BOTANY BAY, an inlet on the eastern coast of Australia, to the S. of the city of Sydney, in the Cumber land district of New South Wales, in 34 S. lat. and 151 15 E. long. In was first visited by Captain Cook in 1770, and received its name from Joseph Banks, the botanist of the expedition, on account of the variety of its flora. When, on the revolt of the New England colonies, the convict establishments in America were no longer available, the attention of the British Government, then under the leader ship of Pitt, was turned to Botany Bay; and in 1787 Commodore Phillip was commissioned to form a penal settlement there. Finding, on his arrival, however, that the locality was ill-suited for such a purpose, he removed northwards to the site of the present city of Sydney. The name of Botany Bay seems to have struck the popular fancy, and continued to be used in a general way for any convict establishment in Australia. The transportation of criminals to New South Wales was discontinued in 1840.
BOTHNIA, an ancient province of Sweden, which was divided into East and West by the gulf of the same name. The eastern division, which was bounded on the N. by Lapland, E. by Archangel and Olonetz, and S. by Finland, is now incorporated with the last-mentioned district, having been ceded to Russia in 1809. The western division now forms part of the Swedish province of Noniand, two departments of which are still known, the one as Vesterbotten or West Bothnia, and the other as Norrbotten or North Bothnia. The name is probably derived from the Scandinavian bottn, a lake.
BOTHNIA, Gulf of, the northern part of the Baltic, so called from the above province. See Baltic Sea.
BOTHWELL, a village of Scotland, in Lanarkshire, situated near the River Clyde, about 8? miles S.E. of Glasgow, and a favourite resort of the inhabitants of that city. It contains a Gothic church of some antiquity ; and about a mile from the village are the ruins of Bothwell Castle and the modern mansion of Lord Douglas. In the neighbourhood is the scene of the famous battle of Bothwell Bridge, which was fought between the Covenanters and the forces of the duke of Monmouth, June 22, 1679. Bothwell is one of the most ancient baronies in Scotland, and gives a title to a series of families distinguished in the history of Scotland. Joanna Baillie was born in the village manse. The population of the parish in 1871 was 9193.
BOTHWELL, James Hepburn, Earl of, in the peerage of Scotland, only son of Patrick, third earl of Bothwell, was born about 152G. Nothing is known of his life up to the date of his father s death, 1556, when he was served heir to his vast estates. For the next few years notices of his doings are few and obscure ; he undoubtedly held posts of high dignity, such as the wardenship of the Scottish Borders, and the office of Lord Admiral ; and it is certain that he was a vigorous opponent of the " lords of the congregation." In the end of 1560 he appears to have been one of the lords who went over to France to meet their new queen (Mary). In 1562 occurred the singular and obscure episode of the conspiracy between Bothwell and Arran to carry off the queen. Arran was well known to be deeply enamoured of Mary, and Bothwell apparently intended to use this passion as a means of furthering his own designs against Murray. The plot, or the germ of it was discovered ; Arran was found to be all but insane, and an indictment was laid against Bothwell, who fled to France and remained there till 1565, when he returned to Scotland. The charge, however, was not forgotten ; it was renewed by the earl of Murray, and the day of trial was fixed. But Murray s forces were too numerous to make it safe for Bothwell to make his ap pearance, and he again fled. He reappeared at court in a ehort time after the marriage of the queen with Daniley, and began to rise rapidly into favour. He escaped from the palace after the murder of Rizzio, and with great promptitude drew together some forces fcr the queen s defence. From this time onwards he was in the highest favour with the queen, and all powerful at court. In 1566 he was dangerously wounded when on a judicial tour in Liddesdale. Here the queen paid him a visit, riding all the way from Jcdburgh, where she was holding a justice eyre. The fatigues of this ride of forty miles brought on a severe illness, during which her life was despaired of. After her recovery the project of a divorce from Darnlcy was mooted, but was declined by her, and Bothwell seems then to have resolved on the removal of her husband by any means. On the evening of the 9th of February the famous crime was committed of Darnley s murder. Public opinion, expressing itself in placards and outcries, fastened the guilt upon Bothwell and his associates, but he was too powerful to be dealt with by the law. On the 24th April he played his last move, carrying off Mary to Dunbar Castle, which had been granted him by the Queen. A divorce from his former wife was easily procured, the dispensation in their favour not being produced at the trial, and on the 15th May the royal marriage was completed. Mary had a few days previously pardoned Bothwell for his abduction of her, and had raised him to the rank of duke of Orkney. The fancied security in which they passed the few days after their marriage was soon and rudely dispelled. The great lords collected their forces and seized Edinburgh, Bothwell and the queen escaping with the greatest difficulty to Dunbar. At Carberry Hill the opposing parties met ; Mary surrendered to the lords, and Bothwell fled to Dunbar and thence to Orkney. Being closely pursued he took ship, was captured by a Danish cruiser, and confined for a time at Copenhagen. He was removed to Malmo and afterwards to Draxholm Castle, where he died in 1575. He is said to have made a death-bed confession exonerating the queen, but the authenticity of the report is more than doubtful. There is hardly a redeeming point in Bothwell s character ; he was utterly selfish and brutal, and did not even treat with courtesy or kindness the woman who had risked so much for his sake. (See Tytler and Burton s histories of Scotland-)
was born in 1766 at San Giorgio, in Piedmont. He studied medicine at the university of Turin, and obtained his doctor s degree when about twenty years of age. Hav ing rendered himself obnoxious to the Government during the political commotions that followed the French Revolu tion, he was imprisoned for nearly two years ; and on his release in 1794 he withdrew to France, only to return to his native country as a physician in the French army, whose progress he followed as far as Venice. Here he joined the expedition to Corfu, from which he did not get back to Italy till 1798. From that year, when he was appointed by Joubert a member of the provisional government at Pied mont, till the fall of the Napoleonic system in 1814, ho continued to have considerable political influence ; and though towards the close of that period he acted with an independence that proved offensive to Napoleon himself, and on the restoration of the Bourbons adapted his conduct to the circumstances of the time, he was still in sufficient favour with the Bonapartist party to receive from them, during their brief resumption of authority in 1815, the appointment (soon afterwards resigned) of rector of the university at Rou.cn. Ami^ all the vicissitudes of his early manhood Botta had never allowed his pen to be long idle, and in the political quiet that followed 1816 he natu rally devoted himself more exclusively to literature. By 1824 he had completed a history of Italy from. 1789 to
1814 (4 vols.), on which his fame principally rests, for