ained the favour of the working-classes;
was member of the Provisional Government of 1848, and eventually of the
National Assembly; threatened with impeachment, fled to England; returned
to France on the fall of the Empire, and was elected to the Chamber of
Deputies in 1871; wrote an "elaborate and well-written" "History of the
French Revolution"; died at Cannes (1811-1882).

BLANC, MONT, the highest mountain in Europe, 15,780 ft., almost
entirely within France; sends numerous glaciers down its slopes, the Mer
de Glace the chief.

BLANCHARD, FRANCOIS, a celebrated French aeronaut, inventor of the
parachute; he fell from his balloon and was killed at the Hague
(1738-1809).

BLANCHARD, LAMAN, a prolific periodical and play writer, born at
Yarmouth; a man of a singularly buoyant spirit, crushed by calamities;
died by suicide (1803-1845).

BLANCHE OF CASTILE, wife of Louis VIII. of France and mother of St.
Louis; regent of France during the minority of her son and during his
absence in crusade; governed with great discretion and firmness; died of
grief over the long absence of her son and his rumoured intention to stay
in the Holy Land (1186-1252).

BLANCHET, THE ABBE, French litterateur; author of "Apologues and
Tales," much esteemed (1707-1784).

BLANDRATA, GIORGIO, Piedmontese physician, who for his religious
opinions was compelled to take refuge, first in Poland, then in
Transylvania, where he sowed the seeds of Unitarianism (1515-1590).

BLANQUI, ADOLPHE, a celebrated French publicist and economist, born
at Nice; a disciple of J. B. Say, and a free-trader; his principal work,
"History of Political Economy in Europe" (1798-1854).

BLANQUI, LOUIS AUGUSTE, a brother of the preceding, a French
republican of extreme views and violent procedure; would appear to have
posed as a martyr; spent nearly half his life in prison (1805-1881).

BLARNEY-STONE, a stone in Castle Blarney, Cork, of difficult access,
which is said to endow whoso kisses it with a fair-spoken tongue, hence
the application of the word.

BLASIUS, ST., bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia; the patron of
wool-combers; suffered martyrdom in 316.

BLASPHEMY, defined by Ruskin as the opposite of euphemy, and as
wishing ill to anything, culminating in wishing ill to God, as the height
of "ill-manners."

BLATANT BEAST, Spenser's name for the ignorant, slanderous, clamour
of the mob.

BLAVATSKY, MME., a theosophist, born in Russia;