the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Duke of Saxony, Duke of Cornwall and Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scotland), created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

9. Capt. Atkins Hamerton, of the Hon. E. I. C.'s Service, to be Her Majesty's Consul in the dominions of the Imaum of Muscat.

10. Lord Wharncliffe sworn Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the West Riding of the county of York.

16. Lieut.-Colonel George Macdonald, to be Governor of Sierra Leone.

20. Hon. Alex. Lord Ashburton; the Right Hon. John Nicholl, Judge Advocate-general; George Carr Glyn, esq.; and John Shaw Lefevre, esq., to be Commissioners to conduct investigation at the issuing of Exchequer Bills.

CIVIL PREFERMENTS.

Rev. P. Abbot, to be Master of Queen Mary's School, Clitheroe.

Rev. W. Collett, to be Principal of King's College School, at Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.

Rev. T. Evans, to be Head Master of the College School at Gloucester.

W. Webster Fisher, M.D., to be Downing Professor of Physic at Cambridge.

Rev. A. M'Caul, D.D., to be Professor of Hebrew and Rabbinical Literature in King's College, London.

DEATHS.

1840.

MARCH.

16. In France, aged 49, Félis Savart, a philosopher distinguished more especially for his researches in the science of Acoustics; he was born on the 30th of June, 1791, at Mézières, the capital of the Department of the Ardenues, in France. His parents had been connected with the school of engineers at Mézières; and several of his relations having been distinguished as artists, he was himself educated with a view to the same destination, to which, from a very

early period, he had evinced a decided inclination. But the family afterwards removing to Metz, the path which had at first been marked out for him was abandoned, and he prepared himself for another profession, by directing his whole attention to medicine. After taking a degree in medicine in the University of Strasbourg, he returned to his paternal roof at Metz, with the intention of settling, and of applying himself diligently to the practice of his profession. But on being restored to the scene of his youthful occupations, the renewed sight of those philosophical instruments to which so many delightful associations were attached, rekindled in full force the innate predilection for the physical sciences. Confiding in his knowledge of Acoustics, which was ever his favourite study, and in which he conceived he had made discoveries, he quitted his provincial domicile and repaired to the metropolis, as to the mart where his acquisitions would be best valued. He arrived in Paris with but scanty means of immediate support, without a friend, and unprovided with a single letter of recommendation. But Fortune took him by the hand, and favoured his first endeavour to obtain notice. He presented himself to Bict, and communicated to him his views, and the results of his researches in Acoustics. He met with the kindest reception from that philosopher, who had himself been occupied with similar inquiries, and was well qualified to appreciate the merits of Savart. Biot was ever after his friend and patron, and it was chiefly through his influence that Savart was, in the year 1820, appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in one of the Institutions at Paris; an office which he continued to hold till the year 1827, when he was nominated a Member of the Academy of Sciences. Soon after this, he was associated with Thénard, as Conservator of the Cabinet of Physics of the College of France. Thus raised to a state of independence, he had full leisure to devote himself to the science he had ever particularly cherished, and of which his labours have greatly extended the boundaries. His admirable researches on the laws of the vibrations of solid bodies of different forms and kinds, and in particular, of cords. of membranes, of rods, whether straight or bent, or of an annular shape; of flat discs, and of solids of revolution,

both solid and hollow, have furnished results of great value and importance. His investigation of the structure and functions of the several parts of the vocal organs, and his theory of the voice, both in man and in the lower animals, show great originality of research, and have thrown considerable light on a very difficult department of Physiology. Savart was elected, in the year 1839, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, an honour which his unconquerable prejudice against the English, and everything emanating from England, prevented his ever acknowledg

ing.

28. In his 90th year, Simon L'Huillier, for many years Professor of Mathematics at Geneva, born in that city on the 24th of April, 1750. He had, at a very early period of life, manifested his extraordinary aptitude for mathematical studies, and completed his education at the University of his native city, with great applause, Bertrand, who then occupied the chair of Mathematics, having marked him out as his probable successor; the counsel and assistance of Le Sage, who was his relative, having been of great service in the direction of his studies. He had the good fortune, at this critical time of his life, to be chosen tutor to Prince Czartorynski, with whom he remained for a period of thirteen or fourteen years, and dedicated to the father of his pupil his first work, which was published at Warsaw in 1782, under the title of "De relatione mutua capacitatis et terminarum figurarum, geometricè considerata; seu de Maximis et Minimis pars prior elementaris, and in which he treats geometrically, and with singular elegance and vigour of demonstration, all the elementary problems relating to isoperimetric figures and solids. About the same time be presented to the Academy of Berlin a memoir, which was afterwards published in its Transactions on the minima relating to the figure of the cells of bees, a subject which he appears, in that paper, to have exhausted. The prize proposed by the same Academy in 1786, was adjudicated to him for a memoir, which was since published under the title of Exposition elementaire des principes des calculs supérieurs. On his return to Geneva in 1789, L'Huillier published an opuscle, which acquired great celebrity, entitled "La Polygonométrie;

