B R I 
BRISK'I.Y, adv. Actively; vigoroufly.—,We havefeen 
the air in the bladder fuddenly expand itfelf fo much, aud¬ 
io brijkly , th.at it manifeltly lifted-up fame light bodies that 
leaned upon it. Boyle. 
BRISK'NESS, /. Livelinefs; vigour; quick he fs.—: 
Some remains of corruption, though they do not conquer 
and extinguifh, yet will thicken and allay, the vigour and 
brifknefs of the renewed principle; South. —Gayety.—But 
the mod diftinguilhing part of his charafter teems to be 
his brifknefs-, his jollity, and hisgood-humoitr. Dryderi. ' 
BRISSAC', a town of France, in the department of 
the Mavne and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in the 
ditiribt of Vihers: four leagues and a quarter north of 
•Vihers, and two and three-quarters S.S.E. ol Angers. 
BRISSO'T (Peter), one of the abled pliyliciansof the 
16th century, born at Fontenoi-le-Comte in Poictou. He 
fludied at Paris ; and, having taken his doitor’s degree, 
turned his thoughts to the reforming of phylic, by redo- 
ring the precepts of Hippocrates and Galen, and explo¬ 
ding the maxims of the Arabians : to this purpole he pub¬ 
licly explained Galen’s works, indead of thofe of Avicen¬ 
na, Rhalis, and Melfue. He afterwards refolved to travel 
to acquire the knowledge of plants; and, going to Por¬ 
tugal, praftifed phylic in the city of Ebora. His new me¬ 
thod of bleeding in pleuri tie's, on the tide where the pleu- 
rify was, railed a kind of civil war among the Portuguefe 
phydeians; it was brought before the univerfity of Sala¬ 
manca, who at lad gave judgment, that the opinion aferi- 
• bed to Brilfot was the pure doctrine of Galen. The par- 
tizans of Denys, his opponent, appealed in 1529 to the 
emperor, to prevent the practice, as being attended with 
dedruftive confequences ; but Charles 111 . duke of Savoy 
happening to die at this time of a pleurify, after having 
been bled on the oppolite fide, the profecution dropped 
I-Ie wrote an Apology for his practice ; but died before it 
was publilhed, in 1552 ; but Anthony Luceus, his friend, 
printed it at Paris three years after. Renatus Moreau 
procured a new edition of it at Paris, in 1622; and an¬ 
nexed to it a treatife intitled De milTione Sanguinis in Pleu- 
ritide, together with the Lite of Brilfot. 
BRISSO'T (Jean Pierre), a celebrated partizan in the 
French revolution, was born on the 14th of January, 1754, 
in a village joining to Chartres, capital of the territory of 
Chartrain and Beauce, upon the river Eure. His father 
kept a cook’s (hop. His profits however enabled him to 
give this Ion (who was one among many brothers and fil¬ 
ters) a good education. Briffot tells the readers of his 
life that the bar opening a career to talent-, determined 
his father to. give the preference to that profedion; but lie 
took an averfion to the (tudy of quibbles, and applied him- 
felf wholly to the purfuits of literature. His own hiffory 
differs widely from the account Mr. Burke has given of 
him. While the former narrative deferibes him to have 
been afliduoufly occupied in the fciences, and enlarging 
the Hock of human knowledge, the latter fays, in his 
attimadverlions upon the revolution of France, “ This 
Brilfot had been in the lowed and bafelt employ under the 
depofed monarchy; a fort of thief-taker or fpy of police, 
in w hich character he aifted after the manner of perfons 
in that defeription. He had been employed by his mailer, 
the lieutenant de police, for a contiderable time in London 
in the fame, or fome fitch, honourable occupation.” But 
it is not likely the courfe Mr. Burke afligns to Briffot, 
could have allowed him leifure to coifipofe and print thofe 
books which we know are the productions of his pen. 
Nor is it probable that the firlt men in France, fuch as 
Condorcet, &c. would have been eager to alfo’ciate with 
a perfon who had followed fo mean .and difreputable a 
trade, whatever might have been the greatnefsor (trength 
of his natural genius. 
He affifted in conducing the Courier de l 1 Europe,' when 
printed both in England and in France; but the paper was 
fupprelfed, as far as the printing of it at Bologne, by or¬ 
der of the French mini (try. He then applied himfelf to 
the compofing works of a lefs tranlient nature than a newf- 
Vol.. III.. No. 138. 
