130 
of the Shall — a position which he held for about six years. Soon 
after he became Ambassador an anonymous work on the influence 
of Russia in the East was published, and generally ascribed to Sir 
John. The work attracted a good deal of attention in England at 
the time. After his return home, he was appointed in 1845 
chairman of the new Board of Supervision for Relief of the Poor in 
Scotland, an office which he held till 1868. While head of the 
Board of Supervision he made an extended tour of investigation, 
by desire of Government, through the Western Highlands, during 
the period of the famine. The Report which resulted from this 
tour was published in 1861. Characterised by much ability and 
great good sense, the Report is full of interest, both for the informa- 
tion it contains and for the remedial measures recommended in it, 
the chief of which, emigration, has recently been much canvassed 
in connection with the present social and industrial condition of 
the Highlands and Islands. 
During the Crimean War, Sir John was requested by the Minister 
of War, Lord Panmure, to proceed along with Colonel Tulloch to 
the Crimea, and make careful inquiry into the disasters of that 
campaign in connection with the defective commissariat. On 
presenting the joint Report in 1855, Sir John received the thanks 
of Parliament and the distinction of G.C.B. He was sworn a 
member of the Privy Council in 1857. Though the accuracy of 
some parts of this Report w T as called in question by the military 
commission at home on the same subject, its value was generally 
admitted. Sir John was a D.C.L. of the University of Oxford, and 
LL.D. of Edinburgh. He was for some years one of the curators 
of the University of Edinburgh, and at the time of his death was 
honorary president of the Edinburgh Literary Institute. He 
became a Eellow of this Society in 1840, and was a member of many 
other learned societies, both British and foreign. 
His latter years were spent partly at his residence, Burnhead, near 
Edinburgh, and partly at his villa, Poralto, Cannes, where he died 
on May 17, 1883. 
Sir John was, by one of his marriages, brother-in-law of Professor 
John Wilson (Christopher North), and by his marriage in 1870 he 
became brother-in-law of the present Duke of Argyll. 
