his hands bound behind him (Chron. p. 204). His sentence was formally reversed 22 March 1399. The king and queen were enraged at his death, and Froissart grieved for him as a friend and as a wise and gentle knight. It is probable, from a list of his books, twentyone in number, extracted from an inventory of his goods (8 Nov. 1387) at the Mews and Baynard's Castle,' and preserved in manuscript (Add. MS. 25459, p. 206), that he was a man of some culture. His taste for romances of chivalry accounts for his intimacy with Froissart, and suggests that his ideas were those of the later days of Edward III, and that he owed his ruin to the extravagant tastes of the school in which he had been reared. There is a curious description in the Issue Rolls' of his bed (among his forfeited chattels) as 'of green Tarteryn embroidered with ships and birds.'

[Rolls of Parliament; Chronicque de la Traison (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Walsingham's Historia Anglicana (Rolls Series); Froissart's Chronicle; Knighton's Chronicle; Stow's Annals; Devon's Issues of the Exchequer; Beltz's Memorials of the Garter; Nicolas's Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy; Stow's Chronicle; Rymer's Fœdera; Archæologia, vol. xxii.; Stubbs's Constitutional History; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 413; Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.)]

J. H. R.

BURLEY, WALTER (1275-1345?), commentator on Aristotle in the fourteenth century, was born in the year 1274 or 1275 (TODD, Catalogue of Lambeth MSS., No. 143). It seems more probable that he was, as Bale states, a secular priest than a Franciscan, as the Bibliotheca Universalis Franciscana' and Bass Mullinger assert him to have been, or an Augustinian as Gandulphus reports on the authority of Burley's contemporary, Alphonso Vargas, archbishop of Seville. For Leland (Collectanea, iii. 54) gives his name among a list of the fellows of Merton in the days of Edward I; and there are reasons for believing him to have been a beneficed priest in the later years of his life.

According to Holinshed, Walter Burley was a kinsman of Sir Simon Burley [q.v.], and hence was a member of the Herefordshire family of that name. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, whence he removed to Paris, where he had William of Ockham for a fellowstudent and Duns Scotus for a teacher. Duns is generally supposed to have been in Paris from 1304 to 1307 (C. WERNER, Die Scholastik des späteren Mittelalters, Bd. i. 8, 9). Stow tells us, without giving any authority, that Burley also studied in Germany, where he seems to have been a protégé of the Archbishop

of Ulm, to whom in his old age, according to Gandulphus, he dedicated his shorter treatise on the 'Ethics' (cf. STOw, Harl. MS. 545, and HOLINSHED, iii. 414). It would seem from Stow's account that Burley was still abroad when his fame reached the ears of the young Princess Philippa of Hainault, who appointed him her almoner before coming to England in December 1327. In the early months of the same year (1327) we gather from Rymer that he was despatched on a special mission to the papal court for the purpose of pleading for the canonisation of Edward III's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster; and again in 1330, on which occasion he is styled Professor Sacræ Paginæ.' Wood makes him die in 1337 (Hist. Oxon. ii. 87), and this statement is repeated in a note to one of Burley's manuscripts in the British Museum (Royal MS. 12 B xix.) This, however, is probably only a false inference from the passage in the treatise on Aristotle referred to above (Lambeth MS. 143), and Tanner may be right in his conjecture that Burley survived till 1345. Holinshed tells us that he was appointed tutor to the Black Prince when the young Edward was of an age 'to learne his booke' (cf. Harl. MS. 545, ff. 128-9). While acting in this capacity, he adds, Burley introduced his little kinsman, Simon, though the prince's junior by some six years, to the notice of his young charge. These events cannot well have been anterior to 1342, and Walter may perhaps have owed his new post to the influence of Richard de Bury, at this time bishop of Durham (1333-45), who had himself been tutor to Edward III. Chambre assures us that Burley was one of this prelate's most intimate friends, a fact which renders it very probable that the Walter Burley whose name occurs as prebendary of Shalford in the diocese of Wells when Richard de Bury held this deanery (1332) was the Aristotelean commentator (LE NEVE, ii. 151, 199). In the household of the Bishop of Durham he must have made the acquaintance of Richard Fitz-Ralph, the future archbishop of Dublin, and Thomas Bradwardine, like himself a fellow of Merton and soon to be archbishop of Canterbury. Tanner identifies him with a Walter de Burle who in August 1341 became rector of Glemsford in exchange for Pighteslee in the diocese of Lincoln. Later (June 1342) Glemsford was resigned for Ashsted in the see of Winchester. Again, according to the same authority, still quoting from the episcopal registers (Norwich), a certain Walter de Burley appears in 1345 begging to be appointed archdeacon of Richmond, but is refused on the plea that the office has already been filled up. Whether this identification is right or not, Burley was certainly alive later than

