BREECH-LOADING-BREED.

kinds of breech-loaders-viz., the Le Faucheaux exercised, as the perpetuation, increase, or com or French crutch gun, invented about 20 years ago, bination of particular qualities may be the object and now largely made in England as well as in which he has in view. Fleetuess and strength are France: a is a lever which opens the mechanism, important qualities in horses, the extremes of which but which lies flat against the gun at other times; never co-exist in the same animal, but of which a d is a notch which, when a hook is liberated from certain combination is for some purposes very it, allows the barrels to be so adjusted as to be desirable; and either of these may be displayed easily loaded at their breach end; c is a central in a great degree without much bottom or power pivot around which the movement is made; b is a of enduring continued severe exertion-a quality of side that assists in the opening and closing. At very high value. The properties most desired in 14 is a pin which, when struck by the hammer, sheep and oxen are very different from those most transfers the blow to a cap inserted in the cart- highly esteemed in the horse-the fleece and the flesh ridge. The relative merits of breech and muzzle being chiefly regarded in sheep, the flesh and the loading fowling-pieces were tested in 1859-60 by milk in oxen. Sometimes a perpetuation of good various trials, under the management of the editor qualities is the great object of the breeder, and a of The Field, and resulted in favour of the breech- combination of them in the highest possible degree loaders. The demand for the latter has, in conse- is aimed at; sometimes, the production of the largest quence, enormously increased. This subject receives possible quantity of beef or mutton in the shortest further notice in various parts of the Encyclopædia, time being almost exclusively designed, the breeder in relation to certain kinds of ordnance and small-neglects considerations which would be of importarms expressly constructed on the B. principle. See ance if his stock could not be improved by animals BREECH-LOADING ARMS, in SUPPLEMENT in Vol. X. obtained from other quarters. Extraordinary difBREED, in domestic animals, a variety, or often ferences are certainly found to exist among animals merely a race distinguished by the possession of of the same species in the readiness with which particular qualities, but not differing from the ordi- they convert food into flesh and fat, and in the age nary type of the species so as to constitute what at which they are fit for the hands of the butcher. naturalists usually designate a variety. The pecu- One effect of the attention bestowed of late upon liarities of breeds in animals find an exact counter- the breeding of stock, has been to supply the part in cultivated plants, the value of particular market, to a great extent, with the flesh of younger kinds often depending, in a great measure, upon animals than could previously be sent to it-a characters scarcely capable of being defined in, the change evidently tending not only to the benefit of language of scientific description, but to the pro- the farmer, but to the increase of the national duction and perpetuation of which the attention wealth; because that land, even without increased of the cultivator cannot be too earnestly directed. produce of grass, sends a greater amount of beef and These, also, in plants, as in animals, have of them- mutton to market within the same term of years, selves little permanence, and the preservation or Those sheep and oxen which exhibit in the highest perpetuation of them depends upon the same assi- degree the qualities just referred to, are also charac duous attention and high cultivation from which, terised by shortness of legs, smallness of bones, more frequently than from any mere accidental smallness of head, and fineness of skin; qualities the circumstances, they have originated. Thus it hap- very opposite of those which would fit the animal pens that the most improved varieties of garden- for a wild state and independent existence. plants usually degenerate even under ordinary horticultural treatment, and the choice pansies of the florist lose their characteristic excellences if a place is simply assigned to them in a common flowerborder. The improvements which cultivation has effected in the productions of the fruit, flower, and kitchen garden do not, however, possess an economic importance to be compared with that of the similar improvements in the cereals and other plants cultivated on the most extensive scale, or in the breeds of some of the most valuable domestic animals. To the breeding of these, great attention has of late been paid-probably more since the beginning of the 19th c. than in all the previous history of the world-and with results the magnitude of which may in some measure be estimated from the statement made on very competent authority, that within the last thirty years the weight of mutton produced has been about doubled in proportion to the number of sheep kept. To the improvement of the B. of horses, attention has been paid for a much longer time than to that of oxen and sheep; and to this must, in a great measure, be ascribed the different excellences of some of the well-known breeds employed for very different purposes. The use of the horse in war, and for purposes of pomp and luxury, appears to have been the reason of the higher degree of attention thus paid to it, even from ancient times. The Arabs have long been particularly careful of the B. of their horses, and diligently preserve a record of their pedigree. What is called blood in horses, however, only fits them in a higher degree for certain purposes; and with regard to this as to other animais, the judgment of the breeder must be

