858, and served with the 60th (King's Royal Rifles) in the China campaign of 1860. In 1870 he became captain, and went on the Red River expedition, where he was first associated with Colonel (afterwards Lord) Wolseley. In 1873-74 he accompanied the latter in the Ashantee campaign as head of the Intelligence Department, and was slightly wounded at the battle of Ordabai; he was mentioned in despatches, made a C.B., and raised to the rank of major. In 1874 he inherited the family estates. In the Kaffir War of 1878-79 and the Zulu War of 1879 he was conspicuous as an intrepid and popular leader, and acquired a reputation for courage and dogged determination. In particular his conduct of the retreat at Inhlobane (March 28, 1879) drew attention to these qualities, and on that occasion he earned the V.C.; he was also created C.M.G. and made lieutenant-colonel and A.D.C. to the queen. In the Boer War of 1881 he was Sir Evelyn Wood's chief of staff; and thus added to his experience of South African conditions of warfare. In 1882 he was head of the field intelligence department in the Egyptian campaign, and was knighted for his services. Two years later he commanded an infantry brigade in the Sudan under Sir Gerald Graham, and was at the battles of El Teb and Tamai, being promoted major-general for distinguished service. In the Sudan campaign of 1884-85 he was Lord Wolseley's chief of staff, and he was given command of the desert column when Sir Herbert Stewart was wounded. He distinguished himself by his conduct of the retreat from Gubat to Gakdul, and by his victory at Abu Klea (February 16-17), and he was created K.C.B. In 1886 he was sent to Ireland to inquire into the "moonlighting" outrages, and for a short time he acted as under-secretary for Ireland; but in 1887 he was appointed quartermaster-general at the war office. From 1890 to 1897 he held the office of adjutant-general, attaining the rank of lieutenant-general in 1891. At the war office his energy and ability inspired the belief that he was fitted for the highest command, and in 1895, when the duke of Cambridge was about to retire, it was well known that Lord Rosebery's cabinet intended to appoint Sir Redvers as chief of the staff under a scheme of reorganization recommended by Lord Hartington's commission. On the eve of this change, however, the government was defeated, and its successors appointed Lord Wolseley to the command under the old title of commander-in-chief. In 1896 he was made a full general.
In 1898 he took command of the troops at Aldershot, and when the Boer War broke out in 1899 he was selected to command the South African Field Force (see Transvaal), and landed
at Cape Town on the 31st of October. Owing to the Boer investment of Ladysmith and the consequent gravity of the military situation in Natal, he unexpectedly hurried thither in order to supervise personally the operations, but on the 15th of December his first attempt to cross the Tugela at Colenso (see Ladysmith) was repulsed. The government, alarmed at the situation and the pessimistic tone of Buller's messages, sent out Lord Roberts to supersede him in the chief command, Sir Redvers being left in subordinate command of the Natal force. His second attempt to relieve Ladysmith (January 10-27) proved another failure, the result of the operations at Spion Kop (January 24) causing consternation in England. A third attempt (Vaalkrantz, February 5-7) was unsuccessful, but the Natal army finally accomplished its task in the series of actions which culminated in the victory of Pieter's Hill and the relief of Ladysmith on the 27th of February. Sir Redvers Buller remained in command of the Natal army till October 1900, when he returned to England (being created G.C.M.G.), having in the meanwhile slowly done a great deal of hard work in driving the Boers from the Biggarsberg (May 15), forcing Lang's Nek (June 12), and occupying Lydenburg (September 6). But though these latter operations had done much to re-establish his reputation for dogged determination, and he had never lost the confidence of his own men, his capacity for an important command in delicate and difficult operations was now seriously questioned. The continuance, therefore, in 1901 of his appointment to the important Aldershot command met with a vigorous press criticism, in which the detailed objections taken to his conduct of the operations before Ladysmith (and particularly to a message to Sir George White in which he seriously contemplated and provided for the contingency of surrender) were given new prominence. On the 10th of October 1901, at a luncheon in London, Sir Redvers Buller made a speech in answer to these criticisms in terms which were held to be a breach of discipline, and he was placed on half-pay a few days later. For the remaining years of his life he played an active part as a country gentleman, accepting in dignified silence the prolonged attacks on his failures in South Africa; among the public generally, and particularly in his own county, he never lost his popularity. He died on the 2nd of June 1908. He had married in 1882 Lady Audrey, daughter of the 4th Marquess Townshend, who survived him with one daughter.
A Memoir, by Lewis Butler, was published in 1909.
BULLET (Fr. boulet, diminutive of boule, ball). The original meaning (a "small ball") has, since the end of the 16th century, been narrowed down to the special case of the projectile used with small arms of all kinds, irrespective of its size or shape. (For details see Ammunition; Gun; Rifle, &c.)
BULL-FIGHTING, the national Spanish sport. The Spanish name is tauromaquia (Gr. ταῦρος, bull, and μαχή, combat). Combats with bulls were common in ancient Thessaly as well as in the amphitheatres of imperial Rome, but probably partook more of the nature of worrying than fighting, like the bull-baiting formerly common in England. The Moors of Africa also possessed a sport of this kind, and it is probable that they introduced it into Andalusia when they conquered that province. It is certain that they held bull-fights in the half-ruined Roman amphitheatres of Merida, Cordova, Tarragona, Toledo and other places, and that these constituted the favourite sport of the Moorish chieftains. Although patriotic tradition names the great Cid himself as the original Spanish bull-fighter, it is probable that the first Spaniard to kill a bull in the arena was Don Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who about 1040, employing the lance, which remained for centuries the chief weapon used in the sport, proved himself superior to the flower of the Moorish knights. A spirited rivalry in the art between the Christian and Moorish warriors resulted, in which even the kings of Castile and other Spanish princes took an ardent interest. After the Moors were driven from Spain by Ferdinand II., bull-fighting continued to be the favourite sport of the aristocracy, the method of fighting being on horseback with the lance. At the time of the accession of the house of Austria it had become an indispensable accessory of every court function, and Charles V. ensured his popularity with the people by killing a bull with his own lance on the birthday of his son, Philip II. Philip IV. is also known to have taken a personal part in bull-fights. During this period the lance was discarded in favour of the short spear (rejoncillo), and the leg armour still worn by the picadores was introduced. The accession of the house of Bourbon witnessed a radical transformation in the character of the bullfight, which the aristocracy began gradually to neglect, admitting to the combats professional subordinates who, by the end of the 17th century, had become the only active participants in the bull-ring. The first great professional espada (i.e. swordsman, the chief bull-fighter, who actually kills the bull) was Francisco Romero, of Ronda in Andalusia (about 1700), who introduced the estoque, the sword still used to kill the bull, and the muleta, the red flag carried by the espada (see below), the spear falling into complete disuse.
For the past two centuries the art of bull-fighting has developed gradually into the spectacle of to-day. Imitations of the Spanish bull-fights have been repeatedly introduced into France and Italy, but the cruelty of the sport has prevented its taking firm root. In Portugal a kind of bull-baiting is practised, in which neither man nor beast is much hurt, the bulls having their horns truncated and padded and never being killed. In Spain many vain attempts have been made to abolish the sport, by Ferdinand II. himself, instigated by his wife Isabella, by Charles III., by Ferdinand VI., and by Charles IV.; and several popes placed its devotees under the ban of excommunication with no perceptible effect upon its popularity. Before the introduction of railways there were comparatively few bull-rings (plazas de toros) in Spain, but these have largely multiplied in recent years, in both Spain and Spanish America. At the present day nearly every larger town and city in Spain has its plaza de toros (about 225 altogether), built in the form of the Roman circuses with an oval open arena covered with sand, surrounded by a stout fence about 6 ft. high. Between this and the seats of the spectators is a narrow passage-way, where those bull-fighters who are not at the moment engaged take their stations. The plazas de toros are of all sizes, from that of Madrid, which holds more than 12,000 spectators, down to those seating only two or three thousand. Every bull-ring has its hospital for the wounded, and its chapel where the toreros (bull-fighters) receive the Holy Eucharist.
The bulls used for fighting are invariably of well-known lineage and are reared in special establishments (vacádas), the most celebrated of which is now that of the duke of Veragua in Andalusia. When quite young they are branded with the emblems of their owners, and later are put to a test of their courage, only those that show a fighting spirit being trained further. When full grown, the health, colour, weight, character of horns, and action in attack are all objects of the keenest observation and study. The best bulls are worth from £40 to £60. About 1300 bulls are killed annually in Spain. Bull-fighters proper, most of whom are Andalusians, consist of espadas (or matadores), banderilleros and picadores, in addition to whom there are numbers of assistants (chulos), drivers and other servants. For each bull-fight two or three espadas are engaged, each providing his own quadrille (cuadrilla), composed of several banderilleros and picadores. Six bulls are usually killed during one corrida (bull-fight), the espadas engaged taking them in turn. The espada must have passed through a trying novitiate in the art at the royal school of bull-fighting, after which he is given his alternativa, or licence.
The bull-fight begins with a grand entry of all the bull-fighters with alguaciles, municipal officers in ancient costume, at the head, followed, in three rows, by the espadas, banderilleros, picadores, chulos and the richly caparisoned triple mule-team used to drag from the arena the carcasses of the slain bulls and horses. The greatest possible brilliance of costume and accoutrements is aimed at, and the picture presented is one of dazzling colour. The espadas and banderilleros wear short jackets and small-clothes of satin richly embroidered in gold and silver, with
light silk stockings and heelless shoes; the picadores (pikemen on horseback) usually wear yellow, and their legs are enclosed in steel armour covered with leather as a protection against the horns of the bull.
The fight is divided into three divisions (suertes). When the opening procession has passed round the arena the president of the corrida, usually some person of rank, throws down to one of the alguaciles the key to the toril, or bull-cells. As soon as the supernumeraries have left the ring, and the picadores, mounted upon blindfolded horses in wretched condition, have taken their places against the barrier, the door of the toril is opened, and the bull, which has been goaded into fury by the affixing to his shoulder of an iron pin with streamers of the colours of his breeder attached, enters the ring. Then begins the suerte de picar, or division of lancing. The bull at once attacks the mounted picadores, ripping up and wounding the horses, often to the point of complete disembowelment. As the bull attacks the horse, the picador, who is armed with a short-pointed, stout pike (garrocha), thrusts this into the bull's back with all his force, with the usual result that the bull turns its attention to another picador. Not infrequently, however, the rush of the bull and the blow dealt to the horse is of such force as to overthrow both animal and rider, but the latter is usually rescued from danger by the chulos and banderilleros, who, by means of their red cloaks (capas), divert the bull from the fallen picador, who either escapes from the ring or mounts a fresh horse. The number of horses killed in this manner is one of the chief features of the fight, a bull's prowess being reckoned accordingly. About 6000 horses are killed every year in Spain. At the sound of a trumpet the picadores retire from the ring, the dead horses are dragged out, and the second division of the fight, the suerte de banderillear, or planting the darts, begins. The banderillas are barbed darts about 18 in. long, ornamented with coloured paper, one being held in each hand of the bull-fighter, who, standing 20 or 30 yds. from the bull, draws its attention to him by means of violent gestures. As the bull charges, the banderillero steps towards him, dexterously plants both darts in the beast's neck, and draws aside in the nick of time to avoid its horns. Four pairs of banderillas are planted in this way, rendering the bull mad with rage and pain. Should the animal prove of a cowardly nature and refuse to attack repeatedly, banderillas de fuego (fire) are used. These are furnished with fulminating crackers, which explode with terrific noise as the bull careers about the ring. During this division numerous manœuvres are sometimes indulged in for the purpose of tiring the bull out, such as leaping between his horns, vaulting over his back with the garrocha as he charges, and inviting his rushes by means of elaborate flauntings of the cloak (floréos, flourishes).
Another trumpet-call gives the signal for the final division of the fight, the suerte de matár (killing). This is carried out by the espada, alone, his assistants being present only in the case of emergency or to get the bull back to the proper part of the ring, should he bolt to a distance. The espada, taking his stand before the box of the president, holds aloft in his left hand sword and muleta and in his right his hat, and in set phrases formally dedicates (brinde) the death of the bull to the president or some other personage of rank, finishing by tossing his hat behind his back and proceeding bareheaded to the work of killing the bull. This is a process accompanied by much formality. The espada, armed with the estoque, a sword with a heavy flat blade, brings the bull into the proper position by means of passes with the muleta, a small red silk flag mounted on a short staff, and then essays to kill him with a single thrust, delivered through the back of the neck close to the head and downward into the heart. This stroke is a most difficult one, requiring long practice as well as great natural dexterity, and very frequently fails of its object, the killing of the bull often requiring repeated thrusts. The stroke (estocada) is usually given á volapié (half running), the espada delivering the thrust while stepping forward, the bull usually standing still. Another method is recibiéndo (receiving), the espada receiving the onset of the bull upon the point of his sword. Should the bull need a coup de grâce, it is given by a chulo, called puntilléro, with a dagger which pierces the spinal marrow. The dead beast is then dragged out of the ring by the triple mule-team, while the espada makes a tour of honour, being acclaimed, in the case of a favourite, with the most extravagant enthusiasm. The ring is then raked over, a second bull is introduced, and the spectacle begins anew. Upon great occasions, such as a coronation, a corrida in the ancient style is given by amateurs, who are clad in gala costumes without armour of any kind, and mounted upon steeds of good breed and condition. They are armed with sharp lances, with which they essay to kill the bull while protecting themselves and their steeds from his horns. As the bulls in these encounters have not been weakened by many wounds and tired out by much running, the performances of the gentlemen fighters are remarkable for pluck and dexterity.
See Moratin, Origen y Progeso de las Fiestas de Toros; Bedoya's Historia del Toreo; J.S. Lozano, Manual de Tauromaquia (Seville, 1882); A. Chapman and W.T. Buck, Wild Spain (London, 1893).
BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula vulgaris), the ancient English name given to a bird belonging to the family Fringillidae (see Finch), of a bluish-grey and black colour above, and generally of a bright tile-red beneath, the female differing chiefly in having its under-parts chocolate-brown. It is a shy bird, not associating with other species, and frequents well-wooded districts, being very rarely seen on moors or other waste lands. It builds a shallow nest composed of twigs lined with fibrous roots, on low trees or thick underwood, only a few feet from the ground, and lays four or five eggs of a bluish-white colour speckled and streaked with purple. The young remain with their parents during autumn and winter, and pair in spring, not building their nests, however, till May. In spring and summer they feed on the buds of trees and bushes, choosing, it is said, such only as contain the incipient blossom, and thus doing immense injury to orchards and gardens. In autumn and winter they feed principally on wild fruits and on seeds. The note of the bullfinch, in the wild state, is soft and pleasant, but so low as scarcely to be audible; it possesses, however, great powers of imitation, and considerable memory, and can thus be taught to whistle a variety of tunes. Bullfinches are very abundant in the forests of Germany, and it is there that most of the piping bullfinches are trained. They are taught continuously for nine months, and the lesson is repeated throughout the first moulting, as during that change the young birds are apt to forget all that they have previously acquired. The bullfinch is a native of the northern countries of Europe, occurring in Italy and other southern parts only as a winter visitor. White and black varieties are occasionally met with; the latter are often produced by feeding the bullfinch exclusively on hempseed, when its plumage gradually changes to black. It rarely breeds in confinement, and hybrids between it and the canary have been produced on but few occasions.
BULLI, a town of Camden county, New South Wales, Australia, 59 m. by rail S. of Sydney. Pop. (1901) 2500. It is the headquarters of the Bulli Mining Company, whose coal-mine on the flank of the Illawarra Mountains is worked by a tunnel, 2 m. long, driven into the heart of the mountain. From this tunnel the coal is conveyed by rail for 1½ m. to a pier, whence it is shipped to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by a fleet of steam colliers. The beautiful Bulli Pass, 1000 ft. above the sea, over the Illawarra range, is one of the most attractive tourist resorts in Australia.
BULLINGER, HEINRICH (1504-1575), Swiss reformer, son of Dean Heinrich Bullinger by his wife Anna (Wiederkehr), was born at Bremgarten, Aargau, on the 18th of July 1504. He studied at Emmerich and Cologne, where the teaching of Peter Lombard led him, through Augustine and Chrysostom, to first-hand study of the Bible. Next the writings of Luther and Melanchthon appealed to him. Appointed teacher (1522) in the cloister school of Cappel, he lectured on Melanchthon's Loci Communes (1521). He heard Zwingli at Zürich in 1527, and next year accompanied him to the disputation at Berne. He was made pastor of Bremgarten in 1529, and married Anna Adlischweiler, a nun, by whom he had eleven children. After the battle
of Cappel (11th of October 1531), in which Zwingli fell, he left Bremgarten. On the 9th of December 1531 he was chosen to succeed Zwingli as chief pastor of Zürich. A strong writer and thinker, his spirit was essentially unifying and sympathetic, in an age when these qualities won little sympathy. His controversies on the Lord's Supper with Luther, and his correspondence with Lelio Sozini (see Socinus), exhibit, in different connexions, his admirable mixture of dignity and tenderness. With Calvin he concluded (1549) the Consensus Tigurinus on the Lord's Supper. The (second) Helvetic Confession (1566) adopted in Switzerland, Hungary, Bohemia and elsewhere, was his work. The volumes of the Zurich Letters, published by the Parker Society, testify to his influence on the English reformation in later stages. Many of his sermons were translated into English (reprinted, 4 vols., 1849). His works, mainly expository and polemical, have not been collected. He died at Zürich on the 17th of September 1575.
See Carl Pestalozzi, Leben (1858); Raget Christoffel, H. Bullinger (1875); Justus Heer, in Hauck's Realencyklopadie (1897).
