Punch, and noteworthy among his numerous contributions were the weekly satirical summaries of the parliamentary debates, entitled " The Essence of Parliament." His long service as newspaper reporter gave him special aptitude for this playful parody. In 1870, on the death of Mark Lemon, " dear old Shirley," as his friends used to call him, was chosen to succeed to the editorial chair. He added to his reputation by several good novels, the first of which, Aspen Court, was published in 1855. It was followed by The Gordian Knot (1860), The Silver Cord (1861), and Sooner or Later (1868). Brooks was a great letter- writer, deliberately cultivating the practice as an art, and imitating the style in vogue before newspapers and tele graphs suppressed private letters. He had an astonishing memory, was brilliant as an epigrammatist, and was a great reader, and a most genial and admirable companion. Though he nearly reached his sixtieth year, he retained all the charm of youthful freshness and brightness. He was in his element with a group of children, reading to them, sharing their fun, and always remembering the birthdays. He died in London, February 23, 1874. His remains were interred, near those of his friends Leech and Thackeray, in Kensal Green cemetery. As a novelist Shirley Brooks holds a high rank, but not the highest. His novels prob ably suffered in some respects from the manner of their pro duction, the slow piece-meal writing for periodical literature. But they possess qualities of an order which will save them from the swift oblivion that overtakes so many books of their class. He shows in them a large knowledge of men, especially of Londoners, a fair acquaintance with the world of books and the world of art, a fertile imagination, and much critical acumen. And these qualities are set off to the best advantage by the charm of an admirably vigorous and polished style. In this respect, and in the force of his refined satire, he bears some likeness to his greater friend,
the author of Vanity Fair.BROOME, William, the coadjutor of Pope in translat ing the Odyssey, was horn at Haslington in Cheshire, in 1689. He was educated upon the foundation at Eton, and was captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy occurring by which he might have obtained a scholarship at King s College. Being by this delay super annuated, he was sent to St John s College by the contri butions of his friends, and obtained a small exhibition there. His fondness for metrical composition was then such that his companions familiarly called him " Poet." He appeared, early in the world as "a translator of the Iliad into prose, in conjunction with Ozell and Oldisworth, the translation being superior, in Toland s opinion, to that of Pope. Broome was introduced to Pope, who was then visiting Sir John Cotton at Madingley, near Cambridge, and gained so much of his esteem that he was employed to make extracts from Eustathius for the notes to the transla tion of the Iliad, and in the volumes of poetry published by Lintot, commonly called Pope s Miscellanies, many of his early pieces were inserted.
When the success of the Iliad gave encouragement to a version of the Odyssey, Pope, weary of the toil, called Fenton and Broome to his assistance; and taking only half the work upon himself, divided the other half between his partners, giving four books to Fenton and eight to Broome. To the lot of Broome fell the second, sixth, eighth, eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-third, together with the burden of writing all the notes. The price at which Pope purchased this assistance was 300 paid to Fenton and 500 to Broome, with as many copies as he wanted for his friends, which amounted to 100 more. The payment made to Fenton is known only by hearsay ; Broome s is very distinctly told by Pope in the notes to the Dunciad, It is evident that, according to Pope s own esti mate, Broome was unfairly treated. If four books could merit 300, eight, and all the notes, equivalent at least to four more, had certainly a right to more than 600. Broome probably considered himself as injured, for he always spoke of Pope as too much a lover of money, and Pope pursued him with avowed hostility. He not only named Broome disrespectfully in the Dunciad, but quoted him more than once in the Bathos, as a proficient in the art of sinking. It has been said that they were afterwards reconciled, but their peace was probably without friendship. Broome after wards published a Miscellany of Poems. He never rose to very high dignity in the church ; he became rector of Sturston in Suffolk, where he married a wealthy widow ; and afterwards, when the king visited Cambridge, in 1728, he was made doctor of laws. In the same year he was presented to the rectory of Pulham. Towards the close of his life he amused himself with translating some of the Odes of Anacreon, which he published in the Gentleman s Magazine, under the name of Chester. He died at Bath in 1745. (See T. W. Barlow, Memoir of William Broome, 1855.)
BROSELEY, formerly Buwardesley, a market-town on the Severn, in the county of Shropshire, 146 miles from London. It is a place of considerable trade in iron, having near it productive mines of that mineral, as well as of coal. There are also manufactories of tobacco-pipes, bricks, and tiles. Population of parish in 1871, 4639.
BROSSES, Charles de, first president of the parliament of Burgundy, was born at Dijon in 1709. He studied law with a view to the magistracy, but the bent of his mind was towards literature and the sciences. He travelled through Italy in 1739 in company with his friend M. de Sainte- Palaye ; and on his return to France published his Lettres sur VEtat Actuel de la Ville Sonterrctint d llercvlaneum, Dijon, 1750, Svo, which was the first work upon that inter esting subject. A collection of letters, written during his Italian tour, entitled Lettres Ilistoriques el Critiques, in three vols. Svo, was published at Paris after his death. In 1760 he published a dissertation, Sur le Culte des Dieux Fetiches, 12mo, which was afterwards inserted in the Encyclopedic Methodiqiie. At the solicitation of his friend Buffon, De Brosses undertook his Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, which was published in 1756, in two vols. 4to, with maps. It was in this work that M. de Brosses first laid down the geographical divisions of Australasia and Polynesia, which were afterwards adopted by Pinkerton and succeeding geographers. In 1765 appeared his Traite de la Formation Mecanique des Langues, a work distinguished by much research, and containing an admirable exposition of the purely empirical theory of the origin .of language. Full recognition of its merits will be found in Dr Tylor s work, Primitive Culture. M. de Brosses had been occupied, during a great part of his life, on a translation of Sallust, and in attempting to supply the lost chapters in that celebrated historian. At length in 1777, he published L llistoire d^l Septieme Siecle de la Repiiblique Romaine, 3 vols. 4to, to which is prefixed a learned life of Sallust, reprinted at the commencement of the translation of that historian by De Lamalle. These literary occupations did not prevent the author from discharging with ability his official duties, nor from carrying on a constant and exten sive correspondence with the most distinguished literary characters of his time. In 1758 he succeeded the Marquis de Caumont in the Academie de Belles Lettres ; but he was never admitted a member of the French Academy, in con sequence, it is said, of the opposition of Voltaire.
memoirs and dissertations in the collections of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in those of the Academy of Dijon. He also contributed various articles to the Dictionnaire
Encydopeclique, on the subjects of grammar, etymology,