Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/429

Rh tender than the discourse pronounced by M. Mignet in the Institute of France in honour of their great associate. Upon that southern coast the last days of this veteran combatant in the fields of law and politics were spent. There at Cannes, upon the 7th May 18G8, in the ninetieth year of his age, he expired ; and if Westminster proffered no sepulture to the greatest orator of our times, he rests, at least, in the spot which had his latest affections. To what precedes we have little to add, for who can attempt to portray so multifarious, inconsistent, and variable a being ] The irritability of his temper and the egotism of his character made him not only formidable as an antagonist but dangerous as a friend. Yet at bottom he had genuine warmth of heart and good nature. He was a devoted son, an affectionate parent and brother ; covetous to a degree of power and patronage, but prodigal in the use of it ; disdaining money, yet happy to bestow it on others ; fond of courting the great, yet not insensible to the sufferings and the sympathy of the humble and the poor. With unbounded self-confidence, he wanted self-con trol, and at times under the influence of grief, of resentment, of ambition, of disappointment, or of success, he was scarcely accountable for his actions, still less for his language. His imagination conjured up occurrences which had never taken place ; and he changed as rapidly as a chameleon, uncon scious of the transformation. Hence it came to pass that whilst men marvelled at his astonishing gifts, they ceased to trust his character ; and the splendid promise of the morning of his life was overcast before its close. The activity of Lord Brougham s pen was only second to the volubility of his tongue. He carried on a vast and incessant correspondence of incredible extent. For thirty years he contributed largely to the Edinburgh JRevieiv, and lie continued to write in that journal even after he held the great seal. The best of his writings, entitled &quot; Sketches of the Statesmen of the time of George III., &quot;first appeared in the Review. These were followed by the &quot; Lives of Men of Letters and Science &quot; of the same period. Later in life he edited Palcy s Natural Theology ; and he published a work on political philosophy, besides innumerable pamphlets and letters to public men on the events of the day. He published an incorrect translation of Demosthenes s Oration for the Crou n. A novel entitled Albert Lunel was attributed to him. A fragment of the History of England tinder the House of Lancaster employed his retirement, but we think it was published without his name, and certainly without success. In 1838 Messrs Black of Edinburgh published an edition of his speeches in four volumes, Svo, elaborately corrected by himself. The last of his works was his posthumous Antolnographij. Yet ambitious as he was of literary fame, and jealous of the success of other authors, he failed to obtain any lasting place in English literature. His style was slouching, involved, and incorrect. Like his handwriting, which was precipitate and almost illegible, except to the initiated, his composition bore marks of haste and carelessness, and nowhere shows any genuine originality of thought. The collected edition of his works and speeches published by Griffin in 1857, and reissued by Black, of Edinburgh, 1872, is the best; and .it was carefully revised by himself, with introductions to the different pieces. His autobiography is of some value from the original letters with which it is interspersed. But Lord Brougham s memory was so much impaired when he began to write his recollections, that no reliance can be placed on his statements, and the work abounds in mani fest errors. (Author:Henry Reeve)  BROUGHTON,, a learned scholar and divine, was born at Oldbury in Shropshire in 1549. After receiv ing the rudiments of his education at a provincial school, he went to Cambridge, where in due time he was chosen a fellow of Christ s College, and took orders in the church. During his career at the university he laid the foundation of the Hebrew scholarship for which he was afterwards so distinguished. From Cambridge he went to London, where his eloquence gained him many and powerful friends. In 1588 he published his first work, &quot;a little book of great pains,&quot; entitled the Consent of Scriptures. This work was strongly opposed at both the great universities, and the author was obliged to defend it, which he did in a series of lectures. In 1589 he went to Germany, where he fre quently engaged in discussions both with Romanists and with the learned Jews whom he met at Frankfort and else where. In 1591 he returned to England, and published an Explication of the article of Christ s descent into Hell, which, like his former treatise, elicited a violent opposition. In 1 592 he once more went abroad and cultivated the acquaint ance of the principal scholars of the different countries through which he passed. Such was the esteem in which he was held, even by his opponents, that he was offered a cardinal s hat if he would renounce the Protestant faith, which, however, he declined to do. On the accession of James he returned to England ; but not being engaged to co-operate in the new translation of the Bible then begun, he retired to Middleb;irg in Holland, where he preached to the English congregation. In 1611 he returned to England, where he died the following year. Some of his works were collected and published in a large folio volume in 1G62, with a sketch of his life by Dr Lightfoot, but many of his theological MSS. remain still unedited ia the British Museum.  BROUGHTON,, a learned divine, and one of the original writers in the Biographia Britannica, was born at London, July 5, 1704. At an early age he was sent to Eton, where he soon distinguished himself by his acuteness and studious disposition. Being superannuated on this foundation, he removed about 1722 to the university of Cambridge ; and, for the sake of a scholarship, entered himself of Caius College. Here two of the principal objects of his attention were the acquisition of the modern languages, and the study of mathematics, under the famous Professor Sanderson. In May 1727, Broughton, after graduating as B.A., was admitted to deacon s orders, and in the succeeding year was ordained priest, and took the degree of M. A.. He then removed from the university to the curacy of Ofiiey in Hertfordshire. In 1739 he was instituted to the rectory of Stepington, or Stibington, in the county of Huntingdon. He was soon after chosen reader to the Temple, by which means he became known to Bishop Sherlock, then Master, who conceived so high an opinion of Broughton s merit, that in 1744 he presented him to the valuable vicarage of Bedminster near Bristol, with the chapels of St Mary Ptedcliff, St Thomas, and Abbot s Leigh annexed. He was afterwards collated by the same patron to the prebend of Bedminster and Redcliff, in the cathedral of Salisbury. Upon receiving this preferment he removed from London to Bristol, where he married the daughter of Thomas Harris, clerk of that city, by whom he had seven children. He died December 21, 1774.  BROUGHTON,, an English statesman, was the eldest son of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, first baronet, and was born at Redlands, Bristol, June 27, 178G. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1808. During his residence at Cambridge be became the intimate friend of Lord Byron ; and in the summer of 1809 the two friends set out together on a tour in the South of Europe. They visited Spain (then the theatre of tho great war with Napoleon), Portugal. Greece. Albania, and Turkey. The winter was spent at 