Broitckere. I. Charles Marie Joseph Ghislain De, a Belgian statesman, born at Bruges in 1796, died April 20, 1860. He was educated at the polytechnic school of Paris, entered the Dutch army as sub-lieutenant, but retired in 1820, and was employed in a banking house. In 1825 he was elected deputy to the states general, and at once enlisted in the ranks of the liberals. After the breaking out of the revolution of 1830 he was at the head of the financial department in the provisional government, and suggested the nomination of the duke de Nemours to the throne. Nevertheless, on the election of Leopold, he was called to the ministry of the interior, and subsequently the war ministry was forced upon him. On the opening of the university of Brussels he accepted one of the professorships, declining the salary. From 1835 to 1838 he was president of the Belgian national bank. In 1848 he was again chosen deputy, and soon afterward mayor of Brussels. He had the title of count offered to him by the king in 1857, but declined it. He was an opponent of the Catholic party, and of a protective tariff.

II. Henri Marie Joseph Ghislain de, brother of the preceding, born at Bruges in 1801. He was attorney general at Roermonde when the revolution of 1830 broke out, in which he took an active part as a volunteer in the army, and as a member, and afterward as secretary, of the national congress. He was one of the commissioners sent to England in 1831 to offer to Leopold the Belgian crown. His most important act as a legislator was the revision of the criminal code, including the abolition of capital punishment.