Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/585

BER Russian campaign. After the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen he was made general of division. Berthegène was taken prisoner at Dresden, and was not released till after Napoleon's abdication. During the Hundred Days he distinguished himself at Fleurus, Bèerge, and Namur. Charles X. appointed him to the command of the first division of the army intended for Algeria, and the conquest of that province was mainly due to him. He was made a grand cross of the legion of honour in 1830, and in 1831 was appointed governor of Algeria. During the short time he held that office, his administration was marked by probity, prudence, and economy.—J. T.  BERTHELOT,, a French Benedictine, librarian of the abbaye of Nancy, died in 1754. He wrote "Traité historique et moral de l'abstinence des viandes, et des revolutions qu'elle a eues depuis le commencement du monde jusqu'aujourd' hui," Rouen, 1731.  BERTHELOT, N., a French satiric poet, lived in the first part of the seventeenth century. He was the friend of Reynier, and like him distinguished by his facility and comic power. His works are to be found chiefly in "Le Cabinet satyrique," 1660.  * BERTHELOT,, a French naturalist and traveller, born at Marseilles in 1794. His principal work is a "Natural History of the Canary Islands," prepared in conjunction with M. P. Barker-Webb, and published at Paris in 3 vols. 4to, with a large folio atlas of fine plates. M. Berthelot is also the author of numerous memoirs on natural history, principally botany and physical geography, inserted in the Annales du Muséum, the Bibliotheque de Genève," &c., and of a treatise "On the Fishery on the west coast of Africa," published at Paris in 1840. He has lately translated some portions of the Natural History of Cuba, by M. Ramon de la Sagra.—W. S. D.  BERTHEREAU,, a learned French ecclesiastic, who devoted himself for thirty years to collecting out of Arabic authors materials for a history of the crusades, was born at Belesme in 1732. His labours were interrupted by the outbreak of the Revolution, and none of his papers have as yet been published. He died in 1794.—J. S., G.  * BERTHET, , born at Limoges, 8th June, 1815, was the inventor of the Roman-feuilleton, adopted by the Siecle newspaper, and the plan of publishing romances and novels in newspapers, became the favourite mode with authors in France, who at once found the ear of a vast number of readers. Under the withering restrictions of the imperial regime, the feuilleton has suffered as much as the political leader, which means something very near extinction, and Elie Berthet's occupation is gone. As a novel writer, he was rather lively and ingenious than original, and is missed by the readers of the Siecle. Amongst his best works may be named "Le Colporteur;" "Le Fils de l'usurier;" and "La Croix de l'affût," &c.—J. F. C.  BERTHET,, a French theologian, professor of humanity, philosophy, and theology, in various jesuit colleges, and afterwards a member of the Benedictine order, was born at Tarascon in 1622, and died at Oulx in 1692. He wrote "Traité sur la presence réelle," and "Traité Historique de la charge de grand aumonier de France."—J. S., G.  BERTHIER,, a distinguished French theologian and critic, professor of belles-lettres at Blois and of theology at Paris, born at Issoudun in 1704, belonged to the order of jesuits. He continued, in six volumes, Brumoy's "Histoire del'Eglise Gallicane," and having resigned his chair in 1745, undertook the editorship of the Journal de Trevoux which in his hands came to be recognized as one of the most powerful organs of the church, and a formidable antagonist of the encyclopedistes. In 1762 he was appointed tutor to the sons of the dauphin; but two years afterwards, on the suppression of his order, retired to Germany. He returned to France in 1776, and settled at Bourges, where, in the year of his death, 1782, he learned that the clergy of France had settled on him a pension of 1000 francs. He published a "Commentaire sur les Psaumes et Isaïe" and "Œuvres Spirituelles."