(M. P.*)
BRISSON, EUGÈNE HENRI (1835- ), French statesman, was born at Bourges on the 31st of July 1835. He followed his father's profession of advocate, and having made himself conspicuous in opposition during the last days of the empire, was appointed deputy-mayor of Paris after its overthrow. He was elected to the Assembly on the 8th of February 1871, as a member of the extreme Left. While not approving of the Commune, he was the first to propose amnesty for the condemned (on the 13th of September 1871), but the proposal was voted down. He strongly supported obligatory primary education, and was a firm anti-clerical. He was president of the chamber from 1881—replacing Gambetta—to March 1885, when he became prime minister upon the resignation of Jules Ferry; but he resigned when, after the general elections of that year, he only just obtained a majority for the vote of credit for the Tongking expedition. He remained conspicuous as a public man, took a prominent part in exposing the Panama scandals, was a powerful candidate for the presidency after the murder of President Carnot in 1894, and was again president of the chamber from December 1894 to 1898. In June of the latter year he formed a cabinet when the country was violently excited over the Dreyfus affair; his firmness and honesty increased the respect in which he was already held by good citizens, but a chance vote on an occasion of especial excitement overthrew his ministry in October. As one of the leaders of the radicals he actively supported the ministries of Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes, especially concerning the laws on the religious orders and the separation of church and state. In 1899 he was a candidate for the presidency. In May 1906 he was elected president of the chamber of deputies by 500 out of 581 votes.
BRISSON, MATHURIN JACQUES (1723-1806), French zoologist and natural philosopher, was born at Fontenay le Comte on the 30th of April 1723. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including Le Règne animal (1756) and Ornithologie (1760). After the death of R.A.F. Réaumur (1683-1757), whose assistant he was, he abandoned natural history, and was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Navarre and later at Paris. His most important work in this department was his Poids spécifiques des corps (1787), but he published several other books on physical subjects which were in considerable repute for a time. He died at Croissy near Paris, on the 23rd of June 1806.
BRISSOT, JACQUES PIERRE (1754-1793), who assumed the name of de Warville, a celebrated French Girondist, was born at Chartres, where his father was an inn-keeper, in January 1754. Brissot received a good education and entered the office of a lawyer at Paris. His first works, Théorie des lois criminelles (1781) and Bibliothèque philosophique du législateur (1782), were on the philosophy of law, and showed how thoroughly Brissot was imbued with the ethical precepts of Rousseau. The first work was dedicated to Voltaire, and was received by the old philosophe with much favour. Brissot became known as a facile and able writer, and was engaged on the Mercure, on the Courrier de l'Europe, and on other papers. Ardently devoted to the service of humanity, he projected a scheme for a general concourse of all the savants in Europe, and started in London a paper, Journal du Lycée de Londres, which was to be the organ of their views. The plan was unsuccessful, and soon after his return to Paris Brissot was lodged in the Bastille on the charge of having published a work against the government. He obtained his release after four months, and again devoted himself to pamphleteering, but had speedily to retire for a time to London. On this second visit he became acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, and founded later in Paris a Société des Amis des Noirs, of which he was president during 1790 and 1791. As an agent of this society he paid a visit to the United States in 1788, and in 1791 published his Nouveau Voyage dans les États-Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale (3 vols.).
From the first, Brissot threw himself heart and soul into the Revolution. He edited the Patriote français from 1789 to 1793, and being a well-informed and capable man took a prominent part in affairs. Upon the demolition of the Bastille the keys were presented to him. Famous for his speeches at the Jacobin club, he was elected a member of the municipality of Paris, then of the Legislative Assembly, and later of the National Convention. During the Legislative Assembly his knowledge of foreign affairs enabled him as member of the diplomatic committee practically to direct the foreign policy of France, and the declaration of war against the emperor on the 20th of April 1792, and that against England on the 1st of July 1793, were largely due to him. It was also Brissot who gave these wars the character of revolutionary propaganda. He was in many ways the leading spirit of the Girondists, who were also known as Brissotins. Vergniaud certainly was far superior to him in oratory, but Brissot was quick, eager, impetuous, and a man of wide knowledge. But he was at the same time vacillating, and not qualified to struggle against the fierce energies roused by the events of the Revolution. His party fell before the Mountain; sentence of arrest was passed against the leading members of it on the 2nd of June 1793. Brissot attempted to escape in disguise, but was arrested at Moulins. His demeanour at the trial was quiet and dignified; and on the 31st of October 1793 he died bravely with several other Girondists.