1337, as he wrote his treatise on Aristotle's 'Politics' at the request of Richard Bentworth, bishop of London (1338-9), who was not consecrated till July 1338.

Burley is credited with having written 130 treatises on Aristotle alone, and great numbers of his manuscripts are still extant in various libraries at Oxford (Bodleian, Balliol, Oriel, New, Magdalen, &c.), Cambridge (Caius and Gonville, Peterhouse, &c.), and London (British Museum and Lambeth). His principal works are treatises on Aristotle's 'Ethics' (dedicated to Richard of Bury) and 'Politics; on Aristotle's Topica' (Merton, 295); Problemata' (Magdalen, 146); 'Meteora' (Ball. 93) and The Organon; commentaries on Porphyry, Gilbert de la Porée, and many other works of Aristotle. Other treatises of some interest are Expositio super Averroem de substantia orbis,' and another 'De fluxu et refluxu maris Anglicani,' both of which are to be found in Oriel College library. The most interesting of Burley's writings is a small volume entitled 'De Vita et Moribus Philosophorum,' first published by Ulric Zell, probably at Cologne in 1467. This work, the first of its kind, consists of short lives, together with illustrative anecdotes and opinions of some 120 poets and philosophers ranging from Thales, Zoroaster, and Homer to Priscian and Seneca. Though full of errors, as for example where Burley confounds Livius Andronicus with Livy the historian, and Horatius Flaccus with Horatius Pulvillus, this work soon achieved an immense popularity, especially abroad. Graesse reckons up some dozen separate editions in the latter half of the fifteenth century alone. Others of the same and later date may be discovered by comparison with Gandulphus, Kaim, &c. It was translated into Italian in 1475 (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 17523) and issued in a German dress by Anthony Sorg at Nuremberg in 1490. A curious history is attached to this work. Despite the number of times it had been reprinted in the fifteenth century, Bernard Grossus reproduced it in 1603 at the instance of a certain lawyer Antonius a Sala, who had the impudence to claim the work as his own (LABBE, Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, ed. 1682, p. 27).

Hain reckons up nearly twenty separate editions of Burley's philosophical treatises, all published before the close of the fifteenth century; including eight of the commentary on Porphyry, &c., printed chiefly at Venice; two of that on Aristotle's 'Logic;' five on the Physics; one of the 'De Intentione et remissione formarum;' one of the 'Tractatus de materia et forma' (Oxford, 1500); two of the 'Ethics' (Venice), &c. Early in the

sixteenth century (1517-18), the two lastmentioned works were among the earliest books printed at Oxford (WOOD, Annals, ed. Gutch, i. 625). Voss mentions among the writings of Burley a certain historical work, which may perhaps be the work to which Plot and Caius make reference in their disquisition on the origin of Oxford. But, in any case, it appears now to be lost.

