BURG, a town of Prussian Saxony, on the River Ihle, and on the railway from Berlin to Magdeburg, 14 miles N.E. of the latter. It has long been noted for its woollen manufactures, which afford employment to a great part of its population. The town formerly belonged to the Querfurt principality, but was ceded to Brandenburg in 1687. It owes its prosperity to the large influx of industrious French, Palatinate, and Walloon refugees, which took place in the end of the 17 th century. Population in 1871, 15,184.

BURGAGE is a form of tenure, both in England and Scotland, applicable to the property connected with the old municipal corporations and their privileges. The term is of less practical importance in the English than in the Scottish system, where it still holds an important place in the practice of conveyancing, real property being there generally divided into feudal-holding and burgage-holding. It is usual to speak of the English burgage-tenure as a relic of Saxon freedom resisting the shock of the Norman conquest and its feudalism, but it is perhaps more correct to consider it a local feature of that general exemption from feudality enjoyed by the municipia as a relic of their ancient Roman constitution. The reason for the system preserving its specifically distinct form in Scottish conveyancing is because burgage-holding was an exception to the system of subinfeudation which remained prevalent in Scotland when it was suppressed in England. While other vassals might hold of a graduated hierarchy of overlords up to the crown, the burgess always held directly of the sovereign. It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a species of soccage, to distinguish it from the military holdings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching and warding for the defence of the burgh. In England the franchises enjoyed by burgesses, freemen, and other consuetudinary constituencies in burghs, were dependent on the character of the burgage-tenure.

BURGDORF (in French, Berthoud), a town in the Swiss canton of Bern, on the River Emme, about 14 miles by railway from the chief city. It is situated 1840 feet above the level of the sea, and consists of an upper and lower part, which are connected by a spiral arrangement of streets. Its houses are substantially built, and it has an ancient castle, a town-house, a hospital, an orphanage, and a public library. Ribbons and damask, tobacco and chocolate are manufactured; and a large trade is carried on in the dairy produce of the Emmenthal. From the Lueg about 4⅛ miles to the N.E. a view of the whole Bernese Alps can be obtained. The castle of Burgdorf was built at a very early date, and the town became the capital of Lesser Burgundy and the residence of the dukes of Zähringen. In 1270 they were succeeded by the lords of Kyburg, who, in 1326, pawned their possessions to Ulrich of Signan. In 1384 the town and countship were purchased by Bern for 37,000 florins, and the Bernese magistrates held rule till 1798. Pestalozzi had his educational establishment in the castle for a number of years. Population in 1870, 5078.

BURGER, GottfriedAugust (1748-1794), a celebrated German poet, was born on the 1st of January 1748 at Wolmerswende, a village in the principality of Halberstadt, where his father was Lutheran minister. In his childhood he showed little inclination to study; the Bible was the only book which had any attraction for him, and his first attempts in versification were imitations of the Psalms. It is to this first direction of his studies that we are to attribute the Biblical phrases, and the allusions to Christianity, which we find even in his amatory poetry. He was fond of solitude, and indulged in all the romantic sentiments which deserts and the gloom of forests inspire. From the school of Aschersleben, where his maternal grandfather resided, and which he quitted in consequence of receiving a severe chastisement for composing an epigram, he was sent to the institution at Halle. But at neither of these places did he make much progress, having a taste only for the lessons in prosody and versification. In 1764 Bürger, who was intended for the clerical office, began to attend the course of lectures given by the professors of the university. Klotz, a learned classical scholar, admitted him into the select number of the young men whose talents he took a pleasure in cultivating; but this society appears not to have produced the same favourable effect on the moral character of Bürger as on his genius. His conduct prejudiced his grandfather Bauer against him; and it was with difficulty that he obtained from him some further assistance, with permission, in the year 1768, to repair to Göttingen to prosecute the study of the law. This change did not make him more regular in his studies; his morals became corrupted; and his grandfather withdrew his protection. Bürger contracted ...

BURGERSDYK, or Burgersdicius, Francis, a celebrated Dutch logician, was born at Lier, near Delft, in 1590, and died at Leyden in 1629, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. He studied at the university of Leyden, and after completing his academical career there with great distinction, travelled through Germany and France. On arriving at Saumur in the latter country he began to study theology, and was so successful, that, while still a very young man, he was appointed professor of philosophy in that town. This office he held for five years, at the end of which period he returned to Leyden, where he accepted the chair of logic and moral philosophy, and afterwards that of natural philosophy. His Logic was at one time widely used, and is still a very valuable compendium. His treatise on ethics, entitled Idea Phdosophi oe Moralis, was published posthumously in 1644.

BURGESS, Daniel (1645-1712), a learned and witty dissenting divine of the 17 th century, born at Staines, in Middlesex, of which parish his father was minister. He was educated at Westminster school, and in 1660 was sent to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, but not being able conscientiously to subscribe the necessary formulas, he quitted that university without taking his degree. In 1667, after taking orders, he was appointed by Lord Orrery to the head-mastership of a school recently established by that nobleman at Charleville in Munster, and soon after he became private chaplain to Lady Mervin, near Dublin. On his return from Ireland he openly avowed his Presbyterian principles, and frequently preached in contempt of the severe laws against nonconformity. For these offences he was imprisoned, but soon regaining his liberty he went to London, where he speedily collected a large congregation, as much by the somewhat fanatical fervour of his piety as by the ludicrous illustrations which he frequently employed in his sermons. Besides preaching, he gave instructions to private pupils, of whom the most distinguished was Henry St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke....