Vill. 
to some of the measures of Governor Darling. What share he may have had in their initiation and 
progress cannot now be easily determined. It may be that as Chief Secretary, he considered himself 
responsible for carrying out the mandates of his chief, and this may have induced him to identify himself 
more closely with the general character of his administration than an absolute obligation of duty imposed 
upon him. After he had ceased to hold office, public feeling took a favourable direction towards Mr. 
McLeay. He was returned a representative member at the first election, and chosen first Speaker of the 
Legislative Assembly, when a partially representative Legislative Council was conceded to the Colony. 
There, all measures of a liberal tendency found in him a warm supporter. A graceful tribute of recognition 
of his services was paid to him by his former chief opponent, Mr. Wentworth, when at the close of a long 
successful public career, no longer able from advanced years to perform the duties of Speaker, he relinquished 
office.”* (p. 55). 
In 1794 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, which was 
founded in 1788 though not incorporated until later, Mr. Macleay being one of the 
representatives of the Society to whom a Royal Charter was granted by His Majesty 
George ITT. in 1802; in 1798 he was appointed Honorary Secretary in succession to 
Mr. Marsham, and continued to act in that capacity until his departure for Australia. 
The following Minute of Council, subsequently adopted by a General Meeting of the 
Society, was thereupon entered upon the records of the Society :— 
“The Linnean Society of London take the earliest opportunity after the retirement of Alexander 
Macleay, Esq., from the Secretaryship of the Society, to record upon their Minutes the high estimation in 
which he is held by them on account of twenty-seven years of unremitted and unrequited labour devoted to 
the interests of science ; and that in quitting for a time this sphere of usefulness to fill an honourable 
station in a distant country, he carries with him the cordial esteem and sincere regret of this Society.” 
Mr. Macleay was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809 ; he was also a 
Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, and a Corresponding 
Member of the Academy of Turin. 
As a naturalist he devoted himself almost exclusively to entomology, and at the 
time of his leaving England his collection of insects is said to have been the finest 
and most extensive at that time in the possession of any private individual. Though 
his knowledge of entomology was very considerable he never published anything on 
the subject ; he is said, however, to have had in contemplation and to have made 
preparations for a monograph of the remarkable genus Pazwssas, which was well 
represented in his collection. 
After his arrival in Australia his scientific tastes, even amid arduous official 
duties, soon found an outlet both in adding to his collections and in connection with 
the formation of a Museum, the nucleus of the present Australian Museum, the 
oldest of the Australian Museums. Dr. George Bennett, almost the last survivor of 
the early generation of colonists who were also naturalists, on his second visit to 
Sydney in August, 1832, thus refers to the subject :— 
* Reminiscences of Thirty Years’ Residence [1829-1859] in New South Wales, &c. 8vo. London, 1863. 
