218 
B I I 
B I L 
BIG 
been married before ; both -which cases are 
accounted impediments to be a clerk, or to 
hold a bishopric. It is also bigamy when a 
person marries a woman who had been de- 
bauched before ; or when he has known his 
own wife after she has been debauched by 
another. 
. f he Romanists make a kind of bigamy by 
interpretation : as when a person in holy 
01 ders, or that has made profession of 
some monastic order, marries. This the 
"bishop can dispense with on some occasions. 
digamy, by the law of England, is where 
a person marries a second wife, the first being 
f ' ve : By the stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 11, it is en- 
acted, that if any person or persons' within 
his majesty’s dominions, being married, do 
marry any person or persons, the former 
husband or wife being alive, the person or 
persons so offending shall suffer death, as in 
cases of felony. But it is provided, that no- 
tmng m th s statute shall extend to any per- 
son or persons whose husband or wife shall 
be continually remaining beyond seas by the 
space of seven years together, or whose hus- 
band or wife shall absent himself or herself 
from each other for seven years together, the 
one of them not knowing the other to be living 
within that time. Nor shall the said statute 
extenc. to any person or persons divorced by 
a sentence in the ecclesiastical court; nor to 
any person or persons, for or by reason of 
any former marriage had or made within age 
of consent. The offence is now within the 
benefit ot clergy. 
BIGHT, among seamen, denotes one roll 
oi round, of a cable or rope, when coiled 
up. 
. BIGNONIA, trumpet-flower, or scarlet 
jessamine, a genus ot the angiospermia or- 
«fer and didynamia class of plants, and in the 
natural method ranking in the 40th order 
person ata:. The calyx is quinquefid and 
cupform ; the corolla is bell-shaped at the 
throat, quinquefid, and bellied underneath; 
the siliqua is bilocular ; and the seeds have 
membranous wings. Of this genus there are 
27 species, of which the following are the 
most remarkable. 
t. Bignonia catalpa, a native of Carolina, 
V irgima, and the Bahama islands. It has a 
strong woody stem and branches, rising 20 
feet high, ornamented with large heart-shaped 
leaves. This deserves a place in all curious 
shrubberies, as during the summer season no 
tree makes a more beautiful appearance. It 
does not flower, however, till old. 
. 2 - Bignonia capreolata, or tendril bigno- 
nia, a native of North America, is a climber, 
which rises by the assistance of tendrils or 
claspers. I he flowers are produced in Au- 
gust from the wings of the leaves ; they are 
ot the same nature, and of the shape nearly 
of the former ; are large, of a yellow co- I 
lour, and succeeded by short pods. 
3. Bignonia radicans, the climbing ash- ! 
leaved bignonia, is a native of Virginia and 
Canada, rises 30 or 40 feet high, having pin- 1 
nated opposite leaves of four pair of serrated 
lobes, and an odd one : all the shoots and 
branches being terminated by beautiful clus- 
ters of large trumpet-shaped scarlet flowers. 
I he humming-birds delight to feed on these 
flowers ; and by thrusting themselves too 
fay into them are sometimes caught. Of 
this species taere is a variety with smaller 
flowers. 
4. Bignonia sempervirens, or evergreen 
climbing Virginia bignonia, is a native of 
Virginia, Carolina, and the Bahama islands. 
The stalks are more slender than those of 
the radicans, yet they rise, upon proper sup- 
ports, to the height of twenty or thirty feet ; 
the flowers are trumpet-shaped, erect, and of 
a yellow colour, proceeding from the sides 
and ends of the stalks and branches. 
5. Bignonia unguis, the claw-bignonia, a 
deciduous climber, is a native of Barbadoes 
and the other West India islands. It rises by 
the help of claw-like tendrils, the branches 
being very slender and weak ; and by these 
it will overtop bushes, trees, txc. twenty or 
thirty feet high. 
6. Bignonia grandifiora. This is also a 
shrubby climbing plant, a native of Japan. 
The flowers are purple, and as large as a 
rose. 
1 he cultivation of the bignonia is not diffi- 
cult. If the shoots are laid upon the ground, 
and covered with a little mould, they will 
immediately strike root, and become good 
plants tor setting out where they are wanted, 
or they will all grow by cuttings. As to the 
catalpa, whoever has the convenieney of a 
bark-bed may propagate it in plenty by cut- 
tings: which being planted in pots, and 
plunged into the beds in the spring, will soon 
strike root ; and may afterwards be so har- 
dened to the open air, that they may be set 
abroad in the shade before the end of sum- 
in the beginning of October they 
no rnmmrorl , 1. 
mer : 
.. .. ..... ui v^viouer iney 
should be removed into a green-house, or un- 
der some shelter, to be protected from the 
winter’s frost. In the spring, after the bad 
weather is past, they may be turned out of 
the pots, and planted in the nursery-way, in 
a well sheltered place; and if the soil’ be 
rich, and rather moist, it will be the better. 
