r, i E 



300 



B T G 



BieliU. the capital of the duchy and the (eat of the ducal 

 administration, lies dose to the Galiciau frontier, on a 

 declivity at the north-western base of the Carpathian moun- 

 tains, and on the left bank of the Biala. It is a well-built 

 town, and has a spacious market-place, but the streets are 

 narrow: of its three churches, two are Roman Catholic, 

 and one U Lutheran ; the Lutherans have also two schools 

 here. Besides the duc*l residence, now appropriated for 

 the public offices, which U an antient structure with a 

 hands -me pork attached to it, BieliU possesses a hospital, 

 and an asylum for the indigent, and very considerable 

 woollen, kerseymere, and linen manufactures. It is the 

 deposit fur the rock-salt brought from Galicia fur the con- 

 sumption of Moravia and Silesia, and carries on an extensive 

 trallic in its own productions, as well as in wool and Hun- 

 garian wines, See. with Poland, Russia, Moldavia, and the 

 Austrian possessions. This town, which has been rebuilt 

 its total destruction by lire on the Cth June, 1808, 

 contains at present about 5400 inhabitants, and lies in 52 

 1' N. lal., and 29 55' K. long. It is connected, by a stone 

 bridge across the river, with the town of Biala in Galicia, 

 the population of which amounts to about 4000 souls, who 

 have risen into much attluence by the manufacture of wool- 

 lens, coarse linens, nails, &c. 



BIELLA, a province Of Piedmont, which makes part of 

 the Intendenza or division of Turin : it contains 78 com- 

 munes and 91,000 inhabitants. It is divided by a ridge of 

 mountains to the north from the province of Valsesia, and liy 

 the river Sesia to the east from the province of Novara. To 

 the south it touches the province of Verce.lli, and that of 

 Jvrca to the west. The province of Biclla is watered by the 

 rivers Cervo and Elvo, which are ullluunts of the Sesia. 

 Biella, with "000 inhabitants, the capital of the province, is 

 thirty -six miles N.N.E. of Turin. It is a bishop's see, and 

 has a royal college for secondary instruction, and a court of 

 justice, ' tribunale di prefettura,' for the whole province. It 

 has also manufactures of woollens and of silks. The prin- 

 cipal products of the soil arc corn, rice, and hemp. Silk- 

 worms are also reared to a considerable amount. The fields 

 are irrigated by canals, as in most other parts of northern 

 Piedmont. 



BIENNE, BIEL in German, a town of the canton of 

 Bern, situated at the foot of the Jura mountains, and about 

 half-a-milc from the lake of the same name. The river 

 Suzc, which comes from the valley of Erguel, passes through 

 the town, and afterwards enters the hike. The territory of 

 Bienne is well adapted for the vine, and other fruit trees. 

 The town of Bienne, with about 3000 inhabitants, has some 

 cotton manufactures and some tan-yards. The language is 

 the Swiss-German, but most people, especially in the country 

 around, speak also French. The inhabitants of Bienne are 

 Protestants, and they have both a French and a German 

 church. Bienne was made a free imperial town by Rudolf 

 of Hapsburg in the thirteenth century, under the high do- 

 minion of the Bishop of Basel. It afterwards became an 

 ally of the Swiss cantons, and it remained as such until the 

 French invasion of 1798, when it was united to France. It 

 recovered its independence in 1814, und was then united ID 

 the canton of Bern. Bienne is a pleasant lit;lo town, and 

 the inhabitants are noted lor their sociable and hospitable 

 disposition. Bienne is about se\cntecn miles N.\V. of 

 Bern. The lake of Bienne is about ten miles long, two alul- 

 a-half miles in its greatest breadth, and -J 1 7 feet in its 

 greatest depth. It abounds with fish, especially trout. The 

 level of its watei- t above the sea, and several feet 



lower than that of the lake of Nenrhatel. The river Zihb 

 or Thiele, which is the outlet of the latter, enters the 1 

 Bjonne at its S.W. extremity, issues out of it again t 

 Nidau at the opposite end, and then falls into the Aar. 

 The small island of Sj. Pierre, celebrated on account of 

 Rousseau a residence in 1 763, is in the middle of the lake 

 of Bienne. 



BIENNIALS are plants which require two seasons of 

 growth to produce their (lowers and fruit; they differ from 

 annuals in nothing but this circumstance, perishing as soon 

 as their seed* arc ripened. They are usually sown about 

 Midsummer, when they become healthy, robust plants by 

 the winter, and are ready to start into rapid growth the 

 : year a* icon as the warmth of the returning 

 spri: ;' them into action. 