ou de la mésure des figures rectilignes et abrégé d'isopérimétrie élémentaire, ou de la dépendance mutuelle des grandeurs et des limites des figures;” at the conclusion of which he gives a masterly summary of his former researches on elementary isoperimetry. During the tempestuous years of the Revolution, L'Huillier sought in Germany the retirement so necessary to his pursuits; and chose Tubingen as his residence. The fruit of his labour during this seclusion was a work almost wholly new, which appeared at Tubingen, in 1795, under the title "Principiorum calculi differentialis et inte gratis expositio elementaris." He was invited about this time, to the chair of the Higher Mathematics in the University of Leyden; but his attachment to his native country was too deeply rooted to admit of his accepting this flattering offer; and eventually, in June of the same year, 1795, he attained the object of his highest ambition, by receiving, after a successful public competition, the appointment of Professor of Mathematics in the Academy of Geneva. He subsequently published many works of the highest merit in the science of Mathematics. L'Huillier held the Professorship with the highest reputation for twenty-five years, when, feeling the pressure of age and infirmity, he resigned the Chair, to the great regret of his pupils, of whom many are among the most distinguished philosophers of the Continent.

AUGUST.

11. At his residence in Duke-street, Westminster, in his 69th year, John Rickman, esq., F.R.S, Clerk Assistant at the Table of the House of Commons. Mr. Rickman was descended from an ancient Hampshire family; his grandfather, Mr. William Rickman, of Postbrook, near Fareham, as Commissary for the Spanish prisoners, is honourably mentioned by Ulloa, who, in the course of his scientific voyages, was captured, and detained a prisoner of war in Portsmouth Harbour, A.D. 1745. The Rev. Thomas Rickman, his eldest son, was the incumbent of Newburn in Northumberland, from whence he removed to the living of Compton, near Winchester; this he afterwards exchanged for the Rectory of Ash, mid

way between Farnham and Guildford. In the decline of life he retired from his clerical duties, and went to reside at Christ-church in the New Forest, in the midst of his family connexions, where he died in 1809. John Rickman, his only son, the subject of the present memoir, was born at Newburn on the 22nd of August, 1771; he was placed at the Guildford Grammar School, in 1781, of which the Rev. Samuel Cole was at that time head-master; and in 1788 he was entered at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, from whence he removed to Lincoln College. Having taken his degree, he subsequently devoted himself during several years to literary pursuits, and enjoyed the society of many who have since distinguished themselves as men of letters or of science. One of his contemporaries at college was Mr. Southey, who remained his most intimate friend, and most frequent correspondent to the last,- of this correspondence about one thousand letters are preserved. At this period of his life, Mr. Rickman conducted a monthly periodical called, The Commercial, Agricultural, and Manufacturer's Magazine, and he otherwise occupied himself with his characteristic eagerness upon investigations connected with political economy, and also with practical mechanics. Among his intimate friends at that time was Charles Lamb, who thus sketched his character in a letter (since published) to Mr. Manning, dated November 8, 1800. “I have made an acquisition latterly of a pleasant hand, one Rickman, to whom I was introduecd by George Dyer. George brings all sorts of people together, setting up a sort of Agrarian law, or common property, in matter of society; but herein he has done me a great pleasure, while he was only pursuing a principle, as ignes fatui may light you home. This Rickman lives in our buildings, immediately opposite our house; the finest fellow to drop in a' nights about nine or ten o'clockcold bread and cheese time-just in the witching-time of the night, when you wish for somebody to come in; without a distinct idea of a probable anybody: just in the nick, neither too early to be tedious, nor too late to sit a reasonable time. He is a most pleasant hand; a fine rattling fellow, has gone through life laughing at solemn apes-himself hugely literate, oppressively full of in

