The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 96

BUNSBY, JACK, commander of a s.h.i.+p in "Dombey & Son," regarded as an oracle by Captain Cuttle.

BUNSEN, BARON VON, a diplomatist and man of letters, born at Korbach; in Waldeck; studied at Marburg and Gottingen; became acquainted with Niebuhr at Berlin; studied Oriental languages under Silvestre de Sacy at Paris; became secretary, under Niebuhr, to the Prussian emba.s.sy at Rome; recommended himself to the king, and succeeded Niebuhr; became amba.s.sador in Switzerland and then in England; was partial to English inst.i.tutions, and much esteemed in England; wrote the "Church of the Future," "Hippolytus and his Age," &c. (1791-1860).

BUNSEN, ROBERT WILLIAM, a distinguished German chemist, born at Gottingen, settled as professor of Chemistry at Heidelberg; invented the charcoal pile, the magnesian light, and the burner called after him; discovered the antidote to a.r.s.enic, with hydrate of iron and the SPECTRUM a.n.a.lYSIS (q. v.); _b_. 1811.

BUNSEN BURNER, a small gas-jet above which is screwed a bra.s.s tube with holes at the bottom of it to let in air, which burns with the gas, and causes at the top a non-luminous flame; largely used in chemical operations.

BUNYAN, JOHN, author of the "Pilgrim's Progress," born in Elstow, near Bedford, the son of a tinker, and bred himself to that humble craft; he was early visited with religious convictions, and brought, after a time of resistance to them, to an earnest faith in the gospel of Christ, his witness for which to his poor neighbours led to his imprisonment, an imprisonment which extended first and last over twelve and a half years, and it was towards the close of it, and in the precincts of Bedford jail, in the spring of 1676, that he dreamed his world-famous dream; here two-thirds of it were written, the whole finished the year after, and published at the end of it; extended, it came out eventually in two parts, but it is the first part that is the Pilgrim's Progress, and ensures it the place it holds in the religious literature of the world; encouraged by the success of it--for it leapt into popularity at a bound--Bunyan wrote some sixty other books, but except this, his masterpiece, not more than two of these, "Grace Abounding" and the "Holy War," continue to be read (1628-1688).

BUONTALENTI, an Italian artist, born at Florence, one of the greatest, being, like Michael Angelo, at once architect, painter, and sculptor (1536-1608).

BURBAGE, RICHARD, English tragedian, born in London, a.s.sociate of Shakespeare, took the chief role in "Hamlet," "King Lear," "Richard III.," &c. (1562-1618).

BURCh.e.l.l, MR., a character in the "Vicar of Wakefield," noted for his habit of applying "fudge" to everything his neighbours affected to believe.

BURCKHARDT, Swiss historian and archaeologist, born at Bale, author of "Civilisation in Italy during the Renaissance"; _b_. 1818.

BURCKHARDT, JOHN LUDVIG, traveller, born at Lausanne, sent out from England by the African a.s.sociation to explore Africa; travelled by way of Syria; acquired a proficiency in Arabic, and a.s.sumed Arabic customs; pushed on to Mecca as a Mussulman pilgrim--the first Christian to risk such a venture; returned to Egypt, and died at Cairo just as he was preparing for his African exploration; his travels were published after his death, and are distinguished for the veracious reports of things they contain (1784-1817).

BURDER, GEORGE, Congregational minister, became secretary to the London Missionary Society, author of "Village Sermons," which were once widely popular (1752-1832).

BURDETT, SIR FRANCIS, a popular member of Parliament, married Sophia, the youngest daughter of Thomas Coutts, a wealthy London banker, and acquired through her a large fortune; becoming M.P., he resolutely opposed the government measures of the day, and got himself into serious trouble; advocated radical measures of reform, many of which have since been adopted; was prosecuted for a libel; fined 1000 for condemning the Peterloo ma.s.sacre, and imprisoned three months; joined the Conservative party in 1835, and died a member of it (1770-1844).

