BANFFSHIRE, a north-eastern county of Scotland, bounded N. by the Moray Firth, E. and S. by Aberdeenshire, and W. by Elgin and Inverness. It has an area of 403,364 acres, or 633-1/2 sq. m. The surface is diversified. The northern half is mostly a fine, open, undulating country of rich, highly-cultivated soil. The southern is mountainous, but extensive farms are found in its fertile glens. Some of the mountains are thick with forests, some present a beautiful intermixture of rock and copse, while others are covered with brown heath. The principal mountains are all in the south; among them are Cairngorm, on the confines [v.03 p.0313] of the shires of Banff and Inverness (4084 ft.), famous for its amber-coloured quartz crystals, the "cairngorms" of Scots jewelry; Ben Rinnes (2775 ft.); Corryhabbie (2563); Cook's Cairn (2478); Carn an t-Saidhe (2401); and the Buck of Cabrach (2368). No great rivers belong wholly to Banffshire. For a considerable part of their courses the Spey forms the western and the Deveron the eastern boundary of the county. But Banffshire streams are comparatively short, the chief being the Avon, Fiddich, Isla, Buckie, Deskford—with a series of cascades—and Livet. Most of them are stocked with trout and the Spey and Deveron are famous for their salmon. The great glens are distinguished for their romantic scenery, the chief being Glen Avon, Glen Barry, Glen Fiddich, Glen Isla, Glen Livet, and Glen Rinnes. The largest lochs are in the extreme south: Loch Avon (2300 ft. above the sea), Loch Builg (1586) and Loch Etchachan (3100).

Geology.—The geology of Banffshire is closely connected with that of the neighbouring counties of Aberdeen and Elgin, from which it is divided by no natural boundaries. The greater portion is occupied by crystalline schists of sedimentary origin belonging to the Eastern Highland sequence. The groups which are typically developed comprise (1) slates, black schists and phyllites with thin black limestone, sometimes containing tremolite, (2) the main limestone, (3) the quartzite (Schiehallion). These form subparallel belts trending north-east and south-west from the seacoast between Cullen and Portsoy southwards by Keith and Dufftown to the head waters of the Avon beyond Tomintoul. Some excellent sections of the phyllites are to be seen on the shore between Sandend, near Portsoy, and Findlater Castle, near Cullen, and in the railway cutting near Mulben, west of Keith. The main limestone has been worked at Fordyce, near Grange east of Keith, and at Keith and Dufftown. The quartzite, which is regarded as probably the highest member of the series, forms prominent ridges due to the more rapid erosion of the phyllites, mica-schists and limestones occupying the intervening hollows. It appears on the coast between Cullen and Buckie, it forms the Durn Hill near Portsoy, the Binn of Cullen, the Knock Hill, Ben Aigan and various ridges trending southwards from Grange by Glen Fiddich towards Tomintoul. In the north-east part of the county there is a large development of slate with interbedded greywackes and pebbly grits, which occupies the coast section between Macduff and Troup Head except a small part at Gamrie. The slate has been quarried for roofing purposes. No fossils have been found in these strata and their age is uncertain. The metamorphic sediments have been pierced by acid and basic igneous intrusions, partly before and partly after the folding and metamorphism of the strata. The older acid and basic materials appear as sheets injected along the lines of bedding of the sediments and are traceable for considerable distances. They are foliated in places, the planes of schistosity being more or less parallel with the planes of bedding in the schists. The older acid rocks are represented by the sills of granite and augen-gneiss occurring west of Portsoy, south of Fordyce and near Keith, while the older basic rocks are illustrated by the belt of gabbro, epidiorite and hornblende-schist which stretches southwards from the coast at Portsoy, by Rothiemay to Huntly in Aberdeenshire. Veins and bosses of serpentine are associated with these basic intrusions at Portsoy and near Grange, one of the veins being traceable at intervals from the shore southwards in the direction of Knock Hill. The later intrusions are represented by the Ben Rinnes mass of granite and its basic modification, the Netherly diorite, east of Rothes. Various mineral localities occur throughout the county, of which some of the most important occur on the shore at Portsoy, as for example the gabbro masses in Portsoy Bay with enstatite, hypersthene and labradorite, the graphic granite with microcline, muscovite and tourmaline at East Head, the chiastolite-schist west of the marble quarry, the mottled serpentine with strings of chrysotile. Resting unconformably on these metamorphic rocks, Old Red sandstone strata are met with in a few places. Thus, they cross the Spey and appear in the Tynet Burn east of Fochabers, and extend eastwards to Buckie. Outliers of these beds appear on the shore near Cullen and south of Fordyce, while the largest area extends from Gamrie east by Pennan on the north coast of Aberdeenshire to Aberdeen. The strata consist mainly of conglomerates and red sandstones, which, at Gamrie and at Tynet, are associated with a band of limestone nodules embedded in a clayey matrix, containing fish remains. The more abundant species occurring at Gamrie, as determined by Dr R. H. Traquair, are Diplacanthus striatus, Rhadinacanthus, Cheiracanthus Murchisoni, Pterichthys Milleri, Coccosteus decipiens. In view of the fossil evidence these beds have been referred to the middle or Orcadian division of this formation. In the interior near Tomintoul, another large deposit, composed of conglomerate and sandstone, occurs, which may be of the same age, though no fossils have as yet been obtained from these beds. There is a widespread covering of boulder clay especially in the northern part bordering the shore, where it contains fragments of shells and includes numerous boulders which have been carried eastwards from the high grounds west of the Moray Firth. In the brickclays at Blackpots to the north-west of Banff, fragments of shells also occur together with Jurassic fossils. Shelly sands have been recorded near the Ord south of Tillynaught near Portsoy, and shells have been found in stratified deposits on the shore near Gamrie.

Agriculture.—The soil is in general rich and productive, yielding fair crops of wheat, and excellent crops of barley, oats, &c.; and the grass and green crops are equally abundant. Oats is the predominant crop, but the demands of distillers keep up the acreage of barley. The cattle and stock hold a high character and form the staple agricultural industry. There is also a considerable amount of dairy farming. Among landlords who did much to encourage agricultural enterprise and to plant and reclaim lands, were the earls of Fife and the earls of Findlater, afterwards earls of Seafield. It was a Seafield who, in 1846, received the honorary gold medal of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, for his immense and thriving plantations of useful timber-trees, in the counties of Banff, Moray and Nairn. From the year 1811 to 1845, he had planted 18,938,224 Scots firs, 11,904,798 larches, 843,450 hardwoods; making the enormous aggregate of 31,686,472 forest trees, planted in 8223 acres of enclosed ground. The Banffshire Agricultural Association holds shows periodically for all sorts of stock and produce and agricultural implements.

Manufactures and Trade.—Woollen factories are found in Dufftown, Rothiemay and Gollachy, and engineering works in Banff, Portsoy and Keith. Distilleries are numerous and their product has a high repute. A fishing and miscellaneous trade is done at the harbours of Banff, Macduff, Buckie, Gardenstown, Portsoy, Cullen and Port Gordon; but fishing is also carried on at numerous creeks or harbours along the coast. The herring season lasts from June to September, white fishing all the year round. The fishery districts centre in Banff and Buckie. Banffshire contains large limestone deposits, and granite is also quarried.

The systems of the Great North of Scotland and the Highland railways serve the chief towns of the county and provide communication in one direction with Aberdeen, and in another with Elgin, Nairn and Inverness.

The population of Banffshire in 1891 was 61,684, and in 1901 61,488, or 97 to the square mile. In 1901 there were 499 persons speaking Gaelic and English. The chief towns are Banff (pop. in 1901, 7161), Buckie (6549), and Keith (4753), with Cullen (1936), Portsoy (1878) and Dufftown (1823). The county returns one member to parliament; the royal burghs, Banff and Cullen, belonging to the Elgin group of parliamentary burghs. Banffshire, with Aberdeen and Kincardine shires, forms a sheriffdom, and there is a resident sheriff-substitute at Banff, who sits also at Keith, Buckie and Dufftown. Most of the schools are under school-board jurisdiction. Several of them earn grants for higher education, and the county council, out of the "residue grant," subsidizes classes in agriculture, navigation, veterinary science and cookery and laundry work. The teachers of the county, with those of the shires of Aberdeen and Elgin, benefit by the bequest of James Dick (1743-1828), a West India merchant, who left over L110,000 to promote the higher learning of the schoolmasters of these shires. The annual income of L4000 is distributed among the dominies who have qualified by examination to become beneficiaries.

