Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

V >> Various >> Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4




See A. Stephens, _Life of Horne Tooke_ (London, 1813); Spencer Walpole,
_History of England_ (London, 1878-1886); C. Abbot, Baron Colchester,
_Diary and Correspondence_ (London, 1861).

(A. W. H.*)

BURDETT-COUTTS, ANGELA GEORGINA BURDETT-COUTTS, BARONESS (1814-1906),
English philanthropist, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, was born
on the 21st of April 1814. When she was three-and-twenty, she inherited
practically the whole of the immense wealth of her grandfather Thomas
Coutts (approaching two millions sterling, a fabulous sum in those days),
by the will of the duchess of St Albans, who, as the actress Henrietta
Mellon, had been his second wife and had been left it on his death in 1821.
Miss Burdett then took the name of Coutts in addition to her own. "The
faymale heiress, Miss Anjaley Coutts," as the author of the _Ingoldsby
Legends_ called her in his ballad on the queen's coronation in that year
(1837), at once became a notable subject of public curiosity and private
cupidity; she received numerous offers of marriage, but remained resolutely
single, devoting herself and her riches to philanthropic work, which made
her famous for well-applied generosity. In May 1871 she was created a
peeress, as Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield, Middlesex.
On the 18th of July 1872 she was presented at the Guildhall with the
freedom of the city of London, the first case of a woman being admitted to
that fellowship. It was not till 1881 that, when sixty-seven years old, she
married William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, an American by birth, and brother
of Sir E.A. Ashmead-Bartlett, the Conservative member of parliament; and he
then took his wife's name, entering the House of Commons as member for
Westminster, 1885. Full of good works, and of social interest and
influence, the baroness lived to the great age of ninety-two, dying at her
house in Stratton Street, Piccadilly, on the 30th of December 1906, of
bronchitis. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The extent of her benefactions during her long and active life can only be
briefly indicated; but the baroness must remain a striking figure in the
social history of Victorian England, for the thoughtful and conscientious
care with which she "held her wealth in trust" for innumerable good
objects. It was her aim to benefit the working-classes in ways involving no
loss of independence or self-respect. She carefully avoided taking any side
in party politics, but she was actively interested in phases of Imperial
extension which were calculated to improve the condition of the black
races, as in Africa, or the education and relief of the poor or suffering
in any part of the world. Though she made no special distinction of creed
in her charities, she was a notable benefactor of the Church of England,
building and endowing churches and church schools, endowing the bishoprics
of Cape Town and of Adelaide (1847), and founding the bishopric of British
Columbia (1857). Among her many educational endowments may be specified the
St Stephen's Institute in Vincent Square, Westminster (1846); she started
sewing schools in Spitalfields when the silk trade began to fail; helped to
found the shoe-black brigade; and placed hundreds of destitute boys in
training-ships for the navy and merchant service. She established Columbia
fish market (1869) in Bethnal Green, and presented it to the city, but
owing to commercial difficulties this effort, which cost her over L200,000,
proved abortive. She supported various schemes of emigration to the
colonies; and in Ireland helped to promote the fishing industry by starting
schools, and providing boats, besides [v.04 p.0811] advancing L250,000 in
1880 for supplying seed to the impoverished tenants. She was devoted to the
protection of animals and prevention of cruelty, and took up with
characteristic zeal the cause of the costermongers' donkeys, building
stables for them on her Columbia market estate, and giving prizes for the
best-kept animals. She helped to inaugurate the society for the prevention
of cruelty to children, and was a keen supporter of the ragged school
union. Missionary efforts of all sorts; hospitals and nursing; industrial
homes and refuges; relief funds, &c., found in her a generous supporter.
She was associated with Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale; and in
1877-1878 raised the Turkish compassionate fund for the starving peasantry
and fugitives in the Russo-Turkish War (for which she obtained the order of
the Medjidieh, a solitary case of its conference on a woman). She relieved
the distressed in far-off lands as well as at home, her helping hand being
stretched out to the Dyaks of Borneo and the aborigines of Australia. She
was a liberal patroness of the stage, literature and the arts, and
delighted in knowing all the cultured people of the day. In short, her
position in England for half a century may well be summed up in words
attributed to King Edward VII., "after my mother (Queen Victoria) the most
remarkable woman in the kingdom."

