AUTHORITIES.--_Official_: Col. Horace Spearman, _British Burma Gazetteer_

(2 vols., Rangoon, 1879); Sir J. George Scott, _Upper Burma Gazetteer_ (5

vols., Rangoon, 1900-1901). _Non-official_: Right Rev. Bishop Bigandet,

_Life or Legend of Gautama_ (3rd ed., London, 1881); G.W. Bird, _Wanderings

in Burma_ (London, 1897); E.D. Cuming, _In the Shadow of the Pagoda_

(London, 1893), _With the Jungle Folk_ (Condon, 1897); Max and Bertha

Ferrars, _Burma_ (London, 1900); H. Fielding, _The Soul of a People

(Buddhism in Burma)_ (London, 1898), _Thibaw's Queen_ (London, 1899), _A

People at School_ (1906); Capt. C.J. Forbes, F.S., _Burma_ (London, 1878),

_Comparative Grammar of the Languages of Farther India_ (London, 1881),

_Legendary History of Burma and Arakan_ (Rangoon, 1882); J. Gordon, _Burma

and its Inhabitants_ (London, 1876); Mrs E. Hart, [v.04 p.0846]

_Picturesque Burma_ (London, 1897); Gen. R. Macmahon, _Far Cathay and

Farther India_ (London, 1892); Rev. F. Mason, D.D., _Burma_ (Rangoon,

1860); E.H. Parker, _Burma_ (Rangoon, 1892); Sir Arthur Phayre, _History of

Burma_ (London, 1883); G.C. Rigby, _History of the Operations in Northern

Arakan and the Yawdwin Chin Hills_ (Rangoon, 1897), Sir J. George Scott,

_Burma, As it is, As it was, and As it will be_ (London, 1886); Shway Yoe,

_The Burman, His Life and Notions_ (2nd ed., London, 1896); D.M. Smeaton,

_The Karens of Burma_ (London, 1887); Sir Henry Yule, _A Mission to Ava_

(London, 1858); J. Nisbet, _Burma under British Rule and Before_ (London,

1901); V.D. Scott O'Connor, _The Silken East_ (London, 1904); Talbot Kelly,

_Burma_ (London, 1905); an exhaustive account of the administration is

contained in Dr Alleyne Ireland's _The Province of Burma_, Report prepared

on behalf of the university of Chicago (Boston, U.S.A., 2 vols., 1907).

(J. G. SC.)

[1] See also, for geology, W. Theobald, "On the Geology of Pegu," _Mem.

Geol. Surv. India_, vol. x. pt. ii. (1874); F. Noetling, "The Development

and Subdivision of the Tertiary System in Burma," _Rec. Geol. Sun. India_,

vol. xxviii. (1895), pp. 59-86, pl. ii.; F. Noetling, "The Occurrence of

Petroleum in Burma, and its Technical Exploitation," _Mem. Geol. Surv.

India_, vol. xxvii. pt. ii. (1898).

BURMANN, PIETER (1668-1741), Dutch classical scholar, known as "the Elder,"

to distinguish him from his nephew, was born at Utrecht. At the age of

thirteen he entered the university where he studied under Graevius and

Gronovius. He devoted himself particularly to the study of the classical

languages, and became unusually proficient in Latin composition. As he was

intended for the legal profession, he spent some years in attendance on the

law classes. For about a year he studied at Leiden, paying special

attention to philosophy and Greek. On his return to Utrecht he took the

degree of doctor of laws (March 1688), and after travelling through

Switzerland and part of Germany, settled down to the practice of law,

without, however, abandoning his classical studies. In December 1691 he was

appointed receiver of the tithes which were originally paid to the bishop

of Utrecht, and five years later was nominated to the professorship of

eloquence and history. To this chair was soon added that of Greek and

politics. In 1714 he paid a short visit to Paris and ransacked the

libraries. In the following year he was appointed successor to the

celebrated Perizonius, who had held the chair of history, Greek language

and eloquence at Leiden. He was subsequently appointed professor of history

for the United Provinces and chief librarian. His numerous editorial and

critical works spread his fame as a scholar throughout Europe, and engaged

him in many of the stormy disputes which were then so common among men of

letters. Burmann was rather a compiler than a critic; his commentaries show

immense learning and accuracy, but are wanting in taste and judgment. He

died on the 31st of March 1741.

Burmann edited the following classical authors:--Phaedrus (1698); Horace

(1699); Valerius Flaccus (1702); Petronius Arbiter (1709); Velleius

Paterculus (1719); Quintilian (1720); Justin (1722); Ovid (1727); _Poetae

Latini minores_ (1731); Suetonius (1736); Lucan (1740). He also published

an edition of Buchanan's works, continued Graevius's great work, _Thesaurus

Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae_, and wrote a treatise _De Vectigalibus

populi Romani_ (1694) and a short manual of Roman antiquities,

_Antiquitatum Romanarum Brevis Descriptio_ (1711). His _Sylloge epistolarum

a viris illustribus scriptarum_ (1725) is of importance for the history of

learned men. The list of his works occupies five pages in Saxe's

_Onomasticon_. His poems and orations were published after his death. There

is an account of his life in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April (1742) by

Dr Samuel Johnson.

BURMANN, PIETER (1714-1778), called by himself "the Younger" (Secundus),

Dutch philologist, nephew of the above, was born at Amsterdam on the 13th

of October 1714. He was brought up by his uncle in Leiden, and afterwards

studied law and philology under C.A. Duker and Arnold von Drakenborch at

Utrecht. In 1735 he was appointed professor of eloquence and history at

Franeker, with which the chair of poetry was combined in 1741. In the

following year he left Franeker for Amsterdam to become professor of

history and philology at the Athenaeum. He was subsequently professor of

poetry (1744), general librarian (1752), and inspector of the gymnasium

(1753). In 1777 he retired, and died on the 24th of June 1778 at Sandhorst,

near Amsterdam. He resembled his more famous uncle in the manner and

direction of his studies, and in his violent disposition, which involved

him in quarrels with contemporaries, notably Saxe and Klotz. He was a man

of extensive learning, and had a great talent for Latin poetry. His most

valuable works are: _Anthologia Veterum Latinorum Epigrammatum et Poematum_

(1759-1773); _Aristophanis Comoediae Novem_ (1760); _Rhetorica ad

Herennium_ (1761). He completed the editions of Virgil (1746) and Claudian

(1760), which had been left unfinished by his uncle, and commenced an

edition of Propertius, one of his best works, which was only half printed

at the time of his death. It was completed by L. van Santen and published

in 1780.

BURMESE WARS. Three wars were fought between Burma and the British during

the 19th century (see BURMA: _History_), which resulted in the gradual

extinction of Burmese independence.

_First Burmese War, 1823-26._--On the 23rd of September 1823 an armed party

of Burmese attacked a British guard on Shapura, an island close to the

Chittagong side, killing and wounding six of the guard. Two Burmese armies,

one from Manipur and another from Assam, also entered Cachar, which was

under British protection, in January 1824. War with Burma was formally

declared on the 5th of March 1824. On the 17th of May a Burmese force

invaded Chittagong and drove a mixed sepoy and police detachment from its

position at Ramu, but did not follow up its success. The British rulers in

India, however, had resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country; an

armament, under Commodore Charles Grant and Sir Archibald Campbell, entered

the Rangoon river, and anchored off the town on the 10th of May 1824. After

a feeble resistance the place, then little more than a large stockaded

village, was surrendered, and the troops were landed. The place was

entirely deserted by its inhabitants, the provisions were carried off or

destroyed, and the invading force took possession of a complete solitude.

On the 28th of May Sir A. Campbell ordered an attack on some of the nearest

posts, which were all carried after a steadily weakening defence. Another

attack was made on the 10th of June on the stockades at the village of

Kemmendine. Some of these were battered by artillery from the war vessels

in the river, and the shot and shells had such effect on the Burmese that

they evacuated them, after a very unequal resistance. It soon, however,

became apparent that the expedition had been undertaken with very imperfect

knowledge of the country, and without adequate provision. The devastation

of the country, which was part of the defensive system of the Burmese, was

carried out with unrelenting rigour, and the invaders were soon reduced to

great difficulties. The health of the men declined, and their ranks were

fearfully thinned. The monarch of Ava sent large reinforcements to his

dispirited and beaten army; and early in June an attack was commenced on

the British line, but proved unsuccessful. On the 8th the British

assaulted. The enemy were beaten at all points; and their strongest

stockaded works, battered to pieces by a powerful artillery, were in

general abandoned. With the exception of an attack by the prince of

Tharrawaddy in the end of August, the enemy allowed the British to remain

unmolested during the months of July and August. This interval was employed

by Sir A. Campbell in subduing the Burmese provinces of Tavoy and Mergui,

and the whole coast of Tenasserim. This was an important conquest, as the

country was salubrious and afforded convalescent stations to the sick, who

were now so numerous in the British army that there were scarcely 3000

soldiers fit for duty. An expedition was about this time sent against the

old Portuguese fort and factory of Syriam, at the mouth of the Pegu river,

which was taken; and in October the province of Martaban was reduced under

the authority of the British.

The rainy season terminated about the end of October; and the court of Ava,

alarmed by the discomfiture of its armies, recalled the veteran legions

which were employed in Arakan, under their renowned leader Maha Bandula.

Bandula hastened by forced marches to the defence of his country; and by

the end of November an army of 60,000 men had surrounded the British

position at Rangoon and Kemmendine, for the defence of which Sir Archibald

Campbell had only 5000 efficient troops. The enemy in great force made

repeated attacks on Kemmendine without success, and on the 7th of December

Bandula was defeated in a counter attack made by Sir A. Campbell. The

fugitives retired to a strong position on the river, which they again

entrenched; and here they were attacked by the British on the 15th, and

driven in complete confusion from the field.

Sir Archibald Campbell now resolved to advance on Prome, [v.04 p.0847]

about 100 m. higher up the Irrawaddy river. He moved with his force on the

13th of February 1825 in two divisions, one proceeding by land, and the

other, under General Willoughby Cotton, destined for the reduction of

Danubyu, being embarked on the flotilla. Taking the command of the land

force, he continued his advance till the 11th of March, when intelligence

reached him of the failure of the attack upon Danubyu. He instantly

commenced a retrograde march; on the 27th he effected a junction with

General Cotton's force, and on the 2nd of April entered the entrenchments

at Danubyu without resistance, Bandula having been killed by the explosion

of a bomb. The English general entered Prome on the 25th, and remained

there during the rainy season. On the 17th of September an armistice was

concluded for one month. In the course of the summer General Joseph

Morrison had conquered the province of Arakan; in the north the Burmese

were expelled from Assam; and the British had made some progress in Cachar,

though their advance was finally impeded by the thick forests and jungle.

The armistice having expired on the 3rd of November, the army of Ava,

amounting to 60,000 men, advanced in three divisions against the British

position at Prome, which was defended by 3000 Europeans and 2000 native

troops. But the British still triumphed, and after several actions, in

which the Burmese were the assailants and were partially successful, Sir A.

Campbell, on the 1st of December, attacked the different divisions of their

army, and successively drove them from all their positions, and dispersed

them in every direction. The Burmese retired on Malun, along the course of

the Irrawaddy, where they occupied, with 10,000 or 12,000 men, a series of

strongly fortified heights and a formidable stockade. On the 26th they sent

a flag of truce to the British camp; and negotiations having commenced,

peace was proposed to them on the following conditions:--(1) The cession of

Arakan, together with the provinces of Mergui, Tavoy and Ye; (2) the

renunciation by the Burmese sovereign of all claims upon Assam and the

contiguous petty states; (3) the Company to be paid a crore of rupees as an

indemnification for the expenses of the war; (4) residents from each court

to be allowed, with an escort of fifty men; while it was also stipulated

that British ships should no longer be obliged to unship their rudders and

land their guns as formerly in the Burmese ports. This treaty was agreed to

and signed, but the ratification of the king was still wanting; and it was

soon apparent that the Burmese had no intention to sign it, but were

preparing to renew the contest. On the 19th of January, accordingly, Sir A.

