Jump to content

Page:EB1911 - Volume 04.djvu/260

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
BORDEN—BORDERS
245

and surrounded with walls and lofty towers, and celebrates its importance as one of the greatest educational centres of Gaul. In the evils that resulted from the disintegration of the empire Bordeaux had its full share, and did not recover its prosperity till the beginning of the 10th century. Along with Guienne it belonged to the English kings for nearly three hundred years (1154–1453), and was for a time the seat of the brilliant court of Edward the Black Prince, whose son Richard was born in the city. An extensive commerce was gradually developed between the Bordeaux merchants and their fellow-subjects in England,—London, Hull, Exeter, Dartmouth, Bristol and Chester being the principal ports with which they traded. The English administration was favourable to the liberties as well as to the trade of the city. In 1235 it received the right of electing its mayors, who were assisted in the administration by a “jurade” or municipal council. The influence of Bordeaux was still further increased when several important towns of the region, among them St Emilion and Libourne, united in a federation under its leadership. The defeat of the English at the battle of Castillon in 1453 was followed, after a siege of three months, by the submission of Bordeaux to Charles VII. The privileges of the city were at once curtailed, and were only partially restored under Louis XI., who established there the parlement of Guienne. In 1548 the inhabitants resisted the imposition of the salt-tax by force of arms, a rebellion for which they were punished by the constable Anne de Montmorency with merciless severity.

The reformed religion found numerous adherents at Bordeaux, and after the massacre of St Bartholomew nearly three hundred of its inhabitants lost their lives. The 17th century was a period of disturbance. The city was for a time the chief support of the Fronde, and on two occasions, in 1653 and 1675, troops were sent to repress insurrections against royal measures. In the middle of the 18th century, a period of commercial and architectural activity for Bordeaux, the marquis de Tourny, intendant of Guienne, did much to improve the city by widening the streets and laying out public squares. It was the headquarters of the Girondists at the Revolution, and during the Reign of Terror suffered almost as severely as Lyons and Marseilles. Its commerce was greatly reduced under Napoleon I. In 1814 it declared for the house of Bourbon; and Louis XVIII. afterwards gave the title of duc de Bordeaux to his grand-nephew, better known as the comte de Chambord. In 1870 the French government was transferred to Bordeaux from Tours on the approach of the Germans to the latter city.

See Camille Jullian, Hist. de Bordeaux, depuis les origines jusqu’en 1895 (Bordeaux, 1895); T. Malvezin, Hist. du commerce de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1892); Bordeaux, aperçu historique, sol, population, industrie, commerce, administration (Bordeaux, 1892).


BORDEN, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM (1847–  ), Canadian statesman, was born at Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, on the 14th of May 1847. He was educated at King’s College, Windsor, and at Harvard University, and for some years practised medicine at Canning, Nova Scotia. In 1874 he was elected to the Canadian parliament as Liberal member for King’s county. In 1896 he became minister of militia and defence in the Liberal ministry.


BORDEN, ROBERT LAIRD (1854–  ), Canadian statesman, was born at Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, on the 26th of June 1854. In 1878 he was called to the bar, and became a leading lawyer in his native province. In 1896 he was elected to the Canadian parliament for the city of Halifax, but later lost his seat there and was elected for Carlton. In February 1901, on the resignation of Sir Charles Tupper, he became leader of the Conservative opposition. At the general election of 1908 he was returned again for Halifax.


BORDENTOWN, a city of Burlington county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Delaware river, 6 m. S. of Trenton and 28 m. N.E. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 4232; (1900) 4110; (1905) 4073; (1910) 4250. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway, the Camden & Trenton railway (an electric line, forming part of the line between Philadelphia and New York) and by freight and passenger steamboat lines on the Delaware. Bordentown is attractively situated on a broad, level plain, 65 ft. above the river, with wide, beautifully shaded streets. The city is the seat of the Bordentown Military Institute (with the Woodward memorial library), of the state manual training and industrial school for coloured youth, of the St Joseph’s convent and mother-house of the Sisters of Mercy, and of St Joseph’s academy for girls. There are ship-yards, iron foundries and forges, machine shops, shirt factories, a pottery for the manufacture of sanitary earthenware, a woollen mill and canning factories. The first settlers on the site of the city were several Quaker families who came in the 18th century. Bordentown was laid out by Joseph Borden, in whose honour it was named; was incorporated as a borough in 1825; was re-incorporated in 1849, and was chartered as a city in 1867. It was the home for some years of Francis Hopkinson and of his son Joseph Hopkinson (whose residences are still standing), and from 1817 to 1832 and in 1837–1839 was the home of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, who lived on a handsome estate known as “Bonaparte’s Park,” which he laid out with considerable magnificence. Here he entertained many distinguished visitors, including Lafayette. The legislature of New Jersey passed a special law, enabling him, as an alien, to own real property, and it is said to have been in reference to this that the state received its nickname “Spain.” Prince Napoleon Lucien Charles Murat, the second son of Joachim Murat, also lived here for many years; and the estate known as “Ironsides” was long the home of Rear-Admiral Charles Stewart. The Camden & Amboy railway, begun in 1831 and completed from Bordentown to South Amboy (34 m.) in 1832, was one of the first railways in the United States; in September 1831 the famous engine “Johnny Bull,” built in England and imported for this railway, had its first trial at Bordentown, and a monument now marks the site where the first rails were laid.

See E. M. Woodward, Bonaparte’s Park and the Murats (Trenton, 1879).


BORDERS, THE, a name applied to the territory on both sides of the boundary line between England and Scotland. The term has also a literary and historical as well as a geographical sense, and is most frequently employed of the Scottish side. The line begins on the coast of Berwickshire at a spot 3 m. N. by W. of Berwick, and, after running a short distance W. and S., reaches the Tweed near the village of Paxton, whence it keeps to the river to a point just beyond Carham. There it strikes off S.S.E. to the Cheviot Hills, the watershed of which for 35 m. constitutes the boundary, which is thereafter formed by a series of streams—Bells Burn, the Kershope, Liddel and Esk. After following the last named for 1 m. it cuts across country due west to the Sark, which it follows to the river’s mouth at the head of the Solway Firth. The length of the boundary thus described is 108 m., but in a direct line from the Solway to the North Sea the distance is only 70 m. At the extreme east end a small district of 8 sq. m., consisting of the tract north of the Tweed which is not included in Scotland, forms the “bounds” or “liberties” of Berwick, or the country of the borough and town of Berwick-on-Tweed. At the extreme west between the Sark and Esk as far up the latter as its junction with the Liddel, there was a strip of country, a “No man’s land,” for generations the haunt of outlaws and brigands. This was called the Debatable Land, because the possession of it was a constant source of contention between England and Scotland until its boundaries were finally adjusted in 1552. The English Border counties are Northumberland and Cumberland, the Scottish Berwick, Roxburgh and Dumfries; though historically, and still by usage, the Scottish shires of Selkirk and Peebles have always been classed as Border shires. On the English side the region is watered by the Till, Bowmont, Coquet, Rede and North Tyne; on the Scottish by the Tweed, Whiteadder, Leet, Kale, Jed, Kershope, Liddel, Esk and Sark. Physically there is a marked difference between the country on each side. On the southern it mostly consists of lofty, bleak moorland, affording subsistence for sheep and cattle, and rugged glens and ravines, while on the northern there are many stretches of fertile soil, especially in the valleys and dales, and the landscape is often romantic and beautiful. Railway communication is