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 again to eastern
Europe, he was despatched in 1401 to Genoa, who in 1396 had placed
herself under the dominion of France. Here he was successful in
restoring order and in making the French occupation effective, and he
was soon able to turn his attention to the defence of the Genoese
possessions in the Mediterranean. The energy which he showed in this
direction involved him not only in a quarrel with Janus, king of Cyprus,
but led also to a short war with Venice, whose fleet he encountered off
Modon in the Archipelago in October 1403. This battle has been claimed
by both sides as a victory. Peace was soon made with the republic, and
then in 1409, while the marshal was absent on a campaign in northern
Italy, Genoa threw off the French yoke, and Boucicaut, unable to reduce
her again to submission, retired to Languedoc. He fought at Agincourt,
where he was taken prisoner, and died in England. Boucicaut, who was
very skilful in the tournament, founded the order of the _Dame blanche a
l'ecu vert_, a society the object of which was to defend the wives and
daughters of absent knights.
There is in existence an anonymous account of Boucicaut's life and
adventures, entitled _Livre des faits du bon messire Jean le Meingre
dit Boucicaut_, which was published in Paris by T. Godefroy in 1620.
See J. Delaville le Roulx, _La France en Orient: expeditions du
marechal Boucicaut_ (Paris, 1886).
BOUDIN, EUGENE (1824-1898), French painter of the _paysage de mer_, was
the son of a pilot. Born at Honfleur he was cabin-boy for a while on
board the rickety steamer that plied between Havre and Honfleur across
the estuary of the Seine. But before old age came on him, Boudin's
father abandoned seafaring, and the son gave it up too, having of course
no real vocation for it, though he preserved to his last days much of a
sailor's character,--frankness, accessibility, open-heartedness. Boudin
the elder now established himself as stationer and frame-maker; this
time in the greater seaport town of Havre; and Eugene helped in the
little business, and, in stolen hours, produced certain drawings. That
was a time at which the romantic outlines of the Norman coast engaged
Isabey, and the green wide valleys of the inland country engaged Troyon;
and Troyon and Isabey, and Millet too, came to the shop at Havre. Young
Boudin found his desire to be a painter stimulated by their influence;
his work made a certain progress, and the interest taken in the young
man resulted in his being granted for a short term of years by the town
of his adoption a pension, that he might study painting. He studied
partly in Paris; but whatever individuality he possessed in those years
was hidden and covered, rather than disclosed. An instance of tiresome,
elaborate labour--good enough, no doubt, as groundwork, and not out of
keeping with what at least was the popular taste of that day--is his
"Pardon of Sainte Anne de la Palud," a Breton scene, of 1858, in which
he introduced the young Breton woman who was immediately to become his
wife. This conscientious and unmoving picture hangs in the museum of
Havre, along with a hundred later, fresher, thoroughly individual
studies and sketches, the gift of Boudin's brother, Louis Boudin, after
the painter's death. Re-established at Honfleur, Boudin was married and
poor. But his work gained character and added, to merely academic
correctness, character and charm. He was beginning to be himself by 1864
or 1865--that was the first of such periods of his as may be accounted
good--and, though not at that time so fully a master of transient
effects of weather as he became later, he began then to paint with a
success genuinely artistic the scenes of the harbour and the estuary,
which no longer lost vivacity by deliberate and too obvious
completeness. The war of 1870-71 found Boudin impecunious but great, for
then there had well begun the series of freshly and vigorously conceived
canvases and panels, which record the impressions of a precursor of the
Impressionists in presence of the Channel waters, and of those autumn
skies, or skies of summer, now radiant, now uncertain, which hung over
the small ports and the rocky or chalk-cliff coasts, over the
watering-places, Trouville, Dieppe, and over those larger harbours, with
_port_ and _avant-port_ and _bassin_, of Dunkirk, of Havre. In the war
time, Boudin was in Brittany and then in the Low Countries. About
1875-1876 he was at Rotterdam and Bordeaux. That great bird's-eye
vision of Bordeaux which is in the Luxembourg dates from these years,
and in these years he was at Rotterdam, the companion of Jongkind, with
whom he had so much in common, but whose work, like his, free and
fearless and unconventional, can never be said with accuracy to have
seriously influenced his own. Doing excellent things continually through
all the 'seventies, when he was in late middle age--gaining scope in
colour, having now so many notes--faithful no longer wholly to his
amazing range of subtle greys, now blithe and silvery, now nobly
deep--sending to the Salon great canvases, and to the few enlightened
people who would buy them of him the _toile_ or panel of most moderate
size on which he best of all expressed himself--Boudin was yet not
acceptable to the public or to the fashionable dealer. The late
'eighties had to come and Boudin to be elderly before there was a sale
for his work at any prices that were in the least substantial. Broadly
speaking his work in those very 'eighties was not so good as the labour,
essentially delicate and fresh and just, of some years earlier, nor had
it always the attractiveness of the impulsive deliverances of some years
later, when the inspired sketch was the thing that he generally stopped
at. Old age found him strong and receptive. Only in the very last year
of his life was there perceptible a positive deterioration. Not very
long before it, Boudin, in a visit to Venice, had produced impressions
of Venice for which much more was to be said than that they were not
Ziem's. And the deep colouring of the South, on days when the sunshine
blazes least, had been caught by him and presented nobly at Antibes and
Villefranche. At last, resorting to the south again as a refuge from
ill-health, and recognizing soon that the relief it could give him was
almost spent, he resolved that it should not be for him, in the words of
Maurice Barres, a "_tombe fleurie_," and he returned, hastily, weak and
sinking, to his home at Deauville, that he might at least die within
sight of Channel waters and under Channel skies. As a "marine
painter"--more properly as a painter of subjects in which water must
have some part, and as curiously expert in the rendering of all that
goes upon the sea, and as the painter too of the green banks of tidal
rivers and of the long-stretched beach, with crinolined Parisienne noted
as ably as the sailor-folk--Boudin stands alone. Beside him others are
apt to seem rather theatrical--or if they do not romance they appear,
perhaps, to chronicle dully. The pastels of Boudin--summary and economic
even in the 'sixties, at a time when his painted work was less
free--obtained the splendid eulogy of Baudelaire, and it was no other
than Corot who, before his pictures, said to him: "You are the master of
the sky."
See also Gustave Cahen, _Eugene Boudin_ (Paris, 1899); Arsene
Alexandre, _Essais_; Frederick Wedmore, _Whistler and Others_ (1906).
(F. We.)
BOUDINOT, ELIAS (1740-1821), American revolutionary leader, was born at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Huguenot descent, on the 2nd of May 1740.
He studied law at Princeton, New Jersey, in the office of Richard
Stockton, whose sister Hannah he married in 1762, and in November 1760
he was licensed as a counsellor and attorney-at-law, afterwards
practising at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. On the approach of the War of
Independence he allied himself with the conservative Whigs. He was a
deputy to the provincial congress of New Jersey from May to August 1775,
and from May 1777 until July 1778 was the commissary-general of
prisoners, with the rank of colonel, in the continental army. He was one
of the New Jersey members of the continental congress in 1778 and again
from 1781 until 1783, and from November 1782 until October 1783 was
president of that body, acting also for a short time, after the
resignation of Robert R. Livingston, as secretary for foreign affairs.
From 1789 to 1795 he sat as a member of the national House of
Representatives, and from 1795 until 1805 he was the director of the
United States mint at Philadelphia. He took an active part in the
founding of the American Bible Society in 1816, of which he became the
first president. He was a trustee and a benefactor of the college of New
Jersey (afterwards Princeton University). In reply to Thomas Paine's
_Age of Reason_, he published the _Age of Revelation_ (1790); he also
published a volume entitled _A Star in the West, or a Humble Attempt to
Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel_ (1816), in which he
endeavours to prove that the American Indians may be the ten lost
tribes. Boudinot died at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 24th of October
1821.