Campbell attacked and carried the enemy's position at Malun. Another offer

of peace was here made by the Burmese, but it was found to be insincere;

and the fugitive army made at the ancient city of Pagan a final stand in

defence of the capital. They were attacked and overthrown on the 9th of

February 1826; and the invading force being now within four days' march of

Ava, Dr Price, an American missionary, who with other Europeans had been

thrown into prison when the war commenced, was sent to the British camp

with the treaty (known as the treaty of Yandaboo) ratified, the prisoners

of war released, and an instalment of 25 lakhs of rupees. The war was thus

brought to a successful termination, and the British army evacuated the

country.

_Second Burmese War, 1852._--On the 15th of March 1852 Lord Dalhousie sent

an ultimatum to King Pagan, announcing that hostile operations would be

commenced if all his demands were not agreed to by the ist of April.

Meanwhile a force consisting of 8100 troops had been despatched to Rangoon

under the command of General H.T. Godwin, C.B., while Commodore Lambert

commanded the naval contingent. No reply being given to this letter, the

first blow of the Second Burmese War was struck by the British on the 5th

of April 1852, when Martaban was taken. Rangoon town was occupied on the

12th, and the Shwe Dagôn pagoda on the 14th, after heavy fighting, when the

Burmese army retired northwards. Bassein was seized on the 19th of May, and

Pegu was taken on the 3rd of June, after some sharp fighting round the

Shwe-maw-daw pagoda. During the rainy season the approval of the East India

Company's court of directors and of the British government was obtained to

the annexation of the lower portion of the Irrawaddy Valley, including

Prome. Lord Dalhousie visited Rangoon in July and August, and discussed the

whole situation with the civil, military and naval authorities. In

consequence General Godwin occupied Prome on the 9th of October after but

slight resistance. Early in December Lord Dalhousie informed King Pagan

that the province of Pegu would henceforth form part of the British

dominions, and that if his troops resisted the measure his whole kingdom

would be destroyed. The proclamation of annexation was issued on the 20th

of January 1853, and thus the Second Burmese War was brought to an end

without any treaty being signed.

_Third Burmese War, 1885-86._--The imposition of an impossible fine on the

Bombay-Burma Trading Company, coupled with the threat of confiscation of

all their rights and property in case of non-payment, led to the British

ultimatum of the 22nd of October 1885; and by the 9th of November a

practical refusal of the terms having been received at Rangoon, the

occupation of Mandalay and the dethronement of King Thibaw were determined

upon. At this time, beyond the fact that the country was one of dense

jungle, and therefore most unfavourable for military operations, little was

known of the interior of Upper Burma; but British steamers had for years

been running on the great river highway of the Irrawaddy, from Rangoon to

Mandalay, and it was obvious that the quickest and most satisfactory method

of carrying out the British campaign was an advance by water direct on the

capital. Fortunately a large number of light-draught river steamers and

barges (or "flats"), belonging to the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, were

available at Rangoon, and the local knowledge of the company's officers of

the difficult river navigation was at the disposal of the government.

Major-General, afterwards Sir, H.N.D. Prendergast, V.C., K.C.B., R.E., was

placed in command of the expedition. As was only to be expected in an

enterprise of this description, the navy as well as the army was called in

requisition; and as usual the services rendered by the seamen and guns were

most important. The total effective of the force was 9034 fighting men,

2810 native followers and 67 guns, and for river service, 24 machine guns.

The river fleet which conveyed the troops and stores was composed of a

total of no less than 55 steamers, barges, launches, &c.

Thayetmyo was the British post on the river nearest to the frontier, and

here, by 14th November, five days after Thibaw's answer had been received,

practically the whole expedition was assembled. On the same day General

Prendergast received instructions to commence operations. The Burmese king

and his country were taken completely by surprise by the unexampled

rapidity of the advance. There had been no time for them to collect and

organize the stubborn resistance of which the river and its defences were

capable. They had not even been able to block the river by sinking

steamers, &c., across it, for, on the very day of the receipt of orders to

advance, the armed steamers, the "Irrawaddy" and "Kathleen," engaged the

nearest Burmese batteries, and brought out from under their guns the king's

steamer and some barges which were lying in readiness for this very

purpose. On the 16th the batteries themselves on both banks were taken by a

land attack, the enemy being evidently unprepared and making no resistance.

On the 17th of November, however, at Minhla, on the right bank of the

river, the Burmans in considerable force held successively a barricade, a

pagoda and the redoubt of Minhla. The attack was pressed home by a brigade

of native infantry on shore, covered by a bombardment from the river, and

the enemy were defeated with a loss of 170 killed and 276 prisoners,

besides many more drowned in the attempt to escape by the river. The

advance was continued next day and the following days, the naval brigade

and heavy artillery leading and silencing in succession the enemy's river

defences at Nyaungu, Pakôkku and Myingyan. On the 26th of November, when

the flotilla was approaching the ancient capital of Ava, envoys from King

Thibaw met General Prendergast with offers of surrender; and on the 27th,

when the ships [v.04 p.0848] were lying off that city and ready to commence

hostilities, the order of the king to his troops to lay down their arms was

received. There were three strong forts here, full at that moment with

thousands of armed Burmans, and though a large number of these filed past

and laid down their arms by the king's command, still many more were

allowed to disperse with their weapons; and these, in the time that

followed, broke up into dacoit or guerrilla bands, which became the scourge

of the country and prolonged the war for years. Meanwhile, however, the

surrender of the king of Burma was complete; and on the 28th of November,

in less than a fortnight from the declaration of war, Mandalay had fallen,

and the king himself was a prisoner, while every strong fort and town on

the river, and all the king's ordnance (1861 pieces), and thousands of

rifles, muskets and arms had been taken. Much valuable and curious "loot"

and property was found in the palace and city of Mandalay, which, when

sold, realized about 9 lakhs of rupees (£60,000).

From Mandalay, General Prendergast seized Bhamo on the 28th of December.

This was a very important move, as it forestalled the Chinese, who were

preparing to claim the place. But unfortunately, although the king was

dethroned and deported, and the capital and the whole of the river in the

hands of the British, the bands of armed soldiery, unaccustomed to

conditions other than those of anarchy, rapine and murder, took advantage

of the impenetrable cover of their jungles to continue a desultory armed

resistance. Reinforcements had to be poured into the country, and it was in

this phase of the campaign, lasting several years, that the most difficult

and most arduous work fell to the lot of the troops. It was in this jungle

warfare that the losses from battle, sickness and privation steadily

mounted up; and the troops, both British and native, proved once again

their fortitude and courage.

Various expeditions followed one another in rapid succession, penetrating

to the remotest corners of the land, and bringing peace and protection to

the inhabitants, who, it must be mentioned, suffered at least as much from

the dacoits as did the troops. The final, and now completely successful,

pacification of the country, under the direction of Sir Frederick

(afterwards Earl) Roberts, was only brought about by an extensive system of

small protective posts scattered all over the country, and small lightly

equipped columns moving out to disperse the enemy whenever a gathering came

to a head, or a pretended prince or king appeared.

No account of the Third Burmese War would be complete without a reference

to the first, and perhaps for this reason most notable, land advance into

the enemy's country. This was carried out in November 1885 from Toungoo,

the British frontier post in the east of the country, by a small column of

all arms under Colonel W.P. Dicken, 3rd Madras Light Infantry, the first

objective being Ningyan. The operations were completely successful, in

spite of a good deal of scattered resistance, and the force afterwards

moved forward to Yamethin and Hlaingdet. As inland operations developed,

the want of mounted troops was badly felt, and several regiments of cavalry

were brought over from India, while mounted infantry was raised locally. It

was found that without these most useful arms it was generally impossible

to follow up and punish the active enemy.

BURN, RICHARD (1700-1785), English legal writer, was born at Winton,

Westmorland, in 1709. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, he entered the

Church, and in 1736 became vicar of Orton in Westmorland. He was a justice

of the peace for the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, and devoted

himself to the study of law. He was appointed chancellor of the diocese of

Carlisle in 1765, an office which he held till his death at Orton on the

12th of November 1785. Burn's _Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer_,

first published in 1755, was for many years the standard authority on the

law relating to justices of the peace. It has passed through innumerable

editions. His _Ecclesiastical Law_ (1760), a work of much research, was the

foundation upon which were built many modern commentaries on ecclesiastical

law. The best edition is that by R. Phillimore (4 vols., 1842). Burn also

wrote _Digest of the Militia Laws_ (1760), and _A New Law Dictionary_ (2

vols., 1792).

BURNABY, FREDERICK GUSTAVUS (1842-1885), English traveller and soldier, was

born on the 3rd of March 1842, at Bedford, the son of a clergyman. Educated

at Harrow and in Germany, he entered the Royal Horse Guards in 1859.

Finding no chance for active service, his spirit of adventure sought

outlets in balloon-ascents and in travels through Spain and Russia. In the

summer of 1874 he accompanied the Carlist forces as correspondent of _The

Times_, but before the end of the war he was transferred to Africa to

report on Gordon's expedition to the Sudan. This took Burnaby as far as

Khartum. Returning to England in March 1875, he matured his plans for a

journey on horseback to Khiva through Russian Asia, which had just been

closed to travellers. His accomplishment of this task, in the winter of

1875-1876, described in his book _A Ride to Khiva_, brought him immediate

fame. His next leave of absence was spent in another adventurous journey on

horseback, through Asia Minor, from Scutari to Erzerum, with the object of

observing the Russian frontier, an account of which he afterwards

published. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, Burnaby (who soon afterwards

became lieut.-colonel) acted as travelling agent to the Stafford House (Red

Cross) Committee, but had to return to England before the campaign was

over. At this point began his active interest in politics, and in 1880 he

unsuccessfully contested a seat at Birmingham in the Tory-Democrat

interest. In 1882 he crossed the Channel in a balloon. Having been

disappointed in his hope of seeing active service in the Egyptian campaign

of 1882, he participated in the Suakin campaign of 1884 without official

leave, and was wounded at El Teb when acting as an intelligence officer

under General Valentine Baker. This did not deter him from a similar course

when a fresh expedition started up the Nile. He was given a post by Lord

Wolseley, and met his death in the hand-to-hand fighting of the battle of

Abu Klea (17th January 1885).

BURNAND, SIR FRANCIS COWLEY (1836- ), English humorist, was born in London

on the 29th of November 1836. His father was a London stockbroker, of

French-Swiss origin; his mother Emma Cowley, a direct descendant of Hannah

Cowley (1743-1809), the English poet and dramatist. He was educated at Eton

and Cambridge, and originally studied first for the Anglican, then for the

Roman Catholic Church; but eventually took to the law and was called to the

bar. From his earliest days, however, the stage had attracted him--he

founded the Amateur Dramatic Club at Cambridge,--and finally he abandoned

the church and the law, first for the stage and subsequently for dramatic

authorship. His first great dramatic success was made with the burlesque

_Black-Eyed Susan_, and he wrote a large number of other burlesques,

comedies and farces. One of his early burlesques came under the favourable

notice of Mark Lemon, then editor of _Punch_, and Burnand, who was already

writing for the comic paper _Fun_, became in 1862 a regular contributor to

_Punch_. In 1880 he was appointed editor of _Punch_, and only retired from

that position in 1906. In 1902 he was knighted. His literary reputation as

a humorist depends, apart from his long association with _Punch_, on his

well-known book _Happy Thoughts_, originally published in _Punch_ in

1863-1864 and frequently reprinted.

See _Recollections and Reminiscences_, by Sir F.C. Burnand (London, 1904).

