building walls against the sea without mortar; that he invented a mode of cleansing dock yards, and for drawing water out of mines by a losing and gaining bucket. Phillips states that he had been in the employ of the great Brindley.'

did not confine himself to the making of mill machinery. | In 1752 he contrived an improved engine for draining some coal pits at Clifton, Lancashire, which was set in motion by a wheel 30 feet below the surface, and the water for turning it was supplied from the Irwell by a subterraneous tunnel 600 yards long. His reputation as a man of skill and ingenuity steadily increased. In 1755 a gentleman of London engaged him to execute a portion of the machinery for a silk-mill at Congleton. The construction of the more complex parts was intrusted to another individual, who, though eventually found incapable of performing his portion of the work, treated Brindley as a common mechanic, and refused to show him his general designs, until it became necessary to take Brindley's advice. Brindley offered to complete the whole of the machinery in his own way; and as his integrity and talents had already won the confidence of the proprietors, he was allowed to do so. The ability with which he accomplished his undertaking raised his reputation still higher. In 1756 he erected a steamengine at Newcastle-under-Lyne, which was calculated to effect a saving of one half in fuel.

Shortly after this time, Brindley was consulted by the duke of Bridgewater on the practicability of constructing a canal from Worsley to Manchester. Brindley's success in this undertaking was the means of fully awakening public attention to the advantages of canals. Had a man of less ability undertaken the work, it is not improbable that it might have turned out a failure, and the improvement of our inland navigation might have been deferred some years longer. The duke of Bridgewater's canal was referred to at the time by the projectors of similar undertakings, just as the Liverpool and Manchester railway is at the present day in the prospectus of a new railroad. Within forty-two years after the duke's canal was opened, application had been made to Parliament for 165 Acts for cutting canals in Great Britain, at an expense of above 13,000,000l. All the ingenuity and resources which Brindley possessed were required in accomplishing the duke of Bridgewater's noble scheme; and it may be fairly said that where there were most difficulties in the way, there Brindley's genius was displayed with the greatest effect. But it was not only in his expedients for overcoming difficulties that his talents were displayed; he made use of many new and ingenious contrivances for conducting the work with the utmost economy.

In 1766 the Trent and Mersey Canal was commenced under Brindley's superintendence. It is 93 m. long, and unites the navigation of the Mersey with that of the Trent and the Humber. It was called by Brindley the Grand Trunk Navigation,' owing to the probability, from its great commercial importance, of many other canals being made to join it. The Grand Trunk Navigation, by means of a tunnel 2880 yards in length, passes through a hill at Harecastle, in Staffordshire, which had previously been considered an insurmountable obstacle to the completion of a can.: this tunnel is 70 yards below the surface. The can. was not completed at Brindley's death; but his brother-inlaw, Mr. Henshall, successfully finished it. Brindley next designed a can. 46 m. in length, called the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, for the purpose of connecting the Grand Trunk with the Severn. He also planned the Coventry Canal, but owing to some dispute he did not superintend its execution. He however superintended the execution of the Oxford Canal, which connects the Thames with the Grand Trunk through the Coventry Canal.

These undertakings opened an internal water communication between the Thames, the Humber, the Severn, and the Mersey, and united the great ports of London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull, by cans. which passed through the richest and most industrious districts of England.

The can. from the Trent at Stockwith to Chesterfield, 46 m. long, was Brindley's last public undertaking. He also surveyed and gave his opinion on many other lines for navigable cans. besides those mentioned; among others, on a can. from Liverpool to Runcorn, where the Duke of Bridgwater's Canal locks into the Mersey. He proposed carrying this can. over that river at a point where the tidal water rises to the height of 14 ft. He formed also a scheme for uniting Great Britain and Ireland by a floating road and can. from Port Patrick to Donaghadee; and like most other impracticable schemes of ingenious men, it became a favourite speculation. Phillips, in his History of Inland Navigation,' says that Brindley pointed out the method of

Brindley's designs were the resources of his own mind alone. When he was beset with any difficulty he secluded himself, and worked out unaided the means of accomplishing his schemes. Sometimes he lay in bed two or three days; but when he arose he proceeded at once to carry his plans into effect, without the help of drawings or models. A man like Brindley, who was so entirely absorbed in his own schemes, was not likely to partake much of the pleasures of society. A hectic fever, which had hung about him for several years, at length terminated his laborious and useful life. He died at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, September 27th, 1772, aged 56, and was buried at New Chapel in the same county.

