but of a poison-draught, which it is believed she took as a remedy for some temporary ailment. The circumstances of her last moments, however, are not wholly free from mystery. The accompanying poem, addressed to this interesting woman, is the production of Miss Jewsbury, and was written under an excitement of feeling produced by a first interview with its subject. It is not a little remarkable, that both these interesting writers, after having acquired distinction in poetic literature, and conspicuous regard in the highest classes of society, became the wives of persons much less known than themselves, and whose public duties lay in distant lands; and that both-submitting to those bonds their marriage-vows imposed upon them-quitting their native country with their husbands, sunk but too early into the tomb.

Good-night! I have no jewels

As parting gifts to bring;
But here's a frank and kind farewell,
Thou gay and gifted thing!

In the lonely hours of night,

When the face puts off its mask,
When the fever'd day is over,

And the heart hath done its task

When reason mourns the vanities
That stoop the lofty will,
Till the spirit's rock of worldliness
Is struck, and yields its rill-

Then, then, I think of thee, friend,

With sad, soft, earnest thought,

As of a child from fairy land
Into the desert brought :

Forgetting there the visions

That make of childhood part:
And singing songs of fairy land,
Without the fairy heart.

As of a rose at noontide

Waving proudly to the view,
Yet wanting in its crimson depth,

The early drop of dew:

SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, BART., M.P.

ETC.

"If it be aught toward the general good,

Set honour in one eye, and death i' th' other,
And I will look on both indifferently."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE character of Sir Francis Burdett may lose in lustre by length of time, but no distortion of its image is ever likely to occur; for, he has not left a personal enemy behind, to dim the mirror of history in which his actions will be reflected. The transition state of public sentiment in England, from demi-feudalism to democracy, generated a new race of statesmen, men who had the moral courage to desire the elevation of the lower classes, who felt little apprehension for the security of their own position from the envious or the ignorant; and, whose single purpose was the diffusion of freedom and felicity amongst mankind. Never did any times, however agitated by political theories, present a nobler illustration of disinterested and genuine patriotism-a more splendid example of benevolence-than the subject of these brief notices. Let his political opponents sketch his portrait. "Sir Francis Burdett was a man of very ancient descent, the possessor of an old baronetcy, the owner of a splendid fortune, the representative of a great county, the head of an honourable family; a man most carefully educated, of considerable attainments, of great natural endowments, and of very popular talents, of generous feelings, of dignified manners, of winning address, invested with almost every personal advantage, and prompted by the most benevolent impulses; it can occasion no surprise, therefore, that he should have enjoyed a remarkable share of popularity.”

Traceable distinctly to the age of the Conquest, the Burdett family is entitled to all the worldly consideration shown to a long line of ancestors. Having obtained the manor of Lousely, in Leicestershire, by grant from the Conqueror, they were located in that county for many years. Nicholas, grand Butler of Normandy, and Prefect of Evreux, was slain at the battle of Pontoise, in 1437. His son was beheaded, for high treason, by Edward IV.; upon an interpretation of the laws affecting that crime, which happily was never employed on any other occasion. The king having killed a favourite white buck belonging to Burdett, in a moment of passion the owner wished the animal's horns in the stomach of his majesty's adviser, whoever he might be. This was the head and front of his offending; but the king himself decided that it was high treason. His grandson, Francis Burdett, was created a baronet in 1618, and from him, who married the heiress of William Frauncys, of Foremark, in Derbyshire, the title has descended directly to the late baronet, who succeeded to the vast possessions of the united families, at his grandfather's decease, on the 22d of Feb., 1797.