As Dr Lanigan's health rendered continuous labour impossible, when preparing his MSS. for the press, he was fortunate in obtaining the assistance of the Rev. Michael Kinsella, a Capuchin friar of great learning. With this aid the work was published. The list of subscribers included the names of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and clergy, the professors of various colleges, eminent scholars, lay and clerical. The work, in four volumes, was published in 1824.

For the four years intervening between the publication of the Ecclesiastical History and the time of his death, Dr Lanigan was partially deranged. He passed melancholy days and sleepless nights at Dr Horty's lunatic asylum at Finglas, near Dublin. On Sundays he tottered to Finglas chapel. During his last illness he was visited by a female relative, but his mind was so impaired that she was often long in his room before he was conscious of her presence. On the 7th of July 1828, at the age of 70, Dr Lanigan died. This distinguished church historian was buried in Finglas churchyard, and a suitable monument, commemorative of the simplicity of his character, his solid learning, and enlightened patriotism, was erected to his memory by his fellow-countrymen of all religious creeds.

WILLIAM MARSDEN, D.C.L. (born A D. 1754-died A.D. 1836).— This distinguished Oriental scholar was born at Bray, in the county Wicklow, on the 16th of November 1754. John Marsden, his father, was a merchant in Dublin, carrying on business on a large scale. After going through the usual preliminary education in the schools of Dublin, he was about to enter Trinity College, with a view to the church, when his father was induced to change his intentions. His eldest brother was in the civil service of the East India Company at Bencoolen, and the favourable accounts he sent home of his own prospects turned the thoughts of the younger Marsden in the same direction. An appointment was accordingly procured for him in the service, and in 1771, when he was but sixteen years of age, he sailed for India, and arrived in Bencoolen in the May of that year. Here his industry and superior intelligence gained him rapid advancement, and he became first under secretary, and soon after principal secretary to the Government. During his stay in Sumatra he mastered the vernacular language (Malay), and laid in a store of local knowledge which on his return home was turned to good account, and laid the foundation of his fame as a writer. In the summer of 1779 he quitted Sumatra, and arriving in England at the end of that year, he tried to obtain a Government post, and having failed, betook himself to literary pursuits. His first effort was a communication to the Royal Society, giving "An Account of a Phenomenon observed in the Island of Sumatra," which is printed in the Philosophical Transactions. In the same year he communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, through Sir Joseph Banks, "Remarks on the Sumatra Language," which are printed in the Archæologia, vol. vii., and in 1785, "Observations on the Language of the People commonly called Gypsies," printed in vol. viii.

In 1782 he published his valuable and deeply interesting "History of Sumatra," which at once established his literary reputation. This work, which has been translated into French and German, has main

tained its high position to the present day.

M'Culloch describes it as an excellent work, which gives the best and most authentic account of the great island of Sumatra, and of the manners and usages of the several nations by which it is inhabited, more especially of the greatest and most widespread of these-the Malay. It was reprinted in 1811, and on page 203 of this edition will be found specimens of the languages spoken in Sumatra-Malay, Acheen, Batta, Refang, and Lampong. Southey speaks of the work as "a perfect model of topographic and descriptive composition."

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1783, and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1785, and in the following year was created D.C.L. at Oxford. In 1788 he communicated to the Royal Society a dissertation on the era of the Mahometans, called the Hegira, and in 1790 a paper on the chronology of the Hindoos, both of which are preserved in the Philosophical Transactions.

In 1795, on the recommendation of his friend, the celebrated geographer, Major Rennell, he accepted the post of second secretary to the Admiralty, and in due course of time became chief secretary, with the war salary of £4000 per annum. For twelve years he discharged the duties of his office greatly to his own credit and the public advantage. In 1807 he retired on a pension of £1500 per annum. The first fruits of his leisure were two publications in 1812, his wellknown Grammar and Dictionary of the Malayan language. To the grammar is prefixed an interesting discourse on the history, religion, and antiquities of the Oriental islands. Both grammar and dictionary are characterised as works of great accuracy and erudition. Translations have been made of them into the French and Dutch languages. He had previously compiled a catalogue of dictionaries, vocabularies, grammars, and alphabets, which was privately printed.

In 1817 he published his translation from the Italian of Marco Polo's Travels in the Thirteenth Century, with notes.* Of this M'Culloch writes" This is incomparably the best translation of the celebrated travels of Marco Polo, the precursor in discovery of Columbus and Vasco da Gama, and is in all respects the best edited book that has ever been published. It is enriched with an introduction and elaborate notes, in which the editor's varied learning and habitual fidelity are conspicuous." In Irving's Columbus, Marsden's commentaries are commended as admirable, and especially as containing a most able and ample vindication of Marco Polo.

