

BURIN BURKE. 



.iirni with leather. These huts they cal I juries. The 

 n ii_io'i of this |>ro|ilc is partly I.aniai-m ;mil partly 

 Shamani-m. Tney cnll their supreme (Jod Octurgon 

 Jturch<iii, or Tiagiri Hare/tan (God of heaven). The 

 planets an- interior gods ; and the chief of the evil 

 spirits is called Ockodol. Tin- idols of Lamaism, like 

 Uiose of Shamanism, are sometimes panned on cloth, 

 ami sometimes inaili- of wood, nu-tal, felt, and sheep- 

 skin. The smoke of the jurt<s make tin- idu! 



- in themselves, still more disgusting. The 

 woisli.ppers of the Grand Lamu have Uiis peculiarity, 

 that inal.- iiinns are tlit- ha-is of their idols. As the 

 female sex in this ii.ii.nn i> considered init-lc-an, they 

 liny nui a;> 'M.;cli the place when.- the household 

 foot are arranged. The male H. always burn 

 incense, to purity any place where n woman lias been 

 .. before they bit then? thcnisclvi-s. The poor 

 R sometimes go over to the Greek church, but con- 

 tinue to use their old ceremonies in reference to their 

 lew objects of worship. Their number, in 1783, was 

 estimated at 49,7(34 mules, and 47,93^ females. 



BURIN, or GKAVKK ; au instrument of tempered 

 used for engraving on copper. It is of a 

 prismatic form, having one end attached to a short 

 wooden liandle, and the other ground off obliquely, 

 so as to produce a sharp point. In working, the 

 burin is held in the palm of the hand, and pushed 

 forward so as to cut a portion of the copper. The 

 -ions irillimtt burin, soft burin, are used to 

 characterize the manner of a master. See Engrav- 

 ing. 



BURKARD, NValdis, a fabulist of the 16th century, 

 was born at Allendorf, on the Werra. In his earlier 

 ye$rs, he was a monk. After having travelled over 

 Europe, he became a zealous protestant, and died, in 

 1555, in the office of preacher at Abterode. His 

 jEsop, in rhyme, contains 400 fables and amusing 

 stories, partly from .F.sop and other fabulists and 

 novelists, partly original. They are written in a 

 strain of happy humour and well-directed satire, and 

 in an easy and often peculiar style. Eschenburg 

 published a collection of them in 1776. 



BUKKE, Edmund, a writer, orator, and statesman of 

 great eminence, was born in Dublin, Jan. 1, 1730. 