BURDETT-COUTTS, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ANGELA GEORGINA, BARONESS, daughter of Sir Francis, inherited the wealth of Thomas Coutts, her grandfather, which she has devoted to all manner of philanthropic as well as patriotic objects; was made a peeress in 1871; received the freedom of the city of London in 1874, and in 1881 married Mr. William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, an American, who obtained the royal license to a.s.sume the name of Burdett-Coutts; _b_. 1804.

BUREAU, a name given to a department of public administration, hence bureaucracy, a name for government by bureaux.

BuRGER, GOTTFRIED AUGUST, a German lyric poet, author of the ballads "Lenore," which was translated by Sir Walter Scott, and "The Wild Huntsman," as well as songs; led a wild life in youth, and a very unhappy one in later years; died in poverty (1747-1794).

BURGKMAIR, HANS, painter and engraver, born at Augsburg; celebrated for his woodcuts, amounting to nearly 700 (1473-1531).

BURGOS (34), ancient cap. of Old Castile, on the Arlanzon, 225 m. N.

of Madrid by rail; boasts a magnificent cathedral of the Early Pointed period, and an old castle; was the birthplace of the Cid, and once a university seat; it has linen and woollen industries.

BURGOYNE, JOHN, English general, and distinguished as the last sent out to subdue the revolt in the American colonies, and, after a victory or two, being obliged to capitulate to General Gates at Saratoga, fell into disfavour; defended his conduct with ability and successfully afterwards; devoted his leisure to poetry and the drama, the "Heiress" in the latter his best (1723-1792).

BURGOYNE, SIR JOHN, field-marshal, joined the Royal Engineers, served under Abercromby in Egypt, and under Sir John Moore and Wellington in Spain; was present at the battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman in the Crimea; was governor of the Tower (1782-1871).

BURGUNDY was, prior to the 16th century, a Teutonic duchy of varying extent in the SE. and E. of France; annexed to France as a province in the 6th century; the country is still noted for its wines.

BURHANPUR (32), a town in the Central Provinces of India, in the Nimar district, 280 m. NE. of Bombay; was at one time a centre of the Mogul power in the Deccan, and a place of great extent; is now in comparative decay, but still famous, as formerly, for its muslins, silks, and brocades.

BURIDAN, JEAN, a scholastic doctor of the 14th century, born in Artois, and famous as the reputed author, though there is no evidence of it in his works, of the puzzle of the hungry and thirsty a.s.s, called after him Buridan's a.s.s, between a bottle of hay and a pail of water, a favourite ill.u.s.tration of his in discussing the freedom of the will.

BURKE, EDMUND, orator and philosophic writer, born at Dublin, and educated at Dublin University; entered Parliament in 1765; distinguished himself by his eloquence on the Liberal side, in particular by his speeches on the American war, Catholic emanc.i.p.ation, and economical reform; his greatest oratorical efforts were his orations in support of the impeachment of Warren Hastings; he was a resolute enemy of the French Revolution, and eloquently denounced it in his "Reflections," a weighty appeal; wrote in early life two small but notable treatises, "A Vindication of Natural Society," and another on our ideas of the "Sublime and Beautiful," which brought him into contact with the philosophic intellects of the time, and sometime after planned the "Annual Register,"

to which he was to the last chief contributor. "He was," says Professor Saintsbury, "a rhetorician (i. e. an expert in applying the art of prose literature to the purpose of suasion), and probably the greatest that modern times has ever produced" (1730-1797).

BURKE, SIR JOHN BERNARD, genealogist, born in London, of Irish descent, author of the "Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom"; produced, besides editing successive editions of it, a number of works on aristocratic genealogies (1815-1892).

BURKE, ROBERT O'HARA, Australian explorer, born in Galway; conducted an expedition across Australia, but on the way back both he and his companion Wells perished, after terrible sufferings from privation and drought (1820-1861).

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 Lincolns.h.i.+re; 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 amba.s.sador 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 aeronaut, 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, ent.i.tled "Happy Thoughts," which give evidence of a most keen, observant wit: _b_. 1836.