Brevipennes.

he be of unsound mind, prodigal, and furious. 4. B. of terce. The object of this writ is to cognosce the widow to her terce "—that is, to enable her to recover her terce or dower. It is issued to the sheriff of the county, and the jury under his presidency are directed to inquire whether the claimant was the lawful wife of the deceased, and whether the husband died infeft in the lands from which the terce is claimed. The verdict of the jury gives the widow her terce, and the judge then "kens "her to it. See TERCE, and KENNING to the TERCE. 5. B. of division amongst heir-portioners. By means of this B., an heir-portioner-that is, one of two or more sisters succeeding in equal portions to a landed estate-may have her share of the lands separated or set apart by a judge, who appoints an inquest, or jury of fifteen persons, to measure the land, and make a division; the jury report to the judge; and lots being cast for the different shares, the judge decides accordingly. The form is, however, now seldom used, an arbitration being more generally resorted to. See INHERITANCE, SUCCESSION, HEIRS-POR

TIONERS.

BREVET (Fr. a writ or warrant), in the British army, is a promotion of officers, now strictly limited in its application, but before 1854 a recognized though occasional mode of conferring a large measure of general promotion throughout the army. It took place under various circumstances. If no special cause interfered, a general promotion by B. used in former times to be made once in about six years; but in more recent years it was limited to very special occasions, as a coronation, the birth of an heir to the throne, the termination of some great war, etc., and was limited to officers who had some particular claim to promotion. The officers so promoted obtained an increase of rank, and in some cases pay, even if they had never served in the field. A B. was determined on by the cabinet, and carried out by the commander-in-chief. The officers expected it, as one of the implied conditions on entering the service, and it had formed part of the British military system ever since the time of James II.; but it was unsatisfactory, because the flow of promotion caused by it was arbitrary, uncertain, and much liable to abuse. There were brevets, arising out of the various circumstances above indicated, in 1837, 1838, 1841, 1846, 1851, and 1854. On these occasions, lieut.generals, maj.generals, colonels, lieut.colonels, majors, and captains received a promotion of one grade in rank. On one of these occasions, 200 colonels were at once made maj.generals. The higher the rank, the higher the pay, as a general rule; and therefore the cost to the nation is always increased for a time after each brevet. Thus the B. of 1837 occasioned an annual increase of £11,000; that of 1838, £7000; of 1841, £15,000; of 1846, £21,000, etc.; but it must not be forgotten that death and sales had in the intervals cleared off perhaps an equal number of officers at the higher rates of pay. In 1854, the new maj.generals alone involved an additional charge of £18,000 a year.

The above description applied before 1854. In that year, general brevets were abolished-a fixed establishment of general officers being substituted. The only brevets now are obtained by service of five years as lieut.col. (making the officer brevet col., without increase of pay); by distinguished service in the field, applicable to lieut.colonels, majors, and captains (carrying the substantive pay of the higher rank, except in the case of the lieut.col.); and by succession, when a death occurs among the establishment of general officers. In this last case there is no brevet promotion to the rank of col., but the senior maj. in the whole army and marines becomes a brevet lieut.col. without increase of pay, and the senior capt. a brevet-maj. with 28. a day extra. Officers become maj.generals, in accordance with their seniority as brevet colonels, and it will be seen, from the above description, that the brevet rank of col., which is the stepping-stone to maj. gen., is obtainable by service only.

Other matters having reference to this subject will be found treated under the article COMMISSIONS, ARMY.

As brevet rank was neither purchasable nor salable, the abolition of the purchase-system made no alteration.

There is no B. promotion in the navy.

BREVET (ante), in the U. S. army, a commission giving an officer a nominal rank higher than that for which he has a salary. A great number of these honorary titles were bestowed during and after the civil war.

BREVIARIUM ALARICA'NUM, a collection of Roman laws compiled by order of Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, in 506 A.D. The chief value of this compilation is that it preserves the first five books of the Theodosian code and five books of the Sententia Recepta of Julius Paulus, which are nowhere else found.

