Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/395

Rh with the duke of Bridge water, and an arrangement was soon come to whereby he undertook to carry out that nobleman s scheme of inland navigation. The duke s primary object was the carriage of coal from his estate at Worsley to Manchester. The difficulties in the way were great, but all were surmounted by the genius of Brindley, whose crowning triumph was the carrying the new canal over the Iliver Irwell at Barton, by means of an aqueduct elevated 39 feet above the water. The great success of this canal, the first of its kind in Great Britain, encouraged similar projects, and Brindley was soon engaged extending his firot work to the Mersey. He then designed and nearly completed what he called the Grand Trunk Canal, connecting the Trent and Humber with the Mersey. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Oxford Caual, the Stockwith and Chesterfield Canal, were all planned and carried out by him. His excessive toil broke down his strength, and he died in 1772 at the early age of fifty-six. Brindley was a man of no education ; he retained to the last a peculiar roughness of character and demeanour ; but his innate power of thought more thau compensated for his lack of training. It is told of him that when in any difficulty he used to retire to bed, and there remain intensely pondering his problem until the solution became clear to him. His mechanical ingenuity and fertility of resources were very remarkable ; he undoubtedly possessed in the very highest degree the engineering faculty, though the kind of works to which he devoted himself has been cast into the shade by the later developments of steam traffic. Brindley was an enthusiast in his business and possessed with the idea of canals. His reported answer to the committee who asked him what was the use of navi gable rivers, &quot; To feed canals,&quot; is characteristic, if not altogether authentic.

1em  BRIOUDE, a town of France, in the department of Haute Loire, capital of an arrondissement, is situated on the left bank of the Allier, 39 miles N.W. of Puy. The town is ill- built, but has a fine old Gothic church (St Julien, of the 12th century, with curious mosaic ornamen tation), a college, a public library, and beautiful fountains, which date from the 13th century. At Old Brioude, about three miles S.S.E., are the remains of a bridge over the Allier, which consisted of a single arch GO feet high and 20G feet in span. (See article BRIDGES, p. 332.) This fell in 1822; and a new bridge of one arch, 182 feet in span, was built in 1845. Population in 1872, 4524.

1em  BRISBANE, a town of Australia, capital of the colony of Queensland, is situated in Stanley county, on both banks of the River Brisbane, about 25 miles from -its entrance into Moreton Bay. It consists of four parts, North and South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Fortitude Valley. Among its public buildings are courts of justice, houses of parliament, a governor s residence, a literary institute, a concert-room, a school of arts, and from twenty to thirty churches. It has also an excellent botanical garden. The river, which is about a quarter of a mile broad opposite the town, is navigable for vessels of considerable burden, and has been made more accessible by the partial removal of the bar at its mouth. Regular steam communication is kept up with Sydney and other Australian ports, and a very flourishing trade is carried on in the export of wool, cotton, tallow, and hides, and the import of European manufac tures. The town is the centre of a considerable railway and telegraphic system. Brisbane was founded as a penal settlement in 1825, and was named in honour of Sir Thomas M. Brisbane. In 1842 the establishment was abolished, and general colonization set in. The town was politically a part of New South Wales till 1859, when it was made the capital of Queensland. It is the seat of an Anglican and also of a Roman Catholic bishop. Its population was only 5225 by the census of 1861 ; but in 1871 it amounted to 15,029, of whom 7204 were males and 7825 females. The number of inhabited houses at the latter date was 2931.  BRISBANE,, a distinguished soldier and astronomer, was born in 1773 at Brisbane in Ayrshire. He entered the army in 1789, and served in Flanders, the West Indies, and the Peninsula. In 1814 he was sent to North America ; on the return of Napoleon from Elba he was recalled, but did not arrive in time to take part at the battle of Waterloo. From 1818 to 1821 he was military commander in the South of Ireland. He was then appointed governor of New South Wales, an office which he held for four years. During that time he devoted himself most earnestly to the colony under his charge; he introduced new plants and breeds of animals, encouraged the reclaiming of waste lands, and even raised the status of the convicts by his wise measure of granting tickets-of- leave for good conduct. While in Australia he occupied himself in astronomical researches, erected a large obser vatory, and catalogued 7385 stars scarcely before known. The Royal Society awarded him their Copley medal for this work, The Brisbane Catalogue of Stars. After his return he resided chiefly at Makerstoun in Roxburghshire, where he had a large and admirably equipped observatory. Three volumes of his observations were printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, In 1836 he was made a baronet and K.C.B.; and in 1841 he became general. He received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford, and was elected president of the Royal Society of Edin burgh after the death of Sir Walter Scott. Sir Thomas died on the 31st January 1860. He founded two gold medals for the encouragement of scientific research, one in the award of the Royal Society, the other in that of the Society of Arts.  BRISSON,, a French zoologist and natural philosopher, was born at Fontenay-le-Comte, 3d April 1723. He studied for the church, but did not take orders, as his inclination led him towards the study of natural science. He became assistant to the celebrated Reaumur, and in 1756 published the first volume of his work on the animal kingdom, containing an account of the quadrupeds and cetacea. Of his other works on natural history the most important was the Ornithologie, 6 vols., 1760. After the death of R6aumur and the amalgamation of his museum with the royal cabinet, Brisson gave up the study of natural history and devoted himself to physical science. He obtained an appointment as professor in the college of Navarre, and was made instructor of the royal family in natural philosophy. Several text-books on physics were published by him, and were in considerable repute for a time, but his most important piece of work was the Tables of Specific Gra vities, published in 1787. Brisson died in 1806.  BRISSOT,, who assumed the name De Warvillc, a celebrated Girondist, was born of humble parents at Chartres in January 1754. He received a good education, and entered the office of a lawyer at Paris. His first works, Theorie dcs Lois criminelles (1781 ) and Bib- 