BALFOUR l6l^ BALLAD

BALFOUR                                                         l6l^                                                            BALLAD

brilliant debater. He has shown himself cool, clear-sighted, quick to think, speak and act. He is the author of quite a well-known work called a Defense of P hilos o p hie Doubt. Besides this work he has published (1905) a volume of essays and addresses. In the election of 1906 Mr. Balfour lost his seat for Manchester, but now sits in the English House of Commons as a member for the city of London. Balfour, Francis Maitland (1851-1882), brother of Arthur. A highly gifted young naturalist, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His investigations, especially in the line of embryology, were of great importance. . Between 1879 ^an(i 1882 he brought together all that was known about the developmental stages of animals in his Comparative Embryology, a work of almost priceless value to students of embryology. In 1882 he and his single guide were killed on the Alps by slipping while attempting to climb one of the spurs of Mont Blanc.

Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald W., another nephew of the late Marquis of Salisbury and brother of Arthur J. Balfour, entered the English Parliament in 1885, and in the third Salisbury administration he was appointed chief secretary for Ireland, having much to do with the passing of the Irish Land Bill (1895) and the extension of local government to Ireland in 1898, including the creating of a department of agriculture and technical instruction on the island. Subsequently, he was president of the English Board of Trade..

Baliol {bā'lì-ŭl or bäl'-yäl), John, king of Scotland, was born in 1249. Through his mother he was connected with the royal family, and on the death of the heir to the throne, the Maid of Norway, he became a. competitor for the throne with Robert Bruce. The question was left to Edward I of England to decide. He chose John Baliol, who swore obedience to him as his feudal lord. In consequence of his oath, he soon found he had no real power, but had to endure whatever Edward I put upon him. In 1295 he made a treaty with France, which was then at war with England. Immediately Edward invaded Scotland, and taking Baliol prisoner, compelled him to give up his crown. In 1302

he was allowed to settle on some estates of His in Normandy, where he died in 1315.

Balize. See Belize.

Balkan (bál-kãn') (the ancient Hæmus), a mountain range that separates the waters of the lower Danube from those that flow into the Ægean Sea. The name is also given to the whole mountain system from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The main chain has an average height of 4,000 or 5,000 feet, and rises in various parts to a height of 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Toward the east it is broken into a number of chains and ridges running parallel to each other. Scardus, the highest mountain, is 9,700 feet above the sea. Most of the rivers on the northern side flow into the Black Sea, while those on the south fall into the Mediterranean. There are many passes through the mountains, but most of them are very difficult to traverse. The mountains are mostly of granite-like rock.

Balkan Peninsula, that part of Europe having the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas on one side and the Ægean and Black Seas on the other. It includes Rumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Turkey, Greece, Montenegro and Herzegovina. Nearly the whole of the peninsula is mountainous, the chief plains being those along the Danube River. There is great variety of climate, both as to the range of temperature and the amount of rainfall. Much of the land in the east and south depends upon irrigation to make it productive. The industries are chiefly cattle-raising, agriculture, fruit-growing and manufacturing, the latter being carried on largely by hand. The country is rich in minerals, but mining is little developed because of the repressive government to which the people were so long subjected. The total population is about 17,000,000, and nearly half of the people are Slavs.

Ball, Sir Robert Stawell, British astronomer, one of the most popular scientific lecturers of the day, and one of the few who can invest abstruse subjects with fascinating interest. He was born at Dublin on July ist, 1840. He has been successively professor of mathematics in the Royal Irish College of Science, astronomer royal for Ireland and Lowndean professor of astronomy and geometry at Cambridge. His writings include an Atlas of Astronomy, Story of the Heavens, Time and Tide and 7~he Story of the Sun.

Bal'lad, originally a song sung or acted in a dance. The name is used for any simple narrative poem of short stanzas in which a story is told in a forcible, straightforward manner. Ballads are found among all European nations, and belong to times when, in the nation to which they belong, life was simple and civilization not so far advanced as English civilization is at

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR