Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 10 (1/2)

BAGEHOT, WALTER (1826-1877), English publicist and economist, editor of the _Economist_ newspaper from 1860 to his death, was born at Langport, Somerset, on the 3rd of February 1826, his father being a banker at that place. Bagehot was altogether a remarkable personality, his writings on different subjects exhibiting the same bent of mind and characteristics,--philosophic reflectiveness, practical common-sense, a bright and buoyant humour, brilliant wit and always a calm and tolerant judgment of men and things. Though he belonged to the Liberal party in politics he was essentially of conservative disposition, and often spoke with sarcastic boastfulness to his Liberal friends of the stupidity and tenacity of the English mind in adhering to old ways, as displayed in city and country alike. His life was comparatively uneventful, as he early gave up to literature the energies which might have gained him a large fortune in business or a great position in the political world. He took his degree at the London University in 1848, and was called to the bar in 1852, but from an early date he joined his father in the banking business of Stuckey & Co. in the west of England, and during a great part of his life, while he was editor of the _Economist_, he managed the London agency of the bank, lending its surplus money in ”Lombard Street,” and otherwise attending to its London affairs. He became also an underwriter at Lloyd's, taking no part, however, in the active detailed business, which was done for him by proxy.

Bagehot's connexion with the _Economist_ began in 1858, about which time he married a daughter of the first editor, the Right Hon. James Wilson, at that time secretary of the treasury, and afterwards secretary of finance in India. Partly through this [v.03 p.0199] connexion he was brought into the inside of the political life of the time. He was an intimate friend of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, and was afterwards in constant communication with many of the political chiefs, especially with Gladstone, Robert Lowe and Grant Duff, and with the permanent heads of the great departments of state.

In the city in the same way he was intimate with the governor and directors of the Bank of England, and with leading magnates in the banking and commercial world; while his connexion with the Political Economy Club brought him into contact in another way with both city and politics. His active life in business and politics, however, was not of so absorbing a kind as to prevent his real devotion to literature, but the literature largely grew out of his activities, and of no one can it be said more truly than of Bagehot that the atmosphere in which he lived gave tone and colour and direction to his studies, one thing of course acting and reacting on another. The special note of his books, apart from his remarkable gift of conversational epigrammatic style, which gives a peculiar zest to the writing, is the quality of scientific dispa.s.sionate description of matters which were hardly thought of previously as subjects of scientific study.

This is specially the case with the two books which perhaps brought him the most reputation, _The English Const.i.tution_ (1867) and _Lombard Street_ (1873). They are both books of observation and description. The English const.i.tution is described, not from law books and as a lawyer would describe it, but from the actual working, as Bagehot himself had witnessed it, in his contact with ministers and the heads of government departments, and with the life of the society in which the politicians moved. The true springs and method of action are consequently described with a vivid freshness which gives the book a wonderful charm, and makes it really a new departure in the study of politics. It is the same with _Lombard Street_.

The money market is there pictured as it really was in 1850-1870, and as Bagehot saw it with philosophic eyes. Beginning with the sentence, ”The objects which you see in Lombard Street are the Bank of England, the joint stock banks, the private banks and the discount houses,” he describes briefly and clearly the respective functions of these different bodies in the organism of the city, according to his own close observation as a banker himself, knowing the ways and thoughts of the men he describes, and as a man of business likewise in other ways, knowing at first hand the relation of banking to the trade and commerce of the country. _Lombard Street_ is perhaps a riper work than _The English Const.i.tution_, as its foundation was really laid in 1858 in a series of articles which Bagehot then wrote in the _Economist_, though it was not published till the early 'seventies, after it had been twice rewritten and revised with infinite labour and care. _Lombard Street_, like _The English Const.i.tution_ in political studies, is thus a new departure in economic and financial studies, applying the same sort of keen observation which Adam Smith used in the a.n.a.lysis of business generally to the special business of banking and finance in the complex modern world. It is, perhaps, not going too far to say that the whole theory of a one-reserve system of banking and how to work it, and of the practical means of fixing an ”apprehension minimum”

