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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3

V >> Various >> Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3




BRIAN (926-1014), king of Ireland, known as BRIAN BORU, BOROMA, or BOROIMHE
(from _boroma_, an Irish word for tribute), was a son of a certain Kennedy
or Cenneide (d. 951). He passed his youth in fighting against the Danes,
who were constantly ravaging Munster, the northern part of which district
was the home of Brian's tribe, and won much fame in these encounters. In
976 his brother, Mathgamhain or Mahon, who had become king of Thomond about
951 and afterwards king of Munster, was murdered; Brian avenged this deed,
became himself king of Munster in 978, and set out upon his career of
conquest. He forced the tribes of Munster and then those of Leinster to own
his sovereignty, defeated the Danes, who were established around Dublin, in
Wicklow, and marched into Dublin, and after several reverses compelled
Malachy (Maelsechlainn), the chief king of Ireland, who ruled in Meath, to
bow before him in 1002. Connaught was his next objective. Here and also in
Ulster he was successful, everywhere he received hostages and tribute, and
he was generally recognized as the _ardri_, or chief king of Ireland. After
a period of comparative quiet Brian was again at war with the Danes of
Dublin, and on the 23rd of April 1014 his forces gained a great victory
over them at Clontarf. After this battle, however, the old king was slain
in his tent, and was buried at Armagh. Brian has enjoyed a great and not
undeserved reputation. One of his charters is still preserved in Trinity
College, Dublin.

See E.A. D'Alton, _History of Ireland_, vol. i. (1903).

BRIANCON, a strongly fortified town in the department of Hautes-Alpes in
S.E. France. It is built at a height of 4334 ft. on a plateau which
dominates the junction of the Durance with the Guisane. The town itself is
formed of very steep and narrow, though picturesque streets. As it lies at
the foot of the descent from the Mont Genevre Pass, giving access to Turin,
a great number of fortifications have been constructed on the heights
around Briancon, especially towards the east. The Fort Janus is no less
than 4000 ft. above the town. The parish church, with its two towers, was
built 1703-1726, and occupies a very conspicuous position. The Pont
d'Asfeld, E. of the town, was built in 1734, and forms an arch of 131 ft.
span, thrown at a height of 184 ft. across the Durance. The modern town
extends in the plain at the S.W. foot of the plateau on which the old town
is built and forms the suburb of Ste Catherine, with the railway station,
and an important silk-weaving factory. Briancon is 511/2 m. by rail from Gap.
The commune had a civil population in 1906 of 4883 (urban population 3130),
while the permanent garrison was 2641--in all 7524 inhabitants.

Briancon was the _Brigantium_ of the Romans and formed part of the kingdom
of King Cottius. About 1040 it came into the hands of the counts of Albon
(later dauphins of the Viennois) and thenceforth shared the fate of the
Dauphine. The Brianconnais included not merely the upper valley of the
Durance (with those of its affluents, the Gyronde and the Guil), but also
the valley of the Dora Riparia (Cesanne, Oulx, Bardonneche and Exilles),
and that of the Chisone (Fenestrelles, Perouse, Pragelas)--these glens all
lying on the eastern slope of the chain of the Alps. But by the treaty of
Utrecht (1713) all these valleys were handed over to Savoy in exchange for
that of Barcelonnette, on the west slope of the Alps. In 1815 Briancon
successfully withstood a siege of three months at the hands of the Allies,
a feat which is commemorated by an inscription on one of its gates, _Le
passe repond de l'avenir_.

(W. A. B. C.)