BREVIARY. By this title we are to understand an abbreviation, as well as an amended arrangement of the more ancient offices used at the seven canonical hours, which are matins, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline. See CANONICAL HOURS. The books in which these offices were contained were formerly distinct-viz.: 1. The Psalter, which included the Psalms of David according to St. Jerome's Galbian. version, the Te Deum, the Athanasian creed, etc.; 2. The Bible; 3. The Antiphonarium, containing the anthems and responsories; 4. The Hymnarium; 5. The Collectarium, or the collects to be said at the end of the services; 6. The Homilarium, Passionarium, and

Brevipennes.

Martyrologium, containing the comments of the fathers upon the gospel of the day, and accounts of the martyrdoms of the saints for each distinct festival. Out of all these separate books, the B. was compiled, about the 11th c., by pope Gregory VII., as is supposed; the lessons, anthems, hymns, and responsories for the different days of the year being all arranged, in their proper places, in the same volume with the psalter, prayers, etc. In later times, the B. was divided into two parts, one for each half of the year, as was the case with those of Salisbury, York, and Hereford, used in England; and afterwards into four parts, so as to be more portable, whence it was also called Portiforium. It may perhaps be necessary to inform our Protestant readers that the B. is an entirely distinct book from the Missal (q.v.), the latter containing the proper offices for the service of the sacrifice of the mass.

The last settlement of the B. was under the pontificate of Pius V., and his bull of 1568 was that by which the present daily office of the Roman church is authorized. This edition was compiled by the college of sacred rites at Rome, in conformity with the decrees of the council of Trent, because of the variety of uses, as they were called, which at that time existed in different dioceses. The bull of Pius V. abolished the use of all breviaries, except such as could prove a prescription of 200 years. This exception would have extended to the breviaries of Salisbury and York, if the church of England had not already thrown off Rome's supremacy, and compiled a new book of common prayer for herself. After this, in 1602, Clement VIII. had a standard edition printed at the Vatican, to which all future editions were to conform; and again, in 1631, Urban VIII. caused the meters of the hymns and the Latinity of the whole to be carefully revised. It is perhaps hardly necessary to state that the B. is in Latin, portions of it being sometimes translated for the use of the unlearned. Itis necessarily a very bulky volume, when complete; and although some of the legends of the saints and martyrs may be of doubtful authenticity, yet it is a mine of interesting and devotional reading. Its general contents may be judged of from what has been already stated as to the sources from which they were drawn, every saint in the calendar having his proper services for the different canonical hours. The festivals of the Roman church have their services, according to their importance, duplex, semi-duplex, or simplex-i.e., double, semi-double, or simple; these, again, are further distinguished, so that there are no less than 9 classes of services -the Ferial or ordinary week-day, the simple, the day with an octave, the semi-double, the dominical or Sunday, the double, greater double, double of the second class, double of the first class. Indeed, so elaborate and perplexing are the rubrical directions, that it is impossible to form any idea of them without consulting the B. itself, and there are probably but few of the priests who are thoroughly conversant with their own ritual. The B. contains, besides an office for the dead and other smaller offices, three kinds of office in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary-viz.: 1. The full office, said on such festivals as the Purification, Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, etc.; 2. the office of the Virgin Mary on Saturdays; 3. What is called the "little office," or the hours of the Virgin. This last was in use as early as the 7c., and was enjoined by the council of Claremont, 1096, to be said by the clergy daily, and by the laity on Saturdays, but the bull of Pius V. removed this obligation except as to clergy in choirs. The Roman church enjoins, under pain of excommunication, all "religious" persons-i.e., all persons, male or female, who have taken vows in any religious order to repeat, either in public or private, the services of the canonical hours as contained in the breviary. For the influence of the old breviaries on the English common prayer-book (q.v.), consult Palmer's Antiquities of the English Ritual, and Maskell's Monumenta Ritualia. The matins or morning-prayer of the English prayer-book is an abridgment, with many omissions and additions, of the matins, lauds, and prime of the B., whilst the office of even-song, or evening-prayer, is in like manner an abridgment of the ancient vespers and compline.