(A. Go.*)
BULLION, a term applied to the gold and silver of the mines brought to a standard of purity. The word appears in an English act of 1336 in the French form "puissent sauvement porter à les exchanges ou bullion ... argent en plate, vessel d'argent, &c."; and apparently it is connected with bouillon, the sense of "boiling" being transferred in English to the melting of metal, so that bullion in the passage quoted meant "melting-house" or "mint." The first recorded instance of the use of the word for precious metal as such in the mass is in an act of 1451. From the use of gold and silver as a medium of exchange, it followed that they should approximate in all nations to a common degree of fineness; and though this is not uniform even in coins, yet the proportion of alloy in silver, and of carats alloy to carats fine in gold, has been reduced to infinitesimal differences in the bullion of commerce, and is a prime element of value even in gold and silver plate, jewelry, and other articles of manufacture. Bullion, whether in the form of coins, or of bars and ingots stamped, is subject, as a general rule of the London market, not only to weight but to assay, and receives a corresponding value.
BULLOCK, WILLIAM (c. 1657-c. 1740), English actor, "of great glee and much comic vivacity," was the original Clincher in Farquhar's Constant Couple (1699), Boniface in The Beaux' Stratagem (1707), and Sir Francis Courtall in Pavener's Artful Wife (1717). He played at all the London theatres of his time, and in the summer at a booth at Bartholomew Fair. He had three sons, all actors, of whom the eldest was Christopher Bullock (c. 1690-1724), who at Drury Lane, the Haymarket and Lincoln's Inn Fields displayed "a considerable versatility of talent." Christopher created a few original parts in comedies and farces of which he was the author or adapter:—A Woman's Revenge (1715); Slip; Adventures of Half an Hour (1716); The Cobbler of Preston; Woman's a Riddle; The Perjurer (1717); and The Traitor (1718).
BULLROARER, the English name for an instrument made of a small flat slip of wood, through a hole in one end of which a string is passed; swung round rapidly it makes a booming, humming noise. Though treated as a toy by Europeans, the bullroarer has had the highest mystic significance and sanctity among primitive people. This is notably the case in Australia, where it figures in the initiation ceremonies and is regarded with the utmost awe by the "blackfellows." Their bullroarers, or sacred "tunduns," are of two types, the "grandfather" or "man tundun," distinguished by its deep tone, and the "woman tundun," which, being smaller, gives forth a weaker, shriller note. Women or girls, and boys before initiation, are never allowed to see the tundun. At the Bora, or initiation ceremonies, the bullroarer's hum is believed to be the voice of the "Great Spirit," and on hearing it the women hide in terror. A Maori bullroarer is preserved in the British Museum, and travellers in Africa state that it is known and held sacred there. Thus among the Egba tribe of the Yoruba race the supposed "Voice of Oro," their god of vengeance, is produced by a bullroarer, which is actually worshipped as the god himself. The sanctity of the bullroarer has been shown to be very widespread. There is no doubt that the rhombus ῥόμβος which was whirled at the Greek mysteries was one. Among North American Indians it was common. At certain Moqui ceremonies the procession of dancers was led by a priest who whirled a bullroarer. The instrument has been traced among the Tusayan, Apache and Navaho Indians (J.G. Bourke, Ninth Annual Report of Bureau of Amer. Ethnol., 1892), among the Koskimo of British Columbia (Fr. Boas, "Social Organization, &c., of the Kwakiutl Indians," Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895), and in Central Brazil. In New Guinea, in some of the islands of the Torres Straits (where it is swung as a fishing-charm), in Ceylon (where it is used as a toy and figures as a sacred instrument at Buddhist festivals), and in Sumatra (where it is used to induce the demons to carry off the soul of a woman, and so drive her mad), the bullroarer is also found. Sometimes, as among the Minangkabos of Sumatra, it is made of the frontal bone of a man renowned for his bravery.
See A. Lang, Custom and Myth (1884); J.D.E. Schmeltz, Das Schwirrholz (Hamburg, 1896); A.C. Haddon, The Study of Man, and in the Journ. Anthrop. Instit. xix., 1890; G.M.C. Theal, Kaffir Folk-Lore; A.B. Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples (1894); R.C. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891).
BULL RUN, a small stream of Virginia, U.S.A., which gave the name to two famous battles in the American Civil War.
(1) The first battle of Bull Run (called by the Confederates Manassas) was fought on the 21st of July 1861 between the Union forces under Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell and the Confederates under General Joseph E. Johnston. Both armies were newly raised and almost untrained. After a slight action on the 18th at Blackburn's Ford, the two armies prepared for a battle. The Confederates were posted along Bull Run, guarding all the passages from the Stone Bridge down to the railway bridge. McDowell's forces rendezvoused around Centreville, and both commanders, sensible of the temper of their troops, planned a battle for the 21st. On his part McDowell ordered one of his four divisions to attack the Stone Bridge, two to make a turning movement via Sudley Springs, the remaining division (partly composed of regular troops) was to be in reserve and to watch the lower fords. The local Confederate commander, Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard, had also intended to advance, and General Johnston, who arrived by rail on the evening of the 20th with the greater part of a fresh army, and now assumed command of the whole force, approved an offensive movement against Centreville for the 21st; but orders miscarried, and the Federal attack opened before the movement had begun. Johnston and Beauregard then decided to fight a defensive battle, and hurried up troops to support the single brigade of Evans which held the Stone Bridge. Thus there was no serious fighting at the lower fords of Bull Run throughout the day.
The Federal staff was equally inexperienced, and the divisions
engaged in the turning movement met with many unnecessary checks. At 6 A.M., when the troops told off for the frontal attack appeared before the Stone Bridge, the turning movement was by no means well advanced. Evans had time to change position so as to command both the Stone Bridge and Sudley Springs, and he was promptly supported by the brigades of Bee, Bartow and T.J. Jackson. About 9.30 the leading Federal brigade from Sudley Springs came into action, and two hours later Evans, Bee and Bartow had been driven off the Matthews hill in considerable confusion. But on the Henry House hill Jackson's brigade stood, as General Bee said to his men, "like a stone wall," and the defenders rallied, though the Federals were continually reinforced. The fighting on the Henry House hill was very severe, but McDowell, who dared not halt to re-form his enthusiastic volunteers, continued to attack. About 1.30 P.M. he brought up two regular batteries to the fighting line; but a Confederate regiment, being mistaken for friendly troops and allowed to approach, silenced the guns by close rifle fire, and from that time, though the hill was taken and retaken several times, the Federal attack made no further headway. At 2.45 more of Beauregard's troops had come up; Jackson's brigade charged with the bayonet, and at the same time the Federals were assailed in flank by the last brigades of Johnston's army, which arrived at the critical moment from the railway. They gave way at once, tired out, and conscious that the day was lost, and after one rally melted away slowly to the rear, the handful of regulars alone keeping their order. But when, at the defile of the Cub Run, they came under shell fire the retreat became a panic flight to the Potomac. The victors were too much exhausted to pursue, and the U.S. regulars of the reserve division formed a strong and steady rearguard. The losses were—Federals, 2896 men out of about 18,500 engaged; Confederates, 1982 men out of 18,000.
(2) The operations of the last days of August 1862, which include the second battle of Bull Run (second Manassas), are amongst the most complicated of the war. At the outset the Confederate general Lee's army (Longstreet's and Jackson's corps) lay on the Rappahannock, faced by the Federal Army of Virginia under Major-General John Pope, which was to be reinforced by troops from McClellan's army to a total strength of 150,000 men as against Lee's 60,000. Want of supplies soon forced Lee to move, though not to retreat, and his plan for attacking Pope was one of the most daring in all military history. Jackson with half the army was despatched on a wide turning movement which was to bring him via Salem and Thoroughfare Gap to Manassas Junction in Pope's rear; when Jackson's task was accomplished Lee and Longstreet were to follow him by the same route. Early on the 25th of August Jackson began his march round the right of Pope's army; on the 26th the column passed Thoroughfare Gap, and Bristoe Station, directly in Pope's rear, was reached on the same evening, while a detachment drove a Federal post from Manassas Junction. On the 27th the immense magazines at the Junction were destroyed. On his side Pope had soon discovered Jackson's departure, and had arranged for an immediate attack on Longstreet. When, however, the direction of Jackson's march on Thoroughfare Gap became clear, Pope fell back in order to engage him, at the same time ordering his army to concentrate on Warrenton, Greenwich and Gainesville. He was now largely reinforced. On the evening of the 27th one of his divisions, marching to its point of concentration, met a division of Jackson's corps, near Bristoe Station; after a sharp fight the Confederate general, Ewell, retired on Manassas. Pope now realized that he had Jackson's corps in front of him at the Junction, and at once took steps to attack Manassas with all his forces. He drew off even the corps at Gainesville for his intended battle of the 28th; McDowell, however, its commander, on his own responsibility, left Ricketts's division at Thoroughfare Gap. But Pope's blow was struck in the air. When he arrived at Manassas on the 28th he found nothing but the ruins of his magazines, and one of McDowell's divisions (King's) marching from Gainesville on Manassas Junction met Jackson's infantry near Groveton. The situation had again changed completely. Jackson had no intention of awaiting Pope at Manassas, and after several feints made with a view to misleading the Federal scouts he finally withdrew to a hidden position between Groveton and Sudley Springs, to await the arrival of Longstreet, who, taking the same route as Jackson had done, arrived on the 28th at Thoroughfare Gap and, engaging Ricketts's division, finally drove it back to Gainesville. On the evening of this day Jackson's corps held the line Sudley Springs-Groveton, his right wing near Groveton opposing King's division; and Longstreet held Thoroughfare Gap, facing Ricketts at Gainesville. On Ricketts's right was King near Groveton, and the line was continued thence by McDowell's remaining division and by Sigel's corps to the Stone Bridge. At Centreville, 7 m. away, was Pope with three divisions, a fourth was north-east of Manassas Junction, and Porter's corps at Bristoe Station. Thus, while Ricketts continued at Gainesville to mask Longstreet, Pope could concentrate a superior force against Jackson, whom he now believed to be meditating a retreat to the Gap. But a series of misunderstandings resulted in the withdrawal of Ricketts and King, so that nothing now intervened between Longstreet and Jackson; while Sigel and McDowell's other division alone remained to face Jackson until such time as Pope could bring up the rest of his scattered forces. Jackson now closed on his left and prepared for battle, and on the morning of the 29th the Confederates, posted behind a high railway embankment, repelled two sharp attacks made by Sigel. Pope arrived at noon with the divisions from Centreville, which, led by the general himself and by Reno and Hooker, two of the bravest officers in the Union army, made a third and most desperate attack on Jackson's line. The latter, repulsing it with difficulty, carried its counter-stroke too far and was in turn repulsed by Grover's brigade of Hooker's division. Grover then made a fourth assault, but was driven back with terrible loss. The last assault, gallantly delivered by two divisions under Kearny and Stevens, drove the Confederate left out of its position; but a Confederate counter-attack, led by the brave Jubal Early, dislodged the assailants with the bayonet.
In the meanwhile events had taken place near Groveton which were, for twenty years after the war, the subject of controversy and recrimination (see Porter, Fitz-John). When Porter's and part of McDowell's corps, acting on various orders sent by Pope, approached Gainesville from the south-east, Longstreet had already reached that place, and the Federals thus encountered a force of unknown strength at the moment when Sigel's guns to the northward showed him to be closely engaged with Jackson. The two generals consulted, and McDowell marched off to join Sigel, while Porter remained to hold the new enemy in check. In this he succeeded; Longstreet, though far superior in numbers, made no forward move, and his advanced guard alone came into action. On the night of the 29th Lee reunited the wings of his army on the field of battle. He had forced Pope back many miles from the Rappahannock, and expecting that the Federals would retire to the line of Bull Run before giving battle, he now decided to wait for the last divisions of Longstreet's corps, which were still distant. But Pope, still sanguine, ordered a "general pursuit" of Jackson for the 30th. There was some ground for his suppositions, for Jackson had retired a short distance and Longstreet's advanced guard had also fallen back. McDowell, however, who was in general charge of the Federal right on the 30th, soon saw that Jackson was not retreating and stopped the "pursuit," and the attack on Jackson's right, which Pope had ordered Porter to make, was repulsed by Longstreet's overwhelming forces. Then Lee's whole line, 4 m. long, made its grand counter-stroke (4 P.M.). There was now no hesitation in Longstreet's attack; the Federal left was driven successively from every position it took up, and Longstreet finally captured Bald Hill. Jackson, though opposed by the greater part of Pope's forces, advanced to the Matthews hill, and his artillery threatened the Stone Bridge. The Federals, driven back to the banks of Bull Run, were only saved by the gallant defence of the Henry House hill by the Pennsylvanian division of Reynolds and the regulars
under Sykes. Pope withdrew under cover of night to Centreville. Here he received fresh reinforcements, but Jackson was already marching round his new right, and after the action of Chantilly (1st of September) the whole Federal army fell back to Washington. The Union forces present on the field on the 29th and 30th numbered about 63,000, the strength of Lee's army being on the same dates about 54,000. Besides their killed and wounded the Federals lost very heavily in prisoners.
BULLY (of uncertain origin, but possibly connected with a Teutonic word seen in many compounds, as the Low Ger. bullerjaan, meaning "noisy"; the word has also, with less probability, been derived from the Dutch boel, and Ger. Buhle, a lover), originally a fine, swaggering fellow, as in "Bully Bottom" in A Midsummer Night's Dream, later an overbearing ruffian, especially a coward who abuses his strength by ill-treating the weak; more technically a souteneur, a man who lives on the earnings of a prostitute. The term in its early use of "fine" or "splendid" survives in American slang.
BÜLOW, BERNHARD ERNST VON (1815-1879), Danish and German statesman, was the son of Adolf von Bülow, a Danish official, and was born at Cismar in Holstein on the 2nd of August 1815. He studied law at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Kiel, and began his political career in the service of Denmark, in the chancery of Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg at Copenhagen, and afterwards in the foreign office. In 1842 he became councillor of legation, and in 1847 Danish chargé d'affaires in the Hanse towns, where his intercourse with the merchant princes led to his marriage in 1848 with a wealthy heiress, Louise Victorine Rücker. When the insurrection broke out in the Elbe duchies (1848) he left the Danish service, and offered his services to the provisional government of Kiel, an offer that was not accepted. In 1849, accordingly, he re-entered the service of Denmark, was appointed a royal chamberlain and in 1850 sent to represent the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein at the restored federal diet of Frankfort. Here he came into intimate touch with Bismarck, who admired his statesmanlike handling of the growing complications of the Schleswig-Holstein Question. With the radical "Eider-Dane" party he was utterly out of sympathy; and when, in 1862, this party gained the upper hand, he was recalled from Frankfort. He now entered the service of the grand-duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and remained at the head of the grand-ducal government until 1867, when he became plenipotentiary for the two Mecklenburg duchies in the council of the German Confederation (Bundesrat), where he distinguished himself by his successful defence of the medieval constitution of the duchies against Liberal attacks. In 1873 Bismarck, who was in thorough sympathy with his views, persuaded him to enter the service of Prussia as secretary of state for foreign affairs, and from this time till his death he was the chancellor's most faithful henchman. In 1875 he was appointed Prussian plenipotentiary in the Bundesrat; in 1877 he became Bismarck's lieutenant in the secretaryship for foreign affairs of the Empire; and in 1878 he was, with Bismarck and Hohenlohe, Prussian plenipotentiary at the congress of Berlin. He died at Frankfort on the 20th of October 1879, his end being hastened by his exertions in connexion with the political crisis of that year. Of his six sons the eldest, Bernhard Heinrich Karl (see below), became chancellor of the Empire.
See the biography of H. von Petersdorff in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Band 47, p. 350.
BÜLOW, BERNHARD HEINRICH KARL MARTIN, Prince von (1849- ), German statesman, was born on the 3rd of May 1849, at Klein-Flottbeck, in Holstein. The Bülow family is one very widely extended in north Germany, and many members have attained distinction in the civil and military service of Prussia, Denmark and Mecklenburg. Prince Bülow's great-uncle, Heinrich von Bülow, who was distinguished for his admiration of England and English institutions, was Prussian ambassador in England from 1827 to 1840, and married a daughter of Wilhelm von Humboldt (see the letters of Gabrielle von Bülow). His father, Bernhard Ernst von Bülow, is separately noticed above.
Prince Bülow must not be confused with his contemporary Otto v. Bülow (1827-1901), an official in the Prussian foreign office, who in 1882 was appointed German envoy at Bern, from 1892 to 1898 was Prussian envoy to the Vatican, and died at Rome on the 22nd of November 1901.
Bernhard von Bülow, after serving in the Franco-Prussian War, entered the Prussian civil service, and was then transferred to the diplomatic service. In 1876 he was appointed attaché to the German embassy in Paris, and after returning for a while to the foreign office at Berlin, became second secretary to the embassy in Paris in 1880. From 1884 he was first secretary to the embassy at St Petersburg, and acted as chargé d'affaires; in 1888 he was appointed envoy at Bucharest, and in 1893 to the post of German ambassador at Rome. In 1897, on the retirement of Baron Marshall von Bieberstein, he was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs (the same office which his father had held) under Prince Hohenlohe, with a seat in the Prussian ministry. The appointment caused much surprise at the time, as Bülow was little known outside diplomatic circles. The explanations suggested were that he had made himself very popular at Rome and that his appointment was therefore calculated to strengthen the loosening bonds of the Triple Alliance, and also that his early close association with Bismarck would ensure the maintenance of the Bismarckian tradition. As foreign secretary Herr von Bülow was chiefly responsible for carrying out the policy of colonial expansion with which the emperor had identified himself, and in 1899, on bringing to a successful conclusion the negotiations by which the Caroline Islands were acquired by Germany, he was raised to the rank of count. On the resignation of Hohenlohe in 1900 he was chosen to succeed him as chancellor of the empire and president of the Prussian ministry.
