NEW BRITAIN BRITISH MUSEUM. 



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BRITAIN, New ; a group of islands belonging to 

 Australia (q. v.), and separated by Dampier's strait 

 from New Guinea. The situation of these islands has 

 not been very exactly ascertained ; but they stretch 

 from about 1 30' to 6 S. lat., and from 148 to 153 

 E. Ion. Their extent is equally uncertain. Some 

 geographers include in this group the island of the 

 same name, New Ireland, New Hanover, Admiralty 

 islands, and some smaller ones. Some of the group 

 are volcanic. The natives are Papuas, and manage 

 their canoes, some of which are eighty feet long, with 

 great skill. They are black ; their hair is curled and 

 woolly ; but they have neither the thick lips nor the 

 flat noses of the Negroes. Those of the Admiralty 

 islands are gentle and peaceful ; those of New Hol- 

 land are warlike. The islands contain some high 

 mountains, covered with lofty trees to their summits. 

 The bread fruit-tree, the fig-tree, pepper, aloes, nut- 

 meg, c., are found here. The seas abound in coral 

 reefs, which often render the navigation dangerous. 

 Pampier first discovered that this archipelago was se- 

 parate from New Guinea. Carteret first showed that 

 New Ireland was separated from New Britain by the 

 strait which he called St George's channel. These 

 islands have been also visited by d'Entrecasteaux, 

 Bougainville, Hunter, &c. See Labillardiere's Voy- 

 age, 2 vols., 4to, 1798. 



BRITAIN, New ; a vast country of North America, 

 lying round Hudson's bay, north and north-west of 

 Upper and Lower Canada, comprehending Labrador, 

 New North Wales and New South Wales, attached to 

 the government of Lower Canada, and belonging to 

 Great Britain. The face of the country is various. 

 On the south-west of Hudson's bay, from Moose river 

 to Churchill's river, in some parts, for the distance of 

 COO miles inland, the country is flat, marshy, and 

 wooded, in many parts, with pines, birch, larch, and 

 willows. North of Churchill's river, and on the east- 

 ern coast, it is high, rocky, and barren, every-where 

 unfit for cultivation, covered with masses of rock of 

 amazing size, composed of fruitless valleys and fright- 

 ful mountains, some of them of great height. The 

 valleys are full of lakes formed by rain and snow, and 

 are covered with stunted trees, pines, fir,- birch, and 

 cedar, or juniper. The mountains have here and 

 there a blighted shrub, or a little moss. The climate 

 is extremely severe, and, in lat. 60", on the coast, vege- 

 tation ceases. The principal rivers are Mackenzie's 

 river, Copper-Mine river, Nelson's, Churchill's, Al- 

 bany, Moose, Seal, Severn, Rupert, and Pokerekesko. 

 The most considerable lakes are Winnipeg, Slave 

 lake, Great Bear lake, and Athapescow. The prin- 

 cipal article of trade is fur. The trade is carried on 

 by two companies, who have several forts, viz., forts 

 Prince of Wales, Chippeyan, Alexandria, Churchill, 

 Albany, Nelson, Severn, &c. The wild animals are 

 numerous, such as bears, beavers, deer, raccoons, &c. 

 The Esquimaux Indians occupy the coasts of Labra- 

 dor : the interior is inhabited by various tribes of a 

 diminutive and miserable race. 



BRITANXICUS C.ESAR (Tiberius Claudius Germanicus), 

 son of the emperor Claudius and Messalina, was born 

 a few days after the accession of Claudius to the throne. 

 After the return of the emperor from his expedition 

 to Britain, the surname Britannicus was bestowed on 

 the father and son. As the eldest son of the emperor, 

 B. was the legitimate heir to the throne ; but Clau- 

 dius was prevailed upon by his second wife, the ambi- 

 tious Agrippina, to adopt Domitius Nero, her son by a 

 former marriage, who was three years older than B., 

 and declare him his successor. The venal senate gave 

 its consent. In the mean time, Agrippina, under the 

 pretext of motherly tenderness, strove to keep B., as 

 much as possible, in a state of imbecility. She re- 

 moved his servants, and substituted her own creatures 



Sosibius, his tutor, was murdered by her contrivance. 