BRIAND, ARISTIDE (1862- ), French statesman, was born at Nantes, of a
bourgeois family. He studied law, and while still young took to politics,
associating himself with the most advanced movements, writing articles for
the anarchist journal _Le Peuple_, and directing the _Lanterne_ for some
time. From this he passed to the _Petite Republique_, leaving it to found,
with Jean Jaures, _L'Humanite_. At the same time he was prominent in the
movement for the formation of labour unions, and at the congress of working
men at Nantes in 1894 he secured the adoption of the labour union idea
against the adherents of Jules Guesde. From that time, Briand became one of
the leaders of the French Socialist party. In 1902, after several
unsuccessful attempts, he was elected deputy. He declared himself a strong
partisan of the union of the Left in what is known as the _Bloc_, in order
to check the reactionary deputies of the Right. From the beginning of his
career in the chamber of deputies, Briand was occupied with the question of
the separation of church and state. He was appointed reporter of the
commission charged with the preparation of the law, and his masterly report
at once marked him out as one of the coming leaders. He succeeded in
carrying his project through with but slight modifications, and without
dividing the parties upon whose support he relied. He was the principal
author of the law of separation, but, not content with preparing it, he
wished to apply it as well, especially as the existing Rouvier [v.04
p.0516] ministry allowed disturbances to occur during the taking of
inventories of church property, a clause of the law for which Briand was
not responsible. Consequently he accepted the portfolio of public
instruction and worship in the Sarrien ministry (1906). So far as the
chamber was concerned his success was complete. But the acceptance of a
portfolio in a bourgeois ministry led to his exclusion from the Unified
Socialist party (March 1906). As opposed to Jaures, he contended that the
Socialists should co-operate actively with the Radicals in all matters of
reform, and not stand aloof to await the complete fulfilment of their
ideals.

BRIANZA, a district of Lombardy, Italy, forming the south part of the
province of Como, between the two southern arms of the lake of that name.
It is thickly populated and remarkable for its fertility; and being hilly
is a favourite summer resort of the Milanese.

BRIARE, a town of north-central France in the department of Loiret on the
right bank of the Loire, 451/2 m. S.E. of Orleans on the railway to Nevers.
Pop. (1906) 4613. Briare, the _Brivodorum_ of the Romans, is situated at
the extremity of the Canal of Briare, which unites the Loire and its
lateral canal with the Loing and so with the Seine. The canal of Briare was
constructed from 1605 to 1642 and is about 36 m. long. The industries
include the manufacture of fine pottery, and of so-called porcelain buttons
made of felspar and milk by a special process; its inventor, Bapterosses,
has a bust in the town. The canal traffic is in wood, iron, coal, building
materials, &c. A modern hospital and church, and the hotel de ville
installed in an old moated chateau, are the chief buildings. The lateral
canal of the Loire crosses the Loire near Briare by a fine canal-bridge 720
yds. in length.

BRIAREUS, or AEGAEON, in Greek mythology, one of the three hundred-armed,
fifty-headed Hecatoncheires, brother of Cottus and Gyges (or Gyes).
According to Homer (_Iliad_ i. 403) he was called Aegaeon by men, and
Briareus by the gods. He was the son of Poseidon (or Uranus) and Gaea. The
legends regarding him and his brothers are various and somewhat
contradictory. According to the most widely spread myth, Briareus and his
brothers were called by Zeus to his assistance when the Titans were making
war upon Olympus. The gigantic enemies were defeated and consigned to
Tartarus, at the gates of which the three brothers were placed (Hesiod,
_Theog._ 624, 639, 714). Other accounts make Briareus one of the assailants
of Olympus, who, after his defeat, was buried under Mount Aetna
(Callimachus, _Hymn to Delos_, 141). Homer mentions him as assisting Zeus
when the other Olympian deities were plotting against the king of gods and
men (_Iliad_ i. 398). Another tradition makes him a giant of the sea, ruler
of the fabulous Aegaea in Euboea, an enemy of Poseidon and the inventor of
warships (Schol. on Apoll. Rhod. i. 1165). It would be difficult to
determine exactly what natural phenomena are symbolized by the
Hecatoncheires. They may represent the gigantic forces of nature which
appear in earthquakes and other convulsions, or the multitudinous motion of
the sea waves (Mayer, _Die Giganten und Titanen_, 1887).

BRIBERY (from the O. Fr. _briberie_, begging or vagrancy, _bribe_, Mid.
Lat. _briba_, signifying a piece of bread given to beggars; the Eng.
"bribe" has passed through the meanings of alms, blackmail and extortion,
to gifts received or given in order to influence corruptly). The public
offence of bribery may be defined as the offering or giving of payment in
some shape or form that it may be a motive in the performance of functions
for which the proper motive ought to be a conscientious sense of duty. When
this is superseded by the sordid impulses created by the bribe, a person is
said to be corrupted, and thus corruption is a term sometimes held
equivalent to bribery. The offence may be divided into two great
classes--the one where a person invested with power is induced by payment
to use it unjustly; the other, where power is obtained by purchasing the
suffrages of those who can impart it. It is a natural propensity, removable
only by civilization or some powerful counteracting influence, to feel that
every element of power is to be employed as much as possible for the
owner's own behoof, and that its benefits should be conferred not on those
who best deserve them, but on those who will pay most for them. Hence
judicial corruption is an inveterate vice of imperfect civilization. There
is, perhaps no other crime on which the force of law, if unaided by public
opinion and morals, can have so little influence; for in other crimes, such
as violence or fraud, there is generally some person immediately injured by
the act, who can give his aid in the detection of the offender, but in the
perpetration of the offence of bribery all the immediate parties obtain
what they desire, and are satisfied.

