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ment was made. When a bill is- said to be payable to bearer,it is understood to be payable to bint who tirst oilers himselfalter it ‘ .-comes due. To be paid a bill of this kind, thereneeds neither order nor transfer; yet it is proper to know to whomit is paid.

Bearing, in architecture, the space either between the twofixed extremes of a timber, when it has no other support, whichthey call bearing at length, dr between one extreme and a post,brick-wall, Ac. trimmed, up between the ends to shorten its bear-ings. By an act of >19 Car. 11. c 3, joists are not to bear aboveten feet in length, nor single rafters more than nine feet.

Bearing, in heraldry, a term used to express a coat of arms,or the figures of armories, by which the nobility and gentry aredistinguished from the other ranks of the people, and from oneanother. These signs of nobility with us are evidently a copy ofthe statues and images among the ancient Romans, which theyused to expose beiore their houses on public days, and carriedbefore the body at the funeral of a great person. ' These statuesamong them bore the resemblances of their noble ancestors.And as our coats of arms evidently were brought in the place ofthem, we may date the origin of heraldry in England, as nowpractised, from the time of the subversion of the Roman empireby the Goths and Vandals; who, as they destroyed many liberalarts, so they seem, in return, to have given birth to the science ofheraldry; for which their posterity, it must lie confessed, are un-der few obligations. These warlike nations, having subdued theRoman empire, and raised their glory by military service, be-came fond of the achievements of their ancestors and great men,and derived their ensigns and titles of honour from what concerneda soldier. They first, therefore, distinguished the-whole commu-nity into three ranks, which they named, according to the dif-ferent orders of military men, milts, eijucs, and scutifer; andtheir posterity, willing to commemorate their honours, reservedto themselves their military ensigns, and these became what wecall bearings, or arms, the marks of gentility, or of families, someone of which had once deserved an elevation above the commonrank of men.

Bearing, in navigation and geography, the situation of oneplace from another, with regard to the points of the compass;or the angle which a line, drawn through the two places, makeswith the meridians of each. The bearings of places on theground, are usually determined from the magnetic needle, in themanaging of which consists the principal part of surveying, sincethe bearing or distance of a second point from a first beingfound, the place of that second is determined; or the bearingsof a third point from two others, whose distance is known, beingfound, the place of the third is determined instrumentally. Butto calctilate trigonometrically, there must be move data

Bearing, in sea language. When a ship sails towards the shore,before the wind, she is said to bear in with the land or harbour. Tolet the ship sail more before the wind is to bear up. To put her rightbefore the wind, is to bear round. A ship that keeps off from the land,is said to bear off. When a ship that was to windward comes un-der a ship's stern, and so gives her the wind, she is said to bearunder her lee, &c. There is another sense of this word, in refer-ence to the burden of a ship; for they say a ship bears, when,having too slender or lean a quarter, she will siuk too deep intothe water with an over-light freight, and thereby can carry but asmall quantity of goods.

Bearing-of an Arch, or Vault, denotes tlie effort, whichthe stones make to separate by their gravity the piers or pie-droits.

Bearing of an Orga k Ripe denotes an error or variationfrom the just sound it ought to yield.

BEARN, a late province of France , which now forms, withBasques , the department of the Lower Pyrenees ; and lies at thefoot of the Pi renean mountains. The principal places are Pag,Be.car, Ortez, Novarreins, Sallies, and Oleron. See Froissart .

Bearn Stone. See Phosphorus. s

BEAST, in a general sense, is an appellation given to all four-footed animals, lit either for food, labour, or sport.

BEAT op Drum , in the military art, is differently performedaccording to the different purposes intended. Notice is given by

R of any sudden danger ; or, that scattered soldiers may repair tomeir arms and quarters: these are called beating an alarm, or toarms. It is also intended to signify, according to the different

manners of sounding the drum, that the soldiers are to fall on theenemy'; to retreat before, during, or after, an attack ; to move ormarch from one place to another ; to come out of their quarters ;to repair to their colours, &c.

Beat, St. a town. of France , in the department of Gers.Lon. 1.0. \V. I/at. 42. 5.0.N.

Beats of a Watch or Clock, are the strokes made.by the fangsor pallets of the spindle of the balance, or of the pads"in a royalpendulum. To find the beats of the balance in any- watch, or" inone turn of any wheel. Having found the number of turns, whichthe crown-wheel makes in one turn of the wheel you seek for,(by the direction which will be found under , the article Turn,)those turns of the crown-wheel, multiplied by its notches, givehalf the number of beats in that one turn of'.’the wheel: for thebalance or swing has two strokes to every tooth of the crown-wheel: inasmuch as each of the two pallets has its blow againsteach tooth of the crown-wheel: whence .it is, that a pendulum,which beats seconds, has in its crown-wheel only 30 teeth. SeeWatchwokk.

To Beat, in the manege. A horse is said to beat the dust,when at each stroke or motion he does not take in ground or wayenough with his fore-legs.

To Beat an Alarm, in military affairs,- is to give notice bybeat of drum of some sudden danger.

To Beat a Charge, is to give the signal to fall upon theenemy.

To Beat the General, is to give notice to the forces thatthey are to march.

To Beat the Reveille, to give leave by beat of drum atday-break to come out of quarters.

To Beat the Tattoo is to give notice to all to retire totheir quarters.

To Beat the Troop, is to give notice to all to repair totheir colours.

To Beat upon the Hand, or To Chack, in.the manege,is spoken of a horse, when his head is not steady, but he tosses uphis nose, and shakes it all of a sudden, to avoid the subjection ofthe bridle. Turkish horses are very subject to this fault.

BEATER, in manufacturing, is applied to divers sorts ofworkmen, whose business is to hammer or flatten certain matters,particularly metals. Thus, 1. Gold-beaters, are artisans, who, bybeating gold and silver with a hammer on a marble in moulds ofvellum and bullocks guts, reduce them to thin leaves fit for thegilding, or silvering of copper, iron, steel, wood, &c. Gold-beatersdiffer from Hatters of gold or silver; as the former bring theirmetals into leaves by the hammer, whereas the latter only flattenit by pressing it through a mill preparatory to beating. 2. Tin-beaters are employed in the looking-glass trade, whose business isto beat tin on large blocks of marble, till it be reduced to thinleaves, lit to be applied wiUi quicksilver behind looking-glasses.See Foliating and Gold-hf.ating.

BEATIFIC Vision, in divinity', the enjoyment of angels andblessed spirits, in seeing God in heaven.

• BEATIFICATION, a term in the Latin church, distin-guished from canonization. Beatification is an acknowledgement made by the pope, that the person beatified is in heaven, andtherefore may be reverenced as blessed: but is not' a concessionof the honours due to saints, which'are conferred by canonization.

BEATING, in book-binding, denotes the knocking a book inquires on a marble block, with a heavy broad-faced hammer, af-ter folding, and before binding or stitching it.

Beating, in English law'. See Battery.

Beating, in hunting, a term used of a stag, which runs firstone way and then another, lie is then said to beat up anddown..

Beating, or Pulsation, in medicine, is applied to the re-ciprocal agitation or palpitation of the heart and pulse, or arte-ries. Some physicians distinguish 81 different kinds of simple,beatings, and 15 compound ones. They compute GO beats in thes)race of a minute, as the proper number in a temperate mail.But, in fact, we generally find a greater number.

Beating, in uavigaubn, the operation of making a progress atsea against the direction of the wind, in a zig-zag line, or tra-verse, like tiiat in which we ascend a steep hill. See Tack-ing.

Beating Flax or IIemp is an operation in the dressing'ofb these