Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/553

BER publication. Hardly a number appeared which did not provoke a prosecution so well-founded as to insure conviction. During the two years and a half that the Cancans ran their eccentric course, the writer was sentenced to imprisonment, which made a sum total of fourteen years, and to fines amounting to 13,000 francs. Some time about 1834 he, probably to escape imprisonment, was not heard of afterwards.—J. F. C.  * BERARD,, a noted French statesman, receiver-general of finance in the department of Cher, was born at Paris in 1783. His father, an eminent merchant, and during the earlier years of the Revolution an enthusiastic officer of the National Guard, was of an ancient Provencal family, who had suffered confiscation of their estates, in consequence of their attachment to protestantism. He entered public life in 1810 as auditor, and in 1814 became master of requests to the council of state. From the downfall of Napoleon, except during the Hundred Days, he was out of office till 1817, when he was recalled to the council of state. In 1820 he had the honour of being dismissed, in company with such men as Guizot and Royer-Collard. The consequent interval in his political life was occupied with various schemes of national importance, such as the lighting of Paris by gas, and the establishment of a bank for the transaction of business connected with public works. In 1827 he was called to the chamber of deputies, where he voted generally with the opposition, but without taking part in any factious movements against the ministry. After the publication of the ordinances of the 25th July, 1830, he exerted himself, but without effect, to induce some of his colleagues to sign a protest against these offensive proclamations, and to try the effect of presenting it themselves to Charles X. He afterwards played a conspicuous part in the elevation of Louis Philippe to the vacant throne. In August, 1830, he was named director-general of bridges, &c., and councillor of state. After a period of retirement from public life, he was appointed in 1839 to the office which he holds at present. He has published "Souvenirs historiques sur la Revolution de 1830," and "Essai bibliographique sur les editions des Elzevirs les plus precieuses et les plus recherchées," 1822.—J. S., G.  BERARDIER DE BATAND,, a French litterateur and historian, born at Paris in 1720; died in 1794. He published an excellent introduction to history, entitled "Precis de l'Histoire Universelle," 1766, and other works.  BERAULD,, son of Nicholas, was an admirable Greek scholar. He taught at Lausanne, when Beza went thither in 1549. He was head of the college at Montargis in 1571, and afterwards resided at Rochelle. At the request of Henry Stephens, he translated some books of Appian. The exact date and place of his birth and death are uncertain.—T. J.  BERAULD,, an eminent French lawyer and commentator, was born in 1473, as some say, at Orleans, but, according to others, at Languedoc. He was the tutor of admiral de Coligni. Erasmus speaks highly of his commentaries on Pliny. He also published a Greek-Latin dictionary. Erasmus describes him as possessing a smooth and voluble tongue, a sweet melodious voice, and a ready and pure style. But others attribute the slow words of his pupils to the ill habit of their preceptor. He died in 1550.—T. J.  BERAULT,, regius-professor of Syriac in the university of Paris after the death of M. d'Herbelot, and author of the commentary on Statius, "in usum Delphini," died at Paris, in March, 1705.—T. J.  BERAULT,, a celebrated Huguenot minister and professor of divinity at Montauban, flourished about the end of the sixteenth century, and the beginning of the seventeenth. Scaliger says that he was once a monk, and commends his learning. He was chosen to dispute against Du Perron in the conference of Mantes. He published a work on the "Vocation of Ministers of the Gospel" in 1598. He favoured the interests of the duke of Rohan in the civil wars. He appears to have been hasty and ambitious. The place of his death is unknown.—T. J.  BERBEGUIER,, a flutist, was born at Caderousse, in the department of Vaucluse, December 21, 1782, and died at Paris in 1838. He was designed for the bar, but his strong inclination for music induced his parents to allow him to abandon his legal studies, and devote himself to the practice of the flute. Besides his early mastery of this instrument, he obtained facility also upon the violin and violoncello. In 1805 he went to Paris, and entered the conservatoire, where he was placed in the class of Wunderlich. In 1813, being drawn in the conscription, he was compelled to quit Paris with the army, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant; he had no taste, however, for military life, and was glad to quit the service and re-establish himself at Paris as a civilian in 1819. He married, in 1823, Mademoiselle Plon, an esteemed harp-player. His renown as an executant was very extensive, and his extremely numerous compositions for his instrument are in the repertory of every amateur of the flute.