Chapter XII: Part 12

BRIGHT, JOHN (1811-1889), British statesman, was born at Rochdale on the 16th of November 1811. His father, Jacob Bright, was a much-respected Quaker, who had started a cottonmill at Rochdale in 1809. The family had reached Lancashire by two migrations. Abraham Bright was a Wiltshire yeoman, who, early in the 18th century, removed to Coventry, where his descendants remained, and where, in 1775, Jacob Bright was born. Jacob Bright was educated at the Ackworth school of the Society of Friends, and was apprenticed to a fustian manufacturer at New Mills. He married his employer's daughter, and settled with his two brothers-in-law at Rochdale in 1802, going into business for himself seven years later. His first wife died without children, and in 1809 he married Martha Wood, daughter of a tradesman of Bolton-le-Moors. She had been educated at Ackworth school, and was a woman of great strength of character and refined taste. There were eleven children of this marriage, of whom John Bright was the second, but the death of his elder brother in childhood made him the eldest son. He was a delicate child, and was sent as a day-scholar to a boarding-school near his home, kept by Mr William Littlewood. A year at the Ackworth school, two years at a school at York, and a year and a half at Newton, near Clitheroe, completed his education. He learned, he himself said, but little Latin and Greek, but acquired a great love of English literature, which his mother fostered, and a love of outdoor pursuits. In his sixteenth year he entered his father's mill, and in due time became a partner in the business. Two agitations were then going on in Rochdale--the first (in which Jacob Bright was a leader) in opposition to a local [v.04 p.0567] church-rate, and the second for parliamentary reform, by which Rochdale successfully claimed to have a member allotted to it under the Reform Bill. In both these movements John Bright took part. He was an ardent Nonconformist, proud to number among his ancestors John Gratton, a friend of George Fox, and one of the persecuted and imprisoned preachers of the Society of Friends. His political interest was probably first kindled by the Preston election in 1830, in which Lord Stanley, after a long struggle, was defeated by "Orator" Hunt. But it was as a member of the Rochdale Juvenile Temperance Band that he first learned public speaking. These young men went out into the villages, borrowed a chair of a cottager, and spoke from it at open-air meetings. In Mrs John Mills's life of her husband is an account of John Bright's first extempore speech. It was at a temperance meeting. Bright got his notes muddled, and broke down. The chairman gave out a temperance song, and during the singing told Bright to put his notes aside and say what came into his mind. Bright obeyed, began with much hesitancy, but found his tongue and made an excellent address. On some early occasions, however, he committed his speech to memory. In 1832 he called on the Rev. John Aldis, an eminent Baptist minister, to accompany him to a local Bible meeting. Mr Aldis described him as a slender, modest young gentleman, who surprised him by his intelligence and thoughtfulness, but who seemed nervous as they walked to the meeting together. At the meeting he made a stimulating speech, and on the way home asked for advice. Mr Aldis counselled him not to learn his speeches, but to write out and commit to memory certain passages and the peroration. Bright took the advice, and acted on it all his life.

This "first lesson in public speaking," as Bright called it, was given in his twenty-first year, but he had not then contemplated entering on a public career. He was a fairly prosperous man of business, very happy in his home, and always ready to take part in the social, educational and political life of his native town. He was one of the founders of the Rochdale Literary and Philosophical Society, took a leading part in its debates, and on returning from a holiday journey in the East, gave the society a lecture on his travels. He first met Richard Cobden in 1836 or 1837. Cobden was an alderman of the newly formed Manchester corporation, and Bright went to ask him to speak at an education meeting in Rochdale. "I found him," said Bright, "in his office in Mosley Street, introduced myself to him, and told him what I wanted." Cobden consented, and at the meeting was much struck by Bright's short speech, and urged him to speak against the Corn Laws. His first speech on the Corn Laws was made at Rochdale in 1838, and in the same year he joined the Manchester provisional committee which in 1839 founded the Anti-Corn Law League He was still only the local public man, taking part in all public movements, especially in opposition to John Feilden's proposed factory legislation, and to the Rochdale church-rate. In 1839 he built the house which he called "One Ash," and married Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Priestman of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In November of the same year there was a dinner at Bolton to Abraham Paulton, who had just returned from a successful Anti-Corn Law tour in Scotland. Among the speakers were Cobden and Bright, and the dinner is memorable as the first occasion on which the two future leaders appeared together on a Free Trade platform. Bright is described by the historian of the League as "a young man then appearing for the first time in any meeting out of his own town, and giving evidence, by his energy and by his grasp of the subject, of his capacity soon to take a leading part in the great agitation." But his call had not yet come. In 1840 he led a movement against the Rochdale church-rate, speaking from a tombstone in the churchyard, where it looks down on the town in the valley below. A very happy married life at home contented him, and at the opening of the Free Trade hall in January 1840 he sat with the Rochdale deputation, undistinguished in the body of the meeting. A daughter, Helen, was born to him; but his young wife, after a long illness, died of consumption in September 1841. Three days after her death at Leamington, Cobden called to see him. "I was in the depths of grief," said Bright, when unveiling the statue of his friend at Bradford in 1877, "I might almost say of despair, for the life and sunshine of my house had been extinguished." Cobden spoke some words of condolence, but after a time he looked up and said, 'There are thousands of homes in England at this moment where wives, mothers and children are dying of hunger. Now, when the first paroxysm of your grief is past, I would advise you to come with me, and we will never rest till the Corn Laws are repealed.' "I accepted his invitation," added Bright, "and from that time we never ceased to labour hard on behalf of the resolution which we had made." At the general election in 1841 Cobden was returned for Stockport, and in 1843 Bright was the Free Trade candidate at a by-election at Durham. He was defeated, but his successful competitor was unseated on petition, and at the second contest Bright was returned. He was already known in the country as Cobden's chief ally, and was received in the House of Commons with a suspicion and hostility even greater than had met Cobden himself. In the Anti-Corn Law movement the two speakers were the complements and correlatives of each other. Cobden had the calmness and confidence of the political philosopher, Bright had the passion and the fervour of the popular orator. Cobden did the reasoning, Bright supplied the declamation, but like Demosthenes he mingled argument with appeal. No orator of modern times rose more rapidly to a foremost place. He was not known beyond his own borough when Cobden called him to his side in 1841, and he entered parliament towards the end of the session of 1843 with a formidable reputation as an agitator. He had been all over England and Scotland addressing vast meetings and, as a rule, carrying them with him; he had taken a leading part in a conference held by the Anti-Corn Law League in London, had led deputations to the duke of Sussex, to Sir James Graham, then home secretary, and to Lord Ripon and Mr Gladstone, the secretary and under secretary of the Board of Trade; and he was universally recognized as the chief orator of the Free Trade movement. Wherever "John Bright of Rochdale" was announced to speak, vast crowds assembled. He had been so announced, for the last time, at the first great meeting in Drury Lane theatre on 15th March 1843; henceforth his name was enough. He took his seat in the House of Commons as one of the members for Durham on 28th July 1843, and on 7th August delivered his maiden speech in support of a motion by Mr Ewart for reduction of import duties. He was there, he said, "not only as one of the representatives of the city of Durham, but also as one of the representatives of that benevolent organization, the Anti-Corn Law League." A member who heard the speech described Bright as "about the middle size, rather firmly and squarely built, with a fair, clear complexion, and an intelligent and pleasing expression of countenance. His voice is good, his enunciation distinct, and his delivery free from any unpleasant peculiarity or mannerism." He wore the usual Friend's coat, and was regarded with much interest and hostile curiosity on both sides of the House.

