Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/794

BRE indeed, of his earthly career he ceased not to pursue steadily those investigations to which his life had been devoted. Within a few weeks of his end he sent various papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which he had for a considerable period been the president, and to whose Transactions he had so largely contributed. His last appearance in public was at the meeting of the British Association in Dundee, in 1867, when with all his wonted energy, and with triumphant success, he set himself to vindicate Newton from the last of the groundless charges brought against him. He died on the 10th of February, 1868.—J. P. N.  BREWSTER,, one of the founders of the colony of Plymouth in North America, was born probably at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, about 1563. He was for some years in the service of Davison, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, and visited the Low Countries in the train of his patron when he went as royal ambassador. We afterwards hear of him as postmaster at Scrooby, where he was connected with the separatist congregation to which Governor Bradford belonged. (See .) Brewster accompanied the little flock in their wanderings to Amsterdam, Leyden, and at last to their new settlement of Plymouth in North America. He was, during the severe trials to which the settlers were exposed, one of those whose patience and energy bore up the most steadily against discouragement. In the distribution of functions, the office of religious instruction fell to him, and he never filled any place in the magistracy; but his counsel was sought on all occasions with an earnestness prompted by implicit confidence in his rectitude and wisdom. Having never been formally inducted into the sacred office, he had scruples about administering the ordinances, and from time to time during his life other ministers were brought from England. But the experiments were not successful, while his ministrations never failed to edify. "He would labour with his hands in the fields as long as he was able, yet, when the church had no other minister, he taught twice every Sabbath, and that both powerfully and profitably, to the great contentment of the hearers, and many were brought to God by his ministry." He loved books and found time to enjoy them. He left at his death a library consisting of 275 volumes, 60 or 70 of them being in the learned languages. "He was near fourscore years of age, if not all out, when he died," which was on the 16th April, 1643. Brewster's history of the time previous to his emigration with the Scrooby congregation has but recently been recovered, through some researches of that learned antiquary, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, of her majesty's record office.—Y. G. P.  BREYDEL,, a landscape painter, born at Antwerp in 1677. He was a pupil of Rysbrack, and then travelled, and with his brother, Francis, entered the service of the court of Hesse-Cassel. He next went to Amsterdam, and studied the Rhenish views of Griffier, afterwards comparing them with nature. He then settled at Ghent, earning money like a miser, and spending it like the prodigal son, painting flimsy, hasty pictures to meet his wants. Latterly gout fell on him, scourging him for the sins of his youth, and he painted with less spirit, finish, and firmness. He died in 1744. His early Griffier pictures of Rhenish boats, fishermen, and vine-dressers, are well designed, and neatly wrought out, and neatly executed; but his second or Velvet Breughel pictures of battles, sieges, and encampments, are not so good, though they earned him the name of the "Chevalier." From Vandermeulen he also took figures as well as whole designs, and afterwards got into a habit of inventing after his manner. His style was either careless and laboured, or full of harmony. , his brother, was born at Antwerp in 1678. He was, it is supposed, a scholar of Rysbrack, and painted conversations, feasts, assemblies, and carnivals, particularly the last. Leaving these he came to England, and stayed there several years with his friend, Vandermyn. His pictures have nature, truth, spirit, and variety. He died in 1750.—W. T.  BREYN,, a German botanist, was born at Dantzig, 1637, and died there, 1697. He acquired his first lessons on botany from Mentzel, and afterwards prosecuted his studies at Leyden. He has published various botanical works. Among them are descriptions of exotic plants, and of rarer species cultivated in the Dutch gardens.—J. H. B.  BREYN,, a German physician and botanist, was born at Dantzig in 1690, and died in 1764. He published various scientific papers in the Transactions of the Societas Naturæ Curiosorum, as well as of the Royal Society of London. He also wrote on the ginsing root, on officinal fungi, on aspidium barometz, on species of coccus, on echini, and on various testaceous animals.