HORNER. LEONAKR 



HORROCKS, JKKKMIAH. 



A change of minuter* took plao* on the 24th of March 1807 ; parlia- 

 ment wa* prorogued on the 27th of April, and was immediately 

 afterwards dissolved. Homer did not obtain Mat at the general 

 lection, but in the following July wu elected for the borough of 

 Weudover through the interest of Lord Carrington. lie spoke little 

 at first, on matter* of business only, and briefly. By degree* he began 

 to take a part in grrat question*. He entirely coincided with the 

 Whig party iu their condemnation of the leisure of the Danuh fleet ; 

 be differed from them in their shrinking policy on tlie question of the 

 Spanish war. In May 1809 be resigned his seal at the Board of Com- 

 missioners for investigating the debt* of the Nabob of Arcot, in eonso- 

 queiioe of finding it* dutie* interfere too much with the pursuit of 

 hi* profession. On the 1st of February 1810 Homer made a motion 

 fur an inquiry into an alleged depreciation of bank-noten. The subject 

 was one which be bad studied extensively, and he mode a decided 

 impression on the House. He was appointed a member of the Bullion 

 Committee, and by the part which he took in it, by his share in 

 drawing up the report, and by his (peaches on the question in the 

 House, lie acquired a solid reputation and a position and influence 

 then which be afterward* rather augmented than diminished. On 

 the Regency question lie spoke on the side of bis friends with great 

 power and effect. In the negociations for th formation of a ministry 

 by Lord Grenville in 1811, Homer was offered the situation of one of 

 the Secretaries of the Treasury, but he declined the offer. In th 

 general election in 1812 be was not returned as a member, but by the 

 intervention of Lord Grenville be was elected for St. Mawes, through 

 the interest of the Marquis of Buckingham. In the sessions of 1813 

 and 1814 be took a prominent part in the debates, and became one of 

 the acknowledged leaders of bis party. He took advantage of the 

 opening of the continent in 1814, and made the tour of Oeneva and 

 the north of Italy. In the great crisis arising from the return of 

 Bonaparte from Klba, when Lord Grenville urged the necessity of a 

 war, and Lord Grey deprecated the haste with which the country 

 seemed disposed to enter upon it, Mr. Horner supported Lord Grey, 

 and the difference of opinion seemed to be BO irreconcileable that he 

 offered to surrender his seat, but the. Marquis of Buckingham declined 

 to accept bis resignation. On the 25th of June 1816 he made his last 

 speech in parliament, in favour of the Catholic claim*, and against the 

 harsh treatment which Ireland had experienced from the government 

 of this country. Symptoms of a pulmonary disease had already 

 begun to show themselves in his constitution, and he was advised by 

 bis physicians to spend the winter in the South of Europe. Accom- 

 panied by his brother, Mr. Leonard Horner, he set out on his journey, 

 and arrived at Pisa in the latter part of November. His disease grew 

 rapidly worse, but be bad no suspicion that it was dangerous, and he 

 continued to lay down for himself plans for future studies of the most 

 comprehensive extent. On the 6th of February his difficulty of 

 breathing came on with increased severity. He died on the 8th of 

 February 1817. His body was opened, and his complaint was found 

 to be, not comumpUou, but induration of the substance of the lungs 

 and enlargement of the air-cells to an extraordinary extent He was 

 buried iu the Protestant cemetery at Leghorn, where a marble table- 

 tomb was erected to his memory by his father. At one of the ends of 

 the monument is a likeness of him in relief, of the size of life, by 

 Cbantrey. A marble statue of him, also by Chantrey, is placed in the 

 north transept of Westminster Abbey, the cost of which was defrayed 

 among his personal and political friends. It is one of Chantrey's best 

 works, and indeed one of the finest portrait-statues in the Abbey. 



