B I L 



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BI L 



matra and the south-western point of Borneo, in 3 S. lat., 

 and 108 E. long. The south coast of Billitonis about 170 

 miles north of Balavia. The island is about fifty miles long 

 from north to south, and forty-five miles broad from east to 

 west, its form being nearly that of a square. 



Billiton was included in the deed of cession by which the 

 island of Banca was made over to the English by the sultan 

 of Palembang in 1812. It was not thought advisable at 

 that time to detach any European force to take possession of 

 this new acquirement, and a native chief of Sumatra was 

 sent from Banca by direction of the governor of Java to 

 administer the government of Billiton in the name of the 

 English East India Company. The native chiefs of the 

 island offered considerable resistance to the establishment 

 of this new governor, and although he at first succeeded in 

 routing the insurgents and killing their leader, he was soon 

 compelled to return to Banca in order to get assistance. 

 Shortly after this time the possessions of the British in this 

 quarter were given up to the government of the Netherlands, 

 and it has since been thought necessary by the Dutch go- 

 vernor of Java to place a garrison on Billiton in order to 

 check the piratical practices to which the inhabitants are 

 addicted. Their European governors are accustomed to 

 employ the natives in constructing light vessels of a peculiar 

 form well adapted for revenue cruisers in those seas. 



The inhabitants, who are said closely to resemble the 

 natives of Banca, are supposed not to exceed from 2000 to 

 3000 in number ; they cultivate rice, but not in sufficient 

 quantity for their own subsistence, and food is consequently 

 imported by them from Banca and Sumatra ; the soil of the 

 island is for the most part rocky and unproductive. 



Our geographical knowledge of the interior of the island 

 and even of its coast it very slight, and being principally 

 derived from the information of natives is not much to be 

 depended upon. A chart has been published by Major 

 Court, which he constructed under the instruction of the 

 Sumatran chief already mentioned, who had resided for 

 many years in Billiton before he was sent as governor by 

 the English authorities; from this chart it appears that 

 the island is well watered, the mouths of several rivers being 

 marked on every part of the coast. 



The Malays trade hither for iron, the ore of which is 

 abundantly found in the island ; the metal is esteemed by 

 them for making the blades of their creeses. The inha- 

 bitants employ themselves in converting some of this 

 metal into nails and common tools, which are sold in the 

 neighbouring islands. (Court's Description nf Palembang, 

 Banca, fyc. ; Count Hogendorp's Coup D'CEil sur L'lle de 

 Java.) 



BILLOM, or BILLON, a town in France, in the depart- 

 ment of Puy de D6me, on a small stream that flows into 

 the Allier; in 45 43' N. lat., and in 3 20' E. long. It 

 is a town of considerable antiquity, but of few claims to 

 notice. Before the Revolution it had a collegiate church, 

 among the treasures of which were said to be a drop of the 

 blood of Jesus Christ, and a piece of the wood of the true 

 cross. These relics were solemnly paraded in an annual 

 procession. At a very early period Billom possessed a cele- 

 brated school. In 1555, the Jesuits were established here 

 by the bishop of Clermont, and their society became very 

 rich. In their church was found, upon the expulsion of the 

 order, a picture from which a vast number of engravings 

 have been taken, representing' religion under the emblem 

 of a ship steered by Jesuits. After the restoration of the 

 Bourbons, the Jesuits had again (from 1826 to 1828) the 

 direction of the College of Billom, and seem to have mo- 

 delled it as a seminary for the priesthood (eeole secondaire 

 ecclesiastique). The population of Billom in 1832 was 

 4157 for the town, or 4746 for the whole commune. 



BILLON, in coinage, is a composition of precious and 

 base metal, consisting of gold or silver alloyed with copper, 

 in the mixture of which the copper predominates. The 

 word came to us from the French. Some have thought the 

 Latin bulla. was its origin, but others have deduced it from 

 vilin. The Spaniards still call billon coin Monedadevellon. 

 Scaliger says the Greeks of the lower age called such money 

 BowXXwrgpiov (Boulloterion). 



According to Boutteroue (Recherches curieusei des Mo- 

 noyet de France, fol. Par. 1666, p. 142), in Franco, billon 

 of gold was any gold beneath the standard of twenty-two 

 carats fine; and billon of silver all below ten pennies fine. 

