Wales.

The evidence collected by these Commissioners is of

great value. Legislation followed on their report.

Shortly before his death, Sir William occupied himself in preparing a catalogue of the various objects of interest in his museum. This catalogue was in proof, and awaiting revisal when he died. The list of birds contains no less than 6000 species, and probably not less than 12,000 specimens. Sir William was most obliging in lending specimens to friends. I remember on one occasion obtaining from him on loan the skull of a fossil bear found in this country, on the occasion of a popular lecture which I was giving in Berwickshire.

Sir William Jardine was during the last ten years of his life constantly resident at Jardine Hall, enjoying the sports of country life, discharging the duties of a proprietor, and taking his share of county and parochial business.

WILLIAM MACDONALD was born in the year 1798, and died on 1st January 1875. He was the oldest member of our Society, in the class of Ordinary Fellows, having joined the Society in the year 1820. There is, however, one older member, my venerable friend Sir Richard Griffiths, who is an Extraordinary Fellow of the Society. He was ninety-one years of age last September, and is still in excellent health, residing near Kelso. I believe that Sir Richard would have been here to-night, had the weather been less stormy.

Dr Macdonald at an early age inherited a good estate in Argyllshire. He applied himself to the execution of extensive works in that county, for the improvement of his property, and of the district where it was situated. Unfortunately he involved himself in financial difficulties, and was obliged to sell his estate.

He then studied medicine, passed with honours, but never practised.

In 1820 he joined a number of Societies. He was the oldest member not only of our Society, but also of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Linnean Society.

Dr Macdonald frequently read papers to us on various subjects. He held peculiar views on some points of anatomy, which were

entirely at variance with those generally held; but he never would concede that he was in error.

"The

He was very partial to natural history, and wrote upon Structure of Fishes," "The Unity of Organisation, as exhibited in the Skeleton of Animals," and "On the Vertebral Homologies, as applicable to Zoology."

In the year 1849 he accepted an appointment to that somewhat anomalous professorship of "Civil and Natural History" in St Andrews, but I am not sure whether he ever had any students.

He had formed a large and interesting collection of specimens in natural history and anatomy.

Principal Shairp informs me that, a few years before his death, Dr Macdonald made over this collection to the University Museum.

DONALD MACKENZIE became a Fellow of this Society in 1870. He was born 19th June 1818, and died 17th May 1875, at Norwood, near London, where he had gone on account of ill health.

Though born in Edinburgh, his father was from Sutherlandshire, and a Captain in the Royal North British Fusiliers. His mother was Robina Jamieson, one of the seventeen children of John Jamieson, D.D., who wrote the well-known Dictionary of the Scottish language.

Donald was the eldest of seven children, all of whom he survived, though he, too, died at the comparatively early age of fifty-seven.

At first he studied for medicine, and received the degree of M.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1838. He was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

But he abandoned that profession, and came to the Scottish bar, influenced, it is believed, by the expectation that as his uncle, Robert Jamieson, advocate, had a large amount of practice in the Courts, he would be able to give him a lift. Robert Jamieson I remember well in the Parliament House, being the most conspicuous figure there for height and breadth, and a lawyer of great acuteness. His sister, Donald's mother, lived to the age of eightyfour.

Donald, to whom this notice refers, did not inherit the Jamieson constitution. He was narrow-chested and slim, but walked with elastic step.

Having come to the bar in 1842, he soon got into considerable practice, and was popular among his brethren in the Parliament House. He was appointed Advocate-Depute in 1854, an office which he held till 1858, when he lost it on a change of Government. He was reinstated in 1858, and was appointed Sheriff of Fife in 1861. In the discharge of this office, he is said to have given great satisfaction, both to the practitioners in the SheriffCourt and to the resident gentry.

Mr Mackenzie was raised to the Bench in 1870, and was not only most conscientious in his attention to the judicial duties, but was successful in pronouncing judgments which were seldom reversed. It is related that on two occasions, when they were reversed in the Inner House, they were, by an appeal to the House of Lords, adhered to.

Lord Mackenzie was exceedingly fond of all country sports. A serious illness was contracted, about two years before his death, in consequence of his continuing to fish in wet clothes, till he got a severe chill. In November 1874 he became so ill, that he was obliged to ask leave of absence for the winter. During the subsequent Christmas holidays, he attempted to return to his work in the Bill Chamber, but he was obliged to give it up, and confine himself to bed. Disease of the heart, aggravated by rheumatism, had set in. He continued more or less an invalid for a whole year before his death, seldom discharging any judicial work.