BURNE-JONES, SIR EDWARD BURNE, Bart. (1833-1898), English painter and

designer, was born on the 28th of August 1833 at Birmingham. His father was

a Welsh descent, and the idealism of his nature and art has been attributed

to this Celtic strain. An only son, he was educated at King Edward's

school, Birmingham, and destined for the Church. He retained through life

an interest in classical studies, but it was the mythology of the classics

which fascinated him. He went into residence as a scholar at Exeter

College, Oxford, in January 1853. On the same day William Morris entered

the same college, having also the intention of taking orders. The two were

thrown together, and grew close friends. Their similar tastes and

enthusiasms were [v.04 p.0849] mutually stimulated. Burne-Jones resumed his

early love of drawing and designing. With Morris he read _Modern Painters_

and the _Morte d'Arthur_. He studied the Italian pictures in the University

galleries, and Dürer's engravings; but his keenest enthusiasm was kindled

by the sight of two works by a living man, Rossetti. One of these was a

woodcut in Allingham's poems, "The Maids of Elfinmere"; the other was the

water-colour "Dante drawing an Angel," then belonging to Mr Coombe, of the

Clarendon Press, and now in the University collection. Having found his

true vocation, Burne-Jones, like his friend Morris, determined to

relinquish his thoughts of the Church and to become an artist. Rossetti,

although not yet seen by him, was his chosen master; and early in 1856 he

had the happiness, in London, of meeting him. At Easter he left college

without taking a degree. This was his own decision, not due (as often

stated) to Rossetti's persuasion; but on settling in London, where Morris

soon joined him at 17 Red Lion Square, he began to work under Rossetti's

friendly instruction and encouraging guidance.

As Burne-Jones once said, he "found himself at five-and-twenty what he

ought to have been at fifteen." He had had no regular training as a

draughtsman, and lacked the confidence of science. But his extraordinary

faculty of invention as a designer was already ripening; his mind, rich in

knowledge of classical story and medieval romance, teemed with pictorial

subjects; and he set himself to complete his equipment by resolute labour,

witnessed by innumerable drawings. The works of this first period are all

more or less tinged by the influence of Rossetti; but they are already

differentiated from the elder master's style by their more facile though

less intensely felt elaboration of imaginative detail. Many are pen-and-ink

drawings on vellum, exquisitely finished, of which the "Waxen Image" is one

of the earliest and best examples; it is dated 1856. Although subject,

medium and manner derive from Rossetti's inspiration, it is not the hand of

a pupil merely, but of a potential master. This was recognized by Rossetti

himself, who before long avowed that he had nothing more to teach him.

Burne-Jones's first sketch in oils dates from this same year, 1856; and

during 1857 he made for Bradfield College the first of what was to be an

immense series of cartoons for stained glass. In 1858 he decorated a

cabinet with the "Prioress's Tale" from Chaucer, his first direct

illustration of the work of a poet whom he especially loved and who

inspired him with endless subjects. Thus early, therefore, we see the

artist busy in all the various fields in which he was to labour.

In the autumn of 1857 Burne-Jones joined in Rossetti's ill-fated scheme to

decorate theh walls of the Oxford Union. None of the painters had mastered

the technique of fresco, and their pictures had begun to peel from the

walls before they were completed. In 1859 Burne-Jones made his first

journey to Italy. He saw Florence, Pisa, Siena, Venice and other places,

and appears to have found the gentle and romantic Sienese more attractive

than any other school. Rossetti's influence still persisted; and its

impress is visible, more strongly perhaps than ever before, in the two

water-colours "Sidonia von Bork" and "Clara von Bork," painted in 1860.

These little masterpieces have a directness of execution rare with the

artist. In powerful characterization, combined with a decorative motive,

they rival Rossetti at his best. In June of this year Burne-Jones was

married to Miss Georgiana Macdonald, two of whose sisters were the wives of

Sir E. Poynter and Mr J.L. Kipling, and they settled in Bloomsbury. Five

years later he moved to Kensington Square, and shortly afterwards to the

Grange, Fulham, an old house with a garden, where he resided till his

death. In 1862 the artist and his wife accompanied Ruskin to Italy,

visiting Milan and Venice.

In 1864 he was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in

Water-Colours, and exhibited, among other works, "The Merciful Knight," the

first picture which fully revealed his ripened personality as an artist.

The next six years saw a series of fine water-colours at the same gallery;

but in 1870, owing to a misunderstanding, Burne-Jones resigned his

membership of the society. He was re-elected in 1886. During the next seven

years, 1870-1877, only two works of the painter's were exhibited. These

were two water-colours, shown at the Dudley Gallery in 1873, one of them

being the beautiful "Love among the Ruins," destroyed twenty years later by

a cleaner who supposed it to be an oil painting, but afterwards reproduced

in oils by the painter. This silent period was, however, one of unremitting

production. Hitherto Burne-Jones had worked almost entirely in

water-colours. He now began a number of large pictures in oils, working at

them in turn, and having always several on hand. The "Briar Rose" series,

"Laus Veneris," the "Golden Stairs," the "Pygmalion" series, and "The

Mirror of Venus" are among the works planned and completed, or carried far

towards completion, during these years. At last, in May 1877, the day of

recognition came, with the opening of the first exhibition of the Grosvenor

Gallery, when the "Days of Creation," the "Beguiling of Merlin," and the

"Mirror of Venus" were all shown. Burne-Jones followed up the signal

success of these pictures with "Laus Veneris," the "Chant d'Amour," "Pan

and Psyche," and other works, exhibited in 1878. Most of these pictures are

painted in gay and brilliant colours. A change is noticeable next year,

1879, in the "Annunciation" and in the four pictures called "Pygmalion and

the Image"; the former of these, one of the simplest and most perfect of

the artist's works, is subdued and sober; in the latter a scheme of soft

and delicate tints was attempted, not with entire success. A similar

temperance of colours marks the "Golden Stairs," first exhibited in 1880.

In 1884, following the almost sombre "Wheel of Fortune" of the preceding

year, appeared "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," in which Burne-Jones

once more indulged his love of gorgeous colour, refined by the period of

self-restraint. This masterpiece is now in the National collection. He next

turned to two important sets of pictures, "The Briar Rose" and "The Story

of Perseus," though these were not completed for some years to come. In

1886, having been elected A.R.A. the previous year, he exhibited (for the

only time) at the Royal Academy "The Depths of the Sea," a mermaid carrying

down with her a youth whom she has unconsciously drowned in the impetuosity

of her love. This picture adds to the habitual haunting charm a tragic

irony of conception and a felicity of execution which give it a place apart

among Burne-Jones's works. He resigned his Associateship in 1893. One of

the "Perseus" series was exhibited in 1887, two more in 1888, with "The

Brazen Tower," inspired by the same legend. In 1890 the four pictures of

"The Briar Rose" were exhibited by themselves, and won the widest

admiration. The huge tempera picture, "The Star of Bethlehem," painted for

the corporation of Birmingham, was exhibited in 1891. A long illness for

some time checked the painter's activity, which, when resumed, was much

occupied with decorative schemes. An exhibition of his work was held at the

New Gallery in the winter of 1892-1893. To this period belong several of

his comparatively few portraits. In 1894 Burne-Jones was made a baronet.

Ill-health again interrupted the progress of his works, chief among which

was the vast "Arthur in Avalon." In 1898 he had an attack of influenza, and

had apparently recovered, when he was again taken suddenly ill, and died on

the 17th of June. In the following winter a second exhibition of his works

was held at the New Gallery, and an exhibition of his drawings (including

some of the charmingly humorous sketches made for children) at the

Burlington Fine Arts Club.

His son and successor in the baronetcy, Sir Philip Burne-Jones (b. 1861),

also became well known as an artist. The only daughter, Margaret, married

Mr J.W. Mackail.

Burne-Jones's influence has been exercised far less in painting than in the

wide field of decorative design. Here it has been enormous. His first

designs for stained glass, 1857-1861, were made for Messrs Powell, but

after 1861 he worked exclusively for Morris & Co. Windows executed from his

cartoons are to be found all over England; others exist in churches abroad.

For the American Church in Rome he designed a number of mosaics. Reliefs in

metal, tiles, gesso-work, decorations for [v.04 p.0850] pianos and organs,

and cartoons for tapestry represent his manifold activity. In all works,

however, which were only designed and not carried out by him, a decided

loss of delicacy is to be noted. The colouring of the tapestries (of which

the "Adoration of the Magi" at Exeter College is the best-known) is more

brilliant than successful. The range and fertility of Burne-Jones as a

decorative inventor can be perhaps most conveniently studied in the

sketch-book, 1885-1895, which he bequeathed to the British Museum. The

artist's influence on book-illustration must also be recorded. In early

years he made a few drawings on wood for Dalziel's Bible and for _Good

Words_; but his later work for the Kelmscott Press, founded by Morris in

1891, is that by which he is best remembered. Besides several illustrations

to other Kelmscott books, he made eighty-seven designs for the _Chaucer_ of

1897.

Burne-Jones's aim in art is best given in some of his own words, written to

a friend: "I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something

that never was, never will be--in a light better than any light that ever

shone--in a land no one can define or remember, only desire--and the forms

divinely beautiful--and then I wake up, with the waking of Brynhild." No

artist was ever more true to his aim. Ideals resolutely pursued are apt to

provoke the resentment of the world, and Burne-Jones encountered, endured

and conquered an extraordinary amount of, angry criticism. In so far as

this was directed against the lack of realism in his pictures, it was

beside the point. The earth, the sky, the rocks, the trees, the men and

women of Burne-Jones are not those of this world; but they are themselves a

world, consistent with itself, and having therefore its own reality.

Charged with the beauty and with the strangeness of dreams, it has nothing

of a dream's incoherence. Yet it is a dreamer always whose nature

penetrates these works, a nature out of sympathy with struggle and

strenuous action. Burne-Jones's men and women are dreamers too. It was this

which, more than anything else, estranged him from the age into which he

was born. But he had an inbred "revolt from fact" which would have

estranged him from the actualities of any age. That criticism seems to be

more justified which has found in him a lack of such victorious energy and

mastery over his materials as would have enabled him to carry out his

conceptions in their original intensity. Representing the same kind of

tendency as distinguished his French contemporary, Puvis de Chavannes, he

was far less in the main current of art, and his position suffers

accordingly. Often compared with Botticelli, he had nothing of the fire and

vehemence of the Florentine. Yet, if aloof from strenuous action,

Burne-Jones was singularly strenuous in production. His industry was

inexhaustible, and needed to be, if it was to keep pace with the constant

pressure of his ideas. Invention, a very rare excellence, was his

pre-eminent gift. Whatever faults his paintings may have, they have always

the fundamental virtue of design; they are always pictures. His fame might

rest on his purely decorative work. But his designs were informed with a

mind of romantic temper, apt in the discovery of beautiful subjects, and

impassioned with a delight in pure and variegated colour. These splendid

gifts were directed in a critical and fortunate moment by the genius of

Rossetti. Hence a career which shows little waste or misdirection of power,

and, granted the aim proposed, a rare level of real success.

AUTHORITIES.--In 1904 was published _Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones_, by

his widow, two volumes of extreme interest and charm. _The Work of

Burne-Jones_, a collection of ninety-one photogravures, appeared in 1900.

See also _Catalogue to Burlington Club Exhibition of Drawings by

Burne-Jones_, with Introduction by Cosmo Monkhouse (1899); _Sir E.

Burne-Jones: a Record and a Review_, by Malcolm Belt (1898); _Sir E.

Burne-Jones, his Life and Work_, by Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady) (1894); _The

Life of William Morris_, by J.W. Mackail (1899).

(L. B.)

