Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

B A L-
a few miles up, but is celebrated for its sudden floods and the vast
extent of country which it submerges in the rainy season. 6. The
Baitarani enters the district at the village of Balipur, and flows for
about 45 miles in a south-westerly direction till it joins the Dhamra,
5 miles from its mouth. The united stream enters the sea under
the name of the Dhamra, in lat. 20° 47', long. 87°. The Dhamra
is a fine navigable estuary, but, like all the Orissa rivers, it is ren¬
dered perilous by a bar across its mouth.
Population of Balasor in 1872, 770,232 souls, residing in 3266
villages, and 138,913 houses ; persons per square mile, 378; vil¬
lages per square mile, l-58; persons per village, 236; houses per
square mile, 67; persons per house, 5’5. Of the total population
738,396, or 95-9 per cent., were Hindus ; 18,878, or 2'4 per cent.,
Mahometans; 530, or ■] percent., Christians; 1 Buddhist; and
12,427, or i-6 per cent., of aboriginal origin. The proportion of
males to the total district population was 49-2 per cent.; number
of male adult agriculturists, 150,391, and male adult non-agricul¬
turists, 82,542. Brahmans, Karans, Khandaits, and other castes,
compose the Hindu population. There are two settlements of
Christian missionaries in the district belonging to the Freewill
Baptists, from Dover, New Hampshire, U.S. The district contains
only one town with upwards of 5000 inhabitants, viz., Balasor
itself, with 18,263. Almost the whole population of the district
lives by agriculture. Rice forms the staple crop of the district, and
is divided into 5 great genera, and 49 principal varieties. Pulses,
oil-seeds, hemp, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, &c., makeup the other
agricultural products of Balasor. Balasor husbandmen consist of
two classes, thdnl or cultivators, with a right of occupancy, and
pdhi, or tenants at will. Roughly speaking, one half of the district
is under tillage, and the other half incapable of cultivation. Exports
—Grain, sugar, oil-seeds, timber, hides, horns, &c. Imports
Native cloths, English piece-goods, &c. Total revenue of the Bala¬
sor district in 1870-71, £102,052, of which £41,408, or 40 percent.,
was from land ; total expenditure in the same year, £51,620. In
1872 the police force of the district consisted of 566 officers and
men of the regular police, maintained at a total cost of £8879, 8s. ;
32 officers and men of the municipal police, maintained at a cost of
£224, 12s ; and 2320 men of the village watch, maintained by grants
of service lands and by subscriptions from villages, which amounted
to £2745 in 1872 ; total strength of police, 2918 men ; total cost,
£11,849. Balasor contained 1053 schools in 1872, attended by
11,538 pupils. The Government and aided schools were 43 in
number, attended by 1631 pupils, and maintained at a total cost of
£1559, to which Government contributed £748, 16s. The climate
of Balasor greatly varies according to the seasons of the year. The
hot season lasts from March to June, but is tempered by cool sea
breezes ; from June to September the weather is close and oppressive;
and from October to February the cold season brings the north¬
easterly winds, with cool mornings and evenings. (W. W. H.)
Balasor, the principal town and administrative head¬
quarters of the above district, situated on the River BurA-
balang, in 21° 28' 45" N. lat., and 86°'59 33" E. long., about
8 miles from the sea-coast as the crow flies, and 16 by the
river. The English settlement of Balasor, formed in 1642,
and that of Pippli in its neighbourhood, seven years earlier,
became the basis of the future greatness of the British in
India. The servants of the East India Company here
fortified themselves in a strong position, and carried on a
brisk investment in country goods, chiefly cottons and
muslins. They flourished in spite of the oppressions of the
Mahometan governors, and when needful asserted their
claims to respect by arms. In 1688, affairs having come
to a crisis, Captain Heath, commander of the Company’s
s ips, bombarded the town. In the 18th century Balasor
rapidly declined in importance, on account of a dangerous
bar which formed across the mouth of the river. At present
the bar has 12 to 15 feet of water at spring tides, but not
more than 2 or 3 feet at low water in the dry season.
arge ships have to anchor outside in the open roadstead.
