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stant activity of every species of industry. Smith observes, "The bounty is given in order to make up this loss, and to encourage a man to continue or perhaps to begin a trade of which the expense is supposed to be greater than the returns; of which every operation eats up a part of the capital employed in it, and which is of such a nature, that if all other trades resembled it, there would soon be no capital left in the country." And he add:"The trades, it is to be observed, which are carried on by means of bounties are the only ones which can be carried on between two nations for any considerable time together, in such a manner as that one of them shall always and regularly lose, or sell its goods for less than they really cost. . . . The effect of bounties, therefore, can only be to force the trade of a country into a channel much less advantageous than that in which it would naturally run of its own accord."

One of the most striking instances of the failure of the bounty system occurred about the middle of the last century in connexion with the white herring fishery. Tempted by liberal bounties persons rashly ventured into the business without a knowledge of the mode of carrying it on in the most economical and judicious manner, and in no very long space of time a joint-stock of 500,000l. was nearly all lost.

The bounty on the exportation of corn was given up in 1815 [CORN TRADE], and that on the exportation of herrings, linen, and several other articles ceased in 1830. In 1824 the sums paid as bounties for promoting fisheries, linen manufactures, &c. in the United Kingdom was 536,2281.; 273,269. in 1828; 170,9997. in 1831; and in 1832 and 1833 the sums of 76,5721. and 14,7137. respectively.

Bounties are not now allowed on any article of export; but in some cases it is believed that DRAWBACKS constitute in reality a bounty, being greater than the duty which has been paid on the article. The drawback on refined sugar, for instance, has been fixed at a certain amount proportioned to the quantity of raw sugar supposed to have been used, which is calculated at 34 cwts. of raw to 20 cwts. of

refined; but by improvements in the mode of refining, a less quantity of raw sugar may be required in manufacturing 20 cwts. of refined sugar; and the drawback. on the difference is in reality a bounty. BOUNTY, QUEEN ANNE'S. [BENEFICE, pp. 343, 345.]

BREAD. [ADULTERATION; ASSIZE.] BREVET, in France, denotes any warrant granted by the sovereign to an individual in order to entitle him to perform the duty to which it refers. In the British service, the term is applied to a commission conferring on an officer a degree of rank immediately above that which he holds in his particular regiment; without, however, conveying a power to receive the corresponding pay. Brevet rank does not exist in the royal navy, and in the army it neither descends lower than that of captain, nor ascends above that of lieutenant-colonel. It is given as the reward of some particular service which may not be of so important a nature as to deserve an immediate appointment to the full rank: it however qualifies the officer to succeed to that rank on a vacancy occurring, in preference to one not holding such brevet, and whose regimental rank is the same as his own.

In the fifteenth section of the Articles of War it is stated that an officer having a brevet commission, while serving on courts-martial formed of officers drawn from differrent regiments, or when in garrison, or when joined to a detachment composed of different corps, takes prece dence according to the rank given him in his brevet, or according to the date of any former commission; but while serving on courts-martial or with a detachment composed only of his own regiment, he does duty and takes rank according to the date of his commission in that regiment. Brevet rank, therefore, is to be considered effectual for every military purpose in the army generally, but of no avail in the regiment to which the officer holding it belongs, unless it be wholly or in part united for a temporary purpose with some other corps. (Samuel's Hist. Account of the British Army, p. 615.)

Something similar to the brevet rank above described must have existed in the French service under the old monarchy,

for, according to Père Daniel (tom. ii. p. 217, 227), the colonel-general of the Swiss troops had the power of nominating subaltern officers to the rank of captains by a certificate, which enabled them to hold that rank without the regular commission. The same author states also that if any captain transferred himself from one regiment to another, whatever might be the date of his commission, he was placed at the bottom of the list in the regiment which he entered, without, however, losing his right of seniority when employed in a detachment composed of troops drawn from several different regiments.