The character of Homer's understanding was that of vigorous 

 reasoning in pursuit of important and often difficult truth. He had 

 no wit, and made no pretence to any. His knowledge was extensive, 

 and his judgment accurate, not only in the various branches of politi- 

 cal economy, but in a great many other departments of literature. 

 He was one of the projectors of the ' Edinburgh Review,' and wrote 

 many articles for it. As a public man bis independence was unques- 

 tionable ; liU integrity, sincerity, and moderation were acknowledged 

 by all parties. He was mode/it, free from pretension, and equally free 

 from any kind of affectation or any trace of rancour. As a public 

 speaker he was grave and forcible, without imagery or any of the 

 aooeesoric* of oratory, but with an earnestness and evident sincerity 

 of manner which produced an effect greater than he could have done 

 by any appeal* to the imagination or the passions. 



(Mcawin and Corrajxmdence of francit Honter, If.P., edited by 

 hi* brother, Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.&.) 



HORNER. LEONARD, the younger brother of Francis Horner, 

 whose 'Memoir* and Correspondence' he edited in 1843, was born in 

 Edinburgh, and was there educated. His eminent brother, as wo may 

 judge from several interesting letter* dated 1811, (peaks most encou- 

 ragingly of the advance which Leonard had made in hi* favourite 

 pursuit of geology, and especially of the merit* of a paper which he 

 had written, 'On the Mineralogy of the Molvem Hills.' Another 

 letter also show* the interest which the younger brother had taken in 

 the education of the people. On the formation of the London Uui- 

 Tcrsity, in 1827, Mr. Leonard Horner was placed in the responsible 

 position of warden ; and much of the organisation of that novel and 

 important institution wa* the result of hi* labours. Ho indicated hi* 

 desire, to diffuse a knowledge of geological science by some admirable 

 paper* on 'The Mineral Kingdom,' published in ' The Penny Maga- 



liue' in 1833-34. In 1833 the Factories' Act of 3 William IV. wa* 

 passed, and Mr. Horner became one of the principal inspectors under 

 that important statute. He has continued iu that office to the 

 present time, manifesting an unremitting solicitude for the health and 

 moral and physical improvement of the great body of factory-worker*, 

 I*rticulrlj of the thousand* of children, of whom the state had 

 assumed the duty of protector. In the course of his official career, 

 he ha* occasionally bad to encounter opposition from those who 

 thought that their commercial interest* were interfered with iu the 

 strict enforcement of the law, particularly with regard to the fencing 

 of machinery for the prevention of accident. But whatever difference 

 of opinion there may be on this subject, there can be no doubt that 

 Mr. Horner ha* been a material iimtrunifiit in proiu.itiui,- tbat kindly 

 regard for the welfare of the operatives which must henceforth be 

 aimed at in every well-regulated factory. Besides the ' Memoirs and . 

 Correspondence' of his brother, Mr. Homer is the author of various 

 scattered writings on scientific and philanthropic subject*. Among 

 these may be mentioned 'Remarks on Certain Charges of Mi- 

 seutation of Lord Brougham's Education Bill in the Kdinburgh 

 Review, January 1838 ; ' a treatise ' On the Employment of Children 

 in Factories and other works,' 1840; and 'An Address delivered at 

 the Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society of London,' of 

 which he was president, in 1847. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

 HQRREBOW, 1'KTlClt, a Danish astronomer, was born iu the year 

 1679. After studying medicine for Several years he became the pupil 

 of the celebrated mathematician and astronomer Olaus Hoemer, whom 

 in 1710 be succeeded as professor in the University of Copenhagen. 