In 1823 he published the first part, and in 1825 the second part, of "Numismata Orientalia Illustrata; or, The Eastern Coins, Ancient and Modern, of his Collection, Described and Historically Illustrated," including 17 plates, by Mr John Swaine. This is considered the best work of the kind, and is now rare. In the preparation of this work he had the invaluable assistance of his father-in-law, Sir Charles Wilkins, the eminent Orientalist.

In 1830 the Oriental Translation Committee published Mr Marsden's

A new edition of Marco Polo's Travels, with notes by the learned antiquary, Mr Thomas Wright, was published in 1854 in H. G. Bohn's Antiquarian Library; and an edition, with notes by Hugh Murray, was published in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library (vol. xxxviii.), 1839; new ed. 1844.

translation of the "Memoirs of a Malayan Family;" and in the same year he communicated to the Asiatic Society a notice respecting the natives of New Guinea, published in their Transactions, vol. iii.

In 1832, his seventy-eighth year, Mr Marsden published his last work, comprising three essays, of which the most important treats of the Polynesian or East Insular language, a subject which had long engaged his attention. He was the first, we are told, that pointed out the existence of a considerable body of Sanscrit words in all the cultivated Polynesian languages, and also the singular connection which exists among these languages themselves, extending from Madagascar to Easter Island.

In 1831 Mr Marsden voluntarily relinquished his pension, exhibiting an instance of patriotism which elicited "the warmest applause of the House of Commons."

In 1834, feeling, as he himself says, the increasing infirmities of age, he determined in his lifetime to bestow his rich collection of coins and medals and his extensive library of books and Oriental manuscripts in such a manner as would make them most serviceable to the public. The coins and medals he presented to the British Museum; the collection includes the original coins collected by Sir Robert Ainslie, formerly British ambassador at Constantinople, and by the Abbé Beauchamp, titular Bishop of Bagdad. His library he bestowed on King's College, London, then recently founded.

He died on the 6th of October 1836, at Edge Grove, Aldenham, Herts, in his 82nd year, and was interred at Kensal Green. "Marsden," writes the Duke of Sussex, "enjoyed to a very advanced age extraordinary vigour of mind and body, equally respected and beloved for his learning and very varied acquirements, for his independent and disinterested character, and for his many social and domestic virtues." Memoirs of his life and writings, written by himself, with notes from his correspondence, were privately printed in 1838, and edited by his

widow.

DAVID SHEA (born A.D. 1771-died A.D. 1836).-This distinguished. Orientalist was born in Dublin in the year 1771. At an early age he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and soon became highly distinguished for his classical attainments, and obtained a scholarship, but the unhappy circumstances of the time blighted his prospects in his native country. Some of his most intimate friends and associates joined the Society of United Irishmen, and he, with many others, became the object of suspicion on the part of the college authorities. The Earl of Clare, chancellor of the university, held a visitation, and required the students severally to make oath, not only that they did not belong to the United Irishmen, but that they would give information against all who, to their knowledge, had any connection with that association. Thomas Moore, the poet, was amongst those who were thus threatened, and he gives an account of the transaction in his autobiography. Mr Shea was amongst the recusants, but did not fare so well as Moore, as he was compelled to resign his scholarship and leave the university. He repaired to London, and being without money or friends, he was glad to accept a situation as an assistant in a private school. He subsequently

obtained a clerkship in a merchant's establishment in Malta, where he applied himself so diligently to the study of the Arabic language that he became a complete master both of the classical and common dialects. His employers intending to open a factory on the Eastern side of the Black Sea, Mr Shea began to study Persian, and soon conquered its difficulties; but circumstances induced the firm which employed him to withdraw from the Mediterranean and Levant trade, and he returned to England, where he obtained a situation as a private tutor. The late Dr Adam Clarke, hearing of his Oriental attainments, sought his acquaintance, and generously exerted himself to bring him forward. He was in consequence offered an assistant professorship at Haleybury, which he at first refused, but finally accepted. This post he retained until his death.