The Berliner Neueste Nachrichten, commenting on this appointment, very aptly characterized the relations of the new chancellor to the emperor, in contrast to the position occupied by Bismarck. "The Germany of William II.," it said, "does not admit a Titan in the position of the highest official of the Empire. A cautious and versatile diplomatist like Bernhard von Bülow appears to be best adapted to the personal and political necessities of the present situation." Count Bülow, indeed, though, like Bismarck, a "realist," utilitarian and opportunist in his policy, made no effort to emulate the masterful independence of the great chancellor. He was accused, indeed, of being little more than the complacent executor of the emperor's will, and defended himself in the Reichstag against the charge. The substance of the relations between the emperor and himself, he declared, rested on mutual good-will, and added: "I must lay it down most emphatically that the prerogative of the emperor's personal initiative must not be curtailed, and will not be curtailed, by any chancellor.... As regards the chancellor, however, I say that no imperial chancellor worthy of the name ... would take up any position which in his conscience he did not regard as justifiable." It is clear that the position of a chancellor holding these views in relation to a ruler so masterful and so impulsive as the emperor William II. could be no easy one; and Bülow's long continuance in office is the best proof of his genius. His first conspicuous act as chancellor was a masterly defence in the Reichstag of German action in China, a defence which was, indeed, rendered easier by the fact that Prince Hohenlohe had—to use his own words—"dug a canal" for the flood of imperial ambition of which warning had been given in the famous "mailed fist" speech. Such incidents as this, however, though they served to exhibit consummate tact and diplomatic skill, give little index to the fundamental character of his work as chancellor. Of this it may be said, in general, that it carried on the best traditions of the Prussian service in whole-hearted devotion to the interests of the state. The accusation that he was an "agrarian" he thought it necessary to rebut in a speech delivered on the 18th of February 1906 to the German Handelstag. He was an agrarian, he declared, in so far as he came of a land-owning family, and was interested in the prosperity of agriculture; but as chancellor, whose function it is to watch over the welfare
of all classes, he was equally concerned with the interests of commerce and industry (Kölnische Zeitung, Feb. 20, 1906). Some credit for the immense material expansion of Germany under his chancellorship is certainly due to his zeal and self-devotion. This was generously recognized by the emperor in a letter publicly addressed to the chancellor on the 21st of May 1906, immediately after the passage of the Finance Bill. "I am fully conscious," it ran, "of the conspicuous share in the initiation and realization of this work of reform... which must be ascribed to the statesmanlike skill and self-sacrificing devotion with which you have conducted and promoted those arduous labours." Rumours had from time to time been rife of a "chancellor crisis" and Bülow's dismissal; in the Berliner Tageblatt this letter was compared to the "Never!" with which the emperor William I. had replied to Bismarck's proffered resignation.
On the 6th of June 1905 Count Bülow was raised to the rank of prince (Fürst), on the occasion of the marriage of the crown prince. The coincidence of this date with the fall of M. Delcassé, the French minister for foreign affairs—a triumph for Germany and a humiliation for France—was much commented on at the time (see The Times, June 7, 1905); and the elevation of Bismarck to the rank of prince in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles was recalled. Whatever element of truth there may have been in this, however, the significance of the incident was much exaggerated.
On the 5th of April 1906, while attending a debate in the Reichstag, Prince Bülow was seized with illness, the result of overwork and an attack of influenza, and was carried unconscious from the hall. At first it was thought that the attack would be fatal, and Lord Fitzmaurice in the House of Lords compared the incident with that of the death of Chatham, a compliment much appreciated in Germany. The illness, however, quickly took a favourable turn, and after a month's rest the chancellor was able to resume his duties. In 1907 Prince Bülow was made the subject of a disgraceful libel, which received more attention than it deserved because it coincided with the Harden-Moltke scandals; his character was, however, completely vindicated, and the libeller, a journalist named Brand, received a term of imprisonment.
The parliamentary skill of Prince Bülow in holding together the heterogeneous elements of which the government majority in the Reichstag was composed, no less than the diplomatic tact with which he from time to time "interpreted" the imperial indiscretions to the world, was put to a rude test by the famous "interview" with the German emperor, published in the London Daily Telegraph of the 28th of October 1908 (see William II., German emperor), which aroused universal reprobation in Germany. Prince Bülow assumed the official responsibility, and tendered his resignation to the emperor, which was not accepted; but the chancellor's explanation in the Reichstag on the 10th of November showed how keenly he felt his position. He declared his conviction that the disastrous results of the interview would "induce the emperor in future to observe that strict reserve, even in private conversations, which is equally indispensable in the interest of a uniform policy and for the authority of the crown," adding that, in the contrary case, neither he nor any successor of his could assume the responsibility (The Times, Nov. 11, 1908, p. 9). The attitude of the emperor showed that he had taken the lesson to heart. It was not the imperial indiscretions, but the effect of his budget proposals in breaking up the Liberal-Conservative bloc, on whose support he depended in the Reichstag, that eventually drove Prince Bülow from office (see Germany: History). At the emperor's request he remained to pilot the mutilated budget through the House; but on the 14th of July 1909 the acceptance of his resignation was announced.
Prince Bülow married, on the 9th of January 1886, Maria Anna Zoe Rosalia Beccadelli di Bologna, Princess Camporeale, whose first marriage with Count Karl von Dönhoff had been dissolved and declared null by the Holy See in 1884. The princess, an accomplished pianist and pupil of Liszt, was a step-daughter of the Italian statesman Minghetti.
See J. Penzler, Graf Bülows Reden nebst urkundlichen Beiträgen zu seiner Politik (Leipzig, 1903).
BÜLOW, DIETRICH HEINRICH, Freiherr von (1757-1807), Prussian soldier and military writer, and brother of General Count F.W. Bülow, entered the Prussian army in 1773. Routine work proved distasteful to him, and he read with avidity the works of the chevalier Folard and other theoretical writers on war, and of Rousseau. After sixteen years' service he left Prussia, and endeavoured without success to obtain a commission in the Austrian army. He then returned to Prussia, and for some time managed a theatrical company. The failure of this undertaking involved Bülow in heavy losses, and soon afterwards he went to America, where he seems to have been converted to, and to have preached, Swedenborgianism. On his return to Europe he persuaded his brother to engage in a speculation for exporting glass to the United States, which proved a complete failure. After this for some years he made a precarious living in Berlin by literary work, but his debts accumulated, and it was under great disadvantages that he produced his Geist des Neueren Kriegssystems (Hamburg, 1799) and Der Feldzug 1800 (Berlin, 1801). His hopes of military employment were again disappointed, and his brother, the future field marshal, who had stood by him in all his troubles, finally left him. After wandering in France and the smaller German states, he reappeared at Berlin in 1804, where he wrote a revised edition of his Geist des Neueren Kriegssystems (Hamburg, 1805), Lehrsätze des Neueren Kriegs (Berlin, 1805), Geschichte des Prinzen Heinrich von Preussen (Berlin, 1805), Neue Taktik der Neuern wie sie sein sollte (Leipzig, 1805), and Der Feldzug 1805 (Leipzig, 1806). He also edited, with G.H. von Behrenhorst (1733-1814) and others, Annalen des Krieges (Berlin, 1806). These brilliant but unorthodox works, distinguished by an open contempt of the Prussian system, cosmopolitanism hardly to be distinguished from high treason, and the mordant sarcasm of a disappointed man, brought upon Bülow the enmity of the official classes and of the government. He was arrested as insane, but medical examination proved him sane and he was then lodged as a prisoner in Colberg, where he was harshly treated, though Gneisenau obtained some mitigation of his condition. Thence he passed into Russian hands and died in prison at Riga in 1807, probably as a result of ill-treatment.
In Bülow's writings there is evident a distinct contrast between the spirit of his strategical and that of his tactical ideas. As a strategist (he claimed to be the first of strategists) he reduces to mathematical rules the practice of the great generals of the 18th century, ignoring "friction," and manœuvring his armies in vacuo. At the same time he professes that his system provides working rules for the armies of his own day, which in point of fact were "armed nations," infinitely more affected by "friction" than the small dynastic and professional armies of the preceding age. Bülow may therefore be considered as anything but a reformer in the domain of strategy. With more justice he has been styled the "father of modern tactics." He was the first to recognize that the conditions of swift and decisive war brought about by the French Revolution involved wholly new tactics, and much of his teaching had a profound influence on European warfare of the 19th century. His early training had shown him merely the pedantic minutiae of Frederick's methods, and, in the absence of any troops capable of illustrating the real linear tactics, he became an enthusiastic supporter of the methods, which (more of necessity than from judgment) the French revolutionary generals had adopted, of fighting in small columns covered by skirmishers. Battles, he maintained, were won by skirmishers. "We must organize disorder," he said; indeed, every argument of writers of the modern "extended order" school is to be found mutatis mutandis in Bülow, whose system acquired great prominence in view of the mechanical improvements in armament. But his tactics, like his strategy, were vitiated by the absence of "friction," and their dependence on the realization of an unattainable standard of bravery.
See von Voss, H. von Bülow (Köln, 1806); P. von Bülow, Familienbuch der v. Bülow (Berlin, 1859); Ed. von Bülow, Aus dem Leben Dietrichs v. Bülow, also Vermischte Schriften aus dem Nachlass von Behrenhorst (1845); Ed. von Bülow and von Rüstow, Militärische und vermischte Schriften von Heinrich Dietrich v. Bülow (Leipzig, 1853); Memoirs by Freiherr v. Meerheimb in Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie, vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1876), and "Behrenhorst und Bülow" (Historische Zeitschrift, 1861, vi.); Max Jähns, Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften, vol. iii. pp. 2133-2145 (Munich, 1891); General von Cämmerer (transl. von Donat), Development of Strategical Science (London, 1905), ch. i.
BÜLOW, FRIEDRICH WILHELM, Freiherr von, count of Dennewitz (1755-1816), Prussian general, was born on the 16th of February 1755, at Falkenberg in the Altmark; he was the elder brother of the foregoing. He received an excellent education, and entered the Prussian army in 1768, becoming ensign in 1772, and second lieutenant in 1775. He took part in the "Potato War" of 1778, and subsequently devoted himself to the study of his profession and of the sciences and arts. He was throughout his life devoted to music, his great musical ability bringing him to the notice of Frederick William II., and about 1790 he was conspicuous in the most fashionable circles of Berlin. He did not, however, neglect his military studies, and in 1792 he was made military instructor to the young prince Louis Ferdinand, becoming at the same time full captain. He took part in the campaigns of 1792-93-94 on the Rhine, and received for signal courage during the siege of Mainz the order pour le mérite and promotion to the rank of major. After this he went to garrison duty at Soldau. In 1802 he married the daughter of Colonel v. Auer, and in the following year he became lieutenant-colonel, remaining at Soldau with his corps. The vagaries and misfortunes of his brother Dietrich affected his happiness as well as his fortune. The loss of two of his children was followed in 1806 by the death of his wife, and a further source of disappointment was the exclusion of his regiment from the field army sent against Napoleon in 1806. The disasters of the campaign aroused his energies. He did excellent service under Lestocq's command in the latter part of the war, was wounded in action, and finally designated for a brigade command in Blücher's force. In 1808 he married the sister of his first wife, a girl of eighteen. He was made a major-general in the same year, and henceforward he devoted himself wholly to the regeneration of Prussia. The intensity of his patriotism threw him into conflict even with Blücher and led to his temporary retirement; in 1811, however, he was again employed. In the critical days preceding the War of Liberation he kept his troops in hand without committing himself to any irrevocable step until the decision was made. On the 14th of March 1813 he was made a lieutenant-general. He fought against Oudinot in defence of Berlin (see Napoleonic Campaigns), and in the summer came under the command of Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden. At the head of an army corps Bülow distinguished himself very greatly in the battle of Gross Beeren, a victory which was attributed almost entirely to his leadership. A little later he won the great victory of Dennewitz, which for the third time checked Napoleon's advance on Berlin. This inspired the greatest enthusiasm in Prussia, as being won by purely Prussian forces, and rendered Bülow's popularity almost equal to that of Blücher. Bülow's corps played a conspicuous part in the final overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig, and he was then entrusted with the task of evicting the French from Holland and Belgium. In an almost uniformly successful campaign he won a signal victory at Hoogstraaten, and in the campaign of 1814 he invaded France from the north-west, joined Blücher, and took part in the brilliant victory of Laon in March. He was now made general of infantry and received the title of Count Bülow von Dennewitz. In the short peace of 1814-1815 he was at Konigsberg as commander-in-chief in Prussia proper. He was soon called to the field again, and in the Waterloo campaign commanded the IV. corps of Blücher's army. He was not present at Ligny, but his corps headed the flank attack upon Napoleon at Waterloo, and bore the heaviest part in the fighting of the Prussian troops. He took part in the invasion of France, but died suddenly on the 25th of February 1816, a month after his return to the Königsberg command.
See General Graf Bülow von Dennewitz, 1813-1814 (Leipzig, 1843); Varnhagen von Ense, Leben des G. Grafen B. von D. (Berlin, 1854).
BÜLOW, HANS GUIDO VON (1830-1894), German pianist and conductor, was born at Dresden, on the 8th of January 1830. At the age of nine he began to study music under Friedrich Wieck as part of a genteel education. It was only after an illness while studying law at Leipzig University in 1848 that he determined upon music as a career. At this time he was a pupil of Moritz Hauptmann. In 1849 revolutionary politics took possession of him. In the Berlin Abendpost, a democratic journal, the young aristocrat poured forth his opinions, which were strongly coloured by Wagner's Art and Revolution. Wagner's influence was musical no less than political, for a performance of Lohengrin under Liszt at Weimar in 1850 completed von Bülow's determination to abandon a legal career. From Weimar he went to Zürich, where the exile Wagner instructed him in the elements of conducting. But he soon returned to Weimar and Liszt; and in 1853 he made his first concert tour, which extended from Vienna to Berlin. Next he became principal professor of the piano at the Stern Academy, and married in his twenty-eighth year Liszt's daughter Cosima. For the following nine years von Bülow laboured incessantly in Berlin as pianist, conductor and writer of musical and political articles. Thence he removed to Munich, where, thanks to Wagner, he had been appointed Hofkapellmeister to Louis II., and chief of the Conservatorium. There, too, he organized model performances of Tristan and Die Meistersinger. In 1869 his marriage was dissolved, his wife subsequently marrying Wagner, an incident which, while preventing Bülow from revisiting Bayreuth, never dimmed his enthusiasm for Wagner's dramas. After a temporary stay in Florence, Bülow set out on tour again as a pianist, visiting most European countries as well as the United States of America, before taking up the post of conductor at Hanover, and, later, at Meiningen, where he raised the orchestra to a pitch of excellence till then unparalleled. In 1885 he resigned the Meiningen office, and conducted a number of concerts in Russia and Germany. At Frankfort he held classes for the higher development of piano-playing. He constantly visited England, for the last time in 1888, in which year he went to live in Hamburg. Nevertheless he continued to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Concerts. He died at Cairo, on the 13th of February 1894. Bülow was a pianist of the highest order of intellectual attainment, an artist of remarkably catholic tastes, and a great conductor. A passionate hater of humbug and affectation, he had a ready pen, and a biting, sometimes almost rude wit, yet of his kindness and generosity countless tales were told. His compositions are few and unimportant, but his annotated editions of the classical masters are of great value. Bülow's writings and letters (Briefe und Schriften), edited by his widow, have been published in 8 vols. (Leipzig, 1895-1908).
BULRUSH, a name now generally given to Typha latifolia, the reed-mace or club-rush, a plant growing in lakes, by edges of rivers and similar localities, with a creeping underground stem, narrow, nearly flat leaves, 3 to 6 ft. long, arranged in opposite rows, and a tall stem ending in a cylindrical spike, half to one foot long, of closely packed male (above) and female (below) flowers. The familiar brown spike is a dense mass of minute one-seeded fruits, each on a long hair-like stalk and covered with long downy hairs, which render the fruits very light and readily carried by the wind. The name bulrush is more correctly applied to Scirpus lacustris, a member of a different family (Cyperaceae), a common plant in wet places, with tall spongy, usually leafless stems, bearing a tuft of many-flowered spikelets. The stems are used for matting, &c. The bulrush of Scripture, associated with the hiding of Moses, was the Papyrus (q.v.), also a member of the order Cyperaceae, which was abundant in the Nile.
BULSTRODE, SIR RICHARD (1610-1711), English author and soldier, was a son of Edward Bulstrode (1588-1659), and was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge; after studying law in London he joined the army of Charles I. on the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. In 1673 he became a resident agent of Charles II. at Brussels; in 1675 he was knighted; then following James II. into exile he died at St Germain on the 3rd of October 1711. Bulstrode is chiefly known by his Memoirs and Reflections upon the Reign and Government of King Charles I. and King Charles II., published after his death in 1721. He also
wrote Life of James II., and Original Letters written to the Earl of Arlington (1712). The latter consists principally of letters written from Brussels giving an account of the important events which took place in the Netherlands during 1674.
His second son, Whitelocke Bulstrode (1650-1724), remained in England after the flight of James II.; he held some official positions, and in 1717 wrote a pamphlet in support of George I. and the Hanoverian succession. He published A Discourse of Natural Philosophy, and was a prominent Protestant controversialist. He died in London on the 27th of November 1724.