BURDON-SANDERSON, SIR JOHN SCOTT, Bart. (1828-1905), English physiologist,
was born at West Jesmand, near Newcastle, on the 21st of December 1828. A
member of a well-known Northumbrian family, he received his medical
education at the university of Edinburgh and at Paris. Settling in London,
he became medical officer of health for Paddington in 1856 and four years
later physician to the Middlesex and the Brompton Consumption hospitals.
When diphtheria appeared in England in 1858 he was sent to investigate the
disease at the different points of outbreak, and in subsequent years he
carried out a number of similar inquiries, _e.g._ into the cattle plague
and into cholera in 1866. He became first principal of the Brown
Institution at Lambeth in 1871, and in 1874 was appointed Jodrell professor
of physiology at University College, London, retaining that post till 1882.
When the Waynflete chair of physiology was established at Oxford in 1882,
he was chosen to be its first occupant, and immediately found himself the
object of a furious anti-vivisectionist agitation. The proposal that the
university should spend L10,000 in providing him with a suitable
laboratory, lecture-rooms, &c., in which to carry on his work, was strongly
opposed, by some on grounds of economy, but largely because he was an
upholder of the usefulness and necessity of experiments upon animals. It
was, however, eventually carried by a small majority (88 to 85), and in the
same year the Royal Society awarded him a royal medal in recognition of his
researches into the electrical phenomena exhibited by plants and the
relations of minute organisms to disease, and of the services he had
rendered to physiology and pathology. In 1885 the university of Oxford was
asked to vote L500 a year for three years for the purposes of the
laboratory, then approaching completion. This proposal was fought with the
utmost bitterness by Sanderson's opponents, the anti-vivisectionists
including E.A. Freeman, John Ruskin and Bishop Mackarness of Oxford.
Ultimately the money was granted by 412 to 244 votes. In 1895 Sanderson was
appointed regius professor of medicine at Oxford, resigning the post in
1904; in 1899 he was created a baronet. His attainments, both in biology
and medicine, brought him many honours. He was Croonian lecturer to the
Royal Society in 1867 and 1877 and to the Royal College of Physicians in
1891; gave the Harveian oration before the College of Physicians in 1878;
acted as president of the British Association at Nottingham in 1893; and
served on three royal commissions--Hospitals (1883), Tuberculosis, Meat and
Milk (1890), and University for London (1892). He died at Oxford on the
23rd of November 1905.

BURDWAN, or BARDWAN, a town of British India, in Bengal, which gives its
name to a district and to a division. It has a station on the East Indian
railway, 67 m. N.W. from Calcutta. Pop. (1901) 35,022. The town consists
really of numerous villages scattered over an area of 9 sq. m., and is
entirely rural in character. It contains several interesting ancient tombs,
and at Nawab Hat, some 2 m. distant, is a group of 108 Siva _lingam_
temples built in 1788. The place was formerly very unhealthy, but this has
been to a large extent remedied by the establishment of water-works, a good
supply of water being derived from the river Banka. Within the town, the
principal objects of interest are the palaces and gardens of the maharaja.
The chief educational institution is the Burdwan Raj college, which is
entirely supported out of the maharaja's estate.

The town owes its importance entirely to being the headquarters of the
maharaja of Burdwan, the premier nobleman of lower Bengal, whose rent-roll
is upwards of L300,000. The _raj_ was founded in 1657 by Abu Ra Kapur, of
the Kapur Khatri family of Kotli in Lahore, Punjab, whose descendants
served in turn the Mogul emperors and the British government. The great
prosperity of the _raj_ was due to the excellent management of Maharaja
Mahtab Chand (d. 1879), whose loyalty to the government--especially during
the Santal rebellion of 1855 and the mutiny of 1857--was rewarded with the
grant of a coat of arms in 1868 and the right to a personal salute of 13
guns in 1877. Maharaja Bijai Chand Mahtab (b. 1881), who succeeded his
adoptive father in 1888, earned great distinction by the courage with which
he risked his life to save that of Sir Andrew Fraser, the
lieutenant-governor of Bengal, on the occasion of the attempt to
assassinate him made by Bengali malcontents on the 7th of November 1908.

