at Ipswich in 1592. He became successively scholar and fellow of Pembroke hall, Cambridge. Dr. Felton, bishop of Ely, gave him the rectory of Barley, and in 1621 a prebend in the church of that town. Afterwards he was successively appointed to a prebend at Litchfield and to one at Durham, became archdeacon of Coventry in 1631, was for some time master of Catherine hall, Cambridge, and on the translation of Dr. Hall to the bishopric of Norwich, was raised to the see of Exeter. On the breaking out of the rebellion, although related to Pym and other chiefs of the presbyterian party, he was deprived of the revenues of his bishopric, and appears to have retired for some time to the house of a friend in Berkshire. He is represented to have had the boldness to counsel the Protector to restore Charles II. Shortly before his death, which occurred in 1659, he was chosen preacher at the Temple.—J. S., G.
* BROWNSON, Orestes A., a vigorous and voluminous American writer upon controverted topics in philosophy, theology, and politics, was born in Vermont about 1808. His works have always commanded attention, and some have been even popular, chiefly on account of his felicitous style, which is as clear, forcible, and precise, as that of William Cobbett, though not so easy and idiomatic. Educated a presbyterian, he has been successively a sceptic, a universalist, a unitarian, an episcopalian, a Newmanite, and an earnest Roman catholic of the ultramontane school. For ten years he was an open and thorough radical and socialist; and now, for ten years more, he has preached and advocated such conservatism and such doctrines respecting society and government as Hobbes or Sir Robert Filmer might have envied. His earliest separate publication, 1836, entitled "New Views of Christian Society and the Church," was written while he was minister of a peculiar congregation at Boston, collected by himself, called the Society for Christian Union and Progress. His next work, "Charles Ellwood, or the Infidel Converted," 1840, is a novel in form, but in fact an autobiography and a philosophical essay. From 1838 to 1842 he published five annual volumes, mostly written by himself, entitled the Boston Quarterly Review. Finally, in 1844, he established the periodical which he has continued to the present day, called Brownson's Quarterly Review, and which also has been filled, in great part, by the products of his own pen.—F. B.
BRUAT, Admiral, was born at Colmar in 1796, entered the naval school at Brest in 1811, and having obtained a commission in the French navy, rose through all the intermediate grades of his profession until he became rear-admiral in 1846, vice-admiral in 1852, and full admiral in 1855. In 1853 he took command of the French channel squadron, and in the year following became second in command in the Black Sea. On the return to France of Admiral Hamelin, Admiral Bruat succeeded to the entire command, and co-operated very efficiently with Admiral Sir E. (afterwards Lord) Lyons. He died at sea, Nov. 25, 1855.
BRUCE, the name of a famous Scottish family of Norman origin. Robert de Brus or Bruys, came over to England with William the Conqueror, and was rewarded for his services by a grant of land in Yorkshire. Robert, his son, was the companion in arms of David I. of Scotland at the court of Henry I. of England; and when the Scottish prince succeeded to the throne of his ancestors, in accordance with the enlightened policy which made him encourage the settlement of Normans and Saxons in his new dominions, he bestowed the lordship of Annandale upon his early friend, Robert de Brus. The eldest son of the second Robert carried on the English line of the family, while his younger son became the proper founder of the Scottish branch. His great-grandson married Isabel, second daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion; and their eldest son was Robert de Bruce, the competitor with Baliol for the Scottish throne. (See Baliol, John.) His son, also named Robert, married in singular and romantic circumstances, a young and beautiful widow, only child of Nigel, earl of Carrick, and Margaret, a daughter of Walter, the High-Steward of Scotland, and thus added largely to the estates and feudal influence of the family. Of this union—
