DR HENRY DEWAR.

THE death of Dr Dewar is one of those striking events which strongly affect the mind, and impress upon us a sense of our mortality. On Monday the 13th January he was present, in good health, at a meeting of the Royal Society, in the business of which he took a deep interest, and on Sunday the 19th January he breathed his last; his death being occasioned by infection derived from a body which he had opened in the course of his medical practice. On succeeding to the estate of Lassodie, Dr Dewar directed his attention to medicine, cultivated a knowledge of it with success, and served as an assistant-surgeon in the British army in Egypt, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby. He was present at the battle of Alexandria, in which Sir Ralph was mortally wounded. On his return to England, he dedicated himself with increased ardour to the study of those branches of literature and

science particularly connected with his profession; and his Essays on a variety of interesting topics, which have appeared in the medical and philosophical journals of the last twenty years, evince the extent of his acquirements, the soundness of his views, and the unceasing ardour with which he pursued every inquiry that promised to add to the happiness or alleviate the miseries of mankind. Death arrested him in the midst of an active and highly useful life. He was engaged in delivering a course of lectures on the Institutions of Medicine, a branch of science which he had cultivated with particu lar assiduity, and which he taught with corresponding success. He contributed several valuable articles to the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, to the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

to the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh-and, latterly, he had bestowed a great portion of his leisure hours in preparing an English translation of Malte Brun's System of

Geography, which should be worthy at once of the merits of the original work, and of the notice of the British public. As a friend, a husband, and a father, Dr Dewar was above all eulogy. In him extensive attainments and eminent talents were united with the most amiable dispositions, and the most unpretending modesty. His life was distinguished throughout by so much gentleness, candour, and liberality in his intercourse with others, yet with such perfect independence in holding and acting upon those views which appeared to his own mind to be correct, that we believe he has not left one enemy behind him, while numerous friends deeply lament his too early removal from among them.

COLONEL LAMBTON.

Jan. 20.-At Hingin Ghaut, 50 miles south of Nagpoor, while proceeding in the execution of his duty from Hydrabad towards Nagpoor, Lieut.-Col. Wm. Lambton, Superintendent of the Grand Trigonometrical Survey in India.

The Annals of the Royal and Asiatic Society bear ample testimony to the extent and importance of the labours of Colonel Lambton, in his measurement of an arc of the meridian in India, extending from Cape Comorin, in lat. 8. 23. 10. to a new base line, measured in lat. 21. 6, near the village of Takoor kera, 15 miles S.E. from the city of Ellichpore, a distance exceeding that measure by the English and French geometers, between the parallels of Greenwich and Tormentara in the Island of Minorca.

It was the intention of Col. Lambton to have extended the arc to Agra, in which case the meridian line would have passed at short distances from Bhopaul, Serange, Nurwur, Gualiar, and Dholpore. At his advanced age,

VOL. XVI. PART III.

he despaired of health and strength remaining for further exertion; otherwise it cannot be doubted that it would have been a grand object of his ambition to have prolonged it through the Dooab, and across the Himalays, to the 32d degree of north latitude. If this vast undertaking had been achieved, and that it may yet be completed is not improbable, British India will have to boast of a much larger unbroken meridian line than has been before measured on the surface of the globe.

Though the measurement of the arc of the meridian was the principal object of the labours of Colonel Lambton, he extended his operations to the east and west, and the set of triangles covers great part of the Peninsula of India, defining with the utmost precision the situation of a very great number of principal places in latitude, longitude, and elevation; and affording a sure basis for an amended Geographical Map, which is now under preparation. The triangulation also connects the Coromandel and Malabar coasts in numerous important points, thus supplying the best means of truly laying down the shape of those coasts, and rendering an essential service to navigation.