BREVIPEN NES (Lat. short-winged), in ornithology, according to the system of Cuvier, that tribe of the order grallatores (q.v.) in which the ostrich, cassowary, rhea or nandou, emu, and apteryx are comprised, and also the extinct dodo.-See these articles. The B. are characterized by a shortness of wing which incapacitates them for flight, but use their wings to aid them in running, which they do with great rapidity. Their sternum (breast-bone) has no ridge or keel. They constitute the family struthionide of many ornithologists, and by some are placed among gallinaceous (q.v.) birds, to which they are allied by the form of their bill and their choice of food. They are, however, very different from all other birds, and whether ranked among grallatores or gallinaceous birds, do not seem to form a natural part of the order. The gigantic dinoris (q.v.) and other fossil birds of great interest exhibit the characters of the brevipennes.

Gigantic birds, of which the footsteps appear imprinted on sandstones in the valley of the Connecticut and elsewhere, seem also to have belonged to this tribe. No remains or traces of such birds are, however, found nearly so ancient as many remains of quadrupeds. But to whatever geological period the commencement of their existence is to be referred, a peculiar interest is attached to them, because its close may be regarded as probably near. There is no tribe of birds that more generally shuns man, or disappears before the increase of population and the progress of colonization. The cassowary and the emu are rapidly becoming rare. The ostrich, the rhea, the apteryx, the notornis, etc., are only found in deserts or other deep solitudes.

Bribery.

BREVIPENNES (ante), or BREVIPENNATES, "short-winged," a term for such birds as the ostrich, cassowary, apteryx, and others having very short wings, not fitted for flying. Such birds usually live in solitary places or deserts.

BREWER, a t. in Penobscot co., Me., on the Penobscot river, opposite the city of Bangor, on the Bucksport and Bangor railroad. It has lumber and leather manufactories. Pop. '80, 3170.

BREWER, LEIGH RICHMOND, D.D. See page 877.

BREWING. For the process of B. see BEER. The legal requirements for the B. of beer for sale will be found in many acts of parliament, from the 12 Chas. II. c. 24, to 33 and 44 Vict. c. 20, the changes being of late frequent. By this latter act, the tax on malt was repealed and the duty placed on beer. This came into force on 1st October, 1880; after which date malt and the sugar used in making beer were exempt from duty. The duties of excise upon licenses to be taken out annually by brewers brewing beer for sale are: £1 on a license by a brewer of beer for sale, and 68. on a license taken out by any other brewer. There is a penalty of £100 for brewing beer without a license. In respect of brewers other than brewers for sale, if the annual value of the house occupied by him does not exceed £10, the beer brewed by him is not liable to duty; he must brew only for his own domestic use, or for his farm-laborers in the course of labor, in his own premises or in premises lent gratuitously to him, under penalty of £10. The duty on beer brewed in the United Kingdom is now calculated according to the specific gravity of the worts thereof; upon every 36 gallons of worts of a specific gravity of 1057°, the fee is 68. 3d., and so on in proportion to quantity and gravity. There is a drawback of 68. 3d, on every 36 gallons of beer of the specific gravity of 1055° which shall be exported or shipped for use as ships' stores. The licenses to be taken out by beer dealers are of course distinct.

See BEER, BEER ACTS, LICENSES.

Anciently, in Scotland, the privilege of B. was given by a license from the superior r lord, in whose deed of gift or charter to his vassals there was generally a clause cum trueriis. But these forms have long been dispensed with. It appears, however, that a person with the right of barony may prevent a feuar, that is, a tenant of property within the barony or a stranger, from importing and vending ale within the baronial limits without his license.

BREWSTER, BENJAMIN HARRIS. See page 877.