See _The Life, Public Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias
Boudinot_, edited by J.J. Boudinot (Boston and New York, 1896).
BOUE, AMI (1794-1881), Austrian geologist, was born at Hamburg on the
16th of March 1794, and received his early education there and in Geneva
and Paris. Proceeding to Edinburgh to study medicine at the university,
he came under the influence of Robert Jameson, whose teachings in
geology and mineralogy inspired his future career. Boue was thus led to
make geological expeditions to various parts of Scotland and the
Hebrides, and after taking his degree of M.D. in 1817 he settled for
some years in Paris. In 1820 he issued his _Essai geologique sur
l'Ecosse_, in which the eruptive rocks in particular were carefully
described. He travelled much in Germany, Austria and southern Europe,
studying various geological formations, and becoming one of the pioneers
in geological research; he was one of the founders of the Societe
Geologique de France in 1830, and was its president in 1835. In 1841 he
settled in Vienna, and became naturalized as an Austrian. He died on the
21st of November 1881. To the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna he
communicated important papers on the geology of the Balkan States
(1859-1870), and he also published _Memoires geologiques et
paleontologiques_ (Paris, 1832) and _La Turquie d'Europe; observations
sur la geographie, la geologie, l'histoire naturelle, &c._ (Paris,
1840).
BOUFFLERS, LOUIS FRANCOIS, DUC DE, comte de Cagny (1644-1711), marshal
of France, was born on the 10th of January 1644. He entered the army and
saw service in 1663 at the siege of Marsal, becoming in 1669 colonel of
dragoons. In the conquest of Lorraine (1670) he served under Marshal de
Crequi. In Holland he served under Turenne, frequently distinguishing
himself by his skill and bravery; and when Turenne was killed by a
cannon-shot in 1675 he commanded the rear-guard during the retreat of
the French army. He was already a brigadier, and in 1677 he became
_marechal de camp_. He served throughout the campaigns of the time with
increasing distinction, and in 1681 became lieutenant-general. He
commanded the French army on the Moselle, which opened the War of the
League of Augsburg with a series of victories; then he led a corps to
the Sambre, and reinforced Luxemburg on the eve of the battle of
Fleurus. In 1691 he acted as lieutenant-general under the king in
person; and during the investment of Mons he was wounded in an attack on
the town. He was present with the king at the siege of Namur in 1692,
and took part in the victory of Steinkirk. For his services he was
raised in 1692 to the rank of marshal of France, and in 1694 was made a
duke. In 1694 he was appointed governor of French Flanders and of the
town of Lille. By a skilful manoeuvre he threw himself into Namur in
1695, and only surrendered to his besiegers after he had lost 8000 of
his 13,000 men. In the conferences which terminated in the peace of
Ryswick he had a principal share. During the following war, when Lille
was threatened with a siege by Marlborough and Eugene, Boufflers was
appointed to the command, and made a most gallant resistance of three
months. He was rewarded and honoured by the king for his defence of
Lille, as if he had been victorious. It was indeed a species of triumph;
his enemy, appreciating his merits, allowed him to dictate his own terms
of capitulation. In 1708 he was made a peer of France. In 1709, when the
affairs of France were threatened with the most urgent danger, Boufflers
offered to serve under his junior, Villars, and was with him at the
battle of Malplaquet. Here he displayed the highest skill, and after
Villars was wounded he conducted the retreat of the French army without
losing either cannon or prisoners. He died at Fontainebleau on the 22nd
of August 1711.
See F...., _Vie du Mal. de Boufflers_ (Lille, 1852), and Pere
Delarue's and Pere Poisson's _Oraisons funebres du Mal. B._ (1712).
BOUFFLERS, STANISLAS JEAN, CHEVALIER DE (1737-1815), French statesman
and man of letters, was born near Nancy on the 31st of May 1738. He was
the son of Louis Francois, marquis de Boufflers. His mother, Marie
Catherine de Beauveau Craon, was the mistress of Stanislas Leszczynski,
and the boy was brought up at the court of Luneville. He spent six
months in study for the priesthood at Saint Sulpice, Paris, and during
his residence there he put in circulation a story which became extremely
popular, _Aline, reine de Golconde_. Boufflers did not, however, take
the vows, as his ambitions were military. He entered the order of the
Knights of Malta, so that he might be able to follow the career of arms
without sacrificing the revenues of a benefice he had received in
Lorraine from King Stanislas. After serving in various campaigns he
reached the grade of _marechal de camp_ in 1784, and in the next year
was sent to West Africa as governor of Senegal. He proved an excellent
administrator, and did what he could to mitigate the horrors of the
slave trade; and he interested himself in opening up the material
resources of the colony, so that his departure in 1787 was regarded as a
real calamity by both colonists and negroes. The _Memoires secrets_ of
Bachaumont give the current opinion that Boufflers was sent to Senegal
because he was in disgrace at court; but the real reason appears to have
been a desire to pay his debts before his marriage with Mme de Sabran,
which took place soon after his return to France. Boufflers was admitted
to the Academy in 1788, and subsequently became a member of the
states-general. During the Revolution he found an asylum with Prince
Henry of Prussia at Rheinsberg. At the Restoration he was made
joint-librarian of the Bibliotheque Mazarine. His wit and his skill in
light verse had won him a great reputation, and he was one of the idols
of the Parisian salons. His paradoxical character was described in an
epigram attributed to Antoine de Rivarol, "_abbe libertin, militaire
philosophe, diplomate chansonnier, emigre patriote, republicain
courtisan_." He died in Paris on the 18th of January 1815.
His _OEuvres completes_ were published under his own supervision in
1803. A selection of his stories in prose and verse was edited by
Eugene Asse in 1878; his _Poesies_ by O. Uzanne in 1886; and the
_Correspondance inedite de la comtesse de Sabran et du chevalier de
Boufflers_ (1778-1788), by E. de Magnieu and Henri Prat in 1875.
BOUGAINVILLE, LOUIS ANTOINE DE (1729-1811), French navigator, was born
at Paris on the 11th of November 1729. He was the son of a notary, and
in early life studied law, but soon abandoned the profession, and in
1753 entered the army in the corps of musketeers. At the age of
twenty-five he published a treatise on the integral calculus, as a
supplement to De l'Hopital's treatise, _Des infiniment petits_. In 1755
he was sent to London as secretary to the French embassy, and was made a
member of the Royal Society. In 1756 he went to Canada as captain of
dragoons and aide-de-camp to the marquis de Montcalm; and having
distinguished himself in the war against England, was rewarded with the
rank of colonel and the cross of St Louis. He afterwards served in the
Seven Years' War from 1761 to 1763. After the peace, when the French
government conceived the project of colonizing the Falkland Islands,
Bougainville undertook the task at his own expense. But the settlement
having excited the jealousy of the Spaniards, the French government gave
it up to them, on condition of their indemnifying Bougainville. He was
then appointed to the command of the frigate "La Boudeuse" and the
transport "L'Etoile," and set sail in December 1766 on a voyage of
discovery round the world. Having executed his commission of delivering
up the Falkland Islands to the Spanish, Bougainville proceeded on his
expedition, and touched at Buenos Aires. Passing through the Straits of
Magellan, he visited the Tuamotu archipelago, and Tahiti, where the
English navigator Wallis had touched eight months before. He proceeded
across the Pacific Ocean by way of the Samoan group, which he named the
Navigators Islands, the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands. His men
now suffering from scurvy, and his vessels requiring refitting, he
anchored at Buru, one of the Moluccas, where the governor of the Dutch
settlement supplied his wants. It was the beginning of September, and
the expedition took advantage of the easterly monsoon, which carried
them to Batavia. In March 1769 the expedition arrived at St Malo, with
the loss of only seven out of upwards of 200 men. Bougainville's account
of the voyage (Paris, 1771) is written with simplicity and some humour.
