BILL, Robert, a noted English mechanician, who devoted considerable talent and an independent fortune to the furtherance of the mechanical arts; born in 1754; died in 1827. On his recommendation the admiralty were induced to substitute iron for wooden casks in ships destined for long voyages, and by his advice, also, an attempt was made to introduce iron masts, but not with like success. He exerted himself greatly to overcome the prejudices which at first existed against lighting by gas. One of his latest projects was to render, by a process which he was conducting with success in one of the government dockyards when he died, the most common wood as hard and durable as mahogany and other rare timbers.—J. S., G.
BILLARD, Charles-Michel, a French physician, born at Pelonaille, near Angers, 1800. The taste for the observation of nature which he manifested during his youth, induced his aunt, under whose care he was brought up, to enter him, in 1819, as a student of medicine at the school of Angers, from which he went to complete his studies at Paris. In 1825, whilst a house pupil in one of the hospitals of Paris, he published a valuable work, entitled "Traité de la membrane muqueuse intestinale dans l'état sain et dans l'état morbide," containing researches upon the pathological anatomy of the stomach and intestines. In the same year he brought out a French translation of Thompson's Elements of Chemistry. In 1826 he published a new edition of Chevreul's Précis de l'art des accouchements, to which he added a "Histoire des Vices de conformation du fœtus." In 1828, on his return from a journey through England and Scotland, Billard published his most important work, entitled "Traité des Maladies des Enfants nouveau nès et à la mamelle," &c., of which a second edition appeared in 1833. In the same year, 1828, he received his doctor's degree, and returned to Angers, where he translated Lawrence's Lectures on the Diseases of the Eyes, published in Paris in 1830, and was continuing his active find laborious career, when he was carried off by pulmonary consumption in 1832.—W. S. D.
BILLARD, Etienne, born at Nancy; died in 1785. An unsuccessful dramatic writer, remembered for his eccentricities, which are amusingly described by Grimm.—(Grimm's "Correspondence" 2 partie, tom. 2.)
BILLARD (de Courgenay), Claude, a native of the Bourbonnais, died in 1618, aged about sixty. Billard was brought up in the household of the duchess du Retz, introduced at court, and became private secretary of Queen Marguerite de Valois. He wrote several tragedies, and an epic poem entitled "L'Eglise Triomphant." The poem, in 13,000 verses, is still in manuscript. His "Catalogue of Bibliotheque Richelieu" is of more interest than his poems.—J. A., D.
BILLARD, Pierre, a French theologian, priest of the oratory, and author of a celebrated blast against the jesuits, entitled "La Bête à sept têtes," 1693, was born at Ernée in Maine, in 1653, and died in 1726.
BILLAUD-VARENNES, Jean Nicholas, one of the most utterly repulsive of the French revolutionists, was born in 1762 at Rochelle, became an advocate, and settled in Paris as a married man shortly before the Revolution. He was an active member of the commune for some time, but first starts out into a fearful fame by his share in the September massacres. He did much to get them up; and while the wholesale murder was going on, Billaud stood among the corpses thanking the assassins in the name of liberty, promising them rewards, and urging them to continued atrocities. Shortly after, when a member of the national convention, he voted for the death of the king with the majority, and was of the few who disgraced themselves by voting against the king's having legal assistance. Afterwards Billaud was made one of the committee of public safety, and distinguished himself among the most terrible of the terrorists. At Robespierre's fall he tried to save himself by turning against him, but in vain. He was tried and banished to Cayenne. Thence he escaped to Mexico, became a Dominican monk, relapsed into a revolutionist there, was again banished, and found an asylum in Haité, where Pétion, the governor, made him his secretary. On Pétion's death, his successor turned Billaud adrift, upon which he wandered to Philadelphia, where he died in 1819. He published from time to time many writings now forgotten.—J. S. S.