Burley seems to have acquired an immense fame during his own lifetime. Even so far off as in Spain his contemporary Alphonso de Vargas, archbishop of Seville (A. 1345), quotes from the 'De Intentione.' Gandulphus reports that in his old age he dedicated a compendium of his larger work on the Ethics to Richard, bishop of Ulm, a statement which goes far towards corroborating Holinshed's account of his residence in Suabia. He had friends and scholars in Paris to whom he dedicated his treatise on Aristotle's 'Physics' (COXE, Catalogue of All Souls, 86). One copy of Burley's 'Ethics,' still existing, belonged to a Suabian Jew at least as early as the fifteenth century; another was copied by a clerk in Lower Germany in 1424, and a third copy of a different commentary in 1453. Then came the day of his translation into Italian and German; and before the century closed he was cited by Pico della Mirandula in his famous nine hundred conclusions. At Oxford, a few years before the Reformation, his Ethics' and 'Tractatus de Materia' seem to have been text-books in the schools (WOOD, Annals, ed. Gutch, i. 625); and, as such, are attacked by the royal injunction of 1535 which bids students substitute Aristotle for the frivolous questions of Scotus, Burleus, &c.' (MULLINGER).

As a philosopher Burley is said to have been in later years a strong opponent of Duns Scotus, whose pupil he had been in earlier days. On the other hand, he is said to have been an antagonist of his once fellow-pupil, William of Ockham (cf. BALE, 411, with MULLINGER, History of Cambridge, 197). M. Renan reckons him as an Averroist, and notices a tendency to supplant Aristotle by the Arabian commentator; while M. Hauréau quotes rival authorities for regarding him as a realist or a nominalist, but at the same time distinctly states that on certain points he is a dogmatical realist.' conflicting opinions may be due to the fact that Burley did not always hold the same views, as may perhaps be inferred from the common report that he was once the pupil, and later the opponent, of Duns Scotus. M. Hauréau adds that his style is particularly clear. Never proposing anything new, he has no need to make long discourses, and his

These

statements are generally very precise. For a schoolman he is a good writer.'

[Leland's Catalogue, 354, Collectanea, iii. 54; Bale's Catalogus Script. Brit. 411; Pits's Relationes, 435; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 141; Gandulphus de Scriptoribus Augustinianis, 141-4; Holinshed's Chronicles, iii. 414; Rymer's Fœdera, iv. 269, 422; Voss, De Historicis Latinis, 515; Bibliotheca Universalis Franciscana; Wharton's Appendix to Cave's Script. Eccles. ii. 35; Coxe's Catalogue of Oxford College MSS.; Coxe's Catalogue of Bodleian MSS. iii. 231, 826; De Chambre's Cont. Hist. Dunelm. ap. Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 766; Caius, De Antiquitatibus Cantabrig. 191, 192; Wood's History and Antiquities, 1676, ii. 87; Wood's Colleges and Halls, ed. Gutch, i. 514, 625, &c.; Labbe's Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, Leipzig, 1682, p. 27; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Hain's Repert. Bibliog. i. 574-8; Panzer's Ann. Typog. v. 119, x. 204-5; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, pt. i. 317; Dibdin's Bibliotheca Spenceriana, iii. 229-32; Graesse's Trésor des Livres Rares, i. For a sketch of Burley's philosophical opinions the following works may be consulted:-Renan's Averroes, 3rd ed. 320; Hauréau's Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, pt. ii. vol. ii. pp. 443-4; Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie, viii. 906-8; Brucker, iii. 856; Rixner's Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, ii. 147-9; Tiedemann's Geschichte der spekulativen Philosophie, v. 215-27; Albert Stoeckl's Geschichte der Philosophie der Mittelalters, ii. 1041-4; Prandtl, iii. 297-306.]

T. A. A.

BURLEY, WILLIAM (f. 1436), speaker of the House of Commons, was the son of John Burley of Bromcroft Castle, high sheriff of Salop in 1409. Sir Simon Burley [q. v.], who was beheaded on 5 May 1388, but whose attainder was reversed in the following year, was his great-great-uncle. In 1417 William Burley was first elected a knight of the shire for Salop. In the returns of the next twentyfour parliaments his name is to be found as one of the members of this county no less than eighteen times. The last parliament in which he was returned was that which was summoned to meet at Westminster on 9 July 1455. He was chosen speaker of the House of Commons on 19 March 1436, in the place of Sir John Tyrrel, kt., who was compelled by illness to retire from the chair. In the following parliament William Tresham was elected speaker; however, on 26 Feb. 1444 Burley was again voted to the chair, and continued to preside over the house until the dissolution of that parliament.

