Brucite

( Min.) A fibrous hydrate of magnesia occurring in silky grayish or bluish-white ma es. This name was given to chondrodite in honor of Pr. Bruce of New York, by whom the mineral was first described. Bruck, KARL LUDWIG, BARON VON, an eminent Austrian statesman and financier, B. 1798. After achieving great honor by his succe ful foundation of the "Austrian Lloyds," he received, in 1848, from the imperial government the appointment of minister-plenipotentiary to the National A embly convoked at Frankfort. After the revolution in Oct. of the same year, B. was named Minister of Trade, a position in which his talents were exercised to the inestimable advantage of the commerce of the empire. In 1851, he resigned his portfolio, but in the following year was recalled to the imperial service, and in 1853 appointed to the dignified and momentous post of internuncio at Constantinople. In this position he exerted himself strenuously to avert the rupture between Ru ia and the Ottoman Porte. In 1855, he became Minister of Finance. After the Italian war, an unsucce ful lottery loan, and the scandal of the celebrated Cynattan proce (relating to robberies committed in Italy), in which B. was indirectly involved, rendered it incumbent upon him to tender his resignation of office, which was contemptuously accepted by the emperor (1861). In his chagrin, B. committed suicide, being found dead in his bed, with his veins opened by his own hand, on 23d April of the same year. From what was elicited at the searching inquest held after his death, it would appear that B. was innocent of the accusations that brought about his untimely end; and it must be said, that even if he had been unsucce ful in relieving his country from a financial crisis, he inaugurated the future prosperity of Austria by the many reforms he introduced into the old fiscal and industrial systems of the empire. ture is the most important; it employs 7,400 persons. Hist . From the 7th century, B. was rapidly acquiring importance. During the government of the rich and powerful Counts of Flanders, who resided there from the Fig . 430.- THE BELFRY OF BRUGES. 9th to the 15th centuries, its woollen manufactures grew and flourished to an amazing extent. The wealth and splendid attire of the citizens of B. had long been subjects of wonder; for when the queen of Philip le Bel, of France, visited this city in 1300, she is said to have exclaimed with astonishment, "I here see hundreds who have more the appearance of queens than myself." The wealth of the citizens was enormous; a single merchant gave security for the ransom of Jean sans Peur, the last Count of Flanders, to the amount of 400,000 crowns of gold. Under the Austrian dynasty, at the close of the 15th century, the rebellious conduct of the inhabitants of B. called upon it such destructive vengeance that henceforth its greatne died away, its trade was transferred to Antwerp, and the religious persecution and ferocity of the Spanish under Philip II. and the Duke of Alva completed the proce of its ruin. Its subsequent history is comparatively unimportant. Pop ., 1897, about 50,000.