BRABANT, in mediaeval times was an important prov. of the Low Countries, inhabitants Dutch, cap. Breda; is now divided between Holland and Belgium. It comprises three provs., the N. or Dutch Brabant; Antwerp, a Belgian prov., inhabitants Flemings, cap. Antwerp; and S. Brabant, also Belgian, inhabitants Walloons, cap. Brussels; the whole mostly a plain.

BRACTON, HENRY DE, an English "justice itinerant," a writer on English law of the 13th century; author of "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae," a "Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England," and the first attempt of the kind; _d_. 1268.

BRADAMANTE, sister to Rinaldo, and one of the heroines in "Orlando Furioso"; had a lance which unhorsed every one it touched.

BRADDOCK, EDWARD, British general, born in Perthshire; entered the Coldstream Guards, and became major-general in 1754; commanded a body of troops against the French in America, fell in an attempt to invest Fort Duquesue, and lost nearly all his men (1695-1755).

BRADDON, MISS (Mrs. John Maxwell), a popular novelist, born in London; authoress of "Lady Audley's Secret," "Aurora Floyd," and some 50 other novels; contributed largely to magazines; _b_. 1837.

BRADFORD (216), a Yorkshire manufacturing town, on a tributary of the Aire, 9 m. W. of Leeds; it is the chief seat of worsted spinning and weaving in England, and has an important wool market; coal and iron mines are at hand, and iron-works and machinery-making are its other industries. Also the name of a manufacturing town on the Avon, in Wilts.

BRADLAUGH, CHARLES, a social reformer on secularist lines, born in London; had a chequered career; had for associate in the advocacy of his views Mrs. Annie Besant; elected M.P. for Northampton thrice over, but not allowed to sit till he took the oath, which he did in 1886; died respected by all parties in the House of Commons; wrote the "Impeachment of the House of Brunswick" (1833-1891).

BRADLEY, JAMES, astronomer, born in Gloucestershire; professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and astronomer-royal at Greenwich; discovered the aberration of light and the nutation of the earth's axis; made 60,000 astronomical observations (1693-1762).

BRADSHAW, GEORGE, an engraver of maps in Manchester; published maps illustrative of certain canal systems, and did the same service for railways, which developed into the well-known "Railway Guide" (1830-1863).

BRADSHAW, JOHN, president of the High Court of Justice for trial of Charles I., born at Stockport; bred for the bar; a friend of Milton; a thorough republican, and opposed to the Protectorate; became president of the Council on Cromwell's death; was buried in Westminster; his body was exhumed and hung in chains at the Restoration (1586-1659).

BRADWARDIN, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury, surnamed "Doctor Profundus" from his treatise "De Causa Dei" against Pelagianism; chaplain to Edward III.; was present at Crecy and at the taking of Calais; died of the black death shortly after his consecration (1290-1348).

BRADWARDINE, the name of a baron and his daughter, the heroine of "Waverley."

BRAEMAR`, a Scottish Highland district SW. of Aberdeenshire; much frequented by tourists, and resorted to for summer country quarters.

BRAG, JACK, a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him.

BRAGA (23), a city, 34 m. NE. of Oporto, Portugal; the residence of the Primate; the capital of Minho.

BRAGANZA, capital of Traz-os-Montes, in Portugal; gives name to the ruling dynasty of Portugal, called the House of Braganza, the eighth duke of Braganza having ascended the throne in 1640, on the liberation of Portugal from the yoke of Spain.

BRAGI, the Norse god of poetry and eloquence, son of Odin and Frigga; represented as an old man with a long flowing beard and unwrinkled brow, with a mild expression of face; received in Valhalla the heroes who fell in battle.

BRAHAM, JOHN, a celebrated tenor singer, the most so in Europe of his day, and known all over Europe; was particularly effective in rendering the national songs; born in London, of Jewish parents; composed operas, which, however, were only dramas interspersed with songs. Scott described him as "a beast of an actor, but an angel of a singer" (1774-1856).

BRAHE, TYCHO, a Swedish astronomer, of noble birth; spent his life in the study of the stars; discovered a new star in Cassiopeia; had an observatory provided for him on an island in the Sound by the king, where he made observations for 20 years; he was, on the king's death, compelled to retire under persecution at the hand of the nobles; accepted an invitation of the Kaiser Rudolf II. to Prague, where he continued his work and had Kepler for assistant and pupil (1546-1601).

BRAHMA, in the Hindu religion and philosophy at one time the formless spirit of the Universe, from which all beings issue and into which they all merge, and as such is not an object of worship, but a subject of meditation; and at another the creator of all things, of which VISHNU (q. v.) is the preserver AND SIVA (q. v.) the destroyer, killing that he may make alive. See TRIMURTI.

BRAHMAN, or BRAHMIN, one of the sacred caste of the Hindus that boasts of direct descent from, or immediate relationship with, Brahma, the custodians and mediators of religion, and therefore of high-priestly rank.

BRAHMANAS, treatises on the ceremonial system of Brahminism, with prescriptions bearing upon ritual, and abounding in legends and speculations.

BRAHMAPUTRA (i. e. son of Brahma), a river which rises in Tibet, circles round the E. of the Himalayas, and, after a course of some 1800 m., joins the Ganges, called the Sampo in Tibet, the Dihong in Assam, and the Brahmaputra in British India; it has numerous tributaries, brings down twice as much mud as the Ganges, and in the lower part of its course overflows the land, particularly Assam, like an inland sea.

BRAHMINISM, the creed and ritual of the Brahmans, or that social, political, and religious organisation which developed among the Aryans in the valley of the Ganges under the influence of the Brahmans. According to the religious conception of this class, Brahma, or the universal spirit, takes form or incarnates himself successively as Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, which triple incarnation constitutes a trimurti or trinity. In this way Brahma, the first incarnation of the universal spirit, had four sons, from whom issued the four castes of India--Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras--all the rest being outcasts or pariahs. See CASTE.

BRAHMO-SOMAJ (i. e. church of God), a secession from traditional Hinduism, originated in 1830 by Rammohun Roy, and developed by Chunder Sen; founded on theistic, or rather monotheistic, i. e. unitarian, principles, and the rational ideas and philosophy of Europe, as well as a profession of a sense of the brotherhood of man no less than the unity of God.

BRAHMS, JOHANNES, a distinguished composer, born at Hamburg; of great promise from a boy; settled in Vienna; has no living rival; the appearance of compositions of his an event in the musical world; approaches Beethoven as no other does; distinguished as a performer as well as a composer; _b_. 1833.

BRAIDWOOD, JAMES, born in Edinburgh; director of the London fire brigade; distinguished for his heroism on the occasion of great fires both in Edinburgh and London (1790-1861).

BRAILLE, a blind Frenchman, invented printing in relief for the blind (1809-1852).

BRAINERD, American missionary to the Red Indians, born in Connecticut; his Life was written by Jonathan Edwards, in whose house he died (1718-1747).

BRAMAH, JOSEPH, an engineer, born in Barnsley, Yorkshire; author of many mechanical inventions, 18 of which were patented, among others the hydraulic press, named after him (1748-1814).

BRAMANTE, DONATO, architect; laid the foundation of St. Peter's at Rome, which he did not live to complete (1444-1514).

BRAMBLE, MATTHEW, a gouty humorist in "Humphrey Clinker"; of a fretful temper, yet generous and kind, who has a sister, MISS TABITHA, an ungainly maiden at forty-five, and of anything but a sweet temper.

BRAMHALL, JOHN, archbishop of Armagh, born in Yorkshire, a high-handed Churchman and imitator of Laud; was foolhardy enough once to engage, nowise to his credit, in public debate with such a dialectician as Thomas Hobbes on the questions of necessity and free-will (1594-1663).

BRAMWELL, SIR FREDERICK, civil engineer, president of the British Association in 1888, and previously of Association of Engineers; _b_. 1818.

BRAN, name given to Fingal's dog.

BRAND, JOHN, antiquary, born in Durham, wrote a "Popular Antiquities" (1744-1784).

BRANDAN, ST., ISLAND OF, an island reported of by St. Brandan as lying W. of the Canary Islands, and that figured on charts as late as 1755, in quest of which voyages of discovery were undertaken as recently as the beginning of the 18th century, up to which time it was believed to exist.

BRANDE, chemist, born in London; author of "Manual of Chemistry" and other works (1788-1866).

