!8l().J G. Burnstt and the Literary Fmid. 



published under the name of, Mavor; 

 and this is, perhaps, as good a specimen 

 of liis talents as can be touud. His last 

 production, consisting of " Extracts 

 from the Prose Works of Milton," was 

 compiled here in the course of the years 

 1808 and 1809. Soon after its com- 

 pletion he left this place, but his rela- 

 tions here never received any letter 

 from liira afterwards ; so that, how he 

 subsisted from November 1809 till his 

 death, which took place iu the Mary-le- 

 bone Infirmary, in Tebrnary 1811, is 

 not known; but there is much reason to 

 fear, that he sometimes wanted the 

 common comforts, not to say even 

 the necessaries, of life. He dedicated 

 his Extracts from the Prose Work» of 

 Milton to Lord Erskine, who wrote 

 liim, a short time previously to his 

 death, a handsome complimentary let- 

 ter. In justice to Lord E. it ought to 

 be observed, that Burnett's circum- 

 etances were wholly luiknown to his 

 lordship till after his decease.* 



The death of this young man, at the 

 tb^ -. ■. 



• We knew this interesting yonng man j 

 ftnd, thinking our correspondent a little 

 severe, take the liberty to SHbjoin a com- 

 mentary. He had no vices besides those 

 tvhich are generally ascribed to poverty. 

 He embarked in the trade of an author 

 Trithout pecuniary capital, and felt what 

 (ill traders feel who are deficient in tlie 

 name requisite. Being obliged to earn his 

 bread generally after he had eaten it, 

 labour became irksome to him, and an irk- 

 some life begat peevislniess and morbid 

 feelings, of which he subseciiiently became 

 the victim. With an independence of a 

 tin;;le hundred pounds per annum, hj» 

 talents would have raised him to the first 

 cank iu literature; but his necessities 

 stunted every exertion of his mind, and 

 4unk him amon£; weeds and briar.s, thoiigii 

 lie was qualified by Nature to soar among 

 the loftiest of her productions. Till we 

 read this narrative, vv* did not know that 

 ■lie finished his career in the Infirmary of a 

 parisli-workliouse— nor can we associate 

 JLindred feelhigs with our own in consider- 

 ing the circumstance, unless we could in- 

 troduce to our readers a living portrait of 

 tlie elegant person, the dignified manners, 

 •nd the perspicacious mind of this amiable 

 and accomplished youni; man, such .is he 

 was when he was iuiroduced to us only 

 sixteen years ay;i), on his dibiU iu llie me- 

 tropolis. His fate, and that of others 

 within oui knowledire, leads us to curse 

 tlie fraud of ilie l^iterary Fund, whjfli ab- 

 sorbs the patronai^e intended (or men of 

 leltfMS; but, for want of practical arrangc- 

 Dieuts, Hinted to thoir aclual circuin- 

 •tuiiec^, leaves them to perish as iiTeti'icv- 



MuNfULY xMag. No. ^l>0. 



3!S 



age of about thirty-five, adds anoliic» 

 name to the list of unfortunate writers 

 with which the annals of England ar» 

 already too much swelled. R. W. 



To the Editor of the Manthhj Magazine. 



SIR, 



IT may be gratifviiig io those of your 

 readers wlio have not been in Franc* 

 to be made acquainted with, what ap- 

 peared to me (on a late visit to that 

 country), one of the most interesting 

 spectacles in it — I mean the burial- 

 ground of Mount Louis. And the rea- 

 son which induces me to trouble you 

 with this short account is, that, though I 

 visited France in 1814, and again a 

 month since, yet it was only by chance, 

 and that a day or two before quitting 

 Paris, that I heard of tliLs place. 



Le Cemetiire de Mont Louis, dit lit 

 MaisoH du Pere la Chaise, is one of the 

 four burial-grounds of Paris (all on the 

 outside of the city) ; the others are-^ 

 Montmartre, Vaug-irard, and St. Cathe- 

 rine. The cemetery of jMount Louis 

 is on the east of Paris, in front of th« 

 barrier d'Aunay, and on the north sid» 

 of the boulvard of that name, near th« 

 road to Montreuil. Louis XIV. built 

 a handsome house on this spot for his 

 confessor, le Pere la Chaise, a Jesuit, 

 who for the long term of thirty-four 

 years had t!ie keeping of this monarch's 

 conscience. 



This burial-ground is not like lhos« 

 in I'Ingland, and iu other countries, 

 wliich arc literally fields of the dead, 

 and have nothing to distinguish them 

 iiom other fields, but a great number of 

 square smooth white stones standing 

 ups-ight upon t!iem ; for it has in reality 

 a most beautiful and interesting ap- 

 pearance. Over the ground, vvliich is 

 very much broken and hilly, are scatter- 

 ably as tliousrii no snch patronage had ex- 

 isted. If some noble frieud of letters had 

 not considered lii)n'elf as fiilfillin!» his 

 duty by his siibscriiitii n to this impotent 

 fund, poor Biirnett migl-.t have found a 

 patron who would have rescued him froiu 

 the aii'iiiibh of piniut; away his life in the 

 last asylnni of the base and vicious. Our 

 h.^bitual readers have not forgotten Mr. 

 Burnett's Letters on Poland,vvhicli adorned 

 our pages a few years since, and which h« 

 afterwards printed in a separate volume. 

 That work, his anonymous introduction to 

 MavOi's History, and his literary selec- 

 tions, prove, that, if this author died in 

 misery, social airanneiiients are still wanted 

 to secure such men from so nielaucUoly 

 a fate! — KuiiOii. 