The purification of the bench from judicial bribery has been gradual in
most of the European countries. In France it received an impulse in the
16th century from the high-minded chancellor, Michel de L'Hopital. In
England judicial corruption has been a crime of remarkable rarity. Indeed,
with the exception of a statute of 1384 (repealed by the Statute Law
Revision Act 1881) there has been no legislation relating to judicial
bribery. The earliest recorded case was that of Sir William Thorpe, who in
1351 was fined and removed from office for accepting bribes. Other
celebrated cases were those of Michael de la Pole, chancellor of England,
in 1387; Lord Chancellor Bacon in 1621; Lionel Cranfield, earl of
Middlesex, in 1624; and Sir Thomas Parker, 1st earl of Macclesfield, in
1725. In Scotland for some years after the Revolution the bench was not
without a suspicion of interested partiality; but since the beginning of
the 19th century, at least, there has been in all parts of the empire a
perfect reliance on its purity. The same may be said of the higher class of
ministerial officers. There is no doubt that in the period from the
Revolution to the end of Queen Anne's reign, when a speaker of the House of
Commons was expelled for bribery, and the great Marlborough could not clear
his character from pecuniary dishonesty, there was much corruption in the
highest official quarters. The level of the offence of official bribery has
gradually descended, until it has become an extremely rare thing for the
humbler officers connected with the revenue to be charged with it. It has
had a more lingering existence with those who, because their power is more
of a constitutional than an official character, have been deemed less
responsible to the public. During Walpole's administration there is no
doubt that members of parliament were paid in cash for votes; and the
memorable saying, that every man has his price, has been preserved as a
characteristic indication of his method of government. One of the forms in
which administrative corruption is most difficult of eradication is the
appointment to office. It is sometimes maintained that the purity which
characterizes the administration of justice is here unattainable, because
in giving a judgment there is but one form in which it can be justly given,
but when an office has to be filled many people may be equally fitted for
it, and personal motives must influence a choice. It very rarely happens,
however, that direct bribery is supposed to influence such appointments. It
does not appear that bribery was conspicuous in England until, in the early
part of the 18th century, constituencies had thrown off the feudal
dependence which lingered among them; and, indeed, it is often said, that
bribery is essentially the defect of a free people, since it is the sale of
that which is taken from others without payment.

