BRUGES

(Flemish, Brugge; that is. Bridges), a dty of Belgium, capital of West Flanders, situated about r>7 mUes K.w. Bru els, on the railway to Ostend. It is the centre of an extensive canal commerce. Bruges has over fifty bridges, all opening in the middle for the pa age of ve els. It is surrounde,d by walls with seven gates. The principal canaLs are those which lead to Sluis, Ghent, and Ostend, on all of which pret^ large ve els can come up to Bruges. In the fourteenth century it was one of the chief commercial places in Europe, and an important member of the Hanseatic Confederacy. Towards the end of the fifteenth century it began to decline. It now carries on a considerable trade with the north df Europe. The pop. is (1869) 47,621. The Halles (containing cloth and other halls or markets) is a fine old building, with a tower 354 feet high, in which is a nimierouB set of chimes. Bruges has also a chamber of commerce and a dock-yard; likewise a royal ^jmnasium, an academy of paintii^, sculpture, and architecture; a national literary society, ., and many valuable specimens of architecture and sculpture. In the Church of N6tre Dame, with its elevated spire, are the splendid tombs of Charles the Bold and of Mary of Burgundy, his daughter, constructed in 1560. Philip the Grood here founded the order of the Golden Fleece in 1430; and the celebrated Jan Van Eyok, or John of Bruges, the supposed inventor of painting in oU, was bom here. Bruges was fortified by Count Baldwin in 837, walled first in 1053, and again in 1270. It was thrice burned, and lost its records by fire in 1280. In the thirteenth century it ranked as the central mart of middle North Europe. It was nearly ruined by the oppre ion of the Duke of Alva. The remains of ancient buildings, abandoned monasteries, and streets half deserted from the diminished population of the modem city, give Bruges an antiquated and venerable appearance. The houses are very old, and in a state of excellent preservation. Bruges is still, by means of its canals, an entrepot of Belgian commerce. The chief articles manufactured at Bruges are lace, linen, damasks, light woollen goods, cottons, mixed stuffs, . It exports agricultural produce and manufactured goods, and imports wine, oil, drugs, spices, dried fruits, dye-woods, . BEUGMji^S, Skbald Justinub, a learned Dutchman, phydcian-in-chief of the army, of the marine, and of tiie colonies; member of the Institute of the Netherlands, and of many learned societies. He was bom at Franeker in 1763, and graduated in 1781 at Gioningen. His diasertatioos, lithdogia Groning i an a; on Hurtful and Poisonous Plants in Pastures; on the Symptoms of Decay in Trees; and De Puogenia^ in 1785, procured him distinction. He became prof e or of philosophy and physics in Franeker, where he formed a cabinet of comparative anatomy, one of the first in Europe. He became profe or of botany at Leyden in 1786, and of chemistry in 1795. His labours for the organization of the medical department of the army commenced in 1794. He was an active contributor to the Pharmaoopceia Batava. a King Louis made him his physician, and confirmed all his institutions. After the union of Holland with France, Napoleon made him inspector-general of the hospitals, and rector of the University of Leyden, for which he procured large sums of money from the state, and in later times the return of its collection of natural history from Paris. During the many years he was director of the military hospital, the number of deaths by wounds and diseases was never increased by hospital fevers. After the battle of Waterloo he promptly procured medical aid for more than 20,000 wounded men. His treatise on the Nature of the Miasma of Hospital Fever gained the prize of the Academy in Haarlem. Hia original views on the organization of fishes are to be found in the Transactions of the National Institute of the Netherlands. He died in 1819. BRtlHL, Hans Moriiz ton, nephew of the minister, bom 1746; died 1811. He is known by his ingenious improvements of several instrument i^ by his e ays in the Philosophical Transactions, and by his Recherohes sur divers Objets de I'^oonomie Politique (Dresden, 1781). BRuBtti, He in rich, Count von, minister and favourite of Frederick August us II. (otherwise called August us III.), king of Poland and elector of Saxony, was bom in 1700 in Thu ring i a, and entered as a page the service of the^Duche Elizabeth, whose favour as well as that of Frederick August us I. he gained by his lively and graceful manners. On the death of the long at Warsaw in 1733, the crown of Poland with the other regalia being, through the good fortune of Briihl, intrusted to him, he carried tiiem immediately to the new elector, August us III., and showed the greatest activity in promoting his election. From tins time fortune never deserted him. He had cunning and skill sufficient to govern his master and get rid of his rivals. While he felt himself not sufficiently powerful to remove his rival. Count Sulkowski, he acted as his friend; but after his marriage with the Counte Kollowrath, the favourite of the queen, he effected the diHrni al of Sulkowski through her influence. He now succeeded in keeping everybody at a distance from the king. No servant entered his service without the consent of Briihl, and even when he went to the chapel all approach to him was prevented. The monarch's wish that hjs minister should make a great parade was gratified in its widest extent. Briihl kept 200 domestics; his guards were better paid thai i those of the king himself, and his table more sumptuous. Frederidc II. says of him, ' Briihl had more garments, watches, laces, ooots, shoes, and slippers, than any man of the age. Caesar would have counted him among those curled and perfumed heads which he did not fear;* but August us III. was no Csesar. When this idle prince loitered about smoking, and asked, without looking at his favourite, 'Brtthl, have I any money f 'Yes, sire,* was the continual answer; and to satisfy the king's demands he exhausted the state, plunged the country into debts, and greatly reduced the army. At the beginning of the Seven Years* war it comprised but 17,000 men, and these were compelled to surrender at Pima from want of the nece ary supplies. Briihl fled with the king, the pictores, and the chin% to Poland; but the archives of the state were left to the victor. He was no avaricious of titles and money than of power. died a few weeks after his Idng in 1763. An am in at i on after his death showed that he owed immense fortune to the prodigality of the king rather than to unlawful means of accumulation. His profusion was often beneficial to the arts and sciences. 443