Mr Ewart's motion was defeated, but the movement of which Cobden and Bright were the leaders continued to spread. In the autumn the League resolved to raise £100,000; an appeal was made to the agricultural interest by great meetings in the farming counties, and in November _The Times_ startled the world by declaring, in a leading article, "The League is a great fact. It would be foolish, nay, rash, to deny its importance." In London great meetings were held in Covent Garden theatre, at which William Johnson Fox was the chief orator, but Bright and Cobden were the leaders of the movement. Bright publicly deprecated the popular tendency to regard Cobden and himself as the chief movers in the agitation, and Cobden told a Rochdale audience that he always stipulated that he should speak first, and Bright should follow. His "more stately genius," as Mr John Morley calls it, was already making him the undisputed master of the feelings of his audiences. In the House of Commons his progress was slower. Cobden's argumentative speeches were regarded more sympathetically than Bright's more rhetorical appeals, and in a debate on Villiers's annual motion against the Corn Laws Bright was heard with so much impatience that [v.04 p.0568] he was obliged to sit down. In the next session (1845) he moved for an inquiry into the operation of the Game Laws. At a meeting of county members earlier in the day Peel had advised them not to be led into discussion by a violent speech from the member for Durham, but to let the committee be granted without debate. Bright was not violent, and Cobden said that he did his work admirably, and won golden opinions from all men. The speech established his position in the House of Commons. In this session Bright and Cobden came into opposition, Cobden voting for the Maynooth Grant and Bright against it. On only one other occasion--a vote for South Kensington--did they go into opposite lobbies, during twenty-five years of parliamentary life. In the autumn of 1845 Bright retained Cobden in the public career to which Cobden had invited him four years before. Bright was in Scotland when a letter came from Cobden announcing his determination, forced on him by business difficulties, to retire from public work. Bright replied that if Cobden retired the mainspring of the League was gone. "I can in no degree take your place," he wrote. "As a second I can fight, but there are incapacities about me, of which I am fully conscious, which prevent my being more than second in such a work as we have laboured in." A few days later he set off for Manchester, posting in that wettest of autumns through "the rain that rained away the Corn Laws," and on his arrival got his friends together, and raised the money which tided Cobden over the emergency. The crisis of the struggle had come. Peel's budget in 1845 was a first step towards Free Trade. The bad harvest and the potato disease drove him to the repeal of the Corn Laws, and at a meeting in Manchester on 2nd July 1846 Cobden moved and Bright seconded a motion dissolving the league. A library of twelve hundred volumes was presented to Bright as a memorial of the struggle.