The introduction of brevet rank into the British army, as well as that of the half-pay allowance to officers on retiring from regimental duty, probably took place soon after the Revolution in 1688. But the practice of granting, when officers, from different regiments are united for particular purposes, a nominal rank higher than that which is actually held, appears to have been of older date; for in the Soldier's Grammar, which was written in the time of James I., it is stated that the lieutenants of colonels are captains by courtesy, and may sit in a court of war (court-martial) as junior captains of the regiments in which they command. (Grose, Military Antiquities, vol. ii.) It was originally supposed that both officers holding commissions by brevet and those on half-pay were subject to military law; but, in 1748, when the inclusion of half-pay officers within the sphere of its control was objected to as an unnecessary extension of that law, the clause referring to them in the Mutiny Act was omitted, and it has never since been inserted. In 1786 it was decided in parliament that brevet officers were subject to the Mutiny Act or Articles of War, but that half-pay officers were not. (Lord Woodhouselee, Essay on Military Law, p. 112.) Brevet command was frequently conferred on officers during the late war; but the cause no longer existing, the practice has declined, and at present there are very few officers in the service who hold that species of rank.

BREWER. [ALEHOUSES, p. 99; ADULTERATION, p. 36.

BRIBERY, in English law, has a threefold signification: denoting, first, the offence of a judge, magistrate, or any person concerned judicially in the administration of justice, receiving a reward or consideration from parties interested, for the purpose of procuring a partial and favourable decision; secondly, the receipt or payment of money to a public ministerial officer as an inducement to him to act contrary to his duty;, and thirdly, the giving or receiving of money to procure votes at parliamentary elections, or elections to public offices of trust.

I. In England judicial bribery has from early times been considered a very heinous offence. By an ancient statute, 2 Hen. IV. "All judges, officers, and ministers of the king convicted of bribery shall forfeit treble the bribe, be punished at the king's will, and be discharged from the king's service for ever.". The person offering the bride is guilty of a misdemeanour. Sir Edward Coke says that "if the party offereth a bribe to the judge, meaning to corrupt him in the cause depending before him, and the judge taketh it not, yet this is an offence punishable by law in the party that doth offer it." (3 Inst. 147.) In the 24 Edw. III. (1351) Sir William Thorpe, then chief justice of England, was found guilty, upon his own confession, of having received bribes from several great men to stay a writ which ought in due course of law to have issued against them. For this offence he was condemned to be hanged, and all his lands and goods forfeited to the crown. Blackstone says (Comment. vol. iv. p. 140) that he was actually executed; but this is a mistake, as the record of the proceeding shows that he was almost immediately pardoned and restored to all his lands (3 Inst. 146). It appears also from the Year Book (28 Ass. pl. 2) that he was a few years afterwards reinstated in his office of chief justice. The case, therefore, does not speak so strongly in favour of the purity of the administration of justice in early times as many writers, following Blackstone, have supposed. In truth, the corruption of the judges for centuries after Sir Wm. Thorpe's case occurred was notorious and unquestionable. It is noticed by Edward

navy, marines, or other person employed by or under the direction of the commissioners of the customs, shall make any collusive seizure, or deliver up, or agree to deliver up, or not to seize any vessel, or goods liable to forfeiture, or shall take any bribe for the neglect or non-performance of his duty, every such offender incurs a penalty of 500l., and is rendered incapable of serving his Majesty in any office whatever, either civil or military; and the person also giving or offering the bribe, or making such collusive agreement with the officer, incurs the like penalty. By the 6 Geo. IV. c. 80, § 145, similar penalties are inflicted upon officers of the excise who take bribes, as well as upon those who give or offer the bribe. III. As to bribery for votes at elections to public offices.

VI. in a discourse of his published by Burnet, as a complaint then commonly made against the lawyers of his time. (Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, vol. ii. App. p. 72.) Its prevalence at a still later period, in the reign of James I., may be inferred from the caution contained in Lord Chancellor Bacon's address to Serjeant Hutton upon his becoming a judge, "that his hands and the hands of those about him should be clean and uncorrupt from gifts and from serving of turns, be they great or small ones." (Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 632, edit. 1765.) In Lord Bacon's own confession of the charges of bribery made against him in the House of Lords, he alludes, by way of palliation, to the offence of judicial corruption as being vitium temporis. (Howell's State Trials, vol. ii. p. 1104.) Since the Revolution, in 1688, judicial bribery has been altogether unknown in Eng-.is said to have been always an offence at land, and no case is reported in any lawbook since that date in which this offence has been imputed to a judge in courts of superior or inferior jurisdiction.

II. Bribery in a public ministerial officer is a misdemeanour at common law in the person who takes and also in him who offers the bribe. A clerk to the agent for French prisoners of war at Porchester Castle, who had taken money for procuring the exchange of certain prisoners out of their turn, was indicted for bribery and severely punished by the Court of King's Bench. (1 East's Reports, 183.) A person offered the first lord of the treasury a sum of money for a public appointment in the colonies, and the Court of King's Bench, in Lord Mansfield's time, granted a criminal information against him. (4 Burrows's Rep. 2500.)