It was the Colonel's intention to have himself carried the meridian line as far north as Agra, and he detached his first assistant, Captain Everest, of the Bengal Artillery, to extend a series of triangles westward to Bombay, and when that service should be completed eastward, to Point Palmyras, and probably Fort William, by which extensive and arduous operation, the three Presidencies of India would be connected, and several obvious advantages gained to geography and navigation. But it is in the volumes of the proceedings of various learned societies, that the accounts of the labours of this veteran philosopher, whose loss we lament, must be looked for, and who for 22

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years carried on his operations in the ungenial climate with unabated zeal and perseverance, and died full of years and conscious of a well-deserved reputation.

THE REV. JOHN FLEMING.

There are few individuals, however limited the sphere of their actions, whose lives may not become an object of interest, when they are fairly and truly delineated. If a man has been gifted by Nature with talents or abilities which have been obscured by indolence, we may learn from it the duty of exertion; if he has been actively and usefully benevolent, the good may profit by his example.

The Rev. John Fleming, the subject of the present memoir, was born on the 31st of August 1750, at the farmhouse of Craigs, in the parish of Bathgate, West-Lothian.

Having been originally destined for the clerical office, on the completion of the prescribed course of study at the University, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Linlithgow.

By the early decease of his father, the management of the small property to which he succeeded, devolved upon him; and not having any immediate view to preferment in the church, he turned his attention, in a great degree, to the improvement of his paternal estate. His natural sagacity, and superior education, soon led him to perceive that the state of agriculture in his native parish was capable of great improvement; and he lost no time in making himself acquainted with the best modes of draining, and enclosing, and the other farming operations, which of late years have added so much to the wealth and resources of the country. At this period, he often guided the plough, worked with his own hand in the labours of agriculture, and devoted

himself with great enthusiasm to the cultivation of this primitive science; and at a later period of life, it was his constant maxim, that to make two blades of grass, or corn, spring up, where only one had formerly grown, was conferring a solid benefit on the community.

The success of his farming operations soon induced his neighbours, in defiance of their peculiar prejudices, to adopt his improvements, and attracted also the attention of the great landholders of the county.

Tenor twelve years of Mr Fleming's life were passed in this obscure, though useful manner; and this interval afforded him, also, that leisure for reading and reflection, which were afterwards so conspicuous in the acquirements of his mind. About the year 1786, he became factor for Neil, Earl of Roseberry, and his residence was transferred to that nobleman's estate at Barnbougle, near Queensferry. There he spent some years, and had the opportunity, under his lordship's tuition, of acquiring much knowledge of the world and of actual business, being employed alternately as farmer, merchant, accountant, or lawyer, as the case required.

His situation in life was now, however, to be more permanently fixed; for in the year 1789 he was presented by the Earl of Roseberry to the church of Primrose, or Cairnton, in the presbytery of Dalkeith, situated about ten miles south of Edinburgh, where he officiated as pastor for a period of fif. teen years.

In the discharge of his ministerial duties, Mr Fleming was distinguished by exemplary diligence; and his interest for the welfare of his parishioners was not exclusively confined to their spiritual concerns, but extended also to their worldly comfort and prosperity.

His sermons, for several years after his settlement at Primrose, were written and composed with much care, and

display great vigour of mind, and powers of illustration, which, under favourable circumstances, might have been polished to excellence. But being destined to instruct plain people in a country parish, he soon perceived that such sermons were not fitted to produce the full effect upon his audience. His ambition was to be useful, rather than admired, and therefore he studied to prepare such discourses as the most illiterate might understand; and, latterly, seldom wrote them out. Among the English divines, he particularly ad'mired the writings of Barrow, Tillotson, and Hoadley; among our own, those of Charters had much of his esteem; and, as philosophic divines, Butler and Price were his favourites. As an author, he was extremely fastidious, being well aware that no published work can succeed unless of the first excellence. The only composition of his, to which publicity has been given, is the Account of the Parish of Cairnton, printed in the Statistical Account of Scotland, and often quoted with approbation, for its enlightened and solid remarks.*

No one entertained a higher value, or a more ardent love, for civil and religious liberty, than Mr Fleming. He mentioned to some of his intimate friends, that he felt this disposition strongly from his earliest recollection; and he believed that it was cherished, in a great degree, from hearing, in his infancy, that his great-grandfather had suffered death as a Covenanter, under the arbitrary reign of the Stuarts.t This feeling increased with his years, and inspired him with a hatred of arbitrary power, which he never failed to

reprobate, on every occasion where he saw the slightest desire to stretch the law, at the expense of justice or humanity.

