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

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




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 Mueller 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 L800, 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).

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.