BULWARK (a word probably of Scandinavian origin, from bol or bole, a tree-trunk, and werk, work, in Ger. Bollwerk, which has also been derived from an old German bolen, to throw, and so a machine for throwing missiles), a barricade of beams, earth, &c., a work in 15th and 16th century fortifications designed to mount artillery (see Boulevard). On board ship the term is used of the woodwork running round the ship above the level of the deck. Figuratively it means anything serving as a defence.
BUMBOAT, a small boat which carries vegetables, provisions, &c., to ships lying in port or off the shore. The word is probably connected with the Dutch bumboat or boomboot, a broad Dutch fishing-boat, the derivation of which is either from boom, cf. Ger. baum, a tree, or from bon, a place in which fish is kept alive, and boot, a boat. It appears first in English in the Trinity House By-laws of 1685 regulating the scavenging boats attending ships lying in the Thames.
BUMBULUM, Bombulum or Bunibulum, a fabulous musical instrument described in an apocryphal letter of St Jerome to Dardanus,[[1]] and illustrated in a series of illuminated MSS. of the 9th to the 11th century, together with other instruments described in the same letter. These MSS. are the Psalter of Emmeran, 9th century, described by Martin Gerbert,[[2]] who gives a few illustrations from it; the Cotton MS. Tiberius C. VI. in the British Museum, 11th century; the famous Boulogne Psalter, A.D. 1000; and the Psalter of Angers, 9th century.[[3]] In the Cotton MS. the instrument consists of an angular frame, from which depends by a chain a rectangular metal plate having twelve bent arms attached in two rows of three on each side, one above the other. The arms appear to terminate in small rectangular bells or plates, and it is supposed that the standard frame was intended to be shaken like a sistrum in order to set the bells jangling. Sebastian Virdung[[4]] gives illustrations of these instruments of Jerome, and among them of the one called bumbulum in the Cotton MS., which Virdung calls Fistula Hieronimi. The general outline is the same, but instead of metal arms there is the same number of bent pipes with conical bore. Virdung explains, following the apocryphal letter, that the stand resembling the draughtsman's square represents the Holy Cross, the rectangular object dangling therefrom signifies Christ on the Cross, and the twelve pipes are the twelve apostles. Virdung's illustration, probably copied from an older work in manuscript, conforms more closely to the text of the letter than does the instrument in the Cotton MS. There is no evidence whatever of the actual existence of such an instrument during the middle ages, with the exception of this series of fanciful pictures drawn to illustrate an instrument known from description only. The word bombulum was probably derived from the same root as the βομβαύλιος of Aristophanes (Acharnians, 866) (βόμβος and αὐλός), a comic compound for a bag-pipe with a play on βομβυλιός, an insect that hums or buzzes (see Bag-Pipe). The original described in the letter, also from hearsay, was probably an early type of organ.
(K. S.)
[1] Ad Dardanum, de diversis generibus musicorum instrumentorum.
[2] De Cantu et Musica Sacra (1774).
[3] For illustrations see Annales archéologiques, iii. p. 82 et seq.
[4] Musica getutscht und aussgezogen (Basle, 1511).
BUN, a small cake, usually sweet and round. In Scotland the word is used for a very rich spiced type of cake and in the north of Ireland for a round loaf of ordinary bread. The derivation of the word has been much disputed. It has been affiliated to the old provincial French bugne, "swelling," in the sense of a "fritter," but the New English Dictionary doubts the usage of the word. It is quite as probable that it has a far older and more interesting origin, as is suggested by an inquiry into the origin of hot cross buns. These cakes, which are now solely associated with the Christian Good Friday, are traceable to the remotest period of pagan history. Cakes were offered by ancient Egyptians to their moon-goddess; and these had imprinted on them a pair of horns, symbolic of the ox at the sacrifice of which they were offered on the altar, or of the horned moon-goddess, the equivalent of Ishtar of the Assyro-Babylonians. The Greeks offered such sacred cakes to Astarte and other divinities. This cake they called bous (ox), in allusion to the ox-symbol marked on it, and from the accusative boun it is suggested that the word "bun" is derived. Diogenes Laertius (c. A.D. 200), speaking of the offering made by Empedocles, says "He offered one of the sacred liba, called a bouse, made of fine flour and honey." Hesychius (c. 6th century) speaks of the boun, and describes it as a kind of cake with a representation of two horns marked on it. In time the Greeks marked these cakes with a cross, possibly an allusion to the four quarters of the moon, or more probably to facilitate the distribution of the sacred bread which was eaten by the worshippers. Like the Greeks, the Romans eat cross-bread at public sacrifices, such bread being usually purchased at the doors of the temple and taken in with them,—a custom alluded to by St Paul in I Cor. x. 28. At Herculaneum two small loaves about 5 in. in diameter, and plainly marked with a cross, were found. In the Old Testament a reference is made in Jer. vii. 18-xliv. 19, to such sacred bread being offered to the moon goddess. The cross-bread was eaten by the pagan Saxons in honour of Eoster, their goddess of light. The Mexicans and Peruvians are shown to have had a similar custom. The custom, in fact, was practically universal, and the early Church adroitly adopted the pagan practice, grafting it on to the Eucharist. The boun with its Greek cross became akin to the Eucharistic bread or cross-marked wafers mentioned in St Chrysostom's Liturgy. In the medieval church, buns made from the dough for the consecrated Host were distributed to the communicants after Mass on Easter Sunday. In France and other Catholic countries, such blessed bread is still given in the churches to communicants who have a long journey before they can break their fast. The Holy Eucharist in the Greek church has a cross printed on it. In England there seems to have early been a disposition on the part of the bakers to imitate the church, and they did a good trade in buns and cakes stamped with a cross, for as far back as 1252 the practice was forbidden by royal proclamation; but this seems to have had little effect. With the rise of Protestantism the cross bun lost its sacrosanct nature, and became a mere eatable associated for no particular reason with Good Friday. Cross-bread is not, however, reserved for that day; in the north of England people usually crossmark their cakes with a knife before putting them in the oven. Many superstitions cling round hot cross buns. Thus it is still a common belief that one bun should be kept for luck's sake to the following Good Friday. In Dorsetshire it is thought that a cross-loaf baked on that day and hung over the chimneypiece prevents the bread baked in the house during the year from "going stringy."
BUNBURY, HENRY WILLIAM (1750-1811), English caricaturist, was the second son of Sir William Bunbury, 5th baronet, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, and came of an old Norman family. He was educated at Westminster school and St Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, and soon showed a talent for drawing, and especially for humorous subjects. His more serious efforts did not rise to a high level, but his caricatures are as famous as those of his contemporaries Rowlandson and Gillray, good examples being his "Country Club" (1788), "Barber's Shop" (1811) and "A Long Story" (1782.) He was a popular character, and the friend of most of the notabilities of his day, whom he never offended by attempting political satire; and his easy circumstances and social position (he was colonel of the West Suffolk Militia, and was appointed equerry to the duke of York in 1787) enabled him to exercise his talents in comfort.
His son Sir Henry Edward Bunbury, Bart. (1778-1860), who succeeded to the family title on the death of his uncle, was a distinguished soldier, and rose to be a lieutenant-general; he was an active member of parliament, and the author of several historical works of value; and the latter's second son, Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury, also a member of parliament, was well known as a geographer and archaeologist, and author of a History of Ancient Geography.
BUNBURY, a seaport and municipal town of Wellington county, Western Australia, 112 m. by rail S. by W. of Perth. Pop. (1901) 2455. The harbour, known as Koombanah Bay, is protected by a breakwater built on a coral reef. Coal is worked on the Collie river, 30 m. distant, and is shipped from this port, together with tin, timber, sandal-wood and agricultural produce.
BUNCOMBE, or Bunkum (from Buncombe county, North Carolina, United States), a term used for insincere political action or speaking to gain support or the favour of a constituency, and so any humbug or clap-trap. The phrase "to talk for (or to) Buncombe" arose in 1820, during the debate on the Missouri Compromise in Congress; the member for the district containing Buncombe county confessed that his long and much interrupted speech was only made because his electors expected it, and that he was "speaking for Buncombe."
BUNCRANA, a market-town and watering-place of Co. Donegal, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division on the east shore of Lough Swilly, on the Londonderry & Lough Swilly & Letterkenny railway. Pop. (1901) 1316. There is a trade in agricultural produce, a salmon fishery, sea fisheries and a manufacture of linen. The town is beautifully situated, being flanked on the east and south by hills exceeding 1000 ft. The picturesque square keep of an ancient castle remains, but the present Buncrana Castle is a residence erected in 1717. The golf-links are well known.
BUNDABERG, a municipal town and river port of Cook county, Queensland, Australia, 10 m. from the mouth of the river Burnett, and 217 m. by rail N. by W. of Brisbane. Pop. (1901) 5200. It lies on both sides of the river, and connexion between the two ports is maintained by road and railway bridges. There are saw-mills, breweries, brickfields and distilleries in the town, and numerous sugar factories in the vicinity, notably at Millaquin, on the river below the town. There are wharves on both sides of the river, and the staple exports are sugar, golden-syrup and timber. The climate is remarkably healthy.
BUNDELKHAND, a tract of country in Central India, lying between the United and the Central Provinces. Historically it includes the five British districts of Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Banda, which now form part of the Allahabad division of the United Provinces, but politically it is restricted to a collection of native states, under the Bundelkhand agency. There are 9 states, 13 estates and the pargana of Alampur belonging to Indore state, with a total area of 9851 sq. m. and a total population (1901) of 1,308,326, showing a decrease of 13% in the decade, due to the effects of famine. The most important of the states are Orchha, Panna, Samthar, Charkhari, Chhatarpur, Datia, Bijawar and Ajaigarh. A branch of the Great Indian Peninsula railway traverses the north of the country. A garrison of all arms is stationed at Nowgong.
The surface of the country is uneven and hilly, except in the north-east part, which forms an irregular plain cut up by ravines scooped out by torrents during the periodical rains. The plains of Bundelkhand are intersected by three mountain ranges, the Bindhachal, Panna and Bander chains, the highest elevation not exceeding 2000 ft. above sea-level. Beyond these ranges the country is further diversified by isolated hills rising abruptly from a common level, and presenting from their steep and nearly inaccessible scarps eligible sites for castles and strongholds, whence the mountaineers of Bundelkhand have frequently set at defiance the most powerful of the native states of India. The general slope of the country is towards the north-east, as indicated by the course of the rivers which traverse or bound the territory, and finally discharge themselves into the Jumna.
The principal rivers are the Sind, Betwa, Ken, Baighin, Paisuni, Tons, Pahuj, Dhasan, Berma, Urmal and Chandrawal. The Sind, rising near Sironj in Malwa, marks the frontier line of Bundelkhand on the side of Gwalior. Parallel to this river, but more to the eastward, is the course of the Betwa. Still farther to the east flows the Ken, followed in succession by the Baighin, Paisuni and Tons. The Jumna and the Ken are the only two navigable rivers. Notwithstanding the large number of streams, the depression of their channels and height of their banks render them for the most part unsuitable for the purposes of irrigation,—which is conducted by means of jhils and tanks. These artificial lakes are usually formed by throwing embankments across the lower extremities of valleys, and thus arresting and accumulating the waters flowing through them. Some of the tanks are of great capacity; the Barwa Sagar, for instance, is 2½ m. in diameter. Diamonds are found, particularly near the town of Panna, in a range of hills called by the natives Band-Ahil.
The mines of Maharajpur, Rajpur, Kimera and Gadasia have been famous for magnificent diamonds; and a very large one dug from the last was kept in the fort of Kalinjar among the treasures of Raja Himmat Bahadur. In the reign of the emperor Akbar the mines of Panna produced diamonds to the amount of £100,000 annually, and were a considerable source of revenue, but for many years they have not been so profitable.
The tree vegetation consists rather of jungle or copse than forest, abounding in game which is preserved by the native chiefs. There are also within these coverts several varieties of wild animals, such as the tiger, leopard, hyena, wild boar, nilgái and jackal.
The people represent various races. The Bundelas—the race who gave the name to the country—still maintain their dignity as chieftains, by disdaining to cultivate the soil, although by no means conspicuous for lofty sentiments of honour or morality. An Indian proverb avers that "one native of Bundelkhand commits as much fraud as a hundred Dandis" (weighers of grain and notorious rogues). About Datia and Jhansi the inhabitants are a stout and handsome race of men, well off and contented. The prevailing religion in Bundelkhand is Hinduism.
The earliest dynasty recorded to have ruled in Bundelkhand were the Garhwas, who were succeeded by the Parihars; but nothing is known of either. About A.D. 800 the Parihars are said to have been ousted by the Chandels, and Dangha Varma, chief of the Chandel Rajputs, appears to have established the earliest paramount power in Bundelkhand towards the close of the 10th century A.D. Under his dynasty the country attained its greatest splendour in the early part of the 11th century, when its raja, whose dominions extended from the Jumna to the Nerbudda, marched at the head of 36,000 horse and 45,000 foot, with 640 elephants, to oppose the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1182 the Chandel dynasty was overthrown by Prithwi Raj, the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, after which the country remained in ruinous anarchy until the close of the 14th century, when the Bundelas, a spurious offshoot of the Garhwa tribe of Rajputs, established themselves on the right bank of the Jumna. One of these took possession of Orchha by treacherously poisoning its chief. His successor succeeded in further aggrandizing the Bundela state, but he is represented to have been a notorious plunderer, and his character is further stained by the assassination of the celebrated Abul Fazl, the prime minister and historian of Akbar. Jajhar Singh, the third Bundela chief, unsuccessfully revolted against the court of Delhi, and his country became incorporated for a short time with the empire. The struggles of the Bundelas for independence resulted in the withdrawal of the royal troops, and the admission of several petty states as feudatories of the empire on condition of military service. The Bundelas, under Champat Rai and his son. Chhatar Sal, offered a successful resistance to the proselytizing efforts of Aurangzeb. On the occasion of a Mahommedan invasion in 1732, Chhatar Sal asked and obtained the assistance of the Mahratta Peshwa, whom he adopted as his son, giving him a third of his dominions. The Mahrattas gradually extended their influence over Bundelkhand,
and in 1792 the peshwa was acknowledged as the lord paramount of the country. The Mahratta power was, however, on the decline; the flight of the peshwa from his capital to Bassein before the British arms changed the aspect of affairs, and by the treaty concluded between the peshwa and the British government, the districts of Banda and Hamirpur were transferred to the latter. Two chiefs then held the ceded districts, Himmat Bahadur, the leader of the Sanyasis, who promoted the views of the British, and Shamsher, who made common cause with the Mahrattas. In September 1803, the united forces of the English and Himmat Bahadur compelled Shamsher to retreat with his army. In 1809 Ajaigarh was besieged by a British force, and again three years later Kalinjar was besieged and taken after a heavy loss. In 1817, by the treaty of Poona, the British government acquired from the peshwa all his rights, interests and pretensions, feudal, territorial or pecuniary, in Bundelkhand. In carrying out the provisions of the treaty, an assurance was given by the British government that the rights of those interested in the transfer should be scrupulously respected, and the host of petty native principalities in the province is the best proof of the sincerity and good faith with which this clause has been carried out. During the mutiny of 1857, however, many of the chiefs rose against the British, the rani of Jhansi being a notable example.
BUNDI, or Boondee, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency, lying on the north-east of the river Chambal, in a hilly tract historically known as Haraoti, from the Hara sept of the great clan of Chauhan Rajputs, to which the maharao raja of Bundi belongs. It has an area of 2220 sq. m. Many parts of the state are wild and hilly, inhabited by a large Mina population, formerly notorious as a race of robbers. Two rivers, the Chambia and the Mej, water the state; the former is navigable by boats. In 1901 the population was 171,227, showing a decrease of 42% due to the effects of famine. The estimated revenue is £46,000, the tribute £8000. There is no railway, but the metalled road from Kotah to the British cantonment of Deoli passes through the state. The town of Bundi had a population in 1901 of 19,313. A school for the education of boys of high rank was opened in 1897.
The state of Bundi was founded about A.D. 1342 by the Hara chief Rao Dewa, or Deoraj, who captured the town from the Minas. Its importance, however, dates from the time of Rao Surjan, who succeeded to the chieftainship in 1554 and by throwing in his lot with the Mahommedan emperors of Delhi (1569) received a considerable accession of territory. From this time the rulers of Bundi bore the title of rao raja. In the 17th century their power was curtailed by the division of Haraoti into the two states of Kotah and Bundi; but they continued to play a prominent part in Indian history, and the title of maharao raja was conferred on Budh Singh for the part played by him in securing the imperial throne for Bahadur Shah I. after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. In 1804 the maharao raja Bishan Singh gave valuable assistance to Colonel Monson in his disastrous retreat before Holkar, in revenge for which the Mahratas and Pindaris continually ravaged his state up to 1817. On the 10th of February 1818, by a treaty concluded with Bishan Singh, Bundi was taken under British protection. In 1821 Bishan Singh was succeeded by his son Ram Singh, who ruled till 1889. He is described as a grand specimen of the Rajput gentleman, and "the most conservative prince in conservative Rajputana." His rule was popular and beneficent; and though during the mutiny of 1857 his attitude was equivocal, he continued to enjoy the favour of the British government, being created G.C.S.I. and a counsellor of the empire in 1877 and C.I.E. in 1878. He was succeeded by his son Raghubir Singh, who was made a K.C.S.I. in 1897 and a G.C.I.E. in 1901.
