voyages through a mistake of the commander of the ship in esti- 

 mating the longitude; an incident which left on his mind a deep 

 sense of the practical advantages of a knowledge of astronomy. His 

 warm attachment to the science which thus arose, never abated, and 

 he found means to indulge it even amid the distractions of an active 

 and adventurous military life, by making observations with a pocket 

 sextant ; arid we have the testimony of the Duke of Wellington that 

 he kept the time of the army. In the same spirit he availed himself 

 of a brief interval during which he returned home in 1808, to erect 

 an observatory at Brisbane, his native place, in which he personally 

 worked as an observer. But it was when appointed Governor of 

 New South Wales that he was enabled to perform his greatest ser- 

 vice to Astronomy. With this object in view, he carried with him 

 to the colony an outfit of costly instruments, and immediately on 

 his arrival in 1821, selected the site for an observatory at Paramatta, 

 and set about the erection of a suitable building ; all at his own 

 expense. Before leaving England he had engaged the services of 

 Mr. C. Rumker, then an astronomer of considerable experience, and 

 now one of our Foreign Members, to conduct the contemplated ob- 

 servatory. His own public duties would of necessity seldom admit 

 of his devoting any material portion of his time to actual observa- 

 tion, yet he frequently took a personal share in the work ; and in 

 particular, a great portion of the transits were observed by himself. 



On the return of Sir Thomas and Mr. Rumker to England, a 

 volume of the Observations made at Paramatta by Mr. Rumker and 

 reduced by him were, with Sir T. Brisbane's approval, presented by 

 Mr. Rumker to the Royal Society, and constitute Part 3 of the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1829. 



It was through the labours at this observatory that astronomical 

 science became enriched with the large series of observations of South- 

 ern Stars, for the most part communicated in the first instance to the 

 Royal Society, but afterwards collected and published in 1835, under 

 the well-known title of "The Brisbane Catalogue of Stars ;" and on 

 account of these observations, and the great services rendered by him 

 to Astronomy in the Southern Hemisphere, Sir Thomas received the 

 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1 828. In announ- 

 cing this award, the President, Sir John Herschel, refers also to the 

 observationof the solstices of 1821, 1822 and 1 823 ; the rediscovery of 