After an interval of several years, he again accepted a naval command
and saw much active service between 1779 and 1782. In the memorable
engagement of the 12th of April 1782, in which Rodney defeated the comte
de Grasse, near Martinique, Bougainville, who commanded the "Auguste,"
succeeded in rallying eight ships of his own division, and bringing them
safely into St Eustace. He was created _chef d'escadre_, and on
re-entering the army, was given the rank of _marechal de camp_. After
the peace he returned to Paris, and obtained the place of associate of
the Academy. He projected a voyage of discovery towards the north pole,
but this did not meet with support from the French government.
Bougainville obtained the rank of vice-admiral in 1791; and in 1792,
having escaped almost miraculously from the massacres of Paris, he
retired to his estate in Normandy. He was chosen a member of the
Institute at its formation, and returning to Paris became a member of
the Board of Longitude. In his old age Napoleon I. made him a senator,
count of the empire, and member of the Legion of Honour. He died at
Paris on the 31st of August 1811. He was married and had three sons, who
served in the French army.
Bougainville's name is given to the largest member of the Solomon
Islands, which belongs to Germany; and to the strait which divides it
from the British island of Choiseul. It is also applied to the strait
between Mallicollo and Espiritu Santo Islands of the New Hebrides group,
and the South American climbing plant _Bougainvillea_, often cultivated
in greenhouses, is named after him.
BOUGHTON, GEORGE HENRY (1834-1905), Anglo-American painter, was born in
England, but his parents went to the United States in 1839, and he was
brought up at Albany, N.Y. He studied art in Paris in 1861-62, and
subsequently lived mainly in London; he was much influenced by Frederick
Walker, and the delicacy and grace of his pictures soon made his
reputation. He was elected an A.R.A. in 1879, and R.A. in 1896, and a
member of the National Academy of Design in New York in 1871. His
pictures of Dutch life and scenery were especially characteristic; and
his subject-pictures, such as the "Return of the Mayflower" and "The
Scarlet Letter," were very popular in America.
BOUGIE, a seaport of Algeria, chief town of an arrondissement in the
department of Constantine, 120 m. E. of Algiers. The town, which is
defended by a wall built since the French occupation, and by detached
forts, is beautifully situated on the slope of Mount Guraya. Behind it
are the heights of Mounts Babor and Tababort, rising some 6400 ft. and
crowned with forests of pinsapo fir and cedar. The most interesting
buildings in the town are the ancient forts, Borj-el-Ahmer and
Abd-el-Kader, and the kasbah or citadel, rectangular in form, flanked by
bastions and towers, and bearing inscriptions stating that it was built
by the Spaniards in 1545. Parts of the Roman wall exist, and
considerable portions of that built by the Hammadites in the 11th
century. The streets are very steep, and many are ascended by stairs.
The harbour, sheltered from the east by a breakwater, was enlarged in
1897-1902. It covers 63 acres and has a depth of water of 23 to 30 ft.
Bougie is the natural port of Kabylia, and under the French rule its
commerce--chiefly in oils, wools, hides and minerals--has greatly
developed; a branch railway runs to Beni Mansur on the main line from
Constantine to Oran. Pop. (1906) of the town, 10,419; of the commune,
17,540; of the arrondissement, which includes eight communes, 37,711.
Bougie, if it be correctly identified with the Saldae of the Romans, is
a town of great antiquity, and probably owes its origin to the
Carthaginians. Early in the 5th century Genseric the Vandal surrounded
it with walls and for some time made it his capital. En-Nasr
(1062-1088), the most powerful of the Berber dynasty of Hammad, made
Bougie the seat of his government, and it became the greatest commercial
centre of the North African coast, attaining a high degree of
civilization. From an old MS. it appears that as early as 1068 the
heliograph was in common use, special towers, with mirrors properly
arranged, being built for the purpose of signalling. The Italian
merchants of the 12th and 13th centuries owned numerous buildings in the
city, such as warehouses, baths and churches. At the end of the 13th
century Bougie passed under the dominion of the Hafsides, and in the
15th century it became one of the strongholds of the Barbary pirates. It
enjoyed partial independence under amirs of Hafside origin, but in
January 1510 was captured by the Spaniards under Pedro Navarro. The
Spaniards strongly fortified the place and held it against two attacks
by the corsairs Barbarossa. In 1555, however, Bougie was taken by Salah
Rais, the pasha of Algiers. Leo Africanus, in his _Africae descriptio_,
speaks of the "magnificence" of the temples, palaces and other buildings
of the city in his day (c. 1525), but it appears to have fallen into
decay not long afterwards. When the French took the town from the
Algerians in 1833 it consisted of little more than a few fortifications
and ruins. It is said that the French word for a candle is derived from
the name of the town, candles being first made of wax imported from
Bougie.
BOUGUER, PIERRE (1698-1758), French mathematician, was born on the 16th
of February 1698. His father, John Bouguer, one of the best
hydrographers of his time, was regius professor of hydrography at
Croisic in lower Brittany, and author of a treatise on navigation. In
1713 he was appointed to succeed his father as professor of hydrography.
In 1727 he gained the prize given by the Academie des Sciences for his
paper "On the best manner of forming and distributing the masts of
ships"; and two other prizes, one for his dissertation "On the best
method of observing the altitude of stars at sea," the other for his
paper "On the best method of observing the variation of the compass at
sea." These were published in the _Prix de l'Academie des Sciences_. In
1729 he published _Essai d'optique sur la gradation de la lumiere_, the
object of which is to define the quantity of light lost by passing
through a given extent of the atmosphere. He found the light of the sun
to be 300 times more intense than that of the moon, and thus made some
of the earliest measurements in photometry. In 1730 he was made
professor of hydrography at Havre, and succeeded P.L.M. de Maupertuis as
associate geometer of the Academie des Sciences. He also invented a
heliometer, afterwards perfected by Fraunhofer. He was afterwards
promoted in the Academy to the place of Maupertuis, and went to reside
in Paris. In 1735 Bouguer sailed with C.M. de la Condamine for Peru, in
order to measure a degree of the meridian near the equator. Ten years
were spent in this operation, a full account of which was published by
Bouguer in 1749, _Figure de la terre determinee_. His later writings
were nearly all upon the theory of navigation. He died on the 15th of
August 1758.
The following is a list of his principal works:--_Traite d'optique sur
la gradation de la lumiere_ (1729 and 1760); _Entretiens sur la cause
d'inclinaison des orbites des planetes_ (1734); _Traite de navire,
&c._ (1746, 4to); _La Figure de la terre determinee, &c._ (1749), 4to;
_Nouveau traite de navigation, contenant la theorie et la pratique du
pilotage_ (1753); _Solution des principaux problemes sur la manoeuvre
des vaisseaux_ (1757); _Operations faites pour la verification du
degre du meridien entre Paris et Amiens_, par Mess. Bouguer, Camus,
Cassini et Pingre(1757).
See J.E. Montucla, _Histoire des mathematiques_ (1802).