When the Oriental Translation Fund was instituted, Mr Shea became a member of the committee, and applied himself diligently to translating Mirkhond's History of the Early Kings of Persia, which he published about two years before his death. "It has been warmly praised, both for spirit and fidelity, by the best Oriental scholars in Great Britain and on the Continent, and is very useful to the Persian student."* He was engaged in a more important task, the translation of Dab-I-stân, and had made considerable progress at the time of his death. This work was completed by Captain A. Troyer in 1843. A writer in the Athenæum, under the same date, says of Mr Shea :-"A kinder friend or a better-hearted man never breathed. The writer of this slight tribute to his merits has known him, on many occasions, submit to great personal inconvenience that he might relieve others whose necessities he deemed greater than his own." He died at Haleybury on the 10th of May 1836, in his sixty-fifth year. The Dab-i-stân, or School of Manners, was published in 1843, in Paris and London. was the first English version of this remarkable book. A review of it will be found in the Asiatic Journal, 3rd series, vol. ii. p. 582, 1844.

It

PATRICK KELLY, LL.D. (born A.D. 1756-died A.D. 1842).-Doctor Kelly, so well known in the literary and scientific world by his clear and able treatises on several branches of science, was born in Dublin in the year 1756. Little is known of his career before he became master of the Mercantile School in Finsbury Square, London. After the publication of some of his works, his name became widely known, and he enjoyed the friendship of Maskelyne, Herschel, Hutton, Vince, Burney, Raine, and many other eminent men of that generation. His opinions on questions of currency and exchange were frequently appealed to by committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons, where his evidence and calculations seldom failed to throw light on these abstruse subjects. His great work, the "Universal Cambist," in which he had the assistance of Government through the medium of their foreign consulates, was justly considered a standard authority on such points, and will be a lasting monument of his talent and industry. M'Culloch speaks of the "Universal Cambist" as "the most complete work of its class in the English language," but then requiring a thorough revision. A second edition, corrected to date, appeared in * Athenæum, June 1836

1835. Of his other works the best known were "Astronomical Computations," a Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy, containing, amongst other original matter, the Discovery of a Projection for Clearing the Lunar Distances; Metrology, or an Exposition of Weights and Measures of Great Britain, Ireland, and France, containing an account of Laws and Local Customs relating to the subject; Oriental Metrology, containing the Moneys, Weights, and Measures of the East Indies reduced to an English Standard, with an Appendix explaining the Calendars, Dates, and Eras of Oriental Nations. His Treatise on Book-keeping was, perhaps, the most popular of his practical works, and passed through nine editions in a few years. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow. He held for many years the office of Mathematical Examiner to Trinity House, and his name is affectionately remembered by his numerous pupils in various parts of the world as the friend and preceptor by whom their studies were directed at his academy in London. He died at Brighton on the 5th of April 1842.

ROBERT MURPHY (born A.D. 1806-died A.D. 1843). This distinguished mathematical scholar was born of humble parents at Mallow in the year 1806. When eleven years of age, while playing in the streets of his native town, he was run over by a cart, and lay in his bed for twelve months with a fractured thigh-bone, and to this accident was due his future destination and literary fame.

During his confinement his friends supplied him with such books and periodicals as were then to be had, and among them there happened to be a Cork Almanac containing some mathematical problems. These attracted the boy's attention, and made him desirous of possessing Euclid and a work on algebra. The books were procured, and before he was again able to walk Murphy, at the age of thirteen, was an extraordinary instance of a self-taught mathematician. A gentleman of the name of Mulcahy, of Cork, who was the tutor of most of those from the south of Ireland who got fellowships at Trinity College, was in the habit of proposing problems (or "cuts," as they are called in Cork), in the newspapers. At a certain time he began to receive answers from Mallow, without any signature. Surprised at the extraordinary talent displayed in these answers, Mr Mulcahy went to Mallow to find out his unknown correspondent. After some difficulty he found the asserted author of the answers was a boy on crutches, so young that he could not believe the story. A few minutes' conversation, however, put it beyond a doubt. On coming away in amazement he happened to meet Mr John Dillon Croker, of Mallow, one of his first patrons, to whom he said with natural exaggeration, "Mr Croker, you have a second Sir Isaac Newton in Mallow; pray look after him."* It was then arranged that the boy should abandon the trade of shoemaker, which he was learning under his father, and pursue his studies. Mr Hopley, who kept a school in Mallow, took him as a free pupil, and

A writer in the English Cyclopædia Biog. vol. iv., states that he is indebted to J. Dillon Croker, Esq., for his information about the early history of Robert Murphy. Mr J. Dillon Croker, of Quartertown, Mallow will be noticed hereafter. He is not to be confounded with John Wilson Croker.