BAN 
presses the position of a lion, when he is 
placed diagonally in the shield, 
BAN 1) ERET, a general, or one of the 
cornmanders-in chief of the forces. 
BANDEROLE, in heraldry, is a stream 
affixed by small lines or strings immediately 
under the crook, on the staff of a crosier, 
aild folding over the staff. 
BANDEROLE, a little Hag, in form of a 
guidon, extended more in length than 
breadth, used to be hung out on the masts of 
vessels, &c. It is a name also for camp co- 
lours. 
BANGUE, a species of opiate, in great 
use throughout the east for drowning cares, 
and inspiring joy. 
BANIANS, a religious sect in the empire 
of the mogul, who believe a metempsychosis, 
and will therefore eat no living creature, nor 
e\" n kill noxious, animals ; but endeavour to 
release them when in the hands of others : 
whence the vulgar phrase banian - day for a 
fast. 
BANISHMENT, a kind of punishment, 
by which the guilty person is obliged to leave 
the realm. 
There are two kinds of banishment; one 
voluntary and upon oath, the other upon 
compulsion, for some crime or offence ; the 
former, properly called abjuration, is now 
ceased; the latter is chiefly enjoined by 
judgment of parliament, or other courts of 
justice. 
By Magna Cliarta, none shall be outlawed, 
or banished his country, but by lawful judg- 
ment of his peers, according to the law of 
the land, 9 Hen. 111. 29. 
BANK, in commerce, a common reposi- 
tory, wliere many persons agree to keep then- 
money, to be always ready at their call or 
direction : or certain societies or communi- 
ties, who take the charge of other people’s 
money, either to improve it, or to keep it se- 
cure. 
There are banks of various kinds, and dif- 
ferent in the nature of their constitutions 
and establishments : some are instituted 
wholly on the public account, and put under 
the direction of the magistrates, as the fa- 
mous bank of Amsterdam, where the money 
deposited shall be always kept for the use of 
the proprietors, and shall never be let out 
for profit or advantage. 
Payments made by assignments upon this 
bank are valued from three to six per cent, 
above the payment of the money in specie, 
arising from an opinion that the proprietors 
entertain of the equity of its administration ; 
for judging themselves secure that their mo- 
ney lies always ready at hand, they seldom 
draw out large sums, but make their mutual 
payments by transferring the sums from one 
man’s account to another. 
^ A second sort of bank is such as consists 
of a company of moneyed men, who being 
duly established, and incorporated by the 
laws of their country, agree to deposit a cer- 
tain considerable fund, or joint stock, to be 
employed for the use of the society ; as lend- 
ing money upon good security, buying and 
selling bullion, gold, and silver, discounting 
bills of exchange, & c. Such is the bank of 
England, which was established in the year 
1694, with a capital of 1,200,000/. This 
they lent to government, for which eight per 
cent, interest was paid, and 4000/. per an- 
num for charges of management. The cor- 
B A N 
I poration was entitled “ The governor and 
t company of the bank of England;’’ and 
their charter directed that there be a gover- 
nor and twenty-four directors ; it also lays 
down rules respecting the qualifications of 
voters and of directors, with other regula- 
tions. In 1697 the bank was allowed to en- 
large its capital to 2,201,171/. 10s. for the 
purpose of supporting public credit, bank 
notes having been at twenty per cent, dis- 
count, owing to the want of punctuality in 
tiie payments of government. This capital 
was allowed to increase from time to time, till 
at Michaelmas 1746, when the whole debt due 
to the bank from the public was 1 1,686,800/. 
and its divided capital has been raised to 
10,780,000/. 
from an early period after the establish- 
ment ot the bank, it had been the practice of 
the company to assist government with mo- 
ney in anticipation of the laud and malt 
taxes, and by making temporary advances 
on exchequer bills and other securities. In 
the year 1781, the sums thus lent to govern- 
ment amounted to upwards of eight mil- 
lions, in addition to the permanent debt of 
11,686,800/. The company now sought a 
renewal of their charter, and offered to ad- 
vance two millions on exchequer bills : this 
being agreed to, a call was made of eight 
pei cent, on their capital, which was now in- 
creased from 10,780,000/. to 11,642,400/. 
the sum on which they divide at present. 
I he bank ot England acts not only as an 
ordinary bank, but as a great engine of 
state. It receives and pays the greater part 
of the annuities which are due to the credi- 
tors of the public ; it circulates exchequer 
bills ; and it advances to government, as we 
have already seen, the annual amount of the 
land and malt taxes, which are frequently not 
paid up for some years. It discounts bills of 
merchants ; and upon different occasions it 
has supported the credit of the principal 
houses, not only of England, but of Ham- 
burgh and Holland. 
