BAIKIE, W. BALFOUR, an Orcadian, born at Kirkwall, surgeon in the Royal Navy; was attached to the Niger Expedition in 1854, and ultimately commanded it, opening the region up and letting light in upon it at the sacrifice of his life; died at Sierra Leone (1825-1864).
BAILEY, NATHAN, an early English lexicographer, whose dictionary, very popular in its day, was the basis of Johnson’s; d. 1742.
BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES, English poet, born in Nottingham; author of “Festus,” a work that on its appearance in 1839 was received with enthusiasm, passed through 11 editions in England and 30 in America, was succeeded by “The Angel World,” “The Mystic,” “The Universal Hymn,” and “The Age”; he has been rated by some extravagantly high; b. 1816.
BAILEY, SAMUEL, an English author, born in Sheffield, a liberal-minded man, a utilitarian in philosophy, who wrote on psychology, ethics, and political economy, and left a fortune, acquired in business, to his native town (1787-1870).
BAILLIE, JOANNA, a poetess, born at Bothwell, child of the Presbyterian manse there; joined a brother in London, stayed afterwards with a sister at Hampstead; produced a series of dramas entitled “Plays of the Passions,” besides many others, both comedies and tragedies, one of which, the “Family Legend,” was acted in the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, under the auspices of Sir Walter Scott; she does not stand high either as a dramatist or a writer (1762-1851).
BAILLIE, LADY GRIZEL, an heroic Scotch lady, famous for her songs, “And werena my heart licht I wad dee” is well known (1665-1740).
BAILLIE, MATTHEW, physician, brother of Joanna, wrote on Morbid Anatomy (1761-1823).
BAILLIE, ROBERT, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, born in Glasgow; resisted Laud’s attempt to thrust Episcopacy on the Scotch nation, and became a zealous advocate of the national cause, which he was delegated to represent twice over in London; he was a royalist all the same, and was made principal of Glasgow University; “His Letters and Journals” were published by the Bannatyne Club, and are commended by Carlyle as “veracious,” forming, as they do, the subject of one of his critical essays (1599-1662).
BAILLIE, ROBERT, a zealous Scotch Presbyterian, tried for complicity in the Rye House Plot, and unfairly condemned to death, and barbarously executed the same day (in 1683) for fear he should die afterwards and cheat the gallows of its victim.
BAILLY, JEAN SYLVAIN, an astronomer, born at Paris; wrote the “History of Astronomy, Ancient and Modern,” in five volumes; was distracted from further study of the science by the occurrence of the Revolution; elected president of the National Assembly; installed mayor of Paris; lost favour with the people; was imprisoned as an enemy of the popular cause and cruelly guillotined. Exposed beforehand “for hours long, amid curses and bitter frost-rain, ‘Bailly, thou tremblest,’ said one; ‘Mon ami,’ said he meekly, ‘it is for cold.’ Crueller end,” says Carlyle, “had no mortal.”


