BRA 



hi* aCiirswa* fuch a? to u-nder iven fucH bant'.'.li t-.f on y 

 fiirccs on whole tidility hr could repair any coutiiience. 

 We ftad alio offotlifrs \iniWv t'''> -"'d luniWr dcnonilnalioiis 

 ip tlie fiit.ftqiiint r>ic;n« of Jiiehard 1. and Joliii. Hume's 

 HilL vol. i. and vol. i». 



BRABAMCON, in Gtosrndhy, a town, with tho title of 

 principality, in the county of Mainaut ; 4 leagues E. of 

 Mauheupc. 



BRABANDERKOEG, a fmall iflancl of Denmark in 

 tho (!uchy of Slifwick, and picftdurc of Hvifum, called 

 alfo N'ordllrar d, which fee. 



BRABANT, Ducny of, a province of the Netherlands, 

 bounded on the north by Holland and Gueldirland, on the 

 eafi by Gnelderland and the principality of I.iege, on the 

 feiuth by Nartiur and Haiiiaut, and on the wc!l by Flardcrs 

 and Zealand. The circumference is elliniatcd at about So 

 leapues, and it contains twcnty-fix walled towns, belides 

 fevcral others of inferior importance ; the principal cities are 

 I,ouvain, Antwci-p, and lirnlfels. It was firlf erc6\td into a 

 clucliy in the ^th century, and formerly belonged to the 

 Franki(h monarchy ; but it afterwards became a fief of the 

 German empire. The lad duke of Brabant, of the race of 

 Cliarlcina^ne, was Otto, on whofe death, in lOOjT, it 

 came to Lambert I. count of Louvain, who marriea the 

 iiller and heirtfs of Otto. By his podtrity it dcfcendcd 

 to Philip II. duke of Burgundy ; and from him in the line 

 of his family to the emperor Charles V., and by him to 

 Philip II. knig of Spam. In the 17th century the repub- 

 lic of the United Nctherhinds took poflcffion of the northern 

 part of the duchy of Brabant, which it retained at the peace 

 of Weftphalia. This comprehended the quarter of Bois-le- 

 Duc, (which fee,) and a part of the quarter of Antwerp, 

 and was called Dutch Brabant. Charles III. afterwards 

 known bv the title of the emperor Chailes VI., after the 

 battle of Ramillics, in 1706, took pofTeflion of the Auftrian 

 part of this duchy, conlilling of the town and quarter of 

 X.ouvain, thofe of Bruileh, and thofe of Antwerp. A 

 fmall part towards the fouth was known by the name of 

 Walloon Brabant. When the French paffed the Rhine they 

 eftablifiied themfelves in Brabant ; and by the new partition 

 pf their territories and conqutfts, in confequence of the 

 third article of the treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797, and 

 the fecond of the treaty of I^uneville, in 1801, which 

 ceded the Autlrian Netherlands to the French, the eallern 

 pan of Brabant was formed into the department of Deux 

 Nethes, and the fouthein part into that of Dyle. The air 

 of Brabant is good, and its foil is feitile. It produces a 

 great quantity of flax, and is watered by feveral rivers, of 

 which the chief are the Dommtl and the Dcmer, which, 

 after receiving the fmaller rivers of Chute, Dyle, Seene, and 

 Nethe, takes the name of Rupel, and difcharges itfelf into 

 the Scheld. The religion of this countiy is the Roman ca- 

 tholic. Mr. George Foftcr, who travelled through this 

 country in 1790, gives a very unfavourable account of it. 

 See his travels, vol. iii. In no place, he fays, has ignorance 

 ever cftabhlhed her dominion fo firmly, nor diffufed fo palp. 

 able a darknefs, as over the minds of the Brabanters ; and 

 no where has the iron yoke of implicit faith fo deeply de- 

 graded the human underltanding. Never, he adds, fince 

 they were deluged with blood by Plilip and Alva, have 

 thefc provinces atlrafted the notice of mankind, except when 

 foreign armies made them the theatre ot war, or when, hke 

 an abfolute property they were transferre-' from one princely 

 family to another. Nothing can be a greater proof of the 

 ftupidity and infenhbility to which the" people were funk, 

 than the indifference (hewn by the Brabanters, and the op- 

 pofiticn made by the Flemings, to the defign of the emperor 



n R A 



Tefc-pli II. to open the navigation of the Scheld, Incired 

 the piAure which he gifcs of the decayed (late of their ma- 

 r.ifa'rtures, of the wealth and power of the church, of the 

 infolent fpirit of the nobles, and of the fuperftition which 

 prevails among all ranks, is fuflicient to convince us that the 

 inhabitants oAhefe countries were fo exceedingly degraded 

 by civil and religious tyranny, that they were become totally 

 infenfible to every thing that can dignify hunian nature.. 

