43 



would assert his claims to reward. During a long series of years, 

 he devoted much of his leisure time to the reduction of the Cape 

 Observations, which having been made in a public observatory, it 

 was the duty of the public to present in a proper shape to the world. 

 Mr Henderson performed this duty with no other remuneration than 

 the satisfaction derived from giving a perfect form to bis own results. 

 We lament, however, that his infant daughter will reap none of the 

 fruits of that excessive midnight toil which hastened her father's 

 progress to the grave, more especially as she is an orphan indeed — 

 deprived of both her parents. To the memory of her mother, who 

 died shortly after her birth, it is fit I should pay a tribute. She 

 was the daughter of Mr Adie, the celebrated optician of this city. 

 In his selection of this lady as his partner, no less than in the other acts 

 of his life, Mr Henderson manifested the soundness of his judgment. 

 She was in every way suitable for him. A member of a talented 

 family especially devoted to scientiiic pursuits ; hoiself gil'ted with a 

 mind of great capacity, which a liberal education had cultivated and 

 refined ; of an amiable disposition and a cheerful temperament, she 

 was well fitted to sympathise with the depressions of a spirit weighed 

 down with fatigue, or to brighten those passages of life, which, 

 without her aid, would have appeared gloomy. Add to this, that 

 her attainments were considerable ; so much so as to render her not 

 only capable of appreciating and admiring her husband's ai'dour and 

 enthusiasm in his favourite studies, but even of occasionally assisting 

 him in the prosecution of them. Under these circumstances, it need 

 scarcely be said that their union was a happy one. Her death, at a 

 time when their fondest wishes seemed realized in the birth of a 

 daughter, was a shock from which he never recovei*ed. His manner, 

 which had always been deficient in buoyancy, became from that 

 moment solemn. In anticipations of the future, he rarely indulged ; 

 in a melancholy retrospect of the past, too often. This, added to 

 his late habits, preyed rapidly on his constitution, and hastened his 

 death. He expired on the 23d of November 1844, of a disease of 

 the heart. 



To draw his character — scientific or social — is an easy and a 

 pleasing task. As an observer, he was ingenious and accurate 

 — in testimony of which it is sufficient to say, that his observations 

 carry the entire confidence of every astronomer in Europe. On this 

 head, I cannot do better than allow one of their number (Mr Main) 

 to speak for me. He says, " The praise of being the first discoverer 

 of our distance from a fixed star, even should it bo ultimately esta- 