The DISTRICT OF BURDWAN lies along the right bank of the river Bhagirathi
or Hugli. It has an area of 2689 sq. m. It is a flat plain, and its scenery
is uninteresting. Chief rivers are the Bhagirathi, Damodar, Ajai, Banka,
Kunur and Khari, of which only the Bhagirathi is navigable by country cargo
boats throughout the year. The district was acquired by the East India
Company under the treaty with Nawab Mir Kasim in 1760, and confirmed by the
emperor Shah Alam in 1765. The land revenue was fixed in perpetuity with
the zemindar in 1793. In 1901 the population was 1,532,475, showing an
increase of 10% in the decade. There are several indigo factories. The
district suffered from drought in 1896-1897. The Eden Canal, 20 m. long,
has been constructed for irrigation. The weaving of silk is the chief
native industry. As regards European industries, Burdwan takes the first
place in Bengal. It contains the great coal-field of Raniganj, first opened
in 1874, with an output of more than three million tons. The Barrakur
ironworks produce pig-iron, which is reported to be as good as that of
Middlesbrough. Apart from Burdwan town and Raniganj, the chief places are
the river-marts of Katwa and Kalna. The East Indian railway has several
lines running through the district.

The DIVISION OF BURDWAN comprises the six districts of Burdwan, Birbhum,
Bankura, Midnapore, Hugli and Howrah, with a total area of 13,949 sq. m.,
and a population in 1901 of 8,240,076.

BUREAU (a Fr. word from _burel_ or _bureau_, a coarse cloth used for
coverings), a writing-table or desk (_q.v._), also in America a low chest
of drawers. From the meaning of "desk," the word is applied to an office or
place of business, and particularly a government department; in the United
States the term is used of certain subdivisions of the executive
departments, as the bureau of statistics, a division of the treasury
department. The term "bureaucracy" is often employed to signify the
concentration of administrative power in bureaux or departments, and the
undue interference by officials not only in the details of government, but
in matters outside the scope of state interference. The word is also
frequently used in the sense of "red-tapism."

BURFORD, a market town in the Woodstock parliamentary division of
Oxfordshire, England, 18 m. W.N.W. of Oxford. Pop. (1901) 1146. It is
pleasantly situated in the valley of the Windrush, the broad, picturesque
main street sloping upward from the stream, beside which stands the fine
church, to the summit of the ridge flanking the valley on the south, along
which runs the high road from Oxford. The church of St John the Baptist has
a nave and aisles, mainly Perpendicular in appearance owing to alterations
in that period, but actually of [v.04 p.0812] earlier construction, the
south aisle flanked by two beautiful chapels and an ornate porch; transepts
and a central tower, and choir with flanking chapels. The massive Norman
tower contrasts strongly with the delicate Perpendicular spire rising upon
it. The church contains many interesting memorials, and, in the nave, a
Perpendicular shrine dedicated to St Peter. Near the church is the
half-ruined priory house, built in the 17th century, and containing much
fine plaster ornament characteristic of the period; a curious chapel
adjoins it. William Lenthall, speaker of the Long Parliament, was granted
this mansion, died here in 1662, and is buried in the church. In the High
Street nearly every house is of some antiquity. The Tolsey or old town hall
is noteworthy among them; and under one of the houses is an Early English
crypt. Burford is mentioned as the scene of a synod in 705; in 752 Cuthred,
king of the West Saxons, fighting for independence, here defeated
AEthelbald, king of Mercia; and in 1649 the town and district were the scene
of victorious operations by Cromwell.