formation in all stuff of conversation, from matter-of-fact to Xenophon and Plato-can talk Greek with Porson, politics with Thelwall, conjecture with George Dyer, nonsense with me, and anything with anybody; a great farmer, -somewhat concerned in the Agricultural Magazine,-reads no poetry but Shakspeare,-very intimate with Southey but never reads his poetry,-relishes George Dyer, thoroughly penetrates into the ridiculous, wherever found,understands the first time (a great desideratum in common minds), you need never twice speak to him; does not want explanations, translations, limitations, as Professor Godwin does when you make an assertion; up to anything, down to everything, whatever sapit hominem; a perfect man....You must see Rickman to know him, for he is a species in one; a new class.... The clearest-headed fellow-fullest of matter with least verbosity." In 1801 Mr. Rickman removed to Dublin, having received the appointment of Private Secretary to the Right Honourable Charles Abbot, then made Chief Secretary for Ireland, under Lord Hardwicke, and Keeper of the Privy Seal; Mr. Rickman being specially empowered to act as Deputy Privy Seal. Upon the subsequent election of Mr. Abbot to be Speaker of the House of Commons, in February, 1802, Mr. Rickman having declined an office of considerable emolument, and one congenial to his tastes, which he had been solicited to accept at Dublin, preferred accompanying Mr. Abbot to London, where he became Speaker's Secretary, and continued in that office for twelve years. In July, 1814, he was appointed Second Clerk Assistant at the Table of the House of Commons, Mr. Dyson being at that time deputy to Mr. Hatsell the Clerk, and Mr. John H. Ley being Clerk Assistant. Upon Mr. Ley's appoint. ment to the office of Clerk in 1820, Mr. Rickman became Clerk Assistant, which office he continued to hold until his death. Amongst Mr. Rickman's contributions to the convenience of the House, may be mentioned the arrangement of the Index of Statutes, which has lain on the table since 1818, when he originated it with considerable labour, and illustrated it with an apt preface; and also the selection of the books which form the library of the House of Commons, as exhibited in his

classified catalogue, printed in 1830. Mr. Rickman took a very active part in bringing about the improved system of the publication of the Votes and Proceedings of the House, which, previously to the year 1817, were seldom published till three or four days after the transaction of the business to which they referred, and drew up a very forcible representation of the advantages to be gained by an alteration of the then existing system, which he laid before Mr. Speaker Abbot, with a plan for carrying it into execution, and after it had received some improvement from the suggestions of Mr. Dyson and Mr. Ley, Mr. Abbot recommended it for adoption by the House. By this plan, it has been found practicable to publish them at an early hour of the morning following the transaction of the business. Mr. Rickman had also, in 1803, been chosen Secretary to the two Commissions appointed by Act of Parliament, for the making of Roads and Bridges in Scotland, and for the construction of the Caledonian Canal, and also to the Commission appointed in 1823, for building Churches in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland; and, in addition to his never-failing attendance at the House of Commons, he filled these other laborious offices for thirty years. But the work which chiefly occupied the thoughts, and prompted the studies and inquiries of Mr. Rickman from the commencement to the close of his career, was the Census of Great Britain. The population, as well as the area of the country, had long been involved in much obscurity. If any one thing could evince more strikingly than another the low state of geographical and statistical science in this country, previous to Mr. Rickman's inquiries, it would be the fact that Mr. Pitt, who had every wish to be accurate, and every means of obtaining the best information at his command, adopted an area of forty-six instead of thirty-seven millions of acres in England and Wales as the basis of his calculations respecting the income-tax. Dr. Price, in his Essay on the Population of England and Wales, published in 1779, contended that it had been progressively decreasing since the Revolution. This Essay excited a good deal of attention and controversy, and up to the beginning of the present century many had continued to take a gloomy view of our national resources. In 1796 Mr. Rick

man wrote a paper entitled "Thoughts on the Utility and Facility of a general Enumeration of the People of the British Empire." This MS. may be considered as the origin of Mr. Rickman's future success in life; it was communicated by Mr. Rose, then member for Christchurch, to Mr. Abbot, who had turned his attention to the subject of population, and who, seeing at a glance the great powers of Mr. Rickman's mind, appointed him his private secretary in 1800 (as before stated), on his becoming Chief Secretary and Privy Seal in Ireland. The population inquiry was accordingly founded upon a bill introduced by Mr. Abbot, in the beginning of 1801, and it was conducted by Mr. Rickman at the several decennary periods of 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831. The results were comprised in one volume, folio, at each of the three former periods, but those of 1831 occupied three volumes. The work is entitled "Abstract of the Answers and Returns made pursuant to an Act for taking account of the Population of Great Britain, and of the increase or diminution thereof." These three volumes were preceded by a volume, entitled, "A comparative account of the Population of Great Britain, 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831. Also a Statement of Progress in the Inquiry respecting the Occupations of Families and Persons, and the duration of Life: with the annual value of real property in the year 1815." The early completion of this preliminary work was unexpectedly and urgently required for the classification of boroughs in the framing of the Reform Bill; and, as an instance of the despatch used, it may be mentioned that this volume, of 400 pages, containing the digested results of 28,000 returns which were not received until August, was presented to Parliament upon the following December of 1831. The full abstract of the answers made by the clergy as to their parish registers, exceeding 14,000 in number, together with nearly 4,000 original letters and others in special explanation, have been deposited by Mr. Rickman in the British Museum, in two very large volumes, entitled, "Parish Registers, extant 1831." Prefixed to the census of 1831, is a preface, or rather an introductory treatise, in which is embodied a mass and a variety of information, which show the writer's extensive learning, and the singular adroitness with which

