BURNET, JOHN, engraver and author, born at Fisherrow; engraved Wilkie’s works, and wrote on art (1784-1868).

BURNET, THOMAS, master of the Charterhouse, born in Yorkshire, author of the “Sacred Theory of the Earth,” eloquent in descriptive parts, but written wholly in ignorance of the facts (1635-1715).

BURNETT, FRANCES HODGSON, novelist, born in Manchester, resident for a time in America; wrote “That Lass o’ Lowrie’s,” and other stories of Lancashire manufacturing life, characterised by shrewd observation, pathos, and descriptive power; b. 1849.

BURNEY, CHARLES, musical composer and organist, born at Shrewsbury; a friend of Johnson’s; author of “The History of Music,” and the father of Madame d’Arblay; settled in London as a teacher of music (1726-1814).

BURNEY, CHARLES, son of preceding, a great classical scholar; left a fine library, purchased by the British Museum for L13,500 (1757-1817).

BURNEY, JAMES, brother of preceding, rear-admiral, accompanied Cook in his last two voyages; wrote “History of Voyages of Discovery” (1750-1821).

BURNLEY (87), a manufacturing town in Lancashire, 27 m.  N. of Manchester; with cotton mills, foundries, breweries, &c.

BURNOUF, EUGENE, an illustrious Orientalist, born in Paris; professor of Sanskrit in the College of France; an authority on Zend or Zoroastrian literature; edited the text of and translated the “Bhagavata Purana,” a book embodying Hindu mythology; made a special study of Buddhism; wrote an introduction to the history of the system (1801-1852).

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