Ill 



the Royal Family. Those who were charged to make a just selec- 

 tion for this high office wisely fulfilled their responsible task in the 

 choice of Dr. Baly, whose pre-eminent qualifications for the duty 

 were unanimously admitted by the whole medical profession. To 

 himself the appointment is said to have been a surprise ; but how 

 well he justified the selection was shown by the proofs of confidence 

 which he received from the Queen and the Prince Consort, and the 

 esteem in which he was held by the whole of the royal household. 



With the highest honours of his profession within his reach, 

 trusted by his Sovereign, esteemed by his brethren, and held in 

 affection by his many friends, the pride of his two sisters, who had 

 worked lovingly with him in his laborious days, his prosperous 

 career was sadly terminated and his valuable life in a moment cut 

 off, on the 28th of January, 1861, by one of those fatal chances to 

 which railway travelling is jstill but too liable, but in this unhappy 

 case apparently baffling human foresight. , 



Dr. Baly's early death occasioned a wide-spread feeling of grief. 

 Literally he was mourned from the palace to the prison. With the 

 sense of bereavement was mingled that of disappointed hope ; for with 

 his clear and vigorous intellect, his well-balanced and cultivated mind, 

 his devotion to the profession of his choice, his severe sense of duty, 

 his assiduous habits, and his freedom from all controversial ten- 

 dencies, there was sure promise that, had he been vouchsafed a 

 longer life, he would have yet done much for the advancement of 

 knowledge and the good of mankind. 



GEORGE BISHOP was born August 21, 1785, at Leicester. He 

 was well known in the commercial world as the head of the largest 

 manufacture of British wines in the kingdom. Having a taste for 

 astronomy, he erected an observatory in 1836 at his residence, South 

 Villa, in the Regent's Park. He received the services of such ob- 

 servers, among others, as Mr. Dawes and Mr. Hind, who soon gave 

 his observatory a European name. Without entering into details on 

 double stars, nebulae, &c., we shall but say that the South Villa ob- 

 servatory claims eleven of the small planets, ten discovered by Mr. 

 Hind and one by Mr. Marth. It is now removed to Twickenham 

 by Mr. George Bishop, Jun. 



Mr. Bishop was successively Secretary, Treasurer, and President 



02 