Some of the most important breeds of domestic animals will be mentioned under their proper heads. It remains for us only to allude here to the rules and physiological principles of breeding; but the latter, in so far as application of them has yet been found practicable, are only the best known principles of physiology (q. v.). In a great measure, however, the rules which guide the breeding of stock have been learned by experience, and are rather to be regarded as contributions to science than as deductions from it. The probable relative influence of the male and female parent upon their progeny, is a point unquestionably of the greatest importance, but concerning which widely different opinions have been maintained; and another much controverted and important point is, the propriety of breeding in and in. Practically, the rule is always observed by those who seek the improvement of a breed, of selecting the very finest animals possible, both male and female; although a great improvement of the existing stock on a farm is often effected in the most advantageous manner by the mere introduction of males of better quality. The dangers of breeding in and in are very generally acknowledged, even whilst it is contended that they may very much be obviated by careful rejection of every faulty animal, and that in this way the utmost advantage may be taken of the very highest improvements; but it is likewise very generally admitted that, if equally improved individuals can be obtained not so nearly related, it is better to seek the perpetuation of the B. by their means. It is a rule also of much practical importance, that an improvement of B. is to be attained not by a cross between animals of very different breeds, as between

BREEDE-BREHON LAWS.

a dray-horse and a race-horse, but only between | varying in date from the early part of the 14th to those which are comparatively similar. The result of the intermixture of very dissimilar breeds is never in any respect satisfactory.

BREE'DÉ, a river in Cape Colony, flowing chiefly through the district of Zwellendam, which contains Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa. It rises in the Warm-Bokkeveld, a mountain basin about lat. 33° 10' S., and long. 19° 30' E., running first to the west, and afterwards to the south-east; and it enters St. Sebastian's Bay or Port Beaufort, from which, upwards, it is navigable to a distance of 40 miles. Its exports are wool, aloes, skins, feathers, grain, butter, cattle, mules, &c.

BREEZE. See WIND.

BRE GENZ, a frontier town of Austria, capital of the district of Vorarlberg, is situated at the mouth of the small river Bregenz, which here flows into the Lake of Constance, between the Swiss and Bavarian territories, about 80 miles west-north-west of Innsprück. From the ruins of the castle of Hohenbregenz, on a hill near the town, a very beautiful prospect is obtained of the lake and its surrounding vineyards, &c. B. is one of the oldest towns, and was formerly one of the chief fortified places in the southern part of Germany. The inhabitants, about 4000 in number, are engaged in agriculture, horticulture, and cattlekeeping. Cotton-spinning and weaving are also carried on; and articles of wood and straw are manufactured. Its position secures B. a large transit-trade in the produce of the district. In the neighbourhood lies the mountain-pass, the Bregenzer-Klause, formerly a strong military position between Swabia and the Tyrol. During the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes, in 1646, stormed and captured the fortress of B., and destroyed the works in the pass.