BURNELL, ARTHUR COKE (1840-1882), English Sanskrit scholar, was born at St

Briavels, Gloucestershire, in 1840. His father was an official of the East

India Company, and in 1860 he himself went out to Madras as a member of the

Indian civil service. Here he utilized every available opportunity to

acquire or copy Sanskrit manuscripts. In 1870 he presented his collection

of 350 MSS. to the India library. In 1874 he published a _Handbook of South

Indian Palaeography_, characterized by Max Müller as "indispensable to

every student of Indian literature," and in 1880 issued for the Madras

government his greatest work, the _Classified Index to the Sanskrit MSS. in

the Palace at Tanjore_. He was also the author of a large number of

translations from, and commentaries on, various other Sanskrit manuscripts,

being particularly successful in grouping and elucidating the essential

principles of Hindu law. In addition to his exhaustive acquaintance with

Sanskrit, and the southern India vernaculars, he had some knowledge of

Tibetan, Arabic, Kawi, Javanese and Coptic. Burnell originated with Sir

Henry Yule the well-known dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases,

_Hobson-Jobson_. His constitution, never strong, broke down prematurely

through the combined influence of overwork and the Madras climate, and he

died at West Stratton, Hampshire, on the 12th of October 1882. A further

collection of Sanskrit manuscripts was purchased from his heirs by the

India library after his death.

BURNELL, ROBERT (d. 1292), English bishop and chancellor, was born at Acton

Burnell in Shropshire, and began his public life probably as a clerk in the

royal chancery. He was soon in the service of Edward, the eldest son of

King Henry III., and was constantly in attendance on the prince, whose

complete confidence he appears to have enjoyed. Having received some

ecclesiastical preferments, he acted as one of the regents of the kingdom

from the death of Henry III. in November 1272 until August 1274, when the

new king, Edward I., returned from Palestine and made him his chancellor.

In 1275 Burnell was elected bishop of Bath and Wells, and three years later

Edward repeated the attempt which he had made in 1270 to secure the

archbishopric of Canterbury for his favourite. The bishop's second failure

to obtain this dignity was due, doubtless, to his irregular and unclerical

manner of life, a fact which also accounts, in part at least, for the

hostility which existed between his victorious rival, Archbishop Peckham,

and himself. As the chief adviser of Edward I. during the earlier part of

his reign, and moreover as a trained and able lawyer, the bishop took a

prominent part in the legislative acts of the "English Justinian," whose

activity in this direction coincides practically with Burnell's tenure of

the office of chancellor. The bishop also influenced the king's policy with

regard to France, Scotland and Wales; was frequently employed on business

of the highest moment; and was the royal mouthpiece on several important

occasions. In 1283 a council, or, as it is sometimes called, a parliament,

met in his house at Acton Burnell, and he was responsible for the

settlement of the court of chancery in London. In spite of his numerous

engagements, Burnell found time to aggrandize his bishopric, to provide

liberally for his nephews and other kinsmen, and to pursue his cherished

but futile aim of founding a great family. Licentious and avaricious, he

amassed great wealth; and when he died on the 25th of October 1292 he left

numerous estates in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Somerset, Kent, Surrey and

elsewhere. He was, however, genial and kind-hearted, a great lawyer and a

faithful minister.

See R.W. Eyton, _Antiquities of Shropshire_ (London, 1854-1860); and E.

Foss, _The Judges of England_, vol. iii. (London, 1848-1864).

BURNES, SIR ALEXANDER (1805-1841), British traveller and explorer, was born

at Montrose, Scotland, in 1805. While serving in India, in the army of the

East India Company, which he had joined in his seventeenth year, he made

himself acquainted with Hindustani and Persian, and thus obtained an

appointment as interpreter at Surat in 1822. Transferred to Cutch in 1826

as assistant to the political agent, he turned his attention more

particularly to the history and geography of north-western India and the

adjacent countries, at that time very imperfectly known. His proposal in

1829 to undertake a journey of exploration through the valley of the Indus

was not carried out owing to political apprehensions; but in 1831 he was

sent to Lahore with a present of horses from King William IV. to Maharaja

Ranjit Singh and took advantage of the opportunity for extensive

investigations. In the following years his travels were extended through

Afghanistan across the Hindu Kush to [v.04 p.0851] Bokhara and Persia. The

narrative which he published on his visit to England in 1834 added

immensely to contemporary knowledge of the countries traversed, and was one

of the most popular books of the time. The first edition brought the author

the sum of £800, and his services were recognized not only by the Royal

Geographical Society of London, but also by that of Paris. Soon after his

return to India in 1835 he was appointed to the court of Sind to secure a

treaty for the navigation of the Indus; and in 1836 he undertook a

political mission to Dost Mahommed at Kabul. He advised Lord Auckland to

support Dost Mahommed on the throne of Kabul, but the viceroy preferred to

follow the opinion of Sir William Macnaghten and reinstated Shah Shuja,

thus leading up to the disasters of the first Afghan War. On the

restoration of Shah Shuja in 1839, he became regular political agent at

Kabul, and remained there till his assassination in 1841 (on the 2nd of

November), during the heat of an insurrection. The calmness with which he

continued at his post, long after the imminence of his danger was apparent,

gives an heroic colouring to the close of an honourable and devoted life.

It came to light in 1861 that some of Burnes' despatches from Kabul in 1839

had been altered, so as to convey opinions opposite to his, but Lord

Palmerston refused after such a lapse of time to grant the inquiry demanded

in the House of Commons. A narrative of his later labours was published in

1842 under the title of _Cabool_.

See Sir J.W. Kaye, _Lives of Indian Officers_ (1889).

BURNET, GILBERT (1643-1715), English bishop and historian, was born in

Edinburgh on the 18th of September 1643, of an ancient and distinguished

Scottish house. He was the youngest son of Robert Burnet (1592-1661), who

at the Restoration became a lord of session with the title of Lord Crimond.

Robert Burnet had refused to sign the Scottish Covenant, although the

document was drawn up by his brother-in-law, Archibald Johnstone, Lord

Warristoun. He therefore found it necessary to retire from his profession,

and twice went into exile. He disapproved of the rising of the Scots, but

was none the less a severe critic of the government of Charles I. and of

the action of the Scottish bishops. This moderate attitude he impressed on

his son Gilbert, whose early education he directed. The boy entered

Marischal College at the age of nine, and five years later graduated M.A.

He then spent a year in the study of feudal and civil law before he

resolved to devote himself to theology. He became a probationer for the

Scottish ministry in 1661 just before episcopal government was

re-established in Scotland. His decision to accept episcopal orders led to

difficulties with his family, especially with his mother, who held rigid

Presbyterian views. From this time dates his friendship with Robert

Leighton (1611-1684), who greatly influenced his religious opinions.

Leighton had, during a stay in the Spanish Netherlands, assimilated

something of the ascetic and pietistic spirit of Jansenism, and was devoted

to the interests of peace in the church. Burnet wisely refused to accept a

benefice in the disturbed state of church affairs, but he wrote an

audacious letter to Archbishop Sharp asking him to take measures to restore

peace. Sharp sent for Burnet, and dismissed his advice without apparent

resentment. He had already made valuable acquaintances in Edinburgh, and he

now visited London, Oxford and Cambridge, and, after a short visit to

Edinburgh in 1663, when he sought to secure a reprieve for his uncle

Warristoun, he proceeded to travel in France and Holland. At Cambridge he

was strongly influenced by the philosophical views of Ralph Cudworth and

Henry More, who proposed an unusual degree of toleration within the

boundaries of the church and the limitations imposed by its liturgy and

episcopal government; and his intercourse in Holland with foreign divines

of different Protestant sects further encouraged his tendency to

latitudinarianism.

When he returned to England in 1664 he established intimate relations with

Sir Robert Moray and with John Maitland, earl and afterwards first duke of

Lauderdale, both of whom at that time advocated a tolerant policy towards

the Scottish covenanters. Burnet became a member of the Royal Society, of

which Moray was the first president. On his father's death he had been

offered a living by a relative, Sir Alexander Burnet, and in 1663 the

living of Saltoun, East Lothian, had been kept open for him by one of his

father's friends. He was not formally inducted at Saltoun until June 1665,

although he had served there since October 1664. For the next five years he

devoted himself to his parish, where he won the respect of all parties. In

1666 he alienated the Scottish bishops by a bold memorial (printed in vol.

ii. of the _Miscellanies_ of the Scottish Historical Society), in which he

pointed out that they were departing from the custom of the primitive

church by their excessive pretensions, and yet his attitude was far too

moderate to please the Presbyterians. In 1669 he resigned his parish to

become professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, and in the same

year he published an exposition of his ecclesiastical views in his _Modest

and Free Conference between a Conformist and a Nonconformist_ (by "a lover

of peace"). He was Leighton's right hand in the efforts at a compromise

between the episcopal and the presbyterian principle. Meanwhile he had

begun to differ from Lauderdale, whose policy after the failure of the

scheme of "Accommodation" moved in the direction of absolutism and

repression, and during Lauderdale's visit to Scotland in 1672 the

divergence rapidly developed into opposition. He warily refused the offer

of a Scottish bishopric, and published in 1673 his four "conferences,"

entitled _Vindication of the Authority, Constitution and Laws of the Church

and State of Scotland_, in which he insisted on the duty of passive

obedience. It was partly through the influence of Anne (d. 1716), duchess

of Hamilton in her own right, that he had been appointed at Glasgow, and he

made common cause with the Hamiltons against Lauderdale. The duchess had

made over to him the papers of her father and uncle, from which he compiled

the _Memoirs of the Lives and Actions of James and William, dukes of

Hamilton and Castleherald. In which an Account is given of the Rise and

Progress of the Civil Wars of Scotland ... together with many letters ...

written by King Charles I._ (London, 1677; Univ. Press, Oxford, 1852), a

book which was published as the second volume of a _History of the Church

of Scotland_, Spottiswoode's _History_ forming the first. This work

established his reputation as an historian. Meanwhile he had clandestinely

married in 1671 a cousin of Lauderdale, Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of

John Kennedy, 6th earl of Cassilis, a lady who had already taken an active

part in affairs in Scotland, and was eighteen years older than Burnet. The

marriage was kept secret for three years, and Burnet renounced all claim to

his wife's fortune.

Lauderdale's ascendancy in Scotland and the failure of the attempts at

compromise in Scottish church affairs eventually led Burnet to settle in

England. He was favourably received by Charles II. in 1673, when he went up

to London to arrange for the publication of the Hamilton _Memoirs_, and he

was treated with confidence by the duke of York. On his return to Scotland

Lauderdale refused to receive him, and denounced him to Charles II. as one

of the chief centres of Scottish discontent. Burnet found it wiser to

retire to England on the plea of fulfilling his duties as royal chaplain.

Once in London he resigned his professorship (September 1674) at Glasgow;

but, although James remained his friend, Charles struck him off the roll of

court chaplains in 1674, and it was in opposition to court influence that

he was made chaplain to the Rolls Chapel by the master, Sir Harbottle

Grimston, and appointed lecturer at St Clement's. He was summoned in April

1675 before a committee of the House of Commons to give evidence against

Lauderdale, and disclosed, without reluctance according to his enemies,

confidences which had passed between him and the minister. He himself

confesses in his autobiography that "it was a great error in me to appear

in this matter," and his conduct cost him the patronage of the duke of

York. In ecclesiastical matters he threw in his lot with Thomas Tillotson

and John Tenison, and at the time of the Revolution had written some

eighteen polemics against encroachments of the Roman Catholic Church. At

the suggestion of Sir William Jones, the attorney-general, he began his

_History of the Reformation in England_, based on original documents. [v.04

p.0852] In the necessary research he received some pecuniary help from

Robert Boyle, but he was hindered in the preparation of the first part

(1679) through being refused access to the Cotton library, possibly by the

influence of Lauderdale. For this volume he received the thanks of

parliament, and the second and third volumes appeared in 1681 and 1715. In

this work he undertook to refute the statements of Nicholas Sanders, whose

_De Origine et progressu schismatis Anglicani libri tres_ (Cologne, 1585)

was still, in the French translation of Maucroix, the commonly accepted

account of the English reformation. Burnet's contradictions of Sanders must

not, however, be accepted without independent investigation. At the time of

the Popish Plot in 1678 he displayed some moderation, refusing to believe

the charges made against the duke of York, though he chose this time to

publish some anti-Roman pamphlets. He tried, at some risk to himself, to

save the life of one of the victims, William Staly, and visited William

Howard, Viscount Stafford, in the Tower. To the Exclusion Bill he opposed a

suggestion of compromise, and it is said that Charles offered him the

bishopric of Chichester, "if he would come entirely into his interests."

