3 ss BRI 
and mountains, and defended by'forts and redoubts. It 
is fourteen leagues north-north-eaft of Gap, and eight 
north of Embrun, 
BRANCONNET', or BRtANfONNET', a fortrefs of Sa¬ 
voy, in the Tarentaife, near the town of Mouftiers, fitua- 
ted on a rock inacceffibfo every v\ay except by the fide of 
a river, where it is attended by two or three hundred fteps. 
It was taken in the reign of Henry IV by the duke of 
Lefdjguires.. The common paffage from Savoy to the Ta¬ 
rentaife and Italy is by this fortrefs. 
BRI ANCONNOI'S, or Brian^onnoi's, before the re¬ 
volution, a country of France, in Dauphine, about twelve 
leagues long, and fix wide, lituated among the Alps. The 
air is cold in winter, and warm in lummer. The inhabi¬ 
tants are fober, active, and .induftrious; they cultivate 
feme wheat and fruit, and feed numbers of fheep : they 
gather manna from the trees, and make good wine. They 
were known to the Romans under the name of Brigantines. 
It is now part of the department of the Lower Alps. 
BRIANSK', a town of Rullia, in the government of 
Orlov, on the Defna : fixty miles weft-north-weft of Orel, 
and 440 fouth fouth-eaft of Peterfburgh. 
BRIAN'ZA, mountains of Italy, near the lake of Co¬ 
mo, in the Milanefe. 
BRI'AR. See Brier. 
BRI A'RE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Loiret, fituated on the Loire, and containing about 1000 
inhabitants, celebrated for a canal which from hence forms 
a communication between the Loire and the Seine ; two 
leagues fouth-eaft of Gien. 
BRIA'REUS, in fabulous hiffory, a giant; the fon 
of Coelus and Terra. This was his name in heaven ; on 
earth he was called JEgeon. He was of fingular fervice to 
Jupiter, when Juno, Pallas, Neptune, and the reft of the 
gods, endeavoured to bind him in chains and dethrone 
him. Afterwards, however, he confpired with the reft of 
his gigantic brethren to dethrone Jupiter. Virgil, on this 
bccafion, defcribes him as having 100 hands, fifty heads, 
and breathing out fire. The fable fays, that Jupiter, to 
punifti him, threw him under mount /Etna, which, as 
often as he moves, belches out fire. 
BRIAS'CA, a town of European Turkey, in Molda¬ 
via, feventy-fix miles eaft of Jaifi. 
BRIATEX'TE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Tarn, aiid chief place of a canton, in the diftrid 
of Lavaur: one league and a half north-weft of Lavaur. 
BRIATI'CO, a town of Italy, in the province of Ca¬ 
labria Ultra: eleven miles north-eaft of Nicotera. 
BRIBE, f [bribe, in French, originally fignifies a piece 
of bread, and is applied to any piece taken from the reft; 
it is therefore likely, that a bribe originally fignified, among 
us, a fliare of any thing unjuftly got.] A reward given to 
pervert the judgment, or corrupt the condud.— If a man 
be covetous, profits or bribes may put him to the teft. 
V EJlrange. 
To BRIBE, v. a. To gain by bribes; to give bribes, re¬ 
wards, of hire, to bad purpofes: 
The great, ’tis true, can ftill th’ eleding tribe; 
The bard may fupplicate, but cannot bribe. 
It is feldom, and not properly, ufed in a good fenfe : 
How pow’rful are chafte vows! the wind and tide 
You brib'd to combat on the Englilh fide. Dryden. 
“ A bribe enters without knocking.” La porte n'ejl ja¬ 
mais ferme au.x prefens , Fr. that is, ‘ he who comes v. ith a 
bribe in his hand never needs fear a denial.’ It is indeed 
too often the cafe ; yet, for the honour of mankind, we are 
fometimes fhcwn illuftrious examples to the contrary. 
BRIBEKOU', a town of Africa, on the Gold Coaft. 
BRI'BER,y. One that pays for corrupt pradices.—Af- 
fedion is ftill a briber of the judgment; and it is hard for 
a man to admit a reafon againft the thing he loves; or to 
Confefs the force of art argument againft an intereft. South. 
BRIBERY,/. The crime of taking or-giving rewards 
B R I 
for bad pradices.—-No bribery of courts, or cabals of fac¬ 
tions, or advantages of fortune, can remove an honeft man 
from the folid foundations of honour and fidelity. Dryden. 