BRANDENBURG (2,542), in the great northern plain of Germany, is a central Prussian province, and the nucleus of the Prussian kingdom; most of it a sandy plain, with fertile districts and woodlands here and there.

BRANDENBURG, THE HOUSE OF, an illustrious German family dating from the 10th century, from which descended the kings of Prussia.

BRANDES, GEORGE, a literary critic, born at Copenhagen, of Jewish parents; his views of the present tendency of literature in Europe provoked at first much opposition in Denmark, though they were received with more favour afterwards; the opposition to his views were such that he was forced to leave Copenhagen, but, after a stay in Berlin, he returned to it in 1862, with the support of a strong party in his favour.

BRANDT, a Swedish chemist; chanced on the discovery in 1669 of phosphorus while in quest of a solvent to transmute metals, such as silver, into gold; _d_. 1692.

BRANDT, SEBASTIAN, a satirical writer, born at Strassburg; author of the "Narrenschiff" or "Ship of Fools," of which there have been many translations and not a few imitations (1458-1521).

BRANDY NAN, a nickname for Queen Anne, from her fondness for brandy.

BRANDYWINE CREEK, a small river in Delaware; scene of a victory of the British over the Americans in 1777.

BRANGTONS, THE, a vulgar, evil-spoken family in Miss Burney's "Evelina."

BRANT, JOSEPH, Indian chief who sided with the British in the American war; a brave and good man; _d_. 1807.

BRANTOME, PIERRE DE BOURDEILLES, a French chronicler, contemporary of Montaigne, born in Perigord; led the life of a knight-errant, and wrote Memoirs remarkable for the free-and-easy, faithful, and vivid delineations of the characters of the most celebrated of his contemporaries (1527-1614).

BRASIDAS, a Spartan general, distinguished in the Peloponnesian war; his most celebrated action, the defeat at the expense of his life, in 422 B.C., of the flower of the Athenian army at Amphipolis, with a small body of helots and mercenaries.

BRASS, SAMPSON, a knavish attorney in "Old Curiosity Shop"; affected feeling for his clients, whom he fleeced.

BRASSES, sepulchral tablets of a mixed metal, called latten, inlaid in a slab of stone, and insculpt with figures and inscriptions of a monumental character; the oldest in England is at Stoke d'Abernon, in Surrey.

BRASSEY, THOMAS, a great railway contractor, born in Cheshire; contracted for the construction of railways in all parts of the world (1805-1870).

BRAUN, AUGUSTE EMIL, German archaeologist, born at Gotha; works numerous, and of value (1809-1856).

BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE, Marshal Ney, so called from his fearlessness in battle; Napoleon had on one occasion said, "That man is a lion."

BRAXY, an inflammatory disease in sheep, due to a change in food from succulent to dry; and the name given to the mutton of sheep affected with it.

BRAY, a Berkshire village, famous for Simon Aleyn, its vicar from 1540 to 1588, who, to retain his living, never scrupled to change his principles; he lived in the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George I.

BRAZEN AGE, in the Greek mythology the age of violence, that succeeded the weak Silver Age. See AGES.

BRAZIL (14,000), the largest South American State, almost equal to Europe, occupies the eastern angle of the continent, and comprises the Amazon basin, the tablelands of Matto Grosso, the upper basin of the Paraguay, and the maritime highlands, with the valleys of the Parana and San Francisco. Great stretches of the interior are uninhabitable swamp and forest lands; forests tenanted by an endless variety of brilliant-plumed birds and insects; the coasts are often humid and unhealthy, but the upper levels have a fine climate. Almost all the country is within the tropics. The population at the seaports is mostly white; inland it is negro, mulatto, and Indian. Vegetable products are indescribably rich and varied; timber of all kinds, rubber, cotton, and fruit are exported; coffee and sugar are the chief crops. The vast mineral wealth includes diamonds, gold, mercury, and copper. Most of the trade is with Britain and America. The language is Portuguese; the religion, Roman Catholic; education is very backward, and government unsettled. Discovered in 1500, and annexed by Portugal; the Portuguese king, expelled by the French in 1808, fled to his colony, which was made a kingdom 1815, and an empire in 1822. The emperor, Pedro II., was driven out in 1889, and a republic established on the federal system, which has been harassed ever since by desultory civil war. The capital is Rio Janeiro; Bahia and Pernambuco, the other seaports.

BRAZIL-WOOD, a wood found in Brazil, of great value for dyeing red, the colouring principle being named Brasilin.

BRAZZA (22), an island in the Adriatic, belonging to Austria; is richly wooded; noted for its wines; yields marble.

BRAZZA, PIERRE SAVORGNAN DE, explorer, born in Rome; acquired land N. of the Congo for France, and obtained a governorship; _b_. 1852.

BREADFRUIT-TREE, a South Sea island tree producing a fruit which, when roasted, is used as bread.

BREAL, MICHEL, a French philologist, born at Landau; translator into French of Bopp's "Comparative Grammar"; _b_. 1832.

BRECHE-DE-ROLAND, a gorge in the dep. of the Haute-Pyrenees, which, according to tradition, Charlemagne's Paladin of the name of Roland cleft with one stroke of his sword when he was beset by the Gascons.

BRECHIN, a town in Forfarshire, W. of Montrose, on the S. Esk, with a cathedral and an old round tower near it, 85 ft. high, the only one of the kind in Scotland besides being at Abernethy.

BREDA (23), fortified town, the capital of N. Brabant; a place of historical interest; Charles II. resided here for a time during his exile, and issued hence his declaration prior to his restoration.

BREECHES BIBLE, the Geneva Bible, so called from its rendering in Gen. iii. 7, in which "aprons" is rendered "breeches."

BREECHES REVIEW, the _Westminster_, so called at one time, from one Place, an authority in it, who had been a leather-breeches maker at Charing Cross.

BREGNET, a French chronometer-maker, born at Neuchatel; a famous inventor of astronomical instruments (1747-1823).

BREHM, ALFRED EDMUND, German naturalist; his chief work "Illustrirtes Thierleben" (1829-1884).

BREHON LAWS, a body of judge-created laws that for long formed the common law of Ireland, existed from prehistoric times till Cromwell's conquest. The origin of the code is unknown, and whether it was at first traditional; many manuscript redactions of portions exist still.

BREMEN (126), the chief seaport of Germany, after Hamburg; is on the Weser, 50 m. from its mouth, and is a free city, with a territory less than Rutlandshire. Its export and import trade is very varied; half the total of emigrants sail from its docks; it is the head-quarters of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. Textiles, tobacco, and paper industries add to its prosperity; was one of the principal cities of the Hanseatic League.

BREMER, FREDRIKA, a highly popular Swedish novelist, born in Finland; "The Neighbours," "The President's Daughter," and "Strife and Peace," are perhaps her best stories; has been called the Jane Austen of Sweden.

BREMER, SIR JAMES, rear-admiral; distinguished in the Burmese and Chinese wars (1786-1850).

BREMERHAVEN, the port of Bremen, on the estuary of the Weser, founded for the accommodation of large vessels in 1830, with a large hospice for emigrants.

BRENDAN, ST., an Irish saint, born at Tralee, celebrated for his voyages in quest of "a land beyond human ken" and his discovery of "a paradise amid the waves of the sea"; founded a monastery at Clonfert; died in 577, in his ninety-fourth year.

BRENNER PASS, pass on the central Tyrolese Alps, 6853 ft. high, between Innsbruck and Botzen, crossed by a railway, which facilitates trade between Venice, Germany, and Austria.

BRENNUS, a Gallic chief, who, 300 B.C., after taking and pillaging Rome, invested the Capitol for so long that the Romans offered him a thousand pounds' weight of gold to retire; as the gold was being weighed out he threw his sword and helmet into the opposite scale, adding _Vae victis_, "Woe to the conquered," an insolence which so roused Camillus, that he turned his back and offered battle to him and to his army, and totally routed the whole host.

BRENTA, an Italian river; rises in the Tyrol, waters Bassano, and debouches near Venice.

BRENTANO, CLEMENS, poet of the romanticist school, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, brother of Goethe's Bettina von Arnim; was a roving genius (1778-1849).

BRENTFORD, market-town in Middlesex, on the Brent, 10 m. W. of London, that figures in history and literature.

BRENZ, JOHANN, the reformer of Wuertemberg, and one of the authors of the Wuertemberg Confession, as well as a catechism extensively used (1499-1570).