BUNER, a valley on the Peshawar border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions. The Mora Hills and the Ilam range divide it from Swat, the Sinawar range from Yusafzai, the Guru mountains from the Chamla valley, and the Duma range from the Puran Valley. It is inhabited by the Iliaszai and Malizai divisions of the Pathan tribe of Yusafzais, who are called after their country the Bunerwals. There is no finer race on the north-west frontier of India than the Bunerwals. Simple and austere in their habits, religious and truthful in their ways, hospitable to all who seek shelter amongst them, free from secret assassinations, they are bright examples of the Pathan character at its best. They are a powerful and warlike tribe, numbering 8000 fighting men. The Umbeyla Expedition of 1863 under Sir Neville Chamberlain was occasioned by the Bunerwals siding with the Hindostani Fanatics, who had settled down at Malka in their territory. In the end the Bunerwals were subdued by a force of 9000 British troops, and Malka was destroyed, but they made so fierce a resistance, in particular in their attack upon the "Crag" picket, that the Indian medal with a clasp for "Umbeyla" was granted in 1869 to the survivors of the expedition. The government of India refrained from interfering with the tribe again until the Buner campaign of 1897 under Sir Bindon Blood. Many Bunerwals took part in the attack of the Swatis on the Malakand fort, and a force of 3000 British troops was sent to punish them; but the tribe made only a feeble resistance at the passes into their country, and speedily handed in the arms demanded of them and made complete submission.
BUNGALOW (an Anglo-Indian word from the Hindustani banglā, belonging to Bengal), a one-storeyed house with a verandah and a projecting roof, the typical dwelling for Europeans in India; the name is also used for similar buildings which have become common for seaside and summer residences in America and Great Britain. Dak or dawk bungalows (from dak or dawk, a post, a relay of men for carrying the mails, &c.) are the government rest-houses established at intervals for the use of travellers on the high roads of India.
BUNGAY, a market-town in the Lowestoft parliamentary division of Suffolk, England; 113 m. N.E. from London on a branch from Beccles of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 3314. It is picturesquely placed in a deep bend of the river Waveney, the boundary with Norfolk. Of the two parish churches that of St Mary has a fine Perpendicular tower, and that of Holy Trinity a round tower of which the lower part is Norman. St Mary's was attached to a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1160. The ruins of the castle date from 1281. They are fragmentary though massive; and there are traces of earth-works of much earlier date. The castle was a stronghold of the powerful family of Bigod, being granted to Roger Bigod, a Norman follower of the Conqueror, in 1075. A grammar school was founded in 1592. There are large printing-works, and founding and malting are prosecuted. There is a considerable carrying trade on the Waveney.
BUNION (a word usually derived from the Ital. bugnone, a swelling, but, according to the New English Dictionary, the late and rare literary use of the word makes an Italian derivation unlikely; there is an O. Eng. word "bunny," also meaning a swelling, and an O. Fr. buigne, modern bigne, showing a probable common origin now lost, cf. also "bunch"), an inflamed swelling of the bursa mucosa, the sac containing synovial fluid on the metatarsal joint of the big toe, or, more rarely, of the little toe. This may be accompanied by corns or suppuration, leading to an ulcer or even gangrene. The cause is usually pressure; removal of this, and general palliative treatment by dressings, &c. are usually effective, but in severe and obstinate cases a surgical operation may be necessary.
BUNKER HILL, the name of a small hill in Charlestown (Boston), Massachusetts, U.S.A., famous as the scene of the first considerable engagement in the American War of Independence (June 17, 1775). Bunker Hill (110 ft.) was connected by a ridge with Breed's Hill (75 ft.), both being on a narrow peninsula a short distance to the north of Boston, joined by a causeway with the mainland. Since the affair of Lexington (April 19, 1775) General Gage, who commanded the British forces, had remained inactive at Boston awaiting reinforcements from England; the headquarters of the Americans were at Cambridge, with advanced posts occupying much of the 4 m. separating
Cambridge from Bunker Hill. When Gage received his reinforcements at the end of May, he determined to repair his strange neglect by which the hills on the peninsula had been allowed to remain unoccupied and unfortified. As soon as the Americans became aware of Gage's intention they determined to frustrate it, and accordingly, on the night of the 16th of June, a force of about 1200 men, under Colonel William Prescott and Major-General Israel Putnam, with some engineers and a few field-guns, occupied Breed's Hill—to which the name Bunker Hill is itself now popularly applied—and when daylight disclosed their presence to the British they had already strongly entrenched their position. Gage lost no time in sending troops across from Boston with orders to assault. The British force, between 2000 and 3000 strong, under (Sir) William Howe, supported by artillery and by the guns of men-of-war and floating batteries stationed in the anchorage on either side of the peninsula, were fresh and well disciplined. The American force consisted for the most part of inexperienced volunteers, numbers of whom were already wearied by the trench work of the night. As communication was kept up with their camp the numbers engaged on the hill fluctuated during the day, but at no time exceeded about 1500 men. The village of Charlestown, from which a galling musketry fire was directed against the British, was by General Howe's orders almost totally destroyed by hot shot during the attack. Instead of attempting to cut off the Americans by occupying the neck to the rear of their position, Gage ordered the advance to be made up the steep and difficult ascent facing the works on the hill. Whether or not in obedience—as tradition asserts—to an order to reserve fire until they could see the whites of their assailants' eyes, the American volunteers with admirable steadiness waited till the attack was on the point of being driven home, when they delivered a fire so sustained and deadly that the British line broke in disorder. A second assault, made like the first, with the precision and discipline of the parade-ground met the same fate, but Gage's troops had still spirit enough for a third assault, and this time they carried the position with the bayonet, capturing five pieces of ordnance and putting the enemy to flight. The loss of the British was 1054 men killed and wounded, among whom were 89 commissioned officers; while the American casualties amounted to 420 killed and wounded, including General Joseph Warren, and 30 prisoners. (See American War of Independence.)
The significance of the battle of Bunker Hill is not, however, to be gauged by the losses on either side, heavy as they were in proportion to the numbers engaged, nor by its purely military results, but by the moral effect which it produced; and when it is considered from this standpoint its far-reaching consequences can hardly be over-estimated. "It roused at once the fierce instinct of combat in America ..., and dispelled ... the almost superstitious belief in the impossibility of encountering regular troops with hastily levied volunteers ... No one questioned the conspicuous gallantry with which the provincial troops had supported a long fire from the ships and awaited the charge of the enemy, and British soldiers had been twice driven back in disorder before their fire."[[1]] The pride which Americans naturally felt in such an achievement, and the self-confidence which it inspired, were increased when they learnt that the small force on Bunker Hill had not been properly reinforced, and that their ammunition was running short before they were dislodged from their position.[[2]] Had the character of the fighting on that day been other than it was; had the American volunteers been easily, and at the first assault, driven from their fortified position by the troops of George III., it is not impossible that the resistance to the British government would have died out in the North American colonies through lack of confidence in their own power on the part of the colonists. Bunker Hill, whatever it may have to teach the student of war, taught the American colonists in 1775 that the odds against them in the enterprise in which they had embarked were not so overwhelming as to deny them all prospect of ultimate success.
In 1843 a monument, 221 ft. high, in the form of an obelisk, of Quincy granite, was completed on Breed's Hill (now Bunker Hill) to commemorate the battle, when an address was delivered by Daniel Webster, who had also delivered the famous dedicatory oration at the laying of the corner-stone in 1825. Bunker Hill day is a state holiday.
See R. Frothingham, The Centennial: Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston, 1895), and Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Boston, 1865); Boston City Council, Celebration of Centen. Aniv. of Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston, 1875); G.E. Ellis, Hist. of Battle of Bunker's (Breed's) Hill (Boston, 1875); S. Sweet, Who was the Commander at Bunker Hill? (Boston, 1850); W.E.H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii (London, 1883); Sir George O. Trevelyan, The American Revolution (London, 1899); Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. iii. pp. 153 seq. (London, 1902).
(R. J. M.)
[1] W.E.H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, iii. 428.
[2] General Gage's despatch. American Remembrancer, 1776, part 11, p. 132.
BUNN, ALFRED (1796-1860), English theatrical manager, was appointed stage-manager of Drury Lane theatre, London, in 1823. In 1826 he was managing the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, and in 1833 he undertook the joint management of Drury Lane and Covent Garden, London. In this undertaking he met with vigorous opposition. A bill for the abolition of the patent theatres was passed in the House of Commons, but on Bunn's petition was thrown out by the House of Lords. He had difficulties first with his company, then with the lord chamberlain, and had to face the keen rivalry of the other theatres. A longstanding quarrel with Macready resulted in the tragedian assaulting the manager. In 1840 Bunn was declared a bankrupt, but he continued to manage Drury Lane till 1848. Artistically his control of the two chief English theatres was highly successful. Nearly every leading English actor played under his management, and he made a courageous attempt to establish English opera, producing the principal works of Balfe. He had some gift for writing, and most of the libretti of these operas were translated by himself. In The Stage Before and Behind the Curtain (3 vols., 1840) he gave a full account of his managerial experiences. He died at Boulogne on the 20th of December 1860.
BUNNER, HENRY CUYLER (1855-1896), American writer, was born in Oswego, New York, on the 3rd of August 1855. He was educated in New York City. From being a clerk in an importing house, he turned to journalism, and after some work as a reporter, and on the staff of the Arcadian (1873), he became in 1877 assistant editor of the comic weekly Puck. He soon assumed the editorship, which he held until his death in Nutley, N.J., on the 11th of May 1896. He developed Puck from a new struggling periodical into a powerful social and political organ. In 1886 he published a novel, The Midge, followed in 1887 by The Story of a New York House. But his best efforts in fiction were his short stories and sketches—Short Sixes (1891), More Short Sixes (1894), Made in France (1893), Zadoc Pine and Other Stories (1891), Love in Old Cloathes and Other Stories (1896), and Jersey Street and Jersey Lane (1896). His verses—Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere (1884), containing the well-known poem, The Way to Arcady; Rowen (1892); and Poems (1896), edited by his friend Brander Matthews—display a light play of imagination and a delicate workmanship. He also wrote clever vers de société and parodies. Of his several plays (usually written in collaboration), the best was The Tower of Babel (1883).
BUNSEN, CHRISTIAN CHARLES JOSIAS, Baron von (1791-1860), Prussian diplomatist and scholar, was born on the 25th of August 1791 at Korbach, an old town in the little German principality of Waldeck. His father was a farmer who was driven by poverty to become a soldier. Having studied at the Korbach grammar school and Marburg university, Bunsen went in his nineteenth year to Göttingen, where he supported himself by teaching and later by acting as tutor to W.B. Astor, the American merchant. He won the university prize essay of the year 1812 by a treatise on the Athenian Law of Inheritance, and a few months later the university of Jena granted him the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy. During 1813 he travelled with Astor in South Germany, and then turned to the study of the religion, laws, language and literature of the Teutonic
races. He had read Hebrew when a boy, and now worked at Arabic at Munich, Persian at Leiden, and Norse at Copenhagen. At the close of 1815 he went to Berlin, to lay before Niebuhr the plan of research which he had mapped out. Niebuhr was so impressed with Bunsen's ability that, two years later, when he became Prussian envoy to the papal court, he made the young scholar his secretary. The intervening years Bunsen spent in assiduous labour among the libraries and collections of Paris and Florence. In July 1817 he married Frances Waddington, eldest daughter and co-heiress of B. Waddington of Llanover, Monmouthshire.
As secretary to Niebuhr, Bunsen was brought into contact with the Vatican movement for the establishment of the papal church in the Prussian dominions, to provide for the largely increased Catholic population. He was among the first to realize the importance of this new vitality on the part of the Vatican, and he made it his duty to provide against its possible dangers by urging upon the Prussian court the wisdom of fair and impartial treatment of its Catholic subjects. In this object he was at first successful, and both from the Vatican and from Frederick William III., who put him in charge of the legation on Niebuhr's resignation, he received unqualified approbation. Owing partly to the wise statesmanship of Count Spiegel, archbishop of Cologne, an arrangement was made by which the thorny question of "mixed" marriages (i.e. between Catholic and Protestant) would have been happily solved; but the archbishop died in 1835, the arrangement was never ratified, and the Prussian king was foolish enough to appoint as Spiegel's successor the narrow-minded partisan Baron Droste. The pope gladly accepted the appointment, and in two years the forward policy of the Jesuits had brought about the strife which Bunsen and Spiegel had tried to prevent. Bunsen rashly recommended that Droste should be seized, but the coup was so clumsily attempted, that the incriminating documents were, it is said, destroyed in advance. The government, in this impasse, took the safest course, refused to support Bunsen, and accepted his resignation in April 1838.
After leaving Rome, where he had become intimate with all that was most interesting in the cosmopolitan society of the papal capital, Bunsen went to England, where, except for a short term as Prussian ambassador to Switzerland (1830-1841), he was destined to pass the rest of his official life. The accession to the throne of Prussia of Frederick William IV., on June 7th, 1840, made a great change in Bunsen's career. Ever since their first meeting in 1828 the two men had been close friends and had exchanged ideas in an intimate correspondence, published under Ranke's editorship in 1873. Enthusiasm for evangelical religion and admiration for the Anglican Church they held in common, and Bunsen was the instrument naturally selected for realizing the king's fantastic scheme of setting up at Jerusalem a Prusso-Anglican bishopric as a sort of advertisement of the unity and aggressive force of Protestantism. The special mission of Bunsen to England, from June to November 1841, was completely successful, in spite of the opposition of English high churchmen and Lutheran extremists. The Jerusalem bishopric, with the consent of the British government and the active encouragement of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, was duly established, endowed with Prussian and English money, and remained for some forty years an isolated symbol of Protestant unity and a rock of stumbling to Anglican Catholics.
During his stay in England Bunsen had made himself very popular among all classes of society, and he was selected by Queen Victoria, out of three names proposed by the king of Prussia, as ambassador to the court of St James's. In this post he remained for thirteen years. His tenure of the office coincided with the critical period in Prussian and European affairs which culminated in the revolutions of 1848. With the visionary schemes of Frederick William, whether that of setting up a strict episcopal organization in the Evangelical Church, or that of reviving the defunct ideal of the medieval Empire, Bunsen found himself increasingly out of sympathy. He realized the significance of the signs that heralded the coming storm, and tried in vain to move the king to a policy which would have placed him at the head of a Germany united and free. He felt bitterly the humiliation of Prussia by Austria after the victory of the reaction; and in 1852 he set his signature reluctantly to the treaty which, in his view, surrendered the "constitutional rights of Schleswig and Holstein." His whole influence was now directed to withdrawing Prussia from the blighting influence of Austria and Russia, and attempting to draw closer the ties that bound her to Great Britain. On the outbreak of the Crimean War he urged Frederick William to throw in his lot with the western powers, and create a diversion in the north-east which would have forced Russia at once to terms. The rejection of his advice, and the proclamation of Prussia's attitude of "benevolent neutrality," led him in April 1854 to offer his resignation, which was accepted.
Bunsen's life as a public man was now practically at an end. He retired first to a villa on the Neckar near Heidelberg and later to Bonn. He refused to stand for a seat, in the Liberal interest, in the Lower House of the Prussian diet, but continued to take an active interest in politics, and in 1855 published in two volumes a work, Die Zeichen der Zeit: Briefe, &c., which exercised an immense influence in reviving the Liberal movement which the failure of the revolution had crushed. In September 1857 Bunsen attended, as the king's guest, a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin; and one of the last papers signed by Frederick William, before his mind gave way in October, was that which conferred upon him the title of baron and a peerage for life. In 1858, at the special request of the regent (afterwards the emperor) William, he took his seat in the Prussian Upper House, and, though remaining silent, supported the new ministry, of which his political and personal friends were members.
Literary work was, however, his main preoccupation during all this period. Two discoveries of ancient MSS. made during his stay in London, the one containing a shorter text of the Epistles of St Ignatius, and the other an unknown work On all the Heresies, by Bishop Hippolytus, had already led him to write his Hippolytus and his Age: Doctrine and Practice of Rome under Commodus and Severus (1852). He now concentrated all his efforts upon a translation of the Bible with commentaries. While this was in preparation he published his God in History, in which he contends that the progress of mankind marches parallel to the conception of God formed within each nation by the highest exponents of its thought. At the same time he carried through the press, assisted by Samuel Birch, the concluding volumes of his work (published in English as well as in German) Egypt's Place in Universal History—containing a reconstruction of Egyptian chronology, together with an attempt to determine the relation in which the language and the religion of that country stand to the development of each among the more ancient non-Aryan and Aryan races. His ideas on this subject were most fully developed in two volumes published in London before he quitted England—Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History as applied to Language and Religion (2 vols., 1854).
In 1858 Bunsen's health began to fail; visits to Cannes in 1858 and 1859 brought no improvement, and he died on November 28th, 1860. One of his last requests having been that his wife would write down recollections of their common life, she published his Memoirs in 1868, which contain much of his private correspondence. The German translation of these Memoirs has added extracts from unpublished documents, throwing a new light upon the political events in which he played a part. Baron Humboldt's letters to Bunsen were printed in 1869.
Bunsen's English connexion, both through his wife (d. 1876) and through his own long residence in London, was further increased in his family. He had ten children, including five sons, Henry (1818-1855), Ernest (1810-1903), Karl (1821-1887), Georg (1824-1896) and Theodor (1832-1892). Of these Karl (Charles) and Theodor had careers in the German diplomatic service; and Georg, who for some time was an active politician in Germany, eventually retired to live in London; Henry, who was an English clergyman, became a naturalized Englishman,
and Ernest, who in 1845 married an Englishwoman, Miss Gurney, subsequently resided and died in London. The form of "de" Bunsen was adopted for the surname in England. Ernest de Bunsen was a scholarly writer, who published various works both in German and in English, notably on Biblical chronology and other questions of comparative religion. His son, Sir Maurice de Bunsen (b. 1852), entered the English diplomatic service in 1877, and after a varied experience became minister at Lisbon in 1905.