BOUGUEREAU, ADOLPHE WILLIAM (1825-1905), French painter, was born at La
Rochelle on the 30th of November 1825. From 1843 till 1850 he went
through the course of training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and in 1850
divided the Grand Prix de Rome scholarship with Baudry, the subject set
being "Zenobia on the banks of the Araxes." On his return from Rome in
1855 he was employed in decorating several aristocratic residences,
deriving inspiration from the frescoes which he had seen at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, and which had already suggested his "Idyll" (1853). He also
began in 1847 to exhibit regularly at the Salon. "The Martyr's Triumph,"
the body of St Cecilia borne to the catacombs, was placed in the
Luxembourg after being exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855; and in
the same year he exhibited "Fraternal Love," a "Portrait" and a
"Study." The state subsequently commissioned him to paint the emperor's
visit to the sufferers by the inundations at Tarascon. In 1857
Bouguereau received a first prize medal. Nine of his panels executed in
wax-painting for the mansion of M. Bartholomy were much
discussed--"Love," "Friendship," "Fortune," "Spring," "Summer,"
"Dancing," "Arion on a Sea-horse," a "Bacchante" and the "Four Divisions
of the Day." He also exhibited at the Salon "The Return of Tobit" (now
in the Dijon gallery). While in antique subjects he showed much grace of
design, in his "Napoleon," a work of evident labour, he betrayed a lack
of ease in the treatment of modern costume. Bouguereau subsequently
exhibited "Love Wounded" (1859), "The Day of the Dead" (at Bordeaux),
"The First Discord" (1861, in the Club at Limoges), "The Return from the
Fields" (a picture in which Theophile Gautier recognized "a pure feeling
for the antique"), "A Fawn and Bacchante" and "Peace"; in 1863 a "Holy
Family," "Remorse," "A Bacchante teasing a Goat" (in the Bordeaux
gallery); in 1864 "A Bather" (at Ghent), and "Sleep"; in 1865 "An
Indigent Family," and a portrait of Mme Bartholomy; in 1866 "A First
Cause," and "Covetousness," with "Philomela and Procne"; and some
decorative work for M. Montlun at La Rochelle, for M. Emile Pereire in
Paris, and for the churches of St Clotilde and St Augustin; and in 1866
the large painting of "Apollo and the Muses on Olympus," in the Great
Theatre at Bordeaux. Among other works by this artist may be mentioned
"Between Love and Riches" (1869), "A Girl Bathing" (1870), "In Harvest
Time" (1872), "Nymphs and Satyrs" (1873), "Charity" and "Homer and his
Guide" (1874), "Virgin and Child," "Jesus and John the Baptist," "Return
of Spring" (which was purchased by an American collector, and was
destroyed by a fanatic who objected to the nudity), a "Pieta" (1876), "A
Girl defending herself from Love" (1880), "Night" (1883), "The Youth of
Bacchus" (1884), "Biblis" (1885), "Love Disarmed" (1886), "Love
Victorious" (1887), "The Holy Women at the Sepulchre" and "The Little
Beggar Girls" (1890), "Love in a Shower" and "First Jewels" (1891). To
the Exhibition of 1900 were contributed some of Bouguereau's best-known
pictures. Most of his works, especially "The Triumph of Venus" (1856)
and "Charity," are popularly known through engravings. "Prayer," "The
Invocation" and "Sappho" have been engraved by M. Thirion, "The Golden
Age" by M. Annetombe. Bouguereau's pictures, highly appreciated by the
general public, have been severely criticized by the partisans of a
freer and fresher style of art, who have reproached him with being too
content to revive the formulas and subjects of the antique. At the Paris
Exhibition of 1867 Bouguereau took a third-class medal, in 1878 a medal
of honour, and the same again in the Salon of 1885. He was chosen by the
Society of French Artists to be their vice-president, a post he filled
with much energy. He was made a member of the Legion of Honour in 1856,
an officer of the Order 26th of July 1876, and commander 12th of July
1885. He succeeded Isidore Pils as member of the Institute, 8th of
January 1876. He died on the 20th of August 1905.
See Ch. Vendryes, _Catalogue illustre des oeuvres de Bouguereau_
(Paris, 1885); Jules Claretie, _Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains_
(Paris, 1874); P.G. Hamerton, _French Painters; Artistes modernes:
dictionnaire illustre des beaux-arts_ (1885); "W. Bouguereau,"
_Portfolio_ (1875); Emile Bayard, "William Bouguereau," _Monde
moderne_ (1897).
BOUHOURS, DOMINIQUE (1628-1702), French critic, was born in Paris in
1628. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and was
appointed to read lectures on literature in the college of Clermont at
Paris, and on rhetoric at Tours. He afterwards became private tutor to
the two sons of the duke of Longueville. He was sent to Dunkirk to the
Romanist refugees from England, and in the midst of his missionary
occupations published several books. In 1665 or 1666 he returned to
Paris, and published in 1671 _Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugene_, a
critical work on the French language, printed five times at Paris, twice
at Grenoble, and afterwards at Lyons, Brussels, Amsterdam, Leiden, &c.
The chief of his other works are _La Maniere de bien penser sur les
ouvrages d'esprit_ (1687), _Doutes sur la langue francaise_ (1674), _Vie
de Saint Ignace de Loyola_ (1679), _Vie de Saint Francois Xavier_
(1682), and a translation of the New Testament into French (1697). His
practice of publishing secular books and works of devotion alternately
led to the _mot_, _"qu'il servait le monde et le ciel par semestre."_
Bouhours died at Paris on the 27th of May 1702.
See Georges Doucieux, _Un Jesuite homme de lettres au dix-septieme
siecle: Le pere Bouhours_ (1886). For a list of Bouhours' works see
Backer and Sommervogel, _Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus_, i.
pp. 1886 et seq.
BOUILHET, LOUIS HYACINTHE (1822-1869), French poet and dramatist, was
born at Cany, Seine Inferieure, on the 27th of May 1822. He was a
schoolfellow of Gustave Flaubert, to whom he dedicated his first work,
_Meloenis_ (1851), a narrative poem in five cantos, dealing with Roman
manners under the emperor Commodus. His volume of poems entitled
_Fossiles_ attracted considerable attention, on account of the attempt
therein to use science as a subject for poetry. These poems were
included also in _Festons et astragales_ (1859). As a dramatist he
secured a success with his first play, _Madame de Montarcy_ (1856),
which ran for seventy-eight nights at the Odeon; and _Helene Peyron_
(1858) and _L'Oncle Million_ (1860) were also favourably received. But
of his other plays, some of them of real merit, only the _Conjuration
d'Amboise_ (1866) met with any great success. Bouilhet died on the 18th
of July 1869, at Rouen. Flaubert published his posthumous poems with a
notice of the author, in 1872.
See also Maxime du Camp, _Souvenirs litteraires_ (1882); and H. de la
Ville de Mirmont, _Le Poete Louis Bouilhet_ (1888).
BOUILLE, FRANCOIS CLAUDE AMOUR, MARQUIS DE (1739-1800), French general.
He served in the Seven Years' War, and as governor in the Antilles
conducted operations against the English in the War of American
Independence. On his return to France he was named governor of the Three
Bishoprics, of Alsace and of Franche-Comte. Hostile to the Revolution,
he had continual quarrels with the municipality of Metz, and brutally
suppressed the military insurrections at Metz and Nancy, which had been
provoked by the harsh conduct of certain noble officers. Then he
proposed to Louis XVI. to take refuge in a frontier town where an appeal
could be made to other nations against the revolutionists. When this
project failed as a result of Louis XVI.'s arrest at Varennes, Bouille
went to Russia to induce Catherine II. to intervene in favour of the
king, and then to England, where he died in 1800, after serving in
various royalist attempts on France. He left _Memoires sur la Revolution
francaise depuis son origine jusqu'a la retraite du duc de Brunswick_
(Paris, 1801).
