loads of iron; from the Clan Rory of Ulster (the present | sesses a foundry for cannon, several tanneries, and a concounties of Down and Antrim), 150 cows and 150 hogs; siderable trade with the Black Sea, Baltic, and other quarters from Oriel (the present counties of Armagh and Monaghan), in grain, hemp, rape-oil, honey, wax, linens, timber, cast160 cows; from the prov. of Leinster, 300 cows, 300 hogs, iron and iron ware, mats, ropes, bark, tar, lime, alabaster, and 300 loads of iron; from Ossory (the present Queen's &c. Some small vessels are built, and there is a manuCounty), 60 cows, 60 hogs, and 60 loads of iron; from the factory of arms in the neighbourhood. 53° 21' N. lat., 34° Danes of Dublin, 150 hogsheads of wine; from the Danes 19' E. long. of Limerick and Waterford, 365 hogsheads of red wine. BRIARE, a small town in France in the dep. of Loiret, On these and other revenues king Brian supported a rude on the right bank of the Loire, 92 m. nearly due S. of Paris. but royal magnificence at his chief residence of Kincora, The town has little in itself worthy of notice. It consists of near the present town of Killaloe, in the county of Clare. He one straight and tolerably handsome street. The inh. by had also castles at Tara and Cashel. Brian continued for the census of 1832 were taken at 2243 for the town, and many years to rule his dominions with vigour and pros- 2730 for the whole com.; they are mostly engaged as boatperity, reducing the Danes and subduing their native allies, men on the riv. or canal., building numerous duns or castles, causing roads and bridges to be constructed, and enforcing the law by taking hostages from all the petty kings of the country. Having however disputed with Maelmora, the king of Leinster, Maelmora revolted, and, inviting a new invasion of Danes to his assistance, brought on the battle of Clantarf, in which king Brian fell, after gaining a glorious victory over the united forces of the invaders and revolted natives, on Good Friday, anno 1014. Brian, and his son Murrogh, who fell in the same battle, were buried together in the cathedral of Armagh. The funeral obsequies lasted twelve days and nights, and the possession of the heroic remains was afterwards contested by rival potentates. Brian is said to have defeated the Danes in twenty-five pitched battles: prior to the battle of Clantarf he had confined them to the cities of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and Limerick; and the final blow which he gave their power in that engagement they never recovered. He was the founder of the numerous sept of O'Brien, O or Ua being a distinctive adnomen not assumed by Irish families till after his time. This national prefix means 'descendant of' or 'of the kindred of,' and was originally supplied by the more antient Mac, which means son." (O'Connor, Rev. Hib. Scrip. Vet.; MSS. History of Ireland, lib. R. I. Academy.)

BRIANCON, a fortified town of France, and capital of an arrond. in the dep. of Hautes Alpes, is situated quite among the Alps, 7 or 8 m. from the pass of Mont Genèvre, and at the junction of the small stream the Guisane with the Durance. It is on the road from Paris by Lyon and Grenoble to Turin, 422 m. from Paris, 44° 54' N. lat., 6° 47' E. long. It is 4285 ft. above the level of the sea.

This little town, which is mentioned by Strabo, and in the Itineraries, appears in them under the name Brigantium. In the middle ages it was the chief place of a district, Briançonnois, comprehended in Dauphiné. It does not appear to have been of any note till the early part of the last century, when, by the cession of some parts of the Briançonnois to Savoy, it was determined to strengthen it as a frontier town with new fortifications.

It is one of the smallest towns in France, with narrow streets, but neither badly laid out nor badly built. There is a pretty good place or square, and a tolerably well built church. The inh. (about 2000 for the town, or 3000 for the whole comm.) are engaged busily in trade in hosiery, cotton goods, and hardware, and especially in the book trade. Its defences, which are very strong, consist mainly of seven forts, which occupy in the most advantageous manner all the surrounding heights. The works are partly formed from the rocks on which they stand. The Durance flows in a very deep channel or ravine between the town and the principal forts: over this ravine a bridge of one arch, of about 128 Eng. ft. span, and nearly 180 ft. high, was thrown in 1734.

