The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-23 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 134.4.

It is with unfeigned regret that we record the death
of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, which took place at four
o'clock this morning. The deceased Baronet, who
was born in 1770, was the son of F. BURDETT, Esq.;
he married, in 1793, the youngest daughter of the late
THOMAS COUTTS, the banker, entered Parliament as
Member for Boroughbridge in 1796, and in the fol-
lowing year succeeded his grandfather in the Baro-
netcy. In 1807, he was elected for Westminster,
which city he continued to represent till 1837, when
he was returned fur the northern division of Wilt-
shire, on the Tory interest. Early in life the de-
ceased Baronet started as a Reformer, under
the auspices of the well-known HORNE
TooKE, whom he regarded as his political
Mentor, and at whose Sunday parties at Wimbledon
he was always a favourite guest. His views of Re
form were—for those days—of the boldest and most
uncompromising character; and he advocated them,
on every occasion, both within and without the walls
of Parliament, with a manliness—an energy—a hearti-
ness—and inflexible stubbornness of purpose that
rendered hi:n for years the idol of the people. In
1812 he was committed to the Tower for having
published some unpalateable truths respecting the
constitution of the House of Commons, which the
Ministry of that (lay chose to regard as a breach cf
privilege; and on this occasion a desperate riot
took place, in which several lives were lost.
In 1819—the year of the Peterloo massacre—
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT indignantly denounced that
atrocity, and the consequence was, that he was
brought to trial for libel in the Court of King's
Bench, and condemned to imprisonment, and to pay
a heavy fine of one thousand pounds. When the Re-
form Bill, for which he had toiled and struggled
through so many a long and weary year, was at
length passed into law, this veteran patriot, who had
grown grey in the service of his country, imagining,
it is to be presumed, that all had been accomplished
that was necessary to be accomplished, took the
earliest opportunity of deserting the cause of the peo-
ple, and going over to the Tories. his apostacy
created no little sensation at the time, but
it was productive of not the slightest in-
jurious consequences, except to the public cha-
racter of Sir FRANCIS I3URDETT himself. On
him, indeed, it fell with quite a crushing effect. lie
was literally the " engineer hoist with his own
petard." Whatever moral and political influence he
posq,sicd, he lost at once and fbr ever ; and even the
party, for whom he had made this great sacrifice
of honest fame, were not slow to despise the
man who brought nothing to their cause but
the. doting and peevish garrulity of age. But
he is now gone to his account, and we have
no wish to press hardly on his memory. Our public
fplarrel with him is at an end, for we are not of the '
number of those who push political animosity beyond
the grave, but leave it to impartial history to pro-
nounce her stern and irrevocable verdict. It must
be borne in mind, too, that the late Baronet gave to
Reform the best, most vigorous, and most intellectual
years of his life, and brought to the service of the
Tories nothing but that which was not worth accept-
ance—an enfeebled mind and exhausted energies.
Whatever triumphant effects he produced in public,
were all produced when he was boldly and consci-
entiously fighting the battles of the people; and
charity would fain attribute his apostacy less to strong
and enlightened conviction, than to that debilitated
judgment which is so often the result of advanced
age. As an orator, Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, though
not of the loftiest order; yet deserves to be mentioned
with considerable respect. His manner was graceful,
and at times even dignified; an air of impressive
sincerity characterised everything he said ; and his
diction, without being florid or diffuse, was eloquent
—nervous—impassioned—and as full of sound genuine
Saxon English as the language of SHAIESPEARE him-
self. Such was Sir FRANCIS in his best days; and it
is from the vivid and grateful recollection of his forty
years unremitting devotion to freedom, that we have
been induced to touch thus lightly and briefly on the
errors of his declining years.

Those of our readers who may happen to be versed
in who is there that is not ?--
,:d00,,t, kit reniCrnbCr FAL,TAru's famous tavern bill,
iu whidi, on 110:stes QuicKLy's showing, the quantity
ut sack drank by the "fart knight" amounted to eleven
shillings—the quantity of bread eaten, to just one
proportion which I
halfpenny ! Precisely the 54111 e