has continued in existence as the “Standing Council of the Baronetage,” and succeeded in obtaining invitations for some representatives of the order to the coronation of King Edward VII. It has been sought to obtain badges or other distinctions for baronets and also to purge the order of wrongful assumptions, an evil to which the baronetage of Nova Scotia is peculiarly exposed, owing to the dignity being descendible to collateral heirs male of the grantee as well as to those of his body. A departmental committee at the home office was appointed in 1906 to consider the question of such assumptions and the best means of stopping them.
All baronets are entitled to display in their coat of arms, either on a canton or on an inescutcheon, the red hand of Ulster, save those of Nova Scotia, who display, instead of it, the saltire of that province. The precedency of baronets of Nova Scotia and of Ireland in relation to those of England was left undetermined by the Acts of Union, and appears to be still a moot point with heralds. The premier baronet of England is Sir Hickman Bacon, whose ancestor was the first to receive the honour in 1611.
See Pixley’s History of the Baronetage; Playfair’s “Baronetage” (in British Family Antiquity, vols. vi.-ix.); Foster’s Baronetage; G. E. Cokayne’s Complete Baronetage; Nichols, “The Dignity of Baronet” (in Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii.) (J. H. R.)
BARONIUS, CAESAR (1538–1607), Italian cardinal and ecclesiastical historian, was born at Sora, and was educated at Veroli and Naples. At Rome he joined the Oratory in 1557 under St Philip Neri (q.v.) and succeeded him as superior in 1593. Clement VIII., whose confessor he was, made him cardinal in 1596 and librarian of the Vatican. At subsequent conclaves he was twice nearly elected pope, but on each occasion was opposed by Spain on account of his work On the Monarchy of Sicily, in which he supported the papal claims against those of the Spanish government. Baronius is best known by his Annales Ecclesiastici, undertaken by the order of St Philip as an answer to the Magdeburg Centuries. After nearly thirty years of lecturing on the history of the Church at the Vallicella and being trained by St Philip as a great man for a great work, he began to write, and produced twelve folios (1588–1607). In the Annales he treats history in strict chronological order and keeps theology in the background. In spite of many errors, especially in Greek history, in which he had to depend upon secondhand information, the work of Baronius stands as an honest attempt to write history, marked with a sincere love of truth. Sarpi, in urging Casaubon to write against Baronius, warns him never to charge or suspect him of bad faith, for no one who knew him could accuse him of disloyalty to truth. Baronius makes use of the words of St Augustine: “I shall love with a special love the man who most rigidly and severely corrects my errors.” He also undertook a new edition to the Roman martyrology (1586), which he purified of many inaccuracies.
His Annales, which end in 1198, were continued by Rinaldi (9 vols., 1676–1677); by Laderchi (3 vols., 1728–1737); and by Theiner (3 vols., 1856). The most useful edition is that of Mansi (38 vols., Lucca, 1738–1759), giving Pagi’s corrections at the foot of each page. (E. Tn)
BARONY, the domain of a baron (q.v.). In Ireland counties
are divided into “baronies,” which are equivalent to the “hundreds” (q.v.) in England, and seem to have been formed out of the territories of the Irish chiefs, as each submitted to English rule (General Report of the Census of England, iv. 181, 1873). In Scotland the term is applied to any large freehold estate even when held by a commoner. Barony also denotes the rank or dignity of a baron, and the feudal tenure “by barony.”
BAROQUE, a technical term, chiefly applicable to architecture, furniture and household decoration. Apparently of Spanish origin—a barrueco is a large, irregularly-shaped pearl—the word was for a time confined to the craft of the jeweller. It indicates the more extravagant fashions of design that were common in the first half of the 18th century, chiefly in Italy and France, in which everything is fantastic, grotesque, florid or incongruous—irregular shapes, meaningless forms, an utter lack of restraint and simplicity. The word suggests much the same order of ideas as rococo.
BAROSS, GABOR (1848–1892), Hungarian statesman, was born at Trencsén on the 6th of July 1848, and educated at Esztergom. He was for a time one of the professors there under Cardinal Kolos Vaszary. After acquiring considerable local reputation as chief notary of his county, he entered parliament in 1875. He at once attached himself to Kálmán Tisza and remained faithful to his chief even after the Bosnian occupation had alienated so many of the supporters of the prime minister. It was he who drew up the reply to the malcontents on this occasion, for the first time demonstrating his many-sided ability and his genius for sustained hard work. But it was in the field of economics that he principally achieved his fame. In 1883 he was appointed secretary to the ministry of ways and communications. Baross, who had prepared himself for quite another career, and had only become acquainted with the civilized West at the time of the Composition of 1867, mastered, in an incredibly short time, the details of this difficult department. His zeal, conscientiousness and energy were so universally recognized, that on the retirement of Gábor Kemény, in 1886, he was appointed minister of ways and communications. He devoted himself especially to the development of the national railways, and the gigantic network of the Austro-Hungarian railway system and its unification is mainly his work. But his most original creation in this respect was the zone system, which immensely facilitated and cheapened the circulation of all wares and produce, and brought the remotest districts into direct communication with the central point at Budapest. The amalgamation of the ministry of commerce with the ministry of ways in 1889 further enabled Baross to realize his great idea of making the trade of Hungary independent of foreign influences, of increasing the commercial productiveness of the kingdom and of gaining every possible advantage for her export trade by a revision of tolls. This patriotic policy provoked loud protests both from Austria and Germany at the conference of Vienna in 1890, and Baross was obliged somewhat to modify his system. This was by no means the only instance in which his commercial policy was attacked and even hampered by foreign courts. But wherever he was allowed a free hand he introduced epoch-making reforms in all the branches of his department, including posts, telegraphs, &c. A man of such strength of character was not to be turned from his course by any amount of opposition, and he rather enjoyed to be alluded to as the “iron-handed minister.” The crowning point of his railway policy was the regulation of the Danube at the hitherto impassable Iron-Gates Rapids by the construction of canals, which opened up the eastern trade to Hungary and was an event of international importance. It was while inspecting his work there in March 1892 that he caught a chill, from which he died on the 8th of May. The day of his burial was a day of national mourning, and rightly so, for Baross had dedicated his whole time and genius to the promotion of his country’s prosperity.
See László Petrovics, Biography of Gabriel Baross (Hung. Eperies, 1892). (R. N. B.)
BAROTAC NUEVO, a town of the province of Iloílo, Panay, Philippine Islands, near the Jalaur river, above its mouth on the S.E. coast, and about 15 m. N.E. of Iloílo, the capital. Pop. (1903) 9904; in 1903 after the census had been taken the neighbouring town of Dumangas (pop. 12,428) was annexed to Barotac Nuevo. The town lies in a fertile plain and deals in rice, trepang and pina. Here, in what was formerly Dumangas, are a fine church and convent, built of iron, pressed brick and marble. Dumangas was destroyed by fire in June 1900, during a fight with insurgents, but its rebuilding was begun in May 1901.
BAROTSE, BAROTSELAND, a people and country of South Central Africa. The greater part of the country is a British protectorate, forming part of Rhodesia. The Barotse are the paramount tribe in the region of the Upper Zambezi basin, but by popular usage the name is also applied to contiguous subject tribes, Barotseland being the country over which the Barotse paramount chief exercises authority. The present article treats (1) of the people, (2) of the country, (3) of the establishment of the British protectorate and of subsequent developments.
1. The Barotse.—These people, originally known as Aälui, have
