he was elevated to the office of lord-justice-clerk in Scotland, which gave him the second position in the supreme civil court, and made him the ordinary president of the supreme criminal court. In this capacity he is best remembered as having presided at the trials of Muir, Palmer, and others, for sedition, in 1793 and 1794. He died on the 30th of May, 1799.—It is difficult now to form an accurate estimate of Braxfield's character. His political friends represent him as able and honest; his political opponents, as coarse and unprincipled. That he possessed great intellectual energy, and was clear, vigorous, and logical, within his own domain of feudal and civil law, is admitted by all. That he was honest, there seems no reason to call in question, though he appears to have adopted his political opinions without examination, and to have adhered to them with but little knowledge of their bearing. The late Lord-President Hope describes him in private as "a kind-hearted man, and a warm and steady friend." With these qualities, and with a fearless discharge of what he believed to be his duty, his virtues end. The rough humour of the times degenerated with him into excessive coarseness. His boldness and strength of mind, unchecked by serious opposition either from his brother judges or from the bar, or by public opinion, rendered him on the bench too often insolent and overbearing. Strongly built, with heavy overhanging eyebrows, clear piercing eyes, and large firmly-marked features, his aspect made him appear more violent than he was. It is in relation to his conduct in the sedition trials already mentioned, that the severest charges against his memory rest. The numerous anecdotes are not to be trusted, but in the trials, as reported by Howell—State Trials, vol. xxiii.—there is much to justify severe condemnation.—J. D. W.
BRAY, Anna Eliza, born Kempe, an eminent English novelist, was born in the county of Surrey towards the end of last century. Her early passion for the stage being happily converted into an enthusiasm for art, she received lessons in painting from Thomas Stothard, and in 1818 married the son of that artist, Charles Alfred, famous for his illuminations, and for his drawings of antiquities. In company with her husband, she made a tour through Normandy and Brittany, and published on her return in 1820, a series of descriptive letters, illustrated by designs from her own pencil and her husband's. The melancholy death of Charles Stothard in the following year, threw on her the task, the artist's last and fatal task, of illustrating the account of Derbyshire in Lyson's Magna Britannia. At this period she recovered from one overwhelming grief only to be subjected to another. She lost in succession her father and her only child, and, to crown her sorrows, she was seized with temporary blindness. In 1823 she published the "Memoirs of Charles Stothard." Two years later she married Mr. E. A. Bray, curate of Tavistock, London, and author of several theological works. Mr. Bray died in 1857. Mrs. Bray's novels are of two classes, historical and legendary. She has been thought to excel chiefly in the former; but both are characterized by considerable vigour and by healthy moral sentiment, and have been extensively popular. We mention—"Courtenay of Walreddon." "Gaston de Foix;" "Protestant;" "Talba;" "Trials of Domestic Life;" and "White Hoods."
BRAY, Thomas, an eminent English divine, memorable in connection with various missionary enterprises of the beginning of the eighteenth century, was born at Marton, Shropshire, in 1656, and received his early education at the school of Oswestry. After graduating at Hart hall, Oxford, he obtained, through the influence of Lord Digby, the vicarage of Over-Whitacre and the rectory of Sheldon. His catechetical lectures, which were published while he held these preferments, having attracted the favourable notice of Bishop Compton, that learned prelate selected him as his commissary to Maryland. In this responsible position his talents and missionary zeal were so usefully exercised as to command for him general favour in the church. The missionaries he employed were selected with the greatest care, and instructed thoroughly in their duties. To aid them in their labours, he took pains to provide for them parochial libraries, giving thus the first hint of an institution, which, under the authority of parliament, was afterwards adopted throughout England and Wales. He sailed from England in December, 1699, and remained in Maryland two years, pursuing with untiring energy his schemes for the settlement of the church in that province. On his return in 1701 he published his "Circular Letters to the Clergy of Maryland," for which he received the thanks of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, an association which he had been mainly instrumental in forming, and was publicly eulogized by the most eminent churchmen, particularly the bishop of London and the archbishop of Canterbury. Having been appointed to the living of St. Botolph, Aldgate, in 1706, he continued in that preferment till his death in 1730. The impulse which he communicated to missionary enterprise in this country deserved, as it attracted, the notice of his sovereign and of parliament, and the reputation for piety which he left behind him was justified by the records of a long and laborious life devoted to the ends of christian philanthropy. Besides the publication above mentioned. Dr. Bray gave to the world, "Proposals for the Encouragement and Promoting of Religion and Learning in the Foreign Plantations," and "An Account of the Present State of Maryland."—J. S., G.