BRESCIA (43), a city of Lombardy, on the Mella and Garza, 50 m. E. of Milan; has two cathedrals, an art gallery and library, a Roman temple excavated in 1822, and now a classical museum; its manufactures are woollens, silks, leather, and wine.

BRESLAU (335), the capital of Silesia, second city in Prussia; an important commercial and manufacturing centre, and has a first-class fortress; is on the Oder, 150 m. by rail SE. of Frankfort; it stands in the centre of the Baltic, North Sea, and Danube trade, and has a large woollen industry and grain market; there are a cathedral, university, and library.

BRESSAY, one of the Shetland Isles, near Lerwick, with one of the best natural harbours in the world.

BREST (76), a strongly-fortified naval station in the extreme NW. of France; one of the chief naval stations in France, with a magnificent harbour, and one of the safest, first made a marine arsenal by Richelieu; has large shipbuilding yards and arsenal; its industries are chiefly related to naval equipment, with leather, waxcloth, and paper manufactures.

BRETON, JULES ADOLPHE, a French _genre_ and landscape painter, born at Courrieres, in Pas-de-Calais, 1827.

BRETON DE LOS HERREROS, Spanish poet and dramatist; wrote comedies and satires in an easy, flowing style (1800-1873).

BRETEUIL, BARON DE, an ex-secretary of Louis XVI. (1733-1807).

BRETHREN OF THE COMMON LIFE, a Dutch branch of the "Friends of God," founded at Deventer by Gerard Groote.

BRETSCHNEIDER, HENRY GOTTFRIED VON, a German satirical writer, born at Gera; led a bohemian life; served in the army; held political posts; composed, besides satirical writings, "Almanach der Heiligen auf das Jahr, 1788," "Wallers Leben und Sitten," and the comic epic, "Graf Esau" (1739-1810).

BRETSCHNEIDER, KARL GOTTLIEB, a German rationalistic theologian; much regarded for his sound judgment in critical matters; his theological writings are of permanent value; his chief works, "Handbuch der Dogmatik," and an edition of Melanchthon's works.

BRETWALDA, a title apparently of some kind of acknowledged supremacy among the Anglo-Saxon kings, and the leader in war.

BREUGHEL, a family of Butch painters, a father and two sons, the father, Peter, called "OLD" B. (1510-1570); a son, John, "VELVET" B., either from his dress or from the vivid freshness of his colours (1560-1625); and the other, Peter, "HELLISH" B., from his fondness for horrible subjects (1559-1637).

BREVET`, a commission entitling an officer in the army to a nominal rank above his real rank.

BREVIARY, a book containing the daily services in the Roman Catholic Church and corresponding to the English Prayer-Book; differs from the "Missal," which gives the services connected with the celebration of the Eucharist, and the "Pontifical," which gives those for special occasions.

BREWER, JOHN SHERREN, historian, professor of English Literature in King's College, London; author of "Calendar of Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.'s Reign," his work the sole authority on Henry's early reign (1810-1879).

BREWER OF GHENT, Jacob Arteveld.

BREWSTER, SIR DAVID, an eminent Scottish natural philosopher, born at Jedburgh; edited the "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," in the pages of which Carlyle served his apprenticeship; specially distinguished for his discoveries in light, his studies in optics, and for his optical inventions, such as the kaleidoscope and the stereoscope; connected with most scientific associations of his time; wrote largely on scientific and other subjects, e. g., a Life of Newton, as well as Lives of Euler, Kepler, and others of the class; Principal of the United Colleges of St. Andrews, and afterwards of Edinburgh, being succeeded at St. Andrews by James David Forbes, who years before defeated him as candidate for the Natural Philosophy chair in Edinburgh; bred originally for the Church, and for a time a probationer (1781-1868).

BREWSTER, WILLIAM, leader of the Pilgrim Fathers in the _Mayflower_, who conveyed them to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620; had been a clergyman of the Church of England.

BRIAN BOROIHME, an Irish chief, who early in the 10th century established his rule over a great part of Ireland, and made great efforts for the civilisation of the country; died defeating the Danes at Clontarf, being, it is said, the twenty-fifth battle in which he defeated them.

BRIANCON, the highest town in France, 4300 ft. above sea-level, 42 m. SE. from Grenoble, with a trade in cutlery.

BRIAREUS, a Uranid with 50 heads and 100 arms, son of Ouranos and Gaia, i. e. Heaven and Earth, whom Poseidon cast into the sea and buried under Etna, but whom Zeus delivered to aid him against the Titans; according to another account, one of THE GIANTS (q. v.).

BRICE, ST., bishop of Tours in the beginning of the 5th century, and disciple of St. Martin. Festival, Nov. 19.

BRICE'S, ST., a day in 1002 on which a desperate attempt was made to massacre all the Danes in England and stamp them wholly out, an attempt which was avenged by the Danish king, Sweyn.

BRICK, JEFFERSON, an American politician in "Martin Chuzzlewit."

BRIDE OF THE SEA, Venice, so called from a ceremony in which her espousals were celebrated by the Doge casting a ring into the Adriatic.

BRIDEWELL, a house of correction in Blackfriars, London, so called from St. Bridget's well, near it.

BRIDGE OF ALLAN, a village on Allan water, 3 m. N. of Stirling, with a mild climate and mineral waters.

BRIDGE OF SIGHS, a covered way in Venice leading from the Ducal Palace to the State prison, and over which culprits under capital sentence were transported to their doom, whence the name.

BRIDGENORTH, MAJOR RALPH, a Roundhead in "Peveril of the Peak."

BRIDGEPORT (48), a thriving manufacturing town and seaport of Connecticut, U.S., 58 m. NE. from New York.

BRIDGET, MRS., a character in "Tristram Shandy."

BRIDGET, ST., an Irish saint, born at Dundalk; entered a monastery at 14; founded monasteries; takes rank in Ireland with St. Patrick and St. Columba. Festival, Feb. 1 (453-523). Also the name of a Swedish saint in the 14th century; founded a new Order, and 72 monasteries of the Order.

BRIDGETON, a manufacturing town in New Jersey, 38 m. S. of Philadelphia.

BRIDGETOWN (21), capital of Barbadoes, seat of the government, the bishop, a college, &c.; it has suffered frequently from hurricane and fever.

BRIDGEWATER, FRANCIS EGERTON, 3RD DUKE OF, celebrated for his self-sacrificing devotion to the improvement and extension of canal navigation in England, embarking in it all his wealth, in which he was aided by the skill of Brindley; he did not take part in politics, though he was a supporter of Pitt; died unmarried (1736-1803).

BRIDGEWATER, FRANCIS HENRY EGERTON, 8TH EARL OF, educated for the Church, bequeathed L8000 for the best work on natural theology, which his trustees expended in the production of eight works by different eminent men, called "Bridgewater Treatises," all to be found in Bohn's Scientific Library (1758-1829).

BRIDGMAN, LAURA, a deaf, dumb, and blind child, born in New Hampshire, U.S.; noted for the surprising development of intellectual faculty notwithstanding these drawbacks; Dickens gives an account of her in his "American Notes" (1829-1889).

BRIDGWATER, a seaport town in Somersetshire, 29 m. SW. of Bristol.

BRIDLEGOOSE, JUDGE, a judge in Rabelais' "Pantagruel," who decided cases by the throw of dice.

BRIDLINGTON, a watering-place in Yorkshire, 6 m. SW. of Flamborough Head, with a chalybeate spring.

BRIDPORT, VISCOUNT, a British admiral, distinguished in several engagements (1797-1814).

BRIEG (20), a thriving, third, commercially speaking, town in Prussian Silesia, 25 m. SE. of Breslau.

BRIENNE, JEAN DE, descendant of an old French family; elected king of Jerusalem, then emperor of Constantinople; _d_. 1237.

BRIENZ, LAKE OF, lake in the Swiss canton of Bern, 8 m. long, 2 m. broad, over 800 ft. above sea-level, and of great depth in certain parts, abounding in fish. Town of, a favourite resort for tourists.

BRIEUC, ST., (19), a seaport and an episcopal city in the dep. of Cotes-du-Nord, France.

BRIGADE, a body of troops under a general officer, called brigadier, consisting of a number of regiments, squadrons, or battalions.

BRIGANTES, a powerful British tribe that occupied the country between the Humber and the Roman Wall.

