Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/299

Rh the king s hands, but afterwards, as the kingdom was divided into counties, hundreds, etc., so the administration of justice was distributed among divers courts, of which the sheriff had the government of the county court, die.,&quot; is probably grounded on an inversion of the actual progress of the facts ; and that when it is said of the right to recover land in a personal action, of set-off, and of other equitable incidents of justice, that such rights did not exist at the common law, the words &quot; in actions commenced by original writ,&quot; should probably be understood ; for there is no difficulty in conceiving how all the main incidents and principles of law disclosed by the Irish case could have arisen regularly in the county court, always a court of equity for the defendant, when the bishop was associated with the sheriff, and the right of the suitor to be his own apparitor had not yet been abrogated by the law of Canute, re-enacted by William I. (Leg. Gul. Oonq., xliv.). How these resemblances have come to exist in the early laws of the two islands may be a question for the historian and ethnologist. It is well to know that, whencesoever derived, the common law may to so great an extent be recognized as substantially a common inheritance of all the popula tions now organized into the United Kingdom.  BREISLAK,, an eminent geologist, was born at Rome in 1748. He early distinguished himself as professor of mathematical and mechanical philosophy in the college of Ragusa ; but after residing there for several years he returned to his native city, where he soon became a professor in the Collegio Nazareno, and began to form the fine mineralogical cabinet in that institution. His leisure was dedicated to geological researches in the Papal States. His account of the aluminous district of Tolfa and adjacent hills, published in 1786, gained for him the notice of the king of Naples, who invited him to inspect the mines and similar works in that kingdom, and appointed him professor of mineralogy to the Royal Artillery. The vast works for the refining of sulphur in the volcanic dis trict of Solfatara were erected under his direction. He afterwards made many journeys through the ancient Cam pania to illustrate its geology, and published in 1798 his Topografia Fisica della Campania, which contains the interesting results of much accurate observation. Breislak also published an essay on the physical condition of the seven hills of Rome, which he regarded as the remains of a local volcano, an opinion which more recent investiga tions appear to disprove. The political convulsions of Italy in 1799 brought Breislak to Paris, where he remained until 1802, when, being appointed inspector of the salt petre and powder manufactories near Milan he removed to that city. He died on the 18th of February 1826.

1em  BREMEN, one of the three free cities of the new German empire, is situated on the River Weser, about 50 miles from the sea and 60 S.W of Hamburg. The latitude of the observatory is 53 4 36&quot; N., and the longitude 8 48 54&quot; E. The city consists of three parts the old town (Alt Sfadt) and its suburban extensions ( Vorstadt) on the right bank of the river, and the new town, dating from the Thirty Years War, on the left. The river is crossed by three bridges, of which the last was built in 1874-5. The ramparts of the old town have Jong been converted into beautiful promenades and gardens, but both the old and the new town are still surrounded with moats. The area of the whole city is great in proportion to its population, the houses in general being built to contain only one family. The public buildings, situated chiefly in tlie old town, comprise the following : the cathedral, erected in the 12th century, on the site of Charlemagne s wooden church, and famous for its Blcikdler, or lead-vault, in which bodies may be kept a long time without suffering decomposition ; the church of St Ansgarius, built about 1243, with a spire 400 feet high ; the Ratkhaus, a building of the early part of the 15th century, with a celebrated underground wine- cellar ; the town-house, formerly the archiepiscopal palace, and converted to its present uses only in 1819 ; the Schiit- ting, or merchant s hall, originally built in 1619 for the guild of cloth-traders ; the exchange, completed in 1867; the theatre ; the town library ; the high-school, a quite recent erection ; and the new post-office buildings. St Remhert s church and the Colosseum may be mentioned in the Vorstadt ; and the barracks in the new town. At the head of the monetary establishments stands the Bremer Bank, which was founded in 1856 as a private speculation, and is only allowed to issue notes to the amount of its realized capital. Seven other banks were in operation in the beginning of 1875. There are in the city eighteen public and thirteen private schools, the former including a navigation and an industrial school, and the latter an institution for the extension of female labour. Plan of Bremen. 1. Cathedral. 3. Museum. C. St Ansjrnvins. 2. Exchange. 4. Rathhaus. C. St Stephan. New waterworks, constructed by an English company on the left side of the river, were opened in 1872, and supply the city with water of a good quality from the Weser ; a large fire-brigade establishment has also been founded in imitation of a similar institution at Berlin ; and an exten sive park, the Burger Park, has been laid out in the old Burger Weide, or meadows. Railway communication is rapidly increasing, and a central terminus for all the lines is proposed. The most important of those already open connect the city directly with Hanover, with Oldenburg, with Bremerhaven, with Hamburg, and with Minden. The- manufactures of Bremen are of considerable extent and variety, the most important being those of tobacco, snuff, and cigars, though they have somewhat declined since the formation of the empire. In 1872 no fewer than 2500 people were employed throughout the state in preparing cigars alone, while the making of cigar-boxes occupied 250 more. The shelling of rice is also largely carried on, and there are sugar-refineries, soap-works, shipbuilding- yards, sail-cloth factories, a large iron foundry, distilleries, asphalt-works, and colour-factories. In the extent of ita foreign trade Bremen is one of the chief cities in Germany, and as a port of emigration it is only rivalled by Hamburg. It deals largely with the United States, Great Britain, British India, and Russia. Its principal imports consist of. cotton, tobacco, coffee, rye, rice, coals, iron goods, petroleum, glass, hides and skins, silk, wool, linen, and dyes,