tion of America as inexpedient, but, together with Lord Shelburne, committed the mistake of refusing to join the Rockingham ministry. In Pitt's administration he was restored to his rank in the army, and became vice-treasurer of Ireland, as well as a privy councillor, holding that office until the break-up of the ministry in October 1768. The king's hatred of Barré, a dislike second only to that felt for Wilkes, blocked Barré's promotion in the army, and led to his retirement from the service in February 1773. When the Rockingham ministry was formed in the spring of 1782, he was appointed treasurer of the navy, and received a pension of 3,200l. a year, to take effect ‘whenever he should quit his then office,’ a proceeding which made the ministry unpopular, and enabled the younger Pitt some time later to gain applause by granting to Barré the clerkship of the Pells in lieu of the pension. In a few months the Rockingham administration was dissolved by the death of its head, and a new cabinet, in which Barré became paymaster-general, was formed by Lord Shelburne. This was his last official position, and all prospect of further advancement was a year or two later shut out by blindness. Cut off from all active pursuits, and harassed by declining health, he died at Stanhope Street, May Fair, 20 July 1802. As an opposition orator Barré was almost without rival. The terrors of his invective paralysed Charles Townshend and dismayed Wedderburn. Among the opponents of Lord North's ministry none took a more prominent place than Barré In defence he was less happy, and in society he was vulgar. It is perhaps worthy of notice that John Britton wrote in 1848 a volume to prove that Barré was the author of the ‘Letters of Junius.’
[Memoir in Britton's Authorship of Junius elucidated; Albemarle's Rockingham, i. 79–84; Walpole's George III and Letters, passim; Correspondence of George III with Lord North, ii. 21; Wraxall's Hist. Memoirs, ii. 134–7; Leslie and Taylor's Reynolds, i. 257–8; Grenville Correspondence, i. 326, ii. 229–36; Correspondence of Lord Chatham, passim; Fitzmaurice's Shelburne; Macmillan's Magazine, xxxv. 109 (1877); Gent. Mag. 1802 pt. ii. 694, 1817 pt. ii. 131.]
BARRE, RICHARD (fl. 1170–1202), ecclesiastic and judge, acted as the envoy of Henry II to the papal court, both shortly before and immediately after the murder of Thomas Becket. On the first occasion he was the bearer of a haughty and even minatory message from the king demanding that the pope should absolve all those who had been excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The mission, it need hardly be said, failed of its object. The letter from Alexander III to the Archbishop of York, which Foss connects with it, is without a date, and its authenticity, as well as the date to which, if authentic, it should be assigned, has been the subject of much controversy, both questions being still unsettled. On the second occasion Barre was despatched in company with the Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Evreux and Worcester, and others of the clergy, to express to the pope the king's horror and detestation of the murder. The Archbishop of Rouen got no further than Normandy, falling ill by the way, and Barre was sent forward to Italy alone. On reaching Tusculanum he was refused audience by the pope; but on the arrival of others of his party two, ‘qui minus habebantur suspecti,’ were admitted, and in the end the embassy was successful in averting the impending excommunication. Barre was entrusted with the custody of the great seal on the coronation of the heir apparent in 1170, but on the revolt of the prince in 1173 he offered to surrender it to the king, disclaiming all allegiance to his son. Henry, however, refused to receive him. Barre probably succeeded Richard de Ely, otherwise FitzNeale, as archdeacon of Ely in 1184. However this may be, he is known to have held that post between 1191 and 1196. He was appointed one of the justices of the king's court at Westminster 1195–6, and his name is found as one of those before whom fines were levied there as late as the beginning of the reign of King John. In the third year of that reign he acted as one of the coadjutors of Geoffrey FitzPiers in the business of levying amerciaments in Leicestershire.
[Rymer's Fœdera, i. 29; Matthew Paris's Majora, ii. 248–9; Chronicle of the Reigns of Henry II and Rich. I (Stubbs), i. 20–2; Le Neve, i. 350; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. 5; Fines (Hunter), 1–4; Rot. Cancell. (Hardy), p. 14, Pref. p. x.]
BARRÉ, WILLIAM VINCENT (1760?–1829), author, was born in Germany about the year 1760 of French protestant parents, who had left their native country on account of their religious opinions. He served first in the Russian navy, returned to France when the first revolution broke out, went as a volunteer in the army during the Italian campaign of 1796, and was raised to the rank of captain for the bravery he displayed on the field of battle. Through his intimate acquaintance with the principal languages of Europe, he became a favourite of General Bonaparte, who appointed him his personal interpreter. But he wrote some satirical verses about
