Royal Astronomical Society. 5 1 1 



(Dr. J. Milner), and a trial took place in his court, which lasted eight 

 days. The result was, that a form of recantation was proposed to 

 Mr. Frend, which he refused to sign ; and sentence of " banish- 

 ment " from the University was passed. This banishment is not 

 expulsion, as persons unacquainted with the University generally 

 believe, but a deprivation of the right to reside within the limits of 

 the University; and, accordingly, though the sentence was confirmed 

 on appeal, Mr. Frend continued to hold his fellowship till his mar- 

 riage, and remained to the day of his death a Master of Arts, and a 

 member of Jesus College. He retired of course from Cambridge, 

 and came to London, where he maintained himself till 1806, by 

 adding the profits of teaching and writing to the income derived 

 from his fellowship. When the Rock Life Assurance was founded 

 (1806), Mr. Frend, who had previously been consulted in the for- 

 mation, was appointed actuary of that company, a post in which he 

 remained until a severe illness compelled him (in 1826) to retire 

 from active life. His health, however, recovered, and he continued 

 his mental employments with an activity very unusual at his age, 

 until the beginning of the year 1840, when he was attacked by 

 paralysis, under which he lingered with almost total loss of speech 

 and motion, though with the smallest possible decay of mind or 

 memory, until February 21 of the last year, when he closed a life, 

 which is regarded, even by those who differed from him, as a splendid 

 example of honesty in the pursuit of truth, and of undaunted deter- 

 mination in the assertion of all that conscience required. 



The losses and inconveniences which attended his banishment 

 from college were not among the greatest risks which he ran. At 

 a subsequent period, when the political struggle was at its height, 

 and government prosecutions were frequently directed against the 

 mere expression of opinion, Mr. Frend was one of the foremost 

 among the despised minority which advocated emancipation and en- 

 franchisement for all who were under religious or political disqualifi- 

 cations. At the time of certain of the prosecutions alluded to, it 

 was currently said, that had the government succeeded in obtaining 

 convictions, there was an intention of instituting several more ; and 

 Mr. Frend, it was stated, was to have been one of the defendants. 

 This supposition cannot now be verified, even if it were true ; but 

 the rumour itself constitutes its object one of the leading opponents 

 of the system which has since been so materially modified. With 

 his political writings*, of which there were several, we have here 

 nothing to do, any more than with those of a religious character. 

 A true account of his scientific views cannot be easily given in a 

 short space ; nor can reasons for enlargement be better given than 

 in the description itself of these views. 



It generally happens that in recording the career of our departed 

 members, we have little to say on their opinions, but only to specify 

 the manner in which they carried them into practice ; and small 



* The titles of these will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 

 May 1841 (pp. 541-543). 



