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83, after a short and painless illness, in the fnll possession of all 

 his faculties, with undimmed memory and intellect, with unabated 

 interest in public affairs, and retaining to the last that ever-ready 

 fund of sympathy and that sweetness of character which so much 

 endeared him to his friends and relations. 



Sip, Thomas Macleae, the eldest son of the Rev. James Ma clear, 

 of Newton Stewart, Tyrone, Ireland, was bom on the 17th of March, 

 1794. At the age of fifteen he was placed under the care of relatives 

 in England, and educated for the medical profession, studying at Gray's 

 and Bartholomew's Hospitals. He had excellent prospects in London, 

 but, preferring a more quiet life, he obtained the appointment of House 

 Surgeon to the Bedford Infirmary, and at this place, in the society of 

 the late Admiral Smyth, he had opportunities of employing himself 

 occasionally in the practice of astronomy, a science for which he had 

 early shown a predilection. In 1823 he moved to Biggleswade, and 

 here erected a small observatory, in which he spent most of the time 

 he could spare from the practice of his profession. In 1825 he married 

 Mary Pearse, daughter of one of his Bedford friends. 



In 1833, probably through the recommendation of Admiral Smyth 

 and Sir John Herschel, he was appointed Astronomer at the Cape of 

 Good Hope. He reached his new sphere of labour in January, 1834. 

 Less than a fortnight later Sir John Herschel arrived at the Cape to 

 make the survey of the southern heavens, which occupied him four 

 years, and the two astronomers assisted each other during this period 

 with heart and hand. The transit instrument and the inural circle 

 were kept in constant use by Maclear and his single assistant, the result 

 being that in the clear skies of the Cape observations accumulated far 

 beyond the limited powers of reduction. 



In the early part of 1838 he commenced his great undertaking, the 

 verification of Lacaille's arc of the meridian, the field-work for which 

 was completed in 18-47. It has formed the basis for the survey of the 

 colony, and has given to it a character and completeness which might 

 otherwise have been wanting. The results of this important geodetic 

 operation were published in two quarto volumes in 1866, under the 

 editorship of Sir George Airy. In 1819 Maclear's means for extra- 

 meridional observations were increased by the mounting of a 7-inch 

 Merz refractor, he having previously been limited to the use of a 

 Dollond achromatic of 46 inches focal length. Many valuable series of 

 observations of comets when beyond reach at the European observa- 

 tories were thus obtained, and have been of the greatest assistance in 

 the accurate determination of their orbits. Between the years 1849 — 

 1853 the whole of the stars of the British Association Catalogue having 

 south declination were observed by Maclear with the meridian instru- 

 ments. The reduction of these observations, as of others, was much 