The surrounding district ser ls out every winter into the neighbouring dep. a number of emigrants, who exercise the profession of schoolmasters; they speak and write French tolerably well, understand the four rules of arithmetic, and sometimes Latin. The kitchens of the Catholic priests commonly serve them for school-rooms. Some coal is dug here.-(Vaysse de Villiers; Malte Brun.)

The arrond. of Briançon had, in 1832, a pop. of 29,636. BRIANSK, a t. of Great Russia, in the government of Orel, and the chief place of a circle of the same name. It is an antient and well-built t. situated at the entrance of the Obolova into the Desna, is surrounded by a wall of earth, and contains 16 churches (9 of stone and 7 of wood), a monastery with a seminary attached to it, 2 poor-houses, about 600 houses, and about 5100 inh. On account of the excellent ship-timber which the neighbouring country produces, there is an admiralty-office here. It likewise pos

The can. of Briare deserves notice from its position and importance in the system of inland navigation in France, and from its having preceded in its formation most other works of a similar nature in that country. It was commenced in the reign of Henry IV., under the enlightened administration of Sully; but upon the retirement of that great minister the work was interrupted. It was resumed in 1639 in the reign of Louis XIII. by two private individuals, MM. Guyon and Bouteroue, to whom the king granted the can., with its works, so far as they were executed, and all the materials they might find on the spot. The can. unites the Loire at Briare with the Loing at Montargis; and as the Loing was rendered navigable from this point to its junction with the Seine, the can. opened a communication between the various towns and districts watered by the Loire, and the capital. For a long time the tolls arising from the can. were very considerable, but they were much diminished by the formation of the can. of Orleans, which opened a readier communication between the Loing and the middle and lower part of the Loire.

BRIBERY, in English law, has a threefold signification, denoting, first, the offence of a judge, magistrate, or any person concerned judicially in the administration of public justice, receiving a reward or consideration from parties interested, for the purpose of procuring a partial and favourable decision; secondly, the receipt or payment of money to a public ministerial officer as an inducement to him to act contrary to his official duty; and thirdly, the giving or receiving of money to procure votes at parliamentary elections, or elections to public offices of trust.

By the Athenian laws the first of these offences rendered the receiver liable to a penalty of ten times the value of the bribe received, and the punishment of infamy; and the person offering the bribe was also subject to prosecution and punishment. By the Roman law there were various provisions against bribery, and mainly with reference to the election to the higher offices in the state, as consul, prætor, &c. This offence was expressed by the term Ambitus, against which there were very numerous enactments. By the Lex Acilia Calpurnia (B. c. 68) a man convicted of bribery (ambitus) was disabled from filling a public office and from entering the senate, besides being fined: these penalties were extended by the Lex Tullia (B.c. 64), passed in the consulship of Cicero. (See the Oration pro Murena, which is a defence of Murena against the charge of amBy the Lex Aufidia (B.c. 62) it was enacted that bitus.) if a man promised money to any tribe for its votes he should escape all legal penalties, in case he did not pay the money; but if he paid it, he was bound to pay to each tribe as long as he lived a fixed sum of money. On this occasion Cicero made a remark, which he no doubt thought had some point in it: Clodius,' he said (with whom the great orator was then at open war), 'had observed the law before it was made: he was in the habit of promising, and not paying. (Cic. ad Attic. i. 16.) The offence of bribery in a judge was included in the comprehensive term Repetundæ, upon which there were several enactments: the chief were the Lex Cornelia and the Lex Julia; the latter passed (B.c. 60) in the first consulship of Julius Cæsar.

