380 



B A ILLY BAILMENT. 



justiciary. He wns now so weak as to be obliged to 

 appear at the lr in his night-gown, ;uui take frequent 

 applications of cordials. The assize was empamieled 

 at midnight, and sat till nine in the morning of the 

 succeeding day, when a verdict of guilty was relumed 

 against Mr Baillie, and he was sentenced to be exe- 

 cuted that afternoon, at the cross, and his limbs to 

 be afterwards exhibited on the jails of four different 

 Scottish towns. The reason for such precipitation 

 was the fear of his judges Umt a natural death would 

 disappoint the wishes of the government, which called 

 imperatively at this moment for a public example to 

 terrify its opponents. Mr Baiilie was attended to 

 the scaffold by his faithful and affectionate sister. 

 The unfortunate gentleman was so weak that he re- 

 quired to be assisted in mounting the ladder : he 

 betrayed, however, no symptom of moral weakness. 

 Just before being consigned to his fate, he said, in 

 the self-accusing spirit of true excellence, " My faint 

 zeal for the Protestant religion has brought me to 

 this end." His sister-in-law, with the stern virtue 

 of her family, waited to the last, Dr Owen has tes- 

 tified, in a strong manner, to the great abilities of 

 the Scottish Sydney. Writing to a Scottish friend, 

 he said, " You have truly men of great spirits among 

 you ; there is, for a gentleman, Mr Baiilie of Jervis- 

 wood, a person of the greatest abilities I ever almost 

 met with." Mr BaiUie's family was completely 

 ruined by his forfeiture. He left a son, George 

 Baiilie, who, after his execution, was obliged to take 

 refuge in Holland, whence he afterwards returned 

 with the prince of Orange, by whom he was restored 

 to his estates. The wife of this gentleman was Miss 

 Grizel Hume, daughter of Sir Patrick Hume of Pol- 

 warth, a fellow-patriot of Mr Robert Baiilie. The 

 occasion of their meeting was very remarkable. Miss 

 Gruel, when a very young girl, was sent by her 

 father from the country, to endeavour to convey a 

 letter to Mr Baiilie in prison, and bring back what 

 intelligence she could. She succeeded in this difficult 

 enterprise ; and having at the same time met with Mr 

 Baillie's son, the intimacy and friendship was formed, 

 which was afterwards completed by their marriage. 



BAILLY, Jean Sylvain ; a learned French astrono- 

 mer, born at Paris, 1736. Though designed by his 

 father, keeper of the royal gallery of pictures, for a 

 painter, he followed his natural inclination for litera- 

 ture. His first attempts were in poetry. Becoming 

 afterwards acquainted with Lacaille, he was induced 

 by his instructions and example to devote himself to 

 astronomy. After the death of Lacaille, in 1763, he 

 entered the academy, and published the calculation 

 of a great many of Lacaille's observations on the 

 stars of the zodiac. He undertook, also, at this time, 

 a great work on the satellites of Jupiter, the theory of 

 which the academy had made a prize question. His 

 Etsai sur la Theorie des Satellites de Jupiter, avec 

 des Tables de leurs Mouvements, appeared in 1766. 

 la 1771, he published a treatise on the light reflected 

 by the satellites of Jupiter, which he undertook to 

 measure by an ingenious process. Amidst these la- 

 borious occupations, he never lost his love of litera- 

 ture. His eulogiums on Pierre Corneille, Leibnitz, 

 and others, were so favourably received, that he re- 

 solved to select a scientific subject, susceptible of the 

 ornaments of style, which might secure his literary 

 fame. He chose the History of Astronomy (1775 to 

 1787, 5 vols. quarto). It met with general approba- 

 tion, which was increased by the discussions that 

 succeeded, between the author and Voltaire, which 

 led B. to publish his Lettres sur I'Origine des Scien- 

 ces, et sur VAtlantide de Platan. In 1784, the French 

 academy elected him a member, in the place of 

 Tressan, and, in 1785, he was admitted into the aca- 

 demy of inscriptions. The government also made 



him a member of the committee for examining the 

 character and influence of animal magnetism, dis- 

 covered by Mesmer. B. delivered a double report 

 on this subject, one for the public, to give it a just 

 view of the doctrine, the other for the king alone, on 

 the real causes of magnet Ism, anditsnioraFinflueiice. 

 The latter was not published till a later period. 



Bailly was now enjoying the general esteem due 

 to merit and to virtue, when the revolution tore him 

 from his peaceful pursuits. Paris chose him, May 

 12, 1789, first deputy of the tiers-etat; in the assem- 

 bly itself, he was made first president. He retained 

 this place after the commons had declared themselves 

 a national assembly ; and when the king forbade 

 them to assemble, he presided, June 20, 1789, in the 

 session of the tennis-court, when all the deputies 

 swore never to separate till they had given France a 

 new constitution. Being chosen mayor of Paris, 

 July 16, he discharged the duties of his office with 

 his usual integrity and disinterestedness ; but these. 

 virtues were not sufficient to restrain a furious popu- 

 lace, exposed by turns to the influence of opposite 

 parties. The palliatory measures employed by B. to 

 preserve the appearance of tranquillity might delay 

 the eruption, but could not suppress it ; perhaps 

 matters had arrived at such a point, that even the 

 most vigorous resistance would have been ineffectual. 

 Once only, and on the most just occasion, he had re- 

 course to rigorous measures. This was after the 

 return of the king from Varennes. The violent 

 revolutionists wished to seize this opportunity for his 

 deposition, and a great number of them assembled, 

 July 17, 1791, in the Champ-de-Marsj in order to 

 sign, upon the altar of their country, a petition to 

 this effect. B., accompanied by the national guards, 

 commanded the rebels to disperse, and, on their re- 

 fusal, dispersed them by force. The national assem- 

 bly approved of his conduct ; nevertheless, he re- 

 signed his place, Sept. 19, 1791. Petion (q. v.) 

 became his successor. B. retired entirely from pub- 

 lic affairs to the country in the vicinity of Nantes. 

 When the increasing troubles left him no security 

 even here, his friend Laplace offered him a shelter 

 in his own house at Melun. In the meantime, by 

 the events of May 31, 1793, circumstances were 

 changed, and a division of the revolutionary army 

 entered Melun. Laplace informed B. of his danger, 

 but, unfortunately, he did not regard the warning, out 

 persisted in going toMelun. As soon as he entered this 

 place, he was known. He was sent to Paris, where, 

 Nov. 11, 1793, he was condemned to death by the re- 

 volutionary tribunal, and executed on the 12th, with 

 circumstances of great cruelty. He died with the 

 utmost composure. His crimes were, his conduct on 

 the Champ-de-Mars, and the boldness with which he 

 had declared the accusations brought against the 

 queen false and calumnious. His posthumous works 

 are, Essai sur I'Origine des Fables, et des Religions 

 Anciennes, and his Journal during the early period 

 of the revolution, from April 21 to Oct. 2, 1789 (3 

 vols. 1804). 



BAILMENT, in law, is the delivery of a chattel or 

 thing to another to keep, either for the use of the 

 bailer, or person delivering, or for that of the bailee, 

 or person to whom it is delivered. A bailment 

 always supposes the subject to be delivered only for 

 a limited time, at the expiration of which it must 

 be re-delivered to the bailer; and the material 

 inquiries, in cases of bailment, relate to the degree 

 of responsibility of the bailee in regard to the 

 safe-keeping and re-delivery of the subject of pie 

 bailment. This responsibility will depend, in some 

 degree, upon the contract on which the bailment is 

 made. If a thing is delivered to the bailee to keep, 

 without any advantage or use to himself, or any com* 