Lord Mackenzie was universally respected for his close attention to duty, his sound knowledge and judgment as a lawyer, his freedom from guile, and his conciliatory disposition toward all with whom he was brought in contact. His life was shortened by a determination to perform any duty incumbent on him, though probably conscious that he was thereby weakening his constitu

tion.

JOHN SINCLAIR was born 20th August 1797, and died 22d May 1875. He was the third son of the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart. of Ulbster, in the county of Caithness, author of that valuable repertory, the Statistical Account of Scotland. His mother was Diana, daughter of Alexander, the first Lord Macdonald.

His education commenced in Edinburgh University; but he went afterwards to Pembroke College, Oxford.

In the last book which he published, entitled "Old Times and Distant Places," he mentions that, when at Edinburgh University, he was the chief means of forming what was called the "Rhetorical Society," among the members of which were the present Earl of Wemyss, the late Adam Anderson (afterwards Lord Anderson), and David Robertson, who, whilst on his death-bed, was created Lord Marjoribanks.

When he went to Oxford, he proposed a similar society; but "the Dons" (he says) " frowned upon him, and prevented it." The project was renewed some years after. The "Oxford Union Club" was then formed, embracing among its members the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr Gladstone, Mr Lowe, and others who afterwards became men of distinction.

Having gone through the necessary forms for taking orders in the Episcopal Church, he was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1820. He was shortly thereafter appointed to St Paul's Episcopal Chapel, Carrubbers Close, where he remained till he became assistant to the Rev. Mr Alison, the officiating clergyman of the then new and handsome chapel of St Paul's, in York Place.

It was in the year 1820 that Mr Sinclair joined our Society. I see from his little book, that he took a considerable interest in our proceedings, as he mentions our Dinner Club, of which he was a member, and specifies several duties which he undertook as a member of Council.

Thus he was selected by the Council to endeavour to induce Dr Williams, rector of the English Academy, to shorten the length of a paper he was to read on Greek particles, a subject on which he had read several long papers before, much to the ennui of the majority of members. Dr Williams, it seems, was not a person who could be easily diverted from his purpose; Mr Sinclair undertook to try his hand upon the in flexible Welshman. He explains, in an amusing way, how he succeeded.

Another more important work with which Mr Sinclair was entrusted by our Council, was the arrangement of the unpublished MSS. of Hume, the historian. These MSS. had been left as a legacy to the Society by the late Baron Hume, the historian's

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nephew. In this duty he was conjoined with the late Lord. Meadowbank and Dr Abercrombie; but the chief part of the work fell on Mr Sinclair.

He mentions that it was in the year 1828 that he became acquainted with Dr Thomas Chalmers, when the latter resigned his professorship of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews, to become Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh University. Having a great admiration for the doctor's character and writings, he attended his first course of lectures, and describes the intense interest with which he and the other students listened to the professor's expositions. The salary of the professors being then very small-only £200 the idea of offering a testimonial to Dr Chalmers, at the end of his first course, occurred to Mr Sinclair. Accordingly a sum of £200 was raised from the voluntary students, and presented to the new professor.

In the year 1839 Mr Sinclair went to London, apparently to consult Mr Wardrop, the celebrated occulist, about his eyes. He had to submit to a painful operation and to severe discipline, which confined him to a room in London for some weeks.

Whilst he was there, a vacancy occurred in the office of Secretary to the National Society-a great Society, established, among other things, for the encouragement and support of schools connected with the Church of England. Mr Sinclair was asked to fill the vacant office. At first he refused, as it would oblige him to leave Edinburgh altogether, and he could not be certain of being so well received in London as he had been in his own country. But finding that the two London Archbishops and other persons of influence were anxious that he should accept, he consented. He was at the same time appointed to be examining chaplain to the Bishop of London.

Immediately after entering on this new office, he found himself involved in a great public controversy, which called for the utmost exertion, with great tact on his part. The controversy had reference to the schools of the National Society receiving aid from Government. After the administration of the Education Grant was transferred from the Lords of the Treasury to the Privy Council Committee, a system of inspection, to see that the schools were properly conducted as regards teaching, was resolved on. The