I. In England judicial bribery has from early times been considered as a very heinous offence. By an antient statute 2 Hen. IV. Ali judges, officers, and ministers of the king convicted of bribery shall forfeit treble the bribe, be punished at the king's will, and be discharged from the king's service for ever. The person offering the bribe too is guilty of a misdemeanour. Sir Edward Coke says that if the party offereth a bribe to the judge, meaning to corrupt him in the cause depending before him, and the judge taketh it not, yet this is an offence punishable by law in the party that

cure, or endeavour to procure, the return of any person to serve in parliament for any place, every such person so giving or promising (if not returned) shall for every such gift or promise forfeit the sum of 10007.; and every such person returned and so having given or promised to give, or knowing of and consenting to such gifts or promises upon any such engagement, shall be disabled and incapacitated to serve in that parliament for such place; and any person or persons who shall receive or accept of any such sum of money, gift, or reward, or any such promise upon any such engagement, shall forfeit the amount of such sum of money, gift, or reward, over and above the sum of 500% [ELECTIONS.]

doth offer it.' (3d Inst. 147.) In the 24 Edw. III. (1351) Sir William Thorpe, then chief justice of England, was found guilty, upon his own confession, of having received bribes from several great men to stay a writ which ought in due course of law to have issued against them. For this offence he was condemned to be hanged, and all his lands and goods forfeited to the crown. Blackstone says (Comment. vol. iv. p. 140) that he was actually executed; but this is a mistake, as the record of the proceeding shows that he was almost immediately pardoned and restored to all his lands (3 Inst. 146). It appears also from the Year Book (28 Ass. pl. 2) that he was a few years after wards reinstated in his office of chief justice. The case, 2. Bribery at municipal elections was also an offence at therefore, does not speak so strongly in favour of the common law, and a criminal information was granted by purity of the administration of justice in early times as the Court of King's Bench against a man for promising many writers, following Blackstone, have supposed. In money to a member of the corporation of Tiverton to induce truth, the corruption of the judges for centuries after Sir him to vote for a particular person at the election of a Wm. Thorpe's case occurred was notorious and unques- mayor. (Plympton's case, 2 Lord Raymond's Reports, tionable. It is noticed by Edward VI. in a discourse of his 1367.) published by Burnet, as a complaint then commonly made against the lawyers of his time. (Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, vol. ii. App. p. 72.) Its prevalence at a still later period, in the reign of James I., may be inferred from the caution contained in Lord Chancellor Bacon's address to Serjeant Hutton upon his becoming a judge, that his hands and the hands of those about him should be clean and uncorrupt from gifts and from serving of turns, be they great or small ones. (Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 632, edit. 1765.) In Lord Bacon's own confession of the charges of bribery made against him in the House of Lords, he alludes, by way of palliation, to the offence of judicial corruption as being vitium temporis. (Howell's State Trials, vol. ii. p. 1104.) Since the Revolution, in 1688, judicial bribery has been altogether unknown in England, and no case is reported in any law book since that date in which this offence has been imputed to a judge in courts of superior or inferior jurisdiction.

II. Bribery in a public ministerial officer is a misdemeanour at common law in the person who takes and also in him who offers the bribe. Thus a clerk to the agent for French prisoners of war at Porchester Castle, who had taken money for procuring the exchange of certain prisoners out of their turn, was indicted for bribery and severely punished by the Court of King's Bench. (1 East's Reports, 183.) So where a person offered the first lord of the treasury a sum of money for a public appointment in the colonies, the Court of King's Bench, in Lord Mansfield's time, granted a criminal information against him. (4 Burrows's Rep. 2500.)