below which the reserve should not fall, originated in _Lombard Street_ and the articles which were the foundation of it; and the subsequent conduct of banking in England and throughout the world has been infinitely better and safer in consequence. A like note is also struck in _Physics and Politics_ (1869), which is a description of the evolution of communities of men. The materials here are derived mainly from books, the surface to be observed being so extensive, but the att.i.tude is precisely the same, that of a scientific observer. To a certain extent the _Physics and Politics_ had even a more remarkable influence on opinion, at least on foreign opinion, than _The English Const.i.tution_ or _Lombard Street_. It ”caught on” as a development of the theory of evolution in a new direction, and Darwin himself was greatly interested, while one of the pleasures of Bagehot's later years was to receive a translation of the book into the Russian language. In _Literary Studies_ (1879) and _Economic Studies_ (1880), published after his death, there is more scope than in the books already mentioned for other characteristics besides those of the scientific observer, but observation always comes to the front, as in the account of Ricardo, whom Bagehot describes as often, when he is most theoretical, really describing what a first-rate man of business would do and think in actual transactions. The observation, of course, is that of a type of business man in the city to which Ricardo as well as Bagehot belonged, though Ricardo could hardly look at it from the outside as Bagehot was able to do.

Bagehot had great city, political and literary influence, to which all his activities contributed, and much of his influence was lasting. In politics and economics especially his habit of scientific observation affected the tone of discussion, and both the English const.i.tution and the money market have been better understood generally because he wrote and talked and diffused his ideas in every possible way. He was unsuccessful in two or three attempts to enter parliament, but he had the influence of far more than an ordinary member, as director of the _Economist_ and as the adviser behind the scenes of the ministers and permanent heads of departments who consulted him. His death, on the 24th of March 1877, occurred at Langport very suddenly, when he was in the fullest mental vigour and might have looked forward to the accomplishment of much additional work and the exercise of even wider influence.

It is impossible to give a full idea of the brightness and life of Bagehot's conversation, although the conversational style of his writing may help those who did not know him personally to understand it. With winged words he would transfix a fallacy or stamp a true idea so that it could not be forgotten. He was certainly greater than his books and always full of ideas. The present writer recalls two notions he had, not for writing new books himself, but as something that might be done. One was that there might be a history of recent politics with new lights if some one were to do it who knew the family connexions and history of English politicians. This was _apropos_ of the pa.s.sage of a certain bill through parliament, when the head of the department in the House of Commons failed and the management of the measure was taken by the chancellor of the exchequer himself, a relative of the permanent head of the department concerned, who was thus able to carry his own ideas in legislation notwithstanding the failure of his political chief. Another book he wished to see written was an account of the differences in the administrative systems of England and Scotland, by which he had been greatly impressed, the differences not being in detail, but in fundamental idea and in form, so that no judicial or other officers in the one were represented in the other by corresponding functionaries. Many other ill.u.s.trations might be given of his fulness of ideas which helped to make him an ideal editor.

Reference must also be made to the a.s.sistance which Bagehot gave as a journalist to the study of statistics. From the manipulation of figures he was most averse, and he rather boasted that he was unable to add up. But he was a most excellent mathematician, and no one could be so careful as he was about the logic of the figures got together for his articles, which he always most carefully scrutinized. He would frequently point out that his figures were ill.u.s.trative merely, and did not by themselves establish an argument. He was always anxious, again, to impress on those about him that a subject could not be studied with the help of figures and accounts alone.

Whether it was insurance, or banking, or underwriting, or s.h.i.+powning, he insisted that some one who knew the business should see the writing before it was published. Knowing so many departments of business from actual experience, he was a host in himself as referee, but when in doubt he would always consult some one who knew the facts; and he used his great influence so well that in subsequent years it inspired indirectly not a few who were hardly aware of his claims to be a statistician at all.

(R. GN.)

BAGELKHAND, or BAGHELKHAND, a tract of country in central India, occupied by a collection of native states. The Bagelkhand agency is under the political superintendence of the governor-general's agent for central India, and under the direct jurisdiction of a political agent who is also superintendent [v.03 p.0200] of the Rewa state, residing ordinarily at Sutna or Rewa. The agency consists of Rewa state and eleven minor states and estates, of which the more important are Maihar, NaG.o.de and Sohawal.