The principal events in Brindley's life were first communicated to the public from materials furnished by Mr. Henshall, his brother-in-law, and other friends, who spoke highly of the integrity of his character, his devotion to the public interests, and the vast compass of his understanding, which seemed to have an affinity for all great objects, and likewise for many noble and beneficent designs which the multiplicity of his engagements and the shortness of his life prevented him from bringing to maturity. No man was so entirely free from jealous feelings. A letter, written while the Grand Trunk Navigation was proceeding, thus describes Brindley's personal appearance:He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors of the Peak, or one of his own carters; but when he speaks all ears listen, and every mind is filled with wonder at the things he pronounces to be practicable.' The reply which Brindley is said to have given to a committee of the House of Commons, when asked for what object rivers were created, viz., To feed navigable canals,' is characteristic, and very probably authentic; but it was made public by an anonymous writer in the Morning Post,' whose communications respecting Brindley were stated by some of his friends to contain many inaccuracies.

(Phillips's History of Inland Navigation; Priestley's Canals of Great Britain; Communications to the Biog. Brit.)

BRINE SHRIMP, or BRINE WORM. [BRANCHIOPODA.]

BRIONIC ISLES. These three isls. lie on the N.E. coast of the Adriatic, near the port of Tassano, and N. of Pola, in the Austrian circle of Trieste. They contain the quarries from which the Venetians obtained the ash-grey coloured and highly durable marble of which their palaces are constructed. The largest of the isls. is called Brioni; the names of the other two are Coseda and San Girolamo. 45° 3' N. lat. 13° 53′ E. long.

BRIOUDE, a town in France, capital of an arrond. in the dep. of Haute Loire (Upper Loire), on the road from Paris to Le Puy, 271 m. S. by E. of Paris; in 45° 17′ N. lat. and 3° 24′ E. long.

This town is situated near the left bank of the Allier, and derives its name from an old Celtic word briva, a bridge, or ford (compare Samaro-briva). This name however appears to have belonged originally to Old Brioude, which is close upon the Allier, while the modern town is a little removed from the bank. At Old Brioude is a magnificent bridge of one arch, of about 180 ft. span, supposed to have been built by the Romans. There is at Brioude a handsome church, once much venerated as containing the relics of St. Julian, an early martyr, who was put to death here or at Old Brioude. There were also before the Revolution several religious houses. There are some woollen stuffs manufac tured in this town; and in the neighbourhood marble is quarried and coal dug. The pop. in 1832 was 5052 for the town, and 5099 for the whole commune.

Brioude suffered much in the middle ages from the ravages of war. It was laid waste in the fifth century by the Burgundians, in the sixth by Thierri, king of Metz, and in the ninth by the Saracens, and afterwards successively by the nobles of Auvergne, by the English, and in the civil wars of the sixteenth century by the Huguenots,

The arrond. of Brioude had, in 1832, a pop. of 80,692.1 BRISGAU, THE, or BREISGAU, in the S.W. part of Swabia, is bounded on the N. by the Ortenau, on the E. by the Black Forest, on the S. by Switzerland, and on the

the historians, economists, and political writers. On attaining the age of manhood he quitted the study of law and went to Boulogne, where he was intrusted with the editorship of the Courier de l'Europe.' This liberal journal was soon arbitrarily suppressed by the French government, and Brissot was thrown upon the world with no other resources than his acquirements and abilities.

In 1780 he published his Theory of Criminal Laws; and the next year two eloquent discourses on the same subject gained him the prizes in the Academy of Châlons-surMarne. Between the years 1782 and 1786 he put forth ten volumes of The Philosophical Library' on criminal laws. At the same time he studied the natural sciences, and devoted part of his time to metaphysical pursuits, in which latter department he published an essay, entitled On Truth, or Meditations on the Means of reaching Truth in all branches of Human Knowledge. During part of this time he resided in England, and it was in London, somewhere about the year 1783, that he undertook a periodical work, called 'Universal Correspondence on all that concerns the Happiness of Men and Society. The laudable object of this work was to disseminate in France all such political principles as were based on reason. The constitutional laws and usages of England formed a leading topic. The French government seized and suppressed the book. His next works were A Picture of the Sciences and Arts of England,' and another on British India.

