Xliv PBOCEEDINGS OF THE 



diately connected, were dissolved in 1849, after a display of un- 

 exampled perseverance and energy in battling against difficulties 

 •whicli at last were found insurmountable. Subsequent events, 

 however, have shown that the Mexican mines were not unworthy of 

 their reputation, and that not only was the evidence correct upon 

 which Mr. Taylor and others relied, but that a little more per- 

 severance on the part of the companies would have produced results 

 fully justifying the most sanguine expectations of former days. 

 Strange as it may seem, almost every Mexican company formed in 

 1824 abandoned mines which have since become remarkably pro- 

 ductive. In that period of temptation, when shares rose to an 

 enormous premium, many tempting oflfers were made to Mr. Taylor 

 for the use of his name only ; but his fine sense of honour led him 

 to reject all such opportunities which might have placed a large 

 fortune in his possession. But if unsuccessful in Mexico from 

 causes perhaps beyond his control, the results of his advice in other 

 concerns have been very difierent. The risks and uncertainty of 

 mining enterprise are well known ; but the successful mines under 

 Mr. Taylor's management more than counterbalance the failures, 

 and the firm of John Taylor and Sons numbers in its establish- 

 ment some of the best mines of the day. 



Mr. Taylor was the author of several useful papers on the sub- 

 ject of mining. He was one of the first, also, to propose the forma- 

 tion of a mining school, an article on which subject from his pen 

 was printed in his ' Records of Mining.' He was one of the earliest 

 EeUows of the G-eological Society, having joined it in 1807. In 1825 

 he was elected a Pellow of the Eoyal Society ; and in 1837 his name 

 was added to our list. He was also, it may be said, one of the most 

 active founders of the British Association, to which he acted as 

 Treasurer from the commencement up to last year, when his 

 resignation was reluctantly accepted. The Senate of the London 

 University included him as one of its members, as did also many 

 foreign scientific bodies. 



James Tullocl, F.B.8. andS.A., died on the 22nd of March 1863, 

 at his residence in Montague Place, E-usseU Square, aged 75. He 

 became a Pellow of the Linnean Society on the 6th of June 1843. 



Mr. JoJin Walton was born at Karesborough, on the 23rd of July 

 1784. He commenced life in the counting-house of his uncle, a 

 sugar-refiner in Whitechapel, whom he ultimately succeeded in 

 business. At an early period of his residence in London, he be- 

 came a member of the Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, and 

 studied the sciences of chemistry and botany with great assiduity, 



