7 s B L A 
introduced under the fan£Tion of a patent, by Mr. Bayley; 
the ingredients or compofition of which lie dates to be as 
follows : “ 1 William Bayley do hereby declare, that my 
invention of preparing a compofition, in cakes, rolls, 
or balls, or in any other folid form, for making, by the 
addition of water only, an excellent (Timing liquid black¬ 
ing for (hoes, boots, or any leather that requires to be 
kept black, is defcribed in the manner following ; that is 
to fay, Take one part of the gummy juice that ifliies, in the 
months of June, July, and Augud, from the (hfu’b called 
goat's thorn ; four parts of river-water ; two parts of neat’s 
foot or (ome other foftening lubricating oil ; two parts of 
fupcrfine ivory black ; two parts of deep blue, prepared 
from iron and copper; four parts of brown fugar-candy. 
Let the water be evaporated ; and, when the compofition 
is of a proper confidence, let it be formed into cakes, of 
fuch a (ize that each cake may make a pint of liquid 
blacking. In vvitnefs whereof, See. Signed, WTlliam 
Bayi.ev.” The patent bears date January 17, 1771, and 
is of courle expired. 
BLACK'IS'H, aclj. Somewhat black.—Part of it all 
the year continues in the form of a blackijh oil. Boyle. 
BLACK ISLAND, an illand near tire coad of America, 
belonging to the date of Rhode Illand. Lat. 41. 7. N. Ion. 
71. 35. W Greenwich. 
BLACK ISLANDS, idatids near the ead coad of La¬ 
brador. Lat. 41. 8. N. Ion. 56. 30. W. Greenwich. 
BLACK JACK,/ The miners diftinguirtr blende, or 
mock lead, by this name. It is ore of zinc, containing 
that metal in combination with iron and fulphur, and 
fometimes other, ingredients. Blackjack is alfo a vulgar 
term for a drinking-cup of tin, japanned over. 
BLACK-LEAD,/", [from black and lead.~\ A mineral 
found in the lead-mines, much ufed for pencils. See 
Plumbago. By (tat. 25 Geo. II. c. 10. entering mines 
of black-lead, with intent to (teal, is made felony ; and by 
the fameadf offenders committed or tranlported for entering 
mines of black lead with intent to deal, efcaping, or break¬ 
ing prifpn, or returning from tranfportation, are excluded 
from clergy. 
BLACK-LEGS,/ A name given in Leicederfhire to 
a difeafe frequent among calves and dieep. It is a kind 
of jelly which fettles in their legs, and often in the neck, 
between the (kin and the flelk. Black legs is alfo a cant 
term applied in ridicule to diarpers and jockies who take 
in unwary perfons at horfe-races, cock-lights, See. Their 
appearing always in boots is probably the reafon of their 
being called black-legs. 
BLACK'LOCK (Thomas), a perfon who, in the words 
of Mr. Spence, might be edeemed one of the mod extra¬ 
ordinary characters of this or any other age. He was the 
ion of a poor tradefman at Annan in Scotland, where he 
was born in 1721. Before he was fix months old, he was 
totally deprived of his eye-fight by the fmall-pox. What 
was wanting to this poor youth from the lofs of his fight 
and the narrownefs of his fortune, feems to have been re¬ 
paid him in the goodnefs of his heart and the capacities of 
his mind. It was very early that he (hewed a drong in¬ 
clination towards poetry in particular. His father, and 
his friends, ufed often to read to divert him ; and among 
the red, they read feveral padages out of fome of our po¬ 
ets. He heard them not only with an uncommon pleafure, 
but with a fort of congenial enthufiafm ; and from loving 
and admiring them fo much, he foon began to endeavour 
to imitate them. Among thefe early efiays of his genius, 
there is one which is inferted in his works. It was com- 
pofed when he was but twelve years old ; and has fome- 
thing very pretty in the turn of it. Providence indulged 
him in the affidance of his good father till he was nineteen, 
when, in the year 1740, he was deprived of him by the 
following melancholy accident: His father was a brick¬ 
layer ; and, being informed that a kiln belonging to a fon- 
jn-law of his was giving way, his folicitude for his intereft 
made him venture in below the ribs to fee where the fai¬ 
lure lay; when the principal beam coming down upon 
B L A 
hint, with eighty bufiiels of malt, which were upon th e 
kiln at that time, he was in one moment crulhed to death. 