BRIGGS, HENRY, a distinguished English mathematician; first Savilian professor at Oxford; made an important improvement on the system of logarithms, which was accepted by Napier, the inventor, and is the system now in use (1561-1631).

BRIGHAM YOUNG, the chief of the Mormons (1801-1877).

BRIGHT, JAMES FRANCK, historian, Master of University College, Oxford; author of "English History for the Use of Public Schools," a book of superior literary merit; _b_. 1832.

BRIGHT, JOHN, English statesman, son of a Lancashire cotton spinner, born near Rochdale; of Quaker birth and profession; engaged in manufacture; took an early interest in political reform; he joined the Anti-Corn-Law League on its formation in 1839, and soon was associated with Cobden in its great agitation; entering Parliament in 1843, he was a strong opponent of protection, the game laws, and later of the Crimean war; he advocated financial reform and the reform of Indian administration; and on the outbreak of the American Civil War supported the North, though his business interests suffered severely; he was closely associated with the 1867 Reform Act, Irish Church Disestablishment 1869, and the 1870 Irish Land Act; his Ministerial career began in 1868, but was interrupted by illness; in 1873, and again in 1881, he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; he seceded from Gladstone's Government on the Egyptian policy in 1882, and strenuously opposed Home Rule in 1886; in 1880 he was Lord Rector of Glasgow University; he was a man of lofty and unblemished character, an animated and eloquent orator; at his death Mr. Gladstone pronounced one of the noblest eulogiums one public man has ever paid to another (1811-1889).

BRIGHTON (128), a much-frequented watering-place in Sussex, 50 m. S. of London, of which it is virtually a suburb; a place of fashionable resort ever since George IV. took a fancy to it; a fine parade extends along the whole length of the sea front; has many handsome edifices, a splendid aquarium, a museum, schools of science and art, public library and public gallery; the principal building is the Pavilion or Marine Palace, originally built for George IV. Also the name of a suburb of Melbourne.

BLIGHT'S DISEASE, a disease in the kidneys, due to several diseased conditions of the organ, so called from Dr. Richard Bright, who first investigated its nature.

BRIL BROTHERS, MATTHEW AND PAUL, landscape painters, born at Antwerp; employed in the 16th century by successive Popes to decorate the Vatican at Rome; of whom Paul, the younger, was the greater artist; his best pictures are in Rome.

BRILLAT-SAVARIN, a French gastronomist, author of "Physiologie du Gout," a book full of wit and learning, published posthumously; was professionally a lawyer and some time a judge (1755-1825).

BRIN`DISI (15), a seaport of Southern Italy, on the Adriatic coast; has risen in importance since the opening of the Overland Route as a point of departure for the East; it is 60 hours by rail from London, and three days by steam from Alexandria; it was the port of embarkation for Greece in ancient times, and for Palestine in mediaeval.

BRINDLEY, JAMES, a mechanician and engineer, born in Derbyshire; bred a millwright; devoted his skill and genius to the construction of canals, under the patronage of the Duke of Bridgewater, as the greatest service he could render to his country; regarded rivers as mere "feeders to canals" (1716-1772).

BRINK, JAN TEN, a Dutch writer, distinguished as a critic in the department of belles-lettres; _b_. 1834.

BRINVILLIERS, MARQUISE DE, notorious for her gallantries and for poisoning her father, brother, and two sisters for the sake of their property; was tortured and beheaded; the poison she used appears to have been the Tofana poison, an art which one of her paramours taught her (1630-1676). See AQUA TOFANA.

BRISBANE (49), capital of Queensland, on the Brisbane River, 25 m. from the sea, 500 m. N. of Sydney, is the chief trading centre and seaport of the Colony; it has steam communication with Australian ports and London, and railway communication with Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide; prosperity began when the colony was opened to free settlement in 1842; it was dissociated from New South Wales and the city incorporated in 1859.

BRISBANE, ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES, a naval officer of distinction under Lords Hood and Nelson; captured in 1796 Dutch warships, three ships of the line among them, in Saldanha Bay, and in 1807 the island of Curacoa; was made governor of St. Vincent (1769-1829).

BRISBANE, SIR JAMES, naval officer, brother of the preceding, served under Lord Howe and under Nelson at Copenhagen (1774-1829).

BRISBANE, SIR THOMAS MACDOUGALL, British general, a man of science and an astronomer, born near Largs, Ayrshire; saw service as a soldier; was appointed governor of New South Wales to the profit of the colony; gave name to the capital of Queensland; catalogued over 7000 stars; succeeded Scott as president of the Royal Society (1773-1860).

BRISE`IS, a young virgin priestess, who fell to the lot of Achilles among the spoil of a victory, but whom Agamemnon carried off from him, whereupon he retired to his tent and sullenly refused to take any further part in the war, to its prolongation, in consequence, as Homer relates, for ten long years; the theme of the "Iliad" being the "wrath of Achilles" on this account, and what it led to.

BRISSAC, the name of a noble family which supplied several marshals to France.

BRISSON, HENRI, French publicist and journalist; after holding presidentships in the Chamber became premier in 1885, but resigned after a few months; formed a Radical administration in 1898, which was short-lived; _b_. 1835.

BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, JEAN PIERRE, a French revolutionary, born at Chartres, son of a pastry-cook; bred to the bar, took to letters; became an outspoken disciple of Rousseau; spent some time in the Bastille; liberated, he went to America; returned on the outbreak of the Revolution, sat in the National Assembly, joined the Girondists; became one of the leaders, or rather of a party of his own, named after him Brissotins, midway between the Jacobins and them; fell under suspicion like the rest of the party, was arrested, tried and guillotined (1754-1793).

BRISTOL (286), on the Avon, 6 m. from its mouth, and 118 m. W. of London, is the largest town in Gloucestershire, the seventh in England, and a great seaport, with Irish, W. Indian, and S. American trade; it manufactures tobacco, boots and shoes; it has a cathedral, two colleges, a library and many educational institutions; by a charter of Edward III. it forms a county in itself.

BRISTOL CHANNEL, an inlet in SW. of England, between S. Wales and Devon and Cornwall, 8 m. in length, from 5 to 43 in breadth, and with a depth of from 5 to 40 fathoms; is subject to very high tides, and as such dangerous to shipping; numerous rivers flow into it.

BRITANNIA, a name for Britain as old as the days of Caesar, and inhabited by Celts, as Gaul also was.

BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE, a railway bridge spanning the Menai Strait, designed by Robert Stephenson, and completed in 1850; consists of hollow tubes of wrought-iron plates riveted together, and took five years in erecting.

BRITANNICUS, the son of Claudius and Messalina, poisoned by Nero.

BRITISH ARISTIDES, name applied to Andrew Marvell from his corresponding incorruptible integrity in life and poverty at death.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION, an association, of Sir David Brewster's suggestion, of men of all departments of science for the encouragement of scientific research and the diffusion of scientific knowledge, which holds its meetings annually under the presidency of some distinguished scientist, now in this, now in that selected central city of the country; it is divided into eight sections--mathematical, chemical, geological, biological, geographical, economic, mechanical, and anthropological.

BRITISH COLUMBIA (98), a western fertile prov. of British America, extending between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and from the United States on the S. to Alaska on the N., being 800 m. long and four times the size of Great Britain; rich in timber and minerals; rain is abundant, and cereals do well.

BRITISH LION, the name given to John Bull when roused by opposition.

BRITISH MUSEUM, a national institution in London for the collection of MSS., books, prints and drawings, antiquities, and objects of natural history, ethnology, &c.; founded as far back as 1700, though not opened, in Montagu House as it happened, for the public benefit till 1759.

BRITOMART, is a lady knight in the "Faerie Queene," representing chastity with a resistless magic spear.

BRITTANY (3,162), an old French prov., land of the Bretons, comprising the peninsula opposite Devon and Cornwall, stretching westward between the Bays of Cancale and Biscay, was in former times a duchy; a third of its inhabitants still retain their Breton language.

BRITTON, JOHN, topographer and antiquary, born in Wiltshire in humble position; author of "Beauties of Wiltshire," instalment of a work embracing all the counties of England and Wales; his principal works, and works of value, are "Antiquities of Great Britain" and "Cathedral Antiquities of England"; his chief work is 14 volumes; the "Antiquities in Normandy" did much to create an interest in antiquarian subjects (1771-1857).

BRIXTON, a southern suburb of London, on the Surrey side, a district of the city that has of late years extended immensely.