He was a

the close of the 16th century. For the laws them. selves, a much higher antiquity is claimed. On this point, we must be content to quote what has been said on the part of the very few persons who have had an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the existing collections of the brehon laws. So far as we have external evidence to guide us,' says Dr. J. H. Todd and Dr. C. Graves, two eminent Irish antiquaries, there is no reason to suspect that the brehon laws have undergone any material change since the time of Cormac Mac Cuilleanain, king and bishop of Cashel, who died 908 A. D. man of great learning and energy, who certainly promoted the execution of considerable literar works, and under whose influence it is not improbable that a systematic compilation of the laws may have been effected. Of this, however, we have no distinct record. On the other hand, we find scattered through all parts of the laws allusions to a general revision of them made in the 5th c., at the instance of St. Patrick, who, in conjunction with certain kings and learned men, is said to have expunged from them all those institutions which savoured of paganism, and to have framed the code called the Seanchus Mor. These same documents assert the existence of still more ancient written laws, the greater part of which are ascribed to Cormac Mac Art, monarch of Ireland, in the middle of the 3d century. However slow we may be to acquiesce in statements of this kind, which contradict what we have learned concerning the progress of legislation in the remaining parts of Western Europe, we may readily admit that the subject-matter of many of the laws demonstrates their great antiquity, as it indicates the primitive nature of the society in which they prevailed. In spite of the attempts to efface it, traces of heathenism are still discernible in many parts of them. They enumerate various BRE HON LAWS (in Irish, Dlighidh Breitheam- ordeals of a pagan character, which are expressly huin-that is, 'judges' laws), the name usually termed magical, and specify the occasions on which given to the system of jurisprudence which pre- a resort to them was prescribed. There are also vailed among the native Irish from an early period provisions in the laws of marriage which prove that till towards the middle of the 17th century. The Christianity could have exercised but a feeble influbreitheamhuin (pronounced brei-hoo-in or brehon), ence at the time when they were enacted. The from whom the laws had their name, were hereditary language in which the brehon laws are written is a judges, who adininistered justice among the mem- convincing proof of their antiquity. They are not bers of their tribe, seated in the open air, upon a few composed in a peculiar dialect, as many writers have sods, on a hill or rising around. The poet Spenser, maintained; but if their style differs from that of in his View of the State of Ireland, written in 1596, the vernacular Irish of the present day, as Anglodescribes the B. L. as a rule of right unwritten, Saxon does from modern English, this dissimilarity but delivered by tradition from one to another, in is to be ascribed mainly to the effects of time, by which oftentimes there appeareth great share of which the orthography and grammatical forms of equity, in determining the right between party and the language have been modified, and legal terms party, but in many things repugning quite both to and phrases of constant recurrence have become God's law and man's: as, for example, in the case obsolete.' The world of letters will be able, in no of murder, the brehon-that is, their judge-will long time, to judge for itself on the opinions thus compound between the murderer and the friends of expressed. About the middle of this century the the party murdered, which prosecute the action, publication of the B. L., at the charge of the Irish that the malefactor shall give unto them, or to the government, was strongly urged, as well on historical Ichild or wife of him that is slain, a recompense, as on philological grounds, by such men as Guizot, which they call an eric; by which vile law of theirs Grimm, and Ranke abroad, and Hallam, Macaulay, many murders amongst them are made up and and Earl Stanhope at home. A commission was smothered and this judge being, as he is called the accordingly appointed by the Earl of Eglinton in lord's brehon, adjudgeth for the most part a better 1852, 'to direct, superintend, and carry into effect share unto his lord, that is, the lord of the soil, or the transcription and translation of the ancient laws head of the sept, and also, unto himself for his judg- of Ireland, and the preparation of the same for ment, a greater portion than unto the plaintiffs or publication.' The commissioners intrusted the transparties grieved.' Spenser was ignorant that pecu-cription and translation of the B. L. to the two most niary compensation for manslaughter had obtained eminent of Irish scholars-the late Dr. John O'Donoin the ancient laws, as well of England as of most van, professor of Celtic in the Queen's College at BelEuropean nations. He was mistaken, too, in believ-fast; and the late Eugene O'Curry, professor of Irish in that the B. L. was an unwritten code. Many manuscript collections of the B. L. still exist in public and private libraries in Ireland, England, and Belgium. These manuscripts are regarded as

archæology in the Roman Catholic university of Ireland. These gentlemen having finished their task, the editorship of the work was entrusted to Mr. W. J. Hancock, late professor of political economy in

BREISACH-BREMER.