History.—Of the northern Picts who originally possessed the land few remains now exist beyond the cairns that are found in the districts of Rothiemay, Ballindalloch, Boharm, Glen Livet and elsewhere. "Cairn" also occurs in many place names. The advance of the Romans was practically prevented by the mountains in the south, but what is believed to have been a Roman camp may still be made out in Glen Barry. Danish invaders were more persevering and more successful. Many bloody conflicts took place between them and the Scots. Near Cullen a fierce encounter occurred in 960, and a sculptured stone at Mortlach is said to commemorate a signal victory gained by Malcolm II. over the Norsemen in 1010. The shire was the scene of much strife after the Reformation. In Glen Livet the Roman Catholics, under the marquess of Huntly, worsted the Protestants under the earl of Argyll. From 1624 to 1645 was a period of almost incessant struggle, and the Covenanting troubles, combined with the frequent conflicts of the clans, were productive of serious evils. But the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 left the county comparatively untouched, and thereafter it became settled.

See W. Cramond, Annals of Banff (New Spalding Club) (Aberdeen, 1891); Dr Gordon, Chronicles of Keith, Grange, &c. (Glasgow, 1880); Banffshire Year-Book (Banff); Professor Dickie, Botanist's Guide to Aberdeen, Banff, &c. (Aberdeen, 1860); Inventory of Charters of Cullen (Banff, 1887); and Inventory of Charters of Banff (Banff); Robertson's Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff (Spalding Club); W. Watt, Aberdeenshire and Banff (Edinburgh, 1900).

[v.03 p.0314] BANFFY, DEZSO [DESIDERIUS], BARON (1843- ), Hungarian statesman, the son of Baron Daniel Banffy and Anna Gyarfas, was born at Klausenburg on the 28th of October 1843, and educated at the Berlin and Leipzig universities. As lord lieutenant of the county of Belso-Szolnok, chief captain of Kovar and curator of the Calvinistic church of Transylvania, Banffy exercised considerable political influence outside parliament from 1875 onwards, but his public career may be said to have begun in 1892, when he became speaker of the house of deputies. As speaker he continued, however, to be a party-man (he had always been a member of the left-centre or government party) and materially assisted the government by his rulings. He was a stringent adversary of the radicals, and caused some sensation by absenting himself from the capital on the occasion of Kossuth's funeral on the 1st of April 1894. On the 14th of January 1895, the king, after the fall of the Szell ministry, entrusted him with the formation of a cabinet. His programme, in brief, was the carrying through of the church reform laws with all due regard to clerical susceptibilities, and the maintenance of the Composition of 1867, whilst fully guaranteeing the predominance of Hungary. He succeeded in carrying the remaining ecclesiastical bills through the Upper House, despite the vehement opposition of the papal nuncio Agliardi, a triumph which brought about the fall of Kalnoky, the minister for foreign affairs, but greatly strengthened the ministry in Hungary. In the ensuing elections of 1896 the government won a gigantic majority. The drastic electoral methods of Banffy had, however, contributed somewhat to this result, and the corrupt practices were the pretext for the fierce opposition in the House which he henceforth had to encounter, though the measures which he now introduced (the Honved Officers' Schools Bill) would, in normal circumstances, have been received with general enthusiasm. Banffy's resoluteness enabled him to weather all these storms, and his subsequent negotiations with Austria as to the quota and commercial treaties, to the considerable political advantage of Hungary, even enabled him for a time to live at peace with the opposition. But in 1898 the opposition, now animated by personal hatred, took advantage of the ever-increasing difficulties of the government in the negotiations with Austria, and refused to pass the budget till a definite understanding had been arrived at. They refused to be satisfied with anything short of the dismissal of Banffy, and passion ran so high that on the 3rd of January 1899 Banffy fought a duel with his most bitter opponent, Horanszky. On the 26th of February Banffy resigned, to save the country from its "ex-lex," or unconstitutional situation; he was decorated by the king and received the freedom of the city of Buda. Subsequently he contributed to overthrow the Stephen Tisza administration, and in May 1905 joined the Kossuth ministry.

See article "Banffy," by Marczall, in Pallas Nagy Lexikona, Kot 17.

(R. N. B.)

BANG, HERMANN JOACHIM (1858- ), Danish author, was born of a noble family in the island of Zealand. When he was twenty he published two volumes of critical essays on the realistic movement. In 1880 he published his novel Haablose Slaegter ("Families without hope"), which at once aroused attention. After some time spent in travel and a successful lecturing tour in Norway and Sweden, he settled in Copenhagen, and produced a series of novels and collections of short stories, which placed him in the front rank of Scandinavian novelists. Among his more famous stories are Faedra (1883) and Tine (1889). The latter won for its author the friendship of Ibsen and the enthusiastic admiration of Jonas Lie. Among his other works are:—Det hvide Hus (The White House, 1898), Excentriske Noveller (1885), Stille Eksistenzer (1886), Liv og Dod (Life and Death, 1899), Englen Michael (1902), a volume of poems (1889) and of recollections (Ti Aar, 1891).

BANGALORE, a city of India, the capital of the native state of Mysore, and the largest British cantonment in the south of India. It is 3113 ft. above the sea, and 219 m. W. of Madras by rail. Pop. (1901) 69,447. The foundation of the present fort was laid by a descendant of Kempe-Goude, a husbandman of the neighbouring country, who, probably in the 16th century, had left his native village to avoid the tyranny of the wadeyar of that place, and settled on a spot a few miles to the north of Bangalore. To the peaceful occupation of a farmer he added that of a warrior, and his first exploit was the conquest of this place, where, and at Savendrug, his family subsequently erected fortresses. Bangalore, with other possessions, was, however, wrested from them by Bijapur. Somewhat later we find it enumerated among the jagirs of Shahji, father of Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta sway; and at an early period of his career in the service of the Bijapur state, that adventurer seemed to have fixed his residence there. It appears to have passed into the possession of Venkaji, one of the sons of Shahji; but he having occupied Tanjore, deemed Bangalore too distant, especially under the circumstances of the times, to be safe. He accordingly, in 1687, entered into a bargain for its sale to Chikka Deva, raja of Mysore, for three lakhs of rupees; but before it could be completed, Kasim Khan, commander of the forces of Aurangzeb, marched upon the place and entered it almost without resistance. This event, however, had no other result than to transfer the stipulated price from one vendor to another; for that general, not coveting the possession, immediately delivered it over to Chikka Deva on payment of the three lakhs. In 1758, Nanjiraj, the powerful minister of the raja, caused Bangalore to be granted, as a jagir or fief, to Hyder Ali, afterwards usurper of Mysore, who greatly enlarged and strengthened the fort, which, in 1760, on his expulsion from Seringapatam, served as his refuge from destruction. The fort formed the traditional scene of the first captivity of Sir David Baird after Baillie's defeat at Perambakam in 1780. The prison cell of Sir David and his fellow-captive is from 12 to 15 ft. square, with so low a roof that a man can scarcely stand upright in it. In 1791 it was stormed by a British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis. In 1799 the district was included by the treaty of Seringapatam within the territory of the restored raja of Mysore. It formed the headquarters of the British administration of Mysore from 1831 to 1881. When the state of Mysore was restored to its raja in 1881, the civil and military station of Bangalore was permanently reserved under British jurisdiction as an "assigned tract." It has an area of 13 sq. m., and had in 1901 a population of 89,599, showing a decrease of 10% in the decade, due to plague. Bangalore is the headquarters of a military district, its elevation rendering it healthy for British troops, with accommodation for a strong force of all arms and an arsenal in the old fort. It is the headquarters of a brigade in the 9th division of the Indian army. A considerable number of European pensioners reside here. There is a modern palace for the maharaja. There is an aided Roman Catholic college, besides many schools for Europeans. A permanent water-supply has been introduced and there is a complete system of drainage. Bangalore is an important railway centre. There are several cotton mills. The city suffered severely from plague in 1899 and 1900.

The district of Bangalore borders on the Madras district of Salem. The main portion consists of the valley of the Arkavati river, which joins the Cauvery on the southern frontier. Its area is 3079 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 789,664, showing an increase of 15% in the decade. The district is crossed by several lines of railway. Outside Bangalore city there is a woollen mill, which turns out blankets, cloth for greatcoats, and woollen stuffs.

BANGANAPALLE, a state of southern India, surrounded by the Madras district of Kurnool. Area, 255 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 32,264, showing a decrease of 9% in the decade; estimated revenue L6400, of which a large portion is alienated in grants to junior branches of the family; no tribute. The excessive expenditure of the nawab, Syed Fateh Ali Khan, and the general inefficiency of the administration caused much anxiety to the government, and in February 1905 he was temporarily removed from the administration of the state. The town of Banganapalle is not far from the branch of the Southern Mahratta railway from Guntakal to Bezwada.