BROAD ARROW, a stamp like an arrow-head to indicate government property.

BROAD BOTTOM MINISTRY, a coalition of great weight under Mr. Pelham, from Nov. 1744 to Mar. 1755, so called from the powerful parties represented in it.

BROAD CHURCH, that section of the Church which inclines to liberal opinions in theology, and is opposed to the narrowing of either spirit or form, perhaps to an undue degree and to the elimination of elements distinctive of the Christian system.

BROADS, THE NORFOLK, are a series of inland lakes in the E. of Norfolkshire, which look like expansions of the rivers; they are favourite holiday resorts on account of the expanse of strange scenery, abundant vegetation, keen air, fishing and boating attractions.

BROB`DINGNAG, an imaginary country in "Gulliver's Travels," inhabited by giants, each as tall "as an ordinary spire-steeple"; properly a native of the country, in comparison with whom Gulliver was a pigmy "not half so big as a round little worm plucked from the lazy finger of a maid."

BROCA, PAUL, an eminent French surgeon, anthropologist, and one of the chief French evolutionists; held a succession of important appointments, and was the author of a number of medical works (1824-1880).

BROCHANT DE VILLIERS, a mineralogist and geologist, born in Paris; director of the St. Gobin manufactory (1773-1810).

BROCHS, dry-stone circular towers, called also Picts' towers and Duns, with thick Cyclopean walls, a single doorway, and open to the sky, found on the edge of straths or lochs in the N. and W. of Scotland.

BROCKEN, or BLOCKSBERG, the highest peak (3740 ft.) of the Harz Mts., cultivated to the summit; famous for a "SPECTRE" so called, long an object of superstition, but which is only the beholder's shadow projected through, and magnified by, the mists.

BROCKHAUS, FRIEDRICH ARNOLD, a German publisher, born at Dortmund; a man of scholarly parts; began business in Amsterdam, but settled in Leipzig; publisher of the famous "Conversations Lexikon," and a great many other important works (1772-1823).

BROCOLIANDO, a forest in Brittany famous in Arthurian legend.

BRODIE, SIR BENJAMIN, surgeon, born in Wiltshire; professor of surgery; for 30 years surgeon in St. George's Hospital; was medical adviser to three sovereigns; president of the Royal Society (1783-1862).

BRODIE, WILLIAM, a Scottish sculptor, born in Banff; did numerous busts and statues (1815-1881).

BROGLIE, ALBERT, son of the following, a Conservative politician and litterateur, author of "The Church and the Roman Empire in the 4th century"; _b_. 1821

BROGLIE, CHARLES VICTOR, DUC DE, a French statesman, born at Paris; a Liberal politician; was of the party of Guizot and Royer-Collard; held office under Louis Philippe; negotiated a treaty with England for the abolition of slavery; was an Orleanist, and an enemy of the Second Empire; retired after the _coup d'etat_ (1785-1870).

BROGLIE, VICTOR FRANCOIS, DUC DE, marshal of France, distinguished in the Seven Years' War, being "a firm disciplinarian"; was summoned by royalty to the rescue as "war god" at the outbreak of the Revolution; could not persuade his troops to fire on the rioters; had to "mount and ride"; took command of the Emigrants in 1792, and died at Muenster (1718-1804).

BROKE, SIR PHILIP BOWES VERE, rear-admiral, born at Ipswich, celebrated for the action between his ship _Shannon_, 38 guns, and the American ship _Chesapeake_, 49 guns, in June 1813, in which he boarded the latter and ran up the British flag; one of the most brilliant naval actions on record, and likely to be long remembered in the naval annals of the country (1776-1841).

BROMBERG (41), a busy town on the Brahe, in Prussian Posen; being a frontier town, it suffered much in times of war.

BROME, ALEXANDER, a cavalier, writer of songs and lampoons instinct with wit, whim, and spirit; and of his songs some are amatory, some festive, and some political (1626-1666).

BROME, RICHARD, an English comic playwright, contemporary with Ben Jonson, and a rival; originally his servant; his plays are numerous, and were characterised by his enemies as the sweepings of Jonson's study; _d_. 1652.

BROMINE, an elementary fluid of a dark colour and a disagreeable smell, extracted from bittern, a liquid which remains after the separation of salt.

BROMLEY (21), a market-town in Kent, 10 m. SE. of London, where the bishops of Rochester had their palace, and where there is a home called Warner's College for clergymen's widows.

BROMPTON, SW. district of London, in Kensington, now called S. Kensington; once a rustic locality, now a fashionable district, with several public buildings and the Oratory.

BROeNDSTED, PETER OLAF, a Danish archaeologist; author of "Travels and Researches in Greece," where by excavations he made important discoveries; his great work "Travels and Archaeological Researches in Greece" (1780-1842).

BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE, French botanist, son of the succeeding, the first to discover and explain the function of the pollen in plants (1801-1876).

BRONGNIART, ALEXANDRE, a French chemist and zoologist, collaborateur with Cuvier, born at Paris; director of the porcelain works at Sevres; revived painting on glass; introduced a new classification of reptiles; author of treatises on mineralogy and the ceramic arts (1770-1847).

BRONTE (16), a town in Sicily, on the western slope of Etna, which gave title of duke to Nelson.

BRONTE, the name of three ladies, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, daughters of a Yorkshire clergyman of Irish extraction: CHARLOTTE, born at Thornton, Yorkshire; removed with her father, at the age of four, to Haworth, a moorland parish, in the same county, where she lived most of her days; spent two years at Brussels as a pupil-teacher; on her return, in conjunction with her sisters, prepared and published a volume of poems under the pseudonyms respectively of "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell," which proved a failure. Nothing daunted, she set to novel writing, and her success was instant; first, "Jane Eyre," then "Shirley," and then "Villette," appeared, and her fame was established. In 1854 she married her father's curate, Mr. Nicholls, but her constitution gave way, and she died (1816-1855). EMILY (Ellis), two years younger, poet rather than novelist; wrote "Wuthering Heights," a remarkable production, showing still greater genius, which she did not live to develop. ANNE (Acton), four years younger, also wrote two novels, but very ephemeral productions.

BRONZE AGE, the age in the history of a race intermediate between the Stone Age and the Iron, and in some cases overlapping these two, when weapons and tools were made of bronze.

BRONZI`NO, a Florentine painter, painted both in oil and fresco; a great admirer of Michael Angelo; his famous picture, "Descent of Christ into Hell" (1502-1572).

BROOK FARM, an abortive literary community organised on Fourier's principles, 8 m. from Boston, U.S., by George Ripley in 1840; Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the community, and wrote an account of it.

BROOKE, HENRY, Irish dramatist and novelist, born in co. Cavan; author of the "Fool of Quality," a book commended by John Wesley and much lauded by Charles Kingsley, and the only one of his works that survives; wrote, among other things, a poem called "Universal Beauty," and a play called "Gustavus Vasa" (1703-1783).

BROOKE, SIR JAMES, rajah of Sarawak, born at Benares, educated in England; entered the Indian army; was wounded in the Burmese war, returned in consequence to England; conceived the idea of suppressing piracy and establishing civilisation in the Indian Archipelago; sailed in a well-manned and well-equipped yacht from the Thames with that object; arrived at Sarawak, in Borneo; assisted the governor in suppressing an insurrection, and was made rajah, the former rajah being deposed in his favour; brought the province under good laws, swept the seas of pirates, for which he was rewarded by the English government; was appointed governor of Labuan; finally returned to England and died, being succeeded in Sarawak by a nephew (1803-1868).

BROOKE, STOPFORD, preacher and writer, born in Donegal; after other clerical appointments became incumbent of Bedford Chapel, Bloomsbury, and Queen's chaplain; from conscientious motives seceded from the Church, but continued to preach in Bloomsbury; wrote the "Life of Robertson of Brighton," a "Primer of English Literature," "History of English Poetry," "Theology in the English Poets," and "Life of Milton," all works in evidence of critical ability of a high order; _b_. 1832.

BROOKLYN (806), a suburb of New York, on Long Island, though ranking as a city, and the fourth in the Union; separated from New York by the East River, a mile broad, and connected with it by a magnificent suspension bridge, the largest in the world, as well as by some 12 lines of ferry boats plied by steam; it is now incorporated in Greater New York; has 10 m. of water front, extensive docks and warehouses, and does an enormous shipping trade; manufactures include glass, clothing, chemicals, metallic wares, and tobacco; there is a naval yard, dock, and storehouse; the city is really a part of New York; has many fine buildings, parks, and pleasure grounds.