About a year after this (hocking misfortune, he was fent 
for to Edinburgh by Dr. Stevenfion, a phyfician in that 
city ; who had the goodnefs to fupply this difconfolate 
young man with everything neceffary for his living and 
Undying in the university. He had got fome rudiments of 
Latin in his youth ; and now Dr. Stevenfon put him to a 
grammar-lchool in Edinburgh. He afterwards ftudied in 
that univerfity ; w here he not only perfected himfelf in 
Latin, but went through the bed Greek authors with a 
very lively pleafure, which he expreffed whenever thefe 
books were read to him. He was alfo mafter of the French 
language, which he acquired by his intimacy in the fa¬ 
mily of Mr. provod Alexander, whofe lady was a Parifian. 
Dr. Blacklock, during his ten years dudy at the univerfity, 
“ not only acquired (fays Mr. Hume) a great know¬ 
ledge in the Greek, Latin, and French, languages, but 
al(o made a confiderable progrels in the fciences and, 
w hat is yet more extraordinary, he attained a confiderable 
excellence in poetry ; though the chief inlets for poetical 
ideas were barred up in him, and all the vilible beauties 
of the creation had been long obliterated from his memory. 
How far he contrived, by the uncommon force of his ge¬ 
nius, to compenfiate for this vaft defedt ; with what ele¬ 
gance and harmony heditflated ; with how much propriety, 
how much fenfe, and how much emotion ; are things as 
eafy to be perceived in reading his poems, as they would be 
difficult to be fully accounted for. Conlidered in either of 
thefe points, he w ill appear to have a great (hare of merit; 
but, if thoroughly confidered in all together, he may be 
regarded as a prodigy. Among his particular virtues, one 
of the firft to be admired was his eafe and contentednefs 
of mind under fo many afflicting circumftances, any one of 
which might be thought capable of deprefling it. Confi- 
dering his humble birth; the lownefs of his lituation ; the 
narrownefs of his fortune ; and, above all, the early lofs 
of his fight, and his incapacity from thence of relieving 
himfelf under all thefe burthens ; it may be reckoned no 
fmall degree of virtue even not to have been generally dif- 
pirited and complaining. Each of thefe humiliating cir¬ 
cumftances he deplores in fome part or other of his poems; 
but what he dwelt upon with the mod lading cad of me¬ 
lancholy was his lofs of fight, which in one place carries 
him on for above fifty lines together. This was occafioned 
by his efcape from falling into a deep well ; where he 
mud have been irrecoverably loft, if a favourite lap-dog 
had not (by the found of its feet upon the board with 
which the well was covered) warned him of his danger. 
In the fame melancholy poem he exprefles his dread of 
falling into extreme want. However, his good fenfe and 
religion enabled him to get the better of thefe fears, and 
all his other calamities, by reflection in his calmer hours; 
and he was now taken under the patronage of Mr. Spence, 
who in 1754 fuccefsfully introduced him to the notice of 
the public. In that year he publilhed An Account of the 
Life, Character, and Poems, of Mr. Blacklock, (Indent 
of Philofophy in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, 8vo. which, 
with fome improvements, w’as prefixed to a 4to edition of 
his poems, afterwards publidied by fubfeription, and by 
which a confiderable fum of money was obtained. In 
1760 he contributed fome poems to a Scotch collection 
publidied at Edinburgh ; and, being there (tyled the Rev. 
Mr. Blacklock, it appears he had then entered into holy 
orders. About 1766 he obtained the degree of D. D. and 
in 1767 publidied Paraclefis; or, Confolations deduced 
from natural and revealed Religion, Svo. In 176S he 
printed two difeourfes on the Spirit and Evidences of Chrif- 
tianity, mandated from the French of Mr. James Armand, 
Svo. and in 1774 produced The Graham, an heroic bal¬ 
lad in four cantos, 4to. In 1776 appeared Remarks on the 
Nature and Extent of Liberty as compatible with the Ge¬ 
nius of Civil Societies ; on the Principles of Government, 
and the proper Limits of its Powers in Free States; and 
on the Judice and Policy of the American War; in an- 
fwes 