Bribery with reference to particular classes of public officers has become punishable by several acts of parliament. Thus by the stat. 6 Geo. IV. c. 106, $29, if any person shall give, or offer, or promise any bribe to any officer or other person employed in the customs, to induce him in any way to neglect his duty (whether the offer be accepted or not), he incurs a penalty of 500l. So also by 6 Geo. IV. c. 108, § 35, if any officer of the customs, or any officer of the army,

1. Bribery at parliamentary elections

common law, and it is punishable by indictment or information. There are however no traces of any prosecutions for bribery of this kind, until particular penalties were imposed upon the offence by acts of parliament. The act 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 4, called the Treating Act, declares that no candidate shall, after the teste (date) of the writs, or after the ordering of the writs, or after any vacancy, give any money or entertainment to his electors, or promise to give any in order to his being elected, under pain of being incapable to serve for that place in parliament. The 2 Geo. II. c. 24, which is explained and enlarged by 9 Geo. II. c. 28, and 16 Geo. III. c. 11, imposed penalties both on the giver and receiver of a bribe. But the operative statute upon this subject at the present time is 49 Geo. III. c. 118, which provides that if any person shall give or cause to be given, directly or indirectly, or shall promise or agree to give any sum of money, gift, or reward, to any person upon any engagement that such person to whom such gift or promise shall be made, shall by himself, or by any other person at his solicitation, procure or endeavour to procure the return of any person to serve in parliament for any place, every such person so giving or promising (if not returned) shall for every such gift or pro

mise forfeit the sum of 10007.; and every | such person returned, and so having given or promised to give, and knowing of and consenting to such gifts or promises upon any such engagement, shall be disabled and incapacitated to serve in that parliament for such place; and, any person or persons who shall receive or accept of any such sum of money, gift, or reward, or any such promise upon any such engagement, shall forfeit the amount of such sum of money, gift, or reward, over and above the sum of 500l.; which sum of 5001. may be recovered by any party sueing for the same in the inferior Courts of Record in Great Britain or Ireland. This act provides for every legal expense bonâ fide incurred at or concerning an election. It also imposes penalties on persons giving, procuring, or promising to give or procure any office, place, or employment, to any person upon an express contract to procure a seat in the House of Commons; the penalty on the person returned is loss of his seat, and on the receiver of the office forfeiture of it, incapacity, and the payment of 500l.; but if the person who so gives, procures, or promises any place is an officer of the crown, a penalty of 10007. is imposed on him. Actions on the case under this statute must be brought in two years.

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The act of 5 & 6 Vict. c. 102, is an act for the better discovery of bribery and treating at the elections of members of parliament, and is commonly known as Lord John Russell's Act. The 20th and 22nd sections of this act are as follow:§ 20. And whereas a practice has prevailed in certain boroughs and places, of making payments to or "on behalf of candidates to the voters in such manner that doubts have been entertained whether such payments are to be deemed bribery," be it declared, that the payment or gift of any sum of money, or other valuable consideration whatsoever, to any voter before, during, or after any election, or to any person on his behalf, or to any person related to him by kindred or affinity, and which shall be so paid or given on account of such voter having voted or refrained from voting, or being about to vote or refrain from voting, at the said election, whether the same shall

have been paid or given under the name of head money or any other name whatsoever, and whether such payment shall have been in compliance with any usage or not, shall be deemed bribery. § 22. The act 7 & 8 Will. III. c 4, having been found insufficient to prevent treating: be it enacted &c. that any candidate or person elected, who shall by himself, or by or with any person, or in any manner, directly or indirectly, give or provide, or cause or knowingly allow to be given or provided, wholly or partly at his expense, or pay wholly or in part any expenses incurred for any meat, drink, entertainment, or provision to or for any person at any time, either before, during, or after such election, for the purpose of corruptly influencing such person, or any other person, to give or to refrain from giving his vote in any such election, or for the purpose of corruptly rewarding such person, or any other person, for having given or refrained from giving his vote at any such election, shall be incapable of being elected or sitting for the particular county, &c. during the Parliament for which such election shall be holden.

