ertain states of the Union which
require printed briefs to be delivered to the court.

In English ecclesiastical law a brief meant letters patent issued out of
chancery to churchwardens or other officers for the collection of money for
church purposes. Such briefs were regulated by a statute of 1704, but are
now obsolete, though they are still to be found named in one of the rubrics
in the Communion service of the Book of Common Prayer.

The _brief-bag_, in which counsel's papers are carried to and from court,
now forms an integral part of a barrister's outfit, but in the early part
of the 19th century the possession of a brief-bag was strictly confined to
those who had received one from a king's counsel. King's counsel were then
few in number, were considered officers of the court, and had a salary of
L40 a year, with a supply of paper, pens and purple bags. These bags they
distributed among rising juniors of their acquaintance, whose bundles of
briefs were getting inconveniently large to be carried in their hands.
These perquisites were abolished in 1830. English brief-bags are now either
blue or red. Blue bags are those with which barristers provide themselves
when first called, and it is a breach of etiquette to let this bag be
visible in court. The only brief-bag allowed to be placed on the desks is
the red bag, which by English legal etiquette is given by a leading counsel
to a junior who has been useful to him in some important case.

BRIEG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, on the left
bank of the Oder, and on the Breslau and Beuthen railway, 27 m. S.E. of the
former city. Pop. (1900) 24,090. It has a castle (the residence of the old
counts of Brieg), a lunatic asylum, a gymnasium with a good library,
several churches and hospitals, and a theatre. Its fortifications were
destroyed by the French in 1807, and are now replaced by beautiful
promenades. Brieg carries on a considerable trade, its chief manufactures
being linen, embroideries, cotton and woollen goods, ribbons, leather,
machinery, hats, pasteboard and cigars. Important cattle-markets are held
here. Brieg, or, as it is called in early documents, _Civitas Altae Ripae_,
obtained municipal rights in 1250 from Duke Henry III. of Breslau, and was
fortified in 1297; its name is derived from the Polish _Brzeg_ (shore).
Burned by the Hussites in 1428, the town was soon afterwards rebuilt, and
in 1595 it was again fortified by Joachim Freder