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 BPJCK 265 tive body, or an attempt to bribe a member, or a judge or juror, is also a contempt of the body or the court, and has sometimes been punished as such. In 1870 a member of con- gress was expelled for a corrupt distribution of his patronage, and another resigned on similar charges being made against him. The charge of corruption has seldom been made against judges of the highest courts in this country, and their integrity has generally been above suspicion. In the state of New York, however, charges of a very gross nature were made against two judges of the supreme court, which resulted in 1871-'2 in the resignation of one and the impeachment and condemnation of the other; a judge of the superior court in the city of New York was also tried by the senate and dismissed from office. The several states have statutes for the punishment of different classes of bribery, and the punishments range from a fine to imprisonment in the peniten- tiary. For an account of parliamentary cor- ruption in England, see May's " Constitutional History," chapter vi., and the numerous au- thorities there referred to. BRICK, a building material made of clay, moulded commonly in rectangular blocks, and baked. The most ancient records make men- tion of their use. The early inhabitants of Babylonia found on the plain in the land of Shinar the clay for their construction, and " said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly ; and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." (Gen. xi. 3.) The slime was probably the semi-fluid bi- tumen used at early periods in Egypt and Baby- lonia as a cement ; and no better building ma- terials have ever since been used than those ancient bricks, and the natural mortar employed to bind them together. The walls of Babylon were built of burnt bricks laid in bitumen, as were the exterior walls of the still existing mounds, the largest of which is supposed to have been the tower of Babel. The interior of this mound is filled with unburnt bricks set in clay, with layers of reeds between every five or six courses. In other parts of the work the bricks were laid in lime mortar of exceed- ing toughness. From the frequent reference to the making of brick in the Old Testament, the manufacture appears to have been an im- portant one with the Israelites and Egyptians. It. was a principal task imposed by the latter upon their captives. The gathering of straw and stubble for mixing with the clay indicates that they were sun-dried, like those seen at this day in some of the pyramids of Egypt. Upon one of these, probably the brick pyra- mid of Howara, 10 leagues from Cairo, was formerly nn inscription, cited by Herodotus, of which the following is a translation : " Do not undervalue me by comparing me with pyra- mids of stone. For I am better than they, as Jove exceeds the other deities. I am made of bricks from clay, brought up from the bottom of the lake adhering to poles." The same ma- terial was used for other structures of high antiquity. The Greeks gave particular atten- tion to having them perfectly adapted to the use to which they were to be applied ; in some instances, as stated by Pliny, not allowing them to be used until after they had been seasoned five years, and had received the approval of a ma- gistrate. The palaces of Croesus, king of Lydia, of Mausolus of Halicarnassus, and of many other Asiatic sovereigns, some of the temples of Athens, and the walls of that city looking toward Mount Hymettus, were built of this material. The Komans perfectly understood the art, as the bricks in the baths of Titus and Caracalla bear witness. The stone of the Co- losseum has not proved so durable. In the ruins of their forts, walls, &c., in Great Brit- ain, they are found of an excellent quality, of a deep red color, well burnt, and very hard. The brick made by their successors in England was not particularly noteworthy until about the middle of the 14th century. In the time of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth so good an article was produced, that it was employed in the construction of many fine edifices. la modern times the manufacture is more remark- able for the immense scale upon which it is con- ducted, than for the good quality of the pro- duct a fact attributed by English writers to the practice so generally adopted in London of building houses upon lands leased for a certain period, at the expiration of which the property reverts to the owner of the ground. The Dutch appear to have succeeded better than the English to the skill of the Romans. Their bricks have been famous from an early period for soundness and durability. So substantial were they, that they served well for the floors of houses, and even for street pavements. Specimens of Holland brick, brought over by the early settlers, are to be met with in some of the old Dutch houses of New York. Among the Asiatic nations the manufacture has con- tinued at a high degree of excellence from the remotest periods. In the hilly country of Nepaul bricks are made of such remarkably compact texture, and so elegantly ornamented upon their surface, as to bo peculiarly fitted for architectural decorations. The Chinese give to the face of their brick the texture of porce- lain. The ancient Peruvians excelled in the manufacture of brick, as in many other of the useful arts. Dlloa, after carefully examining the large bricks, was confident there must have been some secret in their composition, which was lost in his time, so superior were they to those made by any process then known. They are described by Prescott as large blocks or squares, made of a tenacious earth mixed up with reeds or tough grass. The plastic nature of clay, and its property of hardening by heat into a substance like stone, are qualities so ob- viously adapting it for building purposes, that no people requiring permanent dwellings have failed to perceive them, and availed themselves of its use. But clay is not uniform in compo-