BUZZARD'S BAY BYRON. 



773 



placing one foot upon the victim, and leisurely tearing 

 it to pieces with the bill. As this buzzard learned to 

 fly, he frequently made excursions, and returned to 

 roost upon a kitchen chimney. At length he one 

 day joined a flock which was soaring over his resi- 

 dence, and never after returned. 



The turkey- buzzard is two feet and a half long, 

 and his wings are six feet two inches from tip to tip. 

 The head and neck, for an inch and a half below the 

 ears, are furnished with a reddish, wrinkled skin, 

 beset with short, black hairs, which also cover the 

 bill, as far as the anterior angle of the nostrils, which 

 are oval. The plumage is black, the neck feathered 

 equally all round, and the wings not reaching beyond 

 the tail. The tail is rounded. There is no obvious 

 difference between the male and female. 



BUZZARD'S BAY ; a bay on the south coast of 

 Massachusetts, opposite Barnstable bay. It runs up 

 between Seakonnet point on the west, and Chatahunk, 

 one of the Elizabeth islands, on the east ; is thirty-five 

 or forty miles long, and seven wide. It approaches 

 within three and a half miles of Barnstable bay. It 

 has been contemplated to unite these bays by a canal. 

 Lon. 70 3,r to 71 10' W. ; lat 41 25> to 41 42' N. 



BY LAW is a particular law made by a corporation, 

 or by any other distinct portion of the. community, 

 for the regulation of the affairs of its members in 

 such of their relations as are not reached by the 

 general law of the land. Such private laws may 

 legally be made by all incorporated bodies, as civic 

 corporations, trading companies, c., and even by 

 the body of the inhabitants of a town or parish, pro- 

 vided they involve the infraction of no public laws, 

 but are merely calculated to supply their want of 

 application in the particular instance. These private 

 laws are binding only on the members of the body 

 for which they are framed, and will not be recognised 

 as valid unless they appear to be intended for the 

 general good of that body, and not for the mere 

 furtherance of private or personal interests. 



BYLES, doctor Mather, an American divine, was 

 born in Boston in 1706, and educated at Cambridge. 

 After completing his studies in theology, he was or- 

 dained the first pastor of the church in Hollis street, 

 Boston. B. contributed many essays to the New 

 England Weekly Journal, and several occasional 

 poems, some of which were collected in a volume. He 

 corresponded with Pope, Lansdowne, and Watts. In 

 1776, his connexion with his congregation was dis- 

 solved, on account of his toryism, for any disaffection 

 to the cause of the colonies could no longer be toler- 

 ated. In 1777, he was denounced, in town-meeting, 

 as an enemy to his country, and afterwards was tried 

 lxfore a special court. The charges against him were, 

 that he remained in the town during the siege, that 

 he prayed for the king, and received the visits of the 

 British officers. He was sentenced to confinement, 

 witli his family, on board a guard-ship, and to be sent 

 to England with them. On being brought before the 

 board of war, he was treated with respect, and was 

 ordered to be confined to his own house for a short 

 time. He possessed, in a remarkable degree, a ready 

 and powerful wit, which he sometimes exerted where 

 good nature would have refrained, and left a lasting 

 sting by a transient jest. He exhibited this love of 

 ridicule in various ways. On one occasion, when 

 sentenced, under suspicion ot'toryism, to be confined 

 to his own house, with a sentinel over him, he per- 

 suaded this sentinel to go on an errand for him, pro- 

 mising to take his place. The sentinel consented to 

 the arrangement,, and, to the great amusement of all 

 who passed, B. was seen very gravely marching be- 

 fore his own door, the musket on his shoulder, keep- 

 ing guard over himself. During his confinement in 

 his own house, a guard was placed over him, and then 



removed. On some further complaint, a sentinel was 

 again placed over him. He was soon freed, and no 

 further noticed. In speaking of these transactions, 

 he said, " he had been guarded, reguarded, and dis- 

 regarded." Directly opposite to his house there was 

 a very bad slough in wet weather. It happened one 

 day, that two of the select-men, who had the care of 

 the streets, stuck fast in this hole, and were obliged 

 to get out into the mud to extricate their vehicle. B. 

 came out, and, making them a respectful bow, said : 

 " Gentlemen, I have often complained to you of this 

 nuisance, without any attention being paid to it, and I 

 am very glad to see you stirring in this matter now." 

 A ship from London brought out 300 street lamps for 

 the town of Boston. It chanced that, on the same 

 day, a female neighbour, who was a new light, with 

 a weak mind and a whining manner, called- to see 

 him. Wishing to get rid of the visitor, he soon asked, 

 with a tone calculated to excite curiosity, if she had 

 heard the news. " O, no ! dear doctor, what news*?" 

 " Why, 300 neio lights have come over in the ship 

 that arrived this morning from London, and the se- 

 lect-men have wisely ordered them to be put in irons 

 immediately." His visitor at once hurried away, in 

 great anxiety, to make further inquiries. B. lived in 

 retirement the last 12 years of his life, and died July 

 5, 1788, at the age of 82. 



B YNG, John, served under his father, admiral G eorge 

 Byng, and by his merits, as well as the influence of 

 his name, was raised to the rank of admiral. His at- 

 tempts to relieve fort St Philip, in Minorca, when 

 blockaded by a French fleet under La Galissonicre, 

 proved abortive ; and his hesitation in engaging the 

 enemy, when a bold attack might have perhaps 

 gained him the victory, excited the clamour of the 

 nation against him. The ministry, who wished to 

 avert the public odium from their unsuccessful mea- 

 sures, beheld with seeming satisfaction the unpopu- 

 larity of Byng ; and, when he was condemned by a 

 court martial, they suffered him, though recommend- 

 ed to mercy, to be sacrificed to the general indigna- 

 tion, and he was shot at Portsmouth, March 14, 1757, 

 meeting his death with calm resignation. 



BYNKERSHOBCK, Cornelius van ; a Dutch lawyer, 

 born at Middleburg in 1675. He studied at the uni- 

 versity of Franeker, and, after practising as a bar- 

 rister at the Hague, became professor of law at Ley- 

 den, and president of the council of Holland. He 

 died in 1743. B. was one of the most learned among 

 modern civilians.. His works were published at Ge- 

 neva in 1761, and at Leyden in 1766. They are 

 written in Latin ; and his treatise De Foro Legatorum 

 competente was translated, by Barbeyrac, into French, 

 under the title of Du Juge competent des Ambassa- 

 deurs, 1728, 4to. B. edited a periodical publication, 

 called The New Mercury of the Hague, which was 

 suppressed, owing to the offence taken at the strain 

 of satire which it exhibited. 



BYRON (George Gordon) lord, an English peer and 

 poet of elevated genius, was born in Holies street, 

 London, Jan. 22, 1788. He was the grandson of 

 admiral ,John Byron (q. v.), and succeeded his great 

 uncle, William lord B., while at school, in 1798. His 

 father was the admiral's only son, captain John B. of 

 the guards, notorious for his gallantries and reckless 

 dissipation. By the eccentricity and misconduct of 

 the old lord B., and of the captain his nephew, the 

 reputation of the family of B., so ancient and honour- 

 able in English history, had been considerably tar- 

 nisheji. The former was tried by his peers for killing 

 his relation, Mr Chaworth, in a combat with swords, 

 after a tavern dispute, under circumstances' so equivo- 

 cal, that he was indicted for murder, and only savfd 

 from the penalty attendant on manslaughter by plead- 

 ing his peerage an escape which did not prevent 