BREWSTER, Sir DAVID, an eminent natural philosopher and eloquent writer, was b. at Jedburgh, Dec. 11, 1781. He was educated for the church of Scotland at the university of Edinburgh, where he highly distinguished himself. In 1808, he undertook the editor ship of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, to which he contributed many important scientific articles. Previous to this, he had entered deeply on the study of optics, with which his name is now enduringly associated. The beautiful philosophical toy, called the kaleidoscope, was invented by him in 1816. In 1819, in conjunction with prof. Jameson, he established the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal; and in 1831 he was one of the chief originators of the British association for the advancement of science. The honors conferred on this distinguished man make up a long catalogue. In 1815, he obtained the Copley medal of the royal society for one of his optical discoveries, and soon after was elected a fellow; in 1816, he received half the physical prize bestowed by the French institute for two of the most important scientific discoveries made in Europe during the two preceding years; in 1819, the royal society awarded him the Rumford gold and silver medals, for his discovery on the polarization of light; in 1825, he became corresponding member of the institute of France; in 1832, he was knighted, and had a pension conferred upon him; in 1838, he was chosen principal of the united colleges of St. Leonard and St. Salvador, St. Andrews; in 1849, on the death of Berzelius, in the preceding year, he was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the French institute, the highest scientific distinction in Europe. Sir David was also a member of the imperial and royal academies of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Stockholm; presided over the British association, and in 1851, over the peace congress held in London. In 1859, on the death of Dr. John Lee, he was chosen principal of the Edinburgh university. His principal work is his Life of Newton, first published in 1828, in the Family Library, and issued in a totally new and greatly enlarged form in 1855. Among his other works are his interesting Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to sir Walter Scott, also published in the Family Library; More Worlds than One (1854); his treatises on the kaleidoscope and on optics (Cabinet Cyclopædia); his Martyrs of Science; and his treatises in the Encyclopadia Britannica on electricity, magnetism, optics, the stereoscope, etc. Among other periodicals to which he contributed largely are the Edinburgh and North British Reviews. He died Feb., 1868. See Home Life of B. by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon (1869).

BREWSTER, WILLIAM, 1560-1644; b. England; one of the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth. He went with Bradford to Holland, where he taught school in English, became an elder in the church, and held the same position in New England, though, as he had never been ordained, he always refused to administer the sacraments. He is more generally known in history as "Elder Brewster."

Bribery.

BREZO WA, a market t. of Hungary, in the co. of Neutra, on a river of the same name, about 19 m. n. w. of Leopoldstadt. It has a Roman Catholic church and a Protestant church, tanneries, and distilleries. Pop. '80, 5540.

BRIALMONT, HENRI ALEXIS, b. 1821; a Belgian engineer and military writer, and member of various learned societies. He has published a number of works on the art and methods of military fortifications, on which he is accepted as one of the best authorities. He was made lieut.-gen., 1877.

BRIAN BOROIMHE (pron. boru), a famous king of Ireland, ascended the throne of both Munsters-answering to the present counties of Tipperary and Clare-in 978. Some time afterwards, he deposed O'Maelachaghlin, and became supreme ruler of Ire land. The surname, Boroimhe, signifying tax, was given him in consequence of the tribute in kind he levied from the various provinces. King Brian supported a rude but princely state at his chief castle at Kincora, a place in the neighborhood of the modern town of Killaloe, and he had also seats at Tara and Cashel. The vigor of his reign brought prosperity to his country. He defeated the Danes in upwards of 20 pitched battles, restricting their influence to the four cities of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and Limerick alone. In the battle of Clontarf (1014), in which he was killed, he gained a signal victory over a united army of revolted natives and Danes, the power of the latter receiving a shock from which it never recovered.

BRIANÇON (ancient Brigantium), a t. of the department of the Hautes-Alpes, France, on the right bank of the Durance, about 35 m. n.e. of Gap. It is the highest town in France, being situated at an elevation of nearly 4300 ft. above the level of the sea. As the principal arsenal and depot of the French Alps, B. is very strongly fortified, while several forts guard the approaches, and every height in the vicinity is a point of defense. It is considered impregnable. Troops can readily be marched from it on to the passes of the Simplon, St. Bernard, Mont Cenis, and the Col de Tende. Mont Genèvre affords a practicable passage into Italy from the town itself. B. has some manufactures of cotton-goods, hosiery, cutlery, crayons, etc. Pop. '76, exclusive of garrison, 2321.

