BLOOD, THOMAS, COLONEL, an Irish desperado, noted for his daring attempts against the life of the Duke of Ormonde, and for carrying off the regalia in the Tower; unaccountably pardoned by Charles II., and received afterwards into royal favour with a pension of L500 per annum.  He was afterwards charged with conspiracy, and committed to the King’s Bench, and released.

BLOODY ASSIZES, the judicial massacres and cruel injustices perpetrated by Judge Jeffreys during Circuit in 1685.

BLOODY BONES, a hobgoblin feared by children.

BLOODY STATUTE, statute of Henry VIII. making it a crime involving the heaviest penalties to question any of the fundamental doctrines of the Romish Church.

BLOOMFLELD, ROBERT, an English poet, born in Suffolk, by trade a shoemaker; author of the “Farmer’s Boy,” a highly popular production, translated into French and Italian; spent his last days in ill-health struggling with poverty, which brought on dejection of mind (1766-1823).

BLOUNT, CHARLES, a deist, born in London; assailant of revealed religion; was involved in all the controversies of the time; died by his own hand (1654-1693).

BLOWPIPE, a contrivance by which a current of air is driven through a flame, and the flame directed upon some fusible substance to fuse or vitrify it.

BLUeCHER, Prussian field-marshal, familiarly named “Marshal Forwards,” born at Rostock; served first in the Swedish army, then in the Prussian; distinguished as a leader of cavalry, and met with varying fortune; at the age of 70 commanded the centre of the Allied Army in 1813; distinguished himself at Luetzen and Leipzig; pursued the French across the Rhine; pressed forward to Paris at the time of Napoleon’s abdication; defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, 16th June 1815; arrived on the field of Waterloo just as the French were preparing to make their last charge, and contributed to decide the fate of the day (1742-1819).

BLUE MOUNTAINS, a range of thickly wooded mountains traversing Jamaica from E. to W., from 5000 to 7000 ft. in height; also a chain of mountains in New South Wales of two parallel ranges, with a deep chasm between, and full of gloomy ravines and beetling precipices, the highest 4100 ft.

BLUE NOSE, a nickname given to an inhabitant of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.

BLUEBEARD, a wealthy seigneur, the owner of a castle; marries a beautiful woman, and leaves her in charge of the keys of the apartments in his absence, with injunctions not to unlock any of the doors, an injunction which she fails to respect, and finds to her horror the remains of his former wives locked up in one of them; her disobedience is discovered, and she is to prepare for death, but is rescued, as she lies with her head on the block, by the timely arrival of her brothers, who at once despatch the husband to his merited doom.

BLUE-BOOKS, Parliamentary documents bound in blue paper, as the corresponding documents in France are in yellow; they have been published regularly since the beginning of the 18th century, those of a single session now forming a collection of some 60 folio volumes.