BROOKS, CHARLES WILLIAM SHIRLEY, novelist and journalist, born in London; was on the staff of the _Morning Chronicle_; sent to Russia to inquire into and report on the condition of the peasantry and labouring classes there, as well as in Syria and Egypt; his report published in his "Russians of the South"; formed a connection with _Punch_ in 1851, writing the "Essence of Parliament," and succeeded Mark Lemon as editor in 1870; he was the author of several works (1816-1874).

BROSSES, CHARLES DE, a French archaeologist, born at Dijon; wrote among other subjects on the manners and customs of primitive and prehistoric man (1709-1777).

BROSSETTE, a French litterateur, born at Lyons; friend of Boileau, and his editor and commentator (1671-1743).

BROTHERS, RICHARD, a fanatic, born in Newfoundland, who believed and persuaded others to believe that the English people were the ten lost tribes of Israel (1757-1824).

BROUGHAM, HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM AND VAUX, born in Edinburgh, and educated at the High School and University of that city; was admitted to the Scotch bar in 1800; excluded from promotion in Scotland by his liberal principles, he joined the English bar in 1808, speedily acquired a reputation as a lawyer for the defence in Crown libel actions, and, by his eloquence in the cause of Queen Caroline, 1820, won universal popular favour; entering Parliament in 1810, he associated with the Whig opposition, threw himself into the agitation for the abolition of slavery, the cause of education, and law reform; became Lord Chancellor in 1830, but four years afterwards his political career closed; he was a supporter of many popular institutions; a man of versatile ability and untiring energy; along with Horner, Jeffrey, and Sidney Smith, one of the founders of the _Edinburgh Review_, also of London University, and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; a writer on scientific, historical, political, and philosophical themes, but his violence and eccentricity hurt his influence; spent his last days at Cannes, where he died (1778-1868).

BROUGHTON, LORD. See HOBHOUSE.

BROUGHTON, RHODA, novelist, her best work "Not Wisely but Too Well"; wrote also "Cometh Up as a Flower," "Red as a Rose is She," &c.; _b_. 1840.

BROUGHTON, WILLIAM ROBERT, an English seaman, companion of Vancouver; discovered a portion of Oceania (1763-1822).

BROUGHTY FERRY (9), a watering-place, with villas, near Dundee, and a favourite place of residence of Dundee merchants.

BROUSSA (37), a city in the extreme NW. of Asiatic Turkey, at the foot of Mt. Olympus, 12 m. from the Sea of Marmora; the capital of the Turkish empire till the taking of Constantinople in 1453; abounds in mosques, and is celebrated for its baths.

BROUSSAIS, JOSEPH VICTOR, a French materialist, founder of the "physiological school" of medicine; resolved life into excitation, and disease into too much or too little (1772-1838).

BROUSSEL, a member of the Parlement of Paris, whose arrest, in 1648, was the cause of, or pretext for, the organisation of the Fronde.

BROUSSON, a French Huguenot who returned to France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was broken on the wheel, 1698.

BROUWER, a Dutch painter, mostly of low, vulgar life, which, as familiar with it, he depicted with great spirit (1605-1638).

BROWN, AMY, the first wife of the Duc de Berri, born in England, died in France; the Pope, in 1816, annulled her marriage, but declared her two daughters legitimate (1783-1876).

BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN, an American novelist, born in Philadelphia, of Quaker connection; his best-known fictions are "Wieland," "Edgar Huntly," &c. (1771-1810).

BROWN, FORD MADOX, an English painter, born at Calais; his subjects nearly all of a historical character, one of which is "Chaucer reciting his Poetry at the Court of Edward III."; anticipated Pre-Raphaelitism (1821-1893).

BROWN, SIR GEORGE, British general, born near Elgin, distinguished both in the Peninsular and in the Crimean war, was severely wounded at Inkerman, when in command of the Light Division (1790-1863).

BROWN, HENRY KIRKE, an American sculptor, did a number of statues, a colossal one of Washington among them (1814-1886).

BROWN, JOHN, American slavery abolitionist; settled in Kansas, and resolutely opposed the project of making it a slave state; in the interest of emancipation, with six others, seized on the State armoury at Harper's Ferry in hope of a rising, entrenched himself armed in it, was surrounded, seized, tried, and hanged (1800-1859).

BROWN, JOHN, of Haddington, a self-educated Scotch divine, born at Carpow, near Abernethy, Perthshire, son of a poor weaver, left an orphan at 11, became a minister of a Dissenting church in Haddington; a man of considerable learning, and deep piety; author of "Dictionary of the Bible," and "Self-interpreting Bible" (1722-1787).

BROWN, JOHN, M.D., great-grandson of the preceding, born at Biggar, educated in Edinburgh High School and at Edinburgh University, was a pupil of James Syme, the eminent surgeon, and commenced quiet practice in Edinburgh; author of "Horae Subsecivae," "Rab and his Friends," "Pet Marjorie," "John Leech," and other works; was a fine and finely-cultured man, much beloved by all who knew him, and by none more than by John Ruskin, who says of him, he was "the best and truest friend of all my life.... Nothing can tell the loss to me in his death, nor the grief to how many greater souls than mine that had been possessed in patience through his love" (1810-1882).

BROWN, JOHN, M.D., founder of the Brunonian system of medicine, born at Bunkle, Berwickshire; reduced diseases into two classes, those resulting from redundancy of excitation, and those due to deficiency of excitation; author of "Elements of Medicine" and "Observations on the Old and New Systems of Physic" (1735-1788). See BROUSSAIS.

BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON, three middle-class Englishmen on their travels abroad, as figured in the pages of _Punch_, and drawn by Richard Doyle.

BROWN, MOUNT (16,000 ft.), the highest of the Rocky Mts., in N. America.

BROWN, OLIVER MADOX, son of Ford Madox, a youth of great promise both as an artist and poet; died of blood-poisoning (1855-1874).

BROWN, RAWDON, historical scholar, spent his life at Venice in the study of Italian history, especially in its relation to English history, which he prosecuted with unwearied industry; his great work, work of 20 years' hard labour, "Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs existing in the Archives of Venice and Northern Italy," left unfinished at his death; died at Venice, where he spent a great part of his life, where Ruskin found him and conceived a warm friendship for him (1803-1883).

BROWN, ROBERT, a distinguished botanist, born at Montrose, son of an Episcopal clergyman; accompanied an expedition to survey the coast of Australia in 1801, returned after four years' exploration, with 4000 plants mostly new to science, which he classified and described in his "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae"; became librarian to, and finally president of, the Linnean Society; styled by Humboldt _botanicorum facile princeps_; he was a man of most minute and accurate observation, and of a wide range of knowledge, much of which died along with him, out of the fear of committing himself to mistakes (1773-1858).

BROWN, SAMUEL, M.D., chemist, born in Haddington, grandson of John Brown of Haddington, whose life was devoted, with the zeal of a mediaeval alchemist, to a reconstruction of the science of atomics, which he did not live to see realised: a man of genius, a brilliant conversationist and an associate of the most intellectual men of his time, among the number De Quincey, Carlyle, and Emerson; wrote "Lay Sermons on the Theory of Christianity," "Lectures on the Atomic Theory," and two volumes of "Essays, Scientific and Literary" (1817-1856).

BROWN, THOMAS, Scottish psychologist, born in Kirkcudbrightshire, bred to medicine; professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, colleague and successor to Dugald Stewart; his lectures, all improvised on the spur of the moment, were published posthumously; "Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind" established a sixth sense, which he called the "muscular." He was a man of precocious talent, and a devoted student, to the injury of his health and the shortening of his life; he was obliged from ill-health to resign his professorship after 10 years (1778-1820).

BROWN WILLY, the highest peak (1368 ft.) in Cornwall.

BROWNE, CHARLES FARRAR, a humorist and satirist, known by the pseudonym of "Artemus Ward," born in Maine, U.S.; his first literary effort was as "showman" to an imaginary travelling menagerie; travelled over America lecturing, carrying with him a whimsical panorama as affording texts for his numerous jokes, which he brought with him to London, and exhibited with the same accompaniment with unbounded success; he spent some time among the Mormons, and defined their religion as singular, but their wives plural (1834-1867).

