lioyal Society. 221 



professorship, with a handsome endowment, and permitting Mr. 

 Napier to become the professor without ceasing to be librarian. 



In the year 1814, Mr. Napier edited the Supplement to the En- 

 cyclopredia Britannica, and at a later period, he superintended anew 

 edition of the same important work, and by so doing conferred a 

 great benefit on the science of his country and of the world. 



In the year 1S30, Mr. Napier was appointed to the situation of 

 principal Clerk of Session, and resigned that of librarian to the 

 Writers to the Signet, having the year before succeeded Mr. JefTery 

 as the editor of one of the most influential of those quarterly jour- 

 nals whose publication is of the greatest importance to the literary 

 and scientific interests of the country. He had been a contributor 

 to the Edinburgh Review previously, and was therefore the better 

 able to mEinage it with success. A memoir that has been published 

 on his life, evidently written by one well-acquainted with his merits, 

 remarks, " He was in all respects perfectly trustworthy : all secrets 

 confided to him were sacred ; and the most distinguished of his con- 

 tributors were farther ready to admit the value of his suggestions 

 and the justice of his criticisms." 



He continued to attend to the duties of his class at the Univer- 

 sity very nearly to the time of his death. 



He married young, and left a large family at his death, which 

 happened in the 71st year of his age. 



During the latter years of his life his health had been declining ; 

 but his intellectual powers were unimpaired to the last. By those 

 with whom he was intimate even a higher estimate of his talents 

 is entertained than what is felt by those who merely look to the im- 

 portant share that he took in literature and science as the editor 

 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Edinburgh Re^•iew. So 

 at least says the author of the memoir alluded to already. This 

 seems difficult ; but they alone can judge of the merits of his confi- 

 dential correspondence and his part in domestic society : it is per- 

 haps more important to say, that he was " a pious, an intelligent 

 and an honest friend." He became a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 in the year 1S17. 



The Rev. John Hailstone was born on the 13th of December, 

 1759. and received his early education at Beverley School in York- 

 shire. From thence he went to Cambridge, where he pursued his 

 mathematical studies with so much success that he took the high 

 degree of Second Wrangler at the examination in the year 17S2. 

 The same course of study was followed by him in after-life. 



In the year 17S4, he became a Fellow of Trinity College, and in 

 17S8, he was appointed to the office of Woodwardian Professor of 

 Mineralogy. After holding this Professorship for the long period of 

 thirty years, he married and retired to the vicarage of Trump- 

 ington, near the University ; a village interesting to the lover of 

 literature as having been the residence of Anstey, the author of the 

 Bath Guide, and at a subsequent period, of Mr. Hailstone's brother 

 professor, the celebrated traveller, Edward Daniel Clark. 



Here Mr. Hailstone died on the 9th of last June, at the very ad- 



