BAIKIE

baikie, william balfour (1824-1864), scottish explorer, naturalist and philologist, eldest son of captain john baikie, r.n., was born at kirkwall, orkney, on the 21st of august 1824. he studied medicine at edinburgh, and, on obtaining his m.d. degree, joined the royal navy in 1848. he early attracted the notice of sir roderick murchison, through whom he was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the niger expedition sent out in 1854 by macgregor laird with government support. the death of the senior officer (consul beecroft) occurring at fernando po, baikie succeeded to the command. ascending the benue about 250 m. beyond the point reached by former explorers, the little steamer "pleiad" returned and reached the mouth of the niger, after a voyage of 118 days, without the loss of a single man. the expedition had been instructed to endeavour to afford assistance to heinrich barth (_q.v._), who had in 1851 crossed the benue in its upper course, but baikie was unable to gain any trustworthy information concerning him. returning to england, baikie gave an account of his work in his _narrative of an exploring voyage up the rivers kwora and binue ... _ (london, 1856). in march 1857 baikie--with the rank of british consul--started on another expedition in the "pleiad." after two years spent in exploring the niger, the navigating vessel was wrecked in passing through some of the rapids of the river, and baikie was unable longer to keep his party together. all returned home but himself; in no way daunted, he determined single-handed to carry out the purposes of the expedition. landing from a small boat, with one or two native followers, at the confluence of the niger and benue, he chose lokoja as the base of his future operations, it being the site of the model farm established by the expedition sent by the british government in 1841, and abandoned within a twelve-month on the death of most of the white settlers (see capt. w. alien, r.n., and t. r. h. thomson, m.d., _a narrative of the expedition ... to the river niger in 1841_, london, 1848). after purchasing the site, and concluding a treaty with the fula emir of nupe, he proceeded to clear the ground, build houses, form enclosures and pave the way for a future city. numbers flocked to him from all neighbouring districts, and in his settlement were representatives of almost all the tribes of west-central africa. to the motley commonwealth thus formed he acted not merely as ruler, but also as physician, teacher and priest. in less than five years he had opened up the navigation of the niger, made roads, and established a market to which the native produce was brought for sale and barter. he had also collected vocabularies of nearly fifty african dialects, and translated portions of the bible and prayer-book into hausa. once only during his residence had he to employ armed force against the surrounding tribes. while on his way home, on leave of absence, he died at sierra leone on the 30th of november 1864. he had done much to establish british influence on the niger, but after his death the british government abolished the consulate (1866), and it was through private enterprise that some twenty years later the district where baikie had worked so successfully was finally secured for great britain (see nigeria). baikie's _observations on the hausa and fulfulde_ (_i.e._ fula) _languages_ was privately printed in 1861, and his translation of the psalms into hausa was published by the bible society in 1881. he was also the author of various works concerning orkney and shetland. a monument to his memory was placed in the nave of the ancient cathedral of st magnus, kirkwall. bail,[1] in english common law, the freeing or setting at liberty of one arrested or imprisoned upon any action, either civil or criminal, on surety taken for his appearance on a certain day and at a place named. the surety is termed bail, because the person arrested or imprisoned is placed in the custody of those who bind themselves or become bail for his due appearance when required. so he may be released by them if they suspect that he is about to escape and surrendered to the court, when they are discharged from further liability. the sureties must be sufficient in the opinion of the court, and, as a rule, only householders are accepted; in criminal cases the solicitor or an accomplice of the person to be bailed, a married woman or an infant would not be accepted. bail is obligatory in all summary cases. it is also obligatory in all misdemeanours, except such as have been placed on the level of felonies, viz. obtaining or attempting to obtain property on false pretences, receiving property so obtained or stolen, perjury or subornation of perjury, concealment of birth, wilful or indecent exposure of the person, riot, assault in pursuance of a conspiracy to raise wages, assault upon a peace-officer in the execution of his duty or upon any one assisting him, neglect or breach of duty as a peace-officer, any prosecution of which the costs are payable out of the county or borough rate or fund. in cases of treason, bail can only be granted by a secretary of state or the king's bench division. a person charged with felony is not entitled as of right to be released on bail. the power of admitting a prisoner to bail is discretionary and not ministerial, and the chief consideration in the exercise of that discretion must be the likelihood of the prisoner failing to appear at the trial. this must be gauged from the nature of the evidence in support of the accusation, the position of the accused and the severity of the punishment which his conviction will entail, as well as the independence of the sureties. the bail act 1898 gives a magistrate power, where a person is charged with felony or certain misdemeanours, or where he is committed for trial for any indictable offence, to dispense with sureties, if in his opinion the so dispensing will not tend to defeat the ends of justice. a surety may be examined on oath as to his means, while the court may also require notice to be given to the plaintiff, prosecutor or police. a person who has been taken into custody for an offence without a warrant, and cannot be brought before a court of summary jurisdiction within twenty-four hours, may be admitted to bail by a superintendent or inspector of police; and in a borough, if a person is arrested for a petty misdemeanour, he may be bailed by the constable in charge of the police-station. bail in civil matters, since the abolition of arrest on mesne process, is virtually extinct. it took the form of an instrument termed a [v.03 p.0217] _bail-bond_, which was prepared in the sheriff's office after arrest, and executed by two sufficient sureties, and the person arrested. in admiralty proceedings _in rem_, bail is often required for procuring the release of arrested ships or cargo. it is also given without the arrest of the ship, as a substitution of personal security for that of the _res_, generally in an amount to cover the claim and costs. in the united states, bail (in a sum fixed by the committing magistrate) is a matter of right in all cases where a sentence of death cannot be inflicted (rev. stat. s. 1015). in those where such a sentence can be inflicted, it may be allowed by one of the judges of the united states courts at his discretion (_ibid_. s. 1016). [1] the ultimate origin of this and cognate words is the lat. _bajulus_, properly a bearer of burdens or porter, later a tutor or guardian, and hence a governor or custodian, from which comes "bailiff"; from _bajulare_ is derived the french _bailler_, to take charge of, or to place in charge of, and "bail" thus means "custody," and is applied to the person who gives security for the appearance of the prisoner, the security given, or the release of the prisoner on such security.