Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/608

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BARNETT.
530
BARN-OWL.

Minstrel, for orchestra; quartets and quintets for strings; and several pianoforte and vocal solos.


BARNEVELDT, biir'ne-velt. Jan van Olden (1547-1619). A Dutch statesman. He was born at Amersfoort, in Utrecht, and at an early age showed great ardor in the cause of his country's independence. He was an able ally of William the Silent in the struggle against Spain, and after the Prince's death, succeeded, through wise alliances with England and France, in preserving the independence so dearly gained. As Advocate-General of the Province of Holland, he proved equally his insight into public affairs and his address in diplomatic negotiations. Penetrating the secret designs of the young Prince Maurice of Orange, whom he had caused to be made Stadtholder of five provinces, he made himself the leader of the Republican party, which aimed at subordinating the Stadtholder to the Legislature, and saving the Netherlands from a monarchy. It was he, also, who opposed the warlike tendencies of Maurice, and concluded a treaty with Spain (1609) which later saved the country from the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. Maurice of Orange, ambitious and unscrupulous, became Barneveldt's bitterest enemy, and a fierce political struggle was fought out between the two men, under the guise of a religious dispute. The country was, at that time, split up into the rival factions of the Arminians or Remonstrants, who stood for the doctrine of Free Will, and comprised the magistracy of the country, with Barneveldt at their head, and the Calvinists, who were known as Gomarists or Contra-Remonstrants, of whom Maurice, for political reasons, now assumed the leadership. With the view of obviating a civil war, Barneveldt caused an ecclesiastical assembly to be called, which established general toleration. The States at first concurred in this wise measure, but the partisans of the Orange faction brought about a change of views by representing the Remonstrants as secret friends of Spain. Barneveldt was attacked in scurrilous publications, and was insulted, even in the meetings of the States, by the mob whose idol Maurice was. The strife between the Remonstrants and the Gomarists, that is, between Barneveldt and Maurice, finally culminated in violence on the part of the Prince of Orange. On August 29, 1618, Barneveldt was illegally arrested, together with Grotius and Hoogerbeets, and thrown into prison. In November Maurice procured the summoning of the Synod of Dort (q.v.), which condemned the Remonstrants with the utmost rigor. In March, 1619, while the Synod was still sitting, Barneveldt was brought to trial before a special commission of twenty-four judges, unlawfully appointed, who condemned as a traitor the innocent man to whom the country owed its political existence. The friends of Barneveldt, the Princess of Orange, and the French Ambassador interceded for him in vain. On May 13, 1619, the venerable man — the grandest figure of his time — mounted the scaffold and laid down his head with the same firmness that he had shown through all his life. Four years after their father's death, Barneveldt's two sons, Wilhelm and Reinier. took part in a conspiracy against the life of Maurice. The conspiracy was discovered; Wilhelm escaped, but Reinier was seized and beheaded. Consult Motley, Life of Barneveldt, of which numerous editions have been publislied (London and New York, 1874).


BAR'NEY, Joshua (1759-1818). An Ameri- can naval officer, born in Baltimore, Md. He shipped in 1772 in a brig trading to Liverpool, and subsequently made several voyages to Europe. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was appointed master's mate on board the sloop-of-war Hornet, which was assigned to Commodore Hopkins's squadron and participated in the capture of New Providence, Bahamas. Subsequently he entered on board the schoon- er Wasp, and served on the sloop Sachem, the brig Andrea Doria, and the frigate Virginia. He was captured by the British in 1780, and sent to Mill Prison, Plymouth, England, whence he made his escape in 1781, and came to Philadel- phia. In 1782, in command of the Hyder Ali, he captured off Cape May the British ship Gen- eral Monk, and in the same year sailed for France with dispatches to Franklin, then United States Minister, concerning the peace negotia- tions. From 1795 to 1800 he was a commodore in the French service; in 1814 commanded the American flotilla in defense of Chesapeake Bay, and in the same year participated in the battle of Bladensburg. Consult Barney, A Biographical Memoir (Boston, 1832).


BARN'FIELD, Richard (1574-1627). An English poet, born at Norbury, Shropshire. His works include The Affectionate Shepherd, a pas- toral based on Vergil's Second Eclogue (1594); Cynthia, with certain Sonnets and the Legend of Cassandra (1595); and The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, etc. (1598). The last volume contains "If music and sweet poetry agree," and "As it fell upon a day," which were long attributed to Shakespeare. They were again printed in The Passionate Pilgrim (1599). Barnfield's poems were edited by Grosart for the Roxburghe Club (1876), and E. Arber (1882).


BAR'NIVELT, Esdras, Apothecary. The pseudonym of the author of a key to The Rape of the Lock. The 'key' has been ascribed both to Pope and to Arbuthnot, and was published in London in 1715.


BARN-OWL. The barn-owl is a familiar species named by Linnæus Strix flammea, and conservative ornithologists regard it as almost cosmopolitan in its distribution, counting the slight differences observable in those of Africa, the Orient, Australia, North and South America, as marking merely geographical races; others, however, prefer to separate these local forms into distinct species, and call that of the Americas Strix pratincola. It should further be said that the term barn-owl is most often applied in Great Britain to the related tawny owl (Strix stridula), while the present species is usually called screech-owl. This type of owl is of com- paratively small size (length, about 17 inches), and is characterized by the yellowish-red, irregu- larly marked plumage of the back, the "silky- white to bright tawny" hue of the under surface, dotted with black spots; and particularly by the heart-shaped form of the facial disks, which meet in a point below the beak, and are fringed with bright rust-color. The eyes are small and black, the legs long and clothed with short feathers only. Its quaint physiognomy has won for it the name 'monkey-faced' in the Southern States.

Range and Breeding. — This owl is occasion-