BURG, a town of Germany, in Prussian Saxony, on the river Ihle, and the
railway from Berlin to Magdeburg, 14 m. N.E. of the latter. Pop. (1900)
22,432. It is noted for its cloth manufactures and boot-making, which
afford employment to a great part of its population. The town belonged
originally to the lordship of Querfurt, passed with this into the
possession of the archbishops of Magdeburg in 1496, and was ceded in 1635
with other portions of the Magdeburg territories to Saxony; in 1687 it was
ceded to Brandenburg. It owes its prosperity to the large influx of
industrious French, Palatinate and Walloon refugees, which took place about
the end of the 17th century.

BURGAGE (from Lat. _burgus_, a borough), a form of tenure, both in England
and Scotland, applicable to the property connected with the old municipal
corporations and their privileges. In England, it was a tenure whereby
houses or tenements in an ancient borough were held of the king or other
person as lord at a certain rent. The term is of less practical importance
in the English than in the Scottish system, where it held an important
place in the practice of conveyancing, real property having been generally
divided into feudal-holding and burgage-holding. Since the Conveyancing
(Scotland) Act 1874, there is, however, not much distinction between
burgage tenure and free holding. It is usual to speak of the English
burgage-tenure as a relic of Saxon freedom resisting the shock of the
Norman conquest and its feudalism, but it is perhaps more correct to
consider it a local feature of that general exemption from feudality
enjoyed by the _municipia_ as a relic of their ancient Roman constitution.
The reason for the system preserving for so long its specifically distinct
form in Scottish conveyancing was because burgage-holding was an exception
to the system of subinfeudation which remained prevalent in Scotland when
it was suppressed in England. While other vassals might hold of a graduated
hierarchy of overlords up to the crown, the burgess always held directly of
the sovereign. It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was
deemed a species of socage, to distinguish it from the military holdings,
in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching
and warding for the defence of the burgh. In England the franchises enjoyed
by burgesses, freemen and other consuetudinary constituencies in burghs,
were dependent on the character of the burgage-tenure. Tenure by burgage
was subject to a variety of customs, the principal of which was
Borough-English (_q.v._).

See Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_ (1898).

BURGAS (sometimes written _Burghaz, Bourgas_ or _Borgas_, and, in the
middle ages, _Pyrgos_), a seaport, and capital of the department of Burgas,
in Bulgaria (Eastern Rumelia), on the gulf of Burgas, an inlet of the Black
Sea, in 42 deg. 27' N. and 27 deg. 35' E. Pop. (1906) 12,846. Burgas is built on a
low foreland, between the lagoons of Ludzha, on the north, and Kara-Yunus,
on the west; it faces towards the open sea on the east, and towards its own
harbour on the south. The principal approach is a broad isthmus on the
north-west, along which runs the railway to Philippopolis and Adrianople.
Despite its small population and the rivalry of Varna and the Turkish port
of Dedeagatch, Burgas has a considerable transit trade. Its fine harbour,
formally opened in 1904, has an average depth of five fathoms; large
vessels can load at the quays, and the outer waters of the gulf are well
lit by lighthouses on the islets of Hagios Anastasios and Megalo-Nisi. In
1904, the port accommodated over 1400 ships, of about 700,000 tons. These
included upwards of 800 Bulgarian and Turkish sailing-vessels, engaged in
the coasting trade. Fuel, machinery and miscellaneous goods are imported,
chiefly from Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom; the
exports include grain, wool, tallow, cheese, butter, attar of roses, &c.
Pottery and pipes are manufactured from clay obtained in the neighbourhood.

BURGDORF (Fr. _Berthoud_), an industrial town in the Swiss canton of Bern.
It is built on the left bank of the Emme and is 14 m. by rail N.E. of Bern.
The lower (or modern) town is connected by a curious spiral street with the
upper (or old) town. The latter is picturesquely perched on a hill, at a
height of 1942 ft. above sea-level (or 167 ft. above the river); it is
crowned by the ancient castle and by the 15th-century parish church, in the
former of which Pestalozzi set up his educational establishment between
1798 and 1804. A large trade is carried on at Burgdorf in the cheese of the
Emmenthal, while among the industrial establishments are railway works, and
factories of cloth, white lead and tinfoil. In 1900 the population was
8404, practically all Protestants and German-speaking. A fine view of the
Bernese Alps is obtained from the castle, while a still finer one may be
enjoyed from the Lueg hill (2917 ft.), north-east of the town. The castle
dates from the days of the dukes of Zaeringen (11th-12th centuries), the
last of whom (Berchtold V.) built walls round the town at its foot, and
granted it a charter of liberties. On the extinction (1218) of that dynasty
both castle and town passed to the counts of Kyburg, and from them, with
the rest of their possessions, in 1272 by marriage to the cadet line of the
Habsburgs. By that line they were sold in 1384, with Thun, to the town of
Bern, whose bailiffs ruled in the castle till 1798.

