Bakunin (Mikhail Aleksandrovich), Russian Nihilist, b. Torshok (Tver) 1814, of an ancient aristocratic family. He was educated at St. Petersburg, and entered as an ensign in the artillery. Here he became embued with revolutionary ideas. He went to Berlin in 1841, studied the Hegelian philosophy, and published some philosophical writings under the name of Jules Elisard. In '43 he visited Paris and became a disciple of Proudhon. In '48 he was expelled from France at the demand of Russia, whose government set the price of 10,000 silver roubles on his head, went to Dresden and became a member of the insurrectionary government. He was arrested and condemned to death, May '50, but his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. He escaped into Austria, was again captured and sentenced to death, but was handed over to Russia and deported to Siberia. After several years' penal servitude he escaped, travelled over a thousand miles under extreme hardship, reached the sea and sailed to Japan. Thence he sailed to California, thence to New York and London, where with Herzen he published the Kolokol. He took part in the establishment of the International Society, but being at issue with Karl Marx abandoned that body in 1873. He died at Berne 1 July 1876, leaving behind a work on God and the State, both being vigorously attacked. Laveleye writes of him as "the apostle of universal destruction." Ball (William Platt), b. at Birmingham 28 Nov. 1844. Educated at Birkbeck School, London. Became schoolmaster but retired rather than teach religious doctrines. Matriculated at London University 1866. Taught pyrotechny in the Sultan's service 1870-71. Received the order of the Medjidieh after narrow escape from death by the bursting of a mortar. Upon his return published Poems from Turkey (1872). Mr. Ball has contributed to the National Reformer since 1878 and since 1884 has been on the staff of the Freethinker. He has published pamphlets on Religion in Schools, the Ten Commandments and Mrs Besant's Socialism, and has compiled with Mr. Foote the Bible Handbook. Mr. Ball is a close thinker and a firm supporter of Evolutional Malthusianism, which he has ably defended in the pages of Progress. He has of late been engaged upon the question: Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? Ballance (John), New Zealand statesman, b. Glenary, Antrim, Ireland, March 1839. Going out to New Zealand he became a journalist and started the Wanganui Herald. He entered Parliament in 1875 and became Colonial Treasurer in '78. With Sir Robert Stout he has been a great support to the Freethought cause in New Zealand.