markable for a full examination of the Prophetic Books, and still more recently Mr William Rossetti has published
a memoir prefixed to an edition of the poems.(j. c. c.)
BLANC, Mont, the highest, and in other respects on3 of the most remarkable mountains in Europe, is situated in that division of the great Alpine system known as the Pennine Alps, in 45 49 58" N. lat. and 6" 51 54" E. long. It rises almost in the shape of a pyramid to the height of 15,780 feet, and is visible at a distance of 130 miles to the west. The mass of the mountain is composed of granite, covered with strata of schists and limestones. To the N.E. lies the beautiful vale of Chamouni, and on the S.W. the Allee Blanche. Of the numerous glaciers that send their ice-streams down its sides the most remark able is the Mer de Glace, which winds down its northern slope towards Chamouni, and gives birth to the River Arve. The ascent of Mont Blanc was first accomplished in 1786 by a guide named Jacques Balmat, who shortly afterwards led Dr Paccard, a local physician, to the summit, and thus gave him the honour of being the first person of scientific education to make known the possibility of the un lor tak ing. De Saussure, the naturalist, ascended in the following year, and when the Italian naturalist Imperiale do Sant- Angelo made the ascent in 1840 he had been preceded by thirty- three known travellers. The whole journey to the top and back can now be accomplished in 50 or 60 hours ; but in general the view can hardly be said to be worth the fatigue, the extreme height of the position, even when the outlook is unclouded, rendering the prospoct indistinct. For authorities and maps, see ALPS, vol. i. pp. 635-6.
BLANE, Sir Gilbert, a distinguished physician, was born at Blanefield in Ayrshire, in 1749, and died in Lon don in 1834. He was educated at Edinburgh University, and shortly after his removal to London became private physician to Lord Rodney, whom he accompanied to the West Indies. Through his skill and exertions the health of the seamen on board the fleet remained comparatively unaffected by the climate ; aad on his return home he embolied the results of his experience in a treatise On the Diseases of Seamen, 1783. He rose rapidly to fame, ac quired an extensive practice, and in 1812 was appointed physician in ordinary to the Prince of Wales, with the rank of baronet. Whon at the head of the Navy Board of Health, an office he held for some years, he introduced many useful measures for securing the health of seamen during long voyages. Of his numerous works the most important is the Elements of Medical Logic, 1819.
BLAÑES, a city of the province of Gerona in Spain, at the mouth of the River Tordera, defended by a castle. The population, 5900 in number, are principally employed in the fisheries and navigation. Lace is manufactured by the woman. Long. 2 51 E., lat. 41 42 N.
BLARNEY. a small village of Ireland, in the county of Cork, about 5 miles from that city, chiefly celebrated as giving name to a peculiar kind of eloquence, alleged to be characteristic of the natives of Ireland. The " Blarney Stone," the kissing of which is said to confer this faculty, is pointed out within the castle.
BLASPHEMY means literally defamation or evil speak ing, but is more peculiarly restricted to an indignity offered to the Deity by words or writing. The common law of England treats blasphemy as an indictable offence. All blasphemies against God, as denying his being, or pro vidence, all contumelious reproaches of Jesus Christ, all profana scoffing at the Holy Scriptures, or exposing any part thereof to contempt or ridicule, are punishable by the temporal courts with fine, imprisonment, and also infamous corporal punishment. The Act 1 Edw. VI. c. 1 (repealed 1 Miry, c. 2, and revived 1 Eliz. c. 1 ), enacts that persons re viling the sacrament of the Lord s supper, by contemptuous words or otherwise, shall suffer imprisonment. Persons denying the Trinity were deprived of the benefit of the Act of Toleration by 1 Will. III. c. 18. The 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 32, enacts that if any person, educated in or having made profession of the Christian religion, should by writing, preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, deny any one of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be God, or should assert or maintain that there are more gods than one, or should deny the Christian religion to be true, or the Holy Scriptures to be of divine authority, he should, upon the first offence, be rendered incapable of holding any office or place of trust, and for the second incapable of bringing any action, of being guardian or executor, or of taking a legacy or deed of gift, and should suffer three years imprisonment without bail. It has been held that a person offending under the statute is also indictable at common law / Rex v. Carlisle, where Mr Justice Best remarks, In the age of toleration, whan that statute passed, neither churchmen nor sectarians wished to protect in their infidelity those who disbelieved the Holy Scriptures.") The 53 Geo. III. c. 160, excepts from these enactments " persons denying as therein mentioned respecting the Holy Trinity," but otherwise the common and statute law on the suoject remains as stated. In the case of Rex v. Woolston (2 Geo. II.) the court declared that they would not suffer it to be debated whether to write against Christianity in general was not an offence punishable in the temporal courts at common law, but they did not intend to include disputes between learned men on particular controverted points. The law against blasphemy has not recently been in active operation. In 1841, Moxon was found guilty of the publication of a blasphemous libel (Shelley s Queen Mob], the prosecution having been instituted by Hetherington, who had pre viously been condemned to four months imprisonment for a similar offence, and wished to test the law under which he was punished. In the case of Cowan v. Milbourn, in 1867, the defendant had broken his contract to let a lecture- room to the plaintiff, on discovering that the intended lectures were to maintain that " the character of Christ is defective, and his teaching misleading, and that the Bible is no more inspired than any other book," and the Court of Exchequer held that the publication of such doctrine was blasphemy, and the contract therefore illegal. On that occasion the court reaffirmed the dictum of C. J. Hale, that Christianity is part of the laws of England. The Commissioners on Criminal Law (sixth report) remark, that "although the law forbids all denial of the being and providence of God or the Christian religion, it is only when irreligion assumes the form of an insult to God and man that the interference of the criminal law has taken place."
Profane cursing and swearing is made punishable by 19 Geo. II. c. 21, which directs the offender to be brought before a justice of the peace, and fined 5 shillings, 2 shil lings, or 1 shilling, according as he is a gentleman, below the rank of gentleman, or a common labourer, soldier, &c.
By the law of Scotland, as it originally stood, the punishment of blasphemy was death. By an Act passed in the first parliament of Charles II., whoever, " not being distracted in his wits," should curse God or any person of the blessed Trinity was punishable with death; and by a statute of King William s reign (1695, c. 11), any person reasoning against the being of God, or any person of the Trinity, or the authority of the Holy Scriptures, or the providence of God in the. government of the world, was to be imprisoned for the first offence until he should give public satisfaction in sackcloth to the congregation, to be punished more severely for the second offence, and for the third doomed to death; but by 6 Geo. IV. c. 47, amended by 7 Will. IV. and 1 Viet. c. 5, blasphemy wait made punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.
(e. r.)