Little is known either of his domestic or political life. In 1426 he executed the office of sheriff of Salop. He died without male issue, leaving two daughters and coheiresses, the eldest of whom married, first, Sir Philip

Chetwynd of Ingestrie, and, secondly, Sir Thomas Lyttelton, the author of the 'Tenures.' From this last marriage the present Barons Lyttelton and Hatherton are descended. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir Thomas Trussel of Billesley, Warwickshire.

[Manning's Lives of the Speakers (1851), pp. 86-91; Rot. Parl. iv. 502, v. 67; Parliamentary Papers, 1878, lxii. (pt. i.) 289-351; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 464.]

G. F. R. B.

BURLINGTON, EARL OF. [See BOYLE, RICHARD, 1695-1753.]

BURLOWE, HENRY BEHNES. [See BEHNES.]

BURLY, CAPTAIN JOHN. [See BURLEY.]

BURMAN, THOMAS (d. 1674), sculptor, whose works were devoid of merit, is only remembered as the master of John Bushnell [q. v.] He died on 17 March 1673-4, and was buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. In Henry Beale's notebook an entry occurs on 18 May 1672 of the payment of 457. to Burman for a monument set up for Beale's father and mother at Walton in Buckinghamshire. [Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878).]

L. F.

BURN, EDWARD (1762-1837), polemical writer, born on 29 Nov. 1762, was educated for the ministry at the Countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca, and, after taking orders and obtaining a Birmingham curacy, he entered at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 20 Feb. 1790, M.A. on 22 June 1791. In 1785 he became curate and lecturer at St. Mary's Chapel, Birmingham, and was 'justly celebrated for extemporary oratory.' He retained this position till his death. In 1830 he is mentioned as minister of St. James's Chapel, Ashted, Birmingham, and at the time of his death he held, with St. Mary's, the rectory of Smethcott, Salop. His first appearance as an author was in opposition to Dr. Priestley, with whom he was personally acquainted (see curious anecdote in GREENWOOD), but their controversy, which took the form of letters to each other, dissolved the friendship. The initiative was with Burn, who received the thanks of Beilby Porteus, bishop of London. Burn's later judgment (1820) was 'that the doctor handled him much too roughly.' This applies particularly to their subsequent encounter in reference to the Birmingham riots of 14 July 1791. Priestley's 'Appeal to the Public,' 1792, though amply provoked by what had occurred, was not quite in the strain of his famous sermon on the 'Duty of Forgiveness of Injuries,'

1791. Burn, as he grew older, became a liberal in politics, and was willing to act with unitarians on the local committee of the Bible Society. He was one of the founders of the Birmingham Association of the Church Missionary Society, and its first secretary. It is greatly to his honour that in October 1825 he went out of his way to express regret (at the Birmingham low bailiffs' annual dinner) for his asperity against Priestley. Burn died at Birmingham 20 May 1837, and was followed to the grave by ministers of all persuasions. He married and left issue. He published: 1. 'The Fact; or instance of demoniacal possession improved,' 1788, 8vo. 2. Letters to Dr. Priestley on the Infallibility of the Apostolical Testimony concerning the Person of Christ,' 1790, 8vo, two editions, same year (replied to by Priestley in 'Letters to the Rev. E. Burn,' 1790, 8vo). 3. 'Letters to Dr. Priestley, in Vindication, &c.,' 1790, 8vo (replied to by Priestley in 'Familiar Letters, addressed to the Inhabitants of Birmingham,' 1790, 8vo, letter xviii.) 4. 'A Reply to the Rev. Dr. Priestley's Appeal to the Public on the subject of the Riots at Birmingham,' 1792, 8vo (replied to by John Edwards, Priestley's colleague, in 'Letters to the British Nation,' part iv. [1792], 8vo, and by Priestley in Appeal,' part ii., 1792, 8vo). 5. Pastoral Hints, or the Importance of a Religious Education,' 1801, 8vo. 6. 'Serious Hints, &c., to the Clergy at this momentous crisis,' Birmingham, 1798, 8vo (sermon on Is. i. 9, before the university of Oxford, 4 Feb. 1798); and other sermons and tracts, including a mission sermon in London, 1806.