 Boizard (Traite des Monnyes, de leur circomtances /?t de- 

 pendancet, 12mo. Haye, 1714, torn, i. p. 16) says that gold. 



beneath the standard as far as twelve carats fine, and silver 

 to six pennies fine, were properly base gold and base silver ; 

 but that it ,was the mixture under those quantities which 

 made billon of gold and billon of silver, in consequence of 

 copper being the prevailing metal. Boutteroue however 

 speaks of two kinds of billon, one termed haut-billon, the 

 other bat-billon, according to the proportion of copper in- 

 troduced. 



Black money, or billon, was struck in the mints of the 

 English dominions in France, by command of the kings of 

 England, for the use of their French subjects. Money of 

 billon was common throughout France from about the year 

 1200. Hardies, authorised money of Edward the Block 

 Prince, are also found of similar mixture. (See Pinker- 

 ton's Essay on Medals, edit. 1 789, vol. ii. p. 79.) It was 

 probably one consideration with Henry VIII. in coining 

 base money, that it would circulate in France to his advan- 

 tage. Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth both coined base 

 money, approaching to billon, for the use of Ireland. 



BILLS OF MORTALITY, are returns of the deaths 

 which occur within a particular district, specifying the 

 numbers that died of each different disease, and showing, in 

 decennial or smaller periods, the ages at which decease took 

 place. When the accuracy of these returns can be de- 

 pended upon, facts of great importance in their actual ap- 

 plication to the business of life may be deduced from them. 

 From the mortuary tables, commenced at Geneva in 15G6, 

 which have been continued until the present time, it is as- 

 certained that at the Reformation one-half of the children 

 born died within the sixth year ; in the 7 seventeeth century, 

 not till within the twelfth year ; and in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, not until within the twenty-seventh year. Tables of 

 this description, extending over a long period, mark the pro- 

 gress of a country in wealth and happiness ; and the share 

 which political causes have had in producing the results which 

 they indicate, is a subject worthy of the highest consideration 

 of the statesman and politician. The Northampton Tables of 

 Mortality, also the Carlisle Tables, and the Swedish Tables, 

 have served as the chief basis on which annuities, life in- 

 surances, and other calculations relating to the duration of 

 human life, have been founded. The London Bills were com- 

 menced after a great plague in 1593. The weekly bills 

 were begun in 1603, after another visitation of still greater 

 severity ; and since that time scarcely any improvement 

 has boon introduced into the mode of making them up. 

 But imperfect as these documents are, there does not exist 

 a complete collection of them, not even in the British Mu- 

 seum. In London, a parish is said to be within the Bills 

 of Mortality when the deaths occurring within its limits 

 are supposed to be carried to the account of the general 

 mortuary tables published every year by the company of 

 parish clerks. ' Within the Bills of Mortality ' is therefore 

 a local term, which has reference to a particular municipal 

 division. This division has occasionally undergone some 

 changes. At present it includes the City of London, the 

 City and Liberties of Westminster, the Borough of South- 

 wark, and thirty-four out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, 

 the whole containing a population of 1,178,374. The fol- 

 lowing parishes in the metropolis are not comprised in this 

 district: St. Luke's, Chelsea, population, 32,371; Ken- 

 sington, 20,902; St. Mary-le-bone, 122,206; Paddington, 

 14,540; and St. Pancras, 103,548 ; total, 293,567. In the 

 year in which the census was taken (1831) the number of 

 deaths published in the annual Bill of Mortality was '25,337, 

 or 1 in 46, on a population, as above stated, of 1,178,374. 

 Now, as the rate of mortality for Middlesex is 1 in 4 1 (Rick-, 

 man), it is clear that upwards of 3000 deaths occurred 

 within the so-called London Bills of Mortality, which 

 were unreported. Indeed, so irregular is the mode in 

 which the system is conducted, that one parish, that of 

 St. George, actually stated to be within the Bills of Mor- 

 tality, had not sent in its returns for ten years preceding 

 Dec. 1832. The annual number of deaths which at present 

 appear on the London Bills is about 26,500. Nearly 900 

 of these are attributed to ' unknown causes,' and about 3000 

 to ' age and debility. 1 A medical analysis of the Metropo 

 litan Bills is given in the 'Companion to the Almanac' for 

 1835. The manner of procuring the returns, and their de- 

 fects in a medical point of view, are easily accounted for. 

 On the death of an individual within the prescribed limits, 

 intimation is sent to the searchers, to whom the undertaker 

 or some relative of the deceased furnishes the name and age 

 of the deceased, and the malady of which he died. No 



