is rice, the acreage of which in Upper and Lower Burma was, in 1904-05, 9,265,097 acres. Wheat, pulse, sugar-cane, cotton, tea and oil-seeds are also raised.
Religion. Their religion is chiefly Buddhism. The class which has the most influence and is most respected is the Buddhist monks, of whom there are 20,000, whose duty it is to set an example of a correct life and to instruct the young. The Shans are much like the Burmans, but are high-landers and great traders. The Karens used to be nature-worshippers; but now large numbers of them are Christians, through the influence of Baptist missions, which have been among the most successful of modern missions. Both the Burmans and the Shans have long had a written language, and there are now a number of native newspapers. A university and several technical schools are also established in Lower Burma.
History. The Burmans are believed to have come into the valley of the Irawadi about 2,000 years ago. Since that time various powerful Burman dynasties have risen, nourished and fallen. The Chinese have often invaded Burma from the north. The Burman power came into contact with the British in India as early as 1820, and, piece by piece, the British have been compelled to assume control over Burma. In 1885 King Thebaw declared war and tried to drive the British into the sea, but was overcome and carried a prisoner to India, and in 1886 the whole of Burma became a part of the British Indian Empire. It is governed by a commissioner on behalf of the viceroy of India. The capital of Upper Burma, Mandalay, has a population of 138,299; of Lower Burma the capital is Rangoon, population, 293,316.
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward C., a notable English painter, much admired in his day as a fine colorist, and clever also as an artistic stained-glass designer. Born at Birmingham in 1833 and educated at King Edward's School there, he entered Exeter College, Oxford, in his twentieth year, but shortly afterwards withdrew to study art under the influence of Dante G. Rossetti. Settling in London, he drew much from real life both in water-colors and in oil, his pictures possessing much brilliancy as well as purity of hue. He is classed among the Pre-Raphaelites, but himself free from the whilom extravagances of that school of art. In 1881 Burne-Jones received from Oxford the honorary degree of D.C.L., and in 1885 was elected President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The latter he resigned in 1893 when he became one of the founders of the New Gallery, where and at the Grosvenor Gallery, in the British metropolis, most of his pictures were first exhibited. In 1894 the artist was made a baronet, elected an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and was decorated with the French Legion of Honor. At an early period in his career he came under the influence of Ruskin; while, besides his varied and magnificent work as a painter, he did much as a designer of mosaics for church windows, at Oxford and elsewhere in Eng-and, as well as for the apse of the American Church at Rome. Among his best known oil paintings are King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, The Resurrection, The Annunciation, The Golden Stair, Merlin and Vivien, Pygmalion and the Image. His principal water-colors include The Days of Creation, The Wine of Circe and the series known as Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Day and Night. Sir Edward Burne-Jones died in London in 1898.
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| FRANCES H. BURNETT |
Burnett′, Frances Hodgson, an American novelist, was born at Manchester, England, in 1849. In 1865 her family came to America and settled in Tennessee, where she began writing stories. Her first story was published in a magazine in 1867. In 1873 she married Dr L. M. Burnett, of Knoxville, Tenn. They removed later to Washington, D. C. Her first novel, That Lass o' Lowries, was published in Scribner's Magazine in 1876-77, and made her reputation. Her second novel, Haworth's, was published in Scribner and also in Macmillan's Magazine (London). A child's story, Little Lord Fauntleroy, was very popular, and has appeared also as a play acted on the stage. Her later stories are A Lady of Quality, His Grace of Ormonde and The Shuttle.
Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, a notable astronomer, now professor of practical astronomy, in the University of Chicago, was born at Thetford, Vt., in 1838. While clerk of the United States circuit court in Chicago, he early devoted himself to the study of the heavens and made many discoveries, especially of double stars, which he described with a 6-inch refractor. In 1876 his devotion to astronomy led to his connection first with Chicago Observatory and for a time with the Lick Observatory in California. For his discovery, measurement and cataloguing of double stars, he was awarded the gold medal and made a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of England.
Burns, Robert, a Scottish poet of great genius was born near the town of Ayr in