—J. H. B.  BREZ,, a Piedmontese botanist and historian, was born in the valines of Piedmont in 1771, and died at Middleburg in 1798 He published a work on the plants upon which insects feed, and on the study of insects, as well as a history of the Waldenses.—J. H. B.  BREZIN,, a French mechanic and capitalist, famous as the founder of the Hospice de la Reconnaisance in Paris, was born 1758, and died 1828. In the course of a long and honourable career, first as a mechanic, and latterly as an ironmaster, he amassed a large fortune, which by his will was consecrated to the erection of the hospital above named. The charity is limited to aged members of the four trades successively pursued by its founder, namely, to locksmiths, mechanics, foundrymen, and the employés of iron masters.—J. S., G.  BRIAL,, a French Benedictine, born at Perpignan in 1743; died at Paris in 1828. From 1771 till the commencement of the Revolution he was occupied with Dom Clement in continuing the "Recueil des historiens de France," the twelfth and thirteenth volumes of which were published under their conjoint superintendence. Brial afterwards added to the collection five volumes. In 1805 he was admitted into the Academy of Inscriptions, and charged with three of his colleagues to continue Rivet's Hist. Litt. de la France. <section end="794G" /> <section begin="794H" />BRIDAINE or BRYDAINE,, the celebrated French preacher, born at Chuslan in 1701; died at Roquemaure near Avignon, in 1767. Unfortunately for his fame, his splendid talents were too early enlisted in the work to which his life was consecrated; and after the fame of his labours as a missionary had spread far beyond the limits of his native country, Massillon, himself a man nobly endowed as well as a miracle of accomplishments, had to say of him that he was not the first of orators only because a fortunate culture had not developed to the full his natural powers. More qualified, but still magnificent eulogies, his wonderful gifts drew from La Harpe, Madame Necker, and Maury. The chapter of Chartres struck a medal in his honour. Pope Benedict XIII., with a munificence which would have made the recipient ridiculous if he had not been all but the first of orators, gave him the whole of christendom as a field for his missionary labours; and, what was at once the best evidence of his powers and the amplest reward of his indefatigable zeal, where-ever he went (and he journeyed with apostolic diligence), crowds attended him with an enthusiasm which justified the almost incredible accounts current in the church of the number of conversions effected by his preaching. <section end="794H" /> <section begin="794I" />BRIDEL-BRIDERI,, a Swiss poet and botanist, was born at Grassier in the Canton de Vaud in 1761, and died near Gotha on 7th January, 1828. He was the son of a protestant minister; and after completing his studies he became tutor to the two princes, Augustus and Frederick of Saxe Gotha. He afterwards became private secretary and librarian of the hereditary prince. He devoted much attention to botany, and published several important works on mosses. He also gave attention to literature, to antiquities, and to various departments of science, contributing papers to several journals.—J. H. B. <section end="794I" /> <section begin="794J" />BRIDGE,, a celebrated organ-builder of the last century. It is to be regretted that nothing is known of his biography. According to an advertisement in the General Advertiser for February 20, 1748, "Bridges, organ-builder," probably the same person, then resided in Hand Court, Holborn. We learn incidentally, from a note in Burney's History of Music, that he died before 1776. His principal organs are the following—St. Bartholomew the Great, 1729; Christ Church, Spitalfields, 1730; St. Paul's, Deptford, 1730; St. George's-in-the-East, 1733; St. Anne's, Limehouse, 1741; St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, 1757; Enfield church, Middlesex, 1758; Eltham church, Kent; Spa Fields' chapel; St. James', Clerkenwell; Paddington Parish church.—(Rimbault and Hopkins' History of the Organ.)—E. F. R. <section end="794J" /> <section begin="794Zcontin" />BRIDGEMAN,, a lord-keeper of the great seal in the reign of Charles II. His father was bishop of Chester; he was educated at Cambridge, entered of the inner temple, and in 1632 called to the bar. Of high prerogative principles, he served the king's (Charles I.) cause in the house of commons, and at the seat of his father's see, which he by arms defended against the puritans. That assembly retaliated by expelling him from the house. On the decline of the royal cause, and during <section end="794Zcontin" />