From March 1856 he wrote a ‘London Letter’ for the Alliance News (weekly) and published books and pamphlets. He edited Graham's Annual Temperance Guide from 1867 to 1876. Among Burns's numerous publications are: ‘Mormonism Exposed,’ 1853. ‘Scripture Light on Intoxicating Liquors,’ 1859. ‘The Temperance Dictionary,’ Nos. 1–34, 1861. (With Frederic Richard Lees) ‘The Temperance Bible Commentary,’ 1868; other editions, 1872, 1876, 1880, 1894. ‘Statistics of the Liquor Traffic,’ 1872. ‘Temperance Ballads,’ 1884. 7. ‘Local Option,’ 1885, 3rd edit. 1896; new standard edit. 1909. ‘Temperance History,’ 2 vols. 1889–91. ‘The Bible and Temperance Reform: the Lees and Raper Memorial Lecture,’ 1906. ‘Country Walks and Temperance Talks,’ 1901. In a series of annual letters to The Times (1886–1909), on the ‘National Drink Bill’, he cited facts and statistics. Family On 22 December 1853 he married Cecile, only daughter of James and Clara Lucas Balfour. His wife died at Battersea on 27 March 1897; of his five sons and a daughter, only two sons survived him. Burns wrote memoirs of his wife and of his third son, Edward Spenser Burns (1861–1885), who died on 1 March 1885 at Leopoldville, Stanley Pool (now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo) on a mission for the International African Association in the Congo district, opening up a new route towards the Kouilou-Niari River, and constructing charts. Notes References Attribution 1828 births 1909 deaths English Baptists 19th-century Baptists