BROWNE, HABLOT KNIGHT, artist, born in London; illustrated Dickens's works, "Pickwick" to begin with, under the pseudonym of "Phiz," as well as the works of Lever, Ainsworth, Fielding, and Smollett, and the Abbotsford edition of Scott; he was skilful as an etcher and an architectural draughtsman (1815-1882).

BROWNE, ROBERT, founder of the Brownists, born in Rutland; the first seceder from the Church of England, and the first to found a Church of his own on Congregational principles, which he did at Norwich, though his project of secession proved a failure, and he returned to the English Church; died in jail at Northampton, where he was imprisoned for assaulting a constable; he may be accounted the father of the Congregational body in England (1540-1630).

BROWNE, SIR THOMAS, physician and religious thinker, born in London; resided at Norwich for nearly half a century, and died there; was knighted by Charles II.; "was," Professor Saintsbury says, "the greatest prose writer perhaps, when all things are taken together, in the whole range of English"; his principal works are "Religio Medici," "Inquiries into Vulgar Errors," and "Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns found in Norfolk"; "all of the very first importance in English literature,..." adds the professor, "the 'Religio Medici' the greatest favourite, and a sort of key to the others;" "a man," says Coleridge, "rich in various knowledge, exuberant in conceptions and conceits, contemplative, imaginative, often truly great, and magnificent in his style and diction.... He is a quiet and sublime enthusiast, with a strong tinge of the fantastic. He meditated much on death and the hereafter, and on the former in its relation to, or leading on to, the latter" (1605-1682).

BROWNE WILLIAM, English pastoral poet, born at Tavistock; author of "Britannia's Pastorals" and "The Shepherd's Pipe," a collection of eclogues and "The Inner Temple and Masque," on the story of Ulysses and Circe, with some opening exquisitely beautiful verses, "Steer hither, steer," among them; was an imitator of Spenser, and a parallel has been instituted between him and Keats (1590-1645).

BROWNIE, a good-natured household elf, believed in Scotland to render obliging services to good housewives, and his presence an evidence that the internal economies were approved of, as he favoured good husbandry, and was partial to houses where it was observed.

BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, _nee_ BARRETT, poetess, born at Carlton Hall, Durham; a woman of great natural abilities, which developed early; suffered from injury to her spine; went to Torquay for her health; witnessed the death by drowning of a brother, that gave her a shock the effect of which never left her; published in 1838 "The Seraphim," and in 1844 "The Cry of the Children"; fell in with and married Robert Browning in 1846, who immediately took her abroad, settling in Florence; wrote in 1850 "Sonnets from the Portuguese," in 1851 "Casa Guidi Windows," and in 1856 "Aurora Leigh," "a novel in verse," and in 1860 "Poems before Congress"; ranks high, if not highest, among the poetesses of England; she took an interest all through life in public affairs; her work is marked by musical diction, sensibility, knowledge, and imagination, which no poetess has rivalled (1806-1861).

BROWNING, ROBERT, poet, one of the two greatest in the Victorian era, born in Camberwell; early given to write verses; prepared himself for his literary career by reading through Johnson's Dictionary; his first poem "PAULINE" (q. v.) published in 1833, which was followed by "Paracelsus" in 1835, "Sordello" in 1840; after a time, in which he was not idle, appeared, with some of his "Dramatic Romances and Lyrics," in 1855 his "Men and Women," and in 1868 "THE RING AND THE BOOK" (q. v.), his longest poem, and more analytic than poetic; this was succeeded by a succession of others, finishing up with "Asolando," which appeared the day he died at Venice; was a poet of great subtlety, deep insight, creative power, and strong faith, of a genius and learning which there are few able to compass the length and breadth of; lies buried in Westminster Abbey; of Browning it has been said by Professor Saintsbury, "Timor mortis non conturbabat, 'the fear of death did not trouble him.' In the browner shades of age as well as in the spring of youth he sang, not like most poets, Love and Death, but Love and Life.... 'James Lee,' 'Rabbi Ben Ezra,' and 'Prospice' are among the greatest poems of the century." His creed was an optimism of the brightest, and his restful faith "it is all right with the world" (1812-1889).

BROWN-SEQUARD, physiologist, born in Mauritius, of American parentage; studied in Paris; practised in New York, and became a professor in the College de France; made a special study of the nervous system and nervous diseases, and published works on the subject; _b_. 1818.

BRUANT, a French architect, born in Paris; architect of the Invalides and the Salpetriere; _d_. 1697.

BRUAT, a French admiral, commanded the French fleet at the Crimea (1796-1885).

BRUCE, a family illustrious in Scottish history, descended from a Norman knight, Robert de Bruis, who came over with the Conqueror, and who acquired lands first in Northumberland and then in Annandale.

BRUCE, JAMES, traveller, called the "Abyssinian," born at Kinnaird House, Stirlingshire, set out from Cairo in 1768 in quest of the source of the Nile: believed he had discovered it; stayed two years in Abyssinia, and returned home by way of France, elated with his success; felt hurt that no honor was conferred on him, and for relief from the chagrin wrote an account of his travels in five quarto vols., the general accuracy of which, as far as it goes, has been attested by subsequent explorers (1730-1794).

BRUCE, MICHAEL, a Scotch poet, born near Loch Leven, in poor circumstances, in the parish of Portmoak; studied for the Church; died of consumption; his poems singularly plaintive and pathetic; his title to the authorship of the "Ode to the Cuckoo" has been matter of contention (1746-1767).

BRUCE, ROBERT, rival with John Baliol for the crown of Scotland on the death of Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, against whose claim Edward I. decided in favour of Baliol (1210-1295).

BRUCE, ROBERT, son of the preceding, earl of Carrick, through Marjory his wife; served under Edward at the battle of Dunbar for one instance; sued for the Scottish crown in vain (1269-1304).

BRUCE, ROBERT, king of Scotland, son of the preceding, did homage for a time to Edward, but joined the national party and became one of a regency of four, with Comyn for rival; stabbed Comyn in a quarrel at Dumfries, 1306, and was that same year crowned king at Scone; was defeated by an army sent against him, and obliged to flee to Rathlin, Ireland; returned and landed in Carrick; cleared the English out of all the fortresses except Stirling, and on 24th June 1314 defeated the English under Edward II. at Bannockburn, after which, in 1328, the independence of Scotland was acknowledged as well as Bruce's right to the crown; suffering from leprosy, spent his last two years at Cardross Castle, on the Clyde, where he died in the thirty-third year of his reign (1274-1329).

BRUCIN, an alkaloid, allied in action to strychnine, though much weaker, being only a twenty-fifth of the strength.

BRUeCKENAU, small town in Bavaria, 17 m. NW. of Kissingen, with mineral springs good for nervous and skin diseases.

BRUCKER, historian of philosophy, born at Augsburg, and a pastor there; author of "Historia Critica Philosophiae" (1696-1770).

BRUEYS, DAVID AUGUSTIN DE, French dramatist, born at Aix, an abbe converted by Bossuet, and actively engaged in propagating the faith; managed to be joint editor with Palaprat in the production of plays (1650-1725).

BRUGES (49), cap. of W. Flanders, in Belgium, intersected by canals crossed by some 50 bridges, whence its name "Bridges"; one of these canals, of considerable depth, connecting it with Ostend; though many of them are now, as well as some of the streets, little disturbed by traffic, in a decayed and a decaying place, having once had a population of 200,000; has a number of fine churches, one specially noteworthy, the church of Notre Dame; it has several manufactures, textile and chemical, as well as distilleries, sugar-refineries, and shipbuilding yards.

BRUGSCH, HEINRICH KARL, a German Egyptologist, born at Berlin; was associated with Mariette in his excavations at Memphis; became director of the School of Egyptology at Cairo; his works on the subject are numerous, and of great value; _b_. 1827.

BRUeHL, HEINRICH, COUNT VON, minister of Augustus III., king of Poland, an unprincipled man, who encouraged his master, and indulged himself, in silly foppery and wasteful extravagance, so that when the Seven Years' War broke out he and his master had to flee from Dresden and seek refuge in Warsaw (1700-1763).

BRUIN, the bear personified in the German epic of "Reynard the Fox."

BRUMAIRE, the 18th (i. e. the 9th November 1799, the foggy month), the day when Napoleon, on his return from Egypt, overthrew the Directory and established himself in power.