The total area is 14,323 sq. m., and the population in 1901 was 1,555,024, showing a decrease of 11% in the decade, due to the results of famine. The rainfall was very deficient in 1895-1897, causing famine in 1897; and in 1899-1900 there was drought in some sections. The agency was established in March 1871. Until that date Bagelkhand was under the Bundelkhand agency, with which it is geographically and historically connected; a general description of the country will be found under that heading. According to Wilson, in his _Glossary of Indian Terms_, the Baghelas, who give their name to this tract of country, are a branch of the Sisodhyia Rajputs who migrated eastward and once ruled in Gujarat.

BAGG[=A]RA (”Cowherds”), African ”Arabs” of Semitic origin, so called because they are great cattle owners and breeders. They occupy the country west of the White Nile between the s.h.i.+lluk territory and Dar Nuba, being found princ.i.p.ally in Kordofan. They are true nomad Arabs, having intermarried little with the Nuba, and have preserved most of their national characteristics. The date of their arrival in the Sudan is uncertain: they appear to have drifted up the Nile valley and to have dispossessed the original Nuba population. A purely pastoral people, they move from pasture to pasture, as food becomes deficient. The true Bagg[=a]ra tribesmen employ oxen as saddle and pack animals, carry no s.h.i.+eld, and though many possess firearms the customary weapons are lance and sword. They have always had the reputation of being resolute fighters.

Engaged from the earliest times in the slave trade, they were among the first, as they were certainly the most fervent, supporters of the mahdi when he rose in revolt against the Egyptians (1882). They const.i.tuted his real fighting force, and to their fanatical courage his victories were due.

Their decision to follow him out of their own country to Khartum brought about the fall of that city. The mahdi's successor, the khalifa Abdullah, was a Bagg[=a]ra, and throughout his rule the tribe held the first place in his favour. They have been described as ”men who look the fiends they really are--of most sinister expression, with murder and every crime speaking from their savage eyes. Courage is their only good quality.” They are famous, too, as hunters of big game, attacking even elephants with sword and spear. G. A. Schweinfurth declares them the best-looking of the Nile nomads, and the men are types of physical beauty, with fine heads, erect athletic bodies and sinewy limbs. There is little that is Semitic in their appearance. Their skins vary in colour from a dark red-brown to a deep black; but their features are regular and free of negro characteristics. In mental power they are much superior to the indigenous races around them. They have a pa.s.sion for fine clothes and ornaments, tricking themselves out with gla.s.s trinkets, rings and articles of ivory and horn. Their mode of hair-dressing (mop-fas.h.i.+on) earned them, in common with the Hadendoa, the name of ”Fuzzy-wuzzies” among the British soldiers in the campaigns of 1884-98.

See G. A. Schweinfurth, _Heart of Africa_ (1874); Sir F. R. Wingate, _Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan_ (1891), _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, edited by Count Gleichen (1905); A. H. Keane, _Ethnology of the Egyptian Sudan_ (1884).

BAGGESEN, JENS IMMANUEL (1764-1826), Danish poet, was born on the 15th of February 1764 at Korsor. His parents were very poor, and before he was twelve he was sent to copy doc.u.ments at the office of the clerk of the district. He was a melancholy, feeble child, and before this he had attempted suicide more than once. By dint of indomitable perseverance, he managed to gain an education, and in 1782 entered the university of Copenhagen. His success as a writer was coeval with his earliest publication; his _Comical Tales_ in verse, poems that recall the _Broad Grins_ that Colman the younger brought out a decade later, took the town by storm, and the struggling young poet found himself a popular favourite at twenty-one. He then tried serious lyrical writing, and his tact, elegance of manner and versatility, gained him a place in the best society. This sudden success received a blow in 1789, when a very poor opera, _Holge Danske_, which he had produced, was received with mockery and a reaction against him set in. He left Denmark in a rage and spent the next years in Germany, France and Switzerland. He married at Berne in 1790, began to write in German and published in that language his next poem, _Alpenlied_.