BRIANSK', a t. of Russia, in the government of Orel, 70 m. w. of the city of that name. It is situated on the right bank of the Desna, is surrounded with earthen ramparts, and has a considerable trade in grain, hemp, wax, linen, cables, cordage, iron, etc., with Kherson, Odessa, and other ports on the Black sea. B. has a cannon-foundry and 13 churches. Pop. '67, 13,881; '80, 14,650.

BRIARE, a t. in the department of Loiret, France, situated on the right bank of the Loire, at the point where the canal de Briare enters that river, about 43 m. s.e. of Orleans. The canal, which unites the Loire and the Seine, is remarkable as the first that was constructed in France, having been begun by Sully, and finished in 1642. has a considerable trade in wine, wood, and charcoal. It is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Bricodurum. Pop. '81, 4577.

B.

BRIA REUS, or ÆGEON, one of the three sons of Uranus and Gæa; the others were Cottus and Gyges, and each of the three had a hundred arms. They assisted Zeus when the Titans made war against Olympus. One account represents B. as assailing Olympus and being defeated and buried under Mt. Etna. As B. is sometimes called a marine deity, it has been thought probable, that the hundred arms symbolized the waves of the

sea.

BRIBERY. The corrupt practices known by the term B. might well form the theme of an extended essay. Here we can point only to a few of the more conspicuous feattures of this grave social disorder, and chiefly as concerns B. at elections.

Election B., a well-known form of corruption, may be called the canker and disgrace of constitutional government. Individuals, with little to recommend them but wealth, and it may be some local distinction, wishing to be elected representatives in the legisla ture, do not scruple, through various devices, to buy the votes of the meaner order of electors by bribes. B. at elections is perhaps more openly and audaciously practiced in various parts of the United States than it is in England; nor are base influences of this kind unknown in connection with the more meager constitutional forms of some continental states. But in the eye of the world, England had the unenviable notoriety of being the country in which B. was reduced to a regular and continuous, though covert, system. It had been demonstrated by parliamentary inquiry, that masses of the population in certain towns-more particularly the class called freemen-look upon the franchise as a privilege which, for personal benefit, entitles them to exact so much money for their votes. Public considerations had no weight with them whatever. It seemed to them to be alike their duty and their interest to sell their votes to the highest bidder. The earl of Dundonald mentions in his Autobiography, that when, as lord Cochrane, he offered himself as a candidate for Honiton, he was barefacedly told by one of the electors, "that he always voted for Mister Most;" and not choosing to bribe, he lost his election. The amount of bribe ordinarily paid at elections in this venal class of boroughs, varied from £1 to £10, according to circumstances; as high a sum as £20, and even £50, had been known to be given in the extremities of a contest. For these corrupting and disgraceful practices, the law threatens certain penalties; but to avoid incurring these,

Brick.

