Part 32

BOURGES, a city of central France, chief town of the department of Cher, 144 m. S. of Paris on the Orleans railway between Vierzon and Nevers. Pop. (1906) town, 34,581; commune, 44,133. Bourges is built amidst flat and marshy country on an eminence limited on three sides by the waters of the Canal Of Berry, the Yevre, the Auron, and other smaller streams with which they unite at this point. The older part of the town with its narrow streets and old houses forms a centre, to the south and east of which lie important engineering suburbs. Flourishing nurseries and market-gardens are situated in the marshy ground to the north and north-east. Bourges preserves portions of the Roman ramparts of the 4th century, which are for the most part built into the houses of the old quarter. They measure considerably less in circumference than the fortifications of the 13th century, remains of which in the shape of ruined walls and towers are still to be seen. The summit of the rise on which the city is built is crowned by the cathedral of St Etienne, one of the most important in France. Begun at the end of the 12th century, it was not completed till the 16th century, to which period belong the northernmost of the two unfinished towers flanking the facade and two of its five elaborately sculptured portals. The interior, which has double aisles, the inner aisles of remarkable height, and no transepts, contains, among many other works of art, magnificent stained glass of the 13th century. Beneath the choir there is a crypt of Romanesque construction, where traces of the Roman fosses are to be found; the two lateral portals are also survivals of a Romanesque church. The Jardin de l'Archeveche, a pleasant terrace-garden, adjoins the choir of the cathedral. Bourges has many fine old houses. The hotel Lallemant and the hotel Cujas (now occupied by the museum) are of the Renaissance period. The hotel de Jacques Coeur, named after the treasurer of Charles VII. and now used as the law-court, is of still greater interest, though it has been doubted whether Jacques Coeur himself inhabited it. The mansion is in the Renaissance style, but two towers of the Roman fortifications were utilized in the construction of the south-western facade (see HOUSE, Plate II. figs. 7 and 8). Its wings surround a courtyard into which three staircase turrets project; one of these leads to a chapel, the ceiling of which is decorated by fine frescoes.

Bourges is the seat of an archbishopric, a court of appeal, a court of assizes and a prefect; and is the headquarters of the VIII. army corps. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, and a chamber of commerce, and a branch of the Bank of France. Its educational institutions include an ecclesiastical seminary, a lycee for boys, and a college for girls, training colleges, and a school of industrial art. The industrial activity of Bourges depends primarily on its gunpowder and ammunition factories, its cannon-foundry and gun-carriage works. These all belong to the government, and, together with huge magazines, a school of pyrotechnics, and an artillery school, lie in the east of the town. The suburb of Mazieres has large iron and engineering works, and there are manufactories of anvils, edge-tools, biscuits, woollen goods, oil-cloth, boots and shoes, fertilizers, brick and tile works, breweries, distilleries, tanneries, saw-mills and dye-works. The town has a port on the canal of Berry, and does a considerable trade in grain, wine, vegetables, hemp and fruit.

Bourges occupies the site of the Gallic town of _Avaricum_, capital of the Bituriges, mentioned by Caesar as one of the most important of all Gaul. In 52 B.C., during the war with Vercingetorix, it was completely destroyed by the Roman conqueror, but under Augustus it rose again into importance, and was made the capital of Aquitania Prima. About A.D. 250 it became the seat of a bishop, the first occupant of the see being Ursinus. Captured by the Visigoths about 475, it continued in their possession till about 507. In the middle ages it was the capital of Berry. During the English occupation of France in the 15th century it became the residence of Charles VII., who thus acquired the popular title of "king of Bourges." In 1463 a university was founded in the city by Louis XI., which continued for centuries to be one of the most famous in France, especially in the department of jurisprudence. On many occasions Bourges was the seat of ecclesiastical councils--the most important being the council of 1438, in which the Pragmatic Sanction of the Gallican church was established, and that of 1528, in which the Lutheran doctrines were condemned.

