The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 85

BOYDELL, JOHN, an English engraver and print-seller, famous for his "Shakespeare Gallery," with 96 plates in ill.u.s.tration of Shakespeare, and the encouragement he gave to native artists; he issued also Hume's "History of England," with 196 plates in ill.u.s.tration (1719-1804).

BOYER, BARON, French anatomist and surgeon; attendant on Napoleon, afterwards professor in the University of Paris; wrote works on anatomy and surgical diseases, which continued for long text-books on those subjects; was a man of very conservative opinions (1757-1833).

BOYER, JEAN PIERRE, president of Hayti, born at Port-au-Prince of a negress and a Creole father; secured the independence of the country; held the presidency for 25 years from 1818, but suspected of consulting his own advantage more than that of the country, was driven from power by a revolution in 1843; retired to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life and died (1776-1850).

BOYLE, CHARLES, fourth Earl of Orrery, distinguished for the connection of his name with the Bentley controversy, and for its connection with an astronomical contrivance by one Graham to ill.u.s.trate the planetary system (1676-1731).

BOYLE, RICHARD, first and great Earl of Cork, distinguished among Irish patriots and landlords for what he did to improve his estates and develop manufactures and the mechanical arts in Ireland, also for the honours conferred upon him for his patriotism; when Cromwell saw how his estates were managed he remarked, that had there been one like him in every province in Ireland rebellion would have been impossible (1566-1643).

BOYLE, THE HON. ROBERT, a distinguished natural philosopher, born at Lismore, of the Orrery family; devoted his life and contributed greatly to science, especially chemistry, as well as pneumatics; was one of the originators of the "Royal Society"; being a student of theology, founded by his will an endowment for the "Boyle Lectures" in defence of Christianity against its opponents and rivals; refused the presidents.h.i.+p of the Royal Society, and declined a peerage (1626-1691).

BOYLE LECTURES, the lectures.h.i.+p founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle in 1691, and held for a tenure of three years, the endowment being 50 per annum; the lecturer must deliver eight lectures in defence of Christianity, and some of the most eminent men have held the post.

BOYLE'S LAW, that the volume of a gas is inversely as the pressure.

BOYNE, a river in Ireland, which flows through Meath into the Irish Sea; gives name to the battle in which William III. defeated the forces of James II. on 30th July 1690.

BOZ, a _nom de plume_ under which d.i.c.kens wrote at first, being his nickname when a boy for a little brother.

BOZZY, Johnson's familiar name for Boswell.

BRABANT, in mediaeval times was an important prov. of the Low Countries, inhabitants Dutch, cap. Breda; is now divided between Holland and Belgium. It comprises three provs., the N. or Dutch Brabant; Antwerp, a Belgian prov., inhabitants Flemings, cap. Antwerp; and S. Brabant, also Belgian, inhabitants Walloons, cap. Brussels; the whole mostly a plain.

BRACTON, HENRY DE, an English "justice itinerant," a writer on English law of the 13th century; author of "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae," a "Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England," and the first attempt of the kind; _d_. 1268.

BRADAMANTE, sister to Rinaldo, and one of the heroines in "Orlando Furioso"; had a lance which unhorsed every one it touched.

BRADDOCK, EDWARD, British general, born in Perths.h.i.+re; entered the Coldstream Guards, and became major-general in 1754; commanded a body of troops against the French in America, fell in an attempt to invest Fort Duquesue, and lost nearly all his men (1695-1755).

BRADDON, MISS (Mrs. John Maxwell), a popular novelist, born in London; auth.o.r.ess of "Lady Audley's Secret," "Aurora Floyd," and some 50 other novels; contributed largely to magazines; _b_. 1837.

BRADFORD (216), a Yorks.h.i.+re manufacturing town, on a tributary of the Aire, 9 m. W. of Leeds; it is the chief seat of worsted spinning and weaving in England, and has an important wool market; coal and iron mines are at hand, and iron-works and machinery-making are its other industries.

Also the name of a manufacturing town on the Avon, in Wilts.

BRADLAUGH, CHARLES, a social reformer on secularist lines, born in London; had a chequered career; had for a.s.sociate in the advocacy of his views Mrs. Annie Besant; elected M.P. for Northampton thrice over, but not allowed to sit till he took the oath, which he did in 1886; died respected by all parties in the House of Commons; wrote the "Impeachment of the House of Brunswick" (1833-1891).

BRADLEY, JAMES, astronomer, born in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and astronomer-royal at Greenwich; discovered the aberration of light and the nutation of the earth's axis; made 60,000 astronomical observations (1693-1762).

BRADSHAW, GEORGE, an engraver of maps in Manchester; published maps ill.u.s.trative of certain ca.n.a.l systems, and did the same service for railways, which developed into the well-known "Railway Guide"

(1830-1863).

BRADSHAW, JOHN, president of the High Court of Justice for trial of Charles I., born at Stockport; bred for the bar; a friend of Milton; a thorough republican, and opposed to the Protectorate; became president of the Council on Cromwell's death; was buried in Westminster; his body was exhumed and hung in chains at the Restoration (1586-1659).

BRADWARDIN, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury, surnamed "Doctor Profundus" from his treatise "De Causa Dei" against Pelagianism; chaplain to Edward III.; was present at Crecy and at the taking of Calais; died of the black death shortly after his consecration (1290-1348).

BRADWARDINE, the name of a baron and his daughter, the heroine of "Waverley."

BRAEMAR', a Scottish Highland district SW. of Aberdeens.h.i.+re; much frequented by tourists, and resorted to for summer country quarters.

BRAG, JACK, a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him.

BRAGA (23), a city, 34 m. NE. of Oporto, Portugal; the residence of the Primate; the capital of Minho.

BRAGANZA, capital of Traz-os-Montes, in Portugal; gives name to the ruling dynasty of Portugal, called the House of Braganza, the eighth duke of Braganza having ascended the throne in 1640, on the liberation of Portugal from the yoke of Spain.

BRAGI, the Norse G.o.d of poetry and eloquence, son of Odin and Frigga; represented as an old man with a long flowing beard and unwrinkled brow, with a mild expression of face; received in Valhalla the heroes who fell in battle.

BRAHAM, JOHN, a celebrated tenor singer, the most so in Europe of his day, and known all over Europe; was particularly effective in rendering the national songs; born in London, of Jewish parents; composed operas, which, however, were only dramas interspersed with songs. Scott described him as "a beast of an actor, but an angel of a singer"

(1774-1856).

BRAHe, TYCHO, a Swedish astronomer, of n.o.ble birth; spent his life in the study of the stars; discovered a new star in Ca.s.siopeia; had an observatory provided for him on an island in the Sound by the king, where he made observations for 20 years; he was, on the king's death, compelled to retire under persecution at the hand of the n.o.bles; accepted an invitation of the Kaiser Rudolf II. to Prague, where he continued his work and had Kepler for a.s.sistant and pupil (1546-1601).

BRAHMA, in the Hindu religion and philosophy at one time the formless spirit of the Universe, from which all beings issue and into which they all merge, and as such is not an object of wors.h.i.+p, but a subject of meditation; and at another the creator of all things, of which VISHNU (q.

v.) is the preserver AND SIVA (q. v.) the destroyer, killing that he may make alive. See TRIMURTI.

BRAHMAN, or BRAHMIN, one of the sacred caste of the Hindus that boasts of direct descent from, or immediate relations.h.i.+p with, Brahma, the custodians and mediators of religion, and therefore of high-priestly rank.