Bribery with reference to particular classes of public officers has become punishable by several acts of parliament. Thus by the stat. 6 Geo. IV. c. 106, sect. 29, if any person shall give, or offer, or promise any bribe to any officer or other person employed in the customs, to induce him in any way to neglect his duty (whether the offer be accepted or not), he incurs a penalty of 5007. So also by 6 Geo. IV. c. 108, sect. 35, if any officer of the customs, or any officer of the army, navy, marines, or other person employed by or under the direction of the commissioners of the customs, shall make any collusive seizure, or deliver up, or agree to deliver up, or not to seize any vessel, or goods liable to forfeiture, or shall take any bribe for the neglect or nonperformance of his duty, every such offender incurs a penalty of 500l., and is rendered incapable of serving his Majesty in any office whatever, either civil or military; and the person also giving or offering the bribe, or making such collusive agreement with the officer, incurs the like penalty. By the 6 Geo. IV. c. 80, sect. 145, similar penalties are inflicted upon officers of the excise who take bribes, as well as upon those who give or offer the bribe.

III. As to bribery for votes at elections to public offices. 1. Bribery at parliamentary elections is said to have been always an offence at common law. There are however no traces of any prosecutions for bribery of this kind until particular penalties were imposed upon the offence by acts of parliament. The operative statute upon this subject at the present time is the 49 Geo. III. c. 118, which provides that if any person shall give or cause to be given, directly or indirectly, or shall promise or agree to give any sum of money, gift, or reward, to any person upon any engagement that such person to whom such gift or promise shall be made, shall by himself or by any other person at his solicitation pro

The 54th clause of the recent act for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales (5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 76) provides that if any person who shall have, or claim to have, any right to vote in any election of mayor, or of a councillor, auditor, or assessor of any borough, shall ask or take any money or other reward, or agree or contract for any money or other reward whatsoever, to give or forbear to give his vote in any such election, or if any person shall by any gift or reward, or by any promise, agreement, or security for any gift or reward, corrupt or procure, or offer to corrupt or procure any person to give or forbear to give his vote in any such election, such person so offending in any of the cases aforesaid shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of 50%., and for ever be disabled to vote in any municipal or parliamentary election whatever in any part of the United Kingdom, and also shall for ever be disabled to hold any office or franchise to which he then shall or at any time afterwards may be entitled as a burgess of such borough, as if such person was naturally dead.'

BRICK, clay mixed with sand or fine coal ashes, and particles of small coal sifted, and afterwards burnt in a clamp; or clay mixed with sand, or clay alone, baked in a kiln. The antients both baked their bricks and dried them in the sun. Among the oldest specimens of bricks are those in the ruins of Babylon, which were of three sorts [BABYLON]. The Egyptians used sun-dried bricks in the large walls which inclosed their temples, and in the constructions about their tombs. At Thebes there are true arches made of sun-dried bricks: pyramids also were sometimes built of these bricks, which, as well as those made by the people who settled in the plain of Shinar, consisted of clay and chopped straw. The Egyptian manner of making bricks is delineated in Rosellini's work on the paintings of Egypt. The Romans, according to Pliny, began to use bricks about the decline of the republic; but a brick building, called the temple of the god Redicolus, still remains, which is said to have been built on the occasion of the retreat of Hannibal. (Rosini's Views in Rome,) It has been supposed that the Greeks did not employ bricks until after their subjugation by the Romans, as none of the works erected prior to that period, the ruins of which still exist, show any signs of brickwork; yet there are Greek buildings mentioned by Vitruvius as built of brick, which may have been prior to that date. Vitruvius (lib. ii. cap. 7) mentions the wall of Athens towards Mount Hymettus and Pentelicus, and the cellæ of the temples of Jupiter and Hercules; and indeed it would be easy to show from various passages that bricks were in use among the Greeks before the Roman conquest. (Demosthenes, wɛpì σrepávov, c. 103.) The Greek names for bricks were didoron, pentadoron, tetradoron, from the Greek doron, a hand-breadth.' Pentadora are bricks five dora, and tetradora bricks four dora on each side. All these bricks were also made half the size, to break the joint of the work; and the long bricks were laid in one course, and the short in the course above them.