The company is properly a trading com- 
pany ; and that which is "peculiarly distin- 
guished by the appellation of bank stock is a 
trading stock, the dividend of which, on a capi- 
tal of 11,642,400/. paid half yearly, and now 
seven per cent., besides occasional bonuses, 
accrues from the annual income of the com- 
pany ; and this arises from the interest re- 
ceived for the money advanced by the pro- 
prietors to the public, or the permanent 
debt ; from interest on annual temporary ad- 
vances ; from the profits of their dealings in 
bullion, and of their discounts ; from the in- 
terest of stock held by the company ; and 
from the sums allowed by government for 
the management of the annuities paid at the 
offices of the bank. 
Such is also the bank of the United States 
of America. 
There are indeed public banks established 
in most of the trading cities of Europe, as in 
Venice, Paris, Hamburgh, &c. The bank 
of Venice is the most antient. It is estab- 
lished by a solemn edict of the common- 
wealth, which enacts, that all payments for 
wholesale merchandise, and letters of ex- 
change, shall be in bank notes; that all 
debtors shall he obliged to carry their money 
to the bank, and all creditors receive their 
money from the bank; so that payments are 
erformed by a simple transfer from the one 
BAN jpg 
person to the other. In matters of retail-* 
effective payments are sometimes made* 
which do not diminish, but rather augment 
the stock, in consequence of the liberty of 
withdrawing their money at pleasure, &c. 
A this d sort is the banks or private men, 
os partnerships, who deal in the same way as 
the former, upon their own single stock’ or 
credit ; and such are the Lombard-street, or 
other bankers, as they are called. 
Bank, an elevation of the ground, or bot- 
tom of the sea, so as sometimes to surmount 
ihe surface ot the water, or at least to leave 
it so shallow, as not to allow a vessel to re- 
main atloaf over it. Bank, in this sense, is 
much the same with flat, shoal, &c. There are 
banks ot sand, and others ot stone, called 
shelves- and rocks. Sometimes the vap airs 
at sea lead mariners to imagine that they see 
certain objects at a distance, these they call 
fog-banks.. r l he Ban k denotes that of New- 
foundland, celebrated for its cod fishery : it 
is more than tvvo : hundred miles long. Banks 
at sea are usually distinguished by a buov, 
the colour ot which is varied. Sand-banks 
are denoted by light-coloured. buoys, and 
rocks by black ones. 
Bank, in vessels'moved with oars, is the 
bench on which the rowers are seated. 
Bank denotes an elevation of earth, &c, 
to stop the waters,, and prevent inundations. 
BAN KAEA LET, a game at cards, which 
being cut into as many heaps as there are 
players, every man lays as much money on 
his own card as he pleases ; and the dealer 
wins or looses as many as his card is superior 
or interior to those ot the other gamesters, 
I he best card is the ace of diamonds ; the 
next to it the ace of hearts ; then the ace of 
clubs ; and, lastly, the ace of spades : and so 
ot the rest of these suits in order, according to- 
their degree. 'I he cheat lies in securing an 
ace, or any other sure winning card ; which 
are somehow marked, that the sharper may 
know' them. 
BANKER, in bricklaying, a piece oftim- 
ber, six or eight feet long, and eight or nine 
inches square, on which they cut the bricks. 
BANK RL P I , a trader whom misfortune 
or extravagance has induced to commit an 
act of bankruptcy. The benefit of the bank- 
rupt law's is allowed to none but actual irad- 
ers, or such as buy and sell, and gain a live- 
lihood by so doing. 
Requisites to constitute a trading: the mer- 
chandising, or buying and selling, must be of 
that kind, whereby the party gains a credit 
upon the profits of an uncertain capital 
stock. Manufacturer's, or persons purchasing 
goods or raw materials to sell again under 
other forms, or ameliorated by labour, as 
bakers, brewers, butchers, shoemakers* 
smiths, tanners, taylors, &c. are also within 
tfie statutes. 
Ihe following description of persons are 
not within the statutes of bankruptcy, viz, 
proprietors or persons having an interest in 
land, if buying and selling to whatever ex- 
tent, for the purposes of disposing merely of 
the produce and profits of such' land; gra- 
ziers and drovers ; owners of coal-mines work- 
ing and selling the coals; owners or farmers, 
of alum-rocks; farmers who make cheeses 
for sale, or those who sell cyder made from 
apples of their own orchard. In all such 
cases, and others ot a similar nature, where' 
the several materials are purchased, arid even 
