is grown largely in the east of the department and supplies the oil-works of Marseilles. The vine is also cultivated, the method of submersion being used as a safeguard against phylloxera. In the cantons of the north-west large quantities of early vegetables are produced. Of live-stock, sheep alone are raised to any extent. Almonds, figs, capers, mulberry trees and silkworms are sources of considerable profit. Iron is worked, but the most important mines are those of lignite, in which between 2000 and 3000 workmen are employed; the department also produces bauxite, building-stone, lime, cement, gypsum, clay, sand and gravel and marble. The salt marshes employ many workmen, and the amount of sea-salt obtained exceeds in quantity the produce of any other department in France. Marseilles, the capital, is by far the most important industrial town. In its oil-works, soap-works, metallurgical works, shipbuilding works, distilleries, flour-mills, chemical works, tanneries, engineering and machinery works, brick and tile works, manufactories of preserved foods and biscuits, and other industrial establishments, is concentrated most of the manufacturing activity of the department. To these must be added the potteries of the industrial town of Aubagne, the silk-works in the north-west cantons, and various paper and cardboard manufactories, while several of the industries of Marseilles, such as the distilling of oil, metal-founding, shipbuilding and soap-making, are common to the whole of Bouches-du-Rhône. Fishing is also an important industry. Cereals, flour, silk, woollen and cotton goods, wine, brandy, oils, soap, sugar and coffee are chief exports; cereals, oil-seeds, wine and brandy, raw sugar, cattle, timber, silk, wool, cotton, coal, &c., are imported. The foreign commerce of the department, which is principally carried on in the Mediterranean basin, is for the most part concentrated in the capital; the minor ports are Martigues, Cassis and La Ciotat. Internal trade is facilitated by the canal from Aries to Port-de-Bouc and two smaller canals, in all about 35 m. in length. The Rhone and the Petit-Rhône are both navigable within the department.
Bouches-du-Rhône is divided into the three arrondissements of Marseilles, Aix and Arles (33 cantons, 111 communes). It belongs to the archiepiscopal province of Aix, to the region of the XV. army corps, the headquarters of which are at Marseilles, and to the académie (educational division) of Aix. Its court of appeal is at Aix. Marseilles, Aix, Arles, La Ciotat, Martigues, Salon, Les Saintes-Maries, St Rémy, Les Baux and Tarascon, the principal places, are separately noticed. Objects of interest elsewhere may be mentioned. Near Saint-Chamas there is a remarkable Roman bridge over the Touloubre, which probably dates from the 1st century B.C. and is thus the oldest in France. It is supported on one semicircular span and has triumphal arches at either end. At Vernègues there are remains of a Roman temple known as the “Maison-Basse.” The famous abbey of Montmajour, of which the oldest parts are the Romanesque church and cloister, is 212 m. from Arles. At Orgon there are the ruins of a château of the 15th century, and near La Roque d’Anthéron the church and other buildings of the Cistercian abbey of Silvacane, founded in the 12th century.
BOUCHOR, MAURICE (1855–), French poet, was born on
the 15th of December 1855 in Paris. He published in succession
Chansons joyeuses (1874), Poèmes de l’amour et de la mer (1875),
Le Faust moderne (1878) in prose and verse, and Les Contes parisiens
(1880) in verse. His Aurore (1883) showed a tendency
to religious mysticism, which reached its fullest expression in
Les Symboles (1888; new series, 1895), the most interesting of his
works. Bouchor (whose brother, Joseph Félix Bouchor, b. 1853,
became well known as an artist) was a sculptor as well as a poet,
and he designed and worked the figures used in his charming
pieces as marionettes, the words being recited or chanted by
himself or his friends behind the scenes. These miniature dramas
on religious subjects, Tobie (1889), Noël (1890) and Sainte Cécile
(1892), were produced in Paris at the Théâtre des
Marionnettes. A one-act verse drama by Bouchor, Conte de Noël, was
played at the Théâtre Français in 1895, but Dieu le veut
(1888) was not produced. In conjunction with the musician
Julien Tiersot (b. 1857), he made efforts for the preservation of
the French folk-songs, and published Chants populaires pour les écoles (1897).