BOUILLON, formerly the seat of a dukedom in the Ardennes, now a small
town in the Belgian province of Luxemburg. Pop. (1904) 2721. It is most
picturesquely situated in the valley under the rocky ridge on which are
still the very well preserved remains of the castle of Godfrey of
Bouillon (q.v.), the leader of the first crusade. The town, 690 ft.
above the sea, but lying in a basin, skirts both banks of the river
Semois which is crossed by two bridges. The stream forms a loop round
and almost encircles the castle, from which there are beautiful views of
the sinuous valley and the opposite well-wooded heights. The whole
effect of the grim castle, the silvery stream and the verdant woods
makes one of the most striking scenes in Belgium. In the 8th and 9th
centuries Bouillon was one of the castles of the counts of Ardenne and
Bouillon. In the 10th and 11th centuries the family took the higher
titles of dukes of Lower Lorraine and Bouillon. These dukes all bore the
name of Godfrey (Godefroy) and the fifth of them was the great crusader.
He was the son of Eustace, count of Boulogne, which has led many
commentators into the error of saying that Godfrey of Bouillon was born
at the French port, whereas he was really born in the castle of Baisy
near Genappe and Waterloo. His mother was Ida d'Ardenne, sister of the
fourth Godfrey ("the Hunchback"), and the successful defence of the
castle when a mere youth of seventeen on her behalf was the first feat
of arms of the future conqueror of Jerusalem. This medieval fortress,
strong by art as well as position before the invention of modern
artillery, has since undergone numerous sieges. In order to undertake
the crusade Godfrey sold the castle of Bouillon to the prince bishop of
Liege, and the title of duke of Bouillon remained the appendage of the
bishopric till 1678, or for 580 years. The bishops appointed
"chatelains," one of whom was the celebrated "Wild Boar of the
Ardennes," William de la Marck. His descendants made themselves
quasi-independent and called themselves princes of Sedan and dukes of
Bouillon, and they were even recognized by the king of France. The
possession of Bouillon thenceforward became a constant cause of strife
until in 1678 Louis XIV. garrisoned it under the treaty of Nijmwegen.
From 1594 to 1641 the duchy remained vested in the French family of La
Tour d'Auvergne, one of whom (Henry, viscount of Turenne and marshal of
France) had married in 1591 Charlotte de la Marck, the last of her race.
In 1676 the duke of Crequy seized it in the name of Louis XIV., who in
1678 gave it to Godefroy Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne, whose descendants
continued in possession till 1795. Bouillon remained French till 1814,
and Vauban called it "the key of the Ardennes." In 1760 the elder
Rousseau established here the famous press of the Encyclopaedists. In
1814-1815, before the decrees of the Vienna Congress were known, an
extraordinary attempt was made by Philippe d'Auvergne of the British
navy, the cousin and adopted son of the last duke, to revive the ancient
duchy of Bouillon. The people of Bouillon freely recognized him, and
Louis XVIII. was well pleased with the arrangement, but the congress
assigned Bouillon to the Netherlands. Napoleon III. on his way to
Germany after Sedan slept one night in the little town, which is a
convenient centre for visiting that battlefield.
BOUILLOTTE, a French game of cards, very popular during the Revolution,
and again for some years from 1830. Five, four or three persons may
play; a piquet pack is used, from which, in case five play, the sevens,
when four the knaves, and when three the queens also, are omitted.
Counters or chips, as in poker, are used. Before the deal each player
"antes" one counter, after which each, the "age" passing, may "raise"
the pot; those not "seeing the raise" being obliged to drop out. Three
cards are dealt to each player, and a thirteenth, called the _retourne_,
when four play, turned up. Each player must then bet, call, raise or
drop out. When a call is made the hands are shown and the best hand
wins. The hands rank as follows: _brelan carre_, four of a kind, one
being the _retourne_; _simple brelan_, three of a kind, ace being high;
_brelan favori_, three of a kind, one being the _retourne_. When no
player holds a _brelan_ the hand holding the greatest number of pips
wins, ace counting 11, and court cards 10.
BOUILLY, JEAN NICOLAS (1763-1842), French author, was born near Tours on
the 24th of January 1763. At the outbreak of the Revolution he held
office under the new government, and had a considerable share in the
organization of primary education. In 1799 he retired from public life
to devote himself to literature. His numerous works include the musical
comedy, _Pierre le Grand_ (1790), for Gretry's music, and the opera,
_Les Deux Journees_ (1800), music by Cherubini; also _L'Abbe de l'epee_
(1800), and some other plays; and _Causeries d'un vieillard_ (1807),
_Contes a ma fille_ (1809), and _Les Adieux du vieux conteur_ (1835).
His _Leonore_ (1798) formed the basis of the libretto of the _Fidelio_
of Beethoven. Bouilly died in Paris on the 14th of April 1842.
See Bouilly, _Mes recapitulations_ (3 vols., 1836-1837); E. Legouve,
_Soixante ans de souvenir_ (lere partie, 1886).
BOULAINVILLIERS, HENRI, COMTE DE (1658-1722), French political writer,
was born at St Saire in Normandy in 1658. He was educated at the college
of Juilly, and served in the army until 1697. He wrote a number of
historical works (published after his death), of which the most
important were the following: _Histoire de l'ancien gouvernement de la
France_ (La Haye, 1727); _Etat de la France, avec des memoires sur
l'ancien gouvernement_ (London, 1727); _Histoire de la pairie de France_
(London, 1753); _Histoire des Arabes_ (1731). His writings are
characterized by an extravagant admiration of the feudal system. He was
an aristocrat of the most pronounced type, attacking absolute monarchy
on the one hand and popular government on the other. He was at great
pains to prove the pretensions of his own family to ancient nobility,
and maintained that the government should be entrusted solely to men of
his class. He died in Paris on the 23rd of January 1722.
BOULANGER, the name of several French artists:--JEAN (1606-1660), a
pupil of Guido Reni at Bologna, who had an academy at Modena; his cousin
JEAN (1607-1680), a celebrated line-engraver; the latter's son MATTHIEU,
another engraver; LOUIS (1806-1867), a subject-painter, the friend of
Victor Hugo, and director of the imperial school of art at Dijon; the
best-known, GUSTAVE RODOLPHE CLARENCE (1824-1888), a pupil of Paul
Delaroche, a notable painter of Oriental and Greek and Roman subjects,
and a member of the Institute (1882); and CLEMENT (1805-1842), a pupil
of Ingres.
BOULANGER, GEORGE ERNEST JEAN MARIE (1837-1891), French general, was
born at Rennes on the 29th of April 1837. He entered the army in 1856,
and served in Algeria, Italy, Cochin-China and the Franco-German War,
earning the reputation of being a smart soldier. He was made a
brigadier-general in 1880, on the recommendation of the duc d'Aumale,
then commanding the VII. army corps, and Boulanger's expressions of
gratitude and devotion on this occasion were remembered against him
afterwards when, as war minister in M. Freycinet's cabinet, he erased
the name of the due d'Aumale from the army list, as part of the
republican campaign against the Orleanist and Bonapartist princes. In
1882 his appointment as director of infantry at the war office enabled
him to make himself conspicuous as a military reformer; and in 1884 he
was appointed to command the army occupying Tunis, but was recalled
owing to his differences of opinion with M. Cambon, the political
resident. He returned to Paris, and began to take part in politics under
the aegis of M. Clemenceau and the Radical party; and in January 1886,
when M. Freycinet was brought into power by the support of the Radical
leader, Boulanger was given the post of war minister.
