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BUEGDORF BURGESS 447 nearly equal. The difficulty was settled by Napoleon, who contributed 3,000 francs for a secoml prize. Burg's most important publica- tions relate to lunar motions. BURGDORF (Fr. Berthoud), a town of Switz- erland, on the Emmen, in the canton and 11 m. N. E. of Bern; pop. in 1870, 5,078. It was formerly the capital of Little Burgundy, the castle being then of great strength. In the vicinity are the baths of Sommerhaus. From 1798 to 1804 Pestalozzi resided in the chateau of Burgdorf, which he converted into a school. BURGER, Gottfried liisnst, a German poet, born at Molmerswende, Dec. 31, 1747, died in Got- tingen, June 8, 1794. A comic poem of his composition drove him from the school of Asch- ersleben, and his dislike of theology from the university of Halle. In 1768 he went to Got- tingen, where he studied the languages and poetry of foreign nations, and Shakespeare be- came one of his idols. An insignificant public office in a village near Gottingen gave him a small income. He associated with the poets who founded the Hairibund, and while at the village of Gelliehausen composed the ballad Lenore, published in the Gottinger Musenal- mannchf&r 1774. This made him famous, but left him poor. Losing his office in 1784, he worked hard to support himself by teaching and translations, and by other literary work. In 1787 he began to lecture on Kantian phi- losophy and aesthetics in Gottingen, and was made doctor of philosophy, and in 1789 honor- ary professor. He had married in 1775 Do- rette Leonhart, who bore him a child, but he lived at the same time, with the wife's cogni- zance, with her youngest sister Auguste, or Molly, as he called her in his poems, who bore him two children. Dorette died in 1784; he then legalized his union with Molly, who died in 1786. In 1790 he married Christine Elise Hahn of Stuttgart, the Swabian girl (Sekwa- benmadchen), as he designated her, who had offered him her hand without having ever seen him. But she deserted him, and they were divorced in February, 1792. Bowed down by misfortune, and already suffering from con- sumption, Schiller's unfavorable review of his poems in the Allgemeine Literntvrzeitung was an additional blow which hastened his death. Lenore, Dag Lied win Graven Manne, Der wilde Jiiger, and Des Pfarrers TochteT von Tauben- Jiain are among his most stirring ballads ; and these as well as many of his other compositions give him a high rank among poets. His bal- lads have been translated into many languages, Lenore into English by Sir Walter Scott. He contributed much to the improvement of the German language, and wrote on aesthetics and various other subjects. He was the first to give German versions in hexameter from the Iliad and the yEneid, and translated "Mac- beth " into German. His literary activity was prodigious. His complete works were first published by Reinhard (4 vols., Gottingen, 1796-'8), who also published Burger's Lehr- 132 VOL. in. 29 buch der Aesthetik(2 vols., Berlin, 1825), after his lectures at Gottingen, and a supplementary volume, Aesthetische Schriften (1832). Doubt was, however, expressed as to the genuineness of these posthumous publications. The collect- ed edition by Bohtz, in one volume (Gottingen, 1834), contains Burger's correspondence and the excellent biography of him by Althof, first published in 1798. Among his other biogra- phers are Doring, and more recently Prohle (Leipsic, 1856). Various works have been pub- lished upon his conjugal relations, and his Brief e an Marianne Ehrmann, published in 1802 by Theodor F. Ehrmann, give curious de- tails in respect to the latter part of his life. His third wife died in 1833, having been an ac- tress, and written poems, a drama, and a novel. BDRGES, Tristam, an American statesman, born in Rochester, Mass., Feb. 26, 1770, died in Providence, R. I., Oct. 13, 1853. He gradua- ted at Rhode Island college (now Brown uni- versity), Providence, in 1796, studied law, and became a leader of the Rhode Island bar. In 1815 he was made chief justice of the state, but went out of office in 1816 with the defeat of the federalists, and became professor of oratory and belles-lettres in Brown university. He was a representative in congress from Rhode Island from 1825 to 1835. A speech on the judiciary soon made him prominent. He sub- mitted a bill proposing a system of pensions for the surviving soldiers of the revolution, and made many brilliant speeches in support of a protective tariff. He used sarcasm with great effect in debate, especially in his famous dis- pute with John Randolph. Though generally opposed to President Jackson, he fully sustain- ed his course in respect to nullification. His vehement opposition to Mr. Clay's compromise tariff bill contributed to his losing his seat in congress in 1835, after which he retired from public life. He published a number of his speeches, and in 1839 appeared his "Battle of Lake Erie, with Notices of Commodore Elliott's Conduct." A memoir of him, with selections from his speeches and writings, was published by Henry L. Bowen in 1835, and another me- moir appeared in 1869. BURGESS, George, D. D., an American bishop, born in Providence, R. I., Oct. 81, 1809, died at sea, April 23, 1866. He graduated at Brown university, where he became tutor, and after- ward studied two years at Gottingen, Bonn, and Berlin. He was rector of Christ church (Episcopal), Hartford, from 1834 to October, 1847, when he was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Maine, becoming also rector of Christ church at Gardiner. He was a leader of the moderate church party. Toward the close of his life he established an Episcopal mission in Hayti, and died of paralysis while he was on his way to Port-au-Prince. His writings in- clude a metrical version of a portion of the Psalms (1840), "The Last Enemy Conquered and Conquering " (1851), and " Sermons on the Christian Life " (1854).