Returning to France, the ministry of the day arrested him and threw him into the Bastille. His imprisonment was not of long duration, but in obtaining his liberty he was compelled to give up an Anglo-French work, which was to have been written partly by Englishmen and partly by Frenchmen, and circulated in both countries. These persecutions inflamed his hatred of arbitrary power. In 1785, during the insurrection of the Wallachians, he published two letters, addressed to the Emperor Joseph II., On the Right of Emigration,' and ' On the Right of Insurrection.' He continued to be indefatigable with his pen, but most of his works possessing only a temporary interest, have long since fallen into oblivion. He warmly favoured the revolutionary party in the English North American colonies, and wrote a good deal in support of their cause. He was an emancipationist, and one of the first members of the French society called The Friends of the Blacks.'

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The freedom of his pen brought him again into difficulties, and on learning that a lettre-de-cachet was signed for his arrest, he fled and took refuge in England. After a short stay in London he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, where his love of republican institutions was increased by seeing their operation in that country.

In 1789 the progress of events in France enabled him to return home, and use his pen without any fear of the Bastille. He floated forward on the revolutionary torrent. He was elected member of the first municipal council of the city of Paris, and in that capacity received the keys of the captured Bastille, on the 14th of July. Soon after he was elected by the citizens of Paris to be their representative in the Constituent Assembly. He joined the party called the Gironde, and co-operated with Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonné, the Provençal Isnard, and others, who were weak and imprudent politicians, but among the most eloquent and best men in France. The opinions of Brissot, who desired a complete reform; his great activity of mind, which enabled him to re-produce himself in the journal called "The Patriot," at the tribune of the Assembly, in the club of the Jacobins; his precise and extensive information respecting the situation of foreign powers, gave him a great ascendency at a moment of struggle between the parties and a war against all Europe. (Mignet, Hist. of the French Revolution.) The Girondists triumphed over the Feuillans or moderate constitutional monarchy party; but they were in their turn defeated in much the same manner by the Jacobins or party called the Mountain, who went as much farther than the Girondists, as the Girondists had gone farther than the Feuillans. The Gironde was nothing more in the revolution than a party of transition from the power of the middling classes of society to that of the mob. The members of it put themselves and their country in a position from which there was no escape except through seas of blood. During the fearful struggle Brissot incurred the deadly hatred of Robespierre, which was equivalent to a death-warrant. On the 2nd of June, 1793, a sentence of arrest was passed gainst him. Brissot was calm and firm, and at first not

inclined to do anything to escape death, but on the entreaties of his family and friends he attempted to get to Switzerland. Being arrested at Moulins, he was carried back to Paris, and brought before the revolutionary tribunal, where the Jacobins in vain endeavoured to destroy his courage and self-possession. The only regrets he expressed were at the political errors he had committed, and at leaving his wife and children in absolute poverty. He was condemned, of course, and went to the guillotine with twenty other Girondists, his associates and friends, on the 31st of October, 1793, just nine months and ten days after they had voted the death of Louis XVI. (whose life however they attempted to spare), and fifteen days after the execution of the Queen Marie Antoinette. They marched to the scaf fold with all the stoicism of the times, and singing, as it was the fashion to do, the Marsellaise, or song of the republic. They all died with courage. Brissot was only thirty-nine years old. His companions in death were Vergniaud, Gensonné, Fonfrède, Ducos, Valazé, Lasource, Silléry, Gardien, Carra, Duprat, Beauvais, Duchâtel, Mainvielle, Lacaze, Boileau, Lehardy, Antiboul, and Vigée.

Brissot stood at the head of the party which he embraced. At one time in his political career a large section of the house was called after his name, The Brissotins.' He was singularly honest and disinterested: he sincerely wished the good of his country, but he knew not how to accomplish it. His biographers have recorded of him, that he was mild and simple in his manners, small of stature, weak, and somewhat deformed in person, and that his countenance was frank, open, and expressive. After his return from America, he affected the simplicity of dress of the Quakers. (Biog. Univ.; Biog. des Contemporains; Mignet, Hist. de la Revolution Française; and Lacretelle.)

BRISTOL, a sea-port town in the West of England, is in 51° 27′ 6'3′′ N. lat., 2° 35′ 28'6" W. long., 108 m. from London and 313 from Edinburgh, direct distance, between the counties of Gloucester and Somerset, and at the junction of the rivers Avon and Froome, about 10 m., measured by the course of the water, or 7 m. in a straight line from the spot where the Avon enters the Bristol Channel.