Trinity College, Dublin, and the Rev. Thaddeus O'Ma- four bridges. The ramparts and bastions round hony, professor of Irish in the university of Dublin. the old town have been levelled, and formed into The publication, it is reckoned, will extend to eight public promenades, which are laid out with excelvolumes, of about 550 pages each. Three of these lent taste. Among the principal buildings, the have already appeared-the last in 1873-under the Cathedral (built about 1160), the Gothic Town-hall title of Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland. (begun about 1405), with its famous wine-cellar, Along with the Irish text, an English translation is said to contain hock of the vintage of 1624, the given, accompanied with preliminary dissertations, Exchange, the Museum, and the Observatory of Dr. glossaries, and indexes, and they give a vivid and Olbers, from which he discovered the planets Pallas characteristic picture of the polity and social life of and Vesta, are remarkable. The position of B. a Celtic people. A facsimile reprint of the B. L. has makes it the emporium of Brunswick, Hesse, and been published in 17 vols. by the B. L. Commission. other countries through which the Weser flows. BREISA'CH, ALT, a very old town of the grand Besides its excellent water-communication, it is conduchy of Baden, situated on an isolated basalt hill nected by railways with the whole of Western and Central Germany. on the right side of the Rhine, about 12 miles west B. is an exceedingly thriving of Freiburg, As early as the time of Julius Cæsar, place, its trade having more than doubled within the last ten years. Large vessels stop at Bremera strong military position, and was taken by Ariovistus when he hafen, where there is a spacious harbour coninvaded Gaul. Being regarded as the key to the structed, about 38 miles below B., with which it is west of Germany, it was a prominent scene of action connected by railway and steamer. Vessels not drawduring the Thirty Years' War, at the conclusion of ing more than 7 feet of water can come up to the which it was ceded to the French. During the town itself. B. carries on an extensive commerce with the United States of America, the West Indies, next century, it frequently changed masters, now belonging to France, and now to Austria. The Africa, the East Indies, China, and Australia. Its French destroyed its fortifications in 1744, and great foreign trade, however, is with the United during the war of the Revolution in 1793, part of States, from which alone it is estimated to import the town was burned by them. In 1806, the French produce to the value of $30,000,000 annually, and to handed it over to the House of Baden. The min- export in return goods to the value of about $20,ster of St. Stephen is a venerable structure in good preservation, and contains several old monuments. Pop. 3255.

Mons Brisiacus was known as

000,000.

With the exception of Hamburg, no continental port ships so many emigrants to the United States as B. through its main port at Bremerhaven. The number of vessels arriving and departing per annum is about 3500; the number belonging to the port is about 225, with an aggregate burden of 176,000 tons. The value of the imports amounts to about 440,000,000 marcs per annum, and the exports to about 430,000,000 mares. The public debt amounts to over 81,000,000 marcs, the revenue to 13,000,000 marcs per annum, and the expenditures to 15,000,000 marcs. The chief imports are tobacco, coffee, sugar, cotton, petroleum, dye-woods, wines, timber, hemp, &c. The exports consist of woollen goods, linens, glass, rags, wool, hemp, hides, oil-cake, wooden toys, &c. Large quantities of tobacco are re-exported. In 1851, it was computed that no fewer than 5000 hands were engaged in the manufacture of cigars, but an increase of duty has greatly checked the trade, not a quarter of that number now being employed. B. has also manufactories of woollens and cottons, paper and starch, and extensive ship-building yards, breweries, distilleries, and sugar refineries. It has regular steam-communication with New York, and also with Hull.

BREITENFELD, a village and manor of Saxony, about 5 miles north of Leipsic. It is historically remarkable for three battles, fought on a plain in its neighbourhood. The first of these, between the Swedes and the Imperialists, which was fought on the 7th September 1631, was of the highest importance to Europe, as it secured the permanency of Protestantism and the freedom of Germany. Tilly's pride had reached its highest point after the fall of Magdeburg, which took place on the 20th of May 1631; and in the early part of September of the same year, he advanced against the Saxons, with an army of about 40,000 men, for the purpose of forcing the elector, John George I. (who would not submit to the edict of restitution, and was treating with the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus), into an alliance with the emperor. No other way remained than for the elector to join the Swedish king, who had just entered Pomerania. Gustavus Adolphus, joined by the Saxons, advanced towards Leipsic, where Tilly lay, who advanced into the plain of Breitenfeld. The imperial forces were completely defeated, and B. first became of historical note in the 8th c., their three most distinguished generals, Tilly, Pap- when it was erected into a bishopric by Charle penheim, and Fürstenberg, wounded. The second magne. It soon attained considerable commercial battle which B. witnessed again resulted in the tri- importance, and became one of the principal cities umph of Swedish valour: it took place on the 23d of the Hanseatic League (q. v.). Having fre of October 1642, between the Swedes, headed by quently suffered at the hands of the French, it was, Torstenson, one of the pupils of Gustavus, who had in 1810, incorporated with that empire, but it reinvested Leipsic, and the Archduke Leopold, with covered its independence in 1813, and by the ConGeneral Piccolomini, who were advancing from Dres-gress of Vienna was made, in 1815, a Hanse town, den to its relief. The Swedes gained a complete and in 1866 united to the North German Confedera victory over the Imperialists, who fled into Bohemia, tion. The area of the state, of which B. is the capleaving behind them 46 cannon, 121 flags, 69 stand-ital, is 106 square miles; the total population, inards, and the whole of their baggage. The third battle of which B. was the scene, was fought on the 16th of October 1813, and was part of the great contest known as the battle of Leipsic.