BRAY, William, F.S.A., a noted antiquarian, was born in 1736, and received his early education at Rugby. He was articled to a solicitor at Guildford, but subsequently became a clerk in the board of green cloth, through the interest of the Evelyn family. He was the author of a "Tour in Derbyshire and Yorkshire," completed Manning's History of Surrey, and was a frequent contributor to the Archæologia, &c. He catalogued and edited the MSS. of John Evelyn (Sylva), and published his Memoirs when already eighty years of age. He died in December, 1832, aged ninety-six.—E. W.
BREA, Lodovico, an old Italian painter, born at Nizza. He flourished from 1483 to 1513. He was the founder of the Ligurian school, and Genoa has many of his works. His heads are fine, his drapery graceful, his grouping good. He painted small, and among his best works were a "Massacre of the Infants," and a "St. John."—W. T.
BREBEUF, Guillaume de, born at Thorigny in Lower Normandy in 1618, and died at Venoix, near Caen, in 1661. He enjoyed considerable reputation for poetry and poetical translations. His first publications were of the character which is described by the name of burlesque, and travesties of parts of Lucan and Virgil attracted attention, and afforded amusement to idle readers. Topics of the day were the subject of those extravaganzas, and scandals of Brebeuf's own time were daily related pleasantly under the disguise of ancient names and manners. Brebeuf was fitted for something better than this, and he published a translation of Lucan, which had many of the faults which are ascribed to Lucan himself. It would seem almost as if Brebeuf's own taste was adulterated by that of his author; for in his earlier days Horace is said to have been the only classical author he admired, and it would not be easy to imagine a stronger contrast than between Horace and Lucan. The style of Lucan is tumid, and his translator in this outdid his author; still the work is conceived in the spirit of one worthy the task in which he engaged, and one who was certainly possessed of much poetical fervour. In the preface to his work, which is deserving of perusal by persons who may not care to look farther, he tells us that his object being to render his author easily intelligible, he has at times abridged, at times expanded the language, seeking thus to express the thought more truly than if he servilely pursued the mere words. We have read parts of this translation with great pleasure. Brebeuf had expectations from Cardinal Mazarin, which were disappointed by Mazarin's death. Soon after this he went to reside at Caen. His health was at all times feeble, and he describes himself as suffering from what he calls a long and obstinate fever of twenty years, in the more acute attacks of which, he says, his verses were chiefly composed. He published some religious poetry, under the title of "Entretiens Solitaires," dedicated to Cardinal Mazarin. After Brebeuf's death, a collection of what were called his "Œuvres Diverses" appeared, in which are a series of 150 epigrams, written for a wager against a lady who wore rouge, of which a few are very amusing.—J. A., D.
BRÉCOURT, Guillaume Marcoureau. The date of Brécourt's birth has not been recorded. He died in 1685. The family is said to have come from Holland. He was an actor, and he wrote pieces for the theatre. His first appearance on the stage was as one of Moliere's company. He afterwards passed into that of the Hotel de Bourgoyne, and when these companies were united he remained in the "joint troupe." At a boar-hunt he killed the animal, and Louis XIV. praised his dexterity. This is recounted as though the royal compliment was more than a patent of immortality.—J. A., D.
