Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/319

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BARBE-MAEBOIS BARBERINI 299 many of the large European rivers. It has several barbs or beard-like feelers pendent from its leathery mouth, which are said to be the origin of its name. It frequents deep, still pools with eddies, in swift-flowing streams; roots in the gravel bottoms like a hog; and feeds on worms and other bottom bait. It grows to the length of 3 feet and to the weight of 18 or 20 pounds, is a determined biter, and, when hooked, a desperate puller. It is of little value as food. BARBE-MARBOIS, Franfois de, count and mar- quis, a French statesman, born at Metz, Jan. 31, 1745, died Jan. 14, 1837. After filling diplomatic offices at several German courts, he was sent to the new government of the United States of America as consul general of France. He organized all the French consul- ates in this country, and during his residence here married the daughter of William Moore, governor of Pennsylvania. In 1785 he was appointed by Louis XVI. intendant of St. Do- mingo, and introduced many reforms in the administration of justice and of finance. lie returned to France in 1790, and, having vindi- cated himself from various accusations, was again employed in German diplomacy. In 1795 he was elected a member of the council of elders, but was soon charged with a variety of offences, and, though he defended himself with spirit, was in 1797 exiled to Guiana as a friend of royalty. He was recalled in 1801 and made director of the treasury, a title which he soon exchanged for that of minister of finance. In 1803 he was authorized to cede Louisiana to the United States for 50,000,000 fr., but had the skill to obtain 75,000,000 fr., a piece of diplomacy for which he was liberally rewarded by Napoleon. He was soon after made count of the empire and chief officer of the legion of honor. In 1806 a sudden decline in the funds caused by a blunder in his administration brought about his disgrace, which was however speedily ended by Napoleon, who recognized and needed his ability. In 1813 he entered the senate, and the next year voted for the deposition of the emperor and the reestablish- ment of the Bourbon dynasty. He was well received by Louis XVIII., appointed a peer of France and honorary counsellor of the univer- sity, and confirmed in the office of first presi- dent of the court of accounts, which he had formerly held. Napoleon after his return from Elba ordered him to leave Paris. He resumed his offices on the return of the Bourbons. Af- ter the revolution of July he took the oath of fidelity to Louis Philippe. lie wrote Reflexions sur la colonie de Saint- Domingue (1796) ; Corn- plot (T Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton centre les Etrtt*-Uni cCAmerique et centre le Gene- ral Washington (Paris, 1816); De la Gvyane (1822) ; Lettres de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, with a memoir (1811); Histoire de la Louuiane et de la cession de cette colonie par la France aux &tati-Unu (1828); and various other works. BARBER, Francis, the negro servant and friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson, born in Jamaica, probably about 1741, died Feb. 13, 1801. He was taken to England in 1750, and sent to a boarding school in Yorkshire. In 1752 he en- tered Dr. Johnson's service, in which he con- tinued till Johnson's death, with the excep- tion of two intervals : in one of which, upon some difference with his master, he served an apothecary in Cheapside; and in another he took a fancy to go to sea. This last escapade occurred in 1759, and through Dr. Smollett's interference with John Wilkes, one of the lords of the admiralty, procured his discharge (in June, 1760), without any wish on the part of Barber. On returning, he resumed his situ- ation with Dr. Johnson, who sent him to school for a time. It was owing to Barber's care that the manuscript of Johnson's diary of his tour in Wales in 1774 was preserved. Dr. Johnson gave Barber in his will an annuity of 70, and after the payment of a few legacies made him residuary legatee. Barber's whole income from this bequest amounted to about 140, on which, at Johnson's recommendation, lie retired to Lichfield, and passed the rest of his days in comfort. BARBER, Francis an officer in the American revolution, born at Princeton, N. J., in 1751, died at Newburgh, N. Y., in April, 1783. He graduated at the college of New Jersey in 1767, and in 1769 became rector of the acade- my at Elizabethtown, N. J. He gained a very high reputation as a teacher, and had among his pupils Alexander Hamilton. At the com- mencement of the war he enlisted with his two younger brothers. In February, 1776, he re- ceived a commission as major of the 3d battal- ion of the New Jersey troops, in November of the same year was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 3d Jersey regiment, and in 1777 was named assistant inspector general under Baron Steubtn. He served with his regiment under Gen. Schuyler in the northern army, and participated in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In the last-mentioned action he was severely wounded, and compelled to retire to his home at Elizabethtown. There he made himself useful in obtaining intelligence of the enemy's movements. In 1779 he served as adjutant general in Gen. Sullivan's campaign against the Indians, and was wounded in the battle at Newtown. He was engaged in the battle of Springfield, and in 1781, when the mutiny of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops broke out, he was selected by Washing- ton to suppress the revolt. He was present at the battle of Yorktown, and at the close of the war was with the army at Newburgh. On the day that he was invited by Washington to be present at a dinner to hear the news of the peace he was killed by a falling tree. BARBKRIM, an Italian family of Tuscany, who settled in Florence in the llth century, and acquired wealth by trade in the 16th, and