 The duties of this office be continued to discharge with great credit 

 till about the year 1740, when he resigned in favour of his sou 

 Christian. Horrebow died at Copenhagen in 1764, at the advanced 

 age of eighty-five years. HU works are' Clavis Astronomic, eeu 

 .Utronomiao Pars Physics,' Copenb., 1725, 4to, an attempt to explain 

 the formation of the planets on the system of Descartes ; ' Copernicus 

 triumphant, eive de ParaUaxi Orbig Annui Tractatua Epistolaris,' 

 ib. 1727. 4 to, in which he imagines himself to have proved, from 

 Roemer'a observations, that Sinus and a Lyras have each 30' of 

 annual parallax ; 'Atrium Astronoinue, sive Tractatus de iuvcuiemlis 

 Refractionibus, Obliquitate Ecliptics), atque Elovatioue Poli,' ib. 17 /_', 

 4 to; 'Basis Astronomic, sive Astronomite Pars Mechanics,' ib. 1735, 

 4 to; 'Consilium de nov& Methodo Poschali ad perfectum Statuui 

 perducenda, ac deinceps omnibus Christianis commendauda,' ib. 17ob ; 

 ' Elementa Philosophise Naturalis,' ib. 1748, 4to ; besides a few paper* 

 upon astronomical subjects in the 'Acts of Leipzig.' His works were 

 collected and reprinted iu 1740-41, at Copenhagen, in 3 vols. 4to. To 

 his ' Basis Astronomic ' is prefixed the ' Life of Hoemer,' in which he 

 has omitted nothing that could tend to perpetuate the memory of his 

 predecessor. 



HORREBOW, CHRISTIAN, (on of the above, died in 1776, and, 

 besides a Latin treatise on Spherical Trigonometry, he has left, 

 ' Repetita Parallaxiog Orbis Annui Demonstratio, ex Observationibus 

 Ann. 1742 et 1743 deducts,' Copenh., 1744, 4to; and ' De ParaUaxi 

 Fixarum AunuA et Rectasceusionibua quam post Roemerum et Paren- 

 tein demoustrat Auctor," ib. 1747, 4to. 



HORUOCKS, JKUKMIAH, often spelt HORROX, an astronomer 

 who has obtained a lasting celebrity, though he died at the age of 

 twenty-two, or thereabouts. During the time iu which the court and 

 parliament were occupied in the disputes which led to civil war, four 

 men, three of them very young, and all personally acquainted with 

 each other, were employed iu advancing the theory and practice of 

 astronomy. Three of them died very young, and their names hod 

 almost perished, and would probably have been lost, but for the more 

 than usual talents of Horrocks. We have therefore reserved for this 

 article the account of three of them; the fourth is noticed in a 

 separate article. [GASCOYONE, WILLIAM.] They were mode known to 

 each other by Christopher Townley, of Carr iu Lancashire, who was 

 the particular friend of Edward Suerburne, the translator of Maniliu* 

 (1675). This latter writer thus obtained some particulars of them, 

 from which, with other sources, our account is token. 



1. JKUKMIAH HORROCKS was born, it is supposed, about the year 

 1619, at Toxteth, near Liverpool. His father, a man of moderate 

 means, placed him, before 1633, at Emauuel College, Cambridge, and 

 there he sooii begun to turn his attention to astronomy. In the pro- 

 legomena to his astronomical writings he describes the difficulties 

 under which he laboured in finding even so much as u direction to 

 good authors. A treatise by Gellibrand led him to purchase the 

 writings of Lansberg, on which he afterwards greatly regretted that 

 be had watted his time. Subsequently he became acquainted with 

 those of Tycho Brand and Kepler. Though his papers which he left 

 behind him contain many good observations and ingenious remark*, 

 he must now be considered as known by two particulars. He was the 

 first who saw Venus on the body of the sun, and he was the first who 

 remarked that the lunar motions might be represented by supposing 

 an elliptic orbit, provided that the excentricity of the ellipse were 

 made to vary, and an oscillatory motion given to the line of apsides. 

 Newton afterward* showed tbat both suppositions were consequences 

 of the theory of gravitation, and (book iii., prop. 35, scholium) 

 attributes to H alley a part of what is really duo to Horrocks, a* 

 explained by Flamsteed. But Horrocks ha* been more than avenged 



