the island of the Batavians, (anc. geog.) Of this island Tacitus gives the following description. "The Rhine flowing in one channel, or only broken by small islands, is divided at its entering Batavia, as it were into two rivers. One continues its course through Germany, retaining the same name, and violent current, till it falls into the ocean. The other washing the coast of Gaul, with a broader and more gentle stream, is called by the inhabitants Vahalis; which name it soon changes for that of Moza, by the immense mouth of which river it discharges itself into the same ocean." According to Tacitus, therefore, the island of the Batavians was bounded by the ocean, the Rhine, and the Vahalis, now the Wale. Cæsar extends it to the Moza, or Menes; but Pliny agrees with Tacitus. However, this island was of greater extent in Tacitus's time than in Cæsar's; Drufus, the father of Germanicus, having by a new canal conveyed the waters of the Rhine into the ocean a considerable way north of the former mouth of that river. The Batavi were a branch of the Catti, who, in a domestic sedition, being expelled their country, occupied the extremity of the coast of Gaul, at that time uninhabited, together with this island situated among shoals. Their name Batavi they carried with them from Germany; there being some towns in the territory of the Catti called Batterberg, and Battenhausen. The bravery of the Batavi, especially the horde, procured them not only great honour from the Romans, being called their brothers and friends; but an exemption from taxes, being obliged only to furnish men and arms. The modern name of this island is Betu, or Betaw. See BETUE and BATTA.

BACHELOR, or Bachelor, an appellation given to a man not married, or who is yet in a state of celibacy. For the derivation of the word, see BACHELOR.—The Roman censors frequently imposed fines on old bachelors. Dion. Halicarnassus mentions an old constitution, by which all persons of full age were obliged to marry. But the most celebrated law of this kind was that made under Augustus, called the lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus; by which bachelors were made incapable of legacies or inheritances by will, unless from their near relations. This brought many to marry, according to Plutarch's observation, not so much for the sake of raising heirs to their own estates, as to make themselves capable of inheriting those of other men.—The rabbins maintain, that, by the laws of Moses, every body, except some few particulars, is obliged in conscience to marry at 20 years of age; this makes one of their 613 precepts. Hence those maxims so frequent among their casuists, that he who does not take the necessary measures to leave heirs behind him, is not a man, but ought to be reputed a homicide. Lycurgus was not more favourable: by his laws, bachelors are branded with infamy, excluded from all offices civil and military, and even from the thaws and public sports. At certain feasts they were forced to appear, to be exposed to the public derision, and led round the market-place. At one of their feasts, the women led them in this condition to the altars, where they obliged them to make amends honourable to nature, accompanied with a number of blows, and lashes with a rod at discretion. To complete the affront, they forced them to sing certain songs composed in their own derision.—The Christian religion is more indulgent to the bachelor state: the ancient church recommended it as preferable to, and more perfect than, the matrimonial. In the canon law, we find injunctions on bachelors, when arrived at puberty, either to marry, or to turn monks and profess chastity in earnest.—In England, there was a tax on bachelors, after 25 years of age, 12l. 10s. for a duke, a common person 1s. by 7 Will. III. 1695.

BACHELORS, in an university sense. See BACHELOR.

BACHELORS, in the livery company of London, are those not yet admitted to the livery. Every company of the 12 consists of a master; two wardens; the livery; and the bachelors, who are yet but in expectation of dignity in the company, and have their function only in attendance on the master and wardens.

Knight-Bachelor, the most ancient, but the lowest order of knights in England; known by the name of knights only. They are styled knights-bachelors, because this title does not defend to their posterity.—The custom of the ancient Germans was to give their young men a shield and a lance in the great council: this was equivalent to the toga virilis of the Romans: before this, they were not permitted to bear arms, but were accounted as part of the father's household; after it, as part of the public. Hence some derive the usage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the western world, since its reduction by colonies, from those northern heroes. Knights are called in Latin equites aurati; aurati, from the gilt spurs they wore; and equites, because they always served on horseback: for it is observable, that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from a horse. They are also called in our law milites, because they formed a part, or indeed the whole, of the royal army, in virtue of their feudal tenures; one condition of which was, that every one who held a knight's fee (which in Henry the second's time amounted to 20l. per annum) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the king in his wars, or pay a fine for his non-compliance. The exertion of this prerogative, as an expedient to raise money in the reign of Charles I. gave great offence, though warranted by law and the recent example of queen Elizabeth: but it was, at the Restoration, together with all other military branches of the feudal law, abolished; and this kind of knighthood has, since that time, fallen into disrepute. It is conferred indiscriminately upon gownsmen, burgheers, and physicians, by the king's lightly touching the person, who is then kneeling, on the right shoulder with a drawn sword, and saying, Rife Sir. See the articles Knight and Nobility.