6

[Anything; or, From Anywhere: otherwise Some Account of the Life of the Rev. Secretary Turnabout, the great high priest, Birm. [1792], a scurrilous piece, to which there is a Reply, 1794; Concise Hist. of Birmingham, 5th edition (1817?), p. 54; Birmingham Journal, 29 Oct. 1825; Hist. and Description of Birmingham, 1830, p. 130; Rutt's Life of Priestley, 1832, ii. 58; Chr. Reformer, 1837, p. 581, 1847, pp. 170 seq.; Miscellaneous Writings of F. W. P. Greenwood, D.D., Boston, U.S., 1846, 8vo, pp. 44 seq. (Journal kept in England in 1820-1); Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, 1851; memorial tablet at St. Mary's, Birmingham; information from Rev. J. S. Owen, Birmingham.]

A. G.

BURN, JOHN (1744?-1802), lawyer, the son of Richard Burn, LL.D. [q. v.], author of the 'Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer,' was born about 1744 at Orton in Westmoreland, where his father was rector. Though bred to the law, he did not practise, but his legal knowledge stood him in good stead in his capacity of magistrate for the counties of

Westmoreland and Cumberland. The duties of this position he is said to have fulfilled with great intelligence and activity. He published no independent work of his own, but devoted himself to editing and continuing some of his father's legal writings. In 1792 he issued his continuation of Richard Burn's New Law Dictionary.' The 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th editions (1788-1800) of the Justice of the Peace' were edited and continued by him; and to the 17th (1793) he added an appendix, containing an act respecting aliens, other acts having regard to excise, to militia, to the maintenance of the families of ballotted men, to the appointment of guardians of the poor, and to traitorous correspondence with the enemy during the war with France.

Burn died at Orton Hall in Westmoreland, 20 Jan. 1802, aged 58.

[Beauties of England and Wales, xv. pt. ii.; European Magazine, xli. 238; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

A. M-L.

BURN, RICHARD, D.C.L. (1709–1785), legal writer and topographer, was born at Winton in Westmoreland in 1709, and educated at Queen's College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1733. In 1736 he was elected, presented, and instituted to the vicarage of Orton in Westmoreland. He was a justice of the peace for the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and he was appointed by Bishop Lyttelton, in 1765, chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. He died at Orton on 12 Nov. 1785. He was succeeded in the chancellorship of Carlisle by his friend Paley.

His works are: 1. The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer, upon a plan entirely new, and comprehending all the law to the present time, 2 vols., London, 1755, 8vo. The twenty-ninth edition, 6 vols., London, 1845, 8vo, greatly enlarged, was edited by T. Chitty, with the exception of the title Poor,' for which Commissioner Bere was responsible. From two thin octavos this work has increased, under the hands of various editors, to 'six huge closely printed volumes, each containing about 1,200 pages.' It is the most useful book ever published on the law relating to justices of the peace. 2. 'A Digest of the Militia Laws,' London, 1760, 8vo. 3. Ecclesiastical Law,' 2 vols., London, 1760, 4to. The ninth edition, with considerable additions by R. Phillimore, is in 4 vols., London, 1842, 8vo. Burn, by his diligent and accurate research, and by great judgment in the selection and use of his materials, laid the foundation of a work which subsequent editors have reared to a

complete treatise on ecclesiastical law. 4. 'A History of the Poor Laws,' London, 1764, 8vo. 5. Sermons on Practical Subjects; extracted chiefly from the works of divines of the last century,' 4 vols., London, 1774, 8vo. 6. 'Observations on the Bill intended to be offered to Parliament for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor,' London, 1776, 8vo. 7. The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland,' 2 vols., London, 1777, 4to. Written in conjunction with Joseph Nicolson, nephew of Dr. William Nicolson, bishop of Carlisle, who had left large manuscript collections for the history of the two counties. 8. A New Law Dictionary,' 2 vols., London, 1792. A posthumous work of little value, edited, with a continuation, by the author's son, John Burn [q. v.] The author's portrait is prefixed.

