advance it by personal labours; of his deserts, in this respect, he has given evident and permanent proofs. The memoirs due to his pen which are inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, are distinguished by clearness of conception and expression, and the directness with which they bear on important practical points. But these memoirs, however interesting, are but a poor representation of what astronomers and other cognate inquirers owe to him. When governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas established an observatory at Paramatta at his own expense, associating with himself Mr. Rumker and Mr. Dunlop. The catalogue of southern stars furnished by it is well known, and is the more valuable as being one of the very few records yet attainable of the condition of the Southern skies. The observatory of Paramatta, was, with a liberality as rare as estimable, presented by its founder to the British government. On Sir Thomas's return to this country, he built another observatory at his seat, Makerstoun on the banks of the Tweed; and with due regard to the wants of the moment, he furnished it with special reference to the pursuit of magnetical and meteorological research. Ably seconded by his assistant Mr. Broun, he produced several volumes of most valuable observations, by means of which (although the circumstance has been overlooked) the existence of a magnetic irregularity dependent on the periods of the moon, was established unquestionably for the first time. His interest in the progress of knowledge never wavered or diminished; appealed to on behalf of any good and attainable object, he was ever ready to aid by his purse and by his influence. He long occupied the chair of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and worthily fulfilled a varied life, whose long and honourable course was never approached by the shadow of a stain. He married, in 1819, Anna, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Makdougall. At his death he was the third senior general on the army list.—J. P. N.
BRISSAC, Louis-Hercule-Timoleon de Cosse, duc de, peer of France, governor of Paris; born Feb. 14, 1734; was nominated in 1791 commandant-general of the king's constitutional guard, and massacred at Versailles during the revolutionary horrors of September, 1792. He defended himself bravely against his assassins. He was a loyal and devoted servant of Louis XVI. Delille has celebrated his virtues and his death in the Poëme de la Pitié.
BRISSEAU, Pierre, a French physician of the seventeenth century, born at Paris in 1631; died in 1717. His most important work is a "Traité de la cataracte et du glaucoma," Tournay, 1704 and 1708; Paris, 1709; in which he proves that the seat of cataract is in the crystalline lens. It was published a year before the work of Antoine Maitre-Jean, who is generally stated to be the discoverer of the cause of this disease.
BRISSON, Barnabé, a French magistrate and jurist, reputed one of the most learned men of his time, born in 1531; was successively advocate-general and president à mortier of the parliament of Paris in the reign of Henry III. He was latterly raised to the dignity of privy councillor, and intrusted with several important embassies, particularly to the English court. On the institution of the commission called the Chamber Royal, for the hearing of cases of treason so common in the reign of Henry III., he was named president by the king, who took occasion to say of him, that no prince in Europe could boast of so learned a subject as Brisson. After the famous day of the Barricades, Brisson fell under the power of the party of the League, and either deliberately, or of necessity, turned traitor to the king. He shortly afterwards, however, became suspected by the tyrannical club called the Sixteen, who arrested him one morning at nine o'clock, as he was going to the palace, had him confessed at ten, and hung at eleven (1591). Brisson is the author of the collection of statutes called the Code of Henry III., of "De Regio Persarum Principatu," and of "Observationum divini et humani juris liber."—J. S., G.
