next day at twelve o'clock. The ingenuity of his speculations, the subtlety of his analysis, and the poetical glow of his sentiments and language, together with his fine recitation, threw the young men who hung on his lips into raptures; they declared that he had for ever superseded Reid and Stewart, and that he was the greatest philosopher that ever lived. For some years after his appointment to the chair, he had little leisure for engaging in any literary undertaking. In 1814 he published the "Paradise of Coquettes" anonymously; and in succeeding years there appeared the "Wanderer in Norway," 1815; "The War-Fiend," 1816; "Bower of Spring," 1817; "Agnes," 1818; and "Emily," 1819. His poetry has never been generally relished; it is beautifully and artistically written, but it wants time nature and genuine heart. In 1819 he prepared his "Physiology of the Mind," as a text-book for his students, and put it into the press the following winter. By the Christmas of that year he was rather unwell; in spring he removed for the benefit of his health to London, and died at Brompton on April 2nd, 1820. His remains were deposited in the churchyard of Kirkmabreck. We have an admirable biography of him by his pupil and friend, Dr. Welsh, in his Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Brown, M.D., 1825. He was never married; he lived with his mother and his sisters, to whom he was tenderly attached. In his dispositions there was great gentleness, with a tendency to sensitiveness and sentimentality. His manner and address were somewhat fastidious, and appeared a little finical. He was about the middle size, his features were regular, and his expression had a fine combination of sweetness and calm reflection. His lectures were published shortly after his death, and had a popularity in Britain and in the United States, such as no book on mental science had ever attained before. His philosophy has never been much appreciated on the continent, where the transcendentalists find fault with him for not going sufficiently far in one direction, and the sensationalists for not advancing in another. The intellectual qualities which stand forth with greatest prominence in Brown's Lectures are—fondness of analysis, ingenuity in maintaining his positions, clearness in arrangement, felicity of illustration, with a fervid and refined eloquence. As a philosopher, he may be regarded as a sort of combination of the Scottish school of Reid and Stewart, and of the French sensational school. Among the excellencies of his system may be mentioned—his high views of man's nature as a spiritual being; his adherence to the Scottish school in maintaining that man has certain intuitive beliefs, such as that which leads us to believe in cause and effect, and personal identity; his skilful separation of the muscular sense from the sense of touch proper; his happy and acute manner of illustrating the succession of our mental states, and the coexistence of different thoughts and emotions; his classification of the relations which the mind can discover, which is worthy of being looked at; his eloquent exposition of the emotions; and the purity of the moral sentiments inculcated by him. Over against these excellencies we have to place certain glaring defects which have been too frequently pointed out to require particular mention.—J. M'C.
* BROWN, William, merchant, Liverpool, was born at Ballymena, county Antrim, Ireland, in 1784, and educated at Catterick in Yorkshire. About the year 1800, his father, Alexander Brown, removed with his family from Ballymena, where he was engaged in the linen trade, to Baltimore, United States, where he began a similar business. At this time, when about sixteen years of age, William Brown, entered his father's counting-house as a clerk, and a few years afterwards he joined his father and elder brother as a partner in their business. In 1809 he returned to Europe for the purpose of opening a branch establishment in Liverpool, where he married soon after, and has ever since resided. No longer confined to the linen trade, but engaged in general commerce, the branch establishment in England, under Mr. Brown's able management, speedily attained a high position, and the house of Brown, Shipley, & Co., has long been recognized as the leading firm in the American trade. Soon after his settlement in Liverpool, Mr. Brown became extensively engaged in banking transactions, which he also managed with much credit and advantage. Active, public-spirited, and liberal in his views, Mr. Brown has ever been most ready to lend his assistance to every enterprise calculated either to develope industry, or to extend commerce; while his purse has always been open where money could be judiciously applied, either in mitigating the sufferings or extending the privileges of his fellows. In 1825 Mr. Brown took an active share in the reform of the dock estate, a question of vital importance to the town and trade of Liverpool. An earnest and intelligent free trader, Mr. Brown was elected to represent the southern division of Lancashire in that interest in 1845, and he has ever since retained his seat unopposed by any party. With nothing imposing in his manner, and with no pretensions to oratorical talent, the vast mercantile experience and eminent sagacity which recommended him as friend and adviser on commercial affairs to two of the most remarkable statesmen of his time, Huskisson and Peel, secure for Mr. Brown's opinion, on all practical questions, the highest consideration of the house of commons. His parliamentary career has been chiefly distinguished by his zealous advocacy of a system of decimal money, weights, and measures. He moved for and became chairman of a committee on decimal coinage, which issued a conclusive report on that subject in 1853, a report which must, ere long, produce its due effect.—Mr. Brown's charities have been numerous and munificent, but that by which his name will be chiefly remembered, is the gift of a building for a free library and museum for the town and people of Liverpool. This noble building, it is estimated, will cost Mr. Brown not less than from £50,000 to £60,000; a gift truly worthy of a merchant prince. Mr. Brown is now the senior partner of the firm of Brown, Shipley, & Co., Liverpool; member of parliament and deputy-lieutenant for the county of Lancashire, magistrate for the same county, and also for the borough of Liverpool.—W. N.
BROWNE, Alexander, an English surgeon and botanist, lived in the seventeenth century, after whom a genus, Brownia, was named by Linnæus.—J. H. B.
BROWNE, Edward, M.D., son of Sir Thomas Browne, born at Norwich in 1644, entered Trinity college, Cambridge, in 1663, and graduated in medicine at Oxford in 1667. In 1668 he visited Germany, and in the following year made an excursion into Austria, Hungary, and Thessaly. He afterwards spent some time in Italy, and published his travels, which are often referred to for his accounts of mines and metallurgy. The life of Themistocles and that of Sersorius were translated by him, and published in the book known by the name of Dryden's Plutarch. He was physician to Charles II., and was with him at his death. He attended Rochester in his last illness. In 1705 he was chosen president of the College of Physicians. He died in 1708. King Charles said of him—"He was as learned as any of the college, and as well bred as any of the court."—J. A., D.
BROWNE, George, count de, an Irish soldier of fortune, was born on 15th June, 1698. He entered the service of the elector palatine, from which, in 1730, he passed into that of Russia. Here he rapidly advanced, and was engaged against the Poles, the French, and the Turks. His life was one of adventure. He was taken prisoner and sold thrice as a slave. On obtaining his liberty he returned to St. Petersburg, and was promoted to the rank of major-general, and afterwards to that of field-marshal under Peter III. The government of Livonia was next given him, which he held till his death in 1792.
BROWNE, Robert, from whom the separatists, or early English independents, were for some time called Brownists, born in 1549, was the son of Anthony Browne of Tolethorpe in the county of Rutland. He was educated at Cambridge, and whilst yet a young man became head master of the free school, St. Olave's, Southwark, and chaplain to the duke of Norfolk. Having embraced puritanic views, he was, along with several other leading puritans, cited to appear in June, 1571, before the archbishop of Canterbury (Parker) to answer for his opinions; and though his patron, the duke of Norfolk, and his family connections, saved him for this time, the archbishop gave the duke to understand that his influence would not always avail for such a purpose. Subsequently Browne relinquished the middle views of the puritans for those of the separatists. We have his own authority, as reported by Fuller, for stating, that "for preaching against bishops and their courts, the ordaining of priests and the ceremonies, he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noon." In 1580 we find him at Norwich preaching to a Dutch congregation in that city; but shortly after he found it prudent to pass over to Holland, where he and several who accompanied him settled at Middleburg in Zealand. Whilst here he wrote his work on "The Life and Manners of True Christians," in which he advances statements wherein the ecclesiastical
