CAESIUM. 



169 



tion of all who knew him ; was appointed bre- 

 vet second lieutenant of 1st Dragoons and 

 served on the Plains until the war broke out, 

 when he promptly and heartily offered himself 

 to the service of his country. His rare abilities 

 as an officer attracted the attention of the Gov- 

 ernment, and he was early made a major in the 

 Inspector-General's corps. His peculiar duties 

 did not give him an opportunity to engage in 

 the leading campaigns until 1862, when he was 

 made a brigadier-general, simply as an ac- 

 knowledgment of his military merits. In the 

 early part of 1862, he fought under Gen. Pope, 

 in his Virginia campaign, succeeding General 

 Stoneman (who afterward became his com- 

 mander) on Gen. McClellan's staff, during the 

 battle of Antietam. When the present cavalry 

 organization of the army of the Potomac was 

 perfected, of which Gen. Stoneman was at that 

 time the chief, Gen. Buford was assigned to 

 command the reserve cavalry brigade. He was 

 subsequently conspicuous in almost every caval- 

 ry engagement, and at Gettysburg commenced 

 the attack on the enemy at Seminary Eidge be- 

 fore the arrival of Reynolds on the 1st of July. 

 A short time previous to his death he was as- 

 signed to the command of the cavalry in the 

 army of the Cumberland, and had left the 

 army of the Potomac for that purpose. He 

 was a splendid cavalry officer and one of the 

 most successful in the service ; was modest, yet 

 brave ; unostentatious, but prompt and perse- 

 vering ; ever ready to go where duty called him, 

 and never shrinking from action however 

 fraught with peril. His last sickness was but 

 brief, the effect probably of protracted toil and 

 exposure. On the day of his death, and but a 

 little while before his departure, his commis- 

 sion of major-general was placed in his hands. 

 He received it with a smile of gratification that 

 the Government he had defended, appreciated 

 his services, and gently laying it aside, soon 

 ceased to breathe. 



BUILDING MATERIALS. (See MATERIALS 



FOR CONSTRUCTION AND DECORATION.) 



BURNS, Hon. ROBERT EASTON, was born 

 at Niagara, 0. W., on the 26th December, 1805. 

 His father was the Rev. John Burns, a Presby- 

 terian minister, who emigrated from Scotland 

 in 1803, and became principal of the Niagara 

 Grammar School. Educated by his father, 

 young Burns commenced the study of the law 

 at the age of 16, in the office of the late Mr. 



John Breckenridge, of the town of Niagara, 

 0. W. He was called to the bar immediately 

 after concluding his studies, and practised for 

 some years in Niagara, St. Catherine's, and 

 Hamilton, with considerable success. In Sep- 

 tember, 1837, he was appointed Judge of Nia- 

 gara District, and in the spring of 1838 went 

 to Toronto and entered into partnership with 

 Attorney General Hagerman. "When the seat 

 of Government was taken to Kingston the 

 Count of Chancery followed, and Mr. Burns 

 became resident of that city, but removed again 

 to Toronto on the Government becoming es- 

 tablished in Montreal. Here Mr. Burns became 

 a partner of Mr. Philip Yankough.net, the pres- 

 ent Chancellor of Upper Canada, and Mr. Oliver 

 Mowat, the present Postmaster-General, but 

 was very soon appointed to the important office 

 of Judge of the Home District, which he held 

 until the year 1848 or 1849, when he resigned 

 to form a partnership wjth Mr. John Duggan. 

 A very short time afterward, however, he was 

 appointed by the Baldwin-Lafontaine govern- 

 ment puisne Judge of the Court' of Queen's 

 Bench, an office which he held until his death. 

 A few years ago, he was appointed Chancel- 

 lor of the University of Upper Canada. His 

 last public duty was performed at the Hamilton 

 Assizes, about two months before his death. 

 He returned home suffering from an attack 

 of dropsy, accompanied by a general break-op 

 of the constitution, and was unable afterward 

 to leave his house. At noon on the 12th Janua- 

 ry, 18G3, his sufferings, which had been severe, 

 were brought to a close, and he peacefully ex- 

 pired, surrounded by the members of his fami- 

 ly. Mr. Burns married first, on the 10th Feb. 

 1835, Anne Flora Taylor, daughter of Mr. John 

 Thomas Taylor. By this marriage he had four 

 sons, three of whom survive him. His wife 

 having died in September, 1850, in 1856 he 

 married Miss Britannia "Warton, of Toronto, who 

 died in 1858. The funeral of the Judge took 

 place from his residence, Yorkville, on Thurs- 

 day, the 14th of January, at two o'clock, and 

 was largely and respectably attended. Al- 

 though Mr. Justice Burns never engaged in 

 politics, yet as a leading member of the Chan- 

 cery Bar, and the occupant of three judicial 

 situations he filled a prominent position in Up- 

 per Canada. He possessed a sound judgment, 

 an accurate and retentive memory, and large 

 experience. 



C 



CAESIUM. Professors S. W. Johnson and O. 

 D. Allen, of the Sheffield Laboratory, of Yale 

 College, still separate this element from the as- 

 sociated rubidium, by their method of fractional 

 crystallization of the bitartrates of the metals. 

 Their analysis having led to doubts of the cor- 

 rectness of Bimsen's equivalent of cnesium, they 

 made with great care four determinations of 



the atomic weight of the element in its combi- 

 nation with chlorine, the mean of which giving 

 133.036, they have assumed as the equivalent 

 of ca3sium the round number 133. They con- 

 clude that the chloride of csesium is not only 

 not deliquescent, but hardly even hygroscopic. 

 They find the caasium spectrum to be, from the 

 number, color, and definition of its lines, per- 