 Of the people, however, he obferves, that their good quali- 

 ties are their own, but that their fau'ts are derived from then- 

 teachers. They are remarkably phlegmatic,, but human^:, 

 good natiired, and friendly; even ainid the violence of pa. - 

 fion, they are neither cruel nor implacable. The meaiurcs 

 which Jofephll. concerted, however arbitrary in their firll 

 appearance, imprudeRt in their arnmgement, and precipitate 

 in their execution, were defigncd for reftraining the power 

 of the infolent priefts, and for abohfhing the groffcr abfur- 

 dities of popery. But the infurreilions occafioned by them, 

 and the revolution in which they terminated, were attended 

 with confequences which the people had reafon to larneni:. 

 By throwing off their allegiance to the einperor, they fell 

 under a heavier yoke, and groaned under the moft intoler- 

 able of all defpotifm, that of an abfolute arillocracy. Koat 

 far their condition h?.s be€?i improved fince their country has 

 been made a part of Belgium, by the extenfion of the French 

 conquefts, time muil determine, and their own experier/ce 

 may clearly in fome racafure he able to tcftify. See Ne- 

 therlands. 



BRABEIUM, in Botany, from ^(xSiCav, ^ifaptrs, Lin. 

 gen. 160. Reich. 1262. Schreb. J5S0. Mant. 137,332, 

 Juflieu 79. Clafs, polygamla mcnucia. Species plantarura 

 & fyltema naturz. Ed. 12. tetrandr'ia monogynia. Nat.. Or* 

 dcr not determined by Linnaus. Protes Juirieu. Gen. 

 Char. Cal. ament pubefcent, with ovate, obtufe, three- 

 flowered fcaks. Cor. monopetalouG, deeply divided inta 

 four oblong, obtufe fegments, rolled back at top. Stam, 

 filaments four, inferted into the bafe of the fegments ; an- 

 thers oblong, attached to the inner fide of each filament, fo 

 as fcarcely to reach its fumrait. Pi/}, germ very fmall, viL, 

 lofe, ttyle filiform, longer than the ilamcns ; Stigma fimple, 

 Martyn (two upright and oblong, Lin. La Mark, and 

 Bofc.) Per. a dry drupe, fomewhat pear-fhaped, villofe. 

 The male flowers on the fame tree agree with the above, 

 with the exception of an abortive piilil. Sted, nut globular. 



EfFen. Char. Scale of the ament. Cor. with four revo- 

 lute fegments. Stam. four. Pifl. one. Drupe, fomewha; 

 pear-fliaped. Seed, globular. 



Species. B. StettulifoUum, (Syft. Nat.) Stellal'ifoTium, 

 (fp. plant.) Breyn. Cent. i. pi. i. Pluk. 47. pi. 265; 

 La Mark, pi. S47. African almond. A native of ths 

 country about the Cape of Good Hope, where it grows to 

 a tree of a moderate fize, but m Europe it feldom growa 

 above eight or nine feet high. S-lem ftraight, foft, full of 

 pith, covered with a brown bark, throwing out horizontal 

 branches at each joint, which gradually dwninifh from the 

 bottom to the top fo as to form a fort ol pyramid. Leaves 

 lanceolate, of a deep green on their upper, and a pale ruffet 

 colour on their under fide, reticularly veined, with a fcv/. 

 blunt ferratures at their edges, and growing in whorls on 

 fhort peduncles, round the joints or knots ot the branches, 

 from five to feven in a whorl, jiments axillary, growing; 

 alfo in whorls, a little Ihorter than the leaves. The fruit is 

 called, at the Cape of Good Hope, the wild chefnut, and 

 is greedily eaten by the wild boars. 



The foregoing generic charafter and defcription have 

 been drawn up from a careful comparifon of Linnsus, Mar» 

 tyn, La Mark, awl Bofc, who all agr«e in calling the bra-. 



faeium 