Cases of bribery in the election of members of Parliament are most commonly brought to notice by the special reports made by Election Committees. [ELECTIONS.]

2. Bribery at municipal elections was also an offence at common law, and a criminal information was granted by the Court of King's Bench against a man for promising money to a member of the corporation of Tiverton to induce him to vote for a particular person at the election of a mayor. (Plympton's Case, 2 Lord Raymond's Reports, 1367.)

The 54th clause of the act for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales (5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76) provides" that if any person who shall have, or claim to have, any right to vote in any election of mayor, or of a councillor, auditor, or assessor of any borough, shall ask or take any money or other reward, or agree or contract for any money or other reward whatsoever, to give or forbear to give his vote in any such election, or if any person shall by any gift or reward, or by any promise,

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agreement, or security for any gift or reward, corrupt or procure, or offer to corrupt or procure any person to give or forbear to give his vote in any such election, such person so offending in any of the cases aforesaid, shall for every such of fence forfeit the sum of 50l., and for ever be disabled to vote in any municipal or parliamentary election whatever in any part of the United Kingdom, and also shall for ever be disabled to hold any office or franchise to which he then shall or at any time afterwards may be entitled as a burgess of such borough, as if such person was naturally dead."

bitus should be incapable of being candidates for a magistracy for ten years. (Liv. xl. 19.) The Lex Acilia Calpurnia (B.c. 67) contained enactments against hiring people to attend the candidates, feasting the people, and giving them places according to their tribes at the shows of gladiators. The penalties were fines and exclusion from the Senate, and disability to be elected to magistracies. In the consulship of Cicero, B.C. 63, a Lex Tullia added to the former penalties for the offence of Ambitus, ten years' exile. This law also forbade a man to exhibit shows of gladiators within two years before he was a candidate for a magistracy. In B.C. 61, a Lex which was proposed by the tribune M. Aufidius Lurco enacted that if a man promised money to a tribe with a view to his election, he should be liable to no penalty, if he did not pay it; if he did pay it, he was liable to pay the tribe a certain sum (annually?) as long as he lived. (Cicero, Ad Attic. i. 16.)

The Elections of Roman magistrates occurred annually, and this circumstance, gave the Romans great opportunity of becoming expert in all the means of securing votes. The word Ambitio (from which our word Ambition comes) signified literally a going about. As applied to elections, it signified any improper mode of trying to gain votes. The Tribunes of the Plebs at an early period attempted The usual mode of trying to gain votes, to check the solicitation of votes, by pro- to which the word ambitus applied, was posing and carrying a law which forbade by gifts of money. The candidate used a man to add any white to his dress with to go round and call on the voters, shake a view to an election. (Livy, iv. 25.) them by the hand, and make them civil This, observes Livy, which would now speeches. The voting by ballot in the be viewed, as a small matter,, raised at Comitia was established B.C. 139, and, that time a great contest between the according to the Roman system, the vote Patres and the Plebs (the Patricians and of each of the centuries and of each Plebeians). "To add white to the dress" of the thirty-four tribes was counted, signified to whiten the dress by artificial as one vote. Whether then the election means as it is said, or perhaps to put on a was at the Comitia Centuriata or the Cowhite dress. From this circumstance, mitia Tributa, the object was to secure persons who were seeking the magistracy the votes of the centuries and of the were called Candidati, that is, persons tribes. Agents were employed to manage dressed in a white (candida) dress; and all this: interpretes, to make the barthis is the remote origin of our word Can- gain; sequestres, to hold the money till didate. Another law (Lex Paetelia) against the election was over; and divisores, to canvassing on the market-days, and pay it out. The Lex Licinia (B.c. 55) going round to the country places where was entitled a law against Sodalitia; but numbers of people were collected, was critics have not been agreed as to what passed B.C. 359, which Livy (vii. 15) calls the term properly means. Wunder (Proa law about Ambitus, the name by which legomena to his edition of Cicero's oration canvassing and solicitation of votes was for Cn. Plancius) says that the offence designated. The object of this law was to against which this Licinian law was check the canvassing of Novi homines, directed, differed from Ambitus, which men not of the class of nobles, who were consisted in giving money or treating the aspiring to the honours of the State. people, or in any way buying their votes. After a long interval (B.c. 181) the Lex The offence of Sodalitia consisted, as he Cornelia Baebia enacted that those who says, in using force; certain persons, ere convicted of the offence called Am-called sodales (associates, agents), were

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