Biographical Sketch of the late Astronomer Caldecott, 253 
sent time. In the true spirit of philosophy, Mr Caldecott 
considered it a very small matter by whom truth was extend- 
ed and promoted, in comparison to the fact of its extension 
and promotion. No man has deserved better of science than 
the Rajah of Travancore, and but few have been more fortu- 
nate in the selection of agencies through the means of which 
science has been aided. No man could have more ably or 
effectually assisted him in the noble plans he had conceived 
than Colonel Fraser; nor could India have supplied a more 
talented, upright, and accomplished, successor to the officer 
just named than was found in General Cullen. It will bea 
long time indeed before a fitting successor can be looked for 
to Mr Caldecott. The removal of the astronomer of Trevan- 
drum completes the desolation accomplished in little more 
than a single year in all our observatories. Mr Taylor, of 
Madras, died in March 1848; Mr Curnin, formerly of the 
Bombay Observatory, in July ; Colonel Wilcox, astronomer 
to the King of Oudh, in November; and, within twenty 
months of the removal of the first of the four, the last follows 
his illustrious brethren to the grave.—Ldit., Bombay Times. 
‘Thus well have Mr Caldecott’s physical observations been 
described; of his astronomical labours there is not much 
known, and it is believed that they were rather devoted to 
the educational advancement of those he was amongst, than 
to the promotion and extension of the science. He had sup- 
plied the Observatory with sufficient instruments for the 
highest purposes; indeed it was better furnished than most 
European observatories, and than all the extra-European 
ones; and being blessed with a clearer sky than any other in 
the world, and a large staff of assistants being attached,— 
important results were confidently expected. Yet, perhaps 
from the natural bent of his mind being in another direction, 
he allowed himself to be carried away by the more showy 
but ephemeral matters of magnetical and meteorological ob- 
servations, and by the extraordinary opinions propagated by 
_ the British Association at the time, in their Report on Me- 
teorology: wherein it was inferred that there was nothing 
movre’to be discovered in astronomy ; that Astronomical Ob- 
_ seivatories were now only occupied in doing over again what 
