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BURLEIGH BURLINGAME 459 and precision of their style, and have been used as text bdbks in several of the German univer- sities, and in that of Cambridge, England. He found many of his materials in Grotius, Pufen- dorf, and Barbeyrae, but these he reduced to simplicity and order. His principal works are, Principes du droit naturel (1747), and Prin- cipe* du droit politique (1751). BURLEIGH, or Bnrghley, William Cecil, lord, an English statesman, born at Bourne, Lincoln- shire, Sept. 13, 1520, died Aug. 4, 1598. His father was master of the robes to Henry VIII. He was educated for the law, and a debate with two priests, in which he attacked papal supremacy, so pleased the king that Cecil was at once received into royal favor. In 1547 he was appointed master of requests by the lord protector Somerset, whom he accompanied the same year in the Scotch expedition, and was present at the battle of Musselburgh. After the death of Henry, Cecil continued in favor with Edward VI., and was appointed secreta- ry of state in 1548. On the fall of Somerset, who had been his friend and patron, Cecil was for a time involved in his disgrace; but after three months' confinement in the tower he was restored to his office in 1551 by the duke of Northumberland, and was soon afterward knighted and sworn a member of the privy council. Cecil avoided compromising himself in the question of the succession, and adroitly seized an opportunity as soon as he saw that the cause of Mary was likely to be successful, and tendered his submission. During the reign of Mary he took no important part in public affairs, and though a Protestant at heart con- formed outwardly to the queen's religion, and thereby preserved a share of royal favor. Be- ing chosen in 1555 one of the members for Lin- colnshire, he took part in the debates of the house of commons, and ventured to oppose the government, but in a temperate manner. When Mary's increasing ill health indicated the pru- dence of such a step, Cecil opened a corre- spondence with the princess Elizabeth, who on her accession to the throne appointed him her secretary. Thenceforward till the end of his long life he was in reality Elizabeth's prime minister. In 1571 he was created Baron Bur- leigh, and in the following year he received the order of the garter and was made lord high treasurer. The wise and eminently prudent policy which distinguished the reign of Eliza- beth is no doubt traceable to Burleigh. Ac- customed to thread his way through the wiles of diplomacy, Burleigh was always well in- formed of the plots which were continually in progress or contrivance against the queen's per- son or the peace of the country, and thwarted them by his sagacity and caution. Burleigh's public life is the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Leicester, Essex, and Raleigh were the person- al favorites of the queen, but Burleigh alone held the helm of state. His private life was calm and undisturbed, his personal habits quiet and frugal. His thrift sometimes approached avarice, but he was honest and upright in his public dealings. He was twice married: in 1541 to a sister of Sir John Cheke, who died, leaving one son, Thomas, afterward earl of Exeter; his second wife was Mildred, daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, by whom he had Robert, his associate and successor, afterward earl of Salisbury, and two daughters. He survived his second wife by only a few years. BURLEIGH, William Henry, an American au- thor and journalist, born at Woodstock, Conn., Feb. 2, 1812, died in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 18, 1871. At the age of 17 he was apprenticed to a printer, and worked at his trade till 1833, when he became editor of the " Literary Ga- zette," Schenectady, N. Y., subsequently of the " Christian Witness," Pittsburgh, Penn., "The Charter Oak," Hartford, Conn., and the "Washington Banner." He also contributed prose and verse to several periodicals, and in 1840 issued a volume of poems. He was an early and prominent advocate of the anti-sla- very cause. Of his brothers, GBOEGB S. has published " The Maniac and other Poems " (1849), and CHARLES C., a lecturer, "Thoughts on the Death Penalty" (1845). BIRLES01V, a central county of Texas, bounded E. by the Brazos river, 8. by the Yegua, one of its branches, and watered by affluents of the Yegua ; area, 976 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,072, of whom 3,021 were colored. The surface is uneven ; the soil of the lowlands is a sandy loam, in many places very produc- tive ; that of the uplands is lighter. About three fourths of the surface is covered with oak forests. The chief productions in 1870 were 223,929 bushels of Indian corn, 6,423 bales of cotton, and 14,200 Ibs. of wool. There were 3,117 horses, 4,110 milch cows, 13,908 other cattle, 6,163 sheep, and 14,915 swine. Capital, Caldwell. BURLINCAIIE, Anson, an American diploma- tist, born in New Berlin, Chenango co., N. Y., Nov. 14, 1820, died in St. Petersburg, Russia, Feb. 23, 1870. His father, who was a farmer, removed when Anson was three years old to a farm in Seneca co., Ohio, where they lived for ten years, and in 1833 again removed to Detroit, and after two years more to a farm at Branch, Mich. In 1837 Anson was admit- ted to the university of Michigan, and six years later went to Cambridge, Mass., and entered the law school of Harvard university, where he graduated in 1846. He began the practice of the law in Boston, and a year or two later became an active member and a popular oratoi of the free-soil party, then recently formed. In the political campaign of 1848 he acquired 11 wide reputation as a public speaker in behalf of the election of Van Buren and Adams. In 1849-'50 he made a visit to Europe. In 1852 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate, and in 1853 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, to which he was elect- ed by the town of Northborough, though he resided in Cambridge. He joined the Ameri-