Sorel, _L'Europe et la Revolution
francaise_ (esp. vols. v. and vi., Paris, 1903-1904), and A. Vandal,
_L'Avenement de Bonaparte_ (Paris, 1902-1904).

(J. HL. R.)

BARRATRY (O. Fr. _bareter_, _barater_, to barter or cheat), in English
criminal law, the offence (more usually called _common barratry_) of
constantly inciting and stirring up quarrels in disturbance of the peace,
either in courts or elsewhere. It is an offence both at common law and by
statute, and is punishable by fine and imprisonment. By a statute of 1726,
if the person guilty of common barratry belonged to the profession of the
law, he was disabled from practising in the future. It is a cumulative
offence, and it is necessary to prove at least three commissions of the
act. For nearly two centuries there had been no record of an indictment
having been preferred for this offence, but in 1889 a case occurred at the
Guildford summer assizes, _R._ v. _Bellgrove_ (_The Times_, 8th July 1889).
As, however, the defendant was convicted of another offence, the charge was
not proceeded upon. (See Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_;
Russell, _Crimes and Misdemeanours_; Stephen, _Criminal Law_.)

In _marine insurance_ barratry is any kind of fraud committed upon the
owner or insurers of a ship by a master with the intention of benefiting
himself at their expense. Continental jurists give a wider meaning to
barratry, as meaning any wilful act by the master or crew, by whatever
motive induced, whereby the owners or charterers are damnified. In bills of
lading it is usual to except it from the shipowners' liability (see
AFFREIGHTMENT).

In Scotland, barratry is the crime committed by a judge who is induced by
bribery to pronounce judgment.

BARRE, ISAAC (1726-1802), British soldier and politician, was born at
Dublin in 1726, the son of a French refugee. He was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, entered the army, and in 1759 was with Wolfe at the taking
of Quebec, on which occasion he was wounded in the cheek. His entry into
parliament in 1761 under the auspices of Lord Shelburne, who had selected
him "as a bravo to run down Mr Pitt," was characterized by a virulent
attack on Pitt, of whom, however, he became ultimately a devoted adherent.
A vigorous opponent of the taxation of America, his mastery of invective
was powerfully displayed in his championship of the American cause, and the
name "Sons of Liberty," which he had applied to the colonists in on