—G. A. M. <section end="553H" /> <section begin="553I" />BERCH,, a Swedish historian and antiquary, was born at the commencement of the eighteenth century. He was also distinguished for his knowledge of political economy and numismatics. He wrote several works, especially on the latter subject. He died in 1777.—J. F. W. <section end="553I" /> <section begin="553J" />BERCHELMANN,, a German physician, born at Darmstadt in 1718, practised at Giessen, and afterwards became physician to the landgrave of Darmstadt, where he died in 1783. He wrote a treatise "On Cancer," published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1756, and also a periodical work, entitled Fragmente zur Arzneikunde und Naturgeschichte, of which two volumes appeared there in 1780 and 1781.—W. S. D. <section end="553J" /> <section begin="553K" />BERCHENEY,, a Hungarian chief, born in 1664. In 1700 he entered into a plot with his relative, Prince Rakotzky, for the separation of Hungary from Austria. Having received a subsidy from the French king, then at war with the emperor, they raised an army of 60,000 men, and advanced triumphantly almost to the gates of Vienna. Bercheney was made ducal lieutenant of Hungary. In the end the confederates suffered great reverses, and Bercheney was compelled in 1711 to flee into Poland. He died in 1725 at Radorto in Turkey.—J. T. <section end="553K" /> <section begin="553L" />BERCHENEY,, son of the preceding, was born in 1689. He fought, like his father, in the cause of his country, and after the establishment of Austrian supremacy in 1711, he took refuge in France, and next year entered the French service. He served with great distinction in various campaigns, and was conspicuous for his indomitable courage. He was created a marshal of France in 1758, and died in 1778. A regiment of hussars went by his name until the year 1790.—J. T. <section end="553L" /> <section begin="553M" />BERCHET,, a French historical painter, born in 1659, a pupil of that La Fosse who decorated Montague house. In 1681 he came to England, and did ignoble work for our nobles. He painted the ceiling of Trinity chapel, Oxford, the duke of Schomberg's staircase, and the summer house at Ranelagh. His academy drawings and small mythological works were much admired till 1720, when he died.—W. T. <section end="553M" /> <section begin="553N" />BERCHET,, a French protestant controversialist and philologist, born at Langres in 1540; died at Sedan in 1605. He translated into Latin the Greek catechism of Henri Estienne, and annotated Clenard's Greek grammar, which he published with the title, "Instit. ac medit. in Græcam linguam." <section end="553N" /> <section begin="553Zcontin" />BERCHET,, a Lombard poet, born at Milan in 1790. Berchet was one of the noble band who commenced, in 1818, the then peaceful struggle for Italian emancipation, under the garb of literary romanticism, in the Conciliatore, a literary periodical, in which he was associated with Silvio Pellico, Confalonieri, the marquis of Brême, Borsieri, Romagnosi, and other distinguished writers, until the journal was suppressed by the Austrian government, and the contributors imprisoned or exiled. Berchet was involved in the conspiracy which led to the insurrection of 1821 in Piedmont, first headed, and afterwards betrayed by Charles Albert of Savoy, then prince of Carignano; and one of Berchet's most powerful and popular poems was written in denunciation of the prince's treachery on that occasion. The terrible lines— Esecrato O Carignano: Va il tuo nome in ogni gente; Nou v'e clima si lontano, Ove il tedio, lo squallor, La bestemmia d' un' fuggento Non ti annunzi Traditor! rang throughout all Italy in 1821 and the following years; their echo was prolonged by the royal betrayal of Milan in 1848, and they are said to have been never forgotten by the vacillating and unhappy king. Condemned to death by the Austrians, Berchet fled into exile, and travelled in France, England, and Belgium. While in France, he wrote the greater number of those magnificent patriotic songs which have gained him the name of the Tyrtæus of Italy, and the love of every Italian heart. They breathe <section end="553Zcontin" />