held office for a short time under Talleyrand. In 1815 he was specially excluded from Napoleon s amnesty and fled to Belgium. After the fall of the emperor he sat for some years in the Chamber of Representatives, but his official salary could not support his extravagance, and in 1828 he took refuge from his creditors in Belgium. There he occupied himself in drawing up the Memoires of Napoleon, which were published in 1829 and 1830. The revolution of 1830 and the discomforts of his private life so preyed upon his mind that his reason became unhinged, and he had to be removed to an asylum near Caen, where he died in 1834. Bourrienne s Memoires , 10 vols. 8vo, 1829-31, contain much interesting information regarding Napoleon, but while lively and entertaining, they are in many points to be received with caution. Some of the inaccuracies were pointed out by Boulay de la Meurthe in Bourrienne et ses
erreurs, 2 vols. 1830.BOURSAULT, Edmund, a French dramatist and satirist, was born at Muci-1 Eveque, Burgundy, in 1638. On his first arrival in Paris in 1G51 his power of language was limited to Burgundian patois, but he soon gained such reputation as an author, that Louis XIV. directed him to draw up a book for the education of the Dauphin. In compliance with this order Boursault ; produced his Veritable etude des souvcrains, which pleased so greatly the king that he offered to appoint the author tutor to his son, an office which Boursault s ignorance of Latin compelled him to decline. He obtained a considerable pension as editor of a rhyming gazette, which was, however, suppressed for ridiculing a capuchin, and Boursault was only saved from the Bastille by the influence of Conde. Two of his dramas, Esope ct la Ville and Esope a la Cour were highly popular, and Corneille declared his tragedy Germanicus to be worthy of Racine. His best comedy was Mercure Galant, or Comedie sans Titre, as it was afterwards, named. He accused Moliere of impiety, and assailed L Ecole des Femmes in Le Portrait dii Peintre. Moliere retaliated by contemptuously referring to him in L Impromptu du Versailles. His Satyre des Satyres was directed against Boileau, whom, however, he afterwards generously offered to assist. In return for this kindness Boileau erased Boursault s name from his satires. Boursault died at Montlucon, where he held the office of collector of taxes, September 15, 1701.
BOUSSA, a town of Africa, situated on an island in the Niger, in 10° 14′ N. lat. and 6° 11′ E. long. The population is estimated at about 12,000. See Borgu.
BOUTERWEK, Friedrich, a German philosopher and historian of literature, was born in Lower Saxony in 1766. He was educated at Gottingen university, and seems to have contemplated joining the legal profession ; but his literary inclinations proved too powerful, and he devoted himself entirely to works of poetry and romance. He published several poems, and a romance Graf Donemar. Towards 1790 he began to study with great eagerness the Kantian philosophy, and in 1791 delivered a series of lectures on that subject in Gottingen. He was dissatisfied with the Kantian system, regarding it as too formal, particularly in the department of ethics, and was soon attracted to the system of Jacobi, which appeared to give the clement of real existence omitted by Kant. Bouterwek s most important work, Idee einer allgemeinen ApodihiL 2 vols. 1799, is deserving of serious study, both as a critique of Kantianism, and as a substantial contribution to philosophy. In 1802 he was made professor of philosophy at Gottingen, and published several valuable works, among others jEsthetik, 1806 ; Lehrbuch der phil. Wissenschaften, 1813 ; and lieliffion der Vernunft, 1824. During his later years Bouterwek was entirely devoted to an extensive literary work. To him had been entrusted the section en poetry and eloquence in the great German series of histories of the sciences from the Renaissance downwards. The first volume of the Gcschichte des neuern Poesic und Beredsamkeit appeared in 1805, the twelfth and last in 1815. It is a work of great research, and has very substantial merits. It is, however, somewhat unequal, the portions on German and Spanish literature being superior to any of the rest. Part of the extended work has been translated into English as a History of Spanish Literature. Bouterwek died in 1828.
BOVALI, Bouali, or Boali, a town of Africa, capital of the kingdom of Loango, situated in 4 30 S. lat. and 12 1 E. long., on the right bank of a river of the same name not far from the coast. The vicinity is fertile but unhealthy. A large trade is carried on in pepper, dye-woods, ivory, and slaves. Population estimated at 15,000.
BOVES, a township of Ita]y, in the province of Cuneo in Piedmont, situated at the foot of the Alps, about 4 miles from the city of Cuneo. There are iron-mines and marble quarries in the neighbourhood. Population; 9549.
BOVINO (the ancient Vebimim or Vibonium), a fortified town of Italy, province of Capitanata, 18 miles S.S.W. of Foggia. It is the seat of a bishopric and of a court of primary jurisdiction, and has a cathedral and several churches and convents. Here the Imperialists defeated the Spaniards in 1734. Population, 7088.
BOWDICH, Thomas Edward, an English traveller, born at Bristol in 1790, was brought up by his father for com mercial life, and in 1814 obtained an appointment on the western coast of Africa. Two years afterwards, on his return home, he was sent out by the African Company as their agent to the king of the Ashantees. In 1819 he published a quarto volume giving an account of that remarkable people. He then seems to have spent a con siderable time at Paris in the study of the natural sciences. During his stay in Europe he edited several works on Africa, and published an excellent pamphlet on the British settlements on the western coast of Africa. He again visited Africa in 1822, with a firm resolution of devoting himself to the exploration of its interior ; but he was attacked by fever on the Gambia, and died January 10, 1824. His widow, who had accompanied him, edited several productions of his pen after his death.
BOWDITCH, Nathaniel, a self-taught Amercian mathematician, born in 1773, of humble parents, at Salem in Massachusetts. He was bred to his father s business as a cooper, and afterwards apprenticed to a ship-chandler. His taste for mathematics early developed itself ; and ho acquired Latin that he might study Newton s Principia. In 1795 he sailed as supercargo, in which capacity he made four long voyages ; and, being an excellent navigator, he afterwards commanded a vessel, instructing his crews in taking lunar and other observations. He edited three editions of Hamilton Moore s Navigation, and in 1802 published a valuable work, New American Practical Naii- gator, founded on the earlier treatise by Moore. In 1804 he became actuary to a Boston insurance company ; and in the midst of his active and useful career published a translation of the Mccanique celeste of Laplace, with annotations, a work which will better prove the great acquirements of this self-taught philosopher than any laboured panegyric. He died at Boston in 1838. A life of Bowditch was written by his son in 1839, and is pre fixed to the last volume, published posthumously, of the translation of Laplace.
BOWLES, Caroline Anne. See Southey, Caroline.