See also L. von Ranke, Aus dem Briefwechsel Friedrich Wilhelms IV. mit Bunsen (Berlin, 1873). The biography in the 9th edition of this encyclopaedia, which has been drawn upon above, was by Georg von Bunsen.
BUNSEN, ROBERT WILHELM VON (1811-1899), German chemist, was born at Göttingen on the 31st of March 1811, his father, Christian Bunsen, being chief librarian and professor of modern philology at the university. He himself entered the university in 1828, and in 1834 became Privat-docent. In 1836 he became teacher of chemistry at the Polytechnic School of Cassel, and in 1839 took up the appointment of professor of chemistry at Marburg, where he remained till 1851. In 1852, after a brief period in Breslau, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry at Heidelberg, where he spent the rest of his life, in spite of an urgent invitation to migrate to Berlin as successor to E. Mitscherlich. He retired from active work in 1889, and died at Heidelberg on the 16th of August 1899. The first research by which attention was drawn to Bunsen's abilities was concerned with the cacodyl compounds (see Arsenic), though he had already, in 1834, discovered the virtues of freshly precipitated hydrated ferric oxide as an antidote to arsenical poisoning. It was begun in 1837 at Cassel, and during the six years he spent upon it he not only lost the sight of one eye through an explosion, but nearly killed himself by arsenical poisoning. It represents almost his only excursion into organic chemistry, and apart from its accuracy and completeness it is of historical interest in the development of that branch of the science as being the forerunner of the fruitful investigations on the organo-metallic compounds subsequently carried out by his English pupil, Edward Frankland. Simultaneously with his work on cacodyl, he was studying the composition of the gases given off from blast furnaces. He showed that in German furnaces nearly half the heat yielded by the fuel was being allowed to escape with the waste gases, and when he came to England, and in conjunction with Lyon Playfair investigated the conditions obtaining in English furnaces, he found the waste to amount to over 80%. These researches marked a stage in the application of scientific principles to the manufacture of iron, and they led also to the elaboration of Bunsen's famous methods of measuring gaseous volumes, &c., which form the subject of the only book he ever published (Gasometrische Methoden, 1857). In 1841 he invented the carbon-zinc electric cell which is known by his name, and which conducted him to several important achievements. He first employed it to produce the electric arc, and showed that from 44 cells a light equal to 1171.3 candles could be obtained with the consumption of one pound of zinc per hour. To measure this light he designed in 1844 another instrument, which in various modifications has come into extensive use—the grease-spot photometer. In 1852 he began to carry out electrolytical decompositions by the aid of the battery. By means of a very ingenious arrangement he obtained magnesium for the first time in the metallic state, and studied its chemical and physical properties, among other things demonstrating the brilliance and high actinic qualities of the flame it gives when burnt in air. From 1855 to 1863 he published with Roscoe a series of investigations on photochemical measurements, which W. Ostwald has called the "classical example for all future researches in physical chemistry." Perhaps the best known of the contrivances which the world owes to him is the "Bunsen burner" which he devised in 1855 when a simple means of burning ordinary coal gas with a hot smokeless flame was required for the new laboratory at Heidelberg. Other appliances invented by him were the ice-calorimeter (1870), the vapour calorimeter (1887), and the filter pump (1868), which was worked out in the course of a research on the separation of the platinum metals. Mention must also be made of another piece of work of a rather different character. Travelling was one of his favourite relaxations, and in 1846 he paid a visit to Iceland. There he investigated the phenomena of the geysers, the composition of the gases coming off from the fumaroles, their action on the rocks with which they came into contact, &c., and on his observations was founded a noteworthy contribution to geological theory. But the most far-reaching of his achievements was the elaboration, about 1859, jointly with G.R. Kirchhoff, of spectrum analysis, which has put a new weapon of extraordinary power into the hands both of chemists and astronomers. It led Bunsen himself almost immediately to the isolation of two new elements of the alkali group, caesium and rubidium. Having noticed some unknown lines in the spectra of certain salts he was examining, he set to work to obtain the substance or substances to which these were due. To this end he evaporated large quantities of the Dürkheim mineral water, and it says much both for his perseverance and powers of manipulation that he dealt with 40 tons of the water to get about 17 grammes of the mixed chlorides of the two substances, and that with about one-third of that quantity of caesium chloride was able to prepare the most important compounds of the element and determine their characteristics, even making goniometrical measurements of their crystals.
Bunsen founded no school of chemistry; that is to say, no body of chemical doctrine is associated with his name. Indeed, he took little or no part in discussions of points of theory, and, although he was conversant with the trend of the chemical thought of his day, he preferred to spend his energies in the collection of experimental data. One fact, he used to say, properly proved is worth all the theories that can be invented. But as a teacher of chemistry he was almost without rival, and his success is sufficiently attested by the scores of pupils who flocked from every part of the globe to study under him, and by the number of those pupils who afterwards made their mark in the chemical world. The secret of this success lay largely in the fact that he never delegated his work to assistants, but was constantly present with his pupils in the laboratory, assisting each with personal direction and advice. He was also one of the first to appreciate the value of practical work to the student, and he instituted a regular practical course at Marburg so far back as 1840. Though alive to the importance of applied science, he considered truth alone to be the end of scientific research, and the example he set his pupils was one of single-hearted devotion to the advancement of knowledge.
See Sir Henry Roscoe's "Bunsen Memorial Lecture," Trans. Chem. Soc., 1900, which is reprinted (in German) with other obituary notices in an edition of Bunsen's collected works published by Ostwald and Bodenstein in 3 vols. at Leipzig in 1904.
BUNTER, the name applied by English geologists to the lower stage or subdivision of the Triassic rocks in the United Kingdom. The name has been adapted from the German Buntsandstein, Der bunte Sandstein, for it was in Germany that this continental type of Triassic deposit was first carefully studied. In France, the Bunter is known as the Grès bigarré. In northern and central Germany, in the Harz, Thuringia and Hesse, the Bunter is usually conformable with the underlying Permian formation; in the south-west and west, however, it transgresses on to older rocks, on to Coal Measures near Saarbruck, and upon the crystalline schists of Odenwald and the Black Forest.
The German subdivisions of the Bunter are as follows:—(1) Upper Buntsandstein, or Röt, mottled red and green marls and clays with occasional beds of shale, sandstone, gypsum, rocksalt and dolomite. In Hesse and Thuringia, a quartzitic sandstone prevails in the lower part. The "Rhizocorallium Dolomite" (R. Jenense, probably a sponge) of the latter district contains the only Bunter fauna of any importance. In Lorraine and the Eifel and Saar districts there are micaceous clays and sandstones with plant remains—the Voltzia sandstone. The lower beds in the Black Forest, Vosges, Odenwald and Lorraine very generally contain strings of dolomite and carnelian—the so-called "Carneol bank." (2) Middle Buntsandstein-Hauptbuntsandstein (900 ft.), the bulk
of this subdivision is made up of weakly-cemented, coarse-grained sandstones, oblique lamination is very prevalent, and occasional conglomeratic beds make their appearance. The uppermost bed is usually fine-grained and bears the footprints of Cheirotherium. In the Vosges district, this subdivision of the Bunter is called the Grès des Vosges, or the Grès principal, which comprises: (i.) red micaceous and argillaceous sandstone; (ii.) the conglomérat principal; and (iii.) Grès bigarré principal (=grès des Vosges, properly so-called). (3) Lower Buntsandstein, fine-grained clayey and micaceous sandstones, red-grey, yellow, white and mottled. The cement of the sandstones is often felspathic; for this reason they yield useful porcelain clays in the Thuringerwald. Clay galls are common in the sandstones of some districts, and in the neighbourhood of the Harz an oolitic calcareous sandstone, Rogenstein, occurs. In eastern Hesse, the lowest beds are crumbly, shaly clays, Brockelschiefern.
The following are the subdivisions usually adopted in England:—(1) Upper Mottled Sandstone, red variegated sandstones, soft and generally free from pebbles. (2) Bunter Pebble Beds, harder red and brown sandstones with quartzose pebbles, very abundant in some places. (3) Lower Mottled Sandstone, very similar to the upper division. The Bunter beds occupy a large area in the midland counties where they form dry, healthy ground of moderate elevation (Cannock Chase, Trentham, Sherwood Forest, Sutton Coldfield, &c.). Southward they may be followed through west Somerset to the cliffs of Budleigh Salterton in Devon; while northward they pass through north Staffordshire, Cheshire and Lancashire to the Vale of Eden and St Bees, reappearing in Elgin and Arran. A deposit of these rocks lies in the Vale of Clwyd and probably flanks the eastern side of the Pennine Hills, although here it is not so readily differentiated from the Keuper beds. The English Bunter rests with a slight unconformity upon the older formations. It is generally absent in the south-eastern counties, but thickens rapidly in the opposite direction, as is shown by the following table:—
|
Lancashire and W. Cheshire. | Staffordshire. |
Leicestershire and Warwickshire. |
| (1) 500 ft. | 50-200 ft. | Absent |
| (2) 500-750 ft. | 100-300 ft. | 0-100 ft. |
| (3) 200-500 ft. | 0-100 ft. | Absent |
The material forming the Bunter beds of England came probably from the north-west, but in Devonshire there are indications which point to an additional source.
In the Alpine region, most of the Trias differs markedly from that of England and northern Germany, being of distinctly marine origin; here the Bunter is represented by the Werfen beds (from Werfen in Salzburg) in the northern Alps, a series of red and greenish-grey micaceous shales with gypsum, rock salt and limestones in the upper part; while in the southern Alps (S. Tirol) there is an upper series of red clays, the Campil beds, and a lower series of thin sandstones, the Seis beds. Mojsisovics von Mojsvar has pointed out that the Alpine Bunter belongs to the single zone of Natica costata and Tirolites cassianus.
Fossils in the Bunter are very scarce; in addition to the footprints of Cheirotherium, direct evidence of amphibians is found in such forms as Trematosaurus and Mastodonsaurus. Myophoria costata and Gervillea Murchisoni are characteristic fossils. Plants are represented by Voltzia and by equisetums and ferns.
In England, the Bunter sandstones frequently act as valuable reservoirs of underground water; sometimes they are used for building stone or for foundry sand. In Germany some of the harder beds have yielded building stones, which were much used in the middle ages in the construction of cathedrals and castles in southern Germany and on the Rhine. In the northern Eifel region, at Mechernich and elsewhere, this formation contains lead ore in the form of spots and patches (Knotenerz) in the sandstone; some of the lead ore was worked by the Romans.
For a consideration of the relationship of the Bunter beds to formations of the like age in other parts of the world, see Triassic System.
(J. A. H.)
BUNTING, JABEZ (1779-1858), English Wesleyan divine, was born of humble parentage at Manchester on the 13th of May 1779. He was educated at Manchester grammar school, and at the age of nineteen began to preach, being received into full connexion in 1803. He continued to minister for upwards of fifty-seven years in Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, London and elsewhere. In 1835 he was appointed president of the first Wesleyan theological college (at Hoxton), and in this position he succeeded in materially raising the standard of education among Wesleyan ministers. He was four times chosen to be president of the conference, was repeatedly secretary of the "Legal Hundred," and for eighteen years was secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Under him Methodism ceased to be a society based upon Anglican foundation, and became a distinct church. He favoured the extension of lay power in committees, and was particularly zealous in the cause of foreign missions. Bunting was a popular preacher, and an effective platform speaker; in 1818 he was given the degree of M.A. by Aberdeen University, and in 1834 that of D.D. by Wesleyan University of Middletown, Conn., U.S.A. He died on the 16th of June 1858. His eldest son, William Maclardie Bunting (1805-1866), was also a distinguished Wesleyan minister; and his grandson Sir Percy William Bunting (b. 1836), son of T.P. Bunting, became prominent as a liberal nonconformist and editor of the Contemporary Review from 1882, being knighted in 1908.
See Lives of Jabez Bunting (1859) and W.M. Bunting (1870) by Thomas Percival Bunting.
BUNTING, properly the common English name of the bird called by Linnaeus Emberiza miliaria, but now used in a general sense for all members of the family Emberizidae, which are closely allied to the finches (Fringillidae), though, in Professor W.K. Parker's opinion, to be easily distinguished therefrom—the Emberizidae possessing what none of the Fringillidae do, an additional pair of palatal bones, "palato-maxillaries." It will probably follow from this diagnosis that some forms of birds, particularly those of the New World, which have hitherto been commonly assigned to the latter, really belong to the former, and among them the genera Cardinalis and Phrygilus. The additional palatal bones just named are also found in several other peculiarly American families, namely, Tanagridae, Icteridae and Mniotiltidae—whence it may be perhaps inferred that the Emberizidae are of Transatlantic origin. The buntings generally may be also outwardly distinguished from the finches by their angular gape, the posterior portion of which is greatly deflected; and most of the Old-World forms, together with some of those of the New World, have a bony knob on the palate—a swollen outgrowth of the dentary edges of the bill. Correlated with this peculiarity the maxilla usually has the tomia sinuated, and is generally concave, and smaller and narrower than the mandible, which is also concave to receive the palatal knob. In most other respects the buntings greatly resemble the finches, but their eggs are generally distinguishable by the irregular hair-like markings on the shell. In the British Islands by far the commonest species of bunting is the yellow-hammer (E. citrinella), but the true bunting (or corn-bunting, or bunting-lark, as it is called in some districts) is a very well-known bird, while the reed-bunting (E. schoeniclus) frequents marshy soils almost to the exclusion of the two former. In certain localities in the south of England the cirl-bunting (E. cirlus) is also a resident; and in winter vast flocks of the snow-bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis), at once recognizable by its pointed wings and elongated hind-claws, resort to our shores and open grounds. This last is believed to breed sparingly on the highest mountains of Scotland, but the majority of the examples which visit us come from northern regions, for it is a species which in summer inhabits the whole circumpolar area. The ortolan (E. hortulana), so highly prized for its delicate flavour, occasionally appears in England, but the British Islands seem to lie outside its proper range. On the continent of Europe, in Africa and throughout Asia, many other species are found, while in America the number belonging to the family cannot at present be computed. The beautiful and melodious cardinal (Cardinalis virginianus), commonly called the Virginian nightingale, must be included in this family.
(A. N.)
BUNTING (a word of doubtful origin, possibly connected with bunt, to sift, or with the Ger. bunt, of varied colour), a loosely woven woollen cloth for making flags; the term is also used of a collection of flags, and particularly those of a ship.
BUNYAN, JOHN (1628-1688), English religious writer, was born at Elstow, about a mile from Bedford, in November 1628. His father, Thomas Bunyan,[[1]] was a tinker, or, as he described himself, a "brasier." The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste, which was held in no high estimation. Bunyan's father had a fixed residence, and was able to send his son to a village school where reading and writing were taught.
The years of John's boyhood were those during which the Puritan spirit was in the highest vigour all over England; and nowhere had that spirit more influence than in Bedfordshire. It is not wonderful, therefore, that a lad to whom nature had given a powerful imagination and sensibility which amounted to a disease, should have been early haunted by religious terrors. Before he was ten his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair; and his sleep was disturbed by dreams of fiends trying to fly away with him. As he grew older his mental conflicts became still more violent. The strong language in which he described them strangely misled all his earlier biographers except Southey. It was long an ordinary practice with pious writers to cite Bunyan as an instance of the supernatural power of divine grace to rescue the human soul from the lowest depths of wickedness. He is called in one book the most notorious of profligates; in another, the brand plucked from the burning. Many excellent persons, whose moral character from boyhood to old age has been free from any stain discernible to their fellow-creatures, have, in their autobiographies and diaries, applied to themselves, and doubtless with sincerity, epithets as severe as could be applied to Titus Oates or Mrs Brownrigg. It is quite certain that Bunyan was, at eighteen, what, in any but the most austerely puritanical circles, would have been considered as a young man of singular gravity and innocence. Indeed, it may be remarked that he, like many other penitents who, in general terms, acknowledge themselves to have been the worst of mankind, fired up, and stood vigorously on his defence, whenever any particular charge was brought against him by others. He declares, it is true, that he had let loose the reins on the neck of his lusts, that he had delighted in all transgressions against the divine law, and that he had been the ringleader of the youth of Elstow in all manner of vice. But when those who wished him ill accused him of licentious amours, he called on God and the angels to attest his purity. No woman, he said, in heaven, earth or hell, could charge him with having ever made any improper advances to her. Not only had he been strictly faithful to his wife; but he had, even before his marriage, been perfectly spotless. It does not appear from his own confessions, or from the railings of his enemies, that he ever was drunk in his life. One bad habit he contracted, that of using profane language; but he tells us that a single reproof cured him so effectually that he never offended again. The worst that can be laid to his charge is that he had a great liking for some diversions, quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid precisians among whom he lived, and for whose opinion he had a great respect. The four chief sins of which he was guilty were dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing at tipcat and reading the history of Sir Bevis of Southampton. A rector of the school of Laud would have held such a young man up to the whole parish as a model. But Bunyan's notions of good and evil had been learned in a very different school; and he was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples.
When he was about seventeen the ordinary course of his life was interrupted by an event which gave a lasting colour to his thoughts. He enlisted in the Parliamentary army,[[2]] and served during the Decisive campaign of 1645. All that we know of his military career is, that, at the siege of some town,[[3]] one of his comrades, who had marched with the besieging army instead of him, was killed by a shot. Bunyan ever after considered himself as having been saved from death by the special interference of Providence. It may be observed that his imagination was strongly impressed by the glimpse which he had caught of the pomp of war. To the last he loved to draw his illustrations of sacred things from camps and fortresses, from guns, drums, trumpets, flags of truce, and regiments arrayed each under its own banner. His Greatheart, his Captain Boanerges and his Captain Credence are evidently portraits, of which the originals were among those martial saints who fought and expounded in Fairfax's army.
