work £100, which was undertaken at the instigation of his friend the earl of Sandwich. Dr. Burney also wrote "An Essay towards the History of Comets," 1769; "A Plan for a Music School," 1774; and the "Life and Letters of Metastasio," 3 vols. 8vo, 1796. His last literary labour was as a contributor to Rees' Cyclopædia, for which work he furnished all the musical articles, except those of a philosophical and mathematical kind. His remuneration for this assistance was £1000, and as most of the matter was extracted without alteration from his history of music, the price was large for the service rendered. During a long life. Dr. Burney enjoyed the intimate acquaintance of almost every contemporary who was distinguished either in literature or the arts; with Dr. Johnson, he was in habits of friendship; and it is known, that soon after Johnson's death, he had serious thoughts of becoming his biographer; a task which, to judge by his other productions of a similar nature, it is perhaps to be regretted he was diverted from; but the subject was so overwhelmed with various publications, that he withdrew from the crowded competition, and relinquished his design. During many years. Dr. Burney lived at St. Martin's Street, Leicester Fields, in a house which had once been the residence of Sir Isaac Newton, and is still standing; but about the year 1789, on being appointed organist to Chelsea college, he removed to a commodious suite of apartments in that building, where he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in the enjoyment of a handsome independence, and the contemplation not only of his own well-earned fame, but the established reputation of a family, each individual of which (thanks to their parents' early care and example) had attained high distinction in some walk of literature or science. "In all the relations of private life," says one of his biographers, "as a father, a husband, or a friend, his character was exemplary, and his happiness such as that character deserved and insured. His manners were peculiarly easy, spirited, and gentlemanlike; he possessed all the suavity of the Chesterfield school, without its stiffness—all its graces, unalloyed by its laxity of moral principle." At length full of years, and rich in all that should accompany old age, he breathed his last on the 12th April, 1814, at his apartments in Chelsea college. His remains were deposited, on the 20th of the same month, in the burying-ground of that institution, attended not only by the several members of his own family (of which he had lived to see the fourth generation), but by the governor, deputy-governor, and chief officers of the college, and many other individuals distinguished for rank and talent. As a composer. Dr. Burney's principal works, in addition to those already mentioned, are "Sonatas for Two Violins and a Base," two sets; "Six Cornet Pieces, with Introduction and Fugue for the Organ;" a cantata and song; "Twelve Canzonetti a due voci in canone, poesie dell' abate Metastasio;" "Six Duets for German States;" "Six Concertos for Violin, &c., in eight parts;" "Two Sonatas for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello;" and "Six Harpsichord Lessons."—(Gentleman's Magazine; The Harmonicon; Madame D'Arblay's Memoirs of Dr. Burney., &c. &c.)—E. F. R.
BURNEY, Charles, D.D., son of the preceding, was born at Lynn, Norfolk, on the 4th of December, 1757. He was distinguished as a Greek scholar, and wrote in the Monthly Review, to which he was a constant contributor, learned articles which won for him immense reputation among the scholars of his day. He was able to collect a library of singular value, containing two very important MSS., one of Homer, and the other of the minor Greek orators. After his death in 1817, the collection was purchased by parliament for £13,500, and is preserved in the British museum.—J. B.
BURNEY, Frances. See Arblay, Madame d'.
BURNEY, James, eldest son of Dr. Burney the historian of music. He early went to sea, and was one of Cook's companions in his second and third voyages, succeeding him in the command of the Discovery, and conducting the vessel home after the captain's tragic death. He afterwards commanded the ship Bristol on the East India station, and at last attained the rank of rear-admiral. He published several works connected with nautical discovery, but his fame rests on his "History of Voyages and Discoveries in the Southern Ocean," 5 vols., 4to.—J. B.
