1026 



bore ample fruit both in the work in question and in his future 



ones.. 



Of these, following his admirable paper on his new order Streps- 

 iptera' and his "Century of Insects" in the 'Linnean Transac- 

 tions,' the most important was his * Bridgewater Treatise,' " On the 

 History, Habits and Instincts of Animals," published in the 76th 

 year of his age, in which he brought together a vast number of 

 curious and important facts in the natural history of animals, and 

 urged their application in proof of the wisdom and goodness of the 

 Creator with that persuasive and pious ardour with which he always 

 endeavoured to lead his readers, like himself, " to see God in all 

 things." 



This is not the place to enumerate the titles of his numerous less 

 important papers in the ' Zoological Journal,' and other periodical 

 works on natural history, and it must suffice to notice his last great 

 work, the entomological portion of the ' Fauna Boreali- Americana ' 

 of Sir John Richardson, published in a quarto volume in 1837, in 

 which he described the insects of the northernmost region of Ame- 

 rica with a largeness of grasp as to their generic and family rela- 

 tions, and a clearness and accuracy as to their specific characters, 

 fully proving that at the very advanced age of nearly eighty, his 

 entomological zeal and acumen had not diminished. 



Some time before the publication of this work, Mr. Kirby, feeling 

 that his entomological career was appropriately closed by it, gave 

 his whole collection of British and Foreign Insects to the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London, of which he had been elected the Ho- 

 norary President on its establishment in 1833 — a noble gift, for 

 which future entomologists, who will thus have access to the very 

 species he described in his various works, will feel a deep debt of 

 gratitude. 



Constant and unwearied as v.- ere Mr. Kirby 's entomological la- 

 bours, they never encroached on his professional and social duties. 

 His parishioners of every class looked up to him as a father, on 

 whose advice, sympathy and assistance they might confidently rely, 

 and the whole tenor of his long life proved him to be at once one 

 of the kindest of friends and most simple-minded, warm-hearted 

 and pious of men. 



Mr. Kirby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1818, and 

 became one of the Linnean Society soon after its institution in 1788. 

 Besides being Honorary President of the Entomological Society and 

 President of the Ipswich Museum, he was a Fellow of the Geologi- 

 cal and Zoological Societies, and an Honorary Member of several 

 foreign societies. He died July 4, 1850, aged ninety years and ten 

 months, and was buried in the chancel of his church at Barham. 



Sir Robert Peel was born on the 5th of February, 1788, at 

 Bury, in Lancashire. His father was one of our greatest manufac- 

 turers, a very wealthy and a very able man, remarkable for the 

 vigour of his mind and the extent of his practical knowledge. 



Sir Robert was educated at home with great care till of a proper 