In 1646 Bunyan returned home and married about two years later. His wife had some pious relations, and brought him as her only portion some pious books. His mind, excitable by nature, very imperfectly disciplined by education, and exposed to the enthusiasm which was then epidemic in England, began to be fearfully disordered. The story of the struggle is told in Bunyan's Grace Abounding.
In outward things he soon became a strict Pharisee. He was constant in attendance at prayers and sermons. His favourite amusements were, one after another, relinquished, though not without many painful struggles. In the middle of a game at tipcat he paused, and stood staring wildly upwards with his stick in his hand. He had heard a voice asking him whether he would leave his sins and go to heaven, or keep his sins and go to hell; and he had seen an awful countenance frowning on him from the sky. The odious vice of bell-ringing he renounced; but he still for a time ventured to go to the church tower and look on while others pulled the ropes. But soon the thought struck him that, if he persisted in such wickedness, the steeple would fall on his head; and he fled in terror from the accursed place. To give up dancing on the village green was still harder; and some months elapsed before he had the fortitude to part with his darling sin. When this last sacrifice had been made, he was, even when tried by the maxims of that austere time, faultless. All Elstow talked of him as an eminently pious youth. But his own mind was more unquiet than ever. Having nothing more to do in the way of visible reformation, yet finding in religion no pleasures to supply the place of the juvenile amusements which he had relinquished, he began to apprehend that he lay under some special malediction; and he was tormented by a succession of fantasies which seemed likely to drive him to suicide or to Bedlam. At one time he took it into his head that all persons of Israelite blood would be saved, and tried to make out that he partook of that blood; but his hopes were speedily destroyed by his father, who seems to have had no ambition to be regarded as a Jew. At another time Bunyan was disturbed by a strange dilemma: "If I have not faith, I am lost; if I have faith, I can work miracles." He was tempted to cry to the puddles between Elstow and Bedford, "Be ye dry," and to stake his eternal hopes on the event. Then he took up a notion that the day of grace for Bedford and the neighbouring villages was past; that all who were to be saved in that part of England were already converted; and that he had begun to pray and strive some months too late. Then he was harassed by doubts whether the Turks were not in the right and the Christians in the wrong. Then he was troubled by a maniacal impulse which prompted him to pray to the trees, to a broomstick, to the parish bull.
As yet, however, he was only entering the valley of the shadow of death. Soon the darkness grew thicker. Hideous forms floated before him. Sounds of cursing and wailing were in his ears. His way ran through stench and fire, close to the mouth of the bottomless pit. He began to be haunted by a strange curiosity about the unpardonable sin, and by a morbid longing to commit it. But the most frightful of all the forms which
his disease took was a propensity to utter blasphemy, and especially to renounce his share in the benefits of the redemption. Night and day, in bed, at table, at work, evil spirits, as he imagined, were repeating close to his ear the words, "Sell him, sell him." He struck at the hobgoblins; he pushed them from him; but still they were ever at his side. He cried out in answer to them, hour after hour, "Never, never; not for thousands of worlds; not for thousands." At length, worn out by this long agony, he suffered the fatal words to escape him, "Let him go if he will." Then his misery became more fearful than ever. He had done what could not be forgiven. He had forfeited his part of the great sacrifice. Like Esau, he had sold his birthright; and there was no longer any place for repentance. "None," he afterwards wrote, "knows the terrors of those days but myself." He has described his sufferings with singular energy, simplicity and pathos. He envied the brutes; he envied the very stones on the street, and the tiles on the houses. The sun seemed to withhold its light and warmth from him. His body, though cast in a sturdy mould, and though still in the highest vigour of youth, trembled whole days together with the fear of death and judgment. He fancied that this trembling was the sign set on the worst reprobates, the sign which God had put on Cain. The unhappy man's emotion destroyed his power of digestion. He had such pains that he expected to burst asunder like Judas, whom he regarded as his prototype.
Neither the books which Bunyan read, nor the advisers whom he consulted, were likely to do much good in a case like his. His small library had received a most unseasonable addition, the account of the lamentable end of Francis Spira. One ancient man of high repute for piety, whom the sufferer consulted, gave an opinion which might well have produced fatal consequences. "I am afraid," said Bunyan, "that I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost." "Indeed," said the old fanatic, "I am afraid that you have."
At length the clouds broke; the light became clearer and clearer; and the enthusiast who had imagined that he was branded with the mark of the first murderer, and destined to the end of the arch-traitor, enjoyed peace and a cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. Years elapsed, however, before his nerves, which had been so perilously overstrained, recovered their tone. When he had joined a Baptist society at Bedford, and was for the first time admitted to partake of the eucharist, it was with difficulty that he could refrain from imprecating destruction on his brethren while the cup was passing from hand to hand. After he had been some time a member of the congregation he began to preach; and his sermons produced a powerful effect. He was indeed illiterate; but he spoke to illiterate men. The severe training through which he had passed had given him such an experimental knowledge of all the modes of religious melancholy as he could never have gathered from books; and his vigorous genius, animated by a fervent spirit of devotion, enabled him not only to exercise a great influence over the vulgar, but even to extort the half-contemptuous admiration of scholars. Yet it was long before he ceased to be tormented by an impulse which urged him to utter words of horrible impiety in the pulpit.[[4]] Bunyan was finally relieved from the internal sufferings which had embittered his life by sharp persecution from without. He had been five years a preacher when the Restoration put it in the power of the Cavalier gentlemen and clergymen all over the country to oppress the dissenters. In November 1660 he was flung into Bedford gaol; and there he remained, with some intervals of partial and precarious liberty, during twelve years. The authorities tried to extort from him a promise that he would abstain from preaching; but he was convinced that he was divinely set apart and commissioned to be a teacher of righteousness, and he was fully determined to obey God rather than man. He was brought before several tribunals, laughed at, caressed, reviled, menaced, but in vain. He was facetiously told that he was quite right in thinking that he ought not to hide his gift; but that his real gift was skill in repairing old kettles. He was compared to Alexander the coppersmith. He was told that if he would give up preaching he should be instantly liberated. He was warned that if he persisted in disobeying the law he would be liable to banishment, and that if he were found in England after a certain time his neck would be stretched. His answer was, "If you let me out to-day, I will preach again to-morrow." Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon, compared with which the worst prison now to be found in the island is a palace.[[5]] His fortitude is the more extraordinary because his domestic feelings were unusually strong. Indeed, he was considered by his stern brethren as somewhat too fond and indulgent a parent. He had four small children, and among them a daughter who was blind, and whom he loved with peculiar tenderness. He could not, he said, bear even to let the wind blow on her; and now she must suffer cold and hunger; she must beg; she must be beaten; "yet," he added, "I must, I must do it."
His second wife, whom he had married just before his arrest, tried in vain for his release; she even petitioned the House of Lords on his behalf. While he lay in prison he could do nothing in the way of his old trade for the support of his family. He determined, therefore, to take up a new trade. He learned to make long-tagged thread laces; and many thousands of these articles were furnished by him to the hawkers. While his hands were thus busied he had other employments for his mind and his lips. He gave religious instruction to his fellow-captives, and formed from among them a little flock, of which he was himself the pastor. He studied indefatigably the few books which he possessed. His two chief companions were the Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs. His knowledge of the Bible was such that he might have been called a living concordance; and on the margin of his copy of the Book of Martyrs are still legible the ill-spelt lines of doggerel in which he expressed his reverence for the brave sufferers, and his implacable enmity to the mystical Babylon.
Prison life gave him leisure to write, and during his first imprisonment he wrote, in addition to several tracts and some verse, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the narrative of his own religious experience. The book was published in 1666. A short period of freedom was followed by a second offence and a further imprisonment. Bunyan's works were coarse, indeed, but they showed a keen mother wit, a great command of the homely mother tongue, an intimate knowledge of the English Bible, and a vast and dearly bought spiritual experience. They therefore, when the corrector of the press had improved the syntax and the spelling, were well received.
Much of Bunyan's time was spent in controversy. He wrote sharply against the Quakers, whom he seems always to have held in utter abhorrence. He wrote against the liturgy of the Church of England. No two things, according to him, had less affinity than the form of prayer and the spirit of prayer. Those, he said with much point, who have most of the spirit of prayer are all to be found in gaol; and those who have most zeal for the form of prayer are all to be found at the alehouse. The doctrinal Articles, on the other hand, he warmly praised and defended. The most acrimonious of all his works is his Defence of Justification by Faith, an answer to what Bunyan calls "the brutish and beastly latitudinarianism" of Edward Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, an excellent man, but not free from the taint of Pelagianism.
Bunyan had also a dispute with some of the chiefs of the sect to which he belonged. He doubtless held with perfect sincerity
the distinguishing tenet of that sect, but he did not consider that tenet as one of high importance, and willingly joined in communion with pious Presbyterians and Independents. The sterner Baptists, therefore, loudly pronounced him a false brother. A controversy arose which long survived the original combatants. The cause which Bunyan had defended with rude logic and rhetoric against Kiffin and Danvers has since been pleaded by Robert Hall with an ingenuity and eloquence such as no polemical writer has ever surpassed.
During the years which immediately followed the Restoration, Bunyan's confinement seems to have been strict. But as the passions of 1660 cooled, as the hatred with which the Puritans had been regarded while their reign was recent gave place to pity, he was less and less harshly treated. The distress of his family, and his own patience, courage and piety, softened the hearts of his judges. Like his own Christian in the cage, he found protectors even among the crowd at Vanity Fair. The bishop of the diocese, Dr Barlow, is said to have interceded for him. At length the prisoner was suffered to pass most of his time beyond the walls of the gaol, on condition, as it should seem, that he remained within the town of Bedford.
He owed his complete liberation to one of the worst acts of one of the worst governments that England has ever seen. In 1671 the Cabal was in power. Charles II. had concluded the treaty by which he bound himself to set up the Roman Catholic religion in England. The first step which he took towards that end was to annul, by an unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative, all the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics; and in order to disguise his real design, he annulled at the same time the penal statutes against Protestant nonconformists. Bunyan was consequently set at large.[[6]] In the first warmth of his gratitude he published a tract, in which he compared Charles to that humane and generous Persian king, who, though not himself blest with the light of the true religion, favoured the chosen people, and permitted them, after years of captivity, to rebuild their beloved temple.
Before he left his prison he had begun the book which has made his name immortal.[[7]] The history of that book is remarkable. The author was, as he tells us, writing a treatise, in which he had occasion to speak of the stages of the Christian progress. He compared that progress, as many others had compared it, to a pilgrimage. Soon his quick wit discovered innumerable points of similarity which had escaped his predecessors. Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words, quagmires and pits, steep hills, dark and horrible glens, soft vales, sunny pastures, a gloomy castle, of which the courtyard was strewn with the skulls and bones of murdered prisoners, a town all bustle and splendour, like London on the Lord Mayor's Day, and the narrow path, straight as a rule could make it, running on up hill and down hill, through city and through wilderness, to the Black River and the Shining Gate. He had found out, as most people would have said, by accident, as he would doubtless have said, by the guidance of Providence, where his powers lay. He had no suspicion, indeed, that he was producing a masterpiece. He could not guess what place his allegory would occupy in English literature; for of English literature he knew nothing. Those who suppose him to have studied the Faery Queen might easily be confuted, if this were the proper place for a detailed examination of the passages in which the two allegories have been thought to resemble each other. The only work of fiction, in all probability, with which he could compare his Pilgrim was his old favourite, the legend of Sir Bevis of Southampton. He would have thought it a sin to borrow any time from the serious business of his life, from his expositions, his controversies and his lace tags, for the purpose of amusing himself with what he considered merely as a trifle. It was only, he assures us, at spare moments that he returned to the House Beautiful, the Delectable Mountains and the Enchanted Ground. He had no assistance. Nobody but himself saw a line till the whole was complete. He then consulted his pious friends. Some were pleased. Others were much scandalized. It was a vain story, a mere romance, about giants, and lions, and goblins, and warriors, sometimes fighting with monsters, and sometimes regaled by fair ladies in stately palaces. The loose atheistical wits at Will's might write such stuff to divert the painted Jezebels of the court; but did it become a minister of the gospel to copy the evil fashions of the world? There had been a time when the cant of such fools would have made Bunyan miserable. But that time was past; and his mind was now in a firm and healthy state. He saw that in employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, he was only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself; and he determined to print.
The Pilgrim's Progress was published in February 1678. Soon the irresistible charm of a book which gratified the imagination of the reader with all the action and scenery of a fairy tale, which exercised his ingenuity by setting him to discover a multitude of curious analogies, which interested his feelings for human beings, frail like himself, and struggling with temptations from within and from without, which every moment drew a smile from him by some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry, and nevertheless left on his mind a sentiment of reverence for God and of sympathy for man, began to produce its effect. In puritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded, that effect was such as no work of genius, though it were superior to the Iliad, to Don Quixote or to Othello, can ever produce on a mind accustomed to indulge in literary luxury. A second edition came out in the autumn with additions; and the demand became immense. The eighth edition, which contains the last improvements made by the author, was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, the tenth in 1685. The help of the engraver had early been called in; and tens of thousands of children looked with terror and delight on execrable copperplates, which represented Christian thrusting his sword into Apollyon, or writhing in the grasp of Giant Despair. In Scotland, and in some of the colonies, the Pilgrim was even more popular than in his native country. Bunyan has told us, with very pardonable vanity, that in New England his dream was the daily subject of the conversation of thousands, and was thought worthy to appear in the most superb binding. He had numerous admirers in Holland, and amongst the Huguenots of France.
He continued to work the gold-field which he had discovered, and to draw from it new treasures, not indeed with quite such ease and in quite such abundance as when the precious soil was still virgin, but yet with success, which left all competition far behind. In 1680 appeared the Life and Death of Mr Badman; in 1684 the second part of the Pilgrim's Progress. In 1682 appeared the Holy War, which if the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist, would be the best allegory that ever was written.
Bunyan's place in society was now very different from what it had been. There had been a time when many dissenting ministers, who could talk Latin and read Greek, had affected to treat him with scorn. But his fame and influence now far exceeded theirs. He had so great an authority among the Baptists that he was popularly called Bishop Bunyan. His episcopal visitations were annual. From Bedford he rode every year to London, and preached there to large and attentive congregations. From London he went his circuit through the country, animating the zeal of his brethren, collecting and distributing alms and making up quarrels. The magistrates seem in general to have given him little trouble. But there is reason to believe that, in the year 1685, he was in some danger of again occupying his old quarters in Bedford gaol. In that year the rash and wicked enterprise of Monmouth gave the government a pretext for prosecuting the nonconformists; and scarcely one eminent divine of the Presbyterian. Independent
or Baptist persuasion remained unmolested. Baxter was in prison: Howe was driven into exile: Henry was arrested.
Two eminent Baptists, with whom Bunyan had been engaged in controversy, were in great peril and distress. Danvers was in danger of being hanged; and Kiffin's grandsons were actually hanged. The tradition is that, during those evil days, Bunyan was forced to disguise himself as a wagoner, and that he preached to his congregation at Bedford in a smock-frock, with a cart-whip in his hand. But soon a great change took place. James II. was at open war with the church, and found it necessary to court the dissenters. Some of the creatures of the government tried to secure the aid of Bunyan. They probably knew that he had written in praise of the indulgence of 1672, and therefore hoped that he might be equally pleased with the indulgence of 1687. But fifteen years of thought, observation and commerce with the world had made him wiser. Nor were the cases exactly parallel. Charles was a professed Protestant; James was a professed Papist. The object of Charles's indulgence was disguised; the object of James's indulgence was patent. Bunyan was not deceived. He exhorted his hearers to prepare themselves by fasting and prayer for the danger which menaced their civil and religious liberties, and refused even to speak to the courtier who came down to remodel the corporation of Bedford, and who, as was supposed, had it in charge to offer some municipal dignity to the bishop of the Baptists.
Bunyan did not live to see the Revolution.[[8]] In the summer of 1688 he undertook to plead the cause of a son with an angry father, and at length prevailed on the old man not to disinherit the young one. This good work cost the benevolent intercessor his life. He had to ride through heavy rain. He came drenched to his lodgings on Snow Hill, was seized with a violent fever, and died in a few days (August 31). He was buried in Bunhill Fields; and many Puritans, to whom the respect paid by Roman Catholics to the reliques and tombs of saints seemed childish or sinful, are said to have begged with their dying breath that their coffins might be placed as near as possible to the coffin of the author of the Pilgrim's Progress.
The fame of Bunyan during his life, and during the century which followed his death, was indeed great, but was almost entirely confined to religious families of the middle and lower classes. Very seldom was he during that time mentioned with respect by any writer of great literary eminence. Young coupled his prose with the poetry of the wretched D'Urfey. In the Spiritual Quixote, the adventures of Christian are ranked with those of Jack the Giant-Killer and John Hickathrift. Cowper ventured to praise the great allegorist, but did not venture to name him. It is a significant circumstance that, for a long time all the numerous editions of the Pilgrim's Progress were evidently meant for the cottage and the servants' hall. The paper, the printing, the plates, were all of the meanest description. In general, when the educated minority and the common people differ about the merit of a book, the opinion of the educated minority finally prevails. The Pilgrim's Progress is perhaps the only book about which the educated minority has come over to the opinion of the common people.