By introducing genuine reforms for the benefit of officers and common
soldiers alike, and by laying himself out for popularity in the most
pronounced fashion--notably by his fire-eating attitude towards Germany
in April 1887 in connexion with the Schnaebele frontier
incident--Boulanger came to be accepted by the mob as the man destined
to give France her revenge for the disasters of 1870, and to be used
simultaneously as a tool by all the anti-Republican intriguers. His
action with regard to the royal princes has already been referred to,
but it should be added that Boulanger was taunted in the Senate with his
ingratitude to the duc d'Aumale, and denied that he had ever used the
words alleged. His letters containing them were, however, published, and
the charge was proved. Boulanger fought a bloodless duel with the baron
de Lareinty over this affair, but it had no effect at the moment in
dimming his popularity, and on M. Freycinet's defeat in December 1886 he
was retained by M. Goblet at the war office. M. Clemenceau, however, had
by this time abandoned his patronage of Boulanger, who was becoming so
inconveniently prominent that, in May 1887, M. Goblet was not sorry to
get rid of him by resigning. The mob clamoured for their "brav'
general," but M. Rouvier, who next formed a cabinet, declined to take
him as a colleague, and Boulanger was sent to Clermont-Ferrand to
command an army corps. A Boulangist "movement" was now in full swing.
The Bonapartists had attached themselves to the general, and even the
comte de Paris encouraged his followers to support him, to the dismay of
those old-fashioned Royalists who resented Boulanger's treatment of the
duc d'Aumale. His name was the theme of the popular song of the
moment--"C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut"; the general and his black
horse became the idol of the Parisian populace; and he was urged to play
the part of a plebiscitary candidate for the presidency.
The general's vanity lent itself to what was asked of it; after various
symptoms of insubordination had shown themselves, he was deprived of
his command in 1888 for twice coming to Paris without leave, and finally
on the recommendation of a council of inquiry composed of five generals,
his name was removed from the army list. He was, however, almost at once
elected to the chamber for the Nord, his political programme being a
demand for a revision of the constitution. In the chamber he was in a
minority, since genuine Republicans of all varieties began to see what
his success would mean, and his actions were accordingly directed to
keeping the public gaze upon himself. A popular hero survives many
deficiencies, and neither his failure as an orator nor the humiliation
of a discomfiture in a duel with M. Floquet, then an elderly civilian,
sufficed to check the enthusiasm of his following. During 1888 his
personality was the dominating feature of French politics, and, when he
resigned his seat as a protest against the reception given by the
chamber to his revisionist proposals, constituencies vied with one
another in selecting him as their representative. At last, in January
1889, he was returned for Paris by an overwhelming majority. He had now
become an open menace to the parliamentary Republic. Had Boulanger
immediately placed himself at the head of a revolt he might at this
moment have effected the _coup d'etat_ which the intriguers had worked
for, and might not improbably have made himself master of France; but
the favourable opportunity passed. The government, with M. Constans as
minister of the interior, had been quietly taking its measures for
bringing a prosecution against him, and within two months a warrant was
signed for his arrest. To the astonishment of his friends, on the 1st of
April he fled from Paris before it could be executed, going first to
Brussels and then to London. It was the end of the political danger,
though Boulangist echoes continued for a little while to reverberate at
the polls during 1889 and 1890. Boulanger himself, having been tried and
condemned _in absentia_ for treason, in October 1889 went to live in
Jersey, but nobody now paid much attention to his doings. The world was
startled, however, on the 30th of September 1891 by hearing that he had
committed suicide in a cemetery at Brussels by blowing out his brains on
the grave of his mistress, Madame de Bonnemains (_nee_ Marguerite
Crouzet), who had died in the preceding July.
See also the article FRANCE: History; and Verly, _Le General Boulanger
et la conspiration monarchique_ (Paris, 1893). (H. Ch.)
BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE, ANTOINE JACQUES CLAUDE JOSEPH, COMTE (1761-1840),
French politician and magistrate, son of an agricultural labourer, was
born at Chamousey (Vosges) on the 19th of February 1761. Called to the
bar at Nancy in 1783, he presently went to Paris, where he rapidly
acquired a reputation as a lawyer and a speaker. He supported the
revolutionary cause in Lorraine, and fought at Valmy (1792) and
Wissembourg (1793) in the republican army. But his moderate principles
brought suspicion on him, and during the Terror he had to go into
hiding. He represented La Meurthe in the Council of Five Hundred, of
which he was twice president, but his views developed steadily in the
conservative direction. Fearing a possible renewal of the Terror, he
became an active member of the plot for the overthrow of the Directory
in November 1799. He was rewarded by the presidency of the legislative
commission formed by Napoleon to draw up the new constitution; and as
president of the legislative section of the council of state he examined
and revised the draft of the civil code. In eight years of hard work as
director of a special land commission he settled the titles of land
acquired by the French nation at the Revolution, and placed on an
unassailable basis the rights of the proprietors who had bought this
land from the government. He received the grand cross of the Legion of
Honour and the title of count, was a member of Napoleon's privy council,
but was never in high favour at court. After Waterloo he tried to obtain
the recognition of Napoleon II. He was placed under surveillance at
Nancy, and later at Halberstadt and Frankfort-on-Main. He was allowed to
return to France in 1819, but took no further active part in politics,
although he presented himself unsuccessfully for parliamentary election
in 1824 and 1827. He died in Paris on the 4th of February 1840. He
published two books on English history--_Essai sur les causes qui, en
1649, amenerent en Angleterre l'etablissement de la republique_ (Paris,
1799), and _Tableau politique des regnes de Charles II et Jacques II,
derniers rois de la maison de Stuart_ (The Hague, 1818)--which contained
much indirect criticism of the Directory and the Restoration
governments. He devoted the last years of his life to writing his
memoirs, which, with the exception of a fragment on the _Theorie
constitutionnelle de Sieyes_ (1836), remained unpublished.
His elder son, Comte HENRI GEORGES BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE (1797-1858), was
a constant Bonapartist, and after the election of Louis Napoleon to the
presidency, was named (January 1849) vice-president of the republic. He
zealously promoted popular education, and became in 1842 president of
the society for elementary instruction.
BOULDER, a city and the county-seat of Boulder county, Colorado, U.S.A.,
about 30 m. N.W. of Denver. Pop. (1890) 3330; (1900) 6150 (693
foreign-born); (1910) 9539. It is served by the Union Pacific, the
Colorado & Southern, and the Denver, Boulder & Western railways; the
last connects with the neighbouring mining camps, and affords fine views
of mountain scenery. Boulder lies about 5300 ft. above the sea on Middle
Boulder Creek, a branch of the St Vrain river about 30 m. from its
confluence with the Platte, and has a beautiful situation in the valley
at the foot of the mountains. The state university of Colorado,
established at Boulder by an act of 1861, was opened in 1877; it
includes a college of liberal arts, school of medicine (1883), school of
law (1892), college of engineering (1893), graduate school, college of
commerce (1906), college of education (1908), and a summer school
(1904), and has a library of about 42,000 volumes. There are a fine park
of 2840 acres, the property of the city, and three beautiful canons near
Boulder. At the southern limits, in a beautiful situation 400 ft. above
the city, are the grounds of an annual summer school, the Colorado
Chautauqua. The climate is beneficial for those afflicted with bronchial
and pulmonary troubles; the average mean annual temperature for eleven
years ending with 1907 was 51 deg. F. There are medicinal springs in the
vicinity. The water-works are owned and operated by the city, the water
being obtained from lakes at the foot of the Arapahoe Peak glacier in
the Snowy Range, 20 m. from the city. The surrounding country is
irrigated, and successfully combines agriculture and mining. There are
ore sampling works and brick-making establishments. Oil and natural gas
abound in the vicinity; there are oil refineries in the city; and in
Boulder county, especially at Nederland, 18 m. south-west, and at
Eldora, about 22 m. south-west of the city, has been obtained since 1900
most of the tungsten mined in the United States; the output in 1907 was
valued at about $520,000. The first settlement near the site of Boulder
was made in the autumn of 1858. Placer gold was discovered on an
affluent of Boulder Creek in January 1859. The town was laid out and
organized in February 1859, and a city charter was secured in 1871 and
another in 1882.