Bright married, in June 1847, Miss Margaret Elizabeth Leatham, of Wakefield, by whom he had seven children, Mr John Albert Bright being the eldest. In the succeeding July he was elected for Manchester, with Mr Milner Gibson, without a contest. In the new parliament, as in the previous session, he opposed legislation restricting the hours of labour, and, as a Nonconformist, spoke against clerical control of national education. In 1848 he voted for Hume's household suffrage motion, and introduced a bill for the repeal of the Game Laws. When Lord John Russell brought forward his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, Bright opposed it as "a little, paltry, miserable measure," and foretold its failure. In this parliament he spoke much on Irish questions. In a speech in favour of the government bill for a rate in aid in 1849, he won loud cheers from both sides, and was complimented by Disraeli for having sustained the reputation of that assembly. From this time forward he had the ear of the House, and took effective part in the debates. He spoke against capital punishment, against church-rates, against flogging in the army, and against the Irish Established Church. He supported Cobden's motion for the reduction of public expenditure, and in and out of parliament pleaded for peace. In the election of 1852 he was again returned for Manchester on the principles of free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. But war was in the air, and the most impassioned speeches he ever delivered were addressed to this parliament in fruitless opposition to the Crimean War. Neither the House nor the country would listen. "I went to the House on Monday," wrote Macaulay in March 1854, "and heard Bright say everything I thought." His most memorable speech, the greatest he ever made, was delivered on the 23rd of February 1855. "The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land. You may almost hear the beating of his wings," he said, and concluded with an appeal to the prime minister that moved the House as it had never been moved within living memory. There was a tremor in Bright's voice in the touching parts of his great speeches which stirred the feelings even of hostile listeners. It was noted for the first time in this February speech, but the most striking instance was in a speech on Mr Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill in April 1875, in which he described a Quaker funeral, and protested against the "miserable superstition of the phrase 'buried like a dog.'" "In that sense," he said, "I shall be buried like a dog, and all those with whom I am best acquainted, whom I best love and esteem, will be 'buried like a dog.' Nay more, my own ancestors, who in past time suffered persecution for what is now held to be a righteous cause, have all been buried like dogs, if that phrase is true." The tender, half-broken tones in which these words were said, the inexpressible pathos of his voice and manner, were never forgotten by those who heard that Wednesday morning speech.

Bright was disqualified by illness during the whole of 1856 and 1857. In Palmerston's penal dissolution in the latter year, Bright was rejected by Manchester, but in August, while ill and absent, Birmingham elected him without a contest. He returned to parliament in 1858, and in February seconded the motion which threw out Lord Palmerston's government. Lord Derby thereupon came into office for the second time, and Bright had the satisfaction of assisting in the passing of two measures which he had long advocated--the admission of Jews to parliament and the transfer of the government of India from the East India Company to the crown. He was now restored to full political activity, and in October addressed his new constituents, and started a movement for parliamentary reform. He spoke at great gatherings at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bradford and Manchester, and his speeches filled the papers. For the next nine years he was the protagonist of Reform. Towards the close of the struggle he told the House of Commons that a thousand meetings had been held, that at every one the doors were open for any man to enter, yet that an almost unanimous vote for reform had been taken. In the debates on the Reform Bills submitted to the House of Commons from 1859. to 1867, Bright's was the most influential voice. He rebuked Lowe's "Botany Bay view," and described Horsman as retiring to his "cave of Adullam," and hooking in Lowe. "The party of two," he said, "reminds me of the Scotch terrier, which was so covered with hair that you could not tell which was the head and which was the tail." These and similar phrases, such as the excuse for withdrawing the Reform Bill in the year of the great budget of 1860--"you cannot get twenty wagons at once through Temple Bar"--were in all men's mouths. It was one of the triumphs of Bright's oratory that it constantly produced these popular cries. The phrase "a free breakfast table" was his; and on the rejection of Forster's Compensation for Disturbance Bill he used the phrase as to Irish discontent, "Force is not a remedy."