B R I 409 
paper, and thefe'are to be found under his name, betides 
his two volumes on America and her'commerce ; “Theo¬ 
ry on the Criminal Laws,” 2 vols. Two difeourfes, one 
on “the Reform of the Criminal Code,” the other upon 
“the Reparation due to Innocent Perfons unjuftly hccuf- 
ed.” He publilhed a more elaborate performance of 'he 
fame nature, under the title of “ the Plylofophical Libra¬ 
ry of the Criminal Laws,” 10 vols. and laltly, “Thoughts’ 
on the Means of attaining-Truth in all the Branches of 
Human Knowledge.” Bur that which contributed more 
than any thing elfe to interelf his fellow-citizens in liis w el- 
fare, and more efpecially the literary part of them, was 
his imprifonment in the Baffile, July 1784, at the inftance 
of tha then mini (ter, for a libel on the government. Al¬ 
though he was releafed in a few months, he nevertheless 
felt molt feverelv this attack upon his liberty, for only ut¬ 
tering a truth, and he refolved to relent it by writing 
“Two Letters upon the Right of the People to Revolt, 
if oppreffed.” D. J. Garat, in his Memoirs of the Revo¬ 
lution, publilhed at Paris in 1795, lavs, and perhaps w ith 
truth, that “Briffot wrote more than he meditated.” Ga¬ 
rat was, notwithlfanding, the friend of Brilfot, and paints 
him in colours very diffiinilar to thofe which Mr. Burke 
employed. He fays “ Amidlt extraordinary activity and 
extreme poverty it appeared that his morals were always 
pure and limple, and that his views had no other bounds 
than the liberty and the welfare of the people he adds, 
“ thefe fentiments, and his turn of mind, were in him ra¬ 
ther religion than philolophy.” He does not deny, how¬ 
ever, that he was paflionately fond of glory ; and to third 
after diftindtion, without looking to any more latent osuife, 
may be aferibed his premature fall. If not a graceful 
orator, he was a correct fpeaker ; and this advantage alone 
could not fail to infpire attention and refpedt w henever he 
afeended the tribune. He was fully converfant with the 
diplomacy of Europe, and therefore his opinion refpedl- 
ing the connection of the fevenjl courts alw ays prevailed. 
While in the legiflative affembly he gave the firlt warlike 
movement to the nation, which he placed in an attitude 
of defence both as to foreign and domeltic enemies. Up¬ 
on the treachery of M. DeJeffart, on the notification of the 
emperor through the prince Kaunitz, he aroufed the af- 
feifibly, and the whole nation, to a fenfe of their fituation. 
“ We are (laid he) furrounded w ith treafon, and the trai¬ 
tors are at no great difiance from us.” He moved a decree 
on the irth of Aiiguft, 1792, that the fix minilters had 
lolt the confidence of the nation ; it palled the legillatnre, 
the tn nifters were difmilfed, and replaced by M. M. Ro¬ 
land, Lebrun, Clavierre, Servan, Monge, and Danton: 
five of thefe were his intimate friends. Such a prodigious 
difplay of influence mult neceffarily create much jealoufy 
and many enemies. The fyltem of Brilfot and his adhe¬ 
rents was now- ftigmatized as the diplomatic intrigues of 
the BriJ/ntins, fometimeS called alfo the Girondim ; becaufe 
the majority of his partifans were deputies for the depart¬ 
ment of the Gironde. The time of the convention was 
almoft wholly continued in the ftruggle for alcendancy by 
the two great parties, till by an ill-judged profecution of 
Marat, as a counter-revolutionifi, the fcale was fuddenly 
turned againlt Brilfot. Couthon moved the arrefi of the 
Brilfotins : twenty-one of the party (hared the fate of their 
chief, w hole execution took place on the 31 It of October, 
1793. Brilfot, in perfon, was of a middle height, rather 
delicate in frame, of a pale complexion, and remarkable 
for plainnefs of drefs. While in America he had imbib¬ 
ed the manners of a Quaker, and was not difpfeafed at 
being confidered as one of that perfuafion. His warmed 
panegyrift declares, that his heart was fo benevolent, that 
he would have facrificed his own life ten times to have been 
thought a fecond Penn, and contented to have been for¬ 
gotten for ever, if he could have m^de Paris a fecond 
Philadelphia. Though Brilfot did not vote for the death 
of the king, yet he drew' up the declaration relative to bis 
lufpenfion, and caufcd it to be accepted by the legiflatuie, 
and communicated to all the foreign powers. 
5M BRISTLE, 
