710 



After his return he re-entered the House of Commons as member 

 for Winchester, and sat during two Parliaments. In April 1823, 

 George IV. raised him to the Baronetcy. In November 1823, he 

 was called to the Bench of the Inner Temple ; and King William 

 on his accession conferred on him the further distinction of a 

 Privy Councillor ; and he took part in the Judicial Committee in 

 cases of appeals from the East Indies* Mindful of his native friends 

 in the East, he associated himself with the late Lord Munster and 

 others who had been in India, in founding the Royal Asiatic Society 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, together with the Oriental Translation 

 Committee as auxiliary to that Society, for the purpose of putting 

 into an English dress curious and important works in the Eastern 

 languages, relating to History, Science or Literature. The Society 

 and the Committee equally flourished ; and the latter has placed be- 

 fore the European world many Oriental works, which, but for its 

 labours, must have remained long unknown. In his late years. Sir 

 Edward partly occupied himself with religious and controversial 

 subjects, and published, under the signature of " A Layman," a trea- 

 tise " On the Origin of Evil in the World," and another " On the 

 mysterious Book of Job." 



Sir Edward Hyde East, Bart., became a member of our Society 

 in April 1799, and died in the course of the present year. 



Mr. Macvey Napier was born in the year 1777, and descended 

 from an ancient family in the West of Scotland. After successful 

 studies in the two Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, he be- 

 came a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet. His talents 

 would probably have led him to great success in the legal profes- 

 sion, had not his taste for literary and philosophical pursuits led. 

 him to other avocations. He was, however, the object of so much re- 

 spect and regard, that he was at an early age elected by the Society to 

 the honourable office of their librarian ; an office for which he seems 

 to have been admirably qualified. At a later period, they selected 

 him from many able competitors to deliver lectures on Conveyancing. 

 The University of Edinburgh subsequently evinced their sense of 

 the merits of these lectures by converting the lectureship into a 

 professorship, with a handsome endowment, and permitting Mr. 

 Napier to become the professor without ceasing to be librarian. 



In the year 1814, Mr. Napier edited the Supplement to the En- 

 cyclopaedia Britannica, and at a later period, he superintended anew 

 edition of the same important work, and by so doing conferred a 

 great benefit on the science of his country and of the world. 



In the year 1830, Mr. Napier was appointed to the situation of 

 principal Clerk of Session, and resigned that of librarian to the 

 Writers to the Signet, having the year before succeeded Mr. Jeffery 

 as the editor of one of the most influential of those quarterly jour- 

 nals whose publication is of the greatest importance to the literary 

 and scientific interests of the country. He had been a contributor 

 to the Edinburgh Review previously, and was therefore the better 

 able to manage it with success. A memoir that has been published 