[v.03 p.0315] BANGASH, a small tribe of Pathans in the Kohat district of the North-West Frontier Province of India. They occupy the hills between Thal and Kohat, and number 3000 fighting men. Formerly they owned the whole of Kurram, but owing to the encroachments of the Turis, they moved eastwards, dispossessed the Orakzais, drove them north and took their territory in the Kohat district, which they now occupy to the west of the Khattak country. The Khattaks and Bangashes are of exceptionally good physique and make excellent soldiers.

BANGKOK, the capital of Siam, on the river Me Nam, about 20 m. from its mouth, in 100deg 30' E., 13deg 45' N. Until modern times the city was built largely on floating pontoons or on piles at the edges of the innumerable canals and water-courses which formed the thoroughfares, but to meet the requirements of modern life, well-planned roads and streets have been constructed in all directions, crossing the old canals at many points and lined with well-built houses, for the most part of brick, in which the greater part of the erstwhile riparian population now resides. The centre of the city is the royal palace (see SIAM), situated in a bend of the river and enclosed by walls. At a radius of nearly a mile is another wall within which lies the closely-packed city proper, and beyond which the town stretches away to the royal parks on the north and to the business quarter, the warehouses, rice-mills, harbour and docks on the south. The whole town covers an area of over 10 sq. m. Two companies provide Bangkok with a complete system of electric tramways, and the streets are lined with shade-trees and lit by electricity. All over the town are scattered beautiful Buddhist temples, which with their coloured tile roofs and gilded spires give it a peculiar and notable appearance. Many fine buildings are to be seen—the various public offices, the arsenal, the mint, the palaces of various princes and, in addition to these, schools, hospitals, markets and Christian churches of many denominations, chiefly Roman Catholic. There are four railway stations in Bangkok, the termini of the lines which connect the provinces with the capital.

The climate of Bangkok has without doubt recently changed. It has become hotter and less humid. Though a minimum temperature below 60deg F. is still recorded in January and December, a maximum of over 100deg is reached during the hot weather months and at the beginning of the rains, whereas up to the year 1900 a maximum of 93deg was considered unusually high. The cause of this change is not known, but it is attributed to extensive drainage and removal of vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. The annual rainfall amounts to rather over 50 in.

A four-mile reach of the Me Nam, immediately below the city proper, forms the port of Bangkok. From 250 to 400 yds. broad and of good depth right up to the banks, the river offers every convenience for the berthing and loading of ships, though a bar at its mouth, which prevents the passage of vessels drawing more than 12 ft., necessitates in the case of large ships a partial loading and unloading from lighters outside. The banks of the port are closely lined with the offices, warehouses and wharves of commercial houses, with timber yards and innumerable rice-mills, while the custom house, the harbour master's office and many of the foreign legations and consulates are also situated here. Of the 750 steamships which cleared the port in 1904, three out of every seven were German, two were Norwegian and one was British, but in 1905 two new companies, one British and the other Japanese, arranged for regular services to Bangkok, thereby altering these proportions. It is notable that the heavy trade with Singapore shows a tendency to decrease in favour of direct trade with Europe. A fleet of small steamers, schooners and junks, carries on trade with the towns and districts on the east and west coasts of the Gulf of Siam. The trade of Bangkok is almost entirely in the hands of Europeans and Chinese. The principal exports are rice and teak, and the principal imports, cotton and silk goods and gold-leaf. The value of trade, which more than doubled between the years 1900 and 1907, amounted in the latter year to L5,600,000 imports and L7,100,000 exports. Of the total trade, 75% is with the British empire. Many of the best known mercantile firms and banks of the Far East have branches in Bangkok. The unit of currency is the tical (see SIAM).

The government of Bangkok is entrusted to the minister of the capital, a member of the cabinet. Under this minister are the police, sanitary, harbour master's and revenue offices. The police force is an efficient and well-organized body of 3000 men headed by a European commissioner of police. The sanitary department consists of a board of health, a bacteriological laboratory and an engineer's office, all managed with expert European assistance. Under the act of 1905, the want of which was long felt, the port and the city water-ways are controlled by the harbour master. Local revenues are collected by the revenue office. The ordinary law courts are under the control of the ministry of justice, but in accordance with the extra-territorial rights enjoyed by foreign powers in Siam, each consulate has attached to it a court, having jurisdiction in all cases in which a subject of the power represented by such consulate is defendant.

The population, which is estimated at 450,000, is mixed. Mingling with Siamese and Chinese, who form the major part, may be seen persons of almost every race to be found between Bombay and Japan, while Europeans of different nationalities number over 1000. The death-rate is high, especially among children, owing to the prevalence of cholera, smallpox and fevers during the dry weather. Sanitation, however, is improving and much good has resulted from the boring of numerous artesian wells which yield good water.

Before 1769 Bangkok was nothing but an agricultural village with a fort on the river bank. In that year, however, it was seized by the warrior, Paya Tak, as a convenient point from which to attack the Burmese army then in occupation of Siam, and upon his becoming king it was chosen as the capital of the country. (See SIAM.)

(W. A. G.)

BANGOR, a seaport and market-town of Co. Down, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, on the south side of Belfast Lough, 12m. E.N.E. of Belfast, on a branch of the Belfast & County Down railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5903. It carries on a considerable trade in cotton and linen and embroidered muslin. It is greatly frequented as a watering-place, especially by the people of Belfast, and there are golf links and important regattas held by the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. Slight remains are to be seen of an abbey of Canons Regular, founded in the middle of the 6th century by St Comgall, and rebuilt, on a scale of magnificence which astonished the Irish, by St Malachy O'Morgair in the first half of the 12th century. Bangor was incorporated by James I. and returned two members to the Irish parliament.

BANGOR, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of Penobscot county, Maine, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Kenduskeag stream with the Penobscot river, and at the head of navigation on the Penobscot, about 60 m. from the ocean, and about 75 m. N.E. of Augusta. Pop. (1890) 19,103; (1900) 21,850, of whom 3726 were foreign-born and 176 were negroes; (1910, census) 24,803. A bridge (about 1300 ft. long) across the Penobscot connects Bangor with Brewer (pop. in 1910, 5667). Bangor is served directly by the Maine Central railway, several important branches radiating from the city, and by the Eastern Steamship line; the Maine Central connects near the city with the Bangor & Aroostook railway (whose general offices are here) and with the Washington County railway. The business portion of the city lies on both sides of the Kenduskeag and for about 3 m. along the W. bank of the Penobscot, which is here quite low, while many fine residences are on the hillsides farther back. Bangor is the seat of three state institutions—the Eastern Maine general hospital, the Eastern Maine insane hospital and the law school of the University of Maine—and of the Bangor Theological Seminary (Congregational), incorporated in 1814, opened at Hampden in 1816, removed to Bangor in 1819, and empowered in 1905 to confer degrees in divinity. The city has several public parks, a public library and various charitable institutions, among which are a children's home, a home for aged men, a home for aged women and a deaconesses' home. Among the principal buildings are the county court house, the Federal building, the city hall and the opera house. The Eastern [v.03 p.0316] Maine Music Festival is held in Bangor in October of each year. The rise of the tide here to a height of 17 ft. makes the Penobscot navigable for large vessels; the Kenduskeag furnishes good water-power; and the city is the trade centre for an extensive agricultural district. The Eastern Maine State Fair is held here annually. Bangor is one of the largest lumber depots in the United States, and also ships considerable quantities of ice. The city's foreign trade is of some importance; in 1907 the imports were valued at $2,720,594, and the exports at $1,272,247. Bangor has various manufactures, the most important of which (other than those dependent upon lumber) are boots and shoes (including moccasins); among others are trunks, valises, saws, stoves, ranges and furnaces, edge tools and cant dogs, saw-mill machinery, brick, clothing, cigars, flour and dairy products. In 1905 the city's factory products were valued at $3,408,355. The municipality owns and operates the water-works (the water-supply being drawn from the Penobscot by the Holly system) and an electric-lighting plant; there is also a large electric plant for generation of electricity for power and for commercial lighting, and in Bangor and the vicinity there were in 1908 about 60 m. of electric street-railway.

Bangor has been identified by some antiquarians as the site of the mythical city of Norumbega, and it was reported in 1656 that Fort Norombega, built by the French, was standing here; but the authentic history of Bangor begins in 1769 when the first settlers came. The settlement was at first called Conduskeag and for a short time was locally known as Sunbury. In 1791 the town was incorporated, and through the influence of the Rev. Seth Noble, the first pastor, the name was changed to Bangor, the name of one of his favourite hymn-tunes. During the war of 1812 a British force occupied Bangor for several days (in September 1814), destroying vessels and cargoes. Bangor was chartered as a city in 1834. In 1836 a railway from Bangor to Old Town was completed; this was the first railway in the state; Bangor had, also, the first electric street-railway in Maine (1889), and one of the first iron steamships built in America ran to this port and was named "Bangor."