 His father was an attorney of reputation, and he 

 received his education under Abraham Shackleton, a 

 quaker, at Ballitore. In 1744, he was entered at 

 Trinity college, Dublin, as pensioner, where he 

 chiefly occupied himself with a plan of study of his 

 own, the principal objects of which were the classics, 

 logic, metaphysics, morals, history, rhetoric, and 

 composition. He left Trinity college, after taking a 

 bachelor's degree, in 1749 ; and not much is recorded 

 of this period of his life, except that lie made mi tin 

 successful application for the professorship of logic at 

 Glasgow. At this period, he had planned a refuta- 

 tion of the metaphysical theories of Berkeley and 

 Hume. In 1750, he first entered the great theatre of 

 London, as a law student at the Temple, where he 

 soon became the admiration of his intimates, for the 

 hrilliancy of his parts, and the variety of his acquisi- 

 tions. Applying more to literature than to law, he 

 supported himself by his pen, and, by intense occupa- 

 tion, brought himself into a state of ill health. This 

 illness, by making him a guest to doctor Nugent, an 

 eminent physician, led to his marriage with that 

 gentleman's daughter. In 1756, he published, with- 

 out a name, his first work, entitled a Vindication of 

 Natural Society, in a Letter to Lord ****, by a noble 

 Lord. This work exhibited so complete an imitation, 

 although ironical, of the style of Bolingbroke, that 

 many persons were deceived by it, not perceiving 

 B.'s intention to prove that the same arguments with 

 which that nobleman had attacked religion, might be 

 applied against all civil and political institutions 



whatever. In the same year, he published his Kssay 

 on the Sublime and Beautiful. The elegance, of its 

 language, and the spirit of philosophical investigation 

 displayed in it, introduced the author to the best 

 literary acquaintance. In 1758, he suggested to 

 Dodsley the plan of the Annual Register, and took 

 upon himself the composition of the historical pan, 

 which he continued for a number of years. lie was 

 thus gradually forming himself for a statesman. His 

 political career may be said to have commenced in 

 1761, when he went to Ireland as confidential friend 

 to William Gerard Hamilton, then secretary to the. 

 lord lieutenant, lord Halifax. For his services in 

 this unofficial capacity, he was rewarded with a 

 pension of 800 per annum, on the Irish establish- 

 ment. On his return, in 1765, he was introduced to 

 the marquis of Rockingham, then first lord of the 

 treasury, who made him his private secretary ; and, 

 through the same interest, he became M. P. for the 

 borough of VVendover. The marquis also made him 

 a nominal loan, but real gift, of a large sum, which 

 placed him in easy circumstances, and enabled him 

 to purchase his elegant seat near Beaconsfield. His 

 first speech in parliament was on the Grenville. 

 stamp act ; and it was at his advice, that the Rock- 

 inghnm administration took the middle and undecided 

 course of repealing the act, and passing a law 

 declaratory of the right of Great Britain to tax 

 America. This ministry was soon dissolved, to make 

 room for a new cabinet, under Mr Pitt. Burke 

 concluded his official labours by his pamphlet, en- 

 titled Short Account of a late short Administration. 

 In the proceedings against Wilkes, he joined the. 

 remonstrants against trie violation of the rights of 

 election, and, in 1770, published his Thoughts on tin; 

 Causes' of the present Discontents, the sentiments of 

 which are consistent with his future doctrines and 

 conduct. He opposed the ministerial measures 

 antecedent and consequent to the American war ; 

 and the whole powers of his eloquence were exerted, 

 first to prevent, and then to heal, the fatal breach 

 between the mother country and her colonies. Jn 

 1774, he was chosen member for Bristol; and it is to 

 his credit that he subsequently ventured to give 

 offence to his Bristol friends, by his support of the 

 Irish petitions for free trade, and for moderating the 

 penal statutes against the Roman Catholics. He 

 soon, however, recovered all the ground thus lost by 

 his famous reform bill, which he unsuccessfully advo- 

 cated with an extraordinary union of wit, humour, 

 and financial detail In 1783, lord North's ministry 

 was dissolved ; and, on the return of the marquis of 

 Rockingham and his party to power, B. obtained the 

 lucrative post of paymaster-general of the forces, and 

 a seat at the council board. He also embraced the 

 auspicious opportunity to re-introduce his reform 

 bill, which passed, but not without considerable 

 modifications. On the death of the marquis of 

 Rockingham, and the succession of lord Shelburne, 

 B. resigned, and joined the coalition: the India bill 

 formed the ostensible cause for dismissing this ill- 

 judged combination ; and Mr Pitt succeeded to th 

 helm, and dissolved the parliament. The next great 

 political event of his life was his share in the prosecu- 

 tion of Mr Hastings, which trial, indeed, originated 

 with him. The Report of the Committee on the 

 Trial of Warren Hastings, 1794, was by Burke. 

 His conduct in this aflair gained him little in the 

 public estimation, except increased fame as an orator. 

 On the settling of the regency, in 1788, Fie argued 

 against the principle of the ministers, that the regency 

 was elective, and not hereditary. The last great act 

 of his political life was the part he took in the French 

 revolution. He early manifested his dislike to it, and, 

 in 1790, loudly condemned the principles and conduct 