Burnet's reconciliation with the court was short-lived. In January 1680 he

addressed to the king a long letter on the subject of his sins; he was

known to have received the dangerous confidence of Wilmot, earl of

Rochester, in his last illness; and he was even suspected, unjustly, in

1683, of having composed the paper drawn up on the eve of death by William

Russell, Lord Russell, whom he attended to the scaffold. On the 5th of

November 1684 he preached, at the express wish of his patron Grimston, and

against his own desire, the usual anti-Catholic sermon. He was consequently

deprived of his appointments by order of the court, and on the accession of

James II. retired to Paris. He had already begun the writing of his

memoirs, which were to develop into the _History of His Own Time_.

Burnet now travelled in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, finally settling in

Holland at the Hague, where he won from the princess of Orange a confidence

which proved enduring. He rendered a signal service to William by inducing

the princess to offer to leave the whole political power in her husband's

hands in the event of their succession to the English crown. A prosecution

against him for high treason was now set on foot both in England and in

Scotland, and he took the precaution of naturalizing himself as a Dutch

subject. Lady Margaret Burnet was dying when he left England, and n Holland

he married a Dutch heiress of Scottish descent, Mary Scott. He returned to

England with William and Mary, and drew up the English text of their

declaration. His earlier views on the doctrine of non-resistance had been

sensibly modified by what he saw in France after the revocation of the

edict of Nantes and by the course of affairs at home, and in 1688 he

published an _Inquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme

Authority_ in defence of the revolution. He was consecrated to the see of

Salisbury on the 31st of March 1689 by a commission of bishops to whom

Archbishop Sancroft had delegated his authority, declining personally to

perform the office. In his pastoral letter to his clergy urging them to

take the oath of allegiance, Burnet grounded the claim of William and Mary

on the right of conquest, a view which gave such offence that the pamphlet

was burnt by the common hangman three years later. As bishop he proved an

excellent administrator, and gave the closest attention to his pastoral

duties. He discouraged plurality of livings, and consequent non-residence,

established a school of divinity as Salisbury, and spent much time himself

in preparing candidates for confirmation, and in the examination of those

who wished to enter the priesthood. Four discourses delivered to the clergy

of his diocese were printed in 1694. During Queen Mary's lifetime

ecclesiastical patronage passed through her hands, but after her death

William III. appointed an ecclesiastical commission on which Burnet was a

prominent member, for the disposal of vacant benefices. In 1696 and 1697 he

presented memorials to the king suggesting that the first-fruits and tenths

raised by the clergy should be devoted to the augmentation of the poorer

livings, and though his suggestions were not immediately accepted, they

were carried into effect under Queen Anne by the provision known as Queen

Anne's Bounty. His second wife died of smallpox in 1698, and in 1700 Burnet

married again, his third wife being Elizabeth (1661-1709), widow of Robert

Berkeley and daughter of Sir Richard Blake, a rich and charitable woman,

known by her _Method of Devotion_, posthumously published in 1710. In 1699

he was appointed tutor to the royal duke of Gloucester, son of the Princess

Anne, an appointment which he accepted somewhat against his will. His

influence at court had declined after the death of Queen Mary; William

resented his often officious advice, placed little confidence in his

discretion, and soon after his accession is even said to have described him

as _ein rechter Tartuffe_. Burnet made a weighty speech against the bill

(1702-1703) directed against the practice of occasional conformity, and was

a consistent exponent of Broad Church principles. He devoted five years'

labour to his _Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles_ (1699; ed. J.R.

Page, 1837), which was severely criticized by the High Church clergy. But

his hopes for a comprehensive scheme which might include nonconformists in

the English Church were necessarily destroyed on the accession of Queen

Anne. He died on the 17th of March 1715, and was buried in the parish of St

James's, Clerkenwell.

Burnet directed in his will that his most important work, the _History of

His Own Time_, should appear six years after his death. It was published (2

vols., 1724-1734) by his sons, Gilbert and Thomas, and then not without

omissions. It was attacked in 1724 by John Cockburn in _A Specimen of some

free and impartial Remarks_. Burnet's book naturally aroused much

opposition, and there were persistent rumours that the MS. had been unduly

tampered with. He has been freely charged with gross misrepresentation, an

accusation to which he laid himself open, for instance, in the account of

the birth of James, the Old Pretender. His later intimacy with the

Marlboroughs made him very lenient where the duke was concerned. The

greatest value of his work naturally lies in his account of transactions of

which he had personal knowledge, notably in his relation of the church

history of Scotland, of the Popish Plot, of the proceedings at the Hague

previous to the expedition of William and Mary, and of the personal

relations between the joint sovereigns.

Of his children by his second wife, William (d. 1729) became a colonial

governor in America; Gilbert (d. 1726) became prebendary of Salisbury in

1715, and chaplain to George I. in 1718; and Sir Thomas (1694-1753), his

literary executor and biographer, became in 1741 judge in the court of

common pleas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The chief authorities for Bishop Burnet's life are the

autobiography "Rough Draft of my own Life" (ed. H.C. Foxcroft, Oxford,

1902, in the _Supplement to Burnet's History_), the Life by Sir Thomas

Burnet in the _History of His Own Time_ (Oxford, 1823, vol. vi.), and the

_History_ itself. A rather severe but detailed and useful criticism is

given in L. v. Ranke's _History of England_ (Eng. ed., Oxford, 1875), vol.

vi. pp. 45-101. Burnet's letters to his friend, George Savile, marquess of

Halifax, were published by the Royal Historical Society (_Camden

Miscellany_, vol. xi.). The _History of His Own Time_ (2 vols. fol.,

1724-1734) ran through many editions before it was reprinted at the

Clarendon Press (6 vols., 1823, and supplementary volume, 1833) with the

suppressed passages of the first volume and notes by the earls of Dartmouth

and Hardwicke, with the remarks of Swift. This edition, under the direction

of M.J. Routh, was enlarged in a second Oxford edition of 1833. A new

edition, based on this, but making use of the Bodleian MS., which differs

very considerably from the printed version, was edited by Osmund Airy

(Oxford, 1897, &c.). In 1902 (Clarendon Press, Oxford) Miss H.C. Foxcroft

edited _A Supplement to Burnet's History of His Own Time_, to which is

prefixed an account of the relation between the different versions of the

History--the Bodleian MS., the fragmentary Harleian MS. in the British

Museum and Sir Thomas Burnet's edition; the book contains the remaining

fragments of Burnet's original memoirs, his autobiography, his letters to

Admiral Herbert and his private meditations. The chief differences between

Burnet's original draft as represented by the Bodleian MS. and the printed

history consist in a more lenient view generally of individuals, a

modification of the censure levelled at the Anglican clergy, changes

obviously dictated by a general variation in his point of view, and a more

cautious account of personal matters such as his early relations with

Lauderdale. He also cut out much minor detail, and information relating to

himself and to members of his family. His [v.04 p.0853] _History of the

Reformation of the Church of England_ was edited (Clarendon Press, Oxford,

7 vols., 1865) by N. Pocock.

Besides the works mentioned above may be noticed: _Some Passages of the

Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester_ (Lond., 1680; facsimile reprint,

with introduction by Lord Ronald Gower, 1875); _The Life and Death of Sir

Matthew Hale, Kt., sometime Lord Chief-Justice of his Majesties Court of

Kings Bench_ (Lond., 1682), which is included in C. Wordsworth's

_Ecclesiastical Biography_ (vol. vi., 1818); _The History of the Rights of

Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands_ (Lond.,

1682, 8vo); _The Life of William Bedell, D.D., Bishop of Kilmore in

Ireland_ (1685), containing the correspondence between Bedell and James

Waddesdon of the Holy Inquisition on the subject of the Roman obedience;

_Reflections on Mr Varillas's "History of the Revolutions that have

happened in Europe in matters of Religion," and more particularly on his

Ninth Book, that relates to England_ (Amst., 1686), appended to the account

of his travels entitled _Some Letters_, which was originally published at

Rotterdam (1686); _A Discourse of the Pastoral Care_ (1692, 14th ed.,

1821); _An Essay on the Memory of the late Queen_ (1695); _A Collection of

various Tracts and Discourses written in the Years 1677 to 1704_ (3 vols.,

1704); and _A Collection of Speeches, Prefaces, Letters, with a Description

of Geneva and Holland_ (1713). Of his shorter religious and polemical works

a catalogue is given in vol. vi. of the Clarendon Press edition of his

_History_, and in Lowndes's _Bibliographer's Manual_. The following

translations deserve to be mentioned:--_Utopia, written in Latin by Sir

Thomas More, Chancellor of England: translated into English_ (1685); _A

Relation of the Death of the Primitive Persecutors, written originally in

Latin, by L.C.F. Lactantius: Englished by Gilbert Burnet, D.D., to which he

hath made a large preface concerning Persecution_ (Amst., 1687).

See also _A Life of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury_ (1907), by T.E.S.

Clarke and H.C. Foxcroft, with an introduction by C.H. Firth, which

contains a chronological list of Burnet's published works. Of Burnet's

personal character there are well-known descriptions in chapter vii. of

Macaulay's _History of England_, and in W.E.H. Lecky's _History of England

in the Eighteenth Century_, vol. i. pp. 80 seq.

BURNET, THOMAS (1635-1715), English divine, was born at Croft in Yorkshire

about the year 1635. He was educated at Northallerton, and at Clare Hall,

Cambridge. In 1657 he was made fellow of Christ's, and in 1667 senior

proctor of the university. By the interest of James, duke of Ormonde, he

was chosen master of the Charterhouse in 1685, and took the degree of D.D.

As master he made a noble stand against the illegal attempts to admit

Andrew Popham as a pensioner of the house, strenuously opposing an order of

the 26th of December 1686, addressed by James II. to the governors

dispensing with the statutes for the occasion.

Burnet published his famous _Telluris Theoria Sacra_, or _Sacred Theory of

the Earth_,[1] at London in 1681. This work, containing a fanciful theory

of the earth's structure,[2] attracted much attention, and he was

afterwards encouraged to issue an English translation, which was printed in

folio, 1684-1689. Addison commended the author in a Latin ode, but his

theory was attacked by John Keill, William Whiston and Erasmus Warren, to

all of whom he returned answers. His reputation obtained for him an

introduction at court by Archbishop Tillotson, whom he succeeded as clerk

of the closet to King William. But he suddenly marred his prospects by the

publication, in 1692, of a work entitled _Archaeologiae Philosophicae: sive

Doctrina antiqua de Rerum Originibus_, in which he treated the Mosaic

account of the fall of man as an allegory. This excited a great clamour

against him; and the king was obliged to remove him from his office at

court. Of this book an English translation was published in 1729. Burnet

published several other minor works before his death, which took place at

the Charterhouse on the 27th September 1715. Two posthumous works appeared

several years after his death--_De Fide et Officiis Christianorum_ (1723),

and _De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium Tractatus_ (1723); in which he

maintained the doctrine of a middle state, the millennium, and the limited

duration of future punishment. A _Life of Dr Burnet_, by Heathcote,

appeared in 1759.

