ued annually since 1847. While practising as a
barrister Bernard Burke assisted his father in his genealogical work, and
in 1848 took control of his publications. In 1853 he was appointed Ulster
king-at-arms; in 1854 he was knighted; and in 1855 he became keeper of the
state papers in Ireland. After having devoted his life to genealogical
studies he died in Dublin on the 12th of December 1892. In addition to
editing _Burke's Peerage_ from 1847 to his death, Burke brought out several
editions of a companion volume, _Burke's Landed Gentry_, which was first
published between 1833 and 1838. In 1866 and 1883 he published editions of
his father's _Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Scotland and Ireland,
extinct, dormant and in abeyance_ (earlier editions, 1831, 1840, 1846); in
1855 and 1876 editions of his _Royal Families of England, Scotland and
Wales_ (1st edition, 1847-1851); and in 1878 and 1883 enlarged editions of
his _Encyclopaedia of Heraldry, or General Armoury of England, Scotland and
Ireland_. Burke's own works include _The Roll of Battle Abbey_ (1848); _The
Romance of the Aristocracy_ (1855); _Vicissitudes of Families_ (1883 and
several earlier editions); and _The Rise of Great Families_ (1882). He was
succeeded as editor of _Burke's Peerage_ and _Landed Gentry_ by his fourth
son, Ashworth Peter Burke.

BURKE, ROBERT O'HARA (1820-1861), Australian explorer, was born at St
Cleram, Co. Galway, Ireland, in 1820. Descended from a branch of the family
of Clanricarde, he was educated in Belgium, and at twenty years of age
entered the Austrian army, in which he attained the rank of captain. In
1848 he left the Austrian service, and became a member of the Royal Irish
Constabulary. Five years later he emigrated to Tasmania, and shortly
afterwards crossed to Melbourne, where he became an inspector of police.
When the Crimean War broke out he went to England in the hope of securing a
commission in the army, but peace had meanwhile been signed, and he
returned to Victoria and resumed his police duties. At the end of 1857 the
Philosophical Institute of Victoria took up the question of the exploration
of the interior of the Australian continent, and appointed a committee to
inquire into and report upon the subject. In September 1858, when it became
known that John McDouall Stuart had succeeded in penetrating as far as the
centre of Australia, the sum of L1000 was anonymously offered for the
promotion of an expedition to cross