r.n.i.KTiN. 



BULLION. 



into the outer circle. The niml lent of the hnndorillero*, iiwtond of 

 eking the opening, which may be too distant for them tn make in 

 fee* of the bull** horn*, will Uy their hand* on the top of the fence 

 and (pring orer it ; ami a fine I mil of the true breed ban sometime* bean 

 known to go over after them, clearing the six-feet fence a* an English 

 hunter take* a five bar gate. 



At length, bellowing* of nge and pain, and hu wavering, uncertain 

 onseta, ahow that the poor bull* death i* near. Then a great man in 

 the privileged government boxes ware* hu han<lkerchief, and Another 

 flourish of trumpet* given the signal to the matador to come forward 

 and do his last office. Followed by some chulo* ai auxiliaries and 

 aMwtanU. the matador advance* with a red mantle, or a piece of red 

 doth attached to a short li.in.llr. in hi* left hand, and a long, well 

 proved iword in hi* right. He first of all drop* on one knee in front 

 of the royal or government box, doflb hi* cap, a*k* permission to fininh 

 the aflair, draw* hi* arm across hi* breast to the right and left, throw* 

 down hi* cap a* a pledge which he miwt redeem, and then rise* to do 

 hi* work. The perfection of hi* p> .formanoe consist* in thin he must 

 wait the bull'* charge, hi* person being partially, and hi* tolodo Made 

 w holly, concealed behind the extended cloak, and ne must BO receive 

 the bull on it* point that the sword shall penetrate up to the hilt in 

 that particular part of the animal where neck and shoulder* meet. 

 \VI n this happens, the IniH stagger* for a second or two, and then 

 drop* in the midst of the enthusiastic shout* of men, women, and 

 rliiMren. As soon aa the bull is dead, and sometime* before, another 

 blast of trumpet* is heard, and four powerful and richly-caparisoned 

 mule*, with large bells round their necks, and harnessed abreast, trot 

 int-> the arena. Their trace* are hooked to a cross-bar, which is 

 attached to the butt's horns ; trumpets are sounded and hands clapped, 

 and away gallop the mules, bull and all. The barriers are again closed, 

 ami the lists ready for another exhibition of torture and blood. (See 

 HamtWn-t of Sf>ain, vol. i. ; Tanromaqiiia, a series of thirty 

 engravings, representing all the implement*, costumes, and different 

 UK, published at Madrid in 1804.) 



liri.l.KTIX, a French word which has been adopted by the English 

 to signify a sh< >rt authentic account of some passing event, intended 

 for the information of the public. Bulletin is derived from bidlii a 

 sealed despatch. {Ducange, ' Qlossarium.') When kings and other 

 persons of high rank are dangerously ill, daily bulletins are issued by 

 tie- physicians, relative to the state of the patient. In times of war, 

 and after a great battle, bulletins are sometimes issued from the hc-<d- 

 qiiarter* of the victorious army, and are seat off to the capital to inform 

 the people of the success. 



BI'LLKTS. The general mode of making bullets is noticed under 

 SHUT M vxr r.nTrn K ; but a few special methods may be adverted to 

 here. A patent for making bullet* was taken out in Ann-rim in 1849, 

 in which the bullet is formed by punching. The end of the punch 

 ha* a hemispherical cavity, and a die is used which has a similar cavity. 

 A strip of sheet lead is hid on the die, and the punch is brought down 

 upon it with a force sufficient to sever a sin ill piece of lead, and to 

 form it into a globular shape by means of the two hemispherical 

 cavities. 



Several year* before, however, in 1840, Mr. David Napier had 

 patented a method, somewhat similar in principle, but more compre- 

 hensive, for making bullets in which great accuracy of form may be 

 required. The machinery consists of two sliding plungers, placed hori- 

 zontally and oppomte to each other , each carrying a hemispherical die. 

 The meeting and dosing of the two dies give a perfectly spherical form 

 to any substance compressed between them. In the centre* of these 

 plungers are two sliding plugs, which, in the retrocession of the 

 p!<mgers, are urged forward by a spring placed behind them, and drive 

 out the compressed ball. An alternating motion backwards and for- 

 wards i* given to the plungers. Strips of lead having projections, pre- 

 pared either by rolling or casting, are supplied to the machine, the 

 continuous pressing of which convert* the projecting pieces of lead 

 into perfect sphere*, held together by a thin film of lead. The strips 

 are then taken to a small hemispherical punch, working vertically into 

 a circular bed the same size as the balls ; and on bringing down this 

 punch liy means of a foot treadle, the balls are cut out, fall through 

 the bed, and roll down a trough into a proper receptacle. This method 

 of making bullet* by compression was at one time adopted l>v tlic 

 government at Woolwich Laboratory, the apparatus being worked by 

 - 



A proposal has been made to construct bullet* of lead wire, by 



coiling the wire upon rents, so arranged as to allow the wire to be 



fl downwards into machine, where it can be measured or gauged, 



T to the proper lengths, and compressed by forcing through a die 



or die*. 



The Ordnance estimates for 1857-8 contained an entry of 10(W. pnid 

 to Mr. Greener, the gunmaker of Birmingham, for his invention of a 

 peculiar expaading bullet to be used with rifle*. 



The more curious and complicated forms of bullet, such as that just 

 adverted to, will be best descrilml in connection with th* remarkable 

 wearx n to which they chiefly l l..i, ... [Kiri.r.] 



