BROWNELL, HENRY H. 



BRUNSWICK. 



77 



of the United States corvette Dale, which then 

 happened to be lying in the hay. As Koszta, 

 before going to Smyrna to take passage for 

 the States, had given the usual notice of in- 

 tended citizenship at the Pera legation, he 

 claimed American protection on being arrested. 

 But the Austrian consul at once sent him on 

 board an Austrian frigate in the harbor, and, 

 thereupon, Captain Ingraham applied to Mr. 

 Brown for instructions, which the latter gave 

 in two words : " Take him." On receipt of 

 this pithy order, the commander of the Dale 

 gave the Austrian captain three hours to de- 

 liver up his prisoner, and, in the mean time, 

 prepared for action. Half an hour before the 

 time expired, Koszta was given up to the 

 French consul, and by him to Captain Ingra- 

 ham, who sailed just in time to miss a couple 

 of Austrian line-of-battle ships, which entered 

 Smyrna Bay the next day. For his pluck and 

 decision on this occasion, Mr. Brown's fellow- 

 citizens of Ohio presented him with a massive 

 service of plate, and Mr. Webster, then Secre- 

 tary of State, also warmly approved his con- 

 duct. His long residence was, of course, bro- 

 ken by several visits on leave to the United 

 States his home sympathies and associations 

 with which Mr. Brown kept up with singular 

 freshness to the last. Besides the publication 

 of two locally well-known works one a very 

 learned " History of the Dervishes," and the 

 other a translation of Patriarch Constantius's 

 "Ancient and Modern Constantinople," with 

 very valuable notes and appendices the de- 

 ceased gentleman was a frequent contributor to 

 the American newspapers and magazines. Mr. 

 Brown had been the local head of the Masonic 

 order, in Turkey, since the departure of Sir 

 Henry Bulwer (Lord Dalling and Bulwer), 

 whom he succeeded in 1869, as District Grand- 

 Master for Turkey. In this office, as, indeed, 

 in his private relations, the extent of his prac- 

 tical philanthropy was only equalled by its 

 modesty, neither counsel nor pecuniary help 

 being ever refused by him in any deserving 

 case. In general society, his courteous and 

 kindly manner made him a universal favorite, 

 while in public life he was equally esteemed 

 and respected by all who knew him. Of his 

 integrity, nothing more need be said than that 

 he has died poor, leaving to his widow and 

 adopted son little beyond the heritage of a 

 name on which not even forty years of Levant 

 official life have left a stain. Not alone the 

 American colony, therefore, to which his loss 

 will be great, but Turks, Armenians, Greeks, 

 and Europeans of nearly every nationality, 

 will hold in kindly and respectful remembrance 

 the name of John Porter Brown. 



BROWNELL. HENRY HOWAED, an American 

 author, poet, and soldier, born in East Hart- 

 ford, Conn., in 1820 ; died there October 30, 

 1872. He was from an eminently gifted family, 

 his father. Dr. Pardon Brownell, and his uncle, 

 the late Bishop of Connecticut, being especially 

 distinguished for intellectual ability. He was 



educated at Trinity College, Hartford, and, we 

 believe, studied law, but his tendency to liter- 

 ary pursuits was so strong that he never at- 

 tempted the practice of the law to any extent. 

 His tastes were poetical, and his wide and 

 thorough culture aided his genius in giving 

 scope to his poetic fancies. A little volume 

 of lyric poems, published by him as early as 

 1850, gave evidence of rare power and brilliancy. 

 For a time he turned his attention to other 

 fields of literary labor, which, if less inviting, 

 yet offered a fairer prospect of remuneration. 

 He wrote a history of the "War of 1812, giving 

 special prominence to the naval portion of the 

 war, and two or three other books of a some- 

 what similar character. At the opening of 

 the late war, his whole soul was absorbed by it ; 

 he entered first the army, and then the navy, 

 as a volunteer, was a participator in the naval 

 battles of the Gulf, and the Lower Mississippi, 

 and became the intimate friend and private 

 secretary of that noble hero, Admiral Farragut. 

 He was with Farragut at that famous fight 

 in Mobile Bay, and his poem, u The Bay 

 Fight," which subsequently gave the title to 

 his volume of war lyrics, was the finest de- 

 scriptive poem of the war. Mr. Brownell had 

 the dramatic power of Robert Browning, in a 

 large degree, and a rare humanity which soft- 

 ened and rendered beautiful all the creations 

 of his fancy, all the transcripts of his large and 

 varied experience. He was a genre poet ; he 

 caught his inspiration directly from common 

 things, and rendered them enduring and sub- 

 lime in the spirited and picturesque forms in 

 which he embodied them. As the war grew 

 in dignity and scope, so grew his poems. He 

 never annoyed the world with a too frequent 

 enunciation of the quorum parsfui, but it was 

 evident that he always wrote of what he knew, 

 and what he had seen. He wrote in strong, 

 broad American ; sometimes his language was 

 not gracious, but it had meaning ; even the 

 rough expression of the tyro soldier bent into 

 poetic form under his facile pen. 



BRUNSWICK, a duchy of the German Em- 

 pire. Duke, Wilhelm, born April 25, 1806, 

 assumed the government in 1831, his brother, 

 the reigning Duke Karl, having been declared 

 by the German Confederation incapable of 

 governing. Area, 1,400 square miles; popula- 

 tion in 1871, 311,819. Capital, Brunswick, with 

 a population, in 1871, of 57,883. In the budget 

 for the financial period from 1870 to 1872, 

 revenue and expenditure were estimated at 

 7, 1 96,400 thalers each. Public debt, in Decem- 

 ber 1871, 12,765,768. 



As Duke Wilhelm, his brother, as well as the 

 dethroned Duke Karl, is without heirs and al- 

 ready sixty-six years of age, it is the common 

 expectation that at his death the ducal line of 

 Brunswick will become extinct. In 1871 the 

 Diet of Brunswick requested the Government 

 of the duchy to take, conjointly with the Diet, 

 all the necessary steps for guarding the inter- 

 ests of the country in the case of a sudden 