BANGOR (formerly BANGOR FAWR, as distinguished from several other towns of this name in Wales, Ireland, Brittany, &c.), a city, municipal (1883) and contributory parliamentary borough (Carnarvon district), seaport and market-town of Carnarvonshire, N. Wales, 240 m. N.W. of London by the London & North Western railway. Pop. (1901) 11,269. It consists of Upper and Lower, the Lower practically one street. Lying near the northern entrance of the Menai Straits, it attracts many visitors. Buildings include the small cathedral, disused bishop's palace, deanery, small Roman Catholic church and other churches, the University College of N. Wales (1883), with female students' hall, Independent, Baptist, Normal and N. Wales Training Colleges. The cruciform cathedral, with a low pinnacled tower, stands on the site of a church which the English destroyed in 1071 (dedicated to, and perhaps founded, about 525, by St Deiniol). Sir G. Scott restored the present cathedral, 1866-1875, after it had been burned in the time of Owen Glendower, destroyed in 1211, and, in 1102 and 1212, severely handled. Bishop Dean (temp. Henry VII.) rebuilt the choir, Bishop Skevyngton (1532) added tower and nave. Lord Penrhyn's slate-quarries, at Bethesda, 6 m. off, supply the staple export from Port Penrhyn, at the mouth of the stream Cegid.

The Myvyrian Archaeology (408-484) gives the three principal bangor (college) institutions as follows:—the bangor of Illtud Farchawg at Caer Worgorn (Wroxeter); that of Emrys (Ambrosius) at Caer Caradawg; bangor wydrin (glass) in the glass isle, Afallach; bangor Illtud, or Llanilltud, or Llantwit major (by corruption), being a fourth. In each of the first three were 420 saints, succeeding each other (by hundreds), day and night, in their pious offices.

BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, a theological dispute in the early 18th century which originated in 1716 with the posthumous publication of George Hickes's (bishop of Thetford) Constitution of the Christian Church, and the Nature and Consequences of Schism, in which he excommunicated all but the non-juring churchmen. Benjamin Hoadly (q.v.), the newly-appointed bishop of Bangor, scented the opportunity and wrote a speedy and able reply, Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Non-Jurors, in which his own Erastian position was recommended and sincerity proposed as the only test of truth. This was followed by his famous sermon, preached before George I. on the 31st of March 1717, on The Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ. In this discourse "he impugned the idea of the existence of any visible church at all, ridiculed the value of any tests of orthodoxy, and poured contempt upon the claims of the church to govern itself by means of the state." He identified the church with the kingdom of Heaven—it was therefore "not of this world," and Christ had not delegated His authority to any representatives. Both book and sermon were reported on by a committee appointed by the Lower House of Convocation in May, and steps would have been taken by the archbishop and bishops had not the government stepped in (Hoadly denied that this was at his request) and prorogued Convocation till November. Hoadly himself wrote A Reply to the Representations of Convocation and also answered his principal critics, among whom were Thomas Sherlock (q.v.), then dean of Chichester, Andrew Snape, provost of Eton, and Francis Hare, then dean of Worcester. These three men, and another opponent, Robert Moss, dean of Ely, were deprived of their royal chaplaincies. Hoadly was shrewd enough not to answer the most brilliant, though comparatively unknown, of his antagonists, William Law. Though the controversy went on, its most important result had already been achieved in the silencing of Convocation, for that body, though it had just "seemed to be settling down to its proper work in dealing with the real exigencies of the church" when the Hoadly dispute arose, did not meet again for the despatch of business for nearly a century and a half. (See CONVOCATION.)

BANGWEULU, a shallow lake of British Central Africa, formed by the head streams of the Congo. It lies between 10deg 38' and 11deg 31' S. and is cut by 30deg E. Bangweulu occupies the north-west part of a central basin in an extensive plateau, and is about 3700 ft. above the sea. The land slopes gently to the depression from the south, east and north, and into it drain a considerable number of streams, turning the greater part into a morass of reeds and papyrus. The term Bangweulu is sometimes applied to the whole depression, but is properly confined to the area of clear water. Only on its south-west and western sides are the banks of the lake clearly defined. The greatest extent of open water is about 60 m. N. to S. and 40 m. E. to W. Long narrow sandbanks almost separate Chifunawuli, the western pan of the lake, from the main body of water, while the water surface is further diminished by a number of islands. The largest of these islands, Kirui (Chiru), lies on the east side of the lake close to the swamp. Kisi (Chishi) is a small island occupying a central position just south of 11deg S., and Mbawali, 20 m. long by 3 broad, lies south of Kisi. South of Bangweulu the swamp extends to 12deg 10' S. Into this swamp on its east side flows the Chambezi, the most remote head stream of the Congo. Without entering the lake the Chambezi mingles its waters in the swamp with those of the Luapula. The Luapula, which leaves Bangweulu at its most southern point, is about a mile wide at the outflow, but soon narrows to 300 or so yds. West of the Luapulu and near its outflow lies Lake Kampolombo, 20 m. long and 8 broad at its southern end. A sandy track separates Bangweulu from Kampolombo, and a narrow forest-clad tongue of land called Kapata intervenes between the Luapula and Kampolombo. Various channels lead, however, from the river to the lake. The Luapula flows south through the swamp some 50 m. and then turns west and afterwards north (see CONGO). The flood waters of the Chambezi and other streams, which deposit large quantities of alluvium, are gradually solidifying the swamp, while the Luapula is believed to be, though very slowly, draining Bangweulu. The waters of the lake do not appear to be anywhere more than 15 ft. deep.

Though heard of by the Portuguese traveller, Francisco de Lacerda, in 1798, Bangweulu was first reached in 1868 by David Livingstone, who died six years later among the swamps to the [v.03 p.0317] south. It was partially surveyed in 1883 by the French traveller, Victor Giraud, and first circumnavigated by Poulett Weatherley in 1896.

See P. Weatherley in Geog. Journ. vol. xii. (1898) and vol. xiv. p. 561 (1899); L. A. Wallace in Geog. Journ. vol. xxix. (1907), with map by O. L. Beringer. Giraud's Les Lacs de l'Afrique equatoriale (Paris, 1890) and Livingstone's Last Journals (1874) may also be consulted.

BANIM, JOHN (1798-1842), Irish novelist, sometimes called the "Scott of Ireland," was born at Kilkenny on the 3rd of April 1798. In his thirteenth year he entered Kilkenny College and devoted himself specially to drawing and painting. He pursued his artistic education for two years in the schools connected with the Royal Society at Dublin, and afterwards taught drawing in Kilkenny, where he fell in love with one of his pupils. His affection was returned, but the parents of the young lady interfered and removed her from Kilkenny. She pined away and died in two months. Her death made a deep impression on Banim, whose health suffered severely and permanently. In 1820 he went to Dublin and settled finally to the work of literature. He published a poem, The Celts' Paradise, and his Damon and Pythias was performed at Covent Garden in 1821. During a short visit to Kilkenny he married, and in 1822 planned in conjunction with his elder brother MICHAEL (1796-1874), a series of tales illustrative of Irish life, which should be for Ireland what the Waverley Novels were for Scotland. He then set out for London, and supported himself by writing for magazines and for the stage. A volume of miscellaneous essays was published anonymously in 1824, called Revelations of the Dead Alive. In April 1825 appeared the first series of Tales of the O'Hara Family, which achieved immediate and decided success. One of the most powerful of them, Crohoore of the Bill Hook, was by Michael Banim. In 1826 a second series was published, containing that excellent Irish novel, The Nowlans. John's health had given way, and the next effort of the "O'Hara family" was almost entirely the production of his brother Michael. The Croppy, a Tale of 1798 (1828) is hardly equal to the earlier tales, though it contains some wonderfully vigorous passages. The Denounced, The Mayor of Windgap, The Ghost Hunter (by Michael Banim), and The Smuggler followed in quick succession, and were received with considerable favour. John Banim, meanwhile, had become much straitened in circumstances. In 1829 he went to France, and while he was abroad a movement to relieve his wants was set on foot by the English press, headed by John Sterling in The Times. A sufficient sum was obtained to remove him from any danger of actual want, and to this government added in 1836 a pension of L150. He returned to Ireland in 1835, and settled in Windgap Cottage, a short distance from Kilkenny; and there, a complete invalid, he passed the remainder of his life, dying on the 13th of August 1842. Michael Banim had acquired a considerable fortune which he lost in 1840 through the bankruptcy of a firm with which he had business relations. After this disaster he wrote Father Connell (1842), Clough Fionn (1852), The Town of the Cascades (1862). Michael Banim died at Booterstown on the 30th of August 1874.