BILAN Cl IS defer endis, in law, a writ di- 
rected to a corporation for carrying weights 
to a haven, there to weigh wool, that per- 
sons were formerly licensed to transport. 
BILAN 1>ER, a small flat-bottomed ves- 
sel, with only one large mast and sail, and 
its deck raised half a foot above the plat- 
board. 1 
BILBO WS, a punishment at sea, answer- 
ing lo the stocks at land. The offender is 
laid in irons, or stocks, which are more or 
less ponderous according to the quality of 
the offence of which he is guilty. 
BILGE of a ship, the bottom of her 
floor, or the breadth of the place the ship 
rests on when she is aground. Therefore 
bilge-water is that which lies on her floor 
and cannot go to the well of the pump : and 
bnge-pumps, or burr-pumps, are those that 
carry off the bilge-water. They likewise 
say the ship is bilged, when she lias some of 
her timber struck off on a rock or anchor 
and springs a leak. 
BILE, a yellow, bitter juice, separated 
from the blood in the liver, collected in the 
porus bi liar ius and gall-bladder, and thence 
discharged by the common duct into the 
duodenum. See Physiology, and Che- 
mistry. 
BILIOUS /ewers are those occasioned by 
the over-copiousness, or bad qualities, of the 
I bile. See Medicine. 
| BILL, an instrument made of iron, edged 
! i n th f for m of a crescent, and adapted to a 
handle. It is used by plumbers to perform 
| several P a r£s of their work ; by basket-mak- 
ers to cut the largest pieces of chesnut-trees 
hel vv7 0 ° d i a " db y. gardeners to prune 
tiees W hen short, it is called a hand-bill • 
and when long, a hedge-bill. ’ 
h in law Proceedings, is a declaration 
in aritiug, expressing either the wronn- f}> ( > 
complainant had suffered by the party com- 
plained of, or some fault committed agaifist 
some law or statute of the realm ; and this 
bill is sometimes addressed to the lord chan- 
cellor, especially tor unconscionable wrones 
done to the complainant ; and sometimes fo 
others having jurisdiction, according ti e 
law directs. It contains the fact com pained 
of, the damages thereby sustained, and peti- 
bon of process against the defendant for re- 
dress ; and it is made use of m criminal a" 
when a S ? iatters ‘ ln criminal cases' 
Mien a grand jury upon presentment or S’ 
dope ' on *** in - 
oIleiMk-r is said to stajid’indicted! U C Up ™ fh ° 
Many of the proceedings in the kina’s 
bench are by bill, which was the antient form 
ot proceeding. Iolm 
Bill of credit, is that which a merchant 
a person whom he “i 
tiust, empowering him to receive ! 
from hi, correspondents in foreign cot trS 
'Lr f' f 5 ;, ? m en W toe same privi- 
tges. tor the money paid in consequence 
of them is recoverable by law. 1 
hiLL in equity, is in the form of a peti- 
monf o/H t0 , tlre lord ehanedior or 
batons of the exchequer, with which a suit 
in chancery or the exchequer commences 
cafe!,t'ta4* Ul the u'toumstances of the’ 
an 'Iff; ‘" se : A bill of exchange is 
; ,° V or request m writing, addressed by 
°! e P ei son to another, to pay a certain sum 
oi money on demand, or at a time specified, 
to a third person, or to his order ; or it mav 
he made payable to bearer. 7 
assiLmtbl 1 ' 1 ! 15 t K r ie BLvable to bearer, it is 
■'file Pi n - r d f lvcr y on| y ; bul if it IS pay- 
T fo to order, it must be transferred by ifi- 
dorsement and delivery. The pe son mak 
ng or drawing the bill is called W draper- 
dZl eVS01 l l ° , wh r ifc addressed tU 
tl e m ’ w . h V vhen he has undertaken to pay 
Pr 3 • Unt ’, 13 termed the acceptor. The 
m . j 1 ' 11 whose favour the bill is drawn is 
nilfP? 1 pa//Ce ’ butif he appoints some 
other person to receive the money, he is 
■iPDointeirp th - 6 , ! ldorser > and the person so 
j ppointed the indorsee. No particular form 
3 nece ssary , n a bill of exchange; any or- 
, “iul r n Pr °" llse whicl, from ,he time of 
making it, cannot be complied with, or per- 
bilimnote ° f is a 
j', ed at tt! e time therein limited, to a person 
therein named, or sometimes to his order or 
often to the bearer at large : t his is also made 
assignable, and indorsable like a bill of ex- 
thems-iv ;; ny pcrs0n3 ca P able of binding 
b II Of P 7 a COntract ma y be parties to a 
I ot exchange, or other negotiable instru- 
" e f . / be , m an y ma nner concerned in ne- 
gotiating either ot them. An infant there- 
° r ,q n ! arne( J ' vo ' nan ( ex cept in certain 
sh In t| Where 5 7 the custom of London 
she has the privilege of trading as a feme 