(W. A. B. C.)

BURGEE (of unknown origin), a small three-cornered or swallow-tailed flag
or pennant used by yachts or merchant vessels; also a kind of small coal
burnt in engine furnaces.

BUeRGER, GOTTFRIED AUGUST (1748-1794), German poet, was born on the 1st of
January 1748 at Molmerswende near Halberstadt, of which village his father
was the Lutheran pastor. He was a backward child, and at the age of twelve
was practically adopted by his maternal grandfather, Bauer, at
Aschersleben, who sent him to the _Paedagogium_ at Halle. Hence in 1764 he
passed to the university, as a student of theology, which, however, he soon
abandoned for the study of jurisprudence. Here he fell under the influence
of C.A. Klotz (1738-1771), who directed Buerger's attention to literature,
but encouraged rather than discouraged his natural disposition to a wild
and unregulated life. In consequence of his dissipated habits, he was in
1767 recalled by his grandfather, but on promising to reform was in 1768
allowed to enter the university of Goettingen as a law student. As he
continued his wild career, however, his grandfather withdrew his support
and he was left to his own devices. Meanwhile he had made fair progress
with his legal studies, and had the good fortune to form a close friendship
with a number of young men of literary tastes. In the Goettingen
_Musenalmanach_, edited by H. Boie and F.W. Gotter, Buerger's first poems
were published, and by 1771 he had already become widely known as a poet.
In 1772, through Boie's influence, Buerger obtained the post of "_Amtmann_"
or district magistrate at Altengleichen near Goettingen. His grandfather was
now reconciled to him, paid his debts and established him in his new sphere
of activity. Meanwhile he kept in touch with his Goettingen friends, and
when the "Goettinger Bund" or "Hain" was formed, Buerger, though not himself
a member, kept in close touch with it. In 1773 the ballad _Lenore_ was
published in the _Musenalmanach_. This poem, which in dramatic force and in
its vivid realization of the weird and supernatural remains without a
rival, made his name a household word in Germany. In 1774 Buerger married
Dorette Leonhart, the [v.04 p.0813] daughter of a Hanoverian official; but
his passion for his wife's younger sister Auguste (the "Molly" of his poems
and elegies) rendered the union unhappy and unsettled his life. In 1778
Buerger became editor of the _Musenalmanach_, and in the same year published
the first collection of his poems. In 1780 he took a farm at Appenrode, but
in three years lost so much money that he had to abandon the venture.
Pecuniary troubles oppressed him, and being accused of neglecting his
official duties, and feeling his honour attacked, he gave up his official
position and removed in 1784 to Goettingen, where he established himself as
_Privat-docent_. Shortly before his removal thither his wife died (30th of
July 1784), and on the 29th of June in the next year he married his
sister-in-law "Molly." Her death on the 9th of January 1786 affected him
deeply. He appeared to lose at once all courage and all bodily and mental
vigour. He still continued to teach in Goettingen; at the jubilee of the
foundation of the university in 1787 he was made an honorary doctor of
philosophy, and in 1789 was appointed extraordinary professor in that
faculty, though without a stipend. In the following year he married a third
time, his wife being a certain Elise Hahn, who, enchanted with his poems,
had offered him her heart and hand. Only a few weeks of married life with
his "Schwabenmaedchen" sufficed to prove his mistake, and after two and a
half years he divorced her. Deeply wounded by Schiller's criticism, in the
14th and 15th part of the _Allgemeine Literaturzeitung_ of 1791, of the 2nd
edition of his poems, disappointed, wrecked in fortune and health, Buerger
eked out a precarious existence as a teacher in Goettingen until his death
there on the 8th of June 1794.

