Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/872

BUR 1799 Burrowes became a member of the Irish parliament for the borough of Enniscorthy. He opposed the measure of union. When "all the talents" came into power, Fox obtained for him the lucrative office of first counsel to the commissioners of the revenue, from which he was displaced when that ministry broke up. In 1821, under Lord Sidmouth's administration, he was appointed commissioner of the first court for the relief of insolvent debtors, established in Ireland. On resigning this office in 1835, he was given a pension of £1600 a year. His death occurred in 1842. Few men seem to have been more loved than Burrowes was by his friends.—J. A., D.  BURSER,, a German physician and botanist, was born in Lusatia in 1603, and died in 1689. He devoted himself to botany. After an extensive course of travel he became professor of medicine at Sora. He bequeathed his herbarium to the university of Upsal. A genus of plants is named Bursera after him. His published works are chiefly medical.—J. H. B.  BURTON,, born at Birsall in Yorkshire about 1579. After leaving Oxford, where he took the degrees of M.A. and M.D., he became tutor to the son of Lord Carey of Lepington, and subsequently clerk of the closet to Prince Henry. For publishing his two sermons, entitled "For God and the King," he was committed to the Fleet prison, and proceeded against in the Star-chamber. To the information which was filed against him he prepared an elaborate reply; but this his judges refused him permission to read in court. Along with Prynne and Bastwick, his fellow-prisoners, he was sentenced to pay a fine of £5000, to be set on the pillory and have his ears cut off, and to be placed in solitary confinement in Lancaster castle. An order of council in 1637 transferred him to Cornet castle, in the isle of Guernsey, where he remained three years. In 1640, upon his wife's petitioning the house of commons to reconsider his sentence, he was brought to the bar of the house, freed from fine and imprisonment, restored to his academical degrees and to his benefice, and awarded £10,000 as a compensation for the loss of his ears. He died in 1648. His works, like the course of his life, exhibit rather a violent temper than a great intellect.  BURTON,, author of the famous book, "The Anatomy of Melancholy," by Democritus Junior, was born at Lindley, Leicestershire, February 8th, 1576. He was educated at the grammar school of Sutton Colfield, Warwickshire, whence he proceeded to Brazenose college, Oxford, and afterwards was elected student of Christ church. He received the vicarage of St. Thomas, Oxford, and also the rectory of Segrave, Leicestershire—the former being presented to him by the dean and canons of Christ church, and the latter by Lord Berkeley. He retained both "with much ado" (to use the expression of Anthony Wood in his Athena; Oxonienses) to his dying day, his residence being principally at Oxford. He lived a silent, sedentary, solitary life, for the most part confining himself to his study. Possessed of a fantastic humour he read an infinite number of books, seeking "to have an oar in every man's boat, to taste of every dish, and sip of every cup," while his delight in any subject was almost proportioned to its quaintness and its oddity. He likens himself to a ranging spaniel that barks at every bird he sees, leaving his game, and following all save that which he should. Wood states that Burton was an "exact mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough pac'd philologist, and one that understood the surveying of lands well." He appears to have devoted himself to the composition of his great work, for the purpose of avoiding melancholy, by being busy. He says that he had a kind of imposthume in his head which he was very desirous to be unladen of, and could imagine no fitter evacuation than his book, and urges that he could not well refrain from dissecting melancholy, for ubi dolor ibi digitus. "The Anatomy of Melancholy" was first printed in 1621, and passed through several large editions, to the great good fortune of the bookseller, who got an estate by it. It is probably the most curious repertory of apt quotations,—evincing the quaintest possible learning the world of literature contains—and has often been found exactly the book to furnish scholastic discourse "to gentles who have lost their time, and are put to a push for invention." It contains manifest indications of that peculiarly clear moral insight into social hypocrisies which characterizes those in whom humour and honesty are blended—their humour being honest, while their honesty is humorous. The style of this book is rough, the author declaring himself one who respects matter and