See Mémoires de Brissot, sur ses contemporains et la Révolution française, published by his sons, with notes by F. de Montrol (Paris, 1830); Helena Williams, Souvenirs de la Révolution française (Paris, 1827); F. A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention 2nd ed., (Paris, 1905); F. A. Aulard, Les Portraits littéraires à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, pendant la Révolution (Paris, 1883).
BRISTOL, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF. This English title has been held in the Hervey family since 1714, though previously an earldom of Bristol, in the Digby family, is associated with two especially famous representatives, of whom separate biographies are given. The Herveys are mentioned during the 13th century as seated in Bedfordshire, and afterwards in Suffolk, where they have held the estate of Ickworth since the 15th century. John Hervey (1616-1679) was the eldest son of Sir William Hervey (d. 1660), and was born on the 18th of August 1616. He held a high position in the household of Catherine, wife of Charles II., and was for many years member of parliament for Hythe. He married Elizabeth, the only surviving child of his kinsman, William, Lord Hervey of Kidbrooke (d. 1642), but left no children when he died on the 18th of January 1679, and his estates passed to his brother, Sir Thomas Hervey. Sir Thomas, who was member of parliament for Bury St Edmunds, died on the 27th of May 1694, and was succeeded by his son, John, who became the 1st earl of Bristol.
John Hervey, 1st earl of Bristol (1665-1751), born on the 27th of August 1665, was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and became member of parliament for Bury St Edmunds in March 1694. In March 1703 he was created Baron Hervey of Ickworth, and in October 1714 was made earl of Bristol as a reward for his zeal in promoting the principles of the revolution and supporting the Hanoverian succession. He died on the 20th of January 1751. By his first wife, Isabella (d. 1693), daughter of Sir Robert Carr, Bart., of Sleaford, he had one son, Carr, Lord Hervey (1691-1723), who was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and was member for Bury St Edmunds from 1713 to 1722. (It has been suggested that Carr, who died unmarried on the 14th of November 1723, was the father of Horace Walpole.) He married secondly Elizabeth (d. 1741), daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Felton, Bart., of Playford, Suffolk, by whom he had ten sons and six daughters. His eldest son, John (1696-1743), took the courtesy title of Lord Hervey on the death of his half-brother, Carr, in 1723, and gained some renown both as a writer and a politician (see Hervey of Ickworth). Another son, Thomas (1699-1775), was one of the members for Bury from 1733 to 1747; held various offices at court; and eloped with Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Hanmer. He had very poor health, and his reckless life frequently brought him into pecuniary and other difficulties. He wrote numerous pamphlets, and when he died Dr Johnson said of him, "Tom Hervey, though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men who ever lived." Another of the 1st earl's sons, Felton (1712-1773), was also member for the family borough of Bury St Edmunds. Having assumed the additional name of Bathurst, Felton's grandson, Felton Elwell Hervey-Bathurst (1782-1819), was created a baronet in 1818, and on his death a year later the title descended to his brother, Frederick Anne (1783-1824), the direct ancestor of the present baronet. The 1st earl died in January 1751, the title and estates descending to his grandson.
George William Hervey, 2nd earl of Bristol (1721-1775), the eldest son of John, Lord Hervey of Ickworth, by his marriage with Mary (1700-1768), daughter of Nicholas Lepell, was born on the 31st of August 1721. He served for some years in the army, and in 1755 was sent to Turin as envoy extraordinary. He was ambassador at Madrid from 1758 to 1761, filling a difficult position with credit and dignity, and ranked among the followers of Pitt. Appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1766, he never visited that country during his short tenure of this office, and, after having served for a short time as keeper of the privy seal, became groom of the stole to George III. in January 1770. He died unmarried on the 18th or 20th of March 1775, and was succeeded by his brother.