Baines, Ralph, was born in Yorkshire, and edu- cated at St. John's College, Cambridge: he was emi- n nt as a Hebraist, and was made regius professor of Hebrew at Paris. In 1554 he was made bishop of Lich- field and Coventry; in 1559 he was ejected by Quesn Elizabeth, and very shortly after died at Islington, llr wrote a Commentary mi the Proverbs, 1555, and a f.u Hebrew works. — Godwin ,DePrass. Ang!ia;,p. 324. Baird, Robert, D.D., an eminent Presbyterian minister and philanthropist, was born in Fayette Co.,
Penn.,Ocl sr6, 17ns. After academical training at
Dniohtown, he entered Washington College, and pass- ed tie ne.' to Jefferson College, where he graduated in Lfter spending a year as a teacher in Belle- fonte, where heVas a frequent newspaper contributor, he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, where lie rtudied for three years, officiating one year as tutor '" toe college. In 1822 he was licensed to preach by th- Presbytery of New Brunswick, and in the same year took charge of an academy in Princeton, which position he held for live years. In 1828 he was or- dain, -d to the work of the Gospel ministry. In 1827 1 i the great field of all Ids' subsequent
n of Protestantism and the evan-
gelization oftl
"I connection with the great re-
ligious and benevolent societies." He took a leading pari in the movement m ide by the New Jersey Bible Society to supply every destitute family in New Jersey with the Script,,,-,.. This plan was carried into exe- cution -i„ Hilly. Next, a- agent of the New Jer-
krnary Society, Dr. Baird did much to lay the
foundation of public education in that state, and orig- inated the first system of common schools established in the state, which, with few modifications, still remains in force. In 1829 he became agent of the American Sunday-school Union, and for live years he held meet- ings all over the country, doing much to advance the influence of the society, and adding largely to its funds. In 1835 Dr. Baird went to Europe, and resided in Paris and Geneva, with the exception of a few months, for the next eight years. His primary object was to as- certain what the American churches could do to re-
1 vive the Protestant faith where it had lost its vitality, and to convert the Roman Catholics. Among the re- sults of his labors was the formation of the Foreign Evangelical Society, since merged into the American and Foreign Christian Union, of which he was one of the founders. In the Scandinavian countries, in Rus-
' sia and in Germany, he met with extraordinary suc- cess in giving an impulse to the temperance reform. His exertions in behalf of the Bible and Tract Socic-
| ties were confined to no single country of Europe,
j while his intercessions for the persecuted were put forth alike in Protestant Sweden and in Roman Cath- olic France. The recent translation ami pul lication of the Sacred Scriptures in the modern Russ, under the auspices of the imperial government, are believed to have been greatly attributable to Dr. Baird's stren- uous personal efforts. To the cause of Protestantism, of temperance, and of education, Dr. Baird was en- thusiastically devoted. Possessed of a fine personal appearance, an amiable disposition, and rare affability of manner, an accomplished linguist, and a man of broad information, Dr. Baird had a large personal ac- quaintance among the great and good men of America and Europe. He was admitted to interviews and dis- cussions with all the monarchs that rule the destinies of the Old World. His thorough honesty and sincer- ity, his pure religious character, and his unbounded charity, stamped him as a man who could give counsel to kings, and who had access by right to every source of influence and power. In 1843 he returned to Amcr-
I ica, continuing to be corresponding secretary of the Foreign Evangelical Society and of the American and Foreign Christian Union (with slight interruption, and making several visits to Europe) to the time of his death, March 15, 1863.
This brief sketch suffices to show Dr. Baird as an indefatigable laborer. His sympathies were eminently catholic, and his activities were cosmopolitan. His name, and even his person, were known to all Protes- tant branches of the church throughout the United States and Europe. Amid his incessant missionary labors and travels he found time also for a large lit- erary activity. Besides numerous reports for the be- nevolent societies with which he was connected, and many contributions to newspapers, magazines, and re- views, he wrote A View of the Valley of the Mississippi (Phila. 1832, 12mo); Memoir of Anna Jane Linnard (Phila. 1835, 18mo); Memoir of the Rev. Joseph San- ford (Phila. 1836, 121110s); Histoiredes Societesd Tem- perance </<■■•• Etats-l'i.is d'Auh'riijue (Paris, 1836, 12mo; translated into German, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Puss, and Swedish — the latter translation by order of Berna- dotte); UUnion de VEglise et de I'Etat dans In Nouvelle Angleterre (Paris, 1837, 18mo); Visit to Northern Eu- rope (X. Y. 1841, 2 vols. 12mo); Religion in Ann rim (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1842, 8vo; translated into German, Dutch, French, Swedish, etc.; revised ed. N. Y. 1844; enlarged and rewritten, X. Y. 1856); Protestantism in I/ah/ (Boston, 1845, 12mo); 2d. ed. 1847); Chris/ion Retrospect and Register (X. Y. 1851, 12mo, in part). — See Life of Dr. Baird, by his son, Prof. II. M. Baird (X. Y. 1866); Allibone, Diet, of Au- thors, i. 112; Princeton Review, 1843, p. 489; Christian Intelligencer (newspaper); Wilson, Presb. Alumnae, 186 I ; Sprague, s, rmon mi ]>,-. Baird (Albany, 1863). Baius, or De Bay, Michael, a Romanist writei