416 Linnaan Society. 



Wick, was also a Deputy-Lieutenant of the county of Caithness, 

 and the representative of one of the most ancient families in the 

 north of Scotland. Mr. MacLeay was educated for commercial 

 pursuits, which he relinquished early in life, and became in 1795 

 Chief Clerk in the Prisoners of War Office, in 1797 head of the de- 

 partment of Correspondence of the Transport Board, and in 1806 

 Secretary of that i3oard, which office he filled until the abolition of 

 the Board in 1818, when he retired upon a pension. In the year 

 1825 he was solicited by the late Earl Bathurst to undertake the im- 

 portant office of Colonial Secretary to the government of New South 

 Wales, which he held until the close of 1836. Having fixed his re- 

 sidence in the colony, with which he had now become completely 

 identified, he was chosen in 1843 to be the first Speaker of the Le- 

 gislative Council then established ; and in that capacity conducted 

 himself with so much ability, judgment and impartiality, as to 

 receive on his retirement from its duties in May 1846 the marked 

 approbation of both sides of the House. 



In 1794 Mr. MacLeay became a Fellow of the Linnsean Society, 

 and in 1798 he succeeded Mr. Marsham in the office of Secretary, 

 which he held until his Colonial employment compelled him to re- 

 linquish it in 1825. The following Minute of Council on that occa- 

 sion, which was subsequently adopted by a General Meeting of the 

 Society, expresses the high sense universally entertained by the 

 Members of his long and useful services : — 



" The Linnsean Society of London take the earliest opportunity 

 after the retirement of Alexander MacLeay, Esq. from the Secre- 

 taryship of the Society, to record upon their Minutes the high esti- 

 mation in which he is held by them on account of twenty-seven years 

 of unremitted and unrequited labour devoted to the interests of sci- 

 ence ; and that in quitting for a time this sphere of usefulness to fill 

 an honourable station in a distant country, he carries with him the 

 cordial esteem and sincere regret of this Society." 



As a naturalist, Mr. MacLeay devoted himself almost exclusively 

 to the study of insects, of which he had formed, previous to his 

 quitting England, the finest and most extensive collection then ex- 

 isting in the possession of a private individual. Of this great class 

 of animals he possessed an intimate knowledge, without, however, 

 having published anything on the subject, although he had made 

 preparations for a monograph of the singular genus Paussus, in which 

 his cabinet was peculiarly rich. He became a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society in 1809, and was also a Foreign Member of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Stockholm, and a Corresponding Member of the Academy 

 of Turin. 



Mr. MacLeay married early in life a relation of the house of Bar- 

 clay of Urie, by whom he had a numerous family. He died at Syd- 

 ney, New South Wales, on the 18th of July 1848, in the 82nd year 

 of his age. 



William Pilkington, Esq. 



Robert James Nicholl Streeten, M.D. 



John Frederick Walter, Esq., M.D. 



