Edmond Philip Bridel's Translations of Quaker Writings for French Quakers

Edmond Philip BridePs Translations of Quaker Writings for French Quakers James C. Dybikowski* Edmond Philip Bridel was born in Chartres about 1752. His father, a lawyer, sent him to a local college where his schoolmates included Brissot de Warville, the future Girondin leader, and Jerome Pétion, who was elected Mayor of Paris in 1791. In his Mémoires Brissot notes that Bridel, on leaving France because of his father's ill treatment, settled in London as a teacher.1 He continued as a teacher and later as the master of his own Academy until his death on 24 July 1815. He published several educational works, the most unusual being a play for school theatricals adapted to the capacities of the young.2 He was remembered in the obituary notice that appeared in Gentlemen's Magazine as "the very diligent master of a respectable academy at Islington; and Author of some useful elementary little volumes for the use of his scholars."3 When Brissot established himself in London in the early 1780's, he renewed the friendship which remained close until the time of his own death. In Bridel, Brissot says he found a solidity and personal loyalty uncommon, so he claims, among the French. He relied on the attachment. Bridel carried out numerous commissions for Brissot, seeing his works through the press, sending parcels of books and receiving the stream of French visitors to whom Brissot passed on his address without a second thought.4 The anonymous writer of a sketch of Brissot in the late 1790's says Bridel was preparing * James C. Dybikowski is associate vice-president and professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia. 1.Claude Perroud (ed.), Mémoires (1754-1793) (Paris: Picard & fils, [1911]), Vol. 1, 394. 2.The Fifth ofNovember: A Drama in three acts. Writtenfor Schools. (London : Richardson, 1807). Other educational works are: An Introduction to English Grammar: Intended also to assist young persons in the study ofother Languages, and to remove many of the Difficulties which impede their progress in Learning (London, 1797); 2nd ed. (London: printed by James Phillips, 1798); and ,4 List ofIrregular Preterites, or Preterperfects, and Supines, and also of the Participles of Deponent Verbs showing from what verbs they are derived. (London: Symonds, 1805). 3.Gentleman's Magazine LXXXV, pt. II (1815), 187. 4.References to Bridel are found, inter alia, in Claude Perroud (ed.), Lettres de Madame Roland (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902), Vol. II, 300; the French agent Noel's dispatches to the Foreign Minister, LeBrun, in the Archives de la Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique: Angleterre, 582, ff. 85, 89; and in scattered references in Brissot's correspondence. HO Edmond Philip Bridel111 a life of Brissot for a "respectable periodic work."5 If it was published, it has not yet come to light. While only two of Bridel's numerous letters to Brissot are known to survive, there are scattered references to him in the correspondence of others. An anonymous memorandum recommends that the arrangements for a proposed newspaper to be published in London and designed to offer a fairer and more favourable picture of the revolution in France to be entrusted to Bridel.6 He is variously described as among the "excellents patriotes" or "honest & sensible Bridel," invariably with affection and respect.7 His own political sympathies were clearly in accord with those of Brissot and his circle . He was also closely connected with several of Brissot's most intimate English friends including David Williams, an original political thinker, a Deist and the founder of the Literary Fund, and James Phillips, the London Quaker publisher who was one of the founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in May 1787.8 Marsillac and the French Quakers In 1785 Jean de Marsillac, an ex-army officer who was training to become a doctor and who had landholdings in the south of France 5.Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the French Republic and of Other Eminent Characters, Who Have Distinguished Themselves in the Progress of the Revolution, Vol. II (London: R. Phillips, 1798), 11. 6.'Secret Ambassador in England', Brissot Papers, Archives Nationales 446 AP 10...