BOURGET, PAUL CHARLES JOSEPH (1852- ), French novelist and critic, was born at Amiens on the 2nd of September 1852. His father, a professor of mathematics, was afterwards appointed to a post in the college at Clermont-Ferrand. Here Bourget received his early education. He afterwards studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes. In 1872-1873 he produced a volume of verse, _Au bord de la mer_, which was followed by others, the last, _Les Aveux_, appearing in 1882. Meanwhile he was making a name in literary journalism, and in 1883 he published _Essais de psychologic contemporaine_, studies of eminent writers first printed in the _Nouvelle Revue_, and now brought together. In 1884 Bourget paid a long visit to England, and there wrote his first published story (_L'Irreparable_). _Cruelle Enigme_ followed in 1885; and _Andre Cornelis_ (1886) and _Mensonges_ (1887) were received with much favour. _Le Disciple_ (1889) showed the novelist in a graver attitude; while in 1891 _Sensations d'Italie_, notes of a tour in that country, revealed a fresh phase of his powers. In the same year appeared the novel _Coeur de femme_, and _Nouveaux Pastels_, types of the characters of men, the sequel to a similar gallery of female types (_Pastels_, 1890). His later novels include _La Terre promise_ (1892); _Cosmopolis_ (1892), a psychological novel, with Rome as a background; _Une Idylle tragique_ (1896); _La Duchesse bleue_ (1897); _Le Fantome_ (1901); _Les Deux Soeurs_ (1905); and some volumes of shorter stories--_Complications sentimentales_ (1896), the powerful _Drames de famille_ (1898), _Un Homme fort_ (1900), _L'Etape_ (1902), a study of the inability of a family raised too rapidly from the peasant class to adapt itself to new conditions. This powerful study of contemporary manners was followed by _Un Divorce_ (1904), a defence of the Roman Catholic position that divorce is a violation of natural laws, any breach of which inevitably entails disaster. _Etudes et portraits_, first published in 1888, contains impressions of Bourget's stay in England and Ireland, especially reminiscences of the months which he spent at Oxford; and _Outre-Mer_ (1895), a book in two volumes, is his critical journal of a visit to the United States in 1893. He was admitted to the Academy in 1894, and in 1895 was promoted to be an officer of the Legion of Honour, having received the decoration of the order ten years before.

As a writer of verse Bourget was merely trying his wings, and his poems, which were collected in two volumes(1885-1887), are chiefly interesting for the light which they throw upon his mature method and the later products of his art. It was in criticism that his genius first found its true bent. The habit of close scientific analysis which he derived from his father, the sense of style produced by a fine ear and moulded by a classical education, the innate appreciation of art in all its forms, the taste for seeing men and cities, the keen interest in the oldest not less than the newest civilizations, and the large tolerance not to be learned on the _boulevard_--all these combined to provide him with a most uncommon equipment for the critic's task. It is not surprising that the _Sensations d'ltalie_ (1891), and the various psychological studies, are in their different ways scarcely surpassed throughout the whole range of literature. Bourget's reputation as a novelist has long been assured. Deeply impressed by the singular art of Henry Beyle (Stendhal), he struck out on a new course at a moment when the realist school reigned without challenge in French fiction. His idealism, moreover, had a character of its own. It was constructed on a scientific basis, and aimed at an exactness, different from, yet comparable to, that of the writers who were depicting with an astonishing faithfulness the environment and the actions of a person or a society. With Bourget observation was mainly directed to the secret springs of human character. At first his purpose seemed to be purely artistic, but when _Le Disciple_ appeared, in 1889, the preface to that remarkable story revealed in him an unsuspected fund of moral enthusiasm. Since then he has varied between his earlier and his later manner, but his work in general has been more seriously conceived. From first to last he has painted with a most delicate brush the intricate emotions of women, whether wronged, erring or actually vicious; and he has described not less happily the ideas, the passions and the failures of those young men of France to whom he makes special appeal.

