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 attention, in correspondence with Bentham, to the subject of law reform. Hobhouse had a high opinion of his colleague, and declared that Burdett was the best constitutional lawyer in England (Memoirs of T. Moore, vii. 139). His ample purse was always open to the support of a worthy cause. When Francis Place began the movement which developed into the Birkbeck Mechanics' Institution, a great deal of its early success was due to handsome subscriptions from Burdett and to those which resulted from his example. He gave money freely in support of the reform movement. His favourite recreation was fox-hunting. As he grew in years he presented a perfect type of the English country gentleman; and the generous disposition of his youth remained with him to old age.

Abundant materials for the study of Burdett's career and his influence on public opinion will be found in the manuscript collections of Francis Place and in the newspapers of his day. He had also the distinction of being very well abused by anonymous and other pamphleteers—a certain token of the high value of his services to his countrymen.

 BURDON, WILLIAM (1764–1818), miscellaneous writer, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1764, was educated at the free grammar school there, proceeded to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1782, and graduated B.A. 1786, and M.A. 1788, when he was elected a fellow of his college. He resigned his fellowship eight years later, on declining to take holy orders. He married in 1798 a daughter of Lieutenant-general Dickson. He was a man of wealth, and owned coalmines at Hartford, near Morpeth, where he lived for a part of each year. He died at his London house in Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, on 30 May 1818. His wife had died in 1806. He was a voluminous writer on political and literary subjects. His chief works are as follows: 1. ‘Examination of the Merits and Tendency of the Pursuits of Literature,’ 1799. 2. ‘A Vindication of Pope and Grattan from the Attacks of an anonymous Defamer,’ 1799. 3. ‘Various Thoughts on Politicks, Morality, and Literature,’ 1800. 4. ‘Materials for Thinking,’ 1803, 1812. 5. ‘The Life and Character of Buonaparte,’ 1804. 6. ‘Letters on the Affairs of Spain,’ 1809. He also wrote many pamphlets on the political questions of the hour, and translated in 1810, from the Spanish of Estrada, ‘A Constitution for the Spanish Nation,’ and an ‘Introduction to the History of the Revolution in Spain,’ besides circulating an ‘Examination of the Dispute between Spain and her Colonies.’ In ‘Cobbett and the Reformers impartially examined,’ 1813, he proves himself a very moderate reformer. Burdon was the editor of the ‘Memoirs of Count Boruwlaski,’ which appeared in 1820.

 BURDY, SAMUEL (1760?–1820), author, was born at Dromore, co. Down, about 1760, and was the only son of Peter Burdy, a merchant of that town. The family was descended from a Huguenot who had fled to Holland and came to Ireland in the army of King William III (Ardglass, p. 118). Burdy obtained a sizarship by examination at Trinity College, Dublin, on 22 March 1777; obtained a scholarship in 1780, and graduated B.A. in 1781. He was ordained in 1783, and in the same year was appointed curate of Ardglass, a parish in the county of Down. Burdy had been introduced to Bishop Percy by Hely Hutchinson, the provost of Trinity College (, Illustrations of Literature, viii.), and was admitted to some intimacy in the bishop's family. He fell in love with the bishop's daughter, and Percy, who prided himself on belonging to the great Northumberland family, resented the possibility of an alliance with a curate, and for more than a year refused even to see Burdy. At the end of that time Burdy wrote a letter of apology, which shows that while he submitted to her father's wishes he remained in love with the daughter. The bishop ceased to be actively hostile, and used to lend books to Burdy, but the curate lived and died unmarried. He was only