BOUCHOTTE, JEAN BAPTISTE NOËL (1754–1840), French
minister, was born at Metz on the 25th of December 1754. At
the outbreak of the Revolution he was a captain of cavalry, and
his zeal led to his being made colonel and given the command at
Cambrai. When Dumouriez delivered up to the Austrians the
minister of war, the marquis de Beurnonville, in April 1793,
Bouchotte, who had bravely defended Cambrai, was called by
the Convention to be minister of war, where he remained until the
31st of March 1794. The predominant rôle of the Committee of
Public Safety during that period did not leave much scope for the
new minister, yet he rendered some services in the organization
of the republican armies, and chose his officers with insight,
among them Kléber, Masséna, Moreau and Bonaparte. During
the Thermidorian reaction, in spite of his incontestable honesty,
he was accused by the anti-revolutionists. He was tried by the
tribunal of the Eure-et-Loire and acquitted. Then he withdrew
from politics, and lived in retirement until his death on the 8th
of June 1840.
BOUCICAULT, DION (1822–1890), Irish actor and playwright,
was born in Dublin on the 26th of December 1822, the son of a
French refugee and an Irish mother. Before he was twenty he was
fortunate enough to make an immediate success as a dramatist
with London Assurance, produced at Covent Garden on the
4th of March 1841, with a cast that included Charles Matthews,
William Farren, Mrs Nesbitt and Madame Vestris. He rapidly
followed this with a number of other plays, among the most
successful of the early ones being Old Heads and Young Hearts,
Louis XI., and The Corsican Brothers. In June 1852 he made his
first appearance as an actor in a melodrama of his own entitled
The Vampire at the Princess’s theatre. From 1853 to 1869 he
was in the United States, where he was always a popular favourite.
On his return to England he produced at the Adelphi a dramatic
adaptation of Gerald Griffin’s novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn.
This play, one of the most successful of modern
times, was performed in almost every city of the United Kingdom
and the United States, and made its author a handsome fortune,
which he lost in the management of various London theatres. It
was followed by The Octoroon (1861), the popularity of which was
almost as great. Boucicault’s next marked success was at the
Princess’s theatre in 1865 with Arrah-na-Pogue, in which he
played the part of a Wicklow carman. This, and his admirable
creation of Con in his play The Shaughraun (first produced at
Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of being the best
stage Irishman of his time. In 1875 he returned to New York
City and finally made his home there, but he paid occasional
visits to London, where his last appearance was made in his play,
The Jilt, in 1886. The Streets of London and After Dark were two
of his late successes as a dramatist. He died in New York on the
18th of September 1890. Boucicault was twice married, his first
wife being Agnes Robertson, the adopted daughter of Charles
Kean, and herself an actress of unusual ability. Three children,
Dion (b. 1859), Aubrey (b. 1868) and Nina, also became distinguished
in the profession.
BOUCICAUT, JEAN [Jean le Meingre, called Boucicaut] (c. 1366–1421), marshal of France, was the son of another Jean le Meingre, also known as Boucicaut, marshal of France, who died on the 15th of March 1368 (N.S.). At a very early age he became a soldier; he fought in Normandy, in Flanders and in Prussia, distinguishing himself at the battle of Roosebeke in 1382; and then after a campaign in Spain he journeyed to the Holy Land. Boucicaut’s great desire appears to have been to fight the Turk, and in 1396 he was one of the French soldiers who marched to the defence of Hungary and shared in the Christian defeat at Nicopolis, where he narrowly escaped death. After remaining for some months a captive in the hands of the sultan, he obtained his ransom and returned to France; then in 1399 he was sent at the head of an army to aid the Eastern emperor, Manuel II., who was harassed by the Turks. Boucicaut drove the enemy from his position before Constantinople and returned to France for fresh troops, but instead of proceeding