In the winter of the same year he returned to his mother-country, bringing with him as a peace-offering his fine descriptive poem, the _Labyrinth_, in Danish, and was received with unbounded homage. The next twenty years were spent in incessant restless wanderings over the north of Europe, Paris latterly becoming his nominal home. He continued to publish volumes alternately in Danish and German. Of the latter the most important was the idyllic epos in hexameters called _Parthenais_ (1803). In 1806 he returned to Copenhagen to find the young ohlenschlager installed as the great poet of the day, and he himself beginning to lose his previously unbounded popularity. Until 1820 he resided in Copenhagen, in almost unceasing literary feud with some one or other, abusing and being abused, the most important feature of the whole being Baggesen's determination not to allow ohlenschlager to be considered a greater poet than himself. He then left Denmark for the last time and went back to his beloved Paris, where he lost his second wife and youngest child in 1822, and after the miseries of an imprisonment for debt, fell at last into a state of hopeless melancholy madness. In 1826, having slightly recovered, he wished to see Denmark once more, but died in the freemasons' hospital at Hamburg on his way, on the 3rd of October, and was buried at Kiel. His many-sided talents achieved success in all forms of writing, but his domestic, philosophical and critical works have long ceased to occupy attention. A little more power of restraining his egotism and pa.s.sion would have made him one of the wittiest and keenest of modern satirists, and his comic poems are deathless. The Danish literature owes Baggesen a great debt for the firmness, polish and form which he introduced into it--his style being always finished and elegant. With all his faults he stands as the greatest figure between Holberg and ohlenschlager. Of all his poems, however, the loveliest and best is a little simple song, _There was a time when I was very little_, which every Dane, high or low, knows by heart, and which is matchless in its simplicity and pathos. It has outlived all his epics.

(E. G.)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

BAGGING, the name given to the textile stuff used for making bags (see also SACKING and TARPAULIN). The material used was originally Baltic hemp, while in the beginning of the 19th century Sunn hemp or India hemp was also employed. Modern requirements call for so many different types of bagging that it is not surprising to find all kinds of fibres used for this purpose. Most bagging is now made from yarns of the jute fibre. The cloth is, in general, woven with the plain weave, and the warp threads run in pairs, but large quant.i.ties of bags are made from cloths with single warp threads. In both cases the weave used for the cloth is that shown at A in the figure, but when double threads of warp are used, the arrangement is equivalent to the weave shown at B. The interlacings of the two sets of warp and weft for single and double warp are shown respectively at C and D, the black marks indicating the warp threads, and the white or blanks showing the weft. The particular style of bagging depends, naturally, upon the kind of material it is intended to hold. The coa.r.s.est type of bagging is perhaps that known as ”cotton bagging,” which derives its name from the fact that it is used in the manufacture of bags for transporting raw cotton from the United States of America. It is a heavy fabric 42 in. wide, and weighs from 2 to 2 lb per yard. A similar, but rather finer make, is used for Sea Island and other fine cotton, and for any species of fibrous material; but for grain, spices, sugar, flour, coffee, manure, &c., the threads of warp and weft must lie closer, and the warp is usually single.

For transporting such [v.03 p.0201] substances as sugar, it is not uncommon to line the bag with paper, which excludes foreign matter, and minimizes the loss. Although there are large quant.i.ties of seamless bags woven in the loom, the greater part of the cloth is woven in the ordinary way. It is then cut up into the required sizes by hand and by special machines, and afterwards sewn by one of the chain-st.i.tch or straight-st.i.tch bag sewing-machines.

BAGHAL, a small native state in the Punjab, India. It is one of the group known as the Simla Hill states, and has an area of 124 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 25,720, showing an increase of 5% in the decade; a revenue 3300.

BAGHERIA, a town of the province of Palermo, Sicily, 8 m. by rail E. by S.

of Palermo. Pop. (1901) 18,218. It contains many villas of the aristocracy of Palermo, the majority of which were erected in the 18th century, but have now fallen into decay.