During his great reform agitation Bright had vigorously supported Cobden in the negotiations for the treaty of commerce with France, and had taken, with his usual vehemence, the side of the North in the discussions in England on the American Civil War. In March 1865 Cobden died, and Bright told the House of Commons he dared not even attempt to express the feelings which oppressed him, and sat down overwhelmed with grief. Their friendship was one of the most characteristic features of the public life of their time. "After twenty years of intimate and almost brotherly friendship with him," said Bright, "I little knew how much I loved him till I had lost him." In June 1865 parliament was dissolved, and Bright was returned for Birmingham without opposition. Palmerston's death in the early autumn brought Lord John Russell into power, and for the first time Bright gave his support to the government. Russell's fourth Reform Bill was introduced, was defeated by the Adullamites, and the Derby-Disraeli ministry was installed. Bright declared Lord Derby's accession to be a declaration of war against the working classes, and roused the great towns in the demand for reform. Bright was the popular hero of the time. As a political leader the winter of 1866-1867 was the culminating point in his career. The Reform Bill was carried with a clause for minority representation, and in the autumn of 1868 Bright, with two Liberal colleagues, was again returned for Birmingham. Mr Gladstone came into power with a programme of Irish reform in church and land such as Bright had long urged, and he accepted the post of president of the Board of Trade. He thus became a member of the privy council, with the title of Right Honourable, and from this time forth was a recognized leader of the Liberal party in parliament and in the country. He made a great speech [v.04 p.0569] on the second reading of the Irish Church Bill, and wrote a letter on the House of Lords, in which he said, "In harmony with the nation they may go on for a long time, but throwing themselves athwart its course they may meet with accidents not pleasant for them to think of." He also spoke strongly in the same session in favour of the bill permitting marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The next session found him disqualified by a severe illness, which caused his retirement from office at the end of the year, and kept him out of public life for four years. In August 1873 Mr Gladstone reconstructed his cabinet, and Bright returned to it as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. But his hair had become white, and though he spoke again with much of his former vigour, he was now an old man. In the election in January 1874 Bright and his colleagues were returned for Birmingham without opposition. When Mr Gladstone resigned the leadership of his party in 1875, Bright was chairman of the party meeting which chose Lord Hartington as his successor. He took a less prominent part in political discussion till the Eastern Question brought Great Britain to the verge of war with Russia, and his old energy flamed up afresh. In the debate on the vote of credit in February 1878, he made one of his impressive speeches, urging the government not to increase the difficulties manufacturers had in finding employment for their workpeople by any single word or act which could shake confidence in business. The debate lasted five days. On the fifth day a telegram from Mr Layard was published announcing that the Russians were nearing Constantinople. The day, said _The Times_, "was crowded with rumours, alarms, contradictions, fears, hopes, resolves, uncertainties." In both Houses Mr Layard's despatch was read, and in the excited Commons Mr Forster's resolution opposing the vote of credit was withdrawn. Bright, however, distrusted the ambassador at the Porte, and gave reasons for doubting the alarming telegram. While he was speaking a note was put into the hands of Sir Stafford Northcote, and when Bright sat down he read it to the House. It was a confirmation from the Russian prime minister of Bright's doubts: "There is not a word of truth in the rumours which have reached you." At the general election in 1880 he was re-elected at Birmingham, and joined Mr Gladstone's new government as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. For two sessions he spoke and voted with his colleagues, but after the bombardment of the Alexandria forts he left the ministry and never held office again. He felt most painfully the severance from his old and trusted leader, but it was forced on him by his conviction of the danger and impolicy of foreign entanglements. He, however, gave a general support to Mr Gladstone's government. In 1883 he took the chair at a meeting of the Liberation Society in Mr Spurgeon's chapel; and in June of that year was the object of an unparalleled demonstration at Birmingham to celebrate his twenty-five years of service as its representative. At this celebration he spoke strongly of "the Irish rebel party," and accused the Conservatives of "alliance" with them, but withdrew the imputation when Sir Stafford Northcote moved that such language was a breach of the privileges of the House of Commons. At a banquet to Lord Spencer he accused the Irish members of having "exhibited a boundless sympathy for criminals and murderers." He refused in the House of Commons to apologise for these words, and was supported in his refusal by both sides of the House. At the Birmingham election in 1885 he stood for the central division of the redistributed constituency; he was opposed by Lord Randolph Churchill, but was elected by a large majority. In the new parliament he voted against the Home Rule Bill, and it was generally felt that in the election of 1886 which followed its defeat, when he was re-elected without opposition, his letters told with fatal effect against the Home Rule Liberals. His contribution to the discussion was a suggestion that the Irish members should form a grand committee to which every Irish bill should go after first reading. The break-up of the Liberal party filled him with gloom. His last speech at Birmingham was on 29th March 1888, at a banquet to celebrate Mr Chamberlain's return from his peace mission to the United States. He spoke of imperial federation as a "dream and an absurdity." In May his illness returned, he took to his bed in October, and died on the 27th of March 1889. He was buried in the graveyard of the meeting-house of the Society of Friends in Rochdale.

Bright had much literary and social recognition in his later years. In 1882 he was elected lord rector of the university of Glasgow, and Dr Dale wrote of his rectorial address: "It was not the old Bright." "I am weary of public speaking," he had told Dr Dale; "my mind is almost a blank." He was given an honorary degree of the university of Oxford in 1886, and in 1888 a statue of him was erected at Birmingham. The 3rd marquess of Salisbury said of him, and it sums up his character as a public man: "He was the greatest master of English oratory that this generation--I may say several generations--has seen.... At a time when much speaking has depressed, has almost exterminated eloquence, he maintained that robust, powerful and vigorous style in which he gave fitting expression to the burning and noble thoughts he desired to utter."

See _The Life and Speeches of the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P_., by George Barnett Smith, 2 vols. 8vo (1881); _The Life of John Bright, M.P._, by John M^cGilchrist, in Cassell's Representative Biographies (1868); _John Bright_, by C.A. Vince (1898); _Speeches on Parliamentary Reform by John Bright, M.P., revised by Himself_ (1866); _Speeches on Questions of Public Policy_, by John Bright, M.P., edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers, 2 vols. 8vo (1868); _Public Addresses_, edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers, 8vo (1879); _Public Letters of the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P._, collected by H.J. Leech (1885).

(P. W. C.)

BRIGHTLINGSEA (pronounced BRITTLESEA), a port and fishing station in the Harwich parliamentary division of Essex, England, on a creek opening from the east shore of the Colne estuary, the terminus of a branch from Colchester of the Great Eastern railway, 62½ m. E.N.E. of London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4501. The Colchester oyster beds are mainly in this part of the Colne, and the oyster fishery is the chief industry. Boat-building is carried on. This is also a favourite yachting centre. The church of All Saints, principally Perpendicular, has interesting monuments and brasses, and a fine lofty tower and west front. Brightlingsea, which appears in Domesday, is a member of the Cinque Port of Sandwich in Kent. Near the opposite shore of the creek is St Osyth's priory, which originated as a nunnery founded by Osyth, a grand-daughter of Penda, king of Mercia, martyred (c. 653) by Norse invaders. A foundation for Augustinian canons followed on the site early in the 12th century. The remains, incorporated with a modern residence, include a late Perpendicular gateway, abbots' tower, clock tower and crypt. The gateway, an embattled structure with flanking turrets, is particularly fine, the entire front being panelled and ornamented with canopied niches. The church of St Osyth, also Perpendicular in the main, is of interest.

BRIGHTON, a watering-place of Bourke county, Victoria, Australia, 7½ m. by rail S.E. of Melbourne, of which it is practically a suburb. It stands on the east shore of Port Phillip, and has two piers, a great extent of sandy beach and numerous beautiful villas. Pop. (1901) 10,029.

