6,4 BAN 
Writ of Supersedeas. 
<< GEORGE the Third, by the grace of God, of Great 
Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, 
and fo forth : To our trufty and well-beloved James Bur- 
rou"h, Arthur Onflow, James Blackftpne, Charles Short, 
Efqrs. and David Rees, Gent, greeting : Whereas we be¬ 
ing informed that Henry Moreton, of, &c. ufing and ex- 
e.rcifing the trade of merchandize, by way of bargaining, 
exchange, bartering, chevifance, feeking his trade of liv¬ 
in'’-by "buying and felling, did become bankrupt within 
the feveral ftatutes made againft bankrupts, to the intent 
to defraud and hinder Jofeph Payne, of, &c. and others, 
his creditors, of their juft debts and duties, to them due 
and owing 5 and we, minding the due execution of the 
feveral flalutes made againft bankrupts, did; by our com- 
million, under the great feal of Great Britain, bearing date. 
at Weftminfter, the-- day of -in the-year of 
our reign, name, aflign, appoint, conftitute, and otdain, 
you our fpecial commidioners, thereby giving, &c. [here 
recite the original commiflion to, ‘diligence and effect;’ 
then add,] Now forafnmch as the faid Henry Moreton, the 
bankniDt, by his humble petition, exhibited to our lord 
high chancellor of Great Britain, for the reafons therein 
contained, prayed that the faid commiflion might be fu- 
perfeded, vvhereunto we gracioufly inclining, do, by thefe 
prefents, will and command you, and every of you, to 
ifay and furceafe all further proceedings upon the faid 
commiflion, and that you fuperfede the fame accordingly, 
its our fpecial trult is in you repofed. Witnefs ourfelves 
at Weftminfter, the-day of-- in the- year of 
our reign. J 1 Yorke. ’ 
When this writ is obtained, the commiflioners mu ft be 
ferved therewith, by delivering to each of them a copy, 
and at the fame time fhewing them refpeCtively the ori¬ 
ginal writ under feal, and then the proceedings are at an 
end ; but it is ufual to give notice thereof in the Gazette. 
Thus the event of a commiflion of bankrupt, if conduced 
with integrity, as the law intends, is evidently calculated 
to anfwer°every juft and good purpofe that can be devifed 
under circumftances of infolvency ; and fets at nought the 
futile plans of modern theorifts, forne of which are mark¬ 
ed with cruelty, whilft others favour too much of the de¬ 
praved cuftoms of arbitrary governments. In Pegu, and 
other countries of Alia, the creditor is entitled to dilpofe 
of the debtor himfelf, and likewife of his wife and chil¬ 
dren, infomuch that he may even violate, with impunity, 
the chaftity of the debtor’s wife ; but by lo doing the debt 
is confidered by the law to be difcharged. 
To Bankrupt, v. a. To break ; to difable one from 
fatisfying his creditors.—We caft off the care of all future 
thrift, becaufe we are already bankrupted. Hammond. 
BANKRUPTCY,/ The ftate of a man broken, or 
bankrupt. The aft of declaring one’s felf bankrupt; as, 
be raifed the clamours of his creditors by a fudden bank¬ 
ruptcy. 
BANKS (Sir John), a learned Englifti judge, and chief 
baron of the Common Pleas in the reign of Charles I. was 
born in 1589, and died in 1644. 
Banks (John), a dramatic writer, was bred to the law, 
and belonged to the fociety of Gray’s Inn ; but, this pro- 
feflion not fuiting his natural difpolition, he quitted it for 
the ferviceof the mufes. His turn was entirely to tra¬ 
gedy ; his merit in which is of a peculiar kind. For at 
the fame time that his language is extremely unpoetical, 
and his numbers uncouth and unharmonious ; nay, even 
Jais characters very far from being ftrongly marked or dif- 
tinguifhed, and his epifodes extremely irregular : yet it is 
impoflible to avoid being deeply affected at the reprefen- 
tation, and even at the reading, of them. This is owing 
to a happy choice of his fubjetts; which are all borrowed 
from hiftory, and mod of them from circumftances in the 
annals of our own country, which we are apt to receive 
with a kind of partial prepoffeffion, and a pre-determina¬ 
tion to be pleated. He has indeed but little varied from 
1 
BAN 
the ftriCtnefs of hiftorical faCts; yet he fee ms to have made 
it his conftant rule to keep the fcene perpetually alive, and 
never luffer his characters to droop. His tragedies are, 
Albion Queens, Cyrus the Great, Defiruction of Troy, 
Innocent Ufurper, Ifland Queens, Rival Kings, Virtue 
betrayed, and Unhappy Favourite. The Albion Queens 
was rejected by the managers in 16S4; but was aCted by 
queen Anne’s command in 1706, with great applaule, and 
has been feveral times revived. The.Unhappy Favourite 
continued until very lately a ftock tragedy at the theatres ; 
but gives way at prefent to the later tragedies from the 
fame ftory, by Jones and Brooke. Neither the time of 
the birth, nor that of the death, of this author, are af- 
certained. His remains lie interred in the church of St. 