Etymology of its name.-The most antient name of Bristol on record is Caer Odor, the city of the gap, or chasm through which the Avon finds a passage to the sea; and to this was added the local description of Nant Baddon, in the valley of the baths. Much diversity of opinion has existed with regard to the etymology of its present name, Bristol; and much of this uncertainty probably arises from the looseness of its orthography in antient documents. Seyer, in his history of Bristol, has enumerated 47 variations, mostly from different, some from the same authorities; and even these are not all. But the only modes of writing the name that are material, as serving to lead to the etymology, are Bristuit, and Bricstow. The Rev. Dr. Shaw derives Bristol from the Celtic words 'bras,' quick, rapid, or 'braos,' a gap, chasm, or rent, and tuile,' a stream: a derivation entitled to some credit. With regard to Bricstow, Chatterton derives it from Brictric, the last king of Wessex, who commenced his reign A.D. 784, and died by poison A.D. 800, supposing it to have been originally called Brictricstow, It appears also that Bricstow, or a similar name, prevailed from 1064 to 1204; and it is remarkable that a Brictric was Lord of Bristol at the earlier of these two dates. But, notwithstanding this, the following conjecture as to the origin of the name seems by far the most probable. The Saxon word 'bric' signifies a break, a breach; and bric would thus be a literal translation of Odor; dropping then the British prefix caer, and substituting the Saxon suffix 'stow,' we should at once arrive at Bricstow, retaining the name which is most descriptive of the locality, and obtaining pure Saxon in exchange for pure British.

Historical Sketch. Of the footing which the Romans obtained in this part of England sufficient evidence exists; and to Vespasian, afterwards emperor, the founding of the Roman station Abona, at Sea Mills, upon the Avon below Westbury-upon-Trym, has with great plausibility been ascribed. It is certain that the Romans obtained early possession of Bristol; and in the time of Constantine, the time assumed by Seyer for its foundation, they invested it with a wall and gates, which inclosed the area now occupied by the most central portions of the town. After the withdrawal of the Roman troops, and at the epoch of the invasion of Cerdic (A.D. 495), who first carried the Saxon arms into Western England, Bristol formed part of the dominions of the princes