BOULDER (short for "boulder-stone," of uncertain origin; cf. Swed.
_bullersten_, a large stone which causes a noise of rippling water in a
stream, from _bullra_, to make a loud noise), a large stone, weathered
or water-worn; especially a geological term for a large mass of rock
transported to a distance from the formation to which it belongs.
Similarly, in mining, a mass of ore found at a distance from the lode.
BOULDER CLAY, in geology, a deposit of clay, often full of boulders,
which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are
found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial
Period in northern Europe and America. Boulder clay is variously known
as "till" or "ground moraine" (Ger. _Blocklehme_, _Geschiebsmergel_ or
_Grundmorane_; Fr. _argile a blocaux_, _moraine profonde_; Swed.
_Krosstenslera_). It is usually a stiff, tough clay devoid of
stratification; though some varieties are distinctly laminated.
Occasionally, within the boulder clay, there are irregular lenticular
masses of more or less stratified sand, gravel or loam. As the boulder
clay is the result of the abrasion (direct or indirect) of the older
rocks over which the ice has travelled, it takes its colour from them;
thus, in Britain, over Triassic and Old Red Sandstone areas the clay is
red, over Carboniferous rocks it is often black, over Silurian rock it
may be buff or grey, and where the ice has passed over chalk the clay
may be quite white and chalky (chalky boulder clay). Much boulder clay
is of a bluish-grey colour where unexposed, but it becomes brown upon
being weathered.
The boulders are held within the clay in an irregular manner, and they
vary in size from mere pellets up to masses many tons in weight. Usually
they are somewhat oblong, and often they possess a flat side or "sole";
they may be angular, sub-angular, or well rounded, and, if they are hard
rocks, they frequently bear grooves and scratches caused by contact with
other rocks while held firmly in the moving ice. Like the clay in which
they are borne, the boulders belong to districts over which the ice has
travelled; in some regions they are mainly limestones or sandstones; in
others they are granite, basalts, gneisses, &c.; indeed, they may
consist of any hard rock. By the nature of the contained boulders it is
often possible to trace the path along which a vanished ice-sheet moved;
thus in the Glacial drift of the east coast of England many Scandinavian
rocks can be recognized.
With the exception of foraminifera which have been found in the boulder
clay of widely separated regions, fossils are practically unknown; but
in some maritime districts marine shells have been incorporated with the
clay. See GLACIAL PERIOD; and GLACIER.
BOULE (Gr. [Greek: boulae], literally "will," "advice"; hence a
"council"), the general term in ancient Greece for an advisory council.
In the loose Homeric state, as in all primitive societies, there was a
council of this kind, probably composed of the heads of families, i.e.
of the leading princes or nobles, who met usually on the summons of the
king for the purpose of consultation. Sometimes, however, it met on its
own initiative, and laid suggestions before the king. It formed a means
of communication between the king and the freemen assembled in the
Agora. In Dorian states this aristocratic form of government was
retained (for the Spartan Council of Elders see GEROUSIA). In Athens the
ancient council was called the Boule until the institution of a
democratic council, or committee of the Ecclesia, when, for purposes of
distinction, it was described as "the Boule on the Areopagus," or, more
shortly, "the Areopagus" (q.v.). It must be clearly understood that the
second, or Solonian Boule, was entirely different from the Areopagus
which represented the Homeric Council of the King throughout Athenian
history, even after the "mutilation" carried out by Ephialtes. Further,
it is, as will appear below, a profound mistake to call the second Boule
a "senate." There is no real analogy between the Roman senate and the
Athenian council of Five Hundred.
Before describing the Athenian Boule, the only one of its kind of which
we have even fairly detailed information, it is necessary to mention
that councils existed in other Greek states also, both oligarchic and
democratic. A Boule was in the first place a necessary part of a Greek
oligarchy; the transition from monarchy to oligarchy was nominally begun
by the gradual transference of the powers of the monarch to the Boule of
nobles. Further, in the Greek democracy, the larger democratic Boule was
equally essential. The general assembly of the people was utterly
unsuited to the proper management of state affairs in all their
minutiae. We therefore find councils of both kinds in almost all the
states of Greece. (1) At Corinth we learn that there was an oligarchic
council of unknown numbers presided over by eight leaders (Nicol.
Damasc. _Frag_. 60). It was probably like the old Homeric council,
except that its constitution did not depend on a birth qualification,
but on a high census. This was natural in Corinth where, according to
Herodotus (ii. 167), mercantile pursuits bore no stigma. (2) From an
inscription we learn that the Athenians, in imposing a constitution on
Erythrae (about 450 B.C.), included a council analogous to their own.
(3) In Elis (Thuc. v. 47) there was an aristocratic council of ninety,
which was superseded by a popular council of six hundred (471). (4)
Similarly in Argos there were an aristocratic council of eighty and
later a popular council of much larger size (Thuc. v. 47). Councils are
also found at (5) Rhodes, (6) Megalopolis (democratic), (7) Corcyra
(democratic), (Thuc. iii. 70). Of these seven the most instructive is
that of Erythrae, which proves that in the 5th century the Council of
Five Hundred was so efficient in Athens that a similar body was imposed
at Erythrae (and probably in the other tributary cities).
_The Boule at Athens. History._--The origin of the second Boule, or
Council of Four Hundred, at Athens is involved in obscurity. In the
Aristotelian _Constitution of Athens_ (c. 4), it is stated that Draco
established a council of 401, and that he transferred to it some of the
functions of the Council of Areopagus (q.v.). It is, however, generally
held (see DRACO) that this statement is untrue, and that it was Solon
who first established the council as a part of the constitution.
Thirdly, it has been held that the council was not invented either by
Draco or by Solon, but was of older and unknown origin. Fourthly, it has
also been maintained by some recent writers that no Boule existed before
Cleisthenes. The principal evidence for this view is the omission of any
reference to the Boule in one of the earliest Athenian inscriptions,
that relating to Salamis (Hicks and Hill, No. 4), where in place of the
customary formula of a later age, [Greek: hedoxe tae boulae kai to
daemo], we have the formula [Greek: edochsen to daemo]. This argument is
far from conclusive, and it is clear from the _Constitution_ (c. 20)
that the resistance of the Boule to Cleomenes and Isagoras was anterior
to the legislation of Cleisthenes (i.e. that the Boule in question was
the Solonian and not the Cleisthenian). On the whole it is reasonable to
conclude that it was Solon who invented the Boule to act as a
semi-democratic check upon the democracy, whose power he was increasing
at the expense of the oligarchs by giving new powers to the people in
the Ecclesia and the Dicasteries. Practically nothing is known of the
operations of this council until the struggle between Isagoras and
Cleisthenes (Herod, v. 72). Solon's council had been based on the four
Ionic tribes. When Cleisthenes created the new ten tribes in order to
destroy the local influence of dominant families and to give the country
demes a share in government, he changed the Solonian council into a body
of 500 members, 50 from each tribe. This new body (see below) was the
keystone of the Cleisthenean democracy, and may be said in a sense to
have embodied the principle of local representation. After Cleisthenes,
the council remained unaltered till 306 B.C., when, on the addition of
two new tribes named after Antigonus and his son, Demetrius Poliorcetes,
its numbers were increased to 600. In A.D. 126-127 the old number of 500
was restored. A council of 750 members is mentioned in an inscription of
the early 3rd century A.D., and about A.D. 400 the number of councillors
had fallen to 300.
Solon's council.
Cleisthenes' council.
