607 



SOUTH, SIR JAMES. 



SOUTH, SIR JAMES. 



603 



verance and dauntless bravery. The fall of Pampeluna, the battles of 

 San Marcial and Sorauren, succeeded, in all of which the marshal was 

 worsted ; then be took up a strong position on the banks of the 

 Bidassoa, but was driven from it by the leader before whom so many 

 marshals had succumbed. The losses of Napoleon in Champagne 

 required some relief, and thousands of Soult's veterans were drafted 

 off; his German troops deserted him. Still, wherever the ground 

 enabled him to defend himself the marshal formed a new position. 

 First, he fortified himself on the Nivelle ; driven from that river, he 

 took up a new position on the Nive, whence his impetuous enemy 

 dislodged him ; but without being depressed, he offered the English 

 battle at St. Pierre, and was again defeated. Wellington had at last 

 entered the French territory in the south, whilst in the nortb Napo- 

 leon was falling back before the allied armies. But even then he did 

 not despair. A truce of a few weeks was forced upon the opposing 

 armies after November, when both sought winter quarters. But 

 early in February 1814 the war was renewed. The battle on the 

 Adour, the battle of Orthes, the battle of Tarbes, succeeded each 

 other, and were lost by the marshal. To complete his embarrass- 

 ment, he had been informed of the surrender of Bordeaux to the 

 Bourbons, and the subsequent capitulation of Paris. Yet, even when 

 the three allied armies were in possession of the capital, when Lyon 

 had submitted, when so many marshals and generals were deserting 

 Napoleon at Fontainebleau, he fell back upon Toulouse, and formed 

 that admirable position which not even the impetuous valour of 

 British troops could force without a carnage so fearful as almost to 

 balance their own victory. The loss of the French was however more 

 than commensurate, and their defeat was complete. This was Soult's 

 last and the greatest of his battles ; it was fought with consummate 

 skill, April 10, 1814, eleven days after the fall of Paris : Soult 

 evacuated Toulouse on the llth. 



On the escape of Napoleon from Elba, Soult, who had attached 

 himself to the restored king, and who was then in office as minister of 

 war, published an order of the day, March 8, 1815, calling on the 

 army "to rally round their legitimate and well-beloved sovereign, and 

 resist the adventurer, who wanted to seize again that usurped power 

 of which he had made so pernicious a use." But on the 25th of 

 March he saw the emperor at the Tuileries, was easily reconciled to 

 him, and accepted the post of quarter-master-general to the army pre- 

 paring to open the campaign. In this quality he was present at the 

 battle of Waterloo, on the 18th of June 1815. Soult was banished 

 from France in July; but in 1819 he was once more permitted to 

 return, and his baton was restored to him. Charles X. showed him 

 great favour throughout his reign : he created him a peer on the 5th 

 of November 1827. During the reign of Louis-Philippe he was made 

 Minister of War, Ambassador Extraordinary to Queen Victoria's court 

 at her coronation, and on two occasions President of the Council, or 

 prime minister. Whilst filling this office for the second time, in 

 September 1847, he wrote to the king requesting leave to resign. His 

 request was granted ; but; in order to mark his appreciation of the 

 services of the marshal, Louis-Philippe re-established in his favour 

 the ancient but disused dignity of Marshal-General of France, which 

 had not been borne by any subject since the death of Marshal Turenne. 

 From that time the marshal went to live in retirement, to which he 

 confined himself more closely still after the revolution of February 

 1848. His health and strength had loug been severely shaken ; the 

 marshal grew worse during the year 1851, and breathed his last at the 

 castle of Soult-Berg, on the 26th of November in that year. After 

 his death his splendid gallery of Spanish pictures collected by him 

 during his Spanish campaigns was sold by auction, and realised a very 

 large sum : several of toe best of these pictures are now in the 

 Imperial Galleries of France. The 'Me"inoires du Mardchal General 

 Soult, due de Dalmatie, publics par son fils. lere partie. Histoire des 

 guerres de la Revolution,' appeared in 3 vols. 8vo, with an atlas, Paris, 

 1854. 



* SOUTH, SIR JAMES, F.R.S., L. &E.; Hon. M.R.I.A., F.L.S., 

 F.R.A.S., the eminent astronomer, is the eldest son of a chemist and 

 druggist who carried on business in Blackmail Street, Southwark, was 

 educated for the medical profession, received the diploma of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of London, and practised as such for some years. 

 But he was devoted to astronomical science, and possessing visual 

 organs of remarkable sensibility and accuracy, he acquired distinction 

 as an observer. In the year 1820, he assisted in founding the "Astro- 

 nomical Society of London," which, during his occupation of the 

 Chair, received a charter from the crown, and became the "Royal 

 Astronomical Society." On the 15th of February, 1821, he was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



In the Report of the Council to the Sixth Annual General Meeting 

 of the Astronomical Society, February 10, 1826, prior to stating the 

 award of the Gold Medal to Mr. (now Sir) John F. W. Herschel 

 [HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN F. W.] and Mr. South, for their laborious and 

 valuable researches and observations relative to double stars, is the 

 following passage : 



" The indefatigable ardour of Mr. South in the cause of Astronomy, 

 induced him to follow up his researches on the same subject whilst he 

 was in France ; and he has recently made a communication to the 

 Royal Society of some new observations, of equal, if not superior 

 importance, and which will appear in a subsequent volume of the 



' Philosophical Transactions.' " On the same occasion, the late Mr. 