* BURNOUF, J. L., professor of rhetoric in the college of Louis-le-Grand, Paris, and member of the Asiatic Society of Paris, has published "Méthode pour étudier la Langue Grecque," Paris, 1825, 14th edition. He has also issued a Sallust, 1822, 1 vol., 8vo; "Examen du système perfectionné de la conjugaison Grecque," 1824, 8vo; and edited several of Cicero's works. His knowledge of Sanscrit is profound.—E. Burnouf, his son, is distinguished as an Orientalist, and has published "Analyse et Extrait du Devi Mahatmyam, fragment du Markandéya Pourana," 8vo, 1823.—T. J.
BURNS, John, C.M., M.D., and regius professor of surgery in the university of Glasgow, son of the Rev. Dr. Burns, minister of the Barony parish of Glasgow, was born in Glasgow in the year 1775. He commenced his professional career as a general practitioner in his native city towards the close of the last century. Although still a very young man, his fine natural talents, untiring industry, strict integrity, and polished manners, soon placed him at the head of his profession in the west of Scotland, and secured him public confidence and private esteem, to a degree rarely equalled. About the year 1805 he commenced a course of lectures on his favourite science of anatomy, and afterwards a similar course on midwifery, which he continued till the year 1815, when he was appointed regius professor of surgery in the university of Glasgow, a chair which he filled with distinguished credit till his death. For many years his classroom was filled to overflowing, and few who have listened to him will forget the lucid, and even eloquent diction, the sharp satire, and well-timed anecdote by which his prelections were enforced and enlivened. As an author. Dr. Burns stands deservedly high. His first work, "On the Gravid Uterus," appeared in 1799, and his latest, his "System of Surgery," in 1828-38. But by far the most popular of his writings, that which gained for him a "world-wide" reputation, was his "Principles of Midwifery," a work which passed through ten editions, and was translated into several foreign languages. The death of this eminent man was a melancholy one. About the middle of June, 1850, he was in Liverpool on his return from Bath; and finding his favourite steam-ship, the Orion, about to sail for Glasgow, he waited for it, and embarked on the doomed vessel on the 17th. Early next morning the shipwreck occurred. Dr. Burns made no effort to save himself, but falling on his knees on deck, and uttering a fervent prayer, he met his end with characteristic resignation.—J. A. L.
BURNS, Robert, the poet of Scotland and the greatest lyric of modern times, was born in a cottage, about two miles from the town of Ayr, on the 25th January, 1759. His father, William Burness—for so William spelt the family name—had migrated to Ayrshire from the north, where his father, the poet's grandfather, Robert Burnes—another variation of the name—occupied the farm of Clockenhill in Kincardineshire, under the Earls Marischal. A family tradition averred that the Burnesses had been "out for the Stuarts," and although the particulars have never been correctly ascertained, the tradition was believed by the poet, and may account for his Jacobite tendencies which could have no birthplace in the covenanting county of Ayr. It may, perhaps, also have influenced the migration of Robert's father, who, on his arrival in Ayrshire, was employed as a gardener, first by the laird of Fairlie, and afterwards by Mr. Crawford of Doonside. He then, on the banks of the Doon, rented seven acres of land for a nursery ground, and there, with his own hands, he built the cottage in which Robert was ushered into his feverish and unrequited life. The poet's mother, Agnes, daughter of Gilbert Brown of Craigenton in Carrick, had little education beyond that of being able to read her Bible; but the poet's father was a man of hard-headed intelligence, and encouraged learning according to his ability; sent Robert to a little school at Alloway-mill, and took the principal part in establishing a young dominie, John Murdoch, from whom Robert learned to read. William was a worthy specimen of the class that Scotland, for the last fifty years, has been so industriously engaged in expatriating—the Scottish peasant—a man who wrought hard, believed his faith, practised integrity, had the fear of God before him, and wished to bring up his children well—indulged in speculative theology, and fought his battle of life unflinchingly. He never throve; yet, with adverse wind and tide, he held his face ever firm towards the blast, and in a very limited sphere exhibited qualities that had the elements of greatness. When Robert was seven years of age, his father removed to the farm of Mount Oliphant, and there Robert wrought his daily work, as was the custom of the farmer's son. At fifteen he could do the work of a man. His form was robust; yet overtasked by labour before the frame was knit, the nervous constitution, though it did not give way, received a strain,
