Bastiat. by the statutes of all of the American states; we quote, as fairly representative, the definition of the bastard in the New York statutes: Every child shall be deemed a bastard who shall be begotten and born, 1, out of lawful matrimony; 2, while the husband or its mother continued absent out of this state for one whole year previous to such birth separate from its mother and leaving her during that time continuing and residing in this state; 3, during the separation of its mother from her husband pursuant to a decree of any court of competent authority." Bastardy, generally used to denote the condition of being a bastard, is also a term applied to the statutory proceedings for ascertaining the parentage of a bastard, and for compelling the father to give bonds for its support. In all civil and criminal rights not connected with the law of inheritance, or of support from parents, the status of the bastard is the same as that of any other person. He may hold and dispose of real and personal property, may sue and be sued, may devise by will, and may claim the protection of the state in all respects as though he were legitimate. In questions of settlement arising under poor-laws it has been held that his legal domicile is that of the mother, not, as with legitimate children, of the father, until he attains a settlement of his own. It has also been held that the ordinary right of a father to appoint by will or deed a guardian for his minor child does not exist in the case of a bastard. The derivation of the word bastard is not certain; it is thought by many to come from bast, a pack saddle, the bastard being one born, as it were, by the roadside rather than in a home. William the Conqueror, not only allowed the term to be used of himself without resentment, but in more than one instance signed himself "Guillaume Bastard;" the application of the word to him seems to have been one of its earliest known uses. Among famous men of illegitimate birth besides William the Conqueror may be mentioned Marshal Saxe, the Duke of Monmouth, Don John of Austria, Dunois, 'the Bastard of Orleans" and many others. BASTARDY, Gift of. See under the preceding article. BASTI'A, the former capital of Corsica, is picturesquely situated on the slope of a mountain, rising from the sea in the form of an amphitheater, in the north-eastern part of the island, in lat. 42° 42′ n., and long. 9° 27' east. It had (1891) 23,397 inhabitants. The streets are narrow and crooked. It has a harbor suitable for small vessels, defended by a mole, at the mouth of which is a rock resembling a lion couchant, and designated "Il Leone." There is a considerable trade in leather, skins, wine, oil, figs, and pulse; and many stilettos and daggers are manufactured here. It was captured by the English after an obstinate siege in 1794. BASTIAN, ADOLF, a German traveller and anthropologist, was born at Bremen in 1826. His father was a merchant. Bastian was educated as a physician, studying at Berlin, Heidelberg, Prague, Jena, and Würzburg, and in 1851 sailed for Australia as surgeon of a sailing vessel. He subsequently travelled in South America, the West Indies, the United States, China, India, and South Africa, and later made a journey through Burma, Siam, Java, the Philippines, Japan and China, returning to Europe by way of Asiatic Russia. In 1868 he became director of the ethnographical section of the Berlin Museum, and in 1869 undertook with Virchow and R. Hartmann the editorship of the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, the organ of the Berlin Anthropological and Ethnological Society. The most important of his numerous works are Der Mensch in der Geschichte (3 volumes, 1860); Die Völker des Oestlichen Asien (6 vols., 1866–71), Ethnologische Forschungen (2 vols., 1871-73), Afrikanische Reisen (1859), Zur Naturwissenschaftlichen Behandlung der Psychologie (1883); Allgemeine Grundzüge der Ethnologie (1884), Die Rechtsverhältnisse der Verschiedenen Völker der Erde (1872), Indonesien, oder die Inseln des Malaiischen Archipels (1884-9). BASTIAN, HENRY CHARLTON, b. England, 1837; an eminent physician and physiologist. He was admitted to the royal college of surgeons in 1860; was assistant curator in the museum of university college, London, 1860-63; professor of pathological anatomy in the same college, 1867, and in 1871 physician to the university college hospital. He published The Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms, The Beginnings of Life, The Brain as an Organ of Mind, Paralysis, and many contributions to medical and philosophical journals. He is recognized as an authority in the pathology of the nervous system, and as one of the ablest defenders of the theory of spontaneous generation. BASTIAT, FRÉDÉRIC, an eminent political economist, was b. at Bayonne on the 29th of June, 1801. His father was a merchant, and educated his son with a view to the same profession. After completing his studies, B. entered the commercial house of one of his uncles, established at Bayonne, and employed his leisure hours in the study of political economy. Circumstances called him into Spain and Portugal in 1840, where he took advantage of the opportunity afforded him to study the customs and institutions of these two countries, which have still much to learn before they can be on a footing of equality with other nations in matters of finance and political economy. His first appearance as an author was in 1844, when he published, in the Journal des Economistes, an article "On the Influence of French and English Tariffs on the Respective Futures of the two Peoples." It contained in germ B.'s theory of political economy, who, from that moment, was a decided opponent of the system of protection. Subsequently, in the same journal, he combated the economic fallacies of socialism and the rights of labor. During a visit to England, he made the acquaintance of Cobden, and on his return to