 Baily [BAILY, FRANCIS], then president, in his address on presenting the 

 medals, stated that Mr. Herschel having determined to follow up the 

 intentions of his father, by a review of all the double stars inserted in 

 his catalogues, Mr. South, "being disposed to pursue the same inquiry, 

 suggested the plan of carrying on their observations in concert, and, 

 with the aid of two excellent achromatic telescopes, belonging to the 

 latter, they employed the years 1821, 1822, and 1823 in this research. 

 The result of their labours was presented to the Royal Society, and 

 published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1824 at tbe expense 

 of the Board of Longitude." The number of double stars observed 

 jointly by these two astronomers amounted to 380, many thousand 

 measurements of distance and position having been made to obtain 

 accurate results. In his personal address to Mr. South, MV Baily said, 

 " The ardent zeal which you have always evinced in the cause of 

 astronomy, the patience and perseverance which you have shown in 

 conducting so many and so valuable observations, of no ordinary kind, 

 and the skill and accuracy which you have displayed in these delicate 

 measurements, are subjects that are duly estimated by this Society. 

 Possessed of a princely collection of instruments, of exquisite work- 

 manship and considerable magnitude, such as have never yet fallen to 

 the lot of a private individual, you have not suffered them to remain 

 idle in your hands, but have set an example to the world how much 

 may ba done by a single person, animated with zeal in the cause of 

 science." The "new observations" alluded to by the Council in the 

 Report, consisting of the apparent distances and positions of 458 

 double and triple stars, were published in the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions ' for 1826. For this "noble series of measures" as they were 

 termed by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, the Council of the Royal Society 

 awarded the Copley medal, which was presented to Mr. South, accord- 

 ingly, by the president, Sir Humphry Davy, at the anniversary meeting 

 of November 30, 1826. About this period he removed his collection 

 of instruments to the Observatory at Campden-Hill, Kensington, 

 London, where he still resides. 



At the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society on February 8th, 

 1828, Mr. South, as one of the vice-presidents, addressed the Society 

 on presenting the gold medal to Miss Caroline Herschel, the sister of 

 Sir William, and the aunt of Sir John Herschel, for her observations 

 and discoveries in astronomy during half a century, the office of presi- 

 dent being then filled by the latter. In the same year he was again 

 associated with Sir John in the endeavour to verify M. Schwabe's 

 observation of the inequality of the dark space between the body of 

 the planet Saturn and its ring. This however they were unable to do; 

 but the superior micrometrical means in the possession of M. Struve 

 enabled him to confirm the accuracy of Schwabe. 



The views which were entertained by certain cultivators of natural 

 knowledge, shortly after the first quarter of the present century had 

 elapsed, respecting the alleged decline in this country not merely of 

 the public encouragement of science, but of science itself, were deeply 

 participated in by Mr. South. He contemplated, in consequence, 

 about 1830, a removal to France, whither he intended to transport 

 his collection of instruments. He wrote to the French government on 

 the subject, and received a grant of free ingress and egress, without 

 the payment of any duty or even the examination of his packages. But 

 this intention was arrested by the patriotic conduct of the English 

 government. King George IV., shortly before his demise, had signified 

 to the late Sir Robert Peel " his intention of taking the first opportu- 

 nity of marking his high sense of Mr. South's honourable and disin-- 

 terested zeal in the cause of science, and especially of bis unwearied 

 and successful exertions to perfect and increase our knowledge of the 

 position, distances, and relations of the heavenly bodies." On the 

 accession of William IV., accordingly, the honour of knighthood was 

 conferred upon him (on the 21st of July 1830), and the letter from 

 Sir R. Peel just cited was accompanied by another, intimating the 

 pleasure of that monarch that the sum of 300i. per annum should be 

 placed at Sir James South's disposal, " to be applied by him to the 

 promotion of astronomy." Sir R. Peel expressed in this letter his own 

 desire that the country should bear some portion of tbe enormous 

 expense which Sir J. South had incurred iu pursuing his researches ; 

 not, he said, with a view of depriving Sir James of the honour and 

 reputation which such services insured, but " to relieve the country 

 from the charge of perfect indifference to subjects of a scientific nature." 



Sir J. South had taken an active part in the discussions which had, 

 for some years, taken place with Dr. Young [Youwo, THOMAS], on 

 the state of the ' Nautical Almanac,' just complaints of which had 

 been made, as not keeping pace with the progress of astronomy :uul 

 navigation. After the decease of Dr. Young, which occurred in lb-0, 

 pending these discussions, the Board of Admiralty requested the 

 opinion and advice of the Astronomical Society on the alterations and 

 additions that it would be proper to make in the national work 

 alluded to. The Society appointed a numerous committee to con- 

 sider the subject, of whom a sub-committee undertook the practical 

 details; of this sub-committte Sir J. South was an active member. 

 The result, as is well known, was the production of the present 

 'Nautical Almanac,' which is fully worthy of our national pre- 

 eminence in nautical astronomy and navigation, and with which, even 

 for pure astronomy, only the French ' Conuoissance des Terns ' and the 

 Berlin Astronomical Ephemeris are alone comparable. 



