BOYLE, THE HON.  ROBERT, a distinguished natural philosopher, born at Lismore, of the Orrery family; devoted his life and contributed greatly to science, especially chemistry, as well as pneumatics; was one of the originators of the “Royal Society”; being a student of theology, founded by his will an endowment for the “Boyle Lectures” in defence of Christianity against its opponents and rivals; refused the presidentship of the Royal Society, and declined a peerage (1626-1691).

BOYLE LECTURES, the lectureship founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle in 1691, and held for a tenure of three years, the endowment being L50 per annum; the lecturer must deliver eight lectures in defence of Christianity, and some of the most eminent men have held the post.

BOYLE’S LAW, that the volume of a gas is inversely as the pressure.

BOYNE, a river in Ireland, which flows through Meath into the Irish Sea; gives name to the battle in which William III. defeated the forces of James II. on 30th July 1690.

BOZ, a nom de plume under which Dickens wrote at first, being his nickname when a boy for a little brother.

BOZZY, Johnson’s familiar name for Boswell.

BRABANT, in mediaeval times was an important prov. of the Low Countries, inhabitants Dutch, cap.  Breda; is now divided between Holland and Belgium.  It comprises three provs., the N. or Dutch Brabant; Antwerp, a Belgian prov., inhabitants Flemings, cap.  Antwerp; and S. Brabant, also Belgian, inhabitants Walloons, cap.  Brussels; the whole mostly a plain.

BRACTON, HENRY DE, an English “justice itinerant,” a writer on English law of the 13th century; author of “De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae,” a “Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England,” and the first attempt of the kind; d. 1268.

BRADAMANTE, sister to Rinaldo, and one of the heroines in “Orlando Furioso”; had a lance which unhorsed every one it touched.

BRADDOCK, EDWARD, British general, born in Perthshire; entered the Coldstream Guards, and became major-general in 1754; commanded a body of troops against the French in America, fell in an attempt to invest Fort Duquesue, and lost nearly all his men (1695-1755).

BRADDON, MISS (Mrs. John Maxwell), a popular novelist, born in London; authoress of “Lady Audley’s Secret,” “Aurora Floyd,” and some 50 other novels; contributed largely to magazines; b. 1837.

BRADFORD (216), a Yorkshire manufacturing town, on a tributary of the Aire, 9 m.  W. of Leeds; it is the chief seat of worsted spinning and weaving in England, and has an important wool market; coal and iron mines are at hand, and iron-works and machinery-making are its other industries.  Also the name of a manufacturing town on the Avon, in Wilts.

BRADLAUGH, CHARLES, a social reformer on secularist lines, born in London; had a chequered career; had for associate in the advocacy of his views Mrs. Annie Besant; elected M.P. for Northampton thrice over, but not allowed to sit till he took the oath, which he did in 1886; died respected by all parties in the House of Commons; wrote the “Impeachment of the House of Brunswick” (1833-1891).