Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/111

 BURNETT

83

BURNETT

lei of latitude the second portion stretches north to the Tropic of Cancer, bordered on the east and south by China, Annani, and Siam, and on the west by the River Salween.

The beginnings of the mission go back to 1868, when the Milan Seminary of Foreign Missions sent thither Monsignor BiHi as prefect Apostolic, accom- panied by Sebastian Carbode, Conti, and R.0CC0 Tornatori. The last named of these is the present vicar Apostolic, and has resided forty years in the vicariate. There are 10,300 Catholics in this vicariate, the population of which is not exactly known, but amounts to something like 2,000,000. The vicar Apostolic resides in the Leitko Hills and visits 130 villages in the Karenni district, where thru are 10,000 Catholics — almost the whole Catholic popula- tion of the vicariate. There is a school, with 65 children, a convent of the Sisters of Nazareth of Milan, with 40 girls, and, in some of the villages, the beginnings of schools with a few pupils. Toungoo, in the south of the vicariate, with 300 Catholics, has an English school of 130 children of various races, a Native school of 100 children, and a convent oi the Sisters of the Reparation of Nazareth of Milan with 70 girls. There are 10 priests. In 1902 there were 140 conversions from Paganism and from Protestantism. The stations provided with priests are, besides tin- residence of the vicar Apostolic, Toungoo, Northern Karenni, Yedashe, and Karenni.

Siiithern- Burma. — This vicariate, entrusted to the Missions Etrangeres of Paris, comprises all the territory included in British (Lower) Burma before the annexation of Upper Burma, with the exception, however, of tin' province of Arakan (attached in Is7" to in' Diocese of Dacca) and the Toungoo district (assigned to the Vicariate of Eastern Burma), It is, therefore, bounded on the east by the Diocese of Dacca, on the north by Eastern Burma, on the west by Siam, and on the south by the sea. It ex- tends from the nineteenth to the tenth parallel of north latitude, and, beginning from Moulmein, forms a long and rather narrow strip of land shut in between Siam on the one side and the sea on the other.

In a population estimated at 4.000,000 as many as 45,579 Catholics are found distributed among 23 stations, the most important of which in respect "I Catholic population are: Rangoon, with 2336 Catho- lics; Moulmein, 1400; Bassein. 1040; Myaung-mya, 4000; Kanaztogon, 44S2; Mittagon, 3000: Maryland, 2412; Gyobingauk Tharrawady, 2200. The seat oi the vicariate Apostolic is at Rangoon. The clergy number 49 European priests and 8 native priests, and the vicariate has 231 churches and chapels. The schools are conducted by the Brothers of the Chris- tian Schools, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, of St. Joseph of the Apparition, and of St. Francis Xavier, those known under this last name being The vicariate supports 12 Anglo-native

. with 4501 children, and 65 Buriiian or Tamil schools which give instruction to 2200 pupils. The Little Sisters of the Poor, 9 in number, take care of 55 old people at Rangoon, and the Missionaries of Mary have an asylum sheltering 100 children, be- sides which there are 21 orphanages, containing 790

children, under the care of the above mentioned re

ligious communities. This vicariate, therefore, is further advanced in Christianity than the other two, a condition due to its greater accessibility and the British influence, which is more fully developed in these regions. In 1845, as has been seen, there were only 2500 Catholics in Burma, sixty years later there are 59,127— a proof of the activity of the missionaries and a pledge for the future.

Monsignor Alexander Cardot. Bishop of Litnyra, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Burma, was born at Fresse, Haute-Saone, France, 9 January, 1859, and

educated in the seminaries of T.uneuil and Vesoul and of the Missions Etrangeres. Monsignor Cardot begin his labours in the mission field in 1879, and in 1893 was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Bigandet, his predecessor in the vicariate, who consecrated him at Rangoon (21 June, 1893) He succeeded to the vicariate on the death of Bishop Bigandet, 1!) March, 1894.

Streit, Atlas des Missions (Steyl, L906); Madras Catholic Directory (1907 ; R no, li'io; 132-237.

Albert Battandier.

Burnett, Peter Hardeman, first American Governor of California, V. S. A., b. in Nashville, Tennessee, 15 Nov., L807, of Virginian ancestry; d. at San Francisco. California, 16 May, 1895. At an early age he was taken by his father to Missouri, where amid primitive conditions of life he succeeded in obtaining an elementary education. At the age of nineteen he returned to Tennessee, and soon after married Harriet \\. Rogers, to whom he attributed much of the success ol his later career. After his marriage he started in business for himself, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He also edited "The Far West", a weekly paper published at Liberty, Missouri. About this time he became a member of the Church of the Disciples, or Campbel- lites, founded by Alexander Campbell, a seceder from the Baptists. In 1843, removing with his family to Oregon, he took a prominent part in the formation of the territorial government and was a member of the legislature from is 11 to L848. During this period the published debate between Campbell and Bishop l'urcell of Cincinnati fell into his hands, and though after reading it he still remained a Protestant, his confidence in Protestanti mwa con iderably shaken. He then began a systematic inve tigation ol the true religion, became convinced of the truth of the Catholic claims, and in June, is It i, was received into the Church at I iregon City by Father De Vos.

In the year 1848 Burnett went to California, where he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly

and took a leading part in its proceedings. He was appointed judge of the superior tribunal in \ugu t, 1849 and did good work in the training of the State Constitution. In Septembi chosen chief

justice, and on the thirteenth of November of the same year he was elected the first American Governor of California, though California was not admitted as a State into the Union till September, 1850. He re- signed the governorship in 1851 and resumed the practice of law until his appo ntmi til in 1857 as a Justice of the Supreme Court of California by Gov. .1. Xeely Johnson. His term expired iii October, 1858. lb- was also President of the Pacific Bank from 1863 to 1880, after which he retired from active

business. In 1860 Judge Burnett wrote his fat is

book "The Path which led a Protestant Lawyer to

the Catholic Church" (New York, I860), wherein

his conversion on clear-cut logical principles.

With regard to this work I >r. Brow nson says "In writing his book. Judge Burnett has rendered a noble homage to his new faith. . . . Through him, California has made a more glorious contribution to the Union than all the gold of her mines, for truth

is more an gold, yea, than fine gold''

(Brownson's Review, April, I860, This was fol- lowed by his work on The American 1 heory of Government, Considered with Reference to the Present Crisis" (2d ed., New York, L861). During the period of his retirement he published •■Recol-

and Opinions of an • Md Pioneer" (New York, I860), which "is especially valuable Ln con- nexion with the early political and constitutional

of the Pacific coast" (Nation. XXX,

389), and "Reasons Why We Should Believe in Cod, Love God and Obey God" (New York, 1884).