See D. Croal Thomson, Hablôt Knight Browne, "Phiz": Life and Letters (London, 1884); John Forster, Life of Charles Dickens (London, 1871-1874); F.G. Kitton, "Phiz": A Memoir (London, 1882); Charles Dickens and his Illustrators (London, 1899); M.H. Spielmann, The History of Punch (London, 1895).
(D. C. T.)
BROWNE, ISAAC HAWKINS (1705-1760), English poet, was born on the 21st of January 1705 at Burton-upon-Trent, of which place his father was vicar. He was educated at Lichfield, at Westminster school, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After taking his M.A. degree he removed to Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar, but never practised. He was the author of "Design and Beauty," a poem addressed to his friend Joseph Highmore the painter; and of "The Pipe of Tobacco" which parodied Cibber, Ambrose Philips, Thomson, Young, Pope and Swift, who were then all living. He was elected to Parliament through private interest in 1744 and again in 1747 for the borough of Wenlock in Shropshire. In 1754 he published his chief work, De Animi Immortalitate, a Latin poem much admired by the scholars of his time. The best of the many translations of these verses is by Soame Jenyns. Browne is said by Johnson to have been "one of the first wits of this country." He was a brilliant talker in private life, especially when his tongue was loosed by wine; but he made no mark in public life. He died in London on the 14th of February 1760.
Two editions of his Poems on Various Subjects, Latin and English, were published in 1767 by his son Isaac Hawkins Browne (1745-1818), the author of two volumes of essays on religion and morals. One of these was printed for private circulation, and is said to have contained a memoir. A full account by Andrew Kippis in Biographia Britannica (1780) includes large extracts from his poems.
BROWNE, JAMES (1703-1841), Scottish man of letters, was born at Whitefield, Perthshire, in 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh and at the university of St Andrews, where he studied for the church. He wrote a "Sketch of the History of Edinburgh," for Ewbank's Picturesque Views of that city, 1823-1825. In 1826 he became a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and obtained the degree of LL.D. from King's College, Aberdeen. His works include a Critical Examination of Macculloch's Work on the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1826), Aperçu sur les Hiêroglyphes d'Égypte (Paris, 1827), a Vindication of the Scottish Bar from the Attacks of Mr Broughton, and History of the Highlands and Highland Clans (1834-1836). He was appointed editor of the Caledonian Mercury in 1827; and two years later he became sub-editor of the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, to which he contributed a large number of articles. He died in April 1841.
BROWNE, SIR JAMES (1839-1896), Anglo-Indian engineer and administrator, was the son of Robert Browne of Falkirk in Scotland. He was educated at the military college, Addiscombe, and received a commission in the Bengal engineers in 1857. He served in the expedition against the Mahsud Waziris in 1860, being mentioned in despatches, and in 1863 in the Umbeyla campaign, when he was three times mentioned. In January 1875 he became superintendent of works for the building of the Indus bridge. In 1877 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and in 1878-1879 accompanied Sir Donald Stewart as political officer during the Afghan War. He took part in several engagements, was mentioned in despatches, and received the C.B. In 1881 he became colonel, and in 1882 commanded the Indian engineer contingent sent to Egypt, being present at the battle of Tell-el-Kebir. For his services in Egypt he received the 3rd class of the Osmanieh Order and the khedive's star. In 1884 he was appointed engineer in chief of the Sind-Pishin railway. In 1888 he was made a K.C.S.I, and in 1889 quarter-master-general for India. In 1892 he was appointed agent to the governor-general in Baluchistan, in succession to Sir Robert Sandeman, his intimate experience of the Baluchis, gained during his railway work, having specially fitted him for this post. He died suddenly on the 13th of June 1896. Sir James Browne was a man of splendid courage and physique, and many tales are told of the personal prowess which, together with his sympathetic knowledge of the natives, made him a popular hero among the frontier tribesmen.
See General McLeod Innes, The Life and Times of Sir James Browne (1905).
BROWNE, MAXIMILIAN ULYSSES, Count von, Baron de Camus and Mountany (1705-1757), Austrian field marshal, was born at Basel on the 23rd of October 1705. His father (Ulysses Freiherr v. Browne, d. 1731) was an Irish exile of 1690, who entered the imperial service and in 1716 was made a count
of the Empire (Reichsgraf) by the emperor Charles VI. His uncle Georg, Reichsgraf von Browne (1698-1792), was a distinguished soldier, who rose to the rank of field marshal in the Russian army, and was made Reichsgraf by the emperor Joseph II. in 1779. The powerful influence which he commanded, through his father and his wife (née Countess Marie Philippine v. Martinitz), advanced the young officer through the subordinate grades so rapidly that at the age of twenty-nine he was colonel of an infantry regiment. But he justified his early promotion in the field, and in the Italian campaign of 1734 he greatly distinguished himself. In the Tirolese fighting of 1735, and in the unfortunate Turkish war, he won further distinction as a general officer. He was a lieutenant field marshal in command of the Silesian garrisons when in 1740 Frederick II. and the Prussian army overran the province. His careful employment of such resources as he possessed materially hindered the king in his conquest and gave time for Austria to collect a field army (see Austrian Succession, War of the). He was present at Mollwitz, where he received a severe wound. His vehement opposition to all half-hearted measures brought him frequently into conflict with his superiors, but contributed materially to the unusual energy displayed by the Austrian armies in 1742 and 1743. In the following campaigns Browne exhibited the same qualities of generalship and the same impatience of control. In 1745 he served under Count Traun, and was promoted to the rank of Feldzeugmeister. In 1746 he was present in the Italian campaign and the battles of Piacenza and Rottofredo. Browne himself with the advanced guard forced his way across the Apennines and entered Genoa. He was thereafter placed in command of the army intended for the invasion of France, and early in 1747 of all the imperial forces in Italy. At the end of the war Browne was engaged in the negotiations which led to the convention of Nice (January 21st, 1749). He became commander-in-chief in Bohemia in 1751, and field marshal two years later. He was still in Bohemia when the Seven Years' War opened with Frederick's invasion of Saxony (1756). Browne's army, advancing to the relief of Pirna (see Seven Years' War), was met, and, after a hard struggle, defeated by the king at Lobositz, but he drew off in excellent order, and soon made another attempt with a picked force to reach Pirna, by wild mountain tracks. The field marshal never spared himself, bivouacking in the snow with his men, and Carlyle records that private soldiers made rough shelters over him as he slept. He actually reached the Elbe at Schandau, but as the Saxons were unable to break out Browne retired, having succeeded, however, in delaying the development of Frederick's operations for a whole campaign. In the campaign of 1757 he voluntarily served under Prince Charles of Lorraine (q.v.) who was made commander-in-chief, and on the 6th of May in that year, while leading a bayonet charge at the battle of Prague, Browne, like Schwerin on the same day, met his death. He was carried mortally wounded into Prague, and there died on the 26th of June, his last days embittered by the knowledge that he was unjustly held responsible for the failure of the campaign. His name has been borne, since 1888, by the 36th Austrian infantry.
See Zuverlässige Lebensbeschreibung U.M. Reichsgrafen, v. B. K.-K. Gen.-Feldmarschall (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1757); Baron O'Cahill, Gesch. der grossten Herrfuhrer (Rastadt, 1785, v. ii. pp. 264-316).