_Constitution and Functions._--(a) Under Solon the council consisted of
400 members, 100 from each of the four Ionic tribes. It is certain that
all classes were eligible except the Thetes, but the method of
appointment is not known. Three suggestions have been made, (1) that
each tribe chose its representatives, (2) that they were chosen by lot
from qualified citizens in rotation, (3) that the combined method of
selection by lot from a larger number of elected candidates was
employed. According to the passage in Plutarch's _Solon_ the functions
of this body were from the first _probouleutic_ (i.e. it prepared the
business for the Ecclesia). Others hold that this function was not
assigned to it until the Cleisthenean reforms. When we consider,
however, the double danger of leaving the Ecclesia in full power, and
yet under the presidency of the aristocratic archons, it seems probable
that the probouleutic functions were devised by Solon as a method of
maintaining the balance. On this hypothesis the Solonian Boule was from
the first what it certainly was later, a _committee_ of the Ecclesia,
i.e. not a "senate." It may be regarded as certain that the system of
Prytaneis was the invention of Cleisthenes, not of Solon. (b) Under
Cleisthenes the council reached its full development as a democratic
representative body. Its actual organization is still uncertain, but it
may be inferred that it became gradually a more strictly self-existent
body than the Solonian council. Every full citizen of thirty years of
age was eligible, and, unlike other civil offices, it was permissible to
serve twice, but not more than twice (_Ath. Pol._ c. 62). It may be
regarded as certain, although our evidence is derived from inscriptions
which date from the 3rd century B.C., that from the first the Bouleutae
were appointed by the demes, in numbers proportionate to the size of the
deme, and that from the first also the method of sortition was employed.
For each councillor chosen by lot, a substitute was chosen in case of
death or disgrace. After nomination each had to pass before the old
council an examination in which the whole of his private life was
scrutinized. After this, the councillors had to take an oath that they
(1) would act according to the laws, (2) would give the best advice in
their power, and (3) would carry out the examination of their successors
in an impartial spirit. As symbols of office they wore wreaths; they
received payment originally at the rate of one drachma a day,[1] at the
end of the 4th century of five obols a day. At the end of the year of
office each councillor had to render an account of his work, and if the
council had done well the people voted crowns of honour. Within its own
sphere the council exercised disciplinary control over its members by
the device known as _Ecphyllophoria_; it could provisionally suspend a
member, pending a formal trial before the whole council assembled _ad
hoc_. The council had further a complete system of scribes or
secretaries (_grammateis_), private treasury officials, and a paid
herald who summoned the Boule and the Ecclesia. The meetings took place
generally in the council hall (_Bouleuterion_), but on special occasions
in the theatre, the stadium, the dockyards, the Acropolis or the
Theseum. They were normally public, the audience being separated by a
barrier, but on occasions of peculiar importance the public was
excluded.
Prytaneis.
The Ecclesia, owing to its size and constitution, was unable to meet
more than three or four times a month; the council, on the other hand,
was in continuous session, except on feast days. It was impossible that
the Five Hundred should all sit every day, and, therefore, to facilitate
the despatch of business, the system of Prytaneis was introduced,
probably by Cleisthenes. By this system the year was divided into ten
equal periods. During each of these periods the council was represented
by the fifty councillors of one of the ten tribes, who acted as a
committee for carrying on business for a tenth of the year. Each of
these committees was led by a president (_Epistates_), who acted as
chairman of the Boule and the Ecclesia also, and a third of its numbers
lived permanently during their period of office in the Tholos (Dome) or
Skias, a round building where they (with certain other officials and
honoured citizens) dined at the public expense. In 378-377 B.C. (or
perhaps in the archonship of Eucleides, 403) the presidency of the
Ecclesia was transferred to the _Epistates of the Proedri_, the
_Proedri_ being a body of nine chosen by lot by the Epistates of the
Prytaneis from the remaining nine tribes. It was the duty of the Boule
(i.e. the Prytany which was for the time in session) to prepare all
business for the consideration of the Ecclesia. Their recommendation
([Greek: probouleuma]) was presented to the popular assembly (for
procedure, see ECCLESIA), which either passed it as it stood or made
amendments subject to certain conditions. It must be clearly understood
that the recommendation of the council had no intrinsic force until by
the votes of the Ecclesia it passed into law as a psephism. But in
addition to this function, the Council of the Five Hundred had large
administrative and judicial control. (1) It was before the council that
the Poletae arranged the farming of public revenues, the receipt of
tenders for public works and the sale of confiscated property; further,
it dealt with defaulting collectors ([Greek: eklogeis]), exacted the
debts of private persons to the state, and probably drew up annual
estimates. (2) It supervised the treasury payments of the Apodectae
("Receivers") and the "Treasurers of the God." (3) From Demosthenes (_In
Androt_.) it is clear that it had to arrange for the provision of so
many triremes per annum and the award of the trierarchic crown. (4) It
arranged for the maintenance of the cavalry and the special levies from
the demes. (5) It heard certain cases of _eisangelia_ (impeachment) and
had the right to fine up to 500 drachmas, or hand the case over to the
Heliaea. The cases which it tried were mainly prosecutions for crimes
against the state (e.g. treason, conspiracy, bribery). In later times it
acted mainly as a court of first instance. Subsequently (_Ath. Pol._ c.
45) its powers were limited and an appeal was allowed to the popular
courts. (6) The council presided over the _dokimasia_ (consideration of
fitness) of the magistrates; this examination, which was originally
concerned with a candidate's moral and physical fitness, degenerated
into a mere inquiry into his politics. (7) In foreign affairs the
council as the only body in permanent session naturally received foreign
envoys and introduced them to the Ecclesia. Further, the Boule, with
the Strategi ("Generals"), took treaty oaths, after the Ecclesia had
decided on the terms. The Xenophontic _Politeia_ states that the council
of the 5th century was "concerned with war," but in the 4th century it
chiefly supervised the docks and the fleet. On two occasions at least
the council was specially endowed with full powers; Demosthenes (_De
Fals. Leg._ p. 389) states that the people gave it full powers to send
ambassadors to Philip, and Andocides (_De Myst._ 14 foil.) states that
it had full power to investigate the affair of the mutilation of the
Hermae on the night before the sailing of the Sicilian Expedition.
It will be seen that this democratic council was absolutely essential to
the working of the Athenian state. Without having any final legislative
authority, it was a necessary part of the legislative machinery, and it
may be regarded as certain that a large proportion of its
recommendations were passed without alteration or even discussion by the
Ecclesia. The Boule; was, therefore, in the strict sense a committee of
the Ecclesia, and was immediately connected with a system of
sub-committees which exercised executive functions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--With this article compare ECCLESIA, STRATEGUS, ARCHON,
DRACO, SOLON, CLEISTHENES, where collateral information is given.
Besides the chief histories of Greece (Grote, ed. 1907, Meyer &c.),
see Gilbert, _Constitutional Antiquities_ (Eng. trans. by E.J. Brooks
and T. Nicklin, 1895); J.B. Bury, _History of Greece_ (1900); A.H.J.
Greenidge _Handbook of Greek Constitutional History_ (1896); J.E.
Sandys' edition of the _Constitution of Athens_; Boeckh, _Die
Staatshaushaltung der Athener_ (1886); Schumann, _Griechische
Altertumer_ (1897-1902); Busolt, _Die griechischen Staats- und
Rechtsaltertumer_ (1902). See also H. Swoboda, _Die griechischen
Volksbeschlusse_ (1890); Szanto, _Das griechische Burgerrecht_ (1892);
Perrot, _Essai sur le droit public d'Athenes_ (1869). It should be
observed that all works published before 1891 are so far useless that
they are without the information contained in the _Constitution of
Athens_ (q.v.). See also GREEK LAW. (J. M. M.)