of Cornwall, whose jurisdiction extended over all Somerset- | prepositor, at the accession of William I., was Hardyng, shire and part of Gloucestershire. It is recorded in Ellis's a wealthy merchant of the town, and the founder of the 'Specimens of Early English Romances,' that a vast army Berkeley family. He was continued in his office by the of Sarazens (pagans) from Denmark made an attack on Conqueror, and was succeeded on his death, which did not Bristol with 30,000 men, in which they were so completely occur till the reign of Henry I. (1115), by Robert, comdefeated that not five of them escaped.' Whatever may be monly called Fitzharding, and first Lord of Berkeley. But thought of this tale, or rather of its authority, it is impossi- during this period that part of the present city which lies ble that Bristol could have escaped from a strife which raged upon the Somersetshire side of the Avon, and comprises for a time so hotly around its walls; but it appears to have the parishes of Redcliff, St. Thomas, and Temple, posmaintained its independence until the invasion of Crida, sessed a separate jurisdiction and a prepositor of its own. who in 584 totally subdued the country upon the Gloucester- It was called the Vil de Radcleeve, and was in every reshire side of the Avon, and erected upon the ruins of the spect the rival of the neighbouring town until the two were antient governments the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, of incorporated. The estimated number of houses contained which, it is to be presumed, Bristol formed the frontier city at this time within the walls of the town was 480; the pop. bordering upon the neighbouring Saxon state of Wessex, could not have far exceeded 3000. To Robert Fitzhamon and divided from it by the Avon. Caer Odor had now be the grant of Rufus appears to have been absolute. Robert come Bric-stow; and in 596 Jordan, the companion of founded the abbey of Tewkesbury, conferring on it the Augustine, in his mission for the conversion of the Anglo- church of St. Peter at Brigston, and a tithe of the rents of Saxons, preached on the spot now called College Green, the town; and as warden of the Welsh Marches, (an office which subsequently became the site of the monastery, attached to the Honor, and bearing somewhat onerously built in honour of the chief missionary, and now the cathe- upon the townsmen, who were charged with checking the dral church of Bristol. In 930 Bristol was held under turbulent Welsh,) he conquered the co. of Glamorgan, Athelstan by Ailward, as Lord of the Honor. Ailward making Cardiff his capital. He died 1107, leaving his was a Saxon nobleman of considerable power and wealth in three daughters to the wardship of Henry I., to which king the adjoining counties: he was succeeded (980) in his lord- he had, on the death of Rufus, transferred his allegiance. ship by his son Algar. Upon the coins of Canute the name Henry gave the eldest daughter, Mabile, in marriage to his of the town first appears as Bric and Bricstow; so that at natural son Robert, on whom he conferred the Honor, this date (1017) it must have possessed some importance. creating him first (Norman) Earl of Gloucester: the annual Indeed from this time its rise as a port may with certainty value of the earldom has been estimated at 1000l. in the be dated; for we find that upon the condemnation of Earl money of the time. Robert Earl of Gloucester has been Godwin (1051) his sons Harold and Leofwine escaping to justly esteemed the first man of his age; and to his care, Bristol, thence embarked for Ireland; and that after their after the capture of Duke Robert of Normandy (1126), reconciliation with the king, and the employment of Harold Henry confided his unfortunate brother, whom the earl for by Edward to chastise the Welsh, that chieftain embarked a some time confined in the castle at Bristol, until, for greater body of men on board his fleet from Brikestow. We gather security, he was removed to Cardiff Castle, where he died. also from the life of Wolstan, who was consecrated Bishop On the death of Henry, Earl Robert maintained Bristol of Worcester A.D. 1062, that Brichtou was, from its con- and its castle on behalf of his sister Matilda, against the venience as a port, especially for embarkation to Ireland, usurpation of Stephen. The castle he is said to have built; used commonly for the purpose of exporting slaves: a prac- but as a castle was certainly in existence, the probability tice which Wolstan denounced to the Conqueror, who is that he enlarged its site and added to its defences only; forbade, but failed utterly to extinguish, the inhuman traffic and this he appears to have done most effectually, for under by a royal edict. On the accession of William, Brictric then him it became one of the largest and strongest fortresses in held the honour in succession from his father Algar; but the kingdom. It occupied about 6 acres of ground, and bis estates were seized by William and himself confined William Botoner, surnamed Wyrcestre, states that the walls in Winchester Castle, where he died. The profits of the were 25 ft. thick at the base and 9 at the top. Stephen Honor the king gave to his queen, and resumed them at her was brought to this castle after his capture at the battle of death. To the early part of the Norman period the addi- Lincoln (1140), and kept prisoner until the following year, tion of the second wall around the town is ascribed; pro- when he was exchanged against Earl Robert. bably it was built together with the castle by Godfrey bishop of Coutances, in Normandy, and of Exeter, in England, who followed the Conqueror to this country.

The castle is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Book, compiled 1086; and the first historical notice of it occurs on the death of William I., when it was fortified and held by Godfrey on behalf of Robert, the Conqueror's eldest son. It must at that time have been a place of considerable strength, for the insurgents in the west made it their head-quarters, bearing thither all the plunder accumulated in foraging the adjoining counties, until, on the final success of Rufus, Godfrey retired into Normandy, and the king, in whom the honor then was, conferred it upon his cousin Fitzhamon. By referring to Domesday Book, we shall be enabled very readily to trace the actual position of Bristol at the time of the Norman invasion. In that compilation the burgenses of Bristol are repeatedly referred to: Bristol then was a burgh or walled town: it is also recorded that the burgenses paid to the king in reserved rents, fines, customs, and tolls, 571. 6s. 8d. It follows that it was a royal burgh, the tenants in which held for the most part immediately under the king. [BOROUGH, p. 195.] The local government of the city was vested in a prepositor or chief magistrate, who acted under the custos of the castle, the caput honoris, the constable of which was either the lord of the Honor when he made it his residence, or an individual holding under him or the king. It does not appear that the prepositor was a salaried officer, although, as he was de virtute officii escheator to the king, his reasonable charges on that head were defrayed: but the town was charged with the maintenance of the castle; and in addition to the sum recorded in Domesday Book as paid to the king, there is this item, And to the Lord Bishop Godfrey] £28, which was the precise sum annually paid by the town to the constable of the castle for several subsequent reigns. The