Vitruvius says the pentadora were used in public works, and the tetradora in private. It is most probable that they were dried bricks, as Vitruvius speaks of bricks requiring two years to dry. We learn also from him, that the laws of Attica required that five years should be allowed for the drying of bricks. It is true they might when well dried be burnt; but when he says (vol. i, cap. 3) that if they are used when newly made, and moist, the plaster work which is laid on them remaining firm and stiff, and they

About the year 1795 a patent was obtained for making bricks on a new plan. This brick was like the common brick, except that it had a groove or rebate on each side down the middle, rather more than half the width of the side of the brick: a shoulder would thus be left on each side of the groove, each of which would be nearly equal to one-quarter of the width of the side of the brick, or to onehalf of the groove or rebate.

breeze; the flue is then overspanned. The clamp when full | the sides of the recess. The fluid soil diffuses itself ove is surrounded with old bricks, or the driest of those newly the hollow square or pit, where it settles of an equal thickmade, and on the top of all a thick layer of breeze is laid. ness, and remains till wanted for use, the superfluous water The external bricks are coated with a thin plastering of clay being either evaporated or drained away by exposure to the to exclude the air, and if the weather prove wet, the kiln is atmosphere. When one of these square pits is full, another protected by loos' or hurdles, with rushes woven into them. is made by its side, and so on progressively, till as much The fire is lighted at the mouths of the flues, which are soil is prepared as is likely to be wanted for the season.' called the live-holes. If the fire burns well, the mouths of It should be observed, that bricks burnt in the clamp the flues are stopped. In favourable weather the bricks have the ashes mixed with them, and the firing is actually will be burnt in about twenty-five or thirty days, but it in the brick; but those burnt in a kiln have no ashes is not advisable to open the clamp too soon, as the bricks mixed with them, and the fire is applied externally only. become speckled when the ash on the surface is not Kilns for burning bricks are constructed of various sizes. quite consumed. Bricks only partially burnt are called They are sometimes conical or domed; some are squareburnovers, and are put into the next clamp. The bricks are built with brick piers, and covered with tiles. A kiln now separated for sale; the hard sound stocks are the best, thirteen feet long, ten feet six inches wide, and twelve feet and are worth from 17. 10s. to 27. a thousand: the place or high, will burn 18,000 bricks at a time. The walls of a inferior soft red brick from 17. to 17. 10s. ; and the clinkers or kiln are about fourteen inches thick, and incline inwards burrs, black-looking masses of vitrified brick, are worth about towards the top. 10s. a load. When burnt they are on an average 9 inches long, 4 wide, and 24 thick. Kiln-burnt bricks and marl stocks, as well as Dutch clinkers, differ from the bricks just described. The kiln-burnt are baked. The marl stocks may be either baked or burnt: they take their name from the marl originally used in them, which has now given place to chalk. The Dutch clinkers are small hard yellow bricks, not much used at present in this country; except occasionally for soapboilers, cisterns, vaults, stables, and yards. Besides these kinds there is capping or coping brick, for surmounting fence walls, which is made both angular and semicircular to throw off the wet. A larger sort of brick, 12 inches long, 6 broad, and 3 thick, is used in fences; cogging bricks form the indented works under the coping of walls built with large bricks; a circular brick, called compass-bricks, is used for wells; hollow or draining bricks are flat on one side and hollow on the other; fire bricks, called also Windsor bricks, are 1 inches thick, of a very firm texture, and resist for a long time a fierce fire; common paving bricks are of the same size as Windsor bricks: feather-edged bricks are the same size as the common brick, except that they are thinner; they are used on edge in the external part of wooden buildings. The French brick is 8 French inches long, 4 broad, and 2 thick. Stock-bricks are known by the names of picked stocks, red, and grey stocks. Burrs or clinker-bricks are those which are much vitrified in the fire: sometimes 100,000 of them have run together in one mass. Bricks having a smoothed or glazed surface are sometimes made: this is done in the burning.