BILLAULT, Auguste-Adolphe-Marie, a French jurisconsult, born at Vannes, Morbihan, 12th November, 1805. After studying the law at Rennes, he practised as an advocate before the tribunal of Nantes. Having devoted much attention to questions connected with the internal communications of the country, he was in 1838 admitted a member, and appointed secretary of the grand commission of railways. He subsequently entered on a political career; and after the revolution of 1848, was elected member of the constituent assembly. After the 2nd December, 1851, having become a partisan of the imperial dynasty, he was elected to the corps legislatif, and became president of that body.—G. M.
BILLAUT, Adam, better known as Master Adam, born at Nevers, where he died in 1662. His parents, Pierre Billaut and Jeanne More, were natives of the village of St. Benin-des-Bois in Nivernois. He obtained some local reputation for his verses. In 1637 he went to Paris, brought by a law-suit, and was given a pension by the duke of Orleans. Billaut was a carpenter. "He was," says Voltaire, "wholly ignorant of literature, but worked in his shop at making verses." Some of his verses are still popular. He was called "Virgil aù rabot." Richelieu gave him a pension, a fact of which the proof given is his earnest solicitation for its payment, for his wants could not wait the irregularities of the treasury. Corneille praised him. He published three collections of poems, calling them respectively his "Nail," his "Wimble," and his "Plane." The prefaces to these volumes are the chief sources of his biography.—J. A., D.
BILLE, Steen Andersen, a Danish admiral and statesman, born at Assens in Fionie, 22nd August, 1751; died at Copenhagen, 15th April, 1833. He entered as a midshipman in 1768, took part in numerous expeditions, and in several naval engagements, particularly in the battle of Copenhagen in April, 1801. He advanced steadily through the various grades of his profession, and was appointed admiral in 1829.—G. M.
* BILLE, Steen Andersen, son of the preceding, a Danish rear-admiral and minister of marine, born at Copenhagen, 5th December, 1797. In 1816 he commenced his career, like his father, as a midshipman on board a Danish vessel, but three years afterwards he entered the service of France, and was engaged in several important expeditions, particularly to Brazil, to the western coast of America, and to the Antilles. Returning to the service of the king of Denmark, he in 1845 was placed at the head of a commercial and scientific expedition round the world, which he accomplished in little more than two years, and which was attended with very important results. In 1852 he was appointed by that sovereign, rear-admiral, minister of marine, and member of the council of state. He wrote an account of his voyages of circumnavigation, and various other articles, which were inserted in the Archiv for Sövœsen.—G. M.
BILLECOCQ, Jean Baptiste Louis Joseph, born at Paris, 1765; died 1829; educated at the college of Plessis; first practised at the bar; next employed in the public service, in the ministère des affaires etrangères; lost his place in some of the political changes of the day. He outlived the dangers of the Revolution, though connected more or less with a good many of the more violent movements, and with the men most remarkable in the Jacobin clubs. To some of these clubs he had at one time belonged, but retired from them disgusted with their frenzied excesses. In the worst days he found occupation in literature. One of his works is a translation of Sallust. It would have been difficult for a man to have been so occupied, without seeing in the descriptions of the historian an almost perfect picture of the scenes which were then being acted in Paris. In 1797 he returned to the bar, and was engaged in some very important cases. He defended some of the persons mixed up in the Cadoudal conspiracy. Billecocq, perhaps from old republican feelings, looked with distrust on the imperial government, and kept away from public life. His whole time was given to his professional pursuits and to literature, some attention to which is more easily reconcilable with the duties of a lawyer fully employed in France than in England. On the return of the Bourbons, he declined any higher office than that of maitre des requêtes au conseil d'ètat. In 1821 and 1822 he was appointed batonnier of the order of avocats.—J. A., D.
BILLEREY, Claude-Nicolas, a French physician, born at Besançon, about the year 1677, became professor of medicine in his native town, where he died in 1759. Billerey was a learned mathematician and astronomer, and a great linguist; we are told that he could express himself with remarkable facility in Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, and English. His only printed works are a "Traité' sur la maladie pestilentielle qui
