BAR 



BAR 



their profession is supposed to indicate 

 the staff which is held in the patient's 

 hand during the act of bleeding, and the 

 fillet with which it is wound is tied up af- 

 ter the operation is completed. 



BARBERRY, in botany. See BEHBE- 

 RIS. 



BARD, a poet among the ancient Gauls 

 and Britons, who celebrated the praises 

 of heroes, with a view to inculcate virtue, 

 and sometimes to terminate a difference 

 between two armies at the point of en- 



Cgement. It is disputed in what the 

 rds differed from the Druids ; some 

 pretend that these were the priests and 

 philosophers of the nation, and that those 

 were only the poets and historians ; but 

 it is more probable that Druid was a ge- 

 neral word, comprehending the priests, 

 the judges, the instructors of youth, and 

 the bards or poets. See DRUID. 



The bards were not only the poets, 

 but the genealogists, biographers, and 

 historians of those countries and ages. 

 The genealogical sonnets of the Irish 

 bards are still the chief foundations of 

 the ancient history of Ireland. It was cus- 

 tomary for the bards to sing these compo- 

 sitions in the presence of their nobles, 

 and at their chief festivals and solemni- 

 ties. In the Highlands of Scotland there 

 are bards still in being, and considerable 

 remains of many of the compositions of 

 the old British bards still preserved ; but 

 the most genuine, entire and valuable re- 

 mains of the works of the ancient bards, 

 and perhaps the noblest specimen of un- 

 cultivated genius, if not the most sublime 

 fragments of ancient poetry now extant, 

 are the poems of Ossian the son of Fingal, 

 a king of the Highlands, who nourished 

 in the second or third century, lately 

 collected by Mr. Macpherson, and by 

 him translated from the Erse or Gaelic 

 language into English. 



The reputation, influence, and power 

 of this order of men were formerly very 

 high ; they were courted by the great, 

 and seated at the tables of princes. Their 

 power in exciting the courage and rous- 

 ing the fury of armies is universally re- 

 corded, and generals have often confess- 

 ed themselves indebted for victory to 

 their heroic strains. They were not un- 

 frequently chosen negotiators with the 

 enemy, and the deeds of the day were in 

 the evening recorded in their songs ; and 

 the fame of their fallen heroes perpetuat- 

 ed by their praise. 



BARGAIN, in commerce, a contract or 

 agreement in buying and selling. Hence, 

 to buy a good bargain is to buy cheap. 



Bargain is also an agreement to give a 



certain price ; and there are three things 

 requisite to make it complete and perfect. 

 1. The merchandize sold. 2. The price. 

 3. The mutual agreement or consent. 



The merchandize sold ought to be cer- 

 tain, the price of the thing sold should be 

 paid in current money, otherwise it would 

 be an exchange ; and the consent ought 

 to be equally free, on both sides, from 

 error and violence. If then there happens 

 to be an error in the substance of the 

 thing bought, it makes the bargain void ; 

 but if it lies only in the quality of the 

 thing sold, it does not dissolve the bar- 

 gain, provided there be no voluntary 

 fraud on the side of the seller. Thus, if 

 I design to buy pewter, and instead of 

 that, the person sells me lead, the sale 

 cannot stand good, because I was im- 

 posed upon in the very substance of the 

 thing I wanted to buy. But if I designed 

 to buy a clock that went true, and it does 

 not prove so, the bargain ought to stand, 

 because [ was deceived in the qualities 

 only of the thing sold to me. 



A bargain and sale of lands, &c. in fee, 

 must, according to our law, be in writing, 

 indented, and enrolled either in one of 

 the courts at Westminster, or in the 

 county where the lands lie, before the 

 custos rotulorum, and justices of peace. 

 A warrant and covenant may be inserted 

 in a bargain and sale, but the deed is good 

 without any such addition ; and if it be 

 made for money and natural affection, the 

 estate will pass, though you do not en- 

 rol it. 



BARGE, in naval affairs, a boat of state 

 and pleasure, adorned with various orna- 

 ments, having bales and tilts, and seats 

 covered with cushions and carpets, and 

 benches for many oars ; as a company's 

 barge, an admiral's barge, &c. It is also 

 the name of a flat-bottomed vessel em- 

 ployed for carrying goods in a navigable 

 river, as those upon the river Thames, 

 called west country barges. 



BARILLA, in the arts, is an alkaline 

 substance, prepared principally in Spain 

 and Italy from sea plants, which are there 

 cultivated for the purpose. The discovery 

 of the use of these plants was made by 

 the Saracens in Spain, who called the par- 

 ticular plant from which they extracted 

 it kali, which, with the addition of the 

 Arabian article al, gave rise to the term 

 alkali. The barilla is obtained by cutting 1 

 down the plant when it has attained its 

 full height, and drying it ; after which it 

 is burnt, and during the operation the 

 ashes harden into lumps or cakes. This 

 country is supplied with barilla, chiefly, 

 from Spain, the Island of Teneriffe, and 