—J. S., G. <section end="585H" /> <section begin="585I" />BERTHIER,, prince of Wagram and Neufchatel, one of the French revolutionary marshals, was born November 20, 1753. He was the son of an officer of engineers, by whom he was educated for the military profession. He served in the American war with Lafayette and Rochambeau. In 1789 he was nominated major-general of the national guard at Versailles; and when the Revolution broke out he favoured the escape of the aunts of Louis XVI. He served with distinction under Lukner during the war in La Vendee, and in 1796 was appointed chief of the staff in the army of Italy commanded by General Buonaparte, to whom he attached himself, and who made him his chief confidant. On the 18th Brumaire (November, 1799) Berthier rendered important aid in overthrowing the government of the Directory, and was rewarded with the post of secretary of war. When Buonaparte assumed the imperial power, Berthier shared his good fortune, and was nominated a marshal of the empire, grand huntsman, chief of the first cohort of the legion of honour, prince of Neufchatel, and was married to a Bavarian princess. He was present at the battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805), and took part in the subsequent campaigns against Prussia, Austria, and Russia. His distinguished services at the battle of Wagram gained for him the additional honour of prince of Wagram. After the downfall of his imperial master in 1814, Berthier made his peace with Louis XVIII., and was created a peer of France, and captain of the royal body guard. Buonaparte, who could not believe that his old friend and follower would prove ungrateful for all the honours he had heaped upon him, wrote to him from Elba announcing his plans, but Berthier returned him no answer, though he did not show the letter to Louis XVIII. During the Hundred Days he resolved to remain neutral, and retired to Bemberg in Bavaria, where he met his death. According to one account, six men in masks entered his chamber and threw him out of the window; according to another, he threw himself out when he saw some Russian troops marching to invade his native country. All that is certainly known is, that he was found lying on the pavement dying. Berthier was the author of "An account of the battle of Marengo," and of a "Narrative of the Campaigns of General Buonaparte in Egypt and Syria." He possessed rare qualifications for the offices of quartermaster-general and chief of the staff, which he held under the Empire, but he was unfit for a supreme command.—J. T. <section end="585I" /> <section begin="585J" />BERTHOLD, a christian missionary of the twelfth century, who laboured very unsuccessfully among the Livonians, resorting to arms when persuasion failed, but always being worsted. He perished in 1198 in an encounter with the pagans. <section end="585J" /> <section begin="585K" />BERTHOLD, a celebrated German preacher of the latter half of the thirteenth century, who upwards of twenty years laboured indefatigably as a missionary in Austria, Moravia, and Thuringia, attracting, it is said, crowds of sixty and a hundred thousand people. An edition of his sermons appeared at Berlin in 1824, under the title of "Berthold des Franziskaners deutsche Predigten, aus der zweyten Halfte des 13ten Jahrhundert." <section end="585K" /> <section begin="585L" />* BERTHOLD,, a German physician and naturalist, born at Soest in 1803, studied at Göttingen, Berlin, and Paris, and in 1825 established himself as a private tutor in Göttingen. In 1836 he became ordinary professor of medicine, and inspector of the zoological section of the museum of that university; in 1837, member of the Royal Society of Sciences; and in 1838 founded the Society of Natural History and Medicine of Göttingen. Besides numerous papers on different branches of natural history, communicated to the ''Acta Acad. Nat. Curios., to Oken's Isis, to Müller's Archiv für Anatomie'', and other periodicals, Berthold is the author of several independent works, amongst which we may mention an "Outline of human and animal Physiology," published at Göttingen in 1826; a "Manual" of the same science in 1829 and 1837; a translation of Latreille's Familles Naturelles, Weimar, 1827; memoirs "On various New or Rare Amphibia," and "On various New Reptiles from New Granada," published at Göttingen in 1842 and 1846; "On the Structure of Gordius Aquaticus," in 1842; and a "Handbook of Zoology," in 1845.—W. S. D. <section end="585L" /> <section begin="585M" />BERTHOLDUS, BERNALDUS, BERTOUL, BERNOUL, or BERTHOLD, a German theologian and historian of the latter half of the eleventh century, was a churchman of Constance. He continued the chronicle of Herman Contractus by a history of his own times, beginning with the year 1054, entitled "Bertholdi Historia rerum suo tempore per singulos annos gestarum." <section end="585M" /> <section begin="585N" />BERTHOLET,, a French jesuit, born at Salm in Ardennes about the end of the seventeenth century; died at Liege in 1755. He published a valuable work on the history of the duchy of Luxemburg, under the title of "L'Histoire ecclesiastique et civile du Duché de Luxembourg et du Compté de Chini," the materials for which he was at great pains to collect from numerous monastic and other libraries.—J. S., G. <section end="585N" /> <section begin="585Zcontin" />BERTHOLLET,, an eminent Italian chemist, <section end="585Zcontin" />