BIESBOSt'H. or liiKSBUS, a lake or marsh situated 

 between the proviii'-'". of N rlh Brabant and Smith II 

 Its name means a 'marsh of reeds,' a term derived from tin- 

 great quantity of reeds that grow in it* shallower i-arU. It 



was formed in 1421 by a great inundation, which was ocoa- 

 !>y the rupture near Dort, when the 



sea rushed in and swamped a \.ist t..,. f country, of about 90 

 square miles, and swept away a numl*.! -nany 



thousand persons, with a large quantity of cattle. (Biischinjr i 

 Geography.) It was reported that a peasant, out > t spite 

 against a neighbour, secretly broke a dyke opposite to the 

 house of the latter, near Dort, and t 



than he expected, widened the breach and overflowed the 

 whole country. (Delicts des Pay* Bat.) The Waal and 

 the Maas tlow into this lake on its eastern .'. . Mid 

 out of it 1-y .-everal branches, known generally In 

 of Maas: the widest of these branches, also 

 Diep, runs into the tea between the islands of i' 

 andGoi-ivi , by Hcllev. etsluis. The northernmost brai 

 the Maas, after coming out of the Bic>hoM-h. llu\v.- \,\ . 



rms the river of Kntterdam and Uriel. I'.ut <if tin-- 

 ground lost in the great inundation of 14 - 1 has : 

 recovered, and there are now several islands in the midst uf 

 the Bicsbosch which ore cultivated and inh.i 



B1E V VRE, a small river of France, a tributary of the 



Seine, only remarkable as passing through Paris close to 



the great manufacture des (, . m, in the 



part of its course, is sometimes call< . It 



rises near Versailles, and its whole course does not much 



1 'M miles. 



BI(! A, a chariot or car drawn by two horses: called by 

 Suetonius (Calig. c. 19.) Bijuge curriculum. The bigu 

 was the most common chariot in use atnonu the K: 

 They had also their quadriga;, and somclim. 

 sept mi HiL'es, iic.. and Suetonius assures us that Nero, w lien 

 he was a performer in the Olympic gaino, in > 

 decem-jugis, a chariot drawn by ten horses coupled together. 

 (Suet, in Ner. c. 24.) 



Pliny attributes the invention of the biga to the Phry- 

 gians. (Hint. Xat. lib. vii. c. 56.) Isidorus says the in- 

 veiuor was Ciristines the Sicyoniau. (Originei, lib. x\ii. 

 c. 35.) 



The Roman silver coins stamped with the form of a cha- 

 riot drawn by two or four horses were called liiputi, ami 

 ijtiiulriguti. (See Pliny, Hitt. A'u/. lib. xxi. c. :i.i Henco 

 I. ivy (iib. xxxiii. c. -23.J uses the term argi'iituni liif-atum. 

 The bigati, quadngati, and victoriaii were all of equal 

 and differed only in the impress from which they derived 

 their several names. The biga was one of the emblems of 

 victory. 



BIGAMY, in the canon law, signified either a second 

 marriage utter the death of the first wife, or a m;>. 

 with a widow. It incapacitated men for holy orders: and 

 until the 1st Ed. VI. c. 12, s. 1C, it was a good counterplca 

 to the claim of benefit of clergy. (Wooddesson's Ktnericut 

 Lfftiarx, i. 4'J5.) 



Bigamy, by the English law, consists in contracting a 

 1 marriage during the life of a former husband i r 

 wife, and the statute 1 .lames 1. c. 11, enacts that the per- 

 son so otlcndinL' shall sutler death, as in cases of !. 



< r,:;ir>t. i. G92, fol. cd. ir;ifi.) This 



stntule make" ivrlain exceptions which it is not necessary 

 nas IK-OII repealed b\ 'i (n- i :< IV. <-. .'il, 

 s. 'J'.', and operates only with respect i committed 



(in or before the :<0lh June, 1828. The statute last cited 

 enacts, ' That if: nv per-iii lieini: married shall marry any 

 other person during the life of the former hu-band or wife, 

 whether the second marriage shall have taken place in 

 England or elsewhere, such offender and any person aiding 

 Kin shall be guilty of felony and be punished by Iran-; 

 lion 1 or by imprisonment (with or without 



hard labour) for a term not exceeding two years." Tim 

 (.Intnlc exccpts, first, any second marriage contracted 

 England by any other than a subject of his 



J. any person whose husband or wife shall have been 



continually absent durini: 1 not have 



hi en known by such per-oii to li::\c li-en living within ll:at 



third, a perse n divorced from the boml c<( the first 



marriaiM-; fourth, on imer marriage shall have 



'id by the sentence of a court of competent 



jmradic 



With respect to the third except ion it has ln.n d 

 inine'l in a case where a Sci.trh ilivnr n nttru/ 



1, that no sentence of nn\ <"\\t: 



::li-h marrinue n rinrnln unless for grounds nil which 



it Was liable to l> 'u-d in England : and that the 



. >plie to tno sentence of aspiriloal court 



within the limits to which the statute extctuU. 



