Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/871

BUR and Works, by Robert Chambers, Edinburgh, 1852. In America many editions have of course appeared, and the French and Germans have tried the rather difficult task of rendering Burns in other languages. The French edition is entitled "Poesies complètes de Robert Burns, traduites de l'Ecossais par M. Leon de Wailly," Paris, 1843.—P. E. D.  BURR,, president of New Jersey college, memorable for the success of his efforts to extend the usefulness of that institution, was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1716. He died in 1757, leaving a high and unblemished reputation both as a scholar and a divine.—F. B.  BURR,, son of the preceding; a conspicuous actor in the early history of the republic of the United States, though of more than equivocal fame, was born at Newark, New Jersey, February, 1756. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, he joined the army at Cambridge, and having taken part in various expeditions, he retired from the service in 1780. Entering upon the profession of the law at Albany in 1782, he shortly afterwards removed to New York, where politics began to divide with law his ambition, and he was elected to the senate. He espoused at once the opposition party. His severance from Washington's military family imbued his mind with a strong dislike to the head of the administration, and to the last he never ceased to undervalue him. Two or three years later, the democratic party, who owed him much, secured for him the vice-presidency, after a hard contest; but when, three years later, they strove to gain for him the governor's chair of New York, the design was baffled mainly by the activity of Hamilton. The duel with Hamilton which followed this defeat, was the turning-point in Burr's history. He was henceforward to be an adventurer; and life seldom showed to him any other face but that of a hard and dark experience. In 1807 his lawless designs on the Spanish provinces of South America led to his arrest. He was indicted for high treason at Richmond; but such had been the eagerness for his ruin, that time had not been left him for an overt act, and his acquittal followed. He sailed not long after for England, from which, being obliged to depart, he crossed the channel to gain, if possible, the ear of the French emperor—but in vain. In 1812 he ventured with fear and trembling, partly from his many private debts, and partly from the jealousy of those in power, and the aversion of the public at large, to return to his native land. His subsequent history is told in a line, as only that of penury, obscurity, and neglect. He died in 1836. Hardly more as a demagogue than as a debauchee, his name has passed into a proverb. His life has been twice written—by his companion, Matthew L. Davis, and by J. Parton of New York.—J. P. D.  * BURRIT,, an American, commonly known as "the learned blacksmith," and as the earnest advocate of peace or "the universal brotherhood" of nations, was born at New Britain, Connecticut, December 8, 1811. His father was a shoemaker. On his father's death he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, after he had received but a very limited education in a common school. He worked at his trade for several years in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the library of the Antiquarian Society supplied him with books. An early fancy for the study of languages was developed by unremitting application, not only during his leisure hours, but while he was at work hammering iron, as he contrived to have a grammar open before him, and could catch glimpses enough of the printed page to keep his thoughts busy, while his muscles were strained at their proper work. In this way he gained a good knowledge of a few, and a smattering of very many tongues. Offers were made to give him a college education, but he preferred this combination of physical and mental labour, and declined them. But he was gradually weaned from the forge by the ambition of teaching his fellow-men, and otherwise improving their condition. He began his career as a philanthropist by editing some periodicals, and contributing to others. War and intemperance are the evils against which his labours have been chiefly directed, and he has attracted more notice by lecturing than by writing against them. In June, 1846, he came to Europe, and was warmly welcomed by the band of reformers who are interested in his favourite projects. In England, and on the continent, he has laboured zealously to commend his scheme of a great peace league to public favour, though with no very encouraging prospects of success. One of his latest publications is entitled "Thoughts and Things at Home and Abroad."—F. B.  BURROUGH,, one of the earliest preachers and writers among the Quakers, born about the year 1634, near Kendal, Westmoreland, was brought over to the Society of Friends by personal intercourse with George Fox. About the year 1654, when he was twenty years of age, he went to London, and began preaching. At that time the Society of Friends appears to have possessed no meeting-house in the metropolis; but this was no disadvantage to a preacher of the ready eloquence of Burrough. Crowds of people attended on his ministration—many regularly and with profit. While in Ireland for a short period he wrote "The Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Zion, which sounds forth the controversy of the Lord of Hosts." In 1662-63, while preaching at a meeting of his brethren, he was seized by a party of soldiers, and committed to Newgate. After eight months' confinement he died of fever. His works, of which the one above-noted is the most important, were collected in one volume, folio, 1672.—J. S., G.  BURROUGH,, an English navigator of the sixteenth century, sailed in 1553 as master of Richard Chancellor's ship, the Edward Bonaventure, in the expedition fitted out under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, in search of a northeastern passage to Cathay (or China); that is, by way of the arctic coasts of Europe and Asia. This expedition, disastrous as regarded its gallant leader and his immediate companions, was attended by results highly important in a commercial point of view. The merchant-adventurers of London were eager to prosecute the cause of north-eastern discovery, and three years later, in 1556, Burrough was despatched on an enterprise of the like description; a small vessel, the Searchthrift pinnace, being fitted out for the purpose, and placed under his command. Burrough sailed from Gravesend on April 29th of that year. Entering the small river Kola in Russian Lapland, on the way, he and his companions proceeded along the coast to the eastward as far as the island of Waygatz in lat. 70° 29´, long. 59° 10´. In the following year he returned to England, and is stated to have been subsequently made comptroller of the royal navy. The narrative of his voyage is given in Hakluyt.—W. H.  BURROW,, born in 1701; died in 1782. In 1724 he was made master of the crown office, which he held till his death. On West's death, he filled the chair of president of the Royal Society till the regular time for the next election, when Sir John Pringle succeeded. In the interval, on the presentation of an address from the society to the king, Burrow was knighted. Burrow's claim, however, to be remembered, arises from his having published reports of Lord Mansfield's decisions. The reports extend from 26 George II. to 12 George III.—J. A., D.  BURROUGHES,, a puritan divine, born in 1596, educated at Cambridge, was obliged to quit that university for nonconformity. He was for some time minister of an English church at Rotterdam, and after his return to England in 1642 officiated to two of the largest congregations in London—Stepney and Cripplegate. He was a man of eminent learning and piety. His works include an "Exposition of Hosea," 3 vols. <section end="871H" /> <section begin="871Zcontin" />BURROWES,, born at Portarlington in Queen's county, Ireland, in 1753; entered Trinity college, Dublin, in 1774; obtained a scholarship in 1777. In the year 1784 Burrowes, then a law student at the middle temple, published a pamphlet on the subject of admitting the Roman catholics of Ireland to the elective franchise, which led to an acquaintance with Flood, who ultimately secured his return for the borough of Seaford. In 1785 he was called to the Irish bar, and soon got a good deal of employment, chiefly in election cases. In 1794 he was engaged in a duel, the particulars of which exhibit a strange picture of the manners of that day. Lord Mountgarret had lawsuits—as the story is told by Mr. Burrowes' biographer—with refractory tenants. It would appear that at every assizes of the county town cases between his lordship and his tenants were sure to come, and that he was generally the loser in these contests. Under these circumstances he posted a notice, insisting that the members of the bar should decline holding briefs against him, or if not, he offered the alternative of fighting him. The extraordinary thing is that duels did follow. The litigation, it would appear, survived his lordship. Burrowes had the luck to hold a brief in one of the records arising from the management of the Mountgarret lands, and he found himself under the necessity of sending a challenge to the Honourable Somerset Butler. Burrowes fell, as everyone thought, mortally wounded, and a strange escape he had. The ball struck against a penny-piece, part of some change accidentally in his waistcoat pocket. In <section end="871Zcontin" />