BRISSON, Matturin Jacques, a distinguished French naturalist and physicist, was born in 1723 at Fontenay le Peuple in Poitou. He was a pupil of Réaumur, whom he assisted in his investigations, and his connection with that great philosopher soon obtained him the position of professor of physics at the college of Navarre in Paris, where he was instrumental in introducing the use of the lightning-conductor, then a new invention. In 1795 he was appointed professor of physics in the central schools, and at the Bonaparte lyceum. He died in 1806 at Broissi, near Versailles. Of the writings of Brisson, those on physics, although of great importance in his day, are now but little valued. His reputation rests principally on his natural history writings, especially his "Ornithologia, sive synopsis methodica sistens avium divisionem in ordines," &c., Paris, 1760, in six volumes, illustrated with 26 coloured plates. In this work Brisson describes about 1500 species of birds, arranged according to a modification of the system of Linnæus. His "Règne animal divisé en neuf classes," 1756, contains only the quadrupeds and cetacea, so that the "Ornithologia" may be regarded as a continuation of it. Brisson's arrangement of animals into nine classes, is in many repects far in advance of the sixth edition of the Systema Naturæ of Linnæus; and it is not improbable that, in his later editions, the great Swedish naturalist borrowed some ideas of classification from the French writer. Brisson's nine classes are—I. Quadrupeds; II. Cetacea (of these animals, since more correctly placed in the same order with the quadrupeds, Brisson appears to have been the first to perceive the time nature); III. Birds; IV. Reptiles; V. Cartilaginous Fishes; VI. True (or bony) Fishes; VII. Crustacea; VIII. Insects; and IX. Worms. The character of his orders of quadrupeds, eighteen in all, is determined principally by the number and arrangement of the teeth.—W. S. D.
BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, Jean Pierre, the celebrated Girondist politician during the French revolution, was born at Ouarville, near Chartres, January 1, 1764. His father was a wealthy inn-keeper. He manifested early a taste for literature, and with a view to intellectual improvement, travelled in many foreign countries. He became one of the editors of the Courier de l'Europe, printed at Boulogne, the publication of which having been summarily stopped by the government, he removed to England. In 1780 he published "Théorie des Lois Criminelles," 2 vols. 8vo; and in 1782-86, ten volumes of the "Bibliothèque philosophique du législateur, du politique, du jurisconsulte, sur les lois criminelles;" while he took a prominent part in various discussions, having for their object the amelioration of the criminal law. About the same time he issued a work on metaphysics, entitled "De la Verité, ou méditations sur les moyens de parvenir à la vérité dans toutes les connaissances humaines," 8vo, 1782, in which he adopts the opinions of Locke and Condillac. This, and a work on India, and on the state of art and science in England, he prepared while residing in London. Returning to France, his numerous writings, and his indefatigable zeal in the cause of liberalism, made him odious to the government. Some anonymous pamphlets, of which he was not the author, were attributed to his pen, and he was committed to the bastile. His innocence being demonstrated, he was set at liberty. This imprisonment did not conciliate his temper. His "Lettres à Joseph II. sur le droit d'émigration, et sur le loi d'insurrection," published in 1785, maintained the right of insurrection against governments, where the mere good pleasure of the sovereign constitutes the law of the subject. In 1786 appeared his "Lettres Philosophiques sur l'histoire d'Angleterre," 2 vols 8vo. At this time he was the partisan of a limited monarchy, to which he had become attached in his admiration for the English constitution. But he soon became an equally ardent republican, when America presented to him the spectacle of a democratic and federal government. In 1787 he wrote a book, entitled "De la France et des États-Unis, ou de l'importance de la Révolution de l'Amérique pour le bonheur de la France," 1 vol. 8vo. A new anonymous work, attributed to him, now exposed him to a lettre de cachet. He was warned in time, and sought an asylum in England, from which he speedily removed to the United States. The French revolution recalled him to Europe, and he addressed to the members of the states-general a "Plan of policy for the Deputies of the People;" while he conducted a fierce journal, entitled Le Patriote Français. As a reward for his zeal in the cause of democracy, he was nominated one of the first municipal council of Paris; and it was as a member of this body that he received from the destroyers of the bastile, on the memorable 14th of July, the keys of the prison in which he had been formerly confined. Meanwhile, his short sojourn in America had increased his republican fanaticism. Sent to the legislative assembly by the electors of Paris, he became the determined foe of royalty and the court. He was the acknowledged head, counsellor, and guide of that deputation from the Gironde, which the eloquence of Vergniaud, the beauty of Madame Roland, and the calculations of Condorcet, first made famous, and afterwards its crimes and its misfortunes. In the question of the loyalist emigration, Brissot drew a distinction