he brought it to bear upon the least premising subjects. A careful analysis of Mr. Rickman's work was given in the 53rd volume of the Quarterly Review. Mr. Rickman's suggestions towards the extended mode of inquiry to be adopted in 1831, in the form of evidence taken before the Committee on the bill, were reprinted during the last year with a view to the approaching census; and on the 21st of March, 1840, Mr. Rickman addressed a letter to Sir Henry Parnell, on the same subject. The bill for effecting this object, which had been prepared by him, was brought into the House on the 1st June; but at this stage Mr. Rickman's labours were interrupted by illness. Since the previous Easter he had been struggling against the rapid inroads of a fatal disorder in the throat; and on the 2nd June he was induced to desist from further attempts to attend to his duties at the House. This and other documents may show that the idea of deriving emolument from his labours was never present to bis mind. A Population Act was executed by Mr. Rickman four several times, but the remuneration which he received (500 guineas for each on an average) was also considered as the reward of many intermediate labours, such as the various returns which he procured, and put in readiness for the press, on the following subjects;-18161836. Abstract of Poor Rate Return of 1748-49-50, for Mr. Sturges Bourne's Poor Law Committee, carried on annually for 20 years; causing 3,000 urgent letters annually at first, and 1,000 afterwards. 1833-4-5. Education Returns for Lord John Russell's Education Committee, 3 vols.

1837. Education Return for Scotland. 1838. Churchrate Return; on the motion of Mr. Wilks. 1839. Local Taxation on the motion of Lord Eliot; being a compendium of his own returns from the earliest to the latest time, upon Poor-rates, County Rates, Highway Rates, and Church Rates,-the work of a whole year; illustrated with numerous remarks characteristic of his research, and intimate acquaintance with local history and fiscal knowledge. In 1836, Mr. Rickman applied to the Home Office for permission to obtain returns of ancient parish registers. Lord John Russell acceded to the request, and in prosecution of this object Mr. Rickman drew up one of his admirable circular

letters, and a form of entry, which, in October of that year, he forwarded under cover of the Home Office to all such clergy as he knew possessed registers from the year 1570 to 1800. The returns were accordingly procured and abstracted, and one of the results of this inquiry, which was destined by Mr. Rickman to have appeared in the next census of 1841, is summed up in a tabular sheet, entitled, "Population of the several counties of England and Wales in 1570, 1600, 1630, 1670, 1700, and 1750, calculated on the supposition that the registered baptisms, burials, and marriages in those years bore the same proportion to the actual population as in the year 1801." This important work was left in complete readiness for the press, and has, together with his other official papers on population, been placed by his son at the disposal of the registrar-general. Mr. Rickman interested himself diligently in the useful application of the facts and numbers which he obtained, both as they formed the basis of life annuity calculations, and also as they illustrated the philosophy of health. With the latter view, perceiving the application of the facts and numbers he had collected to the philosophy of health, Mr. Rickman contributed many elaborate articles to the Medical Gazette in 1835, and corresponded with foreign statisticians, being well informed of the progress of the science throughout Europe, and ever prompt to combat the errors, or to profit by the sagacity of his continental neighbours. In testimony of the appreciation of his labours in France, he received, in 1833, a diploma as honorary member of the Société Française de Statistique Universelle. In similar pursuits he was continually bestowing upon public business an amount of energetic labour that can only be conceived by reviewing in detail the numerous services which he volunteered to render; although throughout the last twenty-six years his duties had been detaining him at the House of Commons after every member had quitted it at night. While conducting the affairs of the Highland Road and Bridge Commissioners, Mr. Rickman had frequent intercourse with their engineer, the celebrated Mr. Telford, whose disinterested zeal and sterling sense he highly prized. They continued in intimate friendship ever after; and Mr. Telford was encourage, by Mr. Rickman's sug