In English law bribery of a privy councillor or a juryman (see EMBRACERY)
is punishable as a misdemeanour, as is the taking of a bribe by any
judicial or ministerial officer. The buying and selling of public offices
is also regarded at common law as a form of bribery. By the Customs
Consolidation Act 1876, any officer in the customs service is liable to
instant dismissal and a penalty of L500 for taking a bribe, and any person
offering or promising a bribe or reward to an officer to neglect his duty
or conceal or connive at any act by which the customs may be evaded shall
forfeit the sum of L200. Under the Inland Revenue Regulations Act 1890, the
bribery of commissioners, collectors, officers or other persons employed in
relation to the Inland Revenue involves a fine of L500. The Merchant
Shipping Act 1894, ss. 112 and 398, makes provision for certain offences in
the nature of bribery. Bribery is, by the Extradition Act 1906, [v.04
p.0517] an extraditable offence. Administrative corruption was dealt with
in the Public Bodies' Corrupt Practices Act 1889. The public bodies
concerned are county councils, town or borough councils, boards,
commissioners, select vestries and other bodies having local government,
public health or poor law powers, and having for those purposes to
administer rates raised under public general acts. The giving or receiving,
promising, offering, soliciting or agreeing to receive any gift, fee, loan
or advantage by any person as an inducement for any act or forbearance by a
member, officer or servant of a public body in regard to the affairs of
that body is made a misdemeanour in England and Ireland and a crime and
offence in Scotland. Prosecution under the act requires the consent of the
attorney or solicitor-general in England or Ireland and of the lord
advocate in Scotland. Conviction renders liable to imprisonment with or
without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years, and to a fine not
exceeding L500, in addition to or in lieu of imprisonment. The offender may
also be ordered to pay to the public body concerned any bribe received by
him; he may be adjudged incapable for seven years of holding public office,
_i.e._ the position of member, officer or servant of a public body; and if
already an officer or servant, besides forfeiting his place, he is liable
at the discretion of the court to forfeit his right to compensation or
pension. On a second conviction he may be adjudged forever incapable of
holding public office, and for seven years incapable of being registered or
of voting as a parliamentary elector, or as an elector of members of a
public body. An offence under the act may be prosecuted and punished under
any other act applicable thereto, or at common law; but no person is to be
punished twice for the same offence. Bribery at political elections was at
common law punishable by indictment or information, but numerous statutes
have been passed dealing with it as a "corrupt practice." In this sense,
the word is elastic in meaning and may embrace any method of corruptly
influencing another for the purpose of securing his vote (see CORRUPT
PRACTICES). Bribery at elections of fellows, scholars, officers and other
persons in colleges, cathedral and collegiate churches, hospitals and other
societies was prohibited in 1588-1589 by statute (31 Eliz. c. 6). If a
member receives any money, fee, reward or other profit for giving his vote
in favour of any candidate, he forfeits his own place; if for any such
consideration he resigns to make room for a candidate, he forfeits double
the amount of the bribe, and the candidate by or on whose behalf a bribe is
given or promised is incapable of being elected on that occasion. The act
is to be read at every election of fellows, &c., under a penalty of L40 in
case of default. By the same act any person for corrupt consideration
presenting, instituting or inducting to an ecclesiastical benefice or
dignity forfeits two years' value of the benefice or dignity; the corrupt
presentation is void, and the right to present lapses for that turn to the
crown, and the corrupt presentee is disabled from thereafter holding the
same benefice or dignity; a corrupt institution or induction is void, and
the patron may present. For a corrupt resignation or exchange of a benefice
the giver and taker of a bribe forfeit each double the amount of the bribe.
Any person corruptly procuring the ordaining of ministers or granting of
licenses to preach forfeits L40, and the person so ordained forfeits L10
and for seven years is incapacitated from holding any ecclesiastical
benefice or promotion.

In the United States the offence of bribery is very severely dealt with. In
many states, bribery or the attempt to bribe is made a felony, and is
punishable with varying terms of imprisonment, in some jurisdictions it may
be with a period not exceeding ten years. The offence of bribery at
elections is dealt with on much the same lines as in England, voiding the
election and disqualifying the offender from holding any office.

Bribery may also take the form of a secret commission (_q.v._), a profit
made by an agent, in the course of his employment, without the knowledge of
his principal.

BRIC A BRAC (a French word, formed by a kind of onomatopoeia, meaning a
heterogeneous collection of odds and ends; cf. _de bric et de broc_,
corresponding to our "by hook or by crook"; or by reduplication from
_brack_, refuse), objects of "virtu," a collection of old furniture, china,
plate and curiosities.

BRICK (derived according to some etymologists from the Teutonic _bricke_, a
disk or plate; but more authoritatively, through the French _brique_,
originally a "broken piece," applied especially to bread, and so to clay,
from the Teutonic _brikan_, to break), a kind of artificial stone generally
made of burnt clay, and largely used as a building material.

_History_.--The art of making bricks dates from very early times, and was
practised by all the civilized nations of antiquity. The earliest burnt
bricks known are those found on the sites of the ancient cities of
Babylonia, and it seems probable that the method of making strong and
durable bricks, by burning blocks of dried clay, was discovered in this
corner of Asia. We know at least that well-burnt bricks were made by the
Babylonians more than 6000 years ago, and that they were extensively used
in the time of Sargon of Akkad (c. 3800 B.C.). The site of the ancient city
of Babylon is still marked by huge mounds of bricks, the ruins of its great
walls, towers and palaces, although it has been the custom for centuries to
carry away from these heaps the bricks required for the building of the
modern towns in the surrounding country. The Babylonians and Assyrians
attained to a high degree of proficiency in brickmaking, notably in the
manufacture of bricks having a coating of coloured glaze or enamel, which
they largely used for wall decoration. The Chinese claim great antiquity
for their clay industries, but it is not improbable that the knowledge of
brickmaking travelled eastwards from Babylonia across the whole of Asia. It
is believed that the art of making glazed bricks, so highly developed
afterwards by the Chinese, found its way across Asia from the west, through
Persia and northern India, to China. The great wall of China was
constructed partly of brick, both burnt and unburnt; but this was built at
a comparatively late period (c. 210 B.C.), and there is nothing to show
that the Chinese had any knowledge of burnt bricks when the art flourished
in Babylonia.

