famous (1808-1870).

BALFOUR, A. J., of Whittinghame, East Lothian; educated at Eton and
Cambridge; nephew of Lord Salisbury, and First Lord of the Treasury and
leader of the House of Commons in Lord Salisbury's ministry; author of a
"Defence of Philosophic Doubt" and a volume of "Essays and Addresses";
_b_. 1848.

BALFOUR, FRANCIS MAITLAND, brother of the preceding; a promising
biologist; career was cut short by death in attempting to ascend the
Wetterhorn (1851-1882).

BALFOUR, SIR JAMES, Lord President of the Court of Session; native
of Fife; an unprincipled man, sided now with this party, now with the
opposite, to his own advantage, and that at the most critical period in
Scottish history; _d_. 1583.

BALFOUR OF BURLEY, leader of the Covenanters in Scott's "Old
Mortality."

BALI, one of the Samoa Islands, 75 m. long by 40 m. broad; produces
cotton, coffee, and tobacco.

BALIOL, EDWARD, son of the following, invaded Scotland; was crowned
king at Scone, supported by Edward III.; was driven from the kingdom, and
obliged to renounce all claim to the crown, on receipt of a pension; died
at Doncaster, 1369.

BALIOL, JOHN DE, son of the following; laid claim to the Scottish
crown on the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290; was supported by Edward
I., and did homage to him for his kingdom, but rebelled, and was forced
publicly to resign the crown; died in 1314 in Normandy, after spending
some three years in the Tower; satirised by the Scotch, in their stinging
humorous style, as King Toom Tabard, i. e. Empty King Cloak.

BALIOL, SIR JOHN DE, of Norman descent; a guardian to the heir to
the Scottish crown on the death of Alexander III.; founder of Baliol
College, Oxford; _d_. 1269.

BALIZE, or BELIZE, the capital of British Honduras, in Central
America; trade in mahogany, rosewood, &c.

BALKAN PENINSULA, the territory between the Adriatic and the AEgean
Sea, bounded on the N. by the Save and the Lower Danube, and on the S. by
Greece.

BALKANS, THE, a mountain range extending from the Adriatic to the
Black Sea; properly the range dividing Bulgaria from Roumania; mean
height, 6500 ft.

BALKASH, LAKE, a lake in Siberia, 780 ft. above sea-level, the
waters clear, but intensely salt, 150 m. long and 73 m. broad.

BALKH, anciently called Bactria, a district of Afghan Turkestan
lying between the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush, 250 m. long and 120 m. broad,
with a capital of the same name, reduce