attorney or solicitor-general in England or Ireland and of the lord advocate in Scotland. Conviction renders liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years, and to a fine not exceeding £500, in addition to or in lieu of imprisonment. The offender may also be ordered to pay to the public body concerned any bribe received by him; he may be adjudged incapable for seven years of holding public office,
i.e. the position of member, officer or servant of a public body; and if already an officer or servant, besides forfeiting his place, he is liable at the discretion of the court to forfeit his right to compensation or pension. On a second conviction he may be adjudged forever incapable of holding public office, and for seven years incapable of being registered or of voting as a parliamentary elector, or as an elector of members of a public body. An offence under the act may be prosecuted and punished under any other act applicable thereto, or at common law; but no person is to be punished twice for the same offence. Bribery at political elections was at common law punishable by indictment or information, but numerous statutes have been passed dealing with it as a "corrupt practice." In this sense, the word is elastic in meaning and may embrace any method of corruptly influencing another for the purpose of securing his vote (see
Corrupt Practices). Bribery at elections of fellows, scholars, officers and other persons in colleges, cathedral and collegiate churches, hospitals and other societies was prohibited in 1588-1589 by statute (31 Eliz. c. 6). If a member receives any money, fee, reward or other profit for giving his vote in favour of any candidate, he forfeits his own place; if for any such consideration he resigns to make room for a candidate, he forfeits double the amount of the bribe, and the candidate by or on whose behalf a bribe is given or promised is incapable of being elected on that occasion. The act is to be read at every election of fellows, &c., under a penalty of £40 in case of default. By the same act any person for corrupt consideration presenting, instituting or inducting to an ecclesiastical benefice or dignity forfeits two years' value of the benefice or dignity; the corrupt presentation is void, and the right to present lapses for that turn to the crown, and the corrupt presentee is disabled from thereafter holding the same benefice or dignity; a corrupt institution or induction is void, and the patron may present. For a corrupt resignation or exchange of a benefice the giver and taker of a bribe forfeit each double the amount of the bribe. Any person corruptly procuring the ordaining of ministers or granting of licenses to preach forfeits £40, and the person so ordained forfeits £10 and for seven years is incapacitated from holding any ecclesiastical benefice or promotion.
In the United States the offence of bribery is very severely dealt with. In many states, bribery or the attempt to bribe is made a felony, and is punishable with varying terms of imprisonment, in some jurisdictions it may be with a period not exceeding ten years. The offence of bribery at elections is dealt with on much the same lines as in England, voiding the election and disqualifying the offender from holding any office.
Bribery may also take the form of a secret commission (q.v.), a profit made by an agent, in the course of his employment, without the knowledge of his principal.
BRIC À BRAC (a French word, formed by a kind of onomatopoeia, meaning a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends; cf. de bric et de broc, corresponding to our "by hook or by crook"; or by reduplication from brack, refuse), objects of "virtu," a collection of old furniture, china, plate and curiosities.
BRICK (derived according to some etymologists from the Teutonic bricke, a disk or plate; but more authoritatively, through the French brique, originally a "broken piece," applied especially to bread, and so to clay, from the Teutonic brikan, to break), a kind of artificial stone generally made of burnt clay, and largely used as a building material.
History.?The art of making bricks dates from very early times, and was practised by all the civilized nations of antiquity. The earliest burnt bricks known are those found on the sites of the ancient cities of Babylonia, and it seems probable that the method of making strong and durable bricks, by burning blocks of dried clay, was discovered in this corner of Asia. We know at least that well-burnt bricks were made by the Babylonians more than 6000 years ago, and that they were extensively used in the time of Sargon of Akkad (c. 3800 B.C.). The site of the ancient city of Babylon is still marked by huge mounds of bricks, the ruins of its great walls, towers and palaces, although it has been the
