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“ Captain, or Colonel, or Knight in arms, 
Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, 
If deed of honour did thee ever please, 
Guard them ; and him within protect from harms. 
He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 
That call fame on such gentle acts as these; 
And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas, 
Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.” 
No better tribute can be rendered to the military character and 
abilities of Sir T. Brisbane, whose active professional career closed 
with the end of the war in 1815, than that rendered by the Duke 
of Wellington in an answer which is recorded by our late President 
himself. “ On my return from America, the late Major-General Sir 
Manby Power, and the late Lord Kean, informed me that they had 
written to the Duke of Wellington at Brussels, offering themselves 
for employment in the army which he was forming for Waterloo. 
His grace replied that he should be happy to comply with their 
request, but he could hold out no promise to them until Sir T. 
Brisbane had received the division which he preferred. This I 
learned from the above-named generals, but the duke never men- 
tioned it to me himself.” 
In 1820 the continued favour of his old commander procured for 
him the governorship of the important colony of New South Wales. 
It was this command at the Antipodes which enabled Sir Thomas to 
render to astronomical science those new and important services 
which procured for him, four years after his return, the gold medal 
of the Boyal Astronomical Society of London. He established, and 
maintained entirely at his own expense, the now celebrated observa- 
tory at Paramatta. So early as 1808, when his health had com- 
pelled him to retire for a time from active service, he had erected 
an observatory at Brisbane, his native place ; and some of the 
instruments procured for this establishment were the first with which 
observations were begun at the Antipodes. 
I am indebted to my friend Principal Forbes for an interesting 
note on that portion of Sir T. Brisbane’s life which bears most 
closely on his connection with this Society. 
“ Sir T. Brisbane was elected an F.B.S.E. in 1811, but in con- 
sequence of his various military appointments abroad, he did not 
personally take much part in its proceedings until about 1826, 
when his name appears on the list of the Council. He had, how- 
