Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/408

360 strengthened the alliance of France with England ; he negotiated the Quadruple alliance ; he contributed to the settlement of the Belgian and Greek questions ; and he laboured with success to preserve the peace of Europe. He was out of office from March 1834 to March 1835, but he returned to power at the latter date, and this time as the head of the cabinet. He was riding by the side of the king when Fieschi s &quot; infernal machine &quot; was fired on the royal cortege, and a bullet passed through the collar of his coat. In 1836 the Government was beaten on the question of the reduction of the five per cents., and M. de Broglie retired permanently from official life. The king, it must be said, had never found in him a congenial minister. His manner was dry and somewhat harsh, his character unbending, and for the remainder of the reign of Louis Philippe, M. de Broglie, though not in opposition, was the censor rather than the servant of the crown. With M. Guizot, though not in office, he preserved through life the relations of the closest personal friendship and political union. The overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in 1848 was a heavy blow to this parliamentary veteran, for he felt that the form and system of govern ment to which he was most attached were at an end for ever. He consented, however, from patriotic motives to sit in the republican assemblies of 1848, and as a member of the section known as the &quot; Burgraves &quot; he laboured to counteract some of the evils of universal suffrage, and to avert the catastrophe which he saw to be impending over France. He shared with his colleagues the indignity of the coup d etat of December 2, 1851, and remained for the remainder of his life one of the bitterest enemies of the imperial regime, although he has been heard to remark with that caustic wit for which he was famous, that the empire was &quot; the government which the poorer classes in France desired and the rich deserved.&quot; The last twenty years of his life were devoted chiefly to philosophical and literary pursuits. Having been brought up by his step father, M. d Argenson, in the sceptical opinions of the time, he gradually arrived, by study and reflection, at a full and sincere belief in the truth of the Christian religion. &quot; I shall die,&quot; said he, a &quot;penitent Christian and an im penitent Liberal.&quot; His literary works, though few of them have been published, were rewarded by a seat in the French Academy, and he was also a member of another branch of the French Institute, the Academy of Moral and Political Science. In the labours of those learned bodies he took an active and assiduous part ; and on his death, which took place at the advanced age of 85, just before the lamentable events of 1870, he was followed to the grave by repre sentatives of all that is most illustrious in the political and literary society of France, revered as one of the wisest and most upright men of his age. He was succeeded in the honours of his house by Albert de Broglie, his eldest son, also distinguished by his literary works, and who has since 1871 played no inconsiderable part in the political affairs of his country as a leading member of the National Assembly, and for sometime head of the cabinet of Marshal Macmahon. (Author:Henry Reeve)  BROKER, a word derived variously from the French Iroier, to grind, and Irocarder, to cavil or higgle, and the Saxon broc, misfortune. A broker is an agent or intermediate person appointed for transacting special business on account of another, but differing somewhat from an ordinary factor in functions and responsibility. Of this class there are various descrip tions, exercising employment without the smallest analogy, though all are brought under the general name of brokers : of these the principal are exchange brokers, whose pro vince is to ascertain the rates and relation of exchange between countries ; stock-brokers, who negotiate transac tions in the public funds ; insurance brokers, who effect insurances on lives or property ; and pawnbrokers, who advance money on goods, on the condition of being allowed to sell the goods if the sum advanced is not repaid with interest within a limited time. See and. Separating pawnbrokers, and those dealers in old wares who are called brokers, as both distinct from the class to whom the term in its broader acceptation applies, the broker is an agent for both parties, the buyer and the seller ; and for the general principles of jurisprudence applicable to his position, reference may be made to the article. It is a marked peculiarity, however, of the broker as an agent, that his quality of agency is not only palpable in the face of the transactions, but he is agent for both parties. The function of the broker is indeed a very simple one, and easily separates itself from the usual intricacies of the law of sale and of agency. It is his proper function to find buyers and sellers, and to bring them together that they may transact with each other. Hence the rise of such a class in any department of business is an indication of its great increase. In small towns, and in narrow and peculiar departments of business, the buyers and the sellers know each other, and need not be at the expense of employing a third party. But where both bodies are numeroiis, and the individual members of each find enough to occupy their attention in the produc tion of their commodity, or its purchase and distribution, there is economy in the establishment of a distinct class who bring the buyer and the seller together. The broker usually gives what are called bought and sold notes to his clients, and some nice questions have arisen as to the effect of these when they do not correspond with each other or with the entry in the broker s books. The amount of broker s commission is in some few cases fixed by statute, e.g., under 10 Anne c. 19, 120, a fine of 20 is imposed on brokers charging more than 2s. 9d. per cent, for buying or selling tallies, exchequer tickets, bank bills, &c. Generally it is settled by agreement with the principals or by the custom of trade. The brokers for the purchase and sale of goods within the city of London are a body with peculiar privileges, and acting under special licensing regulations, some of which date back to the reign of Henry VIII. The London Brokers Relief Act (1870) has con siderably altered their position, but they must still be admitted by the court of mayor and aldeimen, and the penalty of 100 for acting as a broker without qualification may still be imposed. A list of London brokers is kept by the mayor and aldermen ; and if a broker has been con victed of felony or fraud, or certified by a superior judge to have been guilty of fraud, he may be absolutely or for a time disqualified. There has been some doubt as to the class of persons falling under these regulations ; ship- brokers and auctioneers, it would appear, do not.  BROMBERG, a town of Prussia, capital of a government in the province of Posen, is situated 70 miles north of the city of that name on the River Brahe, which is there crossed by a fine new railway bridge. Its public buildings com prise two Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church, and a Jewish synagogue, a gymnasium, a seminary, a workhouse and penitentiary, a hospital, and a military storehouse. It lias large mills, manufactures linen and woollen stuffs, leather, tobacco, Prussian blue, sugar, chicory, vinegar, beer, brandy, and oil, and carries on an active transit trade. The Bromberg Canal, constructed in 1773-4 by command of Frederick II., at a cost of 700,000 dollars, connects the Brahe with the Netz, and thus estab lishes communication between the Vistula, the Oder, and the Elbe. Bromberg is mentioned as early as 1252. From 1327 to 1343 it was in the hands of the Teutonic Order. 