HI'I.I.I' >\. .1 'crni used in |H.liti, ; ,l economy, and particularly in 

 relation to i|m-ton of currency and Iwnking, to denote tin- ; 

 metals gold ninl silver in their raw state, or, n ,.. pr..|.crly. as they 

 came from the ufimm, and before they are coined or otherwise manu- 



factured. This is the proper sense of the word, hut it is very com- 

 monly applied, in speaking of export-it ion . t. > include eith.-i 

 nmed silver. 



or coined 



For detail* of the early use, a* a medium of exchange, 

 and of the modem application of gold and silver t<> the pur|ise of 

 currency, the reader i* referred to Jacobs' ' Historical Knquiiy n> 

 Use and Consumption of the Precious Metal 



Kssai sur la Nouvelle Espagne" may be consulted for account* of the 

 modes of extracting silver from the mr 

 whence the principal supply is derived to Europe, with et 

 of the quantities exported thence since the beginning of the l.'.ih 

 century, Ac. 



Full' accounts of the late discoveries of gold in California ami in 

 Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria, will be found under those 

 head* in the Or.oon M-MM \i DIVISION of this work. Very considerable 

 supplies of gold have been obtained, of late years, by the Russian 

 government from the miqes of the Ural Mountains. 



All nations, with very few exceptions, as they emerge from a rude 

 state of society and manners, have been found to adopt Million a* a 

 means, more or less exclusively applied, for exchanging product* 

 and supplying man's wonts ; and bullion has peculiar fitnc 

 serving the purposes of a medium of exchange or money ; for these 

 r*. ami : 



1. Bullion, whether in its form of gold or of silver, has the property 

 both of being divided into small portions and of having those portions 

 re-united, without in either case suffering ,iny sensible loss of intrinsic 

 value : thus a given quantity of bullion may be easily mode to repre- 

 sent values pro|>ortioned to the price* of a corresponding quantity of 

 articles of purchase for which it is required. 



2. Bullion is the same in quality all over tin- world ; an ounce of 

 pure gold dug in the Ural Mountains is exactly similar to an ounce of 

 pure gold taken up in Australia; an ounce of pure gold extracted 

 from the earth 100 years ago is of precisely the same quality as an 

 ounce of pure gold got yesterday. Exposure to weather, the scorching 

 sun, or the rigour of frost, produces no deterioration of iu qi 

 From all which it follows, that the relative weight of any portion of 

 it determines at once it* relative quantity and value to CMI\ other 

 portion. Two ounces of gold are worth exactly twice as much a 



8. Bullion, in each of ita kinds, when properly treated, that is, with 

 a proper mixture of alloy, is hard enough to resist friction, to a very 

 considerable extent, for a great length of time. Moreover, it is not 

 liable to corrode or rust, and therefore is fitted for the purposes of a 

 circulating medium, as both kinds may be so prepared as to be capable 

 of passing from hand to hand for the purposes of trade :md commerce, 

 and of being carried about in the shape of coins for lengthened periods 

 without sensible diminution from abrasion. 



4. Bullion is not so rare an article, and therefore not so dear, as to 

 produce the consequence, that the quantity of gold or of silver equiva- 

 lent to a given quantity of commodities, is in general so small as to be 

 inconvenient. It is not found therefore in practice necessary I 



gold or even silver into such minute pieces, in order to serve the pur- 

 poses of the vast majority of transactions, a* to be easily liable mi that 

 account to loss. On the other hand, bullion is nowhere so abundant) 

 and therefore so cheap, as to make it necessary to carry about, with you, 

 anything more than a very moderate weight of it, in order to < 

 the ordinary purposes of the purchase of commodities, or the effecting 

 of payment*. A solid culm of a little more than five inches of gold 

 contains the value of lO.dini/. 



5. Bullion, in both kinds, is capable of receiving and retaining, for 

 long periods, stomps, impressions, characters, 4c., by which the 



the degree of purity, or the value in exchange of each coin may be 

 certified, as may be necessary according to the habit* of the nation in 

 which it is to circulate. The alloy sjioken of above as being mixed 

 with coined bullion, consists usually of copper, which in introduced for 

 the purpose of adding hardness to the piece, the value of the baser 

 metal thus incorporated being reckoned for nothing. By this i- not. 

 meant that the alloy is in itself valueless, but, inasmuch as the ope- 

 ration of disuniting it from the pure bullion would roi-t. UK. re than the 

 value of the base metal after it was extracted ; for this reason, a piece, 

 of gold or silver bullion in a coined shape, and therefore mixed with 

 alloy, in estimated in currency by the quantity of the precious metal 

 only which is contained in it. 



But besides its employment for the purpose* of coined limn. 

 for decoration, for |>ersonal ornament, for plate, domestic utensils and 

 other uses, bullion ha* another very important use, a* an Internationa] 

 medium of exchange ; anrl when employed in this way it is u 

 though not always, formed into bars or small Mocks. If, as the r. -ult. 

 of a given period of trading transactions between two countries, as 

 Prance and England, it is found [the mode of ascertaining the result 

 will be fully explained under Exi IIAM.KH] that France has imports! 

 from England commodities, to a greater value, than England has 

 imported from her, there will lw a numlicr of merchants in England 

 whose correspondent* in Franco will owe them the price of the English 

 goods which have IH'CII mid into France; and thc.se debts it will not, lie 



by means of bills of exchange, drawn 



; in England, and payable here, because, on the whole, tli.ic 

 will be nothing owing from the English side to the French side. In 



I it !< men necessary for the !'? nrh dd.tor to look 



out for some commodity that is in general request, and which there- 