• i on ^n^ns a population of 18,263; municipal income
111 ,<£519; expenditure, £514; rate of taxation, 6M.
per head of population (w< w> H )
BALBI, Adrian, one of the most eminent geographers
ot modern times, was born at Venice in 1782. In 1820
e visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his
we nown work entitled Essai Statistique sur le Royaume
TR09 “mv. et d'Al9arve> which was published at Paris in
i]¥8 was followed by Varietes Politiques et Statis-
tques e la Monarchic Portugaise, which contains some |
- B A L 273
curious observations respecting that country under the
Roman sway, and on the state of literature and the arts.
In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas Ethno-
graphique du Globe, &c., a work of great erudition,
embodying the researches of the most distinguished German
philologists and geographers. In 1832 appeared the Abrege
de Geographic, which added greatly to the author’s reputa¬
tion. This work, in an enlarged form, was translated into
the principal languages of Europe. Balbi afterwards retired
to Padua, where he continued to pursue his favourite science
with unabated ardour. Besides those already mentioned,
he was the author of several other works in the same de¬
partment of science. He died on the 14th of March 1848.
BALBO, Cesare, an important Italian writer and states¬
man, was born at Turin, November 21, 1789. His father,
Prospero Balbo, held a high position in the Piedmontese
court, and at the time of Cesare’s birth was syndic of the
capital. His mother, a member of the Azeglio family, died
when he was three years old; and he was brought up in
the house of his great-grandmother, the countess of Bugino,
“a noble and proud old lady.” In 1798 he joined his
father at Paris. From 1808 to 1814 Balbo served in
various capacities under the Napoleonic empire, helping, at
Florence and Rome, to fix the chains of despotism on his
country. Gradually, however, his eyes were opened, and,
on the fall of Napoleon, he was ready, in various capacities,
to serve the cause of his country. While his father was
appointed minister of the interior, he entered the army,
and undertook political missions to Paris and London. On
the revolution of 1821 he was forced into exile, and though,
not long after, he was allowed to return to Piedmont, all
active service as a statesman was denied him. Reluctantly,
and with frequent endeavours to obtain some appointment,
he gave himself up to literature as the only means left him
to influence the destinies of his country. This accounts for
the fitfulness and incompleteness of so much of his literary
work, and for the practical, and in many cases temporary,
element that runs through even his most elaborate produc¬
tions. The great object of his labours was to help in
securing for Italy that independence from foreign control
which, even more than internal freedom, he regarded as
the first necessity of national life. Of true Italian unity
he had no expectation and no desire, A confederation of
separate states under the supremacy of the Pope was the
genuine beau ideal of Balbo, as it was the ostensible beau
ideal of GiobertL But Gioberti, in his Primato, seemed to
him to neglect the first essential of independence, which he
accordingly inculcated in his Speranze or Hopes of Italy.
Preparation, both military and moral, alertness, and patience,
were his constant theme. He did not wish revolution, but
reform; and thus he became the leader of a moderate
party, and the steady opponent not only of despotism but
of democracy. At last, in 1848, his hopes were so far
satisfied by the constitution granted by the king. He was
appointed a member of the commission of electoral law,
and held a post in the first reformed government. With
the ministry of Azeglio, which soon after got into power,
he continued on friendly terms, and his pen continued the
active defence of his political principles till his death, on
the 3d June 1853. The most important of his writings are
historico-political, and derive at once their majesty and
their weakness from his theocratic theory of Christianity.
His style is clear and vigorous, and not unfrequently terse
and epigrammatic. He published Quattro Novelle in
1829; Storia d'Italia in 1830, Vita di Dante, 1839 ;
Meditazioni Storiche, 1842-5 ; Le Speranze d’Italia, 1843 ;
Sommario della Storia d’Italia.
BALBOA, Vasco Nunez de, one of the bravest and
most successful of the Spanish discoverers of America, was
born at Xeres de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, about the
in. - 35