Buerger's character, in spite of his utter want of moral balance, was not
lacking in noble and lovable qualities. He was honest in purpose, generous
to a fault, tender-hearted and modest. His talent for popular poetry was
very considerable, and his ballads are among the finest in the German
language. Besides _Lenore, Das Lied vom braven Manne, Die Kuh, Der Kaiser
und der Abt_ and _Der wilde Jaeger_ are famous. Among his purely lyrical
poems, but few have earned a lasting reputation; but mention may be made of
_Das Bluemchen Wunderhold, Lied an den lieben Mond_, and a few love songs.
His sonnets, particularly the elegies, are of great beauty.

Editions of Buerger's _Samtliche Schriften_ appeared at Goettingen, 1817
(incomplete); 1829-1833 (8 vols.), and 1835 (one vol.); also a selection by
E. Grisebach (5th ed., 1894). The _Gedichte_ have been published in
innumerable editions, the best being that by A. Sauer (2 vols., 1884).
_Briefe von und an Burger_ were edited by A. Strodtmann in 4 vols. (1874).
On Buerger's life see the biography by H. Prohle (1856), the introduction to
Sauer's edition of the poems, and W. von Wurzbach, _G.A. Burger_ (1900).

BURGERS, THOMAS FRANCOIS (1834-1881), president of the Transvaal Republic,
was born in Cape Colony on the 15th of April 1834, and was educated at
Utrecht, Holland, where he took the degree of doctor of theology. On his
return to South Africa he was ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed
Church, and stationed at Hanover in Cape Colony, where he exercised his
ministrations for eight years. In 1862 his preaching attracted attention,
and two years later an ecclesiastical tribunal suspended him for heretical
opinions. He appealed, however, to the colonial government, which had
appointed him, and obtained judgment in his favour, which was confirmed by
the privy council of England on appeal in 1865. On the resignation of M.W.
Pretorius and the refusal of President Brand of the Orange Free State to
accept the office, Burgers was elected president of the Transvaal, taking
the oath on the 1st of July 1872. In 1873 he endeavoured to persuade
Montsioa to agree to an alteration in the boundary of the Barolong
territory as fixed by the Keate award, but failed (see BECHUANALAND). In
1875 Burgers, leaving the Transvaal in charge of Acting-President Joubert,
went to Europe mainly to promote a scheme for linking the Transvaal to the
coast by a railway from Delagoa Bay, which was that year definitely
assigned to Portugal by the MacMahon award. With the Portuguese Burgers
concluded a treaty, December 1875, providing for the construction of the
railway. After meeting with refusals of financial help in London, Burgers
managed to raise L90,000 in Holland, and bought a quantity of railway
plant, which on its arrival at Delagoa Bay was mortgaged to pay freight,
and this, so far as Burgers was concerned, was the end of the matter. In
June 1876 he induced the raad to declare war against Sikukuni (Secocoeni),
a powerful native chief in the eastern Transvaal. The campaign was
unsuccessful, and with its failure the republic fell into a condition of
lawlessness and insolvency, while a Zulu host threatened invasion. Burgers
in an address to the raad (3rd of March 1877) declared "I would rather be a
policeman under a strong government than the president of such a state. It
is you---you members of the raad and the Boers--who have lost the country,
who have sold your independence for a drink." Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who
had been sent to investigate the condition of affairs in the Transvaal,
issued on the 12th of April a proclamation annexing the Transvaal to Great
Britain. Burgers fully acquiesced in the necessity for annexation. He
accepted a pension from the British government, and settled down to farming
in Hanover, Cape Colony. He died at Richmond in that colony on the 9th of
December 1881, and in the following year a volume of short stories,
_Tooneelen uit ons dorp_, originally written by him for the Cape
_Volksblad_, was published at the Hague for the benefit of his family. A
patriot, a fluent speaker both in Dutch and in English, and possessed of
unbounded energy, the failure of Burgers was due to his fondness for large
visionary plans, which he attempted to carry out with insufficient means
(see TRANSVAAL: _History_).

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