Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/764

BURDETT. ical speaker, for many years was the idol of the London populace. Having obtained a Par- liamentary inquiry into the abuses of the metro- politan prisons, lie was returned in 180" for Westminster, which he represented for nearly thirty years. Burdett, in 1810. published, in Cobbett's Political Ucijistcr, a letter to his con- stituents, declaring the conduct of the Commons illegal in imprisoning Jolin Gale Jones, a radi- cal orator, who had questioned their authority in excluding strangers from the House. The Speaker issued a warrant for Burdett's arrest as guilty of a breach of privilege. Refusing to sur- render, he for two days barricaded his house, the populace supporting him in liis i"esistance; but on April 9, the sergeant-at-arms, aided by the police, obtained an entrance, and conveyed him to the Tower. The prorogation of Parlia- ment restored him to liberty. Prosecuted in 1819 for a letter on the "Peterloo massacre,' strongly condemning the authorities, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of £2000. In 1835 he joined the Conservatives, and in 1837 was returned for Wiltshire, which he repre- sented till his death, .January 23, 1844. Burdett maintained the freedom of public speech in Eng- land by a fearless and untiinching attitude against all attempts at suppression.

BURDETT-COUTTS, bflr-det' koots', An- GEL. (iKORGiNA, Baroness (1814 — ). An English philanthropist, daughter of Sir Francis Burdett. In 1837 she inherited much of the property of her grandfather, Thoma.s Coutts, the banker. The liberal and public-spirited use she has made of this wealth, in her efforts to mitigate the suf- ferings of her fellow-creatures and the lower animals, has rendered her name well known in England and America. Besides spending large sums in building and endowing churches and schools, she endowed the three colonial bishop- rics of Cajie Town, Adelaide, and British Colum- bia, at an outlay of about £50,000, and founded an establishment in South Australia for the improvement of the aborigines. In her zeal for the good of her own sex she effected imjiortant reforms in the teaching of girls at the national schools, and established a shelter and reforma- tory for fallen women. To the city of London she has presented, besides several handsome fountains, the Columbia Market. Methnal (ireen, for the supply of good and wholesome food in a poor district. She also built Columbia Sijuare, consisting of model dwellings at low rents for about 300 families; and, taking great interest in emigration, has assisted many poor families in their passage. Her private charities have been on a corresponding scale, and she is also a lib- eral patroness of art. In 1871 she accepted a peerage from the Government, with the above title. In 1872 the freedom of the city of Lon- don was conferred u])<m her (the first woman who ever received it), and in 1874 the freedom of Edinburgh. She was married in 1881 to W. L. Ashmead-Bartlett (born in New .Jersey), who by royal license used the surname Burdett- Coutts.

BURDETTE, Robert .Joxes (1844 — ). An American humorist and clergyman, who became famous through his paragraphs in the Burling- ton (Iowa) Hawkcyc. He was born in Greens- boro, Pa., and received a secondary school edu- cation in Peoria, 111. During the Civil War he served as a private soldier. In 1869 he became night editor of the Peoria Daily Transcript, and after- wards was associated with other papers. He joined the staff of the Bnrlinjiton Haickeyc in 1872, and his humorous paragraphs soon began to be ijuoted in newspapers throughout the coim- try, with the result that, beginning in 187(1, he made a number of very successful lecture tfiurs. lie became a licensed minister of the Baptist Church in 1887, and afterwards took charge of the Baptist chapel at Gladwyne, Montgomery County, Pa, His books include: The Rise and Fall of the Mustache and Other Hawkeyetems 11877); Uawkcyes (1880); lAfe of ^yilUam Penn (1882); Innach Garden and Other Comic Sketches (1880); and Chimes from a Jester's Hells (1897).

BUR'DICK, Francis JIabion (1845—). An American professor of law. He was born at De Ruyter, N. V., graduated at Hamilton Col- lege in 1869, and in 1872 at Hamilton College Law School, and from 1872 to 1883 practiced law. He was Mayor of Utica, N. Y., from 1882 to 1883, professor of law aiid history in Hamil- ton College from 1882 to 18S7, and professor of law in the law school of Cornell LTniversity from 1887 to 1891. In 1891 he was appointed professor of law in Columbia University. He has published: Cases on Torts; The Laio of l<alcs: and other legal works.

BURDOCK {hiir, the globular seed-ease -f docA. the plant; see Dock) {,Arctium). A genus of plants of the order Compositie. The heads of rtowers are globose, or nearly so, and each of the scales of the involucre runs out into a long, rigid prickle, which is hooked at the point. By means of these hooks the flower-head — popularly called a bur — readily lays hold of the clothes of a passer-by, the wool of a slieep, or the like, and thus the seeds are transported from one place to another. The common bur- dock (Arctium lappa) is abundant in waste and bushy ]ilaces, by waysides, etc., in Europe, and is naturalized in the I'nited States. Its root is biennial, large, and lleshy, somewhat carrot - shaped; the root • leaves large, stalked, heart-shaped; the stem stiff', upright, somewhat branched and leafy, 3 feet or more high. The root is sometimes used in medicine, being di- ajihoretic and diuretic, and acting upon the cutaneous system and the kidneys. It is ca- pable of being made a substitute for sarsajiarilla. In autumn young roots are often found to con- tain as much as 45 per cent, dry weight of inulin. In many countries the roots, young shoots, and young leaves of burdock are used in soups, and the plant is cultivated for this use in Japan. The roots are said to resemble arti- chokes in taste. The leaves and their expressed juice are sometimes applied to burns and sup- purations.

BURDWAN, bilrd-wiin'. See Bardwan.

BUREAU (Fr., from OF. hurel, coarse woolen clotli, because a bureau was originally covered with brown baize). A writing-table or desk with drawers. The use of the French word in this sense is at least as old as Swift, and became common in England in the latter half of the Eighteenth Century. In America it is used to signify any chest of drawers. The word is also applied to an ollice for transacting business^