[Burns, John], politician and Socialist, born at Vauxhall, of humble parentage; bred to be an engineer; imbibed socialistic ideas from a fellow-workman, a Frenchman, a refugee of the Commune from Paris; became a platform orator in the interest of Socialism, and popular among the working class; got into trouble in consequence; was four times elected member of the London County Council for Battersea; and has been twice over chosen to represent that constituency in Parliament; b. 1858.
[Burns, Robert], celebrated Scottish poet, born at Alloway, near Ayr, in 1759, son of an honest, intelligent peasant, who tried farming in a small way, but did not prosper; tried farming himself on his father's decease in 1784, but took to rhyming by preference; driven desperate in his circumstances, meditated emigrating to Jamaica, and published a few poems he had composed to raise money for that end; realised a few pounds thereby, and was about to set sail, when friends and admirers rallied round him and persuaded him to stay; he was invited to Edinburgh; his poems were reprinted, and money came in; soon after he married, and took a farm, but failing, accepted the post of exciseman in Dumfries; fell into bad health, and died in 1796, aged 37. "His sun shone as through a tropical tornado, and the pale shadow of death eclipsed it at noon.... To the ill-starred Burns was given the power of making man's life more venerable, but that of wisely guiding his own life was not given.... And that spirit, which might have soared could it but have walked, soon sank to the dust, its glorious faculties trodden under foot in the blossom; and died, we may almost say, without ever having lived." See [Carlyle's] "Miscellanies" for by far the justest and wisest estimate of both the man and the poet that has yet by any one been said or sung. He is at his best in his "Songs," he says, which he thinks "by far the best that Britain has yet produced.... In them," he adds, "he has found a tune and words for every mood of man's heart; in hut and hall, as the heart unfolds itself in many-coloured joy and woe of existence, the name, the voice of that joy and that woe, is the name and voice which Burns has given them."
[Burra-Burra], a copper-mine in S. Australia, about 103 m. NE. of Adelaide.
[Burrard Inlet], an inlet of river Fraser, in British Columbia, forming one of the best harbours on the Pacific coast.
[Burritt, Elihu], a blacksmith, born in Connecticut; devoted to the study of languages, of which he knew many, both ancient and modern; best known as the unwearied Advocate of Peace all over America and a great part of Europe, on behalf of which he ruined his voice (1810-1879).
[Burroughs, John], popular author, born in New York; a farmer, a cultured man, with a great liking for country life and natural objects, on which he has written largely and con amore; b. 1837.
[Burrus], a Roman general, who with Seneca had the conduct of Nero's education, and opposed his tyrannical acts, till Nero, weary of his expostulations, got rid of him by poison.
[Burschenschaft], an association of students in the interest of German liberation and unity; formed in 1813, and broken up by the Government in 1819.
[Burslem] (31), a pottery-manufacturing town in Staffordshire, and the "mother of the potteries"; manufactures porcelain and glass.
[Burton, John Hill], historian and miscellaneous writer, born at Aberdeen; an able man, bred for the bar; wrote articles for the leading reviews and journals, "Life of Hume," "History of Scotland," "The Book-Hunter," "The Scot Abroad," &c.; characterised by Lord Rosebery as a "dispassionate historian"; was Historiographer-Royal for Scotland (1809-1881).