BAGILLT, a town of Flints.h.i.+re, North Wales, 14 m. from Chester, on the London & North Western railway, in the ancient parish of Holywell. Pop.

(1901) 2637. Its importance is due to its zinc, lead, iron, alkali and kindred works, and its collieries. Above Bagillt is Bryn Dychwelwch, ”Hill of Retreat,” so called from the retreat effected by Owen Gwynedd, when pursued by Henry II., with superior numbers. Near is Mostyn Hall, dating from the time of Henry VI., the seat of one of the oldest Welsh families.

Here are antiquities and MSS. (old British history and Welsh, brought from Gloddaeth), a harp dated 1568, torques (_torchau_), &c. Henry VII., then earl of Richmond, is said to have been concealed here in the reign of Richard III., when the lord of Mostyn was Richard ap Howel.

BAGIMOND'S ROLL. In 1274 the council of Lyons imposed a tax of a tenth part of all church revenues during the six following years for the relief of the Holy Land. In Scotland Pope Gregory X. entrusted the collection of this tax to Master Boiamund (better known as Bagimund) de Vitia, a canon of Asti, whose roll of valuation formed the basis of ecclesiastical taxation for some centuries. Boiamund proposed to a.s.sess the tax, not according to the old conventional valuation but on the true value of the benefices at the time of a.s.sessment. The clergy of Scotland objected to this innovation, and, having held a council at Perth in August 1275, prevailed upon Boiamund to return to Rome for the purpose of persuading the pope to accept the older method of taxation. The pope insisted upon the tax being collected according to the true value, and Boiamund returned to Scotland to superintend its collection. A fragment of Bagimond's Roll in something very like its original form is preserved at Durham, and has been printed by James Raine in his _Priory of Coldingham_ (Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. xii.). It gives the real values in one column and tenth parts in another column of each of the benefices in the archdeaconry of Lothian.

The actual taxation to which this fragment refers was not the tenth collected by Boiamund but the tenth of all ecclesiastical property in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland granted by Pope Nicholas IV. to Edward I. of England in the year 1288. The fragment should therefore be regarded as supplementary to the _Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae_ printed by the Record Commissioners in 1802. Although no contemporary copy of Bagimond's Roll is known to exist, at least three doc.u.ments give particulars of the taxation of the Church of Scotland in the 16th century, which are based upon the original roll.

See _Statuta Ecclesiae Scoticanae_ (Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1866).

BAGIRMI, a country of north-central Africa, lying S.E. of Lake Chad and forming part of the Chad circ.u.mscription of French Congo. It extends some 240 m. north to south and has a breadth of about 150 m., with an area of 20,000 sq. m. The population in 1903 was estimated at 100,000, having been greatly reduced as the result of wars and slave-raiding. By including districts S. and S.E. occupied by former va.s.sal states, the area and population of Bagirmi would be more than doubled. The surface of the country, which lies about 1000 ft. above sea-level, is almost flat with a very slight inclination N. to Lake Chad. It forms part of what seems to be the basin of an immense lake, of which Chad is the remnant. The soil is clay. The river Shari (_q.v._) forms the western boundary. Numerous tributaries of the Shari flow through the country, but much of the water is absorbed by swamps and sand-obstructed channels, and seasons of drought are recurrent. The southern part of the country is the most fertile. Among the trees the acacia and the dum-palm are common. Various kinds of rubber vine are found. The fauna includes the elephant, hippopotamus, lion and several species of antelope. Ants are very numerous. Millet and sesame are the princ.i.p.al grains cultivated. Rice grows wild, and several kinds of Poa gra.s.s are used as food by the natives. Cotton and indigo are grown to a considerable extent, especially by Bornu immigrants. The capital is Chekna, on a tributary of the Shari, the former capital, Ma.s.senia, having been destroyed in 1898. Fort Lamy at the confluence of the Logone and Shari, and Fort de Cointet on the middle Shari, are French posts round which towns have grown. Trade is chiefly with Yola, a town on the Benue in British Nigeria, and with Khartum via Wadai. There is also an ancient caravan route which runs through Kanem and across the Sahara to Tripoli.