Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/425

 which Sir J. Mackintosh declared that the restoration of ‘a single passage in Demosthenes was alone worth the sum in the eyes of a free nation,’ it was agreed to purchase the whole for 13,500l.; and the collection was deposited in the British Museum under the name of the ‘Burney Library.’ Its contents were thus classified by the committee of the House of Commons appointed to report upon it:—1. The printed books numbered from 13,000 to 14,000, and consisted mostly of classical editions bought by Burney at sales beginning with that of the Pinelli collection. The margins are covered with notes in Burney's hand, in addition to those by Stephanus, Bentley, Markland, and others. The volumes were so arranged that the state of the classical texts could be seen from their first known production to their latest change. The editions of the leading classics, especially the Greek tragedians, exceeded in number those in the British Museum before the accession of the former. 2. The manuscripts included the Townley Homer, considered to be of the thirteenth century, and valued by the commissioners at 1,000l.; and two manuscripts of the Greek orators assigned respectively to the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. 3. A collection of newspapers from 1603. 4. A collection of from 300 to 400 volumes in quarto, containing materials for a history of the stage. 4. Theatrical prints from the time of Elizabeth.

 BURNEY, FRANCES. [See .]

BURNEY, JAMES (1750–1821), captain in the royal navy, son of Dr. (1726–1814) [q. v.] and brother of [q. v.] entered the navy in 1764, and having served on the coast of North America and in the Mediterranean with Captain Onslow in the Aquilon frigate, sailed with Captain Cook in his second voyage, 1772–4, during which time he was (17 April 1773) promoted to be lieutenant. In 1775 he was in the Cerberus on the North American station, and was recalled to sail again under Cook in his third voyage. Consequent on the deaths of Cook and Clerke, he came home in command of the Discovery, and was confirmed as commander on 2 Oct. 1780. On 18 June 1782 he was advanced to the rank of captain, and appointed to the Bristol of 50 guns, in which he went out to the East Indies, and joined Sir Edward Hughes in time to take part in the last action of the war, off Cuddalore, on 20 June 1783. It was of this outward-bound voyage that Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale: ‘I question if any ship upon the ocean goes out attended with more good wishes than that which carries the fate of Burney. I love all of that breed whom I can be said to know, and one or two whom I hardly know I love upon credit.’ From the East Indies Burney returned to England in ill-health, and did not serve again. When the war of the French revolution broke out, he made no application for a ship, and was consequently placed on the superannuated list, when his seniority would otherwise have entitled him to flag rank. His leisure had been, and continued to be, devoted to literature, and in 1803 he began the publication of ‘A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean,’ which extended to 5 vols. 4to, and was not completed till 1817; it is well known as the standard work on the subject. He afterwards published ‘A Chronological History of North-eastern Voyages of Discovery and of the Early Eastern Navigations of the Russians,’ 1819, 8vo. He was also the author of several smaller works and pamphlets, mostly on professional subjects, but including ‘An Essay on the Game of Whist,’ 1821, 16mo, which ran through several editions. He died suddenly of apoplexy on 17 Nov. 1821.

 BURNEY, SARAH HARRIET (1770?–1844), novelist, the youngest daughter of Dr. (1726–1814) [q. v.] was his only child by his second wife, Mrs. Stephen Allen, widow of a wealthy merchant at Lynn (Introd. to Diary of Mme. d'Arblay, i. 13). No date is given for the birth of Sarah Harriet, but it must have been about 1770. Sarah Harriet Burney is referred to in 1778 as ‘little Sally’ by Mme. d'Arblay (Diary, i. 31), and in 1791 and 1792 she accompanied her half-sister to Hastings's trial by express invitation of the queen. She could translate Ariosto from the Italian (Tales of Fancy, preceding vol. ii.), besides being an excellent French scholar; and on the arrival in England of the French émigrés in 1792, when she was staying at Bradfield Hall with Arthur Young the agriculturist (who had married her mother's sister), she acted as interpreter between her uncle and the Duc de Liancourt, who was