award of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the other in that of the Scottish Society of Arts.
BRISBANE, the capital of Queensland, Australia. It is situated in Stanley county, on the banks of the river Brisbane, 25 m. from its mouth in Moreton Bay. It is built on a series of hills rising from the river-banks, but some parts of it, such as Woollongabba and South Brisbane, occupy low-lying flats, which have sometimes been the scene of disastrous floods. The main streets and principal buildings of the city are situated on a tongue of land formed by a southward bend of the river. The extremity of the tongue, however, is open. Here, adjoining one another, are the botanical gardens, the grounds surrounding Government House, the official residence of the governor of the colony, and the Houses of Parliament, and Queen’s Park, which is used as a recreation ground. From this park Albert Street runs for about three-quarters of a mile through the heart of the city, leading to Albert Park, in which is the observatory. Queen’s Street, the main thoroughfare of Brisbane, crosses Albert Street midway between the two parks and leads across the Victoria Bridge to the separate city of South Brisbane on the other side of the river. The Victoria Bridge is a fine steel structure, which replaced the bridge swept away by floods in February 1893. Brisbane has a large number of buildings of architectural merit, though in some cases their effect is marred by the narrowness of the streets in which they stand. Among the most prominent are the Houses of Parliament, the great domed custom-house on the river-bank, the lands office, the general post-office, the town halls of Brisbane and South Brisbane, and the opera house. The Roman Catholic cathedral of St Stephen (Elizabeth Street) is an imposing building, having a detached campanile containing the largest bell in Australia. The foundation-stone of the Anglican cathedral, on an elevated site in Ann Street, was laid by the prince of Wales (as duke of York) in 1901. The city is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop and of an Anglican bishop. Many of the commercial and private buildings are also worthy of notice, especially the Queensland National Bank, a classic Italian structure, the massive treasury buildings, one of the largest erections in Australia, the Queensland Club with its wide colonnades in Italian Renaissance style, and the great buildings of the Brisbane Newspaper Company. Brisbane is well provided with parks and open spaces; the Victoria Park and Bowen Park are the largest; the high-lying Mount Coot-tha commands fine views, and there are other parks and numerous recreation grounds in various parts of the city, besides the admirable botanical gardens and the gardens of the Acclimatization Society. Electric tramways and omnibuses serve all parts of the city, and numerous ferries ply across the river. There is railway communication to north, south and west. By careful dredging, the broad river is navigable as far as Brisbane for ocean-going vessels, and the port is the terminal port for the Queensland mail steamers to Europe, and is visited by steamers to China, Japan and America, and for various inter-colonial lines. There is wharf accommodation on both banks of the river, a graving dock which can be used by vessels up to 5000 tons, and two patent slips which can take up ships of 1000 and 400 tons respectively. The exports are chiefly coal, sheep, tallow, wool, frozen meat and hides. The annual value of imports and exports exceeds seven and nine millions sterling respectively. There are boot factories, soap works, breweries, tanneries, tobacco works, &c. The climate is on the whole dry and healthy, but during summer the temperature is high, the mean shade temperature being about 70° F.
Brisbane was founded in 1825 as a penal settlement, taking its name from Sir Thomas Brisbane, then governor of Australia; in 1842 it became a free settlement and in 1859 capital of Queensland, the town up to that time having belonged to New South Wales. It was incorporated in the same year. South Brisbane became a separate city in 1903. The municipal government of the city, and also of South Brisbane, is in the hands of a mayor and ten alderman; the suburbs are controlled by shire councils and divisional boards. The chief suburbs are Kangaroo Point, Fortitude Valley, New Farm, Red Hill, Paddington, Milon, Toowong, Breakfast Creek, Bulimba, Woolongabba, Highgate and Indooroopilly. The population of the metropolitan area in 1901 was 119,907; of the city proper, 28,953; of South Brisbane, 25,481.
BRISEUX, CHARLES ÉTIENNE (c. 1680–1754), French architect. He was especially successful as a designer of internal decorations—mantelpieces, mirrors, doors and overdoors, ceilings, consoles, candelabra, wall panellings and other fittings, chiefly in the Louis Quinze mode. He was also an industrious writer on architectural subjects. His principal works are:—L’Architecture moderne (2 vols., 1728); L’Art de bâtir les maisons de campagne (2 vols., 1743); Traité du beau essentiel dans les arts, appliqué particulièrement à l’architecture (1752); and Traité des proportions harmoniques.
BRISSAC, DUKES OF. The fief of Brissac in Anjou was acquired at the end of the 15th century by a noble French family named Cossé belonging to the same province. René de Cossé married into the Gouffier family, just then very powerful at court, and became premier panelier (chief pantler) to Louis XII. Two of his sons were marshals of France. Brissac was made a countship in 1560 for Charles, the eldest, who was grandmaster of artillery, and governor of Piedmont and of Picardy. The second, Artus, who held the offices of grand panetier of France and superintendent of finance, distinguished himself in the religious wars. Charles II. de Cossé fought for the League, and as governor of Paris opened the gates of that town to Henry IV., who created him marshal of France in 1594. Brissac was raised to a duchy in the peerage of France in 1611. Louis Hercule Timoléon de Cossé, duc de Brissac, and commandant of the constitutional guard of Louis XVI., was killed at Versailles on the 9th of September 1792 for his devotion to the king.
(M. P.*)
BRISSON, EUGÈNE HENRI (1835–), French statesman, was born at Bourges on the 31st of July 1835. He followed his father’s profession of advocate, and having made himself conspicuous in opposition during the last days of the empire, was appointed deputy-mayor of Paris after its overthrow. He was elected to the Assembly on the 8th of February 1871, as a member of the extreme Left. While not approving of the Commune, he was the first to propose amnesty for the condemned (on the 13th of September 1871), but the proposal was voted down. He strongly supported obligatory primary education, and was a firm anti-clerical. He was president of the chamber from 1881—replacing Gambetta—to March 1885, when he became prime minister upon the resignation of Jules Ferry; but he resigned when, after the general elections of that year, he only just obtained a majority for the vote of credit for the Tongking expedition. He remained conspicuous as a public man, took a prominent part in exposing the Panama scandals, was a powerful candidate for the presidency after the murder of President Carnot in 1894, and was again president of the chamber from December 1894 to 1898. In June of the latter year he formed a cabinet when the country was violently excited over the Dreyfus affair; his firmness and honesty increased the respect in which he was already held by good citizens, but a chance vote on an occasion of especial excitement overthrew his ministry in October. As one of the leaders of the radicals he actively supported the ministries of Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes, especially concerning the laws on the religious orders and the separation of church and state. In 1899 he was a candidate for the presidency. In May 1906 he was elected president of the chamber of deputies by 500 out of 581 votes.
BRISSON, MATHURIN JACQUES (1723–1806), French zoologist and natural philosopher, was born at Fontenay le Comte on the 30th of April 1723. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including Le Règne animal (1756) and Ornithologie (1760). After the death of R. A. F. Réaumur (1683–1757), whose assistant he was, he abandoned natural history, and was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Navarre and later at Paris. His most important work in this department was his Poids spécifiques des corps (1787), but he published several other books on physical subjects which were in considerable repute for a time. He died at Croissy near Paris, on the 23rd of June 1806.
