British Central Africa See C

A., British. Bris to we (Bristol) Merchant, The. A play by Ford and Dekker, licensed in 1624: probably an alteration of Day's “Bristol Tragedy." ion of Canada, lying between the Northwest Territory north, Athabasca and Alberta east, the United States south, and Alaska and the Pacific Ocean west, in lat. 49°-60° N. The capital is Victoria. It includes Vancouver and Queen Charlotte islands. It has a lieutenant-governor and legislative a embly, and sends 7 members to the Dominion 383,300 square miles. Population (1901), 178,657. Charles Bawdin. One of the Rowley poems by Chatter ton, the first one separately printed. It was written in 1768 and printed in 1772. See Chatter ton . Britain (brit'an or brit'n). [ME. Britaine , Bretayne , etc., OF. Bretagne , L. Britannia .] The English equivalent for Britannia ; Great Britain. In Arthur i an romance "Britain" always means Britt any (Bretagne): England is called Logris or Logria. The word "Britain," in the mouth of an English man, is reserved either for artificial poetry, for the dialect of foreign politics, or for the conciliation of Scottish hearers. Before England and Scotland were united, the name "Briton," as including English men, was altogether unheard of. Freeman , Hist. E ays, I. 165. Britain (brit'an or brit'n), Benjamin, or Little. In Charles Dickens's story "The Battle of Life," at first a servant, afterward landlord, of the Nutmeg Grater Inn. He is very small, and announces himself as knowing and caring for absolutely nothing. Britanni (bri-tan'i). [LL. Britanni , Britones . ] A Celtic people in the northwest part of Gaul, first mentioned in this location by Sidonius A poll on i us. According to Jordanes they were leagued with the Romans against the West Goths. Gregory of Tours makes them subject to the neighboring Franks. They were called by the Franks Breton ; by Latin writers after the 5th century, Britanni , Britones , and their land Britannia Cis marina , modern Bretagne, Britt any. They British East Africa. See East Africa , British . British East Africa Company, Imperial. A British commercial company, developed from the British East Africa A ociation, and char tered in 1888. Its head was Sir William Mack in non. The territory of the company (about 200,000 square miles) lay within the newly acquired British "sphere of influence" of East Africa, northeast of Victoria Nyanza. The company had extended its operations into Uganda, but in 1892 it decided to abandon that region, and in 1895 it surrendered its charter to the British government. British Empire. A collective term for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kimpire. with its colonies and dependencies. Area of the United Kingdom, India, and colonies, 9,180,700 square miles; population, 345,282,960. Area of protectorates and spheres of influence, 2,240,400; population, 36,122,000. Grand total of British Empire: area, 11,421,100 square miles; population, 381,404,960. British Guiana. See Guiana. British Honduras, or Balize (bä-lēz'). A crown colony of Great Britain, lying between Yucatan on the north, the Caribbean Sea on the east, and Guatemala on the south and west. Capital, Balize. It exports mahogany, logwood, fruit, sugar, etc. It was settled by wood-cutters from Jamaica at the end of the 17th century, and since 1870 has been a crown colony of Great Britain. Area, 7,562 square miles. Population (1891), 31,471. British India. See India . British Legion British Legion. A body of British troops, commanded by Colonel Evans, which fought for Queen Isabella of Spain against the Car lists, in 1836. British Museum. A celebrated museum at Great Ru ell street, Blooms bury, London, founded in 1753. It contains collections of antiquities, drawings, prints, and a library of 2,000,000 volumes, 55,000 MSS., and 45,000 charters. The growth of the British Museum has been very rapid. Montague House was first employed in 1753 when room was needed for Sir Hans Sloane's library and collections, which were bought for the nominal price of £20,000, raised by a lottery. The collection was opened to the public Jan., 1759. The Harleian manuscripts, purchased in 1755, and the royal library, lemonasteries by Henry VIII., and 65,000 volumes given by George III. and George IV., raised the library to a position of great importance. The new building, designed by Sir Robert Smirke and completed by his brother Sydney Smirke, was commenced soon after the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1816 the Elgin marbles were bought for the sum of £35,000. The first great Egyptian acquisition consisted of the objects taken with the French army in 1801. In 1804 the Rosetta Stone and several sarcophagi were exhibited. A little later the collection of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson was added. The A yrian, Babylonian, coin, and Greek vase collections are unquestionably the best in any contemporary museum. The natural history collections have been removed to the Museum of Natural History at South Kensington. The present building, finished in 1847, is one of the best structures of the "Cla ic Revival." The annual increase of the library is about 40,000 volumes. Modern English publications are added free of expense by a privilege, shared with the