BRIGHTON, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Sussex, England, one of the best-known seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, 51 m. S. from London by the London, Brighton & South Coast railway. Pop. (1901) 123,478. Its ready accessibility from the metropolis is the chief factor in its popularity. It is situated on the seaward slope of the South Downs; the position is sheltered from inclement winds, and the climate is generally mild. The sea-front, overlooking the English Channel, stretches nearly 4 m. from Kemp Town on the east to Hove (a separate municipal borough) on the west. Inland, including the suburb of Preston, the town extends some 2 m. The tendency of the currents in the Channel opposite Brighton is to drive the shingle eastward, and encroachments of the sea were frequent and serious until the erection of a massive sea-wall, begun about 1830, 60 ft. high, 23 ft. thick at the base, and 3 ft. at the summit. There are numerous modern churches and chapels, many of them very handsome; and the former parish church of St Nicholas remains, a Decorated structure containing a Norman font and a memorial to the great duke of Wellington. The incumbency of Trinity Chapel was held by the famous [v.04 p.0570] preacher Frederick William Robertson (1847-1853). The town hall and the parochial offices are the principal administrative buildings. Numerous institutions contribute to the entertainment of visitors. Of these the most remarkable is the Pavilion, built as a residence for the prince regent (afterwards George IV.) and remodelled in 1819 by the architect, John Nash, in a grotesque Eastern style of architecture. In 1849 it was purchased by the town for £53,000, and is devoted to various public uses, containing a museum, assembly-rooms and picture-galleries. The detached building, formerly the stables, is converted into a fine concert hall; it is lighted by a vast glazed dome approaching that of St Paul's cathedral, London, in dimensions. There are several theatres and music-halls. The aquarium, the property of the corporation, contains an excellent marine collection, but is also used as a concert hall and winter garden, and a garden is laid out on its roof. The Booth collection of British birds, bequeathed to the corporation by E.T. Booth, was opened in 1893. There are two piers, of which the Palace pier, near the site of the old chain pier (1823), which was washed away in 1896, is near the centre of the town, while the West pier is towards Hove. Preston and Queen's parks are the principal of several public recreation grounds; and the racecourse at Kemp Town is also the property of the town. Educational establishments are numerous, and include Brighton College, which ranks high among English public schools. There are municipal schools of science, technology and art. St Mary's Hall (1836) is devoted to the education of poor clergymen's daughters. Among many hospitals, the county hospital (1828), "open to the sick and lame poor of every country and nation," may be mentioned. There are an extensive mackerel and herring fishery, and motor engineering works. The parliamentary borough, which includes the parish of Hove, returns two members. The county borough was created in 1888. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 14 aldermen and 42 councillors. Area, 2536 acres.

Although there is evidence of Roman and Saxon occupation of the site, the earliest mention of Brighton (Bristelmeston, Brichelmestone, Brighthelmston) is the Domesday Book record that its three manors belonged to Earl Godwin and were held by William de Warenne. Of these, two passed to the priories of Lewes and Michelham respectively, and after the dissolution of the monasteries were subject to frequent sale and division. The third descended to the earls of Arundel, falling to the share of the duke of Norfolk in 1415, and being divided in 1502 between the families of Howard and Berkeley. That Brighton was a large fishing village in 1086 is evident from the rent of 4000 herrings; in 1285 it had a separate constable, and in 1333 it was assessed for a tenth, and fifteenth at £5:4:6¾, half the assessment of Shoreham. In 1340 there were no merchants there, only tenants of lands, but its prosperity increased during the 15th and 16th centuries, and it was assessed at £6:12:8 in 1534. There is, however, no indication that it was a borough. In 1580 commissioners sent to decide disputes between the fishermen and landsmen found that from time immemorial Brighton had been governed by two head boroughs sitting in the borough court, and assisted by a council called the Twelve. This constitution disappeared before 1772, when commissioners were appointed. Brighton refused a charter offered by George, prince of Wales, but was incorporated in 1854. It had become a parliamentary borough in 1832. From a fishing town in 1656 it became a fashionable resort in 1756; its popularity increased after the visit of the prince of Wales (see GEORGE IV.) to the duke of Cumberland in 1783, and was ensured by his building the Pavilion in 1784-1787, and his adoption of it as his principal residence; and his association with Mrs Fitzherbert at Brighton was the starting-point of its fashionable repute.

See _Victoria County History--Sussex; Sussex Archaeological Society Transactions_, vol. ii.; L. Melville, _Brighton, its History, its Follies and its Fashions_ (London, 1909).

BRIGHT'S DISEASE, a term in medicine applied to a class of diseases of the kidneys (acute and chronic nephritis) which have as their most prominent symptom the presence of albumen in the urine, and frequently also the coexistence of dropsy. These associated symptoms in connexion with kidney disease were first described in 1827 by Dr Richard Bright (1789-1858). Since that period it has been established that the symptoms, instead of being, as was formerly supposed, the result of one form of disease of the kidneys, may be dependent on various morbid conditions of those organs (see KIDNEY DISEASES). Hence the term Bright's disease, which is retained in medical nomenclature in honour of Dr Bright, must be understood as having a generic application.

