BRISACH BRISTOL. 



685 



that they sliall counteract each other, and prevent 

 her from moving forward or backward. In this 

 situation, she is said to lie to, having some of her 

 sails aac/t, to oppose the force of those which are full. 



BRISACH, Old ; a town of the grand-duchy of Ba- 

 den, once included in the Brisgau, formerly on the 

 west side of the Rhine, but, since the river changed 

 its course, near the east bank. It was formerly a 

 very strong place, and has sustained several sieges. 

 New B. is in the department of the Upper Rhine, in 

 France, on the west side of the river. Vauban forti- 

 fied it in 1699, and it is considered one of his master- 

 pieces. It is thirty miles south of Strasburg. 



BRISEIS. See Achilles. 



BRISGAU, also BREISGAU, with the district of Orte- 

 nau, formerly constituted a landgraviate in the south- 

 western part of Suabia, between the Schwartzwald 

 and the Rhine. This is one of the most fertile parts 

 of Germany, containing 1,272 square miles, and 

 140,000 inhabitants. Though chiefly in possession 

 of Austria since the fifteenth century, it was governed 

 by its own laws* At the peace of Lunevilie, 1801, 

 Austria ceded B., one of the oldest possessions of the 

 house of Hapsburg, to the duke of Modena, after 

 whose death it fell to his son-in-law, the archduke 

 Ferdinand of Austria, as duke of Brisgau. By the 

 peace of Presburg, 1805, it was assigned to Baden, 

 with the exception of a small part, and still belongs 

 to the grand-duchy. 



BRISSAC. See Cosse. 



BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, Jean Pierre ; born in 1754, 

 at Ouarville, a village in the vicinity of Chartres, 

 where his father, a pastry-cook, and keeper of an 

 ordinary, possessed a small estate. This circumstance 

 led him to assume the surname d'Ouarville, which he 

 afterwards, while in England, changed into de War- 

 ville. At the age of twenty, he had already published 

 several works, for one of which he was thrown into 

 the Bastile, in 1784. Madame de Genlis, in her 

 memoirs, says, that she procured his liberty through 

 her influence with the duke of Chartres. He married 

 one of the household of madame d'Orleans, and went 

 to England, where he was in the pay of the lieutenant 

 of the police in Paris. At the same time, he was 

 engaged in literary pursuits, and attempted to estab- 

 lish a lyceum in London ; but, being disappointec 

 in his plans, he returned to France. In 1788, he 

 travelled in America, as it is asserted, to study the 



Rrinciples of democracy. After his return, he pub- 

 shed, in 1791, a work on the United States. Oi 

 the convocation of the states general, he publishec 

 several pamphlets in Paris, ana afterwards a journa" 

 the French Patriot. When the municipal go- 

 vernment of Paris was established, July, 1789 

 he was one of the members, and was one of the 

 principal instigators of the revolt of the Champ 

 de Mars, where the dethronement of Louis XVI 

 and the establishment of a republican constitution 

 were demanded. He constantly displayed a hostile 

 disposition towards foreign powers, and the first de 

 claration of war against Austria was owing to him 

 On the 10th of August, the new ministry was almos 

 entirely composed of his partisans. In the conven 

 tion, he was at the head of the diplomatic committee 

 in the name of which he made a motion for wa 

 ngainst Britain and Holland. On the trial of Loui 

 XVI., he endeavoured to refer the sentence to the 

 decision of the people, and voted for the king's death 

 proposing, at the same time, that the execution shoulc 

 be deferred till the constitution should be sanctionec 

 by the whole people in primary assemblies. In th 

 midst of the revolutionary ferment, the grour.i 

 whereon his party stood was insensibly underminec 

 After several charges had been brought against him 

 Robespierre accused him. May 28, 1793, of favouring 



federative constitution, with two parliaments, &c., 

 nd demanded that he should be brought before the 

 evolutionary tribunal. The 31st of May completed 

 is ruin. He endeavoured to reach Switzerland in 

 tie disguise of a merchant of Neufchatel, but was 

 rrested at Moulins, and led to the guillotine, in Paris, 

 October 3l, at the age of thirty-nine. He was a 

 reat admirer of the Americans, assumed the habits 

 f the Quakers, and introduced the fashion of wearing 

 he hair without powder. His personal qualities 

 were below his fame : he was, indeed, a leader among 

 he Girondists, but many others of this party were far 

 uperior to him in courage and talents. 



BRBSOTINS, or BRISSOTISTS ; a name sometimes given 

 to the Girondists (q. v.), from the subject of the pre- 

 ceding article. 



BRISTOL ; a city and county in itself, but locally 

 ituated in the hundred of Barton Regis, and extend- 

 ng into Somersetshire, to which last county, although 

 mproperly, it is generally held to belong. Like an- 

 cieiit Rome it is seated on seven hills, or elevations, 



hich diversify the surface of a vale, about eight 

 miles from the mouth of the river Avon, in the Bris- 

 ,ol channel, and at its confluence with the Frome. 

 was called Coder Oder by the ancient Britons, 

 meaning a frontier city; and it is supposed to be 

 noticed t>oth by Gildas in the fifth, and Nennius in 

 .he seventh century, as one of the fortified cities of 

 Britain. By the Saxons it was called Brightstowe, 

 signifying a pleasant place, whence its present deno- 

 mination ; and it is first unequivocally recognised by 

 listory in the reign of Athelstan. Its situation always 

 rendered it commercial, according to the nature of 

 the times, and in the eleventh century, it is said that 

 a mart was held here for the sale of English slaves 

 of both sexes ; a practice which, to the discredit of 

 Christianity and humanity, then prevailed. It was 

 encompassed with a wall, by Robert earl of Glouces- 

 ter, the illegitimate son of Henry I., and the same 

 able nobleman erected a strong castle, in which his 

 nephew Henry II. was partly educated. It received 

 a partial charter from the latter monarch, which was 

 confirmed and extended by John, and Henry III. 

 Edward III. constituted it a city and county in itself; 

 and Henry VIII. made it the seat of a bishopric. Its 

 privileges were still more extended by the charters 

 of Elizabeth and Charles I. Bristol, from the con- 

 quest downwards, has been rendered the scene of many 

 interesting historical events. It was maintained for the 

 parliament in the civil wars in the reign of the last- 

 mentioned unfortunate prince, but was successfully 

 stormed and taken by the royalists, commanded by 

 prince Rupert. It was, however, retaken, after the 

 battle of Naseby, by general Fairfax, and its formi- 

 dable castle razed to the ground, by order of Crom- 

 well. On the restoration it received a new charter 

 from Charles II., which was confirmed by queen 

 Anne, and is that under which the city is at present 

 governed. In 1831, Bristol was the scene ofia series 

 of frightful riots, which lasted for several days. The 

 custom house, the excise office, the bishop's palace, 

 the public jails, &c. were burned down, and many 

 lives were lost. The riots originated in Sir Charles 

 Wetherell, who had rendered himself very unpopular 

 by his opposition to the reform bill, stubbornly at- 

 tempting to make a public entry into the city as 

 recorder of the assizes. 



The old town, which now forms the heart of the 

 city, stands upon a narrow hill, bounded by the Avon 

 on the south, the Frome on the north and west, and 

 by the moat of the castle, now nearly arched over, on 

 the east. Of the eminences on which the city stands, 

 the highest are St Michael's Hill and Kingsdown, 

 which are 200 feet alwve the lower parts of the town. 

 At one time the ascent and descent were very incon> 



