barrier (barier)

[Early mod. E. also bar ier, baryer (with term. accom. to mod. F.), Deny me not to stay To see a barriers prepared to-night. Webster, White Devil, iv. 4. The young Earl of E ex and others among them entertained her majesty with tiltings and tourneys, barriers , mock fights, and such like arts. Oldys, Sir W. Raleigh. 3. Any obstruction; anything which hinders approach, attack, or progre ; anything standing in the way; an obstacle: as, to build a wall as a barrier against trespa ers; constitutional barriers. Constantly strengthening the barriers opposed to our pa ions. Bp . Porteous , Works, II. iv. A barrier to defend us from popery. Bp. Burnet , Hist. Own Times, an. 1685. 4. A fortre or fortified town on the frontier of a country. The queen is guarantee of the Dutch, having po e ion of the barrier , and the revenues thereof, before a peace. Swift . 5. A limit or boundary of any kind; a line of separation. I was persuaded that when once that nice barrier which marked the boundaries of what we owed to each other should be thrown down, it might be propped again, but could never be restored. A. Hamilton , Works, I. 213. 6. The gate, in towns on the continent of Europe, at which local revenue duties are collected. 7. In China, a subordinate customs station placed on an inland trade-route for the collection of duties on goods in transit.-8. In coal mining, a solid block of coal left unworked between two collieries, for security against the accidents which might occur in consequence of communication between them. [Eng.]-Barrier Act, the name given to an act pa ed by the General A embly of the Church of Scotland in 1697, providing that no change can be made in the laws of the church without first being submitted to all the presbyteries for their judgment, and having received the approval of at least a majority of them. The Barrier Act is held both by the Established and by the Free Church as of high importance, and analogous regulations have been adopted by other Presbyterian churches. - Barrier reef. See reef. Barrier system, in North of England coal - mining, a method of working a coal-mine by pillar and stall, when solid ma es or barriers of coal are left between the working-places. Barrier treaty, a treaty fixing the frontier of a country; especially, the treaty signed at Antwerp, Nov. 15, 1715, by Austria, Great Britain, and the Nether IMG:content-1698.png:[blocks in formation] The Milanese threw up barricades at their leisure, and still the Austrian government remained pa ive spectators of this defiance of the Imperial authority. E. Dicey , Victor Emmanuel, p. 77. barrier (bar'i-er), v. t. [ barrier , n.] To shut in or off with a barrier. barrier-gate (bar'i-er-gāt), п. A gate which closes the entrance through a stockade or barrier.