BURKING BURLINGTON. 



761 



of the revolutionists. His famous Reflections on the 

 Revolution in France appeared in the following Octo- 

 ber ; and no work ever attracted more attention, or 

 produced more effect. It exhibits both the merits 

 and defects of the writer, and contains much justness 

 of argument, profundity of observation, and beauty of 

 style ; but it is equally obvious that he commits the 

 very fault which he intended to reprobate, in his Vin- 

 dication of Natural Society, by making his arguments 

 applicable to the defence of all establishments, how- 

 ever tyrannical, and censure of every popular struggle 

 for liberty, whatever the oppression. It -had an un- 

 precedented sale, and obtained unbounded praise from 

 all who trembled for establishments, or were alarmed 

 at the odious character which the French revolution 

 was beginning to assume. On the other hand, it met 

 with severe and formidable critics and opponents, and, 

 among other things, produced the celebrated Rights 

 of Man, of Thomas Paine, and the VindiciaB Gallicae, 

 of Sir James Mackintosh. Burke followed up this at- 

 tack with a Letter to a Member of the National As- 

 sembly (1791) ; an Appeal from the New to the Old 

 Whigs ; Letter to a noble Lord on the Subject in 

 Discussion with the Duke of Bedford (1796); Letters 

 on a Regicide Peace, &c. In all these productions he 

 displayed unabated powers of mind. In 1792 he 

 published a Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the 

 Propriety of admitting Roman Catholics to the Elec- 

 tive Franchise, and, in 1794, withdrew from parlia- 

 ment, and was succeeded in the representation of 

 Malton by his only son, whose death soon after has- 

 tened the decline of nature which he was beginning 

 to experience. Decay, by gradual approaches, termi- 

 nated his life on July 8, 1797, in the sixty-eighth 

 year of his age. He preserved his senses to the last ; 

 and, a few hours before he died, he had read to him 

 Addison's paper in the Spectator, on the immortality 

 of the soul. Amiable in private life, and exemplary 

 in his domestic and social relations, he was greatly 

 beloved by his friends. His conversation was de- 

 lightful and instructive. He was exceedingly charit- 

 able and beneficent, and founded a school for the 

 children of French emigrants, the permanent support 

 of which formed one of his latest cares. His public 

 character will be best collected from a study of his 

 political career, and his powers of mind from his pub- 

 lications. His oratory was pre-eminently that of a 

 full mind, which makes excursions to a vast variety of 

 subjects, connected by the slightest and most evanes- 

 cent associations, and that in a diction as rich and 

 varied as the matter. In delivery, however, the ef- 

 fect of his speeches was by no means proportioned to 

 their absolute merit ; their length, their copiousness, 

 abundance of ornament, and wide field of speculation, 

 producing impatience in men of business absorbed in 

 the particular subject of debate ; added to which, his 

 manner was indifferent, his voice harsh, and his action, 

 though forcible, inelegant. On the whole, though 

 the greatest genius, he was by no means the most ef- 

 fective orator in the house of commons. The entire 

 works of Burke have been published by his executors, 

 in 5 vols. 4to, and 10 vols. 8vo. See Memoir of 

 Burke, by J. Prior, 2d edition, 2 vols. London, 1826. 

 BURKING ; a species of murder by suffocation, which 

 derives its name from William Burke, a native of Ire- 

 land, who, in 1828-9, was detected, tried, and exe- 

 cuted at Edinburgh, for the murder of numerous indi- 

 viduals. The vigilance with which the burying 

 grounds throughout the country were watched ren- 

 dered a supply of subjects for anatomical schools al- 

 most altogether impracticable, and the demand for 

 dead bodies consequently became great. This led the 

 above mentioned individual, in conjunction with ano- 

 ther wretch named Hare, to the suffocation to death 

 of many human beings, whose bodies they sold to the 



proprietor of an Anatomical Theatre, in Edinburgh ; 

 who, it was alleged, was unable to determine the 

 method by which they had been obtained, although 

 the public entertained many doubts of his guilty par- 

 ticipation in the horrid traffic. A similar practice, 

 though by a somewhat different method, has, within 

 these few years, been carried on in London, and 

 from similar causes. Such atrocious practices must 

 be looked upon with horror; and it ought to be 

 the endeavour of every man to prevent their con- 

 tinuance. That the schools of anatomy ought to 

 receive a moderate and regular supply of subjects 

 can admit of little question, when it is considered 

 that the preservation of the lives of thousands must 

 rest upon the knowledge and dexterity of the young 

 men trained there to the arts of dissection and surgi- 

 cal operation. A correct knowledge of medicine must 

 ultimately rest on an intimate acquaintance with the 

 structure of the human body ; and the successful 

 practice of surgery requires repeated and careful dis- 

 sections ; nor can these ever be obtained in any other 

 way than by a constant application to the dead subject. 

 Dr Chesselden, who was perhaps the best anatomist 

 of his time, was wont to say, " he who would operate 

 with success on the living, must be careful to practise 

 frequently on the dead : even yet, having been twenty 

 years in practice, when I know that I have to per- 

 form any operation in surgery, I take care on the 

 previous evening to practise on the dead body." It 

 is useless to say that anatomy can be learned by the 

 assistance of plates they indeed may give a general 

 idea of the structure of the human frame to a general 

 reader, but to the practical man they can be of little 

 avail. In 1832 a provision was made for supplying 

 the anatomical theatres throughout the kingdom from 

 the unclaimed dead in the hospitals, whicn will un- 

 questionably prevent the repetition of Burking, at 

 least for the same purpose as it was originally prac- 

 tised. In Paris the unclaimed subjects are brought 

 in the morning from the hospitals to a large hall ap- 

 propriated for dissection, which is open for public in- 

 spection. During the course of the day the students 

 are employed in dissecting these bodies, and in the 

 evening the hall is entirely cleared, and the bodies 

 decently interred. Hence it is that the French sur- 

 geons are the best in the world, and murder or resur- 

 rection, both revolting to the nature of man, for the 

 purposes of anatomy, are in Paris unknown. 



BURLEIGH, Lord. See Cecil. 



BURLESQUE signifies the low comic arising from a 

 ludicrous mixture of things high and low. High 

 thoughts, for instance, are clothed in low expressions, 

 or noble subjects described in a familiar manner, or 

 vice versa. The burlesque style allows of the mixture 

 of foreign and domestic words, the introduction of 

 provincialisms, colloquial phrases, &c. Its object 

 may be, simply, to excite laughter, or to provoke de- 

 rision and ridicule. 



BURLETTA ; a light, comic species of musical drama, 

 which derives its name from the Italian lurlare, to 

 jest It originated in Italy, from whence it passed 

 to the Transalpine countries. 



BURLINGTON; a post-town of Vermont, and capital 

 of Chittenden county, situated on a bay, to which it 

 gives name, on the south side of the entrance of 

 Onion river into lake Champlain ; thirty-eight miles 

 W. by N. of Montpelier, 100 S. of Montreal. Lat. 

 44 27' N.; Ion. 73 15' W. Population in 1820, 

 2,111. B. is the most considerable commercial town 

 in Vermont. Its trade is principally with the city of 

 New York, with which it has a water communication 

 by means of lake Champlain, the Champlain canal, 

 and the river Hudson. The university of Vermont 

 was incorporated and established at B. in 1791, but it 

 did not go into operation till 1800. It is finely situ- 

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