[1] "Which," says Samuel Johnson, "the critick ought to read for its

elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety"

(_Lives of English Poets_, vol. i. p. 303).

[2] Burnet held that at the deluge the earth was crushed like an egg, the

internal waters rushing out, and the fragments of shell becoming the

mountains.

BURNET, known botanically as _Poterium_, a member of the rose family. The

plants are perennial herbs with pinnate leaves and small flowers arranged

in dense long-stalked heads. Great burnet (_Poterium officinale_) is found

in damp meadows; salad burnet (_P. Sanguisorba_) is a smaller plant with

much smaller flower-heads growing in dry pastures.

BURNETT, FRANCES ELIZA HODGSON (1849- ), Anglo-American novelist, whose

maiden name was Hodgson, was born in Manchester, England, on the 24th of

November 1849; she went to America with her parents, who settled in

Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1865. Miss Hodgson soon began to write stories for

magazines. In 1873 she married Dr L.M. Burnett of Washington, whom she

afterwards (1898) divorced. Her reputation as a novelist was made by her

remarkable tale of Lancashire life, _That Lass o' Lowrie's_ (1877), and a

number of other volumes followed, of which the best were _Through one

Administration_ (1883) and _A Lady of Quality_ (1896). In 1886 she attained

a new popularity by her charming story of _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, and

this led to other stories of child-life. _Little Lord Fauntleroy_ was

dramatized (see COPYRIGHT for the legal questions involved) and had a great

success on the stage; and other dramas by her were also produced. In 1900

she married a second time, her husband being Mr Stephen Townesend, a

surgeon, who (as Will Dennis) had taken to the stage and had collaborated

with her in some of her plays.

BURNEY, CHARLES (1726-1814), English musical historian, was born at

Shrewsbury on the 12th of April 1726. He received his earlier education at

the free school of that city, and was afterwards sent to the public school

at Chester. His first music master was Edmund Baker, organist of Chester

cathedral, and a pupil of Dr John Blow. Returning to Shrewsbury when about

fifteen years old, he continued his musical studies for three years under

his half-brother, James Burney, organist of St Mary's church, and was then

sent to London as a pupil of the celebrated Dr Arne, with whom he remained

three years. Burney wrote some music for Thomson's _Alfred_, which was

produced at Drury Lane theatre on the 30th of March 1745. In 1749 he was

appointed organist of St Dionis-Backchurch, Fenchurch Street, with a salary

of £30 a year; and he was also engaged to take the harpsichord in the "New

Concerts" then recently established at the King's Arms, Cornhill. In that

year he married Miss Esther Sleepe, who died in 1761; in 1769 he married

Mrs Stephen Allen of Lynn. Being threatened with a pulmonary affection he

went in 1751 to Lynn in Norfolk, where he was elected organist, with an

annual salary of £100, and there he resided for the next nine years. During

that time he began to entertain the idea of writing a general history of

music. His _Ode for St Cecilia's Day_ was performed at Ranelagh Gardens in

1759; and in 1760 he returned to London in good health and with a young

family; the eldest child, a girl of eight years of age, surprised the

public by her attainments as a harpsichord player. The concertos for the

harpsichord which Burney published soon after his return to London were

regarded with much admiration. In 1766 he produced, at Drury Lane, a free

English version and adaptation of J.J. Rousseau's operetta _Le Devin du

village_, under the title of _The Cunning Man_. The university of Oxford

conferred upon him, on the 23rd of June 1769, the degrees of Bachelor and

Doctor of Music, on which occasion he presided at the performance of his

exercise for these degrees. This consisted of an anthem, with an overture,

solos, recitatives and choruses, accompanied by instruments, besides a

vocal anthem in eight parts, which was not performed. In 1769 he published

_An Essay towards a History of Comets_.

Amidst his various professional avocations, Burney never lost sight of his

favorite object--his _History of Music_--and therefore resolved to travel

abroad for the purpose of collecting materials that could not be found in

Great Britain. Accordingly, he left London in June 1770, furnished with

numerous letters of introduction, and proceeded to Paris, and thence to

Geneva, Turin, Milan, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples.

The results of his observations he published in _The Present State of Music

in France and Italy_ (1771). Dr Johnson [v.04 p.0854] thought so well of

this work that, alluding to his own _Journey to the Western Islands of

Scotland_, he said, "I had that clever dog Burney's Musical Tour in my

eye." In July 1772 Burney again visited the continent, to collect further

materials, and, after his return to London, published his tour under the

title of _The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands and United

Provinces_ (1773). In 1773 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In

1776 appeared the first volume (in 4to) of his long-projected _History of

Music_. In 1782 Burney published his second volume; and in 1789 the third

and fourth. Though severely criticized by Forkel in Germany and by the

Spanish ex-Jesuit, Requeno, who, in his Italian work _Saggi sul

Ristabilimento dell' Arte Armonica de' Greci e Romani Cantori_ (Parma,

1798), attacks Burney's account of the ancient Greek music, and calls him

_lo scompigliato Burney_, the _History of Music_ was generally recognized

as possessing great merit. The least satisfactory volume is the fourth, the

treatment of Handel and Bach being quite inadequate. Burney's first tour

was translated into German by Ebeling, and printed at Hamburg in 1772; and

his second tour, translated into German by Bode, was published at Hamburg

in 1773. A Dutch translation of his second tour, with notes by J.W. Lustig,

organist at Groningen, was published there in 1786. The Dissertation on the

Music of the Ancients, in the first volume of Burney's _History_, was

translated into German by J.J. Eschenburg, and printed at Leipzig, 1781.

Burney derived much aid from the first two volumes of Padre Martini's very

learned _Storia della Musica_ (Bologna, 1757-1770). One cannot but admire

his persevering industry, and his sacrifices of time, money and personal

comfort, in collecting and preparing materials for his _History_, and few

will be disposed to condemn severely errors and oversights in a work of

such extent and difficulty.

In 1774 he had written _A Plan for a Music School_. In 1779 he wrote for

the Royal Society an account of the infant Crotch, whose remarkable musical

talent excited so much attention at that time. In 1784 he published, with

an Italian title-page, the music annually performed in the pope's chapel at

Rome during Passion Week. In 1785 he published, for the benefit of the

Musical Fund, an account of the first commemoration of Handel in

Westminster Abbey in the preceding year, with an excellent life of Handel.

In 1796 he published _Memoirs and Letters of Metastasio_. Towards the close

of his life Burney was paid £1000 for contributing to Rees's _Cyclopaedia_

all the musical articles not belonging to the department of natural

philosophy and mathematics. In 1783, through the treasury influence of his

friend Edmund Burke, he was appointed organist to the chapel of Chelsea

Hospital, and he moved his residence from St Martin's Street, Leicester

Square, to live in the hospital for the remainder of his life. He was made

a member of the Institute of France, and nominated a correspondent in the

class of the fine arts, in the year 1810. From 1806 until his death he

enjoyed a pension of £300 granted by Fox. He died at Chelsea College on the

12th of April 1814, and was interred in the burying-ground of the college.

A tablet was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

Burney's portrait was painted by Reynolds, and his bust was cut by

Nollekens in 1805. He had a wide circle of acquaintance among the

distinguished artists and literary men of his day. At one time he thought

of writing a life of his friend Dr Samuel Johnson, but he retired before

the crowd of biographers who rushed into that field. His character in

private as well as in public life appears to have been very amiable and

exemplary. Dr Burney's eldest son, James, was a distinguished officer in

the royal navy, who died a rear-admiral in 1821; his second son was the

Rev. Charles Burney, D.D. (1757-1817), a well-known classical scholar,

whose splendid collection of rare books, and MSS. was ultimately bought by

the nation for the British Museum; and his second daughter was Frances

(Madame D'Arblay, _q.v._).

The _Diary and Letters_ of Madame D'Arblay contain many minute and

interesting particulars of her father's public and private life, and of his

friends and contemporaries. A life of Burney by Madame D'Arblay appeared in

1832.

Besides the operatic music above mentioned, Burney's known compositions

consist of:--(1) _Six Sonatas for the harpsichord_; (2) _Two Sonatas for

the harp or piano, with accompaniments for violin and violoncello_; (3)

_Sonatas for two violins and a bass: two sets_; (4) _Six Lessons for the

harpsichord_; (5) _Six Duets for two German flutes_; (6) _Three Concertos

for the harpsichord_; (7) _Six concert pieces with an introduction and

fugue for the organ_; (8) _Six Concertos for the violin, &c., in eight

parts_; (9) _Two Sonatas for pianoforte, violin and violoncello_; (10) _A

Cantata, &c._; (11) _Anthems, &c._; (12) _XII. Canzonetti a due voci in

Canone, poesia dell' Abate Metastasio_.

BURNHAM BEECHES, a wooded tract of 375 acres in Buckinghamshire, England,

acquired in 1879 by the Corporation of the city of London, and preserved

for public use. This tract, the remnant of an ancient forest, the more

beautiful because of the undulating character of the land, lies west of the

road between Slough and Beaconsfield, and 2 m. north of Burnham Beeches

station on the Great Western railway. The poet Thomas Gray, who stayed

frequently at Stoke Poges in the vicinity, is enthusiastic concerning the

beauty of the Beeches ina letter to Horace Walpole in 1737. Near the

township of Burnham are slight Early English remains of an abbey founded in

1265. Burnham is an urban district with a population (1901) of 3245.

BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH, an urban district in the southeastern parliamentary

division of Essex, England, 43 m. E. by N. from London on a branch of the

Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2919. The church of St Mary is

principally late Perpendicular, a good example; it has Decorated portions

and a Norman font. There are extensive oyster beds in the Crouch estuary.

Burnham lies 6 m. from the North Sea; below it the Crouch is joined on the

south side by the Roch, which branches into numerous creeks, and, together

with the main estuary, forms Foulness, Wallasea, Potton and other low, flat

islands, embanked and protected from incursions of the sea. Burnham is in

some repute as a watering-place, and is a favourite yachting station. There

is considerable trade in corn and coal, and boat-building is carried on.

BURNING TO DEATH. As a legal punishment for various crimes burning alive

was formerly very wide-spread. It was common among the Romans, being given

in the XII. Tables as the special penalty for arson. Under the Gothic codes

adulterers were so punished, and throughout the middle ages it was the

civil penalty for certain heinous crimes, _e.g._ poisoning, heresy,

witchcraft, arson, bestiality and sodomy, and so continued in some cases,

nominally at least, till the beginning of the 19th century. In England,

under the common law, women condemned for high treason or petty treason

(murder of husband, murder of master or mistress, certain offences against

the coin, &c.) were burned, this being considered more "decent" than

hanging and exposure on a gibbet. In practice the convict was strangled

before being burnt. The last woman burnt in England suffered in 1789, the

punishment being abolished in 1790.

Burning was not included among the penalties for heresy under the Roman

imperial codes; but the burning of heretics by orthodox mobs had long been

sanctioned by custom before the edicts of the emperor Frederick II. (1222,

1223) made it the civil-law punishment for heresy. His example was followed

in France by Louis IX. in the Establishments of 1270. In England, where the

civil law was never recognized, the common law took no cognizance of

ecclesiastical offences, and the church courts had no power to condemn to

death. There were, indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries isolated

instances of the burning of heretics. William of Newburgh describes the

burning of certain foreign sectaries in 1169, and early in the 13th century

a deacon was burnt by order of the council of Oxford (Foxe ii. 374; cf.

Bracton, _de Corona_, ii. 300), but by what legal sanction is not obvious.