Bourget has been charged with pessimism, and with undue delineation of one social class. The first charge can hardly be sustained. The lights in his books are usually low; there is a certain lack of gaiety, and the characters move in a world of disenchantment. But there is no despair in his own outlook upon human destiny as a whole. As regards the other indictment, the early stories sometimes dwell to excess on the mere framework of opulence; but the pathology of moral irresolution, of complicated affairs of the heart, of the ironies of friendship, in which the writer revels, can be more appropriately studied in a cultured and leisured society than amid the simpler surroundings of humbler men and women. The style of all Bourget's writings is singularly graceful. His knowledge of the literature of other lands gives it a greater flexibility and a finer allusiveness than most of his contemporaries can achieve. The precision by which it is not less distinguished, though responsible for a certain over-refinement, and for some dull pages of the novels, is an almost unmixed merit in the critical essays. As a critic, indeed, either of art or letters, Bourget leaves little to be desired. If he is not in the very first rank of novelists, if his books display more ease of finished craftsmanship than joy in spontaneous creation, it must be remembered that the supreme writers of fiction have rarely succeeded as he has in a different field.

See also C. Lecigne, _L'Evolution morale et religieuse de M. Paul Bourget_ (1903); Sargeret, _Les Grands Convertis_ (1906). His _Oeuvres completes_ began to appear in a uniform edition in 1899.

BOURIGNON, ANTOINETTE (1616-1680), Flemish mystic, was born at Lille on the 13th of January 1616. From an early age she was under the influence of religion, which took in course of time a mystical turn. Undertaking the work of a reformer, she visited France, Holland, England and Scotland. Her religious enthusiasm, peculiarity of views and disregard of all sects raised both zealous persecutors and warm adherents. On her death at Franeker, Friesland, on the 30th of October 1680, she left a large number of followers, who, however, dwindled rapidly away; but in the early 18th century her influence revived in Scotland sufficiently to call forth several denunciations of her doctrines in the various Presbyterian general assemblies of 1701, 1709 and 1710. So far as appears from her writings and contemporary records, she was a visionary of the ordinary type, distinguished only by the audacity and persistency of her pretensions.

Her writings, containing an account of her life and of her visions and opinions, were collected by her disciple, Pierre Poiret (19 vols., Amsterdam, 1679-1686), who also published her life (2 vols., 1679). For a critical account see Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (Leipzig, 1897), and Etude sur Antoinette Bourignon_, by M. E. S. (Paris, 1876). Three of her works at least have been translated into English:--_An Abridgment of the Light of the World_ (London, 1786); _A Treatise of Solid Virtue_ (1699); _The Restoration of the Gospel Spirit (1707)

BOURKE, a town of Cowper county, New South Wales, Australia, 503 m. by rail N.W. from Sydney. Pop. (1901) 2614. It is situated on the south bank, and at the head of the ordinary winter navigation, of the Darling river. Very rich copper ore exists in the district in great abundance. Bourke is the centre of a large sheep-farming area, and the annual agricultural show is one of the best in the colony. On the west side of the Darling, 3 m. distant, is the small town of North Bourke, and at Pera, 10 m. distant, is an important irrigation settlement.

