Obituary Notice qfH.R.H. the Duke of Sussex. 213 



Dollond. This memorial of one to whose ingenuity astronomy has 

 been so deeply indebted, will form a valuable addition to our gallery 

 of illustrious men. I am also able to congratulate the Society on 

 the acquisition made this day of a bust of the justly celebrated 

 James Watt, for which we have to give our most grateful thanks to 

 his son. When we contemplate the features represented with so 

 much spirit by a Chantrey, and copied so faithfully by a Hoffernan, 

 we shall remember a man who by his talents conferred the greatest 

 benefits on the civilized world, — who endowed inanimate machinery 

 with the means of rapidly passing over the greatest distances by 

 land, and of overcoming the force of adverse winds upon the ocean, 

 — who brought to perfection the most important mechanical power 

 with which man is yet acquainted, if indeed we are ever to see it 

 surpassed : finally, a man who united the science of the profound 

 philosopher to the ingenuity of the original inventor. 



I am sure that the Society will unite with me in the expression 

 of heartfelt sorrow that the services of Mr. Roberton have been lost 

 to us by his sudden and lamented death. His attention to his duties, 

 his zeal for the honour and interest of our Society must have been 

 apparent to you all, and especially to those who have formed part 

 of our Council ; but his merits were of course still better known to 

 the more permanent officers of your body, and they entirely concur 

 with me in this inadequate testimony of our regret. 



Turning our attention to the obituary of the last year, I shall now 

 proceed to read it to you, premising that we have been too recently 

 acquainted with the death of M. Bouvard, Jun. to enable us at 

 present to give any account of his life and labours. 



His Royal Highness Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke 

 of Sussex, Earl of Inverness, and Baron of Arklow, Knight of the 

 Garter, and Grand Master of the Order of the Bath, was born on 

 the 27th of January, 1773. 



In early life he joined the Whig party in politics, and adhered to 

 it till his death. No one doubted the sincerity of his opinions ; 

 indeed, he must have made personal sacrifices that would forbid 

 the possibility of any one's doubting that they were the real con- 

 victions of his mind. The decided nature of his sentiments was 

 unaccompanied and unobscured by any shade of bitterness, and he 

 gave that charitable interpretation to the motives of those with 

 whom he differed, that he expected for his own. The eulogiums 

 pronounced upon him, after his death, by the Duke of Wellington 

 and Sir Robert Peel, are, indeed, as honourable to them as they are to 

 him of whom they spoke. The active part of his life, however, 

 was little occupied by the concerns of party ; it was rather dedi- 

 cated to those interests, where happily there is in this country no 

 party, or rather, where all are more or less of the same party. It was 

 in increasing the funds by which the wants of the orphan and widow 

 are relieved, by which the sick are» cured, and the ignorant are in- 

 structed, and by which comfort is given to every species of desti- 

 tution, that his late Royal Highness seems chiefly to have delighted. 

 Next to this was his interest in intellectual pursuits : he collected a 