The right of the crown to issue writs _de haeretico comburendo_, claimed

for it by later jurists, was based on that issued by Henry IV. in 1400 for

the burning of William Sawtre; but Sir James Stephen (_Hist. Crim. Law_)

points out that this was issued "with the assent of the lords temporal,"

which seems to prove that the crown had no right under the common law to

issue such writs. The burning of heretics was actually made legal in

England by the statute _de haeretico comburendo_ (1400), passed ten days

after the issue of the above writ. This was repealed in 1533, but the Six

Articles Act of 1539 revived burning as a penalty [v.04 p.0855] for denying

transubstantiation. Under Queen Mary the acts of Henry IV. and Henry V.

were revived; they were finally abolished in 1558 on the accession of

Elizabeth. Edward VI., Elizabeth and James I., however, burned heretics

(illegally as it would appear) under their supposed right of issuing writs

for this purpose. The last heretics burnt in England were two Arians,

Bartholomew Legate at Smithfield, and Edward Wightman at Lichfield, both in

1610. As for witches, countless numbers were burned in most European

countries, though not in England, where they were hanged. In Scotland in

Charles II.'s day the law still was that witches were to be "worried at the

stake and then burnt"; and a witch was burnt at Dornoch so late as 1708.

BURNLEY, a market town and municipal, county and parliamentary borough of

Lancashire, England, at the junction of the rivers Brun and Calder, 213 m.

N.N.W. of London and 29 m. N. of Manchester, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire

railway and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Pop. (1891) 87,016; (1901) 97,043.

The church of St Peter dates from the 14th century, but is largely

modernized; among a series of memorials of the Towneley family is one to

Charles Towneley (d. 1805), who collected the series of antique marbles,

terra-cottas, bronzes, coins and gems which are named after him and

preserved in the British Museum. In 1902 Towneley Hall and Park were

acquired by the corporation, the mansion being adapted to use as a museum

and art gallery, and in 1903 a summer exhibition was held here. There are a

large number of modern churches and chapels, a handsome town-hall, market

hall, museum and art gallery, school of science, municipal technical

school, various benevolent institutions, and pleasant public parks and

recreation grounds. The principal industries are cotton-weaving,

worsted-making, iron-founding, coal-mining, quarrying, brick-burning and

the making of sanitary wares. It has been suggested that Burnley may

coincide with Brunanburh, the battlefield on which the Saxons conquered the

Dano-Celtic force in 937. During the cotton famine consequent upon the

American war of 1861-65 it suffered severely, and the operatives were

employed on relief works embracing an extensive system of improvements. The

parliamentary borough (1867), which returns one member, falls within the

Clitheroe division of the county. The county borough was created in 1888.

The town was incorporated in 1861. The corporation consists of a mayor, 12

aldermen and 36 councillors. By act of parliament in 1890 Burnley was

created a suffragan bishopric of the diocese of Manchester. Area of the

municipal borough, 4005 acres.

BURNOUF, EUGÈNE (1801-1852), French orientalist, was born in Paris on the

8th of April 1801. His father, Prof. Jean Louis Burnouf (1775-1844), was a

classical scholar of high reputation, and the author, among other works, of

an excellent translation of Tacitus (6 vols., 1827-1833). Eugene Burnouf

published in 1826 an _Essai sur le Pâli ..._, written in collaboration with

Christian Lassen; and in the following year _Observations grammaticales sur

quelques passages de l'essai sur le Pâli_. The next great work he undertook

was the deciphering of the Zend manuscripts brought to France by Anquetil

du Perron. By his labours a knowledge of the Zend language was first

brought into the scientific world of Europe. He caused the _Vendidad Sade_,

part of one of the books bearing the name of Zoroaster, to be lithographed

with the utmost care from the Zend MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and

published it in folio parts, 1829-1843. From 1833 to 1835 he published his

_Commentaire sur le Yaçna, l'un des livres liturgiques des Parses_; he also

published the Sanskrit text and French translation of the _Bhâgavata Purâna

ou histoire poétique de Krichna_ in three folio volumes (1840-1847). His

last works were _Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien_ (1844),

and a translation of _Le lotus de la bonne loi_ (1852). Burnouf died on the

28th of May 1852. He had been for twenty years a member of the Académie des

Inscriptions and professor of Sanskrit in the Collège de France.

See a notice of Burnouf's works by Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, prefixed to

the second edition (1876) of the _Introd. à l'histoire du Bouddhisme

indien_; also Naudet, "Notice historique sur M.M. Burnouf, père et fils,"

in _Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions_, xx. A list of his valuable

contributions to the _Journal asiatique_, and of his MS. writings, is given

in the appendix to the _Choix de lettres d'Eugène Burnouf_ (1891).

BURNOUS (from the Arab. _burnus_), a long cloak of coarse woollen stuff

with a hood, usually white in colour, worn by the Arabs and Berbers

throughout North Africa.

BURNS, SIR GEORGE, Bart. (1795-1890), English shipowner, was born in

Glasgow on the 10th of December 1795, the son of the Rev. John Burns. In

partnership with a brother, James, he began as a Glasgow general merchant

about 1818, and in 1824 in conjunction with a Liverpool partner, Hugh

Matthie, started a line of small sailing ships which ran between Glasgow

and Liverpool. As business increased the vessels were also sailed to

Belfast, and steamers afterwards replaced the sailing ships. In 1830 a

partnership was entered into with the McIvers of Liverpool, in which George

Burns devoted himself specially to the management of the ships. In 1838

with Samuel Cunard, Robert Napier and other capitalists, the partners

(McIver and Burns) started the "Cunard" Atlantic line of steamships. They

secured the British government's contract for the carrying of the mails to

North America. The sailings were begun with four steamers of about 1000

tons each, which made the passage in 15 days at some 8½ knots per hour.

George Burns retired from the Glasgow management of the line in 1860. He

was made a baronet in 1889, but died on the 2nd of June 1890 at Castle

Wemyss, where he had spent the latter years of his life.

John Burns (1829-1901), his eldest son, who succeeded him in the baronetcy,

and became head of the Cunard Company, was created a peer, under the title

of Baron Inverclyde, in 1897; he was the first to suggest to the government

the use of merchant vessels for war purposes. George Arbuthnot Burns

(1861-1905) succeeded his father in the peerage, as 2nd baron Inverclyde,

and became chairman of the Cunard Company in 1902. He conducted the

negotiations which resulted in the refusal of the Cunard Company to enter

the shipping combination, the International Mercantile Marine Company,

formed by Messrs J.P. Morgan & Co., and took a leading part in the

application of turbine engines to ocean liners.

BURNS, JOHN (1858- ), English politician, was born at Vauxhall, London, in

October 1858, the second son of Alexander Burns, an engineer, of Ayrshire

extraction. He attended a national school in Battersea until he was ten

years old, when he was sent to work in Price's candle factory. He worked

for a short time as a page-boy, then in some engine works, and at fourteen

was apprenticed for seven years to a Millbank engineer. He continued his

education at the night-schools, and read extensively, especially the works

of Robert Owen, J.S. Mill, Paine and Cobbett. He ascribed his conversion to

the principles of socialism to his sense of the insufficiency of the

arguments advanced against it by J.S. Mill, but he had learnt socialistic

doctrine from a French fellow-workman, Victor Delahaye, who had witnessed

the Commune. After working at his trade in various parts of England, and on

board ship, he went for a year to the West African coast at the mouth of

the Niger as a foreman engineer. His earnings from this undertaking were

expended on a six months' tour in France, Germany and Austria for the study

of political and economic conditions. He had early begun the practice of

outdoor speaking, and his exceptional physical strength and strong voice

were invaluable qualifications for a popular agitator. In 1878 he was

arrested and locked up for the night for addressing an open-air

demonstration on Clapham Common. Two years later he married Charlotte Gale,

the daughter of a Battersea shipwright. He was again arrested in 1886 for

his share in the West End riots when the windows of the Carlton and other

London clubs were broken, but cleared himself at the Old Bailey of the

charge of inciting the mob to violence. In November of the next year,

however, he was again arrested for resisting the police in their attempt to

break up the meeting in Trafalgar Square, and was condemned to six weeks'

imprisonment. A speech delivered by him at the Industrial Remuneration

Conference of 1884 had attracted considerable attention, and in that year

he became a member of the Social Democratic Federation, which put him

forward [v.04 p.0856] unsuccessfully in the next year as parliamentary

candidate for West Nottingham. His connexion with the Social Democratic

Federation was short-lived; but he was an active member of the executive of

the Amalgamated Engineers' trade union, and was connected with the trades

union congresses until 1895, when, through his influence, a resolution

excluding all except wage labourers was passed. He was still working at his

trade in Hoe's printing machine works when he became a Progressive member

of the first London County Council, being supported by an allowance of £2 a

week subscribed by his constituents, the Battersea working men. He

introduced in 1892 a motion that all contracts for the County Council

should be paid at trade union rates and carried out under trade union

conditions, and devoted his efforts in general to a war against monopolies,

except those of the state or the municipality. In the same year (1889) in

which he became a member of the County Council, he acted with Mr Ben

Tillett as the chief leader and organizer of the London dock strike. He

entered the House of Commons as member for Battersea in 1892, and was

re-elected in 1895, 1900 and 1906. In parliament he became well known as an

independent Radical, and he was included in the Liberal cabinet by Sir

Henry Campbell-Bannerman in December 1905 as president of the Local

Government Board. During the next two years, though much out of favour with

his former socialist allies, he earned golden opinions for his

administrative policy, and for his refusal to adopt the visionary proposals

put forward by the more extreme members of the Labour party for dealing

with the "unemployed" question; and in 1908 he retained his office in Mr

Asquith's cabinet.

BURNS, ROBERT (1759-1796), Scottish poet, was born on the 25th of January

1759 in a cottage about 2 m. from Ayr. He was the eldest son of a small

farmer, William Burness, of Kincardineshire stock, who wrought hard,

practised integrity, wished to bring up his children in the fear of God,

but had to fight all his days against the winds and tides of adversity.

"The poet," said Thomas Carlyle, "was fortunate in his father--a man of

thoughtful intense character, as the best of our peasants are, valuing

knowledge, possessing some and open-minded for more, of keen insight and

devout heart, friendly and fearless: a fully unfolded man seldom found in

any rank in society, and worth descending far in society to seek. ... Had

he been ever so little richer, the whole might have issued otherwise. But

poverty sunk the whole family even below the reach of our cheap school

system, and Burns remained a hard-worked plough-boy."

Through a series of migrations from one unfortunate farm to another; from

Alloway (where he was taught to read) to Mt. Oliphant, and then (1777) to

Lochlea in Tarbolton (where he learnt the rudiments of geometry), the poet

remained in the same condition of straitened circumstances. At the age of

thirteen he thrashed the corn with his own hands, at fifteen he was the

principal labourer. The family kept no servant, and for several years

butchers' meat was a thing unknown in the house. "This kind of life," he

writes, "the cheerless gloom of a hermit and the unceasing toil of a

galley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth year." His naturally robust frame

was overtasked, and his nervous constitution received a fatal strain. His

shoulders were bowed, he became liable to headaches, palpitations and fits

of depressing melancholy. From these hard tasks and his fiery temperament,

craving in vain for sympathy in a frigid air, grew the strong temptations

on which Burns was largely wrecked,--the thirst for stimulants and the

revolt against restraint which soon made headway and passed all bars. In

the earlier portions of his career a buoyant humour bore him up; and amid

thick-coming shapes of ill he bated no jot of heart or hope. He was cheered

by vague stirrings of ambition, which he pathetically compares to the

"blind groping of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave." Sent to

school at Kirkoswald, he became, for his scant leisure, a great

reader--eating at meal-times with a spoon in one hand and a book in the

other,--and carrying a few small volumes in his pocket to study in spare

moments in the fields. "The collection of songs" he tells us, "was my _vade

mecum_. I pored over them driving my cart or walking to labour, song by

song, verse by verse, carefully noting the true, tender, sublime or

fustian." He lingered over the ballads in his cold room by night; by day,

whilst whistling at the plough, he invented new forms and was inspired by

fresh ideas, "gathering round him the memories and the traditions of his

country till they became a mantle and a crown." It was among the furrows of

his father's fields that he was inspired with the perpetually quoted wish--

"That I for poor auld Scotland's sake

Some useful plan or book could make,

Or sing a sang at least."

