BRUSSELS (477), on the Senne, 27 m.  S. of Antwerp, is the capital of Belgium, in the heart of the country.  The old town is narrow and crooked, but picturesque; the town-hall a magnificent building.  The new town is well built, and one of the finest in Europe.  There are many parks, boulevards, and squares; a cathedral, art-gallery, museum and library, university and art schools.  It is Paris in miniature.  The manufactures include linen, ribbons, and paper; a ship-canal and numerous railways foster commerce.

BRUTUS, LUCIUS JUNIUS, the founder of Republican Rome, in the 6th century B.C.; affected idiocy (whence his name, meaning stupid); it saved his life when Tarquin the Proud put his brother to death; but when Tarquin’s son committed an outrage on Lucretia, he threw off his disguise, headed a revolt, and expelled the tyrant; was elected one of the two first Consuls of Rome; sentenced his two sons to death for conspiring to restore the monarchy; fell repelling an attempt to restore the Tarquins in a hand-to-hand combat with Aruns, one of the sons of the banished king.

BRUTUS, MARCUS JUNIUS, a descendant of the preceding, and son of Cato Uticensis’s sister; much beloved by Caesar and Caesar’s friend, but persuaded by Cassius and others to believe that Caesar aimed at the overthrow of the republic; joined the conspirators, and was recognised by Caesar among the conspirators as party to his death; forced to flee from Rome after the event, was defeated at Philippi by Antony and Augustus, but escaped capture by falling on a sword held out to him by one of his friends, exclaiming as he did so, “O Virtue, thou art but a name!” (85-42 B.C.).

BRUYERE, a French writer, author of “Characteres de Theophraste,” a satire on various characters and manners of his time (1644-1696).

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, American statesman, born in Salem, Illinois; bred to the bar and practised at it; entered Congress in 1890 as an extreme Free Silver man; lost his seat from his uncompromising views on that question; was twice nominated for the Presidency in opposition to Mr McKinley, but defeated; b. 1860.

BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, American poet; his poems were popular in America, the chief, “The Age,” published in 1821; was 50 years editor of the New York Evening Post; wrote short poems all through his life, some of the later his best (1794-1878).

BRYCE, JAMES, historian and politician, born at Belfast; Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; bred to the bar; for a time professor of Civil Law at Oxford; entered Parliament in 1880; was member of Mr. Gladstone’s last cabinet; his chief literary work, “The Holy Roman Empire,” a work of high literary merit; b. 1838.

BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON, English antiquary, born at Wootton House, in Kent; called to the bar, but devoted to literature; was M.P. for Maidstone for six years; lived afterwards and died at Geneva; wrote novels and poems, and edited old English writings of interest (1762-1837).