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A Biographical Sketch of the late Astronomer Caldecott. 
Our afternoon edition of Wednesday contained an intima- 
tion of the demise of Mr John Caldecott, astronomer to H. H. 
the Rajah of Travancore,—the melancholy event having oc- 
eurred at Trevandrum on the night of the 16th instant. He 
had had an attack of illness, something like a tendency to 
apoplexy or paralysis, about two months ago, but after going 
through a course of medicine he seemed to have recovered 
his health and spirits. About the 8th ultimo a general de- 
rangement of the system made its appearance, under which 
he continued to labour till death released him from his suf- 
ferings. The name of Mr Caldecott has been too often and 
too long before the world to suffer the removal from amongst 
us of him who bore it to be passed over with a mere obituary 
notice. With the earlier portion of the career of Mr Calde- 
cott we are not acquainted: our impression is that he was 
bred an architect, and that as an astronomer and meteorolo- 
gist, he was entirely self-taught. About the year 1832 he ap- 
pears to have become known to the Rajah of Travancore,— 
‘one of the most accomplished, enlightened, and liberal-minded 
princes in India,—and to have acquired the confidence and 
friendship of the Resident, Colonel Fraser, an envoy altoge- 
ther worthy of the most intellectual native court in the East. 
The mind of the Rajah, eminently endowed by nature, had 
received all the cultivation the highest English education 
could bestow : he was well read alike in the theology, the lite- 
‘rature, and the sciences, of Europe, and resolved to indulge 
his tastes in a way worthy of one who was not alone a phi- 
losopher amongst princes, but a prince amongst philosophers. 
To Mr Caldecott, by this time well known as a mechanician 
‘and astronomer, was entrusted the planning, erection, fur- 
nishing, and charge, of an astronomical and meteorological 
observatory. Though entrusted with unlimited powers on 
the occasion, he wisely determined that no outlay beyond what 
was absolutely essential to effectiveness should be incurred 
on the building; but that no expense should be spared in 
providing instruments of such size and quality as would se- 