The true place of the Banims in literature is to be estimated from the merits of the O'Hara Tales; their later works, though of considerable ability, are sometimes prolix and are marked by too evident an imitation of the Waverley Novels. The Tales, however, are masterpieces of faithful delineation. The strong passions, the lights and shadows of Irish peasant character, have rarely been so ably and truly depicted. The incidents are striking, sometimes even horrible, and the authors have been accused of straining after melodramatic effect. The lighter, more joyous side of Irish character, which appears so strongly in Samuel Lover, receives little attention from the Banims.

See P. J. Murray, Life of John Banim (1857).

BANJALUKA (sometimes written BANIALUKA, or BAINALUKA), the capital of a district bearing the same name, in Bosnia. Pop. (1895) 13,666, of whom about 7000 were Moslems. Banjaluka lies on the river Vrbas, and at the terminus of a military railway which meets the Hungarian state line at Jasenovac, 30 m. N.N.W. Banjaluka is the seat of Roman Catholic and Orthodox bishops, a district court, and an Austrian garrison. It is at the head of a narrow defile, shut in by steep hills on the east and west but expanding on the north to meet the valley of the Save. A small stream called the Crkvina enters the Vrbas from the north-east and in the angle thus formed stand the citadel and barracks, with the 16th-century Ferhadiya Jamia, largest and most beautiful of more than 40 mosques in the city. The celebrated Roman baths are all in ruins, except one massive, domed building, dating from the 6th century and still in use, although modern baths are also open, for the development of the hot springs. Other noteworthy buildings are the Franciscan and Trappist monasteries, a girls' school, belonging to the Sisterhood of the Sacred Blood of Nazareth, a real-school and a Turkish bazaar. Coal, iron, silver and other minerals are found in the adjoining hills; and the city possesses a government tobacco factory, a brewery, cloth-mills, gunpowder-mills, a model farm and many corn-mills, worked by the two rapid rivers.

Banjaluka is probably the Roman fort, marked, in the Tabula Peutingeriana, as Castra, on the river Urbanus and the road from Salona on the Adriatic to Servitium in Pannonia. The origin of its later name, meaning the "Baths of St Luke," is uncertain. In the 15th century, the fall of Jajce, a rival stronghold 22 m. S., led to the rapid rise of Banjaluka, which was thenceforward the scene of many encounters between Austrians and Turks; notably in 1527, 1688 and 1737. No Bosnian city had greater prosperity or importance in the last half of the 18th century. In 1831, Hussein Aga Borberli, called the "Dragon of Bosnia," or Zmaj Bosanski, set forth from Banjaluka on his holy war against the sultan Mahmud II. (See BOSNIA.)

BANJERMASIN (Dutch Bandjermasin), the chief town in the Dutch portion of the island of Borneo, East Indies, on the river Martapura, near its junction with the Barito, 24 m. from the mouth of the Barito in a bay of the south coast. The town is the seat of the Dutch resident of South and East Borneo. Its buildings stand on either bank of the river, but many of the inhabitants (who number nearly 50,000) occupy houses either floating on, or built on piles in the river. As large vessels can sail up to the town, it is a trade centre for the products of the districts along the banks of the Barito and Martapura, such as benzoin, rattans, wax, gold, diamonds, iron and weapons. In 1700 the East Indian Company established a factory here; but the place was found to be unhealthy, and the Company's servants were finally attacked by the natives, whom they repulsed with great difficulty. The settlement was abandoned. The English again seized Banjermasin in 1811, but restored it in 1817. Of the commercial community the Chinese are a very important portion, and there is also a considerable number of Arabs. The district of Banjermasin was incorporated by the Dutch in consequence of the war of 1860, in regard to the succession in the sultanate, which had been under their protection since 1787. The town of Martapura was the seat of the sultan from 1771. The inland portion of the district is covered with forest, while the flat and swampy seaboard is largely occupied by rice-fields. The inhabitants are mostly Dyaks.

BANJO, a musical instrument with strings plucked by fingers or plectrum, popular among the American negroes and introduced by them into Europe. The word is either a corruption of "bandore" or "pandura" (q.v.), an instrument of the guitar type, or is derived from "bania," the name of a similar primitive Senegambian instrument.

The banjo consists of a body composed of a single piece of vellum stretched like a drum-head over a wooden or metal hoop to ensure the requisite degree of resonance; the parchment may be tightened or slackened by means of a series of screws disposed round the circumference of the hoop. Attached to the body, which has no back, is a long neck, terminating in a flat head acting as a peg-box and bent back slightly at an obtuse angle from the neck. There are five, six or nine strings to the banjo; they are fastened to a tail-piece as in the violin, pass over a low bridge, on the body, and are strained over the nut or ridge at the end of the neck, where they are threaded through holes and wound round the tuning-pegs fixed in the back of the head in Oriental fashion, as in the lute (q.v.). The strings are stopped [v.03 p.0318] by the pressure of the fingers against the finger-board which lies over the front of the neck; the correct positions for the formation of the intervals of the scale are indicated in some banjos by frets consisting of metal or wooden bands inlaid in the finger-board. The vibrating length of the strings from bridge to nut is 24 in. for all except the highest in pitch, known as the "chanterelle," "melody" or "thumb string," which is only 16 in. long; its tuning peg is inserted half-way up the neck. The chanterelle is not, as in other stringed instruments, in its position as the highest in pitch, but is placed next the lowest string for convenience in playing it with the thumb. In the tables of accordance here given, the chanterelle is indicated by a X. The five-stringed banjo is tuned either

[Notation: 5:E5X 4:A3 3:E4 2:G4# 1:B4.] or [Notation: 5:D5X 4:G3 3:D4 2:F4# 1:A4.]

The six-stringed is tuned [Notation: 6:G5X 5:G3 4:D4 3:G4 2:B4 1:D5.]

The nine-stringed banjo has three thumb strings thus [Notation: 9:F5#X 8:G5X 7:A5X 6:G3 5:C4 4:D4 3:G4 2:B4 1:D5.]

The G clef is used in notation, but the notes sound an octave lower than they are written. The banjo is usually a transposing instrument in the sense that, when playing with other instruments, the A corresponds to the C of the piano or violin; the key of A major is therefore the first to be mastered. The chanterelle does not lie over the finger-board and is always played open by the thumb.

The banjo is held so that the neck is even with the left shoulder and the body rests on the right thigh; the front of the instrument is held inclined at an angle, allowing the performer to see all the strings. When played as a solo instrument, a plectrum may be used with good effect to produce rapid scale and arpeggio passages, or to produce the tremolo or sustained notes as on the mandoline (q.v.). The best results are obtained by means of a tortoise-shell plectrum about the size of a shilling,[1] having the contact-edges highly polished, bevelled and terminating in a point. The tone of the banjo is louder and harder than that of the guitar. Chords of two, three and four notes can be played on it.

The banjo or bania of the African negro having grass strings is still in use on the coast of Guinea. The banjo was made known in England through companies of coloured minstrels from the United States, one of which came over to London as early as 1846.

(K. S.)

[1] See A. H. Nassau-Kennedy, I.S.M., Banjo-Plectring.

BANK,[1] known also as "Polish Bank" and "Russian Bank" a card-game. An ordinary pack is used. Five or six players is a convenient number. Each contributes an arranged stake to the pool. The dealer gives three cards to each player and turns up another; if this is not lower than an eight (ace is lowest) he goes on till such a card is exposed. The player on the dealer's left, without touching or looking at his cards, can bet the amount of the pool, or any part of it, that among his cards is one that is higher (of the same suit) than the turn-up. If he wins, he takes the amount from the pool; if he loses, he pays it to the pool. Each player does the same in turn, the dealer last. Whenever the pool is exhausted, a fresh stake is put into the pool. After a round is over the deal passes. No player may touch his cards until he has made his bet; the penalty is a fine to the pool of twice the stake, and the loss of his right to bet during that round.

[1] For the commercial "bank" see BANKS AND BANKING.