not words, calling a spade a spade, and quoting Seneca to prove that "a fellow careful about his words" has no solidity in him. At the same time, Burton's mind was not without poetical grace, as is evidenced by some very sweet introductory verses, which are not unlike passages in Milton's Il Penseroso, both in music and in thought. The "Anatomy," although popular for half a century, and now again well known, was, during the intermediate period, a mine of wealth to plagiarists. Sterne borrowed largely from it. Burton died at Oxford, either at or very near the time which he had for some years foretold from the calculation of his own nativity: upon which it was whispered among the students that he had committed suicide, rather than that there should be a mistake in the calculation—a tale which, although entirely unauthenticated, yet indicates the quaintness of his character as impressed upon his friends. He was buried at Christ church, Oxford, January 27th, 1639. On the monument erected over his grave, was inscribed his nativity, with its mystic signs, and an inscription (also drawn up by himself) declaring that to Melancholy he was indebted both for life and death.—L. L. P.  * BURTON,, advocate, author of some valuable historical and biographical works, was born at Aberdeen in 1809. He lost his father, who was an officer in the 94th regiment, in early youth, and owed his education at Marischal college to the prudence with which his mother managed her somewhat scanty resources. Having taken the degree of M.A., he was apprenticed to a legal practitioner in his native city, and in 1831 became a member of the Scottish bar. The leisure which a young advocate usually enjoys he devoted to the study of law, history, and political economy, contributing articles on these subjects to the Westminster Review, and afterwards to the Edinburgh Review. He is the author of "Life and Correspondence of David Hume;" "Political and Social Economy;" "A Manual of the Law of Scotland;" and a "History of Scotland, from the Revolution to the Extinction of the last Jacobite Insurrection."—J. S., G.  * BURTON,, Captain, an eminent African traveller, was born at Tuam, Galway, in 1821. Entering the Indian army in 1842, he served five years in Scinde under Sir Charles J. Napier. In 1855 he acted as military secretary under General Beatson; after which he commenced those travels in Africa which have rendered his name famous. (See .) For his important discoveries in that country, Captain Burton obtained the gold medals of the French and English Geographical Societies, and in 1861 was made British consul at Fernando Po. His work, "The Lake Regions of Central Africa," is well known.—J. D.  BUSBY,, a celebrated English pedagogue, born at Lutton, 22nd September, 1606. After receiving his education as a king's scholar at Westminster, he was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford. He was so poor at this time that the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, paid his fees for the degrees of B.A. and M.A., a kindness which he repaid by a liberal bequest to the parish at his death. Having entered into holy orders, he became first rector of Cudworth, and a prebendary of Wells, and then, in 1640, head master of Westminster school, an office which he held for fifty-five years. In 1660 he obtained a prebendal stall in Westminster, and became canon residentiary and treasurer of Wells. He died 6th April, 1695. He was distinguished for his learning and success as a teacher.—J. T.  BUSBY,, Mus. Doc, was born at Westminster, Dec, 1755, and died at Islington in 1838. He was for five years an articled pupil of Jonathan Battishill; in 1780 he was engaged as organist at St. Mary's, Newington, and about twenty years later received the same appointment at the church of St. Mary, Woolnoth. In 1800 he obtained his degree at Cambridge, his exercise for which was an ode on the victories of the British navy. He produced an oratorio called "The Prophecy," in 1799, which had no success; he wrote some other works of the same class, some dramatic pieces, and some detached songs. The only one of all these compositions that has overlived the time when it was written, is the music in a Tale of Mystery, notable as being the first melodrama given on the English stage, which was first performed at Covent Garden theatre in 1802, Busby had a classical education, and distinguished himself more by his literary than by his musical works. He published "The Age of Genius," a poem, 1785; a translation of Lucretius; "Arguments and Facts proving that the Letters of Junius were written by J. L. de Lolme," 1816; a musical dictionary, often reprinted; a musical grammar, which also has been reprinted under various <section end="872Zcontin" />