THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. xliii 



of members included the well-known name of William Sharp 

 MacLeay. 



The following memoir I have taken principally from a 

 notice which has lately appeared from the pen of an old 

 friend : — 



Mr. MacLeay was born in London on the 21st day of July, 1792, and 

 was therefore seventy-three years of age at the period of his decease. He 

 was the eldest son of the late Alexander MacLeay, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 so long known and respected as the Colonial Secretary of this Colony ; and 

 who, before entering upon the arduous duties of that appointment, had 

 acquired a high reputation as a zealous and able administrative officer, when 

 Secretary to the Transport Board during the war with France under the first 

 Napoleon, and who was also well known and appreciated in the scientific 

 world as the Honorary Secretary to the Linnean Society. He was educated 

 at Westminster, and passed with credit through the full course of study in 

 that celebrated school. He subsequently graduated in honours at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. Shortly afterwards he received the appointment of 

 Secretary to the Board of British Claims on the French Grovernment, estab- 

 lished at the peace of 1815. In the performance of this duty he spent 

 several years at Paris, during which period he became the friend of Cuvier, and 

 other celebrated men of science in France. Having successfully performed 

 the duties entrusted to him in the capacity referred to, he was, on their 

 completion, and on his return to England, promoted, in 1825, to the higher 

 and more responsible office of H.B.M. Commissioner and Judge in the mixed 

 tribunal of Justice at the Havannah. He remained in that sickly climate 

 for ten years ; and there is strong reason to believe that, although he had 

 accomplished the usual period allotted to man, his life might have been 

 spared for several years more, but for the deteriorating effects of so long a 

 residence in the tropics. On relinquishing the office of Commissioner and 

 Judge at the Havannah, he retired from the public service, upon a pension 

 of £900 a year. In 1839 he arrived in this Colony, where he resided ever 

 since. After his arrival he was appointed one of the Trustees of the Aus- 

 tralian Museum ; and until the state of his health compelled him reluctantly 

 to retii-e, he was the life and soul of that Institution. It was under his 

 advice, and with his able co-operation, that the Act for establishing and 

 endowing the Australian Museum was introduced, and subsequently passed 

 into law. Mr. MacLeay also acted for several years as a member of the 

 National Board of Education, and for a short period as a member of the 

 Executive Coimcil, during Sir "William Denison's administration, and before 

 the inauguration of responsible government. 



Mr. MacLeay's health began to decline about three years ago, when he 

 was attacked with that insidious and ■ wasting disease, diabetes. During the 

 last few months he suffered also from jaundice, and under the combined 