BANKA (Banca, Bangka), an island of the Dutch East Indies, off the east coast of Sumatra, from which it is separated by Banka Strait, which is about 9 m. wide at its narrowest point. On the east, the broader, island-studded Gaspar Strait separates Banka from Billiton. Banka is 138 m. in length; its extreme breadth is 62 m., and its area, including a few small adjacent islands, 4460 sq. m. The soil is generally dry and stony, and the greater part of the surface is covered with forests, in which the logwood tree especially abounds. The hills, of which Maras in the north is the highest (2760 ft.), are covered with vegetation to their summits. Geologically, Banka resembles the Malay Peninsula, its formations being mainly granite, Silurian and Devonian slate, frequently covered with sandstone, laterite (red ironstone clay) of small fertility, and alluvium. The granite extends from W.N.W. to S.S.E., forming the short, irregular hill-chains. As these lie generally near the east coast, it follows that the rivers of the west coast are the longer. There are no volcanoes. The chief rivers (Jering, Kotta and Waringin) are navigable for some 19 m. from their mouths and are used for the transport of tin. Banka is principally noted for the production of this mineral, which was discovered here in 1710 and is a government monopoly. It occurs in lodes and as stream-tin, and is worked by Chinese in large numbers who inhabit villages of their own. The island is divided into nine mining districts, including about 120 mines, under government control, with 12,000 workmen, which have produced as much as 12,000 tons of tin in a year. From May to August, the period of the south-east monsoon, the climate of Banka is dry and hot; but the mean annual rainfall reaches 120 in. annually, rain occurring on an average on 168 days each year. The wet, cool season proper is from November to February, accompanying the north-west monsoon. The heavy rainfall is of great importance to the tin-streaming industry. The total population of the island (1905) is 115,189, including 40,000 Chinese and 70,000 natives. These last are mainly composed of immigrant Malayan peoples. The aborigines are represented by a few rude hill-tribes, who resemble in physique the Battas of Sumatra. Rice, pepper, gambier, coffee and palms are cultivated, and fishing and the collection of forest produce are further industries, but none of these is of importance. The chief town is Muntok at the north end of Banka Strait.

See H. Zondervan, Banka en Zijne bewoners (Amsterdam, 1895), with bibliography; T. Posewitz, Die Zinn-inseln im Indischen Ocean. For geology and the tin-mines, Jaarboek vor het Mijnwezen in Ned. Ind. (Amsterdam, 1877-1884).

BANKER-MARKS, or Masons' Marks. The "banker" is the stone bed or bench upon which a mason works, hence the term (so well known to the trade) of banker-marks, which, as Mr Whitley has pointed out, is more appropriate than that of masons' marks, since the setters, who are usually selected from amongst the best workmen, make no marks upon the stone (Leamington Spa Courier, 11th of August 1888). These must not be confused with other marks sometimes cut on stones as directions to the setters, and so used and employed to the present time. Banker-marks are met with throughout the civilized world, and in fact are to be found on all old buildings of consequence, ecclesiastical or otherwise. Professor T. Hayter Lewis well observed, "Go where you will, in England, France, Sicily, Palestine, you will find all through the buildings of the 12th century the same carefully worked masonry, the same masons' tool-marks, the same way of making them." Such masons' marks are to be traced graved on all the chief stones of what is known as Norman work. Norman tooling, so far as Hayter Lewis could discover, came from the north and west of Europe. Since then we get marks made with a "toothed chisel," but however or wherever chiselled the intention was the same. The system followed provided an infallible means of connecting the individual craftsman with his work, an evidence of identity that could not be gainsaid.

Naturally, because of their simplicity, certain designs were followed much more frequently than others, while occasionally some of a very elaborate character are to be detected. Undoubtedly not a few were suggestive of the initials of the names of the masons, and others were reminiscent of certain animals, objects, &c., but no proof has yet been offered of their being alphabetical in design, or arranged so as to distinguish the members of different lodges or companies; the journeymen selected any design they cared to adopt.

Singular to state, marks were chosen by gentlemen and others [v.03 p.0319] who joined the operative masonic lodges of the 16th and later centuries, and they were as carefully registered in the mark-books as those selected by operatives for trade purposes. The same marks are to be seen in the registers used by fathers and sons, and not always with a slight difference, as some have stated, to secure identification. What should be noted also is that other trades used precisely similar marks and for a like object, so that the idea of their having a mystical meaning, or being utilized for any other object but the one named, seems groundless.

The late George Godwin, F.R.S., F.S.A., &c., drew attention to the subject of "masons' marks in various countries" in a communication to the Society of Antiquaries in 1841, and also at a little later period (vide Archaeologia, vol. xxx. p. 113). To him is the credit due of first drawing attention to "these signs" in England. It is noteworthy how little such marks are noticed, even in buildings which are visited by archaeologists quite frequently, until a few are pointed out, and then they meet the eye to an astonishing number. In the Sessional Papers, 1868-1869, of the Royal Institute of British Architects, No. 9, may be found numerous samples of the marks from various parts of Europe in illustration of the paper by Godwin.

No better plan has been followed in modern times to connect the work done with the worker in stone, and it is probable that a second mark, observable on some blocks, may serve to indicate the overseer. There are even three or more sometimes.

The same system was adopted at the building of Truro cathedral, only the marks were inserted on the bed of each stone instead of at the side as usual, the result being that they ceased to be seen after being placed in situ. Mr Hughan obtained copies of these marks from Mr James Bubb, the first clerk of the works, and from his successor, Mr Robert Swain, and had them published in the Freemason, 13th of November 1886. He remarked at the same time that "many of these designs will be familiar to students of ancient ecclesiastical and other buildings at home and abroad." Some are interesting specimens.

A Historical Treatise on Early Builders' Marks (Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1885) by Mr G. F. Fort, and Masons' Marks from Buildings in the Counties of Lancaster and Chester, with Notes on the General History of Masons' Marks (Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. vii. N.S.), by W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A., may be consulted with advantage. The latter declares that "the Runic theory is as unlikely and as untenable as that which places the origin of these marks in the absurd alphabets given by Cornelius Agrippa, who died early in the 16th century." Victor Didron copied some 4000 during a tour in France in 1836 and pointed out their value (Ann. Arch., 1845).

(W. J. H.*)

BANKET, a South African mining term, applied to the beds of auriferous conglomerate, chiefly occurring in the Witwatersrand gold-fields (see GOLD). The name was given to these beds from their resemblance to a sweetmeat, known in Dutch as "banket," resembling almond hard-bake. The word is the same as "banquet," and is derived ultimately from "bank" or "bench," meaning table-feast, hence applied to any delicacy or to various kinds of confectionery, a use now obsolete in English.

BANK HOLIDAYS, in the United Kingdom, those days which by the Bank Holidays Act 1871 are kept as close holidays in all banks in England and Ireland and Scotland respectively. Before the year 1834, the Bank of England was closed on certain saints' days and anniversaries, about thirty-three days in all. In 1834 these were reduced to four—Good Friday, 1st of May, 1st of November and Christmas Day. By the act of 1871, carried through the House of Commons by Sir J. Lubbock (afterwards Lord Avebury), the following were constituted bank holidays in England and Ireland—Easter Monday, the Monday in Whitsun week, the first Monday of August, the 26th of December if a week-day; and by the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, March 17th as a special bank holiday for Ireland (see FEASTS AND FESTIVALS). In Scotland—New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Good Friday, the 1st Monday of May, the 1st Monday of August. If Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on a Sunday, the next Monday following is the bank holiday. No person is compelled to make any payment or to do any act upon a bank holiday which he would not be compelled to do or make on Christmas Day or Good Friday, and the making of a payment or the doing of an act on the following day is equivalent to doing it on the holiday. By the same act it was made lawful for the sovereign from time to time, as it should seem fit, to appoint by proclamation, in the same manner as public fasts or days of public thanksgiving, any day to be observed as a bank holiday throughout the United Kingdom or any part of it, or to substitute another day when in any special case it appears inexpedient to the sovereign in council to keep the usual bank holiday. (See further HOLIDAY.)

BANKIPUR, an ancient village on the Hugli river in the Bengal Presidency, near the modern Palta above Barrackpore. It has disappeared from the map, but is famous as the principal settlement of the ill-fated Ostend Company, the one great effort made by Germany to secure a foothold in India. The Ostend Company was formed in 1722-1723, and with a capital of less than a million sterling founded two settlements, one at Coblom (Covelong) on the Madras coast between the English Madras and the Dutch Sadras, and the other on the Hugli between the English Calcutta and the Dutch Chinsura. Both English and Dutch were offended and in 1727, in order to obtain the European guarantee for the Pragmatic Sanction, the court of Vienna resolved to sacrifice the Company and suspended its charter. It became bankrupt in 1784 and ceased to exist in 1793. But in the meantime in 1733 the English and Dutch stirred up the Mahommedan general at Hugli to pick a quarrel. He attacked Bankipur and the garrison of only fourteen persons set sail for Europe. Thus German interests disappeared from India.

BANK-NOTES. For our present purpose we include in this description all paper substitutes for metallic currency whether issued by banks, governments or other financial institutes.