cluding the town of Bremen (1877), 142,200. The government is intrusted to a senate of 18 members, two of whom are chosen burgomasters, and to a municipal council of 150 burgesses.

BREMEN, one of the three free cities of Ger- BREMER, FREDERIKA, the well-known Swedish many, is situated on the Weser, about 50 miles novelist, was born near Abo, in Finland, 17th of from its mouth. Pop. (1880) 112,114, mostly Prot- August 1801, but when she was only three years estants. B. is divided into the Old and the New old her father removed to Sweden. As a child Town-the former on the right, the latter on of eight she had already begun to write verses; the left side of the river, which is spanned by and the works of German poets, Schiller more

BREMERHAVEN-BRENT GOOSE.

BRENTA-BRESSAY.

BRENTA (Medoacus Major), a river of North rare manuscripts. Population, in 1879, 33,344. Italy, rises from two small lakes in the Tyrol; flows Brescia has manufactures of woollen, silk, leather. first in a southern, then in an eastern course through paper, &c., and its wine is of good quality. Tho the Venetian territory; passes the towns Cismona old name of Brescia was Brizia, and its inhabiand Bassano; receives an arm of the Bacchiglione tants were allied with the Romans when Hanbelow Padua, where it becomes navigable; and falls nibal crossed the Alps. It was captured by the into the Gulf of Venice, at the haven of Brondolo. Huns during their migrations, and afterwards passed The ancient bed of the B. was, some centuries ago, through the hands of the Longobards, Charlealtered by the Venetians, who feared that their magne, the Franks, and the Germans. It was lagoons might be choked with sand by its floods. taken by the French under Gaston de Foix in Afterwards, the old bed of the river was made use 1512, when it is stated that more than 40,000 of as a canal-the Naviglio di Brenta Magra, which of the inhabitants were massacred. The city never forms the chief communication by water between fully recovered from the effects of that inhuman Venice and Padua; while the B. is but little used sack and pillage. In March, 1849, Brescia, as the for navigation. only important town opposed to Austrian rule in Lombardy, was besieged by Haynau, and forced to capitulate on very disadvantageous terms.

BRE'SSAY, one of the Shetland Isles, east of the Mainland, and separated from Lerwick by Bressay Sound. It is 6 miles long and 2 broad, and is composed of Devonian rocks. It supplied Lerwick BRE'SCIA, a city of Lombardy, North Italy, with peat, until the proprietor, fearing that the peat about 60 miles east-north-east of Milan. It is might be exhausted, stopped exportation; and it conromantically situated on the rivers Mella and tinues to supply the Shetland Isles with slates. Pop. Garza, and a wide fertile plain, at the base of several 878 chiefly fishermen. Bressay Sound is one of the hills. The railway from Milan to Venice passes finest natural harbours in the world, and is a renthrough Brescia. The city is for the most part dezvous for herring-boats, and for all whalers and regularly built, and, besides two cathedrals, the old other vessels proceeding north. East of B., and sepaand the new, it has numerous ancient churches, rated from it by a narrow and dangerous sound, is adorned with pictures and frescoes, including many a rocky isle, called Noss, 6 miles in circuit, girt on by masters of the Venetian School. Several inter-all sides by perpendicular cliffs, and rising abruptly esting antiquities have been discovered. It has a from the sea to the height of nearly 600 feet, with valuable public library-the Biblioteca Quiriniana, a flattish top. A detached rock, or holm, on the founded and nobly endowed about 1750 by Cardinal south-east side of the Noss, is communicated with Quirini, with upward of 30,000 volumes, and many by means of a cradle or wooden chair run on strong