192 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
in 1808. In 1812 he was appointed one of the depute-advocates, 
and during his continuance in that office he was entrusted with the 
management of a large part of the criminal business of Scotland, 
at a time when, in the State trials of from 1807 to 1821, courage 
as well as skill was required in the public prosecutor. Having 
discharged with distinguished ability the duties thus imposed upon 
him, he resigned his appointment in 1821, and relinquished his 
general practice at the Bar. 
In 1821 Mr Drummond entered Parliament as member for the 
county of Stirling, and he continued to discharge his parliamentary 
duties till 1852, when he resigned in favour of his friend and 
neighbour, Mr Stirling of Keir. During that long period of public 
service he gave valuable aid in passing the various statutes relating 
to Scotland ; but the country is under special obligations to him 
for the Turnpike and Statute Labour Acts, the Salmon Fishing 
Act of 19 Geo. IV., and especially the Act for the Recovery of 
Small Debts, which confers the most signal benefits upon the 
poor. 
As a country gentleman, a landlord, and an ardent and skilful 
improver of his estates, his name will be long remembered in his 
county. Although it is to Lord Karnes that we owe the happy 
idea of floating away to the Forth the moss which covers the rich 
alluvial soil beneath the Blair Drummond Moss, it was his grandson 
who completed this great enterprise, and converted into a fertile 
field this wide and useless expanse. 
Mr Home Drummond, who had long been in feeble health, 
died in September 1867. He was married to Miss C. Moray of 
Abercairney, and has left behind him two sons and a daughter — 
Mr G. Stirling Home Drummond of Ardoch, who succeeds to the 
paternal estates ; Mr C. Home Drummond Moray of Abercairney ; 
and Her Grace The Dowager-Duchess of Athole. 
Michael Faraday, a distinguished chemist, was born at Newing- 
ton Butts, Surrey, on the 22d September 1791. His father was a 
smith, and at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed for seven 
years to a bookbinder. In 1812 he became a journeyman book- 
binder, and in that year he attended the course of lectures of Sir 
H. Davy, in the Royal Institution. Having sent to Sir Humphry 
