LINNEAN SOCIETY OE LONDOIT. CI 



in the capacity of Colonial Secretary, and where he afterwards 

 filled the post of Speaker to the first Legislative Conncil of New 

 South. "Wales. 



Mr. "W. MacLeay was educated at "Westminster School and at 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with, honours, 

 appearing in the list of Senior Optimes for 1814. On leaving the 

 "University he was appointed Attache to the Britisli Embassy in 

 Prance, and shortly afterwards became Secretary to the Board for 

 Liquidating British Claims in that country, which was established 

 at the peace of 1815. In this capacity he resided for several years 

 in the Prench. capital, and had thus an opportunity of becoming 

 intimately acquainted with. Cuvier and the other eminent men of 

 science whio at that time gave lustre to the natural-history schools 

 in Paris. Having discharged the duties of this office with, great 

 credit, Mr. MacLeay, on his return to England, was appointed by 

 Mr. Canning in 1825 Commissioner of Arbitration to the Mixed 

 British and Spanish Court of Commission for the Abolition of the 

 Slave Trade, established at the Havannah. In 1830 he was ad- 

 vanced to the higher grade of Commissary Judge in the same 

 Court, and in 1836 became Judge of the Mixed British and Spanish 

 Court of Justice established under the Treaty of 1835. 



Eor the manner in which he discharged the arduous and often 

 delicate duties of these offices, Mr. MacLeay received repeated 

 official approbation. In 1836 he returned to England, and in 

 1837 retired from the public service upon a superannuation allow- 

 ance. 



His long residence in a tropical climate rendered that of his 

 native country either distasteful or noxious to him, and he conse- 

 quently,in 1839, joined his family in New South "Wales — presiding 

 just before his departure over Section D at the Meeting of the 

 British Association at Liverpool. Erom that period until his 

 death he remained in comparative seclusion, devoting himself to 

 multifarious studies, to the enlargement of the magnificent col- 

 lection of insects founded by his father, and to the cultivation of 

 the beautiful gardens attached to his residence at Elizabeth Bay, 

 Sydney, which it was his chief pleasure to improve and to orna- 

 ment with the choicest native and exotic plants. In this delight- 

 ful retreat all those who possessed wisdom, wit, or a simple love 

 for scientific truth were made welcome by a host who combined 

 aU three, and who in the society of those whom he liked and re- 

 spected, not only astonished his hearers by the breadth and depth 

 of his knowledge, but charmed them by his thorough geniality 



