Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

B Y N
t 34 3
B Y S
;„!» or cultivating the polite arts; but by ins abilities
and aftivitv as a naval commander he furmfaed abun¬
dant matter for the pens of others. After being eve-
ral times advanced, he vas in 1702 raifcd to the com¬
mand of the Nafl'au, a third rate, and was at the tak¬
ing and burning the French fleet at Vigo 5 and the
next year he was made rear-admiral of the red* J.
1704, he ferved in the grand fleet fent to the Med -
terranean under Sir Cloudefly Shovel, as rear-adnura1
of the red and it was he who commanded the Squa¬
dron that attacked, cannonaded, and reduced Gibial-
tar. He was in the battle of Malaga, which followed
foon after *, and for his behaviour in that a<M°n Queen
Anne conferred on him the honour of knighthood.
In 1705, in about two months time, he took 12 ot
enemies largeft privateers, with the Thetis a French
man of war of 44 guns 5 and alfo feveral merchant
fhips, moft of them richly laden Ihe number of men
taken on board was 2070, and of guns 334. I; i»
he was made admiral and commander m chief of the
fleet *, and was fent with a fquadron into the Mediter¬
ranean for the protection of Italy, according to the
obligation England was under by treaty, agamft the
invafion of the Spaniards j who had the year before
furprifed Sardinia, and had this year landed an army
in Sicily. In this expedition he difpatehed Captain
Walton in the Canterbury with five more (hips m pur-
fuit of fix Spanifli men of war, with galleys fire-flups,
bomb-veflels, and ftoreftiips, who feparated from t ie
main fleet, and flood in for the Sicilian ftiore. ihe
captain’s laconic epiftle on this occafion is worthy ot
notice j which ftiowed that, fighting was his talent as
well as his admiral’s, and not writing.
ct Sir •
“ We have’taken and deftroyed all the Spanifli fhips
and veffels which were upon the eoaft, as per margin.
Canterbury, off Syracufe, 1 am, 6tc.
Auguft x6. 1718. G. Walton.
From the account referred to, it appeared that he had
taken four Spanifli men of war, with a bomb yeflel
and a ftbp laden with arms*, and burned four with a
fire-fhip and bomb-veffel. The king made the admi¬
ral a handfome prefent, and fent him plenipotentiary
powers to negotiate with the princes and ftates ot Italy
as there fhould be occafion. He procured the empe¬
ror’s troops free accefs into the fortreffes that ilill held
out in Sicily; failed afterwards to Malta, and brought
out the Sicilian galleys, and a fhip belonging to the
Turkey company. Soon after he received a gracious
letter from the emperor Charles VI. written with his
own hand, accompanied with a piaure of his imperial
maiefty, fet round with very large diamonds, as a mark
of the grateful fenfe he had of his fervices It was en¬
tirely owing to his advice and afliftance that the Ger¬
mans retook the city of Meflina in 1719, and deftroy¬
ed the fhips that lay in the bafon 5 which completed
the ruin of the naval power of Spain. The Spaniards
being much diftreffed, offered to quit Sicily , but the
admiral declared, that the troops fhould never be fuf-
fered to quit the ifland till the king of Spain had ac¬
ceded to the quadruple alliance. And to his conduft
it was entirely owing that Sicily was fubdued, and his
Catholic majefty forced to accept the terms prefenbed
him by the quadruple alliance. After performing fo
many fignal fervices, the king received him. with the
moil gracious expreflions of favour and fatisfa&ion j
made him rear-admiral of England and treafurcr of
the navy, one of his inofl honourable privy-council,
Baron Byng of Southill in the county of Bedford,
Vifcount Torrington in Devonfhire, and one of the
knights companions of the Bath upon the revival of
that order. In 1727, George II. on his acceflion to
the crown, placed him at the head of his naval affairs,
as firft lord commiflioner of the admiralty *, in which
high flation he died January 15. 1733; ^ 70*]1
year of his age, and w as buried at Southill in Bedford-
fhire. r
Byng, the honourable George, Efq. the unhappy Ion
of the former, was bred to fea, and rofe to the rank
of admiral of the blue. He gave many proofs of cou¬
rage j but was at laft fhot, upon a dubious fentence, for
negleft of duty, in 1757. See Britain.
byrlaw or Bun LAW Laws in Scotland. See
By-laws. . 1 a
BYKOM, John, an ingenious poet ot Mancheiter,
born in 1691. His firft poetical eflay appeared in the
Spectator, N° 603,. beginning, “ My time, O ye
Mufes, was happily fpent which, with two humo¬
rous letters on dreams, are to be found in the eighth
volume. He was admitted a member of the Royal
Society in 17245 and having originally entertained
thoughts of pradtifmg phyfic, to which the title doc¬
tor is incident, that was the appellation by which he
was alw ays known : but reducing huuielf to narrow
circumftances by a precipitate marriage, he lupported
himfelf by, teaching a new method of writing ihort-
hand of his own invention 5 until an eftate devolved
to him by the death of an elder brother. He was a
man of lively wit 5 of which, whenever a favourable
opportunity tempted him to indulge it, he gave many
humorous fpecimens. He died in 1763.5 and a collec¬
tion of his mifcellaneous poems w as printed at Man-
chefter, in 2 vols 8vo, 1773.
BYKBHUS. See Entomology Index.
BYSSUS. See Botany index.
Byssus, or Byjum, a fine thready matter produced
in India, Egypt, and about Elis in Achaia, or which
the richeft apparel was anciently made, efpecially that
worn by the priefts both Jewifti and Egyptian. Some
interpreters render the Greek Vws, which occurs
both in the Old and New Teftament, by jine linen.
But other verfions, as Calvin’s, and the Spanifli printed
at Venice in 1536, explain the word by>^ ; and yet
byffus muft have been different from, our hlk, as ap¬
pears from a multitude of ancient writers, and parti¬
cularly from Jul. Pollux. M. Simon, who renders the
word by fine linen, adds a note to explain it 5 viz.
that there was a fine kind, of linen very dear, which
the great lords alone wore in this country as w ell as in
Egypt.” This account agrees perfedlly well with that
given by Hefychius, as well as what is.obferved by
Bochart, that the byffus was a finer kind of linen,
which was frequently dyed of a purple colour. . Some
authors will have the byflus to be the fame with our
cotton: others take it for the linum ajbejtinum; and
others for the lock or bunch of lilky hair found adhe¬
ring to the pinna marina, by which it faftens itlel . o
the neighbouring bodies. Authors ufually diftingmih
Ernst
Eythis.
two forts of byflus 5 that of Elis;
and that of Judaea,
hich