The symptoms are usually of a severe character. Pain in the back, vomiting and febrile disturbance commonly usher in the attack. Dropsy, varying in degree from slight puffiness of the face to an accumulation of fluid sufficient to distend the whole body, and to occasion serious embarrassment to respiration, is a very common accompaniment. The urine is reduced in quantity, is of dark, smoky or bloody colour, and exhibits to chemical reaction the presence of a large amount of albumen, while, under the microscope, blood corpuscles and casts, as above mentioned, are found in abundance.

This state of acute inflammation may by its severity destroy life, or, short of this, may by continuance result in the establishment of one of the chronic forms of Bright's disease. On the other hand an arrest of the inflammatory action frequently occurs, and this is marked by the increased amount of the urine, and the gradual disappearance of its albumen and other abnormal constituents; as also by the subsidence of the dropsy and the rapid recovery of strength.

In the treatment of acute Bright's disease, good results are often obtained from local depletion, from warm baths and from the careful employment of diuretics and purgatives. Chronic Bright's disease is much less amenable to treatment, but by efforts to maintain the strength and improve the quality of the blood by strong nourishment, and at the same time by guarding against the risks of complications, life may often be prolonged in comparative comfort, and even a certain measure of improvement be experienced.

BRIGNOLES, a town in the department of Var in the S.E. of France, 36 m. by rail N. of Toulon. Pop. (1906) 3639. It is built at a height of 754 ft. above the sea-level, in a fertile valley, and on the right bank of the Carami river. It contains the old summer palace of the counts of Provence, and has an active trade, especially in prunes, known as _prunes de Brignoles_. Its old name was _Villa Puerorum_, as the children of the counts of Provence were often brought up here. It was sacked on several occasions during the religious wars in the 16th century. Twelve miles to the N.W. is St Maximin (with a fine medieval church), which is one of the best starting-points for the most famous pilgrimage resort in Provence, the Sainte Baume, wherein St Mary Magdalene is said to have taken refuge. This is 20 m. distant by road.

(W. A. B. C.)

BRIHASPATI, or BRAHMANASPATI ("god of strength"), a deity of importance in early Hindu mythology. In the Rigveda he is represented as the god of prayer, aiding Indra in his conquest of the cloud-demon, and at times appears to be identified with Agni, god of fire. He is the offspring of Heaven and Earth, the two worlds; is the inspirer of prayer and the guide and protector of the pious. He is pictured as having seven mouths, a hundred wings and horns and is armed with bow and arrows and an axe. He rides in a chariot drawn by red horses. In the later scriptures he is represented as a Rishi or seer.

See A.A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_ (Strassburg, 1897).

BRIL, PAUL (1554-1626), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp. The success of his elder brother Matthew (1550-1584) in the Vatican induced him to go to Rome to live. On the death of Matthew, Paul, who far surpassed him as an artist, succeeded to his pensions and employments. He painted landscapes with a depth of chiaroscuro then little practised in Italy, and introduced into them figures well drawn and finely coloured. One of his best compositions is the "Martyrdom of St Clement," in the Sala Clementina of the Vatican.

BRILL, the name given to a flat-fish (_Psetta laevis_, or _Rhombus laevis_) which is a species closely related to the turbot, differing [v.04 p.0571] from it in having very small scales, being smaller in size, having no bony tubercules in the skin, and being reddish in colour. It abounds on parts of the British coast, and is only less favoured for the table than the turbot itself.

BRILLAT-SAVARIN, ANTHELME (1755-1826), French gastronomist, was born at Belley, France, on the 1st of April 1755. In 1789 he was a deputy, in 1793 mayor of Belley. To escape proscription he fled from France to Switzerland, and went thence to the United States, where he played in the orchestra of a New York theatre. On the fall of Robespierre he returned to France, and in 1797 became a member of the court of cassation. He wrote various volumes on political economy and law, but his name is famous for his _Physiologie du goût_, a compendium of the art of dining. Many editions of this work have been published. Brillat-Savarin died in Paris on the 2nd of February 1826.

BRIMSTONE, the popular name of sulphur (_q.v._), particularly of the commercial "roll sulphur." The word means literally "burning stone"; the first part being formed from the stem of the Mid. Eng. _brennen_, to burn. Earlier forms of the word are _brenstone_, _bernstone_, _brynstone,_ &c.

BRIN, BENEDETTO (1833-1898), Italian naval administrator, was born at Turin on the 17th of May 1833, and until the age of forty worked with distinction as a naval engineer. In 1873 Admiral Saint-Bon, minister of marine, appointed him under-secretary of state. The two men completed each other; Saint-Bon conceived a type of ship, Brin made the plans and directed its construction. On the advent of the Left to power in 1876, Brin was appointed minister of marine by Depretis, a capacity in which he continued the programme of Saint-Bon, while enlarging and completing it in such way as to form the first organic scheme for the development of the Italian fleet. The huge warships "Italia" and "Dandolo" were his work, though he afterwards abandoned their type in favour of smaller and faster vessels of the "Varese" and the "Garibaldi" class. By his initiative Italian naval industry, almost non-existent in 1873, made rapid progress. During his eleven years' ministry (1876-1878 with Depretis, 1884-1891 with Depretis and Crispi, 1896-1898 with Rudini), he succeeded in creating large private shipyards, engine works and metallurgical works for the production of armour, steel plates and guns. In 1892 he entered the Giolitti cabinet as minister for foreign affairs, accompanying, in that capacity, the king and queen of Italy to Potsdam, but showed weakness towards France on the occasion of the massacre of Italian workmen at Aigues-Mortes. He died on the 24th of May 1898, while minister of marine in the Rudini cabinet. He, more than any other man, must be regarded as the practical creator of the Italian navy.