BRUMMELL, BEAU, born in London, in his day the prince of dandies; patronised by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV.; quarrelled with the prince; fled from his creditors to Calais, where, reduced to destitution, he lived some years in the same reckless fashion; settled at length in Caen, where he died insane (1778-1805).

BRUNCK, an able French Hellenist, classical scholar, and critic, born at Strassburg; edited several classical works, played a perilous part in the French Revolution; was imprisoned, and, on his release, had to sell his library in order to live (1729-1803).

BRUNE, G. MARIE, French marshal, saw service in the Vendean war and in Italy, distinguished himself under Napoleon in Italy and Holland; submitted to Bourbons in 1814; joined Napoleon on his return from Elba; was appointed to a post of command in the S. of France, but had to surrender after Waterloo, and was attacked by a mob of Royalists at Avignon as he was setting out for Paris, and brutally murdered and his body thrown into the Rhone (1763-1815).

BRUNEL, SIR ISAMBARD, engineer, born in Rouen, entered the French navy, emigrated to the United States; was chief engineer of New York; settled in England, became block-maker to the Royal Navy; constructed the Thames tunnel, begun in 1825 and finished in 1843 (1759-1849).

BRUNEL, ISAMBARD KINGDOM, son of the preceding, assisted his father in his engineering operations, in particular the Thames tunnel; was engineer of the Great Western Railway; designed the _Great Western_ steamship, the first to cross the Atlantic; was the first to apply the screw propeller to steam navigation; designed and constructed the _Great Eastern_; constructed bridges and naval docks (1806-1859).

BRUNELLESCHI, Italian architect, born in Florence, bred a goldsmith, studied at Rome; returned to his native city, built the Duomo of the Cathedral, the Pitti Palace, and the churches of San Lorenzo and Spirito Santo (1377-1444).

BRUNETIERE, French critic, connected with the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ and now editor; a very sound and sensible critic; his chief work, begun in the form of lectures in 1890, entitled "L'Evolution des Genres de l'Histoire de la Litterature Francaise"; according to Prof. Saintsbury, promises to be one of the chief monuments that the really "higher" criticism has yet furnished; _b_. 1849.

BRUNETTO-LATINI, an Italian writer, who played an important part among the Guelfs, and was obliged to flee to Paris, where he had Dante for a pupil (1220-1294).

BRUNHILDA, a masculine queen in the "Nibelungen Lied" who offered to marry the man that could beat her in feats of strength, was deceived by Siegfried into marrying Gunther, and meditated the death of Siegfried, who had married her rival Chriemhilda, which she accomplished by the hand of Hagen. Also a queen of Austrasia, who, about the 7th century, had a lifelong quarrel with Fredegunde, queen of Neustria, the other division of the Frankish world, which at her death she seized possession of for a time, but was overthrown by Clothaire II., Fredegunde's son, and dragged to death at the heels of an infuriated wild horse.

BRUNI, LEONARDO, Italian humanist, born at Arezzo, hence called Aretino; was papal secretary; settled in Florence, and wrote a history of it; did much by his translations of Greek authors to promote the study of Greek (1369-1444).

BRUeNN (95), Austrian city, capital of Moravia, beautifully situated, 93 m. N. of Vienna, with large manufactures; woollens the staple of the country; about one-half of the population Czechs.

BRUNNOW, COUNT VON, a Russian diplomatist, born at Dresden; represented Russia in several conferences, and was twice ambassador at the English Court (1797-1875).

BRUNO, GIORDANO, a bold and fervid original thinker, born at Nola, in Italy; a Dominican monk, quitted his monastery, in fact, was for heterodoxy obliged to flee from it; attached himself to Calvin for a time, went for more freedom to Paris, attacked the scholastic philosophy, had to leave France as well; spent two years in England in friendship with Sir Philip Sidney, propagated his views in Germany and Italy, was arrested by the Inquisition, and after seven years spent in prison was burned as a heretic; he was a pantheist, and regarded God as the living omnipresent soul of the universe, and Nature as the living garment of God, as the Earth-Spirit does in Goethe's "Faust"--a definition of Nature in relation to God which finds favour in the pages of "Sartor Resartus"; _d_. 1600.

BRUNO, ST., born at Cologne, retired to a lonely spot near Grenoble with six others, where each lived in cells apart, and they met only on Sundays; founder of the Carthusian Order of Monks, the first house of which was established in the desert of Chartreuse (1030-1101). Festival, Oct. 6.

BRUNO THE GREAT, third son of Henry the Fowler; archbishop of Cologne, chancellor of the Empire, a great lover of learning, and promoter of it among the clergy, who he thought should, before all, represent and encourage it (928-965).

BRUNONIAN SYSTEM, a system which regards and treats diseases as due to defective or excessive excitation, as sthenic or asthenic. See BROWN, JOHN.

BRUNSWICK (404), a N. German duchy, made up of eight detached parts, mostly in the upper basin of the Weser; is mountainous, and contains part of the Harz Mts.; climate and crops are those of N. Germany generally. BRUNSWICK (101), the capital, a busy commercial town, once a member of the Hanseatic League, and fell into comparative decay after the decay of the League, on the Oker, 140 m. SW. of Berlin; an irregularly built city, it has a cathedral, and manufactures textiles, leather, and sewing-machines.

BRUNSWICK, CHARLES WILLIAM, DUKE OF, Prussian general, commanded the Prussian and Austrian forces levied to put down the French Revolution; emitted a violent, blustering manifesto, but a Revolutionary army under Dumouriez and Kellermann met him at Valmy, and compelled him to retreat in 1792; was beaten by Davout at Auerstaedt, and mortally wounded (1735-1806).

BRUNSWICK, FREDERICK WILLIAM, DUKE OF, brother of Queen Caroline; raised troops against France, which, being embarked for England, took part in the Peninsular war; fell fighting at Ligny, two days before the battle of Waterloo (1771-1815).

BRUSSELS (477), on the Senne, 27 m. S. of Antwerp, is the capital of Belgium, in the heart of the country. The old town is narrow and crooked, but picturesque; the town-hall a magnificent building. The new town is well built, and one of the finest in Europe. There are many parks, boulevards, and squares; a cathedral, art-gallery, museum and library, university and art schools. It is Paris in miniature. The manufactures include linen, ribbons, and paper; a ship-canal and numerous railways foster commerce.

BRUTUS, LUCIUS JUNIUS, the founder of Republican Rome, in the 6th century B.C.; affected idiocy (whence his name, meaning stupid); it saved his life when Tarquin the Proud put his brother to death; but when Tarquin's son committed an outrage on Lucretia, he threw off his disguise, headed a revolt, and expelled the tyrant; was elected one of the two first Consuls of Rome; sentenced his two sons to death for conspiring to restore the monarchy; fell repelling an attempt to restore the Tarquins in a hand-to-hand combat with Aruns, one of the sons of the banished king.

BRUTUS, MARCUS JUNIUS, a descendant of the preceding, and son of Cato Uticensis's sister; much beloved by Caesar and Caesar's friend, but persuaded by Cassius and others to believe that Caesar aimed at the overthrow of the republic; joined the conspirators, and was recognised by Caesar among the conspirators as party to his death; forced to flee from Rome after the event, was defeated at Philippi by Antony and Augustus, but escaped capture by falling on a sword held out to him by one of his friends, exclaiming as he did so, "O Virtue, thou art but a name!" (85-42 B.C.).

BRUYERE, a French writer, author of "Characteres de Theophraste," a satire on various characters and manners of his time (1644-1696).

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, American statesman, born in Salem, Illinois; bred to the bar and practised at it; entered Congress in 1890 as an extreme Free Silver man; lost his seat from his uncompromising views on that question; was twice nominated for the Presidency in opposition to Mr McKinley, but defeated; _b_. 1860.

BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, American poet; his poems were popular in America, the chief, "The Age," published in 1821; was 50 years editor of the _New York Evening Post_; wrote short poems all through his life, some of the later his best (1794-1878).

BRYCE, JAMES, historian and politician, born at Belfast; Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; bred to the bar; for a time professor of Civil Law at Oxford; entered Parliament in 1880; was member of Mr. Gladstone's last cabinet; his chief literary work, "The Holy Roman Empire," a work of high literary merit; _b_. 1838.

BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON, English antiquary, born at Wootton House, in Kent; called to the bar, but devoted to literature; was M.P. for Maidstone for six years; lived afterwards and died at Geneva; wrote novels and poems, and edited old English writings of interest (1762-1837).