[Burke, William], a notorious murderer, native of Ireland; executed in 1828 for wholesale murders of people in Edinburgh by suffocation, after intoxicating them with drink, whose bodies he sold for dissection to an Edinburgh anatomist of the name of Knox, whom the citizens mobbed; he had an accomplice as bad as himself, who, becoming informer, got off.
[Burkitt, William], Biblical expositor, born in Suffolk; author of "Expository Notes on the New Testament," once held in high esteem (1650-1703).
[Burleigh, William Cecil, Lord], a great statesman, born in Lincolnshire; bred to the legal profession, and patronised and promoted by the Protector Somerset; managed to escape the Marian persecution; Queen Elizabeth recognised his statesman-like qualities, and appointed him chief-secretary of state, an office which, to the glory of the queen and the good of the country, he held for forty years, till his death. His administration was conducted in the interest of the commonweal without respect of persons, and nearly all his subordinates were men of honour as well as himself (1520-1598).
[Burlingame, Anson], American diplomatist; sent ambassador to China, and returned as Chinese envoy to the American and European courts; concluded treaties between them and China (1820-1870).
[Burma] (9,606), a vast province of British India, lying E. of the Bay of Bengal, and bounded landward by Bengal, Tibet, China, and Siam; the country is mountainous, drained by the Irawadi, Salween, and Sittang Rivers, whose deltas are flat fertile plains; the heights on the Chinese frontier reach 15,000 ft; the climate varies with the elevation, but is mostly hot and trying; rice is the chief crop; the forests yield teak, gum, and bamboo; the mines, iron, copper, lead, silver, and rubies. Lower Burma is the coast-land from Bengal to Siam, cap. Rangoon, and was seized by Britain in 1826 and 1854. Upper Burma, cap. Mandalay, an empire nearly as large as Spain, was annexed in 1886.
[Burn, Richard], English vicar, born in Westmoreland; compiled several law digests, the best known his "Justice of the Peace" and "Ecclesiastical Law" (1709-1785).
[Burnaby, Colonel], a traveller of daring adventure, born at Bedford, a tall, powerful man; Colonel of the Horse Guards Blue; travelled in South and Central America, and with Gordon in the Soudan; was chiefly distinguished for his ride to Khiva in 1875 across the steppes of Tartary, of which he published a spirited account, and for his travels next year in Asia Minor and Persia, and his account of them in "On Horseback through Asia Minor"; killed, pierced by an Arab spear, at Abu Klea as he was rallying a broken column to the charge; he was a daring aëronaut, having in 1882 crossed the Channel to Normandy in a balloon (1842-1885).
[Burnand, Francis Cowley], editor of Punch; studied for the Church, and became a Roman Catholic; an expert at the burlesque, and author of a series of papers, entitled "Happy Thoughts," which give evidence of a most keen, observant wit: b. 1836.
[Burne-Jones, Sir Edward], artist, born at Birmingham, of Welsh descent; came early under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and all along produced works imbued with the spirit of it, which is at once mystical in conception and realistic in execution; he was one of the foremost, if not the foremost, of the artists of his day; imbued with ideas that were specially capable of art-treatment; William Morris and he were bosom friends from early college days at Oxford, and used to spend their Sunday mornings together (1831-1898).