By the law, bribery is confidered a high offence, w here 
a perfon in a judicial place takes any fee, gift, reward, or 
brocage, for doing his office, or by colour of his office, but 
of the king only. Hawk. P. C. 67 Taken more largely, it 
implicates the receiving or Offering any undue reward, to 
or by any perfon concerned in the adminiftration of pub¬ 
lic juftice, whether judge, officer, Sec. to influence his be¬ 
haviour in his office ; and fometimes it fignifies the taking, 
or giving a reward for appointing another to a public of- 
fice. 3 /«// 9. 4 Comm. 139. To take a bribe of money, 
though fmall, is a great fault; and judges’ fervants may¬ 
be punifhed for receiving bribes. If ajudgerefufea bribe 
offered him, the offerer is punifhable. Fortefcue, 51. 
In the eaftern countries, it is the cuftom never to peti¬ 
tion any fuperior for juftice, not excepting their kings, 
without a prefent. This is calculated for the genius of 
defpotic princes, by whom the true principles of a liberal 
government are feldom cultivated ; but who imagine that 
there is no obligation due from the fuperior to the inferior, 
no relative duty owing trom the governor to the governed. 
The Roman law, though it contained many fevere injunc¬ 
tions againft bribery, as well for felling a man’s vote in the 
fenate or other public affembly, as for the bettering of 
common juftice; yet, by a ftrange indulgence in one in- 
ftance, it tacitly encouraged this pradice ; allowing the 
magiftrate to receive fmall prefents, provided they did not 
on the whole exceed 100 crowns—a-year ; not confidering 
the infinuating nature and gigantic progrefs of this vice, 
when Once admitted. Plato, therefore, in his ideal re¬ 
public, orders thofe who take prefents for doing their du¬ 
ty to be puniftied in the fevereft manner : and by the laws 
of Solon, he that offered a bribe was alfo profeeuted, as 
well as he that received a bribe. In England, this offence 
of taking bribes is puniftied, in inferior officers, with fine 
and imprifonment; but, in judges, efpecially the fuperior 
ones, it lias always been looked upon as fo heinous an of¬ 
fence, that the chief juftice Thorpe was hanged for it in 
the reign of Edward III. By ftat. 11 Hen. IV. all judges 
and officers of the king convided of bribery, (hall forfeit 
treble tire bribe, be punifhed at the king’s will, and be 
difeharged from his fervice for ever. And fome noble 
examples have been made in parliament of perfons in the 
higheft ftations, and otherwife very eminent and able, but 
contaminated with this fordid vice. Thus, in the reign 
of James I. the earl of Middlefex, lord-treafurer of Eng¬ 
land, being impeached by the commons, fer refufing to 
hear petitions referred to him by the king, till he had re¬ 
ceived bribes, Sec. was, by fentenceof the lords, deprived 
of all his offices, anddifabled to hold any for the future, 
or to fit in parliament; he was alio fined 50,000!. and im- 
prifoned during the king’s pleafure. In the nth year of 
George I. the lord chancellor was impeached by the com¬ 
mons for bribery, in Idling the places of mailers in chan¬ 
cery for exorbitant fums, and other corrupt practices, 
tending to the great lofs and ruin of the fuitors of that 
court; and, the charge being made good againft him, he 
was diverted of his office, fentenced to pay a fine of 30,0001,, 
and imprifoned till it was paid. 
By ftat. 12 Rich. II. c. 2, the chancellor, treafurer, juf- 
tices of both benches, barons of the exchequer, &c. Ihali 
be fworn not to ordain or nominate any perfon in any office 
for any gift, brocage, Sec. And the fale of offices concern¬ 
ing the adminiftration of public juftice, &c. is prohibited 
on pain of forfeiture and difability, &c. by 5 & 6 Edw.VI. 
c. 16. In the conftrudion of the laft-mentioned ftatute, 
it has been refolved that the offices of the ecclefiaftical 
courts are within the meaning of that ad, as well as the 
offices in the courts of common law ; but no office in fee 
is within the ftatute, and it hath been adjudged, that one 
who.contracts for an office, contrary to the purport of the 
laid ftatute, is fo difabled fo hold the,fame, that he can¬ 
not be reftored to a capacity of holding it by any grant or 
3 difpenfatien 
