upon which he gave judgment in favour of Baliol to the exclusion of Bruce. Burnel was lord chancellor for eighteen successive years. He died at Berwick in 1292, and was buried in the cathedral of his own see of Wells. He was one of the most enlightened statesmen and lawgivers of his age.—F. J. H.
BURNES, Sir Alexander, was born at Montrose in 1805. After being educated in that city, he proceeded to India when sixteen years of age; where distinguishing himself both as a linguist and topographer, he was soon appointed assistant political agent at Cutch. Possessed of an eager and enterprising disposition, he volunteered to explore the north-western frontier of India, and descend the Indus to the sea. After reaching Jaysulmeer, he was overtaken by an express from the supreme government, desiring him to return, since it was deemed i nexpedient to incur the hazard of exciting the alarm of the rulers of Scinde. In the following year, however, presents came from the British sovereign to Runjeet Singh, ruler of Lahore, and Burnes was appointed to convey them to their destination. Soon after Burnes' return, he was despatched upon a second expedition to Central Asia, during the course of which he travelled across the Punjab to the Indus, and proceeded through Peshawur to Cabool, where he was well received by Dost Mahomed. He perceived, thus early, the general superiority of that monarch, as to integrity, justice, and ability, to his rival Shah-Soojah, afterwards so unfortunately placed on the throne by the British government. From Cabool, Burnes journeyed over the Hindoo Coosh to Koondosy, Balkh, and Bokhara; and thence passed westward to the Persian frontier, returning through Teheran, Ispahan, and Shiraz to Bushire, where he embarked for India. He was shortly despatched to England with the information he had so acquired. By his success in this expedition, our traveller at once became famous. He had retraced the greater part of the route of Alexander, surveyed the kingdoms of Porus and Taxiles, sailed on the Hydaspes, crossed the Indian Caucasus, beheld the scenes of the inroads of Jengis, and Timour, and Baber; but more than this, he had detected a new pathway by which India might be invaded. Returning to Bombay, he again served in Cutch, but was soon appointed to the charge of a (so-called) "commercial" mission to Affghanistan. On his arrival at Cabool, however, this pretext for the mission was laid aside; and Burnes plunged with the avidity of a spirit taking natural delight in the intricacies of diplomacy and the management of affairs, into the complications of Affghan politics. Dost Mahomed was evidently not simply desirous to cultivate the British alliance, but eager to secure it. Burnes himself understood the advantages of an alliance with that ruler, whose influence he saw the means of extending and consolidating over a vast and important region. Other counsels, however, prevailed with the supreme government, and Burnes' mission at Cabool came to an end; but not before the cloud of the approaching terrible war broke upon the sky. The official correspondence professedly narrating these transactions, was garbled in its publication by the British government, for the express purpose of justifying their proceedings. The history of state-craft hardly contains any instance of more glaring and deliberate falsehood. War was declared against Dost Mahomed, and the expedition started on the fatal mission to depose the rulers of Cabool and Candahar, and enthrone Shah Soojah. After terrible sufferings, alike from heat and cold, the army seemed to succeed. Our protegé entered Cabool 7th August, 1839, and Dost Mahomed surrendered shortly afterwards. Burnes remained in Cabool, filling what he termed "the most nondescript of situations;" possessed of a large salary, but desirous of a more active and commanding influence over the affairs of the country. Soon, however, the desolating sword of Affghan vengeance was uplifted, and Burnes fell, one of the first victims in an outbreak that terminated in the almost complete destruction of a British army. The chief envoy, Macnaghten, was about to surrender office, and Burnes hoped to attain it, when, on November 3, 1841, a mob of insurgents attacked his house, and he was cut to pieces as he endeavoured to make his escape in disguise. There is no doubt that the character of Sir A. Burnes, as described in official despatches, has been grievously wronged. Mistaken as might have been the policy of entering into Affghan politics at all, yet—these affairs being interfered with—Burnes indicated a course which would have saved the government from many disasters.—Burnes' Travels were published in three volumes, and his garbled despatches have been privately printed in their integrity.—L. L. P.