Bruce, Robert, the restorer of Scottish independence, was the first-fruit. He was born on the 21st of March, 1274—the year in which Edward I. of England was crowned. His early years were, in all probability, passed at the castle of Turnberry, the residence of his mother; but his father afterwards placed him at the English court, and he was trained by Edward himself in the exercises of war and chivalry. After the contest for the Scottish crown was decided in favour of Baliol, the elder Bruce and his son, the earl of Carrick, indignantly refused to do homage to the new monarch. The grandson of the competitor for the throne, then a youth of eighteen, was therefore invested with the family estates in Annandale, and the title of earl of Carrick, and did homage to John Baliol as his lawful sovereign. The elder Bruce died at his castle of Lochmaben in 1295; his son survived till 1304, and on his death the immense English estates of the family were inherited by the earl of Carrick, who had then attained the age of thirty. The career of Bruce had hitherto displayed nothing either of lofty principle or of pure patriotism. In 1296, indeed, he joined Wallace and the few patriotic barons who were in arms for the independence of their country; and in 1299, after Wallace had resigned the regency, he and John Comyn of Badenoch, and Lamberton, bishop of Glasgow, were elected joint-regents of the kingdom. But the attempt to reconcile the rival factions of Bruce and Baliol proved unsuccessful, and some time previous to the battle of Roslin, which was fought in 1302, Bruce made his peace with Edward, and throughout the remainder of the struggle continued faithful to the English party, and appears to have been treated with great confidence by Edward. At this period Bruce, though he had by no means relinquished his pretensions to the Scottish throne, could not urge his claims with any hope of success. Scotland lay completely prostrate under the power of the English monarch, and the patriotic cause seemed utterly ruined. Wallace and his associates were strenuous supporters of the claims of Baliol, and after the submission of that luckless prince, the hopes of his party and friends centered in John Comyn, his nephew, who, by the decision of Edward, had in succession a clear right to the Scottish crown. The families of Bruce and Comyn were, therefore, with the exception of one brief interval, ranged on opposite sides; and the movements of both during the earlier part of the war of independence were regulated rather by a regard to their selfish interests than to the good of the country. At the close of the struggle in 1304, Comyn, who had continued his resistance for some time after Bruce's submission, fell under the deep displeasure of the English king, and was punished by a heavy fine, while Bruce stood high in favour with Edward, and was regarded as the most powerful man in Scotland. His sole reward, however, for his submission to the English monarch was to be employed as a commissioner, along with Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, and Sir John de Mowbray, in framing regulations for the future government of that kingdom which he had hoped to obtain for himself.
Disappointed in his long-cherished expectations. Bruce at this juncture resolved to adopt other measures for the vindication of his own rights, and the restoration of his country's freedom. He now entered, 11th June, 1305, into a secret bond with William de Lamberton, bishop of St. Andrews, by which they bound themselves to make common cause in resisting the enemies of their country. This league was joined by the earl of Strathern, the bishop of Moray, and various other barons and prelates, and ultimately Bruce revealed the conspiracy to his rival, Comyn, and sought to secure his services in achieving the independence of Scotland. With the view of adjusting their rival claims and combining their strength, Bruce offered to support the title of Comyn to the crown on receiving as the reward of his aid the extensive estates of that noble, or, as an alternative, proposed to make over all his possessions to Comyn, on condition that he would bind himself to support Bruce's claim to the throne. To this last alternative Comyn readily assented, and the contract was secretly and solemnly ratified, each party retaining a copy of the bond. But Comyn, who hated Bruce, resolved to avail himself of this opportunity to ruin his rival, and transmitted to Edward information respecting the conspiracy, together with certain letters which afforded decisive evidence of Bruce's guilt. The earl of Carrick, unsuspicious of danger, was residing at the English court, and without hesitation attended a parliament which Edward at that time convoked. On being shown the bond which Comyn had transmitted, and asked if he knew the seal, he at once denounced the deed as a forgery, and offered to prove this if allowed sufficient time to send for his real seal. Edward, either staggered by Bruce's coolness and air of injured innocence, or desirous to get into his power the other members of his family, acceded to his request, and allowed him to leave the parliament for the purpose of procuring the materials for his
