become an independent state, under the mutual guarantee of the two contracting parties. Thus the war, after completely exhausting both Brazil and Buenos Ayres, ended in a drawn game as to the subject of the contest.

BANDELLO, Matteo, a novelist, born, about 1480, at Castelnuovo di Scrivia, studied at Rome and Naples, and applied himself almost exclusively to polite literature. He was, in his youth, a Dominican monk at Castelnuovo. He seems to have lived some years in Mantua, where Pirro Gonzaga and Camilla Bentivoglio intrust ed to him the education of their daughter. He afterwards resided at Milan, until, after the battle of Pavia, the Spaniards banished him thence as a partisan of France. Upon this he went first to Ludovico Gonzaga, then to Cesare Fregoso, who had left the Venetian for the French service, and lived with the latter, in Piedmont, till the conclusion of the truce between the belligerent powers, and then followed him to France. After the death of his protector, he resided at Agen, with the family of the deceased, and, in 1550, was appointed bishop of that city. He left the administration of his diocese to the bishop of Grasse, and employed himself, at the advanced age of 70, in the completion of his novels, of which he published three volumes in 1554; a fourth was published in 1573, after his death. Camillo Franceschini also published his novels at Venice, in 1566, 4to. B. published, at Agen, in 1545, Canti XI delle Lodi della S. Lucrezia Gonzaga di Ganzuela e del Vero Amore, col Tempio di Pudicitia, and also two other poems; altogether of but little value. Other poems of his, found in manuscript at Turin, were printed by Costa, in 1816, under the title of Rime di Matteo Bandello. The novels of B. are distinguished by a natural simplicity, a rapid narration, and periods at once short and harmonious; but their contents are frequently impure. This reproach applies more to him than to Boccaccio, that he loves to dwell on wanton scenes, and to paint them in lively colors to the imagination.

BANDE NOIRE. When the revolution in France had rendered superfluous much ecclesiastical property, also many castles and residences of the emigrant and resident nobility, by the abolition of trusts and entails, and by the equal division of property among the children of these families, nothing was more natural than that, with the increase of population, societies should be formed to purchase

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the edifices which had thus become useless (churches, chapels, abbeys, monasteries, bishops' residences, parsonages, Gothic castles, with their prisons and other appurtenances, hunting lodges, watch-towers, &c.), and pull them down, just as the merchants of Amsterdam, on the decline of their prosperity, allowed the villas about that commercial city to be pulled down, or sold in order to be pulled down, by the slopers, so called. To many this seems a barbarous custom. In Germany, also, after the great secularization of cathedrals and monasteries, associations were formed, particularly of the Jews, who, with profit to themselves, bought the buildings which had become unnecessary, pulled them down, and sold the materials, as well as the state's domains, which had been alienated in large lots, and were now disposed of by them in small portions. The bande noire enriched itself from the sale of the materials for building, from the felling of wood in the parks, and from the disposal of land for gardens, meadows and fields. The public, too, were benefited at the same time. In places where this has frequently happened, the countryman dwells more comfortably, and is richer, than in many other quarters; for example, in the Pyrenees, and particularly in the southerly part of France.

En

BANDETTINI, Theresa, an improvisatrice, born at Lucca, about 1756, received a careful education, but was obliged (her family having lost their property) to go upon the stage. She made her first appearance in Florence, and was unsuccessful. This, united to her love for polite literature, led her to the most assiduous study of the poets. As she was one day listening to an improvisatore of Verona, her own genius broke forth in a splendid poetical panegyric on the poet. couraged by him, she devoted herself entirely to this beautiful art. Her originality, her fervid imagination, and the truth and harmony of her expression, soon gained for her a distinguished celebrity. She was enabled to abandon the stage, and travel through Italy; and she enjoyed the honor of being chosen a member of several academies. One of her most celebrated poems was that which she delivered, in 1794, impromptu, before the prince Lambertini, at Bologna, on the death of Marie Antoinette of France. In 1813, wearied with travelling, she returned to her native city, where she lived retired on her small property. She published Ode tre (Lucca, 4), of which the first celebrates

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Nelson's victory at Aboukir, the second Suwaroff's victories in Italy, and the third the victories of the archduke Charles in Germany. She also gave to the world, under the name of Amarilli Etrusca, Saggio di Versi Estemporanei (published, in Pisa, by Bodoni), among which the poem on Petrarch's interview with Laura, in the church, is particularly distinguished, and places her by the side of Rossi.