Early bank-notes were simply printed forms in which the amounts were written by hand. They were usually for large amounts (L40 and upwards) and were printed upon water-marked paper; and, although no precautions were taken in the engraving to prevent fraudulent imitation, forgeries were comparatively rare. But, when at the end of the 18th century small notes for L1 and L2 were put in circulation, forgery became rife, as many as 352 persons being convicted of this crime in England in a single year; and from that time to the present a constant trial of skill has been going on between the makers of bank-notes and the counterfeiters. Engine-turned ornaments and emblematical figures or views introduced in the engraving, in conjunction with special water-marks in the paper, held the forgers somewhat in check until the discovery of photography put into the hands of the counterfeiter a most dangerous weapon, by the aid of which complicated patterns and vignettes could be perfectly reproduced. To prevent such reproduction Henry Bradbury in 1856 introduced anti-photographic bank-note printing, in which the essential portions of the note were printed in one colour and over this another protective colour was placed. A photograph of a note printed in this way presented a confused mingling of the two colours; but with the advance of photographic knowledge means were found of obtaining a photograph of either colour separate from the other, and it consequently became necessary to introduce a third colour and to secure a special photographic relation between the three colours to prevent their separation.

Photography, however, although the most dangerous weapon of the counterfeiter, is not the only means of imitation available, a fact which is sometimes overlooked. A note may be perfectly secure against photographic reproduction, but from the absence of other necessary features may be easily copied by an engraver of ordinary skill. There are two systems of engraving employed in bank-notes:—(1) line-engraving in which the lines are cut into the steel or copper plates; and (2) relief-engraving in which the lines stand up above the plate as in wood-engraving. In the former, adapted to the process called plate-printing, the ink is delivered from the lines in the plate to the paper pressed upon it; in the latter, adapted to surface-printing, the ink is spread upon the face of the lines and printed as in typography. Plate-printing gives by far the finer and sharper impression, but as there is a perceptible body of ink transferred to the paper from the cut lines, it has been supposed that an impression from plate would [v.03 p.0320] be more easily photographed than one from surface where only a film of ink is spread upon the top of the raised lines. But surface-printing being much less sharp and distinct than plate-printing, imperfect copies of notes for which that process is used are the more likely to escape detection. The plates upon which the early notes were engraved being of copper quickly wore out and had to be constantly replaced. The result was great difference in the appearance of the notes, those printed from new plates being sharp and clear, while others, printed from old plates, were pale and blurred. These differences were a great assistance to the forger, as the public, being accustomed to variations of appearance between different genuine notes, were less apt to remark the difference between these and counterfeits.

In the early part of the 19th century, Jacob Perkins (1766-1849) introduced into England from America what is known as the transfer-process, in which the original engraving on steel is hardened and an impression taken from it on a soft steel cylinder, which in its turn is hardened and pressed into a soft printing-plate. By this means as many absolutely identical plates can be produced as may be required, and being hardened they will yield a very large number of prints without any appreciable deterioration. Another method of securing uniformity is the multiplication of plates by electro-deposition, the surface of the copper-electrotype plates being protected by the deposit of a film of steel which effectually prevents the wearing of the copper and can be renewed at will.

The water-mark of the paper, on which formerly reliance was placed almost exclusively, puts a difficulty in the way of the counterfeiter, but experience has shown that in ordinary circumstances it does not in itself afford adequate protection. The means by which it can be imitated are well known, and, since a distinct water-mark is incompatible with strong paper, the life of a water-marked note is much shorter than that of one printed upon plain paper. The best bank-note paper is made from pure linen rags and was formerly made by hand. Machine-made paper is however now largely used, as it possesses all the strength of hand-made and is much more uniform in thickness and texture.

In documents which pass current as money it is obviously the duty of the bank or government issuing them to take all reasonable means to prevent the public from being defrauded by the substitution of counterfeits; and a bank whose circulation depends upon the confidence of the public must do so in its own interests to insure the acceptance of its notes. This principle is now recognized by all issuing institutions, but in practice there is room for improvement in the issues of many important establishments, partly because of the disinclination of the directors of a bank to change the form of an issue to which the public is accustomed, partly because of the difficulty of deciding what is really a secure note, and in certain cases because, owing to exceptional circumstances, an issue may be practically immune from forgery although the notes themselves present little or no difficulty in imitation. The features essential to the security of an issue are (1) absolute identity in appearance of all notes of the issue; (2) adequate protection by properly-selected colours against photographic reproduction; and (3) high-class engraving comprising geometric lathe work and well-executed vignettes. In addition it is important that the design of the note should be striking and pleasing to the eye, and the inscription legible.

The notes of the Bank of England are printed in the bank from surface-plates in black without colour or special protection except the water-mark in the paper. They are never reissued after being once returned to the bank, and their average life is very short, about six weeks, so that a dirty or worn Bank of England note is practically never seen. This arrangement, coupled with the difficulty of negotiating forged notes in England, the lowest denomination being L5, accounts for the comparative immunity from forgery of the bank's issues.

BANK RATE, a term used in financial circles to designate the rate of discount charged in the chief monetary centres by the state or leading bank, as opposed to the open-market rate. (See MARKET: Money market.)

[Sidenote: Definition.]

BANKRUPTCY (from Lat. bancus or Fr. banque, table or counter, and Lat. ruptus, broken), the status of a debtor who has been declared by judicial process to be unable to pay his debts. Although the terms "bankruptcy" and "insolvency" are sometimes used indiscriminately, they have in legal and commercial usage distinct significations. When a person's financial liabilities are greater than his means of meeting them, he is said to be "insolvent"; but he may nevertheless be able to carry on his business affairs by means of credit, paying old debts by incurring new ones, and he may even, if fortunate, regain a position of solvency without his creditors ever being aware of his true condition. And even when his insolvency becomes public and default occurs, a debtor may still avert bankruptcy if he is able to effect a voluntary arrangement with his creditors. A debtor may thus be insolvent without becoming bankrupt, but he cannot be a bankrupt without being insolvent, for bankruptcy is a legal declaration of his insolvency and operates as a statutory system for the administration of his property, which is thereby taken out of his personal control.

[Sidenote: Early methods.]

In primitive communities bankruptcy systems were unknown. Individual creditors were left to pursue their remedies by such means as the law or practice of the community might sanction, and these were generally of a very drastic character. Under the Roman law of the Twelve Tables, the creditors might, as a last resort, cut the debtor's body into pieces, each of them taking his proportionate share; and although Blackstone in quoting this law appears to cast some doubt upon its too literal interpretation, there can be no doubt that the power of selling the debtor and his family into slavery was one which was habitually exercised in Greece, Rome, and generally among the nations of antiquity. Even among the Jews, whose legislation was of a comparatively humane character, this practice is illustrated by the Old Testament story of the woman who sought the help of Elisha, saying, "Thy servant my husband is dead ... and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen." The savage severity of these earlier laws was, however, found to be inconsistent with the development of more humane ideas and the growth of popular rights; and tended, as in the case of Greece and Rome, to create serious disturbance in political relations between the patricians, who generally composed the wealthier or creditor class, and the plebeians, in whose ranks the majority of debtors were to be found. Later legislation consequently substituted imprisonment in a public prison for the right of selling the person of the debtor. Under the feudal systems of Europe the state generally insisted on its subjects being left free for military service, and debts could not therefore be enforced against the person of the debtor; but as trade began to develop it was found necessary to provide some means of bringing personal pressure to bear upon debtors for the purpose of compelling them to meet their obligations, and under the practice of the English courts of law the right of a creditor to enforce his claims by the imprisonment of his debtor was gradually evolved (although no express legal enactment to that effect appears at any time to have existed), and this practice continued until comparatively recent times.

[Sidenote: Commercial objects.]

