is filed, and the court orders the property to be put under the control of a receiver. The debtor states his affairs on oath and is publicly examined, and the creditors meet. Me may offer to compound with them, that is, to pay part of what he owes. If his creditors approve, the court or receiver may allow the arrangement. If he does not offer to pay, the court says he is a bankrupt and the creditors appoint a trustee. He administers the estate and controls the bankrupt's movements. The latter can at any time after being declared a bankrupt ask to be discharged, but this may be refused, suspended or granted conditionally. When the trustee has divided the debtor's property among his creditors in proportion to the amount he owed each, he is released from his debts and discharged from bankruptcy.
The ancient Roman law against bankruptcy regarded it as a crime, so that the creditors might sell the debtor into slavery or divide his body into pieces. An English act of 1622, again, condemned a debtor who failed to show just reason for being unable to pay his debts to have one ear nailed to the pillory and afterwards cut off. The mildness of recent laws against bankruptcy is not only due to a more humane spirit, but also to the great complexity of modern business, which may cause a man to become bankrupt to a greater degree than formerly through no fault of his own.
Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, an American general, born in 1816 at Waltham, Massachusetts. He studied law and was elected to the state legislature, being made speaker of the house in 1851. He was elected to Congress in 18 5 2 ,but Deing opposed to slavery left the Democratic party. In 1854 he was again sent to congress by the Republicans and Know-nothings, and was chosen speaker of the house in 1856. He was governor of Massachusetts from 1857 to 1860. Soon after the outbreak of the war he was given command of an army corps on the Potomac. In 1862 he succeeded General Butler in the command of the Department of the Gulf. In 1863 he captured Port Hudson with 6,000 prisoners, which effected the opening of the Mississippi River, and in 1864, with Admiral Porter in charge of a gunboat fleet, he led an unsuccessful expedition up the Red River, and was there relieved of his command in May, 1864. He was a member of Congress from 1864 to 1870 and again from 1874 to 1876, and was re-elected in 1888. He died Sept. i, 1894.
Banks of Newfoundland, The, extending for a length of some six hundred miles, are famous for their cod fisheries. Other fish are also abundant on the Banks; and t may be said that Newfoundland depends almost entirely upon its cod, seal and herring industries. The Banks are believed to have been gradually formed through the melting of icebergs, which here come into contact with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and deposit the earth and stones which they may have carried from Arctic shores.
Ban'nockburn, a Scottish village on the stream of that name. It is noted for the great battle fought there in 1314 between the English under Edward II, with 100,000 men, and the Scotch under Robert Bruce, with 30,000, in which the English were completely defeated, losing nearly 30,000 men. The stone on which Bruce is said to have fastened his standard is still to be seen, and near it a flagstaff, 120 feet high, was erected as a memorial.
Ban'yan or Banian, a tree of India and tropical Africa, remarkable for the great branches which it sends down to the earth, and which take root again, forming new trunks. In this way the tree spreads over a great surface and lasts for many ages, though the original trunk may decay. One has been described as having 350 trunks as large as oak trees and more tnan 3,000 smaller ones. It grows from seventy to a hundred feet high. Alexander Campbell is said to have once sheltered 7,000 men under a banyan. Great numbers of birds and monkeys live in the tree and eat its fruit,—a kind of fig. The Brahmans hold the tree in great reverence.
Barba'dos, the most eastern of the West Indian Islands, to the eastward of the Windward Islands. It is twenty-one miles long and fourteen and one-half miles broad. It contains 166 square miles, or 106,470 acres, of which about 100,000 are cultivated. The island is almost surrounded by coral reefs. The highest point of land is Mount Hillaby, which is 1,104 feet above the sea. The climate is very healthy, but the people are in constant danger from hurricanes, which destroy an immense amount of property and many lives. One storm, in 1780, killed 4,326 persons and swept away about $6,000,-ooo worth of property. Since the suppression of slavery in the island in 1834, its prosperity has greatly increased. The population is 199,542, a large part of which is colored. England first settled the island in 1625, and it still belongs to her. The capital is Bridgetown (population, 33,000).
Barbarossa. See Frederick I.
Barbaros'sa (meaning Red Beard), three brothers, natives of Greece, who, as Turkish pirates, were the terror of the Mediterranean Sea during the first half of the 16th century. One of them murdered the chief men in Algiers and seized the town, but was captured in 1518 and beheaded. His younger brother took his place in Algiers, and, putting himself under the protection of Turkey, conquered Tunis for her. He defeated the Christian nations several times in sea-fights, and helped the French to take Nice in 1543. With thousands of captives he returned in