France, he translated, 1845, the speeches of the free-traders, which he published with an introductory preface, entitled Cobden and the League, or the English Agitation in Favor of Free Trade, in which he gathered up into one solid mass the inconveniences of the protective system. B. now went to reside in Paris, where he continued to propagate his views with considerable success; he became secretary of the societies, and chief editor of the journal established to vindicate the principles of free trade. After the revolution of 1848, he was elected successively a member of the constituent and legislative assemblies. In 1850, he came forward as the antagonist of the socialist writer, Prudhon. Suffering from pulmonary disease, he repaired to Italy for change of climate, but died at Rome on the 24th Dec. 1850. Besides the writings mentioned, B. published Sophismes Economiques-Propriété et Loi, Justice et Fraternité-Protectionisme et Communisme, Harmonies Economiques, and several other important tractates, all of which exhibit extensive knowledge of the subjects discussed, convincing logic, and a power of sprightly and biting satire. The Harmonies Economiques and the Sophisms have been translated by J. P. Stirling. While his writings have had great influence, they did not establish a system of political economy which has found general acceptance. See new ed. of his works (7 vol. Paris, 1881). BASTIDE, JULES, a French journalist and politician, minister of foreign affairs in 1848, and member of the constituent assembly, was born at Paris in 1800. In 1821, he became one of the first members of the French Carbonari; and after the July revolution, he was conspicuous among the writers of the radical opposition. On the reconstitution of the national guard, B. was elected commandant-in-chief of the legion of artillery, in which the republicans were grouped, and took part in the two insurrectionary movements, for the second of which-the émeute at Paris, 5th June, 1832-he was condemned to death, but escaped to London. Pardoned in 1834, he returned to Paris, and again devoted himself to politics in the columns of the National. He d. 1879. BASTIEN-LEPAGE, JULES, 1848-84; b. at Damvillers: French painter. He began in government employ, but an overmastering passion for art led him to enter the studio of Alex. Cabanel. In 1873 he exhibited at the Paris salon In Springtime," and fol lowed with one or more pictures every year. In 1873 he received a third class, and in 1875 a second-class medal, and the second prize of Rome. His principal works are "The Communicant," 1875; "My Parents," 1877; "Hay-harvesting," and "Joan of Arc." The last, considered his masterpiece, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. BASTILLE was, in France, a general term for a strong fortress, defended by towers or bastions (q.v.), and in this sense it was used in England also after the Norman conquest. The famous prison to which the name latterly was appropriated, was originally the castle of Paris, and was built by order of Charles V., between 1370 and 1383, by Hugo Aubriot, prévôt or provost of Paris, at the porte St. Antoine, as a defense against the English. Afterwards, when it came to be used as a state-prison, it was provided, during the 16th and 17th c., with vast bulwarks and ditches. On each of its longer sides the B. had four towers, of five stories each, over which there ran a gallery, which was armed with cannon. It was partly in these towers, and partly in cellars under the level of the ground, that the prisons were situated. The unfortunate inmates of these abodes were so effectually removed from the world without as often to be entirely forgotten, and in some cases it was found impossible to discover either their origin or the cause of their incarceration. The B. was capable of containing 70 to 80 prisoners, a number frequently reached during the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. Though small compared to the number which an ordinary prison contains, these numbers were con siderable, when we reflect that they rarely consisted of persons of the lower ranks, or such as were guilty of actual crimes, but of those who were sacrificed to political despot. ism, court intrigue, ecclesiastical tyranny, or had fallen victims to family quarrels-and were lodged here in virtue of lettres de cachet (q.v.)-noblemen, authors, savans, priests, and publishers. On the 14th of July, 1789, the fortress was surrounded by an armed mob, which the reactionary policy of the court had driven into fury, and to the number of which every moment added. The garrison consisted of 82 old soldiers and 32 Swiss. The negotiations which were entered into with the governor led to no other result than the removal of the cannon pointed on the faubourg St. Antoine, which by no means contented the exasperated multitude. Some cut the chains of the first drawbridge, and a contest took place, in which one of the besieged and 150 of the people were killed, or severely wounded; but the arrival of a portion of the troops which had already joined the people, with four field-pieces, turned the fortune of the conflict in favor of the besiegers. Delaunay, the governor-who had been prevented by one of his officers, when on the point of blowing the fortress into the air-permitted the second drawbridge to be lowered, and the people rushed in, killing Delaunay himself and several of his officers. The destruction of the B. commenced on the following day, amid the thunder of Cannon, and the pealing of the Te Deum. This event, in itself apparently of no great moment, leading only to the release of three unknown prisoners-one of whom had been its tenant for thirty years-and four forgers, and in which it is said only the 654 persons whose names now appear on the column in the Place de la Bastille, took part, nevertheless finally broke the spirit of the court-party, and changed the current of events in France. |