 She did not permit him to appear beyond the precincts 

 of the palace, and even kept him out of his father's 

 sight, under the pretence that he was insane and epi- 

 eptic. Although the weak emperor showed that he 

 jenetrated the artifices of Agrippina, yet his death, 

 )f which she was the author, prevented him from re- 

 trieving his error. Nero was proclaimed emperor, 

 while B. continued in close confinement. In a dis- 

 pute with Nero, Agrippina threatened to place B., 

 who was then fourteen years old, on the throne, upon 

 which Nero caused him to be poisoned. 



BRITINIANS ; a body of monks of the order of St 

 Augustine, who received their name from Britini, ip 

 Ancona, which was the place of their institution. 

 Their manner of living was very austere. They ab- 

 stained from all kinds of meat, and fasted from the 

 festival of the Exaltation of the Cross to Easter, be- 

 ides observing the fasts prescribed by the church, 

 which they were strictly enjoined to do by the rules 

 of their order. Their dress was grey; and, to dis- 

 tinguish themselves from the Minorites, they wore no 

 girdle. When Alexander IV., in 1256, effected the 

 union of the different congregations of the order of 

 St Augustine, the Britinians became members of this 

 union. 



BRITISH AMERICA. Under the general name of 

 British America is comprehended ail that part of the 

 continent of North America which lies to the north of 

 the United States, with the exception of the Russian 

 possessions in the north-west, and Greenland in the 

 north-east. It consists of four provinces : 1. Lower 

 Canada, to which is annexed New Britain ; 2. Upper 

 Canada ; 3. New Brunswick ; 4. Nova Scotia, to- 

 gether with the island of Newfoundland. The whole 

 country is under a governor-general, whose residence 

 is at Quebec. Each of the four provinces has also a 

 lieutenant-governor ; and Newfoundland is governed 

 by an admiral. 



BRITISH CHANNEL. See English Channel. 



BRITISH MUSEUM was founded by Sir Hans Sloane, 

 who, in 1753, bequeathed his collection of natural 

 and artificial curiosities, and his library, consisting of 

 50,000 volumes of books and MSS., to the nation, on 

 condition of the payment of 20,000 to his heirs. 

 Montague house, one of the largest mansions in the 

 metropolis, was appropriated to its reception, and it 

 has since been gradually increased by gifts, bequests, 

 and purchases of every species of curiosity animals, 

 vegetables, minerals, sculptures, books, MSS., c. 

 The main building is 216 feet long, and 57 high; the 

 wings are occupied by the officers of the establishment. 

 The library of printed books occupies sixteen rooms. 

 The upper floor is composed of eleven rooms, two of 

 which contain miscellaneous collections, four contain 

 collections of natural history, and five the library of 

 MSS., which is extremely valuable, besides the saloon 

 containing the minerals. The Lansdowne library of 

 MSS. consists of 1245 volumes, exclusive of rolls and 

 charters, and contains the Burleigh, Caesar, and Ken- 

 net papers. (Catalogue of Lansdowne MSS., folio, 

 1819.) The Sloane and Birch MSS., consisting of 

 4437 volumes, are valuable. (See Ayscough's unde- 

 scribed MSS., 2 vols., 4to, 1782.) The Harleian 

 MSS. were collected by Harley, lord Oxford, and 

 form 7639 volumes, containing 40,000 documents. 

 (Catalogue of Harleian MSS., 4, vols., folio, 1809.) 

 The Cottonian collection was injured by fire in 1751. 

 The number of articles is upwards of 20,000, among 

 which is the original of the Magna Charta, and origi- 

 nal documents connected with it. (Catalogue, folio, 

 1802.) There are many other very valuable collec- 

 tions, which we cannot enumerate. The gallery, or 

 department of antiquities, is distributed in fifteen 

 rooms ; six of which contain Gret-k and Roman sculp- 