BOURMONT, LOUIS AUGUSTE VICTOR, COMTE DE GHAISNE DE (1773-1846), marshal of France, entered the _Gardes Francaises_ of the royal army shortly before the Revolution, emigrated in 1789, and served with Conde and the army of the _emigres_ in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793, subsequently serving as chief of staff to Scepeaux, the royalist leader, in the civil war in lower Anjou (1794-1796). Bourmont, excepted from the amnesty of April 1796, fled into Switzerland, but soon afterwards, having been made by Louis XVIII. a _marechal de camp_ and a knight of St Louis, he headed a fresh insurrection, which after some preliminary successes collapsed (1799-1800). He then made his submission to the First Consul, married, and lived in Paris; but his thinly veiled royalism caused his arrest a few months later, and he remained a prisoner for more than three years, finally escaping to Portugal in 1804. Three years later the French army under General Junot invaded Portugal, and Bourmont offered his services to Junot, who made him chief of staff of a division. He returned to France with Junot after the convention of Cintra, and was promptly re-arrested. He was soon released, however, on Junot's demand, and was commissioned as an officer in the imperial army. He served in Italy for a time, then went on the staff of the viceroy Eugene (Beauharnais), whom he accompanied in the Moscow campaign. He was taken prisoner in the retreat, but escaped after a time and rejoined the French army. His conspicuous courage at the battle of Lutzen in 1813 led Napoleon to promote him general of brigade, and in 1814 his splendid defence of Nogent (February 13) earned him the rank of general of division. At the first Restoration Bourmont was naturally employed by the Bourbons, to whose service he had devoted his life, but he rejoined Napoleon on his return from Elba. On the eve of the campaign of 1815, and at the urgent request of Count Gerard, he was given a divisional command in the army of the north. On the first day of the Waterloo campaign Bourmont went over to the enemy. It is not probable that he gave information of French movements to the allies, but the best that can be said in exculpation of his treachery is that his old friends and comrades, the royalists of Anjou, were again in insurrection, and that he felt that he must lead them. He made no attempt to defend his conduct, and acted as the accuser of Marshal Ney. A year later he was given command of a division of the royal guard; and in 1823 he held an important position in the army which, under the command of the duc d'Angouleme, invaded Spain. He commanded the whole army in Spain for a time in 1824, became minister of war in 1829, and in 1830 was placed in command of the Algiers expedition. The landing of the French and the capture of Algiers were directed by him with complete success, and he was rewarded with the _baton_ of marshal. But the revolution of 1830 put an end to his command, and, refusing to take the oath to Louis Philippe, he was forced to resign. In 1832 Marshal Bourmont took part in the rising of the duchesse de Berri, and on its failure retired to Portugal. Here, as always, on the side of absolutism, he commanded the army of Dom Miguel during the civil war of 1833-1834, and after the victory of the constitutional party he retired to Rome. At the amnesty of 1840 he returned to France. He died at the chateau of Bourmont on the 27th of October 1846.

Charles de Bourmont, a son of the marshal, wrote several pamphlets in vindication of his father's career.

BOURNE, VINCENT (1695-1747), English classical scholar, familiarly known as "Vinny" Bourne, was born at Westminster in 1695. In 1710 he became a scholar at Westminster school, and in 1714 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1717, and obtained a fellowship three years later. Of his afterlife exceedingly little is known. It is certain that he passed the greater portion of it as usher in Westminster school. He died on; the 2nd of December 1747. During his lifetime he published three editions of his Latin poems, and in 1772 there appeared a very handsome quarto volume containing all Bourne's pieces, but also some that did not belong to him. The Latin poems are remarkable not only for perfect mastery of all linguistic niceties, but for graceful expression and genuine poetic feeling. A number of them are translations of English poems, and it is not too much to say that the Latin versions almost invariably surpass the originals. Cowper, an old pupil of Bourne's, Beattie and Lamb have combined in praise of his wonderful power of Latin versification.

See an edition (1840) of his _Poemata_, with a memoir by John Mitford.

BOURNE, or BOURN, a market town in the S. Kesteven or Stamford parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England; lying in a fenny district 95 m. N. by W. from London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4361. The Stamford-Sleaford branch of the Great Northern railway here crosses the Saxby-Lynn joint line of the Great Northern and Midland companies. The church of St Peter and St Paul is Norman and Early English with later insertions; it is part of a monastic church belonging to a foundation of Augustinian canons of 1138, of which the other buildings have almost wholly disappeared. Trade is principally agricultural. Bourne is famous through its connexion with the ardent opponent of William the Conqueror, Hereward the Wake. Of his castle very slight traces remain. Bourne was also the birthplace of the Elizabethan statesman Cecil, Lord Burghley. The Red Hall, which now forms part of the railway station buildings, belonged to the family of Digby, of whom Sir Everard Digby was executed in 1606 for his connexion with the Gunpowder Plot.