During this stormy period the prepositor of the town, Robert Fitzharding, was employing a portion of his wealth in erecting the abbey of St. Augustine, now the cathedral church; and William of Malmesbury writes that the port was at this time the resort of ships coming from Ireland, Norway, and other countries beyond sea; lest a region so fortunate in native riches should be destitute of the commerce of foreign wealth.' Earl Robert died at Bristol of a severe fever in November, 1147, having previously founded the priory of St. James (subsequently the parochial church of that name) in Bristol, in the choir of which he was, at his own request, interred. He was succeeded in his earldom by his son William. Henry II. on his accession (1154) resumed the royal jurisdiction over the towns, castles, &c., which belonged to the crown, by taking them into his own hands; but 20 years elapsed before he obtained possession of the castle of Bristol, when (1175) the earl surrendered it into the king's hand, constituting the king's son his heir, the king at the same time contracting for the marriage of his son John with Isabel the earl's daughter. The rise of Bristol into a free municipal town may now be said fairly to commence, and its progress was rapid in the extreme. For the services rendered to the king's mother during the wars with Stephen the burgesses had a right to expect favours at his hand; but the first gracious act on record is a charter, granted 1164, in which they are exempted from toll, passage, and custom throughout all the king's lands wherever they shall come, they and their goods. At his father's death, Prince John was Earl of Moreton (Mortagne, Normandy) and Lord of Ireland; and by his marriage with the Lady Isabel, solemnized at Mariborough, August 29, 1189. he became also Lord of Bristol, to which city he in the following year granted a charter, which is historically most valuable, for it recites all the existing privileges of the place. From this document we

find that the burgesses were exempted from pleading or being impleaded without the walls of the town, except in cases of foreign tenure, in which the town had no jurisdiction; from the fine levied by the lord on the hundred in which murder had been committed; and from wager of duel, unless appealed to on the death of a stranger killed within the walls that no one could take an inn (hospitium) within the walls without leave of the burgesses; that they were exempt from toll, lastage (privileged porterage), pontage and all other customs throughout their lord's land; and that they could not be condemued in money above 40s.; that the hundred court was held once in the week, and that the burgesses had power of recovering all debts, &c., throughout their lord's land; that lands and tenures within the town were to be held according to the customs of the place; that pleas with regard to all debts contracted in the town must be there held; and that in case of tolls taken against the charter, the prepositor could enforce restoration by seizure; that strangers within the town could not buy leather, corn, or wool, but of a burgess, nor sell wine except from a ship, nor cloth except at the fair, nor remain in the town to sell goods longer than 40 days; that no burgess could be elsewhere detained for any debt except of his own or for one in which he had become surety; that he could marry without the license of his lord, and that the lord had wardship only so far as regarded the lands in his own fee; that no one could take tyne (a tax levied in kind in those primitive times ad libitum) except for the use of the lord earl; that the burgesses could grind their corn where they chose; that they were not obliged to bail any one, not even their servants; and that they were allowed to have all their reasonable guilds. These existing privileges the charter confirms: it grants in addition the privilege of holding property in free burgage on land-gable service (payment of ground-rent), and of making improvements by building upon the banks of the river and upon the other void places of the town. This may serve to show us what the feudal system was, as well as to indicate very nearly what was the social position of Bristol at the time the whole of these privileges were extended to the men of Redcliff.

On the accession of Henry III. he was crowned at Gloucester, and the barons being then in arms against the tyranny of the late king, Henry came with his retinue to Bristol for greater security. Here a reconciliation was effected; and an important alteration took place in the municipal government of the town. Hitherto the only local magistrate appears to have been the prepositor, who also seems to have acted as the king's manorial steward; but now the privilege of choosing a mayor and two prepositors was granted to the burgesses. The functions of the latter from henceforth were similar to those of bailiffs or sheriffs, into which offices their own subsequently lapsed; and upon the mayor devolved the duty of escheator to the king. In the 8th of his reign (1225) Henry let the farm of the town (hitherto granted to individuals) for the first time to the burgesses themselves, for eight years, at the advanced rent of 2457. per annum, saving to the king certain bailiwicks in the suburbs, and of the prisage of beer so much as should be necessary for the use of the constable of the castle and his people-the rest for the burgesses. But the rents and profits so leased did not comprise the whole of the revenues of the town; for in the charter roll for the 11th of this king's reign, preserved among the records of Chancery, it is written that the king had granted to Jordan Laurence and his heirs the tronage and pesage (customs paid for the weighing of wool and merchandize) in the town of Bristol, for the service of 10s. per annum.