Without some system of enforcing payment of debts it would have been impossible for the commerce of the world to have attained its present proportions; for modern commerce is necessarily founded largely on credit, and credit could not have existed without the power of enforcing the fulfilment of financial contracts. On the other hand remedies against a debtor's person, and still more against the persons of his family, are not only inconsistent with the growth of opinion among civilized communities, but are in themselves worse than futile, inasmuch as they strike at the root of all personal effort on the part of a debtor to retrieve his position and render a return to solvency impossible. Hence the necessity of devising some system which is just to creditors while not unduly harsh upon debtors, which discriminates between involuntary inability to meet obligations and wilful [v.03 p.0321] refusal or neglect, and which secures to creditors as between themselves an equitable share of such of the debtor's assets as may be available for the payment of his liabilites. These are the objects which the bankruptcy laws have primarily in view. Another object, which has not always been so fully recognized as it might appear to deserve, has marked the most recent legislation, namely, the fostering of a higher tone of commercial morality and the protection of the trading community at large from the evils arising through the reckless abuse of credit and the unnatural trade competition thereby engendered. It must be admitted that these objects are of a somewhat conflicting character, and wherever the state has interfered with the view of securing an efficient system of bankruptcy legislation the task has been found to be extremely difficult. Not only have the conflicting interests of the debtor and his creditors to be taken into account, but the method to be adopted in dealing with his property has also given rise to much conflict of opinion, and to a lack of uniformity and consistency in the legislation which dealt with it. The debtor's property was naturally regarded as belonging to the creditors, but it could not be distributed among them until it was realized, and until their respective right and interests were determined by competent authority. In some cases claims to rank as creditors are of doubtful validity. In others the creditor holds securities, the value of which requires investigation, or he claims a preference to which he may or may not be legally entitled. Creditors have thus conflicting interests as between themselves, and are therefore incapable of acting together as a homogeneous body. Hence the necessity for calling in the aid of professional assignees or trustees, solicitors and other agents, who made it their special business to deal with such matters, exercising both administrative and quasi-judicial functions, in return for the remuneration which they receive out of the property for their services. Professional interests, which are not always identical with the interests of the debtor or the creditors, are thus called into existence, and these interests have from time to time exercised a powerful influence in shaping the course of legislation.

While the law of bankruptcy has therefore been largely the product of commercial development, it has necessarily been of slow and gradual growth, tentative in its character, and subject to oscillation between the extremes of conflicting interests according to the temporary and varying predominance of each of these interests from time to time. No intelligible grasp of the principles which underlie the history of bankruptcy legislation in England, and no satisfactory explanation of the fluctuating tendencies which have marked its progress, are possible without bearing these considerations in view.

Bankruptcy in England.

[Sidenote: History.]

The subject was originally dealt with in the sole interest of creditors; it was considered fraudulent for a debtor to procure his own bankruptcy. Thus the earliest English statute on the subject, 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 4 (A.D. 1542), was directed against fraudulent debtors, and gave power to the lord chancellor and other high officers to seize their estates and divide them among the creditors, but afforded no relief to the debtor from his liabilities. Subsequent legislation modified this attitude and introduced the principle of granting relief to the bankrupt with or without the consent of the creditors, where he conformed to the provisions of the bankruptcy law, and under the act of 1825 the debtor was allowed himself to initiate proceedings. Since 1542 about forty acts of parliament have been passed, dealing with the many aspects of the subject, and slowly expanding, modifying and building up the highly complex system of administration which now exists.

[Sidenote: Court of 1831.]

The courts exercising jurisdiction originally, consisted of commissioners appointed by the lord chancellor. But in 1831 a special court of bankruptcy was established, consisting of six commissioners with four judges as a court of review, and official assignees attached to the court for the purpose of getting in the distributing the bankrupt's assets. Non-traders were originally excluded from the bankruptcy court, and a special court called the "court for relief of insolvent debtors" was instituted for their benefit, in which relief from the liability to imprisonment could be obtained on surrender of their property, but they were not discharged from their debts, subsequently-acquired property remaining liable. Both of these courts were subsequently abolished, non-traders were permitted to obtain the benefit of the bankruptcy laws, including a discharge, and in 1869 the system of official assignees was swept away, and a new court of bankruptcy created with one of the vice-chancellors at its head as chief judge, and a number of subordinate registrars or inferior judges under him. This court has also now been abolished, and the business is administered by a judge of the high court specially appointed for the purpose by the lord chancellor, with registrars of the high court, who deal with the ordinary judicial routine of bankruptcy procedure in the London district, while similar duties are performed by the county-court judges throughout the country.

[Sidenote: Rights of creditors.]

But the questions which have proved the most difficult to deal with, and which more than any others have been the cause of fluctuating and inconsistent legislation, have undoubtedly been those relating to the share which the creditors ought to have in the administration of the proceedings, and to special arrangements effected between a debtor and his creditors under conditions more or less beyond the control of the court. These two questions are largely intermixed, and the history of English legislation on these points and its results throw much light on the causes of the failure of the many attempts which have been made by the most eminent legal authorities to bring the law into a satisfactory condition. The right of creditors to exercise some control in bankruptcy over the realization of the debtor's property through an assignee chosen by themselves was recognized at an early date, but this right was exercised subject to the supervision of the court which investigated the claims of creditors and determined who were entitled to take part in the proceedings. Provision was also made for the interim protection of the debtor's property by official assignees attached to the court, who took possession until the creditors could be consulted, and under the supervision of the court audited the accounts of the creditor's assignee. So long as this system continued substantial justice was generally secured; the claims of creditors were strictly investigated and only those who clearly proved their right before a competent court were entitled to take part in the proceedings. The bankrupt was released from his obligations, but only after strict inquiries into his conduct and under the exercise of judicial discretion. The accounts of assignees were also strictly investigated, and the costs of solicitors and other agents were taxed by officers of the court. But the system was found to be cumbrous, to lead to delay and too often to the absorption of a large part of the estate in costs, over the incurring of which there was a very ineffective control. Hence arose a demand for larger powers on the part of creditors, and the introduction into the bankruptcy procedure of the system of "arrangements" between the debtor and his creditors, either for the payment of a composition, or for the liquidation of the estate free from the control of the court. [Sidenote: Acts of 1825, 1831, 1842, 1849.] At first these arrangements were carefully guarded. Under the act of 1825 a proposal for payment of a composition might be adopted only after the debtor had passed his examination in court, and with the consent of nine-tenths in number and value of his creditors assembled at a meeting. Upon such adoption the bankruptcy proceedings were superseded. Dissenting creditors, however, were not bound by the resolution, but could still take action against the debtor's subsequently-acquired property. These powers were not found to be sufficiently elastic and the act failed to give public satisfaction. Attempts were made by the acts of 1831 and 1842 to remedy the defects complained of by a reconstitution of the bankruptcy court and its official system. But these measures also failed because they were based on the assumption that judicial bodies could exercise effective control over administrative [v.03 p.0322] action, a control for which they are naturally unsuited, and which they could only carry out by cumbrous and expensive methods of procedure. Under the act of 1849 a totally new principle was introduced by the provision that a deed of arrangement executed by six-sevenths in number and value of the creditors for L10 and upwards should be binding upon all the creditors without any proceedings in or supervision by the court. But the determination of the question who were or were not creditors was practically left to the debtor himself, without any opportunity for testing by independent investigation the claims of those who signed the deed to control the administration of the estate. It is not difficult to see, in the light of subsequent experience, how likely this provision was to encourage fraudulent arrangements, and to introduce laxity in the administration of debtors' estates. A modification of the too stringent conditions of the act of 1825, which would have enabled a bankrupt to pay a composition on his debts, with the consent of a large proportion of his bona-fide creditors, and subject to the approval of the court, after hearing the objections of dissenting creditors, would doubtless have proved a beneficial reform, but the act of 1849 proceeded on a very different principle. Instead of reforming, it practically abolished judicial control. By avoiding Scylla it fell into Charybdis. To give any majority of creditors the power to release a debtor from his obligations to non-assenting creditors without full disclosure of his affairs, and without any exercise of judicial discretion or any investigation into the causes of the failure, or the conduct of the debtor, would in any circumstances have been to introduce a new and mischievous principle into legislation, for it would necessarily destroy the essential feature of such arrangements, that they are voluntary contracts, the responsibility for which lies solely with the parties entering into them. But to give such a power to creditors whose claims were subject to no independent investigation was to invite inevitable confusion and failure.

[Sidenote: 1861.]

Yet this was the dominating principle of English bankruptcy legislation for nearly thirty-five years. Its effect under the act of 1849 was, however, to some extent modified by subsequent decisions of the courts that to make a composition arrangement binding it must be accompanied by a complete cessio bonorum; but this qualification was removed by the act of 1861 which made such arrangements binding without a cessio and reduced the majority required to make a deed of arrangement binding on all the creditors, to a majority in number and three-fourths in value of those whose claims amounted to L10 and upwards. The result was an enormous increase in fraudulent arrangements. The then attorney-general, Sir Robert Collier, in introducing an amending act in 1869, described the abuses which had grown up under the 1849 and 1861 acts, as having the effect of enabling a bankrupt to "defraud those to whom he was indebted and to set them at defiance"; while Lord Cairns, the lord chancellor, in the House of Lords expressed the opinion that the large increase which had taken place in the annual insolvency of the country during the preceding years could not "be attributed to depression of trade but must be traced to the enormous facilities which are given to debtors who wish to be released from their debts on easy terms." And yet in the legislation which ensued these facts were entirely ignored or lost sight of.