BANDIT (Ital. bandito); originally an exile, then a hired murderer. This name was given to the assassins (see Ishmaelites) of Italy. At the present time, in Italy, bandit and robber are almost synonymous. They form a kind of society of themselves, which is subjected to strict laws, and lives in open or secret war with the civil authorities, and are a disgraceful proof of its weakness, no Italian government having succeeded in extirpating them. The strict measures which the papal government adopted, in 1820, against persons who should harbor bandits and robbers, have indeed destroyed their lurking-places; but the villains who were formerly settled are now become vagabonds. Those, however, who infest the environs of Naples, are the peasants of the country, who, besides being engaged in agriculture, employ themselves in robbery and murder. The fear of capital punishment is ineffectual to deter them from these crimes. Peter the Calabrian, the most terrible among these robbers, in 1812, named himself, in imitation of the titles of Napoleon, "emperor of the mountains," "king of the woods," "protector of the conscribed," and "mediator of the highways from Florence to Naples." The government of Ferdinand I was compelled to make a compact with this bandit. One of the robbers entered the royal service, as a captain, in 1818, and engaged to take captive his former comrades. More lately, adventurers of all kinds have joined them. These bandits are to be distinguished from other robbers, who are called malviventi; and the Austrian troops, which occupied Naples, were obliged to send large detachments to repress them. It is remarkable, in these robbers, that they only attack travellers on the highways. This also is true of those who exact from strangers and natives a sum of money for protection, and give them in return a letter of security; which, a short time ago, was the case in Sicily, where the bandits dwell in the greatest numbers in the Val Demone. Here the prince of Villa Franca declared himself, from political and other views,

their protector: he gave them a livery, and treated them with much confidence, which they never abused; for even among them there is a certain romantic sense of honor derived from the middle ages. They keep their promises inviolate, and often take better care of the security of a place intrusted to them than the public authorities.

BANER, also BANNIER, John (in English, always written Baner), a Swedish general in the thirty years' war, descended from an old noble family of Sweden, was born in 1596. When a child, he fell from the castle of Hörnings-holm, four stories high, without being injured. Gustavus Adolphus, who valued him very much, early prophesied that he was destined for greatness. He made his first campaigns in Poland and Russia, and accompanied his king to Germany. After the death of Gustavus, in 1632, he had the chief command over 16,000 men, and was the terror of the enemy. He obtained the greatest glory by his victory at Wittstock, in 1636, over the imperial and Saxon troops; and it was also owing to his activity, that, after the battle of Nordlingen, the affairs of Sweden gradually improved. He died at Halberstadt, in 1641, under 45 years of age, and was suspected to have been poisoned. In him Sweden lost her ablest general, and the imperial troops their most dangerous enemy. B. was careful to engage in no enterprise without a reasonable probability of success. He knew how to avoid danger with dexterity, and to escape from a superior force. During his command, 30,000 of the enemy were killed, and 600 standards taken, on different occasions.

He was always found at the head of his men, and maintained good discipline. He wanted patience for sieges. He has been accused of pride and severity. The pleasures of the table and of love occupied all the leisure time which his employments allowed him, and probably immoderate indulgence in them was the real poison which brought on his death. He was three times married.

