Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/413

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BATTEUX BATTLE AXE 393 dental and undesigned, not merely in fact, but in view of that rule of the law which imputes guilty negligence when there is lack of due care. Upon these principles one is guiltless when his horse runs without his fault and in- jures another. And if an officer, authorized to arrest one, lays his hands upon him, or uses only necessary force, for the purpose of making the arrest, he is justified ; or if one is threatened with an assault, or another attempts wrongfully to deprive him of his goods, he may justifiably use sufficient violence on the wrong doer to protect his person or property. But the use of any excessive violence in such a case, that is to say, of any more violence than is neces- sary to prevent the threatened injury, is a bat- tery. The reasonable chastisement of a child by his parent or his schoolmaster is not bat- tery ; nor is the reasonable even though forcible restraint of a lunatic by his keeper, or the seizing or holding of one who is about to com- mit an assault, or the wresting of a weapon from him. Battery is a misdemeanor by the common law, punishable by fine and imprison- ment ; and the party injured may also have his private civil action for damages. BATTEUX, Charles, a French writer on aesthet- ics, born May 6, 1713, died July 14, 1780. He was appointed professor at the college de Li- sieux in Paris, and at the college de Navarre, and subsequently Greek and Latin professor at the college de France. In his Beaux arts re- -duits d un seul principe (Paris, 1746), and Histoire des causes premUres (1769), he opposed mannerism and conventionalities, and strove to bring art and philosophy back to a closer harmony with nature. This theory was op- posed to the opinions of many of his academi- cal friends, and led to the suppression of the chair which he filled at the college de France. In 1754 he became a member of the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres, and in 1761 of the French academy. lUTTHUXVI. I. Kfizmer, count, a Hungarian statesman, born June 4, 1807, died in Paris, July 13, 1854. In early life he passed some time in England, and upon his return to his native country he joined the liberal party, he- came a member of the Hungarian diet, and in 1848 took an active part in the national war in defence of the southern border. After hav- ing officiated as governor of various districts, he became in 1849 minister of foreign affairs under the administration of Kossuth, and sub- sequently shared Kossuth's exile in Turkey till 1851, when he repaired to Paris. In that year he addressed a series of letters to the London "Times," in which he reflected rather severely upon Kossuth's character as a states- man and patriot. II. Utfos, a member of the same family, born in Presburg in 1809, shot in Pestli by order of the Austrian government, Oct. 6, 1849. He was a cadet in the Austrian army at the age of 16, and afterward travelled extensively, but returned to Hungary to take a part in the reform movement of the time. He was one of the leaders of the opposition in the diets of 1839- '40 and 1843-'4, and in 1847 was preeminently instrumental in promoting Kossuth's election to the house of deputies. After the revolution of March, 1848, he was prime minister of the national administration, in which capacity he evinced equal patriotism and moderation. When the war was precip- itated by the manoeuvres of the court, he re- signed and made some fruitless efforts to bring about a reconciliation. At the opening of 1849 lie was one of a deputation from the Hungarian diet to make peace overtures to Windischgratz, who with the Austrian army was approaching Buda-Pesth. The Austrian general refused to listen to the proposition, and the seat of the revolutionary government was removed from Pesth to Debreczin. Batthyanyi remained at Pesth, where he was arrested Jan. 8, 1849, and on Oct. 5 following sentenced by a court martial, presided over by Marshal Haynau, to die on the gallows. He stabbed himself with a dagger, and inflicted so many wounds on his neck that he could not be hanged, and accord- ingly he was shot. His estates were con- fiscated, but restored to his family on the res- toration of the Hungarian constitution in 1867. BATTLE, a market town of Sussex, England, 56 m. by rail S. E. of London, and 7 m. from Hastings, named from the battle of Hastings, between William the Conqueror and King Har- old II., which was fought near the town, Oct. 14, 1066. On the spot where Harold's banner had been planted, William founded a great ab- bey, the magnificent gateway of which still re- mains. There are extensive mills for the man- ufacture of gunpowder in the vicinity of Battle. BATTLE AXE, an ancient military weapon of offence, unused by the Greeks or Romans, and apparently of oriental or northeastern Euro- pean origin. The Amazons are always de- scribed as armed with the double-headed battle axe, bipennis, and in the enumeration of the Persian host at Marathon Herodotus mentions the Sacie as fighting with brazen shields and battle axes. Horace speaks of the Rhseti and Vindelici, barbarians of the Alps, as armed from the remotest times with Am- azonian axes. The axe does not, however, appear to have become a general instrument of war until the descent of the Teutonic na- tions, all of whom used some modification of this weapon, which alone was capable of crushing in or cleaving asunder the linked steel mail. The axe of the Saxons, who were a nation of foot soldiers, soon assumed the form of the bill, glaive, or gisarme, which with the bow became the national weapon of the English infantry. The Normans, who were especially cavaliers, retained the old form of the battle axe, with a heavy axe blade forward of the shaft and a sharp spike behind it, besides a point perpendicular to the handle, which could be used for thrusting at an enemy. The battle axe was carried slung on one side of the pommel of the man-at-arms' saddle, as was the