BUCKEYE 



Some operators in the past have literally stolen 

 the margins from the customer by quoting 

 false prices, but as the entire transaction was 

 illegal, the customer had no chance of recover- 

 ing his money. See BOARD OF TRADE. 



BUCKEYE, an American name for certain 

 species of horse-chestnuts. Ohio is called the 

 Buckeye State, because at one time the sweet 

 or yellow buckeye grew very abundantly 

 throughout the state ; that species is now called 

 the Ohio buckeye. See CHESTNUT; HORSE- 

 CHESTNUT. 



BUCKINGHAM, buck 'ing am, the county 

 town of Labelle County, Que., twenty miles east 

 of Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion. It 

 is on the Canadian Pacific Railway and on the 

 Riviere du Lievre, four miles above its junction 

 with the Ottawa River. Buckingham is a lum- 

 bering center, and has pulp, saw, shingle and 

 planing mills and a sash and door factory. 

 There is also some dairying in the neighbor- 

 hood, as is shown by the presence of a cheese 

 factory and a creamery. Mica, plumbago and 

 phosphate are mined near-by, and there is an 

 electric reduction plant in the town. Popula- 

 tion in 1911, 3,854; in 1916, estimated, 4,100. 



BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of 

 (1592-1628), an English nobleman, known as 

 the "power behind the throne" during the 

 reigns of James I and Charles I. In 1623, when 

 a marriage was being arranged between Prince 

 Charles and the Infanta of Spain, Buckingham 

 went with the prince to Madrid to carry on the 

 suit in person. The result, however, was the 

 breaking off of the marriage and the declara- 

 tion of war with Spain. After the death of 

 James, Buckingham was sent to France, as 

 proxy for Charles I, to marry Henrietta Maria. 



In 1626, after the failure of an expedition 

 against Cadiz, he was impeached but was saved 

 by the favor of the king. Despite the difficulty 

 in obtaining supplies, Buckingham took upon 

 himself the conduct of a war with France, but 

 the attempt proved a failure. His incapacity, 

 no less than the injustice of his having re- 

 ceived such high honors, titles and preferments 

 at the hands of the king, made him extremely 

 unpopular, and a second impeachment was 

 prevented only by the dissolution of Parlia- 

 ment. He then set out on another expedition 

 to Rochelle, but was assassinated while em- 

 barking. It has been declared that few men 

 more unworthy have found a high place in 

 English history. It was entirely to his hand- 

 some and graceful person and to his manners, 

 affable enough to those who might benefit him, 



974 BUCKTHORN 



that he owed the royal favor. See ENGLAND, 

 subtitle History. 



BUCKLE, buck"l, HENRY THOMAS (1821- 

 1862), an English historical writer who will 

 always be remembered for his History of Cimli- 

 zation in England. When he was twenty years 

 old he was reputed to be one of the greatest 

 chess players in the world, but he gave up this 

 game, of which he was very fond, to devote 

 his time to the writing of his great history. 

 Though for seventeen years, from 1844 until 

 the year before his death, he labored ten hours 

 a day to accomplish his purpose, he completed 

 only two volumes of the work. 



These volumes are themselves merely an 

 introduction to the work he planned. The first 

 states the general principles of his method and 

 the laws by which human progress is gov- 

 erned; the second illustrates these laws and 

 principles by references to the histories of 

 Spain, Scotland, Germany and the United 

 States. Buckle's arguments are frequently open 

 to criticism, but his work has been of value 

 in stimulating historical research and discus- 

 sion. 



BUCKSKIN, a soft, yellowish or grayish 

 leather, formerly used by Indians and fron- 

 tiersmen for clothing. It is now used mostly 

 in the manufacture of gloves. In the early 

 days it was made of the skin of deer, from 

 which fact its name was derived, but it is now 

 usually made from sheepskin. To obtain the 

 softness which is the chief quality of buckskin, 

 oil is used in the dressing. A kind of twilled 

 woolen cloth, now largely used for riding 

 breeches, is also called buckskin. In tales of 

 frontier life and of the Indians, buckskin is 

 often mentioned. 



BUCKTHORN, the name of a large genus 

 of useful trees and shrubs, natives of Europe 

 and Asia, several species of which belong to 

 North America. The buckthorn common in 

 North America is a spiny shrub, growing to 

 seven or eight feet in height. The leaves are 

 oval, usually rounded at the base. The flowers, 

 which appear in May, are of an inconspicuous 

 green, male and female flowers being produced 

 on different shrubs. The fruits are about one- 

 quarter of an inch across, berry-like and black, 

 bearing four seeds. The juice of the ripe 

 berries, mixed with alum, is used by artists 

 as sap-green. Medicinally, the berries produce 

 a powerful purgative, but one which is not 

 often used. The bark yields a beautiful yellow 

 dye, and one species in the Pacific states fur- 

 nishes the medicinal cascara bark. 