universities, of receiving gratis a copy of every book entered at Stationers' Hall. Brittle (brit'l), Barnaby. The husband of Mrs. Brittle in Better ton's play "The Amorous Widow," a sort of George Dandin: played by Charles Macklin at Covent Garden. Brittle, Mrs. A character in Better ton's play "The Amorous Widow." It was chosen by Mrs. Brace girdle and Mrs. Old field as a test of their popularity with the public and superiority of method. Britton. An early summary of English law, written in French, probably in the 13th century. A MS. is in existence. It was first printed in London about 1530. Selden and others thought it an abridgment of Bracton. Britton (brit'n), Colonel. The lover of Isa- bell a in Mrs. Cent livre's comedy "The Wonder, a Woman keeps a Secret." It is to keep the secret of Colonel Britton and Isabella that Vio- lante nearly loses her own lover. Britton, John. Born at Kingston-St.-Michael, Wilts hire, England, July 7, 1771: died at Lon- don, Jan. 1, 1857. An English antiquary. His works include "The Beauties of Wilts hire" (1801-25), "Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain" (1805-26), "Cathedral Antiquities of England" (1814-35), etc. Brive, or Brives (brev), or Brives-la-Gail- larde (brēv'lä-gä-yärd'). A town in the de- part ment of Corrèze, France, situated on the Corrèze in lat. 45° 9′ N., long. 1°35′ E. It has an important trade in truffles. It is the birthplace of Cardinal Dubois and Marshal Brune. Population (1891), commune, 16,803. Brixen (briks'en), It. Bre anone (bres-sä-nō ́- British North Borneo. A British colonial posne). A town in Tyrol, Austria-Hungary, situ se ion in the island of Borneo. It is a protectorate under the British North Borneo Company (charter granted 1881). It produces tobacco, timber, rice, sago, coffee, gums, etc. The chief town is Sandakan. Area, 31,106 square miles. Population, 175,000. British South Africa Company. A British commercial company chartered in 1889 for the exploitation of Mat abele land and the neighboring regions. The leader was Mr. Cecil Rhodes. The company has built Fort Salisbury, and developed Masho: to some extent. territory has extended with the British Central Africa (or the combat exception of Nyas sal and. In 1893 company put down a Matabele rising under the chief Lobengula. Brito Freire (brē'tö fra're), Francisco de. Born at Coruche, Alemtejo, about 1620: died at Lisbon, Nov. 8, 1692. A Portuguese admiral, administrator, and historian. He was captain general of Pernambuco from 1661 to 1664, and wrote the "Nova Lusitania," an incomplete history of the wars between the Dutch and Portuguese in Brazil. Britomartis (brit-o-mär'tis). [Gr. Βριτόμαρτις , the sweet maiden (?).] 1. In Greek mythology, a Cretan divinity of hunters and fishermen. The legends concerning her are various. According to one, to escape from the pursuit of Minos she threw herself among the fishermen's nets in the sea, and was rescued and made a deity by Artemis. 2. In Spenser's "Faerie Queene," a female knight, personifying chastity. Britons (brit'onz). [ME. Britun , Brutun , etc., OF. Breton , a Briton, usually a Breton or native of Britt any in France, from ML. Brito ( n- ), pl. Britones , L. Britanni , Britons.] The natives of Great Britain; especially, the original Celtic inhabitants of the island of Briton. So lately as James the Second's time, a Briton still meant a Welsh man; and we believe that, exactly a century back, the famous declaration of George the Third that he "gloried in the name," not of English man, but "of Briton," was looked upon by many of his subjects as a wicked machination of the Scotch man Bute. Freeman , Hist. E ays, I. 165. Britt any, or Britanny (brit'a-ni), F. Bretagne. [From L. Britanni . See Britanni , Britain .] A former government of France, capital Rennes, the Roman Armorica. It is bounded by the English Channel on the north, Normandy, Maine, and Anjou on the east, Poitou on the south, and the ocean on the southwest and we stot is traversed by hills and low mountains (the Montagnes d'Arrée, Montagnes Noires, etc.), and is di. vided into Ba e-Bretagne in the west, and Haute-Bretagne in the east. It comprises five departments: Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Inférieure. The vernacular language is the Breton. Britt any is noted for its megalithic monuments (dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs). A large part of the people are sailors and fishermen. Britt any was inhabited by the Veneti and other Gallic tribes, and formed a part of Lugdunensis under the Romans. It received the name of Le er or Little Britain or Britt any (Britannia Minor; also Britannia Cis marina) in allusion to the Greater Britain acro the Channel, from which it received colonists (from Cornwall) driven out by the Anglo-Saxons. The Frankish kings failed to retain a permanent hold on the country. In the 9th century it became independent, and was ruled by counts and dukes. In the 12th century it pa ed by marriage to Geoffrey, son of Henry II. of England. In 1204 it became a fief of France, and soon after pa ed under the rule of dukes of the Dreux family. It was united to France by the marriages of Anne (heire of Britt any) with Charles VIII. of France in 1491, and with Louis XII. in 1499. It finally incorporated with