Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/624

562 1862. The chief is assisted by a  and assistant-, three s of  and, thirteen -s, one  of -tracts, twenty-two assistant-s, four collectors of -, a director of , an  of , an  of s, and a conservator of s. A  is established at the  of , and an assistant  at , for facilitating   with  and. The are—the  of, the  , the  of the  of , the  of the , , and three  s. For , see. 

BURMANN, (1668–1741), a   scholar, was born at  on the 26th  1668. He was at the public school in his, and at the age of thirteen entered the. He devoted himself particularly to the study of the classical languages, and became unusually proficient in composition. As he was intended for the he spent some s in attendance on the  classes. For about a he studied at, paying special attention to  and. On his return to he took the  of  of s ( 1688), and after travelling through  and part of, settled down to the  of. In 1691 he was appointed receiver of the s which were originally paid to the  of, and five s later he was nominated to the ship of  and. To this chair was soon added that of and. In 1714 he paid a short visit to and ransacked the, bringing back a “great treasure of useful observations.” In the following  he was appointed successor to the celebrated , who had held the chair of , , and  at. His numerous ial and  spread his fame as a scholar throughout, and engaged him in many of the stormy disputes which were then so common among men of letters. He died on the 31st 1741.



BURNES, (1805–1841), a traveller in, was born at  in 1805. While serving in, in the of the , which he had joined in his seventeenth , he made himself acquainted with  and , and thus obtained an appointment as  at  in 1822. Transferred to in 1826 as assistant to the, he turned his attention more particularly to the  and  of North-Western  and the adjacent , which at that time were very imperfectly known. His proposal in 1829 to undertake a journey of exploration through the of the  was not carried out owing to political apprehensions; but in 1831 he was sent to  with a present of s from  to the , and took advantage of the opportunity for extensive investigations. In the following s his travels were extended through, across the to  and. The narrative which he on his visit to  in 1834 added immensely to our knowledge of the countries traversed, and was one of the most popular s of the time. The first edition brought the author the sum of 800, and his services were recognized not only by the of, but also by that of. Soon after his return to in 1835 he was appointed to the court of  to secure a  for the  of the ; and in 1836 he undertook a political mission to  at. On the restoration of  in 1839, he became regular  at, and remained there till his  in 1841 ( 2), during the heat of an. The calmness with which he continued at his post, long after the imminence of his danger was apparent, gives an ic colouring to the close of an able and devoted life. A narrative of his later labours was published in 1842 under the title of Cabool. 

BURNET, (1643-1715), bishop of Salisbury, was born at Edinburgh in 1643, and was descended of an ancient family of the county of Aberdeen. His father had been bred to the law, and was at the Restoration appointed one of the lords of Session, with the title of Lord Crimond. Gilbert, the youngest son, was at ten years of age sent to Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he was admitted A.M. before he was fourteen years of age. His own inclination led him to the study of the civil and feudal law; but he afterwards changed his views, and, to the great satisfaction of his father, began to apply to divinity. He received ordination before the age of eighteen; and Sir Alexander Burnet, his cousin-german, offered him a benefice, which, however, he refused to accept.

In 1663, about two years after the death of his father, he went to England; and after six months stay at Oxford and Cambridge, returned to Scotland, which he soon left again to make a tour of some months, in 1664, in Holland and France. At Amsterdam, by the help of a Jewish rabbi, he perfected himself in the Hebrew language; and likewise became acquainted with the leading men of the different persuasions tolerated in that country—Calvinists, Arminians, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Brownists, Papists, and Unitarians. In each of these sects he used frequently to declare he met with men of such unfeigned piety and virtue that he became fixed in a strong principle of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of all severities on account of religious dissensions.

Upon his return from his travels he was admitted minister of Saltoun, in which station he served five years in the most exemplary manner. He drew up a memorial, in which he took notice of the principal errors in the conduct of the Scottish bishops, which he observed not to be conformable to the primitive institution, and he sent a copy of it to several of them. This exposed him to their resentment; but to show he was not actuated by a spirit of ambition, he led a retired course of life for two years, which so endangered his health that he was obliged to abate his excessive application to study. In the year 1668 he was appointed professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow; and, according to the usual practice, he read his lectures in the Latin language. It was apparently at this period that he laid the chief foundation of that theological learning for which he became so distinguished. In 1669 he published his Modest and Free Conference between a Conformist and Nonconformist. He became acquainted with the duchess of Hamilton, who communicated to him all the papers belonging to her father and her uncle; upon which he drew up the Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, afterwards printed at London, in folio, in the year 1677. The duke of Lauderdale, hearing that he was engaged in this work, invited him to London, and introduced him to Charles II. He returned to Scotland, and married Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of the earl of Cassillis, a lady of great knowledge, and highly esteemed by the Presbyterians, to whose sentiments she was strongly inclined. As there was some disparity in their ages, that it might be