James’s, Weftminfter. 
Banks Port, a bay on the weft coaft of North Ame¬ 
rica. Lat. 56. 40. N. Ion. 185. W. Greenwich. 
Banks’s Island, a fmall ifland in the South Sea, dif- 
covered by captain Cook in 1770. It is of a circular fi¬ 
gure, and about twenty-four leagues in compafs : it is 
lufficiently high to be feen at the diftance of twenty-one 
leagues; and the land has a broken irregular furface, with 
the appearance of barrennefs rather than fertility. It is, 
however, inhabited ; as feme draggling lavages were ob- 
ferved upon it. Lat, 43. 32. S. Ion. 286: 30. W. Green¬ 
wich. 
Banks’s Island, an ifland in the North Pacific Ocean, 
near the weft coaft of North America : about fixty miles 
long, and five broad. Lat. 53. 30. N. 1011.129.45.10130. 
xo. W. Greenwich. 
BANKSE'A SPECIO'SA. See Costus Speciosus. 
BANK'SIA,/ [So named by Linnaeus in honour of 
Sir' Jofeph Banks, Bart, prelident of the Royal Society-, 
who firft difcovered it in his voyage with captain Cook.] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs tetrandria, order monogy- 
nia, natural, order aggregatae. The generic characters 
are—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, four-cleft, inferior. 
Corolla : one-petalled ; tube cylindric, very fliort ; bor¬ 
der very long, four-parted ; parts linear, lanceolate at 
the tip, internally hollowed by a little cavity, acute. Sta¬ 
mina: filaments none ; antherse four, lanceolate, feflile in 
the cavity of the parts of the corolla. Piftillum : germ 
fuperior, minute ; ftyle filiform, ftiff, longer than the co¬ 
rolla ; ftigma pyramidate, acute. Pericarpium : capfuie 
ovate or globofe, woody, one-celled, two-valved. Seeds 
two, obovate, convex on one fide, flat on the other, ter¬ 
minated by a very large membranaceous veinlefs wing, 
— EJJential CharaHer. Calyx four-cleft, inferior. Corol¬ 
la four-parted ; tube very fhort; border very long, linear- 
lanceolate. Antherse feflile in the cavity of the parts of 
the corolla. Capfuie two-feeded, one (or two) celled, 
two-valved. 
Species, r, Bankfia ferrata, or ferrate-leaved bankfia : 
leaves linear, attenuated into the petiole, equally ferrate, 
truncate at the end with a point. This is the handlomeft 
fpecies of the genus. The leaves are at the ends of the 
branches, confluent, fcattered, feven or eight inches long, 
narrow, fmooth, coriaceous, flat, fpreading much, fur¬ 
rounding the ament, which is very large, thick, colum¬ 
nar, obtufe, erect. Flowers much fpreading, afcending, 
the borders pubefcent on the outfide and hoary. It is thus 
defcribed in Mr. White’s voyage. Trunk thick and rug¬ 
ged. Leaves alternate, (landing thick about the ends of 
the branches on fliort petioles, obtufe, ftrongly ferrate, of 
a bright green colour above, beneath opake and whitifh, 
with a ftrong rib running through their middle. A 
very large cylindrical fpike of flowers terminates each 
branch : molt of thefe are abortive, a few only in each 
fpike producing ripe feed. The ftyle, growing more ra¬ 
pidly than the corolla, is held in a curved pofition by it. 
The capfules are covered with thick down. In the third 
figure, the leaves are not well reprefented. The flowers 
and fruits are collected into a large globular ament. 
2. Bankfia integrifolia, or entire-leaved bankfia : leaves 
wedge.form, quite entire, white.tomentofe underneath ; 
they 