Mr. Lees discovered that certain proportions of chalk and loam, treated in the usual manner, made a good substitute for the marl or malm stocks. He took out a patent some time since, which, having expired, his practice is now very generally adopted round London. These bricks, however, are not considered to have either the fine colour of the London malm stock, or the beautiful stone-coloured hue of the Ipswich brick. The following is the method of making them, as described by Mr. Nicholson :

A circular recess is built, about four feet high, and from ten to twelve feet in diameter, paved at the bottom, with a horse wheel placed in its centre, from which a beam extends to the outside for the horse to turn it by. The earth is then raised to a level with the top of the recess, on which a platform is laid for the horse to walk upon. This mill is always placed as near a well or spring as possible, and a pump is set up to supply it with water. A harrow made to fit the interior of the recess, thick set with long iron teeth, and well loaded, is chained to the beam of the wheel to which the horse is harnessed. Previously to putting the machine in motion, the soil, as prepared in the heap in the ordinary manner, is brought in barrows, and distributed regularly round the recess, with the addition of a sufficient quantity of water; the horse then moves on, and drags the harrow, which forces its way into the soil, admits the water into it, and by tearing and separating its particles, not only mixes the ingredients, but also affords an opportunity for stones and other heavy substances to fall to the bottom. Fresh soil and water continue to be added till the recess is full. On one side of the recess, and as near to it as possible, a hollow square is prepared, about eighteen inches or two feet deep. The soil being sufficiently harrowed and purified, and reduced to a kind of liquid paste, is ladled out of the recess, and, by means of wooden troughs, conveyed into this square pit; care being taken to leave the sediment behind, which is afterwards to be cleared out and thrown on

A course of these bricks laid shoulder to shoulder, will form an indented line of nearly equal divisions, the grooves or rebates being somewhat wider than the adjoining shoulders, to allow for the mortar or cement. When the course is laid on, the shoulders of the bricks, which compose it, will fall into grooves of the first course, and the shoulders of the first course will fit into the grooves of the second; and so on with every succeeding course. Buildings constructed with this kind of brick will require no bond timbers, as a universal bond runs through the whole building, and holds all the parts together.

A patent clay-tempering and brick-making machine has lately been invented by Mr. Bakewell of Manchester. By the clay-tempering machine the clay is better mixed than by any method hitherto employed; and by the use of the moulding machine the porosity of the bricks is in a great measure destroyed, the pressure employed in the moulding being equal to three tons weight. The machine for consolidating the bricks consists of a skilful combination of levers producing a great pressure, the result of which is the compression of the clay into the greatest compactness and utmost accuracy of form. The mould employed opens on a hinge at one of its angles, and closes by a spring latch. (For further particulars, see The Mechanics' Magazine, May 14, 1831.)

A patent has been taken out by Messrs. Rhodes for a brick in which coke ashes are introduced, finely pulverized by means of a mill with French stones.(similar to those used in a flour-mill), and worked by a steam engine. Peculiar pains are also taken with the manufacture of the bricks, and an unusually fine surface and arris are produced. But the bricks are liable to the same casualties as other clamp-burned bricks; although if they get just fire enough, they are certainly of superior quality.

The duty on bricks was first laid in 1784, at 2s. 6d. a thousand. In March, 1794, an additional 1s. 6d. per thousand was laid on bricks. On the 4th July, 1803, the duty was increased to 5s., and in March, 1835, a further duty of 10d. a thousand was added. On the 4th of July, 1803, a duty of 10s. per thousand was laid on all bricks of larger dimensions than the common bricks. Polished bricks are charged a duty of 12s. 10d. a thousand: large polished, 24s. 2d. do. The words of the Act referring to glazed bricks are smoothed and polished;' and so strict are the revenue officers, that bricks struck with a bat or on a table to straighten them, if warped, have been called smoothed and polished, and charged the extra duty. The following is the account of the quantities of bricks (not including tiles) charged with excise duties in Great Britain for the three years ending 1834. (Government Statistical Tables, 1834.)