BUR 



BUR 



from a large white larva, resembling that 

 of ihe 1: canus cervus, or great stag-chaff- 

 er. Of the European insects of this ge- 

 nus, the B. rustica is one of the largest, 

 measuring" about an inch and a half, and 

 of a coppery colour, with several longitu- 

 dinal ; 'urro\vs along the wing-shells ; the 

 thorax of a deep blue-green, with numer- 

 ous impressed points : it is found in the 

 woods. The European Buprestes fall far 

 short of the Indian and American species, 

 bo i. r.i point of size and splendour, though 

 among- then) may be numbered several 

 elegant insects. 



BURCARDIA, in botany, so named in 

 honour of Henry Burckliard, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Pentagynia class and or- 

 der. Essential character : calyx five- 

 leaved ; corolla f.ve-petalled ; capsule 

 angular, one-celled, three-valved ; seven 

 or eight seeded. There is but one spe- 

 cies, viz B. villosa, an annual plant, with 

 a branched stem twb feet high, hirsute, 

 \vith reddish brown hairs. Flowers at 

 the end of the stem and branches, axil- 

 lary, solitary, on long hairy peduncles. 

 The whole plant is covered with stiff 

 hah-s. It is found on the sandy coasts of 

 Cayenne and Guiana. 



BURDEN, or BUHTHEX, in a general 

 sense, implies a load or weight, supposed 

 to be as much as a man, horse. &c. can 

 well carry. A sound and healthy man 

 can raise a weight equal to his own. An 

 able horse can draw 35-Jlh. though for a 

 length of time 300/6. is sufficient. Hence 

 calculations are formed by the artillery 

 officers. One horse will draw as much as 

 seven men. 



BURDEN of a sMp'is its contents, or num 

 ber of tons it will carry. The burden of 

 a ship may be determined thus ; multi- 

 ply the length of the keel, taken within 

 board, by the breadth of the ship within 

 board, taken from the midship-beam, 

 from plank to plank, and multiply the 

 product by the depth of the hold, taken 

 from the plank below the keelson to the 

 under part of the upper deck plank, and 

 divide the last product by 94, then the 

 quotient is the content of the tonnage 

 required. 



BURGAGE, in law, a tenure proper to 

 boroughs and towns, whereby the inhabi- 

 tants hold their lands and tenements of 

 the King, or other lord, at a certain yearly 

 rate. This tenure is described by Glan- 

 vil, and is expressly said by Littleton to 

 be but tenure in socage. It is indeed on- 

 ly a kind of town socage ; as common so- 

 cage, by which other lands are holden, 

 is usually of a rural nature. A borough 

 is usually distinguished from other towns 



by the right of sending members to par- 

 liament ; and where the right of Election 

 is by burgage tenure, that alone is a proof 

 of the antiquity of the borough. Tenure 

 in burgage, therefore, or burgage tenure, 

 is where houses, or lands which were for- 

 merly the scite of houses, in an ancient 

 borough, are held by some lord in com- 

 mon socage, by a certain establishment. 

 The free socage in which these tene- 

 ments are held, seems to be plainly a 

 remnant of Saxon liberty ; and this may 

 account for the great variety of customs, 

 affecting many of these tenements so 

 held in ancient burgage ; the principal 

 and most remarkable of which is that call- 

 ed borough English ; which see. There 

 are also other special customs in different 

 burgage tenures; as in some, that the 

 wife shall be endowed of all her hus- 

 band's tenements, and not of the third part 

 only, as at the common law : and in others, 

 that a man might dispose of his tenements 

 by will, which in general was not per- 

 mitted after the conquest till the reign 

 of Henry VIII. ; though in the Saxon 

 times it was allowable. A pregnant proof, 

 says Judge Blackstone, that these liber- 

 ties of Socage tenure were fragments of 

 Saxon liberty. 



BURGESS, an inhabitant of a borough, 

 or one \\ ho possesses a tenement there- 

 in. In other countries, burgess and ci- 

 tizen are confounded together ; but with 

 us they are distinguished : the word is 

 also applied to the magistrates of some 

 towns. Burgess is now ordinarily used 

 for the representative of a borough-town 

 in parliament. 



BURGH-6o*e signifies a contribution 

 towards the building or repairing of cas- 

 tles or wallsj for the defence of a borough 

 or city. 



BURGLARY, in law, or nocturnal 

 house-breaking, an unlawful entering into 

 another man's dwelling, wherein some 

 person is, or into a church, in the night- 

 time, in order to commit some felony, or 

 to kill some person, or to steal something 

 thence, or do some other felonious act, 

 whether the same be executed or not. 

 This crime has been always regarded as 

 very heinous ; partly on account of the 

 terror which it occasions, and parlly be- 

 cause it is a forcible invasion and distur- 

 bance of that right of habitation, which 

 every individual might require, even in 

 a state of nature, and against which 'the 

 laws of civil society have particularly 

 guarded. Whilst they allow the posses- 

 sor to kill the aggressor, who attempts to 

 break into a house in the night time, they 

 also protect and avenge him, in case the 