Burn also brought out the ninth, tenth, and eleventh editions of Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England.'

[Addit. MSS. 28104, f. 43, 28167, f. 56; Atkinson's Worthies of Westmoreland, ii. 119-32; Bridgman's Legal Bibliography, 42; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 358; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Clarke's Bibl. Legum Angliæ, 69, 117, 274; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 1611; Gent. Mag. lv. (ii.) 922; Gough's British Topography, i. 279, ii. 312; Jefferson's Hist. of Carlisle, 417-21; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), iii. 251; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), 317, 318; Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 163; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iii. 310, iv. 568, 586-8, 666, v. 266, 267; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 113, vi. 441, viii. 236, 237, 696, 705, 734, 740; land, i. 484; Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), 101.]

Nicolson and Burn's Westmoreland and Cumber

T. C.

BURN, WILLIAM (1789-1870), architect, the son of Robert Burn, a successful builder in Edinburgh, and designer of the Nelson monument on the Calton Hill there, was born in Edinburgh, 20 Dec. 1789. After an elementary training from his father, he entered in 1808 the office of Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Smirke, then at the height of his fame, and sharing with Sir John Soane the best architectural position and practice in London. Smirke's practice was chiefly in the classical style, and young Burn was educated in the severe traditions of the period, along with (among others who afterwards became known) Lewis Vulliamy and C. R. Cockerell, afterwards professor of architecture in the Royal Academy. On his return to Edinburgh after a few years' experience in Mr. Smirke's office, he began business for himself, and almost at the outset met

with signal success. In 1816 he was second to Mr. Playfair in a competitive design for additions to the buildings of Edinburgh University, originally designed by the celebrated Robert Adam [q. v.], and in the same year erected the custom house at Greenock, and the church of St. John, at the west end of Princes Street, Edinburgh. From this time his career was one of uninterrupted professional success. He divided with Playfair the best architectural works of the time in Scotland, and while the latter probably did more public and monumental work, Burn undoubtedly erected more and larger private and domestic buildings than any individual architect of his time. Most of the Scottish and a large number of the English aristocracy were his clients, and in 1844 he found it necessary to remove to London, leaving his Edinburgh business in charge of David Bryce [q. v.], who had become his partner a short time before. The partnership subsisted for about six years, after which Burn ceased practice as an Edinburgh architect. In London his success continued unbroken. His strength undoubtedly lay in domestic architecture, particularly in the internal arrangement of houses, and mansions of his design are to be found in almost every county in the United Kingdom. Among the chief of these are: In Scotland-Riccarton, for Sir W. Gibson-Craig ; Niddrie, for Colonel Wauchope; Tynninghame, for the Earl of Haddington; Ardgowan, for Sir Michael Shaw Stewart; Buchanan House, for the Duke of Montrose; Dalkeith Palace and Bowhill, for the Duke of Buccleuch; and Falkland House, for Mr. Tyndall Bruce. In England-Revesby Abbey and Stoke Rockford in Lincolnshire, Lynford Hall in Norfolk, Fonthill for the Marquis of Westminster, Sandown Hall for the Earl of Harrowby, Knowsley for the Earl of Derby, and Montagu House, Whitehall, for the Duke of Buccleuch. In IrelandDartrey in county Monaghan for the Earl of Dartrey, and Castlewellan in county Down for the Earl of Annesley. His best-known public works are St. John's Church, the New Club, the Melville Monument, John Watson's Hospital, the Music Hall, and alterations in St. Giles', all in Edinburgh. For the last he has been much and severely criticised. But while the somewhat commonplace building which he substituted for the old picturesque exterior of the church is certainly to be regretted, his work, such as it is, was not behind the ideas of Gothic architecture then prevailing. He was also consulting government architect for Scotland, and in 1856 was one of the three judges appointed by the government to decide a competition