The attempts which have been made to improve and to imitate this book are not to be numbered. It has been done into verse; it has been done into modern English. The Pilgrimage of Tender Conscience, the Pilgrimage of Good Intent, the Pilgrimage of Seek Truth, the Pilgrimage of Theophilus, the Infant Pilgrim, the Hindoo Pilgrim, are among the many feeble copies of the great original. But the peculiar glory of Bunyan is that those who most hated his doctrines have tried to borrow the help of his genius. A Catholic version of his parable may be seen with the head of the virgin in the title-page. On the other hand, those Antinomians for whom his Calvinism is not strong enough, may study the Pilgrimage of Hephzibah, in which nothing will be found which can be construed into an admission of free agency and universal redemption. But the most extraordinary of all the acts of Vandalism by which a fine work of art was ever defaced was committed in the year 1853. It was determined to transform the Pilgrim's Progress into a Tractarian book. The task was not easy; for it was necessary to make two sacraments the most prominent objects in the allegory, and of all Christian theologians, avowed Quakers excepted, Bunyan was the one in whose system the sacraments held the least prominent place. However, the Wicket Gate became a type of baptism, and the House Beautiful of the eucharist. The effect of this change is such as assuredly the ingenious person who made it never contemplated. For, as not a single pilgrim passes through the Wicket Gate in infancy, and as Faithful hurries past the House Beautiful without stopping, the lesson which the fable in its altered shape teaches, is that none but adults ought to be baptized, and that the eucharist may safely be neglected. Nobody would have discovered from the original Pilgrim's Progress that the author was not a Paedobaptist. To turn his book into a book against Paedobaptism, was an achievement reserved for an Anglo-Catholic divine. Such blunders must necessarily be committed by every man who mutilates parts of a great work, without taking a comprehensive view of the whole.
(M.)
The above article has been slightly corrected as to facts, as compared with its form in the 9th edition. Bunyan's works were first partially collected in a folio volume (1692) by his friend Charles Doe. A larger edition (2 vols., 1736-1737) was edited by Samuel Wilson of the Barbican. In 1853 a good edition (3 vols., Glasgow) was produced by George Offer. Southey's edition (1830) of the Pilgrim's Progress contained his Life of Bunyan. Since then various editions of the Pilgrim's Progress, many illustrated (by Cruikshank, Byam Shaw, W. Strang and others), have appeared. An interesting life by "the author of Mark Rutherford" (W. Hale White) was published in 1904. Other lives are by J.A. Froude (1880) in the "English Men of Letters" series, and E. Venables (1888); but the standard work on the subject is John Bunyan; his Life, Times and Work (1885), by the Rev. J. Brown of Bedford. A bronze statue, by Boehm, was presented to the town by the duke of Bedford in 1874.
[1] The name, in various forms as Buignon, Buniun, Bonyon or Binyan, appears in the local records of Elstow and the neighbouring parishes at intervals from as far back as 1199. They were small freeholders, but all the property except the cottage had been lost in the time of Bunyan's grandfather. Bunyan's own account of his family as the "meanest and most despised of all the families of the land" must be put down to his habitual self-depreciation. Thomas Bunyan had a forge and workshop at Elstow.
[2] There is no direct evidence to show on which side he fought, but the balance of probability justifies this view.
[3] There is no means of identifying the place besieged. It has been assumed to be Leicester, which was captured by the Royalists in May 1645, and recovered by Fairfax in the next month.
[4] Bunyan had joined, in 1653, the nonconformist community which met under a certain Mr Gifford at St John's church, Bedford. This congregation was not Baptist, properly so called, as the question of baptism, with other doctrinal points, was left open. When Bunyan removed to Bedford in 1655, he became a deacon of this church, and two years later he was formally recognized as a preacher, his fame soon spreading through the neighbouring counties. His wife died soon after their removal to Bedford, and he also lost his friend and pastor, Mr Gifford. His earliest work was directed against Quaker mysticism and appeared in 1656. It was entitled Some Gospel Truths Opened; it was followed in the same year by a second tract in the same sense, A Vindication of Gospel Truths.
[5] He was not, however, as has often been stated, confined in the old gaol which stood on the bridge over the Ouse, but in the county gaol.
[6] His formal pardon is dated the 13th of September 1672; but five months earlier he had received a royal licence to preach, and acted for the next three years as pastor of the nonconformist body to which he belonged, in a barn on the site of which stands the present Bunyan Meeting.
[7] It is now generally supposed that Bunyan wrote his Pilgrim's Progress, not during his twelve years' imprisonment, but during a short period of incarceration in 1675, probably in the old gaol on the bridge.
[8] He had resumed his pastorate in Bedford after his imprisonment of 1675, and, although he frequently preached in London to crowded congregations, and is said in the last year of his life to have been, of course unofficially, chaplain to Sir John Shorter, lord mayor of London, he remained faithful to his own congregation.
BUNZLAU, a town of Germany, in Prussian Silesia, on the right bank of the Bober, 27 m. from Liegnitz on the Berlin-Breslau railway, which crosses the river by a great viaduct. Pop. (1900) 14,590. It has a handsome market square, an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and monuments to the Russian field marshal Kutusov, who died here, and to the poet Martin Opitz von Boberfeld. The Bunzlau pottery is famous; woollen and linen cloth are manufactured, and there is a considerable trade in grain and cattle. Bunzlau (Boleslavia) received its name in the 12th century from Duke Boleslav, who separated it from the duchy of Glogau. Its importance was increased by numerous privileges and the possession of extensive mining works. It was frequently captured and recaptured in the wars of the 17th century, and in 1739 was completely destroyed by fire. On the 30th of August 1813 the French were here defeated on the retreat from the Katzbach by the Silesian army of the allies.
BUONAFEDE, APPIANO (1716-1793), Italian philosopher, was born at Comachio, in Ferrara, and died in Rome. He became professor of theology at Naples in 1740, and, entering the religious body of the Celestines, rose to be general of the order. His principal works, generally published under the assumed name of "Agatopisto Cromazione," are on the history of philosophy:—Della Istoria e delle Indole di ogni Filosofia, 7 vols., 1772 seq.; and Della Restaurazione di ogni Filosofia ne' Secoli, xvi., xvii., xviii., 3 vols., 1789 (German trans. by C. Heydenreich). The latter gives a valuable account of 16th-century Italian philosophy. His other works are Istoria critica e filosofica del suicidio (1761); Delle conquiste celebri esaminate col naturale diritto delle genti (1763); Storia critica del moderno diritto di natura e delle genti (1789); and a few poems and philosophic comedies.
BUOY (15th century "boye"; through O.Fr. or Dutch, from Lat. boia, fetter; the word is now usually pronounced as "boy," and it has been spelt in that form; but Hakluyt's
Voyages spells it "bwoy," and this seems to indicate a different pronunciation, which is also given in some modern dictionaries), a floating body employed to mark the navigable limits of channels, their fairways, sunken dangers or isolated rocks, mined or torpedo grounds, telegraph cables, or the position of a ship's anchor after letting go; buoys are also used for securing a ship to instead of anchoring. They vary in size and construction from a log of wood to steel mooring buoys for battleships or a steel gas buoy.
In 1882 a conference was held upon a proposal to establish a uniform system of buoyage. It was under the presidency of the then duke of Edinburgh, and consisted of representatives from the various bodies interested. The questions of colour, visibility, shape and size were considered, and any modifications necessary owing to locality. The committee proposed the following uniform system of buoyage, and it is now adopted by the general lighthouse authorities of the United Kingdom:—
(1) The mariner when approaching the coast must determine his position on the chart, and note the direction of flood tide. (2) The term "starboard-hand" shall denote that side which would be on the right hand of the mariner either going with the main stream of the flood, or entering a harbour, river or estuary from seaward; the term "port-hand" shall denote the left hand of the mariner in the same circumstances. (3)[[1]] Buoys showing the pointed top of a cone above water shall be called conical (fig. 1) and shall always be starboard-hand buoys, as above defined. (4)[[1]] Buoys showing a flat top above water shall be called can (fig. 2) and shall always be port-hand buoys, as above defined. (5) Buoys showing a domed top above water shall be called spherical (fig. 3) and shall mark the ends of middle grounds. (6) Buoys having a tall central structure on a broad face shall be called pillar buoys (fig. 4), and like all other special buoys, such as bell buoys, gas buoys, and automatic sounding buoys, shall be placed to mark special positions either on the coast or in the approaches to harbours. (7) Buoys showing only a mast above water shall be called spar-buoys (fig. 5).[[2]] (8) Starboard-hand buoys shall always be painted in one colour only. (9) Port-hand buoys shall be painted of another characteristic colour, either single or parti-colour. (10) Spherical buoys (fig. 3) at the ends of middle grounds shall always be distinguished by horizontal stripes of white colour, (11) Surmounting beacons, such as staff and globe and others,[[3]] shall always be painted of one dark colour. (12) Staff and globe (fig. 1) shall only be used on starboard-hand buoys, staff and cage (fig. 2) on port hand; diamonds (fig. 7) at the outer ends of middle grounds; and triangles (fig. 3) at the inner ends. (13) Buoys on the same side of a channel, estuary or tideway may be distinguished from each other by names, numbers or letters, and where necessary by a staff surmounted with the appropriate beacon. (14) Buoys intended for moorings (fig. 6) may be of shape and colour according to the discretion of the authority within whose jurisdiction they are laid, but for marking submarine telegraph cables the colour shall be green with the word "Telegraph" painted thereon in white letters.
Buoying and Marking of Wrecks.—(15) Wreck buoys in the open sea, or in the approaches to a harbour or estuary, shall be coloured green, with the word "Wreck" painted in white letters on them. (16) When possible, the buoy should be laid near to the side of the wreck next to mid-channel. (17) When a wreck-marking vessel is used, it shall, if possible, have its top sides coloured green, with the word "Wreck" in white letters thereon, and shall exhibit by day, three balls on a yard 20 ft. above the sea, two placed vertically at one end and one at the other, the single ball being on the side nearer to the wreck; in fog a gong or bell is rung in quick succession at intervals not exceeding one minute (wherever practicable); by night, three white fixed lights are similarly arranged as the balls in daytime, but the ordinary riding lights are not shown. (18) In narrow waters or in rivers and harbours under the jurisdiction of local authorities, the same rules may be adopted, or at discretion, varied as follows:—When a wreck-marking vessel is used she shall carry a cross-yard on a mast with two balls by day, placed horizontally not less than 6 nor more than 12 ft. apart, and by night two lights similarly placed. When a barge or open boat only is used, a flag or ball may be shown in the daytime. (19) The position in which the marking vessel is placed with reference to the wreck shall be at the discretion of the local authority having jurisdiction. A uniform system by shape has been adopted by the Mersey Dock and Harbour Board, to assist a mariner by night, and, in addition, where practicable, a uniform colour; the fairway buoys are specially marked by letter, shape and colour.
British India has practically adopted the British system, United States and Canada have the same uniform system; in the majority of European maritime countries and China various uniform systems have been adopted. In Norway and Russia the compass system is used, the shape, colour and surmountings of the buoys indicating the compass bearing of the danger from the buoy; this method is followed in the open sea by Sweden. An international uniform system of buoyage, although desirable, appears impracticable. Germany employs yellow buoys to mark boundaries of quarantine stations. The question of shape versus colour, irrespective of size, is a disputed one; the shape is a better guide at night and colour in the daytime. All markings (figs. 8, 9, 10 and 11) should be subordinate to the main colour of the buoy; the varying backgrounds and atmospheric conditions render the question a complex one.
London Trinity House buoys are divided into five classes, their use depending on whether the spot to be marked is in the open sea or otherwise exposed position, or in a sheltered harbour, or according to the depth of water and weight of moorings, or the importance of the danger. Buoys are moored with specially tested cables; the eye at the base of the buoy is of wrought iron to prevent it becoming "reedy" and the cable is secured to blocks (see Anchor) or mushroom anchors according to the nature of the ground. London Trinity House buoys are
built of steel, with bulkheads to lessen the risk of their sinking by collision, and, with the exception of bell buoys, do not contain water ballast. In 1878 gas buoys, with fixed and occulting lights of 10-candle power, were introduced. In 1896 Mr T. Matthews, engineer-in-chief in the London Trinity Corporation, developed the present design (fig. 12). It is of steel, the lower plates being 5/8 in. and the upper 7/16 in. in thickness, thus adding to the stability. The buoy holds 380 cub. ft. of gas, and exhibits an occulting light for 2533 hours. This light is placed 10 ft. above the sea, and, with an intensity of 50 candles, is visible 8 m. It occults every ten seconds, and there is seven seconds' visibility, with three seconds' obscuration. The occultations are actuated by a double valve arrangement. In the body of the apparatus there is a gas chamber having sufficient capacity, in the case of an occulting light, for maintaining the flame in action for seven seconds, and by means of a by-pass a jet remains alight in the centre of the burner. During the period of three seconds' darkness the gas chamber is re-charged, and at the end of that period is again opened to the main burner by a tripping arrangement of the valve, and remains in action seven seconds. The gas chamber of the buoy, charged to five atmospheres, is replenished from a steamer fitted with a pump and transport receivers carrying indicating valves, the receivers being charged to ten atmospheres. Practically no inconvenience has resulted from saline or other deposits, the glazing (glass) of the lantern being thoroughly cleaned when re-charging the buoy. Acetylene, generated from calcium carbide inside the buoy, is also used. Electric light is exhibited from some buoys in the United States. In England an automatic electric buoy has been suggested, worked by the motion of the waves, which cause a stream of water to act on a turbine connected with a dynamo generating electricity. Boat-shaped buoys are also used (river Humber) for carrying a light and bell. The Courtenay whistling buoy (fig. 13) is actuated by the undulating movement of the waves. A hollow cylinder extends from the lower part of the buoy to still water below the movement of the waves, ensuring that the water inside keeps at mean level, whilst the buoy follows the movements of the waves. By a special apparatus the compressed air is forced through the whistle at the top of the buoy, and the air is replenished by two tubes at the upper part of the buoy. It is fitted with a rudder and secured in the usual manner. Automatic buoys cannot be relied on in calm days with a smooth sea. The nun buoy (fig. 14) for indicating the position of an anchor after letting go, is secured to the crown of the anchor by a buoy rope. It is usually made of galvanized iron, and consists of two cones joined together at the base. It is painted red for the port anchor and green for the starboard.
Mooring buoys (fig. 6) for battleships are built of steel in four watertight compartments, and have sufficient buoyancy to keep afloat should a compartment be pierced; they are 13 ft. long with a diameter of 6½ ft. The mooring cable (bridle) passes through a watertight 16-in. trunk pipe, built vertically in the centre of the buoy, and is secured to a "rocking shackle" on the upper surface of the buoy. Large mooring buoys are usually protected by horizontal wooden battens and are fitted with life chains.
(J. W. D.)
[1] In carrying out the above system the Northern Lights Commissioners have adopted a red colour for conical or starboard-hand buoys, and black colour for can or port-hand buoys, and this system is applicable to the whole of Scotland.
[2] Useful where floating ice is encountered.
[3] St George and St Andrew crosses are principally employed to surmount shore beacons.
BUPALUS AND ATHENIS, sons of Archermus, and members of the celebrated school of sculpture in marble which flourished in Chios in the 6th century B.C. They were contemporaries of the poet Hipponax (about 540 B.C.), whom they were said to have caricatured. Their works consisted almost entirely of draped female figures, Artemis, Fortune, the Graces, whence the Chian school has been well called a school of Madonnas. Augustus brought many of the works of Bupalus and Athenis to Rome, and placed them on the gable of the temple of Apollo Palatinus.
BUPHONIA, in Greek antiquities, a sacrificial ceremony, forming part of the Diipolia, a religious festival held on the 14th of the month Skirophorion (June-July) at Athens, when a labouring ox was sacrificed to Zeus Polieus as protector of the city in accordance with a very ancient custom. The ox was driven forward to the altar, on which grain was spread, by members of the family of the Kentriadae (from κέντρον, a goad), on whom this duty devolved hereditarily. When it began to eat, one of the family of the Thaulonidae advanced with an axe, slew the ox, then immediately threw away the axe and fled. The axe, as being polluted by murder, was now carried before the court of the Prytaneum (which tried inanimate objects for homicide) and there charged with having caused the death of the ox, for which it was thrown into the sea. Apparently this is an early instance analogous to deodand (q.v.). Although the slaughter of a labouring ox was forbidden, it was considered excusable in the exceptional circumstances; none the less it was regarded as a murder.
Porphyrius, De Abstinentia, ii. 29; Aelian, Var. Hist. viii. 3; Schol. Aristoph. Nubes, 485; Pausanias, i. 24, 28; see also Band, De Diipoliorum Sacro Atheniensium (1873).
BUR, or Burr (apparently the same word as Danish borre, burdock, cf. Swed. kard-boore), a prickly fruit or head of fruits, as of the burdock. In the sense of a woody outgrowth on the trunk of a tree, or "gnaur," the effect of a crowded bud-development, the word is probably adapted from the Fr. bourre, a vine-bud.
BURANO, a town of Venetia, in the province of Venice, on an island in the lagoons, 6 m. N.E. of Venice by sea. Pop. (1901) 8169. It is a fishing town, with a large royal school of lace-making employing some 500 girls. It was founded, like all the towns in the lagoons, by fugitives from the mainland cities at the time of the barbarian invasions. Torcello is a part of the commune of Burano.
BURAUEN, a town of the province of Leyte, island of Leyte, Philippine Islands, on the Dagitan river, 21 m. S. by W. of Tacloban, the capital. Pop. (1903) 18,197. Burauen is situated in a rich hemp-growing region, and hemp is its only important product. The language is Visayan.