BOURNE (southern form of burn, Teutonic _born, brun, burna_), an intermittent stream frequent in chalk and limestone country where the rock becomes saturated with winter rain, that slowly drains away until the rock becomes dry, when the stream ceases. A heavy rainfall will cause streams to run in winter from the saturated soil. These are the winter bournes that have given name to several settlements upon Salisbury Plain, such as Winterbourne Gunning. The "bourne" may also be a permanent "burn," but the word is usually applied to an intermittent stream. (2) (From the Fr. _borne_), a boundary; the first use of the word in English is in Lord Ferrers' translation of Forrest, 1523; the figurative meaning of limit, end or final destination comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "the undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveller returns."

BOURNEMOUTH, a municipal and county borough and watering-place of Hampshire, England, in the parliamentary borough of Christchurch, 107-1/2 m. S.W. by W. from London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 59,762. It is beautifully situated on Poole Bay. Considerable sandstone cliffs rise from the sandy beach, and are scored with deep picturesque dells or chines. The town itself lies in and about the valley of the Bourne stream. Its sheltered situation and desirable winter climate began to attract notice about 1840; in 1855 a national sanatorium for consumptive patients was erected by subscription; a pier was opened in 1861, and in 1870 railway communication was afforded. The climate is remarkably equable, being relatively warm in winter and cool in summer; the average temperature in July is 61.7 deg. F., and in January 40.3 deg. The town contains numerous handsome buildings, including municipal buildings, churches, various places of entertainment, sanatoria and hospitals, a public library and a science and art school. Its suburbs have greatly extended along the sea front, and the beautiful chines of Boscombe, Alum and Branksome have attracted a large number of wealthy residents. There are piers at the town itself and at Boscombe, and the bathing is excellent. The parks, gardens and drives are extensive and pleasant. A service of electric tramways is maintained, notable as being the first system installed in England with a combination of the trolley and conduit principles of supplying current. There are golf links in Meyrick and Queen's parks, both laid out by the corporation, which has in other ways studied the entertainment of visitors. The two railway stations are the Central and West, and through communications with the north are maintained by the Somerset & Dorset and Midland, and the Great Western and Great Central railways. The town, which is of wholly modern and remarkably rapid growth (for in the middle of the 19th century the population was less than 1000), was incorporated in 1890, and became a county borough in 1900. The corporation consists of a mayor, 11 aldermen and 33 councillors. Area, 5769 acres.

BOURNONITE, a mineral species, a sulphantimonite of lead and copper with the formula PbCuSbS3. It is of some interest on account of the twinning and the beautiful development of its crystals. It was first mentioned by Philip Rashleigh in 1797 as "an ore of antimony," and was more completely described by the comte de Bournon in 1804, after whom it was named: the name given by Bournon himself (in 1813) was endellione, since used in the form endellionite, after the locality in Cornwall where the mineral was first found. The crystals are orthorhombic, and are generally tabular in habit owing to the predominance of the basal pinacoid (c); numerous smooth bright faces are often developed on the edges and corners of the crystals. An un-twinned crystal is represented in fig. 1. Usually, however, the crystals are twinned, the twin-plane being a face of the prism (m); the angle between the faces of this prism being nearly a right angle (86 deg. 20'), the twinning gives rise to cruciform groups (fig. 2), and when it is often repeated the group has the appearance of a cog-wheel, hence the name _Radelerz_ (wheel-ore) of the Kapnik miners. The repeated twinning gives rise to twin-lamellae, which may be detected on the fractured surfaces, even of the massive material. The mineral is opaque, and has a brilliant metallic lustre with a lead-grey colour. The hardness is 2-1/2, and the specific gravity 5.8.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Crystal of Bournonite.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Twinned Crystal of Bournonite.]

At the original locality, Wheal Boys in the parish of Endellion in Cornwall, it was found associated with jamesonite, blende and chalybite. Later, still better crystals were found in another Cornish mine, namely, Herodsfoot mine near Liskeard, which was worked for argentiferous galena. Fine crystals of large size have been found with quartz and chalybite in the mines at Neudorf in the Harz, and with blende and tetrahedrite at Kapnik-Banya near Nagy-Banya in Hungary. A few other localities are known for this mineral. (L. J. S.)