While Mr Fleming resided at Primrose, that remarkable event, the French Revolution, was too intimately connected with the principles which he had imbibed, not to excite in him the deepest interest, and when, by the Constitution which the King accepted in 1789, the French nation seemed likely to enjoy a portion of rational liberty, he heartily rejoiced in it; but was indeed mortified that they had not wisdom to retain that Constitution, and shocked at the excesses committed by the anarchists during the reign of terror. He did not, however, think that just notions of human liberty were to be despised, because bad men had embarked in the cause, any more than he was of opinion that our religion was to be considered as contaminated, because it had been for ages defiled by the impurities of superstition. He maintained, also, that Great Britain had no right to interfere in settling the French government, and that the destructive war in which she afterwards engaged on that account, might have been avoided. The local politics of Scotland were at that period so virulent, and parties so much divided, that those who thought differently on these subjects, did not hesitate to brand him as an enemy to his country. Those, however, who knew Mr Fleming's genuine worth, and that he differed with them purely upon principle, continued their friendship, and never ceased to cultivate his acquaintance.

About 1793, when political feeling

was at its height, and Muir, Margarot, and others, were transported for the crime of sedition, under sentences of the High Court of Justiciary, Mr Fleming's friends were not, for some time, without anxiety on his account, though he had certainly never attended any of the societies or meetings which were held at that period; but as the free expression of liberal opinions could not be characterized as criminal, he was never on that account made the object of any hostile

measure.

Mr Fleming was, in 1804, translated to the parish of Colinton, within four miles of Edinburgh, on the unsolicited presentation of the Earl of Lauderdale, the patron. This arrangement appears to have been communicated by his lordship to Mr Fleming, through the medium of a mutual friend, previous to the death of Dr Walker, the then incumbent. A copy of Mr Fleming's letter to the noble earl, on this occasion, has been preserved, and its insertion here may not be deemed unsuitable.

"Primrose, Dec. 20, 1802. "MY LORD, "Our very excellent friend, Mr Gibson, has sent me your lordship's letter to him, dated 26th of last month. The quaintness of compliment is suited to the character and intercourse of only vain and frivolous men. For this reason, the parade of verbal gratitude shall, on the present occasion, be forborne. It is, however, a fact too obvious to escape notice, that the unsolicited and spontaneous offer which your lordship has been pleased to make me, furnishes a proof that there remains, even among the peers of Scotland, one whose liberal and disinterested mind considers an uniform adherence to those principles and measures which are favourable to the liberty and happiness of man

kind, though unsupported by any other claim, as deserving patronage and encouragement. Permit me to assure your lordship of another fact, -that the satisfaction of mind arising from reflection on my conduct, and which has greatly overbalanced every inconvenience which the temper of the times may have occasioned, has been heightened by this testimony of your lordship's approbation, and that it is one of the few things by which this effect could have been produced.

"Whether your lordship's generous intention shall ever be realized, like every future event, depends upon contingencies, many of which are beyond the reach of human foresight or control. But whatever may be the event, I trust the kindness and generosity of your lordship's intention shall always be sufficient to keep in my mind a just sense of the obliga tion, and lead to an independence and propriety of conduct which will shew that your lordship's favour has not been entirely misplaced."

Mr Fleming had previously to this been offered two other livings in the church, which he did not accept. We have reason to believe, that at first he was not very cordially received by his parishioners at Colinton; but the real worth of his character was soon discovered, and during the remainder of his life, he enjoyed their full regard and esteem. Being a scholar by education and taste, and a man of business by habit, he was a fit companion for men in all ranks of life; and from the natural frankness of his disposition, his society continued to

be much courted. He was often consulted by gentlemen for his opinion on the value of land, and was frequently taken to distant parts of the country for this purpose, without, however, neglecting the duties of his charge.