Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/446

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402

BRITON-FERRY —BROGLIE

Briton-Ferry, a seaport and railway station in I the Mid parliamentary division of Glamorganshire, Wales, at the mouth of the Neath river, 2^ miles S. of Neath. There are four Episcopalian churches, and Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, and Bible Christian chapels. There are coal mines and iron, steel, and tin-plate works. The dock belongs to the Great Western Railway Company, and is 13 acres in extent. Area of parish (an urban district), 1593 acres. Population (1881), 6061 ; (1901), 7000. Brive, or Brive-la.-Ga.illa.rde, chief town of arrondissement, department Correze, France, 18 miles S.W. of Tulle ; an important railway centre on the main line from Paris to Toulouse. A statue has been erected to Marshal Brune, a native of the town. Manufactures include straw work in great variety. Population (1881), 9598; (1891), 11,142; (1901), 19,496. Brixen (Italian, Bressanone), chief town of a district of the same name in Tirol. Population of district (1890), 27,050, (1900), 27,691 ; and of commune (1890), 5525, (1900), 5767. Corn, fruit and viticulture, and the breeding of the silk-worm, are the leading industries. It is a favourite health resort in spring and autumn, on account of its mild climate. Brixham, a market town in the Torquay parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the south side of Tor Bay, 30 miles S. of Exeter. The Western Counties Home for the orphan boys of seamen (1859) has been enlarged and a market building erected. Area of parish (an urban district), 5612 acres. Population (1881), 7033; (1901), 8622. Broach, or Bhaiujch, an ancient city and modern district of British India, in the Gujarat division of Bombay. The city is on the right bank of the Narbada, about 30 miles from the sea, and 203 miles N. of Bombay. The area, including suburbs, occupies 3 square miles. Population (1881), 37,281; (1891), 40,168; (1901), 42,298. The sea-borne trade is now confined to a few coasting vessels. Handloom weaving is almost extinct, but four cotton mills have been opened, with 800 looms and 70,000 spindles, employing 1450 hands. There are also five large flour mills. The English high school, called after a munificent Parsee, was attended in 1896-97 by 290 pupils. The district of Broach contains an area of 1463 square miles. The population in 1891 was 341,490, being 233 persons per square mile. According to religion, Hindus numbered 245,422; Mahommedans, 71,263; Parsees, 3273 ; Jains, 3576 ; Christians, 128, including 31 Europeans; “others,” 17,828. In 1901 the population was 291,428, showing a decrease of 15 per cent., compared with an increase of 5 per cent, in the preceding decade. The total amount of land revenue and rates was returned as Rs.28,31,477, the incidence of assessment being Rs.4:2:5per acre; the number of police was 508. In 1897-98, out of a total cultivated area of 567,228 acres, only 879 were irrigated from wells, &c. The principal crops are cotton, millet, wheat, and pulse. Dealing in cotton is the chief industry, the dealers being organized in a guild. Besides the cotton mills in Broach city there are about 20 factories for ginning and pressing cotton, some of them on a very large scale. The district is traversed throughout its length by the Bombay and Baroda railway, which crosses the Narbada opposite Broach city on an iron girder bridge of 67 spans. In 1897-98 there were 263 schools, with 19,773 pupils, showing one village with a school to every 7 square miles of area, and 6T2 pupils to every hundred of the population. There were four printing-presses, issuing three newspapers in

the vernacular. The municipalities had a total income of Rs. 1,69,959, the incidence of taxation being R. 1 :8:8 per head. For 1897 the death-rate was 34 per thousand, rising to 41 in Broach city. The district suffered severely from the famine of 1899-1900. Broa.dsta.irS, a town and watering-place in the Isle of Thanet parliamentary division of Kent, 3 miles S.W. of Margate, on the South-Eastern and Chatham railway. From 1837 to 1851 Broadstairs was a favourite summer resort of the novelist Dickens, who, in a sketch called “Our English Watering-Place,” described it as a place “left high and dry by the tide of years.” This sea-side village, with its “ semi-circular sweep of houses,” has grown into a considerable town owing to the influx of summer visitors, for whose entertainment there are, besides the “Albion” mentioned by Dickens, a Grand Hotel, numerous inns and boarding-houses, libraries, a bathing establishment, and a fine promenade. Area of urban district, 1442 acres. Population (1881), 4322; (1891), 5234; (1901), 6460. Bl*OCkton, a city of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 20 miles S. of Boston, and containing an area of 21 square miles of rolling surface. One of the many lines of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railway passes through it. It is an important manufacturing place, the making of boots and shoes being the most important branch of industry. Brockton was settled about 1700, and was incorporated as a town under the name of North Bridgewater. This was changed to Brockton in 1874: In 1881 it received a city charter. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in 1900 was $27,868,799, the tax-rate $20.10 per $1000, and the net debt $1,946,872. Population (1880), 13,608 ; (1890), 27,294 ; (1900), 40,063, of whom 9484 were foreign-born. The death-rate in 1900 Avas 13 •2. Brockvilie, a town and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, and capital of Leeds county, situated 119 miles S.W. of Montreal, on the left bank of the St Lawrence, and on the Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific, and Brockville and Westport railways. It has steamer communication with the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario ports. The principal manufactures are hardware, furnaces, agricultural implements, carriages, sulphuric acid, &c. The value of imports for 1899-1900 was $1,111,461; exports, $460,948. Population (1881), 7609; (1891), 8791 ; (1901), 8940. Brrfd, a town of Croatia Slavonia, Hungary, near the river Save. As chief town for the transit trade in cereals, prunes, wood, and wine between Hungary and Bosnia, it is rapidly rising in importance. The railway crosses the river at this point. Population, 7310. Brody, chief town of district of same name in the Austrian crown-land of Galicia, near the Russian frontier. Population of district (1890), 130,707 ; (1900), 133,865 ; of town (1890), 17,534; (1900), 17,360. The latter is for the most part German-speaking, about two-thirds being Jews. There is a garrison of 888 men. It is one of the most important commercial centres in Galicia, particularly for the trade Avith Russia, which furnishes corn, furs, and wool, receiving in return Austrian cottons, silks, agricultural implements, leather goods, jewellery, &c. There has, however, been a marked decline both in imports and exports since 1879, when its charter as a free commercial city was Avithdrawn, its position being further damaged by the construction of the railway via Tarnopol. Broglie, Jacques Victor Albert, Due de (1821-1901), French statesman and historian, the eldest son of Achille Charles Leonce Victor, due de Broglie, was born in Paris on 13th June 1821. After a brief