Poor Charlie! would it lessen the loneliness of your last resting-place to know that you “sleep your last sleep” by the side of the gifted and noble-hearted friend who watched over you night and day in your sickness, and who thus contracted his own death malady? Alas! how sad and overpowering are my thoughts, as I stand, for the last time before leaving for my own far-distant home, by the grave of Franklin H. Ridout, of Annapolis, Maryland! Soon after the death of Charlie, he was prostrated by a most violent attack of the same disease. During his short sickness, every possible attention and assistance was rendered him by a few devoted friends; but how often he must have felt the want of the attentions of his own happy home--the home of piety and refinement! After he had received from his physician the intelligence that there was no hope in his case--intelligence to which he listened with Christian resignation--he sent for me. It was the 21st of October, and so warm and genial was the weather that the dying man was outside his tent, lying beneath its shade. That conversation, and others which followed, I shall never forget. I was the learner, and he the teacher. His quiet Christian resignment to the will of the Supreme Being, while it was very affecting, was also consoling to our feelings. But one thing he seemed to wish different. “If I might die at home,” he said, “it would be so sweet!” The last sentence he spoke contained the dear and sacred name “mother!” His last thought was of her. A short time before his death, the sacrament of the holy communion was administered to him, at which a large number of persons were present. A meeting of the company was called in the evening, and the following resolutions were passed: Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to take from among us a beloved friend and companion, therefore, _Resolved_, 1st. That by the death of Franklin H. Ridout we have lost one whom we all esteemed most highly for his many virtues. _Resolved_, 2d. That we sincerely sympathize with his afflicted mother and relatives in this sad bereavement. _Resolved_, 3d. That we will attend his funeral to-morrow, at twelve o’clock, M. _Resolved_, 4th. That this company will defray the expenses of his funeral. Resolved, 5th. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of the deceased; and that an invitation to attend the funeral be extended to the neighboring companies. DANIEL B. WOODS, Secretary. _Hart’s Bar_, Oct. 21, 1849.