BRINDABAN, a town of British India, in the Muttra district of the United Provinces, on the right bank of the Jumna, 6 m. N. of Muttra. Pop. (1901) 22,717. Brindaban is one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in India, being associated with the cult of Krishna as a shepherd. It contains bathing-stairs, tanks and wells, and a great number of handsome temples, of which the finest is that of Govind Deva, a cruciform vaulted building of red sandstone, dating from 1590. The town was founded earlier in the same century.

BRINDISI (anc. _Brundisium_, _q.v._), a seaport town and archiepiscopal see of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Lecce, 24 m. N.W. by rail from the town of Lecce, and 346 m. from Ancona. Pop.(1861) 8000; (1871) 13,755; (1901) 25,317. The chief importance of Brindisi is due to its position as a starting-point for the East. The inner harbour, admirably sheltered and 27 to 30 ft. in depth, allows ocean steamers to lie at the quays. Brindisi has, however, been abandoned by the large steamers of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which had called there since 1870, but since 1898 call at Marseilles instead; small express boats, carrying the mails, still leave every week, connecting with the larger steamers at Port Said; but the number of passengers leaving the port, which for the years 1893-1897 averaged 14,728, was only 7608 in 1905, and only 943 of these were carried by the P. & O. boats. The harbour railway station was not completed until 1905 (_Consular Report_, No. 3672, 1906, pp. 13 sqq.). The port was cleared in 1905 by 1492 vessels of 1,486,269 tons. The imports represented a value of £629,892 and the exports a value of £663,201--an increase of £84,077 and £57,807 respectively on the figures of the previous year, while in 1899 the amounts, which were below the average, were only £298,400 and £253,000. The main imports are coal, flour, sulphur, timber and metals; and the main exports, wine and spirits, oil and dried fruits.

Frederick II. erected a castle, with huge round towers, to guard the inner harbour; it is now a convict prison. The cathedral, ruined by earthquakes, was restored in 1743-1749, but has some remains of its mosaic pavement (1178). The baptismal church of S. Giovanni al Sepolcro (11th century) is now a museum. The town was captured in 836 by the Saracens, and destroyed by them; but was rebuilt in the 11th century by Lupus the protospatharius, Byzantine governor. In 1071 it fell into the hands of the Normans, and frequently appears in the history of the Crusades. Early in the 14th century the inner port was blocked by Giovanni Orsini, prince of Taranto; the town was devastated by pestilence in 1348, and was plundered in 1352 and 1383; but even greater damage was done by the earthquake of 1456.

(T. AS.)

BRINDLEY, JAMES (1716-1772), English engineer, was born at Thornsett, Derbyshire, in 1716. His parents were in very humble circumstances, and he received little or no education. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a millwright near Macclesfield, and soon after completing his apprenticeship he set up in business for himself as a wheelwright at Leek, quickly becoming known for his ingenuity and skill in repairing all kinds of machinery. In 1752 he designed and set up an engine for draining some coal-pits at Clifton in Lancashire. Three years later he extended his reputation by completing the machinery for a silk-mill at Congleton. In 1759, when the duke of Bridgewater was anxious to improve the outlets for the coal on his estates, Brindley advised the construction of a canal from Worsley to Manchester. The difficulties in the way were great, but all were surmounted by his genius, and his crowning triumph was the construction of an aqueduct to carry the canal at an elevation of 39 ft. over the river Irwell at Barton. The great success of this canal encouraged similar projects, and Brindley was soon engaged in extending his first work to the Mersey, at Runcorn. He then designed and nearly completed what he called the Grand Trunk Canal, connecting the Trent and Humber with the Mersey. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Oxford and the Chesterfield Canals were also planned by him, and altogether he laid out over 360 m. of canals. He died at Turnhurst, Staffordshire, on the 30th of September 1772. Brindley retained to the last a peculiar roughness of character and demeanour; but his innate power of thought more than compensated for his lack of training. It is told of him that when in any difficulty he used to retire to bed, and there remain thinking out his problem until the solution became clear to him. His mechanical ingenuity and fertility of resource were very remarkable, and he undoubtedly possessed the engineering faculty in a very high degree. He was an enthusiastic believer in canals, and his reported answer, when asked the use of navigable rivers, "To feed canals," is characteristic, if not altogether authentic.

BRINTON, DANIEL GARRISON (1837-1899), American archaeologist and ethnologist, was born at Thornbury, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of May 1837. He graduated at Yale in 1858, studied for two years in the Jefferson Medical College, and then for one year travelled in Europe and continued his studies at Paris and Heidelberg. From 1862 to 1865, during the Civil War in America, he was a surgeon in the Union army, acting for one year, 1864-1865, as surgeon in charge of the U.S. Army general hospital at Quincy, Illinois. After the war he practised medicine at Westchester, Pennsylvania, for several years; was the editor of a weekly periodical, the _Medical and Surgical Reporter_, in Philadelphia, from 1874 to 1887; became professor of ethnology and archaeology in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1884, and was professor of American linguistics and archaeology in the university of Pennsylvania from 1886 until his death at Philadelphia on the 31st of July 1899. [v.04 p.0572] He was a member of numerous learned societies in the United States and in Europe, and was president at different times of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, of the American Folk-Lore Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During the period from 1859 (when he published his first book) to 1899, he wrote a score of books, several of them of great value, and a large number of pamphlets, brochures, addresses and magazine articles. His principal works are:--_The Myths of the New World_ (1868), the first attempt to analyse and correlate, according to true scientific principles, the mythology of the American Indians; _The Religious Sentiment: Its Sources and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion_ (1876); _American Hero Myths_ (1882); _Essays of an Americanist_ (1890); _Races and Peoples_ (1890); _The American Race_ (1891); _The Pursuit of Happiness_ (1893); and _Religions of Primitive People_ (1897). In addition, he edited and published a _Library of American Aboriginal Literature_ (8 vols. 1882-1890), a valuable contribution to the science of anthropology in America. Of the eight volumes, six were edited by Brinton himself, one by Horatio Hale and one by A.S. Gatschet.