BURNET, Gilbert, bishop of Salisbury, and a justly celebrated writer on history and divinity, was born at Edinburgh, September, 1643. He was of a very ancient family in the shire of Aberdeen, where his father practised as a lawyer. When only ten years of age, he entered the college of Aberdeen, and obtained the degree of A.M. when only fourteen. He applied himself to the study of civil law, with the intention of following his father's profession; but after the lapse of a year, changed his mind, and determined to enter the ministry of the episcopal church. At the age of eighteen he was licensed as a preacher, and shortly after offered a living in the shire of Aberdeen, but this he conscientiously declined on the ground of youth and inexperience. His father, who, after the Restoration, had been appointed by Charles II. a lord of session, with the title of Lord Cromont, soon after this died. Dr. Leighton, then archbishop of Glasgow, and Mr. Nairn, the eloquent and excellent minister of the Abbey church of Edinburgh, took a deep interest in young Burnet; and under their guidance for two years he studied theology. In 1663, in his twentieth year, he visited Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and was introduced to some of the greatest celebrities in theology and science. In 1664 he went to Amsterdam, where he perfected himself in Hebrew, under the instruction of a learned rabbi, and afterwards to Paris, where he received marked attention from Lord Holles, then British ambassador in France. At the close of this year, as he was returning to Scotland by way of London, he was introduced to the president of the Royal Society, and elected a member. Accepting now the living of Saltoun, which had long before been offered him by Sir Robert Fletcher, he was ordained to the office of deacon and priest by the bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Wiseheart. Nothing could exceed the fidelity, ability, and enlightened piety with which Mr. Burnet laboured in this charge for five years; and during this period he gained the affections of all classes, not excepting the presbyterians. The government of Scotland being at this time in the hands of moderate men, the minister of Saltoun was often consulted in important affairs, and it is even suspected that it was he who advised that the more moderate presbyterians should be placed in the vacated livings. In 1669 he accepted the chair of divinity at Glasgow, and for four years and a half discharged the duties of professor with remarkable credit. After resigning his charge at Saltoun, he published his "Modest and Free Conference between a Conformist and Nonconformist," which consisted of seven dialogues, and met with general approbation. The important papers of the house of Hamilton being put into Burnet's hands, he made a visit to London to consult with the duke of Lauderdale respecting their publication, and while thus occupied was offered a Scottish bishopric, which he declined. On his return to Glasgow he married Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter to Lord Cassilis. In 1672 he published "A Vindication of the Authority, Constitution, and Laws of the Church and State of Scotland." He was once more offered a bishopric, which was again declined. Although personally agreeable to the court, he had a bitter enemy in Lauderdale, who at length persuaded Charles to strike his name out of the list of chaplains-in-ordinary, &c. Being shortly after obliged to vacate his chair, he went to London to defend himself in person. Whilst in the metropolis, being now about thirty years of age, he was offered by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's the living of St. Giles, Cripplegate; but this, in a way very honourable to himself, he declined. He was now called to the bar of the house of commons, to give evidence as to the suspected perfidy of Lauderdale, some damaging facts of whose administration he was most reluctantly obliged to state. In 1676 he published his "Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton." Apprehensive of the designs of the papists at this time, he published the first volume of his "History of the Reformation in England," for which he received the thanks of both houses of parliament. In the years 1681 and 1715, respectively, he issued his second and third volumes, together with a very valuable supplement. This work was so justly esteemed that it was translated into various European languages. In 1680 he published "The Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester," whom he had been the instrument of reclaiming from infidelity and gross profligacy. After the publication of his "Life of Sir Matthew Hale," and "Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, Ireland," and sundry other valuable works, he deemed it prudent to retire to the continent, and await the issue of the ecclesiastical measures adopted by James II. He