BANGOR; a post-town and capital of the county of Penobscot, in Maine, on the W. side of Penobscot river, at the head of the tide and of navigation; 52 miles N. of Owl's-head, at the mouth of Penobscot bay; 68 miles N. E. of Augusta; lat. 44° 45′ N.; lon. 68° 45′ W.: population, in 1820, 1221; in 1825, 2002. Its situation is pleasant, and very advantageous for commerce. It is a flourishing town, and contains a theological seminary with two professors, a court-house,

and other public buildings. The river is navigable, as far as this town, for vessels of 300 or 400 tons.

BANGUE; a kind of opiate, much used throughout the East as a means of intoxication. The Persians call it beng. It is made of the leaf of a kind of wild hemp, in different ways.

BANIANS; a name formerly given by Europeans to almost all the Hindoos, because baniyà, the term whence it is derived, signifies a banker, the class with which Europeans had most frequent intercourse. It is one of the mixed classes, sprung from a father of the medical and a mother of the commercial class. The English sailors call banian days those days on which they have no flesh meat. Probably the name is taken from the word at the head of this article, because, before people were acquainted with the abstinence of all the Hindoos, it was thought to be confined to the Banians.

BANISHMENT. (See Exile.)

BANK. The term bank, in reference to commerce, implies a place of deposit of money. Banks, like most commercial institutions, originated in Italy, where, in the infancy of European commerce, the Jews were wont to assemble in the market-places of the principal towns, seated on benches, ready to lend money; and the term bank is derived from the Italian word banco (bench). Banks are of three kinds, viz., of deposit, of discount, and of circulation. In some cases, all these functions are exercised by the same establishment; sometimes two of them; and, in other instances, only one.-1. A bank of deposit receives money to keep for the depositor, until he draws it out. This is the first and most obvious purpose of these institutions. The goldsmiths of London were formerly bankers of this description: they took the money, bullion, plate, &c. of depositors, merely for safe keeping.-2. Another branch of banking business is the discounting of promissory notes and bills of exchange, or loaning money upon mortgage, pawn, or other security.-3. A bank of circulation issues bills or notes of its own, intended to be the circulating currency or medium of exchanges, instead of gold and silver. Banks are also divided into public and private; but what is a public bank, is not very definitely settled. Where the government of a nation, or the municipal authorities of a place, as in Amsterdam, has the direct management or control of a bank, it is a public one; and those institutions of this class, the credit of which is

connected with that of the government, or which are used as instruments in collecting and distributing the public revenues, or in which the government is a proprietor, are public banks; and so are also those usually considered to be, which are carried on under a charter from the government; whereas a private bank is usually understood to be one that is carried on by one or more individuals, without any particular connexion with the government, or any special authority or charter. There is, for instance, in England, but one public bank, namely, the bank of England; whereas, in the U. States, most of the banks are public, and, in some of the states, private banks of circulation are prohibited by law. The general character and the different kinds of these institutions being thus explained, the reader will be enabled the more easily to understand our account of some of the banking institutions of the greatest historical notoriety.

The Bank of Venice was established as early as 1171, during the crusades, and for the purpose of rendering assistance to those expeditions. It was a bank of deposit only, and strictly a public bank, as the government became responsible for the deposits, and the whole capital was, in effect, a public loan, the funds of the bank being made use of by the government; and, in the early periods of the operations of this bank, they were not withdrawn, when once deposited, but the depositor had a credit at the bank to the amount deposited; and he used the money so deposited by transferring this credit to another person, instead of paying money. Subsequently, however, the deposits were allowed to be withdrawn; for, though the bank credits answered all the purposes of money at Venice, a specie currency was wanted by persons going abroad, or having payments to make in distant places. This bank continued in operation until the dissolution of this republic, in 1798.