BRINVILLIERS, MARIE MADELEINE MARGUERITE D'AUBRAY, MARQUISE DE (c. 1630-1676), French poisoner, daughter of Dreux d'Aubray, civil lieutenant of Paris, was born in Paris about 1630. In 1651 she married the marquis de Brinvilliers, then serving in the regiment of Normandy. Contemporary evidence describes the marquise at this time as a pretty and much-courted little woman, with a fascinating air of childlike innocence. In 1659 her husband introduced her to his friend Godin de Sainte-Croix, a handsome young cavalry officer of extravagant tastes and bad reputation, whose mistress she became. Their relations soon created a public scandal, and as the marquis de Brinvilliers, who had left France to avoid his creditors, made no effort to terminate them, M. d'Aubray secured the arrest of Sainte-Croix on a _lettre de cachet_. For a year Sainte-Croix remained a prisoner in the Bastille, where he is popularly supposed to have acquired a knowledge of poisons from his fellow-prisoner, the Italian poisoner Exili. When he left the Bastille, he plotted with his willing mistress his revenge upon her father. She cheerfully undertook to experiment with the poisons which Sainte-Croix, possibly with the help of a chemist, Christopher Glaser, prepared, and found subjects ready to hand in the poor who sought her charity, and the sick whom she visited in the hospitals. Meanwhile Sainte-Croix, completely ruined financially, enlarged his original idea, and determined that not only M. Dreux d'Aubray but also the latter's two sons and other daughter should be poisoned, so that the marquise de Brinvilliers and himself might come into possession of the large family fortune. In February 1666, satisfied with the efficiency of Sainte-Croix's preparations and with the ease with which they could be administered without detection, the marquise poisoned her father, and in 1670, with the connivance of their valet La Chaussée, her two brothers. A post-mortem examination suggested the real cause of death, but no suspicion was directed to the murderers. Before any attempt could be made on the life of Mlle Théresè d'Aubray, Sainte-Croix suddenly died. As he left no heirs the police were called in, and discovered among his belongings documents seriously incriminating the marquise and La Chaussée. The latter was arrested, tortured into a complete confession, and broken alive on the wheel (1673), but the marquise escaped, taking refuge first probably in England, then in Germany, and finally in a convent at Liége, whence she was decoyed by a police emissary disguised as a priest. A full account of her life and crimes was found among her papers. Her attempt to commit suicide was frustrated, and she was taken to Paris, where she was beheaded and her body burned on the 16th of July 1676.

See G. Roullier, _La Marquise de Brinvilliers_ (Paris, 1883); Toiseleur, _Trois énigmes historiques_ (Paris, 1882).

BRIONIAN ISLANDS, a group of small islands, in the Adriatic Sea, off the west coast of Istria, from which they are separated by the narrow Canale di Fasana. They belong to Austria and are twelve in number. Up to a recent period they were chiefly noted for their quarries, which have been worked for centuries and have supplied material not only for the palaces and bridges of Venice and the whole Adriatic coast, but latterly for Vienna and Berlin also. As they command the entrance to the naval harbour of Pola, a strong fortress, "Fort Tegetthoff," has been erected on the largest of them (Brioni), together with minor fortifications on some of the others. The islands are inhabited by about 100 Italian quarrymen.

BRIOSCO, ANDREA (c. 1470-1532), Italian sculptor and architect, known as Riccio ("curly-headed"), was born at Padua. In architecture he is known by the church of Sta Giustina in his native city, but he is most famous as a worker in metal. His masterpieces are the bronze Paschal candelabrum (11 ft. high) in the choir of the Santo (S. Antonio) at Padua (1515), and the two bronze reliefs (1507) of "David dancing before the Ark" and "Judith and Holofernes" in the same church. His bronze and marble tomb of the physician Girolamo della Torre in San Fermo at Verona was beautifully decorated with reliefs, which were taken away by the French and are now in the Louvre. A number of other works which emanated from his workshop are attributed to him; and he has been suggested, but doubtfully, as the author of a fine bronze relief, a "Dance of Nymphs," in the Wallace collection at Hertford House, London.

BRIOUDE, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Haute-Loire, on the left bank of the Allier, 1467 ft. above the sea, 47 m. N.W. of Le Puy on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 4581. Brioude has to a great extent escaped modernization and still has many old houses and fountains. Its streets are narrow and irregular, but the town is surrounded by wide boulevards lined with trees. The only building of consequence is the church of St Julian (12th and 13th centuries) in the Romanesque style of Auvergne, of which the choir, with its apse and radiating chapels and the mosaic ornamentation of the exterior, is a fine example. Brioude is the seat of a sub-prefect, and of tribunals of first instance and of commerce. The plain in which it is situated is of great fertility; the grain trade of the town is considerable, and market-gardening is carried on in the outskirts. The industries include brewing, saw-milling, lace-making and antimony mining and founding.