An equally striking illustration of the same feeling is to be found in his

summer Sunday's ramble to the Leglen wood,--the fabled haunt of

Wallace,--which the poet confesses to have visited "with as much devout

enthusiasm as ever pilgrim did the shrine of Loretto." In another reference

to the same period he refers to the intense susceptibility to the homeliest

aspects of Nature which throughout characterized his genius. "Scarcely any

object gave me more--I do not know if I should call it pleasure--but

something which exalts and enraptures me--than to walk in the sheltered

side of a wood or high plantation in a cloudy winter day and hear the

stormy wind howling among the trees and raving over the plain. I listened

to the birds, and frequently turned out of my path lest I should disturb

their little songs or frighten them to another station." Auroral visions

were gilding his horizon as he walked in glory, if not in joy, "behind his

plough upon the mountain sides."; but the swarm of his many-coloured

fancies was again made grey by the _atra cura_ of unsuccessful toils.

Burns had written his first verses of note, "Behind yon hills where

Stinchar (afterwards Lugar) flows," when in 1781 he went to Irvine to learn

the trade of a flax-dresser. "It was," he says, "an unlucky affair. As we

were giving a welcome carousal to the New Year, the shop took fire and

burned to ashes; and I was left, like a true poet, without a sixpence." His

own heart, too, had unfortunately taken fire. He was poring over

mathematics till, in his own phraseology,--still affected in its prose by

the classical pedantries caught from Pope by Ramsay,--"the sun entered

Virgo, when a charming _fillette_, who lived next door, overset my

trigonometry, and set me off at a tangent from the scene of my studies." We

need not detail the story, nor the incessant repetitions of it, which

marked and sometimes marred his career. The poet was jilted, went through

the usual despairs, and resorted to the not unusual sources of consolation.

He had found that he was "no enemy to social life," and his mates had

discovered that he was the best of boon companions in the lyric feasts,

where his eloquence shed a lustre over wild ways of life, and where he was

beginning to be distinguished as a champion of the New Lights and a

satirist of the Calvinism whose waters he found like those of Marah.

In Robert's 25th year his father died, full of sorrows and apprehensions

for the gifted son who wrote for his tomb in Alloway kirkyard, the fine

epitaph ending with the characteristic line--

"For even his failings leaned to virtue's side."

For some time longer the poet, with his brother Gilbert, lingered at

Lochlea, reading agricultural books, miscalculating crops, attending

markets, and in a mood of reformation resolving, "in spite of the world,

the flesh and the devil, to be a wise man." Affairs, however, went no

better with the family; and in 1784 they migrated to Mossgiel, where he

lived and wrought, during four years, for a return scarce equal to the wage

of the commonest labourer in our day. Meanwhile he had become intimate with

his future wife, Jean Armour; but the father, a master mason,

discountenanced the match, and the girl being disposed to "sigh as a

lover," as a daughter to obey, Burns, in 1786, gave up his suit, resolved

to seek refuge in exile, and having accepted a situation as book-keeper to

a slave estate in Jamaica, had taken his passage in a ship for the West

Indies. His old associations seemed to be breaking up, men and fortune

scowled, and "hungry ruin had him in the wind," when he wrote the lines

ending--

[v.04 p.0857]

"Adieu, my native banks of Ayr,"

and addressed to the most famous of the loves, in which he was as prolific

as Catullus or Tibullus, the proposal--

"Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary."

He was withheld from his project and, happily or unhappily, the current of

his life was turned by the success of his first volume, which was published

at Kilmarnock in June 1786. It contained some of his most justly celebrated

poems, the results of his scanty leisure at Lochlea and Mossgiel; among

others "The Twa Dogs,"--a graphic idealization of Aesop,--"The Author's

Prayer," the "Address to the Deil," "The Vision" and "The Dream,"

"Halloween," "The Cottar's Saturday Night," the lines "To a Mouse" and "To

a Daisy," "Scotch Drink," "Man was made to Mourn," the "Epistle to Davie,"

and some of his most popular songs. This epitome of a genius so marvellous

and so varied took his audience by storm. "The country murmured of him from

sea to sea." "With his poems," says Robert Heron, "old and young, grave and

gay, learned and ignorant, were alike transported. I was at that time

resident in Galloway, and I can well remember how even plough-boys and

maid-servants would have gladly bestowed the wages they earned the most

hardly, and which they wanted to purchase necessary clothing, if they might

but procure the works of Burns." This first edition only brought the author

£20 direct return, but it introduced him to the _literati_ of Edinburgh,

whither he was invited, and where he was welcomed, feasted, admired and

patronized. He appeared as a portent among the scholars of the northern

capital and its university, and manifested, according to Mr Lockhart, "in

the whole strain of his bearing, his belief that in the society of the most

eminent men of his nation he was where he was entitled to be, hardly

deigning to flatter them by exhibiting a symptom of being flattered."

Sir Walter Scott bears a similar testimony to the dignified simplicity and

almost exaggerated independence of the poet, during this _annus mirabilis_

of his success. "As for Burns, _Virgilium vidi tantum_, I was a lad of

fifteen when he came to Edinburgh, but had sense enough to be interested in

his poetry, and would have given the world to know him. I saw him one day

with several gentlemen of literary reputation, among whom I remember the

celebrated Dugald Stewart. Of course we youngsters sat silent, looked, and

listened.... I remember ... his shedding tears over a print representing a

soldier lying dead in the snow, his dog sitting in misery on one side, on

the other his widow with a child in her arms. His person was robust, his

manners rustic, not clownish. ... His countenance was more massive than it

looks in any of the portraits. There was a strong expression of shrewdness

in his lineaments; the eye alone indicated the poetic character and

temperament. It was large and of a dark cast, and literally glowed when he

spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such another eye in a human

head. His conversation expressed perfect self-confidence, without the least

intrusive forwardness. I thought his acquaintance with English poetry was

rather limited; and having twenty times the abilities of Allan Ramsay and

of Fergusson he talked of them with too much humility as his models. He was

much caressed in Edinburgh, but the efforts made for his relief were

extremely trifling." _Laudatur et alget._ Burns went from those meetings,

where he had been posing professors (no hard task), and turning the heads

of duchesses, to share a bed in the garret of a writer's apprentice,--they

paid together 3s. a week for the room. It was in the house of Mr Carfrae,

Baxter's Close, Lawnmarket, "first scale stair on the left hand in going

down, first door in the stair." During Burns's life it was reserved for

William Pitt to recognize his place as a great poet; the more cautious

critics of the North were satisfied to endorse him as a rustic prodigy, and

brought upon themselves a share of his satire. Some of the friendships

contracted during this period--as for Lord Glencairn and Mrs Dunlop--are

among the most pleasing and permanent in literature; for genuine kindness

was never wasted on one who, whatever his faults, has never been accused of

ingratitude. But in the bard's city life there was an unnatural element. He

stooped to beg for neither smiles nor favour, but the gnarled country oak

is cut up into cabinets in artificial prose and verse. In the letters to Mr

Graham, the prologue to Mr Wood, and the epistles to Clarinda, he is

dancing minuets with hob-nailed shoes. When, in 1787, the second edition of

the _Poems_ came out, the proceeds of their sale realized for the author

£400. On the strength of this sum he gave himself two long rambles, full of

poetic material--one through the border towns into England as far as

Newcastle, returning by Dumfries to Mauchline, and another a grand tour

through the East Highlands, as far as Inverness, returning by Edinburgh,

and so home to Ayrshire.

In 1788 Burns took a new farm at Ellisland on the Nith, settled there,

married, lost his little money, and wrote, among other pieces, "Auld Lang

Syne" and "Tam o' Shanter." In 1789 he obtained, through the good office of

Mr Graham of Fintry, an appointment as excise-officer of the district,

worth £50 per annum. In 1791 he removed to a similar post at Dumfries worth

£70. In the course of the following year he was asked to contribute to

George Thomson's _Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs with

Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Pianoforte and Violin: the poetry by

Robert Burns_. To this work he contributed about one hundred songs, the

best of which are now ringing in the ear of every Scotsman from New Zealand

to San Francisco. For these, original and adapted, he received a shawl for

his wife, a picture by David Allan representing the "Cottar's Saturday

Night," and £5! The poet wrote an indignant letter and never afterwards

composed for money. Unfortunately the "Rock of Independence" to which he

had proudly retired was but a castle of air, over which the meteors of

French political enthusiasm cast a lurid gleam. In the last years of his

life, exiled from polite society on account of his revolutionary opinions,

he became sourer in temper and plunged more deeply into the dissipations of

the lower ranks, among whom he found his only companionship and sole,

though shallow, sympathy.

Burns began to feel himself prematurely old. Walking with a friend who

proposed to him to join a county ball, he shook his head, saying "that's

all over now," and adding a verse of Lady Grizel Baillie's ballad--

"O were we young as we ance hae been,

We sud hae been galloping down on yon green,

And linking it ower the lily-white lea,

But were na my heart light I wad dee."

His hand shook; his pulse and appetite failed; his spirits sunk into a

uniform gloom. In April 1796 he wrote--"I fear it will be some time before

I tune my lyre again. By Babel's streams I have sat and wept. I have only

known existence by the pressure of sickness and counted time by the

repercussions of pain. I close my eyes in misery and open them without

hope. I look on the vernal day and say with poor Fergusson--

"Say wherefore has an all-indulgent heaven

Life to the comfortless and wretched given."

On the 4th of July he was seen to be dying. On the 12th he wrote to his

cousin for the loan of £10 to save him from passing his last days in jail.

On the 21st he was no more. On the 25th, when his last son came into the

world, he was buried with local honours, the volunteers of the company to

which he belonged firing three volleys over his grave.

It has been said that "Lowland Scotland as a distinct nationality came in

with two warriors and went out with two bards. It came in with William

Wallace and Robert Bruce and went out with Robert Burns and Walter Scott.

The first two made the history, the last two told the story and sung the

song." But what in the minstrel's lay was mainly a requiem was in the

people's poet also a prophecy. The position of Burns in the progress of

British literature may be shortly defined; he was a link between two eras,

like Chaucer, the last of the old and the first of the new--the inheritor

of the traditions and the music of the past, in some respects the herald of

the future.

The volumes of our lyrist owe part of their popularity to the fact of their

being an epitome of melodies, moods and memories that had belonged for

centuries to the national life, the best [v.04 p.0858] inspirations of

which have passed into them. But in gathering from his ancestors Burns has

exalted their work by asserting a new dignity for their simplest themes. He

is the heir of Barbour, distilling the spirit of the old poet's epic into a

battle chant, and of Dunbar, reproducing the various humours of a

half-sceptical, half-religious philosophy of life. He is the pupil of

Ramsay, but he leaves his master, to make a social protest and to lead a

literary revolt. _The Gentle Shepherd_, still largely a court pastoral, in

which "a man's a man" if born a gentleman, may be contrasted with "The

Jolly Beggars"--the one is like a minuet of the ladies of Versailles on the

sward of the Swiss village near the Trianon, the other like the march of

the maenads with Theroigne de Mericourt. Ramsay adds to the rough tunes and

words of the ballads the refinement of the wits who in the "Easy" and

"Johnstone" clubs talked over their cups of Prior and Pope, Addison and

Gay. Burns inspires them with a fervour that thrills the most wooden of his

race. We may clench the contrast by a representative example. This is from

Ramsay's version of perhaps the best-known of Scottish songs,--

"Methinks around us on each bough

A thousand Cupids play;

Whilst through the groves I walk with you,

Each object makes me gay.

Since your return--the sun and moon

With brighter beams do shine,

Streams murmur soft notes while they run

As they did lang syne."