Brickmaking formed the chief occupation of the Israelites during their
bondage in Egypt, but in this case the bricks were probably sun-dried only,
and not burnt. These bricks were made of a mixture of clay and chopped
straw or reeds, worked into a stiff paste with water. The clay was the
river mud from the banks of the Nile, and as this had not sufficient
cohesion in itself, the chopped straw (or reeds) was added as a binding
material. The addition of such substances increases the plasticity of wet
clay, especially if the mixture is allowed to stand for some days before
use; so that the action of the chopped straw was twofold; a fact possibly
known to the Egyptians. These sun-dried bricks, or "adobes," are still
made, as of old, on the banks of the Nile by the following method:--A
shallow pit or bed is prepared, into which are thrown the mud, chopped
straw and water in suitable proportions, and the whole mass is tramped on
until it is thoroughly mixed and of the proper consistence. This mixture is
removed in lumps and shaped into bricks, in moulds or by hand, the bricks
being simply sun-dried.

Pliny mentions that three kinds of bricks were made by the Greeks, but
there is no indication that they were used to any great extent, and
probably the walls of Athens on the side towards Mount Hymettus were the
most important brick-structures in ancient Greece. The Romans became
masters of the brickmaker's art, though they probably acquired much of
their knowledge in the East, during their occupation of Egypt and Greece.
In any case they revived and extended the manufacture of bricks about the
beginning of the Christian era; exercising great care in the selection and
preparation of their clay, and introducing the method of burning bricks in
kilns. They carried their knowledge and their methods throughout western
Europe, and there is abundant evidence that they made bricks extensively in
Germany and in Britain.

Although brickmaking was thus introduced into Britain nearly 2000 years
ago, the art seems to have been lost when the Romans withdrew from the
country, and it is doubtful whether any burnt bricks were made in England
from that time until the 13th century. Such bricks as were used during this
long [v.04 p.0518] period were generally taken from the remains of Roman
buildings, as at Colchester and St Albans Abbey. One of the earliest
existing brick buildings, erected after the revival of brickmaking in
England, is Little Wenham Hall, in Suffolk, built about A.D. 1210; but it
was not until the 15th century that bricks came into general use again, and
then only for important edifices. During the reign of Henry VIII.
brickmaking was brought to great perfection, probably by workmen brought
from Flanders, and the older portions of St James's Palace and Hampton
Court Palace remain to testify to the skill then attained. In the 16th
century bricks were increasingly used, but down to the Great Fire of
London, in 1666, the smaller buildings, shops and dwelling-houses, were
constructed of timber framework filled in with lath and plaster. In the
rebuilding of London after the fire, bricks were largely used, and from the
end of the 17th century to the present day they have been almost
exclusively used in all ordinary buildings throughout the country, except
in those districts where building stone is plentiful and good brick-clay is
not readily procurable. The bricks made in England before 1625 were of many
sizes, there being no recognized standard; but in that year the sizes were
regulated by statute, and the present standard size was adopted, viz. 9 x
41/2 x 3 in. In 1784 a tax was levied on bricks, which was not repealed until
1850. The tax averaged about 4s. 7d. per thousand on ordinary bricks, and
special bricks were still more heavily taxed.

The first brick buildings in America were erected on Manhattan Island in
the year 1633 by a governor of the Dutch West India Company. These bricks
were made in Holland, where the industry had long reached great excellence;
and for many years bricks were imported into America from Holland and from
England. In America burnt bricks were first made at New Haven about 1650,
and the manufacture slowly spread through the New England states; but for
many years the home-made article was inferior to that imported from Europe.

The Dutch and the Germans were the great brickmakers of Europe during the
middle ages, although the Italians, from the 14th to the 15th century,
revived and developed the art of decorative brick-work or terra-cotta, and
discovered the method of applying coloured enamels to these materials.
Under the Della Robbias, in the 15th century, some of the finest work of
this class that the world has seen was executed, but it can scarcely be
included under brickwork.

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