as well as for the sake of decency, the candidates employed a mean class of agents, or were in some obscure way assisted by confederates, of whose proceedings it was difficult to substantiate any guilty knowledge on their part. The agents more immediately concerned did the business of bribing in private, sometimes in darkened apartments, where no one could be seen. Formerly, the treating of voters in taverns was added to other varieties of corruption, and the demoralization that ensued on occasions of this kind amounted almost to a universal saturnalia. The law having interposed to check this gross form of B., the evil had latterly subsided into a common place routine of secret money-dealings. Of course, by this illegal expenditure, along with the necessary outlays which the law allows, the cost of an election was in many cases enormous. Few seats of English borough members cost less than £1800; but double and triple this sum was a common outlay. It is a well-known fact, that for certain boroughs any man-no matter what be his political opinions or private character-might be returned by advancing £4000, and asking no questions as to what was done with it. As the B. was on both sides, it may be safely averred that the money spent at some contested elections amounted to £10,000. As regards elections for counties, the influences brought to bear are ordinarily of a different kind; but though morally wrong, they do not come within the scope of the present article. The Scotch have some reason to boast that their country is comparatively exempt from this social disorder-that their representatives are not so depraved as to offer, nor the electors so weak and needy as to accept, money-bribes. Such may be said as a general truth. Unfortunately, however, the national integrity is in this respect not quite unblemished, for the member returned for the Falkirk burghs, in 1857, was unseated for bribery. To avert every form of corrupt influence, the ballot (q. v.) was long vehemently urged; and an act to secure the use of the ballot in parliamentary and municipal elections throughout Great Britain and Ireland was finally passed in July, 1872. So far bribery seems to have been almost unaffected by the ballot act. The improved mode of trying election petitions by judges has worked well. See CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT, and PARLIAMENT.

BRIBERY IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. By the corrupt practices (municipal elections) act, 1872, the offense of B. is put on the same footing as in parliamentary elections. The guilty person is forever disabled from voting at other municipal elections, and also from holding any office or franchise in the borough. See MUNICIPALITY.

BRIBERY OF CUSTOM-HOUSE AND EXCISE OFFICERS. By the customs consolidation act, the 16 and 17 Vict. c. 107, s. 262, every person who shall give or offer any bribe, or make any collusive arrangement with any officer of customs or excise, or other person employed for the prevention of smuggling, in order to induce him to neglect his duty, shall forfeit the sum of £200. A former act, passed in 1827, the 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 53, s. 12, still in force, specially enacts in the case of the excise, that persons in such service taking money or reward, or entering into any collusive agreement contrary to their duty, shall for every such offense forfeit the sum of £500, and be incapable of serving the crown in any office or employment; and any person giving or offering money or reward to excise officers, in order to corrupt and prevail upon then., shall forfeit the like sum of £500, but simply and without any further penalty of disqualification.

BRIBERY OF JUDGES. This offense in the old Scotch law was called BARRATRY (q.v.) BRIBERY (ante), in general the same here as in England, and always a crime difficult to prove and more difficult to punish. It is defined as the receiving or offering any improper reward by or to any person, that may in any way relate to the administration of justice, or influence behavior in a matter of official duty, or lead the person to act contrary to the common rules of honesty and integrity. Nearly all the states have special statutes and severe penalties for the offense.

BRIC-A-BRAC. See page 877.

BRICK. The earliest examples of this branch of the ceramic art were doubtless the sun-dried bricks of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia. Remarkable to say, many of these, which, in a northern climate, the frosts of a single winter would destroy, have been preserved for some 3000 years by the dry, warm atmosphere of those countries. Sunbaked bricks of ancient date are also found in the mud walls of old towns in India. Kiln-baked bricks must have been the products of a later time; but they are found in all the chief ruins of ancient Babylonia, where they were often used to face or bind together walls of sun-dried bricks, and occasionally they were even ornamented with enameled colors. Burnt bricks were employed in the foundations of the tower of Babel (Gen. xi. 3). These ancient bricks, whether baked by the sun or by fire, were all made of clay mixed with grass or straw. The ancient Greeks, probably owing to their possessing plenty of stone, cared little for building with burned clay; but most of the great ruins in Rome are built of brick, and the Romans appear to have introduced the art into England. Interesting historical information has been obtained from the impressions on Roman and especially on Babylonian bricks. In many instances, the Roman bricks found in England have been removed from their original position, and employed in the construction of buildings of later date. The earliest instance in which bricks of the modern or Flemish make occur in England, is Little Wenham hall, in Suffolk, 1260.

Manufacture of Bricks.-Clay suitable for the manufacture of common bricks is an abundant substance, but there is a great difference in the nature and quality of the clays found in various localities. The basis of clay consists of hydrated silicate of alumina,