In the 26th of his reign the king again farmed the town to the burgesses for a term of twenty years, at a rental of 2507.; and at the termination of ten years the lease was renewed for a term of sixty years, at a rental of 266l. 138. 4d. The course of the river Froome within the town had previously been to the E. of its present channel, so that it passed through a part of the town now called Baldwin Street, joining the Avon a little below the bridge, and flooding the ground, until those parts now occupied by Queen Square and the quay were converted into a marsh; and the anchorage was confined to a small stretch of quay above the bridge, where the vessels lay on a rough and stony bottom, with a very high and inconvenient place of landing. The trade of the port had now however outgrown the extent of this quay, and the burgesses resolving to cut a new course for the Avon, the ground necessary to the purpose was ceded to the

mayor and commonalty by the abbot of St. Augustine's for the sum of ten marks. The work was commenced in 1239, and completed about the year 1247. The extent of quay obtained by this spirited proceeding was 2400 feet; and the channel of the river was dug 18 ft. deep and 40 yards wide, at a cost of 5000l. For the completion of this undertaking, which for its day well deserves the title of great, the bur gesses of Bristol obtained a writ of mandamus from the king to the burgesses of Radcleeve, requiring them to ren der their assistance; and in the year of its completion both vils. were by royal charter incorporated into one. A stone bridge was immediately commenced for the better means of communication between the united towns, the wall of the town was extended so as to embrace the new district, and Redcliff shortly became the seat of those manufactories which, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, almost supplied England with cloth, glass, and soap. In the year 1243 it is recorded that the latter article of Bristol manufacture was first sold in London.

During the unsettled state of the kingdom in the reign of Edward II., consequent upon the quarrel of the king with his barons, the town was for some time held by the citizens against the sovereign, and the royal authority completely set aside. This rebellion originated in an alleged attempt of fourteen of the principal citizens (de majoribus) to usurp the management and disposal of the corporate funds, to the exclusion of the burgesses at large, in whom the right was; a usurpation which was resented by the burgesses, who complained also that a custom called cockett was levied upon their goods contrary to their antient privileges. Upon appeal to the king, a special commission of Oyer and Terminer was issued to inquire into the case; but the commission was objected to by the popular party, on the ground that foreigners (that is, persons not burgesses of Bristol) were put upon the inquisition or jury; and a tumult arising during its sitting in the Guildhall, the commissioners narrowly escaped with their lives. The parties indicted for this offence, refusing to appear before the king's justices at Gloucester, were outlawed; and the burgesses retaliated by banishing the obnoxious fourteen from the. town, seizing upon their property, and collecting the king's rents and customs to their own use. The rebellion began in 1311; and the town 'held its own' for the space of four years, during which time it continued to exist, a little republic in the heart of a great monarchy, if a sovereignty so torn with dissensions can properly be termed great. The local government was carried on according to its antient form, with this exception: the burgesses held the authority of the castle at defiance, and, for their better security, built against it a strong wall with forts, traces of which, of an immense thickness, have been recently discovered in making excavations on its site in Dolphin Street, antien ly, from this fact, termed Defence Lane. In the spring of 1314 the city was invested on the part of Edward by the earl of Gloucester, at the head of an army of 20,000 men, raised by the sheriffs of the adjoining counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Wilts, under writs issued in the midsummer of the preceding year; but the townsmen, encouraged by their mayor, John le Taverner, stoutly resisted their besiegers, and the king requiring men for his Scottish wars, the siege was raised. About the latter end of 1316, the burgesses refusing to submit without a full admission of their antient privileges and exemption from the obnoxious tax, the town was again besieged, and, after a few days' resistance, surrendered to the army of the king. The 14 majores were reinstated, and a general pardon was procured from the king on the payment of a considerable fine and the arrears of the cockett. The only charter of this king to the town was one granted in the 15th of his reign, in confirmation of 28th of Edward I.

In 1327, the year succeeding the accession of Edward III., the castle and borough of Liverpool were together taken to be worth 307. 10s. per annum; while three years afterwards the town of Bristol was farmed at a rental of 2407. In the 5th of his reign the king granted to the town the privilege of receiving, for the term of four years, a custom on goods coming to the town for sale, in aid of repairing its walls. The articles taxed will show the nature of the traffic at that time: they consist of live stock, agricultural produce and fish, wine, wool, skins, linen cloth, and cloth of silk, Irish Galway cloths, salt, ashes, honey, iron, lead, alum, brass, tallow, millstones, copper, leather, oil, and wood. The copy of this grant is still preserved among the records