xi 



these two colonies he showed himself to be as good a constitutional 

 governor, working with ministers responsible to a Parliamentary 

 majority, as he had proved himself to be a good autocrat in the 

 Straits Settlements. From 1877 to 1889 he was adviser to the 

 Governments of all the Australasian colonies on questions connected 

 with the defence of their harbours and coasts, and during this period 

 he placed the defences in a much better position to resist any incur- 

 sion by the ships of hostile Powers than they were on his arrival. 



In 1889 Sir W. Jervois, who had been made a G.O.M.G. in 1878, 

 returned to England, and in the following year was appointed a 

 member of Mr. Stanhope's Commission on Military Defences 

 (1890-91). In 1888 he was elected a F.R.S. In 1892 he wrote an 

 article in the ' Nineteenth Century ' magazine advocating that 

 the coast defences should be placed in the hands of the navy — which 

 attracted some attention at the time. But most of the years of his 

 retirement were passed quietly in the country, until an unfortunate 

 carriage accident ended his life on the 17th August, 1897. 



c. w. w. 



William Archer was the eldest son of the Rev. Richard Archer, 

 vicar of Clonduff, Rathfriland, co. Down. He was born on May 6, 

 1827. His two younger brothers were educated at Trinity College, 

 Dublin, and were afterwards in the Government service, but no 

 particulars of his own early education are available. The significant 

 fact of his life was the foundation in 1857 of the Dublin Micro- 

 scopical Club, of which for a long period Archer was secretary, and 

 to a large extent the moving spirit. The club was started by a small 

 group of students, who were drawn to natural history studies by the 

 teaching of Allman and Harvey, the two distinguished men who 

 successively occupied the chair of botany at Trinity College, Dublin. 

 The club, which still exists, was limited to twelve members, and pro- 

 bably no society so small has ever accomplished so much important 

 scientific work. Each member from the first took up some special 

 line, and Archer devoted himself to the investigation of the Protozoa 

 and microscopic algee of the moor-pools of Ireland. 



In this fascinating field of research, the richness of which can 

 perhaps hardly be paralleled in any other country, Archer laboured 

 for the rest of his life. He devised a simple but effective method of 

 collecting and of preserving for future examination his collected 

 material. As might be expected a long experience gave him extra- 

 ordinary dexterity in the work. Nothing could be more interesting 

 than to accompany him on one of his excursions. He knew how to 

 find his way through the bogs and instinctively selected the by no 

 means obvious spots where the best harvest was to be found. 



A striking instance of his extraordinary skill as a collector was his 