The Bank of Amsterdam was established in 1609, and owed its origin to the clipped and worn currency, which, being of uncertain and fluctuating value, subjected the exchange to a corresponding fluctuation and uncertainty. The object of the institution was, to give a certain and unquestionable value to a bill on Amsterdam; and, for this purpose, the various coins were received in deposit at the bank at a certain value, according to their weight and fineness, a small deduction of seigniorage being made, equivalent to the supposed expense of coinage into money

of the proper weight and fineness, and the depositor was also required to pay a small amount for the privilege of having an account at the bank. As the money received is not, in fact, recoined, these charges, with a distinct charge for deposits of bullion, and a fee for every new deposit, and five stivers for every transfer, constitute the income of the establishment, and, being more than sufficient to defray the expenses, a net revenue accrues to the city, though the acquisition of revenue was not contemplated in forming the institution. A profit has also occasionally been made by purchasing the current coin whenever it could be converted into bank money at an expense less than the agio. The deposits made and credited are denominated bank money, which is at a certain premium or agio above current money, according to the fineness and weight of the current coin; and, since the currency has been well regulated, this agio is steady and inconsiderable, never exceeding five per cent. In order to produce the intended effect on the exchange, it was provided, by law, that all payments of 600 guilders, or about $233, and upwards, should be made in bank money; and payments are made by transfers of credits in the books of the bank, as formerly at Venice. In one respect, this bank differs from that of Venice, as the deposits are not taken out and used by the government, but remain in the vaults. The direction of this bank is placed in the hands of four burgomasters or aldermen for the time being, who count and receipt for the money on coming into office, at the commencement of each year. During the whole period since the establishment of the bank, no peculation, or breach of trust, on the part of these directors, has ever happened. This is a bank merely of deposit and transfer: it neither makes loans nor circulates bills.

The Bank of Hamburg was established in 1619, 10 years after that of Amsterdam, and, like this latter, is a mere bank of deposit and transfer, the deposits being made in coin or bullion, at a certain fixed rate, and liable to be withdrawn by the depositors: any one having a credit at the bank may draw out the amount of his credit. The bank has not properly, therefore, any capital of its own, the whole funds being liable to be withdrawn at any moment. The expenses of the institution are defrayed by a charge of a certain rate per page of transfers in the bank book to every depositor. The

amount of deposits varies from 10 to 15 million dollars. This bank was plundered by Davoust, when he was in possession of Hamburg, in 1813; but many of the depositors, anticipating this event, had withdrawn their deposits, and remitted them to Copenhagen or England; and, to those who remitted to England, it proved quite a fortunate event, for, by the subsequent rise of exchange, they nearly doubled their capital. The depositors who were thus plundered of their property have received a partial indemnity of 36 per cent. from the French government, since the restoration of the Bourbons. The directors of this bank, five in number, are chosen annually by the whole body of the citizens of Hamburg, having a right to vote for municipal officers. They receive no salary.

The Bank of England is one of deposit, discount and circulation. It was chartered in the reign of William and Mary, 1693, seventy or eighty years after those of Amsterdam and Hamburg, by an act which, among other things, secured certain recompenses and advantages to such persons as should advance the sum of £1,500,000 towards carrying on the war against France. The sum of £1,200,000 was subscribed before the expiration of the year, and the subscribers became, under the act, stockholders, to the amount of their respective subscriptions, in the capital stock of a corporation, denominated the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. This charter was granted for 11 years, and the company advanced to the government £1,200,000, at an interest of eight per cent.; and the government made an additional bonus, or allowance to the bank, of £4000 annually, for the management of this loan (which, in fact, constituted the capital of the bank), and for settling the interest and making transfers, &c. among the various stockholders. This bank, like that of Venice, and unlike those of Amsterdam and Hamburg, was originally an engine of the government, and not a mere commercial, establishment. The management of the institution is in the hands of a governor, lieutenant-governor, and 24 directors, elected by stockholders who have held £500 of stock for six months previous to the election. A director is required to hold £2000, a deputygovernor £3000, and a governor £4000, of the capital stock. Its capital has been increased, from time to time, so as to stand at different periods as follows: